Solasta II - Dev Update #13

[HiddenX]

Couchpotato spotted dev update #13 for Solasta II:

Dev Update #13 - Class Spotlight: The Wizard

May you have a spell penned for every situation

Ready your quills, students.

Today we will be learning about the most refined of all classes, the distinguished and esteemed Wizard. For knowledge is power; and you are here to accumulate, to devour, to consume every last bit of it. May you have a spell penned for every situation, or rightfully suffer the consequences of your own ignorance.

[...]

The arcane at your fingertips
Ahhhh the good old Wizard, formerly known under the simple name of “Magic-User” in the Original version of D&D and Advanced D&D 1st Edition. In the past they were THE weakest class at low levels, with a measly 1d4 HP per level and no cantrip to speak of! I hope you like throwing daggers and shooting crossbow bolts while hiding behind other party members, because you’d do that a lot back then. And dying too. You’d die very easily.

Nowadays however, Wizards pose a respectable threat straight from the get-go - not having to rely on their low physical ability scores to score a hit with their crossbow or quarterstaff, instead being able to cast an endless amount of cantrips like Fire Bolt or Shocking Grasp. And with a d6 HP Die plus defensive spells like Mage Armor, Shield or even the newly buffed Blade Ward cantrip, they are a lot harder to take down too!

But enough reminiscing. Wizards, what are they good for? Absolutely n- no no no that’s not how it goes, if anything they are good at almost EVERYTHING. This is due to Wizards being the only Arcane spellcasting class that can accumulate an endless amount of spells thanks to their ability to scribe more spells in their spellbook. Unlike other arcane magic users, they are not just limited to learning new spells when leveling up. With enough gold and time, you can just copy any wizard spell from Spell Scrolls or other Wizards’ Spellbooks into your own.

[...]

More information.

 

[Zloth]

Crossbows for original edition magic users? I wish! Here's a hand full of darts. Good luck, sucker!

 

[Stingray]

Crossbows for original edition magic users? I wish! Here's a hand full of darts. Good luck, sucker!

Yeah, kinda surprising how completely off they are on that reference. Crossbows for wizards didn't come along until 3E which is ~25 years later than the period they're referencing.

 

[Corwin]

I remember having one 1 use spell that did very little damage, but I guess you only needed to cast it once since you'd usually be dead by round 2!!

 

[rjshae]

I enjoyed the Greenmage in the first game, but I'm a bit surprised they'd keep it around with multi-classing available. Maybe replace it with an elementalist?

 

[Zloth]

My poor Court Mage is getting nerfed! That spell shield was my ticket to using a battle cleric instead of somebody that can really heal and for keeping the monk alive in those dangerous early levels.

 

[Hastar]

I remember having one 1 use spell that did very little damage, but I guess you only needed to cast it once since you'd usually be dead by round 2!!

Ah, but the Sleep spell could mess up lower-level creatures.

 

[Dolby]

After 25 years poor me still doesn't know why sorcerer and wizard are two classes what happend to old mage heh.

 

[Couchpotato]

After 25 years poor me still doesn't know why sorcerer and wizard are two classes what happend to old mage heh.

Well based on D&D Wizards and Sorcerers are both arcane spellcasters, but they differ significantly in their approach to magic and their playstyle. Wizards learn magic through study and scholarly pursuits, focusing on a vast array of spells and their theoretical underpinnings. Sorcerers, on the other hand, are born with an innate magical ability, relying on charisma and their inherent power to manipulate magic.

 

[fadedc]

Yeah I remember how boring a 1e wizard could be to play at first level. They were arguable still very powerful, sleep had no saving throw back then and could easily wipe out medium sized groups of low level enemies or turn the tides against large groups. But having one spell a day meant you spent most of your time not doing anything, saving that one spell for when it was important.

And yeah, no crossbows until 3e. Though darts used to attack multiple times a round, making them surprisingly effective, or even broken in the hands of a fighter with high strength and weapon specialization.

 

[rjshae]

After 25 years poor me still doesn't know why sorcerer and wizard are two classes what happend to old mage heh.

Probably the same thing that happened to the old fighter becoming barbarian, fighter, ranger, and paladin. Class-based systems are inherently self-restrictive for player choice, so they try to work around it by adding more classes, sub-classes, etc.

 

[Morrandir]

After 25 years poor me still doesn't know why sorcerer and wizard are two classes what happend to old mage heh.

Wizard is a scientist and studied hard, Sorcerer was just born with magic.

 

[Dolby]

Probably the same thing that happened to the old fighter becoming barbarian, fighter, ranger, and paladin. Class-based systems are inherently self-restrictive for player choice, so they try to work around it by adding more classes, sub-classes, etc.

yes i think this would be it, yes.

But even knowing that, wizards and sorcerers just feel the same to me. My biggest gripe is how they share the same spells, which often look, feel, and behave the same.

The idea that wizards and sorcerers are different is paper-thin.
Not to mention, the visuals should be completely different, but in games, they aren't.
I think if you going to go this way at least make wizards rely on runes and symbols to shape magic, and the visuals should reflect that. Sorcerers, on the other hand, should tap into raw magical power, visuals should be drawing from that. The wizard’s spellbook is almost forgotten nowadays.

They even had to remove Metamagic from wizards to make a difference.

 

[bkrueger]

Isn't the main practical difference between wizards and sorcerers, how they memorise spells, and therefore, how often you can use them between rests? So one of them can use only a few spells, but those more often, while the other one can learn more spells but only use them seldom? So besides theoretical differences there are differences in practical use of the classes?

 

[JDR13]

Isn't the main practical difference between wizards and sorcerers, how they memorise spells, and therefore, how often you can use them between rests? So one of them can use only a few spells, but those more often, while the other one can learn more spells but only use them seldom? So besides theoretical differences there are differences in practical use of the classes?

That, and their primary stat. Intelligence for Wizards and Charisma for sorcerers.

 

[booboo]

As a longtime D&D wizard aficionado, I never liked sorcerers - upstarts! Although:fireball, fireball, fireball, ..., fireball is rather devastating (Or worse: disintegrate ^n). Old D&D was way simpler, later versions churned out new classes, seemingly just to motivate new editions/splat books?

 

[Corwin]

The one big issue with Wizards, aside from those already mentioned was that you had to decide in advance which spells to memorise for that day and it was sometimes easy to get that wrong. Fireball, for example, is not very useful against fire elementals!!

 

[Dolby]

The one big issue with Wizards, aside from those already mentioned was that you had to decide in advance which spells to memorise for that day and it was sometimes easy to get that wrong. Fireball, for example, is not very useful against fire elementals!!

Well sadly fire spells are the most commen for some reason even today the selections sometimes feels lacking. Water based spells and earth based spells are hardy present even for a druid.

By the time you had fireball you had other spells that wasn't really a problem. Chroamtic orb, magice missle.... Those are way more funy and intresting then a boring fireball spell to me. There is so much you can do with spells as developer.

Not sure what people really see in fireball but cos evey game has it i try to stay away from it as much as possible and take it only as last resort.

 

[notdart]

I forget the game but i do remember that in it there was a chance to freeze people in ice when using ice spells

 

[Hastar]

Well sadly fire spells are the most commen for some reason even today the selections sometimes feels lacking. Water based spells and earth based spells are hardy present even for a druid.

By the time you had fireball you had other spells that wasn't really a problem. Chroamtic orb, magice missle.... Those are way more funy and intresting then a boring fireball spell to me. There is so much you can do with spells as developer.

Not sure what people really see in fireball but cos evey game has it i try to stay away from it as much as possible and take it only as last resort.

I cast fireball.

DM: You're in a 20X20 room with your party and the gnolls.

I SAID I CAST FIREBALL!!

It's in every game because it's awesome, son.