User:MisterSinister/TOToM (3.5e Sourcebook)/SRP2

Chapter 2: Classes and Creation

Why Capstones Don't Matter

It has been a recent policy of WotC, as well as many authors on both this wiki and others, to give classes some cool or powerful ability at 20th level as a 'capstone'. While interesting and cool abilities are always admirable, giving a 'capstone' at level 20 actually doesn't mean anything. The simple reason is that by that point, the game is pretty much over already - people will hardly get any time at all to play with their shiny new toy. Additionally, claiming that this is a reward for people not multiclassing is also pretty poor, partly because the multiclassers get their rewards immediately (in the form of their new class abilities), while those heading to the capstones have to wait for the reward (possibly for an eternity, as not all games go to 20), partly because even if they do get their reward, they get to enjoy it a lot less than the multiclassers, and partly because the reward is completely non-scalar, whereas with multiclassing, there is the possibility of a trade-off. As a result, classes in this volume don't get anything unusual or special for 20th level. Instead, we've focused the cool and interesting abilities at lower levels (particularly 5-12), when people will be more likely to see them.

As part of the big rewrite, all of the SRD spellcasters are being rewritten as well. The narrower classes are being made broader to suit the fact that their other cousins tend to be quite broad as classes. Additionally, quite a few oddities have been corrected, and classes have been created which (I hope!) work well.

At the same time, I realize that not everyone likes broad classes, and that's OK. For alternatives, check out Chapter 5: Variants and Variations, which gives a range of narrow classes to suit many tastes.

Arcane Magic Users

The imposition of the will needed to work arcane magic is approached by several groups differently. Bards do this through performance, by mastering their creative impulses and putting them to a structured use, while wizards use learning and logic to enforce their will on the cosmos and work their magic.

The Wizard

Summary: Wizards are Batman. This is not deniable, and not very surprising either. However, the power levels between wizards as they exist in the SRD could be gulf-like, depending on which spells they spent their precious gold and spellbook pages on. For this volume, some effort is going to be made to bring them into line and also to make them work in less weird ways.

Link: The Wizard

Divine Magic Users

Divine magic is not taken, it is granted. The cleric receives magic from their deity by devotion and learning, while the paladin prefers to gain this power by martial pursuits and training in the physical arts.

The Cleric

Summary: Clerics are stupid-good. A cleric knows every spell on the cleric spell list, regardless of which deity they follow, and thus, can become amazing at almost anything just by re-preparing spells. When combined with the fact that everyone tends to pick the same spells, this tends to make all clerics highly similar. This only becomes worse with each splatbook you add. Hopefully, this cleric avoids all of these problems, while still being very playable.

Link: The Cleric

The Paladin

Summary: Paladins have something of an image problem. The fact that nobody knows what alignment even means, combined with an overly-literal reading of their code of conduct, to say nothing of the prohibition against working with non-good folks, have made them the cause of more arguments than any other class ever, and this needs to stop. The fact that the class itself isn't even very good after about fifth level doesn't help its case. We've sought to fix both issues as best as we can, while allowing people to play awesome holy or unholy warriors.

Link: The Paladin

Natural Magic Users

Natural magic is a gift of the world itself, given to all by being part of a natural order of some sort but only called upon by a few. Druids draw upon this power by becoming closer to nature in a mystical sense, while rangers are much more practical and down-to-earth about their powers.

Other Magic Users

The Sorcerer

Sorcerers don't have much use for arcane, divine, or natural divisions within magic. Instead they simply harness magic for their ends, many as naturally as they breathe. Their spells are unified in other ways, however, as sorcerers are instead tied to the various schools of magic to draw the majority of their spells.

Prestige Classes

Just like everyone, spellcasters need their prestige classes. However, the ones that aren't straight-up ridiculous suffer from serious problems in implementation in the other direction. So let's make this better.

The Wild Mage

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