The Real Slim Shady: A Less Useless Shadowcaster
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:42 pm
I have salvaged this from the WotC archives to post it here. Bear in mind, the language and design was tailored to the idiots on the Classes board, so if this feels weak by GamerDen standards, forgive me. I will happily take any and all suggestions for its improvement.
I'll be honest: I was not initially at all impressed with the Shadowcaster. At all. It was shocking beyond compare with other arcanists, somewhat resembling the black sheep of the family which someone stood on a few times too many and decided to neuter for the sake of never creating any builds that worked at all, much less were good. It had a mountain of issues, which I will discuss later in the post which were the biggest turn-off I had ever seen (well... maybe not, but we won't go there). I decided to set it aside as another WoTC printing error and move on.
And then the unthinkable happened. A member of my group wanted to play one.
I don't like the sight of a man crying. Especially not when that man is in the mirror. The optimiser in me was dying inside, and yelling at me through the mirror, Green-Goblin style, how allowing such an abomination into my campaign is a sure-fire way of betraying all my principles, etc, etc, etc. Then, the designer in me, in a bit to shut the optimiser up, said two words: "Fix it." So here we are.
I am fixing this class with three ideas in mind: versatility, playability and interactivity. More precisely, these are defined as follows:
1) Versatility: A class should not straightjacket a player into one or two limited concepts. A class that is versatile, while having a unique role and unique abilities, allows the player more freedom in deciding which was it's going to go, whether generalist or specialised, and allows each role, with some clever optimisation and good feat and skill choices, to work equally well to fill a balanced and non-dominating party role.
2) Playability: No player should have to be gimped for interest or flavour reasons. A playable class is one which does not punish the player for 'liking the fluff' and wanting to play a character which meaningfully contributes to a party without leeching or requiring someone else to take up their slack for 10 levels. Furthermore, a playable class allows the player to feel that they are executing the fluff of the class and their concept (as per versatility above) without feeling unfairly disadvantaged over some other class which just plainly does it better.
3) Interactivity: WoTC, being a veritable hive of activity where publishing is concerned, are outputting an amazing stream of low-quality and lower-quality material, with some gems amid the crap. The ability to use this material with your class, without severe disadvantage, is a rudimentary definition of interactivity. A closer definition is basically 'no one-book (or one-chapter) classes'. If a player wants to drive his concept towards prestige classes or cool abilities and fluff, the class should restrict him only insofar as it's abilities, fluff and mechanics are unsuitable or senseless in this regard. This is perhaps the most contentious out of these 3, but a fine line must be walked with this definition, so that interactivity =/= equal cheese. However, if the class has only 3 prestige class options which don't involve gimping yourself 10 ways to Monday, you've got a non-interactivity problem on your hands.
With these things in mind, I will proceed to outline my solution for the Shadowcaster, which I believe comes up short in all three of these categories. I am aware that my solution has already been proposed by this gentleman here (http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=2957649), but in my opinion, this solution does not go far enough. Additionally, by the publication of Complete Champion, or, rather, being one of its co-authors, this man proves he has no understanding of game balance whatsoever, and cannot even defend his ideas in the face of logical criticism (sound familiar?). His, however, was a good springboard, which I believe will make a lot of shadowcasters (and their controllers) happy.
The shadowcrafter's problems
1) MAD
This, in my opinion, is a problem of playability. In my humble opinion, a shadowcaster should be on-par with wizards and sorcerers, as he is expected to fill a similar role. However, both wizards and sorcerers rely on only a single 'casting stat'. Shadowcasters, for some reason, have to rely on TWO: their Int has to be at least 19 to cast their highest-level mysteries, and their Cha also needs to be high to have decent save DCs.
I suspect this is to do with the flavour of the class: what you can learn or study about shadowcasting determines your mysteries, but your force of personality is what determines how well you control the shadow energies that constitute the mystery, thus determining how hard they are to resist. While very cool fluff-wise, it only serves to punish those who would play shadowcasters mechanically, which makes them inferior to wizards and sorcerers by default. As in, really.
2) Lack of power comparing to spells
Let's be honest here: mysteries cannot duplicate gate, contingency, similacrum, or even meteor swarm. 9th level mysteries are far, far weaker than 9th level spells, both in terms of versatility and playability. Thus, when wizards hit high enough levels to throw around 9th level spells, shadowcasters are pretty much left in the dirt.
This is not only true at higher levels, either. Shadowcasting is weaker at almost all but the lowest levels when compared to magic of a similar level. Furthermore, the straightjacketed method of path acquisition, combined with a lack of bonus uses and two casting stats (see below, below and above respectively) means that shadowcasters cannot be as versatile or as playable as arcanists as they stand. At all.
3) Straightjacketing
'Mysteries in a path need to be learned in order.' This innocent little rule (albeit condensed) is what causes a multitude of problems. This effectively forces the shadowcaster to specialise heavily and lose versatility, or diversify a lot and lose playability due to power dropoff. Wizards and even sorcerers can do both equally well without losing out on either.
If this sounds like whining, consider this: what sorcerer or wizard would not consider this an unfair gimp: in order to be able to cast fireball, you have to know (and never lose) scorching ray, burning hands and flare, as well as learning them in a precise order and no other?
There is also significant tension in this design, as the shadowcaster is rewarded for losing power in his mysteries by diversifying by gaining bonus feats equal to one-half the number of paths he has access to. This means that you either choose more good mysteries and fewer feats, or fewer good mysteries and more feats. What gives? Do wizards have to know a certain number of spells from each school to get their bonus feats?
4) Arcane non-acknowledgement (or PrC straightjacketing)
For some bizzare reason known only to WoTC, shadowcasters had to be a one-chapter class. Thus, restrictions (and quite severe ones) were imposed on their ability to PrC, particularly into other arcanist classes. This makes almost no sense to me, as in my humble opinion, shadowcasters are unusual arcanists. This is because their casting stats are Int and Cha, which are typically used by arcanists, as well as their mysteries not only being given equivalent spell levels, but even equivalent schools. This restriction closes many options for the shadowcaster, which is a fundamental problem of interactivity. As a result, very little subsequent material can be used by shadowcasters, fixing them to a few prestige classes designed only for them, which is highly dumb, and makes them reek of emo-ness, which I do not condone.
5) Lack of bonus mysteries
This makes no sense whatsoever. If you're already going to hit the class with a limited list with limited uses, not to mention two casting stats, why also make them less powerful than wizards or sorcerers by allowing their stats to matter less? Why should all shadowcasters, regardless of talent, be able to employ their abilities a fixed number of times? A lack of ingenuity? I hope not. This is just a playability issue, pure and simple.
These are the key issues with the class as a whole. As can be seen, it comes up lacking in many of these. This fix is designed to address these issues.
The Fix
1) The shadowcaster receives bonus mysteries per day based on Int. For this purpose, treat mysteries as spells of the equivalent level. This allows the character that many extra uses for their mysteries every day. Furthermore, shadowcasters save DCs, and any other aspects of mysteries or mystery use based on Cha, are based on Int instead.
For example, a 1st level shadowcaster with Int 14 receives one extra use any 1st level-equivalent mystery, which can be either a fundamental or his apprentice mystery, as both are considered to be level 1 equivalent. If that shadowcaster was then to learn a 2nd level mystery at level 2, he would also receive an extra 2nd use of any second level mystery, as Int 14 is enough to grant a bonus spell of that level.
This solves a lot of problems just by itself. By giving the shadowcaster only a single casting stat, their playability potential rises. With bonus mysteries kicking in, they can go on for longer, and begin to compare to wizards and sorcerers in terms of both playability and versatility.
2) Mysteries in a path do not have to be taken in order. You must have at least one mystery of each level before proceeding to the next level of mystery, but they do not need to come from the same path.
If the example shadowcaster above took steel shadows as his 1st level mystery, he could take black fire at 2nd level, even though he has not taken the 1st level mystery in the path that black fire comes from. However, he could not take flicker, as this is a 3rd level mystery, and he does not have a 2nd level mystery yet.
This solves the versatility issue by a lot. By allowing the shadowcaster to diversify more easily, it allows for more creative and unusual combinations to become available, also fixing the playability issues. This does, however, remove the tension in the design with the bonus feats, as well as giving you almost no incentive to complete any path. Thus...
3) Instead of gaining bonus feats equal to the number of paths the shadowcaster has access to, he instead gains a bonus feat for each path he completes.
In the above example, at 3rd level, if he took steel shadows, sight eclipsed and sharp shadows, he would receive a bonus feat. However, if he instead took flicker at 3rd level, he would not receive a bonus feat. If he were to later take sharp shadows, he would be granted a bonus feat immediately.
Furthermore, the bonus feats granted from completion of paths is a ‘static’ ability gained at 2nd level. Therefore, you will still acquire bonus feats if you advance your paths via prestige classes, as it is not an ability gained at any shadowcaster level above 2nd.
In the above example, if the shadowcaster decided to take the child of night prestige class, and knew steel shadows and sight eclipsed, and then took sharp shadows at 7th character level, he would still gain a bonus feat for completing the path, despite the fact that he gained this mystery from a prestige class, as he has at least 2 levels of shadowcaster, which grants this ability.
This maintains the tension in the design, as well as solving a problem which I think was just a purposeful gimp without cause or justification anyway, based on the ability wording.
4) At 4th level, and every 2 levels thereafter, a shadowcaster can ‘swap out’ a mystery for another mystery of his choice, effectively losing the old mystery in exchange for a different one. The mystery being gained must be 2 or more levels lower than the highest-level mystery that the shadowcaster currently knows. Fundamentals count as 1st level mysteries for this purpose. If you ‘un-complete’ a path with this ability, you lose the bonus feat gained from the path until you can complete it again.
In the case of the example shadowcaster above, at 4th level, he could decide to swap out his caul of shadow fundamental for voice of shadows, as voice of shadows is a 1st level mystery. However, he could not swap it out for flicker, as this is the highest mystery level he has (3rd).
Some more versatility added, also giving more playability. If the mysteries will remain weaker than spells, at least let them have more of them!
5) Once the shadowcaster’s apprentice mysteries become supernatural abilities, their save DC changes from 10 + mystery spell level + shadowcaster’s Int modifier to 10 + half the shadowcaster’s caster level, rounding down + shadowcaster’s Int modifier, as per the norm of supernatural abilities.
In the above example, once the shadowcaster reaches 13th level, his voice of shadow mystery’s save DC changes from 15 (10 + mystery spell level of 1 + Int modifier of 4) to 21 (10 + half his caster level, rounding down, of 7 + Int modifier of 4).
It seems entirely purposeless to break an established rule just to gimp the ol' shadey. This makes the DCs in-line with normal rules on supernatural abilities, and allows there early mysteries to remain contenders, not just to become swap-out fodder.
6) Shadowcasting counts as arcane magic for the purposes of any effect, class, class ability, spell or power that deals with arcane spells. This means that, among other things, shadowcasters can qualify for prestige classes that require a minimal arcane caster level or arcane spells of a minimum level. For the latter purpose, consider mysteries to be arcane spells of their equivalent level and school.
In the above example, at 10th level, the shadowcaster could qualify for the abjurant champion prestige class, as long as he has the feat Combat Casting, knew at least one mystery of the abjuration school (for example, caul of shadow), and had proficiency with at least one martial weapon.
While this could cause problems, I think it solves the interactivity issue in one fell swoop. Please point out any cases where this would be problematic, as I simply am not as aware of arcanist material as I would like to be.
7) Replace the Profession skill on the shadowcaster’s skill list with Use Magic Device. Skill points per level are unchanged.
With the shadowcaster being made an arcanist, I simply don't see why they, a class which is heavily focused on the study of magic, should not be able to stoop themselves to use the 'conventional' magic of non-shadowcasters. If they are truly so masterful to figure out such amazing trickery as shadowcasting, what's a little magical mimicry to them?
8) Warp spell does not allow a Will save, as the caster level check alone determines success or failure.
This is more a common-sense thing than a fix. Damn editing errors.
While this does not create a wizard, I believe it is certainly much better, and more playable, than the weird crap we got shafted with at first printing.[/i]
I'll be honest: I was not initially at all impressed with the Shadowcaster. At all. It was shocking beyond compare with other arcanists, somewhat resembling the black sheep of the family which someone stood on a few times too many and decided to neuter for the sake of never creating any builds that worked at all, much less were good. It had a mountain of issues, which I will discuss later in the post which were the biggest turn-off I had ever seen (well... maybe not, but we won't go there). I decided to set it aside as another WoTC printing error and move on.
And then the unthinkable happened. A member of my group wanted to play one.
I don't like the sight of a man crying. Especially not when that man is in the mirror. The optimiser in me was dying inside, and yelling at me through the mirror, Green-Goblin style, how allowing such an abomination into my campaign is a sure-fire way of betraying all my principles, etc, etc, etc. Then, the designer in me, in a bit to shut the optimiser up, said two words: "Fix it." So here we are.
I am fixing this class with three ideas in mind: versatility, playability and interactivity. More precisely, these are defined as follows:
1) Versatility: A class should not straightjacket a player into one or two limited concepts. A class that is versatile, while having a unique role and unique abilities, allows the player more freedom in deciding which was it's going to go, whether generalist or specialised, and allows each role, with some clever optimisation and good feat and skill choices, to work equally well to fill a balanced and non-dominating party role.
2) Playability: No player should have to be gimped for interest or flavour reasons. A playable class is one which does not punish the player for 'liking the fluff' and wanting to play a character which meaningfully contributes to a party without leeching or requiring someone else to take up their slack for 10 levels. Furthermore, a playable class allows the player to feel that they are executing the fluff of the class and their concept (as per versatility above) without feeling unfairly disadvantaged over some other class which just plainly does it better.
3) Interactivity: WoTC, being a veritable hive of activity where publishing is concerned, are outputting an amazing stream of low-quality and lower-quality material, with some gems amid the crap. The ability to use this material with your class, without severe disadvantage, is a rudimentary definition of interactivity. A closer definition is basically 'no one-book (or one-chapter) classes'. If a player wants to drive his concept towards prestige classes or cool abilities and fluff, the class should restrict him only insofar as it's abilities, fluff and mechanics are unsuitable or senseless in this regard. This is perhaps the most contentious out of these 3, but a fine line must be walked with this definition, so that interactivity =/= equal cheese. However, if the class has only 3 prestige class options which don't involve gimping yourself 10 ways to Monday, you've got a non-interactivity problem on your hands.
With these things in mind, I will proceed to outline my solution for the Shadowcaster, which I believe comes up short in all three of these categories. I am aware that my solution has already been proposed by this gentleman here (http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=2957649), but in my opinion, this solution does not go far enough. Additionally, by the publication of Complete Champion, or, rather, being one of its co-authors, this man proves he has no understanding of game balance whatsoever, and cannot even defend his ideas in the face of logical criticism (sound familiar?). His, however, was a good springboard, which I believe will make a lot of shadowcasters (and their controllers) happy.
The shadowcrafter's problems
1) MAD
This, in my opinion, is a problem of playability. In my humble opinion, a shadowcaster should be on-par with wizards and sorcerers, as he is expected to fill a similar role. However, both wizards and sorcerers rely on only a single 'casting stat'. Shadowcasters, for some reason, have to rely on TWO: their Int has to be at least 19 to cast their highest-level mysteries, and their Cha also needs to be high to have decent save DCs.
I suspect this is to do with the flavour of the class: what you can learn or study about shadowcasting determines your mysteries, but your force of personality is what determines how well you control the shadow energies that constitute the mystery, thus determining how hard they are to resist. While very cool fluff-wise, it only serves to punish those who would play shadowcasters mechanically, which makes them inferior to wizards and sorcerers by default. As in, really.
2) Lack of power comparing to spells
Let's be honest here: mysteries cannot duplicate gate, contingency, similacrum, or even meteor swarm. 9th level mysteries are far, far weaker than 9th level spells, both in terms of versatility and playability. Thus, when wizards hit high enough levels to throw around 9th level spells, shadowcasters are pretty much left in the dirt.
This is not only true at higher levels, either. Shadowcasting is weaker at almost all but the lowest levels when compared to magic of a similar level. Furthermore, the straightjacketed method of path acquisition, combined with a lack of bonus uses and two casting stats (see below, below and above respectively) means that shadowcasters cannot be as versatile or as playable as arcanists as they stand. At all.
3) Straightjacketing
'Mysteries in a path need to be learned in order.' This innocent little rule (albeit condensed) is what causes a multitude of problems. This effectively forces the shadowcaster to specialise heavily and lose versatility, or diversify a lot and lose playability due to power dropoff. Wizards and even sorcerers can do both equally well without losing out on either.
If this sounds like whining, consider this: what sorcerer or wizard would not consider this an unfair gimp: in order to be able to cast fireball, you have to know (and never lose) scorching ray, burning hands and flare, as well as learning them in a precise order and no other?
There is also significant tension in this design, as the shadowcaster is rewarded for losing power in his mysteries by diversifying by gaining bonus feats equal to one-half the number of paths he has access to. This means that you either choose more good mysteries and fewer feats, or fewer good mysteries and more feats. What gives? Do wizards have to know a certain number of spells from each school to get their bonus feats?
4) Arcane non-acknowledgement (or PrC straightjacketing)
For some bizzare reason known only to WoTC, shadowcasters had to be a one-chapter class. Thus, restrictions (and quite severe ones) were imposed on their ability to PrC, particularly into other arcanist classes. This makes almost no sense to me, as in my humble opinion, shadowcasters are unusual arcanists. This is because their casting stats are Int and Cha, which are typically used by arcanists, as well as their mysteries not only being given equivalent spell levels, but even equivalent schools. This restriction closes many options for the shadowcaster, which is a fundamental problem of interactivity. As a result, very little subsequent material can be used by shadowcasters, fixing them to a few prestige classes designed only for them, which is highly dumb, and makes them reek of emo-ness, which I do not condone.
5) Lack of bonus mysteries
This makes no sense whatsoever. If you're already going to hit the class with a limited list with limited uses, not to mention two casting stats, why also make them less powerful than wizards or sorcerers by allowing their stats to matter less? Why should all shadowcasters, regardless of talent, be able to employ their abilities a fixed number of times? A lack of ingenuity? I hope not. This is just a playability issue, pure and simple.
These are the key issues with the class as a whole. As can be seen, it comes up lacking in many of these. This fix is designed to address these issues.
The Fix
1) The shadowcaster receives bonus mysteries per day based on Int. For this purpose, treat mysteries as spells of the equivalent level. This allows the character that many extra uses for their mysteries every day. Furthermore, shadowcasters save DCs, and any other aspects of mysteries or mystery use based on Cha, are based on Int instead.
For example, a 1st level shadowcaster with Int 14 receives one extra use any 1st level-equivalent mystery, which can be either a fundamental or his apprentice mystery, as both are considered to be level 1 equivalent. If that shadowcaster was then to learn a 2nd level mystery at level 2, he would also receive an extra 2nd use of any second level mystery, as Int 14 is enough to grant a bonus spell of that level.
This solves a lot of problems just by itself. By giving the shadowcaster only a single casting stat, their playability potential rises. With bonus mysteries kicking in, they can go on for longer, and begin to compare to wizards and sorcerers in terms of both playability and versatility.
2) Mysteries in a path do not have to be taken in order. You must have at least one mystery of each level before proceeding to the next level of mystery, but they do not need to come from the same path.
If the example shadowcaster above took steel shadows as his 1st level mystery, he could take black fire at 2nd level, even though he has not taken the 1st level mystery in the path that black fire comes from. However, he could not take flicker, as this is a 3rd level mystery, and he does not have a 2nd level mystery yet.
This solves the versatility issue by a lot. By allowing the shadowcaster to diversify more easily, it allows for more creative and unusual combinations to become available, also fixing the playability issues. This does, however, remove the tension in the design with the bonus feats, as well as giving you almost no incentive to complete any path. Thus...
3) Instead of gaining bonus feats equal to the number of paths the shadowcaster has access to, he instead gains a bonus feat for each path he completes.
In the above example, at 3rd level, if he took steel shadows, sight eclipsed and sharp shadows, he would receive a bonus feat. However, if he instead took flicker at 3rd level, he would not receive a bonus feat. If he were to later take sharp shadows, he would be granted a bonus feat immediately.
Furthermore, the bonus feats granted from completion of paths is a ‘static’ ability gained at 2nd level. Therefore, you will still acquire bonus feats if you advance your paths via prestige classes, as it is not an ability gained at any shadowcaster level above 2nd.
In the above example, if the shadowcaster decided to take the child of night prestige class, and knew steel shadows and sight eclipsed, and then took sharp shadows at 7th character level, he would still gain a bonus feat for completing the path, despite the fact that he gained this mystery from a prestige class, as he has at least 2 levels of shadowcaster, which grants this ability.
This maintains the tension in the design, as well as solving a problem which I think was just a purposeful gimp without cause or justification anyway, based on the ability wording.
4) At 4th level, and every 2 levels thereafter, a shadowcaster can ‘swap out’ a mystery for another mystery of his choice, effectively losing the old mystery in exchange for a different one. The mystery being gained must be 2 or more levels lower than the highest-level mystery that the shadowcaster currently knows. Fundamentals count as 1st level mysteries for this purpose. If you ‘un-complete’ a path with this ability, you lose the bonus feat gained from the path until you can complete it again.
In the case of the example shadowcaster above, at 4th level, he could decide to swap out his caul of shadow fundamental for voice of shadows, as voice of shadows is a 1st level mystery. However, he could not swap it out for flicker, as this is the highest mystery level he has (3rd).
Some more versatility added, also giving more playability. If the mysteries will remain weaker than spells, at least let them have more of them!
5) Once the shadowcaster’s apprentice mysteries become supernatural abilities, their save DC changes from 10 + mystery spell level + shadowcaster’s Int modifier to 10 + half the shadowcaster’s caster level, rounding down + shadowcaster’s Int modifier, as per the norm of supernatural abilities.
In the above example, once the shadowcaster reaches 13th level, his voice of shadow mystery’s save DC changes from 15 (10 + mystery spell level of 1 + Int modifier of 4) to 21 (10 + half his caster level, rounding down, of 7 + Int modifier of 4).
It seems entirely purposeless to break an established rule just to gimp the ol' shadey. This makes the DCs in-line with normal rules on supernatural abilities, and allows there early mysteries to remain contenders, not just to become swap-out fodder.
6) Shadowcasting counts as arcane magic for the purposes of any effect, class, class ability, spell or power that deals with arcane spells. This means that, among other things, shadowcasters can qualify for prestige classes that require a minimal arcane caster level or arcane spells of a minimum level. For the latter purpose, consider mysteries to be arcane spells of their equivalent level and school.
In the above example, at 10th level, the shadowcaster could qualify for the abjurant champion prestige class, as long as he has the feat Combat Casting, knew at least one mystery of the abjuration school (for example, caul of shadow), and had proficiency with at least one martial weapon.
While this could cause problems, I think it solves the interactivity issue in one fell swoop. Please point out any cases where this would be problematic, as I simply am not as aware of arcanist material as I would like to be.
7) Replace the Profession skill on the shadowcaster’s skill list with Use Magic Device. Skill points per level are unchanged.
With the shadowcaster being made an arcanist, I simply don't see why they, a class which is heavily focused on the study of magic, should not be able to stoop themselves to use the 'conventional' magic of non-shadowcasters. If they are truly so masterful to figure out such amazing trickery as shadowcasting, what's a little magical mimicry to them?
8) Warp spell does not allow a Will save, as the caster level check alone determines success or failure.
This is more a common-sense thing than a fix. Damn editing errors.
While this does not create a wizard, I believe it is certainly much better, and more playable, than the weird crap we got shafted with at first printing.[/i]