KibblesTasty
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New untraditional Wizard traditions!
🕑 Added 2021-03-17 08:54:32 +0000 UTCWhat follows is a long ramble about the design process and design philosophy; skip to the end for the links to the content :D
So, next up was Wizards. This one took a bit longer, and there's a reason for that... the Order of the Unknown we are going to see here is brand new. I just finished it a few minutes ago, and you guys are seeing it at the same time as the playtesters, so... no promises, but I've put a lot of thought into this one, so let me explain a bit.
I had a Psionic Wizard for quite a while now, and it's been in playtesting for awhile, and the feedback was... okay. But as I got more feedback and I looked at it, I realized it was the thing that I feared the most... it was uninspired. Now, given what the new one does, I think some of you will find that odd. But the original one was just, at the end of the day, a Wizard with some telepathy and spoonbending and psionic gimmicks, and I realized that wasn't what made sense for this - it's not the originality of the design that matters the most to me, but if what it is makes sense for what it is - if it feels like the natural result of a Wizard trying to study Psionics. It was stuck in my mind for most of a day until I got back from a run, went into the file, and deleted the whole subclass to start over until I found what made a Psionic-Wizard rather than a Wizard-with-Psionic-Powers.
What is a Wizard that uses Psionics? It is not, I realized, a Wizard that has some Psionic abilities that don't intrinsically attach to being a Wizard. A Wizard isn't just a magic boy and that's why the idea of attaching Psionics to Wizards instead of making it a new class doesn't work in the first place (to my sensibilities, anyway).
This one actually stumped me for awhile, but while the new subclass isn't anything revolution, I think it is what I want here - it is Psionics as I would have written them for Wizard subclass instead of a full class, which is a bit... wrong, but that's sort of the point here - it's the fiction between two systems that don't fully interact, and that's sort of the perfect thesis of a Psionic Wizard, there's a way in which the result is still something that should be fun to play and feel like a Wizard that is struggling with the friction of trying to comprehend and contain an alien thing into their system of power and magic while gaining unnatural and strange abilities from it.
Sorry, I got all rambling on you a bit there, but I did struggle with this rewrite a bit and I think the context there is helpful to understand what the goals of this one are, and why I didn't just slap some spoopy Psionic powers into it like I did with the Psionic Warlock (which is much closer to how the original one I made and discarded worked). I will say that just, in contrast, just grafting some Psionics to Warlock does work perfectly for that one - that makes perfect sense for what a Warlock is, and as I've been testing that one so far, I'm quite happy with the Warlock slapping some spoopy Psionic powers on the subclass because that makes sense for what a Warlock is and how you got your powers... it just didn't make sense for a Wizard as they are fundamentally a different kind of thing that get their powers in a different way.
Order of the Unknown
A wizard that studies psionics, slowly gaining some mastery over them as they slowly gain some mastery over the Wizard. As a Wizard, it gains an incredibly broad power set, but lacks the innate and easy mastery of psionics that more psionically specialized characters have.
https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MVjCgcsgjM2mpDN9s_m
This is a brand new subclass, and will probably change more than most you folks see as you rarely see something I've just finished writing, but I welcome any thoughts on it (though it may help to read the rambling above to understand the goals of it).
Order of Creation
This is the Wizard that ties into Invention, and I think a much more natural fit, tying into what a Wizard would do with that power - both empowered by their greater magic and limited by their obsession and reliance with their own magical power as a key component of their invention.
https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MVjDNPGRDt95FNedFoL
As always, let me know any thoughts.
Upcoming Stuff
The remaining subclasses are, in the order you'll see them, Sorcerer, Ranger, Druid, Bard and Cleric (as per the poll)! We are more than half way through the subclasses! Not all of those will get double subclasses.
We will probably see the crafting update next, but not signing that in blood or anything. If we are lucky and test initial testing results are good and I'm productive this week, we may see Sorcerers + the crafting system + some other stuff at the end of the week. I'm optimistic - despite getting hung on this Wizard one awhile, I've been pretty productive and everything is moving along well.
My stuff will be more focused on the Kickstarter Compendium for a bit as I want to really make sure this is as good as it can be. Occultist and the battle system rules and things like that... I want to update those, and we will probably see an Occultist update before the Kickstarter, but I think maybe not until all the subclasses are done, and we have the next draft of crafting and the rough draft/first part of the bestiary. I'm wary of spreading my focus too thin until I'm sure things are on track :)
All the best and always feel free to reach out with any questions,
-Kibbles
Comments
KibblesTasty
I understand the sentiment, but I also think that's sort of the point - a Wizard has a very broad and academic understanding of their Psionics they study, because that's what Wizards do, but fundamentally lack (and cannot have) the Mastery of it that Psions do (represented by Psionic Mastery). They KNOW a great deal of Psionics because they are machines of analysis and study and have delved into with just as much effort as a Psion, but because of their approach - of analysis, of studying, of trying to understand - they cannot truly master the it. They will always feel like they are operating through a crude unsuitable interface... because they are. But these aren't just Wizards that dabble, they are spending their effort to truly study Psionics, so it makes sense for them to delve a great deal of it over time, even if the complete mastery of alludes their grasp. I dunno, I sometimes feel that perhaps this makes a little more sense to me than other folks, but this is the only approach I've tried that felt right... in that feels sort of wrong, but it makes sense of what happens when a Wizard studies Psionics to me, and felt like a good meta-story as to why Psion exists seperate from Wizard, while still being a potentially fun class to play on its own with a fun story and unique set of powers to (a Wizard with a wide range of shallow Psionic options).
Alex Slanski
it seems to me that a wizard-Psion subclass shouldn't get more psionic powers than a full fledged Psion, though the lack of psionic mastery makes them much less useful and my rough estimate is its still balanced. .
Kenneth Bellamy
Cannot wait for Occultist Updates! thanks Kibbles!
