Talk:Illuminamancer (3.5e Class)

Balance

This class isn't balanced against anything at all, is it? During the early levels, it has interesting advantages over the Cleric or Wizard that make it worth having slightly fewer spell per day. However, once they hit level 9, their highest level of spell no longer keeps up with the Cleric or Wizard, and they don't really get much in the way of handy class abilities to compensate. --Foxwarrior 21:34, April 8, 2010 (UTC)

Things to think about: does an illuminamancer get to choose each time he uses a class ability/spell if it's positive or negative energy damage? Positive energy heals living beings, which means you can infiniheal from level 1, and at a very high rate. Negative energy heals the undead, which is still good if you pick up exclusively necromantic wizard spells, and allows you to infiniheal your zombies. Dread necromancers can do that too, but not nearly as well. I think that's actually a very, very, very powerful class feature. - Viatos 21:36, April 8, 2010 (UTC)

Getting access to both the wizard and cleric list? Definitely wizard-level. As for getting less spells per level, once you're super-prepared, relying primarily on scrolls and using only a one or two spells per encounter, the number of spells you get per level isn't really that big of a deal, especially with the breadth of spells that you can access to via scrolls since you have both the wizard and cleric lists. --Ghostwheel 22:04, April 8, 2010 (UTC)

I suspect that you're meant to pick one list, just as I now suspect the author may not be aware of the connotations of positive energy used on living beings. Clarification needed. - Viatos 00:17, April 9, 2010 (UTC)

I'm not disputing that this is wizard level; I'm disputing that the illuminamancer keeps up with the Cleric and Wizard at later levels, since it ends up being one spell level behind them. The fact that they get infiniheal at level 1 just makes them even more uneven with the Wizard or Cleric. --Foxwarrior 05:42, April 9, 2010 (UTC)

I suppose I must edit in the fact that you are not allowed to heal using the rays, whoopsie, I was hoping being distinctive and only putting "Deal damage" would allow me to do so, but sometimes you have to be specific, I suppose, thank you guys. And, yes, it was a choice between the two, Viatos is correct, I'll clarify in the spells section. Thank you all, I'll consider your words, hopefully the class can become better with further editing. --Avlindrel 08:41, April 9, 2010 (UTC)

Prithee, good sirs. If I were to give a slightly more advanced than Ranger/Paladin spells per day (Only going up to 5th level spells, but at least giving more spells than the no spells till 4th level thing, or would that make it more balanced?) would that give the class a more fair balance? My expectations were for it to be a rogue level class by the end of it's editing, not by the alpha write. Again, thanks for your help! --Avlindrel 08:46, April 9, 2010 (UTC)

Beta edit is up, needs review, and I need some help adding links to the page, if someone would be so kind as to assist? --Avlindrel 10:45, April 9, 2010 (UTC)

Hmmm. If you're going to have positive energy and negative energy but without any of their actual connotations, it might be better to just say light or darkness instead. "Infused with arcane power" if you want to be fancy. Its spell list as written at the moment is fine; I'd consider advancing their progression to "as sorcerer" since they're missing out on pretty much all the most powerful wizard/cleric stuff (polymorph, divine power, save-or-lose effects not dependent on HD). Their progression, as written, doesn't even go up to 9th level.

You should also rewrite the Greater Illuminatus ability to have a bunch of defined abilities, e.g. Wall: Wall of light or darkness that functions as a wall of iron or some such. Other examples could be Minion, Shelter, Ship, et cetera. As written, you can freely summon any Large or smaller construct with the restriction of having only 10 hp, which still allows a laundry list of stuff you can pull. What action does it take to create something? How long, if not indefinitely, does it last? - Viatos 21:01, April 9, 2010 (UTC)