Evocation spell-school specialization

[xXCrystal_Rose]

Having been playing an evoker wizard for a bit I have noticed some  things worth discussing. First off I'm intending this thread as a  brainstorming session. Evoker specialists are just not as good at offensive spellcasting than non-evokers. Let's get to the point though.

Evocation: Spells from the evocation spell school manipulate energy or create something from nothing. Many of the best offensive spells can be found within this school of magic.

Evocation  specialists gain a +2 to identifying evocation spells. With Greater  Spell Focus: Evocation the saving throw DC of their spells increases by  up to +4. Evocation spells are themed around direct damage, with  elemental orbs as an exception in that they can potentially have a  status effect for 1 round, but at the cost of a touch attack making it  possible for the spell to miss completely and do no damage at all  either, as well as being a single-target fourth circle spell. Most  evocation spells scale the same from third circle to 9th, being one  extra damage dice per caster level. The first and second circle  evocation spells are one dice of damage per two levels. For lower level settings  specifically this can be a little problematic because higher level  evokers do not actually gain any stronger spells from higher spell  levels but rather they gain spells the same strength as their lower  level variations, but maybe different shapes.

The downside of  evocation specialization is that you lose conjuration, but costs must be  made. Many of the offensive direct damage  spells in NWN are conjuration however so this results in evokers losing a  fair bit of the type of spells that their theme is centered around, and  also elemental types. A conjurer specialist does not lose evocation  though so it makes a strange situation where a conjurer with dual  spellfocus in both schools is actually a better offensive damage spellcaster (I've done this before in the past when wanting to play a spell-damage themed caster because of this situation), with  more status effect spells also (grease, web, evards, stinking cloud [so  good and underrated]).

Evocation is the only spell school we do  not have any custom changes to. There used to be some interesting level 5  perks that worked best with damaging spells, like Kamikaze Evoker. The  only difference between an evoker and a non-evoker is potential +4  saving throw DC, and non-evokers actually having better variation in  their offensive spells and other utilities. This isn't to say someone  who does not specialize in Evocation (at the cost of valuable  Conjuration) can't just take GSF evocation and gain the same saving  throw bonus too.


So how can we make Evocation specialists seem like masters at their ability of shaping and releasing raw energy?


One  thing that can be thought over is stronger potency. Vampiric Touch has  been altered to do less damage than the base spell on efu, but for a  necromancy specialist it does minimally more damage. This works for anyone with the spell focus feats though. Similar to how the  glowy eyes on Clairvoyance works for wizards who have GSF Divination AND  spell school specialization in divination it could be that evoker  specialists who also have spell focus in evocation might gain an extra damage dice, or instead of d6 their  spells become d7.

Another idea is a greater progression. For an  evoker certain spells like Ice Dagger might increase at 1 dice per level  instead of 1 dice per 2 levels, or Ice Dagger might also cause a Wound  effect as the sharp shard of ice slices through meat. Just one example.

Flame  Weapon is a very signature evocation spell that gets a lot of use and  is a very visible demonstration of a wizards skill. Specialist evokers  might be capable, somehow, of selecting which element their flame weapon  becomes and changing it later. Someone who puts so much sacrifice  should be able to decide that when fighting fire elementals they want to  coat a weapon in ice, and when fighting plants they want to ignite it  with fire.

On the idea of their prowess in shaping elemental  powers a (possibly too strong) idea is also to provide specialist  evokers the elemental bound perks so that their evocations can have some  of the signature themes of the elements the wield giving distinction to  these wizards. Fire spells burning, acid spells corroding, ice spells freezing, electric spells sparking. Reminder we're still talking wizards who lose access to  Conjuration spells, which beyond summons include acid arrow, breath,and  shield, and common mainstays like evards and mage armor (cloudkill too).

The  last possibility I have in mind is allow the choice of one or two of  certain perks at level 5 for evocation specialist wizards. These could  include old examples like Kamikaze Evoker or that perk that made part of  your damaging spells do divine damage or brand new evoker themed  selections based on the setting. Faerzres imbued magic: a specialist evoker can draw upon the magical radiation of the underdark and add an aditional 1 point of magic damage per caster level to their damaging spells? Brainstorm  ideas!

Those are what come off the top of my head at the time of  writing this. Right now non-evokers are actually better evokers than  evoker specialists are. Add your own ideas on how evokers can better  symbolize the role of wielding the destructive powers of raw energy or  pure magical force or how their spells can add them some flavorful  distinction to show the truly dedicated and specialized evokers over any other wizard who picks up a fireball scroll.

[Valo56]

Evokers being able to change the element of a single spell once per day might be cool. Cold fireballs and such.

[Pentaxius]

A solution to this would be to allow evokers to pick one (or none) of the old elemental perks at, e.g - level 5.

If you pick one, you may only cast spells from this element, not from others (or get a penalty in doing so, to represent a true, specialized elementalist). This would represent a further degree of specialization. I also think this can be scripted, since spells have descriptors (acid, cold, fire, etc) which might be able to be called by scripts.

As it currently stands, Acid is the only elemental that wouldn't be viable for an evoker wizard (the only non-conjuration Acid spell, besides a cantrip is Acid Orb). It seems that for reason, DnD decided Acid is the signature element of the Conjurer (Melf's, Mestil's, etc)

The three other elements are pretty balanced in terms of spell diversity.
Cold (L1, L3, L4, L4, L5) Fire (L1, L2, L3, L4, L4, L5) Lightning (L2, L3, L3, L4, L4, L5)

[Stranger]

I would like to see higher damage evocations for specialists, perhaps by a marginal increase in variable potential, but the DC bonus to spells like Combust, Gust of Wind, and Cloud of Bewilderment is quite good as things stand, if not even deadly.

I prefer wizards not having a perk system, as things stand, because it makes them more distinct from sorcerers in how they are not constrained by bloodlines. It adds a certain flavor to the class by not overcooking it.