What's with Wizard Slayers?

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They seem to me to be alot like 1st edition Barbarions (if any of you actually remember 1st), the only differance is that they have the magic resistance(which barbarians didnt have).

[ August 24, 2003, 15:10: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

I must admit that I'm not familiar with those rules. But my guess is that barbarians also didn't get the 'inflict spell failure on hit' ability. And the wizardslayer doesn't get all the resistances the barbarian gets. The barbarian walks faster. The wizardslayer can become grandmaster....

(of course I could be wrong, because I don't know about those rules..)

 

For the most part, you are right. The Barbarian does get the movement rate (i believe if 15' for humans as compared to 12' of all other classes). And no they dont get the 'inflict spell failure on hit' but if i remember corectly, (i dont have the 1st edition Unearthed Arcanna on me) they did get bonuses to hit mages like Wizard Slayers do. also they never got Magic Resistance. So basically to summarize, Wizard Slayers are beefed up 1st Edition Barbarians.

 

I guess it has got to do with the barbarian's hatred for spell casters?

 

Perhaps but being so, shouldnt they be a Barbarian sub-class? They are alright where they are but they would be a better fit as a Barbarian. Granted, they wouldn't be able to dual-class, but just on general principles they shouldnt be able to dual-class with mages anyway. The fact that they can really bothers me.

 

Barbarian should be a fighter subclass...

And you're right about a wizardslayer/mage not making much sense.

 

Not making sense in terms like the hatred for wizards. Though if you just think about the name, any person, wizard or fighter, should be able to concentrate on battling wizards.

 

Barbarian's are a WARRIOR subclass -- within the Warrior umbrella lies Fighters, Rangers, Paladins and Barbarians.
Now, just for interest sake, I will mention that in the the 2E D&D accessory "The Complete Barbarian's Handbook", the Wizard Slayer was a Barbarian kit. I can't remember the details of the kit, but I believe they involved MR and bonuses to hit mages.

 

I'll just add my two cents here about barbarians and wizard slayers. Depaara was right about Wizard Slayers first starting out as a subclass to barbarians.

Slightly, A little background may help understand it a bit. Barbarians pretty much hate magic, and the only ones allowed to use it are shamans. In the original D&D games, if a barbarian were to find a magical item, let's say, a longsword+1, he will instinctively break said item, which will cause a severe backlash of magical energy which will hurt every one in the area except for the barbarian himself. Naturally, the higher up the magical item, the more of a backlash.

So, I suppose on that alone, you could say that the wizard slayer is a really watered down version of the 2E barbarian, just not quite as fast.

 

@darkgoddess Actually you left out the part that 1E barbarians actually gained xp for destroying magical items. If i remember correctly it was half the xp value of the item that a mage would get for creating it. A little overpowered considering that a barbarian, (who leveled much slower then the rest of the classes) could easily gain 1 or 2 levels for finding a couple of comman items such as potions of healing.