I wanted to split this conversation off from the character build thread so that Matt's thread can stay focused on the original topic:
I have a celestial scholar in the mid 30s. The difference in build spending with the new rules would be making room for meditate. Everything else would stay the same.
Read and write = 3
Read magic = 4
12 block = 300
formal 15 = 45
meditate =4
To me, this character is much more powerful with the new rules. The real change is meditate allowing me to throw spells much faster since I don't need to worry so much about hitting the target. If defenders had too little time to call defensives before, things just got worse.
It also seems that celestial scholar will become the DPS champ with the new rules. Meditate helps as I can throw my dragon breaths quicker (well the name changes a bit with the new rules but they will always be dragon's breaths to me) and get back the misses. But comparing wand damage to profs shows where celestial scholars may outpace fighters.
Wand charges increase from 108 to 118, while wand damage decreases from 15 to 10. Compared to what will happen to fighters, this change to wand damage seem minor. Considering that fighter types will probably have their damage from profs cut in half (a player swinging 30s will have to invest big time to swing 15s now), I don't think fighters will be able to sustain damage as well as celestial scholars with the new rules.
I don't disagree with regards to Meditate, but if you've spent 350-400 build on Celestial scholarly skills, your wand should only be doing 8 damage in the new system. Considering a similar build could be doing as much as 19 damage currently (base 1 + 12 9th level spells + 3 for elemental burst + 3 for greater wand), I'd say wands are taking just as a big a hit as high-level fighters are with profs.
Celestial is likely not champ. Please note the armor/body changes:
- Fighters (and fighter hybrids) may buy extra body
- Racial body scales
- Armor goes to 62
- Armor can be formally doubled to 124 on a temporary basis.
The above makes celestial pretty weak IMHO, given how many spells need to be thrown to get through all that. The spells do good damage, but it'll take a LOT of them.