Things Savants should get over the next few updates.

[Vengeance777]

Pale Master pre was pretty poor when they came out and they have gotten several improvements over updates so as to now be arguably the best caster class in the game. The same should apply to sorcs over the next few months of updates as the savant as it is now isn't that great compared to Pale Master. Pale Master is still way better endgame and in epics. They should be balanced.

Bring them more in line with the 3.5 official Dungeons and Dragons Elemental Savant Prestige class listed in the same book as Pale Master, Tome of Blood. Currently we are only about 1/4th of the way there.

In addition to what we have currently Savants are supposed to have:

-Savants are supposed to get +4 Spell Pen at the final tier of savant that stacks with Spell Pen and Greater Spell pen in their chosen type of energy. May not be very useful in DDO but Earth Savants would love it for Flesh to Stone.

-Savants are supposed to have a stacking +2 to DCs in their energy school cumulative with Spell Focus and Greater Spell focus.

-Savant Inherent Resist is supposed to be 20 at final tier not 15.

- All Savants are immune to Sleep affects not just given a + to saves.

- All Savants are supposed to be immune to Poison and Paralysis, once again not just + to saves.

- At final tier an elemental savant is immune to stunning and critical hits. This is no more powerful than Pale Masters and should be given to the savants. We already have Heavy Fort items so this isn't game breaking just frees a slot for sorcs. And Power Word stun appears to bypass Pale Master Immunity as well so make Savants like it. Have Power Word affect them as well.

- Savants are supposed to be able to turn into elementals of their energy school and use some abilities of theres. We're kind of halfway there with the tier 3 abilities but we're missing the auras. Knockdown for air (make this one a clicky with a 30 sec cooldown, flame aura for fire (constant effect similar to pale master death aura), freezing cold for water (same as fires insert cold), sadly I can't think of anything earth eles but give them something as well. Anyway give Savants cool forms like Pale masters.

- True savants are supposed to have elemental immunity to their energy type though I understand and agree with not giving this as Fire immunity would break a lot of quests.

On the 1-10 level scale used for Prestige Classes in pen and paper Savants are currently around level 4 yet missing the immunity to sleep given at level 2 and +2 to spell pen at level 3. Whereas a Pale Master has gone way beyond the pen and paper abilities of a full Pale Master and have become the equivalent of epic level characters. Pale masters immunities, 100% fort, self healing, and vastly superior DC's and spell pen make them balanced with what Savants are supposed to have. Please give us more than a shiny aura, a resistance debuff, and the couple new spells.

[Angelus_dead]

Closeness to D&D 3.5 rules has some value, but is a pretty minor design consideration. Don't forget that a great many D&D rules were very bad, including the majority of Prestige Classes.

Bring them more in line with the 3.5 official Dungeons and Dragons Elemental Savant Prestige class listed in the same book as Pale Master, Tome of Blood. Currently we are only about 1/4th of the way there.

Are you really sure you want a -2 penalty to Sorcerer level? That would not only reduce your damage and spell penetration, but even spellpoints and spells known. Only 1 level 9 spell!

-Savants are supposed to get +4 Spell Pen at the final tier of savant that stacks with Spell Pen and Greater Spell pen in their chosen type of energy. May not be very useful in DDO but Earth Savants would love it for Flesh to Stone.

DDO's Savants already have a better bonus to spell pen.

-Savants are supposed to have a stacking +2 to DCs in their energy school cumulative with Spell Focus and Greater Spell focus.

Save DCs on damage spells aren't as important a factor to effectiveness as caster level, awaken vulnerability, resistance bypass, or inherent spells.

-Savant Inherent Resist is supposed to be 20 at final tier not 15.

And it's not supposed to stack on top of the Resist 30 you cast from a spell, so it's supposed to be worthless.

- At final tier an elemental savant is immune to stunning and critical hits. This is no more powerful than Pale Masters

No, it is a lot more powerful than Pale Masters because it doesn't involve debuffing yourself with immunity to Heal (and maybe Reconstruction).

[Saravis]

PMs aren't immune to healing, they're just immune to positive energy healing.
They can heal via negative energy, either through their own spells or if a healer is inclined to ready a spell himself. Furthermore PMs also have more than just crit and stun immunity.

Anyways, I would certainly like to see much more done with the Savants and hopefully they will continue to improve them, but there's another improvement that can help the Savants a great deal and thats more spells. We need more spells, namely high lvl spells and most specifically acid and electric ones. To me, thats the primary setback in the quality of the Savants right now.

[Auran82]

Save DCs on damage spells aren't as important a factor to effectiveness as caster level, awaken vulnerability, resistance bypass, or inherent spells.


No, it is a lot more powerful than Pale Masters because it doesn't involve debuffing yourself with immunity to Heal (and maybe Reconstruction).

The save DCs would be very useful, especially considering that most spells don't actually scale any higher than level 20 anyway, so they basically get the +3 max levels, then an additional +3 sr (when most ignore SR anyway) It kinda sucks having stuff evaded/saved for half damage.

I wouldn't mind seeing earth savants getting the stun immunity, air savants getting the knockdown immunity (which they have), fire getting something thematic, and water maybe getting slippery surface immunity.

[Jaid314]

honestly, i'd just be happy with getting form. it's the only thing i really feel is missing from savant right now... the benefits of elemental form are probably not *needed* to make the PrE work or anything, but i think it would make them feel a lot more like the elemental savant. i mean, i don't think poison immunity or heavy fort breaks anything, paralysis immunity shouldn't really be a problem, and stunning immunity shouldn't be a problem (we already have casters immune to all of those things, and it doesn't break anything horrible, just frees up a couple of slots).

so yeah, imo, all savant really needs is elemental form, imo. the rest of it is not there as a literal translation, but it is there thematically.

and of course, more spells would also make sense. not so much a matter of savant though, as it is a matter of more spells pretty near always being good, and offering variety.

[Shade]

The main thing I see them lacking is gaining the more true abilities of elementals.

They should gain elemental forms like pale masters get undead forms.

EG:
True transformation into a earth elemental for earth.. Netting you massively increased melee damage and strength, but at a very slow swing speed. And perhaps earthgrab, at a much faster cooldown, but keeps you vulernerable to attack like a real earth elem.

Probably not possible with the current tech, but should be with the new tech for Druids thats upcoming..