Conjurer Class idea

[ScrivenerB]

I'd greatly appreciate any feedback on this class. While the class is overtly magical in nature its role is arguably somewhere between the AD&D monk and psionicist of 1st /2nd edition. The inspiration for this came from a blog post I read recently....which I can't now locate....proposing something like this for LotFP. If anyone can point me to that blog post I'll certainly give credit for the idea.

Ze link: Conjurer Class

Thanks for considering it.

[Skyscraper]

Hello,

Congrats on designing an original DCC class, even if it is inspired from another person's work (it often is...)

I like that the class is very consistent throughout. It doesn't dabble into this and that: the focus makes the class very well defined IMO.

The very flexible nature of the class' main power, to create manifests, is interesting in that it probably allows a great deal of leeway to the player to think about how to handle any particular situation, including combat where the PC may change weapons from melee to range; but mostly out of combat where the PC may create a bunch of items to address many different needs.

A question: how long does it take to create a manifest? I assume it's instantaneous on the conjurer's turn (to allow him to create an armor and an axe, and the next turn no armor but a bow to shoot down the retreating enemy), but unless I missed it the document doesn't say anything about it.

One thing about the class that I like less is that in combat, it is likely to become a simple question of balancing armor points and attack points. While the flexiblity is of course interesting, it's really a metaquestion. You might argue that the same is true for any PC; but I don't think so. If I play, say, a thief, the thief will occasionally get to select a piece of equipment, say a leather armor and a dagger, and then he'll just play the game with that equipment. Whereas the conjurer will continuously be calculating: "this round, I'll put 2 points in my AC, how far is the critter? Then I put 2 points for range, and +1 to my attack, and 2 points for d6 to damage. There, I'll roll now". This is not uninteresting, but every round, it might perhaps be a bit over the top for my taste.

Question: do you think that the class is somewhat balanced with regards to combat, compared to others? Not that it needs to be, but although I haven't played around with the numbers, it seems to me that the combat power seems low. Any thoughts?

Also, although the conjurations might be fun to handle, I feel that a wizard would have a lot more to offer a player than a conjurer. Maybe I do not see the depth of the conjurer's options, but they seem more in the "cantrip" category than in the incredibly powerful effects that a wizard can have. Somewhat powerful cantrips, but cantrips nonetheless. I'm always reminded of the "mage hand" spell in D&D, everyone is quick to jump on it, "this is good, we can do tons fo stuff with that", but in the end, after having witnessed countless mages with that spell, it's almost never used, and when it is, it has only a minor effect at best.

I'm not sure about the 1 point luck burn to avoid a fumble. With regards to fumbles by others: burning luck is somewhat of a big thing, and other players will put pressure on the conjurer's player to get him to burn luck to avoid them... What, breaking a weapon? Also, fumbles are fun I would not put a rule to avoid fumbles. (Like, I'm not fond of the rule to burn luck to avoid corruption.)

Those are my first thoughts.