Arelith

Regarding this suggestion about true flames.

I am on my second true fire and have played two different builds. One multiclassed for armor proficiency and used the old greensteel armor and shield to be able to withstand some amount of close quarters combat. The other is intended to always stay in the back.

Between these two characters I have some common observations about true flame that might be worth considering on any rebalance pass. First being a glass cannon isn't a problem, being a glass cannon that almost exclusively damages multiple enemies at a time is the problem. Trading defense for offense is the entire point of the class, but having to go down to 1st circle (intentionally excluding combust @ 2nd circle) to find a single target damage spell that won't draw extra attention is a major road bump. Wanting to deal more then 25 damage per spell as a true fire will always carry the risk of drawing npc's away from your party to run to you.

This can be a fairly major problem when the auto targeting occasionally fails. It is possible for creatures to become impossible to damage by spells that pick their target (missile storm/firebrand/etc) and require you to use a spell that targets them directly to harm them. Chain lightening is the highest damage spell that you can use in this case and works fine (though the chain effect beyond the first target can suffer the same bug).

The spell that strikes me as most in line with the theme of the class and also able to help this problem is the 3rd circle conjuration spell, Flame Arrow. True flames already have on spell that shoots out flaming arrows so it fits in nicely, but Flame Arrow scales its damage through the life of the mage and is single target. Fire being one of the most resisted/immune elements could still give the true flame issue, and could be solved by giving true flames a command like the warlock's to set damage type (only overriding this spell or a small list of spells).

As the point of the class is to trade defense for offense, I don't think it should be granted the ability to patch its defense holes without relying on other players (mind protections, negative energy protects, ac buffs, stat buffs, etc). It might be nice if true flames had elemental shield's damage increased to that of acid sheath, but that is as far as I would go on the defense side.

The last change I would make if I had free reign would be to grant use of magic from feat based sources to the true flame. These would include things like a Paladin's remove disease or Blackguard's Bull Strength and Create Undead. Giving them access to potions and racial abilities has already done a great deal in this regard though.

Overall, I find the true flame to be a very enjoyable class to play. Nearly any party is happy to have any true flame that isn't causing friendly fire or otherwise disrupting the adventure.

I'd also like to throw my two cents in here, since I've got a TF that sees more playtime than any of my other characters at this point (and has for the past two years).

The class is a challenge to play solo, and it has its (glaring) weaknesses in the form of defense, but these are not absolute and can be mitigated with some variation of build.

Despite that, I actually find the class to be very enjoyable. I can manage a wizard's spell book just fine, but there's something outright enjoyable about making sure I'm not dying of thirst, exhaustion, or hunger, and just obliterating the things in my way- even if I have to get creative about it. (I've done some really mean things with wall of fire gauntlets).

Even with the weaknesses of the class in solo content, with some clever use of what's available I've been able to (very carefully) solo everything I've come up against. I'm certainly not going to go flying through blackfin rock in less than ten minutes, but I can get through it without dying, and I enjoy it.

In a party the only real challenge of the class is making sure you aren't making the game boring for others, but that's not any different of a challenge than a decked out weapon master with 70 AC critting for x4 on a 16-20 is going to face. The solution is easy- a dash of restraint until the party needs you to go buck-wild, just like the wizard- except not because you'll run out of spells.

Edit: I came back to say, except for archers. Archers will wreck your day. I am indescribably sad that I can't respond to a line of archers with a wall of force. Kill them before everything, or go another way. Sneaking past only works if you aren't going to get chased back into them, and a lot of soloing as a TF involves using the section of map you just cleared as a setup for magical death when the next spawn chases you into it.