Jarl
2006-09-24, 07:17 PM
There's this character in my homebrew world who refers to himself as a "Tension Mage", and I decided to figure out what he meant. I've come up with a basic concept:
Prestige Class
Requires arcane casting, cannot be able to cast divine magic or manifest psionics. Cannot have "Still spell" feat or ever take it. Must have been lost in the gulf between realities.
Main features: Multiple magical items, perhaps even a mechanic for letting identical bonuses stack. Dexterity-based casting. Severe casting penalties both because of and to balance out the above stacking. Very quickly acquires "Outsider" type, possibly with the Native subtype.
Also, since the character it's based on is very 1st ed in construction and flavor, it's likely that some sort of reference to rules changes will be made. Most likely, based on how the story involving the character goes, the appearance of a Tension Mage is usually an omen of immense change, even the re-ordering of the fundamental rules of the universe. All in good fun, you understand. This one wouldn't necessarily be a concrete thing, what with there being no 4th Edition coming out any time soon (I hope), but it would probably translate as a kind of charisma penalty or maybe just a "people don't trust them" note.
-Any ideas? And yes, I said Dexterity based spellcasting. Retroactive, same as with Int or Cha (depending on the base class), only now it's using Dex.
Prestige Class
Requires arcane casting, cannot be able to cast divine magic or manifest psionics. Cannot have "Still spell" feat or ever take it. Must have been lost in the gulf between realities.
Main features: Multiple magical items, perhaps even a mechanic for letting identical bonuses stack. Dexterity-based casting. Severe casting penalties both because of and to balance out the above stacking. Very quickly acquires "Outsider" type, possibly with the Native subtype.
Also, since the character it's based on is very 1st ed in construction and flavor, it's likely that some sort of reference to rules changes will be made. Most likely, based on how the story involving the character goes, the appearance of a Tension Mage is usually an omen of immense change, even the re-ordering of the fundamental rules of the universe. All in good fun, you understand. This one wouldn't necessarily be a concrete thing, what with there being no 4th Edition coming out any time soon (I hope), but it would probably translate as a kind of charisma penalty or maybe just a "people don't trust them" note.
-Any ideas? And yes, I said Dexterity based spellcasting. Retroactive, same as with Int or Cha (depending on the base class), only now it's using Dex.