The Real Battle Sorcerer [3.5, Base Class]

[Ziegander]

The Battle Sorcerer
This is really nothing special, it's just a single-class progression Sorcadin with a couple of tweaks. It takes the "Battle Sorcerer" concept one step further, delaying spells much more and then blends in Paladin for a smooth taste.

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff275/spartan_176/warrior.png

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: 1d10

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th

1st|+1|+2|+0|+0|Cantrips, Smite 1/day, Trace Magic|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

2nd|+2|+3|+0|+0|Arcane Wellspring|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

3rd|+3|+3|+1|+1|Arcane Grace|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

4th|+4|+4|+1|+1|Arcane Bond +1|2|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

5th|+5|+4|+1|+1|Smite 2/day|2|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

6th|+6/+1|+5|+2|+2|Armored Mage (Heavy)|3|1|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

7th|+7/+2|+5|+2|+2||3|2|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

8th|+8/+3|+6|+2|+2|Arcane Bond +2|4|2|1|—|—|—|—|—|—

9th|+9/+4|+6|+3|+3||4|3|2|—|—|—|—|—|—

10th|+10/+5|+7|+3|+3|Smite 3/day|4|3|2|1|—|—|—|—|—

11th|+11/+6/+1|+7|+3|+3||4|3|3|2|—|—|—|—|—

12th|+12/+7/+2|+8|+4|+4|Arcane Bond +3|4|4|3|2|1|—|—|—|—

13th|+13/+8/+3|+8|+4|+4||4|4|3|3|2|—|—|—|—

14th|+14/+9/+4|+9|+4|+4||4|4|4|3|2|1|—|—|—

15th|+15/+10/+5|+9|+5|+5|Smite 4/day|4|4|4|3|3|2|—|—|—

16th|+16/+11/+6/+1|+10|+5|+5|Arcane Bond +4|4|4|4|4|3|2|1|—|—

17th|+17/+12/+7/+2|+10|+5|+5||4|4|4|4|3|3|2|—|—

18th|+18/+13/+8/+3|+11|+6|+6||4|4|4|4|4|3|2|1|—

19th|+19/+14/+9/+4|+11|+6|+6||4|4|4|4|4|3|3|2|—

20th|+20/+15/+10/+5|+12|+6|+6|Smite 5/day, Arcane Bond +5|4|4|4|4|4|4|3|2|1
[/table]

Class Skills (2 + Int modifier): Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), and Swim (Str).

Weapon & Armor Proficiencies
A Battle Sorcerer is proficient with all simple and martial weapons; with light, medium, and heavy armors; and with shields (but not Tower Shields).

Armored Mage (Ex): A Battle Sorcerer can cast sorcerer spells while in light or medium armor and/or while wielding a light shield without the normal arcane spell failure chance. At 6th level this ability extends to include heavy armor and/or a heavy shield.

Cantrips (Sp): A Battle Sorcerer knows every 0-level spell on the sorcerer/wizard list. He may cast them as spell-like abilities, each day, a total number of times up to his Charisma modifier.

Smite (Su): Once per day, starting at 1st level and gaining additional daily uses at 5th level and every five levels thereafter, a Battle Sorcerer may smite an enemy of one of the following creature types - Construct, Dragon, Elemental, Fey, Magical Beast, or Undead.

He may declare any attack against a creature of one of the above types to be a smite, expending one of his smite attempts for the day, and gaining a bonus to the attack roll equal to his Charisma modifier. If the attack hits it deals additional damage equal to his Charisma modifier + his class level, and for the rest of the encounter he adds his Charisma modifier to AC against attacks made by the target of the smite.

If the target of a Battle Sorcerer's smite has Damage Reduction that can be bypassed by a special type of attack or Regeneration but can be dealt lethal damage by a special type of attack, then the Battle Sorcerer's smite always bypasses that creature's DR and/or deals that creature lethal damage (his smite does not bypass DR 5/--, for example, and neither deals lethal damage to the Terrasque).

Trace Magic (Ex): A Battle Sorcerer has the ability to sniff out magic and magic users, in a manner similar to the Scent special ability (though he is not actually smelling the magic). This allows him to detect magical auras, and notice the presence of constructs, magical beasts, and all creatures able to cast spells or use spell-like abilities.

A faint aura (a creature with 2 or fewer HD) can be picked up within 30ft and pinpointed within 5ft. A moderate aura (a creature with 3-8 HD) can be picked up within 60ft and pinpointed within 10ft. A strong aura (a creature with 9-20 HD) can be picked up within 90ft and pinpointed within 15ft. An overwhelming aura (a creature with more than 21+ HD) can be picked up within 120ft and pinpointed within 20ft.

A Battle Sorcerer may note the direction to an aura or creature he has picked up as a move action.

A Battle Sorcerer may track creatures with this ability substituting Spellcraft checks for Survival checks. He may also use Spellcraft to determine the school of magic for each aura he picks up or to identify a spell that’s already in place and in effect.

Trace Magic is not affected by wind direction, by surface conditions, or by water; however it is harder to pick up weaker auras in the presence of stronger ones. He is unable to note direction to weaker auras if they are fully inside the detection radius of stronger auras, and tracking a creature with a weaker aura in the presence of a stronger aura adds +5 to the DC (+5 more for each degree beyond the first that the stronger aura is stronger by).

Arcane Wellspring (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a Battle Sorcerer taps into a well of arcane power that can regenerate damage dealt to him and can be used to heal others. He has a pool of healing points equal to his class level × his Charisma bonus. When he is dealt damage, if he has points of healing left in his pool, then he may subtract any number of them rather than take an equal amount of damage.

As a standard action, a Battle Sorcerer may sacrifice any number of points of healing from his Arcane Wellspring to cure an equal amount of hit point damage from a touched creature. Unlike positive energy, Arcane Wellspring can be used to heal any creature, whether they are living, construct, or undead.

A Battle Sorcerer with points of healing left in his pool that is brought to fewer than 0 hit points automatically stabilizes.

A Battle Sorcerer that runs his Arcane Wellspring dry can replenish his healing points with an extended rest (8 hours of sleep for most creatures).

Arcane Grace (Su): Starting at 3rd level, a Battle Sorcerer adds his Charisma modifier to all saving throws.

Arcane Bond (Su): Starting at 4th level, any weapon the Battle Sorcerer wields is treated as a magic weapon and gains a +1 enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls, increasing to +2 at 8th level, +3 at 12th level, +4 at 16th level, and +5 at 20th level, similar to a continuous Greater Magic Weapon spell.

This effect ends when the Battle Sorcerer is no longer wielding the weapon but immediately resumes as soon as he takes it up again. This effect cannot be dispelled, but it can be suppressed.

Spells
At 4th level, a Battle Sorcerer attains the ability to cast arcane spells which are drawn primarily from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. He is also able to learn sorcerer-only spells (such as Arcane Spellsurge or Wings of Cover). He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time, the way a wizard or a cleric must (see below).

To learn or cast a spell, a Battle Sorcerer must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against his spells is 10 + the spell's level + his Charisma modifier. His caster level is equal to his Battle Sorcerer level -3.

Like other spellcasters, a Battle Sorcerer can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on the table above. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Charisma score.

A Battle Sorcerer’s selection of spells is extremely limited. A Battle Sorcerer learns two 1st-level spells at 4th level, and at each new Battle Sorcerer level, he may learn one or more new spells, as indicated in the Spells Known spoiler below (see table). Unlike spells per day, the number of spells a sorcerer knows is not affected by his Charisma score. These new spells can be common spells chosen from the sorcerer/wizard spell list, or they can be unusual spells that the Battle Sorcerer has gained some understanding of by study. The sorcerer can’t use this method of spell acquisition to learn spells at a faster rate, however.

Upon reaching 7th level, and at every odd-numbered class level after that (9th, 11th, and so on), a Battle Sorcerer can choose to learn a new spell in place of one he already knows. In effect, he "loses" the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least one level lower than the highest-level sorcerer spell he can cast. A Battle Sorcerer may swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that he gains new spells known for the level.

Unlike a wizard or a cleric, a Battle Sorcerer need not prepare his spells in advance. He can cast any spell he knows at any time, assuming he has not yet used up his spells per day for that spell level. He does not have to decide ahead of time which spells he’ll cast.

Spells Known

{table]Level|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th

1st|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

2nd|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

3rd|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

4th|2|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

5th|2|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

6th|3|1|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

7th|3|2|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

8th|4|2|1|—|—|—|—|—|—

9th|4|3|2|—|—|—|—|—|—

10th|5|3|2|1|—|—|—|—|—

11th|5|4|3|2|—|—|—|—|—

12th|5|4|3|2|1|—|—|—|—

13th|5|5|4|3|2|—|—|—|—

14th|5|5|4|3|2|1|—|—|—

15th|5|5|4|4|3|2|—|—|—

16th|5|5|4|4|3|2|1|—|—

17th|5|5|4|4|4|3|2|—|—

18th|5|5|4|4|4|3|2|1|—

19th|5|5|4|4|4|3|3|2|—

20th|5|5|4|4|4|3|3|2|1
[/table]

[NeoSeraphi]

Its important to note that taking away Knowledge (Arcana) as a class skill will limit the battle sorcerer's ability to access certain prestige classes made for sorcerers. (incantatrix, dragon disciple, stormcaster, etc), though I suppose the delayed spell progression already means you're getting into a prestige class at a later date.

Smite: Starting at 1st level, I can deal lethal damage to the tarrasque once per day. Well now. :smalleek: That's a bit...unbalanced.

Armored Mage: Little nitpick here, you're technically still prohibiting casting in light armor. Edit: Swordsaged

Trace Magic: This is an interesting ability. I might actually take the Track feat (by spending a feat slot, as opposed to dipping ranger) for a class feature like this.

Arcane Wellspring: This is troubling. Exactly how is the battle sorcerer accomplishing this, if he's not channeling positive energy? (If he is, why can he heal undead?)

Arcane Bond: This is actually a supernatural ability, not a spell-like ability (since it is continuous rather than activated). Also, you need to state a caster level for the greater magic weapon effect. Edit: I see, I didn't look at the table, just read the description, so now I see the increase is based on class level and not caster level. That's pretty balanced.

Spells: You stated that he casts spontaneously twice. (Once in the first paragraph, once in the last). Also, you should probably note whether he qualifies for sorcerer-only spells like those in the Draconomicon/Dragon Magic.

[Ziegander]

Smite: Starting at 1st level, I can deal lethal damage to the tarrasque once per day. Well now. :smalleek: That's a bit...unbalanced.

I wouldn't call it unbalanced. It is what it is.

EDIT: I found a way to limit it that you and I should both find reasonable. Now it doesn't pierce DR X/-- or Regeneration that doesn't allow lethal damage of any kind.


Arcane Wellspring: This is troubling. Exactly how is the battle sorcerer accomplishing this, if he's not channeling positive energy? (If he is, why can he heal undead?)

By channeling "arcane energy." How do the repair construct spells work? They just do. Spellfire heals living and undead creatures too, by the way.


Arcane Bond: This is actually a supernatural ability, not a spell-like ability (since it is continuous rather than activated). Also, you need to state a caster level for the greater magic weapon effect. Edit: I see, I didn't look at the table, just read the description, so now I see the increase is based on class level and not caster level. That's pretty balanced.


I just wrote this ability really poorly, hoping to take a short-cut with the wording. I'll fix it.


Spells: You stated that he casts spontaneously twice. (Once in the first paragraph, once in the last). Also, you should probably note whether he qualifies for sorcerer-only spells like those in the Draconomicon/Dragon Magic.

I copy-pasta'd the Spells entry from the SRD Sorcerer. But I will note that they do qualify for sorc-only spells.

[Ziegander]

Okay, so tweaks have been done to the Smite and Arcane Bond abilities, while Arcane Wellspring has been completely rewritten.

Also:

Arcane Recovery
Prerequisites: Arcane Wellspring ability, ability to cast 1st level arcane spells.
Benefit: As a free action, you may expend healing points to recover spell slots and vice versa. You may recover a single used spell slot by expending healing points equal to 10 × the slot's spell level. Conversely, by expending a spell slot you may replenish a number of healing points equal to 10 × the slot's spell level.

[Elfstone]

I like it. Smite is a nice boost. I think it flows well and has enough abilities to make it interesting, but not to many to overwhelm someone(nor does it need them, thats what spells are for)

Another job well done.