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Phosphate
2012-05-09, 04:32 PM
So lately I was wondering how to make a full spellcaster that has access to high spells, AND is somewhat weak at the same time, but without being useless. Here's what I got.

And I'm not specifically intending to plummet the full caster to tier 3, although I don't mind if this ends up as tier 3.

The Arcane Student

Alignment
Any.

Hit Die
d4

Class Skills
The arcane student’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Points at 1st Level
(2 + Int modifier) Χ 4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level
2 + Int modifier.

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |
Metamagic Limit|
Retention Level|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th

1st|+0|+0|+0|+2||
0|
0|4|1|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

2nd|+1|+0|+0|+3||
0|
0|4|2|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

3rd|+1|+1|+1|+3||
0|
0|4|2|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

4th|+2|+1|+1|+4||
1|
0|4|3|1|—|—|—|—|—|—

5th|+2|+1|+1|+4||
1|
1|4|3|2|—|—|—|—|—|—

6th|+3|+2|+2|+5||
1|
1|4|3|2|—|—|—|—|—|—

7th|+3|+2|+2|+5||
1|
1|4|4|3|1|—|—|—|—|—

8th|+4|+2|+2|+6||
2|
1|4|4|3|2|—|—|—|—|—

9th|+4|+3|+3|+6||
2|
1|4|4|3|3|—|—|—|—|—

10th|+5|+3|+3|+7||
2|
2|4|4|4|3|1|—|—|—|—

11th|+5|+3|+3|+7||
2|
2|4|4|4|3|2|—|—|—|—

12th|+6/+1|+4|+4|+8||
3|
2|4|4|4|3|2|1|—|—|—

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

14th|+7/+2|+4|+4|+9||
3|
2|4|4|4|4|3|2|1|—|—

15th|+7/+2|+5|+5|+9||
3|
3|4|4|4|4|4|3|2|—|—

16th|+8/+3|+5|+5|+10||
4|
3|4|4|4|4|4|4|2|1|—

17th|+8/+3|+5|+5|+10||
4|
3|4|4|4|4|4|4|3|2|—

18th|+9/+4|+6|+6|+11||
4|
3|4|4|4|4|4|4|3|2|1

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

20th|+10/+5|+6|+6|+12||
5|
4|4|4|4|4|4|4|4|3|2

[/table]

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the arcane student.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

The arcane student is proficient with the quarterstaff, no armor, and no shields.

Spells: The Arcane Student is a prepared caster that casts arcane spells.

To cast a spell, an Arcane Student must have both a Con score and a Wis score of 10+spell level or higher. The DC of his spells is equal to 10+spell level+Cha mod.

He receives bonus spell slots from having a high Int score, but in a restricted fashion: he only gains bonus slots to spell levels equal to his Retention Level or lower, no matter how high his Int mod is.

To regenerate his spell slots and prepare new spells, an Arcane Student must sleep for 8 hours, and concentrate for 1 hour afterward. He may leave slots open.

Spell sources: At level 1 an Arcane Student must decide where he will get the bulk of his spells from. Thus, he must choose a school of magic, except conjuration (also, if he chooses illusion, he cannot learn the spell shadow conjuration).

A level 1 Arcane Student starts with all cantrips and 5 level 1 spells know, which must all be from his chosen school. Then, whenever he gains a new spell level, he learns 5 spells from his chosen school of that level, and 2 additional spells. These additional spells must be from the sor/wiz spell list, must be any spell level the arcane student can already cast and must not be conjuration spells, or the spell shadow conjuration.

Every level, the arcane student may unlearn one of his spells to learn a spell of the same level or lower in its place: however, if the spell he unlearned is from his chosen school, the spell he learns must be from there as well.

Metamagic: Arcane Students may only prepare a small number of spells modified with metamagic per day, as shown in the table above. In addition to the requirements of con and wis, to cast a spell altered with metamagic an arcane student must also have an int score of 10+modified spell level or higher. Every time the table signifies that the arcane student may use metamagic an additional time per day, he also gains a metamagic feat as a bonus feat.

Roguenewb
2012-05-09, 08:12 PM
I see what your trying for here, but you've overshot it by a bit. The two stat dependency just to cast a spell, plus the saves and bonuses based off yet 2 more casting stats?! Just... too hard. By level 18 you need to have a CON and WIS of 18, without getting *any* benefit of that fact. It was bad enough when they gave Warmage the psuedo double casting with Warmage Edge, but this is...just cruel. I think required INT to trigger the spellcasting, and CHA for saves and bonuses is enough (like FS).

The metamagic thing is rough too. 4 total castings of metamagic spells, at lvl 16, with no benefit at all?! How about that number is the total amount of metamagic modification they can do? Or something, cause thats just harsh.

Grod_The_Giant
2012-05-09, 08:22 PM
Yeah. Dual-stat dependency is plenty, and the metamagic restriction is unnecessarily harsh. Also, what's Retention Level?

Can I ask why you single out Conjuration? I know it's a good, versatile school, but... the 7 spells known, 5 from a single school is more than enough to drop this to tier 2. Maybe even tier 3, given the slightly slowed progression.

Phosphate
2012-05-10, 07:30 AM
That's the point, I WANT it to be harsh.

Most caster fixes cap spells at level 6 but make casting easier and more versatile. I want to still let them have level 7 and 8 spells, as long as they work on their stats for that.

Which is the idea I'm going for: you should be able to build your caster in such a way that not all his spell levels are available to him, instead of it being implied that regardless how low the optimization or hybrid the build, they get the spells anyway. Because as it is right now, requiring a cleric to have wis of 10+spell level is basically fluff.


Also, what's Retention Level?

Instead of getting bonus spell slots for having a high Int normally, you only gain them to the spells with a level equal to your retention or lower.

An arcane student with 26 Int at level 20 will have the following number of spell slots: 4 level 0, 6 level 1, 6 level 2, 6 level 3, 6 level 4, 4 level 5, 4 level 6, 3 level 7 and 2 level 8.


Can I ask why you single out Conjuration? I know it's a good, versatile school, but... the 7 spells known, 5 from a single school is more than enough to drop this to tier 2

Tier 1 means it can do everything. Tier 2 means it can do anything. I want neither. Conjuration is the ONLY school that allows you to be consistently tier 2 without even touching any other school.


Maybe even tier 3, given the slightly slowed progression.

Depends on what you mean by slightly slowed. If you compare it to the wizard, who gets his first level 8 slot at level 15 instead of 18, AND probably gains a bonus level 8 slot by that time due to high int anyway, then it is massively slowed.