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Zaydos
2015-02-07, 02:43 AM
Everspell Mage

”What use is power which does not last?”

Magic is fleeting, far too often fading mere moments after the spell is cast. An everspell mage is a seeker of two things. The first is magic which lasts, the latter is magic which is reusable. An everspell mage seeks power in these things, learning to maintain their magical powers for extended periods, to cast spells which sustain themselves nigh infinitely.

BECOMING AN EVERSPELL MAGE
A mage becomes an everspell mage by dedicating themselves to the study and understanding of how to maintain a spell for an extended duration and how to repeat simple magics.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Feats: Extend Spell.
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) 10 ranks, Spellcraft 10 ranks.
Spellcasting: Ability to cast 4th level arcane spells, and at least 7 spells with a duration of 1 hour/caster level or more.

Class Skills
The Class Name's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Knowledge (History) (Int), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Knowledge (the Planes) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skills Points at Each Level: 2 + int

Hit Dice: d4


LevelBase Attack BonusFort SaveRef SaveWill SaveSpecialSpellcasting
1st
+0
+0
+0
+2Persist Spell, Sudden Persist, Enduring Magic-
2nd
+1
+0
+0
+3Perpetual Spell+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
3rd
+1
+1
+1
+3Permanency+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
4th
+2
+1
+1
+4Lasting Spells, Greater Perpetual Spell-
5th
+2
+1
+1
+4Eternal Spell+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class.


Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: An everspell mage gains no new weapon or armor proficiencies.

Persistent Spell: An everspell mage naturally learns the basics of maintaining magic for extended periods, as such at first level they gain Persist Spell (Complete Arcane) as a bonus feat.

Sudden Persist: An everspell mage is capable of more easily extending the endurance of their spells. An everspell mage is able to spontaneously apply the Persistent Spell metamagic to a spell, with a level up to their everspell mage level +1, as they cast it twice per day, plus an additional time per at 5th level. This application does not increase the spell’s level or casting time and may be applied even to prepared spells as they are cast.

Enduring Magic: An Everspell Mage’s magic is tightly knit and hard for other mages to unweave. The DC to dispel an Everspell Mage’s spells is increased by their class level.

Spellcasting: At every level except 1st and 4th and Everspell Mage gains increased spellcasting as if they had gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class they previously possessed.

Perpetual Spell (Su): An Everspell Mage wants not only endurance of magic, but repetition of it. At 2nd level an Everspell Mage selects one first level spell they know (or have in their spellbook as a prepared caster) and as long as they have that spell prepared or available to cast can cast it without expending the associated spell slot; no metamagic can be applied to this spell.

Permanency: An Everspell Mage is dedicated to learning how to craft magic which endures. At 3rd level an Everspell Mage may add Permanency to their list of spells known as a 4th-level spell for every arcane spellcasting class they possess. Everspell mages that prepare spells, may prepare this spell from memory alone. When casting Permanency, an Everspell Mage may increase their effective caster level by an amount equal to their class level.

Lasting Spells: An everspell mage learns to maintain spells more easily than normal. The durations of all non-Persistent spells an everspell mage casts are doubled (Extended Spells have a total of triple the normal duration).

Greater Perpetual Spell: An everspell mage’s mastery of repetitive spellcasting increases. Beginning at 4th level an Everspell Mage may as part of regaining their spells for the day select one spell they know and/or have prepared with a level no higher than 4 less than their highest level spell or their everspell mage level whichever is less to a minimum of 2nd. They may cast this spell without expending the associated spell slot. They may select a metamagic enhanced spell with this ability but its effective level must fall within this cap. A greater perpetual spell cannot grant additional spells prepared or spell slots.

Eternal Spell: An everspell mage at the pinnacle of their craft demonstrates the mastery they had long sought. At 5th level an everspell mage gains the ability to cast an Eternal Spell. They may only cast an Eternal Spell once per week and may only have one Eternal Spell at a time. An Eternal Spell is a spell which has its duration increased to Permanent, although when another Eternal Spell is cast the mage’s previous Eternal Spell has its duration returned to the normal duration it would have had if it were not an Eternal Spell. An everspell mage may make any non-instantaneous spell into an Eternal Spell (although one that is discharged still ends when discharged).

r2d2go
2015-02-08, 12:05 AM
Pretty cool! A very interesting class, and probably one I'd want to take. There's a few things you might want to change though - The Sudden Persist and the Greater Perpetual Spell.

Sudden Persist (and Eternal Spell for similar reasons) is a bit worrisome because it's a bit like Divine Metamagic: Persist on an arcane caster. Now, of course, the existence of that comparison obviously shows that there are already broken things in existence, but I don't think that makes it ideal to make more :smalltongue: Perhaps if there was a level limit, or it only reduced the price of Persisting things? Making it come into play later could help, but you would have to extend the class.

Greater Perpetual Spell has much the same problems, but for less powerful spells, but for a wider variety of them. Level - 3 opens up possibilities like Shadow Conjuration or Mage's Lucubration, as well as insanely-metamagicked cantrips and the like. I think a hard cap (third level avoids every super-flexible spell other than Anyspell which is spell-domain only, I think), or at least a higher soft cap, might help here, as well as scratching metamagic.

Overall it's a great concept, and admirably executed given the obvious difficulty of balancing a class based on infinite and persisted spells :smalltongue: but I think those things could be considered for changes.

Zaydos
2015-02-08, 01:22 AM
Thinking about making the class require 5th level spells (thus making everything come in at a later character level), but reduced Sudden Persist to 2/day, 3/day at 5th, and set a cap of class level + 1; so eventually you can persist your higher level spells... and that might be problematic.

For Greater Perpetual Spell I made it highest spell level - 4 and added a clause that they cannot be used to grant additional spell slots/prepared spells. So you can still get infinite Shadow Conjuration, at a level where a single classed Wizard has Shapechange. And the total level after metamagic has to be 5th even at 19th level so... well it's still worrisome with heavy Arcane Thesis use, but everything is worrisome with heavy Arcane Thesis use. Although Ray of Frost + Split Ray + Fell Drain would be fun, but without Arcane Thesis that's just a worse choice than Enervation.

Thanks for the critique.

Also apparently I forgot skills. So before I get lazy and c/p Wizard skills, with potentially a few removals, got any suggestions there?

r2d2go
2015-02-08, 01:33 AM
Also apparently I forgot skills. So before I get lazy and c/p Wizard skills, with potentially a few removals, got any suggestions there?

Eh, it's a prestige class, that's probably fine :smalltongue:

Hanuman
2015-02-08, 01:46 AM
Wow zaydos you are just pumping out content aren't you?

Interesting class, persistant spell effects... hmm..

Andion Isurand
2015-02-09, 12:27 AM
I'm a fan of scaling features, and because you have already reduced the spellcasting progression for this class, I would recommend this revision to Enduring Magic, and introduce it starting at 1st level.

Enduring Magic: An Everspell Mage’s magic is tightly knit and hard for other mages to unweave. The DC to dispel any arcane spell cast by an Everspell Mage increases by an amount equal to their class level.


Also: What about doing some features that work with the permanency spell?

Permanency: An Everspell Mage may add Permanency to their list of spells known as a 4th-level spell for every arcane spellcasting class they possess. Everspell mages that prepare spells, may prepare this spell from memory alone. When casting Permanency, an Everspell Mage may increase their effective caster level by an amount equal to their class level.

Zaydos
2015-02-09, 12:40 AM
I'm a fan of scaling features, and because you have already reduced the spellcasting progression for this class, I would recommend this revision to Enduring Magic, and introduce it starting at 1st level.

Enduring Magic: An Everspell Mage’s magic is tightly knit and hard for other mages to unweave. The DC to dispel any arcane spell cast by an Everspell Mage increases by an amount equal to their class level.


Also: What about doing some features that work with the permanency spell?

Permanency: An Everspell Mage may add Permanency to their list of spells known as a 4th-level spell for every arcane spellcasting class they possess. Everspell mages that prepare spells, may prepare this spell from memory alone. When casting Permanency, an Everspell Mage may increase their effective caster level by an amount equal to their class level.

I love it. I went ahead and added it. Thank you.

Andion Isurand
2015-02-09, 02:37 AM
Not sure if it's what you intended, but as it is currently written, Enduring Magic would apply to any type of spell cast by the Everspell Mage, not just arcane spells.

Zaydos
2015-02-09, 02:48 AM
Not sure if it's what you intended, but as it is currently written, Enduring Magic would apply to any type of spell cast by the Everspell Mage, not just arcane spells.

Good catch. It wasn't the intent, but I think I'll leave it as is since outside of gestalt I'd consider it a good bug. I mean if you're a multiclass caster taking levels in a PrC that loses you 2 caster levels and requires 4th level spells of that type I'm not going to begrudge you a little benefit over single classed. In gestalt it's a little more worrisome, but I don't think it'd be particularly broken by gestalt standards.