NarcoticSqurl
2016-12-08, 01:15 PM
So I've been working on a class for a while. I like the warlock from 3.5 a lot, and the witch from pathfinder. The goal was to sort of fuse these together, switching up the incantations and hexes with spells and abilities that would affect the target in a way that would appear as if they were manipulating the targets soul itself. Alternatively, they would also be able to manipulate their own soul or allies, to buff or increase their strengths or overcome weaknesses. (Think like, pushing a soul out of a body, causing a target to have to reconnect with it before they can act again, or rooting a soul in spot like a hold person spell, or at higher levels, casting banishment or greater curse)
An example of this would be that they have a lesser 'soul art' which is effectively mage armor. This can be granted to themselves or an ally. They also share similar hexes as the witch such as hideous laughter, lesser heal, blight. I'm running into a snag with some design ideas. They have an eldritch blast (called soulfire blast) which the damage has been increased to be on par with the kineticist blast. The idea is to give them soul arts which can act like hexes, or blast shapes for the soulfire blast, without drawing directly or too similarly from the warlock and witch themselves.
So how would you go about balancing the uses of these abilities? If the caster can just give mage armor to all allies, then the monsters are going to have a tough time. If it can heal all the allies whenever, there's little use for a straight cleric (though I would argue if you use this class as a healer, you've effed up already). I want to give them enough abilities to be usefull without falling into the pit the warlock did in 3.5, but I don't want them to outshine the other classes far into their levels. A little power spike is fine, but a 14th level soul-lock and 14th level wizard should not be exactly on par. Or a 14th level cleric for that matter. By that time I would want them to have their definite niches defined and useful. Any advice is appreciated.
An example of this would be that they have a lesser 'soul art' which is effectively mage armor. This can be granted to themselves or an ally. They also share similar hexes as the witch such as hideous laughter, lesser heal, blight. I'm running into a snag with some design ideas. They have an eldritch blast (called soulfire blast) which the damage has been increased to be on par with the kineticist blast. The idea is to give them soul arts which can act like hexes, or blast shapes for the soulfire blast, without drawing directly or too similarly from the warlock and witch themselves.
So how would you go about balancing the uses of these abilities? If the caster can just give mage armor to all allies, then the monsters are going to have a tough time. If it can heal all the allies whenever, there's little use for a straight cleric (though I would argue if you use this class as a healer, you've effed up already). I want to give them enough abilities to be usefull without falling into the pit the warlock did in 3.5, but I don't want them to outshine the other classes far into their levels. A little power spike is fine, but a 14th level soul-lock and 14th level wizard should not be exactly on par. Or a 14th level cleric for that matter. By that time I would want them to have their definite niches defined and useful. Any advice is appreciated.