Grizl' Bjorn
2017-06-02, 04:08 AM
Hi friends. I’m a fairly experienced brewer but I think I might have bitten off more than I can chew. This is a class I’m working on, it’s a bit high concept though and I’m having trouble making it manageable. Basically there are two problems:
1. Finding a way to make it at least approximately balanced
2. Dealing with all the tremendous convolutions in rules the concept creates- both in terms of mechanics, and in terms of trying to write a description of what is going on which can be followed.
The basic concept is that you are a character who has begun to access your past lives and previous aspects of your soul. You effectively have a non-homebrewed class as normal, but you sacrifice some of the powers of that class in order to be able to access for brief periods the powers of your previous lives- e.g. maybe you were a wizard or a fighter in a previous life. You have a set number of ‘personalities’ which reflect past lives you’ve gained clear access to.
Making it work is proving far from simple. Do people think the basic concept is salvageable? It's never going to be an easy class to explain or play, but if we could get it to a state with approximate balance and precise rules I'd be thrilled with that. Anyway, here's what I've got so far:
Ancient soul
When you would create a character of this class, create three characters instead, only one of which has as their class ancient soul. None of these characters may vary from any other character on any attribute by more than 2 points. One of these characters is your primary character and their class is ancient soul. For the other two personalities you may select any classes from the player’s handbook. These represent the past lives your primary character has most strongly connected with, although they are not the only past lives your character gains glimpses of. Level up all three characters whenever you would level up your Ancient Soul.
In addition, select a class other than bard for your ancient soul character, this is your source class. You gain all class features, hit die, proficiencies etc. indicated by this class. However, delay your progression by one level at levels 2, 10 & 17. You instead gain the features indicated below.
EXAMPLE: Tamera is an ancient soul with a source class of warlock. Tamera reaches level 10. Rather than gaining a level 10 archetype feature, extra spells known etc. as a warlock normally would, Tamera gains only the level 10 ancient soul feature ‘Ageless knowledge’ and hitpoints according to the warlock class. Tamera was similarly delayed in achieving her level 2 abilities. However she will eventually gain a warlock’s level 10 abilities at level 12, just as she eventually obtained the level 2 benefits of a warlock at level 3.
Ancient soul class features
Level 2 Cede. Once per short rest for three turns, or for a single ability check requiring any length of time your primary personality may cede control to one of its two secondary personalities. During this time you have the statistics and personality of that secondary personality. Only the appearance and hitpoints of your character do not change. Your secondary personality has access to all your memories and will share at least your basic motivations, so you may control it as you control your ancient soul personality normally. You gain an additional use of this ability per short rest at level 10, and another use at level 17.
Level 2 Partial memories: Your character may apply half their proficiency bonus to skill checks they are not proficient in, aided by the half recalled memories of a thousand lifetimes.
Level 10. Ageless knowledge: You draw on the almost infinite depth of experience contained in your past lives. Your character may gain proficiency with skill after each long rest. Proficiency with this skill lasts until the end of your next long rest, whereupon you may select a new skill proficiency.
Level 17. Call forth. Once per day you may cast Simulacrum with a casting time of ten minutes and without material components on yourself. The being you create must be one of your personalities somewhat weakened, but given physical form. You may recall your personality at any-time but until you do so you may not use it via your cede ability.
1. Finding a way to make it at least approximately balanced
2. Dealing with all the tremendous convolutions in rules the concept creates- both in terms of mechanics, and in terms of trying to write a description of what is going on which can be followed.
The basic concept is that you are a character who has begun to access your past lives and previous aspects of your soul. You effectively have a non-homebrewed class as normal, but you sacrifice some of the powers of that class in order to be able to access for brief periods the powers of your previous lives- e.g. maybe you were a wizard or a fighter in a previous life. You have a set number of ‘personalities’ which reflect past lives you’ve gained clear access to.
Making it work is proving far from simple. Do people think the basic concept is salvageable? It's never going to be an easy class to explain or play, but if we could get it to a state with approximate balance and precise rules I'd be thrilled with that. Anyway, here's what I've got so far:
Ancient soul
When you would create a character of this class, create three characters instead, only one of which has as their class ancient soul. None of these characters may vary from any other character on any attribute by more than 2 points. One of these characters is your primary character and their class is ancient soul. For the other two personalities you may select any classes from the player’s handbook. These represent the past lives your primary character has most strongly connected with, although they are not the only past lives your character gains glimpses of. Level up all three characters whenever you would level up your Ancient Soul.
In addition, select a class other than bard for your ancient soul character, this is your source class. You gain all class features, hit die, proficiencies etc. indicated by this class. However, delay your progression by one level at levels 2, 10 & 17. You instead gain the features indicated below.
EXAMPLE: Tamera is an ancient soul with a source class of warlock. Tamera reaches level 10. Rather than gaining a level 10 archetype feature, extra spells known etc. as a warlock normally would, Tamera gains only the level 10 ancient soul feature ‘Ageless knowledge’ and hitpoints according to the warlock class. Tamera was similarly delayed in achieving her level 2 abilities. However she will eventually gain a warlock’s level 10 abilities at level 12, just as she eventually obtained the level 2 benefits of a warlock at level 3.
Ancient soul class features
Level 2 Cede. Once per short rest for three turns, or for a single ability check requiring any length of time your primary personality may cede control to one of its two secondary personalities. During this time you have the statistics and personality of that secondary personality. Only the appearance and hitpoints of your character do not change. Your secondary personality has access to all your memories and will share at least your basic motivations, so you may control it as you control your ancient soul personality normally. You gain an additional use of this ability per short rest at level 10, and another use at level 17.
Level 2 Partial memories: Your character may apply half their proficiency bonus to skill checks they are not proficient in, aided by the half recalled memories of a thousand lifetimes.
Level 10. Ageless knowledge: You draw on the almost infinite depth of experience contained in your past lives. Your character may gain proficiency with skill after each long rest. Proficiency with this skill lasts until the end of your next long rest, whereupon you may select a new skill proficiency.
Level 17. Call forth. Once per day you may cast Simulacrum with a casting time of ten minutes and without material components on yourself. The being you create must be one of your personalities somewhat weakened, but given physical form. You may recall your personality at any-time but until you do so you may not use it via your cede ability.