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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Class The Elementalist - PEACH [3.5 base class]



Mike Miller
2017-11-09, 10:32 PM
The idea for this class is an elemental gish of sorts. The class has a limited number of maneuvers taken only from the desert wind discipline, but they can be changed to different energy types over time. The class also has a specific set of spells of an elemental nature that are all spell-like abilities. I chose SLAs to make it more unique. I haven't written up fluff, because I'm not much of a creative writer. However, I think all the crunch is there. The SLAs are all from the following: SRD, SpC, and CArc. Please let me know what you think and also PEACH. Thanks



The Elementalist

Table 1-1: The Elementalist .............................................Maneu vers...........Stances


Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
Known
Readied
Known


1
+0
+0
+2
+0
Burning Hands, Produce Flame
2
2
1


2
+1
+0
+3
+0
Lesser Orb of Fire, Elemental Resistance 2 (Fire)
2
2
1


3
+2
+1
+3
+1
Body of the Sun, Flame Blade, Energy Alteration (Cold)
3
2
1


4
+3
+1
+4
+1
Fireburst, Elemental Resistance 4 (Cold)
3
2
1


5
+3
+1
+4
+1
Fire Wings, Flashburst
4
2
2


6
+4
+2
+5
+2
Fireball, Elemental Resistance 6 (Electricity), Empower Spell-like Ability
4
3
2


7
+5
+2
+4
+2
Blast of Flame, Fire Shield, Energy Alteration (Electricity)
5
3
2


8
+6/+1
+2
+6
+2
Orb of Fire, Elemental Resistance 8 (Acid)
5
3
2


9
+6/+1
+3
+6
+3
Greater Fireburst, Inferno
6
4
2


10
+7/+2
+3
+7
+3
Firebrand, Elemental Resistance 10 (Sonic), Empower Spell-like Ability
6
4
2


11
+8/+3
+3
+7
+3
Fires of Purity, Energy Alteration (Acid)
7
4
3


12
+9/+4
+4
+8
+4
Fire Seeds, Elemental Resistance 12, Quicken Spell-like Ability, Fire Immunity
7
5
3


13
+9/+4
+4
+8
+4
Emerald Flame Fist
8
5
3


14
+10/+5
+4
+9
+4
Delayed Blast Fireball, Elemental Resistance 14, Empower Spell-like Ability, Cold Immunity
8
5
3


15
+11/+6/+1
+5
+9
+5
Fire Storm, Energy Alteration (Sonic)
9
6
4


16
+12/+7/+2
+5
+10
+5
Incendiary Cloud, Elemental Resistance 16, Quicken Spell-like Ability, Electricity Immunity
9
6
4


17
+12/+7/+2
+5
+10
+5
Meteor Swarm
10
6
4


18
+13/+8/+3
+6
+11
+6
Transmute Rock to Lava, Elemental Resistance 18, Empower Spell-like Ability, Acid Immunity
10
7
4


19
+14/+9/+4
+6
+11
+6
Internal Fire
11
7
4


20
+15/+10/+5
+6
+12
+6
Elemental Swarm, Quicken Spell-like Ability, Sonic Immunity
11
7
4




Hit Die: d8

Class Skills: Balance (Dex), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Listen (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), and Use Magic Device (Cha)
Skill points at 1st level: (4+Int modifier) X 4
Skill points at each additional level: 4 + Int modifier

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: You are proficient with all simple and martial weapons. You are proficient with all light and medium armors and all shields except tower shields.

Spell-like Abilities: At each level, the Elementalist learns one or more spell-like abilities. These abilities are each usable a certain number of times per day as indicated on table 1-2. Every individual spell-like ability may be used the corresponding number of times. For example, upon reaching level 7, the Elementalist’s level 1 spell-like abilities Burning Hands, Lesser Orb of Fire, and Produce Flame are each usable 2 times per day, meaning those three level one spell-like abilities correspond to 6 uses (in total).

The DC for a saving throw against a Elementalist’s spell-like ability is 10 + the corresponding spell level the ability represents + the Elementalist’s Charisma modifier.
The Elementalist uses his class level as the caster level for determining durations, ranges, damage dice, etc.

Maneuvers / Maneuvers Readied / Stances known: All as per Warblade except the only discipline available to the Elementalist is the Desert Wind discipline.

Elemental Resistance (Su): The Elementalist gains elemental resistances over time. At level 2, the elementalist gains fire resistance, at level 4 cold resistance, at level 6 electricity resistance, at level 8 acid resistance, and at level 10 sonic resistance. The resistance begins at 2 at 2nd level and increases by 2 every 2 levels thereafter, being replaced by the relevant immunities over time.

Energy Alteration (Su): The Elementalist becomes capable of changing the energy type of his spell-like abilities and maneuvers over time. At 3rd level he can change the energy type to cold instead of fire. At 7th level he can change the energy type to electricity. At 11th level he can change the energy type to acid. At 15th level he can change the energy type to sonic. This change is made when using the spell-like ability or maneuver.

Empower Spell-like Ability: As per the feat (in MM)

Quicken Spell-like Ability: As per the feat (in MM)


Table 1-2: SLAs per day


Level
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th


1
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


2
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


3
1
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


4
1
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


5
2
1
1
-
-
-
-
-
-


6
2
1
1
-
-
-
-
-
-


7
2
2
1
1
-
-
-
-
-


8
2
2
1
1
-
-
-
-
-


9
3
2
2
1
1
-
-
-
-


10
3
2
2
1
1
-
-
-
-


11
3
3
2
2
1
1
-
-
-


12
3
3
2
2
1
1
-
-
-


13
4
3
3
2
2
1
1
-
-


14
4
3
3
2
2
1
1
-
-


15
4
4
3
3
2
2
1
1
-


16
4
4
3
3
2
2
2
1
-


17
5
4
4
3
3
2
2
1
1


18
5
4
4
3
3
2
2
2
1


19
5
5
4
4
3
3
3
2
1


20
5
5
4
4
3
3
3
2
2





edit1: I changed the focus of the class to be elemental focused instead of fire focused. I also increased the bab to average instead of poor and increased the starting maneuvers to 2.
edit2: added empower and quicken SLAs
edit3: changed the elemental immunity to a progression

JoshuaZ
2017-11-09, 10:59 PM
I think this is in practice going to be an extremely weak class. Fire damage is the weakest form of magical damage since fire resistance is so common. If a character has basically no options other than fire they are either going to be wiping the floor with encounters or almost completely useless. At minimum, I'd suggest upping the BAB to medium or doing something else so their maneuvers are more useful. And it wouldn't hurt to give them access to 1 or 2 other disciplines that aren't fire themed but don't clash with the theme. Heck, simply say at level 1 they get to choose 2 of the other 8 disciplines and they get maneuvers from those as well, as long as at least half their maneuvers known must be from Desert Wind. That will keep the theme going strong and give them a few more options that aren't so much I-blast-it-with-fire.

Westhart
2017-11-10, 11:00 AM
1) Gish but half BAB? :smallconfused:
2) W&A prof: just give them martials
3) This is (as noted above) extremely weak, as spell likes can not be affected my metamagic (no searing spell) and resit energy is a 2nd level spell, protection 3rd, and flat out immunity is a 7th I believe... And you have no way to ignore fire resistance/immunities at all. Silver Dragon? (If it doesn't have any buffs up, which it will because it can cast and is vulnerable to fire) you can deal a good bit of damage. Red Dragon? Screwed. Gold? Still... ALmost every creature that will pick up resistance or immunity somewhere? ...screwed.
4) You should get fire immunity long before 20th.
5) Blasting: the melee hate you, as (since it is a spell like) you are probably getting them in the range of all your nice AoE.
6) You do realize desert wind is one of the worse disciplines available in ToB right? Warning: OMV

Mike Miller
2017-11-15, 11:36 AM
I changed the focus of the class to be elemental focused instead of fire focused. I also increased the bab to average instead of poor and increased the starting maneuvers to 2.

I am also considering adding empower spell-like ability at levels 8, 14, and 20 and quicken spell-like ability at levels 11 and 17

Ranged Ranger
2017-11-15, 05:36 PM
Adding in the other elements is a big help. I really like the concept. I think that level 20 is still way to late for fire immunity; the immunities should probably be rolled out separately. If you roll out the resistances completely separately as well, it adds mathematical beauty, but it isn't as crucial. Here is the relevant text and simplified chart to show just the changes for doing both:

Elemental Resistance (Su): The elementalist gains elemental resistances over time. At level 2, the elementalist gains fire resistance, at level 4 cold resistance, at level 6 electricity resistance, at level 8 acid resistance, and at level 10 sonic resistance. The Each resistance begins at 2 at 2nd level and increases by 2 every 2 levels thereafter until level 20 when the elementalist becomes immune to fire, cold, electricity, acid, and sonic damage. it reaches 10 in that type.

Elemental Immunity (Su): The elementalist gains immunity to fire at 12th level, cold at 14th, Electricity at 16th, Acid at 18th, and Sonic at 20th.



Level
Special


1



2
Elemental Resistance (Fire 2)


3



4
Elemental Resistance (Fire 4/Cold 2)


5



6
Elemental Resistance (Fire 6/Cold 4/Electricity 2)


7



8
Elemental Resistance (Fire 8/Cold 6/Electricity 4/Acid 2)


9



10
Elemental Resistance (Fire 10/Cold 8/Electricity 6/Acid 4/Sonic 2)


11



12
Elemental Resistance (Cold 10/Electricity 8/Acid 6/Sonic 4), Elemental Immunity (Fire)


13



14
Elemental Resistance (Electricity 10/Acid 8/Sonic 6), Elemental Immunity (Cold)


15



16
Elemental Resistance (Acid 10/Sonic 8), Elemental Immunity (Electricity)


17



18
Elemental Resistance (Sonic 10), Elemental Immunity (Acid)


19



20
Elemental Immunity (Sonic)

Mike Miller
2017-11-15, 09:12 PM
Adding in the other elements is a big help. I really like the concept. I think that level 20 is still way to late for fire immunity; the immunities should probably be rolled out separately. If you roll out the resistances completely separately as well, it adds mathematical beauty, but it isn't as crucial. Here is the relevant text and simplified chart to show just the changes for doing both:

Elemental Resistance (Su): The elementalist gains elemental resistances over time. At level 2, the elementalist gains fire resistance, at level 4 cold resistance, at level 6 electricity resistance, at level 8 acid resistance, and at level 10 sonic resistance. The Each resistance begins at 2 at 2nd level and increases by 2 every 2 levels thereafter until level 20 when the elementalist becomes immune to fire, cold, electricity, acid, and sonic damage. it reaches 10 in that type.


I like your idea to roll out the immunities over time. I don't like the individual elemental increases because they feel too weak for their respective levels. Let me know how you think it looks now, though. I have fire immunity come at 12, then cold at 14, electricity at 16, acid at 18, and sonic at 20.

Ranged Ranger
2017-11-16, 12:05 AM
Looks good. As I had mentioned, the immunities were the important part. The resistances were a matter of elegance that should be secondary to matters of balance.