StickMan
2007-12-20, 02:57 PM
I've been thinking for some time that spell casters should be dependent on more than one mental score. I've always seen casters as having to have some good mix of all the mental scores. This has been reflected to me in many of the books I've read. Casters are rarely just smart, wise or charismatic they are usually a little of each. As is a caster only needs to pump one ability score an then the others are well basically just flavor. I would like to create a caster dependent on all 3, but not totally inept if missing high scores in one. My ideas so far are.
This is the rest of the original post
Intelligence: Basis of the number of spells known at each level and how many different spells can be memorized per day. (Number of spells memorized per day will not the same thing as the number of spells per day.) I think the number of spells you could memorize per day would be 1+Intelligence modifier
for each spell level. This caster will likely have a spell book like a wizards.
Wisdom: Increases the DC of spells.
Charisma: Gives extra spells per day. This would no be using the standard extra spells per day table as it should grant more spells than that in my opinion. Casters with extremely high would have more spells than a standard sorcerer.
Base number of spells per day would equal to a non specialist wizard. At the start of each day the caster would memorize a number of spells based on his intelligence and then cast those spells any number of times until he expended his spell slots.
You should be able to figure that different caster types would be do able. Blaster for instance would pump Charisma for the number of spells and Wisdom for high DC but perhaps put little in Intelligence as they plan to use the same spell over and over.
This is the basic idea I'm going to be balancing the class around a 32 point buy game or at least try to, I know the class would be much stronger or weaker with a different number of points, but every class is this one may just be more so.
I would like to get a little more feed back on the idea before I start making the class it self so I don't need to do a massive rewrite because I over looked something.
Thanks for reading and posting,
Stickman
-----------------------------------------------
This is the work very much still in progress M.A.D Caster, A.K.A. the Mage for now. I suggest anyone new to the tread try to read the most recent post to see what is still a work in progress.
The Mage:
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d6.
Class Skills
The mages class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Points at 1st Level
(2 + Int modifier) ื4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level
2 + Int modifier.
Mage
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th| 9th
1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Caster Skill|3|1||||||||
2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3||4|2||||||||
3rd|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+3||4|2|1|||||||
4th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Caster Skill|4|3|2|||||||
5th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Bonus feat|4|3|2|1||||||
6th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5||4|3|3|2||||||
7th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5||4|4|3|2|1|||||
8th|
+4|
+2|
+2|
+6|Caster Skill|4|4|3|3|2|||||
9th|
+4|
+3|
+3|
+6||4|4|4|3|2|1||||
10th|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+7|Bonus feat|4|4|4|3|3|2||||
11th|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+7||4|4|4|4|3|2|1|||
12th|
+6/+1|
+4|
+4|
+8|Caster Skill|4|4|4|4|3|3|2|||
13th|
+6/+1|
+4|
+4|
+8||4|4|4|4|4|3|2|1||
14th|
+7/+2|
+4|
+4|
+9||4|4|4|4|4|3|3|2||
15th|
+7/+2|
+5|
+5|
+9|Bonus feat|4|4|4|4|4|4|3|2|1|
16th|
+8/+3|
+5|
+5|
+10|Caster Skill|4|4|4|4|4|4|3|3|2|
17th|
+8/+3|
+5|
+5|
+10||4|4|4|4|4|4|4|3|2|1
18th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+11||4|4|4|4|4|4|4|3|3|2
19th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+11||4|4|4|4|4|4|4|4|3|3
20th|
+10/+5|
+6|
+6|
+12|Bonus feat, Caster Skill|4|4|4|4|4|4|4|4|4|4
[/table]
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the mage:
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Mage's are proficient with all simple weapons. They are not proficient with any type of armor or shield. Armor of any type interferes with a mages gestures, which can cause his spells with somatic components to fail.
Spells
A Mage casts arcane spells which are drawn from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. A mage must memorize a number of spells each day but can otherwise cast any memorized spell spontaneously (see below).
To learn, prepare or cast a spell, the mage must have a Wisdom, Intelligence or Charisma score equal to at least 10+ the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a mages spell is 10 + the spell level + the mages wisdom modifier.
Like other spellcasters, a mage can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on the table above. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Charisma score.
A mage begins play with knowledge of a number of 0-level spells equal to 2+ her twice her intelligence modifier plus a number of first level spells equal to 1+ her Intelligence modifier. At every level after first the mage learns a number of spells equal to 1+ ฝ her Intelligence modifier.
A mage may add spells to her spells known whenever she encounters one on a scroll or in a spellbook. No matter the spells source, the wizard must first decipher the magical writing. Next she must spend a day studying the spell. At the end of the day, she must make a Spellcraft check (DC 15+ spells level). If the check succeeds, the mage understands the spell and may add it to her spells known. The process consumes the magic of a scroll used to do this. This cost the mage a number of XP equal to 30 x spells level x the spells minimum caster level.
At the beginning of each a mage selects a number of spells from his spells known from each spell level equal to 1+ his intelligence modifier, except for spells of his highest spell level known he only can select a number of spells equal to 1+ 1/2 his intelligence modifier rounded down. He has the selected spells memorized for the day and may cast these spells any number of times until he runs out of spell slots of the appropriate level.
Casters Skill: At first level you select two abilities from the following list and one more at level 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20:
Battle knowledge(Ex): You add your Intelligence modifier to AC as a competence bonus.
Armor Understanding(Ex): You ignore 5% arcane spell failure for every point of your wisdom modifier.
Caster's AIM (Su): You add your Wisdom modifier as a competence bonus to ranged attack rolls of spells. Special: This does not require any action, as supernatural abilities usually do, but it is still affected by an anti-magic field.
Caster's Strike (Su): You add your Wisdom modifier as a competence bonus to melee attack rolls of spells. Special: This does not require any action, as supernatural abilities usually do, but it is still affected by an anti-magic field.
Metamagic Mastery (Ex): A number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier, you can apply metamagic feats that you know to your mage spells with out increasing the casting time.
Familiar: You gain a familiar as per the rules in the players handbook.
Mana shielding (Su): A number of times per day equal to her mage level, a mage may expend a spell as a Immediate Action and gain a bonus equal to that spells level to your saving throws. This bonus lasts a number of rounds equal to 1+ Cha modifier.
Bonus Feats
At 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level, a mage gains a bonus feat. At each such opportunity, she can choose a metamagic feat, an item creation feat, or a reserve feat. The mage must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including caster level minimums.
-------------------------------------------
Special thanks to HellFencer who took the time fixed a number of my errors and has given many good suggestions.
see below for information as to what I'm working on.
This is the rest of the original post
Intelligence: Basis of the number of spells known at each level and how many different spells can be memorized per day. (Number of spells memorized per day will not the same thing as the number of spells per day.) I think the number of spells you could memorize per day would be 1+Intelligence modifier
for each spell level. This caster will likely have a spell book like a wizards.
Wisdom: Increases the DC of spells.
Charisma: Gives extra spells per day. This would no be using the standard extra spells per day table as it should grant more spells than that in my opinion. Casters with extremely high would have more spells than a standard sorcerer.
Base number of spells per day would equal to a non specialist wizard. At the start of each day the caster would memorize a number of spells based on his intelligence and then cast those spells any number of times until he expended his spell slots.
You should be able to figure that different caster types would be do able. Blaster for instance would pump Charisma for the number of spells and Wisdom for high DC but perhaps put little in Intelligence as they plan to use the same spell over and over.
This is the basic idea I'm going to be balancing the class around a 32 point buy game or at least try to, I know the class would be much stronger or weaker with a different number of points, but every class is this one may just be more so.
I would like to get a little more feed back on the idea before I start making the class it self so I don't need to do a massive rewrite because I over looked something.
Thanks for reading and posting,
Stickman
-----------------------------------------------
This is the work very much still in progress M.A.D Caster, A.K.A. the Mage for now. I suggest anyone new to the tread try to read the most recent post to see what is still a work in progress.
The Mage:
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d6.
Class Skills
The mages class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Points at 1st Level
(2 + Int modifier) ื4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level
2 + Int modifier.
Mage
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th| 9th
1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Caster Skill|3|1||||||||
2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3||4|2||||||||
3rd|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+3||4|2|1|||||||
4th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Caster Skill|4|3|2|||||||
5th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Bonus feat|4|3|2|1||||||
6th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5||4|3|3|2||||||
7th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5||4|4|3|2|1|||||
8th|
+4|
+2|
+2|
+6|Caster Skill|4|4|3|3|2|||||
9th|
+4|
+3|
+3|
+6||4|4|4|3|2|1||||
10th|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+7|Bonus feat|4|4|4|3|3|2||||
11th|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+7||4|4|4|4|3|2|1|||
12th|
+6/+1|
+4|
+4|
+8|Caster Skill|4|4|4|4|3|3|2|||
13th|
+6/+1|
+4|
+4|
+8||4|4|4|4|4|3|2|1||
14th|
+7/+2|
+4|
+4|
+9||4|4|4|4|4|3|3|2||
15th|
+7/+2|
+5|
+5|
+9|Bonus feat|4|4|4|4|4|4|3|2|1|
16th|
+8/+3|
+5|
+5|
+10|Caster Skill|4|4|4|4|4|4|3|3|2|
17th|
+8/+3|
+5|
+5|
+10||4|4|4|4|4|4|4|3|2|1
18th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+11||4|4|4|4|4|4|4|3|3|2
19th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+11||4|4|4|4|4|4|4|4|3|3
20th|
+10/+5|
+6|
+6|
+12|Bonus feat, Caster Skill|4|4|4|4|4|4|4|4|4|4
[/table]
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the mage:
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Mage's are proficient with all simple weapons. They are not proficient with any type of armor or shield. Armor of any type interferes with a mages gestures, which can cause his spells with somatic components to fail.
Spells
A Mage casts arcane spells which are drawn from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. A mage must memorize a number of spells each day but can otherwise cast any memorized spell spontaneously (see below).
To learn, prepare or cast a spell, the mage must have a Wisdom, Intelligence or Charisma score equal to at least 10+ the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a mages spell is 10 + the spell level + the mages wisdom modifier.
Like other spellcasters, a mage can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on the table above. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Charisma score.
A mage begins play with knowledge of a number of 0-level spells equal to 2+ her twice her intelligence modifier plus a number of first level spells equal to 1+ her Intelligence modifier. At every level after first the mage learns a number of spells equal to 1+ ฝ her Intelligence modifier.
A mage may add spells to her spells known whenever she encounters one on a scroll or in a spellbook. No matter the spells source, the wizard must first decipher the magical writing. Next she must spend a day studying the spell. At the end of the day, she must make a Spellcraft check (DC 15+ spells level). If the check succeeds, the mage understands the spell and may add it to her spells known. The process consumes the magic of a scroll used to do this. This cost the mage a number of XP equal to 30 x spells level x the spells minimum caster level.
At the beginning of each a mage selects a number of spells from his spells known from each spell level equal to 1+ his intelligence modifier, except for spells of his highest spell level known he only can select a number of spells equal to 1+ 1/2 his intelligence modifier rounded down. He has the selected spells memorized for the day and may cast these spells any number of times until he runs out of spell slots of the appropriate level.
Casters Skill: At first level you select two abilities from the following list and one more at level 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20:
Battle knowledge(Ex): You add your Intelligence modifier to AC as a competence bonus.
Armor Understanding(Ex): You ignore 5% arcane spell failure for every point of your wisdom modifier.
Caster's AIM (Su): You add your Wisdom modifier as a competence bonus to ranged attack rolls of spells. Special: This does not require any action, as supernatural abilities usually do, but it is still affected by an anti-magic field.
Caster's Strike (Su): You add your Wisdom modifier as a competence bonus to melee attack rolls of spells. Special: This does not require any action, as supernatural abilities usually do, but it is still affected by an anti-magic field.
Metamagic Mastery (Ex): A number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier, you can apply metamagic feats that you know to your mage spells with out increasing the casting time.
Familiar: You gain a familiar as per the rules in the players handbook.
Mana shielding (Su): A number of times per day equal to her mage level, a mage may expend a spell as a Immediate Action and gain a bonus equal to that spells level to your saving throws. This bonus lasts a number of rounds equal to 1+ Cha modifier.
Bonus Feats
At 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level, a mage gains a bonus feat. At each such opportunity, she can choose a metamagic feat, an item creation feat, or a reserve feat. The mage must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including caster level minimums.
-------------------------------------------
Special thanks to HellFencer who took the time fixed a number of my errors and has given many good suggestions.
see below for information as to what I'm working on.