She Blinded Me with Science! (Magitek That Doesn't Make Me Cry Myself To Sleep)

[LordotheMorning]

I've been thinking about a number of concepts that might make this class clash with the overall mechanics of DND. I really, really, want to see this class safe for use without totally transforming the world and the game in which it is played, but there are two issues I can think of that would prevent that.

The first issue is a matter of exclusive benefits. There is very little that the Gramarist does that other classes cannot benefit just as much from. For example, I could spend 15 class levels to make a Violet barrier sword, or I could buy it from a passing Gramarist and be a Fighter instead. A fighter would make even better use of it than Gramarist himself. And even if there isn't that kind of availability for hiring Gramarists, I can encourage someone else to play a Gramarist in my party. All I really have to do is drop a few ranks into Knowledge (Engineering), and I could design a schematic and hire someone else to make it, all without taking a single class level. And really, who's going to buy a Brilliant Energy weapon when they can get a violet barrier for 1,000 gold? Of course, anything requiring more than a couple of hours would get difficult to afford, but I think it's a bit of an issue that a Gramarist's tech is just as useful to him as it is to anybody else. It's all well and good that I can make an awesome canon that shoots laser-discs at you, but it kind miffs me to know that anyone else can pick it up and use it just as well. I cannot use a Telflammar Shadowlord's Shadow Pounce ability, a Fighter's bonus feats, nor can I have a Wizard cast Mage Armor and other personal range spells on me, but all of my class features as a Gramarist can be used by them.

What if Gramarie relied on the supervision of a Gramarist in order to reach it's full potential? What about trouble-shooting, maintenance, and jury-rigging? What if Gramarie unsupervised were vulnerable to things like dispel magic? Therefore, without the presence of a dedicated gramarist, any magitech could have it's usefulness lessened.


The other issue is the notion of time as a limiting resource. I know the psychology DMs tend to operate by, and I can almost guarantee you that a character whose ability to create extremely powerful, potentially gamebreaking, devices is limited by time is going to find himself constantly struggling against time constraints, and inadvertently provoke a lot of rail-roading. That evil lich you were told to go defeat, who in another game might be content to fight in his lair, might simply start laying waste to towns if you don't get to him within an arbitrary amount of time.

If you need time to be immensely powerful, then time becomes the one thing the DM can't give you, which means you'll never have time for any side-questing or sandboxing unless the DM decides to ramp up the CR by a ridiculous amount or decides that he doesn't mind if you aren't challenged. Certain other characters can make good use of their time, such as those with crafting feats, but their true limiting factor has always been level. Here however, time becomes so crucial that it may even replace experience as the player's resource. I think you could make a good argument that a level 5 Gramarist with two weeks of prep-time could defeat a level 10 Gramarist with two days of prep-time. I really don't even know how I would fix this one. Any ideas?