Friendship Through Superior Firepower! Magical Girl Base Class, Set Up! [3.5]

[Serafina]

In the non-feat version you need to specify if the benefits are cumulative for auras.

For the feats under Explosion you want "expending" not "expanding".

Done and done. Thanks


Also playing with an multiclass-feat for summoners. The basic idea is advancing your Eidolon by stacking Summoner&Magical Girl level for the purpose of your Eidolon, except for your Evolution pool and the number of attacks your Eidolon can have. You'd also loose the ability to use Blast&Strike Illuminations, but could expend an action (swift probably) to make your Eidolon use them.

Still working on the Prerequisites for the feat though, as well as what it should advance on the Magical Girl side.

[Owrtho]

The cartridge system looks interesting, though I recall that Selinia mentioned an idea to make it into a PRC before I'd brought it up as a possible Archetype. Anyway, it seems to work in the meantime. That said, it lacks the ability to enhance normal attacks with your device, and it may be worth mentioning how it would interact with spirit shot (since you can take it with the spirit shooter archetype).

Owrtho

[Serafina]

Well, if you use the feat-version you can simply give your weapon enhancement boni and special abilities, which works just fine with a Spirit Shooter.


That being said, a different approach at an Archetype (just throwing ideas out there until Selinia picks one ;) )

Cartridge System
You unleash explosive bursts of energy stored in small cartridges to boost your attacks beyond that what other Magical Girls are capable of.

Cartridge System: At third level, you learn to store some of your energy in small cartridges.
You gain a number of Cartridges per day equal to 1/3rd your Magical Girl level + your Charisma modifier. This pool can be refreshed once per day as part of changing your prepared Illuminations.

You can spend a swift action to load a Cartridge into your device, granting it a +1 Enhancement bonus for one minute. This bonus increases to +2 at 5th level and by another +1 ever four levels thereafter, to a maximum of +5 at 17th level. This Enhancement Bonus stacks with any existing Enhancment Bonus of the weapon. If you have the Twinned Device feat it applies to both of your weapons.

You can also add special properties by lowering the granted Enhancement Bonus by their cost (a +1 property would lower it by 1 and so on). You can add the following properties: Corrosive, Corrosive Burst, Flaming, Flaming Burst, Frost, Icy Burst, Keen, Shocking, Shocking Burst, Speed and Vorpal. If your Device is a Ranged Weapon, you can also add the Distance and Seeking quality.
These qualities do not stack with qualities of the same name already on the weapon and can not be used to exceed the maximum +10 enhancment bonus of a weapon.

If you also have levels in the Magus class, you blend your Cartridge System and your Arcane Pool class features. Your Levels in Magus and Magical Girl stack in order to determine the Enhancement Bonus you can grant your weapon. You add the Dancing quality and any qualities gained from Magus Arcana to the qualities you can grant your weapon. You have a number of Cartridges points equal to 1/2 your levels in Magus + 1/3 your levels in Magical Girl + either Intelligence OR Charisma, whichever is higher. You can expend Cartridges in order to activate Magus Arcana. Any effect that alters the number of Arcane Pool points you have alters the amount of Cartridges instead.

Because you have to modify your Device to accept Cartridges, you gain one costume point less than normal. You can still take other Archetypes that influence your Costume ability.

Cartridge Load: At eight level, you learn to transform your Device by spending Cartridges, boosting your Illuminations. Activating a form requires one swift action and the expenditure of one Cartridge, unless mentioned otherwise.
Each transformation lasts for a number of rounds equal to your maximum costume bonus, unless otherwise mentioned. Activating another form cancels the previous form.
You gain one form at 8th level, a second form at 13th level and a third form at 18th level.

Accel Mode: Your device shifts its form to boost your Blast Illuminations. Your Damage Die with Blast Illuminations and Spirit Shot increase by one step.
Assault Form: Your device shifts it's form to boost your Strike Illuminations. You gain a bonus to attack rolls equal to 1/2 of your Maximum Costume Bonus with all your Strikes.
Buster Mode: Your device sprouts stabilizing wings or similar features to compensate for excess recoil. While in this form, you can exectue any Blast-Illumination as a Full-Round action. If you do so, you ignore all concealment (including total concealment) and any object that grants your target concealment takes damage from your Blast even if it otherwise deals non-lethal damage.
Raketenform: Your Device propels you forward to strike the enemy. You can move your speed and execute a single standard-action strike. This form ends immediately afterwards and does not last for several rounds.
Schlangenform: Your Device shifts into a long, flexible form. You can execute any standard-action Strike Illumination as full-round action by spending two Cartridges. If you do so, the Strike hits all enemies in a 30 ft. cone. This form ends immedeatly afterwards and does not last for several rounds.

Further modifications to your device are required, so you loose another costume point. Your ability with Illuminations is also less broad than that of other magical girls, so you can prepare one less 2nd-level Illumination at 8th level, one less 3rd-level Illumination at 13th level and one less 4th-level Illumination at 18th-level.

Limit Mode: Limit Mode does not end any of your Devices Cartridge Load forms and simply makes any visual changes more impressive.

Blaster System: At 14th level, your Cartridge System allows you to unlock your Devices Ultimate form. You can spend two Cartridges to Empower an Illumination, increasing all numerical values (but not Save DCs) by 50%. You can instead spend three Cartridges to Maximize all numerical values of an Illumination. Both also apply to your weapon damage as part of a Strike Illumination. However, you take 2D6 damage per level of the Illumination that is empowered or maximized. This damage is not reduced by Damage Reduction or similar effects.

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There - even closer to the original shows purpose of Cartridges. Further forms can be added if someone comes up with ideas. It also allows more device-shifting shenanigans (and since it's not tied to real weapons, you can come up with really outlandish descriptions!)
I hope the lost Costume points and prepared Illuminations are sufficient compensation for the new abilities - if not, it'd be easy to increase the amount of lost costume points, for example.

On another note, i really think that Limit Form needs a bonus to Blast Illuminations - right now it does nothing for them. An increase in damage die would work well IMO, given that it is normally a 1/day ability.

[Selinia]

Right then, first off, Changes:

• The Prism Knight is out of Beta, after some heavy revision! The Prisms have been condensed into a single class feature, and the class now gains some genuinely elemental-themed abilities as it levels. It's still a little odd as a class, but I think it's a much more interesting choice than it used to be.
• The feat list has been alphabetized. Boring, but practical.
• Device - Limit Form has been altered in functionality. I may have mentioned that I dislike per-day (especially 1/Day) effects, and think they're clunky enforcers of the five minute workday. Limit form now operates at-will, and serves as something of a toggle - activating it lets the magical girl let loose a boatload of brute force, but at the cost of versatility and finesse.

Not a ton, but the last few days have been rather busy and all my GitP activities have gotten a little swamped.

I have just reformatted the Handbook - aside from a common layout, i also split it into several seperate documents, since that is easier to handle in many cases. A complete, one-document version will be provided once i have finished most of it.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Again, you have a ton of appreciation for the work you're putting into these. Let me know when you've got them to the point where you feel they're fully presentable, and I'll put a link to your handbook into one of the class posts.

According to this, any archetype that replaces the Device and Device - Limit Form abilities doesn't actually have an equivalent for Limit Form. Intentional?

The archetypes don't always replace features 1:1, but they usually have something that fills a similar role. Spirit shooters have spirit shot full attacks, which have enough bonuses that limit forming them would be a tad overkill, for example.

I would like to propose a feat:

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Wing Road
Prerequisites: Ability to evoke level two Illuminations
Benefits: Your Rainbow road no longer dissipates when you place another one. Instead, you can pay 1 mote per turn to sustain all instances of your Rainbow Road - if you do not pay that cost, all but one instances dissipate. You can only maintain up to one instance of Rainbow Road per two Evoker levels. The range of Rainbow Road increases to Medium (100+10/Evoker Level ft.). Rainbow Road is always prepared and does not count against your limit of prepared Illuminations.

Why? Well, aside from being visually awesome, it'd allow more complex tactical setups with Rainbow Road. The main benefit of Rainbow road is the faster movement speed (you have easy acces to flight at that level already, and we all know that it'll be common at higher levels). - the way it is currently constructed it will mostly benefit you and maybe allies that move in the same direction. This feat would allow you to use it in a much more tactical manner.
Since it only applies to one specific Illumination, it's only be fair that you always have it prepared as well.

Thoughts?

This would be an excellent feat... were it not for the fact that Rainbow Road is slated for conversion into a Barrier illumination, and will have the above effect, more or less, as its default. Barriers are congealing as a counterpart of auras - sustained effects on the battlefield that can provide a tactical edge in exchange for upkeep. I'm hoping to have the first batch of Barriers out tomorrow, but I know better than to set hard deadlines for myself at this point.

Just for the fun of it, representing the cast of Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS with these rules:

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Nanoha: Straight-up Magial Girl 20. Radiant Soul, Martial Evoker feats. Longspear-device.
Fate: Magical Girl 20. Evolved Device Feat, Bardiche&Scythe. Lots of points in quick costume. Some melee feats.
Signum: Magical Girl 13/Magus 3. Busou Shojo Feat, War Warder Archetype. Heavy Costume feat & Mithral Plate Armor. Evolved Device Feat, Greatsword&Scorpion Whip.
Vita: Magical Girl 13/Magus 3. Busou Shojo Feat, Kensai-Archetype. Pistol Maul device (Greathammer with better Sundering). Lots of points in oversized device.
Shamal: Magical Girl 13/cleric 3. Kofu Shojo Archetype. Healing&Knowledge Domain. Sacred Champion Feat, Merciful Healer Archetype. No weapon device. Various Channeling Feats.
Subaru: Magial Girl 12. Mistbreaker Archetype. Gauntlet (not as a device though). Wing Road Feat.
Teana: Magical Girl 10/Gunslinger 2. Spirit Shooter & Mysterious Stranger Archetype. Twinned&Evolved Device, Pistol&Short Sword. Two-Weapon Fighting.
Caro: Summoner 12 (i wish i could work Magical Girl into this somehow, but Summoner really works best for her).
Erio: Magial Girl 12 (despite being male). Lance Device. Ranks in Ride, rides Caros Eidolon. Mounted Combat&Charger feats.
Hayate: No idea how to represent her - Leadership&Bombardment magic don't translate well into rules.

I'd argue that Fate probably has at least a dip in Costumed Crusader - she seems to have multiple costumes at least, and relies more on martial power than Nanoha does. Hayate though is easy - she's an Oracle with the Life Unbound feat, using it to overcome the penalties of the Lame oracle's curse.

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My idea for a Belkan Cartridge System à la Lyrical Nanoha. Can just as easily use Pearls, Charms or similar items, depending on the style of your Magical Girl. It's partially based on the Pathfinder Magus Arcane Pool&Arcana.
Please review!


Cartridge System: Your connection to your inner light is more worldly than that of other Magical Girls. However, that doesn't mean it is weaker - while it is harder for you to call forth huge amounts of radiant energy, you have learned how to store it in small foci and release it whenever you need it to achieve extraordinary results.

At third level, you learn how to store small amounts of magical energy in small items, such as pearls, trinkets or cartridges. You can explosively release that energy to enhance your Illuminations. This ability replaces Radiant Focus.

You can prepare a number of Cartridges daily equal to 1/2 your Evoker level + your Charisma modifier. You can prepare new cartridges once per day as part of changing your Illuminations. Unspent cartridges do not vanish at the end of the day, but you can never exceed your daily cartridges that way.

One or more Cartridges can be spent whenever you activate an Illumination. The action required and effects depend on the Illumination. The amount of Cartridges you can expend on a single Illumination is limited by your Maximum Costume Bonus and can never exceed 4.
Strike For each Cartridge expended, you gain a bonus to attack rolls during your turn equal to 1/2 your Maximum Costume Bonus (minimum 1). If you spend two Cartridges your effective Charisma modifier increases by 1 for the purpose of this Strike. If you spend four Cartridges it increases by 2 instead. This is a Swift Action.
Blast: If you expend one Cartridge, the damage die of your Illumination increase by one step. If you expend two Cartridges, your Illumination deals bleed damage equal to the Blasts number of damage die. If you expend three Cartridges, the Blast becomes Empowered. If you expend four Cartridges, the DC of the Blast (if any) increases by 2. All effects are cumulative. This is a move action.
Burst: For each Cartridge expended, your effective Charisma modifier increases by one for the purpose of determining the effect of the Burst. This is a free action.
Aura: For each Cartridge expended, the radius of your Aura expends by 10 ft. If you expend at least two Cartridges, you can anchor the Aura to an area - it emanates from one square you select as if you would occupy that square, instead of emanating from you. If you expend three Cartridges, you can anchor the Aura to a creature - it emanates from that Creature instead of you. If you expand four Cartridges, you can spend a move action each turn instead of paying the mote cost to maintain the Aura. All effects are cumulative. This is a Standard Action.

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I built this around the concept of explosive, decisive attacks - in exchange for endurance. Loosing Radiant Focus means you are limited by your innate mote regeneration, which means that you'll quickly run out of steam in an encounter. In exchange you can deliver more devastating attacks - but only every so often per day. I sincerely hope it's balanced, so please review!

This is really interesting, but I'd rather not get into the muddled territory of PrCs and Archetypes doing the same thing - and I really am working on a PrC for this.

That said, some of the cartridge abilities have been noted carefully. They'll likely prove very useful in making the PrC.

Alternate Version for the Cartridge System, using feats:

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Cartridge System:
You have learned to store some of your magic in small trinkets and use them to enhance your Device.
Prerequisite: Radiant Focus
Benefits:You gain the Magus Arcane Pool class feature. You use your Charisma instead of Intelligence to determine the size of your Arcane Pool and the effect of any of your Arcana.
Special: If you gain the Arcane Pool class feature from any other class, your class levels in Magical Girl and that class stack. You must choose which attribute deterimes size and effect of your Arcane Pool&Arcana.

Explosion!
You have learned how to power your attacks by rapidly expending Cartridges.
Prerequisite: Cartridge System
Benefit: You can learn one Magus Arcana. Count your Magical Girl level as levels in Magus for the purpose of selecting your Arcana. You can only learn Arcana that requires the expenditure of Arcane Pool points.
Special: You can select this feat multiple times. Each time you must select one new Arcana.

New Arcana:

Maximized Illumination:
Prerequisite: Magical Girl 12
Benefit: You can maximize an Illumination by spending three points from your Arcane Pool. If that Illumination is a strike, the damage die of your melee attack that is part of that strike is also maximized

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This is definitely simpler than the Archetype-version, and probably more balanced as well. It also adds a large amount of customization choices to the Magical Girl.

This strikes me as the most concise version of the cartridge system by far. With a couple minor tweaks when I have a bit more time, these feats will likely form a 'basic' cartridge system that the PrC will expand upon. The one thing I really intend to tweak is to make this something independant of the Magus arcana - too much bleed eliminates the uniqueness of a Magus/Magical Girl PrC, after all.

Well, if you use the feat-version you can simply give your weapon enhancement boni and special abilities, which works just fine with a Spirit Shooter.


That being said, a different approach at an Archetype (just throwing ideas out there until Selinia picks one ;) )

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Cartridge System
You unleash explosive bursts of energy stored in small cartridges to boost your attacks beyond that what other Magical Girls are capable of.

Cartridge System: At third level, you learn to store some of your energy in small cartridges. You gain the Arcane Pool class feature of the Magus, but your Arcane Pool is only equal to 1/3th your class levels (rounded down) +Charisma modifier and referd to as your Cartridges. If you also have levels in the Magus class, you combine your Arcane Pool from both classes, but you only gain either your Intelligence or your Charisma-modifier to it.

You can not add the Dancing quality to your Device. You can however add the Corrosive and Corrosive burst quality. If your device is a ranged weapon, you can also add the Distance and Seeking qualities.

Because you have to modify your Device to accept Cartridges, you gain one costume point less than normal. You can still take other Archetypes that influence your Costume ability.

Cartridge Load: At eight level, you learn to transform your Device by spending Cartridges, boosting your Illuminations. Activating a form requires one swift action and the expenditure of one Cartridge, unless mentioned otherwise.
Each transformation lasts for a number of rounds equal to your maximum costume bonus, unless otherwise mentioned. Activating another form cancels the previous form.
You gain one form at 8th level, a second form at 13th level and a third form at 18th level.

Accel Mode: Your device shifts its form to boost your Blast Illuminations. Your Damage Die with Blast Illuminations and Spirit Shot increase by one step.
Assault Form: Your device shifts it's form to boost your Strike Illuminations. You gain a bonus to attack rolls equal to 1/2 of your Maximum Costume Bonus with all your Strikes.
Buster Mode: Your device sprouts stabilizing wings or similar features to compensate for excess recoil. While in this form, you can exectue any Blast-Illumination as a Full-Round action. If you do so, you ignore all concealment (including total concealment) and any object that grants your target concealment takes damage from your Blast even if it otherwise deals non-lethal damage.
Raketenform: Your Device propels you forward to strike the enemy. You can move your speed and execute a single standard-action strike. This form ends immediately afterwards and does not last for several rounds.
Schlangenform: Your Device shifts into a long, flexible form. You can execute any standard-action Strike Illumination as full-round action by spending two Cartridges. If you do so, the Strike hits all enemies in a 30 ft. cone. This form ends immedeatly afterwards and does not last for several rounds.

Further modifications to your device are required, so you loose another costume point. Your ability with Illuminations is also less broad than that of other magical girls, so you can prepare one less 2nd-level Illumination at 8th level, one less 3rd-level Illumination at 13th level and one less 4th-level Illumination at 18th-level.

Limit Mode: Limit Mode does not end any of your Devices Cartridge Load forms and simply makes any visual changes more impressive.

Blaster Mode: At 14th level, your Cartridge System allows you to unlock your Devices Ultimate form. Your Device can enter Limit Mode by expending two Cartridges, instead of just once per day. However, each time you execute a Strike or Blast Illumination while using Blaster Mode you take 1D6 damage per level of the Illumination, which is not reduced by Damage Reduction or similar effects.

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There - even closer to the original shows purpose of Cartridges. Further forms can be added if someone comes up with ideas. It also allows more device-shifting shenanigans (and since it's not tied to real weapons, you can come up with really outlandish descriptions!)
I hope the lost Costume points and prepared Illuminations are sufficient compensation for the new abilities - if not, it'd be easy to increase the amount of lost costume points, for example.

On another note, i really think that Limit Form needs a bonus to Blast Illuminations - right now it does nothing for them. An increase in damage die would work well IMO, given that it is normally a 1/day ability.

As above, I'm not sure I can implement an archetype until the PrC is done, but you have a lot of interesting ideas. And ideas are like delicious engine fuel/candy hybrids that I can consume when my brain-train is traveling perpendicular to the ground in a downward direction.

[Serafina]

Aww, i prefer Archetypes over Prestige Classes most of the time*. Still, nice to know that you're working on it

Also, i am VERY glad to hear that you are working on Barriers! My basic idea is Immediate-action Damage Reduction, very curious what you have in mind!
And last but not least, nice work on the Prism Knight. Specific effects for specific elements are what i missed most in the previous incaration.

To honor your work, i'll put something about Prestige classes into the Handbook today.

I'd argue that Fate probably has at least a dip in Costumed Crusader - she seems to have multiple costumes at least, and relies more on martial power than Nanoha does. Hayate though is easy - she's an Oracle with the Life Unbound feat, using it to overcome the penalties of the Lame oracle's curse.

You don't necessarily need Costumed Crusader or the Expanded Wardrobe feat in order to have multiple Costumes - after all, you can easily relocate your points within an hours rest, and IIRC we never see Fate switch costumes mid-battle.
Prism Knight fits her much more nicely IMO, given her affinity for Electrical Attacks (she's the only one other than Signum and Hayatate to clearly use elemental attacks)

Hayate works well as a Blaster Oracle/Magical Girl, but that just doesnt do her justice

* Warning: Rant!
Why?
Because they advance all the relevant features of the class without leaving some unadvanced. Because they deliver their abilities spread over as many levels as they want, instead of 5 or 10. Because they are often friendlier to multiclassing (such as in my latest proposition, where anything that advances your costume bonus advances your cartridges), especially with multiclass-feats. Because they can transform a class as radically as you want, instead of just tacking on new abilities.
Also, practically everyone is using the Cartridge System in Lyrical Nanoha, so an Archetype would probably work better than a Prestige Class to represent it in that specific setting.
/rant

[Serafina]

Also for all those who haven't seen it yet:
Recruiting Threat for a Magical Girl game.


And to save on postage, an edit:
I edited my latest post on a Cartridge System Archetype.
Blaster Mode has been altered and renamed and now allows you to Empower or Maximize your Illuminations in exchange for Cartridges and taking damage (between 2D6 and 10D6), instead of entering Limit Mode (which has now become pointless). It also comes with the loss of a third costume point.
I also spelled out how you can use your Cartridge System to enhance your weapon, instead of just referring to the Magus class - better to keep it all in one post than requiring lots of cross-references.



Why am i doing this? As stated, i prefer Archetypes over Prestige classes, so if i can convince Selinia, yay me. If not, i hope my work does provide at least some inspiration-candy.

A Belkan Knight Prestige Class could provide more Cartridges and additional forms for your device, including unique ones. By the way, i took a bit of inspiration from Magus Arcana for the effects, though ultimtely there are only a few worthwhile ones.

And Edit 2: Apparently my former edits didn't register, that should be fixed by now.

[Owrtho]

The Prism Knight is out of Beta, after some heavy revision! The Prisms have been condensed into a single class feature, and the class now gains some genuinely elemental-themed abilities as it levels. It's still a little odd as a class, but I think it's a much more interesting choice than it used to be.

The revised Prism Knight seems much better. The added bits of elemental specific traits really help to fill it out.

This would be an excellent feat... were it not for the fact that Rainbow Road is slated for conversion into a Barrier illumination, and will have the above effect, more or less, as its default. Barriers are congealing as a counterpart of auras - sustained effects on the battlefield that can provide a tactical edge in exchange for upkeep. I'm hoping to have the first batch of Barriers out tomorrow, but I know better than to set hard deadlines for myself at this point.

Glad to hear about the addition of Barrier illuminations. As a thought, perhaps have a subtype of barrier illuminations that if prepared may be activated as an immediate action to protect against a single attack or effect, but they cost motes every time, thus depending on the situation those ones may be better to use the quick activation or the standard sustained duration depending on if you expect to need the protection regularly. Mind quick activated barriers wouldn't stack with the same barrier when sustained, and due to it using an immediate action, the magical girl would only be able to quick activate a single time each turn. They might also cost an additional mote compared to the normal cost of the barrier, but that might not be needed.

You gain a number of Cartridges per day equal to 1/3rd your Magical Girl level +1 your Charisma modifier.

This sentence seems to be lacking in clarity. I suspect a typo may have occurred.

Why am i doing this? As stated, i prefer Archetypes over Prestige classes, so if i can convince Selinia, yay me. If not, i hope my work does provide at least some inspiration-candy.

While I tend to prefer PRCs over Archetypes, I do find they do have key places. I'd agree the earlier access of cartridges can be useful. That said, both versions may well have their place.

Owrtho

[DrakeRaids]

Mistbreakers cannot qualify for might makes right, correct? Since they don't get device.

Edit: err right makes might. It was 1 am. >>

[Serafina]

Mistbreakers cannot qualify for might makes right, correct? Since they don't get device.

Easily amendable by doing one of the following:

Prerequisites: Device, Power Attack, must have a two-handed weapon as a device or the Improved Unarmed Strike Feat
Benefit: When you make a power attack (including as part of a Strike), you may spend a mote to cancel an amount of power attack penalty equal to your Charisma modifier. This applies to only a single attack, though the cost may be paid for each part of a full attack if you wish to do so. You can only use this on attacks with a two-handed weapon or your unarmed strike.

And i think it should be amended - unarmed combatants deserve (and need!) nice things, and Might Makes Right is one of the nicest things that happens to Magical Girls.

This sentence seems to be lacking in clarity. I suspect a typo may have occurred.

Thanks again, didn't catch that.

[Serafina]

Some suggestions for Pathfinder Multiclass feats.


Luminous Shadow (Pathfinder Version)
Prerequisites: Costume +1, No Trace +1
Benefits: Your Ninja and Magical Girl levels stack to determine your Motes, your Ki Pool and No Trace class features as well as any level prerequisites and effects of your Ninja Tricks.

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Basic Rework to adapt the existing feat to the Pathfinder-Ninja.

Luminous Ally
Prerequisites: Costume +1, Summon Monster II spell-like ability. Your Eidolon must not have the Limb (Arms) Evolution
Benefits: Your Summoner and Magical Girl levels stack to determine your Motes and everything but the Evolution Pool and Maximum Attacks of your Eidolon. You can no longer evoke Blast or Strike Illuminations. Instead, your Eidolon can evoke Blast and Strike Illuminations using your Mote Pool.

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This was a tough one. Without advancing the Eidolon a Summoner is pretty pointless, but if you advance it too much then taking levels in Summoner becomes pointless. I hope i found a nice balance here.

Luminous Champion
Prerequisites: Aura of Courage, Mercy
Benefits: Your Paladin and Magical Girl levels stack to determine your Costume Bonus and your Lay on Hands class features. You also add your Magical Girl levels to determine which Mercies you can take, as well as your effective Cleric level for Channeling Energy and Lay on Hands.
You can spend a Standard Action to use Lay on Hands and Mercies on anyone within your Aura-Illuminations or whom you have targeted with a Burst-Illumination this round.

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Having level stack for Smite Evil struck me as too powerful. Instead you gain a Paladins support abilities and some improvement to them.

Luminous Bloodline
Regardless of your Ancestry, your good nature suffuses your blood.
Prerequisites: Radiant Focus, two Bloodline Powers
Benefits: Your Magical Girl and Sorcerer levels stack to determine your amount of Motes and your Bloodline class feature.You can activate any Bloodline Power by paying a number of Motes equal to half the level where you received it (rounded up, minimum 1).

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Any hit in a spell-casting class hurts, but Sorcerers are powerful anyway. Thus, you'll be clearly weaker than a straight Sorcerer. In exchange for some lost spells your Bloodline becomes significantly better.

[Owrtho]

Well, given the recently linked magical girl game, I've found myself with the desire to play a character similar to Kuro from Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA 2wei! (if you aren't familiar, she's like a magical girl version of Archer from Fate/Stay Night). Thus in my quest for something similar, I came across this class, which seems to do well at the making a variety of weapons from nowhere thing. So I thought I'd make a feat to combine the two some. Feedback is appreciated.

Illuminated Crafter
Your soul shows its light in the things you make.

Prerequisites: Illuminations, Evoker Level 2, Soulcrafting
Benefit: Half your levels in Soulcrafter stack with you magical girl levels for determining evoker level as well as your mote pool and readied illuminations. In turn, half your levels in Magical girl stack with your levels in soulcrafter for determining your manifester level including number of soulcrafts and augments, as well as available augments. If levels in another class would advance your manifestor level or evoker level for either the soulcrafter or magical girl, they count as levels in said class for the purposes of this feat.

Additionally, you gain the benefits of Soulcraft Form even if you don't meet the prerequisites, except that it is permanently designated to your device. This does not actually grant the feat, and as such cannot be used to qualify for anything else.

Special: If you have the Mistbreaker Archetype, you gain the benefits of the Soulcraft Talisman feat instead of the Soulcraft Form feat, and it permanently designates your unarmed strike.
If you take the evolved device feat, you may soulcraft your device in either form, but may still only have one instance of it soulcrafted at a time.
If you take the twinned device feat, you may soulcraft two copies of your device so long as they fit requirements of the twinned device feat. You may choose to soulcraft both as a single soulcraft, but if you do so any augments you apply only apply to one of them (though not all augments need to be applied to the same one).

I think that generally captures the idea. There aren't any feats that cause improvement of evoker level already to base it off, but given what soulcrafters do, it seemed there would be too much overlap if it advanced costumes. I considered full manifester level advancement, but given it is similar to illuminations for the magical girl thought that would be too much. Anyway, it also seemed that the device should get to be a soulcraft similar to how heartblade makes it count as a mindblade, and for the prerequisites I feel feats like these should be available by level 3.

Owrtho

[Owrtho]

Right then, sorta two other ideas I came up with since my last post. First, a minor expansion on the last post, being rather more of a follow up feat:

Soulcraft Costume
You've learned to combine your soulcrafting with your costume abilities.

Prerequisites: Illuminated Crafter, Costume +1
Benefit: You gain access to the Augmented and Soulcrafted costume elements. Note they only apply to armour if you have made the armour a soulcraft form with the feat of the same name. Their effects are as follows:

Augmented [Device, Armor]
Your device and if applicable armour may have an additional augment applied to it when you soulcraft it. Each time you take this costume element, an additional augment may be applied to the device or armour.

Soulcrafted [Device, Armor]
Your device and and if applicable armour are treated as being +1. This does not stack with the Enhanced costume element. You may spend an augment when soulcrafting the device or armour to change this costume element to any one other that you do not have the maximum amount of points in. This only applies to the specific device or armour soulcrafted, thus you may not put an armor costume element on a device or vice versa, and the points applied this way do not count toward the maximum that may be applied for other devices or armour. This change lasts for as long as the device or armour remains soulcrafted.


The main thing that would do is grant some of the rapid variability of soulcrafting to armour point allocation, but at the same time would take up augments to use hopefully balancing it out. Thoughts on this would be appreciated.

The other thing I thought up was a pair of blast illuminations. The full details aren't worked out, but the basic gist it. The main thing I noticed is that many magic girl shows have magical girls create a group of homing shots. Currently, the magical girl has no way of emulating that (outside of possibly playing a spirit shooter with lots of attacks per turn). That said, magic missile would do fairly well for the emulation purposes, so I came up with an illumination slightly based on that, though with certain things weaker to help be in keeping with the other level 1 blast illumination (also I felt another level 1 blast was needed). The second is a more advanced form of the previous, that helps to emulate the fact that some shows have the homing shots held at ready. Not quite sure what level it would fit at. Also not quite sure how missile number should be determined for either of them.

Homing Shot [Blast]
Mote Cost: 1
Evocation Action: 1 Standard Action
Range: Close Range (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One or more creatures, see text
Duration: Instantaneous

More complex than Divine Buster, this blast creates multiple small homing shots that may attack various enemies around the magical girl. You create a number of shots equal to (1/2 you Cha mod + 1 per 3 evoker levels rounded down). Each shot may target a different creature, or more than one shot may target the same creature. Shots make a ranged touch attack against the target, and ignore partial cover and cover. Total cover is ignored if a path could be found such that the target does not have total cover, without leaving the range of Homing shot or moving any objects. Each shot deals 1d3 damage.

If Prismatic Calling is used with this blast, each shot deals +1 damage per die of prismatic damage instead of gaining the dice of prismatic damage.


Held Homing Shot [Blast]
Mote Cost: 3
Evocation Action: 1 Standard Action
Range: Close Range (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One or more creatures, see text
Duration: See Text

This illumination acts as homing shot with the following changes. Each shot deals 1d4 damage rather than 1d3. Additionally, shots need not be fired instantaneously. Any number of shots may be held back rather than fired upon using this illumination. At the start of any turn that you have held shots remaining, you must pay 1 mote or all currently held shots fade. You may fire up to your Charisma mod held shots as an immediate action, or any number during your turn as a free action. You select targets for held shots upon firing them. If you use this illumination while you still have held shots, it produces a number of shots less than normal equal to how many held shots you have left.

Anyway, as mentioned some of the numbers might need adjustment, but the goal is to have a handful of weak shots to deal with multiple enemies. No cap on the number of missiles, as that is one of the main weaknesses of magic missile. Given the number though, it might be worth making you only roll 1 attack roll for the shots, with held shot having you roll every time you fire one or more.

Owrtho

[Selinia]

Changes:

• Barrier Illuminations make their debut! Spotlight, Shining Rampart, Rainbow Road, Pilot Lights, and Starlight Rampart provide new tactical options to the discerning magical girl. I'm still not entirely fixed on these, and they will likely change once I get a feel for what they are and how they work. Any input is valued highly here.
• Added the Vigil of Stars aura illumination, for those that miss the pre-nerf version of Vigil of Candles. At a higher illumination level, it now faces real competition - but it still offers one of the best defenses around against AC-targeting attacks.
• Added the Homing Shot blast illumination, opening up new choices at level one and allowing for an iconic magical girl maneuver.
• Added a significant number of multiclass feats, thanks to the fine folks here in the thread! Also, tagged a number of multiclass feats as [Pathfinder] or [External Homebrew], to help clarify which feats apply to what.
• Added the Devicer archetype. Want to play with a complicated magical toy from level one? Here's your chance to do so. The devicer loses a degree of adaptability and endurance, but gains reliability and power in exchange.

Also, i am VERY glad to hear that you are working on Barriers! My basic idea is Immediate-action Damage Reduction, very curious what you have in mind!
And last but not least, nice work on the Prism Knight. Specific effects for specific elements are what i missed most in the previous incaration.

To honor your work, i'll put something about Prestige classes into the Handbook today.

Barriers were a struggle, and I'm still not entirely sure they won't be re-collapsed into Bursts and Auras. The thing is, while immediate-action DR makes a good illumination (Vigil of _____ does exactly that, when you get down to it), it's hard to base an entire category around. So I'm basically stretching the definition of barrier to encompass zones are boundaries of all sorts. We'll see how that works out.

Also, I'm not sure if anyone else is running into this, but I can't view Part 4 of your handbook - it claims I don't have permission. Perhaps you didn't set it as public?

You don't necessarily need Costumed Crusader or the Expanded Wardrobe feat in order to have multiple Costumes - after all, you can easily relocate your points within an hours rest, and IIRC we never see Fate switch costumes mid-battle.

Prism Knight fits her much more nicely IMO, given her affinity for Electrical Attacks (she's the only one other than Signum and Hayatate to clearly use elemental attacks)

Fate changes costumes mid-fight in the end-of-season throw-down with Reinforce in one of the last episodes of A's. I'm pretty sure that she does so in one of her fights with Signum as well. Admittedly, her secondary costume basically just ditches the cape and adds on some glowy wing-bits. I have no clue why I remember that tidbit.

Hayate works well as a Blaster Oracle/Magical Girl, but that just doesnt do her justice

Fair enough. The alternative is a Mailman Sorcerer.

Aww, i prefer Archetypes over Prestige Classes most of the time*. Still, nice to know that you're working on it

* Warning: Rant!
Why?
Because they advance all the relevant features of the class without leaving some unadvanced. Because they deliver their abilities spread over as many levels as they want, instead of 5 or 10. Because they are often friendlier to multiclassing (such as in my latest proposition, where anything that advances your costume bonus advances your cartridges), especially with multiclass-feats. Because they can transform a class as radically as you want, instead of just tacking on new abilities.
Also, practically everyone is using the Cartridge System in Lyrical Nanoha, so an Archetype would probably work better than a Prestige Class to represent it in that specific setting.
/rant

All of that is quite fair. Personally, I see the split a bit like this:

Archetypes represent a style of combat - something integral to a character's basic class. They fill essentially the same role as a base class, in that they define what the character is fundamentally capable of.

PrCs represent unique specializations and skills added onto that baseline of competence. They refine a certain set of abilities without detracting from the original class - a Spirit Shooter operates differently from a baseline magical girl from square one, but a Prism Knight is simply a magical girl who has chosen a specific field of study at the expense of others.

To that end, I've decided that I'll go ahead and make a cartridge-based archetype and a cartridge-based PrC. The archetype (which is a mashup of the ones you presented, by and large) represents the StrikerS universe, where the system is effectively ubiquitous. The PrC is intended to be more reflective of their A's incarnation - something new and not fully understood, that an already accomplished magical girl can use to wield existing power in new ways.

Mistbreakers cannot qualify for might makes right, correct? Since they don't get device.

Edit: err right makes might. It was 1 am. >>

Easily amendable by doing one of the following:

Prerequisites: Device, Power Attack, must have a two-handed weapon as a device or the Improved Unarmed Strike Feat
Benefit: When you make a power attack (including as part of a Strike), you may spend a mote to cancel an amount of power attack penalty equal to your Charisma modifier. This applies to only a single attack, though the cost may be paid for each part of a full attack if you wish to do so. You can only use this on attacks with a two-handed weapon or your unarmed strike.

And i think it should be amended - unarmed combatants deserve (and need!) nice things, and Might Makes Right is one of the nicest things that happens to Magical Girls.

Mistbreakers can't use Right Makes Might (which I'm on the verge of renaming, given how confusing the name is). They do effectively get Twinned device for free though, since they can duel-wield their fists with no penalty and Blazing Spirit applies to all their unarmed attacks. Power attack is generally a pretty terrible choice for non-two-handed weapons anyway.

So while it isn't a feat mistbreakers can take, they don't loose much out of the deal. They're much better off taking advantage of the many options for getting more attacks and applying the magical girl's many options for boosting fixed damage - Oversized, Prismatic, and even Enhanced (made slightly better for mistbreakers by the moronic pricing of amulets of mighty fists) if they feel like dumping the points.

Well, given the recently linked magical girl game, I've found myself with the desire to play a character similar to Kuro from Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA 2wei! (if you aren't familiar, she's like a magical girl version of Archer from Fate/Stay Night). Thus in my quest for something similar, I came across this class, which seems to do well at the making a variety of weapons from nowhere thing. So I thought I'd make a feat to combine the two some. Feedback is appreciated.

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Illuminated Crafter
Your soul shows its light in the things you make.

Prerequisites: Illuminations, Evoker Level 2, Soulcrafting
Benefit: Half your levels in Soulcrafter stack with you magical girl levels for determining evoker level as well as your mote pool and readied illuminations. In turn, half your levels in Magical girl stack with your levels in soulcrafter for determining your manifester level including number of soulcrafts and augments, as well as available augments. If levels in another class would advance your manifestor level or evoker level for either the soulcrafter or magical girl, they count as levels in said class for the purposes of this feat.

Additionally, you gain the benefits of Soulcraft Form even if you don't meet the prerequisites, except that it is permanently designated to your device. This does not actually grant the feat, and as such cannot be used to qualify for anything else.

Special: If you have the Mistbreaker Archetype, you gain the benefits of the Soulcraft Talisman feat instead of the Soulcraft Form feat, and it permanently designates your unarmed strike.
If you take the evolved device feat, you may soulcraft your device in either form, but may still only have one instance of it soulcrafted at a time.
If you take the twinned device feat, you may soulcraft two copies of your device so long as they fit requirements of the twinned device feat. You may choose to soulcraft both as a single soulcraft, but if you do so any augments you apply only apply to one of them (though not all augments need to be applied to the same one).

I think that generally captures the idea. There aren't any feats that cause improvement of evoker level already to base it off, but given what soulcrafters do, it seemed there would be too much overlap if it advanced costumes. I considered full manifester level advancement, but given it is similar to illuminations for the magical girl thought that would be too much. Anyway, it also seemed that the device should get to be a soulcraft similar to how heartblade makes it count as a mindblade, and for the prerequisites I feel feats like these should be available by level 3.

Owrtho

As usual, this seems very nicely thought out. I've looked through the class in question, and can't really see it breaking in interaction with the magical girl. So to the list it goes. And there isn't any taboo on advancing evoker level - it's mainly used for save DCs and a handful of effects that would become worthless if they didn't scale with level, so it's easily one of the more conservative things to advance.

Right then, sorta two other ideas I came up with since my last post. First, a minor expansion on the last post, being rather more of a follow up feat:

Spoiler

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Soulcraft Costume
You've learned to combine your soulcrafting with your costume abilities.

Prerequisites: Illuminated Crafter, Costume +1
Benefit: You gain access to the Augmented and Soulcrafted costume elements. Note they only apply to armour if you have made the armour a soulcraft form with the feat of the same name. Their effects are as follows:

Augmented [Device, Armor]
Your device and if applicable armour may have an additional augment applied to it when you soulcraft it. Each time you take this costume element, an additional augment may be applied to the device or armour.

Soulcrafted [Device, Armor]
Your device and and if applicable armour are treated as being +1. This does not stack with the Enhanced costume element. You may spend an augment when soulcrafting the device or armour to change this costume element to any one other that you do not have the maximum amount of points in. This only applies to the specific device or armour soulcrafted, thus you may not put an armor costume element on a device or vice versa, and the points applied this way do not count toward the maximum that may be applied for other devices or armour. This change lasts for as long as the device or armour remains soulcrafted.

The main thing that would do is grant some of the rapid variability of soulcrafting to armour point allocation, but at the same time would take up augments to use hopefully balancing it out. Thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Again, while I've obviously never seen the soulcrafter in play, nothing jumps out as broken here. It's the kind of hybrid feat I like - blending together the features of two classes to create something interesting in its own right.

The other thing I thought up was a pair of blast illuminations. The full details aren't worked out, but the basic gist it. The main thing I noticed is that many magic girl shows have magical girls create a group of homing shots. Currently, the magical girl has no way of emulating that (outside of possibly playing a spirit shooter with lots of attacks per turn). That said, magic missile would do fairly well for the emulation purposes, so I came up with an illumination slightly based on that, though with certain things weaker to help be in keeping with the other level 1 blast illumination (also I felt another level 1 blast was needed). The second is a more advanced form of the previous, that helps to emulate the fact that some shows have the homing shots held at ready. Not quite sure what level it would fit at. Also not quite sure how missile number should be determined for either of them.

Spoiler

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Homing Shot [Blast]
Mote Cost: 1
Evocation Action: 1 Standard Action
Range: Close Range (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One or more creatures, see text
Duration: Instantaneous

More complex than Divine Buster, this blast creates multiple small homing shots that may attack various enemies around the magical girl. You create a number of shots equal to (1/2 you Cha mod + 1 per 3 evoker levels rounded down). Each shot may target a different creature, or more than one shot may target the same creature. Shots make a ranged touch attack against the target, and ignore partial cover and cover. Total cover is ignored if a path could be found such that the target does not have total cover, without leaving the range of Homing shot or moving any objects. Each shot deals 1d3 damage.

If Prismatic Calling is used with this blast, each shot deals +1 damage per die of prismatic damage instead of gaining the dice of prismatic damage.


Held Homing Shot [Blast]
Mote Cost: 3
Evocation Action: 1 Standard Action
Range: Close Range (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One or more creatures, see text
Duration: See Text

This illumination acts as homing shot with the following changes. Each shot deals 1d4 damage rather than 1d3. Additionally, shots need not be fired instantaneously. Any number of shots may be held back rather than fired upon using this illumination. At the start of any turn that you have held shots remaining, you must pay 1 mote or all currently held shots fade. You may fire up to your Charisma mod held shots as an immediate action, or any number during your turn as a free action. You select targets for held shots upon firing them. If you use this illumination while you still have held shots, it produces a number of shots less than normal equal to how many held shots you have left.

Anyway, as mentioned some of the numbers might need adjustment, but the goal is to have a handful of weak shots to deal with multiple enemies. No cap on the number of missiles, as that is one of the main weaknesses of magic missile. Given the number though, it might be worth making you only roll 1 attack roll for the shots, with held shot having you roll every time you fire one or more.

Owrtho

I really like Homing Shot, and it fills an interesting niche both thematically and tactically (beyond giving level one spirit shooters a choice in their first illumination). As you say, the numbers may need a little reworking, but it seems fine for the moment.

I'm not entirely sure what function Held Homing Shot has though - the closest thing I can think of is using them to repeatedly plink enemies to ruin their concentration on something, but it seems underwhelming when it shares a level with Blinding and Angel busters.

[Owrtho]

Barrier Illuminations make their debut! Spotlight, Shining Rampart, Rainbow Road, Pilot Lights, and Starlight Rampart provide new tactical options to the discerning magical girl. I'm still not entirely fixed on these, and they will likely change once I get a feel for what they are and how they work. Any input is valued highly here.

Yay, Barriers!

Added the Devicer archetype. Want to play with a complicated magical toy from level one? Here's your chance to do so. The devicer loses a degree of adaptability and endurance, but gains reliability and power in exchange.

Aw, no Spirit Shooter/Devicer mixing? It wouldn't seem like it would be that powerful. Might be worth noting that one can mix them, and if they do so note if Spirit Shot can benefit from any of the forms.

Barriers were a struggle, and I'm still not entirely sure they won't be re-collapsed into Bursts and Auras. The thing is, while immediate-action DR makes a good illumination (Vigil of _____ does exactly that, when you get down to it), it's hard to base an entire category around. So I'm basically stretching the definition of barrier to encompass zones are boundaries of all sorts. We'll see how that works out.

Well, when you start looking into the different variations on barriers, there are actually quite a few that you could use to fill things out while using only barriers rather than just zone encompassing boundaries. Also there really should be a level 1 barrier that is actually a barrier. Hence why I suggest something like:

Fragile Shell [Barrier]
Mote Cost: 1
Evocation Action: 1 Swift Action
Range: Short Range (25 + 5/two evoker levels ft.)
Duration: Barrier, See text

Focusing you create a brittle wall to hinder your enemies. A shell appears as a semi transparent wall, a quarter inches thick, ten feet tall, and [up to 5 feet per point of your Cha modifier] long. The wall can be any length or shape you desire (including horizontal placement, or being positioned in midair), so long as it forms a continuous unit.

The wall physically present and blocks movement, however it does not block line of sight or line of effect. Instead, any attack or effect that would pass through the wall must attempt to break through. If a damaging effect or attack would attempt to pass through the wall, it rolls its damage when it would first hit the wall. It then that damage to the wall, up to the walls hp. If there is damage left over after the walls hp is depleted, the attack or effect proceeds to hit the target, dealing the remaining damage. If the effect is non damaging it instead deals twice its caster level (or equivalent), and the caster level is reduced to half the remaining 'damage' it could deal (rounded up). If the attack or effect does not reduce the walls hp to 0, it is successfully stopped and has no further effect.

Each 5 foot length of the wall has its own hp, however if any is reduced to 0, the entire wall is destroyed and the illumination comes to an end. Each segment of the wall has an amount of hp equal to (5 + you Charisma mod + your evoker level). You may as an immediate action spend 1 or more motes to heal the wall. The first mote spent fully heals all segments of the wall, while each additional mote after grants each segment temporary hit points equal to the max hp of a segment for the remainder of the round.

May need some cleaning up. Point is, it's a weak, breakable barrier.

Anyway, one way to come up with different barriers is to play with different combinations of basic properties barriers often get. Those I can think of off hand are as follows (note this is mostly personal terminology, these are also not organized):

Brittle/Fragile: Barrier can be destroyed, usually allowing the attack that destroyed it to proceed through and hit the target (or the next barrier in the way). Breaking any point may cause the entire thing to be destroyed (this is usually the case).

Reflecting: Barrier reflects back things it successfully blocks. Usually hits the one you fired them, but not always.

Hard or Soft: Hard barriers flat out stop things or else give way (often destroying them). Soft barriers just weaken things that pass through.

Regenerating: Barrier can heal on its own. Often combine with Brittle/Fragile, and done so one part can be broken without destroying the whole thing.

Semi-permeable: Some things can pass through the barrier while others can't. This may distinguish between things like allies/enemies, attacks/creatures, energy types, direction of movement through the barrier (this would generally mean a one way barrier), etc.

Intersection Cut or Hold: If the barrier intersects an existing object, if it cuts it where the barrier overlaps, or if it instead results in the barrier holding the object in place. The former can be used offensively to harm a target, while the latter can pin it in place. Likely grant a reflex save to avoid intersection.

Movable, Bound, or Static: Movable barriers can be moved independent of other things. This may be changing the dimensions, making an elevator, creating a crushing wall, making a means of transportation, etc.
Bound means it is bound to a specific object or individual, and maintains its position relative to said object or individual. A common example is a bubble shaped barrier that surrounds and protects the Magical Girl and moves with her.
Static barriers, once placed and do not move (at least not relative to the world or other similar frame of reference).

Opaque or Transparent: Barrier can't or can be seen through, this may impact ability to aim at those on the other side.

Effect: Barrier has some special effect on things or individuals that try to pass though rather than just reducing the force or damage they deal. This may mean the barrier deals damage (like a wall of fire), or may result in other less direct effects like exhaustion, forgetfulness, happiness, lightness, increased weight, disorientation, re-angling, duplication, teleportation, etc. May result in offensive, defensive, buffing, or miscellaneous type barriers.

As a quick example of mixing the above for something new. Take the Fragile Shells illumination above and make an improved form with regeneration. Destroying one segment doesn't break the whole thing. Every time you pay the upkeep cost it fully heals. Destroyed segments cost one extra mote each when you pat the upkeep cost to restore them (may have the option to not restore them.

Hopefully this helps with coming up with barriers. I'll post any other ideas I come up with.

As usual, this seems very nicely thought out. I've looked through the class in question, and can't really see it breaking in interaction with the magical girl. So to the list it goes. And there isn't any taboo on advancing evoker level - it's mainly used for save DCs and a handful of effects that would become worthless if they didn't scale with level, so it's easily one of the more conservative things to advance.

Again, while I've obviously never seen the soulcrafter in play, nothing jumps out as broken here. It's the kind of hybrid feat I like - blending together the features of two classes to create something interesting in its own right.

Glad you like it. I did notice one thing I overlooked though. Specifically it should mention that you ignore weight limits on soulcrafting for your device. I'd not thought about the chance someone might have heavier weapons when I first typed it up.

I really like Homing Shot, and it fills an interesting niche both thematically and tactically (beyond giving level one spirit shooters a choice in their first illumination). As you say, the numbers may need a little reworking, but it seems fine for the moment.

I'm not entirely sure what function Held Homing Shot has though - the closest thing I can think of is using them to repeatedly plink enemies to ruin their concentration on something, but it seems underwhelming when it shares a level with Blinding and Angel busters.

Glad you like it. In retrospect, you're right that the held portion of the later form isn't that powerful. I was mainly thinking of its use for tactics or combos, such as making a group of them while out of range where it's safe, then rushing in and letting them fly. Or holding them when you don't know where the target is, then launching them when they show themself. Also the possibility of using them to clear a path for a stronger blast that you need to fire in the same round the path is cleared. Still those are all rather situational an not too strong.

Anyway, the held part could likely be folded into the normal homing shot. Something like an added paragraph saying:

In addition, you may withhold a number of shots from firing immediately equal to half your evoker level (rounded up). Any number of these held shots may be fired as an immediate action, or during your turn as a free action. (If homing shot is changed to one attack roll, rather than individuals for each hot add this: Roll a new attack roll each time you fire one or more held shots, rather than using the one from initially using the illumination.) At the start of any of your turns during which you are holding shots, you must pay 1 mote or they dissipated harmlessly. If you would use Homing Shot while you still have held shots remaining, the shots you are currently holding count toward your limit of held shots.

Might also then add a see text not to spell duration after the instantaneous.

Thoughts?

Owrtho

[Qwertystop]

One thing about which I'm confused:
You have Illuminations called Strikes. They work through physical attacks. They are explicitly compared to ToB maneuvers, implicitly to those maneuvers which are also called Strikes, and act similarly to the Strikes that are Illuminations...

And yet you don't have a multiclass feat for this and an Initiator class?

[sreservoir]

the mote pool suffers a bit from the defining-an-encounter; as it is, it invites shenanigans aimed at making encounters "start" at a point when there isn't much threat yet, so as to start regenerating motes earlier and thus to have more motes available; there is, also, a certain peculiarity in that it is more advantageous to explore during an encounter -- it is beneficial to, say, leave a not entirely harmless enemy in case one encounters more enemies, so as to be able to have a full mote pool when running into new threats.

that's ... really, that's the problem with having recharging per-encounter abilities that aren't fully charged at the beginning of an encounter.

[Serafina]

Yay, Cartridges! Yay Barriers! Yay Multiclass feats! Yay Selinia!


@Barriers:
Huh, they're all swift actions? Strikey me as very strange, given how often they are thrown up at the last second while an enemies attacks fly at the Magical Girl. Functionally that also means that they differ less from Auras or Blasts - they DO because they affect spaces, but having some or all of them as Immediate Actions (which wouldn't break the action economy, since it blocks you from using swift actions next turn) would make them more unique.

And while i said "immediate action DR", it doesn't have to be limited to DR - i quite like the effects you cooked up for the Barriers so far.

I'm also missing personal protection Barriers. To stay in the spirit of current Barriers, i'd turn them into some that provide Protection to the occupants of the space, but only affect a single space and can't be repositioned - that way you have a disadvantage while bunkering down.


Here are some of my ideas, do with them what you like (including ripping them apart and melting their parts down for new ideas, as you have done before )

Defenser (1st-level)
Mote Cost: 1
Evocation Action: 1 Immediate Action
Range: Short
Target: 1 square
Duration: Barrier

*fluff which i am too lazy to write*
Everyone in the affected square gains damage reduction equal to your charisma modifier. This increases to twice your Charisma modifier at Evoker level 10 if you pay an additional Mote.

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Since this was my first suggestion, i made it the most basic Barrier Illumination. DR 4 or 5 is powerful at lower levels, and later it can become DR 20-30 at the cost of spending more motes.

Radiant Shield (2nd-level)
Mote Cost: 2
Evocation Action: 1 Swift Action
Range: Short
Target: 1 square
Duration: Barrier

*fluffy stuff about shield blinding enemies*
Enemies who attack those in the affected square gain -4 to their attack rolls for a number of rounds equal to your charisma modifier

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The malus isn't huge, but since it lasts for plenty of rounds it'll discourage enemies from attacking. Note that this one probably shouldn't ever be an immediate action - players would just evoke it for one round to give an enemy a penalty (since hes already attacking he cant decice to stop), which isn't the intended usage.

Panzerschild (3rd-level)
Mote Cost: 3
Evocation Action: 1 Immediate Action
Range: Short
Target: 1 Square
Duration: Barrier

*fluffy stuff about making target immovable*
Everyone in the affected square gains a bonus to AC and Saves equal to half your Charisma modifier as well as immunity to combat maneuvers.

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The good part here is immunity to combat maneuvers, such as Trip, Bull rush etc. Something unique. Shouldn't be too powerful since the target is still confined to one square and eating motes and actions.

Sakura Storm (5th-level)
Mote Cost: 4
Evocation Action: 1 Immediate Action
Range: own square on activation, Short thereafter
Target: 1 square
Duration: Barrier

Thousands of small, petal-shaped energy disks form around the target, shielding it from harm and punishing everyone who tries.
Everyone attacking someone in the affected square gains 50% Concealment and your charisma modifier to saves. Everyone who makes a melee attack (including those with reach) takes 4D6+your charisma modifer damage and 5 bleed damage. Ranged attacks that miss due to concealment (including rays) can be redirected using your BAB+charisma modifier, but only inflict half damage if the redirected attack hits.
You can move the affected square as a Standard Action. If an enemy is within the affected square, he suffers from a 50% miss chance due to his enemies being concealed and does not gain any defensive benefit from Sakura Storm other than the Concealment. He also takes 8D6+twice your Charisma modifer damage and 10 stacking bleed damage each round he is within the Sakura Storm.

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Okay, so in this case you CAN move the area by. I just had the idea, and a non-moving storm sounded weird. Also a bit of an idea-dump

[Serafina]

Okay, since i just had this idea:
How about re-writing some 1-st level Illuminations so that they remain useful at higher levels? My intended method was upgrading them at a certain Evoker Level (such as 10). You can then pay extra motes to achieve more powerful effects. Another idea is to make it dependent on maximum Costume Bonus
My Defenser Barrier was one such idea. I'll present a couple of others here.

Divine Buster [Blast]
Mote Cost: 1
Evocation Action: 1 Standard Action
Range: Medium Range (100 + 10/evoker level ft.)
Target: One Creature
Duration: Instantaneous

In the simple but reliable ability known as a favorite of magical girls everywhere, you unleash a bullet of raw energy to bombard your foes. Your target takes damage equal to (1d6 + your Cha mod). You can pay additional motes and deal 3D6 extra damage per mote paid. You can only spend a number of extra motes equal to your Maximum Costume Bonus.

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There, now you actually have a reason to take Divine Buster at higher levels. At level 5 you can deal 4D6 damage (2 less than a 2nd-level illumination for the same cost, one level earlier. At level 8 it's 7D6 for 3, at 11 10D6 for 4 motes. That's more damage for 1 less mote than an 3rd-level Illumination, but also doesn't deal any extra effects. At 14 it's 13D6 for 5 and at 16 16D6 for 6 motes. Still only one time your charisma modifer, which should be around 10 and therefore worth 2-3 dice at this level. Pretty balanced with the other Blasts IMO.

Heartbreaker [Strike]
Mote Cost: 1
Evocation Action: 1 Full-Round Action
Range: Melee Attack
Target: One Creature
Saving Throw: See Below

Sometimes, the best defense is just to hit them so hard they can’t hit back effectively. As part of this strike, make a full-attack action. For every successful hit, the target receives a -4 penalty to damage rolls. At the beginning of each of their turns, they may make a Fort save – a successful save reduces the penalty by 2. Multiple uses of this ability do not stack with themselves, but they do refresh the penalty if it has been worn down by saves. At Evoker Level 10 you can pay an additional mote when activating this Illumination to increase the attack penalty to -6.

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Sure, it already scales with your attacks, but you only have medium BAB and iteratives are **** anyway. At level 10 you'd only hit the target up to three times with haste (or four with TWF), if you are lucky and actually hit all the time. That'd be a -12 (16) to attacks, but more likely -8 (12) against any melee enemies (who tend to have good AC). Intended to Balance out the fact that Iteratives are very unlikey to hit.

Luminous Rain [Burst]
Mote Cost: 1
Evocation Action: 1 Swift Action
Range: Short Range (25 + 5/two evoker levels ft.)
Duration: Instantaneous
Target: One Creature
Saving Throw: Will negates

The target of your attack is bathed with a pearly radiance by a blast of conjured rain, sharply illuminating critical openings in their fighting style. Allies (including you) receive a bonus against your target until the start of your next turn. You may select any of the following bonuses when you use this ability, but a single creature can only be subjected to one of them at a time.
+3 to attack rolls against the target
+3 to AC against attacks made by the target
+3 to damage rolls against the target
+3 to disarm, grapple, bull rush, or trip attacks made against the target
At Evoker Level 10 you can pay two additional motes when activating it to double the effects of this Illumination

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Another Illumination that becomes weaker and weaker as you progress upwards. +6 to attack for 3 motes and swift action is a fair price at level 10 IMO

[Serafina]

Well then! Cartridge System!


Love the name. Straightforward, yet non-specific enough to not fall into one specific anime (*cough* Nanoha *cough*)

Allowing an Exotic Device is a nice, fitting touch. Exotic Weapons really aren't that powerful in the first place - most just add qualities for combat maneuvers, which the Magical Girl isn't that good with anyway. It's most useful for Two-Weapon Wielders, where the weapons improve the most.

Loss of Costume points: Straight-forward penalty. Better worded than my version, too.

Cartridge Load: Loosing Radiant Focus is painful. But you gotta have a disadvantage somewhere, and you can use Cartridges to achieve the same effect. I really like that idea - you found a great compromise between removing it entirely and not having any meaningful penalties.

Cartridge Boost: That should be "load a Cartridge into HER device", by the way. Not much to say otherwise, other than that its very nice :)

Cartridge Overclock: Ah - the really unique part of this ability. And i WISH i had thought of replacing Limit Form to gain an ability! So much that i actually slapped myself for not thinking of it.

Accel Form is finally something for Spirit Shooters and Blasts. Note that Spirit Shooters can't technically take this Archetype - they don't get Limit Form to replace it with somethin else. Also, the Spirit Shooter ability is really really powerful - iterative touch attacks with full BAB are PAINFUL, and spirit shooters gain a lot of damage boni that makes it all the worse.

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A level 12 Spirit Shooter using guns would reliably hit the target 6 times with this. The damage would be about 25D8+10D6+130=277, which is absolutely insane at this level. Yes, it degrades rapidly against targets with good Touch-AC - but a lot of monsters and characters don't have that.

Assault Form - does pretty much the same as Limit Form (no one cares about the +1/+2 damage that gets anyway). Except that it doesn't slow down your mote regeneration.

Buster Form: Probably the weakest by now. Taking a full-round action hurts. Useful, but i'd personally add that it ignores full concealment. Oh, and i'd love it if the paragraph that allows you to damage the object that granted said concealment! The visual benefit should be obvious, mechanically it'd allow you to blast a path for your allies. Something like this
"If the concealment was granted by physical cover, she deals the damage of the Illumination to that object in addition to dealing it to the target."



Overall: Very well done, i love it!

[Serafina]

One thing about which I'm confused:
You have Illuminations called Strikes. They work through physical attacks. They are explicitly compared to ToB maneuvers, implicitly to those maneuvers which are also called Strikes, and act similarly to the Strikes that are Illuminations...

And yet you don't have a multiclass feat for this and an Initiator class?

You could make one?

Personally:
The Crusader has too little class features to make mixing worth it.
The Swordsage has a couple of options. I think i could do something here, i'll give it a shot.
And i think you could do something with the Warblade as well.

Radiant Wind
Prerequisite: 1 Desert Wind Maneuver, Prismatic Calling feat
Benefit: All fire damage from the Desert Wind Disciplin becomes the damage type of your Prismatic damage. You can pay one mote every time you exectue a Desert Wind Strike Maneuver to add half your Prismatic Damage to the Strike Maneuver.
Special If you have levels in Swordsage, your levels in Swordsage stack to determine your Evoker Level and your Discipline Focus class feature.
Special: If you have the Prism class feature, you can apply any Prism that applies to a Strike Illumination to a Strike Maneuver that you have enhanced with Radiant Wind.

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Desert Wind is a really nice school - it just sucks that it always deals fire damage, the most-resisted type in the game. This feat fixes that, and adds extra damage to boot. And it blends with Prism Knight as well. The class-stacking is weak and MAD, but you already gain plenty of other benefits.

Radiant Blade
Prerequisites: Battle Ardor, Costume +1
Benefits: You can use your Charisma-modifer instead of your Intelligence-modifier for Battle Clarity, Battle Ardor, Battle Cunning, Battle Skill and Battle Mastery. Your Warblade levels stack with your Magical Girl levels to determine your Costume Bonus.

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A charismatic Warblade with a fancy costume. Pretty simple IMO.

[Serafina]

the mote pool suffers a bit from the defining-an-encounter; as it is, it invites shenanigans aimed at making encounters "start" at a point when there isn't much threat yet, so as to start regenerating motes earlier and thus to have more motes available; there is, also, a certain peculiarity in that it is more advantageous to explore during an encounter -- it is beneficial to, say, leave a not entirely harmless enemy in case one encounters more enemies, so as to be able to have a full mote pool when running into new threats.

that's ... really, that's the problem with having recharging per-encounter abilities that aren't fully charged at the beginning of an encounter.

Since an encounter is entirely defined by the GM, i thin that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Also, talking to enemies before attacking is perfectly in line with Magical Girls

[Snowfire]

Since an encounter is entirely defined by the GM, i thin that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Also, talking to enemies before attacking is perfectly in line with Magical Girls

Oh so much.

It basically comes down to if you're playing in a setting where you can get away with the normal Magical Girl schtick. If you're not...well you might have some trouble. At least until you turn the world into one where you can do the normal Magical Girl schtick.

[Serafina]

I am updating the Handbook with the new stuff Selinia gave us. Also, Part 4 (previously an incoherent mess) is now accessible (though still quite incomplete on prestige classes).

[Serafina]

Now that i have looked properly over the Dark Magical Girl - someone needs to make a Multiclass feat for DMG and Barbarian. Probably something that stacks Motes, rounds of Barbarian Rage and something else. Hmmm...

[Owrtho]

First, it occurs to me that homing shot should have a minimum number of shots listed (likely 2), and with that it may be worth slightly altering the shot amount (such as making it half charisma mod + 1/3 evoker level rounded up).

@Barriers:
Huh, they're all swift actions? Strikey me as very strange, given how often they are thrown up at the last second while an enemies attacks fly at the Magical Girl. Functionally that also means that they differ less from Auras or Blasts - they DO because they affect spaces, but having some or all of them as Immediate Actions (which wouldn't break the action economy, since it blocks you from using swift actions next turn) would make them more unique.

I feel it is worth noting in most magical girl shows that the barriers seem to be more of the "completely transparent until actively blocking something" rather than the "thrown up immediately before blocking something" with certain key exceptions.

Also, it may be a difference between pathfinder and 3.5, but in 3.5 immediate actions don't take away your next turn swift action.

And while i said "immediate action DR", it doesn't have to be limited to DR - i quite like the effects you cooked up for the Barriers so far.

I agree that various effects could fit as immediate actions, such as a barrier that is actually a wall and blocks movement. It could be thrown up as an immediate action to stop an enemy, and if you use it like that, they need to make a reflex save to stop in time or risk running into it for some (likely minor damage), the save could be based distance they're moving. Either way they would be blocked from continuing though.

I'm also missing personal protection Barriers. To stay in the spirit of current Barriers, i'd turn them into some that provide Protection to the occupants of the space, but only affect a single space and can't be repositioned - that way you have a disadvantage while bunkering down.

I'd agree there aren't enough personal protection options yet. That said, if one is acting in keeping with the source, most personal protection barriers in magical girl shows follow the one being protected. On the other hand, most static ones are larger and able to protect a few people or a key location.

Actually, given the static barriers are often maintained by one (or a few) individual(s) who otherwise don't fight while doing so, perhaps have some barriers that may be enhanced, or have the mote cost reduced for the round if you spend a full round action focusing on it (that could also be a feat or part of an archetype).

While thinking on it, it might be worth adding barriers to the list of illuminations the DMG class may choose from.

Owrtho

[Snowfire]

Actually, given the static barriers are often maintained by one (or a few) individual(s) who otherwise don't fight while doing so, perhaps have some barriers that may be enhanced, or have the mote cost reduced for the round if you spend a full round action focusing on it (that could also be a feat or part of an archetype).

Owrtho

Barrier Maiden, perhaps?

[Serafina]

Also, it may be a difference between pathfinder and 3.5, but in 3.5 immediate actions don't take away your next turn swift action.

Actually, yes they do.

Using an immediate action on your turn is the same as using a swift action, and counts as your swift action for that turn. You cannot use another immediate action or a swift action until after your next turn if you have used an immediate action when it is not currently your turn (effectively, using an immediate action before your turn is equivalent to using your swift action for the coming turn). You also cannot use an immediate action if you are flat-footed.

However, Immediate Action barriers would need a line like "you need not spend a swift action in your next turn to maintain a Barrier that you have activated ou of your turn."

In the end there is no real reason to have all Barriers work exactly the same way. So yes, theres definetly a place for Barriers who affect a person, rather than a square, IMO. Which neatly solves the problem of the barrier moving with the person, but limits the tactical utility of affecting a different person each turn.


As for Barrier Maidens: We already have them ;) I'd like the idea that Kofu Shojos "Barrier Maiden" class features applies to boni given by Barriers:
"You also increase any Boni to Saves or AC and any Damage Reduction granted by your barriers by your Wisdom bonus".
Something like that - would make Wisdom much more useful for that Archetype.

Edit: Or maybe better yet:
Barrier Maiden (Su):
(...other text...). You also add your Wisdom modifier to your Charisma modifier to determine the effect of your Barrier-Illuminations.

[Regalus]

I know that the discussion is currently focused on the new barrier illuminations but I have a question. Has anyone considered altering the Mist Breaker's interaction with blast Illuminations so that rather than eliminating them whole sale she converts them into Strikes which use Melee touch attacks? Bonus points for allowing them to add their Modified Unarmed damage from their Blazing Spirit class feature to the damage of these special "Strike" Illuminations.

For example, homing 'shot' could be converted into a psudo-full attack; allowing the Mist Breaker the same number of melee touch attacks as she would've gotten shots against adjacent opponents, and would otherwise operate the same. While the Busters become super light charged power attacks.

As it stands, the loss of blast illuminations is a severe blow to the archetype, greater in some some ways to the drawbacks of some of the other archetypes. After all, even the Kofu Shoujo and Spirit Shooter can still prepare strike illuminations if they need to. Having the Mist Breaker convert Blasts into melee touch attacks stays in theme with the Mist Breaker without shooting it in the foot by loosing roughly 1/4 of the magical girl's options; which just so happens to be the portion containing most of their raw fire power.

This alteration would help the Mist Breaker better fulfill its design goal as the Melee expert of the Magical Girl Archetypes, keep it on par with the other Archetypes, as well as providing it with a niche in terms of illumination interaction on par with the one Kofu Shojo and the Spirit Shooter currently possess with Blast and Burst Illuminations.

So, what do you guys think?

[Lix Lorn]

While it's not my call, that sounds pretty cool to me.

[Serafina]

I can't see anything wrong with that. It's still a drawback (since you don't have ranged attack anymore) of course, but at least you don't loose your really damaging Illuminations (because Strikes mostly don't do damage)

I would actually propose something akin to the Magus (yeah yeah, i do like that class) Spellstrike-ability here:

Flurry of Light
At Xth(?) level, the Spirit Breaker can prepare Blast Illuminations. However, she can not evoke them normally as ranged attacks. Instead, a a Full-Round Action, she can make all her melee attacks at a -2 penalty and evoke a Blast Illumination that needs a Touch-Attack to hit. She makes an attack roll with her full BAB -2 against AC (not Touch-AC) for this Blast Illumination, if it hits it deals additional damage equal to her Unarmed Strike damage.
This can be combined with Two-Weapon Fighting normally. The Blast can not profit from Prismatic Calling.


That'd effectively be Flurry of Blows like a Monks, with the added benefit of a Blast Illuminations damage. While it might seem similar to Limit Mode at first, it has a couple of difference
-The Blast needs to hit AC instead of Touch-AC, therefore loosing a major benefit of Blasts.
- All Attacks take a -2 penalty. Nothing crippling, but noticeable especially at lower levels.
- It can not be used on a charge.

Let's see. A low-level (say, 6th) character with TWF and this ability could make three attacks: 1 normal, 1 TWF, 1 Flurry. She would deal her unarmed damage (1D8+2D6+8) on each hit that lands, plus 6D6+5 if the Illumination hits. All Attacks are made at +7 (+4 BAB, -2 TWF, -2 Flurry, +5 Cha, +1 MW, +1 WF), which is hardly overwhelming. The maximum damage dealt is 3D8+12D6+29, which works out to an average of 84 - again, assuming that all attacks hit.
In comparison, a Magical Girl using the same Blast Illumination will do 8D6+5 (due to prismatic calling) - 41 average damage, but almost guaranteed to hit and at range.