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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Barbarian in the Playground
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    The Mists of Ravenloft

    Default Designing a Variant Mage class- need help

    I was intending to run either a D20 or a BESM D20 campaign recently, but I need advice for the creation of a new Core Class to replace the role of the Wizard/Sorcerer. Basically, in my intended campaign, Arcane Magic is a force that is normally unavailable to mortals, its place being taken instead by Divine Magic.

    However, there are those who crave Arcane Magic, and acquire it by forging dark pacts with monstrous, alien and unholy forces. The most "human" of these forces resembles the Demon Lords and Arch-Devils of D&D, whilst the others are more like CoC D20's Outer Gods; vile, Lovecraftian dieites who are simply beyond mere mortal comprehension.

    So, in essence, these "Heartless", as I call them, willingly surrender a portion of their very humanity (or soul or whatever you want to call it) to become living conduits for forces of pure madness, evil, corruption and entropy.

    I call them Heartless because, as part of the "pact", they literally and physically lose their hearts; they're still alive, and register as such, but their life-force is sustained purely by the raw magical energy coursing through their bodies. If that were gone, they'd be nothing more than dead, rotting corpses.

    As well as having no heartbeat/pulse, a Heartless's blood become increasingly saturated with mystic energy, and by the time a Heartless is nearing the heights of its powers (around level 15-20) it doesn't bleed at all, its blood having been either evaporated or solidified by the magic coursing through its veins.

    If you think this campaign idea sounsd promising, could you please help me design this character class? I've never designed a class before, so I really need help- the only thing I know is that the best "magic system" to use for this class would probably be the "Incantations system" used by Complete Arcane's Warlock.

    I have some conceptual Incantations and also some conceptual "mutations" (I see advancing in the class as causing the character to slowly begin taking aspects of a psuedonatural creature, mutations being a physical representation of this growing alienness) that I can post if you want.
    "Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment."

    World-Building: Malebolge Campaign Setting (5e), Star-Fantasy Campaign Setting (5e)
    Homebrew Material Index: Misty Shadow's Stupid-Huge Homebrew List

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Halfling in the Playground
     
    HealytheHealslime's Avatar

    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    USA
    Gender
    Female

    Default Re: Designing a Variant Mage class- need help

    This class idea sounds very interesting! The name reminds me of Kingdom Hearts (not that that's a bad thing). I've got a few questions though.
    • What does losing your heart do exactly? Does it make you a soul-less freak or does it just make it easier to eat pork rinds?

    • Speaking of soul-less, what are you thinking are good alignment guidelines for this class? Any evil? Any non-good? (I don't think you'd want to open this class up to good characters...)

    Aaand that's about it. I'd like to help you more on the mechanics part of this class but I'm not so good on mechanics myself. Still, I'm sure you'll get a few people who are interested in this enough to help you out more.
    Special thanks to Mr. Saturn for Silly-Hat Healslime Avie.
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    -M. Nicolai

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Barbarian in the Playground
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    The Mists of Ravenloft

    Default Re: Designing a Variant Mage class- need help

    Thanks for being the first to take an interest Healy. To answer your questions in order...

    *I'm not one hundred percent sure on what you mean by this question. The "null-heart" is basically a symbolic gesture; you have cast aside that portion of yourself that makes you "human", that single spark of divine favour which even the most evil normally retain. By become a Heartless, you spit on the outstretched hands of all deities, Good, Neutral and Evil, to instead embrace something that can only be deemed alien.

    *Personally, I see this class as being restricted to the Chaotic Neutral and all Evil alignments; by drawing on the forces of the Arcane, one must be either truly evil or embrace chaos and madness with all your soul (hence the Chaotic Neutral).
    "Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment."

    World-Building: Malebolge Campaign Setting (5e), Star-Fantasy Campaign Setting (5e)
    Homebrew Material Index: Misty Shadow's Stupid-Huge Homebrew List

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