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

[Princess Tracy]

Here's some feats.

Element Focus
You embody a certain ideal in your costume beyond the abilities of most of your peer magical girls
Prerequisite: Costume Class Feature
Benefit: Select one costume element you are capable of using. While in costume, you are treated as always having one more costume point invested into that element than you do (1 if no points are invested).
Special: You can select this feat multiple times. It's effects do not stack. Each time you select this feat, choose a different costume element.

Last Stand
You can use the pure power of light to keep yourself on your feet even when you would be overwhelmed
Prerequisite: Radiant Soul
Benefit: You add your Magical Girl level to the maximum number of negative HP you can fall you before dying. For instance, if you would normally die at -10 HP and you have 7 levels in magical girl, you instead die at -17 HP. In addition, when you would be reduced to or below 0HP, you can avoid falling unconscious by entering a Last Stand. While in a Last Stand, you do not fall unconscious when at negative HP, but do not regenerate motes every turn. If you run out of motes, you can no longer maintain the Last Stand, and may fall unconscious as normal. This feat does not stop you from dying from hit point damage. When in a Last Stand, you can act as if staggered at no cost, but to ignore that condition for a round you must pay 1 mote. You can leave Last Stand at any time, dropping your current mote pool down to 0 and falling unconscious if still at negative HP, as normal. If you do this, you automatically succeed at stabilizing.

[Selinia]

The Magical Idol

Contributed by Serafina

"Crank up the volume and listen real close - this is my song, and the whole world is gonna hear it loud and clear!"
-Iwasawa, a Magical Idol
[/CENTER]
Requirements
To become a magical idol, you must fulfill all the following criteria.
Feats: Luminous Symphony
Skills: Perform (Any) 8 ranks
Special: Bardic Music class feature, Costume class feature

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Despite being named Magical Idol Singer, there is no real reason to restrict her to just Singing, so you can use any sort of performance.

I've left Serafina's author's notes here - they'll be in the black text like up above. If I have something to add to it, it'll be in teal, like this. For now, all I'll note is that per general thread consensus, 3.5 is the default system for a magical girl. As such, I'll be going through and converting anything that needs an edition shift - like the prerequisites here.

Skills: Concentration (Con), Bluff (Cha), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge [History], Knowledge [Local], Knowledge [Nobility and Royalty], Perform (Cha), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha)
Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier

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You're still a Magical Girl, but your abilities lend themselves more towards your social site. The Knowledge skills are mostly for flavor though.

Magical Idols are half-bard, and they've got a lot of skills to work with. So they get a few more points to spend than a run of the mill magical girl - particularly useful if they want to start building up on some of their new skills without neglecting old ones.

Hit Die: D8
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special | Spellcasting

1st|+0|+0|+1|+1| Voice of Light, Costume, Illuminations, Inspire Courage | +1 level of existing bard spellcasting

2nd|+1|+1|+1|+1| Rapture of the Song (+2 AC) | +1 level of existing illumination-using class, +1 level of existing bard spellcasting

3rd|+1|+1|+2|+2| Song of Sorrow | +1 level of existing bard spellcasting

4th|+2|+1|+2|+2| Rapture of the Song (+2 Saves), Arcane Performance| +1 level of existing illumination-using class, +1 level of existing bard spellcasting

5th|+2|+2|+3|+3| Ballad of Friendship |

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6th|+3|+2|+3|+3| Chorus of Light | +1 level of existing illumination-using class, +1 level of existing bard spellcasting

7th|+3|+2|+4|+4| Lyrics of Light | +1 level of existing bard spellcasting

8th|+4|+3|+4|+4| Rapture of the Song (Freedom of Movement) | +1 level of existing illumination-using class, +1 level of existing bard spellcasting

9th|+4|+3|+5|+5| Melody of Magic | +1 level of existing bard spellcasting

10th|+5|+3|+5|+5| Perfect Chorus | +1 level of existing illumination-using class[/table]

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The same chassis as the Magical Girl, plus half Bardic Spellcasting, full Costume and half Illumination progression, in addition to boni while singing and lots of new songs.

A fairly major chassis alteration - Illuminations now progress at 5/10ths, and Bard spellcasting progresses at 8/10ths. It's an unusual progression, but the buff is a bit of payback for the slightly beefed requirements. It also makes entering as a bard primary a bit less painful! On the other hand, the class now rolls with Low BAB.She can probably still front-line purely based on how much of her power a magical girl draws from a costume, but she's not a melee powerhouse.

Costume: This functions identically to the magical girl class feature of the same name, and magical girl and magical idol levels stack to determine how many costume points she may allocate to her costume. To determine the maximum point value for her costume’s features, add together the maximum values granted by all her instances of this class feature.

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Because who has ever heard of a Idol Singer without a fancy dress?

Illuminations: At 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 10th levels, the magical idol gains an increase in all aspects of her illuminations class feature, as if she had gained a level in magical girl. At 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th ad 9th levels, and for each bard level she has, she gains a +1 bonus to her evoker level and increases the size of her mote pool by one.

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You can use Motes for your Bardic Performance, so they advance fully. You also get new Illuminations, because you're still supposed to be a Magical Girl, just one with a different style.

Follows the New Standard Template - her mote pool and evoker level rise constantly, but her other benefits get a much less prestigious progression.

Spellcasting: At each level except 5th and 10th, a magical idol gains new spells per day, spells known, and an increase in caster level as if she had gained a level in bard.

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Bardic spellcasting is mostly Utility-casting, so this doesn't make you much stronger in Combat. However, you CAN use it to fuel your Arcane Performances. And you still don't need a single level in Bard.

Not to sound contradictory, but you need levels in bard now! This is a theurge class, at heart, and despite tighter requirements I think this is ultimately a buff. Bard spells are unappreciated - keep their level up, and there's a lot you can do.

Idol Music: A magical idol can produce incredible effects with her performances, stirring hearts and moving bodies to action. Idol music follows the same rules as bardic music. Each use of idol music costs one daily use of bardic music to activate. Magical idol levels stack with bard levels for purposes of determining how many daily uses of bardic music and idol music the character has. The Save-DC for all idol music that allows a save is equal to [10 + 1/2 * her level in classes that advance your idol music + her Charisma modifier]. The targets of your performance must be able to perceive it just like with normal Bardic Performances.

Some idol music effects include a secondary effect, called a refrain. In any round when a seeker concentrates on an idol music effect and expends a number of motes (specified in the effect), she can activate the refrain associated with that idol music effect. The action used to trigger a refrain varies with effect. The original effects of the song do not end; the idol can maintain the song and activate the refrain simultaneously.

As a free action, you can spend three Motes to gain one virtual use of bardic music. You can do so multiple times per encounter, but each time you do so during the same encounter the mote cost increases by one. Uses of bardic music accumulated by this ability may be used exactly as normal uses are, but vanish at the end of an encounter if not expended.

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So you get and advance Bardic Performance, regardless of whether you're already a Bard or not. And since you're supposed to do something other than Perform (and for all those who don't take Bard-levels for this Archetype), you can use it as a Move-Action right away.

A limitation to rounds/day is a pain in the ass. This ability fixes that, and you can perform all day long, eventually at the cost of not regenerating any motes.

The same in spirit, somewhat different in text! This effectively merges idol and bardic performances together, using verbiage that is probably familiar to anyone who knows their bard prestige classes. Music uses are fairly pricy, but they're still there if you want them.

Songs:

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Inspire Courage: A magical idol's voice fills all who hear it with vibrant joy. This functions identically to the bardic music of the same name, and levels in magical idol and bard stack to determine the bonuses it grants.

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It's Inspire Courage, except that it stacks with other boni. Such as Heroism. You also get Countersong, except that it's actually reactive and works against every type of spell - in other words, you'll actually use it.

It's inspire courage, literally! This is a mixed blessing, but ultimately a buff, I think. Yes, Joy was slightly stronger, but Inspire courage has an insane amount of support. I'd hate to deny the awesomeness of the ability with an incompatible name.

Song of Sorrow (Su): Not all music is joyous - a magical idol's song expresses her sorrow at the violence to which she has been forced. Enemies affected must make a Will saving throw or take penalties to attack and damage rolls equal to the bonuses granted by your inspire courage idol music. This is a fear-based effect.

Song of Sorrow, Refrain (Su): As a move action that consumes three motes, the magical idol can weave a melody that weighs her enemies down with guilt and despair. Enemies within 60 feet who fail a Will saving throw treat all terrain as difficult for two rounds. This is a fear-based effect.

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A wide-area debuff. Unless you are up against a large number of enemies OR your group doesn't need Inspire Courage (maybe they hit anyway, maybe they are spellcasters), Song of Joy is better though. The Refrain however allows you to keep enemies from maneuvering, and we all know how powerful that can be.

Not much to add or change here! The defensive counterpart to Inspire Courage. Niche, but useful, and very fitting to a magical girl's traditionally defensive role.

Ballad of Friendship (Su): Affected allies automatically succeed on aid another attempts. The bonuses granted by aid another are increased by the idol's Inspire Courage bonus, adding to the bonus usually granted by the aid another action.

Ballad of Friendship, Refrain (Su): As a swift action that consumes two motes, you allow all allies to use aid another as a move action until the beginning of your next turn.

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If you really really need to succeed at something, use this. It's situational, but it can grant a larger increase than Inspire Courage.

Lyrics of Light (Su): Your song brings forth a brilliant display of light that seems to wash away all problems. Affected allies gain Fast Healing equal to twice your Inspire Courage Bonus.

Lyrics of Light, Refrain (Su): As a full-round action that consumes seven motes, you can make a Perform Check. Affected allies within 60 feet are healed by an amount equal to your perform check, while affected enemies within 60 feet take damage equal to your perform check. A successful will save halves this damage.

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You'll really use this for the refrain. It's probably amongst the strongest option against hordes, though spamming it will be expensive

As a nice side effect, you make wands of CLW obsolete! An excellent source of out-of-combat healing, though in combat usefulness is really limited to the refrain.

Melody of Magic (Su): Music and Magic are one and the same to a magical idol, and her magic is intrinsically tied to to her song. Affected allies add +2 to the save DC of all their abilities, and +4 to all saving throws.

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This buffs everything that matters at higher levels. And remember that you can sing two songs by now, so you don't even have to choose and will probably keep this running all the time.

The refrain was... difficult to manage, balance wise. Ultimately, it got the axe as unnecessary. But even without it, this is still arguably the best effect an idol gets - esoteric inspire courage, if you will.

Arcane Performance (Su): When a magical idol initiates idol music or bardic music she may, as a free action, sacrifice an arcane spell to add one of the following effects to those of her performance. A magical idol can sacrifice multiple spells to activate multiple options simultaneously, and each option performs at the level of the spell she sacrificed to gain it.

All effects last as long as the idol continues to perform, or for one minute, whichever comes first. If she switches from one kind of performance to another, the effects do not end - they cease only when she ceases to perform a Bardic Performance altogether. The magical idol can end individual arcane performances whenever she wishes as a free action.

All effects that mirror spells use the magical idol's bard level to determine her caster level.

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Dancing Spotlights: The magical idol creates four narrow pillars of light per level of the sacrificed spell, each filling a single square and casting light as a torch. She may place as many pillars in a single square as she wishes and may move all of them simultaneously with a single move action, with a fly speed of 30 ft and a maneuverability of perfect. A creature who shares a space with those lights gains a +1 competence bonus to charisma-based skill checks for each pillar in its square, up to twice the level of the sacrificed spell. It also gains a +1 morale bonus to attack rolls for every four pillars (rounded down) in its square.

Arcane Amplifiers: The idol can choose one square per level of the spell sacrificed - she must have line of sight to the square, but the range of this ability is otherwise unlimited. The magical idol's performance can be perceived as if she were standing in those squares in addition to her own square. Creatures in that square are deafened or blinded (the effect is chosen when activating this ability) for as long as they remain in that square if they fail a fortitude save against her idol music.

Luminous Choreography: Each time the magical idol takes a Move action during her turn and moves at least ten feet, she creates one Mirror Image, which functions identically to those created by the spell of the same name. The idol can have a number of Mirror Images equal to the level of the spell sacrificed. She gains a +2 bonus to perform checks for each Mirror Image you have.

Ocean of Cheers: One ally per level of the sacrificed spell can make an Aid Another Perform check as an immediate reaction. They gain a +2 bonus to their perform checks for each level of the spell sacrificed. For each ally that succeeds, the save DC of the magical idol's idol music increases by one.

Radiant Fog: Fog spreads around the idol, covering a radius centered on her equal to 5 ft per level of spell sacrificed. This fog functions identically to that produced by the Obscuring Mist spell, but never impedes perception of the magical idol's performance. Allies within the fog receive a +5 bonus to their Acrobatics checks to move trough threatened squares per level of spell sacrificed, and enemies receive an equal penalty. The fog cloud does not move with the idol, remaining stationary on the place of its creation.

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You are your own rock-concert! And you get a way to effectively use those low-level spellslots you have.

Battlefield control like a rock-star! This isn't always going to be a good way to spend your precious spell slots, but there are certainly worse ones. As a spontaneous caster, more options are always welcome!

Rapture of the Song: While maintaining any idol music or bardic music, a magical idol gains a +2 Dodge Bonus to her AC. At 4th-level, she also gains a +2 sacred Bonus to her saving throws. At 8th-level, she gains Freedom of Movement while performing.

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This is blatantly stolen from the Seeker of the Song, except that it stacks with everything else.

Defenses and mobility. 'Nuff said.

Luminous Chorus: At 6th-level, a magical idol can maintain two idol music or bardic music effects at the same time. This second performance is initiated as normal, but each round she wishes to sustain it the magical idol must make a concentration check against a DC of 25. Failure on this check results in the second performance immediately ending unless the magical idol spends a standard action to focus herself completely on maintaining the complex performance.

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You can maintain two songs at the same time, but at the risk of constantly needing to spend actions to do so.

Perfect Chorus: The magical idol no longer needs to make concentration checks to a second performance.

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Your Capstone. Combine two buffs at your leisure.

[Selinia]

The Aerial Mage
Contributed by Serafina

"The wind is in the sky and the stars are in the heavens and a resolute heart beats within my chest!"
-Nanoha Takamachi, Aerial Mage

Many Magical Girls represent freedom, and what could be more free than the skies?

The ability to fly is often the most cherished ability of Magical Girls that become Aerial Mages. They embrace it and train hard to move trough the air with utmost grace and speed.

Requirements:
To become an Aerial Mage, you must meed the following requirements:
Skills: 12 ranks in Tumble
Special: Must be able to invest at least three points into the Weightless Costume effect
Special: Must have defeated a flying foe with a challenge rating equal to or greater than your HD without touching the ground for the duration of the combat

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You're supposed to be a good flyer. Thus these prerequisites - note that Tumble is supposed to be used for 3.5 and Fly for Pathfinder.

As with the Magical Idol, I'll be making my comments in teal, Serafina's will be in black! Here, a minor added fluff requirement - calling back to the Ace Pilots of bygone days, an aerial mage can't really call herself that until she's won a proper dogfight!

Class Skill List: Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge [Arcana] (Int), Knowledge [The Planes] (Int), Perform (Cha), Ride (Dex), Search (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis) Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha)
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

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Like the Magical Girl, but with added Spot and Search because doing so from the air is beneficial, but hard.

Aerial Mage
Hit Dice: D8
{table=head] Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | Illumination
1st | +1 | +0 | +1 | +1 | Themed Costume (+1), Nimble Flyer | +1 level of existing illumination-using class

2nd | +2 | +1 | +1 | +1 | Aerial Evasion, Aerial Maneuver (1) Winged Speed +10 |

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3rd | +3 | +1 | +2 | +2 | Aerial Maneuver (2), Supersonic Flight, Themed Costume (+2) | +1 level of existing illumination-using class

4th | +4 | +1 | +2 | +2 | Aerial Maneuver (3), Improved Aerial Evasion, Winged Speed +20 |

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5th | +5 | +2 | +3 | +3 | Aerial Maneuver (4), Freedom of the Skies, Themed Costume (+3) | +1 level of existing illumination-using class[/table]

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Same Chassis as the Magical Girl, but using Pathfinder-prestige class progression (which mostly reduces the gap betwen good and bad saves.

Left the same, save for bumping BAB to full. The aerial mage seems martially-focused enough that she'd pick up some honest combat prowess in the midst of all those fancy tricks.

Themed Costume: An aerial mage does not gain costume points or increase the investment limit for her costume effects. At 1st level, and again at 4th level, she permanently ingrains one point into the weightless effect into her costume. These permanent effects cannot be reallocated, do not consume costume points, and do not count against the maximum number of costume points the aerial mage may invest in any given effect.

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3 Costume points in 5 levels are a very good deal, but the rest of your costume will be weaker.

Reworded slightly to mesh with the Prism Knight feature of the same name.

Illuminations: At 1st, 3rd and 5th level, the Aerial Mage increases all aspects of her Illumination class feature by one. At 2nd and 4th levels, she gains a +1 bonus to her evoker level and increases the size of her mote pool by one.

Nimble Flyer (Ex): The aerial mage can use her Charisma modifier instead of her Dexterity modifier for tumble skill checks.

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The Grace-part of an Aerial Mages flight. Worded that way to be compatible with both Pathfinder and 3.5

Aerial Evasion (Ex): So long as the aerial mage remains airborne, she gains all the benefits of the Evasion class feature. If she already have evasion, she gains the benefits of Improved Evasion instead.

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Because its much easier to dodge a fireball when you can fly.

Winged Speed (Su): At 2nd level, and again at 4th level, an aerial mage's fly speed increases by 10 feet. This is doubled as usual if she has 6 or more points in the Weightless costume effect.

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The speed-part of an Aerial Mages flight.

Aerial Maneuver (Su): At each level beyond 1st, the mage learns a single Aerial Maneuver from the following list. The aerial mage may alter her selections freely whenever she would be able to reallocate her costume points.

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Radiant Tornado: As a full-round action that consumes two motes, the aerial mage can move her speed in a straight line. She may make a melee attack at her full base attack bonus against each enemy adjacent to any point along her path. If she wishes, the aerial mage can replace any number of these attacks with standard-action Strike illuminations, but she must pay the full mote cost for each strike used. Movement from this maneuver provokes attacks of opportunity, though tumble checks can be used to negate it as normal.

Barrel Roll: Once per round as an immediate reaction to being hit by a ranged attack, the aerial mage can pay two motes to make a tumble check. Treat the result as her new AC and Touch AC against ranged attacks and ranged touch attacks until the beginning of her next turn.

Sonic Charge: When the aerial mage makes a charge attack, she can pay a mote to move three times her speed (rather than twice her speed, as usual for such an action). This immense speed produces a sonic boom - enemies within 5 feet of the squares through which she passes during her charge take 1D6 sonic damage per point in the Weightless costume effect and must make a Fortitude save (with a save DC equal to that of her illuminations) or be knocked prone by the blast.

Rays from Above: When the aerial mage uses a Blast illumination and is targeting a creature at a lower altitude, she can pay one mote to increase the size of its damage die by one step (in most cases, converting d6s to d8s). If she is directly above her target, the damage die grow by two sizes (usually from d6s to 2d6s).

Radiant Shockwave: The aerial mage's movement produces a brilliant nimbus of light, making it harder to accurately target those near her. Whenever she moves at least 30 ft in one round, the aerial mage can pay one mote to grant herself and any allies adjacent to her at the end of her movement 20% concealment against incoming attacks. If she moved a distance greater than her fly speed, this concealment increases to 50%.

Sonic Sprint: As a swift action that consumes two motes, the aerial mage can move up to her fly speed without provoking attacks of opportunity. This movement must be in a straight line.

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The reason why you take this Prestige class. Something for everyone, and more may be added.

I have little to add here. These are excellent! Take them!

Supersonic Flight (Su): All Aerial Mages are renowned for their speed, but only the best manage to surpass the sound barrier.

Over the course of five rounds (all spent moving forward in a straight line at your running speed) the aerial mage can accelerate to supersonic speed. While at Supersonic Speed, her maneuverability drops to clumsy and she moves two miles (approximately 15,000 feet, or 3,000 squares) in a straight line each round. If the aerial mage collides with any obstacle while moving at such a prodigeous speed, she takes 10D10 bludgeoning damage and are stunned for 1D6 rounds. She can drop out of supersonic speed at the beginning of her round, but the aerial mage must spend the next three rounds moving forward in a straight line at her running speed in order to slow down safely.

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A way to cross large distances quickly. Obviously not supposed to be used in combat, unless you have an enemy that is just as quick.

Aerial mages are the fastest. The fastest. In theory, this ability could be used to turn a reckless magical girl into a living battering ram, but that is something I leave to GM discretion!

Improved Aerial Evasion (Ex): At 4th-level, So long as the aerial mage remains airborne, she gains the benefits of the Improved Evasion class feature.

Freedom of the Skies (Su): If any effect (such as an Antimagic Field) would disrupt an aerial mage's Weightless costume effect or stop her from moving, you can make a tumble check as a free action. If the result of this check is higher than [10 + the caster level of the disrupting effect], it does not interfere with the aerial mage's flight speed or ability to fly in any manner, though it affects her normally in all other respects.

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You love flying, and this class revolves around flying - so its hard to stop you from flying. Yes, you can fly in an Antimagic Field.

* * * * * * *

Some Magical Girls move with equal speed and grace as Aerial Mages, but on the ground rather than in the air. Change all references of Weightless to Quick, all references of fly speed to base land speed and replace Supersonic Flight with the following ability.

Magical Parkour (Su): By gathering speed for two rounds (running in a straight line at your run speed) you can being a Magical Parkour run. During this run you automatically move double your base land speed at the beginning of each of your turns, and do not gain a move action (only a standard and a swift). Further, you can multiply all jump-distances by 10, and your jump distances are limited by your run-speed instead of your normal land speed. You do not take damage from falling during your Parkour, but you can not avoid attacks of opportunity. You can also run on any solid or liquid surface, including vertical ones, and are not hindered by difficult terrain. You must move at least double your speed during your Parkour, and can end it by spending a standard action to decelerate.

To convert the aerial mage for use in the Pathfinder system, convert all instances of the Tumble skill to Fly. In addition, the aerial mage may use fly checks in place of acrobatics checks when attempting to move without provoking attacks of opportunity.

The Pathfinder aerial mage requires only 9 ranks in fly as a prequisite, not 12.

The Pathfinder aerial mage's class skill list consists only of Fly and Perception.

[Selinia]

Errata!

Thank you! These should be fixed now.

Magical Girl is/is not reflective of the genre for which it is named!

I would like to mention that the magical girl, despite her name, is basically a deranged genre smoothie. She has elements of a ton of different subgenres, and not all of them are even magical girl shows. Stargazer, perhaps her oddest archetype, is essentially a Pokemon trainer and Lain jammed into a blender and whipped into a mindraping abomination of adorableness who eats people memories with a ghost puppy. By this point, magical girls are tied together more by mechanics than source material - its an homage to the genre of magical girls, and action-oriented ones like Nanoha in particular, but I'm not using 'how accurate it this to show X, Y, or Z' as a major metric in development.

Speaking of development, something that took me slightly longer than expected!

The Power of Teamwork Update [Part 2/4]

This time, the focus in on the class's various Prestige classes! With a couple exceptions, these have tended to be overshadowed by the main class, but a few tweaks have helped them onto a more manageable track, in my opinon. Not to mention to entirely new classes the thread has submitted!

Changelog:

• The Costumed Crusader, Prism Knight, and Sempai have been converted to a new model of illumination advancement - one that I intend to use for future PrCs as well. Evoker level and mote pool increase every level, while all other illumination-related features (such as mote regeneration, illuminations readied, and the like) advance only on 'beat' levels, not dissimilar to a casting progression class. This keeps a stable resource pool and maintains save DCs (which often lag behind saves anyway) while still limiting access to more powerful illuminations. I'd like to give a shout-out here to Draken, who devised this rather superb solution and saved me much dithering.
• The Sempai has experienced significant buffs - notably, she now gains access to Pep Talk a level earlier, advances it a point further, and enjoys much less situational buffs from it. She also benefits greatly from the new progression system, with a solid 8/10 progression.
• The Prism Knight has picked up a handful of new Prisms.
• The Magical Idol, contributed by Serafina, has been added to the PrC roster! While I did my best to keep the heart of the class intact, I made a single fairly major change to it - it now requires Bard to enter, and advances its bard side considerably more vigorously. While she may not be the powerhouse some of her sisters are, the magical idol is one of the most potent dedicated support units you could see on a battlefield, meshing together two classes known for the role into something quite powerful.
• Two new idol-related feats have been added to the core list! Luminous Symphony helps economize radiant focus, while Reverberating Light is a boon to blasters everywhere.
• The Aerial Mage, also contributed by Serafina, has been added to the PrC roster! A precise, agile, and insanely mobile fighter capable of filling a number of different combat roles - she has less brute force than a costumed crusader, but the aerial mage has a definite niche for those who prefer finesse to firepower!

Coming up next - archetypes!

[Owrtho]

Yay, update. Anyway, first thought I'd note that on the Aerial Mage, for pathfinder conversion you note it only has Fly and Perception as class skills. It seems that it should still have things like Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge [Arcana] (Int), Knowledge [The Planes] (Int), Perform (Cha), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha) in addition to those two.

Anyway, is it intended that Luminous Symphony (and consequently the Magical Idol) is not accessible to Devicers due to their lack of the Radiant Focus class feature?

Otherwise, the addition of bard being required for the Magical Idol is a shame (it would be nice to have a music themed magical girl prc that didn't require multiclassing), but understandable. That said, Arcane Performance should allow the magical girl to sacrifice multiple spells to the same performance, having the sum of the spell levels used in such an event.

Owrtho

[jamieth]

Yay, update. Anyway, first thought I'd note that on the Aerial Mage, for pathfinder conversion you note it only has Fly and Perception as class skills. It seems that it should still have things like Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge [Arcana] (Int), Knowledge [The Planes] (Int), Perform (Cha), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha) in addition to those two.
Owrtho

Well, first of all, some of these skills do not exist in Pathfinder at all (for example, Escape Artist is a subset of Acrobatics, I believe), but, more importantly, as far as I remember, in Pathfinder, all skills cost the same 1 point/rank anyway, and class skills only provide an additional +3 while trained; therefore, a skill that is class skill for one of your classes is always a class skill for you. Since you can't enter Aerial Mage without having levels in MG, those skills would be class for you anyway.

Unless, of course, I'm missing something.

[Princess Tracy]

You got it mostly right, except Escape Artist is still it's own skill. In fact.. yeah, all those skills exist. But yeah the 'once a class skill, always a class skill' clause still stands

[sajuuk]

All right, so I've been convinced by one of my DMs (who has no account here) to end my lurking and post his feedback on this class. Why he won't do it himself, I have no idea.

To the creator: please look back over and reconsider your illuminations list. They're so unbalanced they teeter on the side of insanity.

I was introduced to this class by one of my players and fellow GMs. Inspired by the sheer creativity in mechanics shown in this class I quickly grew to become a fan advocating its use. It's unique and really merged all the best aspects of both Incarnum and Tome of Battle combat mechanics, even putting aside that I am a Nanoha fan (awaiting the 2nd movie!). I also found the base class rather balanced in advancement, although I won't speak of the PrCs (all of the 5lvl ones are too crammed and OP imo, and sempai is positively broken as it boosts a small squad even better than the best Marshal design), but that's for other GMs to decide...

But the illuminations... there is so much overpoweredness that I had to say something. Let me raise some examples:

Lvl1s:

Beacon of Serenity - swift action to gain level+CHA temporary HP per round for a mote cost that regenerates every turn. This, alone, makes any melee magical girl build the best tank in the game as they can continuously create a buffer of HP that has to be worn down. Since the duration is until end of encounter, the magical girl can go full-offense until the opponent does take down that buffer.
Comparison: Cleric's basic Aid spell (SpLvl2) gives only 1d8+CL temporary HP, as a standard action.
Suggestion: make this just tempHP = Charisma mod. As a swift action, single mote ability in a CHA-class, that's already extremely powerful.

Fragile Shell - swift action to make a wall that blocks movement, no matter how fragile, is ridiculous. The enemy has to spend an attack (or multiple attacks at low lvls, given the HP here) taking down a wall that you can raise as swift actions before they get to you? Instantly the best field-control (divide and conquer!) and rear guard character.
Comparison: Solid wall spells, by and most aren't available until SpLvl4+ (although Spell Compendium's Dark Way is lvl2).
Suggestion: actually this is so abusable I don't know where to start. Recommend making it standard action for starters, with either (1) and upkeep or (2) ability for enemy to break through with a strength check so they don't have to spend actions attacking it.

Heartbreaker - -4xhit dmg isn't too bad, but... +1roll/turn is too many for already overloaded GMs. Tracking fluctuating penalties is even more annoying. I can see most GMs banning this out of sheer annoyance after a few encounters (I know I would!)

Homing Shot - low damage multi-shot spell is fine, and I love the Accel Shooter concept too, but this is way too powerful at lower lvls --- when mages can't consistently make Concentration checks (they need to hit med-lvl for that), a rapid barrage of shots at them in response to any cast is very liking to disrupt spellcasting, making this an extremely overpowered low-lvl counterspell. At higher lvls, the right build to increase output damage can still keep this useful (and abusable).
Comparison: what comparison, there is NO immediate action target-anyone-you-want-in-range attack spells at lower lvls.

Spotlight - this spell need clarification on how it works against magical darkness. The ability to clear any magical darkness, even say, SpLvl9 Utterdark (BoVD?) with just a lvl1 swift action is over the bounds of insanity. -1 penalty to enemies and +1 bonus to allies makes this equivalent to a Prayer (Cleric SpLvl4) spell, except also clearing darkness + reposition at will + swift action cast? This is the equivalent of a SpLvl7+ ability if I've seen one.



Lvl2s:

Angel / Blinding Buster - at class level 6 when this is first gained, it costs 3 motes while one regens 2/round. With Radiant Focus that easily meaning this is a 1/round spammable action, at 6d6+Charisma damage, at medium range, double the damage of Warlocks and without burning slots like Wizards... wut? Max damage vs all those creature types make the Paladin look useless in comparison at med levels.

Chains of Concordance - lvl+CHA grapple mod is already equal to Fighter builds (meaning Wizards have no chance, and Rogues little unless they invested Escape Artist). Add a +4 on top and SWIFT action cast... seriously, just spam.
Comparison: Telekinesis is a CL + casting mod grapple, but takes a standard action to cast AND requires concentration to use AND burns a SpLvl5 slot.

...and on...



I hope the creators consider this message and reconsider their designs. It would be a shame for many a GM to ban this class purely because they, as I did, opened up the illumination list and realized how much abusable potential over half the list had that easily allow a magical girl to outdo the rest of the party.

[Chronologist]

The Exemplar of Harmony



"You think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that? Well you're wrong! Because the spirits of the Elements of Harmony... are RIGHT HERE!" T. Sparkle, Exemplar of Magic/Hope

There comes a point where a magical girl ceases to simply exemplify the forces of good and light – she becomes them. This transition is rare and unconventional for a Magical Girl, but allows them to expand the subtle influence of their powers, as well as transcend mortality itself in time. Though there are only six Elements, the number of potential Exemplar of Harmony is not so limited - each character is simply a manifestation of that concept.

Requirements:
To become an Exemplar of Harmony, you must meet the following prerequisites:
Skills: 18 ranks in Diplomacy
Feat: Harmonic Resonance
Special: Pure of Heart class feature, 10 or more levels of classes and prestige classes that grant Illuminations

Class Skill List: Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Perform (Cha), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha)

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Exemplar of Harmony
Hit Dice: d6

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Illuminations
1|+0|+0|+0|+2|Anthropomorphic Personification, Illumination Mastery|+1 level
2|+1|+0|+0|+3|Illumination Mastery|+1 level
3|+1|+1|+1|+3|Illumination Mastery, Costume +1|+1 level
4|+2|+1|+1|+4|Illumination Mastery|+1 level
5|+2|+1|+1|+4|Illumination Mastery, Becoming Hope|+1 level[/table]


Weapons and Armor Proficiencies: An Exemplar of Harmony gains no additional proficiency with any kind of weapon or armor.

Anthropomorphic Personification (Su): At 1st level, an Exemplar of Harmony selects one of the following, each an exemplary quality that Magical Girls hold dear. It must match her Harmony selected by the Harmonic Resonance feat. As a full-round action, she can temporarily shed her mortality and become an anthropomorphic personification of her chosen element. Each element grants a number of special benefits, but they all share the same following benefits:

- Gains the Outsider (Native) type and subtype, replacing her own for the duration, with all the benefits that grants.

- Incorporeal for the duration, though the Exemplar of Harmony may concentrate as a free action to lower this quality until the beginning of their next turn.

- Gain a Fly speed equal to her base land speed. If she already possessed a fly speed, her speed increases by 30 feet.

- The number of Motes you recover each round and the save DC of your Illuminations, if any, is increased by 2.

In addition, each Exemplar of Harmony in this state radiates an aura reaching out 100 feet per Exemplar of Harmony level, which forces all creatures within the radius to act as if they had your Harmonic Resonance feat, except they get a Will save DC is 20 + your Charisma modifier in order to resist the cumulative penalty. Only good creatures, however, gain the benefits of your feat.

An Exemplar of Harmony can maintain this state for a number of minutes per day equal to their class level plus their Charisma modifier. They can deactivate the state as a free action, but they can only spend time in this state in 1-minute increments.

Illumination Mastery: At 1st level and every level thereafter, an Exemplar of Harmony gains an Illumination Mastery from the list below. Once learned, an Illumination Mastery cannot be changed.

Illumination Masteries:
Blast of Power: As a standard action, an Exemplar of Harmony may fire a number of magical bolts, just like a Blast Illumination. She fires one bolt per Element of Harmony level, plus two per Mote spent, and they have a range of Medium. She cannot spend more motes than her class level in this way. Each bolt inflicts 1d6 damage, and functions as a Magic Missile spell for all intents and purposes (i.e. it hits automatically, can be distributed among any number of targets within range, but can be blocked with Shield spells and the like)

Augmented Reach: Select a single Strike Illumination you know. You may make attacks with that Strike Illumination as ranged touch attacks with a 30-foot range. This ability may be taken more than once, each time, select a different Strike Illumination.

Prismatic Shift: Select a single Illumination you know that inflicts damage. As a free action when you use that Illumination, you may choose to have it deal fire, electricity, cold, or electricity damage instead of its normal damage. This ability can be taken more than once, each time, select a different Illumination.

Shaping Mastery: Select a single Illumination you know with an burst, cone, cylinder, emanation, or spread shape. When you use that Illumination, you may choose to exclude a number of squares within the area from being affected by the Illumination. You may take this ability more than once, each time you select a different Illumination.

Off the Walls: Select a single Illumination you know with a line of effect. When you use that Illumination, you may have the line make as many 90-degree turns as you wish, in the direction you wish, until its range runs out. This effectively allows you to fire lines around corners, in circles, and around allies. You may take this ability more than once, each time you select a different Illumination.

Expanded Radius: Select an Aura Illumination that you know. That Aura’s range is doubled. You may take this ability more than once, each time you select a different Illumination.

Favored Illumination: Select a single Illumination you know. When you enter combat, you may choose to remove a number of Motes from your pool equal to that Illumination’s mote cost. If you do, you may use that Illumination for free up to 2 times during that encounter. You may take this ability more than once, each time you select a different Illumination.



Illuminations: At 1st level and every level thereafter, an Exemplar of Harmony improves her ability to use Illuminations as though she gained a level in Magical Girl.

Costume: At 3rd level, an Exemplar of Harmony gains an additional +1 to her Costume bonus.

Becoming Hope: At 5th level, an Exemplar of Harmony is constantly an Anthropomorphic Personification, as the class feature, and instead can lower the ability for a number of minutes per day equal to her class level plus her Charisma modifier, spent in 1-minute increments. In addition, the Exemplar of Harmony ceases to age and is functionally immortal - so long as she remains in her anthropomorphic state, if slain she rises from the grave 1 week later in a random place on the material plane up to 5d% from her last location on that plane. Each time after the first each year she rises, she loses one level, as the spell Resurrection. If brought down to her human state by her own will, she can be killed and raised normally.

Harmonic Resonance (General Feat)
Prerequisites: Pure of Heart, 6th level
Benefit: Select one of the following Elements of Harmony. You must follow the code associated with that element. If you break your Code, you take a cumulative -1 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks for 24 hours. Each infraction resets the duration. If you penalty is as large as your Illuminator level, you immediately lose your Magical Girl abilities and must make atonement for your actions. You also know inherently whether performing a certain action would violate your code. In return, you gain a +3 bonus to your Will saves and checks to resist Intimidate checks.

{table=head]Element|Code
Honesty|You cannot lie or intentionally conceal information for any reason
Kindness|You cannot attack enemies unprovoked or deal lethal damage
Laughter|You must treat others fairly and you cannot attempt to intimidate or attack the character of others
Generosity|You cannot refuse to lend aid to one in genuine need
Loyalty|You cannot break any oaths or promises, or refuse the call to aid of a friend
Hope/Magic|You cannot lose faith in yourself or your friends or give up in the face of adversity[/table]


So, what do you think? The source material is pretty obvious, but I was considering what would be a good end-game prestige class for Magical Girls. The class is functionally very similar to the Archmage, from which I took several of the abilities, but I think it has its own unique flair.

You can also sort of see Luna as a Dark Magical Girl, Celestia as a Sempai, the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well as a Costumed Crusader, Twilight has a Mentor Animal (though it's the other way around), Applejack is a Mistbreaker, Pinkie Pie is a Magical Idol, Rarity is perhaps a Prism Knight (gems and all that), and Fluttershy is a mix of the Stargazer and Kofu Shojo (though I know the two are incompatible).

Rainbow Dash is totally a Magical Girl / Aerial Mage / Exemplar of Harmony :) I totally decided to do this when I read the Aereal Mage and went "Huh, that capstone is totally a Sonic Rainboom".

If you like it, I'm sure I could easily adapt the class to also work for Dark Magical Girls - perhaps the Exemplar of Discord (Fabrication, Malice, Cynicism, Greed, Apathy, and Isolation, as a Deviantart user puts them) . The Dark Magical Girl could use a fun capstone class for those last 5 levels.

Great work Selenia, I'm very excited to contribute something to this wonderful homebrew.

Edit: Put things in bold, reduced range of Anthropomorphic Personification's ability to impose its Harmonic Resonance.

[Snowfire]

Chrono?

That. Is. Awesome.

Also finally gives me a way to do something I've been struggling on a mechanical way to do for weeks now in the magical girl game I'm running.

So...what I think I'm trying to say here is...

Thank you!

*vanishes into the distance, followed by crazed, gleeful laughter*

[radmelon]

Congratulations [poster name here], you have won one(1) internet! Please proceed to the registry to collect your prize!

[Chronologist]

Congratulations [poster name here], you have won one(1) internet! Please proceed to the registry to collect your prize!

So, I take it you like it then? As a wise man once told me, ponies go with everything.

Any comments on the balance? I reduced hit points, BAB, and reflex saves in order to fortify that the class is much less of a bruiser and more like a walking GOD. It can do things with Illuminations that other Magical Girls gape openly at... and then it turns on its main feature, and everything goes to hell.

Anthropomorphic Personification expands the class' abilities; Incorporeal is an extraordinarily useful ability to have, especially in the "minutes" category instead of rounds. The increased mote recovery and DCs aren't particularly outrageous, especially at higher levels when you're going to want to be using powerful Strikes and Blasts one after another.

The Illumination Mastery abilities are basically just cribbed from the Archmage with minor modifications.

Becoming Hope might be a bit too powerful, but it's essentially the same thing as the capstone for the Uncarnate (Expanded Psionics Handbook). The resurrection ability is potent, but then again, your character is the embodiment of laughter. How do you kill the concept of laughter? I DID insert the clause that if an Exemplar of Harmony is killed when in her "depowered" minutes per day, she's dead for real, so the villains can easily just capture her friends and threaten to kill them if the Exemplar doesn't "depower" and let them kill her.

Honestly, my favorite mechanic is being able to impose your Harmonic Resonance feat on people within miles of your location. The physical embodiment of truth is upstairs, of course you're going to have a tough time lying anywhere near her. I can see a lot of characters choosing Kindness, going into a dungeon, being attacked by powerful enemies, going Exemplar, and just walking past them "Oh, where we fighting? I'm sorry, I didn't notice".

I'm going to start working on the Exemplar of Discord now. Dark Magician Girls need love too!

[Chronologist]

The Paragon of Discord

(spoiler for image size and ponies )

Spoiler

Show

”Mine! MINE!!" "Stop laughing at me!" "It's hopeless" "Your FACE!" "Whatever, I don't care" "I don't see nopony! Nopony at all!" - the last recorded meeting of the Paragons of Avarice, Fear, Despair, Cruelty, Betrayal, and Deceit, left to right

Where there is light, there is darkness. Where some find compassion, other seek only more hatred. In the same way, where there are Exemplars of Harmony, there are the Paragons of Discord, fallen Magical Girls who have stopped seeking the light, and now revel in their own darkness.

Requirements:
To become a Paragon of Discord, you must meet the following prerequisites:
Skills: 18 ranks in Intimidate
Feat: Discordant Echoes
Special: Rage of Tears class feature, at least 10 levels in classes that grant or improve Illuminations

Class Skill List: Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Perform (Cha), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha)

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Paragon of Discord
Hit Dice: d8

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Illuminations
1|+1|+0|+0|+2|Anthropomorphic Personification, Fury and Tears, Judgment|---
2|+2|+0|+0|+3|Judgment|+1 level
3|+3|+1|+1|+3|Judgment, Costume +1|+1 level
4|+4|+1|+1|+4|Judgment|+1 level
5|+5|+1|+1|+4|Judgment, Becoming Despair|---[/table]


Weapons and Armor Proficiencies: A Paragon of Discord gains no additional proficiency with any kind of weapon or armor.

Anthropomorphic Personification (Su): At 1st level, a Paragon of Discord selects one of the following, each an exemplary quality that Magical Girls hold dear. It must match her Discord selected by the Discordant Echoes feat. As a full-round action, she can temporarily shed her mortality and become an anthropomorphic personification of her chosen element. Each element grants a number of special benefits, but they all share the same following benefits:

- Gains the Outsider (Native) type and subtype, replacing her own for the duration, with all the benefits that grants.

- Incorporeal for the duration, though the Paragon of Discord may concentrate as a free action to lower this quality until the beginning of their next turn.

- Gain a Fly speed equal to her base land speed. If she already possessed a fly speed, her speed increases by 30 feet.

- While in a Rage of Tears, you gain a +6 total bonus to Charisma, a +4 total bonus to Dexterity, and a +4 total bonus to Constitution.

In addition, each Paragon of Discord in this state radiates an aura reaching out 100 feet per Paragon of Discord level, which forces all creatures within the radius to act as if they had your Harmonic Resonance feat, except they get a Will save DC is 20 + your Charisma modifier in order to resist the cumulative penalty. Only evil creatures, however, gain the benefits of your feat.

A Paragon of Discord can maintain this state for a number of minutes per day equal to their class level plus their Charisma modifier. They can deactivate the state as a free action, but they can only spend time in this state in 1-minute increments.

Judgment (Su): At 1st level and every level thereafter, a Paragon of Discord learns a technique that allows them to drastically improve their attack Illuminations. These judgments can only be performed while in a Rage of Tears, and once learned, they cannot be changed. Each Judgment can only be used once per Rage of Tears, unless otherwise noted, and you cannot apply more than one Judgment to the same attack.


Judgments
Feel My Pain: You may activate this Judgment if you suffered damage sunce the end of your last turn. The next Illumination you use before the end of your turn that inflicts damage inflicts additional damage equal to 5 times the Illumination’s level, up to a maximum equal to the damage you suffered in the previous round. If your Discord is Cruelty, the limit of damage is instead 10 times the Illumination’s level, and the limit is increased to twice the damage you suffered since last round.

Your Dreams are Dead: Before using an illumination which deals damage and requires an attack roll, you may declare that you are using this Judgment. Your Illumination effectively gains a critical threat range equal to your Charisma modifier, with a x2 critical. So, if you have a Charisma modifier of +7, the attack threatens a critical hit on a roll of 14-20. You still need to confirm the critical, but if it hits, all damage from the Illumination is doubled, and you gain a +2 to the save DCs of any effects included in the Illumination. If your Discord is Despair/Sorcery, the additional dice from the critical hit are automatically maximized.

It’s Mine: Before you attack with an Illumination, you may declare that you are using this Judgment. If so, if your attack hits, you may attempt to take an object held or worn by the subject that you can feasibly remove in one smooth motion. Make an opposed level + cha check versus your opponent’s level + dex check, if you succeed, you take the item in one of your hands. If your Discord is Avarice, you gain a +4 bonus to the check, and if you hit with the Judgment but fail to take the object, you may deal your Judgment’s damage directly to that item, in addition to your opponent.

Lies! All Lies!: Whenever you fail a save against an effect that granted a Fortitude or Will saving throw, you may spend an immediate action to declare you are activating this judgment. At the beginning of your next turn you may reroll your save, if you succeed, you shake off the effect. If your Discord is Deceit, you gain a +4 bonus to your save, and if you make an attack with an illumination before the end of that turn, the target must make a Fortitude or Will save at the same DC as the effect you threw off, or else be affected by it.

No Time for Fun and Games: When you hit with this Illumination, you immediately learn the name and effect of every spell, power, or other supernatural ability affecting your target, as well as martial stances. You may then make an opposed Illuminator level + charisma modifier check against a number of those effects equal to your Charisma modifier. If you beat the caster level + attribute modifier of the effect, it is suppressed for 1d4 rounds. If your Discord is Fear, increase your bonus to the check by your Paragon of Discord level, and suppressed effects are instead dispelled.

Your Bonds are Broken: When you hit with an illumination, you may declare the use of this Judgment. Your target must make a DC 15 + your Paragon of Discord level + your Charisma modifier Will save or lose the ability to distinguish friend and foe on the battlefield. Other characters cannot help the affected target distinguish properly, but the target may spend a full-round action attempting to clear their head; each time they do so they gain a cumulative +1 bonus to that save. This ability lasts for 1 minute, or until shaken off. If your Discord is Betrayal, you may instead choose for the target to see you as an ally, and all others as enemies. If you choose this option, they instead gain a Will save as a free action at the end of each of their turns, but they take a penalty to saves equal to your Paragon of Discord level, and gain a +2 cumulative bonus to that save each round after the first.

Extra Judgment: Select one of your known Judgments. You may use that Judgment one additional time each time you use Rage of Tears. You can select this feat more than once, each time you select a different known judgment. Your Rage of Tears lasts one more round than normal.

Furious Sacrifice: At the beginning of your turn, you may expend two rounds of your Rage of Tears as a Move action in order to recover the use of one of your expended judgments. You may instead choose to recover that judgment as a free action by spending three rounds of Rage of Tears. Your Rage of Tears lasts one more round.

Feed the Furnace: You may choose to sacrifice the use of a known judgment as a swift action, if you do, your Rage of Tears lasts 1 more round. In addition, your Rage of Tears lasts an additional round normally.


Illuminations: At 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level, your Illuminations improve as if you gained another level of Dark Magical Girl. At 1st and 5th level, you gain a +1 bonus to your effective Illuminator level and 1 mote, but you do not gain access to more powerful Illuminations.

Fury and Tears: Paragon of Discord levels stack with Dark Magical Girl levels in order to determine the number of motes gained while in a Rage of Tears, and a Paragon of Discord may add her class levels to the number of rounds she can maintain a Rage of Tears.

Costume: At 3rd level, a Paragon of Discord gains an additional +1 to her Costume bonus.

Becoming Despair: At 5th level, a Paragon of Discord is constantly an Anthropomorphic Personification, as the class feature, and instead can lower the ability for a number of minutes per day equal to her class level plus her Charisma modifier, spent in 1-minute increments. In addition, the Paragon of Discord ceases to age and is functionally immortal - so long as she remains in her anthropomorphic state, if slain she rises from the grave 1 week later in a random place on the material plane up to 5d% from her last location on that plane. Each time after the first each year she rises, she loses one level, as the spell Resurrection. If brought down to her human state by her own will, she can be killed and raised normally.

Discordant Echoes (General Feat)
Prerequisites: Rage of Tears 6th level
Benefit: Select one of the following Elements of Discord. You must follow the code associated with that element. If you break your Code, you take a cumulative -1 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks for 24 hours. Each infraction resets the duration. If you penalty is as large as your Illuminator level, you immediately lose your Dark Magical Girl abilities and must make atonement for your actions. You also know inherently whether performing a certain action would violate your code. In return, you gain a +3 bonus to your Will saves and Intimidate checks.

{table=head]Element|Code
Deceit|You must lie at all times, constantly altering or omitting information from what you say
Cruelty|You MUST inflict lethal damage with your attacks, and must make a Will save (DC 15 + 1/2 your class level) when provoked in any way, or else attack that creature
Fear|You must intimidate in or out of combat when given the opportunity
Avarice|You cannot perform the aid another action, give anything away without appropriate compensation, and you are Hostile to any creature that attempts to take one of your possessions
Betrayal|You cannot honor any agreement you make, you MUST somehow
Despair/Sorcery|You must sow the seeds of despair in everyone you meet, making them think their goals are impossible[/table]



The class is designed to be as powerful as, but functionally very different from the Exemplar of Harmony. It shares basically the same core qualities (Anthropomorphic Personification, Becoming X, requires similar skills and feats, etc) but their approach to combat is vastly different. An Exemplar of Harmony is versatile, has (probably) the highest level and most powerful Illuminations, and recovers them extremely quickly. She's a steadfast, versatile warrior with plenty of versatility (especially since she has 10 more class levels and prestige class levels to play around with and customize her approach to battle).

The Paragon of Discord is totally different. They've finished Dark Magical Girl, and they have a ton of defensive boosts from that. They don't have nearly as much staying power, so what do they do? They become shock troopers. They come in fast, ignore your attacks, and hit like a truck, and that's exactly what Judgments are supposed to help with. Extended Rage of Tears is just so they can recover some of their Judgments, or trade that for longer staying power. At very high levels, fights can sometimes get quite ridiculous, and having two or three more rounds before you're out of mojo can turn the tide of battle.

I made the judgments open to any Discord, but certain discords can use them better. It makes them different from the Exemplars of Harmony; I don't want it to be a single class with alternate class features, I want them to feel very different from each other.

What do you think?

Edit: Minor changes in formatting and content, altered two of the judgments and one of the Discords.

[radmelon]

I'm the spirit of chaos
The image of evil, don't deny
I'm gonna turn your world around and then I'll watch you cry
Don't fight it
Just look at the chaos rising everywhere
Game over
I'm plunging your world into everlasting despair

[Chronologist]

So, any comments on the abilities? I haven't exactly tested out their power, but I think they're within the boundaries for what a character should get around levels 16-20.

I'm a bit concerned with the fact that the Dark Magical Girl requires BAB +4 to gain entry, meaning you either need to multiclass into something with full BAB somewhere in your first 5 levels, or else you can't take every level of both Dark Magical Girl and Paragon of Discord. I was kind of hoping you could go Magical Girl 5 / Dark Magical Girl 10 / Paragon of Discord 5.

I would personally change the prerequisites for Dark Magical Girl to BAB +4 OR Costume +2. That way, you can get in with a few levels of Magical Girl and some martial classes, or you can go 5 levels of Magical Girl and then gain entry.

Now, I think I'm going to start stating out the Mane 6, just for fun.

[vasharanpaladin]

My wubs, take them. @_@

[jamieth]

A couple of quick questions: one, was it ever agreed on what skill should Radiant Focus use in Pathfinder?
And two, trying to both convert the class to PF and format it for print, I notices one thing - Costume max bonuses are increased every 3 levels, which should make Costume+7 available on level 20. Would it be too much a boost to justify breaking the pattern? I doubt it, honestly.

(Oh, and also, does Spirit Shooter gain the ability to Spirit Shot right at level one, despite the abilities it replaces are significantly higher level?)

[Snowfire]

1.

Concentration Checks and Casting Spells

To cast a spell, you must concentrate. If something interrupts your concentration while you're casting, you must make a concentration check or lose the spell. When you make a concentration check, you roll d20 and add your caster level and the ability score modifier used to determine bonus spells of the same type. clerics, druids, and rangers add their Wisdom modifier. Bards, paladins, and sorcerers add their Charisma modifier. Finally, wizards add their Intelligence modifier. The more distracting the interruption and the higher the level of the spell you are trying to cast, the higher the DC (see Table: Concentration Check DCs). If you fail the check, you lose the spell just as if you had cast it to no effect.

2. Probably not worth breaking the pattern.

And yes, basic Spirit shot is gained at level 1. The more powerful abilities in the entry are gained at the points stated in the entry.

[jamieth]

Thanks! One more thing on the Spirit Shooter, then, namely, its bow version: How exactly does she gain three shots at the max bonus on 10th level? Is it "One additional best attack at 5th" plus "one additional to each attack, including the best, at 10th"? And, if so, would Rapid Reload allow for FOUR attacks at BAB -2 and, it seems, EIGHT attacks total by lv20? (+13/+13/+13/+13/+8/+8/+3/+3/+regain 5 motes... now, THAT's a full-round action...)

[Snowfire]

Um...rapid reload doesn't work that way. You can't even take it for a bow.

A level 20 Spirit Shooter would be able to pump out +13/+13/+13/+8/+8/+3/+3 in a full attack - but each one would be a spirit shot, putting the mote cost rather high. The extra attack ability only works on the iterative attacks gained from the class - no others. And the Radiant Focus concentration check would be 45 "10 + (5 * the number of attacks the spirit shooter is making this turn" as stated at the end of the paragraph you quoted.

Not impossible - nor hard if you've done your build right - but not an auto pass either by level 20 unless you're doing some serious optimising.

And I'll admit, I kinda fail to see how that's a problem when a Zen Archer can blast out +18/+18/+13/+13/+8/+8/+3, base each doing unarmed strike damage (2d10 at that point) with ki benefits (1 point of ki spent) and using Wis instead of Dex for his attack bonus.

[NineThePuma]

I think he meant rapid shot.

[Snowfire]

Prismatic Shift: Select a single Illumination you know that inflicts damage. As a free action when you use that Illumination, you may choose to have it deal fire, electricity, cold, or electricity damage instead of its normal damage. This ability can be taken more than once, each time, select a different Illumination.

After a look through, this is the only flaw I can find. As prismatic calling kinda makes it...a little underwhelming. Sure, it functions on any illumination, but it doesn't add in the power of Prismatic elements like Prismatic Calling and it's also heavily limited compared to the feat - which lets you do this with all of your blasts for the one feat.

@NineThePuma, Ah, point. Missed that somehow. However the point still stands that that attack would cost you eight motes - with a concentration check of 50 to regain any with Radiant Focus (which will be difficult any way you slice it).

[Princess Tracy]

Fffffff.... Dammit, Chrono. How are you psychic? I was gonna do something like... eh, I guess the idea isn't that similar. There may be room in the world for both our ideas! If I can be bothered recording them.

[jamieth]

Um...rapid reload doesn't work that way. You can't even take it for a bow.

A level 20 Spirit Shooter would be able to pump out +13/+13/+13/+8/+8/+3/+3 in a full attack - but each one would be a spirit shot, putting the mote cost rather high. The extra attack ability only works on the iterative attacks gained from the class - no others. And the Radiant Focus concentration check would be 45 "10 + (5 * the number of attacks the spirit shooter is making this turn" as stated at the end of the paragraph you quoted.

Not impossible - nor hard if you've done your build right - but not an auto pass either by level 20 unless you're doing some serious optimising.

And I'll admit, I kinda fail to see how that's a problem when a Zen Archer can blast out +18/+18/+13/+13/+8/+8/+3, base each doing unarmed strike damage (2d10 at that point) with ki benefits (1 point of ki spent) and using Wis instead of Dex for his attack bonus.

Oh, I don't say there's any problems with that, just making sure I understand how the ability works. And, yes, I meant Rapid Shot, of course. Thanks again!

[Chronologist]

After a look through, this is the only flaw I can find. As prismatic calling kinda makes it...a little underwhelming. Sure, it functions on any illumination, but it doesn't add in the power of Prismatic elements like Prismatic Calling and it's also heavily limited compared to the feat - which lets you do this with all of your blasts for the one feat

I actually missed Prismatic Calling, my bad. It IS underwhelming when compared to that feat, although Prismatic Shift is free. It would be cool if Prismatic Shift allowed you to divide the damage as you wished among any number of energy types, but that would just reduce its power, especially against creatures like Outsiders which have several kinds of energy resistance.

How about these three Illumination Masteries then? I think they more than compensate.

Forceful Illuminations: Illuminations you use may instead deal Force damage instead of their normal damage, thus becoming more effective against objects and incorporeal targets. In addition, you may subtract your Magical Girl level from the effective Harness of any object you strike with a Forceful Illumination.

Exalted Illuminations: Illuminations you use inflict small quantities of Exalted damage whenever they hit. The first X points of damage inflicted each round with Illuminations are considered Exalted damage, where X is equal to your Charisma modifier plus your Exemplar of Harmony class level. If you deal damage to multiple targets, you decide which target takes the Exalted damage, and you divide this damage as you see fit among the affected targets.

Unstoppable Illuminations: Ranged Illuminations you use cannot be stopped by any force, be it physical objects, Walls of Force, or even Anitmagic fields. Your Illuminations may pass through these barriers without effort, as if they simply didn't exist, and ignore effects that would stop the Illumination from resolving (such as the aforementionned Wall of Force, or Antimagic Field). Using this ability reduces the damage the Illumination would otherwise inflict on objects to 0, and it does not remove magical barriers and effects it ignores, it simply ignores them.


TraceHyde, I'm sure there's a middle-ground we can look for here. There's plenty of room for more Illumination Masteries and Judgments, and the beauty of the Magical Girl is how versatile her prestige classes can be.

[Serafina]

You just combined two of my favorite things - ponies and magical girls Yay!


@Sajuuks criticism:
I think its really really unfair to compare Illuminations to spells, given that they work very differently. Furthermore, Illuminations do not get anything near as gamebreaking as higher-level spells - who aren't so good due to damage or such, but due to utility and control effects.

I agree on the scaling of Beacon of Serenity. At low levels its really really strong - at medium levels it stops to matter. Which brings back the general issue that Illuminations do not scale well - their scaling should be more similar to Psionics (option to spend more motes at higher levels for improved effects).

Breaking trough Fragile Shell with a Strenght-check is actually a pretty good idea IMO! It still makes it an obstacle and it would remain useful, but it'd be more appropriate for a low-level illumination (and at higher levels you could make it less fragile).

Homing Shot is fine, and spellcasters really get more than enough good things already. You still have to trigger it as a standard action, and it does nothing that a readied action with a bow doesn't do (except also eat up your swift action next turn).

Spotlight should be resolved as a caster level check, not by spell level. A third-level Magical Girl shouldn't be able to dispel a CL 18 darkness spell, obviously.

Busters are relatively weak damage options right now. Compare it to a dedicated archer or a blaster wizard (who will also be able to spam his spells, or he wont be a blaster) - and keep in mind that you also need your motes for other things.
Furhtermore, having something potentially all day long is nice - but not gamebreaking. The five-minute adventuring day is something to be abhorred anyway, so saying "well she can do it all day long" isn't valid design criticism IMO.

Yup, Chains of Concordance is very strong. Of course comparing it to Fighter Builds (Tier 5) is rather weak.
However, it definetly needs an overhaul. I'd go with eating up 1 mote and your swift action ever turn - and actually giving it something to do with the grapple, such as inflicting a bit of damage (1D8+cha or such). Because right now it only inflicts the "grappled" condition, which doesn't actually do much compared to what you actively do as a grappler.

[sajuuk]

Thanks, Serafina, I'm forwarding along your responses to him. And I agree with you on comparing Illuminations to Spells. The way I see it, they should be compared to Tome of Battle maneuvers since that's closer to how they work mechanics-wise.

[Serafina]

Sorry, i failed to grasp that you posted that for someone else.

By the way, he himself points out that the class combines aspects of Incarnum and Tome of Battle - yet he still compares Illuminations to spells. Something to point out, i think.

Also - how is "this buffs a group better than a Marshal" in any way broken? The Marshal is hardly a very good class - yes, the Sempai is very good at buffing allies, but compared to what she is giving up and a spellcaster can do, its not broken.

[sajuuk]

I'm thinking he's referring to the fact that the Sempai's boosts exceed the level of what a Marshal can do, while at the same time advancing Illuminations and Costume. To quote him exactly, "+5 bonus on higher lvls with no per day limit? even Marshals dont have that!"

I do have a clarification question about Sempai: Do all FOLLOWERS from Leadership gain the trainees bonuses as well? Because that can get really insane.

[NineThePuma]

Leadership itself is broken. Saying that something else makes it more broken is facepalm inducing.

Of course, it specifies Cohort in the example, so chances are followers wouldn't be affected.