Sorcerer? I Don't Wanna Play a Sorcerer, I Just Wanna Set Things on Fire! (3.5 Feats)

[NeoSeraphi]

Pyromania Feats

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Inspired by that one thread that Ziegander did a while back, sort of.

A note on [Fire] feats: A [Fire] feat is added to all potential bonus feat lists from all classes, however, if you wish to take a [Fire] feat instead of one of your normal bonus feats, you must meet the prerequisites for it, even if you would normally not be required to. A [Fire] feat may not replace specific bonus feats, like the ranger's Endurance feat, but may only replace bonus feats where you can choose from a list, such as the ranger's Combat Style, the fighter's bonus feats, the scout's bonus feats, etc.

In the case of a class who has a different preferred mental ability score than Charisma (such as Intelligence for warblades or Wisdom for monks) you may use that ability score to qualify for the feats as well as to determine the save DCs of your spell-like abilities. If a class has multiple mental ability score focuses (such as a paladin, warmage, or favored soul), you may select one to use.

*Denotes a new spell, shown at the end of the page


Inflict Minor Pyromania [Fire]
Prerequisites: Cha 10
Benefit: You unlock your inner pyromaniac.

You gain the ability to cast light, spark*, and blast of embers*, as the spells, as spell-like abilities once per day each, with a caster level equal to your character level.

Special: If your campaign allows psionics, you may choose to gain control flames as a psi-like ability, with a manifester level equal to your character level, rather than light as a spell-like ability from this feat. If you do so, you gain additional uses of control flames from Inflict Light Pyromania and Inflict Moderate Pyromania, and you never gain additional daily uses of light. The save DC for your control flames psi-like ability is equal to 10+your Charisma modifier.


Inflict Light Pyromania [Fire]
Prerequisites: Cha 11, Inflict Minor Pyromania, Character Level 3rd
Benefit: Your passion for fire burns even brighter.

You may now cast light, spark and blast of embers as spell-like abilities 3/day each, and you may also cast burning hands, fiery eyes (CA), and lesser orb of fire (SC) as the spells, as spell-like abilities once per day each, with a caster level equal to your character level. The save DCs for these spells (if a saving throw is allowed) are 11+your Charisma modifier.


Inflict Moderate Pyromania [Fire]
Prerequisites: Cha 12, Inflict Minor Pyromania, Inflict Light Pyromania, Character Level 6th
Benefit: Your love of scorching and scalding has truly been ignited!

You may now cast light, spark and blast of embers as spell-like abilities at-will. Additionally, you may now cast burning hands, fiery eyes, and lesser orb of fire 3/day each. Finally, you may now cast scorching ray, combust (SC) and burning sword (SC) as the spells, as spell-like abilities once per day each, with a caster level equal to your character level. The save DCs for these spells (if a saving throw is allowed) are 12+your Charisma modifier.


Inflict Serious Pyromania [Fire]
Prerequisites: Cha 13, Inflict Minor Pyromania, Inflict Light Pyromania, Inflict Moderate Pyromania, Character Level 9th
Benefit: Your grasp over the power of fire is unnatural. It seems to spark willingly from your fingertips, almost as if it enjoys your control over it.

You may now cast burning hands, fiery eyes and lesser orb of fire as spell-like abilities at-will. Additionally, you may now cast scorching ray, combust, and burning sword 3/day each. Finally, you may now cast fireball, fire wings (SC) and flashburst (SC) as the spells, as spell-like abilities once per day each, with a caster level equal to your character level. The save DCs for these spells (if a saving throw is allowed) are 13+your Charisma modifier.


Inflict Critical Pyromania [Fire]
Prerequisites: Cha 14, Inflict Minor Pyromania, Inflict Light Pyromania, Inflict Moderate Pyromania, Inflict Serious Pyromania, Character Level 12th
Benefit: There are few words in Common to describe how...involved...with fire you have become. None of which I feel comfortable saying in polite company.

You may now cast scorching ray, combust and burning sword as spell-like abilities at-will. Additionally, you may now cast fireball, fire wings, and flashburst 3/day each. Finally, you may now cast fire shield (warm version only), orb of fire (SC) and wall of fire as the spells, as spell-like abilities once per day each, with a caster level equal to your character level. The save DCs for these spells (if a saving throw is allowed) are 14+your Charisma modifier.


Inflict Concerning Pyromania [Fire]
Prerequisites: Cha 15, Inflict Minor Pyromania, Inflict Light Pyromania, Inflict Moderate Pyromania, Inflict Serious Pyromania, Inflict Critical Pyromania, Character Level 15th
Benefit: Listen, your mother and I have been talking, and we're really worried about you. You should probably get some- No! Put those matches down right now young man!

You may now cast fireball, fire wings and flashburst as spell-like abilities at-will. Additionally, you may now cast fire shield (warm version only), orb of fire, and wall of fire 3/day each. Finally, you may now cast shroud of flame (PGtF), fire breath (CA) and inferno (SC) as the spells, as spell-like abilities once per day each, with a caster level equal to your character level. The save DCs for these spells (if a saving throw is allowed) are 15+your Charisma modifier.


Inflict Clinical Pyromania [Fire]
Prerequisites: Cha 16, Inflict Minor Pyromania, Inflict Light Pyromania, Inflict Moderate Pyromania, Inflict Serious Pyromania, Inflict Critical Pyromania, Inflict Concerning Pyromania, Character Level 18th
Benefit: Son? Hey, it's me. I know you don't like us speaking in anything other than Ignan anymore, but I thought we should talk. Yes, yes, praise be to the Great Fire Elemental, may He embrace us all with His lovely warm glow and eventually reduce us all to ash, now can you please listen to me?...Is that a spider? OH MY GOD!

You may now cast fire shield (warm version only), orb of fire and wall of fire as spell-like abilities at-will. Additionally, you may now cast shroud of flame, fire breath, and inferno 3/day each. Finally, you may now cast fire seeds, fire spiders (SC) and fire storm (SC) as the spells, as spell-like abilities once per day each, with a caster level equal to your character level. The save DCs for these spells (if a saving throw is allowed) are 16+your Charisma modifier.



New Spells

Spark
Conjuration (Creation) [Fire]
Level: Sor/Wiz 0, Wmg 0
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Touch
Target: One small pile of nonmagical flammable materials touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
SR: No

Your touch ignites a small pile of twigs or paper and starts a small fire. This spell creates a non-magical fire that gives off heat and light like other non-magical fire. The fire burns until it consumes all of its fuel. You may not ignite more than 5 lb of flammable material in this way.


Blast of Embers
Evocation [Fire]
Level: Sor/Wiz 0, Wmg 0
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close
Target: One creature
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
SR: Yes

You shoot out a small blast of flame. You make a ranged touch attack against the target. If you hit, that creature takes 1d3 fire damage.


Source Material Legend

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CA - Complete Arcane
SC - Spell Compendium
PGtF - Player's Guide to Faerun

[bobthe6th]

This? This made me want to make a fighter again. my blaster is humbled by the concept. NeoSeraphi Homebrew (Tm) has won me over.

(now to hope for a couple other feat chains like this...)

[Lix Lorn]

The flavour texts sold me on these. xD

[Benly]

I think you typoed the Cha req for Concerning Pyromania.

[NeoSeraphi]

This? This made me want to make a fighter again. my blaster is humbled by the concept. NeoSeraphi Homebrew (Tm) has won me over.

(now to hope for a couple other feat chains like this...)

And so bobthe6th is added to the list of people who love Seraphi Homebrew^TM.

I may do other feat chains like this, but the fire one was my real motivation. After all, who doesn't love playing a pyromaniac paladin? "I am a servant of the Sacred Fire! Wielder of the Flame of Anul! You cannot pass!"

Edit:

I think you typoed the Cha req for Concerning Pyromania.

So I did. Fixed.

[bobthe6th]

A question though. why not hand out the psionic power "control flame"? it would be fun, and a fair feat as an at will PLA...

fire grows, or fire shrinks. the current spell list is very nice and blasty, but nothing of pure pyromania.

edit: just replace blast of embers, and all should be well...

[NeoSeraphi]

A question though. why not hand out the psionic power "control flame"? it would be fun, and a fair feat as an at will PLA...

fire grows, or fire shrinks. the current spell list is very nice and blasty, but nothing of pure pyromania.

Actually, there are quite a few pyromania-based spells, like spark. Fiery eyes gives you a gaze attack that causes things to catch fire. Wall of fire is obviously a pyromaniac's dream spell. Fire wings and burning sword are both fire-based non-blast spells as well.

Giving a character a single psi-like ability has the potential to be disruptive as well, for a game where homebrew is allowed but psionics are not. You could have the whole chain tossed out because of that one power, and I've been in plenty of games where the DM just did not want to allow psionics so I'd rather not mess my chain up for just one power.

Edit: Then again, more options is always better. I'll add a note to Inflict Minor Pyromania and offer it as a trade-off for light.

[bobthe6th]

Sweet thats about it then... I think the chain is good then.

[NeoSeraphi]

Thanks. I had a lot of fun making this one actually.

[Noctis Vigil]

This is pretty sweet. I'd take these.

I also second the request for more chains. I'd like to see acid and force represented. I'd make a Fighter that specialized in one chain, then had a few of the others thrown in for good measure. With 18 feats on a standard Fighter, you could get two-and-a-half chains in.

[Wyntonian]

This needed to be made. Thank you, Seraphi Homebrew!

Ad-sacrifice aside, this is really solid. It's not overpowered by any means, but it's still the kind of thing I'd love to take. The Cha requirement keeps just casual fighters /barbarian/rangers from going too far into it without some investment in an otherwise dump stat, but it meshes decently with paladins... Intentional? Cool, nonetheless.

[NeoSeraphi]

This needed to be made. Thank you, Seraphi Homebrew!

Ad-sacrifice aside, this is really solid. It's not overpowered by any means, but it's still the kind of thing I'd love to take. The Cha requirement keeps just casual fighters /barbarian/rangers from going too far into it without some investment in an otherwise dump stat, but it meshes decently with paladins... Intentional? Cool, nonetheless.

It's not intentional. The Cha requirement is the same as the Cha requirement for a sorcerer to cast those spells. (You need a Charisma score of 10+spell level. So at each level that I offered a new level of spell, you had to have that high of a score in order to use it). I'm not sure, but I believe WotC has the same policy for SLAs (most monsters with SLAs have a decent Charisma score).

It does indeed require some investment for the pyro ranger/fighter, but then, you also get a boost to Intimidate. And who doesn't love setting someone on fire and then demoralizing them? Imagine a Zhentarim fighter (can demorailze as a swift action, creature stays shaken for 24 hours) with these feats. He flavors his class features as "I'm so scary when I set someone on fire it also Intimidates them! And unlike other pansies who can only scare someone for one round, I leave them scarred for a whole day, because they were on fire!"

Ah...what a lovely character concept.

[Wyntonian]

Imagine a Zhentarim fighter (can demorailze as a swift action, creature stays shaken for 24 hours) with these feats. He flavors his class features as "I'm so scary when I set someone on fire it also Intimidates them! And unlike other pansies who can only scare someone for one round, I leave them scarred for a whole day, because they were on fire!"

Ah...what a lovely character concept.

D'you think you'd mind if I were to shamelessly steal that? I'm rather enjoying fear-stacking, and that would be a solid addition.

[NeoSeraphi]

D'you think you'd mind if I were to shamelessly steal that? I'm rather enjoying fear-stacking, and that would be a solid addition.

I wouldn't mind, but I think you would. The Zhentarim fighter's ability to demoralize as a swift action comes from Fighter 7, and the 24 hour duration comes from Fighter 9. Also, the Zhentarim fighter's fluff involves some organization, iirc. Oasys might not let you have it.

In addition to the two class features I mentioned above, Zhentarim fighters also get Skill Focus (Intimidate) as a bonus feat at 3rd level. So they get 3 class features for free, since regular fighters have no class features at odd levels past 1st.

[alchemyprime]

My lord... Well, you may as well add me to that list, NS, because I officially love this Homebrew. I want it for a fighter concept I've been working on, and these fit poifectly.

[NeoSeraphi]

My lord... Well, you may as well add me to that list, NS, because I officially love this Homebrew. I want it for a fighter concept I've been working on, and these fit poifectly.

I would be happy to, but unfortunately, to be put on the list you have to say the words "Seraphi Homebrew (TM)" (any variation of the trademark applies). I mean, I couldn't fit all the times someone's said they liked my work into a single post (maybe not even two). It's the Seraphi Homebrew (TM) thing, which Wavelab unknowingly started, that really brings me joy.

I'm glad you like the feats though. To be honest, I've found myself saying those words in the title more times than I can count over the years. "Why do I have to be a spellcaster? I just want to set things on fire! Why should I put up with the poor BAB, low HD, and lack of armor that is reserved for guys who can teleport, summon, and turn into dragons?"

[Nero24200]

Loving these. They remind me quite a bit of Pyromancy from Dark Souls (in that they don't require the usual traits for casting spells and scale off of a different resource, feats in this case).

I also love the option for fighters too, gives them another thing to do than "I hit". I personally wouldn't mind seeing other feat chains like this as well.

[DeAnno]

This manages to be strangely balanced. There is high feat investment, but the at will spells sorta feel like they make up for it (Orb of Fire SLA at will? Even @18 thank you very much, makes a Warlock cry). Obviously this is especially interesting stuff for the Fighter, who I can seriously envision messing around with this and the SLA metamagic feats combined.

[ScrambledBrains]

I'll be honest: I love these. :D And in my campaign I'm starting on Friday, I'm making an antagonist with at least a few of them. :D

[bobthe6th]

hmm... Now I want to to... oh dear. I may have to do a fighter revamp now. (thought I was going to get out of the "fighter remix" trope that fills the form but, oh well...)

[Benly]

Thinking about it, I do actually have a suggestion: Let monks who take at least one of the feats as a monk bonus use their Wis instead of Charisma to qualify. The feats suit their flavor (particularly if you ever used to play King of Fighters) but the last thing monks need is a fifth stat dependency.

[Shadow Lord]

I just can't help it; I just love Seraphi Homebrew™, it's just so wonderful.

[ArkenBrony]

i wish to join the fan club,because I just love Seraphi Homebrew™

[NeoSeraphi]

Thinking about it, I do actually have a suggestion: Let monks who take at least one of the feats as a monk bonus use their Wis instead of Charisma to qualify. The feats suit their flavor (particularly if you ever used to play King of Fighters) but the last thing monks need is a fifth stat dependency.

Monks who take this can take Kung Fu Genius to make all their stuff Int-based. Wisdom is the complete opposite of pyromania.

[Benly]

Monks who take this can take Kung Fu Genius to make all their stuff Int-based. Wisdom is the complete opposite of pyromania.

Kung Fu Genius doesn't reduce stat dependencies, though, it just shifts them from Wis to Int (since Int is one of the two stats the monk isn't dependent on by default). Either way, requiring them to crank up Charisma makes them dependent on five stats at once.

Basically, it'd be different thematically from the "haha, I just love burnin' stuff so much it explodes!" you've got on the flavor text, but aesthetically the ability to erupt into flames and throw fire around looks pretty dang cool on a monk and it'd be nice for these feats to support it in a way that doesn't leave monks even more crippled than they already are.

[bobthe6th]

There are dozens of dozens of hundreds of dozens of lots of monk fixes(it compeats with fighter for most fixes). I bet at least one has cha focus or less MAD...

[NeoSeraphi]

Kung Fu Genius doesn't reduce stat dependencies, though, it just shifts them from Wis to Int (since Int is one of the two stats the monk isn't dependent on by default). Either way, requiring them to crank up Charisma makes them dependent on five stats at once.

Basically, it'd be different thematically from the "haha, I just love burnin' stuff so much it explodes!" you've got on the flavor text, but aesthetically the ability to erupt into flames and throw fire around looks pretty dang cool on a monk and it'd be nice for these feats to support it in a way that doesn't leave monks even more crippled than they already are.

But...that's the point of the feat. Why should I change the flavor and idea behind the entire feat just to prevent MAD for one class?

Feats aren't for every class. You won't see too many wizards taking Two-Weapon Fighting, you probably won't see a duskblade who enjoys Weapon Finesse, and it will be rare when you find a dragonfire adept who has taken Mounted Combat.

Monks are disciplined, spiritual warriors. They aren't psychotic arsonists.

[Benly]

But...that's the point of the feat. Why should I change the flavor and idea behind the entire feat just to prevent MAD for one class?

Feats aren't for every class. You won't see too many wizards taking Two-Weapon Fighting, you probably won't see a duskblade who enjoys Weapon Finesse, and it will be rare when you find a dragonfire adept who has taken Mounted Combat.

On the other hand, that's generally because those feats aren't mechanically well-suited to the classes rather than because (for example) duskblades are supposed to be graceless, lumbering oafs.

Monks are disciplined, spiritual warriors. They aren't psychotic arsonists.

Basically I thought it'd be cool for making this guy.

[NeoSeraphi]

Basically I thought it'd be cool for making this guy.

This guy isn't a monk. Just because he fights unarmed, it doesn't make him a monk. He could be a fighter with Improved Unarmed Strike, or an unarmed swordsage, or better yet, a barbarian with Improved Unarmed Strike. He is definitely not a monk.

If you're determined to make him a monk, the [Fire] feats aren't the best way to emulate him either. If his main schtick is setting his fists on fire, then there's a prestige class for that called Elemental Fist (Complete Arcane)

[Noctis Vigil]

Basically I thought it'd be cool for making this guy.

He'd be dual class, Psion(Kineticist)/Monk. Possibly Warlock/Monk, since he did sell his soul for his power (as I understand the excuse-plot of the games, anyways). I don't think these feats really fit the darker essence of Iori.