Soma Cruz as a Mage class- possible?

[Shadow_in_the_Mist]

I initially tried to title this as "Using Soma Cruz as the inspiration for an alternate arcane caster class- is this a viable idea?", but got cut off. As its full title suggests, I've recently played the GBA game Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and I got to thinking: could you use the basic principle of Soma Cruz (human being able to absorb the souls of slain monsters and then use special powers based upon those monsters) as a variant form of Arcane Caster?

I'd like to know your opinion on this idea and, if you think it's possible/a good idea, your opinion on how to "stat it up".

[Rex Idiotarum]

Spellthief?

[Rama_Lei]

Soma fights with a whip, right? Hmm..He sounds like a bard. I knowe, it's not exact, but i think it would work.

[Shadow_in_the_Mist]

Firstly, I don't know what the Spellthief is. Secondly, I'm not asking how to stat Soma Cruz up in D&D, I'm asking whether the basic principle of his arcane abilities could be used as the foundation for an Arcane Caster Core Class.

[Rama_Lei]

Firstly, I don't know what the Spellthief is. Secondly, I'm not asking how to stat Soma Cruz up in D&D, I'm asking whether the basic principle of his arcane abilities could be used as the foundation for an Arcane Caster Core Class.
Well, it's definetly possible, and great flavor-wise, though you may just get many Soma rip-offs. What kind of "special powers" did you have in mind?

[Shadow_in_the_Mist]

I don't actually have any.

In the game, Soma gets four different types of Soul, outlined below, and (in in the sequal) grabbing duplicates of some souls improves the effect of that soul.
Red (projectile attack- Flying Skeleton's Spear, Merman's Waterblast)
Yellow (permanently active special bonus- Succubus's Health Drain, Zombie's Consume Rotten Food)
Blue (activated ability- Flying Armour's Glide, Giant Bat's Bat Form)
Grey (permanently active physical ability- Double Jump, Backslide)

That's part of the reason I put up a request here- I simply wouldn't have the faintest clue how to work this in D&D.

[Fax Celestis]

Change the flavor on the Spellthief (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20050107a&page=1) and you're golden.

[MagFlare]

Soma fights with a whip, right? Hmm..He sounds like a bard. I knowe, it's not exact, but i think it would work.

Soma uses a bunch of weapons, but whips are fairly uncommon in the "...of Sorrow" subseries. I think there may only have been one, and that was more of a chain-sword dealie than a true whip.

Regardless, while I don't know too much about the Spellthief, the feature that lets them steal spell-like abilities seems to represent Soma pretty well.

[CabbageTheif]

it sounds rather iffy. depending on how you made this, it might branch off and become its own kind of magic, neither arcane or divine.

if you wanted to stick with it being a variant of the arcane, then i would suggest that it works like this
1st level- familiar, 1st level spells
and have it progress where the caster has a table on how many spells it knows, but she can cast it as many times as souls she owns. rather than preparing or spontanious casting, and rather than having spell components, Chrysta the Soul Magus (my name for this class) would be able to cast magic missle once for every first level monster she has killed that day. its a combo fighter mage that requires the fighting aspect for the arcan part to work

on the other hand, we could make a whole new branch of magic based upon the way that a soul was in life. we would need a chart for every monster, or every group of monsters, and the souls of that race woul allow for a different type of spell. but as the Soul Magus progresses, she would be able to cast higher level spells with the same souls. for example, draconic souls allow for a breath weapon, goblinoid souls allow for any fire based spells (starting with burning grasp and ending with fireball, greater) and so on.

no matter which way that ypou would do it with the two options up above, the class would have to be either neutral or evil (for using souls of other living beings to make ends meet) i would give it a d8 hd, and class abilities would be almost identical to the sorcerer.... maybe warlock. if it is arcana based, then i would make wisdom its major ability. i think medium armor and sheilds, with all but exotic weapons would be good for the Soul Magus.

in conclusion, i think that the Soul Magus would be an awsome class, once completed, and i would enjoy having a hand in building it.

[Shadow_in_the_Mist]

CabbageTheif; I think the second option would work best for the Soul Magus, and be closer to the games as well. I'm glad you like the idea and I would be honoured if you would assist me in developing it. The segment on "Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow" at the GameFAQS website has a Soul Guide for the game which would probably help us putting this class together.

[CabbageTheif]

well, i went to the mall and asked my local game shop owners what they thought, and they directed me to a book dedicated to one base class: the binder

the binder is close to what we are talking about doing. he, at levels indicated, is allowed to learn the sigil for one powerful soul. he then tries to make a pact with the soul, and, if successful, binds the soul to him and therefor gets benefites from the soul. this book has mapped out all of the possible souls one could bind to oneself.

now, i feel that this is similar, but too limiting for the Soul Magus. talking to fellow d&ders, we decided that the soul magus, like the monk, should be allowed different abilities at different levels (3rd level, i think, the monk chooses between stunning blow and improved grapple. i think. thats from memory)

lets go with the second idea and scrap the first. so, a creature with a soul, lets say, has a wisdom score. now, lets say that each soul lends a few points from itself to the caster: for now, lets go with wisdom modifier. that can be tinkered with. so the soul magus and any souls she has combine their wisdom modifiers and those are her total soul points. each spell cost soul points. lets say she has ten soul points from her wisdom modifier of 5 (20 wis) and two souls she has (3 and 2). now, lets say that magic missle costs 2 soul points, and, um, mirror image costs 5. she could cast mirror image twice that day, magic missle 5 times that day, or a combination (1mi and 2mm, 1 s.p. left over)

from here we need to figure out what each spell cost, and what spell list.

[Shadow_in_the_Mist]

I'm having a little trouble following you, but I think I get the gist of it; the Soul Magus has a special "psudeo-mana" score called Soul Points, which is a combination of his Wis bonus and the Wis bonus of captured souls, and to cast a spell costs Soul Points.

It sounds an alright system, though to be closer to the game we could have it that the Soul Magus can only get new spells in two ways; by earning a level, or by capturing a soul related to that spell somehow.

For example; to use the Wyrmcone spell featured in Dragon 344, the Soul Magus needs to either gain a level wherein he can purchase a lvl 6 spell OR he needs to slay a dragon and capture its soul. In this case we can even go so far as to say that capturing a Dragon's soul only allows him to use the Wyrmcone variant for that particular type (so a Blue Dragon's soul grants Wyrmcone [Electricity]).

[knightsaline]

i worked on something like this. in order to capture souls, you need the feat "power of domination" which had requirements of wis 19 and cha 19. in order to get a soul, the dm rolls a d% in secret when the appropriate character lands the finishing blow. the PC guesses the number and if they get it right, they get the soul of that monster (exception: one off monsters always drop their souls, eg, headhunter) i even statted up a soul eater ring. minor artifact, cost 300000. allows the character to guess a second number. if you really wanted castlevania stuff, look at the post "walkers in darkness" that i posted and nobody posted on.