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ilovefire
2006-05-06, 10:32 PM
Allright, some o fyou may remember my old Cultist classes. First a base class, then a PrC... well, you can just forget the first base ever existed, and rename the PrC however you want, because now I've finally worked out, through a complete rewrite, most of the problems. I HOPE.

The Cultist (CLT)

Power flows through my body like blood, infuses my very bones. It comes at great cost to my body and mind: But what does not?
-- Ida Lorn, Cultist.

Cultists. The very word is enough to invoke fear and loathing into more traditional arcanists. And most traditional arcanists invoke pity and sympathy from cultists, who view them as misguided children. Cultists derive their power from their bodies, mystical energy that flows from open wounds. No one knows who will be a cultist, but one this is certain: they are the masters of their energies, for any purpose.

Alignment Restrictions: Any non-lawful. The Cultist’s self-destructive magics preclude them away from most lawful societies.

BAB: ½
Saves: Fortitude and Will: Good. Reflex: Bad.
HD: d6

Abilities By Level
1: Wound Burst 1, Magic of the Flesh
2: Heal Me Not
3:
4: DR 1/bludgeoning or piercing
5: Wound Burst 2
6:
7:
8: DR 2/bludgeoning or piercing
9:
10: Wound Burst 3, Magic of the Bone
11:
12: DR 3/bludgeoning or piercing
13:
14:
15: Wound Burst 4, Magic of the Blood
16: DR 4/bludgeoning or piercing
17:
18:
19:
20: Wound Burst 5, Magic of the Body, DR 5/Bludgeoning or Piercing






Class Skills: Concentration, Craft, Intimidation, Heal, Know: Arcana, Know: Religion, Know: The Planes, Profession, Spellcraft, Survival
Skill Points At First Level: (2+INT modifer) X 4
Skill Points Per Level: 2+INT modifier

Weapon/Armor Proficiencies: Cultists are Proficient with all simple weapons, the scythe, and the kukri. They are proficient with Light armor. Other armor and shields disrupt their spellcasting.

Spellcasting: Cultists cast Arcane spells by letting loose the natural forces of blood, bone, and flesh. Charisma determines what level spell a cultist can cast, and wisdom determines bonus spells and spell DCs. Upon casting a spell of any level, a cultist takes subdual damage equal to 1d4+1 per spell level of the spell. Spells modified by metamagic spells use the new spell level for damage purposes. This represents them cutting small wounds in their flesh. Cantrips, which require barely a prick of the skin deal only 1d2 damage on casting. This subdual damage cannot be prevented by any spell, supernatural ability, spell like ability, psionic power, psi-like ability, or extraordinary ability.

Magic of the Flesh (Su): At first level, the Cultist may, once per day, willingly sacrifice a spell to heal a number of HP equal to the spell level. The HP recovered may be actual damage or subdual, but not both. Cantrips only heal 1 point of subdual damage.

Wound Burst (Su): The Magical energy flowing through a Cultist’s body can burst forth in a blaze of damaging light when the Cultist is wounded. Any creature that deals damage to a Cultist with a non-reach melee weapon takes the specified amount of damage. The Damage counts as magic for purposes concerning DR.

Heal Me Not (Su): Starting at Level Two, a Cultist shrugs off magical healing, due to the unique methods of their magic. They are healed only half as much by any source of magical healing.

DR (Ex): Constant scarring of the flesh has resulted in skin that is resistant to slashing attacks. Damage done to cast spells always automatically passes DR.

Magic of the Bone (Su): Once per day, the Cultist may sacrifice a spell slot to add ½ the spell’s level to her DR for one round. Cantrips and first level spells do not cause any change in DR.

Magic of the Blood (Su): Once per day, the Cultist may sacrifice a spell slot to produce a number of pints of a blood like substance equal to the level of the spell sacrificed. This draught allows the imbiber to, within three rounds of drinking, cast Cure Light Wounds on themselves as a first level caster. Cantrips produce no draught.

Magic of the Body (Su): Once per day, the Cultist may sacrifice a spell slot to make herself stronger, tougher, and more resilient. Only ninth level spells have any effect. This is equivalent to Tenser’s Transformation.

Cultist Spells Known
As a Sorcerer of the Same Level

Cultist Spells Per Day
As a Wizard of the Same Level

ilovefire
2006-05-06, 10:33 PM
Cultist Spell List

0: Virtue, Resistance, Light, Touch of Fatigue, Message, Arcane Mark, Mending, Mage Hand, Inflict Minor Wounds, Lightning Jolt
1: Cause Fear, Erase, Grease, Unseen Servant, Doom, Inflict Light Wounds, Mage Armor, Endure Elements, Burning Hands, Ray of Enfeeblement, Reduce Person, Summon Undead I
2: Alter Self, Scare, Shatter, Summon Swarm, Death Knell, Gentle Repose, Resist Energy, Command Undead, False Life, Blindness/Deafness, Summon Undead II
3: Slow, Animate Dead, Bestow Curse, Contagion, Inflict Serious Wounds, Protection from Energy, Quench, Vampiric Touch, Summon Undead III
4: Dominate Person, Neutralize Poison, Shadow Conjuration, Death Ward, Inflict Critical Wounds, Poison, Rusting Grasp, Blight, Stoneskin, Enervation, Fear, Mass Reduce Person, Summon Undead IV
5: Nightmare, Shadow Evocation, Mass Inflict Light Wounds, Insect Plague, Slay Living, Symbol of Pain, Baleful Polymorph, Cloudkill, Break Enchantment, Feeblemind, Waves of Fatigue, Summon Undead V
6: Eyebite, Veil, Antilife Shell, Harm, Mass Inflict Moderate Wounds, Symbol of Fear, Undead to Death, Repulsion, Antimagic Field, Circle of Death, Create Undead.
7: Mass Inflict Serious Wounds, Symbol of Weakness, Creeping Doom, Power Word Blind, Greater Shadow Conjuration, Control Undead, Finger of Death, Waves of Exhaustion, Ethereal Jaunt, Greater Harm (From Heroes of Horror)
8: Create Greater Undead, Mass Inflict Critical Wounds, Symbol of Insanity, Symbol of Death, Mind Blank, Antipathy, Power Word Stun, Greater Shadow Evocation, Horrid Wilting, Iron Body
9: Energy Drain, Implosion, Imprisonment, Power Word Kill, Shades, Wail of the Banshee, Soul Bind, Time Stop, Mass Harm (From Heroes of Horror)

idksocrates
2006-05-06, 10:40 PM
Does magic of the blood give you more uses the higher level spell you choose, or does the spell level determine what caster level the clw is? If I caught your meaning correctly, every pint counts as a Drought (which is a CLW spell).

Also, if Wound Burst hits the opponent with Magic energy, it never applies to DR.

ilovefire
2006-05-06, 10:42 PM
effectivly, the number of times you can cast it. for instance, sacrificing a first level spell gives you one pint of draught, that heals 1d8+1 damage. a second gives you two pints, which each heal 1d8+1 damage, ect.

Also, yeah, but a little specification never hurt, did it?

Spuddly
2006-05-06, 10:44 PM
Magic of the blood is useless. Healing for 1 pt of damage at level 15? Why not make it a first or second level ability?

Requiring two primary stats is rough. Choose either wisdom or charisma OR make his spells spontaneous.

And his spell schema sucks. Known spells as a sorceror? Sorcerors hardly know any spells. And the number of spells wizards get per day is quite limited.

ilovefire
2006-05-06, 10:45 PM
... strange, i thougth i put Cure Light Wounds. That's what Magic of the Blood is supposed to do, not Cure Minor. lemme edit that...

and, also: several people i've ran this buy before thought that the MAD and the spell scheme balanced out the abilities and the DR, plus the good HD for a primary caster.

Spuddly
2006-05-06, 10:46 PM
Also, with DR, wound burst isn't going to be doing a whole lot.

idksocrates
2006-05-06, 10:48 PM
Okay, I thought that's what you meant, you just didn't make it clear in the ability description.

Overall, its an interesting idea, but I can't really see anyone taking this class over one of the main Arcane classes except for maybe flavor.

It lacks the versatility of wizard, and the number of spells of the sorceror for balance purposes of all the abilities it has, but then, a caster doesn't usually want to stay in battle with a creature, and the damage that they are doing to opponents is minor compared to the damage their taking with only a d6 hitdice.

The self damage makes it even less appealing of a class, and none of its abilities really make up for this. The DR boost is nice, but you can only do it once a day, and even then, for only 1 round. If anything, make the ability usable 2 times per day at higher levels.
The same thing for Magic of the Flesh.

ilovefire
2006-05-06, 10:49 PM
yeah, maybe so. Wound Burst is mostly a flavor ability... and if i bumped up the damage to d3 per increase of damage, i was afraid it'd be broken.

Edit: and DR is allways on. Magic of the Flesh... yes, perhaps it needs to be... say, X/day, where X is your charisma modifier?

idksocrates
2006-05-06, 11:02 PM
Well, I noticed what Spuddly pointed out. I had overlooked the paragraph on spellcasting.

The key ability for spellcasting should always be the same for determining bonus spells and save DCs.

Leave the key ability for spells as Charisma, and then leave the number of times per day that you can use "Magic of the Flesh" and "Magic of the Bone" as your wisdom modifier.

Also, make it so that draughts produced from Magic of the Blood become bad after 24 hours of making them. I assume that it is usable by other party members as well? Having a few extra potions considering that the Cultist is not a 1st tier healer is actually decently nice.
I'm tossing around the idea of having the potions heal max for a clw spell, 1d8+5. It sounds good actually. High healing out of combat means fewer downtime periods to slow down the action of a game, and their still a waste of a full round action in combat.

As far as your DR goes, it still only applied to slashing weapons. Granted, that's the most popular form of damage dealing, but your still a d6 hit die guy in light armor against a guy with a sword, and the DR doesn't help at all against a guy with a warhammer or spear.


Wound burst looks good actually. Every time someone hits you, you deal 5 points of damage by level 20. That seems fairly well balanced to me.

Yossarian
2006-05-06, 11:19 PM
No offense, but if I was stuck playing one of these guys I'd want to hurt myself too. ;) Trying to keep a class from being overpowered is one thing, but I think you went overboard. You say Wound Burst is mostly a flavor ability, but it's about the crunchiest thing he's got; Magic of the Flesh, Magic of the Bone, and Magic of the Body are all flavor abilities. Wound Burst isn't much, but it's practically all he's got going for him, and it's not worth giving yourself one of the worst class ability progressions available.

Not to mention making yourself harder to heal. Talk about an anti-dip class! Not many classes actually inflict penalties on their users, and this one is loaded with them.