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View Full Version : New PC Class - The Adept (3.5)



Laurellien
2009-06-19, 04:06 AM
Alignment: Any
HD: D8*
Class Skills
The adept’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (all skills taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Survival (Wis).
Skill Ranks Per Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Skill Ranks at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4
BAB: Average (3/4)
Fortitude: Good - (level/2)+2
Reflex: Poor - level/3
Will: Good - (level/2)+2
Spells/day: As bard

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the adept class.
Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Adepts are skilled with all simple weapons. Adepts are proficient with light and medium armour.
Spells: An adept casts divine spells which are drawn from the adept spell list. Like a cleric, an adept must choose and prepare her spells in advance. Unlike a cleric, an adept cannot spontaneously cast cure or inflict spells.
To prepare or cast a spell, an adept must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an adept’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the adept’s Wisdom modifier.
Adepts, unlike wizards, do not acquire their spells from books or scrolls, nor do they prepare them through study. Instead, they meditate or pray for their spells, receiving them as divine inspiration or through their own strength of faith. Each adept must choose a time each day during which she must spend an hour in quiet contemplation or supplication to regain her daily allotment of spells.
Orisons (Sp)**: Adepts can prepare a number of orisons, or 0-level spells, each day. They can cast these spells at will as a spell-like ability. The number of orisons that an adept can prepare each day is noted under “Spells per day.” Orisons are treated like any other spell cast by the adept in terms of duration and other variables based on level. Orisons cannot be channelled through spontaneous casting rejuvenation.
Spontaneous Rejuvenation (Su): You can transform the stored energy of a spell you have prepared to invigorate you and your allies.
To use spontaneous rejuvenation, you must spend a standard action and sacrifice a prepared, uncast spell. All allies within 30’ of you (including yourself) gain fast healing. The fast healing lasts for a number of rounds equal to your adept level and heals a number of hitpoints per round equal to the level of the sacrificed spell. This fast healing does not stack with itself or with other sources of fast healing.
Summon Familiar: At 2nd level, an adept can call a familiar, just as a sorcerer can.
Bonus Feats: An adept gains a bonus feat every fifth level. This feat can be any that would normally be available to the adept.

Adept Spell List
Adepts choose their spells from the following list.
0 Level: create water, detect magic, ghost sound, guidance, light, mending, purify food and drink, read magic, stabilize, touch of fatigue.
1st Level: bless, burning hands, cause fear, command, comprehend languages, cure light wounds, detect chaos, detect evil, detect good, detect law, endure elements, obscuring mist, protection from chaos, protection from evil, protection from good, protection from law, sleep.
2nd Level: aid, animal trance, bear’s endurance, bull’s strength, cat’s grace, cure moderate wounds, darkness, delay poison, invisibility, mirror image, resist energy, scorching ray, see invisibility, web.
3rd Level: animate dead, bestow curse, contagion, continual f lame, cure serious wounds, daylight, deeper darkness, dispel magic, lightning bolt, neutralize poison, remove curse, remove disease, tongues
4th Level: cone of cold, cure critical wounds, minor creation, polymorph, restoration, stoneskin, wall of fire.
5th Level: baleful polymorph, break enchantment, commune, heal, major creation, raise dead, sending, true seeing, wall of stone.
6th Level: Antimagic field, greater dispel magic, repulsion, analyze dweomer, legend lore, geas, chain lightning, freezing sphere, veil, undeath to death, mass bear’s endurance, mass bull’s strength, mass cat’s grace.

*D8 for Pathfinder, D6 for vanilla D&D.
**The Orisons bit is in case you use Pathfinder rather than vanilla 3.5.


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So what do people think? Are there any obvious balance issues that need ironing out?

Djinn_in_Tonic
2009-06-19, 06:31 AM
Looks pretty good...although I see no reason to take this over Cleric or Archivist, aside from a few spells that do not, in my mind, balance out the loss of 3 spell levels (and a lower HD, in some cases).

You either need to nerf several more classes, or buff this one up a bit for it to be a solid PC class.

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-06-19, 09:12 AM
I agree with Djinn_In_Tonic--the stunted casting really makes the adept too far below the other casters to use without some sort of schtick.

For that schtick, might I suggest "quantity over quality"? At some point in the class progression, introduce the following abilities:

Orison Mastery: The adept can cast any orison on his spell list at will without needing to prepare them.

Font of Magic: At level X, the adept can cast any 1st level spells on his spell list at will. At level Y, the adept can cast any 2nd level spells on his spell list at will. At level Z, the adept can cast any 3rd level spells on his spell list at will.

Eclectic Learning: At level A and every B levels thereafter, the adept adds a single spell from the wizard spell list to his own. The spell must be three levels lower than the highest spell level he is capable of casting, and it must belong to the school of Abjuration, Divination, Necromancy, or Transmutation.

Divine Inspiration: At level C and every D levels thereafter, the adept adds a single spell from the cleric spell list to his own. The spell must be two levels lower than the highest spell level he is capable of casting, and it must belong to one of his deity's domains (or one of two domains chosen at level C, if the adept has no deity).

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This adds a bit of a warlock spin to the adept in the form of unlimited lower level spells at certain levels, and a bit of Warmage capability in the form of casting any spell on his list spontaneously and the Eclectic Learning ability. The higher-level spells are still prepared and cast normally, but having many more lower-level spells gives him reliable utility and having a few wizard or cleric spells gives him versatility.

Laurellien
2009-06-21, 03:37 AM
Thanks! I'll put those changes in!

Zeta Kai
2009-06-21, 10:40 AM
I take it that this is in no way related to the NPC class of the same name? Perhaps Adroit would be a better name, to avoid confusion. Just a thought.

Jane_Smith
2009-06-21, 10:51 AM
I cant believe someone hasnt stated it yet. Usually when i come up with the idea of at-will anything for casters, this is the first thing that gets stomped on.

At will cure spells. REPENT! REPENT I SAY!

Basically meaning, your losing out on higher level burst damage/haling anything in exchange for infinite lowbie spells. Thing is, those lowbie spells dd up when you can, by like 20th level cast cure serious wounds on every scratch, bruise and bobo the party has every moment of the day.

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-06-21, 12:10 PM
Thing is, those lowbie spells dd up when you can, by like 20th level cast cure serious wounds on every scratch, bruise and bobo the party has every moment of the day.

And that's...bad?

I mean, the only real value healing has at higher levels is burst healing, because (A) you can already buy wands and staves or use lower-level slots to cast as many cure light wounds spell as you want, and (B) it doesn't matter how much you can heal during downtime if another 50 damage right now will kill you and the only thing you can cast is cure moderate wounds.