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Loxagn
2009-10-21, 02:51 PM
Alright, so I'm putting together a Homebrew class that I need a little bit of help making sure to balance. I'd love to get an opinion on it. I've got the class basics, plus the first level powers and two sample second-level utilities. A lot of the fluff is missing details because I just wanted to get the mechanics out.

Ley Seer
“I am the eye that pierces all veils.”

CLASS TRAITS
Role: Controller. You channel the power of the Ley Lines into befuddling and hindering your foes.
Power Source: Ley. Your mind is a natural conduit of Ley Energy, and as such you see the world much differently from others around you.
Key Abilities: Intelligence, Charisma, Dexterity
Armor Proficiency: Cloth
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple and Martial Weapons
Implements: Staffs, orbs
Defense Bonus: +1 Reflex, +1 Will

Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + Constitution score
Hit Points per Level Gained: 4
Healing Surges per Day: 5 + Constitution modifier)

Trained Skills: Arcana. From the list below, choose three more trained skills at first level.
Class Skills: Arcana (Int), History (Int), Religion (Int), Nature (Int), Dungeoneering (Wis), Diplomacy (Cha), Insight (Wis), Stealth (Dex)

Build Options: Ley Illusionist, Ley Combatant
Class Features: Ley Empowerments, Alchemy, Ley Sight, Psychokinesis

In this world, there exists a web of ancient and powerful magick, a web of light spanning the entirety of the universe. This web of power is called the Ley Lines. Invisible to all but the most experienced of sages, they are the stuff of mystery and legend, a chilling beauty that only the gods can claim to know everything of.
They are not invisible to everyone, however. Ley Seers are gifted from birth with the ability to know and read the Ley Lines, excelling at manipulation of Ley energy. Lured by the mystic allure that only the Lines can exude, Ley Seers will follow the Lines to the ends of the earth and beyond.
As a Ley Seer, you seek knowledge above all else. You don’t quite know if you will ever know the answers to the questions you have about the universe, but you know for a fact that you are going to try.

CLASS OVERVIEW
Characteristics: Ley Seers are all about versatility. Their powers range across the board, and are intended to reflect almost a mash-up between Wizard and Rogue. Be careful in combat, however; you’re notably more fragile than some of the other classes.
Religion: Ley Seers almost universally worship gods of knowledge and magic such as Ioun and Corellon. Some Seers pay their respect to greater Seers of the past, and others still do not worship at all.
Races: Eladrin, Gnomes, and Devas all make excellent Ley Seers.

Creating a Ley Seer
Ley Seers are by nature as versatile as they are mysterious, though depending on their background they focus on one of two paths: The Ley Illusionist and the Ley Combatant.

Ley Illusionist
Ley Illusionists are just that, adventurers that utilize the energy of the Ley Lines to create illusions to confuse and trick enemies. Naturally, Intelligence is your biggest boon, since you need your mental acuity to effectively subdue your foes. Charisma should be your second stat, aiding you in perpetrating the illusions you create. Wisdom is also important. You’re going to be staying out of the fray as much as possible, so pick weapons and powers that enhance your ability to slow and hinder your enemies as much as possible. You don’t have too much in the way of close combat; keep your distance and make your enemies’ lives hell. Your Empowerments should include Ley Shield.
Suggested Feat: Dark Fury (Human Feat: Timely Respite)
Suggested Skills: Diplomacy, Insight, History
Suggested At-will Powers: Ley Blast, Mind’s Blade
Suggested encounter Power: Descent into a Dark Abyss OR Night of the Blades
Suggested Daily Power: Ley Web

Ley Combatant
Everything that the Illusionist is, you are not. Where the Illusionist prefers to subdue foes from afar, you use your Ley abilities to take the fight to your opponents. You speed around the battlefield, your weapon’s every flourish spelling doom for your foes. Your Ley magick is a powerful weapon, so choose powers that focus on dealing damage and increasing your mobility. Your Empowerments should include Ley Boost.
Suggested Feat: Melee training (Human Feat: Improved Initiative)
Suggested Skills: Dungeoneering, Stealth, Nature
Suggested At-will Powers: Reaching Strike, Searing Strike
Suggested encounter Power: Furious Blade OR Fang of the Dragon
Suggested Daily Power: Furious Crescent OR Zen Strike

LEY SEER CLASS FEATURES
Ley Sight: You gain the Ley Sight and Psychokinesis Powers.
Ley Sight
Ley Seer Feature
Your eyes flash with Ley energy, and you behold the web of Ley Lines, the secrets of the world unfolding before you.
At-will – Ley
Personal
Minor Action
Effect: You gain your Intelligence Modifier as a bonus to all Arcana and Insight rolls, as well as Saving throws versus illusions. Your eyes exude Dim Light for a radius of three squares, and you take your Intelligence modifier as a penalty to all attack, stealth, and diplomacy rolls. Unless you spend another minor action to sustain it, the effect ends at the start of your next turn.

Psychokinesis
Ley Seer Feature
You lift the book across the room as easily as if it were right in front of you.
Daily – Ley
Ranged 3
Minor Action
Effect: You can manipulate a single object weighing 20 pounds or less and carry it up to five squares. If the object is in a square adjacent to you, you may stow it in a pack or pouch on your person. You can drop an object as a free action or choose a different object as a minor action.


Ley Empowerments
Empowerments are minor abilities you may take at 1st level that use the energy in the Ley Lines to grant you an edge in combat or in a skill challenge. You choose two at first level, and pick another at 11th and 21st levels.

Alchemy
You gain the Alchemist feat as a bonus feat, allowing you to create alchemical items.

LEY SEER POWERS

Ley Seer Empowerments

Light of Solitude
Ley Seer Empowerment
You call the Ley Lines into your hand, creating a ball of magical light.
At – will – Ley
Ranged 2
Minor Action
Effect: You create a small orb of light that creates Dim light in a 2-square radius. The light floats along with your movement speed. You may designate yourself and up to five others at the time of casting. Any who are not included gain no benefit from the light.
Special: You may only have one Light of Solitude effect active at once. Extinguishing the light is a free action.

Ley Shield
Ley Seer Empowerment
Ley energy collects around you, protecting you from harm.
At – will – Ley, Conjuration
Personal
Free Action
Trigger: You take Total Defense.
Effect: You create a glowing blue shield around yourself. This shield has 1 HP and uses your AC with a bonus equal to your Intelligence modifier. You can sustain the shield as long as you hold the Total Defense. The shield absorbs all damage that would attack your Reflex, Fortitude or AC. The shield cannot gain temporary Hit Points or be healed in any way. If the shield is reduced to 0 HP, you spend a Healing Surge without gaining hit points, the shield is destroyed, and you are Stunned until the end of your next turn. You cannot make any actions other than Total Defense while using Ley Shield, nor can you be healed or gain temporary Hit Points while it is up.

Ley Boost
Ley Seer Empowerment
Ley energy flows through you, giving you the ability to do things others had thought you incapable of.
Encounter – Ley
Personal
Minor Action
Effect: You gain your Intelligence Modifier as a bonus to a single STR, DEX, or CON-based skill check until the end of your next turn.

Ley Speech
Ley Seer Empowerment
You focus your thoughts, sending a single message along a Ley Line to a friend.
Encounter – Ley
Ranged 20
Full-Round Action
Effect: You send a telepathic message to a single target. The message has a limit of a maximum of 25 words.

Ley Gift
Ley Seer Empowerment
You channel your energies into a friend, allowing them to find new strength.
Daily – Ley
Ranged 5
Standard Action
Effect: Select one Daily power you have not expended, and then select an ally. The Daily power is now considered to have been expended, and the ally can choose to regain one encounter or daily power at or lower than the level of the power you expended. You cannot regain the use of a Power expended in this way, nor can you regain this Empowerment in any way other than taking an extended rest.

Ley Surge
Ley Seer Empowerment
Even though the orc warlord nearly killed you with that last attack, you still find the strength to continue fighting.
Daily – Ley
Personal
Free Action
Prerequisite: You are dying
Effect: You spend a healing surge and stand up. You can then either shift half your speed or take a Total Defense as a free action. You are Dazed until the end of your next turn.

Level 1 At-will Powers
Ley Blast
Ley Seer Attack 1
A blast of pure force flies out of your hand.
At–will – Ley, Psychic, Implement
Ranged 20
Standard Action
Target: One creature
Attack: Intelligence vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d8 + Intelligence Modifier psychic damage, and you push the target 1 square.
At 21st Level: Increases to 2d8 +Intelligence Modifier damage.

Mind’s Blade
Ley Seer Attack 1
A Ley Line ignites in your hand, creating a glowing beam of energy that strikes your foe.
At–will – Ley, Conjuration, Psychic
Ranged 1
Standard Action
Target: One creature
Attack: Intelligence vs. Will
Hit: 1d6 + Intelligence Modifier Psychic damage.
At 21st level: Increases to 2d6 + Intelligence Modifier damage, and the target is dazed until the end of its next turn.

Reaching Strike
Ley Seer Attack 1
Your blade slings forward through the air, cutting into your foe and then returning to your hand.
At–will – Ley, Weapon
Ranged 5
Standard Action
Target: One creature
Attack: Intelligence vs. AC
Requirement: You must be wielding a melee weapon.
Hit: 1[W] + Intelligence modifier damage.
21st level: Increases to 2[W] + Intelligence modifier damage.

Searing Strike
Ley Seer Attack 1
Ley energy races along your blade, strengthening your attack.
At–will – Ley, Psychic
Melee Weapon
Standard Action
Target: One creature
Attack: Intelligence vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Intelligenge Modifier psychic damage, and if the target attacks you before the end of your next turn, it takes psychic damage equal to your Dexterity modifier.
21st level: Increases to 2[W] + Intelligence Modifier damage.

Level 1 Encounter Powers
Furious Blade
Ley Seer Attack 1
You coat your blade in crackling electric energy.
Encounter – Ley, Weapon, Lightning
Personal
Minor Action
Target: One weapon in your hand
Effect: Until the end of your next turn, when you land an attack with the weapon, it deals additional Lightning damage equal to your Intelligence modifier.
Sustain Minor: The effect persists.

Descent into a Dark Abyss
Ley Seer Attack 1
You craft an illusion of a world straight out of your foe’s nightmares.
Encounter – Ley, Illusion, Fear, Psychic, Implement
Area burst 2 within 10 squares
Standard Action
Target: Each enemy in burst
Attack: Intelligence vs. Will
Hit: 1d4 + Intelligence modifier Psychic damage, and the target is immobilized until the end of its next turn.

Dance of the Blades
Ley Seer Attack 1
You conjure a glowing dagger of energy that flies at a foe.
Encounter – Ley, Psychic, Implement
Ranged 10
Standard Action
Target: One creature
Attack: Intelligence vs. Reflex
Hit: 2d8 + Intelligence Modifier psychic damage.
Effect: If you score a critical with this Power, make a Secondary Attack against the target.
Secondary Attack: Intelligence vs. Will
Hit: 1d8 + Intelligence Modifier psychic damage. You may shift 2 squares if this attack hits.

Fang of the Dragon
Ley Seer Attack 1
You thrust your blade into the ground, creating explosions of energy around you.
Encounter – Ley, weapon, fire
Close burst 5
Standard Action
Target: Up to three creatures in burst
Attack: Intelligence vs. Reflex
Hit: 1[W] + Intelligence modifier fire damage.

Level 1 Daily Powers
Ley Web
Ley Seer Attack 1
Thin, glowing strands of energy fly from your hand, entangling your enemies and bolstering your allies.
Daily – Ley, Psychic, Zone
Area burst 3 within 10 squares
Standard Action
Attack: Intelligence vs. Reflex
Hit: The target is dazed (save ends).
Effect: The burst creates a zone webs of Ley Lines with enough energy flowing through them to be visible to non-Ley Seers until the end of your next turn. An enemy that enters the zone or starts its turn there take your Intelligence modifier psychic damage, and is dazed. Enemies treat the zone as difficult terrain, and allies have combat advantage against any enemy inside the zone.
Sustain Minor: The zone persists.

Furious Crescent
Ley Seer Attack 1
You spin violently, your sword creating a swath of destruction around you.
Daily – Ley, Weapon, Lightning
Close burst 1
Immediate Interrupt
Target: Each creature in burst
Attack: Intelligence vs. Reflex
Trigger: One or more enemies are adjacent to you
Hit: 2[W] + Intelligence modifier lightning damage, and you push all targets a number of squares equal to your Dexterity modifier.
Effect: If your weapon is under the effect of Furious Blade, you gain combat advantage for the duration of this attack.

Zen Strike
Ley Seer Attack 1
You meditate briefly, reflecting on the situation at hand. When the time is right, you lash out, striking with such speed and precision that your opponent is left never knowing what hit him.
Daily – Ley, Weapon
Melee Weapon
Standard Action
Effect: You grant combat advantage until the start of your next turn. On your next turn, you make the following attack as a Free Action.
Target: One creature
Attack: Intelligence vs. Reflex
Hit: 3[W] + Intelligence modifier damage. If you miss with this attack, you re-roll and use the second result, even if it's lower.

Level 2 Utility Powers
Steps of the Flying Swallow
Ley Seer Utility 1
Ley energy gathers under your feet, granting you incredible speed for a moment.
Daily – Ley
Personal
Minor Action
Effect: Shift a number of squares equal to your Intelligence modifier.

Ley Disruption
Ley Seer Utility 1
The door melts away as you touch it. You turn back to your party members with a knowing smirk. “Door’s open.”
Encounter – Ley
Touch
Standard Action
Effect: You destroy one non-magical, nonliving object of Medium size or smaller, or you clear one square of blocked or difficult terrain.

CarpeGuitarrem
2009-10-21, 03:32 PM
COOL. I love the "cantrips", especially. Although they're all good, and there's a lot of them, which may mean it's a little too powerful. But it's cool. (The shield makes me think of a guy that insists on constantly taking Total Defense every turn, and using opportunity attacks)

Yakk
2009-10-21, 04:17 PM
Hit Points per Level Gained: 6
That is Defender-level, or Primal-Striker/Leader, level HP!

Then you say:

Be careful in combat, however; you’re notably more fragile than some of the other classes.
?! Fragile is 4 hp/level.


Ley Sight
No duration is listed.

Psychokinesis
So, mage hand, upgraded?

Light of Solitude
Another better-than-cantrip trick.

Ley Shield
Should be a free action. It basically means you negate the next attack on AC/Reflex/Fortitude, and are instead dazed, right? Could cause problems: in a 'typical' 1-1 duel, you could be literally unkillable.

Ley Boost
Might want that to be free. Or give it a duration. Or something.

Ley Speech
Better than a cantrip. It looks like an existing utility power for some other class even? (with a daily reuse!) but is at-will.

Ley Gift
Could be quite broken.

Ley Surge
Easily in the range of a utility power.

Ley Blast
... at level 21, it becomes rather broken. In fact, this looks like a superior version of existing at-will powers from other classes?

Mind’s Blade
At-will daze with a damage roll?! What the? And a knock prone kicker?

Role: Controller/Striker. You channel the power of the Ley Lines into befuddling and hindering your foes.
Wait -- why are you a hybrid role class?

Reaching Strike
/shrug. Might be a tad good, but it being Ranged sort of hurts it.

Searing Strike
Also better than many other at-will powers, whose damage kickers are a stat applied to a different target, a secondary stat kicker conditional, etc.

At-will powers should also avoid save ends effects, as they cause complexity.

Furious Blade
Sustain minor on encounter powers is also a design no-no. In general, encounter powers are not supposed to have encounter-long effects.

Descent into a Dark Abyss
This is a huge radius. (save ends), which is to be avoided on encounter powers. Kicker of the stealth check is not bad either.

Night of the Blades
Boring.

Fang of the Dragon
Damn good. 5 targets is plenty. Weapon vs Reflex is great.

Ley Web
Auto damage should avoid rolling generally. Area burst 3 auto-daze attack, with (save ends) daze if you hit, and auto-damage _roll_, and persistant zone. No sustain requirements (it just lasts until the end of the encounter).


Furious Crescent
Why the requirement? Really?

Why wisdom? This is supposed to be an int/cha/dex class?

Zen Strike
Move the Target to after the Effect. Note that this power matches or exceeds other daily damage-dealing powers that I've seen as a daily 1, but at this point, I sort of expect this.

Steps of the Flying Swallow
It being a minor action is questionable, but I guess it is a daily.

Ley Disruption
Hmm.

...

In short, this looks like a magical wish-fullfillment class. About its only weakness is a lack of armor at level 1.

I'd recommend deciding on a single role.

I'd also aim for a better thematic pattern; as written, the class is "I do magic and I'm awesome". With Ley Lines, I'd be tempted to be a heavy wall class, or something of the sort.

Lappy9000
2009-10-21, 09:34 PM
Little critique on your formatting:

Try Spoilering some the powers based on level.
Use the 4e color scheme for the names of At-Will, Daily, and Encounter powers.
Use a bigger font for the "Ley Illusionist" and "Lay Combatant" titles.
Find a modest, yet awesome picture. It helps.
This should help make things a bit more readable.

You've clearly put quite a bit of work into this, and I commend you for it. Listen to Yakk for mechanical advice, though. He knows his 4e.

Loxagn
2009-10-21, 11:06 PM
To Yakk:
This is exactly why I posted this up. I tend not to think too hard when writing my own stuff up, so I always get it double-and-triple checked.

On the subject of HP, I don't know what happened. I must have gotten something confused. I think I thought Defenders getting like 10 per level. May have had something to do with a bout of insomnia and no morning coffee. It will be fixed, and hard.

Edit: I've edited just about everything. Hitpoints and surges are now lower than the Wizard's, which to my knowledge has the lowest around. Just about every spell has been nerfed, the Empowerments have been given some repercussions, and I'm probably gonna get rid of a few other bonuses.

Loxagn
2009-10-23, 03:52 PM
I'd really appreciate some more critique on this guys.
Sorry for the double post.

Shadow_Elf
2009-10-24, 01:04 PM
I don't know how to say it, but it seems... awkward. The power of the Ley Lines are ill-defined, and many of the abilities are a combination of great benefits and big drawbacks. Some are highly situational - why would anyone want, on a regular basis, to spend a full-round action delivering a message of 25 words to someone likely within earshot?

In addition, this class presents one half of the problem of the V-shaped classes - even if the stats the builds use do not make their abilities mutually exclusive, their highly different functions do. It very much limits the scope of either build choice, and is the reason why WotC is backing off from largely exclusive build options. However, it is workable - for example, Bards can make use of Songblades, Songbows and Arcane Implement Mastery to gain access to the different methods of powers of the different builds. Artificers can use throwing weapons or implement mastery to the same effect.

My suggestions:
1) take Lappy's advice, use colours and spoilers to streamline the presentation. In addition, some of the powers are missing the Implement or Weapon keyword (they need one of them).
2) Try something simpler - the plethora of options, many of them situational and some of them awkward, is a bit overwhelming. It feels like you're trying to accomplish too much with the class.
3) Use some more conventional ranges. Ranged 1 attack seems... silly. I don't know why you chose to do it that way, but it makes that power difficult to use. Melee 1 would work much better.
4) Avoid the issue of "Sacrifice All Damage for Intense Control Effects". Sacrificing 1d8 + mod damage for a save ends effect at early levels, for example, would get ridiculous.

Hopefully I was somewhat helpful. If anything I suggested is unclear, please just say so.

Roland St. Jude
2009-10-29, 08:38 PM
Sheriff: Closed by OP request. (Not something we normally do, but in Homebrew, we give the OP a bit more say.)