PDA

View Full Version : Prc - Arcane Dabbler



Lysander
2010-02-06, 08:11 PM
Some individuals study the magical arts alongside martial arts. They never reach the heights of either field, but instead combine military force with arcane talent in potent ways.

The Arcane Dabbler is a 10 level PrC that gives players a unique ability: the power to skip dead levels or levels with lackluster skills in exchange for spellcaster advancement. This lets you do things like skip a fighter's dead levels, giving up health in exchange for some magical ability.


ARCANE DABBLER

Requirements
Base Attack Bonus +4, Ability to cast 1st level arcane spells

{table="head"]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1|+0|+2|+0|+0|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class OR +1 level non-spellcasting features in another class
2|+1|+3|+0|+0|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class OR +1 level non-spellcasting features in another class
3|+2|+3|+1|+1|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class OR +1 level non-spellcasting features in another class
4|+3|+4|+1|+1|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class OR +1 level non-spellcasting features in another class
5|+3|+4|+1|+1|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class OR +1 level non-spellcasting features in another class
6|+4|+5|+2|+2|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class OR +1 level non-spellcasting features in another class
7|+5|+5|+2|+2|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class OR +1 level non-spellcasting features in another class
8|+6/+1|+6|+2|+2|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class OR +1 level non-spellcasting features in another class
9|+6/+1|+6|+3|+3|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class OR +1 level non-spellcasting features in another class
10|+7/+2|+7|+3|+3|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class OR +1 level non-spellcasting features in another class
[/table]

Hit Die
d6.

Class Skills
Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Ride, Swim, Concentration, Spellcraft, Knowledge (arcana)

Skill Points at Each Additional Level
2 + Int modifier.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Arcane Dabblers gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Class Feature Advancement
With each Arcane Dabbler level, a character gains all non-magical special class features granted by any one class as if they had gained a level in it. This essentially means that when determining what bonus feats or extraordinary abilities an Arcane Dabbler gets next in that class, add their levels in that class to their Arcane Dabbler level and treat that number as the level of the base class.

The character can choose to forgo gaining whatever abilities granted by that specific level in that class to instead gain new spells per day as if he had gained a level in any one arcane spellcasting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class. This essentially means that he adds number of Arcane Dabbler levels devoted to that class' spellcasting to the number of levels he actually has in that class, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly.

When an Arcane Dabbler chooses to forgo one class' abilities in favor of spellcaster advancement, they forever lose the ability to get the benefit granted by that specific level of the class. The next level they take in that class, or the next Arcane Dabbler level they devote to that class instead gets the special features from the next level up in that class. An exception in the case of special abilities that improve gradually such as a Rogue's sneak attack or in the case of abilities that act as prerequisites to later abilities, is that the next time they would get an improvement or whatever requires the preqrequisite, they instead get that one benefit from the level they skipped (but not any other class features from that level).

DracoDei
2010-02-06, 08:17 PM
Both sentences that start with the phrase "This essentially means that" seem to contradict the way it is implied to work in other places.

Jota
2010-02-06, 10:05 PM
Skipping levels seems very questionable. I'm trying to think of ways to break it but I'm having a little trouble. I'll just propose the following:

1) Factotum 1
2) Wizard 8 (or get another PrC, that'd be even better)
3) Arcane Dabbler 6 (advance casting)
4) Arcane Dabbler 1 (advance class features) -- acquire Cunning Surge
5) Fill out arcane casting levels.

So you've get CL 18 (access to ninth level spells, most importantly) with, if you spend most of your feats on Font of Inspiration, the ability to take about 10 standard actions each round. I'm sure there's other ways to abuse this, but this is what I've got on short notice.

CTLC
2010-02-06, 10:12 PM
someone cut the cheese. i think that dead levels should just be dealt with in the class. and yeah, this is fairly easy to break.