The Infernal Pyromancer (3.5, P.E.A.C.H.)

[SaintRidley]

So I got a little bored yesterday and decided I wanted to try making up a fire-based blaster PrC that wouldn't suck. This is what I've managed.

The Infernal Pyromancer
"Burn, burn it all!"

Infernal Pyromancers are mages so taken with the destruction that they wreak by burning things with their magic that they have elected to focus exclusively on fire. They seek something greater, though; the perfect burning of Hellfire draws them in. Consumed from within by the fires of the Hells, they pledge their souls to the flame eternal and await the time when Mephistopheles claims them after death.

Requirements
To qualify to become an Infernal Pyromancer, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
Alignment: Lawful Neutral, Lawful Evil, or Neutral Evil
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) 13 ranks, Knowledge (the Planes) 13 ranks, Spellcraft 13 ranks
Feats: Energy Substitution (Fire) (or the Mastery of Elements High Arcana), Searing Spell
Spells: Must be able to cast at least 5 [Fire] Spells and ability to cast 5th level arcane spells
Special: If a wizard, must be specialised in Evocation

The Infernal Pyromancer
hit dice: d4
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Specialisation, Fire Spells, Fire Resistance 10|-

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3|Utterfire, Flame of Power|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+3|Hellfire|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

4th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Diabolic Domain, Fire Resistance 20|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Hellfire Storm|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

6th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5|Burning Violation|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5|Enhanced Flame, Fire Immunity|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

8th|
+4|
+2|
+2|
+6|Investiture of the Hellfire Engine 1/day|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+4|
+3|
+3|
+6|Bonus Metamagic Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

10th|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+7|Soul of Cinders, Flames of Hell|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Skills
The Infernal Pyromancer’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Knowledge (the Planes), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Points
2 + Int modifier.

Weapon Proficiencies: Infernal Pyromancers gain no proficiency in weapons and armour.
Specialisation: On becoming an Infernal Pyromancer, you must forgo the learning of any spells from a school of magic of your choice (except Divination). In the case of Warmages (and other spontaneous casters with a predetermined list), this means that spells from the selected school are stricken from your spell list as if they were never there to begin with. For wizards, this means giving up a third school of magic. If you knew spells of of your newly forbidden school of magic before entering this Prestige Class, you may still cast those spells

Fire Spells (Ex): At first level, your pyromania is truly manifest. Any energy spell you cast has all subtypes and damage types replaced with fire.

Fire Resistance (Ex): At first level you gain Fire Resistance 10. This increases to Fire Resistance 20 at 4th level.

Utterfire: At second level you gain the Lord of the Uttercold metamagic feat, except all references to cold in the feat text work as if they say fire instead.

Flame of Power (Ex): At second level, the fire in your heart burns ever stronger. Add your Infernal Pyromancer class level to the damage of your evocation spells with the [Fire] descriptor. This ability does not work on spells that do not deal damage normally.

Hellfire: At third level, add Hellfire to your spells known list (or spellbook) as a fourth level spell. Your obsession with fire has manifested itself in the form of a gift from Mephistopheles.

Diabolic Domain: At fourth level you gain access to the spells and special ability of the Diabolic Domain (Fiendish Codex II). You gain a domain spell slot per spell level with which to cast the granted spells. The special ability of the Diabolic Domain functions off your Infernal Pyromancer level.

Hellfire Storm: Mephistopheles has seen your work and seen that it is good. At fifth level, add Hellfire Storm to your spells known list (or spellbook) as a seventh level spell.

Burning Violation (Ex): Beginning at sixth level, when you alter a spell with Utterfire, you can choose to change the negative energy damage to Vile damage. This choice must be made before damage is calculated.

Enhanced Flame (Ex): At seventh level you increase the damage cap for your [Fire] spells as if by the Enhance Spell epic metamagic feat. This is an automatic and permanent change to your [Fire] spells and does not increase the slot the spell uses.

Fire Immunity (Ex): You become immune to fire damage at 7th level.

Investiture of the Hellfire Engine(Sp) : Beginning at eighth level, once per day as a spell-like ability, you may use Investiture of the Hellfire Engine with a caster level equal to your highest caster level.

Bonus Metamagic Feat: At ninth level you gain a bonus metamagic feat. You must qualify for the feat.

Flames of Hell (Ex): At tenth level, all fire damage done by your [Fire] spells becomes Hellfire damage instead.

Soul of Cinders (Su): At tenth level your immunity to fire becomes total - even Hellfire does not harm you.


PLAYING AN INFERNAL PYROMANCER

You are on a slippery slope into irrevocable and irredeemable acts of depravity. The use of Hellfire may well damn your soul, and as you become more versatile your options become bleak affirmations that even if you came into this class without being evil, evil has touched you in a way that cannot be shed. Your abilities allow you to rain fire on the world with impunity, and that is often just enough to get the ball rolling into your eternal ruin.

Combat: Fire is your friend. As a specialist in blowing things to smithereens, you know that every problem can be solved through sufficient application of force. Or fire. Especially fire. At first you have simple fire, but over time you can make your fire black with negative energy or Vile with pure evil. Later your fire is as hot as the Hellfire of Mephistopheles, and even the mightiest of red dragons will fear your flame.

Advancement: Infernal Pyromancers come into this class for a variety of reasons. Some are brought in by the cult of Mephistopheles, or impressed by the power of a Hellfire Warlock. Others are Warmages or war wizards seeking an edge for battles. Regardless of how this class is discovered, there is some Infernal agency at work, corrupting the prospective Pyromancer.
Upon taking your first level in this class, your Searing Spell feat becomes a friend until your final level, when your fires burn through everything. Metamagic feats to shape your spells or improve the damage of your spells (Maximise Spell is recommended for synergy with your Enhanced Flame ability) are recommended. Direct damage is your bread and butter. Get good at killing things and you will go far.

Resources: Infernal Pyromancers have little in the way of formal community. An Infernal Pyromancer with access to local worshippers of Mephistopheles is well off, and some somewhat revered in the cult. Hellfire Warlocks are often your closest allies out in the world, like-minded as they are toward the use of Hellfire.

[Saintheart]

I must say I like the theme of a fire-focused pyromancer. Nice images all round. As someone once said to me, kudos on creating a PrC with a narrow focus, because that's what a PrC is meant to be.

I'm no expert at critical evaluation, but one point that comes to mind is one I've observed as to why Desert Wind is perceived as the weakest of the Nine Schools in ToB: because it focuses on fire damage. The reason it's perceived as weak(er) is mainly because at the higher levels, many monsters have immunity or flat resistance to fire damage.

I'm guessing you went for the Hellfire options at higher levels to try and get around this, but as I read that spell from BoVD it doesn't circumvent fire-based immunities, only anti-fire spells. And this is a class you can only get into around 10th level given you have to be able to cast 5th-level spells at the very least.

Like I said, I would have thought many monsters heading towards levels 10-20 have fire immunity or serious inherent fire resistance that circumvents even the Hellfire tree of spells.

I notice 9th level is a "dead level" for feats, though 9/10 spellcasting progression is nice. Perhaps you might consider some sort of feat at that level which allows the pyromancer to suppress fire immunities in enemy monsters at that level? That would make the class a lot more effective at higher levels, I would've thought ...

[Doppelganger]

Lawful? I mean yah, he's dealing with devils, but isn't pyromania traditionaly chaotic? Other than that, it looks great. (and two of them duilling at level ten would be... humorous)

-Pixie

[Desmond Tiny]

I would like to point out that hellfire does get around fire resistance and immunity.

[arguskos]

I really enjoy this actually. It's pretty well done, though the use of Hellfire does shove this strongly into the evil category, since all the Hellfire spells have the [Evil] tag, and the use of a spell with the [Evil] tag does constitute a 1-point corrupt act (as per FC2, which you're clearly using). Fair I guess, but it makes the inclusion of the LN alignment somewhat silly seeming.

Also, Fire Spells doesn't do anything relevant. It just gives things the [Fire] tag, it doesn't actually replace the elemental energy of the spell with Fire, as I assume was your intention. Unless, you meant a cone of cold from this class to deal cold damage, but have the [Cold, Fire] tags, which, uh, would be silly in the extreme. I'd suggest rewording the Fire Spells ability to the following: "At first level, your pyromania is truly manifest. At your option (at the time of casting) any energy spell you cast may have all subtypes and damage types replace with fire." The wording is not amazing, but it gives great flexibility and gets across the idea that your pyromania is severe enough to affect the flow of magic around and through you.

I do like this though. Really, good job, though it needs that dead level to go away. Not sure what to add though. I'll think on this.

[Saintheart]

I would like to point out that hellfire does get around fire resistance and immunity.

*shrug* It might be my reading of the spell description that's off, or I may have missed a CustServ ruling. "The diabolic flames are not subject to being reduced by protection from elements (fire), fire shield (chill shield), or similar magic." I didn't read that as including immunities. Energy resistance is usually an extraordinary ability, and extraordinary abilities are nonmagical. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#extraordinaryAbilities) Am I missing something? :smalleek:

[SaintRidley]

Hellfire as updated by the Fiendish Codex bypasses all immunities and resistance.

Added a bonus feat. That can always be changed later. Also made Fire Spells mean something.

Lawful neutral is included because it's really not until fourth level in the class that the slippage to evil becomes more complete. I didn't want to add a mechanic to the class that automagically changed your alignment after a certain point. That would seem a bit wrong, in my book.

I figure with a DM adjudicating things well enough, an Infernal Pyromancer could easily either stay neutral (and not use some of the more evil abilities, like Burning Violation or his Domain slots) or be properly transitioned into evil over the course of levelling in the class. I figured it was worth that to allow LN in, since then it might be friendly (sort of) to a more typical party.


And yeah, pyromania is generally seen as chaotic, though there's always a sort of underlying order to it - it's a natural force of cleansing, and harnessing it through magic is certainly an ordered action.


Thank you guys for the feedback.

[Saintheart]

Well, in that case, this PrC is just cool! :smallcool:

[Dante & Vergil]

It was only a matter of time before someone would add Hellfire to blasters. I especially like that I can deal negative energy with it as well, making UtterBlast Necros even cooler!!

[SaintRidley]

One minor edit - I changed Fire Spells back to mandatory "All fire all the time." Otherwise it doesn't mean anything and just becomes redundant to the required feat of Energy Substitution.

The way I looked at creating this PrC was that the feats needed to get in would become redundant for the character who progresses all the way through the class. This makes them an actual cost. That and the lost casting level make for a real tradeoff, while the later negative energy, Vile, and Hellfire damage along with the other goodies (especially the epic metamagic feat with no slot adjustment at level 17) are meant to persuade one to take the plunge and give up a little to get back something nice.

I wish I was part of a game right now. I'd love to see, especially on a Warmage or Evoker, whether this actually makes blasting a more viable tactic.

[Bibliomancer]

The ability to overcome all fire immunity is fairly powerful, but its balanced by the fact that blasting is often sub-optimal.

This is a very well thought out prestige class, and perhaps you could change the bonus metamagic feat to Flame Familiar:

At 9th level, your familiar is turned into a Small Fire Elemental. Although it does not grant you any special bonus, in all other ways it is treated like a normal familiar.