Novice (No fluff as yet)

[The Mentalist]

This is a class I'm making for an NPC, I don't have any grand fluff for it yet but it's basically focusing on the basics of magic instead of the higher spells for various reasons (obsession, injury, angry gods)

Prerequisites:
Able to cast spells
Spellcraft 5 ranks

Grand Novice
{table=head]Level|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2| Quantity over Quality I

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3| Practice, Practice, Practice I
3rd|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+3| Unfettered

4th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4| Quantity over Quality II

5th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Practice, Practice, Practice II
6th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5| Gift of Power

7th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5|Quantity over Quality III

8th|
+4|
+2|
+2|
+6|Practice, Practice, Practice III
9th|
+4|
+3|
+3|
+6| Gift of Power

10th|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+7|Surge of Power[/table]

The Grand Novice class does not advance spell casting but gives 2 Caster level per level of the class

Quantity over Quality I: The Grand Novice gains bonus zero and first level spell slots equal to it's class level

Practice, Practice, Practice I: The Novice may add any one metamagic effect (whether he has the feat or not) of +1 spell adjustment or lower to any 0 or 1st level spell without increasing the spell level

Unfettered: All Caster Level caps are ignored by the Novice

Quantity over Quality II: The Grand Novice gains bonus second level spell slots equal to it's class level

Practice, Practice, Practice II: The Novice may add any metamagic effect (whether he has the feat or not) of +2 spell adjustment or lower to any 0, 1st, 2nd level spell without increasing the spell level

Gift of Power: The Grand Novice gains five caster levels

Quantity over Quality III: The Grand Novice gains bonus third level spell slots equal to it's class level

Practice, Practice, Practice III: The Novice may add any two metamagic effects (whether he has the feat or not) of +2 spell adjustment or lower to any 0, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level spell without increasing the spell level

Gift of Power: The Grand Novice gains five caster levels

Surge of Power: The Grand Novice may, once per day increase it's caster level by twenty. This effect lasts for ten minutes



What does it need (other than fluffy goodness)?

[Zexion]

Pretty cool overall. There are some parts that seem a bit strange. For one thing, a 20th level Wizard/10th level Grand Novice would easily beat a 30th level Wizard or even a 25th level Wizard/5th level Archmage. There is a balance problem here. Did I mention that I love balance problems? I love classes that are more powerful than the rest of the party combined. However, I'm probably not the best person to judge, right?
I do like the mechanics, as well as the Quantity Over Quality ability. That is one of the things that annoys me about 3.5: no matter how powerful your sorcerer is, you can only cast six 0th level spells per day. No matter what.

Also, when you say "add a metamagic feat for free" it clouds the meaning of what it really is, by which I mean "add a metamagic feat without increasing the spell level"

[Milskidasith]

Free metamagic'd up low level spells is kind of nutty. Stuff like Wings of Flurry (I think it's third level; if not, Sanctum Spell it down to third from fourth) at +20 CL is pretty nuts, plus uncapping stuff makes many buffs and low level spells scale incredibly well.

[Zexion]

Imagine you are a 20th level wizard, 10th level Grand Novice. You take a normal Fireball. You quicken it, using the metamagic feat. You have an unaltered Caster Level of 70. You use the Surge of Power to increase your caster level to 90. You are doing 90d6 damage as a free action. That's an average of 315 Fire damage, as a free action. Then you cast a second fireball, except that this one is maximized, instead of quickened. You do 540 damage, with one spell. Something isn't right here, and it's awesome.

[The Mentalist]

Pretty cool overall. There are some parts that seem a bit strange. For one thing, a 20th level Wizard/10th level Grand Novice would easily beat a 30th level Wizard or even a 25th level Wizard/5th level Archmage. There is a balance problem here.

Not quite true... Once you get to epic casting things sort of break in half. You might like it.



Also, when you say "add a metamagic feat for free" it clouds the meaning of what it really is, by which I mean "add a metamagic feat without increasing the spell level"

Fixed that phrasing.



Free metamagic'd up low level spells is kind of nutty. Stuff like Wings of Flurry (I think it's third level; if not, Sanctum Spell it down to third from fourth)

I won't even begin to touch Sanctum Spell cheese (love it, use it, won't try to write around it)


plus uncapping stuff makes many buffs and low level spells scale incredibly well.

That's mostly the point. Did I take it too far?

[DragoonWraith]

I think attempting to balance the class for Epic play is an exercise in futility. Epic play is not balanced...

[spectralphoenix]

So if I understand this correctly, a Wizard 3/Novice 10 would have a CL of 33, or 53 while surging, and be able to add three free metamagic feats?

So he could cast Maximized Magic Missile and deal 140 points of undodgeable, unsavable force damage with a 1st level spell? Or a Maximized Empowered Scorching Ray and deal 456 + 38d6 unsaveable fire damage (or any other kind of energy damage, since he can add elemental substitution metamagic) with a second level spell?

I think you need to worry about some other things before you start trying to balance epic play.

[The Mentalist]

Toned down the metamagic a touch.

[Zexion]

You might want to say that instead of the caster level limit being removed, it is increased by half your Intelligence modifier, to a maximum of 3 per level.