Rebuild the AEG witch (3.?)

[Epsilon Rose]

Quick note.
I've decided to redo this entirely rather than just patch a few of the rules. The AEG witch has to many odd glitches *cough*10th lvl spells*chough*
Also, the witch was originally designed to use a spell point system, and I think that fits this sort of class better than the normal Vancian system. That said the spell points used by wizards and AEG seem more inline with psionics where you can augment powers than magic where you can't. To that end I will be using a the mana-based casting created by Surgo and Lord Blackfang (http://www.dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Mana-Based_Spellcasting_%283.5e_Variant_Rule%29) but it shouldn't be to hard to convert to you're preferred system, they use sorcerer spells per day, but wizard level progression.



The Chaote


A chaote is a mage who interacts with magic on a much more basic level than most other casters. Rather than confine themselves to memorizing the same spells that were invented decades ago they prefer to hone there art though personal trial and error and many chaotes have an extensive repertoire of unique original spells.

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d6

Class Skills
The Chaote's class skills are Alchemy(Int), Concentration(Con), Craft(lnt), Decipher Script (Int), Heal(Wis), Knowledge(arcana)(Int), Knowledge(local)(Int), Knowledge(planes)(Int), Knowledge(religion)(Int), Listen(Wis), Professien(Wis), Scry(Int), SenseMotive(Wis), Spellcraft(lnt), Spot(Wis), Swim(Str) and Use Magic Device(Cha).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) ×4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.


NAME OF CLASS
{table=head]Level|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells Known|Max Spell Level

1st|
0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Flexible magic, Experimental learning, Cantrips, Arcane records, Arcane Senses|3|1st

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3|Summon Familiar|4|1st

3rd|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+3||5|2nd

4th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4||6|2nd

5th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Bonus Feat|7|3rd

6th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5||8|3rd

7th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5||9|4th

8th|
+4|
+2|
+2|
+6||10|4th

9th|
+4|
+3|
+3|
+6||11|5th

10th|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+7|Bonus Feat|12|5th

11th|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+7||13|6th

12th|
+6/+1|
+4|
+4|
+8||14|6th

13th|
+6/+1|
+4|
+4|
+8||15|7th

14th|
+7/+2|
+4|
+4|
+9||16|7th

15th|
+7/+2|
+5|
+5|
+9|Bonus Feat|17|8th

16th|
+8/+3|
+5|
+5|
+10||18|8th

17th|
+8/+3|
+5|
+5|
+10||19|9th

18th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+11||20|9th

19th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+11||21|9th

20th|
+10/+5|
+6|
+6|
+12|Bonus Feat|22|9th[/table]

Cantrips: A chaote starts play a number of 0th level spells equal to their intelligence modifier. Should their modifier permanently increase during the course of play they gain an equivalent number of cantrips the next time they level (unless the additional point is gained from leveling, in which case the cantrip may be gained immediately).

Flexible magic: A chaote is more of an experimentalist than most mages and thus has far more practice with Free Form Magic than his peers, as such he need not make a concentration check when casting and backfire only occurs in the event of a natural one on his Spellcraft check followed by rolling a second failure. Additionally a chaote receives a +5 bonus on FFM checks.

Favored schools: Chaotes tend to favor some schools of magic over others during the course of their experimentation and receive a +5 bonus on skill check when attempting to cast spells from these schools. All Chaotes favor cantrips, universal spells and two other schools of their choosing. A chaote may choose to favor more than two schools but they must also choose a school to disfavor for every additional school. Spells from disfavored schools do not receive the normal +5 bonus to FFM check and can never be learned.
Favored and disfavored schools must be chosen at level one.

Experimental learning: A Chaote may "learn" a spell in one of three ways.

A chaote may learn 1 new spell that he can cast at each new level. Additionally a chaote starts with 2 bonus spells.
If a Chaote uses the same (spell 10+spell level-int mod) times in 1 level they may make a dc 20 Knowledge: Arcana check to memorize the spell. The number of castings required to learn a spell is halved if they have a written set of instructions for the spell (like a wizards spell book). If the Chaote fails his check he may attempt it again every two castings of the spell.
A Chaote may research new spells like a wizard, but due to the less organized nature of his spells this takes an additional week per 2 levels.

A Chaote need not make a knowledge check in order to cast a spell he has learned; additionally in the case of favored spells he may cast them as a standard action with no check, and with normal spells he receives a +5 bonus to the spellcraft check required to cast them (this is in addition to their normal bonus).

Mana: Chaotes have intelligence*1.5+lv/2 mana points with which to cast spells.Note: this uses intelligence, not intelligence mod.

Arcane records (this needs a better name): A Chaote may write down spells he has learned just like a wizard (note while these writings can be used to learn or prepare the spell they cannot be used to cast the spell like a scroll; that would require the scribe scroll feet), however, due to the haphazard way a Chaote learns spells he must spend an extra day/2 spell levels in order to collect and organize his information the first time he attempts to record it. This additional time is halved if the spell was learned through research as a more copious set of notes already exists.

Arcane Senses:A chaote is constantly under the effects of detect magic as an extraordinary ability; this may be suppressed as a free action. Additionally if a chaote has an intelligence of at least 16 he may use read magic at will as a spell-like ability.

Familiar: At second level a chaote gains a familiar.

Bonus feat: Starting at 5th and every 5 levels after that a chaote may select a bonus feat in addition to the feats a character normally receives for leveling.

[Epsilon Rose]

Free Form Magic (FFM):
In order to cast a free form spell a mage must first make a knowledge arcana check taking a standard action and then a Spellcraft and concentration check taking a full round action (both take the same full round action). The DCs for these checks are equal to (25+2*effective spell lv). If the Knowledge arcana check fails the mage simply cannot figure out how to bring the required arcane forces to bare and he does not even attempt a casting; in this case no spell slot is used but the mage may not attempt to cast the same spell for 1d4+1 rounds(other spells are unaffected). If either the spell craft or concentration check fails the mage is unable to properly bring the forces to bare or regulate them; this results in the spell failing and the mage expending the appropriate spell slot but the mage may attempt to cast the spell again and if this attempt occurs before the end of his next turn he need not make a second Knowledge check. If both the spellcraft and the concentration checks fail backfire occurs and the mage may not opt to cast in the next round without a knowledge check.

Tables with values for creating new spell to come.

[Epsilon Rose]

Feets:
Meticulous experimenter
You naturally keep detailed notes or have an incredibly ordered mind.
Benefit: A Chaote with this feat need not spend extra time researching or recording spells.

Enhanced Arcane Senses
You have continually meditated on your arcane senses and now you have reached a new level of attunement with the world’s magic.
Requirement: 10th level caster and arcane senses class feature.
Benefit: You may now use Arcane Sight at will as a spell like ability, and at level 16 you may use Greater Arcane Sight.
You may also sense the use of magic around the world. This allows you to know roughly where magic is being used around the world though individual mages or magical items cannot be pinpointed unless they are extremely powerful, casting extremely powerful spells, relatively near-by or the world is almost completely devoid of magic. This in no way gives you the ability to identify the item or caster but a dc 30 spellcraft check can tell you a spells school and a dc 40 check will give you a general idea of what it's meant to do (this should get easier and more precise as the spell increases in power or gets closer).

[Epsilon Rose]

Design notes:
As I've said before: I like the idea of the Witch class, but there are a whole bunch of it's flaws (every thing from a sub-par magic missle clone only being possible as a 6th lv spell to being able to cast 10th level spells at level 19) so I've set out to fix it. Some of the features (notably arcane senses) are going to be fluff-light because I like the fluff they used but I don't think it's write to copy it.
The most notable change in this overhall (from the last one [which you can find bellow]) was my tinkering with the spells known and max level castable. Both tables in the original book look a bit weird unless you compare them to psionics (which I did!) at which point they fall in line, so I decided to pattern their learning of spell after psionics with them simply getting a spell that they can cast at each level (it's not like they normally need need spell slots).
I also made arcane senses an always on extraordinary ability since from the fluff it seems like something that's fairly inherent to the way they see the world and not just some minor application of power they're capable of (that's also the reason behind the "Enhanced Arcane Senses" feat, they describe the ability as much more powerful than it is).

old notes on Witch

I'd like to rebuild the witch class from AEG's magic to make it a bit more useful and I'd like some suggestions to keep it balanced.

As it stands the Witch uses AEG's free form magic rules to cast most of it's spells. This entails making three full round checks at dc(35+spell level*2). Witches get +5 for most spell and +10 (or 0) for a few others. This seems excessively hard, and almost un-doable at low levels.

I'd like to drop the dc by 15 and some how either compress or drop a few of the checks. And make it so that if a witch uses a spell enough they can learn it (though I'm not sure how that would effect ballance since they get a number of benefits for learned spells (no checks for favored schools, +10 for indifferent, can't learn non-favored).

I'd also like to make a few fluff changes since the witch I'm going to be playing has a more scientific bent.

Replace Wisdom with Intelligence
Use Knowledge(arcana) instead of profession witch craft for one of the checks (this is actually the norm for free form magic, but witches get an ability that switches it)
make healing non-favored (they're not quite banned) and Force favored to reflect a more scientific mind.


Lastly the free form rules don't list how changing the casting time or transmutation(materiel A to material B) effect spell level. Does any one have a suggestion for that or a more complete set of rules for spell creation?

So any thoughts on my changes or perhaps a suggestion of a class that is more about creating spells on the fly that I don't have to fix?

-------------------------------
After a little game play I intend to overhaul the spell construction rules unless someone can present me with a better set of tables (please do).
As things stand a 1d3 (note the lack of "per level") ray of force is a 6th level spell compared to magic missile which is effectively 1d4+1 per two levels up to 9th homing force damage as a level 1 spell.
--------------------------------
Ok, I'd like to ask for some advice on the spell progression. At the moment the chaote can cast the same number of spells a day as a wizard, but has the following progression for spells known.
{table=head]Level|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9

1st|2|1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
2nd|3|1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
3rd|3|2||||||||
4th|3|2|1|||||||
5th|4|2|1|||||||
6th|4|3|1|||||||
7th|4|3|1|1||||||
8th|4|3|2|1||||||
9th|5|3|2|1|1|||||
10th|5|4|2|1|1|||||
11th|5|4|2|1|1|1||||
12th|5|4|3|1|1|1||||
13th|5|4|3|1|1|1|1|||
14th|5|4|3|2|1|1|1|||
15th|5|4|3|2|1|1|1|1||
16th|5|4|3|2|2|1|1|1||
17th|5|4|3|2|2|1|1|1|1|
18th|6|4|3|2|2|2|1|1|1|
19th|6|4|3|2|2|2|1|1|1|1
20th|6|4|3|2|2|2|2|1|1|1[/table]
*note they do not gain more spells for high ability scores.
This seems a bit low to me and a bit odd in places (they get a single 0th level spell at 18).
I'm considering either bumping up their spells known or spell per day but I'm a bit worried about making them two strong. What I'm trying to balance against is that on one hand they're spontaneous casters who can learn new spell outside of leveling and don't actually need to "know" a spell to cast something but on the other they learn spells by casting them repeatedly as apposed to just paying some gold and writing them down, it take two turns (not two turns of casting mind you) and two checks to cast a spell they don't know, and many of the spells they do eventually learn still require a check.

I'm not overly worried about later levels where they've theoretically had some time to build up a catalog of spells and have more points/slots to play around with.

Edit: it's probably worth mentioning that while they don't "learn" level 2 spells till level 4 they can cast them at level 3.


Old fix
Right I'm going to codify the actual running rules in this post.

Free Form Magic (FFM):
In order to cast a free form spell a mage must first make a knowledge arcana check taking a standard action and then a Spellcraft and concentration check taking a full round action (both take the same full round action). The DCs for these checks are equal to (25+2*effective spell lv). If the Knowledge arcana check fails the mage simply cannot figure out how to bring the required arcane forces to bare and he does not even attempt a casting; in this case no spell slot is used but the mage may not attempt to cast the same spell for 1d4+1 rounds(other spells are unaffected). If either the spell craft or concentration check fails the mage is unable to properly bring the forces to bare or regulate them; this results in the spell failing and the mage expending the appropriate spell slot but the mage may attempt to cast the spell again and if this attempt occurs before the end of his next turn he need not make a second Knowledge check. If both the spellcraft and the concentration checks fail backfire occurs and the mage may not opt to cast in the next round without a knowledge check.

If the mage has a set of instructions for performing the spell (like a wizards spell book) the mage need not make a Knowledge check but must still take a standard action to read the instructions.

Chaote
A Chaote's key stat for casting spells is Intelligence.

Arcane Senses: In addition to its normal function if a Chaote has an Intelligence of at least 16 he may use read magic at will as a spell like ability.

Flexible magic: A Chaote is more of an experimentalist than most mages and thus has far more practice with FFM than his peers, as such he need not make a concentration check when casting and backfire only occurs in the event of a natural one on his Spellcraft check followed by rolling a second failure. In addition to this a Chaote receives a +10 bonus to checks for Conjuration (except healing), elemental (not including Positive or negative energy), mind effecting spells, universal spells and all cantrips. He receives a + 5 bonus to all other spells that are not Necromancy, or Healing spells.

Experimental learning: A Chaote may "learn" a spell in one of three ways.

A Chaote learns new spells at each level at the same rate as a witch (see table 14-2 Witch Spell Talents in AEG's Magic)
If a Chaote uses the same (spell 10+spell level-int mod) times in 1 level they may make a dc 20 Knowledge: Arcana check to memorize the spell. This time is halved if they have a written set of instructions for the spell (like a wizards spell book). If the Chaote fails his check he may attempt it again every two castings of the spell.
A Chaote may research new spells like a wizard, but due to the less organized nature of his spells this takes an additional week per 2 levels.

A Chaote need not make a knowledge check in order to cast a spell he has learned; additionally in the case of favored spells he may cast them as a standard action with no check, and with normal spells he receives a +10 bonus to his spellcraft check. A Chaote may not learn dis-favored spells.

Arcane records (this needs a better name): A Chaote may write down spells he has learned just like a wizard (note while these writings can be used to learn or prepare the spell they cannot be used to cast the spell like a scroll; that would require the scribe scroll feet), however, due to the haphazard way a Chaote learns spells he must spend an extra day/2spell levels in order to collect and organize his information the first time he attempts to record it. This additional time is halved if the spell was learned through research as a more copious set of notes already exists.