Moving Warmage up to Tier 3

[TheCoelacanth]

I have a player who wants to play a warmage in a party made up of an artificer, a cleric and a fairly optimized crusader. I was thinking of making Advanced learning every odd level instead of the 4 levels where warmage normally gets it and opening it up to non-summoning conjuration spells. Is that enough to move it up to tier 3?

[Sacrieur]

You'll need to move it up higher than tier 3, or he's going to get outshined.

[TheCoelacanth]

I was aiming for tier 3 to match the crusader. The players playing the artificer and the cleric aren't really the type to always have the perfect spell/item ready so I was just aiming for a bit more versatility without fundamentally changing the class.

[Corlindale]

It will certainly help. I would also suggest giving the player the option to use the Eclectic Learning alternative class feature from PHB II, to let him expand his spell list a bit further. But access to all Conjuration will certainly help with that as well.

Other suggestions might be to swap the not-greatly-useful Sudden Metamagic feats out for just bonus metamagic feats. Or alternatively start to use the Sudden metamagic houserule that they have uses per day equal to (5-level adjustment), so Empower would be 3/day and Maximize 2/day.
And perhaps give them Sudden Quicken for free at some point w/o the nasty prereqs - I don't think that would be unbalanced compared to many other class features.

You could also buff Warmage Edge somehow. As written it becomes pretty underwhelming pretty early - maybe it could help a bit to buff it up to 2 extra damage/int bonus at some point in the progression (though of course getting that from level 1 would be a bit too powerful).

[ffone]

Rainbow Warmage?

[Eloel]

Rainbow Warmage?

That is easily tier 1.

[Kaeso]

I have a player who wants to play a warmage in a party made up of an artificer, a cleric and a fairly optimized crusader. I was thinking of making Advanced learning every odd level instead of the 4 levels where warmage normally gets it and opening it up to non-summoning conjuration spells. Is that enough to move it up to tier 3?

The party has 2 tier 1 characters and a tier 3 character, a tier 2 character would be perfectly balanced. Why don't you suggest him to use a blast-focused sorcerer instead of a warmage? Even if he wants to play a sword-and-spell character, the battle sorcerer variant from UA is always a good choice. It get's the same spells as a sorcerer (though he knows and can cast less) while being proficient with one martial weapon and being able to cast in light armor without spell faillure.

He could pick a handful of good blasting spells (scorching ray, fireball, disintegrate etc.), slap some metamagic on it and blast far better than a warmage ever could, and still have some spells free for other kinds of spells (utility, battlefield control etc.) That makes him a lot more balanced compared to the other party members.

Or he could play a duskblade. Whatever he prefers.

[Prime32]

Hm? (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3053.msg94900#msg94900) :smallconfused:

[Lans]

Put some utility spells on the list like lightning leap.

[gbprime]

Boost the BAB from 1/2 to 3/4. This will help him with touch attacks, as well as making it easier to qualify for Sanctified One of Kord (Complete Champion). One level of that PrC turns all his fire spells into untyped energy instead... and suddenly the power level gap narrows considerably.

You might also consider the War Mage PrC from Dragonlance:Age of Mortals. 5 levels of that PrC come with 2 metamagic feats and a +3 per die of damage to his spells. That's like free Empower with every boom.

Take both those PrC's, and suddenly the cleric and crusader will be complaining that the warmage always gets the kills. :smallamused:

[Thurbane]

Change his primary casting stat to Int, and add some utility and defensive spells to the class list. Maybe medium BAB and/or d8 hit dice, too.

[McSmack]

I agree with most of the suggestions above.

I'd change the Sudden feats to simply metamagic feats.

Give him some more verstility by allowing Eclectic Learning and or Advanced Learning more often.

For the Warmage Edge I take a page from the PF Dragon Bloodline option for sorcerers. Give him +1 damage/damage die, then have that go up every few levels. Or add +1/2 his warmage lvl to all damage spells instead of Int bonus. At lower levels it's not as impressive, but by mid-levels it will start to outshine the original version.

[Psyren]

Change his primary casting stat to Int, and add some utility and defensive spells to the class list. Maybe medium BAB and/or d8 hit dice, too.

This. I have no idea why they used Charisma to begin with. The whole fluff of the class is that they go to college, for Pete's sake.

[Gnaeus]

This. I have no idea why they used Charisma to begin with. The whole fluff of the class is that they go to college, for Pete's sake.

Warmage college is all about drinking, doing drugs and hitting on intoxicated people. They do that better with a high Cha (and Con!). The fluff about the military training is just what they tell their parents. :smalltongue: