PDA

View Full Version : Magic Man of the Mad House [3.5 Prestige Class]



TheGeckoKing
2011-04-07, 08:18 PM
Pandemonium Mage

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu89/Gecko-King/Chaos_Master_by_Sapiains.jpg

Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane. I intend to be one of those people. That and explosions are REALLY fun. - Alistair the Ever-changing, Pandemonium Mage and Archlord of Fluctuations

It is generally accepted around the planes that chaos originates, or is at least based in Limbo, the plane of existence that never really makes sense for too long. Some Sorcerers can trace their magical heritage to this wacky plane of existence, and draw their powers of arcana from their chaos-warped blood. A few dedicated magi specialize in causing chaos like their forefathers, in a way that could make any Slaad proud.

Becoming an Pandemonium Mage
Only spontaneous casters can join the ranks of the Pandemonium Magi, and thus nearly all casters that become Pandemonium Mage are Sorcerers, although Beguilers can sometimes join this class, and even a few madder Dread Necromancers have been known to become Pandemonium Mages.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Alignment: Any Chaotic
Skills: Knowledge (The Planes) 6 Ranks
Feats: Chaotic Mind
Spellcasting: Must be able to Spontaneously cast 3rd level Arcane Spells.
Special: Must of come in contact with a creature with the [Chaotic] subtype.

Class Skills
The Pandemonium Mage's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Disguise (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (The Planes) (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int).
Skills Points at Each Level: 2 + int

Hit Dice: d6

Pandemonium Mage
{table=head]Level|BaB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|
+0|
+2|
+2|Chaos Adept (+1), Truly Chaotic Mind|
---

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+3|
+3|Amorphous Form (25%)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|
+1|
+3|
+3|Entropic Aura|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

4th|
+2|
+1|
+4|
+4|Amorphous Form (50%)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+2|
+1|
+4|
+4|Curse of Dissolution|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

6th|
+3|
+2|
+5|
+5|Amorphous Form (75%)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+3|
+2|
+5|
+5|Brother in Chaos|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

8th|
+4|
+2|
+6|
+6|Chaos Adept (+2)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+4|
+3|
+6|
+6|Dance in Madness|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

10th|
+5|
+3|
+7|
+7|Lord of Limbo|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features

Spells per Day/Spells Known: When a new Pandemonium Mage level is gained past 1st level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he had also gained a level in whatever arcane spellcasting class in which he could cast 3rd-level spells before he added the prestige class level. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If a character had more than one arcane spellcasting class in which he could cast 3rd-level spells before he became an archmage, he must decide to which class he adds each level of archmage for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Chaos Adept (Su): At 1st level, the Pandemonium Mage gains a basic understanding of the flow of change. The Pandemonium Mage casts spells with the [Chaos] descriptor at +1 caster level. At 8th level, this increases to +2.

Truly Chaotic Mind (Ex): At 1st level, your mind becomes a sinkhole of logic, and thus your Chaotic Mind feat now applies to any insight bonus, instead of just boni applied by psionic effects.

Amorphous Form (Ex): At 2nd level, the Pandemonium Mage's very form becomes warped by chaos, and thus harder to strike in a critical manner. When the Pandemonium Mage would be dealt a critical hit, there is a 25% chance of the hit being treated as a normal hit instead of a critical hit. This % chance increases by 25% at 4th and 6th level, to a maximum of 75%.

Entropic Aura (Su): The simplified theory of entropy is that eventually everything falls to disarray. You grasp the theory by the teeth and swing it around your head in an attempt to hinder your enemies. For a number of rounds per day equal to your Cha Modifier (This does not need to be consecutive), you may choose to emit a 50ft aura of chaos. Any enemies in this aura who makes a die roll has a 20% chance of treating that roll as a Natural 1. If the enemy in question would make a full-attack, then this penalty only applies to the first attack.
This aura may be activated/deactivated as a standard action.

Curse of Dissolution (Su): At 5th level, your studies in chaos reveal a new way of bringing disorder to the masses. You gain Corporeal Instability (SpC p53) as a bonus spell known. If you already have Corporeal Instability as a spell known, you may instead add any 4th level or lower arcane spell with the [Chaos] descriptor to your spells known as a bonus spell known instead.

Brother in Chaos (Ex): At 7th level, you create "relations" with the Slaad of Limbo, and earn a follower among the crazy frogs of entropy.
You gain a Cohort as if you had the Leadership feat, except you only gain the cohort and no other benefit of the Leadership feat, and your Slaad cohort depends on your character level. When you qualify for a new type of cohort, your cohort simply transforms into a new subspecies of Slaad, or is replaced with a similar Slaad from the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo.
Upon the Slaad's death, the Pandemonium Mage must make their way to Limbo and acquire a new cohort, which takes about 1d4 days once reaching the plane of Limbo.

{table=head]Character Level|Type of Cohort
13 or below|Mud Slaad
14-16|Red Slaad
17-19|Blue Slaad
20+|Green Slaad[/table]

The Mud Slaad and Red Slaad cohort granted by this class feature cannot use their Summon Slaad ability, and the Blue Slaad and Green Slaad cohort class ability can only use their Summon Slaad ability once per week.
The Mud Slaad is located in p157 of the Fiend Folio, and the rest are found in p228-231 of the Monster Manual.

Dance in Madness (Su): At 9th level, you can force the energies of chaos into your opponents very soul, however much they disagree. Once per week, the Pandemonium Mage can invoke the wrath of Chaos, making all creature within 100ft make a Will Save with a DC equal to the Pandemonium Mage's DC for their Entropic Aura. If they fail the save, the poor victims are affected by an effect exactly like an Irresistible Dance spell cast by you, and are also Blinded and Confused. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to the Pandemonium Mage's Cha Modifier.

Lord of Limbo (Ex): At 10th level, you become one with the ever-flowing sea of disarray that is chaos and pandemonium. Your type changes to Outsider, you gain the [Chaotic] subtype, and you become native to the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo, with the [Extraplanar] subtype while on any other plane of existance. You also gain resistance to acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5 and fire 5, and take half damage from Sonic damage.

MesiDoomstalker
2011-04-08, 11:42 PM
Dance in Madness (Su):[/B] At 9th level, you can force the energies of chaos into your opponents very soul, however much they disagree. Once per week, the Pandemonium Mage can invoke the wrath of Chaos, making all creature within 100ft make a Will Save with a DC equal to the Pandemonium Mage's DC for their Entropic Aura. If they fail the save, the poor victims are affected by an effect exactly like an Irresistible Dance spell cast by you, and are also Blinded and Confused. This effect lasts for a number of hours equal to the Pandemonium Mage's Cha Modifier.


I LOVE this ablilty. I would use this to go to a big galla with a bunch of snooty, lawful nobles and use this ability. Take that aristocrats! I'll sit back and watch as they dance around stupidly.

TheGeckoKing
2011-04-09, 06:14 AM
I LOVE this ablilty. I would use this to go to a big galla with a bunch of snooty, lawful nobles and use this ability. Take that aristocrats! I'll sit back and watch as they dance around stupidly.

That is an awesome use of the ability. :smallcool:
You've also reminded me that the ability is supposed to last for rounds, and not hours. Because that would just be downright broken. /facepalm

So........over 100 views and only one person says anything? Come on! I know your out there!

jiriku
2011-04-09, 10:53 AM
I'm... skeptical about the power level. On the one hand, you lost a caster level. We all know that's bad. On the other hand, you get:

10 levels of two good saves
10 levels of a d6 hit die
10 levels of 4 skill points per level
A metamagic-like ability that lets you add a save-or-suck-and-then-die-horribly effect to your spells for minimal cost several times per day.
Immunity to crits and precision damage
A cohort
Immunity to sonic damage
A debuffing aura
Sundry minor benefits
And because your expected entry point is sorcerer, you're giving up nothing other than the lost level of casting progression. You could take away a third of the benefits I just listed and it would still be a good move for a sorcerer to take this class.


Looking at Curse of Dissolution, it's... really strong. You can easily drop that on a magic missile in a 2nd-level slot and potentially wipe five guys with one spell. Too much.

Spell Compendium already includes a 4th-level spell that duplicates the effects of a chaos beast's touch, called corporeal instability (on page 53). Instead of CoD, why not grant corporeal instability as a bonus spell known? It gets the flavor accomplished, without the potential for abuse.


Looking at Entropic Aura, I see some potential pain points:
You affect all creatures. Including allies. Other players won't like that.
The save is required for every attack. In a high-level fight with, say, five creatures on each side, plus your cohort), you could easily be forcing 20 or more Will saves per round. This is too much dice-rolling just to enforce a debuff.
Entropic Aura contributes to a game balance problem because it disproportionally targets melee fighters, which are typically the weakest classes and monsters in the game, and does nothing to primary spellcasters, which are typically the strongest. I'd suggest you invert the trope and replace the ability with this:


Entropic Aura (Su): All enemies within 50 feet of you suffer a 20% failure chance when attempting any sort of action that requires intense concentration, such as casting a spell, using a psionic power, or activating a spell-like ability.

This would address all three problems at once.


Looking at Brother in Chaos, you need to define what happens if the slaad is killed.

TheGeckoKing
2011-04-09, 12:46 PM
I'm... skeptical about the power level. On the one hand, you lost a caster level. We all know that's bad. On the other hand, you get:

10 levels of two good saves
10 levels of a d6 hit die
10 levels of 4 skill points per level
4? No, that was a typo.
A metamagic-like ability that lets you add a save-or-suck-and-then-die-horribly effect to your spells for minimal cost several times per day.
Immunity to crits and precision damage
A cohort
Immunity to sonic damage
A debuffing aura
Sundry minor benefits
And because your expected entry point is sorcerer, you're giving up nothing other than the lost level of casting progression. You could take away a third of the benefits I just listed and it would still be a good move for a sorcerer to take this class.

Meh. I'll get to fixing that.

Looking at Curse of Dissolution, it's... really strong. You can easily drop that on a magic missile in a 2nd-level slot and potentially wipe five guys with one spell. Too much.

Spell Compendium already includes a 4th-level spell that duplicates the effects of a chaos beast's touch, called corporeal instability (on page 53). Instead of CoD, why not grant corporeal instability as a bonus spell known? It gets the flavor accomplished, without the potential for abuse.

I honestly did not know about that spell. Consider it changed.

Looking at Entropic Aura, I see some potential pain points:
You affect all creatures. Including allies. Other players won't like that.
The save is required for every attack. In a high-level fight with, say, five creatures on each side, plus your cohort), you could easily be forcing 20 or more Will saves per round. This is too much dice-rolling just to enforce a debuff.
Entropic Aura contributes to a game balance problem because it disproportionally targets melee fighters, which are typically the weakest classes and monsters in the game, and does nothing to primary spellcasters, which are typically the strongest. I'd suggest you invert the trope and replace the ability with this:



This would address all three problems at once.

Problem with that is, it's still skewed towards one archetype of character. I think i'll just go for Plan C and change it completely.

Looking at Brother in Chaos, you need to define what happens if the slaad is killed.

Oh yeah. Will do.

Okey dokey then. At least I have something to do. :smallsigh: