[Base, PEACH] The Nexus - Class inspired from Eragon

[Phosphate]

http://www.eclipseoffate.com/seeker/images/warmage.jpg
"They...they, my boy, are lulling themselves into a false sense of security, toying with forces unknown with an unsure outcome, hoping for the best. We are not as they are. For what we do bases itself not on the unknown, but on that which we ought to know the most about: ourselves. And should we fail, the same outcome awaits us perpetually, grinning in our face - demise." - Aherian, Nexus

Most people that practice magic procure or have a constant flow of it from various sources: the cosmos, the gods, the demons, matter in itself, the soul, the elements, fragments of spirits long past, emotion, or even inner sources of mystery, ancestry, inheritance. Nexii are different. Their magic is simply the converted life force of their bodies, and sometimes even their bodies physically. They willingly incur massive pain and fatigue upon themselves in order to aid others with their spells.

Organisation: Nexii do have their own part-academy part-monasteries, where they teach discipline and control in handling of magical power to any who see knowledge and refuge. Anybody can attempt to become a Nexus, as there are no supernatural requirements for it, however, most that try fail to do so, as an unquestioning belief that you can modify the world magically through sheer effort is something hard to find, and hard to keep. At times, they can attach themselves to actual monasteries, and it is not unlikely to meet a monk from such a place that is also a Nexus.

Abilities: Due to the danger they put themselves through, Nexii value Constitution more than anything else, both to stay alive and fuel their magic. Intelligence may help them due to the very small allotment of skill points per level, charisma covers some of their DC, and wisdom is useful for them at high levels.

Religion: The vast majority of people become Nexii specifically because of their disdain for the supernatural and divine, and as a result, are apatheists (at best), or antitheists, at worst. As an adaptation, in very low magic settings or low fantasy this can be changed to atheism.

Other Classes: Most spellcasters, like wizards and sorcerers, view Nexii as masochists that don't actually do "real" magic. Classes that thrive on discipline, however, like monks and paladins, hold Nexii in high regard. Also, martial classes, like warblades, respect the Nexii for the carefree and dutiful way they risk their lives on a daily basis.

Races: A member of any race can become a Nexus, though inherently magical races, like elves or gnomes, find no actual reason to do so.

Alignment: Any nonchaotic

Starting Age: complex
Starting Gold: like fighter
Hit Dice: d8

Skills per level: 2 + Int mod (x4 at first level)
Class skills: Concentration, Craft, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (history), Knowledge (nature), Profession, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Survival

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Vigor Points|Maximum Spell Level

1st|
+0|
+2|
+0|
+2|Robust|4|1

2nd|
+1|
+3|
+0|
+3||6|1

3rd|
+2|
+3|
+1|
+3|Renewed Stamina|8|2

4th|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+4||11|2

5th|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+4|Natural Link|14|3

6th|
+4|
+5|
+2|
+5|Elude Demise|19|3

7th|
+5|
+5|
+2|
+5|Bonus Feat|25|4

8th|
+6/1|
+6|
+2|
+6|Unlikely Fortitude|33|4

9th|
+6/1|
+6|
+3|
+6||41|5

10th|
+7/2|
+7|
+3|
+7||52|5

11th|
+8/3|
+7|
+3|
+7|Dark Secret: Soul Tear|62|6

12th|
+9/4|
+8|
+4|
+8||75|6

13th|
+9/4|
+8|
+4|
+8|Affinity|89|7

14th|
+10/5|
+9|
+4|
+9|Bonus Feat|105|7

15th|
+11/6/1|
+9|
+5|
+9||121|8

16th|
+12/7/2|
+10|
+5|
+10|Dark Secret: Blight|140|8

17th|
+127/2|
+10|
+5|
+10||158|9

18th|
+13/8/3|
+11|
+6|
+11||179|9

19th|
+14/9/4|
+11|
+6|
+11||199|9

20th|
+15/10/5|
+12|
+6|
+12|Dark Secret: Drain|220|9[/table]

Class Features

Armor and Weapon Proficiencies: A Nexus is proficient with all simple weapons and one martial weapon, Light armor, and no shields. A Nexus never incurs arcane spell failure due to the weight of his armor, but suffers other disadvantages (see spellcasting).

Spellcasting: A Nexus draws his spells from the Warmage spell list (http://rpg.sandcat.nl/steam06/characters/warmage_spell_list.pdf). He automatically knows all spells he can cast. A Nexus does not need a high mental stat to cast spells - he can use any spell at or under his maximum spell level on the warmage list. A Nexus normally uses Vigor Points to cast his spells. By sleeping 1 hour, you restore 1/8 of your Vigor Points, rounded down - an 8 hour sleep restores all of them. This is the only way to restore Vigor points. If a Nexus uses spells so that his Vigor Points drop to zero, he does not only need to sleep to recover them - he must also eat 1 pound of decent food (for Medium characters, more or less otherwise) before or right after sleeping. If a Nexus is out of Vigor Points, and ONLY then, he can cast from hit points instead. This is treated as lethal damage, and will kill him if it goes under 0 (yes, 0, not -10).

Level 0 spells cost 1 Vigor Point/hit point. Level 1, 2, and 3 spells cost spell level Vigor Points/hit points. Level 4, 5, and 6 spells cost spell level+1 Vigor Points/hit points. Level 7, 8, and 9 spells cost spell level+2 Vigor Points/hit points. Wearing light armor increases this cost by 1, medium armor by 3, and heavy armor by 5. Also, if you use the same spell (or a greater or lesser version, doesn't matter) a second time during the same day, it will cost 1 more, and all subsequent uses will stack 2 more to the cost each.

The save DC for a spell cast from Vigor Points is 10+spell level+Cha mod, and the save DC cast partially or completely from hit points is 10+class level/2+Con mod.

Special: many times, magic can be lethal for a Nexus. Whenever he casts a spell that is level 5 or higher, he must make a Fortitude Save against a DC of 10+spell level+number of spells of that level used that day. If he fails, he dies. If he succeeds by less than 5, he is fatigued for d10 turns. If a Nexus uses a spell while fatigued, he loses 1 Vigor Point per turn for d4 turns (or hit points if he has no Vigor Points left). If a Nexus uses the same spell (or a greater or lesser version) 3 times or more during a day, regardless of its level, he must make a Fortitude Save against a DC of 5 x (1+spell uses), and die if he fails. A spell can't be used more than 5 times during a day. In addition to any other save he must make, and before making them, when a Nexus is casting from hit points he must make a Fortitude Save against a DC of 20. If he fails, the cost is doubled.




Robust (Ex): A Nexus, due to the effort he put in increasing his physical toughness, gains the Endurance and Diehard feats at 1st level, and his massive damage cap is raised by his class level. Also, whenever he would roll HD at level up, you may reroll 1s and 2s.

Renewed Stamina (Ex): When a Nexus of level 3 or higher depletes all his Vigor points, he gains 4 hit points, +1 for every 2 levels over 10.

Natural Link (Su): The Nexus senses the life and reason of all simple creatures in his vicinity. He can see through the eyes of all creatures in a 50 feet radius that have an Int score equal to his Int score/4 or lower, communicate telepathically with all creatures in a 100 feet radius that have an Int score equal to his Int score/2 or lower, and empathically feel the emotions all creatures in a 150 feet radius that have an Int score equal to his Int score -3 or lower.

Elude Demise (Ex): A Nexus faces death so often that running away from it becomes one of his hobbies. Whenever he would make a Fortitude Save against death, he can take a -4 penalty to activate this. If he succeeds, he gains Fast healing 2 for 2 turns. This becomes Fast healing 3 for 3 turns at 9th level, and Fast healing 4 for 4 turns at 12th level.

Bonus Feat: At levels 7 and 14, the Nexus may learn a Metamagic feat. He must meet all requirements.

Unlikely Fortitude (Ex): A Nexus is a realist in gauging his chances of survival, and will not let something fail unexpectedly due to randomness. He does not instantly fail a Fortitude Save on a natural roll of 1.

Dark Secret: Soul Tear (Su): A level 11 Nexus learns to cast spells using the essence of his soul rather than that of his body. When casting from hit points, instead of giving hit points he can pay only half the cost, but in Charisma damage.

Affinity (Su): At level 13, a Nexus may choose 1 energy descriptor. Whenever he uses an ability of that descriptor, he may pay 2 less Vigor points and pay 1 hit point. If he does so, the save DC of that spell becomes 10+spell level+Cha mod+Con mod. Additionally, treat the target's SR as lower by 5.

Dark Secret: Blight (Sp): At level 16, a Nexus learns to draw some power from the plant life surrounding him. He must have the equivalent of an unkept lawn or more of plants on a circular area with a 10 feet+spell level radius, centered on him, to use this feature. Plants that are also creatures can be used, but only if they are dead, and their bodies have not decayed completely. Whenever he casts a spell, he may declare this feature's use as a swift action. All plant life in an area with a 10 feet+spell level radius centered on him withers and dies and then turns to dust, and the Nexus can roll d6. If he rolls 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, he can ignore 2/6, 3/6, 4/6, 5/6, or the entire cost of the spell, rounded down, respectively. If he rolls 1, the cost of the spell changes to hit point damage, even if you have Vigor points remaining. At level 20, you can kill plant monsters for this as well, but only if they have a HD of 5 or less.

Dark Secret: Drain (Sp): At level 20, a Nexus reaches the climax of his powers, and can use the life force of others instead of his own. This can be used in 2 ways:

1. Before casting a spell that takes a standard action, you can declare you will use this feature. If you do so, do not pay the cost of the spell. If the spell is successful (not in an antimagic field, not negated by a will or SR etc), you can then use this feature as an instant-targeting swift action with a 25 feet range. Choose 1 target in this range, it does not matter if he is willing or no. Now, make a Will Save+Constitution modifier against the target's Will Save+spell level. If you succeed, the target pays the cost of the spell instead of you (always from hit points, even if the target has levels in Nexus). If you fail, you must pay the spell from hit points and make a DC 30 Fortitude Save against dying.
2. Cast a spell as a full round action, and apply the save/effect described above to the target, no matter how far away he is.

The target must be alive, must be corporeal, and must NOT be a living construct. Also, you must somehow feel the target via Natural Link.

[Phosphate]

k, some features added.

[Phosphate]

You people make me sad :(...

[NineThePuma]

I... don't like it. It's a class that's built around trying to commit suicide and failing.

[Phosphate]

Actually, it's a class about trying to NOT commit suicide.

[Kellus]

Okay, I'm going to come right out and say that a class who has at least a 5% chance of dying every time they use a level-appropriate ability at 9th level or higher is a terrible idea. I also disagree with casting from hit points for reasons I've outlined elsewhere, which I'll dredge up and edit into this post.

EDIT:
Hit points seem like they would be a good resource to spend in spellcasting, but in reality they're one of the worst ones you could think of. The problem is that hit points are a binary thing: either you have some or you don't. When you don't, you're dead. Until that point you can continue to fight at 100% effectiveness. Having characters actually die on a regular basis in the campaign is a pretty bad thing most of the time. Aside from vindictive and stupid DMs, most PC deaths are the result of bad dice rolling. Which is totally OK in a TTRPG. But by giving the player the option to spend hit points to do 'stuff', you're encouraging suicide nova behaviour which forces the DM to either kill off the character or play with kid gloves.

Basically it's a bad currency to use for magic, because there's no downside to exploding all of your hit points as spells right up until you're actually dead. And the game becomes way less fun when you actually die.

Not to mention it makes the five minute workday even worse.

...

Another weird thing about a hit point based spellcaster is that they suddenly get much more awesome when there's a cleric in the party. Which makes it almost impossible to balance the class and magic system on its own merits.

Not all of it applies to this particular class, but a lot of it does.

[Phosphate]

Well, the thing about this class is...all stacked disadvantages taken into account, it will still take a LOT of time until you get to actual casting from hit points. Which you are not allowed to do until your vigor is depleted (which is done for balancing purposes, as your broken +cleric combo clearly shows). If you look at the increment in vigor points, that is based on the direct conversion of wizard spell slots into vigor points. So not that bad. Also, it's also something about player mindset - given that they use the warmage list, they obviously will act 100% offensively, which in and of itself means that at any point, they will deal more damage that inflict upon themselves. Plus, there's the nifty benefit of NOT having a limit to how many spells of the highest spell slot you can use - and believe me, that's useful.

That means they always come out winning from 1 on 1 or even 1 on 2 confrontations. But what if they are battling more opponents, say 10? Well, they're not reasonably good at combat for nothing.

As for the fortitude saves, given the extreme importance of constitution in this entire build, they will probably be a breeze at any time. It's just about forcing the assigning of attention to a certain attribute - and also, the higher risk higher reward shtick, as there is a way in playing this class that would NEVER require you roll a Fortitude. Except it would limit your effectiveness immensely. While STILL making you immensely better than a Paladin, for instance.

[Kellus]

As for the fortitude saves, given the extreme importance of constitution in this entire build, they will probably be a breeze at any time. It's just about forcing the assigning of attention to a certain attribute - and also, the higher risk higher reward shtick, as there is a way in playing this class that would NEVER require you roll a Fortitude. Except it would limit your effectiveness immensely. While STILL making you immensely better than a Paladin, for instance.

And what about the player that maxes Con, takes Great Fortitude, and then rolls a natural 1 the first time that they try to use a 5th level spell? For 1 in 20 players, that is exactly what will happen.

[Phosphate]

And what about the player that maxes Con, takes Great Fortitude, and then rolls a natural 1 the first time that they try to use a 5th level spell? For 1 in 20 players, that is exactly what will happen.

Added a feature to counteract it. In hindsight, it was a stupid omission.