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Cadian 9th
2011-08-10, 09:24 PM
Note: This is my first in a series of " Logical Homebrews " I've been doing. The principle is that each class/thing has a PrC to take it further, such as Archmage to Wizard, Master Specialist to Wizard. Planar Sheperd for Druid theme. Only, there are gaps. I aim to fill them.

I boil it down to several categories where each class/combination/feats need love.
1 - Master Exemplar: the Archmage, the Hierophant,
Top generalist, guy who is the best example of a class.
2 - Master Specialist: Wizard PrC of the same name, Soverign Speaker
Exemplifies a secondary class feature.
3 - Exemplar Specialist: Master of Many Forms, Beastmaster
Turns a secondary class feature into a main class feature.
4 - Hybrid: Totem Rager, Mystic Theruge
Fluffy combination, progressing two classes in some way.
5 - Ex-class member: Ronin, Blighter
For classes with Ex clauses.
6 - Feat User: Incantatrix,
Use of a specific feat theme. I'm looking forward to the Aberrant feat user, but also drafting up a Reserve Feat specialist.
7 - Flavor Shift: vermin keeper, Tainted X, Gray Guard, Enlightened Spirit
Rewards the player for a fluff shift to be a mechanical shift.
8 - Race Changer: Stone Blessed, Dragon Disciple, Green Star Adept, Fiend Blooded
As it says. I'm drafting a construct personaliser change-into one, where you get to make yourself into any contruct you design.
9 - Ability Specialist: Argent Savant, Exotic Weapon Master, Force Missle Mage, Knight of the Sacred Seal
Emphasizes a specific fighting style, feat, spell, spell type, etc.

Here's the first, the Familiar Mage.
He's my best fwiend.

Concept: A Mage who embraces the power of his familiar, gaining benefits while still progressing spellcasting and of course, familiar.
Ideas: Deliver touch spells: Enhanced; Imbue Familiar With Spell Ability enhanced, Give the familiar spell like abilities at the cost of your own slots, see through familiar's eyes, increase familiar resilience, give it Defensive Roll and Abrupt Jaunt.

Prerequisites: Familiar at class level 5th, Knowledge: Arcana 8 ranks, Knowledge: Spellcraft 8 ranks, ability to cast 3rd level spells, including Enhance Familiar.
Special: Familiar must have the Deliver Touch spells ability. If your familiar ever loses this ability, you lose the benefit of (some class features) until your familiar regains the ability somehow, but you retain all other class abilities and can still advance in this class.

Skills: Concentration, Craft, Knowledge (All, taken individually), Listen, Proffesion, Spellcraft, Spot.
Skill Points each level: 2 + Intelligence Modifier.
Weapons and Armour Profficiency: No new.
Hit Dice: d4.

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

1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Familiar, Familiar Senses, Resilient Familiar +1/3|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3|Familiar Arcana|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+3|Familiar Evasion, Resilient Familiar +2/6|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

4th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Reactive Jaunt, Familiar Arcana|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Familiar Concentration, Resilient Familiar +3/9|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

6th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5|Familiar Arcana|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5|Resilient Familiar +4/12|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

8th|
+4|
+2|
+2|
+6|Blood Bond, Familiar Arcana|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+4|
+3|
+3|
+6|Resilient Familiar +5/15|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

10th|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+7|Arcane Union, the Two that are One, Resilient Familiar (DR 5/-), Familiar Arcana|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features
Familiar: Upon entering this prestige class, you form an even greater bond with your familiar than other spellcasters. Your Familiar Mage levels stack with all other levels in classes that could grant familiars to determine the abilities your Familiar has. For example, a Sorceror 5/Wizard 4/Familiar Mage 1 would have an effective level of 10th for the purpose of determining what abilities his familiar has. If the familiar was granted through the Obtain Familiar feat, use only one, non-familiar granting arcane class level total, plus any class levels that grant familiars and your familiar mage level to determine the abilities of your familiar. Also, if a class would grant a familiar but traded the option away, for example a wizard who selectedthe Immediate Magic variant from Player's Handbook 2, it does not count for this calculation, unless it is the class selected to work with Obtain Familiar as described above.

Your familiar is superior compared to others. When your familiar is slain, you can replace it within 24 hours , using up 100 gold pieces worth of arcane materials. You retain this ability even if the experience point loss from the Familiar's death would see you lose your levels in Familiar Mage, but you don't retain any other ability from Familiar Mage until you complete the ritual. At the completion of the ritual, you regain 50% of the experience points lost. At 5th level, this increases to 75%, and at 10th level you recover all lost experience points.

Your familiar gains a feat for every 3 levels you have in the Familiar Mage class. It recieves 2 skill points every level and treats any skill as a class skill for the purpose of assigning these skill points.

Spells per day/Spells Known: At each Familiar Mage level, you gain an increase in caster level, new spells per day and spells known as if you had gained a level in the class that allows you to cast 3rd level spells and Enhance Familiar. If you have levels in multiple classes that would be eligible for this benefit, you must choose one at your 1st level of Familiar mage to add each level of Familiar Mage to for determining caster level, spells per day and spells known. You do not, however, gain any other benefit your would have gained from a level in the chosen class, such as increased chance of turning/rebuking, or the occasional bonus feat normally granted by a wizard.

In exchange for your familiar abilities, you lose 1 spell per day from each level as detailed on your spells per day table. Where this reduction would reduce you to 0 spells per day, not including bonus spells from any source, you only receive spells of that level from a high ability score, and only if you receive spells from a high ability score can you receive bonus spells from any other source than the Extra Spell Slot and Improved Spell Capacity feats.

Resilient Familiar (Ex): At 1st level, your Familiar gains a +1 bonus to Natural Armor, and +3 hit points. The hit point bonus is applied after deterining the familiar's base hit point total which is based on your class level. For every 2 levels above 1st gained in the Familiar Mage class (3rd, 6th, 9th and so on), the natural armor bonus increases by 1, and the familiar's hit points increase by 3. At 10th level, the familiar gains damage reduction 5, bypassed by nothing. This damage reduction stacks with any other damage reduction the familiar has except for other DR X/-.

Familiar Senses (Su): Also at 1st level, you lose the potential alertness feat normally granted by a familiar and instead gain the ability to see through your familiar's eyes by blindng yourself for that period. The minimum period you can blind yourself to see through your familiar's eyes is 1 full round.

Familiar Arcana (Sp): At 2nd level, you may choose to sacrifice a spell slot to permanently grant your familiar a Spell Like ability of that level, usuable once per day. You can choose to use a slot higher than the spell desired in order to give the Familiar more uses per day, with a 1 for 1 basis. For example, Mialee wishes to allow her familiar to cast Magic Missle more times per day, so sacrifices a 5th level slot to let the familiar to use Magic Missle five times per day. You can also choose to grant your familiar a spell affected by one or more metamagic feats, using up two slots of the adjusted spells level instead of one. You must know the metamagic feats you wish to affect the spell with to be able to grant your familiar the metamagic affected version of the spell as a spell like ability.

At every even level after 2nd, you can grant your familiar another spell like ability. (Or multiple uses of a spell like ability.) Each time you gain this ability, you can choose to reassign spell levels designated to previously selected spell like abilities, presumably to grant more or less uses per day, but you cannot change the spell selected. You can, however, choose to add a metamagic feat to a previously selected ability as you modify the spell slot assigned to it.

For all intents and purposes, the Familiar is the caster of its spell like ability, allthough it's caster level is your highest caster level and it benefits from any feats you have which affect your spell like abilities, such as Ability Focus (Same spell like ability you share), Sudden Metamagic feats, and feats that grant a bonus to all spells and spell like like abilities of a certain type. Consult your DM to see if a given feat will affect your familiar's spell like abilities. If you familiar has any feats itself, it can of course apply those feats to its own spell like abilities in addition to yours.

When you allow your Familiar to use Sudden Metamagic or similar abilities, it counts as a use for you for the day. Any restrictions with the ability are pooled between both of you. For example, if there is an ability you have which lets you spend points to boost a save DC, you and your familiar share the pool.

Familiar Evasion (Ex): Once per day, at 3rd level, a Familiar Mage's Familiar may attempt to roll with a potentially lethal attack. This is exactly the same as the Rogue's Defensive Roll ability.

Reactive Jaunt (Su): Beginning at 4th level, a number of times per day as your Intelligence modifier, your familiar may teleport up to 10ft as an immediate action. If you wish, it can be rendered unable to act for 5 rounds afterwards to be able to teleport to your person instead, to a maximum distance of 100ft per Familiar Mage level. If the distance is greater than that amount, your Familiar instead teleports the closest it can and falls unable to act for 5 rounds, after which it can try again. You cannot gain this class feature if you are prohibited from casting Conjuration (Teleportation) spells by another class feature.

Familiar Concentration (Ex): At 5th level, you gain the ability to allocate concentration of a spell you are casting to your Familiar. Your familiar can only maintain concentration on one spell at a time, including its own spells. If your familiar is concentrating on the spell, you are, obviously, not concentrating on the spell so you may cast other spells, even ones requiring concentration. However, you cannot end your familiar's concentration on the spell; Your familiar must end it by itself, using its own actions. Your familiar must be within 30ft for this ability to function. At 10th level, this distance increases to 60ft.

Blood Bond (Su): At 8th level, you gain an even stronger link with your familiar. When either of you would take damage, you can choose to assign half the damage to the other. This ability only functions when your familiar is within 30 ft. As a cost, however, you take 1 damage for every 5 damage whenever your familiar takes damage.

Arcane Union (Su): At 10th level, your familiar and you become one. The telepathic bond you have functions through time and space to any point, crossing any boundry, even one specifically supressing this kind of communication, and it continues to function in an Antimagic field or similar effect. You can sacrifice any number of prepared spell levels or spell slots that add up to 40 to teleport adjacent to your familiar, taking 1 round to do so, wherever the familiar is in time and space, at the cost of taking d6 nonlethal damage for every year travelled in time and 10d6 nonlethal damage for every barrier that should stop teleportation you bypass. Your familiar can also do this, using up all of its uses spell like abilities and taking 40 spell levels away from you when it arrives; if you don't have enough levels of spells to give, you take 2d6 damage for each level required.

The Two that are One (Su): At 10th level, your familiar and you can share thoughts on such a scale that you can effectively become one powerful entity. As a standard action, your adjacent familiar may enter your body, merging with your body, mind and soul. Your skin shimmers and the enlarged silleoute of your familiar can be seen. In this state, you add your familiar's mental ability scores, less 10 to your own, combine your skill ranks, receive a bonus on all skill checks equal to your familiar ability level, divided by 2. Your receive an extra mental swift action per round, that can only be used for purely mental actions. You gain a +2 bonus on Reflex and Will saves, and can make two saves against any mind affecting ability, one using your familiar's bonus, the other using yours.

You gain access to all your familiar's spell like and supernatural abilities that do not require a body part to function and can use all of its feats that you could use. You cannot use the increased skill ranks or feats to qualify for anything, but you can use them to more effectively use existing abilities you have. For example, a feat may have a Special line which specifies that if you have X feat, you gain Y benefit - having X feat from your familiar would grant you Y benefit.

While in this state your familiar doesn't exist as a physical entity, cannot use its abilities or interact with the world around it. Abilities which force a possesing entity out a body deal d6 damage per 2 caster levels or HD, to you, in addition to their normal benefit of ending this ability. You cannot target your familiar with any abilities, such as the Share Pain power, or benefit from the Blood Bond class feature.

You can remain in this state for 1 hour. After this period, you take a -2 penalty to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma, -2 penalty on Ability and Skill checks, for 10 minutes, after which you may use this ability again.

*****************

Table coming soon, PEACH!

137beth
2011-08-11, 05:23 PM
First things first:
Skill points should be 2+int modifier, not just 2.
Use a table:
NAME OF CLASS
{table=head]Level|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells

1st|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

2nd|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

4th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

6th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

8th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

10th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]


You can also choose to grant your familiar a spell affected by one or more metamagic feats, using up two slots of the adjusted spells level instead of one.
Make it cost the modified spell level, not 2 slots of the same level.

Under Arcane Union:

You can sacrifice any number of prepared spell levels or spell slots that add up to 40 to teleport to your familiar
Teleport to a random empty space adjacent to your familiar (or the closest unoccupied space) rather than directly on top of your familiar:smallwink:

Cadian 9th
2011-08-22, 07:43 PM
First things first:
Skill points should be 2+int modifier, not just 2.



Thanks for the Table; Skill points fixed.


Make it cost the modified spell level, not 2 slots of the same level.

It does.



Under Arcane Union:

Teleport to a random empty space adjacent to your familiar (or the closest unoccupied space) rather than directly on top of your familiar:smallwink:

I assumed people would see that was what I meant... Bleh, fixing. Adjacent.

137beth
2011-08-22, 07:48 PM
It does.

That is not particularly clear, though I guess you do say it.

...
Anyways, it costs two slots AND they are both a higher level? Shouldn't it only cost one slot of the modified level?

Morph Bark
2011-08-22, 07:54 PM
So if I am reading Arcane Union right... you need to sacrifice TONS of spell levels to be able to teleport...

...but it allows you to teleport to the past and the future as long as your familiar is still alive and still your familiar in that time.

I see totally no way to abuse this.

Cadian 9th
2011-08-22, 08:01 PM
That is not particularly clear, though I guess you do say it.

...
Anyways, it costs two slots AND they are both a higher level? Shouldn't it only cost one slot of the modified level?

Yeah, I'll work on the clarity.

On your second point, I'm always aware that metamagic'd spells are... powerful, to say the least. Lets say you have your familiar with persist spell on... haste, or something. That saves you a metamagic and slot for a nice buff. Or a Consecrated set of burn spells that are situational but you no longer have to prepare them. You've doubled your spellcasting per round with the ability, so I'm worried that metamagic is going too far. How do you think I should limit it?


So if I am reading Arcane Union right... you need to sacrifice TONS of spell levels to be able to teleport...

...but it allows you to teleport to the past and the future as long as your familiar is still alive and still your familiar in that time.

I see totally no way to abuse this.

I'm glad :smallbiggrin:

It was meant as a last shot. The reason it costs so many slots is that I didn't want it to be a general purpose defence bypassing. For example, your familiar flies past into the teleport cage/AMF that defends BBEG's pad, and you can get in there and screw stuff up. With so many spells lost, you're truly weakened when you arrive. Suggestions for balancing?

EDIT: The abuse factor of time travel is somewhat limited by the fact that if your familiar is a time traveller frankly you shouldn't be worrying about balance anymore.

Starsign
2011-08-25, 08:14 PM
Well I took a look and I don't see too much wrong with this (I'm a hopeless critic :smallredface:). I do have the idea that, instead of the familiar having +1 Natural Armor every 3 levels, it instead gains Natural Armor equal to that of the Mage's Constitution, but to a limit of the PrC level until 9th level where it is removed.

137beth
2011-08-25, 08:17 PM
Yeah, I'll work on the clarity.

On your second point, I'm always aware that metamagic'd spells are... powerful, to say the least. Lets say you have your familiar with persist spell on... haste, or something. That saves you a metamagic and slot for a nice buff. Or a Consecrated set of burn spells that are situational but you no longer have to prepare them. You've doubled your spellcasting per round with the ability, so I'm worried that metamagic is going too far. How do you think I should limit it?




Point taken. I normally assume that completely broken things are either banned or modified, and persistant spell is completely broken.