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Circle of Life
2011-08-29, 05:03 AM
Arcane Vindicator

http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/2724/82327d6072068407baadba0.jpg
Image is credit to Nathie of deviantArt.


Hit Dice: d8
Starting Age: Simple
Starting Gold: 4d4x10

Class Skills
The Arcane Vindicator's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge (all skills, taken separately) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis) and Swim (Str)
Skills Points at Each Level: 4 + int

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th

1st|
+1|
+2|
+0|
+2|arcane attunement, Armored Mage (medium) Vindicator's Aura -2|2|-|-|-|-|-

2nd|
+2|
+3|
+0|
+3|Defensive Tapestry (single, adjacent), Summon Familiar|3|-|-|-|-|-

3rd|
+3|
+3|
+1|
+3|Offensive Tapestry (single, adjacent)|4|-|-|-|-|-

4th|
+4|
+4|
+1|
+4|Armored Mage (heavy), Bladeborne Spell|5|2|-|-|-|-

5th|
+5|
+4|
+1|
+4|Guardian's Furor, Vindicator's Aura -3|5|3|-|-|-|-

6th|
+6/+1|
+5|
+2|
+5|Defensive Tapestry (double, 30 ft)|6|4|-|-|-|-

7th|
+7/+2|
+5|
+2|
+5|Armored Mage (tower shield), Offensive Tapestry (double, 15 ft)|6|5|2|-|-|-

8th|
+8/+3|
+6|
+2|
+6|Mettle, Vindicated Spell +1|7|5|3|-|-|-

9th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+3|
+6|Spellbattle, Vindicator's Aura -4|7|6|4|-|-|-

10th|
+10/+5|
+7|
+3|
+7|Defensive Tapestry (three, 60 ft)|8|6|5|2|-|-

11th|
+11/+6/+1|
+7|
+3|
+7|Offensive Tapestry (three, 30 ft)|8|7|5|3|-|-

12th|
+12/+7/+2|
+8|
+4|
+8|Vindicated Spell +2|8|7|6|4|-|-

13th|
+13/+8/+3|
+8|
+4|
+8|Vindicator's Aura -5|8|8|6|5|2|-

14th|
+14/+9/+4|
+9|
+4|
+9|Defensive Tapestry (four, 90 ft)|8|8|7|5|3|-

15th|
+15/+10/+5|
+9|
+5|
+9|Offensive Tapestry (four, 45 ft)|8|8|7|6|4|-

16th|
+16/+11/+6/+1|
+10|
+5|
+10|Improved Mettle, Vindicated Spell +3|8|8|8|6|5|2

17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+5|
+10|Vindicator's Aura -6|8|8|8|7|5|3

18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+11|
+6|
+11|Defensive Tapestry (five, 120 ft)|8|8|8|7|6|4

19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+11|
+6|
+11|Offensive Tapestry (five, 60 ft)|8|8|8|8|6|5

20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+12|
+6|
+12|Defensive Tapestry (personal spells), Vindicated Spell +4|8|8|8|8|7|5
[/table]

Class Features The following are all class features of the Arcane Vindicator.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Arcane Vindicators are proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all armors and shields (including tower shields).

Spellcasting: Arcane Vindicators cast arcane spells, which are drawn from the Vindicator's spell list (see below). A Vindicator can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time, just as a sorcerer can.

To learn or cast a spell, a Vindicator must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level (Cha 10 for 0th-level spells, Cha 11 for 1st level spells, and so on). The Difficulty Class of a saving throw against a Vindicator's spells is 10 + the level of the spell + the Vindicator's Constitution modifier.

A Vindicator can only cast a certain number of spells of a given spell level per day; the base daily allotment for each spell level is shown on the table above. In addition, a Vindicator gains bonus spells per day for having a high Charisma score.

Spells Known: A Vindicator begins play knowing one 1st level spell, plus an additional 1st level spell for each point of Charisma bonus he has.

Each time you gain a new Vindicator level, you learn two new spells of any level you can cast, chosen from the Vindicator spell list.

Upon reaching 4th level and at every subsequent even-numbered level (6th, 8th, etc) you can choose to learn a new spell in place of one you already know. In effect, you lose access to the old spell in exchange for gaining the new one. The new spell's level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged. You can only swap a single spell at any given level, and you must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that you gain new spells known for the level.

Arcane Attunement (Sp): A Vindicator can use cure minor wounds, detect magic, light, and read magic as spell-like abilities a combined number of times per day equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier.

Armored Mage (Ex): Normally, armor of any type interferes with an arcane spellcaster's gestures, which can cause spells to fail if those spells have a somatic component. A Vindicator's limited focus and specialized training, however, allows them to avoid arcane spell failure so long as they wear armor no heavier than medium armor and shields no more restrictive than heavy shields. This ability applies only to Vindicator spells, not to spells that may be gained from levels in other arcane spellcasting classes.

At 4th level, the Vindicator learns to cast his spells in heavy armor.

At 7th level, the Vindicator learns to cast his spells while wielding a tower shield.

Vindicator's Aura (Su): A Vindicator's conviction manifests itself in an aura of defiance, shielding those within its reach. At first, this aura extends out to a range of 30 feet, but it slowly grows larger as the Vindicator gains levels.

Whenever a creature within this aura attacks another creature that the Vindicator considers an ally (the Vindicator does not count himself as an ally for the purpose of this effect), it must succeed on a Will save, DC 10 +1/2 Vindicator level +Cha modifier, or take a -2 penalty to the attack roll. If a creature uses a spell or ability that does not require an attack roll, such as a fireball spell or a dragon's breath weapon, the Difficulty Class of any save required by that ability decreases by an amount equal to the penalty to attack rolls if the effect does not include the Vindicator. Creatures subjected to this effect are intuitively aware of it and the means of bypassing it. The Vindicator may suppress and resume this aura as a free action.

At 5th level, the penalty to attack rolls increases to -3, and the range of the Vindicator's aura increases to 45 feet.

At 9th level, the penalty to attack rolls increases to -4, and the range of the Vindicator's aura increases to 60 feet.

At 13th level, the penalty to attack rolls increases to -5, and the range of the Vindicator's aura increases to 75 feet.

At 17th level, the penalty to attack rolls increases to -6, and the range of the Vindicator's aura increases to 90 feet.

Summon Familiar: Beginning at 2nd level, a Vindicator gains the ability to summon a familiar, just as a sorcerer can.

Tapestries (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, a Vindicator gains the ability to weave his spells through ever-widening tapestries, allowing him to aid more of his allies at once, or hinder several enemies with a single spell.

Defensive Tapestry: When he first obtains this ability, the Vindicator gains the ability to share a cast spell with another nearby ally. By voluntarily increasing the casting time of a spell by one step (standard to full-round, full-round to 1-round, etc), the Vindicator may include a second ally adjacent to the primary targeted ally when he casts a beneficial spell that affects only a single target. Only Vindicator spells may be woven into this tapestry, not spells that may have been learned from other classes.

The Vindicator must have line of sight and line of effect to everyone included in the tapestry, and both targets must be valid recipients of the spell (that is, both must be humanoids for an Enlarge Person spell to affect them, and so on), and as such the Vindicator cannot channel personal-range spells through this tapestry.


At 6th level, the Vindicator gains the ability to include a second additional ally in the tapestry, and the distance at which each ally to be affected may be from the primary target increases to 30 feet.

At 10th level, the Vindicator may include a third additional ally in the tapestry, and the distance at which each ally to be affected may be from the primary target increases to 60 feet.

At 14th level, the Vindicator may include a fourth additional ally in the tapestry, and the distance at which each ally to be affected may be from the primary target increases to 90 feet.

At 18th level, the Vindicator may include a fifth additional ally in the tapestry, and the distance at which each ally to be affected may be from the primary target increases to 120 feet.

At 20th level, the Vindicator gains the ability to include personal-range spells in the tapestry.

Offensive Tapestry: Beginning at 3rd level, the Vindicator learns to include additional foes in the effects of spells that would otherwise target only a single enemy. By voluntarily increasing the casting time of a spell by one step (standard to full-round, full-round to 1-round, etc), the Vindicator may include a second foe adjacent to the primary targeted foe when he casts a Vindicator spell that targets a foe. Spells that require an attack roll cannot be included in the tapestry.

The Vindicator must have line of sight to all enemies to be included in the tapestry, and both targets must be valid recipients of the spell (that is, both must be humanoids for a Hold Person spell to affect them, and so on). If the spell allows a save, each foe to be affected is allowed its own save.


At 7th level, the Vindicator gains the ability to include a second additional foe in the tapestry, and the distance at which each foe to be affected may be from the primary target increases to 15 feet.

At 11th level, the Vindicator may include a third additional foe in the tapestry, and the distance at which each foe to be affected may be from the primary target increases to 30 feet.

At 15th level, the Vindicator may include a fourth additional foe in the tapestry, and the distance at which each foe to be affected may be from the primary target increases to 45 feet.

At 19th level, the Vindicator may include a fifth additional foe in the tapestry, and the distance at which each foe to be affected may be from the primary target increases to 60 feet.

Bladeborne Spell (Su): Beginning at 4th level, the Vindicator gains the ability to infuse a weapon with latent spell energy, allowing a spell to be cast instantly in combat.

As a full-round action, the Vindicator may imbue a wielded weapon with a Vindicator spell with a casting time of 1 standard action or less. Imbuing a weapon in this fashion consumes a spell slot of the appropriate level as normal. If the Vindicator wishes to include a metamagic effect with the spell, he must do so at the time of imbuing. A spell cast via this ability cannot be woven into a tapestry.

When the Vindicator strikes with the imbued weapon in combat, he may cast the stored spell as a free action, provided there is a valid target within range. Casting this spell does not provoke an attack of opportunity. The Vindicator may refrain from casting the spell if he wishes.

Guardian's Furor (Ex): Beginning at 5th level, the Vindicator adds his Charisma modifier (if positive) to melee damage rolls while wielding a shield, and to attack rolls while wielding a tower shield. This effect only applies while the Vindicator actually wields the shield, and as such Animated shields or similar effects do not apply.

Mettle (Ex): Beginning at 8th level, a Vindicator can resist magical and unusual attacks with great willpower or fortitude. If he makes a successful Will or Fortitude save against an attack that normally would have a lesser effect on a successful save (such as any spell with a saving throw entry of “Will half” or “Fortitude partial”), he instead completely negates the effect. An unconscious or sleeping Vindicator does not gain the benefit of mettle.

Vindicated Spell (Ex): Beginning at 8th level, whenever an enemy damages one of the Vindicator's allies, his spells gain additional potency against that foe.

Whenever an ally in the radius of the Vindicator's aura is damaged (the Vindicator is not treated as his own ally for this effect), the save DC of any spell he casts at the foe that damaged that ally increases by 1 for the duration of the encounter. At 12th, 16th, and 20th level, the save DC boost increases by an additional point.

Spellbattle (Ex): Beginning at 9th level, a Vindicator can blend martial and arcane might into an awesome display of prowess. As a full-round action, the Vindicator may make a single melee attack at his highest attack bonus and cast a spell with a casting time of 1 standard action or less. He may perform these two actions in whichever order he likes. The Vindicator does not provoke an attack of opportunity for casting a spell in this way. A spell cast via Spellbattle cannot be woven into a tapestry.

Improved Mettle (Ex): Beginning at 16th level, a Vindicator's Mettle ability improves. While he still takes no effect on a successful Will or Fortitude save against an effect that has a saving throw of “Will half” or “Fortitude partial”, he henceforth takes only the partial effect or half the damage on a failed save.

Circle of Life
2011-08-29, 05:04 AM
Arcane Vindicator Spells

1st: Blade of blood1, charm person, command, conviction, cure light wounds, distract assailant2, doom, enlarge person, entropic shield, expeditious retreat, faith healing2, jump, incite2, inhibit2, mage armor, protection from (Chaos, Evil, Good, Law), reduce person, resurgence2, shield, shield of faith, swift expeditious retreat2

2nd: Animalistic power1, bear's endurance, blur, blindness/deafness, bull's strength, cat's grace, close wounds2, cure moderate wounds, death knell, delay poison, dimension hop1, eagle's splendor, entice gift2, fox's cunning, heroics2, hold person, insight of good fortune1, lesser restoration, owl's wisdom, protection from arrows, mindless rage2, remove paralysis, resist energy, spider climb, stay the hand1, tasha's hideous laughter

3rd: Baleful blink2, bestow curse, cure serious wounds, dimension step1, dispel magic, displacement, fly, greater resistance2, haste, heroism, hesitate1, knight's move2, lesser visage of the deity2, rage, remove blindness/deafness, remove curse, remove disease, spark of life2, slow, suggestion, thunderlance2

4th: Air walk, charm monster, condemnation1, confusion, corporeal instability2, cure critical wounds, death ward, delay death2, fear, forceward2, forcewave2, freedom of movement, greater dispel magic, indomitability2, neutralize poison, panacea2, ray deflection2, restoration, sheltered vitality2, spell vulnerability2, waves of fatigue, wrack2

5th: Baleful polymorph, break enchantment, chasing perfection1, dimensional shuffle1, dismissal, dominate person, feeblemind, friend to foe1, graymantle2, greater blink2, greater command, greater enlarge person, greater heroism, greater reduce person, hold monster, rejuvenation cocoon2, spell resistance, superior resistance2, true seeing, waves of exhaustion

6th: Energy immunity2, eyebite2, greater spell immunity, greater visage of the deity2, heal, greater bestow curse2, insanity, ironguard2, mind blank, regenerate, spell turning, solipsism2, transfix2, veil of undeath2

1: Denotes a spell from the Player's Handbook II.
2: Denotes a spell from the Spell Compendium.

RaggedAngel
2011-08-29, 12:39 PM
Woah. This class looks really cool, and it seems like a lot more fun to play than a Duskblade, a class that I've always wanted to not be so bad. I can't find any particular problems with the class, so I just have a few comments to add.

1. Casting in Heavy armor is interesting in that other than being a Spellsword (yuch) no other arcane class can pull this off. Not a bad thing, per se, just interesting.

2. Continuing the trend of "arcane, but different" the Vindicator gets a lot of classically divine spells, most notable of which is Heal. Now granted it takes a while to get up to that level, but that does make the Vindicator the best Arcane healer in the game. Given the weakness of healing in general I don't think that's a problem, but using Defensive Tapestry to Heal every ally within 120 is something not even a cleric could pull, especially not in just one round.

3. I like your spell selection, though there are a lot of divine spells on there. As a question, why did you decide to mix it so much? I think it's cool, but it's quite unique.

Circle of Life
2011-08-29, 12:48 PM
1. Casting in Heavy armor is interesting in that other than being a Spellsword (yuch) no other arcane class can pull this off. Not a bad thing, per se, just interesting.

This is meant to be an arcane tank of sorts, so I felt it was necessary. It's that or force people to buy mithral full plate.


2. Continuing the trend of "arcane, but different" the Vindicator gets a lot of classically divine spells, most notable of which is Heal. Now granted it takes a while to get up to that level, but that does make the Vindicator the best Arcane healer in the game. Given the weakness of healing in general I don't think that's a problem, but using Defensive Tapestry to Heal every ally within 120 is something not even a cleric could pull, especially not in just one round.

Well... kinda. The Vindicator can heal up to six allies within 120 feet. The Cleric can hit everything within 30 feet of himself with a Mass Heal. Allies and enemy undead alike. The Cleric's Mass Heal also increases the healing amount by 100.


3. I like your spell selection, though there are a lot of divine spells on there. As a question, why did you decide to mix it so much? I think it's cool, but it's quite unique.

My plan for the spells was single-target buffs, single-target debuffs, and single-target heals and status removers. There's precedent for this in the Bard, who gets all of the Cure X Wounds. I took it to its logical conclusion with Rejuvenation Cocoon and Heal.

In the ideal party, this would completely replace the Cleric while filling a "tank" role. Tank in quotation marks, mind.

Also, if you remove either the divine or arcane spells entirely from that list, it gets really, really small. Surprisingly so. You would think there would be more spells that fit the criteria in the three largest sources for new spells. *shrug*

Circle of Life
2011-08-30, 09:22 AM
Upon consideration, I've added Guardian's Furor to the list of class abilities, to provide a stronger focus on defensive Vindicators, as opposed to the standard THF greatsword route.

Spell list has also been tweaked slightly.

gparali
2012-01-25, 12:01 PM
Nice class!

To cast the spell stored with bladborn weapon, do you have to hit someone or just attack him?