Seerow
2011-09-21, 07:48 PM
A foreward (written before starting on the class): So the Rage Mage came up over on the main 3.5 forum and it was described in detail as to how terrible it is. I'm going to admit openly, I've basically never looked at the Rage Mage class in depth, and am not even glancing at it as a reference point for this retool, because that's about how bad the reviews of it were. My goal here is to make a Gish PrC that combines the fury of a barbarian with the capability of a spellcaster. Personally, I feel that Sorcerer is a better fit than Wizard for a Barbarian, so I think I will press this as a spontaneous caster class. I'm also thinking a sort of elementalist theme might work here, but that could very well be a totally different prestige class. So we'll see.
The Rage Mage
Barbarians are known far and wide for their prowess and ferocity in battle. Barbarians harness their inner strength to unleash in short bursts giving them an unmatched capability in battle. This burst of power however generally clouds the Barbarian's thoughts, preventing him from concentrating, as such this prohibits most Barbarians from becoming proficient in the spellcasters' arts.
There are however, rare Barbarians who trancend this limitation, who have found a way to tap their inner magic energies and subconsciously use them in battle even while raging. These rare individuals are Rage Mages.
Prerequisites
BAB: +4 BAB
Spells: Must be able to spontaneously cast second level arcane spells
Special: Must have access to the Rage special ability
HD: 1d12
LevelBABFortRefWillSpecialSpells Per Day
1st+1+2+0+2Rage Progression, Spellrage -
2nd+2+3+0+3Armored Caster +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
3rd+3+3+1+3Enhanced Rage+1, Arcane Strike +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
4th+4+4+1+4Arcane Toughness +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
5th+5+4+1+4 Active Channeling -
6th+6+5+2+5Enhanced Rage+2 +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
7th+7+5+2+5Improved Arcane Toughness +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
8th+8+6+2+6 Primal Surge +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
9th+9+6+3+6 Spell Fury -
10th+10+7+3+7Arcane Frenzy, Perfect Spellrage +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
Class Skills (4+Int): Balance, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Arcana), Listen, Profession, Ride, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spellcraft, Spot, and Swim.
Class Features
Weapon & Armor Proficiency
The Rage Mage gains no additional weapon or armor proficiencies.
Spells per Day: At all levels except 1st, 5th, and 9th, the character gains new spells per day as if she had also gained a level in whatever arcane spellcasting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that she adds the level of rage mage to the level of whatever other arcane spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly.
Rage Progression(Ex): Add Rage Mage levels to levels of the class you gained Rage from for determining how many uses of your rage ability you have every day, and also for any increases to rage ability. (For example a level 10 Rage Mage with 2 levels in Barbarian would have Greater Rage, 4 times per day, as if he were a 12th level Barbarian)
Spellrage(Su): A Rage Mage can channel his arcane energies while raging, and even becomes more competent at using his abilities. The Rage Mage may now cast spells that target only himself while raging (if the spell normally has multiple targets, or can work on himself or someone else, the spell will only affect him). Spellrage only affects spells cast from the class that is being progressed by the rage mage, any other spellcasting available to the character is restricted as normal, and cannot be used with the Rage Mage's class features.
Additionally, all spells cast while raging are increased by the same amount as the strength bonus he gains from Raging. (So a Barb2/Sorc4/Rage Mage 1 has a Rage that increases strength by 4, gains a +4 caster level bonus while raging). While casting under the effects of rage, the Rage Mage does not provoke attacks of opportunity from casting a spell, and is considered casting defensively without needing to make a concentration check.
Armored Caster (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, the Rage Mage does not incur the normal arcane spell failure chance while wearing light or medium armor and raging. If attempting to cast a spell while not raging, the normal arcane failure chance applies.
Enhanced Rage(Su): The Rage Mage's caster level boost from Spellrage increases by +1 at levels 3 and 6.
Arcane Strike(Su): At 3rd level, you gain Arcane Strike as a bonus feat you may use only while raging. Your damage dice when using the feat are d6's instead of d4's.
Arcane Toughness(Su): While Raging the Rage Mage starting at 4th level may opt to expend an spell slot as an immediate action to gain DR/- equal to 2 times the level of the spell slot used until the beginning of his next turn.
Active Channeling The 5th level Rage Mage may now channel spells to affect others. As a swift action after succeeding on an attack an attack, the Rage Mage may cast an touch spell targeting the creature he just hit. There is no need to roll a touch attack for a touch spell channeled this way.
Improved Arcane Toughness(Su): Starting at 7th level, when using Arcane Toughness, you gain fast healing equal to the amount of DR gained for a number of turns equal to your caster level. Multiple instances of this do not stack the amount healed, but they do overlap, so the highest healed amount will stay active, but if a weaker amount is activated later, when the first expires, the weaker effect will continue for the rest of its duration.
For example, you have a Rage Mage with Caster Level 18, who uses a 6th level spell slot on arcane toughness on round one, and thus gains 18 rounds of fast healing 12. On round 5, he uses it again, but with only a 3rd level spell slot. He now has 13 rounds left of fast healing 12, but 18 levels of fast healing 6. So when the fast healing 12 runs out, he will still have 5 more rounds of fast healing.
Random aside: Is this actually how fast healing overlaps? Like if a cleric cast multiple cases of vigor, do they overlap like this, or do they stack? I think I handled this the right way, but I'm not sure
Primal Surge (Su): At 8th level, the rage mage gains the ability to use any metamagic feats he possesses while raging. Using a metamagic feat while raging does not increase the casting time of the spell.
Spell Fury(Su): At 9th level the rage mage may opt to cast a spell as an attack action while raging. This means when making a full attack (or some other action when he could choose to make an attack), he can give up one of his attacks to cast a spell that affects only himself. At least one attack from the full attack action must be used as an attack rather than to cast.
Arcane Frenzy: At 10th level, the Rage Mage who has run out of rage uses for the day may expend a spell slot to enter a rage for a number of rounds equal to the level of the spell slot used plus his constitution modifier.
Perfect Spellrage (Su): At 10th level, your spells cast while in a rage (except for those from Active Channeling) may affect allies, as long as they affect the Rage Mage as well. Additionally, when you rage, you are treated as under the effects of a Transformation spell, with the exception that you may still cast spells. Finally, any spell used with active channeling that allows a saving throw gains a bonus to the save DC equal to half your rage bonus to strength.
Some notes:
The class loses 3 caster levels, plus 1 caster level from entry. This means going full rage mage means never getting 9th level spells. This isn't as terrible as it looks at first, because:
-You gain a pretty nice caster level boost. At the start it's a +4 caster level boost, by the end it's a +8. You lose higher level spells, but your caster level is always above average.
-You gain plenty of other class features as well. You get a decent self defense ability, a stronger arcane strike, the ability to channel a touch spell as a part of a melee attack with effectively a +3 to save DCs, and the ability to buff yourself and allies by sacrificing your weaker attacks in a full attack action. These are some pretty big things, to the point where I think the class gets by fine without level 9 spells, and might even be better off with another spell level taken off.
The class's abilities focus more on the caster end of things rather than the Barbarian end of things, because frankly there's more you can do from the caster angle. You can't really use Barbarian to augment a Sorcerer, so what we end up with is a Sorcerer augmenting the Barbarian.
On the prereqs, they feel pretty easy, but I couldn't think of what would fit. I wanted to make Arcane Strike a prereq, but that required 3rd level spells, which is more than I wanted to be necessary to enter, so I dropped it in as a bonus feat. If you feel prereqs are too easy suggestions for something else would be welcome.
[edit: Just checked time stamps, and it was exactly 2 hours between me seeing the thread in the other forum and saying "I want to do this" and this getting posted. Man prestige classes are so much easier and faster than base classes :p]
The Rage Mage
Barbarians are known far and wide for their prowess and ferocity in battle. Barbarians harness their inner strength to unleash in short bursts giving them an unmatched capability in battle. This burst of power however generally clouds the Barbarian's thoughts, preventing him from concentrating, as such this prohibits most Barbarians from becoming proficient in the spellcasters' arts.
There are however, rare Barbarians who trancend this limitation, who have found a way to tap their inner magic energies and subconsciously use them in battle even while raging. These rare individuals are Rage Mages.
Prerequisites
BAB: +4 BAB
Spells: Must be able to spontaneously cast second level arcane spells
Special: Must have access to the Rage special ability
HD: 1d12
LevelBABFortRefWillSpecialSpells Per Day
1st+1+2+0+2Rage Progression, Spellrage -
2nd+2+3+0+3Armored Caster +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
3rd+3+3+1+3Enhanced Rage+1, Arcane Strike +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
4th+4+4+1+4Arcane Toughness +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
5th+5+4+1+4 Active Channeling -
6th+6+5+2+5Enhanced Rage+2 +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
7th+7+5+2+5Improved Arcane Toughness +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
8th+8+6+2+6 Primal Surge +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
9th+9+6+3+6 Spell Fury -
10th+10+7+3+7Arcane Frenzy, Perfect Spellrage +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
Class Skills (4+Int): Balance, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Arcana), Listen, Profession, Ride, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spellcraft, Spot, and Swim.
Class Features
Weapon & Armor Proficiency
The Rage Mage gains no additional weapon or armor proficiencies.
Spells per Day: At all levels except 1st, 5th, and 9th, the character gains new spells per day as if she had also gained a level in whatever arcane spellcasting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that she adds the level of rage mage to the level of whatever other arcane spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly.
Rage Progression(Ex): Add Rage Mage levels to levels of the class you gained Rage from for determining how many uses of your rage ability you have every day, and also for any increases to rage ability. (For example a level 10 Rage Mage with 2 levels in Barbarian would have Greater Rage, 4 times per day, as if he were a 12th level Barbarian)
Spellrage(Su): A Rage Mage can channel his arcane energies while raging, and even becomes more competent at using his abilities. The Rage Mage may now cast spells that target only himself while raging (if the spell normally has multiple targets, or can work on himself or someone else, the spell will only affect him). Spellrage only affects spells cast from the class that is being progressed by the rage mage, any other spellcasting available to the character is restricted as normal, and cannot be used with the Rage Mage's class features.
Additionally, all spells cast while raging are increased by the same amount as the strength bonus he gains from Raging. (So a Barb2/Sorc4/Rage Mage 1 has a Rage that increases strength by 4, gains a +4 caster level bonus while raging). While casting under the effects of rage, the Rage Mage does not provoke attacks of opportunity from casting a spell, and is considered casting defensively without needing to make a concentration check.
Armored Caster (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, the Rage Mage does not incur the normal arcane spell failure chance while wearing light or medium armor and raging. If attempting to cast a spell while not raging, the normal arcane failure chance applies.
Enhanced Rage(Su): The Rage Mage's caster level boost from Spellrage increases by +1 at levels 3 and 6.
Arcane Strike(Su): At 3rd level, you gain Arcane Strike as a bonus feat you may use only while raging. Your damage dice when using the feat are d6's instead of d4's.
Arcane Toughness(Su): While Raging the Rage Mage starting at 4th level may opt to expend an spell slot as an immediate action to gain DR/- equal to 2 times the level of the spell slot used until the beginning of his next turn.
Active Channeling The 5th level Rage Mage may now channel spells to affect others. As a swift action after succeeding on an attack an attack, the Rage Mage may cast an touch spell targeting the creature he just hit. There is no need to roll a touch attack for a touch spell channeled this way.
Improved Arcane Toughness(Su): Starting at 7th level, when using Arcane Toughness, you gain fast healing equal to the amount of DR gained for a number of turns equal to your caster level. Multiple instances of this do not stack the amount healed, but they do overlap, so the highest healed amount will stay active, but if a weaker amount is activated later, when the first expires, the weaker effect will continue for the rest of its duration.
For example, you have a Rage Mage with Caster Level 18, who uses a 6th level spell slot on arcane toughness on round one, and thus gains 18 rounds of fast healing 12. On round 5, he uses it again, but with only a 3rd level spell slot. He now has 13 rounds left of fast healing 12, but 18 levels of fast healing 6. So when the fast healing 12 runs out, he will still have 5 more rounds of fast healing.
Random aside: Is this actually how fast healing overlaps? Like if a cleric cast multiple cases of vigor, do they overlap like this, or do they stack? I think I handled this the right way, but I'm not sure
Primal Surge (Su): At 8th level, the rage mage gains the ability to use any metamagic feats he possesses while raging. Using a metamagic feat while raging does not increase the casting time of the spell.
Spell Fury(Su): At 9th level the rage mage may opt to cast a spell as an attack action while raging. This means when making a full attack (or some other action when he could choose to make an attack), he can give up one of his attacks to cast a spell that affects only himself. At least one attack from the full attack action must be used as an attack rather than to cast.
Arcane Frenzy: At 10th level, the Rage Mage who has run out of rage uses for the day may expend a spell slot to enter a rage for a number of rounds equal to the level of the spell slot used plus his constitution modifier.
Perfect Spellrage (Su): At 10th level, your spells cast while in a rage (except for those from Active Channeling) may affect allies, as long as they affect the Rage Mage as well. Additionally, when you rage, you are treated as under the effects of a Transformation spell, with the exception that you may still cast spells. Finally, any spell used with active channeling that allows a saving throw gains a bonus to the save DC equal to half your rage bonus to strength.
Some notes:
The class loses 3 caster levels, plus 1 caster level from entry. This means going full rage mage means never getting 9th level spells. This isn't as terrible as it looks at first, because:
-You gain a pretty nice caster level boost. At the start it's a +4 caster level boost, by the end it's a +8. You lose higher level spells, but your caster level is always above average.
-You gain plenty of other class features as well. You get a decent self defense ability, a stronger arcane strike, the ability to channel a touch spell as a part of a melee attack with effectively a +3 to save DCs, and the ability to buff yourself and allies by sacrificing your weaker attacks in a full attack action. These are some pretty big things, to the point where I think the class gets by fine without level 9 spells, and might even be better off with another spell level taken off.
The class's abilities focus more on the caster end of things rather than the Barbarian end of things, because frankly there's more you can do from the caster angle. You can't really use Barbarian to augment a Sorcerer, so what we end up with is a Sorcerer augmenting the Barbarian.
On the prereqs, they feel pretty easy, but I couldn't think of what would fit. I wanted to make Arcane Strike a prereq, but that required 3rd level spells, which is more than I wanted to be necessary to enter, so I dropped it in as a bonus feat. If you feel prereqs are too easy suggestions for something else would be welcome.
[edit: Just checked time stamps, and it was exactly 2 hours between me seeing the thread in the other forum and saying "I want to do this" and this getting posted. Man prestige classes are so much easier and faster than base classes :p]