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Venger
2012-04-11, 06:55 AM
Okay, so, this is my first time designing a prestige class. What advice do y'all have? I wrote this with sort of a humorous intent, but did sort of intend on it being playable (probably not as a PC, per se, but to throw at PCs when running a social comedy game) how's it work? how's it not work? what questions do you have?

Ah'm a Wizahd
The path of the wizard is an arduous one. Long, lonely hours of study copying spidery writings from sheafs of crumbling parchment into spell books, hunched over tables, candles pressed close to their straining eyes. While the cost may be somewhat great, the rewards in the end more than outweigh anything the wizard may have sacrificed as he can now more or less conjure it from whole cloth anyway. The long hours and solitary nights are weighed as necessary costs and the rewards at the end of the path are viewed as rewards for years of hard work.

This path is not for everyone. Ah'm a Wizahds believe that when you laugh, the world laughs with you, when you cry, you cry alone, and if you yell that you're a wizard often enough, eventually people are going to start listening to you, even if it is just to silence your incessant chattering.

While your understanding of the arcane arts is supernaturally poor, you can nonetheless do things that make people ignorant to your way scratch their heads in confusion. Perhaps your favorite targets to bamboozle with your strange powers are wizards, because between the two of you, you know who's the real wizard and who's the impostor.

Due to the relatively lax requirements, Ah'm a Wizahds come from most all walks of life, although there tends to be a slight leaning towards unlawful behavior amongst them since the rules and regulations of traditional arcane study both confuse them and are in turn confused by them. While Ah'm a Wizahds are terrible at casting arcane spells, none of them actually seems to know this, or if they do, they have talked themselves out of believing it, something they exceed at. Nonetheless, they have a sort of forbidden desire for that which is unattainable to them and frequently seek out spell books, scrolls, wands, and the like in order to better understand how they work.

Due to the love-hate relationship these items have with Ah'm a Wizahds, they often have to resort to less straightforward methods of acquisition than simple purchase, necessitating any prospective initiate have fingers that are just the slightest bit sticky.

Ah'm a Wizahds are generally good-natured despite their confusing psychology and get along well with almost all classes. Wizards obviously eye them with suspicion and keep their spell books under an extra lock and key whenever one is near. Good aligned Ah'm a Wizahds can pretend to be evil and use their powers of impersonation to infiltrate and take down evil churches. Evil aligned Ah'm a Wizahds use their disguises for personal gain and pretend to be good to avoid detection and subsequent arrest. NPC Ah'm a Wizahds often impersonate members of other classes and are hard to ferret out for what they truly are until actually called upon to cast some arcane magic.
Hit Die
d6

Prerequisites
To qualify to become an Ah'm a Wizahd, a character must fulfill all the following criteria

Alignment
Any nonlawful.

Skills
Bluff 4 ranks, Sleight of Hand 4 ranks

Languages
Gibberish

Special
The character must have no ability to cast arcane
spells. If such spellcasting ability was previously possessed
(as with a wizard), that ability is forever lost, as the art of wizardry is slowly corrupted in the character's mind as his arcane knowledge is replaced with wrong things.

The character must not be trained by another Ah'm a Wizahd. Ah'm a Wizahds are terrible teachers due to their tenuous grip on reality and their complete lack of understanding of arcane magic.

Class Skills
The Ah'm a Wizahd's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Disguise (Cha), Forgery (Int), Hide (Dex), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex) Perform (any) (Cha), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), and Use Magic Device (Cha)
Skill Points at Each Level 2+Int modifier

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|

1st|
+0|
+0|
+2|
+2|"Spellcasting", Saying Wrong Things, Nonsense Mastery, Ah Think Ah Broke It

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+3|
+3| Ah Feel (Villainous/Virtuous, Naughty/Nice) Today

3rd|
+1|
+1|
+3|
+3|You Can't See Me (1/day)

4th|
+2|
+1|
+4|
+4|Ah'm Smarter Than Ah Am

5th|
+2|
+1|
+4|
+4|Papal Infallibility

6th|
+3|
+2|
+5|
+5|Mimic Mimic Class Feature

7th|
+3|
+2|
+5|
+5|Ah Can Do That, You Can't See Me (2/day), No, You Really Can't See Me

8th|
+4|
+2|
+6|
+6|Ah Understand You Perfectly

9th|
+4|
+3|
+6|
+6|You Lied to Me! You Can't See Me (3/day), Ah'm Invisible

10th|
+5|
+3|
+7|
+7|Ah am What Ah Say Ah Am[/table]

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency Ah'm a Wizahds are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, siangham, and with all armor.

"Spellcasting": The use of quotation marks, while it may seem a simple typographical error, is deliberate. Ah'm a Wizahds do not actually cast spells, they just think they do. The absence of a chart of spells per day and spells known is similarly deliberate. This is merely included as Ah'm a Wizahds would feel offended otherwise

Nonsense Mastery (Ex): Ah'm a Wizahds have a natural penchants for saying the wrong things at the wrong times. When an enemy arcane caster is casting a spell you are aware of and able to successfully identify with a Spellcraft check(assuming it is not modified by still spell, silent spell, and/or eschew materials, or if so, that you have some means of detecting that a spell is indeed being cast) and of which you are a target (or in the affected area if an area of effect spell, such as fireball ) then you may make a Bluff check opposed by your enemy's Concentration check as though he were resisting a distracting spell. (Use the result of your Bluff check for the DC of his Concentration check.) The save is equal to 11+the Ah'm a Wizahd's primary mental ability score.

If he is successful, the spell goes off as normal. If he is unsuccessful, then you "correct" his spellcasting by supplying, bizzarre, blasphemous, confusing, unbelievable, or otherwise erroneous information to him with regards to its verbal, somatic, and/or material components as applicable to the spell (insisting that a caster must dance in the desired fashion while casting Otto's Irresistible Dance or that the material component of Charm Person is a large clump of dung flung with great force towards the target, neither of which is remotely true)

His subsequent loss of the spell represents either his concentration being broken, him "correcting" his motions or words to reflect your suggestions, or him not listening to you while you were actually giving legitimate advice, tricking him with reverse psychology.

Saying Wrong Things (Ex): Whenever trying to convince someone of something you honestly believe to be true (ignoring compulsions, charms, etc.) which is in fact erroneous with a Bluff check, you add your class level onto the check. This check is made in secret when the truth of the information in question is unknown to the players.

Ah Think Ah Broke It: As an Ah'm a Wizahd, you have a fascination with all things magical, much to the detriment of those unfortunate things. When making a Use Magic Device check, take a penalty equal to 11-your class level (eg. 10 at 1st lvl, 9 at 2nd, etc.) On a failure, no additional effects apply besides the normal ones for mangling a Use Magic Device check, and this penalty does obviously substantially increase the chance of a mishap.

Ah Feel (Villainous/Virtuous, Naughty/Nice) Today (Sp): Beginning at 2nd level, once per day, as a standard action, you may declare how you feel that day in order to display the corresponding alignment with the intensity of a cleric equal to your class level(Villainous/Virtuous = Evil/Good, Naughty/Nice = Chaotic/Lawful) and makes you detect as such to any spells which detect alignment. This is treated as a 2nd level spell for the purposes of saves and caster level checks against other spells that interact with alignment. This lasts for a number of hours equal to your class level.

You Can't See Me (Ex): Beginning at 3rd level, whenever you roll a Hide or Move Silently check, you have the option of rerolling a Bluff check instead. This decision must be declared after the die is rolled, but before it is said whether it is a success or failure. You may use this ability once per day per three class levels.

At 6th level, you may use up two of your daily uses of this ability to hide from a creature's blindsense or scent the same way you would for a mundane hide check.

At 9th level, you may use up three of your daily uses of this ability to hide from a creature's blindsight or tremorsense.

Ah'm Smarter than Ah Am (Ex): Upon attaining his 4th level, an Ah'm a Wizahd is immune to all effects that damage or drain his intelligence. Note, this does not confer any special immunity to damage to other ability scores.

(E.g. If Mialee zaps Morphy with a Ray of Stupidity, nothing happens to him, even if the touch attack hits. If Mialee, frustrated at her wasted attack follows up with a Touch of Idiocy, then while Morphy's Intelligence score is unaffected, his Charisma and Wisdom take the normal penalties associated with the spell)

Papal Infallibility (Ex): Upon reaching 5th level, an Ah'm a Wizahd will appoint himself the title of pope (or the equivalent thereof) within a religious organization of his choice. Whether or not the organization or position actually exists is immaterial (E.g. Pope of the Church of Lolth) and many Ah'm a Wizahds prefer to invent their own religions, appointing themselves as the head.

Once made, this choice cannot be altered unless the religious organization in question is disbanded somehow (through destruction of its followers or being absorbed into a larger rival organization) In events such as this, the Ah'm a Wizahd is free to declare Papal Infallibility with a new organization or create a new one as he sees fit. This takes as much or as little time and money as the Ah'm a Wizahd sees fit in the case of creating his own office, and is up to the DM's discretion with pre-established churches, although Ah'm a wizahds often encounter difficulty changing the minds of the high ranking church officials, their Saying Wrong Things ability often helps them sway more people than they would ordinarily be able. (Note: Remember that Saying Wrong Things only works if the information conveyed is objectively false. If by chance an Ah'm a Wizahd in your campaign selects a religious organization which he is somehow entitled to lead be it now or in the future, this ability will not work

As a result of the newfound power that inevitably goes to your head, once per day, when trying to convince someone whom you are embroiled in an argument with of the verity of your position, you may declare Papal Infallibility as a free action, giving you a bonus to the salient skill check equal to your class level. (Note: this stacks with your Saying Wrong Things ability if the conditions for both are met.)

Mimic Mimic Class Feature At 6th level, you learn that you are not alone in your quest to impersonate members of other classes and discover how to imitate the chameleon's ability to imitate the ability of other classes. Due to certain information being lost in translation in the transition from the original practitioners to the chameleons and then finally to you, your abilities do not work as well as the originals. You have the same abilities available to you as the chameleon does (Races of Destiny p 113) but your training (or lack thereof) allows you to call them by different names if you so wish.

chameleon names: (default)
(evasion/rage/smite/sneak attack/turn/rebuke undead)

sample Ah'm a Wizahd: (Morphy)
(Ah'm a Monk/ Ah'm a Bawbawian/ Ah'm a Paladin/ Ah'm a Wogue/ Ah'm a Clewic)

Ah Can Do That (Ex): At 7th level, you can make a check with a skill that you have no ranks in. Prior to doing so, you must make a Bluff check against yourself.

(Note: Saying Wrong Things cannot apply to this, as it is predicated on your preternatural wrongheadedness getting pulling one over on your common sense, so you have to believe that you are competent with the skill in question.)

If you are successful, you use the amount that your Bluff check exceeded your Sense Motive as a bonus on your skill check. This ability is usable once per day per class level, though it can only be used on each skill once per day. If you fail, the attempt is made with the difference between your Bluff and Sense motive as a penalty.

Ah Understand You Perfectly At 8th level, you can pretend to be fluent in any language you do not speak by means of self-deception identical to your Ah Can Do That ability in order to determine the bonus or penalty. Doing this is very difficult, however. Firstly, you must succeed on a DC 20 Diplomacy check in order to establish contact. If you and your target are of the same type and subtype, you suffer no penalty. If your subtypes differ, you suffer a -2 penalty. If your types differ, the penalty is -4. If the target is of Animal Intelligence, you suffer a -8 penalty. You cannot use this on creatures that do not have a language. This ability normally takes 1 minute of interaction, but a rushed check may be made as a full round action at a -10 penalty (in addition to any other relevant penalties) like a rushed Diplomacy check.

You Lied to Me! At 9th level, an Ah'm a Wizahd becomes well versed with lies and trickery due to his extensive practice purveying them. Whenever you successfully disbelieve an illusion, as a free action, you can express your displeasure at the deception of your enemy by emphatically shouting "You Lied to Me!" and pointing your finger at the caster of the spell in question (or if unknown or you don't have line of sight to him, then at the space that the illusion occupied. If this too is not relevant, you can point and shout at whatever or whomever you wish.) This allows all allies that can both see and hear you another save against the effect in question.

Ah am What Ah Say Ah Am At 10th level, an Ah'm a Wizahd has finally succeeded in bending reality to his will with his willful misunderstanding of the laws of the universe. While this ability in and of itself offers no special ability to change form, it does confer the Ah'm a Wizahd immunity to any harmful effects that change its form against its will (ex. baleful polymorph, flesh to stone, flesh to salt, etc.) but the Ah'm a Wizahd can still enjoy beneficial applications of form changing if it so wishes from either wands, scrolls, allies, or any special abilities he might have (polymorph, enlarge person, body of iron, etc.)

Eloel
2012-04-11, 09:15 AM
Rincewind? Is that you?

Great class, bit on the weak side but I love the flavor :smallsmile:

NeoSeraphi
2012-04-11, 09:40 AM
Ah'm Smarter than Ah Am: You reference that he is immune to touch of idiocy here, but touch of idiocy does not damage or drain the Intelligence score. If you intend to make the Ah'm a Wizard immune to touch of idiocy as well, you need to add "penalties" to that as well, since penalties are completely different from damage and drain.

Otherwise, the class looks hilarious. I would totally play one in a group with at least one other wizard and have my guy constantly interrupt him while adjusting his fake glasses and saying in a very authoritative voice, "You're doing it WRONG!"

DonQuixote
2012-04-11, 12:44 PM
I feel like it would be more useful--and easily flavorable--to actually build more Use Magic Device into the class, rather than penalizing it. I feel like Use Magic Device could be the reason that an individual becomes convinced of secret wizardry: "Don't you see? With this wand-shaped arcane focus, I can cast fireball!"

Maybe have a progression of "spells known" that lets you use related magic items without penalty, while applying the penalty to other checks? Basically, to use the above example, a character who "knows" fireball can wield his wand without worrying, but shivering touch is a complex spell that he hasn't encountered before. He'll need further study before he can hope to penetrate the arcane mysteries of this item.

I also feel like you should be able to study a "spellbook" in order to gain certain morale bonuses. "Because I prepared true strike today, my blows strike without fail!" No, Bob, because you think you prepared the spell, you're getting a +x morale bonus on attack rolls. A placebo effect for buff spells, as it were.

I'm definitely getting a strong Korg (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=195049) vibe from the class. It makes me happy.

DracoDei
2012-04-11, 08:10 PM
a bluff check opposed by your enemy's concentration check as though he were resisting a distracting spell. The save is equal to 11+the Ah'm a Wizahd's primary mental ability score.
This is a contradiction. Opposed checks don't have set DCs.


Whenever trying to convince someone of something you honestly believe to be true (ignoring compulsions, charms, etc.) which is in fact erroneous with a Bluff check, you add your class level onto the check.
Technically that would be Diplomacy, not Bluff. Also, this requires GOOD roleplaying on the part of the PCs, rather than power-gaming.



Ah Think Ah Broke It: As an Ah'm a Wizahd, you have a fascination with all things magical, much to the detriment of those unfortunate things. When making a Use Magic Device check, take a penalty equal to 11-your class level (eg. 10 at 1st lvl, 9 at 2nd, etc.) On a failure, no additional effect apply besides the normal ones for mangling a Use Magic Device check, and this penalty does obviously substantially increase the chance of a mishap.
"effects apply" <-correct singular/plural agreement.

Ah Feel (Villainous/Virtuous, Naughty/Nice) Today (Sp): Beginning at 2nd level, once per day, as a standard action, you may declare how you feel that day in order to display the corresponding alignment with the intensity of a cleric equal to your class level(Villainous/Virtuous = Evil/Good, Naughty/Nice = Chaotic/Lawful) and makes you detect as such to any spells which detect alignment. This is treated as a 2nd level spell for the purposes of saves and caster level checks against other spells that interact with alignment. This lasts for a number of hours equal to your class level.
Very powerful for the level I think, but since this class doesn't seem to get much, I guess this is reasonable.

You Can't See Me (Ex): Beginning at 3rd level, whenever you roll a hide check, you have the option of rerolling a Bluff check instead. This decision must be declared after the die is rolled, but before it is said whether it is a success or failure. You may use this ability once per day per three class levels.
Consider applying this to Move Silently too, but I guess Invisibility gets used defensively much more often than Silence (even correcting for the fact that I have never heard of an offensive use for Invisibility), so if that has any bearing then I guess I could see it. Note that when I was creating Falling Anvil (see my signature), I made the Stance that lets you substitute Bluff for hide and move silently 5th level. So... again, this class gets very few nice things, but the ones it gets are VERY nice for the levels it gets them.

At 6th level, you may use up two of your daily uses of this ability to hide from a creature's blindsense or scent the same way you would for a mundane hide check.
Nice bonus.

At 9th level, you may use up three of your daily uses of this ability to hide from a creature's blindsight or tremorsense.
Ditto



Ah'm Smarter than Ah Am (Ex): Upon attaining his 4th level, an Ah'm a Wizahd is immune to all effects that damage or drain his intelligence. Note, this does not confer any special immunity to damage to other ability scores.
Can you explain the narrative logic behind this?

Going to stop here, at least for the moment.

Grimsage Matt
2012-04-11, 08:34 PM
Can you explain the narrative logic behind this?


Have you been looking at the flavor of the class? Logic gets mugged, beaten then tossed to the curb. Logic is not what this class does. I love it! You see so many people like that, and now theres a class for them:smallbiggrin:

Venger
2012-04-12, 12:33 AM
Ah'm Smarter than Ah Am: You reference that he is immune to touch of idiocy here, but touch of idiocy does not damage or drain the Intelligence score. If you intend to make the Ah'm a Wizard immune to touch of idiocy as well, you need to add "penalties" to that as well, since penalties are completely different from damage and drain.

Otherwise, the class looks hilarious. I would totally play one in a group with at least one other wizard and have my guy constantly interrupt him while adjusting his fake glasses and saying in a very authoritative voice, "You're doing it WRONG!"

Whoops! I thought touch of idiocy did ability damage. you're right, it is a "penalty." How would I say that, then, just that they are immune to any sort of "penalty" to intelligence either? What I had planned on was for them to be immune to anything that hurt their int (but not all abilities, ro problems might arise) it was mostly an RP thing, as y'all have noticed much of the class is since not a lot of monsters attack your int the same way they do with wis or con or str or what have you, and I just wanted it to be int, because him not being immune to getting his feelings hurt by ego whip is pretty hilarious and him being immune wouldn't really fit the theme.

I am trying, but I can't think of any other spell/effect that gives an int penalty. The only other way of negatively impacting your int I can think of is bestow curse, but I figure that that's an unusual enough example to call out specifically. I've read just about all the splats (settings aside) so I want to make sure that I'm not forgetting something important that I'm overlooking.

I didn't really want to tie entrants to any particular mental stat to allow the widest range of people to take it, because it's always a pain when you find a fun way to enter a prc that the writers weren't thinking of and then find your class abilities depend on a stat you're not dependent on (looking at you, mindbender)

Is there some other way of lowering an int score? Is making them immune to having their int lowered (via penalties/damage/drain/etc) too powerful? I don't really think so since there are very few things in-game that would kill you via int damage anyway. the only thing that springs to mind is corrupt spells, but they usually affect 2 or more abilities anyway, and Ah'm a Wizahds can't cast spells (wands aside), so I didn't figure it was too much of a problem.

wow! great! I hope you do play one next time the opportunity arises. Tell me how it goes.


I feel like it would be more useful--and easily flavorable--to actually build more Use Magic Device into the class, rather than penalizing it. I feel like Use Magic Device could be the reason that an individual becomes convinced of secret wizardry: "Don't you see? With this wand-shaped arcane focus, I can cast fireball!"

Maybe have a progression of "spells known" that lets you use related magic items without penalty, while applying the penalty to other checks? Basically, to use the above example, a character who "knows" fireball can wield his wand without worrying, but shivering touch is a complex spell that he hasn't encountered before. He'll need further study before he can hope to penetrate the arcane mysteries of this item.

I also feel like you should be able to study a "spellbook" in order to gain certain morale bonuses. "Because I prepared true strike today, my blows strike without fail!" No, Bob, because you think you prepared the spell, you're getting a +x morale bonus on attack rolls. A placebo effect for buff spells, as it were.

I'm definitely getting a strong Korg (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=195049) vibe from the class. It makes me happy.
I think you have a point, I was initially trying to find a simple formula for a bonus to UMD without having it get too ridiculous since the DCs are all flat. How does a monk-style flurry of blows type deal sound where initially it's a penalty but then turns into a bonus? I don't think a +5 to UMD will break anyone's game, and it'll give you more points for other fun class skills the more levels of the class you take.
1 -5
2 -4
3 -3
4 -2
5 -1
6 +1
7 +2
8 +3
9 +4
10 +5

This way the penalty's not so severe off the bat (because assuming that you were awesome and entered this class at level 2, you wouldn't be able to do a ton better anyway) and hopefully discourages dipping in a less hamfisted way than half-casting on even levels. It's not that I want to discourage dips for its own sake, but rather because this class hopefully has some fun things down the line too in addition to having some abilities at the start.

I understand where you're coming from regarding UMD, but I didn't want this class to be too similar to rogue or warlock in that regard, I wanted it to stand on its own two feet as much as possible. (even writing your own prcs, you end up using a lot of leftover pasta from core)

what do you think would be a reasonable limit for "items known" ? I do like the concept since UMD is all about "faking it" as it were. One per class level? should there be any sort of "attunement period" where the Ah'm a Wizahd gets the item synched up with their biorhythms/aligns it with their chakras/listens to what kind of mood it's in today/beats it in a staring contest/etc? I think if this is implemented, I'll go with "x amount of items at any given time, you can change them, but you must spend y amount of time attuning them to you first" so that they can't just essentially use items normally all the time.

Studying a spellbook for a sort of fake spell effect is an interesting idea, but I don't really know how one would implement that. do you have any suggestions? I think it fits very well with the general sort of "mood" I'm going for with this class.

Barbarian MD
2012-04-13, 12:13 PM
A minor suggestion that I'll let you puzzle out whether the flavor is right or not: it might be fun to grant a cantrip or two as the capstone. Logic is beaten up so badly that it gives up, and even a broken clock is right twice a day. :smalltongue:

EDIT: or here's another idea. You can cast a single spell once in your entire life as the capstone. ONCE. It might even be a 9th-level maximized, empowered, widened, etc. spell that saves the day for your party. Forever after that, you will try to convince people that you actually succeeded, and you will be frustrated the rest of your life as you try to repeat the experience.

NeoSeraphi
2012-04-13, 12:19 PM
EDIT: or here's another idea. You can cast a single spell once in your entire life as the capstone. ONCE. It might even be a 9th-level maximized, empowered, widened, etc. spell that saves the day for your party. Forever after that, you will try to convince people that you actually succeeded, and you will be frustrated the rest of your life as you try to repeat the experience.

This is an amazing idea. +9 to this, seriously. And afterwards, you take like 1d4+1 points of Wisdom damage, because actually casting a spell for once has blown your mind.