PDA

View Full Version : Making a better Adept



Golden Ladybug
2012-09-19, 01:26 AM
I've always liked the Adept, but it really isn't very... good. It's got some interesting niches, but most of them are more helpful to other classes than to the Adept (Archivists nicking low level or otherwise Arcane exclusive spells, for instance). I want to do a bit of tweaking to bring the Adept up to par, and have something that can you can comfortably play in a medium OP environment.

Shouldn't be too hard, right? What could possibly go wrong?

- - - - - -

The Adept

Hit Die
d8

Class Skills
The adept’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (all skills taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis) and Survival (Wis).

Skill Points
4 + Int modifier

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

1st|
+0|
+2|
+0|
+2|Domain

2nd|
+1|
+3|
+0|
+3|Brew Potion

3rd|
+1|
+3|
+1|
+3|

4th|
+2|
+4|
+1|
+4|Bottled Ally I

5th|
+2|
+4|
+1|
+4|

6th|
+3|
+5|
+2|
+5|

7th|
+3|
+5|
+2|
+5|

8th|
+4|
+6|
+2|
+6|Bottled Ally II

9th|
+4|
+6|
+3|
+6|

10th|
+5|
+7|
+3|
+7Intensify Elixir

11th|
+5|
+7|
+3|
+7|

12th|
+6/+1|
+8|
+4|
+8|Bottled Ally III

13th|
+6/+1|
+8|
+4|
+8|

14th|
+7/+2|
+9|
+4|
+9|

15th|
+7/+2|
+9|
+5|
+9|

16th|
+8/+3|
+10|
+5|
+10|Bottled Ally IV

17th|
+8/+3|
+10|
+5|
+10|

18th|
+9/+4|
+11|
+6|
+11|

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

20th|
+10/+5|
+12|
+6|
+12|Bottled Ally V[/table]

Spells per day
{table=head]Level|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th

1st|3|1+1|-|-|-|-

2nd|4|1+1|-|-|-|-

3rd|4|2+1|-|-|-|-

4th|4|2+1|0+1|-|-|-

5th|5|2+1|1+1|-|-|-

6th|5|3+1|1+1|-|-|-

7th|5|3+1|2+1|-|-|-

8th|5|3+1|2+1|0+1|-|-

9th|6|3+1|2+1|1+1|-|-

10th|6|4+1|3+1|1+1|-|-

11th|6|4+1|3+1|2+1|-|-

12th|6|4+1|3+1|2+1|0+1|-

13th|7|4+1|3+1|2+1|1+1|-

14th|7|4+1|4+1|3+1|1+1|-

15th|7|4+1|4+1|3+1|2+1|-

16th|7|4+1|4+1|3+1|2+1|0+1

17th|8|4+1|4+1|3+1|2+1|1+1

18th|8|4+1|4+1|4+1|3+1|1+1

19th|8|4+1|4+1|4+1|3+1|2+1

20th|8|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|3+1[/table]

Adept Spell List

Orisons:
Create Water, Cure Minor Wounds, Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Ghost Sound, Guidance, Know Direction, Light, Mending, Purify Food and Drink, Read Magic, Resistance, Touch of Fatigue.

1st Level:
Bless, Burning Hands, Calm Animals, Cause Fear, Command, Comprehend Languages, Cure Light Wounds, Detect Chaos, Detect Evil, Detect Good, Detect Law, Endure Elements, Faerie Fire, Hide from Undead, Magic Weapon, Obscuring Mist, Protection from Chaos, Protection from Evil, Protection from, Good, Protection from Law, Remove Fear, Sleep, Summon Nature's Ally I, Tenser's Floating Disk, Ventriloquism

2nd Level:
Aid, Augury, Animal Trance, Animal Messenger, Bear’s Endurance, Bull’s Strength, Cat’s Grace, Cure Moderate Wounds, Darkness, Delay Poison, Eagle's Splendor, Fox's Cunning, Gust of Wind, Hold Person, Invisibility, Mirror Image, Misdirection, Owl's wisdom, Resist Energy, Remove Paralysis, Restoration, Lesser, Scorching Ray, See Invisibility, Silence, Summon Nature's Ally II, Web, Zone of Truth.

3rd Level:
Animate Dead, Bestow Curse, Blindness/Deafness, Contagion, Continual Flame, Create Food and Water, Cure Serious Wounds, Daylight, Deeper Darkness, Dispel Magic, Lightning Bolt, Locate Object, Magic Circle Against Chaos, Magic Circle against Evil, Magic Circle against Good, Magic Circle against Law, Magic Weapon, Greater, Neutralize Poison, Remove Curse, Remove Disease, Plant Growth, Spike Growth, Summon Nature's Ally III, Water Breathing, Water Walk, Tongues.

4th Level:
Break Enchantment, Cure Critical Wounds, Death Ward, Flame Strike, Freedom of Movement, Locate Creature, Minor Creation, Poison, Restoration, Repel Vermin, Sending, Stoneskin, Stone Shape, Summon Nature's Ally IV, Wall of Fire.

5th Level:
Atonement, Baleful Polymorph, Command, Greater, Dispel Magic, Greater, Heal, Major Creation, Permanency, Summon Nature's Ally V, Tree Stride, True Seeing, Wall of Force, Wall of Stone.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Adepts are skilled with all simple weapons and with light armor. Adepts are not proficient with Shields.

Spells
An Adept casts divine spells which are drawn from the adept spell list, or from the Adept's Domain(s). An Adept must choose what spells she prepares each day, just as a Cleric does, but she cannot lose a spell to spontaneously cast Cure or Inflict spells.

To prepare or cast a spell, an Adept must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an adept’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the adept’s Charisma modifier.

Like other spellcasters, an Adept can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Spells per day. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Wisdom score.

Adepts prepare spells through meditation, which may involve prayer or perhaps just silent contemplation. Each adept must choose a time each day at which she must spend an hour performing this meditation to regain her daily allotment of spells. Time spent resting has no effect on whether an adept can prepare spells.

Domain
An Adept chooses one Domain at 1st level. If she worships a Deity, she must take a Domain associated with that Deity. Unlike a Cleric, an Adept can choose an Alignment domain that does not match her own Alignment.

This domain grants her a bonus spell of each level, as well as the Domain's granted power. An Adept prepares a spell from her Domain each day in her Domain Slots. She cannot prepare a Domain spell in a normal slot.

If a Cleric takes a level in the Adept class, he does not get to select a new Domain, but he can add the spells from one of his current domains to his Adept spell list. Likewise, an Adept who takes levels in the Cleric class must select must use her Adept Domain as one of her Cleric Domain.

Brew Potion (Ex)/(Su)
An Adept gains Brew Potion as a bonus feat at 2nd Level.

An Adept is able to use the Brew Potion feat to create Potions of any spell level, up to the highest spell level she can cast.

Bottled Ally (Su)
The Adept gains the ability to create Potions of certain spells that do not normally meet the requirements for Potion making. Starting at 4th Level, the Adept is able to use the Brew Potion feat to create potions of Summon Nature's Ally I.

When an Adept prepares a potion of Summon Nature's Ally, she prepares a tiny, preserved specimen of the Animal she desires to summon inside a Bottle. To use a Potion of Summon Nature's Ally, the user must spend a Standard Action to open the bottle, after which the preserved Summon is released and returns to normal size. Creatures summoned in this way are otherwise treated as if they had been summoned normally.

At 8th Level, an Adept can create Potions of Summon Nature's Ally II.

At 12th Level, an Adept can create Potions of Summon Nature's Ally III.

At 16th Level, an Adept can create Potions of Summon Nature's Ally IV

At 20th Level, an Adept can create Potions of Summon Nature's Ally V

Intensify Elixir

Starting at 10th level, an Adept can treat a Potion she imbibes as if it had been made at her Caster Level. This ability can be used a number of times per day equal to 3 + Int Modifier (Minimum 1)


Design Notes
Since my plan for the Adept was a weaker replacement for the Cleric and Druid as resident Divine Caster, my goal was to raise the Adept up to a more functional level than before. The problems with the Adept were that it was too unfocused, too lacklustre and too bland to do much with. It didn't have enough Oomph.

I decided that the first thing to do was to improve its Spellcasting; expanding its spell list to include more of the thematically appropriate spells from the PHB, giving it a more robust spells per day chart and granting access to Domains proper were my attempts at doing so. I tried to toe the line between granting access to too much and leaving the Adept with too little. I removed Polymorph (The whole subschool is something I'd prefer to just do away with) and Raise Dead (Personal preference; I don't like resurrection magic much), but in return, the Adept got a lot more toys to play with.

Suggestions for more spells to add to the list would be appreciated. When I find the time, I'll be looking through the Spell Compendium and a few other books that might have helpful things in them.

A small improvement to the Adept's Chassis by way of increasing their HD type and bumping up their Fort Save makes them more durable, and allows them to step into the shoes of their buddies the Clerics and Druids. Similarly, a slight improvement to their Skill Lists seemed in order, granting them some skills that would be useful in their archetypal role as Village Spellcaster (Brew Potion also helps in that capacity; the idea of the Tribal Shaman or the Hedge Witch handing out Potions is thematically appropriate).

The change from Wis SAD to Wis/Cha dependant was more of a design principle than anything else. I don't particularly like Casters being able to depend on their one stat to rule them all, and encouraging the Adept's player to spend resources on improving two stats rather than one levels the playing field between Casters and Non-Casters ever so slightly.

I couldn't think of a fitting capstone. Thoughts? I'd like to give them maybe something else to do with Potions, but I'm not really sure what. The Adept is still primarily an NPC class, so I'm not sure whether or not having much else is needed.

Now, its not like this is ground-breaking, revolutionary homebrew here. Its just a few tweaks to a class that might be helpful.

I think I'll do something similar with the Magewright at some point...

EDIT: Many thanks to LordErebus12, whose suggestions got me thinking about how best to use the "Maybe do something with Potions?" angle I was working with. The Bottled Ally idea was really cool, and I like it a lot.

EDIT2: You know, I was thinking about this...and I decided to take away the Meta-Elixir thing. I was never really sure if that was what I Wanted to do, and I didn't feel it worked very well. It was inelegant, and gave too much to a class that was still, fundamentally, designed for NPCs.

LordErebus12
2012-09-19, 01:56 AM
I couldn't think of a fitting capstone. Thoughts? I'd like to give them maybe something else to do with Potions, but I'm not really sure what. The Adept is still primarily an NPC class, so I'm not sure whether or not having much else is needed.


To stick with the potions theme, even a slight druidic vibe with the potion summoning. To remove further MAD, we make these abilities run off of Intelligence, in addition to the Wis/Cha already present.

2nd - Bottled Ally I: add summon nature's ally I to his list of spells, but only when creating a potion. When he prepares a potion of that spell, he actually prepares a tiny, preserved specimen in a bottle (as with a caster casting the spell, the adept doesn't have to choose the creature until he uses the ability).

When the adept opens the bottle, the specimen animates and grows to normal size, serving the adept as per the spell and otherwise being treated as a summoned creature. When the duration expires, the preserved creature decays into powder. The Augment Summoning feat can be applied to these specimens. This ability replaces Familiar.

5th - Bottled Ally II: An adept adds summon nature's ally II to his list of spells, but only when creating a potion.

8th - Bottled Ally III: An adept adds summon nature's ally IV to his list of spells, but only when creating a potion.

10th - Bottled Ally IV: An adept adds summon nature's ally V to his list of spells, but only when creating a potion. This replaces Improved Familiar

14th - Bottled Ally V: An adept adds summon nature's ally VII to his list of spells, but only when creating a potion.

18th - Bottled Ally VI: An adept adds summon nature's ally IX to his list of spells, but only when creating a potion.

or perhaps some of these?

4th - Enhance potion: A number of times per day equal to his Intelligence modifier, the Adept can cause any potion he drinks to function at a caster level equal to his class level.

8th - Extend potion: A number of times per day equal to his Intelligence modifier, the Adept can cause any potion he drinks that does not have an instantaneous duration to function at twice its normal duration.

20th - Eternal potion: If an Adept drinks a potion that he extends, the effects of that potion become permanent until he chooses to make another potion effect permanent.

Golden Ladybug
2012-09-19, 02:08 AM
The Summon Nature's Ally line of spells was one of the things I added to the Spell List, but having the option of using them with Potions is a unique and cool ability that I rather like.

The in-class buffs to Potion Making also give the Adept a role that can't really be duplicated by other classes, especially with the ability to prepare a bunch of Summons in a bottle. Effectively applying Metamagic to Potions is also very cool.

Thank you very much, LordErebus.