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Ramshack
2012-11-18, 11:19 PM
Hey everyone,

The goal for this was to create an Arcane Warrior infused with Earth Magic.

I had this pretty cool dream where there was a swordsman that was heavily tied to the earth, he could swing his sword and make walls of stone, block attacks by raising earth to defend, or open the earth below his opponents and seal them inside. If anyone has seen bleach he even had a "bankai" and plunged his sword into the ground making all the earth around me turn to mud and swallow everyone and then turned it back to stone.

I was hoping to take my character in this kind of direction mixing my martial prowess with earth based spells. And used the Abjurant Champion as a base. Let me know what you think.

Earthen Champion – Prestige Class – Home Brew

Requirements
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Spell casting: Must be able to cast 1st-level arcane spells, including at least one spell with the Earth descriptor.

Special: Must be proficient with at least one martial weapon.

Hit die: 10

Skill points: 2 + Int

Class Features

Spellcasting: At each level, you gain new spells per day and an increase in caster level (and spells known, if applicable) as if you had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level. You automatically gain any spells with that Earth descriptor that is available to your class at that level. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If you had more than one arcane spellcasting class before becoming an Earthen Champion, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day, caster level, and spells known.

Earthen Armor (Su): Any time you cast a spell that grants you an armor bonus or shield bonus to AC, you can increase the value of the bonus by your Earthen Champion class level. These spells are reinforced by the strength of the earth.

Tremor Sense (Su): You are one with the earth and are able to sense even the slightest of vibrations and are able to automatically able to pin point the location of any creature within contact of the ground within 60 ft of your location.

Earthen Swiftness (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, you can cast spells with the Earth descriptor as a swift action, as if you had applied the Quicken Spell feat to them (but without any change in level).

Earthen Arcanist (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, Choose one arcane spellcasting class, such as sorcerer. You can avoid any chance of arcane spell failure for spells gained from this class with the Earth descriptor as long as you restrict yourself to medium armor and medium shields. Any spell cast without the Earth descriptor will have its arcane spell failure chance reduced by 10%. This training does not extend to any other form of armor or shields, nor does this ability apply to spells gained from other arcane spellcasting classes.

Earthen Boon (Su): Beginning at 4th level, you gain the ability to tap into the power of the earth around you and can burn arcane energy to empower your martial abilities. As a swift action, you can spend one of your uncast spells or spell slots to grant yourself one of the following insight bonuses for 1 round.
• Bonus on attack rolls equal to the spell's level.
• Bonus on weapon damage rolls equal to twice the spell's level.
• Bonus to AC equal to the spell's level.
• Bonus on saving throws equal to the spell's level.
• Resistance to acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic equal to 5 × the spell's level.

Martial Arcanist (Ex): At 5th level, you master the art of combining your militant and mystical training. From this point on, your caster level in a chosen arcane spellcasting class is equal to your base attack bonus (unless it would otherwise be higher). For example, a 7th-level fighter/1st-level wizard/5th-level Earthen Champion has a base attack bonus of +12 (and thus a caster level of 12th). You can apply this benefit to only one arcane class to which you have added spellcasting levels by your advancement as an Earthen Champion.

Advancement

{table=head]Level |BAB |Fort |Ref |Will |Special |Spellcasting
1st |+1 |+2 |+0 |+2 |Earthen Armor, Tremor Sense |+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
2nd |+2 |+3 |+0 |+3 |Earthen Swiftness |+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
3rd |+3 |+3 |+1 |+3 |Earthen Mage |+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
4th |+4 |+4 |+1 |+4 |Earthen Boon |+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
5th |+5 |+4 |+2 |+4 |Martial Arcanist |+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class [/table]

ngilop
2012-11-18, 11:33 PM
{table=head]Level |BAB |Fort |Ref |Will |Special |Spellcasting
1st |+1 |+2 |+0 |+2 |Earthen Armor, Tremor Sense |+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
2nd |+2 |+3 |+0 |+3 |Earthen Swiftness |+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
3rd |+3 |+3 |+1 |+3 |Earthen Mage |+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
4th |+4 |+4 |+1 |+4 |Earthen Boon |+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
5th |+5 |+4 |+2 |+4 |Martial Arcanist |+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class [/table]

Just quote my table there and copy/paste it over your advnacemt chart thingy..

also, take a look at the Tome of Battle, specifically Stone Dragon maneuvers and the Deepstone Sentinel PrC and see if you want to glean any abilites from that.

Ramshack
2012-11-18, 11:40 PM
Awesome thank you for the table formating. I will check out your suggestions. I've never actually used tome of battle so I'm sure I will enjoy researching it.

Any suggestions based on it's current form? The changes I feel are subtle and fit the character theme. I wanted to keep an obvious proof of concept. This way when approaching my DM about utilizing it he can see there is already premise in place for a similar kind of prestige class.

Darth Stabber
2012-11-20, 05:17 AM
My only issue with the class is that there aren't that many spells with the earth discriptor, and many of them are of questionable usefullness. There are 5 in the srd and 6 in the spell compendium (not counting summons and other variable descriptor spells), and for some of them saying that they are situational is too kind. With abjurant champion there are enough abjuration spells of substance.

The class itself seems fine, but with that kind of limit on the spells that interact with the abilities, it's going to be rough. You are probably going to cast summon monster variants a lot, and the results aren't going to be as good as you would like.