Maniacal moonstruck magician (3.5 PrC focused on confusion PEACH)

[inuyasha]

Maniacal moonstruck magician
Maniacal moonstruck magicians (called Insanomancers for short) are spellcasters focused around one type of spell: ones that cause confusion. They themselves however, tap into the true powers of these spells that no one can access, for these spells, actually leek a little bit of the plane of pandemonium into someones brain, enough to cause confusion and mental distress,this amount is very little however, only causing minor, temporary damage, but Insanomancers can actually make these portals larger, causing worse insanity, and sometimes, even permenant brain damage.

Requirements

Able to cast confusion and lesser confusion
Must take the iron will feat
Any non lawful alignment


Hit die: D4
Skill points: 2+int modifier
Class skills: Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Maniacal moonstruck magician
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Easy metamagic, Confusion focus|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3|Confusion gate|

3rd|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+3|Confusion in the blood|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

4th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Improved confusion|

5th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Controlled confusion|+1 level of existing spellcasting class[/table]
Weapon and armor proficiencies:
Maniacal moonstruck magicians gain no new weapon or armor proficiencies

Confusion focus (Ex)
All spells that cause confusion (insanity, confusion, lesser confusion etc) have their save DCs increased by the characters insanomancer level

Easy metamagic (Ex)
All metamagic feats applied to confusion causing spells increase the spell level by one less than they normally would, to a minimum of +0 spell level

Confusion gate (Su)
The insanomancer, a number of times per month equal to his charisma bonus, can use the skull of someone who died while under the effects of one of his (the insanomancer's) confusion causing spells to open up a portal to pandemonium, the portal lasts for three rounds, and the portal is one way, nothing comes out, but creatures can go in. Once this ability is used, the skull crumbles to ash and cannot be used again.

Confusion in the blood (Sp)
An insanomancer, a number of times per day equal to his charisma modifier, can use the spell confusion as a spell like ability

Improved confusion (Sp)
When casting a spell that causes confusion, a maniacal moonstruck magician uses the following table instead of the regular one

{table]Roll|effect
1|Attacks closest creature with whatever means available
2|Attacks self (not familiar) with whatever means available
3|Acts normally for one round
4|Does nothing but babble incoherently for the next three rounds (do not roll additional times on this chart during these rounds)
5|Runs away at fastest available speed
6|Becomes panicked
7|Becomes sickened
8|Becomes stunned for 1d4 rounds (do not roll additional times on this chart during these rounds)
9|Becomes nauseated
10|flood of pandemonium causes 1d4 wisdom damage
[/table]

Controlled confusion (Su)
By sacraficing some of its health to the gods of chaos and entropy, an insanomancer can control chaos a little bit. When casting a confusion causing spell, when the first die roll on the chart is rolled for the first round of effect, an insanomancer may change the die roll into a number one different in either direction. Doing this though comes at a price, and the maniacal moonstruck magician does not heal hit point damage or ability damage that night while resting, she may still regain spells though


PEACHes definantly needed, if anyone has a good picture can you please please show it to me? Hope everyone likes this class :smallbiggrin:

[inuyasha]

*bump* I'd really like this to be peached please :) I feel I did pretty good on this but Im almost certain theres some unbalanced parts

[Tanuki Tales]

Alright, my first bit I'll say is that you should run through your 'brew with a fine tooth comb and fix up your grammar, sentence structure and punctuation. There's enough of it that it'd be time consuming for me to go through it for you.


Moving on:

I feel like the entry requirements are kind of steep for how niche this class is and for what it gives. Iron Will is already a pretty crappy feat to start off with and then you add Wisdom drain on top of it? May I suggest switching those two requirements out for the Willing Deformity and Deformity (Madness) feats?
You could probably swing this class to have more casting progression. It honestly doesn't give than an amazing list of abilities to require that much of a casting hit. Or just give out more toys.
You should really specify that the Easy Metamagic class feature (which I'd rename since that's the name of a feat and could cause....confusion :smallwink:) doesn't stack with other metamagic reducers to prevent abuse.
Confusion gate is poignant, but general consensus is that abilities usable that infrequently are pretty "meh" unless they've got a lot of power or a lot of versatility behind them.
Controlled Confusion is honestly tame for a capstone and does not give enough benefit for the steep cost it gives to the Isanomancer who uses it.


Aaaand that's my critique. Been a while since I did anything 3.5 related.

[Rizban]

Maniacal moonstruck magician
Maniacal moonstruck magicians (called Insanomancers for short) are spellcasters focused around one type of spell: ones that cause confusion. They themselves however, tap into the true powers of these spells that no one can access, for these spells, actually leek a little bit of the plane of pandemonium into someones brain, enough to cause confusion and mental distress,this amount is very little however, only causing minor, temporary damage, but Insanomancers can actually make these portals larger, causing worse insanity, and sometimes, even permenant brain damage.Neat fluff, though I think you meant leak (http://www.irisclasson.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/memoryleaks.jpg) not leek (http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110203205552/recipes/images/2/23/Leeks.jpg), or perhaps the insanity has already set in. :smallwink:


Requirements

Able to cast confusion and lesser confusion
Must take the iron will feat
Any non lawful alignment
Special: Must willingly sacrafice 2 points of wisdom to the gods of chaos, these points may not be recovered in any way short of divine intervention from a greater deity or overdeity
Those are some pretty steep requirements.
Spells and alignment are reasonable, but... see note below.
You have to take a dump feat which is always sad to see, especially on a spellcaster with limited feats available.
Loss of ability score, even if thematically appropriate, is always nasty. However, since you're not a divine caster, then it's not that big a deal.

Not sure if you're aware of this, but, according to the 3.5 SRD, lesser confusion is only available to bards. Assuming SRD, you are required to be 7th-level bard to enter this class. Based on your comment in the thread that led me here, I don't think that was your intention at all.
I dislike bards as a whole :p



Hit die: D4
Skill points: 2+int modifier
Class skills: Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).All reasonable for a spellcaster of what you're proposing.


Maniacal moonstruck magician
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Easy metamagic, Confusion focus|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3|Confusion gate|

3rd|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+3|Confusion in the blood|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

4th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Improved confusion|

5th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Controlled confusion|+1 level of existing spellcasting class[/table]Okay, I see a problem here. It's not a problem with your class but rather with spellcasters and how players usually think in general. You only have half spellcasting progression, which will automatically rule out anything other than a one level dip for most players. Losing spellcasting levels is sacrilegious to almost every player I know. With such steep entry requirements, I feel like most players would pass this by without giving it much of a second look.

Now, that's not to say this is "wrong". I've always felt that full casting + abilities was too strong for PrCs and that players should be forced to sacrifice something in return for something else in a PrC. Unfortunately, there are just too many full casting + abilities classes out there with easier entry requirements.

This segment is more an analysis of the meta out there than the class itself. Take it for what you will.


Weapon and armor proficiencies:
Maniacal moonstruck magicians gain no new weapon or armor proficiencies

Confusion focus (Ex)
All spells that cause confusion (insanity, confusion, lesser confusion etc) have their save DCs increased by the characters insanomancer levelSeems perfectly reasonable for the class.


Easy metamagic (Ex)
All metamagic feats applied to confusion causing spells increase the spell level by one less than they normally would, to a minimum of +0 spell levelVery, very nice, if a bit limited. This seems more like a way to mitigate the lost spellcasting advancement rather than an ability in and of itself though. Lose a spell level, get a free spell level of metamagic. I'm not sure it's a trade I'd consider, though it does make dipping a single level of this class pretty good, arguably better than taking more than 1 level.


Confusion gate (Su)
The insanomancer, a number of times per month equal to his charisma bonus, can use the skull of someone who died while under the effects of one of his (the insanomancer's) confusion causing spells to open up a portal to pandemonium, the portal lasts for three rounds, and the portal is one way, nothing comes out, but creatures can go in. Once this ability is used, the skull crumbles to ash and cannot be used again.Interesting. I'm not sure I see the purpose of this, but it is thematically appropriate. However, this leads me to think that there should be a Knowledge (the planes) skill requirement on the class as well as that it should be a class skill.


Confusion in the blood (Sp)
An insanomancer, a number of times per day equal to his charisma modifier, can use the spell confusion as a spell like abilityHe can already cast it. That's a prerequisite of the class. It lets him save spell slots, but it isn't wonderful.


Improved confusion (Sp)
When casting a spell that causes confusion, a maniacal moonstruck magician uses the following table instead of the regular one

{table]Roll|effect
1|Attacks closest creature with whatever means available
2|Attacks self (not familiar) with whatever means available
3|Acts normally for one round
4|Does nothing but babble incoherently for the next three rounds (do not roll additional times on this chart during these rounds)
5|Runs away at fastest available speed
6|Becomes panicked
7|Becomes sickened
8|Becomes stunned for 1d4 rounds (do not roll additional times on this chart during these rounds)
9|Becomes nauseated
10|flood of pandemonium causes 1d4 wisdom damage
[/table]Nifty. I like this ability quite a bit, though it would be nice to maybe get it a little earlier in the class.

It's a good bit more random than the original chart, which has weighted percentages toward certain actions, especially when you consider that percentage is rolled using 2d10 with a tendency toward median numbers. Whether or not this is a good change is open to debate.


Controlled confusion (Su)
By sacraficing some of its health to the gods of chaos and entropy, an insanomancer can control chaos a little bit. When casting a confusion causing spell, when the first die roll on the chart is rolled for the first round of effect, an insanomancer may change the die roll into a number one different in either direction. Doing this though comes at a price, and the maniacal moonstruck magician does not heal hit point damage or ability damage that night while resting, she may still regain spells thoughI'm not really sure why this is a capstone or why it has a cost associated with it. Adding +/- 1 to the roll will change the result on the new chart, yes, but there's no real reason to use it, unless the roll is a 3, 7, or 9. On a 3, because you don't want him to act. On a 7 or 9, because you really wanted an 8. The fact that this can only be done once per spell is also pretty weak.


Overall, I have one HUGE complaint about this class. If it encounters a creature immune to [mind-affecting], then his entire class is totally worthless.


1If you will allow me, I'd like to offer some suggestions on how to change things.

Prereqs
Drop the Wis damage.
Add Knowledge (the planes) 8 ranks

Class Skills
Add Knowledge (the planes)

Spellcasting Progression
Lose a casting level at 1st level.
Get increased casting progression at 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th.

1st Level
Fine as is, assuming the above spellcasting change.

2nd Level
Gain ability to affect creatures immune to mind-affecting abilities, though perhaps at a penalty.

3rd Level
Confusion in the Blood ability
Improved Confusion ability

4th Level
Confusion Gate ability - Change duration to 1 + Cha mod rounds? Remove the ability to enter Pandemonium, because that makes it a "try to banish all my enemies" ability. Place some sort of restrictions on where and how the gate can open. Give it some sort of area effect ability reflecting chaos and madness (random roll modifiers, save DC increases, or something else). Hell, give it 4 or 5 abilities and make the insanomancer roll to see what happens. It is chaotic after all.

Improved version of 2nd level ability (assuming a penalty was given at that level).

5th Level
Controlled Confusion ability with the following changes.
Remove the health penalty and tie the restriction to Confusion Gate. While a Confusion Gate is active, any confusion rolls caused by spells he casts must be rolled twice, and the insanomancer gets to pick which of the two results is used. This applies to all such rolls made while the gate is open, even if the spell was cast before the gate was opened. If he focuses as an immediate action, he may force a 3rd die roll on one such ability and add that to his choices.
Additionally, he may choose the area effect of the Confusion Gate (assuming such exists, see above).

[inuyasha]

thank you so much :) I will work on changing some things, and I will definantly think about confusion gate. Should I make this a full casting PrC? Im not quite sure if thats what you want or dont want?