PDA

View Full Version : Champion of the Mystic Fire[PrC]



Xerlith
2013-07-20, 05:52 PM
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081001070752/forgottenrealms/images/f/f0/4e_paladin.jpg
Champion of the Mystic Fire

Among the paladins of Mystra there are some that seek to protect the purity of the Weave at any cost. Those select few undergo special training that enables them to attune their very essence to the Weave and, with Mystra's blessing, unleash arcane wrath unto those who misuse her gifts.



Requirements:
Alignment: Lawful Good
Skills: Spellcraft 9 ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 4 ranks, Concentration 3 ranks
Special: Spellshatter ability.
Special: Must worship Mystra.

Hit Die: d8
Class Skills (4+Int Skill Points per level): Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Knowledge (History) (Int), Knowledge (Religion) (int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Use Magic Device (Cha)


{table=head]Level|BAB |Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Spellcasting
1|+1|+2|+0|+2|Arcane Vision, Read Magic, Spellgifts|+1 Paladin level
2|+2|+3|+0|+3| Smite Evil 2/day, Attunements|+2 Paladin levels
3|+3|+3|+1|+3|Spellshatter 2/day|+1 Paladin level
4|+4|+4|+1|+4|Mystra's Boon|+2 Paladin levels
5|+5|+4|+1|+4|Smite Evil 3/day|+1 Paladin level
6|+6|+5|+2|+5|Spellshatter 3/day|+2 Paladin levels
7|+7|+5|+2|+5|Unweave|+1 Paladin level
8|+8|+6|+2|+6|Smite Evil 4/day|+2 Paladin levels
9|+9|+6|+3|+6|Spellshatter 4/day|+1 Paladin level
10|+10|+7|+3|+7|Spellwoven|+2 Paladin levels[/table]


{table=head]Level|Spellgifts Known|Max. Spellgift level|Attunements prepared
1|2|1|-
2|3|2|1
3|4|3|1
4|5|3|2
5|6|4|2
6|7|4|2
7|8|5|3
8|9|5|3
9|10|6|3
10|11|6|4[/table]


Class Features:

Weapon and armor proficiency: Champion of the Mystic Fire are proficient with all armor, all simple and martial weapons, bucklers, light and heavy shields and shurikens.

Spellcasting: At each odd level you gain new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if you had also gained a level in the Paladin class.
At each even level you gain new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if you gained two levels in the Paladin class.

In both cases you do not, however, gain any other benefit a Paladin would gain.

You add your full class level to your paladin caster level.

Arcane Vision (Su): Beginning at 1st level, you are under a constant effect of the Arcane Sight spell, which you may suppress as a free action.

Read Magic (Sp): At 1st level, you gain the ability to use read magic at will.

Spellgifts (Sp): You learn a small number of spells from the wizard/sorcerer spell list, from the schools of Conjuration, Divination, Abjuration and Transmutation and with a casting time no longer than a standard action.
You do not have to prepare them and you do not expend them, however you cannot cast them normally.
Instead, whenever someone casts a spell in your vicinity (in a distance no further than 20ft/your class level) you may spend an immediate action to gather lingering arcane energies, which lets you cast a Spellgift in the following round.
Spellgifts are spell-like abilities and as such are not subject to the Arcane Spell Failure.
You must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level to cast it.
The DC of those spells is equal to 10+the spell's level + your Charisma modifier.
Your caster level for those spells equals your Paladin caster level +2.
Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even-numbered level after that (6th, 8th and 10th), you can choose to learn a new spellgift in place of one you already know. In effect, you lose the old spellgift in exchange for the new one. You can choose a new spellgift of any level you like, as long as you observe your restriction on the highest-level spellgifts you know; you need not replace the old spell with a spell of the same level.

Attunements: At second level you become able to adapt yourself to the Weave better, harmonizing your abilities in a certain way, which effectively lets you forgo a part of your abilities in exchange for other.
Every Attunement has a requirement for it to be chosen.
Preparing an Attunement requires a sacrifice listed in its description.
This sacrifice cannot be avoided in any way, is made when the Attunement is chosen and lasts as long as it remains prepared. If the sacrifice cannot be made, the Attunement is not granted.
You may change or abandon all of your chosen Blessings once per day, when praying for spells.
If two different Attunements require the same sacrifice, you only make it once.
The Attunements that modify spells work only with your Paladin spells and your Spellgifts unless stated otherwise.
Although it uses the term "prepared", the Attunement is not expended upon use.
All Attunements are supernatural abilities.

Smite Evil (Su): At 2nd level, and again at 5th and 8th level, you gain another use of Smite Evil. For the purpose of determining Smite Evil damage, your Champion and Paladin levels stack.
The damage this Smite deals is considered force damage and is not subject to any damage resistance.
If the target of the Smite is an evil arcane spellcaster, your smite damage is doubled.

Spellshatter(Su): At 3rd level, and again at 6th and 9th level, a Champion of the Mystic Fire gains an additional use of the Spellshatter ability per day.
It is a targeted greater dispel magic effect made with a melee attack made as a standard action.
The decision to use this ability must be made before the attack is rolled; if the attack misses, the effect is wasted.
If the attack hits, treat it as if the Champion of the Mystic Fire had cast a targeted greater dispel magic on the creature struck, using the sum of his paladin and Champion of the Mystic Fire levels (plus any arcane caster level she might have from another class) as her caster level, up to a maximum of +20.

Mystra's Boon (Su): Beginning at 4th level, for the purpose of activating magical items you are treated as a sorcerer of a level equal to the sum of your paladin + Champion of the Mystic Fire levels.

Unweave (Su): At 7th level you gain ability to counter spells cast in your vicinity.
As an immediate action you expend one of your daily Spellshatter uses. This functions as though you had readied an action to counter with a Dispel effect.

Spellwoven (Ex): At 10th level you are treated as an Outsider (Native) whenever that would be more beneficial to you and gain Spell Resistance equal to 15+your charisma modifier +1/2 your Paladin caster level.
You may also use your Spellgifts 3+your Cha modifier times per day (minimum 1) without depending on nearby spells. Time of casting a Spellgift in such a way equals the original spell's casting time.

Attunements list:

Smiting Counterspell:
As you see the enemy wizard finish weaving his spell, you unleash a precise counter. The fireball flying at you suddenly deflects and strikes its caster at your beckoning.

When you counterspell a spell with your Unweave ability, you may expend a Smite attempt. If you do, it is turned back upon the caster as if it were fully affected by a spell turning spell, except this ability works on area and ranged touch spells. If the spell cannot be affected that way, then it is merely counterspelled.
You need to have the Unweave class ability to choose this Attunement.


Reweave: You gain ability to reshape the spells cast in your vicinity.
By expending a paladin spell slot as an immediate action you may heighten or diminish the caster level of a spell being cast in a radius of 30ft around you by the expended slot's level. This cannot be in any way used on spells you cast yourself.
You must be able to cast 4th level paladin spells to choose this Attunement. It costs you one of your 4th level Paladin slots.


Reshape:

You can alter any hostile or friendly spell that uses one of the following shapes: burst, cone, cylinder, emanation, or spread upon the time of its casting. The spell's effect must be centered no further than 40ft from you. The alteration consists of creating spaces within the spell’s area or effect that are not subject to the spell. The minimum dimension for these spaces is a 5-foot cube. The maximum number of 5ft cubical spaces affected this way is equal to your Charisma modifier.
To affect a hostile spell you must make a Spellcraft check against the spell level+the spell's caster level. If you fail, the spell affects the area as normal.
To choose this Attunement you must have Spellcraft score equal or higher than 15. This diminishes your Caster Level by two.

Spellfire:
After a short concentration your hands set ablaze. With a thrust of a hand you blast your enemies with pure arcane energies.
You can convert your spells into spellfire blasts that deal damage. As a standard action, you can convert a single Paladin spell slot into a ranged touch attack (maximum range 400 feet) that deals 1d6 points of damage per your class level plus 2d6 points of damage per level of the spell used to create the effect. Spellfire damage is half fire damage and half raw magical power; creatures with immunity or resistance to fire apply this effect only to half the damage.
You must have the Mystra's Boon ability to choose this Attunement. As handling the powers of Spellfire is straining and demanding, this counts as two arcana per day.

Sunder Magic:
You have learned, basing on the Spellshater's principle, how to imbue your weapon with lasting magic-disrupting energies to hamper those, who use magic with foul intentions. Every blow you make disturbs the flow of the enemy caster's magic, causing it to backlash violently at them.

Any weapon you hold gains the Bane (Evil Spellcasters) property. Ranged weapons bestow this property upon their ammunition.
Furthermore, whenever you Smite an evil spellcaster while under benefits of this Attunement, they must make a Will save (DC equal to 10+your Champion level+your Charisma modifier) or lose a random spell slot of each spell level they possess, expending it for the day. For each spell slot lost this way, that creature takes additonal 1 point of damage per spell level of the slot lost.
To choose this Attunement you must be able to cast 3rd level Paladin spells. This Attunement costs you one of your daily Spellshatter attempts.

Follow The Thread:
You are bound to the Weave in many incomprehensible ways. You are able to trace the weakest strands of spells cast to travel to their point of origin. However, by focusing your mind on the slightest movements of the Weave you cannot focus yourself on countering spells directly

Whenever there's a spell being cast no further than 200 feet from you, if you are aware of the casting, you may as an immediate action teleport adjacent to the spell's caster as if you were subject to a Dimension Door spell of a caster level equal to your Paladin caster level. You may, immediately upon appearing, take an attack of opportunity if the caster doesn't cast defensively.
To choose this Attunement you must possess the Spellwoven class feature. This costs you your Unweave ability.

__________________________________________________ __________
TO DO list:
Moar blessings
Balance Done here, I guess.

__________________________________________________ __________
CHANGELOG:

2013-07-23
1st level:

Changed Detect Magic at will for a constant Arcane Sight effect.

Blessings - changed name to Attunements:

Changed Smiting Counterspell's sacrifice of Smite Evil into a trigger by expending.
Mage's Disruption now costs one Spellshatter attempt instead of two and a Smite Evil attempt.
Spellfire doesn't sacrifice the Unweave now and is 1d6/lvl instead 1d6/2 levels.
Reshape's caster level reduction is now -2 (from -3).

Palanan
2013-07-20, 08:25 PM
I've never seen a PrC that advances more than one casting level in a single jump. Not sure what to make of it, especially since it doesn't seem to be mentioned in the text.

"...as if you had also gained a level in the Paladin class," is the wording here--and I think by definition gaining one paladin level can't jump you two levels in spellcasting. I assume your table is the effect you're aiming for, so this might need some clarification in the text portion.

Xerlith
2013-07-21, 01:45 AM
Yes, it was intended to be a 15/10 casting class.
The reasoning is simple - the Paladin's casting is weak. Doesn't even really matter in the game and comes really late into the play.
This, as a Mystra-flavored class, puts an emphasis on spellcasting - so why not give it an accelerated progression, since it is not even close to the level of, say, Wizard or Cleric spells being progressed that way.

And the written description is nothing more than my overlook.

toapat
2013-07-21, 11:22 AM
Mystra can have paladins of Any good or Any lawful alignment.

quite hilarious when you realize her Knights of the Mystic Fire allow for Paladins of Freedom and Paladins of Tyranny.


Also, actually this makes paladin able to attain 25 casterlevels.

Xerlith
2013-07-21, 11:28 AM
Also, actually this makes paladin able to attain 25 casterlevels.
Actually, doesn't.

The spellcasting as shown on the table doesn't give you two actual caster levels. It only hastens your spells known & spells/day progression. The caster level description is written lower - and sounds straightforward:

"You add your full class level to your paladin caster level."

I'm more worried about what can be done with Spellgifts if I left a loophole somewhere there.
The paladin CAN take the casting progression over 20th level but it actually does nothing. And his caster level still equals 1/2 his paladin level +2 + Champion level + anything else he chose to progress his caster level.

Should I add a disclaimer about caster level never being able to go higher than the character level?

toapat
2013-07-21, 11:37 AM
Actually, doesn't.

The spellcasting as shown on the table doesn't give you two actual caster levels. It only hastens your spells known & spells/day progression. The caster level disclaimer is lower - and sounds straightforward:

"You add your full class level to your paladin caster level."

I'm more worried about what can be done with Spellgifts if I left a loophole somewhere there.

Paladin spellcasting is only gained every other level, not every level. Make it a 20/10 progression and you wouldnt be adding power, just missing casterlevels and ironing out the brain pretzel that paladin casting does on non-linear progressions

Spellgifts are mostly balanced, compared to what i did on my last paladin brew where i gave paladins the option to just use any spell of upto 4th level if they can get a Sorc/FVS scroll of it

Xerlith
2013-07-21, 11:53 AM
Well, as shown on the paladin table, the spell progression is every level - he just gains the spells veeeery slowly.
20/10 casting would be too fast. 15/10 casting lets you cast as a 20th lvl paladin at 16th level. So it's good.


Through 3rd level, a paladin has no caster level. At 4th level and higher, her caster level is one-half her paladin level.

Sometime in the future I am going to get around to fixing the base class soon, while keeping the paladin-ish and ranger-ish casting.

toapat
2013-07-21, 01:12 PM
Well, as shown on the paladin table, the spell progression is every level - he just gains the spells veeeery slowly.
20/10 casting would be too fast. 15/10 casting lets you cast as a 20th lvl paladin at 16th level. So it's good.

not really.

first of all, theres the fact that, as i said, paladin casting is 1/2 speed, and clearly visible as such, having no progression on odd levels at all.

doubling the rate of additional spells doesnt even get 4th level spells before other classes would have 6th level spells (which are where things like Glory of the Martyr is power wise) The entire point is to get them a casterlevel relevant to using those spells.

Xerlith
2013-07-21, 02:05 PM
This might be just me having a brain fart, but...
Let me get this straight - A generic paladin build, using all 3 levels of Mystic Fire Knight ACF:
paladin 6/CotMF 10 has:
Spells per day as 21th level paladin.
Caster level 15 (3 [paladin] +2 [4th level ACF's ability] + 10 [CotMF])

It gains access to 2nd level spells at 8th, 3rd at 10, 4th at 12th.

Bards get their 4s at 10th.

It's not too fast, still ridiculously weak. I know - but the spells are NOT and should not be the main point of the Paladin class.
I think the best way of fixing this would be actually giving this class its own spell progression, along the lines of KotW or Suel Arcanamach.
But would that be still a paladin PrC?
Edit: In fact, Spellgifts do pretty much this - give a small, set list of spells. Neverending, to boot. Ask your party wizard to cast a cantrip, buff away...

Also, the spell slots are mostly meant to power some Spellgifts when I come around to writing them up. Any suggestions on those will be also warmly welcome.


Spellgifts are mostly balanced, compared to what i did on my last paladin brew where i gave paladins the option to just use any spell of upto 4th level if they can get a Sorc/FVS scroll of it

Well, the Knight of the Arcane Order feat does something very similar. ;x

EDIT: I gave it some thought. I may give the Paladin 20/10 casting and add a Spellcasting disclaimer that when it reaches 20th level Paladin casting (which would be at pal6/CotMF7 at the earliest) it gains access to 5th (I'm _reaaally reluctant to give a full BAB, ability-heavy class 6th, since it has Spellgifts already) level spells from a short, additional list of spells cherry-picked from the Cleric's spellbook.

toapat
2013-07-21, 07:26 PM
This might be just me having a brain fart, but...
Let me get this straight - A generic paladin build, using all 3 levels of Mystic Fire Knight ACF:
paladin 6/CotMF 10 has:
Spells per day as 21th level paladin.
Caster level 15 (3 [paladin] +2 [4th level ACF's ability] + 10 [CotMF])

It gains access to 2nd level spells at 8th, 3rd at 10, 4th at 12th.

Bards get their 4s at 10th.

It's not too fast, still ridiculously weak. I know - but the spells are NOT and should not be the main point of the Paladin class.
I think the best way of fixing this would be actually giving this class its own spell progression, along the lines of KotW or Suel Arcanamach.
But would that be still a paladin PrC?
Edit: In fact, Spellgifts do pretty much this - give a small, set list of spells. Neverending, to boot. Ask your party wizard to cast a cantrip, buff away...

Also, the spell slots are mostly meant to power some Spellgifts when I come around to writing them up. Any suggestions on those will be also warmly welcome.



Well, the Knight of the Arcane Order feat does something very similar. ;x

EDIT: I gave it some thought. I may give the Paladin 20/10 casting and add a Spellcasting disclaimer that when it reaches 20th level Paladin casting (which would be at pal6/CotMF7 at the earliest) it gains access to 5th (I'm _reaaally reluctant to give a full BAB, ability-heavy class 6th, since it has Spellgifts already) level spells from a short, additional list of spells cherry-picked from the Cleric's spellbook.

Expanding the paladin spell-list is more a hastle then a solution, and in fact should be dealt with by fixing their list, basic rule of thumb is that a paladin's spells are equivalent to a fullcasters spells of level (Paladin slot level*2 -1)

and no, the point of paladin is that they are the strongest Support class in the game other then bard, assuming the content is allowed.

Xerlith
2013-07-22, 03:57 AM
Then I really can't see any other way of fixing paladin spellcasting (If it even needs fixing) except completely reworking the class (on my to-do list, actually. Somewhere far).

Xefas
2013-07-22, 08:35 PM
I've got two cents! 2¢ coming right up, in list form.

Good Things!
-A prestige class based on an alternate class feature? Neat! It's not something I see very often, and there are a lot of alternate class features out there that, while interesting, don't have much support. It would be cool to see more of these in the playground, especially for some of the less used/more maligned options out there, that spruces them up and makes them awesome.

-Weird spellcasting progression! Is this good? I don't know. But it's interesting! I don't think I've ever seen this kind of thing before, so regardless of whether it's a good idea, it's at least unique. I'm already trying to think of other cool things someone could do with irregular subsystem progression.

Neutral Things!
-It's weird that a class themed around a particular religion, and a religious class, does not have Knowledge (Religion) as a class skill. Not to mention Knowledge (Local), which covers the humanoid spellcasters that one would presumably encounter.

-I think it'd be a neat little trick if, instead of having the ability to cast Detect Magic at will, they just had a constant, passive effect that did not require an action to concentrate on, which duplicated Detect Magic. So, over three rounds, they would just gradually, innately, see all the magic around them, even while in the middle of a fight.

Bad Things!
-You say you're going to add fluff, but it still counts as bad until you do :smalltongue:. Particularly, I want to know what Arcane Blessings and Unweave look like! As well as flavor on the spiritual/religious significance of Spellgifts and Arcane Blessings.

-Double punishment on the Arcane Blessings. What?! You just gave me all these cool class features, and now I have to give them up for the privilege of paying another resource to activate them? And I still get a restricted selection of blessings to begin with? I get the feeling that would be really frustrating to play. But, more so, I think this may be a situation of over-cautious balancing. Look at "Spellfire". It costs two of your Blessings, your Unweave class feature, and a spell, for... what? At best, a standard action ranged touch attack that deals 13d6 out of a 4th level spell slot (of which you have few), at 16th level? ~woooo. The arcane spellcasters you're supposedly hunting take more cataclysmic dumps than that.

And, so as not to end on a bad note:
-Props for the little detail of "...treated as an Outsider (Native) whenever that would be more beneficial to you...". I like that a lot.

Xerlith
2013-07-23, 06:06 AM
Thanks for evaluating! As for good things, well... Thanks.

The neutral ones:
- My overseeing about the Knowledges, I'll just add them to the skills list.
- It would be neat, but it might be a little Mary Sue-ish.
And, you know, I might then just give them a constant, supernatural Arcane Sight effect with the ability to suppress it as a free action, since it's basically the same then. Also, badass blue eye glow. Okay, now I'm fully for it.

And then, the bad things...

Fluff will be added shortly, I promise. :smalltongue: I'm currently struggling a bit with writing it so it's consitent and fun.

About the Arcane Blessings - here I'd like someone helped me and went over them one by one, since I'm obviously biased. I might drop the requirement of sacrifices, but I wanted it to be like this - a tradeoff.
I'm getting a bit more offensive options? Then I'll have to forgo some of my defense.
As you said, I might be overcautious here, but I didn't want this class to be THE paladin class, the One to rule them all and stuff. Maybe I'll really make the sacrifices smaller. Like, much, much smaller. Those are blessings, not transactions after all.
EDIT: Then again, i had an epiphany. I'll call them "attunements" and go in-depth in flavor as for why it works this way. Simpleh.

toapat
2013-07-24, 12:29 AM
-Weird spellcasting progression! Is this good? I don't know. But it's interesting! I don't think I've ever seen this kind of thing before, so regardless of whether it's a good idea, it's at least unique. I'm already trying to think of other cool things someone could do with irregular subsystem progression.

as is it would be fine, primarily because its blocked from anything but paladin, who have weak spellcasting at base


- It would be neat, but it might be a little Mary Sue-ish.
And, you know, I might then just give them a constant, supernatural Arcane Sight effect with the ability to suppress it as a free action, since it's basically the same then. Also, badass blue eye glow. Okay, now I'm fully for it.

Do it, i think actually the other Paladin ACF that deals with the Weave gets perma sight

Xerlith
2013-07-24, 01:30 AM
Done and done. I added a changelog. Also, I've finally gotten to writing the flavor descriptions.

Still have no idea for Attunements, except an OP "pick any one ability of a class that requires spellcasting to enter as if 1/2 your level was a level of that class" one, which is plain bad because it's too good. And stuff.