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Lanaya
2013-10-28, 11:40 PM
This is my attempt to put the warmage roughly on par with the beguiler and dread necromancer, a solid, specialised caster with some unique and interesting abilities. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Warmage
https://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/cc20050906a_85425_med.jpg

Alignment: Any.

Starting Gold: 6d4x10 gp (150 gp).

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|0th|1st|2nd|3rd|4t h|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th
1st|+0|+2|+2|+0|Armoured mage (light), warmage edge, Still Spell|4|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
2nd|+1|+3|+3|+0|Reactive warding 1/day|5|3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
3rd|+2|+3|+3|+1|Advanced learning|5|3|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
4th|+3|+4|+4|+1|Energy Substitution|5|4|3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
5th|+3|+4|+4|+1|Reactive warding 2/day |5|4|3|2|-|-|-|-|-|-
6th|+4|+5|+5|+2|Improvised Healing|5|4|4|3|-|-|-|-|-|-
7th|+5|+5|+5|+2|Widen Spell, advanced learning|5|5|4|3|2|-|-|-|-|-
8th|+6/+1|+6|+6|+2|Armoured mage (medium), reactive warding 3/day |5|5|4|4|3|-|-|-|-|-
9th|+6/+1|+6|+6|+3|-|5|5|5|4|3|2|-|-|-|-
10th|+7/+2|+7|+7|+3|Maximise Spell|5|5|5|4|4|3|-|-|-|-
11th|+8/+3|+7|+7|+3|Advanced learning, reactive warding 4/day |5|5|5|5|4|3|2|-|-|-
12th|+9/+4|+8|+8|+4|Overwhelm|5|5|5|5|4|4|3|-|-|-
13th|+9/+4|+8|+8|+4|-|5|5|5|5|5|4|3|2|-|-
14th|+10/+5|+9|+9|+4|Twin Spell, reactive warding 5/day |5|5|5|5|5|4|4|3|-|-
15th|+11/+6/+1|+9|+9|+5|Advanced learning|5|5|5|5|5|5|4|3|2|-
16th|+12/+7/+2|+10|+10|+5|Armoured mage (heavy)|5|5|5|5|5|5|4|4|3|-
17th|+12/+7/+2|+10|+10|+5|Reactive warding 6/day |5|5|5|5|5|5|5|4|3|2
18th|+13/+8/+3|+11|+11|+6|Quicken Spell|5|5|5|5|5|5|5|4|4|3
19th|+14/+9/+4|+11|+11|+6|Retribution, advanced learning|5|5|5|5|5|5|5|5|4|4
20th|+15/+10/+5|+12|+12|+6|Warmaster, reactive warding 7/day |5|5|5|5|5|5|5|5|5|5
[/table]

Hit Die: d8

Class Skills:
The warmage’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (architecture and engineering) (Int), Knowledge (history) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis) and Tumble (Dex).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Warmages are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light and medium armour, and shields (except tower shields).

Spells
A warmage casts arcane spells, which are drawn from the warmage spell list given below. He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time in the same way as a sorcerer. When a warmage gains access to a new level of spells, he automatically knows all the spells for that level listed on the warmage’s spell list. Essentially, his spell list is the same as his spells known list. Warmages also have the option of adding to their existing spell list through their advanced learning ability as they increase in level (see below).
To cast a spell, a warmage must have a Charisma score of 10 + the spell’s level (Cha 10 for 0-level spells, Cha 11 for 1st level spells, and so forth). The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a warmage’s spell is 10 + the spell’s level + the warmage’s Charisma modifi er. Like other spellcasters, a warmage can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on the table above. In addition, he receives bonus spells for a high Charisma score.

Armoured Mage (Ex)
During their extensive training, a warmage is taught how to perform the arcane gestures used in casting spells while encumbered by armour. At 1st level, you can cast warmage spells without incurring an arcane spell failure chance as long as you wear only light armour or shields (although you still need one free hand in order to cast spells at all).
At 8th level, a warmage learns to use medium armour and shields with no chance of arcane spell failure.
At 16th level, you learn how to use heavy armour and tower shields with no chance of arcane spell failure.

Warmage Edge (Ex)
Warmages are metamagic experts, compensating for the lack of diversity in the spells they have access to by altering those spells on the fly to better suit their situation. Unlike other spellcasters who spontaneously cast their spells, a warmage who adds a metamagic effect to a spell he casts does not increase that spell’s casting time. Furthermore, as you gain levels, you receive a number of bonus metamagic feats. A number of times per day equal to your Intelligence bonus, you may apply a metamagic feat you have gained with your warmage edge to a spell as you cast it without increasing the level of the spell.
At 1st level, a warmage gains Still Spell as a bonus feat.
At 4th level, a warmage gains any two Energy Substitutions as bonus feats.
At 7th level, a warmage gains Widen Spell as a bonus feat.
At 10th level, a warmage gains Maximise Spell as a bonus feat.
At 13th level, a warmage gains Twin Spell as a bonus feat.
At 16th level, a warmage gains Quicken Spell as a bonus feat.

Reactive Warding (Su)
At 2nd level, a warmage gains the ability to throw up defenses against enemy spellcasting with but a moment’s warning. Once per day, plus an additional time per day for every 3 warmage levels attained after 2nd, as an immediate action, you can grant up to one ally per point of Intelligence bonus (minimum 1) spell resistance equal to 10 + your class level against the next spell that would affect them, providing that spell affects them during the round in which the reactive warding was used.

Advanced Learning
At 3rd level, you can add a new spell to your spell list. This spell must be a sorcerer/wizard spell of the evocation or conjuration school, and of a level no higher than the highest level spell you already know. Once this spell is selected, it is forever added to your spell list and can be cast just like any other spell on your list.
You gain another new spell at 7th, 11th, 15th and 19th levels.

Improvised Healing (Su)
A 6th level warmage learns how to use their arcane powers to perform quick and dirty battlefield healing when necessary. As a move action, you can expend a spell of any level that you have remaining to cast today in order to heal a touched target a number of hit points equal to the level of the expended spell plus your Intelligence modifier, if positive.

Overwhelm (Ex)
A 12th level warmage can crush any defence by simply blasting with magic it until it shatters. Whenever you cast a spell on a creature with spell resistance, you gain a bonus on his roll to penetrate its spell resistance equal to twice the number of spells you have cast on that creature previously in the last 24 hours, whether those spells successfully penetrated the creature’s spell resistance or not.

Retribution (Ex)
Once per day, after taking damage from an attack or spell, a 19th level warmage can cast a spell as an immediate action. That spell must target the source of the attack or spell which damaged him.

Warmaster (Ex)
Upon attaining 20th level, a warmage has learned true mastery of destructive magic. At the beginning of each day, choose one evocation spell of each level from the warmage spell list (spells gained through the advanced learning class feature do not qualify). For the remainder of that day, you may cast each of these spells any number of times. They do not count towards the number of spells you have used that day.

Warmage Spell List
0 Level: Acid splash, daze, detect magic, disrupt undead, ray of frost, touch of fatigue.
1st Level: Burning hands, chill touch, enlarge person, fist of stone, hail of stone, magic missile, lesser orb of acid, lesser orb of cold, lesser orb of electricity, lesser orb of fire, lesser orb of sound, magic weapon, ray of enfeeblement, shocking grasp, summon monster I, true strike.
2nd Level: Bear’s endurance, blades of fire, bull’s strength, cat’s grace, fireburst, flaming sphere, ice knife, Melf’s acid arrow, mirror image, protection from arrows, pyrotechnics, scorching ray, shatter, summon monster II, whirling blade.
3rd Level: Dispel magic, fire shield, fireball, flame arrow, gust of wind, haste, heroism, ice storm, lightning bolt, greater magic weapon, ring of blades, sleet storm, stinking cloud, summon monster III, wind wall.
4th Level: Blast of flame, mass enlarge person, Evard’s black tentacles, fear, orb of acid, orb of cold, orb of electricity, orb of fire, orb of force, orb of sound, phantasmal killer, shout, summon monster IV, wall of fire.
5th Level: Arc lightning, Bigby’s interposing hand, cloudkill, cone of cold, mass fire shield, greater fireburst, flame strike, prismatic ray, summon monster V, wall of force, waves of fatigue.
6th Level: Acid fog, mass bear’s endurance, Bigby’s forceful hand, blade barrier, mass bull’s strength, mass cat’s grace, chain lightning, circle of death, disintegrate, fire seeds, greater heroism, Otiluke’s freezing sphere, summon monster VI, undeath to death.
7th Level: Bigby’s grasping hand, delayed blast fireball, earthquake, finger of death, fire storm, Mordenkainen’s sword, prismatic spray, reverse gravity, spell turning, summon monster VII, sunbeam, waves of exhaustion.
8th Level: Bigby’s clenched fist, horrid wilting, incendiary cloud, polar ray, prismatic wall, scintillating pattern, greater shout, summon monster VIII, sunburst.
9th Level: Bigby’s crushing hand, elemental swarm, energy drain, implosion, meteor swarm, power word kill, prismatic sphere, summon monster IX, time stop, wail of the banshee, weird.

Haldir
2013-10-29, 12:06 AM
Overall I am very fond of this rework, the free metamagic feats would certainly make this a viable option for mundanes trying to get into spellcasting PrC's. My only criticism is that the mechanics for determining the number of uses of Reacting Warding seems clunky.

bobthe6th
2013-10-29, 10:53 AM
I like the edge feats except for still spell. That could deffinetly be empower spell. Otherwise the first one to give an edge on damage is level 10... which is really sad.

This could use some form of flight, even a level or two above the normal level.

Also, why not make advanced learning any spell? They get 5 of them so... you know... Not a massive effect on power level.

Lanaya
2013-10-30, 11:58 PM
I like the edge feats except for still spell. That could deffinetly be empower spell. Otherwise the first one to give an edge on damage is level 10... which is really sad.

This could use some form of flight, even a level or two above the normal level.

Also, why not make advanced learning any spell? They get 5 of them so... you know... Not a massive effect on power level.

I was considering empower, decided against it because it might be a bit strong at early levels, but then, it's not that big a deal, is it. Might swap out Still for Empower, then. Flight can be achieved by summoning a monster to carry you if necessary, so it's available, but having spells dedicated to flight seems against the concept of a warmage to me. In a big battle between armies, having your valuable spellcasters floating above the rest of your troops seems an excellent way to lose them all and promptly get massacred.

As for access to any advanced learning spell, I'm planning on making specialised caster classes that only get spells of one general type, so beguiler, dread necromancer, warmage and a few new classes that cast spells of one or two other schools. Allowing warmages to pick any spell doesn't fit in with that philosophy. However, I agree that it would be perfectly fine in a regular D&D game that doesn't have restricted spellcasters as the norm.

Zman
2013-12-06, 10:45 PM
Honestly, I'm not a fan of this fix. It's hard to put my finger on it but it doesn't feel like it flows well or really captures the Essenes of a blaster Mage.

Here is what I did for my Warmage Fix, note Ir emotes 9th level casting from all of my casters, you certainly could add them back in.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14558304#post14558304

nonsi
2013-12-07, 10:07 AM
I really like Overwhelm. It's original and very thematic.

If I ever compile a Warmage remake, this one goes in there for certain.