Best class for sudden development of magical abilities?

[flamewolf393]

I am playing an artificer a game where we started in a completely mundane early industrial tech world. We crossed over to the magic world through a portal and I wanted a way to explain suddenly gaining magical powers, or at least just enough to explain powering further magic-tech artificer abilities. Me and the dm were thinking the best way to explain this would be by level dipping a spontaenous/wilder type casting class. Which is the best for explaining suddenly appearing magic abilities? I have the stats to support a few levels in any caster class, though Int is my highest.

Oh, and I am a gnome that has some ancient tie to the magic world from when my ancestors crossed over. Also, dont plan to take more than the single level, so it does not even need to be that usefull. Just needs good fluff.

[Radar]

Tough choice really, since it all depends on the kind of flavor you want. I'd probably say, that sudden emergence of talent would imply a spontaneous type of caster, so:

Beguiler - basicaly an illusionist with a splash of a rogue. Sneaky, resourceful and subtle. Trapfinding might come in handy.
Wilder - psionic character bending reality with sheer passion.
Warmage - sometimes you simply want to see the world burn.
Sorcerer - vanilla spontaneous caster. Reflavor with whatever fluff you want.
Warlock - an interesting choice, since it might represent an individual, who is inherently filled with magic and yet didn't have the opportunity to learn how to shape it. Yes, the basic fluff revolves around demonic pacts, but it doesn't have to be like that.
Dragonfire Adept - a similar concept as the warlock, yet without the evil pact. It has the added weirdness factor, that you spew fire at will.


Aside from that, you could simply take a feat like Magical Training or Psionic Talent instead. There would be a slight problem with the requirements, but IMO it could be negotiated with the GM.

[holywhippet]

There's also the bard who has both spells and songs for magic. Handy because they are fairly versatile with the types of spells they can cast.

[Zweisteine]

Well, sorceror is explicitly fluffed as natural magical ability. When that appears above first level, it's spontaneous manifested natural magical ability. Of course, if your highest stat is intelligence, that might not work as well (unless you also have high charisma).

Beguiler might be ideal, as an intelligence-based spontaneous caster. I don't know their normal fluff, but you could just re-fluff them to be like sorcerers, with. The Gnome penchant for illusion makes Beguiler an even better choice.

[flamewolf393]

... Now I am thinking duskblade XD. I like that it has cantrips as a class ability. Fluffs well for sudden development.

[HaikenEdge]

I'd suggest warlock, taking invocations that don't require Charisma, and backstorying the character with something like having ancestors from the magical world who made pacts with demons, only for the ancestor's descendant fleeing said magical world to escape the clutches of said demons.

[Zanfire]

Gnomes get racial SLA's did you remove them for fluff when you started? There's a few feets that can get you improved or additional racial SLAs around. It might be less of an investment to take a feet than spend a class level for no true mechanical benefit, unless that's entirely your point?

Or a dip with tons of versitial mechanical benefits (even with a single level) spontaneous cloistered cleric variant? Arcane isn't the only type of magic blocked in a dead magic plane, having crossed to a plane where the gods can reach you, your ancestral link to their magic has been reawakened?

[asthesunfails]

A Favored Soul popped into my head at this. The fluff is rather vague on how a Favored Soul comes about, whether it be through a divine heritage, divine training or simply being given power. Obviously the second one wouldn't work, the third sounds like a cop out and the first makes me most sense. But regardless, the thing I'm looking at it that Favored Souls have an instinctive knowledge of their divine power, and their method of getting spells is like a sorcerer's where they simply know them. They don't have to pray like a cleric does. Of course this will require a story behind it, but I personally am a big fan stories.

In general, spontaneous casters are your best go for sudden development of magical abilities because of the correlation between spontaneous and sudden.

[flamewolf393]

Gnomes get racial SLA's did you remove them for fluff when you started? There's a few feets that can get you improved or additional racial SLAs around. It might be less of an investment to take a feet than spend a class level for no true mechanical benefit, unless that's entirely your point?

Or a dip with tons of versitial mechanical benefits (even with a single level) spontaneous cloistered cleric variant? Arcane isn't the only type of magic blocked in a dead magic plane, having crossed to a plane where the gods can reach you, your ancestral link to their magic has been reawakened?

I removed the SLA's for the master tinker alternate racial feature. Also, the way this particular game setting works, there are no actual gods. So things that require direct divine sponsorship wont work.

[Rebel7284]

you could always go for a fast progression prestige class. Ur Priest and Sublime Chord come to mind.

[Maginomicon]

Given that you went through a portal to get there, any class with any sort of fluff is going to present thematic problems for you, particularly since you're offworlders that never had magic before.

So, I'd say go with a generic spellcaster (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/genericClasses.htm). Say what you will about how powerful/gimped it is compared to other casters, but the OP should consider the fact that literally anyone in the party can take levels in it and make wildly different spell choices from everyone else and still remain a viable asset compared to the rest of the party, especially if lots of the NPCs and monsters with class levels choose generic spellcaster instead of a more specialized caster class. Even if you're the only creature in the new magic world with generic spellcaster levels, if anything it would make more thematic sense for you as an offworlder to have a "bizarre"/"unnatural" caster class compared to the natives.

[kpumphre]

Warlock - an interesting choice, since it might represent an individual, who is inherently filled with magic and yet didn't have the opportunity to learn how to shape it. Yes, the basic fluff revolves around demonic pacts, but it doesn't have to be like that.
Dragonfire Adept - a similar concept as the warlock, yet without the evil pact. It has the added weirdness factor, that you spew fire at will.
.

Warlocks are easily related to Fey, and have a lot of feats that help that part up. So not really evil, more you don't have to be chaotic. If you play dragon fire adept

[Shining Wrath]

As I understand it, you went through a portal into a godless world and now you can cast.

The sorcerer stereotypically has a bloodline that accounts for their magical power, so maybe your character has an ancestor from this world who crossed the other way. The ancestor was a wizard, the wizard genes got handed down but couldn't manifest in our world (read up on epigenetics), and once you crossed back to the world your ancestral spellcaster came from, you now manifest the power.

That could also work for any other spontaneous caster class.

If you want to go with a prepared caster class, then somehow you had a connection to the new world, and subconsciously you were learning how to use magic. Perhaps this connection accounts in part for why you went through the portal and not your neighbor.