Zman's Wu Jen Fix(3.5)

[Zman]

This is part of a larger project aimed at bringing the classes to Tiers 2-4.

Wu Jen is already a powerful class, but feel like a refluffex Wizard with poorer spell selection. My goal is to give the Wu Jen a unique feel while reducing the upper levels of power and spell casting in line with my entire line of Class Fixes and Overhaul. Trying to add a more mystic feel, Int based Wizard casting never sat right.

Summary of ChangesThe Wu Jen becomes a Wisdom based Spontaneous Caster. She will gain a D6 Hit dice, delayed spell progression, and a greater focus and reliance on the Elements. She will also gain more spells added to the Wu Jen spell list.


Wu Jen
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th

1st|+0|+0|+0|+2|Elemental Mastery, Watchful Spirit|5|3|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

2nd|+1|+0|+0|+3||6|4|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

3rd|+1|+1|+1|+3|Spell Secret|6|5|3|—|—|—|—|—|—

4th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Elemental Mastery 2|6|6|4|—|—|—|—|—|—

5th|+2|+1|+1|+4||6|6|5|3|—|—|—|—|—

6th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Spell Secret|6|6|6|4|—|—|—|—|—

7th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Elemental Mastery 3|6|6|6|5|—|—|—|—|—

8th|+4|+2|+2|+6||6|6|6|6|3|—|—|—|—

9th|+4|+3|+3|+6|Spell Secret|6|6|6|6|4|—|—|—|—

10th|+5|+3|+3|+7|Elemental Mastery 4|6|6|6|6|5|—|—|—|—

11th|+5|+3|+3|+7||6|6|6|6|6|3|—|—|—

12th|+6/+1|+4|+4|+8|Spell Secret|6|6|6|6|6|4|—|—|—

13th|+6/+1|+4|+4|+8|Elemental Mastery 5|6|6|6|6|6|5|—|—|—

14th|+7/+2|+4|+4|+9||6|6|6|6|6|6|3|—|—

15th|+7/+2|+5|+5|+9|Spell Secret|6|6|6|6|6|6|4|—|—

16th|+8/+3|+5|+5|+10||6|6|6|6|6|6|5|—|—

17th|+8/+3|+5|+5|+10||6|6|6|6|6|6|6|3|—

18th|+9/+4|+6|+6|+11|Spell Secret|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|4|—

19th|+9/+4|+6|+6|+11||6|6|6|6|6|6|6|5|—

20th|+10/+5|+6|+6|+12|Master of the Elements|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|3

[/table]
Alignment: Any
Hit Die: 1d6

Class Skills:
Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Knowledge(All Skills taken Individually) (Int), Listen(Wis), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive, Spellcraft (Int) and Spot(Wis).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Spells Known
{table]Level|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th

1st|4|1|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

2nd|5|1|—|—|—|—|—|—|—

3rd|5|2|1|—|—|—|—|—|—

4th|6|2|1|—|—|—|—|—|—

5th|6|3|2|1|—|—|—|—|—

6th|7|3|2|1|—|—|—|—|—

7th|7|4|3|2|—|—|—|—|—

8th|8|4|3|2|1|—|—|—|—

9th|8|5|4|3|1|—|—|—|—

10th|9|5|4|3|2|—|—|—|—

11th|9|5|5|4|2|1|—|—|—

12th|9|5|5|4|3|1|—|—|—

13th|9|5|5|5|3|2|—|—|—

14th|9|5|5|5|4|2|1|—|—

15th|9|5|5|5|4|3|1|—|—

16th|9|5|5|5|5|3|2|—|—

17th|9|5|5|5|5|4|2|1|—

18th|9|5|5|5|5|4|3|1|—

19th|9|5|5|5|5|5|3|2|—

20th|9|5|5|5|5|5|4|2|1

[/table]
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Wu Jen are proficient with all simple weapons. They are not proficient with any type of armor or shield. Armor of any type interferes with a Wu Jen's gestures, which can cause her spells with somatic components to fail.

Spells: A Wu Jen casts arcane spells which are drawn primarily from the Wu Jen spell list(Complete Arcane pg 91). She can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time, the way a wizard must (see below).

To learn or cast a spell, a sorcerer must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a Wu Jen's spell is 10 + the spell level + the Wu Jen's Wisdom modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a Wu Jen can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: The Wu Jen. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Wisdom score.

A Wu Jen's selection of spells is extremely limited. A Wu Jen begins play knowing four 0-level spells and one 1st-level spell of your choice. At each new Wu Jen level, he gains one or more new spells, as indicated on Table: Wu Jen Spells Known. (Unlike spells per day, the number of spells a sorcerer knows is not affected by his Wisdom score; the numbers on Table: Wu Jen Spells Known are fixed.) These new spells can be common spells chosen from the Wu Jen spell list, or they can be unusual spells that the Wu Jen has gained some understanding of by study, but a Wu Jen cannot learn Element specific spells in this fashion. The Wu Jen can’t use this method of spell acquisition to learn spells at a faster rate, however.

Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even-numbered Wu Jen level after that (6th, 8th, and so on), a Wu Jen can choose to learn a new spell in place of one he already knows. In effect, the Wu Jen “loses” the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least two levels lower than the highest-level Wu Jen spell the Wu Jen can cast. A sorcerer may swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that he gains new spells known for the level.

Unlike a wizard, a Wu Jen need not prepare her spells in advance. She can cast any spell she knows at any time, assuming she has not yet used up her spells per day for that spell level. She does not have to decide ahead of time which spells she’ll cast.

Watchful Spirit

Once per day per point of Wisdom modifier a Wu Jen can choose to roll two initiative checks and choose the highest.

Master Element

At 1st level a Wu Jen chooses one element to master. All Wu Jen spells of the associated element are added to the Wu Jen's list of spells known. Thereafter, whenever a Wu Jen casts a spell of that element, her efffective caster level (for purposes of determining level-dependent spell variables and for catser level checks) is increased by one. In addition, the Wu Jen gains a +1 competence on saves against spells of that element.

At 4th, 7th, 10th, and 13th level a Wu Jen chooses another element to master adding its spells to their spells known. In addition, each previous element mastered increases its caster level bonus and its save bonus by one. When a Wu Jen learns a new element after the first, they count their Wu Jen level as lower for determining the maximum spell level they can cast from that element. Wu Jen level -3 for the 2nd element, Wu Jen level -6 for the 3rd, Wu Jen level -9 for the fourth, and Wu Jen level -12 for the fifth and final element.

Spell Secret

At 3rd level and every 3 levels thereafter a Wu Jen gains a Spell Secret. The spell must be a Spell the Wu Jen already knows and at least one level lower than the maximum spell level the Wu Jen is capable of Casting. The Sorcerer chooses upon gaining the Signature Spell either Empower Spell, Extend Spell, Enlarge Spell, Heighten Spell, Still Spell, or Silent Spell. Once selected the Wu Jen can apply the chosen Metamagic to the spell without an increase in spell level or casting time. Once chosen Signature Spells cannot be changed.

Alternatively, instead of learning a Spell Secret, a Wu Jen can instead choose to learn any spell from the Cleric, Wizard/Sorcerer, or Druid Spell list. Any selected Wizard/Sorcerer Spell counts as one level higher without an increase in Save DC for the purposes of what spell slot it occupies, and Cleric and Druid Spells count as two levels higher.

A Wu Jen can choose to apply multiple Spell Secrets to the same spell.


Taboo

Every time a Wu Jen selects s Spell Secret the must choose a Taboo. If the Wu Jen violates one of their Taboos, they casts their spells at one lower caster level for each Taboo they break.

Potential Taboos include

Cannot eat meat.
Cannot own more than you can carry.
Cannot cut their hair.
Cannot touch a dead body.
Cannot drink alcohol
Cannot wear a certain color.
Cannot kill an animal.
Cannot sit facing a certain direction.
Cannot show affection.
Cannot enter into a physical embrace.
Cannot show affection.
Cannot sit.
Must make a daily offering worth 1sp to one or many spirit powers.
Must read all new acquaintances before trusting them or engaging them in conversation(Palm reading, forehead reading, deep eye contact, etc).


Master of the Elements

At 20th Level a Wu Jen is a true Master of the Elements gaining Immunity to Fire, Cold, and Electricity Damage. In addition a Wu Jen can survive in very hot, very cold, very dry, and aquatic environments without danger.

Spells added to Wu Jen Spell List
Work in Progress

ACF's

[Zman]

Change Log

12-29-13
Added decreased spell level access for elements learned after the first.

[Ralcos]

This is an interesting class fix. I skimmed through it, but I like the changes.
It always felt off that the Wu-Jen was a vanican caster, but why change her casting to Wisdom. I though that Intelligence made sense.

[Zman]

This is an interesting class fix. I skimmed through it, but I like the changes.
It always felt off that the Wu-Jen was a vanican caster, but why change her casting to Wisdom. I though that Intelligence made sense.

Thanks.

I went with Wisdom for a couple of reasons.

"Wisdom describes a character’s willpower, common sense, perception, and intuition. While Intelligence represents one’s ability to analyze information, Wisdom represents being in tune with and aware of one’s surroundings. "

Wisdom seems to fit the element theme and eastern magic theme to me more than Intelligence does. Also, there are no Wisdom based Arcane Casters, I thought it would flufill a neat nich.

Thanks for commenting, I appreciate any other feedback, especially suggestions for spells and their source to add to the Wu Jen list.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

[B]Master Element[B]

At 1st level a Wu Jen chooses one element to master. All Wu Jen spells of the associated element are added to the Wu Jen's list of spells known.
[...]
At 4th, 7th, 10th, and 13th level a Wu Jen chooses another element to master adding its spells to their spells known.

I don't think having all wu jen pick up all elements is a good idea. It means that one wu jen might start out as a dedicated blasting pyromancer, another might starts off as a metal-focused gish, and so forth, but by 13th level they all end up with largely similar spell lists. That means that individual wu jen actually become less distinct as they level up, because a large chunk of their spells known will be the same set of elemental spells and the generic list is not deep and varied enough to make a fire/metal/air/water/earth wu jen feel sufficiently different from a metal/air/fire/water/earth wu jen.

It would be like letting favored souls pick up the Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and War domains as they leveled and restricting them to a small set of spells cleric like, say, core+Complete Divine to choose spells known from; sure, they have a bunch of generic cleric spells known, but if half of every high-level favored soul's spells known consist of the same 45 domain spells and the generic spells they pick don't have a lot of variety, they'll start feeling really same-y by the mid levels.


Here's what I'd suggest instead: Make two lists for each element, one "basic" list and one "advanced" list, and put most of the new spells added to the wu jen list onto these elemental lists. I'd divide them up either by making the basic list the direct elemental manipulation spells and the advanced list the elemental association spells (e.g. basic fire is the "all fire damage, all the time" list while advanced fire gets cat's grace, good hope, and all the "fire is passion and life and stuff" spells), or going by spell power (e.g. spells like polymorph and dominate person would be restricted to advanced lists). Choosing the advanced list would require choosing the basic list first, and the bonuses for the basic and advanced lists for the same element would stack.

That way, a given wu jen can choose to take the basic list for each element and focus on balance and diversity, or they can choose to emphasize two elements (having the advanced list for both of them and the basic list for a third) for a more thematically-focused wu jen. Now, instead of having five distinct wu jen character concepts at low levels that slowly blend into one big wu jen concept at high levels, you start with five distinct concepts that grow into 21 concepts (5*4 two-element wu jen plus 1 balanced wu jen) as you level and they don't end up blending together again.

[Zman]

Great advice Dice. I had concerns about the class blending into a mono class.

Now, i wanted to keep things simple. Creating multiple spell lists is getting complicated.

What about limiting the level of spells of the elements picked up later? I'm trying to think of simple ways to add class variety through spell selection. Say, at each new element count as a Wu Jen 3 levels lower for determining spell level.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Now, i wanted to keep things simple. Creating multiple spell lists is getting complicated.

What about limiting the level of spells of the elements picked up later? I'm trying to think of simple ways to add class variety through spell selection. Say, at each new element count as a Wu Jen 3 levels lower for determining spell level.

If you're already going to add a bunch of spells to the wu jen list, adding them to one of ten lists isn't much more complex than adding them to one of five lists, particularly when choosing which list a spell belongs to is so straightforward. But if you'd prefer not to do that, I suppose the spell level restrictions would work as well.

So, let's see, a 13th level wu jen with those restrictions would have 7th, 5th, 4th, 2nd, and 1st level spells in his chosen elements, and a 20th level one would have 9th, 9th, 7th, 6th, and 4th. Yes, I think that kind of breakdown would be good enough to differentiate the various elements, since swapping the order of a pair of elements means a difference of two spell levels in most cases.