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janusmaxwell
2014-03-08, 10:15 PM
Had an idea today. I'm playing White Knight Chronicles (a JRPG that JRPG's harder than any other...) when I see a monster piece called a Magebeast shell. Game context a Mage beast is a magically made turtle-ish monster with an artillery cannon on it's back. The term however got me thinking in terms of DND character classes

Picture if you will, a fighter based class that picks spells from the wizard/sorcerer list, but only those that can be used as enhancements on a physical body. The limitations would be that the arcane energies would need to be re-aligned each day/rest period and that rather than conventions spell slots, which would allow a player to overload a lot of spells day after day, each spell level drains a certain amount of energy/essence from the beast. (Example: a level 5 spell would "cost" the same as a level 1 and a level 4 spell) plus you cannot sack the effects of identical/similar spells or dual damage types. You can't have 2 Bulls strength enhancements active for a +8 to strength or enhance your strikes to be flaming and shocking, though ghost touch and either flaming or shocking would be acceptable.

There are other limitations necessary, such as needing to stymie someone from cross classing as a monk and just screwing everything in sight. Plus dispelling effects will work on a MageBeast same as a wizards magic, except the magic cannot be double prepared or quickly cast which can leave a MageBeast as vulnerable as a plain fighter (maybe more vulnerable)

And despite the term, the MageBeast is not a term for a type of "special snowflake" furry character! It's a class like any other.

Seem like I'm on a good path with this spitballing idea?

Admiral Squish
2014-03-09, 12:35 AM
Seems like an interesting idea, but honestly, what you're describing thus far sounds a lot like incarnum, just more physical and a bit more abstract. If you haven't seen it already, check out the book Magic of Incarnum, however you can get ahold of it. It's a very cool book.