Adept (Revised) (3.5 PEACH)

[Ralcos]

Here's a newer version of a class I made called the Adept

THE ADEPT
"No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge. And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places." - Arkus, Human Adept

http://th01.deviantart.net/fs36/300W/i/2008/288/c/6/Helix_Warrior_by_Cosmic0ne.jpg
All credit to the artist on DevientArt



Alignment: Any

Hit Dice: d6

Class Skills

Appraise, Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (All, taken individually), Profession, Psicraft, Speak Language, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
Skill Points: 4 + Int Modifier; x4 at 1st level



Level
BaB
Fortitude
Reflex
Will
Special
Caster Points


1
0
0
0
2
Bonus Feat, Cantrip Mastery
3


2
1
0
0
3
Bonus Feat
3


3
1
1
1
3

5


4
2
1
1
4
Bonus Feat, Study I
7


5
2
1
1
4

9


6
3
2
2
5
Bonus Feat
11


7
3
2
2
5

13


8
4
2
2
6
Bonus Feat, Study II
15


9
4
3
3
6

17


10
5
3
3
7
Bonus Feat
19


11
5
3
3
7

21


12
6 / 1
4
4
8
Bonus Feat, Study III
23


13
6 / 1
4
4
8

25


14
7 / 2
4
4
9
Bonus Feat
27


15
7 / 2
5
5
9

29


16
8 / 3
5
5
10
Bonus Feat, Study IV
31


17
8 / 3
5
5
10

33


18
9 / 4
6
6
11
Bonus Feat
35


19
9 / 4
6
6
11

37


20
10 / 5
6
6
12
Bonus Feat
39



Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies
Adepts are proficient only in all simple weapons. They are not proficient with any armor or shields.

Bonus Feat
At 1st level, and every even numbered number afterwards, the Adept gains a bonus feat. This bonus feat must be of the types listed below:

Any Metamagic Feat, Any Magic Item Creation Feat, Any Psionic Feat, Psionic Item Creation Feat, Any Metapsionic Feats, and any Incarnum Feats

Cantrip Mastery
At 1st level, an adept chooses 1 class with 0-level spells. He can use 3 of those spells as at will spell-like abilities.

Studies
At 4th level and every 4 levels afterwords (4, 8, 12, etc), you gain a Study.
A Study is the casting/manifestation/soulmelding progression (and spell list) of a class that casts spells, manifests powers, or melds soul energy. When you choose a Focus, that level is considered to be your first level in the Study. Note that you do not gain any class features of your chosen study, besides any that are focused on the casting itself. Warlocks gain Invocations as normal for their study, Shadowcasters gain Mysteries, Warlocks gain Invocations, Binders call Vestiges, etc.

At 1st level, an Adept chooses either Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as his casting ability score. Once chosen, he cannot change this. This casting ability score applies to all studies that he might take.

For example, when Jakaar the Adept reaches 4th level, he chooses to learn the ways of the Incarnate. He gains the Soulmelds of a 1st level Incarnate, the Essentia of a 1st level Incarnate, and is considered a 1st level Incarnate for the purposes of Soulmelding (See table 2-2: Incarnate; Magic of Incarnum). He does not gain Base Attack bonuses nor saving throw bonuses under his study.

When he levels, the Adept also increases his Studies as if he had gained levels in his Study. For example, if Jakaar is now level 5, his Incarnate level is now considered level 2 for the purposes of determining Soulmelding ability.

This means that at 20th level, the Adept is considered the following levels:

Study I, 16th level

Study II, 12th level

Study III, 8th level

Study IV, 4th level

Note that you are not allowed to take the same Study more than once.
You are allowed to take Studies of the following classes. Any requirements will be listed alongside the Study itself:

Cleric, Druid (Must be of any Neutral Alignment), Sorcerer, Wizard, Hexblade (Must be of a nongood alignment), Warmage, Duskblade, Warlock (Must be Chaotic and/or Evil alignment), Psion, Incarnate (Must be of any neutral alignment except for True Neutral), Totemist, Binder, Shadowcaster (Must be of any non-good and non-chaotic alignment), Wu Jen

Special Rules for Studies.

Certain Studies have different rules than the original class itself.

Cleric - The Adept with this study gains no domain access, but still gains the ability to Turn/Rebuke Undead.

Warlock - The Adept with this study gains Eldritch Blast and Invocations, as normal for his Study level.

Warmage - The Adept with this study gains Light Armor proficiency, and gains the ability to ignore any spell failure chance when wearing light armor.

Wizard - The Adept retains the use of his spellbook, and must prepare those spells as normal. He can prepare a number of spells equal to his level.

Wu Jen - Gains Spell Secrets as normal, though he can only apply this to Wu Jen spells.

Casting Points
As a full-round action, you can cast a spell or power using a number of Caster Points equal to twice the spell’s level. Casted spells/powers must be from his known studies, meaning that you must adhere to the maximum level of spells/powers known from your Study. For example, if a 4th level Adept chooses to study under the Sorcerer, he knows 2 1st level spells as a 1st level Sorcerer. Casting these spells cost 2 points each, and can be cast until he runs out of Casting Points.

The Adept must be able to cast the spell in question in order to spend Casting Points for performing said spell. When you spend Caster Points, you can only regain them by resting for 8 hours.



Any ideas on what other classes I can make into studies?
Any Advice/Criticism?

EDIT: Made changes based on suggestions

[Loek]

Your warlock study needs the alignment restrictions the class normally has. Same for druid.

Quick question would be if the warlock also gains eldritch blast? (As 2 of the 3 types of invocations refer back to it)

As for additional studies: Dragonfire adept (with or without the breaths), Wu-jen (don't think they are 3.5 though), dread necromancer and probably a lot more.

Also... while the truenamer is a nice idea, it's generally considered to be both broken and crap, so might want to consider leaving it out (It also doesn't meet the following description "A Study is the casting/manifestation/soulmelding progression (and spell list) of a class that casts spells, manifests powers, or melds soul energy.").

Finally, I'd never consider the druid's wildshaping part of its casting... so the "rule about not getting it" seems un needed.


On to the other class features: I'm not entirely sure there are any bonus feats you might qualify for at first level. Maybe some meta magic feats... not sure (if even that, as you only have SLAs, not spells) (but you can't take anything psionic as you have nothing that makes you psionic yet - quite a few things will have that problem I think).


Focus and Caster points seem sort of overkill. The casting of 4 different classes (at reduced level) will already be enough to out muscle almost anything but well-played full casters. Only at early levels do these seem needed.

Also, for both of them, use the normal 8 hours rest + meditation/study instead of just 1 hour meditation.


Overall, needs some extra detailing about how things work (does a wizard study require a spellbook? Does it use INT as always or not?)

The idea is nice, but seems destined to be overpowered in "normal" play, and underpowered in "wizards rule the world" play.


edit: there are more things I can shoot at.

Cantrip mastery: A bit much, sure most of them aren't super, but you'll be getting a ****load of at will abilities. Have him pick 3 cantrips at level 1, and give him 1 more (from the same class) at each level up, until you reach 6 cantrips (or something in that direction)

[Ralcos]

Your warlock study needs the alignment restrictions the class normally has. Same for druid.

Quick question would be if the warlock also gains eldritch blast? (As 2 of the 3 types of invocations refer back to it)

As for additional studies: Dragonfire adept (with or without the breaths), Wu-jen (don't think they are 3.5 though), dread necromancer and probably a lot more.

Also... while the truenamer is a nice idea, it's generally considered to be both broken and crap, so might want to consider leaving it out (It also doesn't meet the following description "A Study is the casting/manifestation/soulmelding progression (and spell list) of a class that casts spells, manifests powers, or melds soul energy.").

Finally, I'd never consider the druid's wildshaping part of its casting... so the "rule about not getting it" seems un needed.


On to the other class features: I'm not entirely sure there are any bonus feats you might qualify for at first level. Maybe some meta magic feats... not sure (if even that, as you only have SLAs, not spells) (but you can't take anything psionic as you have nothing that makes you psionic yet - quite a few things will have that problem I think).


Focus and Caster points seem sort of overkill. The casting of 4 different classes (at reduced level) will already be enough to out muscle almost anything but well-played full casters. Only at early levels do these seem needed.

Also, for both of them, use the normal 8 hours rest + meditation/study instead of just 1 hour meditation.


Overall, needs some extra detailing about how things work (does a wizard study require a spellbook? Does it use INT as always or not?)

The idea is nice, but seems destined to be overpowered in "normal" play, and underpowered in "wizards rule the world" play.


edit: there are more things I can shoot at.

Cantrip mastery: A bit much, sure most of them aren't super, but you'll be getting a ****load of at will abilities. Have him pick 3 cantrips at level 1, and give him 1 more (from the same class) at each level up, until you reach 6 cantrips (or something in that direction)

Made said changes, but do you suggest removing the Casting Points and Focus Points?

[Loek]

well, looking at your changes, I'd (personally) add learning a few more cantrips as at-will abilities for level 2-4 (for a total of 6 from that point on).


As for the spell/focus points... Personally, I'd be inclined to drop (or seriously reduce) the focus points... They don't seem to add much besides more reliability than anything but the luck based "re-roll everything" classes. It's a nice ability, but does it really fit?

My suggestion: either remove completely, or limit to 1/2/3 (level 1, 7, 13) uses per day.


Spell point... They are probably needed in the first... 6-10 levels of the class to keep it going somewhat... after that they are just so much more extra gravy on top of everything else. Maybe do something in line with the psionic power points (costing: 2 X level - 1 points to cast) and not allowing casting of unknown lists at all (also counting the list you chose your cantrips of).

My suggestion: Only allow casting of spells that are on list you have access to. Increase the cost of such spells as mentioned above. And add a line of text, limiting the maximum level you are allowed to cast (atm you could cast a single level 9 spell at 4th level you get your first study - I'd limit it to what level spells a wizard of your level could cast).