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Acoran
2014-06-14, 11:12 PM
Splintercaster
On DandDwiki.com (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Splintercaster_(3.5e_Class))

Splintercasters use their carefully crafted mental discipline to control small shards of metal with various techniques. They often appear in battle surrounded by floating shards of metal up to half a foot in length, and they cast them at enemies with a gesture. Powerful splintercasters have even been known to cast their entire cloud of active splinters at once, to devastating effect!

Abilities: Wisdom is important for determining the attack roll of a splintercaster’s attacks. Intelligence determines the number of splinters the splintercaster can control. Dexterity and Constitution can offer valuable defence to the splintercaster.

Alignment: Any but chaotic.
Hit Die: d6

Class Skills
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier
Class Skills: Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (any) (Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (Splinterdance) (Cha), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Tumble (Dex)

Class Abilities
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Splintercasters are proficient with all simple weapons, and with light armor, but not shields. (Splintercasters seldom wear metal armor; see Casting.)



Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fortitude Save
Reflex Save
Will Save
Techniques


1st
+0
+0
+2
+2
Splinters 1, Cast, Recall


2nd
+1
+0
+3
+3
Splinter Shield


3rd
+2
+1
+3
+3
Splinters 2, Barrage


4th
+3
+1
+4
+4
Improved Splinters


5th
+3
+1
+4
+4
Nettlecloud, Anchored Step


6th
+4
+2
+5
+5
Splinters 3


7th
+5
+2
+5
+5
Whirling Defence


8th
+6/+1
+2
+6
+6
Precise Case


9th
+6/+1
+3
+6
+6
Splinters 4, Shatter


10th
+7/+2
+3
+7
+7
Masterful Splinter, Further Growth



Class Features
Splinters
The Splintercaster can control up to his Intellect Modifier + Splintercaster level in Splinters. Once cast, Splinters deal 1d4 damage and stick in their target and cause 1d2 damage each time the target makes a move action. A target may remove a single splinter as a move action (that causes damage) that provokes an Attack of Opportunity.
At 3rd level, 1d6 and 1d3 damage when the target makes a move action.
At 6th level, 1d8 and 1d4 damage when the target makes a move action and now count as Magic +1 for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
At 9th level, 2d6 and 1d6-1 (min. 1) damage when the target makes a move action and now count as Magic +3 for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Cast:
The Splintercaster may fling one of his Splinters at a target as a ranged Attack Action versus AC (d20 + Base Attack bonus + Wisdom modifier) and may cast another if granted an additional attack by high Base Attack bonus or Haste effects. Range is limited to 10ft + 10ft per Splintercaster level. As excessive metal interferes with the Casting process, the splintercaster suffers the Armor Check penalty of metal armor on Casting attack rolls regardless of proficiency.

Recall:
The Splintercaster may recall Splinters that have already been Cast as a Move Action. The splintercaster determines which splinters to recall, up to the maximum he can control.

Splinter Shield:
The Splintercaster may sacrifice 3 or more of his active Splinters to create a floating shield to deflect incoming blows, granting +2 Shield bonus to AC. For every two splinters after the first three, this bonus increases by 1. This effect does not stack with any other Shield bonuses to AC.

Barrage:
The Splintercaster may Cast more than one of his active splinters at a time, equal to his Base Attack Bonus as a Full Action. Each Splinter may be directed to a different target and requires its own attack roll.

Improved Splinters
The Splintercaster’s splinters take on a new property. Choose one of the following, the choice may not be altered until 10th level.
Jagged: The critical threat range on these splinters is expanded to 17-20.
Massive: These splinters are extra large. Each splinter gains one damage die, but no longer sticks in the target.
Irritating: These splinters cause pain to the target when dodging, reducing the AC of the target by 1, and Reflex Save by 1.

Nettlecloud
The Splintercaster may place a number of splinters (min 2) into a swirling cloud in a 5’ square within normal attack range, and line of sight/effect. Any creature that passes through this square takes 1d6 damage per shard (1d8 for massive shards) in the cloud. This effect lasts until Recalled by the Splintercaster.

Anchored Step
The Splintercaster may Cast two splinters into the ground at his feet and repel himself away from them as a standard action. The Splintercaster may move up to half his maximum casting range with this technique, but only in a straight line. Passing through threatened squares in this manner does not provoke Attacks of Opportunity, unless the attacker makes a Reflex check of 12 + the Splintercaster’s level first.

Whirling Defence
The Splintercaster’s active splinters spin around him in a whirlwind of edges. Any enemy striking the Splintercaster with a natural weapon must make a Reflex check of 15 + the Splintercaster’s level, or suffer 1d4 damage per active shard.

Precise Cast
The Splintercaster may cast a single splinter as a full action and add both Wisdom and Intelligence modifiers to the attack roll and damage for each attack granted by Base Attack Bonus or Haste effects..

Shatter
As an attack action, the Splintercaster may shatter a splinter that is stuck in an enemy dealing double the splinter’s normal damage and forcing the target to make a Fortitude check of 15 + ½ the Splintercaster’s level or begin to hemorrhage blood and suffer 1d2 Constitution damage per turn unless a Heal check DC15 is made to staunch the flow. Targets immune to critical hits are not affected by the hemorrhage effect.
The Splintercaster may also use this technique on an unattended nonmagical metal item to refill his active splinters. The item is destroyed, and the Splintercaster’s maximum active splinters is replenished. Splinters in a target continue to cause pain, but are no longer able to be Shattered or Recalled until the Splintercaster’s active shards are reduced below maximum again.

Masterful Splinters
The Splintercaster’s splinters ignore the first 5 of any Damage Reduction effect (consider them Epic, for this effect) this includes the pain damage caused by moving. In addition, the splinters attack with an additional +1 to attack roll. At the beginning of each day, the Splintercaster may choose one of the Improved Splinters properties. For the remainder of the day, all of the splintercaster’s splinters carry this property.

Further Growth
After 10th Splintercaster level, the splintercaster may benefit from gaining one splinter for every two levels in another class in addition to dealing one bonus damage (primary and movement pain) for every three levels above 10th.


====Special Feats====
Casting Power Attack:
Prerequisite: Int 16.
As melee Power Attack; sacrifice attack bonus for damage at a 1-to-1 ratio, up to the limit of your base attack bonus.
Casting Finesse:
Prerequisites: BAB +1, Int 14
As melee Weapon Finesse; Use Int modifier on Casting attack rolls, instead of Wis.

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Well, there it is!
Thoughts?

JBPuffin
2014-06-15, 12:28 AM
Well, I'm curious as to why it only has 10 levels; it really should go all the way to 20 if its a base class. Other than that, I'm not seeing too much of a problem. Cool idea, for sure.

Acoran
2014-06-15, 02:32 AM
as to why it only has 10 levels
In truth, it comes down to: I'm terrible at balancing high-level mechanics. I will probably add another 10 to it, but that struck me as a whole 'nother bag of worms.

If anyone has thoughts on higher level mechanics (rather than just scaling of numbers), I'd be curious to see them!

Zaydos
2014-06-15, 02:43 AM
Well the first thing I think is: "Why 10 levels instead of 20? Base Classes are normally 20."

Accepting that as a stylistic choice.

Lv 1: You have the ability to make up to ~3 splinters at once and deal 1d4 damage as a standard action with a range attack roll (based off of Wisdom). This is a problem. Notably because a wizard with a crossbow in an antimagic field is outperforming you. You probably want to make it a touch attack like with a warlock. And why is it Wisdom based? The class already needs Dex for AC, Con for HP, Int for barrage, why add Wis to hit and make them more MAD? Also the range is terribly low at this level; you'd do better to just have a flat 60-ft, or even give them 60-ft + 5-ft/level or some such (that ends with the same max range).

Lv 2: If you have 14+ Int you can now have a shield at the cost of crippling your already paltry damage. Of course you're really just get a Mw Light Shield and lose 1 AC instead of use this. At higher levels this can be better than the enchantment you'd have a shield, but comes at a cost of crippling your damage still.

Lv 3: Yay your damage goes up to compare favorably to a Light Crossbow finally, and then doubles with Barrage. Even now they're just a warlock with an odd Eldritch Essence and worse armor and an inability to make touch attacks (and therefore being fairly unlikely to hit) at this level. Though the follow up damage (2d6 + 2d3 damage and either improved damage or action denial) helps but you're still a bad version of a Manticore Belt Totemist in many ways. With Barrage can you still cast extra for having a high BAB/Haste (meaning at BAB +6 if hasted you'd get 18 casts if you had that number?), also are they all at your full BAB?

Lv 4: Your options are +15% damage (against certain targets), double initial damage (6d6 is actually good damage at this level) putting you above a Manticore Belt Totemist at the moment and well above a warlock (but no touch attacks), and... I first read the last one as penalizing them for being missed, but now I realize it's for having them in you... could be useful but if you're having trouble hitting then it won't apply and if you aren't probably nobody else is but it might increase your ally's power attack.

Lv 5: What happens if you place the cloud in an already occupied square? If it deals damage to them (even if only if they move) you never actually use cast/barrage again. Instead you spend a standard action to deal 5d6 + Int mod in d6 damage each round with no saves or attack rolls, and then a move action to recall it. If it doesn't do damage it's a neat trick, but you won't be using it much unless you have Massive Splinters. Anchored Step's reflex DC ought to be 10 + Stat Mod + 1/2 Class level as it's not a PrC ability and therefore should not get the +Level.

Lv 6: Yay more damage! Your damage is actually good for your level now (either 8d8 = 36 which is fairly good at a range, or 4d8 + 4d4 until they spend an action to stop the 4d4) but that's all you really do, damage. A warlock only deals 3d6 (10 damage) so you've (more than) made up for not having touch attacks... you just don't have any of their invocations or defensive tricks.

Lv 7: Active shards = ones not held up in one of your other abilities, correct? This is a neat ability, but the DC is insanely high for this level (typical DCs at this level at 13 or 14 + ability score, typically 18 to 20, this is 22), again it should probably be 10 + ability score + 1/2 level. Other than that... potentially a lot of damage (10-13d4 or 25-33) whenever you're hit which can add up (at the very least probably deals more damage than the attacks striking you), but likely to be closer to half that if not less.

Lv 8: Does this give you Wis to hit twice? Also do you take the normal iterative penalty for the second attack? You probably lose some damage using this ability, but there might be cases you gain something.

Lv 9: You now have 12d6 damage/round (likely less) at Lv 9 and then 1d6-1 the next round (18d6/round with massive). This is a tad much at this level, and then with Shatter it becomes another 24d6 and 6d2 Con damage. You'll probably not hit with all 6 attacks, but even at 3 you're dealing 21d6 and 3d2 Con every 2 round which is a ton for the level, especially as the Con damage keeps inflicting till an enemy sacs a turn to avoid it.

Lv 10: This mostly reminds me that DR applies against each attack and will kill their damage until this point. Also when they gain further dice do they go 3d6, 4d6, 5d6, or 3d6, 4d6, 6d6, or 2d8, 3d6, 3d8?

Overall: Level 1-2 you're a commoner with slightly better skills and proficiency in a bad Light Crossbows.
Lv 3-4/5(?): Your damage is comparable to other ranged combatants! Your range is also more than point blank now!
Lv 5: Maybe huge damage spike.
Lv 6-8: You've got good damage for a ranged combatant, and usable range too. You're still not doing anything other than damage, but your damage is at least good without being overly high. Might be a little strong against creatures that rely on natural attacks (especially without a corrected Ref DC). DR will destroy your damage, except maybe from the defensive shroud which... just isn't a fun playstyle (I sit and hope the monster makes natural attacks against me). DR is what the Precise Attack is actually good for!
Lv 9: Your damage gets two huge spikes at once, leaving you with really good damage for this level, some of it Constitution damage. Sans the Con damage it's a lot of damage, but still won't take out CR = level creatures in a single round. The Con damage is possibly too much, though. DR will kill your damage, though, except for the next round explosion and even then it might kill it.
Lv 10: You can get around DR! To a limited extent :smallfrown:

Overall: Give some abilities which aren't damage. Expand their skill list (why Bluff and Sense Motive to begin with? Why not Spellcraft and UMD?). Give them more damage at low levels, and give them an ability to get around DR at lower levels. Fix the save DCs, and probably remove the Con damage make it bleed (hp damage).