Auramis
2014-06-30, 12:12 AM
After a bit of collaboration with my brother and dad, and after going through a few variations that needed a bit of tuning, we think we came up with a well-balanced fix for the spellsword (http://dndtools.eu/classes/spellsword/), so I figured I'd see what your guys and gals think about our fix. If you like the changes, I encourage people to go ahead and use it!
THE SPELLSWORD
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130704140614/sfery/images/thumb/c/c3/Czarownik_miecza.jpg/203px-Czarownik_miecza.jpg
Illus. bu B. Snoddy
(Seriously, how cool is that picture?)
Requirements:
Base Attack Bonus: +4
Skills: Knowledge (arcana) 6 ranks
Spells: Able to cast 2nd-level arcane spells.
Special: Must have defeated a foe through force of arms alone, without recourse to spellcasting.
Feats: Proficiency with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, medium, and light).
HD: d10
Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
Spells
1st
+1
+2
+0
+2
Armored mage (Light)
-
2nd
+2
+3
+0
+3
Channel spell 2/day
+1 level of existing arcane spellcastering class
3rd
+3
+3
+1
+3
Bonus feat
+1 level of existing arcane spellcastering class
4th
+4
+4
+1
+4
Channel spell 3/day
+1 level of existing arcane spellcastering class
5th
+5
+4
+1
+4
Armored mage (Medium)
-
6th
+6
+5
+2
+5
Channel spell 4/day
+1 level of existing arcane spellcastering class
7th
+7
+5
+2
+5
Bonus feat
+1 level of existing arcane spellcastering class
8th
+8
+6
+2
+6
Channel spell 5/day
+1 level of existing arcane spellcastering class
9th
+9
+6
+3
+6
Armored mage (Heavy)
-
10th
+10
+7
+3
+7
Multiple channel spell
+1 level of existing arcane spellcastering class
Class Skills (2 + Int modifer per level): Climb, Concentration, Craft, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Jump, Profession, Ride, Spellcraft
Class Features:
Spellcasting: At every level except 1st, 5th, and 9th, a spell sword gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class he belonged to before becoming a spellsword. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (improved chance of controlling or rebuking undead, metamagic or item creation feats, and so on), save for an increased effective level of spellcasting. If a character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a spellsword, he must decide to which class he adds the new level for purposes of determining spells per day.
Armored Mage (Ex): Normally, armor of any type interferes with an arcane spellcaster's gestures, which can cause spells to fail if those spells have a somatic component. A spellsword's limited focus and specialized training, however, allows you to avoid arcane spell failure so long as you wear light armor. This training does not extend to medium or heavy armors, nor to any shields. This ability applies only to the spellcasting class that you are increasing the spellcasting of through spellsword.
At 5th level, you learn to use medium armor with no chance of arcane spell failure.
At 9th level, you learn to use heavy armor with no chance of arcane spell failure.
Bonus Feat: At 2nd and 7th levels, a spellsword advances his art, gaining a bonus feat. This bonus feat must be either a metamagic feat or one drawn from the list of bonus feats allowed to a fighter (see Table 5—1 on page 90 of the Player's Handbook).
Channel Spell (Sp): At 2nd level, a spellsword can channel any spell he can cast into his melee weapon. Using this ability requires a move action, and the spellsword uses up the prepared spell or spell slot just as if he had cast the spell. The channeled spell affects the next target that the spell sword successfully attacks with his weapon (saving throws and spell resistance still apply). Even if the spell normally affects an area or is a ray, it affects only the target. The spell is discharged from the weapon, which can then hold another spell. A spellsword can channel his spells into only one weapon at a time. Spells channeled into a weapon are lost if not used in 8 hours.
Multiple Channel Spell (Sp): A 10th-level spellsword can channel two spells into his melee weapon, using a move action to channel each one. Both channeled spells affect the next target the spellsword successfully attacks with his weapon, in the order the spells were placed into the weapon. As with the channel spell class feature, saving throws and spell resistance apply normally. Each time a spellsword uses multiple channel spell, two of his five channel spell uses per day are expended.
What's new?
Changes were made to the arcane spell failure ignorance, a minor skill edit, the hit-dice, spellcasting progression, and very minor tweaks to ability progression, though the abilities themselves remain the same as they were in the Complete Warrior (aside from armored mage).
ASF and Armor: We decided that ignorance of ASF was pointless when compared to classes that get the ability to ignore armor categories (like duskblade, battle sorcerer, hexblade, the armored mage warrior variant (http://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/its_a_trap_star_wars.gif), etc.), so we decided to give it the armored mage ability that duskblade gets, though we decided to exclude shields, because we felt the spellsword was more oriented to being a striker than a defender.
Skills: The skills from the spellsword were pitiful. It didn't even get ride and handle animal, which are token skills for anyone in heavy armor and meant a sword. We also decided to limit its knowledge skill to simply knowledge (arcana), since it was the only one it really needed. It seemed odd to us that the original skill list had just "knowledge" as a class skill, given bards, wizards, and other classes have "knowledge (all skills, taken individually)". We decided that it was probably just a typo because of that.
Hit-dice: Pretty straight forward change here. We felt like d8 was too low for a full-plate wearer. I'm not 100% on this change, since the duskblade has a d8 hit-dice and relatively similar abilities, but we feel like the duskblade's abilities vary enough that it might be fair, especially considering there are requirements to enter this class (minor as they are).
Channeling and spell progression: With the changes to arcane spell failure and armor scaling, that left 2 levels where nothing was gained under the special abilities. That's not necessarily bad, but the spellsword itself doesn't offer anything aside from armored mage, channeling, and spell progression. Because of that, we felt it was fair to give it better spell progression (but not full, because we felt that'd be too much), sooner channeling, and another bonus feat. The channeling itself remains unchanged in how it functions.
THE SPELLSWORD
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130704140614/sfery/images/thumb/c/c3/Czarownik_miecza.jpg/203px-Czarownik_miecza.jpg
Illus. bu B. Snoddy
(Seriously, how cool is that picture?)
Requirements:
Base Attack Bonus: +4
Skills: Knowledge (arcana) 6 ranks
Spells: Able to cast 2nd-level arcane spells.
Special: Must have defeated a foe through force of arms alone, without recourse to spellcasting.
Feats: Proficiency with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, medium, and light).
HD: d10
Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
Spells
1st
+1
+2
+0
+2
Armored mage (Light)
-
2nd
+2
+3
+0
+3
Channel spell 2/day
+1 level of existing arcane spellcastering class
3rd
+3
+3
+1
+3
Bonus feat
+1 level of existing arcane spellcastering class
4th
+4
+4
+1
+4
Channel spell 3/day
+1 level of existing arcane spellcastering class
5th
+5
+4
+1
+4
Armored mage (Medium)
-
6th
+6
+5
+2
+5
Channel spell 4/day
+1 level of existing arcane spellcastering class
7th
+7
+5
+2
+5
Bonus feat
+1 level of existing arcane spellcastering class
8th
+8
+6
+2
+6
Channel spell 5/day
+1 level of existing arcane spellcastering class
9th
+9
+6
+3
+6
Armored mage (Heavy)
-
10th
+10
+7
+3
+7
Multiple channel spell
+1 level of existing arcane spellcastering class
Class Skills (2 + Int modifer per level): Climb, Concentration, Craft, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Jump, Profession, Ride, Spellcraft
Class Features:
Spellcasting: At every level except 1st, 5th, and 9th, a spell sword gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class he belonged to before becoming a spellsword. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (improved chance of controlling or rebuking undead, metamagic or item creation feats, and so on), save for an increased effective level of spellcasting. If a character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a spellsword, he must decide to which class he adds the new level for purposes of determining spells per day.
Armored Mage (Ex): Normally, armor of any type interferes with an arcane spellcaster's gestures, which can cause spells to fail if those spells have a somatic component. A spellsword's limited focus and specialized training, however, allows you to avoid arcane spell failure so long as you wear light armor. This training does not extend to medium or heavy armors, nor to any shields. This ability applies only to the spellcasting class that you are increasing the spellcasting of through spellsword.
At 5th level, you learn to use medium armor with no chance of arcane spell failure.
At 9th level, you learn to use heavy armor with no chance of arcane spell failure.
Bonus Feat: At 2nd and 7th levels, a spellsword advances his art, gaining a bonus feat. This bonus feat must be either a metamagic feat or one drawn from the list of bonus feats allowed to a fighter (see Table 5—1 on page 90 of the Player's Handbook).
Channel Spell (Sp): At 2nd level, a spellsword can channel any spell he can cast into his melee weapon. Using this ability requires a move action, and the spellsword uses up the prepared spell or spell slot just as if he had cast the spell. The channeled spell affects the next target that the spell sword successfully attacks with his weapon (saving throws and spell resistance still apply). Even if the spell normally affects an area or is a ray, it affects only the target. The spell is discharged from the weapon, which can then hold another spell. A spellsword can channel his spells into only one weapon at a time. Spells channeled into a weapon are lost if not used in 8 hours.
Multiple Channel Spell (Sp): A 10th-level spellsword can channel two spells into his melee weapon, using a move action to channel each one. Both channeled spells affect the next target the spellsword successfully attacks with his weapon, in the order the spells were placed into the weapon. As with the channel spell class feature, saving throws and spell resistance apply normally. Each time a spellsword uses multiple channel spell, two of his five channel spell uses per day are expended.
What's new?
Changes were made to the arcane spell failure ignorance, a minor skill edit, the hit-dice, spellcasting progression, and very minor tweaks to ability progression, though the abilities themselves remain the same as they were in the Complete Warrior (aside from armored mage).
ASF and Armor: We decided that ignorance of ASF was pointless when compared to classes that get the ability to ignore armor categories (like duskblade, battle sorcerer, hexblade, the armored mage warrior variant (http://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/its_a_trap_star_wars.gif), etc.), so we decided to give it the armored mage ability that duskblade gets, though we decided to exclude shields, because we felt the spellsword was more oriented to being a striker than a defender.
Skills: The skills from the spellsword were pitiful. It didn't even get ride and handle animal, which are token skills for anyone in heavy armor and meant a sword. We also decided to limit its knowledge skill to simply knowledge (arcana), since it was the only one it really needed. It seemed odd to us that the original skill list had just "knowledge" as a class skill, given bards, wizards, and other classes have "knowledge (all skills, taken individually)". We decided that it was probably just a typo because of that.
Hit-dice: Pretty straight forward change here. We felt like d8 was too low for a full-plate wearer. I'm not 100% on this change, since the duskblade has a d8 hit-dice and relatively similar abilities, but we feel like the duskblade's abilities vary enough that it might be fair, especially considering there are requirements to enter this class (minor as they are).
Channeling and spell progression: With the changes to arcane spell failure and armor scaling, that left 2 levels where nothing was gained under the special abilities. That's not necessarily bad, but the spellsword itself doesn't offer anything aside from armored mage, channeling, and spell progression. Because of that, we felt it was fair to give it better spell progression (but not full, because we felt that'd be too much), sooner channeling, and another bonus feat. The channeling itself remains unchanged in how it functions.