Functional blaster mage in 3.5.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

As the title says, I'm planning to homebrew a dedicated blaster class for use in 3.5 Edition, and I'd like the Playground's opinion on the matter. Specifically;


1) What would you like to see in a damage-focused caster?


2) What do you think a damage-focused caster needs to work well?


3) What flavor would fit best? Elemental? Radiant? Dark? Raw magic?

[Lerondiel]

As the title says, I'm planning to homebrew a dedicated blaster class for use in 3.5 Edition, and I'd like the Playground's opinion on the matter. Specifically;


1) What would you like to see in a damage-focused caster?


2) What do you think a damage-focused caster needs to work well?


3) What flavor would fit best? Elemental? Radiant? Dark? Raw magic?


You're familiar with the Warmage from Complete Arcane?

They are the definition of dedicated blaster class - damage bonuses, metamagic madness and a lot of spell slots.

Winning initiative and surviving return fire are the other major priorities.

[Karl Aegis]

Dealing moderate amounts of bludgeoning, piercing or slashing damage up front and then dealing light amounts of divine damage in later turns would be a nice change of pace. It would give healers time to heal and fighters a chance at fighting the enemy before it melts. Rocket Tag isn't necessarily a desired goal when designing a class, but the damage should mean something. If the non-immediate damage isn't doing enough, you could always add a spell that detonates the effect for bonus damage.

[Urpriest]

Introducing synergies might be nice, to make things more strategic and encourage use of more than just one spell all the time. Something like "when you hit someone with a fire effect the round after you hit them with a cold effect, they become slowed" or the like.

[DMVerdandi]

Is this going to be a base class or a prestige class? I am assuming base.

My take is this. They will need more than blasting. Think of a blaster mage as a modern soldier. They need more than their guns, no? They need equipment, skills training etc. Translating that back into 3.5, they will need a decent spell list.

If you are content with having nothing but blasting, then the war-mage is for you. Why waste time re-inventing that wheel. We saw what came out of it. For a more simplistic kind of campaign and party, it works fine. (Warblade, Healer, Rogue, war-mage could be HELLA fun, as like a final fantasy throwback setup).
However, one of the problems is the nova issue. If you are doing direct damage, you are constantly casting. Efficiency is thrown out the window, and then when there is no combat to be had, it's left wanting.


So, my suggestion is this... Go in the same direction as a hybrid class from pathfinder. There is nothing wrong with making a class that is stronger than what is in the players handbook. Forget that. As long as it's not disgustingly overpowered, you are fine.

Here is what you do. Take the ideas from the wizard, and the warlock. and mash them together. For now, lets call it Evoker for now.



1.I would take cues from the warlock in creating something similar to the eldritch blast. The most important thing with the class is consistent magical damage at all times.

2.Secondly, throw in some perks. Minor Bonuses to spot and listen checks.

3. Metamagic bonus feats.

4.Evocation spells cast at +1

5. Smiting spell as a class feature. You can load your spells into "eldritch blast".

6. Cast wizard spells as spirit shaman. No access to Illusion, transmutation, or enchantment schools.


I think that would work pretty well.

[Red Fel]

First off, I agree with others that a functional blaster needs a larger toolbox. The problem is that if you make that toolbox too big, he ceases to be a "blaster" and becomes a "god Wizard who happens to favor blasting." So there's got to be a line.

My ideal blaster would basically be a Fighter who replaces his armor and sword with blasting. I like the analogy of the modern soldier - he does have more tools than just one gun. He has multiple weapons for multiple situations. He has combat training to survive under fire. He's not a glass cannon; he's stone and steel.

I would set up the class to have basically a socketable toolkit of spells. Rather than go with spell slots or spells known, I'd put him more along the lines of the Warlock's SLAs. In fact, I'd design the chassis to be very similar to the Warlock's, with utility powers and blasting powers.

For utilities, I'd want combat-oriented abilities. Abilities like Fell Flight and Invisibility are a must, perhaps others that improve movement speed, Reflex saves, or ability to utilize cover. Being able to fire from behind cover, or treat partial cover as total cover, would be an outrageous asset to a blaster. That said, the utilities would be much more supplemental on a build like this than they are on the Warlock; the blasting would be the real focus.

For blasting, I'd basically give a choice of three. As a standard action, you can either (1) perform a series of single-target shots, determined by your BAB; (2) perform a cone-based shot, one hit at your highest BAB to everything in range; or (3) perform a ranged area attack, one hit at your highest BAB to everything in range. Each of these would be augmentable, much the same way a Warlock has blast essences, and damage would scale with level. Augments would include energy type (e.g. fire, cold, electric, sonic), rider effects (e.g. dazed, blinded, paralyzed, entangled), maybe at high levels some nasty additionals (e.g. ability damage, poisons, etc.). Class progression would 15/20 BAB and two good saves (maybe Fort and Ref?), Point Blank Shot and other ranged attack feats as bonus feats, increasing access to more potent augments, and the ability to add multiple augments onto a single shot (because really, having to wait for epic levels on Warlocks is just painful).

As a base class, you could keep it just like that, with raw elemental damage. You could easily PrC specialists out of it. A stealth demolitions specialist who gives up his cone shot and some damage riders for improved stealth abilities and upgrades to his bomb shot. A holy specialist who forgoes some damage to gain additional rider effects that are super effective against Evil Outsiders or Undead. A team specialist who can use his bomb ability to provide team buffs, or gives bonuses to allies within range.

As an aside... Should this be in Homebrew?

[Snowbluff]

I liked warlock. A warlock with a 20d6 EB all day would totally work. It would also be cool if he could enter most casting PrCs.

Another idea is playing with the options instead of treading old ground. For started, I think the idea of a pure blaster class is idiotic. The good blasters exist so they can one shot and enemy without a save. Making a class out of making that reliable is the antithesis of good class design, as well as rewarding system mastery. However, a class that plays with the energy immunity, resistance, and vulnerability rules would be interesting. Having a +50% damage bonus for using the right spell is cool. Are you familiar with the how those work n 4e? That you use the enemies worst resistance/vulnerability for an attack that has multiple attacks? It's cool.

The hypothetical warlock's EB is a filler attack when you don't have anything else to do. I would say the spells should be similiar in terms of damage, but provide more targeting options and multiple rider effects.

[Thurbane]

Obligatory Mailman (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1765181) link.

[Doxkid]

Warmage+warlock+eldritch theurge, and then make eldritch blast an attack action.

That's my quick and dirty idea for it.

[Chronos]

To me, the essence of blasting isn't just doing damage: That's what überchargers do, and nobody calls them blasters. The essence of blasting is doing damage to many targets at once. So my ideal blaster would have large areas of effect, and would probably also have some way of reducing or eliminating friendly fire to allies in that large area.

You'd also want ways to get past energy resistances/immunities, probably via a way to easily change what energy you're using on the fly.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

So "rider effects" and "utilities" in addition to consistent damage is the way to go? Maybe a mix of warmage and warlock? Interesting. I got a few ideas about that. Some of them are Diablo-related. :)