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Mephibosheth
2007-04-15, 02:25 PM
ARCANE EMPATH

With the usual murmur of conversation and rustle of clothes, mats, and bags, the students settled down to begin their practice of meditation and exercise, working on expanding their minds and strengthening their bodies through the traditional exercises. So absorbed in their meditations were the students that no one noticed the new person in the back row, who sat with a slightly smug half-smile on his lips as he meditated. Soon, the other students in the back of the class began to feel slightly unhealthy, some losing their balance and falling over, some doubling up on the ground and retching. Still the stranger sat and meditated.

Quickly, the entirety of the class became overcome with these strange ailments, and the instructor began to become seriously concerned. The instructor reached out with his thoughts and attuned himself to the mental energies of the room. In doing so, he was almost overcome by the malevolent energies projected by the quietly-meditating stranger. The instructor reeled backwards, desperate to escape from the out-of-control energies, but found himself unable to do more than crawl away.

As he was about to reach the door of the meditation chamber, the instructor felt a searing pain at the base of his skull and he doubled up on the ground, whimpering softly. Again and again powerful flows of energy surged into his brain, causing greater and greater pain. As he lapsed into unconsciousness, the instructor’s last vision was of the stranger calmly rise to his feat and walk out of the room.

An Arcane Empath is an individual who is extraordinarily sensitive to the energy fields generated by the cognitive processes of living beings. Arcane Empaths can manipulate these energy fields to give them control over the minds of others, to hamper the ability of their foes to function, and to cause physical harm with floods of out-of-control mental energy.

Hit Dice: d4
Requirements:
Skills: Concentration 8 ranks, Sense Motive 3 ranks, Spellcraft 8 ranks
Feats: Spell Focus (Enchantment or Evocation)
Spellcasting: Ability to cast 3rd level arcane spells, including at least 2 Enchantment and 2 Evocation spells of any level
Class Skills:
The Arcane Empath’s class skills are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (NA), and Spellcraft (Int)
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Spellcasting

1st|
+0
|
+0
|
+0
|
+2
|Telepathy|--

2nd|
+1
|
+0
|
+0
|
+3
|Detect Energy|+1 level of existing class

3rd|
+1
|
+1
|
+1
|
+3
|Manipulate Energy (Sickened)|+1 level of existing class

4th|
+2
|
+1
|
+1
|
+4
|--|+1 level of existing class

5th|
+2
|
+1
|
+1
|
+4
|Vindictive Enchantment|+1 level of existing class

6th|
+3
|
+2
|
+2
|
+5
|--|+1 level of existing class

7th|
+3
|
+2
|
+2
|
+5
|--|+1 level of existing class

8th|
+4
|
+2
|
+2
|
+6
|Manipulate Energy (Nauseated)|+1 level of existing class

9th|
+4
|
+3
|
+3
|
+6
|--|+1 level of existing class

10th|
+5
|
+3
|
+3
|
+7
|Energy Overload|--[/table]

Class Features:
Telepathy – Beginning at 1st level, an Arcane Empath gains the ability to communicate mentally with surrounding individuals. He/she gains telepathy with a range of 20 ft/level.
Detect Energy – Beginning at 2nd level, an Arcane Empath becomes attuned to the energy emitted by the mental processes of sentient beings. At will, he/she can detect any creature with an Intelligence score. This ability functions as Detect Chaos/Evil/Good/Law.
Manipulate Energy – Beginning at 3rd level, an Arcane Empath can manipulate the mental energy of those around him/her, reducing their ability to react, function, and process information. Thrice per day, an Arcane Empath can cause a single creature with an intelligence score to become sickened for a number of rounds equal to his/her class level. Beginning at 8th level, an Arcane Empath can cause the target to become nauseated instead of sickened. The target of this ability must be within 25 ft + 5 ft/2 levels and of the Arcane Empath and must be visible to him/her. A successful DC 10 + ½ class level + casting ability modifier Will save negates this effect.
Vindictive Enchantment – Beginning at 5th level, a Arcane Empath’s control of mental energy allows him/her to deal physical damage to foes over whose mind he/she has influence. Any time an Arcane Empath successfully affects a creature with an Enchantment (Charm) or Enchantment (Compulsion) spell or any substantially similar Enchantment effect (such as a Bardic Music ability), that creature takes 2d6 + 1/class level points of damage as the Arcane Empath roughly jerks the target’s mental energies.
Energy Overload – Beginning at 10th level, an Arcane Empath’s control over mental energy is so great that he/she can flood a target’s mind with energy, causing it to collapse under the strain and severely injure (if not kill) the target. This ability functions as the spell Terrible Secret save that it manifests itself as a flood of energy instead of a whispered secret, eliminating the auditory component of the spell. This ability can be used thrice per day.

Proven_Paradox
2007-04-15, 02:45 PM
Manipulate Energy needs a save of some sort, I think. As does Energy Overload.

Also... The class as written doesn't seem to fit the flavor text. You've got this class using thier super-special ability on three creatures per day, while the one in your fluff sickened an entire room with his abilities.

Other than that, it looks okay.

Mephibosheth
2007-04-15, 10:12 PM
Thanks for the input. I can't believe I forgot to add the save for Manipulate Energy. Also, Energy Overload does have a save, since the ability functions like the spell Terrible Secret (http://www.giantitp.com/articles/STcFi6l45eoAbaxiYPn.html) (2nd from the bottom), which allows a save (a will save, to be precise). And yeah, you're right that the flavor text doesn't match the class abilities exactly, but I'm not too worried about that. I just wrote that up to make reading the post a bit more interesting.

Thanks a lot for the comments, I really appreciate it.

Mephibosheth

Falconsflight
2007-04-16, 12:22 AM
Well, It wouldn't be too breaking if you increased the amount of creatures over time. Make it something like one creature per 2 or 3 levels. That way you can get as many as 3-4 creatures. Admittadly, it's not a whole room, but it makes sense that at higher levels you can weaken more people.

Also, I think it would be more interesting if Vindictive Enchantment were to say "Enchantment spell or effect" Cause then you get bards interested in the class (Almost all bardic music are enchantments, but they are not spells, but effects)

XtheYeti
2007-04-16, 07:17 AM
Well, It wouldn't be too breaking if you increased the amount of creatures over time. Make it something like one creature per 2 or 3 levels. That way you can get as many as 3-4 creatures. Admittadly, it's not a whole room, but it makes sense that at higher levels you can weaken more people.

Also, I think it would be more interesting if Vindictive Enchantment were to say "Enchantment spell or effect" Cause then you get bards interested in the class (Almost all bardic music are enchantments, but they are not spells, but effects)
i totaly agree with this, but outside of that i have no real complaints. rock on my good fellow

Rejakor
2007-04-16, 09:15 AM
One Quibble: You haven't shown the casting progression - at least not anywhere I can see.

Buy other than that, good class! I'd actually be interested in a base class version of this - more of an empath than a telepath, someone who can manipulate/read the emotional states of those around them, and do status effects like fatigue, sickened, etc. Though maybe with less overtly evil abilities, so they can be either evil or good. Anyway, kinda got off track there, good work Mephibosheth.

EDIT; I spotted it, george, I spotted it. Ooops.

Mephibosheth
2007-04-16, 09:47 AM
Made some changes, including the provision for Bardic Music. Good idea that. Thanks a lot!

I could definitely see making a full base class like this, maybe with bard-like spellcasting and some nifty filler abilities. Maybe someday... I don't, however, think any of these abilities are necessarily evil, despite names like "Vindictive Enchantment" and their spiteful use in the flavor text. I will admit I had an evil character in mind when designing it, but there's no reason a good character couldn't take levels in this class.

Thanks a lot for the comments. I really appreciate the feedback!

Mephibosheth