Cosmic Voice(A spellcasting barbarian)

[Lord_Thanatos95]

We've all seen them. They seem unremarkable. Just another Sorcerer. But when the going gets tough, they somehow embody a cosmic awarness that allows feats of magic the likes of which have never been seen.

This is my first attempt at a base class. The idea is to create a spellcaster version of the barbarian. When the Barbarian rages he gains massive boosts to stats relavant to a melee warrior, so why not a caster that can do something similar? The concept is popular in Anime. This is my attempt to capture that.


{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th| 9th

1st|
+0|
+2|
+0|
+2|Cosmic Meditation, Meditate 1/day|4|2

2nd|
+1|
+3|
+0|
+3|Manipulate Cosmos/1|5|3

3rd|
+1|
+3|
+1|
+3|-|5|3|2

4th|
+2|
+4|
+1|
+4|Bonus Metamagic Feat|5|3|3

5th|
+2|
+4|
+1|
+4|Meditate 2/day|5|4|3|2

6th|
+3|
+5|
+2|
+5|Manipulate Cosmos/2|5|4|4|3

7th|
+3|
+5|
+2|
+5|-|5|5|4|3|2

8th|
+4|
+6|
+2|
+6|Metamagic reduction/1|5|5|4|4|3

9th|
+4|
+6|
+3|
+6|-|5|5|5|4|3|2

10th|
+5|
+7|
+3|
+7|Meditate 3/day, Manipulate Cosmos/3|5|5|5|4|4|3

11th|
+5|
+7|
+3|
+7|Improved Cosmic Meditation, Bonus Metamagic Feat|5|5|5|5|4|3|2

12th|
+6/+1|
+8|
+4|
+8|Metamagic reduction/2|5|5|5|5|4|4|3|

13th|
+6/+1|
+8|
+4|
+8|-|5|5|5|5|5|4|3|2|

14th|
+7/+2|
+9|
+4|
+9|Manipulate Cosmos/4|5|5|5|5|5|4|4|3|

15th|
+7/+2|
+9|
+5|
+9|Meditate 4/day|5|5|5|5|5|5|4|3|2|

16th|
+8/+3|
+10|
+5|
+10|Metamagic reduction/3|5|5|5|5|5|5|4|4|3|

17th|
+8/+3|
+10|
+5|
+10|Soul of the Cosmos|5|5|5|5|5|5|5|4|3|2

18th|
+9/+4|
+11|
+6|
+11|Bonus Metamagic Feat, Manipulate Cosmos/5|5|5|5|5|5|5|5|4|4|3

19th|
+9/+4|
+11|
+6|
+11|-|5|5|5|5|5|5|5|5|4|4

20th|
+10/+5|
+12|
+6|
+12|True Cosmic Meditation, Meditate 5/day|5|5|5|5|5|5|5|5|5|5[/table]

Hit Die d4


Class Skills: Concentration (Con), Craft (Int)[Any], Decipher Script (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Knowledge (Int)[Arcana], Knowledge (Int)[The Planes], Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Use Magic Device (Cha)

The Cosmic Voice is proficent with all simple weapons. The Cosmic Voice is not proficient with any type of armor or shield.

Spells: The Cosmic Voice casts spells without preperation, as a sorcerer does. The Cosmic Voice learnes spells from the Wizard/Sorcerer list, but cannot learn spells from the schools of enchantment, illusion or necromancy. A Cosmic Voice's primary spellcasting attribute is Charisma.

Cosmic Voice Spells Known
{table=head]Level|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th

1st|3|1

2nd|4|1

3rd|4|2

4th|5|2|0*

5th|5|3|1

6th|6|3|1|0*

7th|6|4|2|1

8th|7|4|2|1|0*

9th|7|4|3|2|1

10th|8|4|3|2|1|0*

11th|8|4|4|3|2|1

12th|8|4|4|3|2|1|0*

13th|8|4|4|3|3|2|1

14th|8|4|4|3|3|2|1|0*

15th|8|4|4|3|3|3|2|1

16th|8|4|4|3|3|3|2|1|0*

17th|8|4|4|3|3|3|2|2|1

18th|8|4|4|3|3|3|2|2|1|0*

19th|8|4|4|3|3|3|2|2|2|1

20th|8|4|4|3|3|3|2|2|2|2[/table]

* indcates no spells gained at that level normaly, but can be gained through a high charisma.

Cosmic Meditation: A Cosmic Voice gains Cosmic Meditation at level one. This Ability works similarly to a Barbarian's rage. This Allows the Cosmic Voice to enter a medditative state, expanding his mind to fill the cosmos. When medditating, a Cosmic Voice gains +2 to Wisdom, +2 to Charisma, +1 Deflection Bonus to AC. During the meditation, the Cosmic Voice can only take 1 standard action per turn. The meditation lasts a number of turns equal to 3 plus your Wisdom modifier(including the improvement givin by the rage itself.) minimum of 1 turn.

Because returning to normal awarness is disorenting after such an experence the universe, the Cosmic Voice suffers a -2 penalty to Wisdom and Charisma for 1 hour after the meditation ends. You my only use Cosmic Meditation once per encounter. At level 1 you may use Cosmic Meditation once a day. This increases at level 5 and every 5 levels after that to 5 per day at level 20.

At level 11, the bonuses increase to +3 to wisdom, +3 to charisma, +2 deflection bonus to AC, and still -4 to Base attack. At level 20 they increase again to +4 to wisdom, + 4 to charisma, +3 deflection bonus to AC, and -4 attack.

With the increase in Charisma might come bonus spell slots, those slots are useable, but only during that rage. They disapear when the rage ends in a manner similar to temporary hit points. These extra spell slots are still counted as expended after the meditation ends, so they are still useable once per day like the normal ones. The charisma increase does not increase spells known however.

Manipulate Cosmos: At level 2, the Cosmic Voice gains the benifit of Manipulate Cosmos. When the Cosmic Voice enters meditation, he may chose one level 1 or lower spell known with a range of personal or touch and a duration other than instant or permanant. This spell is automaticaly in effect on the Cosmic Voice for the duration of the meditation as a supernatural ability, regardles of its normal duration. This spell does not use up a spell slot when activated, and may not be countered or dispelled. It is, however still subject to an antimagic field. The caster level of the spell is equal to half your Cosmic Voice Level. The spell used still performs normaly, the only change is to its duration(i.e. protection from energy will still discharge normaly) You must have all nessicary componets and focuses to use the spell. If the spell requires a xp payment, you must pay at the start of the meditation.

You may not chose a spell learned through a diferent class as your spell.
Manipulate Cosmos improves every 4 levels, increasing the level of spell allowed by one, to level 5 at 18.

Bonus Metamagic Feat: At the indicated Levels, the Cosmic Voice gains a bonus feat. This feat must be a metamagic feat that the Cosmic Voice qualifies for.

Metamagic Reduction: At level 8, an Cosmic Voice's power over magic during an meditation increases again. During an meditation, when using a metamagic feat, reduce the total level increase of the spell by one. For example, if you use a metamagic feat that would normaly increase the spell level by 4, the spell is increased by 3 instead. This cannot reduce the increase in level to less than one.

At level 12, this reduction increases to 2, and at 16 it increases to 3.

Soul of the Cosmos: At level 17 the Cosmic Voice gaines Soul of the Cosmos. While meditating the Cosmic Voice may use his hitpoints to pay for a spell instead of a spell slots. To do this you pay 1 hit point per level of the spell, including any metamagic feat increases. So a level 5 spell would cost 5 hit points to cast with this skill. When using this effect, you cannot spend enough hitpoints to reduce you to less than 1. You must pay for the entire spell. You cannot split it, paying for a level 6 spell with a level 3 slot and 3 hit points for example.


Well there it is. This is all i have for now. Im still trying to find something to do with those dead levels. I considered fast healing as an opposite to the barbarians damage reduction, but decided that would be too strong, especialy with spell overdrive.

Version 1.0 Posted 05-21-2007 (Still called arcane reaver)

Version 1.5 Posted 05-24-2007 (Changed Name and flavor, left mechanics the same except for a penalty added to the meditation skill)
Please post your comments, suggestions, ideas, ect. Remember, its my first time so be gentle.

[Wolfprint]

Interesting base class, I like it. I can really see all the golden flames and Goku-esque spiky hair now :smallwink:

However, I don't think the drawback for raging is enough. Barbarians gain a bonus to Strength and Constitution but at the expense of AC, plus they get winded at the end of the rage. Therefore barbarians in rage are put in a significantly improved position, but it is still balanced out by the mentioned negatives.

But Arcane Rage does not provide a significant drawback. There is no chance of being winded, and a -4 to BAB is inconsequential because spellcasters hardly attack anyways (unless it's a ranged touch attack, but I'm sure there are ways of getting around that).

Maybe you could include a disadvantage, like a decrease in spell DC for a couple of hours after raging to simulate the fatigue generated by the surge of arcane energy?

[Fizban]

It seems that you'd prefer a base class, but you could take a look at this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38898) version of the rage mage for inspiration. A CL bonus gives more easily tangible effects to most spells than a cha boost, though allowing the cha boost to provide "temporary spell slots" makes it much more useful.

I agree that an attack penalty makes little sense, especially it being a BAB penalty (which is never used, ever). A bonus to hit with rays would make more sense for a spell rage.

I'll check back tomorrow and see what others have posted, since I too like the rage mage style.

[DracoDei]

Initial off-the-cuff thoughts:
In general "It makes it more like DBZ" is an arguement NOT to do something in D&D... this class however, I like the fluff/feel of.
I agree that BAB may not be the place to hit them...

Some other sanity checks:
-I DON'T think you should get the bonus slot(s) from Charisma bonus of the Rage more than once per day. As it stands now that slot would seem to refresh every time you rage if you are high enough level to have access to those slots in the first place.
-Emphasize that Protection from Energy, Stone Skin, and ESPECIALLY True Strike still have their usual limits on when they run out that are independant of number of rounds that pass when used with the AutoSpell(which needs a better name)... Hmmm... could you save a True Strike for a later round if you wanted to (but still only use it once)?

[Lord_Thanatos95]

Thanks for the early feedback. I actualy had intended to have the fatigue in there, so i guess i forgot to put it in. Ill get that fixed. As for the cost, one of the things i had done is not make the stat gains as large as a barbarian. I felt that the gains were much greater when it was spellcasting stats that were going up.

As for names, Yea, I could use better ones for just about all the skills so if you have any suggestions feel free to post them.

[Lord_Thanatos95]

I just came up with a new flavor bent for this charecter, so i will be rewrighting the entry shortly. It sould help me come up with some names for the skills also.

[Imrix.]

Is it me, or these guys have MORE spells than a sorceror?

[Lord_Thanatos95]

Is it me, or these guys have MORE spells than a sorceror?

Actualy, he has less. When making the spell lists i used the sorcerer's spells know list, but subtracted 1 spell from each level at each level. the spell per day list is the wizards, but with 1 spell added at each level. So he gets more spells than a wizard, but less than a sorcerer, plus he has 3 schools he cant use.

[Lord Iames Osari]

Interesting class. Mechanically it seems fairly sound; I'm not sure what I think of the flavor quite yet.

Just one thing: In several of the abilities, you make reference to "arcane rage", but never explain what it is. You want to fix that.

[Wolfprint]

Arcane rage was from his previous post, but he changed that to cosmic awareness already.

I think mechanically, it's very similar to a barbarian, but flavour-wise, it seems to be a total about-turn; he gets more contemplative and meditative with the use of his "rage". But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

[onxy9600]

so why doesn't the rage just boost damage spells for the few rounds a normal "rage" boosts combat ability?

[Wolfprint]

Actually, Cosmic Awareness is really far from a barbarian's raging, flavour-wise. Why not take it a step further and call it "Trancing", or something similar? It would present an interesting dichotomy to a barbarian's wild abandon.

[Lord_Thanatos95]

Interesting class. Mechanically it seems fairly sound; I'm not sure what I think of the flavor quite yet.

Just one thing: In several of the abilities, you make reference to "arcane rage", but never explain what it is. You want to fix that.

sorry about those holdovers, I guess I missed some...

[Lord_Thanatos95]

About the flavor, yea it is an about face. The basic idea was to make a spell caster with a similar mechanic to a barbarian's rage. You get a temproray boost to what matters to you most. For the spellcaster it was spell stats. a simple boost to damage dealing spells actualy wouldnt work out as well I think. First of all, what about all the non damaging spells? Second, I wanted an increase to total power level, which raising the stats does, increasing things like saving throws.

Im gonna try designing a charecter with this class at levels 10, 15 and 20 to see how it works out. Ill post the results. Let me know what you think.

[Inyssius Tor]

Actually, Cosmic Awareness is really far from a barbarian's raging, flavour-wise. Why not take it a step further and call it "Trancing", or something similar? It would present an interesting dichotomy to a barbarian's wild abandon.

Because elves sleep when they "trance." :smallwink:

[Lord_Thanatos95]

Because elves sleep when they "trance." :smallwink:

Also, the idea is they meditate on the nature of the cosmos, gaining insight into the working of magick. Thats how they can use metamagics at reduced cost, by looking for cosmic "shortcuts".