3.5 Zendikar

[Buufreak]

Hey guys,

So I feel like I wrote about this before, and tried to get a little help from the homebrew section, but wasn't exactly feeling an idea I had. Like, I enjoy the concept, but not 100% on everything about it. So here it goes!

The Ghostmage: a character of unspecified 3rd level casting (logically a wizard, druid, or cleric), who is specialized in use of invisible spell and spell piercing, with a capstone of a draconic alternate form. That is as far as I can get alone, and have no idea what to fill in the rest with, although I did start with a template of the void disciple, 13 levels, lost caster levels and all. So how would you guys balance this out and make it viable and fun to use?

[Snowbluff]

Well, if you're planeswalker, you can be an outsider, right?

How about a beguiler? They get stealthy spells and skills. After that, pick up the Murohandi Divine Minion template to get WildShape, which will qualify you for Dragon Wild Shape (Draconomicon) .

[atomicwaffle]

Planeswalker

You mean Horizon Walker, right? Taking the first level in horizon walker could be when your spark ignites.

[Buufreak]

Crap. I totally forgot to mention I was trying to design a new prestige class around this. Sorry for the lack of clarity or confusion.

[ExLibrisMortis]

3.5 Invisible Spell and PF Piercing Spell are +0 and +1 metamagic feats, but all Piercing Spell does is add +5 to overcome SR. It's easier to add 1/2 class level to caster level checks to overcome SR.

Also have a look at the Beguiler ability, Cloaked Casting, which grants a bonus to save DCs and to overcome SR if the target of your spell is flat-footed.

Ghost Mage
Requirements: Invisible Spell, Knowledge (arcana) 8 ranks, and one of: Spellcraft 8 ranks and the ability to cast third-level spells, or Psicraft 8 ranks and the ability to manifest third-level powers
d6 hit die, good will save, half base attack, 2+int skill points/level, 8/10 casting or manifesting, losing a level at 6 and 10.

At level 1, you may add half your class level (at least 1) to caster level checks to overcome spell resistance and to manifester level checks to overcome power resistance.
At level 3, you get the dragonblood subtype, and you may increase your intelligence, wisdom or charisma by two points (player's choice).
At level 5, every spell you cast is automatically Invisible, as if you had applied the Invisible Spell metamagic feat, but without increasing the casting time or having been prepared ahead of time. You no longer need to make Concentration checks to hide the displays of psionic powers you manifest; they are automatically hidden. You can choose to cast a spell or manifest a power without the benefit of this ability; to do so does not take any specific action, it is part of casting the spell or manifesting the power.
At level 7, when casting a spell that affects a creature, you get the ability to overcome that creature's defences. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to your class level plus your primary spellcasting or manifesting modifier. If you have multiple primary spellcasting modifiers, like a wizard/cleric, you can choose which modifier to use. Using this ability is part of casting the spell and requires no action, but the use of this ability must be declared in advance. If the target does not have the defence(s) you are automatically overcoming, the uses are still expended.
When casting a spell using this ability, you can ignore one of the creature's following defences, for that spell, and the attack(s) made to deliver the spell only:
Any bonus on saving throws or AC versus a specific type of attacks, such as an elf's racial bonus versus enchantment spells, or the bonus granted by a dwarf's racial stability trait
Concealment
Cover
Damage reduction
Energy resistance
Evasion
Mettle
Miss chance (from blur or similar) of 25% or less
Power resistance
Spell resistance
Uncanny dodgeBy spending two uses of this ability, you can ignore one of the creature's following defences, for that spell, and the attack(s) made to deliver the spell only:

Bludgeoning damage immunity
Energy immunity
Immunity to a specific spell, ability, or effect, like a zombie's immunity to mind-affecting effects, or immunity to fireball conferred by a globe of invulnerability
Immunity to Magic (Ex), as the golem ability
Improved Evasion
Improved Mettle //not in the game anywhere, I believe
Improved Uncanny Dodge
Miss chance over 25%
Piercing damage immunity
Regeneration (the spell deals lethal damage, regardless of its damage type)
Slashing damage immunity
Total concealment
Total coverOvercoming multiple defences on a given creature expends uses for each defence separately, and overcoming defences on different creatures expends uses for each creature separately. If you use this ability to cast fireball on six devils, ignoring their fire immunity, you expend twelve uses at once.
The ability to bypass total concealment does not allow you to target a creature or square you cannot otherwise target; this ability merely allows you to avoid the 50% miss chance resulting from this condition. You still need to target the correct square to affect a creature with total concealment from you.
You can use the ability to bypass total cover to target a creature or square behind a wall or other obstacle, as long as you can see the target, for example, an enemy behind a thick glass window. You can even use this together with the ability to avoid total concealment to target a creature you cannot see behind an obstacle, such as an enemy hiding behind a pillar (but if you target the wrong square, you waste four uses of this ability). However, you can't bypass a barrier that would block a detect magic spell, that is, a barrier of at least 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.
At level 9, you get one of the following subtypes:
Air
Cold
Earth
Fire
WaterIn addition, your strength, dexterity or constitution score increases by 2 (player's choice).
At level 10, your type changes to dragon, and you get the Alternate Form (Su) ability, as the gold dragon ability, except that you can only take the form of a specific kind of dragon with up to 10 HD. You must pick a dragon form that has the subtype you picked at level 9, and you always change into the same dragon, so you are as individually recognizable to dragons as specific humans are to other humans.

Might want to rephrase that level 7 ability a bit, especially. And I don't guarantee anything balance-wise, especially with regards to that ability.

Edit: I'll clean this up in a bit.

Editedit: Cleaned. Balance is still very iffy - in TO, the ability to bypass any defence is crazy overpowered useful, but in lower-OP games, it works out to Searing Spell a couple of times per day. If it's too strong for your game, you can ask for a spellcraft/psicraft check, with a DC based on the creature's HD and the number of defences to ignore, or perhaps a CL check versus the CL of each effect to be overcome (or the creature's HD if there is no CL).

[Buufreak]

*Snip

Dude, this is amazing! I will have to mod the slightest bit to make it fit in thematically and story wise, but I love every bit. You are a huge help, and I can't thank you enough. Mind if I PM you later with any of my other planar questions? MTG is vast, with dozens of worlds filled with its own level of crazy.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Dude, this is amazing! I will have to mod the slightest bit to make it fit in thematically and story wise, but I love every bit. You are a huge help, and I can't thank you enough. Mind if I PM you later with any of my other planar questions? MTG is vast, with dozens of worlds filled with its own level of crazy.
Thank you, I'm glad it suits. You are welcome to PM me on general principle, but I haven't the least lesser clue about MTG specifically :smalltongue:.

[DarkSoul]

Well, if you're planeswalker, you can be an outsider, right?I think becoming a planeswalker in the M:tG setting would make you a native outsider, as all of them that are a possibly-playable race came from somewhere. Whether it's via template or prestige class would be up to the DM running the game. I think I'd lean more toward a template, personally.

So the Ghostmage PrC is related to Ugin, somehow? That's the feeling I get from the OP's description. I haven't looked into the storyline of Return to Zendikar so I don't know if that's where you're drawing your inspiration from or not. The original Zendikar felt a lot like Eberron in M:tG though. Xen'drik specifically.

[Buufreak]

I think becoming a planeswalker in the M:tG setting would make you a native outsider, as all of them that are a possibly-playable race came from somewhere. Whether it's via template or prestige class would be up to the DM running the game. I think I'd lean more toward a template, personally.

So the Ghostmage PrC is related to Ugin, somehow? That's the feeling I get from the OP's description. I haven't looked into the storyline of Return to Zendikar so I don't know if that's where you're drawing your inspiration from or not. The original Zendikar felt a lot like Eberron in M:tG though. Xen'drik specifically.

I'm pulling alot more from the first Zendikar block, because as of now there is more material to work with. But yes, I am basing it generally on the path Sarkhan Vol took, after obtaining the Dragon Scroll and learning of Ugin the Spirit Dragon. Also, I would agree that Planeswalker would be either a template or prestige capstone with outsider type and native to your home plane.

[DarkSoul]

I'm pulling alot more from the first Zendikar block, because as of now there is more material to work with. But yes, I am basing it generally on the path Sarkhan Vol took, after obtaining the Dragon Scroll and learning of Ugin the Spirit Dragon. Also, I would agree that Planeswalker would be either a template or prestige capstone with outsider type and native to your home plane. Are there any iconic abilities for this PrC that come from cards in ZEN block? The only one I can think of that relates directly to Ugin is Ghostfire, from Future Sight. That would convert to a blast of raw arcane energy, along the lines of the archmage ability, since it's fire that's not stopped by resistance to fire. Either that or tone it down a bit and treat it as Hellfire from FC2.

That's where I usually start when I'm working on a Magic conversion. My pet project in this vein is Ravnica.

[Buufreak]

Are there any iconic abilities for this PrC that come from cards in ZEN block? The only one I can think of that relates directly to Ugin is Ghostfire, from Future Sight. That would convert to a blast of raw arcane energy, along the lines of the archmage ability, since it's fire that's not stopped by resistance to fire. Either that or tone it down a bit and treat it as Hellfire from FC2.

That's where I usually start when I'm working on a Magic conversion. My pet project in this vein is Ravnica.

Oh how I tried Ravnica, but some of the deepest things I could get into it was guild based feats that increased in power as you worked up in ranks. I found so much already existed in 3.5 and didn't need a reworking.

The ghostfire was a huge inspiration for ghostmage, but so was many of Sarkhan's abilities, which I believe he didn't receive until working for dragons like Ugin and Nicol Bolas, such as his dragon transformation, his flight, and most of his fire spells. But I wanted to leave it wide open for anyone to use, not just flame adepts and pyromancers. If you like, I can post all that I have managed thus far (though truth be told, most of it is combinations of classes and reworks, like giving the barbarian whirling frenzy in place of rage, as well as a ranger-like weapon style tree). I also, about a year ago, felt like statting out the Eldrazi spawn and drones. They were fun.