SilverStud
2016-01-06, 06:13 PM
So this class is something I'm designing at the request of my DM. I'm going for a concept I haven't seen before. If a wizard is a fullcaster, a paladin is a halfcaster, and eldritch knights are partcasters, then what I'm going for is a three-quarter caster.
I've seen in other threads people discussing the balance of things like Extra Attack, citing examples like the "bladelock" and the Valor bard. Rest assured, I am aware of these.
I took influences from a couple different classes. From the warlock we have the 5th-level-spell cutoff, with one 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level spell coming at appropriate levels. From the barbarian's Path of the Totem Warrior I've got the three-tiered choose-a-feature thing.
Also, I'll make the fun little "consider-this-when-making-a-runemaster" thing later. Just mechanics for now.
Anyway, all that said, here we go!
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d8 per runemaster level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Con
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8(or 5) plus your Con per runemaster level
Proficiencies
Saving Throws: Con, Int
Level
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
1st
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
2nd
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
3rd
4
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
4th
4
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
5th
4
3
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
6th
4
3
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
7th
4
3
3
1
-
-
-
-
-
8th
4
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
-
9th
4
3
3
3
1
-
-
-
-
10th
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
11th
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
12th
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
13th
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
14th
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
15th
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
16th
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
17th
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
18th
4
3
3
3
3
-
-
-
-
19th
4
3
3
3
3
-
-
-
-
20th
4
3
3
3
3
-
-
-
-
1st Level
Spellcasting
Progresses the same as wizard, with two exceptions: spell slots cap at 5th level slots, and no cantrips.
Ability: Intelligence
Starting Proficiencies
Armor: light OR medium
Weapons: simple, and three martial weapons of your choice
Tools: smiths' or woodcarvers' tools
Skills: Choose two from Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Athletics, Nature
Spellcasting
Studying runes confers upon you magical ability. Runes are quite concise, and a Runic Weapon will have plenty of room for your spells, growing more and more covered in symbols as your repertoire expands. You choose spells from the runeseeker spell list (list not made yet).
Runic Weapon
When you choose this class, you gain a Runic Weapon, already engraved with six spells from the runemaster list. This weapon functions as a spellbook as well as a weapon. To prepare spells from your Runic Weapon and to benefit from any passive effects, you must be attuned to it.
You can create another Runic Weapon. It must be created from scratch, as magic must be infused from the beginning. This is a lengthy process, even though magic speeds up the physical side considerably: 720 hours of work, done in three phases of 240, no less than six hours each day. A 240-hour phase must be completed in an unbroken string of days, but you may pause indefinitely between phases. You must also pay a cost in gold determined by your DM, to pay for special materials.
Each level you may add one spell to your runic weapon, a process which takes two hours per spell level. You must be capable of casting the new spell.
Your Runic Weapon is your spellcasting focus. In addition, you may use the hand holding your Runic Weapon to perform the somatic component of spells.
Runic Recovery
You have learned to absorb some magical energy from your runes. Once per day, you can spend 1 hour concentrating only on one of your Runic Weapons. You regain spell slot levels equal to half your runemaster level. You cannot regain a spell slot of higher level than the highest spell on that weapon using this feature, even if you normally have such slots.
Eyes of a Rune Seeker
You have advantage on History checks directly related to the buildings and carvings of ancient cultures. You also have advantage on Perception and Investigation checks made to find runes.
2nd Level:
Elemental Infusion
You have learned an Infusion Rune. It takes two hours to inscribe this rune onto your Runic Weapon.
When you make a weapon attack with the Infusion Rune'd weapon, you may expend a spell slot. For each slot level you deal 1d6 extra damage. The damage is your choice of lightning, fire, or cold.
Fighting Style
Pick Archery, Dueling, Great Weapon, or Dual-Wielding
Bonded Weapon
The bond between you and your Runic Weapon(s) has improved. At any time, no action required, you may shunt one of your Runic Weapons into a pocket dimension. You may, as a bonus action, summon a Runic Weapon from there into your hand, but only one at a time.
3rd Level:
Eyes of the Runekeeper
You can read all written languages.
Scholar of Ancient Runes
You have focused your energy on finding the most ancient and powerful runic secrets. Choose two runes from the Ancient Runes list to add to your weapon. These runes take two hours to inscribe, unless otherwise specified.
You become proficient in the History skill, if you aren't already. If you are, double your proficiency bonus for all History checks. You gain additional features at 6th, 10th, and 14th level.
Scholar of Battle Runes
The runes you seek to master are ancient, yes, but they grant more pragmatic magic. Choose two runes from the Battle Runes list to add to your weapon. These runes take two hours to inscribe, unless otherwise specified.
You gain proficiency in one additional martial weapon. You gain additional features at 6th, 10th, and 14th level.
4th Level:
Ability Score Improvement
6th Level:
Highly Attuned
You gain one extra attunement slot. This slot can only be used to attune a Runic Weapon.
Ancient Rune Scholar Feature
-Serious Scholar
--You have learned how to read arcane spell notation in spell books, and how to translate that into runes. If you find spell scrolls or books, you may copy those spells onto your Runic Weapon, following the inscription rules.
-Additional Rune
--Pick an additional Ancient Rune from the list.
Battle Rune Scholar Feature
-Extra Attack
--You may attack twice, instead of once, when you take the Attack Action.
-Additional Rune
--Pick an additional Battle Rune from the list.
Magic Weapon
Your Runic Weapon(s) count as magical for bypassing resistance and immunity.
8th Level:
Ability Score Improvement
10th Level:
Ancient Rune Scholar Feature
-Additional Runes
--Choose two additional runes from the Ancient Runes list.
Battle Rune Scholar Feature
-Additional Runes
--Choose two additional runes from the Battle Runes list.
11th Level:
Power Rune
All runes hold magical power, but some allow access to even greater power. You have discovered one such rune. Choose one 6th level spell from the runemaster spell list. This spell is your Power Rune. The Power Rune takes 12 hours to engrave onto a Runic Weapon. Once this Power Rune has been used to cast its spell, it becomes inert and regains use at dawn the next day.
As long as your Power Rune is NOT inert, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls.
12th Level:
Ability Score Improvement
13th Level:
Great Power Rune
All runes hold magical power, but some allow access to even greater power. You have discovered one such rune. Choose one 7th level spell from the runemaster spell list. This spell is your Great Power Rune. The Great Power Rune takes 14 hours to engrave onto a Great Runic Weapon. Once this Great Power Rune has been used to cast its spell, it becomes inert and regains use at dawn the next day.
As long as your Great Power Rune is NOT inert, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls.
14th Level:
Ancient Rune Scholar Feature
-Additional Runes
--Choose two additional runes from the Ancient Runes list.
Battle Rune Scholar Feature
-Additional Runes
--Choose two additional runes from the Battle Runes list.
15th Level:
Penultimate Rune
All runes hold magical power, but some allow access to even greater power. You have discovered one such rune. Choose one 8th level spell from the runemaster spell list. This spell is your Penultimate Rune. The Penultimate Rune takes 16 hours to engrave onto a Penultimate Weapon. Once this Penultimate Rune has been used to cast its spell, all iterations of your Penultimate Rune become inert and regain use at dawn the next day.
As long as your Great Power Rune is NOT inert, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls.
16th Level:
Ability Score Improvement
17th Level:
Ultimate Rune
All runes hold magical power, but some allow access to even greater power. You have discovered one such rune. Choose one 9th level spell from the runemaster spell list. This spell is your Ultimate Rune. The Ultimate Rune takes 18 hours to engrave onto a Ultimate Weapon. Once this Ultimate Rune has been used to cast its spell, all iterations of your Ultimate Rune become inert and regain use at dawn the next day.
As long as your Ultimate Rune is NOT inert, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls.
19th Level:
Ability Score Improvement
Per an excellent suggestion, I will be making two Rune Lists, which will function very much like the Invocations from the Warlock.
Also the spell list. But yeah. What do you guys think?
I've seen in other threads people discussing the balance of things like Extra Attack, citing examples like the "bladelock" and the Valor bard. Rest assured, I am aware of these.
I took influences from a couple different classes. From the warlock we have the 5th-level-spell cutoff, with one 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level spell coming at appropriate levels. From the barbarian's Path of the Totem Warrior I've got the three-tiered choose-a-feature thing.
Also, I'll make the fun little "consider-this-when-making-a-runemaster" thing later. Just mechanics for now.
Anyway, all that said, here we go!
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d8 per runemaster level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Con
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8(or 5) plus your Con per runemaster level
Proficiencies
Saving Throws: Con, Int
Level
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
1st
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
2nd
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
3rd
4
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
4th
4
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
5th
4
3
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
6th
4
3
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
7th
4
3
3
1
-
-
-
-
-
8th
4
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
-
9th
4
3
3
3
1
-
-
-
-
10th
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
11th
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
12th
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
13th
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
14th
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
15th
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
16th
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
17th
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
18th
4
3
3
3
3
-
-
-
-
19th
4
3
3
3
3
-
-
-
-
20th
4
3
3
3
3
-
-
-
-
1st Level
Spellcasting
Progresses the same as wizard, with two exceptions: spell slots cap at 5th level slots, and no cantrips.
Ability: Intelligence
Starting Proficiencies
Armor: light OR medium
Weapons: simple, and three martial weapons of your choice
Tools: smiths' or woodcarvers' tools
Skills: Choose two from Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Athletics, Nature
Spellcasting
Studying runes confers upon you magical ability. Runes are quite concise, and a Runic Weapon will have plenty of room for your spells, growing more and more covered in symbols as your repertoire expands. You choose spells from the runeseeker spell list (list not made yet).
Runic Weapon
When you choose this class, you gain a Runic Weapon, already engraved with six spells from the runemaster list. This weapon functions as a spellbook as well as a weapon. To prepare spells from your Runic Weapon and to benefit from any passive effects, you must be attuned to it.
You can create another Runic Weapon. It must be created from scratch, as magic must be infused from the beginning. This is a lengthy process, even though magic speeds up the physical side considerably: 720 hours of work, done in three phases of 240, no less than six hours each day. A 240-hour phase must be completed in an unbroken string of days, but you may pause indefinitely between phases. You must also pay a cost in gold determined by your DM, to pay for special materials.
Each level you may add one spell to your runic weapon, a process which takes two hours per spell level. You must be capable of casting the new spell.
Your Runic Weapon is your spellcasting focus. In addition, you may use the hand holding your Runic Weapon to perform the somatic component of spells.
Runic Recovery
You have learned to absorb some magical energy from your runes. Once per day, you can spend 1 hour concentrating only on one of your Runic Weapons. You regain spell slot levels equal to half your runemaster level. You cannot regain a spell slot of higher level than the highest spell on that weapon using this feature, even if you normally have such slots.
Eyes of a Rune Seeker
You have advantage on History checks directly related to the buildings and carvings of ancient cultures. You also have advantage on Perception and Investigation checks made to find runes.
2nd Level:
Elemental Infusion
You have learned an Infusion Rune. It takes two hours to inscribe this rune onto your Runic Weapon.
When you make a weapon attack with the Infusion Rune'd weapon, you may expend a spell slot. For each slot level you deal 1d6 extra damage. The damage is your choice of lightning, fire, or cold.
Fighting Style
Pick Archery, Dueling, Great Weapon, or Dual-Wielding
Bonded Weapon
The bond between you and your Runic Weapon(s) has improved. At any time, no action required, you may shunt one of your Runic Weapons into a pocket dimension. You may, as a bonus action, summon a Runic Weapon from there into your hand, but only one at a time.
3rd Level:
Eyes of the Runekeeper
You can read all written languages.
Scholar of Ancient Runes
You have focused your energy on finding the most ancient and powerful runic secrets. Choose two runes from the Ancient Runes list to add to your weapon. These runes take two hours to inscribe, unless otherwise specified.
You become proficient in the History skill, if you aren't already. If you are, double your proficiency bonus for all History checks. You gain additional features at 6th, 10th, and 14th level.
Scholar of Battle Runes
The runes you seek to master are ancient, yes, but they grant more pragmatic magic. Choose two runes from the Battle Runes list to add to your weapon. These runes take two hours to inscribe, unless otherwise specified.
You gain proficiency in one additional martial weapon. You gain additional features at 6th, 10th, and 14th level.
4th Level:
Ability Score Improvement
6th Level:
Highly Attuned
You gain one extra attunement slot. This slot can only be used to attune a Runic Weapon.
Ancient Rune Scholar Feature
-Serious Scholar
--You have learned how to read arcane spell notation in spell books, and how to translate that into runes. If you find spell scrolls or books, you may copy those spells onto your Runic Weapon, following the inscription rules.
-Additional Rune
--Pick an additional Ancient Rune from the list.
Battle Rune Scholar Feature
-Extra Attack
--You may attack twice, instead of once, when you take the Attack Action.
-Additional Rune
--Pick an additional Battle Rune from the list.
Magic Weapon
Your Runic Weapon(s) count as magical for bypassing resistance and immunity.
8th Level:
Ability Score Improvement
10th Level:
Ancient Rune Scholar Feature
-Additional Runes
--Choose two additional runes from the Ancient Runes list.
Battle Rune Scholar Feature
-Additional Runes
--Choose two additional runes from the Battle Runes list.
11th Level:
Power Rune
All runes hold magical power, but some allow access to even greater power. You have discovered one such rune. Choose one 6th level spell from the runemaster spell list. This spell is your Power Rune. The Power Rune takes 12 hours to engrave onto a Runic Weapon. Once this Power Rune has been used to cast its spell, it becomes inert and regains use at dawn the next day.
As long as your Power Rune is NOT inert, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls.
12th Level:
Ability Score Improvement
13th Level:
Great Power Rune
All runes hold magical power, but some allow access to even greater power. You have discovered one such rune. Choose one 7th level spell from the runemaster spell list. This spell is your Great Power Rune. The Great Power Rune takes 14 hours to engrave onto a Great Runic Weapon. Once this Great Power Rune has been used to cast its spell, it becomes inert and regains use at dawn the next day.
As long as your Great Power Rune is NOT inert, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls.
14th Level:
Ancient Rune Scholar Feature
-Additional Runes
--Choose two additional runes from the Ancient Runes list.
Battle Rune Scholar Feature
-Additional Runes
--Choose two additional runes from the Battle Runes list.
15th Level:
Penultimate Rune
All runes hold magical power, but some allow access to even greater power. You have discovered one such rune. Choose one 8th level spell from the runemaster spell list. This spell is your Penultimate Rune. The Penultimate Rune takes 16 hours to engrave onto a Penultimate Weapon. Once this Penultimate Rune has been used to cast its spell, all iterations of your Penultimate Rune become inert and regain use at dawn the next day.
As long as your Great Power Rune is NOT inert, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls.
16th Level:
Ability Score Improvement
17th Level:
Ultimate Rune
All runes hold magical power, but some allow access to even greater power. You have discovered one such rune. Choose one 9th level spell from the runemaster spell list. This spell is your Ultimate Rune. The Ultimate Rune takes 18 hours to engrave onto a Ultimate Weapon. Once this Ultimate Rune has been used to cast its spell, all iterations of your Ultimate Rune become inert and regain use at dawn the next day.
As long as your Ultimate Rune is NOT inert, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls.
19th Level:
Ability Score Improvement
Per an excellent suggestion, I will be making two Rune Lists, which will function very much like the Invocations from the Warlock.
Also the spell list. But yeah. What do you guys think?