Bobby Baratheon
2016-03-22, 01:11 PM
Pyrokineticist is one of the more maligned prestige classes out there, and for good reason. It's abilities are gaudy, but you'd be much better off simply being a psion and using fire attacks. I was reading through a handbook the other day, and it occurred to me that the Pyrokineticist's at will ranged attack, bolt of fire, is almost identical to the warlock's eldritch blast. In fact, they are worded similarly, have the same range, are both touch attacks, and are both at will. Warlock's eldritch blast is not exactly a heavy hitter, and it occurred to me that these two classes could, with a slight adjustment, blend together quite well, making pyrokineticist more useful in general.
My idea is this:
-Specify that bolt of fire can be used as a blast essence, with the same damage amount (it's fire damage, don't get too worked up over it)
-Pyrokineticist has an alternate requirement to the power point reserve; let's say it's access to lesser invocations. I could probably come up with a better prereq, but I'm not really feeling it. Brimstone blast is an idea, but bolt of fire would overshadow it. Also, why shouldn't fire-based DFA's be allowed in?
-Pyrokineticist now advances invocations at least every other level, starting at 1st (I think it should also advance casting/manifesting, but that's a separate issue)
-All of the psionic abilities would have to become supernatural or spell-like
This would significantly up the Warlock's damage, but unless you give them access to searing spell on their bolt of fire for some silly reason, it's not going to break the game. Most everything at higher levels has fire resistance, so overcoming that reduces the bonus damage. The plus side is the warlock gets to be that much more awesome, especially when combined with hellfire warlock. I think a bevy of fire based abilities and a souped up Eldritch blast are a fair trade for losing out on the higher level Warlock class features and a slowed invocation progression. I think it also makes Pyrokineticist more playable.
What are your thoughts? Would this be unbalanced or just about right?
My idea is this:
-Specify that bolt of fire can be used as a blast essence, with the same damage amount (it's fire damage, don't get too worked up over it)
-Pyrokineticist has an alternate requirement to the power point reserve; let's say it's access to lesser invocations. I could probably come up with a better prereq, but I'm not really feeling it. Brimstone blast is an idea, but bolt of fire would overshadow it. Also, why shouldn't fire-based DFA's be allowed in?
-Pyrokineticist now advances invocations at least every other level, starting at 1st (I think it should also advance casting/manifesting, but that's a separate issue)
-All of the psionic abilities would have to become supernatural or spell-like
This would significantly up the Warlock's damage, but unless you give them access to searing spell on their bolt of fire for some silly reason, it's not going to break the game. Most everything at higher levels has fire resistance, so overcoming that reduces the bonus damage. The plus side is the warlock gets to be that much more awesome, especially when combined with hellfire warlock. I think a bevy of fire based abilities and a souped up Eldritch blast are a fair trade for losing out on the higher level Warlock class features and a slowed invocation progression. I think it also makes Pyrokineticist more playable.
What are your thoughts? Would this be unbalanced or just about right?