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Seltsamuel
2016-04-11, 11:04 AM
Good morning Playground!

I am currently crafting a homebrew class with said abilities from the title. I am aiming for a powerful T2-3 class fitting the theme of the new shaman ( http://tamrielvault.com/group/general-game-building/forum/topics/baldur-s-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-shaman-class-thoughts?xg_source=activity ) class of Baldurs Gate. On my table I use the synergy feats created by Frozen_Feet (extended by a lot of other feats made by for example Ziegander) and many class reworks from T.G. Oscar, Grod_The_Giant and many other things hopefully increasing the utility options of my players.


I am not sure about some things and by others I request a little help.

1. Is Full caster progression to much when you can summon a lot of weak creatures per round?
2. Is -3 Hp per HD to much for useful (but rapidly dieing) summons? They get a small DR but at lvl 6+ this become rather useless, though
3. Should I fill up the rest of the levels, too? If yes, do you have any good ideas (Because I have a small idea block)?
4. Should I shuffle things up or change them?
5. Is 3/4 BaB to much atop of 9th level casting and free summons? Probably yes, I guess. This would be the first thing I consider ditching :smallconfused:
6. Should I do alternate class features for demon/ devil lovers? Is it overkill to summon demons/devils/whatever for free when they are weakened?
7. -10. Did I forget any crucial items? :smallredface:


A little explanation to my thoughts buidling the class. I wanted to catch the spirits of the shaman class and add some power to it. In the game the shaman is kind of meh, only standing around and having buggy minion :smallconfused: The bread and butter of this class should be its Spirit Dance ability. The bonus feats are added because my players love juggling with feats and planing stuff. What I personally like is sacrificing resources like spells per day to fuel other abilities.




Spirit Bearer
http://img12.deviantart.net/02f0/i/2006/191/0/f/druid_with_plant_minions_by_thegryph.jpg
Source: http://img12.deviantart.net/02f0/i/2006/191/0/f/druid_with_plant_minions_by_thegryph.jpg

I wouldn´t annoy the fey living here if I was you


Spirit Bearers guide natural tribes through their harsh life. They commune with the fey in the woods to gather wood or barter with the water elementals for an easy catch. They gain their powers through nature itself and use them to help and protect said nature. A Spirit Bearer ussually tries to achieve a symbiosis between their volk and nature itself. On the other side, they defend both sides against each other if it has to be.

Adventures: Spirit Bearers sometimes are contacted by spirits. They gain a quest to travel to hidden ancient ruins, restoring an altar of a nature god. Others try to calm down the spirits disturbed by their tribe or they try to satisfy their curiosity regadring the world outside of their region. Some Spirit Bearers are on their journey to retrieve magical or mundane artefacts, stolen from a natural temple or their tribe itself.

Characteristics: Spirit Bearers are proficient in communicating with spirits or handling them. They cast spontanous divine spells oriented to help and protect their environment and tribe. They are often their tribe´s only defence against extraplanars and feys. Depending on the area of Spirit Bearer tend to summon different creatures with their spirit dance ability. One from mountains tend summon earth elementals, eagles and the like while Spirit Bearer from a tribe near an ocean summon water elementals or octopi.
Spirit Bearers try to avoid carrying items offending the spirits.

Alignment: Ballancing nature with their tribes requires a neutral view of the world. Spirit Bearers follow the idea of natural ballance and see no harm in the ways how nature deals with things. As such they have to be neutral on at least on the alignment axis.

Religion: Spirit Bearer pray to the different spirits of the land. They worship different powerful extraplanars or fey. Depending on the location of their tribe a Spirit Bearer worships powerful water elementals on the coast or earth elementals in the mountains. Seldomly you see a Spirit Bearer mentioning a god in their prayers.

Background: Spirit Bearers learn how to interact with the nature and spirits by their tutor in their young age. Children are often brought to an elder Spirit Bearer when someone thinks they are touched by the spirits. In other societies they become wizards or sorcerers.

Races: All races forming tribes brought up at least one Spirit Bearer. Most of the wild races have more Spirit Bearers then city dwelling races.

Other Classes: Spirit Bearer get along very well with druids, rangers or barbarians. They work well together with nature loving characters. Their usual lack of understanding of gods and temples make it hard for them to work with paladins or clerics. Their desire for ballance helpf them to work with others when the goal is the right.

Role: Spirit Bearers are capable summoners. Their spell casting allows them to substitue other divine spell casters and are capable of strengthening their party members just like them.

Adaptation: Spirit Bearers can be adapted as priests of natural gods or keepers of ballance, coworking with druids and others with the same goal.

GAME RULE INFORMATION
Spirit Bearer's have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Wisdom and Charisma are important for her spell casting and class abilities. Constituition is helfpful for taking a beating and Dexterity increases her AC while dancing.
Alignment: Neutral good, lawful neutral, neutral, chaotic neutral, or neutral evil
Hit Die: d6
Starting Age: As Druid
Starting Gold: As Druid

Class Skills
Spirit Bearer skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Knowledge (Nature) (Int),Knowledge (Planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha) Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str) and Use Rope (Dex).

Skill Points at First Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Spirit Bearer

Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
Slots
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9


1st

+0


+2



+0


+2

Animal Companion

5
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0


2nd

+1


+3



+0


+3

Detect Spirits, Spiritual Guidance

6
4
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0


3rd

+1



+3



+1


+3

Touched by ancient powers

6
5
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0


4th

+2



+4



+1


+4

Spirit Dance

6
6
5
0
0
0
0

0
0
0


5th

+2



+4



+1


+4

Bonus Feat

6
6
5
3
0
0
0
0
0
0


6th

+3



+5



+2


+5

Fortified Spirits

6
6
6
5

0

0
0
0
0
0


7th

+3



+5



+2


+5

Skilled Spirit Dance

6
6
6
5

3
0
0
0
0
0


8th

+4



+6



+2


+6

Empowered by ancient spirits

6
6
6
6
4
0
0
0
0
0


9th

+4



+6



+3


+6

Answering Spirits

6
6
6
6
5
3
0
0
0
0


10th

+5



+7



+3


+7

Bonus Feat

6
6
6
6
6
4
0
0
0
0


11th

+5



+7



+3


+7

Masterful Spirit Dance

6
6
6
6
6
5
3
0
0
0


12th

+6/+1



+8



+4


+8

Banish Spirits

6
6
6
6
6
6
4
0
0
0


13th

+6/+1



+8



+4


+8

Vitalized Spirits

6
6
6
6
6
6
5
3
0
0


14th

+7/+2



+9



+4


+9


Ferocious Spirit Guardian

6
6
6
6
6
6
6
4
0
0


15th

+7/+2



+9



+5


+9

Bonus Feat

6
6
6
6
6
6
6
5
3
0


16th

+8/+3



+10



+5


+10

Perfected Spirit Dance

6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
4
0


17th

+8/+3



+10



+5


+10

Hidden by Spirits

6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
5
3


18th

+9/+4



+11



+6


+11

Stalwart Spirit Guardians

6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
4


19th

+9/+4



+11



+6


+11



6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
5


20th

+10/+5



+12



+6


+12

Bonus Feat, Supreme Spirit Dance

6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6




Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Spirit Bearer
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies:: A Spirit Bearer is proficient with all simple weapons, light armor but no shields.


Spells: A Spirit Bearer casts divine spells, which are drawn from the druid spell list. Her alignment may restrict her from casting certain spells opposed to her moral or ethical beliefs. She can cast any spell she knows without preparing it ahead of time.
To learn or cast a spell, the shaman must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a shaman’s spell is 10 + the spell level + theSpirit Bearer’s Charisma modifier.
Like other spellcasters, aSpirit Bearer can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: The Spirit Bearer. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Wisdom score. When Table: Spirit Bearer indicates that the Spirit Bearer gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level, she gains only the bonus spells she would be entitled to based on her Wisdom score for that spell level.

Once between times that the sun sets, aSpirit Bearer may commune with the spirits around herself. During this communion, the Spirit Bearer regains their spell slots and may select 4 spells from the Druid list of each level she can cast spells from. These spells may be cast spontaneously by theSpirit Bearer. Applying metamagic never takes any extra time. As noted above, a Spirit Bearer need not prepare her spells in advance. She can cast any spell she knows at any time, assuming she has not yet used up her allotment of spells per day for the spell’s level.

Animal Companion (Ex): At 1st level a Spirit Bearer gains an animal companion as a druid of her level. She uses herSpirit Bearer levels as druid levels for the purpose of calculating her animal companion.

Detect Spirits (Su): At 2nd level a Spirit Bearer knows when there are incorporeal creatures, astral creatures, ethereal creatures, or fey within 60 feet of themselves. One of these creatures that has remained within 60' of the Spirit Bearer for a second round has their five foot square known by the Spirit Bearer. A Spirit Bearer knows roughly how many hit dice such a creature has if they stay within 60 feet for a third consecutive round.

Spiritual Guidance (Ex): A 2nd level Spirit Bearer may add half her class level to all skill checks for interacting with extraplanar creautes and fey.

Touched by ancient powers (Ex): At 3rd level aSpirit Bearer may add her Charisma modifier to her saving throws.

Spirit Dance (Su): At 4th level a Spirit Bearer can start a spirit dance as a full round action. She takes a -4 penalty to armor class and has to maintain the dance as a move action. Every round a Spirit Bearer dances, she may summon one Spirit Guardian up to a maximum of Charisma modifier (min 1) plus one for every 5 levels in the Spirit Bearer class. To summon a Spirit Guardian she has to succeed a perform (dance) check equal to 10+ 2*the number of active Spirit Guardians. Summoned Guardian Spirits appear in range of 25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels to the dancing Spirit Bearer. Whenever she takes damage she has to succeed a concentration check equal to 10 + ½ of the damage she received or she stops dancing. Any summoned creature will disappear if the Spirit Bearer stops dancing, or if the spirits leave visual range. A Spirit Guardian is an animal, plant or elemental augmented by the Spirit Guardian template.
At 4th level she may pick up to 4 creatures which animals, plants or elemental up to a challenge rating of 2 or lower.
At 7th level she may pick up to 4 creatures which are animals, plants or elemental up to a challenge rating of 4 or lower.
At 11th level she may exchange up to 4 creatures she already knows with other creatures which are animals, plants or elemental up to a challenge rating of 8 or lower.
At 16th level she may up exchange to 4 creatures she already knows with other creatures which are animals, plants or elemental up to a challenge rating of 11 or lower.
At 20th level she may exchange up to 4 creatures she already knows with other creatures which are animals, plants or elemental up to a challenge rating of 14 or lower.

Bonus Feat: A Spirit Bearer gains a Bonus feat at 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter. She may choose any [Divine], [Guile], [Tenacity], [Supernatural] or [Wild] feat she meets the prerequisites for.

Fortified Spirits (Su): At 6th level when a Spirit Bearer starts her Spirit Dance ability she may sacrifice a spell to empower her summons. When she does that all Spirit Guardians summoned that way gain a +1 bonus to attack- and damage rolls and 1d6 hit points per spell level of the sacrificed spell.

Skilled Spirit Dance (Su): At 7th level her armor penalty is reduced by 1 to -3 while dancing. When she uses a full round action to dance she may summon 2 Spirit Guardians this round.

Empowered by ancient powers (Ex): At 8th level a Spirit Bearer may add her Charisma modifier to strength checks and strength based skill checks.

Answering Spirits (Su): At 9th level, a Spirit Bearer can ask questions of the spirit world that will actually be answered. This is like contact other plane, but there is no chance of going insane. The Spirit Bearer may ask a number of questions per day equal to her Wisdom modifier.

Masterful Spirit Dance (Su): At 11th level the Spirit Bearer reduces her armor penalty by 1 to -2. When she uses a full round action to dance she may summon 3 Spirit Guardians this round.

Banish Spirits (Sp): At 12th level a Spirit Bearer may banish extraplanar creatures as with the Banishemnt spell. She may use this ability three times per day plus her Charisma modifier if positive.

Vitalized Spirits (Su): When a 13th level Spirit Bearer uses the Fortified Spirits ability the Spirit Guardian creatures lasts 1 round per sacrificed spell level if she stopped dancing. When she starts again she may decide to account the vitalized Guardian Spirit creature to the maximum of her allowed creatures and sustain it with her dance or let it fade away after the duration is expired.

Ferocious Spirit Guardian(Su): At level 14 the Spirit Guardians of a Spirit Bearer gain +4 to strength and dexterity.

Perfected Spirit Dance (Su): At 16th level a Spirit Bearer reduces her armor penalty while daning by 1 to -1. When she uses a full round action to dance she may summon 4 Spirit Guardians this round.

Hidden by Spirits (Su): A Spirit Bearer of 17th level may become ethereal as an immediate action. She can stay ethereal for 1 round plus her Charisma modifier. The duration of the effect need not be consecutive rounds.

Stalwart Spirit Guardians (Su): All Spirit Guardian creatures a Spirit Bearer of 18th level summons gains additional hitpoints equal to 30 plus 10 times her Charisma modifier.

Supreme Spirit Dance (Su): At 20th level a Spirit Bearer reduces her armor penalty by 1 to 0 while dancing and she summons the maximum amount of Spirit Guardians at the start of her dance.

Creating A Spirit Guardian
"Spirit Guardian" is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal animal, elemental or plant(referred to hereafter as the base creature).
Hit Dice
Reduce its hit points by 2 points per hit dice.
Damage
All physical attacks of Spirit Guardians count as magical for the purpose of overcoming damage reductions.
Special Qualities:
Damage Reduction: A Spirit Guardian gains Damage Reduction 5/magic due to the magic which summons them. The Damage Reduction increases by 5 points for every 5 hit dice a Spirit Guardian has
Loss of Abilities: A Spirit Guardian loses all Spell Like abilites and all spells it was able to cast.
Environment
Any, usually near a Spirit Bearer.
Organization
Any.
Challenge Rating
-1
Treasure
None.
Alignment
As the Spirit Bearer summoning it.
Advancement
As base creature (or — if the base creature advances by character class).
Level Adjustment
--



1. Edit: Added Class to Thread, removed (probably) broken Link to PDF
2. Edit: Changed HD, BaB and saving throws
3. Edit: Changed Spirit Dance ,Shuffled abilities, added lose of SLAs and Spells to the template , incrased DR/Magic a bit and reduced hit point loss and a lot more
4. Added name, started to flesh out some bits.
5. Reduced 4th level spirit dance.

Just to Browse
2016-04-11, 09:09 PM
It takes 3 minutes for the dropbox thing to load for me. After that, I can't zoom out and scrolling is painfully laggy. This might just be for me, but can you try copying the class in GitP formatting?

Also, I can see this:


Starting Gold: 1/2 copper piece

I can't read the class features, but my initial suspicion is that RandomClassNames are going to have a hell of a time at level 1.

Seltsamuel
2016-04-12, 01:52 AM
I added the class into the format. Didn´t think that the Drop box link could become such a hassle :smallredface:

Just to Browse
2016-04-12, 07:04 PM
This looks like a class that hasn't seen the table yet. The biggest problem I see is that spellcasting & summoning are set against each other. It isn't until level 12 that the UnnamedClass can summon things and buff them, because you have to dance to keep your minions and you have to take standard actions to use spells.

The summoning feature pushes too much work onto the DM. You are the class author, you should provide an authoritative list on what summons appear where.

The summons also look like they scale pretty poorly. At level 1, summoning a 7-HP wolf at will is crazy (possibly overpowered?) and that's awesome. But at with 12th level, dire tigers are going to be speedbumps in most encounters. Even more so if they only have 70 HP.

1/1 scaling on animal companion and full casting makes me want to play this like a druid without wildshape. Optimal use of free summons doesn't go much further than scouting for free and winning low-level encounters. That sounds it would make a cool druid ACF, but I don't imagine it's what you intended.

Constructive things: Focus on the first 6 levels. If your class isn't succeeding in the first 6 levels, it will not do well at the table. Determine what you want out of this class from a tactical standpoint, and make sure that sticks out.


Is 3/4 BaB to much atop of 9th level casting and free summons? Probably yes, I guess. This would be the first thing I consider ditching

BAB has a pretty small power budget for a class like this. You usually use BAB/saves/HD to give players a grasp of how this class fits into the standard hierarchy. For instance, sorcerers and wizards are supposed to be mage-y, so they get low BAB even though it's not that important. Druids and clerics are supposed to be a little fight-y, so they get 3/4 BAB even though both classes would be fine with 1/2. Fighters are supposed to fight-y, but less fight-y than Barbarians, so they get d10 HD even though a d12 is fine.

If you want this class to be about "buffing, supporting, summoning" you probably want 1/2 BAB, d6 HD, 2 good saves. Not because it really matters in terms of game balance, but because those stats are some of the first things your readers will see. Each one sets the stage for how a person interprets your class.

Seltsamuel
2016-04-13, 01:55 AM
Yes, the class didn´t see the light of a gaming table, yet. I tried to stick to the shaman class of the PC game but I guess this didn´t pass well to the P&P version. What about shifting the Spirit Dance ability to Level 4, initiating it with a full action and maintaining it with a move action? With that the RandomClass can make full use of its spell casting early. The improved dances still let you summon 1-3 creatures more (untill the cap) and reduce the armor penalty. The Animal Companion will be moved to level 1. The first 3 levels feel like a druid and than it will change to its own set of tricks.

About the different Guardian Spirit creatures to summon. Hm.. I am thinking of using the Alternative Animal Companions list of the druid spiced up with same-CR plant and elemental creatures. That lets you summon CR 2 creatures at 4th level to CR8 creatures at 16th level. Or the RandomClass itself picks up to X creatures that are animals/elementals/plants with a maximum CR per X class levels.

Just to Browse
2016-04-13, 12:16 PM
That sounds like a pretty good solution. A combat pattern of summon things > command minions > buff seems usable most of a player's career, even though the summons are still pretty weak right now.

How unlikely would you be to support summon nature's ally as a list, or at least the basis for one? You'll want to prune it for SLA abusers (like the unicorn), but the creatures listed in SNA usually avoid the common free-form summoning pitfalls that you would run into if you gave players unrestrained reign over their lists. Because SNA summons tend to be jokes at higher levels (worse than the current summoning feature), it also gives you an excuse for writing crazy buffs into the later class features. Like on the magnitude of "Give summoned creatures +100 HP" at level 17-20. That's just a thought -- alternate animal companions isn't a bad idea either, especially since a player will (probably) already have looked at that list during character creation.

This isn't super important, but the changes you suggest do make this feel more like a spontaneous druid or spirit shaman variant than a class in its own right (mostly because of the full casting + lvl 1 animal companion). Since you're writing homebrew, you aren't bound by the standard conventions for uniqueness that a 3.5 splatbook would be, but it's something to keep in mind as you move forward.

Seltsamuel
2016-04-14, 07:01 AM
I worked a bit on the class. The template now denies SLAs and spells and the class now grants a small (big) bonus to its summons. I added some fluff, to and gave it a name. I am still not completly sure about the spirit dance. The idea based on Summon Nature´s Ally and the alternative companion list sounds good but the choices on SNA VIII or XI are rather meh :smallannoyed:

Just to Browse
2016-04-14, 01:24 PM
Yeah, that's an unfortunate oversight in the summon lines. The general CR is close to the spell level, which means you're getting a creature at 1/2 your CR to fight for you. That's OK at level 4, but it's pretty bad after level 8. Summon nature's ally VI and everything after it is basically a joke if you're not going to use/abuse SLAs.

The real benefit of SNA is that it gives you a cool, exciting spread of creatures to call on, and they will have useful abilities. Animals only get fly/swim/burrow/scent, which means they're just stat-sticks in comparison. So while you will need to beef up the summons, especially at late levels, I think the benefits are worth it.

Other than that, I think this is a class you should try taking to the table with a druid/cleric/wizard strength party.

Seltsamuel
2016-04-15, 02:44 AM
My gaming table is caster heavy. At 4th level she can summon medium elementals, dire wolfs or phantom fungi. At 11th level the class is currently capable of summoning Treants with 54 hit points and DR 10/slashing and DR 10/magic without its animate trees ability. Hm... To much at early levels?

Just to Browse
2016-04-15, 12:57 PM
At level 4 I think it could be dangerous. Maybe drop that CR to 2? The level 11 doesn't seem so bad, considering an 'easy' fight against your party involves a vrock & bone devil or a night hag riding a triceratops.

Seltsamuel
2016-04-15, 03:34 PM
Yeah. I reduced the CR to 2 at 4th level. Only the 19th level is "blank" now but thats Ok, I guess. It has full spellcasting and summoning (without spells or spell like abilities) after all :smallsmile: The bigger the DMs stash of monster manuels is the more choice the class has regarding its picks. In the M&M I isn´t even a monster for its 20th level Spirit Dance unless you advance an existing one.