[Prc]Crest Mage

[Arakune]

I think it's already done, but......
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So, you're saying that these marks are not ordinary tatoo's? - quesitoned the young paladin.
Right, these are 'Crests'. Some nice idea to shut up all those 'nerdy' wizards. - answered the young sorceress, during the night after his rescue.

Crest Mage

The Crest Mage are a spontaneous caster that, by imputing some 'crests' on his body, are able to cast more spells.

The prerequisites to qualify for a Crest Mage are:
Skills: Spellcraft 4, Craft (Tatoo) 4, Knowledge (Arcana) 4
Feat: Eschew Materials
Spells: Able to spontaneously cast Arcane Spells, must know Arcane Mark spell.
Special: Must Make the first tatoo in a location crealy visible at least 75% of the time (in the arm or face, for example)

Crest Mage
Hit Die:d6
Skill Points at each level: 2+Int
Class Skills: The Crest Mage's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are: Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (tatoo) (Int), Craft (Any) (Int), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int) and Decipher Script (Int).

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Magic Crest|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3|Magic Crest|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+3|Magic Crest, Metamagic Crest|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

4th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Magic Crest|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Magic Crest|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

6th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5|Magic Crest, Metamagic Crest|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5|Magic Crest|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

8th|
+4|
+2|
+2|
+6|Magic Crest|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+4|
+3|
+3|
+6|Magic Crest, Metamagic Crest|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

10th|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+7|Magic Crest|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Crest Mage.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Crest Mages don't gain any aditional weapon or armor proficiency.

Magic Crest
Each time the Crest Mage get this feature he may create one magic tatoo called Magic Crest. This tatoo can store one spell she know that can be cast with only somatic and verbal compoents (or with material components costing less than 1gp, since the caster have the exchew material feat). The spell stored will never be 'forget' by the caster, either by learning and replacing by another spell or any other circunstances that would make him never cast that spell again (unless he, somehow, can't spontaneously cast Arcane Spells anymore).
Any spell cast from the tatoo still counts toward it's limit on spells per day. The Crest Mage maximum tatoo number are equal to his level in Crest Mage. To create a Magic Crest, she need to make the tatoo that will storage the spell and once sucefully created, she still need to pass on a spelcraft check to storage the spell in the crest. Once the crest already hold one spell it can't be 'erased', but the Mage Crest can chose to wait until she decide which spell she are going to storage.

Magic Crest
Cost: 100 gp;
Craft check DC*: 15
Time Required to make the tatoo: 1 hour.
Storing the spell: 100*(spell level) XP (below/equal 5th); 250*(spell level) XP (above 5th level).
Spellcraft check DC*: 15 + spell level.
*Can't take 10 or 20. If you fail, you must spend more GP or XP.

Metamagic Crest
Each time the Crest Mage get this feature he may modify 3 Magic Crest that still don't have any spell stored into one Metamagic Crest. This new kind of tatoo will hold one metamagic feat where, at (Cha mod)/day, can cast any spell stored in any Magic Crest without changing the spell slot required to cast the spell (unlike the normal rules for metamagic feats). The Crest Mage can use only one Metamagic Crest at time, but she can still use any normal metamagic feat with the Metamagic Crest (the normal rules are aplicable only with the metamagic feat).
To create a Metamagic Crest, she need to use 3 Magic Crest that still don't hold any spell and, once the Metamagic Crest are sucefully created, she still need to pass on a spelcraft check to storage the desired metamagic feat in the crest. Once the crest already hold one metamagic feat it can't be 'erased', but the Crest Mage can chose to wait until she decide which metamagic feat she are going to storage.

Metamagic Crest
Cost: 1000 gp
Craft check DC*: 18
Time Required to make the new tatoo: 2 hour.
Storing the metamagic property: 500XP.
Spellcraft check DC*: 22
*Can't take 10 or 20. If you fail, you must spend more GP or XP.

The benefits of Magic Crest and Metamagic Crest are only aplicable in the spell caster. If the Crest Mage have any third party source (like a familiar) have any ability to share, storage or cast spells for the Crest Mage, the souce in question don't benefit by the Magic Crest or Metamagic Crest (the familiar can't deliver touch spells cast from the Magic Crest, for exemple).

[Devouring Rage]

You want the class to pick this PrC up at level 2, right?

And if so, why not add another 10 levels and make a base class?

[Arakune]

You want the class to pick this PrC up at level 2, right?

And if so, why not add another 10 levels and make a base class?

well, you can do it if you want, but in the concept of the class there was a limit to of how much crest he can have. And if it's a 20th level base class, then no one will ever use sorceress again (if you count the fact that sorceress are already negligencied).

[Devouring Rage]

Well really, what's so special about magic crests? When are you going to forget a spell when you're a spontaneous caster. I may be missing something here, but it's not like the PrC gets anything special but a flavor ability with some slight mechanics. Awesome concept, I like it. It just seems like it's not worth going into if you can just go with sorcerer and get a familiar.

Unless the crests are essentially bonus spells known. Although I don't see anywhere that it implies that.

Metamagic crest is nice though. Persistent Spell, Maximize Spell, or Quicken Spell come to mind. Nonetheless, it doesn't seem crazy awesome. I'm not a power gamer though.

[Arakune]

Well really, what's so special about magic crests? When are you going to forget a spell when you're a spontaneous caster. I may be missing something here, but it's not like the PrC gets anything special but a flavor ability with some slight mechanics. Awesome concept, I like it. It just seems like it's not worth going into if you can just go with sorcerer and get a familiar.

Unless the crests are essentially bonus spells known. Although I don't see anywhere that it implies that.

Metamagic crest is nice though. Persistent Spell, Maximize Spell, or Quicken Spell come to mind. Nonetheless, it doesn't seem crazy awesome. I'm not a power gamer though.

Well, they are bonus spell knows, praticaly speaking. Look at the sorcerer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/sorcererWizard.htm#sorcerer), for exemple. At how they gain new magic. This PrC was made to give then a little more spells to try to catch up with the wizard, but it's not all that great since you can have at max 10 more spells than the average sorcerer or any other spontaneous spell caster.

[Mephibosheth]

I really like this concept, and think it's a good way to bump up the versatility of a sorcerer. I'd play it!

I'm a bit confused about the wording of the Metamagic Crest ability. At what point is a magic crest "unused?" Are you saying that you can modify 3 crests to allow a metamagic feat to be applied to those specific spells without increased spell level? Does the casting time increase? Can you perhaps flesh this ability out a bit. It seems like an awesome idea, but I think I just missed something. I dunno, maybe it's just me...

Anyway, nice work!

Mephibosheth

[Arakune]

I really like this concept, and think it's a good way to bump up the versatility of a sorcerer. I'd play it!

I'm a bit confused about the wording of the Metamagic Crest ability. At what point is a magic crest "unused?" Are you saying that you can modify 3 crests to allow a metamagic feat to be applied to those specific spells without increased spell level? Does the casting time increase? Can you perhaps flesh this ability out a bit. It seems like an awesome idea, but I think I just missed something. I dunno, maybe it's just me...

Anyway, nice work!

Mephibosheth

(*forget that, I changed the description anyway. But still says the same thing, I hope*)

[Fizban]

For those who don't get it, I believe the way it works is this:

At 4th level and every even level after that, a sorcerer can forget a spell known of up to 2 levels below their highest known at that point, and learn a new one of the same level in it's place. By infusing a crest with a spell known, he can retain that spell forgotten in the the crest, while still learning a new one on his official list.

This would also work with the retraining rules in the PHBII and the limited wish/psychic reformation trick, since the crests are counted more like items than as a class ability, allowing you to set spells in the crests and then change the originals by retraining or reformation. The downside of course, is that once you've made a crest and stored something in it, you can't undo it, and you can only have 1 crest per PrC level. This means it's a very finite resource, and you have to manage them carefully. They're also very abusable with games starting at high levels, where you can store all your good higher level spells and then switch them by retraining/reformation.

So in sum, in a core game it grants the sorcerer a few extra spells known at lower levels (if you use them as soon as possible, 1 at each from 0th to 9th), but with splatbooks becomes much more powerful. It's power will be great at the level when the sorcerer chooses to fill up his crests, and then mean little at later levels when those lower level spells are no longer useful.

[Ceiling009]

So far, I like the idea, and pesonally, I'd really rather have it at 20 levels, getting a crest every even level I suppose... Or 20 extra spells! As a Sorcerer. I think it would be so much better just to replace the Sorcerer with this, and sort of call it a variant or an upgrade, or something. It's a cool idea.