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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Class The Illuminalmancer



Westhart
2017-09-09, 07:51 PM
Guess who had a chance to format some things :smallbiggrin:
More powerful then my other -mancer classes the illuminalmancer specializes in darkness/light and positive/negative energy.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1knpZdqJtnWDE9qKacH64S-YufSQO0npdBhlEpRXZyKA/edit?usp=sharing
I need an ability dealing with light to keep it balance between dark/light.

EDIT: gonna try to finish my warlock tonight, and the base version of the Lord Smith tomorrow...

aimlessPolymath
2017-09-10, 12:40 AM
General notes:
-Prerequisites are unusual looking, and difficult to deal with. Unsure of who is able to enter easily- clerics essentially get in automatically at L.7, while wizards pretty much can't (unless loads of splats are used), but I'm very unsure whether druids can, and would need to do some digging to work it out- it might depend on what splats are allowed.
-Skill list feels very sparse.
-Hold on, what are the requirements? I see two sets now?

Abilities:
Full spellcasting progression is a lot! There is essentially no downside to taking this.

L1: On the other hand, the upsides are dubious. Probably amazing in someone's campaign, but Darkvision 60 ft is a spell already, or sometimes a trait, and light damage is rare.
L2: Uh. Four spells known is nice, but I can't see wizards (who get in under requirements #2) actually being able to add a spell which uses positive energy to their spellbook, and clerics don't actually get any benefit from this, since they prepare divine spells? Unless the omission of those spells having to be on your spell list is intentional, this confuses me.
Walk the Line is rather handy, on the other hand, but adds to the list of "situational immunities" from L1.
L3: Holy bananas Healing Light is good, especially since you can essentially make your own light with spells. Damning Darkness is relatively weak in comparison, and that's saying a lot for an eventual -5 penalty to your enemies' saving throws.
L4: Grey Knowledge again? Less good now, since you already grabbed the best options. Some more situational immunities.
L5: I have no idea what No Immunities does. Hide In Plain Sight is less good than Invisibility (the spell), since you don't have Hide as a skill.
Edit: Looks like it was out of order. Immunity bypass is powerful for many characters, but this comes up only rarely.
L6: Feels a bit like a spell, but that's fine. Downside effects are rather nasty. Turning part of it is what makes it wierd- the rules for turning are complicated enough that I never use them. Very epic though! Loads of damage.
L7: Rarely relevant, especially after Walk The Line.
L8: What does Bending of L and D do?
9: This is extremely spell-ish, and less powerful than most teleportation spells at what it does.
10: Very good nondetection effect.

Overall notes: I actually like the class a lot- it has neat protections involved, and Healing Light/Damning Darkness is a very neat ability for players to interact with using their spells. I have three main criticisms:

It needs to mix proactive abilities (activated stuff) with defensive ones (the array of specific immunities) a bit better- I would suggest giving a third activated ability at low levels, and shuffling the immunities upwards in levels a bit.

Second, the activated abilities it does have are extremely specific in flavor- a brilliant blast of light in a circular radius that also makes people flee, and a teleport which works like a timestop but also leaves a puff of smoke behind? See notes on Grey Knowledge in the next point.

Third, other than Grey Knowledge, this doesn't need to be a casting class at all! This is something to think about and maybe turn down, but I might suggest changing the prerequisites a bit in some fashion, and changing the +Spell ability to a more generic "advancement" thing (choose between +Combat feats or +Spell casting, maybe), because I could imagine a rogue who finds that being undetected by detect chaos very handy. In this paradigm, Grey Knowledge might be replaced by the ability to choose between a couple of spell-like abilities used X times per day each.
If you want to go in the other direction, I would suggest more casting-related features. Perhaps a bonus to spell attack rolls/damage (+1 per die?) in the light, and a bonus to their save DCs in the darkness? Maybe you can "infuse" a spell into an area of illumination or light source, making it affect nearby creatures?

Westhart
2017-09-11, 07:58 AM
General notes:
-Prerequisites are unusual looking, and difficult to deal with. Unsure of who is able to enter easily- clerics essentially get in automatically at L.7, while wizards pretty much can't (unless loads of splats are used), but I'm very unsure whether druids can, and would need to do some digging to work it out- it might depend on what splats are allowed.
-Skill list feels very sparse.
-Hold on, what are the requirements? I see two sets now?

Fixed some things changed up he prereqs


Abilities:
Full spellcasting progression is a lot! There is essentially no downside to taking this.

Well, most casters have no downside that they actually take... in fact when multiclassing it is usually done in such a way as to avoid CL loss...


L1: On the other hand, the upsides are dubious. Probably amazing in someone's campaign, but Darkvision 60 ft is a spell already, or sometimes a trait, and light damage is rare.

Hmmm, this also gives you immunity to the prismatic spells, and any spell that would use light to dazzle/stun/etc... I thought there were more but maybe not...


L2: Uh. Four spells known is nice, but I can't see wizards (who get in under requirements #2) actually being able to add a spell which uses positive energy to their spellbook, and clerics don't actually get any benefit from this, since they prepare divine spells? Unless the omission of those spells having to be on your spell list is intentional, this confuses me.

The omission was intentional, added a line to say so, like I should have. Changed it a bit so getting it at later levels still had some benefit.


Walk the Line is rather handy, on the other hand, but adds to the list of "situational immunities" from L1.
L3: Holy bananas Healing Light is good, especially since you can essentially make your own light with spells. Damning Darkness is relatively weak in comparison, and that's saying a lot for an eventual -5 penalty to your enemies' saving throws.

Reduced healing light to 1/2 level, is it good now?


L4: Grey Knowledge again? Less good now, since you already grabbed the best options. Some more situational immunities.

Yes, unlike my pyromancer the immunities were more situational as I could not simply say "fire" as i was working light/positive and shadow/negative...


L5: I have no idea what No Immunities does. Hide In Plain Sight is less good than Invisibility (the spell), since you don't have Hide as a skill.
Edit: Looks like it was out of order. Immunity bypass is powerful for many characters, but this comes up only rarely.

Added hide to class skills, and agree that the immunity bypass is not too often... unless fighting a multitude of devils or prismatic dragons... hmmm...


L6: Feels a bit like a spell, but that's fine. Downside effects are rather nasty. Turning part of it is what makes it wierd- the rules for turning are complicated enough that I never use them. Very epic though! Loads of damage.

Redid this ability, considering moving it down a couple levels.


L7: Rarely relevant, especially after Walk The Line.

Well, while walk the line makes it so you do not take damage this gives you all the benefits, although I do agree that this and walk the line could be combined into one ability...


L8: What does Bending of L and D do?

Woops, added that!


9: This is extremely spell-ish, and less powerful than most teleportation spells at what it does.

Hmmm I honestly did not like that ability but I could not think of something... also need another light ability as they are exposed to be balanced between light and dark...


10: Very good nondetection effect.

Yes, I am not a huge fan of true seeing XD


Overall notes: I actually like the class a lot- it has neat protections involved, and Healing Light/Damning Darkness is a very neat ability for players to interact with using their spells. I have three main criticisms:

It needs to mix proactive abilities (activated stuff) with defensive ones (the array of specific immunities) a bit better- I would suggest giving a third activated ability at low levels, and shuffling the immunities upwards in levels a bit.

I was thinking of moving irr. light to ~3. What would you suggest for sorting the levels?


Second, the activated abilities it does have are extremely specific in flavor- a brilliant blast of light in a circular radius that also makes people flee, and a teleport which works like a timestop but also leaves a puff of smoke behind? See notes on Grey Knowledge in the next point.

Third, other than Grey Knowledge, this doesn't need to be a casting class at all! This is something to think about and maybe turn down, but I might suggest changing the prerequisites a bit in some fashion, and changing the +Spell ability to a more generic "advancement" thing (choose between +Combat feats or +Spell casting, maybe), because I could imagine a rogue who finds that being undetected by detect chaos very handy. In this paradigm, Grey Knowledge might be replaced by the ability to choose between a couple of spell-like abilities used X times per day each.
If you want to go in the other direction, I would suggest more casting-related features. Perhaps a bonus to spell attack rolls/damage (+1 per die?) in the light, and a bonus to their save DCs in the darkness? Maybe you can "infuse" a spell into an area of illumination or light source, making it affect nearby creatures?
oooh, a noncaster version does sound nice... and now you have me creating another entirely new PrC off this idea XD. Which will be posted soon (this afternoon?). So much for finishing my warlock XD
Stealing the infuse ability for this version though ^^
Thanks for the PEACH!

aimlessPolymath
2017-09-11, 12:03 PM
Not doing a pt-by-pt response, but if you can get spells from off your list through Grey Knowledge, that's bananas, because a wizard with access to Heal is absurd. I would lose several caster levels at minimum in exchange for that, gladly. It gets even more absurd because you can pick the most advantageous list, letting you grab (for example) Heal as a 5th level spell off the Adept list, earlier than you could as a Cleric.
In summary: Heavily abusable, would be ban-worthy in my campaign.

Healing Light is bananas because regeneration is very close to immunity to death in most cases, barring specific prepraration. I would swap it out for fast healing.

Bending of Light and Dark is asking for abuse in a similar fashion- I would make it one metamagic feat gets reduced by one level.

Both Grey Knowledge and B of L and D are immense buffs to casters, even nerfed down a bit, and would absolutely be worth the loss of at least one casting level.

Westhart
2017-09-11, 12:13 PM
Not doing a pt-by-pt response, but if you can get spells from off your list through Grey Knowledge, that's bananas, because a wizard with access to Heal is absurd. I would lose several caster levels at minimum in exchange for that, gladly. It gets even more absurd because you can pick the most advantageous list, letting you grab (for example) Heal as a 5th level spell off the Adept list, earlier than you could as a Cleric.
In summary: Heavily abusable, would be ban-worthy in my campaign.

Healing Light is bananas because regeneration is very close to immunity to death in most cases, barring specific prepraration. I would swap it out for fast healing.

Bending of Light and Dark is asking for abuse in a similar fashion- I would make it one metamagic feat gets reduced by one level.

Both Grey Knowledge and B of L and D are immense buffs to casters, even nerfed down a bit, and would absolutely be worth the loss of at least one casting level.

Hmm, will change regen to fast healing 5 (10?). Hmm maybe make it so they lose A CL 1st, 5th, and 10th? That way they don't get their 9's... or does the bending still need to be reduced?