(3.x PRC) Spellhoarding Arcanist, for when sorcerer casting isn't enough PEACH

[Jervis]

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/29/ec/9b/29ec9ba043b11d0c55828d22e4f14b3f.jpg
Wait a minute, Black dragons don't have a fire breath weapon?
That's a maximized vile fireball, roll a reflex save.

Dragons are some of the most powerful creatures in existence, having incredible physical abilities and natural magical power. For some of them it's reasonable that they would sacrifice some of their physical development to develop their abilities in other aspects, such as magic.
This is designed as a way to allow a dragon to progress as a caster while not throwing off their scaling in relation to their hit dice. While players could theoretically qualify with half dragon or kobold this is ideally used to buff enemies, like a version of Beholder mage that won't entirely destroy the universe if a player does play one. The only major sacrifice a dragon makes is loosing their hit dice based progression on age category related abilities and some bab, while in return they get some major benefits to their casting.

I'll also say some design assumptions here. Mainly being that dragons can choose cleric or sorcerer spells for their sorcerer casting and just add the listed domains to their spells known. Strictly RAW the best assumption I've arrived at is that they just have all cleric spells as spells known but that's kind of stupid.

For inspiration i'll list the classic chestnut combo of loredrake + spellhoarding to get wizard casting on a dragon. That's kinda jank so i made this instead.


Spellhoarding Arcanist

Requirements
Type: Dragon
BaB: +6
Spellcasting: Must be able to cast 3rd level sorcerer spells
Skill Ranks: Appraise +9, Spellcraft +9, Knowledge (Arcana) +9, Autohypnosis +4
Feats: Spellfocus (any), any metamagic feat, any Metabreath feat, and Arcane Preparation

Hit Dice: 1d10

Skill Points: 6 + Int

Class Skills: All skills you possesses as class skills previously.



Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
Spellcasting


1st
+0
+2
+2
+2
Spellhoard, Arcane Breath
+1 level of Sorcerer


2nd
+1
+3
+3
+3
Additional Spell Known
+1 level of Sorcerer


3rd
+2
+3
+3
+3
Bonus Feat
+1 level of Sorcerer



4th
+3
+4
+4
+4
Additional Spell Known
+1 level of Sorcerer


5th
+3
+4
+4
+4
Draconic Metamancy
+1 level of Sorcerer


6th
+4
+5
+5
+5
Additional Spell Known
+1 level of Sorcerer


7th
+5
+5
+5
+5
Bonus Feat
+1 level of Sorcerer


8th
+6/+1
+6
+6
+6
Additional Spell Known
+1 level of Sorcerer


9th
+6/+1
+6
+6
+6
Bonus Feat
+1 level of Sorcerer


10th
+7/+2
+7
+7
+7
Additional Spell Known, Hoardkeeper
+1 level of Sorcerer

[tr]


Spellcasting
At each level a Spellhoarding Arcanist gains additional spells known, spells per day, and a increase in caster level as if they had gained a level in sorcerer. These stack with any levels in sorcerer you already have and with levels of sorcerer gained from racial hit dice. For example a Adult Gold Dragon with 10 levels in Spellhoarding Arcanist would cast spells as a 17th level sorcerer.

Additionally, a Spellhoarding Arcanist gains a bonus to their Sorcerer caster level equal to any dragon racial hit dice they posses. This bonus cannot allow their caster level to exceed their total hit dice. As such the Adult Gold Dragon mentioned above would have the spells per day and spells known of a 17th level sorcerer, but would have a caster level of 33 (23 racial hit dice + 7 racial sorcerer casting levels + 10 levels of Spellhoarding Arcanist, to a maximum of their hit dice, 33.)

Age Advancement
Spellhoarding Arcanist levels count as dragon racial hit dice for purposes unrelated to racial spellcasting. Effectively this allows a dragon who meets prerequisites for the class to take levels in this class instead of gaining racial hit dice for a increase in age category and a dragon's age category does not prevent them from gaining levels in Spellhoarding Arcanist. A Dragon still prgresses other abilities with age category though their BaB, hit dice, etc are still effected.

Magical Obsession
Spellhoarding is in many ways a mental obsession, a disease of the mind that drives dragons to seek out magic to the detriment of everything else. Once a dragon has begun advancing in Spellhoarding Arcanist, they cannot take levels in any other class or gain dragon racial hit dice until they have gained 10 levels in Spellhoarding Arcanist. Effectively this means that, once a dragon has gained levels in Spellhoarding Arcanist, they must take all 10 levels 0f the prestige class before progressing in any other class or gaining normal dragon racial hit dice.

Spellhoarding
At 1st level a Spellhoarding arcanist gains access to a mental library of magic they've accrued called a Spellhoard. A Spellhoard in many ways functions like spells known however they cannot cast spells directly from their spellhoard. Instead a Spellhoard serves as a method by which a Spellhoarding Arcanist can catalog their knowledge of magic and alter Sorcerer spells known.

When 1st taking a level in the class their Spellhoard contains all sorcerer cantrips, 4 + their intelligence modifier 1st level spells, and a amount of sorcerer spells of any level they can cast equal to twice their effective sorcerer level, as well as all of their sorcerer spells known. (Note dragons with access to other spell lists, such as a gold dragon's access to the cleric spell list, treat those spells as sorcerer spells for all intents and purposes) Whenever they gain a level they may select two additional sorcerer spells to add to their spell hoard. They also add any sorcerer spell they learn through any means to their spell hoard.

A Spellhoard can also be expanded through a number of ways. A Spellhoarding Arcanist can study a Arcane spell in written form, such as a wizard's spell book or a Arcane Scroll, to gain access to the spell written there or study with a Arcane spellcaster to gain access to a spell they know. Regardless of the method used a Spellhoarding Arcanist must succeed on a spellcraft check (DC 15 + Spell Level) and spend a number of hours equal to the spells level as well as ingest gems or gold pieces with a value of 100 GP per spell level.

At the beginning of each day a Spellhoarding Arcanist can meditate for 1 hour to change any of their Sorcerer spells known for any other spell of the same level. During this time they may also prepare spells from their Spellhoard using their arcane preparation feat.

Arcane Breath
Also at 1st level a Spellhoarding Arcanist gains the ability to deliver any spell which targets an area or multiple creatures through their breath weapon. Doing so expends their use of the spell, either a spell slot or the prepared spell, and changes the spell's area to that of their breath weapon. Doing this changes the spell into a supernatural ability, meaning it does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and allows it to be freely modified by metabreath feats. Saving Throws DCs and type of the spell are equal to the saving throw DC and type of the breath weapon or it's normal saving throw DC, whichever they choose. If the spell does not have a saving throw, it's saving throw DC is equal to the breath weapon's. Using this ability expends their use of the breath weapon, meaning it has to recharge as normal.

Additional Spell Known
At each even numbered level a Spellhoarding Arcanist level they gain an additional Sorcerer Spell Known from the Sorcerer spell list of any level up to 1 level lower than the highest level spell they can cast. This does not count against their number of spells known.

Bonus Feat
At each odd numbered level except 1st and 5th a Spellhoarding Arcanist gains a bonus feat, this must be a metamagic feat, metabreath feat, or the Extra Spell feat.

Draconic Metamancy
At 5th level a Spellhoarding Arcanist can alter the nature of their magical abilities more readily. Decrease the cost of all metamagic feats by 1 to a minimum of +1 and decrease the increased cooldown of metabreath feats by 1 to a minimum of +1.

Hoardkeeper
At 10th level the amount of time and gold needed to add a spell to your Spellhoard is halved. Additionally whenever a spell has a XP component, you can replace it's XP component with a consumed material component with a GP value equal to 4 times the amount of XP normally required.

[Jervis]

This is probably a disaster i'll need to tweak later, i mostly just make these rough versions while i'm board late at night and try to fix them later. I'd love to hear what people think on this.


Spellhoarding Arcanist

Requirements
Type: Dragon
BaB: +6
Spellcasting: Must be able to cast 3rd level sorcerer spells
Skill Ranks: Appraise +9, Spellcraft +9, Knowledge (Arcana) +9, Autohypnosis +9
Feats: Spellfocus (any), any metamagic feat, Scribe Scroll

Hit Dice: 1d10

Skill Points: 6 + Int

Class Skills: All skills you possesses as class skills previously.




Saves

Spells Per Day


Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
0th
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th


1st
+0
+2
+2
+2
Convert Spellcasting, Spellhoarding, Eschew Componets
3
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


2nd
+1
+3
+3
+3
—
4
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


3rd
+2
+3
+3
+3
—
5
4
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


4th
+3
+4
+4
+4
—
6
4
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


5th
+3
+4
+4
+4
—
6
4
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


6th
+4
+5
+5
+5
—
6
4
4
2
-
-
-
-
-
-


7th
+5
+5
+5
+5
—
6
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-
-


8th
+6/+1
+6
+6
+6
—
6
4
4
4
2
-
-
-
-
-


9th
+6/+1
+6
+6
+6
—
6
4
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-


10th
+7/+2
+7
+7
+7
—
6
4
4
4
4
2
-
-
-
-


11th
+8/+3
+7
+7
+7
—
6
4
4
4
4
3
-
-
-
-


12th
+9/+4
+8
+8
+8
—
6
4
4
4
4
4
2
-
-
-


13th
+9/+4
+8
+8
+8
—
6
4
4
4
4
4
3
-
-
-


14th
+10/+5
+9
+9
+9
—
6
4
4
4
4
4
4
2
-
-


15th
+11/+6/+1
+9
+9
+9
—
6
4
4
4
4
4
4
3
-
-


16th
+12/+7/+2
+10
+10
+10
—
6
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
2
-


17th
+12/+7/+2
+10
+10
+10
—
6
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
3
-


18th
+13/+8/+3
+11
+11
+11
—
6
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
2


19th
+14/+9/+4
+11
+11
+11
—
6
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
3


20th
+15/+10/+5
+12
+12
+12
Spontaneous Spellhoard
6
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4



Spellcasting
A Spellhoarding Arcanist casts spells similarly to a sorcerer but learns spells similarly to a wizard, combining expanded knowledge of the arcane with extreme versatility. A Spellhoarding Arcanist uses Charisma as their primary spellcasting stat. They gain bonus spells per day based on their charisma modifier and must have a charisma stat equal to 10 + spell level to cast a spell. Saving throw DCs for spellhoarding arcanist spells are equal to 10 + spell level + their charisma modifier.

Spells readied
A Spellhoarding Arcanist does not cast spells from their spells known (spellhoard) directly. Instead at the beginning of the day they must select a number of spells from their spell hoard, they can cast those spells spontaneously as a sorcerer casts spells from their spells known. A spellhoarding arcanist can ready a number of spells from their spell hoard of each level equal to the number of spells they can cast of that level per day based on their effective class level, do not factor in bonus spells from their charisma modifier for this purpose. Instead they can ready additional spells of each level based on their intelligence modifier as if gaining bonus spells per day.

Spellhoard
The spell hoard is a spellhoarding arcanist's mental library of all the arcane spells they've encountered over their time studying magic. A Spellhoarding Arcanist begins play with all 0 level sorcerer spells and 6 + their Int modifier 1st level spells from the sorcerer and wizard spell lists. At each level a spellhoarding arcanist can add 2 spells from the sorcerer/wizard spell list to their spell hoard, these may spell of any level that the spellhoarding arcanist can cast. A spellhoarding arcanist can add spells to their spell hoard through a number of ways, while the spells they gain from leveling up are always spells drawn from the sorcerer/wizard spell list, spells gained through other methods can be any spell that is arcane in nature. A spellhoarding arcanist can attempt to add any arcane spell written on a scroll or in other written form (Such as a spellbook) to their spell hoard by attempting a spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell level) and spending 1 hour per spell level in study. If successful they add the spell to their spell hoard. A spellhoarding arcanist can also spend a number of hours equal to the spell they wish to learn training with any willing arcane spellcaster to add any spell they know to their spell hoard, this requires a spellcraft check with the same DC as above.

Covert Spellcasting
Upon gaining their first level in spellhoarding arcanist, the dragon's magic is permanently altered. They loose all arcane spellcasting abilities they had previously, including that gained from dragon hit dice. They treat their spellhoarding arcanist level as being a number of levels higher equal to the number of spellcaster levels they lost for all effect regarding spellcasting, including caster level, spells per day, spells readied, etc. Add all spells they knew from any other source to their spell hoard. Whenever they would gain a level in any other arcane spellcasting class, they instead increase their effective spellhoarding arcanist level by 1 for determining their spellcasting abilities, they still gain all other class features from the class level they took. When they gain a level this way, add 2 spells known from that classes spell list instead of the sorcerer/wizard spell list.

Eschew Components
A Spellhoarding arcanist ignores noncostly material components, those which cost 5 gp or less, for their spells. A Spellhoarding arcanist can take 1 point of charisma drain to ignore any component of a spell (V,S,M, etc) or level of spell slot level adjustment of a metamagic. A spellhoarding arcanist cannot ignore the XP component of a spell this way.

Spontaneous Spellhoard
(note this is normally not posible before low epic levels)
At 20th level a spellhoarding arcanist gains the ability to spontaneously cast spells from their spell hoard directly without readying spells first.

[Morphic tide]

I'd suggest weak Reflex or Fortitude, if there's meant to be a physicality tradeoff, and I do believe it works better as a 10-level PRC with an Epic table so it can be continued indefinitely. Some kind of Metabreath shenanigan would work well to enhance the "Is A Dragon", and add to difficulties for any Dragonwrought cheese. Do check on Dragons of Ebberon, Dragon Magic, Races of the Dragon, and Draconomicon for existing caster-focused dragon support.

Also, Convert Spellcasting and Spellhoard being basically Eidetic Wizard (IIRC) makes me think of the requirements being changed to "Ability to prepare and spontaneously cast 2nd level spells", so the naive entry is Dragon-to-3rd-level-Sorc+Wizard 3, but they can also take the Arcane Preparation feat to meet that at Sorc 3 casting. Which pairs wonderfully with the Metamagic requirement by working around the usual Spontaneous disadvantage. Should be no need for Convert Spell otherwise, especially with keeping the Sorcerer lag, "+1 level of existing casting class" should cover it.

Furthermore, there's already a Spellhoarding Dragon template in Dragon issue 313, which requires maximum ranks in Knowledge (Arcana), an Intelligence score at least 3 higher than average (so 13 before modifiers), and some amount of Arcane spellcasting. The key notes are that the Spellhoard in question is physical patterns on its body taking place of a spell book, which can be burned to fuel 20 xp or 100 gp of spell costs per level of spell burned, with the addition of a Counterspell mode that takes 100 gp of gems, and they otherwise switch to Wizard casting.

As for qualifications, a Wyrmling White Dragon with the Loredrake sovereign archetype (Dragons of Ebberon) has two levels of Sorcerer casting at the low cost of 4 HP and its nonexistent Cleric list access. Battle Sorcerer has 3/4ths BAB, Light Armor proficiency, can cast in Light Armor with no Arcane Spell Failure, but loses one spell per level. Four levels of that gets to BAB +6, entering at 8th level with Sorcerer 7 casting rectified to this table, three d10 HD, and four d8 HD. Of course, they'd need 17 Charisma before their racial -4 and do it by five years old, but still.

...It actually is kinda important for this to be allowed to replace RHD in some way so that age doesn't bone-anchor with three levels. In which case you'd have to load the chassis changes into the first level.

[Jervis]

I'd suggest weak Reflex or Fortitude, if there's meant to be a physicality tradeoff, and I do believe it works better as a 10-level PRC with an Epic table so it can be continued indefinitely. Some kind of Metabreath shenanigan would work well to enhance the "Is A Dragon", and add to difficulties for any Dragonwrought cheese. Do check on Dragons of Ebberon, Dragon Magic, Races of the Dragon, and Draconomicon for existing caster-focused dragon support.

Also, Convert Spellcasting and Spellhoard being basically Eidetic Wizard (IIRC) makes me think of the requirements being changed to "Ability to prepare and spontaneously cast 2nd level spells", so the naive entry is Dragon-to-3rd-level-Sorc+Wizard 3, but they can also take the Arcane Preparation feat to meet that at Sorc 3 casting. Which pairs wonderfully with the Metamagic requirement by working around the usual Spontaneous disadvantage. Should be no need for Convert Spell otherwise, especially with keeping the Sorcerer lag, "+1 level of existing casting class" should cover it.

Furthermore, there's already a Spellhoarding Dragon template in Dragon issue 313, which requires maximum ranks in Knowledge (Arcana), an Intelligence score at least 3 higher than average (so 13 before modifiers), and some amount of Arcane spellcasting. The key notes are that the Spellhoard in question is physical patterns on its body taking place of a spell book, which can be burned to fuel 20 xp or 100 gp of spell costs per level of spell burned, with the addition of a Counterspell mode that takes 100 gp of gems, and they otherwise switch to Wizard casting.

As for qualifications, a Wyrmling White Dragon with the Loredrake sovereign archetype (Dragons of Ebberon) has two levels of Sorcerer casting at the low cost of 4 HP and its nonexistent Cleric list access. Battle Sorcerer has 3/4ths BAB, Light Armor proficiency, can cast in Light Armor with no Arcane Spell Failure, but loses one spell per level. Four levels of that gets to BAB +6, entering at 8th level with Sorcerer 7 casting rectified to this table, three d10 HD, and four d8 HD. Of course, they'd need 17 Charisma before their racial -4 and do it by five years old, but still.

...It actually is kinda important for this to be allowed to replace RHD in some way so that age doesn't bone-anchor with three levels. In which case you'd have to load the chassis changes into the first level.

Thanks for the requirement change idea. I'll add that. Metabreath feat + spell preparation works well thematically for this. As for the weird 20 level convert spellcasting stuff thats mostly me stealing from Moah-Tsuki (however you spell that) where the class features stop at 15 but the spellcasting goes further because of it's spell conversion stuff. The inclusion of a 20th level capstone was a bit of a mistake, that just makes it confusing. I'll change it to a 10 level with metabreath stuff. Could actually be interesting to work with. As for the spellcasting changes, do you think just making spellhoard be a class feature to swap out sorcerer spells known gets the idea across? I try to go for elegance so i like what you suggested for just making it progress sorcerer stuff.