Syllabist (PEACH)

[LairdMaon]

A Syllabist is a caster who equips a relatively small list of spells.

Hit-Die: d6
Armor: Light, Medium
Weapons: Simple
Skill Points: 6










Level





Base Attack Bonus



Fort Save



Ref Save



Will Save



Class Abilities



Capacity



Essentia



Spellmelds



Chakra Binds



1st

+0



+2



+0




+2


Spellmelding, Chakra bind (Crown), School Access (Universal, First School, Second School)

1



1



1



1




2nd

+1



+3



+0




+3


Bonus Metamagic Feat

1



2



1



1




3rd

+1



+3



+1




+3


Chakra bind (Hands)

1



3



2



1




4th

+2



+4



+1




+4


School Access (Third School)

1



4



2



1




5th

+2



+4



+1




+4


Chakra bind (Feet)

1



5



3



2




6th

+3



+5



+2




+5


Expanded Spellmeld Capacity +1

2



6



3



2




7th

+3



+5



+2




+5


Chakra bind (Arms), School Access (Fourth School)

2



7



4



2




8th

+4



+6



+2



+6


Bonus Metamagic Feat

2



8



4



2




9th

+4



+6



+3




+6


Chakra bind (Brow)


2



9



5



3




10th

+5



+7



+3




+7


School Access (Fifth School)

2



10



5



3




11th

+5



+7



+3




+7


Chakra bind (Shoulders)

3



11



6



3




12th

+6/+1



+8



+4




+8


Rebind Chakras

3



12



6



3




13th

+6/+1



+8



+4




+8


Chakra bind (Waist), School Access (Sixth School)

3



13



7



4




14th

+7/+2



+9



+4




+9


Bonus Metamagic Feat

3



14



7



4




15th

+7/+2



+9



+5




+9


Chakra bind (Throat)

3



15



8



4




16th

+8/+3



+10



+5




+10


School Access (Seventh School)

4



16



8



4




17th

+8/+3



+10



+5



+10


Chakra bind (Heart)

4



17



9



5




18th

+9/+4



+11



+6




+11


Expanded Spellmeld Capacity +2

4



18



9



5




19th

+9/+4



+11



+6




+11


Chakra bind (Soul), School Access (Eighth School)

4



19



10



5




20th

+10/+5



+12



+6




+12


Bonus Metamagic Feat

4



20



10



5




[/TR]

[/TR]





Skill List
Appraise INT, Concentration Con, Craft INT, Decipher Script INT, Disable Device INT, Forgery INT, Heal WIS, Knowledge (arcana) INT, Knowledge (architecture and engineering) INT, Knowledge (history) INT
Knowledge (local) INT, Knowledge (nobility and royalty) INT, Knowledge (religion) INT, Knowledge (the planes) INT, Listen WIS, Perform CHA, Search INT, Spellcraft INT, Spot WIS, Use Magic Device CHA, Use Rope DEX


School Access
At first level, a Syllabist has access to two schools of magic in addition to the Universal school. Every 3rd level unlocks another school.


Spellmeld Shaping
A Syllabist primary ability is shaping incarnum spellmelds, with spells from the Wizard and Cleric spell lists. You know and can shape any spell from these lists as long as you have access to it's school of magic.

The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an Syllabary spellmeld is 10 + number of points of essentia invested in the soulmeld + your Constitution modifier. Your meldshaper and spellcaster levels are equal to your [class] level.

An Syllabist can shape only a certain number of spellmelds per day. The maximum number of spellmelds that you can have shaped simultaneously is equal to your Constitution score minus 10 or the number of spellmelds allowed for your level, whichever is lower. At 1st level, you can shape one spellmeld at a time (assuming you have a Constitution score of at least 11). As you advance in level, you can shape an increasing number of spellmelds.

At 1st level, you also gain access to your personal pool of essentia, which can be invested into your spellmelds to power your spells. Your character level determines the maximum quantity of essentia that you can invest in any single spellmeld. As a swift action, you can reallocate your essentia investments in your spellmelds every round.

A Syllabist does not study or prepare spellmelds in advance, but must have a good night's rest and must meditate for 1 hour to shape his spellmelds for the day.

Spellmelding
Spellmelds are a unique type of soulmelds. Each one embodies a single spell that may be cast so long as there is enough Essentia invested to match the spell's level. A spell cast from a Spellmeld may be cast a number of times per day equal to their character level.
In addition, a Spellmeld shaped to a Chakra gains an effect of the player's choice from Table 5–2: Sample Magic Item Chakra Bind Effects on pages 110 and 111 of the Magic of Incarnum book, chosen at the time of shaping the meld. These can be improved with invested Essentia, at a rate of the Insight Bonus per invested Essentia.

Chakra Binds
Binding a Spellmeld provides several benefits.
A bound Spellmeld benefits from Eschew Materials, Silent Spell, and Still Spell without raising the spell's level. As well, the spell can have Metamagic effects applied by increasing the Essentia invested to sum of the Metamagic Feat cost.

[Metastachydium]

Quasi-retrieved spells with Constitution-based variables snuck in through the backdoor offered by a subsystem? I like the concept. Time permitting, I might look into the math side of it to see if it holds up, but that is certainly a well-conceived little class. The name is a bit weird, though. I've never seen that word used for anything other than denoting a writing system the base unit of which is the syllable (rather than the sound, word or concept).

[noob]

So you can cast a lot of times per day spells of a low level from a small selection.
That looks interesting, reminds me a slight bit of warlocks.

[LairdMaon]

The name is a bit weird, though. I've never seen that word used for anything other than denoting a writing system the base unit of which is the syllable (rather than the sound, word or concept).

Naming the class was the hardest part for me. No lie, I really wanted to call it Word Bearers, but I figured the wh40k folks might get perturbed by it. As it is, "syllabary" has a couple ways to connect to the class.

a set of written characters (well, shaped and equipped) representing syllables (spells) serving the purpose of an alphabet (spell casting)

I'm not the happiest with the name, but I'm horrible at naming things. Family trait.

[Metastachydium]

Naming the class was the hardest part for me. No lie, I really wanted to call it Word Bearers, but I figured the wh40k folks might get perturbed by it. As it is, "syllabary" has a couple ways to connect to the class.

a set of written characters (well, shaped and equipped) representing syllables (spells) serving the purpose of an alphabet (spell casting)

I'm not the happiest with the name, but I'm horrible at naming things. Family trait.

Hm. I kinda like the idea of the resources, as a discrete set of sets, the class uses being referred to as the character's syllabary, you know. Using it to denote a person's still weird, on the other hand. How about syllabist? If syllabism is defined as 'the use (sl. by a language or culture) of a syllabary', that would be a regular derivation for a person who does so.

Edit: In an unrelated context, I like the armour proficiencies and the good amount of skills, but I'm not sure what the deal with martial wepaons is. I mean, why? It's a half-BAB casterlike.

[LairdMaon]

The, uh, martial proficiency was a typo that I neglected to fix. Too focused on everything else.

Syllabist? That might work better... update in progress!

[Morphic tide]

Usually, I'm intensely hostile to base classes with two "inline" subsystems, but in this case it's actually for a solid mechanical purpose because it's using one subsystem to "call" the other, like the Spells-to-Power Erudite or Arcane Swordsage, with a solid idea for restraining the "off" application. However, there are functional issues that come to mind:

1. The current capacity boosts create two-level "jumps" and make it take to level 8 to "actually" fall behind a Sorcerer, after which it "caps" three spell levels behind.
2. Metamagic application seems backwards, in that it's an absurdly natural "base" mechanic for Essentia redistribution yet it gets locked to Chakra Binds.
3. Pointing at the magic item table for Shape effects genericized to +Essentia Insight is "off", for lack of a better term. Slots defining fairly general spell improvements should be fine!
4. Access to Wizard and Cleric spells blunted only by school causes too many "silver bullets". Something like Sorcerer (Wizard has preparation-specific), descriptor, and Incarnum domain spells.
5. PRC interaction is undefined. [I]Pretty sure the spellmelds are supposed to be neither, but it probably needs to declare it's valid for "Meldshaping" progression
6. Bonus Feats are not replicated in text. I'd also suggest letting them be used on [Incarnum] feats, to "mirror" what Psychic Warrior does.

[LairdMaon]

Usually, I'm intensely hostile to base classes with two "inline" subsystems, but in this case it's actually for a solid mechanical purpose because it's using one subsystem to "call" the other, like the Spells-to-Power Erudite or Arcane Swordsage, with a solid idea for restraining the "off" application. However, there are functional issues that come to mind:

1. The current capacity boosts create two-level "jumps" and make it take to level 8 to "actually" fall behind a Sorcerer, after which it "caps" three spell levels behind.
I feel like there's a way to smooth this out and still get to 9th level spells. Perhaps a capstone capacity bonus that more easily allows me to spread out the capacity increases.


2. Metamagic application seems backwards, in that it's an absurdly natural "base" mechanic for Essentia redistribution yet it gets locked to Chakra Binds.
The idea with that is you can apply, for example, Maximize to a Fireball in a single spellmeld. You'd be able to cast the standard Fireball by only investing 3 Essentia in it or the Maximized Fireball by investing 6 Essentia. Like all other 'melds, the Essentia can be reallocated at the beginning of each round.


3. Pointing at the magic item table for Shape effects genericized to +Essentia Insight is "off", for lack of a better term. Slots defining fairly general spell improvements should be fine!
General spell improvements? There are enough different types of spells that I have trouble generalizing them beyond school.


4. Access to Wizard and Cleric spells blunted only by school causes too many "silver bullets". Something like Sorcerer (Wizard has preparation-specific), descriptor, and Incarnum domain spells.
I'm not sure what you mean by "silver bullets". That could be due to the mild case of food poisoning yesterday, or I could be a dolt. Lol.


5. PRC interaction is undefined. [I]Pretty sure the spellmelds are supposed to be neither, but it probably needs to declare it's valid for "Meldshaping" progression.
That's not a bad idea. I'll have to look over Meldshaping PRCs to see how that might work out.


6. Bonus Feats are not replicated in text. I'd also suggest letting them be used on [Incarnum] feats, to "mirror" what Psychic Warrior does.
Bonus Metamagic Feat could be changed to Bonus Feat with the list of available feats including Metamagic and Incarnum feats.