An Appropriate use of Force (A New PrC)

[merrja666]

Force Mage - A nice force-based spellcasting PrC

I like force spells - for they are namely a) invisible and b) handy, but I seem to be alone, as many people prefer spellcasting PrCs that make things/people/planets explode or turn to molten slag. I'm not against a nice bit of molten slag, but I think that people can get a bit too obsessed about that kind of stuff. Meh...

Requirements: Spell Focus (Abjuration), Spell Focus (Evocation), Able to cast Wall of Force

Good Saves = Will
Bad Saves = Fort, Ref

1 - Arcane Armour, +1 CL of existing arcane spellcasting class
2 - Force Substitution, +1 CL of existing arcane spellcasting class
3 - +1 Cl on Force Spells, +1 CL of existing arcane spellcasting class
4 - Faster Force Spells, +1 CL of existing arcane spellcasting class
5 - +1 CL of existing arcane spellcasting class
6 - +1 Cl on Force Spells, +1 CL of existing arcane spellcasting class
7 - +1 CL of existing arcane spellcasting class
8 - Faster Force Spells, +1 CL of existing arcane spellcasting class
9 - +1 Cl on Force Spells, +1 CL of existing arcane spellcasting class
10 - As One with Force, +1 CL of existing arcane spellcasting class

Arcane Armour - you gain an arcane bonus to your AC equal to the amount of levels you have in Force Mage. This may be not be dispelled, but is nullified my an Anitmagic Field or a similar effect.

Force Substitution - you may change 1 spell/level in Force Mage to have the 'Force' spell descriptor. There is no change to the Spell's level.

Faster Force Spells - The casting time for Force Spells decreases by 1. (Full Round to Standard, Standard to Move, Move to Swift, Swift to Immediate, Immediate to Free.)

As One with Force - you become an Outsider, gain DR 10/-, gain a flight (Perfect) speed equal to your base land speed, or if you already have flight, it improves by 30', may pass through Force structures (Wall of Force, Forcecage, etc) as if they were not there, and are immune to all spells with the Force descriptor, and due to your Force nature, are considered to have Superior Invisiblity.


I think that this is a bit overpowered, but as you take this at either ECL 9 or 10, becoming (in effect) a Force Elemental at ECL 19 or 20 seems OK. (to me)

[Baron Corm]

Excepting the first and tenth level abilities, it's not very flavorful. "Descriptor Substitution" and "Faster Descriptor Spells" could apply to anything, really. As for balance, the two mentioned abilities combined allow you to apply Quicken Spell (a 4 level increase) with no level increase to any spell of your choosing which is a standard action to cast. This is overpowered. Also, the first level ability should be a deflection bonus (according to existing force effects), and the tenth level ability giving DR 10/- is too good, but 10/magic might be okay.

I believe there's a force caster PrC in Complete Arcane you might want to look at. I do remember looking at it and not liking it, but it could give some inspiration.

[Charlie Kemek]

you might want to look at the "Argent Savant" from CA

[Cieyrin]

I built a force mage character a while back and i picked up 3 prestige classes that fall under the general school of force; one being the Argent Savant from Complete Arcane, Master of the Unseen Hand from Complete Warrior and a prestige class from Dragon #328 called the Force Missile Mage which give improvements to a number of spells that a force mage would utilize. You may want to look at these for some inspiration for your class.
As for the abilities, I think that the force armor is a little powerful for it, as it's adding a new bonus type as an armor enhancer and making it grow incredibly quick. I'd either change it to an armor or deflection bonus, as your ability seems to either simply prevents reaching the mage with attacks or causing them to veer off. If you insist on keeping the bonus type, at the very least decrease the rate the bonus decreases, like to half class level (min +1) or something like that.
As for the force outsider capstone ability schfing, you're throwing a lot of abilities onto one thing that I think it makes it a little overpowering even for a 10th level prestige class ability. The DR should be decreased to maybe 5/- or 10/magic or something like that. As for the Superior Invisibility, by which i assume you mean Greater Invisibility from the PHB and not the 9th level spell Superior Invisibility, which makes this ability all the more disgusting by granting a permanent 9th level spell, seems a little beyond as well. I'd make it some kind of miss chance due to his transparency, as opposed to invisibility, which he can cast by that point, anyways. those are my 2 cents on this, in any case, and i like to rub my 2 coppers together to things that I find potentially interesting, so they're all the more awesome when perfected. :smallbiggrin: