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kiwee
2008-01-10, 06:57 AM
This is my first experimental class, complete with examples of spells. I wanted to experiment with spell casting, and this class was born.
All constructive comments are welcome.

WARD KEEPER EXPERIMENTAL CLASS
The ward keepers started as a branch of the druids, set up to defend towns and cities that are being invaded, they are all good or neutral but never evil, and are driven to help others through compassion or a desire to please their god. After a while they drew separate of druids and started training more ward keepers in monasteries along side monks and clerics. They started to focus more on divination and less on nature until their main doctrine was about communing with deities. Many act as guards in large cities, using wards to keep a peaceful atmosphere within the settlements and to stop any invaders.
A ward keeper wears a blindfold; they get bonuses for doing so from their deity, meaning they can still fight with enemies but only through divine intervention. For a ward keeper it is an insult to their deity to take off the blindfold and not something they would do lightly. Also you know you have gained the trust of a ward keeper when they take off their blindfold suggesting that they don’t need their god’s intuition to help them, and looking into someone’s eyes is more of a personal experience.
Abilities: Dexterity and Constitution are good for a ward keeper as all wards are cast using either Balance or Concentration. A good wisdom is probably the most useful, as ward keeper’s cast divine spells and need wisdom to increase their chance of managing to cast a ward.
Religion: Must worship any good or neutral deity.
Alignment: Any good or neutral.
Hit Die: d6.

class table and skills
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th| 9th

1st|
+0|
+0|
+1|
+2| Divine Attunement +1, Skill Casting|4|3

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+1|
+3|Skill Focus|5|4

3rd|
+1|
+1|
+2|
+3|Eschew Materials or Still Spell|6|5|2

4th|
+2|
+1|
+2|
+4|Divine Attunement +2|6|6|3

5th|
+2|
+1|
+3|
+4|Disable Ward|6|6|4|2

6th|
+3|
+2|
+3|
+5|-|6|6|5|3

7th|
+3|
+2|
+4|
+5|Divine Attunement +3|6|6|6|4|2

8th|
+4|
+2|
+4|
+6|Blessing of Devotion|6|6|6|5|3

9th|
+4|
+3|
+5|
+6|-|6|6|6|6|4|2

10th|
+5|
+3|
+5|
+7|Divine Attunement +4|6|6|6|6|5|3

11th|
+5|
+3|
+6|
+7|-|6|6|6|6|6|4|2

12th|
+6|
+4|
+6|
+8|Blessing of Persistence|6|6|6|6|6|5|3

13th|
+6|
+4|
+7|
+8|Divine Attunement +5|6|6|6|6|6|6|4|2

14th|
+7|
+4|
+7|
+9|-|6|6|6|6|6|6|5|3

15th|
+7|
+5|
+8|
+9|-|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|4|2

16th|
+8|
+5|
+8|
+10|Divine Attunement +6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|5|3

17th|
+8|
+5|
+9|
+10|Blessing of Power|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|4|2

18th|
+9|
+6|
+9|
+11|-|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|5|3

19th|
+9|
+6|
+10|
+11|Divine Attunement +7|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|4

20th|
+10|
+6|
+10|
+12|Divine Aptitude|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6[/table]

Class Skills
The ward keeper’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (all skills taken individually) (Int), Perform (Dance) (Cha), Profession (Wis), Speak Language (n/a), Spell-Craft (Int), and Tumble (Dex).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (5 + Int modifier) x4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 5 + Int modifier.


Class Features

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the ward keeper.

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Ward keepers are proficient with a club, dagger, dart, quarterstaff, scimitar, sickle, short-spear, sling, spear, and short-bow, as well as the weapon of their deity, if she changes her deity, she loses the proficiency of that weapon (unless she took a weapon proficiency feat), and gains the proficiency of her new deity. A ward keeper is proficient with Light and Medium armour, but is prohibited from using any armour that would cause her maximum dexterity to AC bonus to drop bellow +3. They are not proficient with any type of shield.

Speak Language: Sometimes a deity may reward a ward keeper with a new tongue, by spending skill points in Speak Language a ward keeper can earn a new tongue, among the ones most ward keepers learn are Celestial, to help them commune with their gods, and the messengers of their gods better, and Draconic, as it is an ancient language that a lot of ward keepers find intriguing. A ward keeper can however, learn any language. But can only learn up to a maximum of two new languages with the skill.

Divine Attunement (Ex): At 1st level and every 3 levels after that, a ward keeper gains a benefit to Balance, Concentration, Spell-Craft, and her Wisdom ability when within 5ft of the centre of a ward or well. Divine Attunement can only be applied if the ward keeper has her eyes covered by a blindfold; this allows her to put all her faith in the power of her deity. While blindfolded, a ward keeper gains a sense motive bonus equal to the bonus of divine attunement, true seeing (given to them for placing trust in their deity) and a listening bonus also equal to her divine attunement bonus but spot and search checks fail and she gets -2 to AC.

Skill Casting (Sp): Unlike other spell casters, ward keepers use Balance and Concentration skill checks to cast wards and wells. This special ability lets the ward keeper replace the normal spell roll to d20 + Skill level, or the normal spell DC for saves with a new one of 10 + Spell level + Skill level. The skill used depends on the components used in the spell. Material components use Concentration, Somatic components use Balance, and Verbal components use Bluff. You can replace your spell casting ability with any of the skill checks that the spell contains the component of. You still use all the components the spell needs. The usage of this special ability is on Table: Usage. Wards and wells cast by ward keepers are always cast in this way. Without this special ability ward keepers cannot cast wards.

Skill Focus: A ward keeper gains Skill Focus as a bonus feat. It can be applied to Balance, or Concentration.

Eschew Materials: A ward keeper gains Eschew Materials as a bonus feat. A ward keeper cannot gain this feat otherwise. A ward keeper must choose between Eschew Materials or Still Spell at 3rd level, but cannot gain both.

Still Spell: A ward keeper gains Still Spell as a bonus feat. A ward keeper cannot gain this feat otherwise. A ward keeper must choose between Eschew Materials or Still Spell at 3rd level, but cannot gain both.

Disable Ward (Sp): A ward keeper can disable an existing ward or well by rolling either a Balance or Concentration check (depending on the type) against a DC of 10 + the ward’s spell level + the Wisdom modifier of the original caster of the ward, if a ward or well is disabled in this way the ward keeper gains 1 more spell per day of the spell level equal to or lower than the level of the ward or well she disabled. The ward keeper uses 1 piece of incense when using this special ability. The usage of this special ability is on Table: Usage. This is a full action. Wards or wells under the permanency spell cannot be disabled.

Blessing of Devotion (Su): If a ward keeper stays within a long lasting ward or well (5/mins or more) created by her for the entire duration of the spell, she gains a +2 to her spell attack rolls for the rest of the day. (This cannot be applied more than once)

Blessing of Persistence (Su): If a ward keeper creates 3 wards or wells in a row during an encounter, she earns a +2 to her attack bonus and +4 to her spells attack roll until the end of the encounter.

Blessing of Power (Su): If a ward keeper has cast at least one ward or well from each known spell level that day, all future offensive wards or wells cast by the ward keeper do 3 damage per round to enemies within a ward, and all wells cast by the ward keeper heal allies in the well for 2 hp per round. This lasts for the rest of the current day.

Divine Aptitude (Su): A ward keeper becomes a master in the art of creating wards and wells, and so can replace prepared non-ward spell with any ward or well spell of the same level. Also, some wards or wells can now be free actions, allowing the user to cast any ward or well that has had all spell components removed because of the bonus feat chosen at 3rd level, this means a ward keeper can perform a full action or two standard actions in the same round.

Table: Usage
{table=head]Level|Skill Casting|Disable Ward

1st|
1 /day|
0 /day

2nd|
1 /day|
1 /day

3rd|
2 /day|
1 /day

4th|
2 /day|
2 /day

5th|
3 /day|
2 /day

6th|
3 /day|
3 /day

7th|
4 /day|
3 /day

8th|
4 /day|
4 /day

9th|
5 /day|
4 /day

10th|
5 /day|
5 /day

11th|
6 /day|
5 /day

12th|
6 /day|
6 /day

13th|
7 /day|
6 /day

14th|
7 /day|
7 /day

15th|
8 /day|
7 /day

16th|
8 /day|
8 /day

17th|
9 /day|
8 /day

18th|
9 /day|
9 /day

19th|
10 /day|
9 /day

20th|
10 /day|
10 /day
[/table]

Ex-Ward Keepers
A ward keeper that changes to a prohibited alignment or starts worshiping a deity of a prohibited alignment then she looses Divine Attunement, Skill Casting, and Disable Ward. Meaning she cannot cast wards, gets no bonuses from wearing a blindfold, and cannot shut down existing wards. Because she cannot cast wards, she also looses the blessings, and divine aptitude. She keeps the ability to cast other Ward Keeper spells, but must return to a good or neutral state, by atoning, and worshipping a good or neutral deity. She can get a Druid or Cleric to use the 5th level spell atonement to atone, or she can take a pilgrimage to the temple of her deity, or the monastery she was trained in.



Spells and spell casting information

Spells: A ward keeper gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells, which are drawn from the ward keeper spell list. A ward keeper must choose and prepare her spells in advance.
To prepare or cast a spell, a ward keeper must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a ward keeper’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the ward keeper’s Wisdom modifier.
Like other spellcasters, a ward keeper can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: The Ward Keeper. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Wisdom score.
When casting Wards or Wells, a Concentration or Balance check is done instead of the normal spell casting attack roll. This check is dependant on whether it is a ward or a well, Wells are passive and use Material components (cast with a Concentration check), and wards are offensive and use Somatic components (cast with a Balance check). This roll is done against a DC of 12 + spell level - wisdom modifier. If the spell component is removed because of Eschew Materials, or Still Spell, the ward keeper may choose whether to use a Balance or Concentration check to cast the spell.
A ward keeper prepares and casts spells the way a cleric does, though she cannot lose a prepared spell to spontaneously cast a cure spell in its place, However at level 20, a ward keeper gains the ability to replace non-ward or non-well spells with ward or well spells. A ward keeper may prepare and cast any spell on the ward keeper spell list, provided that she can cast spells of that level, but she must choose which spells to prepare during her daily meditation.
An example of a ward keeper casting a Well (passive wards use Material components)
Kiarra casts Well of Vigor, which gives allies in the ward health each round, it is a level 2 spell. At level 2 Kiarra gained the bonus feat of Skill Focus (Concentration), and at level 3 she took the bonus feat of Still Spell. Her wisdom modifier is +3. She rolls a Concentration check of 16 (d20 roll of 7 + 6 (skill level) + 3 because of skill focus) against a DC of 11 (12 + 2 (spell level) – 3) meaning she beat it. So the ward is successfully created, and she looses one stick of incense from her inventory
If Kiarra decided to cast an offensive ward, she could choose to use her Concentration skill instead of her Balance skill, because she has the Still Spell feat.

Ward Keeper Spells

Wards are area of effect spells that are cast on the casters position, they are usually invisible, and they can affect either all allies, all enemies, or both. A lot of wards are cast with passwords bound to them, meaning that the ward will either only effect those who speak the password, or will ignore those who speak the password.
There are two types of ward keeper ward spells, Passive and Offensive wards, Passive wards will always have a material component, usually a stick of incense. And an Offensive ward will always have a somatic component, usually a Shàolín-monk style of dance. Ward keepers cast Somatic component wards with a balance check, and material component wards with a contraction check. All Ward keepers can cast all wards, but depending on what skill they focus on changes what they are best at, since they gain the Skill Focus feat which they can apply to balance or concentration, and they can choose between getting rid of material components or somatic components at 3rd level. See the Spells section of the main class info for more about casting spells as a ward keeper.
Wards are generally Abjuration which are protective spells, they create physical or magical barriers, negate magical or physical abilities, harm trespassers, or even banish the subject of the spell to another plane of existence.
If one abjuration spell is active within 10 feet of another for 24 hours or more, the magical fields interfere with each other and create barely visible energy fluctuations. The DC to find such spells with the Search skill drops by 4.
If an abjuration creates a barrier that keeps certain types of creatures at bay, that barrier cannot be used to push away those creatures. If you force the barrier against such a creature, you feel a discernible pressure against the barrier. If you continue to apply pressure, you end the spell.
Other spells of a ward keeper are often Divination and usually shared with cleric.

A ward keeper earns a permanent True Seeing effect while wearing a blindfold

Examples of some other ward like spells include: Alarm, Glyph of Warding, Guards and Wards, Zone of Truth, and Zone of Silence

Wards = Offensive (Somatic), Wells = Passive (Material)

0 – level spells
Well of Refreshment
Create a pool of refreshing magical water at your location.
Ward of Aching
Creatures within the ward take -2 to their AC dexterity.
Guidance
Touched subject gets +1 attack bonus on a single attack.

1st – Level Spells
Well against Wild
While within the ward, low intelligence creatures will not
attack you unless provoked.
Well of Harmony
While within the ward, divine spell preparation takes half as
long.
Ward of Rust
Creatures wearing metal armour within the ward get
-2 to their armour bonus to AC and -1 to their dex
Well of Luring
Low int creatures in the area will be lured towards the ward.
Well of Understanding
Creatures in the ward can always understand each other.
Divine Favor
you gain a +1 luck bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls
for every three caster levels you have.
Nimbus of Light
Light illuminates you until released as an attack.

2nd – Level Spells
Well of Vigor
Creatures within the ward gain +1 point of health each round.
Ward of Aether Entrapment
Trap spells within the ward that activate when a creature
enters it.
Ward of Pain
Creatures within the ward take -1 point of damage each round.
Well against Evil
While within the ward, evil enemies will not attack you
unless provoked.
Augury
An augury can tell you whether a particular action will bring
good or bad results for you in the immediate future.

3rd – Level Spells
Well against Enemies
While within the ward, enemies will not attack you
unless provoked.
Well of Stability
Creatures within the ward cannot be knocked prone
unless it was a conscious decision.
Ward of Arrest
Creatures within the ward walk a maximum 5ft per round,
and cannot do counterattacks.
Searing Light
Ray deals 1d8/two levels damage, more against undead.

4th – Level Spells
Ward of Anguish
Creatures within the ward get their constitution ability
damaged by 2 points.
Ward of Tempest
Creatures cannot enter the ward, creatures in the ward get
blown away.
Well of Poise
Creatures in the ward do not loose hit points over time when
in the minuses.
Well of Displacement
Creatures within the ward get +4 enchantment bonus to AC
Divine Power
Your base attack bonus becomes equal to your character
level you gain +6 to Strength, and 1 hit point per caster level.
Divination
Provides you with a useful piece of advice in reply to a
question concerning a specific goal, event, or activity that is
to occur within one week.

5th – Level Spells
Ward of Silence
All vocal spells with the ward fail.

6th – Level Spells

7th – Level Spells

8th – Level Spells

9th – Level Spells

kiwee
2008-01-10, 03:56 PM
just added spoiler boxes to make the post smaller.

also, if anyone has any ideas for spells or wards, I would be delighted to add them.

D Knight
2008-01-10, 07:21 PM
hey this is real nice and love the fluff. i have no idea its power but it looks to me its a blance of the sorcerer and druid. so i would say blanced but do not take my word on it. if i did not say this already good job.

kiwee
2008-01-11, 06:06 AM
thanks for the complements.
I am going to be testing it out in my next table-top campaign, as one of my players said she would happily play it.

kiwee
2008-01-14, 04:28 PM
umm, hasnt anyone else got any comments, I would really like them. plus ideas for spells would be nice.:smallconfused:

RS14
2008-01-14, 05:22 PM
A couple features of the spellcasting are overpowered. Specifically, Ward Keepers get lots of spells fast. They get 9th level spells at the same level as wizards, yet wind up with more spells. This is potentially limited by weaker or fewer spells/wards/wells, but I'm not really able to assess the relative power of the spells on your list.
Also, skill based casting allows easy ward/well DCs which are astronomical. Whereas a level 20 wizard has 10+9(level)+Int Mod (+7?)=26 as the DC of their best spells, a level 20 ward keeper has 10+9+23=42 as the DC for spells that are presumably of similar power levels. A creature which never fails its save against this wizard would fail the save against this ward keeper 85% of the time.
...
Other notes:
You could treat the ward and well classification as if they were +0 metamagic that reshaped the area and duration, but you'll still need to find spells that require exceptions to be usable.
Many wards and wells need additional information such as duration to make sense. Well of Vigor, for example, could be worthless or uber-cheese depending on area and duration.
Examples: Alarm stays as it is. Shield, on the other hand, might apply to a number of characters in a 10ft radius as long as they are in the area.

The base five skill points per level is funky. This irritates me, but I'm just picky. I know this is silly.

kiwee
2008-01-16, 05:32 PM
A couple features of the spellcasting are overpowered. Specifically, Ward Keepers get lots of spells fast. They get 9th level spells at the same level as wizards, yet wind up with more spells. This is potentially limited by weaker or fewer spells/wards/wells, but I'm not really able to assess the relative power of the spells on your list.
This is only because the spell list is not complete, as I have mentions plenty of times before. but I will consider shrinking the amount of spells per level to less than a sorcerer (which is what the spell cast table was based on) would get.


Also, skill based casting allows easy ward/well DCs which are astronomical. Whereas a level 20 wizard has 10+9(level)+Int Mod (+7?)=26 as the DC of their best spells, a level 20 ward keeper has 10+9+23=42 as the DC for spells that are presumably of similar power levels.
Perhaps it wasnt clear, but the skill check (in this case roll+23) is only used for find out weather the ward keeper succeeded in casting the ward/well.
the DC of the spell is still 10+9(level)+Wis Mod (+7?)=26


Other notes:
You could treat the ward and well classification as if they were +0 metamagic that reshaped the area and duration, but you'll still need to find spells that require exceptions to be usable.
could you please explain what you mean?



Many wards and wells need additional information such as duration to make sense. Well of Vigor, for example, could be worthless or uber-cheese depending on area and duration.
Examples: Alarm stays as it is. Shield, on the other hand, might apply to a number of characters in a 10ft radius as long as they are in the area.
I totally agree with that, and I will do a detailed description of each spell once I have a decent amount.

RS14
2008-01-16, 10:35 PM
The spell-list sounds alright then.

Also, I'm still not sure I'm understanding Skill Casting, but I reread your example. If the DC increases as I think it does (12+spell_level-caster_level), it looks pretty trivial. It has a base of 12, then decreases approximately once every two levels. It seems like you might as well eliminate it.

The metamagic idea I was talking about was a possible quick and dirty method to generate new wards and wells. Just apply it as you would apply a metamagic effect to generate the wards and wells. Area=x, Duration=y, etc.

Am I correct in reading that Ward Keepers treat Speak Language as a class skill for only the first two languages they take?

Let me throw out some wards/wells...

Ward of Meditation:
Components: Somatic
Ward Keeper 2
Casting Time: See Text
Target: Circle on ground of radius 5-30ft
Duration: 2 hour/level or until dispelled.
Saving Throws: None
Spell Resistance: No

By Drawing a circle around themselves on the ground, the Ward Keeper literally peels the space around them in on itself, creating a pocket space which cannot be entered or exited except by planar travel until the end of its duration. Anyone outside this space perceives a distortion, but it requires a DC 22 Knowledge (Arcana) or Spellcraft check to identify the cause. Ranged attacks passing through this distortion have a 50% miss chance.
The pocket space appears to its occupants as a hollow shell with Objective Directional Gravity towards the nearest point on the floor. All surfaces, creatures, and objects enclosed in the original circle are present in the pocket space. All sounds seem to come from very far off, and all listen checks take a -5 penalty. Ranged attacks within it have a 20% miss chance. The temperature of the space is the same as the temperature before it was enclosed.
The size of the space depends entirely on the time spent casting. When cast as a move action, the circle cannot exceed a 2.5ft radius and creates a space barely large enough for the Ward Keeper. As a Standard Action, the space can be up to 5ft in radius. A number of Full round actions can be taken to cast the well 10x an equal number of feet in radius, not exceeding 3 (30ft radius).
Obviously inspired by rope trick

Ward of Might Which doesn't quite fit with the Abjuration/Divination theme, but as a primary spellcaster the Ward Keeper needs something beyond those, and this sort of fits
Ward Keeper 6
Components: Somatic
Casting Time: 1 Full Round Action:
Target: Up to six allies within a 10ft radius of the caster.
Duration: 1 minute per level.

You harden your allies resolve to hold their ground. All gain a +4 moral bonus on saves against fear, +4 strength, DR2/-, 1 temporary hit point per caster level, and a +4 moral bonus to avoid being tripped, over-run, or bull-rushed. Their speeds are halved (round up). Additionally, you may chose to ready an action to cast any spell with a range of touch on the target of an ally's melee attack. This attack need not be made unarmed. If your ally misses, the spell is lost.
If any individual leaves the 10ft radius, these effects end instantly for that ally only and do not resume when they return to within the radius.
Inspired by Righteous Might and Divine Power

I forgot to tell you last time, but nice job. I'll keep this class and maybe modify it a bit myself. I think the Ward/Well mechanic would fit well in a low magic world more than anywhere else due to the limits it places on spellcasting.

kiwee
2008-01-17, 01:23 PM
thankyou for the advice,
if you do modify the class, could you post what changes you make here, so I can improve it.



Also, I'm still not sure I'm understanding Skill Casting, but I reread your example. If the DC increases as I think it does (12+spell_level-caster_level), it looks pretty trivial. It has a base of 12, then decreases approximately once every two levels. It seems like you might as well eliminate it.
The DC is 12+spell level-wisdom modifier, not 12+spell level-caster level. meaning that it shouldnt go too low.

kiwee
2008-10-17, 06:31 PM
I have been really getting into the 4th edition system recently, so might make a 4e version of this (and actually finish the spell/power list this time ;) )

Zeta Kai
2008-10-17, 08:02 PM
The Reflex Save column is incorrect. It should match the Fortitude Saves or the Will Saves, but not in-between. A good saving throw is ½HD+2, while a bad saving throw is ⅓HD.

DracoDei
2008-10-17, 09:42 PM
In some versions of the d20 system there is an "Average" save class between "Good" and "Poor"... so IF he is making an informed choice to do something like that, more power to him... just think it through and be consistant.

... that being said, it would take a pretty good reason for the way he did it to make sense...
Should be 1+(Class level*(2/5)) I beleive for an intermediate save... best to stick with stuff that pre-exists...

Still if he came up with the idea of an intermediate save on his own, that is too his credit for creative thinking, but to be more intuitive he should still

Knaight
2008-10-17, 10:23 PM
It is a really interesting class, but it gets a lot more spells at later levels than anything else, so you might want to keep an eye on that, and a very close eye on the available spells.

kiwee
2008-10-18, 11:22 AM
thanks, I didn't realise there were specifications about the saves :smalltongue:

the reason the ward keeper class gets so many spells per day is because I was basing the stats on a sorcerer. but I might make it more like a druid/cleric.

however, save bonuses and spells per day arn't used in 4.0, which makes it easier to convert.