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View Full Version : Need help balancing upcoming homebrew 'spells'



Icewalker
2008-10-13, 02:30 PM
Not actually homebrew yet, hence the Gaming section instead: I'm working on some stuff roughly equivalent to spells, and I need to balance some...not sure whether they're any good.

As to casters having a crappy touch attack, these are from PrCs which get a new type of casting, and one of them is based off Barbarian, so for at least the first two on this list the caster would have a high BAB

As to the equivalent spell levels, these are from a prestige class, that gets 0th-2nd level casting at 1st level, then a new spell level at each additional one, reaching 9th level spells at the 8th PrC level, or equivalent 13th level. This rate of gaining spells by level is also up for change to help balance, as I was just totally winging it when I wrote it up.

1. Equivalent 3rd level spell: 1d4 Dex damage, 1d4 Con damage, requires a touch attack.

2. Equivalent 5th level spell: 3d4 Dex and 3d4 Con damage, requires a touch attack.

I'm probably gonna give them somewhat harsh material components, so that it'd be troublesome to cast them en masse and regularly.

3. Equivalent 5th level spell: summons a sword, treat as +3 longsword. Lasts 5 rounds or until dropped/dismissed. Needs touch attacks instead of normal attacks to hit (bypasses armor) and bypasses damage reduction.

4. Equivalent 3rd level spell: in a 10 ft. area, everyone takes 5d6 damage per round and can't act, but gets a DC 18 Reflex save each round, going down by 4 each time (to 14, then 10) to avoid all damage and move out of the area.

5. Equivalent 8th level spell: Make a touch attack. They have to make a DC 26 fortitude save. If they make it, they take 5d6 untyped damage that bypasses DR and get -4 morale minuses to hit, damage, AC, and saves for a number of rounds equal to damage dealt. If they fail the save, they die, and have to make a second DC 26 fortitude save or it destroys their soul, requiring a Wish/Miracle then True Resurrection to bring them back.

6. Equivalent 2nd level spell: +20 ft. to movement speed. Lasts hours.

7. Equivalent 8th level spell: all unarmed strikes get +6 to hit and deal an additional 2d8 sonic damage. Lasts hours. (This is partially designed to balance monks, as one of the PrCs is designed to be taken by a monk).

Those are most of the ones I'm concerned about the balance with. I may come back with more as I continue work on the project.