FMArthur
2008-11-03, 08:52 PM
All life is magic, and only those who observe it in themselves can know its power. - Rotary Arcana, p.1
The Revolver Mage
The Revolver Mage can be thought of as a Sorcerer who is limited to casting from a single spell school at a time and changes this spell school to a different one every time he casts. They cycle in a predefined order, arranged at the start of the day. But in exchange for this limitation, he has many more spells per day and several abilities that help him to optimally use his spells to suit the moment or to get to the right spell school when he needs it. A Revolver Mage casts from his own magical energy - much like a Sorcerer might. Unfortunately, they lack the Sorcerer's Gift, and the uneducated would say they possessed no special magical talent until they learned to be a Revolver Mage. This is not entirely accurate: all living things contain magic of some kind. It is fainter and harder to use or affect the power in normal beings, but with enough mental training, it is possible to bend the body's natural energies to one's will. This is the path of the Revolver Mage.
Natural energy is quite different from normal magic; it is arcane in type, but behaves very differently from other arcane magic. Some say that it is erratic and unpredictable; minute fluctuations change the shape and strength of the natural energy within the body on a regular basis. Yet like all things, it has a structured form and pattern; this is unique to each individual so it has historically been a very difficult magic to teach and learn. However, there are certain monasteries whose monks dedicate their entire lives to doing nothing but study the body and its workings. It is there that a person may learn to discover the patterns within and tap their magical potential. Part of the difficulty in studying natural magic is that every possible circumstance changes it to a new form, even studying it.
It is said that an ancient, knowledgeable wizard left the world of magic and spells to live the remainder of his life in a monastery to study his own mind and body; to find his soul, so to speak. When he had finally mastered the technique for finding his hidden natural energy, he was shocked to find that manipulating his natural energy caused it to take on the various forms of an energy all too familiar to him: arcane magic. He became the first Revolver Mage and, before he passed, wrote the book Rotary Arcana, which all Revolver Mages study to this day.
While most Revolver Mages come from the monastery that started it all, in recent years widespread duplication and distribution of Rotary Arcana has made a few 'self-taught' Revolver Mages begin to appear in a wide variety of places, though the book is mostly just studied by Wizards and scholars of arcana.
Making a Revolver Mage
A Revolver Mage's party role is as a caster. In combat, where turn usage matters, Revolver Mages are not well-suited to improvisation and his allies would do well not to depend on his casting the spell they desire at the right time. Parties looking to treat their Revolver Mage as a Sorcerer or Wizard will find themselves sorely disappointed in the inconsistency of a Revolver Mage. But parties adept at planning and communication will find a Revolver Mage most useful. His wide variety of spells will provide a number of useful options availible at all times, and his large quantity of spell slots means that where he can help, he doesn't need to think as much about whether he can afford to. Outside of combat, particularly when casting long-duration spells, a Revolver Mage will often wind up ahead of more traditional casters, because he can take the time to adjust to the stage of the cycle he needs at no cost.
Races
Even where humans are minorities in the world, humans make up the majority of Revolver Mages. Becoming a Revolver Mage takes an incredible amount of lengthy study time, and humans quite simply learn faster than most other races. Races learning slower than humans often give up their search for the patterns in their own natural energy and are not as good at retaining all the patterns that need memorization. Even still, it is not totally uncommon for non-human races to learn to be Revolver Mages, as nearly every race has some, but individually each non-human race is probably limited to only a handful of Revolver Mages at most.
Alignment: Because they have spent so much time studying themselves, Revolver Mages often feel detached and dispassionate toward external conflicts, or even simply curious about the seemingly alien minds of those initiating said conflicts. As a result, Revolver Mages drift toward chaos: they pay little attention to the rules of others while they go about their lives. They are also generally neutral when considering both good and evil, preferring to observe and learn than to take sides.
Game Rule Information
Abilities
Intelligence determines how powerful a spell a Revolver Mage can cast, how many spells he can cast, and how hard those spells are to resist. A high Dexterity score is helpful for a Revolver Mage, due to his inability to wear armor. Constitution is important for a Revolver Mage, as it affects Concentration checks, but more importantly it provides hit points. With a d4 per level as a hit-point growth, a Revolver Mage's total HP usually reflects his constitution score more than other classes.
Starting Gold: 4d4 x 10 (100gp)
Starting Item: Rotary Arcana - this book is not required to advance in the class, but is needed to learn to become a Revolver Mage at first and provides a +2 bonus to Knowledge (Arcana).
Starting Age: as Wizard
Hit Die: d4
Skill Points: 2 + Int (x4 at 1st level)
Class Skills: Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Knowledge, Profession, and Spellcraft.
The Revolver Mage Progression / Spells per Day
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Refl|Will|Special|0th|1st|2nd|3rd|4 th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th
1 |+0 |+0|+0|+2 |Improved Counterspell |6|4|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
2 |+1 |+0|+0|+3 |Cycle Synchronization |7|5|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
3 |+1 |+1|+1|+3 |Suffix Spell |8|6|1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
4 |+2 |+1|+1|+4 |Quick Cycle 1/day |8|7|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
5 |+2 |+1|+1|+4 | |8|8|3|1|-|-|-|-|-|-
6 |+3 |+2|+2|+5 |Back Cycle |8|8|4|2|-|-|-|-|-|-
7 |+3 |+2|+2|+5 | |8|8|5|3|1|-|-|-|-|-
8 |+4 |+2|+2|+6 |Quick Cycle 2/day |8|8|6|4|2|-|-|-|-|-
9 |+4 |+3|+3|+6 | |8|8|7|5|3|1|-|-|-|-
10|+5 |+3|+3|+7 |Mental Burn 1/day |8|8|8|6|4|2|-|-|-|-
11|+5 |+3|+3|+7 | |8|8|8|7|5|3|1|-|-|-
12|+6/+1 |+4|+4|+8 |Quick Cycle 3/day |8|8|8|8|6|4|2|-|-|-
13|+6/+1 |+4|+4|+8 | |8|8|8|8|7|5|3|1|-|-
14|+7/+2 |+4|+4|+9 |Redirected Energy |8|8|8|8|8|6|4|2|-|-
15|+7/+2 |+5|+5|+9 | |8|8|8|8|8|7|5|3|1|-
16|+8/+3 |+5|+5|+10|Quick Cycle 4/day |8|8|8|8|8|8|6|4|2|-
17|+8/+3 |+5|+5|+10| |8|8|8|8|8|8|7|5|3|1
18|+9/+4 |+6|+6|+11|Quick Cycle 5/day |8|8|8|8|8|8|8|6|4|2
19|+9/+4 |+6|+6|+11| |8|8|8|8|8|8|8|7|5|3
20|+10/+5|+6|+6|+12|Quick Cycle 6/day, Mental Burn 2/day|8|8|8|8|8|8|8|8|6|4[/table]
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Revolver Mages are proficient with all forms of gauntlets, maces and staves, and also with light and heavy crossbows. If your campaign allows revolvers (DMG 146), they are also proficient with them. They are not proficient with any type of armor or shield. Armor of any type interferes with a Revolver Mage’s gestures, which can cause his spells with somatic components to fail. Revolver Mages are subject to Arcane Spell Failure chances uncurred by armor the same way Wizards and Sorcerers are.
Spells: The Revolver Mage is an Int-based spontaneous caster who casts from the Sorcerer/Wizard spell list. Revolver Mages recieve bonus spells for having a high Intelligence score, just like a Wizard. To learn or cast a spell, the Revolver Mage must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a Revolver Mage’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the Revolver Mage’s Intelligence modifier. Your caster level is equal to your class level.
A Revolver Mage has something called a 'Casting Cycle' that he uses to cast spells. The Casting Cycle is a cycle of fluctuating magical patterns within a Revolver Mage that limits the spells he can cast at any given moment. Each stage of the Casting Cycle corresponds to a specific school of magic: abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, or transmutation; a Revolver Mage can only cast spells from the current school of the Casting Cycle.
The Casting Cycle advances in a fixed order set by the Revolver Mage once a day, starting with a school of his choice, until he sets it again the next day. This process takes a full hour of uninterrupted, unmoving concentration so that he can analyze the flows of energy within and adapt his casting accordingly. Each school he selects as part of the Casting Cycle must appear exactly once, and then the cycle repeats from the start. Universal spells can only be cast from the first school in your Casting Cycle. For each school that you disclude from your current day's Casting Cycle, subtract 1 from your Spells per Day for each spell level; your highest level spell slots are exempt from this unless they would end up with more spells than a lower-level slot. The Casting Cycle advances whenever the Revolver Mage casts a spell or takes a standard action to advance it.
A Revolver Mage begins first level knowing all 0th-level spells and three 1st level spells, plus a 1st level spell for each point of intelligence bonus. Each time the Revolver Mage increases in level, he learns four new spells of his choice from any level he can cast from.
Improved Counterspell (Ex): A Revolver Mage gains Improved Counterspell (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#improvedCounterspell) as a bonus feat. When counterspelling, you may use a spell of the same school that is one or more spell levels higher than the target spell. You can only use spells from the current school in the Casting Cycle for this ability.
Cycle Synchronization(Ex): At 2nd level, a Revolver Mage becomes able to increase the effectiveness of his casting by attaining perfect synchronization with his ever-changing magical energies. With this ability, you may attempt a concentration check to boost your Intelligence score immediately before casting a spell. The DC is 10 + the spell level + desired bonus + [2 x the number of times you've succeeded on this check in the current encounter]. This magical attunement also gives you a bonus to your AC and saves equal to half of the Intelligence score bonus recieved from this ability that lasts for the rest of the round. The maximum Intelligence score bonus you can recieve from this ability is half your class level, rounded down. You may only use this ability once per round, and failing this check causes the spell to fail (and wastes the spell slot it was cast from).
Suffix Spell (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, a Revolver Mage can cast a second spell when using Cycle Synchronization. Before making the Concentration check for Cycle Synchronization, you may declare a single spell from the next school in your Casting Cycle with a casting time of full-round or less as a Suffix Spell and add its level to the DC of the check. If the check succeeds, you can cast the Suffix Spell immediately after the other spell as a free action. You may use this ability a number of times per day equal to half your Revolver Mage level, rounded down. If the check fails, the first spell fails and you lose its spell slot as normal, but you do not cast the second spell or use its spell slot and you do not expend one of your daily usages of Suffix Spell.
Quick Cycle (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a Revolver Mage may advance his Casting Cycle by one with a free action 1/day. This increases to 2/day at 8th level, 3/day at 12th, 4/day at 16th, 5/day at 18th, and finally 6/day at 20th level.
Back Cycle (Ex): Starting at 6th level, a Revolver Mage may take a standard action to advance his Casting Cycle backwards by one stage. The normal cycle then continues from there (it does not permanently reverse the order). You may expend one of your daily uses of Quick Cycle to change this to a free action.
Mental Burn (Su): After reaching 10th level, a Revolver Mage can totally rearrange his Casting Cycle as a free action by expending a number of spell slots whose levels add up to 8 (0th-level spell slots count as 1/2-level spell slots). He may only do this once a day until level 20, when he may do it twice a day.
Redirected Energy (Su): After reaching 14th level, a Revolver Mage gains a pool of energy points equal to half his Revolver Mage level (rounded down) that he can spend to reduce the level of a spell at the moment of casting. Each energy point spent reduces the level of the spell by one. The energy points are replenished to full after a full night's rest. This adjustment happens before metamagic is applied to a spell, if any.
Creator's Comments/Changelog
I don't know what came over me when I though of this class. I just felt like making a class today, and so I did. This time I wanted to make a full-caster class that is distinctly different from the many others. I'm not sure if I've entirely succeeded; I can't think of anything else that uses this sort of mechanic except maybe the Crusader, but I've used a lot of elements from the Sorcerer, so you might not play it that differently from one. You might consider this to be like a Sorcerer version of the Crusader, only the order of your abilities' availibility isn't random.
04/11/08
Changes:
-Changed it to a spontaneous caster. He still needs to take that full hour of concentration to change the order of his school rotation (and only once a day).
-Gave Redirected Energy and Mental Burn modifications so that, instead of just using a fixed number of spell slots, they use a number of spell slots whose levels add up to that fixed number.
-Got rid of Spell Focus and Arcane Defense, because they don't really fit the theme (thanks for pointing that out, AsuroftheStair). I'll need to come up with more things to make up for it. In the meantime, it gets Improved Counterspell at first level for free.
-Changed name from Rotary Arcanist to Revolver Mage, which is a much cooler name. (Ascension's referral to it as a 'Revolver Wizard' sounded way cooler to me than Rotary Arcanist)
-Added Cycle Synchronization to help him out a bit for his limitations.
-He now gets Redirected Energy at 14th level.
-Gains an extra Quick Cycle at 18th to fill in the gap.
-Redirected Energy now costs nothing, and is just usable a limited number of times per day.
-Finally added some fluff. This fluff, as always, can be completely discarded and rebuilt if your character concept requires its abilities but precludes its backstory.
08/11/08: I've come back to this class to take a second look, and I've come to the conclusion that it is significantly less powerful than Sorcerer and Wizard. While for most classes, I would be aiming well below those two since they're so powerful, Revolver Mage is competing directly with them for a player's selection (and as PHB classes, there is no choice but to count them as competition). But I'm not trying to make something even more powerful than they are; I just want something that is roughly equal but provides an interesting way to play.
Anyway, I don't think I've achieved this; all of his abilities so far have been about temporarily compensating for his big limitation of options. Revolver Mage's cycle may be thought of as being equivalent to a penalty; being able to merely negate or avoid that penalty a few times does not make up for its existence. He has extra spells per day, but that doesn't really help him in combat in comparison to the big two, because Wizards and Sorcerers are unlikely to run out of spells in an encounter unless there are a lot of encounters. So... he does better than them in the rare 5th and 6th daily encounters, and is outshone for the other four.
"Just shut up and tell me what you changed!" - you
Okay, okay. I gave the Revolver Mage the Suffix Spell ability, which lets him cast two spells in one turn on a number of conditions. Firstly, he may only do it a few times a day. Secondly, it has to be part of a successful Cycle Synchronization (which limits its uses per encounter), and third, its effect on the Concentration check DC for Cycle Synchronization is proportionate to its spell level.
There, now Revolver Mage can be a truly scary caster.
11/11/08: Because some important spells like Prestidigitation, Permanency, Arcane Mark, and Smite DM (Wish) are Universal only, I've made it so that you can cast Universal Spells. You can only cast them from the school you've started your Cycle with, though, so don't get any crazy Limited Wish-related ideas involving liberal dosages of Suffix Spell and Redirected Energy. Well, you can get some crazy ideas, but only about 1/8th of the time.
13/11/08: Revolver Mages no longer take as big a hit to their spells per day when discluding schools - your highest-level spell slots are not included in the subtraction unless they would end up being more numerous than those of a level below. Except at 3rd and 4th level, this means the first two schools you leave out of your cycle don't affect your highest-level slots.
As always, please tell me what you think, especially if you don't like it; I'd like to improve it where I can.
The Revolver Mage
The Revolver Mage can be thought of as a Sorcerer who is limited to casting from a single spell school at a time and changes this spell school to a different one every time he casts. They cycle in a predefined order, arranged at the start of the day. But in exchange for this limitation, he has many more spells per day and several abilities that help him to optimally use his spells to suit the moment or to get to the right spell school when he needs it. A Revolver Mage casts from his own magical energy - much like a Sorcerer might. Unfortunately, they lack the Sorcerer's Gift, and the uneducated would say they possessed no special magical talent until they learned to be a Revolver Mage. This is not entirely accurate: all living things contain magic of some kind. It is fainter and harder to use or affect the power in normal beings, but with enough mental training, it is possible to bend the body's natural energies to one's will. This is the path of the Revolver Mage.
Natural energy is quite different from normal magic; it is arcane in type, but behaves very differently from other arcane magic. Some say that it is erratic and unpredictable; minute fluctuations change the shape and strength of the natural energy within the body on a regular basis. Yet like all things, it has a structured form and pattern; this is unique to each individual so it has historically been a very difficult magic to teach and learn. However, there are certain monasteries whose monks dedicate their entire lives to doing nothing but study the body and its workings. It is there that a person may learn to discover the patterns within and tap their magical potential. Part of the difficulty in studying natural magic is that every possible circumstance changes it to a new form, even studying it.
It is said that an ancient, knowledgeable wizard left the world of magic and spells to live the remainder of his life in a monastery to study his own mind and body; to find his soul, so to speak. When he had finally mastered the technique for finding his hidden natural energy, he was shocked to find that manipulating his natural energy caused it to take on the various forms of an energy all too familiar to him: arcane magic. He became the first Revolver Mage and, before he passed, wrote the book Rotary Arcana, which all Revolver Mages study to this day.
While most Revolver Mages come from the monastery that started it all, in recent years widespread duplication and distribution of Rotary Arcana has made a few 'self-taught' Revolver Mages begin to appear in a wide variety of places, though the book is mostly just studied by Wizards and scholars of arcana.
Making a Revolver Mage
A Revolver Mage's party role is as a caster. In combat, where turn usage matters, Revolver Mages are not well-suited to improvisation and his allies would do well not to depend on his casting the spell they desire at the right time. Parties looking to treat their Revolver Mage as a Sorcerer or Wizard will find themselves sorely disappointed in the inconsistency of a Revolver Mage. But parties adept at planning and communication will find a Revolver Mage most useful. His wide variety of spells will provide a number of useful options availible at all times, and his large quantity of spell slots means that where he can help, he doesn't need to think as much about whether he can afford to. Outside of combat, particularly when casting long-duration spells, a Revolver Mage will often wind up ahead of more traditional casters, because he can take the time to adjust to the stage of the cycle he needs at no cost.
Races
Even where humans are minorities in the world, humans make up the majority of Revolver Mages. Becoming a Revolver Mage takes an incredible amount of lengthy study time, and humans quite simply learn faster than most other races. Races learning slower than humans often give up their search for the patterns in their own natural energy and are not as good at retaining all the patterns that need memorization. Even still, it is not totally uncommon for non-human races to learn to be Revolver Mages, as nearly every race has some, but individually each non-human race is probably limited to only a handful of Revolver Mages at most.
Alignment: Because they have spent so much time studying themselves, Revolver Mages often feel detached and dispassionate toward external conflicts, or even simply curious about the seemingly alien minds of those initiating said conflicts. As a result, Revolver Mages drift toward chaos: they pay little attention to the rules of others while they go about their lives. They are also generally neutral when considering both good and evil, preferring to observe and learn than to take sides.
Game Rule Information
Abilities
Intelligence determines how powerful a spell a Revolver Mage can cast, how many spells he can cast, and how hard those spells are to resist. A high Dexterity score is helpful for a Revolver Mage, due to his inability to wear armor. Constitution is important for a Revolver Mage, as it affects Concentration checks, but more importantly it provides hit points. With a d4 per level as a hit-point growth, a Revolver Mage's total HP usually reflects his constitution score more than other classes.
Starting Gold: 4d4 x 10 (100gp)
Starting Item: Rotary Arcana - this book is not required to advance in the class, but is needed to learn to become a Revolver Mage at first and provides a +2 bonus to Knowledge (Arcana).
Starting Age: as Wizard
Hit Die: d4
Skill Points: 2 + Int (x4 at 1st level)
Class Skills: Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Knowledge, Profession, and Spellcraft.
The Revolver Mage Progression / Spells per Day
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Refl|Will|Special|0th|1st|2nd|3rd|4 th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th
1 |+0 |+0|+0|+2 |Improved Counterspell |6|4|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
2 |+1 |+0|+0|+3 |Cycle Synchronization |7|5|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
3 |+1 |+1|+1|+3 |Suffix Spell |8|6|1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
4 |+2 |+1|+1|+4 |Quick Cycle 1/day |8|7|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
5 |+2 |+1|+1|+4 | |8|8|3|1|-|-|-|-|-|-
6 |+3 |+2|+2|+5 |Back Cycle |8|8|4|2|-|-|-|-|-|-
7 |+3 |+2|+2|+5 | |8|8|5|3|1|-|-|-|-|-
8 |+4 |+2|+2|+6 |Quick Cycle 2/day |8|8|6|4|2|-|-|-|-|-
9 |+4 |+3|+3|+6 | |8|8|7|5|3|1|-|-|-|-
10|+5 |+3|+3|+7 |Mental Burn 1/day |8|8|8|6|4|2|-|-|-|-
11|+5 |+3|+3|+7 | |8|8|8|7|5|3|1|-|-|-
12|+6/+1 |+4|+4|+8 |Quick Cycle 3/day |8|8|8|8|6|4|2|-|-|-
13|+6/+1 |+4|+4|+8 | |8|8|8|8|7|5|3|1|-|-
14|+7/+2 |+4|+4|+9 |Redirected Energy |8|8|8|8|8|6|4|2|-|-
15|+7/+2 |+5|+5|+9 | |8|8|8|8|8|7|5|3|1|-
16|+8/+3 |+5|+5|+10|Quick Cycle 4/day |8|8|8|8|8|8|6|4|2|-
17|+8/+3 |+5|+5|+10| |8|8|8|8|8|8|7|5|3|1
18|+9/+4 |+6|+6|+11|Quick Cycle 5/day |8|8|8|8|8|8|8|6|4|2
19|+9/+4 |+6|+6|+11| |8|8|8|8|8|8|8|7|5|3
20|+10/+5|+6|+6|+12|Quick Cycle 6/day, Mental Burn 2/day|8|8|8|8|8|8|8|8|6|4[/table]
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Revolver Mages are proficient with all forms of gauntlets, maces and staves, and also with light and heavy crossbows. If your campaign allows revolvers (DMG 146), they are also proficient with them. They are not proficient with any type of armor or shield. Armor of any type interferes with a Revolver Mage’s gestures, which can cause his spells with somatic components to fail. Revolver Mages are subject to Arcane Spell Failure chances uncurred by armor the same way Wizards and Sorcerers are.
Spells: The Revolver Mage is an Int-based spontaneous caster who casts from the Sorcerer/Wizard spell list. Revolver Mages recieve bonus spells for having a high Intelligence score, just like a Wizard. To learn or cast a spell, the Revolver Mage must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a Revolver Mage’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the Revolver Mage’s Intelligence modifier. Your caster level is equal to your class level.
A Revolver Mage has something called a 'Casting Cycle' that he uses to cast spells. The Casting Cycle is a cycle of fluctuating magical patterns within a Revolver Mage that limits the spells he can cast at any given moment. Each stage of the Casting Cycle corresponds to a specific school of magic: abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, or transmutation; a Revolver Mage can only cast spells from the current school of the Casting Cycle.
The Casting Cycle advances in a fixed order set by the Revolver Mage once a day, starting with a school of his choice, until he sets it again the next day. This process takes a full hour of uninterrupted, unmoving concentration so that he can analyze the flows of energy within and adapt his casting accordingly. Each school he selects as part of the Casting Cycle must appear exactly once, and then the cycle repeats from the start. Universal spells can only be cast from the first school in your Casting Cycle. For each school that you disclude from your current day's Casting Cycle, subtract 1 from your Spells per Day for each spell level; your highest level spell slots are exempt from this unless they would end up with more spells than a lower-level slot. The Casting Cycle advances whenever the Revolver Mage casts a spell or takes a standard action to advance it.
A Revolver Mage begins first level knowing all 0th-level spells and three 1st level spells, plus a 1st level spell for each point of intelligence bonus. Each time the Revolver Mage increases in level, he learns four new spells of his choice from any level he can cast from.
Improved Counterspell (Ex): A Revolver Mage gains Improved Counterspell (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#improvedCounterspell) as a bonus feat. When counterspelling, you may use a spell of the same school that is one or more spell levels higher than the target spell. You can only use spells from the current school in the Casting Cycle for this ability.
Cycle Synchronization(Ex): At 2nd level, a Revolver Mage becomes able to increase the effectiveness of his casting by attaining perfect synchronization with his ever-changing magical energies. With this ability, you may attempt a concentration check to boost your Intelligence score immediately before casting a spell. The DC is 10 + the spell level + desired bonus + [2 x the number of times you've succeeded on this check in the current encounter]. This magical attunement also gives you a bonus to your AC and saves equal to half of the Intelligence score bonus recieved from this ability that lasts for the rest of the round. The maximum Intelligence score bonus you can recieve from this ability is half your class level, rounded down. You may only use this ability once per round, and failing this check causes the spell to fail (and wastes the spell slot it was cast from).
Suffix Spell (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, a Revolver Mage can cast a second spell when using Cycle Synchronization. Before making the Concentration check for Cycle Synchronization, you may declare a single spell from the next school in your Casting Cycle with a casting time of full-round or less as a Suffix Spell and add its level to the DC of the check. If the check succeeds, you can cast the Suffix Spell immediately after the other spell as a free action. You may use this ability a number of times per day equal to half your Revolver Mage level, rounded down. If the check fails, the first spell fails and you lose its spell slot as normal, but you do not cast the second spell or use its spell slot and you do not expend one of your daily usages of Suffix Spell.
Quick Cycle (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a Revolver Mage may advance his Casting Cycle by one with a free action 1/day. This increases to 2/day at 8th level, 3/day at 12th, 4/day at 16th, 5/day at 18th, and finally 6/day at 20th level.
Back Cycle (Ex): Starting at 6th level, a Revolver Mage may take a standard action to advance his Casting Cycle backwards by one stage. The normal cycle then continues from there (it does not permanently reverse the order). You may expend one of your daily uses of Quick Cycle to change this to a free action.
Mental Burn (Su): After reaching 10th level, a Revolver Mage can totally rearrange his Casting Cycle as a free action by expending a number of spell slots whose levels add up to 8 (0th-level spell slots count as 1/2-level spell slots). He may only do this once a day until level 20, when he may do it twice a day.
Redirected Energy (Su): After reaching 14th level, a Revolver Mage gains a pool of energy points equal to half his Revolver Mage level (rounded down) that he can spend to reduce the level of a spell at the moment of casting. Each energy point spent reduces the level of the spell by one. The energy points are replenished to full after a full night's rest. This adjustment happens before metamagic is applied to a spell, if any.
Creator's Comments/Changelog
I don't know what came over me when I though of this class. I just felt like making a class today, and so I did. This time I wanted to make a full-caster class that is distinctly different from the many others. I'm not sure if I've entirely succeeded; I can't think of anything else that uses this sort of mechanic except maybe the Crusader, but I've used a lot of elements from the Sorcerer, so you might not play it that differently from one. You might consider this to be like a Sorcerer version of the Crusader, only the order of your abilities' availibility isn't random.
04/11/08
Changes:
-Changed it to a spontaneous caster. He still needs to take that full hour of concentration to change the order of his school rotation (and only once a day).
-Gave Redirected Energy and Mental Burn modifications so that, instead of just using a fixed number of spell slots, they use a number of spell slots whose levels add up to that fixed number.
-Got rid of Spell Focus and Arcane Defense, because they don't really fit the theme (thanks for pointing that out, AsuroftheStair). I'll need to come up with more things to make up for it. In the meantime, it gets Improved Counterspell at first level for free.
-Changed name from Rotary Arcanist to Revolver Mage, which is a much cooler name. (Ascension's referral to it as a 'Revolver Wizard' sounded way cooler to me than Rotary Arcanist)
-Added Cycle Synchronization to help him out a bit for his limitations.
-He now gets Redirected Energy at 14th level.
-Gains an extra Quick Cycle at 18th to fill in the gap.
-Redirected Energy now costs nothing, and is just usable a limited number of times per day.
-Finally added some fluff. This fluff, as always, can be completely discarded and rebuilt if your character concept requires its abilities but precludes its backstory.
08/11/08: I've come back to this class to take a second look, and I've come to the conclusion that it is significantly less powerful than Sorcerer and Wizard. While for most classes, I would be aiming well below those two since they're so powerful, Revolver Mage is competing directly with them for a player's selection (and as PHB classes, there is no choice but to count them as competition). But I'm not trying to make something even more powerful than they are; I just want something that is roughly equal but provides an interesting way to play.
Anyway, I don't think I've achieved this; all of his abilities so far have been about temporarily compensating for his big limitation of options. Revolver Mage's cycle may be thought of as being equivalent to a penalty; being able to merely negate or avoid that penalty a few times does not make up for its existence. He has extra spells per day, but that doesn't really help him in combat in comparison to the big two, because Wizards and Sorcerers are unlikely to run out of spells in an encounter unless there are a lot of encounters. So... he does better than them in the rare 5th and 6th daily encounters, and is outshone for the other four.
"Just shut up and tell me what you changed!" - you
Okay, okay. I gave the Revolver Mage the Suffix Spell ability, which lets him cast two spells in one turn on a number of conditions. Firstly, he may only do it a few times a day. Secondly, it has to be part of a successful Cycle Synchronization (which limits its uses per encounter), and third, its effect on the Concentration check DC for Cycle Synchronization is proportionate to its spell level.
There, now Revolver Mage can be a truly scary caster.
11/11/08: Because some important spells like Prestidigitation, Permanency, Arcane Mark, and Smite DM (Wish) are Universal only, I've made it so that you can cast Universal Spells. You can only cast them from the school you've started your Cycle with, though, so don't get any crazy Limited Wish-related ideas involving liberal dosages of Suffix Spell and Redirected Energy. Well, you can get some crazy ideas, but only about 1/8th of the time.
13/11/08: Revolver Mages no longer take as big a hit to their spells per day when discluding schools - your highest-level spell slots are not included in the subtraction unless they would end up being more numerous than those of a level below. Except at 3rd and 4th level, this means the first two schools you leave out of your cycle don't affect your highest-level slots.
As always, please tell me what you think, especially if you don't like it; I'd like to improve it where I can.