The Color of Magic (3.5 Base class, WIP PEACH)

[Gideon Falcon]

Prismatic Adept

Some sages believe that there are four primal forces of magic in the world, and each is still drawn upon by many beings in order to gain power. The shaking might of a Truenamer's words, the moving flow and rythm of the Bard's compositions, the measured angles and calculations of a geometer or arithmancer, and the colorful, blinding force of a Prismatic Adept. Prismatic Adepts use the powerful abilities drawn upon in many mighty spells, from Sunburst to Prismatic Deluge.

Abilities: Charisma is important to many of the Prismatic Adept's class features, and Dexterity is as important as it is for any other casting-type class.

Role: Prismatic adepts will function primarily as medium-ranged support, although they can also provide some limited boosting and melee support.

Alignment: Any. Prismatic Adepts have a slight tendency towards chaos in line with the random nature of their abilities.

Races: Humans, with their inquisitive nature, have predominated the number of Prismatic Adepts with their interest in the effects of color with magic.

Religion: Prismatic Adepts have no propensity towards any specific religion.

Other Classes: Prismatic Adepts are not all that common, but their presence can draw attention due to the nature of their abilities, and the colorful clothes that they may often wear.

Adaptation: If you don't like the 'primal magic' fluff, you could easily just have them as light-focused magic users, in which case the meager focus requirement turns from a fluff note to not being there.

Hit Die: d8

Starting Gold: 3d4x10 (75gp)

Class Features

Class Skills: The Prismatic Adept's class skills are Bluff (Cha), Concentrate (Con) Craft (Int), Disguise (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int)

Skill Points at First Level: (2 + Int mod) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int mod

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special
1st|

+0

|

+0

|

+0

|

+2

|Prismatic Beam I, Prismatic Defense I

2nd|

+1

|

+0

|

+0

|

+3

|Chromatic Emotion

3rd|

+2

|

+1

|

+1

|

+3

|Defensive Aura (5 ft.), Prismatic Defense II

4th|

+3

|

+1

|

+1

|

+4

|Prismatic Beam II

5th|

+3

|

+1

|

+1

|

+4

|Prismatic Touch|

6th|

+4

|

+2

|

+2

|

+5

|Prismatic Defense III

7th|

+5

|

+2

|

+2

|

+5

|Prismatic Beam III, Color drain

8th|

+6/+1

|

+2

|

+2

|

+6

|Prismatic retaliation

9th|

+6/+1

|

+3

|

+3

|

+6

|Prismatic Ray, Prismatic Defense IV, Defensive Aura (10 ft.)

10th|

+7/+2

|

+3

|

+3

|

+7

|Prismatic Beam IV

11th|

+8/+3

|

+3

|

+3

|

+7

|Prismatic Aura

12th|

+9/+4

|

+4

|

+4

|

+8

|Prismatic Defense V

13th|

+9/+4

|

+4

|

+4

|

+8

|Prismatic Spray, Prismatic Beam V

14th|

+10/+5

|

+4

|

+4

|

+9

|Defensive Aura (15 ft.)

15th|

+11/+6/+1

|

+5

|

+5

|

+9

|Prismatic Wall, Prismatic Defense VI

16th|

+12/+7/+2

|

+5

|

+5

|

+10

|Prismatic Beam VI

17th|

+12/+7/+2

|

+5

|

+5

|

+10

|Prismatic Deluge

18th|

+13/+8/+3

|

+6

|

+6

|

+11

|Prismatic Defense VII

19th|

+14/+9/+4

|

+6

|

+6

|

+11

|Prismatic Beam VII, Defensive Aura (20ft.)

20th|

+15/+10/+5

|

+6

|

+6

|

+12

|Prismatic Fury, Prismatic Sphere[/table]

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Prismatic Adepts are proficient with all simple weapons, and with light armor.

Prismatic Beam (Su): In order to use this ability, you must have an object in each of the seven colors of the Prismatic abilities (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple), typically an article of clothing.

As a standard action, you may make a ranged touch attack against a target within 60 ft, the range of which increases by 10 feet at each stage (see below). If it hits, it deals a kind of damage according to the color, which is determined by a 1d8, using the following table:

{table=head]1d8|Color of Beam
1|Red
2|Orange
3|Yellow
4|Green
5|Blue
6|Indigo
7|Violet
8|Two colors; roll twice more, ignoring any '8' results[/table]

The effects of each color increase at levels 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, and 19, each stage increasing the range by ten feet. At stage III, you may replace the attack roll with a line out to maximum range, forcing everyone within the area to receive a random effect. At stage V, you may instead create a cone out to half maximum range. At stage VII, you may create a spread with a radius equal to half the maximum range. In addition, after stage IV, those who fail their saves are also blinded for 1d4 rounds, or 2d4 at stage VI.
The saves on all abilities is equal to 10 + 1/2 class level + Cha modifier

Red: 1d8 fire damage per stage, reflex half, or partial on ranged touch attack.
At stage IV, those who fail their reflex saves also catch on fire, taking 1 damage per stage on each of the next two rounds. At stage VII, this instead lasts 4 rounds and deals 2 damage per stage.

Orange: 1d8 acid damage per stage, reflex half, or partial on ranged touch attack.
At stage IV, those who fail their save take damage equal to twice the stage on the next round. At stage VII, this increases to quadruple the stage on each of the next two rounds.

Yellow: 1d8 electricity damage per stage, reflex half, or partial on ranged touch attack.
At stage IV, those who fail their saves take a -3 penalty to dexterity for the next 2 rounds. At stage VII, this increases to -6 and they are also stunned for 1 round. If they are immune to stunning, the effect is lessened to dazed.

Green: 1d6 poison damage per stage (repeats one minute later), fortitude half (each).
At stage IV, those who fail their saves also take a point of Constitution damage both primarily and secondarily. At stage VII, this increases to 2 points of Constitution damage, both primary and secondary, and also bypasses normal poison immunity.

Blue: 1d8 cold damage per stage, fortitude half, or partial on ranged touch attack.
At stage IV, those who fail their saves also take 2 dexterity damage. At stage VII, this increases to 4 points and an additional 1d8 cold damage the following round.

Indigo: 1 Wisdom damage per stage, will negates.
At stage IV, those who fail their saves also act confused for one round, or two rounds at stage VII.

Violet: 1d4 force damage per stage, no save.
At stage IV, those struck must also make a will save or be teleported 5 feet in a random direction. This increases to 10 feet at stage VII.

Prismatic Defense (Su): Each day at dawn, you may choose which of the following colors to use as a protective ward. As with the Prismatic Beam, you must possess an item of that color in order to recieve the benefits.

Red defense:

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1st stage: +4 bonus on saves against fear effects and fire effects.
2nd stage: +2 bonus on Initiative checks
3rd stage: Fire Resistance 5
4th stage: Immunity to Fear
5th stage: Fire Resistance 10
6th stage: +2 insight bonus on reflex saves
7th stage: Fire Immunity

Orange Defense:

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1st Level: +4 bonus on saves against acid, nonlethal damage, and fatiguing and exhausting effects.
2nd Level: +4 bonus on Escape Artist checks
3rd Level: Acid resistance 5
4th level: Immunity to fatigue and exhaustion
5th level: Acid resistance 10
6th level: Immunity to Nonlethal damage; you cannot benefit from this aspect if you have regeneration
7th level: Immunity to Acid

Yellow Defense

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1st level: +4 bonus on saves against enchantment and electricity effects
2nd level: +1 dodge bonus to AC, +1/2 adjacent allies
3rd level: Electricity resistance 5
4th level: Immunity to Charm
5th level: Electricity Resistance 10
6th level: +1 Dodge bonus to AC, +1/2 allies within defensive aura
7th level: Immunity to Electricity

Green Defense

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1st level: +4 bonus on saves against poison and disease
2nd level: +1 insight bonus to AC
3rd level: Mundane Disease Immunity
4th level: Immunity to fatigue and exhaustion
5th level: Poison Immunity
6th level: Immunity to nonlethal damage, you cannot benefit from this aspect if you have regeneration
7th level: Magical disease immunity

Blue defense

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1st level: +4 bonus on saves against cold and paralysis
2nd level: +1 insight bonus to AC
3rd level: Cold resistance 5
4th level: Immunity to paralysis
5th level: Cold Resistance 10
6th level: Immunity to petrification
7th level: Cold immunity

Indigo Defense

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1st level: +4 on saves against sonic and insanity
2nd level: +2 on saves against enchantment
3rd level: Sonic resistance 5
4th level: Immunity to Insanity and confusion
5th level: Sonic resistance 10
6th level: Immunity to Compulsion
7th level: Sonic immunity

Violet defense

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1st level: +4 on saves against teleportation and force effects
2nd level: +1 deflection bonus to AC
3rd level: Force resistance 3
4th level: +8 on saves against teleportation
5th level: Force resistance 6
6th level: Immunity to unwilling plane shifting
7th level: Half damage from force effects before resistance is applied.

The benefits overlap (do not stack with) previous benefits of that color. Only one color may be chosen at a time, although the selection may be changed by taking a minute to concentrate. At stage IV, this decreases to a full-round action. The benefits last until changed.

Chromatic Emotions (Su): A number of times per day equal to your charisma modifier (minimum 1), you may use on of the following spells according to your current Prismatic defense color. The DCs of these abilities are calculated as 10 + 1/2 class level + cha modifier. You gain access to an additional set of abilities at higher levels, as noted.

Red: Remove Fear, or Rage at 6th level.
Orange: Sleep, or Ray of Exhaustion at 6th level.
Yellow: Cause Fear, or Scare at 4th level.
Green: Ray of Enfeeblement, or Ray of Sickness at 4th level.
Blue: Doom, or Crushing despair at 6th level.
Indigo: Charm Person, or Heroism at 6th level.
Violet: Hypnotism, or Owl's Wisdom at 4th level.

Defensive Aura (Su): Starting at 3rd level, your Prismatic Defense extends to all allies within 5 feet. they gain the benefits at one stage lower, however. The radius increases to 10 feet at 9th level, 15 at 14th level, and 20 feet at 19th level.

Prismatic Touch (Su): Starting at 5th level, you may use your Prismatic beam as a melee touch attack that can be delivered through a weapon. You may deal damage with the weapon, but only if your attack roll defeats their normal AC. This does not allow you to make attacks of opportunity with your Prismatic Beam.

Color Drain (Su): Starting at 7th level, you gain the ability to drain all colors from your body as a standard action, a number of times per day equal to half your charisma modifier (minimum 1). This blinds all within 20 feet that fail a reflex save (10 + 1/2 class level + cha modifier) for 2d4 rounds, and renders you invisible, as with the Greater Invisibility spell. Alternatively, you may replace the blinding burst with the effect of a color spray spell, with the same save DC. The Invisibility still functions in this case.

Prismatic Retaliation (Su): At 8th level and onward, you may make attacks of opportunity with your Prismatic Touch, and you may make your Prismatic Touch as an immediate action against an enemy that attacks you with a melee weapon.

Prismatic Spells (Su:) At 9th level and onward, you begin to gain the ability to replicate the spells given in the above table as supernatural abilities, each a number of times per day equal to half of your charisma modifier (minimum 1). The save DCs of these are the same as that of your Prismatic Beam ability.


Now, I realize that this is likely quite flawed, it was a bit hastily cobbled together. But then, that's what WIP and PEACH are for.

[tzaan]

i'll get the unhelpful responses out of the way:

what is this, Darkest Night/Brightest Day?
what is this- might morphin' Power Rangers?
what is this - the Carebears?

nice fluff, could pad out the beginning (truenaming, bard, two I've never heard of and ignoring loads of other magic flavours...nitpicky, but w/e)

would a Shadowcaster simply be the worst nightmare of this guy?

[Benly]

Aw, no Color Spray? Granted, orange sleep covers its tactical role nicely, but I was hoping to see it.

[Gideon Falcon]

That is a good point about the color spray. The Arithmancer is another base class I plan on making, but it will need a lot of work, figuring out the mechanics. Creating new magic systems is not exactly easy, after all. In any case, the fluff thing is that the verbal components of spells is obviously to do with truenaming, while the somatic components may have a lot to do with geometry, which is what the Arithmancer will be about.

Anyway, I really can't blame the criticism, I'm really not proud of how this turned out. It's like the Dragon Shaman, very limited versatility. That, again, is why this is a WIP. I just hope I will be able to fully realize my intents of creating magic systems fluffed around color and symbols. The problem is, again, any color-based magic system is going to seem like some cheesy power rangers rip-off. The question, of course, is what kind of primal force of magic would make a fitting replacement? The other three have mythological parallels, or at least anyone who has heard a really good composition can tell you that music has a magic all its own.
Anyway, suggestions are welcome. Scrap this class, make a few changes, overhaul it, whatever you feel this needs.

[Benly]

Well, personally I love the idea of a class focused on shooting rainbows.

The uses per day of Chromatic Emotions seems a little low in the long run for a pool that powers fourteen different abilities. Maybe some degree of scaling uses/day to level?

As it stands, the prismatic adept has pretty much two non-combat abilities, both reasonably niche. (Charm Person is nice but has a limited range of legal targets, Owl's Wisdom is okay if you need to make Wisdom skill checks I guess?) Some added non-combat options would be very nice - without any noncombat utilities and with only 2 skill points per level, you're going to be twiddling your thumbs a lot when not fighting.

There's a fairly significant disconnect between your fighting before level 9-10 and after. Before then, you're blasting with roughly DFA damage on a single-target or line, without the ability to control your damage type, and you have a very limited pool for your control/debuffs. Then you suddenly start applying (random) debuffs on all your blasts and start opening up one of the best lines of control spells in the game with a separate pool for each individual ability, meaning a lot more total uses. Maybe you could smooth it out a bit by starting the Prismatic Spells lower? The earlier suggestion of level-scaling the Emotions pool might also help by giving you more shots of the control/debuff options before your extra, more powerful options kick in.

[Qwertystop]

Seems great!

However, I agree that it needs more noncombat options, and it does get an enormous boost once it starts getting the typical Prismatic spells.

I'm probably going to use it as a DMPC in a campaign though,as it will probably start out with more combat than non-combat, and it's starting at a low level, so the power jump won't matter for a while.

[Combat Reflexes]

When I read the title, I thought someone made a class off Rincewind!

Although the idea of a rainbow servant wizard doesn't work for me, still a very well-written concept.

[Gideon Falcon]

Wow! already someone is using my class! Evidently it is still salvageable!

I will have to think about how to improve the daily usage on the emotions without overbalancing the class.

Although, as Combat Reflexes observed, I did name this thread after the book.

[Qwertystop]

Wow! already someone is using my class! Evidently it is still salvageable!

I will have to think about how to improve the daily usage on the emotions without overbalancing the class.

Actually, I haven't started yet. The first session is this Monday, I'll tell you how it goes.

The PCs are a Ranger, a Paladin, and a Swordsage who will use the Hero's Edge discipline. I'm using this as a DMPC. Any advice on how to build him?
EDIT: Never mind, the game got cancelled due to IRL problems.
Incidentally, does anyone know how to strikethrough text on here?

[Zaydos]

The Prismatic spells they get starting at Lv 9 ought to be marked on the table as spells (or just put in italics like spell names).

As for the Chromatic Emotions, while it's powering 14 abilities, it's only ever powering 2 at a time. As you level you'll also have to keep bumping your charisma so that will increase your daily uses as a side effect.

A question on Prismatic Touch: can you make it as a melee touch attack, without using your weapon, and have the choice of making a melee attack using your weapon that carries it on a hit rather like a duskblade's channeled spell, or (what I thought from reading) make an attack with your weapon and then compare it to both their touch AC and regular AC and if it meets/surpasses their touch AC deal the prismatic attack and if it surpasses their regular AC do both. It was a little unclear (and I'm betting I was as well) so it might should be clarified a bit, but not saying either is bad. Actually while the former is standard I prefer the latter.

Really my biggest complaint is that they lack Octarine.

[Deth Muncher]

You WOULD make the hit-die d(7+1). Also, if you're using a Pratchett reference in the title, I'm sorely disappointed there's no octarine in your prismatic abilities.

[Qwertystop]

Adaptation: If you don't like the 'primal magic' fluff, you could easily just have them as light-focused magic users, in which case the meager focus requirement turns from a fluff note to not being there.

What focus requirement? Also, Red Defense says "First Stage, Second Stage" and so on, but all the other Defenses say "First Level, Second Level" etc.

[Zaydos]

What focus requirement? Also, Red Defense says "First Stage, Second Stage" and so on, but all the other Defenses say "First Level, Second Level" etc.

They must have an item of each of the seven different colors upon their body to use their primary attack, and from whatever color they choose to use as a defense that day to use their Prismatic Defense of that color. So a naked Prismatic Adept can't do squat.

[Qwertystop]

They must have an item of each of the seven different colors upon their body to use their primary attack, and from whatever color they choose to use as a defense that day to use their Prismatic Defense of that color. So a naked Prismatic Adept can't do squat.

Oh. I didn't think of that as very fluff-related, since it doesn't really key into the "primal magic" thing anyway.

[Benly]

As for the Chromatic Emotions, while it's powering 14 abilities, it's only ever powering 2 at a time. As you level you'll also have to keep bumping your charisma so that will increase your daily uses as a side effect.

I'm not sure what you mean by "only powering 2 at a time". It's only powering one power at a time, because you can only use one at a time, but you have fourteen different abilities keyed to it. Even increasing your charisma as you level, you're never going to have all that many uses of it. I'd be inclined to add half your level to your uses per day of Chromatic Emotions.

Generally speaking, the more limited your pool of abilities and flexibility in choosing those abilities, the more often you can use them - the wizard/sorcerer/warlock scale. The prismatic adept has fewer abilities than a sorcerer and more than a warlock, and no flexibility in choosing his abilities (they're all preselected by the class, and nearly all the ones he gets before Prismatic Spells are Will-targeting mind affecting debuffs) so he should be able to throw his powers around with relative abandon. As it stands, he can't.

My personal inclination would be to add half his class level to Chromatic Emotions' uses per day, add more abilities at low levels, or both.

[Qwertystop]

I'm not sure what you mean by "only powering 2 at a time". It's only powering one power at a time, because you can only use one at a time, but you have fourteen different abilities keyed to it. Even increasing your charisma as you level, you're never going to have all that many uses of it. I'd be inclined to add half your level to your uses per day of Chromatic Emotions.

Generally speaking, the more limited your pool of abilities and flexibility in choosing those abilities, the more often you can use them - the wizard/sorcerer/warlock scale. The prismatic adept has fewer abilities than a sorcerer and more than a warlock, and no flexibility in choosing his abilities (they're all preselected by the class, and nearly all the ones he gets before Prismatic Spells are Will-targeting mind affecting debuffs) so he should be able to throw his powers around with relative abandon. As it stands, he can't.

My personal inclination would be to add half his class level to Chromatic Emotions' uses per day, add more abilities at low levels, or both.

For the "two at a time", I'm pretty sure that the second ability for each color doesn't replace the first, just adds a second option. That may not matter much for some of the debuffs, since the later one is just an improved earlier one, but, for example, Heroism doesn't really replace Charm Person, so the pool is powering both options with no action needed to switch between them.

I do agree it needs more uses though. I really need to read these things more carefully, I'm seeing a lot of problems that I didn't notice until someone pointed them out.

[Zaydos]

I'm not sure what you mean by "only powering 2 at a time". It's only powering one power at a time, because you can only use one at a time, but you have fourteen different abilities keyed to it. Even increasing your charisma as you level, you're never going to have all that many uses of it. I'd be inclined to add half your level to your uses per day of Chromatic Emotions.

Each day you only get 2 of them based upon your defense chosen that day. So you're only using your daily uses on two of those abilities at a time.

Adding half their level as extra uses wouldn't be overpowering. At Lv 20 being able to use Ray of Exhaustion 20 times a day wouldn't be broken (that's a Lv 3 spell, sorcerers can 8 times with 3rd level slots and then another 8 with 4th and that's not even getting into 5th level slots). At the same time I don't see it as necessary because by high levels the abilities are next to useless, and at 2nd level 3 or 4 uses of Sleep per day are enough wihtout adding half your level (compare a wizard gets a grand total of 3 uses unless he specializes, 4 if he does).

[Benly]

Each day you only get 2 of them based upon your defense chosen that day. So you're only using your daily uses on two of those abilities at a time.

Adding half their level as extra uses wouldn't be overpowering. At Lv 20 being able to use Ray of Exhaustion 20 times a day wouldn't be broken (that's a Lv 3 spell, sorcerers can 8 times with 3rd level slots and then another 8 with 4th and that's not even getting into 5th level slots). At the same time I don't see it as necessary because by high levels the abilities are next to useless, and at 2nd level 3 or 4 uses of Sleep per day are enough wihtout adding half your level (compare a wizard gets a grand total of 3 uses unless he specializes, 4 if he does).

You're only getting access to two at a time, but you can change out your Prismatic Defense whenever you feel like it so it's not like you only have two of them per day.

And I'm not looking at level 20. I'm looking at level 3-8 or so (anecdotally a good stretch of the most-played range and certainly one worth considering). Starting at level 3 a wizard with a reserve feat has more shots, more varied abilities, and his at-will blast is about as good for most of that range. A class like this should not have fewer shots in its clip than a wizard, because the bullets sure as heck aren't as good as the wizard's.

More uses of Chromatic Emotion isn't a full fix but it's a good start. So would be some lower-level spell abilities - the fact that each spell ability uses its own per-day pool is a huge boon once the spell abilities start coming in. Thinking of that, another option for buffing Chromatic Emotion would be just to have a separate per-day pool for each color's abilities.

I sort of see this class as being the weird offspring of a dragonfire adept, for the at-will blasting with status effects and area later on, and the warmage, because its other abilities amount to "tons of ways to do more or less two things".

[Zaydos]

[SIZE="5"]
Prismatic Defense (Su): Each day at dawn, you may choose which of the following colors to use as a protective ward. As with the Prismatic Beam, you must possess an item of that color in order to recieve the benefits.

Bolded relevant portion. You don't get to change Prismatic Defense at-will.

As for having more shots than a wizard, I can actually agree with you but I don't think giving them more uses of Chromatic Emotion is necessary. I agree they would do better with a few abilities in between Lv 2 and when they get higher level SLAs, which seems a better solution.

[Benly]

Bolded relevant portion. You don't get to change Prismatic Defense at-will.

As for having more shots than a wizard, I can actually agree with you but I don't think giving them more uses of Chromatic Emotion is necessary. I agree they would do better with a few abilities in between Lv 2 and when they get higher level SLAs, which seems a better solution.

Did you read the rest of the ability?

Only one color may be chosen at a time, although the selection may be changed by taking a minute to concentrate. At stage IV, this decreases to a full-round action. The benefits last until changed.

Relevant part not bolded, because I quoted the relevant part. You can freely change colors between fights if you feel like it.

Given that there are so many possible abilities to use with it, it bothers me that you are likely to have maybe half to a third as many uses per day as you have powers to use it on.

[shadow_archmagi]

needs to be better at running

[Gideon Falcon]

Hmmm, you do certainly all have points. I myself think I'm just going to file this class away for a later date, when I've gotten a bit more homebrewing experience in.