Arcane Striker [3.5 Base Class] PEACH?

[hillkitler]

I (obviously) haven't fully fleshed out this class, as of yet. This is my first attempt at homebrew and I was just looking for some opinions regarding the mechanics of the class and how you guys think it would fair in play. I was aiming for a gish-y class that could CHOOSE to be a full caster or instead sacrifice spells to dish out extra melee damage. I incorporated ideas from a number of other classes and feats (Arcane Strike being rather obvious), including other homebrew. Anyway, tell me what you think and PLEASE, PLEASE point out flaws and give me suggestions. I want this to be balanced enough to actually play.

Without further ado, I give you the Arcane Striker.

Arcane Striker
Hit Die - d6

Class Skills:
Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (Planes) (Int), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha)

2+Int Modifier/level

Alignment: Any
Abilities: Charisma is key to Arcane Strikers, as it determines what level spells they can cast and how many bonus spells they receive. Wisdom, which determines the potency of those spells, is also very important. Strength may be key if the Arcane Striker chooses to heavily utilize his martial capabilities. Dexterity can help to boost an Arcane Striker's Armor Class, while Constitution is important to bolster its relatively small d6 hit die. Intelligence is fairly unimportant to an Arcane Striker.

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|

+1

|

+0

|

+0

|

+2

|Arcane Strikers’s Sword, Lesser Arcane Strike, Blade Training|

2nd|

+1

|

+0

|

+0

|

+3

|

3rd|

+2

|

+1

|

+1

|

+3

|

4th|

+3

|

+1

|

+1

|

+4

|

5th|

+3

|

+1

|

+1

|

+4

|Blade Traning|

6th|

+4

|

+2

|

+2

|

+5

|

7th|

+5

|

+2

|

+2

|

+5

|

8th|

+6/+1

|

+2

|

+2

|

+6

|Blade Training|

9th|

+6/+1

|

+3

|

+3

|

+6

|

10th|

+7/+2

|

+3

|

+3

|

+7

|

11th|

+8/+3

|

+3

|

+3

|

+7

| Blade Training|


12th|

+9/+4

|

+4

|

+4

|

+8

|
13th|

+9/+4

|

+4

|

+4

|

+8

|
14th|

+10/+5

|

+4

|

+4

|

+9

| Blade Training|
15th|

+11/+6/+1

|

+5

|

+5

|

+9

|
16th|

+12/+7/+2

|

+5

|

+5

|

+10

|
17th|

+12/+7/+2

|

+5

|

+5

|

+10

|
18th|

+13/+8/+3

|

+6

|

+6

|

+11

|Blade Training|
19th|

+14/+9/+4

|

+6

|

+6

|

+11

|
20th|

+15/+10/+5

|

+6

|

+6

|

+12

|Greater Arcane Strike|[/table]


Weapon and Armor Proficiency:
Arcane Strikers are proficient with simple weapons and longswords. Arcane Strikers are proficient with light armor, but not with shields. When casting an arcane spell, the Arcane Striker suffers from arcane spell failure chance unless he is wielding the sword to which he is attuned.

Arcane Striker's Sword:
An Arcane Striker begins play with a longsword that is specifically attuned to him. This sword appears as a normal, masterwork steel longsword in every way, except for the following: the swords’ hit points increase at a rate of 2 per Arcane Striker level, and the hardness and break Difficulty Class increase at a rate of 1 point per three Arcane Striker levels. For purposes of resisting spells and other damage, it is considered to be magical. If an Arcane Striker’s sword is sundered or otherwise broken, he is immediately stunned for 1d4 rounds. If an Arcane Striker is separated from his sword by more than 30ft, he suffers a -4 penalty to attacks and saves until the sword is returned to him. A slain Arcane Striker who comes back from the dead can immediately and automatically re attune to his sword as a free action.

Sword Abilities:

Spoiler

Show

An Arcane Striker's longsword functions identically to a legacy weapon with the exception that its abilities are chosen by the user, as per the rules for Founding a Legacy Weapon found in Weapons of Legacy, pg. 179

Beyond these abilities, the Arcane Striker stores and draws his spells from the sword, as a Wizard does from a spellbook. Exact specifications follow:

Spoiler

Show

An Arcane Striker’s sword begins play storing all of the 0-level Sorcerer/Wizard spells plus three 1st level spells of the Arcane Striker’s choice. The Arcane Striker also selects a number of additional 1st-level spells equal to his Charisma modifier to store in his sword. At each new Arcane Striker level, he adds n (n = 1/2 Wisdom modifier, rounded down) new spells of any spell level or levels that he can cast (based on his new Arcane Striker level) to his sword. An Arcane Striker can also add additional spells to his sword with scrolls or from wizard spellbooks. To learn from a scroll or spellbook, the Arcane Striker must succeed a DC 15 + spell level Spellcraft check. Charisma determines an Arcane Striker's spells per day, while Wisdom determines how hard those spells are to resist. An Arcane Striker's spells are drawn from the Sorcerer/Wizard spell list.

{table=head]Spells Per Day
{table=head]Level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
1st | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
2nd |2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
3rd | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
4th | 3| 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
5th | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
6th |3 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
7th | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - |
8th | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - |
9th | 4| 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - |
10th | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - |
11th | 5 | 4| 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - |
12th |5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - |
13th | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - |
14th | 5| 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | - |
15th | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - |
16th | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - |
17th | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
18th | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
19th | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
20th | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
[/table][/table]

Lesser Arcane Strike:
When you activate this ability (a free action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity), you can channel arcane energy into a melee weapon, your unarmed strike, or natural weapons. You must sacrifice one of your spells for the day (of 1st level or higher) to do this, but you gain a bonus on all your attack rolls for 1 round equal to the level of the spell sacrificed as well as extra damage equal to 1d4 points x the level of the spell sacrificed. The bonus you add to your attack rolls from this ability cannot be greater than your base attack bonus.

Blade Training:
At first level the Arcane Striker gains Weapon Focus (longsword). At 5th level the Arcane Striker gains Weapon Specialization (longsword), at 8th level the Arcane Striker gains Melee Weapon Mastery (slashing), at 12th level the Arcane Striker gains Greater Weapon Focus (longsword), at 15th level the Arcane Striker gains Greater Weapon Proficiency (longsword), at 18th level the Arcane Striker gains Weapon Supremacy (longsword).
An Arcane Striker may forego the benefits provided by Blade Training and instead learn a bonus feat at 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th levels, provided that these feats further the Arcane Striker's spellcasting in some way (Metamagic, etc.)

Greater Arcane Strike:
This ability functions identically to Lesser Arcane Strike, but the extra damage is increased to 1d6 points x the level of the spell sacrificed.

Thanks for reading! I hope you guys can help me out.

Edit: Removed costs for sword abilities; added ability to ignore spell failure chance.

[Pyromancer999]

So you have to sacrifice hit points and huge amounts of gold in order to get the features you're entitled to? Doesn't really sound like a good deal to me.

[Dimonite]

PEACH just means "Please Edit And Critique Honestly"... Or at least that's what I was told.

[Pyromancer999]

PEACH just means "Please Edit And Critique Honestly"... Or at least that's what I was told.

Close, but no cigar. It's "Please Evaluate and Criticize Honestly". And I evaluated it, and critiqued it honestly.

[hillkitler]

And I thank you for that. That was the number one feature that I was thinking of getting rid of. I think I'll edit that out. Obviously, it was supposed to function like a legacy weapon, but I agree that it's quite a price to pay for a feature that you should be entitled to.

[Ziegander]

PEACH is an acronym that stands for Please Evaluate And Critique Honestly. It's a good thing to put in your title, definitely if you're new to the homebrew game.

I'm seeing what amounts to a Wizard with a few minor drawbacks and quite a lot of shiny extras. At a cursory glance my verdict is that it's overpowered, but oddly, not by as much as it seems.

1) Lose the Item Familiar bit. I'm not sure if it's your intention to actually use the mechanics for that term found HERE, but even if you didn't you wouldn't want to confuse anyone. Item Familiars (as presented originally in Unearthed Arcana) are brokenly powerful and really shouldn't be used by anyone without expressed DM permission.

2) You cast 0-9th level spells from the Wiz/Sorc list with no restriction, but your casting is dependent on two ability scores and until you reach 5th level you're boned if you get hit with Shatter (automatic bonefest). In my opinion, the dual-stat casting isn't enough of a drawback, while the vulnerability to Shatter (or a lucky sunder) makes you too fragile.

An interesting mechanic that I just thought of, and I don't think anyone's ever used before, would be to give full, unrestricted 9th level casting, but make it so the Arcane Striker can only cast his spells in one of three ways:

• Targeting himself
• Targeting his weapon
• Targeting a creature via a successful melee attack with his weapon

So he's limited to little utility, personal spells such as teleports and buffs, and offensive spells that target enemies. Can't cast spells on allies (without attacking them first), can't cast spells like Knock or Fog Cloud. Just a thought anyway.

3) The Legacy Weapon... kinda sucks to be honest. It doesn't provide much of a discount on a +6 weapon, the properties on it are pretty lackluster, and it still has the penalties. Let the Arcane Striker design their own Legacy Weapon from scratch. Give it to them for absolutely free (no gp investment, no hit point loss, etc), treat it as a magic weapon from 1st level onward (so it's immune to Shatter), and leave it as the spellbook as you've got it. Without their custom Legacy Weapon allow them to still cast on themselves, but that's it.

4) The bonus feats... I'm not feeling it. The Weapon Supremacy tree is pretty lame to be honest. It doesn't hurt, but it hardly adds anything to the class either.

5) Greater Arcane Strike is a pretty sad capstone. It amounts to +1 damage per spell slot sacrificed. Woo! Wait, no...

[hillkitler]

1) I'll eliminate the mention of "item familiar". I agree that it's more confusing than anything.

2) What if spellcasting were to be triple ability dependent; IE, your bonus spells and new spells per level are determined by Intelligence, maximum spell level is determined by Charisma and Saves are determined by Wisdom. This might be overly complicated and could make the class too MAD. On the other hand, it could be a good limiting factor, as you'd really have to decide whether you want to focus more on the martial or spellcasting aspect of the class.

I think it would be best to possibly TREAT the weapon as if it were magical starting at 1st level, without actually making it a +1 weapon. It might also be a good idea to allow the Arcane Striker to attune himself to any single martial weapon, rather than just longswords. Adding in the ability to attune to a different weapon of the same type through some kind of ceremony or ritual would eliminate the possibility of being completely "boned" if the sword is lost or destroyed.

What if, instead of limiting spellcasting ability to targeting self, sword or creature via melee, any ranged spells would have to be cast from the sword and be resolved as a ranged melee attack, with a fixed range of around 30ft. Also, spells would only be able to target single opponents and Area of Effect spells that do not emanate from the caster would be eliminated completely. Alternately, Area of Effect spells would HAVE to originate from the caster or the sword, meaning that in order to cast a Fireball, the caster would need to be within its radius...or throw the sword at someone.

3) Ok, so you think that I should eliminate the preset progression of the weapon and allow the player to customize it themselves, as per the Founding a Legacy Weapon rules, but without incurring any of the penalties? This seems like a far more reasonable option than my original idea.

4)Hmm, as for the bonus feats/weapon supremacy tree, what would you suggest as an alternative?

5)As for Greater Arcane Strike, would it be better to increase it to a larger die, such as a d8, or perhaps increase it to 2d4 or 2d6?

[Seerow]

Is it just me or does this class literally not have a spells per day, spells known, or spell list?

[hillkitler]

It's just you. The spell list and spells per day are listed under the Sword Abilities spoiler.

Edit: Also, thank you for any input that you may have!