The Book of Shadows (3.5, PEACH)

[kestrel404]

Hey, for inspiration for the ideology of the nice(r) Fantacists could come from Metal Gear Rising.

Seriously, I think Raiden the first real example in recent memory of a truly psychotic hero who manages to be a likable dude and downright noble at times.

Haven't actually played most of the MGS games. Care to elaborate?

[Leliel]

Haven't actually played most of the MGS games. Care to elaborate?

Well, for the most part you don't need to play the other games to understand the plot of Rising, so this is simple enough.

Basically, Raiden's an ex-child soldier who, by the time of Rising, has been converted into an extremely strong and powerful combat cyborg. At the beginning of the game, he is attempting to be some sort of "modern samurai", regularly spouting off catchphrases like "my blade is a tool of justice" and such. At the end, thanks to a combination of the main villains taking a sledgehammer to his self-image and discovering they're kidnapping children to forcefully convert into combat cyborgs (one of the most powerful moments is discovering their disembodied brains hooked up to a VR training simulator) causes him to revert to his "Jack the Ripper" persona, which is probably what would happen if you gave Belkar a boost in intelligence and superhuman agility. By the end of the game, there's an implication that he's begun to walk down a similar path to Big Boss and become a new would-be warrior king-not a good thing for the world.

What makes him a hero, though, is that he's also aware he's a nutcase and desperately wants to control his bloodthirst. Off the battlefield, he remains kind and compassionate, and he genuinely wants to turn Jack the Ripper into a force of good for the world. More than that, he remains pretty faithful in the idea of justice and the strong defending the weak-which is why I didn't suggest him for a Nihilist, he has far too much attachment to other people (his wife and son, for instance, though they don't physically appear).

He's still a fairly dark and dangerous character, but he retains enough of the hero about him to merit calling him a force for good, even if he isn't such a good guy, and his definition of meting out justice is, frankly, terrifying.

...and now writing this, I already think he would do better as a perfect example of a Pragmatist on the Path of Deva. Oops. Still worth checking out for the people who have lost faith in the world but still want to improve it.

[kestrel404]

Yeah, by the end of that, I was totally thinking Pragmatist. Though Path of Asura is just as possible - the only reason they're villianous is because they can't really solve a problem without killing someone. It's kind of a pathological thing - need to rescue a villiage from a tribe of orcs? Kill the orc chieftain. Need to rescue a group of hostages? Kill the hostage takers. Need to help an old lady across the street? Kill all the drivers on the busy road...They've got a very, "I've got a hammer, therefore the world is made of nails" viewpoint, but at heart they're really good guys.

Just like all the other Pragmatists.

The fluff for the Fantacist, if my muse ever comes back from her extended vacation, is going to be very, very dark. More so than even the Nihilist. They're in it for other people, destroying those that they can empathize with to stop the suffering. Pragmatists are doing it for the world, out of a sense that the world will never live up to their ideals but they have to try.

Fantacists are going to be purely solipsistic in nature - no one else in the world matters, only their own dreams are important. Hence the name - they live in a fantasy world of their own creation, and the real world doesn't really concern them. Their schtick is going to be a lot like the Thrallherd in that they can share their worldview with others, molding them into the perfect disciples / minions / monsters, and at the same time destroying those individuals as they're remade into what the Fantacist wants them to be. I'm probably going to call them Phantasms for that reason.

[Leliel]

Niiiice.

Wayyy cooler.

[kestrel404]

And there's the Fantacist. A couple of blanks left to fill in, though.

Hexagram Complete is going to be a doozy, as are the Build Point options - I'm planning on 64 separate effects for the hexagram (because 2^6=64), though I may scale that down by a few orders of two and instead break it into multiple parts.
Build point options are going to be: at least a 1-point and a 2-point option for each Yin & Yang coin (so that's 24 right there), plus several that don't have requirements.

Also, I need to fill out the Trigram effects. I'm looking towards elemental spells in the 5th-6th level range.

Suggestions on anything are welcome.

[Leliel]

Nice.

As a side note, I'm guessing the party roles are Tank (Nihilist), Number (Fantacist) and Balanced (Pragmatist), right?

[kestrel404]

Nice.

As a side note, I'm guessing the party roles are Tank (Nihilist), Number (Fantacist) and Balanced (Pragmatist), right?

Indeed. Nihilist is the fighter/tank, who goes into combat himself. Pragmatist is a kind of generalist/caster, right in line with a more lethal Beguiler in terms of capabilities (at least, that's what I tried for).

Fantacist is the controller - the one who controls the battlefield. She does this with her minion(s) - note that it's possible to go the entire class with only a single phantasm. The real meat of the class is going to be those build points you get for building those - like evolution points for a summoner, but worth about twice as much (the 2 BP Strength-boost-required option is going to be a size increase with the option for additional size boosts through invested blots, for example). If you spend everything on Yang/stat-boost options and nothing on additional phantasms, your power curve is going to be almost identical to a summoner with fewer known spells (if I get the balance right, that is).

And if you start choosing to have more phantasms, you're going to wind up with weaker but more numerous individual servants. While every yin/weakness adds immunities to the phantasm, it also takes away options and opens up new vulnerabilities. The most devastating is probably dexterity (I don't think there's any other way in D&D to lose a dex score and still remain a viable threat, so I went pretty harsh on that one) - it effectively requires you to take the 'I lost my dex score' 2BP option (which will be an at-will self-only dimension door, so they can, you know, move) but also makes them immune to crits and gives them a really significant defensive boost (Hardness is awesome).

I see the Fantacist as the ideal 'monster of the week villian' - take a high level fantacist who's chosen only the boosting options, give her an unlimited supply of puppies, and have the GM go to town on pumping out creative single-monster encounters to throw at the PCs. At the same time, she can have the 'wave of mooks' ability down as well.

[kestrel404]

Fantacist is now finished. I'll be adding a few new invocations, feats, shadow effects, etc. But those are just icing. The basics of the classes are up.

I'd like to hear opinions on the balance of the Fantacist. What tier is it? I was aiming for Tier 3, but honestly I'm not sure - it's got abilities that are all over the place.

[Sachiko-K]

The lack of response beyond this point saddens me, but hopefully it is not too late to throw oneself into the water.

I would need to give a thorough look at the Fantacist before being able to give an opinion, and my atrophy when it comes to playing D&D 3.5 may make me inadequate for giving one anyways, but I will nevertheless give it a try in the future.

And, of course, subscribed to keep it close to my hand.

[kestrel404]

Feel free to comment on anything. I certainly intend to update this with more invocations, feats and prestige classes. Just haven't had the time for a bit.

[Leliel]

Feel free to comment on anything. I certainly intend to update this with more invocations, feats and prestige classes. Just haven't had the time for a bit.

Good. That would be very good.

[The Tygre]

Ha! In just before the onset of Thread Necromancy!

*ahem*

So, Kestrel. I have to ask. Did you have any particular characters or other bits of fiction in mind when you made these classes?