Arcane Marquis

[Ponce]

Arcane Marquis
Nothing is more awe-inspiring than the sight of a powerful and learned practitioner of the arcane striding down the street, magics flowing from his robes and the glow of greater forces emanating from every inch of his empowered body. This awesome presence augmented with the incredible forces at the command of the mage place him in a unique and indisputable position to act as a leader of peoples. Other adventurers may string their bows and pray before their gods, but none can hope to match the true majesty and prestige of the Arcane Marquis.

Hit Die
1d4.

Requirements
Feats: Mounted Combat, Negotiator
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) 8 ranks.
Spellcasting: Arcane level 3 or greater.

Class Skills
The Arcane Diplomat’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (None), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Points at Each Level
4 + Intelligence Modifier.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Arcane Marquis gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Arcane Aura (Sp)
The Arcane Marquis’s magical conditioning leads to large portions of the power that he wields to be soaked into his body, permanently granting him a magical aura. The magical aura has the same strength of a functioning spell of a level equal to the character’s Arcane Marquis levels, and can be detected by the same means as any other kind of magical aura. The aura is aligned to a particular school, and that school is the one that the Arcane Marquis most often uses, or one he has particular special training in, or both.

The aura also takes on a visible incarnation, in the form of a dim light emanation surrounding the Arcane Marquis to a radius of five feet. The colour of the light depends on the aforementioned school characteristic of the magical aura (see Table: Arcane Aura for details). The emanation can be activated or deactivated as a free action.

Mounted Casting
A mounted mage becomes exceptionally familiar with casting spells while mounted. While riding a horse or similar mount, the mounted mage does not have to make concentration checks to cast spells while moving. The mounted mage still must make a concentration check while the mount is galloping, albeit with a +2 bonus to his concentration checks.

Enchanted Mount
A mounted mage can enchant his mount with magical power (it becomes a magical creature). The effect is permanent until the mount is slain or until the mounted mage releases his mount. Abilities granted by enchanting a mount, other than movement modifiers, do not work for anyone except for the mounted mage. It costs 100 experience points per original HD of the intended mount and 500 gold to enchant it. Enchanting a mount involves a ritual that takes 8 hours to perform. If the enchanted mount is slain or is dismissed, the mounted mage cannot enchant a new mount for a period of one week, and he gains no refund on experience and gold spent. The mount’s original HD cannot exceed the Arcane Marquis’s class levels at the time of enchanting.

The magical mount is normally some form of equine steed, though alternatives to this can be made in special cases. These can include campaigns stationed in extreme geological positions, such as aviary campaigns or aquatic campaigns. Non-equine mounts can also be made available so long as they are one size category larger than the Arcane Marquis, and are used mainly when equine mounts are not available in the setting, or truly do not suit the character.

Portable Mount (Su): At will, the Arcane Marquis can have his mount shrink into a palm-sized figurine of the mount, composed of mithral. The figurine is worth about 100gp and has 60 hit points with hardness of 15. When in this form, the mount is considered to be in a state of suspended animation and does not need to be fed or cared for. From the mount’s perspective, it is merely a nap. The bond between the mount and mage is not broken in any way if the figurine is lost or misplaced, but if the figurine is destroyed, the mount is slain and all the normal penalties occur. Returning the mount back into its normal form is a standard action that the mounted mage must be present to perform. If the figurine is damaged, the mounted mage can simply return the mount back to its normal form, and any further transformations to the figurine form will not retain the damage from the last transformation. This ability, however, cannot be used to restore the mount’s regular hit points in any way.

Empathic Link (Su): The mount can communicate empathically with its master in a manner identical to that of familiar with its master.

Improved Speed (Su): The mount’s base speed is increased by 10 when the Arcane Marquis reaches level 4, and again when he reaches level 8.

Improved Evasion (Ex): When subjected to an attack that normally allows a Reflex saving throw for half damage, a mount takes no damage if it makes a successful saving throw and half damage if the saving throw fails.

Groundless Step (Su): Your mount’s hooves magically propel away from the ground, enabling it to move across any terrain without penalty. This effect also mimics the spell water walking. If your mount moves off of a cliff or moves over a chasm, you may maintain movement as if there was solid ground underneath your mount. The number of rounds that you can use this ability can be split up into several uses per day but cannot exceed one round per level of Arcane Marquis.

Devoted Mount: Your mount goes above and beyond the normal call of a mount to protect you and ensure your safety. Should you fall asleep, lose consciousness, or otherwise be rendered helpless where there is a chance you would fall out of your saddle, your mount will ensure that you do not. It will furthermore carry your unconscious self to what it perceives as safety, and will attempt to do so even if it finds you in caught helplessly in a dangerous position while not riding.

Telepathy with Master (Su): The Arcane Marquis and his mount can communicate telepathically in any language known by the Arcane Marquis, so long as they are within 200ft of each other +20ft/level of Arcane Marquis.

Diplomatic Presence (Sp)
As the Arcane Marquis continues to accumulate power, prestige, and mastery of the arcane arts, the effects on his presence becomes truly noticeable. Their personality is amplified, and people stop and take note when the Arcane Marquis enters the room or rides down a street upon his mount. They receive a +2 bonus on all charisma-based skill checks.

Intellectual Tact
The Arcane Marquis cannot simply be all show, however, he must augment his impressive appearance with that of true intellectual superiority. Whenever making a skill check with one of his class skills, the Arcane Marquis may opt to, once per day, add his intelligence modifier to all other modifiers of the roll. In the case of skills already associated with intelligence, it is simply added a second time (once due to the skill being tied to intelligence, and again as a result of this ability).

Improved Mounted Casting
The Arcane Marquis’s empathic link with his mount improves to the point where he does not require a concentration check to cast spells while the mount is moving or galloping. You may also move before and after casting a spell, similar to the Spring Attack feat. You still provoke attacks of opportunity when casting spells this way, but these can be overcome normally by casting on the defensive.

Diplomatic Immunity
At the height of his power, the Arcane Marquis is capable of absolutely resisting the charms and enchantments of opponents, be it at the negotiating table or the battlefield. He is immune to mind-affecting spells and spell-like abilities.

I apologize for editing problems, I don't see how to copy tables directly from documents.

[Black Mage]

Here's the table for your class.

Spoiler

Show

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

1st|

+0

|

+0

|

+0

|

+2

|Arcane Aura, Mounted Casting|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

2nd|

+1

|

+0

|

+0

|

+3

|Enchanted Mount|-

3rd|

+1

|

+1

|

+1

|

+3

|-|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

4th|

+2

|

+1

|

+1

|

+4

|Diplomatic Presence|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|

+2

|

+1

|

+1

|

+4

|-|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

6th|

+3

|

+2

|

+2

|

+5

|Intellectual Tact|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|

+3

|

+2

|

+2

|

+5

|-|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

8th|

+4

|

+2

|

+2

|

+6

|Improved Mounted Casting|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|

+4

|

+3

|

+3

|

+6

|-|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

10th|

+5

|

+3

|

+3

|

+7

|Diplomatic Immunity|- [/table]

And the aura colors

Spoiler

Show

{table=head]Spell School|Aura Color
Abjuration | Bright Yellow

Conjuration | Electric Blue

Divination | Light Blue

Enchantment |Pure White

Evocation | Bright Red

Illusion | Deep Purple

Necromancy | Eerie Green

Transmutation | Bright Orange[/table]

And the Mount.

Spoiler

Show

Enchanted Mount
{table=head]Arcane Marquis Level|Natural Armour Adjustment
|Bonus HD|Int|Special

2nd|

+1

|

+1

|

6

|Portable Mount

3rd|

+1

|

+1

|

6

|Empathic Link

4th|

+1

|

+2

|

6

|Improved Speed 10

5th|

+2

|

+2

|

+7

|Improved Evasion

6th|

+2

|

+3

|

7

|Groundless Step

7th|

+2

|

+3

|

7

|Devoted Mount

8th|

+3

|

+4

|

8

|Improved Speed 20

9th|

+3

|

+4

|

8

|-

10th|

+3

|

+5

|

8

|Telepathy with Master[/ta ble]

The class looks interesting...inspired by Gandalf and Shadowfax?



EDIT: Mount table doesn't want to work right. The space in the /table is there on purpose so people can still see what they get, and maybe someone can steal it and fix it. It seems to hate me.

[Ponce]

Ah, thank you! I had originally put the class into a PDF.

Yes, Gandalf was a major inspiration for the class, though it is ultimately intended to create a sort of aristocrat.

[Black Mage]

Ah! The mount's table didn't work! >_< *Goes to fix*

[Hazkali]

I like this class. I like it a lot.



I have two suggestions:

Firstly, I would reccomend adding the caveat that the Marquis cannot have both a familiar and a mount. This reduces mental head-strain on DM and player.

Secondly, I like the "portable mount" idea but I would probably have it so that the mount goes to another plane of existence, like the paladin's mount.