Need Tips for 3.5 Homebrew Class Design (First time homebrewer)

[steel_attacker]

Sorry for the vague title (It's vague to me...), and sorry for still using the 3.5 system (Yeah, it's a bit outdated, meh...). But I'm planning on making a base class, and as a first time homebrew...-er... I think I'm going to need some help and advice. And yes, I've actually played DnD for a while...

So my idea would be a sort of Soulknife/Weapons of Legacy/Dagger Mage/Geomancer/Exotic Weapons Master (Third apology for the multiple list of classes, I just wanted everyone who's reading this to have the most accurate idea possible) class. The idea is that this class can use any chosen (Cheap, starting weapon) and imbue it with powers. Every few levels, the char. gains extra benefits and effects to imbue the weapon with, and also proficiency bonuses and minor et cetera stuff. It will sort of act like a familiar now that I'm typing this, and a fighter type. The char. can imbue it to any weapon, as long as he or she is proficient with it. But once chosen at level 1, he or she must stick to it, and changing the weapon would mean a hefty penalty (Sacrificing 20 virgins on an iceberg? Offering 30 cattle to a chosen deity? Licking one's elbow? Hefty exp penalty? Still thinking about it, and because of that I need help...)

Example? For now, I'm imagining a scythe wielder. At level 1, he or she gains proficiency in the weapon, and one or two bonuses for the weapon chosen from a list, or one or two non-weapon related features, or a combination of both. Maybe around level 3 or so, he or she can get an extra feature, and maybe this goes on with the weapon features becoming stronger and stronger, stronger than other weapons other characters would get around the PC's level. And by level 18/19/20, the PC can or should be able to, I don't know, create famine with a slash once per year? Smite Outsider? Create a rift to another plane? Still thinking about that...

All in all, I guess as a first time homebrewer, I desperately need help. Appreciate you reading this till the end, and will appreciate it more if I get feedback. Thank you.

[Jormengand]

So, this is just a suggestion...

First, we know that the soulknife is bad. If you want to make a class that is good, you'll need to start by making something better than the soulknife. You want the character to be able to be able to use any "Cheap, starting" weapon, which could mean many things, but I'd suggest making the character choose a simple or martial weapon.

In the first instance, you're a warrior-type at heart, so I'm gonna suggest high base attack, high fortitude low reflex low will, and a d10 hit die. 4 skill points/level seems like a good number, given that no-one who doesn't cast spells has any real excuse only to get 2.

Weapon and armour proficiency should probably be as fighter. So let's start by giving it the main soulknife abilities.

Spoiler: Table 1

Show

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Chosen Weapon
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1	+1 Chosen Weapon
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+2
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+2
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+2	+2 Chosen Weapon
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+3
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+3
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+3
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+4	+3 Chosen Weapon
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+4
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+4
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+5
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+5	+4 Chosen Weapon
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+6
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+6
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+6	+5 Chosen Weapon

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: 1d10

Class Skills:
Class Skills
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Then you have to ask "Is a +5 chosen weapon by level 10 good enough?" Probably not: it's a 50,000 gold piece magic item. That's barely a scratch in your wealth by level. Hmm, how about we move that to 2nd level and every 2nd level thereafter, but after +5 you have to spend it on special abilities (until you hit epic levels, but we'll worry about that later). Or, to force the player to do something interesting with their weapon, make the special ability progression separate?

Spoiler: Table 2

Show

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Chosen Weapon
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0	+1 Chosen Weapon
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1	+1 Special Ability
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+2	+2 Chosen Weapon
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+2
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+2	+2 Special Ability
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+3
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+3	+3 Chosen Weapon
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+3
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+4	+3 Special Ability
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+4
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+4	+4 Chosen Weapon
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+5
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+5	+4 Special Ability
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+6	+5 Chosen Weapon
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+6
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+6	+5 Special Ability

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: 1d10

Class Skills:
Class Skills
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Nice: this represents a much more significant weapon. Note that we're not concerned yet with writing up what the abilities do, so long as we know.

Anyway, a weapon on its own isn't much of a class feature until you can do something cool with it. That said, swapping out the weapon special abilities on the fly might be a useful possibility!

Act like a familiar is an interesting idea. Item Familiar is a really weird feat, so maybe stick to intelligent item. Maybe because there are 8 entries on Table: Item Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma and Capabilities, we can fill 8 of our 9 dead levels with that. I think it's fair to have the item become intelligence at 3rd level, meaning that 19th level is free for something cool. Maybe have a list of weapon-specific abilities? Like, if your chosen weapon is a dagger, you get some kind of bonus if you attack someone who didn't realise you were armed; with a spear you get extra reach.

So, let's go with this:

Spoiler: Table 3

Show

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Chosen Weapon
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0	+1 Chosen Weapon
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1	Intelligence (1st table row)
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1	+1 Special Ability
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1	Intelligence (2nd table row)
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+2	+2 Chosen Weapon
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+2	Intelligence (3rd table row)
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+2	+2 Special Ability
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+3	Intelligence (4th table row)
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+3	+3 Chosen Weapon
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+3	Intelligence (5th table row)
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+4	+3 Special Ability
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+4	Intelligence (6th table row)
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+4	+4 Chosen Weapon
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+5	Intelligence (7th table row)
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+5	+4 Special Ability
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5	Intelligence (8th table row)
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+6	+5 Chosen Weapon
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+6	Unleash Weapon
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+6	+5 Special Ability

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: 1d10

Class Skills:
Class Skills
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

This is looking pretty nice, now!

However, this is mostly focused on "Look, I have a cool weapon!" I mean, that's nice, but the most expensive weapon you can get (+5 vorpal most-intelligent weapon that can cast True Resurrection 3/month and CMW 4/day) only costs a little more than your wealth at that level, and isn't actually useful enough to justify that cost.

So, how about we port the weapon stuff to a whole other table and focus on what you can do?

Spoiler: Table 4

Show

Level	Special
1st	Chosen Weapon
2nd	+1 Chosen Weapon
3rd	Intelligence (1st table row)
4th	+1 Special Ability
5th	Intelligence (2nd table row)
6th	+2 Chosen Weapon
7th	Intelligence (3rd table row)
8th	+2 Special Ability
9th	Intelligence (4th table row)
10th	+3 Chosen Weapon
11th	Intelligence (5th table row)
12th	+3 Special Ability
13th	Intelligence (6th table row)
14th	+4 Chosen Weapon
15th	Intelligence (7th table row)
16th	+4 Special Ability
17th	Intelligence (8th table row)
18th	+5 Chosen Weapon
19th	Unleash Weapon
20th	+5 Special Ability

Right, now, what can you do? Part of it should probably be weapon-focused, but part of it should just be other cool stuff. Now, if you don't mind, I'm gonna stop making your class for you and let you get on with it, but here are some ideas:

• You should be able to produce weapons of the relevant type out of nowhere, so have some kind of ability to factor that in.
• Maybe some kind of ability to use your weapon for something other than, well, fighting? Or, look at Style feats and give the class an ability to apply them to their chosen weapon, rather than the weapons that are given in the feat.
• Having said that, bonus feats might be useful just to kick the class's capabilities over the edge. Normally I don't recommend them, but they are an easy boost to someone's combat ability.
• Steal abilities gratuitously from other classes.
• Since the class is magic item based, you might want to give them a Chosen Armour, Chosen Ring, Chosen Wondrous Item, etcetera. If you do, only let one of them have intelligent item abilities or the whole shebang will add up to be too much.

I mean, I can give you more ideas if you like, but I'm guessing you want to do this at least partially on your own.

[Just to Browse]

Starting with a base class is a big deal. 4 tips:

1. Seek to emulate. Don't just throw things in because they look good or you saw it somewhere else, instead write your class as an approximation of another class that has been successful in your games.
2. Build for yourself. I can 99.9% guarantee you that no one on these forums will use your class. Because of that, the act of homebrewing is 99.9% on your shoulders. Make this a class you will want to play, because you are going to be the only one testing it.
3. Aim low first. Stretching a class to 20 levels leads to content bloat, because people usually feel like they have to fill those levels somehow. Even for 10-level classes this happens. So start by building your class out to level 3-6, and pruning that. A short class also tends to get more useful reviewer feedback.
4. Read copious amounts of content. You probably want to start by reading as many published classes as you can find. For each class, there's at least 1 optimizer's handbook that will teach you the best way to take advantage of a class. Look at balance philosphies. And then start looking at other homebrew classes.

[steel_attacker]

Not really a warrior-type, I'm mostly a... what did the DMGII call me... an outlier. I like to play almost anything that's different from the other players at the table, usually it's Heal Battery with quirks or a Skill Monkey who never ceases to surprise. Also get the hang of swapping features things and all that, have like a folder of references in my desktop. Just needed some tips as the Internet keeps saying making something out of nothing will lead to disaster and I should get some experienced homebrewers to help me.

So thanks. I really appreciate and like the feedback I got on this forum. Still welcoming any new replies, and going to write this class down for future reference in a week, maybe, as I'm supposed to study for a test at the mo. (Lol, procrastination...)

(And seriously, that's kind of a long post Jormengand replied with. Really, REALLY appreciate it...)

EDIT: Actually making this for a friend.