Manacaster, Master of Magic

[SpaceCommander]

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Manacaster

Level	Mana Points	Incantations Readied	Max Incantation Level	Special
1	2	2	1	The Cost, Mana, Unbound Soul (Spell Resistance)
2	6	4	1
3	11	6	1
4	17	8	2
5	25	10	2	Unbound Soul (Multiple Spell Resistance)
6	35	12	3
7	46	14	3
8	58	16	4
9	72	18	4
10	88	20	5	Unbound Soul (Spell Immunity)
11	106	22	5
12	126	24	5
13	147	26	6
14	170	28	6
15	195	30	7	Unbound Soul (Swarm Subtype)
16	221	32	7
17	250	34	7
18	280	36	8
19	311	38	8
20	343	40	8	Unbound Soul (Antimagic Field)

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: You are proficient with no weapons or armor
Basic Stuff: d4 HD, Poor Reflex, Fortitude, and Will saves. Poor BAB, Skill points 8+INT per level x4 at first level. Skill list consists of Autohypnosis, Profession, Concentration, Decipher Script, Heal, Knowledge (All), Profession, Speak Language, Spellcraft, Psicraft, Truespeak. If you are playing in 3rd edition, add Scry and Alchemy

Incantations: You know every spell. EVER. Your spells known list consists of every arcane spell, divine spell, psionic power, shadow mystery, and truename that exists within your campaign setting.You cast spells spontaneously, and calculate saving throws as 10 + Incantation Level (truenames use modified levels given below) + your Wisdom Modifier

The Price of Power (Ex): Your horrendeous abuse of magic has consequences. Whenever you speak an incantation, you suffer Eldritch Psychosis (see below) for 1 round following the casting, as the raw energies of the Incantation overwhelm your fragile mortal senses. Roll 1d4. On a 1, you act normally but have an inverted alignment for one round (True Neutral becomes a random alignment) your inverted self knows this and does its best to sabotage you; on a 2 you are stunned for 1 round; on a 3 you may act normally but lose mana equal to your Incanter level and are dazed; on a 4 you may act normally, but become afflicted by a random spell of the highest level you can cast (The DM adjucates this).

Mana: Your tampering with the fabric of magic has transformed your Incantations. These are essentially refluffed power points, and I have no idea how to write this entry in character. Help would be appreciated

Unbounded Soul (Ex) You shed the fetters of ordinary casters as you ascend to something truly unique.
At 1st level, you gain spell resistance equal to 12 + your Incanter level. Whenever this successfully stops a spell, you suffer Eldritch Psychosis.
At 5th level, you may extend this spell resistance to a number of allies equal to your class level. You still suffer the Eldritch Psychosis.
At 10th level, you gain a craving for magic that the universe is powerless to resist. Your spell resistance becomes an immunity to magic. Any caster within 5 ft/2 levels loses prepared spell levels equal to half your incanter level, distributed randomly.
At 15th level, your body becomes a living embodiment of magic. You gain the swarm subtype, but not the vulnerability to wind. Instead of damage, your swarm attack affects targets with a spell of your choosing.
At 20th level, you become a void that magic rushes into with abandon. You are at all times surrounded by a stationary, persistent, 10 ft spread emanation of Mordankainen's Disjunction. Ouside this, you are surrounded by a 30 ft Antimagic Field

Ok, I know this is not, by any means balanced, but this is the first draft of the new class. Over time, and with your suggestions, I will refine it to be more balanced. The basic idea that I wanted to embody is a caster who was opened themselves up to the complete and infinite power of magic, and turns themselves into a living receptacle for it, at the cost of their mind.

THINGS I WOULD APPRECIATE SUGGESTIONS ON
-Eldritch Psychosis. This is not enough. It needs to be improved to be more versatile, not just losing 50% of your actions. Maybe something with multiple levels of effect. In addition, I am working on creating some sort of long term psychosis for the continuous abilities.
-Potential Capstone. I have an idea for a second capstone that would essentially give you infinite mana at the cost of...something.

[aimlessPolymath]

Alright, first things first.
This class is busted.
Incredibly busted.
You know that, though, so that's OK.

Separately, I have issue with the existence of the Price of Power as a balancing tool, but that's a separate thing.

On Eldritch Psychosis...
Idea: Whenever you use an ability, there's a 25% chance that something else happens. From the list you used the ability from, (using the standard SLA series of level-equivalence priorities) choose a different spell/ability of the same level at random. That ability is used instead. The DM decides the target of the new effect.

A related capstone: When Eldritch Psychosis triggers, the DM rolls and targets two abilities instead of one; you choose which happens.

[Urist Mcmage]

The ability to cast any spell/power/mystery/utterance ever is inherently broken to the point of being better than most tier 1 classes with the possible exception of the spell to power erudite and the artificer. Remember Grod's Law; you should not balance a powerful ability by making it annoying to use. Additionally, the capstone is going to make your party hate you, since it will destroy their items. You need to give this class a niche of their own rather than allowing them to do everything ever.

[Aniikinis]

I'm with Urist on this one, especially with the magic items bit. If I would suggest a bit of niche-making:

Incantations: You know every spell. EVER. FOR THE END OF TIME! ...Sort of.

Upon taking your first level of manacaster you must choose one of the following:

• Arcane spells
• Divine spells
• Psionic powers
• Shadow mysteries
• Truenames
• (Author can add more if he feels this list needs expanding)

If you chose a type with multiple schools you must choose a single school to specialize in, two other schools as your secondaries, and two schools as your restricted schools. (Similar to a wizard.)

If you chose Arcane or Divine spells, you cannot have access to both transmutation and conjuration. One of them must be in your restricted schools. (To help fix an already broken mechanic.)

If you chose Psionic powers, you gain an amount of "mana" through which you can cast them with at each level. Mana functions exactly like power points, but is just renamed for some reason.

You gain a new mystery at each level, but you must follow the rules of mysteries for the shadowcaster class and cannot know higher level mysteries than your maximum incantation level. You gain access to new ranks of mysteries at the same level as the shadowcaster does.

(I don't know enough about trunames to write a good enough rule set for it.)

If you chose a type that has multiple lists, you must choose up to two class lists to cast off of and may never learn new spells that aren't on those class lists except through special feats.

Your spell list thusly includes every spell/power/mystery/truename on your list(s) that exists within your campaign setting up to your maximum incantation level.You cast spells spontaneously, and calculate saving throws as 10 + Incantation Level (truenames use modified levels given below) + the lower casting Modifier of your selected class lists' classes.

[SpaceCommander]

Thanks for all the good suggestions. As as response to Urirst McMage, I would like to make a note that the possible alternate capstone ability can be nerfed through a simple time limit. The Metamind PrC capstone from the Expanded Psionics Handbook basically lets you spend power points for free for 1 minute a day, not broken up, and has no penalty attached. Therefore in the end, it will probably end up as something that can be used 1-2 minutes per day, broken up. There will probably be a significant penalty after each use that will noticeably weaken you for the rest of the encounter, and I might attach a worse penalty for using it more than 2-3 consecutive rounds. How does that sound for balancing it{This would probably have been balanced, but I like my idea below better).

Revised Abilities (No particular order)
Unbound Soul: This ability's capstone is changed as follows: The Mordankainen's Disjunction effect is reduced to a 5-foot spread, with the Antimagic Field being reduced to a 15-foot spread. You can 'step down' the power of this to a mere 10-foot spread of Antimagic Field as an immediate action. This field does not affect your own spells, however items created by you are still affected and you ability to grant this immunity to other casters. Whenever this aura disjoins an item, you must make a will save as if the creator of the item had cast that spell on you. Success means that you gain mana points equal to the level of the spell used to create the item; if there were multiple spells used then add them together. Failure causes you to suffer the effects of The Price of Power.

Max Incantation Level: Whoops! This is a relic from an earlier version of the class that I made. Changed to match Sorcerer. I'm considering removing it all together, or allowing a way to go past it, at a cost.

The Price of Power It has been revised as follows: Your powers are not without cost. Whenever you speak an incantation, another incantation of level equal to 1/2 the one you used is cast (this does not consume mana points), with the incantation used, its targets, and any metamagic feats being at the discretion of the DM. In addition, you must roll 1d4 and suffer the effects below:

Result	Effect
1	Your alignment inverts as an alternate personality takes over. This alternate self will not take actions to risk your existence, but otherwise is eager to shred your goals and wreck your plans
2	Nauseated for 1 round
3	Lose Mana equivalent to Incanter Level and Staggered for 1 turn
4	The extra spell is Twinned

Note: The conditions are there as a placeholder. I would prefer to have more effects that are in line with the others listed

Incantations: At 1st level choose one of the following Disciplines:

• Arcane Magic. Primary spell list: Sorcerer/Wizard
• Divine Magic. Primary spell list: Cleric and Druid
• Psionics (Psion/Wilder). Primary power list: Psion/Wilder
• Shadowcasting. Primary mystery list: Shadowcaster
• Truenaming. Primary utterance list: Truenamer

Whichever one you choose, you automatically gain the associated spell/power/mystery/utterance list.
At 4th level and every three levels after, you gain another incantation style.

[Aniikinis]

Thanks for all the good suggestions. As as response to Urirst McMage, I would like to make a note that the possible alternate capstone ability can be nerfed through a simple time limit. The Metamind PrC capstone from the Expanded Psionics Handbook basically lets you spend power points for free for 1 minute a day, not broken up, and has no penalty attached. Therefore in the end, it will probably end up as something that can be used 1-2 minutes per day, broken up. There will probably be a significant penalty after each use that will noticeably weaken you for the rest of the encounter, and I might attach a worse penalty for using it more than 2-3 consecutive rounds. How does that sound for balancing it{This would probably have been balanced, but I like my idea below better).

Okay first of all, metamind is a prestige class that doesn't give greater power every level, unlike a base class and especially unlike this class. Cognizance crystal's ability can be stopped fairly easily if the psicrystal keeps getting taken out and there is a strict limit on the free powers before the capstone. Not to mention, that, while psionics is super useful and versatile, it's also less powerful than magic is as a general rule. Not to mention that the highest level power that a character could access with the Psion would be 8th level and the Wilder would be stuck with 7th level powers at level 20 after taking that class, much like what you've done with max incantation level.

Anyone with access to unlimited spells, even for a few minutes, could cause irreparable to the entire setting/cosmology.

Also, you never specified how many spell slots the class has per level so I'm assuming the class can cast every spell at any time with no limit per day, unlike with psionics, as it has a pretty good cap with the power points. Unless you were going to use the Spell Points system for this class and meant to split them between psionics and spells, plus what do you mean by "incantations readied"? And at what level do you gain new ranks of shadow mysteries? When do you gain new lexicons of truenames? Well anyways, let's see your fixes:

Revised Abilities (No particular order)
Unbound Soul: This ability's capstone is changed as follows: The Mordankainen's Disjunction effect is reduced to a 5-foot spread, with the Antimagic Field being reduced to a 15-foot spread. You can 'step down' the power of this to a mere 10-foot spread of Antimagic Field as an immediate action. This field does not affect your own spells, however items created by you are still affected and you {have the} ability to grant this immunity to other casters. Whenever this aura disjoins an item, you must make a will save as if the creator of the item had cast that spell on you. Success means that you gain mana points equal to the level of the spell used to create the item; if there were multiple spells used then add them together. Failure causes you to suffer the effects of The Price of Power.

So, you can't ever turn it off? Also, what about potions? What about Ioun Stones? What about the like 40 magic items you'll be abusing by level 20? Will they all become worthless the second you level up and touch them? This seems like a good thing, but it's actually a horrible downside. Not to mention, you can still be hit by all psionic powers that will cripple you if the setting isn't using magic/psionics transparency.

Alright, next fix...

Max Incantation Level: Whoops! This is a relic from an earlier version of the class that I made. Changed to match Sorcerer. I'm considering removing it all together, or allowing a way to go past it, at a cost.

Don't know why you indented these, but alright. Do not remove this. This is the biggest thing keeping the class somewhat sane. Also, if you follow sorcerer progression, the class will get 9ths and you do not want that with something this powerful.

The Price of Power It has been revised as follows: Your powers are not without cost. Whenever you speak an incantation, another incantation of level equal to 1/2 the one you used is cast (this does not consume mana points), with the incantation used, its targets, and any metamagic feats being at the discretion of the DM.

With the amount of casting you'll be doing, I'm pretty sure the DM is going to throw a big book at you. And that's before the DCFS and limited wish shenanigans.

In addition, you must roll 1d4 and suffer the effects below:

Result	Effect
1	Your alignment inverts as an alternate personality takes over. This alternate self will not take actions to risk your existence, but otherwise is eager to shred your goals and wreck your plans
2	Nauseated for 1 round
3	Lose Mana equivalent to Incanter Level and Staggered for 1 turn
4	The extra spell is Twinned

Note: The conditions are there as a placeholder. I would prefer to have more effects that are in line with the others listed

Placeholder or not, these are not very bad effects. The first one shouldn't even be a thing (that's a taboo on par with editing someone else's character sheet without permission or covering a borrowed book in cheeto dust or anyone else using markers on my dice to me, plus all of your party members will hate you if you attack them without it being an accident) but the others are just not that bad. If I get to cast Limited Wish but had to deal with being about to puke or dizzy as **** and unable to do anything for a bit, I'm alright with that, because I can just cast it again and make myself immune to one of those next time and the other the next one after that. Who cares about collateral damage?

Incantations: At 1st level choose one of the following Disciplines:

• Arcane Magic. Primary spell list: Sorcerer/Wizard
• Divine Magic. Primary spell list: Cleric and Druid
• Psionics (Psion/Wilder). Primary power list: Psion/Wilder
• Shadowcasting. Primary mystery list: Shadowcaster
• Truenaming. Primary utterance list: Truenamer

Whichever one you choose, you automatically gain the associated spell/power/mystery/utterance list.

Okay that's basically what I put but a lot more powerfu-

At 4th level and every three levels after, you gain another incantation style.

Just... No. Make them burn feats if they have to, but having what amounts to an ultra powerful pentastalt character in a party of single/multiclassed non-gestalt characters is just too powerful to ever be balanced. If you must give them more than one of them, make it clear that each type of casting they have will be severely limited by the number they have access to:
1 type: 8th level
2 types: 6th
3 types: 4th
4 types: 3rd
5 types: 2nd