Homebrew classes for Dragon Age 3.X

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Hi all, I am trying to design a Dragon Age style classes, specifically the templar, Ranger and Bard for the moment. For all three I was thinking of exchanging spell casting for being Initiators I am shooting for tier 3.

Templar, I was thinking using Paladin roughly as the base with some tweaks to focus on fighting magic users here is what I have so far: Does Devoted Spirit, Iron Heart and White Raven make sense or are there perhaps a better choice of disciplines?

Orlesian Bard, I took the Dark Suns bard as a base but wanted to add initiator and bardic music to boost up the power level. I am stuck on what disciplines it should have access to and should it have swordsage or warblade progression. Let me know your thoughts.

For Ranger I am still working through the concept and haven't fully hammered it out but here is what I have so far:

• Remove Casting
• Animal Companion (Mabari Hound, Mabari Wolf Hound, or Elven Hound for elves), Special Mount (Drakkensteed, Heavy Horse, Light Horse, Elk; start at level 5 use special mount progression) or Urban Companion (Hawk, Owl, Raven) animal companion progression equals ranger level -3
• Combat Style (Archer, Cavalier, Thrower, Two Weapons, Two Handed)
  
  • Archer: changes depend on feat changes I have made
  • Cavalier: Cavalry Charge, Improved Mounted Archery, Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery, Ride-by-Attack, Spirited Charge, Tremendous Charge
  • Thrower: Quick Draw, Rapid Shot, Improved Rapid Shot, Far Shot, Many Shot, Two Weapon Fighting
  • Two Handed Style: ?
  • Two Weapon Style: changes depend on feat changes I have made
• Martial Initiator
  
  • Archer: Falcon’s Eye, Iron Rain, Phoenix Feather, Shadow Hand
  • Cavalier: Devoted Spirit, Stone Dragon,?,? (I think there are a couple new rider based disciplines but haven't read through them)
  • Thrower: Iron Heart, Iron Rain, Shadow Hand, Tiger Claw
  • Two Handed Style: Diamond Mind, Iron Heart, Stone Dragon, Tiger Claw
  • Two Weapon Style: Desert Wind, Setting Sun, Tiger Claw, Oncoming Storm

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Detect Magic as a spell-like ability doesn't feel quite right for an anti-caster. I'd give them an ability that accomplishes the same thing, but isn't spell-like. Maybe something like the Nemesis feat from BoED. Or a scent-like mechanism for noticing nearby magic. At higher levels, maybe continuous Arcane Sight as a supernatural ability.

I'm not sure about the class feature for Dispelling on a melee attack. It kind of feels like it should have been a maneuver. I guess making it not a maneuver means it can be combined with maneuvers. But then it would be cool to make it compatible with the maneuvers that allow attacking more than one creature.

Actually, Dispelling the same target more than once per round seems strange. Maybe it should be limited to once per creature per round. And when it becomes possible to hit multiple creatures each round with dispel, I wouldn't have it cost extra uses.

I wouldn't bother giving the Blind Fight feat.

Charisma to saves is far a great ability. But the later levels feel a little light on magic-resisting abilities. I'd add in Mettle at some point, and maybe even Improved Mettle eventually.

Mage Slayer is good but not perfect. Swift-action spells and spell-like abilities don't provoke attacks of opportunity even without casting defensively. And you still have to be in melee range. It's pretty easy for an enemy to get away from you by activating a magic item like an Anklet of Translocation to teleport, and not provoke any attacks. You might consider adding abilities at later levels that patch these holes. Like an ability to make attacks of opportunity for Quickened spells. Or an aura that inhibits nearby teleportation effects.

You could maybe add abilities at later levels that help your allies resist magic.

I don't like the mechanics of Favored Enemy on a fairly fundamental level. I don't think classes should be built with major features that are highly situational. And specializing in a particular type of creature definitely qualifies as situational. The only enemy specialist classes I actually like are those that give broadly useful abilities that just so happen to be thematically linked to a particular creature. Like Illithid Slayer, with it's defenses against mental tampering, or that one undead-fighting PrC I can't remember the name of that that gives immunities to various common effects that, as it happens, undead sometimes use.

You might want to give the class immunity to Charm, Compulsion, and Possession, like the Church Inquisitor. That Pierce Illusion ability is nice too. It means, when someone invisible walks past, you get a Will save to see them. And when a Doppelganger walks past, you gain a Will save to see their true form.

Remove Curse isn't a bad ability. But I think later, the class should give Break Enchantment too. And at some point, the ability to Dispel without making an attack, in case you want to Dispel a harmful effect on one of your allies. Maybe you could later upgrade the Break Enchantment ability to work on spells above 5th level.

A bad Will save isn't going to work out so well for someone who fights casters. Will-save effects are the most dangerous spells in the game. Fail one Fort save, and you're dead. Fail one Will save, and you're under the complete control of the enemy. That's going to definitely result in you being dead. Later, when the enemy feels you're no longer useful, they'll have you tie yourself up, and then they'll slit your throat, and there isn't a dang thing you can do about it. But in the meantime, the enemy is going to make you kill all your friends, and divulge top-secret intel, and undermine your order, and assassinate your superiors.

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Detect Magic as a spell-like ability doesn't feel quite right for an anti-caster. I'd give them an ability that accomplishes the same thing, but isn't spell-like. Maybe something like the Nemesis feat from BoED. Or a scent-like mechanism for noticing nearby magic. At higher levels, maybe continuous Arcane Sight as a supernatural ability.

Yeah that could be a bit more interesting after all the templar is focused on magical creatures not magical items and such.

I'm not sure about the class feature for Dispelling on a melee attack. It kind of feels like it should have been a maneuver. I guess making it not a maneuver means it can be combined with maneuvers. But then it would be cool to make it compatible with the maneuvers that allow attacking more than one creature.

Actually, Dispelling the same target more than once per round seems strange. Maybe it should be limited to once per creature per round. And when it becomes possible to hit multiple creatures each round with dispel, I wouldn't have it cost extra uses.

good point on only affecting a creature once per round, how does this sound:
"At 6th level, this ability may be applied to all iterative attacks or any single attack during a full attack action. However, dispelling slash may only be used on an enemy once per round. IE, if the templar applies dispelling slash to her full attack action against a goblin and two attacks succeed, she may only attempt to dispel the active spells on said goblin with her first successful attack."

I wouldn't bother giving the Blind Fight feat.

Yeah I was on the fence about that, since I already am giving Pierce Magical Concealment and specify that they don't need to meet the requirements I think it should be ok to remove.

Charisma to saves is far a great ability. But the later levels feel a little light on magic-resisting abilities. I'd add in Mettle at some point, and maybe even Improved Mettle eventually.

Mage Slayer is good but not perfect. Swift-action spells and spell-like abilities don't provoke attacks of opportunity even without casting defensively. And you still have to be in melee range. It's pretty easy for an enemy to get away from you by activating a magic item like an Anklet of Translocation to teleport, and not provoke any attacks. You might consider adding abilities at later levels that patch these holes. Like an ability to make attacks of opportunity for Quickened spells. Or an aura that inhibits nearby teleportation effects.

You could maybe add abilities at later levels that help your allies resist magic.

Good points, I was rather thinking it was a bit sparse in the latter half of the build. I do like the idea of having an aura that cancels out at least teleportation and maybe summoning abilities within range of you.

I don't like the mechanics of Favored Enemy on a fairly fundamental level. I don't think classes should be built with major features that are highly situational. And specializing in a particular type of creature definitely qualifies as situational. The only enemy specialist classes I actually like are those that give broadly useful abilities that just so happen to be thematically linked to a particular creature. Like Illithid Slayer, with it's defenses against mental tampering, or that one undead-fighting PrC I can't remember the name of that that gives immunities to various common effects that, as it happens, undead sometimes use.

I feel like at the very least I will leave favored enemy (arcanist) as it does work thematically with the build, also it would make nemesis feat work well.

Remove Curse isn't a bad ability. But I think later, the class should give Break Enchantment too. And at some point, the ability to Dispel without making an attack, in case you want to Dispel a harmful effect on one of your allies. Maybe you could later upgrade the Break Enchantment ability to work on spells above 5th level.

Oops, that was supposed to be part of Remove Curse, at level 12 you can use two uses of Remove Curse to Break Enchantment.

A bad Will save isn't going to work out so well for someone who fights casters. Will-save effects are the most dangerous spells in the game. Fail one Fort save, and you're dead. Fail one Will save, and you're under the complete control of the enemy. That's going to definitely result in you being dead. Later, when the enemy feels you're no longer useful, they'll have you tie yourself up, and then they'll slit your throat, and there isn't a dang thing you can do about it. But in the meantime, the enemy is going to make you kill all your friends, and divulge top-secret intel, and undermine your order, and assassinate your superiors.

So if I add in Mettle/Improved Mettle, Cha to all saves, immunity to Charm, Compulsion, and Possession how important is having a high will save?...

I will make some updates later today and see what might work well.