Fire Master (revised)

[kinem]

Fire Masters incorporate arcane fire magic into their fighting styles, training both mind and body.

Hit Die: d8
Skill Points: 4 + Intelligence Modifier
Class Skills: Appraise, Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Arcana), Listen, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival, Swim, Use Magic Device
Weapon Proficiencies: All Simple and One Martial weapon
Armor Proficiencies: Light armor and all Shields (Except tower shields)

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special	Fire Blast
1st	+0	+2	+0	+2	Endure Elements 4/day, Detect magic at will, Spark (PF APG) at will, Flaming weapon, Fire Resistance, Cold Resistance, Fire mage	1d6
2nd	+1	+3	+0	+3	SLA 1	1d6+2
3rd	+2	+3	+1	+3	Blast Effect 1	2d6+2
4th	+3	+4	+1	+4	SLA 2	2d6+4
5th	+3	+4	+1	+4	Quench at will, Line Blast	3d6+4
6th	+4	+5	+2	+5	SLA 3	3d6+6
7th	+5	+5	+2	+5	Blast Effect 2	4d6+6
8th	+6/+1	+6	+2	+6	SLA 4	4d6+8
9th	+6/+1	+6	+3	+6	Fiery full attack, Dispel magic at will	5d6+8
10th	+7/+2	+7	+3	+7	SLA 5	5d6+10
11th	+8/+3	+7	+3	+7	Blast Effect 3	6d6+10
12th	+9/+4	+8	+4	+8	SLA 6	6d6+12
13th	+9/+4	+8	+4	+8	Cone blast	7d6+12
14th	+10/+5	+9	+4	+9	SLA 7	7d6+14
15th	+11/+6/+1	+9	+5	+9	Blast Effect 4	8d6+14
16th	+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10	SLA 8	8d6+16
17th	+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10	Greater dispel magic at will	9d6+16
18th	+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+11	SLA 9	9d6+18
19th	+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+11	Fire immunity, Blast Effect 5	10d6+18
20th	+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+12	SLA 10	10d6+20

Spell-like Abilities: The Fire Master learns to use the spell-like abilities named in the above table.

Fire Blast (Su): The Fire Master can shoot a ray of fiery energy as a standard action at will, doing the listed amount of fire damage if he succeeds at a ranged touch attack. It has a range of 10’ / Fire Master level. This doesn’t draw an attack of opportunity and doesn’t require a free hand since it can be projected from his open mouth.

Alternatively, the Fire Master can channel his Fire Blast into his melee attack or unarmed strike. Surrounding his weapon with a fiery aura he makes one melee attack as a standard action, and the Fire Blast damage is added to the normal damage. Damage from a channeled Blast is not multiplied on a critical hit. If making an unarmed strike using this ability he is considered armed. The Blast damage does not stack with the extra damage from a Flaming or Frost weapon.

For use with prestige classes, this can be considered as equivalent to a warlock's Eldritch Blast.

Flaming weapon: As a swift action the Fire Master can give the Flaming weapon quality to one weapon he’s holding or to a limb he can use for a natural attack or unarmed strike. The weapon causes an extra 1d6 points of fire damage and casts light like a torch. If the weapon shoots projectiles, it bestows the Flaming quality on the ammunition it shoots. If it is an unarmed strike, he is considered armed when using it. If he lets go of the weapon, it loses the Flaming quality. Only one weapon at a time can be given this ability.

Fire Resistance: The Fire Master gains Fire Resistance equal to 2 x his Fire Master level.

Cold Resistance: Drawing on his internal fire to protect himself from cold, the Fire Master gains Cold Resistance equal to his Fire Master level.

Fire mage: If the Fire Master can cast Fire spells or use Fire-related spell-like abilities due to having levels in other classes or from other sources, the caster level for those spells or abilities is increased by his Fire Master level. For non-Fire spells or SLAs, the caster level is increased by half the Fire Master level. For the purpose of using magic items, treat all spells with the Fire descriptor as if they were on the Fire Master’s spell list.

SLA #: At each even level, the Fire Master learns how to use a new spell-like ability. He can choose any Fire spell with a spell level of the given number or lower (max 9) from the Wizard, Wu Jen, or Druid spell lists. If the spell level equals the given number, he can use it 1/day. For every spell level it is below the highest SLA # the Fire Master attains, he can use it one more time per day (the number of uses per day of a low-level SLA increases as he gains levels). He can choose the same spell more than once as he gains levels, gaining additional uses per day.

He must have a minimum Intelligence of 10 + spell level to use such a spell-like ability. The saving throw DC is 10 + his Int bonus + spell level.

If the SLA is part of a numbered sequence of spells (such as Summon Nature's Ally for a fire elemental), if the FM adds a SLA in the sequence, he can replace an existing SLA with a different one within the limits of the SLA #.

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Blast Effects: At each level that a Blast Effect is gained, the FM gains access to the two effects listed below for that level. Up to one Blast Effect can be applied to a Blast unless otherwise noted.

Blast Effect 1:
-Cold Blast: The Fire Master can use a Cold Blast in place of his Fire Blast, causing cold damage.
-Corrosive Blast: This Blast causes half fire damage and half acid damage.

Blast effect 2:
-Plasma Blast: Using superheated plasma, add +1 electrical damage per d6 of Fire Blast damage.
-Tar Blast: Creatures damaged by this Fire Blast in any form catch fire (no save) and thus take another 1d6 fire damage the next round unless the flames are first extinguished. Creatures can attempt to extinguish the flames by taking a full round action and making a DC 15 Reflex save. Rolling on the ground adds a +2 bonus to the save. The flames die out in any case after 1 round per 4 Fire Master levels.

Blast Effect 3:
-Explosive Blast: The FM can produce an explosive Fire Blast, which causes +1 bludgeoning damage (subject to DR) per d6 along with a loud blast noise. Those damaged by the Blast must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ Fire Master’s level + Fire Master’s Intelligence modifier) or be deafened for 2d6 rounds; the deafening is a Sonic effect.
-Forceful Blast: Those damaged by the Blast must make a Reflex save (DC 10 + ½ Fire Master’s level + Fire Master’s Intelligence modifier) or be knocked prone.

Blast Effect 4:
-Smoke Cone Blast: In addition to the fire, you can choose to make the Cone version of your Fire Blast fill the area with smoke, which dissipates quickly. Creatures within the Blast cone must make a Fort save (DC 10 + ½ Fire Master’s level + Fire Master’s Intelligence modifier) or be nauseated for 1 round.
-Arcane Blast: This Blast does untyped damage.

Blast Effect 5:
-Quick Blast: This Blast can be cast as a swift action. It can't be used in the same round as another Blast, but can be used with an SLA in the same round. It can be combined with another Blast Effect.
-Blinding Blast: This Blast is accompanied by a bright flash of light. Creatures struck by the Blast or within its area of effect must make a Will save (DC 10 + ½ Fire Master’s level + Fire Master’s Intelligence modifier) or be blinded for 1 round.
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Line Blast: At 5th level the Fire Blast can be cast as a line instead of a ray, with a range of up to 5’ per caster level, or less if desired. No attack roll is needed, but a Reflex save is allowed for half damage (DC 10 + ½ Fire Master’s level + Fire Master’s Intelligence modifier).

Fiery full attack: At 9th level, when making a full attack, although he can’t use his Fire Blast when making more than one attack in a round, the Fire Master can add fire damage to each of his attacks equal to half of his Fire Master level. This damage stacks with the extra damage from a Flaming (though not a Frost) weapon.

Cone Blast: At 13th level, the Blast can be cast as cone with a range of 5’ per 2 caster levels, or less if desired. A Reflex save is allowed for half damage (DC 10 + ½ Fire Master’s level + Fire Master’s Intelligence modifier).

[Doxkid]

Spoiler: Table

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Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special	Fire Blast
1st	+0	+2	+0	+2	Endure Elements 4/day, Detect magic at will, Spark (PF APG) at will, Flaming weapon, Fire Resistance, Fire mage	1d6
2nd	+1	+3	+0	+3	SLA 1	1d6+2
3rd	+2	+3	+1	+3	Blast Effect 1	2d6+2
4th	+3	+4	+1	+4	SLA 2	2d6+4
5th	+3	+4	+1	+4	Quench at will, Line Blast	3d6+4
6th	+4	+5	+2	+5	SLA 3	3d6+6
7th	+5	+5	+2	+5	Blast Effect 2	4d6+6
8th	+6/+1	+2	+6	+6	SLA 4	4d6+8
9th	+6/+1	+6	+3	+6	Fiery full attack	5d6+8
10th	+7/+2	+7	+3	+7	SLA 5	5d6+10
11th	+8/+3	+7	+3	+7	Blast Effect 3	6d6+10
12th	+9/+4	+8	+4	+8	SLA 6	6d6+12
13th	+9/+4	+8	+4	+8	Cone blast	7d6+12
14th	+10/+5	+9	+4	+9	SLA 7	7d6+14
15th	+11/+6/+1	+9	+5	+9	Cold resistance 10, Blast Effect 4	8d6+14
16th	+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10	SLA 8	8d6+16
17th	+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10	Greater dispel magic at will	9d6+16
18th	+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+11	SLA 9	9d6+18
19th	+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+11	Fire immunity, Blast Effect 5	10d6+18
20th	+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+12	SLA 10	10d6+20

I used the table converter to fix your table for ya. I recommend a line-break in the middle of the level 1 abilities to avoid it being a mile longer than everything else.

[kinem]

Thanks, Doxkid.

[Doxkid]

Review

Spoiler: Review

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At level 8 on the table you have a good Reflex save, poor Fort Save. Every other level in this class is Good Fort and Good Will, so I believe that's a typo.

Fire blast is stunted slightly by lack of support; it's basically Eldritch blast but without the various feats and prestige classes that can help improve Eldritch Blast, so what you have in the class is all you get. I would recommend giving some type of statement in the ability that it functions as Eldritch Blast for most purposes, if only to make this easier to use.

Level 1 is stacked. Maybe split some of that stuff off and give it to other levels?

Endure Elements, Detect Magic, Spark SLA: the Spark SLA is super redundant since you should really get the option to ignite things with fire blast. Detect Magic is just fine, but I'm not sure why this class is getting it at all? Endure Elements is fine to have, but still weird.

Fire Mage suggests this is a dip-class, as does almost all of the abilities being frontloaded into level 1, but it doesn't actually do much for a spellcaster that dips into the class; you lose caster levels in general and gain those CL back...but only when casting fire spells. That's a net negative unless you are exclusively casting fire spells, at which point you would probably just be a pure Fire Master, right?

SLA 1-9: not great, but not really bad either. Mostly just asks the player to dumpster dive for various buff spells that have the 'Fire' tag. Fire Blast covers your damage needs, but getting flight at some point is absolutely vital

Quench? That's an odd SLA to grant this class. I understand it's to suppress and clear any fires you accidentally/purposefully create, but it's still odd for one of the earliest at-will abilities to be putting out fires instead of, for example, snuffing out fires to heal yourself, or something like that.

Eldritch Essense/Shapes help drive home that this is an alternate warlock that isn't compatible with the warlock itself.

Cold/Corrosibe/Plasma Blast: All over the place. Cold blast is the best by far because it fully converts your blast to cold damage, Acid is so-so since it only a partially converts to acid, and plasma is a small bonus damage instead of converting?

Fiery Full Attack: Why does this mention Fiery blast when it doesn't use any aspect of fiery blast? Fiery blast can be used as a standard Action weapon enhancing attack so I could see why would you would think it's important to mention they are disparate abilities, but this is basically just an upgrade to the [i]Flaming Weapon[i] ability you get earlier and that ability can't be combined with Fire blast. It's also a bit annoying that this can only be used as part of a full attack and not, for example, on a Charge attack or anything like that.

Line & Cone blasts: Just fine. A little odd that it's pre-selected for you, but fine abilities on their own.

Cold Resistance: Too little too late and this comes extremely late. Extremely late. Extremely late. Fire Immunity can be forgiven for being late since it's an upgrade to fire resistance, but this is basically out of left field.

Greater Dispel Magic: This is nice to have but once again this is a really strange ability to get on a fire-specialized class. It doesn't have any abilities that lead in to it, it doesn't have any ways of being integrated with class abilities...it's basically something randomly tossed in from an outside perspective.

Fire Immunity: It's kind of late, but it's appreciated all the same.

[kinem]

Doxkid: Thanks; I made a few changes.

The level 8 thing was a typo.

Level 1 may look loaded, but most of the abilities are either very minor, or continue to scale with level such as the Fire Resistance and Fire Blast. I see no reason to move any of it to higher levels. Think of all the minor spells a traditional caster gets at level 1; this is less.

Endure Elements fits in with the heat resistance theme. I changed cold resistance to scale with level.

Detect magic is just something a magic user would be both interested and able to do. Fire Master training is highly concentrated on fire, but more general magic is not neglected completely in this Intelligence-based class. This is also why they are eventually able to Dispel magic. I added in the regular Dispel at level 9 as a progression does make more sense.

Cold is a more natural stretch than acid, so more of the damage is converted into cold. Also, acid damage is more useful in many situations, especially against objects.

Quench or something like it is necessary or this class would be no master of fire. A cooler way to put out fires might be nice, but for now, I kept it simple.

It's not intended to be a dip class, but if you do dip, Fire Mage makes sense to include.

[Maat Mons]

Personally, I'd either shift it to be more of a spellcaster, or more of an invocation-user.

If you go the spellcaster route, I'd model it after Beguiler and Dread Necromancer. Basically give it a fixed spell list of whatever fits the concept, and then the at-will fire damage can be viewed as occupying the same niche as reserve feats do for other classes.

If you go the invocation-user route, write up specific invocations based on all the appropriate spells, and don't have a daily limit like the current spell-like abilities do.

There isn't any need for Endure Elements. According to Sandstorm, even one point of fire resistance gives all the benefits of the warm half of Endure Elements. And according to Frostburn, even one point of cold resistance gives all the benefits of the cool half of Endure Elements.

I've spent some time looking for published fire spells that aren't boring. Feel free to crib rom that thread if you construct a spell list or create invocations.

[kinem]

Maat: Thanks. I prefer the basic structure as is, though I did increase the number of SLA uses for the lower level ones as the FM gains levels.

Endure Elements is for the FM's companions. He'll help you beat the heat.

I know about most of the fire spells; nice list. Fire Wings, of course, is practically a must have for the class.

[kinem]

Epic Fire Master: levels 21+

At each odd level: +1d6 Fire Blast damage;

Abundant Fire Magic:
At each odd level increase the uses per day of each Fire Master SLA by 1.

At each even level: +2 Fire Blast damage;

Heightened Fire Magic: At each even level, increase the effective spell level for all class SLAs by 1. This increases the DC as well as any other effects that depend on spell level.

Epic Feat: Supernatural Fire Magic
Choose one SLA granted by the Fire Master class. It can now be used as a Supernatural ability with a DC of 10 + 1/2 caster level + Int bonus.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times. Choose a different SLA each time.

Epic Feat: Extra Fire Magic
Prerequisite: Fire Master 21
Gain another SLA 10.
This feat can be taken multiple times.