The Fists of Bigby (Wizard Subclass)

[Bhu]

THE FISTS OF BIGBY
The Fists of Bigby are a lunatic cult of Wizards who all claim to be descendants of the original caster (even though many are clearly of a different species). Whereas Bigby was retiring and secretive, they are loud and proud. Where Bigby was a traditionalist, to the point of being puritanical, the Fists are transgressive, and proud of it. They take great joy in punching people while screaming "I CAST FIST!" They trap people in forcecages just because they can. They are bullies, trolls, thieves and liars to the last man. Their only shared belief is the delusion that their ancestor, Bigby, has ascended to godhood, and will call them up as his chosen one day.

In short, they are absolutely nuts. And prone to throwing spells around. They want what they want, when they want it, and don't take well to being told no. On the plus side, they see their ancestors enemies as their enemies, so if one of those enemies is pursuing you, the Fists will help you. Now granted, they'll never let you forget that you owe them. And when they ask for the favor to be returned, it'll be something dangerous, weird and uncomfortable ("We're robbing Orcus. We need you to distract him. Here's your tiara, the poison is in the third diamond from the left.").

FORCE ARMOR
At 2nd Level, whenever you cast a leveled spell doing Force damage, or creating an effect made of force, you gain temporary hit points equal to the Spells Level in 6 sided dice. For example, if you cast Bigby's Hand (a 5th Level Spell), you gain 5d6 temporary hp.

FORCE HANDS
At 6th Level your Unarmed Strikes use your Intelligence Score for attack and damage rolls, and does 2d6 Force damage.

GREATER HAND
At 10th Level, when you cast Bigby's Hand, it has additional effects you can access.

Battering Hand: The Hand deals double damage to objects and structures when using the Clenched Fist option.

Protecting Hand: When using the Interposing Hand option, the Hand acts as a 10 foot by 10 foot Wall of Force as well.

Silencing Hand: When you use the Grasping Hand option of the spell, the target must make a Dexterity Save against your Spell Save DC, or be unable to speak as long as the Hand is grappling it.

Swatting Hand: When using the Forceful Hand option, if it succeeds in Shoving the target, it also knocks it Prone. If the target is flying, it also falls out of the sky.

IMPROVED CASTING
At 14th Level, whenever you cast a spell doing Force damage, or that creates an effect from force (Wall of Force, Forcecage etc.) you can choose to enhance it in one of the following ways:

Increase the range by +30 feet.

Cast it without a verbal, somatic or material component.

If the spell has a duration longer than Instantaneous, you can increase it one step: 1 round becomes 1 Minute, 1 Minute becomes 10 Minutes, 10 Minutes becomes 1 Hour, and 1 Hour becomes 8 Hours.

If the spell has an area of effect it increases by +50%. For example, if the spells normal range is a 30 foot cone, it now becomes a 45 foot cone.

[Garfunion]

Hmm many of your archetype features seem more about force manipulation than fist fighting. If I were to create a force fist fighting archetype I would…

2nd level
Give mage hand cantrip for free and allowed it to make an unarmed strike doing force damage.

6th level
Allow mage hand cantrip to parry an attack and additionally lift more weight.

10th level
Give them Bigby’s Hand spell for free and have it always prepared. Additionally they can cast it without verbal and somatic components.

14th level
Cast 2 mage hands or Bigby’s Hand spell at once.

[JNAProductions]

THE FISTS OF BIGBY
The Fists of Bigby are a lunatic cult of Wizards who all claim to be descendants of the original caster (even though many are clearly of a different species). Whereas Bigby was retiring and secretive, they are loud and proud. Where Bigby was a traditionalist, to the point of being puritanical, the Fists are transgressive, and proud of it. They take great joy in punching people while screaming "I CAST FIST!" They trap people in forcecages just because they can. They are bullies, trolls, thieves and liars to the last man. Their only shared belief is the delusion that their ancestor, Bigby, has ascended to godhood, and will call them up as his chosen one day.

In short, they are absolutely nuts. And prone to throwing spells around. They want what they want, when they want it, and don't take well to being told no. On the plus side, they see their ancestors enemies as their enemies, so if one of those enemies is pursuing you, the Fists will help you. Now granted, they'll never let you forget that you owe them. And when they ask for the favor to be returned, it'll be something dangerous, weird and uncomfortable ("We're robbing Orcus. We need you to distract him. Here's your tiara, the poison is in the third diamond from the left.").

FORCE ARMOR
At 2nd Level, whenever you cast a leveled spell doing Force damage, or creating an effect made of force, you gain temporary hit points equal to the Spells Level in 6 sided dice. For example, if you cast Bigby's Hand (a 5th Level Spell), you gain 5d6 temporary hp.

FORCE HANDS
At 6th Level your Unarmed Strikes use your Intelligence Score for attack and damage rolls, and does 2d6 Force damage.

GREATER HAND
At 10th Level, when you cast Bigby's Hand, it has additional effects you can access.

Battering Hand: The Hand deals double damage to objects and structures when using the Clenched Fist option.

Protecting Hand: When using the Interposing Hand option, the Hand acts as a 10 foot by 10 foot Wall of Force as well.

Silencing Hand: When you use the Grasping Hand option of the spell, the target must make a Dexterity Save against your Spell Save DC, or be unable to speak as long as the Hand is grappling it.

Swatting Hand: When using the Forceful Hand option, if it succeeds in Shoving the target, it also knocks it Prone. If the target is flying, it also falls out of the sky.

IMPROVED CASTING
At 14th Level, whenever you cast a spell doing Force damage, or that creates an effect from force (Wall of Force, Forcecage etc.) you can choose to enhance it in one of the following ways:

Increase the range by +30 feet.

Cast it without a verbal, somatic or material component.

If the spell has a duration longer than Instantaneous, you can increase it one step: 1 round becomes 1 Minute, 1 Minute becomes 10 Minutes, 10 Minutes becomes 1 Hour, and 1 Hour becomes 8 Hours.

If the spell has an area of effect it increases by +50%. For example, if the spells normal range is a 30 foot cone, it now becomes a 45 foot cone.

Force Armor feels a little powerful, but not so much that I don't think it needs playtesting. Like, it's on the edge of "Would I allow it?" and it'd be something I'd be totally fine with nerfing, but it might be okay.

Force Hands combos kinda nuts with a Monk. The stats aren't synergistic, but a Wizard 6/Monk X would get a lot of 2d6 attacks. Might not be that much of an issue, though, given the synergy issues and delayed goodies.

Greater Hand is neat.

Improved Casting's duration increase is something that should be looked at. For instance-if Shield is considered a force effect (which it can be flavored as) an entire minute of +5 AC from a 1st level slot is hella good.

The main thing I would do to improve this subclass is better define what spells apply and what don't. Maybe just make a whitelist of spells.

[Bhu]

Force Armor feels a little powerful, but not so much that I don't think it needs playtesting. Like, it's on the edge of "Would I allow it?" and it'd be something I'd be totally fine with nerfing, but it might be okay.

I thought it would be okay, since it's temporary hp instead of healing, and temorary hp don't stack.

Improved Casting's duration increase is something that should be looked at. For instance-if Shield is considered a force effect (which it can be flavored as) an entire minute of +5 AC from a 1st level slot is hella good.

The main thing I would do to improve this subclass is better define what spells apply and what don't. Maybe just make a whitelist of spells.

Other than spells doing force damage, these are the only possible spells I've found:

Force Effect Spells
Cantrips: Mage Hand?
1st: Mage's Armor, Shield, Tenser's Floating Disc
3rd: Leomund's Tiny Hut
4th: Resilient Sphere
5th: Wall of Force
7th: Forcecage


I really thought 5th had more force construct spells than that.

[Kane0]

Blade ward, arcane lock, faithful hound, mords sword?

[Bhu]

Blade ward, arcane lock, faithful hound, mords sword?

Blade Ward seems to be just tracing a sigil in the air, and mentions no force effect. Arcane Lock isn't desribed as being any sort of magical force. Faithful ound doesn't seem to be made of force. All spells doing force damage are included, so that includes Mordenkainen's Sword.


I've been thinking about the extended duration effect at 14th level. In the case of Shield I could make it Concentration, up to 1 Minute.