Firedancer [PrC]

[Ethrael]

I've just made my first prestige class for my upcoming campaign. It was greatly influenced and inspired by merrja666's Fireblade PrC. Anyway, please feel free to tell me what you think about it and how to improve it.

The Firedancer

Picture

Requirements
Skills: Concentration 8 ranks, Perform (dance) 8 ranks.
Feats: Dodge, Mobility.

Class Skills
Hit die: d6.
The firedancer's class skills (and the key ability for each) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Tumble (Dex) and Use Rope (Dex).
Skill points at each additional level: 6 + Int modifier.

Firedancer
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Flame Blade/day|Spells/day|Burning Blade/day

1st|

+0

|

+0

|

+2

|

+0

|Fire evasion, Flame Blade|

2

|

1

|

0

2nd|

+1

|

+0

|

+3

|

+0

|Summon Small Fire Elemental|

2

|

2

|

0

3rd|

+2

|

+1

|

+3

|

+1

|Immunity to flame, fire jump 50 ft.|

2

|

2

|

0

4th|

+3

|

+1

|

+4

|

+1

|Purifying flame, Flame form|

3

|

3

|

0

5th|

+3

|

+1

|

+4

|

+1

|Fire jump 100 ft., Burning blade|

3

|

3

|

1

6th|

+4

|

+2

|

+5

|

+2

|Summon Medium Fire Elemental|

3

|

4

|

1

7th|

+5

|

+2

|

+5

|

+2

|Fire jump 150 ft., Improved fire evasion|

4

|

5

|

2

8th|

+6

|

+2

|

+6

|

+2

|Benign flame|

4

|

5

|

2

9th|

+6

|

+3

|

+6

|

+3

|Summon Large Fire Elemental, Fire jump 200 ft.|

4

|

6

|

3

10th|

+7

|

+3

|

+7

|

+3

|Firedance|

5

|

6

|

3

[/table]


Class Features

Weapon and armor proficiency: The firedancer is with all simple weapons plus the scimitar, rapier, short sword and discus..

Fire evasion (Ex): At 1st level, a firedancer gains the Evasion class feature for any spell with the [Fire] descriptor.

Flame blade (Su): At 1st level, a firedancer can imbue a weapon with fire energy. This weapon immediately takes on the flaming quality. It can be any weapon but it must be touched. The effect lasts for 1 hour. The selected weapon does not need to be held continuously for the above effect to place, the flaming quality does not disappear if the weapon isn't held by the firedancer.

Summon Fire Elemental (Su): At 2nd level, a firedancer may summon a fire elemental 1/day. At 6th she may summon a medium elemental and at 9th a large fire elemental.

Immunity to flame (Ex): At 3rd level, any nonmagical flame does not harm the firedancer.

Fire jump (Su): At 3rd level, a firedancer gains the ability to travel between flames as if by means of a dimension door spell. The limitation is that the magical transport must begin and end in an area with at least some fire. A firedancer can jump up to a total of 50 feet each day in this way; this may be a single jump of 50 feet or two jumps of 25 feet each. At 5th level, the firedancer can fire jump 100 feet. At level 7, 150 feet and at level 9 200 ft. This amount can be split among many jumps, but each one, no matter how small, counts as a 10-foot increment. The firedancer takes possessions and/or people with her, but they must be in physical contact. This happens willingly and unwillingly. The objects/people taken with her do not take fire damage.
If the firedancer tries to go too far, (s)he must succeed a DC 18 will save or be knocked out of the flame, become exhausted and take 1d8 damage. If they succeed, they are simply taken to the maximum distance left for the day.

Purifying flame (Su): At 4th level, a firedancer can be purified of any diseases, magical and non-magical. She must spend 1 minute of concentrating and dancing before entering the flame to be cleansed. She cannot use this on others, only herself. After the cleansing she has a +3 to her fortitude save and +2 to her will save for 10 minutes.

Flame form (Su): At 4th level, a firedancer may use the flame form ability. This functions like the Body of the Sun spell except is lasts 1 minute/level rather than 1 round/level.

Burning blade (Su): At 5th level, a firedancer can imbue a weapon with fire energy. This weapon immediately takes on the flaming burst quality. It can be any weapon but it must be touched. The effect lasts for 1 hour. The burning blade effect does not stack with the flaming quality.

Improved Fire evasion (Ex): At 7th level, a firedancer gains the Improved Evasion class feature for any spell with the [Fire] descriptor.

Benign flame (Su): At 8th level, a firedancer gains the benign flame ability. Benign flame allows the firedancer to regain hit points equal to twice firedancer level + twice constitution modifier. To regain these hit points, she must enter the flame and pass a DC 15 Perform (dance) check. She must con-tine this to regain all the hit points. Whilst in the fire, she also gains damage resistance 10/cold which lasts for 10 minutes after exiting the fire and a +3 AC bonus.
During the healing, which takes 15-the firedancer’s level rounds, she may make on standard action per round, as she uses the move action to continue the dance. If there is an attempt to interrupt the dance, the firedancer must make a DC 10 + intruder’s level concentration check to continue. If she succeeds the check, the intruder is engulfed in the flame and takes 2d10 fire damage. If she fails the save, she stops dancing and must retake the DC 15 Perform (dance) check to resume.

Firedance (Su): At 10th level, the firedancer may execute a complicated and intricate ritual known as the firedance. The firedance can have 2 effects: Inferno and Incineration.
Inferno is an enormous radial blast which can be partially controlled. The Infernal dance is a more complicated but more crude dance in comparison with Incineration. To perform Inferno the firedancer must still have at least half of her spells for the day and be in flame form (see above). She must make a DC 20 Perform (dance) check but no concentration check. As she begins to dance, flames begin to spurt off her body in various random directions. Suddenly, after 6 rounds of continuous dancing, there is a sudden burst of light and flame around the firedancer, and anything combustible within 120 feet erupts in fire. This fire is nonmagical and deals 4d12 damage + 1/amount of people in the range. If she is willing to take that damage, she deals double damage to others. If there is an attempt to interrupt the dance, the firedancer must make a DC 10+ intruder’s level Perform (dance) check instead of a Concentration one.
The firedancer can make a DC 15 concentration check to make sure her allies aren’t hurt by controlling the blast. She can spread this control to anything else she wishes to protect by adding 1 to the DC for every object/person protected.
The other firedance, Incineration, has a different effect: it controls any fire within a 120 foot range. This dance is a simpler-looking one, but so intricate it is easier to miss the details which define it than the Inferno.
To execute this dance, the firedancer must make a DC 20 Perform (dance) check and a DC 15 Concentration check. After 5 rounds of dancing, the firedancer abruptly stops dancing and her eyes blaze red. Any fire within 120 feet is immediately under the firedancer’s control. The firedancer can make the fires levitate, move or remain still at half the firedancer's speed. She can also make the smaller, but she may not enlarge them or put them out. These fires remain magical or nonmagical depending on what they were in the first place. The fires must have been there originally, they are not created. The fires also can carry out more complex tasks, however they have no intelligence scores, firedancers can “talk” to them and they can “see”. Fore example, they can be commanded to fly towards a castle and burn anything they “see”. These fires deal their normal amount of damage + the firedancer’s dexterity modifier. Incineration lasts for 1d8 rounds.
If a spell which creates a flame is cast during the duration of the Incineration effect, a opposed caster level check are required. The firedancer is entitled to gain control of the fire every subsequent round with another opposed caster level checks.
The firedancer must choose which of the firedances to dance before beginning to execute them.

*Spells: The firedancer may choose from the following lists of spells and use any up to and including half her firedancer level. The amount of spells/day is shown in the table above. They may receive bonus spells/day if they have a high Dexterity score. It is assumed all the spells are known and the dancer can use any up to half their firedancer level. Their spells are counted as divine spells. The save DC is 10+spell's level+their dexterity modifier.

0 Level
{table=head]Spell Name|Brief description

Light:|Object shines like a torch.

Flare:|Dazzles one creature (-1 on attack rolls)

Ray of Flame|As Ray of Frost but fire damage instead.[/table]

1st Level
{table=head]Spell Name|Brief description

Produce Flame:|1d6+1/level, touched or thrown.

Animate Fire:|Turn campfire into a Small Fire Elemental

Orb of Fire, Lesser:|Ranged touched attack deals 1d8 fire damage +1d8/2 levels beyond 1st.
Raging Flame:|Fires burn twice as hot, half as long.

Slow Burn:|Fire burns twice as long.[/table]

2nd Level
{table=head]Spell Name|Brief description

Fire Trap:|Opened object deals 1d4 damage +1/level.

Heat Metal:|Make metal so hot it damages those who touch it.

Scorching Ray:|Ranged touch attack deals 4d6 fire damage, +1 ray/four levels (max 3).

Heartfire:|Subjects outlined by fire, take 1d4 damage/round.

Flame Dagger:| Beam of fire deals 1d4 damage +1/2 levels.[/table]

3rd Level
{table=head]Spell Name|Brief description

Fireball:|1d6 damage per level, 20-ft. radius.

Fire wings:|Your arms become wings that enable flight, deal 2d6 fire damage.

Heatsroke:|Subject creature takes nonlethal damage and is fatigued.[/table]

4th Level
{table=head]Spell Name|Brief description

Flame Strike:|Smite foes with divine fire (1d6/level damage).

Wall of Fire:|Deals 2d4 fire damage out to 10 ft. and 1d4 out to 20 ft. Passing through walls deals 2d6 damage +1/level.

Flame Whips:|Your forelimbs deal 6d6 damage.

Blast of Flame|60 ft. cone of fire (1d6/level damage)

Orb of Fire|Ranged touch, 1d6/level damage (max 10d6)[/table]

*Not all spells are core, I was using my Spell Compendium when I created the class.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The BAB and Fort save are a little wonky, but if that was intentional then nevermind.

[Ethrael]

What exactly do you mean when you say wonky? Do you mean kinda random?

[Kesnit]

Flame blade (Su): At 1st level, a firedancer can imbue a weapon with fire energy. This weapon immediately takes on the flaming quality. It can be any weapon but it must be touched. The effect lasts for 1 hour.

Does it keep the Flaming quality if not being held by the Firedancer? Or could (s)he activate it on the Fighter's weapon, then switch to Bardsong for support during the battle?

Fire jump (Su): At 3rd level, a firedancer gains the ability to travel between flames as if by means of a dimension door spell. The limitation is that the magical transport must begin and end in an area with at least some fire. A firedancer can jump up to a total of 50 feet each day in this way; this may be a single jump of 50 feet or two jumps of 25 feet each. At 5th level, the firedancer can fire jump 100 feet. At level 7, 150 feet and at level 9 200 ft. This amount can be split among many jumps, but each one, no matter how small, counts as a 10-foot increment. The firedancer takes possessions and/or people with her, but they must be in physical contact. This happens willingly and unwillingly.

What happens if (s)he tries to go to far? Also, I assume anyone who travels with him/her will take fire damage?

Burning blade (Su): At 5th level, a firedancer can imbue a weapon with fire energy. This weapon immediately takes on the flaming burst quality. It can be any weapon but it must be touched. The effect lasts for 1 hour.

Can (s)he put Flaming and Flaming Burst on the weapon at the same time?

Benign flame (Su): At 8th level, a firedancer gains the benign flame ability. Benign flame allows the firedancer to regain hit points equal to twice firedancer level + twice constitution modifier. To regain these hit points, she must enter the flame and pass a DC 15 Perform (dance) check. She must continue this to regain all the hit points. Whilst in the fire, she also gains damage resistance 10/cold which lasts for 10 minutes after exiting the fire and a +3 AC bonus.
During the healing, which takes 15- the firedancer’s level

Rounds? Minutes?

Suddenly, after 6 rounds of continuous dancing, there is a sudden burst of light and flame around the firedancer, and anything combustible within 120 feet erupts in fire. This fire is nonmagical and deals 4d12 damage + amount of people in the range.

Do you mean +1 damage for every person in the range? I'm guessing so, but just want to make sure.

[Kesnit]

Flame blade (Su): At 1st level, a firedancer can imbue a weapon with fire energy. This weapon immediately takes on the flaming quality. It can be any weapon but it must be touched. The effect lasts for 1 hour.

Does it keep the Flaming quality if not being held by the Firedancer? Or could (s)he activate it on the Fighter's weapon, then switch to Bardsong for support during the battle?

Fire jump (Su): At 3rd level, a firedancer gains the ability to travel between flames as if by means of a dimension door spell. The limitation is that the magical transport must begin and end in an area with at least some fire. A firedancer can jump up to a total of 50 feet each day in this way; this may be a single jump of 50 feet or two jumps of 25 feet each. At 5th level, the firedancer can fire jump 100 feet. At level 7, 150 feet and at level 9 200 ft. This amount can be split among many jumps, but each one, no matter how small, counts as a 10-foot increment. The firedancer takes possessions and/or people with her, but they must be in physical contact. This happens willingly and unwillingly.

What happens if (s)he tries to go to far? Also, I assume anyone who travels with him/her will take fire damage?

Burning blade (Su): At 5th level, a firedancer can imbue a weapon with fire energy. This weapon immediately takes on the flaming burst quality. It can be any weapon but it must be touched. The effect lasts for 1 hour.

Can (s)he put Flaming and Flaming Burst on the weapon at the same time?

Benign flame (Su): At 8th level, a firedancer gains the benign flame ability. Benign flame allows the firedancer to regain hit points equal to twice firedancer level + twice constitution modifier. To regain these hit points, she must enter the flame and pass a DC 15 Perform (dance) check. She must continue this to regain all the hit points. Whilst in the fire, she also gains damage resistance 10/cold which lasts for 10 minutes after exiting the fire and a +3 AC bonus.
During the healing, which takes 15- the firedancer’s level

Rounds? Minutes?

Suddenly, after 6 rounds of continuous dancing, there is a sudden burst of light and flame around the firedancer, and anything combustible within 120 feet erupts in fire. This fire is nonmagical and deals 4d12 damage + amount of people in the range.

Do you mean +1 damage for every person in the range? I'm guessing so, but just want to make sure.

[Ethrael]

Does it keep the Flaming quality if not being held by the Firedancer? Or could (s)he activate it on the Fighter's weapon, then switch to Bardsong for support during the battle?

The weapon does not need to be continuously held by the firedancer, it is simply imbuing the weapon with magical energy, giving it the said effect.

What happens if (s)he tries to go to far? Also, I assume anyone who travels with him/her will take fire damage?

Anyone who passes with him/her doesn't take fire damage as it is basically the dimension door spell with the fire as it's focus. Also, thank you for reminding me to mention this, if the firedancer tries to go too far, (s)he must succeed a DC 18 will save or be knocked out of the flame, become exhausted and take 1d8 damage. If they succeed, they are simply taken to the maximum distance left for the day.

Can (s)he put Flaming and Flaming Burst on the weapon at the same time?

Correct me if I'm wrong because as I said, this is my first time DMing, but isn't a flaming burst simply an advancement of flaming? in which case, no, the effects don't stack.

Rounds? Minutes?

Again, thanks for reminding me, it takes 15-the firedancer's level rounds.

Do you mean +1 damage for every person in the range? I'm guessing so, but just want to make sure.

Yeh, it's +1 per person not 4d12 per person.

I've made the changes to these and to the fortitude, but may I ask Krimm, what do you find wonky with the BAB?

[Lizardfolk Lich]

BAB always goes up by at least one in the first level. At least, that's what I've seen...

[Nebo_]

There are three BAB progressions in D&D and yours doesn't match any of them.
It should be +6 at 8th level, +6 at 9th level and +7 at 10th.

Edit: Why is there a Dex requirement on the class? Dogde already has one and that's a prerequisite.

[MeklorIlavator]

Edit: Why is there a Dex requirement on the class? Dogde already has one and that's a prerequisite.

Because you could be able to gain dogde from another source. Plus, having a dex of 14 is slightly more difficult than having one of 13(note that this is just my opnion, and the OP could have a completly different reason).

BAB always goes up by at least one in the first level. At least, that's what I've seen...

Uhh, look at the Rouge or Wizards BAB progression. In fact, only one progression gains a point at level one, the full progression.

[Ethrael]

Because you could be able to gain dogde from another source. Plus, having a dex of 14 is slightly more difficult than having one of 13(note that this is just my opnion, and the OP could have a completly different reason).

That's exactly it, I wanted there to be a dex requirement because it's quite a dex-oriented class and when I realised that dodge already had one, I just changed it a little.

And @Nebo_ and Lizardfolk Lich, I'm not completely sure that I see what you mean, from looking at the 11 main classes I only see a wide variety of progression in BAB. The non-fighting ones don't follow this pattern that you say nebo, they're lower, and the fighting ones are too high: fighter has +8 at lvl 8 and the sorcerer has +4 at lvl 8.

[Nebo_]

That's exactly it, I wanted there to be a dex requirement because it's quite a dex-oriented class and when I realised that dodge already had one, I just changed it a little.

If it's a dex oriented class, then the player will likely already have good dex. I don't see the need to modify the requirement any more.

And @Nebo_ and Lizardfolk Lich, I'm not completely sure that I see what you mean, from looking at the 11 main classes I only see a wide variety of progression in BAB. The non-fighting ones don't follow this pattern that you say nebo, they're lower, and the fighting ones are too high: fighter has +8 at lvl 8 and the sorcerer has +4 at lvl 8.

First of all, the _ is silent. There are three BAB progressions in D&D; good, average and poor. Every class follows one of those, but for some reason yours doesn't. Look at page 22 of the PHB, it's right there. (There are two exceptions to this rule and both of those classes have no progression at all)

[Ethrael]

Ah I see now, I hadn't seen that before, thanks for explaining. I'll change it.

But for the dex, I guess it doesn't make sense to have just a little bit higher dex requirement than dodge, but as meklor said, you can get dodge from other classes, plus I just thought it would make only certainly dex-oriented characters take the class instead of just anyone with higher than 13. But then again I understand that maybe it should be higher. I'll make it 15.

[Ethrael]

Btw, I've added a picture I've made of one, it didn't come out that well on the scanner, but I hope you like it and that it helps picture them.

[Ethrael]

(bump) Any more comments on this?

[The Rose Dragon]

But for the dex, I guess it doesn't make sense to have just a little bit higher dex requirement than dodge, but as meklor said, you can get dodge from other classes, plus I just thought it would make only certainly dex-oriented characters take the class instead of just anyone with higher than 13. But then again I understand that maybe it should be higher. I'll make it 15.

However, no published PrC has an ability score as a prerequisite, and neither should they, according to DMG II (it states that ability scores are poor prerequisites for PrCs).

[Ethrael]

Hmm, I would though like to make sure only dex-based characters took it. I don't know how else to make sure of that...Would getting rid of it and leaving the dodge prerequisite to dex be the only prerequisite?

[Lord Iames Osari]

Fire evasion (Ex): At 1st level, a firedancer gains the feat Evasion for any spell with the [Fire] descriptor.

Improved Fire evasion (Ex): At 7th level, a firedancer gains the feat Improved Evasion for any spell with the [Fire] descriptor.

Evasion and Improved Evasion are not feats; they are class abilities.

*Spells: The firedancer may choose from the following lists of spells and use any up to and including half her firedancer level. The amount of spells/day is shown in the table above. It is assumed all the spells are known and the dancer can use any of them. The firedancer’s bonus spells are chosen according to their dexterity and the equivalent of 10 in this case is 14, e.g. 14-15 give you 0 bonus spells, 16-17 give you 1 bonus spell etc. Their spells are counted as divine spells.

You may want to make it clearer when the firedancer gains the ability to cast spells of the various levels. It's also not at all clear how these spells are supposed to be cast - do firedancers prepare their spells, or do they cast them spontaneously?

And while I can understand that you want this PrC to be Dex-based, it's enough to just have Dexterity be the key casting stat. You don't need to do this weird thing you're doing with making Dex their casting stat and then making it suck.

You also don't need the Dexterity prerequisite. Between the Dodge feat and the need to have your Dex as high as possible for your spells' sake, nobody is going to be considering this as a PrC unless they have a high Dex score.

Furthermore, I'd recommend adding more 0th-level spells. Flare fits the theme of the class, and it wouldn't be that hard to homebrew a ray of flame spell (take ray of frost, change damage type to fire, change spell name, done).

Oh, and why are they only immune to nonmagical fire?

[Ethrael]

Ok i got rid of the Dex prerequisite, added flare, and explained the spells a little more. I'll make ray of flame as soon as I have the time.

Also, they're only immune to nonmagical flame because if they were immune to magical as well, there would be no point to Fire Evasion and Improved Fire Evasion, they would simply be immune to it.

[Mattarias, King.]

Nice to see a fellow fire-PrC author.

May I suggest making it completely fire immune, and fire evasion into plain old evasion, while changing improved fire evasion into the flame absorb ability? Might help.

..also, I suggest changing the bonus spell stat to charisma or something, and spell types to arcane. Charisma because.. well, it makes more sense than "I can move my hands fast! Look, my speed taught me new spells!" and Arcane because, well, divine spells are not about the boom, arcane spells are.

[Ethrael]

I think making them immune to all fire might actually be a good idea, but what is the flame absorb ability?

The idea of making the ability for the spells dexterity is that if they have a high dexterity, they can control their movement better, making it more accurate, or add in some small other movements, making it more powerful, but I'm not sure if I should make it charisma, after Perform (dance) is charisma based.

I think i'll keep the spells divine though, fire is a natural element, manipulating the world around you is divine, and firedancers don't so much use their dancing to control it (which would be arcane) but dance to appease fire to do their bidding, basically a plea for help from a divinity (divine).