The Portal Mage (3.5 class by request)

[Jormengand]

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special	Maximum Portal Radius	Maximum Portal Distance
1st	+0	+0	+2	+2	Portal Creation (Limit 1)	5 ft	5 ft
2nd	+1	+0	+3	+3	Dimensional Strike 1d6	5 ft	15 ft
3rd	+2	+1	+3	+3	Portal Creation (Limit 2)	5 ft	30 ft
4th	+3	+1	+4	+4	Dimensional Strike 2d6	10 ft	40 ft
5th	+3	+1	+4	+4	Sudden Portal 1/round, Portal Creation (Limit 3)	10 ft	60 ft
6th	+4	+2	+5	+5	Dimensional Strike 3d6	10 ft	75 ft
7th	+5	+2	+5	+5	Portal Creation (Limit 4)	10 ft	95 ft
8th	+6/+1	+2	+6	+6	Dimensional Strike 4d6	15 ft	115 ft
9th	+6/+1	+3	+6	+6	Portal Creation (Limit 5)	15 ft	135 ft
10th	+7/+2	+3	+7	+7	Dimensional Strike 5d6, Sudden Portal 2/round	15 ft	160 ft
11th	+8/+3	+3	+7	+7	Portal Creation (Limit 6)	15 ft	185 ft
12th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+8	Dimensional Strike 6d6	20 ft	210 ft
13th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+8	Portal Creation (Limit 7)	20 ft	235 ft
14th	+10/+5	+4	+9	+9	Dimensional Strike 7d6	20 ft	265 ft
15th	+11/+6/+1	+5	+9	+9	Sudden Portal 3/round, Portal Creation (Limit 8)	20 ft	295 ft
16th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+10	Dimensional Strike 8d6	25 ft	320 ft
17th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+10	Gate, Portal Creation (Limit 9)	25 ft	355 ft
18th	+13/+8/+3	+6	+11	+11	Dimensional Strike 9d6	25 ft	385 ft
19th	+14/+9/+4	+6	+11	+11	Portal Creation (Limit 10)	25 ft	415 ft
20th	+15/+10/+5	+6	+12	+12	Dimensional Strike 10d6, Sudden Portal 4/round	30 ft	450 ft

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: 1d6

Class Skills:
The portal mage's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are concentration (con), hide (dex), jump (str) listen (wis), move silently (dex), spot (wis) and tumble (dex).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Weapon and armour proficiency
A portal mage is proficient in all simple weapons, all light and one-handed martial weapons, the shortbow, light armour and shields.

Portal Creation (Su)
A portal mage can, unsurprisingly, create portals. In this case, a portal is a pair of monodirectional circular planes such that entrance to one causes exit from the other. Creatures and objects cannot via whatever means be torn apart by a portal: either the whole thing enters or none of it (in particular, if at least half of a creature or object passes through the portal, the entire thing does). Locations on one portal are analogous to locations on the other - entrance to the top of one portal causes exit from the top of the other, though portals may be rotated or reflected such that "Top" is actually at the gravitational bottom of the portal. Creatures also cannot pass through the same half of a portal twice in a round - they can go once forwards and once back, but cannot be forced into an endless fall loop. You will have to think with portals some other way.

A portal mage's allies and the portal mage can see through the portals to determine what lies at the other end: other creatures cannot.

A portal mage can create one portal as a standard action which does not provoke attacks of opportunity. The maximum portal distance is both how far away the nearest part of each half of the portal can be placed from the portal mage, and how far away the nearest part of each part of the portal can be placed from the nearest part of the other half of the portal. At first level, a portal mage can only place portals within 5 feet, but they can actually be two squares from the portal mage and two squares from each other, due to the measurement closest point to closest point.

The table also notes the maximum radius of the portals. Anything that can fit even halfway through the portal can go through, and almost any creature is able to jump through almost any kind of portal even if they take up too much space in combat usually.

Finally, the portal mage can create a maximum of one portal plus one per two levels after first, after which further portals must be moved or destroyed to make way for new ones. Moving a portal is a standard action and destroying one is a swift action. Each portal is a noticeably different colour and they can therefore be told apart by creatures who can see them (but two halves of the same portal are the same colour).

Two ends of a portal can be superimposed to turn entrants directly back around, or one end of a portal can be put onto another end of another portal to increase the effective maximum distance between portal ends.

It is impossible to define exactly what happens when one passes through a portal. There are too many possibilities to list individually. However, in general, a creature who puts a weapon through a portal but doesn't follow it through is disarmed of it. An attack made through the portal with a melee weapon therefore always requires that the weapon be dropped. Weapons can be thrown through the portal, although a creature who can't see through the portals takes a -4 penalty to attack rolls. A creature or object which doesn't fit at the other end is shunted into the nearest space they can occupy. A creature who fires at a portal may accidentally fire at something they didn't intend to if they can't see the other side - make an attack roll with a +0 bonus (ignore the firer's actual attack bonus) against the first target the projectile might hit, if any. A creature throwing a splash weapon can attempt to hit a hypothetical square on the other end even if they can't see what's on the other side at all, but takes a -4 penalty. For example, a creature could try to throw a splash weapon three squares through the portal. A creature which accidentally shoots itself in the back with a weapon is flat-footed against the attack.

Creatures who are dropped on the floor by a portal usually take falling damage, and may take more than usual if they were running at speed before they entered the portal - add the distance travelled into the first half of the portal to the falling damage if the second half of the portal opens down. Similarly, a portal may throw a creature sideways into a wall or even up into a ceiling after a long fall, which still deals falling damage - subtract any distance moved upwards from the falling damage, though. For example, a creature who falls 40 feet and then falls into a portal which throws them up 10 feet into a ceiling takes 3d6 points of damage, and then falls normally and takes real falling damage.

A creature who can't see through a portal can move through one, but they can't react to anything on the other side of the portal in the same turn unless they are confident that it's there before entering the portal (at least, confident enough to state their intention before passing through the portal).

Portals emit enough light that it usually isn't possible to fail to see one and walk through it accidentally, though if covered they can be made into traps if one has suitable craftsmanship. The save DC is trap-dependent and not a function of the portal itself, though.

Dimensional Strike
At second level a portal mage can deal extra damage to a creature by catching them unawares with a portal. The portal mage's attack deals 1d6 points of extra damage per 2 levels if the portal mage used a portal to move this turn, and wasn't previously observable by the target of the attack before using the portal. The target is also automatically flat-footed against such an attack.

This extra damage represents the wounds that can more easily be caused to a creature caught off-guard by such an unorthodox fighting style, so it isn't subject to the same kinds of immunities as sneak attacks - you can deal extra damage to an ooze if you rush out of a portal and slice it up while it's moving the wrong way to stop you.

Sudden Portal
Once per round per five levels, a portal mage can move, remove or instate a portal as a free action at any time, even during the resolution of an action: the portal can be created during a creature's movement and even while it's moving from one square to the next, or between two attacks of a spell with multiple shots, or during the flight of an arrow. The portal immediately springs into being, which may drop a creature into the path of a shot, reflect a fireball bead to another location while the bead is in flight, or engineer some other devious strategem. The exception is that a portal cannot be moved or removed while a creature is actually passing through it, for obvious reasons.

Gate (Sp)
At 17th level, the portal mage can use gate once per ten minutes as a spell-like ability, but can only use gates for interplanar travel, not calling creatures.

[JNAProductions]

I like it. I object to having 2 flipping skill points base, but that's a gripe I have with ANY class, pretty much.

Some things you might consider adding include the possibility of interplanar travel or long-range portals (maybe access to the travel portion of gate?) which I do admit was not in my original request, but seems appropriate for this class, as a way to bump up power a little.

[Jormengand]

I like it. I object to having 2 flipping skill points base, but that's a gripe I have with ANY class, pretty much.

Some things you might consider adding include the possibility of interplanar travel or long-range portals (maybe access to the travel portion of gate?) which I do admit was not in my original request, but seems appropriate for this class, as a way to bump up power a little.

Have 4 instead. Unlikely to break anything.

I added gate. Could add other planar travel I guess, but getting access to planar travel later than all the T1s is probably not so bad.

[noob]

Maybe increase portal range at higher levels.
I mean at level 9 the wizard gets teleport so maybe at that moment the portal range could get a slight bump.
While it is a class about short range portals short range portals are a lot less good at high level.
At level 13 then there is gem jump at this level so getting even more portal range would make sense.

[nonsi]

.
You might wanna make it clearer what "Limit" stands for.

Furthermore, Teleport and Teleportation Circle seem in order here, even at a small expense of design elegance.

[Caelestion]

Something like this, you mean?

"You may lower your portal limit by two to open a location to a fixed point that can be up to your limit in miles away, rather than feet. The lower portal limit persists whilst you maintain this fixed location."

[nonsi]

Something like this, you mean?

"You may lower your portal limit by two to open a location to a fixed point that can be up to your limit in miles away, rather than feet. The lower portal limit persists whilst you maintain this fixed location."

Very nice as a 7th level ability... then plane shift w/ planar adaptation at 12th. That seems to cover class abilities reasonably.
One thing that bothers me, is that if you chain this guy to a wall, you shut it down completely (needs some sort of "portal-self" ability).
Same goes with anti-magic.

The skill list also seems too short to me. Balance, Escape Artist and Knowledge (the planes) come immediately to mind, and maybe with some more thought put into it, other skills could also be thematically sound.

[Caelestion]

Why would a portal mage learn planar adaptation?

I agree that Balance and Escape Artist would make sense, but then so would Craft and Profession. If he has Knowledge (planes), then Knowledge (geography) would also make sense.

[nonsi]

Why would a portal mage learn planar adaptation?

I was actually thinking of adaptation that's integrated into the travel itself, not a separate power.
Well, I guess it all depends if one wished to allow the class to travel to the elemental planes w/o committing suicide. It's actually perfectly legitimate if the answer to this question is "no".

[nonsi]

.
I've just realized that this class might be broken.
If I'm reading Sudden Portal correctly, starting at 10th level, a portal mage becomes a nightmare to deal with, being able to move a fairly large distance - attack - then move again, rendering the opponent nearly powerless to react or runaway.

Am I missing something here?

[Goaty14]

.
I've just realized that this class might be broken.
If I'm reading Sudden Portal correctly, starting at 10th level, a portal mage becomes a nightmare to deal with, being able to move a fairly large distance - attack - then move again, rendering the opponent nearly powerless to react or runaway.

Am I missing something here?

You're missing that shot-on-the-run feat does the exact same thing, and could probably be taken at a lower level.

How much different is this from the traveller? Is it like an update?

[Jormengand]

You're missing that shot-on-the-run feat does the exact same thing, and could probably be taken at a lower level.

How much different is this from the traveller? Is it like an update?

It's a variant on the same thing, but it shouldn't be considered an update to it - traveller is its own thing (and in fact, the traveller is getting an update in Sword Vs Spell (When I make that, sorry I'm working on the Maker and DBD first, think of it as an in-a-few-months thing, sorry), whereas the portal mage isn't. I don't actually like the portal mage that much because its abilities aren't well-enough defined for my tastes.

[Hazeeb]

Something else feels like its missing. What about manipulating other portals and gates not created by the mage? Maybe locking them down or scrambling them?

Edit: I know why this was tickling my memory. Look at the prestige class linked here called The Gatecrasher.

http://dnd.arkalseif.info/classes/ga...her/index.html

I think what you've made here is everything the Gatecrasher SHOULD be. Perhaps mixing the two somewhat would be prudent. I realize its a 10 lvl PrC but cannibalizing it to roll over into this Portal Mage seems like it could only help the class. I speak from flavor and fluff experience only XD.

[Exar_Kun]

Thank you!!!

[nonsi]

You're missing that shot-on-the-run feat does the exact same thing, and could probably be taken at a lower level.

Comparing shot-on-the-run to "attacking anything up to 160' away from an unpredictable direction w/ sneak attack and then going anywhere else up to 160' away from that point w/o anyone having a chance to react in the process" is like comparing ants to whales.