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I want to open by saying thank you to everyone whom has thus far helped me work the balance on this little project thus far. Your contributions have been immensely helpful in getting this playable. We are now past the prototype stage but I don't yet know if it is ready for play. I took the ideas that were not further challenged from the last thread and combined them here on a relatively clean slate; Without further ado, I present the alpha concept:
Force Bloodline
Through you courses the raw power of force, possibly stemming from excessively forceful ancestors whom were touched by magic, or other mages whom favored the power of force themselves to such a degree the magic leaked into their blood, and subsequently your own. This power manifests itself as a talent for force magic, which you cast enhanced above those same spells from your non-force-filled peers.Class Skill: Diplomacy
Bonus Spells: Magic Missile (3rd), Knock (5th), Force Punch (7th), Lesser Missile Storm* (9th), Wall of Force (11th), Greater Missile Storm* (13th), Mage's Sword (15th), Telekinetic Sphere (17th), Crushing Hand (19th).
(*Spells converted from Neverwinter Nights source, see below)Bonus Feats: Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Skill Focus (Diplomacy), Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, Toughness, Empower Spell, Spell Perfection (Bloodline Spell ONLY)
Bloodline Arcana: Whenever you cast a spell with the force descriptor, or a bloodline bonus spell, that does damage, add +1 to each damage die rolled. For non-damaging spells, increase the caster level by 1.
Bloodline Powers: The raw power of force flows within you, and your talent with magical force is thus enhanced.
Wave of Force (Sp): Starting at 1st level, you can unleash a wave of force as a standard action, hitting all creatures in a 15 ft. cone shaped burst in front of you. This wave deals no damage but does make a trip check against all targets, using your caster level plus your casting ability score bonus. This does not provoke an attack of opportunity. If the check fails, the target cannot attempt to trip you or the force effect in response. At 5th level your trip attempt adds an additional +3 bonus, at 7th level this ability allows you to make this trip attempt against creatures that are up to two size categories larger than you, at 11th level the bonus to your trip attempt becomes +6. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.
Force Field (Sp): At 3rd level your manipulation of force effects for defensive purposes is enhanced. Whenever you cast a spell that improves your AC with the force descriptor, enhance it by an additional +1 on top of whatever the spell would normally give you. If you cast such a spell with metamagic effects that would further improve the AC (such as Empower Spell), those effects are applied to the total after you add your Force Field effect. This bonus to AC increases by an additional +1 at level 9, and again +1 at level 13.
Explosive Force (Sp): Starting at 9th level you fire off a single missile of arcane energy that streaks towards the target you designate. This missile can be directed at a creature OR tile. If you aim it at a specific creature, you may make a ranged touch attack to strike the target with the missile. If the creature is struck it takes 1d6+2 points of magic force damage and takes a –4 penalty on the saving throw against the missile's explosive force damage. If the missile misses its target, it simply explodes at the nearest corner of the target's space. The explosion of the missile deals 1d6 points of force magic damage per sorcerer level, reflex save for half, to all creatures in a 20 ft. radius. The DC of this save is equal to 10 + 1/2 your sorcerer level + your Charisma modifier. At 9th level, you can use this ability once per day. At 17th level, you can use this ability twice per day. At 20th level, you can use this ability three times per day. This power has a medium range (100 ft + 10/level)
Overwhelming Force (Su): At 15th level all force spells you cast are able to punch through effects that would halt the advance of casters less practiced in force than yourself. Your missiles of force punch through the Shield spell (and other spells that would normally block the missiles), and your other force effect spells work even in anti-magic fields.
Maximum Potential Force (Su): At 20th level your mastery of force is fully realized. When you enhance a spell with the Force descriptor using Metamagic Feats you increase the total spell level by 1 less than the end sum that your normally would (a 1 level adjustment is 0, a 2 level adjustment is 1, 3 becomes 2, and so on); this ability can NOT decrease a spell level beyond where it starts at however (NO using a +0 Metamagic Feat to take a 4th level spell down to 3rd level, for instance)
For the interested who don't want to dig, here is where we started at:
Through you courses the raw power of force, possibly stemming from magic-touched, excessively forceful ancestors, or other mages whom favored the power of force themselves. This power manifests itself as a talent for force magic, which you cast enhanced above those same spells from your non-force-filled peers.
Class Skill: Perception
Bonus Spells: Magic Missile (3rd), Knock (5th), Force Punch (7th), Lesser Missile Storm (9th), Wall of Force (11th), Greater Missile Storm (13th), Mage's Sword (15th), Telekinetic Sphere (17th), Crushing Hand (19th).
Bonus Feats: Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Skill Focus (Perception), Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, Toughness, Empower Spell, Spell Perfection (Bloodline Spell ONLY)
Bloodline Arcana: Whenever you cast a spell with the force descriptor, or a bloodline bonus spell, that does damage, add +1 to each damage die rolled. For non-damaging spells, increase the caster level by 2.
Bloodline Powers: The raw power of force flows within you, and your talent with magical force is thus enhanced.
Wave of Force (Sp): Starting at 1st level, you can unleash a wave of force as a standard action, hitting any foe in a 20 ft. cone shaped burst in front of you. This wave deals 1d6 +1 damage for every two sorcerer levels you possess. At 5th level this wave is enhanced as if by the Toppling Spell Metamagic feat. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.
Force Field (Sp): At 3rd level you gain the ability to cast a Force Field which grants total cover until the start of your next turn. It also functions as the Shield spell for this short duration. This is an instantaneous effect and can be used in response to an attack. You may use this ability once a day at 3rd level. You gain an additional use of this spell-like ability every further 4 levels of sorcerer (7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th).
Auxiliary Battery (Su): At 9th level when you cast a spell that involves missiles of force (Magic Missile, Greater and Lesser Missile Storms) the amount of missiles you launch are increased by a factor of 50%, rounded down. This allows you to fire more missiles than those spells parameters would normally allow.
Overwhelming Force (Su): At 15th level all force spells are enhanced as if by the Toppling Spell Metamagic feat when you cast them. This supernatural ability does not increase the spell casting time or use a higher level spell slot.
Maximum Potential Force (Su): At 20th level your mastery of force is fully realized. When you enhance a spell with the Force descriptor using Metamagic Feats you increase the total spell level by 1 less than the end sum that your normally would (a 1 level adjustment is 0, a 2 level adjustment is 1, 3 becomes 2, and so on); this ability can NOT decrease a spell level beyond where it starts at however (NO using a +0 Metamagic Feat to take a 4th level spell down to 3rd level, for instance).
Lastly, the two spells added for use of this bloodline, but can also be adopted by, near as i figure, any arcane caster:
Spells converted from Neverwinter Nights for this bloodline
Lesser Missile Storm
School: Evocation [force];
Level: Sorcerer/Wizard 4CASTING
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Components: V, SEFFECT
Range: Long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level)
Targets: Up to ten creatures, no two of which can be more than 25 ft. apart
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes
A wave of missiles of magical energy darts forth from your hand and strikes your targets (one missile per caster level but to a maximum of 10). Each missile does 1d6 points of magical damageThe missiles strike unerringly, even if the targets are in melee combat, so long as they have less than total cover or total concealment. Specific parts of a creature can't be singled out. Objects are not damaged by the spell.
You can have them strike a single creature or several creatures. A single missile can strike only one creature. You must designate targets before you check for spell resistance or roll damage.
Greater Missile Storm
School: Evocation [force];
Level: Sorcerer/Wizard 6CASTING
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Components: V, SEFFECT
Range: Long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level)
Targets: Up to twenty creatures, no two of which can be more than 25 ft. apart
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes
A wave of missiles of magical energy darts forth from your hand and strikes your targets (one missile per caster level but to a maximum of 20). Each missile does 2d6 points of magical damageThe missiles strike unerringly, even if the targets are in melee combat, so long as they have less than total cover or total concealment. Specific parts of a creature can't be singled out. Objects are not damaged by the spell.
You can have them strike a single creature or several creatures. A single missile can strike only one creature. You must designate targets before you check for spell resistance or roll damage.
I feel it is pertinent to note the idea here is to make a useful bloodline, not a must have bloodline, but I was shooting for something about on par with Arcane and Fey for overall usefulness, since those seem to be universally regarded as the best. But I wanted it to be more useful than the elemental bloodlines, which are typically panned from the reviews I read.
Finally, for the interested:
Diplomacy class skill: You have a force of personality, not quite as good as a cult of personality though.
Bonus spells: Spells that already are of the force descriptor, except for knock which as written struck me as something that could easily be interpretted as forceing a lock/door open, and the missile swarm spells pulled from NWN because, honestly, I just really wanted a spell to shotgun a bunch of magic missiles. if you ever played the game and saw the effect you might understand, or you can just look here.
Bonus Feat Selection: The theme here was, as is with every bloodline I observed, feats that seem to go with the bloodline's theme.
Bloodline Arcana: Essentially the arcana from primal elemental, but slightly tweaked because there are not as many damaging force spells as elemental spells
Wave of Force: Remove the damage altogether and focus on clearing things from meleeing with you, in a path that mirrors Dragon claws (in that they get better at melee, but this instead gets better at clearing you from a melee)
Force Field: Taking the advice that makes sense, and pump up your force defense, and tossing out the instant, one turn shield. This actually strikes me as more useful this way, if not quite as cool as raising an instant defense.
Explosive Force: Many people insist the bloodline needs a straight blast, so I was trying to figure out how best to deliver it. Then it struck me, take a single meteor from meteor swarm as the delivery vehicle, make it a magic missile that explodes, and can be aimed at things instead of just creatures. For balance reasons, it does not unerringly strike, and reflex saves can be made against the explosive force area effect.
Overwhelming Force: This was discussed, and struck me as a pretty good idea. I mean, with the 4th and 6th level spells you get being essentially pumped up magic missile, it would seem kind of pathetic to be completely negated by a 1st level spell. Thanks to Abraham Spalding for suggesting the anti-magic part, since that never even crossed my mind.
Maximum Potential Force: Honestly, I think this is great as far as metamagic goes for theme, because you can choose how best to enhance your force spells (and only force spells, obviously) whether quickened, dazing, maximized, empowered, toppling, stilled, silent, or any combination thereof, and it takes 1 off the total level adjustment.