Sage (Monk / Arcanist Blockbuster caster class)


Homebrew and House Rules


Just the other day I saw someone say that they wished there were a class that focused on blasting. That got me to thinking about that design challenge.

In the end, I kind of came up with the idea for a kind of "Dragon Ball Z" wizard that mixed ki and magic to make blasts with the residual energy left over from spells. I drew heavily on the arcanist and the monk for design tropes but and the class's core mechanic is something like a ki pool or the arcanist's spell reservoir. They cast like an arcanist but with 6 levels of spells.

However, this class's main trick is the ability to get temporary resource points from the spells they cast. This encourages this class to save its spells for combat since they rely on spells to generate the temporary resources they need to be effective in combat as blasters.

I am open to comments or suggestions, especially for new wave exploits and thoughts on balance.

Here is the class chart

Here are the class abilities


Well I had a beautiful breakdown of the pros and cons of the design, and then I went and refreshed the page so I'll have to give you the short and sweet version.

The class from levels 1-20 progresses fairly smoothly but it is out of line with the strength of other 3/4 casters (sans Summoner, but let's face it, the summoner is basically a full caster anyway) by a fairly wide margin and is quite front loaded. You get a LOT out of a 1 level dip, especially if you are a wizard (go to sorcerer progression for LARGE bonus to AC and a mystic pool that will basically never run out thanks to high level spells, although the mystic pool does recharge VERY quickly slinging spells as a Sage anyway) or a monk (double Wis-to-AC, same for Inquisitors. Actually Inquisitors are better for this than monks since you can use spells to power things with them as well). Raising Spell Flow to level 3-ish and making it so that Mystic Armor is only Wis-to-AC at level 1 and then later getting spell level in bonus to it (again, around level 3-5) would do a lot to make the class worth taking for the long haul instead of running away after one level.

Aura Blast is also quite powerful as it stays at or above standard blasting damage from level 7 onward and allows you to pick the element on the fly and/or use physical damage which means it is very easy for it to evade enemy defenses. Also, consume spells is almost useless considering that Spell Flow exists (why get rid of a spell to gain mystic pool points back, when you can cast the spell and gain the exact same number of points as temporary points that will easily last until end of combat?)

Wave exploits are slightly better balanced than Arcanist exploits, no real complaints with them.

Mystic Maneuvers and monk bonus feats feel slightly out of place, there really isn't any other mention at all in their flavor as to why they'd get these. They feel more like arcane kinetisists than they do monks so their mundane perks feel off (to me at least).

Also, you're missing a capstone ability (increased damage dice does not a capstone make).

Huh, even after rewriting this as the short version it still went on for a little while, my apologies on that.


Naw. That is all chill.

I will put in wording about some stuff not stacking. And I thought that I worded those abilities to work only with sage spells. I will rewrite that stuff.

Honestly, I don't think this class is all that front loaded. Most of the abilities are really just components of mystic pool.

And I am not sure how out of line this class is with other 2/3s casters. Those classes have melee options that this class does not really possess. When the spells run out, that is kind of it. Regardless, I was more interested in having this compete with wizards and the like and beat them in magical damage output but not versatility and compete with martial classes in damage but not necessarily survivability. I built this class to be MAD on purpose so most builds will have to sacrifice dex and con to pump int and wis.

I have flavor for mystic maneuvers that I will put in; essentially, it is leveraging the Sage's whipping magical aura to reposition itself and resist movements.

Consume spell and the standard mystic pool is there to give the class the ability to use aura blast at full power on the first round if the class needs to. Once that resource is gone then everything else comes from flow (which ties the Sage's hands for a little while).

And I think the extra 10d6 blast damage is plenty for a capstone. 40d6 of damage is not something to sneeze at.


I implemented the corrections that I mentioned and decided to add a capstone after all.

Thanks a lot for the notes, johnny.


I don't see much monk in this. You have Improved Unarmed Strike, and ki like pool - and tell me if I'm missing something - but why would this character ever choose to make unarmed striked? Even at level 1 he has spells, some blasts, and weapon proficiencies. There are some monk-inspired defense abilities in here, there is no support for unarmed attacks beyond one bonus feat.

If you want to this caster to be infused with some monk abilities, then I suggest reinforcing it. Perhaps instead of using ki to resist energy and levitate (what the heck?), maybe they could be used to make a flurry of blows and gains some bonuses to attack and damage?


Well, the unarmed strike is more or less there to be utilized with aura strike.

I am shying away from granting this class some kind of flurry of blows if only to not entirely ruin the monk's schtick.

And levitate and fly are there to give that DBZ flying ability (and it is sort of a stylized version of slow fall).

Still, I will maybe think of ways to make this class monk-ier.


It seems strange to me to build Improved Unarmed Strike in at 1st level on the off-chance that a player will choose a specific wave exploit later on. Also, if Aura Strike is a supernatural melee touch attack, does it even provoke attacks of opportunity? If not, then the feat does nothing for it except make the unarmed damage from non-lethal to lethal damage.

If you feel like you need to include the feat, then I would include a way to DBZ it up a little. Perhaps the sage spends a point, makes an unarmed attack or combat maneuver as a standard action, and adds his level to the damage roll or half of that to the CMB. Just ideas.


Ciaran Barnes wrote:

It seems strange to me to build Improved Unarmed Strike in at 1st level on the off-chance that a player will choose a specific wave exploit later on. Also, if Aura Strike is a supernatural melee touch attack, does it even provoke attacks of opportunity? If not, then the feat does nothing for it except make the unarmed damage from non-lethal to lethal damage.

If you feel like you need to include the feat, then I would include a way to DBZ it up a little. Perhaps the sage spends a point, makes an unarmed attack or combat maneuver as a standard action, and adds his level to the damage roll or half of that to the CMB. Just ideas.

That might be a good idea, actually. Though I will note that aura strike already kind-of does the damage thing if the Sage chooses it. And I am pretty sure supernatural abilities do not necessarily draw attacks of opportunity. Supernatural and spell-like are separate deals.

Maybe I could put in brawler's flurry as an extra wave exploit (so the class does not get full BaB when flurrying). And maybe I can tack onto that ability the chance to make an aura strike somewhere. I dunno. I will meditate on the best way to add that in.


My thoughts:

1. Drop skill points by two. The only 2/3rds casting, 3/4ths BAB class with more than 2+Int skills is the Bard... and being a skill monkey is kind of the Bard's schtick. You're a blaster-caster, what do you need skills for?

2. Similarly, take a hard look at what the class skills are. Appraise? Perception? Sense Motive? Why are these on the list?

3. Why is the Sage semi-spontaneous, beyond 'it's an Arcanist offshoot'?

4. Why does Aura Blast count as all three damage types? Piercing I can see, going on DBZ visuals. Bludgeoning too. But Slashing seems really out of place.

5. Why does the Sage get a better Wis-to-AC bonus than the Monk? Equivalent would make sense, but better?

6. DBZ theatrics aside, Improved Unarmed Strike really does not make sense from a mechanical perspective.

7. Familiar seems really out of place here. Maybe that's just me, but I really can't imagine Vegeta walking around with a pet scorpion.

8. Flow Syphon labels the ability above it spell synergy, and really needs better range. How often is an enemy caster five feet away from you? I'm pretty sure the answer is "only when they're a Magus, and then I'm screwed".

9. Full Blast is really not worth it. You'll average another .5 damage per d6, so unless your Wis mod is awesome you can probably find something better to do with that action. Perhaps change it to using better dice? Even using d8s would average another +1 damage/die, which is a decent boost.

10. You might want to specify Meteor Blast to 'ranged touch attack' so you don't have self-immolating Sages.

11. Meteor Fist as a 60' cone is kind of obnoxious. Perhaps 30' and have it scale up? Off-hand I can't name any ability with a 60' cone; the largest I know of is 50' and that's coming off an 8th level spell.

12. Mystic Maneuvers feels way too good. You've got better AC than any other arcane caster (possibly excepting the Magus/Kensai) already. You've got anti-spell abilities, a save bonus early on and full-out spell resistance later on. Adding in a resistance to one of the worst fears of any spellcaster on top of that (grappling) seems like it's far too much.

I'm honestly going to agree on the front-loading. You get the ki pool, Wis-to-AC plus minor extra AC boosts, and of course some low-level spells and Improved Unarmed Strike. Compare the Kensai, which gets Weapon Focus, Spell Combat (similarly limited to Magus-only spells), some low level spells... and its Int-to-AC is capped by its level and its weapon.

I'm also going to agree on Consume Spell being useless. Further, having a full-size pool (as compared to the Magus, and it's probably larger than the Arcanist's 'free' pool unless your Wis mod sucks) seems way too good, given how easy it is to reload for the Sage. The Mystic Pool also needs a maximum size, unless it's capped at the size the Sage starts the day with (which is probably fair, to be honest).


1. Maybe? I hate the argument that high intelligence classes should not have skills. I feel it is like arguing that wisdom casters should have bad will saves. I may pull back on the skills anyways just in consideration of the class having a lot going for it otherwise.

2. Maybe? I feel like all the skills you listed make a lot of sense, though. I feel like a "Sage" should be perceptive and able to assess things carefully.

3. Because I really like semi-spontaneous casting and the class is also themed around breaking down spells and using the energy from spells in new ways. I feel it is appropriate.

4. That is actually an interesting point. When I wrote that rule, I was just thinking "physical" damage. I will probably change that and maybe tack on slashing at the third level of elemental blaster to theme as "slashing winds".

5. I will note that the wisdom bonus is not really strictly better than the monk's version since the monk's version levels up by itself and the Sage can only improve it with spells. I think I may take out the scaling, though.

6. I know it will not be used for anything accept aura strike but I feel comfortable giving it out because I don't see the harm in it.

7. Maybe? I just like the option to get a familiar as a caster. Maybe I will take it out, but I will note that Master Roshi had an intelligent turtle friend.

8. It is a pretty situational talent, I admit. I will expand the range or maybe let the sage also use it on any spell he is targeted by.

9. I am going to disagree with you here. For a small number of dice (where the variance is large relative to the mean), this talent significantly reduces the risk of an aura blast attack. The minimum increases significantly even if the maximum rolls don't increase by that much. Then for large die pools, that extra .5 damage die per is not so bad if only because you are throwing so many dice.

10. Let the sages self immolate if they want to, kestral. That is what being a free American is all about.

11. Point taken. I did want it to be a large cone but I maybe 30 or 40 will do. I sort of wanted it to be big enough that it actually causes a problem if the sage did not want to mess things up.

12. Maybe? I like mystic maneuvers. I sort of consider it a signature class ability. Maybe I could make it more situational though. Perhaps I could have it be a swift action to activate and cost two pool points.

On consume spell: I do not think it is worthless at all. When you eat through your main pool of points, you are going to want to refill it if only to give yourself the option to "nova" in the first or second round of combat. It far far less worthwhile than the Arcanist's version. That is very true. Like unarmed strike, i don't mind giving this to the class. Maybe I will move it to level 2 or 3, though.

Also, I meant for the starting value every day to also be the maximum. I will adjust the text for that.


Dot for interest :)


1. It's not a question of Int, really. It's a question of being explicitly better in that area than every other comparable class.

2. In that case, you have a themeatic divide. On the one hand, you want a 'Sage'. On the other hand, you're channeling DBZ. Goku was far from a sage.

3. Fair enough. I'm not sure I like the Arcanist's uniqueness being taken away, but fair enough.

4. I would take it a step further and have the Sage pick one damage type to start, and make the other two available via an Exploitthing.

5. I'd missed the 'while unarmored' part before. I had a Fullplate Sage drafted up.

6. Easier access into a ton of feats? The Sage is relatively feat-light in requirements so it has a lot of options.

7. The thing is, familiars can easily get really, really good... and the class is already really, really good.

8. Either one of those would be nice. I like the targeted one myself.

9. I could see taking it, if only because its follow-up is kind of insane and there are times when you don't need to move... but it's not really a big bonus.

10. You have Meteor Fist serving as, presumably, the melee version of the Exploit-thing. Then Meteor Blast is supposed to be the ranged one... but it specifies 'touch attack', meaning both would apply to melee. Unless that's intentional?

11. Have it scale up. Form of the Dragon III gives that 50' cone, so by the Sage's end-game (when it's packing level 8 spells), that's a reasonable size. Just not until the end game.

12. I would do that and shift it to an Exploitthing.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Homebrew and House Rules / Sage (Monk / Arcanist Blockbuster caster class) All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Homebrew and House Rules