Caster-like martial

[My Self]

How do we make a martial like a caster?

I was thinking that martials would get a sort of skill-based awesome ability thing. Much more so than skill unlocks. Non-magical people would be able to use pseudo-magical effects on successful skill checks. A Fighter who has ranks in Intimidate can use it to pseudo-cast Cause Fear, then Fear, then other fear-type or doubt spells instead of whatever else they'd do with an intimidate check. A Monk with sufficient ranks in Acrobatics would automatically be able to "fly" for short durations. A nonmagical character with enough ranks in Survival could use Find the Path. A few times a day, a quick heal check could act like a Cure or perhaps Cleanse spell of the appropriate level, and longer-term healing could remove other status effects or act as a Heal spell. Successful Spells such as Bladed Dash, Named Bullet, Dance of a Hundred Cuts, and True Strike would be available as functions of non-magical level, and be selectable at the same levels casters would get them, although they'd only be usable a few times a day or something. Rogues would have the option to pick up Vanish, Invisibility, Greater Invisibility, and some other similar spell-like things. A sufficiently powerful martial could sunder the ground to create an earthquake. In effect, martials would have a sorcerer-like ability to "do cool things", although the abilities available would mostly avoid damage potential-increasing spells such as Blessings of Fervor and unusually inexplicable magical effects like polymorphs, Summon Monster, and conjuration (creation) things. Martials would not possess the game-breaking potential of a summoner/controller Wizard, but have certain other options (like flight, quick long-distance teleportation, healing, and status removal) that casters take for granted.

If all this would be too much, perhaps a class based around doing mundane things as awesomely as possible would be nice. A 3/4 BAB d8 good Ref character with a strong skill focus baked into the class would be a good place to start.

Any suggestions?

[UsagiTaicho]

Path of War does this, the remake of the Book of Nine Swords.

[Goddity]

Awesomeness sounds like a pretty good class feature.

[fel_horfrost]

Try looking into the bloodrager.
It's about as a caster like martial as you can get.

[Ethereal Gears]

For me, personally, the problem with a class along these lines is that it would break this arbitrary, gut-feeling sense of verisimilitude I have about non-magical abilities. It's completely "unfair" and "illogical", et cetera, since a lot of basic rules (like falling damage) already screw about with physical laws and render them sort of a moot point within the rules system. All the same, there are certain kinds of things, such as achieving flight, creating earthquakes, et cetera, which I just will never be able to feel comfortable describing, in-game, as being non-magical.

I don't personally have a problem with this, even if it basically puts a cap on the power level of "mundane" classes vs. magical ones. In my group, for whatever weird reason, we tend to have fun playing both fighters and wizards in the same party, despite these, well, quite glaring differences in power level.

That being said though, I don't think your idea is without merit. It would be cool to take a stab at a class like this. If it truly manages to completely skirt the completely "inexplicable" magical effects, as you termed it, but still managed to up the mundane power level quite a bit, that'd be a very interesting feat!

Cheers,
- Gears

[My Self]

So let's say we took the Unchained Rogue as the base.

If, on top of Skill Unlocks, we allowed access to certain pseudocasting abilities, would it unbalance the class?

At 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th, you get pseudocasting. You have the same effective spell levels as a Sorcerer, including 0th level pseudospells. Each spell is linked to a certain skill and uses that skill's ability modifier as the caster stat. Caster level is skill ranks- if your effective caster level is below the minimum required to cast a pseudospell, you can't cast it. DC is 1/2 skill ranks + skill's ability modifier.

Each skill gets a certain set of spells. Intimidate gets fear-themed ones, Perception gets certain divinations, Stealth gets vanish/invisibility, Diplomacy gets Charm Person, Survival gets Find the Path, etc. Each skill would have multiple spells of each spell level (not like a domain, more like a school). All of these lists would be carefully picked so that they are plausible or appropriately impossible.

You can cast pseudo-spells from your specialized skill of 1/2 your max spell level (rounded down) at will, but you only get 1 higher-level spell slot per school unlocked. You can cast pseudo-spells from other skills you have ranks in, but they must be 1/2 your max spell level (rounded down) or less, and you may only cast them 1/day. You gain specialized skills at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th (when you get skill unlocks).

If you are 8th level, you can cast a 3rd or 4th level effect once a day, as well as 0th, 1st, and 2nd level effects at will.
By 18th level, you can cast a 9th, 8th, 7th, 6th, or 5th level effect 1/day from each skill you have the pseudocasting in. You may also cast 4th and lower-level effects from your specialized skills at will. Additionally, you may cast a 4th or lower level effect from each other skill you have ranks in, but instead of at-will, you can only use it 1/day.

Heal might be treated differently, although I like the ability of a skilled doctor character being able to treat wounds all day long.

Any feedback?

[Suichimo]

OP, what you want is explitly the Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords,3.5 WotC, and Dreamscarred Press' Path of War material.

Ethereal Gears wrote:

For me, personally, the problem with a class along these lines is that it would break this arbitrary, gut-feeling sense of verisimilitude I have about non-magical abilities. It's completely "unfair" and "illogical", et cetera, since a lot of basic rules (like falling damage) already screw about with physical laws and render them sort of a moot point within the rules system. All the same, there are certain kinds of things, such as achieving flight, creating earthquakes, et cetera, which I just will never be able to feel comfortable describing, in-game, as being non-magical.

I don't personally have a problem with this, even if it basically puts a cap on the power level of "mundane" classes vs. magical ones. In my group, for whatever weird reason, we tend to have fun playing both fighters and wizards in the same party, despite these, well, quite glaring differences in power level.

That being said though, I don't think your idea is without merit. It would be cool to take a stab at a class like this. If it truly manages to completely skirt the completely "inexplicable" magical effects, as you termed it, but still managed to up the mundane power level quite a bit, that'd be a very interesting feat!

Cheers,
- Gears

Then don't make the abilities non-magical. Yes, unless you have wings, Ex flight is silly, this is why the Su tag exists. This is basically what WotC and DSP did. The abilities in their products that are Ex are the high point of normality.

[The Raven Black]

Rather than copy spells, martials should get abilities that can do things similar to spells (ie : inflict conditions, target saves, modify encounters parameters such as terrain) without relying on "it's magic" or "just because" justifications.

Of course, that might need many GMs to open their mind as to what non-casters can actually do.

And I think it should be based on feats or replacing class features because many martials are rather low on skills ;-)