One of my players wanted to make his own class. This is for a home game obviously. I'm interested to see what some community members feel about the balance/progression of the class. Apologies in advance for the crappy formating on some things below. He had tables in excel
Militant Mage (the Militard!)
The Militant mage is a magic user that excels at martial combat and the use of armor. As a result of the martial training the militant mage never refined the use of his magic and can only create a raw effect, which is usually enough however. The Militant mage can be of any race of alignment, but his most important ability scores are intelligence and constitution.
Weapons and Armor
The Militant Mage is familiar with the following weapons; light crossbow, short bow, short spear, war hammer, dagger, and long sword. The Militant Mage can wear light and medium armor, but not shields, without restriction as the raw magic he wields does not need the finesse of somatic components. However, the Mage does have to follow all rules of arcane failure when attempting to cast standard spells from his spell list.
Hit points: 1d8
Skills: 4+ Int modifiers
Class Skills: Climb, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), (Religion), (dungeoneering), and (history), Sense Motive, Survival, Swim, Ride, Perception, Use Magic Device, Spell craft.
Feats: The Militant Mage qualifies for fighter feats as long as she meets the prerequisites for the feat she picks.
Class Abilities
Spell Combat: the Militant Mage can make one attack with his primary weapon, and a second attack with his magic bolt ability. Both attacks are at the highest base attack bonus and suffer a -2 to attack rolls. When the Militant Mage gets additional attacks granted from class level, he still only gets one magic bolt in a round at the highest attack bonus, and that magic bolt attack goes second in the round unless the player specifically states that he is holding the bolt attack until the end of the round. As the mage increases in level he receives Improved Spell Combat at level 8 which reduces the penalty by 1 to -1. At level 16 he receives Greater Spell Combat and no longer suffers any penalty when using spell combat.
Magic Bolt: The Militant Mage can release a bolt of magic at his enemy. The bolt is considered a ranged touch attack that does 1d6 damage + the Mages intelligence modifier (this is applied once not per die of damage), has a range of 30ft +5 feet per level of the mage. And does not provoke an attack of opportunity. As the Militant Mage progresses the Magic Bolt does more damage based on his level, up to 12d6 at level 20. At level one and every upgrade (3,5,7,9,etc.) that the bolt increases in damage the mage can apply a new effect to the bolt; fire, cold, acid, force, law, chaos, positive, negative, holy, or tainted. When the mage casts the bolt he can, as a free action, choose the effect type the bolt is, if he does not choose one the bolt is just magic energy. The militant Mage can cast a bolt a number of times per day equal to his 3+ intelligence Modifier per day + level. Feats that grant extra channeling or an extra spell slot will increase the bolt limit by +2; this can be done a maximum of one time per character, per feat. Starting at level 5 the mage can release a burst of Magic energy that causes everyone in a 25 ft. radius to suffer the effects of his Magic Bolt. Those trapped inside the radius can make a reflex save for half damage. This attack does not provoke an attack of opportunity. The DC for the Magic Bolt effect is 10+1/2 the mages level (rounded down) + the mages Int. modifier.
Bolt Focus: as weapon focus, the mage receives a +1 on Bolt attacks. Improved Bolt Focus, Greater Bolt focus and Bolt Mastery grant additional +1 each to attack. Additionally the DC to avoid the effects of the Magic Bolt burst is increased by +1 for each of the previous feats.
Bolt Penetration: grants the mage a +2 when determining if the bolt can surpass the magic resistance of a creature.
Magic Shield: At level 1 the Mage can use the Magic Shield ability. Using the magic shield consumes one use of the Magic Bolt ability. At level 1 the Magic Shield grants the Mage DR 2/ Adamantine and last for two minutes per level, and can absorb up to 2 points of damage per caster level. At level 4 the effect increases to 4/4/4, at level 8 the effect increases to 6/6/6, at level 12 the effect increases to 8/8/8, at level 16 the effect increases to 10/10/10, and at level 20 the effect increases to 12/12/12.
Physical Perfection: The Mage can use this ability as a standard action to grant himself a magical bonus of +1 on any physical ability score, or temporary bonus hit points (5), or a Natural Armor bonus to AC, or an increase to movement rate of +5. Effects granted by this ability will last for one round per level of the mage. The effects can be only be used on the mage himself. The Militant Mage can use this ability 3+ con Modifier per day. At levels 4, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, and 20 the bonus increases by +1 and increments of 5 movement and Hit points to a maximum of +8 and 25 movement and hit points. Feats that increase rage uses per day grant a one-time bonus of +2 uses per day to this power.
Charge Item: The Militant Mage can give up one use of his Physical Perfection power to grant his weapons or armor an enhancement bonus equal to +1 (magical). This bonus last for as long as the Mage is awake and conscious is cancelled upon sleep or unconsciousness. At level 2 the mage can increase the magical properties of his weapon granting it a +1. This would cost the mage one use of his Physical Perfection ability until the next day. At level 6 the Mage can increase the effect to +2 and add an additional damage type of +1d4 (fire, cold, acid, positive, negative, lawful, etc.) the increase in magical bonus still only costs one use, however the extra damage costs one additional use of the
Physical Perfection ability. At level 10 the bonus increases to +3, +2d4
damage, and can be made into a burst weapon for an additional use of the Physical Perfection ability. At level 14 the bonus increases to +4 and +3d4 damage. At level 18 the bonus increases to +5 and +4d4 damage. The Mage can further increase the bonus of items that are already enhanced magically, but must follow all rules concerning magical items. While the additional effect is active the mage can, as a swift action, change the effect type, and can cancel all effects as a free action. If the item is removed from the mage, the effect ends. The mage can increase the magical properties in his armor the same way, following all the rules for magic armor and charging a weapon, however the cost is doubled for armor.
Disruptive Bolt: At level three the Mage can cast Dispel Magic as if he was two caster levels higher (up to level 20).
Magic Items: The nature of the Mage means that he is considered the opposite class when using any magic item, and must pass a successful “Use Magic Device” skill check to use any active magic item even scrolls. The Mage can use items such as protection, resistance, and deflection items. Also, items that grant the user bonus spells give the Mage additional uses of his Magic bolt or Magic Shield ability.
Mage and Spells: The mage can cast a hand full of spells from a selected list of spells. The Mage casts his spells as a spontaneous caster, and knows his spells instinctively. However, the Mage is imperfect at memorizing spells and putting them together correctly, that is why he uses the weave the way he does. When a Mage attempts to cast a spell he must succeed at a Spell craft check DC equal to 20 + double the level of the spell. Even if the check succeeds the mage is still susceptible to armor failure, and concentration checks. When possible the Mage can take 10, but not twenty. If the Mage fails the spell craft check, he cannot attempt again for one minute per level of the attempted spell and he loses the cost of the spell as if it went off. Spells cast this way cost the mage one use of his Magic Bolt ability.
Cantrips: The mage can cast cantrips as the Wizard only he does not have to memorize the cantrips in advance.
Magi Spells
Cantrips: Daze, Detect magic, Flare, Light, Mage Hand, Spark, Ray of Frost.
Level one: Air Bubble, Alarm, Alter Winds, Endure Elements, Flare Burst, Hydraulic push, Identify, Obscuring Mist, and Ray of Sickening.
Level two: Blindness/ Deafness, Blur, Continual Light, Darkness, Dark Vision, Delay Pain, False Life, Fiery Shuriken, Fog Cloud, Gust of Wind, Levitate, Pyrotechnics, Resist Energy, Whispering wind.
Level three: Ablative Barrier, Arcane Sight, Daylight, Displacement, Draconic reservoir, Fly, Force Punch, Gaseous Form, Haste, Ray of Exhaustion, Water Breathing, and Wind Wall.
Level four: Mass Daze, Dimension Door, Greater False Life, Fear, Lesser Globe of Invulnerability, Overwhelming Greif, Ride the Wave, Shadow Step, Shout, Solid Fog.
Level five: Absorb Toxicity, Dismissal, Geyser, Overland Flight, Sending, Teleport, Wall of Force, and Wall of Sound.
Level six: Anti Magic Field, Getaway, Globe of Invulnerability, Guards and Wards, Shadow Walk, Sirocco, Wall of Iron.
Bonus Spells: Bonus Spells granted from high intelligence work differently for the Magi. If the Magi receive bonus spells from high intelligence, he gets a “pool” of spell points that can be used to cast spells from his spell list only. These castings still require all checks that the Magi would normally have to overcome; the spells just don’t count against his daily use of his Magic Bolt ability. This also means the pool of Bonus Spells is useless until the Magi reaches third level and can begin casting spells above cantrips. The Magi does not receive bonus spells for a specific level until he would normally be able to cast that level of spell.
Items that Increase Spell slots: Items that increase spell slots for wizards or sorcerer’s, can be used by the Magi and don’t require a Use Magic Device check, they work the same as bonus spells from high intelligence.
