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I'm putting together a new class based around shapeshifting. I am adapting it with aspects of the druid and alchemist. Currently, it will be a spontaneous spellcaster using the Alchemist spell list(spells known matching the bards minus the 0 lv spells). Spells(Or shifts as I will call them) will only effect self, but do not require verbal, semantic, or material components(They still provoke attacks of opportunity, still require expensive spell components). The abilities of the class act sort of like the druids wild shape, but starts at lv 2 with alter self, with each 2 levels after adding the equivilant transformation spells effects(Beast shape, undead anatomy, elemental body, monsterous physique, Form of the Dragon, etc) at the appropriate levels in a manner similar to how wildshape does(Lv 3 spell[BS I, MP I, UA I] gained at lv 4, Lv 4 [BS II, MP II, EB I, VS I] at 6, Lv 5[BS III, EB II, PS I, UA II, MP III, VS II] at 8, etc). This gives the shapeshifter a much wider range of forms he can take, though he is still limited by how many times per day he can change shapes until lv 20.

Of course I would like some feedback and ideas on other abilities to add or second opinions on balancing the class.

I'm not sure permanant and programmed image count under the concentration limitations that would apply with things like effortless trickery, and I would be using that limitation with any of the illusion based abilities. Permanent and programmed image are both 'permanent' limitation as opposed to a concentration based one. You can concentrate to change a permanent image, but it will remain regardless of concentration, so effotless trickery, the effortless illusion, and things like my idea for scattered focus would not be usable with things like that. I guess the theme around this build could be figments, and revolve more around the minor/major image spells, which have a defined concentration limit and enhancing them, but I can see where the scattered focus would be OP if applied to pattern spells, so that is worth considering.

The wording in ghost image seems to suggest you can already change an illusion, as it is how you visualize the illusion. Since you can create something that by nature changes (like a orc doing things, simulations of fire and other moving images and creatures) it seems rational that you can already change what an illusion looks like as long as it remains within the size limitations of the spell, though I guess this is how the DM interprets it. Personally I think making an illusion only able to mimic one thing per cast and not change at all makes the spell too weak as far as messing with people. I mean I imagine a gnomish illusionist would have an illusion suddenly burst into an array of lights as a joke to startle his party companions. The way I see it is that the size is like a designated space within that you can make any image occur, as you can create an army of pixies in it just as well as a single dragon, though if I am mistaken in this please let me know.

It may be a good idea to have an ability that makes it hard to see past the illusions, otherwise any mage with true seeing would be the bane of this build. I'll have to look into your suggestions and see if I can come up with anything.

Looking over the abilities, I think persistant image is a bit weak for a 15th lv ability, and doesn't convey the 'master illusionist' theme by the end of it. I'm thinking of an ability called scattered focus, which essentially allows you to split an illusion into many squares as smaller seperate illusions rather then one unified one.(Ex: a 10 ft cube could be split into four 5 ft cubes, so instead of one 10 foot cube image you have four seperate 5 ft images) By 15th level, you essentually can blanket the area in an illusion of an army, but any interaction reveals the whole as an illusion. What Scattered Focus does is treat each seperate 'square' as an illusion unto itself, requiring a seperate disbelief check for each individual 'image' rather then one for the entire spell. In this manner when you create an army charging into battle with a handful of real characters in the mix, the enemy will not see through the illusion as a whole until after they have interacted with each individual images the spell creates rather than hitting one and seeing through all of them at once. This would also apply any abilities applicable to the original spell to each of the groups seperatly, so threatening illusion could be applied once to each seperate image, while Shadow gambit could be used multiple times(though this will still dispel that 'square' of the spell permanently until the spell is ended). Of course anything affecting the caster still effects the spell as a whole, if he loses concentration for that spell, he still loses the spell as a whole. Any thoughts?

Personally, I liked the soul knife and the prestige class for the soul bow and would love to see a new variation of those. Being able to generate weapons with your mind makes for great assassins and infiltrators.

Ok, thought I'd post the first completed draft of the bloodline, still looking for advise and ways to level and streamline it, but I believe I've got a good base to work around now:

Illusion Bloodline

Somehow your family has been touched by illusions, perhaps you have some gnomish ancestry linking you to the fey, or perhaps somewhere along the line you had particularly powerful illusionists as your ancestors. No matter the cause, illusions come naturally to you, allowing you to bring you imagination to life with astounding detail.

Class Skill: Perception

Bonus Spells: Silent Image (3rd), Invisibility (5th), Major Image (7th), Shocking Image (9th), Mirage Arcana (11th), Veil (13th), Mass Invisibility (15th), Greater Shadow Envocation (17th), Shades (19th).

Bonus Feats: Spell Focus(illusion), Threatening Illusion, Silent Spell, Alertness, Deceitful, Shadow Gambit, Iron will, Effortless Trickery.

Bloodline Arcana: Whenever you cast a spell from the Illusion school that has a disbelief save, increase the DC by +2.

Bloodline Powers:

Pattern Burst(Sp): At 1st level, you can unleash a ball of swirling illusion and cast it at a target within 30 ft as a ranged touch attack. This deals no damage, but a creature struck by this ball becomes fascinated by a swirling pattern of illusions for one minute. The DC is equal to 10 + ½ your sorcerer level + your Charisma modifier. At 5th level the ball explodes in a 10 foot burst, fascinating those within its radius. At 7th level the burst increases to 15 feet, and at 11th level it increases to 20 ft. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.

Effortless Illusion(Ex): At 3rd level, you can easily maintain your illusions with minimal effort. You can maintain concentration on one spell of the illusion school as a swift action. This has no effect on spells of other schools or on illusion spells with durations that don’t depend on your active concentration. While you may only maintain one spell as a swift action, you may take your move and standard actions to maintain other spells normally, if you wish. If you have the effortless trickery feat, you may maintain concentration on 1 illusion as a free action, allowing you to concentrate up to two illusions (one as a free action and one as a swift action) in this manner.

Bridge reality(Sp): At 9th level, your connection to your illusions has grown to the point where you for you, illusion and reality blend. Once a day, when when casting an illusion spell, you may interact with that illusion as if it were solid. You may walk on an illusionary floor, climb an illusionary ladder, hold an illusionary picture, or ride an illusionary horse. This effect only applies to you and equiptment you are carrying, anything you drop will pass through the illusion once it leaves your hand(or in the case of ropes and ladders, a couple of feet from your body), and other creatures cannot share in this effect, though you can carry another person on an illusion if you are strong enough to do so. Illusions you are interacting with in such a manner gain a +4 bonus to DC when someone is trying to disbelieve them, but only when you are visibly interacting with the illusion. Illusions do not carry energy effects regardless of their appearance (you cannot get warm or be burned by an illusionary fire). Riding an illusionary creature acts as Phantom stead for your caster level, but without any armor, physical ability or hitpoints.

Persistant Image(Sp): At 15th level, your illusions become extremely potent. Whenever someone rolls to disbelieve in your illusions, the illusion persists even when identified as such, and does not revert to a tranparent outline, even if it’s true nature is known. As a result you retain any benefits from concealment an illusion may provide. Also, if a person loses track of an illusion, they must reroll to identify it should they re-encounter it at a later time.

Living Illusion(Sp): At 20th level, you can take on a quasi real form as a standard action. In this form, you take 50% damage from damage sources. You also have are treated as an illusion when interacting with other, with a DC to disbelief of 10+ ½ your sorcerer level + your charisma modifier. Those who fail this check upon interaction with you will mistake you for an illusion and see you as a translucent outline(as a figment). However, your attacks and magic suffer no penalties while in this state, spells that identify magic and illusion will see you as an illusion, however true seeing will reveal your true form, and dispel magic will revert you to your original form. You can revert to your normal form as a standard action.

***

I've changed the feats a little, but the bonus spells are still the same, I know they are all illusion spells, but havn't found the best combination that properly fit together for an illusionist which spells outside of the illusionist school. Ideas for this would be welcome. I have also gone into more detail on the previously mentioned powers. They probably also need some spit an polish, but I feel a lot of progress has been made.

Glad you like the fascinating ball, essentually it would take a target out of battle for a minute unless shaken out of it by attack or Ally, and it doesn't damage so could be used without breaking your invisibility, as well as giving it out of battle applications for causing distractions, as you level up it would become a burst, thus allowing you to target groups of targets, which I feel allows it to maintain it's usefulness at high levels.

I've also been toying with the idea of making you able to become quasi real, like a living illusion, taking a reduced damage from attacks, as well as having those who fail their will save see you as an illusion. This may end up becoming the 20th level ability, since most bloodlines end in a sort of type change, though I'd need to figure out everything becoming a living illusion would have an effect on, and if it would be something you could turn on and off at will or use a number of times per day.

Another ability I was thinking of is an illusion hop, which essentially allows you to switch place with active illusions of yourself, allowing you to switch yourself about the battle field and make it harder for people to identify the real you. Of course with your suggestions, I could make it to where figments no longer become translucent when others identify them as illusions. The person would be able to recognize them as illusions, but they would still not be able to see through them once they did, as as a result would have to make a new save if loosing track and encountering the same illusion again.

The effortless illusion would be limited to maintaining one illusion as a free action and no more, so at most with all illusions going you could have three illusions being maintained, one as a free action, one as a swift, and one as a standard. I'm not sure if permanent image would work with effortless trickery as it has a permanent duration rather then a concentration based one, if it does work I guess you could control two of them while still functioning normally, but that would be it. I feel this is more level and works with the style the illusionist will be playing.

I'm probably taking meta illusions out of the mix, you seem correct in that it doesn't mesh well, at my Lv 15' it seems a bit late to grant such an ability.

The issue with the shadow conjugation line is it is actually mimicking other spells, and are to some degree real, bridge reality is more like the player coming closer to illusions in a way unique to the sorcerer, he, personally, can interact with his illusions, making them that more believable, as well as allowing more trickery on his part. Of course others still can't touch these illusions, so it's not like it grants you armor or anything, but if your being chased by a mob, an come across a pit, you can run across an illusionary floor of your creation, while the mob...

All things aside, the bloodline seems to be taking shape nicely. Thanks for he help.

Ok, so I've looked around and think I've gotten 4 powers that may work:

-A fascinating ball that becomes a burst with leveling.

-Effortless illusion: allows the sorcerer to maintain concentration on an illusion as a swift action. Of Effortless trickery is known he may maintain it as a free action.

-Bridge reality: as above, interact with one of your illusions as if it is solid.

-Metaillusions: apply meta magic feats to illusion spells at normal casting time and reduced lv cost.

Still working on a final power and bonus spells. What power would a master of illusion process?

I think I figured out a different 1st Lv power, instead of a quasi real bolt, a ball of illusion, ranged touch attack, hit deals no damage, but fascinates the target for 1 minute, number of targets you can effect increase with level, wondering if it should be one at 1st, two at 7th, and three at 11th or if it should scale up for every 2 sorcerer level. Of course it will be usable 3 per day + cha mod.

I also think I'll change the meta magic to silent illusions, basically adding the silent Metamagic to illusion spells without changing the casting time or level. I wonder if it should just be for all spells of illusion type, or to keep the times per day, as this is an ability the oracle kinda has, but has the deafened state along with it, so...

Here's my two cent:

Powers:

Shadow Bolt: This seems very much like the feat Shadow Gambit, also it doesn't scale with level (no +1/2 per level for example) so it would quickly become useless after low levels. Perhaps some ability to percieve the illusions of others passively with a scalign PER check. It would be unique to this bloodline and make it more attractive.

Well, the shadow bolts are kind of inspired by the shadow gambit feat, and the no scaling was more to balance it out, as it is an unavoidable attack and can basically give a person any energy type at 1st level, even at high levels, you'd still be dealing some damage regardless of the of disbelief, but I can see where your coming from.

I suppose I could replace it with an automatic check to peception when encountering an illusion. But it seems to put the illusionist at a bit of a disadvantage since it's a passive ability as opposed to one he can use for offense or defense.

All of these are already on the sorc/wiz list, which isn't much in the way of expanding my selection so much as giving me spells I would already take if I was specializing in illusion anyway. At worst it let's me take other spells, but i'd have silent image at level 1 so maybe change that first selection to something else. Not color spray, at 3rd level it's peaked it's usefulness and would be swapped out by 4th or 6th level at the latest.

I've looked about, and there are not that many illusion spells to begin with that are not already on most of the other spell lists. Silence and zone of silence seem to be one of the few, and I guess begile may be a good one for an illusionist, any others you think would fit the bill outside of the illusion school?

Illusion MetaMagic: Massively powerful ability and too powerful for third level, IMHO. Also you won't have much in the way of meta magic feats at level 3 anyway. You are essentially saying I can cast quickened shadow fireballs (or enlarged or maximized) at no additional tiem or level cost and if you are specializing in Illusions the DC will be very high to disbelieve. I'd say save this for later on in levels.

Maybe If I only apply it to still and silent metamagic? With that an illusionist could be much more sneaky with his illusions. As before this would only apply to illusion based spells, so it would be much more limited.

I think I've come up with a more interesting and level idea then the mirror twin:

Bridge reality: At 9th level, your connection to your illusions has grown to the point where you for you, illusion and reality blend. Once a day, when when casting an illusion spell, you may interact with that illusion as if it were real. You may walk on an illusionary floor, climb an illusionary ladder, hold an illusionary picture, or ride an illusionary horse. This effect only applies to you and equiptment you are carrying, anything you drop will pass through the illusion once it leaves your hand, and other creatures cannot share in this effect, though you can carry another creature on an illusion if you are strong enough to do so. Illusions you are interacting with in such a manner gain a +4 bonus on saves against disbelief, but only when you are visibly interacting with the illusion. Riding an illusionary creature acts as Phantom stead for your caster level, but without any armor, physical ability or hitpoints. At 17th level, you can use this ability twice per day. At 20th level, you can use this ability three times per day.

***

I've check against spells around the same level, and you can already fly, summon communal phantom steeds and the like, so I think this may work unless I'm missing something, and it let's an illusionist have a bunch of fun messing with people.

May have posted this in the wrong section before. I am currently working on making a sorcerer bloodline geared towards illusions, I have been making progress, but I would like to run it by others to see what advice I can get in streamlining it a bit and making it more balanced, as well see if I can find some ideas for powers to add that would be appropriate. Here is what I have so far:

Illusion Bloodline

The power over the sight and senses is strong within you, possibly from some intermingling of fey, or magic gone ary, but your powers over illusions is unparallelled…

Class Skill: Perception

Bonus Spells: Silent Image (3rd), Invisibility (5th), Major Image (7th), Shocking Image (9th), Mirage Arcana (11th), Veil (13th), mass Invisibility (15th), Greater Shadow Envocation (17th), Shades (19th).

Bonus Feats: Spell Focus(illusion), Threatening Illusion, Silent Spell, Alertness, Deceitful, Combat Casting, Shadow Gambit, Iron will.

Bloodline Arcana: Whenever you cast a spell from the Illusion school that has a disbelief save, increase the DC by +2.

Bloodline Powers:

Shadow Bolt(Sp): At 1st level, you can send a quasi real illusion of shadow energy at a target creature within 30 feet. The illusion can be shaped into any form you wish as long as it is no larger then a 5 foot square. The attack can deal acid, bludgeoning, cold, electricity, fire, piercing, or slashing damage, but it must be appropriate to the illusion. The attack deals 1d6 points of damage of your of a seleted damage type for every two sorcerer levels you possess. The target creature recieves a will save(disbelief) and upon a successful save take half damage from the attack. The DC is equal to 10 + your Charisma modifier. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.

Illusion Metamagic(Ex): At 3rd level, you can apply 1 Metamagic feat you know to a spell from the illusion school you are about to cast without increasing it's casting time or level. You can use this ability once a day at 3rd level, and one additional time per day for every four sorcerer levels you gain after 3rd, up to 5 times per day at 19th level.

Mirror twin(Sp): At 9th level, you can create an illusionary duplicate of yourself as a standard action. This acts as a Major Illusion, however can be maintained without concentration. The duplicate acts as you command, and takes it own actions on your turn. It can take any action you can take, except the mirror twin power. It can cast spells, and use powers and spell-like abilities, but anything it creates is still an illusion of said spells and abilities(Shadow bolts do no damage, a fireball deals no damage, an Acid Pit is not real, summoned creatures are illusionary. Enhancing or hindering spells have no effect). Any spell, creature, or creation created by the twin receives a seperate will save, as the twin itself does. the DC equal to 10 + 1/2 your sorcerer level + you charisma modifier. You can use this ability a number of rounds per day equal to your sorcerer level, though they need not be consecutive. Any effect or creation of the twin ends when the twin vanishes.

***

I'm not so sure about the mirror twin myself, it my be a bit too complex or serve better as a 20th level ability, but I'm stil looking to try and build two powers that work with the idea of a more fun and spontaneous illusionist rather then a dark one. And tips or advice would be welcome.

Hey, first time poster here. I have been looking over the Sorcerer bloodlines and I'm trying to put together a new one especially for illusionists. I'm trying to keep it balanced with the other bloodlines, but want to focus more on the fantastical ability of bluring the lines of the real and unreal rather then darkness and shadows and stealth. I would love some imput and advice Here is what I have so far:

Illusion Bloodline

The power over the sight and senses is strong within you, possibly from some intermingling of fey, or magic gone ary, but your powers over illusions is unparallelled…

Class Skill: Perception

Bonus Spells: Silent Image (3rd), Invisibility (5th), Major Image (7th), Shocking Image (9th), Mirage Arcana (11th), Veil (13th), mass Invisibility (15th), Greater Shadow Envocation (17th), Shades (19th).

Bonus Feats: Spell Focus(illusion), Threatening Illusion, Silent Spell, Alertness, Deceitful, Combat Casting, Shadow Gambit, Iron will.

Bloodline Arcana:

Bloodline Powers:

Shadow Bolt(Sp): At 1st level, you can send a quasi real illusion of shadow energy at a target creature within 30 feet. The illusion can be shaped into any form you wish as long as it is no larger then a 5 foot square. The attack can deal acid, bludgeoning, cold, electricity, fire, piercing, or slashing damage, but it must be appropriate to the illusion. The attack deals 1d6 points of damage of your of a seleted damage type for every two sorcerer levels you possess. The target creature recieves a will save(disbelief) and upon a successful save take half damage from the attack. The DC is equal to 10 + your Charisma modifier. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.

***

I'm still working on the Bloodline Arcana, and I need some ideas for more advanced bloodline abilities. I'm toying with the idea of making it easier to apply meta magic specfically to illusion school spells, or possibly applying a 'displacement' effect in place of what seems to be the typically defense based ability at 3rd level that rises to a higher percentage at a higher level, but I would love to get some feedback and ideas so I can make this bloodline as balanced and fun as possible.