I've had some ideas on the subject of warrior/caster (also known as gish) classes ... they seem to be something a lot of people want, and no-one can decide on. The whole thing runs into trouble because your traditional fighter/wizard cross is usually underpowered at some point in their career, even if you go larking off into prestige classes. Yet giveing a full caster the hit dice and attack bonus of the pure fighter just isn't on.
I used the inspiration of the psychic warrior for my first design - it may be ambitious, but what I wanted was to make a class that was balanced and flexible - restricted enough not to overpower the game, flexible enough to fill the role that people wanted for it, whatever that role is. By angling the spell-list toward self-buffs and swift-action spells it gets by the main issue of casters-in-combat. The working name for this is the Arcane Blade. All feedback, comments etc. are welcome:
The Arcane Blade PDF
The Arcane Blade Spell List
My own concerns are:
- That I may have made the spell-list too restrictive for them to work well.
- That I may need to add some role options to the class
- The capstone ability may be too limited
The second design I came up with was much more the basis of, as one poster put it, 'I want to stab people in the face magically'. The emphasis is much more on damage dealing, and damage dealing abilities. This is a kind of condensed battle sorcerer/warmage/homicidal maniac idea, where just dishing out energy damage in melee is the forte, with some thematic spells thrown in on top. The name I came up with is pretty cool though, the Stormchild:
The Stormchild PDF
Stormchild Spells & Spells Known
My own concerns are:
- That I may have jacked up the energy damage too high.
- Energy points - I like them, but did I give the class too many?
All comments and ideas about these welcome!
I know people are downloading ... I can count them ... where's the feedback?
I'll give you some feedback man, just let me read your stuff.
I once designed a custom race called the Stormchildren. They were apparently young children with startling powers over air and water :P
I once designed a custom race called the Stormchildren. They were apparently young children with startling powers over air and water :P
Don't believe that helps him.. o.o
Be cool to see it though.
I'll see what I can do. I just thought it was amusing that we'd both used exactly the same term for a custom race.
Thanks, Lazor. My intention was to create an arcane version of the psychic warrior with the Arcane Blade, so I used the powers list there as my inspiration. As such, taking out the buffs doesn't go with the basic idea - the psychic warrior was largely a self-buffing, self-healing fighter with limited directly offensive powers.
I just thought it was amusing that we'd both used exactly the same term for a custom race.
Well, a class in my case, a very elemental, combat oriented sorcerer. Lots of flash and bang, very little else, so I wanted a name that conveyed that.
Both classes look VERY GOOD.
I would however suggest fixing up the organization within the PDF's, and the singular of dice is die.
As for balance, I'm not a good judge of that, but they all look good to me.
Arcane Blade is really good. It is similar to both the Psychic Warrior and Dusk Blade, but still has it's own feel to it. One thing I'm confused about is wither the Arcane blade has a spells known list or if the know every spell on their list.
Storm Child is also very interesting. I would reconsider the spell list, and give it some abilities to change the energy type of damaging spells to match their own energy type.
Both classes are well done, I would like to make a NPC to test play both in a coming game I'm starting. I'll post what develops of these.
Arcane Blade is really good. It is similar to both the Psychic Warrior and Dusk Blade, but still has it's own feel to it. One thing I'm confused about is wither the Arcane blade has a spells known list or if the know every spell on their list.
Storm Child is also very interesting. I would reconsider the spell list, and give it some abilities to change the energy type of damaging spells to match their own energy type.
Both classes are well done, I would like to make a NPC to test play both in a coming game I'm starting. I'll post what develops of these.
Thank you. The Arcane blade gains spells using the Spell Mastery class feature, and whenever they gain it (typically whenever they gain a new level of spells) they gain knowledge of three spells of any level they can cast.
The point about the Stormchild is taken, that could be a class feature, although I didn't originally envisage the class as being as tightly bound to given energy types as that. I'd rather add to the DC of their spells of their chosen energy type than start messing with different energy types. I'll give it some thought, though ...