i am working on a base class inspired from the anime Full metal alchemist, if you have seen the show you know the difference from the existing alchemist base class.
what i want to know is is it worth it making a new class that can mimic spells as a core element of the class? what i mean to say is if this base class is based primarily around the idea of altering (transmuting) the world around them would this be a solid concept to build a class for?
i dont know if my question makes any since but i hope it does.
sorry to double post but i wanted to be a little more clear about my question.
i guess what i really want to ask is can a new base class be based around an idea that other classes touch on?
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There are a bunch of holes in a class designed on spells based on elemental manipulation, particularly regarding spells that move / manipulate / shape water and earth, and, to a lesser extent, air. Even fire, which has a plethora of spells to create, has a dearth of spells to manipulate or extinguish (like the old Affect Normal Fires or Fire Quench spells).
You might be better served by coming up with a system like those used in Monte Cook's World of Darkness or Elements of Magic, Revised, from ENWorld Publishing, IIRC.
Essentially, you purchase (or acquire as a class ability) the talent to create a particular element or substance or force, and the more successes you roll / levels you gain indicates how many dice of that elemental effect (or whatever) you can generate. With additional talents / feats / class abilities, you can also manipulate or quench or otherwise affect that element.
In absence of those materials, you might be able to convert a Warlock to serve this effect. A 'Fire Warlock' would start with the standard Eldritch Blast, inflicting fire damage instead of generic damage, and each Invocation would be drawn from a specific list of fire-themed effects, like a Fire Shield invocation or a Fire Resistance invocation or a Conjure Lesser Fire Elemental invocation or Wall of Fire invocation or whatever. Blast invocations would allow continued burning effects or fiery explosions or blasts of 'Essential Fire' that ignore half of fire resistance / immunity or something.
If the character can manipulate multiple elements / forces, he'd instead choose blast invocations that allow him to produce blasts of wind, water or earth/stone/sand, and choose invocations that relate to those forces, animating the ground to attack people or controlling weather or generating fog or forming walls of ice, etc.
Many current invocations could be reflavored to suit the theme(s) in question. Instead of making up a 'ground attacks you' invocation, just use Chilling Tentacles, and have the chilling damage be crushing damage or even fire / heat damage as the earth rises up and bludgeons at those in the area, perhaps even becoming superheated, like magma, to explain the extra damage. Fell Flight could be a Wind invocation. Shatter could be an Earth/Stone invocation or a Water/Ice invocation, causing an item to freeze and then shatter.
Warlocks are great for this sort of thing, having a limited palette of invocations that can be reflavored to suit the basic abilities of an alchemist or firebender or whatever sort of superhero ish / anime type energy manipulator you want to play with. The Dragonfire Adept is a WotC generated example of the flexibility of the basic concept, really.
thanks for the suggestions.
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I started work on an elemental-themed warlock at one point, and started making 4 different themed invocation lists... then decided that it would be better to mix them all into one and let the warlock choose from all of the elemental invocations instead of just one element.
Mostly, I just took a look at the spell compendium and various Complete series books for base spells, then twisted them to my own methods. That, and I made a few up, as well. I never finished it because no one had any interest in it within my group...
There are a few spells in particular that would be good invocations for a FMA warlock-
Shift Weapon: Swift cast, change any weapon into any other weapon, but the size category can't change. ie. greatsword to dagger, or vise versa.
Earthblast: Makes a line attack that travels across the ground that sends debris flying upward, great to simulate the earth-pillar attacks they use all too often.
Wall of Iron: repurposed into wall of earth, or whatever material is at hand.
Warp Wood, Wood Shape: I would probably mix these into one
Fabricate, Minor Creation, Major Creation: There really isn't any way that you can do without these ones... It's an absolute must, so maybe they can just automatically get them as class features at some point in their advancement.