So going along the same vein as I've been for a few weeks now, I'm turning out another 3.5 conversion. I converted the Hierophant over to Pathfinder from D&D 3.5. I wanted a class that could pick and chose metamagic on the fly so when I was looking though my old Dungeon Master's Guide I came across this class and decided it needed a full 10 levels rather than 5 and I could squeeze my metamagic gambit in there to sweeten the pot. Let's see how it's gonna do- it will be one of the classes (along with all my other converted/home-brewed prestige classes) tested in the upcoming game next month at our school's LAN.
Enjoy!
-Scott
PS: It might be a bit to powerful, suggestions?
The metamagic feats gained on a per-day basis, I assume you mean that each day you pick a couple you can use for the day? If so, not that big a deal, because your hierophant doesn't continue to gain spellcasting ability. Without access to higher-level spell slots, metamagic is pretty hard to use! Even if it's usable spontaneously without increasing the level of the spell affected, it's going to take serious effort to make this useful.
Also, the table lists Divinity as uses per day, but the description gives you a certain number of feats. This needs a little clarity please.
With no spellcasting increases, you're going to want to increase the power of the abilities you gain. The old abilities weren't really overall that useful to a high level spellcaster. You translated these over more or less directly, but Pathfinder is a higher-powered game than 3.5 was, so these now suffer. For example, the Mastery of Energy grants a +4 bonus to the amount of energy channeled. That's equivalent to one die, or the gain of 2 levels. Not going to be significant at the point when you get it, save by serendipity. Beastlord grants +10 on animal empathy checks. Not that useful at higher levels, though granted good for lower level druids and those that focus on shapeshifting and combat. These limitations also apply when wildshape and channel energy are passed along to others.
Overall, not too strong, probably needs a spell progression added on at every other level just to get some use out of these abilities. Some improvements to the various powers available too.
Thanks for the feedback!
I knew there would be power balance issues, but I was expecting the Divinity thing to be a bit more powerful than it really was but all the points you raise are very good one :D I'm gonna add more Divinities at lower levels and clarify it a bit more.
I'm probably gonna keep away from the caster progression- but one of the secrets allows you to do so.
I am revising it as I type this.
THANKS!!!!
1 Divine Secret
2 Divine Leadership, Divinity 1/Day
3 Divine Secret
4 Metamagic Feat, Divinity 2/Day
5 Divine Secret
6 Divinity 3/Day
7 Divine Secret
8 Divinity 4/Day
9 Divine Secret
10 Divinity 5/Day
Mastery of Energy (Su): Available only to Hierophants with cleric levels, this ability allows a Hierophant to channel positive or negative energy much more effectively. Add a bonus equal to your Hierophants plus 2 to the amount healed or damaged by channel energy effects.
Beastkin (Su): Available only to Hierophants with druid levels, this ability gives the Hierophant a +10 bonus on Wild Empathy checks and Handel Animal checks.
Glossolalia (Su): You can speak and comprehend languages as if under the tongues spell. This is a spell-like ability that the Hierophant can use at will but he must state when he is using it. When using this the character will jabber on in an incoherent, trance-like fashion until they want to actually communicate.
Beastlord (Su): Available only to Hierophants with druid levels, this ability gives the Hierophant the ability to add part of his Hierophant level to the number of animals summoned by a summon nature's ally spells. If a Hierophant uses a summon nature's ally spell and selects the option to summon multiple lower level creatures, it may add it's Hierophant level minus the spell level in extra creatures and to the level of the creatures summoned. (For example: A Druid 10/ Hierophant 8 wants to cast summon nature's ally V spell and use it to summon 1d3 4th-level creatures of the same kind, it instead summons 1d3+3 creatures of 7th-level.)
Divinity (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a Hierophant can treat a single spell cast per day as if it where under the effect of any one metamagic feat he currently meets the requirements for (including caster level minimums). He may decide spontaneously what this feat is. He does this without increasing the level of the spell affected. This is ability is refreshed when he does preparation. He gains a second use of this ability at every even level to a maximum of 5 times per day at 10th level.
How about that?
After talking with my friends IRL I was wondering if adding half progression for caster level would be better? (Every other level)
Or would that make it to powerful?
After talking with my friends IRL I was wondering if adding half progression for caster level would be better? (Every other level)
Or would that make it to powerful?
I still think some sort of spellcasting progression is necessary. What might help is if you sit down and create 2 characters of equal character level, one a hierophant, one a straight caster. OK, make it 3: a cleric, a druid, and a hierophant, maybe 2 hierophants (one cleric, one druid). You get the idea. Compare the characters carefully. Abilities you get in a PrC need to be good enough to compensate for not gaining a level in a base class. And don't forget that spellcasting is an ability too....
Well at the end of this month I'm doing a strait up playtest of all the homebrews I've done (and the Ninja class) to see what's what. I think I'll start it off with no caster progression then see what half looks like.