So, I'm currently working on three base classes which are supposed to be the signature classes for my own campaign setting.
The three are as follows.
The Dread Knight - An anti-paladin who isn't just a "negative" version of the ordinary paladin. This class is mainly intended for use as evil NPC's working for the bad guys. The features of the class include crowd control in melee combat, counter channeling clerics' and paladins' channeling ability and frontline combat prowess. By the way, this is not a reaction to the pathfinder anti-paladin found in the advanced players guide; I started writing it about four months before they released the book.
The Tinker - A utility class that dabbles in creating constructs, energy weapons, blowing stuff up, setting traps & finding traps, grafting characters with bio-engineering upgrades and so on.
The Mystic - An all-round caster who draws power from both the divine and arcane at the same time. This is the class I'm currently going over because I can't get the mechanics right.
Alright then, my problem here is that I'm already fixed on what I want all these classes to do, but my little troublemaker (i.e. the Mystic) is causing me some distress as I can't seem to figure out its mechanics in a viable way.
The Mystic.
Spell Mantles
See, what I want the Mystic to do is to have the ability to "assume" spell mantles, which I basically wanted to grant the Mystic access to a small array of spells that she then would be able to utilize much like a normal caster but with a few exceptions. First of all, I don't want to make them actual caster, so spells of spell levels beyond 6th level is almost out of the question. Then, I need a way of putting together these spell mantles so they don't become too powerful too fast (I don't know if I should make different levels of spell mantles or if I should just include all spell levels, and then make the Mystic's class level determine when she is able to cast the higher level spells).
I don't want this class to become one of those classes that basically does the same thing as another class, but in a more complicated way so I'm already considering doing something completely different.
What I sort of wanted for this ability was for it to be similar to the Binder's (Tome of Magic, WotC) vestiges or the Master of Masks' (Complete Scoundrel, WotC) masks in the way that they grant an array of powers (in this case mostly spells) and some small boosts to different character features.
On the side of the spell mantle ability I also wanted to give the Mystic a "make-your-pick" class feature called Spell Tricks, because I want it to be more of a peculiar class than a directly focused class.
But anyways, my main concern lies with the Spell Mantle class feature. So if anyone has any ideas that could help me make it functional and realistic when compared to other casters' spell casting, please post them.
-Thanks in advance.
Off the cuff I would suggest making spell lists going from 0 to 6th level grouped in mantles. One spell of each level drawn from any of the spell lists that fit the theme. Balance the number of mantles they have access to at any one time based on level, they can only have one or two mantles at a time but they can cast spells alot more often then a wizard or cleric could.
One the abilities I like from the new essentials mage in 4E is a power that lets you use Arcana skill (spellcraft basicly) for Diplomacy checks.
"These are not the droids you are looking for."
Maybe tie a skill to each mantle and when it is applied they can use spellcraft checks instead of that skill. So a healing mantle would have access to the cure chain of spells and let you use spellcraft inplace of healing skill checks.
Thanks a lot Paraxis! That really helped; it's just the sort of thing I'm looking for.