First, my apologize to any offended because I'm throwing my own version of the Arcane Warrior out there. I've realized that might explaining why the others feel wrong is just beating on empty noise. So, this is my making it based on current mechanics, with a minimalistic approach to unique mechanics.
The Martial Adept is a warrior who treats Magic as an equal partner to Combat. He's not weak in either area, and the combination allows him to often exceed what the specialists can accomplish.
BAB: Good (+1 to +20)
Fort: Good (+2 to +12)
Rflx: Good (+2 to +12)
Will: Poor (+0 to +6)
Hit Die: D10
Class Skills: Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana), Profession (Int), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str)
Weapons and Armour Proficiencies: Simple and Martial Weapons, All types of Armour, and with Shields (except tower shields).
Spells: As per the Wizard class, but using the Martial Adept's spell progression.
Bonus Language: A Martial Adept may substitute Draconic for one of the bonus languages available to the character because of his race.
Cantrips: As per the Wizard Class
Scribe Scroll: As per the Wizard Class
Spellbooks: As per the Wizard Class
Weapon Kata: The Martial Adept may use his weapon in place of Somatic gestures to cast a spell as part of an attack. If the attack hits (but does not have to do any damage), the spell is cast. This only works for spells with a Somatic component, which has no Material Component. (The Eschew Materials Feat thus increases the number of spells you can cast through this ability)
Spells per day:
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Lv | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
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01 | 2
02 | 3 | 1
03 | 4 | 2
04 | 4 | 2 | 1
05 | 4 | 3 | 1
06 | 4 | 3 | 2
07 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1
08 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2
09 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2
10 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1
11 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2
12 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1
13 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2
14 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2
15 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1
16 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2
17 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1
18 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1
19 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2
20 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1
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Lv | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
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Level 1 : All non-magical weapons are considered Magical in the hands of the Martial Adept. Beginning at level 3 and every 3 levels thereafter, the non-magical weapon is treated as having a cumulative +1 magical bonus to a maximum of +5 at level 15.
Level 3 : The Martial Adept gains Arcane Armour Training as a bonus Feat.
Level 5 : Imbue Weapon : The Martial Adept may expend a level 1 or higher spell slot for the day to give a non-magical weapon that he is wielding, one of the following Special Abilities. The Special Ability lasts until the beginning of the next encounter or until the weapon is no longer being held, whichever comes first. Only 1 Special Ability may be granted at a time to the weapon.
- Anarchic
- Axiomatic
- Disruptive
- Flaming
- Frost
- Holy
- Shock
- Unholy
Level 7 : The Martial Adept gains Arcane Armour Mastery as a bonus Feat.
Level 9 : Improved Imbue Weapon : The Imbue Weapon ability gains the following Special Abilities to choose from. Abilities Generated by this list require the expenditure of a level 3 or higher Spell Slot for the day.
- Defending
- Flaming Burst
- Ghost Touch
- Icy Burst
- Shocking Burst
Level 11 : The Martial Adept gains Greater Arcane Armour Mastery as a bonus feat. This replaces Arcane Armour Mastery, granting a -30% to any Spell Chance Failure check. (This makes pretty much any Mithral Heavy Armour a 0% chance failure, and only if he's also holding a shield would he take a penalty still).
Level 13 : Greater Imbue Weapon : The Imbue Weapon ability gains the following Special Abilities to choose from. Additionally, any 2 Special Abilities may be stacked onto the same weapon as long as only 1 of those Special Abilities comes from the following list. Any Ability from this list requires the expenditure of a level 5 or higher Spell Slot for the day.
- Bane
- Brilliant Energy
- Keen
- Speed
- Wounding
Level 15 : The Martial Adept ignores all Spell Chance Failure checks, except those caused by a Tower Shield. If using a Tower Shield, reduce the Spell Chance Failure to 40% (or 30% if Mithral).
Level 17 : Gain 1 bonus Combat Feat of choice.
Level 20 : Once per Day, the Martial Adept can attempt a Slaying attack. If the attack hits and causes damage, the target must make a Fortitude Save, or be slain immediately.
Author's Note: If it feels a bit familiar, I took the Arcane Archer and converted it to a full class with all weapons, just with Armour being an equal focus to Weapons. Hence the odd spell progression, it's how the spell progression would look if the Arcane Archer could play from level 1 as a level 0 wizard MC (just those 0-spell levels, I negotiated the differences between levels to always add spells).
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IMO this class is a large amount over powered. having full BAB and casting as a sorcerer is a bit too much. Consider reducing the BAB or spell progression. Also if you're not away you may find the Magus particularly interesting. Finally, The Weapon Kata ability is unneeded as if the player takes a standard action to cast he/she may use her offhand to hold the weapon while main hand uses somatic or material components.... even with a shield...
Edit: excuse me its not sorcerer progression... sorry... I now believe that it is moderately over powered.
So you're saying that the Arcane Archer Prestige Class is overpowered? Same BAB, same spell progression, even same powers really except my version costs spell-slots, his are free.
(Fixed Mystic Adept, the 1st name I had for it before I decided it didn't sound Martial enough :P)
Capstone is... Arcane Archer's... just converted to melee. Like I said, it's a conversion of something existing, but made some of the powers cost spell slots to grant a few free Arcane Armour feats instead of just giving it away at 1st level.
Anyhows, lemme know how it's overpowered rather than just calling it that. Obviously the BAB to Spell Progression is ok (though I do admit, if I weren't converting, but rather, creating my own from scratch, I would be likely to use the +0 to +15 instead).
Sorry, I ask you to explain instead of just calling it overpowered, and here I am just calling it not-overpowered without a proper explanation, so allow me to do the same.
BAB 1 to 20 is weak compared to other 1 to 20 classes because ALL those classes have bonuses that are stacked on top, be it a Favored Terrain, a Smite Evil, Weapon Training, or Rage. This makes the attack bonus of this class inferior, but at the same time, on par with the theme of a warrior character. He's about equal to a monk (who while only a 1 to 15, gets to use his level instead of BAB for Flurry, plus killer movement and tons more attacks)
Noticed a major flaw... he gains spells as a Wizard, Arcane Archer doesn't. If he's going to get those 2 spells per level, his spell progression will have to be slashed. Alternately, he doesn't get the 2 spells per level, and depends on spells he finds and transcribes to his spellbook (he does still get to expend spell slots for combat effects, even if he doesn't have any spells of that level to replace). Not sure which way would be best to go....
Inherent problems due to fighter levels for AA, this class won't work. Will try again with a more askewed spell progression.
Full BAB should not be combined with anything greater than bard spell progression, if that. If you gain spells higher than level 6, 1-15 BAB at best.
At level 15 you will be able to pick up any weapon and make it at least a +10, better with a few combos. even at the cost of 2 spells, this is too powerful. You are giving them a 200k gp item for free. At any level, that severely skews PC power level.
Your capstone ability has no indication of DC.
All said and done, very over powered.
This class is overpowered as a base class. Scale it down to a ten level progression, give it pretty stiff entry requirements, and make it a PrC. You can't simply extrapolate a PrC into a full 20 level build, as it gets very wonky.
See the 3.5 Duskblade for a pretty solid idea of how to do essentially what you're aiming for. I would base your ideas off of the Duskblade, and replace some of its more casting based special abilities with your imbue style ideas if that is what you really want the class to have.
I don't think Duskblades could spam things many times in a round, but even if they could it was a deliberate abuse of some wording. It would be easy enough to fix.