Advice on new Prestige Class: Stormbender

[ellinake]

Hi everyone! This is my first post here, but [my DM and] I wanted to get some feedback from you all on what you think of this prestige class I drafted.

It's based on the Rage Prophet prestige class, with some inspiration from the Serene Barbarian archetype, and is basically a way to have a cleric/barbarian that has similar abilities to a Rage Prophet but who relies on divine power. I wrote it to be open to other deities as well, but had my cleric of Gozreh in mind when I was writing it.

Some of my fellow players have expressed some fear of the class being OP, but I think that the measures I have in place are pretty balanced. What do you guys think?

[Drejk]

The link is broken - it got squashed during the copy paste probably.

[ellinake]

Drejk wrote:

The link is broken - it got squashed during the copy paste probably.

gahhhh thanks, fixed it!

[Kryzbyn]

I have no mechanical advice, but I like the flavor.

[Detect Magic]

I haven't read through all of it yet, but the first thing that I noticed was that due to the language used in this document, druids (remember they can worship Gozreh, and with Nature Bond, select the Weather domain) are unable to gain access to your class. Is this intentional?

[Stockvillain]

Very cool concept! My only concern is that druids can't play, too. Stormy McStormdruid is sad!

[ellinake]

Yeah I did this intentionally because one of the later abilities allows the Stormbender to Channel energy while Raging, and since this is a class feature I had to limit it to non-druids. It would work as long as they have at least one level of cleric?

Do you guys have any suggestions as to how to open it up to druids? I just really like that ability for my Stormy McStormycleric. I guess I could add an extra spell instead for druids?

[Stockvillain]

Well, you can just yoink the Cleric pre-req; druids simply won't get any benefit from the channeling boost unless they somehow have channeling. There may be an archetype that gives them some version of it, but I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Alternatively, you can remove the channeling and replace it with "Levels in this prestige class stack with levels in your primary spellcasting class with respect to Domain spells and powers from the Weather domain, or its subdomains." Since the domain is a pre-req for the PrC, it makes sense that the PrC should improve on it in some way.

[Trogdar]

^what he said :)

[Detect Magic]

ellinake wrote:

Do you guys have any suggestions as to how to open it up to druids? I just really like that ability for my Stormy McStormycleric. I guess I could add an extra spell instead for druids?

I'd change Divine Storm so that instead of stormbender levels stacking with cleric levels for purposes of determining Channeling, it stacks for purposes of determining the effects/abilities of the Air and Weather domains.

That will benefit druids and clerics alike.

Perhaps have the Forecast abilities split into a path for each class, that way cleric and druid stormbenders will vary.

[ellinake]

Detect Magic wrote:

ellinake wrote:

Do you guys have any suggestions as to how to open it up to druids? I just really like that ability for my Stormy McStormycleric. I guess I could add an extra spell instead for druids?

I'd change Divine Storm so that instead of stormbender levels stacking with cleric levels for purposes of determining Channeling, it stacks for purposes of determining the effects/abilities of the Air and Weather domains.

That will benefit druids and clerics alike.

Perhaps have the Forecast abilities split into a path for each class, that way cleric and druid stormbenders will vary.

I just added the ability to cast a healing spell to replace channel energy for druids, and removed the cleric requirement. Druids can be Stormbenders too now! I tried making an option for sorcerers with the stormborn bloodline but things got too complicated haha.

I think it's finally ready for playtesting, let me know if any of you guys try it/what you think!