The name is more descriptive than flavor for the moment, any suggestions along that (or any other) line are welcome.
Many deities have favored weapons, and some of their servants undertake to master the use of these blessed weapons in the service of their god. Weaponbearers are often found as temple guards, protectors of pilgrims, and bodyguards to high-level priest(esse)s.
Weaponbearer - The weaponbearer gains a masterwork version of their deity's favored weapon at 1st level. The weaponbearer may utilize this weapon in the exact same manner as a normal cleric utilizes a holy symbol, and effectively replaces the holy symbol for the weaponbearer.
Channeled blows - the weaponbearer gains Channel Smite (at 1st level) and Greater Channel Smite (at 12th level) automatically as bonus feats. These feats can only be utilized through the favored weapon. This ability replaces orisons.
Weaponbearer Domain - One of the two domains chosen by the weaponbearer must be the Weaponbearer domain (described below). The second domain is chosen from the weaponbearer's deity's domains as normal, but the Healing domain may NOT be chosen even if it is available.
Weaponbearer Domain
Granted Powers: You call upon the power of your god to manifest through the favored weapon you bear. These powers and spells can only be manifested via your favored weapon
Destructive Smite (Su): You gain the destructive smite power: the supernatural ability to make a single melee attack (using your favored weapon) with a morale bonus on damage rolls equal to 1/2 your cleric level (minimum 1). You must declare the destructive smite before making the attack. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.
Weapon Master (Su): At 8th level, as a swift action, you gain the use of one combat feat for a number of rounds per day equal to your cleric level. These rounds do not need to be consecutive and you can change the feat chosen each time you use this ability. You must meet the prerequisites to use the feat.
Domain Spells: 1st—Magic weapon, 2nd-Align weapon, 3nd—Bless weapon, 4th—Greater magic weapon, 5th—disrupting weapon, 6th—Holy weapon, 7th—Deity's Weapon, 8th—Holy Aura, 9th—Heroic Invocation.
Spontaneous casting - Instead of spontaneously casting healing spells, Weaponbearers spontaneously cast spells from the Weaponbearer domain. This ability otherwise functions as a standard cleric's spontaneous casting ability.
...The name is more descriptive than flavor for the moment, any suggestions along that (or any other) line are welcome.
** spoiler omitted **
I was cool with this until the very last line about spontaneous casting of domain spells.
you have some very powerful domain spells in there. I think unlimited access to those would become overpowered.
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Interesting that you post this today... I just finnished writing up an idea I had for a related class.
I'm thinking this would be more of a Paladin Archetype or Figher Archtype for mine. Possibly it would need to be a new Base Class.
Divine Weapon
Figher BAB Progression
Class Abilities
Weapons and Armor Proficiency
Divine Weapons are Proficient with all simple weapons and their Dieties Favored weapon. They are proficient with Light and Medium armor and all shields (excpet tower shield.)
Divine Weapon (1st Level)
The Divine weapon specializes in the use of thier Dieties Favored weapon. If a Diety has more then one Favored Weapon you must select a specific one at first level to use with this ability. At first level they gain a Masterwork version of the selected weapon and Weapon focus with this weapon, at 4th they gain Weapon Specialization, at 8th they gain Greater Weapon Focus and ant 12th they gain Greater Weapon Specialization.
Starting at level 5, whenever they are holding their Dieties Favored weapon it becomes Holy or Unholy as appropriate to their ability to smite Good or Evil. This is added to any existing enchantmens the weapon may already have and dissapears 1 round after they let go of the weapon. If the property given by this ability is already on the weapon, it does not stack, however a Neutral Divine Weapon who Smites Evil could use an Unholy weapon to make it both Holy AND Unholy. The same goes for a Neutral Divine Weapon who Smites Good using a Holy Weapon.
For multiclass clerics they may use thier selected Favored weapon as thier Divine Focus for casting spells.
Aura (2nd Level)
A Divine Weapon's Aura is the same as a Cleric of their Deity of one level lower then thier Divine Weapon levels. For multiclass Clerics add the cleric level to your Divine Weapon level to deturmine the strenght of the Aura.
Detect Alignment (2nd Level)
A Divine Weapon detects alignment as a Paladin does with one exception. Good Divine Weapons detect Evil and Evil Divine Weapons detect Good. Neutral (Neither Good nor Evil) Divine weapons must select either Good or Evil. This selection cannot be changed once selected and is tied to their ability to Channel energy for multiclass Clerics. (If you Channel Positive energy, you Detect Evil)
Smite (2nd Level)
A Divine Weapon may Smite as Paladin does, using thier Divine Weapon levels in place of Paladin levels, effecting creatures of the type they can detect with thier Detect Alignment class feature. They may do this once per day at 2nd level and once more every 3 levels there after up to 6 times per day. This does not stack in any way with a Paladin's Smite Evil ability.
Bonus Feats (4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 19th)
Bonus Feats must be selected from the Combat Feat List.
Use Wands (3rd)
A Divine Weapon that Smites Evil may use Cure wands as if they had all Cure spells on thier class list. If they Smite Good then they can use Inflict wands as if they had all Inflict spells on thier class list.
Some balancing is probably needed especialy with Bonus Feats and Smite uses.
I was cool with this until the very last line about spontaneous casting of domain spells.
you have some very powerful domain spells in there. I think unlimited access to those would become overpowered.
Spontaneous casting extends up to 8th level spells (Cure Critical Wounds Mass) in normal clerics. I could see capping the weaponbearer's spontaneous spell access at the 7th level spell on the list (i.e. it's only available for the spells that directly work through the favored weapon).
Beyond that, if that still seems too powerful, I'd have to put something else in place of spontaneous healing, since that doesn't fit the archetype's flavor IMHO.
Get rid of your spontaneous casting variant.
Include language in the weapon bearer feature so that any weapon that is the favored weapon of the deity counts as a holy symbol, not just the 1st level freebie.
I don't like the 8th level ability. It reminds me of the statement made by many that a cleric is a better fighter than the fighter. I would start brainstorming some replacement abilities.
Get rid of your spontaneous casting variant.
Wow, that's not getting a lot of love here. From my vantage point, it's not that much worse than a magus' abilities...
Be that as it may, *perhaps* replace spontaneous casting with Favored Enemy from the Ranger class (vs the god's enemies)?
Include language in the weapon bearer feature so that any weapon that is the favored weapon of the deity counts as a holy symbol, not just the 1st level freebie.
OK, I can see that.
I don't like the 8th level ability. It reminds me of the statement made by many that a cleric is a better fighter than the fighter. I would start brainstorming some replacement abilities.
That's the basic 8th level ability from the War Domain. I didn't create it, just borrowed it (in the interest of trying to keep things within the scope of what's already available).
I'm not against it from a flavor perspective, but I'm not that bought on the mechanics.
Weaponbearer - Appropriate and not broken in any way.
Channeled blows - I don't like this. I don't like the idea of dropping orisons for a full caster - it breaks the general design of casters and it's a penalty that quickly becomes neglible. Also it removes several important spells from the spell list, such as Detect Magic (though that can be duplicated with items quite easily). I'm not against them getting channel smite, I'm just against the choice of dropped ability.
Weaponbearer Domain - I'm not bought on this. It's basically a mashup of the destruction and war domains, which means those (otherwise fitting) domains are redundant for the class. I think it'd be better if it just dropped one domain (getting just one domain of choice) and got other powers over the levels parallel to that.
Spontaneous casting - I don't like this. It's quite a drastic powerup, since the domain spells are good but healing spells often aren't that good.
Sorry to sound negative, but I really think you should reconsider the abilities as a whole. It feels a bit like a wishlist for a combat-oriented cleric, giving up very little to gain quite a lot (giving up one domain for a domain with the best powers and spells of warfare and destruction, giving up quite lousy spont. casting for great spont. casting, and giving up 0th level spells for two feats).
I'd drop the weaponbearer domain, have the cleric choose just a single domain, regive them the orisons, and grant them a few custom powers at select levels (permanent aligned weapon would fit, as would weapon focus as a bonus feat).
Weaponbearer:
Many deities have favored weapons, and some of their servants undertake to master the use of these blessed weapons in the service of their god. Weaponbearers are often found as temple guards, protectors of pilgrims, and bodyguards to high-level priest(esse)s.
Weaponbearer - The weaponbearer gains Weapon Focus in her deity's favored weapon as a bonus feat. She may use the favored weapon of her deity as her holy symbo, and also gains a masterwork version of their deity's favored weapon at 1st level.
Domains - A weaponbearer may only choose a single domain.
Channeled blows - Beginning at 2nd level, when using her deity's favored weapon, the weaponbearer may treat herself as having the Channeled Smite feat.
Aligned Weapon - Beginning at 4th level, a weaponbearer of a non-neutral deity may treat her deity's favored weapon as always having the same alignment as her deity. If her deity is true neutral, she may instead treat her hand as free for the purpose of casting spells while she is holding her deity's favored weapon.
Greater Channeled Blows - When using her deity's favored weapon, a 12th level weaponbearer may treat herself as having the greater channel smite feat.
Blessed Bond - At 16th level, while the weaponbearer is wielding her deity's favored weapon, the weapon cannot be disarmed, broken or damaged in any way.
[spoiler=On spontaneous casting]
Get rid of your spontaneous casting variant.Wow, that's not getting a lot of love here. From my vantage point, it's not that much worse than a magus' abilities...
Be that as it may, *perhaps* replace spontaneous casting with Favored Enemy from the Ranger class (vs the god's enemies)?
You're missing that the magus is a 2/3 caster and the ranger is a 1/3 caster while the cleric is a full caster. If you drop it's max spell level to 6 or 4 that should be fine.
Spontaneous casting of cure/inflict spells is a weak ability because those are weak spells, regardless of level - at least for the cleric, which has access to the much better Channel Energy. It's rare that you'd spend actual spell slots to heal much less than you can do without, unless you really dump-stated cha. The only good healing spell is Heal, and that can't be converted.
Also, those spells are already part of the spell-list, while domain spells can often designed to give limited access to some powerful spell that fits the flavor of that domain - they aren't balanced against the ability to cast them as many times as you have spell slots (and certainly not spontaneously).
Also, it doesn't really fit the flavor of the class. It's not against it, it's just not central to a warrior-centered archetype to be better at casting than the standard.
Goshdarn, can't edit anymore. Well, some more focused critique:
Get rid of your spontaneous casting variant.Wow, that's not getting a lot of love here. From my vantage point, it's not that much worse than a magus' abilities...
Be that as it may, *perhaps* replace spontaneous casting with Favored Enemy from the Ranger class (vs the god's enemies)?
You're missing that the magus is a 2/3 caster and the ranger is a 1/3 caster while the cleric is a full caster. If you drop it's max spell level to 6 or 4 that should be fine.
Spontaneous casting of cure/inflict spells is a weak ability because those are weak spells, regardless of level - at least for the cleric, which has access to the much better Channel Energy. It's rare that you'd spend actual spell slots to heal much less than you can do without, unless you really dump-stated cha. The only good healing spell is Heal, and that can't be converted.
Also, those spells are already part of the spell-list, while domain spells can often designed to give limited access to some powerful spell that fits the flavor of that domain - they aren't balanced against the ability to cast them as many times as you have spell slots (and certainly not spontaneously).
Also, it doesn't really fit the flavor of the class. It's not against it, it's just not central to a warrior-centered archetype to be better at casting than the standard.
Allowing the cleric to spontaneously heal 4d8+15 or 2d8+11 by giving up a slot when it can already heal 8d6 or 6d6 without giving up a slot is a really minor power. But say you have this power and chose the air domain - even ignoring the weaponmaster domain itself. You get to more or less add to spell list: Wind Wall at a lower level (great spell, great spontaneous spell), Gaseous Form (occacionally awesome spell, especially if you have control winds, and wonderful to have spontaneous), Control Winds, Chain Lightning (adding some much-needed blasting backup to a cleric, and one of the better blasts), Elemental Form, Whirlwind and Elemental Swarm (don't know how good those spells are though, since I rarely play at those levels).
That is a very very relevant ability that changes how the cleric plays quite a lot compared to having those spells once per day. Especially when coupled with the other domain.
I'd drop the weaponbearer domain, have the cleric choose just a single domain, regive them the orisons, and grant them a few custom powers at select levels (permanent aligned weapon would fit, as would weapon focus as a bonus feat).
OK, OK, I give up on spontaneous casting of weapon spells. I know when I'm beaten. ;-) But it seems to me that trading an entire domain for just two extra feats at 2nd and 12th levels is a poor trade (and also, I haven't seen situations where weapon breakage is a factor all that often). One thing I was thinking of this afternoon was using the Divine Bond (Weapon) feature from the Paladin class. I'd say *that* is worth trading one domain and spontaneous heal casting for...
Divine Bond (Sp): A weaponbearer shares a divine bond with her god’s wrath and justice. This bond allows the weaponbearer to enhance the god’s favored weapon she uses as a standard action by calling upon the aid of a celestial spirit for 1 minute per weaponbearer level. When called, the spirit causes the weapon to shed light as a torch. At 1st level, this spirit grants the weapon a +1 enhancement bonus. For every four levels beyond 1st, the weapon gains another +1 enhancement bonus, to a maximum of +5 at 17th level. These bonuses can be added to the weapon, stacking with existing weapon bonuses to a maximum of +5, or they can be used to add any of the following weapon properties: axiomatic, brilliant energy, defending, disruption, flaming, flaming burst, holy, keen, merciful, and speed. Adding these properties consumes an amount of bonus equal to the property's cost (see Table: Melee Weapon Special Abilities). These bonuses are added to any properties the weapon already has, but duplicate abilities do not stack. If the favored weapon is not magical, at least a +1 enhancement bonus must be added before any other properties can be added. The bonus and properties granted by the spirit are determined when the spirit is called and cannot be changed until the spirit is called again. The celestial spirit imparts no bonuses if the weapon is held by anyone other than the weaponbearer but resumes giving bonuses if returned to the weaponbearer. A weaponbearer can use this ability once per day at 1st level, and one additional time per day for every five levels beyond 1st, to a total of four times per day at 18th level. If the favored weapon bonded with a celestial spirit is destroyed, the weaponbearer loses the use of this ability for 30 days, or until she gains a level, whichever comes first. During this 30-day period, the weaponbearer takes a –1 penalty on attack and weapon damage rolls. This ability replaces spontaneous casting and one domain.
Divine Bond is too good to get for a single domain. For archetypes (especially on already strong classes) it's better to err on the side of weak than the side of strong. My suggestion was giving up the domain for two feats and two other abilities that are about a feat and a half worth, so basically for three and a half feats spread over the levels.
Divine bond is just far too strong, and it also steps on the toes of another class. Especially if gained at 1st level! If you let them gain it at level 10 or so it might be more reasonable (but is kind of a late bloomer).
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I don't know if the Spontaneous Weapon spells are so bad. The Evangelist archetype has shown us just what a Cleric can do if it can spontaneously cast things other than Cure/Inflict, and the Urban Druid is a decent example of Spontaneously Casting Domain Spells. Has anyone seen either of those archetypes in action? Are all these Weapon spells really that much better than those spells?
And since Ilja did it...
Weapon Devotion: A weaponbearer is proficient in her deity's favored weapon ONLY. A weaponbearer can use her deity's favored weapon as a holy symbol for purposes of casting cleric spells. This modifies the cleric's normal weapon proficiencies.
Domains: A weaponbearer chooses only one domain.
Spontaneous Casting: A weaponbearer gains the ability to spontaneously cast Cure or Inflict spells, but a weaponbearer must make an attack with her deity's favored weapon as part of the casting of the spell in place of the melee touch attack the spell normally calls for. The weapon's damage dice, the cleric's Strength bonus, and any additional damage the weaponbearer deals on an ordinary attack (such as from weapon enhancement bonuses or Weapon Specialization) are added to the damage or healing done by the Cure or Inflict spell. Using this ability does not require a free hand and can be used with a two-handed weapon. This ability does not affect the casting time of Cure or Inflict spells, and can not be used as part of a full-attack action. This ability modifies the cleric's Spontaneous Casting ability.
Bonus Feats: At 1st level, a weaponbearer gains Weapon Focus with her deity's weapon as a bonus feat. At 5th level, she gains Weapon Specialization with that weapon. At 9th level she gains Greater Weapon Focus, and at 13th level, she gains Greater Weapon Specialization. These bonus feats replace the 1st, 5th, 9th, and 13th level instances of Channel Energy-- a weaponbearer can't channel energy until 3rd level, and her Channel Energy is capped at 6d6.
And since Ilja did it...
Weapon Devotion: A weaponbearer is proficient in her deity's favored weapon ONLY. A weaponbearer can use her deity's favored weapon as a holy symbol for purposes of casting cleric spells. This modifies the cleric's normal weapon proficiencies.
Domains: A weaponbearer chooses only one domain.
Spontaneous Casting: A weaponbearer gains the ability to spontaneously cast Cure or Inflict spells, but a weaponbearer must make an attack with her deity's favored weapon as part of the casting of the spell in place of the melee touch attack the spell normally calls for. The weapon's damage dice, the cleric's Strength bonus, and any additional damage the weaponbearer deals on an ordinary attack (such as from weapon enhancement bonuses or Weapon Specialization) are added to the damage or healing done by the Cure or Inflict spell. Using this ability does not require a free hand and can be used with a two-handed weapon. This ability does not affect the casting time of Cure or Inflict spells, and can not be used as part of a full-attack action. This ability modifies the cleric's Spontaneous Casting ability.
Bonus Feats: At 1st level, a weaponbearer gains Weapon Focus with her deity's weapon as a bonus feat. At 5th level, she gains Weapon Specialization with that weapon. At 9th level she gains Greater Weapon Focus, and at 13th level, she gains Greater Weapon Specialization. These bonus feats replace the 1st, 5th, 9th, and 13th level instances of Channel Energy-- a weaponbearer can't channel energy until 3rd level, and her Channel Energy is capped at 6d6.
I like this. The Channel Smite feats should probably be worked into the mechanics somehow, but this is a very good counter-proposal.
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I like this. The Channel Smite feats should probably be worked into the mechanics somehow, but this is a very good counter-proposal.
I'm glad to hear you say that. I figured that delivering Cure or Inflict spells as part of an attack with a weapon was similar enough to Channel Smite that it would be redundant to get both abilities. Instead of using your Channel to smite, you use your spell slots.
Plus I nerfed Channel down to 6d6, so Channel Smite moght not even be that good anymore anyway.
I also considered trading another d6 of Channel Energy for Improved Critical, probably at 17th level, but that seemed like too many bonus feats.
If you really like the idea of using Channel Energy in conjunction with your weapon, how about using Channel Energy to deal damage also counts as using the Dazzling Display feat? The radius is the same, after all...