Hi, folks!
So, I sort of do a lot of homebrewing on my own for games with my friends and rarely share them on the Interwebs, but I had this idea that I might throw this class out there, just because I'm a bit unsure about its balance.
Basically, the premise is this: we have an upcoming game with three players, meaning that all characters need to be at least a bit all-round in order to cover all major party roles. Now, I sort of got stuck in the divine/healer role, and I know I could fill that admirably as a cleric or oracle or even a witch (sort of). But I dislike playing straight casters, and I sort of have this fascination with domain powers and revelations and other spell-like and supernatural abilities like that. So what I did was throw together a sort of mish-mash of class features from different classes (SuperGenius Games' tovenaar archetype for the magus, combined with the hexcrafter archetype were what originally got me thinking along these lines, and so all credit in that direction for the basic concept) that I think could make for some interesting sort of divine trickster-y character concepts.
Anyway, what I want to know is: would this class be balanced? I've tried building some test characters, and haven't really found anything glaringly overpowered in terms of combinations. Domain powers, revelations and hexes are a lot to juggle, but considering they never gain any major or grand hexes I am less worried about the latter. The point is I don't need this class to be perfectly elegantly balanced. I'm only intending it for home use. I just want to see so I haven't missed some horrible OP thing that'll arise out of the class' combination of class features before I present this to the GM. In our group we're very free and open with homebrew stuff as long as it doesn't disturb the power level. Another player is playing a homebrewed defense-themed melee class, and the third is playing a shadow conjuration/evocation-focused illusionist. My hope is to be able to occupy a power level somewhere between those two. But do feel free to dash those hopes if I've completely mismanaged building (or nicking and cobbling together) this class.
Now, without further ado: The Pilgrim
Hmm...just thought of a musing to add. I do believe the two things that stand out the most as possible unbalancing factors would be
1) the sheer amount of domains (capped at 12 at 18th level!)
2) the ability to freely choose revelations from any oracle mystery
My problem with this is that these two things are also what make the class fun. If it turns out people find it way out of whack, I would prefer reducing the number of domains rather than the revelation selection, if at all possible. I kind of think of the domains as spell levels, except less good. You basically get 2 domains for every new spell level a full caster would get (+3 'extra' domains at early levels). That could possibly be reduced to a 3/4 progression or something. Anyway, that might be worth taking into consideration, maybe?
Also, shameless bump.
For the sake of completion I just thought I'd add that I've completely erased hexes from the class' abilities, as I realized that just felt tacked-on and superfluous. Domains and revelations are plenty, I think, and possibly even those class features might merit shearing.
Hmm. I guess this hasn't really piqued anyone's interest. I know it's hardly a very original work, and I'm not posting it show off my awesome creativity. I just thought it was kind of neat the way the diferent class abilities came together and made for a potentially well-banached oddball class. Really all I need to know is if this balanced enough to run in a home game. I'm not really looking for in-depths reviews of my homebrewing talents. My suspicion is it might be a bit too strong at early levels, and will then sort of peter off. Then again, if it turns out too weak I might bring the hexes back or something. Anyway, any and all constructive input wildly appreciated!
I'm looking it over for you; I'll let you know what I (and maybe my gaming group tonight) think.
I am eternally grateful! Any indication as to its balance would be supremely helpful. I often come up with a lot of ideas for classes and such I find neat, but I somewhat suck at inventing new mechanics from whole cloth, and that leads to me making these not-very-creative mashup classes. Still, this really fits the flavor of what I want to play in the upcoming game, so I'm crossing my fingers it'll pass muster, or at least survive with only light tweaking.
Another thing came to mind after making a few more test chars and running them through some simulated scenarios. Even with the restriction on domain powers and revelations never being able to grant a bonus greater than your character level to a single 'variable' (attack rolls, skill checks, etc.) I also thought this might be a useful add-on:
'A pilgrim can only select a single revelation that grants an untyped bonus to attack or damage rolls, and only a single revelation that grants any form of resistance against a particular energy type (acid, cold, electricity, fire or sonic). Note that the restriction of no bonus being granted to a single variable in any given round ever exceeding her class level applies to the pilgrim's revelations as well.'
It just seems to me that if there's any part of the class in serious danger of being unbalanced, it's the potential for stacking all sorts of bonuses to create some sort of uber-melee-monster. I'm not too scared about utility, debuffing, buffing or healing capacities thus far, though.