| 6 people marked this as a favorite. |
Below are links to PDFs of several of my home-brew creations. I have worked hard to get them into their current state but feel free to critique them, or to use them in your own games.
Brute
A tough-as-nails bar room brawler who frightens his opponents and fights dirty. An alternate to the barbarian.
Fighter-Acrobat
This warrior trains relentlessly with weapons, but foregoes armor in favor of heightened agility. In place of a fighter's feats, she gains acrobatic talents, similar to a rogue's.
Cathbadi
A spontaneously casting variant of the druid. Incomplete.
Hedge Mage
Much like a wizard, but with less formal training and more intuitive magical ability.
Knave
An alternative to the rogue who develops a supernatural master of deceit. Also incomplete.
Lumberjack
An axe wielding warrior who cuts down trees, skips and jumps, and likes to press wild flowers. Very Monty Python.
Savage Lord
An thematic infusion of the ranger and the bard, without borrowing any of their mechanics. As capable in the wilds as he is amongst nobles.
Prairie Dwarf
A cousin to the traditional dwarf that have been featured as background character in many of my games throughout the years.
Thank you for sharing this, Barnes. I like the knave, in particular, and would love to play one.
My pleasure. I had a solid concept when I began the knave, but it turned into quite the ordeal to stretch it out to 20 levels. Glad you like it. It began as a companion to the brute class, and are both based on generally unsavory personal qualities. There are art of a trilogy and I will spnd day begin the final piece.
I just noticed my typos in the first post. That should say "mastery". :)
So far, I've only had time for the lumberjack. It was hilarious. I doubt I'd use it in a real campaign (I don't have the wit to pull off a full Monty Python campaign), but I lost it at Something Completely Different. Great job with the Monty Python flavor.
Now I want to play an ex-lumberjack barbarian.
We had a MP marathon at home ealier this year and the Lumberjack came together pretty quickly, without the normal hassle of stretching a class to 20 levels. Easiest homebrew I have ever done. After that I toyed with the idea of a Knight of Camelot class where dumping mental ability scores actually helped out in some cases, but abondoned it just as quickly.
Nice collection Barnes. Are you planning any archetypes for these, particularly the Hedge Mage?
Not yet. Maybe someday, or if an idea hits me. I started one for the savage lord, but that's it. You're not he first person to suggest hedge mage archetypes.
If I recall, there were some good suggestions on the Hedge Mage thread. Can't remember any of them now though, it's much too late for me.
Rainzax suggested wu jen, geomancer, and lay line walker. I suppose those could be accomplished by replacing a few class features and adding some hedge talents.
I might try working on a wu jen archetype if that's alright. I played a wu jen once.
I'd love to see what you come up with. I still have the 1st edition "Oriental Adventures" hardback, which featured the wu jen class. I thought it was fascinating, but never played one. I don't know if you would be drawing from that or not, but I remember that class having "taboos" that could be implemented similarly to the oracle's curse.
When I think of ley line walker, I can't help but think of Rifts RPG.
I played a 3.5 version. From one of the supplement books. Complete Arcane I think. I'll be referencing it and I'll probably use a the Oracle's curse too.
Ley line walker definitely sounds like Rifts. Good luck with that one. I um.. yeah. I'll figure something out.
What exactly is a geomancer supposed to be?
EDIT: So my plan for the Wu Jen after reading the class in Complete Arcane is pretty simple.
1. To keep it in line with your Hedge Mage, I'm going to refluff Subtle Magic as Watchful Spirit. Those abilities are nearly identical anyway.
2. I'll give it the Oracle's Curse in exchange for Imbune.
3. In 3.5, Wu Jen are arcane casters with a spellbook, so that stays the same. They get elemental spells. And rather than replace the Hedge Mage's spells altogether, I think I'll just give him an elemental school with some additional bonus spells for each school. And I'll replace Subtle Control with this.
Looks ok so far?
Here is the Wu Jen archetype. It's rather simple, and probably needs some clean up. Since you make such excellent pdfs Ciaran, I think I'll leave it to you to do that.
You busted that out pretty quick. The flavor of watchful spirit ties in very nicely.
For flavor and mechanical purposes, I think writing original Taboos would be more interesting that simply using Curses. I think tying the watchful spirit into the Taboos would be a nice touch.
Yeah but, I don't know how I should do that.
Perhaps creating like a bloodline thing. Basic model to follow.
Spirit of the Air:
Your spirit is fickle and flighty, and teaches you air elemental spells.
Watchful Spirit: Voices on the Wind
You occasionally hear voices carried by the wind which can warn you of danger. Once per day you can listen to the wind. Make a d20 + your hedge mage level + Intelligence modifier versus a DC of 20. If successful, you gain a competence bonus to all your rolls for the rest of the day equal to your Int mod.
Elemental School: Air
You gain access to the air elemental school and it's associated powers and spells. If you already have spells from the elemental spell list, then you gain the ability to cast these spells an additional time per day.
Taboo: Cannot Eat Meat
Spirits of the air abhor the consumption of animals for sustenance and pleasure. If you eat meat, your spirit will strip you of your elemental school benefits, and your Watchful Spirit.
Recommended Talents:
Any that involve air stuff. Also, electricity resistance.
I would separate the taboo from the watchful spirit, like the oracle has curse and mystery. I'm not advocating following the oracle closely, but it seems to have some parallels. When I have some time this weekend (and the ability to focus) I will pull out my old OA book and maybe CompArc to see if I can come up with an example, instead of just throwing requests at you. :)
Well I think that with this layout, you would pick your Spirit first. The Spirit then determines your Watchful Spirit bonus, your Elemental School, and your Taboo. These would still replace Subtle Magic, Imbune and Subtle Control respectively, but still be tied together mechanically. I see the taboo more like a Paladin's code. If the Paladin defies his code, he loses all of his Paladin class abilities. An Oracle cannot defy his curse.
Also, I went with the Cannot Eat Meat taboo because I see Air as the element of freedom, and you're not promoting freedom if you decide to eat another creature. Just thought I should clear that up. I might make up full Spirits later for all the rest, I'm really rather liking this idea.
As for the other two archetypes. I don't even know where to begin.
Geomancy as it turns out, is divination based on earthen items, like rocks, sand or dirt. Which seems like it could either be combined with the Wu Jen's earth spells or just reflavor the Subtle abilities of your Hedge Mage.
The Ley Line Walker is more difficult though. They can see magic, so Detect Magic should be a constant spell for them. They also know how to draw the energy from Ley Lines. Maybe a version of an Athas mage's defiling magic? One that doesn't defile but still grants bonus metamagic. Like, you spend X amount of time attuning yourself to the area and you can draw on magical reserves from the nearest ley line, boosting your spells for that day.
On an unrelated note, could you go check out my Rider archetype for the Magus? I need some input on it, particularly the new version.
Dot!
So here's what I have so far. The hedge mage spell list is rather lacking in offensive spells, so that influenced it. I'm having a hard time deciding on balance though. I feel like Elemental Study is more powerful than Imbue, but I'm just not sure. I haven't started on the taboos yet.
Watchful Spirit (Su): A we jen attracts a spirit that protects him by subtly affecting events that occur around him. At 1st level, a wu jen chooses a spirit. It can any spirit he chooses, such as the spirit of an ancestor or animal or a divine being, but once the choice made it cannot be changed. As an immediate action, a hedge mage can expend one use of Subtle Magic to force another creature within 10 feet of him re-roll a d20 it has just rolled, even if the result of the roll is known, and to use that result instead. This ability can only be used against a check that represents a span of time of no longer than 1 minute.
Beginning at 3rd level, the spirit begins to affect others near him more directly. As a standard action, he can expend one use of Subtle Magic to perform a combat maneuver, using his hedge mage level and Intelligence modifier in place of his base attack bonus and Strength modifier. For the purpose of this ability, his reach is 20 feet.
This ability replaces Subtle Influence and Subtle Control.
Elemental Study: A wu gen a instinctually drawn to one of the primal forces that make up the world, and gains access to one of the following elemental arcane schools: air, earth, fire, metal, void, water, or wood. Once the choice is made it cannot be changed.
The wu jen's elemental arcane schools grants him a number of class features. He uses his wu jen level level in place of his wizard level, and his Wisdom modifier in place of his Intelligence modifier. Any ability that can be used a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence bonus is instead used by expending one use of Subtle Magic.
A wu jen adds the elemental arcane school's associated spells to his spell list. He must still learn these spells and inscribe them in his spellbook in order to cast them. Unlike a wizard who selects an elemental arcane school, a wu jen does not gain bonus spell slots and does not have to select an opposing school.
This ability replaces Imbue.
Neat. I was going for more of a school/bloodline type thing for my version of the spirit, but your two class features work just as well.
Also, thanks for that wording. "He uses his wu jen level in place of his wizard level" is very helpful for my archetypes that add wizardy (or other nonsense, like my Factotum). Also, you got an extra "level" in there. Level level. Heh.
On another note, I might need new glasses. I read "I'm having a BARD time" the first couple of times. Had to lean in real close to see it was an H.
Having s bard time changes the meaning quite a bit. :)
It also needs a bit about allowing hedge talents to affect watchful spirit, even though the name of the class feature changed.
Hey, these PDF's look amazing. Great job. A lot of these classes piqued my interest, most of which being the Cathbadi. The concept is really cool and I think it's odd that there doesn't exist anything like it in the PF material.
I think that the force of nature aspects are really interesting and flavorful, and that the cycling domain feature is really utile and nifty. Very flavorful.
I don't know if you're taking input on developing your incompleted classes further, but I have some opinions and ideas, feel free to not pay attention to them lol
Forces of Nature category: Precepts (of nature)
These could be more abstract concepts that pertain to nature, like laws concerning nature, ecosystems and different overarching 'roles' different animal types play inside of their ecosystems. I'm not sure what they would look like mechanically, but some ideas:
-Predator
-The Chased
-The Herd
-Scavenger
-'Circle of Life/Death'
-Evolution
-'Survival of the Fittest'
-'Butterfly Effect'
-Equalization(of ecosystems... kinda ties in w/Survival of the Fittest)
-Storm
And they could be completely separate mechanically from the Wildlife forces.
Another idea I thought might be cool:
To mix the druid side in with the spontaneous/inherent energy concept, maybe add a randomized version of wildshape into the class.
If you were staying away from that feature on purpose I totally understand and you can forget this input as well.
As the Cathbadi levels they can choose to identify themselves with totems of different favored forms, and they can choose to assume one of these forms in the same vein as a druid. For the sake of example, let's say at lvl 20 they can assume ten forms. Each totem is marked with the number of order in which they learned the totem. Like, 1st totem, 2nd totem, et cetera.
When they change, they have to roll a d10. If it hits the number of one of their assumed totems, they change into that creature. But if it lands on a different number, they turn into a 'chaos-shape' that is beyond their control, and they morph into a level-appropriate form given by a randomized table.
Perhaps if they are in certain conditions, they can have complete control over their shapes just like a druid (within the forms they know), but in others the raw primal forces of nature overtake them. Maybe as they level they could also switch out older lower level totems for different options to have a rounded out base, but with more restrictions than the druid, sort of like a parallel to how each of their casting styles differ.
...Anyways. Just some random ideas about your beloved brainchildren from a complete stranger...
Great work on the whole. The flavor is so ingrained into the class abilities it's practically seamless.
Wow, thank you! I like the idea of natural archetypes. Your input is most welcome. My forces of nature are a work in progress, hardly perfect. I will see what I can do with your ideas. They would change the featured quite a bit I think, but would still be workable. An earlier draft included an ability that granted all of the wild shape spells to the cathbadi's list for free. However, I decided to move a bit further away from the Druid. He can still choose the spells if he likes.
No prob! let me know if you need any more springboarding for that class, as I would love to help you develop it.
I definitely wouldn't mind trying to brainstorm the mechanics for those forces of nature either. Let me know!
I these nature "archetypes" could be a bit like an oracle's mystery class feature. You choose one at 1st level and gain features as you advance in level. They could also all be available, but I would feel the need to tone back the power level for the sake of versatility.
I'm glad you like the domain cycles. In a perfect world, the new domains would be available based on some natural cycle. However, thats a pretty abstract concept, and I arbitrarily picked one week. I also considered making the cycle 1 day per class level.
You could go lunar month if you wanted to. Then it is up to the GM to say how many days that is. With each new lunar month, the domain changes. That is probably pretty long, but also petty short and allows for flexibility.
Hey there Ciaran. Do you mind if I reflavor (and rename) your Hedge Mage for my homebrew? I've distilled the three areas of magic (Arcane, Divine and Psychic) by adding four more (Fel, Natural, Science and Spirit) and shuffling the classes around to fit these. I think your Hedge Mage would fit the Spirit thing perfectly, in no small part due to the Wu Jen archetype. Learning magic from spirits feels rather like what the Hedge Mage does anyway.
I'm not sure what I'd rename him to, but I don't like the "Mage" part of Hedge Mage. Makes me think he should be associated with the Magus, and other than the imbue ability they don't have anything in common. And I'm filled with this desire to combine like terms.
Please do! It would be an honor. But you'll have to give me some feedback if it ever gets some game play.
Awesome, thanks. We need to figure out how to make Ley Line Walker and Geomancer into archetypes. And I really don't know how to do that.
Except maybe for Ley Line Walker, we could use a similar rule to the defiling magic rule of 3.5 Dark Sun. Only instead of defiling the land for so long to get free metamagic, you just attune yourself to the nearest ley line for so long. What do you think?
I have no idea what to do with Geomancer, except maybe give a bunch of divination and earth spells to him.
Also, I think I came up with a suitable name replacement for the Hedge Mage class, that is both one word and will prevent any confusion that it should be associated with the Magus class: Enchanter.
In D&D and Pathfinder, an enchanter could mean one of two things. Either you mess with people's minds using magic, or you imbue weapons or other mundane objects with magical power. While the Hedge Mage doesn't have much in the way of Enchantment spells, the Imbue class feature is their strongest class feature (I think so anyway). Therefore, I submit to you that Enchanter is a suitable name, if a little deceiving. What do you think?
Yes, enchantment doesn't mean the same thing in game as it does in real life. I'm kind of of eh about the name for this class, but if it works well at your table then that is a good thing.
Oh darn, I was hoping to get your seal of approval. I have others, although I'm not as happy about them.
My friend came up with Neomagician, but I feel that is too futuristic. Alternatively, Magician could work though it is pretty similar to Mage/Magus.
I found Apostate on the Dragon Age wiki, it is a term used for hedge mages in that game apparently. Though in the real world it has a correlation with people against religion.
And I also thought Adept might be good to showcase the limited spell selection, but it is the name of an NPC class.
I tried to find a good word with "mancer" in it, but it turns out all "mancy" is related to divination, so that failed.
I might go with Enchanter anyway. I like it, it has a nice ring to it, and it semi-accurately describes the main class ability. Though some might be thinking the Enchanter has more power than he does (in terms of spells), because it doesn't seem fitting to a low-spell level caster. Truthfully though, the Hedge Mage's Subtle Magic is super powerful.
On another note, what do you think of this?
Hedge Mastery:
At level 20, the Hedge Mage can choose to Imbue objects with the effects of a Hedge Talent he knows. Anyone holding the imbued object gains the ability to use that Hedge Talent. This Hedge Talent is added in addition to the Hedge Mage's normal Imbue ability (as in you still get the bonus you choose for the item).
For Hedge Mastery, I was thinking about allowing a super bas-ass form of Imbue, where either some of the items he imbues permanently become magic items, or he crafts an artifact (which would be awesome). Your version in involving hedge talents though would make sense though.
The Hedge Talent imbued items could be permanently magical too. Why not? Crafting an artifact would be cool, but I'm not sure I know how to write that.
Just for the Lumberjack class, THANKIES!^^