Homebrew Prestige Class - The Rune Warden

[ZedFraank]

I am a DM for a game where one of the players (a fighter) has fully embraced a powerful magic item/macguffin that I had built for the game. So to help him along I designed a prestige class based on his weapon.

I've also tried to make it not specific to the campaign in hopes of using it in a future game.

Without further ado I present the Rune Warden

I didn't list the prerequisites due to not needing them when providing it to the player. However I was thinking the following would be reasonable.

• BAB: +8
• Ability Score: Constitution 13
• Special: Need to have acquired a "Weapon of Power" and possessed it four at least 1 full level
• Special: Must be wearing a suit of heavy armor (the suit is consumed in the process)

Also for context a "Weapon of Power" is a unintelligent artifact weapon (sort of similar to a Black blade) with the following aspects:

Weapon of Power:

• Magic weapon (at least a +1 enhancement)
• Bound to the wielder such that the user is Nauseated when further then a set distance (usually 10-20 ft) from the weapon
• Has a small set pool of charges between 3 and 9
• Has a way to obtain charges
• Has a few ways to spend charges at varying amounts
• Often made of exotic materials
• May have a mild passive effect when the pool of charges is full

Anyways, please critique I don't want this to be way to powerful or to weak.

[Grangerer]

Either i am missing something or this character will be dead rather fast.
There is no way of replenishing the arcane decay and 1's do happen.
Even if a player with 22 constitution makes his save with a 2, he will still be dead in an average of 120 weeks.
This gets worse extremely fast, if he does not succeed on the roll of a 2.
Or if he likes his arcane surge.

I like the spelllist for the most part, as it focusses on buffs and not on spells relying on saves.

The class is flavourful but i am just not a fan of putting a permanent gun to the chest of the player.

[ZedFraank]

If I removed the Arcane Decay would the class still be balanced?

[Ciaran Barnes]

Alter the skill list to include the associated ability score. Try to match the standard format when possible.

Try to get your chart to fit a little better. If you put "living" and "armor or separate lines, that column wouldn't be so wide. BAB could also be put on three lines to do the same.

Give him good Fort and Will.

Change the proficiencies to "Rune warden gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor."

Why did you choose a 3-level spell progression? 4 might be better,

Arcane Decay should be cut entirely or be altered in such a way that he is hindered with a failed save instead of eventually dead. For example, if he does X then he makes a save. Failure means he is fatigued and cannot use Y until Z.

Living Armor needs some work. The whole loosing proficiency thing is weird. How about:
A rune warrior merges with his armor, creating a slowly shifting mosaic of runes on his skin that grants him an armor bonus to Armor Class equal to 5 + 1/2 his level. Additionally, his creature type changes to outsider with the augmented and native subtypes.