So, I am currently in the process of writing a book series (should be publishing the first book in about seven years). At one point in the series, the main character (we’ll call him Luke), pursues a “Destroyer of Worlds” (A title the antagonist gained from literally doing that), across a number of dimensions. I had this idea of bringing him into the Pathfinder universe for use in a campaign, and want to create a homebrewed class that would aptly convey his abilities in a campaign setting.
This presents a major challenge for me; I know very well the abilities of this character (I’ve been preparing this book series for over a decade) enough to know that if I brought him in with all of his abilities, he could compete for OP status with your above-average Wizard, and I want to avoid him being THAT dominating (as fun as that would be). And I do not know how to appropriately convey all of his abilities either. Should they be feats, or class skills? It’s been giving me a headache.
So, I need to know how to best represent his abilities, Powers, and Skills. Let me start with a basic description of what this class would entail.
1) ALL Megamorphs have in their chest a symbiotic lifeform that grants them their powers and abilities and regulates them. This lifeform resides next to the heart. It is aware of EVERYTHING the host experiences, but CANNOT communicate with its host, and only under VERY specific circumstances can it control the actions of its host (and even then it often chooses not to). The lifeforms have a perfect memory, and about thrice the calculating ability of the smartest of humans, which they use to assist in the regulation of their hosts abilities. Their role is essentially to perform calculations that the host cannot, and compensate for it. The hosts abilities are limited only by their endurance, strength, and imagination; if the host can picture it, the symbiont can make up for the rest. (I.E. the host pictures how to create a fireball, and how to use it; the symbiont figures out how to DO that, and provides the energy and resources needed to do that.)
2) Megamorphs have access to 16 different “primary powers”, or P2 (pick 4-6 per character) and 18 different “secondary abilities”, or SA (pick 4 per character). (These will be covered later). All Megamorphs automatically have 4 universal abilities; Morpher, Energy Barrier, Enhanced lungs, and Mental Defense.
a. Morpher: can absorb a creatures DNA pattern, then become that creature. They cannot use any other abilities while in this form, and are limited to the number of forms they can have (usually about 5, 10 max; humanoids are easier to copy and only take up half a slot) and cannot change into tiny creatures. If killed while in that form, they survive, but lose that form until it’s reacquired.
b. Energy Barrier: A Megamorphs greatest defense, this unseen barrier can be summoned at will, and can with proper skill block projectiles from firearms. Anything that impacts the barrier is either trapped on it, or reflected off it. Very skilled Megamorphs can “catch” objects, then “repulse” them with increased force back at the target/source. (possibly a shield made of force)
c. Enhanced lungs: Megamorphs become adapted to low-air and aquatic environments; they can breathe in thin air, and underwater, but not in vacuum.
d. Mental defense: the Symbiont assists its host in repelling mental attacks, making it difficult to mentally damage or control a Megamorph. (bonus to will saves, perhaps)
3) Megamorphs have access to one of three “Combat Forms”, or CF, each of which is particular to one of three domains; Land, Ocean, and Sky (they are in some ways similar to a lycanthrope transformation). These forms are the apex of a Megamorphs power; entering a CF increases a Megamorphs power three-fold, increases the bond between host and symbiont, and increases their ability to control their powers. A Megamorph can only access one of these forms, and cannot change that form. The symbiont chooses the form their host can access. Each form gives the following benefits;
a. Land: Increased strength, endurance, and tougher skin; a “bio-blade which extends from the inner-wrist of each arm, and wraps around the front of the Megamorphs hand.
b. Ocean: Greater agility, flexibility, webbing on hands and feet; a “bio-blade”, which extends straight from the wrist on top of the hand, pointing forward.
c. Sky: Improved reflexes, vitality, and five wings; one for maneuvering, four for flying/speed. Each wing resembles a dragonfly’s wings; a “bio-blade” which extends from the outer-wrist of each arm, and curves back straight towards the elbow.
i. The “Bio-Blades” are an extension of the Symbiont, and allow it to great influence the world around them; there are three kinds of blades between the three CF’s, distinguished by their shape. These blades can be used for offense, defense, and also augment the Megamorphs powers. They have twice the strength of steel of the same thickness. (These would be considered a natural weapon, but could only be used in the CF)
ii. (I’m thinking each form would give bonuses to one of the three saves)
iii. Unlike with their morpher ability, if a Megamorph is killed while in a CF, they die. The Host and Symbiont die together.
A good way to picture it is with a point based system, with class 1 being worth 3 points, and class 3 being worth 1 point. The maximum is 10 points.
As mentioned, there are 16 different Primary Powers, which are divided into several subcategories as follows;
1) Elementals: the most common powers, and often the most “flashy”. A Megamorph can have any number of them from this category. There are eight of them;
a. Fire: allows manipulation of any flame. Skilled Megamorphs can ‘memorize’ different flame types, and recreate them later.
b. Plasma: high-risk power, allows control over ionized plasma. Often causes radiation damage in addition to severe burns. Very difficult to control and summon; requires great skill and fortitude to do so.
c. Water: difficult to summon, but easy to control in small quantities, and abundant enough that one does not have to summon it often. Skilled Megamorphs can launch water with such density that it operates like steel.
d. Ice: allows control over different kinds of ice, including water, nitrogen, and similar forms. Extremely difficult to summon, but can be created from existing water or liquids.
e. Air: allows control of gasses, wind. Very easy to control and summon, but takes skill to use for offensive purposes.
f. Lightning: control of electrons and ionized air; similar to plasma, but easier to control. Remarkably easy to summon, but requires great fortitude and mental clarity to control.
g. Earth: control over crystalline solids; cannot be summoned, but is simple to control. With greater skill, crystals can be shaped according to desires.
h. Metal: allows control over metals; cannot be summoned, and difficult to control. With enough skill, can be used to shape metal and manipulate it, often creating new alloys by mixing different metals.
2) Trimentals: mind related abilities; usually only one can be accessed by a single Megamorph. None of these can be class 3.
a. Psi: a combination of telepathy and telekinesis. Among Megamorphs, they are often used for communication purposes due to their ability to ‘link’ between many different Megamorphs. Their telekinesis is not as strong.
b. Shadow: so named because of the darkening effect that occurs when their abilities are used. Fully telekinetic, and very dangerous to face in close combat.
c. Astral: fully telepathic, but must remain still to use. Able to ‘separate’ their psyche and travel unseen while separated. Much more powerful than the psi version of telepathy, but more dangerous due to the fact that they die if their body is killed.
3) Gateways: the rarest of all powers, and the most dangerous; only 15 Megamorphs have ever had one of these abilities over the last 1,000 years, and they are ALWAYS class 1. They are as follows;
a. Light: control over light waves; very easy to summon, and very difficult to control. With great skill, can be used to ‘crush’ light, and fire it as lasers.
b. Spacial: control over spacial rifts and singularities; extremely dangerous power, very difficult to control. Often used as a last resort, due to the fact it can only be used once before the Megamorph becomes exhausted. Only 3 have ever existed.
c. Energy: control over kinetic energy; only 2 have ever existed. Can be used to manipulate… pretty much anything with kinetic energy. Can change the direction of an objects kinetic energy to send it flying in a given direction.
4) Alignmentals: the only powers that are class three only (class 2 under VERY rare circumstances). Purely passive abilities.
a. Order: grants more control over a Megamorphs abilities, in exchange for less raw power.
b. Havoc: grants more power to a Megamorphs abilities, in exchange for less control.
1) Shifting Abilities: generally allows a Megamorph to shift their form according to the ability.
a. Light Shifting: allows invisibility in lighted areas, especially sunlight.
b. Shadow Shifting: reverse of Light Shifting; invisibility in the dark.
c. Aqua Shifting: can shift one’s body into a clear liquid form.
d. Phase Shifting: able to pass through solid matter.
e. Matrix Shifting: able to become an electric current, and can travel in data streams.
f. Strato Shifting: able to ‘jump’ between places within sight; imagine a very fast but short range teleport.
2) Enhancer Abilities: while generally passive in their effects, these abilities can often have impressive effects together.
a. Hyper Reflexes: not only enhances reflexes, but it also enhances one’s ability to think. HR Megamorphs can think so quickly that it is often mistaken for a sixth sense.
b. Mega Strength: at least twice the strength of an average man.
c. Sonic hearing: increased range of hearing, and increased hearing range.
d. Eagle Eye: very sharp eyesight, often to the point of being able to count dust particles in a cloud from 100 yards away.
e. Intelligence: increased learning ability and memory retention.
f. Extremespeed: strengthens muscles and tendons, allowing speed and movement that would hurt an ordinary individual.
3) Other Abilities: abilities that often require active concentration to use.
a. Energy Transfer: allows one to exchange bio-electric energy between individuals. Can be used to stabilize people who are near death.
b. Zone shifter: imagine a bag of holding, without the bag.
c. Levitation: in a nutshell, who needs gravity?
d. Healing: can accelerate healing in self or others. Requires knowledge of the subjects’ anatomy to function properly.
e. Teleportation: takes a standard action to use, but works over long distance.
f. Vision Cycler: can switch between three types of vision at will: standard, infrared, and ultraviolet.
That is, in a very long nutshell, all of the possible abilities of the Megamorphs. So, my question now, is how on earth do I translate all of this into Pathfinder worthy rule-sets? Should/can I use all of these, or should I limit them for the Pathfinder Character?
The main things I need to focus on (as they are Luke's abilities) are
(Please note: if you want to borrow an idea from this for any reason, please let me know first: I will be happy to oblige as long as I know beforehand. I may even work with you on some details.)
Sounds like a souped up version of the Primal Host from Little Red Goblin Games. Might want to just modify some things from that.
I am not familiar with that. Where can I find details on it?
Hmmm, I took a look, but there doesn't seem to be enough detail to fit this into, though it might make for a good base to start.
Sounds like an infusion of sci-fi into fantasy, but thats not a bad thing. I don't have special insight on how to implement this mechanically, but I wanted to remind you that Pathfinder will usually not accurately give life to characters from literature. In literature, a character's capabilities are not confined by rules and they succeed any time the author says they do. In a game, we give everything a reasonable chance of failure or success based on the character or monster's level and how much of their mechanical resources are devoted to it. Your "monsters" seem to have a pretty spectacular range of talents, but you still need enemies that low-level PCs can face off against. I assume this campaign is to start bringing your story to life so you can do some improv and come up with some cool new story ideas? Don't force things to closely match the version that will appear in your fiction. You can always change the facts later.
Sounds like an infusion of sci-fi into fantasy, but thats not a bad thing. I don't have special insight on how to implement this mechanically, but I wanted to remind you that Pathfinder will usually not accurately give life to characters from literature. In literature, a character's capabilities are not confined by rules and they succeed any time the author says they do. In a game, we give everything a reasonable chance of failure or success based on the character or monster's level and how much of their mechanical resources are devoted to it. Your "monsters" seem to have a pretty spectacular range of talents, but you still need enemies that low-level PCs can face off against. I assume this campaign is to start bringing your story to life so you can do some improv and come up with some cool new story ideas? Don't force things to closely match the version that will appear in your fiction. You can always change the facts later.
Believe me, I do understand that: that's one of the challenges I'm facing here; knowing what to include and what to exclude. And you hit the nail on the head in regards to my motivation for this involving improv and story ideas.
That being said, if I were to burn Luke down to his most important aspects, they would be Fire, Water, Electricity, Hyper Reflexes, Teleportation, Psi, and Healing, in addition to his Sky Combat Form, with the Sky CF and Fire being his most commonly used ones. What could I do about creating or using an existing class to emulate this?
I would start at the growth progression. At what level does a megamorph gain more primary/secondary abilities? At what level do they gain the universal abilities? It is a bad idea to dump them all at the first level since that encourages 1 level dips for a super power boost.
I would suggest a primary power point every odd level starting at level 1. And at each new level you can redistribute your points OR have a special rule that 3 points can be traded in for a gateway power at a suitably high level.
a Secondary ability can be picked up every 4 levels with the limitation that a different Subcategory must be chosen each time.
Of course this assumes that a megamorph you describe reaches its prime at level 20.
What ability is the focus of the megamorph? Does it make sense to have the morpher ability from level 1? Or can you leave it for a lvl 20 capstone ability? Or something in between?
I have a multi-energy homebrew class I've been working on, where the character masters new energy types as he gains levels, and learns new ways to use the energy types. I'm not going to show it to you because though I love the idea, I do not love how I have implemented it. I have literally scrapped it twice and then started over from nothing.
Point is, the hero could learn new energy types one at a time as he or she progresses. Maybe early on the symbiote boosts his metabolism, causing regeneration of wounds, and then to swim quicky and breather underwater. As he becomes more powerful, he gains glimpses of enemys' minds to anticipate actions and then to breathe flame. As he masters the symbiote's potential, he can propel himself through the air and finally to vanish from sight and reappear in a neaby location.
Of course, there would be countless variations on each "energy", and each hero would be different. Variations for energy types, for attack types, for defense, for utility. My stuggle has been making a set of mechanics that governs all energies, some mechanics for categories of how each is used, and then to keep the really specific stuff to a minimum. The end goal is to end up with a 5 page document instead of a 20 page document, with the hopes of at least attempting balance.
I hope that helps. :)
I would start at the growth progression. At what level does a megamorph gain more primary/secondary abilities? At what level do they gain the universal abilities? It is a bad idea to dump them all at the first level since that encourages 1 level dips for a super power boost.
I would suggest a primary power point every odd level starting at level 1. And at each new level you can redistribute your points OR have a special rule that 3 points can be traded in for a gateway power at a suitably high level.
a Secondary ability can be picked up every 4 levels with the limitation that a different Subcategory must be chosen each time.
Of course this assumes that a megamorph you describe reaches its prime at level 20.
What ability is the focus of the megamorph? Does it make sense to have the morpher ability from level 1? Or can you leave it for a lvl 20 capstone ability? Or something in between?
The tricky part in this case is that one of the basic ideas of these guys (which I may not have clarified) is that it is the Symbiont that determines the host powers. THEY do the picking and choosing, based on their very in-depth (pun intended) understanding of their host. The most the host can do is desire a particular power/ability, and hope the Symbiont sees them as able to handle it. That being said, they do have a degree of control over how much they develop their powers, so perhaps the point system could be used to determine how many Class 1's they end up with.
To answer your last question, since the Universal Abilities are abilities that ALL Megamorphs have, I was thinking those would be their Level 1 Abilities, with them having one already developing power which would be rolled randomly (possibly even decided by the DM), or maybe even having it so that their first power is the only one they get to decide. As for the "focus" of a Megamorph, that would definitely be the Combat Form. I'm starting to think that that would be unlocked at Level 5, and it would get stronger as the Megamorph Level's up over time.
I have a multi-energy homebrew class I've been working on, where the character masters new energy types as he gains levels, and learns new ways to use the energy types. I'm not going to show it to you because though I love the idea, I do not love how I have implemented it. I have literally scrapped it twice and then started over from nothing.
Point is, the hero could learn new energy types one at a time as he or she progresses. Maybe early on the symbiote boosts his metabolism, causing regeneration of wounds, and then to swim quicky and breather underwater. As he becomes more powerful, he gains glimpses of enemys' minds to anticipate actions and then to breathe flame. As he masters the symbiote's potential, he can propel himself through the air and finally to vanish from sight and reappear in a neaby location.
Of course, there would be countless variations on each "energy", and each hero would be different. Variations for energy types, for attack types, for defense, for utility. My stuggle has been making a set of mechanics that governs all energies, some mechanics for categories of how each is used, and then to keep the really specific stuff to a minimum. The end goal is to end up with a 5 page document instead of a 20 page document, with the hopes of at least attempting balance.
I hope that helps. :)
If you can send me a private message, I'd like to see what you have come up with, if you wouldn't mind. As a writer, I've learned to condense and revise material, so I may be able to help. Maybe in the process, I can get some ideas for myself and this class as well.