Battle Mage (custom)

borble · Jun 22, 2007

cool, ill right up a paragraph, but sound, i dont think the knolege skills work right, and the armor seems way to complex for me.
as it stands i have a few revitions to add in, and i typed up the fluff (quite alot acualy, baced off of Complete Arcane). i forgot my jumpdrive at home (smacks myself in the head...), but i will type up the outline soon, befor i get back (ill be back within an hour). thanks all.
ben
NOTE: we can also put a resriction of their spells on the land (AKA. in a cold place the rocks dont know how to cast fire spells, or in a desert you cant cast water spells, and only healing spells at night), food for the mind.

borble · Jun 22, 2007

A Battle Mage is the king spellcaster of battle; they fill every role spell casters need to fill in battle, and has a bit of physical prowess to back his spells up. He can heal, he can kill, he can buff. But he can’t help out side of battle, at all, he can’t cast utilitarian spells, at all. And he can’t be any aid outside of battle (this also means he cant cast wish in battle, unless he is wishing away the monster or wishing into life an awesome sword). And when his spells run out, he has some physique to fight in battle. Other spell casters always accompany them for the Battle Mage isn’t able to fill out-of-battle roles.

Basically a pimping mage for battle, with no other uses.

did i do it right?
ben
EDIT: i like what you got for spells so far, but i think i handeled the rest, and i will do skills today.
also, i think cuting the cast lvl is not a bad idea.....

monboesen · Jun 22, 2007

Personally I kind of liked the concept of the Dragon Bound (but not the mechanics) but this one seems flawed to me.

I have the following issues.

1. Depending on the actual campaign (or even the specific game day) the Battle Mage could easily be a total bore to play (in a campaign focusing on politics/investigation/exploration etc.) or be overpowered compared to the rest of the PC's (in a campaign consisting mainly of battles). In my experience neither situation is fun for the player(s).

2. I don't understand the actual reason for the Battle Mages inability to cast spells out of combat. It seems arbitrary and unfounded.

3. I don't think that any class should have acces to both strong blasting spells (fireball etc.) and healing spells. That has to do with the usual division of arcane and divine magic in D&D. Your Battle Mage seems to fit the arcane spell caster role and therefore should not have acces to healing spells. No other arcane caster have that (to my knowledge).

4. I don't find your class different enough from the Warmage, Battlesorcerer or Ragemage to warrant a new class.

If I was to pursue a concept that had the overall idea of being a better caster in combat I would go for something like a caster level benefit or some free metamagic at a fixed number of times per day. Sort of like a Barbarians rage, but with bonuses to spellcasting. But as far as I know that is the way Warmages and Ragemages work.

You haven't commented on the reservations about 9th level spells at 13 level and acces to all spells. I can refine my statement to this point: In my opinion your class can never be balanced if it grants acces to a spell level at lower level than a wizard, can cast more spells per day than a sorcerer or have a more diverse spell list than a druid.

Sound of Azure · Jun 23, 2007

borble said:
cool, ill right up a paragraph, but sound, i dont think the knolege skills work right, and the armor seems way to complex for me.

I'm not sure what you mean regarding the Knowledge skills. In addition, I didn't put anything different regarding the armour proficiencies (i.e. none). In the revised version below, there's no need to worry about arcane spell failure anyway since the class uses spell-like abilities.

as it stands i have a few revitions to add in, and i typed up the fluff (quite alot acualy, baced off of Complete Arcane). i forgot my jumpdrive at home (smacks myself in the head...), but i will type up the outline soon, befor i get back (ill be back within an hour). thanks all.
ben
NOTE: we can also put a resriction of their spells on the land (AKA. in a cold place the rocks dont know how to cast fire spells, or in a desert you cant cast water spells, and only healing spells at night), food for the mind

hmm, no sure how to go about that. I'll have a think about it and get back to you.

For now, here's a revision of my earlier idea:

[sblock=SoA's Battle Mage(tm)]
Battle Mage

Born of conflict, a battle mage is a disciple of war spells, revelling in arcane might.

Game Rule Information
Battle mages have the following game statistics
Abilities: In addition to granting additional hit points, Constitution determines how powerful a dweomer a battle mage can cast, and how hard those dweomers are to resist (see Dweomers, below). Like a sorcerer or wizard, a battle mage benefits from a high Dexterity. A high Intelligence increases a battle mage’s array of skills, and Strength is important for melee combat.
Alignment: any non-lawful
Hit Die: d8

Class Skills
The battle mage’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (history), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Intelligence modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Intelligence modifier

The Battle Mage

Code:

	Base	Saves						Dwmr	Dwmr	Auras
Lvl	Attack	F/R/W	Special					Known	Ready	Known	
1st	+0	2/0/2	Eldritch Aura +1, Essential Arcana	3	3	1
2nd 	+1	3/0/3	Eldritch Senses				4	3	1
3rd 	+2	3/1/3	-					5	3	1
4th	+3	4/1/4 	Identify Armament			5	4	2
5th 	+3	4/1/4	Eldritch Aura +2, Bonus Feat		6	4	2
6th 	+4	5/2/5	-					6	4	2
7th	+5	5/2/5	Soul Shield				7	4	2
8th	+6	6/2/6	Quickening 1/day			7	4	2
9th	+6	6/3/6	Bonus Feat				8	4	2
10th	+7	7/3/7	Eldritch Aura +3			8	5	3
11th	+8	7/3/7	Imbue Armaments				9	5	3
12th	+9	8/4/8	-					9	5	3
13th	+9	8/4/8	Bonus Feat				10	5	3
14th	+10	9/4/9	-					10	5	3
15th	+11	9/5/9	Eldritch Aura +4			11	6	3
16th	+12	10/5/10	-					11	6	4
17th	+12	10/5/10	Bonus Feat				12	6	4
18th	+13	11/6/11	Quickening 2/day			12	6	4
19th	+14	11/6/11	-					13	6	4
20th	+15	12/6/12	Eldritch Aura +5			13	7	4

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the battle mage.

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Battle mages are proficient in all simple weapons, and with all martial thrown weapons. Battle mages are proficient with light armour, but not with any type of shield.

Due to the nature of their powers, armour does not interfere with a battle mage’s auras, dweomers or other eldritch powers.

Essential Arcana (Sp): Choose a total of 5 0-level spells from any spell list of your choice. You may use these minor spell-like abilities a combined total of times per day equal to 3 + your Constitution modifier. These spell-like abilities do not count toward your total of dweomers known, nor do they need to be readied to be utilised. Saving throws against the battle mage’s essential arcana have a DC of 10 + the battle mage’s Constitution modifier. Your caster level for these spell-like abilities equals your class level.

Dweomers (Sp): A battle mage’s soul is a font of arcane energy. Their training consists of directing this energy into spell effects called dweomers. A dweomer is a specific spell-like ability known to the battle mage and may be drawn from the spell list of any spellcasting class.

You begin your career with knowledge of three dweomers. Once a dweomer is known, it must be readied before you can use it in battle. Like all spell-like abilities, dweomers are subject to spell resistance and dispel magic. Dweomers do not function in areas where magic is suppressed or negated (such as an antimagic field).

Due to their nature, dweomers do not incur the chance for arcane spell failure from armour. However, unlike other spell-like abilities, a battle mage’s dweomers incur XP costs if the spell they emulate had an XP cost. Similarly, if the emulated spell had an expensive material component, the battle mage must pay an XP cost of 1/5 the gp cost of the material component. A battle mage must procure the necessary focus component if they wish to use a dweomer emulating a spell that requires one.

You learn additional dweomers at higher levels, as shown in the table. To take a specific dweomer, a battle mage must be of sufficient caster level (see the table) and must have a Constitution score of at least 10 + the spell’s level (Con 11 for 1st-level spells, Con 12 for 2nd-level spells, and so forth). The difficulty class (DC) for a saving throw against a Battle Mage’s dweomer is 10 + the spell’s level + the battle mage’s Constitution modifier.

Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even-numbered battle mage level after that (6th, 8th, 10th, and so on), you can choose to learn a new dweomer in place of one you already knows. In effect you lose the old dweomer in exchange for the new one. You can choose a new dweomer of any level you like, as long as you observe the restriction on the highest-level dweomers you know; you need not replace the old dweomer with a dweomer with one of the same level.

Code:

Battle Mage	Dweomer
Level		Level
1st-2nd		1st
3rd-4th		2nd
5th-6th		3rd
7th-8th		4th
9th-10th	5th
11th-12th	6th
13th-14th	7th
15th-16th	8th
17th+		9th

Dweomers Readied: You can ready all three of your dweomers you know at 1st level, but as you advance in level and learn more dweomers, you must choose which dweomers to ready. You ready your dweomers by meditating for 10 minutes. The dweomers you choose remain readied until you decide to meditate again and change them. You need not sleep or rest for any long period of time to ready your dweomers; any time you spend 10 minutes in meditation, you can change your readied dweomers.
You begin an encounter with all your readied dweomers unexpended, regardless of how many times you might have already used them since you chose them. When you expend a dweomer, it is used up for the current encounter, so each of your readied dweomers can be used once per encounter (until you recover them, as described below).
You can recover an expended dweomer by quickly meditating as a full-round action (Concentration check DC 15 + dweomer level). Doing this does not provoke an attack of opportunity. If you complete your meditation, you can choose one expended dweomer to refresh. It is now available for use in a subsequent round. If you are struck while attempting to expend a dweomer, the DC of the Concentration check DC increases by the amount of damage dealt to you.

Eldritch Auras (Su): You can channel your inner power to project an aura that grants you and nearby allies a special benefit.
Projecting an aura is a swift action, and you may only project one eldritch aura at a time. An eldritch aura remains in effect until you use a free action to dismiss it or you active another aura in its place. You can have an eldritch aura active continually; thus, and aura can be in effect at the start of an encounter even before you take your first action.

Unless otherwise noted, your eldritch aura affects all allies within 30 feet (including yourself) with line of effect to you. Your aura is dismissed if you become unconscious or are slain, but otherwise it remains in effect even if you are incapable of acting.

The bonus granted by your eldritch aura begins at 1 and increases to +2 at 5th level, 3 at 10th level, +4 at 15th level, and +5 at 20th level. As a 1st-level battle mage, you know how to project a single aura chosen from the list below. You learn additional auras at the class levels indicated in the table below. Each time you activate an eldritch aura, you can choose from any of the auras you know.

Alacrity: dodge bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity and bonus on reflex saves equal to your aura bonus.

Awareness: bonus on Listen and Spot checks, as well as on initiative checks, equal to your aura bonus.

Endurance: bonus on concentration checks and on fortitude saves against exhaustion and fatigue equal to your aura bonus.

Power: bonus on melee damage rolls equal to your aura bonus

Stability: bonus on opposed strength checks against bull rush and trip attempts.

Toughness: DR 1/Cold Iron for each point of your aura bonus.

Valor: Bonus on will saves against fear and compulsions.

Eldritch Senses (Sp): beginning at 2nd level, a battle mage may use detect magic as a spell-like ability at will.

Bonus Feats: At 5th level, a battle mage gains a bonus feat from the list below. He must meet the prerequisites for the feat selected. Every 4 levels thereafter (9th, 13th, and 17th level), the battle mage may select another feat from the list.
Bonus Feat List: Armour Proficiency (Heavy), Armour Proficiency (Medium), Diehard, Empower Spell-like ability, Endurance, Exotic Weapon Proficiency, Heighten Spell-like Ability, Improved Initiative, Improved Toughness, Martial Weapon Proficiency, Maximise Spell-like Ability, Shield Proficiency, and Toughness.

Identify Armaments (Su): From 4th level, you can spend 10 minutes focusing upon a weapon or suit of armour. If you succeed on a level check (DC 10 + the caster level of the weapon or armour), you can identify the properties of the item, including its enhancement bonus and special abilities. This ability does not reveal the properties of artifacts or legacy weapons, though it does indicate that such items are significantly powerful.

Soul Shield (Su): From 7th level, a battle mage has Spell Resistance equal to 10 + his class level so long as he has dweomers readied.

Quickening (Su): Beginning at 8th level, you may cast a readied dweomer as a swift action, so long as the casting time of the dweomer is 1 standard action or less.
You can use this ability twice per day at 18th level.

Imbue Armaments (Sp): At 11th level, a battle mage’s experience with the armaments of war grant him the secrets of imbuing such items with magical power. A battle mage receives Craft Magic Arms and Armour as a bonus feat. He uses his battle mage caster level as normal to determine the maximum enhancement bonus he can imbue an item with.
The battle mage must still meet any other prerequisites for the item’s creation. This stipulation might mean that he needs the assistance of other characters to complete the creation of an item.
[/sblock]
I'm not entirely sure my version is balanced either, and I realise it is significantly different to Borble's original vision. Anyhow, let me know what you think (anyone reading).

borble · Jun 23, 2007

Sound of Azure said:
I'm not sure what you mean regarding the Knowledge skills. In addition, I didn't put anything different regarding the armour proficiencies (i.e. none). In the revised version below, there's no need to worry about arcane spell failure anyway since the class uses spell-like abilities.

hmm, no sure how to go about that. I'll have a think about it and get back to you.

For now, here's a revision of my earlier idea:

[sblock=SoA's Battle Mage(tm)]
Battle Mage

Born of conflict, a battle mage is a disciple of war spells, revelling in arcane might.

Game Rule Information
Battle mages have the following game statistics
Abilities: In addition to granting additional hit points, Constitution determines how powerful a dweomer a battle mage can cast, and how hard those dweomers are to resist (see Dweomers, below). Like a sorcerer or wizard, a battle mage benefits from a high Dexterity. A high Intelligence increases a battle mage’s array of skills, and Strength is important for melee combat.
Alignment: any non-lawful
Hit Die: d8

Class Skills
The battle mage’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (history), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Intelligence modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Intelligence modifier

The Battle Mage

Code:

Base Saves Dwmr Dwmr Auras Lvl Attack F/R/W Special Known Ready Known 1st +0 2/0/2 Eldritch Aura +1, Essential Arcana 3 3 1 2nd +1 3/0/3 Eldritch Senses 4 3 1 3rd +2 3/1/3 - 5 3 1 4th +3 4/1/4 Identify Armament 5 4 2 5th +3 4/1/4 Eldritch Aura +2, Bonus Feat 6 4 2 6th +4 5/2/5 - 6 4 2 7th +5 5/2/5 Soul Shield 7 4 2 8th +6 6/2/6 Quickening 1/day 7 4 2 9th +6 6/3/6 Bonus Feat 8 4 2 10th +7 7/3/7 Eldritch Aura +3 8 5 3 11th +8 7/3/7 Imbue Armaments 9 5 3 12th +9 8/4/8 - 9 5 3 13th +9 8/4/8 Bonus Feat 10 5 3 14th +10 9/4/9 - 10 5 3 15th +11 9/5/9 Eldritch Aura +4 11 6 3 16th +12 10/5/10 - 11 6 4 17th +12 10/5/10 Bonus Feat 12 6 4 18th +13 11/6/11 Quickening 2/day 12 6 4 19th +14 11/6/11 - 13 6 4 20th +15 12/6/12 Eldritch Aura +5 13 7 4

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the battle mage.

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Battle mages are proficient in all simple weapons, and with all martial thrown weapons. Battle mages are proficient with light armour, but not with any type of shield.

Due to the nature of their powers, armour does not interfere with a battle mage’s auras, dweomers or other eldritch powers.

Essential Arcana (Sp): Choose a total of 5 0-level spells from any spell list of your choice. You may use these minor spell-like abilities a combined total of times per day equal to 3 + your Constitution modifier. These spell-like abilities do not count toward your total of dweomers known, nor do they need to be readied to be utilised. Saving throws against the battle mage’s essential arcana have a DC of 10 + the battle mage’s Constitution modifier. Your caster level for these spell-like abilities equals your class level.

Dweomers (Sp): A battle mage’s soul is a font of arcane energy. Their training consists of directing this energy into spell effects called dweomers. A dweomer is a specific spell-like ability known to the battle mage and may be drawn from the spell list of any spellcasting class.

You begin your career with knowledge of three dweomers. Once a dweomer is known, it must be readied before you can use it in battle. Like all spell-like abilities, dweomers are subject to spell resistance and dispel magic. Dweomers do not function in areas where magic is suppressed or negated (such as an antimagic field).

Due to their nature, dweomers do not incur the chance for arcane spell failure from armour. However, unlike other spell-like abilities, a battle mage’s dweomers incur XP costs if the spell they emulate had an XP cost. Similarly, if the emulated spell had an expensive material component, the battle mage must pay an XP cost of 1/5 the gp cost of the material component. A battle mage must procure the necessary focus component if they wish to use a dweomer emulating a spell that requires one.

You learn additional dweomers at higher levels, as shown in the table. To take a specific dweomer, a battle mage must be of sufficient caster level (see the table) and must have a Constitution score of at least 10 + the spell’s level (Con 11 for 1st-level spells, Con 12 for 2nd-level spells, and so forth). The difficulty class (DC) for a saving throw against a Battle Mage’s dweomer is 10 + the spell’s level + the battle mage’s Constitution modifier.

Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even-numbered battle mage level after that (6th, 8th, 10th, as so on), you can choose to learn a new dweomer in place of one you already knows. In effect you lose the old dweomer in exchange for the new one. You can choose a new dweomer of any level you like, as long as you observe the restriction on the highest-level dweomers you know; you need not replace the old dweomer with a dweomer with one of the same level.

Code:

Battle Mage Dweomer Level Level 1st-2nd 1st 3rd-4th 2nd 5th-6th 3rd 7th-8th 4th 9th-10th 5th 11th-12th 6th 13th-14th 7th 15th-16th 8th 17th+ 9th

Dweomers Readied: You can ready all three of your dweomers you know at 1st level, but as you advance in level and learn more dweomers, you must choose which dweomers to ready. You ready your dweomers by meditating for 10 minutes. The dweomers you choose remain readied until you decide to meditate again and change them. You need not sleep or rest for any long period of time to ready your dweomers; any time you spend 10 minutes in meditation, you can change your readied dweomers.
You begin an encounter with all your readied dweomers unexpended, regardless of how many times you might have already used them since you chose them. When you expend a dweomer, it is used up for the current encounter, so each of your readied dweomers can be used once per encounter (until you recover them, as described below).
You can recover an expended dweomer by quickly meditating as a full-round action (Concentration check DC 15 + dweomer level). Doing this does not provoke an attack of opportunity. If you complete your meditation, you can choose one expended dweomer to refresh. It is now available for use in a subsequent round. If you are struck while attempting to expend a dweomer, the DC of the Concentration check DC increases by the amount of damage dealt to you.

Eldritch Auras (Su): You can channel your inner power to project an aura that grants you and nearby allies a special benefit.
Projecting an aura is a swift action, and you may only project one eldritch aura at a time. An eldritch aura remains in effect until you use a free action to dismiss it or you active another aura in its place. You can have an eldritch aura active continually; thus, and aura can be in effect at the start of an encounter even before you take your first action.

Unless otherwise noted, your eldritch aura affects all allies within 30 feet (including yourself) with line of effect to you. Your aura is dismissed if you become unconscious or are slain, but otherwise it remains in effect even if you are incapable of acting.

The bonus granted by your eldritch aura begins at 1 and increases to +2 at 5th level, 3 at 10th level, +4 at 15th level, and +5 at 20th level. As a 1st-level battle mage, you know how to project a single aura chosen from the list below. You learn additional auras at the class levels indicated in the table below. Each time you activate an eldritch aura, you can choose from any of the auras you know.

Alacrity: dodge bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity and bonus on reflex saves equal to your aura bonus.

Awareness: bonus on Listen and Spot checks, as well as on initiative checks, equal to your aura bonus.

Endurance: bonus on concentration checks and on fortitude saves against exhaustion and fatigue equal to your aura bonus.

Power: bonus on melee damage rolls equal to your aura bonus

Stability: bonus on opposed strength checks against bull rush and trip attempts.

Toughness: DR 1/Cold Iron for each point of your aura bonus.

Valor: Bonus on will saves against fear and compulsions.

Eldritch Senses (Sp): beginning at 2nd level, a battle mage may use detect magic as a spell-like ability at will.

Bonus Feats: At 5th level, a battle mage gains a bonus feat from the list below. He must meet the prerequisites for the feat selected. Every 4 levels thereafter (9th, 13th, and 17th level), the battle mage may select another feat from the list.
Bonus Feat List: Armour Proficiency (Heavy), Armour Proficiency (Medium), Diehard, Empower Spell-like ability, Endurance, Exotic Weapon Proficiency, Heighten Spell-like Ability, Improved Initiative, Improved Toughness, Martial Weapon Proficiency, Maximise Spell-like Ability, Shield Proficiency, and Toughness.

Identify Armaments (Su): From 4th level, you can spend 10 minutes focusing upon a weapon or suit of armour. If you succeed on a level check (DC 10 + the caster level of the weapon or armour), you can identify the properties of the item, including its enhancement bonus and special abilities. This ability does not reveal the properties of artifacts or legacy weapons, though it does indicate that such items are significantly powerful.

Soul Shield (Su): From 7th level, a battle mage has Spell Resistance equal to 10 + his class level so long as he has dweomers readied.

Quickening (Su): Beginning at 8th level, you may cast a readied dweomer as a swift action, so long as the casting time of the dweomer is 1 standard action or less.
You can use this ability twice per day at 18th level.

Imbue Armaments (Sp): At 11th level, a battle mage’s experience with the armaments of war grant him the secrets of imbuing such items with magical power. A battle mage receives Craft Magic Arms and Armour as a bonus feat. He uses his battle mage caster level as normal to determine the maximum enhancement bonus he can imbue an item with.
The battle mage must still meet any other prerequisites for the item’s creation. This stipulation might mean that he needs the assistance of other characters to complete the creation of an item.
[/sblock]
I'm not entirely sure my version is balanced either, and I realise it is significantly different to Borble's orginal vision. Anyhow, let me know what you think (anyone reading).

i will take this home and read over it.
also, added my version of the skill list

. so pick it to hell

.
ben
note: your class has a D8 hd......mine dose not

borble · Jun 23, 2007

monboesen said:
Personally I kind of liked the concept of the Dragon Bound (but not the mechanics) but this one seems flawed to me.

I have the following issues.

1. Depending on the actual campaign (or even the specific game day) the Battle Mage could easily be a total bore to play (in a campaign focusing on politics/investigation/exploration etc.) or be overpowered compared to the rest of the PC's (in a campaign consisting mainly of battles). In my experience neither situation is fun for the player(s).

2. I don't understand the actual reason for the Battle Mages inability to cast spells out of combat. It seems arbitrary and unfounded.

3. I don't think that any class should have acces to both strong blasting spells (fireball etc.) and healing spells. That has to do with the usual division of arcane and divine magic in D&D. Your Battle Mage seems to fit the arcane spell caster role and therefore should not have acces to healing spells. No other arcane caster have that (to my knowledge).

4. I don't find your class different enough from the Warmage, Battlesorcerer or Ragemage to warrant a new class.

If I was to pursue a concept that had the overall idea of being a better caster in combat I would go for something like a caster level benefit or some free metamagic at a fixed number of times per day. Sort of like a Barbarians rage, but with bonuses to spellcasting. But as far as I know that is the way Warmages and Ragemages work.

You haven't commented on the reservations about 9th level spells at 13 level and acces to all spells. I can refine my statement to this point: In my opinion your class can never be balanced if it grants acces to a spell level at lower level than a wizard, can cast more spells per day than a sorcerer or have a more diverse spell list than a druid.

i have comented on it, and said it was staying, i think a good retribution is to lower the caster lvl.

also, as to the "flaws":
1. duh
2. its not its part of there core objective
3. ever heard of the ranger?
4. it is in my mind (plus all i have is warmage).

thanks, for posting though

, im glad you like the DB
ben

monboesen · Jun 24, 2007

I'm sensing this is likely a futile effort, just like commenting negatively on your Dragon bound was. But I will give it one last shot.

borble said:
i have comented on it, and said it was staying, i think a good retribution is to lower the caster lvl.

I'm not quite sure what you mean, that a level 13 Battle mage would have a lower caster level than 13 but still be able to use 9th level spells.

If so it hardly limits them much. The Battle mage will just use spells without caster level dependant mechanics. Spells like Power word (sleep, stun or kill), Meteor swarm (24d6 damage regardless of caster level), Shapechange, Time stop, Weird, Summon monster, Incendiary cloud, Irresistable dance, Greater shout, Sunburst, Iron body, Reverse gravity, Waves of exhaustion, Prismatic spray, Forcecage, Hold (monster, person, mass), Acid fog, Globe of invulnerability, Baleful polymorph, Dominate person, Wall of force, Polymorph, Enervation, Phantasmal killer etc....

And thats just a quick trip down the wizard spells from the players handbook, no doubt other classes spell lists and spells from other books would add even more spells. There is no shortage of very good combat spells that doesn't depend on caster level.

1. duh

You are quick to dismiss this. But the fact is that its not fun to be part of a game where one player more or less singlehandedly will determine the outcome of each battle. The Battle mage is overspecialised and thus to good at what he does.

2. its not its part of there core objective

But that is no reason for not having a reason. All other spellcasters can use their magic when they want. Why can't the Battle mage.

Have they taken a sacred wow never to use magic except in combat, if so why and what happens when they break that wow.

Do they have a psychological flaw that stops them from accesing magic when they arent in danger. If so how dire must that danger be, mortal and imminent?

3. ever heard of the ranger?

Allright I'll be more precise. No full fledged arcane caster have acces to healing spells. The ranger (and the bard) are arcane casters with healing spells. But they also have reduced and slowed down spell level acces (4th and 6th level spells) from a strict and themed list. Show me the ranger and bards big blasting spells, their magical transport spells, their strong defense spells etc.

There is no comparison between the ranger/bard and the Battle mage spellcasting ability.

4. it is in my mind (plus all i have is warmage).

And isn't the warmage a mage specialising in Battle magic? What is the problem with it in your opinion.

Sound of Azure · Jun 24, 2007

borble said:
i will take this home and read over it.
also, added my version of the skill list. so pick it to hell .
ben
note: your class has a D8 hd......mine dose not

Cool, I hope you like it. It's kind of the opposite to yours, in that you have limited spells in your repertoire (though you can get them from anywhere), but can cast them often. Indeed, you can pretty much cast them all day long if you want (so long as you keep refreshing your dweomers). It makes for a more tightly focused caster.

Re: d8. I thought it might be beneficial to have a higher hit die, since they supposed to be tough. I was wavering on leaving it as d6, so feel free to if you want.

re: Your skill list.

Borble said:
Class skills: BALANCE (DEX), CLIMB (STR), CONCENTRATION (CON), CRAFT (only things with a battle use)(INT), DECIPHER SCRIPT (INT), DIPLOMACY (CHA), FORGERY (INT), GATHER INFORMATION (CHA), HEAL (WIS), INTIMIDATE (CHA), JUMP (STR), KNOWLEDGE (INT; arcane, nature, history), LISTEN (WIS), SEARCH (INT), SENSE MOTIVE (WIS), SPELLCRAFT (INT; TRAINED ONLY), SPOT (WIS), TUMBLE (DEX), USE MAGIC DEVICE (CHA).

Ouch, capital letters!

I thought about including Balance and Tumble as well, but didn't, since I didn't want to give the class too much flexibility. This is supposed to be a class extremely focused on spells, remember?

Knowledge (nature): sure I can see that, given your fluff on the natural world.

Listen, Spot, Search: Why these? This class doesn't sound like a scout or woodsman type.

Decipher Script and Forgery: Given your Craft restriction (that is, old battle stuff), these two seem like awful strange skill to include. They have nothing to do with battle.

Heal: Yeah, ok. Field healing.

Gather Information, Sense Motive: Battle mages don't exactly seem to social type either.

Use Magic Device: Hmm, when I was comparing my own version with the Warlock, I thought about including it. I decided not to, concluding that they were strong enough on their own. They don't really have enough skill points in the first place to really focus on this anyway.

and finally, Re: 9th-level spells by 13th level

The other posters who have commented on this have a point. You should really reconsidere your point of view regarding this. Why are you so set on having such early access to spells? 13th level is, in my mind, far too early to get access to such powerful spells due, as monboesen mentioned, to a number of non-scaling spells you would have access to.

As for the Battle Sorcerer, here's a link to the SRD. Rage Mage is a prestige class found in Complete Warrior, page 72.

borble · Jun 25, 2007

i think you all convinced me to lower the spell progreasion. and i will update it soon.

borble · Jun 25, 2007

Sound of Azure said:
I'm not sure what you mean regarding the Knowledge skills. In addition, I didn't put anything different regarding the armour proficiencies (i.e. none). In the revised version below, there's no need to worry about arcane spell failure anyway since the class uses spell-like abilities.

hmm, no sure how to go about that. I'll have a think about it and get back to you.

For now, here's a revision of my earlier idea:

[sblock=SoA's Battle Mage(tm)]
Battle Mage

Born of conflict, a battle mage is a disciple of war spells, revelling in arcane might.

Game Rule Information
Battle mages have the following game statistics
Abilities: In addition to granting additional hit points, Constitution determines how powerful a dweomer a battle mage can cast, and how hard those dweomers are to resist (see Dweomers, below). Like a sorcerer or wizard, a battle mage benefits from a high Dexterity. A high Intelligence increases a battle mage’s array of skills, and Strength is important for melee combat.
Alignment: any non-lawful
Hit Die: d8

Class Skills
The battle mage’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (history), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Intelligence modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Intelligence modifier

The Battle Mage

Code:

Base Saves Dwmr Dwmr Auras Lvl Attack F/R/W Special Known Ready Known 1st +0 2/0/2 Eldritch Aura +1, Essential Arcana 3 3 1 2nd +1 3/0/3 Eldritch Senses 4 3 1 3rd +2 3/1/3 - 5 3 1 4th +3 4/1/4 Identify Armament 5 4 2 5th +3 4/1/4 Eldritch Aura +2, Bonus Feat 6 4 2 6th +4 5/2/5 - 6 4 2 7th +5 5/2/5 Soul Shield 7 4 2 8th +6 6/2/6 Quickening 1/day 7 4 2 9th +6 6/3/6 Bonus Feat 8 4 2 10th +7 7/3/7 Eldritch Aura +3 8 5 3 11th +8 7/3/7 Imbue Armaments 9 5 3 12th +9 8/4/8 - 9 5 3 13th +9 8/4/8 Bonus Feat 10 5 3 14th +10 9/4/9 - 10 5 3 15th +11 9/5/9 Eldritch Aura +4 11 6 3 16th +12 10/5/10 - 11 6 4 17th +12 10/5/10 Bonus Feat 12 6 4 18th +13 11/6/11 Quickening 2/day 12 6 4 19th +14 11/6/11 - 13 6 4 20th +15 12/6/12 Eldritch Aura +5 13 7 4

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the battle mage.

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Battle mages are proficient in all simple weapons, and with all martial thrown weapons. Battle mages are proficient with light armour, but not with any type of shield.

Due to the nature of their powers, armour does not interfere with a battle mage’s auras, dweomers or other eldritch powers.

Essential Arcana (Sp): Choose a total of 5 0-level spells from any spell list of your choice. You may use these minor spell-like abilities a combined total of times per day equal to 3 + your Constitution modifier. These spell-like abilities do not count toward your total of dweomers known, nor do they need to be readied to be utilised. Saving throws against the battle mage’s essential arcana have a DC of 10 + the battle mage’s Constitution modifier. Your caster level for these spell-like abilities equals your class level.

Dweomers (Sp): A battle mage’s soul is a font of arcane energy. Their training consists of directing this energy into spell effects called dweomers. A dweomer is a specific spell-like ability known to the battle mage and may be drawn from the spell list of any spellcasting class.

You begin your career with knowledge of three dweomers. Once a dweomer is known, it must be readied before you can use it in battle. Like all spell-like abilities, dweomers are subject to spell resistance and dispel magic. Dweomers do not function in areas where magic is suppressed or negated (such as an antimagic field).

Due to their nature, dweomers do not incur the chance for arcane spell failure from armour. However, unlike other spell-like abilities, a battle mage’s dweomers incur XP costs if the spell they emulate had an XP cost. Similarly, if the emulated spell had an expensive material component, the battle mage must pay an XP cost of 1/5 the gp cost of the material component. A battle mage must procure the necessary focus component if they wish to use a dweomer emulating a spell that requires one.

You learn additional dweomers at higher levels, as shown in the table. To take a specific dweomer, a battle mage must be of sufficient caster level (see the table) and must have a Constitution score of at least 10 + the spell’s level (Con 11 for 1st-level spells, Con 12 for 2nd-level spells, and so forth). The difficulty class (DC) for a saving throw against a Battle Mage’s dweomer is 10 + the spell’s level + the battle mage’s Constitution modifier.

Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even-numbered battle mage level after that (6th, 8th, 10th, as so on), you can choose to learn a new dweomer in place of one you already knows. In effect you lose the old dweomer in exchange for the new one. You can choose a new dweomer of any level you like, as long as you observe the restriction on the highest-level dweomers you know; you need not replace the old dweomer with a dweomer with one of the same level.

Code:

Battle Mage Dweomer Level Level 1st-2nd 1st 3rd-4th 2nd 5th-6th 3rd 7th-8th 4th 9th-10th 5th 11th-12th 6th 13th-14th 7th 15th-16th 8th 17th+ 9th

Dweomers Readied: You can ready all three of your dweomers you know at 1st level, but as you advance in level and learn more dweomers, you must choose which dweomers to ready. You ready your dweomers by meditating for 10 minutes. The dweomers you choose remain readied until you decide to meditate again and change them. You need not sleep or rest for any long period of time to ready your dweomers; any time you spend 10 minutes in meditation, you can change your readied dweomers.
You begin an encounter with all your readied dweomers unexpended, regardless of how many times you might have already used them since you chose them. When you expend a dweomer, it is used up for the current encounter, so each of your readied dweomers can be used once per encounter (until you recover them, as described below).
You can recover an expended dweomer by quickly meditating as a full-round action (Concentration check DC 15 + dweomer level). Doing this does not provoke an attack of opportunity. If you complete your meditation, you can choose one expended dweomer to refresh. It is now available for use in a subsequent round. If you are struck while attempting to expend a dweomer, the DC of the Concentration check DC increases by the amount of damage dealt to you.

Eldritch Auras (Su): You can channel your inner power to project an aura that grants you and nearby allies a special benefit.
Projecting an aura is a swift action, and you may only project one eldritch aura at a time. An eldritch aura remains in effect until you use a free action to dismiss it or you active another aura in its place. You can have an eldritch aura active continually; thus, and aura can be in effect at the start of an encounter even before you take your first action.

Unless otherwise noted, your eldritch aura affects all allies within 30 feet (including yourself) with line of effect to you. Your aura is dismissed if you become unconscious or are slain, but otherwise it remains in effect even if you are incapable of acting.

The bonus granted by your eldritch aura begins at 1 and increases to +2 at 5th level, 3 at 10th level, +4 at 15th level, and +5 at 20th level. As a 1st-level battle mage, you know how to project a single aura chosen from the list below. You learn additional auras at the class levels indicated in the table below. Each time you activate an eldritch aura, you can choose from any of the auras you know.

Alacrity: dodge bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity and bonus on reflex saves equal to your aura bonus.

Awareness: bonus on Listen and Spot checks, as well as on initiative checks, equal to your aura bonus.

Endurance: bonus on concentration checks and on fortitude saves against exhaustion and fatigue equal to your aura bonus.

Power: bonus on melee damage rolls equal to your aura bonus

Stability: bonus on opposed strength checks against bull rush and trip attempts.

Toughness: DR 1/Cold Iron for each point of your aura bonus.

Valor: Bonus on will saves against fear and compulsions.

Eldritch Senses (Sp): beginning at 2nd level, a battle mage may use detect magic as a spell-like ability at will.

Bonus Feats: At 5th level, a battle mage gains a bonus feat from the list below. He must meet the prerequisites for the feat selected. Every 4 levels thereafter (9th, 13th, and 17th level), the battle mage may select another feat from the list.
Bonus Feat List: Armour Proficiency (Heavy), Armour Proficiency (Medium), Diehard, Empower Spell-like ability, Endurance, Exotic Weapon Proficiency, Heighten Spell-like Ability, Improved Initiative, Improved Toughness, Martial Weapon Proficiency, Maximise Spell-like Ability, Shield Proficiency, and Toughness.

Identify Armaments (Su): From 4th level, you can spend 10 minutes focusing upon a weapon or suit of armour. If you succeed on a level check (DC 10 + the caster level of the weapon or armour), you can identify the properties of the item, including its enhancement bonus and special abilities. This ability does not reveal the properties of artifacts or legacy weapons, though it does indicate that such items are significantly powerful.

Soul Shield (Su): From 7th level, a battle mage has Spell Resistance equal to 10 + his class level so long as he has dweomers readied.

Quickening (Su): Beginning at 8th level, you may cast a readied dweomer as a swift action, so long as the casting time of the dweomer is 1 standard action or less.
You can use this ability twice per day at 18th level.

Imbue Armaments (Sp): At 11th level, a battle mage’s experience with the armaments of war grant him the secrets of imbuing such items with magical power. A battle mage receives Craft Magic Arms and Armour as a bonus feat. He uses his battle mage caster level as normal to determine the maximum enhancement bonus he can imbue an item with.
The battle mage must still meet any other prerequisites for the item’s creation. This stipulation might mean that he needs the assistance of other characters to complete the creation of an item.
[/sblock]
I'm not entirely sure my version is balanced either, and I realise it is significantly different to Borble's orginal vision. Anyhow, let me know what you think (anyone reading).

I think it works fairly well, I think unless you get more auras (that can be poetically useful) I think you should remove endrich aura’s (although I like the concept).
Also your bonus feats don’t seem useful, and so I will show you my revisions on your perception of my class

.
[sblock=SoA's Battle Mage(tm)]
Battle Mage

Born of conflict, a battle mage is a disciple of war spells, revelling in arcane might.

Game Rule Information
Battle mages have the following game statistics
Abilities: In addition to granting additional hit points, Constitution determines how powerful a dweomer a battle mage can cast, and how hard those dweomers are to resist (see Dweomers, below). Like a sorcerer or wizard, a battle mage benefits from a high Dexterity. A high Intelligence increases a battle mage’s array of skills, and Strength is important for melee combat.
Alignment: any non-lawful
Hit Die: d8

Class Skills
The battle mage’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (history), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Intelligence modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Intelligence modifier

The Battle Mage

Code:

	Base	Saves						Dwmr	Dwmr	Auras
Lvl	Attack	F/R/W	Special					Known	Ready	Known	
1st	+0	2/0/2	Eldritch Aura +1, Essential Arcana	3	3	1
2nd 	+1	3/0/3	Eldritch Senses				4	3	1
3rd 	+2	3/1/3	-					5	3	1
4th	+3	4/1/4 	Identify Armament			5	4	2
5th 	+3	4/1/4	Eldritch Aura +2, Bonus Feat		6	4	2
6th 	+4	5/2/5	-					6	4	2
7th	+5	5/2/5	Soul Shield				7	4	2
8th	+6	6/2/6						7	4	2
9th	+6	6/3/6						8	4	2
10th	+7	7/3/7	Eldritch Aura +3			            8	5	3
11th	+8	7/3/7	Imbue Armaments			9	5	3
12th	+9	8/4/8	-					9	5	3
13th	+9	8/4/8						10	5	3
14th	+10	9/4/9	-					10	5	3
15th	+11	9/5/9	Eldritch Aura +4				11	6	3
16th	+12	10/5/10	-					11	6	4
17th	+12	10/5/10						12	6	4
18th	+13	11/6/11						12	6	4
19th	+14	11/6/11	-					13	6	4
20th	+15	12/6/12	Eldritch Aura +5				13	7	4

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the battle mage.

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Battle mages are proficient in all simple weapons, and with all martial thrown weapons. Battle mages are proficient with light armour, but not with any type of shield.

Due to the nature of their powers, armour does not interfere with a battle mage’s auras, dweomers or other eldritch powers.

Essential Arcana (Sp): Choose a total of 5 0-level spells from any spell list of your choice. You may use these minor spell-like abilities a combined total of times per day equal to 3 + your Constitution modifier. These spell-like abilities do not count toward your total of dweomers known, nor do they need to be readied to be utilised. Saving throws against the battle mage’s essential arcana have a DC of 10 + the battle mage’s Constitution modifier. Your caster level for these spell-like abilities equals your class level.

Dweomers (Sp): A battle mage’s soul is a font of arcane energy. Their training consists of directing this energy into spell effects called dweomers. A dweomer is a specific spell-like ability known to the battle mage and may be drawn from the spell list of any spellcasting class.

You begin your career with knowledge of three dweomers. Once a dweomer is known, it must be readied before you can use it in battle. Like all spell-like abilities, dweomers are subject to spell resistance and dispel magic. Dweomers do not function in areas where magic is suppressed or negated (such as an antimagic field).

Due to their nature, dweomers do not incur the chance for arcane spell failure from armour. However, unlike other spell-like abilities, a battle mage’s dweomers incur XP costs if the spell they emulate had an XP cost. Similarly, if the emulated spell had an expensive material component, the battle mage must pay an XP cost of 1/5 the gp cost of the material component. A battle mage must procure the necessary focus component if they wish to use a dweomer emulating a spell that requires one.

You learn additional dweomers at higher levels, as shown in the table. To take a specific dweomer, a battle mage must be of sufficient caster level (see the table) and must have a Constitution score of at least 10 + the spell’s level (Con 11 for 1st-level spells, Con 12 for 2nd-level spells, and so forth). The difficulty class (DC) for a saving throw against a Battle Mage’s dweomer is 10 + the spell’s level + the battle mage’s Constitution modifier.

Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even-numbered battle mage level after that (6th, 8th, 10th, as so on), you can choose to learn a new dweomer in place of one you already know. In effect you lose the old dweomer in exchange for the new one. You can choose a new dweomer of any level you like, as long as you observe the restriction on the highest-level dweomers you know; you need not replace the old dweomer with a dweomer with one of the same level.

Code:

Battle Mage	Dweomer
Level  			spell Level
1st			 1st
3rd			 2nd
5th	 		3rd
7th	 		4th
9th	 		5th
11th			 6th
13th			 7th
15th			 8th
17th			 9th

Dweomers Readied: You can ready all three of your dweomers you know at 1st level, but as you advance in level and learn more dweomers, you must choose which dweomers to ready. You can ready an number of deweomers equal your con mod + 3 (if you have that many dweomers). You ready your dweomers by meditating for 10 minutes. The dweomers you choose remain readied until you decide to meditate again and change them. You need not sleep or rest for any long period of time to ready your dweomers; any time you spend 10 minutes in meditation, you can change your readied dweomers.
You begin an encounter with all your readied dweomers unexpended, regardless of how many times you might have already used them since you chose them. You can use a deweomer once before it is expended. When you expend a dweomer, it is used up for the current encounter (unless you recover them, as described below). Other wise they respond in a number of rounds equal to the spell lolls you expended after battle (I.E. a first level battle mage who casts 3 first level spells, has to wait 3 rounds after battle for his dweomers to recharge).
You can recover an expended dweomer (in battle) by quickly meditating as a full-round action (Concentration check DC 15 + dweomer level + damage taken in that round if any). Doing this does not provoke an attack of opportunity. If you complete your meditation, you can choose one expended dweomer to refresh. It is now available for use in a subsequent round.

Eldritch Auras (Su): You can channel your inner power to project an aura that grants you and nearby allies a special benefit.
Projecting an aura is a swift action, and you may only project one eldritch aura at a time. An eldritch aura remains in effect until you use a free action to dismiss it or you active another aura in its place. You can have an eldritch aura active continually; thus, and aura can be in effect at the start of an encounter even before you take your first action.

Unless otherwise noted, your eldritch aura affects all allies within 30 feet (including yourself) with line of effect to you. Your aura is dismissed if you become unconscious or are slain, but otherwise it remains in effect even if you are incapable of acting.

The bonus granted by your eldritch aura begins at 1 and increases to +2 at 5th level, 3 at 10th level, +4 at 15th level, and +5 at 20th level. As a 1st-level battle mage, you know how to project a single aura chosen from the list below. You learn additional auras at the class levels indicated in the table below. Each time you activate an eldritch aura, you can choose from any of the auras you know.

Alacrity: dodge bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity and bonus on reflex saves equal to your aura bonus. At level 10 this adds to all ac.

Awareness: bonus on Listen and Spot checks, as well as on initiative checks, equal to your aura bonus. At level 10 this bonus doubles.

Endurance: bonus on concentration checks and on fortitude saves against exhaustion and fatigue equal to your aura bonus. At level 10 it helps all fortitude saves.

Power: bonus on melee damage rolls equal to your aura bonus. At level 10 this bonus affects attack rolls also.

Stability: bonus on opposed strength checks against bull rush and trip attempts equal to your aura bonus. At level 10 this aids rolls meant to heal someone under 0 hp with bonuses equal to your aura bonus.

Toughness: DR 1/Cold Iron for each point of your aura bonus. At level 10 this changes to DR1/-.

Valor: Bonus on will saves against fear and compulsions. At level 10 this adds all will saves.

Eldritch Senses (Sp): beginning at 2nd level, a battle mage may use detect magic as a spell-like ability at will.

Identify Armaments (Su): From 4th level, you can spend 10 minutes focusing upon a weapon or suit of armour. If you succeed on a level check (DC 10 + the caster level of the weapon or armour), you can identify the properties of the item, including its enhancement bonus and special abilities. This ability does not reveal the properties of artifacts or legacy weapons, though it does indicate that such items are significantly powerful.

Soul Shield (Su): From 7th level, a battle mage has Spell Resistance equal to 10 + his class level so long as he has dweomers readied.

Imbue Armaments (Sp): At 11th level, a battle mage’s experience with the armaments of war grant him the secrets of imbuing such items with magical power. A battle mage receives Craft Magic Arms and Armour as a bonus feat (if he already has it he can select any other feat as a bonus feat). He uses his battle mage caster level as normal to determine the maximum enhancement bonus he can imbue an item with.
The battle mage must still meet any other prerequisites for the item’s creation. This stipulation might mean that he needs the assistance of other characters to complete the creation of an item.
[/sblock]
well?
ben