Battle Mage (custom)

I haven’t got the fluff and I am in the middle of a move, but I will get it up and soon. I posted this up to see what you guys though.
NOTE: i dont have the time for formating, sorry will get that soon though.
Thanks
ben

[sblock= Battle Mage]

Battle Mage
Battle use: an item that is useful in battle.

“Burn down that wall with a fire ball, Jooba.” Said seen, a 6th lvl fighter.
“I cant im not in battle. But we can stay here till the orc’s come for their rounds, then I can hit the orc's with an Enlarged fireball, and aim so the walls behind it .” Jooba, a 6th lvl Battle Mage.

A battle mage is one of the most powerful mages out there. But they can only cast spells in battle (with the exception of magic item making), it’s the biggest defining difference between them and all other casters. Along with their powers origins (con, and int averaged), and the fact that they pull there power with spells through the endurance (although some Battle Mage’s do divulge into other classes for the thrill of battle and the drain of energy from getting there spells can be to much some times). While the Battle Mages closest comparison is the Warmage(complete Arcane), they still are not vary compatible.

Adventures
Although the Battle Mage has many a spell, they use them strictly for combat and often are accompanying wizards on parallels dungeon delves. Battle Mages have a lust for battle and its what they focus on the most, and most of their powers do not work outside of combat. They have been known to fill the roles of healers, buffers, damagers; they can do all but be utilitarian casters.

Characteristics
A Battle Mage accesses his spells though everything around them, and dose not need to prepare spells ahead of time because of it, and indeed it takes a strong and wise caster to sift through the dead wood spells to find the right one when he needs it. Although they have all these spells (and can access them from early on), they lust for battle and only use spells in battle, for to cast spells outside of battle disgusts and revolts them, and its braking their code (although no one enforces the code, it is still held to for they don’t want to cast them outside of battle anyway, and never do).

Alignment
All Battle Mages love battle, and work their whole life to get better at it, some go mad and crave battle never stopping but to eat and sleep, but few do. They are often called the bully spellcasters, for just enough to be noticed pick fights, but the majority of them seem normal enough. For this reason, a War Mage can not be any lawfull, for they are just to unlawful, ruff, unpredictable, or don’t care.

Religion
Religion dose not make much of a difference for Battle Mages, and those few who do serve a deity don’t gain a preference by this class.

Background
Battle Mage’s, like pisonic, are born rather then made ( Although some learn from a mentor, that number is extremely low). The most common factor between all Battle Mages is their gift for spellcasting and their love of weapons, and indeed those who have eyes often can see it in children of vary young ages.

Races
Most Battle Mages are elvin, for they seem to have a knack at spells and battle (and go to the extremes a lot) more then any other race. A good portion of the rest are humans for they love battle or spell casting, and sometimes both (but half-elfs seem to lose the needed qualities of both races, and nearly none are Battle Mages). But those are not the only ones who can be Battle Mages, for there are Battle Mages among all sentient (smart) creatures who can cast spells.

Other Classes
The Battle Mage has a lot in common with all classes but the barbarian, which they find hard to tolerate for a barbarian is a hacker and doesn’t know what he is hacking, a Battle Mage uses her spells with grace and strength, and is always aware. But the classes they get along with best is the Wizards (for they have utilitarian spells, and help out and are always thankful when you take a blow for them) and the Good Clerics (for they may be befuddled by religion but are, all in all, vary polite and out of the way) and fighters (for they are always grateful for help, and have a knack for getting hit and distracting).

Abilities
Their main stats are constitution, intelligence, fallowed by dexterity and then strength. They use constitution for spells and for hp. Intelligence is useful for spells and skills. Dexterity provides initiative, ac, and works for many skills they use. Strength is useful for weapons.


Class features
Hit dice: 1d6
Alignment: A Battle Mage can be of any non-lawful, because of their obsession with battle is to chaotic.
Starting Gold: As Bard
Starting Age: As Bard

Class skills: CLIMB (STR), CONCENTRATION (CON), CRAFT (only things with a battle use)(INT), DIPLOMACY (CHA), HEAL (WIS), INTIMIDATE (CHA), JUMP (STR), KNOWLEDGE (INT; arcane, nature, history), SPELLCRAFT (INT; TRAINED ONLY), USE MAGIC DEVICE (CHA)


Skills points at 1st Level: (0 + Int modifier) x4
Skills points at Each Additional Level: 0 + Int modifier

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Battle Mage’s are proficient with all simple weapons, and only thrown weapons, and can cast spells with light weapons, and thrown weapons without hindrance. Battle mages get no armor proficiency’s through this output.

MultiClassing: A Battle Mage can Multiclass easily, and a lot do. But a Multiclassing Battle Mage has a magical rule that applies. A multiclassing Battle Mage dose not gain Battle mage spell casting when he gets levels added to it without taking levels in the Battle Mage class (like a Prestige class, giving “+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class”), they cant improve it at all, without direct leveling in Battle mage.

Level BaB Fort Ref Will Special Abilities
1 +0 +2 +0 +2 Skill Mastery ½, armor mastery light, magic
item use, Spell swap
2 +1 +3 +0 +3 SR spell lvl 0/1 1/-
3 +2 +3 +1 +3
4 +3 +4 +1 +4 SR spell lvl 0/1 2/-
5 +3 +4 +1 +4 Spell immunity 0/1
6 +4 +5 +2 +5 Weapon Mastery
7 +5 +5 +2 +5 SR spell lvl 2 3/-
8 +6/+1 +6 +2 +6 armor mastery medium
9 +6/+1 +6 +3 +6 SR spell lvl 2 4/-
10 +7/+2 +7 +3 +7 Skill Mastery 3/4, Spell immunity 2
11 +8/+3 +7 +3 +7
12 +9/+4 +8 +4 +8 SR spell lvl 3 5/-
13 +9/+4 +8 +4 +8
14 +10/+5 +9 +4 +9 SR spell lvl 3 6/-
15 +11/+6/+1 +9 +5 +9 Spell immunity 3
16 +12/+7/+2 +10 +5 +10 Bonus feat
17 +12/+7/+2 +10 +5 +10 SR spell lvl 4 7/-
18 +13/+8/+3 +11 +6 +11 Bonus metimagic feat
19 +14/+9/+4 +11 +6 +11 SR spell lvl 4 8/-
20 +15/+10/+5 +12 +6 +12 Skill Mastery full, Spell immunity 4, bonus feat

Battle Mage Special Abilities
Spells: A Battle Mage’s magic stems from their need for battle, their love of battle, and their lust for battle. They pull their spells from all corners of the world, all the nocks and cranny’s, and do it well.
A Battle Mage knows all their spells, and their spell list consists of all spells and all classes (Arcane and Divine), although with classes like the ranger and paladin, then gain there spells at the same level a member of that class would, i.e. level 4 for first level ranger spells, alignment restrictions still apply, and with deity specific spells are dealt with normally. Unless otherwise stated, the stat for a battle mage is the average between con, and int. The difficulty class (DC) for a saving throw against a Battle Mages spell is 10 + the spell’s level + the Battle mages stat modifier. Battle mage’s do not get their spells from a spell book, from their deity, or instinctually know them, instead they get there spells from the world, nature, plants, dirt, rocks, animals, magic creatures, humans, elf’s, gnomes, and anything else around them (although this dose not limit them).
A battle mage has a limited number of spells he can cast a day. But he need not prepare them a head of time, he can only cast them in battle. He needs no components, verbal motions, or even words, only the will to cast it, although he still needs to wait the proper amount of rounds, he still need to make a concentration check when hit with damage, and pay xp requirements. A Battle Mage gets bonus spells equal to his stats modifier to each spell level he can cast. I.E. a first level Battle mage with a con, and int, of 16 gets +3 to spell levels 0-6, if he can cast 6th level spells, which he cant, so its only +3 to spell levels 0 and 1.
A Battle mages caster level is equal to his Battle mage level, it is a separate caster level though, and does not stack with other classes. A Battle Mage can only cast spells in battle, and the spell needs to aid him in battle (note. This is only limited by the player’s imagination and the compliance of the DM, for it is the DM’s job to make sure they can really cast the spell). When making magic items (they cant make magic scrolls, wondrous items, only relics of there deity, and wands, although they can use them) they still need all the normal mats, although they can only make items with a battle use. To see if you can cast a spell, use the lowest stat out of con, and int. To recharge there spells they need the required races sleep ( E.G. 8 hours for humans).
A spell cast by a battle mage loses it powers once battle ends (with minor exceptions like healing spells don’t lose there healing power, and the healed loses there hp), Its abilities are inactive until there next turn in battle, but the ticker keeps ticking off on the spells duration. At level 10 the ticker stops ½ as slow (so a 10 round spells stopped at five rounds, now lasts 10 rounds after battle stops, if battle resumes before ½ of the new timer is run out, then it reverts to the amount when battle ended). At level 20 the ticker stops outside of battle altogether (so a 10 round spells stopped at five rounds, now lasts until next battle, at which point it lasts 5 rounds into that battle). Starting back up at the first round that person has in the next battle. To improve a Battle mages spells a lvl in Battle Mage needs to be taken. A Battle Mage can not specialize like a wizard can.

Skill mastery: Because of their specialty in battle, it improves beyond spells. When making a skill check in battle they are treated as having 1/2 rank’s in it. This bonus dose not discriminate between class and cross class skills. If it skill already has a bonus in rank, it dose not stack, but uses the better of the two bonuses. Round down.
At level 10 this bonus increases to 3/4ths.
At level 20 this bonus increases to having full ranks.

Spell swap: If a Battle Mage chooses to do so, he can sacrifice a spell of higher level to get 2 of the level directly beneath, and vice versa, to sacrifice 2 spells of a lower level to get one in the level directly above, once changed though, it can not be mutated again, and this means it cant go more then one up or down. I.E. A Battle Mage needs one 6th level spell, and so sacrifices two 5th level spells to get it, or he can sacrifice one 7th level spell to get two 6th level spells. This is a swift action.

Armor mastery: Because of their center focus on battle they have been able to learn how to use light armor in battle without spell failure. Although this dose not help other classes besides the Battle mage, because the battle mage uses not actions or movements when casting spells. At level 8 they learn to use medium armor, without spell failure.

Magic Item Use: Because of there need for battle it also restricts what magic items they can use. As in negative feedback, a Battle Mage cannot use any magic items that do not have a battle use. That is, they cant use a +1 thieves tools, because it can not aid them in battle, although they can use a +1 short sword because it aids then in battle.

Spell Resistance and Spell immunity: Because of their vast spell reservoir they know the nature of most spells, and so gain spell resistance and spell immunity to some spells. Spell Resistance as normal, except that it only applies to the said spell level and only until they are immune to that level spell. Spell immunity, is, as it’s name implies, they are immune to said spell level at said levels. Friendly spells excluded.

Weapon Mastery: At level 6 the skill of battle flows through their veins, and so they gain Martial weapon proficiency.
[/sblock]

[sblock= this it the tamed version, that is, without my house rules.]

Battle Mage
this it the tamed version, that is, without my house rules.
Battle use: an item that is useful in battle.

A battle mage is one of the most powerful mages out there. But they can only cast spells in battle (with the exception of magic item making), it’s the biggest defining difference between them and all other casters. Along with their powers origins (con, int, and wis averaged), and the fact that they pull there power with spells through the endurance (although some Battle Mage’s do divulge into other classes for the thrill of battle and the drain of energy from getting there spells can be to much some times). While the Battle Mages closest comparison is the Warmage(complete Arcane), they still are not vary compatible.

Adventures
Although the Battle Mage has many a spell, they use them strictly for combat and often are accompanying wizards on parallels dungeon delves. Battle Mages have a lust for battle and its what they focus on the most, and most of their powers do not work outside of combat. They have been known to fill the roles of healers, buffers, damagers; they can do all but be utilitarian casters.

Characteristics
A Battle Mage accesses his spells though everything around them, and dose not need to prepare spells ahead of time because of it, and indeed it takes a strong and wise caster to sift through the dead wood spells to find the right one when he needs it. Although they have all these spells (and can access them from early on), they lust for battle and only use spells in battle, for to cast spells outside of battle disgusts and revolts them, and its braking their code (although no one enforces the code, it is still held to for they don’t want to cast them outside of battle anyway, and never do).

Alignment
All Battle Mages love battle, and work their whole life to get better at it, some go mad and crave battle never stopping but to eat and sleep, but few do. They are often called the bully spellcasters, for just enough to be noticed pick fights, but the majority of them seem normal enough. For this reason, a War Mage can not be any lawfull, for they are just to unlawful, ruff, unpredictable, or don’t care.

Religion
Religion dose not make much of a difference for Battle Mages, and those few who do serve a deity don’t gain a preference by this class.

Background
Battle Mage’s, like pisonic, are born rather then made ( Although some learn from a mentor, that number is extremely low). The most common factor between all Battle Mages is their gift for spellcasting and their love of weapons, and indeed those who have eyes often can see it in children of vary young ages.

Races
Most Battle Mages are elvin, for they seem to have a knack at spells and battle (and go to the extremes a lot) more then any other race. A good portion of the rest are humans for they love battle or spell casting, and sometimes both (but half-elfs seem to lose the needed qualities of both races, and nearly none are Battle Mages). But those are not the only ones who can be Battle Mages, for there are Battle Mages among all sentient (smart) creatures who can cast spells.

Other Classes
The Battle Mage has a lot in common with all classes but the barbarian, which they find hard to tolerate for a barbarian is a hacker and doesn’t know what he is hacking, a Battle Mage uses her spells with grace and strength, and is always aware. But the classes they get along with best is the Wizards (for they have utilitarian spells, and help out and are always thankful when you take a blow for them) and the Good Clerics (for they may be befuddled by religion but are, all in all, vary polite and out of the way) and fighters (for they are always grateful for help, and have a knack for getting hit and distracting).

Abilities
Their main stats are constitution, fallowed by dexterity and then strength and intelligence. They use constitution for spells and for hp. Dexterity provides initiative, ac, and works for many skills they use. Strength is useful for weapons. Intelligence is useful for skills.


Class features
Hit dice: 1d6
Alignment: A Battle Mage can be of any non-lawful, because of their obsession with battle is to chaotic.
Starting Gold: As Bard
Starting Age: As Bard

Class skills: CLIMB (STR), CONCENTRATION (CON), CRAFT (only things with a battle use)(INT), DIPLOMACY (CHA), HEAL (WIS), INTIMIDATE (CHA), JUMP (STR), KNOWLEDGE (INT; arcane, nature, history), SPELLCRAFT (INT; TRAINED ONLY), USE MAGIC DEVICE (CHA)

Skills points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) x4
Skills points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Battle Mage’s are proficient with all simple weapons, and only thrown weapons (for ranged weapons), and can cast spells with light weapons, and thrown weapons without hindrance (that is, they whouldent stop them anyways….). Battle mages get no armor proficiency’s through this output (and cant use feats and such to aid in casting Battle Mage spells).

MultiClassing: A Battle Mage can Multiclass easily, and a lot do. But a Multiclassing Battle Mage has a magical rule that applies. A multiclassing Battle Mage dose not gain Battle mage spell casting when he gets levels added to it without taking levels in the Battle Mage class (like a Prestige class, giving “+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class”) to stop over abuse of the powerful spell system, they cant improve it at all, without direct leveling in Battle mage.
Battle Mage Special Abilities

Spells: A Battle Mage’s magic stems from their need for battle, their love of battle, and their lust for battle. They pull their spells from all corners of the world, all the nocks and cranny’s, and do it well.
A Battle Mage knows all their spells, and their spell list consists of all spells and all classes (Arcane and Divine), although with classes like the ranger and paladin, then gain there spells at the same level a member of that class would (or you can compare the Battle Mage lvl as the Ranger lvl to see if applicable), i.e. level 4 for first level ranger spells, alignment restrictions still apply, and with deity specific spells are dealt with normally. Unless otherwise stated, the stat for a battle mage is con. The difficulty class (DC) for a saving throw against a Battle Mages spell is 10 + the spell’s level + con modifier. Battle Mage’s do not get there spells from a spell book, from their deity, or instinctually know them, instead they get their spells from the world, nature, plants dirt, rocks, animals, magic creatures, humans, elf’s, gnomes, and anything else around them (although this dose not limit them). The do not need any hands to cast spells, and so can use weapons and spells with no problem.
A battle mage has a limited number of spells he can cast a day. But he need not prepare them a head of time; he can only cast them in battle. He needs no components, verbal motions, or even words, only the will to cast it, although he still needs to wait the proper amount of rounds, he still need to make a concentration check when hit with damage. A Battle Mage gets bonus spells normally.
A Battle Mages caster level is equal to his Battle mage level, it is a separate caster level though, and does not stack with other classes. A Battle Mage can only cast spells in battle, and the spell needs to aid him in battle (note. This is only limited by the player’s imagination and the compliance of the DM, for it is the DM’s job to make sure they can really cast the spell). When making magic items (they cant make magic scrolls, wondrous items, only relics of there deity, and wands, although they can use them) they still need all the normal mats, although they can only make items with a battle use. To see if you can cast a spell, use the con modifier. To recharge there spells they need the required races sleep ( E.G. 8 hours for humans).
A spell cast by a battle mage loses it powers once battle ends (with minor exceptions like healing spells don’t lose there healing power, and the healed loses there hp), Its abilitys are inactive until there next turn in battle, but the ticker keeps ticking off on the spells duration. At level 10 the ticker stops ½ as slow (so a 10 round spells stopped at five rounds, now lasts 10 rounds after battle stops, if battle resumes before ½ of the new timer is run out, then it reverts to the amount when battle ended). At level 20 the ticker stops outside of battle altogether (so a 10 round spells stopped at five rounds, now lasts until next battle, at which point it lasts 5 rounds into that battle). Starting back up at the first round that person has in the next battle. To improve a Battle mages spells a lvl in Battle Mage needs to be taken. A Battle Mage can not specialize like a wizard can.

Skill mastery: Because of their specialty in battle, it improves beyond spells. When making a skill check in battle they are treated as having 1/2 rank’s in it. This bonus dose not discriminate between class and cross class skills. If it skill already has a bonus in rank, it dose not stack, but uses the better of the two bonuses. Round down.
At level 10 this bonus increases to 3/4ths.
At level 20 this bonus increases to having full ranks.

Armor mastery: Because of their center focus on battle they have been able to learn how to use light armor in battle without spell failure. Although this dose not help other classes besides the Battle mage, because the battle mage uses not actions or movements when casting spells. At level 8 they learn to use medium armor, without spell failure.

Spell swap: If a Battle Mage chooses to do so, he can sacrifice a spell of higher level to get 2 of the level directly beneath, and vice versa, to sacrifice 2 spells of a lower level to get one in the level directly above, once changed though, it can not be mutated again, and this means it cant go more then one up or down. I.E. A Battle Mage needs one 6th level spell, and so sacrifices two 5th level spells to get it, or he can sacrifice one 7th level spell to get two 6th level spells. This is a swift action.

Magic Item Use: Because of there need for battle it also restricts what magic items they can use. As in negative feedback, a Battle Mage cannot use any magic items that do not have a battle use. That is, they cant use a +1 thieves tools, because it can not aid them in battle, although they can use a +1 short sword because it aids then in battle.

Spell Resistance: Because of their vast spell reservoir they know the nature of most spells, and so gain spell resistance.

Weapon Mastery: At level 6 the skill of battle flows through their veins, and so they gain Martial weapon proficiency.
[/sblock]

Battle Mage, whoo!

In advance, I apologise for any harshness in my post.

First of all, thanks for posting this up. I'm glad you weren't too demoralised by the reaction to your Dragon Bound.

I take it you don't like the Duskblade (Player's handbook II), Hexblade (Complete Warrior), or Battle Sorcerer (Unearthed Arcana)?

It's a shame your new class isn't laid out as nicely, but as you are in the middle of a move, that's fair enough (though if I were you, I would have waited until you moved before posting it up). I'm not going to get harsh on you about spelling and punctuation, but I'll say you really need to go over your document a bit (a lot?) more.

Anyhow, on to the Battle Mage.

HD: d6

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Tougher than a regular mage. Ok, cool.

Average BAB, Good Fort and Will saves

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So, it's a cleric then.

Alignment: Any non-lawful.

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Um, ok. I guess we'll see why when you post up the background materials. I don't see anything particularly chaotic about the class, looking at it now.

Class skills:

Skills points at 1st Level: (0 + Int modifier) x4
Skills points at Each Additional Level: 0 + Int modifier

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No class skills, or just not listed yet?

Please give this class base skill points of at least 2 + Int modifier. I understand that most Battle Mages will have a positive Intelligence modifier due to their spellcasting mechanic, but 0 base skill points is atrocious.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Battle Mage’s are proficient with all simple weapons, and only thrown weapons, and can cast spells with light weapons, and thrown weapons without hindrance. Battle mages get no armor proficiency’s through this output.

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Some unclear writing here. You could interpret this as the class being only proficient with thrown simple weapons.

I don't understand why the battle mage receives no armour proficiency since they get an armoured casting ability (however, see below). You shoud make a note of the Battle Mage's ability to ignore spell failure from light (and later, medium) armour.

Your description also notes that Battle Mages can "cast spells with light weapons, and thrown weapons without hindrance". Does this mean that a Battle Mage can cast spells with such items in their hands? Note that this description is rendered irrelevent by your description of their Spellcasting later.

Your "Spells" section notes that a Battle Mage's spells have no material, somatic, or verbal components. This renders all arcane spell failure moot, since it only applies to (arcane) spells with somatic components. So, which is it?

MultiClassing: A Battle Mage can Multiclass easily, and a lot do. But a Multiclassing Battle Mage has a magical rule that applies. A multiclassing Battle Mage dose not gain Battle mage spell casting when he gets levels added to it without taking levels in the Battle Mage class (like a Prestige class, giving “+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class”), they cant improve it at all, without direct leveling in Battle mage.

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I'd say many Battle Mages multiclass, especially with no arcane spell failure. I find your spellcasting ability restriction nonsensical, though. I personally wouldn't leave it in.

Spells
<snip>
A Battle Mage knows all their spells, and their spell list consists of all spells and all classes (Arcane and Divine)

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!!!

If you have Complete Divine, there's an interesting class in there called the Spirit Shaman. They "know" all druid spells and have spontaneous casting. However, they can only have a small number of spells at each spell level "retrieved" from the spirit world on any given day.

If you want "open book" casting though, by all means go ahead. I just can't see how that would be balanced, even if the spells are restricted to being used in battle.

Unless otherwise stated, the stat for a battle mage is the average between con, int, and wis. The difficulty class (DC) for a saving throw against a Battle Mages spell is 10 + the spell’s level + the Battle mages stat modifier.

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Interesting. Could create some multiple ability dependency. Why Con, by the way?

A battle mage has a limited number of spells he can cast a day. But he need not prepare them a head of time, he can only cast them in battle. He needs no components, verbal motions, or even words, only the will to cast it, although he still needs to wait the proper amount of rounds, he need not make a concentration check when hit with damage.

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See above for some issues I have with how this interacts with armour proficiency and the armoured casting ability.

I think it's a bad idea to omit all the components (V, S, M) from a spellcaster. Note that you also omit XP and focus components. Free Wishes and Miracles during battle? Yes, please!

Being immune to spell failure from being in combat is extremely strong, in my opinion. It should go. If you want to make the class more resilient against being disrupted, you could give a scaling competence bonus on Concentration checks to keep a spell if struck in combat. That seems more in character for a rough and tumble battle mage to me.

A Battle Mage gets bonus spells equal to his stats modifier to each spell level he can cast. I.E. a first level Battle mage with a con, int, and wis, of 16 gets +3 to spell levels 0-6, if he can cast 6th level spells, which he cant, so its only +3 to spell levels 0 and 1.

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So, you're changing how the class gets bonus spells too? I'd say you should stick to the normal bonus spell option, since the spellcasting is otherwise identical. If it were a completely different spellcasting mechanic, I could see you changing this. Otherwise, it seems like a bad idea.

Note also that as the Battle Mage increases its "Stat", they get more and more return compared to the regular way of gaining bonus spells.

If a Battle Mage expends all his spell slots of a certain level, he can sacrifice a spell of higher level to get 2 of the level directly beneath, and vice versa, to sacrifice 2 spells of a lower level to get one in the level directly above, once changed though, it can not be mutated again, and this means it cant go more then one up or down. I.E. A Battle Mage needs one 6th level spell, and so sacrifices two 5th level spells to get it, or he can sacrifice one 7th level spell to get two 6th level spells. This is a swift action.

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It's an interesting idea. You may want to list it as a seperate class ability later.

A Battle mages caster level is equal to his Battle mage level, it is a separate caster level though, and does not stack with other classes. A Battle Mage can only cast spells in battle, and the spell needs to aid him (note. This is only limited by the player’s imagination and the compliance of the DM, for it is the DM’s job to make sure they can really cast the spell).

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I think it would be a good idea to explicitly state what the Battle Mage is restricted to (eg. Cleric, Druid, and Sorcerer/Wizard spells from the x, y, and z schools). This will create less confusion.

As it stands, a Battle Mage couldn't heal his allies, since it doesn't directly aid him. Is this your intention?

When making magic items (they cant make magic scrolls, wondrous items, only relics of there deity, and wands, although they can use them) they still need all the normal mats, although they can only make items with a battle use.

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This seems really arbitrary. If you want to encourage the making of "battle items", perhaps you could give Battle Mages a discount on the cost to create such "Battle items". If you want to stick with this, it would be a good idea to explicitly list what magic item types are "battle items".

To see if you can cast a spell, use the lowest stat out of con, int, and wis. To recharge there spells they need the required races sleep ( E.G. 8 hours for humans).

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"To cast a Battle Mage spell, the lowest of your Constitution, Intelligence, or Wisdom score must be equal or greater than 10 + the spell's level. The difficulty class... etc"

Personally, I'd stick with a single ability score for both DCs and spellcasting ability. If you're adamant on having more than one, I'd make both instances require the average (or else just use two ability scores.

Again... why Con ? Why Wis and not Cha also, for that matter?

A spell cast by a battle mage loses it powers once battle ends (with minor exceptions like healing spells don’t lose there healing power, and the healed loses there hp), Its abilitys are inactive until there next turn in battle, but the ticker keeps ticking off on the spells duration. At lvl 10 the ticker stops ½ as slow (so a 10 round spells stopped at five rounds, now lasts 10 rounds after battle stops). At level 20 the ticker stops outside of battle altogether (so a 10 round spells stopped at five rounds, now lasts until next battle, at which point it lasts 5 rounds into that battle). Starting back up at the first round that person has in the next battle.

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Seems like annoying book-keeping.

To improve a Battle mages spells a lvl in Battle Mage needs to be taken.

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Skill mastery: Because of their specialty in battle, it improves beyond spells. When making a skill check in battle they are treated as having 1/2 rank’s in it. This bonus dose not discriminate between class and cross class skills. If it skill already has a bonus in rank, it dose not stack, but uses the better of the two bonuses. Round down.
At level 10 this bonus increases to 3/4ths.
At level 20 this bonus increases to having full ranks.

Click to expand...

Given the class's unskilled nature, this seems wholly inappropriate.

Armor mastery: Because of their center focus on battle they have been able to learn how to use light armor in battle without spell failure. Although this dose not help other classes besides the Battle mage, because the battle mage uses not actions or movements when casting spells. At level 8 they learn to use medium armor, without spell failure.

Click to expand...

Given that the class's spell have no Somatic components, they woudn't suffer arcane spell failure anyway.

How can a class get mastery in armour without being proficient in any?

Magic Item Use: Because of there need for battle it also restricts what magic items they can use. As in negative feedback, a Battle Mage cannot use any magic items that do not have a battle use. That is, they cant use a +1 thieves tools, because it can not aid them in battle, although they can use a +1 short sword because it aids then in battle.

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You already said that.

Spell Resistance and Spell immunity: Because of their vast spell reservoir they know the nature of most spells, and so gain spell resistance and spell immunity to some spells. Spell Resistance as normal, except that it only applies to the said spell level and only until they are immune to that level spell. Spell immunity, is, as it’s name implies, they are immune to said spell level at said levels.

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I can't see these as a good idea, given the class's other abilities. If you want the class to be resistant to spell effects, why not give them an ability like Mettle, possibly bit by bit (Say Will first, the Fortitude later). Other ideas might be a (scaling) resistance bonus against spells and spell-like abilities, or an ability like Slippery Mind.

As it stands, the Battle Mage will make himself immune to his own spells that would "aid" him.

Weapon Mastery: At level 6 the skill of battle flows through their veins, and so they gain Martial weapon proficiency.

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Do you mean the Martial Weapon Proficiency feat, or proficiency with all martial weapons? It's an important distinction.

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In conclusion... this needs a fair bit of cleaning up and clarification. The main thing it needs is expanation on what you are trying to achieve, and willingness of the Author to listen to advice and suggestions as the thread goes on.

If these things occur, I'm sure the Battle Mage can become a balanced and extremely cool class to play. I look forward to your response.

Sorry borble, but I figured out after trying to help with your Dragon Bound class that it was pointless to try and offer any further advice or analyses for your material. It was wasted time trying to help you grasp the imbalances and problems in your previous class, and I can only suggest that you more seriously consider the pages and pages of previous advice given to you by folks on that thread. This one looks to be another problematic class and not worth the time of trying to convince you to fix it and how.

I suppose I can make one other suggestion: Ditch this class' abilities and model it after the Ranger or Bard more closely, just changing the spell list and/or primary spellcasting stat and/or the particular class features that don't fit your concept.

Wait, this is really a class that gets access to all 9th-level spells of all classes at 14th-level?

jasin said:

Wait, this is really a class that gets access to all 9th-level spells of all classes at 14th-level?

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Crap! I didn't even look at the end of the table!

jasin said:

Wait, this is really a class that gets access to all 9th-level spells of all classes at 14th-level?

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I believe you misread the table. That's 9th level spells at 13th level. My first instinct was - "Go, go gadget Miracle", but I realized that since you can access all the spells from all the spell lists miracle becomes less important.

It seems like you are going to be getting a lot of spells. More than any other class, with the added bonus of getting those spells a lot earlier then other classes.


A comparison with a sorcerer
average sorcerer with a 28 pt buy
str 10, dex 10, con 12, wis 10, int 10, chr 18
an average battlemage
str 10 , dex 10, con 15, int 16, wis 14, chr 8
will have
SRC 1
4 first level spells 2 spells known
BM 1
4 first level spells unlimited spells known

SRC 4
7 first level spells 3 spells known
3 second level spells 1 spells known
BM 4 (higher level spells down so we have an even comparison con bumped to 14)
12 first level spells unlimited spells known
6 second level spells unlimited spells known

SRC 10 (chr = 24 (+ 4 chr item + 2 stat bumps)
8 first level spells 5 spells known
8 second level spells 4 spells known
8 third level spells 3 spells known
6 fourth level spells 2 spells known
4 fifth level spells 1 spells known

BM 10 (chr bumped to 15, three + 2 stat items chr 17, con 18 int 18)
I double cascaded spells so we have a even spell level comparison.
9 first level spells unlimited spells known
9 second level spells unlimited spells known
8 third level spells unlimited spells known
6 fourth level spells unlimited spells known
5 fifth level spells unlimited spells known


In addition to more spells the battle mage has a better or just as good everything else.

freefall said:

I believe you misread the table. That's 9th level spells at 13th level.

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Ah, quite right, my mistake. Everything alright then.

i will take home the resoponses and resond to them, thanks all. a few quick notes though.
most of those contridictions are in the fluff and will make sence.
con becuse they love battle, and all those spells need strangth to hold.
wis and int. becuse they need to be smart to get them all, and the same with wis.
not cha, becuse cha dose not hold the right flavor with me and seems off sorry.
i think a normalization of bonus spells is in order, its just the way i play.
in adition, as i said in the quote, they cant use utilatarian spells.
and as for the SR i can retype it to say friendly fire.
as for the healing (as i sead ingenuity of the player) id say id ba able to use it becuse it adversly helps me by keeping more hits off me. i never sead directly.
thanks all
ben

reformated......mostly