For some reason the concept reminds be vaguely of the Ur-Priest in the Book of Vile Darkness, the actual abilities, not the flavor behind them.
Never seen it, can't comment.
Also, when balancing, keep in mind the Void Incarnate class that's free on Wizards' site (just google Void Incarnate) as it is, right now, THE premier rogue Epic PrC, allowing sneak attacks on every hit and a slew of awesome immunites. This class would need to be as good as that, at the least, if not better. It's more or less undetectable too, so it kind of covers the epic "stealth" role.
Yugh. Okay, some of the abilities (Blank Aura, Blank, Mind, Null Strike) are good. Void Presence is overpowered, and any decent rogue character would already have Imp. Evasion by that level. It's kind of like an epic Shadowdancer, in which case I can see the Mettle abilities. It needs higher prereqs, IMO - I'd put it around L30.
The one I have in mind, though, doesn't even come close to this. The VIn is all about "You don't see me, you don't know me, you can't do anything!", whereas mine (we really need a name for this thing) is "I'm an arcane assassin who uses spell power to enhance my abilities."
The other problem with designing these is to avoid overlapping with abilities that are granted by feats in Ascension, since there's so many of them. I've never built an epic rogue so I'm not to familiar with what they get from Ascension, but I'll try and take a look.
Given the sheer number of feats and classes out there, just about anything you design will overlap with
something.
Any idea how the class would interact with Assassin either? What if you had, say, a rogue 3/Wizard 6/Assassin 6/Arcane Trickster 10 going into this? Could the class possibly advance both types of spellcasting? O add the Assassin list to the wizard's? Just a thought.
+1 level of arcane spellcasting class. Simple. Adds to whatever you want.
For Arcane Death Strike...how about you add the level of the spell you expend as a free action to the DC of the Death Attack? (Though that sounds almost non-epic). Deliver Death Attacks as part of a spell? If the target makes their save they take 1d10 damage per your CL? I don't know, I'm just throwing stuff out there.
Adding spell level is a decent ability, though a bit low level. I like delivering a spell as part of the death attack - you can cast the spell (must be standard action or less) and store it in your weapon for up to three rounds; thereafter, if you make the DA, the spell's level adds to the DC. If the target makes the save, it applies against both the DA and the spell; if he fails, he suffers both effects fully. Course, if you're trying to kill someone, it seems like a moot point to put a spell effect into the strike too...
How about an ability to expend a spell slot to get Xd6 to all Sneak Attacks for that round? (9th level=+9d6)
Not bad. Might be a bit powerful, but you could limit it to uses/day, or half the level in dice.
For a chasis, would you still be looking at d6 HD and medium attack bonus? Obviously advancing Arcane Spellcasting every level too.
Every other level - you're already getting badass rogue/assassin abilities, and this isn't a class designed toward pure casters.
I don't know, for some reason it seems like you could build this kind of character well enough even without a specified prestige class. It's gonna have to give some HUGE benefits to make it more attractive than Void Incarnate (which has no Sneak Attack progression, but there's an Epic Feat to mitigate that). It should probably focus very heavily on integrating arcane spellcasting into sneaky abilities, it's just hard to think of good ideas for that concept.
Like I said, different concepts.
How about allowing Rogue levels to stack for Arcane Caster Level? Or maybe adding in the number of SA dice to it instead?
Ehh.... I dunno.
We need a name too. Any ideas? Occultist? Shadow Sage? Umbra?
I'd go with Arcane Assassin, but there's already one with that name. Maybe something Latin, like Veneficus Lamnia (magical blade).
I think there should be a variant for Warlock/Rogues too, since that's an awesome combination.
Yugh, warlocks.
