New Class: Stone Wizard (Moved)

I'm working on a new class called the Stone Wizard, Dwarven Wizards who specialize in earth magic. I'd like some feedback, thanks

Stone Wizard

Modifications to standard Wizard:

-Only Dwarves may become Stone wizards.

-Will and Fortitude as “good” saves (stone wizards are tough).

-Specialization: Earth magic (one bonus Earth spell per level, as School specialization).

-Scribe scroll not a free feat (although it can be taken as a feat).

-Cannot summon familiars.

-No wizard bonus feats.

-Cannot casts spells with the following schools or descriptors:
Enchantment, Illusion, Necromancy; Air, Cold, Electricity, Mind-Affecting, Plant, Water.

-May only craft magical items made primarily of stone or metal (i.e. no potions, cloaks, etc.).

Class abilities:

1st lvl:
+2 bonus to Search checks to notice unusual stonework, at a distance of 20 ft. (stacks with Dwarf ability). +2 bonus to Knowledge (geology) and Knowledge (architecture). Terran as a free bonus language.

2nd lvl:
Stone sense 1/day. By touching an earth or stone structure - either natural or constructed - a stone wizard can discern its nature (type and density of stone) and contours (i.e. fissures, tunnels and open spaces). The stone wizard must touch stone area to be sensed with his bare hands and must focus for one full round. Range: radius of 25 ft. + 5ft. / 2 lvls. (Think of this as “sonar” that works through rock. A stone wizard could sense an open space through a wall - such as a room on the other side - or that a collapsed tunnel is blocked by 15 feet of loose rock.)

3rd lvl:
+1 to saves vs. petrification and spells with earth descriptor.

4th lvl:
Summon Earth Elemental (small Earth Elemental, duration 1 rd + 1 per caster lvl) 1/day.

5th lvl:
Tremorsense 1/day, range 60 ft. radius, duration: 2 rds / level. Stone wizard must place both feet on ground and concentrate for one full round to activate this ability. If a stone wizard moves or in any way breaks his concentration, Tremorsense is suspended. However, as move action, the stone wizard may re-activate Tremorsense for the remainder of the ability’s duration.

6th lvl:
+4 to 1st lvl stone related skill bonuses, Search distance of 30 ft. Stonesense 2/day.

7th level:
Power of Stone: 1/day. By drawing forth the magical power of the earth itself, the Stone wizard gains a +2 bouns to Con, +2 natural armor bonus to AC and the DC and caster level of all earth spells cast increases by 1. Duration: 10 minutes per level. Stone wizard must concentrate for one full round and must be in contact with a large mass of earth or stone.

8th level:
Summon Earth Elemental (medium Earth Elemental, duration 1 rd + 1 per caster lvl, supercedes 4th lvl ability) 1/day.

9th lvl:
+2 saves vs. petrification and earth spells. Tremorsense 2/day

10th level:
Rebuke or command earth creatures (as Cleric’s Turn Undead ability), Stonesense 3/day.

Posted

It's hard to say but seems quite balanced to me. Only 3 minor concerns:

- the list of forbidden schools or types is huge, the resulting character can be still a very effective wizard, but the versatility is reduced

- final ST bonuses are maybe too high, considering it's also a dwarf...

- the Power of Stone ability could last as a Barbarian Rage, and still be very useful (also b/c the unnamed bonuses stack with everything)

That said, I think the various benefits and losses quite offset each other well.

I intended the Stone Wizard to be very specialized, he gives up a lot to be very very useful in certain environments (i.e. underground) I've been playing a Stone Wizard (5th level now) and I'm happy with the way its working. Thanks for the feedback.

To balance the very large loss of spell selection, I would actually import a number of [earth] type spells from the druid & cleric list to the stone wizard's spell list. Some of them would really make it a fun class to play, especially underground. You could also check out the Earth spells for the Wu Jen in Complete Arcane, some of them are pretty cool.

Soften Earth & Stone, Spike Growth, Spike Stones, Stone Tell ring a bell to me.

You could also grant the Arcane Disciple feat as a bonus --- allowing access to Earth domain spells (see Complete Divine).

The problem with that approach is that each spell on the list is limited to 1 casting per day, so if you wanted to grant the specialist greater access then you'd have to add those spells directly to the spell list.