New Elemental Avatar Base Class based on Avatar Series and the Warlock Base Class

[Arkhandus]

I agree with DreamChaser's assessment.

The healing ability would probably be more like:
Least: Virtue
Lesser: Cure Minor Wounds
Greater: Cure Light Wounds
Greatest: Lesser Restoration
Or somesuch.

Anyway..... Some of us don't have Complete Arcane, and thus don't know exactly how all the Warlock's abilities work. Including myself. Ergo, can't offer any kind of useful opinion or criticism of this class.

<--- Avoids 3.5 material

 

[Dominic Ladon]

The primary way the warlock works is that he gets an extremely limited list of "Invocations". However, he can cast them an infinite amount of times per day. You do bring up a very good point on balance with the Healing Spells. Would it make more sense for there to be a limit on how many times per day the Healing Spells could be cast. For example, Due to the demanding manipulation required, all Healing Spells may only be cast a number of times per day equivalent to 1/2 of your avatar level. Then, instead of being able to cast any Healing Spells, even if they are cure minor wounds, an infinite amount of times per day, their is instead a limit based on the avatars abilities. Thus, at level 20, an avatar maximizing his ability in Healing Spells could only cast each of his healing spells 10 times per day. Or another possibility is limiting it to a number of times per day equivalent to your Wisdom modifier. Do either of these sound like fair options. Furthermore, should I apply this limitation to all of the spells, essentially limiting an avatars manipulation ability based on his abilities. I would also like to note, that because the Avatar is similar to a druidic monk, it does seem fitting to me that while a Warlock should most definitely not have access to divine magic, this class seems to lend itself to have some divine magic. Thanks again, please continue posting.

 

[ChimericDream]

I agree with the sentiment that not all of the spells should be infinite. Perhaps if you allow something like the following:

Total Number of Manipulations per day
Least: (Level +5 [possibly +10]) + Wisdom modifier
Lesser: Level + Wisdom modifier
Greater: (Level / 2) + Wisdom modifier
Greatest: Wisdom modifier

This makes it sort of like a cross between Warlock and Warmage, but still gives them quite a few Manipulations. I would also have the healing "domain" (for lack of a better word) cap out at cure crit or heal. Leave the resurrections up to the clerics. Gotta keep them around for something. So the healing one could look like this:

Least: Cure Light Wounds
Lesser: Cure Moderate Wounds
Greater: Cure Serious Wounds
Greatest: Cure Critical Wounds

or this:
Least: Cure Light Wounds
Lesser: Cure Serious Wounds
Greater: Cure Critical Wounds
Greatest: Heal

Then, they aren't getting Heal until at least 17th level, long after the clerics and druids get it. Plus, they'll have a limited number of top "slots" for the day, so using a heal is a big deal.

Even though I've never seen the anime, I realize this sort of breaks away from the true feeling of the class. However, I think that with what you're trying to do, it may be better to tone down some of the "actual" abilities in order to get it to play well with other classes. As it is, I'd never play anything but an avatar. Max out Sun, Healing, Ice, Movement, and take the first three tiers of Fire or Lightning, and it's hard to beat you with nearly any class.

 

[Dominic Ladon]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll make some changes soon to the original table which will be set in another color. I will mention though, that I think I will only change True Resurrection to Resurrection at this point, which still means that the Avatar won't obtain the spell until 17th level, while a Cleric will be able to access it much sooner.

In addition, I might consider, depending on others suggestions...

Least Cure Minor Wounds
Lesser Cure Moderate Wounds
Greater Cure Critical Wounds
Greatest Heal

 

[ChimericDream]

Well, the primary reason I would say leave the resurrecting to the clerics is that *no* other caster gets the resurrection spells. Even druids, who have a full 9 levels of divine spells only get heal. Giving an arcane caster the ability to (potentially) resurrect more people in a day than a cleric can is just crazy talk. But having the avatar get a boatload of spell slots that can be used for heals as needed helps the cleric without removing him from being a necessary part of the party.

 

[Dominic Ladon]

Let me switch it to my alternate selection then, and let me know what you think

 

[ChimericDream]

Well, it looks a little better. The main thing I'm noticing right now is that there's no real mechanics on how much of a certain type of damage some of the manipulations do. I'm assuming that the manipulations work identically to the spells of the same name, but how are you doing the mechanic of "Water (Elemental Manipulation : Adds Cold Damage and subject may be Frozen to the Ground (Reflex))" and so on? How much cold damage is dealt alongside each spell. Is the damage dealt by these spells considered [Cold] in addition to any other descriptors they already have? If I'm an Avatar, and I cast Heal on my party member, does he have to make a Reflex save or be frozen to the ground as a result of my aid?

The class is coming along nicely, but I still think some of the abilities need more explanation. I personally feel that they are still getting too many manipulations per day, but I'd wait till more people respond to see what the general consensus is.

 

[Dominic Ladon]

I assumed that the Manipulations would act as the spells they are modeled after. I had thought of renaming them though.

The Elemental Manipulations only apply to the Bending ability. It doesn't apply to any of the other manipulations. Bending operates like the Warlocks Eldritch Blast... it is a free ability by the Avatar that in its standard form is a ray attack dealing nd6 damage, but it can be modified by one shape manipulation and one elemental manipulation to become, for instance, a nd6 cone of fire that may cause subjects to catch fire. This is listed as Bending on the special ability list.

As for the number per day, my thought was that at 20th level, with a Wisdom of 20 you would get...

Least 35 Manipulations
Lesser 30 Manipulations
Greater 25 Manipulations
Greatest 15 Manipulations

When pitted against the idea that roughly Least = 0, 1, and 2 level spells, Lesser = 3, 4, and 5 level spells, Greater = 6 and 7 spells, and Greatest = 8 and 9 spells, the list doesn't seem to far off as compared to the sorcerers spells per day / spells known ration since the Avatar is much more constrained on their spells known, by not only having a limited amount of spells known, but also a select list to choose from, and a select progression that must be followed.

 

[Dominic Ladon]

Any final thoughts or comments???

 

[Brother Richard]

Comments:

I believe that their should be an unlimited amount of spells per day. I also believe, that either all the healing abilities do not cure damage, or they should require and consume a large amount of water. Therefore only giving unilimited healing when in the ocean. The mechanic you use instead of infinite is in my opinion annoying. At level 20, I have over 30 least invocations. That is so many, what is even the point in keeping track.

Just realized, you could make it so someone can only be healed once per hour.


Good Luck!