Arcane Warrior: Custom Base class

Hey, a while back I was asking for assistance on the balance of a character class that was being created for a campaign I'm in. Now I've got the more or less final version and was wondering what people thought. Yes the arcane feat ability was something we thought up before the Book of Iron Might showed up.


The Arcane Warrior
Hitpoints: 1D8
Saves: Fortitude = good
BAB: 1:1
Skills: As fighter with knowledge (Arcana) and Spellcraft, 2+int skill points

Level Special Abilities
1 Arcane Focus, Elemental Spark, Sense Focus
2 Arcane Feat
3 Shield Other
4 Arcane Focus (+1)
5 Weapon Enchantment I
6 Arcane Feat
7 Arcane Sight
8 Arcane Focus (+2)
9 Weapon Enchantment II, Summon Weapon
10 Arcane Feat
11
12 Arcane Focus (+3)
13 Weapon Enchantment III
14 Arcane Feat
15 Summon Weapon (Free Action)
16 Arcane Focus (+4)
17 Weapon Enchantment IV
18
19 Arcane Feat
20 Weapon Enchantment V, Arcane Focus (+5)


Power Points: The arcane warrior has a power pool that he draws from to use his abilities, he gets 2 points per level.


Arcane Focus: The Arcane Warrior bonds to a specific weapon so that it becomes a conduit for their magical abilities. As the Arcane Warrior gains levels, this manifests itself an increasing in the enchantment of the weapon, first at 4th level when it becomes magical (weapon must be masterwork) and it increases every four levels from then on. This bonus, along with any bonuses the focus may have or used through Weapon Enchantment, may not exceed a total of +10 market price modifier. An Arcane Warrior can only bond to one weapon at a time. If the focus is destroyed the Arcane Warrior cannot use any of his abilities until he does a full day ritual and sacrifices 100 GP per Arcane Warrior level to attune himself to a new weapon.

Sense Focus: The Arcane Warrior can sense the approximate location of his focus as long as it is within 10 miles of him per Arcane Warrior level. The directions the Arcane Warrior gets is rough distance, direction and elevation.

Shield Other: One designated person set by a ritual (usually the mage the arcane warrior is designated to protect) can have the spell Shield other cast on him once a day. Like the spell.

Arcane Sight: 1/day cast at the user's arcane warrior level.

Elemental Spark: The Arcane warrior's powers first manifest themselves through their focus. At first level the arcane warrior may manifest an aura of elemental energy (inflicts +1D6 elemental damage of choice) around his weapon for five rounds per power point. This damage does not stack with any other elemental aura power. This ability counts as a +1 market price modifier ability when used in conjunction with respects to the Arcane Focus, and weapon enchantment limits.

Weapon Enchantment: At fifth level the elemental spark ability matures into the ability to summon forth other magical abilities onto his weapon. The Arcane warrior may add up to the listed Enchanted Weapon rating in magical weapon abilities to his weapon. Each power point fuels this ability for 5 rounds. The powers may change from round to round, changing the used powers is a free action, once a round. This may not be used to increase the enchantment bonus of the weapon. The entire rating does not need to be used but the leftovers do not carry over to other rounds. In conjunction with Arcane Focus, Elemental Spark and any enchantments natural to the weapon, the total bonus cannot exceed a +10 market price modifier

Summon Weapon: As the Mage Blade power presented in Arcana Unearthed



Any saves are calculated as follows:
10+1/2 AW level + CHA mod

Feat 1:
Spell-Like Ability 1
Prereq: Cha 11+, AWA2+
Power Cost: 2
Endure Elements, Protection from Chaos/Evil/Good/Law (pick one), Shield, Sleep (Full Round) (If not discharged, weapon keeps spell 1/rnd/per caster level + cha), Hypnotism (Standard), Ray of Enfeeblement, Jump, Enlarge Person, Expeditious Retreat
Pick any one of the above

Feat 2:
Arcane Power Strike
Prereq: Power Attack, Cha 13+, AWA6+
Power Cost: 1 point per D6
Single attack with (1 + (Arcane Warrior Lvl/2))d6 extra elemental damage as a standard action. (Stacks with Power Attack, though penalties from power attack are not nullified). Takes a move action to charge ability, Charge dissapates after 1 attack hit or no

Feat 3:
Arcane Energy Ray
Prereq: Cha 13+, AWA3+
Power Cost: 1 point per D8
Single ranged touch ray ((1 + (Arcane Warrior Lvl/2))d8 elemental damage (Range 100ft + 10ft/Caster Lvl)

Feat 4:
Arcane Energy Burst
Prereq: Cha 13+, Arcane Power Ray, AWA6+
Power Cost: 1 point per D6
Single Elemental Burst attack ((1 + (Arcane Warrior Lvl/2))d6 (Range 50ft + 5ft/Caster Lvl), Reflex save 1/2

Feat 5:
Arcane Energy Line
Prereq: Cha 13+, Arcane Power Ray, AWA6+
Power Cost: 1 point per D6
Single Elemental attack ((1 + (Arcane Warrior Lvl/2))d8 hits all creatures in a straight line from Arcane Warrior (Range 25ft + 5ft/Caster Lvl), Reflex Save 1/2

Feat 6:
Spell-Like Ability 2
Prereq: Spell-Like Ability 1, Cha 13+, AWA 6+
Power Cost: 4
Protection from Arrows, Resist Energy, Daze Monster, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Idiocy, Blur, hypnotic pattern, invisibility, mirror image, Blindness/deafness, The stat thingie spells

Feat 7:
Spell-Like Ability 3
Prereq: Spell-Like Ability 2, Cha 13+, AWA +
Power Cost: 6
Dispell Magic, Magic Circle Against Chaos/Evil/Good/Law (pick one), Protection from energy, Deep Slumber, Heroism, Hold Person, Rage, Daylight (Standard Action), Displacement, Invisiblity Sphere, Blink, Fly, Haste, Slow

Feat 8:
Increased Arcane Energy
Prereq: Cha 13+, AWA 6
Each time this feat is selected the arcane warrior gains 5 power points.



Jonathan

The Book of Iron Might by Monte Cook has some good arcane warrior feats. I haven't time to examine your class, but you should check it out.

I've seen BoIM, but I need to figure out how this particular version works.



Jonathan

Looks pretty good to me.
I'd tweak the prerequisites or augment/nerf of some of the feats though. Specifically the arcane energy ray/line seems higher powered than the other damage inflicting feats. The ray, if not better than arcane power strike, is certainly on par, yet the power strike is harder to get. The arcane energy line, on the other hand, is in my opinion definitely better than arcane power strike, allowing damage to multiple targets (without the probability of hitting allies like the burst-assuming I'm not rusty on spell terms and burst spreads from the caster to the noted range), without an attack roll, yet the prerequisites are the same.
take it or leave it, but what I'd do is either a) switch Arcane Power Strike over to D8's. b) add something like spell-like ability 1 (or a non-arcane warrior specific feat if you'd prefer the player get the abilities sooner lvlwise) to the ray's prerequisite list, in turn making the line harder to get. or c) add a bonus to hit or a short duration 'holding the charge' effect (1 round/cha mod maybe) on the power strike.

Over all though, the balance is good, I don't see anything abusable, yet the class still looks good and fun.

Thank you

Wow, thank you for the response I noticed the discrepancy in the writing there. The Arcane Energy ray is supposed to be a single target ranged touch attack, not a ray. As it stands I'm taking off the level prerequisite from Arcane power strike, I forgot that it nerfs itself as it goes down in level. By what you said regarding the energy sticking around for more than 1 round, do you mean to say if not used or even if there was an attack that missed?


Feat 2:
Arcane Power Strike
Prereq: Power Attack, Cha 13+
Power Cost: 1 point per D6
Single attack with (1 + (Arcane Warrior Lvl/2))d6 extra elemental damage as a standard action. (Stacks with Power Attack, though penalties from power attack are not nullified). Takes a move action to charge ability, Charge dissapates after 1 round per point of charisma mod or as soon as used.

Feat 3:
Arcane Energy Blast
Prereq: Cha 13+, Spell-like Ability 1
Power Cost: 1 point per D8
Single target, ranged touch attack ((1 + (Arcane Warrior Lvl/2))d8 elemental damage (Range 100ft + 10ft/Caster Lvl)


Jonathan