D&D 3E/3.5 [3.5 PrC] The Edificer

[Lappy9000]

Looking for some critique, should anyone be kind enough to give it. The class has been knocked down a peg or two, but I'm still concerned that it may be too powerful. Any critique, comment, or criticism is greatly appreciated.​

Edificer

-Image Property of LadyDeddelit.​

There are those who walk the path of healers; mending the weak through mundane and magical means. They act from the good of their hearts, or from the emptiness in their wallets.​

There are those who walk the path of clerics; curing the weak and sickened from the divine influence of their deity. They help the pious, and convert the heretical.​

Then there are those who walk the path of edificers. Wielding nothing but the pure energies of the lifestream straight from the Plane of Positive Energy, they can heal the hurt, damage the unliving, or drain the very essence from their enemies. Sanctioned great endurance from the lifestream, edificers continue to absorb positive energy until their very bodies illuminate the energies of the lifestream.​

Requirements
To qualify to become an edificer, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Alignment: Any Non-Evil
Feat: Iron Will
Skills: Heal 8 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 8 ranks​

Table: The Edificer
Lv|Bab|F|R|W|Special​

1st|+0|+2|+2|+2|Eye of the Spirits, Vitality +1, Vitiate Serenity

2nd|+1|+3|+3|+3|Radiant Becoming, Spirit Essence

3nd|+1|+3|+3|+3|Vitality +2, Vitiate Diligence

4th|+2|+4|+4|+4|Mending Dominion

5th|+2|+4|+4|+4|Effuse Energy, Vitiate Brio

6th|+3|+5|+5|+5|Melioration 1/day, Vitality +3

7th|+3|+5|+5|+5|Purview of Essence, Vitiate Eupnea

8th|+4|+6|+6|+6|Melioration 2/day, Revitalizing Dominion

9th|+4|+6|+6|+6|Vitality +4, Vitiate Animus

10th|+5|+7|+7|+7|Empyrean Becoming, Melioration 3/day

Hit Die: d6​

Class Skills: The edificer's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis).
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.​

Class Features
All the following are class features of the edificer prestige class.​

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Edificers gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.​

Eye of the Spirits (Su): As a standard action, an edificer use the sacred sight granted to her by the world's energy, determining the condition of creatures near death within a 30 ft. cone. You instantly know whether each creature within the area is dead, fragile (alive and wounded, with 3 or fewer hit points left), fighting off death (alive with 4 or more hit points), undead, or neither alive nor dead (such as a construct).
Eye of the Spirits sees through any spell or ability that allows creatures to feign death.​

Province of Vitality (Su): Starting at 1st level, an edificer can project pure positive energy to empower herself or her allies. The benefit of this aura can be swapped between one of three different auras as a Swift action. This aura has a 30-foot radius and lasts as long as the edificer remains conscious or uses a swift action to change the aura's effect. The bonuses given by the aura increase to +2 at 3rd level, +3 at 6th level, and +4 at 9th level.

• Illustrious Safeguard: You and allies gain a +1 insight bonus to all saving throws.​
• Sibylline Vision: You and allies gain a +1 insight bonus to AC​
• Ward of Deterrence: You and allies gain a +1 deflection bonus to AC.​

Vitiate (Su): Beginning at 1st level, an edificer can shape and refine undiluted positive energy to her purposes, either by flooding others with the energy, or ending their connection with it all together. You can target a single living creature within 30 ft. to alter their connection with positive life force. The target must succeed a Will Save equal to 10 + your edificer level + your Wisdom modifier, or suffer one of the following effects. Unless otherwise stated, the duration of any effect is equal to your edificer level.​

• Vitiate Serenity: At 1st level, you can interrupt the target's life force, dealing them 1d10 points of damage per every 2 edificer levels (minimum 1d10).​
• Vitiate Diligence: At 3rd level, you can temporarily decrease the target's energy, making them unfocused and lethargic, giving them a -1 penalty to all saving throws per every 3 edificer levels (minimum 1).​
• Vitiate Brio: At 5th level, you can temporarily extinguish the target's spark for life, making them move at a decelerated rate. The creature moves at half its normal speed and can take only a single move action or standard action each turn, but not both (nor may it take full-round actions). Additionally, the creature takes a -1 penalty on attack rolls and AC per every 3 edificer levels (minimum 1).​
• Vitiate Eupnea: At 7th level, you can drain the target of their breath, interrupting their natural breathing process. The affected creature can still continue to breathe by taking a standard action in each round to gasp for breath. If the affected creature attempts to take actions normally (instead of consciously controlling its breathing), it must must make another Will save to consciously overcome the effect. The DC of this save increases by 1 in every consecutive round after the first one that goes by without a breath; the DC drops back to its original value if the creature spends an action to take a breath. If the creature fails their save, it becomes disabled at 0 hit points. In the following round, it drops to -1 hit points and is dying, effectively ending the effects of Vitiate Eupnea.​
• Vitiate Animus: At 9th level, you temporarily remove the target's natural barriers to positive energy, effectively overloading them as positive energy floods into their body. If used against a living creature at full hit points, they gain Fast Healing 5, but begin to acquire bonus hitpoints above their maximum from both Fast Healing and magical means. If the creature attains twice their normal number of hitpoints, they simply explode in a brilliant flash, curing all creatures within a 30 ft. radius as if they had received a Restoration spell. However, if Vitiate Animus ends before the creature attains twice their normal hit points, they return to full hit points, and are instead stunned for 1d6 rounds.​

Radiant Becoming (Su): At 2nd level, an edificer has absorbed tremendous amounts of positive energy, causing her body to glow, shedding bright light in a 20-foot radius (and dim light for an additional 20 feet). This ability can be suppressed for a number of rounds equal to your edificer level as a swift action.​

Spirit Essence (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, an edificer can heal wounds (her own or those of others) by touch. Each day she can heal a total number of hit points of damage equal to her edificer level × her Wisdom modifier x two. An edificer may choose to divide her healing among multiple recipients, and she doesn’t have to use it all at once. Using Spirit Essence is a standard action.​

Alternatively, an edificer can use any or all of this healing power to deal damage to undead or creatures. Using Spirit Essence in this way requires a successful melee touch attack and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity. The edificer decides how many of her daily allotment of points to use as damage after successfully touching an undead creature.
If the chosen locale is magically or psionically dark, you see nothing. If it is naturally pitch black, you can see in a 10-foot radius around the center of the power’s effect or out to the extent of your natural darkvision. The power does not work across planes.​

Mending Dominion (Su): Upon reaching 4th level, an edificer increases the flow of positive energy through her Province of Vitality, giving any creature currently under one of its effects Fast Healing 2.​

Effuse Energy (Su): At 5th level, an edificer can absorb the life energy of others. You can target a number of living creatures equal to half your edificer level. By succeeding a ranged touch attack, this power deals 1d6 points of damage per two edificer levels. This absorbed life energy is used to refuel your Spirit Essence, which cannot hold more hit points than its maximum total.​

Melioration (Sp): Beginning at 6th level, an edificer gains some lesser spellcasting prowess, and can cast one of the following spells 1/day as a spell-like ability: Break Enchantment, Heal, Raise Dead. Caster level is equal to edificer level. These spell-like abilities can be used 2 times per day at level 8, and 3 times per day at level 10.​

Purview of Essence (Su): At 7th level, an edificer no longer needs to touch a creature to infuse them with the energy from her Spirit Essence. She can now target a single creature within the range of her Province of Vitality. When used to damage undead, she may now make a ranged touch attack instead of a melee touch attack.​

Revitalizing Dominion (Su): Upon reaching 8th level, an edificer further increases the flow of positive energy through her Province of Vitality, giving any creature currently under one of its effects Fast Healing 4. Revitalizing Dominion effectively replaces Mending Dominion.​

Empyrean Becoming (Su): At 10th level, an edificer's body and soul are completely infused with positive energy. You gain resistance 20 against any attack that deals acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic damage by absorbing the damage. When you absorb damage, you can choose to release the energy as a 30-foot radius of positive energy that heals an amount of damage equal to the points of damage you successfully resisted, or merely dissipate the energy.​

 

[Luthien Greyspear]

Don't use a stat for a prerequisite

You should never use a stat as a prerequisite, as that is something that players have little choice over as they progress in levels. You should instead have something like Iron Will, or perhaps a feat from the Book of Exalted Deeds or Complete Champion, given the flavor of the class.

A good feat from the BoED would be Nimbus of Light, which grants bonuses on Diplomacy and Sense Motive with good creatures, and allows the character to radiate light. It also chains into Holy Radiance, which causes the character to radiate light that harms the undead (very positive energy). Perhaps that can be a bonus feat at 4th or 5th level.

It seems a little out of flavor for the Province of Vitality to grant offensive bonuses. Perhaps swap the fast healing ability at 4th level to be one of the auras that gets better with time, and give the Edificer either an offensive boost to one character (Pure Soul's Zeal: Character does +1d6 positive damage with melee attacks for # of rounds = Edificer's Wis mod, perhaps?), or maybe the feat I mentioned above as a bonus. The other bonuses for Province of Vitality could be AC bonus (deflection is good), and a boost to all saves perhaps?

Also, Melioration is not a minor spellcasting ability. Those spells are all 5th level and higher. Just a semantics thing really.

 

[Lappy9000]

You should never use a stat as a prerequisite, as that is something that players have little choice over as they progress in levels. You should instead have something like Iron Will, or perhaps a feat from the Book of Exalted Deeds or Complete Champion, given the flavor of the class.

Hmm, I didn't know that. I'm of the opinion that I'm terrible at desigining prestige classes, so I'm trying to fix that.

Sadly, due to the nature of the homebrew, everything needs to be core. Iron will is an excellent idea, though.

It seems a little out of flavor for the Province of Vitality to grant offensive bonuses. Perhaps swap the fast healing ability at 4th level to be one of the auras that gets better with time, and give the Edificer either an offensive boost to one character (Pure Soul's Zeal: Character does +1d6 positive damage with melee attacks for # of rounds = Edificer's Wis mod, perhaps?), or maybe the feat I mentioned above as a bonus. The other bonuses for Province of Vitality could be AC bonus (deflection is good), and a boost to all saves perhaps?

Ah, awesome ideas, thank you. Did you mean to add the attack bonus of Pure Soul's Zeal as +1d6 positive damage? That...may work out weird.

Also, Melioration is not a minor spellcasting ability. Those spells are all 5th level and higher. Just a semantics thing really.

Yeah, but you'd have to be at least 11th level (Level 5 required to enter class) to cast them, though.

 

[Arkhandus]

Hmmm........ Broken and in need of clarifications. Keep in mind that this is all in the spirit of constructive criticism, except that I'm not gonna tell you how you should fix everything; most of that's up to you and what your vision of the class deems as most important and such.

It's like a Dragon Shaman (Player's Handbook II) but with its aura bonus compacted into half as many levels, slightly more useful auras, and unlimited Fast Healing granted through them as an extra after just a few levels. The FH gets almost as high by 8th-level (likely the character's 13th overall level) as a Dragon Shaman's would get by Xth-level, but without the DS's restriction of only healing creatures to half their maximum +1 HP.

Thus unlimited healing (at 4th-level the Edificer can fully heal themselves and their allies in 5 minutes or less, and at 8th-level it will regain that standing after lagging just a bit over the intervening levels due to allies' increased HP; and I'm talking about 5 minutes or so for the toughest warriors in the party, more like 1-3 minutes for everyone else). Thus the PCs will be at virtually full power for every single encounter (aside from the possible use of an occasional limited ability/spell for more-sudden healing or damage-output). And this will start happening at the 9th character level.

Spirit Essence is like a Dragon Shaman's Touch of Vitality without the status-effect-healing tradeoff options, but based on a more useful stat (Wisdom). Until it becomes useable at range, which makes it even better, but at least it remains incapable of healing status effects so it probably evens out. However, Spirit Essence doesn't say anything about being a positive energy effect or being limited to healing the living; technically, by its wording it can heal anything, and the damage it is capable of dealing to undead (only if the Edificer chooses to damage them instead of heal them with it) isn't even positive energy damage.

There's also this text at the end of Spirit Essence, which seems misplaced and unusual:

If the chosen locale is magically or psionically dark, you see nothing. If it is naturally pitch black, you can see in a 10-foot radius around the center of the power’s effect or out to the extent of your natural darkvision. The power does not work across planes.

Is that part supposed to be part of Radiant Becoming, or something else? And if so, is its light supposed to suppress unnatural darkness within 10 feet for everyone that can see in the light, or just for the Edificer themselves somehow? If it is actually supposed to be part of Spirit Essence, how long does it last?

You would think that Province of Vitality and the other class features wouldn't help undead, since they're supposed to be weakened or harmed by positive energy, yet only a few of them actually do have a negative effect on undead. Nothing stops the Edificer from granting undead creatures various benefits through his or her class features. Nor does anything stop the Edificer from BEING undead themselves, which is really wierd.

That should probably be fixed (it probably shouldn't be possible for a Vampire or Lich to charm or control an Edificer into healing them with the Fast Healing of the aura or giving them other bonuses and stuff from their auras and other abilities; also note, for instance, that a neutral Cleric 5/Edificer X could be able to rebuke/command undead and thereby control a small army of undead servants, who could benefit from many of the Edificer's class features, just not the DIRECT healing abilities (because Fast Healing is similar to natural healing, and your class features don't specify any incompatibility with undead or negative effects on them).

All of the class' abilities are also unlimited in use, with the sole exception of Melioration. Even Spirit Essence can be easily recharged with a bag of rats, an ally summoning up some cruddy minions with a low-level spell, or random pillaging of local animals' or NPCs' life-force (though excessive use of these tactics would turn a character evil, if the DM bothered to enforce alignment changes for behavior, as some of us do). Time t'go KOBOLD-HUNTIN'!!!! Just don't execute them, use nonlethal attacks and spells like Sleep, round up the unconscious little monsters, and bring 'em along (or stash them somewhere convenient) for later recharging. OR!!! Finally a use for all those orc-babies and orc-women when you slaughter the orcish warbands!!! Fuel for the recharge of Spirit Essence. Sure it's morally questionable, but those orcs were just gonna grow up to maul and pillage decent folk otherwise, right? So in some campaigns, the DM may very well let players get away with it. Not me, but, y'know, there ARE DMs out there who would.

Also, you don't specify any limits to Effuse Energy. You could zap a rat for several dice worth of damage and get that back in Spirit Essence, even though the rat's sum total of damage absorption (by the time it reaches -10 HP) is maybe 11 or 12 points. Most draining effects are limited to draining no more than the subject's current HP (so it could only drain as many HP as the subject had above 0, even if the effect reduced them to -10 and killed them in the process). Effuse Energy has no stated range, yet it requires ranged touch attacks. Nor does it specify that the targets have to be living creatures (you could drain undead creatures, constructs, or whatnot.....).

It doesn't say if extra HP absorbed beyond Spirit Essence's total are just lost, or if that extra damage isn't even dealt to targets in the first place. Nor does it say if it drains the sum total of the damage it dealt (that is, when you target 2 creatures for instance, and say you roll 8 damage for it, do you recover a total of 16 points worth of Spirit Essence since you dealt 8 damage to 2 targets?). Furthermore, it doesn't say if you roll damage separately for each target (and whether or not you roll separate attacks against each target, but that at least is more of a given).

Do Damage Resistance, Energy Resistance, or other defenses that reduce or negate damage also reduce the amount of Spirit Essence replenished by Effuse Energy? Plus EE is just too strong anyway, with its multi-target damage and replenishing of Spirit Essence at the same time (and probably from each target that is drained).

Eye of the Spirits doesn't specify if it lets you see and pinpoint (and/or sense the condition of) invisible creatures or others with concealment or cover (such as an enemy on the other side of a solid wall, or otherwise outside your actual line of sight). Or ethereal creatures for that matter, or hidden ones. Needs more specifics.

Mending Dominion and Revitalizing Dominion should probably be specified as having their Fast Healing come from positive energy and only working on living creatures. They probably shouldn't work on unwilling subjects (otherwise they could include nearby undead in their aura, dealing damage to them each round through the positive energy healing).

Melioration shouldn't be noted as lesser spellcasting prowess, but rather as limited spell-like capabilities (they're not actually spells, so they ignore some of the components and costs of spells).

Do Province of Vitality and Purview of Essence work around cover and other barriers? Will someone on the other side of a wall be susceptible to them or able to benefit from them (might make sense for PoV, but not so much sense for the targeted nature of PoE).

Empyrean Becoming seems abuseable and too strong, I'm just not quite sure yet on how it would be abused. Well, y'know, aside from the obvious use of an ally zapping the Edificer with a Scorching Ray, Burning Hands, Shocking Grasp, Acid Arrow, Flaming Sphere, Produce Flame, or the like and thereby healing you and all your allies for several points of damage super-cheap right away. Flaming Sphere and Produce Flame even allow multiple hits throughout their duration, so multiple healing bursts, and Acid Arrow deals damage in round-by-round increments, while Scorching Ray launches multiple rays so it is technically multiple attacks (thus each ray would trigger a healing burst).

Oh, and given the utter vagueness of Empyrean Becoming, it would seem that all creatures within the area are healed by it, including the Edificer, but excluding things that aren't healed by positive energy (so at least it seems to exclude nonliving things, and would seem to be the case that it harms undead in fact; which may be a sort of hidden bonus for its possible functions and thus making it even more powerful).

I'm none too enthusiastic about the unlimited use of Vitiate and its stronger powers. And I'm not sure why it's called vitiate when it's generally negative effects (but then, I dunno what vitiate means, other than it seems like vitalize, which would seem backwards). The first ability is reasonably minor, but should specify that it's an instantaneous effect (if it's actually supposed to have the 1 round/level duration of other Vitiate effects, then it's too strong). Vitiate Diligence should specify a penalty type, such as resistance or luck or sacred or whatever, so that it won't stack with itself and might be overcome with a more-powerful bonus of the same type. Vitiate Brio should likewise specify a penalty type, and I think it should specifically allow negation by a Haste effect (though probably negating the Haste effect at the same time).

Does a successful save to "overcome the effect" of Vitiate Eupnea after first succumbing to it actually end that Vitiate's effect, or just prevent them from suffocating on that particular round? It should specify. Does Vitiate Animus kill the creature when they explode with energy, or is the explosion just of the released energy and harmless to the subject? Also, the Restoration effect should specify a caster level, since it duplicates a spell. I could easily see PCs abusing Vitiate Animus on rats, kobolds, or other pitiful little creatures they brought along, simply for the purposes of making them explode and provide Restoration for the entire party for free, at will. This is a bad thing.....

Oh, and Vitiate should probably be specified as a Necromancy effect since it toys with life force so much and in such negative ways (Necromancy isn't all about negative energy, even if the 3.x designers tended to focus it on negative energy; there are still some positive energy spells among Necromancy; and healing/raising spells used to be Necromancies back in 2nd Edition). Effuse Energy should probably also be specified as a Necromancy effect.

I see no reason why the class has a high Reflex save, or such low Hit Dice given how it's supposedly absorbed tons of positive energy as its class features say. Not that it wouldn't be even MORE overpowered if you raised the HD, but it doesn't make much sense how the class is so fragile despite the constat channeling of significant quantities of positive energy (yet apparently not so much that they develop rapid cancer and die/explode as they would on the Positive Energy Plane, if they visited that Plane for too long).

The deflection bonus from Ward of Deterrence I can sort of force myself to believe, and the Fortitude bonus from Illustrious Safeguard, but I have a harder time justifying the Reflex/Will bonuses from what's supposedly a positive energy effect, let alone the insight bonus from Sibylline Vision. Still, I could sort of wrap my mind around the general save bonus, at least, so at least Illustrious Safeguard is sort of understandable, just a stretch. Not so Sibylline Vision. I'm not quite sure why the class is called Edificer either, as it only tangentially has any relation as far as I can tell to what the class does.

Overall the class has too many sources of inifnite healing (it shouldn't even have one......at least not for the whole party. Other prestige classes in the past have provided the actual PrC member with personal Fast Healing at their upper levels in the PrC, but I don't know of any that grant it to the whole party.....and Dragon Shamans have very limited healing capacity, even though they can heal everyone a little bit between fights, just not to full most of the time), and some other problems. You should work up another, revised draft of the prestige class.....