[ELH] The Epic Spellsword (ideas)

[drnuncheon]

I'm pondering the epic level progression for the Spellsword, which is an icky thing since the major ability of the class - the Channel Spell ability - doesn't follow a set pattern. If you go by the suggested guidelines, that means that it shouldn't increase at all - and that makes there be very little point in taking Spellsword levels as opposed to alternating Fighter and Wizard.

What I'm strongly considering is this, inspired by the fact that most of the DMG prestige classes had epic feats just for them (Improved Arrow of Death and Mobile Defense, for example) - why should they get all the fun?

Improved Spell Channelling
Prerequisites: Channel Spell III class ability
Benefit: You are able to channel higher level spells through your sword. When you select this feat, the highest level of spell you can channel through your sword goes up by 1. As always, you may choose to channel multiple lesser spells, up to the total spell levels granted by this feat.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times.

And then an Epic Spellsword progression like this:

At 21st level and every 2nd level therafter, the spellsword gets an additional +5% to his Armored Casting.

At 22nd level and every 2nd level thereafter, the spellsword's caster level increases by 1.

At 23rd level and every 3 levels thereafter, the spellsword gets a bonus feat.

(Why every 3 levels? Over 10 levels a fighter gets 5 feats and a wizard 2. Normal spellswords get 5, counting Channel Spell I-III and Spellsword Cache as feats. On the other hand, only the fighter gets a bonus feat every 2 levels, and the spellsword gets improvement in his armored casting and spellcaster level - so every 3 seemed like the best place to put them, as going to every 4 would have been too much of a price to pay compared to wizard levels.)

So:

21st - Armored Casting 35%
22nd - +1 spellcaster level
23rd - Armored Casting 40%, Bonus Feat
24th - +1 spellcaster level
25th - Armored Casting 45%
26th - Bonus Feat, +1 spellcaster level
27th - Armored Casting 50%
28th - +1 spellcaster level
29th - Armored Casting 55%, Bonus Feat
30th - +1 spellcaster level

and so on.

One could make the Spellsword Epic Feats just the conjunction of Fighter and Wizard epic feats, but I'm not entirely sure I like that idea.

Some other Epic Feat ideas I had for spellswords include:

Multiple Attack Channeling
Prerequisites: Channel Spell III class ability
Benefit: If you channel a spell through your sword that would normally affect multiple targets, the spell will remain active for that many attacks. For instance, if your caster level was 20 and you channeled chill touch through your sword, your next 20 attacks would cause an additional 1d6 negative energy damage and drain 1 Str. A missed attack uses up an attack just as if it were a missed touch attack.
Normal: A spell channeled through your sword only affects the current target.

(This may be a bit powerful. On the other hand, any saves involved ought to be easy. Ideas? Comments?)

Improved Spellsword Cache
Prerequisites: Spellsword Cache class ability
Benefit: You may store spells of a higher level in your spellsword cache. When you take this feat, the maximum level of spells you can store in the cache increases by 1.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times.

(I'm not sure why there wasn't a 'brew epic potion', since they allowed a prestige class to do it in Magic of Faerun. Maybe it's something for specialists - which is why I included the ability for spellswords here. Is it too expensive at 1 feat per level?)

Anyway, those are my initial thoughts. Any other spellsword fans care to comment?

 

[Crothian]

Aside from Multiple Attack Channeling, I think this is fantastic. I don't have much to comment on other then that at the moment. After I fix dinner and eat it, I'll take a closer look at all of this and try to have some more helpful comments.

 

[Crothian]

Okay, I think it looks good. The Armored Casting is nice, but at some point it stops mattering as it easily exceeds all arcane spell failure. I'm mentioning that becasue it stops being useful gaining it every other level.

I think you need a feat that allows Spellsword Cache to be used more then once a day. I think the feat should be none epic.

How about a feat that increases the DC of spells cast through the sword? (we can have three versions, normal, greater, Epic)

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

It looks good however you may need to revise the wording of Multiple Attack Casting, since 'multiple targets' can mean a fireball, which already works in doing an area attack with the spellsword.

 

[drnuncheon]

Aside from Multiple Attack Channeling, I think this is fantastic.

That's the one I'm least happy with, too. It came from a desire to expand the channel spell ability in a different direction than just adding more powerful spells. I noted that several spells that were eligible for use with channel spell could actually target more than one creature, and I thought that giving that ability 'back' to the spell might be interesting. Maybe there's a more elegant way to do it.

As for the Improved Cache, on reflection I think it needs to be more than 1 level - after all, you get a feat every 3-4 levels, so a feat should be "worth more" than a level, if that makes any sense. Making it be levels 4-6 and then 7-9 has a nice symmetry with the original feat. Making it unlimited (Epic Spellsword Cache?) would probably be too much, though. Perhaps as a balancer, increasing levels of Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft could be required?

J

 

[drnuncheon]

Okay, I think it looks good. The Armored Casting is nice, but at some point it stops mattering as it easily exceeds all arcane spell failure. I'm mentioning that becasue it stops being useful gaining it every other level.

Sure. It seems like it's a minor feature of the class in balance terms anyway - when I toted up and compared to 5 levels each of fighter and wizard, that was a definite 'extra' on the part of the spellsword that didn't match up with anything on the ftr/wiz side.

I think you need a feat that allows Spellsword Cache to be used more then once a day. I think the feat should be none epic.

Er...do you mean Channel Spell perhaps? A spellsword can use Cache (basically a Brew Potion variant) as many times per day as he wants - assuming he's got spells still cached in there, of course.

I thought about a feat for an extra use of Channel Spell, but since there was already a mechanism for splitting the ability (by casting lower level spells) I thought that basically doubling the amount of use you get out of it might be a little excessive.

Now, a spellsword-based Ring of Wizardry variant that did that...hmmm.

How about a feat that increases the DC of spells cast through the sword? (we can have three versions, normal, greater, Epic)

Brilliant!

Spellsword Focus
Your studies of magic and the blade have forged a mystic link: the force of your attack makes your spells harder to resist.
Prerequisites: Channel Spell I class ability
Benefit: Add +3 to the DC for all saving throws against spells cast using the Channel Spell class ability. This benefit stacks with Spell Focus, Greater Spell Focus, and Epic Spell Focus.

(I am waffling on the bonuses for all of these. Should they be +2, as Spell Focus - the fact that they can be from any school balanced by the fact that they must be cast with Channel Spell? Or does the strict limitation on spells/day outweigh the versatility? In the end I came down feeling that Channel Spell felt 'narrower' than a school of magic, so I went for a bit more of a punch. You can affect how many of your spells use Spell Focus, which you can't really do for Channel Spell.)

Greater Spellsword Focus
Your studies of magic and the blade have forged a mystic link: the force of your attack makes your spells far harder to resist.
Prerequisites: Spellsword Focus, Channel Spell II class ability
Benefit: Add +6 to the DC for all saving throws against spells cast using the Channel Spell class ability. This benefit overlaps (does not stack with) the benefit granted by Spellsword Focus, but does stack with Spell Focus, GSF, and ESF.

Epic Spellsword Focus [Epic]
Your studies of magic and the blade have forged a mystic link: the force of your attack makes your spells far harder to resist.
Prerequisites: Greater Spellsword Focus, Improved Spellsword Chanelling
Benefit: Add +9 to the DC for all saving throws against spells cast using the Channel Spell class ability. This benefit overlaps (does not stack with) the benefits granted by Spellsword Focus and Greater Spellsword Focus, but does stack with Spell Focus, GSF, and ESF..

I suppose there's room for one more:

Spellsword Penetration [Epic]
Your studies of magic and the blade have forged a mystic link: even as your blade penetrates your opponent's skin, so do your spells penetrate his resistance.
Prerequisites: Improved Spellsword Chanelling
Benefit: You gain a bonus on your caster level check to beat a creature's spell resistance equal to the difference between the enhancement bonus of your weapon and the target's Damage Reduction (if any). This bonus only applies to spells cast using the Channel Spell ability.

(Since this stacks with the other Penetration feats, I don't think there's a need for multiple versions. I'm not altogether certain about the mechanic, depending as it does on both your equipment and your target, but I figured it was different yet logical - if your sword can't cut the monster, why would it help you penetrate its SR?)

One other feat (or perhaps set of feats) I had an idea for would be ones that worked like Spellsword Cache - perhaps allowing the sword to take the place of a wand? Hmm. Not sure.

J

 

[drnuncheon]

It looks good however you may need to revise the wording of Multiple Attack Casting, since 'multiple targets' can mean a fireball, which already works in doing an area attack with the spellsword.

Actually, fireball doesn't have Targets, it has an Area. 8) Only if a spell has the Target: line in its description is it eligible for use with the Channel Spell ability.

J

 

[Crothian]

Er...do you mean Channel Spell perhaps? A spellsword can use Cache (basically a Brew Potion variant) as many times per day as he wants - assuming he's got spells still cached in there, of course.

I thought about a feat for an extra use of Channel Spell, but since there was already a mechanism for splitting the ability (by casting lower level spells) I thought that basically doubling the amount of use you get out of it might be a little excessive.

Now, a spellsword-based Ring of Wizardry variant that did that...hmmm.

Ya, I meant Channel spell. Just typed the wrong thing. Perhaps having it as a feat is too much. But I do like the ring of wizardry thing. What if we make it a magical weapon ability? If you double 1st level it's a +1 ability, double 2nd level spell +2 ability, etc.

Brilliant!

I suppose there's room for one more:

Spellsword Penetration [Epic]
Your studies of magic and the blade have forged a mystic link: even as your blade penetrates your opponent's skin, so do your spells penetrate his resistance.
Prerequisites: Improved Spellsword Chanelling
Benefit: You gain a bonus on your caster level check to beat a creature's spell resistance equal to the difference between the enhancement bonus of your weapon and the target's Damage Reduction (if any). This bonus only applies to spells cast using the Channel Spell ability.

I agree the Spell focus should be +3. You can only get one target at a time, you need feats to get higher then a 3rd level spell, and becasue you are a fighter/wizard it's tougher to max out your Int to get high spell DCs.

Spell Pentration is really cool. I like how you did that. You might want to note if Pentrate Damage Reduction Epic Feat applies to this or not.

 

[Crothian]

What about an Epic Feat that takes advantage of the Armored Casting. I was thinking the ability to imitate the still spell feat without the need for the meta magic feat.

 

[Knight Otu]

I guess I miss something very simple, but why does the epic progression start at class level 21 instead of class level 11?

Other than that, this looks quite good.