They seem a bit one-dimensional.
ALL of their spells are offensive with NO defensive, utility or movement spells.
They are powerful offensively, but would be rather sucky at everything else.
Mm-hmm...but then, that's the point.
What I wanted was not your usual "versatile and flexible magic-user." It was one who just blew stuff up. While, admittedly, not for everyone, that was kind of the concept I was going for. They get beat up easily, and can level cities, which makes them really long for powerful allies...such as clerics, fighters, etc.
I would recommend they begin play with two elemental masteries - They have two Elemental Substitution metamagic feats of their choice, and MUST apply it to all of their spells. Over time this will make their spells more varied without actually changing their power - Burning Hands can also be Screaming Hands, Searing Hands, Shocking Hands, and Freezing Hands. This also fits in with the whole "mastery of elemental destruction.
This seems to be a good idea. See, despite their focus on purely attack magic, I'm afraid the class may be a bit weak. Giving them Energy Substitution as a bonus feat ata some point would really help them out, and, I think, help alleviate the lack of skill points and versatility.
They can double their intelligence score for one round, once per day per level?
Does this apply to save DC's vs their spells?
Imagine a 12th level black magician casting a disintegrate. He has spell focus, and has bumped his original 18 intelligence to 21 with level advancement bonuses. Oh, and a magic item that gives +2. Base intelligence: 23. Focussed intelligence: 46.
Save DC: 10 + 6 (spell level) + 2 (spell focus) + 18 (int bonus)
= 36.
Not too shabby.
Yup. I considered that it might be overpowering....but they do give up familiars. I figure this gives them more attack power, while not upping their versatility *too* much (they could use it for, say, a skill check, but that's about the extent).
Does it seem within the realm of usability? I mean, that 36 DC basically assures a failed save...or, if it needs to be changed, maybe I should exclude magic item bonuses?
There's not a whole lot of a point to changing things around when you can use the wu jen for the black mage. Look at the similarities: the wu jen is almost exactly like the wizard, but designed based on Oriental culture and carrying tons of offensive elemental-based spells. Along those same lines, the shaman makes a great white mage (and indeed, the upgraded white mage was called a shaman in FF3).
Yeah, it could work. I plan on adding a "suggested easy class conversion" to the site that basically equates black mages with wizards, white mages with clerics, red mages with bards, etc.
But I did want something with a bit more flavor to it, a bit more "representative." Wu Jen are alright, but, though focued in attack magic, are more versatile than any FF black mage. That's just the start, of course. Basically, a Wu Jen, Sorcerer, or Wizard represent much of the class, but not enough to retain the flavor of the original class -- it's replaced with the flavor of the Wu Jen, Sorcerer, or Wizard.
While it could be a good "patch," I wanted to express the idea of the class....
*All attack magic
*Weak physical power (hp, weapons)
*No curative/defense/alteration spells...just kaboom.
Anyhoo, still looking for input. I'm thinking about adding Energy Admixture as a bonus feat at, maybe, 6th level? I think that the range of spells that will be added (the various FF spells, like Fire and Ice and Bolt and Meteo...) should up their attack versatility, and Admixture could represent a sort of "two spells at once" magical alchemey...
