Improving the Warmage flavor

[Beholder Bob]

I’m thinking of adding the following feats for warmages. Part of the reason is their is a feat know that grants the spells from a domain - allowing some great range of spells (such as healing), but not keeping with a war theme. I'm thinking that I'll not allow that feat for a warmage, but perhaps offer these. Note - the themes are limited and very repetive in the spells granted.

War College: Scout
Requires Warmage class, 5+ ranks in hide or move silent, 2+ ranks in survival
Adds the following spells to the list of spells known as a Warmage: 1st Camouflage, 2nd Invisibility, 3rd Invisibility Sphere, 4th Mass Camouflage, 4th Invisibility, Greater , 7th Invisibility, Mass

War College: Support
Requires Warmage class, 5+ ranks in knowledge war or siege
Adds the following spells to the list of spells known as a Warmage: 0th Message, 1st Magic Weapon, 2nd Whispering Wind, 3rd Magic Weapon, Greater, 5th Sending, 8th Screen

War College: Calvary
Requires Warmage class, 5+ ranks in riding, 2+ ranks animal handling
Adds the following spells to the list of spells known as a Warmage: 1st Mount, 1st Traveler's Mount, 1st Expeditious Retreat, 3rd Phantom Steed, 3rd Haste, 4th Bottle of Smoke, 6th Mass Haste

War College: Frontline
Requires Warmage class, base attack +3, 1 exotic or martial weapon proficiency
Adds the following spells to the list of spells known as a Warmage: 1st Enlarge Person, 3rd Heroism, 4th Enlarge Person, Mass, 6th Repulsion, 6th Heroism, Greater

War College: Formation
Requires Warmage class, base attack +2, 1 exotic or martial weapon proficiency, 2+ ranks in knowledge War or Siege
Adds the following spells to the list of spells known as a Warmage: 2nd Wall of Gloom, 3rd Dispel Magic, 3rd Wind Wall, 4th Defenestrating Sphere 6th Dispel Magic, Greater, 7th Otiluke's Greater Dispelling Screen

War College: Phalanx
Requires Warmage base attack +3, 1 exotic or martial weapon proficiency
Adds the following spells to the list of spells known as a Warmage: 1st Shield, 2nd Protection from Arrows, 2nd Body Of The Sun, 3rd Magic Vestment, 4th War Cry, 5th Stalwart Pact

War College: Battlefield
Requires Warmage base attack +3, 1 exotic or martial weapon proficiency
Adds the following spells to the list of spells known as a Warmage: 1st Obscuring Mist, 2nd Glitterdust, 4th Solid Fog, 5th Freezing Fog, 6th Move Earth

Also: I've taken away fire trap and continual flame as spells for 2nd level (they do not fit the theme at ALL!) - and replaced them with Ice Burst and Spiritual Hammer. Yes, I know Spiritual Hammer is a traditional cleric spell - but it fits a wizard theme great! Just alter it to use the caster's spell stat instead of just wisdom & it converts fine!

BB

 

[gamecat]

I like these feats greatly. As a class, the warmage sucks - he's a sorcerer with even less utility. These feats take the edge off of that.

 

[Beholder Bob]

Bump!

Do these feats seem fair/balanced in light of the domain casting spell for arcanists?

Does the flavor of the spell choices work?

I was thinking of adding another War College feat - siege, with crumble, wall of stone, etc.

Any alternate spells you would suggest for these feats?

What do you think - would you allow them?

BB

 

[farscapesg1]

I just want to say that I really like this. The Warmage seems like a class designed for "dungeoncrawls" and "hack-and-slash" campaigns. For those campaigns with more roleplaying involved, I haven't been able to see a use for the class. These ideas give that class some much-needed flexibility.

 

[Beholder Bob]

Any suggestions for additional college feats, or suggested spell selection changes?

BB

 

[RisnDevil]

I have been considering customizing the WarMage myself, but I think trying to take it out of its role (that of a magical ahck-and-slash character) might be the wrong idea. I think first, if you are going to include the WarMage, you should automatically link him to a kingdom/organization. This forces the player to have to deal with the roleplaying aspects the class offers.

Secondly, I am creating a world that is HEAVILY based in/on war. As such, I have made two modifications to the WarMage. First, at third level I give him the War Magic Study feat out of Dragon magazine. Secondly, the ability that allows the WarMage to add spells (I don't remember the name) but I have changed that to make it where they can only picl from the War Magic spells detailed in that same Dragon magazine.

I think this helps add some more flavor to the class, while still letting it be the same class it was/is meant to be.

 

[Beholder Bob]

Ok - updated list

War College: Scout
Requires Warmage class, 5+ ranks in hide or move silent, 2+ ranks in survival
Adds the following spells to the list of spells known as a Warmage: 1st Camouflage, 2nd Invisibility, 3rd Invisibility Sphere, 4th Mass Camouflage, 4th Invisibility-Greater, 7th Invisibility, Mass

War College: Intelligence
Requires Warmage class, 5+ ranks in Spot, 2+ ranks in Sense Motive
Adds the following spells to the list of spells known as a Warmage: 0th Message, 1st Comprehend Languages, 2nd Whispering Wind, 4th Arcane Eye, 5th Sending, 8th Screen

War College: Support
Requires Warmage class, 5+ ranks in Diplomacy, 2+ ranks in knowledge of history
Adds the following spells to the list of spells known as a Warmage: 0th Mend, 1st Remove Fear, 2nd Make Whole, 3rd Shrink Item, 4th Minor Creation, 5th Major Creation

War College: Calvary
Requires Warmage class, 5+ ranks in riding, 2+ ranks animal handling
Adds the following spells to the list of spells known as a Warmage: 1st Mount, 1st Traveler's Mount, 3rd Phantom Steed, 3rd Haste, 4th Bottle of Smoke, 6th Mass Haste

War College: Frontline
Requires Warmage class, weapon focus feat, 1 exotic or martial weapon proficiency
Adds the following spells to the list of spells known as a Warmage: 1st Enlarge Person, 1st Magic Weapon, 3rd Heroism, 3rd Magic Weapon-Greater, 4th Enlarge Person-Mass, 6th Heroism-Greater

War College: Formation
Requires Warmage class, 5+ ranks knowledge history, Leadership
Adds the following spells to the list of spells known as a Warmage: 2nd Wall of Gloom, 2nd Glitterdust, 3rd Wind Wall, 5th Wall of Iron, 6th Bear’s Endurance-Mass, 6th Bull Strength-Mass

War College: Counter-Wizard
Requires Warmage class, improved counter-spell, 5+ ranks knowledge arcane
3rd Dispel Magic, 4th Globe of Invulnerability-Lesser, 6th Dispel Magic-Greater, 6th Globe of Invulnerability 7th Otiluke's Greater Dispelling Screen, 9th Mage’s Disjunction

War College: Phalanx
Requires Warmage combat expertise, 1 exotic or martial weapon proficiency
Adds the following spells to the list of spells known as a Warmage: 1st Shield, 2nd Protection from Arrows, 2nd Body Of The Sun, 3rd Magic Vestment, 4th War Cry, 5th Stalwart Pact

War College: Fog of War
Requires Warmage 1 exotic or martial weapon proficiency, 5+ ranks knowledge history
Adds the following spells to the list of spells known as a Warmage: 1st Obscuring Mist, 2nd Fog Cloud, 3rd Call Lightning, 4th Solid Fog, 5th Freezing Fog, 7th Control Weather

War College: Siege
Requires 5+ ranks knowledge architecture, 2+ ranks knowledge history
1st Smoke Ladder, 2nd Knock, 4th Siege Tower, 5th Passwall, 5th Wall of Stone, 6th Move Earth

BB

 

[Nifft]

Some things I'd suggest, not having time to propose whole categories at the moment:

1/ No new attack spells -- Warmagi have no need for Call Lightning, for example.

2/ give ONE utility type per feat -- Cavalry is excellent up until mass haste, which has no place there. Perhaps a custom spell like mass longstrider would fit, but not mass haste, which isn't even a spell in 3.5e.

3/ Don't give away all the goodies at once. I'd restrict a Feat to granting a set levels of spells total -- consider breaking some of these into feat-chains. No way would I allow a single Feat to grant disjunction, for example. If the Countermagic feat is intended to allow counter-spelling, I'd use a different mechanic, like this:

Greater Counterspell [General]
Prereq: Improved Counterspell
Benefit: You can counterspell with any spell or spell-slot one or more levels higher than your opponent's spell, even if your spell is from another school.

-- N

 

[Crothian]

You give to many new spells with each feat. The only other feat that grants new spells known only gives one spell.

 

[Shane_Leahy]

What if the feat gave the Warmage the ability to take the spell. Every so many levels the Warmage gets Enchanced Knowledge or something(books not with me) where they can add a spell to their known spells. Taking one of these feats means the Warmage can choose one of the listed spells if they want.