I'm an novice GM running an Iron Heroes campaign. One of my players is very set on playing spellcasters, but the IH classes are throwing me for a loop. He chews through creatures that seem well-designed for the rest of the party. He has a history as a powergamer, but I really believe he's reigning it in. The problem is due to wonkily designed spellcaster classes in a game not really suited for them, and my inexperience as a GM which prevents me from adapting properly to his abilities.
As an attempt to compromise, I'm trying to convert over the bard. This would allow him to have fun as a spellcaster, but not make him too powerful for me to handle. I also thought that in a low-magic campaign in which the bard was the only PC magical class, the bard could actually shine instead of being overshadowed by the sexier spellcasting classes.
I wanted to get feedback before I give him my proposal. Are there any people familiar with the IH rules in these parts?
Iron Heroes Bard
HD 1d4+2
sp: (6+Int) Your skill groups will be the same as the Arcanist, but I will give you the option to drop one of the 4 and take one of your choice to tailor to your character concept. Theatrics is your only group with perform, so if you drop it, you will have to buy perform with one of your extra skill points.
Feats: You can have the Feats and Feat trees of either the Hunter or the Arcanist. They both have Lore as the first and Tactics as the second tree. Hunter gets weapon feat mastery as the third, Arcanist gets social. That's the main difference, depending on how you want to play your character.
BAB and Base Defense Bonus are the same as that of the Thief.
Weapon and Armor proficiencies: same as the srd bard.
Perform pool: I am going to rule that you begin each encounter with one performance pool token, and that you must play your instrument/sing as a full round action to gain another token. Obviously, this is JUST performing; you can't gain a token while performing as part of bardic magic or spellcasting. You can spend the token to either use bardic music or cast a spell. An effect that lasts for multiple rounds with concentration does not require additional token. 0-level spells require no tokens.
Bardic Music: All of the first-level bardic music abilities seem fair to me. In future, I reserve the right to modify your new abilities, or the upgrades to the current ones, as you level.
Spellcasting: Instead of trying to cover all of the bases, you put together the known spell list you want, and I will approve, reject, or alter the effects of the spells.
Do not spend any of your known spell slots of cure spells. All "cure XXX" wounds spells will be added to your known spells list for free. For some "mysterious" reason, you can only heal any person once per day. You can cast as many cure spells as you have spells per day, but each must be on a different person. In other words, healing still needs to be rare, and death needs to be a possibility. Because the cure spells are a bonus, they cannot be traded in at later levels.
Two changes I can tell you in advance that I will make to your spells if you choose them. All summon spells will be converted to the equivalent summon nature's ally spell. Magic Weapon and similar spells WILL give you the bonus, but will not count as a magic weapon for overcoming damage reduction.
As an attempt to compromise, I'm trying to convert over the bard. This would allow him to have fun as a spellcaster, but not make him too powerful for me to handle. I also thought that in a low-magic campaign in which the bard was the only PC magical class, the bard could actually shine instead of being overshadowed by the sexier spellcasting classes.
I wanted to get feedback before I give him my proposal. Are there any people familiar with the IH rules in these parts?
Iron Heroes Bard
HD 1d4+2
sp: (6+Int) Your skill groups will be the same as the Arcanist, but I will give you the option to drop one of the 4 and take one of your choice to tailor to your character concept. Theatrics is your only group with perform, so if you drop it, you will have to buy perform with one of your extra skill points.
Feats: You can have the Feats and Feat trees of either the Hunter or the Arcanist. They both have Lore as the first and Tactics as the second tree. Hunter gets weapon feat mastery as the third, Arcanist gets social. That's the main difference, depending on how you want to play your character.
BAB and Base Defense Bonus are the same as that of the Thief.
Weapon and Armor proficiencies: same as the srd bard.
Perform pool: I am going to rule that you begin each encounter with one performance pool token, and that you must play your instrument/sing as a full round action to gain another token. Obviously, this is JUST performing; you can't gain a token while performing as part of bardic magic or spellcasting. You can spend the token to either use bardic music or cast a spell. An effect that lasts for multiple rounds with concentration does not require additional token. 0-level spells require no tokens.
Bardic Music: All of the first-level bardic music abilities seem fair to me. In future, I reserve the right to modify your new abilities, or the upgrades to the current ones, as you level.
Spellcasting: Instead of trying to cover all of the bases, you put together the known spell list you want, and I will approve, reject, or alter the effects of the spells.
Do not spend any of your known spell slots of cure spells. All "cure XXX" wounds spells will be added to your known spells list for free. For some "mysterious" reason, you can only heal any person once per day. You can cast as many cure spells as you have spells per day, but each must be on a different person. In other words, healing still needs to be rare, and death needs to be a possibility. Because the cure spells are a bonus, they cannot be traded in at later levels.
Two changes I can tell you in advance that I will make to your spells if you choose them. All summon spells will be converted to the equivalent summon nature's ally spell. Magic Weapon and similar spells WILL give you the bonus, but will not count as a magic weapon for overcoming damage reduction.
