The Best New Base Class You Probably Aren’t Using Is . . .

[Psion]

Cool stuff Garnfellow.

I'm wondering at what point it's safe to expand a thread to and not have it counter the EW's weakness of a narrow focus. At some point, I think you need new threads, too.

 

[Garnfellow]

Cool stuff Garnfellow.

I'm wondering at what point it's safe to expand a thread to and not have it counter the EW's weakness of a narrow focus. At some point, I think you need new threads, too.

Good questions. I wouldn't recommend simply adding all of these spells at once, because it would tend to dilute the narrow thread focus. If I had a player who was running a weaver and wanted to substitute in a spell from another source -- like the Books of Eldritch Might or the Spell Compendium -- I would probably let her add one new spell per level per thread. I think this would give the player enough choice without utterly erasing the distinction between threads.

With all these new spells, I can definitely see room for a multitude of new threads: the Thread of Winter (cold stuff), the Thread of Terrors (fear effects), Thread of the Shield (personal protection magic, distinct from the Thread of Wards), Thread of Wands (ray effects), Thread of the Beast, Thread of the Many Planes, etc.

I am tempted to take Monte Cook's Mirror Mage class and redevelop it as a new Thread of Mirrors.

 

[Psion]

With all these new spells, I can definitely see room for a multitude of new threads: the Thread of Winter (cold stuff), the Thread of Terrors (fear effects), Thread of the Shield (personal protection magic, distinct from the Thread of Wards), Thread of Wands (ray effects), Thread of the Beast, Thread of the Many Planes, etc.

I am tempted to take Monte Cook's Mirror Mage class and redevelop it as a new Thread of Mirrors.

That (all of the above) would make for a great expansion.

 

[Garnfellow]

The Thread of Mirrors

The mirror mage is a prestige class from Monte Cook's Book of Eldritch Might I. With just a little tweaking, I was able to recast that class as an eldritch weaver thread. This is something I've just thrown together without a lot of introspection, but at first blush it seems to look pretty good. I would be more inclined to take this thread than to take levels in the prestige class. But in any case, this exercise seems to be a good demonstration of the versatility of the EW. Here goes:

The Thread of Mirrors

1st Level Spells
Command
Hypnotism
Message

2nd Level Spells
Mirror image
See invisibility
Shatter

3rd Level Spells
Daylight
Mirror shield*
Searing light

4th Level Spells
Lesser mirror calling*
Rainbow pattern
Scrying

5th Level Spells
Mirror blast*
Mirror theft*
True seeing

6th Level Spells
Eyebite
Mirror calling*
Mirror truth*

7th Level Spells
Mirror portal*
Simulacrum
Spell turning

8th Level Spells
Clone
Discern location

9th Level Spells
Foresight

* Refers to spell from the Book of Eldritch Might.

Minor Thread Power: Mirror Thoughts (Sp). The eldritch weaver can use a mirror to detect and learn the thoughts of anyone reflected in its surface. In all other ways, this ability works like the spell detect thoughts.

Major Thread Power: Mirror Step (Sp). Using this power, the eldritch weaver can step into one mirror and out another. Treat this ability in all other respects as teleport.

 

[Hairfoot]

Very cool! I've been toying with the idea of running an Eberron campaign with the PCs as super heroes.

Vanilla Eberron, you mean?

 

[blargney the second]

*laugh*

Sort of, except a little different. In most superhero stories, the characters have more or less the same powers or themes throughout their career. Spiderman is strong, can climb walls, and has a danger sense. He doesn't suddenly gain the ability to shoot deadly daggers from his big toes as far as I know.

In stock D&D, the characters' powers change drastically and exponentially over the course of levels. The game is fundamentally altered as soon as the PCs acquire teleport or to a lesser extent dimension door. The really weird thing is that the character will likely have had no prior indication that space-hopping is within his set of abilities.

It's just a little thing, but spellcasters in D&D irritate me as a result. The Spell Weaver addresses that problem nicely, and I can see it fitting particularly well into a themed superhero game set in Eberron.

-blarg

 

[Hairfoot]

The game is fundamentally altered as soon as the PCs acquire teleport or to a lesser extent dimension door. The really weird thing is that the character will likely have had no prior indication that space-hopping is within his set of abilities.

Indeed. "Oh! Terrestrial travel as we know it is suddenly irrelevant. Fancy that."

Roleplaying is meant to contextualise those sorts of things, but it can sometimes appear like a CG power-up.

 

[Psion]

Just wanted to bump this with this note for those who might be interested in the Eldritch Weaver and might be going to GenCon:

Chris Pramas announced this "package deal" that will be offered at their Gen Con booth earlier today:

Advanced Rulebook Bundle: You get the Advanced Bestiary, Advanced Game Master’s Guide, and Advanced Player's Manual for only $30.

Upthread, I said that Advanced Player's Manual might not be worth it for the Eldritch Weaver alone. That said, if you don't have the AGMG or AB, you really can't lose! That's a great price for just those two books. The Eldritch Weaver is just icing at that point.

So if the stuff in this thread sounds cool to you, and you are going to GenCon, check it out!

 

[blargney the second]

Wow, that's an amazing deal for those books. There's good stuff in them thar hills!

 

[Nightfall]

I have to agree with Psion. Advanced Beastiary gets tons of mileage from me and the materials section alone in AGMG is way, way killer. Plus the fact the other stuff in that one made me wish they had incorperated that into DMG II. Overall while I'm not 100% fond of the classes in APG, it's still a decent enough buy to go with the completeness. I'm glad Chris is taking this chance to do some good for the Advanced Line. It needs it and I hope maybe we'll see an Advanced Class Guide some day.