The Speaker - A new Core Class

Enchelion Derabdur · Dec 13, 2005

I wrote this up on a trip to canada a few months back, and I finally gotaround to typing it up. It needs a lot of work, but I wanted some feedback from the community.

Speaker

Mephit James · Dec 13, 2005

It's a really interesting concept, particularly as an alternative to bards, but I don't understand a lot of the abilities. Why would speaking powerful words give them energy resistance or damage reduction? The tattoo ability doesn't really have to do with speaking either, but I think it's a nice idea so I'd keep it.
With the words themselves, they seem a bit powerful but for the same reasons that the warlock seems powerful. They have very limited words available but can use them at will, etc. I'll lay off of that for now, though, so this doesn't get pulled into a warlock discussion.
This is only a first glance, others should comment too.

Dimrei · Dec 13, 2005

I like the idea

. My only words of input would be to (as mephit said) maybe change the DR and the energy resistance. Also maybe give them some more skill points and either diplomacy or bluff as class skills because as a speaker they probably talk a good bit (you can't learn to speak the language of creation without speaking alot of other things first) but thats my opinion.

Enchelion Derabdur · Dec 13, 2005

I put the DR and Energy Resist there to show what channeling that kind of power can do to the body, expecially since a failed word can kill a low-level caracter... I probably will tone those down though. The class was originally inspired by the Warlock, he had multiple types of words (Holy, Dark, Draconic, ect...) but it just didn't work-out.

I am in a bit of a conundrum about some of the abilities, I put in the DR, ER, and the Cleric BA/HD because the words have a good chance of failing, and he can only use a few per day reliably... its not exactly what I imagined at first but I am having trouble in scaling the Spell System in a balanced fashion.

Mephit James · Dec 13, 2005

Well, that does bring up a contradiction: buffing up a class to resist the drawbacks of its own abilities. The effects on the body of channeling that kind of power should be... the power. Give the speaker spells which give him DR and energy resistance.
As far as the spell system, you're making one from scatch so it'll probably be tough to get it just right. What about giving the speaker cumulative penalties to the check that disappear eventually. Something like "everytime a speaker channels a word he receives a -2 to Concentration checks to speak words for the next hour." This way he can't use his abilities left and right, but they're still fairly easy to make use of. This time can lessen as the class progresses too.

Enchelion Derabdur · Dec 14, 2005

Okay, I'm taking off the DR/ER and putting them in as tattoo's (They also get tattoo's slightly more often).

EDIT: I am also dropping their HD, and adding some skills.

I don't quite understand your suggestion, do yoou mean to reduce the current accumulation system and include a temporary set increase to the check? Currently the check increases by 2*the Word level, and you have to rest 8 hours to reduce the penalty. Are you suggesting something like, 1*word level accumulation for the day, and a penalty of 2 for each word used in the last hour?

Mephit James · Dec 15, 2005

Enchelion Derabdur said:
Are you suggesting something like, 1*word level accumulation for the day, and a penalty of 2 for each word used in the last hour?

I think this one... I think the accumulation rate is fine, slow compared to other magic users but these spells one can use all the time. What I'm pretty much suggesting is that you include some mechanic to temper the "at will" part of word-casting. For instance, a 1st level speaker can use Harm to inflict 1d8+1 damage whenever he wants. No questions asked. Likewise he can use Heal to heal 1d8+1 damage every round for as long as he can stay awake. This doesn't really fit with the "straining power" of the Speaker class and it really overpowers them.
If you have a cumulative penalty to the Word check, the Speaker can still use these powers when he wants but he can't use them all the time. The magic system, like I said, is conceptually neat, but right now seems really too powerful.

Enchelion Derabdur · Dec 15, 2005

But thats the thing, he cannot cast spells at will. He has to make a check, which becomes increasingly difficult, as opposed to a normal caster who can plan exactly when to cast each spell, and knows that it will work (Excluding certain circumstances of battle), I calculated that the average speaker could cast 6 spells at first level reliably (needing less than a 10 on the roll), but he still carries that chance of failure, or critical failure which can hurt him pretty badly.