Witchborn or Witches brood - Prestige Class

[Beholder Bob]

By the title, I'm obviously working on a prestige class. I'm still undecided on the name, let alone the prereqs or powers - suggestions wanted!
WITCHBORN

Some people are born under a bad moon or marked as a child by a hag – they are tainted. These people can fight it, managing a normal life - though one with more then its fair share of unusual and unhappy events, such as hauntings by the dead, spoiled foodstuffs and frequent miscarriages and birth defects in your vicinity, and events you swear happened but no one recollects – strangers met at crossroads, crawling insects gone when you return your gaze, and your reflection showing a different you at times. There are those, though, that actively embrace it. Not fey, not fiend, there is something wrong, something dark, that stirs in their breast. Through the practice of magic, they learn to touch that, shape it, and finally wield it to their benefit.

Requirements:
Alignment: Any Non-Good
Skill Ranks: Survival 4, Intimidate 6, Profession - Herbalist 4, Spellcraft 4.
Feats: Spell Penetration, Spell Focus (Vile, Evil, Transmutation) or Additional Hexes
Spells: Ability to cast 1st level spells
HD: 5 class HD

Attributes:
HD: d8
Base Attack: As Cleric
Good Saves: Fort and Will
Skill Points: 4+INT modifier
Class Skills: Bluff (CHA), Concentration (CON), Craft (INT), Diplomacy (CHA), Handle Animal (WIS), Heal (WIS), Intimidate (CHA), Survival (WIS), Profession (WIS), Spellcraft (INT), and Use Magic Device (CHA)

Class Features:
Spell Progression: Depends on the spell ability of the class, see below.
Full scale casters (spell list goes up to 7th level or higher spells) 3:4 step
Medium scale casters (spell list goes up to 5th level spells or higher) 1:1 step
Low scale caster (spell list goes to 4th level spells or less) 1:1 step

1st The Evil Eye 2/day, Witchery
2nd Compact 1/day, Familiar
3rd Use Poison, Marked - Minor
4th The Evil Eye 3/day
5th Cauldron, Compact 2/day
6th Venomous
7th Greater Evil Eye, Marked - Major
8th Curses! Compact 3/day
9th Broom
10th The Evil Eye 4/day

The Evil Eye: used as a free action, force a single visible target to make a Will DC 13 + (½ your Witchbrood LV + CHA) or else suffer -2 to hit, damage, saves, skill and ability checks for 1 hour. Once a target resists your evil eye, you may not target that foe again. (this ability duplicates the ability of a Hexblade Hex ability)

Familiar: as wizard/sorcerer. If you already have a familiar, stack levels for determining the familiars benefit – you do not gain a 2nd familiar.

Use Poison: you can apply poison and use it in combat without risking poisoning yourself

Marked – Minor: When dealing with the pure of heart (such as children, devout religious people, etc), you suffer a -4 to bluff, diplomacy, and their initial reaction to you can never be better then Unfriendly.

Marked – Major: When dealing with those with good alignments, you suffer a -4 to bluff, diplomacy, and their initial reaction to you can never be better then Unfriendly, while dealing with the pure of heart you suffer a -8 to bluff and diplomacy.

Cauldron – As the feat Brew Potion, except you may also make elixirs

Compact - spontaneously cast either summon monster or natures ally spell of equal level

Venomous – you gain a +2 save against poison and gain a +4 handle animal when working with venomous animals.

Greater Evil Eye: As Evil Eye except the penalty is -4, not -2 (as per greater Hex of the Hexblade).

Curses! – Spells listed under Witchery gain +2 DC

Broom - able to make a broom or cauldron act as a broom of flying, lasting 10 minutes per level of spell sacrificed.

Witchery: The following spells are added to your spell list and you gain an additional spell for every level gained in Witchborn. ie. a wizard who gained a level in this class would add bane & doom to his class list of spells, and he would automatically add 1 spell for every level gained in this class to his list of spells known.

1ST-LEVEL SPELLS
Bane
Doom
Cause Fear
Reduce Person

2ND-LEVEL SPELLS
Delay Poison
Hideous Laughter
Touch of Idiocy
Blindness/Deafness
Scare
Whispering Wind

3RD-LEVEL SPELLS
Bestow Curse
Slow

4TH-LEVEL SPELLS
Confusion
Crushing Despair
Phantasmal Killer
Fear
Reduce Person, Mass

5TH-LEVEL SPELLS
Break Enchantment
Feeblemind
Nightmare
Baleful Polymorph

6TH-LEVEL SPELLS
Eyebite
Flesh to Stone

7TH-LEVEL SPELLS
Sequester
Insanity

8TH-LEVEL SPELLS
Antipathy
Irresistible Dance
Sympathy
Earthquake

9TH-LEVEL SPELLS
Imprisonment
Weird

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[Beholder Bob]

bUmP

BuMp

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[Vlos]

Not 100% clear on Witchery?

It looks like you gain it twice. The first time you gain it your allowed to learn a spell at every level there after from the list (castable how many times a day?)?

The second time you gain it, do you get to learn an additional spell? Does this also increase the number of times you can cast it? Is it retro active?

Needs to be clearer.

Is Compact Missing?



Maybe grant the Craft Candle feat (forget where) that allows to make candles and/or Craft potions?

 

[Beholder Bob]

Witchery

Not 100% clear on Witchery...It looks like you gain it twice...
Oops! It should only be gained at 1st level. My bad. I've clarified it in the 1st post. You add these spells to your class spell list. You learn 1 spell from this list for every level you gain in this class.

Is Compact Missing?
You gain 1/use a day at 2nd, 5th, & 8th. It allows you to spontaniously cast a summon monster or natures ally spell (i.e. per cleric, you sacrifice a spell to cast the summons).

Maybe grant the Craft Candle feat (forget where) that allows to make candles and/or Craft potions?
The create candle feat was from tome & blood. This class gains a version of brew potions at 5th (Cauldron) - it allows the brewing potions, but also the ability to make elixers (a witch needs to make elixer's of love, right?)

Excellent feedback. More would be welcome!

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[Vlos]

Spell Progression: Depends on the spell ability of the class, see below.
Full scale casters (spell list goes up to 7th level or higher spells) 3:4 step
Medium scale casters (spell list goes up to 5th level spells or higher) 1:1 step
Low scale caster (spell list goes to 4th level spells or less) 1:1 step

The above is unclear to me.

Witchery: The following spells are added to your spell list and you gain an additional spell for every level gained in Witchborn. ie. a wizard who gained a level in this class would add bane & doom to his class list of spells, and he would automatically add 1 spell for every level gained in this class to his list of spells known.

Ok from the above I add the spells listed to my classes available spells that I "Could" learn. And ever time I go up a level, I can learn 1 spell from my "available spells" which now include the spells below.

Compact - spontaneously cast either summon monster or natures ally spell

So, like a cleric I can spontaneously cast a summon spell in place of one of my current spell slots. So by the wording I can cast a 9th level summon spell for a 1st level slot? You probably need to add "of the same level".

 

[Beholder Bob]

Spell Progression: Depends on the spell ability of the class, see below.
Full scale casters (spell list goes up to 7th level or higher spells) 3:4 step
Medium scale casters (spell list goes up to 5th level spells or higher) 1:1 step
Low scale caster (spell list goes to 4th level spells or less) 1:1 step

A wizard, cleric, druid, or sorcerer - gain a caster level at 2,3,4,6,7,8,10
Medium casters - such as a bard - gain a caster level at every level
Low scale casters - such as ranger, blackgaurd, hexblade - gain a caster level at every level

Reason:
Primary or full scale casters have most of their power vested in spells - this class would boost them too much with full casting

Medium casters do not gain as much for increased spell ability per level, they 'break even' by taking this prestige class, gaining a different focus. They get full casting because it does not imbalance them.

Low scale casters gain so little from full casting and lose much.

So, like a cleric I can spontaneously cast a summon spell in place of one of my current spell slots. So by the wording I can cast a 9th level summon spell for a 1st level slot?

I'll clean up the wording, but it is exactly like the cleric, lv 3 = lv 3 summon

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