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Shadow Blade

"What's the matter? Are you afraid of the dark?"


The shadow blade is a melee combatant who augments his martial prowess with abilities of deception. He is capable of darkening the battlefield, limiting his opponent’s ability to see, while he wades effortlessly through the darkness. He can even travel short distances through the plane of shadow, reappearing right where his opponent least expects him. Worse of all, he can attack his opponents through a great distance over this plane, and even send them there to suffer for a brief while.

Abilities: Strength and Constitution are important for a shadow blade to get in the thick of things and fight. Dexterity is also important, to a lesser degree. Charisma is useful to a shadow blade, because many of his shadowy powers are Charisma-based.

Races: Any race can be a shadow blade, although races that spend a lot of time in darkness might be drawn to this class. Many of the shadow blade’s abilities only function in dark or dimly-lit areas.

Alignment: Any.

The Shadow Blade                    Hit Die: d8
Level   BAB               Fort  Ref   Will    Special
______________________________________________________________________________________________
1       +1                +2    +0    +2      Shadow (darkness), Extinguish, Blind-fight
2       +2                +3    +0    +3      Shadowsight, Darkness
3       +3                +3    +1    +3      Shadow (attack: 1d6, flank)
4       +4                +4    +1    +4      Hide in Plain Sight, Shadow Pin
5       +5                +4    +1    +4      Shadow Cache, Visions of Shadow, Extinguish (large)
6       +6/+1             +5    +2    +5      Shadow Strike, Shadow (attack: 2d6)
7       +7/+2             +5    +2    +5      Shadow Jaunt, Darkness (move-action)
8       +8/+3             +6    +2    +6      Shadow Well, Shadow Scry
9       +9/+4             +6    +3    +6      Shadowfade, Shadow (attack: 3d6)
10      +10/+5            +7    +3    +7      Shadow Form
11      +11/+6/+1         +7    +3    +7      Improved Shadow Strike
12      +12/+7/+2         +8    +4    +8      True Seeing, Shadow (attack: 4d6), Darkness (swift)
13      +13/+8/+3         +8    +4    +8      Improved Shadow Jaunt
14      +14/+9/+4         +9    +4    +9      Summon Shadow
15      +15/10/+5         +9    +5    +9      Improved Shadow Well, Shadow (attack: 5d6)
16      +/16+11/+6/+1     +10   +5    +10     Greater Shadow Strike 
17      +17/+12/+7/+2     +10   +5    +10     Greater Shadow Jaunt 
18      +18/+13/+8/+3     +11   +6    +11     Improved True Seeing, Shadow (attack: 6d6)
19      +19/+14/+9/+4     +11   +6    +11     Draining Well
20      +20/+15/+10/+5    +12   +6    +12     Draining Darkness

Class Skills (6 + Int modifier per level): Balance (dex), Bluff (cha), Climb (str), Craft (int), Disguise (cha), Escape Artist (dex), Gather Information (cha), Hide (dex), Intimidate (cha), Jump (str), Knowledge (The Planes) (int), Move Silently (dex), Profession (wis), Sleight of Hand (dex), and Tumble (dex).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the shadow blade class:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The shadow blade is proficient with all simple and martial weapons weapons, as well as light and medium armor, and shields (but not tower shields).

Shadow (Ex): The shadow blade’s own shadow becomes an entity unto itself. As a free action, the shadow blade can make his shadow animate, moving on its own. This grants the shadow blade a +2 circumstance bonus to Intimidate checks.
   As a swift action, the shadow blade can command his shadow to move anywhere within ten feet of him, although it is always connected to him and is always cast on a solid surface, like a wall or the floor. The shadow can occupy a square with another creature (or the shadow blade himself) with no penalty as it takes up no volume.
   If the shadow blade moves more than ten feet away from his shadow, it immediately appears in his square and follows him in his square until later redirected.
   As the shadow blade gains levels, his shadow gains new powers:

• Level 1 - Darkness (Su): As a free action, you can designate your shadow’s square as shadowy illumination (providing it’s not already darker).
  
• Level 3 - Attack (Ex): As a swift action, when directing your shadow’s movement, you may have it attack an adjacent target. It uses your Base Attack Bonus + your Charisma modifier + your enhancement bonus to hit. A successful hit deals 1d6 nonlethal damage per three class levels + your Charisma modifier. If the target is immune to nonlethal damage, they take half the amount of lethal damage, instead. The shadow suffers no miss chance against incorporeal creatures and deals full, lethal damage to them.
  
• Level 3 - Flank (Ex): Your shadow is able to flank with you and your allies based on its position. It gains the usual +2 bonus to hit, as well.
  

Extinguish (Su): as a swift action, the shadow blade can extinguish any non-magical flame the size of a torch or smaller within medium range (100 ft + 10 ft per class level).
    At fifth level, the shadow blade can use this ability to affect a large-sized fire (one that fits within a ten-foot square) or smaller.

Blind-fight (Ex): At first level, the shadow blade gains the Blind-fight feat as a bonus feat.

Shadowsight (Ex): At second level, the shadow blade can see normally in shadowy illumination and similar levels of darkness, both magical and mundane. He ignores the concealment granted to others and any other penalties caused to him by this level of light.

Darkness (Sp): At second level, the shadow blade can cast Darkness as a spell-like ability at will. He may only create one such area of darkness at a time. If he uses this ability before the duration expires on a previous use, the first effect immediately ends.
   At seventh level, the shadow blade can create an area of darkness anywhere within medium range as a move action.
   At twelfth level, he can create an area of darkness anywhere within long range (400 ft + 40 ft per class level) as a swift action.

Hide in Plain Sight (Su): At forth level, the shadow blade can hide while being observed, so long as he is within ten feet of a shadow (but not his own shadow) or shadowy illumination.

Shadow Pin (Su):
At 4th level, the Shadow Blade can pin a creature to its own shadow for a brief period of time. Any one creature within long range (400 ft + 40 ft / level) that fails a Will save is pinned to it's own shadow for one round per class level. The pinned creature cannot leave the ground or move more than five feet from its original position where it was pinned.
   If the creature was flying when it was affected, it descends straight down at a rate of 60 feet per round. It takes no falling damage while falling at this speed. The duration starts from when the creature starts descending, and not when it lands on the ground.
   This ability has no effect in total darkness or against incorporeal creatures, invisible creatures, or creatures who otherwise have no shadow. Any creature that makes its Will save cannot ba affected by this abililty for 24 hours.

Shadow Cache (Sp): At fifth level, the shadow blade can cast Shadow Cache (Spell Compendium pg 183) as a spell-like ability at will.

Visions of Shadow (Su): At fifth level, you are able to look deep into the shadows and see visions of another shadowed area. This ability functions exactly like the Clairaudience/Clairvoyance spell, except that you can use your Shadowsight, True Seeing, and Improved True Seeing abilities in the area you're viewing. Magical darkness does not block sight. You must be standing in an area of shadowy illumination or darker to use this ability, and the sensor must appear in an area of shadowy illumination or darker. When you use the ability, you automatically know the location of all available squares within range to place the sensor.
   Using the ability takes 10 minutes to activate, and once it has been used, it cannot be used for another hour.

Shadow Strike (Su): At sixth level, as a full round action, the shadow blade may make a single melee attack on any one target within medium range, provided the target is in at least one square of shadowy illumination or darker lighting and the shadow blade has line of effect to the target. This attack cannot grant or benefit from flanking, but it is resolved in every other way like a single, melee attack.

Shadow Jaunt (Su): At seventh level, the shadow blade can teleport a distance up to his base land speed as a standard action. His movement must start and end in a space of shadowy illumination or darker lighting and he must have line of effect between the two points. As a full round action, he may teleport a distance up to four times his base land speed, with the same restrictions as above.

Shadow Well (Sp): At eighth level, the shadow blade can cast Shadow Well (Spell Compendium pg 186) as a spell-like ability at will. Any creature that succeeds on its saving throw (either during the casting or the duration of the spell) cannot be affected again by this ability for 24 hours.

Shadow Scry (Su): At eighth level, you can look into the darkness and see another person connected through the shadows. This ability functions exactly like the Scrying spell, except that you must be standing in an area of shadowy illumination or darker to use this ability, and the target must either be in an area of shadowy illumination or darker, or have a shadow (so this could exclude vampires or invisible targets, depending on the situation). Your Shadowsight, True Seeing, and Improved True Seeing abilities function through this ability.
   As the spell, using this ability takes one hour to activate, and if the target succeeds on their Will save, they cannot be affected for 24 hours. The save DC is Charisma-based. There is no focus required except for the darkness you must be standing in to use the ability.

Shadowfade (Sp): At ninth level, the shadow blade can cast Shadowfade (Spell Compendium pg 186) as a spell-like ability at will.

Shadow Form (Su): At tenth level, the shadow blade can turn himself into an insubstantial shadow as a standard action. He gains the incorporeal subtype and a fly speed equal to his base land speed, with perfect maneuverability. He loses all bonuses to his Armor Class except for his Dexterity bonus, size modifier, dodge bonus, insight bonus, and deflection bonus. He gains a deflection bonus to his armor class equal to his Charisma modifier (or his existing deflection bonus increases by this amount). He also gains Damage Reduction 10/magic.
   Any physical attacks that would normally use his Strength modifier use his Charisma modifier instead. While in this form, the shadow blade's physical attacks only deal nonlethal damage. These attacks deal half this amount of lethal damage, instead, against any targets that are immune to nonlethal damage. The shadow blade’s physical attacks deal full damage against incorporeal targets, and the shadow blade suffers no miss chance against them.
   The shadow blade may dismiss this and assume his normal form as a standard action. While in this form, the shadow blade loses the use of his Shadow class feature.

Improved Shadow Strike (Su): At eleventh level, the shadow blade can use his Shadow Strike ability to make a full attack against any one target within medium range. This behaves in every other way like Shadow Strike (see above).

True Seeing (Ex): At twelfth level, the shadow blade gains the benefits of the True Seeing spell against anything within shadowy illumination or darker lighting at close range. This effect is continuous and can be resumed or suppressed as a free action.

Improved Shadow Jaunt (Su): At thirteenth level, the shadow blade may use his Shadow Jaunt ability as a move action to teleport a distance of up to double his base land speed. He must still start and end his movement in an area of shadowy illumination or darker lighting, but he no longer requires line of effect. As a full-round action, he may use this ability to teleport anywhere within long range. If his desired location is in an area occupied by a solid object or that is too brightly lit, the jaunt automatically fails.

Summon Shadow (Sp): At fourteenth level, the shadow blade may cast Summon Undead V (Spell Compendium pg 215) as a spell-like ability at will, except that he may only summon a shadow with this ability. This ability takes an entire round to use, and the shadow appears and acts at the beginning of the shadow blade’s next turn. The shadow blade may only summon one shadow at a time, and must dismiss the first shadow (as a standard action) or wait for the duration to expire before summoning another.

Improved Shadow Well (Su): At fifteenth level, the shadow blade may affect anyone damaged by his melee attack to be affected as if targeted by a Shadow Well spell. He may choose to use or not use this ability with each attack, and this attack may be used through his Shadow Strike ability. Any one creature may only be targeted by this ability once per round.

Greater Shadow Strike (Su): At sixteenth level, the shadow blade may use his Shadow Strike ability to make a full attack against any one target within long range. This behaves in every other way like Shadow Strike (see above).

Greater Shadow Jaunt (Su): At seventeenth level, the shadow blade may use his Shadow Jaunt ability as a swift action to teleport a distance of up to his base land speed. He must still start and end his movement in an area of shadowy illumination or darker lighting, but he does not require line of effect. If his desired location is in an area occupied by a solid object or that is too brightly lit, the jaunt automatically fails.

Improved True Seeing (Ex): At eighteenth level, the shadow blade gains the benefits of the True Seeing spell against anything within shadowy illumination or darker lighting at any range. This effect is continuous and can be resumed or suppressed as a free action.

Draining Well (Su): At nineteenth level, the shadow blade may drain the strength from anyone who fails their saving throw against any of his Shadow Well abilities. Each round, the target takes 1d6 points of Strength damage while in the shadow well.

Draining Darkness (Su): At twentieth level, the shadow blade may drain the strength from anyone inside his Darkness ability. He must make this decision at the time of creating the Darkness effect. Anyone inside the area takes 1d6 points of Strength damage (no saving throw) at the beginning of the shadow blade's turn. The shadow blade is immune to the draining ability of his own Darkness ability.

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This is a discussion started by Hicks at The Den, with an additional modification by Starmaker. The basic idea is twofold:

1) Your caster level (for all level-dependent variables) equals your Challenge Rating (for most PCs this will be your character level), and

2) The DCs of all of your spells is 10 + 1/2 your HD + your casting stat mod (or possibly base DC on CR, as well).


The effects:

• This makes multiclassing a bit easier. It's effectively an improved version of Practiced Spellcaster for free.
• The scaling DCs make it so a low level caster with lots of non-caster levels can still have relevant DCs.
• Using CR instead of HD is more to help keep monsters from becoming batshit crazy with stuff like Blasphemy.
  
• It makes picking up a single level of a casting class more attractive of a dip to get a few spells per day with good DCs. This isn't necessarily bad, but it might happen.
  
• It's still not powerful enough to justify losing any caster levels in most situations if you're going for pure optimization; it just lessens the blow.
• This is technically a boost to full casters as their DCs for their low level spells improved. The only downside is they'll technically be one point behind on odd-numbered levels.

Alternately, you could use HD instead of CR, but you'd have to rewrite a bunch of spells and take other things into consideration. CR seems like the quickest kludge.


So, what did I miss? Does this have any merit? What are your thoughts?

What do you think of adding these changes to the Heal skill?


First Aid
You can attempt a Heal check to aid a dying or disabled character. The effects vary depending on the check result:

• DC 10 – The character becomes stable and stops losing Hit Points each round.
• DC 15 – The character is set to one Hit Point and is no longer dying or disabled; however, he is staggered for one round.
• DC 20 - The character is set to a number of Hit Points equal to one quarter his maximum Hit Points (to a minimum of one Hit Point) and is no longer dying or disabled; however, he is staggered for one round.

You can attempt a heal check to remove nonlethal damage a character has suffered. You cannot remove any damage caused by thirst, starvation, suffocation, or similar effects that deal nonlethal damage unless the problem causing the damage is fixed. For example: you cannot heal a starving character until after they have eaten.

The effects vary depending on the check result:

• DC 10 – Remove one point of nonlethal damage per your level or hit die of the character, whichever is greater.
• DC 15 – Remove 1d6 points of nonlethal damage per your level or hit die of the character, whichever is greater.
• DC 20 – Remove all nonlethal damage from the character.

Remove Affliction
You can attempt to remove any of the following conditions from a character with a Heal check:

• Blind
• dazed
• dazzled
• deafened
• exhausted
• fatigued
• nauseated
• paralyzed
• sickened
• stunned

It takes one minute of treatment to remove a condition in this fashion. To succeed you must make a Heal check equal to the DC of the original effect, if the effect was caused by something non-magical. If the effect was magical, the DC increases by five points.

For quite a while, I've read Veekie talking about "degrees of failure", something I think he got from Mutants & Masterminds (although I could be wrong; I've never played it). Anyway, I've always liked the general idea, and was wondering how easy it'd be to implement into 3.x. Here's a basic idea with some possible implementations. I'm curious about what you all think:


Save or Dies
Any time you're targeted by a spell or effect that outright kills you on a failed save, these new rules apply. This only applies to affects that explicitly kill you, and not ones that merely deal damage, even if the damage is enough to kill you. This should also apply to spells that permanently take you out of commission, like Flesh to Stone and Imprisonment. These will be referred to as SoDs.

Save or Dies saving throw rules
Any time you're affected by a SoD, you still make a saving throw as normal. You only die if you fail your saving throw by a margin of 10 or more. If your save is successful, treat it the same as you normally would on a successful save. If you fail your save, but by a margin of less than 10, you instead incur a penalty on saving throws equal to the amount by which you failed your saving throw (these penalties overlap and do not stack). You also suffer the negative effects (if any) of a successful save. The saving throw penalties last until you rest for an hour or have Restoration, Greater Restoration, or Heal cast upon you (these spells still have their normal effects).

Examples
Someone is targeted by a Destruction spell. One of three things will happen:

• The save fails by 10 or more: the target dies, as normal.
• The save succeeds: the target takes 10d6 damage, as normal.
• The save fails by less than 10: the target suffers a penalty to saving throws equal to the margin of failure on their saving throw, and they also take 10d6 damage.

So, if the target above has a Fort save of +11 and the DC is 22, they will succeed if their base d20 roll is 11 or higher. They will fail on a 10 or less. The 10-or-more margin of failure would only occur on a natural 0 or lower, which means, without any penalties to the saving throw, the target could not be out-right killed by a single casting of Destruction.

If the target rolls a save and rolls a natural 8 (for a modified 19), he would fail by a margin of 3. He suffers 10d6 damage and has a -3 penalty on saving throws. If he is targeted by Destruction again, he now only succeeds on a natural 14 or higher, and can be insta-killed on a natural 3 or lower. Lets say he rolls a natural 8 again, he has failed by a margin of 6 (8 + 11 - 3 = 16, compared to DC 22), and now suffers a -6 penalty to saves (in addition to taking 10d6 more damage).

So, if this poor guy were targeted by Destruction again, he'd now need a natural 17 to succeed, and could be one-hit-killed on a 6 or lower.



Analysis
Anyway, it seems to make SoDs less powerful, and it makes it less likely that a PC will be killed by one bad d20 roll. This would encourage set-up before trying to use a SoD to kill someone, which I think is a good thing, but it could also encourage SoD spamming, which is somewhere between bad and neutral.

This still kills mooks just fine, as their saves are so much lower, but I don't know that you'd want to waste high-level slots on mook-killing when Fireballs do just fine. Does this make SoDs weak to the point of needing to be one level lower, or are they still viable if you use them with a set-up?

This is just the beginning of a set of maneuvers and stances I'm working on to give martial adepts more utility. The idea is to give them more spell-like options that still feel more like you're playing a martial adept. Several of them (like Iron Stare and Mantis Leap) work both in and out of combat. I also modified Strength of Stone. I'm planning on making some of the swordsage mobility maneuvers (like Rising Phoenix) lower level and/or beefing them up.

What do you think of the idea? Do you have any suggestions for new maneuvers?


Devoted Spirit

Aura of Resolution
Devoted Spirit (Stance)
Level: Crusader 8
Initiation Action: 1 swift action
Range: 30 feet
Target: You and any allies within 30 feet
Duration: Stance

While in this stance, you are immune to any mind affecting spells and affects. All allies within 30 feet of you gain a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against mind affecting spells and affects.


Aura of Terror
Devoted Spirit (Strike) [Fear]
Level: Crusader 5
Initiation Action: 1 standard action
Range: 30 feet
Duration: 1d4 rounds.

All opponents within 30 feet of you must make a Will save (DC 15 + your Charisma modifier) or be panicked for 1d4 rounds. Any opponent who makes his save is shaken instead for the duration.


Iron Stare
Devoted Spirit (Boost) [Fear]
Level: Crusader 1
Initiation Action: 1 swift action
Range: 30 feet
Target: One creature
Duration: 1 round
Saving Throw: Will Negates

You gain a +5 competence bonus to Intimidate when influencing the attitude of you target. If the target witnesses you dealing damage to anyone (the target or anyone else) this round, he must succeed on a Will save (DC 11 + your Charisma modifier) or become shaken for one round.


Setting Sun

Read Emotion
Setting Sun (Stance)
Level: Swordsage 3
Initiation Action: 1 swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance

While in this stance, you may take 10 on Sense Motive checks. You may spend a standard action to concentrate on one person within 30 feet of you. You are able to tell if this person is lying (but you do not learn the truth) unless they succeed on a Will save, DC 13 + your Wisdom modifier.



Stone Dragon

Strength of Stone
Stone Dragon (Stance)
Level: Crusader 8, swordsage 8, warblade 8
Initiation Action: 1 swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance

While in this stance, you are immune to critical hits and cannot be affected by any spell or affect that requires a Fortitude save unless it also affects objects.


Tiger Claw

Mantis Leap
Tiger Claw (Strike)
Level: Swordsage 3, warblade 3
Initiation Action: 1 full-round action
Range: Melee attack
Target: One creature
Duration: Instantaneous

You leap into the air, up to a distance of double our base land speed. This jump must be in a straight line, but may be at any angle. You make a melee attack at the end of your movement which counts as a charge (with the standard +2 bonus to hit and -2 penalty to Armor Class). Afterward, you fall to the ground, taking damage as normal. If you succeed on a DC 20 Jump check, you take no damage from the fall.
   You do not have to make an attack at the end of your movement, and instead can simply use this maneuver to jump from one place to the next.


White Raven

Diplomatic Speech
White Raven (Strike)
Level: Crusader 2, Warblade 2
Initiation Action: 1 full-round action
Range: 30 feet
Target: One creature
Duration: 1 minute
Saving Throw: Will Negates

You make a diplomatic speech and your opponent makes a Will save (DC 10 + your Charisma modifier). On a failed save, your opponent becomes friendly as though affected by a Charm Person spell.

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Note: These rules are meant to be used in combination with my other house rules.

---

General Rules

Charging:
Charging at an opponent is a full-round action. You must move at least 10 feet to charge, and you may move up to double your base land speed. You make a single melee attack at the end of your movement against the opponent. You gain a +2 bonus to your attack roll and suffer a -2 penalty to AC until the beginning of your next turn.
   Your movement must be in a straight line and must end in a square where you threaten your target. You cannot charge over difficult terrain, although you can jump over any obstacles with a successful Jump check.

Death and Dying:
When you are below zero hit points, you are considered dying, except that you don't necessarily die at -10 hit points. You can survive until the number of hit points you are below zero exceeds your Constitution score or one quarter of your maximum hit points, whichever is greater.

Death from Massive Damage:
Remove this rule.

Feint:
You may make a feint attempt against an opponent as a move action by rolling a Bluff check. This is opposed by your opponent's Sense Motive check plus their Base Attack Bonus. If your check is successful, your opponent is denied their Dexterity bonus to Armor Class against your next melee attack, provided you attack them this round.

Grapple:
You may grapple creatures more than two sizes larger than you, although you must still beat their grapple check as normal.

Iterative Attacks:
All iterative attacks are made at a -5 penalty from your Base Attack Bonus (not cumulative). So, a full attack by someone with a Base Attack Bonus of 16 would be +16/+11/+11/+11 instead of +16/+11/+6/+1.

Overrun:
Use the pre-errata version in the PHB (you can overrun as part of a charge).

Pounce:
A creature with pounce may attack once with every weapon it is wielding at the end of a charge. A weapon only counts as "wielded" if it is ready to be used as soon as the creature begins attacking. So, while all natural weapons are considered wielded, attacking with a sword then dropping the sword as a free action to attack with the gauntlet on the same hand would not make the gauntlet count as "wielded" for that instance of pounce. This does mean that a character wielding a sword in each hand could attack with each sword, though.

Shields:
A character gains the following benefits while wielding a shield (animated shields do not grant these benefits):

• The character adds their shield bonus to their touch AC, and on checks to resist grapples, bull rushes, disarms, and trips.
• A heavy or tower shield grants the shield bonus as a bonus to Reflex saves against spells and effects that deal half damage on a successful save. If the save is successful, the character suffers no damage (similar to Evasion, but without the armor restriction).
• A character wielding a tower shield takes only half damage on a failed Reflex save against a spell or effect that offers half damage on a failed save (similar to Improved Evasion, but without the armor restriction).
• A character using a tower shield may designate one opponent during their turn. They are considered to have total cover against all ranged attacks and spells from their designated opponent and they cannot attack their opponent with ranged weapons this turn. This has no effect if the character and their designated opponent are in melee combat with each other. It is possible for the designated opponent to affect the character with an area of effect spell, but not a targeted spell.

Two Weapon Fighting:
A character fighting with two weapons may either split their attacks between these weapons however they choose at no penalty. So, a character with a battle axe and light mace with a Base Attack Bonus of +6 could make two attacks with either weapon or one with each.
   Alternately, the character may make a full attack with their main weapon and gain an extra attack with their off-hand weapon, but all of their attacks suffer a -2 penalty to hit. If their off-hand weapon is not light, the attack penalty increases by two on their off-hand weapon, to -4.


Feat Abilities

All players effectively start with the following feats as bonus feats, even if they don’t meet the prerequisites.

Combat Expertise:
You may take a penalty on all of your melee attack rolls until the start of your next turn. During this time, you gain a Dodge bonus to AC equal to the penalty you took to attack rolls. You cannot take a greater penalty than your Base Attack Bonus. If you are also using Power Attack (see below), your combined attack penalty cannot exceed your Base Attack Bonus.

Power Attack:
You may take a penalty on all of your melee attack rolls until the start of your next turn. During this time, you deal extra damage with you melee attacks:

• Light weapon: +1 point per attack penalty.
• One-handed weapon: +2 points per attack penalty.
• Two-handed weapon: +3 points per attack penalty.

You cannot take a greater penalty than your Base Attack Bonus. If you are also using Combat Expertise, your combined attack penalty cannot exceed your Base Attack Bonus. You cannot Power Attack with a weapon while using Weapon Finesse (see below).

Weapon Finesse:
You may use your Dexterity modifier in place of your Strength modifier when making a melee attack with a light weapon or finesseable weapon (like a rapier or spiked chain). You cannot use Weapon Finesse while Power Attacking with a weapon.

So, what do you think about this wizard rework? It will use my spellcasting houserules. The basic idea is to make them less super-awesome while still fun to play. I'd like to maintain somewhat of that iconic feel (yes, that's subjective as hell ).


Modified Class Features

• Use the universal 9th level casting progression (see below).
• May swap any one spell (even of the highest level known) for another of equal level from your class list every even level.
• Casts spontaneously, still uses Intelligence.
• Uses new Wizard spell list (see New Spell lists). Knows all spells on the list.
• Each level, the wizard gains Advanced Learning as a class feature. Each time, he may choose an Evocation spell or Conjuration spell from the Sorcerer/Wizard list and at it to his list of spells known. He may not pick Calling or Summoning Conjuration spells with this ability. These spells are subject to the DM’s approval.
• Replace Scribe Scroll with a metamagic feat, Combat Casting, Spell Focus, or any wizard bonus feat (listed in the special section of the feat).
• Spellbook rules:
• Every spell the wizard knows is added to the Spellbook.
• No spell can be added that the wizard does not know.
• The wizard can cast a spell directly from the book. If the casting time is one minute or more, the casting time is doubled, otherwise it is increased to one minute. The wizard can add one of the following metamagic feats to the spell without increasing the level of the slot used: Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, Maximize Spell, Widen Spell. The wizard does not have to have the metamagic feat to use this ability.

Spells per day

Level  1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9
_______________________________________________________________
1      2     -     -     -     -     -     -     -     -
2      3     -     -     -     -     -     -     -     -
3      3     2     -     -     -     -     -     -     -
4      4     3     -     -     -     -     -     -     -
5      4     3     2     -     -     -     -     -     -
6      4     4     3     -     -     -     -     -     -
7      4     4     3     2     -     -     -     -     -
8      4     4     4     3     -     -     -     -     -
9      4     4     4     3     2     -     -     -     -
10     4     4     4     4     3     -     -     -     -
11     4     4     4     4     3     2     -     -     -
12     4     4     4     4     4     3     -     -     -
13     4     4     4     4     4     3     2     -     -
14     4     4     4     4     4     4     3     -     -
15     4     4     4     4     4     4     3     2     -
16     4     4     4     4     4     4     4     3     -
17     4     4     4     4     4     4     4     3     2
18     4     4     4     4     4     4     4     4     3
19     4     4     4     4     4     4     4     4     4
20     4     4     4     4     4     4     4     4     4
_______________________________________________________________

(unlimited 0-level spells)


Spell List

Level 0:
Acid Splash, Arcane Mark, Dancing Lights, Detect Magic, Finger of Fire*, Force Bolt*, Light, Mage Hand, Mending, Message, Prestidigitation, Read Magic, Ray of Frost, Resistance, Sonic Snap*, Zap*

Level 1:
Alarm, Burning Hands, Comprehend Languages, Endure Elements, Erase, Expeditious Retreat, Floating Disk, Grease, Identify, Mage Armor, Magic Aura, Magic Missile, Magic Weapon, Obscuring Mist, Shocking Grasp, Shield, Sleep, Unseen Servant

Level 2:
Acid Arrow, Arcane Lock, Continual Flame, Darkness, Fog Cloud, Glitterdust, Invisibility, Knock, Levitate, Magic Mouth, Pyrotechnics, Resist Energy, Scorching Ray, Shatter, Touch of Idiocy, Web, Whispering Wind

Level 3:
Arcane Sight, Daylight, Deep Slumber, Dispel Magic, Explosive Runes, Fireball, Fly, Greater Magic Weapon, Hold Person, Illusory Script, Lightning Bolt, Sepia Snake Sigil, Sleet Storm, Stinking Cloud

Level 4:
Arcane Eye, Black Tentacles, Dimensional Anchor, Dimension Door, Fire Shield, Fire Trap, Greater Invisibility, Ice Storm, Minor Creation, Resilient Sphere, Solid Fog, Stoneskin, Wall of Fire, Wall of Ice

Level 5:
Baleful Polymorph, Break Enchantment, Cloudkill, Cone of Cold, Hold Monster, Interposing Hand, Major Creation, Overland Flight, Permanency, Sending, Symbol of Sleep, Telekinesis, Teleport, Wall of Force, Wall of Stone

Level 6:
Acid Fog, Analyze Dweomer, Chain Lightning, Contingency, Disintegrate, Flesh to Stone, Forceful Hand, Freezing Sphere, Greater Dispel Magic, Mislead, Stone to Flesh, True Seeing, Wall of Iron

Level 7:
Delayed Blast Fireball, Forcecage, Grasping Hand, Greater Arcane Sight, Greater Teleport, Limited Wish, Mage’s Sword, Mass Hold Person, Mass Invisibility, Phase Door, Plane Shift, Teleport Object

Level 8:
Clenched Fist, Dimensional Lock, Incendiary Cloud, Maze, Polar Ray, Sunburst, Telekinetic Sphere

Level 9:
Crushing Hand, Gate (Planar Travel version only), Mage’s Disjunction, Mass Hold Monster, Meteor Swarm, Teleportation Circle, Time Stop, Wish


* New spell described in my spellcasting houserule thread