Author Topic: Base class: Warmage  (Read 6267 times)

Offline Prime32

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Base class: Warmage
« on: October 19, 2012, 07:30:57 PM »
WARMAGE



"A wizard?! You're lucky I don't take offense easy. A wizard would tell you just knowing how to cast spells is all there is to magic. Pfah! That's like saying a swordsman is a guy who knows how to swing his arms. Not like those old beards would understand though, most of 'em never saw action in their life."
- Arad Rothran, warmage

Warmages are those who specialise in the direct combat applications of magic. Eschewing the underlying theories of casting in favour of refining each movement and syllable to maximum efficiency, the end result resembles less a ritual and more a martial art (and indeed, traditional martial arts are part of warmage training). While their spell repertoire is no match for that of a wizard or even a sorcerer, their power and speed are unmatched.

MAKING A WARMAGE
As a warmage, your strength increases over the course of a combat; the more attacks and spells you unleash, the more maneuvers you gain access to, both for normal use and for powering your class features (haste is a popular spell among warmages for this reason). You have less to fear from running out of spells than most casters, since even your cantrips can deal respectable damage when combined with manevuers or your Warmage Edge class feature. At high levels you can expend multiple maneuvers per round to increase the power of your spells to incredible heights, making you capable of fighting entire armies at once.
Abilities: The most important ability scores to a warmage are Charisma and Intelligence, in that order, since they determine his spellcasting. Like all characters a warmage can benefit from a high Constitution, which helps support his poor Fortitude save. Finally, increasing Strength or Dexterity improves the accuracy of a warmage's melee and ranged touch spells respectively, if he chooses to focus on them.
Races: Humans make up the majority of warmages. Hobgoblin society produces the second-largest number, as hobgoblins are expected to approach any lifestyle with a warrior's discipline. While spellcasters with similar leanings exist in elf communities, most elves either commit themselves fully to study (becoming wizards) or use their magic to supplement their martial skill (becoming duskblades).
Alignment: Any.
Starting Gold: As fighter.
Starting Age: As fighter.

Class Skills (4+Int): Concentration, Craft, Knowledge (arcana), Profession, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
In addition, the warmage gains the associated skills of his three chosen disciplines as class skills.

Hit Dice: d8


BaseFortRefWillManeuversStances
      ----Spells----     
LevelAttack BonusSaveSaveSaveSpecialKnownKnown123456789
1st+0+0+2+2Maneuvers, Spells, Warmage edge, Warmage shield413
2nd+1+0+3+3Combat Reflexes, Refined casting414
3rd+2+1+3+3Bonus feat4152
4th+3+1+4+4Warmage penetration5263
5th+3+1+4+4Battlecasting (1/round), Barrage52642
6th+4+2+5+5Bonus feat52653
7th+5+2+5+5Hybrid casting526642
8th+6/+1+2+6+6Warmage expansion626653
9th+6/+1+3+6+6Bonus feat6266642
10th+7/+2+3+7+7Battlecasting (2/round), Sharpened spellpower6366653
11th+8/+3+3+7+7Reflexive casting63666642
12th+9/+4+4+8+8Bonus feat73666653
13th+9/+4+4+8+8Warmage power736666642
14th+10/+5+4+9+9Warmage protection736666653
15th+11/+6/+1+5+9+9Battlecasting (3/round), Bonus feat7366666642
16th+12/+7/+2+5+10+10All-out casting8466666653
17th+12/+7/+2+5+10+10Warmage enhancement84666666642
18th+13/+8/+3+6+11+11Bonus feat84666666653
19th+14/+9/+4+6+11+11Adept counterspelling84666666664
20th+15/+10/+5+6+12+12Battlecasting (4/round), Metamagic mastery94666666666

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A warmage is proficient with simple weapons and light armor, but not with shields. A warmage can cast warmage spells while wearing light armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. However, like any other arcane spellcaster, a warmage wearing medium or heavy armor or using a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component (most do). A multiclass warmage still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes.

Maneuvers: Select any three disciplines at 1st level; the warmage draws his maneuvers known from these disciplines. A warmage begins an encounter with one random maneuver readied, and is granted one random maneuver whenever he casts a spell or makes an attack (do not count attacks made as part of spells, just the spell itself; off-hand attacks do not count for this purpose). In addition, he may take a move action to grant himself a maneuver of his choice. The warmage's maximum number of maneuvers readied is equal to his maneuvers known. After using a maneuver it becomes unavailable for the rest of the encounter, but the warmage may take a standard action to refresh all his expended maneuvers, returning them to the random pool (after which they may be granted to him again).

Spells: A warmage casts arcane spells, drawn from the warmage spell list. When you gain access to a new level of spells, you automatically know all the spells for that level on the warmage's spell list. You can cast any spell you know without preparing it ahead of time. Essentially, your spell list is the same as your spells known list. Your caster level for warmage spells is equal to your initiator level for warmage maneuvers. A warmage's spells do not have damage caps (eg. his fireball could deal 11d6 damage at CL11).

To cast a warmage spell, you must have an Intelligence score of 10 + the spell’s level (Int 10 for 0-level spells, Int 11 for 1st-level spells, and so forth). The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a warmage's spell is 10 + the spell’s level + the druid's Cha modifier. Like other spellcasters, a warmage can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. The base daily spell allotment is given on the table above. In addition, you receive bonus spells for a high Intelligence score.

A warmage need not prepare spells in advance. You can cast any spell you know at any time, assuming you have not yet used up your spells per day for that spell level. You can cast 0th-level warmage spells (cantrips) at will, without expending slots.

Spellboost (Su): As a move action, you may expend a warmage maneuver to gain a bonus for 1 round based on the maneuver's level. You may use this ability multiple times per round, but cannot use the same boost more than 1/round.
  • Warmage Edge: At 1st level you may use a spellboost to increase the power of your spells until the end of your turn. Any spell affected by this ability which dealt hit point damage deals +1d6 damage per level of the maneuver expended, which ignores energy resistance and immunity. If the spell restored hit points then this instead increases the number of hit points restored. This extra damage can apply to a single target only once per spell, even if the spell creates multiple attacks or lasts for multiple rounds.
  • Warmage Shield: At 1st level you may use a spellboost to defend yourself against attacks. For 1 round you gain a shield bonus to AC equal to 3 +1 per level of the maneuver expended. This shield bonus applies even against incorporeal touch attacks.
  • Warmage Penetration: At 4th level you may use a spellboost to increase the integrity of your spells until the end of your turn. Any spell affected by this ability increases its caster level by +2 per level of the maneuver expended for the purposes of overcoming Spell Resistance. In addition, if it dealt hit point damage or restored hit points the amount is increased by +1 per maneuver level, which ignores energy resistance and immunity.
  • Warmage Expansion: At 8th level you may use a spellboost to increase the size of your area spells until the end of your turn. A sphere increases in radius by +5ft per maneuver level, a sphere centred on you by +10ft per maneuver level, a cone by +15ft per maneuver level, and a line by +30ft per maneuver level. In addition, if it dealt hit point damage or restored hit points the amount is increased by +1 per maneuver level, which ignores energy resistance and immunity.
  • Warmage Power: At 13th level you may use a spellboost to flood your spells with energy until the end of your turn. Any spell affected by this ability increases its caster level by +1 per level of the maneuver expended. In addition, if it dealt hit point damage or restored hit points the amount is increased by +1 per maneuver level, which ignores energy resistance and immunity.
  • Warmage Protection: At 14th level a warmage gains Spell Resistance equal to 11 + his class level, which he may raise or lower as a free action even when it isn't his turn. He may use a spellboost to increase his Spell Resistance by +1 per level of the maneuver expended for 1 round.
  • Warmage Enhancement: At 17th level you may use a spellboost to enhance your spells until the end of your turn. Reduce the level increase of the metamagic feats applied to the spell by an amount equal to half the maneuver level (minimum +0). In addition, if it dealt hit point damage or restored hit points the amount is increased by +1 per maneuver level, which ignores energy resistance and immunity.

Combat Reflexes: At 2nd level a warmage gains Combat Reflexes as a bonus feat.

Refined Casting (Ex): At 2nd level a warmage adds 3 + half his initator level as a bonus on Concentration checks made to cast spells while on the defensive or while grappling or pinned. This stacks with the bonus provided by the Combat Casting feat, if he has it.

Bonus Feat: At every 3rd level, a warmage gains a bonus feat for which he meets the prerequisites; this feat can be Spell Focus or any feat which a wizard could select as a bonus feat (i.e. metamagic, item creation and reserve feats, and any feat with a Special entry indicating it can be taken by wizards).

Battlecasting: At 5th level, once per round a warmage can cast a spell with a casting time of "1 standard action" in place of an attack. Among other things, this allows him to cast a touch spell as an attack of opportunity. For every 5 levels thereafter, the number of times per round he can use this ability increases by 1.

Barrage (Su): At 5th level, you may cast a cantrip as a supernatural ability in place of an attack. As supernatural abilities they have no components, do not provoke attacks of opportunity and are not subject to Spell Resistance, but neither can they gain the benefit of warmage class features which improve spells (such as Warmage Edge). A use of this ability still counts as casting a spell for determining your granted maneuvers.

Hybrid Casting (Su): At 7th level, you may choose to use Spellboost as a swift action, rather than a move action.

Sharpened Spellpower (Su): At 10th level you gain a bonus on all damage rolls equal to your Cha modifier, and all of your attacks are considered magic weapons for overcoming damage reduction.

Reflexive Casting (Su): At 11th level, you may choose to use Spellboost as an immediate action, rather than a swift or move action.

All-Out Casting (Su): At 16th level, you may choose to use Spellboost as a free action once per round (even if it's not your turn), rather than an immediate or move action.

Adept Counterspelling (Su): At 19th level, a warmage may attempt to counterspell in place of an attack of opportunity, even if he has not readied an action to do so. This counts as one of his uses of Battlecasting per round.

Metamagic Mastery (Su): At 20th level, reduce the level increase of any metamagic feat by 1 when applied to a warmage spell (minimum +0).

WARMAGES IN THE WORLD
"Okay Arad, geez..."
-Berl Quickhands, rogue
A brief description of how your class is persevered in the world and how he interacts with the world.
 Daily Life: Some general information about the typical day in the life of your class.
 Notables: Lord Darius the Silver (NE human warmage 22) has recently been appointed to the ruling council of the Magocracy of Wyrnn, but his colleagues see his magic as thuggish and give him little respect.
Garkath (LN hobgoblin warmage 6/jade phoenix mageToB 2) is a recluse who teaches his techniques to anyone who can find his mountain home.
 Organizations: Warmages rarely belong to wizardly associations, outside of those rare prodigies who can best a wizard at their own game. Apart from those who studied under a independent mentor, most warmages are trained and employed by the local military. Rivalries between these units and wizard colleges are common; wizards dislike how their teachings are "dumbed down" for warmage use, while warmages see the colleges' techniques as unpolished and crude.

NPC Reaction
 How other people react to warmages depends heavily on their surroundings. In lands where magic-users are rare or secretive, few NPCs will be able to tell the difference between a warmage and any other type of spellcaster. On the other hand, in places where magic heavily permeates society, warmages are seen more as specialised types of fighters.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2013, 10:36:25 PM by Prime32 »

Offline Prime32

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Re: Base class: Warmage
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2012, 07:31:15 PM »
SPELL LIST

Offline Prime32

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Re: Base class: Warmage
« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2012, 07:33:38 PM »
No this is not the same as my Sublime Warmage class; there will be a few changes, most notably switching from 0-6 sor/wiz spells to 0-9 from a restricted list.

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Base class: Warmage
« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2012, 07:38:02 PM »
Koumei had an interesting Warmage variant, which I tweaked a bit further for my game here (I just  altered the spell list and spells a bit).

And I thought all of these caster classes were supposed to know their entire spell list, like the Beguiler (and original Warmage)?
« Last Edit: October 19, 2012, 07:53:44 PM by phaedrusxy »
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Offline zugschef

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Re: Base class: Warmage
« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2012, 07:51:02 PM »
why not key spellcasting off constitution rather than int?

Offline sirpercival

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Re: Base class: Warmage
« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2012, 10:09:02 PM »
And I thought all of these caster classes were supposed to know their entire spell list, like the Beguiler (and original Warmage)?
Yes, that's another change that's coming.

why not key spellcasting off constitution rather than int?
Why make it 100% SAD?  Unnecessary.
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Offline Prime32

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Re: Base class: Warmage
« Reply #6 on: October 20, 2012, 09:25:37 AM »
Koumei had an interesting Warmage variant, which I tweaked a bit further for my game here (I just  altered the spell list and spells a bit).
That class is aiming at a different concept from this one - a spellcaster who supports an army, rather than a spellcaster who uses magic like a martial art.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2012, 12:08:23 PM by Prime32 »

Offline oslecamo

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Re: Base class: Warmage
« Reply #7 on: October 20, 2012, 11:51:43 AM »
So this is meant to be your ready-to-go gish instead of a blaster mage? I would sugest a diferent name then, since the idea people have of warmage is more of the nuking caster.

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Base class: Warmage
« Reply #8 on: October 20, 2012, 09:48:31 PM »
So this is meant to be your ready-to-go gish instead of a blaster mage? I would sugest a diferent name then, since the idea people have of warmage is more of the nuking caster.
I agree. Maybe Swordmage, or something.
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Offline veekie

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Re: Base class: Warmage
« Reply #9 on: October 26, 2012, 05:37:57 AM »
Battlemage would fit easily, and I don't think anything major uses the term already.
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Offline zugschef

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Re: Base class: Warmage
« Reply #10 on: October 26, 2012, 09:27:49 AM »
why not key spellcasting off constitution rather than int?
Why make it 100% SAD?  Unnecessary.
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Offline veekie

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Re: Base class: Warmage
« Reply #11 on: October 26, 2012, 10:03:35 AM »
MAD is kind of a good thing in high level design though. Keeps the characters from having carbon copy stats if there are at least two primary dependencies and the rest of the stats grant appreciable value. Broad stat gains are easy enough to obtain in medium amounts.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.