Magic Knight

[oslecamo]

Magic Knight

”Belief is power.”

Most mechas are crafted by technology, others by a mix of magic and tech, and then some are built from sheer willpower, strong belief and pure dreams. Those last are the Mashin, serving those that made them so or outliving their creators to find a new worthy champion with strong enough belief to change reality around to their whims, resulting in proficiency in both sword and sorcery, although at the cost of a more narrow focus in both.

HD:10

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Feature	Maneuvers Known	Stances Known
1	+1	+0	+0	+2	Mashin Mecha, Vow of Willpower, Mashin Arts, Mashin Magic, Spirited	1	0
2	+2	+0	+0	+3	Mashin Burst	1	1
3	+3	+1	+1	+3	Escudo Armaments +1	2	1
4	+4	+1	+1	+4	Arsenal I	2	1
5	+5	+1	+1	+4	Spirit	3	1
6	+6	+2	+2	+5	Escudo Armaments +2	3	2
7	+7	+2	+2	+5	Arsenal II	4	2
8	+8	+2	+2	+6	Spirit	4	2
9	+9	+3	+3	+6	Escudo Armaments +3	5	2
10	+10	+3	+3	+7	Arsenal III	6	2
11	+11	+3	+3	+7	Spirit	7	2
12	+12	+4	+4	+8	Escudo Armaments +4	7	3
13	+13	+4	+4	+8	Arsenal IV	8	3
14	+14	+4	+4	+9	Spirit	8	3
15	+15	+5	+5	+9	Escudo Armaments +5	9	3
16	+16	+5	+5	+10	Arsenal V	9	4
17	+17	+5	+5	+10	Spirit	10	4
18	+18	+6	+6	+11	Escudo Armaments +6	10	4
19	+19	+6	+6	+11	Arsenal VI	11	4
20	+20	+6	+6	+12	Pure Pillar	12	5

2 Skill points+int per level, ×4 at 1st level. Class skills: Balance, Bluff, Craft(any), Concentration, Climb, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Jump, Hide, Move Silently, Spot, Listen, Appraise, Intimidate, Knowledge(any), Perform, Profession (any), Sense Motive, Swim, Tumble

Proficiencies: A Magic Knight is proficient with simple and martial weapons, Light Armor and mechas.

Features:
Mashin Mecha: The Magic Knight comes in possession of a powerful mecha-like mystic being by fate or luck (the details of which should be discussed with the DM), which, at 1st level grants him access to a Mashin Mecha. The Mashin Mecha works like a Super Robot and their pilot can channel her own spells while commanding it. However so deep is the connection between Mashin Mecha and pilot that half any damage the Mashin Mecha takes is inflicted to the pilot as well, although critical hits against the Mashin Mecha don't inflict the pilot with extra damage (so if the Mashin Mecha suffers a x4 critical hit, then the Mashin Mecha suffers x4 and the pilot suffers x2 damage for example). Since they already have such a deep connection, a Mashin Mecha cannot use their pilot's HP through abilities such as One With the Machine, Demônio dentro  da Máquina and similar. The Mashin Mecha can be called forth as a fullround action to any adjacent space big enough to contain it and may beam in the Magic Knight inside the cockpit right away. The Mashin Mecha may be dismissed as another fullround action, laying in wait between the planes.  If the Mashin Mecha is reduced to 0 HP the Magic Knight will have to undergo some redeeming quest to make it rises again from it's wrecks. If the Magic Knight is at least 4th level,  her Mashin Mecha can rise itself right after 10 minutes of its pilot crying and shouting, but it will be three levels lower than he would normally have acess to while on his redeeming quest (including arsenal options).

The Mashin Mecha grows in power together with the Magic Knight as he gains levels. More details on the Super Robot chart. They count as a Super Robot for the purposes of multiclassing.



Vow of Willpower: The Magic Knight relies on her own inner strength for combat. She can add her Cha mod to HP per Magic Knight level (on top of normal Con mod) plus concentration checks and 1/round add her Cha mod to any one save or AC against one attack as a free action even if it isn’t her turn. However she can’t use scrolls/wands/staves nor maneuver-granting items. If she still does so, she loses all Magic Knight class features for 24 hours. This vow also makes Magic Knights quite willing to cooperate with each other so any source that would grant the Magic Knight a subpilot may have the subpilot be of the Magic Knight class. In that case they must share one of their Mashin Magic elements with you (see below), and the Mashin Mecha can only benefit from Escudo Armaments from the one who's actually piloting (see below).

Mashin Arts: The Magic Knight picks one Pilot School and learns maneuvers and stances from it as shown in the table. To learn a maneuver of a given level, she must have a Pilot Level of double the maneuver level, less one.  Her Pilot level is equal to her Magic Knight level plus half of her other levels.

Your personal Mashin Mecha automatically knows all maneuvers and stances you learned from Magic Knight levels.  If you're piloting another person's Mashin Mecha (either borrowed or stolen), you can use any maneuvers that mashin Mecha knows without you knowing them yourself, but you use the Mashin Mecha's level instead of your own level for the purposes of those maneuvers.

Mashin Magic: The Magic Knight can cast spells as a soceror of her Magic Knight level, except she must pick two descriptors from [Air], [Cold], [Earth], [Fire], [Water], [Electricity], [Acid], [Healing], [Good], [Evil], [Law] or [Chaos] and can only learn spells with at least one of her chosen descriptors. Otherwise she can pick spells from either the Arcane Pilot, Divine Pilot, sorceror or cleric list (no domains). Mashin Magic spells may be channeled through her Mashin Mecha with no problem and Escudo Armor (see below) has no Armor Spell failure for Mashin Magic.



Escudo Armaments: The Magic Knight gains a magic suit of armor and a weapon made of a mythic metal known as Escudo that grow and change with her, therefore referred as the Escudo Armor and Escudo Weapon. At first level, they work as masterwork versions of a basic suit of armor and weapon the Magic Knight is proficient with. For each Magic Knight level a new type of weapon or armor may be selected and the Magic Knight may change between those forms as a swift or move action. When changing an Escudo Armament this way, they may combine any amount of nonmagic gems in their possession to it. If they do so, they may grant the Escudo Armament a template such as Feycraft as long as the template's cost is the same or less than the combined value of the gems. The gems may be removed when changing the Escudo Armament, but the template will be lost. Either may be dismissed as a free action inside the Magic Knight’s body and summoned again as another free action, but no more than 1/round. If somehow disarmed/sundered, they dissolve into one of the Magic Knight’s element and can be summoned again. For every 3 Magic Knight levels, the Escudo Armor gains a +1 magic enhancement bonus to AC and the Escudo Weapon gains a +1 magic enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls. When piloting her Mashin Mecha, the Magic Knight may transfer the Escudo Weapon’s magic enhancement bonus to one of her mecha’s weapons and her Escudo Armor’s enhancement bonus to the Mashin Mecha’s natural armor as a free action, which ends as soon as she's not the one piloting.

Spirited:Each level of Magic Knight increases the maximum number of spirit points of the character by 7. In addition the character learns one spirit, and whenever "Spirit" appears on the table he learns one more. They count as a Super Pilot for the purpose of Spirit costs.

Spirits can be used as a free action at the beginning of your turn by paying their cost in spirit points (before you take any other action). You recover 5 spirit points per round up to your maximum. You can use multiple spirits in a turn, but only once each kind of spirit. Spirits that trigger in a condition, such as valor and alert, last 1 minute and are lost if not triggered by the end of the duration.

Spirit List

Mashin Burst: At 2nd level when the Magic Knight casts one of her Mashin Magic spells, in the next round the first time she succeeds on an attack against the same target(s) with her Escudo Weapon, she gains a +1/2 PL bonus to hit, increase any DC by 2 and deals an extra 1d4+PL damage depending on the spell’s descriptor (if more than one applies, pick one). If she attacks with her Escudo Weapon, in the next round the first time she succeeds on an attack against the same target(s) with one of her Mashin Magic spells, she gains an extra +1/2 PL to SR penetration, increase any DC by 2 and deals an extra 1d4+PL damage depending on the spell’s descriptor (if more than one applies, pick one).  If piloting her Mashin Mecha, the weapon to which her Escudo Weapon magic enhancement was transferred to counts as her Escudo Weapon for the purpose of this ability.

(click to show/hide)

[Air]- Slashing damage.
[Cold]-Cold damage.
[Earth]-Piercing damage.
[Water]-Bludgeoning damage.
[Fire]- Fire damage.
[Electricity]-Electricity damage
[Acid] -Acid damage
[Healing]-If the attack would hit an ally, they are instead healed by the same amount of damage the attack would deal before any reductions. Any excess HP over max becomes temp HP that lasts 1 round.
[Good]-Untyped but only applies against Evil opponents.
[Evil]- Untyped but only applies against Good opponents.
[Law]-Untyped but only applies against Chaotic opponents.
[Chaos]-Untyped but only applies against Lawful opponents.

Pure Pillar: At 20th level 1/day as a free action for 1 hour the Magic Knight’s Mashin Burst extra damage can be changed to Sacred and works against all targets regardless of descriptor. In the case of an [Healing] Mashin Burst, you can remove one ill condition with a duration other than permanent or instantaneous from the target.

[oslecamo]

Reserved.

[oslecamo]

Reserved too.

[oslecamo]

And one more just for luck.

[SorO_Lost]

 
I look forward to your up coming edits.

[Fzzr]

Quick take:

• Description says "Super Pilot" instead of "Magic Knight" several times.
• It seems like it's nearly impossible for the Mashin Mecha to go to 0HP before the Magic Knight. The knight gets an average of 5.5 HP/level and the mecha gets 10 hp/level before upgrades.
• Since pilot takes damage as the mecha does, presumably the pilot takes normal damage on crit rule doesn't apply. Please specify if so.
• On Mashin Burst, is that only for those targeted by a spell directly or does it include those in an AoE?
• On Mashin Burst, does that apply even if the spell has no effect for whatever reason? (SR, save made, etc).
• Does a subpilot of whatever kind benefit from the Escudo Armaments bonuses to the mecha when they take control?
• Alternatively: Recommend that "any source that would grant the Magic Knight a subpilot may have the subpilot be of the Magic Knight class". And then give appropriate restrictions eg. which class features they do or don't get, how their Magic Knight features interact with the mecha, etc.

Overall the joint HP thing seems like it would make this class way too squishy. They're effectively dealing with the consequence of being hit with a crit all the time, where for other classes that's a rare thing. Virtually any actual crit would instagib the pilot.

Otherwise I like the class concept and nothing seems particularly out of place. Full BaB, caster, initiator at the same time could be crazy powerful, but somehow I don't see that happening here given the limitations (even if the joint HP thing was removed or at least mitigated). No bonus feats helps with that too.

[oslecamo]

Quick take:

• Description says "Super Pilot" instead of "Magic Knight" several times.
• It seems like it's nearly impossible for the Mashin Mecha to go to 0HP before the Magic Knight. The knight gets an average of 5.5 HP/level and the mecha gets 10 hp/level before upgrades.
• Since pilot takes damage as the mecha does, presumably the pilot takes normal damage on crit rule doesn't apply. Please specify if so.
• On Mashin Burst, is that only for those targeted by a spell directly or does it include those in an AoE?
• On Mashin Burst, does that apply even if the spell has no effect for whatever reason? (SR, save made, etc).
• Does a subpilot of whatever kind benefit from the Escudo Armaments bonuses to the mecha when they take control?
• Alternatively: Recommend that "any source that would grant the Magic Knight a subpilot may have the subpilot be of the Magic Knight class". And then give appropriate restrictions eg. which class features they do or don't get, how their Magic Knight features interact with the mecha, etc.

-Fixed.
-Good point, reduced the damage the Magic Knight herself takes to half the Mashin Mecha takes.
-Ups, knew I was forgetting something important, specified.
-AoEs work too.
-Yes, it will apply even if the triggering attack did not work.
-No, only while the Magic Knight with the actual Escudo Armaments is piloting.
-Added option for a Magic Knight to have Magic Knight subpilot, with restriction of needing to share one Mashin Magic element and can only use their own Escudo Armaments for the Mashin Mecha while piloting. Which reminds me, added the "non-owner pilots can use the mecha's known maneuvers but only at half PL" from the super pilot.

Overall the joint HP thing seems like it would make this class way too squishy. They're effectively dealing with the consequence of being hit with a crit all the time, where for other classes that's a rare thing. Virtually any actual crit would instagib the pilot.

Hmm, reduced to 1/2 damage. That way they still take the same damage in a normal crit.

Also added Cha mod to the HP per Magic Knight level to the Magic Knight herself since those girls could tank some serious damage by themselves in the series. Plus clause that they can't use their pilot's HP through Demônio dentro  da Máquina and One With the Machine.

Otherwise I like the class concept and nothing seems particularly out of place. Full BaB, caster, initiator at the same time could be crazy powerful, but somehow I don't see that happening here given the limitations (even if the joint HP thing was removed or at least mitigated). No bonus feats helps with that too.

Nice to hear that since it was what I was aiming for, getting a mix of maneuvers and magic simultaneously but keep it in check with the restrictions.

Thank you for your help!

[Fzzr]

The description still refers to the Mashin Mecha as a "Super Robot" in the last sentence of the "Mashin Mecha" feature.

Chamod + Conmod for HP/level is pretty good combined with half damage, the Knight can now pretty reasonably keep up with their mecha.

Good description of the subpilot rule.

I may have time again to work on balance, copy editing, and wiki in a few weeks, will see.

[oslecamo]

Ok, that should be the last super robot typo fixed, and no worries, take your time.

[YuweaCurtis]

How long does Pure Pillar last?
What about making a feat that allows Escudo Armaments to have templates?

[oslecamo]

Pure Pillar is the usual 1 hour, can't believe I forgot it derp, fixed.

Added option to add gems to Escudo Armaments to replicate temples with the same cost, don't think it's worth a feat since stuff like Feycraft's pretty minor plus would be a pain to figure out proper price correlations so just spend actual money on it with the bonus of being able to change your mind.