Of course. The thought is interesting, though, and combining it with, say, Bloodstorm Blade could result in a few shenanigans... Of the good type.
True, though it was rather the point of the class that a squishy ranged fighter would be able to progress into melee combat. Still, I'll weigh the idea.
Simply put... DR. Now, I know that you're thinking "Oh, they aren't subject to DR", but...
That's only the energy types. Natural Balance, and the others that deal non-energy, non-untyped damage deal stuff that IS affected by DR. Let those spellshape attacks, and those alone, gain the ability to be weilded as one handed weapons, also allowing them to be used two handed in the process. Up the damage output a bit for using something that doesn't ignore DR, just to be nice.
I'm thinking I'll just switch spellforge weapons in general to one-handed weapons, then make sure to note that you're always proficient with them. As one-handed weapons, you will be able to two-hand them by definition--giving up your shield and the class features associated with it in the process. Besides, the only extra damage would be from Power Attack.
In terms of DR, those circles already deal--on average--one extra point of damage per die. Given that the attack itself will scale up to six dice, plus extra dice from formulae, and you're already going to make up much of the difference. Especially given that forging the same spellshape attack into two pieces of equipment lets you just ignore DR entirely.
Hm. A simple way would to add to it "Some lamens are of a defensive focus instead of an offensive one. If you shape a formula that grants an AC bonus to yourself or another character, increase that bonus by the Enhancement bonus of the lamen. Spellforge Warsmiths may add the effects of Lamens to their Spellforge Armor and Shields. Much like offensive Lamens, defensive Lamens may have various abilities that are, for the most part, similar to normal magical armor enhancements. The ones recommended are as follows."
Then follow that with a decent number of enhancements, mostly cloned from normal 3.5.
Again, I'll think about it, though you already get the ability to make a retaliatory touch attack whenever a foe misses you, a deflection bonus to AC equal to your spellshaping ability modifier, immunity to an energy type or damage reduction, and spell resistance. That's a decent bit of defense.
Other tweaks that I'll be making to the spellforge warsmith:
- You do not add your Strength modifier to damage rolls with spellforge weapons.
- You cannot use the spellshape champion's spellshape channeling ability in conjunction with a spellforge weapon.
- You may only have one spellforge weapon conjured at a time.
These were always intended to be the case, but--reading through it again--I realized that they didn't come through properly.
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Hm.... Perhaps a little bit of real illusions? Maybe something like Figment of Light, from Brilliant Dawn? I think a defensive/subtle circle is an interesting idea. After all, not all magic is blowing shit up.
Also, consider making the spellshape attack create a silent image, increasing in power as you level, and letting all formulae affect that. That'd be lulzy.
Well, almost every effect is based off of an existing illusion spell, and a good number of them are "traditional" illusions. However, the spellshape attack is remaining an attack--as I've said before, I don't want to break the standard form. Especially with the complications involved in an at-will
silent image that scales up to (presumably)
major image or so--much less one that can be obtained by anyone with a single feat.
Hm... Maybe something like the Bladebound Magus archetype from Pathfinder for the Spellshape Champion?
Quite possibly, yes.
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In other other news--and I'm not sure where this came from--there may be an upcoming revision to the lavamancer. I spontaneously stopped liking the pool of magma as the core mechanic for everything, and I've ceased to like the form that Surging Eruption ended up taking. So, yeah.
----Update: Changes have been posted to the online versions of the lavamancer and the spellforge warsmith. PDFs should be updated later today or tomorrow.
