Post by dodrudon on Oct 28, 2007 2:16:32 GMT
Beastmaster
Similar to a Druid, the Beastmaster harnesses the magic of nature to strike down his enemies. However, rather than call upon Nature's power directly, he focuses his magical prowess in taming powerful creatures to fight for him.
Concept: a ranger, uses a variety of summons to adapt to the situation, abilities are based on BM levels and Animal Empathy (AE) skill, goes the spell focus route instead of Favored Enemy route, basically a tank with extra goodies
It'd be interesting to combine this with Druid for more buffs, but that'd be too complicated, and doesn't fit in well with the front-liner mentality a BM should be.
Requires Skill Focus: Animal Empathy by level 7, 5 levels of Ranger
Upon reaching these requirements, the BM gains a set of special items, and gains Still Spell (useless because a Divine caster, but good for spell flexibility, for instance Magic Fang and Ultravision are same level, as well as Resist Elements). The items include an autobuffer for the pet, which can be used three times per day to instantly buff summoned beasts, and an enchanted bottle that can be used to heal both the BM and his beast when used, though it consumes a single memorized Cure spell of any level when used.
Beastmasters do not get any of the usual Ranger class edits.
Spells with * before them can instantly be buffed onto the beast with the buffer
Spells not on this list are cast at half of normal caster level:
Level 1
*Magic Fang - beast spell (increases damage)
*Resist Elements - double effectiveness on summons
Summon Creature I
*Ultravision - beast spell (gives special ability)
Level 2
Hold Animal - DC max(AE / 2, Beastmaster levels)
One with the Land
*Protection from Elements - 1.5 effectiveness when used to buff beast
Summon Creature II
Level 3
*Aid - uses Heal or AE, whichever is higher, adds twice the temporary hitpoints when used to buff beast
Blade Thirst
*Invisibility Purge - casts on beast (if applicable)
Summon Creature III
Level 4
Freedom of Movement
Summon Creature IV
Each Summon Creature spell has a modified effect, summoning a beast of the BM's level.
The enchanted bottle will only function so long as the BM has Cure spells memorized. Using it will consume one memorized Cure spell of any level, and heal both the BM and the beast.
Each beast, while alive, provides the BM with some sort of innate bonus. Having Spell Focus feats in the beast's school of magic provides further bonuses. Some skill bonuses take into account all Spell Focus feats (to a maximum of 16), regardless of school.
If the summoned beast dies, the Beastmaster takes unresistable damage equal to his Animal Empathy skill.
Summon Creature I - Summon Bloodhound
Class: Barbarian? Monk?
School of Magic: Conjuration
Role: light tank, debuffer
Stats: medium everything, low conceal
The Bloodhound has a Large aura that lowers all enemy saving throws by AE / 30, to a max of BML / 20.
Magic Fang - gives +1/4 AE Magic damage, max 1/3 BML
Ultravision - attacks can lower AB by 1 for 1 turn, stacking, a fort save with DC BML - 5
Bonus - BM's weapon gains +14 Enchantment, base Listen increased by 1/6 BML +1 per all Spell Focus feats, which increases to +1.5/feat with GSF, +2 with ESF, and +2.5 with LSF. With GSF, the BM's equipped weapon gains a +15 Enchantment, and with LSF it becomes +16 Enchantment. With SF, the Bloodhound gains Blindfight.
Summon Creature II - Summon Sentient Stone
Class: "Dwarven" Defender? Barbarian? Fighter?
School: Transmutation
Role: heavy tank
Stats: high hp, high AB, medium AC, high soak, high dmg, no conceal
Every 5 rounds, a burst of energy from the Sentient Stone causes all enemies within a Large radius to become KDed, vs a reflex save of half of the BM's Animal Empathy skill, but no higher than BML - 10. This decreases to once per 4 rounds at BML 30, once per 3 rounds at BML 45, and once per 2 rounds at BML 60.
Magic Fang - gives +1/3 AE damage, max 1/2 BML, half Bludgeoning, half Divine
Ultravision - attacks can Stun, vs Will save of 1/2 AE, max of BML
Bonus - base Parry, increased by 1/6 BML +1 per all Spell Focus feats, which increases to +1.5/feat with GSF, +2 with ESF, and +2.5 with LSF. The BM also gains physical damage immunity equal to 1/3rd of his Strength or Dexterity modifier, whichever is higher. With GSF, the BM gains a Stoneskin-like effect as if cast by a mage that level. With ESF, the enhancement soak increases by 1, to a max of +15. With LSF, it becomes Greater Stoneskin.
Summon Creature III - Summon Giant Grig (or some other medium-sized mischievous creature)
Class: Shadowdancer
School: Abjuration (matches Resist Elements, or go with Illusion instead)
Role: rogue-ish light tank, debuffer
Stats: low hp, high AC, medium conceal, lots of attacks, but low damage
So long as the BM has Invisibility Purge memorized when summoning a Giant Grig, the Giant Grig will have Invisibility Purge on it as long as it's alive. Along with this aura, it will always have an AC lowering aura, by AE / 30, to a max of BML / 20.
Magic Fang - gives +1/3 AE damage, max 1/2 BML, negative
Ultravision - attacks can cause level drain or Con drain, each is a separate fort save vs DC BML - 15 + 1/15 AE
Bonus - base Concentration increased by 1/6 BML +1 per all Spell Focus feats, which increases to +1.5/feat with GSF, +2 with ESF, and +2.5 with LSF. With GSF, Hide becomes included in this progression. With ESF, the BM gains Evasion. With LSF, Tumble uses modified ranks to calculate AC bonus, instead of base ranks.
Summon Creature IV - Summon Dryadkin (no idea what a Dryadkin is but it sounds appropriate)
Class: Druid
School: Evocation
Role: caster, nuker
Stats: low hp, low AC, very high conceal, or mimic a real druid and have 140+ AC and no conceal
The Dryadkin will instantly buff itself with a number of spells including Barkskin, Aura of Vitality, and Mage Armor. She will then proceed to cast many devastating spells, much to the of her enemies. The Dryadkin is the same level as the BM, has Legendary Spell Penetration, and has Epic Spell Focus in all schools (maybe give Dryadkin epic spells for any schools the ranger has LSF in). Her Wisdom is equal to 1/2 AE + 1/15 BML (which puts max at 67). Her spells will not break loot.
Magic Fang - gives Spellcraft and Lore equal to AE, max of 2*BML, in order to increase Evocation spell damage
Ultravision - boosts Spell Penetration by 1/40 AE + 1/20 BML
Bonus - BM gains conceal equal to BML or 1/2 AE, whichever is higher, +1%/2%/3%/4% for each focus in Evocation. With GSF, the Dryadkin gains Improved Combat Casting. Each Spell Focus in Evocation gives the Dryadkin +1 Wisdom.
Maybe replace Bloodhound with a Forest Pygmy armed with a sling, being Divine Slinger quasiclass.
Similar to a Druid, the Beastmaster harnesses the magic of nature to strike down his enemies. However, rather than call upon Nature's power directly, he focuses his magical prowess in taming powerful creatures to fight for him.
Concept: a ranger, uses a variety of summons to adapt to the situation, abilities are based on BM levels and Animal Empathy (AE) skill, goes the spell focus route instead of Favored Enemy route, basically a tank with extra goodies
It'd be interesting to combine this with Druid for more buffs, but that'd be too complicated, and doesn't fit in well with the front-liner mentality a BM should be.
Requires Skill Focus: Animal Empathy by level 7, 5 levels of Ranger
Upon reaching these requirements, the BM gains a set of special items, and gains Still Spell (useless because a Divine caster, but good for spell flexibility, for instance Magic Fang and Ultravision are same level, as well as Resist Elements). The items include an autobuffer for the pet, which can be used three times per day to instantly buff summoned beasts, and an enchanted bottle that can be used to heal both the BM and his beast when used, though it consumes a single memorized Cure spell of any level when used.
Beastmasters do not get any of the usual Ranger class edits.
Spells with * before them can instantly be buffed onto the beast with the buffer
Spells not on this list are cast at half of normal caster level:
Level 1
*Magic Fang - beast spell (increases damage)
*Resist Elements - double effectiveness on summons
Summon Creature I
*Ultravision - beast spell (gives special ability)
Level 2
Hold Animal - DC max(AE / 2, Beastmaster levels)
One with the Land
*Protection from Elements - 1.5 effectiveness when used to buff beast
Summon Creature II
Level 3
*Aid - uses Heal or AE, whichever is higher, adds twice the temporary hitpoints when used to buff beast
Blade Thirst
*Invisibility Purge - casts on beast (if applicable)
Summon Creature III
Level 4
Freedom of Movement
Summon Creature IV
Each Summon Creature spell has a modified effect, summoning a beast of the BM's level.
The enchanted bottle will only function so long as the BM has Cure spells memorized. Using it will consume one memorized Cure spell of any level, and heal both the BM and the beast.
Each beast, while alive, provides the BM with some sort of innate bonus. Having Spell Focus feats in the beast's school of magic provides further bonuses. Some skill bonuses take into account all Spell Focus feats (to a maximum of 16), regardless of school.
If the summoned beast dies, the Beastmaster takes unresistable damage equal to his Animal Empathy skill.
Summon Creature I - Summon Bloodhound
Class: Barbarian? Monk?
School of Magic: Conjuration
Role: light tank, debuffer
Stats: medium everything, low conceal
The Bloodhound has a Large aura that lowers all enemy saving throws by AE / 30, to a max of BML / 20.
Magic Fang - gives +1/4 AE Magic damage, max 1/3 BML
Ultravision - attacks can lower AB by 1 for 1 turn, stacking, a fort save with DC BML - 5
Bonus - BM's weapon gains +14 Enchantment, base Listen increased by 1/6 BML +1 per all Spell Focus feats, which increases to +1.5/feat with GSF, +2 with ESF, and +2.5 with LSF. With GSF, the BM's equipped weapon gains a +15 Enchantment, and with LSF it becomes +16 Enchantment. With SF, the Bloodhound gains Blindfight.
Summon Creature II - Summon Sentient Stone
Class: "Dwarven" Defender? Barbarian? Fighter?
School: Transmutation
Role: heavy tank
Stats: high hp, high AB, medium AC, high soak, high dmg, no conceal
Every 5 rounds, a burst of energy from the Sentient Stone causes all enemies within a Large radius to become KDed, vs a reflex save of half of the BM's Animal Empathy skill, but no higher than BML - 10. This decreases to once per 4 rounds at BML 30, once per 3 rounds at BML 45, and once per 2 rounds at BML 60.
Magic Fang - gives +1/3 AE damage, max 1/2 BML, half Bludgeoning, half Divine
Ultravision - attacks can Stun, vs Will save of 1/2 AE, max of BML
Bonus - base Parry, increased by 1/6 BML +1 per all Spell Focus feats, which increases to +1.5/feat with GSF, +2 with ESF, and +2.5 with LSF. The BM also gains physical damage immunity equal to 1/3rd of his Strength or Dexterity modifier, whichever is higher. With GSF, the BM gains a Stoneskin-like effect as if cast by a mage that level. With ESF, the enhancement soak increases by 1, to a max of +15. With LSF, it becomes Greater Stoneskin.
Summon Creature III - Summon Giant Grig (or some other medium-sized mischievous creature)
Class: Shadowdancer
School: Abjuration (matches Resist Elements, or go with Illusion instead)
Role: rogue-ish light tank, debuffer
Stats: low hp, high AC, medium conceal, lots of attacks, but low damage
So long as the BM has Invisibility Purge memorized when summoning a Giant Grig, the Giant Grig will have Invisibility Purge on it as long as it's alive. Along with this aura, it will always have an AC lowering aura, by AE / 30, to a max of BML / 20.
Magic Fang - gives +1/3 AE damage, max 1/2 BML, negative
Ultravision - attacks can cause level drain or Con drain, each is a separate fort save vs DC BML - 15 + 1/15 AE
Bonus - base Concentration increased by 1/6 BML +1 per all Spell Focus feats, which increases to +1.5/feat with GSF, +2 with ESF, and +2.5 with LSF. With GSF, Hide becomes included in this progression. With ESF, the BM gains Evasion. With LSF, Tumble uses modified ranks to calculate AC bonus, instead of base ranks.
Summon Creature IV - Summon Dryadkin (no idea what a Dryadkin is but it sounds appropriate)
Class: Druid
School: Evocation
Role: caster, nuker
Stats: low hp, low AC, very high conceal, or mimic a real druid and have 140+ AC and no conceal
The Dryadkin will instantly buff itself with a number of spells including Barkskin, Aura of Vitality, and Mage Armor. She will then proceed to cast many devastating spells, much to the of her enemies. The Dryadkin is the same level as the BM, has Legendary Spell Penetration, and has Epic Spell Focus in all schools (maybe give Dryadkin epic spells for any schools the ranger has LSF in). Her Wisdom is equal to 1/2 AE + 1/15 BML (which puts max at 67). Her spells will not break loot.
Magic Fang - gives Spellcraft and Lore equal to AE, max of 2*BML, in order to increase Evocation spell damage
Ultravision - boosts Spell Penetration by 1/40 AE + 1/20 BML
Bonus - BM gains conceal equal to BML or 1/2 AE, whichever is higher, +1%/2%/3%/4% for each focus in Evocation. With GSF, the Dryadkin gains Improved Combat Casting. Each Spell Focus in Evocation gives the Dryadkin +1 Wisdom.
Maybe replace Bloodhound with a Forest Pygmy armed with a sling, being Divine Slinger quasiclass.
probably some minor differences but close enough for me
