Quasiclass: Lifethreader

[Balduvard]

With all the recent discussion of healing and clerics and the such, this support class (which can still pack a punch) idea came to me.

The Lifethreader

Delicate is the Weave that encompasses the world, harboring all magic and life within it's threads. The Lifethreader is a cleric devoted to the preservation of the Weave, able to wield a sickle with such precision to make delicate adjustments to the Weave where it is needed. These adjustments can take many forms, but in regards to the Lifethreader they are capable of healing by mending the delicate fabric of life, or killing by carefully severing it.

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Requirements
Levels
+20 Cleric
+10 WM
by Level 30

Feats
-Improved Whirlwind
-Weapon Focus/Weapon of Choice (Sickle)

Skills
-Heal

The special ability of the Lifethreader is unleashed when they perform their Improved Whirlwind attack, causing the very strands of the Weave around them to alter as the Lifethreader whirls their sickle around. Each use of Lifethreading uses up one Ki Strike ability until they reach level 45, where it becomes unlimited use. Nearby (10m radius?) friends are healed and nearby enemies are damaged based on the heal skill and wisdom modifier of the Lifethreader. At higher levels the Lifethreader can actually disrupt the protective magics of spellcasters. Their Lifethreading ability follows the (suggested) progression:

Base Healing is calculated by Heal Skill + Wis Modifier
Base Damage (Magic) is Wis Modifier

Level | Required Heal | Heal/Damage | Special
30 | 50 | Base x 1 | Lifethreading Ability Gained
35 | 60 | Base x 2 |
40 | 70 | Base x 3 |
45 | 80 | Base x 4 | Lifethreading becomes unlimited usage
50 | 90 | Base x 5 |
55 | 100 | Base x 6 |
60 | 110 | Base x 7 | Lifethreading casts Mordekainen's Disjunction on all nearby enemies, and can resurrect dead party members

The ability might seem a bit overpowered especially at later levels, meaning that in order to get the last abilities of Lifethreading, you would have to almost completely focus in wisdom, along with skill focuses and heal enhancing gear. This means essentially you will be making a caster cleric with certain melee side capabilities that weaken the offensive power of the cleric. It doesn't seem too bad, but we'll see where discussion leads.

[whodat1]

I like the idea, I think of the desert when I envision the usefulness of this character. Like the sickle idea too.

Its got its challenges, since your putting yourself on the front line to get the effect to land on the most amount of enemies, if you get ahead of yourself no 100 hp heal is going to keep you up long IMO I think the heal radius could be bigger, but the damage radius should be kept to nearby enemies, otherwise just turns into a weird bard song.

Not sure if cleric/wm is that unusual of a combination. And assuming the character uses wm for remaining levels he might be overpowered. (Could always add a reflex save for half or something) But as you said if you required wis increases in order to improve the ability at later levels, I think that would even it out. Could make it 30 cleric/10 wm maybe?

[FunkySwerve]

whodat1 said:

I like the idea, I think of the desert when I envision the usefulness of this character. Like the sickle idea too.

I like it too, and it has the big plus of being reletively simple, requiring only a few script changes.

IMO I think the heal radius could be bigger, but the damage radius should be kept to nearby enemies, otherwise just turns into a weird bard song.

A wierd, unlimited use bard song. This is a good idea, and we can increase it by level. There's a potential balance problem here, with unlimited rezzing, especially if the cleric's defensive weakness is redressed, but it's hard to say whether it'll be an issue without playtest.

Not sure if cleric/wm is that unusual of a combination. And assuming the character uses wm for remaining levels he might be overpowered. (Could always add a reflex save for half or something) But as you said if you required wis increases in order to improve the ability at later levels, I think that would even it out. Could make it 30 cleric/10 wm maybe?

Anthing that makes a caster take more than a couple levels in another class is pretty unusual, because they will not have high ab, and their casting will suffer from low penetration (though this build would still have high dcs due to wisdom). Fill in the details and we should have a feasible quasiclass.
Funky

[archmage]

I like it as well. Nice job Baldy.

[Balduvard]

Some further discussion on Class requirements:

20 Cleric assures that your control class will be Cleric (C < W), and even if you decided to go 20/20, you'd have a half caster with weak casting and +4 to your AB, effectively bringing BAB just above L40 fighter's level (31) with no legendary benefits from either class except Lifethreader since you did not get more than 25 levels of cleric for epic spells. Making it 30/10 required would just almost force this build to always be a caster.

If you wanted to, you could go 20/20 to maximize your AB...or go 30/10 to maximize your spellcasting effectiveness...or go 20/10/10 to pick up some other attribute you find useful. The possibilities are only limited by what one can conceive with a 20/10 requirement, as with many of the other quasiclasses. Though the class of your choice should have Heal as a class skill if you want to progress in your Lifethreading ability. The concern about the radius was mainly due to it's powerful effects at later levels. The original idea was to make it slightly larger than the AoE of Whirlwind Attack, maybe double or less.


I built a test build to see just how large the AB of a 20/20 build would be:

(Using a base race)
BAB: 27 (12 Cleric/8 WM before 20), 16 Dex, 16 Wis

+3 Epic/Reg Focus
+1 Prowess
+4 WM Bonus (5,13,16,19)
+11 Dex (+3 from Greater Dex VI)

So AB 46 at 40 with a +0 weapon.

Adding to that
+2 (remaining Greater Dex)
+5 Dex taken in LL
+14 GMW

You reach 67 AB at 60 with a +14 weapon almost completely focusing dex. So if you wanted to, you could get some decent AB with that build, but you would lose out on some of the Lifethreader capabilities without the Wis. Subraces could allow you to reach 70 AB (particularly those that grant WM feats)...but if you are going after AB, why include cleric in your build? Decided to add required Cleric domains to the list as well. I looked into effect radii, and decided to scale it from 5m (size of your standard square tile) to 8m (slightly larger than the walkable area of the Altar of Legends).

So given that, the final proposed details will be:

Requirements
Levels
20 Cleric (with Death and Healing domains) and 10 WM by 30

Feats
Improved Whirlwind Attack
Weapon of Focus/Weapon of Choice (Sickle)

Skills
25 Heal

Lifethreading
Base Healing is calculated by Heal Skill + Wis Modifier
Base Damage (Magic) is Wis Modifier

Level | Required Heal Skill | Heal/Damage | Radius | Special

30 | 50 | Base x 1 | 5m |Lifethreading Ability Gained
35 | 60 | Base x 2 | 5m |
40 | 70 | Base x 3 | 6m |
45 | 80 | Base x 4 | 6m | Lifethreading becomes unlimited usage
50 | 90 | Base x 5 | 7m |
55 | 100 | Base x 6 | 7m |
60 | 110 | Base x 7 | 8m | Lifethreading casts Mordekainen's Disjunction on all nearby enemies and can resurrect dead party members

[sabregirl]

I really like this quasiclass idea, sounds like a fascinating combination of abilities. I can't wait to see a version of it in game. Heck, I already got the 29 sickle for the lowbie lifethreader I'll be sure to make.

-S