T
What we want from you:
1) More gear/gadget ideas
2) Suggestions for requirements for the abilities listed above, as well as any new ones you suggest. As it stands, there's no basis for limiting what abilities an inventor would get, and thus no diversity in inventor builds. Requirements should be actual costs - things like skills and feats that mean giving up other skills and feats the character might otherwise take, for example. Requiring high discipline isn't much of a cost, since it has other valuable uses and is often taken by classes expecting to see some melee combat. On the other hand, if this class winds up being predominantly ranged, as it looks to be at present, discipline might not be so useful, otherwise, and might be a suitable cost.
Sample cost ideas:
-Medium/Heavy Armor feats for Armors, and/or Goggles and Earpieces
-Discipline for armor
-Discipline for ranged weaponry like canisters and bolts
-Other xbow feats for ranged weaponry
-Appraise for...something
-Concentration for any of the above - if not casting live, much less useful
-Spell focus feats - only really costs if normal casting doesn't get 'quasi' spell status
Ideally, costs will be such that a given inventor can access maybe 2/3 of the above abilities, give or take. They should help create build diversity, without being crippling.
3)Balance-checking. What issues is the quasi going to have, balance-wise, that need to be addressed with class abilities? Poor offense or defense? Too few skills or feats? The more specific and the less speculative here, the better.
Thanks,
Funky
Gear/gadget idea:
Pavise Arbalest: Two gadgets in a single device featuring the limitations and strengths of both. The Pavise arbalest combines a 'rooted' tower-shield and specialized heavy crossbow. The two components are carried as seperate objects in inventory and must be assembled (3 rounds) where and when they will be used, at which point the device cannot be transported until dis-assembled again.
The defensive (shield) benefits are:
***one point of ac for every 2 levels of Gnomish Inventor (tumble ac does not apply while using the pavise arbalest), ***+15/soak 20 damage
***scaled immunity to spell school.
Focus- imm to 3rd lvl and below
G.Focus. imm to 6th level and below
Epic focus full immunity to spell school).
***immunity to critical hits
***immunity to knockdown (str/dex checks vs)
Offensive (crossbow) benefits:
***bolts can be crafted which have the same effect of spells from schools in which the character has focuses in. This works the same as the shield immunity, but in reverse:
Foci- May craft bolts of up to 3rd level spells
G.Focus- May craft bolts of up to 6th level spells
E.Focus- May craft bolts of up to 9th level spells
Only offensive spells are 'bolt-able'; spells which harm or otherwise control a target.
Spells 'fired' in such a way are cast at character level spell penetration and dc.
Legendary wep. focus crossbow is the same as epic spell penetration in terms of the SP of all spell-bolts fired by the pavise arbalest. There is no way to fire spell-bolts with legendary spell penetration sp.
***All non-gnomish inventor offensive or control devices and contraptions in the game can be crafted into bolts (eg. force cages)
The Gnomish Inventor, when crafting a bolt, is simply transferring the function of the scroll or device, into the bolt.
Overall limitations/requirements:
***The most obvious, not being able to move in combat, and being entirely flat footed for the three rounds it takes to assemble/dissemble the contraption. The character can pivot to acquire new targets (like a turret) but cannot otherwise move. Not only can the character not move, but it cannot perform any action other than use the pavise arbalest and use consumables on its self. Also, tumble AC does not apply while using the pavise arbalest.
***The required feats for the spell immunities/bolt crafting
***The character cannot move while using the pavise arbalest, but can pivot (as per a turret)
***The required spell school focuses.
***One scroll/device per bolt. One "Horrid wilting" scroll and one plain bolt will make one "horrid wilting" bolt. One "moderately escapable forcecage" and one plain bolt will make one "moderately escapable forcecage" bolt.
***It takes a turn to fire a bolt
***It takes a turn to load a bolt
***requires shield, epic focus crossbow, epic skill focus craft armor, craft armor 50, craft weapon 50, appraise 25, spell-craft 50, UMD 40, Set Trap 25.
That last set of requirements is, imo, a good baseline for Gnomish Inventor class overall. With more thought put into this myself, and if there is any feed back, I will adjust these numbers, benefits, limitations etc.
The device is unlocked when all of the minimum requirements are met: shield, epic focus crossbow, point blank shot, epic skill focus craft armor, craft armor 50, craft weapon 50, appraise 25, spell-craft 50, UMD 40, Set Trap 25, and spell focus in at least 1 school (already a requirement for the class).
EDIT:
Upon the device being unlocked, it must be crafted. This requires a tower shield (at least +10), a heavy cross bow (at least +5), bolts, and $100,000,000 GP. Upon crafting the device, the towershield and the heavy crossbow lose all of their 'innate" features, including the ac/ab bonuses, and each becomes unusable on its own. When the character wishes the assemble and use the pavise arbalest, it must "use" either object, take 3 rounds assembling the object.
At the end of the three rounds, the pavise arbalest is complete, and at this point the character can do nothing but use consumables on its self or use the contraption. The fx can be as simple as "foundation of stone" with a crossbow wielding character in it. The contraption is disassemble when "use" is again selected on either of the objects in the characters inventory.
In simple terms the benefit of this contraption is to be able to cast spells comparable in affect to other 'regular' casters, from a position of great defensive strength.
The limitations of this device are the feats, gold, and other resources required to create it, as well as how extremely unwieldy and awkward its use will be.
There is a historic basis for this: crossbowmen in medieval armies would 'root' large shields in the ground, behind which they would fire/reload their crossbow (arbalest).