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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11808 Posts |
 Posted - 31 Mar 2013 : 00:54:57
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WAAAYYYYYYYY back when I wrote a homebrew article about the witches of Rashemen having multiple "cults" of their witches. I wrote it way back when second edition was around, I think maybe when spellbound was released (because I didn't like that spellbound painted all the witches with one broad stroke). I've mentioned several times that I still adhere to that belief that there should be different types Rashemi witch cults, and during 3rd edition the Durthan was released which made me happy. The prestige class wasn't updated for 3.5 like the Hathran was, and it suffered for it (note, I had made my own version last year, which can be found here)
http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16380
Anyway, I still like the idea of their being multiple witch cults. Back 18 years ago or so when I wrote the original ideas, I thought that having a cult dedicated to Selune and a different cult dedicated to Shar would be great. I'm not so fond of that idea anymore. There were other ideas in the article that given what I've seen since then make me discard those ideas in favor of newer thinking. So, I'd like to explore some other "sects" of the witches. Specifically, I'm thinking about the following two
The Leythran - a spellcaster who focuses on ley line energy rather than cooperative spellcasting. They learn to draw upon the primal energies of the land in order to destroy its enemies (particularly undead). Leythrans are solitary individuals who usually live in the wilds of nature, rarely visiting cities. This prestige class would work well for Rashemen, but also any other natural place endowed with magical or elemental energies. NOTE: this class pulls on Midgard Campaign Setting ley line rules, but in order to use it for 3.5 D&D, different metamagic spells would need to be picked for Toril since that was written with pathfinder in mind.
The Telthran - similar but different from the Durthan adapatation I did, this prestige class would focus on using the druid and spirit shaman classes together. It would focus on the Telthran working with telthor spirits, and thus would be specific to Rashemen. Unlike the Durthan, this wouldn't build 2 spellcasting lists, but rather allow for a few bonus spontaneously cast druid spells per day (thinking 1 per spell level extra), along with basically changing the druid's animal companion into a telthor. Finally, at some point the character also gets a telthor cohort (i.e. a humanoid with the telthor template... think a vremyonni or wychlaran or berserker that became a telthor) that's say four levels behind the telthran.... enough that he could survive but not overshadow the telthran. In doing this, he gives up advancement in his other druid or spirit shaman abilities (such as shapechanging, poison immunity, aging immunity, etc...).
All this being said, there could be definitely other divisions within the Hathrans. For instance, many Hathrans are arcane casters, while others are divine casters. These two groups may see things slightly differently. Also, amongst the divine Hathrans there may be different divisions based upon who they hold as their patron (and there may be some who are pantheistic and serve all 3 of their gods). Nothing says that the followers of Khelliara (Miellikki) need to see eye to eye with followers of the Hidden One (Mystra).
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Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11808 Posts |
Posted - 31 Mar 2013 : 02:11:34
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The Leythran prestige class is a class for those who have done in-depth studies of magic involving the ley lines of the land. They are powerful defenders of the wild, untouched portions of nature learning to use the primal energies of the land to destroy its enemies. This prestige class was first developed by the wychlaran of Rashemen, primarily due to the large numbers of powerful ley lines within said country. However, its secrets have been passed by wychlarans on dajemma to other similarly powerful wildlands of the world (including the High Forest, the Moonshaes, and the elementally infused deserts of Calimshan).
Prerequisites: ley line magic feat (from Midgard Campaign Setting), magic of the land feat (races of the wild), knowledge (arcana) 7, spellcraft 7, knowledge (nature) 7 ranks, ability to cast 2nd lvl arcane or divine spells
Level Base Attack Bonus Fort
Save Ref Save Will Save Special spells per day/spells known
1st +0 +0 +0 +2 Land's Enemy – ooze, fey art +1 level of existing spellcasting class
2nd +1 +0 +0 +3 ley line channeling +1 level of existing spellcasting class
3rd +1 +1 +1 +3 Land's Enemy 2nd +1 level of existing spellcasting class
4th +2 +1 +1 +4 Careful ley line user +1 level of existing spellcasting class
5th +2 +1 +1 +4 ley line override +1 level of existing spellcasting class
6th +3 +2 +2 +5 Land's Enemy 3rd +1 level of existing spellcasting class
7th +3 +2 +2 +5 Empowered Magic of the land +1 level of existing spellcasting class
Alignment: Any Hit Dice: d4 Skill Points at each additional level: 2 + int modifier
Skills: The following skills are considered class skills for a Leythran: concentration, craft, decipher script, knowledge(all skills, taken individually), Profession, Spellcraft
Land's Enemy – At 1st lvl, the Leythran learns to modify the magical channeled by their magic of the land feat. Normally this energy is considered positive energy and thereby damages undead. At 1st lvl, they learn to modify this energy such that it specifically prevents healing of oozes and instead damages them for 1 point of damage per spell level of the spell cast (note this is a 50% reduction from the 2 points that the normal magic of the land provides). At 3rd level, new enemies are added to the leythrans Land's Enemy types. They can be chosen from amongst the following: aberration, construct, monstrous humanoid, and outsider (evil). At 6th lvl, new enemies are added again, to be chosen from the previous list.
Fey Art - Because the Leythran becomes so attuned to the magic of the land itself, their ability to use magic from certain schools are affected. The spell save DC's of any plant based, earth based, or evocation spell using fire, cold or electricity are increased by 1. This bonus stacks with bonuses obtained from feats such as spell focus. Correspondingly, spell save DC's of spells from the school of necromancy are hampered and decreased by 2.
Ley Line Channeling – At 2nd level the leythran gains the ability ley line channeling, which acts as the feat from Midgard Campaign Setting
Careful Ley Line User – Whenever drawing upon a ley line would result in ley line burnout, the Leythran has a 50% chance to realize it and stop themselves before burning out the ley line.
Ley Line Override – At 5th level the leythran gains the ability ley line override, which acts as the feat from Midgard Campaign Setting
Empowered Magic of the Land – At 7th level the leythran gains the ability Empowered Magic of the Land. If the Leythran uses its magic of the land ability to channel positiver energy/healing magic into its spells, the damage healed becomes 3 hit points/spell level (or correspondingly 3 points of damage to those beings such as undead affected by positive energy).
I have no doubt that this could use tweakage, nor am I against input. I was more concerned with the general idea for discussion. Heck for all I know, there's a class somewhere that basically does this same thing. I can also see this class and the incantatrix getting along with one another, though I haven't looked at the idea of a build incorporating both. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Snow
Learned Scribe
USA
125 Posts |
Posted - 04 Apr 2013 : 20:13:02
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| I like these concept PrCs, Sleyvas. I can give you a balanced game mechanic and optimization assessment of your 3.5 work if you can provide some detailed info on the Midgard Campaign Setting game mechanics that you've referenced. |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11808 Posts |
Posted - 04 Apr 2013 : 21:04:15
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Cool, at least there's some interest. I was discussing the ley lines in midgard here.
http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17676
Essentially, ley lines let you add metamagic feats to your spells for free. However, you typically don't have control of what a given ley line has to offer as far as feats unless you're somewhere that you've setup and locked the ley line. Note, this prestige class ALMOST gets you to the point that you can lock ley lines into certain feats, but it doesn't get you all the way.
There's 4 basic ley line feats and 3 "we're specialists in ley lines" feats. There's also another feat that's basically twin spell metamagic that you use with ley lines.
the 4 basic ones
ley line magic - you can tap ley lines & once per day you can regain one spell or spell slot of your choice (note, it doesn't state it, but I'd assume the refill is "up to the strength of the ley line nearby".... so if you're only near weak ones, you're onlyr refilling 3rd lvl and under).
ley line channeling - builds off 1st, when you're within a mile of a ley line, you can reduce the increase in spell lvl of a metamagic by 1 (while preparing spells for prepared casters or for spontaneous only when casting)
ley line override - builds off 1st and 2nd, once a day when within a mile of a ley line you may cast a spell as if it were affected by a single metamagic feat YOU POSSESS without altering its spell slot or having prepared it with the feat. No going beyond 9th lvl (i.e. IF theoretically you wanted to put a metamagic feat on an 8th lvl spell that would normally add 2 spell levels, no workie). Note, this is an override, so you're not confined by whatever feats are available to a given ley line PLUS its on the fly BUT its limited by the available ley line STRENGTHS.
ley line locking - you can lock/unlock certain feats to a ley line based upon its strength (i.e. you come across a weak ley line that's offering up still spell for free, and you change it to extend spell or silent spell). NOTE: most ley lines of any major power are found already locked by whoever came along before you to a certain feat. Since weak ley lines are pretty much everywhere they'd be pretty much random.
the Other 3 feats are basically
"you can draw upon a ley line to mechanically empower your spell - +1 DC and +1 per dice to dmg"
"you can drawn upon a ley line to protect yourself for a round when casting - bonus to saves and AC"
"you can draw extra energy from a ley line when you cast and it heals you a tidbit based upon the spell level you cast"
The "how you activate a ley line" is basically a caster level check. The text in the book is a typo, so it'd need clarification. It says 10 + twice the level of the spell, but then it says a 4th lvl spell would be 14 and not 18. Note, this DC goes up by 1 per person using said ley line "during this combat". Failing the DC just means you don't get to add a free metamagic feat, unless you crit fail, in which case you drew the line dry and it needs to refill.
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Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11808 Posts |
Posted - 04 Apr 2013 : 21:09:01
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and actually, now that I think about it, I wrote the original article BEFORE spellbound came out. That's why I was so irritated that they didn't make them more complex. Still, I think my old ideas definitely needed some more work (though I think I had one sect that focused on worship of a god of dreams... that might be awesome with a spirit shaman type concept in Rashemen).
I think later on I had added a sect of men who were studying runecraft (via the old Viking sourcebook form second edition, they had a class of warrior like runecasters) in secret. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Snow
Learned Scribe
USA
125 Posts |
Posted - 04 Apr 2013 : 21:47:18
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Sleyvas, I'm going to get access to the MCS book through a friend of mine here in NYC. I need to see some more detailed descriptions of both the Ley Lines and these specific metamagic feats. Especially in regards to the commonality and encounter probability of Ley Lines within a given campaign (granted, we are likely talking a homebrew FRCS situation) ... and the Action Economy impact of these metamagic feats (Full Round / Standard / Move~MEA / Swift / Intermediate action activation times, etc). I hope to be able to have read these sections by the end of this upcoming weekend and get back to you by early next week.
I've created dozens of 3.0/3.5 PrCs over the years. And been extensively involved in the playtesting and design balance discussions of many others. I have a particular interest in the Unapproachable East cultures of the FR as well as design work for both practical & theoretical optimization threshholds within PrC design. So your desire to involve all these game mechanics into Rashemi gameplay is extremely interesting to me. Very cool stuff indeed. :-) |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11808 Posts |
Posted - 05 Apr 2013 : 14:03:48
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| Yeah, one of the things that would definitely need to be adapted (which should be relatively easy) is what metamagic feats are allowed to be applied since the list in MCS is pathfinder specific. Wooly had brought up some good ideas too that maybe some alternate abilities be tied to the ley lines, so I'm thinking adding abilities to the list like "spell focus <school>" and including some interesting schools as well, like the wu jens schools of metal, etc... The general idea itself had a seed in the MCS stuff, but it'd definitely be homebrewable to be more realmsian. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11808 Posts |
Posted - 07 Apr 2013 : 21:29:53
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Here's mods along the lines we were talking about in the other thread.
weak- weak ley lines are found pretty much everywhere, especially in cities. Weak ley lines can support spells of up to 2nd lvl.
moderate - moderate ley lines are found pretty much everywhere in the countryside, especially farming communities. They are not found in large population centers of more than a thousand residents. Generally, moderate ley lines are the most common ley line to be found throughout the world, though they are more likely to be found in areas that are not heavily populated. Moderate ley lines can support spells of up to 4th lvl.
strong - strong ley lines are generally found near centers of powerful nature (volcano, forest, raging waterfall, towering mountains, etc....) , centers of magical power, sites of past battles which involved a lot of death, portals to other planes, areas with a mythal in place, etc.... However, certain areas of the realms are so intrinsically covered in ley lines that the mere countryside may support strong ley lines (for instance, the High Forest, Rashemen, the Moonshae Isles, etc....). Usually strong ley lines have individuals who have moved in to take advantage of the ley lines or any other magical features within the area. Strong ley lines can support spells of up to 6th lvl. Wherever a strong ley line is found, there can also be found a moderate and a weak ley line.
powerful - powerful ley lines are generally found in areas of nature that have had some major divine or magical event in the past which has drawn ley lines to it like a magnet OR areas which have simply been improved through ritual worship of nature deities. For instance, the site of hellgate keep's destruction, the moonwells in the Moonshaes, the plains of purple dust, the site where Ra fell in the Orcgate wars, the site of the battle of Thazalhar where the Thayan Rebels turned the tide against their Mulhorandi oppressors, etc.... Powerful ley lines can support spells of up to 9th lvl. Wherever a powerful ley line is found, there can also be found a strong and a moderate ley line.
titanic - Titanic ley lines are generally found either in areas of nature that are ritually tended to keep the ley lines in balance or which had a major event in the past of significant magical impact. For instance, the Helmlands where Mystra was killed, the Urlingwood in Rashemen, the Direwood in the High Forest where the Karse Stone fell, Myrloch Vale in the Moonshaes, the Unicorn Run where Miellikki & Lurue are said to often appear, . There is little to separate what creates a powerful and titanic ley line from one another at a glance, however, titanic ley lines are typically longer lasting, whereas powerful ley lines tend to degrade as time passes and lack of magical tending of the area leads to bleed off of the mystical energies. This is typically due to the fact that titanic ley lines see more devoted tending by those who seek to understand the power behind ley lines themselves and how they may be coerced into new functions. Powerful ley lines can support spells of up to 9th lvl. Wherever a powerful ley line is found, there can also be found a strong and a moderate ley line.
Ley Line Taint - More powerful ley lines can become tainted by the factors that saw their creation. For instance, the site of a major battle may bear a death taint. The site where a deity trod may bear a life taint. Areas of profound nature may reflect their surroundings by acquiring an air, earth, fire, or water taint. From a mechanical perspective, this simply opens up additional options for how a ley line may be utilized.
Ley Lines and metamagic feats - for the purposes of this, the rule in the midgard campaign setting for activating ley lines can be used. It should be noted that they types and strengths of ley lines are modified, but the general idea is the same.
Ley Lines and non-metamagic feats - Some feats bestowed by ley lines are not written up as metamagic feats. However, for the purposes of their use, they can be treated as single use additions to a spell. For instance, spell focus simple adds +1 to the DC of the spell type, so if someone were to draw upon a ley line that gives spell focus for the spell type he's casting, he'd simply add +1 to its DC. Spell Penetration works similarly. In the case of reserve feats, the character draws upon the ley line and is treated as having the reserve feat for the next 10 minutes (note, it should be stressed to compare the power of reserve feats before adding new ones to ley lines, the ones chosen for addition are fairly low powered). Before or after 10 minutes, said reserve feat could be renewed (so if someone were depending on aquatic breath, for instance, they could renew before it runs out).
Weak Ley Line Feat List
1. extend spell
2. silent spell
3. nonlethal substitution (complete arcane)
4. sculpt spell (complete arcane)
5. eschew materials
6. spell penetration
7. spell focus (abjuration)
8. spell focus (divination)
9. spell focus (necromancy)
10. bonus caster level (+1 caster level)
Moderate Ley Line Feat List
1. enlarge spell
2. still spell
3. transdimensional spell (complete arcane)
4. retributive spell (complete mage)
5. smiting spell (PH2)
6. Lingering spell (Champions of Ruin)
7. Spell focus (conjuration)
8. Spell focus (evocation)
9. Spell focus (enchantment/charm)
10. Spell focus (illusion)
11. Spell focus (transmutation)
12. Choose from weak ley line list
Strong Ley Line Feat List
1. empower spell
2. explosive spell (complete arcane)
3. split ray (complete arcane)
4. reach spell (complete divine)
5. ocular spell (lords of madness)
6. magic sensitive <reserve feat> (complete mage)
7. tainted ley line ( roll 1d6 to determine if death, air, earth, fire, water, life or DM's choice)
8. Choose from weak or moderate ley line list
Powerful Ley Line Feat List
1. maximize spell
2. chain spell (complete arcane)
3. Repeat spell (complete arcane)
4. Delay spell (complete arcane)
5. Metamagic School Focus (roll 1d8 to determine school, abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, transmutation)
6. Bane magic (heroes of horror) - (roll 1d10 to determine if aberrations, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, giants, magical beasts, oozes, outsiders, or undead)
7. Greater Spell Focus (roll 1d8 to determine school, abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, transmutation)
8. Choose from weak, moderate, or strong ley line list
Titanic Ley Line Feat List
1. Quicken Spell
2. Twin Spell
3. Improved Metamagic (epic)
4. Epic Spell Focus (roll 1d8 to determine school, abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, transmutation)
5. Greater Spell Penetration
6. Tainted Ley Line ( roll 1d6 to determine if death, air, earth, fire, water, life or DM's choice)
7. Choose 2 entries from weak, moderate or strong ley line lists
8. Choose from powerful ley line list
Death Ley Line Feat List
Strong
1. violate spell (book of vile darkness)
2. enervate spell (libris mortis)
3. fell drain (libris mortis)
4. Choose from amongst Death Ley Line Feat List
Titanic
1. Fell animate (libris mortis)
2. Reaping Spell (champions of ruin)
Air Ley Line Feat List
Strong
1. hurricane breath <reserve feat> (complete mage)
2. wind-guided arrows <reserve feat> (complete mage)
3. energy substitution - electricity (complete arcane)
4. Choose from amongst Air Ley Line Feat List
Titanic
1. Energy Admixture - electricity
Earth Ley Line Feat List
Strong
1. earth bound spell (Player's Handbook 2)
2. clutch of earth <reserve feat> (complete mage)
3. energy substitution - acid (complete arcane)
4. Choose from amongst Earth Ley Line Feat List
Titanic
1. Energy Admixture - acid
Fire Ley Line Feat List
Strong
1. blistering spell (Player's Handbook 2)
2. searing spell (sandstorm)
3. energy substitution - fire (complete arcane)
4. Choose from amongst Fire Ley Line Feat List
Titanic
1. Energy Admixture - fire
Water Ley Line Feat List
Strong
1. flashfrost spell (Player's Handbook 2)
2. aquatic breath <reserve feat> (complete mage)
3. energy substitution - cold (complete arcane)
4. Piercing cold (frostburn)
Titanic
1. Energy Admixture - cold
Life Ley Line Feat List
Strong
1. energize spell (libris mortis)
2. augment healing (complete divine)
3. consecrate spell (book of exalted deeds)
4. Choose from amongst Life Ley Line Feat List
Titanic
1. Purify Spell (book of exalted deeds)
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Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Alternate Sects of Wychlaran
