[Class] Black Mage

[God_of_Awesome]

Black Mage Alt: Evoker, Navitamancer, Energomancer, Warlock
"Eat THUNDER BALL you old fucks!"

This character is a test of two things: My Path Mechanic and whether or not a blaster focused mage works.

There are those who gave themselves to dark, black beings, of chaos, of evil, of chaotic evil. And as such implies, you are dedicated to a philosophy with no room for subtelty. Every problem is solved by its utter eradication.

Playing A Black Mage: It is with your hate and your rage with which you end the life of another. Give in to the Charisma score and let it give you strength! Few of your powers are all that discriminatory, so you do not want to be firing into a melee nor do you wish to be a melee yourself. Locate a nice patch of enemies that don't include your friends, get far away from it and FIRE AWAY. Unless your inclined to be a team killer then skip the addend to the first step.

Starting Age: As Sorcerer
Starting Equipment: As Monk
Alignment: As Warlock

Hit Die: As Wizard
BAB: Poor
Will: Poor
Fort: Poor
Reflex: Poor

Skills Points: As Barbarian
Class Skills: Concentration (Con), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Knowledge (The Planes) (Int), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Use Magic Device (Cha)

1: The Black Path, Magic Missile
2: Time Control
3: Rage, Sleep
4: Many Magic Missiles
5: Path Upgrade
6: Mega Magic Missile
7: Confusion
8: -
9: Mass Rage, Deep Slumber
10: Path Upgrade, Spell Swap
11: Mass Time Control
12: -
13: Mass Confusion
14: -
15: Path Upgrade, Spell Swap
16: -
17: Warp
18: -
19: Spell Swap
20: Hadoken, Path Upgrade

Class Features

Proficiency: The Black Mage is proficient with all simple weapons.

The Black Path: The Black Mage has access to the Path of Fire, the Path of Thunder and the Path of Blizzard (described below). At 5th level and every five levels after, he may upgrade his access to one of the paths. You may not upgrade any path to expert level until all others are in advance. To cast a spell, the Black Mage must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a Black Mage’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the Black Mage’s Charisma modifier. You know all the spells of your spell level or less and cast spontaneously. Your spell level progresses at the same rate as the Sorcerer. All spells are considered Evocation spells unless otherwise noted.

Magic Missile: The Black Mage may add magic missile to his spells known. Treat it as part of the path in which he has the highest level access to.

Time Control: At 2nd level, the Black Mage may add haste, slow and hold person to his spells known. Treat is as part of the path in which he has the lowest level access too. At 11th level, treat those spells as part of the path in which he has the highest level access too. Add mass hold person to his spells known. Treat is as part of the path in which he has the lowest level access to.

Rage: At 3rd level, the Black Mage may add rage to his spells known. Treat is as part of the path in which he has the lowest level access too. At 9th level, treat is part of the path in which he has the highest level access to.

Sleep: At 3rd level, the Black Mage may add sleep to his spells known. Treat it as part of the path in which he has the lowest level access too. At 9th level, treat it as part of the path in which he has the highest level access to. Add deep slumber to his spells known. Treat it as part of the path in which he has the lowest level access to.

Many Magic Missiles: At 4th level, the Black Mage may add many magic missiles to his spells known. This functions like magic missile, except it has double the number of missiles. Treat it as part of the path in which he has the lowest level access to.

Mega Magic Missile: At 6th level, the Black Mage may add mega magic missile to his spells known. This functions like magic missile, but it fires a single missile that deals triple the combined damage of all the missiles in a regular magic missile spell.

Confusion: At 7th level, the Black Mage may add confusion to his spells known. Treat is as part of the path in which he has the lowest level access to. At 13th level, treat is as part of the path in which he has the highest level access to.

Spell Swap: At 10th level, the Black Mage may swap out spells of spell level 2 or lower for spells of spell level 3 or lower. At 15th level, he may swap out spells of spell level 3 and lower for spells of spell level 5 and lower. At 19th level, he may swap out spells of spell level 5 or lower for spells of spell level 7 or lower.

Warp: At 17th level, the Black Mage may add teleport, dimension door, plane shift and gate (For travel only) to his spells known. Treat them as part of the path in which he has the lowest level access to.

Hadoken: The Black Mage knows the most powerful black magic spell ever, capable of destroying the world. He wins DnD.


Path of Fire
1: Burning Hand
2: Flaming Sphere
3: Scorching Ray
4: Fire Shield (As a Fire spell)
5: Empowered
6: Delayed Blast Fireball
7: Fire Storm
8: Incediary Cloud
9: Meteor Swarm

Path of Blizzard
1: Chill Touch (As a Cold spell)
2: Freeze Arrow (As Acid Arrow but as a Cold spell)
3: Frost Bolt (As Lightning Bolt but as a Cold spell)
4: Ice Storm
5: Cone of Cold
6: Freezing Fog (As Acid Fog but as a Cold spell)
7: Freezing Sphere
8: Horrid Freeze-Dry (As Horrid Wilting but as a Cold spell)
9: Frostfell

Path of Thunder
1: Shocking Grasp
2: Shocking Ray (As Scorching Ray but as an Electricity spell)
3: Lightning Bolt
4: Lightning Trap (At Fire Trap but as an Electricity spell)
5: Call Lightning Storm
6: Chain Lighting
7: Call Thunderstorm
8: Thunderburst (As Sunburst but as an Electricity spell)
9: Storm of Vengeance

[Leress]

Overall very weak. This is just a sorcerer with only evocations. Some of the spells you get are bad (like polar ray). At 20 level you won't even care that you can cast MMM at will. The only thing you really have with this class is UMD.

[Avoraciopoctules]

If you are interested in building a damage-focused mage class, you might want to look at this class for ideas: http://www.tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=50032

[Archmage]

It's a Warmage who is somehow less versatile. And all bad saves? What for?

[God_of_Awesome]

Hm, and here I was worrying he'd be too powerful.

Alright, what I gave him Access Upgrade every 4 levels and/or take away the need to get all advanced before getting an expert so he'll be throwing around Meteor Swarms at-will sooner rather then later.

Also, I need to fill up all the dead levels. Originally he had a spell known progression to fill that up but I got rid of it when I realized he only gets 3 spells per level anyway.

[Avoraciopoctules]

A D&D PC needs to be able to do more than just throw energy damage at the opposition. There needs to be versatility and just utility in general. The Fire Mage is perhaps the best match to this, and it has several utility effects, mobility enhancers, and debuffs to choose from.

At levels 1-3, the Black Mage should be able to get by with something pretty similar to what it has already. With 3 or 4 flavors of energy damage to choose from, it could be roughly as interesting and powerful as a Barbarian or Knight. I'd probably throw in some energy-damage-based buffs to allies. Perhaps you could add (character level times d6) damage to someone else's attacks by concentrating as if you were maintaining a spell with that duration keyword. At fourth, status effects or at least spell riders of some kind should start to come in, and perhaps some spells that specifically serve as buffs/debuffs as well.

[God_of_Awesome]

And that would be something to fill in the dead levels.

Yes, you're right. And it fits perfectly with FF1 Black Mage, who had Rage, Haste and other similiar spells.

I'll get right on it.

[God_of_Awesome]

Added Time Control, Rage, Sleep, Confusion, Mass Rage, Deep Slumber, Mass Time Control, Mass Confusion, Warp and Mega Magic Missile to class features.

Fixed Path of Blizzard as Leress suggested. Filled up Path of Thunder as I meant too.

Fixed many typos.

[Avoraciopoctules]

If you are going to make Magic Missile a major part of the class, uncap it. Dealing 3d4+3 damage with a Standard Action at level 19 hurts my brain.

Thunder Sword
Transmutation [Lightning]

Level: Sor/Wiz 2
Components: V, S, F
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level)
Target: One weapon
Duration: Concentration
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

You channel magical lightning into a weapon. This adds 1d6 points of Lightning damage per caster level to its damage (if cast on a projectile weapon, the damage of the projectile attacks is boosted).

[God_of_Awesome]

If you are going to make Magic Missile a major part of the class, uncap it. Dealing 3d4+3 damage with a Standard Action at level 19 hurts my brain.

3d4+3? I'm pretty sure it's 15d4+15.

[Leress]

3d4+3? I'm pretty sure it's 15d4+15.

No, it would be 10d4+10

[Ice9]

The path system and things changing from the lowest to the highest path at certain levels makes it a bit hard to tell how many spells you actually get, and many of the spells are at odd levels (electric-damage Fireball as a 7th level spell, really?), but taking a look at level 15, you seem to get (all 3/day):

1st: Burning Hands, Chill Touch, Shocking Grasp, Magic Missile (Sleep does not count by this level)
2nd: Flaming Sphere, Freeze Arrow, Shocking Ray, Scorching Ray
3rd: Frost Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Haste, Slow, Hold Person, Rage, Fireball, Call Lightning, Thunder Ball
4th: Deep Slumber (maybe this shouldn't count either), Ice Storm, Confusion, Fire Shield (fire), Fire Shield (cold), Lightning Trap, Many Magic Missiles (assigned based on Orb of Force)
5th: Call Lightning Storm, Cone of Cold,
6th: Freezing Sphere
7th: Delayed Blast Fireball, Mass Hold Person, Fire Storm

Which amounts to a spells/day of:

Code: Select all

0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
-  12 12 27 27 6  3  9  -  -

Looks good at first, but you're actually a bit behind a Sorcerer on 5th and 6th level spells, and much more importantly, your entire spell selection is pre-assigned to spells which may be fairly useless by this level (Burning Hands, I'm looking at you).

Verdict: Needs more flexibility and some better spells, plus some extra oomph if you're really trying to make blasting worthwhile.

[Avoraciopoctules]

3d4+3? I'm pretty sure it's 15d4+15.

No, it would be 10d4+10

Whatever the answer, it seems clear that the abilities should be worded more carefully.

[God_of_Awesome]

Leress: Well, I'm pretty by that level Magic Missile is 5d4+5 so since its tripled its 15d4+15 buuuut I'll take another lookie see.

Avoracio: But perhaps you're right. I'll see to it.

Ice9: Perhaps a system to allow swapping lower level spells with higher ones?

[Leress]

Sorry I didn't see that you added another magic missile ability.

[NineInchNall]

Okay, where the eff is Stabbity Death?

[Ice9]

Ice9: Perhaps a system to allow swapping lower level spells with higher ones?

Depends on what you're trying to do with it. One way to go might be an at-will blast which is equivalent to your third-tier spells, and then just the top-level stuff as per day.

[God_of_Awesome]

And at what point would that be level appropiate? Level 15? Level 10 and upgrade it and 15?

[Ice9]

Level 5, at which point it should around a 1st-2nd level spell in effectiveness. I'm thinking either one or two spells levels behind your current maximum level of spells, and then you wouldn't bother having slots below those - at least not for blasting purposes. So by level 10, you've got 4th and 5th level slots, and your basic blast is the equivalent of a 3rd level spell.

[God_of_Awesome]

Spell Swap: At 5th level, the Black Mage may swap out spells of spell level 2 or lower for spells of spell level 3 or lower. At 10th level, he may swap out spells of spell level 3 and lower for spells of spell level 5 and lower. At 15th level, he may swap out spells of spell level 5 or lower for spells of spell level 7 or lower. At 20th level, he may swap out spells of spell level 7 or lower for spells up to spell level 9.

[God_of_Awesome]

Alright, fixed the terminology goof.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Mega Magic Missile: At 19th level, the Black Mage may add mega magic missile to his spells known.

What spell level?

It is like magic missile, except instead of multiple missiles, it has one but it does triple the amount of damage.

"This functions like Magic Missile, but it fires a single missile that deals triple the combined damage of all the missiles in a regular Magic Missile spell."

[God_of_Awesome]

Well, I figured it was obviousy 9. Do I have to specify that with all the class feature given spells or just the ones with spell I made up? Many Magic Missiles is also there. And what about ones given at level that come before their usual SL levels? I'm not sure I made any of those, but I might have to the best of my knowledge. I'd have to check.

[Ice9]

Took a look at the spell-swapping feature, and it certainly beefs things up. Here's the summary at the levels you get it:

5th Level:
3/day - 3 selected
1/day - 5 selected, Haste, Slow, Hold Person, Rage

10th Level:
3/day - 9 selected, Ice Storm, Fire Shield (2x),
1/day - 7 selected, Deep Slumber, Confusion, Many Magic Missiles, Call Lightning Storm

15th Level:
3/day - 27 selected, Freezing Sphere, Delayed Blast Fireball, Mass Hold Person, Fire Storm

So you end up with less versatility, but significantly more spells/day than a Sorcerer. Whether it makes blasting worthwhile is another question - I think the class is decently powerful now, but that's largely because you can diversify out from blasting when you start swapping your low-level spells.

[Ice9]

For assigning spell levels, I would put Many Magic Missiles at 4th level (compares evenly with Orb of Force), and Mega Magic Missile at 6th level (15d4+15 force is decent, but not that much above the Orb spells).

Also, some of the path spells don't seem to fit the level they're at, and I would replace them with something else. I'm assuming you want to stay core, but if not there are some great cold spells in It's Cold Outside.

4: Fireball
5: Fire Shield (As a Fire spell)

Fireball is not a good 4th level spell and Fire Shield is normally 4th level, so move it to 4th and put Empowered Fireball at 5th.

5: Fire Shield (As a Cold spell)
6: Cone of Cold
8: Freezing Fog (As Acid Fog but as a Cold spell)
9: Avalanche (As Incendiary Cloud but as a Cold spell)

You've got a chain of things here. Fire Shield is again, a 4th level spell. Cone of Cold is a 5th level spell and not a very good one. Acid Fog is 6th level, Incendiary Cloud is 8th level and not that great anyway. Suggestion: Cone of Cold (or Mass Fire Shield) at 5th, Freezing Fog at 6th, Horrid Wilting (call it Horrid Freeze-Dry) at 8th, something good at 9th (maybe Iceberg or Frostfell from It's Cold Outside).

4: Call Lightning
6: Lightning Trap (At Fire Trap but as an Electricity spell)
7: Thunder Ball (As Fireball but as an Electricity spell)
8: Chain Lightning
9: Call Thunder Storm (As Call Lightning Storm except add 3d6 (Or 3d10) sonic damage)

Even bigger chain - none of these spells are good at the level you're giving them, especially Thunder Ball. Suggestion: Lightning Trap at 4th, Chain Lightning at 6th, Call Thunder Storm at 7th, Thunderburst (as Sunburst but electric) at 8th, Storm of Vengeance at 9th.

It's hard to find good replacements in core only, so some of these might still be a bit puny for when you get them. But at least they should be roughly the correct levels.