New Expert Class: Golem Master

[Baghtu]

I have created a new expert class for mages. I love the concept of golem masters and golem creators. This idea I have pulled from the Arcanist expert class, already published on this forum, including a very nice ability named "Familiar". This ability works just as Animal Partner or Personal Liuntenant, but for Spellcasting feats.

So, first of all I need to create a feat that doesn't exist: Golem Partner feat. This works just like animal partner feat, but for spellcasting feats instead of terrain feats. I could have introduced it as an ability on the expert class, but I thought it was better to follow the same pattern than the beastmaster.

I would like to have you judge this class so, if you think it is nice and equilibrated, I will present it to my game master and play it. I currently play a level 2 wizard on a campaign that will go as long as up to level 14.

So here it goes. Be nice

Golem Mater (Expert)
The Golem Master is a mage that owns Golems. He may be a scholar whose house is protected by his Golem, he may run a magic workshop where the Golem watches over the warehouse or he may be an adventurer whose companion, the Golem, takes on all the physical side of fighting.
Party Role: Wildcard. As a wizard, the variety of spells can give a wide range of functionalities within the party. Also, the help of a Large and strong Golem will give the party a good fighter partner.

Class Features

Requirements: Sorcery campaign quality, Inteligence 14+, Spellcasting 6+, Crafting (Stone) 6+, 2 Studies (one must be “Constructs”), Golem Partner feat

Favored Attributes: Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma.

Caster: each level in this class increases your casting level by one.

Class Skills: bluff, Crafting, Impress, Intimidate, Investigate, Medicine, Notice, Prestidigitation, Resolve, Search, Sense Motive, Tactics.

Skill Points: 8 + Int Mod per level.

Vitality: 6 + Com modifier per level.

Core Ability

Golem Kin: when you spend one action dice to boost an action of your Golem you will add two dice as bonus.

Class Abilities:

Superior Golem I: At level 1, your Golem Partner max. XP incresases by 30 points. Superior Golem II: At level 5, your Golem Partner max. XP increases by another 10 points.
Superior Golem III: At level 9, your Golem Partner max. XP increases by another 10 points.

Circle of Power I: At level 2, you may cast level 1 and lower spells you know.
Circle of Power II: At level 4, you may cast level 1 and lower spells you know.
Circle of Power III: At level 6, you may cast level 1 and lower spells you know.
Circle of Power IV: At level 8, you may cast level 1 and lower spells you know.
Circle of Power V: At level 10, you may cast level 1 and lower spells you know.

Golem Sinapsis: At level 4, at the start of each round, you may give an adjacent Golem Partner one of your half actions or vice-versa.

Life Bond: At level 7, as a one full round action, you may transfer up to ½ your remaining vitality points to the Golem Partner or vice-versa.

Red In Stone Fist: At level 8, so long as your Golem Partner can see or hear you, it costs you 1 fewer action dice to activate its critical hits (min. 0).

BAB: +0 to +5
Fort: +0 to +3
Ref: +2 to +3
Will: +2 to +7
Def: +0 to +4
Init: +1 to +6
Lifestyle: +1 to +5
Legend: +1 to +8
SP: 2 per level

[tenebrae]

Hmm.. the Gamebreaker (level 10 ability) is hardly gamebreaking

From memory, expert classes shouldn't get Circle of Power I until 3rd level, to make it actually 'cost' something compared to just coninuing in their casting class. This is usually combined with a level 1 "you can cast spells from the following 2 schools. If you could already do that, you don't lose SP when you fail with these spells" thing.

Really, I don't see why the Mage couldn't just take an Unborn Personal Lieutenant. It's not a bad class, but I just don't see a need to devote 10 levels to the concept.

[Sletchman]

These are just in the order I thought of them:

1) It doesn't follow the standard skeleton for expert classes, for some information on that click here.

2) Circle of Power should fit into the "C" slot for expert classes.

3) You don't have a "game breaker" or "capstone" ability - at level 10 all expert classes gain a unique ability that is the summation of the class.

4) Personally, I don't think you need to invent a whole new feat.  Change the pre-reqs to require Personal Lieutennant, and have the first level ability make Spellcasting feats count as Style feats for XP purposes.

5) You should make the class distinct, as opposed to it seeming like you want the best of the beastmaster, combined with a full spell caster.

Just as an example, here's how I'd structure the idea [just off the top of my head, and will probably need some tweaking].

Man and Machine: When you spend one or more action dice to boost your Personal Lieutennant's check, you gain the same bonus on your next spellcasting check.

Golem Bond I: Your Personal Lieutennant gains the Construct type for free. Further, your spellcasting feats now count as style feats when determining your Golem's XP value
Golem Bond II: Your Golem's maximum xp increases by 20xp, and you may split your total XP among 2 golems.
Golem Bond III: Your Golem's maximum xp increases by 20xp [total increase of 40], and you may split your total among 3 golems.
Bonus Feat: You gain a bonus Style or Gear feat at the listed levels.
Circle of Power: You can cast this level of spell.
Stoneweaver: Your golems are affected normally by any Cure Wounds spell you cast.
Arcane Bond: When you are affected by a spell, you may choose to have any of your Golems within 50ft affected by the same spell.
Personal Protector: When you are adjacent to your Golem, you may choose to have it recieve half of any damage you suffer, its Damage Reduction, if any, does not apply to this transferred damage.
Conduit of Stone: Once per round, when your golem successfully hits with a natural attack, you may cast a spell at the target of its attack as a free action.  For the purposes of range the Golem counts as the point of origin of the spell and the spell must have a casting time of 1 round or less.

Core: Man and Machine
1: Golem Bond I.
2: Bonus Feat.
3: Circle of Power I.
4: Golem Bond II. Stoneweaver.
5: Circle of Power II.
6: Arcane Bond.
7: Bonus Feat. Circle of Power III.
8: Golem Bond III. Personal Protector.
9: Circle of Power IV.
10: Conduit of Stone.


Hope something there was useful.

[Baghtu]

wow!!!

This is great. Thanks for the tips. I will go through the expert class skeleton design, which I hadn't read before. Not only the "power" or design, but I appreciate the ideas given.

In a few days I will try to re-post the class again.

Thanks again,

Bag.

[Baghtu]

I am trying to find out exactly where to read about the "standard skeleton" for expert classes. But I can't seem to find it. Please, any help about where exactly on the web or in the book I can find this?

[Sletchman]

I had a link in my above post, but it probably got lost, here it is again: Another Link - that section of the wiki also has a few tips on where to place certain abilities and balance considerations.  The most important thing to remember is that class creation is as much an art as a science, if not more so, you can't just plug in X + Y and get something that works well.

Any other questions, throw them in this thread, I spent entirely too much time procrastinating on this forum, when I should be working on my assignments.

(click to show/hide)

12 + Con modifier vitality = 8 class skills = 4 + Int modifier skill points per level.
9 + Con modifier vitality = 10 class skills = 6 + Int modifier skill points per level.
6 + Con modifier vitality = 12 class skills = 8 + Int modifier skill points per level.

Level based values.
Each standard class has 8 progressions: BAB, Fort save, Reflex save, Will save, Defence, Initiative, gear stat 1 (Wealth in SC, Lifestyle in FC) & gear stat 2 (Gear Picks in SC, Legend in FC). Some classes have a 9th progression, some form of power point (currently limited to Spell Points in both systems). You have 8 design points to spread between these 8 or 9 progressions, each of which can have a value of 0, 1 or 2 points.

2 points = high progression.
1 point = medium progression.
0 points = low progression.

Expert Classes (ExC)

Requirements.
These tend to be balanced to a point formula -- look at some published examples to get a feel of what adds up. Any character option can be a valid requirement -- feats, species, skill ranks, save bonus, interests are all fair game, as are origin or class abilities if they really fit the concept and aren't overly restrictive.

For instance, Favoured Foe is currently only available via the Ranger specialty and is thus far too restrictive for an Expert class. Uncanny Dodge however is offered by enough classes to be a suitable if slightly unusual requirement.

A good rule of thumb when considering requirements is that if someone taking levels in the ExC would be insane not to have the option then they should probably need it before taking levels. If you can use the ExC to build upon the mechanics of that option then so much the better.

Class Abilities
The abilities of every expert class are constructed around a uniform skeleton.

Expert class skeleton

1: A. Core.
2: B1.
3: C1.
4: D1. E.
5: C2.
6: F.
7: B2. C3.
8: D2. G.
9: C4.
10: H.