BIG IDEA - symbiont-based class [Archive] - Wizards Community

BIG IDEA - symbiont-based class [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
plaguewraith
01-28-08, 09:02 PM i was thinking, what would you do to make a symbiont class, and not just a PrC, a base class. they have a race for it so why not a base class that uses symbionts. in drawing up the idea but i could use some suggestions.

for any that dont know, symbionts are introduced in the ECS and expanded upon in the MoE book
plaguewraith
01-28-08, 09:39 PM Aberrant

Level BAB Fort Ref Will max symbionts 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Special
1st +0 +2 +0 +2 - - - - - - symbiont mastery, Generate symbiont
2nd +1 +3 +0 +3 - - - - - - augment symbiont
3rd +2 +3 +1 +3 - - - - - - weapon focus(symbiont)
4th +3 +4 +1 +4 - 1 - - - - augment symbiont, spells
5th +3 +4 +1 +4 - 2 - - - - aberrant armor +1
6th +4 +5 +2 +5 - 2 - - - - augment symbiont
7th +5 +5 +2 +5 - 3 - - - - symbiont affinity
8th +6/+1 +6 +2 +6 - 3 1 - - - augment symbiont
9th +6/+1 +6 +3 +6 1 3 2 - - - symbiont synthesis, aberrant armor +2
10th +7/+2 +7 +3 +7 1 4 2 - - - augment symbiont
11th +8/+3 +7 +3 +7 1 4 3 1 - - beyond humanity(light fortification)
12th +9/+4 +8 +4 +8 2 4 3 2 - - augment symbiont
13th +9/+4 +8 +4 +8 2 4 3 2 - - aberrant armor +3
14th +10/+5 +9 +4 +9 2 4 4 3 1 - augment symbiont
15th +11/+6/+1 +9 +5 +9 3 4 4 3 2 - beyond humanity(alien mind)
16th +12/+7/+2 +10 +5 +10 3 4 4 3 2 - augment symbiont
17th +12/+7/+2 +10 +5 +10 3 4 4 4 3 1 aberrant armor +4
18th +13/+8/+3 +11 +6 +11 4 4 4 4 3 2 augment symbiont
19th +14/+9/+4 +11 +6 +11 4 4 4 4 3 2 beyond humanity(fast healing 1)
20th +15/+10/+5 +12 +6 +12 4 4 4 4 4 3 augment symbiont, aberrant transformation

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d8

Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge(arcana/dungeoneering/the planes), Listen, Move Silently, Search, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival
4 + Int modifier (x4 at 1st level)

Wpn/Arm Prof: Aberrants are proficient with all simple weapons, with light and medium armor, and with shields (except tower shields)

Symbiont Mastery: an aberrant gains symbiont mastery as a bonus feat at 1st level.

Generate Symbiont(Ex): an aberrant begins play with a symbiont generated from his own body. an aberrant can choose from the following list: crawling gauntlet, throwing scarab, or living leather*. these symbionts are completely under the aberrants control, he never needs to make a will save to control a generated symbiont. if an aberrant loses his symbiont, he can regrow a new one over the course of 1d6 days. if the symbiont he previously generated still lives when he generates a new one, the old one dies and is reincarnated into the new one.
as an aberrant increases in level he can create new(as shown on the table below) and more(as shown on the table above) symbionts. any change to a symbiont has no effect on other symbionts he may have generated.

Level Choices
1st crawling gauntlet, living
leather, throwing scarab
4th stormstalk, winter cyst,
acidmaw*, pyro glove*,
living bracer*
8th spellwurm, tentacle whip,
war helm*
13th tongue worm, razor cyst*,
stonewright*
18th living breastplate, sky
razor*
*my personal creation coming soon

augment symbiont(Ex): beginning at 2nd level, an aberrant gains the ability to augment his symbiontsor himself with the following traits:
elemental strike: the symbiont deals half its damage as energy damage of the aberrant's choice.
elemental resistance: the symbiont grants resistance 5 of a chosen energy type to the aberrant. an aberrant may choose this augmentation multiple times. its effects stack.
symbiont specialization: the symbiont deals extra damage equal to the aberrants Con mod.
defensive symbiont: the symbiont grants the aberrant a +1 shield bonus to AC. an aberrant may choose this augmentation multiple times. its effects stack.
symbiotic healing: the aberrant can heal a character of 1d6 points of hp damage with a touch a number of times per day equal to 1/4 the the aberrant's aberrant level(min 1). an aberrant may choose this augmentation multiple times. each time this augmentation is taken, the damage healed is increased by 1d6.
*i'd like some suggestions for other augmentations.

Weapon Focus(Symbiont): at 3rd level, an aberrant gains weapon focus with all his offensive symbionts.

Spells: Beginning at 4th level, an aberrant gains the ability to cast a small number of arcane spells, which are drawn from the aberrant spell list. A aberrant must choose and prepare his spells in advance.
To prepare or cast a spell, an aberrant must have an Int score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a ranger’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the aberrant’s Int modifier.
Like other spellcasters, an aberrant can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on the table above. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Int score.
An aberrant prepares and casts spells the way a cleric does, though he cannot lose a prepared spell to cast a cure spell in its place. An aberrant may prepare and cast any spell on the aberrant spell list, provided that he can cast spells of that level, but he must choose which spells to prepare during his daily meditation.
Through 3rd level, an aberrant has no caster level. At 4th level and higher, his caster level is one-half his ranger level.

Aberrant Armor(Ex): at 5th level, an aberrant's body begins the proccess of becoming an aberration. at 5th level the aberrant gains a +1 natural armor bonus, this bonus increases by 1 for every 4 aberrant levels he obtains past 5th level.

Symbiont Affinity(Ex): Upon attaining 7th level, an aberrant's affinity for symbionts extends to the point wear the symbionts can no longer be attacked seperately from the aberrant controlling them. also, an aberrant no longer takes damage from attaching or removing a symbiont.

Symbiont Synthesis(Ex): at 9th level, the symbionts an aberrant's symbionts are no longer seperate entities, but a permanent part of the aberrant's body. an aberrant can have a number of symbionts synthesized at a time as indicated on the table above (under max symbionts). at any time, an aberrant may choose to change one of his synthesized symbionts to another, this proccess takes 1d4+2 days to complete. a synthesized symbiont is much like a graft and cannot be removed upon the aberrants death.

Beyond Humanity(Ex): Upon attaining 11th level, an aberrant begins to truly display his aberration transformation. at 11th level, an aberrant gains light fortification (as the armor enhancement). at 15th level, he gains an alien mind giving him a +4 bonus on Will saves against enchantments. at 19th level, an aberrant gains fast healing 1.

Aberrant Transformation(Ex): Upon attaining 20th level, an aberrant becomes an aberration. he gains darkvision out to 60ft, gains medium fortification(as the armor enhancement; this replaces the light fortification from beyond humanity), and he can create a burst of aberrant energy that deals 20d6 points of damage to all enemies within a 20ft radius as a spell-like ability once per day.
Neraagile
01-29-08, 02:12 AM O.o thats sooo cool....
Purple Yin
01-29-08, 09:41 AM Creating symbionts requires quite advanced transmutations, not something you can do when your peers are still struggling with cantrips.

I suppose it sould work from 1st lvl if part of the flavour involved being 'augmented' with some kind of symbiont seed, that allowed you to grow symbionts- perhaps if it acted as a profane womb to gestate your symbionts.

Also, looking through the abilities list, you dont seem to unlock new abilities as you progress, so you need something to stop players just taking a 1lvl dip into it to gain symbiont mastery, and a free magic item.
LoneFlame
01-29-08, 11:06 AM Creating symbionts requires quite advanced transmutations, not something you can do when your peers are still struggling with cantrips.
I have made & am refining(I'm getting really close to making it balanced) a base class that create life, so that's not necessarily true.

More importantly, you don't have to make a symbiont to use one.
Purple Yin
01-29-08, 12:18 PM More importantly, you don't have to make a symbiont to use one.

no, but 'generate symbiont' certainly gives the impression that that's what it does.
LoneFlame
01-29-08, 02:46 PM Good point. But, if that's the only magical thing you do & the end product starts off weak, then it shouldn't be a problem(see Magic of Incarnum).
plaguewraith
01-29-08, 05:19 PM can you give some constructive ideas for this class?

any way, im back to working on the class, and the Generate symbiont ability is almost identicle to a half-blood's personal symbiont.
plaguewraith
02-01-08, 05:57 PM finished for now
plaguewraith
02-06-08, 05:39 PM i still need ideas and i'd like to know if it's balanced or not.
Neraagile
02-06-08, 06:53 PM This is really interesting.... could you put up a list with all the Symbyonents?
But this really looks more like a PrC than a base (though 15 levels would probably be the necessary ammount of levels for it to not get cramped)
plaguewraith
02-07-08, 04:24 PM This is really interesting.... could you put up a list with all the Symbyonents?
But this really looks more like a PrC than a base (though 15 levels would probably be the necessary ammount of levels for it to not get cramped)

actually it already is a 5-level PrC called the impure prince. anyway the full list is in the description plus a few custom ones
CitiesxOfxThexNight
02-10-08, 01:07 PM Would like to see the symbiont that you created! :D
plaguewraith
02-10-08, 02:03 PM Would like to see the symbiont that you created! :D

working on them currently, should get them in 3-7 days (it takes a while even with an example to go by)
plaguewraith
02-19-08, 08:13 AM the symbionts are taking longer than i thought so hold for a while longer

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
plaguewraith 01-28-08, 09:02 PM	i was thinking, what would you do to make a symbiont class, and not just a PrC, a base class. they have a race for it so why not a base class that uses symbionts. in drawing up the idea but i could use some suggestions. for any that dont know, symbionts are introduced in the ECS and expanded upon in the MoE book
plaguewraith 01-28-08, 09:39 PM	Aberrant Level BAB Fort Ref Will max symbionts 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Special 1st +0 +2 +0 +2 - - - - - - symbiont mastery, Generate symbiont 2nd +1 +3 +0 +3 - - - - - - augment symbiont 3rd +2 +3 +1 +3 - - - - - - weapon focus(symbiont) 4th +3 +4 +1 +4 - 1 - - - - augment symbiont, spells 5th +3 +4 +1 +4 - 2 - - - - aberrant armor +1 6th +4 +5 +2 +5 - 2 - - - - augment symbiont 7th +5 +5 +2 +5 - 3 - - - - symbiont affinity 8th +6/+1 +6 +2 +6 - 3 1 - - - augment symbiont 9th +6/+1 +6 +3 +6 1 3 2 - - - symbiont synthesis, aberrant armor +2 10th +7/+2 +7 +3 +7 1 4 2 - - - augment symbiont 11th +8/+3 +7 +3 +7 1 4 3 1 - - beyond humanity(light fortification) 12th +9/+4 +8 +4 +8 2 4 3 2 - - augment symbiont 13th +9/+4 +8 +4 +8 2 4 3 2 - - aberrant armor +3 14th +10/+5 +9 +4 +9 2 4 4 3 1 - augment symbiont 15th +11/+6/+1 +9 +5 +9 3 4 4 3 2 - beyond humanity(alien mind) 16th +12/+7/+2 +10 +5 +10 3 4 4 3 2 - augment symbiont 17th +12/+7/+2 +10 +5 +10 3 4 4 4 3 1 aberrant armor +4 18th +13/+8/+3 +11 +6 +11 4 4 4 4 3 2 augment symbiont 19th +14/+9/+4 +11 +6 +11 4 4 4 4 3 2 beyond humanity(fast healing 1) 20th +15/+10/+5 +12 +6 +12 4 4 4 4 4 3 augment symbiont, aberrant transformation Alignment: Any Hit Die: d8 Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge(arcana/dungeoneering/the planes), Listen, Move Silently, Search, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival 4 + Int modifier (x4 at 1st level) Wpn/Arm Prof: Aberrants are proficient with all simple weapons, with light and medium armor, and with shields (except tower shields) Symbiont Mastery: an aberrant gains symbiont mastery as a bonus feat at 1st level. Generate Symbiont(Ex): an aberrant begins play with a symbiont generated from his own body. an aberrant can choose from the following list: crawling gauntlet, throwing scarab, or living leather. these symbionts are completely under the aberrants control, he never needs to make a will save to control a generated symbiont. if an aberrant loses his symbiont, he can regrow a new one over the course of 1d6 days. if the symbiont he previously generated still lives when he generates a new one, the old one dies and is reincarnated into the new one. as an aberrant increases in level he can create new(as shown on the table below) and more(as shown on the table above) symbionts. any change to a symbiont has no effect on other symbionts he may have generated. Level Choices 1st crawling gauntlet, living leather, throwing scarab 4th stormstalk, winter cyst, acidmaw, pyro glove, living bracer 8th spellwurm, tentacle whip, war helm* 13th tongue worm, razor cyst, stonewright 18th living breastplate, sky razor* my personal creation coming soon augment symbiont(Ex): beginning at 2nd level, an aberrant gains the ability to augment his symbiontsor himself with the following traits: elemental strike: the symbiont deals half its damage as energy damage of the aberrant's choice. elemental resistance: the symbiont grants resistance 5 of a chosen energy type to the aberrant. an aberrant may choose this augmentation multiple times. its effects stack. symbiont specialization: the symbiont deals extra damage equal to the aberrants Con mod. defensive symbiont: the symbiont grants the aberrant a +1 shield bonus to AC. an aberrant may choose this augmentation multiple times. its effects stack. symbiotic healing: the aberrant can heal a character of 1d6 points of hp damage with a touch a number of times per day equal to 1/4 the the aberrant's aberrant level(min 1). an aberrant may choose this augmentation multiple times. each time this augmentation is taken, the damage healed is increased by 1d6. i'd like some suggestions for other augmentations. Weapon Focus(Symbiont): at 3rd level, an aberrant gains weapon focus with all his offensive symbionts. Spells: Beginning at 4th level, an aberrant gains the ability to cast a small number of arcane spells, which are drawn from the aberrant spell list. A aberrant must choose and prepare his spells in advance. To prepare or cast a spell, an aberrant must have an Int score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a ranger’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the aberrant’s Int modifier. Like other spellcasters, an aberrant can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on the table above. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Int score. An aberrant prepares and casts spells the way a cleric does, though he cannot lose a prepared spell to cast a cure spell in its place. An aberrant may prepare and cast any spell on the aberrant spell list, provided that he can cast spells of that level, but he must choose which spells to prepare during his daily meditation. Through 3rd level, an aberrant has no caster level. At 4th level and higher, his caster level is one-half his ranger level. Aberrant Armor(Ex): at 5th level, an aberrant's body begins the proccess of becoming an aberration. at 5th level the aberrant gains a +1 natural armor bonus, this bonus increases by 1 for every 4 aberrant levels he obtains past 5th level. Symbiont Affinity(Ex): Upon attaining 7th level, an aberrant's affinity for symbionts extends to the point wear the symbionts can no longer be attacked seperately from the aberrant controlling them. also, an aberrant no longer takes damage from attaching or removing a symbiont. Symbiont Synthesis(Ex): at 9th level, the symbionts an aberrant's symbionts are no longer seperate entities, but a permanent part of the aberrant's body. an aberrant can have a number of symbionts synthesized at a time as indicated on the table above (under max symbionts). at any time, an aberrant may choose to change one of his synthesized symbionts to another, this proccess takes 1d4+2 days to complete. a synthesized symbiont is much like a graft and cannot be removed upon the aberrants death. Beyond Humanity(Ex): Upon attaining 11th level, an aberrant begins to truly display his aberration transformation. at 11th level, an aberrant gains light fortification (as the armor enhancement). at 15th level, he gains an alien mind giving him a +4 bonus on Will saves against enchantments. at 19th level, an aberrant gains fast healing 1. Aberrant Transformation(Ex): Upon attaining 20th level, an aberrant becomes an aberration. he gains darkvision out to 60ft, gains medium fortification(as the armor enhancement; this replaces the light fortification from beyond humanity), and he can create a burst of aberrant energy that deals 20d6 points of damage to all enemies within a 20ft radius as a spell-like ability once per day.
Neraagile 01-29-08, 02:12 AM	O.o thats sooo cool....
Purple Yin 01-29-08, 09:41 AM	Creating symbionts requires quite advanced transmutations, not something you can do when your peers are still struggling with cantrips. I suppose it sould work from 1st lvl if part of the flavour involved being 'augmented' with some kind of symbiont seed, that allowed you to grow symbionts- perhaps if it acted as a profane womb to gestate your symbionts. Also, looking through the abilities list, you dont seem to unlock new abilities as you progress, so you need something to stop players just taking a 1lvl dip into it to gain symbiont mastery, and a free magic item.
LoneFlame 01-29-08, 11:06 AM	Creating symbionts requires quite advanced transmutations, not something you can do when your peers are still struggling with cantrips. I have made & am refining(I'm getting really close to making it balanced) a base class that create life, so that's not necessarily true. More importantly, you don't have to make a symbiont to use one.
Purple Yin 01-29-08, 12:18 PM	More importantly, you don't have to make a symbiont to use one. no, but 'generate symbiont' certainly gives the impression that that's what it does.
LoneFlame 01-29-08, 02:46 PM	Good point. But, if that's the only magical thing you do & the end product starts off weak, then it shouldn't be a problem(see Magic of Incarnum).
plaguewraith 01-29-08, 05:19 PM	can you give some constructive ideas for this class? any way, im back to working on the class, and the Generate symbiont ability is almost identicle to a half-blood's personal symbiont.
plaguewraith 02-01-08, 05:57 PM	finished for now
plaguewraith 02-06-08, 05:39 PM	i still need ideas and i'd like to know if it's balanced or not.
Neraagile 02-06-08, 06:53 PM	This is really interesting.... could you put up a list with all the Symbyonents? But this really looks more like a PrC than a base (though 15 levels would probably be the necessary ammount of levels for it to not get cramped)
plaguewraith 02-07-08, 04:24 PM	This is really interesting.... could you put up a list with all the Symbyonents? But this really looks more like a PrC than a base (though 15 levels would probably be the necessary ammount of levels for it to not get cramped) actually it already is a 5-level PrC called the impure prince. anyway the full list is in the description plus a few custom ones
CitiesxOfxThexNight 02-10-08, 01:07 PM	Would like to see the symbiont that you created! :D
plaguewraith 02-10-08, 02:03 PM	Would like to see the symbiont that you created! :D working on them currently, should get them in 3-7 days (it takes a while even with an example to go by)
plaguewraith 02-19-08, 08:13 AM	the symbionts are taking longer than i thought so hold for a while longer