Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Twylyght 07-01-07, 01:46 AM	Eldritch Balister "Bang" Eldritch energy is a raw and powerful force. Some who wield it in combat become so intoxicated with this force they become ensnared, focusing on it above all else. Walking engines of destruction able to rain death upon amies and siege fortresses to the ground. The Eldritch Balister is the incarnate of raw destructive power. Hit die: d6 Requirements To become a Eldritch Balister, a character must must meet the following conditions. Feats: Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus(Eldritch Blast). Special:Eldritch Blast(3d6), must know atleast 1 blast shape, and 1 eldritch essence invocations. Class Skills The eldritch Balister’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (The Planes) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int). Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier. Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special 1st +1 +0 +2 +0 Eldritch Volley, Blast Power 2nd +2 +0 +3 +0 Eldritch Hammer 3rd +3 +1 +3 +1 4th +4 +1 +4 +1 Eldritch Lance 5th +5 +1 +4 +1 Eldritch Beacon 6th +6 +2 +5 +2 Eldritch Cleaver 7th +7 +2 +5 +2 8th +8 +2 +6 +2 Eldritch Swarm 9th +9 +3 +6 +3 10th +10 +3 +7 +3 Eldritch Destroyer. Eldritch Volley(Su) The Eldritch Balister gains a new new Blast shape invocation. Using an eldritch blast modified with this shape invocation is a full attack action, and as such the Eldritch Balister may use her full number of attacks she would normally be able to use during a full attack, including those granted by Rapid Shot, and any Two-Weapon Fighting feats. The number of attacks you plan to make must be declared before any rolls are made, and your normal eldritch blast damage is devided between these attacks evenly, and rounded down. While you may target a given opponent with any number of shots, any applied Eldritch Essence only applies to the first succesful attack on any given opponent. Blast Power(Su) A Eldritch Balister gives up all advancement in her abilities not related to blasting, in exchange her eldritch blast is enhanced in power. At each level of the Eldritch Balister class, your eldritch blast damage increases by 1d6. In addition your Warlock and Eldritch Balister levels stack to overcome spell resistance and to determine any save DCs for your eldritch blast. Eldritch Hammer (su) The Eldritch Balister gains a new eldritch essence invocation. The eldritch energies solidify into a rough, dense, sphere as they fly towards an opponent. This blast instead deals bludgeoning damage, and ignores spell resistance. A foe struck by a eldritch hammer must succede in a fortitude save or be dazed for 1 round. Eldritch Lance (su) The Eldritch Balister gains a new eldritch essence invocation. The eldritch energies solidify and twist through the air forming a long spearlike missle. This eldritch blast instead does piercing damage, and ignores spell resistance. A foe struck by a eldritch lance must make a reflex save or be entangled for 1 round. Eldritch Beacon (su) The Eldritch Balister gains a special invocation, applying Eldritch Beacon to a eldritch blast takes up both the shape and essence slots for that blast. A Eldritch Beacon blast deals no damage, but instead leaves a invisible aura of eldritch energy around the opponent(it shows up brightly to detect magic or simular abilities). The next time you attack a that opponent, so long as its before the end of your next turn, you recieve a +4 to the attack roll and any save DC from attached essences. Eldritch Cleaver (su) The Eldritch Balister gains a new eldritch essence invocation. The eldritch energies solidify into a rapidily spinning razor sharp blade slicing towards the opponent. This blast instead deals slashing damage and ignores spell resistance. Should this blast deal enough damage to drop a foe, you may make an immediate attack on a 2nd foe adjescent to the original, this attack is at the same bonus as the one that fell the original foe. Eldritch Swarm (su) The Eldritch Balister gains a new blast shape invocation. The Eldritch Balister releases an explosion sending a swarm of miniature blast that seek out foes. Target any number of foes within range up to a number equal to you BAB(you may not target a given foe more than once) each of these foes is automatically struck by one of these mini-blast for 2d6 damage. Spell resistance applies if applicable, and as there is no chance to critical with an attack modified by this essence. Eldritch Destroyer (Su) The Eldritch Balister gains a new blast shape invocation. The ultimate achievement in her blasting arsenal, the Eldritch Balister can release a incredibly focused blast of raw edritch destruction. Activating Eldritch Destroyer, is a fullround action. A eldritch blast modified with this invocation, if it hits, deals double its normal maximum damage. This blast also deals full damage to objects. However the Eldritch Balister deals damage to herself as if hit by the normal damage of her own eldritch blast, and suffers the effect of any eldritch essence that was applied to the eldritch destroyer. In addition she may not fire another eldritch blast for 1d4 minutes.
JiCi 07-02-07, 10:45 AM	Eldritch Balister Eldritch Volley(Su) The Eldritch Balister gains a new new Blast shape invocation. Using an eldritch blast modified with this shape invocation is a full attack action, and as such the Eldritch Balister may use her full number of attacks she would normally be able to use during a full attack, including those granted by Rapid Shot, and any Two-Weapon Fighting feats. The number of attacks you plan to make must be declared before any rolls are made, and your normal eldritch blast damage is devided between these attacks evenly, and rounded down. While you may target a given opponent with any number of shots, any applied Eldritch Essence only applies to the first succesful attack on any given opponent. Blast Power(Su) A Eldritch Balister gives up all advancement in her abilities not related to blasting, in exchange her eldritch blast is enhanced in power. At each level of the Eldritch Balister class, your eldritch blast damage increases by 1d6. In addition your Warlock and Eldritch Balister levels stack to overcome spell resistance and to determine any save DCs for your eldritch blast.Hmmm... I'm having troubles with the volley. The way I see it, a warlock 10/Eldritch Ballister 10 would deal 15d6 points of damage with his blast. If your character picks up Greater Two-Weapon Fighting and Rapid Shot, he ends up with 7 attacks, each dealing 15d6 points of damage, excluding any invocation used to bolster it. What I suggest is this: You may split your eldritch blast damage among multiple targets, as long as no two are 10 ft. apart. Aside from that, looks good to me.
Twylyght 07-02-07, 12:33 PM	Hmmm... I'm having troubles with the volley. The way I see it, a warlock 10/Eldritch Ballister 10 would deal 15d6 points of damage with his blast. If your character picks up Greater Two-Weapon Fighting and Rapid Shot, he ends up with 7 attacks, each dealing 15d6 points of damage, excluding any invocation used to bolster it. What I suggest is this: You may split your eldritch blast damage among multiple targets, as long as no two are 10 ft. apart. Aside from that, looks good to me. Thanks for the feedback! The mechanic for splitting up the damage is there, infact if your not using even numbers youll do less total damage each turn than just targeting a single foe. You can however target any foe you could hit normally, and that was more the real intent on the power, hitting targets that are not close together by lowering your damage potential. If they are allready packed in tight, the other shape essences would be superior. Perhaps an example of use to show it in action. 1. You declare the number of attacks you are going to make using volley this turn, this must be done before any attacks are made. This can be any number up to the maximum attacks you could make in a full attack based on class abilities, BAB, feats, ect. You decide to use volley to make 2 attacks this round, and tell the DM your intent. 2. Then your eldritch blast damage, in this case we will use 15d6, is split between the declared number of attacks in the volley. You have declared 2 attacks so your 15d6 is devided by 2 and rounded down, each of your 2 volley attacks will deal 7d6. 3. You now take your full attack action, making 2 attack rolls. Theese can be against the same target, or multiple targets, so long as you could target them with a normal eldritch blast. Your attack rolls are made using normal rules for multiple attacks. Any target hit would suffer the 7d6 damage and any eldritch essence attached to the volley. Only the first hit on a given target if you hit it twice(or more) would apply the eldritch essense, even if it makes the save, its safe from further application of the essence effect, atleast for that round. 4. Stand back and admire your work.
JiCi 07-02-07, 08:15 PM	Oh, ok, your ability works perfectly then. Nice work
Braekor Dragonfang 07-02-07, 08:20 PM	Balister is not a word, my guess is you were looking for something akin to the word Ballista or Ballistic I suggest Arbalester :D all right, now that thats out of my system I'll take a crack at this Eldritch Hammer is cool, but kind of unbalanced. Ignoring SR is a pretty big advantage, I don't think you should add in a daze effect, especially with no other drawback. Turn it into an area blast effect of about 20ft or so, similar to a fireball spell but with no damage change In addition, I'd add a penalty of subtracting a few blast dice to use it, at least two. Eldritch Lance Same as above, I suggest turning this into a 60ft line attack, and being able to increase the range to 120ft by comboing with Eldritch Spear Eldritch Cleaver And again, as above, maybe make this a cone shaped attack Eldritch Curse Curses generally penalize enemies, not give bonuses to you. I'd suggest altering this so the damage dice loss is optional, but the target takes a -1 penalty per damage die sacrificed to all attacks, saves, and checks for 1 round per point of Cha mod you have. Blast Power yummy Eldritch Swarm This is cool, but it's way powerful and has no drawback, in fact, few of these abilities really do. The damage shouldn't stack if multiple missiles hit the target, because at 8th level, thats potentially massive damage (BAB of at least +11, so thats 22d6 each round) Eldritch Destroyer Good, the wait time makes this pretty balanced Cool class, but you need to be careful about adding a bunch of At Will abilities with little or no drawback that overshadow the initial ability, because once you hit 8th level, why wouldn't you always use swarm?
Twylyght 07-03-07, 01:48 AM	Balister is not a word, my guess is you were looking for something akin to the word Ballista or Ballistic I suggest Arbalester Actually a balister is an outdated term for crossbows, sometimes used both for the handheld or larger siege styles. Its also seems to see some use as the one who opperates said machines. Arbalester was a crossbowman, and people have a naughty habbit of making words shorter and balister is a natural step. Either way it was still in websters last time I looked. :D all right, now that thats out of my system I'll take a crack at this Eldritch Hammer is cool, but kind of unbalanced. Ignoring SR is a pretty big advantage, I don't think you should add in a daze effect, especially with no other drawback. Turn it into an area blast effect of about 20ft or so, similar to a fireball spell but with no damage change In addition, I'd add a penalty of subtracting a few blast dice to use it, at least two. Eldritch Lance Same as above, I suggest turning this into a 60ft line attack, and being able to increase the range to 120ft by comboing with Eldritch Spear Eldritch Cleaver And again, as above, maybe make this a cone shaped attack These I balanced directly against the already available Vitriolic blast available to a pure warlock. It ignores SR, changes the damage to acid, AND deals EXTRA damage automatically for several rounds after the hit with no saves. Its mimicing a conjuration effect, and ignoring SR is pretty typical, since in essence, its forming a real solid oject that does the damage instead of magical energy. I used that as a base to allow the class to cover all the basic weapon damage types so that your blast should always be usefull (oh skeletons is it? hammer time!) and traded the extra damage over rounds for 1 round weak status (or a single cleave attempt). Its worth note that theese three are eldritch essence invocations since they change the blast effects not the shapes or areas. Cones burst and chain effects are already pretty well covered by existing abilites. Eldritch Curse Curses generally penalize enemies, not give bonuses to you. I'd suggest altering this so the damage dice loss is optional, but the target takes a -1 penalty per damage die sacrificed to all attacks, saves, and checks for 1 round per point of Cha mod you have. Point seen on the name, perhaps Eldritch Beacon instead? The idea is that the character gives up all damage one round to assure a better chance to hit the next. Consider it a aim ability with a twist. It only works on one target at a time too. Also I did it as a bonus instead of a penalty, since it only help on the next attack from the character. A penalty would apply to the attacks from the rest of the party. Note that you can only use 1 type of essence on your blast at a time. Some of the options available for warlocks include negative levels, shaken, blindness, nauseation, dexterity penalties, confusion, and setting them on fire. Dazed or entangled dont seem so bad does it? Blast Power yummy indeed :) Eldritch Swarm This is cool, but it's way powerful and has no drawback, in fact, few of these abilities really do. The damage shouldn't stack if multiple missiles hit the target, because at 8th level, thats potentially massive damage (BAB of at least +11, so thats 22d6 each round) Each target you select will only be hit once, for 2d6. Granted you could deal a TOTAL of 22d6 if you hit 11 different targets, but no single one would take more than 2d6. This is more a mechanic for applying your essence invocations to multiple targets than doing damage to them. While this can target sevetral targets over a wider area than normal AoEs since they don have to be clumped together, the damage is extremely low. Compare to eldritch chain, doom, or cone, all available to a normal warlock, which hit all targets in the area AND do the full normal damage. The trick is getting creatures to bunch up so you can use those normal AoEs. Its a trade of damage for utility. This applies to Eldritch Volley too. Eldritch Destroyer Good, the wait time makes this pretty balanced Yeah this is the really big "do I dare risk using it yet?" ability. Cool class, but you need to be careful about adding a bunch of At Will abilities with little or no drawback that overshadow the initial ability, because once you hit 8th level, why wouldn't you always use swarm? In the long run, I see this class as actually alot weaker than just a core warlock in the overall sense, you miss out on a lot of good stuff if you take a full 10 in this class, including invocations higher than lesser. Eldritch blast is fun, but its not really where the warlocks strength lies. This PrC though isnt meant to compete with the warlock so much as as an option for those people who dont care about the rest of the invocations and abilities just wanted to blow stuff up. Like me. Sure a 10warlock/10Balister will have 15d6 eldritch blast... But look at how that plays out to the lost ablities from 20 levels in warlock. Thats 6d6 damage, and an extra 2 points of BAB, in exchange for 6 invocations, all access to greater and dark invocations, 3 points of dr, 4 points of fast healing, 5 points of energy resistance, and imbue item. In total, I say they get the short end of that stick.
Braekor Dragonfang 07-03-07, 01:10 PM	points taken. I forgot to look over invocations, so in retrospect the cleaver/lance/hammer seems fine Swarm: make sure it's clearly spelled out in the ability that multiple blasts don't stack or you could have a disaster on your hands :D Eldritch Beacon sounds good
Twylyght 07-03-07, 02:04 PM	ok changed it out to Eldritch beacon, and added some clarification to swarm. :)
lukelightning 07-03-07, 02:39 PM	Heh, I confused "balister" with "barrister." Fear my deadly legal blast!
Twylyght 07-20-07, 03:50 PM	Heh, I confused "balister" with "barrister." Fear my deadly legal blast! Fear the dreaded "Due Process" Invocation!
Sleepwalker13666 08-28-07, 03:13 PM	I like it, well done. Would you be interested in having this added to the tome of secrets?
Twylyght 08-28-07, 03:45 PM	I like it, well done. Would you be interested in having this added to the tome of secrets? Thank ya! :) I wouldn't mind it being added or used else where with the usual disclaimer thing about mention me somewhere and not claiming credit blah blah blah im certain weve all seen it around the boards before. I'm mostly mellow that way, I put it out here hoping others enjoy it ;)
Sleepwalker13666 08-28-07, 04:32 PM	Thank ya! :) I wouldn't mind it being added or used else where with the usual disclaimer thing about mention me somewhere and not claiming credit blah blah blah im certain weve all seen it around the boards before. I'm mostly mellow that way, I put it out here hoping others enjoy it ;) Of course, I always put the name of the author next to the submissions. Thank you for your contribution. :D