Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Arkimidies 03-09-08, 08:26 PM	How's it going all? One of my old 2nd ed DM's and I got togher and remade one of his specialty mages from back in 2nd ed, and adapted them to a PrC for 3.5. This is a first attempt for the both of us please let us know what you think. Morveth “No, that is not the way to do things around here.” As the master yells at his disciple. The master places his hand on the chest of his disciple, and all you can see is the pain filled eyes of his disciple crying to be let go. “The next time I will take all your life from you,” as removes his hand form his disciple’s chest. The student just crumples to the floor, and the disciple falls into blackness. The morveth are a class that studies the unknown, to find answer to the unknown and then apply what they have learned for the conclave’s benefit. They only share information among the conclave itself, and no other. The road to the morveth is long and hard and very strict. They are dark, cold, rule with fear, and wear gray robes. They also study anatomy to find weaknesses in their enemies, and are into world domination. BECOMING A Morveth How you would normally become a member of this prestige class. ENTRY REQUIREMENTS To qualify to become a Morveth, a character must fulfill all the following criteria: Feats: Silent Spell, Still Spell, Create Wonderous Item Skills: Heal 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 10, Spellcraft 10 Spells:Vamperic Touch Spellcasting:Able to spontaniously cast 3rd level arcane spells Alignment: Any Non-good Special: Must participate in creating their own amulet Class Skills Morveth’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are.... Concentration(CON), Craft(INT), Diplomacy(CHA), Descipher Scrip(INT), Heal(WIS), Intimidate(CHA), Knowledge(All taken separately)(INT), Spellcraft(INT), Use Magical Device(CHA) Skills Points at Each Level : 2 + int Hit Dice: d6 BAB Fort Ref Will Abilities Spell Progression 1. +0 +0 +0 +2 Amulet, Eschew Materials, Soul Fuel, Drain Essence(1/day) 2. +1 +0 +0 +3 +1 Existing Class 3. +1 +1 +1 +3 Bonus Feat 4. +2 +1 +1 +4 Drain Essence(2/day) +1 Existing Class 5. +2 +1 +1 +4 Bonus Feat 6. +3 +2 +2 +5 +1 Existing Class 7. +3 +2 +2 +5 Bonus Feat 8. +4 +2 +2 +6 +1 Existing Class 9. +4 +3 +3 +6 Bonus Feat Drain Essence(3/day) 10.+5 +3 +3 +7 +1 Existing Class Weapon Proficiencies: Morveth gains no new weapon or armor proficiencies. Class Abilities: Amulet: At first level the Morveth is tied to his amulet, as such he is able to utilize his Soul Fuel and Drain Essence ability. If someone other then the Morveth attempts to remove the amulet they receive an electric shock 1d6 damage for every level of Morveth, Reflex save (DC25) for half damage. If the Amulet is sucessfuly removed and taken more then 100’ away from the Morveth then the amulet explodes, in a 20’ radius for 3d12 points of fire damage, the person carrying the amulet at the time does not get any save, any one caught in the blast may make a reflex save (DC 25) for half damage. Soul Fuel: (Su) At first level the morveth learns how to sacrifice of himself to fuel his magic, a morveth may sacrifice two hit points per level of the Morveth class, for every two hit points sacrificed in this way they may lower the cost of applying a metamagic feat to any spell they know by one level. Eschew Materials: Due to the Morveths training they recieve the Eschew Materials feat for free at first level. Drain Essence: (Sp) The morveth gains the ability to Drain the life essence out of those around him. Through his amulet he is able to use Vamperic Touch as a spell like ability once a day at level one twice a day at level four and three times per day at level nine. Spell Casting: The characters caster level increases at every even level of the morveth class. Bonus Feat: At third level the morveth gains a bonus feat selected from any metamagic feat that he meets the prerequisites for. The morveth gains additional bonus metamagic feats at every odd level there after. EDIT: Thank you DonThelonious for your help with getting the table and formatting sorted out.
Arkimidies 03-10-08, 06:08 PM	Alright as I'm a noob to posting on these forums how do I set a functional table? Please reply in a pm with the answer so as not to flood this thread with answers.
DonThelonious 03-11-08, 03:42 AM	At the top of this forum (as well as in my signature:)) is a link to the PrC builders cheat sheet. Just quote/copy/paste/and fill in the information needed. That should help you with your class tremenously. PM me when you get it done, this class looks to be pretty flavorful and interesting.
teshen 03-11-08, 10:49 AM	. . . Requirements: Alignment: Any non-good Spellcasting: Ability to cast Vamperic Touch spontaneously. Skills: Concentration 10 Ranks, Spellcraft 10 Ranks Feats: Silent Spell, Still Spell, Eschew Materials, Craft Wondrous Item Special: Must be accepted into Morveth Society and undergo the ritual of creation for their amulet. Ok... that's four feats on a caster, which is a lot as far as that goes. It's all of your character feats if you are a non human sorcerer. You're also one feat shy of allowing a wizard to cast vampiric touch spontaneously if you use Faerun material, or was that on purpose? It should be fine, even if cost prohibitive... . Hit Dice: d6 Skills: Concentration(CON), Craft(INT), Diplomacy(CHA), Descipher Scrip(INT), Heal(WIS), Intimidate(CHA), Knowledge(All taken separately)(INT), Spellcraft(INT), Use Magical Device(CHA) Skill points: 2+INT mod per level Lv BAB Fort Ref Will Abilities Spell Progression 1 +0 +0 +0 +2 Amulet, Bonus Feat, Soul Fuel, Drain Essence(1/day) 2 +1 +0 +0 +3 - +1 Existing Class 3 +1 +1 +1 +3 Bonus Feat 4 +2 +1 +1 +4 Drain Essence(2/day) +1 Existing Class 5 +2 +1 +1 +4 Bonus Feat 6 +3 +2 +2 +5 - +1 Existing Class 7 +3 +2 +2 +5 Bonus Feat 8 +4 +2 +2 +6 - +1 Existing Class 9 +4 +3 +3 +6 Bonus Feat, Drain Essence(3/day) 10 +5 +3 +3 +7 - +1 Existing Class Interesting skills, d6 like the 'specialist' sorcerers, bad base attack, good will save... I'd say it's fine except for the half casting. Few dedicated casters will want to lose that many spell levels... especially on a sorcerer. Amulet At first level the Morveth is tied to his amulet, as such he is able to utilize his Soul Fuel and Drain Essence ability. If someone other then the Morveth attempts to remove the amulet they receive an electric shock 1d6 damage for every level of Morveth, Reflex save (DC25) for half damage. If the Amulet is sucessfuly removed and taken more then 100’ away from the Morveth then the amulet explodes, in a 20’ radius for 3d12 points of fire damage, the person carrying the amulet at the time does not get any save, any one caught in the blast may make a reflex save (DC 25) for half damage. Why two different types of energy damage when this guy steals hit points? I'd make it some kind of necromantic effect, such as the stat drain spells or even level drain if you gain sufficient levels in the prc... but that could just be me. Soul Fuel (Su) At first level the morveth learns how to sacrifice of himself to fuel his magic, a morveth may sacrifice two hit points per level of the Morveth class, for every two hit points sacrificed in this way they may lower the cost of applying a metamagic feat to any spell they know by one level.You might what to add the stipulation that this damage only heals naturally, much like ability burn. Bonus Feat At first level the morveth gains a bonus feat selected from any metamagic feat that he meets the prerequisites for. The morveth gains additional bonus metamagic feats at every odd level there after.And how, pray tell, will he power these metamagic feats, I wonder, when he gets less higher level spell slots? . Drain Essence (Sp) The morveth gains the ability to Drain the life essence out of those around him. Through his amulet he is able to use Vamperic Touch as a spell like ability once a day at level one, twice a day at level four, and three times per day at level nine.That's fine. I'd even suggest expanding on the idea of spontaneous life affecting abilities... maybe add another spell they can emulate, or have a secondary effect in addition to vampiric touch, like doom or something... I suggest adding more casting and maybe dropping eschew materials as a prerequisite. Losing two levels of spellcasting tops should make it fine... probably at first level and sixth. And I suggest a capstone of some sort, so that level 10 looks better than just an additional level of casting that I could get out of some other prc... but that could just be me.
Arkimidies 03-11-08, 10:47 PM	Ok... that's four feats on a caster, which is a lot as far as that goes. It's all of your character feats if you are a non human sorcerer. You're also one feat shy of allowing a wizard to cast vampiric touch spontaneously if you use Faerun material, or was that on purpose? It should be fine, even if cost prohibitive... The reasioning for the four feats is this is supposed to be a very hard presteage class to get into, it's based off of a class a DM of mine created back in AD&D 2nd Ed. Truth be told they were the bain of my existance, but I figured I'd try to help him make a 'sane' version of them for 3rd Ed. Interesting skills, d6 like the 'specialist' sorcerers, bad base attack, good will save... I'd say it's fine except for the half casting. Few dedicated casters will want to lose that many spell levels... especially on a sorcerer. The reasion I only suggested spell progression at half class levels is with the way they can burn their own hit points to lower the cost of metamagic feats, I felt it would be too overpowering to allow them to have 9th level spells at class level 20. Why two different types of energy damage when this guy stills hit points? I'd make it some kind of necromantic effect, such as the stat drain spells or even level drain if you gain sufficient levels in the prc... but that could just be me. I think I didn't explane this very well, the damage from the amulet is if someone tries to take the amulet from the morveth. The first listing of damage is for the thief attempting to touch the amulet, it shocks them. The second damage is when the thief get's 100' away from the morveth, the amulet explodes from being too far away from it's creator. The idea that the thief would have the amulet in a pouch or back pack on his person is why they do not get a saving throw against the fire damage. On a side note in the original 2nd Ed version of these guys when the amulet exploded it would kill the Morveth, I felt that it would be too easy for a thief to grab the amulet under 3rd Ed. rules so I opted to get rid of this with this prestege class. You might what to add the stipulation that this damage only heals naturally, much like ability burn. I like this idea, I will run it by the DM who created the class and see if it fit's his theme of the class, I can see it applying to the Drain Essence ability. And how, pray tell, will he power these metamagic feats, I wonder, when he gets less higher level spell slots? The morveth's Soul Fuel ability allows them to sacrifice their own hit points to reduce the cost of metamagic feats, at a rate of 2HP for every level of metamagic reduced, that being said a Sor9/Morveth2, could cast a Maximized Fireball by using a 4th level spell slot and sacrificeing 4HP That's fine. I'd even suggest expanding on the idea of spontaneous life affecting abilities... maybe add another spell they can emulate, or have a secondary effect in addition to vampiric touch, like doom or something... I genuenly like the feedback, and think it would be a great idea, however it does not really fit with the theme of the class that was created in 2nd Ed. I suggest adding more casting and maybe dropping eschew materials as a prerequisite. Losing two levels of spellcasting tops should make it fine... probably at first level and sixth. And I suggest a capstone of some sort, so that level 10 looks better than just an additional level of casting that I could get out of some other prc... but that could just be me. The class back in 2nd Ed. was noted for their not using any componants (verbal, somatic or material) when casting spells, this is why the three componant feats are there, also since they have to help create their amulet that is why the Item Creation feat is present. All in all I greatly apprecieate the feedback, I will brainstorm a little more with my 2nd Ed. DM about what he'd like to add to the class.
teshen 03-12-08, 02:55 AM	No... I understood where you were getting the metamagic feats. It was more of an attempt to provoke a second look. . . . Soul Fuel (Su) At first level the morveth learns how to sacrifice of himself to fuel his magic, a morveth may sacrifice two hit points per level of the Morveth class, for every two hit points sacrificed in this way they may lower the cost of applying a metamagic feat to any spell they know by one level. . . .Without some sort of ability burn stipulation, these guys can metamagic the heck out of some spells and hit themselves with a cure wand through something like a level in ranger or bard or some way to get use magic device on their skill list... like human paragon. And since they can sacrifice two hit points per level of prc and each two hit points lowering the cost by one... it could only take six levels in this prc (or in some cases, less) to apply persistant spell at the cost of 12 hit points early in the day and have somebody heal them... all without actually being able to cast the level of the spell it becomes. Sorcerer 6/Morveth 6 could cast up to fourth level spells, and he could tack on up to a +6 adjustment, making it the equivalent of a 10th level spell... Granted, I wouldn't actually want to to be the four spell levels behind a dedicated wizard you would usually have to be to pull it off... but this prc manages to be both over and underpowered at the same time. You could also grant eschew materials in place of the first level bonus feat if you want these guys to not have to manage components... you could even throw in an ability to ignore inexpensive foci as well. If you had the amulet as an achilies heel in AD&D, why is it now a booby trap for everyone who isn't the mage using it in the current edition? I still think with their using life energy for magic, these guys have a necromantic feel... and that means other necromantic effects could pop up in the class without diluting the flavor... in fact, if I were to use this prc, the first two metamagic feats might be fell drain and/or fell animate. But I understand that's not how you feel about this prc so I'll stop here.
DonThelonious 03-12-08, 04:11 AM	Dude, steal the pretty table that teshen has already made for you! Just quote and copy.
Arkimidies 03-12-08, 04:34 AM	No... I understood where you were getting the metamagic feats. It was more of an attempt to provoke a second look. Without some sort of ability burn stipulation, these guys can metamagic the heck out of some spells and hit themselves with a cure wand through something like a level in ranger or bard or some way to get use magic device on their skill list... like human paragon. I think I see what you're getting at, so you think that the damage they take upon themselves should only be able to be healed naturally, or would using their up to 3/day Drain ability make sense to restore the hitpoint loss as well? And since they can sacrifice two hit points per level of prc and each two hit points lowering the cost by one... it could only take six levels in this prc (or in some cases, less) to apply persistant spell at the cost of 12 hit points early in the day and have somebody heal them... all without actually being able to cast the level of the spell it becomes. Sorcerer 6/Morveth 6 could cast up to fourth level spells, and he could tack on up to a +6 adjustment, making it the equivalent of a 10th level spell... I uderstand that it makes them very powerful, that is part of the resioning for them to not get access to the PrC untill they are lvl 8 or 9. I'm thinking that adding a couple of skill requirements of Heal 5 (since it's the closest skill I know of to anatomy), Knowledge (arcana) 10 and Spellcraft 10 You could also grant eschew materials in place of the first level bonus feat if you want these guys to not have to manage components... you could even throw in an ability to ignore inexpensive foci as well. I think this is a good idea I'm going to add it in place of the bonus feat at level 1 If you had the amulet as an achilies heel in AD&D, why is it now a booby trap for everyone who isn't the mage using it in the current edition? I appologize I didn't mention it had the 'booby trap' in the pervious edition as well, though the DM who created the inital class had the damage, be much greater I still think with their using life energy for magic, these guys have a necromantic feel... and that means other necromantic effects could pop up in the class without diluting the flavor... in fact, if I were to use this prc, the first two metamagic feats might be fell drain and/or fell animate. But I understand that's not how you feel about this prc so I'll stop here. Honestly I couldn't stand the class when I was playing 2nd Ed. I felt they were vastly overpowered, henc why when my old DM said he wanted to try and recreate them in 3rd Ed. I did my best to limit how broken they were. Personally I agree with you they're Necromancers, and should have more necromantic effects involved with the PrC, but it's technacly not my class to be changing core concepts around with.
teshen 03-12-08, 01:43 PM	I think I see what you're getting at, so you think that the damage they take upon themselves should only be able to be healed naturally, or would using their up to 3/day Drain ability make sense to restore the hitpoint loss as well? Yes. I think only making the damage healable naturally would be a decent balancing factor. If, however, you allow the prc to heal it with their vampiric touch ability, I can see these guys being even more evil... in as far as they still buff in the morning and drain the first guy with a decent number of hit points. The situation you just posed just adds a step. The morveth metas his spells. He drains the party barbarian/warblade/whatever. Somebody hit the drainie with the cure wand/belt of healing/whatever. You are now ready to murder for fun and profit. I uderstand that it makes them very powerful, that is part of the resioning for them to not get access to the PrC untill they are lvl 8 or 9. I'm thinking that adding a couple of skill requirements of Heal 5 (since it's the closest skill I know of to anatomy), Knowledge (arcana) 10 and Spellcraft 10Heal would be a decent prerequisite. But as to balance issues, which do you think are stronger? Spells two levels higher or the ability to metamagic spells to much higher levels? It depend on the metamagic involved, probably. Granted, this guy will never get to the best spells as a sorcerer 7/morveth 10/prc 3 casts 7th level spells, but the ability to make those seventh level slots function with +10 in level adjustments is just... :uh-huh: :bigeyes: :help: ... even at the cost of twenty hit points. And don't forget that there are ways to bring down level adjustments of metamagic, such as arcane thesis and practical metamagic amongst others. I think this is a good idea I'm going to add it in place of the bonus feat at level 1Thanks. I appologize I didn't mention it had the 'booby trap' in the pervious edition as well, though the DM who created the inital class had the damage, be much greaterAh... the exploding fake spellbook gag... So he had a fairly effective instant kill on anyone trying to steal his receptical of power. I think I would make multiple amulets, buff myself with someone else's life force and pass out the extra amulets at parties. They would all end with a bang. Honestly I couldn't stand the class when I was playing 2nd Ed. I felt they were vastly overpowered, henc why when my old DM said he wanted to try and recreate them in 3rd Ed. I did my best to limit how broken they were. Personally I agree with you they're Necromancers, and should have more necromantic effects involved with the PrC, but it's technacly not my class to be changing core concepts around with. I think I see your point about how unbalanced they were in second. Well, you could always make it 1 constitution damage in place of 2 hit points. Ability Damaged The character has temporarily lost 1 or more ability score points. Lost points return at a rate of 1 per day unless noted otherwise by the condition dealing the damage. A character with Strength 0 falls to the ground and is helpless. A character with Dexterity 0 is paralyzed. A character with Constitution 0 is dead. A character with Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma 0 is unconscious. Ability damage is different from penalties to ability scores, which go away when the conditions causing them go away. Then give them an ability fifth level or so that allows them to heal two damaged constitution points rather than one... then maybe heal three lost constitution points a night at level ten. That would also give these guys a strong motivation to stay living rather than make that jump to undeath... no con score. And something else just occured to me... how would the soul fuel ability interact with temporary hit points? Was it your intent to allow someone to cast false life and then use them to power spells?
Arkimidies 03-12-08, 02:55 PM	Yes. I think only making the damage healable naturally would be a decent balancing factor. If, however, you allow the prc to heal it with their vampiric touch ability, I can see these guys being even more evil... in as far as they still buff in the morning and drain the first guy with a decent number of hit points. The situation you just posed just adds a step. The morveth metas his spells. He drains the party barbarian/warblade/whatever. Somebody hit the drainie with the cure wand/belt of healing/whatever. You are now ready to murder for fun and profit.. Quite often the example you just mentioned is what they would do in 2nd Ed. I think limiting them to being able recover the HP naturally or with their class drain ability will be a sufficently limiting factor. Heal would be a decent prerequisite. Heal has been added as a required skill But as to balance issues, which do you think are stronger? Spells two levels higher or the ability to metamagic spells to much higher levels? It depend on the metamagic involved, probably. Granted, this guy will never get to the best spells as a sorcerer 7/morveth 10/prc 3 casts 7th level spells, but the ability to make those seventh level slots function with +10 in level adjustments is just... :uh-huh: :bigeyes: :help: ... even at the cost of twenty hit points. And don't forget that there are ways to bring down level adjustments of metamagic, such as arcane thesis and practical metamagic amongst others. I fully understand how nasty lowering the cost of metamagic feats are, and yes I agree in terms of raw damage capability, the metamagic is far more deadly then being able to cast a 9th level spell. What I'm doing my best to 'recreate' with out it being totaly broken is, the 2nd Ed. version of the class could as a level 1 chararacter cast a Meteor Swarm as an example, however it would kill the character, the closest I can think of to 'recreate' this type of effect is by reducing the cost of metamagic. Thinking about it I'll talk with my former DM and see about raising the amount of hp sacrificed to 4 hp for one level of metamagic reduction. Ah... the exploding fake spellbook gag... So he had a fairly effective instant kill on anyone trying to steal his receptical of power. I think I would make multiple amulets, buff myself with someone else's life force and pass out the extra amulets at parties. They would all end with a bang. Not exactly the old exploding fake spell book, the cannon my old DM created for them is that part of their soul is inside the amulet, which I think is why they died when it exploded back in 2nd Ed. Well, you could always make it 1 constitution damage in place of 2 hit points. Then give them an ability fifth level or so that allows them to heal two damaged constitution points rather than one... then maybe heal three lost constitution points a night at level ten. That would also give these guys a strong motivation to stay living rather than make that jump to undeath... no con score. And something else just occured to me... how would the soul fuel ability interact with temporary hit points? Was it your intent to allow someone to cast false life and then use them to power spells? Personaly I like the idea of draining their CON instead of HP, it was alwase described as 'they were weakened' after casting a big spell, but the 'old' system was a hp sacrifice, which leads me to answering your thought on temporary hit points, back in 2nd Ed. they'd burn through temporary hit points first. I just had a thought, and bare with me here for a minute, what about giving them a flaw, where they can not heal naturally, and only recieve 1/2 hitpoints from curing magics?
teshen 03-13-08, 03:33 AM	. . . I think limiting them to being able recover the HP naturally or with their class drain ability will be a sufficently limiting factor.I think I'd go with hit points may only be recovered with normal rest, like the body fuel feat that psionic characters can use. That's character level + constitution modifier unless I'm mistaken. Besides, if you are allowing them to fuel this ability with temporary hit points, odds are good that they will rarely use their own actual hit points to power these abilities. I fully understand how nasty lowering the cost of metamagic feats are, and yes I agree in terms of raw damage capability, the metamagic is far more deadly then being able to cast a 9th level spell. What I'm doing my best to 'recreate' with out it being totaly broken is, the 2nd Ed. version of the class could as a level 1 chararacter cast a Meteor Swarm as an example, however it would kill the character, the closest I can think of to 'recreate' this type of effect is by reducing the cost of metamagic. Thinking about it I'll talk with my former DM and see about raising the amount of hp sacrificed to 4 hp for one level of metamagic reduction.... I don't really think increasing the cost in hit points is any way to deter them from using heavily metamagic spells. . . . the cannon my old DM created for them is that part of their soul is inside the amulet, which I think is why they died when it exploded back in 2nd Ed.No. Not like a phylactery at all. :smirk: Personaly I like the idea of draining their CON instead of HP, it was alwase described as 'they were weakened' after casting a big spell, but the 'old' system was a hp sacrifice, which leads me to answering your thought on temporary hit points, back in 2nd Ed. they'd burn through temporary hit points first.And in AD&D you had static, minor hit point bonuses after... was it level 10? And you had to have a decent con score to get any bonus hit points... It's been forever since I played so I don't really remember. But if that's true, then just by giving these guys more hit points, you've increased the power they can dish out. Run the constitution sacrifice by your dm. A decreased constitution score will lower hit points, lower your fortitude save, and lower your concentration check... that sounds like weakened to me. And casting something that grants temporary hit points couldn't be used to just keep giving yourself a refreshing pool of points to use to metamagic. I think it would go a ways to solving some balance problems... I just had a thought, and bare with me here for a minute, what about giving them a flaw, where they can not heal naturally, and only recieve 1/2 hitpoints from curing magics?My first impression is that it's too harsh... but I should first get you to define what is curative magic. If you mean spells listed as conjuration (healing), then this would have no effect on necromancy spells, the ones morveths are most likely to use.
M-bark 03-13-08, 01:50 PM	The one thing I don't get is that you say this is a Wizard's PrC, yet spontaneous casting is required.
teshen 03-13-08, 02:16 PM	The one thing I don't get is that you say this is a Wizard's PrC, yet spontaneous casting is required.Before he changed the prerequisites a little, it took casting vampiric touch spontaneously. You could do it with the addition of one feat from Faerun material. Now it would take a wizard two feats, Spell mastery and Signature spell, but a he could still qualify... And I figure he means wizard as in caster the same way I tend to say mage or arcanist.
IdleAltruism 03-13-08, 11:25 PM	ENTRY REQUIREMENTS To qualify to become a Morveth, a character must fulfill all the following criteria: Feats: Silent Spell, Still Spell, Create Wonderous Item Skills: Heal 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 10, Spellcraft 10 Spells:Vamperic Touch Spellcasting:Able to spontaniously cast 3rd level arcane spells Alignment: Any Non-good Special: Must participate in creating their own amulet To start, the feat requirements are steep(very painful for anyone who can actually qualify for this class). Really this eliminates alot of what would be otherwise good choices for entry into this class(duskblade/dread necro/possibly warmage with some variants). Dread necromancer still might get into it, but they're not gaining much. Having 5 ranks of heal is kind of a joke. Its not really doing anything but wasting precious skill points for a class that doesn't use it(or need it). Just a side note, you misspelled Vampiric Actual methods of creating the amulet would be nice. What it actually does, can do, and some examples of possible amulet functions could be nice. For example an amulet might have a base cost of X. Class Skills Morveth’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are.... Concentration(CON), Craft(INT), Diplomacy(CHA), Descipher Scrip(INT), Heal(WIS), Intimidate(CHA), Knowledge(All taken separately)(INT), Spellcraft(INT), Use Magical Device(CHA) Skills Points at Each Level : 2 + int I don't understand the skills. Diplomacy/UMD don't look like they fit at all. Decipher Script is a wizards type of skill, yet this class seems to favor sorcerers. You'd be hard pressed to get enough skill ranks into it to make it worthwhile. Intimidate is another one of those skills, why not bluff? The entry requirements already sucks up 30 skill points by the level 7 entry requirement. Amulet: At first level the Morveth is tied to his amulet, as such he is able to utilize his Soul Fuel and Drain Essence ability. If someone other then the Morveth attempts to remove the amulet they receive an electric shock 1d6 damage for every level of Morveth, Reflex save (DC25) for half damage. If the Amulet is sucessfuly removed and taken more then 100’ away from the Morveth then the amulet explodes, in a 20’ radius for 3d12 points of fire damage, the person carrying the amulet at the time does not get any save, any one caught in the blast may make a reflex save (DC 25) for half damage. This is really just fluff and it should be in the actual description of the amulet, not a class ability. Soul Fuel: (Su) At first level the morveth learns how to sacrifice of himself to fuel his magic, a morveth may sacrifice two hit points per level of the Morveth class, for every two hit points sacrificed in this way they may lower the cost of applying a metamagic feat to any spell they know by one level. This is overpowered, plain and simple. Nerf this or remove it. 2 levels into this class(rough but from an optimization standpoint could be worth it) as a dip, then take something like, I don't know, Incantrix? There are a few ways to abuse this, mainly taking it to negative spell levels. Combined with a few other tricks(arcane thesis and such) this just adds to the abuse. I'd suggest rethinking this ability and possibly adding it at later levels, -10 spell levels for metamagic feats by 17th level is a bit crazy(despite the fact they'll only have 6th level spells its still somewhat crazy, tricked out scorching rays can destroy even the nastiest of creatures). HPs are hardly a deterrent to players, something more substantial would be necessary. A simple healing belt(cost 750) can negate most of the penalties of this class feature as a free action up to 3/day. There are ways around con damage(hellfire warlock ;D ) Eschew Materials: Due to the Morveths training they recieve the Eschew Materials feat for free at first level. Um, cool!? Some of these class features don't really fit thematically. I can almost see a sorcerer that uses a talisman/necklace focus, that doesn't use verbal/somatic/material components for his spells. Thats kind of the impression these abilities and requirements lead me to believe what this class was meant to be, but then you threw in some necromancy stuff! Which thematically could work, but there really isn't a tie in. Trying to connect these abilities a little better would be nice. Having an Amulet powered by souls, now that would be interesting,a bit on the darker side, but interesting. Drain Essence: (Sp) The morveth gains the ability to Drain the life essence out of those around him. Through his amulet he is able to use Vamperic Touch as a spell like ability once a day at level one twice a day at level four and three times per day at level nine. I really hate blow your wad x/day abilities. This really isn't that great, vampiric touch is a nice spell, but I generally wouldn't waste my spell slots with it on a general sorcerer. I would go back to the drawing board for a new ability to replace this. Maybe connecting this ability with the amulet in some way? What if the amulet could use stored life force or something? Maybe this could be a new mechanic to power spells with cheaper metamagic? Its very vanilla atm. Spell Casting: The characters caster level increases at every even level of the morveth class. Ouch, besides the overpowered metamagic ability this class so isn't worth half casting progression, very few,if any, PrCs are. Bonus Feat: At third level the morveth gains a bonus feat selected from any metamagic feat that he meets the prerequisites for. The morveth gains additional bonus metamagic feats at every odd level there after. I would try and make this a more specialized sorcerer focusing on metamagic. Personally thats what I would do, either focus on the Necromatic/talisman/metamagic or talisman/focus metamagic. Adding more special abilities(more fluff) would greatly enhance the class in general, right now it seems really plain.
teshen 03-14-08, 04:28 PM	Well, Arkimidies, this is the morveth with my suggestions added. Feel free to take it or leave it... or even print it out and use it for toilet paper if you really don't like it. Morveth ENTRY REQUIREMENTS To qualify to become a Morveth, a character must fulfill all the following criteria: Feats: Silent Spell, Still Spell, Create Wonderous Item Skills: Heal 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 10, Spellcraft 10 Spells:Vampiric Touch Spellcasting:Able to spontaniously cast 3rd level arcane spells Alignment: Any Non-good Class Skills Morveth’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (CON), Craft (INT), Diplomacy (CHA), Descipher Scrip (INT), Heal (WIS), Intimidate (CHA), Knowledge (All taken separately)(INT), Spellcraft (INT), Use Magical Device (CHA) Skills Points at Each Level: 2 + int modifier Hit Dice: d6 Lv BAB Fort Ref Will Abilities Spell Progression 1 +0 +0 +0 +2 Amulet, Soul focus, Sacrificial Metamagic 2 +1 +0 +0 +3 Drain Life (1/day) +1 Existing Class 3 +1 +1 +1 +3 Bonus Metamagic Feat +1 Existing Class 4 +2 +1 +1 +4 - +1 Existing Class 5 +2 +1 +1 +4 Drain Life (2/day), Rapid Recovery +1 Existing Class 6 +3 +2 +2 +5 Bonus Metamagic Feat 7 +3 +2 +2 +5 +1 Existing Class 8 +4 +2 +2 +6 Drain Life (3/day) +1 Existing Class 9 +4 +3 +3 +6 Bonus Metamagic Feat +1 Existing Class 10 +5 +3 +3 +7 Stolen Sacrifice, Rapid Recovery +1 Existing Class Weapon Proficiencies Morveth gains no new weapon or armor proficiencies. Spells per Day When a new morveth level is gained except at first level and sixth level, the character gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in a spellcasting class he belonged to before adding the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained, except for an increased effective level of spellcasting. If a character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a morveth, he must decide to which class he adds the new level for purposes of determining spells per day. Amulet At first level, the Morveth crafts his own amulet, the symbol of his learning and discipline. It takes 24 hours and 1000 gp in raw materials, during which he instills a bit of his own soul in the amulet. If someone who isn't the morveth who crafted the amulet touches it, it activates a magical trap. The amulet channels negative energy that deals 1d6 points of damage per two levels of morveth per round of contact. The creature can make a fortitude save DC 10 + Morveth level + intelligence modifier for half damage every round of contact. An undead creature who touches the amulet takes no damage, but it must make a successful Will saving throw (same DC) or flee as if panicked for 1d4 rounds +1 round per Morveth level. A morveth, when separated from his amulet, always knows where it is as if under a continuous locate object spell with a distance of 1 mile per caster level. If the morveth has a familiar before entering this prestige class, he can choose to subsume his familiar into the amulet during it's creation. By doing so, he may never summon another familiar as long as his amulet exists, neither by class features, nor by the feat obtain familiar. The amulet grants the morveth who crafted it the benefits of the alertness feat, double the circumstancial bonus the familiar grants, and the ability to communicate with animals of approximately the same kind as his previous familiar (including dire varieties): bats with bats, rats with rodents, cats with felines, hawks and owls and ravens with birds, lizards and snakes with reptiles, toads with amphibians, weasels with similar creatures (weasels, minks, polecats, ermines, skunks, wolverines, and badgers). Such communication is limited by the intelligence of the conversing creatures. If his amulet is destroyed, the morveth must attempt a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw. Failure means he loses 200 experience points per caster level; success reduces the loss to one-half that amount. The amulet may also be enchanted with other effects. Soul Focus (Su) The Morveth's amulet acts as a focus for the his spellcasting, allowing him to cast spells without components or foci that cost less than 1 gp. It also allows him to channel his Drain Life ability, Sacrificial metamagic ability, and his Stolen Sacrifice ability. Without his amulet, he cannot use any of these class features. Sacrificial Metamagic (Su) At first level the morveth learns how to sacrifice bits of himself and transmute it into pure arcane energy to fuel his spells. A morveth, by willingly taking constitution damage can use it to power metamagic on a one for one basis (one constitution point per +1 level adjustment). A morveth may only sacrifice 1 constitution point per two levels of morveth on an individual spell (1 point at levels one and two, 2 points at levels three and four, etc). He may only apply this power to spells without any metamagic already applied. Any ability or effect that negates ability damage negates the sacrificial metamagic ability. Constitution damage taken to power sacrificial metamagic may only heal naturally (one point per rest period) and does not benefit from the use of magical healing. Drain Life (Sp) Through his amulet, once per day a morveth is able to use Vampiric Touch as a spell like ability at a range of 10' as a ranged touch attack. At fifth level, he may use this ability twice per day at a range of 20'. At eighth level, he may use this ability a three times per day at a range of 30'. Bonus Metamagic Feat At third level, sixth level, and ninth level, the morveth gains a bonus feat selected from any metamagic feat that he meets the prerequisites for. Rapid Recovery (Ex) A morveth's body has become somewhat adapted to the rigors of using his own constitution to power spells. At fifth level, he regains 2 constitution points per eight hours of rest rather than one. At tenth level, he regains 3 constitution points per eight hours of rest rather than two. This ability has no effect on any other type of ability damage. Stolen Sacrifice (Su) At tenth level a morveth uncovers a cruel ability. Whenever he uses his drain life ability on a target and the target fails its saving through, he may immediately expend an additional use of his drain life ability (if he has at least one more left) and cause constitution damage to the target instead of the vampiric touch ability. He may do an amount of constitution damage to the target equal to the amount of constitution damage he could damage himself for with the sacrificial metamagic ability. The morveth can then use that energy to metamagic the next spell he casts. If he does not use the energy in a number of rounds equal to his morveth level + his casting modifier, the stolen energy dissipates harmlessly. A morveth cannot drain more constitution than the target has. If a target drops to 0 constitution, he dies. This damage works in all ways as the sacrificial metamagic ability for the target, and cannot be healed magically. If he uses this ability on someone or something without a constitution score, the Drain life uses are expended to no effect.