Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Darth Sephiroth 01-26-06, 11:16 PM	Spellstone Magus v2.0 Kaldwyn focused his mind upon the small gemstone he held and it glowed brightly as the knowledge of the spell flooded through him for a moment like the powers gained by his sorcerous abilities, and he smiled at the orc that advanced slowly upon him and his companions. And then he released the fireball... Spellstones are rare items of magic imbued into gems by sorcerers, who use them to gain the ability to cast a wider variety of spells. Few actually focus upon creating these pieces of tangible arcane power, but those that do are well respected and normally well liked by other Sorcerers for the stones they do sell. Some even advance to the point where they may use a similar process to absorb the power of the spell into themselves. Hit Die: d4 Requirements: To qualify to become Spellstone Magus , a character must fulfill the following criteria: Skills: Appraise 4+ ranks, Concentration 8+ ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 12+ ranks, Spellcraft 12+ ranks. Feats: Craft Spellstone, Magical Aptitude Spells: Must be able to cast 3rd level or higher spells as a Sorcerer. Special: Must have crafted at least 1 Spellstone that contains a 2nd level or higher spell. Class Skills: Spellstone Magus class skills: Appraise (Int), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Knowledge (The Planes) (Int) Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int) Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier. Level BAB Ref Fort Will ------------------------------ 1 +0 +1 +0 +1 2 +1 +2 +1 +2 3 +1 +2 +1 +2 4 +1 +3 +1 +3 5 +2 +3 +2 +4 Level Special Abilities Spells ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Familiar Growth, Spellstone Crafter +1 Sorcerer Level 2 Spellstone Caster +1 Sorcerer Level 3 Spellstone Recovery +1 Sorcerer Level 4 Spellstone Craftmaster +1 Sorcerer Level 5 Absorb Spellstone +1 Sorcerer Level Class Features: Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Spellstone Magus gains no additional Weapon or Armor Proficiencies Spells: A Spellstone Magus gains spells and caster level as a Sorcerer. Familiar Growth: A Spellstone Magus' class levels stack with his Sorcerer levels for determining the abilities of his familiar. Spellstone Crafter: A Spellstone Magus takes 1/2 the Charisma damage incurred from creating spellstones. Spellstone Caster: A Spellstone Magus that possess' a Spellstone he also has the spell for as a Sorcerer spell may cast the spell as a spell of one spell level lower (Minimum of Spell Level 0). If it is for a 0th level spell, the spell may be cast one additional time per day. Spellstone Recovery: A Spellstone magus recovers the ability damage from creating a Spellstone a twice the speed he normally would. Spellstone Craftmaster: A Spellstone Magus only requires half the materials to create spellstones reducing the cost in GP, Material Components, and XP by half. Absorb Spellstone: By sacrificing a Spellstone and making a Spellcraft check (DC 11+spell level) and an Arcane Caster level check (DC 20+Spell Level) a Spellstone Magus may absorb the powers within the spellstone and gain the spell it contains as a Sorcerer spell. Regardless of the sucess or failure of the Spellcraft check, the Spellstone is destroyed in the attempt. A Spellstone Magus must spend 24 hours meditating on the Spellstone and takes ability damage as if he were creating the spellstone.
Darth Sephiroth 01-26-06, 11:28 PM	Craft Spellstone [Item Creation] Like Wizards and Clerics view their scrolls, a Sorcerer views his spellstones. Although Spellstones are not an expendible item like a scroll is. Prerequisites: Sorcerer level 1+ Benefit: You may attempt to create spellstones. Doing so requires 1 week of uninterupted work of at least 8 hours a day and a spellcraft check (DC 12+2xSpell Level). Ten times the material components required to cast the spell are expended and a gemstone costing GP equal to at least the spell level plus one times 1000 GP must be used. Ten times to experience point cost (if any are listed in the spell itself) are also expended. The Sorcerer takes one point of Constitution damage as well as an amount of Charisma damage equal to twice the spell level plus 1. Spellstone Familiar [General] A few Sorcerers like to arm their familiars with spellstones to enhanse their abilities. Prerequisites: Spellstone Magus level 1+, Must be able to summon a familiar. Benefit: You may equip your Familiar with a spellstone containing a spell of a level no higher than 1 below your highest level spell. The Familiar gains the ability to cast the spell a number of times per day equal to its Charisma Score minus the spell level of the spell at a caster level equal to 1/2 your own. Normal: You may not equip your Familiar with a Spellstone. Special: You may take this feat multiple times, each time being able to equip another spellstone on you familiar. Spellstone Magic [Meta-Magic] Power flows from the Spellstones, but few can harness more than a little of their power. Prerequisites: Sorcerer level 5+ Benefit: You may cast spells that you have as a Sorcerer spell and possess in Spellstone form 1 additional time before using a daily spell use making it possible to use it twice before using a daily spell. Normal: Normally Sorcerer's may only cast the spell once before dipping into their daily spells, if they have both the spell learned and as a Spellstone. Spellstone Meta-Magic [Meta-Magic] Power flows from the Spellstones, but few can harness more than a little of their power. Prerequisites: Sorcerer level 5+, Spellstone Magic Benefit: With any spell you both know and possess a spellstone of, you may apply Meta-Magic abilities to the effects without increasing the casting time, but doing so is treated as your 1/day use. Normal: Normally Sorcerers may only use metamagic abilities by increasing the casting time. Enhansed Spellstones [Item Creation] Channeling the power of your magic into creating a Spellstone occasionally lets you improve the spell. Prerequisites: Spellstone Magus level 5+, Spellstone Magic, Craft Spellstone Benefit: When crafting a Spellstone, you may make one that makes that spell operate as if the one who would use it has a caster level of 2 higher. This benefit vanishes if the Spellstone is absorbed. Normal: Spellstones are created without any benefit other than being able to use the spell. Unleash Spellstone [General] Rarely do spellcasters other than Sorcerers gain any understanding of Spellstones, but you are one of the few that do. Prerequisites: Level 9+ in a non-sorcerer Cha based caster class. Benefit: You may use a Spellstone as if you were a Sorcerer of 1/2 your level. Normal: Only Sorcerers may use Spellstones
Darth Sephiroth 01-26-06, 11:37 PM	Spellstone Appearance A Spellstone appears to be a marvelous gem that has the feel of arcane power within it and glows feintly in the dark. They are occasionally set into jewlery or other worn items but are just as often carried in a simple belt sack. They may also be mounted in things as an ordinary gem may be. Using a Spellstone Only a Sorcerer can use a spellstone and even then only if he is able to cast spells of the level of the spell in the spellstone. A spellstone allows the Sorcerer to cast the spell stored within as if he had selected it as a Sorcerer spell. If the Sorcerer has the spell learned as a Sorcerer spell he may cast it one additional time per day. Determining A Spellstone A person in the possession of a Spellstone may make two checks to determine what he has. The first is an Appraise check (DC 11+spell level) to determine that it is a Spellstone (Sorcerer's may use their Charisma modifier instead of their Intelligence modifier for this check), and a Knowledge (Arcana) check (DC equal to 2+twice the level of the spell in the spellstone) to determine what spell it is. Spellstone Cost A spellstone costs 4 times the value of the gem used in crafting it+twice the cost of the expended material components+5 times the XP cost in GP
Kevmann 01-26-06, 11:37 PM	See? It looks a lot better as a 5 lvl prc. I am glad you agreed. I took a second look at your 5th level ability, and I think it could work as is as long as you changed the spellcraft check into a level check. You see, I could just go out and buy a circlet that gave me +15 to the spellcraft skill. This succesffuly bypasses the only safty measure this ability has. A level check of DC 20 + spell level would do great. In that way, a 20th level caster has a bit better then a 50% chance to absorb a 9th level spell, which I feel is acceptable based on the cost those things take to create. However, if your GM gave out a lot of these as treasure I could see an abuse issue. Overall, pretty nice.
Darth Sephiroth 01-26-06, 11:43 PM	Well as I was thinking about it, it fit more into what I had wanted and before part of why it was a 10 level PRC was because I wanted to make it something that would make it harder to get the ability to absorb spellstones, but then I decided that this would work better if I increased the prerequisites. I added a pair of feats that work well for the Spellstone Magus (One is just an Item Creation feat to allow the creation of Spellstones)
Darth Sephiroth 01-27-06, 03:45 PM	I added a few additional feats to the ones I posted earlier. Also is there anyone else who has ideas on how to make this class better?
Darth Sephiroth 01-30-06, 09:19 PM	Access Greater Spellstone [General] You have begun to unlock the powers of the ancient spellstone relics from before the Dragon War, but you are only just touching at the beginning of what they can really do. Prerequisites: Sorcerer level 5+, Spellcraft 9+ ranks, Spellstone Magic Benefit: You may attempt to activate the Greater Spellstones with Spellcraft checks against the DC's listed for each of the greater spellstones. The same DC deactivates them. You must do the listed rituals for each greater spellstone to do either. Normal: You may not attempt to activate or deactivate a Greater Spellstone
MaverickWolf 01-30-06, 10:01 PM	Looks cool so far, but I have to re-look at it when I'm slightly more awake. One quick question though: I'm assuming the sorcerer making the spellstone must know the spell within it (which means sorcerers could use spellstones as a sort of currency between each other)?
Darth Sephiroth 02-08-06, 11:30 AM	Looks cool so far, but I have to re-look at it when I'm slightly more awake. One quick question though: I'm assuming the sorcerer making the spellstone must know the spell within it (which means sorcerers could use spellstones as a sort of currency between each other)? Yeah they do need to know the spell before they can make a spellstone with it. And yes, several of them trade spellstones around like currency, but they are rare enough that it would only happen at higher levels.
MaverickWolf 02-18-06, 01:08 PM	Just a friendly neighborhood :bump:
Darth Sephiroth 02-18-06, 06:44 PM	thanks, I'm still thinking of how to tweak this to make it better, considering letting Bards USE spellstones to an extent, but not take this PrC
Grayequus 02-19-06, 01:13 AM	What are Greater spellstones? What can they do? Details and examples, please? I really like this PRC by the way!
Darth Sephiroth 02-20-06, 05:01 PM	Greater spellstones are something that would fit more into the realms of a relic, something that no one really knows how to reproduce. In my campaign one type was basically a Portal. They stopped working but the largest city in the world has thousands of them that originally connected with the other cities of the world. Basically do whatever you want to make them because they are normally quite rare and most are immobile. Bards won't get spellstones, their abilities are far to different for them to work right, I may make a feat for the Bard that lets them use Spellstones
Darth Sephiroth 02-20-06, 05:20 PM	Added a feat to let other Cha based casters gain access to using spellstones
Rohano 04-30-06, 10:34 PM	Wow. Let me get this straight. A spellstone costs a lot of resources to make. Inside a spellstone is the power to cast a spell, meaning that once per day the spellstone allows a user to cast a spell using his own caster level and ability scores for the spell. A sorcerer who gets a Spellstone of Fireball can use Fireball one additional time each day (and that additional use does not count toward his daily spells allotment). With a feat, a bard can use spellstones, which can only be sorcerer spells, which can allow the bard access to bigger and better spells. With a feat, a spellstone can not only grant your familiar a caster level but also the use of a spellstone as a 1/day spell. A specialist may absorb spellstones, essentially allowing himself to cast that spell as a spell-like ability 1/day. If I were to write this PrC, I would have done it differently, but I think this is cool anyway. Good work.
Jethren 05-01-06, 03:41 PM	The only thing that really bugs me is that you require levels in a specific class to take it. In general, prestige classes do not require levels in any particular class to take, though they may require specific abilities that are mostly specific or easier to access with a specific class.
Darth Sephiroth 05-01-06, 07:45 PM	Wow. Let me get this straight. A spellstone costs a lot of resources to make. Inside a spellstone is the power to cast a spell, meaning that once per day the spellstone allows a user to cast a spell using his own caster level and ability scores for the spell. A sorcerer who gets a Spellstone of Fireball can use Fireball one additional time each day (and that additional use does not count toward his daily spells allotment). With a feat, a bard can use spellstones, which can only be sorcerer spells, which can allow the bard access to bigger and better spells. With a feat, a spellstone can not only grant your familiar a caster level but also the use of a spellstone as a 1/day spell. A specialist may absorb spellstones, essentially allowing himself to cast that spell as a spell-like ability 1/day. If I were to write this PrC, I would have done it differently, but I think this is cool anyway. Good work. Actually Absorb Spellstone doesn't give it to them as a 1/day. They treat it as a known spell for all purposes of use. If you have a spellstone you can use the spell 1/day. The extra stuff for familiars and a lot of other things is to expand the use. Also the Bard with a spellstone would only be able to use Spellstones for spells of levels they can already cast. The only thing that really bugs me is that you require levels in a specific class to take it. In general, prestige classes do not require levels in any particular class to take, though they may require specific abilities that are mostly specific or easier to access with a specific class. The entire point of this is that it is something for Sorcerers in the world. It also means that the Sorcerers don't go for Scribe Scroll, they want the Spellstones. The idea was to keep the Sorcerer in the game I'm running balanced. There are 2 Wizards who would fill up several spellbooks by sharing spells to get a larger number when leveling up. The guy playing the Sorcerer complained because of it and his character seemed to be rather weak compared to the other casters, so I started thinking of a way to make it work, and thus Spellstones came into existance followed by Greater Spellstones. It's a trait of the world and I used it as a PrC instead of a direct modification to the Sorcerer class (As I'm doing in the new campaign I'm working on.)
Rohano 05-01-06, 09:28 PM	Absorbtion of spellstone -> spell learned like transcribing a scroll into your spellbook. I love the concept and I think it would be pretty cool to add to just about any campaign... it definitely gives sorcerers a new edge. Puts them on par with psions and wizards as to usage of items to get more power. I'd love to see some of the Greater Spellstones you have drawn up.
Darth Sephiroth 05-01-06, 10:02 PM	Since none of them are particularly mobile I'l describe the ones I've used so far. The first is the standard passageways between long distances that functions identically to a Portal though the ends may be moved with enough effort. (DC 20 to activate as a Portal) Another is situated in the rift chamber of the city of Hold. It is a 90 ft radius crystal that constantly levitates the upper city, maintains mild weather, clears polution, and can generate a shield around the city (Though that use cancels the Weather manipulation) All abilities but the shield are active continuously. (DC 40 to activate the shield) The Archontan. An immense spherical room with a teleportation access. Inside there is a levitating platform with a pedistal containing a sand tray. The wall of the room contains a map of the entire planet. If a beings name or rune (Or other identifying mark) is traced in the sand the being indicated by it can be located on the map (If they are on the plane). (DC 20 to enter via the teleportation, Opposed DC against targets Will save to locate)
Darth Sephiroth 08-19-06, 08:16 PM	I added another feat to this
Daosus 08-26-06, 01:44 AM	I hate to be the voice of doom here but here are my thoughts: From an item creation perspective, all the spellstones but 0 and 1st level ones are too powerful when compared to similar effects. Consider a Pearl of Power, which lets you cast an extra spell. Yes, a spellstone is restricted to THAT ONE extra spell in particular, but you also gain knowledge of the spell. At the very least, I'd price them at the appropriate Pearl of Power level. This also seems to be a way of getting around the limit of spells known of a sorcerer. I'm a wizard type of guy myself, and this is getting mighty close to treading on a wizard's turf. It's probably not game-breaking, since sorcerers are lacking in versatility, but if you allow a sorc as much free reign in choosing his spells as a wizard has, you've essentially killed the wizard class. Be careful with this. Again, it's unlikely to happen, as the stones are (moderately) expensive, but they do push up a sorc from "if I only could know a few more spells" to "I've all the spells I really need." The idea is interesting, and is similar to "Knowstones" i've heard of from somewhere. Perhaps more work on the pricing so it scales will the square of the spell level is needed. *EDIT* I will also reply to the actual PrC. There is NO reason not to take it. This is bad. Even for an Archmage, which is a very solid choice for any wizard, you must pay in spell slots. For most other PrCs, you lose caster levels somewhere along the progression, or AT LEAST your familiar progression. Again, there is NO reason not to take this, suggesting the class is overpowered. At the very least it needs to have a "throwaway feat" as a requirement, and really ought not to have the familiar progression. Also, the Spellstone Familiar feat is very very overpowered. At higher levels, what matters is not your spells/day but your spells/round. This feat allows you to almost double your firepower. Consider that instead of taking Quicken and using both a spell slot and one that is 4 levels higher to cast an extra spell/round, you are instead taking this and it's only costing you gold. I'm aware that Sorc's can't use Quicken, but the balance issue is there. I've always thought that Spontaneous Metamagic stuff was BS anyway. I'm aware that many of you must be thinking that this is a bit powerful but that's allright, because the sorc is underpowered compared to a wizard. That is a discussion I will leave for another day, but I'll state here briefly that two wrongs do not make a right. You are, of course, welcome to use this in your own campaigns, it won't break things unless you let it, and it will add a great deal of flavor. But, I feel that I must point out where you have bent the rules, so that later readers will be aware of it. Finally, I applaud your creativity in making this class. In this post, I have strived to point out where I feel you have erred, but the idea is very solid and interesting. My opinions are my own and should be taken with a grain of salt. Lastly, thank you for a good read. PPS - You need to state whether spells gained through absorbtion count towards the limit on spells known. I would assume so, but hey, you never know :P
Molot 08-26-06, 05:16 PM	One bad thing about it: There are Knowstones from Dragon Magazine already! I suggest that you'd try to read about them. They are considered official WotC D&D material, so instead of writing the same thing from the ground, just use existing one. Until then, I consider it a fun idea, but wasted. My old PrC based on knowstones: Gem Mage
Darth Sephiroth 08-26-06, 07:46 PM	I don't know what knowstones are, I don't get Dragon Magazine now and I haven't. This stuff was originally intended for use in one of my campaigns to make things interesting in it and it gave me a way to expand the way that world worked by leaving hints that something similar had been used in ages past
benstundze 02-03-07, 05:20 PM	Please tell me if i categorized your class correctly PrC Compendium (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=784585) ben
Darth Sephiroth 02-04-07, 03:46 PM	Yep, its in the right place
daievo073 03-03-07, 09:38 PM	it seems to me that creating a gemstone is a crippling loss to a sorcerer. any choosing to do so would lose caster levels in an extreme way. creating a magic missile spellstone would cost 3 charisma points. just seems to far out to be worth doing. the other stuff, however, is very interesting, and i like a lot. thanks for putting it out there.
Darth Sephiroth 03-05-07, 09:55 AM	It would only be crippling in the short term, you still recover from the ability damage as normal