Alternate Sorcerer (Choose from options) [Archive] - Wizards Community

Alternate Sorcerer (Choose from options) [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
codemancac
03-06-06, 04:19 PM Someone has probably done something similar by now since the sorcerer debate has gone on for years. However, in case it hasn't happened yet, here is the sorcerer that I use in my games, which allows players to choose from many of the various options that people have designed to improve the class.

Begin with the standard sorcerer, with the following change: remove the Summon familiar special ability. Then, upon taking the first sorcerer level, choose two (or however many your DM allows) of the following options:

· Familiar – the sorcerer gains the Summon Familiar special ability at first level. Furthermore, the sorcerer gains the feat Improved Familiar when he gains 3rd level sorcerer spells. Note: I haven’t seen the article on staff familiars, but I would imagine that they can be grouped into this category.
· Skillful – the sorcerer gains 4 skill points per level instead of 2. Also, the sorcerer gains one skill of the player’s choice as a class skill.
· Draconic – the sorcerer gains any one Draconic feat as a bonus feat. He must meet all prerequisites for the feat.
· Alternate Legacy – the sorcerer gains one bloodline feat (from Dragon magazine) of his choice for free.
· Natural Metamagic – the sorcerer does not suffer the normal penalty of an increased casting time for enhancing his spells with metamagic.
· Primal Spellcaster – the sorcerer gains the Primitive Caster feat from Frostburn with the following change: alter the material component to allow the rare herb to come from any environment. Furthermore, the sorcerer gains the ability to swap out one spell known for a different spell once per week. Both spells must be sorcerer spells of the same level; furthermore, the spell level must be lower than the maximum spell level that the sorcerer is capable of casting.
· Natural Talent – at odd sorcerer levels, if the sorcerer qualifies for a bonus spell of the next spell level, he gains one spell known of the next spell level. Thus, he gains the bonus spells he would be entitled to based on his Charisma score for his next spell level. For example, a 5th level sorcerer with a Charisma score of 16 and the Natural Talent ability is eligible to gain 1 bonus spell slot of 3rd level, even though he does not normally gain 3rd level spells until his 6th sorcerer level.
· Tough – the sorcerer gains d6 hit dice instead of d4 hit dice. Furthermore, the sorcerer gains the toughness feat at first level.

If you support this version of the sorcerer, please keep the thread bumped and continue to list alternate options. Also, let me know if you do not think the options are balanced.
Lucan_Desmond
03-07-06, 10:57 PM I decided to change the sorcerer for my campaign because I felt that the way they work is too similar to the wizard especially when you consider how different the two classes are when described in fluff. The first and largest change I made was to replace the classes spells per day with the Spell Point system presented in Unearthed Arcana. I feel this system is fairly balanced and definitely has much more of the sorcerer feel, if you know what I mean. The next thing I did was give it a much large list of class abilities that it would gain as levels increased. These abilities were based on natural magical talent and profoundly unique. They were also unfortunately heinously overpowered. After I finished with them I sat back and looked at the abilities that were inspired by many things that I'm almost ashamed to admit I was inspired by like Dragonball Z *shiver*... why did I ever like that show? The Arcane Storm ability was inspired by the Crown of Fire ability from the 2nd Edition Spellfire Wielder class. If you have access the an old book with that class in it, you'll be able to see where many of my ideas came from! I'll include the list of special abilities I created and scraped in the hopes that maybe someone can tweak it and come up with something more balanced yet still profoundly fun to play.

Base Fort Ref Will Mana
Level Attack Bonus Save Save Save Points Special
1 +0 +0 +0 +2 3 Arcane Bolts (D4), Arcane Shield
2 +1 +0 +0 +3 5
3 +1 +1 +1 +3 8
4 +2 +1 +1 +4 14 Arcane Bolts (D6), Arcane Enhancement
5 +2 +1 +1 +4 19 Bonus Feat
6 +3 +2 +2 +5 29 Arcane Bolts (Blast)
7 +3 +2 +2 +5 37
8 +4 +2 +2 +6 51 Arcane Flight
9 +4 +3 +3 +6 63
10 +5 +3 +3 +7 81 Bonus Feat
11 +5 +3 +3 +7 97
12 +6/+1 +4 +4 +8 115 Arcane Defense
13 +6/+1 +4 +4 +8 131
14 +7/+2 +4 +4 +9 149
15 +7/+2 +5 +5 +9 165 Bonus Feat
16 +8/+3 +5 +5 +10 183
17 +8/+3 +5 +5 +10 199
18 +9/+4 +6 +6 +11 217 Arcane Storm
19 +9/+4 +6 +6 +11 233
20 +10/+5 +6 +6 +12 249 Bonus Feat

Shaper Spells Known
Lvl 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 4 2 - - - - - - - -
2 5 2 - - - - - - - -
3 5 3 - - - - - - - -
4 6 3 1 - - - - - - -
5 6 4 2 - - - - - - -
6 7 4 2 1 - - - - - -
7 7 5 3 2 - - - - - -
8 8 5 3 2 1 - - - - -
9 8 5 4 3 2 - - - - -
10 9 5 4 3 2 1 - - - -
11 9 5 5 4 3 2 - - - -
12 9 5 5 4 3 2 1 - - -
13 9 5 5 5 4 3 2 - - -
14 9 5 5 5 4 3 2 1 - -
15 9 5 5 5 5 4 3 2 - -
16 9 5 5 5 5 4 3 2 1 -
17 9 5 5 5 5 5 4 3 2 -
18 9 5 5 5 5 5 4 3 2 1
19 9 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 3 2
20 9 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 3 3

Spell Level 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Mana Cost 0/1 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17

Shaping: Shapers have innate arcane abilities that are unique to their class. These abilities are powerful and useful in many ways, but also have their limitations. There are two types of Shaping actions: Shaping and Maintaining. Shaping is when a Shaper uses any of his class abilities that require Mana. Shaping can never be used in the same turn a Shaper wishes to cast a spell, however Maintaining can. Maintaining is when a Shaper pays an amount of Mana to keep a Shaping ability used during the previous round in play. Arcane Bolts and Arcane Storm cannot be maintained as they are instantaneous spell-like abilities. Also a Shaper may never spend more Mana than his class level to shape and/or maintain. Arcane abilities are spell-like abilities.

Spells: Shapers have learned to shape the Winds to recreate the effects of spells they have seen other spellcasters use. As such they can cast arcane and even a few divine spells. They are limited by how many spells they know. Every level the shaper learns one or more new spells as shown in Table: Shaper Spells Known. The shaper may only learn spells from the Shaper Spell List. Also, the shaper is not limited to a certain number of spells per day; instead they cast spells by using Mana. Mana can be fully restored with a full nights rest. Spell costs are noted below.

Arcane Bolts: Beginning at Level 1 the Shaper has the innate ability to fling bolts of pure magical energy at a target. Such an attack requires a ranged touch attack and has a range of 100 ft. +10 ft/lvl. If successful the target suffers 1D4/1 Mana spent. No saves are allowed, but spell resistance does apply. At level 4 this ability is upgraded in strength and now deals 1D6/1 Mana. And finally at level 6 this ability is upgraded again and may include a blast radius. For every Bolt beyond the first the attack has 5 ft. added to its blast radius. Reflex for half damage. For example: Duvo uses 6 Mana to shape arcane bolts, on a successful hit the attack will do 6D6 damage to all targets within 25 ft. of the blasts origin.

Arcane Shield: A Shaper may spend Mana to create a magical force field that covers and surrounds them. This ability will increase the users AC by 1/1 Mana spent. This is a magical bonus. Maintain at ˝ original cost.

Arcane Enhancement: Shapers are adept and defending themselves and that often means simply being stronger, faster, or tougher. Beginning at level 4 the shaper may increase their Str, Dex, and/or Con by 1/2 Mana spent. This is a magical bonus. Maintain at ˝ cost.

Bonus Feat: The shaper gains a bonus feat at levels 5, 10, 15, and 20. This feat may be a metamagic feat or an item creation feat.

Arcane Flight: Shapers a free roaming people that don’t like to be tied down by responsibilities, family, jobs, or even gravity! Beginning at level 6 they at last learn to defy gravity and fly. They fly with perfect maneuverability at double their speed for a cost of 4 Mana. For every 4 Mana they spend beyond the first they may multiply their flying speed by one more. Example: A human shaper has a land speed of 30. He may fly for 4 Mana at a speed of 60 ft. or for 8 Mana he may fly at 90 ft. and for 12 Mana he can fly at 120 ft. and so on. Maintain at Ľ original cost.

Arcane Defense: As their understanding of the Winds of Magic continue to grow so do their abilities to control them. Starting at level 12 the Shaper can try to stop offensive spells directed at him. He gains Spell Resistance of 13+1/2 Mana spent. Maintain at ˝ original cost.

Arcane Storm: When a shaper reaches this level of control over the Winds, he can use them to such horrifyingly destructive ends such as the Arcane Storm. To use this ability the shaper must spend one round gathering all of the Winds around him into himself. On the following round he releases the blast. It flies towards a point he designates and explodes with tremendous force. This ability costs the maximum amount of Mana he can use (his class level) and causes 10D6 +1D6/level points of damage over a 100 ft. radius blast! Afterwards, the shaper is fatigued until he can rest. Also, the shaper used all the Winds near him in the storm so there is a 50 ft. radius anti-magic field around the point where he shaped the storm in effect for 1D10 rounds.

So thats it. It's original at least.

I hope everyone can learn from what I've posted here and even improve on the idea!
Good luck and happy gaming to all!
ZeroTakenaka
03-08-06, 09:11 PM We don't know how much mana a shaper has and if you have 300+ mana at lvl 20 then you have a high AC and it won't go away.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
codemancac 03-06-06, 04:19 PM	Someone has probably done something similar by now since the sorcerer debate has gone on for years. However, in case it hasn't happened yet, here is the sorcerer that I use in my games, which allows players to choose from many of the various options that people have designed to improve the class. Begin with the standard sorcerer, with the following change: remove the Summon familiar special ability. Then, upon taking the first sorcerer level, choose two (or however many your DM allows) of the following options: · Familiar – the sorcerer gains the Summon Familiar special ability at first level. Furthermore, the sorcerer gains the feat Improved Familiar when he gains 3rd level sorcerer spells. Note: I haven’t seen the article on staff familiars, but I would imagine that they can be grouped into this category. · Skillful – the sorcerer gains 4 skill points per level instead of 2. Also, the sorcerer gains one skill of the player’s choice as a class skill. · Draconic – the sorcerer gains any one Draconic feat as a bonus feat. He must meet all prerequisites for the feat. · Alternate Legacy – the sorcerer gains one bloodline feat (from Dragon magazine) of his choice for free. · Natural Metamagic – the sorcerer does not suffer the normal penalty of an increased casting time for enhancing his spells with metamagic. · Primal Spellcaster – the sorcerer gains the Primitive Caster feat from Frostburn with the following change: alter the material component to allow the rare herb to come from any environment. Furthermore, the sorcerer gains the ability to swap out one spell known for a different spell once per week. Both spells must be sorcerer spells of the same level; furthermore, the spell level must be lower than the maximum spell level that the sorcerer is capable of casting. · Natural Talent – at odd sorcerer levels, if the sorcerer qualifies for a bonus spell of the next spell level, he gains one spell known of the next spell level. Thus, he gains the bonus spells he would be entitled to based on his Charisma score for his next spell level. For example, a 5th level sorcerer with a Charisma score of 16 and the Natural Talent ability is eligible to gain 1 bonus spell slot of 3rd level, even though he does not normally gain 3rd level spells until his 6th sorcerer level. · Tough – the sorcerer gains d6 hit dice instead of d4 hit dice. Furthermore, the sorcerer gains the toughness feat at first level. If you support this version of the sorcerer, please keep the thread bumped and continue to list alternate options. Also, let me know if you do not think the options are balanced.
Lucan_Desmond 03-07-06, 10:57 PM	I decided to change the sorcerer for my campaign because I felt that the way they work is too similar to the wizard especially when you consider how different the two classes are when described in fluff. The first and largest change I made was to replace the classes spells per day with the Spell Point system presented in Unearthed Arcana. I feel this system is fairly balanced and definitely has much more of the sorcerer feel, if you know what I mean. The next thing I did was give it a much large list of class abilities that it would gain as levels increased. These abilities were based on natural magical talent and profoundly unique. They were also unfortunately heinously overpowered. After I finished with them I sat back and looked at the abilities that were inspired by many things that I'm almost ashamed to admit I was inspired by like Dragonball Z shiver... why did I ever like that show? The Arcane Storm ability was inspired by the Crown of Fire ability from the 2nd Edition Spellfire Wielder class. If you have access the an old book with that class in it, you'll be able to see where many of my ideas came from! I'll include the list of special abilities I created and scraped in the hopes that maybe someone can tweak it and come up with something more balanced yet still profoundly fun to play. Base Fort Ref Will Mana Level Attack Bonus Save Save Save Points Special 1 +0 +0 +0 +2 3 Arcane Bolts (D4), Arcane Shield 2 +1 +0 +0 +3 5 3 +1 +1 +1 +3 8 4 +2 +1 +1 +4 14 Arcane Bolts (D6), Arcane Enhancement 5 +2 +1 +1 +4 19 Bonus Feat 6 +3 +2 +2 +5 29 Arcane Bolts (Blast) 7 +3 +2 +2 +5 37 8 +4 +2 +2 +6 51 Arcane Flight 9 +4 +3 +3 +6 63 10 +5 +3 +3 +7 81 Bonus Feat 11 +5 +3 +3 +7 97 12 +6/+1 +4 +4 +8 115 Arcane Defense 13 +6/+1 +4 +4 +8 131 14 +7/+2 +4 +4 +9 149 15 +7/+2 +5 +5 +9 165 Bonus Feat 16 +8/+3 +5 +5 +10 183 17 +8/+3 +5 +5 +10 199 18 +9/+4 +6 +6 +11 217 Arcane Storm 19 +9/+4 +6 +6 +11 233 20 +10/+5 +6 +6 +12 249 Bonus Feat Shaper Spells Known Lvl 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 4 2 - - - - - - - - 2 5 2 - - - - - - - - 3 5 3 - - - - - - - - 4 6 3 1 - - - - - - - 5 6 4 2 - - - - - - - 6 7 4 2 1 - - - - - - 7 7 5 3 2 - - - - - - 8 8 5 3 2 1 - - - - - 9 8 5 4 3 2 - - - - - 10 9 5 4 3 2 1 - - - - 11 9 5 5 4 3 2 - - - - 12 9 5 5 4 3 2 1 - - - 13 9 5 5 5 4 3 2 - - - 14 9 5 5 5 4 3 2 1 - - 15 9 5 5 5 5 4 3 2 - - 16 9 5 5 5 5 4 3 2 1 - 17 9 5 5 5 5 5 4 3 2 - 18 9 5 5 5 5 5 4 3 2 1 19 9 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 3 2 20 9 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 3 3 Spell Level 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mana Cost 0/1 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 Shaping: Shapers have innate arcane abilities that are unique to their class. These abilities are powerful and useful in many ways, but also have their limitations. There are two types of Shaping actions: Shaping and Maintaining. Shaping is when a Shaper uses any of his class abilities that require Mana. Shaping can never be used in the same turn a Shaper wishes to cast a spell, however Maintaining can. Maintaining is when a Shaper pays an amount of Mana to keep a Shaping ability used during the previous round in play. Arcane Bolts and Arcane Storm cannot be maintained as they are instantaneous spell-like abilities. Also a Shaper may never spend more Mana than his class level to shape and/or maintain. Arcane abilities are spell-like abilities. Spells: Shapers have learned to shape the Winds to recreate the effects of spells they have seen other spellcasters use. As such they can cast arcane and even a few divine spells. They are limited by how many spells they know. Every level the shaper learns one or more new spells as shown in Table: Shaper Spells Known. The shaper may only learn spells from the Shaper Spell List. Also, the shaper is not limited to a certain number of spells per day; instead they cast spells by using Mana. Mana can be fully restored with a full nights rest. Spell costs are noted below. Arcane Bolts: Beginning at Level 1 the Shaper has the innate ability to fling bolts of pure magical energy at a target. Such an attack requires a ranged touch attack and has a range of 100 ft. +10 ft/lvl. If successful the target suffers 1D4/1 Mana spent. No saves are allowed, but spell resistance does apply. At level 4 this ability is upgraded in strength and now deals 1D6/1 Mana. And finally at level 6 this ability is upgraded again and may include a blast radius. For every Bolt beyond the first the attack has 5 ft. added to its blast radius. Reflex for half damage. For example: Duvo uses 6 Mana to shape arcane bolts, on a successful hit the attack will do 6D6 damage to all targets within 25 ft. of the blasts origin. Arcane Shield: A Shaper may spend Mana to create a magical force field that covers and surrounds them. This ability will increase the users AC by 1/1 Mana spent. This is a magical bonus. Maintain at ˝ original cost. Arcane Enhancement: Shapers are adept and defending themselves and that often means simply being stronger, faster, or tougher. Beginning at level 4 the shaper may increase their Str, Dex, and/or Con by 1/2 Mana spent. This is a magical bonus. Maintain at ˝ cost. Bonus Feat: The shaper gains a bonus feat at levels 5, 10, 15, and 20. This feat may be a metamagic feat or an item creation feat. Arcane Flight: Shapers a free roaming people that don’t like to be tied down by responsibilities, family, jobs, or even gravity! Beginning at level 6 they at last learn to defy gravity and fly. They fly with perfect maneuverability at double their speed for a cost of 4 Mana. For every 4 Mana they spend beyond the first they may multiply their flying speed by one more. Example: A human shaper has a land speed of 30. He may fly for 4 Mana at a speed of 60 ft. or for 8 Mana he may fly at 90 ft. and for 12 Mana he can fly at 120 ft. and so on. Maintain at Ľ original cost. Arcane Defense: As their understanding of the Winds of Magic continue to grow so do their abilities to control them. Starting at level 12 the Shaper can try to stop offensive spells directed at him. He gains Spell Resistance of 13+1/2 Mana spent. Maintain at ˝ original cost. Arcane Storm: When a shaper reaches this level of control over the Winds, he can use them to such horrifyingly destructive ends such as the Arcane Storm. To use this ability the shaper must spend one round gathering all of the Winds around him into himself. On the following round he releases the blast. It flies towards a point he designates and explodes with tremendous force. This ability costs the maximum amount of Mana he can use (his class level) and causes 10D6 +1D6/level points of damage over a 100 ft. radius blast! Afterwards, the shaper is fatigued until he can rest. Also, the shaper used all the Winds near him in the storm so there is a 50 ft. radius anti-magic field around the point where he shaped the storm in effect for 1D10 rounds. So thats it. It's original at least. I hope everyone can learn from what I've posted here and even improve on the idea! Good luck and happy gaming to all!
ZeroTakenaka 03-08-06, 09:11 PM	We don't know how much mana a shaper has and if you have 300+ mana at lvl 20 then you have a high AC and it won't go away.