New Class - War Mage

I decided to try out the lesser arcane values to fill in a need for a specialized mage class for my Dwimmermount campaign.  As part of three distinct schools of magic in Adamas (Azure Tower, Elementalists, and the Adamas War College) I present the war mage.

I haven't play tested them yet.  I added 6 level spells to the ritual list for lesser casters, and  gave them a special ability only useable in mass combat.

Please let me know what you think.

War Mage (Fighter 1b, Mage 2, Thief 1, HD 0) – d4 HD –INT, WIS, CHA

(4 powers, trade 2 at 1st for 1 @ 3rd, 1 @ 5th, and 1 @ 7th, trade 1 @ 7th for 1 @ 9th and 1 @ 13th )

With the sealing of Dwimmermount and the disappearance of Terms Termax, the City of Adamas quickly rebelled against Termaxian rule.  The members of the former IXth Imperial Legion were among the leaders of the rebellion.  Despite the urging of the Temple of Zeus, the former legionnaires saw the value of mages in battle.   If the Termaxians returned there would be a need for mages loyal to Adamas.  The first despot of Adamas, Marcus Cheron, joined with the mage Saladino to found the Adamas War College and the the first class of war mages began their training. 

War Mages are masters of strategy and arcane warfare.  They are trained to lead men in battle and use magic in formation.  They also learn how to train troops. 

War mages are trained combatants, although not as skilled as fighters. At first level, war mages hit an unarmored foe (AC 0) with an attack throw of 10+. They advance in attack throws and saving throws by two points every four levels of experience. They can only wear hide armor or lighter and can use shields. They may use any missile weapons and all swords, daggers, spears, or polearms.   They may fight with a weapon and shield, and one handed weapon, or with a two-handed weapon.

A war mage saves as a mage.  They can use any magical item usable by mages, magical shields,  or any magical weapon they are proficient with. 

At first level, a war mage begins his military training by learning military history, strategic planning, and logistics.  They gain one level of military strategy.  When they begin arcane spell casting at 2nd level they learn how to effectively use spells in formation.  Units comprised entirely of war mages increase the maximum number of spells usable in a single attack sequence by 50% (see Domains at War – Battles p. 43) - e.g. a unit of 120 Arcanist Veterans (2nd level war mages) decide to cast burning hands in battle; 30 of them (instead of 20) can cast the spell during a single attack sequence (1 power). 

Their training also allows a war mage to tap into this knowledge to strategize.  A war mage can take a few moments of communicating before a battle (one round), and grants all of the character’s allies within a 50' radius a +1 bonus to attack throws, damage rolls, morale rolls (for monsters or NPCs allied with the caster), and saving throws against magical fear. The bonus lasts for 10 minutes (1 turn). The character can strategize with any given character once per day per class level. The character cannot strategize for characters who are already engaged in combat (1 power).

At 2nd level a war mage gains the ability to cast arcane spells.

At 3rd level a war mage gains a proficiency from the following list:  command, diplomacy, intimidation, leadership, manual at arms, military strategy, siege engineering, signaling, riding, or weapon focus.  They may choose another proficiency from this list at 5th level and again at 9th level. 

At 7th level a sword mage can research spells, use and scribe scrolls, and brew potions. 

When a sword mage attains 9th level (Mage General), he can establish a war college, and 2d6 0 level students and 1d6 sword mage apprentices of 1st to 3rd level will come to study.  While studying the war mage must cover their expenses they must be paid standard rates for hirelings.

At 12th level war mages can create wands, staffs, and other miscellaneous magic items.  At 13th level they can cast rituals of 6th through 8th level (1 power)

Proficiencies: Alchemy, Alertness, Battle Magic, Beast Friendship, Collegiate Wizardry, Command, Combat Reflexes, Command, Elementalism, Familiar, Illusion Resistance, Intimidation, Land Surveying, Leadership, Magical Engineering, Manual of Arms, Military Strategy, Mystical aura, Navigation, Precise Shooting, Riding, Sensing Power, Soothsaying, Siege Engineering, Skirmishing, Swashbuckling, Weapon Finesse, and Weapon Focus.

Experience

Title

Lvl

Hit Dice

BTH      BTHBTH

   Spells

  Eff. lvl

 

0

Recruit

1

1d4

0

 

    0

Military Strategy, Strategize

1950

Arcanist Veteran

2

2d4

+0

1

    1

Cast Arcane spells

3900

Seer Corporal

3

3d4

+1

2

    1

Bonus proficiency

7800

Theurgist Sergeant

4

4d4

+1

2

    2

 

15600

Magician Lieutenant

5

5d4

+2 

2 1

    3

Bonus proficiency

31200

Magician Captain

6

6d4

+2

2 2

    4

 

65000

Enchanter Commander

7

7d4

+3

2 2 1

    5

Spell research, create scrolls, brew potions

130000

Sorcerer Colonel

8

8d4

+3

3 2 2 1

    6

 

280000

Mage General

9

9d4

+4 

4 2 2 2

    7

Bonus proficiency

330000

Mage General 10th

10

9d4+1

+4

4 3 2 2

    8

 

480000

Mage General 11th

11

9d4+2

+5

4 3 2 2 1

    8

 

630000

Mage General 12th

12

9d4+3

+5

4 4 3 2 1

    9

Create magic items

780000

Wizard General

13

9d4+4

+6

4 4 3 2 1

    9

Learn and cast Ritual spells (6th through 9th)

930000

Warlord Wizard

14

9d4+5

+6

4 3 2 2 2

    10

 

 

I like the idea of giving them 6th-level spells as rituals, but I wouldn’t give them access to 7th, 8th, and 9th level rituals, since those are normally unlocked at caster level 11 and they do not make it that high.

1 Like

I used a power for it, but maybe rituals up to lvl 9 is too high.  Maybe lvl 6 rituals at 13th level and level 7 rituals at lvl 14.

Personally, I would probably say off the top of my head that each level of ritual is worth a power.

So 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level rituals would require 4 powers (almost certainly the result of level tradeoffs, of course, but still).

[quote="Aryxymaraki"] Personally, I would probably say off the top of my head that each level of ritual is worth a power. So 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level rituals would require 4 powers (almost certainly the result of level tradeoffs, of course, but still). [/quote]

Just saw this post - 

[quote="koewn"] IIRC, all the non-casting spellcaster powers "cost" 3 proficiencies at their given level - so ritual spells at 11th is 3 powers at level 11, or, ((14-11)/14) =~ .2142 *3 =~ .6428 powers. Potions is 3 powers at 5th, etc, and so on. [/quote]  

so maybe you are right that each level of ritual spells should be an individual power.