Playtesting: The Magebound Class – Build 1.5
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With development of some things in full-swing, I wanted to post up the latest build of the Magebound class for everyone to check out.
The rules for this build are based on 5th-Edition Dungeons & Dragons rules.
Keep in mind that this is self-edited and a little raw, as most playtest documents are, with actual editing to come later when everyone internally is happy with the rules.
A note on that: I know that I cannot please everyone with new rules and custom creations, and that is ok. My tastes may not be the same as yours and that happens sometimes.
If you are interested, give the Magebound a download, take a look, and drop comments below. I would love to get some folks out there playing the class just to see how it handles.
Man, if I wasn’t DMing I would definitely play this. Will offer it to my players though.
Out of curiosity, why so many cantrips and the extra 1st-level slot at 17th level? They’re not overpowered – it’s not hard to get oodles of cantrips early on – pick variant human sorcerer and the Magic Initiate feat, for instance – but by mid level both are pretty redundant, at least in combat.
I’ll read through more and see if anything else pops out at me, but those did right away seeing as they were right on the class table.
Okay, so read through it. All in all a pretty sold class, although I do find the lack of subclasses to be kind of jarring. I assume that’s because the different elementals are meant to have the same mechanics.
MECHANICS OF EMPOWERED BOND
The way this is worded makes it seem like it gets added to every damage roll you make when you cast a spell, making it amazing for AoE spell effects. Is that intended? If not, I would suggest re-wording so that it applies to a single damage roll of a spell or of a weapon attack.
PERFECT BOND
The spell slot recovery mechanic should almost certainly cap out at 5th-level spells – as written, you could cast your 6th- through 9th-level spells, then recover almost all the slots right away. Even granting that it’s the 20th-level capstone, that’s pretty bonkers! (By way of comparison, wizards’ Arcane Recovery, sorcerer spell slot generation using Font of Magic, and warlock Pact Magic slots all cap at 5th level slots.)
Also, is there any sort of action you need to take? Does it happen after some period of time of contemplation (the way the warlock spends… 10 minutes, I think? to recover slots), when you finish a short rest (the way Arcane Recovery works), as an action or bonus action?
FLUFF/DESCRIPTION OF ELEMENTAL BOND
I realise that, mechanically, you as a player are choosing a damage type as a stand-in for the kind of elemental, but it makes for a weird description in the Deeper Understanding feature. Maybe that feature should refer to your bound elemental instead of a damage type?
WORDING NITPICKS
– There are a couple spots where “standard action” comes up.
– In the Shared Life feature, the final sentence about the temporary hit points is redundant.
– I’m not quite convinced about the wording of Dual Minds. I wonder if maybe the final part (after the reference to illusions) should read “[…] or that cause you to become charmed”?
Thank you for the feedback! I will add these to the review document and report back when a new build goes up!
So, I’ve read it through once, and my first impression is that it is a very cool Sorceror-like class.
Diving a bit deeper:
ATTRIBUTE DEPENDENCY
Why go with INT based spellcasting? The fluff on the Binding ritual suggests that it is the elemental’s _vitality_ that comes through in the binding; so, why not go with a Constitution-based save DC? Bonus points, that’d make this significantly more different from both Wizards and Sorcerors.
EMPOWERED BOND
As Composer99 says, if that applies to every damage roll for an entire AoE … yowzers.
It might be best to let it apply to only the damage dealt to ONE target – much like Warlocks of the Celestial get, for Radiant damage.
LACK OF SUBCLASSES
I would really like to have seen each Elemental type treated as it’s own subclass, with some minor abilities particular to each one.
I would also like to see the Magebound slowly start gaining Resistance, maybe eventually Immunity, to their specific bound element. Someone who is half fire elemental, should take less damage from Fire than someone who is half, say, Sonic elemental.
🙂
I think it was the pyromancer in the Magic the Gathering: Plane Shift crossover that had a good way of doing that. At level 6ish, you got resistance and your spells negated resistance to fire. At the point the subclass got its last ability, it got immunity to fire damage and treated immunity of that element as resistance, so you could still damage yourself if you fireballed yourself.
Here are my five cents:
1) ELEMENTAL BOND. I would suggest limiting the range of damage types. Otherwise, I can already see hordes of Force and Radiant Magebound powergamers. While getting Immunity/Resistance to Elemental damage type would favor more commonn fire, lightning or cold instead, Immunity is sitting at high 18th lvl and thus will be unlikely to matter for most games. Maybe if you add resistance as lower level feature, then it will compensate.
2) EMPOWERED BOND. To add to Composer99 and _Pax_ , wording is unclear and if exatra 2d6 added to every monster hit by the AoE, then it is indeed problematic. But if adding it against every individual target of said AoE spell counts against the limit of [half of INT between long rests], then it should be fine to use in AoE as well.
3) SPELLCASTING FOCUS reads “for your SORCERER spells”.
4) SUMMONED WEAPON is intended to be a major class feature, but with no AC and d6 HD magebound is no gish. They have no incentive to neither get in melee nor increase their STR (and DEX is secondary/tertiary). With summoned weapon relying on STR/DEX, and only Dagger being Finesse weapon, and no incentive getting in melee, even with increased damage die would not make Summoned weapon worthwhile, especially with so many cantrips. Shocking grasp (+7 to hit, 2d8 damage) will always lead on dagger (+5 to hit, 2d4+2 damage)/staff (+2 to hit, 2d8-1 damage) of typical magebound {numbers done on lvl 5 magebound with +4 INT, +2 DEX and -1 STR}. If you increase STR instead of DEX, then damage of quarterstaff may be worth it, but with even lower AC and low HP that is incredibly rissky to get so close. Thus, Summoned weapon will be only used in rare case when enemy is resisting/immune to the damage typw of the chosen cantrips but not to Summoned weapon damage type.
To make summoned weapon more attractive you could make it use INT for to-hit and damage instead of STR/DEX, and/or unify the damage die (similar to Monk weapons), and/or allow daggers to be thrown once before they disappear, and/or add extra rider to the damage (maybe related to the damage type – fire/acid sets target ablase/corrode over time like alchemist fire, cold slows movement like Ray of Frost, lightning removes reaction like Shoking graps, thunder pushes prone or five feet away, psychic inflicts disadvangtage on the attack roll like Vicious Mockery, nectotic prevents regeneration like Chill Touch, radiant makes target shine 5 ft bright light, etc. BUT posion shouldn’t add poisoned condition, it is too powerful debuff). I think that even if you add several of those, with low HP and AC it will still be a risky proposition to actually use summoned weapon, but it will make it at least worthwhile.
5) As Composer99 mentioned, DUAL MINDS is a bit poorly codified and I can see some misunderstandings.
“spells and effects that create illusions” are all the spells from Illusion school? Or only those where the wording says “create illusions”? How about Dream or Fear (they are in Illusion school, but they don’t create illusions)? In addition, many illusions (Minor Illusion, Silent Image, Major Illusion, etc) require Investigation chek instead of Saving Throw. Si this feature intended to affect it?
“spells and effects that create charm effects” are all the effects which cause Charmed condition? Or maybe it refers to Supernatural charms? And how about spells which don’t cause Charmed, but have “Creatures that can’t be charmed are immune to this effect.” clause, such as Suggestion?
I would may be suggest instead of trying to properly codify this “illusions and charms” thing to borrow the feature “Dual Mind” from Kalashtar which has the same lore and same intent.
SIDENOTE Speaking of Kalashtar, how would Kalashtar Magebound work lore-wise? Two’s a crowd, three’s a party?
Good notes! Thank you!
for that matter what about Asamir with their celestial guide
Looks like a great class, and a lot of thoughts have been mentioned, but I had a question.
SHARED LIFE: gain temporary HP equal to Int-Mod… Say you luck out in rolling and have an 18 to Int at 1st level. You might be able to get that up to 20-21 by 6th level. So is 5 points really in the scheme of things a good thing? I know, I know.. “5 points could be life or unconscious”, but just thinking about it longterm even if you go to 25-26 by level 20 through items.
Also, I was talking this over with a DM friend and maybe seeing if I could tweak it to 3.5 Ed. We’ve spent so much on books and just not made the jump to 5th yet. lol
What are your thoughts on this for 3.5?
BAB: Like a rogue maybe? That way the summoned weapon feels a little more useful in combat?
Fort: Good. the bond from the elemental allows for a greater constitution and fortification?
Ref: Poor.
Will: Good. Spellcaster + elemental would make for a good argument to have a stronger will.
Spells and other stuff make little tweaks if needed. Please let me know if I’m crazy for wanting to bring something like this into a edition I’m familiar with. lol
Had another thought with this too on Summoned Weapon (and again, I’m thinking through the lens of 3.5 ed, not 5th so I don’t know if this is a thing in that edition.)
Could a magebound take the feat Martial Weapons (again not sure if it’s a 5th ed thing) and then create a martial melee weapon? Just thinking of a 5th level magebound wielding a ice greatclub dealing 2d10 damage. lol.
I’ve only skimmed it so far gonna go re-read it deeper now but my first impression
you gain elemental immunity at level 18 but at no point gain resistance (unless I missed that) at a lower level i could see that making sense
also, just a thought maybe for the spell list make it they can take a spell from any list if it’s an elemental spell of their type (and level appropriate)
I’m just here to say Dammmmn that is some solid revenge. I wasn’t sure Dwayla would get what’s coming to her. This is absolutely those moments you hope and wish for in a plot.
Wait. Why is Jeannie giving Trevor the stink-eye about him dating Sam’s brother when she was shipping the ever-lovin crap out them earlier? Sam may not approve of “Sleeping with the Enemy”, for a variety of reasons, but what Jeannie’s angle?
Is it a case of, “Least said, Soonest mended” where the Brothers Tigh are concerned? Or is it something else?
Dang it. Wrong comment list. Hate it when that happens.
Sorry, all.
Real quick, does anyone else not have the spell list? I’ve downloaded this a few times and I havn’t been able to find it. Is that not included, part of the update? I’m just confused.
this was an amazing comic, and I’m so glad I found it. thank you so much for all you put into it over the years.