posted
For the setting of Tagnik'Zur I am making I am currently working on a special type of class.
To give a comparison it is very much inspired by the Shinigami from Bleach. Essentially I have a Samurai-like class that relies on agility based ac (so like a monk) rather then armor but have a spiritual connection to their magic sword.
The backstory to this is that a warrior has to in single combat defeat a Dragon (rough sketch, I am brainstorming variations of this for plot) and from there take the Dragon's lifeforce and fuse it with their sword giving them significant magical powers through their sword(s) which they must develop and train and eventually this power reflects the will and spirit of the user.
These swords can be handed down, but only from parent to child* and even then while the Child doesn't have to fight a Dragon it is of considerable effort and will to unlock the powers of the sword.
Now here's my conundrum; Do I make it a Alpha Class where I don't bother making any more then cosmetic balancing efforts between it and other classes and simply state that these kinds of swordsmen are incredibly rare. OR
Make a significant efforts at balancing it so that while they are powerful aren't moreso powerful then other classes outside of normal.
(Example, a Wizard is exponentially more powerful then a Fighter as levels increase, this is technically "balanced")
There's alot I want to do with this class as I intend storywise for them to be important. But for a Campaign I have alot of work to do.
Seems to me I have Situation A) Where a say level 18 fighter fights a Dragon and then changes to a level 18 Whatever-I-name-the-Class (WINTC) or adds it on as a Prestige class.
or case B) Sword is handed down and the Prestige class can be added on once the power is unlocked.
Now what is this power? I am thinking that the magical power of the sword should reflect obviously the subrace of dragon it was merged with, so a Red Dragon would give a fire element abilities. I'm thinking that the Sword should get Wiz/Sor spells as Spell Like Abilities X-Many times a day at will. Example, if a Red Dragon was fused with it, then you could summon up every single fire type Wizard spell at some point, Blazing Hands, Enchant Sword, Fireball, Cone of Fire, Wall of Fire, Meteor Storm, Fire Arrow, etc etc.
I'm thinking one way to balance this is as above, remove the ability to wear anything heavier then light armor, but then again this seems like not much of a limitation.
Being a world where Dragons are worshipped as Gods I think an additional restriction is that you'll be persona non grata in some circles. but then again, not much of a restriction.
Since this is a class and not a race there's no ECL I can tac on.
I'm also thinking maybe, the player needs to keep making will saves? Much like how Artemis Entreri had to keep making an effort to control his Sword? The intelligence of the sword might overwhelm the user, but at the same time I want a situation where the sword accepts its user making him stronger.
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