Elemental Siphon

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Kaelik
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Post by Kaelik »

Koumei wrote:It does in my experience: someone does a turbo-charge-pounce-kiai-murder-assault for a squillion points of damage, or a caster says "I would like you to make a ____ save, DC __", and upon failing the save, the enemy loses the fight long enough for it to basically mean they die.
And in your games the monsters have no ability to not be charged and never make their saves and come in batches of 1 because you personally want to play games where you never face any real challenge and you kill everything in 1 round, so you give arbitrary -12 penalties to saves and you treat the monsters like idiots.

But If I'm playing in a Tome game, I give the monsters Tome Feats, and they make intelligent decisions, and come in packs, and their saves are on the RNG, and the fight takes several rounds at least.
DSMatticus wrote:Kaelik gonna kaelik. Whatcha gonna do?
The U.S. isn't a democracy and if you think it is, you are a rube.

That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
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Josh_Kablack
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Post by Josh_Kablack »

IMX, a party of four reasonably optimized PCs vs a single monster of CR == party level generally takes 2 or fewer rounds of actually trading blows before the fight is done.

However encounters involving
  • multiple monsters, or
  • or monsters of CR greater than average party level, or
  • terrain which restricts attacking (whether that is cover, concealment, barriers or just starting combat at very long range), or
  • or monsters who have stealth, illusions or other attack-restricting abilities, or
  • frail PCs and paranoid players who don't just charge/pounce/kill but instead do stuff like throw Summon Monster I from down the hallway as a scouting tactic, or
  • some other factor(s) that delay(s) the start of team monster and team PC trading their most effective attacks (having to extract a hostage, starting with diplomacy, the PCs trying to avoid the encounter via stealth, etc)
Encounters take longer. Each of those factors usually adds about another 2 rounds to a fight.
Last edited by Josh_Kablack on Tue Sep 06, 2011 4:45 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Koumei
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Post by Koumei »

As true as a fair amount of what you said is, Kaelik, and as insulting as it's meant to be, it occurs to me that in my game combats have been taking 3-4 rounds when they're not silly little joke monsters.

Due to being CR>level, or groups (that total up to a correct challenge), or terrain or whatever.

So I will concede that point. How many rounds does it tend to last for normal people, above those first few levels? A lot of my class design so far has sort of been with the "It only lasts a round or two, tops, anyway" assumption, so knowing what it realistically is will help future classes be less retarded.
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...You Lost Me
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Post by ...You Lost Me »

Kaelik's battles last as long as Kaelik says so because he is Kaelik and you are dumb and stupid and any who isn't dumb or is Kaelik would know that Kaelik is right and has he mentioned that you are dumb?
DSMatticus wrote:Again, look at this fucking map you moron. Take your finger and trace each country's coast, then trace its claim line. Even you - and I say that as someone who could not think less of your intelligence - should be able to tell that one of these things is not like the other.
Kaelik wrote:I invented saying mean things about Tussock.
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Kaelik
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Post by Kaelik »

...You Lost Me wrote:Kaelik's battles last as long as Kaelik says so because he is Kaelik and you are dumb and stupid and any who isn't dumb or is Kaelik would know that Kaelik is right and has he mentioned that you are dumb?
If you have something of no value or relevance that you absolutely have to say, say it in some thread that in either IMHO or MPSIMS, not in this subforum.
DSMatticus wrote:Kaelik gonna kaelik. Whatcha gonna do?
The U.S. isn't a democracy and if you think it is, you are a rube.

That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
Koumei
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Post by Koumei »

Anyway, I can't really find any real criticism of the base class, so it's a matter of waiting to see what the various prestiges look like. But I do like the token mechanic.
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
BearsAreBrown
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Post by BearsAreBrown »

Not letting you forget about this because it's the best class you've made.

And to actually add something other then a bump, would you consider making the class 15 levels long with level 10 being an obvious prestige breakpoint? Or to put it another way, make a PrC that doesn't add any more elements? I want to be Aang without pretending that Energy Bending is Astral or someshit.
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Post by Korgan0 »

The question is how you'd get high-level utility in there of the same kind the Wizard and Sorcerer have while still having it be coherently elemental fluffed. Aang never cast Teleport, or Dominate, or Dimensional Anchor, or shit like that, which is stuff you need at high levels in order to be relevant. I'm not saying that it can't be done, just that it would be tricky.
BearsAreBrown
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Post by BearsAreBrown »

Korgan0 wrote:The question is how you'd get high-level utility in there of the same kind the Wizard and Sorcerer have while still having it be coherently elemental fluffed. Aang never cast Teleport, or Dominate, or Dimensional Anchor, or shit like that, which is stuff you need at high levels in order to be relevant. I'm not saying that it can't be done, just that it would be tricky.
My only worry is that the only way to power up past level 10 is to dilute the theme. Aang was just an example of that thematic concept. And unlike SowrdGuy it's a thematic concept that can go high powered.
...You Lost Me
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Post by ...You Lost Me »

1.5 year bump. This is still the best class I've seen on the subforums, and I would love to see those prestige classes. Besides, it's summer now.

Possible class outline?
1. New passive ability from tokens, moar tokens
2. Channel token of your plane (Ex: Positive Token for Heal)
3. Buffed elemental minion
4. Better warding
5. Combined channeling with your chosen PrC token
6. Some SoD / GTFO ability of elemental-ness
7. Better warding again
8. Buffed elemental minion again
9. Passive plane-related class ability
10. Whee capstone

EDIT: PLEASE KAELIK

PLEASE
Last edited by ...You Lost Me on Mon Jun 30, 2014 4:04 am, edited 2 times in total.
DSMatticus wrote:Again, look at this fucking map you moron. Take your finger and trace each country's coast, then trace its claim line. Even you - and I say that as someone who could not think less of your intelligence - should be able to tell that one of these things is not like the other.
Kaelik wrote:I invented saying mean things about Tussock.
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Kaelik
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Post by Kaelik »

Ethereal Siphon
"Let our powers combine. Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! Heart? No, we don't need you Ma-Ti."

HD: d8
BAB: 3/4ths
Skill points: 4+Int
Balance, Concentration, Escape Artist, Jump, Knowledge Planes/Arcana, Listen, Search, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival, Tumble.
Saves: Good Fort and Will. Bad Reflex

1: Ethereal Tokens, Ethereal Burn
2: Ethereal Channel
3: Ethereal Warding
4: Ethereal Minion
5: Ethereal Elements
6: Combined Ethereal Warding
7: Ethereal Form
8: Tri-Element Channelling
9:
10: Ethereal Apotheosis

Ethereal Pool (Ex): An Ethereal Siphon now has a maximum number of Ethereal Tokens equal to the maximum of his four elemental tokens.

Additionally, if has fewer than this amount, he may, as a swift action, convert any two Fire or Air tokens into Ethereal Tokens.

Ethereal Burn (Su): An Ethereal Siphon may burn two Ethereal Tokens as an immediate action to temporarily shift to the ethereal, dodging any attacks, spells, or other abilities directed at him, and remaining on the ethereal unaffected until the beginning of his next turn. If he is on the ethereal, he can instead transport to the material plane for a similar effect.

Ethereal Channel (Su): An Ethereal Siphon can now burn a single Ethereal Token to cast planeshift, as the spell, but with a range of close, and a target of the Ethereal Plane. If instead his target is on the Ethereal Plane he may shift them to a specific location on the Material Plane that he has already been to as the spell Greater Planeshift instead.

In either case this channel may be modified as any other channel the Ethereal Siphon's Elemental Siphon class features Powered Channel and Channel the Storm.

Ethereal Warding (Su): An Ethereal Siphon may have an Ethereal Warding active at all times. This gives him the effect of Greater Blink. Alternatively he may have both the Fire and Air Greater Wardings active at the same time in addition to whichever Greater Warding he has active from his Elemental Siphon class feature.

Ethereal Minion (Ex): An Ethereal Siphon may have an Ethereal Elemental, which has the same stats as an Earth Elemental, but as a supernatural ability can go Ethereal as the Etherealness spell as a standard action at will. Additionally the Ethereal ELemental, when on the Ethereal plane, can see onto the Material Plane out to 120ft.

Ethereal Elements (Su): The Ethereal Siphon gains access to four new channels by combining his ethereal nature with the elements. He may spend an Ethereal Token as well as a token of the appropriate element to produce the desired effect.

As a channeling, these effects may still be modified by the same methods used in the Elemental Siphon class features.

Ethereal Water: You may turn any contiguous body of natural water into ethereal water as a standard action, once you have done so, you may use the ethereal water in many ways. Firstly, you may cast Scrying by looking into a pool of Ethereal Water. Secondly, you may form Ethereal Water Elementals, who are aside from looks, are exactly like casting Greater Prying Eyes. Visually, the eyes look like insubstantial Fine water elementals. Thirdly, you can direct a pool of Ethereal Water to look like any other uniform surface, this change only effects a "surface" layer, which is the layer in contact with air. It has no effect on creatures in the water, who can see normally. This effect is an illusion which grants a will save for disbelief and can be pierced by True Seeing.

Additionally, as a Standard action you may create a Wall of Ethereal Water, which is as the spell Wall of Water, but it does 2 wisdom damage each round to all character inside it.

Ethereal Air: You may turn a section of air into Ethereal Air. Basically you create a Solid Fog effect, however, in addition to the Solid Fog it also acts as a silence effect, and those inside the effect cannot breath and risk suffocation. Meanwhile, on the Ethereal Plane in the same location, the Solid Fog effect remains, however the cloud acts as a Cloudkill effect. You may channel this ability on either plane, and in either case it will have the same dual effects, with the Cloudkill on the ethereal and the Silence and lack of breath on the material.

Alternatively, you may use Ethereal Air to control the weather, treated as casting Control Weather.

Ethereal Fire: As a standard action you may infect a target within Medium Range with Ethereal Fire. Each round, the target must make a Will Save, if they fail, they are stunned for that round and take 3d8 fire damage. Additionally, the fire shoots out of them infecting anyone within 15ft with the effect. A target can only be effected by a single infection of Ethereal Fire at a time. One hour from when you first channelled the effect the original and all propagations of the effect expire. Additionally, the Ethereal Fire infection can be cured by the afflicted making four consecutive saves against the effect, the Heal spell, or a Break Enchantment effect. Once cured in any of these ways, the target is immune to any Ethereal Fire effect for one day.

Note that if you are immune to stunning (such as by being an Elemental) and have sufficient fire resistance or immunity, the only effect the spell has on you is to make you a carrier.

Ethereal Earth:
Last edited by Kaelik on Sat Sep 12, 2015 5:25 pm, edited 4 times in total.
DSMatticus wrote:Kaelik gonna kaelik. Whatcha gonna do?
The U.S. isn't a democracy and if you think it is, you are a rube.

That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
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