The Sand Mage
Sand mages derive magic from the harsh deserts in which they live. They use their magic both to protect themselves against the desert and to use its harsher extremes against their foes.
Making a Sand Mage: Sand mages' magic all runs off of Int. But they do use rays and touch attacks, so Dex and Str may also be important.
Hit Die: d8
Class Skills: The Sand Mage's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Concentration (Con), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge Nature (Int)) Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (-), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Use Rope (Dex).
Skills/Level: 4 + Intelligence Bonus
BAB: Medium (as Cleric),
Saves: Fort: Good; Reflex: Good; Will: Good
Level : Special
1: Hand of the Desert, Sand Blast, Desert Dweller, Instant Oasis
2: Energy Resistance, Mirage, Shifting Sands,
3: Dust Devil(small), Wear Away the Mountain, Sirocco
4: Desiccation, Every Stone a Story, Scorpion King
5: Burning Sands, Dust Devil (medium)
6: Stone Working, Lens Flare
7: It Is Written, Dust Devil (large)
8: Blistering Sun,
9: Wind Walk, Dust Devil (huge)
10:Sandstorm
11:Dust Devil (greater)
12:Call Forth the Hidden City
13:Dust Devil (elder)
14:Return to Sand
15:Dust Devil (pair)
16:Fossilize
17:Dust Devil (four)
18:A Mighty Wind
19:Dust Devil (eight)
20:Look Upon My Works, Ye Mighty
All of the following are Class Features of the Sand Mage class:
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Sand Mages are proficient with all simple weapons, as well as the shortbow, bola, and all sizes and varieties of scimitar (including falchions). Sand Mages are proficient with light armor but not with shields of any kind. If a sand mage wears armor or uses a shield they are not proficient in, then their spell-like abilities suffer from arcane spell failure chance.
Hand of the Desert (Sp) Anyone stuck by a sand mage's unarmed, natural weapon or weapon attacks must make a fortitude save (DC = 10 + 1/2 level + Int ) or become fatigued for one minute. Unlike normal fatigue, this has no effect on a target who is already fatigued and the effect ends after one minute.
Sand Blast (Sp) As a standard action, a sand mage can attack with a high velocity blast of hot sand. This is a Close range, ranged-touch attack that deals 1d4 per class level in force damage. It can also be used to remove soot from structures or rust from metals.
Desert Dweller:(Su) A sand mage is immune to any magical effect which causes fatigue or exhaustion. Additionally, a sandmage is protected by a constant Endure Elements effect. If dispelllled, the sandmage can resume this with a free action
Instant Oasis:(Sp) A sand mage can cause groundwater to spring out of the earth, creating a pool of drinkable water. This provides 2 gallons of clean and drinkable water per class level each hour and lasts until the sand mage dismisses it or creates a new one somewhere else. Using this ability may, at the DM's discretion, provide a circumstance +2 bonus to Survival rolls made to get along in the the wild.
Resist Any Extreme(Ex) : Deserts are places of varying extremes, and sand mages are well adapted to live in a wide variety of extremes. A sand mage gains resistance equal to half his character level against any all energy types as well as to more the obscure forms of magical damage. (This includes Acid, Cold, Electricity, Fire, Sonic, not to mention Light, Poison, Dehydration, Divine Power, Force, Raw Magic, Psychic, untyped, etc. If any spell, (Sp) or (Su) ability deals hit point damage to the sandmage, then this resistance applies)
Petty Digression
The suggested wording 'improvement' of "All damage from spells, SLAs, Ex and Su abilities is reduced by 1/2 level." would mean an ability that would not work against campfires, planar traits, flasks of acid, lava pools and would be arguable for frost and similar weapons. Therefore that wording would not achieve the design intent.
Shifting Sands:(Sp) At second level a sand mage may use Fog Cloud at will.
Dust Devil (Sp): at 3rd level, a sand mage gains the ability to summon a small air elemental as a full round action. The elemental appears within Close range and remains until dismissed, dispelled, slain or forced to move further than Close range away from the Sand Mage. A sand mage may use this ability at will, but may only have one such Air Elemental at a time. As the sand mage gains levels, the power of the dust devil increases: at 5th level a sand mage may summon a medium air elemental, at 7th level a sand mage may summon a large air elemental and at 9th level a sand mage may summon a huge air elemental. At level 11 a sand mage may summon a greater air elemental. At level 13, a sand mage may summon an elder air elemental. At 15th level a sand mage may summon a pair of elementals, at 17th level a sand mage may summon up to 4 such elementals, and at 19th level, a sandmage may summon up to 8 such elementals. Summoning multiple elementals at the same time is still only one full round action.
Wear away the Mountain (Sp): Every single grain of sand was once part of something much bigger. At 3rd level, a sandmage gains the ability to use Soften Earth and Stone at will. DC is 10 + 1/2 level + Int Mod.
Sirocco (Sp) : At 3rd level, a sandmage gains Gust of Wind as an at-will spell-like-ability. Save DC = 10 + 1/2 lvl + Int Mod.
Desiccation (Sp): At 4th level, the sandmage gains the spell-like ability to drain moisture with a touch. They may destroy up to 2 gallons of water per level with a touch, and they may automatically dispel any [Water] effect at touch range and they gain a touch attack which deals 1d8 damage per level to plants, [water] or [aquatic] creatures, 1d6 damage per level to living creatures without those tags and nothing to other types of creatures (such as constructs and undead) nor to objects. (This ability is equivalent to a 2nd level spell, unless you game with a 3.5 developer in your group, in which case it is inexplicably equivalent to an 8th level spell)
Every Stone a Story (Sp): At 4th level, a sandmage gains the ability to use Stone Tell at will.
[sidebar]
Sand or Stone:
The D&D rules do not provide a hard-and-fast rule on how much quartz silica counts as "stone" and not as "sand". Current geological specifications classify particles of less than 2 mm (about 1/12 inch) diameter as sand; particles of 2 mm to 64 mm (about 2 1/2 inches) as gravel, granules or pebbles; particles of diameter 64 mm to 256mm (about 10 inches) as cobble; and particles larger than 256 mm as boulders.
If you want to stay with the sand theme, you may wish to let the sandmage's stone abilities work on even fine grains of sand, as it's all the same substance regardless of size. In this case you should expect sandmage players to carry around pockets full of sand to toss it around on enemies spider-tracer style and shape into lockpicks or other useful tools whenever they need.
If instead, you wish to limit the sandmage's abilities to only working on stones and justify that due to the existence of rocky deserts, that's fine too. But in that case a minimum size of rock needed for Every Stone a Story and Stone Working should be clarified between the player and Mister Cavern upfront. If you're going this route, I suggest going all the way and using the boulder classification of rocks for this. Without a beast of burden or some sort of magical luggage, a sandmage is unlikely to be able to tote more than a couple such rocks around for use with Stone Working and hiding them as recording devices is difficult. It's also important to realize that in this case, characters in the game world will be aware of the limitation on sandmage divination and they will take care to remove any appropriately large stones before holding secret meetings or otherwise engaging in actions they don't want a mage to find out about.
If you want to stay with the sand theme, you may wish to let the sandmage's stone abilities work on even fine grains of sand, as it's all the same substance regardless of size. In this case you should expect sandmage players to carry around pockets full of sand to toss it around on enemies spider-tracer style and shape into lockpicks or other useful tools whenever they need.
If instead, you wish to limit the sandmage's abilities to only working on stones and justify that due to the existence of rocky deserts, that's fine too. But in that case a minimum size of rock needed for Every Stone a Story and Stone Working should be clarified between the player and Mister Cavern upfront. If you're going this route, I suggest going all the way and using the boulder classification of rocks for this. Without a beast of burden or some sort of magical luggage, a sandmage is unlikely to be able to tote more than a couple such rocks around for use with Stone Working and hiding them as recording devices is difficult. It's also important to realize that in this case, characters in the game world will be aware of the limitation on sandmage divination and they will take care to remove any appropriately large stones before holding secret meetings or otherwise engaging in actions they don't want a mage to find out about.
Scorpion King (Ex) A sandmage becomes immune to the poisons of any type of vermin.
Burning Sands (Sp): At 5th level the sand mage gains the ability to heat sand and stone. At up to medium range, a sandmage may heat up to one 20' square of sand, stone, rock or bare earth per level. This ability does not work in areas of mud, undergrowth or wooden floors. Anyone walking through the area takes 1d4 fire damage per 5/moved (spell resistance applies) and anyone who takes damage must also make reflex save (DC 10 + 1/2 level + Int Mod) or have their land movement reduced my half until they are cured or healed (heal check DC = save DC). The heated stone or sand remains dangerously hot for 1 hour per class level or until dismissed or dispelled. (This ability is equivalent to a 3rd level spell)
Stone Working (Sp): At 6th level, a sandmage may use Stone Shape at will
Lens Flare (Sp): At 6th level, a sandmage can evoke the heat of the noonday desert sun with some neat camera tricks. They gain Sunbeam as an at will ability. Save DC = 10 + 1/2 level + Int Mod
It Is Written (Sp): At 7th level, a sandmage gains the ability to use Find the Path at will
Blistering Sun (Sp): At 8th level, a sandmage may use Sun Burst at will. Save DC = 10 + 1/2 lvl + Int Mod
Wind Walk (Sp): A 9th level sand mage can invoke or terminate wind walk at will as a Swift Action.
Sandstorm (Sp): At 10th level, the sandmage may call forth a great sandstorm once per hour. This works just like acid fog, but the damage is force-typed. Save DC = 10 + 1/2 lvl + Int Mod
Call Forth the Hidden City(Sp) At 12th level, a sand mage may call forth an effect very much like Wall of Stone at will. The sand mage may only create walls in sandy or desert terrain, but a sand mage's walls do not need to be anchored to existing stone.
Return to Sand (Sp) At 14th level, a sand mage may use Disintegrate at will. Save DC = 10 + 1/2 level + Int Mod
Fossilize(Sp) At 16th level, a sand mage may use Flesh to Stone at will. Save DC = 10 + 1/2 level + Int Mod
A Mighty Wind(Sp) At 18th level, a sand mage may use Whirlwind at will. Save DC = 10 + 1/2 level + Int Mod
Look Upon My Works, Ye Mighty At 20th level, the sand mage destroys all great monuments in play (no save) and wins D&D.
Notes: Minor edits, cleaned up wording, made Hand of the Desert work on weapon attacks as a slight low-level offense increase. Added 'Sand or Stone" sidebar and petty digression. Added 11th-20th abilities. Added catharz godfoot's flavor suggestion.
More Recent Edits: added ASF for armor-non proficiency and fixed links, added Hide to skill list, added explicit text about ad-hoc bonus to Instant Oasis. And despite all that Happy went and played a white mage....
Balance-wise, this is supposed to be roughly on par with Fire Mage, Snowscaper, Frank's Green Mage, and the Tome Samurai. I'm a little concerned about making just about everything at-will, but that seems far and away the simplest resource management scheme for my players (and likely yours too) to handle.[/i]
