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Post by insightfulhedgehog on Apr 3, 2015 3:07:49 GMT
Cosmic Magic
Sorcerers who rely on the cosmos for their power. The exact method they use is shrouded in mystery but has something to do with using the alignments of the heavenly bodies. Sorcerers with this birthright can feel the movements and shifts of the moon, sun, and stars. They feel the moving of the tides of the sea and the changing of the seasons. Their powers are strong and absolute, just like the sources from which they draw their power.
Soul of the Cosmic Cycle- At the end of a short or long rest, you choose a cosmic phase from those described below and gain its benefits.
The first time you become bloodied during an encounter, your phase immediately changes to the next higher-numbered phase (or back to the phase of the sun if you are in the phase of the stars). For example, if you begin an encounter in the phase of the moon, after becoming bloodied you would be in the phase of the stars.
In addition, each time you use a daily arcane attack power, you can choose to change your phase to the next higher-numbered phase immediately after resolving the effects of the power.
1. Phase of the Sun- At the start of your turn, adjacent enemies take fire damage equal to your strength modifier(ignores fire resistances) Description: Your Eyes burn red and ring of visible heat appears around you
2. Phase of the Moon- You add your strength modifier to your AC and gain resistance to fire damage equal to this modifier Description- You surround yourself with a thin layer of water and ice starts to form on various parts of your bodies.
3. Phase of the Stars- If an Enemy attempts to strike you and misses you can teleport a number of squares away equal to your strength modifier Description- Upon close inspection you appear to be translucent.
Phases- at level 1 you gain access to the phases specified above
Open Air- (level 1)When under the open sky they have advantage on rolls to hit with spells
Cosmic Persistence- While you are not wearing heavy armor, you can use your Strength modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier to determine your AC.
Cosmic Power- You gain a bonus to the damage rolls of arcane powers equal to your Strength modifier. The bonus equals your Strength modifier + 2 at 14th level and your Strength modifier + 4 at 18th level.
Reading the Stars- At level 6 you gain a stronger connection with the heavenly bodies. This allows you to switch your phase once per long rest during combat.
Phase of the Void- At level 14 you gain access to a new phase which gets added to the end of the rotation.
4. Phase of the Void- Halves the movement speed of all enemies within 60 feet, you also do not provoke attacks of opportunity when moving away from an enemy effected by this effect. You also gain the ability to cast the spell Empty Void as a 5th level spell(doesn't count towards spells known) Description- As you walk small pebbles(or other objects that are nearby) begin to rotate around you. Also, seem to exert a pressure on the area near you which seems to hinder those who hope to oppose you.
Empty Void- range 30 feet, centered on self, any enemies within the effected area must make a strength save or fall prone and take 6d8 crushing damage, a successful save means you take half damage and lose their next movement
Shifting Seasons- At level 18 you can shift phases during combat freely once per turn.
So, there it is. it's a bit rough so suggestions are definitely welcome. Also if you didn't catch it the 4th phase is gravity based.
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Post by DMC on Apr 3, 2015 16:26:21 GMT
Is this 4E based?
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Post by friartook on Apr 3, 2015 16:42:58 GMT
This is insightfulhedgehog's conversion. Originally 4e, he posted the link elsewhere, can't recall where right now.
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Post by insightfulhedgehog on Apr 3, 2015 18:32:06 GMT
It is an attempt at an extra 5e bloodline based on the 4e version. It came up in the discussion about the New elemental evil stuff and I figured I'd give it a go. Feedback welcome.
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Post by DMC on Apr 3, 2015 19:55:25 GMT
Ok cool. I had just noticed terms like "Daily Arcane Power" and "Bloodied", so was just curious. I love the idea though!
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Samuel Wise
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Post by Samuel Wise on Apr 3, 2015 21:33:49 GMT
This has to be the coolest Origin for Sorcerers. How would a Sorcerer get this Cosmic Magic? There can be some cool ideas for this. Thanks! Sorcerer is certainly my favorite job class now (with these powers).
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Post by insightfulhedgehog on Apr 3, 2015 22:12:03 GMT
I may have borrowed some lines that explained phases that I shouldn't have then. Terminology between editions is the bane of my existence. Ive always used bloody to mean half health so it slipped my mind. As for daily powers, well I probablly just grabbed it without thinking.
Also glad people like it. What do you guys think of the void phase? It wasn't in 4e (meaning I just made it all up) but I wanted to match the 5e progreesion (1,6,14,18) and it seemed to match the gains of the other bloodlines at this level.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2015 0:47:33 GMT
It's a pretty cool concept, but needs some tweaking. Open Air is particularly overpowered. I'll try to get back here later with more in depth analysis.
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Post by insightfulhedgehog on Apr 4, 2015 1:19:07 GMT
That thought occurred to me. looking forward to the analysis.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2015 8:53:16 GMT
From what I could gather after a cursory investigation of the 4e Cosmic Sorcerer, he is generally a melee range caster. I'm not sure if he was supposed to be a gish or something (all that Strength??), but I went more for pure caster when considering how I would pull it off. It's hard to give a critical analysis when so many of the abilities are keyed to 4e mechanics. Finally, I'm not sure how balanced this really is, but I'm confident it's much more so than the OP.
1) Soul of the Cosmic Cycle: Upon completing a short or long rest, you attune your soul to the heavenly bodies. Choose Sun, Moon or Stars. The benefits of your other features depend on which cycle you are currently in. See more on Void Phase at level 14.
1) Cosmic Resilience: As a reaction, you may spend 1 sorcery point to gain advantage on one saving throw, or resistance to damage against one attack. The type of saving throw or damage resistance is determined by your current cycle.
Sun: Strength or Constitution saving throw, or Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing or Poison damage Moon: Dexterity or Intelligence, or Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder Stars: Wisdom or Charisma, or Radiant, Necrotic, Force, or Psychic Void: Any saving throw or damage type
6) Cosmic Strike: Add your charisma modifier to the damage of spells, if their damage type matches your Cosmic Cycle. Sun: Fire Moon: Cold Stars: Force Void: Any
14) Void Phase: You may spend 4 sorcery points to enter the Void phase. While in this phase, all melee attacks made against you cause the attacker 1d8 Force damage. This phase lasts a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier. When it ends, you revert to your most recent Cosmic Cycle.
18) Cosmic Attunement: You may change your Cosmic Cycle at any time as a bonus action. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier. You regain uses on a long rest.
You gain an additional benefit according to the new Cosmic Cycle.
Sun: You may reroll the damage dice of one spell before the end of your next turn, and use either result. Moon: You gain advantage on one spell attack roll made before the end of your next turn. Stars: Choose a creature that you can see. It must succeed on a wisdom saving throw, or be incapacitated until the start of your next turn.
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Post by insightfulhedgehog on Apr 6, 2015 1:54:14 GMT
When I made the bloodline I was more going for a port then a rewrite. Your, take on it is interesting but definitely gets away from what the class is meant to be(like you said this is a little unclear). As for the abilities being keyed to 4e I've only played one session of 4e so I have a hard time recognising what is and isn't from that edition. Could you give me some examples? I'm not trying to be critical but looking at your version I can not see myself wanting to play as this bloodline. Granted that damage resistances are great but in the long run no one is going to want to spend their sorcery points on a damage resistance when they could use it to create additional spell slots that they more likely need. Discounting this the Wild Magic spell "Bend Luck" is a lesser effect in general then "Cosmic Resilience" and isn't gained until level 6(5 levels later for a worse version of something). I do like the use of sorcery points for entering the void phase but the effect seems to be based on a sorceror being in combat getting attacked. Something which is not exactly good for a "pure caster". Again, I'm not trying to be critical but just giving feedback. As for balance, it seems like the most useful of the abilities is Cosmic Strike however, it seems like this would nullify the usefulness of Soul of the Cosmic Cycle, in that most likely a Sorcerer would always choose one phase based on their spells which generally are going to be fire and seldom force. This would mean that you would only get the Sun resistances most of the time because there is no method for changing the phase prior to level 18. Also, it seems to me that Cosmic Attunement could be moore often then a max of 5 times per day. I mean by 18th level a druid is able to be in wild shape almost constantly if they want. Another thing that I do not quite agree with is the phases all being tied to resistances. They are all really well put and balanced, however, for the most part resistances are worthless to a class whose main role in combat should be to not get hit at all, stand at the back, and unleash hell on the guys who are beating up the rest of the party. This is not to say I did a great job of role consideration, but it is something to consider. That said, the overall thing I would say is alter the scaling so that the higher level abilities give the impression of power, or at least have a strong appeal.
I like your version but I just don't see myself using it if I chose to be a sorcerer. It seems like it would likely be a good bloodline, however, it doesn't really have anything that makes me think "wow that's really cool, I want to be able to do that." Thanks though for the alternate viewpoint. Any ideas specific to my build and ways to alter it to improve balance or make it more 5e friendly I would greatly appreciate. Again, I just want to restate that I'm not trying to be critical but instead trying to offer opinions on things you might alter to create a more balanced and interesting bloodline. Thanks again.
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Samuel Wise
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Posts: 989
Favorite D&D Class: Warlock
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Post by Samuel Wise on Apr 6, 2015 3:08:49 GMT
I (obviously) really like enjoyed this post and I certainly want to use it, so here is some of my thoughts.
1.) I think "Open Air" might be too strong, I am not too sure, but it sounds that way. I suggest taking it out or modifying it (though I'm not sure what that would look like).
2.) I have an idea that might be worth looking at:
Celestial Ancestor At 1st level, you choose one type of Celestial Body as your ancestor. (Note: Celestial Bodies are based on our heavenly bodies. For your own world choose a heavenly body close to imagery in quotations). if nothing else, it'll look cool.
CelestialBody /(DefenseType)
Black Holes (they should be in every world)/(Acid) Comets/(Lightning) Planets/(Poison) Stars/(Fire) Moons (or dying stars)/(Cold)
Just an idea, you can do with it as you will, but it would be cool to apply different heavenly bodies to this origin. Think something cooler then what I have written...
3.) Everything else seems all right! I'll try to get to the spells soon...
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Post by insightfulhedgehog on Apr 6, 2015 4:48:11 GMT
I (obviously) really like enjoyed this post and I certainly want to use it, so here is some of my thoughts. 1.) I think "Open Air" might be too strong, I am not too sure, but it sounds that way. I suggest taking it out or modifying it (though I'm not sure what that would look like). 2.) I have an idea that might be worth looking at: Celestial Ancestor At 1st level, you choose one type of Celestial Body as your ancestor. (Note: Celestial Bodies are based on our heavenly bodies. For your own world choose a heavenly body close to imagery in quotations). You will gain the resistance of the adjacency type. CelestialBody "Imagery" /(DefenseType) Pluto "Death or Hades"/(Acid) Jupiter "Sky or Weather"/(Lightning) Europa "Plenty"/(Poison) Betelgeuse "War"/(Fire) WISE J085510.83-071442.5 "Frostbite or Ice"/(Cold) Just an idea, you can do with it as you will, but it would be cool to apply different heavenly bodies to this origin. Think something cooler then what I have written... 3.) Everything else seems all right! I'll try to get to the spells soon... I think that your second suggestion is a possible replacement for open air(instead of modifying it). However, considering that our world's stars and planets are likely different from those of whatever lore dnd exists in for the player. Therefore the names would have to be changed to something relevant to any place. I actually considered a level 1 attribute that was something along the lines of "At level 1 select one of the phases as your home phase/primary phase. You gain resistance to the damage type that matches this phase regardless of what phase you are in at the time. (Sun=Fire, Moon=Cold, Star=Radiant(perhaps a boost to wisdom saves against illusion instead? Is radiant even a 5e thing? I'm getting mixed up now...)" I think either of these would be a good replacement or it could just as easily just be removed overall. I'm considering just removing it on the grounds that cosmic persistence and cosmic power are pretty helpful already.
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Post by joatmoniac on Apr 6, 2015 5:02:28 GMT
From what I could gather after a cursory investigation of the 4e Cosmic Sorcerer, he is generally a melee range caster. I'm not sure if he was supposed to be a gish or something (all that Strength??), but I went more for pure caster when considering how I would pull it off. I assume that this is why Nevvur's build was full of resistances and advantage when attacked. Makes tons of sense if the assumption is that the character would be right up in the mix, and not so much if the intent is the glass cannon approach. Love the ideas either way as anything to give more options is a good thing in my book. Also, I would have a sorcerer roll on the random effect table every time they sneezed, haha.
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Post by friartook on Apr 6, 2015 5:02:35 GMT
When I made the bloodline I was more going for a port then a rewrite. Your, take on it is interesting but definitely gets away from what the class is meant to be(like you said this is a little unclear). As for the abilities being keyed to 4e I've only played one session of 4e so I have a hard time recognising what is and isn't from that edition. Could you give me some examples? I never played 4e, but I've listened to a fair number actual play podcasts using 4e mechanics. From what I have seen, the theme of 4e could be summed up as "PCs are superheros". Each class got powers, some that could be used "at will", some "per encounter" and some "once daily". An effort was made to balance all classes, so a fighter had as many "powers" as a wizard. For the fighter, the powers took the form of special attacks granting a variety of effects. For casters, the powers represented spells. There was a strong emphasis on the combat grid and synergies between attacks. Many abilities were hugely over-powered compared to other editions (in my opinion anyway). There was also an expectation that players would gain powerful magic items regularly as they leveled up. Taken together, these things make 4e conversions complicated. A rewrite is kind of necessary for balance and synergy with existing 5e paths. I would recommend taking a second look at your bloodline. I love the idea, and I will take a crack at it when I have the time (things are crazy right now in my work life). I'd go about it like this: I would take a look at the progression of the existing bloodlines and try to match abilities with a cosmic theme. Perhaps this is already what you were attempting. If you are happy with your path as-is, then by all means, us it! For my own campaign and play style, it skews a little to close to the original 4e design. Hope this is helpful and sorry to be so vague. I'll update with specifics when I can make the time.
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