The Gaming Den

Hello, I made a class that emulates most of the abilities of devours.
What do you think of it?

MAGUS OF THE DEVOURER

Hit Die: d4.

Requirements

To qualify to become an Magus, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Alignment: Any evil.

Feats: Craft wondrous item.

Spells: Ability to cast enervation and either trap the soul and/or soul bind. Must have successfully used either trap the soul and/or soul bind against a creature with the good alignment.

Class Skills

The Magus’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (alchemy) (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Knowledge (all skills taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int) and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Table: The Magus of the Devourer

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save?	Will Save	Ref Save	Special	Spells Per Day
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Amulet of the Devourer, Soul Pool	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Target Hostage	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3	Interrogate Hostage, Emulate Hostage	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

Class Features

All the following are Class Features of the Magus prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Maguss gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Spellcasting: When a new Magus level is gained (except at 1st level) the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if she had also gained a level in whatever arcane spellcasting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class.

Amulet of the Devourer: Maguss craft a chain necklace attached to a socket which can hold a gem from a successful use of either trap the soul or soul bind. It costs 1,000 GP to make. Placing a soul gem in the amulet, or removing one, is a standard action that provokes an Attack of Opportunity. The Soul Gem cannot be targeted when inside the amulet; a Soul Gem can be removed from the amulet when the Magus is successfully pinned. The Amulet’s powers are drawn from the Magus himself, it does not grant any powers to any creature wearing the amulet other than the Magus.

Soul Pool: At the first level, An Magus of the Devourer can choose to expend a single charge from his amulet's gem instead of a spell slot when casting any divination, enchantment or necromancy spell of the 8th level or lower that he can cast or any other spell of the 6th level or lower that he can cast. The Magus must still meet all other prerequisites when casting any spell in this fashion.

An amulet has a number of charges equal to 5 times the hit dice of a captured soul; every 5 charges used causes the captured soul to take one negative level. If the creature dies due to these negative levels, it is destroyed and the gem holding it shatters. Soul pool deals negative levels even to creatures normally immune to them.

Target Hostage: At the second level, when the Magus is wearing an amulet with a gem with at least one charge left she is granted immunity to chaos hammer, crushing despair, dominate person, fear, geas/quest, holy word*, hypnosis, magic jar, maze, suggestion, energy drain, magical based ability loss/damage and all forms of Charms or Compulsions, as long as the amulet has at least 1 charge.

*If the wearer is ever targeted by banishment, dispel evil, imprisonment, or trap the soul, they are unaffected, but the amulet loses all charges. If the wearer has the (extraplanar) subtype, and would be removed from the plane he is currently on due to a holy word spell, instead, the amulet loses all charges. If the amulet had no charges when these spells were cast, the wearer is affected normally.

*If the wearer is targeted by a magic jar effect, the caster is instead trapped in the soul gem powering the amulet, and the captured soul is shifted to their "jar". (though they may return to their jar with a standard action, returning the captured soul to the amulet) If the amulet has no charges, the wearer is affected normally.

Interrogate Hostage: At the third level, provided the gem in the amulet has at least one charge left, and the Magus has the ability to cast the spell detect thoughts the Magus has access to all the knowledge of the creature trapped within the gem. The Magus can merely think of a question and the creature in the amulet will provide the answer if they know it. The creature cannot lie, however if they are misinformed they will produce incorrect information. Using this ability is instantaneous, just as if you were accessing your own memories and does not require the actual casting of detect thoughts. You can also use this ability to force the creature trapped inside to make a knowledge check or something similar, but normally you don't otherwise benefit from the trapped creature's skills.

Emulate Hostage: At the third level, provided the gem in the amulet has at least one charge left, and the Magus has the ability to cast any spell which would allow him to take the form of the creature trapped in the gem, than she can do so flawlessly. She succeeds any disguise check to emulate the creature within the gem. This does not change the parameters of the spell, for example: If the creature in the gem in the amulet is an angel, and you try to emulate it via a disguise self spell, you do not gain the ability to fly.

Ex Maguss: An Magus who ceases to be evil looses all his powers as an Magus until he returns to evil.

- Soul Pool gives you infinite charges when used with a creature immune to negative levels.
- A prestige class for 17th level characters is rarely going to see play.
- The class seems very weak. When you already casting 9th level spells, losing caster levels might be excusable, put the abilities gained are underwhelming, even compared to just gaining 3 levels of wizard, let alone what three levels of a powerful prestige class offer.
- Just fiddling around with already defeated and entrapped opponents is awfully narrow.
- Why the heck would a 17th level caster be an acolyte of something he can slap silly while blindfolded?

Murtak wrote: - Soul Pool gives you infinite charges when used with a creature immune to negative levels.

This could be remedied by converting hit dice into charges at soul capture time, and the soul is destroyed when its last charge is expended. That would also fit better with the evil evil evil alignment requirement: killing someone using negative levels simply kills them.

Murtak wrote: - A prestige class for 17th level characters is rarely going to see play.

Murtak wrote: - Why the heck would a 17th level caster be an acolyte of something he can slap silly while blindfolded?

Trap the Soul is 8th level S/W, and some PrCs can get higher-level spells faster. This is probably more like a 15th-level class. The question still stands, though, since this doesn't have very much power.

Murtak wrote: - The class seems very weak. When you already casting 9th level spells, losing caster levels might be excusable, put the abilities gained are underwhelming, even compared to just gaining 3 levels of wizard, let alone what three levels of a powerful prestige class offer.

Yep. One idea might be to blacklist spells to be used with Soul Pool instead of whitelisting them (say "no wish" rather than "suggestion only").

Murtak wrote: - Just fiddling around with already defeated and entrapped opponents is awfully narrow.

Yeah. However, when used properly, it's very, very powerful. Note that a single hit dice turns into five spells. In other words, any one of these guys could turn villages into infinite spell slots and immunity to a few nasty SoDs.

Okay the class is renamed, I just greatly increased the versatility of soul pool.

The concept, if not the actual rules, may be salvageable if you make it something other than a class for 17th level wizards. It's completely worthless until then.

Also, it's easy to disarm wizards, why should the soul gems follow different rules than any other worn item? There's rules for that for a reason. Make them be pinned first, just like its a well secured item. In fact, just say it's a well secured item and let the rule work itself out.

Also, there are seriously easier to get spells that do the same thing as Interrogate Hostage and Emulate Hostage. Worthless.

Also, full casting get.