Arcane Tradition
Comments from the Finger: Have you ever read the word 'missile' so many times, you doubt it's a real word? You're about to!
This is one of my favorite prestige classes to come out of 3.5, both for its silliness, and its complete willingness to pay homage to a spell that has flown without making an attack roll into our hearts. It really embodies the far limit of how specialized a character can be, while still being a viable addition to a party.
School of Force Missile
Magic missile is a staple wizard spell, well-loved for its versatility and stopping power. Your fondness for it, however, borders on obsession. You focus your studies on this spell, exploring every rune of the spell's secrets and pressing its power to the limits, resulting in new augmentations and variations on the spell.
Bonus MissileComments from the Finger: Have you ever read the word 'missile' so many times, you doubt it's a real word? You're about to!
This is one of my favorite prestige classes to come out of 3.5, both for its silliness, and its complete willingness to pay homage to a spell that has flown without making an attack roll into our hearts. It really embodies the far limit of how specialized a character can be, while still being a viable addition to a party.
School of Force Missile
Magic missile is a staple wizard spell, well-loved for its versatility and stopping power. Your fondness for it, however, borders on obsession. You focus your studies on this spell, exploring every rune of the spell's secrets and pressing its power to the limits, resulting in new augmentations and variations on the spell.
Beginning when you select this tradition at 2nd level, you learn the spell magic missile, if you do not know it already. Additionally, when you cast this spell, you fire 1 additional dart, as if the spell was cast using a higher level spell slot. The additional number of missiles increases by 1 at 6th level (2 additional missiles), 10th level (3 additional missiles), and 14th level (4 additional missiles).
Missile Magician
At 2nd level, you can cast magic missile a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier, or half your wizard level, whichever is lower, without using a spell slot. You regain all expended uses when you complete a long rest.
If you choose magic missile for the Spell Mastery feature at 18th level, it is cast as if using a higher level spell slot (5 additional missiles.)
Shield of Missiles
By 6th level, as an action expending one casting of magic missile, you can cast your missiles around you in a tight orbit, providing a deadly aegis from your foes. For 1 minute, your armor class equals 10 + the number of missiles orbiting you, which begins as the number of missiles fired, to a maximum of 8. Whenever an enemy ends its turn adjacent to you, a single missile strikes it, dealing damage as normal and decreasing the number of missiles orbiting you, and also decreasing your bonus to armor class. After using this ability, you may not use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Energy Missile
By 10th level you have become intimately attuned to the energies that compose the spell magic missile and may alter them in significant ways. During casting, you may change the damage dealt by your magic missile to acid, cold, fire, or lightning.
Overpowering Missile
By 14th level, your missiles become especially potent. Your magic missile ignores resistance. If a creature is immune to your magic missile, or is under the effect of the shield spell, it is treated as only having resistance against it.
Additionally, your magic missile spell can deal maximum damage. After doing this, you cannot do so again until completing a long rest.
Changelog: 7/1/15: Missile Magician grants an extra missile with Spell Mastery.
Shield of Missiles has been retooled. It now grants a maximum of 18 AC, and is usable 1/short rest. Also, missiles in the shield now strike creatures at the end of their turn.
Overpowering Missile now ignores resistance and changes immunity to resistance.
7/13/15: Missile Magician now grants a maximum number of spells equal to half your wizard level.
Overpowering Missile now specifically refers to the spell shield.
Energy Missile
By 10th level you have become intimately attuned to the energies that compose the spell magic missile and may alter them in significant ways. During casting, you may change the damage dealt by your magic missile to acid, cold, fire, or lightning.
Overpowering Missile
By 14th level, your missiles become especially potent. Your magic missile ignores resistance. If a creature is immune to your magic missile, or is under the effect of the shield spell, it is treated as only having resistance against it.
Additionally, your magic missile spell can deal maximum damage. After doing this, you cannot do so again until completing a long rest.
Changelog: 7/1/15: Missile Magician grants an extra missile with Spell Mastery.
Shield of Missiles has been retooled. It now grants a maximum of 18 AC, and is usable 1/short rest. Also, missiles in the shield now strike creatures at the end of their turn.
Overpowering Missile now ignores resistance and changes immunity to resistance.
7/13/15: Missile Magician now grants a maximum number of spells equal to half your wizard level.
Overpowering Missile now specifically refers to the spell shield.
I think I love this.
ReplyDeleteThis is hands down the silliest arcane tradition I've seen. It takes second place on the overall silly 5e scale, because someone made a race of fruit.
ReplyDeleteYou are gonna LOVE Clucklomancer. And the Oozemaster.
DeleteLove how this doesn't even come close to what the 3.5e version did using non-homebrew.
ReplyDeleteCool archetype!
ReplyDeleteOne question - at what level does one cast the Magic missles that are casted without expending spell slot?
As with spells granted by races like the Drow, any spell which does not use a spell slot or specify the level at which it's cast is assumed to be cast at the lowest level. For magic missile, this is 1st level.
DeleteBonis Missile is cool. If I'm reading it right, it makes Magic Missile a strong choice for Spell Mastery later on.
ReplyDeleteMissile Magician doesn't play well with Spell Mastery, however; the ability becomes pointless at 18th level if Magic Missile is the 1st level spell choice. And if you like Magic Missile that much, why /wouldn't/ you take it?
Shield of Missiles could use some clarifying logic defining how/when/what triggers a missile strike. Perhaps: "Whenever an enemy ends its turn adjacent to you, a single missile strikes it, doing damage as normal" or somesuch. Also, the +7 to +16 AC seems either pointless or overpowered, depending on the play style of the wizard. A cap of +5 AC might be reasonable, stacking with Mage Armor and other AC sources, which could provide a buffer of free missile strikes.
Energy Missile is cool, but seems to make Overpowering Missile's benefits partially moot. If you can change the damage type, the ability to overcome resistance to force damage is meaningless.
Maybe Overpowering Missile could benefit from a more generalized wording: Your Magic Missile now ignores Resistance and Immunity from any source. Alternatively, Resistance could be ignored, while Immunity could provide Resistance instead. This is less important for sources like Shield, but more so for something like a Golem's immunities.
Overall I really like the tradition. I hope you find my criticism constructive.
Great criticism!
DeleteI had thought about the Spell Mastery problem, but figured that since it was a natural continuation of the Missile Magician trend, it wouldn't be to detrimental. Do you have any suggestions on how to change Missile Magician to work better with Spell Mastery?
I'll edit in a new wordings for Shield of Missiles and Overpowering Missile right away, based upon these suggestions.
Alright, I gave a quick fix to the Spell Mastery problem in the form of another missile. It's not elegant, but it'll do.
DeleteWhen I started editing Shield of Missiles, I realized that I may have intended to have written it as a once/short rest ability, so I changed it accordingly. It now allows for less AC optimization, as it doesn't use a flat bonus to AC, and is capped at 18. I think it was a step in the right direction. Let me know what you think.
The original force missile mage gave some protections against magic missile; you could do something similar here, providing resistance to force and immunity to magic missile, but you might have to rearrange and adjust some other abilities.
ReplyDeleteCombining that option with the alternative I previously mentioned of Resistance gets ignored while Immunity provides Resistance would make two dueling FMMs an interesting site.
If you want to go pure offense, you could do something like: "When casting Magic Missile, each target struck by at least one missile takes extra damage equal to your spellcasting modifier." That keeps it roughly in line with what happens with Eldritch Blast for the warlock - the extra damage only applies once per target.
My one problem is that a evocation wizard can do more damage with magic missile because of empower evocation than the force missile wizard
ReplyDeleteEmpowered evocation lets you add intelligence modifier to your casting (+5 damage, at maximum), where force missile mage allows for 3 extra missiles at this level (3d4+3: min +6, max +15, mean +11.)
DeleteEmpowered evocation adds the +5 to all instances of the 1d4+1, making it much much stronger.
DeleteThis is because you do not actually roll X numbers of D 4s, you roll a single D4 and then multiply that result by the number of missiles you are fireing, and that single d4 you rolled gets the +1 and the bonus from Intelligence if an Evoker of the correct level.
So a first level Magic Missile from a 20 Int. Evoker deals 1d4+6 x 3 missiles, sent to one to three targets all at the same time.
Essentially, Empowered Evocation adds + int mod damage per missile. not just a single + int mod one time.
(Wow, I just noticed I'm replying to a comment from more than four years ago, I'm an idiot. You clearly know all this by now. I'll leave it for any other random Internet searchers though, sorry for the bother!)
Question about shield of missiles. If the ac bonus from your shield is lower than your ac which do you use? Presumably your standard ac, but it isn't explicitly stated
ReplyDeleteWell, that's one way to kill the Tarrasque: Fly out of its reach and Magic Missile it to death! Screw you Reflective Carapace! Makes me want to play this so bad.... post 18th level, the only resource you need is Time when it comes to killing.
ReplyDeleteQuestion about the bonus missiles. Does it apply when the spell is being cast from a wand or a scroll?
ReplyDeleteBy RAW, it totally should. However, if I were planning on playing this, I would run it by my DM to make sure they would allow it.
DeleteTwo questions. One, when I cast Magic Missile using a 1st level spell slot but gets the extra missiles as if it were a higher level, it's not actually a higher level, yeah? Counterspell still negates it without a roll? And two, are my total number of missiles capped at 11 when casting from a ninth level spell slot, or do I get the extra missiles on top of that?
ReplyDelete1: Correct, it is not actually of a higher level, so counterspell acts as normal.
Delete2: You can get extra missiles above the normal maximum.
What a wierd and delightful class
ReplyDeleteWould it be possible to reprase the point with spellmastery at 18 level? you could get the ability to cast Magic Missle with other ways. (i.e. boons, other wierd classes ect.)to say:
If you master magic missile to the point where you can cast it will, it is cast as if using a higher level spell slot (5 additional missiles.)
Personally, I'd say you can use that feature to choose Magic Missile as the second level spell for Spell Mastery, and cast it as a second level spell using that feature.
DeleteId be more usefull to be able to cast Magic Missle as a bonus action as lvl 10 feature - the way it is now is a bad bad ribbon, force damage is at it is the way best damage class and the 4 elementals you picked are heavly resisted.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why you don't use that feature against things that resist those energies. You use it against things that are vulnerable to them.
DeleteForce damage may be highly notable for almost nothing being resistant to it, but by the same token few things are vulnerable to it either. This feature lets you take advantage of elemental vulnerabilities that make those energies superior to Force against certain foes.
Mind if I take a hatchet to this for a moment and change a few things? Here I go:
ReplyDeleteSchool of Force Missile
Magic missile is a staple wizard spell, well-loved for its versatility and stopping power. Your fondness for it, however, borders on obsession. You focus your studies on this spell, exploring every rune of the spell's secrets and pressing its power to the limits, resulting in new augmentations and variations on the spell.
Bonus Missile
Beginning when you select this tradition at 2nd level, you learn the spell Magic Missile, if you do not know it already. Additionally, when you cast this spell using a spell slot, you fire 1 additional dart, as if the spell was cast using a spell slot one level higher. If you cast Magic Missile using a 9th level spell slot, it instead becomes unblockable.
Missile Magician
One of the first things you have managed in your study of Magic Missile is learning how to cast it with less power, but faster. You may cast Magic Missile as a cantrip with a casting time of 1 Bonus action. When you do so, you fire only one dart that deals 1d4+1 Force damage. As you grow in experience, you become able to generate more darts with this ability, generating 2 darts at 5th level, 3 darts at 11th level, and 4 darts at 17th level. Anything that affects the spell Magic Missile also affects use of this feature.
If you choose Magic Missile for the Spell Mastery feature at 18th level, you may do so for the 2nd level spell and cast it with that feature as if using a 2nd level spell slot. In addition, you may choose Magic Missile as your Signature Spell at 20th level and cast it as a 3rd level spell using that feature.
Shield of Missiles
At 6th level, when you cast Magic Missile using a spell slot, you can manifest your missiles around you in a tight orbit, providing a deadly aegis from your foes. For 1 minute, your armor class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + the number of missiles orbiting you, which begins as the number of missiles fired, to a maximum of 8. Whenever an attack roll fails by less than the number of missiles left, the number of missiles decreases by 1. In addition whenever an enemy ends its turn adjacent to you, a single missile strikes it, dealing 1d4+1 Force damage and also decreasing the number of missiles orbiting you by 1. After using this ability, you may not use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Energy Missile
At 10th level you have become intimately attuned to the energies that compose the spell magic missile and may alter them in significant ways. Whenever you cast Magic Missile, you may instead have it deal acid, cold, fire, thunder, or lightning damage.
Overpowering Missile
By 14th level, your missiles become especially potent. Your magic missile ignores resistance. If a creature is immune to your Magic Missile, or is under the effect of the shield spell, it is treated as only having resistance against it.
Additionally, your Magic Missile spell can deal maximum damage. After doing this, you cannot do so again until completing a long rest.
So, I know this post is ages old but I'd like to suggest a minor balance change to this class so it's level 2 abilities are more in line with other Traditions. Namely compared to the others they are grossly over powered. Considered the following my changes to the class as is.
ReplyDeleteMagic Missile Master
When you select this Tradition at 2nd level, add the spell Magic Missile to your Spell Book if you do not already know it. Additionally, you always have Magic Missile Prepared and it does not count against the maximum number of Wizard Spells you may have prepared. You also learn an additional Cantrip called Minor Magic Missile.
Magic Missile Magician
Beginning at 2nd level when you select this Tradition, when you cast the spell Magic Missile you fire one additional dart as if the spell had been cast at a higher level. The additional number of missiles increases by 1 at 6th level, 10th level, and 14th level. Additionally, if you select Magic Missile for the Spell Mastery feature at 18th level, it is cast as though it were one spell level higher (so if you select it as the 2nd level Spell, it is cast as a 3rd level spell instead).
Minor Magic Missile
Evocation Cantrip
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 120ft
Components: V,S
Duration: Instantaneous
You create a single glowing dart of magical force. This dart hits a creature of your choice that you can see within range dealing 1d4+1 Force Damage. The number of darts this spell produces increases to 2 at 5th level, 3 at 11th level and 4 at 17th level. The additional darts produced by this spell all strike simultaneously and can be directed to hit the original target or any number of additional targets up to the number of darts produced.