3.5 class of the week #3 the Fire blade

Fireblade

A Fireblade is someone who revers the power of fire and takes advantage of it to achieve his own ends. He loves both the chaos and the restraint, the power and the subtlety. He uses fire as a weapon and as an aide. He uses fire to build himself up, and to break others down. He channels fire, not controls it, because fire cannot be tamed. He loves to cause damage and to experience the entirety of his life. He is a Fireblade.
[edit] Making a Fireblade

A Fireblade excels at two things, and he/she does these two things very well. First, he can damage the opponent. He has numerous spells at his disposal each level that deal fire damage and he also has spells that allow him to boost his weapon's stats. Second, he can control fire as an aide. Where Wu Jens and other fire spell-casters can do fire damage, the fireblade has such a close affinity with fire that he can use it to help him jump and do other physical feats. What the Fireblade doesn't excel at is getting hit. Because the Fireblade's focus is on Dexterity and Charisma, Constitution will not be terribly high. The Fireblade works best when he can make quick, large, and devastating attacks that kill the opponent before they have time to react.

The Fireblade works well in groups and on his own. While adventuring on with a group may limit the ways that he can attack, which would dissuade him/her, being in a group can help round out his weaknesses, particularly if the group has a healing class like Healer. Working on his own, the Fireblade will be able to tackle problems any way he chooses, but lacks some of the long term support a group brings. Perfect missions for a Fireblade are assassination or raiding; any encounter where he can take targets by surprise and kill them quickly.

Abilities: Charisma and Dexterity are the most important. Charisma for the fire spell DC's and Dexterity for Reflex saves. After that it would be Constitution, for more hp.

Races: Humans are most likely to join this class, after extra-planar fire creatures. Elves will occasional join it for the sheer power of the spells, but they normally tend away from destroying nature which is easy with this class.

Alignment: Any non-lawful. Fireblades tend to be in constant trouble due to their unique skills. Also good Fireblades are rare but not unheard of due to the destructive power of fire.

Starting Gold: 5d6×5 gp (87 gp 5 sp.)

Starting Age: Simple (as in Rogue.)
Table: The Fireblade

Hit Die: d6
Level Base
Attack Bonus Saving Throws Special Spells per Day
Fort Ref Will 0 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th
1st +0 +0 +2 +0 Absorb Essence, Fire Boost, 5 3 — — — — — — — —
2nd +1 +0 +3 +0 Backfire +2d6/-1d6 6 4 — — — — — — — —
3rd +2 +1 +3 +1 6 5 — — — — — — — —
4th +3 +1 +4 +1 Backfire +4d6/-3d6, Fire Door 10 ft, Fire Resistance +5 6 6 3 — — — — — — —
5th +3 +1 +4 +1 6 6 4 — — — — — — —
6th +4 +2 +5 +2 Backfire +6d6/-5d6, Fire Door 20 ft 6 6 5 3 — — — — — —
7th +5 +2 +5 +2 6 6 6 4 — — — — — —
8th +6/+1 +2 +6 +2 Backfire +8d6/-7d6, Fire Resistance +10, Fire Door 40 ft 6 6 6 5 3 — — — — —
9th +6/+1 +3 +6 +3 6 6 6 6 4 — — — — —
10th +7/+2 +3 +7 +3 Backfire +10d6/-9d6, Fire Door 60 ft 6 6 6 6 5 3 — — — —
11th +8/+3 +3 +7 +3 6 6 6 6 6 4 — — — —
12th +9/+4 +4 +8 +4 Backfire +12d6/-11d6, Fire Resistance 15, Fire Door 80 ft 6 6 6 6 6 5 3 — — —
13th +9/+4 +4 +8 +4 6 6 6 6 6 6 4 — — —
14th +10/+5 +4 +9 +4 Backfire +14d6/-13d6, Fire Door 100 ft 6 6 6 6 6 6 5 3 — —
15th +11/6/+1 +5 +9 +5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 4 — —
16th +12/+7/+2 +5 +10 +5 Backfire +16d6/-15d6, Fiery Jaunt, Fire Resistance 20, Fire Door 120 ft 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 5 3 —
17th +12/+7/+2 +5 +10 +5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 4 —
18th +12/+8/+3 +6 +11 +6 Backfire +18d6/-17d6, Fire Door 140 ft 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 5 3
19th +13/+9/+4 +6 +11 +6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 4
20th +14/+10/+5 +6 +12 +6 Flash Fire, Backfire +20d6/-19d6, Immunity to Fire, Fire Door 160 ft 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 5

Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level)
Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (The Planes) (Int), Knowledge (Arcane) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Open Lock (Dex), Perform (Handle Fire) (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Dex), Spot (Wis), Tumble (Dex), Use Rope (Dex).
[edit] Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The Fireblade is proficient with the scimitar and the shuriken. They are not proficient with any type of armor or sheild.

Absorb Essence: A Fireblade is able to channel the power and life of fire into himself. When he absorbs the fire, he heals himself according to how big the fire was that he consumed. When te Fireblae attempts to absorb a fir he mmust make a reflex depending on the size of the fire as seen below on Table: The Fire Saves. If the Fireblade suceeds the Reflex check he heals an amount of Hp as seen below on Table: The Fire Saves. If the Fireblade fails the reflex save he does not get healed and is dealt the damage that would have been healed by the fire.
Table: The Fire Saves

Fire Size Reflex DC HP Recovered
Fine 5 1
Diminutive 7 1d2
Tiny 10 1d3
Small 12 1d4
Medium 16 1d6
Large 20 1d8
Huge 25 1d12+5
Gargantuan 28 1d20+10
Colossal 32 1d100+25

Fire Boost: A Fireblade has such a close connection to fire that he can use it to help him perform physical feats. He/She can sacrifice a spell to give a boost to roll. If he sacrifices two 0 Level spells, then he gets +1 on his next roll, one 1 Level spell, +1, one 2 Level spell, +2, and so on and so forth. If he sacrifices two spells at the same time, except for 0 Level spells, he get +1 on the roll as well as the other bonuses. He can only gain these bonuses with physical skills, attacks, etc.

Backfire: A Fireblade can harness fire, but when he tries to harness something a little too big, it hurts even him. A 2nd Level Fireblade can harness this to deal damage to his opponent. The Fireblade purposefully harnesses fire beyond his control, dealing damage according to the chart, after making a successful touch attack. The damage increases by 2d6 every other level. Then damage (1d6 lower than that delt to the target), also according to the chart, is dealt to him. Half of the damage is fire, and half is bludgeon damage from the explosion, rounded down. For example, a 6th level Fireblade deals 6d6 damage to his opponent and 5d6 damage to himself (2d6 bludgeon damage and 3d6 fire damage). A successful Reflex save halves this damage. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a Fireblades Backfire is 10+ the Fireblades Cha Modifier + half the users level in Firblade rounded up.

Fire Resistance: A Fireblade has been around fire for so long that his body has grown accustomed to it, taking less damage from it than a normal person. A Fireblade has Fire Resistance 5 at 4th Level, 10 at 8th Level, 15 at 12th Level, and 20 at 16th Level.

Fire Door: A Fireblade has become aware of the deep connection fire has with itself and is able to exploit this to travel between fires. At 4th level, a Firebade gains the ability to travel between fires as if by means of a Dimension Door spell. The limitation is tht the magical transport must begin and end in an area with at least some fire, a Fireblade can jump up to a total of 20 feet each day in this way; this may be a single jump or two jumps of 10 feet each. This amount can be This amount can be split among many jumps, but each one, no matter how small, counts as a 10-foot increment. Every two levels the distance the Fireblade can jump increases by 20 feet. A Fireblade is only able to use this ability on fire that is his size category or larger (ex. a medium Fireblade would be able to travel through medium, large, huge, gargantuan, and colossal fires).

Fiery Jaunt: At 16th Level, a Fireblade is able to travel to the Elemental Plane of Fire and back once per day.

Immunity to Fire: At 20th Level, a Fireblade is so accustomed to fire that he no longer takes damage from fire.

Flash Fire: At 20th Level, a Fireblade has such command over fire that, once per week, he is able to channel a massive amount of energy into himself, causing himself to explode, dealing 25d10 to everyone within 30ft., 15d6 to everyone between 30 and 60 feet away. and 5d6 to anyone between 60 and 100 ft away. After the explosion, his spirit can choose to die or to flit into a nearby fire of at least 1 size smaller than the Fireblade was, and, after an hour, have a new body. The fire will not go out and will stay the same size if the spirit is in it. Right before the hour is up, the Fireblade must make a Fortitude save, with the DC in direct relation to how big the fire they are in is or take 1 point of Charisma damage. All of the Fireblade's items are destroyed, unless they were designed to be able to withstand extreme heat.

Spells: A Fireblade casts arcane spells, which are drawn from the spell list given below. He can cast any spell he knows ahead of time without preparing it ahead of time like a cleric or wizard must. When a Fireblade gains access to a new level of spells, he automatically knows all the spells for that level listed on the Fireblade's list. Essentially, his spell list is the same as his spells known list.

To cast a spell, a Fireblade must have a Charisma score of 10 + the spell's level (Cha 10 for 0-level spells, Cha 11 for 1st level spells, and so forth). The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a Fireblade's spell is 10 + the spells level+ the Fireblade's Charisma modifier. Like other spellcasters, a Fireblade can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: The Fireblade. In addition he receives bonus spells for a high Charisma score.

Unlike a Cleric or a Wizard, a Fireblade need not prepare his spells in advance. He can cast any spell he knows at the time, assuming he has not yet used up his spells per day for that spell level.

Fireblades choose their spells from the following list:

0—Dancing Lights, Flare, Continual Flame, Orb of Fire, Lesser.

1st—Burning Hands, Fiery Eyes, Melt, Fireball, Blades of Fire.

2nd—Produce Flame, Animate Fire, Fire Shuriken, Pyrotechnics.

3rd—Fire Wings, Fireburst, Flaming Sphere, Red Fester, Cruel Disappointment.

4th—Fire Shield, Wall of Fire, Blast of Fire, Orb of Fire, Hellfire.

5th—Fire Breath, Fireburst, Greater, Fire Shield, Mass, Flame Strike (Chaotic damage instead of Divine).

6th—Phoenix Fire (Deals fire damage to anyone, not just the restrictions), Rain of Embers (All fire damage, to anybody, not just restrictions).

7th—Firestorm, Delayed Blast Fireball, Hellfire Storm.

8th—Incendiary Cloud, Internal Fire, Black Fire.

9th—Meteor Swarm, Implosion, Transmute Rock to Lava
[edit] Ex-Fireblades

If a Fireblade becomes lawful, then he automatically loses the ability to cast any Fireblade spells or use any Fireblade special abilities. They regain the use of the spells and abilities if they become neutral or chaotic again.
[edit] Epic Fireblades
Table: The Epic Fireblade

Hit Die: d12
Level Special
21st
22nd Backfire +25d6/-21d6
23rd
24th Backfire +27d6/-23d6
25th
26th Backfire +29d6/-25d6
27th Summon Fire Elemental Monolith
28th Backfire +31d6/-27d6
29th
30th Backfire +35d6/-29d6

6 + Int modifier skill points per level.

Summon Fire Elemental Monolith: Since the Fireblade has such a high level of connection to the Elemenatal Plane of Fire, he can summon one of it's guardians. Once per 2 days.
[edit] Sample Human Fireblade Starting Package

Weapons: Scimitar, 5 Shuriken.

Skill Selection: Pick a number of skills equal to 4 + Int modifier.
Skill Ranks Ability Armor
Check
Penalty
Balance 4 Dex —
Perform (Handle Fire) 4 Dex —
Intimidate 4 Cha —
Knowledge (The Planes) 4 Int —

Feat: Improved Initiative (To get the first hit in.)

Bonus Feats: Weapon Focus: Scimitar.

Gear: Backpack with waterskin, one day's trail ration. bedroll, sack, flint and steel, and three torches.

Gold: 72gp 5sp.

Credit goes to The mysterious Illithid