Re: Helmsman Prestige Class

Greetings again!!

The feeling I get from this latest round of responses
is that while the idea of a prestige class is
intriguing, restricting all spelljamming to it is a
bit much (ok, a LOT bit much)  8*)  So, let's look to
modifying the idea.

What if instead of restricting spelljamming to only
the  prestige class we play around with a few numbers.
 To work with the idea of a player who has taken the
prestige class being better at spelljamming than one
who hasn't (but still the straight wizard can
spelljam), how about changing the SR for major and
minor helms as follows:

Level   Major   Minor
  1       1       1
  2       1       1
  3       1       1
  4       1       1
  5       2       1
  6       2       1
  7       2       2
  8       3       2
  9       3       2
 10       3       2
 11       4       3
 12       4       3
 13       4       3
 14       5       3
 15       5       4
 16       5       4
 17       6       4
 18       6       4
 19       6       5
 20       6       5

As you can see I've slowed down the progression of the
SR for players.

Now the prestige class would add a bonus to SR of +1
at levels 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10 (or 9 depending on what
the feelings of the group are).  I would also put in
an AC bonus at level 4 and 8 due to the helmsman's
experience in ship maneuvering.  I'm open to other
special abilities that should be given with this
prestige class.  I would also put the major save bonus
(the ones that start as +2 bonus to saves at first
level) on reflex and will saves.

Example of application:  Assuming that everyone plays
with a character level max of 20, that means a player
maxed out in the prestige class would be say 10th
level wizard/10th level helmsman.  This would give him
an SR of 8 for a major and 7 for a minor.  Compaired
to a 6 for a straight wizard on a major and a 5 on a
minor.

I think the requirements need to stay the same myself.
 (must be able to cast divine or arcane spells and to
gain a level must have spent at least some time in the
last 6 months on a helm controlling a ship)  But this,
like all of the above, is open to debate.

With these changes, the only helms that would be
affected from the CoAS are the minor and major helms.
The other helms do not depend on character level and
therefore are unaffected.  I don't know what this
would do to some of the other helms as I do not have
that information in front of me.

So, what do you think???  It creates a prestige class
to allow for helmsmen that are better than average.
It still allows all the classes who could use helms
before to still use them, just at a reduced
effectiveness.  And I think it maintains as much
balance with the current state of the SR from the core
rules as can be expected with this type of change. BUT
I'll let you decide.  Let me know what you think!!!!!!

Later

Chis

=====
Chis

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