User:Luigifan18/Sand Mage (3.5e Class)

Author: Luigifan18 (talk) Date Created: December 13, 2017 Status: Just started Editing: Clarity edits only please

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A mage who uses sand as his weapon of choice, manipulating it through invocations. 20 0 Moderate Good Poor Good Invocations Full

Sand Mage

Unless you can fly, the earth is constantly beneath your feet. We hardly even notice it until it becomes a hazard to life and limb. Sand mages are specialists in manipulating the primal force of earth to do their bidding, using it to whittle their foes down to nothing.

Making a Sand Mage

What sand mages lack in raw power, they make up for in reliability. This reliability is a consequence of their taking the concept of "death of a thousand cuts" to extreme and literal heights by attacking primarily with sand. Getting hit with a single grain of sand technically hurts, but it's so insignificant that you'll hardly notice (unless you're hit in a sensitive place, such as an eye, in which case taking a grain of sand to the eye is still preferable to taking a dagger to the eye). Getting hit by several thousand grains of sand in quick succession can tear a person to shreds. What this all boils down to is that sand mages can deal lots of damage just by hitting thousands of times with a single attack. But because they rely on quantity rather than quality, their attacks can be easily resisted; just having good armor and/or reflexes means a potential victim takes fewer hits, and because each hit is so weak, damage reduction severely hinders a sand mage's offense. But with enough sand at their disposal, they can easily work around this drawback.

Abilities: Charisma is paramount for a sand mage, as it governs his invocations. Dexterity is extremely helpful for Armor Class, since the sand mage isn't exactly able to use anything more protective than light armor, and it also helps with ranged attack rolls, since the sand mage is heavily reliant on hitting several times; it also helps shore up his poor Reflex saves. Constitution is always useful for extra hit points. Strength is also useful if the sand mage cares to try his hand at melee combat — a role that he's not horrible in, though he's not superb, either.

Races: Any.

Alignment: Any, though sand mages lean a little towards law on average.

Starting Gold: 5d4×10 gp (125 gp).

Starting Age: Moderate.

Table: The Sand Mage

Hit Die: d6

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Invocations Known
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+0	+2	+0	+2	Sand Blast, Earth Focus, , Invocations (Least)	1
2nd	+1	+3	+0	+3	Elemental Summoning	2
3rd	+2	+3	+1	+3		3
4th	+3	+4	+1	+4	Sandy Weapon (Terran)	3
5th	+3	+4	+1	+4	Earth Power	4
6th	+4	+5	+2	+5	Sand Without Earth,	4
7th	+5	+5	+2	+5	Invocations (Lesser)	5
8th	+6/+1	+6	+2	+6	Sandy Weapon (???)	5
9th	+6/+1	+6	+3	+6		6
10th	+7/+2	+7	+3	+7	Earth Adaption, Sand Aura	6
11th	+8/+3	+7	+3	+7		7
12th	+9/+4	+8	+4	+8	Grinding Sand	7
13th	+9/+4	+8	+4	+8	Invocations (Greater)	8
14th	+10/+5	+9	+4	+9	Elemental Body	8
15th	+11/+6/+1	+9	+5	+9		9
16th	+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10	, Greater Earth Power	9
17th	+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10	Sandy Haven	10
18th	+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+11		10
19th	+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+11	Invocations (Final)	11
20th	+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+12	Born of Earth	11
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level) Appraise (Int), Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Disguise (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (geography) (the planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (None), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Use Magic Device (Cha), Use Rope (Dex).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Sand Mage.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Sand mages are proficient with all simple weapons, plus all martial hammers, all martial shields, saps, clubs, chakrams, atlatls, and ???. Sand mages are proficient with light armor and shields (except tower shields). Although the sand mage uses spell-like abilities, they are affected by arcane spell failure if wearing anything more than light armor. A sand mage wearing medium or heavy armor or using a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure. A multiclass sand mage still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes.

Bonus Language: A sand mage knows Terran, the language of earth-type beings, which he learns upon taking his first level in wind mage. Terran is a free language for a sand mage; he knows it in addition to his regular allotment of languages and it doesn't take up a language slot.

Sand Blast (Sp): As a standard action, a sand mage can launch a magically-organized cluster of hundreds of particles of sand that break apart into a sandstorm-like flurry at the moment before impact, which effectively deals 1d4 damage per caster level (but see the next paragraph) as a ranged touch attack (its caster level is equal to the sand mage's class level). The clusters of sand have a range increment of 60 feet. Spell resistance applies to each blast separately. Sand Blast has the [Earth] descriptor. Sand Blast counts as eldritch blast for the purpose of prerequisites.

While described as doing 1d4 damage per caster level for the sake of effects that care about how many dice it deals, a sand blast is special in that it is not a singular attack, but a burst of hundreds of tiny attacks that inflict negligible damage (not even a single hit point's worth) on their own, but when delivered in extremely rapid succession, can inflict severe enough damage that the weakness of each individual attack is mostly a moot point. Effectively, this means that a sand blast is pre-maximized, and always deals 4 points of damage for every damage die it could otherwise roll (if the damage dice is increased or decreased, the damage is adjusted to the maximum value (for example, if the damage dice became d6, the sand blast would deal 6 points of damage per die)). However, because the damage of the sand blast is dealt through a physical medium, and the impact of each individual grain of sand is so weak, not only do damage reduction and hardness apply normally against a sand blast, it actually is treated as being twice as high as it actually is; for example, DR 3 would be treated as DR 6. (A sand blast's damage is treated as being all magic, half slashing, and half bludgeoning for the sake of overcoming damage reduction.) Furthermore, strong armor and fast reflexes can ward off several or all of the grains of sand, preventing them from making any meaningful impact; as such, the damage of a sand blast is reduced by the target's full AC (not their touch AC, though Dexterity and dodge bonuses are ignored if the target is flat-footed). If your attack roll exceeds the target's full or flat-footed AC (depending on whether or not the target is flat-footed), subtract 1 AC from the amount the damage is reduced by for every point by which your attack roll exceeded the target's AC (to a maximum reduction of all AC, allowing the sand blast to deal full damage). Even though a sand blast is effectively already maximized, it is not treated as maximized, so it can still be maximized again. If a sand blast is truly maximized (such as by Maximize Spell-Like Ability), your target's AC is not subtracted from the sand blast's damage and the target's damage reduction/hardness is applied normally (it is not doubled).

Unlike some spell-like abilities, a sand blast has a spell level. A sand blast's spell level is equal to ½ the sand mage's class level, rounded down (minimum 1st, maximum 9th), the spell level of the shape applied to the blast (if any), or the spell level of the essence applied to the blast (if any), whichever is highest.

• Grinding Sand: At 12th level, the sand blast's ability to overcome damage reduction improves; all of the damage counts as magic, slashing, and bludgeoning for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Earth Focus: Levels in sand mage are added to the caster level, initiator level, manifester level, or meldshaper level of any [Earth] spells, maneuvers, powers, and soulmelds you know. This does not grant additional spells, maneuvers, powers, or soulmelds known. In addition, all [Earth] spells and powers are considered to be on your class list for the purpose of creating and activating magic items, such as wands and scrolls.

Invocations: The sand mage receives several spell-like abilities identical in nature to the warlock's invocations. He may use these invocations at will, though he must still pay any relevant gold and experience costs, and they are affected by arcane spell failure in medium and heavy armor and with shields. Invocations do not provoke attacks of opportunity unless otherwise noted. Invocations come in three types: shapes, which alter the shape and spread of his Sand Blast class feature; essences, which augment his Sand Blast class feature with a rider effect; and invocations, which duplicate spells or have other, sometimes long-standing effects.

At 1st level, he can select one invocation known, and an additional invocation at 2nd and every odd level. At first, he may only select from least invocations. At level 7, he may select from least or lesser invocations. At level 13, he may select from least, lesser, or greater invocations. Finally, at level 19th and beyond, he may select from least, lesser, greater, or final invocations. At every even level, he may choose to switch out one of his invocations known for another, so long as the invocation swapped is the same or lower level invocation as the original. He may only swap out one invocation at each even level. Any saving throws are Charisma-based. Essences which force a save against an effect only need one save each round, regardless of how many times you hit. Sand mages choose their invocations from the following list¹.

Least — (to be filled in)

Lesser — (to be filled in)

Greater — (to be filled in)

Final — (to be filled in)

1. Some invocations taken from official materials work differently for the sand mage than they do for the warlock. Where differences exist, they will be pointed out in footnotes like this one.
2. This invocation gains the [Earth] descriptor.

Elemental Summoning: At 2nd level, a sand mage can take a full-round action to call on the Elemental Plane of Earth and summon any [Earth]-subtyped creature with a CR equal to or less than ½ his HD. This behaves like a summon monster spell, except the duration is 1 hour/class level. He may use this ability 1/day.

Sandy Weapon (Su): At 4th level, a sand mage can channel the power of earth into the weapons he wields (including the sand blast, eldritch/sand glaive, and any other effect which requires an attack roll). The weapon gains the terran enhancement, automatically overcoming the damage reduction of creatures with the [Air] subtype and dealing an extra 2d6 damage to such creatures. This stacks with the actual terran enhancement.

At 8th level, the sand mage can grant the ??? enhancement to his weapons, stacking with the actual ?? enhancement.

Earth Power (Ex): A 5th-level sand mage's skill with manipulating the earth has grown beyond the capabilities of less specialized mages. He gets a +1 increase to the caster/manifester/initiator/meldshaper level (if applicable) and save DC of all [Earth] effects he casts, manifests, initiates, shapes, or otherwise uses, including his invocations and spell-like effects. (This ability should not be confused with the Pokemon move or the spell sharing the same name.)

• Greater Earth Power (Ex): At 16th level, Earth Power is improved to grant a +2 increase to the caster/manifester/initiator/meldshaper level (if applicable) and save DC of all [Earth] effects the sand mage casts, manifests, initiates, shapes, or otherwise uses, including his invocations and spell-like effects.

Sand Without Earth (Su): At 6th level, a sand mage can generate sand, soil, and other earth-related things from out of nothing, allowing him to use [Earth] effects in places where it shouldn't be possible, such as strongly air-dominant areas and the vacuum of space.

Earth Adaption (Ex): At 10th level, a sand mage starts gaining partial traits of an earth elemental. He gains 25% fortification as his vitals are transformed into earth, and he becomes immune to sleep and poison, and no longer needs to sleep or breathe, though he must still eat. He also gains the [Air] subtype, if he doesn't have it already.

Earth Aura (Su): At 10th level, a sand mage can manipulate earth which he isn't responsible for. The sand mage effectively grants spell resistance equal to 10 + his HD to himself and all allies within 30 feet, but only against [Earth] effects or effects that involve the manipulation of the ground or soil (such as earthquake, Veles whirl, etc.). If an opponent fails to breach this spell resistance, the sand mage takes control and can shape the terrain alterations as he sees fit, placing holes, channels, and other parts of safety and suppressing tremors and upheavals completely while in the aura. Terrain modifications so suppressed return once out of range of your aura if their duration has not expired.

Mundane terrain-related events can be manipulated this way, automatically failing against the spell resistance as they have no caster level. (Note that this ability does not let the sand mage freely mess with people trying to modify the terrain through mundane means, such as digging holes or plowing soil, though it does allow him to deal with landslides, falling rocks, cave-ins, etc. that are set off by nonmagical means.)

Elemental Body (Su): At 14th level, a sand mage gains stronger elemental traits. He gains 50% fortification, does not need to eat, and becomes immune to stunning and paralysis.

Sandy Haven (Sp): At 17th level, a sand mage gains the ability to use genesis as a spell-like ability which does not have a material or XP cost. However, he may only perform it on the Elemental Plane of Earth, and the created demiplane is subject to limitations. It may only have properties either found on the Elemental Plane of Earth, the Material Plane, or the Astral Plane. It technically exists as part of the Elemental Plane of Earth and will always have at least one active portal there, though it may be guarded or sealed. The caster also gains another portal as usual, typically to his home plane.

As a standard action, the sand mage may use plane shift to transport himself and willing allies to his demiplane or the Elemental Plane of Earth, and back to the last location he used this ability from. He may use this at will, and cannot send the unwilling.

Born of Earth: At 20th level, a sand mage becomes one with the sand, effectively an earth elemental in a shell of mortal skin. He becomes immune to critical hits and sneak attacks, his type changes to Elemental with the augmented subtype, and he gains the ??? ability of an earth elemental. He may count as his original type when beneficial, and may be raised and revived as normal. Finally, his sand becomes more powerful than ever before. His sand blast now is treated as epic, slashing, and bludgeoning for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Epic Sand Mage

Table: The Epic Sand Mage

Hit Die: d6

Level	Special	Invocations Known
21st	<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->	12
22nd	<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->	12
23rd	<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->	13
24th	Bonus feat	13
25th	<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->	14
26th	<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->	14
27th	<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->	15
28th	Bonus feat	15
29th	<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->	16
30th	<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->	16
4 + Int modifier skill points per level.

Invocations: The epic sand mage learns a new invocation at each odd-numbered level after 20th. He can choose an invocation from the grades of least, lesser, greater, and final.

Bonus Feats: The epic sand mage gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic sand mage bonus feats) every 4 levels after 20th.

Epic Sand Mage Bonus Feat List: Additional Magic Item Space, Craft Epic Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Epic Rod, Craft Epic Staff, Craft Epic Wondrous Item, Distant Shot, Efficient Item Creation, Epic Fortitude, Epic Reflexes, Epic Toughness, Epic Will, Extra Dark Invocation, Forge Epic Ring, Great Charisma, Scribe Epic Scroll, Uncanny Accuracy.

Gnome Sand Mage Starting Package

Weapons: <-Weapon selection for starting at 1st level with this class.->.

Skill Selection: Pick a number of skills equal to 4 + Int modifier.

Skill	Ranks	Ability	Armor Check Penalty
<-Skill name->	<-4 for class skills and 2 for cross-class skills->	<-Abbreviated key ability->	<-armor check penalty based on starting armor. If inapplicable, put "—"->
<-Skill name->	<-4 for class skills and 2 for cross-class skills->	<-Abbreviated key ability->	<-armor check penalty based on starting armor. If inapplicable, put "—"->
<-Skill name->	<-4 for class skills and 2 for cross-class skills->	<-Abbreviated key ability->	<-armor check penalty based on starting armor. If inapplicable, put "—"->
<-Skill name->	<-4 for class skills and 2 for cross-class skills->	<-Abbreviated key ability->	<-armor check penalty based on starting armor. If inapplicable, put "—"->

Feat: <-1st-level feat selection->.

Bonus Feats: <-1st-level feat bonus feats due to class or sample race. Remove this section if this sample doesn't get any bonus feats at 1st level.->.

Gear: <-Starting armor and other equipment outside of weapons.->.

Gold: <-Starting gold using this package.->.

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