Battlemage (3.5e Prestige Class)

Battlemage:

“	So, you want to know my secret, the secret to meld might and magic in perfect harmony? The secret to truly wield sword and spell while clad in armor? The secret to match the strong-armed warrior or the well-learned mage in combat, and best them both? Pull up a seat kid, this is gonna take some time.	”
—Mathias Firewind, Half-Elf Battlemage

The Battlemage is a special kind of spellcaster, one who has uncovered powerful magical secrets or trained vigorously. In battle, the real power of the Battlemage emerges. For them has mastered the art of melding might and magic into one deadly art, one that allows them to match, or even best, both Fighters and spellcasters in one-on-one combat.

As a prestige class, Battlemage is one of the high risk - high reward ones. It's high entry requirements forces characters some serious trouble at early levels, though this class make up for it once they reach there.. if they can.

Requirements

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

• Skills: Concentration 6 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 6 ranks, Spellcraft 6 ranks
• Feats: Power Attack, Toughness
• Special: Ability to cast 2nd level spells
• Weapon Proficiency: Must be proficient with all simple and martial weapons
• Armor Proficiency: Must be proficient with light, medium, and Heavy Armor, plus shields (Tower Shield Proficiency optional)
• Base Attack Bonus: +6

Table: The Battlemage

Hit Die: d8

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Class/Spells per Day/Spells Known
1st	+1	+2	+0	+2	Advanced Learning, Light Armor Competence, Bonus Feat	+1 level of existing martial and +1 existing spellcasting class
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+3	Ability Boost (+1), Medium Armor Competence	+1 level of existing martial and +1 existing spellcasting class
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+3	Advanced Learning, Light Armor Mastery, Bonus Feat	+1 level of existing martial and +1 existing spellcasting class
4th	+4	+4	+1	+4	Ability Boost (+1), Toughness, Shield Competence	+1 level of existing martial and +1 existing spellcasting class
5th	+5	+4	+1	+4	Bonus Feat, Medium Armor Mastery	+1 level of existing martial and +1 existing spellcasting class
6th	+6	+5	+2	+5	Ability Boost (+1), Advanced Learning, Shield Mastery	+1 level of existing martial and +1 existing spellcasting class
7th	+7	+5	+2	+5	Bonus Feat, Heavy Armor Competence	+1 level of existing martial and +1 existing spellcasting class
8th	+8	+6	+2	+6	Ability Boost (+1), Advanced Learning	+1 level of existing martial and +1 existing spellcasting class
9th	+9	+6	+3	+6	Bonus Feat, Heavy Armor Mastery	+1 level of existing martial and +1 existing spellcasting class
10th	+10	+7	+3	+7	Ability Boost (+1), Advanced Learning	+1 level of existing martial and +1 existing spellcasting class
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level) Concentration, Climb, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge, Profession, Ride, Spellcraft, Swim, Use Magic Device.

Class Features:

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

Hit Die: d8

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Battlemages are proficient by prerequisite with all simple and martial weapons, all armor types, and shields (including Tower Shields).

Bonus Spells: Battlemages gain spell levels as they gain levels in this prestige class, as if from gaining another level in their spell class.

If a character has more than one spellcasting class, he must decide to which class he adds each spell level as it is gained. Once a level has been applied, it cannot be shifted.

Bonus Levels: Battlemages gain the abilities of their martial and spellcasting classes (due to the balance between martial and spellcasting aspects) each level as if they had leveled-up their classes. Such abilities include special abilities like rage/day, metamagic feat, or any kind of special ability that comes with the bonus level. A battlemage may not learn the abilities of two spellcasting classes (one for the martial level, and one for the spellcasting level), and a battle mage may not learn two levels of a spellcasting class if it be the only class s/he has.

Armor Competency and Mastery (Ex): At 1st level, the battlemage begins to achieves what other caster/melee hybrids have failed, the ability to avoid spell failure up to and from heavy armor. At 1st level, s/he gains competence in Light Armor (reduce ASF penalty by 50% when wearing Light armor). At 2nd level, s/he gains competence in Medium Armor (reduce ASF penalty by 50% when wearing Medium armor.) At 3rd level, he s/he gains mastery in Light Armor (reduce original ASF penalty by 75% when wearing Light Armor.) This proceeds to Medium Armor Mastery at 5th level, Heavy Armor Competence at 7th level, and Heavy Armor Mastery at 9th level (while wearing the appropriate armor type). The most a Battlemage will thus reduce his ASF% penalty with any type of armor is 75% of the original (if ASF% was 20%, with Competence it will be 10% and with Mastery it will be 5%).

At 4th and 6th level, this competence (4th) and mastery (6th) extends to all light and heavy shields, but NOT including tower shields. If the character has already learned how to ignore spell failure while wearing heavy shields, they will still NOT learn to avoid it while wearing Tower Shields. NOTE: A battlemage must still retain one free hand in order to cast spells with a somatic component - either a melee weapon/staff and a free hand, or a shield and a free hand, or two free hands.

Bonus Feats: At every odd level of the class, (1,3,5, etc), the Battlemage gains a bonus feat. At each such opportunity, he can choose a metamagic feat, an item creation feat, Spell Mastery feat, or a combat-related feat from the Fighter bonus feats list. The battlemage must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including caster level minimums.

These bonus feats are in addition to the feat that a character of any class gets from normally advancing levels. The battlemage is not limited to the categories of item creation feats, metamagic feats, or Spell Mastery when choosing these normal feats.

Toughness: At 4th level, the Battlemage gains Toughness as a bonus feat.

Advanced Learning: At 1st, 3rd, 6th, 8th, and 10th level, a Battlemage can add a new spell to his list, representing the result of personal study and experimentation. The spell must be a from the Battlemage's previous spellcaster class, and of a level no higher than the highest level spell the battlemage knows. Once that spell is selected, it is forever added to the battlemage's spell list or spell book and can be cast just like any other spell on the battlemage's spell list or book.

Ability Boost: A battlemage values every ability, gaining (+1) ability boost on their even numbered class levels to any one ability score.

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