Warmage

Warmages attend military academies in order to perfect their magical talents for harming and destruction. They combine their knowledge of arcane magic and martial talents to become deadly masters of combat.

Hit Die: d8

Requirements

To qualify to become a Warmage, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria:

Class Skills

The warmage does not gain any new skills.

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features

The following are class features of the warmage.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

A warmage receives no additional weapon and armor proficiency, however they negate the arcane spell failure chance when wearing light armor. At 3rd level they negate the arcane spell failure chance when wearing medium armor or wearing a light shield or buckler. And at 6th level, they negate the arcane spell failure chance of heavy armor, and all shields.

Spells per Day/Spells Known

When a new warmage level is gained, the character gains new spells as if she had also gained a wizard level. He does not, however, gain other benefits a character of that class would have gained, except for additional spells per day, spells known (if he is a spontaneous spellcaster), and an increased effective level of spellcasting.

Trained Killer (Ex)

Warmages are taught the art of killing their foes effectively, and harden them beyond the point of feeling regret for killing or harming. The bonus from the Bravery class feature is doubled when dealing with fear effects, and the normal bonus from Bravery is added on to one of two things chosen when the warmage wakes up and prepares his spells.

Disciplined in Taking a Hit: The warmage was regularly taken out and actively beaten when studying and training. They add their unmodified Bravery bonus as a miscellaneous bonus to their AC. This bonus isn’t removed when they are flat-footed.

Disciplined to Resist Magic: The warmage has built up such a tolerance for magic and its penalties, that they actively oppose spells that aren’t their own, or their allies’. They gain Spell Resistance equal to 8 + their Bravery bonus + ½ Intelligence modifier. This needn’t be lowered when accepting allies’ spells.

Scholarly Soldier (Su)

The warmage was taught to use their evocation magic to its maximum potential. They add their Intelligence modifier as a bonus to damage with evocation spells. Alongside this, if they possess the Weapon Finesse feat they can use Intelligence instead of Dexterity for attack rolls. This also counts for effects such as Agile and Slashing Grace (using Intelligence instead of Dexterity).

Bonus Feat

The warmage gains a bonus feat at 2nd level and every even level thereafter. These bonus feats must be either combat feats or metamagic feats. If they take a level in fighter or wizard and gain a bonus feat from their respective class, they retain the ability to choose between a combat or metamagic feat.

Shrug Off (Ex)

When a spell is cast upon the warmage which requires a saving throw, they can spend a use of their shrug off ability to count themselves as if they had succeeded at the saving throw. This can be used once per day at 2nd level, twice per day at 6th level, and three times per day at 10th level.

Unlock Spell (Su)

The warmage’s mastery and talent for damage dealing spell aids them in making even the simplest of spells effective. They can choose to lift the maximum potential damage from a spell, allowing it to deal even more damage. (A Wizard 5/Fighter 5/Warmage 3 can choose snowball as their unlock spell, dealing 13d6 points of damage with the spell instead of the normal 5d6.) This does not change a spell’s level or caster level, only the damage dice.

Note: This can be exceptionally useful for campaigns which go beyond 20th level, allowing spells which would cap out at 20d6 points of damage to do even more damage. This is all dependent on the campaign however, as not all games reach beyond 20th level.