Alternative Rage Mage for D&D 3.5
Looking for feedback.
Requirements:
BAB: +4
Skills: Spellcraft 8 ranks
Feats: Power Attack
Spells: Able to cast 2nd level arcane spells.
Special: Rage ability.
Hit Die: d8
Skill Points: 2+Int
Class Skills: Climb, Concentration, Jump, Listen, Spellcraft, Survival
BAB: 3/4 (as Cleric)
Save: Good Fortitude, poor Reflex and Will
Class Features:
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Rage mages gain no additional proficiency with armor or weapons.
Spells per Day: At even-numbered levels, rage mages gain new spells per day and an increase in caster level as if gaining a level in a previous casting class, though no other class benefits are obtained. A rage mage does not suffer arcane spell failure while wearing light armor.
Spellrager (Su): Whenever a rage mage enters a rage, she can still cast spells from the Conjuration, Evocation, Necromancy, and Transmutation schools as normal for her class. While in a rage, she adds her full rage mage class level to her caster level for any arcane class she had before entering rage mage.
Wrath (Su): While raging, a rage mage replaces her primary casting statistic with the number of rounds of rage remaining to calculate the save DC of her spells.
Rage (Ex): At 2nd, 6th, and 10th level, a rage mage gains an extra daily use of rage.
Fury (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, a rage mage can apply any metamagic feat she knows to her spells without increasing spell level or casting time. Instead, she reduces her rage duration by one round for every spell level adjustment that would be applied. The metamagic level adjustment cannot exceed half her rage mage level.
Spellpower (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a rage mage may apply her power attack feat to any spell that requires an attack roll while raging. This increases damage as if the spell were a 1-handed weapon. Additionally, the spell ignores energy resistance up to the amount of penalty taken.
Ire (Su): At 5th level, a rage mage may hold the charge of a touch spell in a melee weapon she weilds, or she may deliver the spell with a normal melee weapon attack (against their full armor) as part of the same standard action used to cast the spell.
Spellsunder (Su): Starting at 7th level, a rage mage may add her strength modifier to caster level checks to overcome spell resistance.
Spellfeed (Sp): At 10th level, a rage mage may sacrifice a spell slot as a swift action to add the spell level to her rage duration. Rage duration obtained this way cannot be used to power Fury.
Confluence
THE CONFLUENCE OF TIME AND CHANCE
LED US TO A CANDLELIT TABLE
CLOTH FLOWER AFLOAT IN CRYSTAL
ENTREES THE LANDSCAPE OF OUR DESIRES
THE ROAST DUCK YOU CALLED DELICIOUS
BUT I REALIZED LATER THAT IT WASN’T
IT WASN’T THE DUCK WE WERE TASTING
INSTEAD IT WAS A FIRING OF NEURONS
AGE-OLD REACTIONS TO COMPLEX CHEMISTRY
BRAIN CONVENIENTLY LYING TO BRAIN
WHISPERING IN OUR TASTE-EAR
THIS IS A GOOD THING TO EAT
AND THEN I COULDN’T SEE US TOGETHER AGAIN
YOU WHO SO CAVALIERLY LIED
IT WASN’T THE DUCK THAT WAS DELICIOUS
IT WAS CLEARLY YOUR BRAIN
Two Limericks (One is about a mime)
A request for a poem about a mime in pain.
If only the crowd were receptive
the mime could have been more selective
His set piece bereft
and no options left
he summoned a pooch quite aggressive.
And a limerick about first contact.
First contact with aliens was grand
Our leader took theirs by the hand.
It mentioned a pain
at the base of its brain
and so we gave it ibuprofen but the levorotatory nature destroyed its nervous system and started a decade long war that desolated the Earth.
Third Doonesbury Tumblrification. This one is about how pervasive similes are, and how they remove our basic freedom of expression or something like that.
Doonesbury Tumblrification 1
Doonesbury comic, rewritten with quotes from a friend’s tumblr.
A Letter to Publishers
Dear Publishers,
I work at a book store, and I have a few gripes with you:
1) Please stop making book covers white. Half of the time they are a different color by the time they make it to the store. Sometimes this can be fixed with a big eraser, sometimes not; but is it worth the effort? No. If the designers insist on the cover being white, then please PLEASE don’t make it a mat finish. This is also why I don’t buy white t-shirts.
2) Stop sending us cluttered covers. Yes, I know, there’s a lot of things your marketing and design departments want to get across, but often times the most effective marketing technique there is is a nice “Staff Pick” sticker. Especially when the staff is right there. But where to I put the sticker when the entire cover is taken up by title, author, and pretty picture? Honestly, leave some clouds in the corner or something. Good titles for stickers: A Reliable Wife, Freedom, Kraken. Bad titles for stickers: The Given Day, The Art of Racing in the Rain.
3) Necrophilia is not cool.
4) If you are going to have a cutlass on the cover, please make sure the blade is facing the right way. I’m looking at you, Pirates of the Levant. The only way you’ll swash any buckles with that sword is with a tennis backhand.
5) Nobody is America’s Tolkein. Stop saying that. No, you can’t say America’s Pratchett, either.
If you can clear up these issues, then I will be happy to move back in with you and bring the dog, too.
Thanks,
soricidae
ASM Day 2
I woke up hungry in the hotel room with about 4 hours to kill before registration. First thing I did was go to the diner that was right next to the hotel. It was a nice place, good midwestern feel, and everyone, the waitresses and the patrons, was friendly. I had a good batch of eggs, bacon and pancakes.
I climbed back up to my room, and gave M a call, then read for a little bit and performed morning ablutions. It was still a little early yet, but I had about a mile and a half to walk to get to registration, so I started out. On the way I passed some large gathering of sports people on the fields; it looked like they were playing football, tennis and soccer all at once. Then I passed some dorms that looked like the equivalent of Simon’s Rock’s mods. Some of them had two stick figures crossed out with the words “No Humans Allowed/District 9” spray painted on them. This is, of course, a movie reference.
I got on to the campus proper, and I have to admit, there was some pretty landscaping. I looped around a park, where some students were playing a game that I can only describe as “line up with your backs facing each other, then turn around and strike a collective pose, scream something, and whoever submits and runs loses.”
I made it to the Union building with about an hour to spare. I sat in the basement and read the rest of the Dresden Codak webcomics until it was time to register. Unfortunately, that meant I had to abandon the lecture I was watching on Transhumanism and cyborg/prosthetic culture. 😦
I got my shirt and a bag and a bunch of other goodies, then hung around and listened to a few scientists talk. Then I went to find my housing in an 8-story building. At least I got a single, though it is a bit dreary. The pillow was too flat, and the blanket coverage was minimal – which worried me because the nights are still supposed to be in the 30’s here. Also, I had disobeyed Douglas Adams’ advice, and hadn’t packed a towel.
So I planned my trip downtown. I found that there was a bookstore right next to a K-mart about 24 blocks away, so that’s where I headed. It took me a little bit, but I got a good tour of Grand Avenue, which has at least three mexican restaurants on it.
The bookstore was actually equal parts Books, Music & Videogames, and DVD rentals/sales. The books section had a funny mix of used, sale, and new books, some of them out of print. The shelves were rather disorganized, a disgrace to my delicate New England Independent Bookstore Association (that exists, by the way) sensibilities, but I soon got over it, and found myself a hard cover copy of The Name of the Wind, which was perfect because I had given my paperback copy to my cousin-in-law.
In K-mart, which was as depressing as ever, I found two towels for a buck each (which will probably give me horrible formaldehyde burns), a fluffy pillow for $3.00, and a nice, soft blanket for cheap too. I tossed my book in the bag and proceeded back to my room. On the way, I found a baby bird that had fallen from the nest, but it was already cold so there was nothing I could have done about it. It made me kind of sad, but that’s nature. It also made me wonder what someone who doesn’t really know much about animals would think it is, because it really didn’t look like a bird.
It was time to go to the evening social when I got back. This would be the highlight of the evening.
CLIFFHANGER!
Day 1 Addendum
On the plane from Chicago to Denver, I was talking to a man from Mexico who now works as a legal guide for spanish-speakers who cannot speak english well enough to navigate the legal system. He said that most of his clients are low income families (not really a surprise there), and that a lot of them spend a good portion of their money on alcohol and then get in a car and drive. Thus he deals with a lot of DUIs.
Anyway, I had mentioned to him that I liked Grenada, Spain. He had been there in his mid-twenties as a Mormon missionary. He told me this story (paraphrased):
I was in this rich guys house with a friend, when his daughter walked in with a miniskirt, and whoo what a looker she was. The man noticed I was looking, and then asked us seriously, “Are you two virgins?” We answered that, yes, we were. “Good. It’s nice to see kids like that. My daughter sleeps with just about everyone who climbs up those steps.” Spanish kids those days were just like that.
Maybe a little bit too much information, but hey, oh well. He was an interesting guy. He was on his way to California for his daughter’s wedding.
ASM Day 1 (cont.)
While waiting for the plane to take off for a second time, I got to talking to two other guys going to the conference. One sported a beard and baseball cap, and researches fishers in California out of North Carolina State, under one of the big names in mammalogy (and of course I forget his name). This big name supposedly retired, but has more grad students than he did when working. They agreed that it wasn’t a conference without his presence. He’ll be here on the 12th. The other man was from Perdue, and I did not catch what animals he works with.
When Riding the Two-Headed Dinosaur, the Valsalva Maneuver Is Your Friend
I also met a man, I’ll call him Mr. McNulty, who used to be a director or something for the Laramie airport. He usually flies his private plane around, but of course this time he decided to go commercial and was thus particularly irked. He called up the Laramie airport and got them to summon the Hilton shuttle for us before we arrived. I wasn’t going to the Hilton, but it was certainly a kind gesture.
We finally got back on the plane a good two hours after we were originally supposed to leave. The Co-pilot said that we were rerouted to the West and then North to avoid the storm. The Pilot, who did not look much older than me, had told us earlier that they could here hail hitting the planes broadcasting from the storm area, so I suppose it was a good thing – except that another storm was coming and we ended up just going the original route.
Now this plane was a small double-prop plane with seating for about a dozen people, and it looked rather old. The plastic inside was that off-white beige that plastics tended to be in the 70’s. The engines looked like two blue sharks leaping from the gray wings with snorkels in their mouths. When the cabin was pressurized, I swear the plastic inside stretched before my eyes. There was also a bolt on the wing that was sticking out about a quarter inch.
Mr. McNulty pointed out various mountain ranges as we flew, including the Neversummer range in the distance on our left, which is part of the Rocky Mountain Reserve. We flew over the Laramie range to get to the Laramie valley. He pointed out a peak about 30 miles from the city, and named it Jelm Mountain. He lives in the foothills. He said that the Wyoming University Physics department has a 96 inch infrared telescope on the peak, which used to be the largest in the world.
More Travelling
In the airport there were a plethora of banners advertising the university, and everything has a bucking horse with a mounted cowboy plastered on it. I’m going to guess the mascot is the Cowboy.
A man who came for an economics conference offered to drive me to the Holiday Inn with his rented car, but I refused when the ASM representative came for me and one of the board of directors that was on the plane with us.
The woman who picked us up was one of the organizers from the university. She knew me as the person who didn’t pay for his shirt. She lies playing good cop/bad cop with the other director. Great. She was kidding me, but still, that’s quite a reputation…
The drive was nice, the scenery was pretty, and we saw pronghorns! She said the pronghorns usually calf on the 1st of June, but they waited for the conference this year.
Other tidbits of information:
They have both black- and white-tailed deer here, and hybrids of the two. The hybrids, she says, look odd. They supposedly aren’t sterile, but nobody will mate with them anyway.
An endemic species of bog beetle is eating all of the pines. There has been a population explosion in recent years because of climate change. The beetles can complete their life cycles every year now, instead of the two-year cycle that was sustainable.
Also, Laramie’s hospital is now just a clinic. Budget cuts have halted bringing the doctors in from Colorado, so there weren’t enough people for a hospital. You know they’re in dire straights when the local university molecular biology department donates excess materials to the clinic. Plus, a new Wal-Mart.
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