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Text of the page (random words):
u maximize or empower it and you ll need to do both of those together to have any chance whatsoever of injuring the great red wyrm this way which seems about right given the relative power of those enemies so what about other sources of energy immunity after all pcs can gain immunity too and they usually don t have natural hit dice for that we have the following corollary energy immunity gained from class levels instead grants resistance to that energy type equal to twice a creature s level in that class if this immunity comes from a prestige class it instead grants resistance equal to twice their level in that prestige class plus a single base class they possess for example a human sorcerer 8 bard 2 dragon disciple blue 10 will have gained the dragon apotheosis ability from his 10 th level of dragon disciple which would normally make him immune to electricity damage under this system he instead picks one of his base classes opting to take the sorcerer adds his levels in that to his levels in dragon disciple for a total of 18 and doubles the result giving him electricity resistance 36 the same as a young adult blue dragon of course there s also templates such as half dragons to consider so let s come up with a rule for them too if a creature gains energy immunity from a template it instead gains energy resistance equal to twice its natural hit dice or from twice its levels in a single class or a single base class and a single prestige class as outlined above whichever is higher so a griffon with the half dragon white template applied would have cold resistance 14 i e twice its 7 natural hit dice whereas a lizardfolk with the half dragon black template would start out with acid resistance 4 for its 2 natural hit dice with that value going up if it ever gained three or more levels in a class finally we want to deal with any instance of spells or magic items granting energy immunity if a spell or magic item grants energy immunity it instead grants energy resistance equal to twice its caster level this one doesn t come up too often as there are fewer spells and magic items that offer total immunity to a particular energy type but for something like a ring of energy immunity this lets us set its value e g resistance 40 since its caster level is 20 finally these values follow the normal rules for having energy resistances from two or more sources i e two different sources of resistance to the same energy will overlap rather than stacking so an ice mephit having cold resistance 6 from its 3 natural hit dice that receives a resist energy spell keyed to cold from a 5 th level spellcaster will have cold resistance 10 not cold resistance 16 of course none of this deals with things like immunity to poison or mind affecting effects but those either have smaller damage ranges e g poison or don t make use of numerical damage values e g mind affecting effects so we can overlook them here tags random thought encounter posted in uncategorized leave a comment third party support spontaneous spellcasting and prestige class simple templates may 12 2025 in my previous article i mentioned fat goblin games pf1 supplement classifieds core prestige class simple templates and i wanted to expound on that some more specifically on an issue with several of those templates spellcasting but let s back up for a moment of the ten prestige classes in the pf1 core rulebook six of them improve your spellcasting progression of those four arcane archer arcane trickster dragon disciple and eldritch knight are specific to arcane spellcasting one the loremaster is type agnostic and one the mystic theurge improves both arcane and divine spellcasting however only one of them the dragon disciple specifies whether the spellcasting progressions that they improve are prepared or spontaneous which isn t the case for the simple class templates in fat goblin games supplement to reiterate while the core prestige class simple templates book does have the dragon disciple template casting spells spontaneously though it only lists spells per day rather than spells known given that it should have a spells known table and note that they get two spells per day slots for each spell level i ve listed a corrected table below the other spellcasting class templates mandate being a preparatory spellcaster and the loremaster mandates being an arcane preparatory spellcaster dragon disciple creature spells known hd 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 6 9 1 10 14 2 1 15 19 2 2 1 20 24 2 2 1 25 2 2 while the simplicity of a template necessarily reduces the options that a creature would have if they d taken levels in a prestige class this still seems like an unnecessary straitjacket for instance consider that making a creature cast preparatory arcane spells means that with the possible exception of the loremaster they ll need to have a spellbook on them which could mean that your pcs gain access to some spells you d rather they not have that s not an issue with spontaneous spellcasters to that end consider using the following rules where the corresponding prestige class simple templates are concerned if not mentioned presume that each template uses the spell list mentioned in its entry in the prestige class simple templates sourcebook arcane archer when applying this template to a creature choose if you want them to be a prepared or spontaneous spellcaster if prepared they use the spells per day table listed if spontaneous treat the listed table as their spells known and they gain two spell slots of each level for every level of spells known a preparatory arcane archer uses intelligence as their spellcasting ability modifier a spontaneous arcane archer uses charisma as their spellcasting ability modifier arcane trickster when applying this template to a creature choose if you want them to be a prepared or spontaneous spellcaster if prepared they use the spells per day table listed if spontaneous treat the listed table as their spells known and they gain two spell slots of each level for every level of spells known a preparatory arcane trickster uses intelligence as their spellcasting ability modifier a spontaneous arcane trickster uses charisma as their spellcasting ability modifier and replaces this template s ability score modifiers with the following 2 dexterity 2 charisma eldritch knight when applying this template to a creature choose if you want them to be a prepared or spontaneous spellcaster if prepared they use the spells per day table listed if spontaneous treat the listed table as their spells known and they gain two spell slots of each level for every level of spells known a preparatory eldritch knight uses intelligence as their spellcasting ability modifier a spontaneous eldritch knight uses charisma as their spellcasting ability modifier and replaces this template s ability score modifiers with the following 2 strength 2 charisma loremaster when applying this template to a creature choose if you want them to be an arcane spellcaster or a divine spellcaster if arcane draw their spells from the sorcerer wizard spell list if divine draw their spells from the cleric spell list then decide if you want them to be a prepared or spontaneous spellcaster if prepared they use the spells per day table listed if spontaneous treat the listed table as their spells known and they gain two spell slots of each level for every level of spells known a preparatory arcane loremaster uses intelligence as their spellcasting ability modifier a preparatory divine loremaster uses wisdom as their spellcasting ability modifier and replaces the template s ability score modifiers with the following 4 wisdom a spontaneous loremaster of any kind uses charisma as their spellcasting ability modifier and replaces the template s ability score modifiers with the following 4 charisma mystic theurge when applying this template to a creature choose if you want them to be a prepared or spontaneous spellcaster this choice is for both their arcane and divine spells if prepared they use the spells per day table listed if spontaneous treat the listed table as their spells known and they gain two spell slots of each level for every level of spells known a preparatory mystic theurge uses either their intelligence or their wisdom as their spellcasting ability modifier this choice must be made when the template is first applied to a creature once made this choice cannot be changed a spontaneous mystic theurge uses charisma as their spellcasting ability modifier and replaces this template s ability score modifiers with the following 2 intelligence 2 wisdom 4 charisma i ll close out by saying that while there s no official guidance that i m aware of my presumption is that spellcasting ability gained via a simple class template receives bonus spells for a high spellcasting ability modifier the same as any other spellcaster tags third party support posted in uncategorized 1 comment adding character classes to monsters in the d20 system march 10 2025 giving monsters abilities that are typically restricted to character classes is something of a sticky wicket in the d20 system not because monsters can t have such powers but because giving it to them can be a cumbersome process under the framework of the game rules what follows is a brief outline of ways to add class abilities to monsters and the virtues and drawbacks of each method hopefully this helps you give your monsters some class adding class levels this method has the monsters gain class abilities the same way that the pcs do by taking levels in the relevant class es the good this is the most straightforward method with very little ambiguity since class levels don t really interact with any powers the monster might naturally have even better it works with every character class out there no matter how unusual or outré and there s no problem if you want to use alternate class abilities or pf1 style archetypes the bad if you just want your monster to have one or two particular abilities this method can be more trouble than it s worth if you want your rakshasa to have evasion and 4d6 sneak attack you re going to have to give them seven levels of rogue this involves spending a bunch of skill points giving them a couple of feats recalculating their saving throw bonuses and bab along with a bunch of powers you didn t care about them having all of which is to say this method can be a hassle don t forget that some monsters base stats are enough for them to qualify for certain prestige classes your average rakshasa for instance already meets all of the requirements to take levels in eldritch knight variant multiclassing while it s atypical to think of a monster s natural hit dice as being like class levels there s plenty of history to the idea from wotc s savage species book for d d 3 0 to dreamscarred press s monster class line of supplements for pf1 and if natural hit dice are class levels is there any reason why a monster can t use variant multiclassing the good this method is one of the easiest to implement you just eliminate the requisite number of feats according to the chart on the page linked to above and apply the matching class features from the class you ve chosen the bad even leaving aside that this relies on the pf1 feat progression which is a relatively small hurdle to work around the fact of the matter is that the rigid nature of what class features you get might not be precisely what you re looking for more than that only a small number of pf1 classes even have their variant multiclassing rules outlined and almost no other classes do which can leave you stuck with having to write your own if the class you want isn t on here it s worth mentioning that far distant future publishing s variant multiclassing revisited solves a lot of the aforementioned problems not only does it rework the variant multiclassing system into a series of feats albeit keeping the restriction that you can only have one variant multiclass but it also has options for a large number of classes simple class templates another pf1 option this does what it says on the proverbial tin turning classes into templates the good this feature combines the simplicity of variant multiclassing with the additive nature of taking standard class levels the creature gains everything in the template up to its hit dice without giving up any feats or needing to mess with recalculating things like skill points and saving throws it also helps that the cr adjustment is built right into the template the bad since all of these templates involve an ability score boost to the ability score primarily used by the class in question some of the monster s statistics will need at least minor recalculating moreover the simplified nature of these templates means that a number of the powers in the original class are either absent or heavily watered down likewise only a few classes have these templates made for them in the first place as with variant multiclassing the third party community has stepped worked to fill at least some of the gap where other classes are concerned rogue genius games for instance has published not just one but two supplements focused on simple class templates while fat goblin games has done the same for several prestige classes gestalt integration operating on the aforementioned idea that a monster s natural hit dice are a class in and of themselves there s no reason why you can t simply make a gestalt character out of them integrating a class directly into their stat block the good presuming that the creature has equal or better hit dice size bab progression and skill points per level than the class you re integrating them with then this is one of the easiest options just add in the class abilities and you re done and if the weapon and armor proficiencies they gain give you some new options so much the better plus you can customize the class if it has selectable suites of abilities e g rogue talents or pf1 style archetypes the bad if your monster doesn t have better hit dice bab or skill points per level than the class you re making them a gestalt with then this can involve some considerable recalculating of their stat block also you ll need to recalculate the monster s cr on your own if you re using pf1 you ll need to figure out if the monster gains favored class bonuses for its gestalt class for a slight twist on the gestalt option check out the amalgam characters idea on this post from owen k c stephens blog an amalgam character is essentially the same thing as a gestalt character except all of the abilities of both classes are considered to be native to the amalgam class this can be important for rule interactions for example an amalgam magus wizard treats all their wizard spells as being magus spells when determining if they can cast spells without suffering from arcane spell failure depowered monsters this idea turns monsters into monstrous equivalents of humans elves dwarves etc with no natural hit dice and special...