Talk:Sandbender, Variant (3.5e Class)

My thoughts
So since I offered to help out with this guy, here are my thoughts. Because this class has a really awesome idea behind it, but it doesn't quite live up to the bad-assery that it could. So these are some things that we can edit/add to make it have less problems and more ass kicking.

1. This class starts off weak. There are several things that can rectify this situation. First of all, and I'm pretty sure you talked about this too, the sandbender needs some weapon and armor proficiencies. Secondly, starting off with only one not too powerful spell that you can only use once is pretty lame. This can be taken care of by raising the initial number of technique points per day and possibly increasing the number of techniques known.

2. This class has terrible saves. The bad reflex saves I can understand, but the sandbender's fortitude saves should be good because he uses the fruit of the desert, which is one of the harshest environments in the word. I could probably make an argument for stronger Will saves, but whether or not these increase his fortitude definitely needs an increase. Hit points could use an increase too, otherwise the sandbender will get killed off during the early levels.

3. The rules for sand need to elaborated. Not the rules for attuned sand, but the rules for normal, run of the mill sand. The abilities talk about how it can't be used in water and that lightning and fire destroy it (presumably by turning it to glass), but no amount of damage is set down. I'm not sure exactly how much damage should be required, but this amount should be stated in the attuned sand description, as well as the fact that sand cannot move through water.

4. The number of times the sandbender receives Natural techniques should be raised. The original author made a feat that grants it once every two levels instead of every three; I propose that this be made the normal rule. And why this should be implemented leads me to the next point.

5. The greater control abilities, while they don't suck, and some of them are really awesome, require you to waste your natural techniques on one specialization, shoehorning you into something and requiring a lot of forethought and little turning back. A larger number of natural technique opportunities means that you can still get the more badass general techniques without sacrificing some other really good options.

6. The number of techniques known needs to be increased too. With a total of 30 different spells, plus the four from General techniques (and maybe another four depending on how you use your natural techniques), a maximum of 25 really limits you, especially if you waste all your techniques on early level spells before you get to a high enough level to do some major asskicking. It should probably be raised to like double your level, except there would be some levels where it would stay the same so that the number of techniques you knew eclipsed the total possible. Or maybe you start off with more techniques and get a one or two technique increase every level.

7. One is all kinda sucks. Not only does it require you to spend three natural techniques on all is one (which is pretty good in itself and allows you to channel your dry hands more effectively), but turning into sand should be a class feature that everyone gets, not one that requires special forethought. I'm not sure exactly should replace one is all, but it should definitely be worth spending the natural techniques.

Anyways you've probably noticed a lot of these too, so let me know your opinion so we can start working on making this dude a total badass. I also have several ideas that I didn't talk about here, but these are the main issues in the existing class, without adding anything entirely new (such as class features). Anyways I've been working on uploading the spells so...yeah.--Azya 00:37, 23 March 2011 (UTC)