How to: Warmage Spellcasting

How to: Warmage Spellcasting

One of the arcane spellcasting classes in D&D 3.5 that is very often forgotten is the warmage from Complete Arcane. Specialized in battlefield magic (i.e. blasting and protecting), it seems like a good choice for those who want to play a blasting wizard that is worse that an actual blasting wizard or sorcerer. The class does not have many class features, and most of them revolve around sudden metamagic - changing the few spells that they have access to. Let's see how this can be accomplished in the magic-as-powers framework.

Complete Arcane emphasizes that the warmages have access to a severely limited pool of spells that they can alter with sudden metamagic. Doesn't that sound like GURPS psionics? So, it should not be difficult to come up with a framework for warmages.

- The warmage's scope of abilities is limited. The warmage can only take damaging and protective spells. Blasts of energy, fireballs, rain of acid, force shields, Resist Fire, and so on.

- Since we do not allow the warmages to improvise, they do not take the Sorcerous Empowerment advantage, and purchase their spells as an array of alternative abilities.

- Each spell has a power skill attached with the possibility of power techniques, a la GURPS Psionic Powers. That way, the warmages have access to a small selection of favorite spells, but they can improve them, and the techniques allow for some flexibility.

- Warmages do not need to study spellbooks, but they do need to prepare their spells each day by spending time to call up the knowledge from their unconscious minds. This calls for 1d minutes of quiet chanting and meditation per spell once per day and adds Accessibility, Requires simple ritual, -5% to the Sorcery, -15% power modifier, resulting in Warmage, -20%.