It's a Kind of Magic - Templar Powers

When designing the Templar, I wanted an alternative to the standard system of magic used in D&D. I got the feeling that, in order to provide something worthy of attention, it has to be unique. Also, to maintain the flavor of its Dark Sun origins, it had to have something unique to the condition of the power source.
 Effectively a Templar is servant of her patron King. The Templar gains power by obtaining influence with her patron. As I mentioned in the first post on this series, the power of a Templar should be roughly equivalent to a Warlock. To this end, I chose to have the Templar's influence recharge on a short rest. The amount of influence a Templar can bring to bear is equal to their level but there may be addenda in the final outing.

Structure

Powers for the Templar are based on three levels of power. Lesser powers are roughly equivalent to first level spells. It costs one point of influence to manifest a minor power. When you gain higher influence, it is possible to bump up the power to a more effective level (like spending higher spell slots).
 Minor powers are roughly equivalent to second and third level spells. Each costs 3 influence to manifest and can also be buffed up using additional influence.
 Finally, Greater powers are roughly equivalent to fourth and fifth level spells. Each costs seven influence to manifest and can be buffed using additional influence.
 The maximum buff allowed is half your level minutes one. Thus, a fourth level character can only add one buff point to a spell. This prevents a character of lower levels from creating the effects of a higher level spell.

Chide the Mind

Lesser

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As a reaction, if any creature hits you with an attack, you can glare at them balefully or shout a curse. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw or suffer 3d6 psychic damage, or half as much on a successful save. For each additional point of influence spent, the damage increases by 2d6.

Raw Power... and Cantrips

Signature Spell

I'm working on a revised magic system for use with my Templar class. I want it to be roughly equal in power to the Warlock, but I don't want the schtick of Eldritch Blast being an effective class requirement. In developing my own 'Cantrips', I realised one thing: some of the cantrips are actually really powerful.
I play an Eldritch Knight in my Wednesday night game. While I have a crossbow, I hardly ever use it, because Fire Bolt is 2d10 (my character is 9th level) fire damage over 120 feet and I can use it as an AOO (War Caster), and I can do a bonus weapon attack right after using it as my action, so potentially 4d10 + weapon damage in a single round of combat. Right there and then is my go to ranged weapon.

For the Warlock, Eldritch Blast is the equivalent, mostly because it ties in with so many of the Eldritch Invocations available to the class. It is the signature at-will power for the class. I want my powers to be a little more flexible, but I get the impression that there is one, or maybe two, that will be go-to powers for the class, for example:

Fist of the Templar

Enchantment cantrip

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• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 120 feet
• Components: V, S
• Duration: 1 round

You call out to an enemy or wrongdoer to halt and bring your fist into your other palm. A loud sound rings out in an area of 120 feet (perhaps a thunderclap, a gavel pummelling, or a judgement bell tolling once).

You make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d6 psychic damage and its speed is reduced to 10 feet until the beginning of your next turn.

The cantrip’s damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6) and 17th level (4d6).

Being able to slow and harm a creature at the same time makes it useful. I'm considering actually upping the damage to a d8, but I'm not sure (suggestions welcome). Many of the powers available to my Templar cause psychic damage, as the focus is imposing the will of the Sorceror/Undying King. So, this features is one I think could become signature, but only if the focus of the campaign is combat centric.
Some of the other features simply come with the note "This feature functions identically to the <name> cantrip." That's easy enough. I know these features come with built in balance.
The only way to know how this will work out in the long term is to monitor. If players testing my Templar class default to these options every time, then perhaps the feature is too powerful. Either that, or I'm not putting together adventures/encounters that provide for use of the other features.
Next time, I'll go into some detail about the magic system. As the characters are at quite low levels, this hasn't been tested robustly yet, so this will be very much a basic introduction.

Rising Dark(sun)

So, I'm coming over all Dark Sun. Part of my campaign world ruled over by some seemingly immortal rulers in a desert kingdom. There are story reasons for this, but with magical prohibition in effect (story, again), I got to thinking about the old Dark Sun world. Queue Defilers and Templars.

When I read through the Dark Sun setting information for 4e, I found the demotion of Templars to a background gave me pause. I played a Templar when Dark Sun first came out and it really got me flexing my roleplay muscles. The combined magical and political power behnd the class ensured that not every situation was a straight up fight.

I liked the combination, so I went looking around for any 5e implementations. I didn't really find anything I liked so I'm implementing my own. My Alchemist didn't work out so well, I couldn't find a balance between power and durability on that one, but with the Templar I have a clear model to build from and early playtesting is looking good.

Tweak, tweak, tweak for the next few months.