Blood Marshal - invocation using fighter base class. take a look. [Archive] - Wizards Community

Blood Marshal - invocation using fighter base class. take a look. [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Dioxin
11-01-05, 12:03 AM Blood Marshal (Working draft, some text cleanup for later. Considering alternate titles: Bloodknight, eldritch sword, spirit snatch, bloodfury, lifeseeker, sanguis. Give me your suggestion or vote for a favorite. Will busk for feedback.)

A blood marshal wields the same source of eldritch power as the warlock, although some would consider the manner of its manifestation even more sinister. The blood marshal uses his powers in physical combat to "liberate" the life essence of his enemies, before absorbing the essence for use against its source and others. Whether it be due to the glowing crimson mist that flows from their weapons after a bone crushing strike, or their unnatural prowess and savagery in combat, rumours that blood marshals are pawns of the dark gods or that they themselves are day walking vampire spawn are never far behind. Ironically, the blood marshal discipline is practiced almost exclusively by the living.

Due to their reliance on the life essence of others, the blood marshal is less hardy than most other adventurers who practice the warrior's art. However, their unique abilities more than make up for this shortfall.

Skills: Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int, x 4 at first level.
Hit Die: d8.
Alignment: Any evil or chaotic.

Table: The Blood Marshal
Level BAB F/R/W Special Eldritch blast Invocations
1st +1 2/0/0 Siphon essence 1
2nd +2 3/0/0 1d6 least 1
3rd +3 3/1/1 Eldritch focus
4th +4 4/1/1 Siphon exotic essence
5th +5 4/1/1 Siphon essence 2
6th +6/+1 5/2/2 2d6 2
7th +7/+2 5/2/2 Eldritch focus
8th +8/+3 6/2/2
9th +9/+4 6/3/3 Siphon essence 3
10th +10/+5 7/3/3 Siphon animating force 3d6 3
11th +11/+6/+1 7/3/3 Eldritch focus
12th +12/+7/+2 8/4/4
13th +13/+8/+3 8/4/4 Siphon essence 4
14th +14/+9/+4 9/4/4 4d6 lesser 4
15th +15/+10/+5 9/5/5 Eldritch focus
16th +16/+11/+6/+1 10/5/5 Siphon negative energy
17th +17/+12/+7/+2 10/5/5 Siphon essence 5
18th +18/+13/+8/+3 11/6/6 5d6 5
19th +19/+14/+9/+4 11/6/6 Eldritch focus
20th +10/+15/+10/+5 12/6/6 Essence devourer

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light armor. Arcane failure chance for invocations if wearing medium or heavy armor.

Siphon Essence (Su): When you deal damage to a creature in melee, you absorb a portion of the creature's life essence. At the beginning of the next round, you digest this essence and gain a +1 bonus to hit, damage, armor class, or one type of save. This bonus lasts for one round. For every 4 levels after first, the bonus increases by one. You gain this bonus only once for any number of successful attacks in a round. At first level, you can only absorb the life essence of humanoids, monstrous humanoids or native outsiders if you are any one of these creature types. Otherwise you can only absorb from your own creature type (i.e. an aberration can only absorb from other aberrations). At 4th level, you can absorb from any living creature (any creature with a constitution score). At 10th level you can absorb the raw arcane force that animates constructs. At 16th level, you can use negative energy absorbed from undead to attract like amounts of ambient life essence, before dissipating the negative energy harmlessly.

Eldritch Blast (Sp): As warlock's ability of the same name. Your caster level equals half your class level. If you multiclass as a warlock, your caster levels from the two classes stack.

Invocations (Sp): You gain a limited number of warlock invocations. Your caster level equals half your class level. If you multiclass as a warlock, your caster levels from the two classes stack.

Eldritch Focus: You become more in tune with the power flowing through your veins. Select from the following list of bonus abilities every time you gain an eldritch focus.
Blast Channel (Su): You can use a melee weapon as a channel for your eldritch blast. You add the weapon's enhancement bonuses to your eldritch blast to hit rolls.
Blast Reaver (Su): You can use your siphon essence ability in conjunction with your eldritch blasts. This is an exception to the normal requirement that siphon essence be used only with melee attacks.
Blast Rend (Su): You can throw your physical force behind your eldritch blasts. Add your strength modifier to your eldritch blast damage. In addition, you may use your strength modifier in place of your dexterity modifier to your eldritch blast attack rolls.
Weapon Infusion (Su): As a full round action that provokes an attack of opportunity, you may reduce your eldritch blast damage by 1d6 to add 1d6 magic damage to a melee weapon of your choice. This damage is not multiplied on critical hits. Both effects last for 24 hours. You can infuse an individual weapon only once, but you may infuse multiple weapons as long as your have base eldritch blast damage remaining.
Fortifying Absorption (Su): Instead of the normal siphon essence bonuses, you may choose to gain DR 2/cold iron for every point of siphon essence.
Healing Absorption (Su): Instead of the normal siphon essence bonuses, you may choose to heal 1 hp for every point of siphon essence.
Bonus Feat: You gain any one feat that mimics a metamagic feat for spell-like abilities, such as Empower Spell-like Ability. You must meet all feat prerequisites.

Essence Devourer (Su): You may now benefit from two different siphon essence bonuses in the same round. This requires two successful attacks in the previous round.

New feat:
Ghostblood Acolyte [Monstrous]
You have mastered the ectoplasm within your body enough for it to resemble some functions of a living metabolism.
Prerequisite: Siphon essence class ability, undead type.
Benefit: You are able to use the siphon essence class ability of the blood marshal. Your progression of essence tolerance is different from that of living creatures. At first level you can only absorb essence from other undead. At 4th level you can absorb from living creatures of the same creature type as you were before your undeath. At 16th level you can absorb from any living creature.
Normal: Creatures without a constitution score cannot benefit from the siphon essence ability.
FriendlyBiscuit
11-01-05, 02:25 AM At first this seemed overpowered. Then I realized that the eldritch blast is so weak as to be nearly useless; it will mostly be used for Weapon Infusion and in case of emergencies where normal attacks will not work or are unavailable. The invocations, too will be extremely few and far between. The fact that the invocations and blast reward the player with more diverse ability points is also a balancing factor. The hit die and armor are rather low for a fighter-like character, and the shortage of feats is going to very noticeable at early levels.

This may be the first time I read about a new class and it didn't strike me as overpowered. Because it's so strange, I'll have to playtest it to be sure, but it may in fact be underpowered. If so, it's close... close enough that it can be rectified simply by allowing medium armor. You may want to specifically state whether or not all points of siphon essence in the same round must be used toward the same eldritch focus, or if one point can be for AC, another for HP, etc. Judging from the way it's written, I'd guess that it's the first way, but that's not stated directly.
One of the best things you did was to allow Siphon Essence to only happen once in any round. As the most powerful class feature, it has the greatest potential for abuse.
I'm really shocked. I think this is balanced. If/when I playtest it, I'll let you know my final opinion. Great job!
Dioxin
11-01-05, 11:29 PM It's weird. I thought the way I wrote the ability discription didn't allow for any spreading around of siphoning bonuses. In my mind "For every 4 levels after first, the bonus increases by one." "Instead of the normal siphon essence bonuses, you may choose... for every point of siphon essence." and "You may now benefit from two different siphon essence bonuses in the same round." all point to the fact the bonus stays in one category. Then again, I've seen weirder interpretations of much clearer rules on the boards so I might end up changing it. Right now I'm having a bit of trouble making the clarification not sound repetitive.

I greatly appreciate your offer to playtest the class, friend biscuit :D. If you do get around to it, I'd be very interested in learning the results.
Dioxin
11-04-05, 01:00 AM :bump: Does anyone else have a take on this class?

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Dioxin 11-01-05, 12:03 AM	Blood Marshal (Working draft, some text cleanup for later. Considering alternate titles: Bloodknight, eldritch sword, spirit snatch, bloodfury, lifeseeker, sanguis. Give me your suggestion or vote for a favorite. Will busk for feedback.) A blood marshal wields the same source of eldritch power as the warlock, although some would consider the manner of its manifestation even more sinister. The blood marshal uses his powers in physical combat to "liberate" the life essence of his enemies, before absorbing the essence for use against its source and others. Whether it be due to the glowing crimson mist that flows from their weapons after a bone crushing strike, or their unnatural prowess and savagery in combat, rumours that blood marshals are pawns of the dark gods or that they themselves are day walking vampire spawn are never far behind. Ironically, the blood marshal discipline is practiced almost exclusively by the living. Due to their reliance on the life essence of others, the blood marshal is less hardy than most other adventurers who practice the warrior's art. However, their unique abilities more than make up for this shortfall. Skills: Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha). Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int, x 4 at first level. Hit Die: d8. Alignment: Any evil or chaotic. Table: The Blood Marshal Level BAB F/R/W Special Eldritch blast Invocations 1st +1 2/0/0 Siphon essence 1 2nd +2 3/0/0 1d6 least 1 3rd +3 3/1/1 Eldritch focus 4th +4 4/1/1 Siphon exotic essence 5th +5 4/1/1 Siphon essence 2 6th +6/+1 5/2/2 2d6 2 7th +7/+2 5/2/2 Eldritch focus 8th +8/+3 6/2/2 9th +9/+4 6/3/3 Siphon essence 3 10th +10/+5 7/3/3 Siphon animating force 3d6 3 11th +11/+6/+1 7/3/3 Eldritch focus 12th +12/+7/+2 8/4/4 13th +13/+8/+3 8/4/4 Siphon essence 4 14th +14/+9/+4 9/4/4 4d6 lesser 4 15th +15/+10/+5 9/5/5 Eldritch focus 16th +16/+11/+6/+1 10/5/5 Siphon negative energy 17th +17/+12/+7/+2 10/5/5 Siphon essence 5 18th +18/+13/+8/+3 11/6/6 5d6 5 19th +19/+14/+9/+4 11/6/6 Eldritch focus 20th +10/+15/+10/+5 12/6/6 Essence devourer Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light armor. Arcane failure chance for invocations if wearing medium or heavy armor. Siphon Essence (Su): When you deal damage to a creature in melee, you absorb a portion of the creature's life essence. At the beginning of the next round, you digest this essence and gain a +1 bonus to hit, damage, armor class, or one type of save. This bonus lasts for one round. For every 4 levels after first, the bonus increases by one. You gain this bonus only once for any number of successful attacks in a round. At first level, you can only absorb the life essence of humanoids, monstrous humanoids or native outsiders if you are any one of these creature types. Otherwise you can only absorb from your own creature type (i.e. an aberration can only absorb from other aberrations). At 4th level, you can absorb from any living creature (any creature with a constitution score). At 10th level you can absorb the raw arcane force that animates constructs. At 16th level, you can use negative energy absorbed from undead to attract like amounts of ambient life essence, before dissipating the negative energy harmlessly. Eldritch Blast (Sp): As warlock's ability of the same name. Your caster level equals half your class level. If you multiclass as a warlock, your caster levels from the two classes stack. Invocations (Sp): You gain a limited number of warlock invocations. Your caster level equals half your class level. If you multiclass as a warlock, your caster levels from the two classes stack. Eldritch Focus: You become more in tune with the power flowing through your veins. Select from the following list of bonus abilities every time you gain an eldritch focus. Blast Channel (Su): You can use a melee weapon as a channel for your eldritch blast. You add the weapon's enhancement bonuses to your eldritch blast to hit rolls. Blast Reaver (Su): You can use your siphon essence ability in conjunction with your eldritch blasts. This is an exception to the normal requirement that siphon essence be used only with melee attacks. Blast Rend (Su): You can throw your physical force behind your eldritch blasts. Add your strength modifier to your eldritch blast damage. In addition, you may use your strength modifier in place of your dexterity modifier to your eldritch blast attack rolls. Weapon Infusion (Su): As a full round action that provokes an attack of opportunity, you may reduce your eldritch blast damage by 1d6 to add 1d6 magic damage to a melee weapon of your choice. This damage is not multiplied on critical hits. Both effects last for 24 hours. You can infuse an individual weapon only once, but you may infuse multiple weapons as long as your have base eldritch blast damage remaining. Fortifying Absorption (Su): Instead of the normal siphon essence bonuses, you may choose to gain DR 2/cold iron for every point of siphon essence. Healing Absorption (Su): Instead of the normal siphon essence bonuses, you may choose to heal 1 hp for every point of siphon essence. Bonus Feat: You gain any one feat that mimics a metamagic feat for spell-like abilities, such as Empower Spell-like Ability. You must meet all feat prerequisites. Essence Devourer (Su): You may now benefit from two different siphon essence bonuses in the same round. This requires two successful attacks in the previous round. New feat: Ghostblood Acolyte [Monstrous] You have mastered the ectoplasm within your body enough for it to resemble some functions of a living metabolism. Prerequisite: Siphon essence class ability, undead type. Benefit: You are able to use the siphon essence class ability of the blood marshal. Your progression of essence tolerance is different from that of living creatures. At first level you can only absorb essence from other undead. At 4th level you can absorb from living creatures of the same creature type as you were before your undeath. At 16th level you can absorb from any living creature. Normal: Creatures without a constitution score cannot benefit from the siphon essence ability.
FriendlyBiscuit 11-01-05, 02:25 AM	At first this seemed overpowered. Then I realized that the eldritch blast is so weak as to be nearly useless; it will mostly be used for Weapon Infusion and in case of emergencies where normal attacks will not work or are unavailable. The invocations, too will be extremely few and far between. The fact that the invocations and blast reward the player with more diverse ability points is also a balancing factor. The hit die and armor are rather low for a fighter-like character, and the shortage of feats is going to very noticeable at early levels. This may be the first time I read about a new class and it didn't strike me as overpowered. Because it's so strange, I'll have to playtest it to be sure, but it may in fact be underpowered. If so, it's close... close enough that it can be rectified simply by allowing medium armor. You may want to specifically state whether or not all points of siphon essence in the same round must be used toward the same eldritch focus, or if one point can be for AC, another for HP, etc. Judging from the way it's written, I'd guess that it's the first way, but that's not stated directly. One of the best things you did was to allow Siphon Essence to only happen once in any round. As the most powerful class feature, it has the greatest potential for abuse. I'm really shocked. I think this is balanced. If/when I playtest it, I'll let you know my final opinion. Great job!
Dioxin 11-01-05, 11:29 PM	It's weird. I thought the way I wrote the ability discription didn't allow for any spreading around of siphoning bonuses. In my mind "For every 4 levels after first, the bonus increases by one." "Instead of the normal siphon essence bonuses, you may choose... for every point of siphon essence." and "You may now benefit from two different siphon essence bonuses in the same round." all point to the fact the bonus stays in one category. Then again, I've seen weirder interpretations of much clearer rules on the boards so I might end up changing it. Right now I'm having a bit of trouble making the clarification not sound repetitive. I greatly appreciate your offer to playtest the class, friend biscuit :D. If you do get around to it, I'd be very interested in learning the results.
Dioxin 11-04-05, 01:00 AM	:bump: Does anyone else have a take on this class?