Post/Author/DateTime	Post
JudgeDeadd 04-11-07, 12:18 AM	BLOOD BUTCHER "I've found the girl." "Can you get her out?" "Some of her. Enough for a positive ID." (Hitman: Contracts) The blood butcher is a homicidal, sadistic maniac whose favorite pastime is chopping people. Often, they act during the day as normal, friendly people - but if one dares to go down to their basement, he will find a horror... Advised for NPCs (boss/BBEG), as suggested by EonOmega. Thanks to Aktariel for help. Requirements To qualify to become an blood butcher (BlB), a chracter must fulfill all the following criteria. Alignment: Chaotic evil. Skills: Intimidate 3, Profession (butchery) 8. Base Attack Bonus: +5. Feats: Cleave. Special: The aspiring butcher must commit a string of murders over the course of 7 days. Every day, he must personally kill at least one person and chop their corpse ('chopping' means at least severing the limbs). Game Rule Information Blood butchers have the following game statistics. Base Attack Bonus: Medium (as an assassin) Hit Die: d10 Saves: Good Fortitude/poor Reflex and Will. Class Skills: The blood butcher's class skills are: Disguise (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Spot (Wis). Skill points at each level: 2 + Intelligence modifier. Class Features All of the following are class features of the blood butcher prestige class. Weapons and Armor Proficiency: Blood butchers are proficient with all simple weapons, but no shields or armor. 1. Terrifying, Friendly Face, Cleaver Mastery 2. Improved Face Mask, Chopping Bonus 3. Unseen Mask, Disguise Corpse 4. Greater Cleaver Mastery 5. Spellcasting Mask 6. Vorpal Cleaver, Aura of Fear Terrifying: A blood butcher is a truly intimidating persona. He receives a +4 bonus to all Intimidate checks. This bonus rises to +8 at level 3 of this class and to +12 at level 5 of this class. Friendly Face: He can hide his true personality behind a metaphorical mask. As a free action, the blood butcher may begin to act as an ordinary, friendly person. While in this state, he cannot make use of his Terrifying or Aura of Fear ability, but his true alignment becomes concealed as if he was under the influence of undetectable alignment spell, with one change: all divinations that attempt to read his alignment will perceive a false alignment that he chose. He can change this false alignment as a free action. Anyone who interacts with the butcher may notice that something is wrong about him on a succesful Spot (DC 35) or Sense Motive (DC 30) check, although they cannot exactly tell what it is. Cleaver Mastery: The cleaver (treat as a small handaxe, but a simple weapon) is a butcher's tool of the trade. He automatically receives Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization for the cleaver (but not a handaxe), even if he doesn't fulfill the prerequisites. In addition, the damage die for the cleaver are improved by one category (1d6 rather than 1d4). Improved Face Mask: When using a face mask (see below), the butcher is harder to recognize. The bonus to Disguise checks rises to +5 and the Spot DCs to notice that something is amiss rise to 18 and 25, respectively. Chopping Bonus: The blood butcher enjoys chopping corpses. Each time he chops a dead individual which he personally killed, he receives an inherent +1 bonus to all attributes for the duration of 12 hours. He can chop more corpses to receive a higher bonus; the maximum bonus is equal to his blood butcher level minus 2. The bonus can never rise beyond 5. Unseen Mask: From level 3rd onwards, whenever the blood butcher wears a face mask, it merges with his own face. The bonus to Disguise check rises to +12. The Spot DC to notice that something is amiss rises to 40; someone who succeeds at this throw notices that the butcher's face looks a little misaligned. The mask itself cannot be noticed. It also cannot be removed. The blood butcher may wear and detach the mask as a free action. Disguise Corpse: Once per day, the blood butcher may disguise a corpse of any humanoid he killed as an corpse of an animal: ram, lamb or cow. This is a spell-like effect analogous to major image, except that its duration is 24 hours without the need of concentration, it works on taste as well and it doesn't disappear when struck. The corpse, and all its fragments which were separated (as long as they are on the same plane) assumes the look of said animal. A true seeing will reveal the corpse's true nature, and the illusion can be dispelled (caster level 10 + blood butcher's Cha modifier). Greater Cleaver Mastery: He receives an additional +2 bonus to attack rolls and a +3 bonus to damage, which stack with the previous bonuses from Cleaver Mastery. In addition, he receives the Improved Critical feat for the cleaver, even if he doesn't meet the prerequisites. Spellcasting Mask: If the individual whose face the blood butcher is wearing as a mask had any spells memorized, the blood butcher may use those spells as if he was casting them. Caster level is equal to the Blood Butchers character level, while the spell save DC is equal to 10 + spell level + the number of corpses the Blood Butcher has chopped that day. He cannot cast spells higher than level 3 this way. Once a spell has been cast, it 'disappears' from the mask. If the face's original user is returned to life, the spells cast by the butcher have disappeared from their memory. The butcher casts this spell like a normal spellcaster, so he must spend the appriopate amount of time casting the spell and may provoke attacks of opportunity for doing so, though he need not have the appropriate material components unless thay would cost over 50gp. Vorpal Cleaver: The cleavers wielded by the blood butcher become vorpal weapons. They have this ability only when wielded by the butcher. Aura of Fear: At 6th level, a blood butcher constantly radiates a 10-foot-radius aura of fear. All his opponents within this area must make a Will save (DC 15 + butcher's Cha modifier) or suffer from a -2 morale penalty to attack rolls as long as the blood butcher is in their sight. This effect ceases after 24 hours. A creature which succeeded its save is immune to this particular blood butcher's aura of fear for the next 24 hours. New feat and equipment Face Mask [Equipment]: A face mask is, in fact, a real face - skin from someone's head. It can be worn like any mask. It grants a +2 circumstance bonus to Disguise checks made to impersonate the person whose face one is wearing; however, a Spot check (DC 8) made by a witness can reveal that the individual's face is particularly emotionless and strange-looking, and a DC 12 Spot check reveals that it is a face mask. Improved Chopping Bonus [General] Prerequisites: Chopping Bonus class feature. Benefit: The maximum bonus available from Chopping Bonus rises by +1. It cannot rise beyond 5. Improved Spellcasting Mask [General] Prerequisites: Spellcasting Mask class feature. Benefit: The maximum level of spells you can cast with Spellcasting Mask rises by 1. Specia: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects stack. The maximum level of spells that can be cast cannot rise above 6.
AngelLemmingThief 04-11-07, 04:12 AM	Yeah, that is pretty wrong.
Aktariel 04-11-07, 04:33 AM	...just...wow. "My name is... Barry the Chopper! I like to chop things. Can I chop her? Please? Just a little bit." Seriously. This is wack. However, flavor aside, balance is fine. I do have a few questions, though. Why the astronomically high Spot checks to detect something amiss? And, how do these interact with the [almost abysmally low] face mask checks? Do the class checks override the item checks? And, why 6 levels?
Gamili 04-11-07, 04:57 AM	In my opinion, this is actually a bit unbalancing. I know this seems like a rather useless character, totally useless in fighting, but +24 to intimidate? That's twice as much as a level 20's natural maxed out skill check. You could make God himself **** himself with this. Nothing really wrong with Friendy Face. I would actually like to see something like this on other Evil classes to mesh more often in games. The disguise bump is a bit much, too, though not as much as that horrific intimidate. This more or less gives you the chance to become anyone so long as you can kill them. The King is dead? No, he just pops in every once and a while to grab some cash with a band of vile looking adventerers following. Mind Mask is the real problem here. Unless I'm reading this incorrectly, a grunt of a retarded character could get massive natural physical stats can just replace his brain with a Wizard's or Sorcerer's or whatever mental stat he needs at the time. This class has some pretty good flavor and the abilities themselves aren't such a bad idea. It's just this guy is such a massive specialist, it's terrifying what he could do in his niche.
EonOmega 04-11-07, 06:49 AM	Either make it epic, or make it less uber. Or make it a BBEG/Boss class. It fits.
JudgeDeadd 04-11-07, 07:12 AM	Or make it a BBEG/Boss class. Um, how do you do that?
EonOmega 04-11-07, 07:15 AM	Just advise it as an NPC class, I suppose. This thing could go straight from commoner to pwnage. It could start a whole new spiel if the characters start trying to settle down for a bit in a city. Just give a random commoner a couple levels in this, and he'll freak the PCs out. A normal class would have a starting out of maybe +4 to intimidate, then going to +8 and +12 max. Just a suggestion.
JudgeDeadd 04-12-07, 02:28 AM	I've changed the class a bit, using your suggestions. I have removed the Mask Mind ability, maybe I should come up with something to replace it. I have also improved the cleaver's effectiveness.
Khael 04-12-07, 12:03 PM	One question about the disguise corpse ability: what happens if someone tastes the meat? And reemember the idea of this being wrong is covered by: 1) The PC won't know at first. 2) Even if he did, a non-human may not even care, if a predator (Thri-kreen probably wouldn't care too much for example), assuming of course a familar or animal campanion doesn't have a taste... And like others I do wonder about the DCs, particularly unseen mask (What if anything this might reduce the DC - misaligned faces are not that normal. But since it allows them to in effect 'try' hiding again, that lessened DC wouldn't be such a long-term weakenss)
Aktariel 04-13-07, 09:53 AM	Alright. I read the revisions, and I think that it works much better now, with the lower DC's and Intimidate bonuses. Two remaining points of contention: The first and major one:] Spellcasting Mask. Very, very, very nice ability. If on the off chance I manage to chop a wizard without him expending too many spells, I can put his face on and cast all of the remaining spells he has prepared? As in, wish? Or baleful polymorph? At the wizards original caster level and DC? Am I missing something and misinterpreting this, or is this slightly... overpowered? Or just a good way to beat the party over the head with their own wizard? [Using the Blood Butcher as a BBEG...] and secondly,] it's a little easy to get into this class. Commoner 4 will meet all the requirements very easily. Usually, you have to be at least 5th level in a "Adventuring" class to get into a Prestige Class, and some mandate 8 levels or more. Consider bumping up the entry requirements? Or, if you're happy with the way they stand, leave them be. Just a suggestion.
Cherubaddon 04-13-07, 11:06 PM	So going in my favourites... the best villain for horror games EVER! Cherubaddon
JudgeDeadd 04-14-07, 01:09 AM	I have used your suggestions, Aktariel :)
Aktariel 04-14-07, 04:26 AM	I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I just helped to make a really sick BBEG class better... But what's worse is that I might wind up playing one. :evillaugh :schemes: "Me choppa some orcs" -Kell-Thallgu the Mad Entry requirements are good. Thanks :D Ok. One last thing. About this spellcasting mask: Spellcasting Mask: If the individual whose face the blood butcher is wearing as a mask had any spells memorized, the blood butcher may use those spells as if he was casting them; the caster level and the DC are based upon butcher's total character level (in all classes). He cannot cast spells higher than level 2 this way. Once a spell has been cast, it 'disappears' from the mask. If the face's original user is returned to life, the spells cast by the butcher have disappeared from their memory. The butcher casts this spell like a normal spellcaster, so he must pay all the components of the spell and needs the appriopate amount of time. May I? Spellcasting Mask: If the individual whose face the blood butcher is wearing as a mask had any spells memorized, the blood butcher may use those spells as if he was casting them. Caster level is equal to the Blood Butchers character level, while the spell save DC is equal to 10+ Spell Level+ [the number of corpses the Blood Butcher has chopped that day (week?); or, the Blood Butchers Str mod] He cannot cast spells higher than level 3 this way. Once a spell has been cast, it 'disappears' from the mask. If the face's original user is returned to life, the spells cast by the butcher have disappeared from their memory. The butcher casts this spell like a normal spellcaster, so he must spend the appriopate amount of time casting the spell [and may provoke AoO's for doing so, though he need not have the appropriate material components unless thay would cost over 50gp. Just my two gp again.
JudgeDeadd 04-14-07, 02:05 PM	I love you. :D ("Love" as in "like very much.")
crimsonwolf 04-14-07, 02:37 PM	k-i-s-s-i-n-g
Cherubaddon 04-14-07, 05:37 PM	k-i-s-s-i-n-g I think this is utterly inappropriate for this thread :D .
Aktariel 04-15-07, 02:59 AM	I love you. :D ("Love" as in "like very much.") Me? Whatever for?
JudgeDeadd 04-15-07, 03:02 AM	Maybe because you helped to create a nice, balanced ability?
Aktariel 04-15-07, 03:43 AM	*smiles, takes bow* Thank you. But seriously, I'm just doing what I can. Wish I didn't have such trouble with my own class design. One more thing: Can the Blood Butcher suppress the Aura of Fear if he wants? So he can continue to appear normal and all? Edit: Sigged. [Your compliment. Just because I need an omnipresent ego boost.]
Krusk 04-15-07, 07:26 PM	I would change the alignment to any evil. If your going for serial killer in the style of the guy from saw or the likes they are definatly lawful, you can always see a pattern in how they act and they never do anything irrational. It might take a day or a week to see through what they originally do, but once work is put into it their plots are almost always perfectly rational, or at least patterned. if you are going for the tremors from smokin' aces, that would be chaotic.