Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Yami 12-04-07, 12:58 PM	Looks like I posted in the wrong spot, so I'll go ahead and repost this here. A player wanted a prestige class for a pirate-type themed campaign that: Was a martial PrC Has a viking favor Offers some access to DR Has a mechanic somewhat like Barbarian rage, but is more of a cold, controlled sort of anger. I've come up with the following PrC, and would love to hear comments about how balanced it is: Ocean Raider Prerequisites BaB: +5 8 Ranks in Intimidation 4 ranks in Profession: Sailor 2 of: 1 2nd level (or higher) Stone Dragon maneuvers, 1 2nd level (or higher) Iron Heart maneuver, 1 2nd level (or higher) Tiger Claw maneuver Man Man Stances BaB Fort Ref Will Known Ready Known Special 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 Uncanny Dodge, Dragon of the Sea 2 2 3 0 0 1 0 0 Strong Intimidation, Cold Fury 1x/day 3 3 3 1 1 0 1 0 Agile Athlete 4 4 4 1 1 1 0 0 Cold Fury 2x/day 5 5 4 1 1 0 0 1 Scourge of the Seas 6 6 5 2 2 1 1 0 Icy Fury 7 7 5 2 2 0 0 0 Evasion 8 8 6 2 2 1 0 0 Cold Fury 3x/day 9 9 6 3 3 0 1 0 Intimidating Fury 10 10 7 3 3 1 0 0 Towering Fury Hit Points d8 Skill Points 4 + Int Mod Skill Points Class Skills: Appraise, Balance, Climb, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (geography), Knowledge (nature), Listen, Martial Lore, Profession, Spot, Survival, Swim, Use Rope Maneuvers Ocean Raiders increase their initiator level by a full level for each level of ocean raider they take. Ocean raiders can learn maneuvers from the Iron Heart, Stone Dragon and Tiger Claw schools. Weapon and Armor Proficiencies Ocean Raiders do not gain any weapon or armor proficiencies from this class. Dragon of the Sea You can initiate Stone Dragon maneuvers while on board a ship, even if it's on the water, and not on the earth. Strong Intimidation You may choose to add your strength bonus to intimidation checks rather than charisma. Cold Fury An ocean raider can enter into a cold fury once per day as a free action at second level. This fury lends the raider a preternatural awareness of his surrounding, and a cold determination that lends a frightening singleness of purpose. Upon entering a cold fury, the ocean raider gains a +4 bonus to Dexterity, +4 morale bonus to Listen and Spot, +5' movement, and DR 2/-. The ocean raider can maintain a cold fury for 4 + con modifier rounds (if the con modifier is negative, the fury still lasts for 4 rounds). A fury can only be entered once per encounter. You do not gain the bonuses to speed or dexterity if you are wearing medium or heavy armor, or if you are using a tower shield. After the fury is over, the ocean raider is sickened for the remainder of the encounter, and for 5 minutes after the encounter ends. A sickened character takes a -2 penalty on all attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. Feats or abilities that allow the ocean raider to ignore the sickened condition reduce this penalty to -1, but does not remove it entirely. Agile Athlete The ocean raider can choose, at any time, to replace the normal strength modifier to Jump, Climb and Swim checks with their dexterity modifier. (This is a little better than the feat from Races of the Wild, as the ocean raider can use it or not, as is most advantageous to him at the time.) Icy Fury As cold fury, except that upon entering a Icy fury, the ocean raider gains a +6 bonus to Dexterity, +6 morale bonus to Listen and Spot, +10' movement, and DR 4/-. Scourge of the Seas The ocean raider gains the feat Scourge of the Seas, even if they don't meet the normal feat prerequisites. Intimidating Fury While you are in a fury, you designate a single foe within 30 feet of you that you can attempt to demoralize as a free acton. A foe that you successfully demoralize remains shaken for as long as you are furious. You may only use this against a single foe in any particular encounter. Towering Fury As cold fury, except that upon entering a towering fury, the ocean raider gains a +8 bonus to Dexterity, +8 morale bonus to Listen and Spot, +15' movement, and DR 6/-. Ocean Raider Prerequisites BaB: +5 8 Ranks in Intimidation 4 ranks in Profession: Sailor 2 of: 1 2nd level Stone Dragon maneuvers, 1 2nd level Iron Heart maneuver, 1 2nd level Tiger Claw maneuver Man Man Stances BaB Fort Ref Will Known Ready Known Special 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 Uncanny Dodge, Dragon of the Sea 2 2 3 0 0 1 0 0 Strong Intimidation, Cold Fury 1x / day 3 3 3 1 1 0 1 0 Agile Athlete 4 4 4 1 1 1 0 0 Cold Fury 2x / day 5 5 4 1 1 0 0 1 Scourge of the Seas 6 6 5 2 2 1 1 0 Towering Fury 7 7 5 2 2 0 0 0 Evasion 8 8 6 2 2 1 0 0 Cold Fury 3x / day 9 9 6 3 3 0 1 0 Intimidating Fury 10 10 7 3 3 1 0 0 Furious Flurry Hit Points d8 Skill Points 4 + Int Mod Skill Points Class Skills: Appraise, Balance, Climb, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (geography), Knowledge (nature), Listen, Martial Lore, Profession, Spot, Survival, Swim, Use Rope Maneuvers Ocean Raiders increase their initiator level by a full level for each level of ocean raider they take. Ocean raiders can learn maneuvers from the Iron Heart, Stone Dragon and Tiger Claw schools. Dragon of the Sea You can initiate Stone Dragon maneuvers while on board a ship, even if it's on the water, and not on the earth. Strong Intimidation You may choose to add your strength bonus to intimidation checks rather than charisma. Cold Fury An ocean raider can enter into a cold fury once per day as a free action at second level. This fury lends the raider a preternatural awareness of his surrounding, and a cold determination that lends a frightening singleness of purpose. Upon entering a cold fury, the ocean raider gains a +4 bonus to Dexterity, +4 morale bonus to Awareness, +10' movement, and DR 3/-. The ocean raider can maintain a cold fury for 4 + con modifier rounds (if the con modifier is negative, the fury still lasts for 4 rounds). A fury can only be entered once per encounter. After the fury is over, the ocean raider is sickened for the remainder of the encounter, and for 5 minutes after the encounter ends. A sickened character takes a -2 penalty on all attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. Feats or abilities that allow the ocean raider to ignore the sickened condition reduce this penalty to -1, but does not remove it entirely. Agile Athlete The ocean raider can choose, at any time, to replace the normal strength modifier to Jump, Climb and Swim checks with their dexterity modifier. (This is a little better than the feat from Races of the Wild, as the ocean raider can use it or not, as is most advantageous to him at the time.) Scourge of the Seas The ocean raider gains the feat Scourge of the Seas, even if they don't meet the normal feat prerequisites. Towering Fury As cold fury, except that upon entering a cold fury, the ocean raider gains a +8 bonus to Dexterity, +8 morale bonus to Awareness, +20' movement, and DR 6/-. Intimidating Fury While you are in a fury, you designate a single foe within 30 feet of you that you can attempt to demoralize as a free acton. A foe that you successfully demoralize remains shaken for as long as you are furious. You may only use this against a single foe in any particular encounter. Furious Flurry While in a fury, an ocean raider can gain an extra attack at their highest base attack bonus. All attacks for the round have a -2 attack penalty. Feats referred to: Scourge of the Seas This can be found in Stormwrack Random thoughts: I'm unsure about the inclusion of Evasion - I'm not sure it matches the flavor of the rest of the class. Might Mettle make more sense? Or something else?
Yami 12-04-07, 12:59 PM	Just to catch up to the post in the wrong forum, I'll post this here. Thanks again to Maat Mons for replying! Stylistically, I’d go with d10 hit dice. I’d also separate the speed bonus and DR from the cold furry ability. I’m not sure I understand the rational behind a Viking being fast. In any case, a speed boost should generally only work in light or no armor. The DR should probably progress in a more even fashion and reach a value of no more than 5 at 10th level (and possibly less). Towering furry should only be equivalent to greater rage, which a barbarian gets at 11th level. The current implementation is equivalent to mighty rage, which a barbarian gets at 20th level, yet you grant it at character level 11. I’d consider delaying the level at which towering furry is gained to reflect that this class is less dedicated to cold furry than a barbarian is to rage. The typical DM would house-rule that the extra rage feat applies to cold furry, so you should expect the player to be in cold furry the entirety of every encounter beginning at character level 9. Now I have time to answer you in full. First off, thank you so much for responding - I want to be sure i'm not shorting my players - either this one, or the others in the campaign! I would agree that the Viking theme is being subsumed by something else here: my player's "wish list" of class features. I don't think I explained very well above, so I'll try a little better here. My player wants to play a warblade - he plans to give him a certain flavor borrowed from Beowulf - hence Viking. He actually likes Barbarian damage reduction, and likes the basics of the rage mechanic, but wanted something that more like controlled fury. He also wants to be intimidating, and continue martial progression. Finally, he mentioned he had an image of this guy leaping from his ship to an enemy ship, and being able, on a strike, to cut down the mast with a vast axe swipe. Now, that's a fun image, and I know there are strikes in some schools that allow this, so I have an idea of the kind of character he's going for. He really wanted a higher damage reduction, like 4 or 5 by the end of 10 levels. I thought a straight 4 or 5 DR all the time would be too much for the class, so I figured I'd roll it into the rage mechanic he wanted. The idea of a guy so filled with fury that he ignores a certain amount of damage (especially as I consider HP to be about 1/2 "morale/determination" and 1/2 "physical") fit rather well. It'd give the player some time to have that nice fun DR in combat, but wouldn't be nearly as game breaking as always on DR, I figured (if I am wrong in this, please let me know!). The rest of my concept behind the cold fury idea was the sort of calculating, cold, preternatural awareness of everything you sometimes get when truly furious and trying to keep it tightly controlled - so I figured the awareness would translate to Listen and Spot bonuses. The speed and dexterity are also supposed to represent quicker reactions due to greater awareness of the character's surroundings - they see everything so clearly, it's a little like some divination spells that give bonuses to AC. This tied into my concept of "viking" because the Vikings were known for lightning fast raids, ferocity, and mobility more than military or tactical ability. Vikings were skilled, vicious and feared warriors, but not really soldiers. I went with the d8 for a couple of reasons - the class has a lot, with a barbarian like rage ability (albiet slightly weaker for combat) that adds to rather than detracts from AC, martial progression, some DR and evasion to mitigate some of the larger sources of damage in the game. The addition of a good number of skill points (to allow for sailing ability skills, fighting skills and martial skills) for a fighting class made me worry that a d10 would be a bit much. I figured ranger hit points would do the trick (especially since, in the game where I plan to use this, the player will enter the class from Warblade. You could enter this class from any of the martial classes, I believe, however, so this may be an unfair consideration on my part). I agree with your assessment of towering fury. I've moved that back to 10th level, and added an intermediate step at 6th, removing the flurry ability (though my player's had that on a monk and enjoyed it, which is most of the reason I added it!). I also did neglect to state that cold fury or its abilities are at all limited by armor - that's a good catch, and I'll add it. While I'll agree that a full "mighty rage" progression for the PrC is very good, I also was thinking that it's not quite up to barbarian rage par. Dexterity is nice for many things in combat, but the rage is limited by con mod, which is not modified upward in this type of rage. As Dexterity offers a little damage mitigation through reflex saves and AC, but doesn't offer more damage itself, or melee attack bonuses, I figured it weak enough that it's not definitely preferrable to barbarian rage. Also, even with extra rage, fury can't be used more than once per encounter, which should prevent most of the abuse. I added the extra round of duration because of the con being on average lower, but maybe I should move that back down to 3 round + con modifier. Would that balance it a little better?