Quickspear Master [PEACH] [Archive] - Wizards Community

Quickspear Master [PEACH] [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
SkipSandwich
12-23-07, 08:15 PM hello all, this class here is the result of my trying to build a class around my favorite weapon, the spear, my love for which is only match by my love for the staff.

QUICKSPEAR MASTER
Hit Die: d10.
Requirements
To qualify to become a quickspear master, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Alignment: Any.
Base Attack Bonus: +5.
Skills: Jump 8 ranks, Ride 4 ranks
Feats: Weapon Focus (Double-Spear, Spear, Shortspear, Longspear, Greatspear or Lance), combat expertise, power attack
Class Skills
The Quickspear master’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Spot (Wis), Jump (Str), Profession (Wis) and Ride (Dex)
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Table: the Quickspear master
Level BAB Fort Ref Will Abilities
1st +1 +2 0 0 Spear master, Flurry of Thrusts (-2 penalty)
2nd +2 +3 0 0 Spear Defense +1
3rd +3 +3 +1 +1 Long Thrust
4th +4 +4 +1 +1 Leg Sweep
5th +5 +4 +1 +1 Improved Flurry (-1 penalty)
6th +6 +5 +2 +2 Spear Defense +2
7th +7 +5 +2 +2 Pierce Armor
8th +8 +6 +2 +2 Sweeping Strike
9th +9 +6 +3 +3 Perfect Flurry (no penalty)
10th +10 +7 +3 +3 Whirlwind Attack, Spear Defense +3

Class Features
All of the following are Class Features of the quickspear master prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: quickspear masters gain no proficiency with any weapons or armor.

Spear Master (Ex): You are a master of the spear, striking with point, edge and butt with equal ferocity. You may now choose to deal slashing or bludgeoning damage with your spear instead of piercing damage on any attack. Also, a mounted Quickspear master may wield a spear as a one-handed weapon, treating it as a lance in all respecs except for reach.

Flurry of Thrusts (Ex): you are capable of unleashing a quick series of attacks with your spear. When making a full-attack action with a spear, you may make one extra attack at your full attack bonus, this attack, and all other attacks you make this round suffer a -2 penalty on the attack roll. You apply your full strength bonus to this attack (not ½ or 1 ½ ) and all other attacks made as part of the action. At 5th level, the penalty on attack rolls drops to -1, and at 9th level, it disappears entirely. Despite the name, you are not limited to dealing only piercing damage with this ability.

Spear Defense (Ex): You are skilled at using your spear to deflect incoming attacks, when wielding a spear, you gain a +1 shield bonus to AC. This bonus improves to +2 at 6th level, and +3 at 10th level. When fighting defensively, taking the total defense option, or using the combat expertise feat with at least a -2 penalty to attack rolls, the shield bonus provided by this ability doubles (+2 at 2nd, +4 at 6th, and +6 at 10th).

Long Thrust (Ex): Beginning at 3rd level, you become capable of extending your reach with a spear; When you use the power attack feat with at least a -3 penalty to attack rolls, you may choose to treat your spear as a reach weapon for the rest of the round. It functions as a normal reach weapon in all respects, and may not be used to attack adjacent targets. This ability may not be used with a short spear, however, a quickspear master with this ability may treat short spears as light weapons for the purpose of two-weapon fighting. If this ability is used with a longspear, greatspear or lance, you instead increase both your reach and your minimum attack distance by 5ft. For example, a medium creauture with a longspear using this ability may attack opponents up to 15ft away, but may not attack those 10ft or closer to him.

Leg Sweep (Ex): you become skilled in using your spear to sweep your opponents legs out from under them. You may use your spear to make trip attacks. When making a trip attack with your spear, you gain the benefits of the Improved Trip feat, even if you don’t meet the prerequisites.

Pierce Armor (Ex): your mastery of the spear is such that you are capable of penetrating even the thickest armor. You may, as a full-round action, make a single melee attack with your spear; this attack is resolved as a melee touch attack and deals piercing damage as a normal attack.

Sweeping Strike (Ex): At 7th level, you gain the ability to make great, sweeping strikes with your spear. On each melee attack you make you can choose two squares you threaten that are adjacent to each other, and your attacks apply to creatures in those two squares equally. You can use this ability on any attack, even an attack of opportunity or a cleave attempt.
You cannot use this ability if you have moved more than 10 feet since the end of your last turn, you may however, use this ability while mounted so long as your mount moves no further then their base speed. If you drop one or both of your foes with a sweeping strike, you can attempt a cleave normally; however, you make only one cleave attempt per sweeping strike, even if you drop more than one foe. You may not combine this ability with your Pierce Armor ability or your Whirlwind Attack ability.

Whirlwind Attack (Ex): at 10th level, you gain Whirlwind Attack as a bonus feat, even if you don’t meet the prerequisites. You may only make whirlwind attacks with a spear. On any round in which you use this ability, you also gain the benefits of the Deflect Arrows feat and the shield bonus provided by your Spear Defense ability increases by +2.
coston89
12-23-07, 09:25 PM Feats: Weapon Focus (Spear), Combat Expertise, Power Attack
Weapon focus, can it be for shortspear or longspear as well?

Spear Master (Ex): You are a master of the spear, striking with point, edge and butt with equal ferocity. You may now choose to deal slashing or bludgeoning damage with your spear instead of piercing damage on any attack.
I can see slashing but bludgeoning, IMO, should deal damage as one size category smaller. Think quarterstaff.

Pierce Armor (Ex): your mastery of the spear is such that you are capable of penetrating even the thickest armor. You may, as a full-round action, make a single melee attack with your spear; this attack is resolved as a melee touch attack and deals piercing damage as a normal attack.
This, I think, should be changed a bit to match the namesake. Since its one attack, maybe deal extra damage or punch thru DR

Great class. This is what I had in mind for a humble spear user. :D
SkipSandwich
12-24-07, 11:01 AM well, basicly, I left the damage the same for the reason of simplicity, its only 1 point of average damage either way, so if it doesn't fit with you can can freely change it 1d6 if you like with little effect on the overall effectiveness of the class.
and you're right, the weapon focus requirements should read (Any spear), though it will require me to re-word the Long Thrust ability. I'll get to that later, as I don't have the time to do it right this minute.

As for the the Pierce Armor ability, as far as the RAW it does exactally as it says it does, it bypasses the protection of armor and natural armor, did you forget that power attack is one of the requirements to enter the class, imagine performing a power attack against touch AC with a two handed weapon and you can see why I didn't bother to bump the damage on Pierce Armor.
Talisman
12-24-07, 01:17 PM Nice. Glad to see some love for the spear. (BTW, I share your love for the quarterstaff...see my Oak Dancer (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=879851) PrC for proof).

Why the Ride prereq's? Can't quickspear masters come from a non-equestrian culture? This makes little sense to me...I'd prefer Craft (Weaponsmith), so the QM can make his own spear.

Otherwise, looks quite good.
SkipSandwich
12-24-07, 02:20 PM you'll notice the ride ranks are only 4, to represnt that this is a well-rounded warrior type, he can ride and fight with some proficiency, but is not a specialized mounted fighter, anyone of any class could get 4 ranks in ride by level 5. The jump ranks are simply because its the most fitting of the physical skills, and many quickspear masters are probably going to want to pick up Leap Attack to open up combat with anyway, since it works well with a
spear. I considered allowing the spear master ability to allow a mounted quickspear master wield a spear one-handed, and treat it as a lance in all respects except for reach, but I hesitated, because the class gets so much stuff already.
JLaurHughes
12-24-07, 03:41 PM I can see this PrC getting applied to classes other than the Fighter. A Human Paladin/Quickspear Master for example, can by 15th level Smite everyone within reach while doing a whirlwind attack with his/her spear weapon.
SkipSandwich
12-24-07, 04:03 PM but the smite ability specifically states that it only applies to one single attack the palidin makes, so it'd only apply to one attack made as part of a whirlwind attack. However, the Sweeping Strike is still technically a single attack, so that would allow a paladin/quickspear master to attack multiple targets with a single smite attack.
JLaurHughes
12-24-07, 04:54 PM I'm inclined to disagree with you on whirlwind attack. Benefit

When you use the full attack action, you can give up your regular attacks and instead make one melee attack at your full base attack bonus against each opponent within reach.

When you use the Whirlwind Attack feat, you also forfeit any bonus or extra attacks granted by other feats, spells, or abilities.

Since Whirlwind Attack counts as One melee attack as the wording states. Smite does not grant an extra attack/bonus attack, but a bonus to one attack.

However, as the wording of Smite Evil states: Smite Evil (Su)

Once per day, a paladin may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack. She adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per paladin level. If the paladin accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day.
I'm rather going to have to agree, forgot that smite is applied to a normal melee attack. Though Whirlwind you don't have to roll a separate attack for each opponent within reach.

I think this is more one of those it could be applied either way times. DM's call.
CryoSilver
12-24-07, 04:58 PM I'm inclined to disagree with you on whirlwind attack.

Since Whirlwind Attack counts as One melee attack as the wording states. Smite does not grant an extra attack/bonus attack, but a bonus to one attack.

That's not the way it should be read. The word "each" opponent means that EACH enemy is targeted by one attack, so if you are surrounded by eight enemies, you make eight single attacks.
Talisman
12-24-07, 05:00 PM It should be noted that this is true of any paladin or other character with a smite-like ability who takes Whirlwind Attack...it's not a situation unique to this PrC.

Edit: And CryoSilver's right...read it closely. You make an attack roll against each opponent...not one attack roll against all opponents.
CryoSilver
12-24-07, 05:04 PM If it was one attack roll total, it'd have said "against ALL enemies"
DarkRhystar
12-28-07, 08:19 PM This is a 4/5 level class. There's pretty much nothing after level 5 that's really worth taking more levels for.
Mordin
12-29-07, 01:35 PM My Order of the Viper (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=920860) has some similar abilities. I made this class for a desert nomadic people in my game. I really like your Quickspear Master.
sally_jones
01-04-08, 09:48 PM this the first peach class that i have seen that i thought was perfect....until the whirlwind attack. whirlwind attack is sweet and i like it but the extra +2 shield bonus and deflect arrows is a lil too much. making them separate abilities would prolly fix it. what about granting the deflect arrows and +2 during a full defense.
SkipSandwich
01-05-08, 06:04 PM I just added that last bit in because only having the equivilent of a bonus feat for a capstone ability feels somewhat weak. i'll probally just drop it down to a +1 bonus that specificaly stacks with the spear defense ability. but if that is still to much i'll just leave it as WWAtk and deflect arrows.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
SkipSandwich 12-23-07, 08:15 PM	hello all, this class here is the result of my trying to build a class around my favorite weapon, the spear, my love for which is only match by my love for the staff. QUICKSPEAR MASTER Hit Die: d10. Requirements To qualify to become a quickspear master, a character must fulfill all the following criteria. Alignment: Any. Base Attack Bonus: +5. Skills: Jump 8 ranks, Ride 4 ranks Feats: Weapon Focus (Double-Spear, Spear, Shortspear, Longspear, Greatspear or Lance), combat expertise, power attack Class Skills The Quickspear master’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Spot (Wis), Jump (Str), Profession (Wis) and Ride (Dex) Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier. Table: the Quickspear master Level BAB Fort Ref Will Abilities 1st +1 +2 0 0 Spear master, Flurry of Thrusts (-2 penalty) 2nd +2 +3 0 0 Spear Defense +1 3rd +3 +3 +1 +1 Long Thrust 4th +4 +4 +1 +1 Leg Sweep 5th +5 +4 +1 +1 Improved Flurry (-1 penalty) 6th +6 +5 +2 +2 Spear Defense +2 7th +7 +5 +2 +2 Pierce Armor 8th +8 +6 +2 +2 Sweeping Strike 9th +9 +6 +3 +3 Perfect Flurry (no penalty) 10th +10 +7 +3 +3 Whirlwind Attack, Spear Defense +3 Class Features All of the following are Class Features of the quickspear master prestige class. Weapon and Armor Proficiency: quickspear masters gain no proficiency with any weapons or armor. Spear Master (Ex): You are a master of the spear, striking with point, edge and butt with equal ferocity. You may now choose to deal slashing or bludgeoning damage with your spear instead of piercing damage on any attack. Also, a mounted Quickspear master may wield a spear as a one-handed weapon, treating it as a lance in all respecs except for reach. Flurry of Thrusts (Ex): you are capable of unleashing a quick series of attacks with your spear. When making a full-attack action with a spear, you may make one extra attack at your full attack bonus, this attack, and all other attacks you make this round suffer a -2 penalty on the attack roll. You apply your full strength bonus to this attack (not ½ or 1 ½ ) and all other attacks made as part of the action. At 5th level, the penalty on attack rolls drops to -1, and at 9th level, it disappears entirely. Despite the name, you are not limited to dealing only piercing damage with this ability. Spear Defense (Ex): You are skilled at using your spear to deflect incoming attacks, when wielding a spear, you gain a +1 shield bonus to AC. This bonus improves to +2 at 6th level, and +3 at 10th level. When fighting defensively, taking the total defense option, or using the combat expertise feat with at least a -2 penalty to attack rolls, the shield bonus provided by this ability doubles (+2 at 2nd, +4 at 6th, and +6 at 10th). Long Thrust (Ex): Beginning at 3rd level, you become capable of extending your reach with a spear; When you use the power attack feat with at least a -3 penalty to attack rolls, you may choose to treat your spear as a reach weapon for the rest of the round. It functions as a normal reach weapon in all respects, and may not be used to attack adjacent targets. This ability may not be used with a short spear, however, a quickspear master with this ability may treat short spears as light weapons for the purpose of two-weapon fighting. If this ability is used with a longspear, greatspear or lance, you instead increase both your reach and your minimum attack distance by 5ft. For example, a medium creauture with a longspear using this ability may attack opponents up to 15ft away, but may not attack those 10ft or closer to him. Leg Sweep (Ex): you become skilled in using your spear to sweep your opponents legs out from under them. You may use your spear to make trip attacks. When making a trip attack with your spear, you gain the benefits of the Improved Trip feat, even if you don’t meet the prerequisites. Pierce Armor (Ex): your mastery of the spear is such that you are capable of penetrating even the thickest armor. You may, as a full-round action, make a single melee attack with your spear; this attack is resolved as a melee touch attack and deals piercing damage as a normal attack. Sweeping Strike (Ex): At 7th level, you gain the ability to make great, sweeping strikes with your spear. On each melee attack you make you can choose two squares you threaten that are adjacent to each other, and your attacks apply to creatures in those two squares equally. You can use this ability on any attack, even an attack of opportunity or a cleave attempt. You cannot use this ability if you have moved more than 10 feet since the end of your last turn, you may however, use this ability while mounted so long as your mount moves no further then their base speed. If you drop one or both of your foes with a sweeping strike, you can attempt a cleave normally; however, you make only one cleave attempt per sweeping strike, even if you drop more than one foe. You may not combine this ability with your Pierce Armor ability or your Whirlwind Attack ability. Whirlwind Attack (Ex): at 10th level, you gain Whirlwind Attack as a bonus feat, even if you don’t meet the prerequisites. You may only make whirlwind attacks with a spear. On any round in which you use this ability, you also gain the benefits of the Deflect Arrows feat and the shield bonus provided by your Spear Defense ability increases by +2.
coston89 12-23-07, 09:25 PM	Feats: Weapon Focus (Spear), Combat Expertise, Power Attack Weapon focus, can it be for shortspear or longspear as well? Spear Master (Ex): You are a master of the spear, striking with point, edge and butt with equal ferocity. You may now choose to deal slashing or bludgeoning damage with your spear instead of piercing damage on any attack. I can see slashing but bludgeoning, IMO, should deal damage as one size category smaller. Think quarterstaff. Pierce Armor (Ex): your mastery of the spear is such that you are capable of penetrating even the thickest armor. You may, as a full-round action, make a single melee attack with your spear; this attack is resolved as a melee touch attack and deals piercing damage as a normal attack. This, I think, should be changed a bit to match the namesake. Since its one attack, maybe deal extra damage or punch thru DR Great class. This is what I had in mind for a humble spear user. :D
SkipSandwich 12-24-07, 11:01 AM	well, basicly, I left the damage the same for the reason of simplicity, its only 1 point of average damage either way, so if it doesn't fit with you can can freely change it 1d6 if you like with little effect on the overall effectiveness of the class. and you're right, the weapon focus requirements should read (Any spear), though it will require me to re-word the Long Thrust ability. I'll get to that later, as I don't have the time to do it right this minute. As for the the Pierce Armor ability, as far as the RAW it does exactally as it says it does, it bypasses the protection of armor and natural armor, did you forget that power attack is one of the requirements to enter the class, imagine performing a power attack against touch AC with a two handed weapon and you can see why I didn't bother to bump the damage on Pierce Armor.
Talisman 12-24-07, 01:17 PM	Nice. Glad to see some love for the spear. (BTW, I share your love for the quarterstaff...see my Oak Dancer (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=879851) PrC for proof). Why the Ride prereq's? Can't quickspear masters come from a non-equestrian culture? This makes little sense to me...I'd prefer Craft (Weaponsmith), so the QM can make his own spear. Otherwise, looks quite good.
SkipSandwich 12-24-07, 02:20 PM	you'll notice the ride ranks are only 4, to represnt that this is a well-rounded warrior type, he can ride and fight with some proficiency, but is not a specialized mounted fighter, anyone of any class could get 4 ranks in ride by level 5. The jump ranks are simply because its the most fitting of the physical skills, and many quickspear masters are probably going to want to pick up Leap Attack to open up combat with anyway, since it works well with a spear. I considered allowing the spear master ability to allow a mounted quickspear master wield a spear one-handed, and treat it as a lance in all respects except for reach, but I hesitated, because the class gets so much stuff already.
JLaurHughes 12-24-07, 03:41 PM	I can see this PrC getting applied to classes other than the Fighter. A Human Paladin/Quickspear Master for example, can by 15th level Smite everyone within reach while doing a whirlwind attack with his/her spear weapon.
SkipSandwich 12-24-07, 04:03 PM	but the smite ability specifically states that it only applies to one single attack the palidin makes, so it'd only apply to one attack made as part of a whirlwind attack. However, the Sweeping Strike is still technically a single attack, so that would allow a paladin/quickspear master to attack multiple targets with a single smite attack.
JLaurHughes 12-24-07, 04:54 PM	I'm inclined to disagree with you on whirlwind attack. Benefit When you use the full attack action, you can give up your regular attacks and instead make one melee attack at your full base attack bonus against each opponent within reach. When you use the Whirlwind Attack feat, you also forfeit any bonus or extra attacks granted by other feats, spells, or abilities. Since Whirlwind Attack counts as One melee attack as the wording states. Smite does not grant an extra attack/bonus attack, but a bonus to one attack. However, as the wording of Smite Evil states: Smite Evil (Su) Once per day, a paladin may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack. She adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per paladin level. If the paladin accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day. I'm rather going to have to agree, forgot that smite is applied to a normal melee attack. Though Whirlwind you don't have to roll a separate attack for each opponent within reach. I think this is more one of those it could be applied either way times. DM's call.
CryoSilver 12-24-07, 04:58 PM	I'm inclined to disagree with you on whirlwind attack. Since Whirlwind Attack counts as One melee attack as the wording states. Smite does not grant an extra attack/bonus attack, but a bonus to one attack. That's not the way it should be read. The word "each" opponent means that EACH enemy is targeted by one attack, so if you are surrounded by eight enemies, you make eight single attacks.
Talisman 12-24-07, 05:00 PM	It should be noted that this is true of any paladin or other character with a smite-like ability who takes Whirlwind Attack...it's not a situation unique to this PrC. Edit: And CryoSilver's right...read it closely. You make an attack roll against each opponent...not one attack roll against all opponents.
CryoSilver 12-24-07, 05:04 PM	If it was one attack roll total, it'd have said "against ALL enemies"
DarkRhystar 12-28-07, 08:19 PM	This is a 4/5 level class. There's pretty much nothing after level 5 that's really worth taking more levels for.
Mordin 12-29-07, 01:35 PM	My Order of the Viper (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=920860) has some similar abilities. I made this class for a desert nomadic people in my game. I really like your Quickspear Master.
sally_jones 01-04-08, 09:48 PM	this the first peach class that i have seen that i thought was perfect....until the whirlwind attack. whirlwind attack is sweet and i like it but the extra +2 shield bonus and deflect arrows is a lil too much. making them separate abilities would prolly fix it. what about granting the deflect arrows and +2 during a full defense.
SkipSandwich 01-05-08, 06:04 PM	I just added that last bit in because only having the equivilent of a bonus feat for a capstone ability feels somewhat weak. i'll probally just drop it down to a +1 bonus that specificaly stacks with the spear defense ability. but if that is still to much i'll just leave it as WWAtk and deflect arrows.