PUPPETS!!![PrC]

[fetfet]

P u p p e t m *a s t e r

The man stood before them. He wore a face mask, a black bodysuit, and was carrying a large bundle on his back.

"Who are you"; Ilysa asked.

"Me? I'll just be leaving, lil old me"

"Not with those jewels, you're not!!" Ilysa exclaimed.

"Crow, take care of them." the man muttered in disgust.

"Crow?&"

Suddenly the bundle burst open, to reveal a human sized puppet. It leapt towards Ilysa. As she swung her sword at it, Razor wire shot from his chest, and cut her.

She stumbled back stunned. She swung her sword, trying to cut the wire, but it was too late.
And as she did that, the thief got away.



<hr>
Puppetmasters are masters of constructs, usually puppets.

To become a puppetmaster, you must meet the following requirements:

Skills: Craft(puppetmaking) 8 ranks.
Feats: Improved Familiar.
Spells: Able to cast 3th level spells, and repair moderate damage.
Special: Must not have a current familiar, and must spend 24 hours bonding a puppet worth 50gp as your familiar.

Game rule

Hd:d6
Skills: As wizard
Spells: +1 at all levels.
Saves:Fort bad, ref + will good.

Level BAB GDs PRs Special



1 *0 *2 *0 *Puppet familiar, control puppet

2 *1 *3 *0 *Transfer

3 *1 *3 *1 *Hardness

4 *2 *4 *1 *Back and Forth

5 *2 *4 *1 *Sentience

6 *3 *5 *2 *Puppet Trap

7 *3 *5 *2 *Iron Plates

8 *4 *6 *2 *Puppet Link

9 *4 *6 *3 *Puppet Spell

105 *7 *3 *Synthesis Bond



Puppet familiar: Puppetmasters have made a special bond with their puppets. Treat the puppetmasters puppet as a familiar, gaining the abilities of that level of familiar. For this matter, it is character level, not class level, that determine the benifits. Treat the base puppet as a animated wooden object with legs of the creator's size. The only thing the puppet does not gain is the intelligence. It gets that later.

Control Puppet: the puppetmaster can control his puppet as a move action. The farthest distance he can control the puppet is 100 feet.

Transfer: If the puppet master wants to, and the puppet is within 10 feet of him, he may use the puppet as a subject for shield other. This means that the puppet takes half the damage of any attack that round.

Hardness: The puppetmaster gains a DR of 1/-.

Back and forth: If the puppet is within 20 feet of the puppetmaster, as a move action, the puppetmaster and puppet may switch places. The effect is magical and happens with a cloud of smoke on each.

Sentience: The puppet comes(remotely)alive. The puppet can move on its own, can speak one language, and gains an intelligence score equal to the puppetmasters - 6.

Puppet Trap: The puppetmaster may place a CR 2 trap on the puppetmaster for the cost in gp to create the trap.

Iron plates: The puppetmaster may place iron plates on his puppet, for 100gp. This gives the puppets 3 extra points of DR(8, from 5).

Puppet Link: The puppet and master share a permanent Rary's telepatic bond spell, CL 10.

Puppet spell: The puppet master may allow the puppet to use one spell of 3rd level or lower as a spell like ability, twice per day.

Synthesis Bond: The puppet and puppetmaster become so close, their appearances shift so they look like eachother. They both look parthly human, and partly puppet. Also, their type changes to Living Construct. Among other things, they cannot be healed fully by Conjuration(Healing) spells. They are healed only half by these spells, but take full effect from repair spells.




So whaddya think?

[Ugly_Panda]

I see you've been reading more naruto than normal. You haven't statted out the puppet yet, so it's kinda hard to judge.

-Synthesis bond is bad since nearly all type-changing PrCs do it gradually, not as just another class ability.
-The int gained from sentience seems a bit high, while puppet link isn't as good as an empathic link.
-You need to be more specific about back and forth. The way it's worded, I can travel through fences by chucking the puppet over them.
-Your description also doesn't match the actual powers of the class since there is no puppet multiplication ability granted by the class.

This class just doesn't seem worth losing five caster levels. Wizards won't care that much about getting more BAB or better hit dice when they can't blow stuff up as well.

[Espynwislyn]

Cool concept, but I'm not sure of the prerequisites. I mean, it says you need a familiar in order to qualifiy, but then you have to get rid of it? Or is the puppet in addition to the normal imporved familiar? It is certainly an interesting class, but might be a little underpowered. I mean, your loosing four caster levels in exchange for what is esentialy, the control of a single, CR 2 creature under your controll, which can already be produced by a sixth level spell. Maybe you could try adding more of these puppets under the Puppetmaster's controll, or some ability that allows them to mimick the spell Animate object, but with a set duration.

[fetfet]

No it doesnt stack. The puppet is your familiar. Puppet link and empathic bond stack.
Yes, i have been reading Naruto more.

Also, the puppet stats are in the monster manual. Under &quot;animated object&quot;.

[chaiyo]

Although a piece of my brain tells me I'm missing something, you didn't describe what GDs and PRs are. Nothing comes to mind about what those could stand for. I know this thread is still alive, so ignoring me is futile. If they do what I don't think they do, the PrC could balance out the degradation of casting.

Also, and it may be nitpicking, but are you sure that the skill ranks for Puppetmaking shouldn't coordinate with the level required for the caster levels?

(D'oh!) EDIT: I screwed up the italics. Again, I nitpick.

[Maerok]

Perhaps Perform(ventriloquism) or Perform(act) as a prerequisite or class skill?

Ventriloquism at will, with puppet as target?

Hypnotism?

[fetfet]

GDs:good save

PRs:poor save

[chaiyo]

Okaaay... Next time, either capitalize the 'S' or exchange the second capital letter for 'S' for 'Save.' That's more intuitive. To me, at least.

Also, maybe list some examples of what kind of construct is a 'puppet'. Maybe even stat them out, as I know someone suggested before me, or treat them like an Animated Object (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/animatedObject.htm). It is your class.

[fetfet]

I said, and i quote...


Treat the base puppet as a animated wooden object with legs of the creator's size.

THEY ARE ANIMATED OBJECTS.

ugh. get it straight &gt;:(

[chaiyo]

Ah. See, it took me a few minutes to even find it after you told me it was there. I must have skimmed over it or something. My apologies. Well, at least now there's a link you can refer people to when they ask for stats! (Woo! Rationalization!)

[fetfet]

Oh. Thanks. Now, does anyone have a positive comment?

anyone?

[Flabbicus]

Gara's brother is one of the coolest characters!

After Jiraiya, Kakashi, that insect guy, and Gara!

Looks like a fun class to play as too.

[fetfet]

YAY KANKURO!!!!

[Ugly_Panda]

If you've read or watched that far, some of Sasori's abilities added to this PrC might make it more playable.
Having it as an animated object of the same size as its creator really isn't enough since small puppetmasters would be worthless compared to the bigger ones. What about scaling HD for depending on the character's class level?
Though I'm critical of this PrC, the psychotic puppetmaster is one of my favorite villain concepts for a number of reasons.

[Maerok]

Here are some puppets and stuff. Perhaps add these to the available items and be able to animate them, in addition to the uber-puppet?

http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/aurora.pl

[theswarm]

I suggest being more specific on the classes spellcasting abilities. Also, the puppet itself seems underpowered; it gains the abilities of a familier only, which are unsuited to combat. I would suggest increasing the puppet's power ans HD as the master's level increases and allowng the master to gain more (like animal companions). This would also allow moves like Kankuro's machine trap with his 2 puppets (so cool!!!)

Would anyone be offended if I made a different, but similar puppetmaster class and posted it here?