You'll never see it coming [3.5 PrC] (PEACH)

[Human Paragon 3]

I based this prestige class on the Illithid Slayer class. I really liked its capabilities, but PrCs as weirdly specific as this one bug me. Either your campaign is all about mind flayers, in which case you'd be ++ amazing, or your campaign is not about mindflayers, and half of your class features will be be useless.

So I changed the focus from mindflayers to a generic urban environment, moved the requirements around, changed a few abilities, and voila. What resulted is, IMO, a pretty damn cool class for almost any setting.



Urban Slayer

The urban slayer goes where others can't, infiltrating incredibly secure areas and eliminating high-value targets before they can detect a threat. They excel in bypassing any and all supernatural protections and means of detection, closing in on their target and striking where they falsely believed they were safe.

Hit Die
d8.

Requirements
To qualify to become an urban slayer, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Base Attack Bonus
+4.

Skill
Knowledge (Local) 4 ranks.

Feat
Urban Track.

Psionics
Must have a power point reserve of at least 1 power point.

Class Skills
The urban slayer’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Disguise (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Knowledge (local) (Int), Listen (Wis), Psicraft (Int), Sense Motive (Wis) and Spot (Wis).

Skill Points at Each Level
4 + Int modifier.


The Urban Slayer
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Psionics

1st|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+2|Favored organization +2, Organization sense|-

2nd|
+2|
+0|
+0|
+3|Fade from memory|+1 level of existing mainfesting class

3rd|
+3|
+1|
+1|
+3|Lucid buffer|+1 level of existing mainfesting class

4th|
+4|
+1|
+1|
+4|Favored organization +4|+1 level of existing mainfesting class

5th|
+5|
+1|
+1|
+4|—|+1 level of existing mainfesting class

6th|
+6|
+2|
+2|
+5|Cerebral blind|+1 level of existing mainfesting class

7th|
+7|
+2|
+2|
+5|Favored organization +6|+1 level of existing mainfesting class

8th|
+8|
+2|
+2|
+6|Breach power resistance|+1 level of existing mainfesting class

9th|
+9|
+3|
+3|
+6|Cerebral immunity|+1 level of existing mainfesting class

10th|
+10|
+3|
+3|
+7|Null psionic burst, Favored organization +8|+1 level of existing mainfesting class [/table]





Class Features
All the following are class features of the slayer prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Urban slayers are proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all types of armor.

Powers Known
Beginning at 2nd level, an urban slayer gains additional power points per day and access to new powers as if she had also gained a level in whatever manifesting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (bonus feats, metapsionic or item creation feats, psicrystal special abilities, and so on). This essentially means that she adds the level of urban slayer to the level of whatever manifesting class the character has, then determines power points per day, powers known, and manifester level accordingly.

If a character had more than one manifesting class before she became an urban slayer, she must decide to which class she adds the new level of slayer for the purpose of determining power points per day, powers known, and manifester level.

If the character did not belong to a manifesting class before taking this prestige class, she does not gain manifesting levels.

Favored Organization (Ex)
When she enters the class, an urban slayer chooses a specific organization (such as The Deshima Thieves Guild, Doland City Guard, or The Counsel of Sages) that she is especially familiar with. Due to her extensive study of her foes and training in the proper techniques for combating them, she gains a +2 bonus on Bluff, Disguise, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Gather Information checks when using these skills against her favored enemy.

Likewise, she gets a +2 bonus on weapon damage rolls against members of that organization regardless of other factors such as race. At 4th level the bonuses increase to +4, at 7th level to +6, and at 10th level to +8.

If her business with that organization ends, or if she decides to focus on another organization instead, she may change her favored organization. To do so requires one week of intensive study followed by a DC 20 Knowledge: Local check. She may attempt to reduce the time necessary to 8 hours by raising the DC of the check to 30.

Organization Sense (Su)
An urban slayer can sense the presence of members of her favored organization within 60 feet of herself, even if they are hidden by darkness or walls, but she cannot discern their exact location.

Fade From Memory (Su)
At 2nd level, an urban slayer gains a constant defensive ability somewhat similar to the aversion power. Any creature that sees the urban slayer and then later attempts to recall what she looks like or describe her appearance to another must succeed on a Will save (DC 15 + urban slayer’s class level at the time of their encounter) or find themselves utterly unable to remember what the urban slayer looked like.

Lucid Buffer (Ex)
At 3rd level, an urban slayer becomes especially skilled at resisting mental attacks. She gains a +4 competence bonus on saving throws against all compulsions and mind-affecting effects. This ability is active even if the slayer is unconscious, stunned, or otherwise helpless.

Cerebral Blind (Su)
After reaching 6th level, an urban slayer is protected from all devices, powers, and spells that reveal location. This ability protects against information gathering by clairsentience powers or effects that reveal location.

The ability even foils bend reality, limited wish, miracle, reality revision, and wish when they are used to gain information about the slayer’s location (however, metafaculty can pierce this protective barrier). In the case of remote viewing or scrying that scans an area an urban slayer is in, the effect works, but the urban slayer simply isn’t detected. Remote viewing or scrying attempts that are targeted specifically at an urban slayer do not work. This ability is active as long as the urban slayer is psionically focused.

Breach Power Resistance (Su)
An urban slayer of 8th level or higher can enhance her weapon with psionic might. Each successful melee attack (or ranged attack if the target is within 30 feet) she makes with her weapon against a creature with power resistance temporarily reduces its power resistance by 1. Unless the creature is slain, its lost power resistance returns all at once 12 hours later. This ability is active as long as the urban slayer is psionically focused.

Cerebral Immunity (Su)
On reaching 9th level, an urban slayer gains protection from all devices, powers, and spells that influence the mind. This ability shields her against almost all mind-affecting powers and effects (though the urban slayer can selectively allow powers or spells to affect her). The ability even foils bend reality, limited wish, miracle, reality revision, and wish when they are used to mentally influence a slayer. This ability is active as long as the urban slayer is psionically focused.

Null Psionic Burst (Su)
At 10th level, an urban slayer gains the ability to emit a null psionic burst once per day. As a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity, she may expend her psionic focus to cause a field of null psionics to briefly emanate from her out to a range of 30 feet in all directions. All ongoing effects (other than those manifested by the urban slayer herself) that would cease to function inside a null psionics field are instantly ended. If an effect has a duration of 24 hours or longer (such as the enchantment on a magical item or a permanent light effect), it is instead suppressed for 1d10+10 rounds.

[Human Paragon 3]

In particular I'm looking for opinions on the two new abilities I penned for the class. They are:

Fade From Memory (Su)
At 2nd level, an urban slayer gains a constant defensive ability somewhat similar to the aversion power. Any creature that sees the urban slayer and then later attempts to recall what she looks like or describe her appearance to another must succeed on a Will save (DC 15 + urban slayer’s class level) or find themselves utterly unable to remember what the urban slayer looked like.

And

Null Psionic Burst (Su)
At 10th level, an urban slayer gains the ability to emit a null psionic burst once per day. As a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity, she may expend her psionic focus to cause a field of null psionics to briefly emanate from her out to a range of 30 feet in all directions. All ongoing effects (other than those manifested by the urban slayer herself) that would cease to function inside a null psionics field are instantly ended. If an effect has a duration of 24 hours or longer (such as the enchantment on a magical item or a permanent light effect), it is instead suppressed for 1d10+10 rounds.

The original abilities they are replacing are:


Brain Nausea (Su)

At 2nd level, a slayer gains a constant defensive ability somewhat similar to the aversion power. Any creature that attempts to eat the slayer’s brain must succeed on a Will save (DC 15 + slayer’s class level) or become disinclined to do so for 24 hours thereafter. A creature that fails this save may take any action it desires except extracting the slayer’s brain (but does not realize it is being so affected). This ability is active even if the slayer is unconscious, stunned, or otherwise helpless.

And

Blast Feedback (Su)

At 10th level, if a slayer makes her saving throw when attacked with mind blast, the mind blast rebounds upon the attacker. Only the original attacker is targeted in the rebound effect. If the original attacker fails a Will saving throw (DC equal to that of the original attack), the attacker is affected normally by the mind blast.



Thanks!

[Bakkan]

I like this class a lot. I'm a huge fan of the Urban Ranger, for which this would make an excellent PrC. I just have one question about the Fade from Memory ability: when the opponent makes the Will save, does he roll against a DC of 15+ the urban slayer's current class level or 15+ the level the urban slayer was at when the opponent saw him? In many cases this won't matter, but if there is a great deal of time between seeing the urban slayer and trying to recall his appearance, it could make a difference.

Also, maybe it's just me, but the capstone ability seems to lack some punch. I think I'd prefer something somewhat less utilitarian.

[Human Paragon 3]

Fixed the "x" in the will save column, thanks.

The reason the class gains nothing (other than new psionic powers/pp) at level 5 is because that's how the original PrC that I based it on was, and I didn't want to make something a lot more powerful than the original.

As for Fade from Memory, I would say it is the level of the urban slayer when they were encountered. As a DM I would roll it as the two characters parted ways.

I think the capstone is pretty cool myself. The ability to knock down everybody's buffs in one, unavoidable hit is pretty bad ass. It even takes down Forsight, Overland Flight, Force Cage, Symbol of Insanity etc, most of the nastiest effects in the game. Cancels them out without so much as a caster level check. Meanwhile, all of your buffs stay up.

[Human Paragon 3]

One more minor point to correct: your favored org must be a specific organization. So it could be the Deshima Thieves Guild or the Doland City Guard, but not just "town guard." However, you can change your favored org by making a know: local check.