Necromas
2006-05-07, 11:08 PM
Papermaster
http://www.absoluteanime.com/read_or_die/yomiko2.jpg
"Now surrender peacefully, stop trying to destroy the world, and please give me my book back!"
A papermaster is a person who has the supernatural ability to control paper, from playing cards, to parchment, to dollar bills. This ability can be used to manipulate paper to take any form, be it a razor-sharp sword, a powerful wall, or even a golem made of paper. A papermaster always carries around with them a box or other container containing large amounts of paper that the papermaster has crafted themselves, this box and the paper is free at first level, and the papermaster is assumed to craft more paper as they gain levels so as to always have enough paper for their abilities. However, if the container is stolen, they must obtain paper by other means. It is up to the DM to decide what can be made from a certain amount of paper. (paper used as a ranged weapon can be reused as if it had the returning property)
Making a Papermaster
Abilities: The papermaster benefits from high dexterity, intelligence, strength, and constitution scores. Dexterity is beneficial for raising the characters armor class and raising accuracy for a paper archer or finesse fighter, intelligence raises the papermasters armor class (a must since the papermaster cannot wear armor) and effects some of their abilities, while strength is beneficial for a strength based fighter and an archer wishing to do extra damage. Consitution is always helpful for a papermaster who wished to survive blows in combat.
Races: A papermaster is born with the supernatural ability to control paper, which is usually realized at the time they become literate, although this ability seems to appear most often in humans, it has been known to show up in just about any race, however, the less intelligent races (such as orcs) tend to be rare, it is not known wether the ability appears less often in less intelligent races or the ones born with these abilities never reach the mental capacity to awaken their powers.
Alignment: Papermasters tend to lean slightly towards lawful alignments, which stems from the obsession with reading, thus they may favor written codes and laws. Both good and evil papermasters exist. Although rarely, sometimes a papermaster does not actually enjoy reading, these papermasters are usually not lawfully aligned.
Starting Gold: 8d4 A papermaster must spend large amounts of money accquiring the paper they must have to use their abilities, thus they have little money to spend on other things. (papermasters start with paper for free)
Starting Age: Whatever
Class Skills
Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skills Per Day at 1st Level : (2 + int)x4
Skills Per Day at Each Additional Level : 2 + int
*note: A papermaster who is obsessive about reading gains 2 aditional skill points per level (8 at first) which they may only put in knowledge skills.
Hit Dice: d8
BAB Fort Ref Will Flurry AB Special
1. +0 +0 +2 +0 -2/-2 -Paper Weapons, Paper Armor, Paper Shield
2. +1 +0 +3 +0 -1/-1 -
3. +2 +1 +3 +1 +0/+0 -Deflect Arrows
4. +3 +1 +4 +1 +1/+1 -Paper Weapons, Paper Shield
5. +3 +1 +4 +1 +2/+2 -
6. +4 +2 +5 +2 +3/+3 -
7. +5 +2 +5 +2 +4/+4 -
8. +6/1 +2 +6 +2 +5/+5/+0 -Paper Weapons, Paper Shield
9. +6/1 +3 +6 +3 +6/+6/+1 -
10.+7/2 +3 +7 +3 +7/+7/+2 -Wall of Paper (ice)
11.+8/3 +3 +7 +3 +8/+8/+8/+3 -
12.+9/4 +4 +8 +4 +9/+9/+9/+4 -Paper Weapons, Paper Shield
13.+9/4 +4 +8 +4 +9/+9/+9/+4 -Wall of Paper (stone)
14.+10/5 +4 +9 +4 +10/+10/+10/+5 -
15.+11/6/1 +5 +9 +5 +11/+11/+11/+6/+1 -
16.+12/7/2 +5 +10 +5 +12/+12/+12/+7/+2 -Paper Airplane
17.+12/7/2 +5 +10 +5 +12/+12/+12/+7/+2 -Wall of Paper (iron)
18.+13/8/3 +6 +11 +6 +13/+13/+13/+8/+3 -
19.+14/9/4 +6 +11 +6 +14/+14/+14/+9/+4 -
20.+15/10/5 +6 +12 +6 +15/+15/+15/+10/+5 -Paper Bird, Wall of Paper (force)
Weapon Proficiencies: All simple weapons. A papermaster is proficient with their paper weapons no matter what form they take.
Playing a Papermaster
Religion: Papermasters do not lean towards any specific religion, although they would not likely follow a religion with no written scripture.
Other Classes: Papermasters greatly enjoy the company of wizards, who often share their love for reading, and sorcerers, who also have supernatural magical abilities. Since they tend to be lawful, papermasters often do not trust rogues, and since they are of keen intelligence, they look down upon the illiterate barbarians.
Combat: In combat, a papermaster is often seen fighting with weapons made of paper, often with the aid of a golem created from paper. They also use paper to deflect enemies attacks.
Advancement: Although papermasters usually do not take levels in other classes, they are able to multiclass into the monk class without the normal monk multiclassing restrictions, monk and papermaster levels stack when determining the level of their flurry of blows ability. A Papermaster/Monk benefits from the ability to use unarmed attacks in the occasion that they are unable to use paper weapons. A papermaster/monk may not apply both int and wis bonuses to their AC.
Papermasters in the world
"What is more important to you, that book or your life?"
"..."
Daily Life: In the world of Dungeons and Dragons, written material, and paper itself, is somewhat rare, so much of a papermasters free time is spent searching for new reading material, or simply crafting paper cards to be used in combat.
Notables: Due to the rarity of papermasters in the world, there are few notable figures from this class.
Organizations: Due to the rarity of papermasters in the world, there are very few organizations exclusive to papermasters. Although a few papermasters guilds exist, it is more likely that a papermaster would join a wizards academy, although they would spend more time in the academies library, or having intellectual conversation with the wizards, then practising combat skills.
NPC Reaction
Often papermasters are precieved in a similar way that one precieves wizards or sorcerers, papermasters who walk around with paper golems are often actually mistaken for wizards, as most commoners do not even know about the existance of papermasters.
Special Abilities
Paper Weapons: A papermaster can manipulate paper to create various weapons to be used in combat. A paper weapon is identical to the normal version of the weapon in terms of damage, range, and crit range. A papermaster can create different weapons depending on their class level.
1st Paper Dagger, Paper Card
4th Paper Short Sword, Paper Airplane
8th Paper Longsword, Paper Longbow
12th Paper Katana, Paper Greatbow
A card of paper is identical to a shuriken except that it does 1d4/x2 damage and has a range incriment of 20ft.
A paper airplane is identical to a dart except it does 1d6/x2 damage.
A paper bow fires arrows made of paper. A paper bow is treated as composite with a strength rating equal to the papermsters strength score.
A papermaster may use their flurry of blows ability only when using paper weapons (or when unarmed or with special monk weapons if they take monk levels).
Forming a paper weapon (or changing a paper weapon into a different one) is equivalent to drawing a weapon, and can be done as a free action if the papermaster has the quickdraw feat. Forming paper cards, airplanes, and arrows is a free action (so a papermaster may attack more then once per round with ranged attacks).
Paper weapons have an enhancement bonus equal to the papermasters class level divided by 5.
Paper Armor: A papermaster requires the ability to move freely in order to manipulate paper in complex ways. A papermaster loses the ability to manipulate paper if they wear armor. A papermaster can create clothing out of paper, which grants them an armor bonus equal to their intelligence bonus, when a papermaster is denied their dex bonus to AC they also lose their int bonus to AC. Paper armor appears to be made of cloth, and can take the shape and color that the papermaster desires.
Paper Shields: A papermaster may manipulate paper to block an opponents attacks, although the papermaster is not actually holding the paper, they require a free hand to manipulate it. A papermasters paper shield is treated as a as an animated shield except for the fact that it requires a free hand to wield. A papermaster can create stronger shields as they gain class levels.
1st Light Shield
4th Heavy Shield
8th Kite Shield
12th Tower Shield
A kite shield is similar to a tower shield, it provides an AC bonus of 3, and can be used to provide cover in the same manner that a tower shield can provide total cover. (This is my own invention, I have no idea if an actual kite shield exists in one of the books)
A paper tower shield does not impose a -2 penalty to attack rolls, as it is not being physically held by the papermaster.
Paper Golem: A paper golem is identical to a druids animal companion, except that it is a construct. It retains the same abilities as the animal and advances in power as if the papermaster were a druid of the same level. Do not change the creatures BAB, HD, or other information like you would for a normal construct, execpt for the following qualities.
-Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain. Does not need to eat.
-Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).
-Not at risk of death from massive damage. Immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or less.
A papermaster must remain concious for their golem to exist, as it is animated conciously by the papermaster. If a papermaster falls unconcious or goes to sleep, the golem becomes a pile of paper. A paper golem destroyed in combat can be recreated after the papermaster has slept for 8 hours, as long as the paper used to create the golem is not destroyed. (fire damage dealt to the golem does not destroy the paper, but if the golem is destroyed, the paper can then be burned)
Deflect Arrows: A papermaster gains the deflect arrows feat, even if they do not meet the requirements, but they can only use the ability while they have paper to deflect the projectile with.
Wall of Paper: A papermaster can create a wall of paper a number of times per day equal to their intelligence bonus (may not exceed 1+1 time per 5 papermaster levels) A wall of paper is identical to a wall of either ice, stone, iron, or force spell cast by a wizard who's level is equal to the papermasters level. The size of the wall is limited by the amount of paper the papermaster has available, at the DM's discression. (a papermasters box of paper can always hold enough paper to form the largest wall allowed by their caster level)
Paper Airplane/Bird: A papermaster can create a large paper airplane of paper bird capable of flight. The paper airplane can hold 1 large creature, 2 medium creatures, 4 small creatures, or a combination. The paper bird is very large and can hold 4 large creatures, 8 medium creatures, or 16 small creatures inside of it. The paper airplane and bird can only be used as a means of transportation, and have no combat benefits.
Notes
I am still working on this class, and am open to suggestions, I may change just about anything. For balance purposes I compared it to the monk class, papermasters do a little less damage with paper weapons then a monks unarmed attack, but they can make paper bows, and they dont get bonus feats, fast movement, good fort and will saves, or other cool abilities. Int AC replaces Wis AC, and paper shields replaces monk AC bonus. And they gain a paper golem which is equal to an animal companion. They also don't get the cool class skills monks get, and they are pretty much restricted to having no armor or weapons. They also cant take any of those monk vows. Wall of Paper and Paper Airplane/Bird do not really effect balance that much because most parties already have a wizard capable of casting wall spells or fly.
P.S. The inspiration for this class came to me a few days ago when I watched the R.O.D. OVA and then had an 8 hour shift at work right after, I was so bored at work that I spent much of my time pondering about this class, and I ended up typing it up when I got home.
http://www.absoluteanime.com/read_or_die/yomiko2.jpg
"Now surrender peacefully, stop trying to destroy the world, and please give me my book back!"
A papermaster is a person who has the supernatural ability to control paper, from playing cards, to parchment, to dollar bills. This ability can be used to manipulate paper to take any form, be it a razor-sharp sword, a powerful wall, or even a golem made of paper. A papermaster always carries around with them a box or other container containing large amounts of paper that the papermaster has crafted themselves, this box and the paper is free at first level, and the papermaster is assumed to craft more paper as they gain levels so as to always have enough paper for their abilities. However, if the container is stolen, they must obtain paper by other means. It is up to the DM to decide what can be made from a certain amount of paper. (paper used as a ranged weapon can be reused as if it had the returning property)
Making a Papermaster
Abilities: The papermaster benefits from high dexterity, intelligence, strength, and constitution scores. Dexterity is beneficial for raising the characters armor class and raising accuracy for a paper archer or finesse fighter, intelligence raises the papermasters armor class (a must since the papermaster cannot wear armor) and effects some of their abilities, while strength is beneficial for a strength based fighter and an archer wishing to do extra damage. Consitution is always helpful for a papermaster who wished to survive blows in combat.
Races: A papermaster is born with the supernatural ability to control paper, which is usually realized at the time they become literate, although this ability seems to appear most often in humans, it has been known to show up in just about any race, however, the less intelligent races (such as orcs) tend to be rare, it is not known wether the ability appears less often in less intelligent races or the ones born with these abilities never reach the mental capacity to awaken their powers.
Alignment: Papermasters tend to lean slightly towards lawful alignments, which stems from the obsession with reading, thus they may favor written codes and laws. Both good and evil papermasters exist. Although rarely, sometimes a papermaster does not actually enjoy reading, these papermasters are usually not lawfully aligned.
Starting Gold: 8d4 A papermaster must spend large amounts of money accquiring the paper they must have to use their abilities, thus they have little money to spend on other things. (papermasters start with paper for free)
Starting Age: Whatever
Class Skills
Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skills Per Day at 1st Level : (2 + int)x4
Skills Per Day at Each Additional Level : 2 + int
*note: A papermaster who is obsessive about reading gains 2 aditional skill points per level (8 at first) which they may only put in knowledge skills.
Hit Dice: d8
BAB Fort Ref Will Flurry AB Special
1. +0 +0 +2 +0 -2/-2 -Paper Weapons, Paper Armor, Paper Shield
2. +1 +0 +3 +0 -1/-1 -
3. +2 +1 +3 +1 +0/+0 -Deflect Arrows
4. +3 +1 +4 +1 +1/+1 -Paper Weapons, Paper Shield
5. +3 +1 +4 +1 +2/+2 -
6. +4 +2 +5 +2 +3/+3 -
7. +5 +2 +5 +2 +4/+4 -
8. +6/1 +2 +6 +2 +5/+5/+0 -Paper Weapons, Paper Shield
9. +6/1 +3 +6 +3 +6/+6/+1 -
10.+7/2 +3 +7 +3 +7/+7/+2 -Wall of Paper (ice)
11.+8/3 +3 +7 +3 +8/+8/+8/+3 -
12.+9/4 +4 +8 +4 +9/+9/+9/+4 -Paper Weapons, Paper Shield
13.+9/4 +4 +8 +4 +9/+9/+9/+4 -Wall of Paper (stone)
14.+10/5 +4 +9 +4 +10/+10/+10/+5 -
15.+11/6/1 +5 +9 +5 +11/+11/+11/+6/+1 -
16.+12/7/2 +5 +10 +5 +12/+12/+12/+7/+2 -Paper Airplane
17.+12/7/2 +5 +10 +5 +12/+12/+12/+7/+2 -Wall of Paper (iron)
18.+13/8/3 +6 +11 +6 +13/+13/+13/+8/+3 -
19.+14/9/4 +6 +11 +6 +14/+14/+14/+9/+4 -
20.+15/10/5 +6 +12 +6 +15/+15/+15/+10/+5 -Paper Bird, Wall of Paper (force)
Weapon Proficiencies: All simple weapons. A papermaster is proficient with their paper weapons no matter what form they take.
Playing a Papermaster
Religion: Papermasters do not lean towards any specific religion, although they would not likely follow a religion with no written scripture.
Other Classes: Papermasters greatly enjoy the company of wizards, who often share their love for reading, and sorcerers, who also have supernatural magical abilities. Since they tend to be lawful, papermasters often do not trust rogues, and since they are of keen intelligence, they look down upon the illiterate barbarians.
Combat: In combat, a papermaster is often seen fighting with weapons made of paper, often with the aid of a golem created from paper. They also use paper to deflect enemies attacks.
Advancement: Although papermasters usually do not take levels in other classes, they are able to multiclass into the monk class without the normal monk multiclassing restrictions, monk and papermaster levels stack when determining the level of their flurry of blows ability. A Papermaster/Monk benefits from the ability to use unarmed attacks in the occasion that they are unable to use paper weapons. A papermaster/monk may not apply both int and wis bonuses to their AC.
Papermasters in the world
"What is more important to you, that book or your life?"
"..."
Daily Life: In the world of Dungeons and Dragons, written material, and paper itself, is somewhat rare, so much of a papermasters free time is spent searching for new reading material, or simply crafting paper cards to be used in combat.
Notables: Due to the rarity of papermasters in the world, there are few notable figures from this class.
Organizations: Due to the rarity of papermasters in the world, there are very few organizations exclusive to papermasters. Although a few papermasters guilds exist, it is more likely that a papermaster would join a wizards academy, although they would spend more time in the academies library, or having intellectual conversation with the wizards, then practising combat skills.
NPC Reaction
Often papermasters are precieved in a similar way that one precieves wizards or sorcerers, papermasters who walk around with paper golems are often actually mistaken for wizards, as most commoners do not even know about the existance of papermasters.
Special Abilities
Paper Weapons: A papermaster can manipulate paper to create various weapons to be used in combat. A paper weapon is identical to the normal version of the weapon in terms of damage, range, and crit range. A papermaster can create different weapons depending on their class level.
1st Paper Dagger, Paper Card
4th Paper Short Sword, Paper Airplane
8th Paper Longsword, Paper Longbow
12th Paper Katana, Paper Greatbow
A card of paper is identical to a shuriken except that it does 1d4/x2 damage and has a range incriment of 20ft.
A paper airplane is identical to a dart except it does 1d6/x2 damage.
A paper bow fires arrows made of paper. A paper bow is treated as composite with a strength rating equal to the papermsters strength score.
A papermaster may use their flurry of blows ability only when using paper weapons (or when unarmed or with special monk weapons if they take monk levels).
Forming a paper weapon (or changing a paper weapon into a different one) is equivalent to drawing a weapon, and can be done as a free action if the papermaster has the quickdraw feat. Forming paper cards, airplanes, and arrows is a free action (so a papermaster may attack more then once per round with ranged attacks).
Paper weapons have an enhancement bonus equal to the papermasters class level divided by 5.
Paper Armor: A papermaster requires the ability to move freely in order to manipulate paper in complex ways. A papermaster loses the ability to manipulate paper if they wear armor. A papermaster can create clothing out of paper, which grants them an armor bonus equal to their intelligence bonus, when a papermaster is denied their dex bonus to AC they also lose their int bonus to AC. Paper armor appears to be made of cloth, and can take the shape and color that the papermaster desires.
Paper Shields: A papermaster may manipulate paper to block an opponents attacks, although the papermaster is not actually holding the paper, they require a free hand to manipulate it. A papermasters paper shield is treated as a as an animated shield except for the fact that it requires a free hand to wield. A papermaster can create stronger shields as they gain class levels.
1st Light Shield
4th Heavy Shield
8th Kite Shield
12th Tower Shield
A kite shield is similar to a tower shield, it provides an AC bonus of 3, and can be used to provide cover in the same manner that a tower shield can provide total cover. (This is my own invention, I have no idea if an actual kite shield exists in one of the books)
A paper tower shield does not impose a -2 penalty to attack rolls, as it is not being physically held by the papermaster.
Paper Golem: A paper golem is identical to a druids animal companion, except that it is a construct. It retains the same abilities as the animal and advances in power as if the papermaster were a druid of the same level. Do not change the creatures BAB, HD, or other information like you would for a normal construct, execpt for the following qualities.
-Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain. Does not need to eat.
-Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).
-Not at risk of death from massive damage. Immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or less.
A papermaster must remain concious for their golem to exist, as it is animated conciously by the papermaster. If a papermaster falls unconcious or goes to sleep, the golem becomes a pile of paper. A paper golem destroyed in combat can be recreated after the papermaster has slept for 8 hours, as long as the paper used to create the golem is not destroyed. (fire damage dealt to the golem does not destroy the paper, but if the golem is destroyed, the paper can then be burned)
Deflect Arrows: A papermaster gains the deflect arrows feat, even if they do not meet the requirements, but they can only use the ability while they have paper to deflect the projectile with.
Wall of Paper: A papermaster can create a wall of paper a number of times per day equal to their intelligence bonus (may not exceed 1+1 time per 5 papermaster levels) A wall of paper is identical to a wall of either ice, stone, iron, or force spell cast by a wizard who's level is equal to the papermasters level. The size of the wall is limited by the amount of paper the papermaster has available, at the DM's discression. (a papermasters box of paper can always hold enough paper to form the largest wall allowed by their caster level)
Paper Airplane/Bird: A papermaster can create a large paper airplane of paper bird capable of flight. The paper airplane can hold 1 large creature, 2 medium creatures, 4 small creatures, or a combination. The paper bird is very large and can hold 4 large creatures, 8 medium creatures, or 16 small creatures inside of it. The paper airplane and bird can only be used as a means of transportation, and have no combat benefits.
Notes
I am still working on this class, and am open to suggestions, I may change just about anything. For balance purposes I compared it to the monk class, papermasters do a little less damage with paper weapons then a monks unarmed attack, but they can make paper bows, and they dont get bonus feats, fast movement, good fort and will saves, or other cool abilities. Int AC replaces Wis AC, and paper shields replaces monk AC bonus. And they gain a paper golem which is equal to an animal companion. They also don't get the cool class skills monks get, and they are pretty much restricted to having no armor or weapons. They also cant take any of those monk vows. Wall of Paper and Paper Airplane/Bird do not really effect balance that much because most parties already have a wizard capable of casting wall spells or fly.
P.S. The inspiration for this class came to me a few days ago when I watched the R.O.D. OVA and then had an 8 hour shift at work right after, I was so bored at work that I spent much of my time pondering about this class, and I ended up typing it up when I got home.