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Maryring
2006-03-25, 09:02 PM
(Gasp... can it be? Have I really made a PrC?

WARNING: Reading this can either A: Make you break down crying. B: Make you break down laughing. or C: Make you hate yourself for evermore for reading this topic.

Having warned about that... I bring to you, the Feral Angel.)

Karl ran through the forest as quickly as he could. His breath was heavy and sweat was flowing from his head. He could hear his heart beat with fear as he tried to get out of the forest. At last he could see the trees thinning as he neared the village. He begins to smile with relief when suddenly he hears that frightening howl again. He stops and looks around to see where the sound comes from, but he can’t pinpoint it. He tightens the grip around his hatchet when suddenly something knocks into him from behind. He is knocked to the ground with a big *thump* and the hatchet flies out of his hand. He looks up to see a large wolf pinning him to the ground. The wolf growls ferociously at him and bares its fangs. The wolf bends down its head and looks straight into Karl’s eyes. Then it begins to speak.

“You cruel, evil monster. Give me one reason not to kill you now.”

This fact shocks Karl, and if he wasn’t already on the ground, he would have fallen down. “Oh please, please don’t kill me. I’ve got a family to feed. Please, please.” He pleads.

The wolf looks strangely at Karl, as if thinking, before he replies. “I will show you mercy and let you live this time, but only because your family needs you. But I will tell you this. If you ever show yourself in this forest again and try to harm MY CHILDREN, I will hunt you down and kill you without remorse.” The wolf jumps of Karl’s chest and begins to walk back into the forest. “This is my forest, and no evil shall be allowed to set its foot in here as long as I live.”

Class name: Feral Angel

Class nature: The Feral Angel is an angel in animal guise. A regular mortal who has given himself to a certain species of animals and act as a guide and protector of the chosen kind of animal. The Feral Angel removes himself from his earlier human life and shell and instead becomes a legendary animal of his chosen kind.

Role: The Feral Angel generally shuns non animals; however they may on rare instances form alliances with humans to protect their chosen animal. When that happens, they have a plethora of abilities available, but what abilities mostly depend on what abilities the Feral Angel had before becoming a Feral Angel. Otherwise, the Feral Angel acts as a guardian patron of its chosen animals.

Alignment: The Feral Angel must have any good alignment as only a good creature can receive the feral call and become a Feral Angel.

Relationships: The Feral Angel has little connection to most other classes, with the exception of good aligned Druids and Rangers. However, Feral Angels who have helped other classes isn’t unheard of.

Religion: A Feral Angel usually worships no particular god at all, unless it was a cleric before becoming a Feral Angel. Those few who actually do worship gods usually revere gods with ties to nature and animals.

Classes: Members of all classes can become a Feral Angel, but most Feral Angels are usually Druids or Rangers.

Adaptation: The Feral call can be changed to have a different nature so that it seeks out targets based on different premises. If your world does not have guardinals, the Feral call can come from a different outsider force, where the Feral Angel must have an alignment one step away from the force.

NOTE:

Prerequisites:
Base Save Bonuses: Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +2
Skills: Any skill 10 ranks
Alignment: Any good
Type: Any humanoid
Special: Must receive the Feral calling. The Feral calling is a special force, a sensation, which entices the Feral Angel to become a guardian of its chosen species. The Feral calling can call to everyone, but generally only those with at least six in intelligence and wisdom can understand the call.
Special: The Feral must choose an animal at the adoption of this prestige class. When the animal is chosen, the choice cannot be changed. Only animals with an intelligence of 1 or 2 can be chosen.

Skills: The Feral Angels class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are the same as the chosen animal, plus Craft (int), Handle Animal (cha), Heal (wis), Intimidate (cha), Knowledge Nature (int), Listen (wis), Spot (wis), and Survival (wis)
Feral Angels receive a number of skill points equal to 4+int modifier each level.

Key Abilities: Because Feral Angels are so diverse, the abilities that are important vary from Feral to Feral.

Hit Die d8.

Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1 +0 +0 +2 +0 Feral Soul. Feral Form. Magic Fang +1.
2 +1 +0 +3 +0 Scent of Evil. Ability score enhancement. +1 caster level.
3 +2 +1 +3 +1 Detect Evil. Feral Form. +1 caster level.
4 +3 +1 +4 +1 Animal leader. +1 caster level. Aligned Fang
5 +3 +1 +4 +1 Feral Form. Ability score enhancement. Magic Fang +2
6 +4 +2 +5 +2 Form change. Speak with humanoids 1/day. +1 caster level.
7 +5 +2 +5 +2 Feral Form. +1 caster level.
8 +6 +2 +6 +2 Speak with humanoids 2/day. Ability score enhancement. +1 caster level.
9 +6 +3 +6 +3 Feral Form. Magic Fang +3
10 +7 +3 +7 +3 True animal. Intelligent offspring. Timelessness.
Speak with humanoids 3/day. +1 caster level.

Class features: All of the following are features of the Feral Angel.

Weapons and Armour Proficiency: A Feral Soul is proficient with his natural weapons. He does not lose his earlier proficiencies, but may not be able to wield weapons, armour and shields even if he were proficient with them earlier. They have to be specially forged for the Feral Soul to be able to use it.

Spells: At all levels except 1, 5 and 9, the Feral Soul gains spells known and spells per day as if it also gained a class in whatever spell casting class it earlier belonged too.

Feral Soul: (ex) The Feral Angel has begun his transformation into his chosen animal. He begins to take on traits, both mental and physical, that makes him resemble his chosen animal. These traits grow stronger and stronger as the Feral Angel grows closer to his chosen animal. He also gains the animal empathy extraordinary ability regarding his chosen animal.

Feral Form: (ex) The Feral Angel takes on actual physical changes to his body. At 1st level, the Feral Angel gains the natural weapon attacks of its chosen animal, at 3rd level it grows feathers/fur/scales which increase his natural armour by +2 and then +1 for every other level beyond 3rd, at 5th level the Feral Angel takes on the special qualities of his animal, gaining all extraordinary abilities of the chosen animal, as well as all racial abilities. At 7th level, the Feral Angel gains the chosen animal’s movement speed, and its climb, burrow, swim and fly speed if it has one. If the animal is more than one size category from the Feral Angel, the Feral Angel also moves one size closer to the chosen animal. At 9th level, the Feral Angel gains the same size as the chosen animal as well as an increase of +2 in wisdom.

Magic Fang: (su) At 1st level, the Feral Angels natural weapons gain a +1 magic enchantment. This bonus increase to +2 at fifth level and +3 at ninth level.

Scent of Evil: (su) The creature gains the ability to detect evil creatures by their scent of evil. The Feral Angel can detect evil opponents within 30 feet by their scent of evil. If the opponent is upwind, the range increases to 60 feet; if downwind, it drops to 15 feet. A strong aura of evil can be detected at twice these ranges. An overwhelming aura of evil can be detected at triple normal range. When the Feral Angel detects a scent, the exact location is not revealed, only its presence somewhere within range. The Feral Angel can take a move action to note the direction of the scent. Whenever the creature comes within 5 feet of the source, the stalker knows the source’s location.

Ability Score Enhancement: (ex) At 2nd level, and again at 5th and 8th level, the Feral Angel increases his physical capability. He gains a +2 to dexterity, constitution or strength, depending on what is usually the strongest trait of the chosen animal. If the animal has two traits of equal strength, the Feral Angel chooses which one to enhance.

Detect Evil: (sp) At third level a Feral Angel gains the ability to detect evil at will as the spell.

Animal Leader: (ex) At 4th level, the Feral Angel gains the benefit of the Leadership feat, but only for animals.

Aligned Fang: (su) At 4th level, the Feral Angels natural weapons are treated as good aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. They also deal another 1d6 points of damage to all evil creatures hit by their natural weapons. Evil outsiders and undead take 2d6 points of damage instead. If the Feral Angel is lawful, the weapon is treated as cold iron as well, if he is chaotic, the spell is treated as silver.

Form Change: (ex) When reaching 6th level, the Feral Angel has changed so much that he now looks more like an animal than a humanoid. For the purpose of all spells and effects, the Feral Angel is treated as an animal of its kind, rather than a humanoid. If the animal is a carnivore, he becomes a carnivore as well. If the animal is an herbivore, he becomes an herbivore as well. The Feral Angel is also now only able to mate with his chosen animal, instead of his earlier race. He loses the ability to speak any language but instead can speak with animals of its kind. He can still understand all languages he knew, but he cannot answer them vocally. If the Feral Angel is a spellcaster, he gains the feat “Natural Spell” for free.

Speak with humanoids: (su) At 6th level and again at 8th and 10th level, the Feral Angel gains the ability to speak with humanoids. He can still only speak the languages he knows, but it won’t come out as animal sounds. He can use this ability once per day at 6th level, twice per day at 8th level and three times per day at 10th level. The ability lasts 10 minutes per level of Feral Angel.

True Animal: When the Feral Angel reaches 10th level, he becomes a true animal of his kind. The Feral Angel is an animal in all aspects with the exception of a higher intelligence. When reincarnated, replace the old race of the Feral Angel with his new species. He also gains damage reduction 10/evil.

Intelligent Offspring: All children of the Feral Angel are automatically awakened and have an intelligence score equal to six + the Feral Angels int modifier (at least 3). If both the mother and the father is a Feral Angel, use the higher of the two int modifiers + 1 (if both have a positive int modifier), +0 (if one has a positive int modifier and the other has no int modifier or a negative int modifier) or -1 (if one has no int modifier and the other has a negative int modifier).

Timelessness: When the Feral Angel has completed his transformation he transcends time. His aging process is essentially halted.

Multiclassing: A character who takes a level in another class loses the Feral call and cannot continue to advance in the Feral Angel class before the call reaches out to him again.

The Feral call: The Feral call is a force of good that seeps from the outsider plains of Elysium and the Beastlands. The force itself seeks out individuals with the capability to become a true Feral Angel and inhabits them to see if they take the call to become a Feral Angel. If the individual refuses, the call leaves to find a new host.

Sample Feral Wolf Angel

Dekar Analino: Male wolf sorcerer 6/ Feral Angel 10; CR 16; Medium augmented animal ; HD 6d4+30 plus 10d8+50; hp 140; init +1: spd 50 ft.: AC 16, touch 11, flat-footed 15; Base Atk +10; Grp +10; Atk +13 melee (1d6, bite) or Full Atk +10/+5 (1d6, bite); SA Magic Fang +3, Aligned Fang (good) swallow whole; SQ Low-light vision, Scent, Scent of Evil, Detect Evil, Speak with humans, harmless digestion; AL NG; SV Fort +14, Ref +10, Will +8; Str 10, Dex 13, Con 20, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 19.

Skills and feats: Bluff 25, Concentration 24, Handle Animal 16, Intimidate 16, Know Arcana 20, Spellcraft 22, Ride +2; Eschew Materials, Scribe Scroll, Arcane Mastery, Animal affinity, Persuasive, Nonlethal Substitution, Favoured of the companions, Natural Spell.

Languages: Common, Draconic.

Spells Known: 0 – Arcane Mark, Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Disrupt Undead, Light, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Ray of Frost, Resistance (6 per day); 1st – Burning hands, Endure Elements, Enlarge Person, Magic Missile, Reduce Person (6 per day); 2nd – Acid Arrow, Bear’s Endurance, Flaming Sphere, Scare, Scorching Ray (6 per day); 3rd – Fireball, Fly, Haste, Suggestion (6 per day); 4th – Charm Monster, Devourer, Harmless Digestion, Phantasmal Killer, (6 per day) 5th – Cone of Cold, Dominate Person, Permanency (6 per day); 6th – Aqua Wave, Disintegrate (4 per day)

Possessions: None

(Before you redirect me to the Primeval let me tell you that I have already looked at the class and it wasn't... feral enough. I think it's an OK PrC, but bear in mind that this is designed to be more of an NPC class than a PC class... unless you are running a solo adventure with a person who is obsessed with a certain animal ;) )

Hurlbut
2006-03-25, 09:48 PM
Hrm, what's the maximum Class Skill rank for a 20th level character?

prometheusx
2006-03-25, 10:34 PM
So if you start taking this class before tenth, then you can't reach 20th level without losing the abilities from the class. Possible solutions would be to allow only ranger, druid, animal lord and bestmaster as other classes without losing abilities.

I would simplify a little: you are making up a lot of fairly complex rules.

The simplest is to replace the feral call prereq to the Wild Empathy class ability. I also would give the character the ability to take on human form a few times per day. The benefits of the class don't make up from being totally excluded from a lot of the campaign when it goes into cities if the chosen form is tiger or something else fearsome.

Gyrfalcon
2006-03-26, 06:26 AM
At 6th level, I might suggest giving them the feat 'Eschew Materials' as well, to clear out the need for (most) material components. This might be too powerful though, and it's not too much to ask for the caster to plan ahead and pick up Eschew Materials or choose spells without material components.

You might consider taking out the Base Save Bonuses requirement, which seems to be there to force characters to be 6th level or more, as the skill requirement for 10 ranks in any skill will mean that the character is 7th level by the time he qualifies.

You might consider taking out Craft from the class skill, as once the person becomes a Feral animal, they'll sort of lack the opposable thumb in most cases that make crafting possible. :)

At 10th level, the Feral Soul has the benefit of:
+5 Natural Armor
+3 enhancement to natural attacks
any extraordinary abilities of the animal (nebulous... might be open to DM's interprertation, though the requirement that the animal have intelligence 1 or 2 helps stop most of the less balanced abilites from appearing.)
Ability to detect evil enemies anywhere from 15' to 180', which also operates as a continious Detect Evil in social situations.
Possible size adjustments up or down (up to large for a brown bear, tiny for monkey) which will provide their own bonuses or detriments
+2 Wisdom, +6 to one stat or split among two or three stats. (so +8 stat modifiers)
damage reduction 10/evil
Timeless body
Leadership (for animals)
+3 caster levels

For casters:
d8 HD
Good reflex progression

What is the Feral Soul giving up?

7 caster levels
most social interaction (though a party could work out an easy yes/no system)
some spells with material components
Good will save progression (in some cases)

So.... why I like the class and think it has excellent potential, I would restrict it to NPCs. The downsides tend to be crippling in a social RP (where you might want to talk to your companions for more then thirty minutes a day), and the bonuses could make for an extremely powerful combat build, despite a lack of more then a magical amulet and *maybe* magical rings.

I can't think of much you can remove (the +2 Wisdom bonus and one of the +2 Str/Dex/Con bonuses perhaps), maybe the caster progression. Otherwise, remove the damage reduction or reduce it to 5/evil perhaps?

Some of the bonuses, like the natural armor and natural weapon bonuses take the place of weapons and armor you'd have at 17th level, for example.

So overall, I'd say its an NPC class.

Hurlbut - 23 ranks, I believe, not counting bonuses or such.

Frank
2006-03-26, 06:33 AM
Princess Mononoke Inspired?

If so, use the animal's HD as advancement goes...and start them off with a rather high HD. Then just boost them with Saves and Attack bonus, and like you've been doing, lowering their ability as casters.

If not, I don't know anything about where you're going with this to make an informed opinion, especially since I've never tried to make a PrC before.

-Frank

Hurlbut
2006-03-26, 12:16 PM
Hurlbut - 23 ranks, I believe, not counting bonuses or such.

I was confused how his CR 16 example has such high skill ranks.

SpiderBrigade
2006-03-26, 12:59 PM
I'm pretty sure that the stats listed there are the total bonuses, not the ranks. So for bluff, he has 19 ranks, +4 from Charisma bonus, +2 from Persuasive. Total bonus 25. This is how sample characters/monsters are usually presented.

I think the math works out for all of them except spellcraft, which is at 22 and should be at 20 (19 ranks +1 Int bonus). Unless I'm missing something.

Maryring
2006-03-26, 04:51 PM
That's the +2 synergy bonus from Knowledge Arcana, and yes it was supposed to be an NPC class. The reason I added craft was because... well ALL classes have Craft and Profession and cutting out one should be enough, and it would be a lot of fun with a cow with levels in "craft glass ornament" ;) Other than that, the Base Save is there to make sure that the Feral Angel isn't some sort of horrid multiclass between class A, B and C. But I think I should reduce the skill requirements by one point. That way you can get in a little earlier.

dagman
2008-06-24, 04:58 PM
what about like.... wild shape