[D&D 3.5 PrC Redux] UUUUUURRRRRRRRRPPPPPPP!

[wadledo]

The Drunken Master

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/cw_ag/75406.jpg

HD: d8

Requirements
Skills: Tumble 8 ranks, Sense Motive 6.
Feats: Dodge, Great Fortitude, Improved Unarmed Strike (or the Swordsages’s unarmed strike ability).
Maneuvers: Ability to use a 2nd level Desert Wind or Setting Sun maneuver including at least one stance.
Special: Quick to Act +2 ability; Wisdom to AC; must be chosen by existing drunken masters and survive a night of revelry among them without being incarcerated, poisoned, or extraordinarily embarrassed; must not have immunity to poisons.

Class Skills (6+Int modifier per level): Bluff, Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Escape Artist, Heal, Hide, Intimidation, Jump, Know: History, Know: Local, Know: Nobility and Royalty, Listen, Martial Lore, Move Silently, Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Swim, Tumble.

{table="head"]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1st|+0|+2|+2|+0|Drink Like a Demon, Improvised Weapons, Swordsage Abilities
2nd|+1|+3|+3|+0|Stagger, Improved Feint, Broken Hand Boxing I
3rd|+2|+3|+3|+1|Swaying Waist of Time Stance
4th|+3|+4|+4|+1|AC bonus +1, Improved Improvised Weapons
5th|+3|+4|+4|+1|Greater Improvised Weapons, Evasion
6th|+4|+5|+5|+2|Broken Hand Boxing II, There Is No Tomorrow
7th|+5|+5|+5|+2|Improved Grapple
8th|+6|+6|+6|+2|The Demon is Drunk, Broken Hand Boxing III
9th|+6|+6|+6|+3|AC bonus +2, Corkscrew Rush, Superior Improvised Weapons
10th|+7|+7|+7|+3|In One End And Out Both, Broken Hand Boxing IV[/table]

{table="head"]Level|Man. Known|Man. Readied|Stances Known
1st|1|0|0
2nd|0|0|0
3rd|0|1|1
4th|1|0|0
5th|0|0|0
6th|0|1|0
7th|1|0|0
8th|0|0|1
9th|0|1|0
10th|1|0|0[/table]

Maneuvers: At levels 1, 4, 7 and 10 the Drunken Master gains new maneuvers known from the Desert Wind and Setting Sun chosen at first level. If these discipline's main skills are not class skills for you, they becomes one. You must meet a maneuver's prerequisite to learn it. You add your full Drunken Master levels to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest-level maneuvers known.
At 3rd, 6th and 9th levels, you gain additional maneuvers readied per day.

Stances Known: At 3rd level and again at 8th level, you learn a new martial stance from the Desert Wind or Setting Sun disciplines. You must meet the stances prerequisites to learn it.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Drunken masters gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Drink Like a Demon (Ex): A drunken master’s body handles alcohol differently from other people’s. He can drink a large tankard of ale, a bottle of wine, or a corresponding amount of stronger alcohol as a move action. Every bottle or tankard of alcohol he consumes during combat reduces his Wisdom by 1 point, and Intelligence by 2 points, but increases his Strength or Constitution (character’s choice) by 2 points, and his Dexterity by 1. A drunken master may benefit from a number of drinks equal to his class level. The duration of both the penalty and the bonus is a number of rounds equal to the character’s drunken master level + 3.

Improvised Weapons (Ex): Same as Improvised Weapon found in CW pg 28.

Swordsage Abilities: A Drunken Master adds his class level to his Swordsage level to determine his Quick to Act bonus and his unarmed damage.

Stagger (Ex): Same as Stagger found in CW pg 28.

Improved Feint (Ex): A drunken master who attains 2th level gains Improved Feint as a bonus feat even if he does not meet the prerequisites.

Broken Hand Boxing (Ex): Through the constant soaking of his body in alcohol, a Drunken Master may do things with his hands that make lesser martial-artists cringe. At 2nd level, a Drunken Master treats his unarmed and Improvised Weapon attacks as though they were magic for purposes of overcoming damage reduction. At 6th level the Drunken Master may add the number of drinks drunk to his unarmed and Improvised Weapon attack and damage. At 8th level, the Drunken Master may add his Wisdom modifier to his unarmed and Improvised Weapon attack and damage. At 10th level, his unarmed attacks and Improvised Weapons are treated as adamantine weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction and bypassing hardness.

Swaying Waist of Time Stance (Su): At 3rd level, a drunken master knows how to weave and bob during an attack, making him more difficult to hit and hit more often himself. By entering this stance as a swift action, but only while you have consumed at least one drink using Drink Like a Demon, and its effects last only as long as Drink Like a Demon is in effect, though you may exit this stance at any time before that. This counts as a Setting Sun Stance for any abilities and feats you may have.
In this stance, you gain a dodge bonus equal to the number of drinks you have imbued with the class Drink Like a Demon ability. In addition, you may make additional attacks by burning off your alcohol supply, adding one attack per drink lost prematurely, thereby reducing the dodge bonus you get from this stance, as well as shortening your time in it. These extra attacks can be added to any full action or standard action attack.

AC Bonus (Ex): Same as AC Bonus found in CW pg 28.

Improved Improvised Weapons (Ex): Same as Improved Improvised Weapons found in CW pg 28.

Greater Improvised Weapons (Ex): Same as Greater Improvised Weapons found in CW pg 28.

Evasion (Ex):At 5th level or higher if a Drunken Master makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a Drunken Master is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless Drunken Master does not gain the benefit of evasion.

There Is No Tomorrow (Ex): At 6th level, the Drunken Master no longer looks forward or back, only to the now. None of the Drunken Master's ability scores may be reduced below 3 by poison, alcohol or his own use of Drink Like A Demon ability. His stats may still be reduced by spells, spell-like abilities, and other magical means.

Improved Grapple (Ex): A Drunken Master who attains 7th level gains Improved Grapple as a bonus feat even if he does not meet the prerequisites.

The Demon is Drunk (Ex): At 8th level, a Drunken Master may drink and gain the benefits of Drink Like a Demon as a swift action, though he still has only one swift action per round. The Drunken Master may still drink as a move action, and that also counts as a drink for Drink Like a Demon(meaning the Drunken Master may drink a total of three drinks a round).

Corkscrew Rush (Ex): Same as Corkscrew Rush found in CW pg 28.

Superior Improvised Weapons (Ex): Same as Superior Improvised Weapons found in CW pg 29.

In One End And Out Both (Su): By using up all the alcohol in his body in one final catastrophic meltdown, the Drunken Master may destroy everything in a large area, breaking the foundations of the earth under him. As a full round action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity, the Drunken Master may let loose a mighty shout, bringing forth fire and sound in a 40' radius around him, doing 2d6 damage for every drinks worth of alcohol in him, half the damage being fire damage and half being sonic damage. Everyone in the area of effect can make a Ref save (10+Drunken Masters Class level+ Drunken Masters Con modifier) for half damage. This also leaves the Drunken Master feeling refreshed and minty, acting as a Neutralize Poison and Cure Moderate Wounds spell at the Drunken Masters Initiator level as Caster level. This is treated as a Desert Wind strike.

[Proven_Paradox]

Not a bad update. I have a few suggestions balance wise. First though, a complement: I like the idea of powering class features with the drunkenness meter you've got going here. Very flavorful, very effective.

I don't think this class should add to Quick to Act and Discipline Focus for swordsages. Taking a PrC should involve losing class features of the base class. You already get that by having an inferior maneuver progression, but I see no reason for other class features to continue progressing too. I think that's too much.

Also, is there a reason to allow "and or one other discipline, chosen at first level" in the maneuvers list? Why not just let this focus on desert wind/setting sun only? A major restriction with most ToB PrCs is that they have much more limited access to the nine schools (Mot9 excluded of course).

Swaying Waist of Time Stance; a nitpick-y correction and a sanity check. First, you mention reducing the "dodge, attack and damage bonus you get from this stance." This stance does not provide an attack and damage bonus though, and I suspect that's left over from an earlier version of the ability. Next... As written, you could use this to get ten extra attacks in one round. Problematic I think. I would recommend limiting the extra attack to one, maaaaybe two a round.

Broken Hand Boxing. That is a bit too powerful I think, especially when combined with The Demon is Drunk. I would suggest removing the wisdom bonus from that, at which point it'll be fine. I would also suggest making it another stance like Swaying Waist of Time, so you have to choose between an offensive or defensive style, but not both.

An Waht Are YOU Lookin' At Strike. Going overboard here pretty badly. A sunder attempt against ALL protective effects? The logistics of the attack are truly staggering. I think this should be eliminated all together personally, and I'm not sure off the top of my head how I would salvage it--possibly just make it a strike that deals extra damage based on how many drinks you've got going at the moment.

The Demon is Drunk. Any reason this is a free action once per round instead of a swift action? The latter makes more sense to me and is considerably more eloquent I think. It also forces the player of this class to make a choice on what to use his/her swift actions on, which is a good balancing step.


Overall though, it's pretty cool. I might introduce a certain drunkard to my own players sometime with this.

[wadledo]

Not a bad update. I have a few suggestions balance wise. First though, a complement: I like the idea of powering class features with the drunkenness meter you've got going here. Very flavorful, very effective.First off, thank you, and the horribleness balance wise is my attempt at getting some feedback from people who would otherwise say "meh, looks good."

Doesn't seem to be working so well.:smalltongue:


I don't think this class should add to Quick to Act and Discipline Focus for swordsages. Taking a PrC should involve losing class features of the base class. You already get that by having an inferior maneuver progression, but I see no reason for other class features to continue progressing too. I think that's too much. Fair enough.
I was balancing it against the fact that ALL other monk PrC's increase quite a few monk abilities, and since this doesn't use any monk levels, I thought increasing the standard Swordsage abilities.
I'll drop the Discipline Focus, though I'll keep the Quick to Act, seeing how it's so minor.


Also, is there a reason to allow "and or one other discipline, chosen at first level" in the maneuvers list? Why not just let this focus on desert wind/setting sun only? A major restriction with most ToB PrCs is that they have much more limited access to the nine schools (Mot9 excluded of course).Yes, that was a copy paste thing, though I do like giving a certain amount of leeway.


Swaying Waist of Time Stance; a nitpick-y correction and a sanity check. First, you mention reducing the "dodge, attack and damage bonus you get from this stance." This stance does not provide an attack and damage bonus though, and I suspect that's left over from an earlier version of the ability. Next... As written, you could use this to get ten extra attacks in one round. Problematic I think. I would recommend limiting the extra attack to one, maaaaybe two a round. Yes, but each attack would do less damage, and at 16th level, doing 13 attacks in a round with progressively less damage and to hit(because of the loss of strength), which then take 3 full rounds and one part of a 4th to renew(2 move actions and one free action per round for three rounds) is somewhat less impressive.


Broken Hand Boxing. That is a bit too powerful I think, especially when combined with The Demon is Drunk. I would suggest removing the wisdom bonus from that, at which point it'll be fine. I would also suggest making it another stance like Swaying Waist of Time, so you have to choose between an offensive or defensive style, but not both. Shiba Protector gets this as a first level ability, most levely at 6th level. I should probably switch it to just with unarmed attacks and Improvised Weapons.....
Maybe I should just make it "your attacks are treated as magical weapons, and you may add the number of drinks to your the to hit and damage from your unarmed and Improvised weapon attacks," and then add wisdom at the next level?
Or perhaps adding it in increments, Like Broken Hand Boxing Style 1 (attacks treated as Magic), Broken Hand Boxing Style 2 (add drunkenness to damage and hit), etc.:smallconfused:


An Waht Are YOU Lookin' At Strike. Going overboard here pretty badly. A sunder attempt against ALL protective effects? The logistics of the attack are truly staggering. I think this should be eliminated all together personally, and I'm not sure off the top of my head how I would salvage it--possibly just make it a strike that deals extra damage based on how many drinks you've got going at the moment.Yea, I was wondering if anyone would comment on that.:smallbiggrin:


The Demon is Drunk. Any reason this is a free action once per round instead of a swift action? The latter makes more sense to me and is considerably more eloquent I think. It also forces the player of this class to make a choice on what to use his/her swift actions on, which is a good balancing step.
Fair enough.


Overall though, it's pretty cool. I might introduce a certain drunkard to my own players sometime with this.Nice, tell me how it turns out for them.:smallwink:

[wadledo]

Bumpity.

And etc.

[Teln]

Since Drinks Like a Demon is linked to so much else, you might want to throw in an INT requirement of at least 8 to give it something to work with. If you don't, a Drunken Master that used INT as a dump stat might easily drink so much that he winds up with an INT of 2 or lower--which means, he's so dumb that he forgets his own native language.

EDIT: grammar

[Cieyrin]

Swaying Waist of Time mentions duration decreasing with drinks burned, which isn't the case, as the number of drinks does not determine the duration, the class level does.

Also, I kinda worry about one of these appearing and throwing the bouncer of the tavern (plus the entire back wall) out into the back alley. Good thing or not, you decide! =p

[Pramxnim]

As it is worded right now, the duration for each drink imbibed with Drink like a Demon is treated separately, which can make for some funky bookkeeping (then again, the typical swordsage won't have 20 int to burn off that often, so...). Still, you might want to say that the duration is reset every time you imbibe a new bottle of wine, just to cut down on the amount of things you have to keep track with.

In one end and out both (Su): While this ability might seem powerful at first glance, its save DC is actually quite weak if you use it at full strength (you suffer a -5 penalty for the -10 Wisdom). You might want to increase the DC of this ability to 12 + 1/2 HD + Wis or something similar. Or maybe 10 + 1/2 HD + Con?
Why 1/2 HD instead of class level? The former is actually less advantageous, since you only get a base DC of 20 at 20th level, whereas the latter ensures you get a base DC of 20 before stat modifiers when you first get the ability (which is at 15th level).

I think you meant to say Cure Moderate Wounds, using the Drunken Master's Initiator level as Caster level.

Strikes can be full-round actions too, you know :P

[wadledo]

Since Drinks Like a Demon is linked to so much else, you might want to throw in an INT requirement of at least 8 to give it something to work with. If you don't, a Drunken Master that used INT as a dump stat might easily drink so much that he winds up with an INT of 2 or lower--which means, he's so dumb that he forgets his own native language.That I believe was a part of my original original idea for the class, but I kept it out of this version because it was to complicated (immunity to ability damage and reduction equal to number of drinks or class levels).
I'll make a note that at (3rd?) they can no longer be reduced below 3 for Int and Wis due to poisons and alcohol, but all other effects are fair game (they've got a good fort save, so I don't feel the need to give it immunity to poisons, because there's always something stronger out there).


Swaying Waist of Time mentions duration decreasing with drinks burned, which isn't the case, as the number of drinks does not determine the duration, the class level does.You're technically reducing your time in the stance, because you're reducing the number of drinks they have drunk.


As it is worded right now, the duration for each drink imbibed with Drink like a Demon is treated separately, which can make for some funky bookkeeping (then again, the typical swordsage won't have 20 int to burn off that often, so...). Still, you might want to say that the duration is reset every time you imbibe a new bottle of wine, just to cut down on the amount of things you have to keep track with.I try to keep it as close to original as possible, so.... yea.
Stinky head.:smalltongue:


In one end and out both (Su): While this ability might seem powerful at first glance, its save DC is actually quite weak if you use it at full strength (you suffer a -5 penalty for the -10 Wisdom). You might want to increase the DC of this ability to 12 + 1/2 HD + Wis or something similar. Or maybe 10 + 1/2 HD + Con?
Why 1/2 HD instead of class level? The former is actually less advantageous, since you only get a base DC of 20 at 20th level, whereas the latter ensures you get a base DC of 20 before stat modifiers when you first get the ability (which is at 15th level).Con makes more sense, yes, thank you.
As to HD instead of class level, if this was available over the course of the class, then I would go with Class.
Since you only get it at 10th, then I'd rather it get better and better over the end of the character's career, instead of just saying "The DC is 20+Con forever"


I think you meant to say Cure Moderate Wounds, using the Drunken Master's Initiator level as Caster level.I suppose I should probably add caster level to that, shouldn't I?


Strikes can be full-round actions too, you know :PBah, I don't have time to make sense.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

Con makes more sense, yes, thank you.
As to HD instead of class level, if this was available over the course of the class, then I would go with Class.
Since you only get it at 10th, then I'd rather it get better and better over the end of the character's career, instead of just saying "The DC is 20+Con forever"


Problem is, 10+PrC level is the standard formula. And is, in fact, better than what you've written. At the 10+1/2 HD, a 20th level character has a base save DC of 20...the Drunken Master would gain this at 15th level.

As for it improving...well, at Epic levels, all DCs related to progressive DC class abilities (which the capstone would count as) rise by 1 point per 2 levels automatically. So it compensates for what you want to accomplish through the basic rules. :smallbiggrin:

[wadledo]

As for it improving...well, at Epic levels, all DCs related to progressive DC class abilities (which the capstone would count as) rise by 1 point per 2 levels automatically. So it compensates for what you want to accomplish through the basic rules. :smallbiggrin:

Damn you epic rules!
DAMN YOU!!!!

And Epic is not basic.:smallamused: