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Hoseki
2006-03-18, 03:13 PM
Hydrophobe

Hydrophobes are people who loathe water so thoroughly they can channel their hatred into coherent abilities. This hatred has become their defining force, something which, if taken away, leaves an empty shell of a person, a theoretically complete person without a purpose. Often does this translate into a seemingly unreasonable hostility towards people, who, by no fault of their own, contain vast amounts of water.
Hit Die D8

Prerequisites
Race: No races with the aquatic subtype may become hydrophobes.
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Skills: May not have any ranks in Swim or Profession (sailor)
Special: Must have favored enemy Outsider (water)

Class Skills
The hydrophobe’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Disable Device (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Search (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Speak Language (N/A), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha), and Use Rope (Dex)
Skill Points Per Level: 6+ Intelligence modifier

Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1 +0 +0 +0 +2 Hater of its Allies
2 +1 +0 +0 +3 Detect Water
3 +2 +1 +1 +3 Arid Aura, Walk of the Dry
4 +3 +1 +1 +4 Banishment
5 +3 +1 +1 +4 Hater of its Allies
6 +4 +2 +2 +5 Rite of the Bloodless
7 +5 +2 +2 +5 Above It
8 +6 +2 +2 +6 Rite of Exorcism
9 +6 +3 +3 +6
10 +7 +3 +3 +7 Final Sacrifice

Hater of Its Allies: Beginning at first level, a hydrophobe is treated as a first level ranger with the Humanoid (aquatic) favored enemy. At fifth level he is treated as a fifth level ranger with favored enemies Humanoid (Aquatic) and Elemental (water only). Hydrophobes levels stack with ranger levels when determining Humanoid (aquatic), Elemental (water only), and Outsider (water) favored enemy bonuses.
Detect Water: This ability functions like a Detect Magic spell, only it detects water. People, except hydrophobes who have undergone the Rite of the Bloodless, show up, as do damp objects, underground bodies of water, and so on.
Arid Aura: At third level, a hydrophobe gains a dry aura around his person that repels water. No mundane water may penetrate it, and all creatures with a large percentage of water inside them take 2d6 points of damage per round in the aura. This effect is devastating for water elementals, which suffer 1d8 per hydrophobe level damage per round inside the aura and have a cumulative 10% chance per round of being flung out of the aura. A hydrophobe’s Arid Aura has a five-foot radius per three hydrophobe levels. A hydrophobe’s Arid Aura is a sphere around the hydrophobe’s body and contains a limitless supply of air. So, in theory, a hydrophobe could climb onto the sea floor and survive, if not happily. Hydrophobes are immune to their own Auras. The creatures affected are: Animals, Dragons, Fey, Humanoids, Magical Beasts, Monsterous Humanoids, Oozes, Outsiders, Plants, and Vermin.
Walk of the Dry: If he so chooses, a hydrophobe may, instead of simply ignoring the water below him, use it to lift himself up. This istreared like a constant Water Walk effect that actually levitates him above the water. The hydrophobe need not concenterate to maintain this effect and how far he is above the water is equal to the radius of his Arid Aura.
Banishment: At fourth level, a hydrophobe can turn and destroy water creatures as a good cleric of his hydrophobe level turns undead. This ability stacks with cleric levels.
Rite of the Bloodless: At sixth level, hydrophobes begin rituals that slowly drain all the blood from their bodies. They no longer need to drink water, are immune to effects that require them to have blood and/or body moisture (such as the Constitution damage from wounding weapons, the spell Horrid Wilting, or the damage from being within another hydrophobe’s Arid Aura). If a hydrophobe who has undergone the Rite of the Bloodless loses more than half of his HP and then gets wounded in melee combat, the hydrophobe’s attacker has a 5% chance of suffering the effects of the Horrid Wilting spell. As their metabolism no longer works the way everyone else's does, the hydrophobe becomes immune to poison and disease.
Above it: At seventh level, a hydrophobe can create a hard disc twice his hydrphobe level in diameter that hovers five feet above any water beneath it. It cannot move more than ten feet away from the hydrophobe who created it and holds up to 3000 pounds of material. The hydrophobe must concentrate to maintain the disc.
Rite of Exorcism: Everything is made up of the four classic elements: earth, air, fire, and water. At eighth level, hydrophobes exorcise the water from themselves. This means that on humid days, hydrophobes take one point of nonleathal damage per half hour, and one point of nonleathal damage per round in the rain. In deserts, however, they heal at twice the usual rate.
Final Sacrifice: UNDER CONSTRUCTION


Like it? Loathe it? Can't seem to remember what Discworld has to do with it? Tell me if it is sucky or wonderful, under- or over-powered!

endoperez
2006-03-18, 03:39 PM
On Arid Aura, list that all Humanoids, Monstrous Humanoids, Animals... etc appopriate creature types are subject to the Arid Aura. I was'nt sure if being a human was enough.
Hydrophobe should also be immune to his own aura from the point he gets it. ;)

Rite of the Bloodless is 6th, not second level.

I don't know about balance or rules view, but it sounds pretty Pratchett. No serious character will take it, IMO, but it would make for a wonderful NPC.

Gralamin
2006-03-18, 03:39 PM
I'd have to go with over powered SR 30 at character level 15 means that a level 15 wizard using a spell on it has a 75% chance of failure. at level 20 the same wizard has a 50% chance of failure.

The way the Monster manual determines SR is 11+CR = SR so I'd go with SR 26, with which the wizard would have a 55% chance to fail agasint.

other then that looks good to me

Hoseki
2006-03-18, 03:44 PM
Done and done. This is my first PrC, so I have no clue what's balanced.

Dragonmuncher
2006-03-18, 03:58 PM
It's cool, I like it.

Only thing is you left out the biggest flavor ability from the books! Some sort of water walking ability, that eventually becomes able to levitate others over water, too.

I'm not explaining it that well, but if you've read the books, you know what I mean.

Gralamin
2006-03-18, 03:59 PM
it's pretty good for your first PrC. also get rid of 5+int modifer for skill points, its either 2, 4, 6 or 8 + int modifer.

edit:
It's cool, I like it.

Only thing is you left out the biggest flavor ability from the books! Some sort of water walking ability, that eventually becomes able to levitate others over water, too.

I'm not explaining it that well, but if you've read the books, you know what I mean.
oh you mean how they make that big water disc in color of magic (or was it the light fantastic?).
that ability is kinda important, maybe at level 4 treat them as if they always had waterwalking on, and give them an ability where a group of them can create a levitating water disc that has a fly speed of 60 and can hold 9 people I think. (I'll look it up)

edit 2: its a disc 20 feet across, and you can squeeze many hydrophobes and 2 passengers on it. knowing discworld I'd say 8 hydrophobes

TimeWizard
2006-03-18, 04:03 PM
As a rule, I never run specialty classes because I find them underpowered in normal instances, unless you run a theme specific game. To be fair, I don't know what Discworld is, and that may have something to do with my relatively poorly informed opinion.

The class itself seems interesting and unusual. Is this specifically a ranger PrC? because Favored Enemy is hard to come by, and if it is, why not just say "hater of it's allies" adds favored enemies like some caster Prc's add domains? It would seem easier that way, since I don't see non-rangers taking this class.

Arid Aura, I like the novelty, but it's going to royally annoy the Hydrophobe's allies, because humaniods are "creatures with a large percentage of water in them". As a matter of fact, any non-magical, non-desert life* has large quantites of water in it, and I find this overpowered, especially because it's range extends over several levels. Second is that is Non-magic water can't permeate the aura, so that the Rite of Exorcism drawback's don't really apply. Is a hydrophobe really bothered by the rain that will never come within ten feet of him?

Banishment should stack with Cleric levels, and seems pretty weak. You have to be level 6 to be a level 1 HP. so your automatically five under for turning HD, and it doesn't seem likely that a water elemental will be affected by this. On that note, Clerics of the water Domain should also be banned from the class, not that one would ever become a hydrophobe (but MAN that would be interesting). Noone who follows a god with a water domain should be allowed in by rite of association.

Final Sacrifice: No. really, just No. Spell resistance 30 and DR/10-? not a chance in all the nine hells. What qualifies a dry ranger to not be affected by fireball, the least watery spell in the book? And why DR/10-? Being void of water protects you from an Axe to the head?

If you wanted to make this somewhat passable, why not SR 10 for Water/ice magic? next we could add Immunity to Fear from favored water enemies? I'll spot you immunity to poison, and disease, as your character no longer has the proper anatomy for it.

*I know many desert plants and animals have special methods of stockpiling water in them, but DnD has it's fair share of seemingly waterless beings.

Edit: Spelling
Edit: Grammar
Edit: I need to proofread better

Illsbane
2006-03-18, 04:14 PM
Something you don't seem to have included: the Hydrophobes are all spellcasters that have been groomed for the task of a Hydrophobe since birth. I'd add some spellcasting ability in there.

Hoseki
2006-03-18, 04:23 PM
Spellcasting: I was going to do that, but it seemed to make the class overpowered.

Arid Aura and Rite of Exorcism: It's the PROXIMITY that gets to them, is my excuse.

Banishment and Cleric levels: Roger Roger. Didn't occur to me.

Ranger PrC?: It was at first going to be that you got all the bonuses from your hydrophobe levels, but flat BAB and minor race and skill restictions seemed like not quite enough.

Water walk: Roger Roger. Adding it in.

Jarl
2006-03-18, 05:54 PM
Actually, the Hyrdophobe's don't make the disc automatically, it's the spell Fresnel's Wonderful Disc (or something like that).

-Aside from that, it seems good. Play up the paranoia angle, though. That's a major facet of them. That and there's like 5 of them moving the disc in the book, but maybe they were just lower leveled.

X15lm204
2006-03-18, 10:05 PM
Disclaimer: All criticism is meant to be construtive.

Can Hydrophobes deactivate their Arid Auras? If not, they wouldn't even be able to get close to each other unless they were all level 6 or higher. Also on that point, they still need to drink water for three more levels when they first get the ability, so any Hydrophobe that couldn't level up three more times before dying of dehydration would be killed off by their own class feature. Considering that this is based off of a work of Terry Pratchett, however, I would not be suprised if this were the case.

The class seems hideously overpowered, and is not exactly PC-friendly, but is a great and valient effort for a first PrC. Could you tell me waht book(s) this is from? I'm new to the Discworld, having read only Monstrous Regiment, Men at Arms, and Interesting Times (loved them all), and am looking for another to pick up.

PS: Someone needs to make a "Wizzard" PrC.

Dragonmuncher
2006-03-18, 10:48 PM
The class seems hideously overpowered, and is not exactly PC-friendly, but is a great and valient effort for a first PrC. Could you tell me waht book(s) this is from? I'm new to the Discworld, having read only Monstrous Regiment, Men at Arms, and Interesting Times (loved them all), and am looking for another to pick up.


I wouldn't say HIDEOUSLY overpowered. The capstone ability seems a little odd, but the only major ability is that Arid Aura. Now, it's a powerful ability, and maybe be weakened slightly (or scaled by level?), but I wouldn't say it's hideous.

As for Discworld, the books you read are some of Terry Pratchet's more "literary" books. I don't know if he's just gotten much better as a writer in the past few years, or if he was always this good and is only allowing it to shine, now.

There are many, many Discworld books. The hydrophobe is one of those things from the early Discworld books (Either "The Colour of Magic" or "The Light Fantastic," I forget) that, while extremely silly, still function perfectly well in Discworld. Early books are filled with stuff like the world being flat, round, and carried on the backs of elephants, dragons attacking, and the like. The newer books, while they still have elements of fantasy, are more... "real."

As in, there are still vampires and trolls and the like, but now they are required to be hired by the local police force because of Affirmative Action.

There's usually a list of the discworld books in front of every discworld book. I suggest just starting at the beginning. It's not really neccessary- every book is self contained- but Pratchet constantly has little asides and references to previous books.

Seffbasilisk
2006-03-19, 12:02 AM
Seems cool, but i'd switch the immunity to poisons to the rite of the bloodless level. Seeing as they don't have blood it's alot harder to get the poison around, and with all the moisture pushed out of a poison...only inhaled would really do anything...

Single Shot Zombie
2006-03-19, 03:37 AM
PS: Someone needs to make a "Wizzard" PrC.

Heh, imagine the number of Rincewinds gallumphing around once that comes out. I think it would be better for that to be a base class, though.

Wonder if anyone's up to it? I don't read enough Discworld to be confident of doing a class based off it.

Jarl
2006-03-19, 03:46 AM
My fire mage/"Magic Enthusiast" pretty much fits the bill.
Actually, he's a bit between Wizzard and Bard.

-Well, what would a wizzard need? Enhanced run stats, insane AC (Rincewind's only ever been wounded on his back) and enough langauges to... to... be hyperbolic in some way. Can't think of a proper metaphor.

Rei_Jin
2006-03-19, 04:51 AM
Well, the Wizzzard has been built, look for him in this Message Board, and throw down some feedback!

Hoseki
2006-03-19, 12:23 PM
So any help with Final Sacrifice? No one seems to like it.

Rei_Jin
2006-03-19, 12:33 PM
I'm not entirely sure how to go with this class, to be honest. There's a spell in the Spell Compendium called Improved Floating Disk that probably does the water disk thing. The water walk ability is just a spell useable at will, etc.

I think a good way to go about it would be to build it as a variant type of spell caster. In the Colour of Magic, they state that they need to get a Hydrophobe young and train them on dehydrated water.

Maybe make it spell-casting class with similar spell casting ability to a druid, a limited range of spells but he can change them in and out (like the druid, including the weather based ones, but make them arcane) and several spell-like abilities useable at will?

I'm sorry, but I just think that the PrC as it stands crosses too many areas to be really feasible as a player class.

Tilian
2006-03-19, 04:15 PM
Asherati would just love this PrC. ;)

John_D
2006-03-19, 08:57 PM
Can Hydrophobes deactivate their Arid Auras? If not, they wouldn't even be able to get close to each other unless they were all level 6 or higher. Also on that point, they still need to drink water for three more levels when they first get the ability, so any Hydrophobe that couldn't level up three more times before dying of dehydration would be killed off by their own class feature. Considering that this is based off of a work of Terry Pratchett, however, I would not be suprised if this were the case.

If I remember correctly, hydrophobes are raised on dehydrated water (a rare state of water only found in the Disc's high-magic field) from birth. This could be an interesting balancing point for the class: once someone has taken the class they need to spend time and resources dehydrating water (through magic) simply so they can live.

edit: Ack, Rei got there first. Oh well.