The Constable, Help please

[McBish]

This is my first artempt at making a new class. I started out ok (I think) but am now tired and out of Ideas for class fetures. I am making a sort of mix between ranger (urban) and rouge. So here is what I have and am looking for some help. I'll try to fill in some more later but right now I should be doing some chemistry.

The Constable

The Constable is a law man who works in a city to help protect the people. They often patrol the streets to prevent crimes but also act as detectives in certain cases. In large cities there may be many constables working certain precincts while in smaller communities there might just be one or two constables. Constables learn many skills from their time working on the streets. They learn how to find out information from people on the streets and learn how to track people through the city.

Adventuring: An adventuring constable is rare, because they tend to stay in one place to protect it, but not unheard of. Some reasons a Constable might go adventuring are to hunt for a certain criminal that has eluded them, or they might be people who were once employed by a city but don’t work for them anymore but continue building their crime fighting skills.

Classes: Constables get along well with paladins. They share a lot of skills with both the ranger and Rouge. Bards can often help constables learn information, and fighters and barbarians often help back them up in a fight. And who doesn’t appreciate the help of some magic either arcane or divine. The only class the Constable doesn’t really understand is the Druid.

Ability scores: Str. and Int. are key for a constable for their skills and fighting ability. Chr can be helpful in finding out information.

Class Skills: Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Use Rope (Dex), Disguise (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Knowledge (local) (Int), Listen (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Bluff (Cha), Knowledge (law), Open Lock (Dex).

BAB Full (as fighter)

Hit Die d8

Saves: Fort and Ref Good will bad.

Alignment: Any

Skill points at 1st level: (6 + Int modifier) ×4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier.

Weapon proficiency:
A Constable is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, medium, and light) and shields
Class Features:
Urban Tracker, at 1st level a Constable can find or trail a person using a Gather Information check each hour. (There are more details about this in the Eberon handbook which I unfortunately don’t have.)
Shadow, at 1st level a Constable gets +2 on hide and spot checks.
Home Town Advantage: After working in a city for awhile a Constable gains knows who to talk to. He has informants and the such. At 1st level he picks his home town and gets +2 for Gather Information, Knowledege (Local) while in this town. He can change his home town after spending 3 months working in a new city.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 2nd level, a Constable retains his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if he is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, he still loses his Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. If a constable already has uncanny dodge from a different class, he automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead.
Superior Disarming: at 3rd level a Constable is alwys cosidered armed when trying to disarm a foe and gets +4 to all disarm checks.
Recoginize imposter: at 5th level a Constable becomes used to seeing disguises and hearing lies. He gets a +4 bonus on sense motive vs. bluff and +4 bonus to spot vs. disguise.
No Subdual penalty: At 6th level a Constable can use regular weapons to do non-lethal damage without a penalty.
Discern Lies (sp): At 7th level a Constable can cast Discern Lies once per day. The save is Int based.
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): A Constable of 8th level or higher can no longer be flanked. This defense denies a rogue the ability to sneak attack the character by flanking her, unless the attacker has at least four more levels than the target does. If a character already has uncanny dodge from a second class, the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead, and the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank the character.
Evasion: at 9th level a Constable gains the benefits of Evasion.
Search for Clues: at 10th level a Constable who passes within 5ft of a clue of a crime is entailed to a search check. The Constable must know a crime was committed and the clue can’t be older then a week.

[Raum]

Have you finished fleshing it out? I don't see anything about saves. As is, it's a weak ranger. In fact, a ranger should be able to do everything you have listed and have a few additional abilities. If he was willing to burn a feat, the ranger could even use heavy armor.

[Chunklets]

Looks interesting. Are you envisioning the Constable as a prestige class or a core class?

You might want to give the Constable the "do non-lethal damage without penalty" feat for free at some point during its level progression, and possibly also the "Streetwise" feat.

I look forward to further updates!!

[McBish]

I am building it as a 20 level class that combines some ranger stuff with some rouge stuff and some old 3.0 prestige classes like Watch Detective and Vigilante.
I am slowly updaditing it and am looking for any suggestions.

[Abd al-Azrad]

What I've found to be true is that you want core classes to be somewhat generalized, while prestige classes/feats/equipment selections are what make your character specialized. As such, your lawman here shouldn't be too focused on one particular thing.

The home town advantage is good for NPCs, but typically PCs move around an awful lot, somewhat negating this advantage.

Recall that there are already justicators, vigilantes, and bloodhounds as PrCs, all of which seem to focus heavily on the sort of Constabulary stuff you're working with here. Check them out from the various Complete books (Warrior and Adventurer) if you want any ideas, but try not to do too much that they can already do better with your class.

[McBish]

I see your point Abd al-Azrad, but I have seen those and wasn't a big fan. They don't fit in with my idea of a beat cop or detective. Maybe I will change it to a PrC.

Edit: on second thought I might as well finish it and see how it looks. Here is it up to level 10 and now I am going to go eat. Please any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Don Beegles]

Is this a PrC or a core class? It seems like you want a coreclass, and there are no prereqs, but you don't have any abilities after 10th, which make it hard to tell what you're trying to do.

[McBish]

It is a unfinished core class. I am up to level 10 at the moment, more will be filled in when I get some more ideas. Or when people give me some good ideas. (Why do I always want to capitilize ideas?)

[pocketwatch]

That would make for killer NPCs. PCs would have to really love city adventures, but with a decent city it would work.

[The_Logic_Ninja]

Frankly, I don't think it ought to be a core class because... well... it's too specific. "City Constablee"? Classes are far more broad--i.e. "wizard", "ranger", "rogue". Prestige Classes get specific--"Red Wizard" or "Mage of the Arcane Order"; "Shadow Thief of Amn" or "Thief-Acrobat"...

I see it as a prestige class.

What you *might* want to do is take the idea of Racial Substitution Levels, and adapt it into, let's call it... Profession Substitution Levels. Make some for Warriors (NPC class), fighters, rangers, and rogues--i.e. fighters can take a Constable profession substitution level instead of level 1 fighter, level 2 fighter, level 4 fighter, and level 8 fighter. At level 1 they get +2 Gather Info and get Gather Info as a class skill, instead of the fighter Bonus Feat; they still count as a level 1 fighter.
When they take level 2 of Fighter, they count as a level 2 fighter, but instead of their bonus feat, they get +2 Hide and Move Silently and get those as class skills.

At level 4, if he takes the third Constable Substitution Level, instead of the Figher Bonus Feat at 4th he gets the ability to always do subdual damage without penalty and to make disarm attempts unarmed. At level 8, instead of the Bonus Feat, give him Search for Clues.

Those four levels of Profession Substitution Class wouldn't be enough to fit everything in, no, but you could handle that via multiclassing--a fighter with the Constable Sub. Levels would be a burly guard-type, a rogue (who gets Uncanny Dodge, Evasion, etc) would be an investigator-type. A character or NPC could mix Fighter and Rogue, and get the Profession Substitution Levels for both.

A prestige class wouldwork--if there's too much stuff for a 10-level prestige class, consider a 15-level prestige class you can get into at 6th level, maybe? It really doesn't have the right feel for a core class, though. Too specific.

With that in mind, some ideas for higher levels: more uses of, or improvement of, lower-level abilities! Detect Lies 2/day, then 3/day, then 4/day! Improved Detect Lies, that gets a bonus on the DC or otherwise is harder to resist or more effective. Improved Shadow (bigger bonus), Improved Recognize Imposter, etc.

[Abd al-Azrad]

While I'm sure you have your own vision of the class, I would like to offer a few actual suggestions (rather than the critisizm I offered before :P ).
First, I don't really see why you gave the class heavy armor proficiency. With its skill list and focus on stealth, I imagine the class as being less an armored warrior and more one that uses intelligence and agility to take advantage of an opponent's weaknesses. Also, similarly, you gave them Uncanny Dodge, and Evasion, both of which are at least flavour-based on agility and mobility. This is more of a nitpick, but it's worth consideration.
Second, as I mentioned before, you don't want to be treading on others' toes with this class. Perhaps try to make up some unique abilities for this class based on tracking/subduing foes. I see a lot of trying to play off a foes' weaknesses. For instance, a really cool ability I saw in an Oriental Adventures PrC: Move with the Shadows: You use your enemies' lack of mobility in armor against them. In single combat, you gain a dodge bonus to AC equal to your foe's Armor Check Penalty.
Or perhaps you want the class to be better at quickly taking foes out of a battle. Give them an ability that boosts Initiative (perhaps +Int to initiative), and something like the Staredown abilities from the Samurai class (CW).
I strongly suggest beefing their Intimidate abilities. Spooking enemies out of a fight, combined with the benefits of using Intimidate to interrogate prisoners, are both critical for a lawman. The optimal outcome is to give the Constable the ability to use something like Greater Command a few times per day, at higher levels, or Suggestion, for these purposes.

Oh! I had another idea! One of the big things a person who constantly puts themselves in danger in a city needs, is to be able to quickly and accurately discern both (a) whether a foe will attack you if pushed, and (b) what sort of threat a foe poses. Give bonuses to the Sense Motive skill (and make it a class skill!) to Assess Opponent (see Complete Adventurer, page 102). Perhaps, for instance, give them the Combat Intuition feat for free, which gives a +4 bonus to this check, narrows down the categories available, and makes you able to size up a foe like this as a free action.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

This is looking really good - I blunderingly did similar in the old Boxed D&D rules, by letting Thief = Criminologist, and making "pick pocket" become "plant evidence"... Not good really. Yours is way better.

Here's an idea: maybe have the higher level Constable add their WIS bonus to Hide, Move Silently, Climb, Jump, Search - call it "Determined Pursuit".

I'd say you should let the character - at creation or 1st Constable level - pick between Tracking and Urban Tracking. That lets them exist in different locations. Similarly, "Home Town Advantage" could become "Home Turf Advantage", and thus apply to the Constable's home county / city. You'd need to pick a range for that - I'd say within one day's ride for the local terrain for city-types, and maybe three days' ride for the more country-side type.

I'll take a look tonight when I get home at the Bounty Hunter PrC from Star Wars d20. Might be some more help in there. I know they get a limited "favoured enemy" style ability for tracking their targeted bounty...

What do you think? Looking forward to this class, BTW. Mind if I steal it when it's done?

[McBish]

No go ahead and steal away. I think I will updated it into a 10n level prestige class, but probably not today maybe tommorow. Thanks for all the suggestions.