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View Full Version : [3.5] Sons and Daughters of Dis; The Iron Calamities



Xefas
2009-07-13, 09:36 AM
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Iron Calamity

Children of the Archduke of Dis, the Second Hell command great mastery of their sire's element. They often take to the path of martial perfection, as the idea of weapon, armor, and person as a single continuous being is not a foreign one to them. When there infernal blood awakens, however, they learn to take such training to a higher plateau, blurring the line between their swordsmanship and sorcery. They become one with metal, depriving the unworthy of it, and reveling in its supremacy over the flesh.

Most, if not all, Iron Calamities are Lawful Evil, as the influence of their sire's blood skews them in that direction. Some do fight their nature, which is not an entirely impossible task, leaving room for Iron Calamities of all alignments and personalities.

Requirements
Base Attack Bonus +4
Skills Balance 4 ranks, Knowledge (The Planes) 4 ranks
Maneuvers Must be able to use at least one 2nd level maneuver of the Iron Heart discipline
Invocations Must be able to use the Baleful Utterance and Devil's Sight invocations
Special Must have the Weapon Aptitude class feature

Hit Die d10
Skill Points 4 + intelligence modifier
Class Skills Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Disguise, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Local), Knowledge (The Planes), Knowledge (Religion), Martial Lore, Profession, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Swim, Tumble

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+1|
+2|
+0|
+2|Child of Iron

2nd|
+2|
+3|
+0|
+3|Corrupted Heart

3rd|
+3|
+3|
+1|
+3|Corroding Blast

4th|
+4|
+4|
+1|
+4|Stance of the Iron Tyrant

5th|
+5|
+4|
+1|
+4|Infernal Corrosion

6th|
+6/+1|
+5|
+2|
+5|Gift of Iron
[/table]

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies Iron Calamities gain proficiency with all light, medium, and heavy armor, as well as all shields (including Tower Shields).

Martial and Invoking Progression At every level except 5th, an Iron Calamity gains new Invocations known and increased Eldritch Blast damage, as well as new Maneuvers Known, Maneuvers Readied, and Stances Known as if he'd gained a level in an Invocation using class and a Martial Initiator class he'd belonged to before taking a level in this prestige class. At every level except 5th, he also adds 1 to his Initiator level and his Caster Level for the purposes of his invocations.

Child of Iron (Ex): Iron Calamities are at home in metal, and may sleep unhindered in their armor, so long as it is primarily composed of it. In addition, they take no penalty for using Warlock invocations in primarily metal armor, even if it is medium or heavy, and do not take the normal -4 penalty for using an improvised weapon made entirely of metal.

If an Iron Calamity uses their Weapon Aptitude class feature to switch the target of their feats to an exotic weapon they are not proficient with, but that is made entirely of metal, they gain proficiency with it until they switch their Aptitude again.

An Iron Calamity, and all of their equipment, is immune to rusting effects.

Finally, starting at 3rd level, whenever an Iron Calamity succeeds in rusting something with a magical rusting effect, they heal 1d6 hit points.

Corrupted Heart (Su): Whenever an Iron Calamity succeeds in dealing damage with an Iron Heart strike, they may also strike the target with their Eldritch Blast (dealing damage and applying any Eldritch Essence invocations attached to it).

Corroding Blast (Sp): An Iron Calamity gains a special Eldritch Essence invocation. When applied to their Eldritch Blast, anything struck by it is also effected as if by a Rusting Grasp spell. A creature wearing metal armor that is struck by the Corroding Blast automatically has their armor effected by it.

Stance of the Iron Tyrant (Su): As a swift action, when in an Iron Heart stance, an Iron Calamity can forgo the effects of that stance to enter the Stance of the Iron Tyrant. While in this stance, you are immune to damage from both mundane and magical iron and iron-based metals. In addition, you may move through such metals harmlessly (such as iron bars or walls).

Infernal Corrosion (Su): The Rusting Grasp effect of the Iron Calamity's Corroding Blast and Stance of the Iron Tyrant abilities can now effect magical items, though if the item is being worn or carried by a creature, that creature is allowed a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 the Iron Calamity's character level + the Iron Calamity's intelligence or charisma modifier, whichever is higher) to avoid the effect.

In addition, magical items that are rusted away have their essence consumed by the Iron Calamity. They gain 1 Iron Essence point for each 1gp of value the item had.

While an Iron Calamity has Iron Essence points, they may create new magic items, or imbue old ones with new properties, sacrificing 1 Iron Essence for each 1gp of Market Value in the magical item to be created. This process takes 1 day for each 5,000 points of Iron Essence expended in this way. The item to be created or altered must be made entirely of metal.

(Example: Xefas, the Iron Calamity, has rusted, in total, four +2 Longswords, a +1 Light Fortitude Breastplate, a Periapt of Wisdom +4, and the clasp off of a Spellbook that happened to have a single-use Disintegrate trap attached to it, set to activate when someone other than the caster attempted to open it. Total value: 56,910gp, and thus, 56,910 Iron Essence.

Xefas then decides to take 2 days off of his adventuring to have some alone time with his favorite +2 Falchion, sacrificing 10,000 Iron Essence to make it a +2 Keen Falchion, bringing him down to a total of 46,910 Iron Essence, which he'll probably use at some point later unless he forgets he has it or spills something on that part of his character sheet.)

Because sundering shouldn't suck so hard.

Gift of Iron (Su): The most powerful Iron Calamities can focus their power to transform nonmetal things into a more perfect form. This has a number of uses.

1) As a standard action, the Iron Calamity can turn a nonmetal suit of armor, weapon, or shield within 30 feet into metal. Light armor changed in this way is treated as Medium, and normal clothing is treated as Light, with their AC bonus increased by 2, their armor check penalty increased by 2, and their armor check penalty increased by 20%.

2) As a standard action, the Iron Calamity can attempt to brutally turn a creature's flesh within 30 feet to metal. The creature is allowed a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 the Iron Calamity's character level + the Iron Calamity's Intelligence or Charisma modifier, whichever is higher) to resist the effect. If they fail, they take 2 points of Dexterity and Constitution damage, and all of their speeds are decreased by 5. Multiple applications stack. These penalties cannot be healed until the metal is forcibly removed from the body in a process that requires 10 rounds per application of the penalties, and deals 50% of the creature's maximum health per application removed (half the time and damage with a successful DC 20 Heal check).

3) Vegetable matter, stone, and earth may be converted to metal at the cost of 100 Iron Essence per cubic foot of matter converted. Up to a 5x5x5 cube can be turned per standard action. Earth Elementals, Stone Golems, Treants, and similar animate creatures fully effected either gain Damage Reduction 5/Adamantine or their current Damage Reduction x/Adamantine or x/- is increased by 5.

4) Willing or helpless living creatures may be turned to metal with finesse and purpose, rather than with intent to harm, in a process that takes 1 day per 5,000 Iron Essence used. This costs 2,500 Iron Essence for a Tiny creature, 5,000 for a Small creature, 10,000 for a Medium creature, 20,000 for a Large creature, and so on. A creature so transformed loses their normal type and becomes a Construct with the Living Construct subtype. This gives them all the traits of a Construct with the exception of the traits listed below.

-A Living Construct has a Constitution score
-A Living Construct does not specifically gain Low-Light Vision or Darkvision
-A Living Construct does not have immunity to mind-affecting spells and abilities
-A Living Construct is subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, stunning, ability damage, ability drain, and death or necromancy effects
-A Living Construct can be effected by spells that target living creatures as well as those that target constructs. However, spells of the healing subschool only heal half their normal amount
-A Living Construct reduced to 0 hit points is disabled just like a living creation. When reduced to between -1 and -9 hit points, they are inert, but are automatically stabilized. They die as normal for living creatures when reduced to -10 or fewer hit points
-A Living Construct can be raised or resurrected

In addition, they permanently lose 2 points of dexterity and permanently gain 2 points of strength, as if they were born that way.

5) As a standard action, the Iron Calamity may repair an item or construct within 30 feet using up to 10 points of Iron Essence. Each point of Iron Essence heals 1 point of damage.

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-07-13, 11:34 AM
Awesome, awesome flavor. I might have to swipe this for my planar campaign; I think a character with this PrC and my own Ninefold Damnation discipline would be the perfect Dis emissary.

The only issue I have with it is all of the lower-level rusting abilities; you'd think a child of Dispater wouldn't want to harm iron, or would be healed by it, yet it doesn't get something like that until 4th level. Instead, I would add two things to Child of Iron--you heal 1d6 whenever you successfully use a rusting effect, and you are immune to rusting effects--and change Stance of the Iron Tyrant to basically be a permanent ironguard effect (making you immune to metal weaponry entirely) plus rusting.

Djinn_in_Tonic
2009-07-13, 11:38 AM
The only thing I can say is that the Stance of the Iron Tyrant should function like most PrC granted stances. That means including the following line...

"As a Swift action, when in an Iron Heart stance, an Iron Calamity can forgo the effects of that stance to enter the Stance of the Iron Tyrant."

Otherwise it's a little TO good. DR 10/non-metal and destroying weapons in addition to what I get from my stance? Sign me up!

Xefas
2009-07-13, 12:35 PM
The only thing I can say is that the Stance of the Iron Tyrant should function like most PrC granted stances. That means including the following line...

"As a Swift action, when in an Iron Heart stance, an Iron Calamity can forgo the effects of that stance to enter the Stance of the Iron Tyrant."

Otherwise it's a little TO good. DR 10/non-metal and destroying weapons in addition to what I get from my stance? Sign me up!

What if I changed it to what PairODice suggested (which I like) and had the ability just give you an ironguard effect, as the spell (pg 125 of the Spell Compendium, by the way), while in an Iron Heart stance? Would it need to still be a whole separate stance? (I could change the name, too, if calling it a stance is a problem).

Djinn_in_Tonic
2009-07-13, 01:27 PM
What if I changed it to what PairODice suggested (which I like) and had the ability just give you an ironguard effect, as the spell (pg 125 of the Spell Compendium, by the way), while in an Iron Heart stance? Would it need to still be a whole separate stance? (I could change the name, too, if calling it a stance is a problem).

I'm still hesitant. If fact, after looking up Ironguard, I'm going to outright say no. It's an ability achievable at 8th level (really? 8th? This is a strong enough class that I'd up that a bit...maybe have the minimum entry level at around 6th or 7th...), that, in addition to your normal stance benefits, makes you immune to damage from all metal weapons. That's a LOT of damage reduction there. Even the DR 10/- was a little over the top.

Add to that the fact that Lesser Ironguard (immunity to nonmagical metal) is a level 5 spell. Thus, a single casting of Lesser Ironguard is a level 9 ability...and that's for 1 round/level. A permenant Lesser Ironguard is stronger than that.

Greater Ironguard (immunity to metal) is a 7th level spell with a duration of 1 round/level. Which you're giving out as a stance...on top of the other benefits. At 8th level.

I'd say that, as a Stance (by itself), Lesser Ironguard is a good bet (with nothing else added on...just Lesser Ironguard). As a Capstone, Greater Ironguard for, say, 1 minute might be allowable (at level 10, that's still pretty damn good). Anything else is pushing it as far as I'm concerned.

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-07-13, 01:54 PM
I'd say that, as a Stance (by itself), Lesser Ironguard is a good bet (with nothing else added on...just Lesser Ironguard). As a Capstone, Greater Ironguard for, say, 1 minute might be allowable (at level 10, that's still pretty damn good). Anything else is pushing it as far as I'm concerned.

Quite honestly, I think greater ironguard as a stance (and I definitely agree it should be by itself; I didn't notice the departure from the usual wording) would be fine.

Greater ironguard is a bit overpriced level-wise, given that the lesser version is given out at level 9 when everyone is almost guaranteed a magic weapon and is therefore almost useless. Yes, you ignore damage from all metal weapons, but there are still plenty of wooden weapons, and the vast majority of heavy melee monsters use bites, claws, etc. rather than manufactured weapons at those levels. Contrast this to displacement and other miss chance effects, which give you a chance to ignore any weapons regardless of type and which the casters have been walking around with since level 5 or so, and it doesn't seem that bad at all.

One option, if you still feel that's too much, is to limit it to iron and iron-based metals--someone with an adamantine weapon or one made of another special metal would get through just fine.

Djinn_in_Tonic
2009-07-13, 01:56 PM
One option, if you still feel that's too much, is to limit it to iron and iron-based metals--someone with an adamantine weapon or one made of another special metal would get through just fine.

This I like. It's still really good at the right moment, but not nearly as incredibly powerful as it might be otherwise.

Xefas
2009-07-13, 01:56 PM
EDIT: Whoops, posted at the same time as the two posts above me. Gotta go back and read.

EDIT2: Honestly, I think PairODice is swaying me. For a PC, I would think a large portion of the enemies they face and must overcome are either monsters who don't use weapons, or spellcasters. For the melee enemies, if you're using this class, it means you're using the Tome of Battle, and so there's a good chance your antagonists should be using it as well, to put them on a fair playing field with the PCs. That means that, even deprived their weapon, they can still just bare-handed Emerald Razor Full-Power-Attack you, or bare-handed Pouncing Charge Searing Blade you, or bare-handed Divine Surge you.

Which makes Ironguard good, but not impossibly good. Still thinking it over, though.

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-07-13, 02:43 PM
Which makes Ironguard good, but not impossibly good. Still thinking it over, though.

Well, looking at the minimum entry point, the earliest level you can get the stance is 9th level; that's the same level of lesser ironguard, so if you go with my second suggestion you'd be trading out the "only works on nonmagical weapons" qualifier on lesser ironguard for "only works on iron and steel," which I'd say makes it a fair trade; you can get the buff cast on you at that point anyway, and enough people are starting to use adamantine, Baatorian steel, driftmetal, and such that it's not too overpowering.

Xefas
2009-07-18, 01:50 PM
Well, looking at the minimum entry point, the earliest level you can get the stance is 9th level; that's the same level of lesser ironguard, so if you go with my second suggestion you'd be trading out the "only works on nonmagical weapons" qualifier on lesser ironguard for "only works on iron and steel," which I'd say makes it a fair trade; you can get the buff cast on you at that point anyway, and enough people are starting to use adamantine, Baatorian steel, driftmetal, and such that it's not too overpowering.

Sorry it took so long, but I made the changes. Does it look okay now?

LunarWolfPrime
2009-07-31, 05:11 PM
WOW This is a mean class. Especially if you carry a wand of transmute metal to wood.

LunarWolfPrime
2009-10-12, 10:05 PM
BUMP :smallsmile: