The Spycaptain (Based on Nick Fury) a 3.5 Base Class

[Ziegander]

The Spycaptain
http://www.reelcomix.com/admin/admin_images/nick-fury.jpg
"Generals, listen up. I'm only going to say this once. You boys came to me. That means you want this thing done right, or you'd have just gotten some royal adviser kiss-ass to run a simulation and then sit back and watch the King's Men get cut to bits through your scrying sensors. I wanna be clear. Once I start work I don't need your opinions. I don't need your classified reports. If I ever need advice on how to fight my way up the King's ass without covering fire, that's when I'll come to you."

**My concerns are that it isn't as powerful as the Factotum, which I very loosely based it on, and that it is very static in that the player doesn't really have options. The Factotum had Arcane Dilettante to provide the player with a wide variety of daily options.

Another issue is that I'm sure critics will say that this is too powerful compared to the Rogue. Though I'm not even sure that's the case (No Sneak Attack, no Trap Sense, no special abilities) I don't actually care. I'd rather it be balanced against the Factotum, and currently I think it's a bit weaker than the Factotum.

PS: Oh, and I almost forgot, I'm looking for ideas on the Spycaptain Was Right ability.**

HD: d8

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

1st|
+0|
+2|
+2|
+2|Best Laid Plans, Trapfinding|
+0|
3

2nd|
+1|
+3|
+3|
+3|AC Bonus|
+0|
4

3rd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|Bonus Feat|
+0|
5

4th|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+4|Uncanny Dodge|
+1|
5

5th|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+4|Grant Move Action 1/enc|
+1|
6

6th|
+4|
+5|
+5|
+5|Bonus Feat|
+1|
6

7th|
+5|
+5|
+5|
+5|No Surprises|
+1|
7

8th|
+6/+1|
+6|
+6|
+6|The Rumors of My Death 1/week|
+2|
7

9th|
+6/+1|
+6|
+6|
+6|Bonus Feat|
+2|
8

10th|
+7/+2|
+7|
+7|
+7|Improved Uncanny Dodge|
+2|
8

11th|
+8/+3|
+7|
+7|
+7|Grant Move Action 2/enc|
+2|
9

12th|
+9/+4|
+8|
+8|
+8|Bonus Feat|
+3|
9

13th|
+9/+4|
+8|
+8|
+8|Master Plan|
+3|
10

14th|
+10/+5|
+9|
+9|
+9|No Accidents|
+3|
10

15th|
+11/+6/+1|
+9|
+9|
+9|Bonus Feat|
+3|
11

16th|
+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+10|
+10|Spycaptain Was Right|
+4|
11

17th|
+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+10|
+10|Grant Move Action 3/enc|
+4|
12

18th|
+13/+8/+3|
+11|
+11|
+11|Bonus feat|
+4|
12

19th|
+14/+9/+4|
+11|
+11|
+11|The Rumors of My Death 1/day|
+4|
13

20th|
+15/+10/+5|
+12|
+12|
+12|Uncanny Foresight|
+5|
13[/table]

Class Skills (8+Int): Bluff, Climb, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Information, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (Any), Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Profession, Search, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Magic Device, and Use Rope.

Proficiencies: All simple and martial weapons, light armor, no shields.

Contingency (Ex): Your training and experience have taught you two things - 1) Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you; and 2) Always plan ahead. Anytime you're not out on a mission you're anticipating your next missions, playing out doomsday scenarios, possible solutions, working out the odds and the angles.

The mechanical manifestation of this is that you have a pool of Contingency points. You can use these points to fuel various attacks, reactions, and defenses representing the thoroughness and readiness of your preparation. Normally your Contingency point pool refills once per hour, but some abilities deplete points for much longer.

Best Laid Plans (Ex): As a free action you may spend 1 Contingency point to grant yourself or an ally within 10ft a bonus equal to your Wisdom modifier to your choice of their next attack roll, damage roll, skill check, or saving throw. This bonus lasts until the beginning of your next turn or until it is used.

Trapfinding (Ex): As Rogue.

AC Bonus (Ex): You are a tremendously careful and vigilant person. You have to be - you're responsible for many other lives than your own. As such, starting from 2nd level on, you add your Wisdom bonus to AC as well as your dexterity, up to the maximum dexterity bonus of the armor you're wearing. Further, you gain an additional Insight bonus to AC dependent on your class level as shown in the table above.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every three levels thereafter you gain a Bonus Feat which may be drawn from the Fighter's list of bonus feats or from the list below.

List - Improved Initiative, Run, Danger Sense, Deft Opportunist, Sidestep (MH), Ready Shot (HB), Combat Tactician, Cunning Evasion, Fade Into Violence, Master Manipulator, Extra Contacts (City), Favored (City), Primary Contact (City), Roof-Jumper (City), Roofwalker (City), Special Dispensation (City), Swift Tumbler (City), Imperious Command (DotU), Shi'Quos School (DotU), Steal and Strike (DotU), Xaniqos School (DotU), Hostile Mind (XPH), Dive for Cover, Expert Tactician, Hear the Unseen, Quick Reconnoiter, Cool Head (CS), Daredevil Athlete (CS), Freerunner (CS), Sure Hand (CS), Sweet Talker (CS).

Uncanny Dodge (Ex): 4th level, as Barbarian. Improved Uncanny at 10th.

Grant Move Action (Ex): Starting at 5th level, once per encounter, you may spend 1 Contingency point to grant an ally within 100ft an immediate move action. You gain additional uses of this ability every six levels after 5th.

No Surprises (Ex): Starting at 7th level, you always act in the surprise round and never lose your Dexterity bonus to AC during a surprise round.

The Rumors of My Death (Ex): Starting at 8th level, you come up with a contingency plan to thwart death. Choose a location you are familiar with and have natural access to upon gaining this class feature. Once per week, when you die, you may spend 2 Contingency points. If you do, you do not regain those points when your pool refills for one full week, but instead of dying you are merely at your chosen location.

Perhaps you used an incredibly sophisticated decoy. Whatever happened you were at your chosen location the whole time, and you had even fooled your allies (though immediately upon activating this ability your allies realize that whatever was just killed, it was not you).

Starting at 19th level you may use this ability once each day. When you do, the points spent are regained after 24 hours.

Master Plan (Ex): Starting at 13th level, instead of using your Best Laid Plans ability, you may spend 2 Contingency points to add your Wisdom modifier either to all attack and damage rolls you make for 1 round, or to all saving throws you make for 1 round. This ability can't be used on allies.

No Accidents (Ex): Starting at 14th level, anytime you roll a natural 1 on any d20 roll you may reroll the dice taking a -2 penalty to the roll. This penalty accumulates if you use this ability more than once in a round.

Spycaptain Was Right (Ex): At 16th level your allies must acknowledge that though you've seemed needlessly paranoid and vigilant, you've been right all along - about everything.

What this ability should do... I really don't know. Maybe (As long as your Contingency pool is full you gain a +2 bonus to saving throws, a +5 bonus to skill checks, and have temporary hitpoints equal to three times your class level).

Uncanny Foresight (Ex): At 20th level you gain the ability to emulate the effects of the Foresight spell by spending 4 Contingency points, though the effect lasts only for 10 minutes. You may target allies with this ability though they no longer benefit from it if they cannot hear your voice or communicate with you through some other means (Telepathy works wonders).

[Knaight]

This is brilliant. I love it. However, it seriously needs an ability to declare traitors in enemy groups with a lot of contingency plans. As for Spy Captain Was Right, I really don't know what you should do. Retroactively declaring making a trap previously maybe?

[Milskidasith]

So you get most of the benefits of a persisted foresight at second level, can foil death freely, and reroll any ones without spending any points? Plus you get Wis+Dex+Extra bonus to AC?

It's like a factotum, but for people who use wisdom. Except factotums can take three of your abilities, since the class is fairly front loaded.

[Mulletmanalive]

I like this, though i'm trying to come up with additional class features for you. As nick fury, it seems like there should be some way of bascially spawning traps about the place, bascially by rigging the place to blow...

Heck, as it is now, add a Monk's damage bonus and we basically have Batman

[Flayerman]

I want to use this.

Where's Leadership, though?!

[Talbot]

It's 4E, but I have a Private Eye homebrew on this board that has Spy and Secret Agent Paragons/Epics. You might be able to reverse engineer some of those features and/or find something that could do what you want for Spymaster was right, and I certainly wouldn't mind. I actually originally planned (and may still add) a Nick-Fury esque epic destiny (though I was going to call is Spy Master), so the Spy class, which would have/will lead into it, was designed partially with him in mind.

[Ziegander]

I agree that No Surprises at level 2 is a bit powerful. I'd be okay losing the full round actions bit of it.

As far as foiling death - pshaw. PCs get Raise Dead pretty much at-will.

It is kind of front loaded, sort of as bad as Factotum and Monk combined (not exactly). I'd like to do something to remedy that, but I'm not sure there's a good answer.

Originally I wanted the Contingency pool to be used for spell/maneuver esque abilities. I had plans for only a couple (one to grant temporary Invisibility, another to pull off something like the Mislead spell). I may still fall back to that idea, but I'd have to change a lot of the class.

As far as Leadership, it kept popping into my head and I'd have to beat it out of there, because in my opinion, Leadership is the single most broken feat in the game.

And, Talbot, I actually read through pretty much all of your Private Eye class. I'm familiar with 4e mechanics, and I've been meaning to give you feedback, it's just so much to comment on. But for your information, I was inspired by the Masked Vigilante Daily Power, something like, "Are You Kidding? I'm the F***ing BATMAN!!!" lol. I loved how simple and powerful that power was, and that's where I got the idea for Nick Fury, ahem, the Spycaptain's The Rumors of My Death ability (and of course his obsession with Life Model Decoys).

EDIT: Thanks for all the feedback so fast guys! Unexpected, but pleasant surprise!

[Milskidasith]

I agree that No Surprises at level 2 is a bit powerful. I'd be okay losing the full round actions bit of it.

It's a ninth level spell; of course it's too powerful.


As far as foiling death - pshaw. PCs get Raise Dead pretty much at-will.

Which costs money and a level for PCs, but not for you.


It is kind of front loaded, sort of as bad as Factotum and Monk combined (not exactly). I'd like to do something to remedy that, but I'm not sure there's a good answer.

Factotums get any three EX abilities they want, the ability to ignore an attack that would kill you, extra standard actions, and 7th level casting. All of that is at higher levels. That isn't front loaded.

This gets you the ability to add your wisdom to most anything at first level, and wisdom to AC permanently (which is a much later factotum ability). This is way more front loaded than a factotum.

[Ziegander]

This gets you the ability to add your wisdom to most anything at first level, and wisdom to AC permanently (which is a much later factotum ability). This is way more front loaded than a factotum.

The Factotum gets Cunning Insight and Cunning Knowledge at first level - the ability to add Intelligence to almost anything. The Monk also gets Wisdom to AC permanently at level 1. Hence why I said it was almost as bad as Factotum and Monk combined, and why I said I'd like to do something about it. If you have suggestions, please let me know.

And, as I said, I acknowledge that No Surprises is powerful for 2nd level, but you're blowing it pretty far out of proportion. Not only is Foresight ridiculously underpowered for a 9th level spell, the No Surprises feature also doesn't come close to replicating what Foresight can do. But I am taking the full round action bit out.

[Talbot]

A simple fix might be to just change this from a 20 level Base Class into a 15 level PrC.... but that might be missing the point entirely. Failing that, moving some of the stronger abilities back a few levels would probably solve most of the problems; after all, Nick Fury is not a level 1 character.

Also, thanks for taking the time to read through the Private Eye class... I look forward to hearing what you thought of it.

[Roderick_BR]

What, no proficiency with S.H.I.E.L.D.s? :smalltongue:

I like it for a leader type character. My only beef with it is the same I have with the marshall: It would work better as a prestige class than a base class. How can you be experienced enough to lead troops at level 1? Remember that Nick Fury was a war soldier, then a militar leader, then a scret spy, and ONLY then become SHIELD's leader.
The contingency points are interesting, as they are there only to limit the number of uses of some class features, I believe.
No Surprises could be said as "You are never caught flatfooted in a surprise round". The Dex bonus to AC thing is covered in Uncanny Dodge aready, but that one can be overcome by a higher level rogue, so I guess you could add that comment.

Spycaptain Was Right sounds like a capstone for a PrC. I imagine it should give the player the ability to call in some special ability, like locate the villain's weakness, or call in allies (that were ready to show up, just waiting the cap's word).

Really, to emulate Nick, I'd make a PrC that combines marshall, ninja/scout/rogue, and some thing unique, like your contingency pool.

[Oslecamo]

Agreed with the above. If any marvel super hero should be a prc, it should be Nick Fury, as he did a lot of stuff before becoming the mastermind we all love/hate.

This also REALLY needs some kind of summon power, because if there's something Nick Fury always does is pulling out extra troops out of his hat.

Something like this:

Reinforcments:When not planing ahead or saving the world, the skycaptain seeks extra potential allies, trains them in secret and make sure that they're ready to answer his call at a moment's notice when things get tough.

The sky captain gains summon monster as a SLA, with caster level equal to his character level, useable up to a number of times per day equal to his wisdom modifier. As he raises in level, he's also able to use stronger summon monsters

Lv1-SM I
Lv3-SM II
LV5-SM III
LV7-SM IV
LV9-SM V
LV11-SM VI
LV 13-SM VII
LV 15-SM VIII
LV 17-SM IX
LV 19-Gate

[Ziegander]

I actually really like that Reinforcements idea, though I don't really agree that the class needs to be a PrC. I could argue the same stance for just about anything. How can you be experienced enough to command the universe to your will at 1st level (Wizard)? How can you be experienced enough to Inspire Courage in your allies at 1st level (Bard)?

Anyway, what if I stripped down the table like this:


Lv Base Attack Special AC Bonus Contingency
1. +0 Trapfinding +0 3
2. +1 AC Bonus +0 4
3. +2 Bonus Feat +0 5
4. +3 Uncanny Dodge +1 5
5. +3 +1 6
6. +4 Bonus Feat +1 6
7. +5 No Surprises +1 7
8. +6/+1 +2 7
9. +6/+1 Bonus Feat +2 8
10. +7/+2 Improved Uncanny Dodge +2 8
11. +8/+3 +2 9
12. +9/+4 Bonus Feat +3 9
13. +9/+4 +3 10
14. +10/+5 No Accidents +3 10
15. +11/+6/+1 Bonus Feat +3 11
16. +12/+7/+2 +4 11
17. +12/+7/+2 +4 12
18. +13/+8/+3 Bonus Feat +4 12
19. +14/+9/+4 +4 13
20. +15/+10/+5 +5 13

And then I went back to my original thought which was to use the Contingency Pool to fuel cool abilities that are sort of spell/maneuver like in nature. I figure he would have a "Plan" list (or something), and instead of casting spells, or initiating maneuvers, he would "execute" plans. He would know every Plan of every level on his list, but would have to prepare plans ahead of time (possibly requiring 1 hour or something). Among these plans would be special attacks and defenses, group buffs and coordinating abilities, and other unique things like maybe spontaneous traps and summons.

Thoughts?

[Oslecamo]

Thoughts?

That in this case it would be easier to go the beguiler/dread necro route and just make him a fullcaster with a certain fixed spell list.

This is, people say batman is a wizard, so no reason for Nick Fury to don't also be a caster of sorts.:smalltongue:

[Ziegander]

That in this case it would be easier to go the beguiler/dread necro route and just make him a fullcaster with a certain fixed spell list.

Easier? Yes. But it would not at all fit the theme correctly, and I'm also not sure I'd be able to provide a unique spell list with the proper elements. I don't want to simply use Invisibility, Fire Trap (ugh, terrible), Teleport, or Summon Monster. The Spycaptain should have effects of his own I'd say. New stuff. Heck, maybe when I'm done writing up "plans" I could write a couple other classes to go with them. A full BAB warrior that executes plans, and a poor BAB mastermind that executes plans.


This is, people say batman is a wizard, so no reason for Nick Fury to don't also be a caster of sorts.:smalltongue:

No, they say that the Wizard is Batman, and they don't mean it literally, they simply mean that a Wizard can do anything, like Batman seemingly can. There's pretty much a hundred reasons why Nick Fury shouldn't be a caster, at least in my opinion.

[Roderick_BR]

I actually really like that Reinforcements idea, though I don't really agree that the class needs to be a PrC. I could argue the same stance for just about anything. How can you be experienced enough to command the universe to your will at 1st level (Wizard)? How can you be experienced enough to Inspire Courage in your allies at 1st level (Bard)?
(...)
To be fair, I always though the paladin worked better as a NPC (the first version was a kind of "advanced level" fighter I think). It's just that I have problems taking "leader" types serious at level 1. I don't think they all need to be seasoned veteran fighters, it's just that it feels weird.
And then again, 1st level wizards are learning how to do mostly small tricks (then again, most low level spells are just overpowered IMO).
I think the table looks good.
Maybe have a table of summons (ready troops), with some few heavy hitters at higher level (elite troops).

A list of "plans" would be nice. They could be long-time "casting" effects that would affect terrain (logistics), allies (equipment use, training), enemies (combat tactics, finding weak points), these things.