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grautry
2009-12-05, 04:57 PM
Inspired by this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133626) thread, I present to you - the Mutant Warrior. As far as balance goes, Mutant Warrior is meant to be a tier 3 class, perhaps even a low tier 2 class if I went a wee bit overboard with the goodies.

While the idea theoretically started as a front-line combatant but templates can do really wonky things so who knows how this would look like in actual play.

I think that my intentions are mostly clear on the abilities but I'm having problems with their wording. Can anyone help out with that? Also I'd like to find if you can spot any loopholes that would allow for particularly abusive things. The wording problem especially applies to the Mutation ability and Ritual of Change.

This is still a WIP, as I need to add way more fluff, a picture, the advice bit, organization and so on. But the mechanics are here, so I think it's ready to be looked upon.


Mutant Warrior

The Mutant Warrior is someone who adopts the creed of fighting fire with fire with all of his heart. He recognises that certain creatures have potent powers indeed and he chooses to incorporate them into his very form.

Comment: More fluff to come.

{table="head"]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special

1st|+0|+2|+0|+0|Ritual of Change, Mutation +1

2nd|+1|+3|+0|+0|Mutation +2

3rd|+2|+3|+1|+1|Ignore Restriction: Inheritance

4th|+3|+4|+1|+1|Mutation +3

5th|+3|+4|+1|+1|Ignore Restriction: Type

6th|+4|+5|+2|+2|Mutation +4

7th|+5|+5|+2|+2|Ignore Restriction: Size

8th|+6/+1|+6|+2|+2|Mutation +5

9th|+6/+1|+6|+3|+3|Mastery of Shape

10th|+7/+2|+7|+3|+3|Mutation +6

11th|+8/+3|+7|+3|+3|Ignore Restriction: Alignment

12th|+9/+4|+8|+4|+4|Mutation +7

13th|+9/+4|+8|+4|+4|Augmented Form

14th|+10/+5|+9|+4|+4|Mutation +8

15th|+11/+6/+1|+9|+5|+5|Evolved Form

16th|+12/+7/+2|+10|+5|+5|Mutation +9

17th|+12/+7/+2|+10|+5|+5|Mutation Mastery

18th|+13/+8/+3|+11|+6|+6|Mutation +10

19th|+14/+9/+4|+11|+6|+6|Swift Change

20th|+15/+10/+5|+12|+6|+6|Supreme Mutation, Mutation +11

[/table]

Comment: Medium or Full BAB? One of the other choices I'm wondering about. The abilities certainly seem more mystical and supernatural rather than pure straight melee so it certainly feels like Medium BAB is more appropriate. Thoughts?

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: 1d10

Class Skills:
Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (local) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (nobility and royalty) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex)

Comment: Changed to 4+Int skills and to Swordsage skills minus Martial Lore.

Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Ritual of Change (Su): After resting for eight hours, the Mutant Warrior can choose to perform a short five minute ritual that changes the current templates he possesses via his Mutation class feature. He looses the benefit of his former templates and gains new ones. At the same time the Mutant Warrior can also change his type, subtypes or size as appropriate from the Ignore Restrictions class features.

Mutation (Ex): Mutant Warriors learn to change the structure of thier bodies, gaining new abilities by the way of templates. A Mutant Warrior can gain templates without increasing his actual ECL up to the Mutation bonus that he posseses.

The Mutant Warrior can take one level of LA templates worth at first level, two at second and plus one for every two Mutant Warrior levels after that.

A Mutant Warrior can't use this feature to gain templates that requires gold or XP expenditure, templates that require the existence of another creature(like the Symbiotic Creature template) or templates that grant racial hit dice.

In order to take on a template a Mutant Warrior needs a body part(blood, hair or nail clippings suffice) from a templated creature or from a creature that the template is based upon(thus, one could use dragon blood in order to acquire the half-dragon template). If the Mutant Warrior possesses such a body part then he can apply the template to himself using Ritual of Change.

If this is not possible then the Mutant Warrior needs to spend 50*Template's Level Adjustement in XP and 100*LA GP on magical experimentation in order to gain access to a template.

If, after acquiring it, a Mutant Warrior discards a template via Ritual of Change he can gain it again afterwards with no need for reagents and at no cost.

Instead of templates you can also assume the features of a race that has no racial hit dice. If you do so you gain all the benefits and penalties of a race with the exception of Favoured Classes. Your size also remains unchanged. The cost of doing so is the race's LA+1.

Comment: Still uncertain about the race thing but without it, in a core-only setting you're going to wait a couple of levels before you can actually use Mutation.

Ignore Restriction: Inheritance (Ex): The Mutant Warrior has grown to a point where his descent no longer matters and he can incorporate the powers of creatures he does not originate from. This class feature enables for the Mutant Warrior to take inherited templates with his Mutation class feature.

Ignore Restriction: Type (Ex): The Mutant Warrior has surpassed the limitations that his very being places on him. He can ignore the type(or subtype) requirements of any templates that he wishes to acquire with his Mutation class feature. Additionally, if a template would change the Mutant Warrior's type(or grant him a subtype), he can choose not to change it(or not to gain a subtype). If wishes to gain the type(or subtype) afterwards, he needs to perform a Ritual of Change in order to do so.

Regardless of what type(or subtype) does the Mutant Warrior become through his Mutations, he can still be raised or resurrected as normal.

Ignore Restriction: Size (Ex): Size matters little to a Mutant Warrior of such prowess. He can ignore the size requirements of any templates that he wishes to acquire with his Mutation class feature. Additionally, if a template would change the Mutant Warrior's size, he can choose not to change it. If wishes to change his size afterwards, he needs to perform a Ritual of Change in order to do so.

Mastery of Shape (Ex): The Warrior Mutant learns to conceal the signs of his powers to better fit in society. He does not need to manifest any physical changes to his body that the template inflicts upon him.

However, if the powers of the template are based upon a physical feature(such as wings, natural weapons or Size changes) then concealing them in such a way renders them useless. The Warrior Mutant can hide or reveal such physical features as a free action.

Ignore Restriction: Alignment (Ex): The Mutant Warrior is no longer bound by his ethics in the choice of templates that he assumes. He can freely ignore alignment restrictions on templates that he wishes to acquire with his Mutation class feature.

Augmented Form (Ex): The Mutant Warrior gains further understanding of the intricacies of the mutations that he causes within his own body. If a template he gains with his Mutation class feature has abilities that are based on HD, treat the Mutant Warrior's HD as if it was two higher.

Evolved Form (Ex): The Mutant Warrior has learned to effectively incorporate even the most alien powers that his mutations grant him. If a template has abilities that are based on racial hit dice he can substitute his Mutant Warrior level for those HD.

Mutation Mastery (Ex): A Mutant Warrior of such power can now twist and bend the changes that are wrought within his body to his advantage. When he acquires a template, he can pick which abilities(or penalties) does the template grant him(or inflict upon him). Once chosen, the abilities and penalties he chooses can only be changed with a Ritual of Change. He can't acquire the characteristics that a type(or subtype) would grant him without actually becoming the type.

For example if the Mutant Warrior gained the Mineral Warrior template he could choose to retain his ability to fly(if he possessed it) and still gain all the benefits of the Mineral Warrior template. However, if he picked the Half-Celestial template, he could not gain the benefits of being an Outsider without actually changing his Type.

Additionally, the Mutant Warrior can now ignore any other requirements that the template has(with the exception of restrictions listed in the Mutation class feature description, which still remain intact). For example, the Mutant Warrior could choose to gain the Evolved Undead template without the prerequisite hundreds years of waiting for the maturing of Negative Energy Plane connection or to become a Ghost without the prerequisite Charisma score.

Swift Change (Ex): The days when his mind must be carefully prepared to deal with the changes in his body are over. The Mutant Warrior no longer needs to rest before performing the Ritual of Change.

Supreme Mutation (Ex): A Mutant Warrior who reaches this level of power is a force to be reckoned with. He has truly mastered the mutations of his body and can now learn to mutate it in far more drastic ways. Treat the Level Adjustment of any template he takes with his Mutation class feature as one lower. This ability can never decrease the Level Adjustement below +1.


Feats

Improved Mutation [General]
Prerequisites: Mutation +4(or higher) class feature
Benefits: Your free LA from the mutation class feature increases by one.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times, its effect stack. The maximum number of times you can take this feat is equal to your Mutant Warrior level/4, rounded down(minimum 1).

Comment: I'm still wondering about a more elegant way to handle the limitation - it's mostly so that you can't choose a human with two flaws and take 5 levels of LA at first level but MW/4 seems crude somehow.

Edit: Changed to +4 instead of just mutation.

Empower Mutation [General]
Prerequisites: Augmented Form class feature
Benefits: All the numerical ability and skill bonuses granted to you by a template that you gained with your Mutation class feature are multiplied by 1.5, rounded down. You can only apply this feat to one template at a time and you can switch it to a different template when you perform a Ritual of Change.
Special: You can purchase this feat multiple times, each time you can apply it to a different template.

Comment: Thinking whether to change this so that more things are affected by the empowerment. I'm also thinking about introducing other meta-mutation abilities.

For the moment, do you think that this deserves an increase in LA for the chosen template, similarly to metamagic or is it fine without it?

Instantaneous Mutation [General]
Prerequisites: Mutation class feature
Benefits: Three per day as a swift action you may change a single template granted to you by the Mutation class feature into another template of equal Level Adjustement.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times, each time gaining three more uses of the ability.

Template Specialization [General]
Prerequisites: Mutation +4(or higher) class feature
Benefits: Choose a single template that you've assumed at least once with your Mutation class feature. Treat the LA of this template as two lower for the purpose of taking it with your Mutation class feature. This ability can never decrease the Level Adjustement below +1.
Special: You can purchase this feat multiple times. You can either apply it to a single template, each time decreasing it's Level Adjustement or you can apply it to different templates.

Comment: Changed to +4 and changed "you can assume" to "you've assumed at least once".

Sooo, thoughts?

Fortuna
2009-12-05, 09:30 PM
Looking at it, it seems a little front-loaded. Why would, say, a fighter ever not take a one or two level dip in this class? Also, that last feat scares me. For one feat and one level in a d10 HD high Fort class, I get a +3 LA? Sign me up!

deuxhero
2009-12-06, 12:13 AM
Same reason a fighter wouldn't take levels in Warblade?

What templates meet the requirements in the first 2 levels though? Must be applyable to a creature of humanoid type (Or Aberration or construct or, with heavy cheese, dragon), not be based on ancestor (that's a good chunk offed right there), must not use another creature or cost gold to obtain. All that comes off the top of my head is Phrenic (neat as it is, it's just about a limited use +5 ac at two hit die).

Fortuna
2009-12-06, 12:17 AM
Except that that feat gives you a +4 template at level two. With a d10 HD as well. My friend went over a file of templates, and found large numbers of wonderful LA +4 templates which the average humanoid could take.

deuxhero
2009-12-06, 12:18 AM
The Mutant Warrior can take one level of LA templates worth at first level, two at second and plus one for every two Mutant Warrior levels after that.


Where does four LA come from? Says 2 right there.

edit:oh, by feat you meant "spends a feat on Improved Mutation" not "loses [fighter] feat" still only a +3, not +4.

As for "Improved Mutation", I suggest just saying it works like Focused [whatever].

For skills, I personally think that (unless using a system that combines skills) no class without an INT focus should be stuck with 2+int.

Fortuna
2009-12-06, 12:31 AM
Template specialization. The last feat. I lose a fighter feat, spend another feat, and now have an LA +4 template for the rest of my adventuring career.

EDIT: Apologies, I misread the feat. Only slightly better though, you still get a total of +4 LA.

deuxhero
2009-12-06, 12:33 AM
Prehaps "You can never take a template above your normal max LA" could be added?

edit: Oh, mineral warrior/stony qualifies as well I think. That one I might be worried about giving to a level 1.

Fortuna
2009-12-06, 12:34 AM
Which means you could have a +2, a +1, and another +1. That feat needs some hard-hitting prerequisites, methinks. Perhaps requiring Mutation +4?

Also, I would like to apologize for my tone earlier. That was uncalled for.

deuxhero
2009-12-06, 12:49 AM
Yeah, that would restrict it to it's intended use (requiring level 6).

edit:For mineral warrior, say DR is only given after a given level.

grautry
2009-12-08, 03:23 PM
Which means you could have a +2, a +1, and another +1. That feat needs some hard-hitting prerequisites, methinks. Perhaps requiring Mutation +4?

Also, I would like to apologize for my tone earlier. That was uncalled for.

If your tone was meant to be harsh then I didn't even really notice, so no harm done. :smallwink:

Yeah, Template Specialization does indeed seem like a feat that should have higher prerequisites than it currently has(even if the "you can assume" line was there all the time, it still probably requires more of a prerequisite). Hm, I'll probably add a higher prerequisite to Improved Mutation as well which should easily fix any front-loaded-ness of the class. For a two-level dip, two levels of templates doesn't seem all that overpowering compared to what, say, a ToB class can offer to a Fighter.

And it's kinda true that there are a LOT of templates(at least in core) that are inherited-only which is why the first Ignore Restrictions feature is for Inheritance. But still - it would kind of be problematic to play this class in a core-only play. For non-core playing, there's plenty of good templates that don't require inheritance.

Hmm... For core play, what do you think of a feature that allows for you to assume all the abilities of a race for the price of (Race LA+1)? This way, at level 1, in a core setting you could take the benefits, of say, both human and half-orc. It's not a super-hot-awesome-sauce feature, but it's better than nothing(since all core templates are either inherited, have no listed LA or have too high of an LA to take at level 1).

Anyway, my main worry about the class is still the wording of abilities. Does anyone else think that it's either confusing/unclear/abusive or is it fine as it is?


Prehaps "You can never take a template above your normal max LA" could be added?

Hmm, this was kinda written in the "assume" part(if you're talking about specialization), but I'll make it clearer.