Master of Misfortune - PRC- PEACH

[Mongoose87]

Master of Misfortune

"Well, I've been down so god-damned long that it looks like up to me."

Some people are simply lucky - lottery winners, leprechauns, Mr. T. Other, not so much. Some are so unlucky that they expect bad breaks, and count on them. The Master of Misfortune is such a character - a sly fellow who is always expecting the worst.

Hit Die: D8
Prerequisities
Feats: Any two luck feats
Skills: 6 ranks in at least two skills

Class Skills: Appraise (Int), Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (local) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Speak Language (None), Spellcraft (Int), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skill points at each level: 6+Int

MASTER OF MISFORTUNE
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|
+0|
+2|
+0|Followed by Misfortune, Reversal of Fortune, Picaro|

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+3|
+0|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+2|
+1|
+3|
+1|Shared Misfortune|

4th|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+1|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+1|Capstone|[/table]

Class Features

Followed by Misfortune: Bad breaks are such a common occurrence that you plan for them, and success is so unexpected, you no longer know how to cope with it. Any time you roll a natural twenty or a two, treat it as though you have rolled a natural one. Any time you roll a natural one, treat it as though you have rolled a natural twenty. Any critical hits you achieve this way are automatically confirmed. However, you may not take twenty on a check and succeed.

Reversal of Fortune: Though misfortune follows you wherever you go, you have learned to take advantage of the good luck created to balance out the bad luck you experience. For every roll you make that results in a critical failure, you gain an extra luck roll for that day.

Picaro: Masters of Misfortune typically come from the ranks of tricksters and scoundrels. Your class levels may stack with Swashbuckler levels for grace and dodge bonus, with Bard levels for bardic music or with Rogue levels for sneak attack. You may only stack your levels with one of these classes.

Bonus Feat: At levels two and four, you gain a luck feat that you meet the prerequisites for.

Shared Misfortune: You know how to direct your own bad luck onto your opponents. You may expend two luck re-rolls at any time to force an enemy to count a d20 roll as a natural one.

At fifth level, this ability only costs one re-roll.

Capstone: At fifth level, you get a capstone ability that is super awesome.

[Morth]

Maybe something like this for the capstone?

Aura of Unluck (Su): Your lack of luck seem to spread like a virus, infecting all enemies around you. If a target within 10ft. you rolls a natural 20 or a 2, and you have any luck rerolls remaining, that roll is considered a natural 1. You may expend a luck reroll to extend this aura by 10ft. for one round.

[Milskidasith]

Besides the bonus feats and the ability to force enemies to get ones, this class actually weakens you. Why would anybody take it?

[Demons_eye]

Besides the bonus feats and the ability to force enemies to get ones, this class actually weakens you. Why would anybody take it?

Fun/Flavor.

This only really weakens you if you are a spellcaster as you can still gain sneak attack/grace and the like. Not everyone plays to max out abilities too. I would play this when I want to play a luck based guy.

[Mongoose87]

I pretty much just threw the spellcasting advancement in there in case some spellcaster wanted to enter for flavor reasons - for a rogue or swashbuckler, I'd say it adds useful abilities.

[Milskidasith]

Fun/Flavor.

This only really weakens you if you are a spellcaster as you can still gain sneak attack/grace and the like. Not everyone plays to max out abilities too. I would play this when I want to play a luck based guy.

Except you can no longer take 20 and you now critically fail twice as much as normal. That's the part about making you weaker. I'm not talking about "it doesn't advance X class" I'm talking about class features that literally cause you to be less effective than you were before getting them.

Same to mongoose. What's the point of removing the ability to take 20, anyway? That's specifically that you just take really long so you don't have to attempt the check 20 times, it's just a time saving device. Removing it is just a way of saying "this class sucks, you aren't supposed to be taking it."

[Sereg]

There's a flavour issue as well. (Don't get me wrong, it's an interesting idea, that I happen to like.) The issue is that having two luck feats as prerequisites doesn't jive with stating that this person is extremely unlucky. Maybe you should have them as bonus feats instead of prerequisites and have something about rolling a natural 1 in a situation where it was important not to.

[Mongoose87]

yes, that did strike me as an issue, when I made it, but I was unsure what else to do - I mean, there aren't any unluck feats out there, are there?

[Demons_eye]

Except you can no longer take 20 and you now critically fail twice as much as normal. That's the part about making you weaker. I'm not talking about "it doesn't advance X class" I'm talking about class features that literally cause you to be less effective than you were before getting them.

Same to mongoose. What's the point of removing the ability to take 20, anyway? That's specifically that you just take really long so you don't have to attempt the check 20 times, it's just a time saving device. Removing it is just a way of saying "this class sucks, you aren't supposed to be taking it."

To enter this class I have taken Make Your Own Luck and Fortuitous Strike. Now when I roll a 20 or 2 I gain a reroll. I spend it and now its like I can not natural* fail attacks or skill checks.

*edit

[Mongoose87]

Except you can no longer take 20 and you now critically fail twice as much as normal. That's the part about making you weaker. I'm not talking about "it doesn't advance X class" I'm talking about class features that literally cause you to be less effective than you were before getting them.

Same to mongoose. What's the point of removing the ability to take 20, anyway? That's specifically that you just take really long so you don't have to attempt the check 20 times, it's just a time saving device. Removing it is just a way of saying "this class sucks, you aren't supposed to be taking it."

The point of this is flavor. You're an extremely unlucky person, and, even if you take twenty, something will end up going less than perfectly.

[Milskidasith]

The point of this is flavor. You're an extremely unlucky person, and, even if you take twenty, something will end up going less than perfectly.

Flavour is not a reason for a class to be mechanically worse than not taking it. Sacrificing power for flavor, while reasonable, isn't reasonable enough to make me want to take two (bad) feats in order to enter a class who's first level ability screws me over.

Demons, using two feats to burn off the negatives of the class means those two feats are weaker than if you took them and didn't enter the class, meaning, again, you are weaker than before you entered.

[Ashtagon]

The point of this is flavor. You're an extremely unlucky person, and, even if you take twenty, something will end up going less than perfectly.

Taking 20 specifically assumes that at some point in the time spend attempting and re-attempting the task, you actually did roll a 1.

A better way to implement this would be to say that taking 20 takes twice as long for you.

That said, you'd have to be pretty desperate to take a class that pretty much removes your chance of getting a critical success at anything.

[RelentlessImp]

Just a thought on Capstone:

I'm Having a Bad Day, You Should Too: Any enemy that gets a natural 1 on its attack roll against you, and any time you get a natural 20 or 2, you and the enemy are subject to the worst fumble chart in history. See Traveller for details.

[Mongoose87]

That said, you'd have to be pretty desperate to take a class that pretty much removes your chance of getting a critical success at anything.

It doesn't - it reverses the values of 20 and 1. You get a critical success, and autoconfirm crits with a 1.

[Ashtagon]

It doesn't - it reverses the values of 20 and 1. You get a critical success, and autoconfirm crits with a 1.

Wait, so if you roll a critical, a 20 on the confirmation roll is treated as a 1, and a 1 is treated as a 20? Isn't that just a roundabout way of saying nothing changes?

[DracoDei]

Wait, so if you roll a critical, a 20 on the confirmation roll is treated as a 1, and a 1 is treated as a 20? Isn't that just a roundabout way of saying nothing changes?

Yes, but it is flavorful.

[Mongoose87]

Wait, so if you roll a critical, a 20 on the confirmation roll is treated as a 1, and a 1 is treated as a 20? Isn't that just a roundabout way of saying nothing changes?

No, you don't have to confirm, it autoconfirms.

[Milskidasith]

No, you don't have to confirm, it autoconfirms.

Which is offset by the fact you critically fail twice as much. It's a net negative.

[Eurus]

Whoa. Forget being underpowered -- forcing people to automatically fail saving throws? Several times a day, with no defense against it? Um, yikes? I'd absolutely take this even as a full caster, just to thoroughly ruin everyone's day with 1st-level spells.

[Mongoose87]

Which is offset by the fact you critically fail twice as much. It's a net negative.

While that ability alone may be, you get re-rolls for each critical failure, which will allow you to use your luck feats to avoid future failures, and, with class features, force opponents to have their own critical failures.

[Temotei]

While that ability alone may be, you get re-rolls for each critical failure, which will allow you to use your luck feats to avoid future failures, and, with class features, force opponents to have their own critical failures.

Of course, you can only do it a few times a day. Plus, you're required to take mediocre feats to do that. Not only that, but your "force opponents...critical failures" thing comes in after this super failure "ability," making the class weaker. Take out the penalties for getting the class. Switching 20s and 1s is fine, but adding another failure roll is just bad, as is not allowing a character to take 20.

[Milskidasith]

While that ability alone may be, you get re-rolls for each critical failure, which will allow you to use your luck feats to avoid future failures, and, with class features, force opponents to have their own critical failures.

Yes, it has the overpowered ability to force enemies to fail rolls, but that doesn't change the bad design of the first level you take in the class making you weaker. Just because it's brokenly overpowered doesn't mean that having a class ability that does nothing but make you weaker (and no, forcing you to use your luck feats to get over the weakness doesn't change the fact it is a weakness).