Designing an all purpose monstrous/superhuman class

[Lysander]

I'd like to develop a non-fluffed class that grants powerful natural attacks, increased speed/strength, and increased durability and/or healing. The goal is for the class to be usable by any player or DM who wants to create a monster or a superhuman growing in power.

You could plug in any backstory necessary. Half-demon? Mutant? Magical serum? Mystical combat training? The abilities would be generic enough that it would apply to any of them, while still being powerful and terrifying. In some cases a DM might want to add extra abilities or weaknesses if they're trying to recreate a specific creature, but the idea is that the underlying generic class would do most of the work for them.

What do you think of this idea? Is there anything like this already? Do you have any suggestions/ideas?

A few very basic ideas for the class:

*Claw or slam attack at first level
*Increased move speed
*Natural armor
*Bonuses to str and dex
*Stat surges. I was thinking that once a day per level as a free action they could apply a +4 bonus to any check based off str or dex.
*Either DR or fast healing, or both.
*Natural attack would be considered magical, plus good/evil/lawful/chaotic depending on backstory.
*Natural attacks would become vorpal at higher level.

[AustontheGreat1]

Leave some optional abilities like the rogues special ability to let the player or DM choose how the creature progresses. Create some new ones and add some old favorites, and allow some of them to just specialize on one aspect of the evolution of the creature (if they want particularly fast or strong.)

I might even suggest some stat increases like those in the VOP feat at

at this level select a stat: +2 to that stat
At this level select another stat: increase to +4, +2 to the second.
etc...

[Mulletmanalive]

Does it have to be balanced against anything? I have some monster kits that you're free to modify to get something that's more useful to you, if not.

They're modular and intended to create gribblies that are marginally more powerful than my PC classes [which are low tier but actually challenging the higher end ones is basically impossible anyway].

[Lysander]

@Austonthegreat1

At what rate do you think the stat increases should occur?

@mulletmanalive

Sure, I'd be interested. My goal is not to surpass PC classes though but make some comparable (although I suppose the tier could vary).

[Mulletmanalive]

PM me with an e-mail address. There's about 15 tables in this so i'm not going to post it...

The Thing tends to be the most powerful, and the Spirit is basically unusable with conventional D&D mindsets but the rest should work.

[AustontheGreat1]

@Austonthegreat1

At what rate do you think the stat increases should occur?

beats me :smalltongue:

Edit: i dont know, starting at 2nd progressing every level until
2nd: +2
6th: +4/+2
9th: +6/+4/+2
12th: +8/+6/+4/+2
16th: +10/+8/+6/+4/+2
20th: +12/+10/+8/+6/+4/+2

though that seems really broken

Geez, You people act like i know what I'm doing...

[Melayl]

You can check out my Beast Warrior (in my sig) for some options and ideas. It does a lot of what you're trying to do. The fluff can easily be changed to work with your intent.

[Real Sorceror]

I'm developing several classes that could work. One basically becomes a Giant using an ability similar to Rage that grants Enlarge Person (later improves to Righteous Might and the Giant Form spells). Like the Barb they also get DR and eventually can reach Huge size.
The other is a werewolf/sacred beast class that grants natural weapons, speed, and increased durability (DR/silver and regen). They also gain some powers based on mythical wolves/dogs.
Both classes have "rage power" type abilities like those in Pathfinder. I'll try and have them posted over the weekend if anyone is interested.

[Jack of Spades]

You could plug in any backstory necessary. Half-demon? Mutant? Magical serum? Mystical combat training? The abilities would be generic enough that it would apply to any of them, while still being powerful and terrifying.

One idea is to incorporate bloodlines, a la the Pathfinder sorcerer. That way you can have both the vague and the specific goodies.

So far as stat increases go, I'd say they should almost definitely be restricted to the physical stats. My thought for progression would probably be:

1st: +2 Str
5th: +4 Str, +2 Dex
10th: +6 Str, +4 Dex, +2 Con
15th: +8 Str, +6 Dex, +4 Con
20th: +10 Str, +8 Dex, +6 Con

Not sure where the balancing is on that, but it seems alright, eh? :smalltongue:

[AustontheGreat1]

One idea is to incorporate bloodlines, a la the Pathfinder sorcerer. That way you can have both the vague and the specific goodies.

So far as stat increases go, I'd say they should almost definitely be restricted to the physical stats. My thought for progression would probably be:

1st: +2 Str
5th: +4 Str, +2 Dex
10th: +6 Str, +4 Dex, +2 Con
15th: +8 Str, +6 Dex, +4 Con
20th: +10 Str, +8 Dex, +6 Con

Not sure where the balancing is on that, but it seems alright, eh? :smalltongue:

Yeah, but what if they what a particularity dexterous or tough character. if this is meant to be a generic class for creating monstrous or superhuman characters the person making it could get to pick, though I agree to an extent about it being physical stats though should get to pick which one gets the biggest bonus.

[Zexion]

There's already a superhuman class. (http://mindseye_x.tripod.com/mepd20sh.PDF)
There's already a monstrous mutation-based class (http://www.freewebs.com/chughes4/Blacklight%20Warper1.3.pdf).

I sugest you splice them together.

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

I've done something similar to this, but broken down for all of the non-exotic creature types:
http://kobolds-keep.net/Progressions.pdf

[Lysander]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Seeing the homebrew classes was particularly helpful.

Most of the homebrew classes I saw were highly customizable, with many different abilities to choose from, or with a wide range of abilities granted. They were good enough I don't think I need to be redundant with a new highly customizable class that uses natural attacks.

I think to differentiate I'd like to try making a one-trick pony. Hardly customizable, almost no utility abilities, just a fast strong impervious monster.

Instead of being able to pick abilities I might develop variants with an additional strength and weakness to represent different monsters, but laid on top of the same basic class.

[Apalala]

Took a crack at this, making the class for Pathfinder.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfd7zxz_76cx26mpf7

[Fizban]

Our very own Xefas made this kind of class a couple of years ago. Here's a link (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77010).

I haven't looked at it in a while but I thought it was pretty good back then. It's not a class that builds itself like the Warblade, but it should be okay if you know a few tricks to build into. Kinda like the Sorcerer or Fighter really.