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View Full Version : [D&D 3.5 Prestige Class] Battle Jodeler [P.E.A.C.H]



Trenelus
2010-05-20, 06:58 PM
My first posted homebrew, have fun reading.
Credit to my gaming group, where we are we had an idea and gave it the spirit.


Battle Yodeler
The Story & HD
Since the begining of times there has always echoed a sound in universe. Many say it is the echo
of the very first sound ever. But what is it? Some tell, that it just backgrounds noise without
any real meaning. Others say it is sound creation of multiverse, others say that it is the word
of power that created the world. Few would say that it's not just a word, it is a song. Only a
handful know that it aint just any song; it was yodeling, the Great Yodeling.
Since time immemorial there has been group of special people, who have been blessed by gift of
hearing this magnificent hymn. Eventually those who have listened carefully have learned to
understand it's simple, but all explaining harmony. They formed the Order of Battle Jodleling
and oh how great it became. By realaising the simple joys of life; expression of honest feelings,
singing (not just, of cource yodeling, the king of all songs) songs, cold beer and (usually
followed by) warm brawl. In their holy sanctuary they teached the art of yodeling to young and
talented, passing the skill on to the future generations.
But as always, the Order of Battle Yodeling had an powerful enemy. Nightblades - an order of
fearsome and deadle ninja/mages, that denied all truths of battle yodeling and replaced them
with their filty lies. They both had only one common idea: the other must die and last one
standing would be true path. The encounters with these two orders were legendary, and common
or scholar could not tell who was the right one. Finally order of the battle yodeling claimed
victorious of some sort, as victory of the duel of the two grand masters of orders fell to
yodelers. But due to the principals of respecting life the battle yodelers didn't kill the losing
side, all the Nightblades followed their teachings and together committed ritual suicide, and
thus they were no more.
That marked the time of centurys long peace, when order of the battle yodeling was in charge
of peace and order. All was well... or not. The ritualistic mass suicide of order of the
Nightblades was nothing more than cold, calculating stratedid move to fool their nemesis.
The last sudent of grandmaster of the order had survived and started to gather new followers
in the shadows, hidden from their mortal enemy. As order of the battle yodeling was focusing
it's strength on maintaning peoples benefits, order of the nightblades practised rentlessly on
the art of murder and prepaired for vengeance. They pledged loaylty to great militarypower on
sole condition of getting might to destroy yodelers.
With the compained forces they had their revence and thus order of the battle yodeling was
both won and slaughtered. But this was not the ending for their legacy. Handful of youngest
yodelers had survived with pure luck and begave exiles, hid from the ressurected enemy. They
past on their skills to their childer and other who could hear the Great Yodeling and thus
their tradition lives on. There are battle yodelers of every race, but united they are not.
Acording to old and wise oracle thay cannot defeat their enemy before uniting, but things
look quite hopeless for that miracle to happen, with the dispersion of races and lost of
their holy sanctuary.
Hit Dice: d10 - The life of a battle yodeler is though, but with their great spirit they have become elite warriors.

Requirements
REQUIREMENTS
To qualify to become a battle yodeler, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Alignment: Any non-evil
Base Attack Bonus: +5.
Skill: Listen 9 ranks, Perform (yodeling) 7 ranks, Survival 4 ranks
Special: Bardic Music and Barbarian Rage
Special: Must be inducted into the order by another member.

Class Skills
CLASS SKILLS
The class skills of a battle yodeler (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Diplomancy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (all invidually, Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (all invidually, Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Devise (Cha). See Chapter 4 of the Player’s Handbook for skill descriptions.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

The Battle Yodeler Hit Die: d10
{table=head]Class Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells per Day
1st|
+1|+2|+0|+2|Melodious rage|+1 lv to bard spellcasting
2nd|
+2|+3|+0|+3|Bonus feat|-
3rd|
+3|+3|+1|+3|Improved improvised weapons|+1 lv to bard spellcasting
4th|
+4|+4|+1|+4|No one without the other|-
5th|
+5|+4|+1|+4|Yodeler's sense|+1 lv to bard spellcasting
6th|
+6|+5|+2|+5|Yodeling of battle|-
7th|
+7|+5|+2|+5|Fast Yodeling|+1 lv to bard spellcasting
8th|
+8|+6|+2|+6|Improved melodious rage|-
9th|
+9|+6|+3|+6|Bonus feat|+1 lv to bard spellcasting
10th|
+10|+7|+3|+7|Bi-vocal, improved yodeling of battle|+1 lv to bard spellcasting[/table]
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level): Appraise, Climb, Concentration, Diplomancy, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (all), Listen, Perform (all), Sense Motive, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Magic Devise.

Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A battle yodeler gains free Exotic Weapon Proficiency
on weapon of his choice, and in addition to that gains proficiency with improvised weapons.
Battle yodelers prefer unusual weapons and so all things feel natural on their hands.
Plus been a regular participant (and starter) of brawls in saloons helps too...

Spells per Day/Spells Known: A battle yodeler continues his bard magical training while
mastering the powers of yodeling. At 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 10th level, the character
gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if she had also gained one
level in a bard spellcasting class. She does not, however, gain any other benefi t a character
of that class would have gained (improved chance of turning or destroying undead, metamagic
or item creation feats, and so on).

Melodious Rage (Ex): As battle yodeler stars to understand a little about the Great Yodeling,
he realices that feelings should be freed. What a better way to express your self than barbarian
rage or bardic song! When determing your effect and daily uses of both barbarian rage and bardic
music, add together the class that granted you that ability with your battle yodeler class
levels. For example, Bognar, dwarf barbarian 3/ bard 3/ battle yodeler 4 could rage 4/day
(he chose to take extra rage bonus feat on 2nd lv, see below) and with his perform (yodeling)
13 rank he could use all bard music power up to suggestion, and has 7 uses of bardic music in a
day. When he next time leves in battle yodeler, he could use rage 5/day, bardic music 8/day and
would give +2 with his Inspire courage.
In addition, battle yodeler may now use bardic music songs with perform (yodeling) while he is rageing.
Starting at lv 8 a battle yodeler achieves improved versin of melodius rage. He may now cast
his bard spells while rageing. These must be his own spells, not from magic items like scroll or wand (exeption: spells from ancestral, legacy, and intelligent weapons may be used).

Bonus feat: At 2nd level battle yodeler gains either Extra Music or Extra Rage as a bonus feat.
At 8th level battle joleder gains a bonus feat of his choice, but the feat must have either
rage or bardic music as prerequisite.

Improved Improvised Weapons (Ex): At 3rd level the numerous (saloon) fights finally pays off;
all improvised weapons deal damage as they were on sice bigger and thrown improvised weapons
have now range increment of 20 ft. When you roll natural 1 on attack roll with improvised
weapon, roll again to confirme. If the second roll hits, nothing hapens this time. But if the
second roll misses too, you break the weapon (and take a fumble card, if used in game).

No one Without the Other (Su): Starting at level 4 battle yodelers ability to blend rage and music
deepens. When you are effected by both rage and bardic music, you can determine duration of
those effects to last the better of two. For example, as continues Bognar has used both inspire
courage and rage. The inspire courage has 3 rounds left, and rage has 7, so they both last
for 7 rounds yet. He may not start a new song before this combined rage song ends first.
This doesn't work on song with duration lesser than 2 rounds, or have duration concentration.

Yodeler's Sense (Ex): As battle yodelers ability to hear and understand the Great Yodeling
improves, by listening to it's hyms battle yodeler can defend himself better. You may now
add you Charisma modifier (min 1) on all saves and your AC as a luck bonus.
In addition, you can cast spells and activate magic items by command word or spell completion
while using a bardic music ability with perform (yodeling). Bardic music abilities that require
concentration still take a standard action to perform.

Yodeling of Battle (Su): As a power of creation the Great Yodeling is capable to destroy.
A battle yodeler of 6th or higher with 14 or more ranks in a Perform (yodeling) can evoke
this power by spending 2 bardic music attemps and rolling a Perform (yodeling) check to
create an effect equivalent to the Shout spell (caster level equals the character’s effective
bard level, DC equil to the Perform (yodeling) check you rolled). Use of this power is always
at least standart action.
Greatest of battle yodelers can use even greater version of this power when they really
want to destroy someone or thing. A battle yodeler of 10th or higher with 18 or more ranks in
a Perform (yodeling) can evoke that power by spending 3 bardic music attemps and rolling a
Perform (yodeling) check to create an effect equivalent to the Greater Shout spell (caster level
equals the character’s effective bard level, DC equil to the Perform (yodeling) check you
rolled). Use of this power is always at least full-round action.

Fast Yodeling (Ex): Starting at level 8 battle yodeler is so used to yodeling that it has become
second nature to him to do it all the time. He may now start bardic music as swift action, but
he may not use more than 1 bardic music in round (until level 10, see below).

Bi-Vocal (Ex): The Greatest battle yodelers can hear the Great Yodeling everywhere and anytime,
and due to that their understanding over it has exceeded the limit of the mortals. Combining
this with inhuman practise of he has divined his trachea, lungs and vocal cord in to right and
left, he can then speak with two voices, simultaneously. Or sing (yodeling of cource) two
different songs or do anything one can do with voice. Besides probably endless social potential
you can use Bi-Vocal to:
* +6 bonus to Bluff, Diplomancy, Gather Information, Intimidation, and all verbal Perform checks
* +6 bonus to Constitution or checks for all things where right kind of breathing is vital (for
example holdind breath, fortitude vs inhaling poisons etc.)
* +10 to DC to read your lips, and if the watcher beats the DC by 10 or more he can understand both things you said.
* By combining this with Fas Yodeling feature, you can perform now use 2 bardic song with
perform (yodeling) by spending swift and standart action.
That's all folks.

Trenelus
2010-05-22, 04:37 AM
Hmmm, did somebody cast Zone of Silence on this or what?

* attempts to dispel
hmmm, natural 1.
But seriously, I would appreciate greatly any constructive criticism.
Is it too powerful? To lame? Something to not poke with even 11-foot pole?

Mongoose87
2010-05-22, 07:56 AM
To be honest, I think it's pretty cool, but can't come up with any real critique or comments. Some people won't like losing caster levels, but that's life.

EDIT: In fact, considering you lose at least one CL on the way in, and bard casting isn't as strong as a full caster, I'm tempted to suggest a reduction in lost CL.