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View Full Version : The Meat Shield (3.5e PrC) [PEACH]



Jota
2010-05-27, 10:45 AM
Credit to Cid (http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/User:ThunderGod_Cid) for the original premise, which can be found here (http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/Meat_Shield_%283.5e_Class%29).

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091028214735/dungeons/images/thumb/2/27/04_warhammer_chosen_zealot_by_sandara.jpg/285px-04_warhammer_chosen_zealot_by_sandara.jpg

“Whether the knife falls on the melon or the melon on the knife, the melon suffers.”
-- African proverb

FLUFF

Is not that important, at least in this particular instance. There's only so many ways to say that this class fills the protector role before I'm bored or writing it and you're bored of reading.

Becoming a Meat Shield

Prerequisites
Class Features
Steely Resolve 15
Feats
Renewed Zealousness (http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/Renewed_Zealousness_%283.5e_Feat%29)
The intent of having a feat like Renewed Zealousness is to force the expenditure of a limited resource to gain class access, without choosing a feat that almost every crusader would take anyway, and without being a complete and utter waste of space. Any other feat that would do the same is equally viable, and the feat should more or less be self-contained and appropriate for a Crusader or Paladin. Thus while Adaptive Style may not be the best option for a crusader, its usefulness to a swordsage would disqualify it. Something that is part of feat chain that the character intends to pick up eventually would not be a good choice either. Bonus points for something thematically appropriate that fits the criteria established here.
White Raven Defense


Class Features of the Meat Shield

Hit Dice: d12.

Skills

Class Skills: The class skills for the meat shield (and the key ability modifiers for each) are Balance (Dex), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge [History] (Int), Knowledge [Religion] (Int), Listen (Wis), Martial Lore (Int), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (None), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Skill Points per Level: 4 + Int.

Meat Shield, Sublime
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+2|Intercession, Patient Guardian

2nd|
+2|
+3|
+2|
+3|Constant Vigilance, Mobile Defender

3rd|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+3|Retributive Intercession, Vengeful Interceptor

4th|
+4|
+4|
+3|
+4|Share the Pain, Wrathful Intercession

5th|
+5|
+4|
+3|
+4|Sublime Intercession, Urgent Protector[/table]

Armor and Weapon Proficiencies: The meat shield gains no additional weapon or armor proficiencies.

Intercession (Ex): When the meat shield is adjacent to an ally who is targeted with an attack or single-target spell effect, the meat shield can move into that ally's space (taking the attack or spell effect as though he were the intended target) and move that ally anywhere within the meat shield's base reach (according to size, not weapon) as an immediate action.

A meat shield cannot be more than one size smaller than the ally he displaces.
If the meat shield takes up less space (e.g. Medium, one square) than the ally he protects (e.g. Large, four squares), he must place himself within reach of the attacker.
A meat shield cannot make an intercession if there is no space to move the original target into, unless the creatures may normally occupy the same space.
If the meat shield takes up more space than the ally he protects, he may position himself however he chooses as long as his space covers all of the space his ally previously occupied.
If, due to size differential, the meat shield cannot move into his ally's space (whether because of other enemies or the nature of the terrain), he cannot make an intercession.

Making an intercession does not use the meat shield's immediate action for the round, nor does it count against his ability to use a swift action in the following round. The movement from an intercession does not provoke an attack of opportunity for either the meat shield or his ally, even against effects that explicitly state otherwise. A meat shield can make a number of intercessions per encounter equal to his Charisma modifier (minimum 0) + his initiator level.

Patient Guardian (Ex): As a free action, a meat shield may voluntarily not receive one of his readied maneuvers at the end of his turn in order to recover a number of uses of his intercession class ability equal half his class level, rounded up.

Constant Vigilance (Ex): The meat shield may spend an immediate action to move up to his base land speed, but only if he does so in order to make an intercession. This movement provokes attacks of opportunity as in-turn movement.

Mobile Defender (Ex): A meat shield no longer takes any penalties to his movement speed for wearing heavy armor or carrying more than his light load, and runs at his normal speed even while carrying a medium or heavy load.

Retributive Intercession (Ex): As part of an intercession, a meat shield may expend an additional use of his intercession ability to make a single melee attack against the aggressor, provided he can reach them.

Vengeful Interceptor (Ex): A meat shield's class levels stack with his crusader level's for determining the maximum capacity of his delayed damage pool. Furthermore, after a round in which the meat shield has made an intercession, he may add his twice his class level to the value of his delayed damage pool.

Share the Pain (Su): A meat shield can force an attacker to partake in his agony when he is struck. Whenever the meat shield takes damage and the attacker is within close (http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/SRD:Range_%28Spell_Descriptor%29#Close), the attacker receives half the damage that the meat shield took. This damage is untyped and not subject to any form of resistance or damage reduction. This ability does not function against effects that do not specifically deal damage.

Wrathful Intercession (Ex): As part of an intercession, a meat shield may expend two additional uses of his intercession ability to make a full attack against the aggressor, provided he can reach them.

Sublime Intercession (Ex): As part of an intercession, a meat shield may expend four additional uses of his intercession ability to make a single melee attack against the aggressor, provided he can reach them. The meat shield may use a martial strike as part of this attack.

Urgent Protector (Ex): At fifth level a meat shield may burn uses of his intercession class ability to grant himself one of his readied maneuvers at random. Consult the table below for the selected action and the requisite number of intercession uses.

Urgent Protector Usage Costs
{table=head]Action Used|Intercession Uses

Full-Round|
1

Standard|
2

Move|
3

Swift|
4

Free|
7[/table]

Image Credit
Image adapted from 04 warhammer: chosen + zealot (http://sandara.deviantart.com/art/04-warhammer-chosen-zealot-99958829) by Sandara (http://sandara.deviantart.com/).

DracoDei
2010-05-27, 03:09 PM
You mention Swordsages in your explanation of the feat, and Paladins elsewhere... but you also specify Steely Resolve 15, which limits it to Crusaders. I suppose someone has probably made an ACF for Paladins granting them that feature, but the Sword-sage thing doesn't make much sense.

Intercession might be better worded as "At any time the Meat Shield could take an Immediate action (but regardless of if he has such an action available he may, as a free action,...." rather than calling it an Immediate Action and then clarifying that it really isn't about 8 lines later.

Also, I don't know if I could see an Meat Shield running out of uses of this ever, even without the ability to add more uses.

JKTrickster
2010-05-27, 05:57 PM
I really like your take on a tanking PrC. The Intercession ability is really flavorful and actually works quite well with protecting your allies. It really is what tanks have been looking for.

I just don't like some inconsistencies; several class features (and requirements like DracoDei pointed out) seem to point this as a ToB class. Yet this doesn't improve maneuvers learned/readied or stances at all. I'm not really sure who would take this class: Paladins lack the requirements, and Crusaders risk being too far behind the curve on maneuvers and stances.

Maybe you just forgot to add this table?

Jota
2010-05-27, 08:50 PM
You mention Swordsages in your explanation of the feat, and Paladins elsewhere... but you also specify Steely Resolve 15, which limits it to Crusaders. I suppose someone has probably made an ACF for Paladins granting them that feature, but the Sword-sage thing doesn't make much sense.

Intercession might be better worded as "At any time the Meat Shield could take an Immediate action (but regardless of if he has such an action available he may, as a free action,...." rather than calling it an Immediate Action and then clarifying that it really isn't about 8 lines later.

Also, I don't know if I could see an Meat Shield running out of uses of this ever, even without the ability to add more uses.

1. I mentioned swordsage because of the dippability of Tome of Battle and to illustrate the design intent behind requiring Renewed Zealousness -- if the reference is misleading I could remove it. The spoiler was sort of a last minute addition to explain that the requirements can be flexible if you don't want to accept a homebrew feat, but at the same time the cost should be felt to some degree.

2. Yes, it is intended to be solely for crusaders (or at the very least, 8 levels of crusader are required) -- paladin was mentioned for the overlap the two share, especially with a feat like Renewed Zealousness, though you have a point in that two don't have much explicit overlap outside of that (if anything, the crusader is a better paladin).

3. With regard to why crusader: If you'd take a gander at Cid's original (which is a base class), he found it necessary to include powers and abilities that crusaders already got (such as Thicket of Blades) in order for the class to adequately fill its role as a defender. Given the obvious synergy between taking hits for someone else and the delayed damage pool, it was a very easy decision to adjust the class into a prestige class to accommodate for this potential and make use of the crusader's existing strengths.

4. The problem with that is that free actions can only be taken in turn. I know it is sort of bulky as is, but I think it is more in line with the rules of 3.5e as is than were I to call it a free action usable out of turn. Though now that I phrase it that way, it looks awfully simple. I'll get back to you on that.

5. First things first: this version of this class was actually intended for a subsystem of 3.5e d20 which has modified enemies such that combat takes eight rounds on average, so you have a very legitimate point.

With that said: being based on Charisma means that the crusader's MAD is increased a bit, and you lose 3 initiator levels just for maxing out the class.

The intent here was to make it so that you could multiclass and still be functional if you so desired, or you could stick with crusader and be damn good at what you do.

A formula I might consider for traditional 3.5 would be 3 + [Meat Shield Level * 2] + Charisma modifier, though there's no hard math in that. Under this modification, forgoing a maneuver might be worth two instead of three.


I really like your take on a tanking PrC. The Intercession ability is really flavorful and actually works quite well with protecting your allies. It really is what tanks have been looking for.

I just don't like some inconsistencies; several class features (and requirements like DracoDei pointed out) seem to point this as a ToB class. Yet this doesn't improve maneuvers learned/readied or stances at all. I'm not really sure who would take this class: Paladins lack the requirements, and Crusaders risk being too far behind the curve on maneuvers and stances.

Maybe you just forgot to add this table?

Yes, Tome of Battle. <3 I've reached the conclusion that for me, for a class to be enjoyable, I need to have options, real options that actually force me to make a choice. Ergo, Tome of Battle is a natural building point, and as mentioned above, this premise gels quite well the existing crusader chassis. That said, there's no reason the Intercession mechanic cannot be adapted to a non-martial adept class.

The non-advancement of maneuvers is quite intentional. When I originally designed the class it required but two levels of crusader, no specific feats, and advanced maneuvers. I was told by someone whose opinion I generally trust that it made the crusader quite obsolete in that format, and I couldn't help but agree. Given the relative power level that Tome of Battle exists at, justifying that sort of power upgrade by using something like that abjurant champion to the wizard as an example just didn't seem to cut it, least of all for for the game it was designed for (as mentioned above).

The thought is that the class features are good enough in and of themselves that they merit they loss of those initiator level and the expenditure of those feats, though if you disagree, the version I just discussed can be found here (http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/Meat_Shield,_Sublime_%283.5e_Prestige_Class%29).

Gratzi for all your input.

DracoDei
2010-05-28, 12:34 AM
Eh... you could probably at least give them the abilty to replace a maneuver known at 3rd and 5th level (or 2nd and 4th), and/or another maneuver known at 5th. That still delays Maneuvers Readiable, Stances, and total maneuvers known (which is important for meeting pre-requisites sometimes).

EDIT: And full initiator level might even be OK too.