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Hat-Trick
2010-09-16, 01:10 AM
CONDUIT OF THE FAR REALMS

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/043/1/8/tentacle_holmes_by_thenizu.png

“Am I insane? Good question. The only answer I can give to that is if this is insanity, it's not that bad.” – Rune Fisker, thought to be the original Conduit

The Far Realms are by definition mind-destroyingly incomprehensible to anything not native to its depths. Many have risked their mental health to understand what secrets lie within. Many are consumed. Others somehow find a way to connect with the plane and have no adverse effect other than a quirky personality. In exchange, they gain abilities of the abberations, various body deformities that, with some minimal effort allows them to suppress the changes setting them apart from mere abberant descendants.

BECOMING A CONDUIT OF THE FAR REALMS
Conduits come in many shapes and sizes from a halfling rogue to a bugbear fighter. The conduits are hardly ever casters, usually because of the dedication it takes to fully develop the Conduits full potential distracting them from their all important casting. Many who chose to embrace their abilities are those who find it a fine addition to their combat arsenal and are usually mundane classes such as fighter, rogue, monk, and the like.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Feats: Abberant Blood
Skills: Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 2, Knowledge (Planes) 2, Intimidate 8
BAB: +3


Class Skills
Conduit of the Far Realm's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (STR), Craft (INT), Intimidate (CHA), Jump (STR), Knowledge (The Planes) (INT), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) (INT), Sense Motive (WIS), Spot (WIS), Survival (WIS), Swim (WIS), Tumble (DEX)
Skills Points at Each Level: 4 + int

Hit Dice: d8

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+0|
+2|
+0|
+2|Scavenging Gullet, Conduit

2nd|
+1|
+3|
+0|
+3|Inhuman Reach, Improved Gullet

3rd|
+2|
+3|
+1|
+3|Bestial Hide, Accustomed Reach

4th|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+4|Durable Form, Strengthened Hide

5th|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+4|Inhuman Vision, Resilient Form

6th|
+4|
+5|
+2|
+5|Warped Mind, Enhanced Vision

7th|
+5|
+5|
+2|
+5|Deepspawn, Offensive Mind

8th|
+6|
+6|
+2|
+6|Waterspawn, Deepalpha

9th|
+6|
+6|
+3|
+6|Starspawn, Waterelder

10th|
+7|
+7|
+3|
+7|Master Conduit, Starlord[/table]

Weapon Proficiencies: Conduits of the Far Realms gain no new weapon or armor proficiencies.

Conduit: Conduits of the Far Realms can ignore penalties usually involved with accumulation of Aberrant Feats by “suppressing” the deformities. As a free Action, Conduits may return their body to normal, removing the penalty to Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, Handle Animal, and Wild Empathy checks gained from Abberant Feats. Reforming the Aberrant deformities is a move action.

Scavenging Gullet: Conduits gain Scavenging Gullet as a bonus feat at first level.

Improved Gullet: At 2nd level, Conduits' Gullets become more resistant to normally harmful substances. Conduits gain immunity to ingested poison and disease of all kinds. The usual save bonus gained from the Scavenging Gullet feat now applies to Nausea and Sickening effects.

Inhuman Reach: at 2nd level, Conduits gain Inhuman Reach as a Bonus Feat.

Accustomed Reach: At 3rd level Conduits have become used to the deformed state of their limbs, removing the -1 penalty inflicted by the Inhuman Reach feat, instead gaining a +1 BONUS due to the unpredictable optioned the limbs provide.

Bestial Hide: at 3rd level, Conduits gain Bestial Hide as a bonus feat.

Strengthened Hide: at 4th level, Conduits' hides thicken rapidly. The bonus Natural Armor granted by Bestial Hide equals the Conduit's Aberrant Feats.

Durable Form: at 4th level, Conduits gain Durable Form as a bonus feat.

Resilient Form: at 5th level, Conduits' natural healing kicks into overdrive, granting Fast healing equal to half their class level.

Inhuman Vision: at 5th level, Conduits gain Inhuman Vision as a bonus Feat.

Enhanced Vision: at 6th level, Conduits' vision becomes supersharp, allowing them to ignore concealment equal to 5x half their class level.

Warped Mind: At 6th level, Conduits gain Warped Mind as a bonus feat.

Offensive Mind: At 7th level, Conduits who are targeted by any effect that allows a will save may chose to force the attacker to make a will save equal to 10+the conduit's class level+the conduit's CHA (if any). Failure against this will save causes 2 points of Wisdom burn and sends the target into a fit of hysterical screams that renders it helpless and unable to act for one hour. For every 2 power points used to augment this ability the DC increases by one. This ability can only be augmented by using the power points granted by the Warped Mind feat. This ability is a Mind-Effecting effect.

Deepspawn: at 7th level, Conduits gain Deepspawn as a bonus feat.

Deepalpha: at 8th level, Conduits gain two additional tentacle attacks. The reach for all tentacle attacks possessed by Conduits increases by 5ft and Conduits are treated as a size category larger for grapple checks (to a maximum of Colossal).

Waterspawn: at 8th level, Conduits gain Waterspawn as a bonus feat.

Waterelder: at 9th level, Conduits' swim speeds and Cold Resistance are doubled (for a total Cold resistance of 15 when including the Starspawn feat below).

Starspawn: at 9th level, Conduits gain Starspawn as a bonus feat.

Starlord: at 10th level, Conduits' Flight speed increases to match their land speed and their cold resistance doubles again (for a total of 30).

Master Conduit: at 10th level, Conduits gain some of the abilities of a half-farspawn. Conduits gain Resistance to Acid and Electricity 10, damage reduction of 10/magic, have their natural attacks treated as magical for overcoming DR, Spell Resistance equal to 20+class level, Blindsight 60ft, and the ability to increase their deformities for a short time as a standard action. For a number of rounds equal to 1+constitution modifier, Conduits may gain two more tentacle attacks, immunity to flanking and critical hits, and impose a -1 penalty on any attack rolls by natives of the Material Plane (excluding other Conduits). After using the deformity increase, Conduits may not use the ability again for an amount of rounds equal to the time within the increase.

PLAYING A CONDUIT OF THE FAR REALMS
Conduits of the Far Realms turn into a monster over the course of their development, but gain the ability to repress the abilities to interact with society as normal. Playing a Conduit is all about being a monster when appropriate. You may be connected with the far realms, but that doesn't mean you can't be persuasive and dashing. Suppress your abilities when no threat is obvious or expected to not scare the common folk and as one hell of a ace in the sleeve.
Combat: When it comes to combat, the Conduits usually rely on their other classes for a lot as many of the mutations are defensive in nature or just nifty, but never really awesome until you become an angry ball of tentacle doom. Your reach becomes pretty interesting as your tentacle attacks get a reach of 15ft for the average medium creature without any outside augmentation, allowing for some fun Attacks of Opportunity. Don't forget that you get the ability to swim and fly, use it to your advantage if terrain allows. This can become death in a can if you combine it with the ability to see partially through concealment. If its dark, you win, if its foggy, you win, at least in theory.
Advancement: To optimize the abilities granted from becoming a Conduit, try to find abilities that capitalize on what is given. Combat reflexes and many of the feats related to it become astoundingly better than usual. Remember that your offense is lacking other than a flurry of tentacle slaps, so try to boost attack power. Power attack might be a good option, as is sneak attack and other precision abilities. Some spells might be interesting when used with your abilities, chill touch allows for multiple touch attacks, attacks you can make from far out of the reach of most humanoids, so a dip into sorcerer or wizard may be in order with practiced spellcaster to keep caster level out of the ditch. Grappling is an interesting tactic to invest in, some spiked armor and the improved grapple feat won't hurt your arsenal of tricks much.
Resources: Conduits of the Far Realms have very limited resources as even those of their own kind do not agree in many aspects. Some may form cults or teams devoted to one ideal or philosophy, but there really isn't any sort of brotherhood. A conduit can make friends due to their ability to suppress their mutations and have a productive conversation rather than hope for someone to see past their vast, almost endless differences, but there is little difference with some people.

CONDUITS OF THE FAR REALMS IN THE WORLD
“It was odd, our wizard cast some sort of spell at the monstrous fellow, but instead of doing something to the other guy, old Gwyvin fell to the floor screaming utter nonsense for at least an hour.” – Former mercenary's account of combating a Conduit

Conduits are usually outcasts, although many are able to integrate with society quite easily until they show their mutations. On the other hand, most Conduits don't really care for the views of others, otherwise they probably wouldn't have taken the path.
Daily Life: Most Conduits days are either filled with avoiding scaring the populous or trying to maximized the fear depending on outlook and alignment. Other than that, they live the life of the average joe, or at least the average adventurer.
Notables: The first ever recorded Conduit was a man by the name Rune Fisker. He was known as a scholar who specialized in the far realms. After his mutations took effect, he became an outcast until he proved that he wasn't insane (well, at least not dangerously so) and wanted to live his life in peace (of course he still had to fight off hunters, fanatics, interested civilians, and whatever threat was attacking his community, an average public hero's life). He sometimes went by the moniker Abberant or the Unspeakable Horror, although that was mostly for people who didn't really know him.
Organizations: The only organizations that exist surrounding the Conduits are usually cults devoted to abberations or other Far Realms related things. The aforementioned Rune Fisker made something of a study group/rehabilitation center for budding Conduits in his later life, although many find this utter nonsense and disregard it an urban legend.

NPC Reaction
Usually NPCs will either react as they would to any adventurer (if the mutations are hidden) or as to a monster (when the mutations are visible). Some may find the Conduit fascinating, others may reach for the torch and pitchfork. It can be something of a crapshoot for both sides as there are definitely many good and/or peaceful Conduits as well as evil and/or violent Conduits and revealing oneself as a Conduit might lead to a chase real quick.

CONDUITS OF THE FAR REALMS IN THE GAME
Most Conduits are going to take the role of either front-liner or stealther, with the majority leaning to front-liner. Their abilities really make them unique compared to other classes and will either fill a role in an unorthodox way or basically create a new role for themselves.
Adaptation: Any campaign dealing with abberations would easily allow the Conduits to just tack themselves on. If abberations are always evil or the main villain, then they make a good middle ground between cultist and monster. If the setting is more open, they make great allies or just an interesting NPC.
Encounters: If Conduits happen to be the enemy of the day, then most encounters with them are going to be rather odd. They can either be posing as bystanders or openly engaging PCs with unexpected advantages due to their mutations. They should never be just another enemy, they should be the guy who punched you from across the room, sent your mage into a screaming fit, soaked up what ever attack was thrown at him, and flew/swam away when things got rough.

EdroGrimshell
2010-09-16, 01:50 AM
Oh, I like.

Strengthened Hide really actually weakens the Beastial Hide feat, with the number of bonus Aberrant feats they gain you could easily make it equal to the number of aberrant feats you possess, or count each level towards the number of aberrant feats you possess.

I also like the Conduit ability.

Hat-Trick
2010-09-16, 01:54 AM
Duly noted and to be changed in 2.5 shakes of the virtual sheep's tail.

Nanoblack
2010-09-16, 02:03 AM
I definitely like it, but the progression seems a little... off. Gaining a feature and then getting the improvement one level later. My only suggestion would be to stagger it. So all of the base abilities (Scavenging Gullet-Starspawn) would be 1-5 and their improvements (Improved Gullet-Starlord) would be 6-10.

Maybe I'm crazy though :smallbiggrin:

Hat-Trick
2010-09-16, 02:09 AM
I see your point, but respectfully disagree. I, personally, see it as fine and would find the class somewhat uninteresting if the first five levels were little more than free feats. The improvements early means there's always something to look forward to besides another feat. It also creates a delicious cycle (http://xkcd.com/140/) of level advancement.

Owrtho
2010-09-16, 02:24 AM
I'd suggest giving the Conduit something if they already have the aberrant feat they would be getting that level. As it is, the class seems to make it so it isn't worth them getting any aberrant feats except Abberant Blood (fortunately able to be taken more than once), or some other homebrewed aberrant feats, as they otherwise are wasting the potential they could get from the class.

You could let them gain another free feat (as in any feat), limit them to aberrant feats, or even just limit them to another instance of Abberant Blood, but it would still be better than it is at the moment I think.

Owrtho

un_known
2010-09-16, 08:32 PM
I agree whole-heartedly with Owrtho multiple times I can see people aiming for this class have already taken an aberrant feat besides Aberrant Blood.

Possibly make some interesting other feats that are allowed OR look at EdroGrimshell's 'Aberration Blood Expanded'

Hat-Trick
2010-09-16, 10:02 PM
I had thought of that, but didn't have any actual ideas for replacements, but abberant blood and Edro's expanded are good alternates.

Owrtho
2010-09-16, 10:41 PM
There are also a few aberrant feats that could be used here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=153536). But most will only be useful to those taking the class there as well (specifically there are only 2 that are useful to others in general).

Owrtho