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Realms of Chaos
2010-10-26, 02:22 PM
THE SKINWALKER

Note: Full credit goes to Kellus for this idea and for giving birth to just about every mechanic here. This rewrite was made with his permission and I’ve just tried to make this class a bit more streamlined by focusing more on the transformational aspect of this class. Probably a strong tier 3 or weak tier 2, depending on the creatures that you end up facing.
here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=173025) is the original.


The Skinwalker
{table="head"]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |
Fleshy Arcana

1st|+0|+2|+0|+2|Skinwalk, Flesh Familiar, Collector of Skins (Humanoid and Outsider)|
--

2nd|+1|+3|+0|+3|The Best Disguise, Collector of Skins (1st Selection)|
1st

3rd|+1|+3|+1|+3|Magical Infusion, Assimilate Memories|
1st

4th|+2|+4|+1|+4|Minions of Flesh, Versatile Skinwalk (1 Size)|
1st

5th|+2|+4|+1|+4|Layered Skins (2 Skins)|
2nd

6th|+3|+5|+2|+5|Collector of Skins (2nd Selection)|
2nd

7th|+3|+5|+2|+5|Steal Memories|
2nd

8th|+4|+6|+2|+6|Mastery of Flesh|
3rd

9th|+4|+6|+3|+6|Layered Skins (3 Skins)|
3rd

10th|+5|+7|+3|+7|Collector of Skins (3rd Selection)|
3rd

11th|+5|+7|+3|+7|Trap the Mind|
4th

12th|+6/+1|+8|+4|+8|Versatile Skinwalk (2 Sizes)|
4th

13th|+6/+1|+8|+4|+8|Layered Skins (4 Skins)|
4th

14th|+7/+2|+9|+4|+9|Collector of Skins (4th Selection)|
5th

15th|+7/+2|+9|+5|+9|Contain Essence|
5th

16th|+8/+3|+10|+5|+10|True Mastery of Flesh|
5th

17th|+8/+3|+10|+5|+10|Layered Skins (5 Skins)|
6th

18th|+9/+4|+11|+6|+11|Collector of Skins (5th Selection)|
6th

19th|+9/+4|+11|+6|+11|Subvert Soul|
6th

20th|+10/+5|+12|+6|+12|Extract Skin, Versatile Skinwalk (3 Sizes)|
7th[/table]

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d8

Class Skills:
A skinwalker's class skills (and the relevant ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (the Planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Open Lock (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha), and Use Rope (Dex).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

CLASS FEATURES
All of the following are class features of the skinwalker.

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies: A skinwalker is proficient with all light armour and all simple weapons. He is not proficient with any kind of shield or any heavier armour.

Flesh Familiar (Ex): Among your most famous abilities is that to remove your flesh from your own body and continue controlling it. You may separate your flesh familiar or rejoin it to yourself as a standard action but you can’t do so if wearing armor or another skin. While separated, your skin is counted as an aberration two size categories smaller than you with your physical ability scores and mental ability scores equal to your class level + 2 (up to a maximum of your score in the corresponding ability).
Your flesh familiar and you share the same feats (if it meets the proper prerequisites), skills, base saving throws, and hit point total. As such, any damage dealt to your flesh familiar damages yourself and visa-versa. Your flesh familiar gains your natural armor bonus, which you lose while your flesh familiar is active. Your flesh familiar is utterly subservient to you and speaks all languages that you know.
Your flesh familiar has a speed of 5 feet/level and a fly speed of 5 feet/2 levels (average maneuverability). You possess an empathetic bond with your flesh familiar and it gains the benefits of improved evasion and darkvision out to 60 feet. By concentrating, you may send your senses directly into the body of your flesh familiar and take utter control over its actions for as long as you concentrate.
A flesh familiar is incapable of making attacks, even using natural weapons belonging to your normal form, but may harm foes in indirect ways such as dropping caltrops or pulling a lever that drops a bridge. Your flesh familiar gains a +10 bonus on disguise checks made to disguise as you or as a member of your race.

Collector of Skins (Su): As a skinwalker, you collect a variety of skins from dead things to imitate them. A skinwalker can only collect a skin from a creature if it possesses a number of Hit Dice up to you class level + your Charisma modifier and has a CR less than your class level. You can only collect a skin from a creature who has been dead for as long as one day/class level and who is mostly intact.
Although you may carry any number of pelts on your person, you can only possess a number of attuned skins equal to your class level + 3 at any given time. If you collect a new skin over the limit, you must pick an old skin to discard, which thereafter cannot be re-attuned to your essence.
A skin suit has hit points equal to half of your maximum hit points. When a skin's hit points are reduced to zero, it is destroyed permanently. With one hour of work, you can heal any skin that you aren’t wearing by a number of hit points equal to your class level. You cannot heal a single skin more than once per day in this way.
At 1st level, you can only select the skins of humanoids and outsiders. At 2nd level and every 4 levels thereafter, however, you may choose a new type of creature who you can collect skins of. You may never collect the skins of oozes, elementals, or incorporeal creatures. If a creature’s basic form is utterly incomparably different to your own (while it is conceivable to hide in an elephant pelt, golem’s chasis, or phasm’s stretchy flesh, for example, fitting into a skeleton of assassin vine makes absolutely no sense for most races), you may be unable to collect its skin at the DM’s discretion. You cannot collect a skin of a different size category than yourself.
Harvesting a skin takes 1 minute of work. A skin weighs 10 pounds, + 5 pounds for each size category larger than medium or –2 pounds for each size category smaller than medium.

Skinwalk (Su): With a minute of activity, a skinwalker can put on or take off a skin he is carrying. When you put on a skin suit, you gain that creature’s Strength and Dexterity scores, creature type, modes of movement and speeds, natural attacks, and extraordinary racial abilities (including senses light darkvision and scent). Furthermore, your skin takes half of all damage that you would normally take. You retain only your feats (if you still meet their prerequisites), skills (modified for your new Strength and Dexterity scores if necessary), Constitution score (even if your new creature type does not normally possess a Constitution score), mental ability scores, and class features gained by virtue of levels in skinwalker. When disguising as the specific individual whose skin you have stolen, you are treated as rolling a 20 on your Disguise check and gain their scent. When transforming into a form incapable of using your equipment, all of your equipment melds into your body and remains inactive.
Supernatural class features that you possess possess no magical aura while wearing a skin in this way. If wearing the skin of a creature possessing supernatural abilities, you gain an appropriate number of magical auras of the proper strength.

The Best Disguise (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, a skinwalker gains additional proficiency in mimicking a skin. You can perfectly imitate a skin's original voice and you also subconsciously reproduce their behavioral quirks, denying people familiar with the creature the automatic Spot check they would normally receive to pierce the disguise and halving any bonus that they gain to such Spot checks.

Fleshy Arcana (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a skinwalker can tap into the arcane energies of a skin. He keeps any spell-like abilities that a skin suit had previously been able to cast, as long as they are of 1st level or less. He can't use a spell-like ability that has an XP cost or costly material component. Every 3 levels afterwards, you may imitate spell-like abilities of up to one spell level higher (to a maximum of 7th-level spells at 20th level). The save DCs of all such spell-like abilities rely on your Charisma modifier.

Assimiliate Memories (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a skinwalker can extract some information from the memories held in a skin. When you first collects the skin, you learn its surface thoughts at the time of its death and if the creature fails a saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 class level + Cha modifier), you may demand the honest answer of a single yes or no question from the previous tenant of the skin. If the previous tenant does not know the answer, they instead provide their best guess.

Magical Infusion (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a skinwalker uses demonic magic to strengthen the attacks of their skin. Whenever you’re wearing a skin suit, any natural attacks you gain from it receive an enhancement bonus of half your class level. With one hour of work, you can trade this bonus out for suitable enchantments just like enhancement bonuses on a magic weapon, such as flaming, keen, and so on. The base enhancement bonus on his magic claws must be at least +1 before any other enchantments are added. The same enhancements apply regardless of which skin you are currently wearing, apply equally to all natural weapons granted, and are not added to attacks with natural weapons made in your true form.

Versatile Skinwalk (Su): At 4th level, skinwalkers learn how to fill up a bigger and fold down into smaller skins than they normally wear. You may not collect and wear skins within one size category of yourself. At 12th level, you can collect and wear skins within two size categories of yourself. At 20th level, you can collect and wear skins within three size categories of yourself. You assume a skin’s size category when you wear its skin.

Minions of Flesh (Su): At 4th level, a skinwalker learns how to animate skins even without inhabiting them, allowing them to find you. As a full-round action, you may animate any number of unattended skins with which you possess a line of sight. The skins function like unseen servants for most purposes but possess their full strength scores and normal hit point totals. A skin is treated as humanoid for all purposes and is disguised as its original body (receiving a +8 bonus to its hide check). Such skins remain animated for up to 1 hour or until you spend a standard action to return them to lifelessness. You may not don an animated skin.

Layered Skins (Su): At 5th level a skinwalker learns how to layer his skins on top of each other. You can now wear up to two collected skins at a time, layering them so that the second one appears when the first is destroyed or removed. You cannot wear a skin over another skin of a larger size category.
At 9th level and every 4 levels afterwards, you may wear an additional layer of skin at a time. You may not wear more than three collected skins of the same size category at a time.

Steal Memories (Su): At 7th level a skinwalker learns how to endlessly drain memories from their skins. You may attempt to extract information from a given skin (as your assimilate memories class feature) as often as once per day. In addition, you gain all languages known and proficiencies with weapons, armor, and shields that a skin once possessed while wearing that skin, if any (in addition to those you already possess).

Mastery of Flesh (Su): At 8th level, a skinwalker can don or remove a skin with great speed and switch between skins to escape dangerous effects. You can don or remove a skin as a full-round action. Furthermore, once per encounter, when you don or remove a skin, you may choose to end all ongoing effects on your person (including such things as suggestions, fear effects, being on fire, and so on.), whether positive or negative. You may use this ability even if an ongoing effect would normally prevent you from taking such an action.

Trap the Mind (Su): At 11th level, a skinwalker can preserve a piece of his skin's precious mind. As a result, you can deflect any divination effects so that they reveal information appropriate to the previous owner of your worn skin instead of yourself. In addition, if the target has any ranks in Knowledge skills, you gain access to these ranks while wearing its skin, replacing your own ranks in a skill if they exceed your own.

Contain Essence (Su): At 15th level, a skinwalker can preserve a bit of his skin’s former supernatural power. Whenever you collect a skin, you may select a single supernatural ability that the target possessed. When wearing that skin, you possess that supernatural ability. The save DC for a stolen ability (if any) is always based off of your Charisma modifier.

True Mastery of Flesh (Su): Starting at 16th level, a skinwalker can escape or dawn a new skin with but a moment’s notice and possess more finesse when cleansing himself of negative conditions. You can don or remove a skin with a standard action. You may now cleanse yourself of effects twice per encounter instead of once and may cleanse yourself of any or all ongoing effects, allowing you to retain beneficial effects.

Subvert Soul (Su): At 19th level, a skinwalker can fully preserve his skin’s soul, allowing them to take the brunt of mental attacks. While wearing a skin, you gain immunity to mind-affecting effects and to effects that target your soul (trap the soul, magic jar, etc.). Furthermore, this soul makes the skinwalker’s disguise complete, preventing effects such as true seeing from piercing through your disguise.

Extract Skin (Su): At 20th level, a skinwalker learns how to extract the skin directly off of a living body. Once per encounter, you can spend a standard action to force a creature within 100 feet whose skin you could harvest to make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 class level + Charisma modifier). A creature who succeeds is merely dragged 1d4 x 5 feet closer to the skinwalker, provoking no attacks of opportunity. A creature who fails, however is instantly stripped clean of their flesh as it flies to you, slaying the creature.

Kellus
2010-10-27, 01:22 AM
Good. Very good. I would rather play this than my original one, even though I do miss some of the names for the class features I came up with. I particularly miss 'Sort of Like an Onion' and 'Just a Flesh Wound'. :smallsmile:

Heads up tho, you call it 'fleshly arcana' in the class feature and 'fleshy arcana' in the table. I think I originally had the former, but I'm not sure which one you meant to use.

Anyway, glad you liked it enough to redux it. Great job! :smallwink:

Lev
2010-10-27, 02:49 AM
I don't agree with +infinity to disguise check, since social flow and lack of information is always a factor, and I do think that either collector of skins should be Su or a craft check.

Other than that, I do love this class.

Realms of Chaos
2010-10-27, 08:32 AM
+infinite to disguise checks? where? Wearing someone's skin lets you take 20 on the disguise check but it doesn't even provide a +1 bonus to the actual result. :smallconfused:

Also, fleshy arcana was intended and collecting skins is now supernatural.

Edit: sorry for not using those ability names. The former reminded me of Shrek and the latter of Monte Python so... I just went vanilla.

Lev
2010-10-27, 08:56 AM
The Best Disguise (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, a skinwalker gains additional proficiency in mimicking a skin. You can perfectly imitate a skin's original voice and you also subconsciously reproduce their behavioral quirks, denying people familiar with the creature the automatic Spot check they would normally receive to pierce the disguise and halving any bonus that they gain to such Spot checks.
My bad, I read this as denying them of making an opposed disguise check.

Also, did you intend the class to stick out magically like a sore thumb with red LED lights taped to it?

This class has gotta have a huge aura on it, any sorc or wiz will be able to cast detect magic and see it light up like an xmas tree.

Realms of Chaos
2010-10-27, 09:29 AM
Most other classes also have huge auras. Paladins, Binders, Monks, Druids, etc. all have magical auras to detect, as does every single creature with at least one supernatural ability. What would make this guy stick out in particular? :smallconfused:

If this is really a problem, I could always add a single sentance ot skinwalk saying that your supernatural class features possess no magical aura while wearing a skin. On the other hand, an average DnD society has relatively few people capable of using detect magic.

Also, why would the aura be huge? According to the FAQ, your "caster level" for supernatural abilities = your HD.

drakir_nosslin
2010-10-29, 09:20 AM
*Subscribed*
You continue to impress, RoC!

Yea, I got nothing else to say...

Lev
2010-10-31, 02:59 PM
Well, if you want the character to be stealthy as it seems to indicate it might be, then detect magic will generally foil it.

Right now it's turning out more like Consume Likeness feat from BoVD than a gnarly face-stealer type class that would fit in something like Complete Scoundrel.

Realms of Chaos
2010-10-31, 04:15 PM
One sentence has now been added to skinwalk, undoing the devastation of detect magic.
Edit: added in another sentance to addressed the next logical concern.

Moose Man
2011-01-23, 05:07 PM
Awesomely Creepy