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Ilgivan
2010-12-09, 08:06 PM
I balanced this for the pathfinder game. I'm sure it needs tweaking, but I can't figure out what it is I should change.


Armsman

D10
4+int
(Acrobatics, Appraise, Climb, Craft, Escape Artist, Perception, Profession, Stealth, Survival, Use Magic Device)
Martial, light, shields
1:1 BAB, Good Fort and Reflex, Poor Will

1st Uncanny Dodge, Unusual Exposure
2nd Evasion
3rd Unusual Exposure
4th Sneak Attack +1d6
5th Quick Thinking +1, Unusual Exposure, Improved Uncanny Dodge, Exotic Training 1
6th All the World
7th Touch of Power, Unusual Exposure
8th Sneak Attack +2d6, Exotic Training 2
9th Unusual Exposure
10th Improved Evasion, Quick Thinking +2, Touch of Power
11th Unusual Exposure, Exotic Training 3
12th Sneak Attack +3d6
13th Unusual Exposure
14th Inner Weapon, Exotic Training 4
15th Quick Thinking +3, Unusual Exposure
16th Sneak Attack +4d6
17th Unusual Exposure, Exotic Training 5
18th Touch of Power
19th Unusual Exposure
20th Sneak Attack +5d6, Quick Thinking +4, Implacable Wielder, Exotic Training 6, Touch of Power


Unusual Exposure: At first level, and at every other level thereafter, an

Armsman becomes proficient with one exotic weapon.

Uncanny Dodge: As the barbarian ability of the same name.

Evasion: As the monk ability.

Sneak Attack: As the rogue ability.

Quick Thinking: At fifth level, and at every five levels thereafter, the Armsman gains a cumulative +1 competence bonus to initiative checks.

Improved Uncanny Dodge: As the barbarian ability.

Improved Evasion: As the monk ability

Exotic Training: At fifth level, and every third level thereafter, an Armsman gains a +1 Bonus on all attack and damage rolls made with weapons granted to them by their Unusual Exposure.

All the World: At sixth level, the Armsman is familiar enough with the weapon in all things to gains proficiency in all improvised weapons. Additionally, they may make an appraise check to determine the magical or psionic properties of weapons without the aid of detect magic or detect psionics.

Touch of Power: At seventh level, the Armsman's ability to see the weapon in all things has improved, allowing her to treat all weapons as magic and psionic for the purposes of bypassing DR.
At tenth level, the Armsman is sufficiently in tune with the weapon within all things that she may treat all weapons she is proficient with as having any particular alchemical property (other than adamantine) for the purposes of bypassing DR, as well as allowing her to apply her alignment to weapons she is proficient with for the purposes of bypassing DR.
At sixteenth level, the Armsman knows the ways of weaponry well enough that she may apply alignments which are not her own to weapons she is proficient with for the purposes of bypassing DR.
At eighteenth level, the Armsman is so in tune with her weapons that she may treat any weapon she is proficient with as adamantine for all purposes.
At twentieth level, the Armsman can draw out the potential of a weapon to bypass any and all forms of DR, including DR/-.

Inner Weapon: At fourteenth level, the Armsman is sufficiently in tune with the inner weapon of all objects that they may treat improvised weapons as though they were as any specific weapon of a similar shape, and can treat a weapon as though it were any other weapon in its weapon group.

Implacable Wielder: At twentieth level, the Armsman has learned to touch the very essence of an object and anchor it to the world. It is impossible to sunder any weapon she holds or has previously held in the last ten rounds. These weapons retain the properties she last treated them as having for this time, and she may not be disarmed. Additionally, she may treat her unarmed attack as though it is any weapon she has actually held for a period of fifteen minutes in the last day.




Associated Feats:

Draw Energy:
Prereq- Touch of Power
Benefit- Choose one energy type. When using Touch of Power, you do an additional 1d6 of damage of that energy type.
Special- You may take this feat more than once. Each time, choose a different energy type. You can not manifest two different energy types at the same time without the Combine Energy feat.

Combine Energy:
Prereq- Touch of Power, Draw Energy, CHA 15
Benefit- You may manifest a number of energy types for Draw Energy at once equal to your charisma modifier.

Merk
2010-12-09, 08:38 PM
In my opinion, the class as written is entirely too weak and too narrow in scope.

The skill points are very low, and though this was probably intentional to balance it against the fighter, few people if any think that the fighter getting 2 base skill points is a good idea.

I never understood the point of the Grace series of abilities. If you want this class to be agile, give it a good reflex save and be done with it. It makes little sense to have a poor reflex save and the evasion abilities.

Most of its unique abilities don't amount to very much. In the end, you can overcome some damage reduction and sometimes deal +5d6 damage. That's cool, but a fighter can just pull out the right sword, gets damage bonuses in class, and actually has some non-attack options thanks to feats. Or the fighter can take the penetrating strike feats and overcome damage reduction as a class feature, and use power attack, weapon specialization, etc. for damage.

Being proficient with exotic weapons is actually the most interesting class feature, and the initiative bonus is probably the "strongest".

Drothmal
2010-12-09, 09:02 PM
I agree with Merk, the class ended up being a bit on the weak side since you used one of the weaker base classes (fighter) as reference. Even in that, the fighter has more versatility with feats and weapon and armor training (and that is without considering the advanced player's guide)

IMHO, I would suggest

Give 4+int SP
Take out the grace and just give a good Ref save

Condense all DR bypassing abilities into one ability that evolves over the levels. I find it interesting that he's able to bypass and DR with anything he picks up, but it should not be 1/4 of the class features

I would add the equivalent of the fighter's weapon training to using exotic weapons (but not for improvised weapons), maybe even improve it to X1.5 the values of weapon training (rounded up) to make the class a bit more powerful

It seems you are going for a non-magical melee. Otherwise, I would suggest something similar to the paladin's weapon bond that gives you abilities while using exotic weapons

If you are playing with 3.5 materials, add exotic armors to the exposure feature


Hope that helps, I think that the idea is cool, but as it is, it would really lag behind in power to most other classes

true_shinken
2010-12-11, 10:41 AM
It could use some work on the formating. As others said, it's a bit weak, also.

Ilgivan
2010-12-12, 07:11 PM
Okay, I tweaked it under those suggestions, and added a couple of feats that could be taken.

Any thoughts on further improvement, or should it be good now?