The Legacy Champion (Base Class, PEACH)

[Ziegander]

NOTE: If you do not have access to both Magic of Incarnum and Weapons of Legacy this class will make no sense to you. Yes, this makes a normal Fighter obsolete.

The Legacy Champion
"By the blade of Sir Endrik, dragons will plague this land no more!" - Sander Rathspell, Legacy Champion.

http://th03.deviantart.net/fs21/PRE/f/2007/254/0/9/Magic_Item_Compendium_prelim_by_francis001.jpg

Premiere scholars of item lore, and warriors of the most capable order, Legacy Champions recognize the latent power hidden within all items. Able to transform the most seemingly mundane items into powerful magical equipment, Legacy Champions seek out items with the most interesting stories and the finest craftsmanship. Such items carry the most powerful Legacies, lines of magical power linked to history itself.

Legacy Champions are quick to point out the storied histories of their items, eagerly telling tales to their companions that often only the Champion itself finds interesting. However boring or exciting such a story might be, it would be foolish to deny the power the Champion manifests from these tales.

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: 1d10



Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special

Essentia


1st
+1
+2
+2
+2
Bonus Feat, Item Lore

-


2nd
+2
+3
+3
+3
Bonus Feat

-


3rd
+3
+3
+3
+3
Improved Uncanny Dodge

-


4th
+4
+4
+4
+4
Bonus Feat

-


5th
+5
+4
+4
+4
Minor Legacy Healing

0


6th
+6/+1
+5
+5
+5
Bonus Feat

1


7th
+7/+2
+5
+5
+5
Legacy Master I

2


8th
+8/+3
+6
+6
+6
Bonus Feat

3


9th
+9/+4
+6
+6
+6
Lesser Legacy Healing

4


10th
+10/+5
+7
+7
+7
Bonus Feat

5


11th
+11/+6/+1
+7
+7
+7
Legacy Master II

6


12th
+12/+7/+2
+8
+8
+8
Bonus Feat

7


13th
+13/+8/+3
+8
+8
+8
Improved Legacy Healing

8


14th
+14/+9/+4
+9
+9
+9
Bonus Feat

9


15th
+15/+10/+5
+9
+9
+9
Legacy Master III

10


16th
+16/+11/+6/+1
+10
+10
+10
Bonus Feat

11


17th
+17/+12/+7/+2
+10
+10
+10
True Legacy Healing

12


18th
+18/+13/+8/+3
+11
+11
+11
Bonus Feat

13


19th
+19/+14/+9/+4
+11
+11
+11
Epic Legacy Master

14


20th
+20/+15/+10/+5
+12
+12
+12
Bonus Feat

15



Class Skills (6+Int modifier): Appraise, Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (all), Listen, Move Silently, Profession, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Swim, Tumble, and Use Magic Device.

Proficiencies: All simple and martial weapons; all light, medium, and heavy armors; and all shields (including Tower).

Item Lore (Ex): As Bardic Knowledge, but only as it pertains to weapons, armor, and magical items. You also gain a bonus to all Appraise, Craft (Weaponsmaking, Blacksmithing, Metalwork, Woodwork) and , and Knowledge (History) checks equal to your Legacy Champion level.

Bonus Feats: As Fighter, but also add all Incarnum and Legacy feats to your list of bonus feats. Your levels in Legacy Champion count as Fighter levels for the purposes of qualifying for feats.

Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): Starting at 3rd level; as both Uncanny Dodge and Improved Uncanny Dodge (as Barbarian).

Essentia: Starting at 5th level you gain a pool of essentia. You gain a number of points of essentia equal to your Constitution modifier (if positive) and every level after 5th you add an additional point of essentia to your pool. You use this essentia to fuel any Incarnum feats you may have, but your main use for them is to invest them into physical items. This has the effect of unlocking Legacy abilities as outlined in Weapons of Legacy. You are subject to the same limitations as normal essentia users with regards to investment caps (MoI 19). A Legacy Champion must spend 5 minutes in meditation to invest essentia into an item, and may reallocate his invested essentia with 5 minutes in meditation. This requires steady concentration.

With 1 point of Essentia invested into an item you unlock Legacy abilities for it as if you possessed the Least Legacy feat and as if you had performed the Least ritual for the item. You pay no associated GP cost or additional personal costs such as attack penalties or hit point loss. With 2 points of Essentia invested you unlock the abilities as if you possessed the Lesser Legacy feat and as if you had performed the Lesser ritual. With 3 points of Essentia invested you unlock the abilities as if you possessed the Greater Legacy feat and as if you had performed the Greater ritual.

A Legacy Champion may only use a number of X/day Legacy abilities each day gained in this way equal to his class level + his Constitution modifier. Further, he may never use a specific X/day Legacy ability more times each day than the maximum times such an ability is granted on a Legacy ability menu or Legacy item. Any effect that would grant the Legacy Champion additional uses of Legacy abilities allows him one additional total use of Legacy abilities for the day and grants him one allowed use of a single specific Legacy ability for the day.

For example, a 13th level Legacy Champion with Constitution 24 has 20 total uses of X/day Legacy abilities gained through empowering items with essentia. Using a warhammer empowered to function as a Hammer of Witches, the Legacy Champion may only use the Spellbreaker Legacy ability twice in a day even if he has any number of uses for the day. He may reallocate his essentia in order to gain different X/day Legacy abilities, but without an ability to grant him additional uses of a Legacy ability he may not use Spellbreaker more than 2/day.

Whenever a Legacy ability unlocked in this way would cause an enemy to make a saving throw you may use your Constitution modifier in place of any ability modifier the Legacy ability would normally require whenever it would be beneficial for you to do so.

Minor Legacy Healing (Sp): Starting at 5th level, when you reduce a foe to 0 or fewer hit points and carry an Item of Legacy, including items you have empowered with essentia, you regain hit points equal to that creature's total HD.

Starting at 9th level when you reduce a foe to 0 or fewer hit points you regain hit points equal to three times that creature's total HD instead.

Starting at 13th level when you reduce a foe to 0 or fewer hit points you regain hit points equal to five times that creature's total HD instead. You also recover all ability damage or drain.

Starting at 17th level when you reduce a foe to 0 or fewer hit points you regain hit points equal to ten times that creature's total HD instead. You also recover all ability damage or drain and remove all negative levels and harmful status effects.

Legacy Master (Sp): Starting at 7th level, when you reduce a foe to 0 or fewer hit points and carry an Item of Legacy, including items you have empowered with essentia, you are treated as one level higher for the purposes of accessing your Legacy items' abilities. This effect lasts for 1 hour and cannot stack with itself.

Starting at 11th level when you reduce a foe to 0 or fewer hit points you are treated as two levels higher instead.

At 15th level when you reduce a foe to 0 or fewer hit points you are treated as three levels higher instead.

Epic Legacy Master (Sp): Starting at 19th level, if you invest 4 essentia into an item you are able to access Epic level Legacy abilities as if you possessed the Epic Legacy feat and as if you had performed any Epic rituals as required to access the higher level abilities.

Furthermore, when you reduce a foe to 0 or fewer hit points and carry an Item of Legacy, including items you have empowered with essentia, you are treated as four levels higher instead of the three levels you would normally be treated as through your Legacy Master class feature.

To choose an ability from Epic Legacy Ability Menu Z you must forgo the ability you would normally gain for being 21st level (this means, to access such an ability you must first invest 4 essentia into the item, second be 20th level or higher, and if you are not yet 24th level you must, third, reduce a foe to 0 or fewer hit points).

[Ziegander]

Well, no thoughts? Have I gone too far with this one? I'm well aware that with optimization this guy becomes Tier 2 with ease and that it combines nearly unheard of versatility with constant effect abilities and spell-like abilities. But, at the average game table this probably plays well with Crusaders, Bards, and Duskblades.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Well, no thoughts? Have I gone too far with this one? I'm well aware that with optimization this guy becomes Tier 2 with ease and that it combines nearly unheard of versatility with constant effect abilities and spell-like abilities. But, at the average game table this probably plays well with Crusaders, Bards, and Duskblades.

This doesn't reach Tier 2 by any stretch of the imagination. It's a bit better than a gestalt fighter/soulborn or monk/soulborn with a custom-built legacy weapon, I'd say, but that still leaves it at Tier 3 at the absolute highest--even factotums and beguilers, with their UMD abuse potential, are only Tier 3.

That's a good thing, though, I think. It does completely obsolete the soulborn, seeing as it has more essentia by default and can replicate its melds and binds with Shape Soulmeld, but that's good riddance to a terrible class and this is a good replacement. The class gives a good reason to use the usually-subpar WoL rules, another plus. The healing gives it a nice bit of tankiness, and with incarnum's Con focus could probably give a crusader a run for his money in that department. Overall, a very nice job.

[Ziegander]

This doesn't reach Tier 2 by any stretch of the imagination. It's a bit better than a gestalt fighter/soulborn or monk/soulborn with a custom-built legacy weapon, I'd say, but that still leaves it at Tier 3 at the absolute highest--even factotums and beguilers, with their UMD abuse potential, are only Tier 3.

Well, I suppose it's probably mostly Tier 3 at lower and even mid levels, but at high levels with the sheer number of Legacy Abilities it's able to power out and the capability to change those abilities out every 5 minutes. At the least we're looking at lots of different 9th level SLAs 1/day, +6 to all ability scores at no GP cost, and all sorts of other minor benefits like Never Flatfooted, Glitterdust at will, and Contingency 1/day. And at the highest levels of play we're looking at Wish 3/day in addition to the many 1/day 9th level SLAs, and at 20th level he's raining down 15th level SLAs 3/day. Pretty impressive.


It's a bit better than a gestalt fighter/soulborn or monk/soulborn with a custom-built legacy weapon, I'd say

Actually, rereading this part of your post makes me wonder if you're misinterpreting something, or if I was unclear about what I expect the class to be capable of. A 9th level Legacy Champion, Con 21, could spend 5 minutes in meditation and infuse up to 9 items with Least Legacy abilities as he sees fit. With another 5 minutes in meditation he could remove his essentia and then put it all back into those same items to infuse them with new Least Legacy abilities. That may not sound too impressive, but even at that level you can get Scorching Ray at will, Spider Climb at will, Fly 1/day, Suggestion 2/day, Dispel Magic 1/day, Clairaudience/voyence 2/day, Web 3/day, Obscuring Mist at will, +5 to saves, +2 to all ability scores, etc, etc... All of that on top of being a badass Fighter with UMD and actual skill points... I dunno, even at that level the power and versatility seems comparable to a 9th level Sorcerer (less raw power due to the lack of 5th level spells, but MUCH more staying power and more versatility).

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Actually, rereading this part of your post makes me wonder if you're misinterpreting something, or if I was unclear about what I expect the class to be capable of. A 9th level Legacy Champion, Con 21, could spend 5 minutes in meditation and infuse up to 9 items with Least Legacy abilities as he sees fit. With another 5 minutes in meditation he could remove his essentia and then put it all back into those same items to infuse them with new Least Legacy abilities. That may not sound too impressive, but even at that level you can get Scorching Ray at will, Spider Climb at will, Fly 1/day, Suggestion 2/day, Dispel Magic 1/day, Clairaudience/voyence 2/day, Web 3/day, Obscuring Mist at will, +5 to saves, +2 to all ability scores, etc, etc... All of that on top of being a badass Fighter with UMD and actual skill points... I dunno, even at that level the power and versatility seems comparable to a 9th level Sorcerer (less raw power due to the lack of 5th level spells, but MUCH more staying power and more versatility).

It turns out I did misread it; I skimmed over the mention of incarnum feats under Essentia and thought you were saying that item investment worked like feats, in that it was 1/day and tied up essentia for 24 hours. If you can swap essentia out like a normal meld, that does make this class significantly more powerful.

I don't know if I'd call it easily T2, since the SLAs granted by the ability menus before Menu G or so tend to be weaker than what a competent UMD build can use, a warlock can already pull a bunch of the lower-level tricks at will (spider climb, fly, a better dispel magic, a better obscuring mist, eldritch blast instead of scorching ray, and other stuff), and a sorcerer has access to spells like alter self, polymorph, wings of flurry, the orb line, and the other really good non-core spells like those. However, good use of the intelligent item abilities and a cohesive selection of feats could bump it up a tier. So I'd call it high T3, low to mid T2 past the mid levels with a bit of effort. That's a fairly good balance point.

Don't take my critique the wrong way--this is a very good remake of the soulborn at the very least, the self-healing and good saves make the basic paladin jealous, and the class is an excellent gish-in-a-can or even a secondary meldshaper--I just thought you were overestimating its power and versatility a tad.

[Ziegander]

It turns out I did misread it; I skimmed over the mention of incarnum feats under Essentia and thought you were saying that item investment worked like feats, in that it was 1/day and tied up essentia for 24 hours. If you can swap essentia out like a normal meld, that does make this class significantly more powerful.

I don't know if I'd call it easily T2, since the SLAs granted by the ability menus before Menu G or so tend to be weaker than what a competent UMD build can use, a warlock can already pull a bunch of the lower-level tricks at will (spider climb, fly, a better dispel magic, a better obscuring mist, eldritch blast instead of scorching ray, and other stuff), and a sorcerer has access to spells like alter self, polymorph, wings of flurry, the orb line, and the other really good non-core spells like those. However, good use of the intelligent item abilities and a cohesive selection of feats could bump it up a tier. So I'd call it high T3, low to mid T2 past the mid levels with a bit of effort. That's a fairly good balance point.

Right. At low levels it's a Fighter with better skills. At mid levels it's a Fighter with lots and lots of cute little tricks, utility, and self-healing. At high levels is where it really starts to shine with pretty awesome self-healing, lots of potent tricks and utility, and it's still a Fighter with solid skills.


Don't take my critique the wrong way

Oh, no, no, I just wasn't sure if I had written it clearly so that you or anyone else could understand it. Hopefully it's clear now.


--this is a very good remake of the soulborn at the very least, the self-healing and good saves make the basic paladin jealous, and the class is an excellent gish-in-a-can or even a secondary meldshaper--I just thought you were overestimating its power and versatility a tad.

Well, remember, the Pally does get Cha to saves, which is awesome too. I ended up giving it all good saves just because of the MAD Fighters have. They need Strength, and will definitely have a high Constitution too, but they have no incentive to do much of anything with their Dex or Wis, so the good Ref and Will just help make sure they can occasionally still make the saves. Picking up Evasion and Mettle through Legacy Abilities is nice too. :)

In the end I may have overestimated its power and versatility a tad, sure, but I'd still say not by much. This guy can definitely pull off a lot of interesting tricks. Saving all of his gold for one really gives him some nifty flexibility. With UMD in his skill list and all of that extra gold, plus his ability to get up to +15 to UMD through Legacy Abilities, that's nice by itself.

[Zaydos]

I'll need to actually bother to read all the legacy abilities before I can really judge (I have Weapons of Legacy but I've never actually used it after really pouring through it and being sorely disappointed). The class does look really interesting though.