[D20 modern] The zombie trainer

[Yeturs]

I made this Advanced class for a post zombie apocalypse game. This is my first Homebrew that has made it anywhere near complete, and i would like some of the playgrounds wise help in making it better.

I would like to know if this advanced class is any good. Im worried about Undead Cultavatist being at the right power level.

If you were playing in a zombie apocalypse, would you take this?

Full Class:



http://www.deviantart.com/download/95200458/Zombie_Protection_by_freakoftheeast.jpg
“Don't worry, Lynda don't bite... often”.
~~Darwyn Guy, a Zombie Trainer

The Zombie Trainer is skilled in the art of those who have died. Some who train the dead do it for personal reasons, to keep those they love close. Some who train the dead are just looking for lackies to procure supplies. But most who train the dead are just

Requirements:

Knowledge Arcane lore:3 ranks
Knowledge Earth and Life sciences: 3 ranks
Treat Injury: 3 ranks
Handle Animal: 6 ranks



Hit Die: d8. The Zombie Trainer gains 1d8 Hit points per level. Constitution applies.

Action Points: The Zombie Trainer gains 6+1/2 their level action points each time she levels up.

Skill points: 5+int mod

Class skills: Bluff (cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Pharmaceutical) (Int), Diplomacy(Cha), Disguise(Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha) , Knowledge (Arcane Lore, Behavioral Sciences, Earth and Life science) (int), Listen (Wis), Sense Motive (wis), Survival (wis), and Treat Injury (wis)


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

1st|
+0|
+1|
+0|
+1|If I Can Catch It

2nd|
+1|
+2|
+0|
+2|Look! Brains!

3rd|
+1|
+2|
+1|
+2|Tricks of the Trade, Bonus feat

4th|
+2|
+2|
+1|
+2|Undead Cultavatist

5th|
+2|
+3|
+2|
+3|Warning! Dead Ahead!

6th|
+3|
+3|
+2|
+3|The Dead Wake!, Bonus feat

7th|
+3|
+4|
+2|
+4|The Dead Sleep!

8th|
+4|
+4|
+3|
+4|Tricks of the Trade

9th|
+4|
+4|
+3|
+4|Alive Again!, Bonus feat

10th|
+5|
+5|
+3|
+5|Being Human[/table]



If I Can Catch It...

At first level, The Zombie Trainer may use handle animal checks on zombies, applying a -4 in an attempt to train the zombie. One cannot take 20 to train a zombie.

Even though Zombies have no intelligence, you may teach a Zombie 3 tricks as if it had an intelligence of 1.


Look! Brains!

At second level, The Zombie Trainer has learned some of the native growls and gurgles of the Undead. As a Move action, she may point and speak to distract a number of zombies (Who may be no more then 10 feet from each other) equal to his Zombie trainer level.

The zombies make a will saving throw against a DC equal to 10 + 1/2 the Zombie trainers level + her charisma modifier. The distracted zombies take no actions for a full round. A zombie distracted in this way may not be distracted in this way again for 1 hour.


Tricks of the Trade

At third level, the Zombie Hunter takes -2 to train zombies. Also, you may train zombies as if they had 2 intelligence, for a total of six tricks. This improves to a -0 at eighth level.


Undead Cultivatist

At fourth level, The Zombie Trainer may train a single Zombie as his alpha zombie.

The Alpha zombie gains bonuses as follows. An Alpha zombies HD may never exceed its Trainers


The number is Zombie Trainer level+charisma modifier.

4 to 6: +2 Str, +2 Dex,+10 speed, 4HD total
7 to 9:+2 Str, +1 Trick, Scent, 5HD total
10 to 12 Extraordinary Trick, Bonus Feat 7HD total
13 to 15 +2 Dex, +1 Trick, +10 Speed 8HD total
16 +2 Str, Extraordinary Trick, Bonus Feat 10HD total

Bonus feat: The zombie gains a bonus feat.

Extraordinary trick: The alpha zombie learns a trick no normal zombie should be able to learn, from the following list.

Extraordinary manual dexterity: The zombie may gain proficiency in and wield weapons with no penalties above the normal for a given weapon.

Extraordinary motor skills: The zombie may take a move action and a standard action, just as a normal creature.

Extraordinary intellect: The zombie gains 2 skill points per HD. He may only put these skill points into Zombie Trainer class skills.



Warning! Dead Ahead!:
At fifth level, The Zombie trainer gains the improved initiative feat. If you already have it, you gain a + 3 bonus to Initiative, but only against an encounter including at least one undead.

The Dead Wake:
The Zombie Trainers Alpha zombie may now draw action points from the Zombie trainers action point pool. The Zombie Trainer may still only spend one point per turn. For Example, The Zombie Trainer may not spend an action point and command his Alpha to also spend an action point.

(Originally, this ability reduced the amount of sleep the Trainer needed by half)

The Dead Sleep:
At seventh level, The Zombie Trainer may now critically hit Zombies. By spending an action point, the Zombie Trainer may automatically confirm Crits on any undead target.

Being Human:
At ninth level, you have mastered the art of the undead. If a human dies and contracts the plague, they die as normal. However, if they are tended to by you until the time of their resurrection, they maintain their mind.

They become undead. All of their hit dice become D12's, they take a -2 penalty to their dexterity, charisma,and intelligence scores, and gain a +2 bonus to their strength score. They are no longer subject to precision damage, nor critical hits. They retain their memories, skills, and feats (Though their physical abilities may change. Such as, a Zombie can live while missing its jaw. It can no longer speak.)

Using this ability can be quite expensive. The pharmaceuticals needed to preserve the mind of the zombie take at least XX Trade units of chemical supplies to create, and require a DC 20 craft:Pharmaceuticals check and take 3 hours to prepare, but can last indefinitely in their prepared state.



Alive again:
At tenth level, the Zombie Trainer gains the ability to resurrect the damned. After 30 days of treatment by you, a Zombie becomes human again, provided a human could live in the zombies current state.

This takes XX Trade units of chemical supplies to accomplish. The human raised in this way has total amnesia (Unless it is a zombie raised with "Being Human") and is very weak, resulting in a -4 penalty to her Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores. Her physical attributes return at a rate of one point per week so long as they receive medical attention (DC 15 heal check over the course of the week). The amnesia may never fully recover.

This ability costs an action point, and the target looses a permanent 2 constitution and 2 strength undergoing this process. This is because of the extreme stress zombifacation does to the body.


And one major thanks to Fax Celestis for his homebrew guide. Saved me the trouble of figuring out how to work a table :smallwink:

[Kuma Kode]

Nitpicks
There is no need to spoiler your information: this is your thread specifically for your homebrew. Hiding the point of the post is counter-productive.

The table is normally before the descriptions, after the skills.

Also, nearly all (if not all) advanced classes offer bonus feats at 3rd, 6th, and 9th, as feats are the primary power of characters in d20 Modern. Your class doesn't need them, but that would make it exceptionally unusual.

Problems
Needs Defense and Reputation columns.

Look! Brains!
The DC is very low. I am assuming this is because zombies have an abysmal Will around -5, correct? If not, the ability is almost useless, as a +0 Will check will succeed over half the time. Until higher levels. Don't forget that even though Wisdom is not an undead's best ability, Will is their best save.

If the zombies have crappy saves, the DC makes sense, but if not, or if they vary, you're better off using the standard formula of 10 + 1/2 class level + ability modifier. Perhaps make it consume an action point and tweak it to be worth the expenditure.

Undead Cultivatist
Probably a little on the powerful end, but zombies aren't all that terribly fantastic to begin with. Are you using the standard zombies in the Core Rulebook, or custom zombie rules?

You may want to compare it to the limitations of the Occultist's pet ability (I forget what it's called).

The Dead Wake
This ability doesn't really seem to fit with the rest of the class.

Being Human and Alive Again
Resurrection is very powerful. I suggest permanent costs, such as permanent ability reduction or level loss.

Praise
It has a few problems that need to be ironed out or re-examined, but overall I like this class. Other than its capstone abilities nothing really tweaks the sense of balance. If this were a viral zombie apocalypse campaign (which I assume it is) I would be interested in playing this.

[Yeturs]

Nitpicks
There is no need to spoiler your information: this is your thread specifically for your homebrew. Hiding the point of the post is counter-productive.

The table is normally before the descriptions, after the skills.

Also, nearly all (if not all) advanced classes offer bonus feats at 3rd, 6th, and 9th, as feats are the primary power of characters in d20 Modern. Your class doesn't need them, but that would make it exceptionally unusual.



Alrighty, give me a few minutes and i will get that all squared up.




Problems
Needs Defense and Reputation columns.

Look! Brains!
The DC is very low. I am assuming this is because zombies have an abysmal Will around -5, correct? If not, the ability is almost useless, as a +0 Will check will succeed over half the time. Until higher levels. Don't forget that even though Wisdom is not an undead's best ability, Will is their best save.

If the zombies have crappy saves, the DC makes sense, but if not, or if they vary, you're better off using the standard formula of 10 + 1/2 class level + ability modifier. Perhaps make it consume an action point and tweak it to be worth the expenditure.



Touche, fixing the DC




Undead Cultivatist
Probably a little on the powerful end, but zombies aren't all that terribly fantastic to begin with. Are you using the standard zombies in the Core Rulebook, or custom zombie rules?

You may want to compare it to the limitations of the Occultist's pet ability (I forget what it's called).



I will take a look. I just kind of threw this together so i have no idea how good it would be in game :smalltongue:



The Dead Wake
This ability doesn't really seem to fit with the rest of the class.



Alrighty. any ideas on what to replace it with? Im thinking another offensive ability. Maybe, like, grant heroic surge as a bonus feat to ones alpha zombie, and giving it the ability to draw from your action points?

Or, maybe, making your zombies bombs? like a bladder inside them that ruptures and explodes on their death? plain old non alpha zombies kinda suck by now. i would put a monetary cost on it, so not just every zombie goes boom.



Being Human and Alive Again
Resurrection is very powerful. I suggest permanent costs, such as permanent ability reduction or level loss.



indeed, i have never seen a resurrection in nonmagic d20 modern, so i wanted to make a class feature to do it. Im thinking a permanent Con and Dex hit on the resurrected target? like a -2?

Praise
It has a few problems that need to be ironed out or re-examined, but overall I like this class. Other than its capstone abilities nothing really tweaks the sense of balance. If this were a viral zombie apocalypse campaign (which I assume it is) I would be interested in playing this.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for your time, ill get this thing worked out yet :smallbiggrin:

[Kuma Kode]

indeed, i have never seen a resurrection in nonmagic d20 modern, so i wanted to make a class feature to do it. Im thinking a permanent Con and Dex hit on the resurrected target? like a -2?

The field medic can do it, but only with a Treat Injury check of 30 and a Fortitude save from the patient DC 15 if within 3 rounds of death, or Treat Injury DC 40 and Fort save DC 20 if within 30 rounds. After that, you're dead for good.

How gritty and dark is this game supposed to be? That will help determine the cost of saving someone. If you're going for high heroic like some action/zombie movies, death might not really cost much, but if you're aiming for an oppressive horror atmosphere, the costs will be much higher.

[Yeturs]

Well, Im kind of aiming for a middle ground. Its more of a survival then horror, using classic slow lumbering zombies.

I figure taking this class is kind of a bad thing, if you want to be with other survivors. How many are going to trust a random guy walking up with some zombies following him, right?

Anyway, i added a Monetary cost to "Being human" and "Alive again". And, becoming human again causes a permanent -2 str and con. Just not sure how the economy will work yet, so im keeping how much blank for now. But a fair chunk of wealth, i think.

I changed "The dead wake!" to grant heroic surge and action points.

Their rep gain should be fairly high i think, and class defense bonus is the same as the field medics.


Thanks a lot for the help, I know my players will love this!