Classy Monsters in 3.P

[Anderlith]

Has anyone thought of making classes for monsters that were not character classes or Prestige Classes? I was thinking they could be little mini classes the the Racial Paragon classes are. Something along the lines of Footsoldier, a class that is good at following orders & fighting so it has abilities that can resist mind compulsion & fear yet it is till a decent fighter. OR Goblin Shaman, a bit wizard, a bit of warlord, & a bit weird.

[Psyren]

1) You can use existing classes to model those concepts just fine; "Goblin Shaman" for instance, could be an actual Shaman from OA, a Druid, Witch or even just Adept.

2) Your footsoldier one sounds weird to me. If you're conditioned to follow orders, compulsions should be harder to resist, not easier.

[Anderlith]

1) You can use existing classes to model those concepts just fine; "Goblin Shaman" for instance, could be an actual Shaman from OA, a Druid, Witch or even just Adept.

2) Your footsoldier one sounds weird to me. If you're conditioned to follow orders, compulsions should be harder to resist, not easier.

Not really. A child listens to it's mother not to strangers. They are designed to listen to those that have authority over them & to resist anyone that isn't.

[Psyren]

Not really. A child listens to it's mother not to strangers. They are designed to listen to those that have authority over them & to resist anyone that isn't.

That's the whole point of compulsion magic - the child thinks YOU'RE it's mother. And once so fooled, it will not question any orders it's given. Whereas a more suspicious and/or chaotic mind is not conditioned to automatically accept any orders, regardless of source - leading to a greater chance to break free of such enchantments.

[Anderlith]

That's the whole point of compulsion magic - the child thinks YOU'RE it's mother. And once so fooled, it will not question any orders it's given. Whereas a more suspicious and/or chaotic mind is not conditioned to automatically accept any orders, regardless of source - leading to a greater chance to break free of such enchantments.

WhAT? Where does it say that you fool the target into thinking you're its mother in the description of Command?

My whole idea for this mini class it to showcase a loyal footsoldier mindset to minor enemies to make them more interesting & challenging. That does not include spilling your guts to the enemy.

[Psyren]

WhAT? Where does it say that you fool the target into thinking you're its mother in the description of Command?

:smallsigh: It was an analogy, based on yours. And I never specified the Command spell anyway, so I'm not sure how that even came up.

The point is that such spells generally have a clause that makes the subject perceive your commands in the most favorable light. This would require altering the subject's perception of you to make you a trusted friend - or commanding officer (in your footsoldier example) or a trusted parent (in your child example.)

Looking at OotS as an example, Thanh is hit with a Dominate spell by Tsukiko - and proceeds to call her "mistress" (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0516.html) despite not being ordered to do so.


My whole idea for this mini class it to showcase a loyal footsoldier mindset to minor enemies to make them more interesting & challenging. That does not include spilling your guts to the enemy.

But where in that concept is a resistance to compulsion magic? Again, being conditioned to follow orders without questioning them (as footsoldiers commonly are) makes your mind more vulnerable, not less. Using your child example, I wouldn't even need a compulsion spell - a simple illusion to impersonate the child's mother would suffice. Your concept isn't what I have issue with, just the mechanics that go along with it.

The point being that "really good at following orders" and "resistant to mental attack" usually don't go hand in hand. It's the individuals that question every order they get on its own merits, that tend to be able to suss out mind control.

[Runestar]

There's a precedent, the thayan knight. It receives saves vs will, but auto-fails any mind-affecting spell cast by a red wizard. :smalltongue:

Some do exist, look in savage species and libris mortis; they are essentially monster-specific prcs which enhance their innate powers. :smallsmile:

[Kol Korran]

i think it could be done, but should be more dependent on flavor- a specific culture, a specific monster race and so on, not generally for "monsters only" thing. that should be accesible to PCs as well (and you can trust some players to find access to them anyway).

a former DM of mine made NPC's PRCs- small PRCs that enabled NPCs to excell at one specifc task, but were usually not worth it for PCs. they were supposedto make the NPCs more powerfull, without requiring them to become PCs. things like airship captain, master treasurer, magic item crafter (replacing the broken aritifcer) and so on. worked really well!

your classes could be something like that, on the power level of NPC classes. but my suggestion would be to just decide on 2-3 general abilities, an LA, and call it a template. simpler and reduces the head ache (how many levels of footsoldier are there?) if i understood it right, the idea is for something simple, with small effect, that gives a bit more abilities. templates should do fine.

hope this helped,
Kol.

[OmniArcanus]

I kinda like the idea of a loyal foot soldier that has resistance toward anyone else giving it orders, my take on it would be a template that the master places on the monster, making it so that every one else has a tough time getting control.