DeAnno
2011-11-04, 04:09 AM
Physical God
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/cc434/RhysDA/Callisto_Goddess.png
"To never die and to conquer all - that is winning." -Illyria, God King of the Primordium
While many adventurers might be said to wield the power of the gods themselves, few may claim to be among them. But some, through mischance, destiny, contamination or audacity seize a fragment of truly divine power for themselves, heading down the path to become Physical Gods ('http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PhysicalGod').
This PRC is a bit of a strange duck for a couple reasons. Firstly, I felt that there was both enough material for more than 10 levels, and that this is the type of class where taking anything afterwards would be an anticlimax. However, I felt that the idea of a Physical God was just too incongrous with low level play, so I compromised with a 15 level PRC that literally anybody can enter at level 6.
Second, I felt that an Invocation using class was the best way to capture the essence of what a Physical God usually looks like in popular media. They have magical-looking, highly iconic powers which never run out of steam, but generally these consist of a couple "favorite tricks". Whether it's Glory with her mind-sucking, Callisto with her fireballs, or Illyria with her portals, you tend to see the same cool power over and over again. I felt that 15 levels was perfect for spacing out 8 invocations, and even though early on the invocations are a bit weak for your level, they do tend to scale fairly well so this shouldn't be much of an issue.
Third, while the abilities and proclivities of Physical Gods are widely varied, one unifying trait among them is that they are very hard to kill (that's immortality for ya). In general play with 3.5e offense is usually much more useful than defense though, so I added in a 4e Defender-esque class feature to let that survivability be emphasized in a productive way. The idea of a helpful aura defending her "followers" is well in line with a deity, and there is even precedent for it, as Deities and Demigods presents a helpful aura as a Divine option.
I'll be interspersing spoilered commentary with the class features here, and present the Invocations in the next post.
Requirements:
- At least 5 Hit Dice
- Any alignment other than True Neutral
While characters of any background can walk on the path to ascension, they need enough experience to become powerful in their own right first. Also, because of the polarizing nature of their forming powers, creatures with a True Neutral alignment are unable to begin ascension.
The Physical God
Hit Die: d8
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|AC Bonus
1st|
+0|
+2|
+2|
+2|Invocations, Polarized Alignment|
+0
2nd|
+1|
+3|
+3|
+3|Divine Aura -1 (30 feet), AC Bonus|
+1
3rd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|Spell Resistance|
+1
4th|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+4|Divine Aura -2|
+2
5th|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+4|Detect Alignment|
+2
6th|
+4|
+5|
+5|
+5|Divine Aura -3|
+3
7th|
+5|
+5|
+5|
+5|Mettle|
+3
8th|
+6|
+6|
+6|
+6|Divine Aura -4 (60 feet)|
+4
9th|
+6|
+6|
+6|
+6|Alignment Subtype|
+4
10th|
+7|
+7|
+7|
+7|Divine Aura -5|
+5
11th|
+8|
+7|
+7|
+7|Divine Grace|
+5
12th|
+9|
+8|
+8|
+8|Divine Aura -6|
+6
13th|
+9|
+8|
+8|
+8|Divine Body|
+6
14th|
+10|
+9|
+9|
+9|Divine Aura -7 (120 feet)|
+7
15th|
+11|
+9|
+9|
+9|Divine Regeneration|
+7[/table]
Class Skills: The Physical God's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier
While there was temptation to go with the full Outsider package of Full BAB, perfect saves, and 8+ skills, this class really has too many magical tricks to make that practical. Instead we take a Monk-like approach, preserving the perfect saves at the cost of BaB and ratcheting down skills a bit. Our class skills are pretty widely varied, including both stealthy skills and party face skills to represent the variety of divine concepts we might be working with. UMD is powerful, but I thought it was appropriate due to the natural magical proclivities most gods have.
Invocations: While a Physical God does not prepare or cast spells, she wields a repertoire of attacks, defenses, and abilities known as invocations fueled by the power of her inherent Divinity. These invocations are spell-like abilities and are activated as a standard action unless otherwise noted. They provoke attacks of opportunity, can be cast defensively just like spells or powers, and can be disrupted during casting in similar ways, provoking a concentration check to use the ability successfully. A Physical God's caster level with her invocations is equal to her class level + 5.
The Save DC for an invocation (if it allows a save) is 10 + equivalent spell level + the Physical God's charisma modifier. Since invocations are spell-like abilities, Physical Gods cannot enhance them with feats or effects which enhance spells, but can with feats or effects which enhance abilities (such as Ability Focus) or spell-like abilities (such as Quicken spell-like ability). Physical God invocations (even those selected from other classes) are treated as divine spell-like abilities and therefore are not subject to arcane spell failure chance.
Physical God invocations come in four grades (least, lesser, greater, or dark) just like Warlock and Dragonfire Adept invocations. Whenever a Physical God chooses a new invocation, she may choose invocations from either of these classes or her own invocation list as she pleases, though she may not choose invocations which alter class features she does not have, such as Eldritch Blast or Essence invocations. She gains a new invocation at each odd level: she may take least invocations from 1st level onwards, lesser from 5th level onwards, greater from 9th level onwards, and dark from 13th level onwards. At each even level, she may replace an invocation she already knows with another of her choice, but it must be of the same or a lesser grade as the invocation that was replaced.
Having access to your own list and the lists of the other two classes lets you flesh out your powers however you like to fit your strategy and theme. Since your class features are overwhelmingly defensive, many of the Invocations on your class' list are offensive in nature, but the option remains to pick and choose from anywhere.
Polarized Alignment (Ex): At 1st level a Physical God chooses one of her alignment components (Good, Evil, Lawful, or Chaotic) to be her polarized alignment. She gains an Aura of this alignment of the same strength as a Cleric of her level + 5. If her alignment ever changes and no longer includes this component, she loses access to her Invocations, Divine Aura ability, and all alignment based class abilities for one month, at which time she can choose a new Polarized alignment and regain her class features (as long as she is not True Neutral). If for whatever reason she regains her old polarized alignment before the month is up, she immediately regains her class features as if nothing had happened.
This is mostly a flavor element representing the highly aligned nature of Outsiders, but also allows for some interesting customization, especially with regards to invocations.
Divine Aura (Su): At 2nd level a Physical God gains a Divine Aura with a radius of 30 feet, where her divine presence twists reality to make her the center of the action. Any attack, spell, power, or other ability targeting or affecting allies within the aura which does not also target or affect the Physical God takes a -1 penalty to all of its attack rolls, save DCs, and (caster or manifester) level checks. For the aura to function, the Physical God must be conscious and have line of effect to her allies, but need not be able to see or communicate with them. If attack rolls are made as part of a volley or full attack, all individual attacks not targeting the Physical God take the penalty, but area attacks and effects which target multiple creatures take no penalties if they include the Physical God.
This penalty increases by 1 each even numbered level, and the radius of effect increases to 60 feet at level 8 and 120 feet at level 14.
In many ways this is the centerpiece of the class, like Eldritch Blast is for Warlocks and Breath Weapons are for Dragonfire Adepts. A Physical God strongly discourages being ignored, and as she progresses in levels imposes what becomes a decently steep penalty on all attacks ignoring her. With the wonky mechanics of 3.5e it is still quite possible to overwhelm this penalty, but if her allies at least attempt to make a nod to their defenses this makes it a lot easier for them.
AC Bonus (Ex): At 2nd level a Physical God's natural armor bonus increases by 1 (or becomes +1 if she didn't have one already) to reflect her increased toughness and durability. It increases again at each subsequent even level.
Thematic durability feature #1, check. Getting +7 AC over 15 levels isn't that much in the scheme of 3.5e, but it's enough to matter.
Spell Resistance (Ex): At 3rd level, a Physical God gains Spell Resistance equal to her class level + 11. Due to a Physical God's instictive feeling for magic, this resistance can be raised or lowered as a free action.
This is the other scaling defensive feature Physical Gods get. While 6+HD isn't that much, it's a 25% chance for equal level spells to fail, and a stronger defense against being overwhelmed by many spells of lower caster level. If a Physical God wants to emphasize this feature there's an invocation which enhances it.
Detect Alignment (Sp): At 5th level, a Physical God gains the ability to detect her Polarized alignment and its opposing alignment. For example, a Lawful Physical God would gain the ability to Detect Law and Detect Chaos. This ability functions like the spells of the same name, has an effective caster level of the Physical God's class level + 5, and can be used at will.
This is a mostly thematic power that can let the Physical God figure out who she should like and who she should be trying to kill with a piercing glance.
Mettle (Ex): At 7th level, a Physical God gains the Mettle ability. If she makes a successful Will or Fortitude save against an effect that would normally have a lesser effect on a successful save, the ability has no effect.
This supports the Implacable image we're trying to achieve, and enhances general survivability.
Alignment Subtype (Ex): At 9th level, a Physical God gains the appropriate subtype to go with her Polarized alignment.
Another ability which is mostly fluff, but has a couple mechanical implications which can come up every once and a while.
Divine Grace (Ex): At 11th level, a Physical God gains a bonus equal to her Charisma bonus on all saving throws.
This is perhaps the premiere defensive ability in the game for late levels, and fits our theme nicely.
Divine Body (Ex): At 13 level, a Physical God's type changes to Outsider. She gains the native subtype in addition to her other subtypes, and ceases aging. Any bonuses or penalties to ability scores from aging are retained, but no new bonuses or penalties are applied henceforth. A Physical God has no alloted span of years, and will continue living until she is killed.
Changing type to Outsider is a common capstone, but I never found it very mechanically interesting. It's certainly appropriate for the class, but it's been moved down a step to make room for the real capstone.
Divine Regeneration (Ex): At 15th level, a Physical God gains the regeneration ability and regains an amount of hit points per round equal to her Constitution bonus (or 1, if she doesn't have a positive Con modifier). All hit point damage done to the Physical God is treated as nonlethal damage, except for damage from spells, effects, or weapons opposite her Polarized alignment, which is treated as lethal damage.
An extremely exclusive ability caps off the ultimate defender PRC with an ultimately defensive capstone.
Sidebar: Physical Gods and Prestige Classes: Physical Gods benefit in a specific way from other Prestige Classes that give "+1 level of an existing spellcasting class" or "+1 level of an existing Divine spellcasting class" as a level advancement benefit. A Physical God taking levels in such a Prestige Class gains new invocations (and invocation replacements), an increased effective caster level with them, and a larger Divine Aura penalty and range as if she had gained a level in Physical God. She does not gain any of her other class abilities, or increase her effective class level in Physical God for any other purpose.
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/cc434/RhysDA/Callisto_Goddess.png
"To never die and to conquer all - that is winning." -Illyria, God King of the Primordium
While many adventurers might be said to wield the power of the gods themselves, few may claim to be among them. But some, through mischance, destiny, contamination or audacity seize a fragment of truly divine power for themselves, heading down the path to become Physical Gods ('http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PhysicalGod').
This PRC is a bit of a strange duck for a couple reasons. Firstly, I felt that there was both enough material for more than 10 levels, and that this is the type of class where taking anything afterwards would be an anticlimax. However, I felt that the idea of a Physical God was just too incongrous with low level play, so I compromised with a 15 level PRC that literally anybody can enter at level 6.
Second, I felt that an Invocation using class was the best way to capture the essence of what a Physical God usually looks like in popular media. They have magical-looking, highly iconic powers which never run out of steam, but generally these consist of a couple "favorite tricks". Whether it's Glory with her mind-sucking, Callisto with her fireballs, or Illyria with her portals, you tend to see the same cool power over and over again. I felt that 15 levels was perfect for spacing out 8 invocations, and even though early on the invocations are a bit weak for your level, they do tend to scale fairly well so this shouldn't be much of an issue.
Third, while the abilities and proclivities of Physical Gods are widely varied, one unifying trait among them is that they are very hard to kill (that's immortality for ya). In general play with 3.5e offense is usually much more useful than defense though, so I added in a 4e Defender-esque class feature to let that survivability be emphasized in a productive way. The idea of a helpful aura defending her "followers" is well in line with a deity, and there is even precedent for it, as Deities and Demigods presents a helpful aura as a Divine option.
I'll be interspersing spoilered commentary with the class features here, and present the Invocations in the next post.
Requirements:
- At least 5 Hit Dice
- Any alignment other than True Neutral
While characters of any background can walk on the path to ascension, they need enough experience to become powerful in their own right first. Also, because of the polarizing nature of their forming powers, creatures with a True Neutral alignment are unable to begin ascension.
The Physical God
Hit Die: d8
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|AC Bonus
1st|
+0|
+2|
+2|
+2|Invocations, Polarized Alignment|
+0
2nd|
+1|
+3|
+3|
+3|Divine Aura -1 (30 feet), AC Bonus|
+1
3rd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|Spell Resistance|
+1
4th|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+4|Divine Aura -2|
+2
5th|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+4|Detect Alignment|
+2
6th|
+4|
+5|
+5|
+5|Divine Aura -3|
+3
7th|
+5|
+5|
+5|
+5|Mettle|
+3
8th|
+6|
+6|
+6|
+6|Divine Aura -4 (60 feet)|
+4
9th|
+6|
+6|
+6|
+6|Alignment Subtype|
+4
10th|
+7|
+7|
+7|
+7|Divine Aura -5|
+5
11th|
+8|
+7|
+7|
+7|Divine Grace|
+5
12th|
+9|
+8|
+8|
+8|Divine Aura -6|
+6
13th|
+9|
+8|
+8|
+8|Divine Body|
+6
14th|
+10|
+9|
+9|
+9|Divine Aura -7 (120 feet)|
+7
15th|
+11|
+9|
+9|
+9|Divine Regeneration|
+7[/table]
Class Skills: The Physical God's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier
While there was temptation to go with the full Outsider package of Full BAB, perfect saves, and 8+ skills, this class really has too many magical tricks to make that practical. Instead we take a Monk-like approach, preserving the perfect saves at the cost of BaB and ratcheting down skills a bit. Our class skills are pretty widely varied, including both stealthy skills and party face skills to represent the variety of divine concepts we might be working with. UMD is powerful, but I thought it was appropriate due to the natural magical proclivities most gods have.
Invocations: While a Physical God does not prepare or cast spells, she wields a repertoire of attacks, defenses, and abilities known as invocations fueled by the power of her inherent Divinity. These invocations are spell-like abilities and are activated as a standard action unless otherwise noted. They provoke attacks of opportunity, can be cast defensively just like spells or powers, and can be disrupted during casting in similar ways, provoking a concentration check to use the ability successfully. A Physical God's caster level with her invocations is equal to her class level + 5.
The Save DC for an invocation (if it allows a save) is 10 + equivalent spell level + the Physical God's charisma modifier. Since invocations are spell-like abilities, Physical Gods cannot enhance them with feats or effects which enhance spells, but can with feats or effects which enhance abilities (such as Ability Focus) or spell-like abilities (such as Quicken spell-like ability). Physical God invocations (even those selected from other classes) are treated as divine spell-like abilities and therefore are not subject to arcane spell failure chance.
Physical God invocations come in four grades (least, lesser, greater, or dark) just like Warlock and Dragonfire Adept invocations. Whenever a Physical God chooses a new invocation, she may choose invocations from either of these classes or her own invocation list as she pleases, though she may not choose invocations which alter class features she does not have, such as Eldritch Blast or Essence invocations. She gains a new invocation at each odd level: she may take least invocations from 1st level onwards, lesser from 5th level onwards, greater from 9th level onwards, and dark from 13th level onwards. At each even level, she may replace an invocation she already knows with another of her choice, but it must be of the same or a lesser grade as the invocation that was replaced.
Having access to your own list and the lists of the other two classes lets you flesh out your powers however you like to fit your strategy and theme. Since your class features are overwhelmingly defensive, many of the Invocations on your class' list are offensive in nature, but the option remains to pick and choose from anywhere.
Polarized Alignment (Ex): At 1st level a Physical God chooses one of her alignment components (Good, Evil, Lawful, or Chaotic) to be her polarized alignment. She gains an Aura of this alignment of the same strength as a Cleric of her level + 5. If her alignment ever changes and no longer includes this component, she loses access to her Invocations, Divine Aura ability, and all alignment based class abilities for one month, at which time she can choose a new Polarized alignment and regain her class features (as long as she is not True Neutral). If for whatever reason she regains her old polarized alignment before the month is up, she immediately regains her class features as if nothing had happened.
This is mostly a flavor element representing the highly aligned nature of Outsiders, but also allows for some interesting customization, especially with regards to invocations.
Divine Aura (Su): At 2nd level a Physical God gains a Divine Aura with a radius of 30 feet, where her divine presence twists reality to make her the center of the action. Any attack, spell, power, or other ability targeting or affecting allies within the aura which does not also target or affect the Physical God takes a -1 penalty to all of its attack rolls, save DCs, and (caster or manifester) level checks. For the aura to function, the Physical God must be conscious and have line of effect to her allies, but need not be able to see or communicate with them. If attack rolls are made as part of a volley or full attack, all individual attacks not targeting the Physical God take the penalty, but area attacks and effects which target multiple creatures take no penalties if they include the Physical God.
This penalty increases by 1 each even numbered level, and the radius of effect increases to 60 feet at level 8 and 120 feet at level 14.
In many ways this is the centerpiece of the class, like Eldritch Blast is for Warlocks and Breath Weapons are for Dragonfire Adepts. A Physical God strongly discourages being ignored, and as she progresses in levels imposes what becomes a decently steep penalty on all attacks ignoring her. With the wonky mechanics of 3.5e it is still quite possible to overwhelm this penalty, but if her allies at least attempt to make a nod to their defenses this makes it a lot easier for them.
AC Bonus (Ex): At 2nd level a Physical God's natural armor bonus increases by 1 (or becomes +1 if she didn't have one already) to reflect her increased toughness and durability. It increases again at each subsequent even level.
Thematic durability feature #1, check. Getting +7 AC over 15 levels isn't that much in the scheme of 3.5e, but it's enough to matter.
Spell Resistance (Ex): At 3rd level, a Physical God gains Spell Resistance equal to her class level + 11. Due to a Physical God's instictive feeling for magic, this resistance can be raised or lowered as a free action.
This is the other scaling defensive feature Physical Gods get. While 6+HD isn't that much, it's a 25% chance for equal level spells to fail, and a stronger defense against being overwhelmed by many spells of lower caster level. If a Physical God wants to emphasize this feature there's an invocation which enhances it.
Detect Alignment (Sp): At 5th level, a Physical God gains the ability to detect her Polarized alignment and its opposing alignment. For example, a Lawful Physical God would gain the ability to Detect Law and Detect Chaos. This ability functions like the spells of the same name, has an effective caster level of the Physical God's class level + 5, and can be used at will.
This is a mostly thematic power that can let the Physical God figure out who she should like and who she should be trying to kill with a piercing glance.
Mettle (Ex): At 7th level, a Physical God gains the Mettle ability. If she makes a successful Will or Fortitude save against an effect that would normally have a lesser effect on a successful save, the ability has no effect.
This supports the Implacable image we're trying to achieve, and enhances general survivability.
Alignment Subtype (Ex): At 9th level, a Physical God gains the appropriate subtype to go with her Polarized alignment.
Another ability which is mostly fluff, but has a couple mechanical implications which can come up every once and a while.
Divine Grace (Ex): At 11th level, a Physical God gains a bonus equal to her Charisma bonus on all saving throws.
This is perhaps the premiere defensive ability in the game for late levels, and fits our theme nicely.
Divine Body (Ex): At 13 level, a Physical God's type changes to Outsider. She gains the native subtype in addition to her other subtypes, and ceases aging. Any bonuses or penalties to ability scores from aging are retained, but no new bonuses or penalties are applied henceforth. A Physical God has no alloted span of years, and will continue living until she is killed.
Changing type to Outsider is a common capstone, but I never found it very mechanically interesting. It's certainly appropriate for the class, but it's been moved down a step to make room for the real capstone.
Divine Regeneration (Ex): At 15th level, a Physical God gains the regeneration ability and regains an amount of hit points per round equal to her Constitution bonus (or 1, if she doesn't have a positive Con modifier). All hit point damage done to the Physical God is treated as nonlethal damage, except for damage from spells, effects, or weapons opposite her Polarized alignment, which is treated as lethal damage.
An extremely exclusive ability caps off the ultimate defender PRC with an ultimately defensive capstone.
Sidebar: Physical Gods and Prestige Classes: Physical Gods benefit in a specific way from other Prestige Classes that give "+1 level of an existing spellcasting class" or "+1 level of an existing Divine spellcasting class" as a level advancement benefit. A Physical God taking levels in such a Prestige Class gains new invocations (and invocation replacements), an increased effective caster level with them, and a larger Divine Aura penalty and range as if she had gained a level in Physical God. She does not gain any of her other class abilities, or increase her effective class level in Physical God for any other purpose.