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View Full Version : Dark Knight (3.5 PrC) - Cecil. *Not* Batman.



KainelWyst
2011-11-26, 01:24 PM
Disclaimer:

It is neither my intent, nor my pleasure to disparage Bruce Wayne or any DC comics.


Dark Knight
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1st|+1|+2|+0|+0|Aura of Ruin, Smite 1/day, SoulBlade
2nd|+2|+2|+0|+0|Armor of Sin
3rd|+3|+3|+1|+1|Warding of the Soulbound
4th|+4|+4|+1|+1|Darkvision 30'
5th|+5|+4|+1|+1|Voice of Wyrd
6th|+6/+1|+5|+2|+2|Smite 2/day
7th|+7/+2|+5|+2|+2|
8th|+8/+3|+6|+2|+2|Aura of Entropy
9th|+9/+4|+6|+3|+3|Darkvision 60'
10th|+10/+5|+7|+3|+3|Smite 3/day, Maelstrom
[/table]


PREREQUISITES
Alignment: Any Lawful
Abilities: Con 15+
Base Attack: +5
Skillz: K(Religion) 8, K(The Planes) 5
Special: Guided, Self Sought, Church Sanctioned, or Other petition of an evil outsider of ability significant enough to preside over the Ritual of Entropic Stuff. (I've lost my sheet with the flavor text and all the groovy names I used to have for things. Also explains the ability of a lawful good, say, paladin to take this prestige class and not incur the wrath of his god, or, even, relegate himself to the province of the featless fighter through utter loss of holy ability. Something to do with necessity of Proactive Action against the Forces of Evil or the Legion of Doom and heathen smiting and snowball entropy. 'Course the flip side has to do with focusing the power of entropic forces for the proliferation of pain and suffering and the bolstering of personal power. Also, rules concerning the Ritual of Entropic Stuff to come at a later date.)

ABILITIES

HD D8
Skillz (2+int mod per level): Jump, Climb, Swim, Ride, K(Religion), K(The Planes), Craft, Profession, Heal, Sense Motive, Intimidate
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies The Dark Knight gains no weapon or armor proficiencies.

Aura of Ruin(Ex) - (Insert Flavor Text) Strong. Evil. All creatures designated as enemies within a range of 15' take a -1 penalty to AC and all Saves. (Always on)

Smite(Su) - Full Round Action. One attack designated as smite before rolls are made. Con bonus to attack and Class Level to damage.

Soulblade(Su) - (Insert Flavor Text) Full Round Action, One attack. You may lose a number of hit points equal to twice your class level to gain a bonus to damage equal to 1d8/2hp lost. When used in conjunction with your smite power, you may double the number of lost hp allowed. Any attack made is now considered as Lawful and Evil as concerns overcoming damage reduction, regardless whether or not the attack makes use of the Soulblade or the smite powers respectively.

Armor of Sin(Ex) - (Insert Flavor Text) Profane bonus to AC equal to half class level.

Warding of the Soulbound(Su) - (Insert Flavor Text) Add your con bonus to all saves.

Darkvision(Ex) - Stacks with any darkvision had from previous class levels or racial abilities.

Voice of Wyrd(Su) - (Insert Flavor Text) 15' Cone shaped, sonic emanation from your defiled lungs. Usable any number of times per day. Full Round Action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. You may sacrifice a number of hit points equal to thrice your class level to deal 1d4 points of sonic damage/2hp sacrificed.

Aura of Entropy(Ex) - (Scaling of Aura of Ruin) Range extends to 30' and penalties rise to -2. (Always on)

Maelstrom(Su) - 1/day. Full Round Action. 30' emanation in all directions centered on you. Magical Darkness in the area that lasts a number of rounds equal to your class level + your Con modifier (You can see through the darkness, even if you have no form of darkvision). You may sacrifice any number of hit points to deal 1d10 points of damage/5hp sacrificed to each enemy in the darkness each round for as long as the darkness lingers (that is to say, 'that is in the darkness when the ability is used and when your turn begins' You only sacrifice the hp once.)

-

I did all of this from memory, as I can't find the original statistics and sheets concerning my initial interpretation of a Dark Knight in the D&D world. (I do think what I have here is loads better, though.)

This is very happily open to criticism of any kind, be it constructive or pedantic.

Also, I'm fairly certain that this is my first post in the forums on this website, though I've been coming here for inspiration and insight for some time.

Yay me.

Dust
2011-11-26, 05:59 PM
Yo, KainelWyst. I'm really happy for you, and I'mma let you finish, but Bruce Wayne was one of the best Dark Knights of all time. Of all time!

I think the class looks good, though three-and-a-half dead levels in a 10-level PRC makes me sad. Maybe shrink it down to 5 levels of advancement, or consider adding more goodies.
Also, I'm surprised to see CON 15 and Knowledge (The Planes) as prerequisites for this. It seems like something like Diehard might work better.

Mando Knight
2011-11-26, 07:54 PM
If you're aiming for Cecil, then you're going to need to reconfigure quite a bit...

1) Cecil starts the game a Dark Knight, then rejects the dark blade to become a Paladin. Should be a base class.
2) Furthermore, he had practically no working knowledge of religion or the planes, learning essentially everything about the plot as the player does.
3) I think a d10 hit die is in order. Even as a Dark Knight, Cecil has the highest HP in the entire party, excepting of course Yang (who has ridiculous HP growth), and the class's signature feature saps HP from the user.
4) You got smiting backwards. It's normally +Stat to attack, +Level to damage.
5) Dead levels are bad. Doubly so on a Prestige Class. Especially one with lackluster abilities.

Personally, to emulate the Final Fantasy class, I would go about a bit like this:
-Dark Knight Cecil's blade deals Dark damage, and he's a fairly heavy damage-dealer even without using Darkness. Perhaps additional negative energy damage? If so, like a Rogue's Sneak Attack, or just a bonus equal to the class level?
-Darkness itself: it usually deals significantly more damage to the enemy than to Cecil. Perhaps willingly take 1d4 damage to deal +2d6 negative energy damage, with a maximum number of dice taken equal to your class level?
-Use Bonus Feats as filler?
-Still needs more than that for a proper class. Probably include something similar to PF Paladin's Divine Bond, maybe an Aura of Evil equal to a cleric of the same level... adding full Martial Adept progression would be a bit strong, perhaps look into Cecil's Dissidia moves. Maybe a few of Golbez's Dissidia moves, as well.

KainelWyst
2011-11-27, 01:50 AM
It's not Cecil. Cecil was used as a spring board for an idea. I understand what you're saying, but I intended the class to more.. expound upon and draw from, rather than copy Cecil completely. The K(planes) is more fluff than anything else. Has to do with the D&D friendly premise to the class that I made up. I probably should dial that prereq back a little.

I was afraid of making this too broken, though. I don't know about upping the hit points, because it's one of the better ways to control the strength of the class. Maybe up a die size on the special ability variables. Also gave him a will save and Darkvision 30' that stacked with racial Darkvision.

Was once kicking around an idea for the tenth level capstone ability called Hellride. Essentially, you sack as many hit points as you like and gain double back as Temp hp for a limited duration. Stacked on some rage-like abilities and upped base land speed.

I see that I have the smiting backward. Whups. My bad. I hardly play clerics or those with the ability to smite the non believers. I'm a wizard, myself.

Negative energy damage is a good idea. Could make all the abilities deal negative energy damage. Possibly level drain as an option.

KainelWyst
2011-11-27, 01:52 AM
Dear Jesus, It's hard to take myself seriously with that bloody avatar up there grinnin' at me like a fool.

AugustNights
2011-11-28, 12:08 PM
I don't see what seriousness has to do with anything, but if you'd like more indepth reviews of your homebrew I'd recomend reading some of these (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124688).

Formatting and Fluff are big too.
Maybe you could fill out what roles you expect this class to fill that are not already filled by ToB or the Paladin of Slaughter/Tyranny.

Writing out the full effect and ruling of each ability will also help.

For example


Aura of Ruin(Ex) - (Insert Flavor Text) Strong. Evil. All creatures designated as enemies within a range of 15' take a -1 penalty to AC and all Saves. (Always on)

Looking at the Srd (http://www.d20srd.org/) text for the Paladin, and Paladin of ruin we get the following.



Aura of Good (Ex)
The power of a paladin’s aura of good (see the detect good spell) is equal to her paladin level.

...

Debilitating Aura (Su)
Beginning at 3rd level, a paladin of slaughter radiates a malign aura that causes enemies within 10 feet of her to take a -1 penalty to Armor Class. This ability otherwise functions identically to the paladin's aura of courage class feature.


So a more compelling to review write up of your version may look something like...

Aura of Ruin(Ex)
The power of a Dark Knight’s aura of evil (see the detect good spell) is equal to twice their Dark Knight level. Further, the Dark Knight radiates a bone-chilling aura that causes enemies within 15 feet of them to take a -1 penalty to Armor Class and Saving Throws. This ability functions while the Dark Knight is conscious, but not if they are unconscious or dead.


A brief critique:
HD: Why D8?
Smite: Why a full round action? Paladins do it as a normal attack.
Smite: Why Con bonus to attack?
Soulblade: I think d6s would be more appropriate, simply because they seem to be the go to additional damage die. But that's just a personal opinion.
Soul Armor: Nice. Bonuses to Armor are always nice.
Warding of the Soulbound: Why Con?
Darkvision: Darkvision at character level 9? Really? It's kind of unimpressive. Why not make it Devil-sight, in that they gain darkvision that can penetrate even magical darkness? Even with that, you'll want some more meat in that level.
Voice of Wyrd: A fun little backup attack. Doesn't seem thematically appropriate, but fluff would help with that. Could be gained earlier, and then built upon through class levels.
Aura of Entropy: Rather unimpressive unfortunately.
Maelstrom: Seems a bit wonky, also, what's the duration.

All in all, this PrC doesn't offer much, and lacks luster. It has a few neat blasty abilities, but doesn't seem to offer a character much in incentive to take it over most base classes.