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The Troubadour
2012-01-02, 12:07 AM
Hey there, guys! Here are some Prestige Classes I did for the PCs of an old 3.5 game I played in. The descriptions are rough and probably don't follow the standard nomenclature of the time, much less the current one, but I'm still very curious about any opinions you guys might have to offer. :-)

THE DREAD CHAMPION
Requirements: Base Attack Bonus +5, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (any martial weapon), Weapon Specialization (any martial weapon).
Hit Die: d12.
Proficiencies: All simple and martial weapons, light, medium and heavy armor.
Skills: As Paladin.

Base Attack Bonus: As Fighter.
"Good" Saving Throws: Fortitude, Will.
"Bad" Saving Throws: Reflex.

Special:
Level 1: Increase the damage die of any martial one-handed weapon by one size.
Level 3: Gain Greater Weapon Focus.
Level 5: Increase the maximum Dexterity of your armor by 1. Reduce the armor check penalty of your armor and shield by 2, each. Ignore the tower shield's attack penalty.
Level 7: Gain Greater Weapon Specialization.
Level 10: All martial one-handed weapons are considered two-handed weapons when wielded by you, for the purposes of determining extra damage from Strength bonus or Power Attack.


THE HOLY SLAYER
Requirements: Ability to cast 3rd-level divine spells, Extra Turning, Weapon Focus (any exotic or martial weapon), Weapon Proficiency (any exotic or martial weapon).
Hit Die: d10.
Proficiencies: All simple weapons, light, medium and heavy armor, all shields.
Skills: As Paladin.

Base Attack Bonus: As Fighter.
"Good" Saving Throws: Fortitude, Will.
"Bad" Saving Throws: Reflex.

Special:
Level 1: Once per round as a free action, you may cast divine favor or bear's endurance with a Range of Personal as if your caster level was equal to your character level. To do so, you must spend a number of turn undead attempts equal to the respective spell's level.
At level 2, you may also cast divine power.
At level 4, you may also cast righteous might.
Level 3: Extra Turning.
Level 5: Once per round as a free action, you may spend one of your turn undead attempts to bless your weapon. For the entire round, it deals an additional 2d6 damage to all Chaotic Outsiders, Evil Outsiders and Undead you hit with it.
Level 6: Extra Turning.
Level 9: Extra Turning.

Caster level: +1 for every 2 Holy Slayer levels.


THE SKALD
Requirements: Base Attack Bonus +3, Combat Expertise or Power Attack, Weapon Finesse or Weapon Focus (any exotic or martial weapon), inspire courage.
Hit Die: d8.
Proficiencies: All simple weapons, light, medium and heavy armor, all shields. You may cast arcane spells in light and medium armor without suffering from arcane spell failure.
Skills: As Bard.

Base Attack Bonus: As Fighter.
"Good" Saving Throws: Fortitude, Will.
"Bad" Saving Throws: Reflex.

Special:
Level 1: Your levels of Skald stack with your Bard levels for the purposes of determining Bardic Knowledge, Bardic Music, inspire courage, inspire courage, inspire greatness, song of freedom, and inspire heroics. In addition, you can use Bardic Music as a standard action.

Caster level: None.


THE UNSTOPPABLE WARRIOR
Requirements: Base Attack Bonus +5, Endurance, Toughness.
Hit Die: d12.
Proficiencies: None.
Skills: As Barbarian.

Base Attack Bonus: As Fighter.
"Good" Saving Throws: Fortitude.
"Bad" Saving Throws: Reflex, Will.

Special:
Level 1: Your levels of Unstoppable Warrior stack with your Barbarian levels for the purposes of determining Damage Reduction, number of Rages per day, Greater Rage, Indomitable Will, Tireless Rage, and Mighty Rage.
When wearing light or medium armor and not wearing any shield, you may use your Constitution modifier instead of your Dexterity modifier to determine your Armor Class bonus.
Level 3: When wearing light or medium armor and not wearing any shield, you reduce the armor check penalty of any light or medium armor by 1 and you increase the maximum Dexterity modifier of any light or medium armor by 1.
At level 6, you reduce the armor check penalty of any light or medium armor by 2, and you increase the maximum Dexterity modifier of any light or medium armor by 2, when wearing light or medium armor and not wearing any shield.
At level 9, you reduce the armor check penalty of any light or medium armor by 3, and you increase the maximum Dexterity modifier of any light or medium armor by 3, when wearing light or medium armor and not wearing any shield.


THE ELVEN SCOUT
Requirements: Base Attack Bonus +3, Alertness, Stealthy, Track.
Hit Die: d6.
Proficiencies: None.
Skills: As Ranger.

Base Attack Bonus: As Rogue.
"Good" Saving Throws: Reflex.
"Bad" Saving Throws: Fortitude, Will.

Special:
Level 1: Fast Movement (as Barbarian), Nature Sense, Trackless Step, Woodland Stride.
Level 2/4/6/8/10: Sneak Attack + 1d6.
Level 3: Endurance, Swift Tracker.
Level 8: Camouflage, Improved Evasion.
Level 10: You may sacrifice one of your attacks per round to gain a +6 insight bonus on all attack rolls for an entire round.

Dragon Star
2012-01-02, 01:35 AM
The fact that they were designed for specific people shows, but it doesn't really hurt them. I can see myself using some of them on plenty of past characters, and the lack of fluff means I can decide what it means myself. There are some problems though. I feel like Dread Champion has too many dead levels. Maybe some kind of flat bonus at all the even levels? Fighter bonus feats? Some kind of scaling fear related ability?

Holy Slayer needs a capstone. Maybe spend a turn to deal 5d6 extra damage and get +class level to attack on chaotic or evil outsiders and undead?

Skald should be an alternate class feature. Not sure what it would replace, but it doesn't change enough for it to be a prestige class.


Unstoppable Warrior needs more features. Just plain barbarian gets better specials then that. I can see no reason for anyone to take this, unless they were playing a specific and very unoptimized build for RP reasons. Even then, it would have to be a low op campaign.

Elven Scout: split level 8 between 7 and 9. Doesn't make sense to have a dead level, a level with three features, and then another dead level.

Yitzi
2012-01-02, 02:31 PM
The fact that they were designed for specific people shows, but it doesn't really hurt them.

For a prestige class, being specialized like that is probably a good thing in terms of flavor.

The Troubadour
2012-01-02, 05:58 PM
I feel like Dread Champion has too many dead levels. Maybe some kind of flat bonus at all the even levels? Fighter bonus feats? Some kind of scaling fear related ability?

Oh, I like the idea of the scaling fear ability! Maybe something that causes all enemies within 30' to become shaken, DC = 10 + Dread Champion level + Cha modifier, 1/day for every 2 Dread Champion levels?

The Dread Champion was designed because the player didn't want to be concerned with all the extra Feats and mainly wanted to be a death-dealing, unkillable machine; so we traded off the Fighter's bonus Feats for an increased Hit Die, better Will save, and some minor abilities so that he could be the medieval tank he wanted. I also cheated a bit by giving him as class features two Fighter-exclusive Feats, Greater Weapon Focus and Greater Weapon Specialization.


Skald should be an alternate class feature. Not sure what it would replace, but it doesn't change enough for it to be a prestige class.

At the time, we thought losing spellcasting in favour of higher BAB, higher HD, and keeping all Bardic Music abilities was a fair trade-off.
Yeah, we were pretty naive back then. :-P


Unstoppable Warrior needs more features. Just plain barbarian gets better specials then that.

Really? But it gains every combat-related ability the Barbarian has - DR and all Rages - and just trades Trap Sense for what's basically a bonus to AC. What am I missing?