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View Full Version : Fan Of Knives(Base class)[3.5][WIP](my 1st internet homebrew)



miz redavni
2012-06-17, 01:25 AM
OP note: this is my first time posting a homebrew on here, so just relax as I test things out.

special= Something goes here(maybe) that I haven't added yet or I can't think of anything.This IS a WIP(Work In Progress) after all.

I have been away from 3.5 for awhile now, been doing 4.0 and 4.5, but seeing as my group is returning to 3.5, decided to make a homebrew that's 3.5.

Any and all criticism is welcome. If you say something and I change anything because of what I said I will add you to the thank you list and say what you helped me with.

All of this has come off the top of my head as I was thinking it.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5j8uze5771rvhjm6o1_1280.png

"when I'm done with you, you'll be a porcupine! A BIG BLOODY PORCUPINE!"
-Darek, the Fan Of Knives

Fan Of Knives come from the slums of backwater town. Taught alittle bit of magic from a kind old wizard who felt pitty for them. They then spread the magic to their friends though few they may be. They use this magic and what little money they have to get a weapon and then to fight to feed themselves but few seek higher goals, and become adventurers, bodyguards of some sort, or try to us their skills to get close to a nobleman and his family to steal from them.


Abilities: Dexterity is their most powerful Ability, they add it to their hit and damage rolls as long as they are wearing light armor or less and it is also their defensive ability. Next would be their Constitution due to the amount of fights they get themselves into.

Hit Dice: d8
Alignment: Chaotic Any

Starting Age: Young to Moderate
Starting Gold: 5d4 x 10


{table=head]Level | Base Attack Bonus | fort save | ref save | will save | light bladed weapons| 0ne-handed bladed weapons | two-handed bladed weapons | catchable |Special

1st|+0|+0|+2|+2|
1|
0|
0|+2|Blade Ownership, Throw anything(bladed), Return Blade(Owned weapon), On the blade of a knife|

2nd|+1|+0|+3|+3|
2|
1|
0|+3| Quick draw, Quick sheath|

3rd|+2|+1|+3|+3|
3|
1|
1|+4|Wall of blades|

4th|+3|+1|+4|+4|
4|
2|
1|+5|Imbue Weapon(owned) +1|

5th|+3|+1|+4|+4|
5|
2|
1|+6|The bloody anchor|

6th|+4|+2|+5|+5|
6|
3|
2|+7|special|

7th|+5|+2|+5|+5|
7|
3|
2|+8|Ranged Pin|

8th|+6/+1|+2|+6|+6|
8|
4|
2|+9|Imbue Weapon(owned) +2|

9th|+6/+1|+3|+6|+6|
9|
4|
3|+10|special|

10th|+7/+2|+3|+7|+7|
10|
5|
3|+11|Range increase +10ft|

11th|+8/+3|+3|+7|+7|
10|
5|
3|+12|special|

12th|+9/+4|+4|+8|+8|
11|
6|
3|+13|Imbue Weapon(owned) +3|

13th|+9/+4|+4|+8|+8|
11|
6|
3|+14|special|

14th|+10/+5|+4|+9|+9|
12|
7|
4|+15|special|

15th|+11/+6/+1|+5|+9|+9|
12|
7|
4|+16|Blade Storm|

16th|+12/+7/+2|+5|+10|+10|
13|
8|
4|+17|Imbue Weapon(owned) +4|

17th|+12/+7/+2|+5|+10|+10|
13|
8|
4|+18|special|

18th|+13/+8/+3|+6|+11|+11|
14|
9|
4|+19|special|

19th|+14/+9/+4|+6|+11|+11|
14|
9|
4|+20|special|

20th|+15/+10/+5|+6|+12|+12|
15|
10|
5|∞|imbue Weapon(owned) +5|[/table]

miz redavni
2012-06-17, 01:26 AM
Class Skills
The Fan Of Knive's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are balance(DEX), Bluff(Cha), Concentration(Con), Craft(Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Move Silently (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Survival (Wis), Tumble (Dex), Use Rope (Dex)

Skill points at 1st level: (6+int mod)x4
Skill points at each additional level: 6+ int mod

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Fan Of Knives has proficient with all simple bladed, martial bladed, and exotic bladed weapons and light armor.


Blade Ownership- To make a weapon be Owned by you, you must study it for 3hours. At this time you study its weight, it's size, it's true center, how the handle feels, every little aspect about the weapon. Everyday you must spend atleast 1hour cleaning all the weapons that you have owned to keep it in perfect shape. Most of your Class features come from your relationship of you and your blade. If you do not keep this relationship going, you lose any ability that requires ownership until you re-go through the process Of Blade Ownership.

You cannot be disturbed while studying a weapon.


Throw anything(bladed)- You may throw anything That is bladed as if you had the appropriate feat for said weapon. The amount of blades you can throw at one time for full damage is shown small, medium, and large Bladed areas on the table. You may throw more then your max but for an accumulative -2 less chance to hit per weapon thrown.


Return Blade(Owned weapon)- as a free action you can have a certain number of blades you have thrown return to you as though you had returning on each. Though there is a limit on the number you can catch. Each blade is worth a certain value of catch points which it is not advised you go over. if you do go over your limit then there is a 50% chance it will embed itself into you, a 40% chance it will go soaring past you, and a 10% chance to catch them all. light blades are worth 1 point, one-handed blades are worth 2 points, and two-handed blades are worth 3 points.

Instead of having it return to you, you may have it stay in the target causing bleed damage of 3 per weapon still in them each round until each the blades are removed and a heal check DC 15 is made.

At level 20 due to your immense amount of training and your inhuman amount of dexterity you can catch any amount of blades that are Owned by you.

On the blade of a knife- You may add your dex mod to your damage rolls instead of the normal modifiers as long as you are wearing light armor or less for your thrown Owned weapons only.

Quick draw- As quick draw in player's handbook 1, this also acts is if it was the feat for any prerequisites

Quick sheath- You may sheath your weapon as a free action

Wall of blades- You call upon all your blades to protect you, making a wall out of them infront of you that is 5ft x 10ft as a full round action. If any target infront of you it is treated as not having line of sight and your AC is treated as being 10 higher. If anyone is to the sides or behind you this is ignored. While you have this ability up you cannot attack as all your blades are being used to make this wall. This wall cannot be scaled no matter what. You may keep this up for 1+ your class level rounds.

Imbue Weapon(owned)- you may add an enchant to each of your Owned weapons equal to the amount of the Imbue Weapon amount. This enchantment only stays as long as the blade stays under your Ownership.

It takes 2 hours of uninterrupted thought about the weapon per Owned weapon you wish to imbue. You may change the enchantment on each of your weapons only 1 time a day for the same amount of time as the process.

If you throw more then your allowed, each weapon you throw dispells itself in flight on its way to the target.

The bloody anchor- Through your pure amount of training and knowledge of combat, you have learned that sometimes, it's better to let your target bleed alittle and to not let them stop bleeding. Now if you leave any of your blades in your target they bleed for 4 hit points a round per weapon left inside them. They must ether tare the blade from their body dealing 5 additional damage to them and make a heal save DC 15 or make a heal save DC 25 as a full round action to carefully remove the blade and take no extra damage.

Ranged Pin- As the feat in Complete warrior. You may use one of your blades for this.

Range increase +10ft- Increases the max range of your ranged attacks by 10ft

Blade Storm- As blade storm in Tome of battle: Book of the nine swords but your weapon counts for the number of weapons you can throw in 1 attack.

miz redavni
2012-06-17, 01:28 AM
special thanks to
JeminiZero- for helping me correct ALOT of minor and some major mistakes I made. Since there are so many I would rather not go into each and everyone, so instead please refer to post #5 :smallbiggrin:



Owrtho- He decided to do alot of work to help me with this! he literally read through all of the abilities carefully enough to find things that I did wrong in them. If your looking at one of the abilities, there is a very good chance that it is what it is thanks to him. I couldn't thank him enough.

miz redavni
2012-06-17, 03:52 AM
Alright! it's ready(more like I need to go to bed and will pick this up again in the morning)!

Tell me what you think so far and like I said, I welcome ALL criticism seeing as this is my first post of a homebrew on the net!

JeminiZero
2012-06-17, 05:06 AM
I'm guessing its not completely written out yet, so I won't comment on balance for now. That said, here are a few technical things you might want to note:


Starting Gold: 5d4 x class level

Starting gold is usually something like "5d4x10" at first level. Gold for 2nd level and beyond is usually read off the wealth by level table.


Class SkillsThe BladeDancer's class skills

I think there might be a copy-pasta error here. It should be Fan Of Knives or BladeDancer.


(and the key ability for each skill) are balance(DEX), Bluff(Cha), Concetration(Con), Craft(Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Move Silently (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Survival (Wis), Tumble (Dex), Use Rope (Dex)

Small typo at Concentration.


accumilitive

This should be spelled "accumulative".


Return Blade(Owned weapon)- as a minor action you can have a certain number of blades you have thrown return to you as though you had returning on each.

There is no minor action in 3.5. You probably want to use free action here.

Small bladed / Medium Bladed / Large Bladed: 3.5 uses the light weapon, one handed and two handed weapon (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/weapons.htm) categories. Using small/medium/large is usually used to refer to creature size.

You need to note the class weapon and armor proficiencies somewhere.

Throw Anything: In 3.5 weapon throwing rules are quite simple. Some weapons can be thrown without penalty (those with a range increment). Otherwise they are thrown with a -4 penalty.

However, if you take the Throw Anything feat (Complete Warrior pg 105), then you can also throw these weapons without penalty. Hence you can simplify your description into something like: You can throw any melee weapon, even those without range increments, with no penalty.

I would also limit throw anything to weapons that you are proficient in, and then give the class simple and martial weapon proficiency

On the blade of a knife: Wording needs clarification. Does it add dex mod to melee attacks as well? How about bow and arrow? Or is it just meant for thrown attacks?.

I would recommend splitting Return Blade into 2 sections. First would be "Owned Weapon" describing how you gain and maintain ownership.

Then second section would be Return Blade.

Then for Imbue Weapon, note that the enchantment lasts only as long as the blade remains under your ownership (which needs 10 mins each morning to maintain). Otherwise as currently worded, Imbue is only removed if you throw excess weapons.

This structures the decription a bit more clearly into: 1) What is ownership, and 2) what are the benefits of ownership.

miz redavni
2012-06-17, 10:48 PM
Wow, thank you VERY much for your help! There was alot of stuff I somehow missed. I used everything you caught and suggested. Added you to the special thank you list too! I am really grateful for your help.

I've been away from 3.5 for sometime so I'm alittle fuzzy on the rules. Hopefully after this next session with my group I'll remember most of the rules again.

This class is trying to push people towards dagger use and trying to make their damage good while trying to keep flavor up BUT also while not trying to limit people to dagger only.

Owrtho
2012-06-18, 06:20 AM
Well, I like the basic idea of a class built around using knives (or other bladed weapons), so I figured I'd take a look at this and try to lend my advice.

Looking at the first post, the alignment requirement seems odd, since I could just as easily see a knife throwing character be extremely lawful as chaotic.

Also, under abilities, the Charisma doesn't actually have that much importance to them given they lack any abilities that make use of it, meaning only the skills based on it make use of charisma for them. As a class based around fighting, constitution would be much more useful to them, even if charisma fits well for a common version of fluff.


Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Fan Of Knives has proficient with all simple and martial weapons and light armor.

First, given the basis of this class being built around bladed weapons, I'd suggest granting simple weapon proficiencies, as well as let them be proficient in all bladed martial weapons and a single bladed exotic weapon of their choice. The lack of non-bladed martial weapons should balance out the free exotic weapon proficiency, and be more in keeping with the class.



Blade Ownership- To make a weapon be Owned by you, you must study it for 3hours. At this time you study its weight, it's size, it's true center, how the handle feels, every little aspect about the weapon. Everyday you must spend atleast 10mins cleaning each owned weapon of yours to keep it in perfect shape. Most of your Class features come from your relationship of you and your blade. If you do not keep this relationship going, you lose any ability that requires ownership until you re-go through the process Of Blade Ownership.

You cannot be disturbed while studying a weapon, you may be disturbed while cleaning the weapon but add another 5mins to each weapons cleaning time while disturbed.

This ability should likely be adjusted some. Given the way this class seems like it is intended to get a large number of knives (mine I may getting overly influenced by the picture), I'd suggest having the time needed to maintain each knife go down as the fan levels up, lest the time needed become excessive. Also, the 5 minutes when disturbed should just be a flat additional 5 minutes rather than 5 minutes per knife.



Throw anything(bladed)- You may throw anything That is bladed as if you had the appropriate feat for said weapon. The amount of blades you can throw at one time for full damage is shown small, medium, and large Bladed areas on the table. You may throw more then your max but for an accumulative 35% less then full damage per weapon thrown.

For each weapon thrown, if you throw more then the slots in your base attack bonus, you may not add your base attack bonus but take a accumulative -1 to hit per weapon that exceeds your the number of slots of your base attack bonus.


First, I'll note that weapons aren't grouped into small, medium, and large in 3.5 (well they are, but that refers to the size category of the creature it is made for). I believe you are meaning to refer to the categories of light weapons, one-handed weapons, and two-handed weapons.

The wording on this is somewhat clunky, and the intent isn't entirely clear. Is the number of thrown blades per attack, added to one's total number of attacks, or per round? In addition, it should be a cumulative reduction in damage. Is the damage reduction per weapon thrown, or per weapon past the maximum listed amount thrown? Does the penalty apply to all weapons thrown at that time, or just the additional ones? 35% is also a rather clunky amount to deal with. A flat penalty to damage (with a note that it may reduce it to 0), or halves or quarters would work better.

For the second part, do you not get your base attack bonus to any of the thrown weapons, or just the extra ones? Again, this would be more clear if the added throws was per attack, etc. Is the penalty to every weapon thrown that round/attack, or just the extras? This should also be a cumulative penalty, not an accumulative penalty.


Return Blade(Owned weapon)- as a free action you can have a certain number of blades you have thrown return to you as though you had returning on each. Though there is a limit on the number you can catch. Each blade is worth a certain value of catch points which it is not advised you go over. if you do go over your limit then there is a 60% chance it will embed itself into you and a 40% chance it will go soaring past you. Small blades are worth 1 point, medium blades are worth 2 points, and large blades are worth 3 points.

At level 20 due to your immense amount of training and your inhuman amount of dexterity you can catch any amount of blades that are Owned by you.

Again, the issue with weapon categories.

Anyway, I'd first note that returning doesn't work the way you seem to think it does, as the returning property causes the weapon to automatically return to the square it was thrown from just before the start of the throwers next turn, and may be caught as a free action (if it isn't caught, it just drops into the square). This seems to be making the weapons return immediately. Further, due to it being a free action, which in 3.5 can be used as often as desired, the user could just return blades individually for no penalty. I'd suggest having the catching be per round rather than use of the ability, and if that was already intended make it clearly stated to be such.


On the blade of a knife- You may add your dex mod to your hit and damage rolls instead of the normal modifiers as long as you are wearing light armor or less for your thrown Owned weapons only.

In 3.5 they are attack rolls, not hit rolls. Also, I'd note that Dex mod is already added to hit for thrown weapons, though this isn't a problem as you may jsut mean that they gain twice Dex mod to hit with owned weapons when throwing them.


Quick draw- As quick draw in player's handbook 1

I'd suggest giving quick draw as a bonus feat rather than just an ability mimicking it, as they may then use it to fulfil prerequisites. It may also be worth noting that if they already have it or would later gain it from another source they just get a bonus feat.


Quick sheath- You may sheath your weapon as a free action

This seems fine.


Wield many- you may wield up to the max you may throw but only do damage with them if they are thrown.

Is this in addition to the normal maximum wield-able weapons? Does this cause any penalties that are normally associated with wielding more than one weapon? Given the fan can already draw weapons as a free action, is there any real point to doing this when they lose the ability to use the weapons in melee and they can't throw them any faster? Also, thinking on it, can a character wishing to use only a smaller category of weapon forgo their throw-able slots for larger weapons to make them count as smaller ones? I'd suggest either making that an innate part of the class or a feat that may be taken by members.


Imbue Weapon(owned)- you may add an enchant to each of your Owned weapons equal to the amount of the Imbue Weapon amount. This enchantment only stays as long as the blade stays under your Ownership.

It takes 2 hours of uninterrupted thought about the weapon per Owned weapon you wish to imbue. You may change the enchantment on each of your weapons only 1 time a day for the same amount of time as the process.

If you throw more then your allowed, each weapon you throw dispells itself in flight on its way to the target.

This seems fine. Wording seems slightly off, but that may just be lack of sleep.

Anyway, some suggestions for other abilities since you seem to have quite a few dead levels. Possibly add some abilities allowing floating bladed weapons around you that may provide various benefits. Perhapse a few different things like cloak of blades, halo of blades, etc. that have the blades float in your vicinity in various arrangements and possess different abilities or benefits. Depending on how these are done you might make them be in a few tiers with the fan able to select different ones depending ones to lear ant certain levels, while only able to assume one at a time. Changing might be a move action or a swift action. If you use such an ability, I'd suggest those that directly deal damage not be based on the specific weapons used but rather the number (the number of blades allowed in one should also be limited in some way, perhaps by the throw-able number of blades).
Examples of possible ones would be (note these aren't really formatted but just give a general gist of what they might do)
cloak of blades: The blades float behind the fan like a cloak. When thrown they have improved accuracy granting a bonus to attack and an increase in the range increment, or the max number of throw-able blades is increased when using the cloak of blades, as the blades in the cloak may be launched in addition to those thrown normally.
halo of blades: The blades orbit the fan in a close circle. These blades may be thrown, but unlike normally thrown blades they arc close to the fan, instead dealing damage to any creatures in two consecutive squares bordering the fan, still needs an attack roll or reflex to avoid (may become stronger with a larger sweep area or further out range), or automatically deals minor damage to creatures that get close.
Both of those are inspired by the playable version of Joachim Armster (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q66zxsp_zn0) from Castlevania: Lament of Innocence.

It might also be worth granting the fan an extra dimensional carrying space for all their blades since they seem likely to get a fair collection.

As a side note, another character that might be worth looking into for some inspiration is Sakuya Izayoi from the Touhou series, as she tends to throw vast quantities of knives.

Owrtho

miz redavni
2012-06-18, 07:24 AM
Alright! Thank you very much! I will definitely be adding you to the special thanks list.

now to address your questions,

The number of blades thrown is per attack, I literally fixed that 35% half a second before you posted, most likely as you were typing, that 2nd part you mentioned..... I don't know what i was trying to say there, I will fix it after I type this.

Hmmm When I was reading some of the returning abilities of blood storm blade, it suggested that catching them when they return to you isn't always in your interest, And I imagine if a blade is coming soaring back to you, you can try to catch it, but if you have too many and your not trained enough to catch them all, your pretty screwed, or you might get lucky and they'll miss you. I don't know if I would have them suddenly stop at you... momentum and all ^^;;

Your completely right, I need to change that as soon as I'm done typing. I most likely had that there due to lack of sleep or just, I type as I think, so sometimes, words that don't need to be, well, be.

Fixed, it now is there, and works as a feat for any prereqs.

Hmmmm if you don't mind, I would like to use those abilities that you mentioned, I am suddenly in a rut for ideas of stuff for this class. I will wait for your ok, since you did think of them.

Yea I know who your taking about, I actually have ALL of those games, I love bullet hells. She's one of my fav characters in "imperishable night"

Oh, and the alignment restriction is because of the amount of pain and suffering this class causes to its target is pretty up there. You'd have to be alittle messed up to be this class.

More or less I need number balance help, I want light blades to be viable and just as powerful as one-handed and as two-handed. I want people to be able to mix and match too with the returning. like "ok this attack I'll throw # many daggers with x imbue at this guy, next attack I'll throw # longswords with y imbue, and I'll keep # dagger/s and/or # longsword/s in him as I have # dagger/s and/or longsword/s return to me".

I'll be play testing this in an actual campaign today, i wonder how it will go...

Owrtho
2012-06-18, 02:55 PM
Right then. I've only given the changes a cursory look so far, but I'll make a more in depth one later today or tonight, which will include your answers to my questions. That said, two quick things I thought I'd address.


Hmmmm if you don't mind, I would like to use those abilities that you mentioned, I am suddenly in a rut for ideas of stuff for this class. I will wait for your ok, since you did think of them.

Feel free to. The main point in posting them was in case you wanted to use them or could draw inspiration from them.

For the wall of blades, I'd suggest having it act more like blade barrier (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/bladeBarrier.htm). Possibly with the additional note that it does not provide cover from your attacks. I'd suggest the size and damage be based on the number of blades up put into it (with the different types counting for different amounts), and that it in part count toward your max number of throwable blades (possibly something like half as much as normal, rounded up). Also add a total max cap on the number of blades you may put into it, to avoid things being stupid at if the fan is level 20 with unlimited throw capacity. Possibly based on Dexterity of Charisma.

Owrtho