PDA

View Full Version : The Wanderer [3.5 base class, PEACH] version 0.9



Fawriel
2012-09-11, 11:17 AM
The Wanderer

http://i47.tinypic.com/2wlveih.png
above image source (http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=26711866) - another alternate image (http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=8913318) - yet another alternate image because I literally spent a whole day searching for good ones and I'm not even nearly out of them (http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=26694224)


"Why am I risking my life to save your village? I guess I just don't see why I should not. I'm here now, and I'll be gone tomorrow. Whatever happens between now and then is only another step in the journey." - Odo, wandering sage

Fluff:
It is said that where there is a will, there is a way. This philosophy could not ring any more true to the wanderers, those strong-willed individuals who make their way where others do not dare to tread. From the towering rooftops of a magical city, to mountaintops ravaged by raging winds, to the darkest depths of the deepest seas, the wanderers see the dangers of the land as an invitation, persevering against impossible odds driven only by their desire for freedom and a love for the vast and mysterious world that nurtures them.

Adventures: As a general rule, wanderers go on adventures because they want to. They are far from detached and might certainly have a cause worth fighting for. But even with their sights set on a future destination, wanderers would never lose sight of the here and now. Even when they fight for monetary gain, the money to them is only a key with which to open otherwise closed doors. The journey itself is what they live for.

Characteristics: The wanderer is a very independent kind of character, boasting a versatility that allows him to act as well on his own as he does in a team. His most unique skill is his ability to develop various modes of movement, eventually allowing him to climb like a monkey, swim like a fish in the sea or even fly indefinitely. While not as varied in skills as a rogue, a wanderer can be a godsend to any group outside of combat for his ability to get around places. When a battle cannot be avoided, he does not have the damage potential of a dedicated fighter, but can hold his own against even dangerous foes thanks to an intuitive understanding of his opponent's behavior. The wanderer even learns to spontaneously cast a variety of spells. He cannot match a dedicated spellcaster in the number of spells he can cast or the power they unleash, but chances are that a quick-witted wanderer will often have just the right spell available to make the most out of a tricky situation.

Alignment: Being a wanderer is not as much a profession as it is a way of life. Being defined by the thirst for freedom and the breaking of boundaries, a chaotic disposition is almost a prerequisite. Neutrally inclined characters lack the necessary passion and lawful characters lack the necessary independence, and indeed, while any of these are still capable of walking the path of the wanderer, they cannot realize the full potential of the class and are practically unheard of. Apart from this caveat, wanderers are still as varied as such a rare brand of people can be. A good wanderer might be a freedom fighter, a mild-mannered layabout or a passionate artist, while an evil wanderer might be an anarchistic terrorist who defies all law out of principle, or just someone whose idea of freedom takes the form of mindless decadence at the cost of others.

Background: Wanderers come from all walks of life. While a certain basic skills and training are needed to develop the unique skills of the class, those who walk its path generally do so intuitively and will only rarely receive tutelage from a master. Indeed, the term “wanderer” is only a catch-all term for those who begin to develop certain kinds of skills after setting out to use their own, personal power to take life into their own hands. A simple wanderer who listens to the sound of the forest. A lone layabout in a big city who earns money with made-up dances. An artist with a healthy mind in a healthy body. An artist whose body is a work of art to herself. An athlete training alone to gain fame and move his family out of the slums. Or the sheltered daughter of a nobleman who sneaks outside the mansion at night to learn about the world outside the garden walls.

Other classes: Although fervently lawful companions might find their chaotic attitudes to be exhausting or even suspicious, getting along with other party members, no matter how varied, is generally not a problem for a wanderer thanks to their open-mindedness. They are most likely to accept and respect the ways of other classes or races, so long as their ways do not involve oppressing the freedom of others. They work well on their own, but after getting used to life in a group, a wanderer will be a reliable ally to his traveling companions.


Role: Wanderers prefer to avoid direct conflict. They excel outside of combat situations, acting as excellent scouts with their wide array of skills. In a battle, they have to keep track of the goings-on and their own resources in order to use them as well as possible to provide support where it's needed. They can quickly adapt to changes in the flow of a battle to help a fighter take down a dangerous opponent, combine magical forces with a wizard, team up with a rogue, or provide support in any number of other ways. A wanderer can't do everything, but their versatility guarantees that they will never find themselves unable to contribute.

GAME RULE INFORMATION
Abilities: Wisdom determines the spell level available to the wanderer, as well as his defensive bonus. High Charisma grants him more spells per day and makes them harder to resist, while high Intelligence provides more skill points per level. A wanderer focused on melee combat benefits from a high Constitution score, as well as Strength. Dexterity enhances both his staying ability in battle as well as many of his bread and butter skills.
Alignment: Any. However, lawful characters do not gain access to wanderer spells.
Hit die: d6

Class skills:
Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Handle Animal, Heal, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (Architecture and engineering, dungeoneering, geography, local, nature, the planes), Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Ride, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope
Skill points per level: 6+Int modifier

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |
AC Bonus|
Speed Bonus|
Spell Level|
Points

1st|+0|+0|+2|+2|Dance of Battle +1, Unarmed Strike, AC Bonus|
0|
0|
-|
-

2nd|+1|+0|+3|+3|Boundless Step|
0|
+10|
-|
-

3rd|+2|+1|+3|+3|Dance of Battle (+1 opponent), Journey Domains|
0|
+10|
1|
1

4th|+3|+1|+4|+4|Endurance, Free Will +2|
0|
+10|
1|
2

5th|+3|+1|+4|+4|Dance of Battle +2, Bonus Trick|
0|
+10|
2|
3

6th|+4|+2|+5|+5|Evasion, Bonus Feat|
+1|
+10|
2|
4

7th|+5|+2|+5|+5|World Domains|
+1|
+10|
2|
5

8th|+6|+2|+6|+6|Boundless Walk|
+1|
+20|
3|
6

9th|+6|+3|+6|+6|Freedom of Movement, Bonus Trick|
+1|
+20|
3|
7

10th|+7|+3|+7|+7|Dance of Battle +3|
+1|
+20|
3|
8

11th|+8|+3|+7|+7|Life Domains, Free Will +4|
+2|
+20|
4|
9

12th|+9|+4|+8|+8|Dance of Battle (+2 opponents), Bonus Feat|
+2|
+20|
4|
10

13th|+9|+4|+8|+8|Uncanny Dodge, Bonus Trick|
+2|
+20|
4|
11

14th|+10|+4|+9|+9|Boundless Stride|
+2|
+30|
5|
12

15th|+11|+5|+9|+9|Dance of Battle +4, Soul Domain|
+2|
+30|
5|
13

16th|+12|+5|+10|+10|Improved Evasion|
+3|
+30|
5|
14

17th|+12|+5|+10|+10|Manifest Soul, Bonus Trick|
+3|
+30|
6|
15

18th|+13|+6|+11|+11|Bonus Feat|
+3|
+30|
6|
16

19th|+14|+6|+11|+11|Freedom of Mind, Liberation Domain|
+3|
+30|
6|
17

20th|+15|+6|+12|+12|Dance of Battle +5, Unbounded Soul|
+3|
+40|
6|
18[/table]

Class features:
Weapon and Armor Proficiency:
Wanderers are proficient with all simple weapons. However, they face a special restriction. A wanderer's power strongly depends on his trust in his own abilities. Whenever a wanderer carries a weapon with the intention of using it, he temporarily loses the benefits of his Unarmed Strike, as well as his Dance of Battle class feature, and he must rest and meditate for at least half an hour to regain them. This restriction does not apply to weapons the wanderer made himself. Enchantments on the weapon also have to be applied by the wanderer himself, or the weapon will no longer count as being his own creation. He is also proficient with improvised weapons. He is free to use his surroundings to his advantage and pick up any object lying around to gain an advantage if the opportunity offers itself, provided that the object is not a manufactured weapon. However, a wanderer is not proficient with any armor or shields, and indeed a lot of his abilities require traveling as lightly as possible. Consequently, the maximum size of an improvised weapon he can wield is restricted by its weight. When carrying any more than a light load, using a shield or wearing any armor, a wanderer loses his AC bonus and speed bonus, as well as the benefits of his Dance of Battle ability.

Unarmed Strike:
Through a combination of training and power drawn from a strong will, the wanderer achieves an extraordinary ability to fight without the help of weapons. He gains the Unarmed Strike ability, as the Monk's class feature.

AC Bonus (Ex):
Wanderers tend to be more sensitive to their surroundings than most people. They gain a bonus to AC equal to their Wisdom modifier. This bonus functions like the Monk class feature, except that the additional increases occur at 6th level and every 5 levels thereafter.

Dance of Battle (Ex):
The wanderers' sensitivity gives them a unique insight into not only their surroundings, but into all living things they encounter. Using this intuitive understanding to their advantage, wanderers in combat flow like a leaf in the wind, dodging heavy blows and striking when the opportunity is right. A wanderer is treated as having the Dodge feat. However, in addition to the +1 dodge bonus, he also gains a +1 insight bonus to attack and damage rolls against his chosen opponent. Both the dodge bonus and the insight bonus rise by 1 at level 5 and every 5 levels thereafter.
In addition, at 3rd level and every 9 levels thereafter, a wanderer can target an additional opponent with this skill. However, any additional opponents past the first must be within 10 feet of the wanderer. He must either focus on an enemy with his eyes or feel them move around himself, but he gains no insight into ranged attacks outside of this personal sphere. He may change his focus anytime during any action of his, but not outside his turn.
A wanderer cannot be flanked, provided that all opponents threatening him are being targeted by his Dance of Battle.
The insight bonus on attacks and damage generally does not apply against enemies who are immune to critical hits. However, a wanderer with at least 4 ranks in Knowledge (architecture and engineering) can apply the bonus to constructs, and he can attempt a Knowledge (religion) check even if untrained to be able to apply it against undead enemies for the rest of the encounter. The check has to be rolled separately for every different kind of undead he attempts to target, and a failed check cannot be rerolled until the next encounter. The DC is 10+(the creature's HD). It decreases by 4 if the target is recognizably humanoid, and by another 4 if a check had already succeeded on creatures of its kind in a previous encounter.

Speed Bonus (Ex):
At 2nd level, the wanderer gains an enhancement bonus of +10 feet to his base land speed, and it increases by another 10 feet at every 6 levels thereafter. This bonus only applies when he is not wearing armor and carrying no more than a light load.

Boundless Step (Ex):
The wanderers' perhaps most remarkable and well-known trait is their ability to move past the boundaries of what should be possible for a person of their race, using nothing but their own wits and skills. The way these abilities are gained is similar to the way a character would train a normal Skill Trick. The four levels until 20th level on which a wanderer gains a speed bonus mark the points starting at which he can gain attempt to learn one of a number of increasingly advanced movement skills.
At 2nd level, a wanderer gains the Boundless Step class feature. He can henceforth gain any of the following Boundless skills, provided that he fulfills the requirements and pays the necessary cost.

{table=head]Name|Requirements|Description
Well-Balanced|Balance 5 ranks, Concentration 2 ranks|You can choose to take 10 on a Balance check even if distracted or threatened. You still have to roll normally under difficult circumstances. Once a day, if a failed check would cause you to fall, you may attempt to reroll the check.

Hang On|Climb 6 ranks|Once a day, if a failed Climb check would cause you to fall, you may attempt to reroll the check. If you would still fall, or if you cannot reroll anymore, you may choose to perform a Reflex save (DC 15) to catch yourself. The strain on your hands makes you take 1d3 of non-lethal damage. Until the damage taken from this is healed by any means, any subsequent Climb DCs increase by the amount of damage taken, and the damage will increase by 1 for every 3 consecutive rounds spent climbing. As soon as the non-lethal damage taken from this exceeds 4 + your Con bonus (if any), you can no longer keep climbing. You can also choose to use this skill to hold on to a falling ally if you succeed on the touch attack roll, but fail the Climb check needed to hold the ally. In this case, you automatically take the full 3 points of non-lethal damage and take 1 consecutive point of damage for each round you are still holding your ally.

Water-Affinity|Swim 5 ranks, Survival 1 rank|You can hold your breath for twice as long as normal, for a minimum of 2 rounds. You can take a standard action underwater without risking to drown, but a full-round action still reduces the duration for which you can hold your air.

Light-Footed|Tumble 5 ranks, Move Silently 2 ranks|The Tumble DC for tumbling over difficult terrain decreases by 4, to a minimum of 0.

Rough Tumble|Tumble 7 ranks, Concentration 4 ranks|You can take 10 on Tumble checks even if threatened or distracted.

[/table]

To gain a Boundless skill, the wanderer must meet the listed skill rank requirements. He must then expend 2 skill points gained at a level-up to invest in the training of the skill. The training also requires a whole consecutive week's worth of hard work to complete. If the training is interrupted, any day of training lost has to be repeated double, or the entire week of training has to begin anew. Only after successfully completing the training, the wanderer gains unconditional use of the Boundless skill. The skill point cost has to be paid at level-up; the training does not have to take place immediately, but has to be done before the next level-up. A wanderer can choose to train any of the listed skills at any following level-up as long as he meets the requirements and pays the prize. A skill can only be gained once; the wanderer either knows it, or does not.

Spells:
A wise wanderer is so in tune with the world that they achieve the ability to access divine magic that is normally only granted to devoted followers of the gods. Starting at 3rd level, he gains access to a small number of divine spells, which are drawn from various Cleric domains to which the wanderer gains access as he advances. A wanderer can spontaneously cast spells from any prepared domain (see “Domains” for details on preparing domains), provided that he has enough points available and has access to the spell's spell level.
A wanderer has a very limited number of points available each day with which to cast spells. The maximum number of points available to him is equal to his class level – 2 + his Charisma modifier. Casting a spell of a certain spell level uses up an amount of points equal to the spell level. In addition, any spell the Wanderer knows can only be cast for a number of times per day equal to his Charisma modifier (minimum 1). Thus, a wanderer of 20th level with a Charisma modifier of +2 would have 20 points available, which he could use to cast three 6th level spells and a 2nd level spell, or any other combination that does not exceed 20 points total or use the same spell more than 2 times.
To know and be able to cast a spell, a wanderer must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the spell level. The DC for a saving throw against his spells is 10 + the spell level + his Charisma modifier. The wanderer's caster level is ( his class level / 2) + 2.
It has to be noted that the source and use of magic of a Wanderer are very unusual and have not been researched as thoroughly as others. His spells cannot be affected by metamagic feats, and his Domain access does not qualify him for any bonus domains.
A wanderer must choose a certain time each day, typically right after waking up in the morning, to spend an hour meditating and bonding with the world around him to replenish his spell points and prepare his domains for the day.

Domains:
A wanderer gains access to up to five groups of domains as he advances: Journey Domains, World Domains, Life Domains, the Soul Domain and the Liberation Domain. With the exception of the Soul Domain and the Liberation Domain, each of these is a group made up of more than one domain. Each day, when preparing his spells, a wanderer can choose one domain per group from which he can then spontaneously cast spells until he runs out of points or prepares his spells again on the next day. Thus, a 19th level wanderer would have spontaneous access to spells from up to 4 different domains each day, of which each one has to be from a different domain group. He does not, however, gain any of the powers granted by any of the domains he can prepare.

Journey Domains:
Wanderers soon learn to look deep into the own souls and tap into the power that lies within their own souls. Through something akin to a prayer or a simple reassurance in their ability to shape their own fate, they can use this power to gain a blessing for the journey that lies ahead, and access to magic that will aid them on their travels. A wanderer of 3rd level gains access to the Journey Domain group, which includes the Luck Domain, the Travel Domain and the Weather Domain. While spending an hour in the morning meditating to prepare his spells, a wanderer can choose any one of these domains to prepare for the day. The forms this meditation can take are as varied as the wanderers themselves. Preparing the Luck Domain might involve rolling a die between one's hands or playing a game of solitaire. The Travel Domain could be prepared by gently moving one's fingers across a map and imagining the things one might find. One might prepare the Weather Domain by staring for an hour into the sky and observing the clouds, or by dancing about like a raging thunderstorm. However a wanderer chooses to prepare a Journey Domain, he focuses on his wishes for the upcoming journey and is completely engrossed in the process.

Endurance:
A wanderer's life of traveling has given him extraordinary endurance. At 4th level, he gains Endurance as a bonus feat.

Free Will (Ex):
To walk his own path and do what he thinks is right is the heart and soul of a wanderer, and he'll steadfastly resist any attempts to manipulate him into acting against his will. At 4th level, he gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against charms and compulsions. This bonus increases to +4 at 11th level.

Bonus Trick:
At 5th level and every 4 levels thereafter, a wanderer gains a bonus skill trick from the list of movement skill tricks for which he meets the prerequisites. These bonus skill tricks do not count against his maximum number of skill tricks available.

Evasion (Ex):
At 6th level, a wanderer is sufficiently experienced in battle to use his mobility even against sudden magic strikes. He gains Evasion as the rogue class feature.

Bonus Feat:
Wanderers never stop learning and improving on themselves. At 6th level and every 6 levels thereafter, they can gain a bonus feat from the following list for which they meet the prerequisites: [PHB] Acrobatic, Agile, Athletic, Blind-Fight, Combat Expertise, Lightning Reflexes, Mobility, Spring Attack, Run, Self-Sufficient, Skill Focus (any trained skill), [CA] Brachiation, Dive For Cover, Improved Swimming, Jack of All Trades, Leap Attack, Mobile Spellcasting, [CS] Freerunner, [CW] Close-Quarters Fighting, Dash, Defensive Throw, Eyes in the Back of Your Head, Fleet of Foot, Flying Kick, Improved Combat Expertise, Prone Attack, [PHBII] Acrobatic Strike, Combat Acrobat, Leap of the Heavens, Melee Evasion

World Domains:
A more experienced wanderer's bond with the world is so strong that the world itself allows him to use its essence to protect him. At 7th level, he gains access to the World Domain group, which is made up of the Air Domain or Storm Domain, the Water Domain or Ocean Domain, and the Earth Domain or Cavern Domain. Upon reaching 7th level, the wanderer has to make one choice between the two options of each of these three groups, which cannot be changed afterwards. The DM may ask you to justify your decision if you elect the Storm Domain, Ocean Domain or Cavern Domain over their counterparts. The Storm Domain might be suited to a hotheaded character. The Ocean Domain is an apt choice for a character who lived by the sea or is particularly “deep”. The Cavern Domain is suited to an explorer or someone who grew up underground.
Whenever he takes an hour to prepare his spells for the day, the wanderer can choose any one of these domains in addition to any domains from other groups that he has access to. As with the Journey domains, the preparation can take a variety of forms. Preparing the Earth Domain might involve digging into the dirt with one's hands or planting a flower, preparing the Water Domain might take the form of listening to the crashing of waves by the sea or skinny-dipping, and preparing the Air Domain could be anything from feeling the wind brush through one's hair to frolicking through a field of flowers on a hill. Depending on how a wanderer decides to prepare his domains, the different forms of preparation can be done simultaneously or consecutively, but the total amount of time taken need not be longer than an hour, as before.

Boundless Walk:
An advanced wanderer begins to truly realize his extraordinary movement abilities. An 8th level wanderer henceforth has the option to train any of the following Boundless skills. This works the same way as training the skills gained by the Boundless Step feature, except that requirements for these new skills might include having trained one of the skills from the Boundless Step set.

{table=head]Name|Requirements|Description

Surehanded|Climb 11 ranks, “Hang On” skill|You gain a climb speed equal to half your land speed.

Walljump|Jump 14 ranks, Climb 12 ranks|With a running start of at least 20 feet, you can jump against a wall and use your own momentum to cling to it with a successful Climb check (DC 20), then jump off with a successful Jump check against a DC necessary for the distance you have to clear. If you can reach a higher part of an opposite wall with your jump, you can proceed to repeat the process. Each successive walljump adds 2 to the DC of the Climb check and the Jump check. This can allow you to scale even a flat vertical surface. You can also use this skill to perform a charge attack against an opponent who is flying or otherwise positioned in a place that would otherwise be impossible to reach.

Like a Frog|Swim 11 ranks, “Water-Affinity” skill|You gain a swim speed equal to half your land speed. You can now also hold your breath for three times the normal duration, to a minimum of 3 rounds.

Freerunning Roll|Tumble 12 ranks|You can choose to roll a Tumble check against a DC of 25 to negate up to 30 feet of fall damage.

[/table]

Freedom of Movement (Ex):
Ordinary restrictions of movement are not an issue to an experienced wanderer. Starting at 9th level, he may act as though under the effect of a Freedom of Movement spell, except that it lasts indefinitely and cannot be dispelled. He loses the benefits of this ability while carrying more than a light load or wearing any kind of armor or shield.

Life Domains:
As wanderers grow more and more powerful, they also begin to understand more and more how all life is connected. At 11th level, breaking the illusion of separation makes his bond to all life in the world grow stronger, and he henceforth has access to the Life Domain group. This group includes the Animal Domain, the Community Domain and the Plant Domain. Whenever he takes an hour to prepare his spells for the day, the wanderer can choose any one of these domains in addition to any domains from other groups that he has access to. As with his other domains, the preparation can take a variety of forms. To prepare the Animal Domain, a wanderer may feed some forest animals or play with a kitten, the preparation of the Community Domain might involve calmly listening to a trusted person for an extended period of time, while preparing the Plant Domain might involve listening to a tree instead. Depending on how a wanderer decides to prepare his domains, the different forms of preparation can be done simultaneously or consecutively, but the total amount of time taken need not be longer than an hour, as before.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex):
Starting at 13th level, a wanderer is so attuned to their surroundings that even surprise attacks do not leave him helpless. He retains his Dexterity bonus to AC even if he is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, he does not retain any AC bonus granted to him by his Dance of Battle ability, and he still loses the Dexterity bonus if he is immobilized. He loses the benefits of this ability if he is carrying more than a light load or wearing any armor or shield.

Boundless Stride:
An expert wanderer's movement abilities are nearing perfection. A 14th level wanderer henceforth has the option to train any of the following Boundless skills. This works the same way as training the skills gained by the Boundless Step feature, except that requirements for these new skills might include having trained one of the skills from the Boundless Walk set.

{table=head]Name|Requirements|Description

Like a Monkey|Climb 17 ranks, “Surehanded” skill|You gain a Climb speed equal to your land speed. You can also perform a full attack action in mid-climb with your unarmed strike by hanging on to the wall with at least both hands and attacking with your feet.

Wallrun|Climb 19 ranks, Tumble 17|With a running start of at least 20 feet, you can use a full-round action to run up a wall at a minimum of 3x your base speed for one round. If you do not end the round standing on a horizontal surface, you can attempt to catch yourself with a successful Climb check (DC = wall's DC + 20). This can be used to scale even a flat vertical surface.

Double-Jump|Jump 17 ranks, Tumble 17 ranks|After performing a jump, you can push yourself off of thin air to perform another jump at its apex. The DC for the second jump is increased by 10. You can also use this skill when falling or rapidly moving through the air for any other reason. In this case, the DC of the Double-Jump depends on where you intend to jump relative to your momentum. If you jump in the same direction, the DC is as normal (Jump DC + 10). If you want to jump perpendicular to your momentum, the DC is 150% of the normal Double-Jump DC. If you go against your momentum, it increases to 200%. After performing a Double-Jump, you cannot use this skill again for another (3d4 – Con modifier) rounds.

Like a Dolphin|Swim 17 ranks, “Like a Frog” skill, Jump 15 ranks|You gain a swim speed equal to your base land speed. You can now also hold your breath 4 times as long as before, to a minimum of 4 rounds. In addition, you gain the ability to send yourself forward at great speed and perform a charge attack underwater. This charge attack can only be performed in a straight line, even if you can change direction during a charge on land.
[/table]

Soul Domain:
During the course of his long, long journey, the wanderer begins to grasp more and more the force within that drives him forward. Upon gaining 15th level, the wanderer's own soul begins to manifest as a source of magic. You now have a choice to make between several domains, of which you can choose one. The available Domains are Celerity, Competition, Craft, Dream, Emotion*, Family, Knowledge and Mind. Your choice should reflect the character as you have played him or her up to this point, and your DM may expect you to justify your choice.
Celerity is fitting for a passionate runner who loves the sensation of freedom, while one who chooses Competition might be in it for the physical superiority. Craft is the choice of one who creates, Dream is the choice of one who meditates. Emotion is the Domain of a hot-headed fighter for freedom out of an unbending lust for life, Family is the Domain of a nurturing, protective spirit who loves people more than anything. One who chooses Knowledge might love to explore the world, while one who chooses Mind might be more apt to explore the souls of its inhabitants. These are only examples, of course, as any choice is open to interpretation.
Unlike any of the Domain groups gained before, the newly acquired Domain stands alone as an independent "group". The wanderer can thus always prepare the spells from this domain along with any other domains he is preparing.

* The Emotion Domain is the same as the Wrath Domain.

Improved Evasion (Ex):
A battle-hardened wanderer is very hard to surprise. At 16th level, he gains Improved Evasion as the Monk class feature.

Manifest Soul:
At 17th level, the manifestation of the wanderer's Soul Domain is complete, and he henceforth gains the benefit of its Granted Power.

Freedom of Mind (Ex):
At 19th level, the wanderer's will for independence has grown to perfection. He is henceforth immune to all charm and compulsion effects.

Liberation Domain:
An extraordinarily powerful wanderer comes to embody the very essence of freedom itself. He now gains access to the Liberation Domain. Unlike the Domain Groups he has gained access to before, this is a singular Domain. However, it counts as a group of its own, so a wanderer can always choose to prepare it along with the domains from his other domain groups. The preparation may take many forms, but will generally involve thinking about his past travels and about what lies in the future.

Unbounded Soul:
A legendary wanderer has left behind the shackles of ordinary mortal existence. At 20th level, a wanderer gains a fly speed equal to his land speed with good maneuverability, by literally walking in the air. Unlike most creatures with good maneuverability, he has a minimum forward speed of half his speed and cannot hover. He also gains access to the following Boundless skills:

{table=head]Name|Requirements|Description

Sound of the Earth|Climb 23 ranks, Move Silently 5 ranks, Survival 5 ranks|You gain Tremorsense with a range of 40 feet whenever touching a solid surface with both of your bare hands or both of your bare feet.

Airdash|Jump 23 ranks, Tumble 19 ranks, “Double-Jump” skill|You can push yourself off of thin air and perform a charge attack in midair. If your attack hits, it deals double damage.

Like a Creature of the Deep|Swim 23 ranks, “Like a Dolphin” skill|You can breathe freely underwater.[/table]

In addition, his creature type changes to Outsider (local). He is now no longer subject to the penalties accrued by aging, but does gain the benefits of old age. He will still die when his time is up. Finally, he can henceforth use Freedom and Unbinding as spell-like abilities at a caster level of 12 by expending 13 of his magic points.

Ex-Wanderers
A wanderer who becomes lawful can no longer advance his wanderer magic, but does not lose anything he has learned so far. Only if an ex-wanderer comes to bitterly regret his former way of life, he loses the benefits of his wanderer spells, Dance of Battle, AC Bonus and Boundless skills.

A lawful wanderer who proceeds to multiclass as a monk can make his monk levels stack with his wanderer levels for the purpose of determining the damage of his unarmed strike, and may exchange his AC bonus with that of the monk. Once he has made this choice, however, he can never return to being a wanderer.

Fawriel
2012-09-11, 11:18 AM
Change log:

First update:

0. Bug fix:
"Bluff" was not meant to be a class skill and was erased.

1. Battle Trance:
Changed name to "Dance of Battle". Additional opponents are now gained at a slower rate. Protection against flanking is now default. Added DC for Knowledge (religion) check.

2. Spells:
Spells only go up to level 6. Any one spell can only be used as often per day as the Wanderer's Charisma modifier, minimum 1. Spells cannot be affected by metamagic and do not qualify for bonus domains.

3. Domains:
Soul Domain added at 15th level. Air is now available as a World Domain by default. Player gets to make a choice between Air or Storm, Earth or Cavern and Water or Ocean, at the DM's approval. Community is added to Life Domains.

4. Boundless:
Added Boundless Stride skill "Double-Jump". "Airdash" now has it as a prerequisite, and now also does double damage on a successful charge. "Well-Balanced" has its Concentration requirement lowered to 2.

5. Uncanny Dodge:
No longer retains Wisdom bonus to AC.

6. Favorite Trick:
Erased.

7. Capstone:
Level 20 wanderer can now use Freedom and Unbinding as spell-like abilities at the cost of 13 magic points (caster level 12).

lt_murgen
2012-09-11, 11:27 AM
I am going to ask a simple question. Please do not take this as a criticism of your work above.

But why not simply make a set of feats to accomplish what you want, and make them thief / skill pre-requisite based? Why do we need another base class?

EdroGrimshell
2012-09-11, 11:42 AM
I am going to ask a simple question. Please do not take this as a criticism of your work above.

But why not simply make a set of feats to accomplish what you want, and make them thief / skill pre-requisite based? Why do we need another base class?

Because oftentimes you don't have enough feats to cover everything a base class can offer. Most people make base classes because they have a concept and simply run with it, sometimes the ideas are better as feats, sometimes they're better as base classes. In the case of the Wanderer, it's better as a base class than a feat chain. Same with my Runner class, which you posted almost this exact same thing on.

EDIT: Will have a more in depth critique soon

Fawriel
2012-09-11, 11:44 AM
Hmmm. Well, obviously we don't need another base class. But after a certain point, changing an existing class to meet your wishes would just end up leaving it unrecognizable after a certain point anyway.

Of course, a lot of concepts that aren't represented in a rulebook already can be approximated with some combination of classes and feats, but ultimately you're building a strange chimera instead of an organic being. Especially if you start at a low level, you'll end up having to wait to be able to multiclass and get a certain skill that your current class can't offer, but by the point you get it, it will feel like a skill you should have had all along because it's really not that spectacular, given that you're level 5 and you just waited desperately for a skill available at level 1... and so on.

In the end, in an ideal world, there would be one archetype for everyone and they would all be equally great and flavorful and everything. But since we don't live in an ideal world, we might as well play around with modifying what we have and filling the gaps. If nothing else, it's actually pretty fun and a nice mental exercise. :smalltongue:

Chronologist
2012-09-11, 03:12 PM
A few basic observations.

The class has the skill list and skill points of a Rogue-like class, the fighting ability of a Monk (with additional class features that boost their attack bonus to on-par with a Fighter), and the spellcasting of a Cleric. While restricted to one automatic domain and 8 other domains over time (and unable to gain the 9th level spells of anything but Journey), they still have prodigious casting ability, even with their limited number of points per day. Throw in some good mobility powers, evasion, and bonus feats, and you have a very potent and versatile class.

I would tone down or remove a number of these elements. The class is simply too good at too many things at once. While it's never the best at any of these things, it's a solid Tier 3 class, Tier 2 if your combat sequences are short and you can really blast those spells.

Battle Trance is WAY too good a class feature, giving the class essentially full attack bonus and a few other tricks. It's the kind of class feature most classes would be built around, but for the Wanderer it's just another powerful ability they have for some reason.

Personally, I would cut the skill points to 4 + Int, reduce their class skills to purely mobility skills, reduce the casting limit to 6th level spells, and remove Battle Trance entirely. I'd raise their hit dice to d8, because they seem to be backup melee types. Finally, while I personally LOVE spell point systems, you might find the class easier to understand and read if you gave them spells per day at a Bard progression; simply make the divine spells from the Liberation, Luck, Earth, Air etc. domains as their spell list, and maybe add some Cure and Restoration spells to that too for good measure.

I hope that helps.

Fawriel
2012-09-12, 03:05 PM
Oh dear.


The class has the skill list and skill points of a Rogue-like class
Pretty much like the Scout, actually. ... yeah.


the fighting ability of a Monk
I don't know, does having "the fighting ability of a monk" actually mean anything besides not needing a weapon? I figured that that's really more of a disadvantage - unlike the monk, the wanderer doesn't even get the "treat his fists as adamantium"-type upgrades.


the spellcasting of a Cleric. While restricted to one automatic domain and 8 other domains over time (and unable to gain the 9th level spells of anything but Journey), they still have prodigious casting ability, even with their limited number of points per day.
Really? I wondered about the magic part a couple of times, but whenever I compared it to other classes that do more than cast magic, those still always ended up being able to cast a million spells at 20th level, whereas a wanderer would be able to use his really good stuff like... twice? ... I guess 32 spontaneously prepared spells, of which some are pretty high-level, is the thing that makes it too good?


I would tone down or remove a number of these elements. The class is simply too good at too many things at once. While it's never the best at any of these things, it's a solid Tier 3 class, Tier 2 if your combat sequences are short and you can really blast those spells.
"Solid Tier 3" sounds pretty good, doesn't it? :smalltongue: But Tier 2 doesn't, of course...


Battle Trance is WAY too good a class feature, giving the class essentially full attack bonus and a few other tricks. It's the kind of class feature most classes would be built around, but for the Wanderer it's just another powerful ability they have for some reason.
The "for some reason" stings a little... for some reason.

Is it really that good? I don't want to take it out completely... should I do away with the damage bonuses, or make the damage advance more slowly, or make it only able to target one opponent...?


Personally, I would cut the skill points to 4 + Int, reduce their class skills to purely mobility skills, reduce the casting limit to 6th level spells, and remove Battle Trance entirely. I'd raise their hit dice to d8, because they seem to be backup melee types. Finally, while I personally LOVE spell point systems, you might find the class easier to understand and read if you gave them spells per day at a Bard progression; simply make the divine spells from the Liberation, Luck, Earth, Air etc. domains as their spell list, and maybe add some Cure and Restoration spells to that too for good measure.

I hope that helps.
Yeah... thank you for the detailed feedback. I really hope I won't have to change quite that much, though.

PS: Haha, oh yeah. On another forum, the only other feedback I got was... that the class tries to be three different things and sucks at all of them.

I don't know why I expected this to be easier. :smalltongue:

Durazno
2012-09-13, 01:37 AM
I think that this presentation would benefit from is a brief mission statement about the intended flavor, influences and power level, so that interested people can read that and then skip right to the crunch. (It's interesting stuff, but that's not really what you're asking for feedback on, is it?)

As I recall, the philosophy behind Parkour and the practice of Capoeira were big influences on this class, right? We're talking agile, uninhibited performances in public, breaking through the limits imposed by social norms and the city's architecture without (necessarily) striking out in anger or malice.
----
So it looks like the Battle Trance is represents his Capoeira lineage. (You might call it "Battle Dance," but I guess I can see why you wouldn't want to lock that in, fluffwise. "Dance of Battle," implying that battle is like a dance, not that he's literally dancing as he battles.) I'm not sure if it needs to be weakened, but if it does, there are many ways you could go about it.

- He should definitely lose Battle Trance if he wouldn't get his Dex bonus. Also, he might also lose it in circumstances where he would normally lose his Dex bonus, even after getting Uncanny Dodge. It requires a lot more focus and awareness than "OH CRAP SOMETHING'S COMING AT MY FACE."
- Removing the damage bonus might be a good idea, since hitting like a truck seems to fit his flavor a bit less than snaking through a guy's defenses and thwapping him in the face.
- You might also consider making him more vulnerable to attacks from opponents he isn't targeting when he's in a trance, including ranged attacks and spells.
- Since he's all about mobility and getting to where he needs to be on the battlefield, I think that a feature like this would still be viable if it were limited to a single opponent. After all, if an orc and a hobgoblin are coming at you with an axe and a spear, they probably aren't moving to the same rhythm, and being flanked by them would really throw you out of your groove.
----
Who do you see this guy teaming up with? Is Tier 3 a good place? Honestly, I'd love to see the sparks fly between a Wanderer and a Beguiler.
----
As for the alignment restrictions, I still think that they shouldn't just be Chaotic.

-Lawful Good Wanderers would probably have a philosophy of principles and laws that serve to protect freedom (particularly the freedom of the weak, as you noted.) It's like the solid architecture of the cities they bound through; laws should be platforms, not barriers.
-Lawful Evil Wanderers would probably be 1%ers who have the time and inclination to train up these amazing skills and think that it's imperative that the law go through whatever contortions it needs to in order to afford them the maximum possible personal freedom, and screw everyone else. Ebeneezer Scrooge meets Batman.

Of course, this is mostly just because I hate alignment restrictions and would be totally fine with chaotic monks anyway. (I'd probably suggest that they were ascetics living alone in the mountains or something.)
----
Finally, I would also recommend a more specialized and limited spell list, or perhaps even an array of spell-like abilities to choose from, though either option would be a lot more work for you.

Fawriel
2012-09-13, 02:26 AM
I think that this presentation would benefit from is a brief mission statement about the intended flavor, influences and power level, so that interested people can read that and then skip right to the crunch. (It's interesting stuff, but that's not really what you're asking for feedback on, is it?)

As I recall, the philosophy behind Parkour and the practice of Capoeira were big influences on this class, right? We're talking agile, uninhibited performances in public, breaking through the limits imposed by social norms and the city's architecture without (necessarily) striking out in anger or malice.
Yeah, that sounds about right. I've always liked the romantic aspect of capoeira. As my trainer said, when two capoeiristas fight, it's not a battle, it's a conversation. You listen, and you respond. I always thought that the way a real capoeirista moves in a fight displays a certain... respect for their opponent, I guess you could say. They might be fighting, and the capoeirista might even be trying to harm the opponent, but they're still really "listening" to their opponent, responding as elegantly as they do out of an intuitive understanding.

So I figured that, in that romanticized understanding, a certain basic capoeira style should be available to anyone with such an ability to listen to their opponent, you know?



- He should definitely lose Battle Trance if he wouldn't get his Dex bonus. Also, he might also lose it in circumstances where he would normally lose his Dex bonus, even after getting Uncanny Dodge. It requires a lot more focus and awareness than "OH CRAP SOMETHING'S COMING AT MY FACE."
I thought the whole "loses Battle Trance if he loses his Dex bonus" was already in the description. :smalleek: Guess I overlooked that.

Good point about Uncanny Dodge not applying to it.


- Removing the damage bonus might be a good idea, since hitting like a truck seems to fit his flavor a bit less than snaking through a guy's defenses and thwapping him in the face.
- You might also consider making him more vulnerable to attacks from opponents he isn't targeting when he's in a trance, including ranged attacks and spells.
I dunno, a +5 at level 20 is a lot less of a truck than a +10d6 sneak attack damage? I get what you mean, it just seems odd to me how it sounds more like solid damage just because it's a fixed number.

The vulnerability to attacks outside of his sphere is a thing I considered for the Dance Battler prestige class, but it might make sense to go for it here, too.

I'm wondering if the whole Battle Trance thing could be balanced well enough by simply giving the class a bad BAB. It's not supposed to be a class of fighters, after all, but a class of people who can fight if it has to be.

PS: I actually kinda like "Dance of Battle" as an alternate name.


Who do you see this guy teaming up with? Is Tier 3 a good place?
I think Tier 3 is a good place for anyone. It's basically Tier "This Class Works Very Well At What It Does And That's Okay", isn't it?

Durazno
2012-09-13, 10:17 AM
With a dash of "this class can also be useful when its main talents aren't called for," yes.

Fawriel
2012-09-13, 01:28 PM
I've been told that I'm sounding defensive in my replies. I really don't mean to, though! :smalleek: As I said, I'm relatively inexperienced with the game, so if I say that I don't quite understand a point of criticism, it's probably because I actually don't and I'm just asking for clarification so that I can understand it better, so as to be able to make an informed decision, you know?

Now, regarding the class... I'm considering some changes.

1) Bad BAB progression - they aren't fighters, just people who can fight if it has to be.
2) d8 HD, so offset that a little. They aren't natural fighters, but they have to be relatively hardy.
3) Specialized spell list. Or, spell lists.

I'm thinking of replacing the domains with "schools" of wanderer magic. I'm not entirely sure about how I'm going to go about doing this, but my current idea is to give the character a choice of specialization in the beginning, for three or four different schools of magic. "Nature" (for, well, nature types who like to hang with animals and trees, gives some druid stuff), "Community" (for people who are most interested in meeting other people, gives support spells), "Art" (for those most interested in self-expression, gives various Bard spells), and possibly an "Exploration" school (for those most focused on gathering experiences and knowledge, would include mostly stuff for safe traveling and I guess scrying and such, maybe?).

Of course, none of them would go past level 5 or so. Focusing on a school might give you some benefits, like a bonus on skill checks relevant to that school and a +1 bonus to caster level for spells from that school (which cannot be used to push the caster level higher than the character's class level). People who don't focus on any school can learn a certain number of spells from any of the schools, but gain no other benefits.

I guess if I'm letting the player choose spells on certain levels, it would effectively have to be spell-like abilities rather than an actual spell progression... This might be too complicated to be worth it. Maybe someone has already done something similar to this that I could learn from?

Waddacku
2012-09-13, 03:29 PM
The only thing wrong with Battle Trance is that it doesn't specify the DC for affecting Undead. It's certainly not overpowered (that's not to say that it's weak, either. I like it.)

As for spells, maybe an expanding (by groups of spells like you suggest, or you could even just use domains for ease) fixed list (like Beguilers etc.)? That's kind of what you've got already, but minus the preparation aspect. Seems to fit the flavor better somehow, anyway, since you seem to be going more for a class versatile in build rather than switching around abilities from day to day like a wizard or binder or something.

Quellian-dyrae
2012-09-13, 05:20 PM
GAME RULE INFORMATION
Abilities: Wisdom determines the spell level available to the wanderer, as well as his defensive bonus. High Charisma grants him more spells per day and makes them harder to resist, while high Intelligence provides more skill points per level. A wanderer focused on melee combat benefits from a high Constitution score, as well as Strength. Dexterity enhances both his staying ability in battle as well as many of his bread and butter skills.
Alignment: Any. However, lawful characters do not gain access to wanderer spells.
Hit die: d6

Personally, I'm never a fan of MAD. That said, I somewhat see the point of it for balancing out all the fields the class has access to. I'm not 100% sure it's necessary, but it will go far to making sure the class isn't overpowered.


Unarmed Strike:
Through a combination of training and power drawn from a strong will, the wanderer achieves an extraordinary ability to fight without the help of weapons. He gains the Unarmed Strike ability, as the Monk's class feature.

AC Bonus (Ex):
Wanderers tend to be more sensitive to their surroundings than most people. They gain a bonus to AC equal to their Wisdom modifier. This bonus functions like the Monk class feature, except that the additional increases occur at 6th level and every 5 levels thereafter.

These have basically no impact on class power. Monk combat is functionally equivalent to weapon and armor proficiencies.


Battle Trance (Ex):
The wanderers' sensitivity gives them a unique insight into not only their surroundings, but into all living things they encounter. Using this intuitive understanding to their advantage, wanderers in combat flow like a leaf in the wind, dodging heavy blows and striking when the opportunity is right. A wanderer is treated as having the Dodge feat. However, in addition to the +1 dodge bonus, he also gains a +1 insight bonus to attack and damage rolls against his chosen opponent. Both the dodge bonus and the insight bonus rise by 1 at level 5 and every 5 levels thereafter.
In addition, at the 3rd and 7th levels, plus every 5 levels after 7th, a wanderer can target an additional opponent with this skill. However, any additional opponents past the first must be within 10 feet of the wanderer. He must either focus on an enemy with his eyes or feel them move around himself, but he gains no insight into ranged attacks outside of this personal sphere. He may change his focus anytime during any action of his, but not outside his turn.
Finally, starting at 10th level, a wanderer can no longer be flanked, provided that all enemies threatening him are being targeted with his Battle Trance skill.
The insight bonus on attacks and damage generally does not apply against enemies who are immune to critical hits. However, a wanderer with at least 4 ranks in Knowledge (architecture and engineering) can apply the bonus to constructs, and he can attempt a Knowledge (religion) check even if untrained to be able to apply it against undead enemies for the rest of the encounter. The check has to be rolled separately for every different kind of undead he attempts to target, and a failed check cannot be rerolled until the next encounter. The DC decreases by 4 if the target is recognizably humanoid, and by another 4 if a check had already succeeded on creatures of its kind in a previous encounter.

I don't really see this ability as all that powerful. It does bring you up equivalent to full BAB, but the damage boost isn't that high and between MAD and having to jump through a few more hoops to get magic weapons, you're probably still never going to match a dedicated fighter. The AC bonus gives you a nice defensive edge, although given the several ways to negate it, it still isn't anything overpowered.


Boundless Step (Ex):
The wanderers' perhaps most remarkable and well-known trait is their ability to move past the boundaries of what should be possible for a person of their race, using nothing but their own wits and skills. The way these abilities are gained is similar to the way a character would train a normal Skill Trick. The four levels until 20th level on which a wanderer gains a speed bonus mark the points starting at which he can gain attempt to learn one of a number of increasingly advanced movement skills.
At 2nd level, a wanderer gains the Boundless Step class feature. He can henceforth gain any of the following Boundless skills, provided that he fulfills the requirements and pays the necessary cost.

{table=head]Name|Requirements|Description
Well-Balanced|Balance 5 ranks, Concentration 4 ranks|You can choose to take 10 on a Balance check even if distracted or threatened. You still have to roll normally under difficult circumstances. Once a day, if a failed check would cause you to fall, you may attempt to reroll the check.

Hang On|Climb 6 ranks|Once a day, if a failed Climb check would cause you to fall, you may attempt to reroll the check. If you would still fall, or if you cannot reroll anymore, you may choose to perform a Reflex save (DC 15) to catch yourself. The strain on your hands makes you take 1d3 of non-lethal damage. Until the damage taken from this is healed by any means, any subsequent Climb DCs increase by the amount of damage taken, and the damage will increase by 1 for every 3 consecutive rounds spent climbing. As soon as the non-lethal damage taken from this exceeds 4 + your Con bonus (if any), you can no longer keep climbing. You can also choose to use this skill to hold on to a falling ally if you succeed on the touch attack roll, but fail the Climb check needed to hold the ally. In this case, you automatically take the full 3 points of non-lethal damage and take 1 consecutive point of damage for each round you are still holding your ally.

Water-Affinity|Swim 5 ranks, Survival 1 rank|You can hold your breath for twice as long as normal, for a minimum of 2 rounds. You can take a standard action underwater without risking to drown, but a full-round action still reduces the duration for which you can hold your air.

Light-Footed|Tumble 5 ranks, Move Silently 2 ranks|The Tumble DC for tumbling over difficult terrain decreases by 4, to a minimum of 0.

Rough Tumble|Tumble 7 ranks, Concentration 4 ranks|You can take 10 on Tumble checks even if threatened or distracted.

[/table]

To gain a Boundless skill, the wanderer must meet the listed skill rank requirements. He must then expend 2 skill points gained at a level-up to invest in the training of the skill. The training also requires a whole consecutive week's worth of hard work to complete. If the training is interrupted, any day of training lost has to be repeated double, or the entire week of training has to begin anew. Only after successfully completing the training, the wanderer gains unconditional use of the Boundless skill. The skill point cost has to be paid at level-up; the training does not have to take place immediately, but has to be done before the next level-up. A wanderer can choose to train any of the listed skills at any following level-up as long as he meets the requirements and pays the prize. A skill can only be gained once; the wanderer either knows it, or does not.

These are nice expansions to skills, giving more mobility overall, which is fine. It does probably look like more than it actually is; in practice, even the wanderer's limited spell selection will provide vastly more mobility than its Boundless Skills, albeit somewhat later.


Spells:
A wise wanderer is so in tune with the world that they achieve the ability to access divine magic that is normally only granted to devoted followers of the gods. Starting at 3rd level,he gains access to a small number of divine spells, which are drawn from various Cleric domains to which the wanderer gains access as he advances. A wanderer can spontaneously cast spells from any prepared domain (see “Domains” for details on preparing domains), provided that he has enough points available and has access to the spell's spell level.
A wanderer has a very limited number of points available each day with which to cast spells. The maximum number of points available to him is equal to his class level – 2 + his Charisma modifier. Casting a spell of a certain spell level uses up an amount of points equal to the spell level. Thus, a wanderer of 20th level with a Charisma modifier of +2 would have 20 points available, which he could use to cast two 9th level spells and a 2nd level spell, or 20 1st level spells, or any other combination that does not exceed 20 points total.
To know and be able to cast a spell, a wanderer must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the spell level. The DC for a saving throw against his spells is 10 + the spell level + his Charisma modifier. The wanderer's caster level is ( his class level / 2) + 2.
A wanderer must choose a certain time each day, typically right after waking up in the morning, to spend an hour meditating and bonding with the world around him to replenish his spell points and prepare his domains for the day.

Domains:
A wanderer gains access to up to four groups of domains as he advances: Journey Domains, World Domains, Life Domains and the Liberation Domain. With the exception of the Liberation Domain, each of these is a group made up of more than one domain. Each day, when preparing his spells, a wanderer can choose one domain per group from which he can then spontaneously cast spells until he runs out of points or prepares his spells again on the next day. Thus, a 19th level wanderer would have spontaneous access to spells from up to 4 different domains each day, of which each one has to be from a different domain group. He does not, however, gain any of the powers granted by any of the domains he can prepare.

This is an interesting system, and I think it's fine in terms of power. A typical well-built gish is expected to have about a +16 BAB and eventual 9th level spells - with full-fledged caster level and spells per day. This class makes a solid gish-in-a-can, but there are certainly more powerful ways to build a warrior/spellcaster.

The domains in general provide primarily mobility and battlefield control. Later levels add some decent summon, blasting, and protection/status removal capabilities (although the blasting will never be that strong, thanks to reduced caster level). This looks to me like a solidly tier 3 amount of casting versatility.


Bonus Trick:
At 5th level and every 4 levels thereafter, a wanderer gains a bonus skill trick from the list of movement skill tricks for which he meets the prerequisites. These bonus skill tricks do not count against his maximum number of skill tricks available.

I'm only passingly familiar with skill tricks, but my general impression is that they're nice little features, but not major game-changers. This furthers the Bounding abilities, providing more general mobility while not using your spells.


Bonus Feat:
Wanderers never stop learning and improving on themselves. At 6th level and every 6 levels thereafter, they can gain a bonus feat from the following list for which they meet the prerequisites: [PHB] Acrobatic, Agile, Athletic, Blind-Fight, Combat Expertise, Lightning Reflexes, Mobility, Spring Attack, Run, Self-Sufficient, Skill Focus (any trained skill), [CA] Brachiation, Dive For Cover, Improved Swimming, Jack of All Trades, Leap Attack, Mobile Spellcasting, [CS] Freerunner, [CW] Close-Quarters Fighting, Dash, Defensive Throw, Eyes in the Back of Your Head, Fleet of Foot, Flying Kick, Improved Combat Expertise, Prone Attack, [PHBII] Acrobatic Strike, Combat Acrobat, Leap of the Heavens, Melee Evasion

I don't think this is too much. Three bonus feats from a fairly focused list are solid, no more, no less.


Freedom of Movement (Ex):
Ordinary restrictions of movement are not an issue to an experienced wanderer. Starting at 9th level, he may act as though under the effect of a Freedom of Movement spell, except that it lasts indefinitely and cannot be dispelled. He loses the benefits of this ability while carrying more than a light load or wearing any kind of armor or shield.

Unlike a scout, you already have access to Freedom of Movement from spells (gained, in fact, at the same level you gain this ability), so this basically just amounts to saving you a spell slot.


Freedom of Mind (Ex):
At 19th level, the wanderer's will for independence has grown to perfection. He is henceforth immune to all charm and compulsion effects.

Unbounded Soul:
A legendary wanderer has left behind the shackles of ordinary mortal existence. At 20th level, a wanderer gains a fly speed equal to his land speed with good maneuverability, by literally walking in the air. Unlike most creatures with good maneuverability, he has a minimum forward speed of half his speed and cannot hover. He also gains access to the following Boundless skills:

Again, saves you some spell slots.

Conclusion

I'd call the class a solid Tier 3. It has enough tricks and versatility that it should almost always have something to contribute, and a few heavy-duty moves (Control Winds and Greater Teleport, for example). It does have a very large loadout of class features, but most of them synergize towards mobility, as well as a broad range of defenses, rather than sheer power. The closest comparison would probably be to a factotum.

Fawriel
2012-09-14, 04:39 PM
The only thing wrong with Battle Trance is that it doesn't specify the DC for affecting Undead. It's certainly not overpowered (that's not to say that it's weak, either. I like it.)
Oh, I meant to express that the DC you have to beat is the same as the DC given in the PHB for identifying monsters, so... 10 + the monster's HD, I guess! I figured that would make sense, like, if you can tell you're facing a zombie, "aim for the head", if you're fighting a vampire, "aim for the heart (and breathe at it if you ate some garlic earlier)"... maybe I should make it only apply against humanoid undead, though, I don't know!

(Also, I'm glad to hear that!)


As for spells, maybe an expanding (by groups of spells like you suggest, or you could even just use domains for ease) fixed list (like Beguilers etc.)? That's kind of what you've got already, but minus the preparation aspect. Seems to fit the flavor better somehow, anyway, since you seem to be going more for a class versatile in build rather than switching around abilities from day to day like a wizard or binder or something.
Hmmmm...

@Quellian-dyrae: Thanks a lot for that detailed feedback! And for liking the spell system, too!

Aah, I feel like I'm in a bit of a pickle now, though. With this new feedback, I feel like the class really is at a point where it's very good, not exactly overpowered, but could stand to lose a bit of weight... If I'm going to do that, I'll target the spells, because the spells really aren't supposed to be a major part of the class... A lot of spells have effects that just seem too out there to be part of the arsenal of a simple traveller who tapped into some magics on the side. Powerful spells along the lines of summoning a hurricane seems about right for a powerful specimen, but teleportation is a little... And, actually, the fact that spells can actually serve to make the class's own inherent skills meaningless is a point against it in my eyes. (Though it's a pretty funny coincidence that the spell and the class skill Freedom of Movement would become available at the same time, haha.)

So yeah, I've been thinking a lot about what to do about the magic. I'm cool with only progressing up to spell level 6, but I do like the magic system I currently have and would be sad to just see it go. The easiest way to go then would be to simply reduce the limit to level 6... I guess none of the spells you get that way really offend the idea of the class (and I guess it means I could add "Community" to the Life Domains - summoning a mansion just seemed too grossly unfitting)... There's still spells that tread the same ground as some Boundless skills, but those can all be used on allies to allow them to actually follow you around, so that's nice.

I did start thinking about how I could make the class even more customizable and be better able to make it do exactly what I want, by using the idea of "schools" that I brought up earlier. But how to best implement those... by making a character pick one to the exclusion of all others, I'd be giving them less freedom, so that's a no go. Making them like the domains are now would be weird, because the schools would be more like different areas of one's living experience, whereas the domains kinda showed a progression of spirituality (going from your own will, to the surface components of the outside world, to the life that dwells within, to complete spiritual liberation). Also, I can't force a guy to start casting magic about art if he doesn't care about art, for example? So maybe... I could give them a fixed list of known spells, assign each one to a school, and allow a wanderer to specialize in one, like a wizard? Well, even if I'm doing that, I think I might just make it a class variant. Maybe.

I swear I'm the worst person ever at making decisions. Sorry for thinking out loud like that. :smalleek:

One thing I'm sure about is that if I'm going to nerf magic, I'll upgrade the HD to a d8. I think I've been overemphasizing the speed and dexterity of a wanderer at the cost of their endurance.

In fact, the first thing I'll do beyond the basic class stuff is to add an alternate class feature for a strong and sturdy wanderer, like a hiker or an explorer. It wouldn't need many changes, mainly replacing the speed bonus with damage reduction... and maybe replace the flying speed with something equally cool! As Ed's father (www.youtube.com/watch?v=809hAMMzwCI) proves, you don't have to be a wiry athlete to be able to use Battle Trance!

Okay, gosh, I should really go to bed now. I'll be happy for any thoughts on any of the billions of ideas I've brought up!

Durazno
2012-09-15, 01:58 PM
Okay, so if you're thinking about alternate class features and limiting the spellcasting, I have a notion.

Suppose there were three or four archetypes that a Wanderer could take, including one that focuses on endurance like your sturdy hiker type, one that's more about spectacle and good times and one that's contemplative and serene. Right? These could be home to the alternate features you were considering, but they could also determine what sets of spells are available to the Wanderer. After all, this magic isn't granted by some deity or studied for practicality's sake, but an expression of what the Wanderer values and focuses on. (I'm not sure if you'd go by domains in this case or work up your own spell lists, though.)

So I don't think you need to worry about limiting the player's freedom in that way. If you make careful choices in what spells and abilities become available, it will hopefully feel more like customization and expression than class features being arbitrarily choked off by the rules.

Fawriel
2012-09-22, 05:42 AM
@Durazno: ... You know, somehow I managed to forget that you posted that. Those are three very apt archetypes.

Though... Hmm, I think it would be best to represent those archetypes on two different axes: The skill axis and the spell axis. That way, you allow the player to either specialize even further on one thing, or to mix and match a little. That way, you can get a contemplative hiker, or a sturdy daredevil, the works.

I'm really liking that, though I'm still not sure how to handle the magic stuff...

That said!

Hello, everyone, I'm sorry for being inactive for so long!

Here's a little question:
How would it affect the class' power if I defined all of its magic to be, in fact, spell-like abilities rather than normal spells?

And to up the ante a little, how about each spell can only be used once per day... or maybe up to a maximum number of times equal to the Charisma modifer?

Edit: Whoa, I just realized that I had listed "Bluff" as a class skill. That was not supposed to be there!

Fawriel
2012-09-24, 12:40 PM
No choice but to double-post.

I made a first, pretty big revision to the class. The changes are summarized in the second post.

The main changes were made to the spell-casting capabilities. By reducing the maximum spell-level to 6, the more overpowered spells are no longer part of the menu, and by restricting the daily uses of spells, they become more of a precious, last resort commodity rather than an endless bag of tricks (unless the character focuses on spell-casting with high Charisma).

At the same time, I added more Domains and one more group, to bolster the potential versatility of its spells. The Soul Domain and the World Domain choices also add more precious flavor to the character.

Aside from some small adjustments, I also greatly decreased the rate at which you can target additional opponents with Dance of Battle (the new name of Battle Trance [thanks, Durazno :smallbiggrin:]), since if it's too fast, it almost means that a wanderer gets to apply his bonuses to anyone with no restriction, which was not the point.

Oh yeah, uhm, and I also erased all those comments and spoiler'd the Fluff so as to make the post seem less daunting.

How does it look now? :smallredface:

Alabenson
2012-09-25, 02:56 PM
Right away, I’m noticing that the Wanderer is extremely MAD, as it’s going to need Strength (for melee), Dexterity (for AC), Constitution (melee with d6 HD is never fun), Intelligence (a number of abilities come with a skill tax), Wisdom (again, for AC), and Charisma (for spells). I operate under a rule that if a class can’t dump at least 3 stats and function in and out of combat, then it needs to be reworked until it can.

Weapon Proficiency restrictions: This greatly weakens the class, as it discourages them from wielding any magical weapons.

Dance of Battle: I’d just allow it to function against crit-immune creatures; the damage bonuses aren’t large enough for it to be an issue, and there’s no real point in having the attack and AC bonuses being negated by crit-protection.

Spells: The spell point system seems needlessly complicated, I’d either make the class a spontaneous spellcaster or use the spell point system from Unearthed Arcana, which is based off of Psionics.



For the most part, I’d say the class strikes me as fairly underwhelming; yes, it’s very mobile, but it’s spellcasting is too limited, it can’t afford to dump any of it’s stats and can’t effectively wield magic weapons (and shares the monk’s inability to enchant it’s unarmed strikes). Yes, they have the fighting ability of a monk, which would be impressive if monk’s had any fighting ability worth noting.

The single biggest problem is the fact that, when making a Jack-of-all-trades class like this, you’re going to be compared to the Factotum and the Bard, both of which are much more focused.

My advice would be to rework its spellcasting to something more akin to the Bard, eliminate the restrictions on wielding weapons, and to greatly reduce the class’s MAD issues. If you did that, I’d say you’d have a reasonable Tier 3 class.

Eldan
2012-09-28, 09:45 AM
Right, then.

Chassis: a bit fragile, maybe, with the d6, but I expect that this is intentional. There are a few skills I'm wondering about, though. Perform, Sense Motive, Diplomacy? All useful to a traveller, sure, but the class fluff doesn't really seem to imply them.

Weapon and Armour: this section could use some reorganization. The light load restriction I would not put here, this belongs under AC and speed bonus, as it does wit hother, similar classes. This sentence: "He is free to use his surroundings to his advantage and pick up any object lying around to gain an advantage if the opportunity offers itself, provided that the object is not a manufactured weapon. " is fluff and does not really belong in the middle of the rules text, I'm sorry to say.

Unarmed Strike: you say as a monk. Does that include the level-scaling damage?

Dance of Battle: "or feel them move around himself". I must say, I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. What is "feel", exactly? With what kind of sense?

Boundless step: I'm not sure what this sentence is supposed to mean: "The four levels until 20th level on which a wanderer gains a speed bonus mark the points starting at which he can gain attempt to learn one of a number of increasingly advanced movement skills." Are there any advanced boundless step skills? Or can he only learn a new one out of those five at those levels?

Domains: you should mention that you only gain domains at the respective levels. It's sort of said, and it's on the table, but it should be made more clear.

Free Will: a bit boring, isn't it? +4 to a certain save, at eleventh level? I'd like to see something a bit more active here, even if it was just re-rolling saves.


On the Boundless features: these are the defining traits of the class. Sadly, I think many of them come too late or do too little. As an example, look at Walljump. You can learn that at level 11. By this time, the wizard has had flight for 6 levels. Freerunning Roll comes 8 levels after feather fall. Boundless Stride, especially, has that problem. A climb speed at level 14, when Spider Climb is around level 1? Yes, for a non-caster, it is still cool. The problem is that this game does include casters, and very cheap magical items that are simply better than any of these skills.

Fawriel
2012-09-28, 02:41 PM
Ah dear. I guess I'll have a lot of work to do still.

I'll reply in more detail later, but right now, I should really go to bed. Just some quick notes as to what I'm going to do:

Addressing the MAD:
I'll upgrade the HD to a d8 and make the maximum number of spells 1+Cha modifier, so that even a small modifier gets some results. I'm not sure about whether to make Wisdom the stat that increase your spells' save DC. The class is not supposed to be much for direct magic blasting anyway, but I'm not sure if, at higher levels, this would basically make any spell slot occupied by an attack spell a complete waste, which also wouldn't be good.

Addressing Boundless features:
Well, I guess the upside of this is that I'll get to use some of the more fun skills I've come up with, which I've been keeping for a potential prestige class. I thought having all sorts of movement modes was pretty badass, but I guess these things do come pretty slowly the way they are now. On the other hand, level 2 is definitely too early, so I guess I'll just fuse all the Boundless things into one big list of skills with requirements.

So, which level would be appropriate to gain a climb speed or swim speed (half rate) at? 4th?

Alabenson
2012-09-28, 05:14 PM
Ah dear. I guess I'll have a lot of work to do still.

I'll reply in more detail later, but right now, I should really go to bed. Just some quick notes as to what I'm going to do:

Addressing the MAD:
I'll upgrade the HD to a d8 and make the maximum number of spells 1+Cha modifier, so that even a small modifier gets some results. I'm not sure about whether to make Wisdom the stat that increase your spells' save DC. The class is not supposed to be much for direct magic blasting anyway, but I'm not sure if, at higher levels, this would basically make any spell slot occupied by an attack spell a complete waste, which also wouldn't be good.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t even come close to addressing the MAD issues the Wanderer has; what you need to do is completely eliminate its need for three stats. I’d start by running its spells entirely off of Wisdom, which would obviate the need for Charisma, and by giving the class the ability to use Wisdom in place of Strength in melee (perhaps limited to when unarmed or wielding simple weapons). After that, you’d just need to find a way to wean it off of one more stat, probably Dexterity since the Wanderer needs Intelligence to fuel its skill and there’s no practical way to render Constitution unimportant for a non-primary caster (increasing its hit die won't cut it).

Fawriel
2012-09-29, 06:02 AM
Hmmm... I see your point, but I also have to disagree to an extent.

I disagree in so far as, well, as I said, the MAD is kind of intentional. It's not supposed to be a class that really specializes in one thing that it ends up doing ridiculously well. It's supposed to be for characters who are useful for the group to have around because they have a great variety of options (much like the Factotum indeed, I guess), and who is fun to play because you'll rarely find yourself in a situation where you want to do a cool thing but your DM tells you you can't because of reasons. At least, ideally.

That said, the more I think about it, you're probably right, too. I want to make it possible to specialize a bit so that you could build a wanderer without spellcasting or a wanderer focusing on spellcasting and still have it be a decent character. While I'm planning to introduce two alternate class feature sets that go in that direction, I have to admit that as it is, the offensive capabilities of the class are too weak to be anything more than what I intended it to be, which is to make it just about possible to contribute a bit of damage even without too much Strength investment... and even for that, it's pretty little if you take into account the MAD.

So here's what I'm thinking...

1) Add a class feature at an early level (2nd or maybe even 1st?) that lets you use up points to get a competence bonus up to as high as your Dex modifier on both your attack and damage roll. Both bonuses would apply to all attacks of a full attack action, and the bonus to the attack roll would stack with your existing Dex bonus if you're using Weapon Finesse. That way, with a high Dex, and combined with Dance of Battle, you can get some almost guaranteed hits and some decent damage, I think.

2) Points are gained at an equal rate to your class level (so that's two more at least) and I'll create a feat that lets you gain, say, 4 bonus points? (I really need to come up with a better name for these. Inner Power Points?)

3) Create a feat that lets your unarmed strike count as a magical weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction?

That seems like enough focus on punching people, though... particularly now that I'm planning on improving the utility side of the class.


Chassis: a bit fragile, maybe, with the d6, but I expect that this is intentional. There are a few skills I'm wondering about, though. Perform, Sense Motive, Diplomacy? All useful to a traveller, sure, but the class fluff doesn't really seem to imply them.
The two interaction skills are supposed to be implied by the same thing as their Dance of Battle skill: Openness, understanding, that sort of thing. Perform is because I figure a lot of wanderers would be artists and dancers and such. It would be possible to make the default list smaller and allow the player to choose from a list of bonus skills according to their character background, but I figure that would just overcomplicate things.


Weapon and Armour: this section could use some reorganization. The light load restriction I would not put here, this belongs under AC and speed bonus, as it does wit hother, similar classes. This sentence: "He is free to use his surroundings to his advantage and pick up any object lying around to gain an advantage if the opportunity offers itself, provided that the object is not a manufactured weapon. " is fluff and does not really belong in the middle of the rules text, I'm sorry to say.
I suppose it does seem a bit messy...

I just put the light load restriction there for the sake of clarity, but I guess it's not really necessary. The sentence you called fluff, too, I put there because I figured some clarification might be useful, because proficiency with improvised weapons while being restricted in the use of normal weapons is probably kind of a weird concept.

I'll see what I can do about clearing this section up.



Unarmed Strike: you say as a monk. Does that include the level-scaling damage?
Yes.



Dance of Battle: "or feel them move around himself". I must say, I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. What is "feel", exactly? With what kind of sense?
Hmm, good question, actually. I'd say there's a lot of sense at work there. You hear people moving, feel the air move with them, feel vibrations in the ground, and just have an intuitive idea of what they're going to do, much like the Uncanny Dodge feature.

It's probably possible to block the senses that a wanderer uses for this, but adding rules for that also seems like it'd make things unnecessarily complicated (which apparently is already a problem with some class features)... But adding a line about which senses are used might still be a good idea to give the players a more concrete idea.



Boundless step: I'm not sure what this sentence is supposed to mean: "The four levels until 20th level on which a wanderer gains a speed bonus mark the points starting at which he can gain attempt to learn one of a number of increasingly advanced movement skills." Are there any advanced boundless step skills? Or can he only learn a new one out of those five at those levels?
Aah, that sentence is a mess. I'll just get rid of that completely when I redo that class feature. It's really unnecessary, too, because it's simply supposed to show that gaining a speed bonus and gaining a new set of Boundless skills coincide on the class feature table. ... I'm not sure why I felt the need to point that out.


Free Will: a bit boring, isn't it? +4 to a certain save, at eleventh level? I'd like to see something a bit more active here, even if it was just re-rolling saves.
Hmm, I didn't want to simply copy the Slippery Mind class feature. I might think of something fancier. Maybe start by allowing a reroll, then upgrade that with a bonus on the reroll?


Weapon Proficiency restrictions: This greatly weakens the class, as it discourages them from wielding any magical weapons.
Just to be sure I understand completely, what makes magical weapons so essential? Is it the fact that everyone and their Tarrasque have weapon reduction 10/epic after a certain point, or are traits like Vorpal the main draw?

... I wasn't kidding when I said I'm inexperienced. Sorry. :smalleek:


Dance of Battle: I’d just allow it to function against crit-immune creatures; the damage bonuses aren’t large enough for it to be an issue, and there’s no real point in having the attack and AC bonuses being negated by crit-protection.
Huh! I didn't even notice that I made it negate the attack bonus. I thought it was just damage. (It doesn't say that the AC bonus is negated, though?)
Thanks for catching that. And, well, you do have a point about it not being necessary from a gameplay standpoint, but in terms of fluff, it is pretty much the light version of sneak attack damage...


Spells: The spell point system seems needlessly complicated, I’d either make the class a spontaneous spellcaster or use the spell point system from Unearthed Arcana, which is based off of Psionics.
I have to admit that I didn't read it very closely, but from what I can see, the system in UA is... actually more complicated than this one?

I can see that it's probably pretty unusual and takes a bit to get used to, but I find it pretty intuitive. Of course, I would say that, given how much time I've spent working with the class. :smalltongue:

Eldan
2012-09-29, 06:39 AM
What I would do to help it is scale up the movement skills, and scale them up massively.

See, many really cool classes in D&D have the problem that anything with magic runs circles around them, laughing. "Oh, you can jump well? Sorry, I can levitate. In two levels I will be able to fly. Oh, you can hold your breath? Cute, I transform into a shark. You are good at travelling? Sorry, I can't hear you from my base in Pandemonium."

So, if I might make a few suggestions? Don't allow him to climb at a low speed. Let him run up walls at full speed without even needing his hands. Don't let him make tumble checks to ignore some falling damage. Let him outright ignore falling damage from any distance. Think a bit bigger.

Fawriel
2012-09-29, 06:54 AM
Aaah, I would really love to go all out, but I'm afraid I'd end up overdoing it, and I do have to convince people I'm playing with that my class isn't overpowered, against the best efforts of our DM... On the other hand, he said that if it's accepted on the forums, he'll accept it, too... hummmmm.

... Right then, going all out it is. :smallsmile:

Eldan
2012-09-29, 08:03 AM
Do you want a basic metric?

In my experience, you can go beyond the limit of physics after around level 5, into mythological territory by level 10 and into full on silver age comic weirdness by level 15. At least as far as skills are concerned.

Your class gets relatively little beyond some limited casting (and I wouldn't say the casting is overpowered, not with so few tightly controlled spells per day) and a lot of movement skills. So you might as well go all out on the movement skills. You can not really complain about someone running up walls by level 10 if others can levitate from level 1 on and fly by level 5.

Depending on how you view physics in D&D, you might even consider adding a few supernatural movement modes at high level. Run on air. Step into the ethereal plane. Shadow Walk. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/shadowWalk.htm)