PDA

View Full Version : Knight of the Diadem [3.5, First Homebrew, PEACH please, Incarnum]



GreenSerpent
2013-02-27, 09:24 AM
Knight of the Diadem


http://img-cache.cdn.gaiaonline.com/1640cdfe58cf054071ea2fddf2f2f7e6/http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/xx198/Dusk_Knight2/Knights/lightknight.jpg
"So I saw this paladin walking down the road an' me mate thought e'd eave half a brick attim. How were we to know he could make all that bloody light an' blind us all?" - "Thumb-Biter" Stibbons, thief.


Knight of the Diadem
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Incarnum
1st|
+1|
+2|
+0|
+2|Permanent Chakra Bind, Enhanced Diadem (radiance)|-
2nd|
+2|
+3|
+0|
+3|Radiant Inquisition, Holy Blade|+1 level of existing meldshaping class
3rd|
+3|
+3|
+1|
+3|Enhanced Diadem (brilliance)|+1 level of existing meldshaping class
4th|
+4|
+4|
+1|
+4|Chains That Bind, Chakra Binds (throat, waist)|-
5th|
+5|
+4|
+1|
+4|Brilliant Blade, Luminous Regeneration, Enhanced Diadem (blinding)|+1 level of existing meldshaping class[/table]
Skills (2+INT points per level): Concentration, Craft, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Profession, Spellcraft.

Requirements
Alignment: Any good or lawful, cannot be Lawful Evil.
Skills: Concentration 13 ranks
Abilities: Ability to bind a diadem of purelight to the crown chakra, ability to bind at least two soulmelds to chakras in total.
Special: Must swear an oath of allegience to the Knights of the Diadem.

Meldshaping: At each Knight of the Diadem level but 1st and 4th, you increase your meldshaper level, the number of soulmelds you can shape, the number of chakra binds you can create, and your essentia pool as if you had gained a level in a meldshaping class to which you belonged prior to gaining the soulcaster level. You do not, however, gain any other abilities of that class, such as new tiers of chakra binds. If you had more than one meldshaping class before becoming a Knight of the Diadem, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining your essentia pool, meldshaper level, and the number of soulmelds and chakra binds available.

Permanent Chakra Bind (Su): At 1st level a Knight of the Diadem forever gives up the ability to bind other soulmelds to their crown chakra, focusing on binding their diadem of purelight. 1 essentia is sacrificed permanently from the essentia pool. No other soulmeld can be bound to this chakra while the Knight of the Diadem is active, it is always treated as having the maximum possible essentia invested, it is always treated as being bound to the chakra, and any effect that would disjoin or sunder the soulmeld only suppresses it for 1d4 rounds. If the Knight of the Diadem enters an antimagic field the diadem's effects are suppressed while within the field but will resume immediately upon leaving it. The Knight of the Diadem may suppress or reactivate the abilities of the diadem himself as a free action on his turn, but suppressing it prevents him from using many of his class abilites.

Enhanced Diadem (Su): Through binding the diadem of purelight permanently to themself the Knight of the Diadem gains enhanced control over its abilities. At 1st level the light granted by the diadem of purelight extends its range to 20ft per class level, with shady illumination extending to twice that. At 3rd level the light granted by the diadem of purelight focuses the users mind, allowing them to shrug off mental attacks more easily by blanking their mind (focusing on just the thought of light). This grants the user a bonus equal to their class level on saves against all mind-affecting abilities. In addition when the user encounters an illusion they may immediately make a save to disbelieve it, as long as the illusion is within the range of the bright illumination shed from the diadem. At 5th level the abilities of the diadem reach their peak, and the user can produce a sunburst as the spell 1/minute, a searing light as the spell at-will, or a blindness effect (except it targets everyone within the radius of the diadem's bright illumination) 1/minute. The caster level for these effects is equal to the users character level. All these abilities only function while the diadem of purelight is active. However the user suffers a penalty to Hide checks equal to 2 times their class level due to their skin glowing more and more as their power increases - this penalty is also lost if the power of the diadem is suppressed.

Radiant Inquisition (Sp): The eyes of the Knight of the Diadem now glow softly with a golden sheen. This allows the user to make a gaze attack as a standard action at-will with a range of 30ft. The target must save or be subject to a zone of truth spell, except it only targets that creature. The gaze attack can affect multiple enemies at the same time if the Knight of the Diadem wishes (for example interrogating a whole bandit band at once).

Holy Blade (Su): Through rigourous devotion to their god the Knight of the Diadem has now acquired an innate spark of divine power. This allows them to treat any weapon they hold as possessing the Holy special quality. If the weapon leaves the users possession it immediately loses this property, except in the case of throwing weapons or arrows which retain the property until they strike an object. The Holy property granted from this can be given even to non-masterwork equipment and improvised weapons.

Chains That Bind (Sp): The Knight of the Diadem must be adept at restraining foes partially through skill with ropes and partially through single-minded concentration. This infuses a shred of incarnum into the ropes, making them far harder to wriggle out of - in effect they are bound with the users incarnum itself. When the Knight of the Diadem binds an opponent using the Use Rope skill they may instead use their Concentration skill modifier to set the DC. In addition they may make trained Use Rope skill checks as if they had ranks in the skill, even if they do not normally.

Chakra Binds: At 4th level the Knight of the Diadem gains the ability to bind soulmelds to their throat and waist chakras.

Brilliant Blade (Su): The Knight of the Diadem's continual presence to the diadem of purelight has suffused their very being with light and energy. This allows them to treat any weapon they hold as possessing the Brilliant Energy special quality. If the weapon leaves the users possession it immediately loses this property, except in the case of throwing weapons or arrows which retain the property until they strike an object. The Brilliant Energy property granted from this can be given even to non-masterwork equipment and improvised weapons.

Luminous Regeneration (Su): The energies coursing through the frame of the Knight of the Diadem have infused their tissue to the point that exposure to light is all they ever need to sustain themselves. In artificial light, including their own diadem of purelight, they gain fast healing equal to 1/4 their HD. If they enter an area of natural sunlight this fast healing is doubled to half their HD per round - in a campaign where natural light is rare then the DM may choose to increase this as desired. In addition they no longer need to eat or drink as long as they have exposure to at least 1 hour of light per day (their own diadem of purelight does not count for this purpose).

__________________________________________________ ___________
First homebrew I bothered to write up. Just looking for mechanical side critique, I have most of the fluff already planned out pretty well. The general idea of them is that they're a "knight of light" - they're going to be linked into a homebrew world I'm constructing where light is a precious commodity. As such they're pretty influential!

There will be cookies and milk provided for reviewers :smallwink:[/QUOTE]

JoshuaZ
2013-02-27, 02:30 PM
At 1st level a Knight of the Diadem forever gives up the ability to bind other chakras to their crown chakra, focusing on binding their diadem of purelight. 1 essentia is sacrificed permanently from the essentia pool. No other soulmeld can be bound to this chakra while the Knight of the Diadem is active, it is always treated as having the maximum possible essentia invested, it is always treated as being bound to the chakra, and any effect that would disjoin or sunder the soulmeld only suppresses it for 1d4 rounds. If the Knight of the Diadem enters an antimagic field the diadem's effects are suppressed while within the field but will resume immediately upon leaving it. The Knight of the Diadem may suppress the abilities of the diadem himself, but doing so prevents him from using many of his class abilites.


I'm pretty sure that you mean "bind other soulmelds to their crown chakra". This is a pretty mixed bag since the crown chakra is normally pretty flexible. It wouldn't be unbalanced to instead have the diadem automatically bound and still be able to bind other soulmelds to that chakra (even though you can't normally have multiple soulmelds on the same chakra). If so, it might make sense to break it up over two levels, so at level 1 it essentially functions as you've described it and at some higher level (maybe level 3 or 5?) one gains the ability to bind other things simultaneously. That would help prevent 1 level dips from being too enticing.

GreenSerpent
2013-02-28, 09:10 AM
I'm pretty sure that you mean "bind other soulmelds to their crown chakra". This is a pretty mixed bag since the crown chakra is normally pretty flexible. It wouldn't be unbalanced to instead have the diadem automatically bound and still be able to bind other soulmelds to that chakra (even though you can't normally have multiple soulmelds on the same chakra). If so, it might make sense to break it up over two levels, so at level 1 it essentially functions as you've described it and at some higher level (maybe level 3 or 5?) one gains the ability to bind other things simultaneously. That would help prevent 1 level dips from being too enticing.

Typo fixed there. Also clarified a few points later on in the text.

Pechvarry
2013-02-28, 09:51 AM
I like it. If people want something else on their crown, as well, there are feats for that.

The fast healing seems pretty high in natural light for normal campaigns.

GreenSerpent
2013-02-28, 10:43 AM
Altered the fast healing to a more acceptable value for normal-light campaigns (half HD) and added caster levels for the sunburst, searing light and blindness effects. Also clarified Holy Blade and Brilliant Blade working with thrown weapons/arrows.