Red Guard (3.5 PrC, PEACH plz)

[D4rtagnan]

Alright a little information before we go on. This class is a re-design of a homebrewed class my GM made. The original class can be found here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14769330#post14769330). He has agreed to let me try to balance the class a little more. I am planning on making a sister class to this one, which will be a divine caster. I have tried to keep a couple of the abilities the same...relatively so, while working with what lore I know about the Red Guard and their Goddess. I will post a link to the divine caster class once I complete it.


http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f309/King_Of_Runes/Guys/Alex%20hit%20list/Siegfried2_by_el_grimlock.jpg


Requirements
BAB: +5
Skills: Concentration or Knowledge Religion Rank 10
Feats: Toughness, Improved Toughness, Endurance, Die Hard
Maneuvers: Must know two maneuvers and one stance from either Devoted Spirit or Diamond Mind.
Special: Must be initiated into the Order of the Red Guards

The Red Guard

Hit Die: d10
Class Skills: The Red Guard class skills are Balance, Climb, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Heal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering), Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty), Listen, Martial Lore, Profession, Ride, Spot, Swim, Tumble.
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) ×4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.

{table=head]Level |Base Attack Bonus |Fort Save |Ref Save |Will Save |Special |Maneuvers Known|Maneuvers Readied
1st |+1 |+2 |+0 |+0 |Anointed Armor, The Red Ladies Watchful Eye |1|0|
2nd |+2 |+3 |+0 |+0 |Ready for Action|0|0|
3rd |+3 |+3 |+1 |+1 |Blood on the Armor |1|1|
4th |+4 |+4 |+1 |+1 |-|0|0|
5th |+5 |+4 |+1 |+1 |Anointed Armor, Greater|1|0|
6th |+6/+1 |+5 |+2 |+2 |Anointed Weapon|0|1|
7th |+7/+2 |+5 |+2 |+2 |Blood on the Sword|1|0|
8th |+8/+3 |+6 |+2 |+2 |- |0|0|
9th |+9/+4 |+6 |+3 |+3 | Mind Thorns, Devote Protector |1|1|
10th |+10/+5 |+7 |+3 |+3 |Grace of the Goddess, Blood in the Body|0|0|
[/table]

Maneuvers: You may add a known maneuver to your maneuver known list from the Devoted Spirit, Diamond Mind, Shadow Hand or White Raven school ever odd level. You must meet the maneuver pre-requisite to be able to add it. You may add your full Red Guard level to determine your imitator level. Every 3rd level you gain an additional maneuver readied per day.

Vow of Blood- A Red Guard, like a Paladin or Guard has a rigid code of conduct they must obey. (This will be filled out later, once I get the details from my DM)

Anointed Armor (Sp)- A Red Guard and his armor hold a special connection with each other. When a Red Guard takes his vow, he anoints his armor. This process takes three days and costs 120 xp. The result is the armor becoming like a second skin to him. The armor check penalty for Anointed Armor is reduce by three. The maximum Dexterity bonus is increased by 2 and the armor is considered one category lighter.

The Red Ladies Watchful Eye(Ex) -The Red Ladies have vowed to protect those of Red order. To this extent they must always be on guard. The Red Lady divine magic has left them preternaturally aware of there surroundings. A red Guard has a morale bonus to listen, spot and sense motive checks equal to twice their class level.

Ready for Action (Su)- A ready Guard must be always ready to head the Red Ladies call. You never becomes fatigued or exhausted, and you don't need to sleep, trance, or otherwise rest your body to remain in fighting condition. You gain immunity to magical sleep effects.

Blood on the Armor (Stance)- At level three you began to form a connection with your own blood. When you are in a Devoted Spirit or Diamond Mind stance you can forgo your regular benefits as a swift action and gain the effects of Blood on the Armor. These benefits last as long as you are in the stance. You can stop using Blood on the Armor and regain the normal benefits of the stance as a swift action.

While in this stance you gain a +1 bonus to your AC for every 10 points of hp you are missing. This bonus doubles if you are missing more then 50% of your health. In addition you gain spell resistance of 25 as long as you maintain the stance. At level 10 this spell resistance goes up 30 spell resistance.

Anointed Armor, Greater (Su)- A Red Guard gains an untyped bonus to there armor equal to there con modifier will wearing there anointed armor.

Anointed Weapon (Su)- A Red Guard at level 6th can anoint their chosen weapon. To do this, a Red Guard must complete a 7 day ritual and pay 640 xp. This effect cause living target to bleed 2 damage for 5 rounds when hit with an attack. A heal check of DC 15 or any effect that cause the target to regain hit points stops the bleeding. This damage is cumulative and stacks with the Implacable enchantment or other effects that cause a target to bleed effect. In addition the weapon now deals and extra +2 con damage when it critical hits.

Blood on the Sword (Stance)- At level 7th you're connection with your own blood grows even more stronger. When you are in a Devoted Spirit or Diamond Mind stance you can forgo your regular benefits as a swift action and gain the effects of Blood on the Sword. These benefits last as long as you are in the stance. You can stop using Blood on the Sword and regain the normal benefits of the stance as a swift action.
While in this stance you gain any extra attack at your highest attack modifier for each ten points you have in your constitution score. For example if you have a score of 28 you get two extra attacks. In addition if you have the power attack feat. You have the option to willingly take lethal damage when making a power attack, in place of the two hit penalty normally assosiated with the feat. This damage must be more then -5hp and can no be healed while in this stance.

Mind Thorns (Su)-The Divine Goddess protects her guardians, just as you her priest. At level 9th if you are targeted by a mind affecting ability the caster must make a concentration check DC (10+class level+con modifier). If the caster fails the spell is negated and they are Nauseated for 1d4 rounds. If they pass the DC the ability/spell goes of as normal.

Devote Protector (Su)-A Red Guard true duty is to that of his charge. Typically a priest. As such a Red Guard can choose to make a blood bound as swift action with a targeted individual with in 15ft of him. As long as the individual stays in the 60ft radius, and the red Guard choose to maintain the bound any damage the individual takes can be split 50/50 between the individual and the Red Guard. This does not however include ability damage or ability drain.

Grace of the Goddess (Su)-The Goddess of blood is a goddess of the body. At level 10 a Red Guard becomes in tune with the divine energy of the goddess. A Red Guard is now immune to disease and poisons. Further more a Red Guard physically stops aging and no longer to any penalties he may acquire from reaching a certain age. Further more a Red Guard can no longer die from old age.

Blood in the Body (Stance)- At level 10 a Red Guards mastery of his own blood is complete at this point he can go as far as to pull his own blood back into his body, knitting wounds and regrowing lost limbs. While in this stance he has Fast Healing 10 and dr 5/-.

[Rizban]

Is the class supposed to have access to new stances too, or is it just meant to grant the specific stances of the class?


Vow of Blood - "ridged" should be "rigid". Two very different words. Some explanation of that code should be included as well as penalties for breaking it and a way to return to the path.


Anointed Armor (Sp) - This should really be an (Ex) or a (Su) ability. Spell like really doesn't make much sense, as it's not treated like a spell in any way.
Also, change "cost" to "costs", "become" to either "becoming" or "becomes", "consisted" to "considered".
I'd also suggest that you remove the phrase "when determining movement penalties", as that's not the only time having armor treated as being lighter is advantageous. If you want to limit it like that, you may, but such a limitation isn't really necessary.


The Red Ladies' Watchful Eye (Ex) - Need to change "there" to "their" a few times and "moral" to "morale." Otherwise, this seems like a decent ability if not particularly strong. Maybe make the bonus be twice their class level?


Ready for Action (Sp) - This is another ability that should be (Su). It's not spell like in any way. Some grammar edits too...


Blood on the Armor (Stance) - I don't understand why you came up with specific rules for initiating this stance, especially since they're virtually identical to standard stance rules anyway. Just grant it as a stance and be done with it.

The stance itself seems a little sub par, but it's not terrible. It's worthless if you don't activate it at full health and keep it up at all times, making it very restrictive. Perhaps change that so it's more useful.


Anointed Armor, Greater (Sp) - Again, you meant "their", not "there".

This one should also be (Su) or (Ex). Not allowing it to stack is a little odd. It's already an insight bonus, which prevents it from stacking with other insight bonuses to AC. Having additional stacking restrictions isn't necessary. It's from a different ability score anyway, Con instead of Wis, so there's not really a reason to not allow stacking.


Anointed Weapon (Sp) - Once again, (Su) or (Ex), not (Sp). It's not a spell or spell like in any way. If you want it to always work, make it (Ex). If you want it to turn off in an antimagic field, then (Su).

Don't make us look up things in other books to know how it works. Just write the class ability so it includes everything you need in that one ability.


Blood on the Sword (Stance) - Again, no need to define special restrictions on entering the stance. The restrictions you defined are almost exactly what is already required to enter a stance.

This has the same problems as Blood on the Armor. There's no use for it if you don't start using it at max HP and keep it up without ever changing to another stance. It's very restrictive and not particularly beneficial.


Mind Thorns (Sp) - Should definitely be (Su). It also really needs to be rewritten to be a little more clear.


Devote Protector (Sp) - That's a really powerful ability... I'd suggest limiting the range to 15-20 ft rather than 60. Should also be (Su).


Grace of the Goddess (Sp) - Should be (Su) or (Ex). Powerful in flavor, but aging penalties don't come up very often. The rest is done at a much lower level by other classes. It's a neat capstone but not particularly capstone worthy.


Blood in the Body (Stance) - This is a more reasonable capstone ability. I'd suggest doing Fast Healing 10 instead of Regeneration 10 though, unless you plan for him to only take nonlethal damage from all attacks while in the stance...

[D4rtagnan]

Thank you for the advice. I sort of figured there were going to be grammer issues. I'll fix those later tonight. As for the (Sp)...that was me having a dyslexic moment. That was meant to be (Su).

As for the rest of the advice thank you very much.

As for why the con doesn't stack with the wisdom in Greater Anointed Armor...you'll have to ask the GM about that. He doesn't want them staking.

[Rizban]

As for why the con doesn't stack with the wisdom in Greater Anointed Armor...you'll have to ask the GM about that. He doesn't want them staking.That's fine as a GM call, but in posting it for general consumption, I would drop that restriction.

It makes sense to have that restriction in the case of the Ninja and Monk, as they are the same bonus from the same ability score with the same restrictions. They are, quite literally, the same ability. The restriction there is simply to say two copies of the same ability don't stack.

If you'll notice in the Swordsage entry, it does not have the restriction listed. This is because it only works in light armor and doesn't work in no armor. The two abilities can't stack, so there's no mention of it.

If you look at the Deepwarden from Races of Stone, he gains his Con bonus to AC. It makes no mention of being restricted to not stacking with Monk/Ninja/Swordsage bonuses. It's a bonus from a different ability score and a different ability. There is no reason for it to not stack.

[D4rtagnan]

Right finished editing the abilities and some of the grammar. Will work on more of the grammar later. It still needs work.

[Jota]

There is no reason for it to not stack.

Aside from balance. As a melee character you're almost sure of have 14 (assuming pointbuy, as that's where 1:1 ends) Constitution. If you've also got 14 in your Wisdom, supposing you entered via swordsage (or even just two levels), and you're pumping your Dexterity with items and magic and the boosts from leveling, your AC could get out of hand really quick, especially with Anointed Armor and Blood on the Armor. With a mithral chain shirt you can get up to a maximum Dexterity bonus of +9, and with Constitution and Wisdom boosting items you're looking at something that is, in all likelihood, not in line with the rest of the party, which puts your DM in a bad spot (face something that is a joke for the Red Guard but normal for the rest of the party, or normal for a Red Guard and rapes the rest of the party). This problem is only further compounded by a probable tank-oriented skillset (Crusader entry).

I've focused on Dexterity because it is both an offensive and defensive boosting ability, where Constitution would make you more of a turtle than a tank.

As for the class itself, I had read most of it and it looked solid, but there were several edits made in between when I read it and this post (notably to Blood on the Armor, or at least that I saw), so all I will add at this point is that I feel a four feat entry tax is a tad unreasonable, especially given three of them are largely crap. Also, saying Diehard (prerequisite Endurance) removes the need to state Endurance itself, unless you want to make sure 10th level crusaders are paying their dues or some such.