Mercenary (3.5e Base Class)

[Keeper of Starlight]

http://dsmedia.ign.com/ds/image/article/954/954290/fire-emblem-shadow-dragon-20090213032156818.jpg

Mercenaries earn their way through life taking jobs where their skills as warriors are utilized. The best have overthrown kings as the right hand of their employers, and others have become tyrants themselves. Some of the lesser mercenaries hire themselves out in cities to bands of travelers who need help.

In terms of what you see on the paper, mercenaries are fighters with more finesse; instead of relying largely on feats and strength, they have added abilities to increase their versatility both inside and outside battle. A mercenary relies mainly on Dexterity to fuel their abilities and power, and Constitution to maintain a positive hit point total and the concentration they need for some abilities. Charisma, while less important to their actual abilities, is important to the gameplay of a mercenary; Diplomacy earns them their wages and makes it easier for them to align themselves in more powerful positions. Wisdom will help a mercenary recognize the difference between opportunities and suicide missions.

Mercenaries are intended as either a PC or NPC class. As PCs, they are an alternative to Fighters, while as NPCs they are intended to be extra help that can be hired for a fee, but can also be resident badasses (see O'Chul) or nemeses.

The Mercenary

Hit Dice: d10
Skills: 4 + Int modifier/level (x4 at first level)
Class Skills: Balance, Climb, Concentration, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Heal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Local), Listen, Profession (Mercenary), Ride, Sense Motive, Spot, Tumble.
{table="head;width=600"]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1|+1|2|0|0|Weapon Finesse, Professional
2|+2|3|0|0|Dextrous Blows
3|+3|3|1|1|Thrown Blade
4|+4|4|1|1|Bonus Feat
5|+5|4|1|1|First Aid, Uncanny Dodge
6|+6/+1|5|2|2|
7|+7/+2|5|2|2|Robilar's Gambit
8|+8/+3|6|2|2|Bonus Feat
9|+9/+4|6|3|3|Improved Uncanny Dodge
10|+10/+5|7|3|3|
11|+11/+6/+1|7|3|3|Concentrated Strike
12|+12/+7/+2|8|4|4|Bonus Feat
13|+13/+8/+3|8|4|4|Undeniable Power
14|+14/+9/+4|9|4|4|
15|+15/+10/+5|9|5|5|Spinning Blade
16|+16/+11/+6/+1|10|5|5|Bonus Feat
17|+17/+12/+7/+2|10|5|5|?
18|+18/+13/+8/+3|11|6|6|
19|+19/+14/+9/+4|11|6|6|Overwhelm
20|+20/+15/+10/+5|12|6|6|Bonus Feat, Army of One[/table]

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
A mercenary is proficient with all simple and martial melee weapons. They are proficient with all armor and shields (including tower shields).

Weapon Finesse
Mercenaries gain Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat at 1st level. At 3rd level, Weapon Finesse applies to any weapon you are proficient with, and at 5th level you may replace your Strength modifier with your Dexterity modifier to damage rolls as well.

Professional
Mercenaries are well-paid for their labors, and have spent much of their life earning their wages this way. You add your mercenary class levels to the Profession (Mercenary) skill.

Thrown Blade
A mercenary can throw their sword a great distance and even have it return to them. At 3rd level, you gain the ability to throw a melee weapon at opponents without taking the normal -4 penalty for throwing a melee weapon. You may throw your weapon directly at an enemy up to 20 ft. away and it will do normal damage and fall to the ground at their feet. However, any piercing or slashing weapon thrown will do piercing damage at twice the weapon's normal damage and will stick into the enemy. You may instead throw your weapon in an arc, the furthest point of which must be 10ft or less from you. This attack hits anyone in its path, but deals half damage against anyone hit after the first. Piercing weapons instead deal slashing damage when thrown in this manner. Throwing a weapon using this ability always takes a full-round action, and provokes attacks of opportunity. If an attack of opportunity is successfully made against you, then the weapon is still thrown, but you must make a Concentration check (DC 10+Damage Dealt) or you will fail to catch their weapon, and it will fall at your feet (this only applies if they were attempting to throw it and have it return to them). The weapon returns to you after all actions for the round have already been taken. As your level increases, you become able to throw their weapon further, as shown on the following chart.

{table=head]Level|Max. Thrown Distance|Max. Return Distance
3|20|10
5|30|15
7|40|20
9|50|25
11|60|30
13|70|35
15|80|40
17|90|45
19|100|50[/table]


Bonus Feats
At 4th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, you may choose a bonus feat from the list of Fighter bonus feats. You must meet the prerequisites of any feat you take.

First Aid [Su]
Starting at 5th level, you may take a full-round action to heal yourself a number of hit points equal to half of the results of a Heal check. You may only use this ability once per day, and only when less than half of your maximum health is remaining.

Uncanny Dodge
At 5th level, a mercenary retains their Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if they are caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, they still lose their Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. If you already have uncanny dodge from a different class, you automatically gain improved uncanny dodge instead.

Robilar's Gambit
At 7th level a mercenary gains Robilar's Gambit as a bonus feat. You do not need to meet the requirements to gain this feat.

Improved Uncanny Dodge
At 9th level and higher, a mercenary can no longer be flanked. This defense denies a rogue the ability to sneak attack the mercenary by flanking them, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target has mercenary levels. If you already have uncanny dodge from a second class, you automatically gain improved uncanny dodge instead, and the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum level a rogue must be to flank you.

Concentrated Strike
By concentrating on an opponent, a mercenary can use their weaknesses to his advantage in combat. At 11th level, you may take a round to study an opponent within 30ft. of you. During this round you may not use any other abilities (mercenary or otherwise) and may not take a full action or a standard action. The next round you take a full action to attack your target. If your target is not within reach, you spring forward to attack them, traveling up to your movement speed. You make a full attack with one additional attack at your full BAB. Additionally, your weapon's critical range doubles for this attack.

Undeniable Power [Su]
At 13th level a mercenary has become a master at getting the jobs they want for the price they want, and are able to charm the people they want something from. You gain bonuses to Diplomacy and Intimidate checks equal to half your mercenary class levels, and if you succeed on one of these checks against a target, then it is treated as though you have cast a Charm spell on them. Will negates the effect, with a DC equal to the result of your check. This effect goes unnoticed by the target, so if they succeed on their Will save then the Diplomacy or Intimidate check is still successful.

?: to be changed
At 15th level a mercenary learns to rush through the battlefield around them, striking at their foes. You gain the Whirlwind attack feat. You do not need to meet any of the prerequisites of the feat, and may attack all enemies within 15ft. of you, but if you attack any enemies that are not normally within reach then you provoke an attack of opportunity from those foes, and must make a concentration check to continue your attack if you are successfully hit (DC 10+Damage Dealt).

Overwhelm
Upon reaching 19th level, a mercenary develops a technique special to them designed to incapacitate an enemy. With a total of 10 points, use the table below to create this technique. This effect can only be used once per encounter.

{table="head;400"]Effect|Points Cost
Deals double damage|2
Doubled critical range|2
1d6 Ability Damage(choose one)|3
Blinds target|5
Confuses target (2d4 rounds)|3
Dazes target (1 round)|2
Deafens target|3
Paralyzes target(1d4 rounds)|5
Stuns target(2d4 rounds)|5
Makes opponent shaken(1d4 rounds)|1[/table]


Army of One
By 20th level a mercenary is a master of the battlefield, able to move through it at will. You add half your mercenary class levels to Balance, Climb, Jump, Ride, and Tumble checks, and your movement speed increases by 20ft.

[Keeper of Starlight]

Does anyone have any opinions on this class? Does it seem like it needs any patches to it, or what tier it might be in? I personally think Tier 3 or 4, but I'd love to hear other opinions.

[Xulin]

I like mercenaries! Let's see what you have here...

Weapon Finesse This is weird, I don't normally associate mercenaries as agile characters, but nothing overpowerd.

Professional I don't think there is a profession(mercenary), I think that skill is covered by your class abilities :smallsmile:

Thrown Blade What's your angle with this ability? Blade throwing? In the first place, it'd be easier to just give the character "Throw Anything" as a bonus feat. Also, the whole throwing blades and having them return is covered by the Bloodstorm Blade class, so it feels weird to have it here. Double damage is a no-no... All and all this ability is a bit complicated, if you throw it this way, it sticks in the enemy, if you throw it that way it arks, you can catch it, but you have to make a concentration check; decide one thing that this ability does and do that, but this is too busy for one technique.

Bonus Feats Mmm, I'd be more inclined to give them a list of feats rather than the fighter list, but this isn't too heinous.

Counterstrike So basically this is Robilar's Gambit, but without using AoO, and no penalties for you getting hit? I'd say just give them Rolibar's Gambit and be done with it - also, what constitutes a "Mercenary Ability"? I get what you mean, but others might not.
If you don't want this to just be Robilar's gambit, I'd definately make it an immediate action, or make it an AoO that can only be used once per round. Just getting a free attack for every attack against you is not right.

Increased Perception Never flat footed unless you're helpless. I get what you're going for here; maybe give them uncanny dodge? Blind fight as a bonus feat is not a bad thing, but they could probably stand to get blind fight earlier - 9th level is a long way to be in a class.

Concentrated Strike - You shouldn't have to make concentration checks for getting hit when you use this ability - you've already spent an entire round doing nothing, and now you're basically getting pounce but without it being a charge, and the enemy has to not be dead and still within reach to gain a minor bonus to attacks and hits and some extra threat range. This ability is not overpowered, it's very underpowered - it's 11th level and I still haven't PRC'd out, I would want something better.

Concentrated Mind - This is another weird ability, and definately not something I want at 13th level. Why all of these abilities tied to concentrate of all things?

Spinning Blade - Ok. In the first place, Whirlwind Attack is not very good - making one attack against opponents is too much of a damage loss; better to full attack one guy than kill him, than hit 4 guys once each and make them mad. It seems that you've increased the range of it (somehow?) but now it provokes AoO? This is a bad ability, as in, you die when you lose it.
Plus it suffers from the "I have to maintain concentration" problem of your other abilities. If i wanted to concentrate, I'd play a caster.

Undeniable Power - Charm is a 1st level spell for wizards. This is level 17, where they get 9th level spells. I'm not saying that melee should be compared to wizards, but a mercenary should be getting something tasty at this level for offense (however charming the enemy by intmidating them is hilarious). I see no justification for this ability, at this level. Also, making the DC equal to a Diplomacy or Intimidate check is silly, since everyone will basically fail.

Overwhelm - You're going for a signature technique, but the Stun, Paralyze, and Daze abilities are way undercosted - those shut down enemies - and the daze is the shortest duration one??. Also once per battle is not enough - once per battle you can shut down one enemy. Then what? It's 19th level! Warblades can stun people with no save every other round by this point!

Army of One - And at 20th level we get... more skill bonuses.

This class seems to suffer from the monk/samurai problem. A lot of abilities but those abilities don't make the class good at anything.

[Keeper of Starlight]

Replies will be in bold.


I like mercenaries! Let's see what you have here...

Weapon Finesse This is weird, I don't normally associate mercenaries as agile characters, but nothing overpowerd.

Professional I don't think there is a profession(mercenary), I think that skill is covered by your class abilities :smallsmile:

This is meant to be a new profession, as a more stoneset way for them to earn money being a mercenary.

Thrown Blade What's your angle with this ability? Blade throwing? In the first place, it'd be easier to just give the character "Throw Anything" as a bonus feat. Also, the whole throwing blades and having them return is covered by the Bloodstorm Blade class, so it feels weird to have it here. Double damage is a no-no... All and all this ability is a bit complicated, if you throw it this way, it sticks in the enemy, if you throw it that way it arks, you can catch it, but you have to make a concentration check; decide one thing that this ability does and do that, but this is too busy for one technique.

This is meant to be one of the main abilities of this class, and it's complex because I want them to be able to do a lot of things with it. My vision while creating this was akin to a dual-wielding fighter whose main technique was to throw one blade at an enemy, and then rush them the next turn and literally pull the blade out of their back as they attack. I agree that double damage should be changed, but perhaps there should be a way to scale damage with level. Any ideas on what a good scale might be?

Bonus Feats Mmm, I'd be more inclined to give them a list of feats rather than the fighter list, but this isn't too heinous.

I'd be up for making a separate lists. Any ideas of what you'd like to see on there that isn't on the fighter list?

Counterstrike So basically this is Robilar's Gambit, but without using AoO, and no penalties for you getting hit? I'd say just give them Rolibar's Gambit and be done with it - also, what constitutes a "Mercenary Ability"? I get what you mean, but others might not.
If you don't want this to just be Robilar's gambit, I'd definately make it an immediate action, or make it an AoO that can only be used once per round. Just getting a free attack for every attack against you is not right.

Just looked at Robilar's Gambit, sounds good. I'll change it to that.

Increased Perception Never flat footed unless you're helpless. I get what you're going for here; maybe give them uncanny dodge? Blind fight as a bonus feat is not a bad thing, but they could probably stand to get blind fight earlier - 9th level is a long way to be in a class.

This is intended more as Improved Uncanny Dodge, it's meant to stop sneak attacks. The idea is that they can't be sneak attacked or flanked because they're constantly aware of where their enemies are. If I change it to that, do you think I should put Uncanny Dodge earlier? And maybe blindfight along with it?

Concentrated Strike - You shouldn't have to make concentration checks for getting hit when you use this ability - you've already spent an entire round doing nothing, and now you're basically getting pounce but without it being a charge, and the enemy has to not be dead and still within reach to gain a minor bonus to attacks and hits and some extra threat range. This ability is not overpowered, it's very underpowered - it's 11th level and I still haven't PRC'd out, I would want something better.

I'll remove the Concentration check requirements. And what if it was changed to a full attack with an extra hit, but without the +4 bonus? A full attack with 4 hits and a doubled crit range could be dangerous, especially if they take advantage of the bonus feats and dexterity base to dual wield.

Concentrated Mind - This is another weird ability, and definately not something I want at 13th level. Why all of these abilities tied to concentrate of all things?

I liked the flavor of a fighter who was always attuned to their surroundings, but maybe concentration doesn't work as well as I thought. I want them to have ties to a few skills, and think they could make good party faces with Diplomacy bonuses, so maybe this should be replaced by a Diplomacy Boost and the charm effect they got at 17th level?

Spinning Blade - Ok. In the first place, Whirlwind Attack is not very good - making one attack against opponents is too much of a damage loss; better to full attack one guy than kill him, than hit 4 guys once each and make them mad. It seems that you've increased the range of it (somehow?) but now it provokes AoO? This is a bad ability, as in, you die when you lose it.
Plus it suffers from the "I have to maintain concentration" problem of your other abilities. If i wanted to concentrate, I'd play a caster.

The idea was them darting around the place, but I see how it would be better to focus on one. This will need to be replaced with another offensive attack. Maybe something involving throwing, I kind of want that as a tactical option.

Undeniable Power - Charm is a 1st level spell for wizards. This is level 17, where they get 9th level spells. I'm not saying that melee should be compared to wizards, but a mercenary should be getting something tasty at this level for offense (however charming the enemy by intmidating them is hilarious). I see no justification for this ability, at this level. Also, making the DC equal to a Diplomacy or Intimidate check is silly, since everyone will basically fail.

This will be replaced by something better, but still non-combat oriented. I don't know what yet, and am open to ideas, but I'll eventually come up with something.

Overwhelm - You're going for a signature technique, but the Stun, Paralyze, and Daze abilities are way undercosted - those shut down enemies - and the daze is the shortest duration one??. Also once per battle is not enough - once per battle you can shut down one enemy. Then what? It's 19th level! Warblades can stun people with no save every other round by this point!

Daze is only supposed to last for one round for some reason, that's why it costs less. Stun will be moved up to 5, as will paralyze. And how often should they be able to use it, maybe 1d4 rounds or every other round?

Army of One - And at 20th level we get... more skill bonuses.

The idea of these was to make them able to constantly move around the battlefield, they're intended to be at a constant tactical advantage. I considered some kind of DR to go with this, but please let me know if you have other ideas for a capstone.

This class seems to suffer from the monk/samurai problem. A lot of abilities but those abilities don't make the class good at anything.

My hope is that this class will be good at constantly having a small advantage over most enemies. The wide range of abilities is meant to assure largely that they are never caught unaware by foes and always have some use, while the skills are meant to make them useful both inside and outside battle for various tasks.

[Cidolfas]

Replies will be in bold.



My hope is that this class will be good at constantly having a small advantage over most enemies. The wide range of abilities is meant to assure largely that they are never caught unaware by foes and always have some use, while the skills are meant to make them useful both inside and outside battle for various tasks.

You could probably pack that all into a class that is less than 10 levels long and still be comfortably in Tier 3. Right now it seems stretched out a bit far, with the dead level (I don't count bonus attacks as enough to qualify for a level's worth of class features). Army of One, for example, could be given at level 2. Yes, two, when you first get the ability to divide your class level in half with a whole number answer. It seems like with such an ability at level 20 I have zero incentive to go all that when something else could still be appealing.

I'm inclined to call this one closer to Tier 5, since Thrown Blade (your only ranged option actually granted by the class) is always a full-round action and thus pretty much kills any mobility you might have. Once you hit level 6 and can make a full attack with a normal ranged weapon, that option becomes clearly inferior in both range and potential damage output. Having to wait for level 3 to do that also seems a pretty major buzzkill.

Even the stronger bits have rather severe limitations. Concentrated Strike is just a bonus attack against things immune to criticals (which is a lot of things--undead, constructs, oozes, just to name a few) and somewhat encourages you to combine that ability with attack spamming just to hope you crit on something.

As for the non-combat stuff, why bother? If you are in a game that emphasizes non-combat roleplaying, fine, but if your DM doesn't give you an out because you don't have abilities specifically tailored to such things then they are kind of a twit. If you are, then your ability to do stuff outside of battle should be predicated on your ability to roleplay rather than any text the class provides. I mean, it's a mercenary, the whole point of it seems to be to fight things. Fighting and killing things is what pretty much all of the written rules support anyway, do I would rather a class focus on doing that effectively than doing out-of-combat things.