PDA

View Full Version : Shadow Master PrC (3.5) [PEACH]



Humble Master
2013-03-30, 07:57 PM
Here is a prestige class I made some time ago. I would appreciate comments and constructive criticism. Thank you.

{table=head] Level |Base Attack Bonus | Fort Save | Ref Save | Will Save | Special | Spell per Day
1st | +0 | +0 | +2 | +2 | Shadow Cloak 1/day | +1level of existing arcane spellcasting class
2nd | +1 | +0 | +3 | +3 | Darkvision 60ft, Hide in Plain Sight | +1level of existing arcane spellcasting class
3rd | +2 | +1 | +3 | +3 | Shadow Cloak 2/day, Shadow Image | +1level of existing arcane spellcasting class
4th | +3 | +1 | +4 | +4 | Darkvision 60ft, Shadow Jump 20ft | +1level of existing arcane spellcasting class
5th | +3 | +1 | +4 | +4 | Shadow Cloak 3/day, Shadow Dodge | +1level of existing arcane spellcasting class
6th | +4 | +2 | +5 | +5 |Darkvision 100ft, Shadow Jump 40ft| +1level of existing arcane spellcasting class
7th | +5 | +2 | +5 | +5 | Shadow Cloak 4/day, Shadow Shift 1/day | +1level of existing arcane spellcasting class
8th | +6 | +2 | +6 | +6 | Darkvision 120ft, Shadow Jump 80ft | +1level of existing arcane spellcasting class
9th | +6 | +3 | +6 | +6 |Shadow Cloak 5/day, Shadow Shift 2/day| +1level of existing arcane spellcasting class
10th | +7 | +3 | +7 | +7 | Shadow Jump 160ft, Shadow Mastery|
[/table]

In all parts of the world where nobody cares to look one can find shadow masters. They are sneaky, stealthy folks who seem to prefer almost anything to being seen; who stalk the night as unnoticed as the sun, turning invisible and teleporting through the darkness. Whether they acts as spies, thieves, assassins or adventurers shadow masters make a living however they can. They are not particularly good nor evil and they are usually as shy as darkness to a torch. Most of them are shunned by society. Something about people dislikes their aptitude for remaining unseen.
Hit Die: d6
Requirements
To qualify to become a shadow master, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria.

Base Attack Bonus: +4
Skills: Hide 10 ranks, Move Silently 10 ranks.
Spell casting: Ability to cast arcane spells
Class Skills
The shadow master class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Disable Devise (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Open Lock (Dex), Sleight of Hand (Dex),Spellcraft (Int), Tumble (Dex).
Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier
Class Features
All the following are class features of the shadow master prestige class.


Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A shadow master is proficient with all simple weapons as well as rapiers, saps, hand crossbows and shurikens. Shadow masters are not proficient with any armor of shield


Spells per Day: When a new shadow master level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class he belonged to before adding the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefits a character of the class would have gained (bonus metamagic or item creation feats, and so on), except for an increased effective level of spellcasting. If a character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a shadow master, he must decide to which class he adds the new level for purposes of determining spells per day.


Shadow Cloak(Su): The most basic ability of the shadow master is the art of using the darkness to hide your actions and movements. A shadow master can Shadow Cloak once per day. While Shadow Cloaked the shadow master becomes invisible as long as he remains within 10ft of some sort of shadow. However the shadow master cannot Shadow Cloak in his own shadow. If the shadow master strays to far from the darkness his Shadow Cloak will be ineffective but will resume when the shadow master moves back within 10ft of the shadows. Like normal invisibility the shadow master can still be identified by listening for the sounds he makes. The shadow master can still attack and cast damaging spells while Shadow Cloaked and not become visible but being exposed to any greater level of light than shadowy illumination will cause the shadow master to become visible. A shadow master can remain Shadow Cloaked for a number of rounds equal to twice his shadow master level. At 3nd level and every other level thereafter the shadow master can Shadow Cloak once more per day maxing out at 5/day at 9th level.


Darkvision(Su): Starting at 2nd level, a shadow master can see in the dark up to 60ft. At every even level thereafter the range of this Darkvision improves by 20ft maxing out at 120ft at 8th level.


Hide in Plain Sight(Su): At 2nd level a shadow master can use the Hide skill even while being observed. As long as he is within 10ft of some kind of shadow, a shadow master can hide himself in the open without anything to actually hide behind. He cannot, however, hide in his own shadow.


Shadow Image(Su): At 3rd level a shadow master can manipulate the shadows to create an image as though by a major image spell. A shadow master can use this ability twice per day.


Shadow Jump(Su): At 4th level, a shadow master gains the ability to briefly step intot eh Plane of Shadows and then step out at a diffrent location from where he started. A shadow master can teleport between shadows as thought be means of a dimensional door spell. However, the teleportation must begin and end in an area of darkness. A shadow master can jump at total of 20ft per day. This can be in one 20ft jump or two 10ft jumps. Every two levels higher than 4th the distance a shadow master can shadow jump each day is doubled (40ft at 6th, 80ft at 8th and 160ft at 10th). This distance can be split up among any number of jumps but each one, no matter how small, counts as a 10ft increment. (for example a 6th level shadow master that jumps 31ft could not Shadow Jump for the rest of the day.)


Shadow Dodge (Ex): At 5th level a shadow master who is in an area of darkness can add his intelligence bonus to his AC. This bonus represents the shadow master's ability to use the darkness to make themselves harder to hit. If a shadow master loses his dexterity bonus he also loses his Shadow Dodge bonus.


Shadow Shift(Su): At 7th level, once per day, a shadow master can step more permanently into the Plane of Shadow. teleport to the Plane of Shadow. At 9th level a shadow master can us this ability twice per day. This ability functions as the shadow walk spell with the following exceptions. Firstly you cannot travel from the Plane of Shadow to an adjacent plane as in a shadow walk spell. Secondly, if a Shadow Master is on the Plane of Shadow he can leave the Plane of Shadow at will. Finally the shadow master's abilities Shadow Cloak, Shadow Dodge, Shadow Image and Shadow Jump can function anywhere on the Plane of Shadow regardless of the level of light. At 9th level a shadow master can us this ability once more per day. Because of this, shadow masters intent on killing a target will usually drag their victim into the Plane of Shadow were their abilities cannot be limited by light.


Shadow Mastery(Su): Upon reaching 10th level a shadow master can Shadow Cloak at will with no limit the number of times per day he may use the ability.

Shadow Masters in the World
Shadow mastery was an skill developed during the Age of Solaria and as a result has all but been forgotten. Those non shadow masters who do remember usually have varying accounts of the powers of this mysterious art. Some say they were no more than normal rouges other claim they could kill a man by taking his shadow. Still rumors of the dark lurkers, as shadow masters are frequently called by common folk, continue.
Because of their powers revolving around stealth shadow masters tend to lead solitary lives, preferring the company of the night sky to anything else. Those shadow masters who do remain in society tend to become spies or assassins for those who can win their service. To an extent, shadow masters are not trusted by civilization and can turned away from refuge by those who remember and fear their abilities.
Most shadow masters tend to avoid each other but despite this there is a shadow master guild. This dark structure is located on the Plane of Shadow and simply finding it is thought as entry requirements enough. The guild itself has no long-term goals aside from simply passing on the technique of shadow mastery.

Andion Isurand
2013-03-30, 10:01 PM
I would add Concentration, Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft to the list of class skills.

Humble Master
2013-03-30, 10:34 PM
Woops! I didn't notice that and all of those skills make sense. Thank you.

Chromascope3D
2013-03-30, 10:50 PM
Hmm... Personally, I think the Darkvision ability should be altered to stack with any existing darkvision, though that may be debatable (I don't remember if any other class does that, but if they don't, they definitely should). Also, I find the poor will save rather odd, considering that spellcasting is a pre-req. Otherwise, I think it looks pretty good, although, I'm rather biased towards any sort of shadow class. It's definitely an improvement over shadowdancer, I'll give it that. :smallwink:

EDIT: Actually, I think the third-level power, Shadow Image, is a little underwhelming. Most arcane-classes can already cast silent image, and they can do it a lot earlier and a lot more than once per day at character level 9 (The earliest you can reach level 3 in this PrC). What if you had the option to make them quasi-real, like with shadow conjuration? Actually, since you would reach it at level 9, you could probably get away with replacing silent image with shadow conjuration, since both the wizard and the sorcerer would already have access to that spell by then.

Humble Master
2013-03-30, 11:19 PM
Again, you're right. It should have good Will save. Also on the shadow conjuration. I think that yes that would be better power wise but I feal that illusions fit better with the shadow master's credo of never being seen. I think I will up the usage of Shadow Image to 3 times per day and make it function like major image instead of silent image.

JonathonWilder
2013-04-06, 03:28 PM
I actually like this class, admittingly I don't really have anything I think needs to be changed though as it seems to me to be a solid class.

I will say this though, I find the Darkvision boosts to be a bit pointless as honestly how many people can actually see well even in daylight 100 ft or 120 ft or more how often will adventures have the chance to see that distance without having something block their line of sight? That is quite the distance, would you not agree?

Humble Master
2013-04-06, 05:01 PM
I actually like this class, admittingly I don't really have anything I think needs to be changed though as it seems to me to be a solid class.

I will say this though, I find the Darkvision boosts to be a bit pointless as honestly how many people can actually see well even in daylight 100 ft or 120 ft or more how often will adventures have the chance to see that distance without having something block their line of sight? That is quite the distance, would you not agree?

I would agree that 120ft is quite the distance but I wanted the Shadow Master to really be at home in the dark. Almost all of their abilities function in shadow so it made sence to me that shadow should not impare their vision. Maby 120ft is pointless, but because most creatures have 60ft darkvision I wanted the Shadow Master to be able to see them before they could see the Shadow Master (Of course once you get shadow mastry its kind of a moot point).

Thank you for the comment.

Humble Master
2013-04-07, 01:18 PM
Bump

Also could someone give me their thoughts on the class as a whole?