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Everynone
2013-07-21, 05:24 PM
Survivor

"All of life comes down to one simple mantra: survive. And here I am." - Behr Gryss, a Survivor

During their adventuring career, certain heroes may find themselves the victims of mental domination, spells, and special attacks. Characters not suited to the hard reality of combat may prove especially vulnerable to physical or magical attacks. For this reason, more than a few successful heroes set up training courses and academies where a character willingly undergoes a program of pain and stress.

The students are subjected to frequent assaults to their bodies with cunning traps that challenge agility, psionic torment through mind-affecting spells, combat with hired non-humanoids, frequent draining attacks by controlled undead, and steady doses of weak poisons.

Those who survive the program emerge a few weeks later trained and adapted to be tougher, faster, and less vulnerable to attacks. A survivor's past may lie in any class, as may his future. All that is required is mental and physical focus, and a will to survive.


Hit Die: d8


Requirements

To qualify to become a survivor, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Base Save Bonus: Highest base save bonus must be lower than character level.

Special: The path of the survivor requires a concentrated month of study to enter the prestige class. During this month, the character must stay in one place and spend all his waking hours in study, practice, and meditation.


Class Skills

The survivor’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Hide (Dex), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Search (Int), and Spot (Wis). A survivor can also spend his skill points to purchase any skills that any of his previous classes (or his base monster race) have made available as a class skill (though not exclusive skills), or any skill that is eligible as a cross-class skill.

Skill Points: 4 + Int modifier


Class Features

All of the following are class features of the survivor prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A survivor gains proficiency in light armor and all simple weapons if they did not already have it.

Evasion (Ex): At 1st level, a survivor gains evasion. If exposed to any effect that normally allows a character to attempt a Reflex saving throw for half damage (such as a fireball), he takes no damage with a successful saving throw. Evasion can only be used if the survivor wears light armor or no armor.

Spell Resistance (Ex): At 1st level and every survivor level thereafter, the survivor gains 2 Spell Resistance, or adds 1 to whatever Spell Resistance he already possessed. Thus, a 5th level monk/6th level survivor has 12 Spell Resistance if human, but 28 if drow.

Endurance (Ex): At 1st level, the survivor gains the Endurance feat for free.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 2nd level, the survivor gains the ability to react to danger before his senses would normally allow him to do so. He retains his Dexterity bonus to Armor Class (if any) regardless of being caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker (he still loses his Dexterity bonus to Armor Class if immobilized).

Toughness (Ex): At 3rd level, the survivor gains the Toughness feat for free. If they already possess it, they instead gain 1 hit point per character level. These are gained from then on and retroactively, whether the character is a survivor or not.

Mettle (Ex): This ability, gained at 4th level, works like evasion, except that the survivor takes no damage on a successful fortitude or will save against spells such as finger of death that allow a saving throw for half damage or a reduced effect.

Damage Reduction (Ex): At 5th level, a survivor gains the ability to shrug off 5 points of damage from each blow or attack. Subtract 5 from the damage the survivor takes each time he is dealt damage. Damage reduction can reduce damage to 0 but not less than 0. This damage reduction stacks with any other damage reduction of the "/- " type (such as the damage reduction that is a class feature of the barbarian).

At 10th level, the damage reduction value increases to 10/-.

Improved Evasion (Ex): This ability, gained at 6th level, works like Evasion, except that while the survivor still takes no damage on a successful Reflex save against spells such as fireball or a breath weapon, he now takes only half damage on a failed save. The survivor's training allows him to get out of harm's way with incredible speed.

Diehard (Ex): At 6th level, the survivor gains the Diehard feat for free.

Intuitive Dodge (Ex): At 7th level, the survivor can no longer be flanked; he can react to opponents on opposite sides of him as easily as he can react to a single attacker. This defense denies rogues the ability to use flank attacks to sneak attack the survivor. The exception to this defense is that a rogue at least four levels higher than the survivor can flank him (and thus sneak attack him).

Improved Toughness (Ex): At 8th level, the survivor gains the effects of Toughness again, though as the survivor already has Toughness at this point, they always gain extra hit points at this level.

Stalwart (Ex): Three times per day, a 9th level or higher survivor can cheat even death. When a situation occurs in which a failed dice roll on the part of the survivor will result in his death, and the roll fails, he may reroll that dice. This ability cannot be used more than once per encounter.


Table: The Survivor
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Refl|Will|Special
1st|+0|+2|+2|+2|Evasion, Endurance, Spell Resistance
2nd|+1|+3|+3|+3|Uncanny Dodge
3rd|+1|+3|+3|+3|Toughness
4th|+2|+4|+4|+4|Mettle
5th|+2|+4|+4|+4|Damage Reduction 5/-
6th|+3|+5|+5|+5|Improved Evasion, Diehard
7th|+3|+5|+5|+5|Intuitive Dodge
8th|+4|+6|+6|+6|Improved Toughness
9th|+4|+6|+6|+6|Stalwart
10th|+5|+7|+7|+7|Damage Reduction 10/-[/table]

asnys
2013-07-21, 09:06 PM
Uh, you might want to change those prerequisites. Otherwise Commoner-1 is a valid entry point.

Everynone
2013-07-21, 09:26 PM
Uh, you might want to change those prerequisites. Otherwise Commoner-1 is a valid entry point.

Actually...that was intentional. :smallsmile:

Andion Isurand
2013-07-22, 12:21 AM
I would change the Hit Dice to a d12, reduce skill points gained per level to 2 + Int, and replace the Toughness abilities with something else. I would also set up Damage Reduction and Spell Resistance to scale smoothly with class level.

Damage Reduction (Ex): A survivor gains Damage Reduction 1/- at 1st level. This damage reduction increases by 1 for each additional class level attained, and stacks with DR of the same type gained by other extraordinary means.

Spell Resistance (Ex): A survivor gains Spell Resistance equal to his class level + his total HD. Alternatively, he may add half his class level (rounded down, minimum 1) to any previously existing innate spell resistance, should it prove the greater sum.

Here's another ability you could add, taken from the Knight class.

Impetuous Endurance (Ex): By 9th level, your fighting spirit enables you to push your body beyond the normal limits of endurance. You no longer automatically fail a saving throw on a roll of 1. You might still fail the save if your result fails to overcome the DC.