Getting it early and exploiting Horizon Walker 6

[Eyclonus]

Just as the title says, I'm trying to think of a way to get the horizon walker's teleport spam as early as possible and having it be useful. This isn't for a campaign or anything, I never read the class properly until about an hour ago and this ability to spam Dimension Door seems like a cool trick, but I'm having trouble thinking of how it can be acquired early and what to do with it once I am forgoing using my legs when I can teleport every 6-24 seconds.

[IronFist]

Early entry into Horizon Walker is kinda pointless for teleports when you can enter Jaunter much earlier for teleport spam. Jaunter is kind of obscure, though, so there is that.
Check Expedition to the Demonweb Pits, Jaunter might be just what you're looking for and you can fullfil the requirements by level 4 with a Fighter dip. I like Duskblade 3/Fighter 1 for entry.

[Eyclonus]

Hmm, thats an interesting PrC, it can certainly hit the teleport spam fast, but not 100% sure with the cap on usage and distances per day vs having a cooldown on the base spell.

Any way to reduce the cast time down? So we can try something like kiting with DD and Full Round Attacking from a distance?

[IronFist]

Your best bet for that would be either Telflammar Shadowlord or Blade of Orien.

[Waker]

How about Swordsage to get the Shadow Hand maneuvers like Shadow Jaunt. To quickly regain the maneuvers, take a psionic class like Psychic Warrior or Psychic Rogue so you can use Psychic Renewal. The example above would let you teleport one round, spend two PP as a swift action to refresh and then teleport again on the following round.

[IronFist]

Or you could just get Dimension Hop and teleport for 1 pp.

[Eyclonus]

I'm thinking of building it into a cult, similar to Daud's Whalers from Dishonored, that will serve as a nemesis to my group when the current arc ends and I take up DM duties, except as part of the transition I need to have the current DM introduce them just before the climax of this story arc.

Psionics isn't common and they have bad taste after I previously (ab)used schism with a Synad in a separate game, they could tolerate 1 or 2 psionic foes, eg they prefer Illithids with the actual psionic rules, but not the one of the 3 main opposing factions for my arc as psionics.

I figured Horizon Walker was ok to work with because it doesn't add too much other than the D-Door and it means I can mould the organization by not being set into running all wozards or mahes etc.

[IronFist]

Well, Horizon Walker only gets teleport at ECL 11, maybe 10 with cheese. Sounds kinda hard for an organization. Maybe just give them Shape Soulmeld (Blink Shirt) if your players are not as allergic to blue as they are to psionics.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Totemist gets at will Dimension Door at level 1. At level 2 you can bind it to your totem chakra for DD at will as a move action. Range is 10ft + 10ft per essentia invested.

[IronFist]

Totemist gets at will Dimension Door at level 1. At level 2 you can bind it to your totem chakra for DD at will as a move action. Range is 10ft + 10ft per essentia invested.

Ninja'd you for around an hour there. :smallcool:

[Segev]

Besides, reading Horizon Walker, it gets its Dim Door only once every 1d4 rounds, and it only works on a Shifting plane. The bit about "taking their mastery with them" explicitly states they keep the bonuses on certain kinds of rolls; it doesn't state that they keep their planar ability. So unless your game takes place on a Shifting plane...

[ZamielVanWeber]

That seems to be a case of poor wording, as opposed to intention. Note that you lose your immunity to fatigue if you are in a cold area (which also inflicts fatigue) because you are no longer in a desert.

Edit: To answer the OP's original question, I don't know of anyway to bypass that skill requirement. 11 will the level for horizon walker.

[mabriss lethe]

That's not quite how it works.

Taken from the SRD: Emphasis Mine.

Terrain Mastery

At each level, the Horizon Walker adds a new terrain environment to their repertoire from those given below. Terrain mastery gives a horizon walker a bonus on checks involving a skill useful in that terrain, or some other appropriate benefit. A horizon walker also knows how to fight dangerous creatures typically found in that terrain, gaining a +1 insight bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls against creatures with that terrain mentioned in the Environment entry of their descriptions. The horizon walker only gains the bonus if the creature description specifically lists the terrain type.

Horizon walkers take their terrain mastery with them wherever they go. They retain their terrain mastery bonuses on skill checks, attack rolls, and damage rolls whether they’re actually in the relevant terrain or not.

Planar Terrain Mastery

Planar terrain mastery functions just like terrain mastery, except that the horizon walker can choose one of the planar categories at each level. The horizon walker can take a non-planar terrain type instead, if she wishes.

[Segev]

I fear I don't know whether your post is a response to mine, Mabris, or to the one below mine. If to me, then I don't see anything but support for what I said in what you emphasized.

[Eyclonus]

I interpreted it as carrying the Terrain bonus with them, the alternative while a safe conservative interpretation seems way, way too weak for going 6+ levels into a PrC that is almost an NPC PrC otherwise.

[limejuicepowder]

I'm shocked no one said it yet: warlocks get at-will dimension door at level 6. It's short range, but it leaves behind a major image of the warlock (how cool is that?!?!). This route seems much more practical and optimal, as warlock 6 has a lot of other stuff to offer besides the DD.

[TuggyNE]

Besides, reading Horizon Walker, it gets its Dim Door only once every 1d4 rounds, and it only works on a Shifting plane. The bit about "taking their mastery with them" explicitly states they keep the bonuses on certain kinds of rolls; it doesn't state that they keep their planar ability. So unless your game takes place on a Shifting plane...

The way you're reading that, Desert terrain mastery only makes you immune to fatigue when you're in a desert, Mountains only gives you a +10 bonus to climb speed when in the mountains (but doesn't limit you to climbing rocks), Underground only gives you darkvision when you're in a cave or similar, Cold/Fire Planar energy resistance only when on one of those planes, and so on.

Note that there is a planar mastery that specifically is limited: "Weightless: You gain a +30-foot bonus to your fly speed on planes with no gravity or subjective gravity." Lacking that sort of conditional clause, other masteries should not be assumed to suffer it.

[Segev]

Upon re-reading it, I think I was, in fact, wrong. Objection withdrawn.

[TuggyNE]

Upon re-reading it, I think I was, in fact, wrong. Objection withdrawn.

Good to hear. :smallcool: I will say that the ability is not written as clearly as it should be, for sure.

[Eyclonus]

So thinking of Rogue 4/Totemist 1 with the Necropolitan template removing a rogue level for these NPCs