Carl
2013-10-04, 04:33 PM
Note expected final power is about high T3 to T2, and Semi-Core means i'm only considering stuff i'm aware of which is mostly core stuff, (I've got a better handle on some things like ToB, but there's a lot of splat books and the like out there).
Ok I’m only about a third finished here. I’ve still got to write the Wanderer class feature, (it’s mostly code of conduct stuff though it does limit some things as well, particularly how much time you can spend in town), and the second half of the main features and flesh out the natural materials crafting stuff, e.t.c. However I’m already getting concerned about the rate of scaling, (though not so heavily with dipping as the Wanderer class feature makes that kind of hard and adds fairly hefty downside), and as I note in one of the spoiler sections further down I wrote a lot of this late last night and left a bunch of intended features out. Specifically: Trapfinding, Poison and Disease use, (and some extra’s to make it cheaper, and make the poisons/diseases more customisable/usable/potent), A resistance bonus to saves to fill that magic item hole, plus Uncanny Dodge, Evasion, Mettle and improved versions, (though mettle and Evasion’s improved forms are more mid level items anyway). That’s a lot of extra’s on top of everything already there, important for various reasons as I see them being. I’d kind of like feedback on existing features and thoughts on what adding those would do.
Sorry for the lack of proper background on the class, going to be the last thing I write, sorry, sorry, and sorry again.
Alignment: Neutral Good, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Neutral and True Neutral, (but see general notes)
Class SkillsBalance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft (All, but only hen using Natural Material’s, see below under General Notes), Decipher Script, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Arcana, Dungeoneering, Geography, History, Local, Nature, Religion, The Planes), Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Search, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope
Skills Points at 1st Level: 4*(18+Int)
Skills Points at Each Level:18+Int
Hit Dice:D20
Okay a LOT of skills and points to go with that. Bear in mind however there are significant limit’s not noted above on he social skills, (Specifically Bluff, Disguise, Forgery, Gather Information, Handle Animal, and Intimidate. Plus of course the noted limit’s on Craft skills).
It’s also thematically important because a lot of what Wanderers do involves using various methods of information gathering and prediction. A Wanderer protecting a Pilgrimage route from bandits and predator’s and other natural dangers might well turn up to drive off or extricate you from such things. Or a Wanderer seeking to stop a Dragon family from destroying a village on a local mountain might well turn up to defend the village from direct attack. But those are last stop options. Far more likely is that she will track down and warn off or destroy the dragons before anyone is aware they are nearby, or that she will take preventative action to minimize natural dangers upon the pilgrimage route whilst driving away, (say by removing the normal means of sustenance for them), or slaying any would be predators before they can be a threat. A Wanderer is ultimately an expert in using his or her skills to both prevent the need for direct open conflict, and in turn he or she will almost always seek, (as a matter of their nature), to do so in an unobtrusive way that is invisible to all others. It’s thus important she has as many useful skills to that end that I can think of and the ranks to use them. Knowledge is Power, Guard it Well.
The size of hit die is extreme and I admit open to some modification one of the aims here is to kick rocket tag in the teeth and tell it to go home. That for Ubercharger builds means a lot of Hitpoint’s backed up by a bunch of other stuff and a D20 seemed the best way to get lots that didn’t mess with the traditional stuff. Though of course if you play with a DM who house-rules all HD are maximized it’s a bit different.
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special
1st |+1 |+2 |+2 |+2 |Wanderer, Forceful Parry, Quick Swap, Endurance, Run
2nd |+2 |+3 |+3 |+3 |Track, Hide, Bonus Feat
3rd |+3 |+3 |+3 |+3 |Rapid Attack
4th |+4 |+4 |+4 |+4 |Might of the Burden
5th |+5 |+4 |+4 |+4 |Survival Lore
6th |+6/+1 |+5 |+5 |+5 |Deathstorm
7th |+7/+2 |+5 |+5 |+5 |Storm of Blows
8th |+8/+3 |+6 |+6 |+6 |Secrets of the Wanderer’s
9th |+9/+4 |+6 |+6 |+6 |Strength of Mind and Body
10th |+10/+5 |+7 |+7 |+7 |Your Legend Begins
11th |+11/+6/+1 |+7 |+7 |+7 |
12th |+12/+7/+2 |+8 |+8 |+8 |
13th |+13/+8/+3 |+8 |+8 |+8 |
14th |+14/+9/+4 |+9 |+9 |+9 |
15th |+15/+10/+5 |+9 |+9 |+9 |
16th |+16/+11/+6/+1 |+10 |+10 |+10 |
17th |+17/+12/+7/+2 |+10 |+10 |+10 |
18th |+18/+13/+8/+3 |+11 |+11 |+11 |
19th |+19/+14/+9/+4 |+11 |+11 |+11 |
20th |+20/+15/+10/+5 |+12 |+12 |+12 |
[/table]
Weapon & Armour Proficiencies: Wanderers are Proficient with Light Armour and Shields, (But not Tower Shields), they are also proficient with the following weapons: Dagger, Light Maces, Clubs, Heavy Maces, Morningstar’s, Spears, Shortspear’s, Longspear’s, Quaterstaff’s, Dart’s, Javelins, Slings, Throwing Axes, Light Hammers, Handaxe’s, Light Shields, Shortswords, Battleaxe’s, Flails, Longswords, Heavy Shields, Warhammers, Falchions, Glaives, Greataxe’s, Greatclubs, Heavy Flail’s, Greatswords, Longbow’s, Shortbows, Bastard Swords, Dwarven Waraxe’s, Orc Double Axe, Dire Flail’s, Gnome Hoocked Hammers, Two Bladed Swords, Dwarven Urgrosh’s, Bolas’s and Nets.
Note: Wanderer weapons are typically made of natural material’s, (see General Notes), as such Hammer and Axe heads, Spear points’, and small blades like those of daggers are typically made from stone, (typically flint), or bone, (Teeth or sections cut from beaks/pincers/mandible are common for bladed item’s whilst long bone’s are used for haft’s, larger bone pieces cut from specific area’s or plated layers of bone are used to construct bludgenoning heads like Hammer heads). Large bladed items like Swords are typically either fashion from whole Pincers or have a wooden, bone, or chitchin blade into which multiple stone or bone, (teeth, sections of beak or pincer or mandible), cutting edges have been placed.
Also note that many of the racial weapons listed here are being used to represent the kind of custom weapon variants a Wanderer might develop. So something like an American Indian Tomohawk might be be represented by a Dwarven Waraxe for example.
General Note:
Whenever the sections below use the term/s Base Save Modifier they are referring to the total save modifier granted by the cumulative total of all class levels. So for a character with 20 levels of Wanderer this would be +12 for all three.
A creature must be at least to size categories larger than the weapon being crafted to use it bones and teeth in this manner, (though arrow heads and crossbow bolts may use the teeth/beak sections of a creature 1 size category larger instead). Each Creature used provides enough teeth to craft upto 5 bladed weapons or 50 arrow heads, and enough long bones and bone segments to construct up to 5 hafts and 5 bludgeoning heads, or 50 arrow shafts. If using a creature larger than the minimum size, double the values for each size category above the minimum the creature is.
Class Features:
Forceful Parry, (Lv 1 Ex): A Wanderer’s strength and coordination allow them to Parry the blows directed at them and sweeping projectiles from the air. A Wanderer may add their Strength Modifier to their Armour Class as an Armour Bonus.
Taking a few hints from some recent homebrew’s I’m going to be handing out a number of bonuses of types normally found on equipment. That way there’s no need to worry about it overly much. This is kind of important anyway because I view Wanderer’s more as the stone tools and bearskin’s type when it comes to equipment. Well Stone, Bone, Chitchin, Wood, anything easily available in quantity and easily manufactured without large permanent manufacturing centre’s.
Quick Swap, (Lv 1 Ex): As a free action a Wanderer may swap any weapon or weapons they are currently holding for a weapon or weapons they have stowed. They may even do this in the middle of an attack sequence allowing them to make different attack’s with different weapon types.
Wanderer’s are supposed to be powerful and Versatile Warriors skilled in many forms of combat and at ease mixing different forms and weapons. This allows you to easily switch between them at will without the normal penalties.
Endurance & Run, (Lv 1): A Wanderer gains the Endurance and Run feat’s as Bonus Feat’s at 1st level even if they do not meet the requirements for them.
I was a bit wary at first of handing these out so early, but ultimately felt that their low utility made the potential power worth it. Some people may not that Ranger’s also get Endurance but at a higher level and may question why I feel it’s justified this low down. Simply put A ranger is much less isolated generally than a Wanderer. Rangers often interact on a semi-regular basis with civilisation, gaining supplies and such like amongst other things from them. Wanderer’s however, unless compelled by their Burdens to do so, will interact rarely if ever with civilisation, Indeed given the nature of the way Wanderer’s deal with their Burden’s, it is not unusual for a child born to 2 Wanderer’s who chooses upon his own adulthood to become one also to then go on to live his entire life, including taking a mate, raising a family, and ultimately dying at great age, (though rarely of age given a Wanderer’s nature), without ever setting foot within sight of a town, village or other outpost of civilisation. Rarer still though possible are Wanderer’s who live their entire lives encountering no living being save other wanderer’s and those their Burden’s bring them into conflict. Few Rangers can claim such isolation and total dependence on the Wilderness around them, so it seemed appropriate that Wanderer’s should get them earlier.
Track, (Lv 2): A Wanderer gains the Track feat for free at 2nd Level even if they do not meet the requirement for it.
As Wildness types they really need this thematically imo.
Hide, (Lv 2): A Wander is adept at hiding their track’s in the wilderness and will habitually make use of minor variations in dress, accent, and alternate names to make himself hard to trace magically, since few people will easily be able to tell that both Wanderer’s they have met are in fact the same person. Unless of course the Wanderer chooses to identify himself as such. A Wanderer cannot be tracked or found at a distance, (i.e. beyond ranges at which they can be spotted or heard via spot and listen checks) via any non-epic mundane mean’s.
Any attempt to track him via non-epic supernatural or magical means with any effect except Scrying, Greater Scrying, Discern Location, or affects that function as per these spells fails automatically.
In addition, unless the Wanderer and the individual have Intimate familiarity the caster must have met the Wanderer on two or more separate occasions and succeeded on a spot check opposed to the Wanderer’s hide check at least twice. (No more than one check per encounter, and separate encounters must be at least 1 week apart), or be treated as having a Familiarity of None. If the succeed on the checks they have a familiarity of Second Hand.
Other Wanderers are immune to this rule.
Wanderer’s thrive on being hidden unseen movers and shaker in the world. It would hardly do for a Ranger to be able to detect and track them now would it. I also threw out the lower level spells and made scrying much harder, though you can still track them via sufficiently high level effects. For now. The limit to 3 specific spells was mostly to deal with all the magical tracking mechanisms I don’t know about and can’t write rules for as a result.
Bonus Feats, (Lv 2): At Second Level and every second level thereafter a Wanderer may select a Bonus feat from the list below. They need not meet the ability score requirements, and they may ignore any requirements for the Rapid Shot and Power Attack feat’s, but you must meet all other requirements.
Blind-Fight
Combat Expertise
Improved Disarm
Improved Feint
Improved Trip
Whirlwind Attack
Combat Reflexes
Dodge
Mobility
Spring Attack
Improved Critical
Improved Initiative
Improved Unarmed Strike
Deflect Arrows
Improved Grapple
Snatch Arrows
Stunning Fist
Point Blank Shot
Far Shot
Precise Shot
Improved Precise Shot
Manyshot
Shot On The Run
Improved Bull Rush
Improved Overrun
Improved Sunder
Rapid Reload
Toughness
Weapon Finesse
If I’m going to get you to pull various different fighting style tricks you need to have the feats to make them work. The Power Attack/Rapid Shot ignore is due to certain class feature’s effectively replacing them.
Rapid Attacks, (Lv 3 Ex):Any time you make a ranged or melee attack as a standard action, or use the Full Attack Action you may choose to take a -2 penalty on all attack roll’s in exchange for making one extra attack that round with each weapon you wield at your full base attack bonus, (though it is still subject to the -2 penalty as normal, and if it is an off-hand weapon your still subject to the normal dual wield and off-hand penalties, e.t.c.). You may not use the Power Attack or Rapid Shot feat’s in conjunction with this class feature.
This is effectively Rapid Shot re-worked for both melee and ranged. Naturally I thus took it out to prevent stacking. Given what I’m going to do with Deathstorm and this class skill I also dropped Power Attack out now so people don’t feel like picking it up, (Deathstorm comes early enough not to make it’s lack prior to that a huge issue IMO).
Might of the Burden, (Lv 4 Ex): Whilst the nature of the burden’s each Wanderer chooses to bear varies greatly, no Wanderer will seek to do ought save his best to fulfil it and will thus seek ever to improve himself so that he might best fulfil his chosen burden. At 4th level and every 2 levels thereafter until 14th level, pick a single ability score at level up. You gain a permanent +6 Enhancement Bonus to this stat. You cannot pick any stat more than once obviously.
In addition at 20th level and every 2 level thereafter the magnitude of the bonus for all stats increases by 2, (so +8 at 20th, +10 at 22nd, +12 at 24th, e.t.c.).
Remember what I said about Magic items? This gets rid of all those annoying stat booster items for you. That said I’m not sure on the progression. By WBL once every 3 further levels would be too slow, but every 2nd level may be too fast. I’d appreciate thoughts here.
Also I did add a bit of epic and beyond scaling to it, if there’s any class I’ve made that I expect you to take into the epic levels it’s this.
Survival Lore, (Lv 5 Ex):Wanderer’s spend extraordinary amounts of time in wild tractless places surviving off nothing but their own wit’s and whatever they can take from the land in the hunt. And the land in turn often tests them further by making them the subject of the hunt. Only those who make their own luck survive long enough to reach this level of power.
A Wanderer may add half her Wanderer class level to all skill checks made with the following skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft (All, but only hen using Natural Material’s, see above under General Notes), Heal, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (Local, Nature), Listen, Move Silently, Search, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope
Pretty powerful and IMO fairly important, they’re supposed to be master outdoorsmen, hyper observant, and when they wish to dammed near impossible to find, as well as capable of serious “heroic” stuff on the battlefield. These are all skills that are important to doing a lot of that from a skills PoV so it was important you had above mundanely acquirable skill check’s on these pretty early on. Still very powerful and there is some concern balance wise IMO.
Deathstorm, (Lv 6 Ex): For every attack A wanderer make in a round which kills or causes an opponent to go unconscious due to being at 0 or less HP’s you may make a bonus attack. If one or more of these attack’s fulfils the prior conditions they also grant bonus attacks. All attacks are subject to the normal rules.
In addition for each attack that hit’s and subsequently causes the damage in a round, all subsequent attacks in that round made with the hand wielding the weapon gain a bonus to their attack roll and damage equal to half her Wanderer class level. If the weapon is two-handed the damage bonus is multiplied 1.5 times.
Each “hand” is counted separately, however due to the quick swap rule it is possible to mix 2-handed weapon attacks with one handed weapon attacks. The following rules thus clarify how this works:
A weapon wielded in 2 or more hands adds one increment of the bonus to each hand wielding it. But uses only the highest bonus amongst the hands.
A weapon wielded in One hand only increments the Hand it is wielded in.
You may not combine this class feature with Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, or Rapid Shot.
Coming in where it does it gives you a benefit effectively identical to great cleave plus a stacking attack roll and damage bonus that not only makes sequential attack’s fully useful, but gives a damage boost that doesn't, (IMO, I’d like feedback on this though), throw 2-handers out as the auto superior option.
Storm of Blows, (Lv 7 Ex): You may now make a Full Attack action as a Standard Action.
Fairly common martial addition but not sure if this is the right level for it. It’s high enough people probably won’t dip just to get it, but I’d like thoughts.
Secrets of the Wanderer’s, (Lv 8 Ex): A Wanderer who has studied at length in the secrets of their kind can seemingly deflect impossible blows and survive seemingly deadly blows with nary a scratch. Weather they have truly discovered ways to do the impossible, or weather it “seemingly” is the appropriate word is a secret they keep to themselves.
A Wanderer may add her base Reflex Save Bonus as a Deflection Bonus to her AC, and her base Fortitude Save Bonus as a Natural Armour Bonus to her AC.
Again this deals with the need for a few Magic item’s At the same time it’s yet another power play element in that it severely boosts touch and non-touch AC’s really throwing some stymieing into the paths of anything anyone tries to do involving attack roll’s. Ubercharger’s are going to be hit by the combination of very high class HP’s and the difficulty of getting a second hit whilst casters are going to have real issues with anything requiring an attack roll. It’s not enough alone to shut either down but they won’t like it that’s for sure.
Strength of Mind and Body, (Lv 9 Ex): Wanderer’s more than anything else are famous for their simple refusal to die until their job is done, even terrible wounds that should fell far larger and mightier races are treated as nothing. And more than one Wanderer has seen of her foes only to collapse dead as soon as they are gone.
A Wanderer gains the Diehard feat as a Bonus feat, even if they do not meet the normal requirements, in addition they Gain Fast Healing and DR/- equal to their base Will Save Bonus.
I split this off from the previous feature to avoid too many features at one level. Still it’s a powerful one-two when combined with everything else they have up to this point. And I admit I’m concerned about the balance implications.
I also know at this point I’m wanting to add several more low level items, (everything above was written late last night and I forgot some important stuff due to lack of sleep ok). So even if things are passable now it’s going to get less so later on.
Your Legend Begins, (Lv 10 Ex): Whilst all Wanderer’s posses a certain legendary aspect. The ones that are remembered outside their own kind for actions profound and terrible are invariably the greatest of their kind. Tempered and driven in equal parts by the trials that have led them to such greatness and masters of the most powerful secrets of their kind. Yet all legends must begin somewhere…
A Wanderer may not be affected by any spells, (this functions with the same rules and effects as a globe of invulnerability, barring the spell level/s affected and it’s nature as an extraordinary ability, (meaning it’s can’t be dispelled, destroyed or suppressed)), with a spell level equal to or less than half their wanderer level minus 4, unless they wish to be effected by it. For Metamagic’d spells include only levels added via metamagic that modifies the save DC or Spell Resistance Penetration. They also automatically pass any Fortitude, Reflex, or Will save, (regardless of magical or mundane source), with a DC equal to or less than 10 + The spell level they are immune to + The saves governing stat.
A very powerful 2 part trick. The auto pass on some saves isn’t such a huge issue as any save subject to it would only fail on a natural 1 anyway, but it is a nice extra. The spell immunity on the other hand is a huge deal, even if the spells it affects at 10th level aren’t the most powerful, it does provide some nice immunities and scales rapidly to provide immunity to a large number of low level effects, the metamagic also stops people getting these off on you through basic metamagic and shuts down mailman style pure damage rocket tag somewhat by throwing the more popular damage dealers out.
I don’t feel it’s overly powerful at initial acquisition but I’d like thoughts on this.
Ok I’m only about a third finished here. I’ve still got to write the Wanderer class feature, (it’s mostly code of conduct stuff though it does limit some things as well, particularly how much time you can spend in town), and the second half of the main features and flesh out the natural materials crafting stuff, e.t.c. However I’m already getting concerned about the rate of scaling, (though not so heavily with dipping as the Wanderer class feature makes that kind of hard and adds fairly hefty downside), and as I note in one of the spoiler sections further down I wrote a lot of this late last night and left a bunch of intended features out. Specifically: Trapfinding, Poison and Disease use, (and some extra’s to make it cheaper, and make the poisons/diseases more customisable/usable/potent), A resistance bonus to saves to fill that magic item hole, plus Uncanny Dodge, Evasion, Mettle and improved versions, (though mettle and Evasion’s improved forms are more mid level items anyway). That’s a lot of extra’s on top of everything already there, important for various reasons as I see them being. I’d kind of like feedback on existing features and thoughts on what adding those would do.
Sorry for the lack of proper background on the class, going to be the last thing I write, sorry, sorry, and sorry again.
Alignment: Neutral Good, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Neutral and True Neutral, (but see general notes)
Class SkillsBalance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft (All, but only hen using Natural Material’s, see below under General Notes), Decipher Script, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Arcana, Dungeoneering, Geography, History, Local, Nature, Religion, The Planes), Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Search, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope
Skills Points at 1st Level: 4*(18+Int)
Skills Points at Each Level:18+Int
Hit Dice:D20
Okay a LOT of skills and points to go with that. Bear in mind however there are significant limit’s not noted above on he social skills, (Specifically Bluff, Disguise, Forgery, Gather Information, Handle Animal, and Intimidate. Plus of course the noted limit’s on Craft skills).
It’s also thematically important because a lot of what Wanderers do involves using various methods of information gathering and prediction. A Wanderer protecting a Pilgrimage route from bandits and predator’s and other natural dangers might well turn up to drive off or extricate you from such things. Or a Wanderer seeking to stop a Dragon family from destroying a village on a local mountain might well turn up to defend the village from direct attack. But those are last stop options. Far more likely is that she will track down and warn off or destroy the dragons before anyone is aware they are nearby, or that she will take preventative action to minimize natural dangers upon the pilgrimage route whilst driving away, (say by removing the normal means of sustenance for them), or slaying any would be predators before they can be a threat. A Wanderer is ultimately an expert in using his or her skills to both prevent the need for direct open conflict, and in turn he or she will almost always seek, (as a matter of their nature), to do so in an unobtrusive way that is invisible to all others. It’s thus important she has as many useful skills to that end that I can think of and the ranks to use them. Knowledge is Power, Guard it Well.
The size of hit die is extreme and I admit open to some modification one of the aims here is to kick rocket tag in the teeth and tell it to go home. That for Ubercharger builds means a lot of Hitpoint’s backed up by a bunch of other stuff and a D20 seemed the best way to get lots that didn’t mess with the traditional stuff. Though of course if you play with a DM who house-rules all HD are maximized it’s a bit different.
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special
1st |+1 |+2 |+2 |+2 |Wanderer, Forceful Parry, Quick Swap, Endurance, Run
2nd |+2 |+3 |+3 |+3 |Track, Hide, Bonus Feat
3rd |+3 |+3 |+3 |+3 |Rapid Attack
4th |+4 |+4 |+4 |+4 |Might of the Burden
5th |+5 |+4 |+4 |+4 |Survival Lore
6th |+6/+1 |+5 |+5 |+5 |Deathstorm
7th |+7/+2 |+5 |+5 |+5 |Storm of Blows
8th |+8/+3 |+6 |+6 |+6 |Secrets of the Wanderer’s
9th |+9/+4 |+6 |+6 |+6 |Strength of Mind and Body
10th |+10/+5 |+7 |+7 |+7 |Your Legend Begins
11th |+11/+6/+1 |+7 |+7 |+7 |
12th |+12/+7/+2 |+8 |+8 |+8 |
13th |+13/+8/+3 |+8 |+8 |+8 |
14th |+14/+9/+4 |+9 |+9 |+9 |
15th |+15/+10/+5 |+9 |+9 |+9 |
16th |+16/+11/+6/+1 |+10 |+10 |+10 |
17th |+17/+12/+7/+2 |+10 |+10 |+10 |
18th |+18/+13/+8/+3 |+11 |+11 |+11 |
19th |+19/+14/+9/+4 |+11 |+11 |+11 |
20th |+20/+15/+10/+5 |+12 |+12 |+12 |
[/table]
Weapon & Armour Proficiencies: Wanderers are Proficient with Light Armour and Shields, (But not Tower Shields), they are also proficient with the following weapons: Dagger, Light Maces, Clubs, Heavy Maces, Morningstar’s, Spears, Shortspear’s, Longspear’s, Quaterstaff’s, Dart’s, Javelins, Slings, Throwing Axes, Light Hammers, Handaxe’s, Light Shields, Shortswords, Battleaxe’s, Flails, Longswords, Heavy Shields, Warhammers, Falchions, Glaives, Greataxe’s, Greatclubs, Heavy Flail’s, Greatswords, Longbow’s, Shortbows, Bastard Swords, Dwarven Waraxe’s, Orc Double Axe, Dire Flail’s, Gnome Hoocked Hammers, Two Bladed Swords, Dwarven Urgrosh’s, Bolas’s and Nets.
Note: Wanderer weapons are typically made of natural material’s, (see General Notes), as such Hammer and Axe heads, Spear points’, and small blades like those of daggers are typically made from stone, (typically flint), or bone, (Teeth or sections cut from beaks/pincers/mandible are common for bladed item’s whilst long bone’s are used for haft’s, larger bone pieces cut from specific area’s or plated layers of bone are used to construct bludgenoning heads like Hammer heads). Large bladed items like Swords are typically either fashion from whole Pincers or have a wooden, bone, or chitchin blade into which multiple stone or bone, (teeth, sections of beak or pincer or mandible), cutting edges have been placed.
Also note that many of the racial weapons listed here are being used to represent the kind of custom weapon variants a Wanderer might develop. So something like an American Indian Tomohawk might be be represented by a Dwarven Waraxe for example.
General Note:
Whenever the sections below use the term/s Base Save Modifier they are referring to the total save modifier granted by the cumulative total of all class levels. So for a character with 20 levels of Wanderer this would be +12 for all three.
A creature must be at least to size categories larger than the weapon being crafted to use it bones and teeth in this manner, (though arrow heads and crossbow bolts may use the teeth/beak sections of a creature 1 size category larger instead). Each Creature used provides enough teeth to craft upto 5 bladed weapons or 50 arrow heads, and enough long bones and bone segments to construct up to 5 hafts and 5 bludgeoning heads, or 50 arrow shafts. If using a creature larger than the minimum size, double the values for each size category above the minimum the creature is.
Class Features:
Forceful Parry, (Lv 1 Ex): A Wanderer’s strength and coordination allow them to Parry the blows directed at them and sweeping projectiles from the air. A Wanderer may add their Strength Modifier to their Armour Class as an Armour Bonus.
Taking a few hints from some recent homebrew’s I’m going to be handing out a number of bonuses of types normally found on equipment. That way there’s no need to worry about it overly much. This is kind of important anyway because I view Wanderer’s more as the stone tools and bearskin’s type when it comes to equipment. Well Stone, Bone, Chitchin, Wood, anything easily available in quantity and easily manufactured without large permanent manufacturing centre’s.
Quick Swap, (Lv 1 Ex): As a free action a Wanderer may swap any weapon or weapons they are currently holding for a weapon or weapons they have stowed. They may even do this in the middle of an attack sequence allowing them to make different attack’s with different weapon types.
Wanderer’s are supposed to be powerful and Versatile Warriors skilled in many forms of combat and at ease mixing different forms and weapons. This allows you to easily switch between them at will without the normal penalties.
Endurance & Run, (Lv 1): A Wanderer gains the Endurance and Run feat’s as Bonus Feat’s at 1st level even if they do not meet the requirements for them.
I was a bit wary at first of handing these out so early, but ultimately felt that their low utility made the potential power worth it. Some people may not that Ranger’s also get Endurance but at a higher level and may question why I feel it’s justified this low down. Simply put A ranger is much less isolated generally than a Wanderer. Rangers often interact on a semi-regular basis with civilisation, gaining supplies and such like amongst other things from them. Wanderer’s however, unless compelled by their Burdens to do so, will interact rarely if ever with civilisation, Indeed given the nature of the way Wanderer’s deal with their Burden’s, it is not unusual for a child born to 2 Wanderer’s who chooses upon his own adulthood to become one also to then go on to live his entire life, including taking a mate, raising a family, and ultimately dying at great age, (though rarely of age given a Wanderer’s nature), without ever setting foot within sight of a town, village or other outpost of civilisation. Rarer still though possible are Wanderer’s who live their entire lives encountering no living being save other wanderer’s and those their Burden’s bring them into conflict. Few Rangers can claim such isolation and total dependence on the Wilderness around them, so it seemed appropriate that Wanderer’s should get them earlier.
Track, (Lv 2): A Wanderer gains the Track feat for free at 2nd Level even if they do not meet the requirement for it.
As Wildness types they really need this thematically imo.
Hide, (Lv 2): A Wander is adept at hiding their track’s in the wilderness and will habitually make use of minor variations in dress, accent, and alternate names to make himself hard to trace magically, since few people will easily be able to tell that both Wanderer’s they have met are in fact the same person. Unless of course the Wanderer chooses to identify himself as such. A Wanderer cannot be tracked or found at a distance, (i.e. beyond ranges at which they can be spotted or heard via spot and listen checks) via any non-epic mundane mean’s.
Any attempt to track him via non-epic supernatural or magical means with any effect except Scrying, Greater Scrying, Discern Location, or affects that function as per these spells fails automatically.
In addition, unless the Wanderer and the individual have Intimate familiarity the caster must have met the Wanderer on two or more separate occasions and succeeded on a spot check opposed to the Wanderer’s hide check at least twice. (No more than one check per encounter, and separate encounters must be at least 1 week apart), or be treated as having a Familiarity of None. If the succeed on the checks they have a familiarity of Second Hand.
Other Wanderers are immune to this rule.
Wanderer’s thrive on being hidden unseen movers and shaker in the world. It would hardly do for a Ranger to be able to detect and track them now would it. I also threw out the lower level spells and made scrying much harder, though you can still track them via sufficiently high level effects. For now. The limit to 3 specific spells was mostly to deal with all the magical tracking mechanisms I don’t know about and can’t write rules for as a result.
Bonus Feats, (Lv 2): At Second Level and every second level thereafter a Wanderer may select a Bonus feat from the list below. They need not meet the ability score requirements, and they may ignore any requirements for the Rapid Shot and Power Attack feat’s, but you must meet all other requirements.
Blind-Fight
Combat Expertise
Improved Disarm
Improved Feint
Improved Trip
Whirlwind Attack
Combat Reflexes
Dodge
Mobility
Spring Attack
Improved Critical
Improved Initiative
Improved Unarmed Strike
Deflect Arrows
Improved Grapple
Snatch Arrows
Stunning Fist
Point Blank Shot
Far Shot
Precise Shot
Improved Precise Shot
Manyshot
Shot On The Run
Improved Bull Rush
Improved Overrun
Improved Sunder
Rapid Reload
Toughness
Weapon Finesse
If I’m going to get you to pull various different fighting style tricks you need to have the feats to make them work. The Power Attack/Rapid Shot ignore is due to certain class feature’s effectively replacing them.
Rapid Attacks, (Lv 3 Ex):Any time you make a ranged or melee attack as a standard action, or use the Full Attack Action you may choose to take a -2 penalty on all attack roll’s in exchange for making one extra attack that round with each weapon you wield at your full base attack bonus, (though it is still subject to the -2 penalty as normal, and if it is an off-hand weapon your still subject to the normal dual wield and off-hand penalties, e.t.c.). You may not use the Power Attack or Rapid Shot feat’s in conjunction with this class feature.
This is effectively Rapid Shot re-worked for both melee and ranged. Naturally I thus took it out to prevent stacking. Given what I’m going to do with Deathstorm and this class skill I also dropped Power Attack out now so people don’t feel like picking it up, (Deathstorm comes early enough not to make it’s lack prior to that a huge issue IMO).
Might of the Burden, (Lv 4 Ex): Whilst the nature of the burden’s each Wanderer chooses to bear varies greatly, no Wanderer will seek to do ought save his best to fulfil it and will thus seek ever to improve himself so that he might best fulfil his chosen burden. At 4th level and every 2 levels thereafter until 14th level, pick a single ability score at level up. You gain a permanent +6 Enhancement Bonus to this stat. You cannot pick any stat more than once obviously.
In addition at 20th level and every 2 level thereafter the magnitude of the bonus for all stats increases by 2, (so +8 at 20th, +10 at 22nd, +12 at 24th, e.t.c.).
Remember what I said about Magic items? This gets rid of all those annoying stat booster items for you. That said I’m not sure on the progression. By WBL once every 3 further levels would be too slow, but every 2nd level may be too fast. I’d appreciate thoughts here.
Also I did add a bit of epic and beyond scaling to it, if there’s any class I’ve made that I expect you to take into the epic levels it’s this.
Survival Lore, (Lv 5 Ex):Wanderer’s spend extraordinary amounts of time in wild tractless places surviving off nothing but their own wit’s and whatever they can take from the land in the hunt. And the land in turn often tests them further by making them the subject of the hunt. Only those who make their own luck survive long enough to reach this level of power.
A Wanderer may add half her Wanderer class level to all skill checks made with the following skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft (All, but only hen using Natural Material’s, see above under General Notes), Heal, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (Local, Nature), Listen, Move Silently, Search, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope
Pretty powerful and IMO fairly important, they’re supposed to be master outdoorsmen, hyper observant, and when they wish to dammed near impossible to find, as well as capable of serious “heroic” stuff on the battlefield. These are all skills that are important to doing a lot of that from a skills PoV so it was important you had above mundanely acquirable skill check’s on these pretty early on. Still very powerful and there is some concern balance wise IMO.
Deathstorm, (Lv 6 Ex): For every attack A wanderer make in a round which kills or causes an opponent to go unconscious due to being at 0 or less HP’s you may make a bonus attack. If one or more of these attack’s fulfils the prior conditions they also grant bonus attacks. All attacks are subject to the normal rules.
In addition for each attack that hit’s and subsequently causes the damage in a round, all subsequent attacks in that round made with the hand wielding the weapon gain a bonus to their attack roll and damage equal to half her Wanderer class level. If the weapon is two-handed the damage bonus is multiplied 1.5 times.
Each “hand” is counted separately, however due to the quick swap rule it is possible to mix 2-handed weapon attacks with one handed weapon attacks. The following rules thus clarify how this works:
A weapon wielded in 2 or more hands adds one increment of the bonus to each hand wielding it. But uses only the highest bonus amongst the hands.
A weapon wielded in One hand only increments the Hand it is wielded in.
You may not combine this class feature with Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, or Rapid Shot.
Coming in where it does it gives you a benefit effectively identical to great cleave plus a stacking attack roll and damage bonus that not only makes sequential attack’s fully useful, but gives a damage boost that doesn't, (IMO, I’d like feedback on this though), throw 2-handers out as the auto superior option.
Storm of Blows, (Lv 7 Ex): You may now make a Full Attack action as a Standard Action.
Fairly common martial addition but not sure if this is the right level for it. It’s high enough people probably won’t dip just to get it, but I’d like thoughts.
Secrets of the Wanderer’s, (Lv 8 Ex): A Wanderer who has studied at length in the secrets of their kind can seemingly deflect impossible blows and survive seemingly deadly blows with nary a scratch. Weather they have truly discovered ways to do the impossible, or weather it “seemingly” is the appropriate word is a secret they keep to themselves.
A Wanderer may add her base Reflex Save Bonus as a Deflection Bonus to her AC, and her base Fortitude Save Bonus as a Natural Armour Bonus to her AC.
Again this deals with the need for a few Magic item’s At the same time it’s yet another power play element in that it severely boosts touch and non-touch AC’s really throwing some stymieing into the paths of anything anyone tries to do involving attack roll’s. Ubercharger’s are going to be hit by the combination of very high class HP’s and the difficulty of getting a second hit whilst casters are going to have real issues with anything requiring an attack roll. It’s not enough alone to shut either down but they won’t like it that’s for sure.
Strength of Mind and Body, (Lv 9 Ex): Wanderer’s more than anything else are famous for their simple refusal to die until their job is done, even terrible wounds that should fell far larger and mightier races are treated as nothing. And more than one Wanderer has seen of her foes only to collapse dead as soon as they are gone.
A Wanderer gains the Diehard feat as a Bonus feat, even if they do not meet the normal requirements, in addition they Gain Fast Healing and DR/- equal to their base Will Save Bonus.
I split this off from the previous feature to avoid too many features at one level. Still it’s a powerful one-two when combined with everything else they have up to this point. And I admit I’m concerned about the balance implications.
I also know at this point I’m wanting to add several more low level items, (everything above was written late last night and I forgot some important stuff due to lack of sleep ok). So even if things are passable now it’s going to get less so later on.
Your Legend Begins, (Lv 10 Ex): Whilst all Wanderer’s posses a certain legendary aspect. The ones that are remembered outside their own kind for actions profound and terrible are invariably the greatest of their kind. Tempered and driven in equal parts by the trials that have led them to such greatness and masters of the most powerful secrets of their kind. Yet all legends must begin somewhere…
A Wanderer may not be affected by any spells, (this functions with the same rules and effects as a globe of invulnerability, barring the spell level/s affected and it’s nature as an extraordinary ability, (meaning it’s can’t be dispelled, destroyed or suppressed)), with a spell level equal to or less than half their wanderer level minus 4, unless they wish to be effected by it. For Metamagic’d spells include only levels added via metamagic that modifies the save DC or Spell Resistance Penetration. They also automatically pass any Fortitude, Reflex, or Will save, (regardless of magical or mundane source), with a DC equal to or less than 10 + The spell level they are immune to + The saves governing stat.
A very powerful 2 part trick. The auto pass on some saves isn’t such a huge issue as any save subject to it would only fail on a natural 1 anyway, but it is a nice extra. The spell immunity on the other hand is a huge deal, even if the spells it affects at 10th level aren’t the most powerful, it does provide some nice immunities and scales rapidly to provide immunity to a large number of low level effects, the metamagic also stops people getting these off on you through basic metamagic and shuts down mailman style pure damage rocket tag somewhat by throwing the more popular damage dealers out.
I don’t feel it’s overly powerful at initial acquisition but I’d like thoughts on this.