qwertyu63
2013-10-23, 06:54 AM
I have dropped this thread, and will likely not see anything posted in it. The idea of quick fixes clearly doesn't work.
In this thread, I will be making quick fixes for some lower tier classes. My goal with each of these is to move the class up 1-2 tiers. This may prove difficult, but I will try it.
Increase BAB to full, updating Flurry of Blows to match.
Increase hit die to d8.
Flurry of Blows is a standard action.
The monk is proficient in unarmed strikes.
Perfect Body (Ex): The monk's body is of itself a perfect work. Starting at level 5, the monk's body is treated as being masterwork. This allows the monk to be enchanted with magic weapon properties. Each major limb (left leg, right leg, left arm and right arm) can be enchanted separately. The monk's torso can be enchanted as armor, and can get magic armor properties.
Spell Resistance: The monk's training grants them skill at avoiding magical attacks. Starting at level 6, the monk gains spell resistance equal to 11+their monk level.
This one should be easy, as the fighter is on the border of Tier 5.
Fighters gain a bonus feat every level.
Re-focus (Ex): Starting at level 3, the fighter can change their focus rather swiftly. By practicing for 1 day, the fighter can re-choose all of their fighter bonus feats. They may switch to any feats they qualify for now, regardless of if they qualified for it when they got the feat slot. Feats changed via this can be used to qualify for other feats in the same re-focus.
Spontaneous Casting: A healer’s can pull out healing at the drop of a hat. They can lose any prepared spell in order to cast a conjuration (healing) spell from their spell list of the same level or lower. If modified by metamagic feats, they must lose a spell of at least the modified level.
(thank you to bekeleven and his Rappeler (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=307935), for the class feature I copied for the wording)
Spell list edit:
Add all conjuration (healing) spells to the healer spell list, at its spell level from the cleric list (or the highest spell level it has on any list, if not on the cleric list). Add Miracle to the healer spell list as a ninth level spell. Add Healing Lorecall to the healer spell list as a second level spell (this one is just because it should be there).
The evil tag is removed from Deathwatch.
Spellcasting is Cha-based.
Add 1 spell slot to every spell level they have access to.
Smite Evil uses are per-encounter rather than per-day.
They gain the effect of a Phylactery of Faithfulness as an innate effect.
Remove disease is per-day, not per-week.
Add on medium armor proficiency.
Increase skillpoints to 6+Int.
Increase BAB to full.
Create your mindblade as a swift action.
Replace paragraph 4 of Mind Blade with "A soulknife’s mind blade improves as the character gains higher levels. At 4th level and every three levels thereafter, the mind blade gains a cumulative +1 enhancement bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls (+2 at 7th level, +3 at 10th level, +4 at 13th level, and +5 at 16th level)."
Replace Wild Talent with Hidden Talent.
Ready Psychic Strike as a swift action.
Replace paragraph 2 of Mind Blade Enhancement with "At every three levels beyond 6th (9th, 12th, 15th, and 18th), the value of the enhancement a soulknife can add to his weapon improves to +2, +3, +4, and +5, respectively. A soulknife can choose any combination of weapon special abilities that does not exceed the total allowed by the soulknife’s level."
More to come as I write them.
johnbragg
2013-10-23, 08:03 AM
In this thread, I will be making quick fixes for some lower tier classes. My goal with each of these is to move the class up 1-2 tiers. This may prove difficult, but I will try it.
"Fighter" This one should be easy, as the fighter is on the border of Tier 5.
Fighters gain a bonus feat every level.
Fighters may take any feat they qualify for as a bonus feat, rather then being restricted to a list.[/SPOILER]
Part of the point here is to help with as little change as possible. Also, I would have thought that setting them free from the fighter bonus feat list would help quite a bit.
I agree with that design philosophy. I also sympathize with the 3.X design philosophy for fighters of a wide range of valid choices--greatsword power attackers, two-weapon tricksters, archers, sword-and-plate-and-shield tanks.
But to get the fighter to Tier 4, I think you need to come up with a couple of ways to make him The Best at melee (or missile) combat. So my approach is to create Feats that do that, and use "feat taxes" to the Fighter's advantage--if something awesome takes three feats, the Fighter can do that. No one else can. Another approach I took was to limit some of the feats to "N mundane class levels", not just a high BAB. (Go pray somewhere, CoDzilla.)
And this was just a longwinded intro to a link to my thread of ideas for Fighter feats.
--A nerf for Power Attack (two-handers don't get x2 damage), "Heedless Attack" (- to AC, + to damage)
--feats to add Dex instead of Str to damage,
--a feat to Be Awesome With Two Weapon Fighting--your offhand weapon can do something besides a standard attack while your main weapon does standard attacks.
--a chain of feats to make carrying a Shield worth it: -2 to hit, +1/2 BAB to AC; boost ally's AC; intercept attack on ally making it an attack on you.
--feats for high-level fighters or mundanes to break spells "Shake It Off", "Spellbreaker", "Snap Out of It"
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=310132
EDIT: I just ran across something in the SRD that would work very, very well with my Shield feats:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/armorAsDamageReduction.htm
toapat
2013-10-23, 08:22 AM
Huh. Any advice?
Part of the point here is to help with as little change as possible. Also, I would have thought that setting them free from the fighter bonus feat list would help quite a bit.
Monk's problem is basically 2fold:
Their perceivedly good mechanics are actually useless (unarmed strike, flurry), compounded on by their unarmed Non-proficiency. Personally id revise Flurry to be something like hastes +1 attack, but for standard actions
their theoretically good mechanics are so limited (immunity to nonmagical diseases(none of which are dangerous)) or so late (pretty much every other class feature) that they no longer matter.
Fighters, suffer moreso from only being good at combat. General feats do help but it moreso doesnt deal with the problems of "has no use outside of combat", "has no way to put all their feats to use", and "has no way of really expanding outside of combat" because skillfocus 10 times is still only skillfocus 10 times, and there are few feats i can think of that help outside of combat
I think you do need to expand the spell list of the Healer further to actually fully raise them up, but it is a significant step up from where they start for certain.
*snip*
while your ideas "mostly" are sound (Hell no to what you are doing to powerattack), you are making a rather significant fallacy based on lack of understanding what the problems are. Fighters are, infact, the entire problem with the feat system. because of Fighters, feats that should be a single things, are split up into multiple ones. Yes there should be more floating combat tricks in measure of the Tactical feats, Not like how you need to take improved trip or such.
Go read about the changes to pathfinder and why Pathfinder didnt improve on what 3.5 did. research everything, crossrefference anything, and master 3.5 before you say feats should be split up.
T.G. Oskar
2013-12-17, 03:25 PM
In this thread, I will be making quick fixes for some lower tier classes. My goal with each of these is to move the class up 1-2 tiers. This may prove difficult, but I will try it.
Let's see how that ends up.
Increase BAB to full, updating Flurry of Blows to match.
Flurry of Blows is a standard action.
Pretty standard fare: most fixes work by upping Monk's BAB to full, as they intend them to be physical combatants. Since I don't see anything that would make them good skirmishers, this is a fair start.
However, Flurry of Blows should be refined a bit. As it stands, as a standard action, you can make an extra attack, but what enables this action? Remember that making an attack as a standard action is generally mentioned as an attack action; as it stands, there's too much ambiguity over what causes it. Can I draw a weapon as a standard action and make an attack? Trip and attack? Disarm and attack? By removing that ambiguity, you can give FoB a so-so boost or make it more than functional.
Increase hit die to d8.
You should know that the Monk's HD is already a d8. I presume you were intending it to be d10. So, full BAB + d10 = equate it to Fighter in some sense.
The monk is proficient in unarmed strikes.
Less of a fix and more errata to me. It's only used when you want to take RAW to absurdity, but nevertheless a fair point to add. However, this could have been taken to greater extents: why not give them proficiency with some other weapons? Why not, say, punching daggers or gauntlets, which would share the monk's skill at martial arts?
Perfect Body (Ex): The monk's body is of itself a perfect work. Starting at level 5, the monk's body is treated as being masterwork. This allows the monk to be enchanted with magic weapon properties. Each major limb (left leg, right leg, left arm and right arm) can be enchanted separately. The monk's torso can be enchanted as armor, and can get magic armor properties.
I know most people recommend this (to treat your body as masterwork, so you can enchant it), but I find this blatantly ridiculous. If it were better expressed, perhaps: the Kensai and its Signature Weapon ability gives an explanation of it, one that implies meditation and its own method of enchanting. You're not suddenly branding your body, arms and legs with gemstones and arcane etchings-leaving-scars to suddenly create rocket punches, now do you?
Spell Resistance: The monk's training grants them skill at avoiding magical attacks. Starting at level 6, the monk gains spell resistance equal to 11+their monk level.
Eh...getting SR earlier won't help if they end up being hostile to buffs. Spell Resistance could be at level 20 and it'd still suck if it makes you hostile to buffs. Make it so that (harmless) spells aren't resisted by SR, and you have a much better defense against magic...at least, until you end up with a moderately optimized Wizard or anyone with a True Casting/Assay Spell Resistance up its sleeve.
What's Missing: While you end up giving it better accuracy, better attack rating and some synergy between their movement and their attacks, they're still not better after level 6, particularly now that you dropped SR to that level. Once you reach level 6, the rest of the Monk doesn't compare. It's slightly more front-loaded than before, which is dangerous. Sure, your SR won't be as good, but if you manage to find a way to stack it, then it's no longer the case (at least it's not 11 + character level). Level 6 seems a fair drop off to Psionic Fist, or a start into Sacred/Enlightening Fist; it only makes the Monk a nice 6-level class. To your benefit, it makes Monks great at E6!
This one should be easy, as the fighter is on the border of Tier 5.
Fighters gain a bonus feat every level.
I guess I'll join the chorus on this one: what does this grant? It makes problems slightly worse, as the strength of the class effectively lies on the strength of the feats. If it's only Fighter bonus feats, and without scaling of any kind, the change won't be monumental; on the other hand, something akin to the Martial Monk effect (choose any feat, without prerequisites) can turn the Fighter into a strong character, but also one that's just deliciously dippable, which exacerbates the problem; do you want a class that can stand on its own, or a "choose-your-level-drop" dip/dunk?
Re-focus (Ex): Starting at level 3, the fighter can change their focus rather swiftly. By practicing for 1 day, the fighter can re-choose all of their fighter bonus feats. They may switch to any feats they qualify for now, regardless of if they qualified for it when they got the feat slot. Feats changed via this can be used to qualify for other feats in the same re-focus.
This ability essentially lets you change your feat choice every day, much like a prepared caster chooses its spells. On the other hand, you lack the Wizard's (or Cleric's, or Druid's) oracular ability, so you're still preparing blindly, and you take 24 hours to the caster's one. In essence, it's a fair change, but requires you to be slightly MAD to open up most of the options, which involves its own problem altogether.
What's Missing: It still has the same chassis, and bonus feats by 6th level aren't enough. By 6th level, you have a bunch of dead levels, in that they don't bring anything new other than another bonus feat. As it stands, you'd only remain in Fighter if you NEED 30+ feats to make your build, of which at least 20 are specific to the Fighter. It might probably allow you to reach Weapon Supremacy in at least two weapons, and net you two different fighting styles, but that's not the most efficient way to use bonus feats. Adding something else besides bonus feats is the way to deal with the Fighter, but travel that way too far and you end up replacing OTHER classes (usually the Samurai, the Marshal, the Swashbuckler and the Knight; sometimes, the path goes straight into Paladin).
Spontaneous Casting: A healer’s can pull out healing at the drop of a hat. They can lose any prepared spell in order to cast a conjuration (healing) spell from their spell list of the same level or lower. If modified by metamagic feats, they must lose a spell of at least the modified level.
(thank you to bekeleven and his Rappeler (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=307935), for the class feature I copied for the wording)
So...basically Spontaneous Cure Wounds Casting on steroids. Sadly, though, you end up with...what, about 90% of your spell list having ONLY Conjuration (healing) spells? So you're spending off your spell slots on the remaining 10%?
If this was given to the Cleric (which is already powerful), it'd make it even MORE powerful because it doesn't have to worry about adding healing spells anymore, but it has LOTS of other spells to add. To the Healer...not exactly the case.
Spell list edit:
Add all conjuration (healing) spells to the healer spell list, at its spell level from the cleric list (or the highest spell level it has on any list, if not on the cleric list). Add Miracle to the healer spell list as a ninth level spell. Add Healing Lorecall to the healer spell list as a second level spell (this one is just because it should be there).
The evil tag is removed from Deathwatch.
Eh...I have a BIG issue with this. Sure, the Healer now has ALL Conjuration (healing) spells...but at the same level as the Cleric. When MOST of the spells are usually one level lower. And most of the Conjuration (healing) spells are already available to the Cleric, anyways. So...
Well, let's get clear on this. You're adding up to 47 new spells (give or take 1 or 2), which are almost ALWAYS on the Cleric's spell list (the rest are Druid-and-Ranger exclusive, Paladin exclusive, or Hoard Life/Undying Vigor of the Dragonlords, which are from the Sorcerer). Of those, a few are worthless because they modify a class feature you lack (Touch of Restoration is one), or affect a class feature you lack (Heal Mount and Heal Animal Companion, for once; neither of you work on your Unicorn Companion unless you consider the Unicorn the latter, and you get Magical Beasts instead. You also modify a new spell and add two additional spells, one of which is...Miracle! So, at level 9, they get two awesome spells, but before that...they drudge through the spells they don't need, and which they can effectively cast spontaneously.
To be fair, though: you still keep their ability to cast Sanctified spells. That alone will save some grace, but since most casters can do so (and Clerics can pull it off spontaneously, something you lack...)
What's Missing: Pad that spell list furthermore! Don't be afraid to add more spells, and to add spells that are actually worthwhile! Add more class features other than "cast this spell you already have as an SLA!"
Spellcasting is Cha-based.
Add 1 spell slot to every spell level they have access to.
Smite Evil uses are per-encounter rather than per-day.
They gain the effect of a Phylactery of Faithfulness as an innate effect.
Remove disease is per-day, not per-week.
This reduces MAD a bit, letting them rely only on Strength, Constitution and Charisma. Fair enough.
This doesn't help that much. At most, if added right at the moment they get spells, they end up with...4 spells per day of every level? Meanwhile, they keep their spell list which, while good enough if adding Supplements, it's not very good in Core.
Pretty regular fix; SE as encounter uses means you use them when you need them, not when you DESPERATELY need them. 1 extra damage at 1st level is a joke. 20 extra damage at 20th level is still a joke, unless you land a critical hit when things get interesting. And...you still need a standard action to pull it off.
This...is really fluff. Taking away the Code of Conduct or minimizing its effect does exactly the same, but better. With this, you're not only forced to follow an arbitrary code of conduct, you have a voice in your ear that tells you exactly how to act. If your DM loves to railroad, you just gave her/him the liberty of railroading it and making it all be your choice!
Remove Disease...quite frankly, SUCKS. If you desperately need it, might as well prepare it on a scroll or a spell slot (or a wand; it's no higher than 4th level, so...)
What's Missing: Something that actually makes it reach a higher tier. Lemme explain.
While making SE useful at more battles, and adding more spell slots so they can cast more, none of these effectively boost it up a tier, let alone several. The minimization of MAD is a good start, but still not enough. It's still at Tier 4 because it can't do something spectacularly well; it can cast spells but not many of them can solve problems as do the Cleric spells, it can only crush evil creatures a handful of times per day, and the rest is just being that darn hard to kill. It still has horrible feat starvation, and the spells are not the best unless you raid Spell Compendium or some of the late-game supplements (Complete Champion, Eberron supplementals for example) for the nicer spells. Without this, the Paladin advances...I dunno, not-vertically for once. It doesn't even advance horizontally (as in, it gains new options even though none of them are clearly meant to improve them).
It seems, what with the Healer and the Paladin, that you're afraid of changing their spell lists. This is necessary, and the singlemost recommended change to the Paladin is shifting it to a 6-level spellcasting progression (as per the Bard). I don't like to do that, nor it's a quick fix as you want, but it's the singlemost recommended change for one reason; it definitely boosts the Paladin a tier, as it not only adds a whole wealth of spell slots, but a whole wealth of spells and a whole lot of powerful spells at that. You added one-fourth of what makes this change good (more spell slots); you're still missing the three extra spell levels (levels 0, 5th and 6th) which you won't add, the shift to full caster level (something that's horribly absent), and the padded spell list. Consider raiding the Cleric spell list for those spells you know the Paladin would like, and play with them. Patching them into the Paladin is a lot of work from the 'brewer, but still qualifies as a quick "fix". I mean, what's wrong with adding Shield of Faith, or Entropic Shield, or Righteous Might? In fact, the quickest fix you can do is "the Paladin can cast from the Cleric spell list alongside the Paladin spell list: it can't cast A, B or C, but it casts X, Y and Z at a lower level". There: simple format, and it adds a hUGE boost to the Paladin.
The other is that, much like the Fighter and the Monk, by 6th level you got pretty much everything. The rest can be boosted through PrCs or entirely replaced. Remove Disease isn't the best SLA you can have, extra uses of Smite Evil are now LESS necessary now that you can have them as per-encounter abilities, and your Lay on Hands won't ever reach the power of a Heal spell unless you have incredibly high Charisma. Ergo, moving into a PrC provides far more power than staying where you area. Add them some extra class features, and you're sure to make a winner out of it. At least, as much of a winner as a half-spellcaster can.
Oh, I almost forgot: still keeping 2+Int skill points? Why? The Fighter and the Paladin suffer for having such a poor skill list, particularly as they have no need for Intelligence. Think on 4+Int as the default skill point progression; if your class doesn't need that much skill points but it makes good use of Intelligence, then drop it off to 2+Int. Otherwise, keep it 4+Int unless they're skillmonkeys.
Add on medium armor proficiency.
Increase skillpoints to 6+Int.
Increase BAB to full.
Create your mindblade as a swift action.
Replace paragraph 4 of Mind Blade with "A soulknife’s mind blade improves as the character gains higher levels. At 4th level and every three levels thereafter, the mind blade gains a cumulative +1 enhancement bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls (+2 at 7th level, +3 at 10th level, +4 at 13th level, and +5 at 16th level)."
Replace Wild Talent with Hidden Talent.
Ready Psychic Strike as a swift action.
Replace paragraph 2 of Mind Blade Enhancement with "At every three levels beyond 6th (9th, 12th, 15th, and 18th), the value of the enhancement a soulknife can add to his weapon improves to +2, +3, +4, and +5, respectively. A soulknife can choose any combination of weapon special abilities that does not exceed the total allowed by the soulknife’s level."
Fair enough. That at least gives them some front-line potential, even though they're meant to be some sort of psychic fencer.
Erm...don't see why, given that you've neglected the Paladin and the Fighter 4+Int, yet you have a sort-of psychic fencer with the same skill point capacity of a Bard. Don't really see why this boost would help them, other than net them more skills.
Fair enough; it makes no sense for them to have less than full BAB if they're meant to be frontliners.
Also pretty fair: lets you prepare your main weapon as a swift action, so you're never disarmed. Though, the idea is to prepare your mind blade before combat, so... Good against ambushes?
Hmm...going with DSP Soulknife's fix, right? Not much to say, then.
Pretty fair as well; there's even an ACF for that, replacing your bonus feats, so you're mostly adding only a dash of power.
Erm...well, it lets you make two psychic strikes per round...in the first round, as later on you're still limited to one attack per round (you have your Psychic Strike uncharged, and you charge it by spending your only swift action during the round, so one attack only).
Same thing as before: applying some of the buffs from the DSP Soulknife. Still a bit ambiguous, though: is it EVERY weapon ability, or only those from the small list they have?
What's Missing: A reason to exist. No, really.
Regardless of the minor boosts, the Soulknife has only one problem: what's their thing aside from "making a psionic blade like Psylocke?" They get some bonus feats, but not that many, and only one or two special skills. Much like the Samurai, aside from their mind blade, they seem to be a build disguised as a class, and that's the worst excuse for a designer to make. If you're aiming to boost their power, however slightly or quickly, it has to have meaning behind it. As it stands, you've certainly shifted it from a skirmisher (it definitely feels like someone who hides, targets one enemy, makes a single strike, and then hides again) into a frontliner, but without the staying power of a frontliner (consistent damage, a measure of crowd control, superior defense, etc.)
If the best thing they have can be replaced by an ACF from another class (Soulbound Weapon from the Psychic Warrior), then you've got VERY serious problems. Sure, you'll lack Psychic Strike, but you'll have a freely upgradeable weapon with psychic powers that boost you up far better than you could as a Soulknife, so the net gain for the PsyWar is IMMENSE. Your target, in the case of quick fixes, is to make the Soulknife stand rather than be eclipsed than the PsyWar. The Soulknife is not something, IMO, that can be fixed so easily, and thus it's best for them to have a through reworking that sets them at a similar, if not equal, power level to a Psychic Warrior, their closest competition.
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