[Base] The Doll Maker (PEACH)

[UserShadow7989]

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Doll Maker

"I know it might seem a little strange, but there's nothing wrong with collecting things like that. I've talked to her before. Your teacher is just an ordinary lady trying to help youngin's like you grow up right. Now, go to school, and no more of this nonsense about the dolls watching you." ---Village Woodcutter to his son.

Dolls come in all shapes and sizes, and opinions on them are just as varied. Cute, creepy, life-like, crude, artful, chilling, simple, complex, stylized, wooden, glass- there's only a few constants, and plenty of exceptions. There are just as many who collect them as there are who wouldn't go within ten feet of them.

Then there's puppets- effigies of creatures that dance on strings to the whims of the entertainer manipulating them. To call them dolls is partially accurate but partially a misnomer- one understandably shared by the Doll Maker, whose creations move by strings of magic.

Doll Makers are capable of creating and animating collections of material to fight or otherwise carry out their will. The materials, whether by convenience or the psychological factors raised by the form, tend to be in the shape of their namesake. Like their dolls, the Doll Maker comes in all shapes and sizes, and can be viewed in just as many ways.

Adventures: Ostracized for their strange abilities, searching the world for inspiration so they may make their creations into masterpieces, or utilizing their talents in pursuit of the almighty gold piece, Doll Makers are not wholly bound to a certain reason for travel by their art so much as their art is a means to an end.

Characteristics: Physically, Doll Makers tend to share their fellow arcane casters' builds- small and frail. Though unlike their contemporaries, a Doll Maker is often capable of graceful and precise movements akin to a skilled thief or dancer, and their legions of Dolls make up for physical shortcomings. Just as with those full-fledged mages, a Doll Maker is far more dangerous than his or her frame implies.

Alignment: There is no particular leaning among Doll Makers. Their craft takes all types, from evil assassins using unlikely tools, to protectors hidden in plain sight, to studious experimenters developing a new field, to free spirits aching to express themselves, and many combinations thereof.

Religion: Not especially religious or tied to religion, most Doll Makers drift to deities based on race or alignment. Beyond that, knowledge-based gods aren't unheard of choices, nor are those associated with craftsmanship. When a Doll Maker IS highly religious, however, it is usually reflected in their creations usually taking on characteristics or symbolism that can be associated with their deity of choice.

Background: While the same sorts of backgrounds that can cultivate a Wizard may instead create a Doll Maker, both studying the arcane arts and utilizing them through knowledge over instinct, it's a rarity that it will result in a Doll Maker over a traditional Wizard. Rather, most Doll Makers are self-taught or otherwise given comparatively little education, leading to less raw skill but the development of their unorthodox technique.

Another source can be the feeling of isolation itself. Someone growing up alone or otherwise unwelcome may fill a desire for loyal companions with their works, and eventually develop a very real, magical link.

Then there is simply the possibility of developing the power naturally, finding the ability for magic in their very bodies themselves like a Sorcerer, but manifesting it in a different way from the norm.

Races: Like always, humans have a fair number of Doll Makers among their number, but it's the halflings and gnomes who have the most, taking to the odd approach to magic with piqued curiosity and energy.

Dwarves and Elves are rare, the former not having the same interest in the oddity and little in the arcane as a whole, the latter preferring the more potent schools of wizardry or a mixed skill set of martial and magical ability. Half-orcs are surprisingly numerous, though they take a more shamanic approach to the craft.

Other Classes: Class doesn't play much into whether someone will get along with the Doll Maker or vice-versa. As a whole, arcane casters are less likely to be disturbed by the art and more likely to respect it as a result, though some may look down on it as a cheap parlor trick stretched thin instead of a proper study.

Martial classes might find the Doll Maker a bit unnerving or strange, not being as hardened against the oddities of magical research and effects as those who study or breathe it, and understandably not liking the idea that anything anywhere could potentially come alive and attack. More hardened warriors will be less disturbed by virtue of the world jading them to the bizarreness of it all.

Role: Doll Makers themselves are frail, as are their Dolls on an individual level. Together, however, their creations fill a variety of roles, making up for lack of personal strength through sheer weight of number.

Doll Makers act as roundabout tanks for the party first and foremost, their Dolls being expendable and capable of controlling the flow of battle by coordinating with each other and the Doll Maker's allies.

Besides being decent damage dealers (again through number), their limited casting and various options for customizing their Dolls make them well-suited to buffing allies in the heat of battle or slipping in negative effects that bring tough enemies down to their level in particular, sparing themselves close encounters with danger in the process by using their Dolls as a delivery system.

While specialists in a given role will often outshine the Doll Maker, they have the advantage of being able to change which roles they wish to fill each day and how, and are capable of filling a pair of such roles reasonably well without falling victim to 'master of none'.

Adaptation: Though the Doll Maker is flavored as an eccentric arcane caster, the exact source of their powers can be easily modified with minor changes. Summoners of strange creatures from planes long forgotten, religious fanatics who are blessed with faint traces of divine power given form, telekinesis-talented psions who use their minds to form and animate strange metal contraptions, spirit mediums who call upon memories of the departed- all equally valid.

GAME RULE INFORMATION
Doll Makers have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Dexterity is key for the Doll Maker, as it affects their ability to manipulate their Dolls- both in how many they can have active at once, and how effective each individual Doll is. Following behind is Intelligence, on which the Doll Maker's limited casting ability is based. The other attributes aren't as vital, though Constitution to make up for the Doll Maker's small hit die is a good idea.
Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d6
Starting Age: As Sorcerer.
Starting Gold: 4d4x10 (100 GP).

Class Skills
The doll master's class skills (and their related ability scores) are Appraise (Int), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Hide (Dex), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering) (Int), Knowledge (The Planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Use Magic Device (Cha), and Use Rope (Dex).

Skill Points at First Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

The Doll Maker


Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
0
1st
2nd
3rd
4th


1st
+0
+0
+0
+2
Dolls, Magic Strings
2
1
-
-
-


2nd
+1
+0
+0
+3
Maintained Spell (0th)
3
2
-
-
-


3rd
+1
+1
+1
+3
Doll Feat
4
2
-
-
-


4th
+2
+1
+1
+4
Share Sense, Maintained Spell (0th)
4
3
1
-
-


5th
+2
+1
+1
+4
Expanded Spell Knowledge
5
3
2
-
-


6th
+3
+2
+2
+5
Maintained Spell (1st)
6
4
2
-
-


7th
+3
+2
+2
+5
Doll Feat
7
4
3
-
-


8th
+4
+2
+2
+6
Maintained Spell (1st)
7
5
3
1
-


9th
+4
+3
+3
+6
Expanded Spell Knowledge
7
5
4
2
-


10th
+5
+3
+3
+7
Maintained Spell (2nd)
7
5
4
2
-


11th
+5
+3
+3
+7
Doll Feat
7
5
5
3
-


12th
+6/+1
+4
+4
+8
Maintained Spell (2nd)
7
5
5
3
1


13th
+6/+1
+4
+4
+8
Expanded Spell Knowledge
7
5
5
4
2


14th
+7/+2
+4
+4
+9
Maintained Spell (3rd)
7
5
5
4
2


15th
+7/+2
+5
+5
+9
Doll Feat
7
5
5
5
3


16th
+8/+3
+5
+5
+10
Maintained Spell (3rd)
7
5
5
5
3


17th
+8/+3
+5
+5
+10
Expanded Spell Knowledge
7
5
5
5
4


18th
+9/+4
+6
+6
+11
Maintained Spell (4th)
7
5
5
5
4


19th
+9/+4
+6
+6
+11
Doll Feat
7
5
5
5
5


20th
+10/+5
+6
+6
+12
Multitasking, Maintained Spell (4th)
7
5
5
5
5



Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Doll Maker:

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A Doll Maker is proficient with all simple weapons. The Doll Maker is also proficient with light armor, but not shields. Like other arcane casters, the Doll Maker suffers arcane spell failure chance when casting spells with somatic components while wearing medium or heavy armor or holding a shield, but unlike most, they can cast spells in light armor without incurring this penalty.

Spells
A Doll Maker casts arcane spells which are drawn from the Doll Maker spell list. They can cast any spell they know without preparing it ahead of time the way a wizard or a cleric must (see below).

To learn or cast a spell, a Doll Maker must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a Doll Maker’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the Doll Maker’s Intelligence modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a Doll Maker can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His.her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: The Doll Maker. In addition, they receive bonus spells per day if they have a high Intelligence score.

A Doll Maker’s selection of spells is extremely limited. A Doll Maker begins play knowing four 0-level spells and two 1st-level spells of your choice. At each new Doll Maker level, they gain one or more new spells, as indicated on Table: Doll Maker Spells Known. (Unlike spells per day, the number of spells a Doll Maker knows is not affected by their Intelligence score; the numbers on Table: Doll Maker Spells Known are fixed.) These new spells are chosen from the Doll Maker spell list.

Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even-numbered Doll Maker level after that (6th, 8th, and so on), a Doll Maker can choose to learn a new spell in place of one they already know. In effect, the Doll Maker "loses" the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least two levels lower than the highest-level Doll Maker spell the Doll Maker can cast. A Doll Maker may swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that they gain new spells known for the level.

Unlike a wizard or a cleric, a Doll Maker need not prepare their spells in advance. They can cast any spell they know at any time, assuming he/she has not yet used up their spells per day for that spell level. They do not have to decide ahead of time which spells they’ll cast.

As a final note, all Doll Maker spells have a Somatic component- they can never apply the Still Spell metamagic feat or similar to the spells they receive from the Doll Maker class, nor can they cast spells under a condition that prevents even fine movement of the hands.

Table: Doll Maker Spells Known


Level
0
1st
2nd
3rd
4th


1st
4
2
-
-
-


2nd
5
2
-
-
-


3rd
5
3
-
-
-


4th
6
3
1
-
-


5th
6
4
2
-
-


6th
7
4
2
-
-


7th
7
5
3
-
-


8th
8
5
3
1
-


9th
8
5
4
2
-


10th
9
5
4
2
-


11th
9
5
5
3
-


12th
9
5
5
3
1


13th
9
5
5
4
2


14th
9
5
5
4
2


15th
9
5
5
5
3


16th
9
5
5
5
3


17th
9
5
5
5
4


18th
9
5
5
5
4


19th
9
5
5
5
5


20th
9
5
5
5
5



Dolls (Su)
The defining trait of a Doll Maker, no matter their walk of life or roots, is the ability to grant motion to motionless matter. Energy seems to dance from their fingers in ribbons, connecting to their creations. These animated groups of material are collectively referred to 'Dolls', and move only on the strings the Doll Maker has given them.

Though most often a Doll takes the form of cloth effigies of humans or other creatures, the exact materials used and their forms can be nearly anything. Metal constructs made of loose parts arranged into shapes or patterns, dead body parts stitched together from miscellaneous 'donors', rocks and sand or water and ice or even fire itself in a crude imitation of an elemental, all possible.

Basics
Each Doll is a mindless construct, fully controlled by and loyal to the Doll Maker who made it, and only able to act when they will it to. The Dolls have their own statistics that scale with the Doll Maker's level (see the section dedicated to Dolls after this class's ability descriptions, in the second post). Doll Makers are fully aware of the conditions and general locations of their Dolls at all times.

Creation
A Doll Maker must spend 15 minutes of meditation to form a solid mental Link with the bundles of materials they wish to make into Dolls (whether each was pre-shaped into a working form or collected and thrown together on the spot). A Link can only be formed with unattended materials (raw or otherwise prepared specifically for use for this ability) that the Doll Maker has line of sight and line of effect to, and the resulting Dolls do not receive any benefits from the material itself.

Control (Limits, Platoons)
A Doll Maker can only form a Link with and control a number of Dolls up to their Dexterity modifier at a time (minimum 1), and can only utilize a number of Dolls per day of up to 1.5x their class level (rounded up). Once the Link is made, the Doll Maker can manipulate it, though the concentration and precise motions of their fingers required limits them.

Each Linked Doll is placed in a 'Platoon', of which the Doll Maker can have any number and which can contain any number of Linked Dolls. The Doll Maker must determine how many Platoons to form and which of their daily Dolls will be in which at the start of each day, and can only change this by spending an uninterrupted hour reorganizing their thoughts and doing the proper exercises to limber up or after 24 hours have passed since the initial process.

The Doll Maker can retain any remaining Linked Dolls from the previous day if they wish, though they are counted towards the new day's limit.

Control (Battle, Actions)
By spending a Move Action, the Doll Maker can send mental orders to any number of Dolls within a specific Platoon. Dolls receive their own set of actions, but act on the Doll Maker's initiative and can only use them when the Doll Maker spends an action that turn to order them.

A Doll in a Platoon must spend an action in the same way as the other Dolls in the Platoon, or forgo it.

The only exceptions are simple movement (Dolls need not move in the exact same pattern, direction, or distance as each other), and targeting (if one Doll attacks a creature to their left as their Standard Action, the other Dolls in the Platoon must attack with their Standard Action or forgo it, but do not need to target the same creature or the square to their own immediate left).

Dolls in separate Platoons need not follow each other's example at all, trading more of the Doll Maker's actions for versatility.

The Doll Maker cannot send orders to a Platoon on a different plane.

Control (Breaking/Reforming the Link)
If the Doll Maker is dead, the Dolls fall apart or otherwise become inert on the spot, the Link broken.

If brought back to life in the same day, they may reform their Link with the Dolls rendered inert/destroyed in this way in the same manner they would form a new Link, the resulting Dolls returning with the same statistics and ongoing effects as they had at the time of the Doll Maker's death and counting as the same Dolls in regards to the per day limit.

This also applies if the Doll Maker enters an anti-magic field or is otherwise subject to an effect that nullifies their Supernatural abilities. Likewise, a Doll that enters an anti-magic field has its Link broken and can be reformed in the above described manner.

Magic Strings (Su)
The exact visualization of the Doll Maker's connection to their Dolls (if any) varies, and is both mutable and easily changeable. It is not physical, nor can it be assailed by any means like literal strings, merely being a magical and mental connection. What's important is not its appearance, but the Link it represents and how the Doll Maker can use it.

Whenever the Doll Maker casts a spell on the Doll Maker class spell list with a range of 'Personal' or 'Touch', they can apply that spell's effect to all their Linked Dolls instead of themselves or another creature. Spells cast through this ability can affect Dolls as if they were objects, living creatures, or both (whichever is most beneficial), and can similarly treat them as any creature type for the purposes of determining if it would be able to target them (such as spells that specify a humanoid type creature as a viable target).

Alternately, the Doll Maker can use one of their Dolls to deliver spells for them, treating themselves as if they occupied the space of the chosen Doll for the purposes of the cast spell's range.

Maintained Spell (Sp)
Rather than infusing a single group of Dolls- frail and short-lived as they are- with their arcane spells, many Doll Makers learn to stretch their magical might a bit further by infusing their connection in and of itself to provide the benefit to all of their creations.

When determining how many Platoons they will have at the start of the day and which of their Dolls will enter each, a Doll Maker of 2nd level or greater chooses one of their 0th level spells that can be cast simultaneously on all their Dolls through the effect of Magic Strings that does not have a duration of 'instantaneous' or 'permanent' to associate with each Platoon.

For the next 24 hours, until the Doll Maker reorganizes their Platoons, until dispelled, or (in the case of spells whose effects end when utilized, such as True Strike) until discharged, any and all Dolls they form a Link to receives the benefits/effects of the spell associated with their Platoon.

The Doll Maker grows more adept at infusing spells into their Links as time goes on. Starting at 4th level, the Doll Maker can choose an additional 0th level spell that meets the same conditions and apply it in the same manner for each.

They can maintain an additional spell for every even level thereafter, with the third and fourth spells being of any level up to 1st, the fifth and sixth of up to 2nd level, the seventh and eighth of up to 3rd level, and the ninth and tenth of up to 4th level.

Doll Feat (Su)
Just as the Doll Maker's expertise in magic and combat increases, so too does that of their creations. At 3rd level, when forming a Platoon, the Doll Maker chooses a feat from the limited list below. The Dolls within that Platoon receive the benefits of that feat, and are treated as having it for the purposes of prerequisites and other effects. Dolls do not need to meet the attribute or skill point prerequisites of a given feat.

A Doll Maker of 7th level or higher chooses an additional feat from the list to grant the Platoon they formed, plus one more feat for every 4 levels thereafter.

The list of selectable feats are as follows: Any Doll Feat (see section in second post below), Cleave, Combat Expertise, Dodge, Far Shot, Great Cleave, Great Fortitude, Greater Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Bullrush, Improved Disarm, Improved Grapple, Improved Overrun, Improved Precise Shot, Improved Sunder, Improved Trip, Improved Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Unarmed Strike, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Manyshot, Mobility, Point Blank Shot, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Rapid Reload, Rapid Shot, Run, Shot on the Run, Spring Attack, Toughness, Two Weapon Defense, Two Weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus, and Whirlwind Attack.

Note this feat list is made only with core feats in mind. If the group has access to splatbooks, consider expanding the list slightly to include more feats. In specific, look for feats that list any of the above as prerequisites, and avoid feats that list feats not among the above or class features as prerequisites, or feats whose effects are based on a character's attribute scores/skill ranks.

Share Sense (Su)
Ask anyone unnerved by dolls why they find them disturbing, and many times their first answer will be the lifeless eyes that seem to follow them. More people would agree if this ability were common knowledge.

Starting from 4th level, the Doll Maker can stop to focus on their Link as a Free Action to use a Doll as a sensor to see and hear through. They see as if they were occupying the Doll's space and vantage point, and have all of their own mundane and magical senses available through this connection.

The Doll Maker can only see through the eyes of one Doll at a time, and cannot see around themselves while doing so. He or she may end this effect at any time merely by willing it, even if it's not their turn.

Expanded Spell Knowledge
Though they don't gain the full arcane might of their contemporaries, the Doll Maker studies nonetheless, and is rewarded with knowledge of their discipline that grants them another scrap of power. At 5th level, and again at 9th level, 13th level, and 17th level, the Doll Maker chooses one spell from the Sorcerer/Wizard spell list of a level they can cast and adds it to their spells known. The chosen spell cannot be used through the effect of Magic Strings unless on the Doll Maker spell list, but otherwise can be cast normally.

Multitasking (Su)
Due to their spellcasting and (to a lesser extent) Doll manipulation both being tied to careful movement of the fingers, the Doll Maker is often forced to choose between casting a spell to benefit their Dolls and giving a Platoon an order (not to mention which Platoons to order). However, those who have reached this level of mastery are able to blend the movements together well enough that they can multitask.

At 20th level, the Doll Maker can now order two Platoons with a Move Action instead of one, AND they can now cast a spell from their class spell list with a casting time of a Standard Action or longer and order a single Platoon with the same action.


Spell List:
0th - Arcane Mark*, Cure Minor Wounds*, Detect Magic, Guidance**, Inflict Minor Wounds*X, Light**, Mending*, Prestidigitation**, Read Magic**X, Resistance**, Touch of Fatigue**X, Virtue**-

1st - Chill Touch*X, Cure Light Wounds*, Disguise Self**, Endure Elements**, Enlarge Person, Entropic Shield**, Expeditious Retreat**, Feather Fall, Inflict Light Wounds*, Longstrider**, Mage Armor**, Magic Aura**, Magic Fang**, Magic Weapon, Obscure Object**, Protection from Chaos/Evil/Good/Law**, Reduce Person, Shield**, Shocking Grasp*X, True Strike**-

2nd - Aid**X, Align Weapon, Barkskin**, Bear's Endurance**X, Bull's Strength**, Cat's Grace**, Blur**, Cure Moderate Wounds*, Eagle's Splendor**X, False Life**-, Fox's Cunning**X, Ghoul Touch*X, Heroism**X, Inflict Moderate Wounds*X, Invisibility**-, Locate Object, Make Whole, Mirror Image**-, Misdirection, Owl's Wisdom**X, Protection from Arrows**-, Resist Energy**, Spider Climb**, Touch of Idiocy**X

3rd - Bestow Curse**X, Blink**, Cure Serious Wounds*, Dispel Magic, Displacement**, Explosive Ruins**?-, Fly**, Gaseous Form**, Good Hope, Greater Magic Fang, Greater Magic Weapon, Haste, Inflict Serious Wounds*X, Invisibility Purge**, Keen Edge, Nondetection**, Poison*X, Protection from Energy**-, Shrink Item**, Vampiric Touch*?, Water Breathing**X, Water Walk**

4th - Air Walk**, Cure Critical Wounds*, Death Ward**, Dimension Door, Freedom of Movement**, Greater Heroism**X, Greater Invisibility**, Inflict Critical Wounds*X, Lesser Globe of Invulnerability, Mass Enlarge Person, Mass Reduce Person, Overland Flight**, Remove Curse*, Rusting Grasp*X, Spell Immunity**

Key:
* = Can be cast on all Dolls at once through Magic Strings
** = Can be maintained through Maintain Spell
X = Used with the above; while possible, it would have a negative effect or otherwise be pointless, barring something affecting the Dolls and their qualities or otherwise modifying how Magic Strings works.
? = Like X, except potentially useful.
- = Used with ** only. Lasts until discharged.

Note this spell list is made only with core spells in mind. If the group has access to splatbooks, consider expanding the list slightly to include more spells of 0th to 4th level. In specific, look for bonus-granting spells of 'self' or 'touch' range.

The list intentionally excludes Alter Self and Polymorph, as the ability to cast them through Magic Strings is potentially game breaking. Keep this in mind for effects that might be overpowering under similar circumstances. Such spells can be acquired through Expanded Spell Knowledge without threatening balance if the player so desires.

[UserShadow7989]

Dolls

Size and Type
Dolls are Small Constructs.

Hit Points and Hit Dice
Each Doll has (3 + (3 * Doll Maker class levels) + Intelligence modifier) hit points. For effects relating to number of hit dice, treat each Doll as having half the Doll Maker's class level in hit dice (rounded up).

Dolls do NOT receive the bonus to hit points based on size traditional for Constructs, nor the hit points of the material used to make them.

When reduced to 0 hit points, a Doll's Link with the Doll Maker is broken, the Doll reverting to inert material. The material can be reused to make another Doll, but it counts as a new, separate Doll for the purposes of the Doll Maker's limits and effects.

Attacks and BAB
Dolls have only a Slam primary natural attack (1d3 damage), and are treated as having a Base Attack Bonus equal to the Doll Maker's class level. They receive the standard bonus from their size, add the Doll Maker's Dexterity Modifier as a bonus to their Attack Rolls, and add their Intelligence Modifier as a bonus to Damage Rolls. Notably, a Doll's natural weapons count as both natural and manufactured for the purposes of effects.

Dolls do not receive additional iterative attacks from a high Base Attack Bonus. They DO, however, receive additional iterative attacks from other sources, such as multiple natural attacks, fighting with multiple weapons, and feats like Rapid Shot/Improved Two Weapon Fighting.

*This is an optional rule to streamline combat. Players should consult their DMs to determine if this method or rolling normally should be used.*

A Platoon's attacks are executed simultaneously. After determining which Doll in the Platoon will attack what target (if any), make a single d20 roll, and treat the result as the roll for each Attack Roll, rather than rolling individually.

The respective bonus(es) are applied to each attack normally to determine their outcomes, as if they had been rolled individually (I.E. True Strike only applies to what would be the first attack as per usual, not all of them, and re-roll effects would only change the result for a single attack each).

If one or more targets have a miss chance, resolve the miss chance in the same manner.

Alternately, to reduce the impact of luck on the Doll Maker's turn while still streamlining combat, you can apply this rule to each individual Doll's set of attacks (effectively rolling once for each Doll).

Attacks of Opportunity
Dolls may threaten squares as a creature with their reach, and can perform Attacks of Opportunity normally. However, each Doll shares the Doll Maker's maximum number of Attacks of Opportunity per turn (usually 1, barring the Combat Reflexes feat or similar), rather than each having their own set of them.

Unlike nearly all other actions, the Doll Maker does not need to order a Platoon for the Dolls within it to perform an Attack of Opportunity.

Armor Class
Each doll receives a Dodge Bonus to AC equal to the Doll Maker's Dexterity Modifier. When flat-footed or denied their Dexterity Modifier to AC, however, they lose this bonus as well.

Saves
Dolls use the Doll Maker's saves as their own. Note that as mindless constructs, Dolls are immune to most effects that require a Fortitude Save or Will Save.

*This is an optional rule to streamline combat. Players should consult their DMs to determine if this method or rolling normally should be used.*

When multiple Dolls would be affected by the same effect, roll a single d20. Treat the result as the result of all rolls for each Save, rather than rolling each individually.

Move Speed
Dolls have a base land speed of 30 ft.

Attributes
Dolls are unique in that they have no mental attribute scores to speak of, acting as extensions of the Doll Maker rather than creatures in their own right. They also have no constitution scores, not being living creatures.

Dolls are treated as having Strength and Dexterity scores of 10, and the resultant ability modifier of +0 for both. Dolls are immune to all forms of ability damage or drain.

Object/Creature
By strictest terms, Dolls are objects. However, their Link with the Doll Maker makes them an extension of him or her, allowing them to act and function as creatures as outlined here and in the Doll class ability of the Doll Maker. For the purposes of effects that only affect objects or creatures, or effects that affect both, they are treated as whichever is most beneficial when the Doll Maker or an ally produces the effect, and whichever is more harmful when targeted by such an effect created by anyone else.

Hardness
Dolls have a hardness of 0, regardless of the materials used to make them. Their health is more representative of the strength of the Link between them and the Doll Maker, with trauma and force affecting the Link independently of the materials proper.

Proficiency
A Doll has no proficiencies to speak of, except its own natural weapons. Unless otherwise stated, a Doll cannot use items or equipment it is not proficient with at all, though it may carry such objects.

Skill Points
A Doll does not receive skill points, nor class skills.

Feats
Dolls do not receive Feats normally. But see the Doll Maker's 'Doll Feat' class ability, and the Doll Feat section below.

Evasion
Due to their small size and the Doll Maker's nimble movements, all Dolls have the Evasion ability. Whenever a spell or effect with a save of Reflex Half would affect a Doll, its effect on that Doll is completely negated on a successful Reflex Save. On a failed save, the Doll still suffers the full effects.

Senses
Dolls have no senses of their own, relying on the Doll Maker's for all intents and purposes. If the Doll Maker's vision is blocked, the Dolls cannot see whatever is hidden from the Doll Maker even if a creature in their position would be able to. When the Doll Maker is surprised or flat-footed, so are the Dolls.

Form and other Misc.
The exact shapes and materials of each Doll are determined by the Doll Maker, but regardless of his/her choices are functionally the same. They usually weigh 5 lb., give or take, but that is not a hard rule.

In a situation where they are able to handle items or equipment (such as when the Finer Manipulation Doll Feat is applied to a Platoon), they are able to manipulate and carry items as a two-armed humanoid (whether they have hands or not).

They are immune to most afflictions through their nature, but the Doll Maker is not especially resistant and anything that would prevent them from giving an order naturally makes it impossible for Dolls to act.


Doll Feats
A special category of feats, unique in that they cannot be taken normally. Only a Doll can have a Doll Feat. Rather than gaining them from hit dice or some other form of progression, Dolls receive feats associated with the Platoon they are placed in (see the Doll Maker's 'Doll Feat' class ability for details).

Animal Form [Doll]
Many dolls are shaped as effigies of the humanoid races. Some, however, are more animalistic in nature.
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: Choose one of the following sets of benefits upon selecting this feat. The Platoon receives the listed changes.
Avian Form: Remove Slam attack. Gain 2 Talon (1d3) secondary natural attacks and 20 ft. fly speed (average maneuverability). Dolls have a -2 penalty to Attack Rolls and Damage Rolls from their frail form, but a +2 bonus to AC from its litheness. The Doll Maker's class level must be 5th or higher to select this option.
Nautical Form: Dolls receive a swim speed equal to their base land speed, though the latter is reduced by 10 ft. (minimum 5 ft., penalty is applied after swim speed is determined). Replace the Slam attack for either a single Bite (1d4) primary attack with a +2 bonus to Attack and Damage Rolls or two Tentacle (1d3) secondary attacks. Dolls do not suffer the normal penalty to attack rolls and damage from using bludgeoning or slashing weapons underwater, and the penalty to ranged weapon attack rolls is halved.
Primate Form: Gain climb speed equal to base land speed, and a second Slam attack.
Quadrupedal Form: Remove Slam attack. Gain 1 Bite (1d4) primary attack with +2 bonus to Attack and Damage Rolls OR 2 Claw (1d3) secondary attacks. Increase base land speed by 10 ft.
Note the above damage listings assume the default 'Small' size. Larger or smaller sizes scale the damage accordingly.

Attack Command [Doll]
By imbuing your Dolls with a hint of thought and a weapon, you can focus them to act as an attack force without your direct supervision.
Prerequisites: None
Effect: When ordering this Platoon, the Doll Maker may choose to make or retract an 'Attack Command'. While in effect, Dolls cannot perform Standard, Full-round, or 1 round Actions, nor any actions that would take longer than a round to complete.

In exchange, the affected Dolls receive a special ranged touch attack, which they automatically perform once per round- even without the Doll Maker spending an action to order them! The attack does 1d6 untyped damage that does not scale with the Dolls' size, and the target for the attack must be within 60 ft, but otherwise the attack is performed normally at some point during the Doll Maker's turn.

Dolls do not receive the Doll Maker's Dexterity Modifier as a bonus to their Attack Rolls or the Doll Maker's Intelligence Modifier as a bonus to their Damage Rolls when performing the above attack. The Doll Maker cannot order the Dolls to perform the attack again, though they can order their Dolls to forgo it and/or change between lethal and non-lethal damage (with the normal penalty for the latter), and they still determine the targets of each attack. Dolls may utilize any of their weapons in place of the special attack granted by this effect at the Doll Maker's discretion, though they only get a single attack each turn while the Attack Command is active no matter what.

Special: This is a 'Command' Doll feat. Each Platoon can only be under the effects of a single 'Command' Doll feat at a time. If a Doll Maker wishes, he/she can spend a Swift Action to change which of each Platoon's 'Command' Doll feats is in effect at a time. This must be done before the Dolls in the affected Platoon has utilized whatever effect is granted by that 'Command' Doll feat during that turn.

Cruel Touch [Doll]
Acting as conduits for deadly negative energy, these dolls take the form of evil creatures; silly mockeries hiding a threat as serious at the beings they imitate.
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: At the start of each of the Doll Maker's turns, all hostile living creatures and friendly undead creatures adjacent to a Doll suffer (1/4th Doll Maker's class level, rounded up) points of damage. This is a negative energy effect, healing undead creatures, and multiple Dolls adjacent to the same creature stacks the effect. Cruel Touch cannot increase an undead creature's hit point total above half their maximum hit points.
Special: This is an 'Aura' Doll Feat. Dolls can only have 1 'Aura' Doll Feat's effect active at a time. By spending a Swift Action, Dolls in a Platoon can activate an Aura, change which Aura they are using, or remove their Aura.

If multiple Platoons have this Aura, any creature who would be healed or harmed by its effects on the same turn by Dolls from two or more different Platoons are healed/harmed by double the normal amount.

Divide and Conquer [Doll]
Quantity is a quality.
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: By careful division of your resources and focus, you sacrifice a bit of precision and strength for number. Count only half of the Dolls in the affected Platoon towards your limits of how many Dolls you can have a Link with at once and how many Dolls you can form a Link with per day (rounded up).

In exchange, the affected Dolls suffer a -2 penalty to Attack Rolls and Damage Rolls, and have only half the normal amount of hit points (rounded down, minimum 1). Further, any numerical bonuses the Dolls would receive are halved (rounded down).
Special: This Doll Feat cannot be taken with Hyper-Focused.

Doll Armor [Doll]
Some artists are protective of their work. You, however, prefer your works able to defend themselves.
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: Choose one type of light or medium armor and one type of shield (except tower shields). The Dolls in this Platoon are not only proficient in it, but come equipped with workable imitations of that type of armor and type of shield. The Dolls' armor and shields are worth no monetary value, weigh next to nothing, and function only when equipped by the Doll that comes with it. Otherwise, they function exactly as proper examples of the chosen armor/shield.

Doll Armor, Improved [Doll]
Your works will survive the test of time- proactively, if need be.
Prerequisites: Doll Armor
Benefit: As Doll Armor, but with the following exceptions: you can now choose heavy armors, tower shields, and exotic armors and shields. Further, the armor each Doll is equipped with is treated as having a +1 enhancement bonus for all purposes.

Doubled Aura [Doll]
To evoke emotion and thought is the goal of art. Your creations are exceptional at doing just that.
Prerequisites: Any 'Aura' Doll Feat
Benefit: The affected Dolls can now have two 'Aura' Doll Feats active at once. Further, each 'Aura' Doll Feat's effects extend 10 ft. from each Doll instead of only affecting adjacent creatures.
Special: This feat may be selected multiple times. each time, increase the number of Aura Doll Feats the Dolls can have active by 1, and increase the Aura's range by another 5 ft.

Explosive Fluff [Doll]
A performance piece that ends on a bang, not a whimper.
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: When a Doll is reduced to 0 hit points and destroyed, the magic animating it runs wild and lashes out at the nearest enemies. Foes within 15 ft. of a Doll when it is destroyed takes 1d4 + The Doll Maker's Intelligence Modifier fire damage, Reflex Save (DC 10 + 1/2 Doll Master's Class Level + Doll Maker's Intelligence Modifier) halves.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times. For each time after the first, increase the damage dealt by 1d4, and the size of the effect's radius by 10 ft.
Special: Selecting the feat multiple times allows the Doll Maker to choose a different type of energy that the effect will deal instead of fire damage while taking the feats. If this feat has been taken at least twice, the damage can be Acid, Cold, or Electricity damage. If three times or more, it can be Force, Negative Energy (which heals undead creatures), Positive Energy (which heals living creatures), or Sonic damage, at the cost of dealing one less damage die. If taken four times or more, it can be untyped damage, at the cost of dealing one less damage die.

Finer Manipulation [Doll]
Flexible material, additional joints, a little more energy going into the strings themselves... whatever the cause, your Dolls lack the clumsy movements characteristic of such creations.
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: Your Dolls can now manipulate objects to an extent. They have two workable hands or hand-like grasping appendages, and may make Dexterity-based skill checks using the Doll Maker's respective skill modifier for each skill, with a -3 penalty to the check (minimum +0). They can now utilize items that require no special training to use and impose no penalty for not having proficiency with them.

Choose a simple weapon. The Dolls in this Platoon are not only proficient in it, but come equipped with one or two workable imitations of that type of weapon (and an endlessly replenishing stock of basic ammunition, if a ranged weapon, or of the weapon itself, if thrown). The Dolls' weapons/ammunition are worth no monetary value, weigh next to nothing, and function only when equipped or fired/thrown by the Doll that comes with it. They are treated as both natural weapons (being a part of the Dolls themselves) and manufactured ones for the purposes of effects. Otherwise, they function exactly as proper examples of the chosen weapon.

Guard Command [Doll]
Even without your vigilant gaze, your Dolls act to protect you and your allies.
Prerequisites: None
Effect: When ordering this Platoon, the Doll Maker may choose to make or retract a 'Guard Command'. While in effect, Dolls cannot perform Standard, Full-round, or 1 round Actions, nor any actions that would take longer than a round to complete.

Whenever an ally other than a Doll would suffer damage from an attack or spell, if there is an unoccupied square adjacent to that ally, a Doll who is its move speed from the square or closer may move to it as an Immediate Action, even if they did not receive an order from the Doll Maker this turn or the last. Redirect the attack or spell's damage from that ally to the Doll. Damage transferred in this way cannot be mitigated by any means. Any negative effects that would be inflicted on a creature damaged by the attack or spell is instead inflicted on the Doll.

If a negative effect (other than damage) from the attack or spell does not specifically require the creature to be damaged to be affected, it still affects the original target normally (with that target getting a save if the effect grants one). Whether or not to use this effect must be determined before an attack roll or saving throw is made. If a Doll is already adjacent to the target, it need not move, though it must still spend an Immediate Action. The movement from this effect provokes Attacks of Opportunity.

Special: This is a 'Command' Doll feat. Each Platoon can only be under the effects of a single 'Command' Doll feat at a time. If a Doll Maker wishes, he/she can spend a Swift Action to change which of each Platoon's 'Command' Doll feats is in effect at a time. This must be done before the Dolls in the affected Platoon has utilized whatever effect is granted by that 'Command' Doll feat during that turn.

Harass Command [Doll]
Dolls harry foes, distracting them and obstructing their vision.
Prerequisites: None
Effect: When ordering this Platoon, the Doll Maker may choose to make or retract a 'Harass Command'. While in effect, Dolls cannot perform Standard, Full-round, or 1 round Actions, nor any actions that would take longer than a round to complete.

Enemies within range of a Doll's weapon suffer a cumulative -1 circumstance penalty to Attack Rolls and Concentration checks (to a maximum of -5), and must make Concentration checks to cast spells (DC 15 + Spell Level * 2).

Further, an enemy attempting a ranged attack against a creature with a Doll between them treats the target as having Cover (if the target does not already have Cover of some sort). This only applies if the target is no more than 1 size larger than the Doll. If the Doll is 2 sizes larger than the target or more, the would-be target receives Total Cover.

Special: This is a 'Command' Doll feat. Each Platoon can only be under the effects of a single 'Command' Doll feat at a time. If a Doll Maker wishes, he/she can spend a Swift Action to change which of each Platoon's 'Command' Doll feats is in effect at a time. This must be done before the Dolls in the affected Platoon has utilized whatever effect is granted by that 'Command' Doll feat during that turn.

Heal Command [Doll]
Recuperating from attacks and injury with magic is simple- enough so you don't even have to supervise your Dolls for them to do it.
Prerequisites: None
Effect: When ordering this Platoon, the Doll Maker may choose to make or retract a 'Heal Command'. While in effect, Dolls cannot perform Standard, Full-round, or 1 round Actions, nor any actions that would take longer than a round to complete.

In exchange, the affected Dolls gain the ability to heal themselves and allies. In addition to Fast Healing 1, each Doll gains the ability to heal a single target within 30 ft, removing 1d4 damage from the affected creature or object. This ability cannot heal a target to more than 50% their maximum hit points, and each Doll can only do it once per turn, but it is performed automatically during the Doll Maker's turn without requiring an order unless he/she wishes for one or more Dolls to forgo it. This is a positive energy effect, but cannot be used to harm undead creatures or any other target.

Special: This is a 'Command' Doll feat. Each Platoon can only be under the effects of a single 'Command' Doll feat at a time. If a Doll Maker wishes, he/she can spend a Swift Action to change which of each Platoon's 'Command' Doll feats is in effect at a time. This must be done before the Dolls in the affected Platoon has utilized whatever effect is granted by that 'Command' Doll feat during that turn.

Hyper-Focused [Doll]
Quality over quantity.
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: By focusing your resources and efforts, you can sacrifice raw number for power. Each Doll in the affected Platoon is counted twice towards your limits of how many Dolls you can have a Link with at once and how many Dolls you can form a Link with per day.

In exchange, the affected Dolls receive a slew of benefits. Their hit points are doubled, and their Attack Rolls, Damage Rolls, and AC receive an untyped +4 bonus.

Most notably, any numeric bonuses or penalties the Dolls grant or receive are doubled when it would be positive to do so. For example, any bonuses granted to the Dolls or allies through a Doll Feat are doubled, and penalties imposed on enemies are also doubled.
Special: This Doll Feat cannot be taken with Divide and Conquer.

Iron Guard [Doll]
Bits and pieces chip off and return to the dolls periodically, wafting about the air around them on the power of your Links. When foes would strike, these pieces intercept, dampening the blow.
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: Allies adjacent to the affected Dolls receive DR 2/-. This benefit stacks with other sources of DR, and from Dolls from different Platoons with the same effect (to a maximum of your Intelligence Modifier, minimum 2), but not from multiple Dolls in the same Platoon.
Special: This is an 'Aura' Doll Feat. Dolls can only have 1 'Aura' Doll Feat's effect active at a time. By spending a Swift Action, Dolls in a Platoon can activate an Aura, change which Aura they are using, or remove their Aura.

Larger Than Life [Doll]
There are times for subtlety, then there are times to be big and loud.
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: Increase the size of the affected Dolls by 1 step.
Special: This effect can be selected and applied to the same Platoon multiple times, up to once for every 4 class levels the Doll Maker possesses (rounded down, minimum once). Each time, increase the size your Dolls may be by 1 step (Large at two, Huge at three, Gargantuan at 4, Colossal at 5, assuming no other effects).

Merciful Touch [Doll]
With all the terrifying tales of possessed dummies and macabre puppets, it's easy to forget how dolls sometimes take the form of a childhood toy that can bring comfort and warmth.
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: At the start of each of the Doll Maker's turns, all friendly living creatures and hostile undead creatures adjacent to a Doll heal (1/4th Doll Maker's class level, rounded up) hit points. This is a positive energy effect, harming undead creatures, and multiple Dolls adjacent to the same creature stacks the effect. Merciful Touch cannot increase a living creature's hit point total above half their maximum hit points.
Special: This is an 'Aura' Doll Feat. Dolls can only have 1 'Aura' Doll Feat's effect active at a time. By spending a Swift Action, Dolls in a Platoon can activate an Aura, change which Aura they are using, or remove their Aura.

If multiple Platoons have this Aura, any creature who would be healed or harmed by its effects on the same turn by Dolls from two or more different Platoons are healed/harmed by double the normal amount.

Miniaturization [Doll]
Bigger is not always better- a smaller size is helpful in going unnoticed.
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: The affected Dolls are now Tiny-size, instead of Small.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times, reducing the size of the affected Dolls an additional step each (Diminutive at 2, Fine at 3).
Special: This feat cannot be taken with Larger Than Life.

Miniaturize and Multiply [Doll]
By utilizing less material per Doll, you're capable of creating duplicates that work in tandem over a single whole.
Prerequisites: Tiny-size or smaller.
Benefit: The affected Dolls receive the Swarm subtype (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#swarmSubtype). Use the Doll Maker's full class level as the Dolls' hit dice when determining Swarm damage and Distraction special attack save DC.

Of Legendary Cloth [Doll] [Epic]
Your creations surpass the ordinary man in every form, shackled only be being extensions of you instead of their own beings.
Prerequisites: Epic Level Doll Maker, 5 or more Doll Feats other than 'Of Legendary Cloth'.
Benefit: Choose up to two base classes. The affected Dolls are treated as having a level in each class, with all the associated benefits and granted class abilities, on top of their normal abilities. If only one class was chosen, they are treated as having two levels in that class.

For the purposes of class abilities and skills, (and ONLY class abilities and skills), treat your Dolls' Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores as equaling your Dexterity score, and their Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores as equaling your Intelligence score.
Special: This feat may be taken multiple times. Each time, the Doll Maker must choose to either progress their Dolls in one or more previously chosen classes or grant them one or more level(s) in a new class. Dolls can only receive two class levels for each time this Feat is applied.

Radiate Spell [Doll]
By extending your Link ever so slightly, for the briefest of moments, allies can receive your boons.
Prerequisites: Doll Maker has access to 2nd level spells or higher
Benefits: When you cast a spell through the effects of Magic Strings, you can choose to have that spell affect all creatures adjacent to the affected Doll(s).

Spells with a duration of 'Instantaneous' affect adjacent creatures at the time of its casting (if they are possible targets), and creatures entering a square adjacent to the Doll for 1 round after casting. Spells with a duration of 1 round or longer are applied in this manner for as long as the affected Doll is under the effect of that spell's casting, though creatures only receive the effects of that spell while in Radiate Spell's range and for 1 round after leaving.

Only one spell can be applied through this effect at a time- if the Doll Maker attempts to apply a new spell with it, the previous spell is no longer applied. Beneficial spells are only applied to allies, and harmful spells are only applied to enemies.

A given spell applied by this effect need only be resisted once- a creature who successfully saves against a spell applied through Radiate Spell is treated as immune to the spell when applied through Radiate Spell until 24 hours pass.
Special: This is an 'Aura' Doll Feat. Dolls can only have 1 'Aura' Doll Feat's effect active at a time. By spending a Swift Action, Dolls in a Platoon can activate an Aura, change which Aura they are using, or remove their Aura.

Rallying Banner [Doll]
Adorned with the heraldry of your cause, flying a banner, or otherwise supernaturally encouraging, these Dolls whip allies into a frenzy and solidify their determination.
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: All friendly creatures adjacent to the affected Dolls receive a cumulative +1 morale bonus to Attack Rolls and Damage Rolls, to a maximum of 1/4th the Doll Maker's class level (rounded up).
Special: This is an 'Aura' Doll Feat. Dolls can only have 1 'Aura' Doll Feat's effect active at a time. By spending a Swift Action, Dolls in a Platoon can activate an Aura, change which Aura they are using, or remove their Aura.

Scout Command [Doll]
Ten foot poles, marbles, rubber balls, and magnets are popular tools among adventurers for the ability to poke and prod things from a safe distance. The Scout Command can be considered the evolution of such items.
Prerequisites: None
Effect: When ordering this Platoon, the Doll Maker may choose to make or retract a 'Scout Command'. While in effect, Dolls cannot perform Standard, Full-round, or 1 round Actions, nor any actions that would take longer than a round to complete.

The affected Dolls are granted a bonus to Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Search, and Spot checks equal to their 'hit dice', gaining the ability to use those skills as if they had the Doll Maker's respective skill modifiers if they weren't able to already. While this is in effect, the Dolls have access to all the senses their creator does, both mundane (low-light vision, darkvision) and magical (Detect Magic).

They search for anything the Doll Maker specifies, whether it be a general idea of the surrounding areas, looking for traps or treasure, the location of nearby creatures, and so on, and grant the Doll Maker knowledge of anything they find (including location, loose details like how many creatures/items/traps, and size).

In specific, they alert the Doll Maker immediately as to which of the Dolls found what at the moment it does, allowing the Doll Maker to switch to its perception as per the Share Sense class ability (if they have it).

Special: This is a 'Command' Doll feat. Each Platoon can only be under the effects of a single 'Command' Doll feat at a time. If a Doll Maker wishes, he/she can spend a Swift Action to change which of each Platoon's 'Command' Doll feats is in effect at a time. This must be done before the Dolls in the affected Platoon has utilized whatever effect is granted by that 'Command' Doll feat during that turn.

Sentinels [Doll]
People think you have eyes in the back of your head. In truth, your extra eyes aren't on your person in the literal sense.
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: You grant something to your Dolls that many others can't- a simple spark of awareness. Though still treated as mindless for all intents and purposes, your Dolls are now entitled to Listen, Spot, and Search checks (using your own skill modifiers for the checks) and possess a normal vision range equivalent to a human in the same circumstances.

If any Doll finds something, you immediately become aware of it, gaining any benefits of having succeeded the check yourself (while also being protected from traps that are based on sight, such as an Explosive Runes spell), such as being able to act in a surprise round.

With this new awareness, your Dolls act to ward off danger. Creatures threatened by a Doll in the affected Platoon take a -2 circumstance penalty to Attack Rolls against you, your Dolls, and your allies (does not stack from multiple such Dolls).

If the creature attacks any of the aforementioned, they provoke an Attack of Opportunity from Dolls in the affected Platoon in doing so (except from any Doll their attack was targeting). The first X Attack of Opportunities your Dolls make through this effect do not count towards your per round limit, where 'X' is your Intelligence Modifier.

Stuffed Mimicry [Doll]
Many dolls are made in the image of real creatures- people, animals, legendary creatures, and more. These are a bit closer to the real deal than most would think.
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: Choose a single creature of Aberration, Animal, Dragon, Fey, Giant, Humanoid, Magical Beast, Monstrous Humanoid, Ooze, Plant, or Vermin type, with hit dice equal to or lower than that of your individual Dolls upon selecting this feat. As a Full-round Action, Dolls in the Platoon can tap into your magic, gaining some of the powers of the creature they're imitating.

The affected Dolls are then treated as having the racial abilities, (Ex) abilities, Size, Movement Speed (and types such as Flying or Burrowing), and Natural Attacks of that creature, though their type is still 'Construct'.

This effect can only be applied for (Doll Maker's class level) rounds per day. The duration can be spread out over the course of the day in increments of 1 round, and can be ended by spending a Swift Action or simply reaching the end of the round.

Swiss Army Doll [Doll]
Simply having the right tool can make all the difference in the world. Unlike other Dolls, these are created as tools first and bodyguards second.
Prerequisites: Finer Manipulation
Benefit: The Doll Maker can now perform any skill through their Dolls, with the exception of purely mental skills (Auto-hypnosis, Concentrate, Knowledge, Martial Lore, Psicraft, and Spellcraft) or social skills (Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, and Sense Motive). This does not let them perform a skill that is trained-only if they do not have at least 1 rank in said skill.

Further, due to the physical alterations to the Doll proper and precision controls, they gain a +2 circumstance bonus for all skill checks made through the Doll (as if the Doll were a Masterwork Tool).
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Each time, increase the circumstance bonus by +2.

Uncanny Form [Doll]
There's something deeply unsettling about things that are like us, but not quite. The lifeless visage of dolls are well known for the nightmares they can inspire.
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: When a creature hostile to the Doll Maker enters a square adjacent to the affected Platoon while this Aura is in effect (see Special), they must make a Will Save (DC 10 + 1/2 Doll Maker's class level + Doll Maker's Int Modifier) or become Shaken until they are no longer adjacent to the Doll for at least 2 rounds.

This effect can only be inflicted on a creature once per round. A creature who successfully saves against this effect becomes immune to it for 24 hours. This is a fear-based, mind-affecting effect.
Special: This is an 'Aura' Doll Feat. Dolls can only have 1 'Aura' Doll Feat's effect active at a time. By spending a Swift Action, Dolls in a Platoon can activate an Aura, change which Aura they are using, or remove their Aura.

If more than one Platoon is using the same Aura, increase the Save DC for the effect by 2.

Vengeful Impulse [Doll]
The bond you share with your creations can carry more than just orders and spells. It can also carry emotion, including fury or concern.
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: When a Doll in the Platoon is damaged but not destroyed, all Dolls in the Platoon receive a bonus to Attack Rolls and Damage Rolls up to your Intelligence Modifier until the end of your next turn, but take an equal penalty to AC. These bonuses/penalties do not stack with themselves no matter how many Dolls are damaged, though the duration can be reset. The Doll Maker can choose not to activate this benefit.

Vengeful Impulse, Improved [Doll]
By controlling your emotions and imbuing your Dolls with a touch of excess magic to go with them, you can bring out something far more fierce than the sum of its parts.
Prerequisites: Vengeful Impulse
Benefits: Upon selecting this feat, choose two Doll Feats the Dolls meet the prerequisites for (other than Improved Vengeful Impulse). Whenever Vengeful Impulse's effect is active, the affected Dolls also receive the benefits of the chosen Doll Feats for its duration.

Vindictive Karma [Doll]
Superstition is rampant among some monstrous races, specifically those who know of magic but not its finer workings. However, there is some hints of truth to be found in their strange beliefs, and you've learned to tap into this odd power to harm your enemies.
Prerequisites: None
Benefits: As a move action, choose 1 creature within 60 ft. of at least one of the Platoon's Dolls. Whenever one or more Dolls in the Platoon takes damage, the targeted creature takes Xd4 untyped damage so long as at least one of the damaged Dolls is within 60 ft. of them. X equals one quarter the Doll Maker's class level, rounded up, the damage capping at half the damage done to the Doll, rounded down.

Only one creature can be targeted by this effect at a time, and multiple Platoons with this feat cannot target the same creature at the same time. Changing the target requires only a move action, and that the new target be within 60 ft. of one or more of the Platoon's Dolls. No matter how many of the Dolls in a Platoon are damaged by an effect, the target only takes the damage once per effect.

[UserShadow7989]

General Feats

Additional Link
Even when operating on the idea of strength in numbers, Doll Makers know full well that a single additional pair of hands can make all the difference.
Prerequisites: Dolls class ability
Benefit: You can form a Link with and control an additional 3 Dolls per day, up to 1.5x your effective character level.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times. Each time, increase the number of Links the Doll Maker can make each day by 3.

Improved String Casting
This simple breakthrough in refining the Doll Maker's technique is also arguably the most important one.
Prerequisites: Magic Strings class ability, Caster level 6th, Int 15
Benefit: The list of spells you can apply to all your Dolls through Magic Strings increases. Whenever you cast a spell with the range 'Personal', 'Touch', or a numeric range equal to or lesser than 25 ft + 5 ft./2 levels (I.E. 'Close' ranged spells or spells with a set range that would put them equal to or lower than such spells in range), you can choose to affect all your Dolls with the spell, instead of yourself or another creature.

Further, your Dolls can now benefit from mind-affecting spells you cast on them through Magic Strings, and morale bonuses produced by your spells, ignoring their mindless quality.
Normal: Magic Strings can only allow you to cast spells with 'Personal' or 'Touch' range spells on all Dolls simultaneously, and while it allows you to treat the Dolls as any creature type for the purposes of determining if they're a valid target, does not circumvent their mindless quality or other traits.

Life Sharing Dolls
Some Doll Makers would risk life and limb to protect their creations, others would sooner sacrifice them than suffer even a scratch. The technique is the same for both.
Prerequisites: Dolls class ability, Magic Strings class ability
Benefit: This feat grants two options, either of which can be used as an Immediate Action.

Firstly, when the Doll Maker takes damage, he or she may reduce that damage by half by inflicting damage equal to the reduction on all of their Linked Dolls. Secondary effects, such as a negative condition or penalty, are not mitigated in this way, nor can the damage inflicted onto the Dolls by this effect be decreased.

When a Doll takes damage, however, the Doll Maker can choose to reduce that damage by half by taking damage equal to the reduction. When multiple Dolls are damaged at the same time, the Doll Maker can choose how many times he or she applies this effect (though are limited to once on a given Doll). Secondary effects, such as a negative condition or penalty, are not mitigated in this way, nor can the damage inflicted onto the Doll Maker by this effect be decreased.

Practiced String-work
The familiarity of merging magic with puppeteer work is no stranger to you. With study and practice, you've learned how to slip in a certain spell on top of all others.
Prerequisites: Magic Strings class ability, Maintained Spell class ability
Benefit: Choose a single spell you know whose effect can be granted to your Dolls through your Maintained Spell class ability. All Dolls you create are treated as receiving the benefits of the spell as the effect of Maintained Spell, in addition to all the spell effects that would be granted through Maintained Spell normally. This benefit can be forgone at any time, but whenever applied, it grants the same spell's benefits as was chosen upon taking the feat.

Resonant String Casting
Though their prowess is limited compared to their peers, the Doll Maker has their share of tricks to compensate, most utilizing the Link they share with their Dolls. This particular technique involves 'echoing' a spell to amplify its effects more easily.
Prerequisites: Int 15, Any Metamagic Feat, Dolls class ability, Magic Strings class ability
Benefit: By having a Platoon spend a Full-Round Action to focus on assisting the process, any spell the Doll Maker casts that turn granted by their Doll Maker class levels can have any combination of Metamagic feats they know applied to it without adjusting the modified spell's level or casting time.

The adjusted level the spell would have been cannot be more than one level higher than the Doll Maker can cast normally.

Signature Dolls
Even within broader categories, artists and craftsmen/women alike have preferred techniques or styles in their work that defines them.
Prerequisites: Dolls class ability
Benefit: Choose a single Doll Feat without prerequisites. All Dolls you create are treated as having that Doll Feat in addition to all the Doll Feats they would have normally. This benefit can be forgone at any time, but whenever applied, it grants the same Doll Feat as was chosen upon taking the feat.

Synchronization
By implanting a miniscule portion of their very soul into their Magic Strings, the Doll Maker can share the benefits they receive with their Dolls, and vice-versa.
Prerequisites: Int 15, caster level 6th, Dolls class ability, Magic Strings class ability
Benefit: When the Doll Maker receives the benefits of a spell that can be cast simultaneously on all their Dolls through their Magic Strings class ability, they may grant the same benefits onto their Dolls at the same time.

Further, when a Doll receives the benefits of a spell that can be cast simultaneously on all Dolls through the Doll Maker's Magic Strings class ability, its Doll Maker may choose to extend that benefit to all of their Dolls and themselves.

Theoretical Craftsmanship
Though your ability to apply your magical knowledge is more limited than dedicated wizards, that does not mean you are incapable of wrapping your mind around the theory, nor what can be built from it.
Prerequisites: Dolls class ability, Magic Strings class ability, Any Item Creation Feat, Spellcraft 12 ranks.
Benefit: You can now craft a magic item without knowing the required spells, so long as a Wizard of equal level would be capable of knowing them.

To do this, you must make a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell level * 2) representing your knowledge of the workings of the spell and its effects. If you fail the check, you do not have the required knowledge, and cannot attempt the check again until you have had one week of rest with access to a suitable font of knowledge (such as a dedicated library or wizard's college) which you can study at/from. You must make this check for each spell you don't know individually.

This feat does not allow casting of a spell the Doll Maker does not have access to normally, nor does it offer a discount or reduction of the time, monetary, or XP costs of creating the item.

Versatile Creator
You make far more than just dolls.
Prerequisites: Dolls class ability, One or More of: Craft Construct feat or Animate Object, Raise Dead, Summon Monster (III or higher), or Summon Nature's Ally (III or higher) as a Spell Known or SLA.
Benefit: You can form a Link with any mindless or willing creature you've created or summoned, either instantly upon its creation/summoning or normally while determining your Platoons for the day.

The creature is placed in a Platoon and receives the associated benefits (such Maintained Spells and Doll Feats), but does not count against your limit of how many Dolls you may have a Link with at once. It acts upon your initiative with the same restrictions to its actions as Dolls within that Platoon.

An intelligent creature may choose to resist this effect and break the Link at any time, such as if it is given an order contrary to its nature (a summoned Good-aligned Outsider being ordered to commit an Evil act, for example) or otherwise ignore orders. A Doll Maker may similarly break the Link whenever they wish.

The Doll Maker can only have a number of Links through this feat equal to their Intelligence Modifier at one time. If they create or summon another creature(s) while already controlling their limit, they can break any number of Links to make room. This does not extend the duration of whatever effect created/summoned the Linked creature.

Metamagic Feats

Doll-Divided Spell [Metamagic]
By splitting a spell through your Link, you can project multiple instances of it at once.
Prerequisites: Dolls class ability, Magic Strings class ability
Benefit: This metamagic feat can only be applied through a spell being cast through the Magic Strings class ability. Choose two or more Dolls you have a Link to when casting the modified spell.

Upon completing the spell, apply its effect once for each of the chosen Dolls, each instance cast using each respective Doll's square to determine the range and (by extension) potential targets of each instance of the spell's effect.

The modified spell's level is increased by 1 for every Doll chosen for this effect after the first, and its casting time is affected normally. Further, treat the Doll Maker's caster level as half of what it is normally (rounded down, minimum 1) for all purposes relating to the effects of the modified spell, and reduce the Save DC by 1 for each Doll.

Doll-Stored Spell [Metamagic]
Instead of making your machinations immediately apparent, you can choose to store away a trump card into your Doll.
Prerequisites: Dolls class ability, Magic Strings class ability
Benefit: Choose one Doll you have a Link to. One of that Doll's weapons gains the Spell Storing quality, and the cast spell is stored into it. When the cast spell is no longer stored within the chosen weapon, it loses the Spell Storing quality granted by this effect.

This metamagic feat does not increase the modified spell's level or casting time, but can only be applied to a targeted spell with a casting time of 1 Standard Action of 3rd level or lower. If a Doll already has a spell stored in their weapon, it cannot be used for this effect.

Multiclassing Feats

Cloth Chorus
Expanding your arcane training and gaining the ability to 'echo' your voice through your strings, your odd abilities make you an entire performance troop- or army- onto yourself.
Prerequisites: Dolls class ability, Maintained Spell class ability, Bardic Music class ability, able to cast 2nd level spells
Benefit: Count half your Doll Maker class levels towards the progression of your Bardic Music, Bard spells per day, spells known, and caster level. Half your Bard levels are likewise counted as Doll Maker levels for the purposes of progressing your Doll Maker spells per day, spells known, caster level, Doll hit points, and the number of Dolls you can form a Link with each day.

Additionally, your Dolls can now act as a chorus for your Bardic Music. By having a Platoon spend a Standard Action, you can increase the potency of your Bardic Music as if you were a Bard 3 levels higher for each Platoon that does so. This increase lasts until your next turn and cannot treat your Bard level as higher than your character level.

Alternately, you can have a Platoon use its own actions to maintain a Bardic Music effect for you for 1 round, though you must resume maintaining it or continue having a Platoon maintain it for you afterwards.

Patchwork Army
Combining your arcane training with martial knowledge and combat tactics, your Dolls become dangerous warriors.
Prerequisites: Dolls class ability, Doll Feat class ability, 2 or More Fighter Bonus Feats granted by class, BAB +3
Benefit: When forming a Platoon, choose a number of feats you possess that are on both the Fighter Bonus Feat list and the list of feats under your Doll Feat class ability equal to the number of Fighter Bonus Feats you've received from class levels (to a maximum of 1/3rd your levels in those classes +1, rounded up). Treat the Dolls in that Platoon as possessing the chosen feats.

In addition, treat your Doll Maker class levels as having 3/4th Base Attack Bonus progression, and treat your Doll Maker class level as 1 higher for every 2 levels you have in classes that grant Fighter Bonus Feats for the purposes of your spells known, spells per day, Doll hit points, and the number of Dolls you can form a Link with each day.

Stitched Sneaks
Having eyes and ears all over makes the job of most rogues much harder. In your case, it makes your life vastly easier.
Prerequisites: Dolls class ability, Sneak Attack class ability, Trapfinding class ability, Trap Sense class ability
Benefit: Count half your Doll Maker class levels as Rogue levels for the purposes of progressing your Sneak Attack and Trap Sense class abilities. Similarly, count half your Rogue levels as Doll Maker levels when determining the progression of your spells per day, spells known, caster level, Doll hit points, and the number of Dolls you can form a Link with each day.

In addition, your Dolls are treated as having the Trapfinding, Sneak Attack, and Trap Sense class abilities of a rogue 1/4th your rogue level (rounded up).


Other Misc.

Pathfinder Conversion
Remove Concentrate, Decipher Script, Hide, Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering), Knowledge (The Planes) Listen, Move Silently, Search, Spot and Use Rope from class skills. Replace with Fly, Knowledge (Engineering), Knowledge (Planes), Linguistics, Perception, and Stealth.
Teamwork Feats can be chosen as Doll Feats, among other feats being available (to be determined, at DM's discretion at this time).
Spell list is expanded and adapted (see below).

0th - Arcane Mark, Bleed, Detect Magic, Guidance, Haunted Fey Aspect, Light, Mending, Penumbra, Prestidigitation, Read Magic, Resistance, Stabilize, Touch of Fatigue, Virtue

1st - Air Bubble, Ant Haul, Aspect of the Falcon, Blend, Chill Touch, Corrosive Touch, Crafter's Fortune, Cure Light Wounds, Disguise Self, Emblazon Crest, Endure Elements, Enlarge Person, Entropic Shield, Expeditious Retreat, Feather Fall, Feather Step, Infernal Healing, Inflict Light Wounds, Ironbeard, Jury-Rig, Lighten Object, Mage Armor, Magic Aura, Magic Fang, Magic Weapon, Obscure Object, Polypurpose Panacea, Protection from Chaos/Evil/Good/Law, Reduce Person, Shield, Shock Shield, Shocking Grasp, Timely Inspiration, Touch of Gracelessness, Touch of the Sea, True Strike, Unerring Weapon, Vanish

2nd - Aid, Align Weapon, Alter Self, Animal Aspect, Aspect of the Bear, Barkskin, Bear's Endurance, Bestow Weapon Proficiency, Bookward, Blur, Bull's Strength, Bullet Shield, Cat's Grace, Communal Ant Haul, Communal Endure Elements, Communal Protection from Chaos/Evil/Good/Law, Cure Moderate Wounds, Cushioning Bands, Defensive Shock, Discovery Torch, Disfiguring Touch, Disguise Other, Eagle's Splendor, Effortless Armor, Elemental Touch, False Life, Fox's Cunning, Frigid Touch, Gallant Inspiration, Ghostly Disguise, Ghoul Touch, Glide, Heroism, Inflict Moderate Wounds, Instant Armor, Invisibility, Kinetic Reverberation, Locate Object, Make Whole, Mirror Image, Misdirection, Owl's Wisdom, Protection from Arrows, Resist Energy, Slipstream, Spiderclimb, Tactical Acumen, Touch of Idiocy

3rd - Arcane Concordance, Ape Walk, Beast Shape 1, Bestow Curse, Blink, Burrow, Call of the Void, Channel Vigor, Communal Protection from Arrows, Communal Resist Energy, Communal Spider Climb, Coordinated Effort, Cure Serious Wounds, Dispel Magic, Displacement, Elemental Aura, Eruptive Pustules, Explosive Runes, Fly, Gaseous Form, Good Hope, Greater Magic Fang, Greater Magic Weapon, Haste, Healing Thief, Inflict Serious Wounds, Invisibility Purge, Keen Edge, Locate Weakness, Mass Feather Step, Nondetection, Poison, Protection from Energy, Shrink Item, Undead Anatomy 1, Vampiric Touch, Water Breathing, Water Walk

4th - Air Walk, Beast Shape 2, Calcific Touch, Communal Nondetection, Communal Protection from Energy, Communal Water Walk, Cure Critical Wounds, Death Ward, Dimension Door, Elemental Body 1, Freedom of Movement, Greater Animal Aspect, Greater False Life, Greater Heroism, Greater Infernal Healing, Greater Invisibility, Inflict Critical Wounds, Lesser Globe of Invulnerability, Life Bubble, Mass Enlarge Person, Mass Reduce Person, Monstrous Physique 2, Overland Flight, Primal Scream, Remove Curse, Ride the Waves, Rusting Grasp, Shadow Projection, Shadow Step, Shocking Image, Spell Immunity, Thorn Body, Touch of Slime, True Form, Vermin Shape 1, Ward Shield

Prestige Class Ideas (Under consideration, just spit-balling really)
Puppet Master: Can form a Link with creatures, treating them as Dolls and granting them the benefits of Doll feats and the like until the Link is broken. Requires the ability to cast Charm Person, Charm Monster, Suggestion, Dominate Person, and/or Dominate Monster as spells, and works by forming the Link as part of successfully casting those spells (or having a willing target), but does not grant control if the utilized spell does not. If it does, the target acts on the Puppet Master's initiative as if they were a member of the Platoon with the same restrictions, as well as on their own initiative. Only provides 1 more Doll per level, compared to the Doll Maker's 1.5.
Living Doll: Can extend benefits of Strings/Doll Feats to self, gain construct traits and other bonuses. Requires Alter Self/Polymorph and Craft Construct Feat. Only provides 1 more Doll per level, compared to the Doll Maker's 1.5.

Notes on Spell Selection
Note that while Magic Strings allows a sizable portion of the Doll Maker's buffs to work on their Dolls, it doesn't allow all of them to do so. Bear's Endurance and similar spells provide no benefits to Dolls by virtue of Dolls having no attributes. Magic Weapon only affects a single weapon touched, whereas Magic Strings' first effect explicitly targets the Dolls themselves (meaning Magic Fang is necessary for them).

As a result of the Doll Maker's class abilities, different spell choices will determine how much you're focusing on buffering your Dolls and how much you focus your Allies (or your enemies), and some spells are better when Maintained while others are better if you plan to use your Maintained Spells for other effects (Longstrider vs. Expeditious Retreat being a good example; if you plan on Maintaining ER regularly, Longstrider becomes useless, otherwise Longstrider's longer duration might make it worthwhile).

12/14/13: Posted! Changed wording in several areas for clarity (can Link with multiple Dolls at once), and noted that Dolls revert back to the materials used to make them upon reaching 0 hit points (Credit to Debihuman for pointing out the issues).

Considering modifying Doll Size/Hit Points, among other possible changes improved Doll hit points to 3 + (3 * class level) + Doll Maker's Int Modifier, made their default size Small, and gave them Evasion as an ability to make them more durable (thanks to Hamste for explaining the issues and Gnomes2169 for advice on the specifics), bumped the Doll Maker themselves up to a d6 hit die.

Added a few more Doll Feats to improve the Doll Maker's options, and edited the 'Of Legendary Cloth' Doll Feat.
12/15/13: Added a pair of feats for the Doll Maker themselves, and the 'Stuffed Mimicry' Doll Feat.
12/16/13: Added the 'Voodoo' Doll Feat.
12/18/13: Added the 'Versatile Creator' Feat.
12/20/13: Did some number crunching; a Doll Maker's Dolls, at level 20 with bare minimum Int to cast 4th level spells, would have a total 2600 hit points compared to a 20th level Con-optimized Raging Barbarian with average HP's 555.

While the Barbarian has the advantages of being able to heal to full between battles while lost Dolls remain gone for 24 and only being hit by a given AoE attack once, a Dex optimized Doll Maker can still field over 1150 hit points at once (more if they also enhance their Int beyond bare minimum) and contribute both in damage and in various areas besides.

To counter it without reducing Dolls back to one-hit wonders, I've dropped the number of Dolls a Doll Maker can field to equal their Dexterity Modifier, rather than be double it (which still gives them a lead in each encounter, just not as large of one).

If a player wishes to have more Dolls, there is now a Doll Feat that lets you effectively double the number of Dolls in a Platoon without hitting your control limit, in exchange for each having half the normal HP and penalties to Attack/Damage Rolls.
12/20/13 (Continued): Forgot to add that Tactical Shift cannot be selected with Signature Doll. Also edited Larger than Life to prevent use of Signature Doll to get Large Dolls (and thus multiple minions with reach) at 3rd level. Added Life Sharing Dolls and Synchronization feats.
12/23/13: Tweaked description of Doll Maker roles, added the Pathfinder spell list.
12/24/13: Added Resonant String Casting feat, noted that Doll Feat list can be expanded with splatbooks. Also added the Swiss Army Doll Doll Feat, and modified the wording of the Strong Connection Doll Feat.
12/25/13: Created the Additional Link, Doll-Divided Spell, Doll-Stored Spell, and Patchwork Army feats. Added the Doubled Aura, Hyper-Focused, and Rallying Banner Doll Feats. Cleaned up some more wording issues (in this case the Radiate Spell Doll Feat). Fixed some typos and made sure the 'L' in 'Link' was capitalized in each appearance to emphasize its importance in a term (such as 'D' in 'Doll' and 'P' in 'Platoon'. Fixed a MAJOR wording error in the Doll Feat class ability that slipped by me somehow.
12/25/13 (Continued): Organized the Doll class ability into several sections for easy reading/clarity, increased maximum range from the Dolls normally to 1 mile, and added the ability to reform a Link with a Doll whose Link was broken outside of being destroyed by damage/effects.
12/26/13: Added Ghoul Touch, Longstrider, and Touch of Idiocy to the Doll Maker's spell list. Nerfed Divide and Conquer.
12/30/13: Fixed a typo in the feat prerequisites (the class ability is called 'Dolls', not 'Doll'), and added a pair of multiclassing feats- one for a Rogue multiclasser and one for a Bard.
12/30/13 (Continued): Added Air Walk, Chill Touch, Dispel Magic (why wasn't that there?), Invisibility Purge, Lesser Globe of Invulnerability, Locate Object, Magic Aura, Nondetection, Remove Curse, Shocking Grasp to the Doll Maker's spell list. Dropped Flame Blade from the Pathfinder spell list. Added Theoretical Craftsmanship feat.
12/31/13: Slight edit to the section explaining Doll statistics, noting that Dolls treated as capable of manipulating items/equipment (such as from the Finer Manipulation Doll Feat) are able to do so as a creature with two arms would (I.E. no making a Doll have hundreds of arms, loading them up with Clubs for free, and getting a crapton of attacks per round or any shenanigans of that flavor). Dolls with both Finer Manipulation AND Two Weapon Fighting can now be made with two weapons instead of one.
1/1/14: Dolls no longer gain an extra hit point per class level in Pathfinder over their 3.5e counterparts. Further elaborated on Dolls and feats in the Doll section for the sake of thoroughness. Bizarre Form Doll Feat no longer requires Animal Form, and Doll Platoons that gain a Breath Weapon from the feat can now receive 'Metabreath' feats as Doll Feats. Fixed a wording issue with Maintained Spell, and a similar wording problem with the Resonant String Casting and Synchronization feats.
1/2/14: Tactical Shift can no longer change to Divide and Conquer or Hyper-Focused. Removed the aforementioned edit to Finer Manipulation as it was unnecessary- the Doll Maker chooses if the Platoon has one or two of the weapon to each Doll. Changed Multiclassing feats to also advance Doll hit points, and Patchwork Army now only provides a number of Bonus Feats equal to the amount of Fighter Bonus Feats granted by your class levels. Dolls now receive your Dex to Attack Rolls only; your Int is what buffers their Damage Rolls.
1/2/14 (Continued): In a fairly important change, the Doll Maker's total Dolls per day is now 1.5x their class level (rounded up) instead of just double their class level. This is mostly meant to limit their strong standing at the earliest levels and slightly tone down their absurd reserves near the end of the progression, and shouldn't affect the area between so long as players are cautious. Additional Link now affects per day Links rather than concurrent Links, as the latter is only opening up possibilities of abuse if capitalized on and redundant with the existence of the Divide and Conquer Doll Feat.
1/4/14: Edited spell list to highlight which spells can be cast on all Dolls through Magic Strings' effect and/or maintained through Maintained Spell. Added Improved String Casting feat, which expands the number of spells one can cast through Magic Strings.
1/10/14: Noted that the Doll Maker is aware of the condition and general location of their Dolls at all times. Added 5 new 'Command' Doll Feats, which allow the Doll Maker to sacrifice a Platoon's ability to make Standard or larger actions each turn to grant them a passive ability they can use every turn without the Doll Maker having to make an order first.
1/11/14: In an attempt to streamline the Doll Maker in combat, added a pair of optional rules to how Dolls in a Platoon Attack and make Saves. As the first edit to cut away useless/poor/redundant options, Strong Connection is no longer a Doll Feat, but gained automatically by the Doll Maker at 11th level. Overhauled Animal Form to make it not useless, and buffed Cruel Touch and Merciful Touch a hair by making them scale slightly.
1/21/14: Patched up an exploit with Patchwork Army- dipping a level of Monk would net a free three FBFs for your Dolls Platoons before. Now you must have a BAB of +3 or higher (to counter early entry) and receive a maximum of (1/3rd levels in those classes + 1 rounded up) feats from it. Added Rapid Reload to the list of Doll Feats.
1/28/14: Fixed a minor typo. Fixed the 'Miniaturize and Multiply' Doll Feat, as well as buffed it to make it more worthwhile.
1/29/14: Clarified how Dolls perform Attacks of Opportunity.
1/29/14 (continued):Work on the Doll Feats and other updates has begun! Details below.
1/30/14: Share Sense is now a direct Doll Maker class ability instead of a feat. All feats that had Share Sense as a prerequisite have been reworked in a way that it is no longer a prerequisite. Sentinels and Improved Sentinels have been rolled into a single feat.
2/1/14: Changed Stuffed Mimicry's duration to (class level) rounds per day. Tweaked Animal Form feat.
2/2/14: Fixed a typo. Clarified that Expanded Spell Knowledge only grants access to spells of a level the Doll Maker can cast (before, one could hypothetically pick a high level spell to qualify for prerequisites early, or other possible abuses).
2/3/14: Dropped the circumstance bonus increase from applying the Swiss Army Doll feat to a Platoon multiple times from +4 for each to +2 each. Added Strong Connection as a prerequisite to Resonant String Casting to prevent giving wizard free metamagic for a feat and a level dip. Found a pretty big Copy and Paste oversight in the Spell section- listing bonus spells per day as linked to Charisma instead of Intelligence. This has been rectified.
2/3/14 (Continued): Edited Expanded Spell Knowledge to allow spells learned through it to be cast through Magic Strings if they are on the default list of Doll Maker spells. Tweaked a bit of ambiguous wording from Magic Strings; a spell need only be on the Doll Maker class spell list (along with the other conditions) to be cast through Magic Strings; spells from other classes that appear on the list can be cast through it as well.
2/3/14 (Continued): Edited the wording of Maintained Spell to be cleaner, made several similar if more minor edits to other class abilities, and simplified Strong Connection. Renamed Sentinels' Iron Shields to Iron Guard and removed the prerequisite. Removed the prerequisite from Guard Command.
2/4/14: Tweaked the specifics of how forming Links and ordering Dolls functions, and removed the (now redundant) Strong Connection class ability. Removed Strong Connection as a prerequisite from Resonant String Casting, instead just noting it only works with spells granted to the character by their Doll Maker class levels.
2/7/14: A major nerf to higher level Doll Makers has been applied- Dolls no longer receive extra iterative attacks from a high BAB. They can still receive them from other sources, but this was done to compensate for the fact that Dolls already have a large damage advantage over most other classes by virtue of their sheer number acting as a multiplier to the effectiveness of their attacks and any buffs they have.
2/16/14: Modified Theoretical Craftsmanship to apply to making any magic item, clarified it a bit. Similarly revamped Versatile Creator.
3/12/14: Updated planned changes.
3/14/14: Fixed a fairly nasty oversight on my part, pointed out by Pesimismrocks. Noted Dolls are still able to perform various actions despite lacking ability scores, and explained how such things are resolved in their case. Tweaked Finer Manipulation to reflect the change.
3/15/14: Replaced the prior fix with a simpler, more intuitive one. As a side effect, Dolls are now viable targets of Bull's Strength and Cat's Grace, and now have the default carrying capacity of a small creature with 10 Strength.
4/1/14: Updated table coding to new version.
4/24/14: Renamed the Voodoo Doll Feat to Vindictive Karma and modified its mechanics. Fixed a goof on the table at 16th level listing the fort and ref saves as +10 and the will save as +5, when it should have been the opposite.
4/28/14: Edited tables to make them a bit easier on the eyes.
6/19/14: Fixed minor hiccups in the Attack Command and Guard Command Doll Feats. Increased the Concentration check DC to cast a spell while threatened by a Doll under the effects of Harass Command to 15 + Spell Level * 2 (from 15 + Spell Level).

Doll Feats:
Planned Edits:


On the Chopping Block:
-Stuffed Mimicry: Adds another thing to keep track of and opens the door to a lot of the same abuse as its infamous inspiration, even if the underlying concept is something I'm interested in (maybe limit it to a single benefit from the list of things it would get, and allowing the Doll Maker to take it multiple times to get an additional thing each time?). Might be alright with the reduction to rounds for its duration instead of minutes.

-Vengeful Impulse/Improved Vengeful Impulse: An interesting idea, but ultimately a bit weak and somewhat of a hassle to keep track of in the case of the latter. Generic bonuses are something I want to trim, partly because the Doll Maker's spell selection will likely cover that category easily enough, partly because the number of Dolls turns even small bonuses into potential game breakers if stacked, and partly because they're just boring and add nothing to the flavor of the Dolls. The Improved version is more likely to go than the basic version, despite being more unique, for the amount of bookkeeping it adds (depending on the feats chosen).


Dropped:
-Bizarre Form: Increasing reach is easily done by increasing size or granting the Dolls a reach weapon; making a standalone option is redundant. Making Doll attacks magical is as easy as casting Magic Fang, and possibly something to consider as a default feature granted at a certain level. Breath Weapons seem like a cool option, until you realize that figuring out how to aim 3 or more (upwards of 12 at higher levels with the proper magic items) AoE effects would be a massive headache, especially when you're (by definition with your Dolls) going to be fighting in cluttered spaces with lots of potential for friendly fire. Energy damage is both bland as a concept and piling more damage onto the Doll Maker's already high damage potential is undesirable.

-Coordinated Assault: Conditional modifiers that undermine the optional rule meant to streamline number of rolls, further flipping the action economy the bird, and a redundant effect. Besides all that, none of it is particularly flavorful. You already have the feeling of controlling a small army from the Dolls themselves; Doll Feats are meant to add character to your chosen Dolls, or at least some interesting options for how to build them.

-Share Sense: Made standard, minus the Blindsense. It seemed like something that would come naturally to experienced Doll Makers, added little for the investment of a Doll Feat, and served only to be a feat tax for several other Doll Feats that would be much more attractive without in the end.

-Tactical Shift: As cool an idea as it feels, in practice this would likely serve just to grind combat to a halt as the Doll Maker player looks over their options for something suited for the situation. Worse still is the possibility the player finds nothing, takes their turn, and goes back to check all over again the next turn. Further, the feat's existence limits what new Doll Feats can be added without making the Doll Maker too strong by virtue of potentially providing them access to any and all Doll Feats within one round of needing them. Might be reworked into something (like a feat that lets the Doll Maker pick one Doll Feat each day, which they can swap with one of a Platoon's chosen Doll Feats and back Int Mod times per day? 'Tactical' effects seems more the domain of the Doll Maker themselves than their creations).


Modified:
-Voodoo: Simple, sweet, and even somewhat flavorful, that doesn't change that the original Voodoo Doll Feat was fairly lackluster in all but a handful of circumstances (and overpowered in those), not really being that interesting an option. Changed to Vindictive Karma and made a bit more interesting/useful.


New Doll Feat Ideas:
-Shifting Form. Requires Animal Form, allows all Dolls in the Platoon to switch from one form to another as a Move Action. All Dolls must be of the same 'Form' at a time- having one be Avian Form, three be Primate Form, and two be Quadraped Form is not possible.


Other changes being considered:
-Heavily considering dropping Signature Dolls as a feat. An extra Doll Feat is vastly more powerful than the nearest equivalent (extra rage powers/rogue talents from Pathfinder), even if limited to one you select upon gaining the feat.

-Considering replacing the capstone ability; besides slowing down combat by having multiple Platoons act in a round, it's not really flashy or impressive enough to really shout 'going 20 levels in this class was totally worth it'.

-Thinking of making the 'Dolls at a time' control limit equal to 2 + 1/2 class level (rounded down) as opposed to Dexterity-based, or otherwise making it a cap. At 1st-4th level, a Doll Maker with high Dexterity has a huge advantage on other classes with the same resources by having multiple, disposable, customizable Animal Companion-like followers at once.

-Might slightly adjust the spells known or spells per day progression to have the increases to a given spell level's spells known/per day pushed back by a level.

-One thing I've been struggling with is whether or not to change the Doll Maker to a prepared caster. From a fluff standpoint it makes sense- they study like Wizards and draw upon that instead of an innate ability, Intelligence being their casting attribute. From a mechanical standpoint (and my original reasoning), they already have a lot on their plate in regards to bookkeeping because of the Dolls themselves, so just having to keep track of how many spells of each level they've cast is a bit of a reprieve.

-Dolls upgrade from Evasion to Improved Evasion at Xth level of Doll Maker?

-Normal feats need to be revised as well.

[Debihuman]

Unfortunately, you have left out the stats of the dolls. How many hit points can it have and how big can it be? What happens when a doll is destroyed?

If it takes 15 minutes to make a doll, the easiest thing would be to target the doll(s) first. What happens to the dolls if the doll make is unconscious?


Also, are the magic strings visible? Could they be targeted for attack either physical or magical?

Debby

[Hamste]

I love the idea of this class but I find that it fell short in the fact that it doesn't seem to be that useful to a party. At level 1 the dolls do almost nothing (Tiny creatures have no reach). At one hp per level plus intelligence they are dying in one shot and their ac is going to be horrid through out the entire game. Even worse you are going to be spending most of your time just sitting in the middle of combat moving your dolls around. The feats do almost nothing to actually help with the dolls inherent weakness and though they can get massive damage potential at high levels they are still going to die from a single AoE (at low levels even some burning oil). It is all or nothing with the doll maker which I find is a huge negative to the class.

[UserShadow7989]

Unfortunately, you have left out the stats of the dolls. How many hit points can it have and how big can it be? What happens when a doll is destroyed?

If it takes 15 minutes to make a doll, the easiest thing would be to target the doll(s) first. What happens to the dolls if the doll make is unconscious?


Also, are the magic strings visible? Could they be targeted for attack either physical or magical?

Debby

The Dolls' stats are listed in the second post- they have class level + Int Mod hit points a piece, and Tiny size. When destroyed (something I did leave out by mistake), the link to the Doll is broken- you could use the materials to make another Doll, but it would count as a new one towards your limits rather than the same one.

The 15 minutes was poor wording on my part- it was meant that you could link with up to your maximum number of Dolls in a single 15 minutes ('A Doll Maker can only form a link with and control a number of Dolls up to double their Dexterity modifier at a time (minimum 2),' was supposed to also mean you could link to them at once, but... yeah, that wording is horrible). That way you could refresh your set up between big battles so you're not holding up the party for a long time, but can't do it mid-fight.

The Dolls fall apart or otherwise become inert if the Doll Maker is rendered dead or unconscious- or if they move too far from the Doll Maker (25ft * class level) for that matter, stated in the last paragraph of the Doll class ability.

The Magic Strings are non-physical (not stated in the ability, which I'm going to fix as soon as I finish this post), and their appearance, including if there is any visible sign of them to begin with or they're invisible, is up to the player (which was stated in the ability).


I love the idea of this class but I find that it fell short in the fact that it doesn't seem to be that useful to a party. At level 1 the dolls do almost nothing (Tiny creatures have no reach). At one hp per level plus intelligence they are dying in one shot and their ac is going to be horrid through out the entire game. Even worse you are going to be spending most of your time just sitting in the middle of combat moving your dolls around. The feats do almost nothing to actually help with the dolls inherent weakness and though they can get massive damage potential at high levels they are still going to die from a single AoE (at low levels even some burning oil). It is all or nothing with the doll maker which I find is a huge negative to the class.

The scaling of the Dolls' hit points is what I've been struggling with. On one hand, I wanted them to be a bit fragile to make up for their numbers (starting at low-mid levels, your Dolls per day will surpass a Barbarian in total hit points, with the advantages of being able to sponge single strong attacks better and immunity to several conditions, and the disadvantages of having the single point of failure (the Doll Maker themselves) and really, really not liking AoE effects).

On the other hand, it's like you said- they can't really take a hit, and no reach means they have to wait to 3rd level (and access to a crossbow) or for the Doll Master to cast Enlarge Person to be able to do much in the fight.

I do have a few ideas to fix it, but I'm not sure which would work or be too weak/too strong. My first idea would be to make the bonus to their HP Intelligence Modifier x 2 instead of just Intelligence Modifier, making them actually able to take a hit early on without making them too much stronger at the end.

Another would be to increase their starting size to Small, giving them some reach instead of requiring they eat an AoO moving into the enemy's square first, possibly dropping the Doll Maker's Dex bonus to damage (but not attack rolls) to compensate for the increased damage and keep the Dolls from getting too crazy in that department when you start controlling a lot of them.

I could also give them Evasion or even Improved Evasion at some point- AoE damage effects still do a number on them just by how many are hit in one go, but that gives them the ability to not instantly die and leave the Doll Maker sitting in the corner for the rest of the fight. Modifier Doll hit points and size, and granted them Evasion to start. I hope they'll be a bit more useful now.

[ShiningStarling]

I like this idea, but before making a big long winded review or anything, I have a few questions:

Is it impossible to acquire the doll feat "Of Legendary Cloth"? It requires 5 Doll Feats, and a Doll Maker only acquire 5 such feats over the course of their career. It seems the requirement is for that of an epic Doll Maker to be able to gain it once, much less to take it multiple times as is implied that one may do. Also, do Dolls gain feats from having class levels, such as the feat for being a 1st level character, or the Fighter's bonus feat, or the Wizard's Scribe Scroll? Can they have familiars? Can they actually become spellcasters? Heck, if I could I would take the feat 5 times, make them all druids that took Natural Spell and have them wildshape into bears. They'd be tiny little healing batteries of endless bear-shaped destruction. Especially if they also got animal companions from being Druids. I really like this idea, but I'm not sure that is what you were going for.

Also, on the sharing of spells, it says that one may share the effects of spells with your dolls. Since healing spells don't affect constructs, I take it that you meant they gain the healing touch themselves if you were to use Cure Severity Level Wounds through the strings. Does this mean that if you have 20 Dolls, all say flying so that they can touch a Zombie Ogre, you could cast Cure Light Wounds through them and force that Ogre to save 20 times against 1d8+5 damage? Or if your ally was down by a couple hundred hitpoints, why bother with your Cleric's Heal spell when you could cast one CLW through your dolls and heal almost as much? (If that isn't what you meant, then the power of this class goes down quite a bit, and you may want to include the "Repair Severity Level Damage" spells from the Spell Compendium)

One more question, not quite on the same level of severity as the previous 2. It says "Spells on your class spell list" may be cast through the strings. Does this mean that if I had a level of Cleric, I could Clerically cast CLW through them rather than using a Doll Maker spell to do it? It is on the class spell list, just from a different spell slot.

I really, really like this class idea, I just think that there are a couple directions it could go and there are some things that need to be more explicitly stated before moving forward. Awesome idea :smallsmile:

[UserShadow7989]

I like this idea, but before making a big long winded review or anything, I have a few questions:

Is it impossible to acquire the doll feat "Of Legendary Cloth"? It requires 5 Doll Feats, and a Doll Maker only acquire 5 such feats over the course of their career. It seems the requirement is for that of an epic Doll Maker to be able to gain it once, much less to take it multiple times as is implied that one may do.

It's an epic feat, only obtainable when the Doll Maker is at epic level. The Doll Maker would get additional Doll Feats at the same rate they scale through the normal levels (23rd, 27th, 31st, 35th, 39th, etc. levels).


Also, do Dolls gain feats from having class levels, such as the feat for being a 1st level character, or the Fighter's bonus feat, or the Wizard's Scribe Scroll? Can they have familiars? Can they actually become spellcasters? Heck, if I could I would take the feat 5 times, make them all druids that took Natural Spell and have them wildshape into bears. They'd be tiny little healing batteries of endless bear-shaped destruction. Especially if they also got animal companions from being Druids. I really like this idea, but I'm not sure that is what you were going for.

They do in fact gain bonus feats and animal companions/familiars from the classes, and any other features the class would grant, but none of the normal benefits from leveling aside from what the classes grant (so no normal feat progression or attribute increases or the like). You could even make them Doll Makers themselves (Dollception!).

But keep in mind that their class level is always going to be much lower than yours, essentially being level (your class level -19)/4 (rounded down) at most, so they're not going to be much stronger for it.


Also, on the sharing of spells, it says that one may share the effects of spells with your dolls. Since healing spells don't affect constructs, I take it that you meant they gain the healing touch themselves if you were to use Cure Severity Level Wounds through the strings. Does this mean that if you have 20 Dolls, all say flying so that they can touch a Zombie Ogre, you could cast Cure Light Wounds through them and force that Ogre to save 20 times against 1d8+5 damage? Or if your ally was down by a couple hundred hitpoints, why bother with your Cleric's Heal spell when you could cast one CLW through your dolls and heal almost as much? (If that isn't what you meant, then the power of this class goes down quite a bit, and you may want to include the "Repair Severity Level Damage" spells from the Spell Compendium)

The options with Magic Strings are as follows:
Cast a personal/touch range spell. It affects all Dolls. For the purposes of spells that affect only a specific creature type, only affect objects, or only affect creatures, treat the Doll as whatever would make it a valid target. (See second paragraph, last line of Magic String ability)
Cast a spell. Act as though you were in one of your Dolls' squares to determine range/area of effect.

So essentially you can't mass heal an undead into oblivion or super heal your party members, but you can buff/heal multiple Dolls with a single personal/touch spell at the same time, even if that spell normally doesn't work on mindless constructs. You can also use Dolls to apply a heal or buff to an ally without getting up close yourself (such as if the party tank is getting mobbed and you're too squishy to survive whatever's doing the mobbing on the following turn) or a debuff to an enemy under similar circumstances.

I went this route since there aren't a lot of buffing or otherwise positive spells that can affect mindless constructs, especially in core (which a lot of people may be limited to, hence why the spell list only includes spells from core but notes splatbook use should expand your options).


One more question, not quite on the same level of severity as the previous 2. It says "Spells on your class spell list" may be cast through the strings. Does this mean that if I had a level of Cleric, I could Clerically cast CLW through them rather than using a Doll Maker spell to do it? It is on the class spell list, just from a different spell slot.

While a bit of a gray area, I'd personally rule 'yes'. The limitation is mostly meant for excessively powerful spells- imagine if someone cast Polymorph and it affected every Doll, for example. That's also the reason for the Expanded Spell Knowledge ability's limitation- otherwise a 13th level Doll Maker could have a baker's dozen of x-headed Hydras with just a standard action, and have a move action left over to make them act in the same turn, all for one spell.


I really, really like this class idea, I just think that there are a couple directions it could go and there are some things that need to be more explicitly stated before moving forward. Awesome idea :smallsmile:

I'm glad you like it, though I agree that it needs some work, like at the very least making the Dolls less 'killed by a stiff breeze'-y.

[UserShadow7989]

Since I've made a lot of updates since the last reply to this topic, and the game I'm hoping to test the class in doesn't seem like it'll happen anytime soon, I'm bumping this topic with the hopes of getting some fresh feedback.

Particularly I'm interested in opinions about the planned changes listed in the spoiler at the bottom of the third post, but I'd appreciate any and all constructive criticism on the class and its options, or even something as simple as pointing out typos and wording errors.

[Pesimismrocks]

Although I can't really review this in depth, I see multiple problems with the fact dolls have no ability scores. For starters they have the inability to lift anything at all. If you give them doll armour they fall to the ground due to the fact they actually cannot heave themselves off the ground. They cannot escape spiders webs, rubber bands or glue sticks. They can't balance on anything and fall over on sandpaper. They cannot clear the floor if they can't fly. They cannot pass a move silently check, and thus forth must make an infinite amount of noise. They must also glow really bright because they can't hide either.

They really need effective strength and dex scores or at the bare minimum the capability to use the doll makers skills.

Other than that, adore the concept, I've always loved the whimsical magic of a toymaker

Edit: I've now seen finer manipulation. Thisdoe make many of my points void, bout I still believe that without this, and even with this there are still huge issues due to having no stats.

[naosuke]

I like the idea of a puppet master class, and I once owned a game called "Eternal Eyes" that used a puppet style system, it used jewels to bring the "blank" puppet to life, it was more of a random creature creation when the creature was brought to life, but each Mappom( the general name of the living puppets" learned skills from different crystals, also in the same the crystals also allowed the Mappom evolve into another stronger version.

Here's a link to the game on ign for a better explanation.
http://www.ign.com/games/eternal-eyes/ps-15462