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Phillammon
2014-01-19, 05:55 PM
The Voidwalker

"The balance of power must be preserved." -Khaz Al'Dinh, Voidwalker

Some say that Voidwalkers are simply insane. Others still say that they are envious luddites, hating magic only because they have no mastery of it themselves. Ask a Voidwalker, however, and they will tell you precisely why they hate magic. Because they have seen what magic has wrought, what it will do. Arcane, divine, no matter the source, it will consume everything. The very fact they can comprehend the Void at all is the fault of magic, and if they leave it unchecked... the consequences would be dire.


Role: Voidwalkers are mobile fighters, teleporting quickly across the battlefield to shut down foes. The Voidwalker's main strength comes in taking down magic users and eliminating them.

Alignment: Voidwalkers may be of any alignment.

Hit Die: d8

Starting Gold: As rogue

Class Skills
The Voidwalker's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Acrobatics (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Disable Device (Dex), Fly (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Knowledge (Planes) (Int), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Perception (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Use Magic Device (Int)

Skill Ranks per Level: (4 + Int modifier)


Voidwalker


Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special


1st
+1
+0
+2
+2
Antimage (1 school/domain), Spellbreaker (+1), Manifest Void Blade


2nd
+2
+0
+3
+3
Evasion


3rd
+3
+1
+3
+3
Aether Whisper, Lesser Unshrouded Eye


4th
+4
+1
+1
+4
Ki Pool, Spellbreaker (+3)


5th
+5
+1
+4
+4
Antimage (2 schools/domains), Void Pulse


6th
+6/+1
+2
+5
+5
Aether Step, Nullify (1), Ensorcelled Void Blade


7th
+7/+2
+2
+5
+5
Warp Strike (5ft), Spellbreaker (+5), Arcana Hunter


8th
+8/+3
+2
+6
+6
Improved Ki Resistance


9th
+9/+4
+3
+6
+6
Antimage (3 schools/domains), Nullify (2), Quelling Void Blade


10th
+10/+5
+3
+7
+7
Flash Step, Spellbreaker (+7)


11th
+11/+6/+1
+3
+7
+7
Mageslayer, Unshrouded Eye


12th
+12/+7/+2
+4
+8
+8
Nullify (3), Aether Wind


13th
+13/+8/+3
+4
+8
+8
Warp Strike (10ft), Antimage (4 schools/domains), Spellbreaker (+9)


14th
+14/+9/+4
+4
+9
+9
Warp Through


15th
+15/+10/+5
+5
+9
+9
Nullify (4), Greater Unshrouded Eye


16th
+16/+11/+6/+1
+5
+10
+10
Spellbreaker (+11), Greater Quelling Void Blade


17th
+17/+12/+7/+2
+5
+10
+10
Antimage (5 schools/domains)


18th
+18/+13/+8/+3
+6
+11
+11
Nullify (5)


19th
+19/+14/+9/+4
+6
+11
+11
Warp Strike (15ft), Spellbreaker (+13)


20th
+20/+15/+10/+5
+6
+12
+12
Voidshatter


Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Voidwalker.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A voidwalker is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, Void Blades, and light and medium armour, but not with shields.

Antimage (Ex):
At 1st level, through sheer force of will, a Voidwalker is able to resist effects of spells cast against them. Voidwalkers gain +2 bonus to saving throws against all spells and spell-like abilities, increasing by +1 for every four levels of Voidwalker she has. Additionally, each day, the Voidwalker may choose a school of arcane magic or a domain of divine magic. The Voidwalker gains an additional bonus to saving throws against spells of the chosen domain or school equal to 2 + her Wisdom modifier. At levels 5, 9, 13 and 17, a Voidwalker may choose an additional school or domain to benefit from the effects of Antimage each day.

Spellbreaker (Ex):
At 1st level, a Voidwalker gains an understanding of how to break spells. Concentration checks made within the threatened radius of a Voidwalker gain +1 to their DC, increasing by +2 for every 3 levels above first. A Voidwalker can voluntarily lower Spellbreaker as a free action.

Manifest Void Blade (Su):
At 1st level, a Voidwalker is able to coalesce the essence of the Void into a weapon. As a move action, a Voidwalker may create a Void Blade. The Void Blade is treated as a one-handed weapon dealing 1d8 points of slashing damage, with a critical range of 19-20/x2. If a Voidwalker releases her grip on a Void Blade, it vanishes.

Evasion (Ex):
At 2nd level and higher, a Voidwalker can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If she makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if the Voidwalker is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless Voidwalker does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Aether Whisper (Ex)
At 3rd level, a Voidwalker gains the element of surprise on her attacks. Attacks made by a Voidwalker treat the target as flat-footed if the Voidwalker has been under the effect of a spell or spell-like ability belonging to the Teleportation subschool that turn.

Lesser Unshrouded Eye (Ex):
At 3rd level, a Voidwalker becomes able to recognize the effects of magic. The Voidwalker becomes able to perceive magical auras as Detect Magic at all times.

Ki Pool (Su):
At 4th level, a Voidwalker gains a pool of ki points, supernatural energy she can use to accomplish amazing feats. The number of points in a Voidwalker's ki pool is equal to 1/2 her Voidwalker level + her Wisdom modifier. As long as she has at least 1 point in her ki pool, the Voidwalker gains Spell Resistance equal to 7 + her Voidwalker level, and may choose to add her Wisdom modifier to all damage rolls made with a Void Blade.

By spending 1 point from her ki pool, a Voidwalker can do one of the following:
Make one additional attack at her highest attack bonus
Increase her speed by 20 feet for 1 round, or
Give herself a +4 dodge bonus to AC for 1 round.

Each of these powers is activated as a swift action. The ki pool is replenished each morning after 8 hours of rest or meditation; these hours do not need to be consecutive.


Void Pulse (Su):
Starting at the 5th level, a Voidwalker is able to unleash a short burst of energy from the void. As a swift action, a Voidwalker may expend a point from her ki pool to unleash a Void Pulse over a 10 ft cone, increasing by 5 ft for every 4 Voidwalker levels above first. Creatures in the cone must make a Reflex save of DC 10 + half of her Voidwalker levels + her Wisdom modifier or become Staggered for a number of rounds equal to half her Voidwalker levels, rounded down.

Nullify (Sp):
Starting at the 6th level, a Voidwalker gains the ability to counteract magic around them. When the Voidwalker replenishes her Ki Pool, she may choose a number of spells equal to 1 + 1 for every 3 levels above 6th + her wisdom modifier. The Voidwalker gains a +3 insight bonus to Spellcraft checks made against each of these spells. Additionally, the Voidwalker gains the ability to counterspell spells of this kind or dispel them (as dispel magic), up to 3 times per day per spell. The same spell can be chosen multiple times for the purposes of Nullify, this allows additional castings of the counterspell/dispel ability, but does not increase the Spellcraft bonus.

Aether Step (Sp):
At 6th level, a Voidwalker gains the ability to warp short distances. If a Voidwalker makes a 5 ft step, she may choose to instead teleport to a maximum range of 10 ft as the spell Dimension Door.

Ensorcelled Void Blade (Su):
From the 6th level, a Voidwalker can make the Void give back some power, as well as remove it. By expending any amount of points from her ki pool a Voidwalker may apply an enhancement bonus of that amount to her Void Blade for a number of rounds equal to her Voidwalker levels. The Voidwalker may instead apply a Weapon Special Ability of her choice of the appropriate enhancement bonus for the same duration. The maximum enhancement bonus that can be applied to the Void Blade at the same time is equal to 1 + 1 for every 2 levels above 6th. The Voidwalker may not select Bane as a Weapon Special Ability to apply to the Void Blade.

Warp Strike (Su):
At 7th Level, a Voidwalker may expend one point from her ki pool to increase her threatened radius and reach by 5 ft for one round. At 13th level, this increases to 10 ft, at 19th, to 15 ft.

Arcana Hunter (Sp):
At 7th Level, a Voidwalker is able to trace magic auras. At all times, the Void Walker is able to track magic auras as the spell Follow Aura, but using Strong or Overwhelming magic auras (as detected by Detect Magic or Unshrouded Eye) rather than alignment auras.

Improved Ki Resistance (Su):
At 8th level and above, a Voidwalker refines her hatred of magic, adding her wisdom modifier to the spell resistance granted by Ki Pool against spells of the Schools or Domains chosen for Antimage.

Quelling Void Blade (Su):
At 9th level and above, the Voidwalker's Void Blade becomes a channel of antimagical force. On successfully dealing damage with a Void Blade, a Voidwalker may expend a point from her ki pool to dispel the damaged target (as Dispel Magic). If a spell is successfully ended by this, the target takes an additional 1d4 damage. Quelling Void Blade does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Flash Step (Sp):
At 10th level, a Voidwalker gains the ability to step through the Void. At the cost of 1 point from her Ki Pool, a Voidwalker may teleport as the spell Dimension Door, with a range of the Voidwalker's highest movement speed + 5ft for every level of Voidwalker above 10th. Using Flash Step is a swift action.

Mageslayer (Ex):
At 11th level and above, a Voidwalker exerts resistance against magic around them. It becomes impossible to cast defensively within the threatened radius of a Voidwalker. The Voidwalker may choose to lower Mageslayer as a free action.

Unshrouded Eye (Ex):
At 11th level and above, the Voidwalker sharpens the acuity of their perception. At all times, the Voidwalker can perceive magical auras as the spell Arcane Sight, rather than detect magic.

Aether Wind (Sp):
Starting at the 12th level, a Voidwalker gains the ability to suspend themselves with the movements of the Void. When a Voidwalker uses Flash Step or Aether Step and the destination point is above the ground, she may choose to float as the spell Levitate for a number of rounds equal to her Voidwalker levels, but lacking the ability to move upwards. Alternately, the Voidwalker may expend 1 point from her ki pool to fly as the spell Fly for a number of minutes equal to her Voidwalker levels.

Warp Through (Su):
At 14th level, a Voidwalker gains the ability to strike through the Void with their Void Blade, bypassing their foe's defences. When attacking with a Void Blade, a Voidwalker may choose to bypass up to their Wisdom modifier of the enemy's AC.

Greater Unshrouded Eye (Ex):
At 15th level, a Voidwalker becomes acutely aware of effects of magic. The Voidwalker can perceive magic auras as the spell Greater Arcane Sight at all times. In addition to perceiving magical auras, the Voidwalker may expend 1 point from her ki pool to see all things in their true form, as True Seeing, for a number of minutes equal to her Voidwalker levels.

Greater Quelling Void Blade (Su):
At 16th level and above, the Voidwalker's Void Blade becomes a greater conduit of antimagical force. If a Voidwalker chooses to use Quelling Void Blade, it dispels the damaged target as Greater Dispel Magic, rather than Dispel Magic. Additionally, the target takes an additional 1d4 damage for every spell ended in this way.

Voidshatter (Sp):
At 20th level, a Voidwalker becomes able to unleash the essence of the void, allowing them to cast Mage's Disjunction as the spell once per day.

So, that's my first attempt at a homebrew. A friend asked me to stat out a class for Kassadin of the League of Legends video game as a sort of mental challenge, and I decided that it might be worth lobbing over this way, given how friendly and helpful you folks seemed while I was lurking. So: Any thoughts?

Saidoro
2014-01-19, 06:41 PM
Antimage (Ex):
At 1st level, through sheer force of will, a Void Walker is able to resist effects of a certain type cast against them. The Void Walker chooses a school of arcane magic or a domain of divine magic. The Void Walker gains a bonus to saving throws given by spells of the chosen domain or school equal to a quarter of their Void Walker levels, rounded up. At levels 5, 9, 13 and 17, a Void Walker may choose an additional school or domain to benefit from the effects of Antimage.
This really doesn't do anything. You could probably just make it a blanket bonus to saving throws vs spells and spell-like abilities. For comparison, a void-school wizard gets a far better save bonus. At the very least, you should be able to switch them around day-to-day.

As long as she has at least 1 point in her ki pool, the Void Walker gains Spell Resistance equal to 4 + her wisdom modifier.[/quest]
This needs to be much, much higher. Start with 10+level, maybe up that a little if you want to have it be really good.
[quote]Aether Step (Su):
At 6th level, a Void Walker gains the ability to warp short distances. If a Void Walker makes a 5 ft step, she may choose to instead teleport to a maximum range of 10 ft as the spell Dimension Door.
This should activate Aether whisper. As a supernatural ability, it currently does not do so.

Improved Ki Resistance (Su):
At 8th level and above, a Void Walker refines her hatred of magic, doubling the spell resistance granted by Ki Pool against spells of the Schools or Domains chosen for Antimage.
Still uselessly low. On the other hand, it would be overpowered for a more reasonable scaling.

Overall, a competent base for a mage-killer (it doesn't address any of the really good tricks, but neither does anything else). It could really use a bit more versatility though. A quick way of adding that would be to change Nullify from "counterspell" to "counterspell or dispel(as dispel magic)". A may to pierce illusions would also be helpful. Also, it could probably use a way to fly. Or at least parkour off walls or something.

Phillammon
2014-01-19, 07:24 PM
Changed Antimage to a flat bonus with additional benefits against the chosen school/domains. That was far weaker than I'd originally intended, but I was slightly afraid to put it any higher.

Changed spell resistance on Ki Pool to 7 + level, should make it good without turning Improved Ki Resistance completely insane.

Aether Step/Whisper noninteraction was a typo there, sorry, good catch.

Dispelling is a good idea there, added. Not sure where would be a good place to slot in flight either progression or fluff-wise, any thoughts there?

Phillammon
2014-01-20, 04:10 AM
Apologies for the double post, but: Added a source of flight in aether wind, some other minor tweaks made, including standardizing name of class to Voidwalker, not Void Walker.

Just to Browse
2014-01-20, 07:25 AM
I don't see many kassadin-like abilities here. No blade dealing magic damage, or ball of silencing, or AoE slow field, or increased attack speed. There's a little bit of anti-magic-damage in here, but it doesn't feel proper for kassadin.

In addition, this falls prey to the common anti-mage problems: Namely, the Mage-Killer problem. What you have written here is a guy that makes life terrible for spellcasters and bad for spell-users, but outside of that he's about as interesting as the fighter. Sure they've got an AC rend and short teleports and some crazy attack nova, but they can't contribute to an adventure much more meaningfully than a fighter, and if their enemy isn't a mage then they're totally screwed.

You should approach this class by attempting to emulate all of kassadin's special abilities as the appear in league, before adding in other things.

Saidoro
2014-01-20, 10:14 AM
Changed spell resistance on Ki Pool to 7 + level, should make it good without turning Improved Ki Resistance completely insane.
Not quite. Spell resistance forces the opponent to make a level check, so your resistance value needs to have your level added to it if you don't want to fall behind. However, once it is added it doesn't take much to push it over the top. 7+level gives opposing mages of the same level as you a base 30% failure chance on their spells on top of all of the other failure chances(saves, touch attacks). Each additional +1 increases that chance by 5%, so doubling it essentially means that your opponent is entirely incapable of using those spells on you. A better implementation of Improved Ki Resistance would add your wisdom modifier or some similarly scaled number to the spell resistance. You also may have overdone it a bit with the stacking bonuses on Antimage. Maybe just give them the higher of 2+1/4 level or 1/2 level for the selected schools.


In addition, this falls prey to the common anti-mage problems: Namely, the Mage-Killer problem. What you have written here is a guy that makes life terrible for spellcasters and bad for spell-users, but outside of that he's about as interesting as the fighter. Sure they've got an AC rend and short teleports and some crazy attack nova, but they can't contribute to an adventure much more meaningfully than a fighter, and if their enemy isn't a mage then they're totally screwed.
Can't comment on the flavor since I don't play LoL, but I thought the Mage-Killer problem was that mages were absurdly dangerous and you didn't want to mess around with them. And the problem may not be quite as severe as is typical in this case. Full BaB+flat-footing basically everything ever+Actually good reach+Additional attacks from Ki+half-decent skills+useful problem solving from teleports and flight+caster level for magic item crafting isn't a half-bad combo even if you aren't fighting a mage at that instant. A bit more wouldn't hurt, but it's not exactly crippled.

You should approach this class by attempting to emulate all of kassadin's special abilities as the appear in league, before adding in other things.
I admit, I would like to see that slowing field you speak of.

Phillammon
2014-01-20, 11:42 AM
I don't see many kassadin-like abilities here. No blade dealing magic damage, or ball of silencing, or AoE slow field, or increased attack speed. There's a little bit of anti-magic-damage in here, but it doesn't feel proper for kassadin.

I'd aimed for a couple of these, but they evidently came off poorly. Nullify was intended to emulate Null Sphere, with Warp Through as Nether Blade (the magic damage blade), and Mageslayer effectively giving extra attack speed by forcing AoOs when people try to use magic around him. I'll grant that I didn't end up putting in anything resembling force pulse, which may well be interesting to emulate.
Regarding the magic blade, would something like a refluffed mind blade with modified statistics work well as an alternative to nether blade?

(Also, I disagree with you on the "can't do anything against non mages" for much the same reasons Saidoro brought up, but good point all the same)

Not quite. Spell resistance forces the opponent to make a level check, so your resistance value needs to have your level added to it if you don't want to fall behind. However, once it is added it doesn't take much to push it over the top. 7+level gives opposing mages of the same level as you a base 30% failure chance on their spells on top of all of the other failure chances(saves, touch attacks). Each additional +1 increases that chance by 5%, so doubling it essentially means that your opponent is entirely incapable of using those spells on you. A better implementation of Improved Ki Resistance would add your wisdom modifier or some similarly scaled number to the spell resistance. You also may have overdone it a bit with the stacking bonuses on Antimage. Maybe just give them the higher of 2+1/4 level or 1/2 level for the selected schools.
Gah, sorry, yeah. I'm gonna go read back over how spell resistance works and dig out some more reasonable save numbers before I refactor that one. Apologies, I didn't mean to make it literally immune to Antimage focal schools.

Phillammon
2014-01-20, 12:48 PM
Again, sorry for the double post. Modified Antimage and Ki Pool to not be utterly broken hopefully, added Void Pulse (I may have put it slightly too early, I'd like feedback on that particularly), and added Void Blade and related improvements. Any thoughts?

Just to Browse
2014-01-20, 11:07 PM
Can't comment on the flavor since I don't play LoL, but I thought the Mage-Killer problem was that mages were absurdly dangerous and you didn't want to mess around with them. And the problem may not be quite as severe as is typical in this case. Full BaB+flat-footing basically everything ever+Actually good reach+Additional attacks from Ki+half-decent skills+useful problem solving from teleports and flight+caster level for magic item crafting isn't a half-bad combo even if you aren't fighting a mage at that instant. A bit more wouldn't hurt, but it's not exactly crippled.Nah, the Mage-Killer problem is that the class is designed for killing mages, and can't do much else. Let's assume for the moment that the class is capable of beating level-appropriate spellcasters 95% of the time. Despite this huge win ratio, he'd still be annoyingly weak against anything that didn't use spells or SLAs (he'd be effectively a squishy fighter with no feats, a 10' step, and flight) and out of combat he basically has to rely on 4 + Int skills from a mediocre list. No matter how strong the class is at its niche, it's still weak because it can't do very well against strafing dragons, golems, centaur archers, or a myriad of other mundane challenges.

TLDR: Mage-Killers need to do more than kill mages. Give kassadin some utility effects (like no need for air, void-based divinations, etc) and give him interesting abilities outside of screwing with mages.


I'd aimed for a couple of these, but they evidently came off poorly. Nullify was intended to emulate Null Sphere, with Warp Through as Nether Blade (the magic damage blade), and Mageslayer effectively giving extra attack speed by forcing AoOs when people try to use magic around him. I'll grant that I didn't end up putting in anything resembling force pulse, which may well be interesting to emulate.
Regarding the magic blade, would something like a refluffed mind blade with modified statistics work well as an alternative to nether blade?
I see where you were going with Nullify and Warp Through, I didn't make those connections. If you think those are satisfactory emulations of his abilities, then I haven't got much else to say. One thing I'm noticing is that kassadin doesn't actually get to be kassadin until... level 12 or so. You should make lower-level versions of his abilities so players can actually feel like Kassadin before their campaign ends.

If you add some utility to make him useful out of combats, drop the levels so he's more kassadin-y at low levels, and give him a couple more abilities that aren't Mage-Killer, I promise a comprehensive breakdown of my opinions on your class.

Phillammon
2014-01-24, 07:58 PM
Okay, it took some thinking over, but I reckon that this should improve things. Ensorcelled Void Blade has been added as a means of improving the Voidwalker's performance more generally in combat, though I suspect it may be way, way too powerful. In order to stop it being a free 2d6 damage bonus, I banned out Bane, but there may be some other uses which I'm not devious enough to notice. Additionally, in order to lend some Out of Combat utility without straying too far from the Voidwalker's niche, Arcana Hunter and Unshrouded Eye have been added as divinations to lend the Voidwalker both the capacity to hunt down mages, rather than merely fight them, but more generally (and usefully) see through a large number of effects that would otherwise render them useless. Plus detect magic and variants are handy tools on anyone, I suppose.

I had no idea what to shift to lower levels without causing an utter crush or making dips altogether too powerful. If anyone has any suggestions on that front they would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, here we go. Any more thoughts?

Phillammon
2014-04-08, 07:14 AM
Okay, last ditch effort for comments. Apologies for the self-bumping and borderline necromancy, but here it is, updated for the new forum layout. Also, I note that the fact Kassadin has been reworked as worked in my favour, Nullify and Ki Resistance combine to be very close to the new Null Sphere, which is quite cool.

So yes. For possibly the last time of asking, any thoughts?

EDIT: Okay, not borderline necromancy, just straight up necromancy. I'm outside of the time limit for adding the pathfinder prefix. So... sorry.