PC The Lancer

[Ping_T._Squirrel]

I borrowed a little from Final Fantasy to put this together. I just would like someone to tell me if it looks balanced, fair and fun to play.

The Lancer
Flight might be beyond humans without the aid of magic, but that did not stop the warriors called lancers. They take to the sky before they land the deadliest of blows on those that stand before them.

D8 HD

Requirements
To qualify to become an lance, you must fulfill all the following criteria.
Feats: Skill Focus (Jump), and Weapon Focus in a polearm type weapon
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Skills: Jump +6, Tumble +6

Class Skills
The Lancer’s class skills are as follows:
Balance, Climb, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope
4 + Int modifier

{table=head]Level|Base AttackBonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+0| Adept Jumper, Jump Attack 1d6, Soft landing (30ft)

2nd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+0| Leap Technique, Light of Foot (25%)

3rd|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+1| Soft Landing (60ft), Jump Attack 2d6

4th|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+1| Leap Technique

5th|
+5|
+4|
+4|
+1| Soft Landing (90ft), Light of Foot (50%) Jump Attack 3d6

6th|
+6|
+5|
+5|
+2| Leap Technique

7th|
+7|
+5|
+5|
+2| Soft landing (120ft), Jump Attack 4d6

8th|
+8|
+6|
+6|
+2| Leap Technique, Light of Foot (75%),

9th|
+9|
+6|
+6|
+3| Soft Landing (Any), Jump Attack 5d6

10th|
+10|
+7|
+7|
+3| Leap Technique [/table]


[B]Class Features

Adept Jumper (EX): The Lancer adds his level to his Jump and Tumble checks. In addition, neither of these ever provokes an attack of opportunity when successful.

Jump attack (EX): As a full round action, the lancer throws himself to the air to try and land a deadly blow. He must make a DC 20 Jump check, +5 DC for every five feet the target is away from him. (Reach of a weapon does reduce the distance). If successful, the lancer may make an attack roll at full attack bonus. The weapon deals damage as if it was set against a charge or was done from a charging mount and in addition, there is an additional 1d6 damage. This improves every two levels of lancer by an additional 1d6. At the end of this attack, successful or not, the lancer ends his turn adjacent to the target.

Soft Landing (EX): All falls taken by the lancer are considered to be 30ft shorter. This improves every 3 levels until the 9th when the lancer stops taking fall damage.

Leap Technique: At the 2nd level and every other level after that, he may choose a technique to his repertoire. He may only select a technique once unless otherwise noted.

Power Jump: You must have the Run feat to select this Technique. You are considered to have been running 20ft for all of your jump checks.

Deadly Strike: You add the amount that you beat the Jump Check roll to your damage when you make a leap attack.

Precise Strike: Your critical modifier for your weapon increases by one when you make a leap attack. This does stack with other types of modifiers. You may take this more than once.

Devastating Strike: Your critical multiplier increases by one when you make a leap attack. You may take this feat more than once.

Sharp Aim: You add the amount you beat your Jump Check to your To-Hit roll for your jump attack.

Skewer: Increases your jump DC by 10. If you successfully damage your opponent, you have pinned him to the ground with your weapon. He can no longer move until the weapon is pulled free with a strength check equal to the Jump Check’s roll, or the weapon is sundered.

Quickened Leap: The Jump Attack is now a standard action.

Sundering Strike: You may attempt to sunder an object with all the appropriate bonuses with a leap attack.

Rebound: At the end of a successful Jump attack, you may make another jump roll to distance yourself from your opponent.

Double Jump: You must have Rebound to select this technique. After a successful Jump Attack, you may begin a second jump attack on any other target than the one you just struck. The Jump DC on this attack is increased by 5.

Great Impact: Increases Jump DC by 5. When you land, everything within 5 ft rolls opposed rolls as if Jump Check was a trip attempt. If they fall, they are knocked prone.

Light of Foot (EX): When making checks where weight is a factor, the weight is reduced by a margin since the continuous training helps the lancer adapt to it. Weight is reduced by a quarter at level 2, and that improves at the 5th level to 50% reduction, then at the 8th level it reaches 75%.

[Neek]

Someone's been playing a little too much Final Fantasy for his own good ;).

Either way, I quite enjoy how this class works. Just a question, however--is there a minimal distance that the Lancer might need in order to make a jump attack? I ask because, well, in every round of combat, I can make an attack with a guisarme, do d8x2+d6+Strengthx1.5 damage every round, not including the possible +2 I get for being specialized in that weapon. Just something to consider.

[Ping_T._Squirrel]

I don't think so. Mostly because you never get more than a single leap attack on a single target and most likely, you will be a lot squishier than a pure fighter. So, if you want to be in melee range of the target, go for it. It might not turn out so well for you though.

[Neek]

You're using a ranged weapon under any circumstance, so it'll hardly ever be a factor of getting into melee combat. Upon review, however, I don't think the damage is any less unbalanced than a Rogue's sneak attack. I say this because the choice of weapons used for this ability, the damage doesn't get much higher. Only with a guisarme do we get up to d8. I was reading the superfluous "small" column. Even then, d10.

[Fizban]

I lost all my bookmarks recently, otherwise I'd give you the link to the thread that shows how to make a dragoon without PrC's. All you really need is a massive jump check, a couple of specific feats, and the right weapon enhancements. Your class manages the abilities quite nicely on it's own, though combining it with the combos from the thread I mentioned would get pretty bad.

Sharp aim is a little too good. Allowing a player to convert skill bonuses into attack bonuses is so easily abusable. Power jump is already a feat in the PHBII, but it makes sense as a class ability and it saves a feat.

[ArmorArmadillo]

Getting the bonus damage from power jump and a bunch of powerful techniques is too much. Try reducing the damage progression or feat progression to make it more balanced.

[Ping_T._Squirrel]

I don't think that allowing someone to trade a full attack bonus for a single powerful attack is too bad of a thing, and a lot of complaints for melee classes is that they have trouble converting skills into anything useful. What it does do is let a one trick pony's ability scale to keep being useful thoughout the game so I do not see it as worse than power attack at this point.

[Fade]

The abilities combined with the added damage from the leaping attack seems a little overpowered. Maybe by adding something like in the sneak attack feats, where if you choose to use the ability, you lose 1d6 or so damage from the sneak attack?

[Triaxx]

I'm kind of terrified what happens when someone realizes that a Scythe would qualify as a pole arm weapon, and then combines it with Devastating Strike...