Lycanthropic Barbarian (PEACH)

[sajro]

Lycanthropic Barbarian

This barbarian is fueld by an inner beast a raging beast, that is mostly known from nightmares and from horrorstorys, beasts know as lycanthropes. And if that isn't enough to make you scared of these barbarian, then you should be as this beast just becomes stronger from the barbarians anger, it is fueld by his anger and wild nature

LevelBABFortRefWillSpecial
Unarmed Damage/Attack Bonus
1st+1+2+0+0Rage, Illiteracy, Lycanthropic Heritage, Primal Living, Primtive Fighter
+1
2nd+2+3+0+0Animalistic Senses
+1
3rd+3+3+1+1DR 1/silver
+1
4th+4+4+1+1Animalistic Frenzy
+1
5th+5+4+1+1Animalistic Body
+2
6th+6/+1+5+2+2Animalistic Features
+2
7th+7/+2+5+2+2Nature Sense
+2
8th+8/+3+6+2+2Greater Rage
+2
9th+9/+4+6+3+3Lycanthropic Senses
+3
10th+10/+5+7+3+3DR 3/silver
+3
11th+11/+6/+1+7+3+3Lycanthropic Frenzy
+3
12th+12/+7/+2+8+4+4Lycanthropic Body
+3
13th+13/+8/+3+8+4+4Lycanthropic Features
+4
14th+14/+9/+4+9+4+4Mighty Rage
+4
15th+15/+10/+5+9+5+5Beastly Senses
+4
16th+16/+11/+6/+1+10+5+5DR 5/silver
+4
17th+17/+12/+7/+2+10+5+5Beastly Frenzy
+5
18th+18/+13/+8/+3+11+6+6Beastly Body
+5
19th+19/+14/+9/+4+11+6+6Beastly Features
+5
20th+20/+15/+10/+5+12+6+6Beastly Perfection
+5


Alignment: Non-Lawful
Hit Die: 1d12

Class Skills:
Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Heal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge(Nature), Listen, Search, Spot, Survival,
Swim, Tumble
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Descriptions of Class Features:

Lycanthropic Heritage:
The Lycanthropic Barbarian, has Lycanthropic blood coursing through his veins. This meens that one of his forefathers had been bitten and inflicted with the lycanthropic curse, or at some point pure natural lycanthropic blood was introduced to the family. His Lycanthropic Heritage, is what he is manifesting through this class, and also the source of his power and weaknesses.
This heritage is a lot weaker than both an afflicted Lycanthrope and a Natural Lycanthrope, but as it comes from birth it is still as difficult to cure as the affliction.
If your race is uncapable of accepting this animals power(as if your race wouldnt be able to have the Lycanthrope template of the specific animal applied) you cannot enter this class. See Creating a Lycanthrope (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Lycanthrope#Creating_a_Lycanthrope)

Rage:
When a Barbarian is hit and hurt he can enter a rage which the adrenaline boosts hies physical capabilities giving him +4 bonus Strength, +4 bonus Constitution, and +2 morale bonus to will saves, but this also gives him him -2 penalty on AC, this rage will last for anumber of rounds equal to half the damage dealt plus the newly improved constitution modifier.
When the rage ends, he is Fatigued for a number of rounds equal to twice the number of rounds spend in rage minus his constitution modifier.
When in rage the barbarian loses the bonus ac from his con-modifier and instead he gains a DR equal to 2 thirds of his con-modifier.
He cannot enter rage again as long as he is fatigued.
He can enter a Rage as long as the damage done to him did not come from himself, or any pet, familiar or companion of his own. But who ever hurt him is the one who is going to be his first target unless he suceeds on a will save (DC 10+damage dealt) and he will keep attacking the person untill his rage ends, he downs him or he is downed himself. If the creature is out of reach he gains +4 to the save to ignore th creature(f.ex. a flying creature of burrowing creature) or if the creature is hiding in extremely dangerous areas he gains +6.

Illiteracy:
A Lycanthropic Barbarian can't read or write, but he can spend 2 skillpoints to learn this.

Primal Living:
To maintain your bestial powers, you must live like a wild animal. You must sleep in natural environments, never inside buildings, unless forced by circumstances. Furthermore, you cannot eat purchased food—you must obtain it by hunting, gathering. Also the Barbarian can not use weapons, armor or other equipment that has not been made by himself. In any month in which you eat bought food, uses equipment you haven't made or voluntarily sleep indoors more than three times, all your Lycanthropic Barbarian class features cease to function until you have spent thirty consecutive days living like an animal once more.
Due to this lifestyle of being able to provide himself with food and the necessary equpiment, he gains a +4 cuircumstance bonus to survival checks made to gather food or hunt, and Crat checks made to make simple equpiment. Furthermore he gains his CON midifier as a bonus to Natural Armor(minimum 0).


Primitive Fighter:
To accomodate from living by himself and learning to come by with the simplest of tools the Lycanthropic Barbarian hones his skills with his fists and very simple weapons, and learns how to hit at the right spots to inflict the most pain, he gains the Improved Unarmed attack as a bonus feat, he deals 1d4 with unarmed damage.
He also gains a bonus to attacks made with his unarmed attacks, and to all natural attacks, that he gains later on. This bonus is indicated on the table.

Senses
The Barbarian gains senses that grows as he progresses, they grow to be even keener than that of the Animal he immitates:
Animalistic:
Gains Uncanny dodge and lowlight vision 60 ft.
Uncanny Dodge:
He retains his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if he is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, he still loses his Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized.
If a Barbarian already has uncanny dodge from a different class (a barbarian with at least four levels of rogue, for example), he automatically gains improved uncanny dodge (see below) instead.
Lycanthropic:
Gains Scent and Improved uncanny dodge.
Improved Uncanny Dodge:
He can no longer be Flanked. He is capable of reacting to foes on opposite sides of him just as easily as a single foes, this defense denies a rouge the ability to sneak attack him by flanking unless the rouge has four more rouge levels than the barbarian has barbarian levels.
If a character already has uncanny dodge (see above) from a second class, the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead, and the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum level a rogue must be to flank the character.
Beastly:
Gains Darkvision 60 ft. And blindsese 15 ft.

Damage Reduction
The Barbarian gains damagereduction 1/silver, this increases with 2 at 9th and 15th level.

Frenzy:
His rage is also empowered by his inner beast, fueling his rage, and in return his rage end up fueling the power of the beast:
Animalistic:
The weakest stage gives him a temporary bonus of +2 to the animals highest ability score while he is raging. He also gains weak animalistic features, like sharper teeth or keener eyes. He grows the Natural weapons required to make any of the animals special attacks.
Lycanthopic:
The second stage adds a temporary bonus of +2 to the animals second highest ability score while he is raging. He resembles an animal more, he now also gains fur, which provides him with natural armor equal to that of his chosen Animal.
Beastly:
The third and final stage, gives him another +2(for at total of +4) bonus to the animals highest and second highest score. He now enters a hybrid form, just like a real lycanthrope, and he gains 2 claws and a bite with damage as if he was one size catagory larger. His size Changes to the base creature or base animals size what ever is bigger.

Body:
As with his senses his body becomes better and better this comes in the same three stages as senses
Animalistic:
He gains an inherent bonus of +2 to the highest ability score of his chosen animal
Lycanthropic:
He now also gains the same +2 inherent bonus to the second highest ability score of his chosen animal
Beastly:
On top of this he now gains a second boost of +2 to the highest and second highest ability score of his animal and +2 bonus to his natural armor.

Features:
As the barbarian becomes more and more like his inner animal he takes on some of its features, before surpassing it.
Animalistic:
The barbarian gains one special attack, special quality or feat that his chosen animal has, but these only works while he is raging
This cannot be any kind of movement, nor can it be natural armor.
Lycanthropic:
The barbarian gains the benfits of the chosen feature from the animal even when he is not raging.
Because the special attacks most often requires natural attacks of some sort, the barbarian is capable of growing these natural weapons at will without entering a rage.
Beastly:
The barbarian gains another Feature of the chosen Animal, another feat, special attack or special quality that he can use even when he isn't raging. This also grants him +10 movement speed in all forms.

Nature Sense:
The barbarian now uses his wisdom modifier instead of his intelligence modifier on knowledge(nature) checks, and he also gains a +4 bonus on knowledge(nature), Heal and Survival.

Greater Rage:
Starting at 8th level, a barbarian's bonuses to Strength and Constitution from his rage increase to +6 each. His bonus to Will saves increases to +3. The penalty to his AC remains at -2.

Mighty Rage:
Starting at 14th level, the barbarian's bonuses to Strength and Constitution while raging increase to +8 each, and his morale bonus to Will saves increases to +4. His AC penalty remains at -2.

Beastly Perfection
Upon reaching 20th level and the peak of his power, the Lycanthropic barbarian now finally becomes a real lycanthrope, he gains the Afflicted Lycanthrope template with his chosen animal as his animal form, he gains no racial Hitdies from this process, and there is no Level Adjustment Either. Even though he is an Afflicted lycanthrope he is aware of his condition, and his alignment cannot be changed by these changes. He also automatically gains ranks in Control shape equal to half his HD. But when he enters rage, the DC to not change form(as a free action due to rage) to hybrid form is 40.
This also grant him a +5 bonus on saves to resist being cured.

edit:
EDIT this was a major remake of the class, the primal living now allows you to buy food, just not eat it yourself, and there have been made a lot of extra features for the class. and it have been setup in a way I find easier to understand.
But please ask anything you want, and dont think its a stupid question. :)
edit:
Added Lycanthropic Heritage, this is actually just flavor and fluff.
edit:
rewrote some stuff again, under Primal living, Senses, Features, Frenzy
edit:
added some bonus to natural attacks and unarmed attacks.
Edit:
added some more restrictions, and som bonus AC

[SinsI]

Primal Living might inconvenience not the player but his party - the way Vow of Poverty does. Not being able to buy food for the rest of the party or drink in taverns makes social encounters difficult, too.

Full BAB, d12 hit die and all good saves means this is a prime candidate for dipping even if you lose all class features. Must he really get all good saves?

Can he trigger his Rage by harming himself?



Lycanthropic Body:
He gains the benefits and drawbacks of lycanthropic body permanently.
Misprint? I assume you mean benefits of Lycanthropic Rage.

Do benefits of Animalistic/Lycanthropic/Pure Body stack?

[sajro]

I can see what you meen with the Primal living, I will take a look at that to make it fit better.

He is not supposed to have good saves on either Reflex nor Will, that is an error because of my table generator.

And no he cannot enrage himself by damaging himself, I will make sure that is stated.

And for the Animalistic, Lycanthropic and Pure body features no they do not stack, the are progression of each other, and again something I will make sure is stated.

[SinsI]

What if he is hit and hurt by party member/familiar/summon/trap, will that trigger Rage?

[sajro]

Thanks for the questions, I had not thought of those things at all, but I am making a total rewrite of the class at the moment, and I will make sure that these questions will be answered.

[sajro]

Changelog:
Remake:
Added a bunch of stuff to make it more interesting, but just a bit afraid that it might be overpowered now, so please give me a headsup on what you think. :)

[NeoSeraphi]

A class that has Hide as a class skill usually has Move Silently as a class skill as well. The two go hand in hand. :smallsmile:

Your alignment restriction is inappropriate for this class. Lycanthropy poses its own alignment restriction based on the base animal. Werewolves are chaotic evil, werebears are lawful good, etc. Instead of non-lawful, you should impose an alignment restriction based on the base animal as written on the SRD, saying if they choose a base animal other than that one that it should be up to the DM what their alignment is.

For Rage, you should add the lycanthrope barbarian gets an additional +4 on his Will save to resist targeting the enemy for the duration of his rage if the enemy is unreachable (such as a flying creature) or located in an area that is dangerous for the barbarian to traverse (such as a red dragon swimming in lava).

If Primal Living is going to force the barbarian to gather his own food, this class should grant him a bonus on his Survival checks for that purpose, just to make it easier on the player from level 1 (it's a DC 10 check to find food, that's pretty rough for a check that's necessary to survive when all you get at level 1 is 4+Wis to it. If you have 0 Wis or even a Wis penalty it's a more than 25% chance of failure with no retry allowed for 24 hours).

For Lycanthropic Senses, your ability should read "Improved Uncanny Dodge, using his class level as his rogue level".

For Beastly Senses, it's a good ability but thematically inappropriate. Animals neither have Darkvision nor Blindsense, why would a lycanthrope gain them by emulating an animal?

Your DR progression is gapped pretty far. Can't you spread it out a bit more? Like DR 1/Silver at 3, DR 2/Silver at 6, DR 3/Silver at 9, DR 4/Silver at 12, DR/5 Silver at 15?

Alright, so here's some necessary clarity on Frenzy:
Animalistic: State that the barbarian gains any natural attacks of the base animal (A wereboar gains a gore attack, a wereeagle gains talons).
Lycanthopic: State the barbarian gains a natural armor bonus equal to the base animal's.
Beastly: State the barbarian grows a Size category if the base form is larger than his true form, and state that the claws and bite damage you listed are for a Medium sized creature.

Features: Do these include move speeds? Can a wereshark barbarian gain a Swim speed, a wereape barbarian gain a climb speed, or a wereeagle barbarian grow wings, even when not raging?

Nature Sense: Ah, there's the buff to Survival. Ironically, it comes at level 7, when the barbarian's ranks reach 10, so he no longer fails his checks to find food for himself. Needed this way earlier.

Beastly Affliction: What if the barbarian is not a humanoid or a giant? What if the barbarian is inappropriately sized for the creature he chose? (A halfling cannot become a weretiger). These are questions that you, as the designer, need to answer in your class so they don't become problems at the table.

[sajro]

Alignment:
He is not supposed to be controlled by the animal or beast, he is still supposed to be controlled by himself, and be at normal barbarian when it comes to his Alignment, so that is why his alignment restriction is nonlawful.

Rage:
Yeah point taken, I did not even think of that possibility. xD

Primal living:
This shouldnt be a problem because yes there is a 25% that he will fail if his will mod is 0 and he has 4 ranks, but at the same time there is a 65% chance of gathering food enough for 2 days or more.

Lycanthropic senses:
Why should it be written like that? I am just confused of the reason for this wrting opposed to the one in my text.

Beastly senses:
The reason for Darkvision and Blindsense, is actually that he is supposed to be more than a normal animal in every way.

Frenzy:
Animalistic
He is not supposed to get a natural attack here the physical changes here are only cosmetic.
Lycanthropic
It was not the intend that he should get Natural armor, mostly because it would negate one of the drawbacks of rage, but yet it would make sense, I will have to consider this.
Beastly
Ohh... yeah I totally forgot that, I was sure that hybrid form retained the size of the base creature not the largest.

Features:
No that is not the intend, so I will specify this. I did not think this was seen as Special Qualities?

Damage Reduction:
The reason for the gabs, his lycanthropic heritage manifests itself in stages.

Beastly Affliction.
I will handle this, under the Lycanthropic heritage, which is going to limit this class to humanoids and giants only. This is what makes sense because as Afflicted or NAtural Lycanthropy cant exist in races other than humanoids and giants, then the Lycanthropic Heritage cannot wither.

Thanks for your Feedback it is greatly Appreciated.

[NeoSeraphi]

Primal living:
This shouldnt be a problem because yes there is a 25% that he will fail if his will mod is 0 and he has 4 ranks, but at the same time there is a 65% chance of gathering food enough for 2 days or more.


Well that's a gamble. I'm just trying to avoid that one abuse case where someone fails their roll 3 days in a row (yes, that happens) and the character has to start taking starvation penalties just because of his class.



Lycanthropic senses:
Why should it be written like that? I am just confused of the reason for this wrting opposed to the one in my text.


For starters, you didn't list the Improved Uncanny Dodge ability, you listed Uncanny Dodge, again. Secondly, if this barbarian is supposed to replace the PHB barbarian, you can't just reference the original barbarian ability. You either explain the ability or reference another class that has it (like a rogue).



Beastly senses:
The reason for Darkvision and Blindsense, is actually that he is supposed to be more than a normal animal in every way.


There's no other ability that implies that in the entire class. This feels inconsistent and out of place with the rest of the abilities that say "become more like an animal".



Frenzy:
Animalistic
He is not supposed to get a natural attack here the physical changes here are only cosmetic.

If that's the case then you don't get any feral attacks until 17th level? Why would anyone want to play this class instead of a druid if they have to wait until 17 to even grow fangs and claws? So the benefit of my animalistic barbarian is that I get Trip or Rake or Improved Grab when I don't have the natural attacks necessary to use them, and a few extra stat boosts, and some non-combat related aesthetic bonuses? If I'm playing a lycanthrope I want to rip someone apart with my bare hands!



Lycanthropic
It was not the intend that he should get Natural armor, mostly because it would negate one of the drawbacks of rage, but yet it would make sense, I will have to consider this.
Beastly
Ohh... yeah I totally forgot that, I was sure that hybrid form retained the size of the base creature not the largest.


You still have the main drawback of rage, which is a penalty to your touch AC. Barbarians are weak to magical power, but they're gods of physical combat. The natural armor bonus just makes it so a stray arrow will fail to pierce your fur. Often times it won't be enough to make a difference since AC is a poor defense anyway, but the little bonus will make that otherwise aesthetic ability feel good to have.

[sajro]

I see your point, but it's just I am unsure how close the class is to be wither overpowered or Underpowered so I am bit careful with giving more bonuses, and then as soon as I come up with a good Idea for how to eliminate the problem without making him more powerful, I realize I misread your former post, I read it as a bonus to survival, but you meant just a bonus to survival checks made to hunt or gather right?
BEcause that is what I am going to give it, a +4 seems fitting to make it near impossible to fail the check.


For starters, you didn't list the Improved Uncanny Dodge ability, you listed Uncanny Dodge, again. Secondly, if this barbarian is supposed to replace the PHB barbarian, you can't just reference the original barbarian ability. You either explain the ability or reference another class that has it (like a rogue).

Ahh then I see your point, it's just when what you say is just what it should be rewritten as, without a reason, makes it difficult for me just to say okay. Because then I wont find the error.


There's no other ability that implies that in the entire class. This feels inconsistent and out of place with the rest of the abilities that say "become more like an animal".

I see your point. But I did kinda know that something was out of place and some explanations missing, so I will just have to rewrite my texts, so the purpose of the class isn't lost in my head. xD


If that's the case then you don't get any feral attacks until 17th level? Why would anyone want to play this class instead of a druid if they have to wait until 17 to even grow fangs and claws? So the benefit of my animalistic barbarian is that I get Trip or Rake or Improved Grab when I don't have the natural attacks necessary to use them, and a few extra stat boosts, and some non-combat related aesthetic bonuses? If I'm playing a lycanthrope I want to rip someone apart with my bare hands!

Yeah I actually didn't think of that, it is my first class which I have made to not be used solely in own campaigns, so their is some stuff that gets lost between my head and my writing. But then I think the simple solution here would be to put a clause under the Animalistic Features, that state that while raging the barbarian gains any naturals attacks necessary to perform the Special Attacks. Does that sound reasonable?


You still have the main drawback of rage, which is a penalty to your touch AC. Barbarians are weak to magical power, but they're gods of physical combat. The natural armor bonus just makes it so a stray arrow will fail to pierce your fur. Often times it won't be enough to make a difference since AC is a poor defense anyway, but the little bonus will make that otherwise aesthetic ability feel good to have.

I actually never thought of the low AC because I have just played a game with a variant rule with AC bonus based on character level, so everyone had very high AC's. But it is a fair point indeed.

PS.
Sorry if I am a bit messy in my writing and hard to understand.

[NeoSeraphi]

I personally think you should just give the barbarian natural weapons. After all, he's living primitively, he can't afford a shiny +3 greataxe like his PHB kin.

[sajro]

That is true, but then I think it would make more sense to give him Improved Unarmed strike, and unarmed damage progression kinda like what the monk has? And then let his claws have the same damage or higher?

[NeoSeraphi]

If that's your vision for the class, go for it. :smallsmile:

[sajro]

Changelog:
Added some restriction on using equpiment, he cannot use equpiment that is not made by himself, and he also gains his Constitution modifier as a bonus to natural armor.

Please come with critique anyone, I really want to know wether this seems underpowered ot overpowered. :D

[NeoSeraphi]

At the moment there is an abuse case in your changelog where if I poison the barbarian and drop his Con below 10 he'll actually gain a negative natural armor bonus. That's a strange and definitely unintended side effect of being a lycanthrope living in squalor, so I'd suggest you add a (minimum 0) clause to the natural armor section.

[sajro]

Ohhh yeah that is deffinitely and error and sideeffect that was never intended.

edit: Has now been changed.