PDA

View Full Version : The Coyote [PrC]



Baron Corm
2007-03-03, 08:16 PM
Barbarians and rangers who are especially in tune with their inner animal often find themselves following the path of the coyote. A coyote seeks to mimic the wild abandon of his animal brothers. He wishes to flow through the seas, the air, and the ground just like they can. He wishes to be free from all that would cage him. Through emulation, he achieves a form greater than the other animals separately. It is still emulation, however; he has an immense respect for animals and will defend them and their habitats with zeal. The name "coyote" comes from the legend that a coyote, when snared in a trap, will chew off its own limb rather than be contained.

Coyote

Table:

Level 1: Instinct, wild empathy
Level 2: Spider
Level 3: Fast movement
Level 4: Cheetah
Level 5: Superior instinct
Level 6: Kraken
Level 7: Freedom of movement
Level 8: Arrowhawk
Level 9: Unleashed
Level 10: Xorn, elephant

Hit Die: d8
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Base Attack Bonus: as fighter
Base Saves: High Fortitude, High Reflex, Low Will
Class Skills: Handle Animal, Ride, Knowledge (Nature), Tumble, Use Rope, Survival, Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Jump, Swim, Sense Motive, Speak Language, Intimidate, Spot, Listen

Requirements

To qualify to become a coyote, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Feat: Animal Affinity
Alignment: Neutral good, lawful neutral, neutral, chaotic neutral, or neutral evil
Base Attack Bonus: +6
Skills: Survival 5 ranks
Special: Wild Empathy or Rage class feature


Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Coyotes gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Instinct (Ex)

The coyote adds his Wisdom modifier to all attack rolls with a melee weapon.

Wild Empathy (Ex)

This functions as the ranger ability of the same name. Ranger, barbarian, and coyote levels stack for determining the effectiveness of this ability.

Spider (Ex)

At level 2, the coyote gains a climb speed equal to his base land speed. He may use his Dexterity modifier instead of his Strength modifier for Climb checks if it is higher.

Fast Movement (Ex)

At level 3, the coyote’s land and climb speeds increase by +10 feet. This functions as and stacks with the barbarian ability of the same name, with the same restrictions.

Cheetah (Ex)

At level 4, the coyote borrows the intense, short-lived sprint of the cheetah. Once per hour, he may move ten times his normal speed when he makes a charge.

Superior Instinct (Ex)

At level 5, the coyote gains the ability to ignore concealment-induced miss chances. This applies to all attacks in a single round. He may do this once per day per class level.

Kraken (Ex)

At level 6, the coyote learns to move at breakneck speeds through the water. He may jet backward once per round as a full-round action, at a speed of 280 feet. He must move in a straight line, but does not provoke attacks of opportunity while jetting. This ability may only be used in the water. In addition, the coyote gains a swim speed equal to his base land speed (including bonuses from Fast Movement), but does not gain any ability to breathe underwater.

Freedom of Movement (Su)

Beginning at level 7, the coyote acts as if constantly under the effects of a Freedom of Movement spell.

Arrowhawk (Ex)

At level 8, the coyote grows four feathery wings and gains a fly speed equal to his base land speed (including bonuses from Fast Movement) +20 ft, with perfect maneuverability. He may use his Cheetah sprinting ability in a dive (but not his Elephant trample - see below).

Unleashed (Su)

Beginning at level 9, the coyote becomes immune to everything listed under the Freedom spell description. In addition, if he is ever unwillingly caged, he may choose to be shunted to the nearest open space outside of the cage, taking 1d6 damage per 10 feet, to a minimum of 1d6 damage. This bypasses, as examples, forcecages as well as mundane wooden cages, and allows him to return to the open surface if buried under an avalanche.

The coyote now breathes freely in any sort of environment. He need not worry about drowning from being underwater or suffocation from being underground.

Xorn (Ex)

At level 10, the coyote gains a burrow speed equal to his base land speed (including bonuses from Fast Movement). In addition, he gains Earth Glide, equal to the Xorn ability.

Elephant (Ex)

Also at level 10, the coyote gains a special trample attack that must be used in conjunction with his Cheetah sprint (he does not move twice that speed). He deals damage as if he had attacked with his weapon once and had confirmed a critical hit. The coyote must still roll to see if properties that deal extra damage or have extra effects on a critical hit such as Vorpal and Flaming Burst come into effect. No precision-based damage can be done from this attack. The coyote is treated as two sizes larger for determining what creatures he may trample and how many squares he occupies during the trample. The Reflex save DC to avoid this is 20 + his Strength modifier. The coyote may only perform this attack if he is wielding a melee weapon.

Ex-Coyotes

A coyote who ceases to revere animals or changes to a prohibited alignment loses all class abilities until he atones. He keeps his wings but his fly speed and all other types of movement that he gained are lost.

mockingbyrd7
2007-03-03, 09:10 PM
VERY impressive, I like this a lot. I'd probably play it in a long-term campaign. Cool concept, very powerful, and sweet skills.

Darth Anthony
2007-03-03, 09:52 PM
Excellent! :smallcool:

This is a very powerful PrC. Do you have any ideas on guidelines for revering animals? With all the advantages, it seems to me that this would be a way to balance it out somewhat - - I am thinking of something like a wilderness paladin with a strict code...

Orzel
2007-03-03, 10:09 PM
Cool class.

Pretty powerful. Great abilities.
I'd add a few climb and swim ranks to the prereqs.

Baron Corm
2007-03-03, 10:11 PM
ah... powerful and great are not such good things. i was hoping it would be balanced, because he doesn't really get any increased damage until level 10. anything i should tone down?

edit: didn't see your suggestion darth anthony. what kind of code did you have in mind?

and orzel, i'd considered adding animal affinity as a prerequisite feat. it's useless and its flavor makes sense. i had originally 1 rank climb, jump, and swim as well, but i thought about it and decided that he doesn't really need to be proficient with these things going in, as they are class features that he obtains.

Jack_Simth
2007-03-04, 02:24 AM
It's nice enough. Probably balanced enough, too (at least, using the Wizard as a benchmark at the high end).

Loads of class features....

Let's see... at 16th, where it gets the strongest ability....

It does... what? Assuming full Power Attack with a scythe (and ignorning, for the moment, feats and PrC that further increase the effectiveness of power attack or a trample attack) he's doing 16*2*4+8d4+.5*str*4 damage to everyone in a fairly largish area, no more than once per hour, reflex negates.

Granted, it's a bit more than what a barbarian-16 can do, but the barbarian-16 also has more HP, and a higher raging strength and will save. He gets some nifty anti-spellcaster powers, and the movement modes are nice. A Wiz-16 who's prepped for him will probably take him down (takes some work, though).

Icewalker
2007-03-05, 02:41 AM
I like it, very cool. The cheetah ability is an excellent idea, but a little bit ridiculous. at 10 times normal charge distance...can't you charge 400 ft? I can see sprinting 400 ft, but not charging. I suggest allowing them to just do a sprint that increases move speed by a smaller amount, and they can charge a longer distance with it.

It seems a little underpowered at the beginning, levels 2-4 really just increase movement speed and a dex bonus.

Unleashed is awesome. Excellent idea, although I think it might be possible to find a more applicable/cooler name. I dunno.

Baron Corm
2007-03-05, 06:24 PM
just copied Sprint straight from the cheetah description! as far as the underpoweredness in the beginning goes, that's a little bit of the flavor that was in the back of my head. these guys are like the chiefs or champions of native american-like tribes, and their subordinates would have 3-4 levels in the class. i dunno if that makes sense, just a little insight into what i was thinking about.

unleashed... you're taking off the leash finally, you're finally free... makes sense to me! you want something like Greater Freedom of Movement? booo.