Ironsides
2014-11-14, 06:56 PM
Warlord Archetype: The Spirit Warrior
No two spirit warriors are alike, the only similarity they share is their utter uniqueness. Spirit warriors always leave an impression. Some can adopt the forms of giants with their eidolon spirits to bring castles crashing down with their fists so that they can eat the inhabitants. Some can take flight as avenging angels, while others assume the form of eldritch horrors that have never been seen on this world before. Whether fair or foul, wonderful or strange they never fail to leave an impression.
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: The spirit warrior is proficient in all simple weapons and with one martial weapon of his choice. His choice of martial weapon is made when the character takes his first level of spirit warrior and cannot be changed. The spirit warrior is proficient with light armor and medium armor and with shields.
This is the first nerf to the class. I think that by limiting the number of weapons you can bring to bear that it will limit the power of the class. I am open to removing or changing this.
Class Skills: The spirit warrior loses the following class skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Diplomacy (Cha), Perception (Wis), Sense Motive (Cha), Survival (Wis). The spirit warrior adds Fly (Dex) to his class skills.
Disciplines: The spirit warrior chooses two disciplines from the following list to be his class disciplines: Black Seraph (Intimidate), Broken Blade (Acrobatics), Golden Lion (Diplomacy), Iron Tortoise (Bluff), Primal Fury (Survival), Scarlet Throne (Sense Motive), Silver Crane (Perception), Solar Wind (Perception), Steel Serpent (Heal), Thrashing Dragon (Acrobatics), Veiled Moon (Stealth). The associated skill for each discipline chosen becomes a class skill. The spirit warrior’s choice of martial discipline is made when the character takes his first level of spirit warrior and cannot be changed.
This is both a nerf and a buff. You are limited to two disciplines of your choice. The ability to choose complementary disciplines can really open the range of characters you can make, but once you make it you are stuck with it. To reinforce this I changed the Weapon and Armor Proficiencies and Class Skills. I have found that you can focus on three disciplines with the normal maneuver progression and get 9th level maneuvers with those disciplines. Here you get flexibility at the expense of…. flexibility.
Spirit Bind (Su): A Spirit warrior binds the essence of an eidolon to his spirit. This binding ritual takes 1 minute to perform. The eidolon surrounds and strengthens the spirit warrior like a living suit of armor. The eidolon and the spirit warrior become one creature with the spirit warrior perceiving the world through the eidolon’s senses and communicating through the eidolon’s voice. The spirit warrior gains this eidolon at the 1st level.
This eidolon functions as a summoner’s eidolon, using the spirit warrior’s level as his effective summoner level with the following changes. While bound to his eidolon, the spirit warrior uses the eidolon’s physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution), but retains his own mental ability scores (Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma). The eidolon’s hit points are used a temporary hit points by the spirit warrior. If these hit points reach 0, the eidolon is killed and sent back to its home plane. The spirit warrior uses the eidolon’s base attack bonus, and gains the eidolon’s armor and natural armor bonuses. While bound with the eidolon, the spirit warrior augments his ability scores with any modifiers the eidolon gains through leveling or through evolutions. The spirit warrior also gains access to the eidolon’s special abilities and the eidolon’s evolutions. The spirit warrior is still limited to the eidolon’s maximum number of natural attacks. This eidolon does not have any skills or feats of its own. The eidolon can’t be smaller than the spirit warrior. The eidolon must have limbs for the spirit warrior to cast spells with somatic components. The eidolon’s temporary hit points can be restored with the rejuvenate eidolon spell.
This is where I drill down and try to fix one of the biggest problems of the synthesist summoner. The fact you could dump your physical stats with no repercussions and outshine the fighter. To combat this munchkinery I changed how you make your eidolon when you get it. Now the eidolon is a reflection of you and you are now more MAD because of it. Win? My main problem is that I am unsure how clear this is now to another player. “Can they make this class correctly?” is what I am asking myself. I would appreciate a lot of feedback on this.
While bound, the spirit warrior loses the benefits of his armor he may be wearing. However, the spirit warrior retains proficiency he has with any weapons and/or shields he may have while bound and may use these items if equipped. Weapons must be of the appropriate size for the bound spirit warrior to wield without inappropriate size penalties (such as a bound spirit warrior with the large evolution wielding a medium longsword takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls with that weapon). The spirit warrior can initiate maneuvers and benefits from stances while bound to his eidolon. However, in order to use any equipment that requires fine manipulation the bound spirit warrior needs limbs (arms).
He counts as both his original type and as an outsider for any effect related to type, whichever is worse for the spirit warrior. Spells such as banishment or dismissal work normally on the eidolon, but the spirit warrior is unaffected. Neither the spirit warrior nor his eidolon can be targeted separately, as they are combined into one creature. The spirit warrior and eidolon cannot take separate actions. While bound to his eidolon, the spirit warrior can use all of his own abilities and gear, except for his armor. In all other cases, this ability functions as the summoner’s normal eidolon ability (the spirit warrior cannot use summon other entities while the eidolon is present).
Here is where I try to tackle some corner cases of the synthesist.
This replaces the bonus feats at the 1st, 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level.
Bound link (Su): Starting at 1st level, the spirit warrior shares a symbiotic relationship with his eidolon and can sacrifice his vitality in order to maintain his eidolon form. The spirit warrior can sacrifice any number of his own hit points. Each hit point sacrificed this way restores 1 temporary hit point that his eidolon has up to the eidolon’s maximum temporary hit point pool. The spirit warrior can also choose to absorb ability damage done to his eidolon while bound. This ability damage absorbed by the spirit warrior stays with the spirit warrior even if the eidolon is dismissed.
This class lacks ways of healing its eidolon so I modified it so that it can feed off the HP of the spirit warrior to keep both of them alive. Also I wanted a way for the eidolon to heal ability damage.
Sudden Transformation (Su): At the 2nd level, as a supernatural ability the spirit warrior may, as a full round action, summon his eidolon once per day. At the 5th level he may do this as a standard action. At the 7th level he may bind with his eidolon as a move action up to twice a day, and at the 9th level he may do this as a swift action twice a day.
This replaces Tactical Presence at 2nd, 5th, 7th and 9th level.
As a standard action the synthesist summoner could use the Summon Eidolon spell and suit up. I wanted something similar for the spirit warrior. I imagined that the spirit warrior would get better and better at summoning his eidolon as he grows in power. Also this has a lot of roleplay potential. I can imagine some NPC totally freaking out when an unarmed man he thought was no threat suddenly turned into a werewolf, or a dragon, or a magical girl. Otherwise it takes you a full minute to summon your eidolon. Which is way too long in my opinion.
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What I was going for was a warlord that could transform into something amazing without being overpowered. I loved the range of characters you could make with the synthesist. With that class you could make a werewolf, a mechsuited warrior, Jeager from Attack on Titan, or a anything else that you wanted to transform into. That was sooo cool but the mechanics of it were overpowered in many instances. The fact you could dump your physical stats and be better than the fighter was unfair and I hoped I addressed that. I posted this yesterday on the Dreamscared Press forums and I wanted your opinions, help and feedback on the class. The clean google doc version is here. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y9X8WdZb1TVS3e5sUIbMD1eKskRspLTrMOdupR6gVUI/edit?usp=sharing) You can find the find where I posted the class on the DSP forums here. (http://dreamscarredpress.com/dragonfly/ForumsPro/viewtopic/p=44516.html#44516)
No two spirit warriors are alike, the only similarity they share is their utter uniqueness. Spirit warriors always leave an impression. Some can adopt the forms of giants with their eidolon spirits to bring castles crashing down with their fists so that they can eat the inhabitants. Some can take flight as avenging angels, while others assume the form of eldritch horrors that have never been seen on this world before. Whether fair or foul, wonderful or strange they never fail to leave an impression.
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: The spirit warrior is proficient in all simple weapons and with one martial weapon of his choice. His choice of martial weapon is made when the character takes his first level of spirit warrior and cannot be changed. The spirit warrior is proficient with light armor and medium armor and with shields.
This is the first nerf to the class. I think that by limiting the number of weapons you can bring to bear that it will limit the power of the class. I am open to removing or changing this.
Class Skills: The spirit warrior loses the following class skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Diplomacy (Cha), Perception (Wis), Sense Motive (Cha), Survival (Wis). The spirit warrior adds Fly (Dex) to his class skills.
Disciplines: The spirit warrior chooses two disciplines from the following list to be his class disciplines: Black Seraph (Intimidate), Broken Blade (Acrobatics), Golden Lion (Diplomacy), Iron Tortoise (Bluff), Primal Fury (Survival), Scarlet Throne (Sense Motive), Silver Crane (Perception), Solar Wind (Perception), Steel Serpent (Heal), Thrashing Dragon (Acrobatics), Veiled Moon (Stealth). The associated skill for each discipline chosen becomes a class skill. The spirit warrior’s choice of martial discipline is made when the character takes his first level of spirit warrior and cannot be changed.
This is both a nerf and a buff. You are limited to two disciplines of your choice. The ability to choose complementary disciplines can really open the range of characters you can make, but once you make it you are stuck with it. To reinforce this I changed the Weapon and Armor Proficiencies and Class Skills. I have found that you can focus on three disciplines with the normal maneuver progression and get 9th level maneuvers with those disciplines. Here you get flexibility at the expense of…. flexibility.
Spirit Bind (Su): A Spirit warrior binds the essence of an eidolon to his spirit. This binding ritual takes 1 minute to perform. The eidolon surrounds and strengthens the spirit warrior like a living suit of armor. The eidolon and the spirit warrior become one creature with the spirit warrior perceiving the world through the eidolon’s senses and communicating through the eidolon’s voice. The spirit warrior gains this eidolon at the 1st level.
This eidolon functions as a summoner’s eidolon, using the spirit warrior’s level as his effective summoner level with the following changes. While bound to his eidolon, the spirit warrior uses the eidolon’s physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution), but retains his own mental ability scores (Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma). The eidolon’s hit points are used a temporary hit points by the spirit warrior. If these hit points reach 0, the eidolon is killed and sent back to its home plane. The spirit warrior uses the eidolon’s base attack bonus, and gains the eidolon’s armor and natural armor bonuses. While bound with the eidolon, the spirit warrior augments his ability scores with any modifiers the eidolon gains through leveling or through evolutions. The spirit warrior also gains access to the eidolon’s special abilities and the eidolon’s evolutions. The spirit warrior is still limited to the eidolon’s maximum number of natural attacks. This eidolon does not have any skills or feats of its own. The eidolon can’t be smaller than the spirit warrior. The eidolon must have limbs for the spirit warrior to cast spells with somatic components. The eidolon’s temporary hit points can be restored with the rejuvenate eidolon spell.
This is where I drill down and try to fix one of the biggest problems of the synthesist summoner. The fact you could dump your physical stats with no repercussions and outshine the fighter. To combat this munchkinery I changed how you make your eidolon when you get it. Now the eidolon is a reflection of you and you are now more MAD because of it. Win? My main problem is that I am unsure how clear this is now to another player. “Can they make this class correctly?” is what I am asking myself. I would appreciate a lot of feedback on this.
While bound, the spirit warrior loses the benefits of his armor he may be wearing. However, the spirit warrior retains proficiency he has with any weapons and/or shields he may have while bound and may use these items if equipped. Weapons must be of the appropriate size for the bound spirit warrior to wield without inappropriate size penalties (such as a bound spirit warrior with the large evolution wielding a medium longsword takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls with that weapon). The spirit warrior can initiate maneuvers and benefits from stances while bound to his eidolon. However, in order to use any equipment that requires fine manipulation the bound spirit warrior needs limbs (arms).
He counts as both his original type and as an outsider for any effect related to type, whichever is worse for the spirit warrior. Spells such as banishment or dismissal work normally on the eidolon, but the spirit warrior is unaffected. Neither the spirit warrior nor his eidolon can be targeted separately, as they are combined into one creature. The spirit warrior and eidolon cannot take separate actions. While bound to his eidolon, the spirit warrior can use all of his own abilities and gear, except for his armor. In all other cases, this ability functions as the summoner’s normal eidolon ability (the spirit warrior cannot use summon other entities while the eidolon is present).
Here is where I try to tackle some corner cases of the synthesist.
This replaces the bonus feats at the 1st, 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level.
Bound link (Su): Starting at 1st level, the spirit warrior shares a symbiotic relationship with his eidolon and can sacrifice his vitality in order to maintain his eidolon form. The spirit warrior can sacrifice any number of his own hit points. Each hit point sacrificed this way restores 1 temporary hit point that his eidolon has up to the eidolon’s maximum temporary hit point pool. The spirit warrior can also choose to absorb ability damage done to his eidolon while bound. This ability damage absorbed by the spirit warrior stays with the spirit warrior even if the eidolon is dismissed.
This class lacks ways of healing its eidolon so I modified it so that it can feed off the HP of the spirit warrior to keep both of them alive. Also I wanted a way for the eidolon to heal ability damage.
Sudden Transformation (Su): At the 2nd level, as a supernatural ability the spirit warrior may, as a full round action, summon his eidolon once per day. At the 5th level he may do this as a standard action. At the 7th level he may bind with his eidolon as a move action up to twice a day, and at the 9th level he may do this as a swift action twice a day.
This replaces Tactical Presence at 2nd, 5th, 7th and 9th level.
As a standard action the synthesist summoner could use the Summon Eidolon spell and suit up. I wanted something similar for the spirit warrior. I imagined that the spirit warrior would get better and better at summoning his eidolon as he grows in power. Also this has a lot of roleplay potential. I can imagine some NPC totally freaking out when an unarmed man he thought was no threat suddenly turned into a werewolf, or a dragon, or a magical girl. Otherwise it takes you a full minute to summon your eidolon. Which is way too long in my opinion.
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What I was going for was a warlord that could transform into something amazing without being overpowered. I loved the range of characters you could make with the synthesist. With that class you could make a werewolf, a mechsuited warrior, Jeager from Attack on Titan, or a anything else that you wanted to transform into. That was sooo cool but the mechanics of it were overpowered in many instances. The fact you could dump your physical stats and be better than the fighter was unfair and I hoped I addressed that. I posted this yesterday on the Dreamscared Press forums and I wanted your opinions, help and feedback on the class. The clean google doc version is here. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y9X8WdZb1TVS3e5sUIbMD1eKskRspLTrMOdupR6gVUI/edit?usp=sharing) You can find the find where I posted the class on the DSP forums here. (http://dreamscarredpress.com/dragonfly/ForumsPro/viewtopic/p=44516.html#44516)