Hawkflight
2015-04-18, 08:00 PM
DM Advice: While it's easy enough to enter this class as a Monk/Paladin, most people will likely want to enter as an Unarmed Swordsage/Paladin. In this situation, the DM is recommended to have the Ascetic Knight feat and the Sacred Fist's Divine Ki ability progress unarmed strike damage granted by the Unarmed Swordsage, as well as progressing Smite Evil damage similarly.
On Balm/Wrath/Embrace of the Silver Flame: These class features are actually exactly copy-pasted from the original class. And actually, this is a point of contention for me. What I would like to do is turn these into stances, but I'm worried about the effect this would have on the class as a whole. While it would be thematically more appropriate, I'm worried about the balance implications, as well as the feel of the class as a whole, as while you would have to swap stances to use them, you'd also no longer be using up Turn Undead attempts. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on the matter.
THE CLASS:
Most members of the Order of the Argent Fist hone their body and spirit through the practice of martial discipline and a monastic lifestyle, learning to summon but a tiny ember of the Silver Flame. Some, however, enter the Order from the path of the Swordsage. These few bring their skills learned from their practice of the Desert Wind style to elevate their use of the Silver Flame as a weapon to new heights.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Alignment: Lawful Good
Base Attack Bonus: +3
Skills: Knowledge (Religion) 8 ranks
Feats: Ascetic Knight, Improved Unarmed Strike
Martial Maneuvers: Must know at least two martial maneuvers, including one from the Desert Wind discipline.
Special: AC Bonus class feature, Smite Evil class feature, Turn Undead class feature, must worship the Silver Flame and join the order of the Argent Fist.
TABLE 1-1: THE ARGENT FIST (HIT DIE: D10)
Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Maneuvers Known
Maneuvers Readied
Stances Known
Special
1st
+0
+2
+0
+2
1
0
0
Divine Ki, Holy Fire, Ki Focus
2nd
+1
+3
+0
+3
0
1
0
Holy Armor, Ki Strike (Silver)
3rd
+2
+3
+1
+3
1
0
0
Balm of the Silver Flame
4th
+3
+4
+1
+4
0
0
1
Smite Evil (1/day)
5th
+3
+4
+1
+4
1
0
0
Wrath of the Silver Flame
6th
+4
+5
+2
+5
0
1
0
—
7th
+5
+5
+2
+5
1
0
0
Ki Strike (Cold Iron)
8th
+6
+6
+2
+6
0
0
1
Mettle
9th
+6
+6
+3
+6
1
0
0
Smite Evil (2/day)
10th
+7
+7
+3
+7
0
1
0
Embrace the Silver Flame, Purified Fire
Class skills (4 + Int modifier per level): Autohypnosis, Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Heal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Religion), Listen, Martial Lore, Profession, Ride, Sense Motive, Spot, Tumble.
CLASS FEATURES
Maneuvers: At each odd-numbered level, you gain one new maneuver known from the Desert Wind, Devoted Spirit, Iron Heart, or Shadow Hand discipline. You must meet a maneuver's prerequisite in order to learn it. You add your full Argent Fist levels to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest-level maneuvers known. At 2nd level, and again at 6th and 10th levels, you gain an additional maneuver readied per day.
Stances Known: At 4th level and again at 8th level, you learn a new martial stance from the Desert Wind, Devoted Spirit, Iron Heart, or Shadow Hand discipline. You must meet a stance's prerequisites in order to learn it.
Divine Ki: Your Paladin, Monk, and Argent Fist levels stack for the purpose of determining your unarmed strike damage, as well as when determining the extra damage dealt by your Smite Evil ability.
Holy Fire: Beginning at 1st level, whenever you use an ability that would normally deal fire damage, you may choose to change half of that damage into raw divine damage that is treated good-aligned for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
Purified Fire: At 10th level, you may instead change all fire damage into raw divine energy damage that is treated as good-aligned.
Ki Focus: When wielding any weapon you are proficient with, you may treat it as having the Ki Focus special property.
Holy Armor: Beginning at 2nd level, you retain any AC bonus granted by your monk levels (including Wisdom bonus to AC), even when wearing any armor or carrying a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load.
Ki Strike: Beginning at 2nd level, your unarmed strikes are treated as silver weapon for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. At 7th level, your unarmed strikes are also treated as cold iron weapons for this purpose. Thanks to your Ki Focus class feature, these benefits also extend to any weapon you wield with which you have proficiency.
Balm of the Silver Flame: Beginning at 3rd level, you can spend one of your daily Turn Undead attempts as a swift action in order to enhance your healing power. Until the end of your turn, any spell or supernatural ability you use that heals hit point damage restores double the normal amount of hit points.
Smite Evil: At 4th level, and again at 9th level, you gain one additional use per day of your Smite Evil class feature.
Wrath of the Silver Flame: Starting at 5th level, you can spend one of your daily Turn Undead attempts as a swift action in order to cause your fists (or any weapon you wield with which you are proficient) to erupt with silver flames. This fire gives off no heat, but shines light as a torch. The silver flames add 2d6 points of damage to any undead, lycanthrope, or evil outsider creature you strike. This damage results from pure divine power, and as such is not subject to fire resistance. Once activated, the silver flames burn for a number of rounds equal to 5 + your Charisma bonus, or until you dismiss them.
Mettle: At 8th level and higher, you can resist magical and unusual attacks with great willpower or fortitude. If you make a successful Will or Fortitude save against an attack that normally would have a lesser effect on a successful save (such as any spell with a saving throw entry of Will half or Fortitude partial), you instead completely negate the effect.
Embrace the Silver Flame: At 10th level, you gain the ability to manifest a tiny ember of the silver flame. By spending one of your daily Turn Undead attempts as a swift action, you become engulfed in an aura of silver flames that sheds no heat. This lasts for a number of rounds equal to 5 + your Charisma bonus and has the following effects:
You gain Fast Healing equal to your Wisdom bonus (minimum 1).
You can spend 1 action point to take an extra move action.
You radiate light as if you were the center of a Daylight spell.
Any lycanthrope, undead, or evil outsider within a 60-foot radius of the pure divine energy you radiate takes a -2 penalty to AC and also takes 2d6 points of damage each round at the end of your turn.
Any critical threat you score against a lycanthrope, undead, or evil outsider with your unarmed strike, or any weapon with which you are proficient, is automatically confirmed, and you can even score critical hits against undead that are within the effect.
On Balm/Wrath/Embrace of the Silver Flame: These class features are actually exactly copy-pasted from the original class. And actually, this is a point of contention for me. What I would like to do is turn these into stances, but I'm worried about the effect this would have on the class as a whole. While it would be thematically more appropriate, I'm worried about the balance implications, as well as the feel of the class as a whole, as while you would have to swap stances to use them, you'd also no longer be using up Turn Undead attempts. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on the matter.
THE CLASS:
Most members of the Order of the Argent Fist hone their body and spirit through the practice of martial discipline and a monastic lifestyle, learning to summon but a tiny ember of the Silver Flame. Some, however, enter the Order from the path of the Swordsage. These few bring their skills learned from their practice of the Desert Wind style to elevate their use of the Silver Flame as a weapon to new heights.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Alignment: Lawful Good
Base Attack Bonus: +3
Skills: Knowledge (Religion) 8 ranks
Feats: Ascetic Knight, Improved Unarmed Strike
Martial Maneuvers: Must know at least two martial maneuvers, including one from the Desert Wind discipline.
Special: AC Bonus class feature, Smite Evil class feature, Turn Undead class feature, must worship the Silver Flame and join the order of the Argent Fist.
TABLE 1-1: THE ARGENT FIST (HIT DIE: D10)
Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Maneuvers Known
Maneuvers Readied
Stances Known
Special
1st
+0
+2
+0
+2
1
0
0
Divine Ki, Holy Fire, Ki Focus
2nd
+1
+3
+0
+3
0
1
0
Holy Armor, Ki Strike (Silver)
3rd
+2
+3
+1
+3
1
0
0
Balm of the Silver Flame
4th
+3
+4
+1
+4
0
0
1
Smite Evil (1/day)
5th
+3
+4
+1
+4
1
0
0
Wrath of the Silver Flame
6th
+4
+5
+2
+5
0
1
0
—
7th
+5
+5
+2
+5
1
0
0
Ki Strike (Cold Iron)
8th
+6
+6
+2
+6
0
0
1
Mettle
9th
+6
+6
+3
+6
1
0
0
Smite Evil (2/day)
10th
+7
+7
+3
+7
0
1
0
Embrace the Silver Flame, Purified Fire
Class skills (4 + Int modifier per level): Autohypnosis, Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Heal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Religion), Listen, Martial Lore, Profession, Ride, Sense Motive, Spot, Tumble.
CLASS FEATURES
Maneuvers: At each odd-numbered level, you gain one new maneuver known from the Desert Wind, Devoted Spirit, Iron Heart, or Shadow Hand discipline. You must meet a maneuver's prerequisite in order to learn it. You add your full Argent Fist levels to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest-level maneuvers known. At 2nd level, and again at 6th and 10th levels, you gain an additional maneuver readied per day.
Stances Known: At 4th level and again at 8th level, you learn a new martial stance from the Desert Wind, Devoted Spirit, Iron Heart, or Shadow Hand discipline. You must meet a stance's prerequisites in order to learn it.
Divine Ki: Your Paladin, Monk, and Argent Fist levels stack for the purpose of determining your unarmed strike damage, as well as when determining the extra damage dealt by your Smite Evil ability.
Holy Fire: Beginning at 1st level, whenever you use an ability that would normally deal fire damage, you may choose to change half of that damage into raw divine damage that is treated good-aligned for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
Purified Fire: At 10th level, you may instead change all fire damage into raw divine energy damage that is treated as good-aligned.
Ki Focus: When wielding any weapon you are proficient with, you may treat it as having the Ki Focus special property.
Holy Armor: Beginning at 2nd level, you retain any AC bonus granted by your monk levels (including Wisdom bonus to AC), even when wearing any armor or carrying a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load.
Ki Strike: Beginning at 2nd level, your unarmed strikes are treated as silver weapon for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. At 7th level, your unarmed strikes are also treated as cold iron weapons for this purpose. Thanks to your Ki Focus class feature, these benefits also extend to any weapon you wield with which you have proficiency.
Balm of the Silver Flame: Beginning at 3rd level, you can spend one of your daily Turn Undead attempts as a swift action in order to enhance your healing power. Until the end of your turn, any spell or supernatural ability you use that heals hit point damage restores double the normal amount of hit points.
Smite Evil: At 4th level, and again at 9th level, you gain one additional use per day of your Smite Evil class feature.
Wrath of the Silver Flame: Starting at 5th level, you can spend one of your daily Turn Undead attempts as a swift action in order to cause your fists (or any weapon you wield with which you are proficient) to erupt with silver flames. This fire gives off no heat, but shines light as a torch. The silver flames add 2d6 points of damage to any undead, lycanthrope, or evil outsider creature you strike. This damage results from pure divine power, and as such is not subject to fire resistance. Once activated, the silver flames burn for a number of rounds equal to 5 + your Charisma bonus, or until you dismiss them.
Mettle: At 8th level and higher, you can resist magical and unusual attacks with great willpower or fortitude. If you make a successful Will or Fortitude save against an attack that normally would have a lesser effect on a successful save (such as any spell with a saving throw entry of Will half or Fortitude partial), you instead completely negate the effect.
Embrace the Silver Flame: At 10th level, you gain the ability to manifest a tiny ember of the silver flame. By spending one of your daily Turn Undead attempts as a swift action, you become engulfed in an aura of silver flames that sheds no heat. This lasts for a number of rounds equal to 5 + your Charisma bonus and has the following effects:
You gain Fast Healing equal to your Wisdom bonus (minimum 1).
You can spend 1 action point to take an extra move action.
You radiate light as if you were the center of a Daylight spell.
Any lycanthrope, undead, or evil outsider within a 60-foot radius of the pure divine energy you radiate takes a -2 penalty to AC and also takes 2d6 points of damage each round at the end of your turn.
Any critical threat you score against a lycanthrope, undead, or evil outsider with your unarmed strike, or any weapon with which you are proficient, is automatically confirmed, and you can even score critical hits against undead that are within the effect.