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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Class [PrC] [ToB] The Argent Fist (Tome of Battle Variant) [PEACH]



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.

Hawkflight
2015-04-20, 01:30 AM
Bumping for review.

Xerlith
2015-04-20, 12:41 PM
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.

The requirements. Okay.
so the most obvious combos to enter are Paladin4/Unarmed Swordsage2 or Monk1/Paladin4/Swordsage1. Some outlandish combinations like Cloistered Cleric1/Paladin1/Unarmed Sworsdage3 work as well, I guess. The Ascetic Knight seems like a feat tax and nothing more, though - since the class doesn't actually progress any monk abilities.

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
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.
The standard for an Initiator prestige. Okay.

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.
A cookie-cutter way of making Desert Wind useful. Standard treatment - I like.

Ki Focus: When wielding any weapon you are proficient with, you may treat it as having the Ki Focus special property.
Nice to have, but useless since: 1. Your best bet is to enter via Unarmed Swordsage, because; 2: The class doesn't progress any monk abilities, so the DCs and unarmed strike damage stay low.

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.
This only deepens the idiosynchrasy I mentioned before - since the class doesn't progress monk abilities and can be reliably entered via Swordsage, this one seems like a dead ability.

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.
Okay. A decent thematic ability.

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.
Sooo, the Lay On Hands and Devoted Spirit strikes. Fine. I'd just say that you might want to also progress the Paladin's staple (LoH, Smite Evil) features, especially since you give the class...

Smite Evil: At 4th level, and again at 9th level, you gain one additional use per day of your Smite Evil class feature.
Okay. But does it scale? By now, I'm dealing a meager +4 damage with the ability and if I'm focusing on my monk-ness, I'm a high-wis more than high-charisma type. That leaves me with a not-so-stellar bonus to hit as well.

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.
An ability that is thematically nice, but:
1. I don't progress Flurry of Blows and gain a medium BAB, meaning I'm getting at best two-three attacks off this ability, if I'm not using Martial Strikes.
2: And Martial Strikes allow for only one attack (mostly). So that'd make a +10d6 damage per Turn Undead. Let's assume half of my attacks reliably hit, so... 5d6 damage. At 11th level that doesn't amount to too much, especially since it is spread out in time.
Two ways to resolve this: either make the bonus doubled when using a Martial Strike or add your Wisdom modifier to damage. Preferably both.

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.
Nice ability to have. Moving along.

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.

I don't actually remember how the original capstone worked, so I'm assuming that this is somehow tweaked:
- The Fast Healing is nice. At average it'd probably heal about 5x10 (assuming mild Wisdom optimisation) so 50hp per Turn Undead. Okay.
- Action point for a move. I'm tempted to say let them have a standard here, since the class doesn't grant spellcasting and Action Points are limited unless bard shenanigans.
- I'm a little sun. Fun.
- 2d6 damage/round, even untyped and non-avoidable seems a bit low at this level. I mean it.
- Critical threat confirmation is okay, although it can be gained via a 1st level Paladin spell... But critting against Undead is nice. What does "within the effect" mean? The 60-foot radius? That's a bit low if we consider a Zen Archer Monk of Silver Flame, since it's THE order's weapon.


Half my beef with this class can be resolved by adding one ability:

Sacred Ki: Beginning at 1st level, you add your Argent Fist levels to both your Monk and Paladin levels for all level-dependend abilities, including AC Bonus, Stunning Fist, Smite Evil, Lay on Hands and Unarmed Strike damage progression.

Although it still means I have to have at least a level of monk if I want to enjoy the class' full scope of abilities.

And it doesn't progress Paladin spellcasting, which is sad. But I can live without that one.

EDIT: An optimal entry seems to be Paladin4/Swordsage 2 who takes Improved Unarmed Strike at 1st level and Serenity as his 3rd level feat, with Ascetic Knight being the 6th level one. I get the benefits of Holy Armour already, because Swordsage AC bonus works with light armour...
And all my abilities are keyed off-wisdom, making it nicely almost-SAD for all class abilities.

Hawkflight
2015-04-20, 02:02 PM
Thanks for the review! And thanks for pointing out that the class doesn't actually progress unarmed strike damage and smite evil damage as written. I have added in an ability to essentially make the Sacred Fist's levels stack with its base classes' for the Ascetic Knight feat. I didn't have it progress anything else because the original didn't progress anything else, and I wanted to stick as close to the original as I could in order to maintain balance. This is really more of an ACF than anything. (As an aside, I would actually recommend the Holy Fire ability be added to the original class, simply because it's flavorful and neat.)

"The standard for an Initiator prestige. Okay." Actually, not exactly. Similar, but one thing I'm proud of is finding a progression that leaves absolutely no dead levels in this area.

"Nice to have, but useless since: 1. Your best bet is to enter via Unarmed Swordsage, because; 2: The class doesn't progress any monk abilities, so the DCs and unarmed strike damage stay low." Actually, not true. This class grants you two Ki abilities to use with this feature.

"This only deepens the idiosynchrasy I mentioned before - since the class doesn't progress monk abilities and can be reliably entered via Swordsage, this one seems like a dead ability." It's worth noting that the Swordsage only gets its AC bonus in light armor. Even without the Monk's progressive AC bonus, this still allows you to wear heavy armor and keep that bonus.

"Okay. But does it scale? By now, I'm dealing a meager +4 damage with the ability and if I'm focusing on my monk-ness, I'm a high-wis more than high-charisma type. That leaves me with a not-so-stellar bonus to hit as well." It does now. ^^;

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. (I'm also adding this to the first post for any newcomers.) Edit: Maybe if I had it spend a Turn Undead attempt to switch into them?

Added: 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 similarly progressing Smite Evil damage.

Added: 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.

Lix Lorn
2015-04-22, 12:53 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.
First off, Argent Fist, not Sacred.
More importantly, why is this a DM note? Monk and Paladin are two of the worst classes in the game. Why isn't this just... well, part of the class? The note is useful for Ascetic Knight, but the class should really be designed to work with either.


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.
Turn Undead attempts are about as scarce as hitpoints in a party of barbarians. Making them stances would make them significantly weaker.

Level six is almost dead. Yes, you get a maneuver readied, which is /useful/, but you don't get anything /interesting./ Personally I'd put a dead level somewhere they got a maneuver known, rather than readied. That said, adding a really minor ability would be better.


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.
As I said earlier, this should just count unarmed swordsage by default.


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.
Second verse same as first.


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.
It'd be nice if this had a benefit for people who already had this ability, but NBD.


"This only deepens the idiosynchrasy I mentioned before - since the class doesn't progress monk abilities and can be reliably entered via Swordsage, this one seems like a dead ability." It's worth noting that the Swordsage only gets its AC bonus in light armor. Even without the Monk's progressive AC bonus, this still allows you to wear heavy armor and keep that bonus.
Yeah, as written this doesn't work with swordsage.