Draconium
2015-10-14, 03:44 PM
The Dragonsouled Berserker
http://i1030.photobucket.com/albums/y368/Drakonium/natsu_dragonize_by_chisau_pro-d8tlq8i_zpst9i3ifm2.jpg
"The fury of a dragon. This is what fuels me. A rage that can burn the earth and shake the heavens. Until you have felt the pure, unadulterated anger that flows through my and my ken, you have not experienced a true anger."
Dragon blood runs through the veins of many creatures. Many who discover their draconic ancestry decide to follow the path of the arcane arts, their innate talents with magic allowing them to accomplish great deeds. Some dragon-blooded beings, however, do not choose this path. Instead, their draconic bloodline awakens in them as a lust for battle, a passionate rage that can sunder mountains. Those who are aware of this will often take strides to increase their battle prowess by awakening their draconic blood further, giving them abilities akin to the True Dragons themselves. These are the Dragonsouled Berserkers.
Entry Requirements:
Race: Any non-Dragon with the Dragonblooded subtype.
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Skills: Intimidate 8 ranks
Special: Must have the ability to Rage, or a similar class feature
Hit Die: d12
Class Skills (2+Int per level): Climb (Str), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis)
Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
1
+1
+2
+0
+0
Dragon's Fury +2, Raging Breath, Scales +1, Energy Resistance
2
+2
+3
+0
+0
Draconic Body, Dragon Senses
3
+3
+3
+1
+1
Dragon Wings, Scales +2, Natural Weapons
4
+4
+4
+1
+1
Dragon's Fury +4, Overwhelming Breath, +2 Str, +2 Con
5
+5
+4
+1
+1
Draconic Resistances, Raging Blood, Elemental Attacks
6
+6/+1
+5
+2
+2
Scales +3, Raging Immunity, +2 Str, +2 Int
7
+7/+2
+5
+2
+2
Dragon's Fury +6, Natural Weapons, True Breath, Blindsense
8
+8/+3
+6
+2
+2
Permanent Dragon Wings, Improved Draconic Body, +2 Str, +2 Con
9
+9/+4
+6
+3
+3
Scales +4, Damage Reduction 5/-, Frightful Presence
10
+10/+5
+7
+3
+3
Tireless Dragon's Fury +8, Dragon Immunities, Draconic Apotheosis, +2 Str, +2 Cha
Note: All abilities are (Ex) unless specified otherwise.
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: The Dragonsouled Berserker gains no new proficiencies with armor or weapons.
Dragon's Fury: Your draconic blood comes alive whenever you enter battle. Whenever you enter a rage, you gain an additional +2 Strength and +2 Constitution on top of your other bonuses from raging. These bonuses increase to +4 at 4th level, +6 at 6th level, and +8 at 10th level In addition, you also gain one additional use of your rage per day at each of these levels, and you are no longer fatigued at the end of your rage at 10th level.
Raging Breath (Su): Whenever you enter a rage, you gain a breath weapon that deals 1d6 damage per Dragonsouled Berserker level. You must choose a type of energy it deals at first level, fire, cold, acid, or electricity, as well as a shape, 15-foot cone or 30-foot line. If you use this breath weapon, you must wait 1d4 rounds before using it again.
Scales: Your skin toughens, emulating a dragon's hide. Your natural armor improves by 1 at 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 9th levels, for a total of +4 at 9th. If you had no natural armor before, you are treated as having +0 natural armor.
Energy Resistance (Su): You gain resistance to the same energy your breath weapon deals equal to 3 x your class level in this class. This resistance doubles while you are raging.
Draconic Body: Your body begins to bulk up, emulating your draconic ancestry. Starting at level 2, you gain Powerful Build while you are raging. If you already have Powerful Build, you instead lose it and grow one size larger while you are raging, as the Enlarge Person spell. This overlaps (does not stack) with similar class features you already possess.
Dragon Senses: You gain Darkvision 60 feet and Low Light Vision. If you already possessed one or both of these, you may instead double the range of your Darkvision or Low Light Vision.
Dragon Wings: Starting at level 3, you gain draconic wings while you are raging. These give you a +10 bonus on Jump checks, and a Fly speed equal to your base land speed (Average Maneuverability). These go away at the end of your rage. At level 8, you gain these wings permanently, though you can dismiss them or regrow them as a free action, and your flight speed increases by 50% while you are raging.
Natural Weapons: You gain a bite and two claw attacks as a dragon one size category smaller than you. If you use only natural weapons, your bite is your primary natural weapon, and your claws are secondary. If you wield manufactured weapons, you may attack with your bite as a secondary attack during your full attack sequence. Starting at level 7, these instead deal damage as a dragon of your size category. If you already have a natural Bite or Claw attack, instead increase their damage by one die size at each of these two levels. If your size is increased, the damage for these attacks in increased as well.
Overwhelming Breath (Su): At level 4, your breath weapon may now ignore a resistance against it's energy type equal to your own resistance (when not raging). For example, a fire breath weapon at this level may ignore up to 12 points of Fire Resistance.
Ability Score Increases: Your body and mind begin to undergo more permanent changes as your draconic blood awakens further. You gain +2 to Strength at 4th level and every two levels afterwards, +2 to Constitution at 4th and 8th levels, +2 to Intelligence at 6th level, and +2 to Charisma at 10th level, for a total increase of +8 Str, +4 Con, +2 Int, and +2 Cha at level 10.
Draconic Resistances: You gain a +4 on saves versus sleep and paralysis effects.
Raging Blood (Su): Your elemental energy is now coursing through your bloodstream. Whenever you are damaged in combat while you are raging, your elementally-charged blood sprays out, dealing 1d4 damage of your energy type to everyone within 5 feet of you on the side you were injured from. You may apply your Overwhelming Breath ability to this energy damage.
Elemental Attacks (Su): Starting at 5th level, whenever you are raging, your natural attacks now do an additional 1d4 damage of your breath weapon's energy type. As a standard action, you may also give this property to any manufactured weapons you wield for the duration of your rage. You may apply your Overwhelming Breath ability to this damage.
Raging Immunity (Su): Your energy resistance is now energy immunity while you are raging.
True Breath (Su): At 7th level and above, you may now use your breath weapon even if you are not raging. If you are raging, your breath weapon now deals damage in d8's instead. Your breath attack's range also doubles.
Blindsense: You gain Blindsense out to 30 feet.
Improved Draconic Body: Your draconic blood has made you bigger and stronger than ever. You now have Powerful Build at all times, and when you rage, you lose this and become one size larger, as per an Enlarge Person spell. If you already had Powerful Build, you instead lose it and become permanently one size larger, as per a permanent Enlarge Person spell, and again regain your Powerful build whenever you rage.
Damage Reduction: Your body has become so tough, no weapon can easily pierce your skin. You gain DR 5/- at 9th level.
Frightful Presence: You can unnerve and frighten your foes with your mere presence. Whenever you attack, charge, or fly overhead, creatures within a radius of 30 feet of you are subject to this effect if they have as many or fewer HD than you. A potentially affected creature that succeeds on a Will save (DC 10 + ½ your HD + your Cha modifier) remains immune to your frightful presence for 24 hours. On a failure, creatures with -5 HD or less than you become panicked for 2d6 rounds and those with -4 or more HD than you become shaken for 2d6 rounds. You may ignore the frightful presence of dragons and other Dragonsouled Berserkers. The DC for the save increases by your Con modifier while you are raging.
Dragon Immunities(Ex/Su): You are now immune to sleep and paralysis spells and effects, and you are fully immune to your breath weapon's energy type. Your Overwhelming Breath ability now completely ignores energy resistance, and you can now deal half damage to creatures normally immune to that energy. While you are raging, you may choose to supress your own immunity for 1d4 rounds to deal full damage to a normally immune creature during this time instead, but only once per rage.
Draconic Apotheosis: Your type changes to Dragon, and you lose your Dragonblooded subtype. You no longer take penalties for aging, though bonuses still acquire, and you still die when your time runs out.
Well, you see, the Dragon Disciple's flavor has always attracted me. Slowly transforming your body into one reminiscent of a dragon while gaining more power? Yes, please! However, the class's mechanics are... Well, they suck. So I decided to rework it into my own concept.
I removed the Arcane Casting requirement, because the whole point of that was to have a way to "genetically" tie your characters to dragons. Now, though, we have a Dragonblooded subtype for that, so the new class can drop casting altogether and just focus of martial fighting. After a while, I decided to focus my new class as another Barbarian PRC. I've always liked playing them, after all. Now I have a way to turn my otherwise human barbarian into a dragon! :smallbiggrin:
I've added in a lot of special benefits for this class - there's a few every level! - but most of them are small, only becoming bigger as you level up in this class. Most of the big benefits, I tried to put towards the end of the class, to avoid front-loading it horribly. I also decided that, while this class should be able to do things without raging, it should still get most of it's benefits while a rage is active. Many of the abilities start out as "only while raging," then become permanent at later levels. However, they still preform better while raging - faster flight, deadlier breath weapon, growing even larger while raging, etc.
I wasn't sure whether to keep this as a PRC, or turn it into a full class. I could certainly turn it into a full class - there's a few features I could add to what it already has that would spread it out into 20 levels just fine - but in the end, I decided to go with a PRC for now, since it was based off of one in the first place.
This is one of my first homebrew attempts, so I'm not sure how well it's gonna be compared to official classes. It certainly doesn't look overpowered, though it seems like a strictly better option than straight barbarian. However, I'm worried that there might be a bit much. I might have to cut some stuff out... Well, let's see what you guys think first, before I do anything else.
http://i1030.photobucket.com/albums/y368/Drakonium/natsu_dragonize_by_chisau_pro-d8tlq8i_zpst9i3ifm2.jpg
"The fury of a dragon. This is what fuels me. A rage that can burn the earth and shake the heavens. Until you have felt the pure, unadulterated anger that flows through my and my ken, you have not experienced a true anger."
Dragon blood runs through the veins of many creatures. Many who discover their draconic ancestry decide to follow the path of the arcane arts, their innate talents with magic allowing them to accomplish great deeds. Some dragon-blooded beings, however, do not choose this path. Instead, their draconic bloodline awakens in them as a lust for battle, a passionate rage that can sunder mountains. Those who are aware of this will often take strides to increase their battle prowess by awakening their draconic blood further, giving them abilities akin to the True Dragons themselves. These are the Dragonsouled Berserkers.
Entry Requirements:
Race: Any non-Dragon with the Dragonblooded subtype.
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Skills: Intimidate 8 ranks
Special: Must have the ability to Rage, or a similar class feature
Hit Die: d12
Class Skills (2+Int per level): Climb (Str), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis)
Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
1
+1
+2
+0
+0
Dragon's Fury +2, Raging Breath, Scales +1, Energy Resistance
2
+2
+3
+0
+0
Draconic Body, Dragon Senses
3
+3
+3
+1
+1
Dragon Wings, Scales +2, Natural Weapons
4
+4
+4
+1
+1
Dragon's Fury +4, Overwhelming Breath, +2 Str, +2 Con
5
+5
+4
+1
+1
Draconic Resistances, Raging Blood, Elemental Attacks
6
+6/+1
+5
+2
+2
Scales +3, Raging Immunity, +2 Str, +2 Int
7
+7/+2
+5
+2
+2
Dragon's Fury +6, Natural Weapons, True Breath, Blindsense
8
+8/+3
+6
+2
+2
Permanent Dragon Wings, Improved Draconic Body, +2 Str, +2 Con
9
+9/+4
+6
+3
+3
Scales +4, Damage Reduction 5/-, Frightful Presence
10
+10/+5
+7
+3
+3
Tireless Dragon's Fury +8, Dragon Immunities, Draconic Apotheosis, +2 Str, +2 Cha
Note: All abilities are (Ex) unless specified otherwise.
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: The Dragonsouled Berserker gains no new proficiencies with armor or weapons.
Dragon's Fury: Your draconic blood comes alive whenever you enter battle. Whenever you enter a rage, you gain an additional +2 Strength and +2 Constitution on top of your other bonuses from raging. These bonuses increase to +4 at 4th level, +6 at 6th level, and +8 at 10th level In addition, you also gain one additional use of your rage per day at each of these levels, and you are no longer fatigued at the end of your rage at 10th level.
Raging Breath (Su): Whenever you enter a rage, you gain a breath weapon that deals 1d6 damage per Dragonsouled Berserker level. You must choose a type of energy it deals at first level, fire, cold, acid, or electricity, as well as a shape, 15-foot cone or 30-foot line. If you use this breath weapon, you must wait 1d4 rounds before using it again.
Scales: Your skin toughens, emulating a dragon's hide. Your natural armor improves by 1 at 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 9th levels, for a total of +4 at 9th. If you had no natural armor before, you are treated as having +0 natural armor.
Energy Resistance (Su): You gain resistance to the same energy your breath weapon deals equal to 3 x your class level in this class. This resistance doubles while you are raging.
Draconic Body: Your body begins to bulk up, emulating your draconic ancestry. Starting at level 2, you gain Powerful Build while you are raging. If you already have Powerful Build, you instead lose it and grow one size larger while you are raging, as the Enlarge Person spell. This overlaps (does not stack) with similar class features you already possess.
Dragon Senses: You gain Darkvision 60 feet and Low Light Vision. If you already possessed one or both of these, you may instead double the range of your Darkvision or Low Light Vision.
Dragon Wings: Starting at level 3, you gain draconic wings while you are raging. These give you a +10 bonus on Jump checks, and a Fly speed equal to your base land speed (Average Maneuverability). These go away at the end of your rage. At level 8, you gain these wings permanently, though you can dismiss them or regrow them as a free action, and your flight speed increases by 50% while you are raging.
Natural Weapons: You gain a bite and two claw attacks as a dragon one size category smaller than you. If you use only natural weapons, your bite is your primary natural weapon, and your claws are secondary. If you wield manufactured weapons, you may attack with your bite as a secondary attack during your full attack sequence. Starting at level 7, these instead deal damage as a dragon of your size category. If you already have a natural Bite or Claw attack, instead increase their damage by one die size at each of these two levels. If your size is increased, the damage for these attacks in increased as well.
Overwhelming Breath (Su): At level 4, your breath weapon may now ignore a resistance against it's energy type equal to your own resistance (when not raging). For example, a fire breath weapon at this level may ignore up to 12 points of Fire Resistance.
Ability Score Increases: Your body and mind begin to undergo more permanent changes as your draconic blood awakens further. You gain +2 to Strength at 4th level and every two levels afterwards, +2 to Constitution at 4th and 8th levels, +2 to Intelligence at 6th level, and +2 to Charisma at 10th level, for a total increase of +8 Str, +4 Con, +2 Int, and +2 Cha at level 10.
Draconic Resistances: You gain a +4 on saves versus sleep and paralysis effects.
Raging Blood (Su): Your elemental energy is now coursing through your bloodstream. Whenever you are damaged in combat while you are raging, your elementally-charged blood sprays out, dealing 1d4 damage of your energy type to everyone within 5 feet of you on the side you were injured from. You may apply your Overwhelming Breath ability to this energy damage.
Elemental Attacks (Su): Starting at 5th level, whenever you are raging, your natural attacks now do an additional 1d4 damage of your breath weapon's energy type. As a standard action, you may also give this property to any manufactured weapons you wield for the duration of your rage. You may apply your Overwhelming Breath ability to this damage.
Raging Immunity (Su): Your energy resistance is now energy immunity while you are raging.
True Breath (Su): At 7th level and above, you may now use your breath weapon even if you are not raging. If you are raging, your breath weapon now deals damage in d8's instead. Your breath attack's range also doubles.
Blindsense: You gain Blindsense out to 30 feet.
Improved Draconic Body: Your draconic blood has made you bigger and stronger than ever. You now have Powerful Build at all times, and when you rage, you lose this and become one size larger, as per an Enlarge Person spell. If you already had Powerful Build, you instead lose it and become permanently one size larger, as per a permanent Enlarge Person spell, and again regain your Powerful build whenever you rage.
Damage Reduction: Your body has become so tough, no weapon can easily pierce your skin. You gain DR 5/- at 9th level.
Frightful Presence: You can unnerve and frighten your foes with your mere presence. Whenever you attack, charge, or fly overhead, creatures within a radius of 30 feet of you are subject to this effect if they have as many or fewer HD than you. A potentially affected creature that succeeds on a Will save (DC 10 + ½ your HD + your Cha modifier) remains immune to your frightful presence for 24 hours. On a failure, creatures with -5 HD or less than you become panicked for 2d6 rounds and those with -4 or more HD than you become shaken for 2d6 rounds. You may ignore the frightful presence of dragons and other Dragonsouled Berserkers. The DC for the save increases by your Con modifier while you are raging.
Dragon Immunities(Ex/Su): You are now immune to sleep and paralysis spells and effects, and you are fully immune to your breath weapon's energy type. Your Overwhelming Breath ability now completely ignores energy resistance, and you can now deal half damage to creatures normally immune to that energy. While you are raging, you may choose to supress your own immunity for 1d4 rounds to deal full damage to a normally immune creature during this time instead, but only once per rage.
Draconic Apotheosis: Your type changes to Dragon, and you lose your Dragonblooded subtype. You no longer take penalties for aging, though bonuses still acquire, and you still die when your time runs out.
Well, you see, the Dragon Disciple's flavor has always attracted me. Slowly transforming your body into one reminiscent of a dragon while gaining more power? Yes, please! However, the class's mechanics are... Well, they suck. So I decided to rework it into my own concept.
I removed the Arcane Casting requirement, because the whole point of that was to have a way to "genetically" tie your characters to dragons. Now, though, we have a Dragonblooded subtype for that, so the new class can drop casting altogether and just focus of martial fighting. After a while, I decided to focus my new class as another Barbarian PRC. I've always liked playing them, after all. Now I have a way to turn my otherwise human barbarian into a dragon! :smallbiggrin:
I've added in a lot of special benefits for this class - there's a few every level! - but most of them are small, only becoming bigger as you level up in this class. Most of the big benefits, I tried to put towards the end of the class, to avoid front-loading it horribly. I also decided that, while this class should be able to do things without raging, it should still get most of it's benefits while a rage is active. Many of the abilities start out as "only while raging," then become permanent at later levels. However, they still preform better while raging - faster flight, deadlier breath weapon, growing even larger while raging, etc.
I wasn't sure whether to keep this as a PRC, or turn it into a full class. I could certainly turn it into a full class - there's a few features I could add to what it already has that would spread it out into 20 levels just fine - but in the end, I decided to go with a PRC for now, since it was based off of one in the first place.
This is one of my first homebrew attempts, so I'm not sure how well it's gonna be compared to official classes. It certainly doesn't look overpowered, though it seems like a strictly better option than straight barbarian. However, I'm worried that there might be a bit much. I might have to cut some stuff out... Well, let's see what you guys think first, before I do anything else.