Holocron Coder
2007-06-02, 07:30 PM
I felt like trying to design a better Unarmed Melee class. This is just the basics at the moment, and I would greatly appreciate further suggestions for abilities or comments on the ones already listed.
Additionally, I had an idea to give the martialist Spell Resistance based on a concentration check, usable X/per day and lasting Wis Modifier rounds. Any help on balancing it?
Martialist
[hr]
Striding onto the battlefield armorless and without weapons, martialists do not strike fear into the hearts of men until they begin to fight. Proving their worthiness on the field of battle, these unarmed combatants mow their way through lesser threats. To allies, the martialist is an ace in the hole. To their enemies, they are overlooked and underestimated.
Adventures: Martialists adventure for many reasons. Some to strengthen themselves, some for honor, others for simply the thrill of battle.
Characteristics: The entire focus of the martialist is her ability to fight unarmed. Martialists train from a young age to strike with speed over strength, becoming a difficult adversary for those without equal agility.
Very similarly to the monk, a martialist lacks magical ability. However, a martialist does not have the other unarmed combatant's ability to focus the ki of her body. Despite this, the martialist is a worthy adversary for nearly an foe.
As time passes, the martialist trains herself in more and more combat feats, becoming more powerful while remaining remarkably mundane.
Alignment: The training of the martialist requires a good deal of discipline. Those who are chaotic at heart do not have the presence of mind necessary to become martialists.
Religion: The life of the martialist does not lend itself toward or against any particular deity or religion. A slight tendency toward deities of war and against those are peace may exist, but not in any extreme measure.
Background:
Races: The dedication of a martialist's training appeal to few of the races in the world. Humans dominate the scene, although it's not unusual to find a half-orc or half-elf following this path. Elves, gnomes, and halflings are generally too flighty in temper to stay the course of the martialist. Dwarves occasionally take up the path, but few masters of this race exist and thus few are trained.
Other Classes: Martialist get along best with others who rush to face their foes. Fighters, melee rangers, rogues, and monks are among a martialist's best friends. Generally, a martialist is indifferent towards those of an arcane or divine path.
Role: Martialists, with their ability to wear light armor in addition to their agility, make decent front-line combatants. Alternately, a martialist can also focus her strengths into harassing the enemy with quick run-bys.
GAME RULE INFORMATION
Martialists have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Wisdom powers the martialist's various offensive and defensive abilities. Dexterity provides a much-needed bonus to defense. Constitution is always useful for any melee-based class.
Alignment: Any non-chaotic.
Hit Die: d10.
Class Skills
The martialist's skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Escape Artist (Dex), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (local), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Dex), Profession (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Str).
Skill Points at 1st level: (4 + Int modifier) x4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier
Table: The Martialist
{table=head]Level|Base AttackBonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Unarmed[br]Damage|AC Bonus|Speed Bonus
1st|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+2|Bonus Feat, Swift Strikes,[br]Unarmed Strike|
2d3|
0|
+0 ft.
2nd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|Evasion|
2d3|
0|
+0 ft.
3rd|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+3|Bonus Feat|
2d3|
0|
+10 ft.
4th|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+4|Uncanny Dodge|
2d4|
0|
+10 ft.
5th|
+5|
+4|
+4|
+4|Bonus Feat, Focused Strike (Full Round)|
2d4|
1|
+10 ft.
6th|
+6/+1|
+5|
+5|
+5||
2d4|
1|
+10 ft.
7th|
+7/+2|
+5|
+5|
+5||
2d4|
1|
+10 ft.
8th|
+8/+3|
+6|
+6|
+6|Bonus Feat, Improved Uncanny Dodge|
2d6|
1|
+20 ft.
9th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+6|Improved Evasion|
2d6|
1|
+20 ft.
10th|
+10/+5|
+7|
+7|
+7|Focused Strike (Move Action)|
2d6|
2|
+20 ft.
11th|
+11/+6/+1|
+7|
+7|
+7|Bonus Feat|
2d6|
2|
+20 ft.
12th|
+12/+7/+2|
+8|
+8|
+8||
2d8|
2|
+20 ft.
13th|
+13/+8/+3|
+8|
+8|
+8||
2d8|
2|
+30 ft.
14th|
+14/+9/+4|
+9|
+9|
+9|Bonus Feat|
2d8|
2|
+30 ft.
15th|
+15/+10/+5|
+9|
+9|
+9|Focused Strike (Swift Action)|
2d8|
3|
+30 ft.
16th|
+16/+11+/6/+1|
+10|
+10|
+10||
3d6|
3|
+30 ft.
17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+10|
+10|Bonus Feat|
3d6|
3|
+30 ft.
18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+11|
+11|
+11||
3d6|
3|
+40 ft.
19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+11|
+11|
+11||
3d6|
3|
+40 ft.
20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+12|
+12|
+12|Bonus Feat|
3d8|
4|
+40 ft.[/table]
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the martialist.
[b]Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Martialists are proficient with all simple weapons and with light armor.
AC Bonus (Ex): A martialist is highly trained at dodging blows, and she has a sixth sense that lets her avoid even unanticipated attacks. When wearing light or no armor and unencumbered, the martialist adds her Wisdom bonus (if any) to her AC. In addition, a martialist gains a +1 bonus to AC at 5th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every five martialist levels thereafter (+2 at 10th, +3 at 15th, and +4 at 20th).
These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when the martialist is flat-footed. She loses these bonuses when she is immobilized, or helpless, when she wears medium or heavy armor, when she carries a shield, or when she carries a medium or heavy load.
Swift Strikes (Ex): The training of the martialist focuses heavily on swiftness in body. From an early age in her training, a martialist is trained to rain blows on her opponents without giving ground. When unarmored, a martialist may strike with a flurry of blows at the expense of damage. When doing so, she may make one extra attack in a round at her highest base attack bonus, but this attack takes a -2 damage penalty, as does each other attack made that round. This penalty applies for 1 round, so it also affects attacks of opportunity the martialist might make before her next action. When a martialist reaches 5th level, the penalty lessens to -1, and at 9th level it disappears. A martialist may use an attack action or a full attack action to strike with a flurry of blows.
When using flurry of blows, a martialist may attack only with unarmed strikes.
Greater Swift Strikes
When a martialist reaches 11th level, her flurry of blows ability improves. In addition to the standard single extra attack she gets from flurry of blows, she gets a second extra attack at her full base attack bonus.
Unarmed Strike (Ex): The majority of a martialist's training is focused into the fist. The body of the martialist becomes a living weapon, as lethal as any sword. At 1st level, a martialist gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A martialist's attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees, and feet. This means that a martialist may even make unarmed strikes with her hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a martialist striking unarmed. A martialist may thus apply her full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all her unarmed strikes.
Usually a martialist's unarmed strikes deal lethal damage, but she can choose to deal nonlethal damage instead with no penalty on her attack roll. She has the same choice to deal lethal or nonlethal damage while grappling.
A martialist's unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.
A martialist also deals more damage with her unarmed strikes than a normal person would, as shown on Table: The Martialist. The unarmed damage on Table: The Martialist is for Medium martialists. A Small martialist deals less damage than the amount given there with her unarmed attacks, while a Large martialist deals more damage; see Table: Small or Large Monk Unarmed Damage.
Bonus Feat: The rigorous training of the martialist lends them to quickly pick up new forms of combat and similar abilities. At 1st level, a martialist gets a bonus combat-oriented feat in addition to the feat that any 1st-level character gets and the bonus feat granted to a human character. The martialist gains an additional bonus feat at 3rd and 5th level and every three martialist levels thereafter (8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 20th). These bonus feats must be drawn from the feats noted as fighter bonus feats. A martialist must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums. For the purpose of feat prerequisites, martialist levels count as fighter levels.
These bonus feats are in addition to the feat that a character of any class gets from advancing levels. A martialist is not limited to the list of fighter bonus feats when choosing these feats.
Evasion (Ex): At 2nd level and higher, a martialist can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If she makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if the martialist is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless martialist does not gain the benefit of evasion.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a martialist can react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so. She retains her Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if she is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, she still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized.
If a martialist already has uncanny dodge from a different class she automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead.
Focused Strike (Ex): At 5th level, a martialist can focus the energy of her being to overcome different types of damage reduction. As a full round action that provokes an attack of opportunity, the martialist may make a concentration check to treat her unarmed strikes as a particular type of weapon. The better the concentration check, the more types the martialist may choose from, according to Table: Focused Strike. Once the result is rolled, the martialist may accept a lesser result in order to choose a different alignment type or to combine multiple types.
At 10th level, it only takes the martialist a move action to accomplish this, and only a swift action at 15th.
Table: Focused Strike
{table=head]Concentration[br]Check|Damage Reduction[br]Choices
10|Magic, Piercing, Slashing
15|Lawful, Good, or Evil
20|Adamantine
25|Cold Iron
30|Silver
45|Epic[/table]
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): A martialist of 8th level or higher can no longer be flanked.
This defense denies a rogue the ability to sneak attack the character by flanking her, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target's martialist levels.
If a character already has uncanny dodge from a second class, the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead, and the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum martialist level required to flank the character.
Improved Evasion (Ex): This ability works like evasion, except that while the martialist still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks henceforth she takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless martialist does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.
Additionally, I had an idea to give the martialist Spell Resistance based on a concentration check, usable X/per day and lasting Wis Modifier rounds. Any help on balancing it?
Martialist
[hr]
Striding onto the battlefield armorless and without weapons, martialists do not strike fear into the hearts of men until they begin to fight. Proving their worthiness on the field of battle, these unarmed combatants mow their way through lesser threats. To allies, the martialist is an ace in the hole. To their enemies, they are overlooked and underestimated.
Adventures: Martialists adventure for many reasons. Some to strengthen themselves, some for honor, others for simply the thrill of battle.
Characteristics: The entire focus of the martialist is her ability to fight unarmed. Martialists train from a young age to strike with speed over strength, becoming a difficult adversary for those without equal agility.
Very similarly to the monk, a martialist lacks magical ability. However, a martialist does not have the other unarmed combatant's ability to focus the ki of her body. Despite this, the martialist is a worthy adversary for nearly an foe.
As time passes, the martialist trains herself in more and more combat feats, becoming more powerful while remaining remarkably mundane.
Alignment: The training of the martialist requires a good deal of discipline. Those who are chaotic at heart do not have the presence of mind necessary to become martialists.
Religion: The life of the martialist does not lend itself toward or against any particular deity or religion. A slight tendency toward deities of war and against those are peace may exist, but not in any extreme measure.
Background:
Races: The dedication of a martialist's training appeal to few of the races in the world. Humans dominate the scene, although it's not unusual to find a half-orc or half-elf following this path. Elves, gnomes, and halflings are generally too flighty in temper to stay the course of the martialist. Dwarves occasionally take up the path, but few masters of this race exist and thus few are trained.
Other Classes: Martialist get along best with others who rush to face their foes. Fighters, melee rangers, rogues, and monks are among a martialist's best friends. Generally, a martialist is indifferent towards those of an arcane or divine path.
Role: Martialists, with their ability to wear light armor in addition to their agility, make decent front-line combatants. Alternately, a martialist can also focus her strengths into harassing the enemy with quick run-bys.
GAME RULE INFORMATION
Martialists have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Wisdom powers the martialist's various offensive and defensive abilities. Dexterity provides a much-needed bonus to defense. Constitution is always useful for any melee-based class.
Alignment: Any non-chaotic.
Hit Die: d10.
Class Skills
The martialist's skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Escape Artist (Dex), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (local), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Dex), Profession (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Str).
Skill Points at 1st level: (4 + Int modifier) x4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier
Table: The Martialist
{table=head]Level|Base AttackBonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Unarmed[br]Damage|AC Bonus|Speed Bonus
1st|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+2|Bonus Feat, Swift Strikes,[br]Unarmed Strike|
2d3|
0|
+0 ft.
2nd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|Evasion|
2d3|
0|
+0 ft.
3rd|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+3|Bonus Feat|
2d3|
0|
+10 ft.
4th|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+4|Uncanny Dodge|
2d4|
0|
+10 ft.
5th|
+5|
+4|
+4|
+4|Bonus Feat, Focused Strike (Full Round)|
2d4|
1|
+10 ft.
6th|
+6/+1|
+5|
+5|
+5||
2d4|
1|
+10 ft.
7th|
+7/+2|
+5|
+5|
+5||
2d4|
1|
+10 ft.
8th|
+8/+3|
+6|
+6|
+6|Bonus Feat, Improved Uncanny Dodge|
2d6|
1|
+20 ft.
9th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+6|Improved Evasion|
2d6|
1|
+20 ft.
10th|
+10/+5|
+7|
+7|
+7|Focused Strike (Move Action)|
2d6|
2|
+20 ft.
11th|
+11/+6/+1|
+7|
+7|
+7|Bonus Feat|
2d6|
2|
+20 ft.
12th|
+12/+7/+2|
+8|
+8|
+8||
2d8|
2|
+20 ft.
13th|
+13/+8/+3|
+8|
+8|
+8||
2d8|
2|
+30 ft.
14th|
+14/+9/+4|
+9|
+9|
+9|Bonus Feat|
2d8|
2|
+30 ft.
15th|
+15/+10/+5|
+9|
+9|
+9|Focused Strike (Swift Action)|
2d8|
3|
+30 ft.
16th|
+16/+11+/6/+1|
+10|
+10|
+10||
3d6|
3|
+30 ft.
17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+10|
+10|Bonus Feat|
3d6|
3|
+30 ft.
18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+11|
+11|
+11||
3d6|
3|
+40 ft.
19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+11|
+11|
+11||
3d6|
3|
+40 ft.
20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+12|
+12|
+12|Bonus Feat|
3d8|
4|
+40 ft.[/table]
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the martialist.
[b]Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Martialists are proficient with all simple weapons and with light armor.
AC Bonus (Ex): A martialist is highly trained at dodging blows, and she has a sixth sense that lets her avoid even unanticipated attacks. When wearing light or no armor and unencumbered, the martialist adds her Wisdom bonus (if any) to her AC. In addition, a martialist gains a +1 bonus to AC at 5th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every five martialist levels thereafter (+2 at 10th, +3 at 15th, and +4 at 20th).
These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when the martialist is flat-footed. She loses these bonuses when she is immobilized, or helpless, when she wears medium or heavy armor, when she carries a shield, or when she carries a medium or heavy load.
Swift Strikes (Ex): The training of the martialist focuses heavily on swiftness in body. From an early age in her training, a martialist is trained to rain blows on her opponents without giving ground. When unarmored, a martialist may strike with a flurry of blows at the expense of damage. When doing so, she may make one extra attack in a round at her highest base attack bonus, but this attack takes a -2 damage penalty, as does each other attack made that round. This penalty applies for 1 round, so it also affects attacks of opportunity the martialist might make before her next action. When a martialist reaches 5th level, the penalty lessens to -1, and at 9th level it disappears. A martialist may use an attack action or a full attack action to strike with a flurry of blows.
When using flurry of blows, a martialist may attack only with unarmed strikes.
Greater Swift Strikes
When a martialist reaches 11th level, her flurry of blows ability improves. In addition to the standard single extra attack she gets from flurry of blows, she gets a second extra attack at her full base attack bonus.
Unarmed Strike (Ex): The majority of a martialist's training is focused into the fist. The body of the martialist becomes a living weapon, as lethal as any sword. At 1st level, a martialist gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A martialist's attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees, and feet. This means that a martialist may even make unarmed strikes with her hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a martialist striking unarmed. A martialist may thus apply her full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all her unarmed strikes.
Usually a martialist's unarmed strikes deal lethal damage, but she can choose to deal nonlethal damage instead with no penalty on her attack roll. She has the same choice to deal lethal or nonlethal damage while grappling.
A martialist's unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.
A martialist also deals more damage with her unarmed strikes than a normal person would, as shown on Table: The Martialist. The unarmed damage on Table: The Martialist is for Medium martialists. A Small martialist deals less damage than the amount given there with her unarmed attacks, while a Large martialist deals more damage; see Table: Small or Large Monk Unarmed Damage.
Bonus Feat: The rigorous training of the martialist lends them to quickly pick up new forms of combat and similar abilities. At 1st level, a martialist gets a bonus combat-oriented feat in addition to the feat that any 1st-level character gets and the bonus feat granted to a human character. The martialist gains an additional bonus feat at 3rd and 5th level and every three martialist levels thereafter (8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 20th). These bonus feats must be drawn from the feats noted as fighter bonus feats. A martialist must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums. For the purpose of feat prerequisites, martialist levels count as fighter levels.
These bonus feats are in addition to the feat that a character of any class gets from advancing levels. A martialist is not limited to the list of fighter bonus feats when choosing these feats.
Evasion (Ex): At 2nd level and higher, a martialist can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If she makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if the martialist is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless martialist does not gain the benefit of evasion.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a martialist can react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so. She retains her Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if she is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, she still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized.
If a martialist already has uncanny dodge from a different class she automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead.
Focused Strike (Ex): At 5th level, a martialist can focus the energy of her being to overcome different types of damage reduction. As a full round action that provokes an attack of opportunity, the martialist may make a concentration check to treat her unarmed strikes as a particular type of weapon. The better the concentration check, the more types the martialist may choose from, according to Table: Focused Strike. Once the result is rolled, the martialist may accept a lesser result in order to choose a different alignment type or to combine multiple types.
At 10th level, it only takes the martialist a move action to accomplish this, and only a swift action at 15th.
Table: Focused Strike
{table=head]Concentration[br]Check|Damage Reduction[br]Choices
10|Magic, Piercing, Slashing
15|Lawful, Good, or Evil
20|Adamantine
25|Cold Iron
30|Silver
45|Epic[/table]
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): A martialist of 8th level or higher can no longer be flanked.
This defense denies a rogue the ability to sneak attack the character by flanking her, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target's martialist levels.
If a character already has uncanny dodge from a second class, the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead, and the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum martialist level required to flank the character.
Improved Evasion (Ex): This ability works like evasion, except that while the martialist still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks henceforth she takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless martialist does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.