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Lord of Shadows
2015-12-17, 05:37 PM
This is the third Prestige Class from a home brew campaign setting (see sig) designed for use with the Pathfinder RPG. The campaign setting was created many years ago by a group of users here on GITP and - as far as I know - little if any was ever posted for review or comment by the general playground. Much of this material was assembled from incomplete discussions or rough draft posts, and has had little or no playtesting. This is a 10 level Prestige Class with a Fey influence. Any and all feedback is appreciated.

Night Dancer Prestige Class

“Is there anything greater than to feel the moonbeams beneath your feet?" - Brina Lorelai, Bard 10/Night Dancer 10

Powerful legends whisper of the dances of the Fey. The beautiful, mesmerizing movements that draw mortals in, where they might be caught forever. A lucky few are released or are strong enough to escape, but the memory of the Dance haunts them forever. While many eventually die, heartbroken yet unwilling to give themselves over, others embrace the unearthly nature of the Fey and delve into their unpredictable, alluring, inhuman wildness. This path alters them until their very being becomes one with the Fey. They become Night Dancers, creatures of the twilight, of star and moon, sun and shadow, madness and pleasure.

Anyone can succumb to the allure of the Night Dance. Though druids and rangers are the most likely to encounter the Fey, bards are the most likely to meet the requirements.

Requirements: Weapon Finesse, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Perform (Any) 5, Able to speak Sylvan, Fey Touched or other Fey-based template.

Hit Die: d6

Class Skills: Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Ride (Dex), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Perform (Cha), Perception (Wis), Stealth (Dex), Survival (Wis)

Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier

Table: Night Dancer


Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
Bonus Spells




1

+0

+0

+2

+2
Throes of the Fey; Greater Low-Light vision

1




2

+1

+0

+3

+3
Woodland Walk

1




3

+2

+1

+3

+3
Starry Eyed; Throes of the Fey x2

1




4

+3

+1

+4

+4
Cunning; Gambol

2




5

+4

+1

+4

+4
Visage of the Fair Folk

2




6

+5

+2

+5

+5
Kick Up Your Heels; Throes of the Fey x3

2




7

+6

+2

+5

+5
Wilderness Throes

2




8

+7

+2

+6

+6
Greater Cunning

3




9

+8

+3

+6

+6
Woodwise; Throes of the Fey x4

3




10

+9

+3

+7

+7
Wilderness Child; Dominate (with Gambol)

3



Class Features

Weapons and Armor: Night Dancers gain no new proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Bonus Spells: A Night Dancer can cast a limited number of additional spells per day as they gain levels in this prestige class in the same way they gain bonus spells from having a high ability score. The number of bonus spells for each level is given in Table: Night Dancer. Spells are chosen from any list for which the Night Dancer has access. Night Dancers who are not spell casters use the Druid spell list as if they were a Druid of equal level equal to their levels in Night Dancer.

For example, a 6th level Bard/5th level Night Dancer would be able to cast 4 First level and 3 Second level Bard spells per day, plus any Bonus spells they receive from a high ability score, plus any 2 other Bard spells of any level they are able to cast.

Throes of the Fey (Ex): Surrendering to the haunting wildness of the Fey, your features gain a strange, other-worldly beauty and your movements become graceful and dance-like. While in the Throes a Night Dancer gains a +4 bonus to Dexterity, a +4 bonus to Charisma, and a +2 bonus to Will saves. She adds her new Charisma modifier as a circumstance bonus to AC and Attack rolls while in the Throes. The Throes last for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the new Charisma modifier. A Night Dancer may end her Throes at any time as a Free action. The sight of a Night Dancer in Throes and in combat has been described as watching a macabre form of dance.

There is a cumulative 1% chance every round while in the Throes that the Night Dancer loses all control, becoming Confused as the spell. This condition lasts until the end of the Throes, which cannot be prematurely ended after becoming Confused.

A Night Dancer may succumb to the Throes 1 time per day, +1 per even-numbered level (2/day at 2nd up to 6/day at 10th). Entering the Throes takes no time itself, but a Night Dancer can do it only during her action, not in response to someone else’s action, unless it is readied as a response.

Greater Low-light Vision (Ex): A Night Dancer's Low-Light vision functions twice as good as the normal version. Night Dancers can see four times as far as a Human in poor illumination and retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.

Fey Walk (Ex): A Night Dancer gains Woodland Stride (as the druid feature). Furthermore, she ignores any difficult terrain unless it's a temporary effect of magic or special abilities, and can move without penalty through squares that contain allies whenever she makes a charge, run or withdraw action.

At 10th level, she gains the above benefits even when in terrain manipulated by magic, or in difficult terrain that is an effect of magic or special abilities.

Starry-Eyed (Ex): When resting in natural surroundings, your mind begins to roam the strange places of the Fey. You no longer sleep normally, but instead dance each night away. You remain semi-conscious and vaguely aware of your surroundings, do not suffer any penalties on surprise or initiative rolls, and you are not helpless if attacked. You do take a -6 penalty to Perception checks. This also makes you more difficult to detect. Any creature attempting to approach you undetected suffers a penalty equal to your Night Dancer level to any roll required to determine your location. This class ability does not function in urban locations larger than a village.

Fey Cunning (Ex): A Night Dancer gains the Uncanny Dodge ability of a Rogue. She retains her Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if she is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, she loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. If the Night Dancer already has Uncanny Dodge, she gains Improved Uncanny Dodge instead.

Gambol (Su): As a Standard action, a Night Dancer may use one of her daily Throes to Fascinate (as the Bard ability) one or more creatures with her enthralling dances. Each creature must be within 90 feet and able to see and hear the Night Dancer. Any nearby combat or other threat prevents this ability from working. A Night Dancer's Gambol can target one creature at 4th level, plus one for every two levels of Night Dancer (2 at 6th, 3 at 8th, 4 at 10th).

To use Gambol, a Night Dancer makes a Perform (Dance) check. Her check result is the DC for the Will save against the effect. If the save succeeds, the Night Dancer cannot use Gambol on that creature again for 24 hours. If it fails, the creature sits quietly and watches the dance rapturously, taking no other actions for as long as the Night Dancer continues to Gambol, and for 1 round per Night Dancer level after she stops concentrating on the target. While fascinated, a target has a –4 penalty on Perception. Any threat or damage to the target breaks the spell and requires the Night Dancer to activate a new the Gambol, with the save DC equal to the new Perform check result. A successful save, or failure to renew the Gambol, releases the target from its effects.

The Night Dancer may choose a Fascinated target to become Charmed by her as the Charm Monster spell for 1 hour per Night Dancer level if they fail a Will save, DC 10 + 1/2 the Night Dancer's level + the Night Dancer's Charisma modifier. Doing so immediately releases all other creatures, as the Night Dancer focuses on a single target. No more than 1 creature can be Charmed at the same time.

At 10th level she may instead choose to completely bind her target to her as the Dominate Person spell instead of Charming. The target is allowed a Will save, DC 10 + 1/2 the Night Dancer's level + the Night Dancer's Charisma modifier. She may not Charm or Dominate another creature while having one creature so affected, as doing so releases the current target from her power.

Visage of the Fair Folk (Ex): You gain a +2 bonus to your Charisma, and a +4 bonus on saving throws against the spells cast or abilities activated by Fey creatures.

Kick Up Your Heels (Ex): Your movements are as light as a feather and quick as a wink. Use your choice of Dexterity or Strength bonus, whichever is the most advantageous, in any situation. Add your Dexterity modifier to Perform (Dance) checks in addition to your Charisma modifier.

Wilderness Throes (Ex): At 6th level, the bonuses to Dexterity and Charisma from Throes of the Fey each increase to +6, and the morale bonus on Will saves increases to +3. Throes of the Fey now becomes a Move action.

Greater Cunning (Ex): A Night Dancer is able to flank any creature, even those with Improved Uncanny Dodge, regardless of the level difference between them.

Woodwise (Su): The Night Dancer is able to Commune with Nature and Find the Path each three times per day. The Night Dancer’s total class level is used as the caster level.

Wilderness Child (Ex): At 10th level, the Night Dancer may choose to treat her creature type as Fey whenever she is targeted by an effect depending on type, and is otherwise treated as Fey whenever doing so is more advantageous for her.


Changelog:

Dropped skill ranks required from 8 to 5
Changed "survived encounter with Fey" to "Fey Touched template"
Changed the description of Bonus Spells
Changed the description of Throes of the Fey
Edited the description of Starry Eyed.
Edited the description of Gambol.
Changed the dscription of Wilderness Child.

upho
2015-12-22, 02:37 PM
Ohh... Definitely very fey flavor, and I really like the "dance magic" focus. A few questions/suggestions/comments:


Requirements: Weapon Finesse, Knowledge (Nature) 8, Perform (Any) 8, Able to speak Sylvan, /snip/Is there any particular reason for the relatively late and somewhat odd 9th level earliest entry? I think 7th would probably work fine and also match that of many of Paizo's PrCs.


/snip/ must have been enticed or otherwise unwillingly forced to dance with a Fey creature and survived the encounter.In Golarion and most similar more generic settings and likely most campaigns, the probability of a PC being able to meet this requirement is extremely low. For example, out of Paizo's numerous published APs, I'd be surprised if more than one or two contains encounters where there's even a chance of this happening, meaning the DM player would have to make specific plans for it in case someone in the party might be interested in this PrC. Which of course may not necessarily be a bad thing at all, but if this PrC is intended to be playable in a wider variety of settings and campaigns, I'd suggest you put this up as an optional rule. If you think dumping this would need to be compensated with some other flavorful fey-related requirement, I'd go for something more generic, like having a race or background with close ties to the fey.



Bonus Spells: A Night Dancer gains bonus spells as they gain levels in this prestige class, as if from having a high ability score, as given in Table: Night Dancer.This one is odd. Not a bad mechanic per se, just without precedent in PF (AFAIK). But I believe the above is using the wrong game terms and the language is confusing overall - I suggest something along the lines of:

A Night Dancer can cast a limited number of additional spells per day as they gain levels in this prestige class, as if gaining bonus spells from having a high ability score. The ability score modifier equivalent for determining the number of bonus spell slots gained each level is given in Table: Night Dancer.

Since this is such a novel method of determining added spells/day, maybe you should also add an example to illustrate how this works.



Throes of the Fey (Ex):Fey-RageTM Get mad, get hot! :smallbiggrin:

Cool. Though as the primary trademark ability of the class I think you should consider increasing the number of uses/day to say 1, +1 per even-numbered level (for 2/day at 2nd and 6/day at 10th).



Woodland Walk (Ex):I urge you to not include abilities that give highly situational/small-ish bonuses in general (unless perhaps if they mechanically build on/match with other features), and in particular to not grant such an ability several levels after it was granted to the class from which the ability originates (9+ levels in this case). Sure, it matches the flavor and it might even have been useful a couple of times during a character's first levels. But at level 11+, when teleports and flight are already standard fare, the likelihood that this will be worth just the minimal effort and character sheet space required to jot it down is virtually zero. I'd change the name to "Fey Stride", "Dancing Step", "Fairy Feet" or something, and expand the benefit:

Fairy Feet (Ex): A Night Dancer gains Woodland Stride (as the druid feature (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/druid#TOC-Woodland-Stride-Ex-)). Furthermore, she ignores all kinds of difficult terrain unless it's a temporary effect of magic or special abilities, and can move through squares that contain allies whenever she makes a charge, run or withdraw action.

At 10th level, she gains the above benefits even when in terrain manipulated by magic, or in difficult terrain that is an effect of magic or special abilities.

An addition along these lines would retain the tree-hugger flavor while making the mechanical benefit actually useful sometimes even at this level, but still relatively small (the added bonus is somewhat comparable to the Dragon Style (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/dragon-style-combat) feat).



Starry-Eyed (Ex): /snip/ Any creature attempting to approach you undetected suffers a penalty equal to your Night Dancer level to any Skill being used to avoid your detection.Nitpick, but AFAIK, there is only one skill in PF for avoiding detection, and that is Stealth. I suggest you change this sentence accordingly.



Gambol (Su): To use Gambol, a Night Dancer makes a Perform (Dance) check. Her check result is the DC for the Will save against the effect.At level 13+ when you get this, your permanent Perform (Dance) bonus is likely to be at the very least +20, or +25 if you've invested in a cheap competence bonus item. So not even including any temporary bonuses such as from Throes, spells or consumables, you're at least 4-9 points ahead of the Will of the average CR 13 monster with a fast Will progression (or 8-13 points ahead of the one with a slow Will progression). So two levels later when "Kick Up Your Heels" comes online, this pretty much goes from "damn reliable" to "autosuccess", probably against anything you'll ever face without immunity to mind-affecting or unusual abilities, including many epic CR 20+ opponents. I'm not saying this kind of reliability is necessarily a bad thing, especially considering the many circumstances and abilities that can completely shut down this ability. But if the reliability was intentional, why does the mechanic include a die roll to begin with?



Kick Up Your Heels (Ex): Your movements are as light as a feather and quick as a wink. Use your Dexterity in the place of Strength when making Climb and Swim checks.So, while I probably haven't needed to make a Climb or Swim check during the last seven levels or so, now I at least get to boost those likely non-existent remaining checks with Dex... Yay? :smallconfused:



Wilderness Child (Ex): At 10th level, the Night Dancer’s creature type changes to Fey.As you probably know, not being humanoid often comes with more problems than benefits, as does changing types in later levels when you and other party members may have builds adapted to whatever you used to be. If the creature type and not just the DR is intended to be a benefit, I would change the above sentence to:

At 10th level, the Night Dancer may choose to treat her creature type as Fey whenever she is targeted by an effect depending on type, and is otherwise treated as Fey whenever doing so is more advantageous for her.

Lord of Shadows
2015-12-22, 04:11 PM
Ohh... Definitely very fey flavor, and I really like the "dance magic" focus. A few questions/suggestions/comments:

Thank you, the feedback is appreciated!


Requirements: Weapon Finesse, Knowledge (Nature) 8, Perform (Any) 8, Able to speak Sylvan,

Is there any particular reason for the relatively late and somewhat odd 9th level earliest entry? I think 7th would probably work fine and also match that of many of Paizo's PrCs.

Ok, sounds good to me. Will work on an adjustment.


Must have been enticed or otherwise unwillingly forced to dance with a Fey creature and survived the encounter.

In Golarion and most similar more generic settings and likely most campaigns, the probability of a PC being able to meet this requirement is extremely low. For example, out of Paizo's numerous published APs, I'd be surprised if more than one or two contains encounters where there's even a chance of this happening, meaning the DM player would have to make specific plans for it in case someone in the party might be interested in this PrC. Which of course may not necessarily be a bad thing at all, but if this PrC is intended to be playable in a wider variety of settings and campaigns, I'd suggest you put this up as an optional rule. If you think dumping this would need to be compensated with some other flavorful fey-related requirement, I'd go for something more generic, like having a race or background with close ties to the fey.

It is true that the original version is pretty setting-specific. I'll try for something more general in nature.


Bonus Spells: A Night Dancer gains bonus spells as they gain levels in this prestige class, as if from having a high ability score, as given in Table: Night Dancer.

This one is odd. Not a bad mechanic per se, just without precedent in PF (AFAIK). But I believe the above is using the wrong game terms and the language is confusing overall - I suggest something along the lines of:

A Night Dancer can cast a limited number of additional spells per day as they gain levels in this prestige class, as if gaining bonus spells from having a high ability score. The ability score modifier equivalent for determining the number of bonus spell slots gained each level is given in Table: Night Dancer.

Since this is such a novel method of determining added spells/day, maybe you should also add an example to illustrate how this works.


Excellent idea, thanks!


Throes of the Fey (Ex):

Fey-RageTM Get mad, get hot! :smallbiggrin:

Cool. Though as the primary trademark ability of the class I think you should consider increasing the number of uses/day to say 1, +1 per even-numbered level (for 2/day at 2nd and 6/day at 10th).

Didn't want to be overpowering, but, OK, will adjust it.


Woodland Walk (Ex):

I urge you to not include abilities that give highly situational/small-ish bonuses in general (unless perhaps if they mechanically build on/match with other features), and in particular to not grant such an ability several levels after it was granted to the class from which the ability originates (9+ levels in this case). Sure, it matches the flavor and it might even have been useful a couple of times during a character's first levels. But at level 11+, when teleports and flight are already standard fare, the likelihood that this will be worth just the minimal effort and character sheet space required to jot it down is virtually zero. I'd change the name to "Fey Stride", "Dancing Step", "Fairy Feet" or something, and expand the benefit:

Fairy Feet (Ex): A Night Dancer gains Woodland Stride (as the druid feature (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/druid#TOC-Woodland-Stride-Ex-)). Furthermore, she ignores all kinds of difficult terrain unless it's a temporary effect of magic or special abilities, and can move through squares that contain allies whenever she makes a charge, run or withdraw action.

At 10th level, she gains the above benefits even when in terrain manipulated by magic, or in difficult terrain that is an effect of magic or special abilities.

An addition along these lines would retain the tree-hugger flavor while making the mechanical benefit actually useful sometimes even at this level, but still relatively small (the added bonus is somewhat comparable to the Dragon Style (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/dragon-style-combat) feat).

That is another excellent idea, thanks!


Starry-Eyed (Ex): Any creature attempting to approach you undetected suffers a penalty equal to your Night Dancer level to any Skill being used to avoid your detection.

Nitpick, but AFAIK, there is only one skill in PF for avoiding detection, and that is Stealth. I suggest you change this sentence accordingly.

There is also Scent... and Crystal Balls. Wasn't sure how to word this one.


Gambol (Su): To use Gambol, a Night Dancer makes a Perform (Dance) check. Her check result is the DC for the Will save against the effect.

At level 13+ when you get this, your permanent Perform (Dance) bonus is likely to be at the very least +20, or +25 if you've invested in a cheap competence bonus item. So not even including any temporary bonuses such as from Throes, spells or consumables, you're at least 4-9 points ahead of the Will of the average CR 13 monster with a fast Will progression (or 8-13 points ahead of the one with a slow Will progression). So two levels later when "Kick Up Your Heels" comes online, this pretty much goes from "damn reliable" to "autosuccess", probably against anything you'll ever face without immunity to mind-affecting or unusual abilities, including many epic CR 20+ opponents. I'm not saying this kind of reliability is necessarily a bad thing, especially considering the many circumstances and abilities that can completely shut down this ability. But if the reliability was intentional, why does the mechanic include a die roll to begin with?

Hmmm, Ok, so a lower number would be better?


Kick Up Your Heels (Ex): Your movements are as light as a feather and quick as a wink. Use your Dexterity in the place of Strength when making Climb and Swim checks.

So, while I probably haven't needed to make a Climb or Swim check during the last seven levels or so, now I at least get to boost those likely non-existent remaining checks with Dex... Yay? :smallconfused:

How about expanding it to using Dex or Str, whichever is most advantageous?


Wilderness Child (Ex): At 10th level, the Night Dancer’s creature type changes to Fey.

As you probably know, not being humanoid often comes with more problems than benefits, as does changing types in later levels when you and other party members may have builds adapted to whatever you used to be. If the creature type and not just the DR is intended to be a benefit, I would change the above sentence to:

At 10th level, the Night Dancer may choose to treat her creature type as Fey whenever she is targeted by an effect depending on type, and is otherwise treated as Fey whenever doing so is more advantageous for her.

Another great idea, thanks! I will get to work and post an update.

Lord of Shadows
2015-12-22, 05:39 PM
Ok, the original post has been updated with the changes... still a little fuzzy on the Gambol ability. Thanks.