Twilight Protector class

[JPlayah]

Twilight Protector

It's Shen from League of Legends. This class is designed for players who want to tank damage and keep enemies off their teammates' backs, and it throws in some ninja flavor as well. Feedback is appreciated. It could definitely use some stuff at higher levels, but I'm not quite sure what to add.

Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d12.
Starting Gold: 4d4×15 gp (150 gp).
Starting Age: Simple.



Table: The Twilight Protector
Hit die: d12



Level

Base
Attack Bonus

Saving Throws

Special



Fort

Ref

Will



1st

+0

+2

+2

+2

Ki Power, Life Mark



2nd

+1

+3

+3

+3





3rd

+2

+3

+3

+3

Dome of Protection



4th

+3

+4

+4

+4

Mystic Barrier 1



5th

+3

+4

+4

+4

Twilight Dash



6th

+4

+5

+5

+5





7th

+5

+5

+5

+5

Stand United



8th

+6/+1

+6

+6

+6

Mystic Barrier 2



9th

+6/+1

+6

+6

+6





10th

+7/+2

+7

+7

+7





11th

+8/+3

+7

+7

+7





12th

+9/+4

+8

+8

+8

Mystic Barrier 3



13th

+9/+4

+8

+8

+8





14th

+10/+5

+9

+9

+9





15th

+11/+6/+1

+9

+9

+9





16th

+12/+7/+2

+10

+10

+10

Mystic Barrier 4



17th

+12/+7/+2

+10

+10

+10





18th

+13/+8/+3

+11

+11

+11





19th

+14/+9/+4

+11

+11

+11





20th

+15/+10/+5

+12

+12

+12

Mystic Barrier 5



Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level): Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex).





Class FeaturesAll the following are class features of the twilight protector.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Twilight protectors are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all armor, and with shields (including tower shields).

Ki Power (Su): A twilight protector can channel his ki to manifest special powers of protection and mobility. He can use his ki powers a number of times per day equal to one-half his class level (minimum 1) plus his Wisdom bonus (if any). These daily uses stack with any that the twilight protector may have from another class with this ability (such as the ninja class). Unlike a ninja, a twilight protector can use his ki powers regardless of the armor he is wearing or the amount of weight he is carrying.

A twilight protector’s ki powers are Life Mark, Dome of Protection, Twilight Dash, and Stand United.

Life Mark (Su): A twilight protector can spend one daily use of his ki power as a standard action in order to summon and throw a spirit sword at a living creature within 30 feet of himself, making a ranged touch attack to hit. If the spirit sword hits, it deals untyped damage equal to ½ the twilight protector’s class level + the twilight protector’s Wisdom bonus (minimum 1 point of damage) and applies a life mark to the target for 3 rounds. Whenever the twilight protector or one of his allies deals damage to a life marked target, that character gains fast healing X for 3 rounds, where X is 1/20 the twilight protector’s maximum hit points (minimum fast healing 1).

Dome of Protection (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a twilight protector can spend one daily use of his ki power as a standard action in order to create a small orb of energy which floats in a space within 30 feet of the twilight protector. The orb lasts for up to 3 rounds or until activated by the twilight protector as a free action during his turn while he is within 5 feet of it. Once activated, the orb expands outward into a 15 foot radius dome before vanishing. When this occurs, the twilight protector and all of his allies who are in the area gain temporary hit points equal to the twilight protector’s class level + the twilight protector’s Wisdom bonus. Temporary hit points gained this way last for 1 round.

Mystic Barrier (Su): Beginning at 4th level, a twilight protector is surrounded by a mystical force which reduces all damage that he takes by 1 point for every 4 class levels that he has.

Twilight Dash (Su): Beginning at 5th level, a twilight protector can spend one daily use of his ki power as a move action in order to perform a dash which carries him forward in a line up to 30 feet. The twilight protector becomes incorporeal during this movement, and all enemies that he passes through must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + ½ the twilight protector’s class level + the twilight protector’s Wisdom modifier) or be forced to put all of their efforts into attacking the twilight protector for 1 round. Those creatures avoid taking any obviously suicidal actions during this time, but they must make every effort to move towards the twilight protector until they are within striking distance, then attack the twilight protector with any weapons they have available (including spells or magic items, if they have them). Creatures which are unable to get close enough to the twilight protector get as close as they can, then spend the rest of their turns gesturing angrily at him. This is a mind-affecting compulsion effect.

Stand United (Su): Beginning at 7th level, a twilight protector can spend two daily uses of his ki power as a full-round action in order to protect an ally and then teleport to that character’s side. When he activates this ability, the twilight protector must concentrate on the ally he wishes to protect. The twilight protector does not need to be able to see his ally’s location or even know exactly where that ally is. He can use this ability on any character that he considers an ally, provided that character is within 1 mile of him. This ability grants the twilight protector’s ally a number of temporary hit points equal to ½ the twilight protector’s class level multiplied by the twilight protector’s Wisdom modifier, which last for up to 3 rounds. At the beginning of his next turn, the twilight protector teleports to an empty space within 30 feet of his ally. If he can see his ally, the twilight protector can choose precisely where he will teleport to. Otherwise, he ends up in a random space which is as close as possible to his ally.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

What you've written here would make a reasonable 5-level PrC, but it needs a whole heck of a lot more than "some stuff at higher levels" to justify being a base class. It has more dead levels than a fighter, "tanking" is too narrow a schtick to build an entire class around, and the few class features are lackluster at best at the levels you get them.

At level 20, its features amount to energy resistance 5, DR 5, a ranged damage ability (that has a short enough range that melee attackers can easily charge in and beat the damage), one or two heal spells per battle spread out over several rounds, a bunch of temporary HP at will, a refuge effect with some preemptive temporary HP, and a short-range multi-target taunt. A Crusader 20 with the Stone Power and Goad feats, the Strike of Righteous Vitality and Rallying Strike maneuvers, and a staff of refuge (along with the UMD ranks to use it reliably) can easily meet or exceed those damage-resistance, ally-healing, and tanking capabilities while still having 16 other maneuvers and 7 other class features to play around with, to give him some offensive abilities to better kill enemies or some defensive abilities to better survive those he taunts. A cleric or druid can easily achieve the same, since they're the original tanky healers, while still being a full caster.

I know that probably sounds kinda harsh, so let's try to improve this. If you still want the twilight protector to be a base class, you'll need to come up with a lot of abilities to fill all the dead levels and adjust the power level and fiddliness of the existing features; otherwise, I don't see people wanting to play it instead of the abovementioned crusader, cleric, or druid. I can help with that if you lay out what other sorts of abilities you'd want to give it, or what expansions to the existing abilities you'd like to add. If you don't mind this being made into a PrC, here's how I'd do it:

Prerequisites
Base Attack Bonus: +3
Skills: Tumble 7 ranks
Other: Goad feat, Knight's Challenge class feature, or Iron Guard's Glare stance

Table: The Twilight Protector

LevelBase Attack BonusFortRefWillSpecial
1st+0+2+2+2Ki Power, Life Mark
2nd+1+3+3+3Dome of Protection
3rd+2+3+3+3Mystic Barrier
4th+3+4+4+4Twilight Dash
5th+3+4+4+4Stand United


Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Twilight protectors do not gain proficiency with weapons, armor, or shields of any type.

Ki Power (Su): If the twilight protector possesses the ninja's Ki Power class feature, levels in twilight protector stack with levels of ninja to determine the daily uses of Ki Power and the ki powers he gains. If he does not already have it, he gains the Ki Power class feature as a ninja, but does not gain any of the corresponding ninja ki powers. In either case, a twilight protector uses his full class level (rather than half his class level) to determine his daily uses of ki power, and he can use his ki powers regardless of the armor he is wearing or the amount of weight he is carrying.

Life Mark (Su): A twilight protector can spend one daily use of his ki power as a standard action to summon and launch a spirit sword at a living creature within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. If the spirit sword hits, it deals 1d6 force damage + the twilight protector’s Wisdom bonus and applies an invisible mark to the target for 3 rounds; the damage increases to 2d6 + Wis damage at 3rd level and 3d6 + Wis damage at 5th level. Whenever the twilight protector or one of his allies deals damage to a marked target, that character gains fast healing equal to his class level for 1 minute. Multiple hits against the marked creature do not increase the amount of fast healing gained, they merely extend the duration of the fast healing received.

Dome of Protection (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, a twilight protector can spend one daily use of his ki power as a swift action in order to create a small orb of energy which floats in a space within 30 feet of the twilight protector. The orb lasts for 3 rounds, or until activated by the twilight protector as a free action while he is adjacent to it. When activated, the orb grants temporary hit points equal to twice the twilight protector's class level plus his Wisdom bonus to any allies within a 15-foot burst (including himself), at which point the orb vanishes. Temporary hit points gained this way last for 1 round.

Mystic Barrier (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a twilight protector is surrounded by a mystical force field that subtracts his class level from all damage that he would otherwise take, regardless of the type or source of the damage. This ability cannot reduce damage taken below 0.

Twilight Dash (Su): Beginning at 4th level, a twilight protector can spend one daily use of his ki power as a swift action to activate this ability. Until the end of his turn, the twilight protector becomes incorporeal when he moves, and any enemy that he passes through must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + twilight protector’s class level + twilight protector’s Wisdom modifier) or be forced to put all of their efforts into attacking the twilight protector for 1 round. Those creatures avoid taking any obviously suicidal actions during this time, but they must make every effort to move towards the twilight protector until they are within striking distance, then attack the twilight protector with any weapons they have available (including spells or magic items, if they have them). Creatures unable to get close enough to the twilight protector to attack him get as close as they can, then spend the rest of their turns gesturing angrily at him. This ability is a mind-affecting compulsion effect.

Stand United (Su): Beginning at 5th level, a twilight protector can spend two daily uses of his ki power as a full-round action in order to place a special ward on an ally that lasts for 24 hours. Either the twilight protector or the warded ally may discharge the ability as a standard action at any time during the ward's duration to grant the ally 5 temporary hit points per hit die that last for 1 minute; the twilight protector may spend one additional daily use of his ki power to discharge the ward as an immediate action. One round after the ward is discharged, the twilight protector is teleported to the ally via a refuge effect. The twilight protector may ward as many allies at once as he wishes as long as he has sufficient daily Ki Power uses to do so, but each ally may only be under the effects of one such ward at any given time.

[tsj]

I would suggest that you either condense it to a PrC as PairO'Dice Lost suggests

or

to add bonus feats to levels 6, 10, 14 and 18 and maybe even some additional class features...

[JPlayah]

Given the limited class features, it probably should be a prestige class. I don't see anything I would change from what PairO'Dice Lost did. It perfectly condenses what I wrote into a 5 level prestige class. I definitely have room to improve as a homebrewer, and I'll work hard to write better content from now on.

Thanks for your feedback, everyone.