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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Class Thri-Kreen Paragon (3 level racial paragon class)



Zaydos
2016-09-18, 01:37 AM
Thri-Kreen Paragon

Hailing from the harshest desert, thri-kreen paragons are deadly survivalists, and skilled hunters, able to live in even the most barren environment.

Adventures: Thri-kreen paragons are more often hunters, deadly and dangerous, than adventurers. Those that become adventurers often do so because they have lost their clutch-mates and take on a band of heroes as their new clutch.

Characteristics: Thri-kreen paragons are capable survivalists and warriors, able to move quickly across the battlefield, and poison foes.

Alignment: Thri-kreen paragons have no more need for sophisticated rules of social interaction than others of their kind. Although they still yearn for a clutch, they also perhaps value individuality more than other thri-kreen, making them even more likely to be chaotic. However they have fierce spirits which can spring to Good or Evil in strengths that others wouldn't match.

Religion: Thri-kreen paragons are rarely concerned with the affairs of gods or even natural spirits. They concern themselves with the world, and with the next meal, leaving dealing with spiritual matters to druids and others.

Background: Thri-kreen paragons are born from the harshest conditions that thri-kreen face. They are forged in the deepest desert, surviving where others fall, living without water or sleep as they are hounded by predator and foe surviving on the blood of their enemies till they can finally find water. They are forged by battle and deprivation.

Races: Thri-kreen paragons treat other races much as any other thri-kreen might. The fact that this includes emergency food source, and elves are tasty, can lead to occasionally strained relations.

Game Rule Information:
Thri-Kreen Paragons have the following game statistics.
Ability Scores: Thri-Kreen paragons value Strength and Constitution. Dexterity provides AC but and can provide accuracy with their myriad weapons, but is less necessary due to their skill in wielding many weapons. Intelligence is useful for skills, and Wisdom for Will saves.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Dice: d8.
Starting Wealth: As barbarian.
Starting Age: As barbarian.

Class Skills:
The thri-kreen paragon's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Cimb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Tumble (Dex).

Skill Points at First Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

THRI-KREEN PARAGON


Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special


1st

+1

+2

+2

+0
Born to Survive, Potent Poison, Powerful Natural Weapons


2nd

+2

+3

+3

+0
Expanded Psionics, Many Striking, Plentiful Poison


3rd

+3

+3

+3

+1
Dodge Missile, Improved Natural Armor, Springing Assault


The following are all class features of the Thri-Kreen Paragon:

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A thri-kreen paragon is proficient in chatkchas, and gythkas, as well as light armor.

Born to Survive (Ex): A thri-kreen paragon needs only drink 1/week in a very hot and dry climate, and need only make a Constitution check every 12 hours thereafter; in a normal climate they need only drink if they are also suffering starvation as metabolic water from their food can fully sustain them. A thri-kreen paragon does not need to sleep at all. In addition a thri-kreen gains the Endurance and Heat Endurance as bonus feats.

Potent Poison (Ex): A thri-kreen paragon's poison is more potent than others of their kin. It inflicts 2d4 Dexterity damage initial damage, and 1d6 Dexterity damage in addition to paralysis as secondary damage, and its save DC is 10 + 1/2 your hit dice + your Constitution modifier.

Powerful Natural Weapons (Ex): A thri-kreen paragon's natural weapons are also more deadly than their kin's, each claw and mandibles a deadly weapon. They add their thri-kreen paragon class level to the damage dealt by their natural weapons.

Expanded Psionics (Psi): A thri-kreen paragon's natural psionic powers improve. Beginning at 2nd level they add +1 to the manifester level of all their racial psi-like abilities, and gain 2 additional uses of each one. In addition they gain Psionic Lion's Charge and Psionic Freedom of Movement as psi-like abilities usable 1/day with the same ML as their racial psi-like abilities (including the +1). In addition they gain 3 power points per thri-kreen paragon level.

Many Striking (Ex): A thri-kreen paragon can easily attack with their varied natural weapons and arms in tandem. At 2nd level they gain the multiattack feat as a bonus feat, in addition they treat their Dexterity as 10 higher for the purpose of multiattack and feats which require multiattack as a prerequisite.

Plentiful Poison (Ex): A thri-kreen paragon produces more poison than most of their kin. Beginning at 2nd level they may use their poison at-will with their bite, in addition three times per day they may inject a stronger dose with a +2 bonus to the save DC, and dealing 2d4+2 Dexterity damage initial damage, and 2d4 Dexterity damage plus paralysis as secondary damage. In addition a creature which fails their save against the initial damage by 5 or more is Stunned for 1 round, one that fails it by 10 or more is Paralyzed for 1 round. Once a thri-kreen paragon has used this more potent poison three times they cannot use their poison at all until 8 hours have passed.

Dodge Missile (Ex): A thri-kreen paragon can do more than deflect arrows, but even dodge more exotic missiles. Beginning at 3rd level a thri-kreen paragon may gain a +8 dodge bonus to AC against a single ranged attack as an immediate action. They may do this as often as they may spend immediate actions.

Improved Natural Armor (Ex): A thri-kreen paragon's chitin is thicker, tougher than their kindred. Beginning at 3rd level your natural armor improves by +2 (to +5).

Springing Assault (Ex): A thri-kreen paragon learns how to use a surge of adrenaline and their terrible jump to dominate the battlefield or push the tide of battle. Beginning at 3rd level, once per minute, as a full round action a thri-kreen paragon can make a jump as if a running jump and make a melee full attack at the end of that jump with each attack gaining a +2 to hit and dealing +1d6/5 ranks in Jump damage. A thri-kreen paragon may choose to use thrown weapons to full attack in this way instead of a melee full attack, in which case only the first weapon thrown with each hand receives this bonus and no weapon may gain it more than once even if it is thrown multiple times through an ability or effect.

nonsi
2016-09-18, 03:28 PM
.
The direction was quite predictable... the outcome a lot more powerful than I'd anticipated.
Unless I'm missing something, this makes Thri-Kreen the only choice for a fighter.

Zaydos
2016-09-18, 03:57 PM
.
The direction was quite predictable... the outcome a lot more powerful than I'd anticipated.
Unless I'm missing something, this makes Thri-Kreen the only choice for a fighter.

You're missing 2 BAB due to +2 LA, and what they get amounts to better bite poison, 1/day pounce, and 1/encounter pounce (admittedly with bonus damage which might need to be dropped/reduced). Barbarian 1 gets you all day pounce, with the ability to combine it with things that augment charge damage (since their 1/encounter pounce is not actually a charge attack). So I'm not actually sure what they get that makes them more powerful than say Barbarian on a thri-kreen except maybe the bonus damage which if that's it, then I'll drop it to +1d6/8 ranks and it becomes not that much better than just pounce 1/encounter (which admittedly is a 5th level maneuver... available at CL 9 where as this is effective character level 7).

Thri-Kreen Barbarian 2/Warblade 1 can dodge missiles just as well (Wall of Blade), has worse AC against melee attacks, but has pounce at will instead of 1/day + 1/encounter, can also jump 20+ feet and full attack 1/encounter, and has 1/day Rage, plus Uncanny Dodge, and +3 damage on all attacks made as part of a charge. The psionics help but as their manifester level is tied to your racial one you need racial psionics which means you can't go the ECL 3 non-psionic thri-kreen (3.0 only, questionably no longer exists as of XPH).

And thanks for looking it over and if I'm overlooking something (definitely a fair possibility) point it out to me.

remetagross
2016-09-19, 09:00 PM
Beware of a typo : in the description of the abilities, you wrote "born to fix" rather than "born to survive".

Fizban
2016-09-20, 03:46 AM
And thanks for looking it over and if I'm overlooking something (definitely a fair possibility) point it out to me.
I don't see a 1/encounter limit on Springing Assault, and in there you've suggested that Returning can allow multiple attacks in the same round when it cannot. The only other thing I think you're overlooking is (aggressive generalization incoming) every optimizer around here (possibly even yourself) seems to think that LA buyoff is a perfect mechanic that is allowed at all times-even in the LA Assignment Thread it is apparently considered common and gets weight before an LA is even assigned. This is of course completely wrong, it's a terrible mechanic even when it is allowed, and it is most certainty not a default rule. So while you just cited LA+2 as a balancing factor you may wish to consider how people will straight up ignore that, if you haven't already noticed. /rage

Actually while we're talking about Pounce, I'd suggest picking a side for balancing: if you wish to compare anything to ToB maneuvers then disavowing the existence of Spirit Lion Totem Barbarian is a good idea, because they clearly do not operate on the same level.

Zaydos
2016-09-20, 09:31 AM
Beware of a typo : in the description of the abilities, you wrote "born to fix" rather than "born to survive".

That will need to be fi...


I don't see a 1/encounter limit on Springing Assault, and in there you've suggested that Returning can allow multiple attacks in the same round when it cannot. The only other thing I think you're overlooking is (aggressive generalization incoming) every optimizer around here (possibly even yourself) seems to think that LA buyoff is a perfect mechanic that is allowed at all times-even in the LA Assignment Thread it is apparently considered common and gets weight before an LA is even assigned. This is of course completely wrong, it's a terrible mechanic even when it is allowed, and it is most certainty not a default rule. So while you just cited LA+2 as a balancing factor you may wish to consider how people will straight up ignore that, if you haven't already noticed. /rage

Actually while we're talking about Pounce, I'd suggest picking a side for balancing: if you wish to compare anything to ToB maneuvers then disavowing the existence of Spirit Lion Totem Barbarian is a good idea, because they clearly do not operate on the same level.

That's a much, much worse typo. Much worse typo. Without that it's just broken. That'd be what I was missing (no idea how I left that out). And yeah should have been Lightning Ricochet not Returning. As for LA buyoff my opinion is it works in some cases where their advantages become irrelevant, but in other cases the advantage of say having 4 limbs does not lessen significantly with level.

As for Pounce I mentioned it because every thri-kreen I've seen eventually got it in some way either by dipping Barbarian, or the 5th level maneuver (they then regretted not dipping barbarian for it :smallsigh:). So while I am actually not a fan of the existence of Spirit Lion Totem Barbarian it's the go to for thri-kreen so what I have to compare against. I just brought up Bar 2/Warblade 1 because having not realized my massive typo (by Tiamat that was embarrassing) it was a simple build that replicates most everything the class gets with official materials in 3 levels and I've seen 2 level Barbarian dip for Pounce used in a lot of ToB characters.

But I'm going to go fix some typos and try and find a washcloth for this egg on my face.


.
The direction was quite predictable... the outcome a lot more powerful than I'd anticipated.
Unless I'm missing something, this makes Thri-Kreen the only choice for a fighter.

Turns out the only thing you were missing is the ability to read my mind to realize I left out a very important limiter.