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



Zaydos
2016-09-19, 12:34 PM
Blue Paragon

Blues are an oddity among goblins, a psionic sport that in more brutish tribes are killed in childhood, and in the more enlightened tribes are raised from youth to use their powers to destroy the tribe's enemies and to support the tribe in raids and battle.

Adventures: Most blue paragons become adventurers to escape the oppression of their tribe and find a life for themselves beyond weapon. Those blue paragons who do not eventually decide to flee from their tribe for the hope of a better life, usually once they have the power to take it typically decide to take power by taking control of their tribe either overtly or covertly.

Characteristics: Blue paragons have naturally powerful psionic talents and they augment them through focusing those talents into social manipulation, stealth, and awareness. In addition their role as living weapon and support for their tribe teaches them to spread their psionic powers to the masses more easily than other psionicists.

Alignment: Blue paragons tend to share the same selfish, treacherous point of view of other goblins, always looking out for themselves and how to pull themselves to the top of the pile, even if it harms the whole. That said some blue paragons manage to rise above this petty cycle of mutual destruction. Lawful Evil blue paragons impose their will upon their tribe, building a stronger tribe, and striking hard against their enemies outside, even enslaving neighboring goblin tribes. Good aligned blue paragons often flee their tribal roots and take to adventuring in the hopes to find a better place in human lands; this is a hard and often thankless road to acceptance.

Religion: Blue paragons tend to see themselves as either cursed or blessed by the gods. Those who see themselves cursed by their abnormal birth often turn their back to the gods, taking the 'curse' and wielding it to their advantage as if to spite the gods that gave them a life of alienation and difference. Those who see themselves as blessed may worship Maglubiyet or other goblinoid gods with a fervor, whipping up their fellow clansmen and working with the adepts to create a truly deadly tribe dedicated to their dark deity.

Background: Few blues have it easy. Even in those tribes ran by blues they're still sports, freaks, and outcasts, able to obtain power due to their greater intellect and powers but unable to find companionship except in their few brethren. In those with even fewer blues the only escape from their pariah status is momentary bouts of pressed service and the hope of aspiration of power or escape. It is this harsh and socially stigmatized position which gives birth to most blue paragons, and which causes them to escape it through conquest or adventuring.

Races: Blue paragons have awkward dealings at best with elves and dwarves, after all goblins must be exterminated, goblins claiming to try and turn from their tribe are spies sent to undermine their way of life and to seduce their children into the false belief that goblins can change an be redeemed. Other goblins see blue paragons as weapons and tools, things to make use of more than people. While given certain privileges beyond their normal kin, including personal living quarters, they are also feared, hated, and occasionally murdered due to their 'mutant' nature.

Game Rule Information:
Blue Paragons have the following game statistics.
Ability Scores: Wisdom, Charisma, or usually Intelligence determines a Blue Paragon psionic prowess, and their Intelligence determines the benefits of all of their special talents making it an inescapable stat for the Blue Paragon. Constitution and Dexterity are of next most import, and unless a Blue Paragon chooses to key their manifesting off of Wisdom or Charisma they can usually ignore them.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Dice: d4.
Starting Wealth: As sorcerer.
Starting Age: As fighter.

Class Skills:
The blue paragon's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (local) (Int), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Psicraft (Int), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), and Spot (Wis).

Skill Points at First Level: (2 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier

BLUE PARAGON


Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
Manifesting


1st

+0

+0

+0

+2
Focused Manipulator, Focused Senses
+1 level of manifesting class


2nd

+1

+0

+0

+3
Tribal Psionics
-


3rd

+2

+1

+1

+3
+2 Int, Focused Stealth
+1 level of existing manifesting class


The following are all class features of the Blue Paragon:

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A blue paragon gains proficiency in simple weapons and no armor.

Manifesting: At 1st level a blue paragon selects a single class which grants manifesting beginning at 1st level (ardent, psion, psychic warrior, etc). They gain manifesting as a 1st level members of that class, or their manifesting in that class improves by one level (if they later gain levels in that class they'd have manifesting as if 1 level higher). At 3rd level their manifesting in that class improves by one level. If Blue LA is ignored move this to 2nd level. If LA buy off is not allowed grant 3/3 manifesting.

Focused Manipulator (Su): A blue's telepathic talents aid them in social interaction. As long as a Blue Paragon is psionically focused they can use their Intelligence in place of the normal ability score (Cha or Wis) on Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, and Sense Motive checks. By expending their psionic focus they may add their Intelligence modifier in addition to the normal ability score modifier to a check that requires a standard action or less.

Focused Senses (Su): A blue's clairsentient talents aid them in sensing threats and oddities. As long as a Blue Paragon is psionically focused they can use their Intelligence in place of their Wisdom for Listen, and Spot checks. By expending their psionic focus they may add their Intelligence modifier in addition to their Wisdom to a single Spot or Listen check taking 1 standard action, or add their Intelligence twice to a single Search check taking no more than 1 full-round.

Tribal Psionics (Su): A blue's psionic powers allow them to link with their goblinoid kin, sharing the powers of their mind with them. Beginning at 2nd level by expending their psionic focus when using a psionic power that targets themselves a blue paragon may apply it as well to a willing goblinoid creature within 20 ft; this copied version of the power has its duration reduced to 1 round/manifester level, or if its duration is 1 round/ml or shorter has it reduced to 1 round (this cannot increase the duration; the duration on the blue paragon is unaffected). A blue paragon may pay an additional 2 power points to add another willing goblinoid to the effect, and another 2 and so forth, but is limited by their manifester level as normal (as if using a meta-psionic power). A blue may include willing non-goblinoids but each such creature counts as 2 goblinoids (so to affect one would require focus an 2 power points, to affect 2 would be focus and 6, and to affect a goblinoid and 1 would be focus and 4).

+2 Int: A blue's intellect is their one gift in a hostile world. At 3rd level their Intelligence increases by 2. Think I could/should drop this?

Focused Stealth (Su): A blue's lets their clairsentient talent guide their footsteps and movements to hide them from the view and attention of larger more dangerous creatures. Beginning at 3rd level as long as a Blue Paragon is psionically focused they can use their Intelligence in place of their Dexterity for Hide, and Move Silently checks (a Blue Paragon 3/Factotum 3 does not add Int twice). By expending their psionic focus they may add their Intelligence modifier in addition to their Dexterity to Hide and Move Silently checks for 3 rounds (during this the aforementioned Blue Paragon/Factotum would add Int twice however) or until they regain their psionic focus.

remetagross
2016-09-19, 09:07 PM
I think you should keep the bonus to Int, it is a staple of Paragon classes.

However, I find the "Focused" abilities pretty lackluster given that they merely make up for the skill points the Blue Paragon doesn't have, rather than really adding something on the top. What about getting 4 + Int skill points per level instead ?

Fizban
2016-09-20, 03:52 AM
Softer than the Drow Paragon but still costs a level of manifesting somewhere at the end of the day. Tribal Psionics is far more involved of an ability than other racial paragons but that's not a bad thing. I'd keep to goblinoids only on principle, racial paragons being more concerned about race it doesn't make sense to have a specific exemption just so a player can use it on their non-goblin party.

Temotei
2016-09-20, 05:04 AM
However, I find the "Focused" abilities pretty lackluster given that they merely make up for the skill points the Blue Paragon doesn't have, rather than really adding something on the top. What about getting 4 + Int skill points per level instead ?

With only three levels, that gives you six extra skill points. This'll easily give you more than that just at the 1st level. Even assuming you have 14 Wisdom (so you can take Psionic Meditation and have an even Wisdom score), you probably don't have a Charisma over 10 and you'll likely have an Intelligence of 16 (or higher, but we'll just say 16 to be nice), which means you're getting about +15 total skill bonus at 1st level, with none of the bonus really being wasted. The closest to being wasted is probably Intimidate if only because you're small, but even then it could work with some powers or investment. Gather Information isn't super great but it comes up often enough that having the bonus won't be easily forgotten.

The gap only gets bigger as you level, too, since you'll be raising your Intelligence far before you even consider raising Wisdom or Charisma as a psion, which is the most likely pick for players looking to be a blue paragon. It's limited by requiring psionic focus, but this is basically negligible out of combat and in combat the bonuses are less likely to matter anyway. The extra "expend your psionic focus" abilities on top of the bonuses are nice, too, and add a bit more fun to the features rather than them being just static bonuses.

-------------------

Zaydos, on the Intelligence bonus, I think you could get rid of it, but I don't think you should. The ability score increase is kind of standard with the racial paragon classes, as mentioned above, and for non-psion blue paragons, it helps with the "focused" features. Obviously, psion blue paragons will love it, too.

remetagross
2016-09-20, 05:24 AM
With only three levels, that gives you six extra skill points. This'll easily give you more than that just at the 1st level. Even assuming you have 14 Wisdom (so you can take Psionic Meditation and have an even Wisdom score), you probably don't have a Charisma over 10 and you'll likely have an Intelligence of 16 (or higher, but we'll just say 16 to be nice), which means you're getting about +15 total skill bonus at 1st level, with none of the bonus really being wasted. The closest to being wasted is probably Intimidate if only because you're small, but even then it could work with some powers or investment. Gather Information isn't super great but it comes up often enough that having the bonus won't be easily forgotten.

The gap only gets bigger as you level, too, since you'll be raising your Intelligence far before you even consider raising Wisdom or Charisma as a psion, which is the most likely pick for players looking to be a blue paragon. It's limited by requiring psionic focus, but this is basically negligible out of combat and in combat the bonuses are less likely to matter anyway. The extra "expend your psionic focus" abilities on top of the bonuses are nice, too, and add a bit more fun to the features rather than them being just static bonuses.



Well, I expressed my thought badly; I meant "Why not keeping those abilities in addition to increasing the skill points to 4+Int/level" rather than instead of. You're right to say that having 4+Int/level skill points is inferior to the bonuses those abilities bring.

Zaydos
2016-09-20, 03:31 PM
Softer than the Drow Paragon but still costs a level of manifesting somewhere at the end of the day. Tribal Psionics is far more involved of an ability than other racial paragons but that's not a bad thing. I'd keep to goblinoids only on principle, racial paragons being more concerned about race it doesn't make sense to have a specific exemption just so a player can use it on their non-goblin party.

Initially I actually had it not specify goblinoid at all, I upped the cost for non-goblinoids because it felt just a little too good. Also it's not just for players. Goblin tribes can have undead, kobold slaves (though that was more of a thing in 2e... where kobolds were still goblinoids), and most importantly worgs; 2e occasionally they had/were ruled by ogres (who were also goblinoids back then). Considering that of the 'humanoid creatures you can acceptably kill on sight' goblins are the only ones who actually work well with others (hobgoblins and orcs have their whole feud) I felt it off to make it strictly goblinoids, while at the same time they do work best with hobgoblins/bugbears/goblins and worgs so felt the surcharge was appropriate. Still if people agree it feels off I'll change it, though if I do I will probably add a bit about allowing it to work freely on worgs, and the familiars of other goblinoids.


Well, I expressed my thought badly; I meant "Why not keeping those abilities in addition to increasing the skill points to 4+Int/level" rather than instead of. You're right to say that having 4+Int/level skill points is inferior to the bonuses those abilities bring.

The reason I didn't was that the comparison point is Psion which is a fairly potent class. And compared to +3 levels of psion they have the same skills, the same HD, +0.5 BAB, +2 Int, and tribal psionics. However they lose a feat (most likely), and 1 level of manifesting. Between +2 Int, and tribal psionics I thought they were close to making up that lose, so I wanted a relatively minor class feature that still let you build some bang for your buck into it. So I gave them the Focused abilities as minor things, that included some player tactics (I spend my focus I'm worse at certain skills, but I get...) while not being too powerful, but when I looked at the finished product with them getting 2 manifesting levels it felt too much to give them 4 + Int skills while also being an Int SAD character who gets +2 Int (and +2 racial Int meaning they end up with 2 more skill points than a dwarf or gnome with the same base Int would).

Again the decision between 2+ and 4+ was one I debated on so I am actually glad to hear opinions on it and open to changing it if there's a definite push in reviews for 'nah it needs more skill points' (now if people were saying it needed 6+ I'd start side-eying them).

remetagross
2016-09-20, 08:19 PM
Wel, does the +2 to Int give one additional skill point at 3rd level, or are skill points gained before class features ?

Apart from that, I'm no expert in psionics, and maybe it hurts less to give up one manifester level than to give up one caster level, but I think that one less manifester level may be well worth the benefits of the Blue Paragon class, isn't it ? As a PC playing a Blue Psion and wanting to multiclass, I'm not sure I would see any net profit in entering this class. However, this seems to be intentional, as you balanced your class so it would be a globally zero profit, zero gain over three more Psion levels. Is this the case ?