Classes with the most awesome Class Features? [Barring Spellcasting]

[one2thee]

Barring Spellcasting (No pointy sticks, please), which classes would you say give the most awesome class features? I'm including PrCs for this. If the PrC or class provides Spellcasting or the usual +1 we see in PrCs, then GG, but that's not what I'm after here.

[weckar]

Chameleon is pretty cool. Base classes... I'm personally a fan of Scout for they highly varied set of abilities (which, unlike a Monk's, are actually synergetic).

[Inevitability]

Truenamer 20. Every time someone says your truename, you can teleport to them.

[Exocist]

Manifesting

I've always been a fan of unique capstone abilities - I quite like Walker in the Waste's "Dry Lich" and Psion Uncarnate's "Uncarnate".

[weckar]

Eh, non-spell magic systems are always fun. Invokers, meldshapers, binders...

[Sandsarecool]

Let's see...
People often have to hum and haw over whether they want a Swiftblade's abilities or full casting, so there's that. Though it advances casting.
Nothing else comes to mind off the top of my head. Time to dive into some books.

[Esprit15]

Factotum as a whole gets awesome stuff.

Dread Necromancer gains lichdom a phylactery and the undead type no, full lichdom a cool capstone, regardless of the specifics.

Archivist gets the very fun Dark Knowledge abilities. "Guys! Poke the dragon in their belly for MASSIVE DAMAGE!" At mid-levels, the DC for the check is rather trivial. Also stacks nicely with Knowledge Devotion.

Annoying as it can be, Monks getting a non-trivial, scaling spell resistance, in low to medium op games is pretty sweet. Sure, I can't be easily buffed in combat, but ignoring a lot of debilitating spells, especially ones with no save, can be very nice, sometimes.

Frenzied Berserker's Deathless Frenzy is hilarity just for the stories after using it. "Yeah, I forget how many negative hundreds I was at by the end of the fight. All I know is that the Cleric was pissed about the amount of spells that he had to convert to Heal to prevent me from dying. It was at least four, and I was still unconscious after the fact."

ToB classes and Maneuvers, since they're totally not spells.

Druid wildshape is always fun. Sure, spells are more optimal, but "Screw you, I'm a bear" is so much more satisfying sometimes.

Dread Witch's Greater Master of Terror is also fun. Making enemy Paladins cower in terror is quite amusing when playing a villain.

[Sandsarecool]

Mind if I take this at a tangent a little?

Pale Master gets some interesting immunities, so you can look at that.
Earth Sight from Earth Dreamer is fun.
Shadow Pounce? Room for plenty o' abuse.


Eh, non-spell magic systems are always fun. Invokers, meldshapers, binders...
Mind elaborating ever so slightly?

[weckar]

I'm not sure, what would you like elaborating on?

[Rebel7284]

I have to second Shadow Pounce. Such a ridiculous ability!

Also Sentinel of Bharrai has Cavalry of Dire Bears 1/week.

[martixy]

Well... telflammar shadowlord, swiftblade, arcane duelist, scarlet corsair, psychic weapon master, war hulk, legacy champion (and some other dudes I know I forget) are pretty neat for the unique things each brings.

[ExLibrisMortis]

I like Geomancer, Geometer, Runesmith, Incantatrix, Dweomerkeeper, Halruaan Elder, Shadowcraft Mage... anything that manipulates magic.

On top, though, for the same reason? StP erudite, artificer, Mind Mage. And I second fourth Telflammar Shadowlord; Shadowpounce is amazing.

[Troacctid]

Spellblast, Eldritch Spellweave, and Greatreach Blast, all from Eldritch Theurge, are pretty damn sweet.

[Braininthejar2]

Warshaper - immune to critical hits whenever you're not yourself

[stanprollyright]

Anything with Wild Shape
Ditto Animal Companion/Familiar/Cohort
Bear Warrior
Monk :(
Warlock
Duskblade
Factotum
Bard

[Anxe]

Black Flame Zealots ability disintegrate people with sneak attacks is pretty hot.

[Syll]

I've always been enamored by Elocater's 'Scorn Earth' feature.... and 'Flanker'... and 'Capricious Step'. But especially Scorn Earth. Sadly, every time I've set out to play one the campaign didn't get off the ground.

(Also, Scorn Earth always makes me think of Candle Jack)

[barakaka]

Eidolon and Eidoloncer are awesome. You get a bunch of cool ghost abilities to tack onto your LA+0 Ghost template from the Ghostwalk Campaign Option book.

Meldshapers have so much variance even from round to round that it really spices up combat. Necrocarnum Circlet makes for a semi-mundane necromancer. And the Necrocarnate gets my props for unlimited powah via the souls of your enemies.

Also, I've seen what happens when you let a Factotum with Iaijutsu Focus take Font Of Inspiration for nearly all his feats...

[Mehangel]

D&D 3.5's Factotum
Pathfinder's Inquisitor has some awesome class features
Drop Dead Studio's Hedgewitch doesn't so much as have awesome abilities but by its nature, you can choose it's class features.
Dreamscarred Press's Soulknife has some very awesome blade skills.

[GilesTheCleric]

Bane of Infidels (MotW 46) is terrible, but so nifty in my opinion.

Level 1: cause a religious follower to Rage.
Level 2: create a hearth with Zone of Truth anywhere.
Level 2: sacrifice heretics (or followers!) on your hearth for bonuses.
Level 3: intuit what foreign places of sacrifice require and what boon they grant.
Level 4: know whether your loyal subjects have doubts about the Supreme Leader. Purge the heretics.
Level 6: create a 60'+ tall wicker man that sucks in all nearby foes, and then sets them on fire.
Level 9: mass Rage.
Level 10: MASS SACRIFICE

[ben-zayb]

Really, no mention of Bloodstorm Blade? Even with their "normal" effects, Returning Attacks, Thunderous Throw, Lightning Ricochet, Bloodwind Ricochet, and Blade Storm are pretty awesome. Then you add their Op-fu potential, especially Thunderous Throw, and it gets ridiculous.

[Endarire]

Eternal Blade10's Island in Time.

Ruby Knight Vindicator7's Divine Impetus (assuming use is a free/non action)

[Gruftzwerg]

As others have already pointed out: Swiftblade for timestop cheese and undispelable hast/diplacement/blink.


Void Disciple: Moment of Clarity
Give an ally a temporary feat (only ancestor feats are restricted)

Master of Many Forms:
Very flexible, even if it loses some of it's spellcasting power.

Blood Magus:
So much blood fueled fluff in here it is unbelievable. Scribe Scrolls on your skin, brew potions in your blood, Bloodwalk thru your enemies bodies. He can even share his Blood Potions with someone else which is imho the most awesome ability fluff wise.
Imho the perfect evil caster which will annoy your players even after killing him, cause they can't loot his remaining spell scrolls and potions. Give him a lil undead army with chain spell gr. magical Weapon and your BBEG is set for some action.

[Elzak]

Illithid Savant, Acquire Special Attack or Special Quality (Ex).
Barring Spellcasting, this shiet still rocks, kind of like Assumed Supernatural Ability on shrooms.

[Anthrowhale]

Hathran 5 = Cleric with circle magic @L12, just in time for Holy Word @L13.

Strike from the Void (Iajutsu Master 5) = Chr to damage 9 times (some limitations apply). An uberdamager which is not an ubercharger.

Inspired Fight(Heartfire Fanner 1,3,5) = bardic music grants 1 to 3 feats to an ally from those you know or _any_ fighter feat (there are hundreds).

Construct Perfection(Warforged Juggernaut 2-5) + Shake It Off(Pugilist 1)= Immunity to all damage, all drain, Mind-affecting effects + Death effects + Necromancy.

[Sir Chuckles]

Sadly, one of my all time favorites, the Jester from the Dragon Mag (and Compendium), is disqualified from the discussion for having Bard casting. Even more disappointing for me that it disqualifies my favorite PrC, the Swiftblade.

But it sorta makes me realize that I really like gish type characters.

[Val666]

Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiindeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer Bind Vestige <3

[CaPtMalHammer]

I like Duskblades 1-20, simple to the point fun build, also tempest or Storm Lord can be fun with the right base classes behind them:)

[martixy]

I like Duskblades 1-20, simple to the point fun build, also tempest or Storm Lord can be fun with the right base classes behind them:)

This reminds me.

With Stormsinger instead you can literally do this (https://youtu.be/LSbgeXTDHLQ?t=11m30s).

Most metal class ever!

[The Viscount]

The first few levels of Knight actually give a focused but effective protecter/BFC beginning. As few as 3 or as many as 6 work well, and they pair oh so nicely with Crusader. A PrC that's absolutely perfect for this concept is Devoted Defender. It gives all of its class features in 3 levels, the rest is just bonuses to them so you can leave.

I think Savant's skill assistance is very nice, 4 levels and you can Hide and MS for the whole party!

[Anxe]

The first few levels of Knight actually give a focused but effective protecter/BFC beginning. As few as 3 or as many as 6 work well, and they pair oh so nicely with Crusader. A PrC that's absolutely perfect for this concept is Devoted Defender. It gives all of its class features in 3 levels, the rest is just bonuses to them so you can leave.

I think Savant's skill assistance is very nice, 4 levels and you can Hide and MS for the whole party!

Knight is actually the 3.5 redux of Devoted Defender. They heavily tweaked it and made it into a base class.

[The Viscount]

Knight is actually the 3.5 redux of Devoted Defender. They heavily tweaked it and made it into a base class.

Care to explain where you found this? While there are certainly similarities in spirit between the classes, Devoted Defender has 3 class features.
Knight only reproduces one of them, and at a level of 14 compared to Devoted Defender getting it at ECL 6.

[Quertus]

Illithid Savant. Eat brains, get cool stuff. Also, totally OP.

Iaijutsu Master. Love the theme, loved the time back before everybody knew what Iaijutsu Focus even was.

I personally love anything shapeshifting related.

Fiend of Possession. Literally get inside someone's head.

[Sandsarecool]

Sadly, one of my all time favorites, the Jester from the Dragon Mag (and Compendium), is disqualified from the discussion for having Bard casting. Even more disappointing for me that it disqualifies my favorite PrC, the Swiftblade.

But it sorta makes me realize that I really like gish type characters.

So long as it has more to give than plain ol' spellcasting, post it. I already did.
The OP didn't seem to mind.

[Erit]

So long as it has more to give than plain ol' spellcasting, post it. I already did.
The OP didn't seem to mind.

I think the spirit of the ban is to keep people from snarking "Wizard because spells" and the like. "Bard because Dragonfire Inspiration" is different.

[Anxe]

Care to explain where you found this? While there are certainly similarities in spirit between the classes, Devoted Defender has 3 class features.
Knight only reproduces one of them, and at a level of 14 compared to Devoted Defender getting it at ECL 6.

I looked and could not find it... I'd thought it was in the official errata somewhere.

Anyways, I did find the Maquar Crusader which is a 3.5 prestige class that looks awfully similar to the Devoted Defender.

[Sandsarecool]

I think the spirit of the ban is to keep people from snarking "Wizard because spells" and the like. "Bard because Dragonfire Inspiration" is different.

...That's what I meant.

:smallsigh: One day I will be good at getting my point across to others.