Is this fighter-style class good?

[Echch]

Hello there.
So I decided to do a thing and wanted to know if it's good, bad or horrible.
Without further ado, I present:
Clay Dude

Alignment:
Any non-good non-chaotic.

Hit Die
d6.

Class Skills
Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (local), Knowledge (religion), Ride (Dex), and Swim (Str)

Skill Points at 1st Level
(2 + Int modifier) ×4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level
2 + Int modifier.



Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Class Features


1st
+1
+2
+2
+0
Brickbrain, Claycore


2nd
+2
+3
+3
+0
Bonus Feat


3rd
+3
+3
+3
+1
Golem Magic


4th
+4
+4
+4
+1
Bonus Feat, Heavy Minded


5th
+5
+4
+4
+1
Clayflight


6th
+6/+1
+5
+5
+2
Bonus feat


7th
+7/+2
+5
+5
+2
Muddy Defenses


8th
+8/+3
+6
+6
+2
Bonus feat


9th
+9/+4
+6
+6
+3
Will of Mud


10th
+10/+5
+7
+7
+3
Bonus feat, Soulless Defense


11th
+11/+6/+1
+7
+7
+3
Golem Immunity


12th
+12/+7/+2
+8
+8
+4
Bonus feat


13th
+13/+8/+3
+8
+8
+4
Melee Counter


14th
+14/+9/+4
+9
+9
+4
Bonus feat


15th
+15/+10/+5
+9
+9
+5
Lucky Clay


16th
+16/+11/+6/+1
+10
+10
+5
Bonus feat


17th
+17/+12/+7/+2
+10
+10
+5
Powerful Block


18th
+18/+13/+8/+3
+11
+11
+6
Bonus feat


19th
+19/+14/+9/+4
+11
+11
+6
Stonemind


20th
+20/+15/+10/+5
+12
+12
+6
Bonus feat, Set in Stone



Weapon and Armor Proficiency
A clay dude is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, medium, and light) and shields (including tower shields).

Brickbrain (ex): A clay dude is like a old nokia; not much processing power, but more than capable of bashing someone's skull in. Clay dudes use their Constitution Modifier instead of their Intelligence Modifier to determine Skill Points per Level. In addition to that, at 1st level, and every level thereafter, the clay dude can choose any skill he has skill ranks in; the clay dude now gains a +3 bonus to that skill. You cannot choose the same skill twice.

Claycore (ex): A clay dude is pretty heartless. And by that I mean they have their hearts removed and replaced with these weird things. They are surprisingly nonmagical (or rather don't work the way magic does), but do grant the clay dude some interesting abilities: A clay dude gains a pool of 9 "floating" attribute points he can assign to his physical attributes. A clay dude cannot assign more points than his half his clay dude level+1. Changing the way they are assigned takes 1d4+1 hours per point or 1 hour of concentration for all of them. Removing the claycore from a clay dude doesn't kill them, but it does make them loose their assigned points.

Bonus Feats: At 2nd level and every two clay dude levels thereafter (4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 18th, and 20th) a clay dude gains an additional bonus feat. These bonus feats must be drawn from the feats noted as fighter bonus feats. A clay dude must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums. For the purposes of qualifying for feats, a clay dude counts as a fighter of his level -3.
These bonus feats are in addition to the feat that a character of any class gets from advancing levels. A clay dude is not limited to the list of fighter bonus feats when choosing these feats.

Golem Magic: A clay dude can annoy spellcasters beyond belief. A clay dude gains spontaneous divine spellcasting equal to a favored soul of his level, with the following differences;
A clay dude only knows Dispel Magic, Transmute Mud to Rock, Black Tentacles, Solid Fog and Dispel Magic, Greater.
A clay dude has 0 spells per day for every spell level, but gains bonus spells according to his Constitution Modifier as appropriate.
A clay dude is always considered to have readied an action to counterspell.

Heavy Minded (ex): At level 4, a clay dude can add their Constitution Modifier to their Will Saves.

Clayflight (su): A clay dude can move himself via minor innate telekinesis. The clay dude gains a flight speed of 30 (average). Sadly, this doesn't help them swim for the same reason the fly spell doesn't grant bonuses to it; Water offers just too much resistance.

Muddy Defenses (ex): A clay dude has a weird, slimey claybody. Fortunately for them, the same ability that allows them to fly also allows them to deform their bodies to defend themselves; Once per turn, when a clay dude is subjected to a ranged attack (except for spells), said clay dude can attempt to block it by attempting a DC 20 Reflex save. A natural 1 does not mean automatic failure and a natural 20 does not mean automatic success. Success means the block is successful and the damage is reduced by 60 points. Failure means that the attack deals damage normally. Any attacker can choose to reduce his ranged attack bonus by any amount to increase the DC by the same amount (keep in mind, however, that he still has to hit the clay dudes AC). Blocking an attack costs an attack of opportunity.

Will of Mud (ex): A clay dude gains a Mind "pool" of 10+Constitution Modifier points. He can spent those points in the following ways;
Spent 1 point to negate ability damage or drain on a 1-to-1 ratio.
Spent 2 points to remove one negative level.
Spent 2/3/4/6 points to immediately become immune to the next level 0-3/4-6/7-8/9 mind-affecting spell or power.
This takes a free action during your turn and an immediate action during your enemies turn.
The Mind pool refreshes every time the clay dude can manage to rest uninterrupted for 8 hours.

Soulless Defense (ex): A clay dude understands that if they do not protect their allies, no one will. Once per turn, as an immediate action, the clay dude can choose one ally (or themself). That ally is warded from contact with summoned creatures of any alignment. Treat this as a continious protection from good and protection from chaos with a caster level equal to the clay dudes character level, except that it does not grant boni to AC or saving throws. A clay dude can only protect one creature that way; Choosing a different one causes the first one to loose the protective effect.

Rock-Hard Clay (ex): A clay dude is gains Magic Immunity similar to a Stone Golems Magic Immunity, except that it works for psionics the same way it does for magic. However, if a spellcaster casts a spell from a slot 4 levels higher than the actual spells level (or a manifester spents 8 additional power points), this Immunity is reduced to SR equal to (Clay Dude level x2). If said spell was Move Earth, Disintegrate or Earthquake, the clay dude also gains the clay golems weaknesses for the purpose of determining their effects. The clay dude can lower and raise his Immunity or Resistance as a free action during either characters turn. While this allows him to benefit from spells (by lowering his resistance shortly before the spell affects him and raising it directly afterward), a smart enemy spellcaster can ready an action in an attempt to strike the clay dude at the same time a beneficial spell affects him, thus also ignoring the clay dudes resistance.

Melee Block (ex): A clay dude can now block melee attacks the same way he blocks ranged attacks. In addition to that, whenever a clay dude blocks a melee attack, he can make a single attack at his highest BaB against the attacker. Doing so costs an attack of opportunity.

Lucky Clay (ex): A clay dude can now spent 2 Mind points to treat the next saving throw it makes as a natural 20. In addition, whenever a clay dude rolls to counter a spell, he can roll twice and take the better result.

Powerful Block (ex): A clay dudes block DC is reduced by 5 and can now be used twice per round per attack type. In addition to that, a clay dudes body is now hardened; Instead of taking 60 less damage, a clay dude now takes 100 less damage and reduces the remaining damage by 75% (rounded down).

Stonemind (ex): The Mind pool now refills at the start of every encounter, provided there were at least 10 minutes of time between the individual encounters.

Set in Stone (ex): At level 20, a clay dude stops aging. In addition, they reverse all penalities gained through aging as long as they are connected to their claycore, and if they are killed, but still connected to their claycore, the clay dude returns to life (as if affected via True Resurrection) 1d10 days later.

So that's that...
Does this work as a class? Yes? No?
I hope it does, but... I'm really not confident in it. Anything I should change?

EDIT: Changed a few things as suggested. I also added a new ability, "Soulless Defense".
The purpose of this character is to stall spellcasters to allow their own to work without interruption. Depending on the choosen feats, they are also supposed to be at least decent melee characters.

[Vaktaeru]

The most glaring problem I see with this class is the d4 hit die. Anything that wants to be in melee combat (even with a high con modifier) NEEDS to have at least a d6 hit die, or in my opinion (as a long-time player of pathfinder) a d8. Your average hit points at level 6 in this class, even with a con modifier of a 5, is only going to be 45. Your average level 6 frontline will kill it in one turn even with that high constitution. Compare this to a fighter with a con modifier of a 3, who would have 54 hit points, or even a barbarian, who would have more than double your hit points with the same constitution score (due to rage).
Another problem I see here is that you effectively have free ability score points at level 1 - what stops me from taking a 1 level dip in this as, say, a fighter, and putting 9 points into strength? I would change this to starting at 2 or 3 points at level 1, and increasing it with level. This will also give you room to increase your hit die, since the class is basically forced to put everything into con in its current state.

[Deepbluediver]

My first thought, without even reading through the class, is "good at what"? For homebrew, it really helps to tell people what you are aiming for, so they can try to judge if you've hit the mark without interpreting it through the bias of what they tend to think is the best way to do things.

So let me ask- what types of scenarios is your class intended to perform well in, and/or what other classes is it intended to compare favorably to?

[Grand Arbiter]

Hello there.
Hello, and welcome to Homebrew Design. :smallsmile:


So I decided to do a thing and wanted to know if it's good, bad or horrible.
Without further ado, I present:
Clay Dude

My first thought, without even reading through the class, is "good at what"? For homebrew, it really helps to tell people what you are aiming for, so they can try to judge if you've hit the mark without interpreting it through the bias of what they tend to think is the best way to do things.

So let me ask- what types of scenarios is your class intended to perform well in, and/or what other classes is it intended to compare favorably to?
I agree with Deepbluediver, as the role the class should fill is important to know, as is the approximate power level that you are aiming for. Descriptive text and/or possibly your inspiration would also be useful. Sometimes it can help fill in gaps where something is not well-explained...


Alignment:
Any non-good non-chaotic.
Such as this. Alignment restrictions usually have meaning to them, and it would help to know your thoughts behind the choice. The classic example is paladins, who are typically bound to being good because they are holy knights who serve the greater good.


Hit Die
d4.

The most glaring problem I see with this class is the d4 hit die. Anything that wants to be in melee combat (even with a high con modifier) NEEDS to have at least a d6 hit die, or in my opinion (as a long-time player of pathfinder) a d8. Your average hit points at level 6 in this class, even with a con modifier of a 5, is only going to be 45. Your average level 6 frontline will kill it in one turn even with that high constitution. Compare this to a fighter with a con modifier of a 3, who would have 54 hit points, or even a barbarian, who would have more than double your hit points with the same constitution score (due to rage).

If this is going to be going into melee, even if it is hit and run, the Hit Die should be upped to a d6 or a d8. d4 hit dice are usually reserved for classes with some type of potent casting as a drawback, or for when a class has strong defenses that mitigate the danger of having low hit points.


Class Skills
None, but see Brickbrain.

Skill Points at 1st Level
(2 + Int modifier) ×4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level
2 + Int modifier.

-table-

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
A clay dude is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, medium, and light) and shields (including tower shields).

Brickbrain (ex): A clay dude is like a old nokia; not much processing power, but more than capable of bashing someone's skull in. Clay dudes use their Constituation Modifier instead of their Intelligence Modifier to determine Skill Points per Level. In addition to that, at 1st level, and every level thereafter, the clay dude can choose one cross class skill and treat it a class skill.
Having a changing class skill list could mess with keeping track of total ranks invested in a skill. I'd suggest either allowing them to choose a set number at first level, or giving a premade skill list. Using Constitution instead of Intelligence for skill points seems like it should be fine. Combat-based classes typically need a fair amount of skill points to spread around.

Maybe have Brickbrain allow them to add their constitution modifier to will saves once they reach level 4?

Also, if this is going to be melee, a good fortitude save is a must.


Claycore (ex): A clay dude is pretty heartless. And by that I mean they have their hearts removed and replaced with these weird things. They are surprisingly nonmagical (or rather don't work the way magic does), but do grant the clay dude some interesting abilities: A clay dude gains a pool of 9 "floating" attribute points he can assign to his physical attributes. Changing the way they are assigned takes 1d4+1 hours. Removing the claycore from a clay dude doesn't kill them, but it does make them loose their assigned points.
Another problem I see here is that you effectively have free ability score points at level 1 - what stops me from taking a 1 level dip in this as, say, a fighter, and putting 9 points into strength? I would change this to starting at 2 or 3 points at level 1, and increasing it with level. This will also give you room to increase your hit die, since the class is basically forced to put everything into con in its current state. A scaling bonus would be a good idea to discourage dipping (only taking a few levels of) the class. I would also suggest making the change require only an hour, so that a Clay Dude may change their points when party spellcasters prepare spells.


Bonus Feats: At 2nd level and every two clay dude levels thereafter (4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 18th, and 20th) a clay dude gains an additional bonus feat. These bonus feats must be drawn from the feats noted as fighter bonus feats. A clay dude must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums.
These bonus feats are in addition to the feat that a character of any class gets from advancing levels. A clay dude is not limited to the list of fighter bonus feats when choosing these feats.I'd add in a note that they count as a fighter of their level, or level - 3. (I think that's how warblades from ToB are given them....) This way, they could qualify for some of the feats that explicitly require fighter levels.


Golem Magic: A clay dude can annoy spellcasters beyond belief. A clay dude gains spontaneous divine spellcasting equal to a favored soul of his level, with the following differences;
A clay dude only knows Dispel Magic, Transmute Mud to Rock, Black Tentacles, Solid Fog and Dispel Magic, Greater.
A clay dude has 0 spells per day for every spell level, but gains bonus spells according to his Constitution Modifier as appropriate.
In addition to that, whenever a spellcaster casts a spell that a clay dude is aware of, a clay dude can attempt to counterspell it as a free action.There may be a more efficient way to make this work. I'll need to think on it for a little while.

Can counterspelling be done as a free action normally? If not, you may want to make it require an immediate action.


Clayflight (su): A clay dude can move himself via minor innate telekinesis. The clay dude gains a flight speed of 30 (average). Sadly, this doesn't help them swim for the same reason the fly spell doesn't grant bonuses to it; Water offers just too much resistance. Flight can be useful, and at this speed and maneuverability it doesn't seem too bad, but it may or may not need to be changed to a higher level. I'd suggest waiting for a second opinion on this.


Muddy Defenses (ex): A clay dude has a weird, slimey claybody. Fortunately for them, the same ability that allows them to fly also allows them to deform their bodies to defend themselves; Once per turn, when a clay dude is subjected to a ranged attack (except for spells), said clay dude can attempt to block it by attempting a DC 20 Reflex save. A natural 1 does not mean automatic failure and a natural 20 does not mean automatic success. Success means the block is successful and the damage is reduced by 60 points. Failure means that the attack deals damage normally. Any attacker can choose to reduce his ranged attack bonus by any amount to increase the DC by the same amount (keep in mind, however, that he still has to hit the clay dudes AC). Blocking an attack costs an attack of opportunityThe Deflect Arrows feat with a fancy description would be simpler, and may be a good option to consider.


Will of Mud (ex): A clay dude gains a Mind "pool" of 10 points. He can spent those points in the following ways;
Spent 1 point to negate ability damage or drain on a 1-to-1 ratio.
Spent 2 points to remove one negative level.
Spent 2/3/4/6 points to immediately become immune to the next level 0-3/4-6/7-8/9 mind-affecting spell or power.
This takes no action on your part and can be used during the enemies turn.
The Mind pool refreshes every time the clay dudes Golem Magic does.
1)I'd suggest 10 + Con. mod.. Abilities that come early and don't scale become less interesting at higher levels.
2) the 2/3/4/6 should probably require an Immediate action (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/actionsInCombat.htm#immediateActions)(link to what an immediate action is).
3)You may want to specify that 8 hours of rest is needed to regain the abilities, like spellcasters and manifesters do.


Rock-Hard Clay (ex): A clay dude is gains Magic Immunity similar to a Stone Golems Magic Immunity, except that it works for psionics the same way it does for magic. However, if a spellcaster casts a spell from a slot 4 levels higher than the actual spells level (or a manifester spents 8 additional power points), this Immunity is reduced to SR equal to (Clay Dude level x2). If said spell was Move Earth, Disintegrate or Earthquake, the clay dude also gains the clay golems weaknesses for the purpose of determining their effects. Magic immunity/spell resistance can be a double edged sword. I'll try to come up with some better wording to get the magic resistance without any of the potential drawbacks.


Melee Block (ex): A clay dude can now block melee attacks the same way he blocks ranged attacks. In addition to that, whenever a clay dude blocks a melee attack, he can make a single attack at his highest BaB against the attacker. Doing so costs an attack of opportunity.
Granting scaling DR/- would be a simpler option that would help negate damage. If DR/- is used, maybe allow them to double/triple/some-higher multiplier a number of times per day equal to their constitution modifer as an immediate action.


Lucky Clay (ex): A clay dude can now spent 2 Mind points to treat the next saving throw it makes as a natural 20. In addition, a clay dude now gains a +10 bonus to counterspelling. The bonus to counterspelling doesn't seem to fit thematically with being "lucky". A pool of d20 re-rolls to be used as they see fit could be a viable alternative.


Powerful Block (ex): A clay dudes block DC is reduced by 5 and can now be used twice per round per attack type. In addition to that, a clay dudes body is now hardened; Instead of taking 60 less damage, a clay dude now takes 100 less damage and reduces the remaining damage by 75% (rounded down).

Stonemind (ex): The Mind pool now refills at the start of every encounter, provided there were at least 10 minutes of time between the individual encounters.

Set in Stone (ex): At level 20, a clay dude stops aging. In addition, they reverse all penalities and boni gained through aging as long as they are connected to their claycore, and if they are killed, but still connected to their claycore, the clay dude returns to life at full hit and attribute points 1d10 days later.

So that's that...
Does this work as a class? Yes? No?
I hope it does, but... I'm really not confident in it. Anything I should change?If DR is used in place of the blocking mechanic, Powerful Block may need to be changed or replaced.

A faster re-fill of the Mind pool at high levels is definitely a good idea.

Why remove the mental ability score bonuses? They represent the wisdom, intelligence, and experience that typically comes with old age.
I'd suggest that Set in Stone says it grants them a free True Resurrection effect, with a one-week cool-down between uses. The 1d10 days to respawn is fine.

Overall, a pretty darn good piece of homebrew. You should be pretty happy with having made it, especially having a table.
All of my comments are my own 2¢ to be taken or left as you wish. The only thing I think is a must is a higher Hit Dice.