The defiler [base class]

[bloodluster]

This is basicly my first shot at homebrew, so don't bite my head off...

THE DEFILER

The defiler is basicly a mutilater of flesh, they raise corpses but not like necromancers do. They create flesh golems from corpses, then on they can change there creations physically, and train them to make them smarter, to about the intellegence of a dog, to a really stupid person, and if there really good even as smart as a really low level wizard. They are the masters of horrific magics, that mutilate and warp flesh to there own desires. They can cast some spells, but mostly they work on perfecting there "babies" as they like to call them. Most defilers are insane, and a very few of them could be called random at best. Most live in transilvanian style castles, and a great majority of them live as gibbering mad men in alley ways.

Weapon Profeciency: Defilers are profecient with simple weapons and light armor but not with sheilds

Hit dice:d6
Saves:as wizard

Abiliteas
Create monstrosity: if they work on a corpse for ten minutes, they can turn that creature into a flesh golem. Called a monstrosity by sane people, this monstrosity is exactly like how it was in real life except it's a construct, has construct traits and has no intelligence. At 1st lvl to 5th lvl a defiler can only make small or smaller monstrosities. at 6th lvl to 10th lvl a defiler can only make medium monstrosities or smaller monstrosities. at 11th to 15th a defiler can only make large or smaller monstrositeas. At lvl 16th or higher a defiler can make only huge or smaller monstrositeas.
Train Monstrosity: A defiler can train a monstrosity to be more intelligent, a DC 15 Handle animal check, makes the monstrosity an intellegence of 3, at DC 20 handle makes the monstrositeas intelligence 6. And DC 25 makes the monstrosities intellegence 16. Unlike the usual way of using Handle Animal this way can be used repeatedly.
Switch parts: at 3rd lvl a defiler can switch body parts from a monstrosity to a corpse, giving one natural attack to the monstrosity that the corpse had in life. this takes 10 minutes.
spell augmentation: A defiler can give the monstrosity a spell like of one of his 0st lvl spells to the Monstrosity that is usable 1/day at 6th lvl.
Breath augmentation: at 9th lvl the Defiler can give his monstrosity a breath weapon. Choose either 30ft line or 15ft cone, then choose any energy type. That monstrosity can use that breath weapon at 3d6 damage.


spells: spell progression is as a bard. The defilers spell selection is any necromancy spell from the wizards list.

Skills:(4+intellegence modifier)x4:Handle animal, Knowledge(arcane), knowledge(the planes), heal, profesion, craft(leather working), concentration, spellcraft

[NakedCelt]

Table it.
The flavour is wrong for a base class — I can't see anyone wanting to play this for twenty levels straight. Make it a prestige class.

[JackMage666]

Plus, it's kinda REALLY broken.

I mean, sure, an army of dead cats can't do THAT much... But when theres 1 million of them. And a Lvl 1 Defiler could have an army.

There needs to be limits. And an XP cost.

It's defiately PrC material, though, no Base Class.

[Hazkali]

Try here (http://www.pifro.com/dnd) to generate the table- it takes a couple of minutes to figure out how to use it but it really makes things easier.

Also, please, tell us whether the abilities are (Ex)traordinary, (Su)pernatural or (Sp)ell-like, what sort of action they require, and how much time they take.

Also, just looking at the base mechanic, there is something rotten. If you can keep attempting the check to improve the Monstrosity's intelligence, as you've stated, then you can take 20. At 1st level, you can get 4 ranks in Handle Animal, and with a paltry ability modifier of +1, you have all you need to make whatever creature you come into contact with Int 16!

Also, when "Switching Parts", does the natural attack remain at the damage of the original creature, or the creature to which it is grafted to (e.g. does the tentacle of a Large Octopus, when grafted to a Small Cat, deal damage as a Large Tentacle or a Small Tentacle, or perhaps something in-between?)

I acknowledge this is your first attempt at homebrew, so a couple of pointers for good homebrew-

Steal mechanics from other classes, especially those in the SRD, and adapt them to your purpose. It makes things a lot easier, especially as the legalistic tone and many balance issues have already been thought of.
Stacking bonuses are easier to adjudicate than lots of discrete abilities, but less flavoursome.
Good formatting helps- Bold, or Underline the titles of major abilities, and put the names of lesser or derived abilities in italics
At each level, think "What could a Wizard, Rogue and Barbarian do at this level?". If your abilities fall in-between the power of the Wizard and Barbarian, you're on target.

[bloodluster]

oh o.k, um yah I think you're right. I think the flavour is just right because the artificier is a baseclass, and this is sort of the same thing only flesh golems instead of just making new equipment. But you're right It's to powerfull for a base class. Thanks for the help. Guess I'll start working on making it a PrC instead.

[bloodluster]

Try here (http://www.pifro.com/dnd) to generate the table- it takes a couple of minutes to figure out how to use it but it really makes things easier.

Also, please, tell us whether the abilities are (Ex)traordinary, (Su)pernatural or (Sp)ell-like, what sort of action they require, and how much time they take.

Also, just looking at the base mechanic, there is something rotten. If you can keep attempting the check to improve the Monstrosity's intelligence, as you've stated, then you can take 20. At 1st level, you can get 4 ranks in Handle Animal, and with a paltry ability modifier of +1, you have all you need to make whatever creature you come into contact with Int 16!

Also, when "Switching Parts", does the natural attack remain at the damage of the original creature, or the creature to which it is grafted to (e.g. does the tentacle of a Large Octopus, when grafted to a Small Cat, deal damage as a Large Tentacle or a Small Tentacle, or perhaps something in-between?)

I acknowledge this is your first attempt at homebrew, so a couple of pointers for good homebrew-

Steal mechanics from other classes, especially those in the SRD, and adapt them to your purpose. It makes things a lot easier, especially as the legalistic tone and many balance issues have already been thought of.
Stacking bonuses are easier to adjudicate than lots of discrete abilities, but less flavoursome.
Good formatting helps- Bold, or Underline the titles of major abilities, and put the names of lesser or derived abilities in italics
At each level, think "What could a Wizard, Rogue and Barbarian do at this level?". If your abilities fall in-between the power of the Wizard and Barbarian, you're on target.


oh And I almost forgot to add that the parts have to be from a creature of the same size.