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Logion
2007-10-04, 02:51 PM
I’ve played DnD for a couple of months, DMing some of that time. I wanted to give homebrewing a go. This is the result: A paladin/rogue thing.
The Left Hand of God Base Class

The lich gazed across the chapel filled with undead, looking with satisfaction at his army. If he had any facial muscles, he might have smiled. Suddenly he saw something out of the corner of his eye, just a flicker. He wheeled about just as a metal projectile neatly severed his right hand. He started as he stared at the tall, gaunt man dressed in a long black coat. "Bad choice, mortal," he hissed in a raspy voice. "Didn't have a choice, Nehor," the man answered back. The lich whispered a few fleeting words to bind the man, cackling as his limbs stiffened. The laughter died in his throat as the man burst the spell with a shout of rage, cowing the undead in the pews. Pulling out rapiers glowing with energy, the man viciously struck the lich, who stumbled backward, bringing up his remaining hand and launching a bolt of lightning. The man tumbled out of the way, reacting with uncanny speed. When the lightning had died, the man was gone. The lich glared around, as the undead began sweeping the building. Seconds later, he suddenly felt an unbearable heat. Grasping convulsively at his phylactery, his hands came away with nothing. Turning with a sense of terror, the lich saw his phylactery pierced on the end of a glowing blade. Another was between his ribs. He chuckled, mocking a man who would attack him with steel, but as he laughed the unlife began to leave him. his legs crumbled, and he fell to the ground. "Who...are...you?" he whispered, in the first moment of fear since his transformation. "I don't know, but you might," the man answered. His energy waning, the lich looked into his eyes, and shock overcame him at the last..."Hector...my...brother..."

The Left Hands of God are rogue fighters of evil who are rarely directly associated with any clerical order. When after a certain target, they often contact the local priesthood for support anyway. Their power is derived directly from their deity, even more so than paladins, who often resent the intrusion on their domain and the threat they offer to an idealistic vision of the beneficial gods. They get along well with good and even neutral characters, and are not below allying themselves with evil in order to defeat a greater evil. Due to their specific skills, they often act as powerful mercenaries employed by divine sources to carry out their will on the material plane.

Each good deity has usually only a few of these at his or her command at any given time. A single Left Hand is reincarnated in lifetime after lifetime, rediscovering his purpose and power. At a young age, a Left Hand often shows a disregard for rules and laws that often lands him in considerable trouble. He also develops an unrivaled hatred of evil that drives him to oppose oppression in all its forms. Left Hands do not always appear athletic, and someone who watches his combat from childhood scraps to the height of his power usually recognizes the impossibility of his feats. Upon their first contact with an evil creature, the Left Hand is brought to a realization of his purpose and position. From that moment on he trains relentlessly to hone his natural abilities, both physical and mental. By the midteenage years, his community already recognizes the Left Hand as a brooding, enigmatic figure with uncanny power over himself and others around him. Other aspiring adventurers often look up to the Left Hand and his quiet ways. By the time he reaches adulthood, the Left Hand is a cunning fighter with few moral qualms about the way evil in which evil is defeated. As he advances in his personal fight against evil, he becomes more in tune with both his deity and his own inner spiritual power as an emmisary of that deity. At the height of his power, he may have visited holy planes any number of times and be in communication with Archons and Guardinals on a daily basis. These outsiders are rarely comfortable with the Left Hand, and are usually directly assigned to aid him as a punishment for failure. Conversely, other deities assign the task to their most trusted servants, since existance and missions of the Left Hands are both sensative and often not of a "lawful good" nature. Occasionally two or more Left Hands will work together, but there no kind of formal organization whatsoever, as it would hinder the operations of individual Left Hands. On occasion, several Left Hands will be working on the same mission and not even be aware of the other's existance.
There are few easily identifiable Left Hands in history, because they can often pass for a strange fighter or especially proficient rogue or ranger. Even the Left Hands themselves are not aware of their previous lives, besides knowing that they had them. Some villains, such as a lich or vampire, might know and recognize a Left Hand from an encounter in a previous life, and take advantage of that knowledge to confuse and defeat the new incarnation.
Few NPCs or other characters will be aware of the status of a Left Hand unless they are informed. Paladins and Clerics are always distrustful of Left Hands, almost on instinct.
Alignment: Any non-evil

Hit Die: d8
LEFT HAND OF GOD
{table=head]Level|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+0|
+2|
+2|
+1|Smite Evil, Divine Protection

2nd|
+0|
+3|
+3|
+2|Divine Grace, Divine Recovery

3rd|
+1|
+3|
+3|
+3|Aura of Courage, Divine Health

4th|
+1|
+4|
+4|
+4|Evasion, Lesser Ravage Blade

5th|
+1|
+4|
+4|
+5|Uncanny Dodge, Smite Evil 2/day

6th|
+2|
+5|
+5|
+6|Holy Surge

7th|
+2|
+5|
+5|
+7|Ravage Blade, Death Attack

8th|
+2|
+6|
+6|
+8|Mask Presence

9th|
+3|
+6|
+6|
+9|Divine Gift

10th|
+3|
+7|
+7|
+10|Smite Evil 3/day

11th|
+3|
+7|
+7|
+11|Greater Ravage Blade

12th|
+4|
+8|
+8|
+12|Divine Gift

13th|
+4|
+8|
+8|
+13|Divine Ward

14th|
+4|
+9|
+9|
+14|Hide In Plain Sight

15th|
+5|
+9|
+9|
+15|Divine Gift, Smite Evil 4/day

16th|
+5|
+10|
+10|
+16|Heaven's Wrath

17th|
+5|
+10|
+10|
+17|Aura of Righteous Fury

18th|
+6|
+11|
+11|
+18|Divine Gift

19th|
+6|
+11|
+11|
+19|Divine Disjunction

20th|
+6|
+12|
+12|
+20|Divine Ravage Blade of Vengeance[/table]

Class skills: Tumble, Jump, Intimidate, Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Bluff, Sleight of Hand, Concentration, Sense Motive, Spot, Search, Listen, Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Hide, Use Magical Device

Skill Points at first level: (6+intelligence modifier) * 4
Every Other Level: 6+Int modifier

1st Level
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Crossbows (including hand), whips, daggers, darts, slings, short swords, rapiers, hand axes, throwing axes, bolas (two ball), nets, ward cestus, quarter staves, fukimi baris, chakrams, throwing irons, whip-daggers, light armor, and bucklers. Other weapons may be added as desired, as long as they fit the theme.

Warrior’s Code: If a Left Hand ever kills a good creature, unless specifically instructed to by his patron or a servant of his patron, he loses all class abilities until he has atoned for his action, generally including a quest and a week of meditation. The quest is assigned by his patron deity and is most likely extremely life-threatening. A Left Hand who is no longer good also loses all class abilities until he has received the atonement spell.

Divine Protection: A Left Hand adds his charisma bonus, if any, to his AC.

Smite Evil: As a paladin

2nd Level

Divine Grace: As a paladin

Divine Recovery: As a swift action, a number of rounds per day equal to his charisma bonus, a Left Hand gains fast healing equal to half his class level, rounded down.

3rd Level

Aura of Courage: As Paladin

Divine Health: As Paladin

4th Level

Evasion

Lesser Ravage Blade: A number of times per day equal to 1/3 his level; a Left hand may cause a melee or ranged attack to be coated with Unicorn Blood or Jade Water. This must be announced before the attack is made.

5th Level

Uncanny Dodge, Smite evil 2/day

6th Level

Holy Surge: Once per day, a Left Hand may dispel one spell, spell-like ability, and any other magical or supernatural effects that target him as a free action. He may not be affected by that specific effect for the remainder of the day.

7th Level

Ravage Blade: this functions as lesser ravage blade, but can also be used to simulate golden ice and purified couatl venom. This replaces lesser ravage blade.

Death attack: As an Assassin of half his level, adding Charisma bonus instead of Int bonus to the save DC. Sneak attack damage is always 1d6 on a failed attempt.

8th Level

Mask Presence: For a number of minutes per day equal to his class level, A Left Hand is difficult to detect or recognize. He acts as if under the spell invisibility and can alter his features to resemble any humanoid or monstrous humanoid of the same size category. This does not grant any special abilities. he also gets a +10 circumstance bonus on move silently checks.
9th Level

Divine Gift: At the ninth level and every three levels thereafter, a Left Hand is granted a bonus to one of his class abilities of his choice. The list is as follows:

Ravage Focus: choose one of the ravages usable by Ravage Blade. The save DC increases by 5 when that ravage is used through the Ravage Blade Class ability. If the Left Hand chooses to forego the use of all other ravages permanently, the save DC increases by 10. This may be taken multiple times, but the second effect may only be chosen once.

Exalted Death Attack: A Left Hand's death attack affects undead.

Greater Holy Surge: Holy Surge may remove all effects, both baneful and beneficial.

Improved Divine Recovery: Divine Recovery can be used double the normal number of rounds.

Improved Evasion

Improved Uncanny Dodge

Bonus Feat

+6 ranks to any skill

Improve a base save by 2

Gain one ability point

10th Level

Smite Evil 3/day

11th Level

Greater Ravage Blade: This functions as Ravage Blade, but the save DC for all ravages increases by 5.

13th Level

Divine Ward: A Left Hand and every ally within 20 feet are immune to death effects.

14th Level

Hide in Plain Sight

15th Level

Smite Evil 4/day

16th Level

Heaven’s Wrath: Once per encounter, a Left Hand may make a full attack as a standard action instead of a full round action against any opponent that injured him in the last round. This is usable after a charge.

17th Level

Aura of Righteous Fury: Any evil creature within 30 feet of the Left Hand must make a will save equal to 10 plus his charisma modifier plus one half his class level or be shaken as long as he remains within 30 feet of the Left Hand and for 1d4 rounds afterwards. Reentering the aura grants a new save. This ability requires a conscious action on the part of the Left Hand.
19th Level

Divine Disjunction: Once per day, the Left Hand may travel to a holy plane for one minute. At anytime during that minute, the Left Hand may return to the material plane at any place within 1,000 miles of his point of entrance. If he does not do this by the end of the minute, he is deposited back where he started.

20th Level

Divine Ravage Blade of Vengeance: Once per day, the Left Hand may make a single attack as a full round action. This attack gets a +10 insight bonus to the attack roll, which is always taken at the highest possible bonus. A target hit with this attack is afflicted by all possible ravages, and the save DC increases by 10. If the attack fails, this ability is wasted.

Smite Evil 5/day

Possible problems: Holy Surge might be too powerful for that level. They gain abilities almost every level.

Xeran
2007-10-04, 03:18 PM
I see numerous problems with this class. First off, it has no fluff. If you have no idea what the class is, how it fits into the world, or where it comes from, all you know is a bunch of mubers and abilities. That is not a class. Well, maybe a class for an MMORPG, but not one for a game thats basis is roleplaying.

Second, what do you mean "preffering chaotic good"? That makes no mechanical sense. Either they can be any good alignment or they can only be chaotic good, that kind of ambiguity is confusing. There warriors code is ridiculous in even generic D&D games, where good creature have the ability to do evil acts. The only place I can see that possibly working is in some type of Exalted game where every bad guy has an evil alignment.

Where do those weapons come from? I have heard of some, but where is the Ward Cestus, or Throwing Iron? Why are they part of the class? Is the average Left Hand of God trained in them? Do they even receive regulated training?

Divine recovery seems far too powerful, perhaps if it has half your level rounded down?

Holy Surge is incredibly powerful and I fail to see how it fits in with the theme or s tealthy character with divine abilities. How would getting out of a Wizards entanglement spell be thematically appropriate?

Where are you getting the stuff that your blade is coated with from? Is it neccesary?

Why do they get bonuses to Undead? They have no anti-undead abilities up to this point, and have none afterwards. And why would you even make it a psionic ability? No DM is going to say you can't use the spell Hide from Undead, but plenty might say they wont allow psionics in their campaign.

They get Hide in Plain Sight at 10th level? Thats pretty powerful.

Their divine Ward ability is ridiculously overpowered.

Are you serious with Holy Potency? They get an ability at fourteenth level that is the exact same as an Epic Feat for Paladins?

Heavan's Wrath is, again, ludicrously powerful. And even so, it would be a swift action if anything, not a free action to activate.

Aura of Righteous Fury is incredibly overpowered. Maybe as a capstone ability it might be acceptable, and even then it is definatly powerful, but as just one among their myriad other super abilities?

Divine Disjunction is actually not overpowered. But I do wonder why they get the teleport ability? What purpose does it serve? Why should their class have it?

I see no reason to even tell you anything about Divine Ravage Blade of Vengeance.

So, this class is so unbalanced it's lopsided. Not only are most of the abilities overpowered, the few that are left have no clear thematic place. Add that kind of overkill to the fact that they have almost all of the best abilities of both the Paladin and Rogue class, and you have an absolutely unworkable class. This things needs a complete overhaul. And not that it really matters, but what is up with the name?

EvilElitest
2007-10-04, 04:21 PM
I rather like the idea, but fluff, and the warrior code need more details
from,
EE

Logion
2007-10-04, 04:37 PM
Okay, calm down, it's only a first attempt.

First, the Left Hand of God comes from the concept fo the emmisary of good who can do the things that a lawful good paladin could not. Poisonings, assassinations, infiltration, and the like. Think something like Van Helsing and you are not far off.

Second, the weird equipment comes from the arms and equipment guide. Basically, a Left Hand learns to use these as an urban fighter before he is called. Most of them are concealable or hindering, lending to his low-key nature.

The Left Hand is often chaotic good, just as wizards are often lawful, therefore the "preferring chaotic good" bit.

Divine Recovery is about equal to Lay on Hands, which is Cha bonus multiplied by level. Therefore, a 7th level Paly can heal anyone 21 points. A Left Hand gains fast healing 7 for three rounds, equaling 21 points. Not a standard action, but can't be used all at once or on others.

Holy Surge and the Ravage Blades are gifts from the Left Hand's patron. I'll explain more in the backstory, but yes, they are thematically appropriate. The actual Ravage is not necessary to use ravage blade, it is simulated. (ravages are found in the book of exalted deeds.) Holy Surge, I'll admit, is overpowered, and I'll fix it.

Fine. Holy Potency goes. I agree on that point.

The Warrior's Code is thematically crucial, and from what I can tell, the enemies of a Left Hand should never be good. It represents a way to keep a loose cannon bordering on anti-hero, from getting out of line. The bond to divine powers is vital to the class.

Mask Prescence only simulates Cloud Mind in order to avoid detection by usual methods of detection used by liches, vampires, and the like. It is not, as such, a psionic ability. It is thematically useful for infiltration and espionage against powerful undead enemies, who are common in some campaigns.

Heaven's Wrath can be used once per day, for damage approximately equal to a midlevel spell. Swift Action it is, though. I don't think it's terribly overpowered, but if others agree, I'll probably change it.

The save on Aura of Righteous Fury is completely makable, which is why it is there. It is a slight advantage, but powerful foes probably won't be affected. At level 20, the save should be about 25, plus any Cloak of Charisma or other crap. Monsters of that challenge rating can make the save easy.

Awww...I liked Divine Ravage Blade of Vengeance. But it is too overpowered. The death effect must go.

I didn't post a backstory, I will now.
Anything else?

P.S. Sorry I didn't answer in order.
P.P.S. Come on...It's a first draft.

JackMage666
2007-10-04, 09:31 PM
It looks pretty broken, but I find it hard to read in it's current form. Make a table, use some formatting, and things like that - You'll get more feedback.

doliest
2007-10-04, 10:30 PM
Just pointing out, did you watch van helsing for inspiration?:smallsmile:

Xeran
2007-10-05, 05:15 AM
I am not trying to be mean here, I am just pointing out that this class is broken as hell. That way you can fix it and eventually use it in a campaign.

If the concept is poisoning, assasinations, and infiltration why does he have no abilities concerning either poisoning or assasination?

Yes, I understand what you mean about the weapons, but why does he have them when a Rogue or a Fighter, two classes much more likely to know urban combat weapons, do not?

If he is often chaotic good in the same way wizards are often lawful then he should have that listed in his fluff like the wizard, not in his mechanics section.

Divine Recovery is more powerful then Lay on Hands. It requires no action to use, allowing you to be constantly healed throughout combat. There is a reason why items that grant Fast Healing are so expensive, it is a powerful ability. Look at the Ring of Rapid Healing, which only gives you Fast Healing 3. It costs 300,000 gp.

Their enemies are never good? What about the good wizard aiding an evil lich because he feels it is the lesser of two evils? Does you class just sit and bemoan its fate when confronted with such a problem? I don't know about anyone else but my old DM loved to give us good aligned enemies, just to show that you can't trust a detect evil spell every time. And good creatures can still disagree about what is good. What if your character is captured by a group of pixies who feel the only way to protect their home is to imprison any who come within its trees. What would your character do?

As for Mask Presence, I still see no reason why it is appropriate for a class that has no anti-undead abilities besides this, or why this needs to even mention psionics when there are some GMs who would immediatly look unfavorably upon the class because of this.

Heavan's Wrath can practically target anybody in a combat situation, allows your character to make a full attack for free, and is yet another powerful ability placed on top of the mountain of other ones this class posseses.

Aura of Righteous Fury is incredibly powerful when you consider it effects a third of all creatures and people you encounter, and is constant, and cannot be dispelled, and is long range, and is applicable even when the character does not think about it like when he is asleep or something, and requires no action to use.

Logion
2007-10-05, 11:40 AM
Okay, here's whatsup.

Yes, one of my buddies showed me Van Helsing and told me we should make a class like that. I was designated to do it, and so here it is, very much based upon Van Helsing.

Xeran, I'll tone down Divine Recovery as you asked in your first post. Mask Prescence will be altered to some sort of invisibility/disguise feature. The paralysis and stun effect will be taken off Aura of Righteous Fury, the range halved, and made a conscious action to use. Warrior's Code won't change. I still feel it is necessary to the character and provides interesting problems for a potential player. In order to improve the theme, I'll add death attack as the assassin class, at the risk of re-overpowering the class.

Jack, I'll look for a format to use.

Updates should be up in about an hour.

doliest
2007-10-05, 05:27 PM
Wait, if the class's powers comes from a diety why can't there be an evil version? You know just asking.Also counterstrike is to overpowered in my opinion, I mean in a one on one fight, any other melee build will die very quickly.

Logion
2007-10-06, 01:19 AM
Well, I suppose there could be an evil version, but that is what assassins and blackguards are for. I'll nuke counter strike.

doliest
2007-10-06, 05:29 PM
Seems pretty balanced now, I wouldn't use it since it cuts out playing anything that isn't a caster, but its balanced enough.

JackMage666
2007-10-06, 06:23 PM
It's broken. Horrendously and totally. It takes away the need for any Melee Classes, and Stealth Classes, and Skill Monkey Classes, and pretty much anything that isn't a caster. It gets 2 Good Saves, Full BAB, Cha to AC WITH Light Armor, Cha to Saves, Death Attack, built-in healing, built-in invisibility, severa levels where he gain ability's far overpowered (Divine Gift, which can give +2 to a Save, +6 to a skill, +1 to an Ability, ect., all of which are untyped to make it worse.) I don't see a way to fix it as is.

Anxe
2007-10-06, 06:42 PM
The evil version should definitely be call the Right Foot of God.
Things I would change would be Divine Gift. Just scrap it. It's too much. Well actually don't just get rid of it. Make those abilities something the Left Hand can take as feats, but no extra class ability to get them. Second thing is that I don't know what Ravages are. They seem like poisons from what I could see, but I can't find them in the DMG. You mentioned the Book of Exalted Deeds. I don't have that one, so if you could please post what those ravages do?

FoeHammer
2007-10-08, 03:58 PM
Why any non-evil?:smallconfused: This is a left-hand of God and in the D&D world(s) there are Evil and neutral Gods, in addition to Good. I would suggest any non-lawful (but it's your class :smalltongue: )

EDIT: Didn't know someone had already said this.:smallredface:

mroozee
2007-10-09, 12:41 AM
To determine if this class is balanced, let's compare it to the Paladin and see if they are approximately equal. They don't have to be identical, but in general, are both classes equally playable/powerful?

The difference between a Paladin and a Left Hand of God is essentially:

The Paladin has better armor and weapons, Paladin Spells, Turn Undead, Special Mount, Aura of Good, Remove Disease while Lay on Hands is better than Divine Recovery

The Left Hand of God has better Saves, more Skill Points, Divine Protection, Evasion, Uncanny Dodge, Ravage Blade, Death Attack, Holy Surge, Divine Gift, Mask Presence, Divine Ward, Hide in Plain Sight, Heaven's Wrath, Aura of Righteous Fury, and Divine Disjunction.

In my experience playing a Paladin, Turn Undead is useful to power divine feats, the Spells are just "ok" as you will have to be a front line combatant and your party will have far better casters, the Special Mount is cool for role playing or if you are going the Cavalier route, while Aura of Good and Remove Disease are basically useless (as is the difference in the personal healing). Obviously, the armor and weapons are an advantage for the Paladin.

On the other hand, Evasion is strong, Death Attack is usually pretty cool - but not as much without significant Sneak Attack damage and Uncanny Dodge is nice. If these were all that the Left Hand of God gained (along with the better Skills and Saves) I would say they are close enough to be considered equal. Maybe add Divine Protection and/or Divine Ward to cover any concerns about the loss of spell casting (mainly an Epic Level issue).

But the Left Hand of God gains a LOT of additional power:
Holy Surge would only be powerful if it were a dispel... but the proactive "may not be affected by that specific effect for the remainder of the day" makes it extremely powerful.
Mask Presence is free Invisibility+ and thus is very powerful.
Divine Gift is broken. At a minimum it is 4 Feats, +8 to Saves, +24 Skill Points or +4 to Stats. Improved Evasion + Improved Uncanny Dodge + Two Others is way, way too much.
Hide in Plain Sight... again, really powerful.
Heaven's Wrath is a Mage killer. Really, really powerful.
Aura of Righteous Fury would not be too powerful if it required a Standard Action. But again, we are talking gravy.
Divine Disjunction is Teleport+ as a class ability. Strong.
Ravage Blade Stuff - I don't know what the particular substances do, but if you take all your Divine Gifts on ravages, the DRBV attack will be somewhere around +40 to +45 (basically, 95% chance of hitting) and inflicts 4 types of "poison" with either +20 or +15 to the DC depending upon whether or not DRBV stacks with GRB. Pretty freakin' strong.

IMHO, drop these 9(!) Class Abilities and you'll have a playable class. If the idea is "How powerful can I make it and still have a viable campaign?", I would say, get rid of the lingering effect of Holy Surge, make Aura of Righteousness a Standard Action, drop DRBV and forget about the other 6 Class Abilities from the "drop me to be playable" list.

Nebo_
2007-10-09, 12:54 AM
To determine if this class is balanced, let's compare it to the Paladin and see if they are approximately equal. They don't have to be identical, but in general, are both classes equally playable/powerful?


There's a problem with that logic. Paladins suck.

Regardless, the class is far too powerful.

mroozee
2007-10-09, 02:25 AM
There's a problem with that logic. Paladins suck.

Regardless, the class is far too powerful.

I think it depends upon the campaign, the size of the party, and the roles the Paladin must fill. In our current campaign, a human Paladin-hybrid fills several roles. He is the Divinely Vigor'd meat shield, has the best saves, and can dish out a lot of pure damage in certain situations (Cavalier Power Charging with a Lance - no saves or SR and most DR isn't enough).

A Paladin is a tweener... somewhere between pure melee and pure caster. If your party is big enough to have specialists everywhere or there is enough magic to cover deficiencies in your campaign, there isn't much need for tweeners. But Paladins are good in small parties (from solo missions to 3-man squads) or in groups that get split off - especially in low-magic worlds.

They are also nice to have when other players decide to switch up characters creating an unbalanced party.

Firefingers
2007-10-09, 05:21 AM
Ok abilities below are too powerful Reasons included

Divine Protection: A Left Hand adds his charisma bonus, if any, to his AC.

Using feats this could be coupled with Full plate or another powerful armor and as its a bonus related to an ability score it would allow him a further +5 or so points to his AC than a normal tank player without much work. Abilities like this are capped to players who cannot wear armor for a reason.

Divine Recovery: As a swift action, a number of rounds per day equal to his charisma bonus, a Left Hand gains fast healing equal to half his class level, rounded down.

Fast healing isnt something he needs either give him self healing once which is slightly more balanced as with the above at max level your looking a 10hp/round for around 5 rounds maybe more.

Holy Surge: Once per day, a Left Hand may dispel one spell, spell-like ability, and any other magical or supernatural effects that target him as a free action. He may not be affected by that specific effect for the remainder of the day.

Too strong for level 6 this is a capstone like ability reserved for the very last levels of a class because of the sheer power of removing an effect on you


Mask Presence: For a number of minutes per day equal to his class level, A Left Hand is difficult to detect or recognize. He acts as if under the spell invisibility and can alter his features to resemble any humanoid or monstrous humanoid of the same size category. This does not grant any special abilities. he also gets a +10 circumstance bonus on move silently checks.

Ok how can he be under invisiblity and look like someone else at the same time? why would he need to? what is the actual core of this ability and its point in the class?

Divine Gift: At the ninth level and every three levels thereafter, a Left Hand is granted a bonus to one of his class abilities of his choice. The list is as follows:

This is only balanced if it is instead of the normal feat at that level if not he can gain 2 feats at every third level and rival the fighter for feats as well as his significant class abilities. Replace this with he can use a feat slot to gain one of the improvements for divine gift.

Hide in Plain Sight

This is basically a capstone ability as well pick one of them either this or holy surge not both. There are very very few classes allowed to get this and all have restrictions which version does he get and what are his restrictions on using it.


Heaven’s Wrath: Once per encounter, a Left Hand may make a full attack as a standard action instead of a full round action against any opponent that injured him in the last round. This is usable after a charge.

Too strong would completely annihilate a mage also a charge is a double move not a normal move so you dont normally have a standard action left at the end of it the attack is considered part of the charge action.


Aura of Righteous Fury: Any evil creature within 30 feet of the Left Hand must make a will save equal to 10 plus his charisma modifier plus one half his class level or be shaken as long as he remains within 30 feet of the Left Hand and for 1d4 rounds afterwards. Reentering the aura grants a new save. This ability requires a conscious action on the part of the Left Hand.

Concious action means what? swift action? whenever he chooses its on it is? despite that once again a capstone ability making 3 for one class you should have 1 for the class as a whole not 3.

Divine Disjunction: Once per day, the Left Hand may travel to a holy plane for one minute. At anytime during that minute, the Left Hand may return to the material plane at any place within 1,000 miles of his point of entrance. If he does not do this by the end of the minute, he is deposited back where he started.

So he gets a minute (10 rounds) to fully heal himself and prepare for battle again before he heads back in like timestop and if he wants he has the choice to be somewhere else instead if he decides with 10 rounds he couldnt get enough buff items etc. A very powerful ability especially when he is doing a solo job. Does he need any knowledge of where he wants to go to get there or is it just anywhere he wants?

Divine Ravage Blade of Vengeance: Once per day, the Left Hand may make a single attack as a full round action. This attack gets a +10 insight bonus to the attack roll, which is always taken at the highest possible bonus. A target hit with this attack is afflicted by all possible ravages, and the save DC increases by 10. If the attack fails, this ability is wasted.

A good final ability I dont know much about ravages but that is probably going to make a mess of whoever he is up against.

Summary: Cut the class abilities down a tad averaging about 1.5 per level is a bit too many most classes are lucky to get 1 per level especially ones of the power you have. Make divine gift instead of a feat otherwise you will have massive issues of this replacing all melee fighters in your game if he takes the bonus feat option every time atm he gets 10 feats!! and all of his normal class abilities. Also consider making him a 10 level presitge rogue class with just 1 of the capstone abilities enterable at level 5 you will find it a little better as you will have to cut the abilities down to a more managable level to fit them in.

mroozee
2007-10-09, 09:54 AM
Firefingers -

Good point about Divine Protection; without the equivalent of a Max. Dex. and the possibility of stacking armor feats, this could be bad - especially since Charisma powers everything else that he does and will probably be huge by his later levels. For my estimate above, DP should be something like, "can use his Charisma modifier as his Dexterity modifier for Armor Class".

I think Divine Gift is still too powerful even if it is used to replace a feat at 9, 12, 15, and 18. +1 to an Attribute is an Epic Level feat. +6 to a skill is a double strength Skill Focus. Improved Evasion and Improved Uncanny Dodge are powerful Class Abilities and creates essentially the Left Hand of God = Rogue - Sneak Attack + A Ton (including better Saves, BAB, healing, more feats, teleportation, invisibility, ravages, dispeling, blah, blah, blah).