PrCs with a limited but versatile resource

[noce]

I'm looking for PrCs with a limited resource (per encounter or per day), usable in more than a single way.
I find this type of classes intriguing, unlike those ugly 1/day uses PrCs.

List of PrCs so far:

Abjurant Champion - Arcane Boost - expend spells for offensive or defensive buffs
Blade of Orien - Dragonmark - various teleporting effects
Cyre Scout - Dragonmark - survivabiliy and blindsense
Demon binder - Damnation points - various metamorphosis effects
Disciple of the Word - Stunning Fist - various effects after a succesful Truespeak check
Duraak'ash - Dragonmark - bonuses to tracking, urban tracking or to overcome certain spells
Enlightened Fist - Stunning Fist - increase unarmed damage or channel spell into unarmed full attack
Fatespinner - Spin - add point for point to rolls and DCs
Hellreaver - Holy Fury - offensive and defensive abilities
Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil - Warding - seven different effects in three different shapes
Jaunter - Travel Power - teleporting abilities
Lifedrinker - Lifewell - various boosts, included free metamagic
Luckstealer - Luck - increase a die roll, recover spells, restart last suffered action
Medani Prophet - Dragonmark - various bonuses, mostly divination-related
Meditant - Psychic Meditation Activations - various bonuses
Ruby Knight Vindicator - Turn or Rebuke Undead - maneuver recovery, extra actions, extra damage
Shadowblade - Unseen Weapon - weapon enhancing abilities
Shadow Hunter - Dragonmark - deeper darkness or detection-related powers
Shadow Sentinel - Shadow Points - weapon enhancing abilities
Silver Key - Dragonmark - various self defense powers
Storm Sentry - Dragonmark - various storm-related powers
Unbound Scroll - Dragonmark - various scroll-enhancing effects


Also, a couple of base classes have limited use abilities that can be spent in more than one way:

Archivist - Dark Knowledge - various bonuses based on Knowledge checks
Bard - Bardic Music - mostly buffs and crowd controls
Factotum - Inspiration - various bonuses, often involving INT to things
Knight - Knight's Challenge - aggro mechanics, buffs and debuffs
Ninja - Ki Power - movement-based and melee helping abilities


Mechanics that fit the bill, not exclusive to a single class:

Incarnum - well, at least if you lock all your essentia into feats
Maneuvers - some of you pointed out that they have a somewhat limited use per encounter, this is certainly true for non initiators with Martial Study feats
Psionic and even Spell Slots - they're indeed a limited resource, but quite distant from the purpose of the thread



Do you know any other?

[Gauntlet]

Knight is a class rather than a PrC, but the Knight's Challenge fits the description.

Runescarred Berserker maybe?

[noce]

Knight is a class rather than a PrC, but the Knight's Challenge fits the description.

Runescarred Berserker maybe?

Right about the Knight, and the Bard and the Ninja now that I think about it, I'll update the first post.
Runescarred Berskerker looks more like a fancy caster to me, though.

[Mr Adventurer]

Would "readied manoeuvres" for martial adepts count?

[noce]

Would "readied manoeuvres" for martial adepts count?

No, maneuvers do not have a limited number of uses. That is, maneuvers are not an expendable and versatile resource.

[Asmotherion]

Abjurant Champion. Use spell slots to add bonus to a bunsh of things.

[EndlessKng]

Jaunter. 4 level PrC that allows you various teleport tricks, but the number is based on class level and a trait modifier (dexterity I believe)

[Zaq]

Technically disciple of the word. All of the class features pull from the same pool (Stunning Fist uses).

[Saintheart]

Cleric or Paladin's turn undead uses tend to be limited but rather versatile, to the point where hardly anyone actually turns undead with them.

Bard's uses of bardic music can sometimes be put to other purposes as well.

[noce]

Cleric or Paladin's turn undead uses tend to be limited but rather versatile, to the point where hardly anyone actually turns undead with them.

Bard's uses of bardic music can sometimes be put to other purposes as well.

Turn Undead can be used in various ways, but this is not a Cleric or Paladin feature. It's more like something that a character acquires via feats, except for PrCs that allow you to expend those uses (in more than one way), like for example Ruby Knight Vindicator.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

All of the martial initiator PrCs. Maneuvers have to be recycled, and depending on your class's recycling mechanic, you may only be able to do each maneuver once per encounter due to the pains of action economy.

[Silvercrys]

Archivist has Dark Knowledge. Factotum's Inspiration probably doesn't count because it gets some in every encounter.

The Warmind gets a few limited use powers but they have their own individual pools of uses.

Psychic Warrior and Ardent have Psionic powers that draw from a pool of daily power points but that's probably too similar to spell casting.

[Zaq]

What about psionics? PP are PP, but you can usually spend them on several different abilities. So we could include ones like war mind (that simply grant manifesting) and maybe also ones that give you new ways to spend PP (like, what’s that one from Dragon Magic called again, diamond ancestor or diamond dragon or whatever?).

There’s more than one PrC that grants unique manifesting, isn’t there? Zerth cenobite or something?

Going in a completely different direction, lots of Eberron PrCs let you spend charges of dragonmark powers on various things, so that’s a semi-common pool. You get bigger effects from spending uses of bigger powers, but many of them just specify that you can spend a dragonmark power without saying that it has to be a specific one.

[liquidformat]

Well it is a race but shifter's shifting falls into that umbrella, and it can do many different things depending on which feats, racial features, classes, and prcs you go with...

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Do hit points count? Unless you're a gish, in which case they don't really matter, since you can make yourself immune to death via hp damage.

[noce]

Do hit points count? Unless you're a gish, in which case they don't really matter, since you can make yourself immune to death via hp damage.

Indeed, they do count.

[Particle_Man]

Well if Bard is allowed how about Factotum and their pool of inspiration points that can be used in various ways?

[ViperMagnum357]

Not quite a PRC itself, and narrow in application, but feeding off the class features of some of them: The Blood of Kord regional feat from Dragon Magazine 315. It adds a pool of damage equal to twice your character level for use during each Rage, which can be added in any combination up to your character level for successful melee attacks. Any class that provides Rage can allow a PC to gain this extra pool.

[noce]

Well if Bard is allowed how about Factotum and their pool of inspiration points that can be used in various ways?

Factotum has a per-encounter resource, that's why I wouldn't include it in this list. But the mechanics are so similar to what I'm looking for that I'll probably add a honorable mention.

EDIT: went on to relax "per day" requisite to "generally limited resource".

[Mr Adventurer]

Factotum has a per-encounter resource, that's why I wouldn't include it in this list. But the mechanics are so similar to what I'm looking for that I'll probably add a honorable mention.

Hellreaver points are per encounter too!

[noce]

Hellreaver points are per encounter too!

Ok, now I physically need to play a Hellreaver.

[Mr Adventurer]

They're great, I've seen one in play. As far as I can understand what you want though, they no longer fit on your list, though.

[Silvercrys]

The Blade of Orien can expend Dragonmark uses to self-buff with spells like Blink, reposition allies, force-teleport enemies, etc. Also gets a teleport-pounce capstone.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

How about soulmelds that unshape themselves when you use them?

...Does anyone actually use those when you could get all-day soulmelds instead?

[noce]

The Blade of Orien can expend Dragonmark uses to self-buff with spells like Blink, reposition allies, force-teleport enemies, etc. Also gets a teleport-pounce capstone.

Added.


How about soulmelds that unshape themselves when you use them?

Incarnum is already listed as one of the mechanics, even though it's a stretch.

[Psyren]

Fatespinner (CArc) has a unique resource called (appropriately enough) "spin", which they can use to boost the DC of their spells, or boost their attack rolls, skill checks, or saving throws.

Pathfinder's Bloatmage has a disgusting resource called Bloat that lets them cast spells for free - but they run a risk of going crazy whenever they use it.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Not a PrC or even quite a base class, but the Stunning Fist feat has a whole lot of other feats that consume a daily use for a different effect. And Monk gives you many more daily uses.

[Thurbane]

If I'm understanding the intent of this thread:


Fatespinner (CAr): "spin points"
Luckstealer (RotW): get a pool of luck points to spend on bonuses
Lifedrinker (BoVD): lifewell points


Ninja (CAd): ki pool

[noce]

Not a PrC or even quite a base class, but the Stunning Fist feat has a whole lot of other feats that consume a daily use for a different effect. And Monk gives you many more daily uses.

I'll try to add PrCs that give other ways to use Stunning Fist, like for example Enlightened Fist.


If I'm understanding the intent of this thread:


Fatespinner (CAr): "spin points"
Luckstealer (RotW): get a pool of luck points to spend on bonuses
Lifedrinker (BoVD): lifewell points


Ninja (CAd): ki pool


Added (Ninja was already in the base classes list).

[TheCount]

Would Fortune's friend count? It uses luck points, and there is another " luck " class, that takes it from opponents, mentioned as a good fit for it.

[Benoojian]

Meditant (Mind's Eye web enhancement) has an interesting take on this since it spends activations both to get various psionic abilities but also to make those abilities stronger at the start of the day.

[Ryton]

I'd say the Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil qualifies as versatile, as the different types of protection offered by the Veils are quite varied, and there are options in terms of Veil deployment as well.

[noce]

Added to the list. Thank you and keep them coming!

[Malphegor]

Mage of the Arcane Order is a fun one for limited but versatile via its spellpool.

half your caster level times per day, you can use a standard action to fill a empty spell slot with any sorcerer/wizard spell that exists that can occupy that value slot. You must cast the spell in minutes equal to your caster level, which honestly isn't that bad a deal since you're probably going to leave one spell slot open per level of spell, and use it as a 'oh I didn't prepare this spell, well, I'm using it now!' panic button.

This spell energy comes from the spellpool, which I can best describe as 2001 wizards of the coast decided to have wizards with cloud storage shared spellbooks.

It also forces you to pay back your debt in energy to the Order later, which is something I reckon d&d rarely does- 'take a benefit now to pay MUCH later'

[darkdragoon]

Demonbinder- damnation points

[noce]

Mage of the Arcane Order is a fun one for limited but versatile via its spellpool.

half your caster level times per day, you can use a standard action to fill a empty spell slot with any sorcerer/wizard spell that exists that can occupy that value slot. You must cast the spell in minutes equal to your caster level, which honestly isn't that bad a deal since you're probably going to leave one spell slot open per level of spell, and use it as a 'oh I didn't prepare this spell, well, I'm using it now!' panic button.

This spell energy comes from the spellpool, which I can best describe as 2001 wizards of the coast decided to have wizards with cloud storage shared spellbooks.

It also forces you to pay back your debt in energy to the Order later, which is something I reckon d&d rarely does- 'take a benefit now to pay MUCH later'

Ok. It's limited, and it's versatile, but it basically gives you a single benefit: the ability to cast a spell you don't know. The versatility is spell related rather than related to the different uses of the ability.