martixy
2019-12-13, 01:07 AM
Tempest
Hit Die
d10.
Requirements
To qualify to become a tempest, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Base Attack Bonus
+5.
Feats
Dodge/Mobilty (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#dodge)(see below), Spring Attack (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#springAttack), Two-Weapon Fighting (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#twoWeaponFighting).
Class Skills
The tempest’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Jump (Str), Sleight of Hand (Dex), and Tumble (Dex).
Skill Points at Each Level
4 + Int modifier.
Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
1st
+1
+2
+2
+0
Eye of the Tempest, Superior Two-Weapon Fighting
2nd
+2
+3
+3
+0
Hurricane Charge, Tempest Offense
3rd
+3
+3
+3
+1
Combination Strike, Whirlwind Attack
4th
+4
+4
+4
+1
Battlefield Blitz, Tempest Assault
5th
+5
+4
+4
+1
Flexible Strikes, Tempest Fury
Class Features
All of the following are Class Features of the tempest prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Tempests gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.
Superior TWF (Ex):
At 1st level you further reduce the penalties for TWF by 2. You longer receive penalties when your off-hand weapon is light and the penalties for a non-light off-hand weapon become -2/-2.
Eye of the Tempest (Ex):
At 1st level, when you enter combat you whip yourself into a frenzy. With each successful strike on an opponent you gain a +1 bonus to your attack roll. This bonus is cumulative, but decays by 1 in each round you do not land a successful strike. The decrease happens at the end of your turn. You can receive a maximum bonus equal to your class level.
Hurricane Charge (Ex):
At 2nd level, at the end of a charge you can attack with both weapons. Additionally, if you have accumulated a bonus from your Eye of the Tempest ability, you can give up 2 points of that bonus. In exchange you may take a full attack action at the end of the charge. All conditions, bonuses and penalties for charging apply normally.
Tempest Offense (Ex):
At 2nd level you add your full Strength bonus to damage rolls made for your off-hand weapon.
Whirlwind Attack (Ex):
At 3rd level, you receive the Whirlwind attack feat as a bonus feat. You need not meet the prerequisites.
Combination Strike (Ex):
At 3rd level you can setup devastating combination strikes with your dual weapons. Whenever you hit and successfully deal damage with both weapons, you can give up 1 point of your Eye of the Tempest bonus to impose an additional effect upon your opponent. The effect is based on the damage type of both weapons. Duration does not stack, it overlaps.
Damage Type
Effect
Slashing-Slashing
Bleed, damage equal to tempest level. Successive combination strikes on a bleeding target deepen the gash, increasing bleed damage by 1. Lasts until 10 rounds. Heal DC = 15+bleed damage. A magical effect that heals as much HP as the bleed damage also stops the bleed.
Bludgeoning-Bludgeoning
Staggered for 1 round.
Piercing-Piercing
All of the target's speeds are reduced by half (to a minimum of 5 feet). In addition, the target cannot take a 5-foot step. This effect lasts 1 round.
Piercing-Slashing
1 Dex damage. On critical hit damage equal to the critical multiplier of the weapon which critically hit.
Piercing-Bludgeoning
1 Con damage. On critical hit damage equal to the critical multiplier of the weapon which critically hit.
Slashing-Bludgeoning
1 Str damage. On critical hit damage equal to the critical multiplier of the weapon which critically hit.
Battlefield Blitz (Ex):
At 4th level, if you have accumulated a bonus of from your Eye of the Tempest ability, you can give up 3 points of that bonus. In exchange you can move up to your speed as a swift action. This movement does not count towards your normal movement in a round, but it does provoke attacks of opportunity as normal.
Tempest Assault (Ex):
At 4th level, any time you perform more than on attack during an attack or full attack action, total the damage from all successful attacks on a given creature before applying that creature's damage reduction. When attacking objects total all damage before applying an object's hardness.
Flexible Strikes (Ex):
At 5th level, you know how to use your weapons to the maximum. You may make any combination strike with any type of weapon.
Tempest Fury (Ex):
At 5th level, if you strike an opponent multiple times during your turn, you also deal rend damage. You deal 1d6 damage for each successful strike. Determine the rend damage dealt immediately after you make your last attack for your turn. If you attack multiple opponents during your turn, you gain this extra damage against each of them. A creature takes rend damage based on the number of attacks that hit it, not the number of successful attacks you make. For example, if you hit a fire giant three times and an evil cleric twice during your turn, the fire giant takes rend damage for three attacks and the cleric takes rend damage for two attacks.
Optional rules:
Classify Dodge/Mobility as a feat tax. See here. (http://michaeliantorno.com/feat-taxes-in-pathfinder/)
- For my game specifically, I have a somewhat more elaborate system, where there is a small list of "feat tax" feats which can be acquired based on BAB progression, just as normal feats can be acquired through level progression. The list includes feats like Power attack, Precise shot, Dodge/Mobility(merged) and other similar build enablers. For every 3 BAB you get one of these.
- Aditionally I would advise changing Spring Attack to allow for any standard action to be taken and eliminating Flyby Attack and its cousins. You might ask, "But what about casters?" - RAW casters are already the ones most likely to cover the requirement for Flyby attack anyway, leaving martials in the dust once again. And keep in mind the above mechanic. Spring attack has a prerequisite which actually favors martials here. So you are in essence helping martial characters a lot more than casters here.
Rework the TWF feat line to be worth the feat slots:
Two-Weapon Fighting
You can fight with a weapon in each hand. You can make one extra attack each round with the second weapon.
Prerequisites:
Dex 15.
Benefit:
Your penalties on attack rolls for fighting with two weapons are reduced. The penalty for your primary hand lessens by 2 and the one for your off hand lessens by 6. See the Two-Weapon Fighting special attack.
Additionally, at BAB+6 you can attack with both weapons as a standard action or at the end of a charge.
At BAB+11 you may make Attacks of Opportunity with both weapons.
Normal:
If you wield a second weapon in your off hand, you can get one extra attack per round with that weapon. When fighting in this way you suffer a -6 penalty with your regular attack or attacks with your primary hand and a -10 penalty to the attack with your off hand. If your off-hand weapon is light the penalties are reduced by 2 each. (An unarmed strike is always considered light.) You cannot make more than one attack as a standard action. You cannot make more than one attack when an enemy provokes an Attack of Opportunity.
Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
You are highly skilled at fighting with two weapons.
Prerequisites:
Dex 17, Two-Weapon Fighting, base attack bonus +6.
Benefit:
Your off-hand receives a iterative progression similar to your main hand.
You gain a second off-hand attack. A third off-hand attack is gained when a base attack bonus reaches +11 or higher, and a fourth with a base attack bonus of +16 or higher.
Normal:
Without this feat, you can only get a single extra attack with an off-hand weapon.
In my game additionally, any character can give up attacks to gain additional 5-ft steps. This works particularly well for TWFighters who receive a higher number of attacks.
Misc notes:
At the time of writing there was thread floating around the 3.5e forums about Fixing the Tempest (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?604251-Fixing-the-Tempest). It was kind of fortuitous as I was about to use that class in a build for an upcoming boss battle in my game. So I was planning to rework it either way. That thread can be seen as the brainstorming part of the equation and here is the finished product.
Design notes:
This is a prestige class that is obviously focused on Two Weapon Fighting. TWF has classically had a ton of problems compared to its more viable cousin of 2H fighting. These include:
* High building cost: Too many feats are required to make an effective TWFighter. There are more efficient ways to achieve the same effect (e.g. 2H combat).
* Low damage output: It relies on getting off full attacks, which are difficult to set up. DR is significantly more effective against a large number of low-damage hits.
* Low mobility: The necessity of setting up full attacks limits your mobility a lot.
* Expensive: You have to pay for weapon enchantments for two weapons instead of one. These tend to be quite expensive and a primary money sink for a martial character.
A good rework should address all of those, and present a fun, novel gameplay loop for the player. However in this case the issues are so broad and far reaching that they cannot easily be addressed by changing the class alone. And in fact they should not. Therefore the class comes with some highly advisable optional companion rules changes which address issues with TWF outside of the class itself. Let's move on to addressing each issue individually:
* High building cost: See above. We make the TWF feat line actually worth its feat cost, and alleviate the feat taxes. This makes it possible to enter into the class at the cost of 1 "tax" slot and two feat slots, both of which are more broadly useful than mere feat taxes (at least if you took my advice about Spring attack above). Note: We can't require Imp. TWF, because that requires BAB+6 and our class requires BAB+5. Also no point, anyone who enters is likely to get it anyway (especially if reworked as above).
* Too expensive: This one is easy. Merely overtune the class a little bit to compensate. E.g. a bit more saves here, a bit more skill points there.
* Low damage output/mobility: These ones are somewhat tied together, given TWF's necessity in pulling off full attacks to create their value. The following more specific points should be addressed:
The class should have an easy way of both maneuvering the battlefield and consistently pulling off full attacks. Granting them Pounce in some manner addresses this.
Ideally the class should have some form of swift-action move ability, gated behind some resource.
It should have some ability to deal with Damage reduction, whose effectiveness scales with the number of attacks.
We also give it full strength to damage for off-hand attacks to help with damage. As a TWF specialist it shouldn't suffer the same drawbacks as other TWF schmucks.
* The class should be fun to play: It should have some kind of signature ability or fun gimmick which gives the player something interesting to do or decide. In the thread linked above we brainstormed a bunch of options and I came up with the idea of the two weapons playing off each other, based on damage types. Another poster dropped the phrase "combat rhythm" which sounded particularly fitting to the theme of a "tempest in battle". That eventually became the "Eye of the Tempest" ability. Would have called it "Eye of the Storm", however that name was already taken by the Bloodstorm Blade ability in Tome of Battle. The ability was different initially, and started from reducing your TWF penalties, then giving you a bonus (see the thread above for an early draft). However it was complex and confusing, and failed a basic design tenet - KISS: "Keep it simple, stupid". Therefore it was split into Superior TWF, which simply did away with the penalties, and the new iteration of Eye of the Tempest which powers many of the Tempest's abilities (including his other signature trait - the combo attack).
Altogether this gives a unique feel to the class and a ton of interesting decisions and combos the player can pull off.
* I generally tend to include some TO potential in all of my design efforts, simply because I like the notion. Here that should be pretty obvious: The rend ability has no damage cap. If you were somehow able to acquire an ungodly number of attacks (e.g. if you somehow manage to fit 5 levels of tempest into a lightning maces build) you have the distinct opportunity to output absurd amounts of damage. Certainly enough to one-shot anything a ubercharger can.
* Disclaimer: This has not been play-tested (outside of a short-lived boss battle on the DM side). It may require further tuning, and may not fit the balance of your particular table. If you do decide to include at your table, please return some feedback. I also welcome any general feedback and critique. A large reason I include design notes in all of my efforts is to make it easier to give feedback, knowing the intent behind a certain feature or decision.
Changelog:
v0.1 Initial version
v0.2 Feedback:
- Bleed does indeed seem a bit undertuned, therefore added 1 cumulative damage to the effect.
- Changed the wording on the combo strike critical hit, because I seem to have confused myself how that worked originally. :)
v0.3 Feedback2:
- Forgot to add a bit to TWF.
- Clarify bleed wording. Also limit to 10 rounds (rookie mistake).
Hit Die
d10.
Requirements
To qualify to become a tempest, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Base Attack Bonus
+5.
Feats
Dodge/Mobilty (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#dodge)(see below), Spring Attack (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#springAttack), Two-Weapon Fighting (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#twoWeaponFighting).
Class Skills
The tempest’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Jump (Str), Sleight of Hand (Dex), and Tumble (Dex).
Skill Points at Each Level
4 + Int modifier.
Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
1st
+1
+2
+2
+0
Eye of the Tempest, Superior Two-Weapon Fighting
2nd
+2
+3
+3
+0
Hurricane Charge, Tempest Offense
3rd
+3
+3
+3
+1
Combination Strike, Whirlwind Attack
4th
+4
+4
+4
+1
Battlefield Blitz, Tempest Assault
5th
+5
+4
+4
+1
Flexible Strikes, Tempest Fury
Class Features
All of the following are Class Features of the tempest prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Tempests gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.
Superior TWF (Ex):
At 1st level you further reduce the penalties for TWF by 2. You longer receive penalties when your off-hand weapon is light and the penalties for a non-light off-hand weapon become -2/-2.
Eye of the Tempest (Ex):
At 1st level, when you enter combat you whip yourself into a frenzy. With each successful strike on an opponent you gain a +1 bonus to your attack roll. This bonus is cumulative, but decays by 1 in each round you do not land a successful strike. The decrease happens at the end of your turn. You can receive a maximum bonus equal to your class level.
Hurricane Charge (Ex):
At 2nd level, at the end of a charge you can attack with both weapons. Additionally, if you have accumulated a bonus from your Eye of the Tempest ability, you can give up 2 points of that bonus. In exchange you may take a full attack action at the end of the charge. All conditions, bonuses and penalties for charging apply normally.
Tempest Offense (Ex):
At 2nd level you add your full Strength bonus to damage rolls made for your off-hand weapon.
Whirlwind Attack (Ex):
At 3rd level, you receive the Whirlwind attack feat as a bonus feat. You need not meet the prerequisites.
Combination Strike (Ex):
At 3rd level you can setup devastating combination strikes with your dual weapons. Whenever you hit and successfully deal damage with both weapons, you can give up 1 point of your Eye of the Tempest bonus to impose an additional effect upon your opponent. The effect is based on the damage type of both weapons. Duration does not stack, it overlaps.
Damage Type
Effect
Slashing-Slashing
Bleed, damage equal to tempest level. Successive combination strikes on a bleeding target deepen the gash, increasing bleed damage by 1. Lasts until 10 rounds. Heal DC = 15+bleed damage. A magical effect that heals as much HP as the bleed damage also stops the bleed.
Bludgeoning-Bludgeoning
Staggered for 1 round.
Piercing-Piercing
All of the target's speeds are reduced by half (to a minimum of 5 feet). In addition, the target cannot take a 5-foot step. This effect lasts 1 round.
Piercing-Slashing
1 Dex damage. On critical hit damage equal to the critical multiplier of the weapon which critically hit.
Piercing-Bludgeoning
1 Con damage. On critical hit damage equal to the critical multiplier of the weapon which critically hit.
Slashing-Bludgeoning
1 Str damage. On critical hit damage equal to the critical multiplier of the weapon which critically hit.
Battlefield Blitz (Ex):
At 4th level, if you have accumulated a bonus of from your Eye of the Tempest ability, you can give up 3 points of that bonus. In exchange you can move up to your speed as a swift action. This movement does not count towards your normal movement in a round, but it does provoke attacks of opportunity as normal.
Tempest Assault (Ex):
At 4th level, any time you perform more than on attack during an attack or full attack action, total the damage from all successful attacks on a given creature before applying that creature's damage reduction. When attacking objects total all damage before applying an object's hardness.
Flexible Strikes (Ex):
At 5th level, you know how to use your weapons to the maximum. You may make any combination strike with any type of weapon.
Tempest Fury (Ex):
At 5th level, if you strike an opponent multiple times during your turn, you also deal rend damage. You deal 1d6 damage for each successful strike. Determine the rend damage dealt immediately after you make your last attack for your turn. If you attack multiple opponents during your turn, you gain this extra damage against each of them. A creature takes rend damage based on the number of attacks that hit it, not the number of successful attacks you make. For example, if you hit a fire giant three times and an evil cleric twice during your turn, the fire giant takes rend damage for three attacks and the cleric takes rend damage for two attacks.
Optional rules:
Classify Dodge/Mobility as a feat tax. See here. (http://michaeliantorno.com/feat-taxes-in-pathfinder/)
- For my game specifically, I have a somewhat more elaborate system, where there is a small list of "feat tax" feats which can be acquired based on BAB progression, just as normal feats can be acquired through level progression. The list includes feats like Power attack, Precise shot, Dodge/Mobility(merged) and other similar build enablers. For every 3 BAB you get one of these.
- Aditionally I would advise changing Spring Attack to allow for any standard action to be taken and eliminating Flyby Attack and its cousins. You might ask, "But what about casters?" - RAW casters are already the ones most likely to cover the requirement for Flyby attack anyway, leaving martials in the dust once again. And keep in mind the above mechanic. Spring attack has a prerequisite which actually favors martials here. So you are in essence helping martial characters a lot more than casters here.
Rework the TWF feat line to be worth the feat slots:
Two-Weapon Fighting
You can fight with a weapon in each hand. You can make one extra attack each round with the second weapon.
Prerequisites:
Dex 15.
Benefit:
Your penalties on attack rolls for fighting with two weapons are reduced. The penalty for your primary hand lessens by 2 and the one for your off hand lessens by 6. See the Two-Weapon Fighting special attack.
Additionally, at BAB+6 you can attack with both weapons as a standard action or at the end of a charge.
At BAB+11 you may make Attacks of Opportunity with both weapons.
Normal:
If you wield a second weapon in your off hand, you can get one extra attack per round with that weapon. When fighting in this way you suffer a -6 penalty with your regular attack or attacks with your primary hand and a -10 penalty to the attack with your off hand. If your off-hand weapon is light the penalties are reduced by 2 each. (An unarmed strike is always considered light.) You cannot make more than one attack as a standard action. You cannot make more than one attack when an enemy provokes an Attack of Opportunity.
Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
You are highly skilled at fighting with two weapons.
Prerequisites:
Dex 17, Two-Weapon Fighting, base attack bonus +6.
Benefit:
Your off-hand receives a iterative progression similar to your main hand.
You gain a second off-hand attack. A third off-hand attack is gained when a base attack bonus reaches +11 or higher, and a fourth with a base attack bonus of +16 or higher.
Normal:
Without this feat, you can only get a single extra attack with an off-hand weapon.
In my game additionally, any character can give up attacks to gain additional 5-ft steps. This works particularly well for TWFighters who receive a higher number of attacks.
Misc notes:
At the time of writing there was thread floating around the 3.5e forums about Fixing the Tempest (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?604251-Fixing-the-Tempest). It was kind of fortuitous as I was about to use that class in a build for an upcoming boss battle in my game. So I was planning to rework it either way. That thread can be seen as the brainstorming part of the equation and here is the finished product.
Design notes:
This is a prestige class that is obviously focused on Two Weapon Fighting. TWF has classically had a ton of problems compared to its more viable cousin of 2H fighting. These include:
* High building cost: Too many feats are required to make an effective TWFighter. There are more efficient ways to achieve the same effect (e.g. 2H combat).
* Low damage output: It relies on getting off full attacks, which are difficult to set up. DR is significantly more effective against a large number of low-damage hits.
* Low mobility: The necessity of setting up full attacks limits your mobility a lot.
* Expensive: You have to pay for weapon enchantments for two weapons instead of one. These tend to be quite expensive and a primary money sink for a martial character.
A good rework should address all of those, and present a fun, novel gameplay loop for the player. However in this case the issues are so broad and far reaching that they cannot easily be addressed by changing the class alone. And in fact they should not. Therefore the class comes with some highly advisable optional companion rules changes which address issues with TWF outside of the class itself. Let's move on to addressing each issue individually:
* High building cost: See above. We make the TWF feat line actually worth its feat cost, and alleviate the feat taxes. This makes it possible to enter into the class at the cost of 1 "tax" slot and two feat slots, both of which are more broadly useful than mere feat taxes (at least if you took my advice about Spring attack above). Note: We can't require Imp. TWF, because that requires BAB+6 and our class requires BAB+5. Also no point, anyone who enters is likely to get it anyway (especially if reworked as above).
* Too expensive: This one is easy. Merely overtune the class a little bit to compensate. E.g. a bit more saves here, a bit more skill points there.
* Low damage output/mobility: These ones are somewhat tied together, given TWF's necessity in pulling off full attacks to create their value. The following more specific points should be addressed:
The class should have an easy way of both maneuvering the battlefield and consistently pulling off full attacks. Granting them Pounce in some manner addresses this.
Ideally the class should have some form of swift-action move ability, gated behind some resource.
It should have some ability to deal with Damage reduction, whose effectiveness scales with the number of attacks.
We also give it full strength to damage for off-hand attacks to help with damage. As a TWF specialist it shouldn't suffer the same drawbacks as other TWF schmucks.
* The class should be fun to play: It should have some kind of signature ability or fun gimmick which gives the player something interesting to do or decide. In the thread linked above we brainstormed a bunch of options and I came up with the idea of the two weapons playing off each other, based on damage types. Another poster dropped the phrase "combat rhythm" which sounded particularly fitting to the theme of a "tempest in battle". That eventually became the "Eye of the Tempest" ability. Would have called it "Eye of the Storm", however that name was already taken by the Bloodstorm Blade ability in Tome of Battle. The ability was different initially, and started from reducing your TWF penalties, then giving you a bonus (see the thread above for an early draft). However it was complex and confusing, and failed a basic design tenet - KISS: "Keep it simple, stupid". Therefore it was split into Superior TWF, which simply did away with the penalties, and the new iteration of Eye of the Tempest which powers many of the Tempest's abilities (including his other signature trait - the combo attack).
Altogether this gives a unique feel to the class and a ton of interesting decisions and combos the player can pull off.
* I generally tend to include some TO potential in all of my design efforts, simply because I like the notion. Here that should be pretty obvious: The rend ability has no damage cap. If you were somehow able to acquire an ungodly number of attacks (e.g. if you somehow manage to fit 5 levels of tempest into a lightning maces build) you have the distinct opportunity to output absurd amounts of damage. Certainly enough to one-shot anything a ubercharger can.
* Disclaimer: This has not been play-tested (outside of a short-lived boss battle on the DM side). It may require further tuning, and may not fit the balance of your particular table. If you do decide to include at your table, please return some feedback. I also welcome any general feedback and critique. A large reason I include design notes in all of my efforts is to make it easier to give feedback, knowing the intent behind a certain feature or decision.
Changelog:
v0.1 Initial version
v0.2 Feedback:
- Bleed does indeed seem a bit undertuned, therefore added 1 cumulative damage to the effect.
- Changed the wording on the combo strike critical hit, because I seem to have confused myself how that worked originally. :)
v0.3 Feedback2:
- Forgot to add a bit to TWF.
- Clarify bleed wording. Also limit to 10 rounds (rookie mistake).