Colossus - Homebrew Base Class

[theblasblas]

Hi guys, I've been having thoughts a while now of classes that are thematically like prestige classes or monster classes but have full levels like base classes. My goal is to crate a class that plays differently in combat, and for whom growing stronger has effects on the roleplaying aspect.

This first one doesn't play much differently from other melee classes admittedly, but I think a warrior that grows larger and larger as he levels up presents some fun roleplaying opportunities. The intended balance level, is a melee warrior who without buffs is better than a buffed, wildshaped druid in melee combat.

I'm up for any advice and/or criticism. I especially need advice on the class name, and most especially on the god, Chadon, who, as many might notice, is a joke.



Colossus

"Behold my mighty form, cower and despair!", the colossus Barthrus as he intrudes upon a war between neighboring kingdoms

Colossi are warriors of immense size who batter enemies through brute force.

Adventures: Colossi often set out upon the world to prove the strength of their bodies. Many seek entire camps of bandits or even armies to face alone. Amongst the larger Colossi there are those who challenge giants and titans in solo combat, these creatures are ironically despised by Chadon as not having earned their size. However more and more Colossi are joining groups of adventurers, not out of need of assistancc\e, but so that there may be witness to their strength.

Characteristics: Colossi grow larger as they grow stronger, and grow stronger as they grow larger. The increase in size is the main strength of the Colossi, but the divine power coursing through their bodies also provide other benefits such as fast healing, immunity to lesser magic, and flesh that can repel non-magical weaponry.

Alignment: Any alignment. Amongst those who seek strength there are both vile fiends and righteous heroes.

Religion: Colossi are, in one form or another, followers of Chadon, god of girth, swoleness and embiggening. There is no singular instituted form of worship for followers of Chadon except the pursuit and use of strength. Though some Colossi have formed tradition and rituals to show their worship, most choose to simply adventure out and seek powerful foes to best with their might. There are even those who do not know of Chadon, but have been blessed nonetheless for their pursuit of the god's ideals of strength.

Background: Most Colossi, the Chosen of Chadon, start as warriors, however rather than focus on skill and fighting techniques they choose to focus on molding their body through rigorous training. Unlike monks who hone will into ki to reinforce the body, potential Chosen focus solely on physical strength. This is the case until they are deemed worthy by Chadon, and he gifts them his divine might. Upon becoming a Colossus, the Chosen's body slowly changes its natural form, growing in size and might until he achieves Chadon's ideal form.

Races: Any medium humanoid race. Chadon only grants his blessing to humanoids of medium size. Many adherents of Chadon propose that this is because a small humanoid would end up being too small, whereas a large humanoid would end up being too large, deviating from their god's ideal form.

Other Classes: Colossi often spar with Fighters and Barbarians to show of their strength. Though they do not use magic, they do not have much of an opinion on spell-casters. However they look down on druids for willingly taking the inferior form of animals. Most adventuring types see them as mighty warriors if a bit of a showboat, however it is not uncommon for them to get mistaken as giants or titans and get hunted. Commoners fear them, and most nobles despise their disruptive nature. Nobles whose political machinations get thrown into disarray when a colossus just decides to show up to on a decisive battle, are often the ones who send adventurers on false quests to subdue them.

Role: Colossi are often the first to charge headlong into battle, in doing so they act as both effective offense and a physical wall

Adaptation: The Colossi's abilities can be reinterpreted as a blessing from other gods who favor strength, or as a mutation from natural, chemical or supernatural causes.

GAME RULE INFORMATION
Colossi have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Strength and Constitution are the most important abilities for Colossus, followed by Dexterity and Wisdom.
Alignment: Any
Race: Any medium humanoid race
Hit Die: d12
Starting Age: As barbarian
Starting Gold: As barbarian

Class Skills
The Colossus' class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are:
Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Ride (Dex), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str).

Skill Points at First Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

CLASS NAME


Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special


1st

+1

+2

+0

+0
Blessing of Chadon (Large)


2nd

+2

+3

+0

+0
Damage Reduction 1/magic


3rd

+3

+3

+1

+1



4th

+4

+4

+1

+1
Colossal Might +1, Damage Reduction 2/magic


5th

+5

+4

+1

+1
Blessing of Chadon (Huge)


6th

+6

+5

+2

+2
Damage Reduction 3/magic


7th

+7

+5

+2

+2
Adaptive Fighting


8th

+8

+6

+2

+2
Colossal Might +2, Damage Reduction 4/magic


9th

+9

+6

+3

+3



10th

+10

+7

+3

+3
Blessing of Chadon (Gargantuan), Damage Reduction 5/magic


11th

+11

+7

+3

+3



12th

+12

+8

+4

+4
Colossal Might +3, Damage Reduction 6/magic


13th

+13

+8

+4

+4
Juggernaut


14th

+14

+9

+4

+4
Damage Reduction 7/magic


15th

+15

+9

+5

+5
Blessing of Chadon (Colossal)


16th

+16

+10

+5

+5
Colossal Might +4, Damage Reduction 8/magic


17th

+17

+10

+5

+5
Improved Adaptive Fighting


18th

+18

+11

+6

+6
Damage Reduction 9/magic


19th

+19

+11

+6

+6



20th

+20

+12

+6

+6
Perfect Form, Colossal Might +5, Damage Reduction 10/magic, Damage Reduction 5/epic



Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Colossus.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A colossus is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, medium, and light) and shields (except tower shields).

All other class features go here (Use the format shown directly below if you don't know what to do.)

Blessing of Chadon (Ex):
Colossi receive the Blessing of Chadon, which infuses their body power the slowly transforms it towards the god's ideal form. At level 1 the colossus increases in size to Large. At 5th level he increases in size to Huge. At 10th level he becomes Gargantuan, and finally at 15th level he becomes colossal. The blessing also rejects any attempt to alter the size or shape of the colossi, effectively making him immune to Enlarge/Reduce Person, all types of Polymorph, and even Wildshape if he were to obtain the ability to do so.

Damage Reduction (Ex):
As the divine power molds the Colossus' body, it strengthens and hardens his skin giving it the ability to turn away mundane weaponry. The colossus gains Damage Reduction 1/magic at level 2, and the Damage Reduction increases by +1 everytwo levels thereafter.

Colossal Might (Ex):
The divine power of Chadon improves the Colossus' muscles and bones giving him improved strength and endurance. The Colossus gains +1 to Strength and Constitution at level 3, this increases by 1 every three levels thereafter.

Adaptive Fighting (Ex):
As the Colossus gets more adapted to his increased size, he becomes better at fighting in enclosed spaces. At level 7 he gets treated as one size smaller for squeezing rules.

Juggernaut (Ex):
At level 13 the Colossus becomes an unstoppable force on the battlefield as the Blessing of Chadon becomes more than half complete. His flesh rejects the effects of lesser spells. The colossus gains spell immunity for all evocation, conjuration, necromancy and transmutation spells and spell-like abilities 3rd level and below. This immunity does not hinder the effects of worn items.

Improved Adaptive Fighting (Ex):
The Colossus has mastered fighting in its enlarged form. At level 17 he gets treated as two sizes smaller for squeezing rules.

Perfect Form (Ex):
The Colossus has achieved the ideal form of the god, Chadon. His size mountainous, his skin is like steel, and his flesh can brush off most lesser magics. The divine power having completed his transformation now focuses on maintaining it. At 20th level he Colossus gains Damage Reduction 5/epic, immunity to evocation, conjuration, necromancy and transmutations spells and spell-like abilities 6th level and bellow, and Fast Healing 5.

[Kayblis]

There's a section of the forums for homebrew, a mod will probably move this thread to there this time but remember to post it in the right section next time.

All in all, it's standard homebrew fare to me - a class that has no prereqs or drawbacks and is miles better than any same-niche class in the game by a wide margin. All melee players would be idiots to not pick it straight away or at least dip it ASAP. This seems to be your objective though, so it succeeds at that. At the same time, you still run into the same problem of having absolutely nothing to do outside of combat, even more so with these class skills. You could expand the list a bit to make up for the lack of extra features.

Also, I believe the capstone ability doesn't expand on the spell immunity, so it shouldn't cite it again. You could also specify if it's a special immunity or golem's Immunity ability, which is just SR infinite.

[Kaiwen]

You've clearly thought about the downsides of size, with Adaptive Fighting, but even with that, a level 15 Colossus can only enter dungeons with corridors 20 feet wide. Maybe you could buff it so that a Colossus of size larger than Large can change size to Large (cumulative with other size-changing effects, so you could conceivably go anywhere the rest of the party could with Reduce Person), so they might be useful in more campaigns? A Colossus larger than Large can compress themselves to any smaller size larger than Medium as a full round action, and decompress to any larger size up to their full size as a swift action. This size change is cumulative with other effects that change a creature's size.

Juggernaut is a bit of a pain, as many useful combat buffs are lower than 3rd level, and many offensive spells are 4th level and higher. I'm also not sure spell immunity can be disabled like spell resistance. Unless that's intentional, consider making it both more potent and less annoying.

Have you considered posting this in the homebrew board?

[theblasblas]

Oh, apologies then, won't happen again. I've had some discussion on alternative or homebrew rules on this subforum before so I thought this stuff could also be posted here, but I'm guessing it's different if one is posting a homebrew class?

And thanks, that was a typo. Fixed.

With regards to making other melee classes obsolete, I was thinking that the melee classes from Tome of Nine Swords would still have their place at this balance level. I was intending for the colossus to be a class unsuited to dungeon delving, though not entirely useless in a dungeon. They're able to fight effectively in larger dungeons due to the Adaptive Fighting, but their bulk would still be blocking the spells and arrows of their allies.

Lastly as for being useful outside combat. I guess I could add an intimidation bonus based on size difference? I was actually intending for the general bulkiness of the colossus as the "out of combat use". Like, who needs to disarm traps when you can just tank them with spell immunity and damage reduction? Why pick the lock when you can just smash? The more intelligent members of the party are out sleuthing? Go chop down a tree with a single swing, and use your ungodly strength to haul that giant piece of wood to the wall that's being rebuilt after the recent demon attack and earn the admiration of the common folk. Really this would apply to an optimized Barbarian as well. I mean, isn't that what the warrior types do in tv shows anyway? Or are most DMs just the type to punish this kind of behavior, and so most people opt for the safer approach?

[theblasblas]

You've clearly thought about the downsides of size, with Adaptive Fighting, but even with that, a level 15 Colossus can only enter dungeons with corridors 20 feet wide. Maybe you could buff it so that a Colossus of size larger than Large can change size to Large (cumulative with other size-changing effects, so you could conceivably go anywhere the rest of the party could with Reduce Person), so they might be useful in more campaigns? A Colossus larger than Large can compress themselves to any smaller size larger than Medium as a full round action, and decompress to any larger size up to their full size as a swift action. This size change is cumulative with other effects that change a creature's size.

Actually, a Level 15 Colossus could fit in a dungeon that's 10 feet wide, they'd just be moving at half speed and suffer -4 to attack. It was my intention for the downsides to not be fully mitigated so that the Colossus while quite powerful, would still face circumstances where they'd be less useful, and these circumstances would provide roleplay potential. Of course, it really depends on the setting. If your campaign is focused mostly on dungeon delving then the Colossus wouldn't fit, figuratively and literally. But that's fine.



Juggernaut is a bit of a pain, as many useful combat buffs are lower than 3rd level, and many offensive spells are 4th level and higher. I'm also not sure spell immunity can be disabled like spell resistance. Unless that's intentional, consider making it both more potent and less annoying

Have you considered posting this in the homebrew board?

It's intended yes. By level 13 I would expect the character to have a couple of gear to enhance their core abilities, like a Belt of Constitution or Gauntlets of Ogre Strength. Since both those items and the respective buffs are enhancement bonuses, they wouldn't stack anyway. The main issue I thought of here is actually healing, whoever is healing the colossus would have to use higher level spells I thought it would be too early to give him Fast Healing at this point. But maybe if it's just Fast Healing 1 for out of combat healing?

As for offensive spells, I don't really intend for the Colossus to be able to just ignore spellcasters of equal level. The idea is that they'd be able to just massacre lower level spellcasters.

[Kaiwen]

It's intended yes. By level 13 I would expect the character to have a couple of gear to enhance their core abilities, like a Belt of Constitution or Gauntlets of Ogre Strength. Since both those items and the respective buffs are enhancement bonuses, they wouldn't stack anyway. The main issue I thought of here is actually healing, whoever is healing the colossus would have to use higher level spells I thought it would be too early to give him Fast Healing at this point. But maybe if it's just Fast Healing 1 for out of combat healing? There's a lot of buffs that do more interesting things than give bonuses to stats. Poor Mister Colossus 13 will never be able to benefit from extra arms (and extra greatswords) via Girallon's Blessing, Blindsight via Blindsight, Pass Without Trace, Heroics, and many other fairly unique low level buffs unreplicable (AFAIK) via printed items.


As for offensive spells, I don't really intend for the Colossus to be able to just ignore spellcasters of equal level. The idea is that they'd be able to just massacre lower level spellcasters. If you're comparing "lower level spellcasters" to "equal level spellcasters," then "lower level" should probably scale with the Colossus in question. A Colossus 13 might be able to shrug off a Wizard 5 (wow that feels kinda negligible), but not a Wizard 7, and never gets the ability to. Have youi considered scaling spell resistance instead? Maybe something like class level +X +ability mod, or maybe for something more exotic, class level +X +ability score. If you want to cut them off from low level buffs not gained from items, you can add a clause to make it undroppable.

Edit: Also, I think +5 ability scores is a bit awkward, given that odd numbers don't really do anything, but I guess it complements +5 inherent.

Edit 2: Colossus/PsyWar/Warshaper sounds fun.

[Maat Mons]

You said you want it to stack up to a buffed and Wild-Shaped Druid.

Druid 20 (Dire Polar Bear form):
Str = 39 (base) +2 (Enhance Wild Shape) +16 (Bite of the Werebear) +5 (inherent) = 62
Con = 23 (base) +8 (Bite of the Werebear) +5 (inherent) = 36
Natural Armor = 11 (base) +7 (Bite of the Werebear) = 18

Colossus 20:
Str = 18 (base) +4 (water orc) +5 (levels) +5 (Colossal Might) +6 (enhancement) +5 (inherent) = 43
Con = 18 (base) +2 (water orc) +5 (Colossal Might) +6 (enhancement) +5 (inherent) = 36
Natural Armor = 0 (base) +5 (enhancment) = 5

So, it looks like yo need 19 more Strength and 13 more Natural Armor from the class bonuses. ... Unless every Colossus doesn't start with free 18s in both Strength and Constitution. Then you might want to add a little more to both of those.



It also seems to compare unfavorably to the Giant Size spell, which gives you Colossal size, a +32 untyped bonus to Strength, a +12 untyped bonus to Constitution, and a +12 untyped bonus to Natural Armor at caster level 19.



Right now, it seems like the class can be outdone at its own game by a Master of Many Forms assuming the shape of a Storm Giant, or a Battle Sorcerer casting Giant Size (using that OA ACF to switch his spell list).



I see no reason not to allow races of different size. Just have two limits, X size categories larger, up to a maximum on Y size category. So, in the end, "8 size categories larger, to a maximum size of Colossal" would get everyone to the same point.


Intimidate already gives a +4 bonus per size category larger than the target you are.



If I understand correctly, every time you increase in size, you stop being able to wear your old armor? Every 5 levels, any magic armor you may have been investing your wealth in becomes useless to you?

[Kaiwen]

To continue Maat's post, there are no class features that cannot be replicated verbatim or better by an Archivist dipping for DMM. Or just a straight Cleric, if you're fine with being Large/Huge with a Large race instead of Colossal, except you're also a full caster.