Combat Zealot (Class)

[WorthingSon]

Combat Zealot
A combat zealot is someone who revels in the confrontation of blades. Spartans, some Samurai, and European fencers fall into this category. Choosing to fight with only their wits and weapon skill as opposed to relying on armor for protection, this lets them appreciate their skill to the fullest.

Hit Die: d10
Class Proficiencies: No Armor Proficiency, Simple Weapons, 1 Martial or Exotic Weapon
Saves: Good Reflex; 1 good 1 poor for fort and will
Skill Points: 4+Int (4+Int x 4 1st level)
Class Skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, (Perception), Profession, Sense Motive, Spot, Swim, Tumble

{table=head] Level | Base Attack Bonus | Good Save | Poor Save | Class Abilities

1st |
+1|
+2|
+0| Chosen Weapon, Weapon Finesse

2nd |
+2|
+3|
+0| AC Bonus

3rd |
+3|
+3|
+1| Bonus Feat

4th |
+4|
+4|
+1| Weapon Skill +1

5th |
+5|
+4|
+1|

6th |
+6/+1|
+5|
+2| Bonus Feat

7th |
+7/+2|
+5|
+2|

8th |
+8/+3|
+6|
+2| Weapon Skill +2

9th |
+9/+4|
+6|
+3|

10th |
+10/+5|
+7|
+3| Bonus Feat

11th |
+11/+6/+1|
+7|
+3|

12th |
+12/+7/+2|
+8|
+4| Weapon Skill +3

13th |
+13/+8/+3|
+8|
+4|

14th |
+14/+9/+4|
+9|
+4| Bonus Feat

15th |
+15/+10/+5|
+9|
+5|

16th |
+16/+11/+6/+1|
+10|
+5| Weapon Skill +4

17th |
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+5|

18th |
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+11|
+6| Bonus Feat

19th |
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+11|
+6|

20th |
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+12|
+6| Weapon Skill + 5
[/table]

Chosen Weapon - The chosen weapon must be for melee and a one handed weapon, a double weapon, a polearm, or a quarterstaff.
Weapon Finesse - You gain weapon finesse in your chosen weapon, even if it would normally not be applicable.
AC Bonus - You develop an ability to read the moves of your opponent, granting you a dodge bonus to AC equal to you Intelligence bonus. You lose this bonus if caught flat-footed or if you are wearing any form of armor.
Weapon Skill - As you progress you gain additional skill with your chosen weapon. This is represented as an attack bonus, damage bonus and an AC bonus that is treated as a parry. You lose the AC bonus if caught flat-footed or you do not have your chosen weapon in hand. The attack and damage bonuses only apply to attacks made using your chosen weapon. Should a combat zealot don armor, the armor check penalty is applied to the Weapon skill bonus, dropping it to a minimum of zero.
Bonus Feats - All bonus feats will be selected from the Fighter Feats list, qualifying as if 2 levels lower, with the following additions. Evasion may be taken and Improved Evasion may be taken if you already have Evasion and you are at least 10th level. Sneak Attack may be taken at any level after you have gained a weapon skill bonus. You will gain as many damage dice towards your sneak attack as your current skill level. This will not improve retroactively. The sneak attack may be taken multiple times and its effects stack. Favored Enemy may be taken but will only ever grant a +1 versus your chosen foe unless taken multiple times. Repeated selection of Favored Enemy will increase the bonus for that enemy by an additional +1.

[DracoDei]

Move AC bonus to first level, same as where Monks get it I would say... the thing about the fact that they can take other classes FEATURES as FEATS, needs to be made even more blazing clear (it is a big deal), and perhaps spelled out in more detail... in fact I would call them "Special Abilities" like the get called for Rogues, and they mention that they can take fighter feats as a fighter 2 levels lower as one of the options... just an organizational thing, but it makes it MUCH clearer.
Interesting that they have no skill with armor, but can wear it just the same without too much problem... I see them starting out in Leather, and upgrading to mithril Chain shirt (and perhaps large Shield, depending on what weapon they take... or does that mess up Weapon Finesse? I forget...) when they can afford it... don't even need to blow a feat on Light Armor Prof. as long as you keep the check penalty to zero, which you definitely should do when playing this class.
CONSIDER giving them Two-Weapon Fighting for free at first level if they take Quarterstaff of a double weapon as their pick.

[Charlie Kemek]

wait... good ref, bad what? fort, will, i dont get it. can they use a 2 bladed sword as their chosen weapon? it would sort of make sense, since this is a blade class. but a class that has d10 hit dice, and can get evasion and if they take 2 levels in rogue, get improved evasion, and has perfect bab, and sneak attack, favored enemy, and qualifies for greater weapon specilization 2 levels later that a fighter:smalleek: ? back up a bit! a little too powerful in my opinion. does this imply that you can take smite evil, lay on hands, rage, turn undead, rebuke undead, etc.? fix the stuff on the bonus feats, and give him some things he can't do. this is like a monk with no alingment restrictions, no special healing, but bonus feats, favored enemy, fighter stuff, etc. and good hp, bab, etc. And can use weapons!!!! also can use weapon fienese. tone it down a bit man. :smalleek:

[DracoDei]

All those special abilities are at the cost of one of the others remember...

[Mr. Moogle]

Umm... you've posted this form twice :smallconfused: one can only guess your motives (may i suggest world domination? Its quite popular these days)

[Yakk]

So let's play with this.
Each advances every 4 levels after you get the Talent. Talents do not work if you do not possess your chosen weapon.

Talents include:
Defense: Int bonus to AC when using your Weapon, increases by +1 every 4 levels. This bonus may not be higher than your Zealot level.

Grace: +Dex/2 to Damage and To-Hit when using your weapon, +2 damage every 4 levels. This bonus may not be higher than your Zealot level.

Sudden Strike: +1d6 Sneak Attack damage, +int bonus to Initiative, and +1d6 more Sneak Attack damage every 4 levels. The bonus to initiative may not be higher than your Zealot level.

Balance: Requires Level 5. Grants Evasion when in Light or No Armor. Grants Improved Evasion 8 levels later, and +1 Reflex save every 4 levels.

Flurry: In exchange for a -2 on your attack while making a full attack action, you get an extra attack at full BaB. This attack grants +str to damage and is considered a one-handed attack for the purpose of feats like power attack, even if the attack is made with two hands. 4 levels later, you can Flurry during a non-full attack. 8 levels later, your penalty is reduced to -1, and 0 12 levels later. 16 levels later, you get 2 bonus full-BaB attacks when you flurry during a full attack.

Flurry requires a Finessable weapon, a one-handed weapon, or a double weapon.

Power: Add 1/2 your Strength bonus to your damage, +2 every 4 levels. This bonus may not be higher than your Zealot level. You cannot have both Power and Grace.

Combat Study: Once you have missed a target with your weapon, you gain a +int favored enemy bonus to damage against that target. This bonus increases by +2 every 4 levels. This bonus may not be higher than your Zealot level.

Instant Defense: As an Immediate action in response to being attacked with a melee attack, you may:
1> Optionally draw your weapon, and thus gain your defensive bonuses from it, and
2> Roll a Reflex Save. If it beats your opponents attack roll, the attack misses and provokes an AoO. You gain a bonus on this roll for every 4 levels after you gain Instant Defense.

This action may be performed while flat-footed.

You may do this a number of times per day equal to your Dexterity bonus, but no more than your Zealot class level.

Reach: As an Immediate action, one may extend one's reach by 5' with your favored Weapon. This ability may not be used when changed from one's "natural" size. Initially, this can be used once per encounter. Every 4 additional levels, you may use it an additional time per encounter.

Mobility: As a Swift action, you may make an additional 5' step. You may use this one time per encounter, plus one for every 4 additional levels.

Follow Through: As an Immediate action, after you successfully hit a target, you may make a second attack at the same to-hit modifier against any target in range. You may do this one time per encounter, plus one additional time for every 4 additional levels.

Perfect Strike: As a full-round action, you may make an attack that, if it hits, automatically threatens a critical. If the roll actually threatens a critical, the crit multiplier is added to itself (so a x2 becomes a x3, a x3 becoems a x5, a x4 becomes an x7). You must still roll to confirm. For every 4 additional levels, once per day you may upgrade a normal strike to a Perfect Strike as an immediate action before you roll to hit.

So the Zealot would gain Talents at level:
1
2
4
8
12
16
20

And feats at level 3, 7, 11, 15 and 19 (fighter bonus feats).

Notice the lack of empty levels:

1: Talent
2: Talent
3: Feat
4: Talent
5: Talent Up
6: Talent Up
7: Feat
8: Talent, Talent Up
9: Talent Up
10: Talent Up
11: Feat
12: Talent, Talent Up, Talent Up
13: Talent Up
14: Talent Up
15: Feat
16: Talent, Talent Up, Talent Up
17: Talent Up
18: Talent Up
19: Feat
20: Talent, Talent Up, Talent Up, Talent Up

...

And yes, it does result in a large amount of back-end power. But that is where melee need help.

[WorthingSon]

DracoDei: the thought behind having the AC Bonus on level two instead of level one is a case of combat experiance. Look at Sword Sage, they don't get their AC Bonus till level two.
As far as armor goes, if you would like to go that route, you can use feats to do that. It is a case of allowing you to specialize your character, without giving you it all in the class. This also applies to two-weapon fighting. I know it is a little harsh, to ask player to take feats to play their class how they want, but at the same time... if you took fighter you would have to do that too. That's what the extra feats are for, allowing you to specialize your character to do the special things you have in mind.

Charlie Kemek: Yes, you can take several class features as bonus feats, however you cannot take ALL of them. And the saves are 2 good 1 poor; one of your good saves MUST be Ref. Also, no you CAN NOT take any class feature as a bonus feat. You CAN take any bonus fighter feat as a fighter 2 levels below your Combat Zealot level, OR Evaison (and later Improved Evasion if you meet the pre-req's), OR Sneak Attack (see OP for details), OR Favored Enemy (see OP for details).

Yakk: I like the idea, but you might wanna tone them down a bit, with all of them allowing for continued progress every 4 levels for free... that is a bit too powerful.