Provocator (Prunus persica?)

[Metastachydium]

And here's an incredibly distasteful prestige class I've just put together. Please do comment if you see fit.

Provocator

Hit Die
d6.

Requirements
To qualify to become a provocator, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Alignment
Any evil.

Skills
Bluff 8 ranks, Perform (oratory) 8 ranks, Knowledge (local) 4 ranks.

Feats
Persuasive.

Special
The character must have led a lynchmob before.

Class Skills
The provocator's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Diplomacy (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nobility and royalty), Knowledge (religion), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (None), Spot (Wis) and Use Rope (Dex).

Skill Points at Each Level
6+Int modifier

Table: The Provocator


Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
Malefic Ifluence


1st

+0

+0

+0

+2
Inspire hatred, undetectable alignment
1d4


2nd

+1

+0

+0

+3
Improved leadership
1d6


3rd

+1

+1

+1

+3
Inspire wrath
1d6


4th

+2

+1

+1

+4
Ability boost (+2 Cha)
1d8


5th

+2

+1

+1

+4
Rally
1d8



Class Features
All of the following are class features of the provocator prestige class.

Weapon and Armour Proficiency
Provocators are proficient with the dagger, punching dagger, club, dart and hand crossbow. Provocators are not proficient with any armour or shields.

Inspire Hatred (Ex)
Provocators are charismatic master manipulators who can easily convince those around them to turn against particular individuals or groups. Once per day, a provocator can make a Bluff check as a full-round action. Those within 25 ft. of the provocator who are able to hear him must make an opposed Sense Motive. On a failure, their attitude towards the designated individual or group becomes hostile and they gain a +2 morale bonus on attack rolls, damage rolls, Bluff and Intimidate checks made against the designated targets. The provocator's followers (if any) automatically fail the opposed check.
The provocator must make a succesful DC 20 Perform (oratory) check as a free action to maintain the effect.
At level 3 and thereafter, a provocator can Inspire Hatred 3 times per day.

Undetectable Alignment (Ex)
Provocators have powerful minds. Their sheer mental fortitude makes it impossible to detect their alignment through magical means.

Malefic Influence (Ex)
Provocators are extremely persuasive. A 1st level provocator adds 1d4 to any Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate and Perform check made to manipulate or influence others. At level 2 the bonus increases to 1d6 and at level 4 it increases again to 1d8.

Improved Leadership
At level 2 provocators gain all the benefits of the Leadership feat. Since a provocators followers are devoted to the causes he gives them rather than his person, the death of followers cannot reduce a provocator's leadership score.

Inspire Wrath (Ex)
Once per day a 3rd level provocator can fill his audience with burning fury. This ability functions exactly like Inspire Hatred with the following exceptions: the radius of the effect is 20 ft; the DC of the Perform checks necessary to maintain the effect increases to 25; instead of a +2 morale bonus to a specific set of rolls, Inspire Wrath confers to the affected creatures all the benefits and drawbacks of Rage. If an affected creature fails to take a hostile action against the designated target for two consecutive rounds, the effect ends.
At level 5, a provocator can Inspire Wrath 3 times per day.

Ability Boost (Ex)
At level 4, a provocator's Charisma score increases by 2.

Rally (Ex)
Once per day, a 5th level provocator can provoke an ecstatic frenzy in his audience wiith a succesful Perform (oratory) check (DC=30). Affected creatures attack a designated individual or group blindly and fiercely to the best of their ability. Maintaining the effect requires a DC 30 Perform (oratory) check as a standard action each round. This ability can be used in conjunction with Inspire Hatred or Inspire Wrath (but not both).

[Morphic tide]

Hmm... To start with, I think the Alignment requirement should be "Non-Chaotic non-Good", as the sort of person who deliberately provokes somewhat organized action against specific targets is not a sensible fit for Chaotic Alignment, especially with inbuilt Leadership, and the underlying theme fits perfectly well in a Lawful Neutral person looking to take action against an outgroup on a pure "Us vs. Them" basis, which is not D&D-type Evil. D&D-type Evil is specific to exploitation and cruelty, the entire premise of dungeon crawls requires "Because it helps my group" to be a non-Evil justification.

More mechanically, the use of constant dice rolls to gate the benefits is really sketchy, as is the single flat DC to change people's opinions to Hostile. The scale of the bonus simply matches an 8th-level Bard, and is actually shorter range because it doesn't carry by Listen. This actually works well as a concept for a sort of "Bardic Ur-Priest", giving access to similar value as Inspire Courage with fewer levels, but with consequences built into how they function and are expected to be used. In any case, the current situation is very much too redundant, as it's three different heavily overlapping bonuses with separate uses.

I'd go with having it be fully transparent with Bardic Music and repeat the usage and qualifier properties, yet not count as Inspire Courage, with the Rage effect being the principal bonus and the capstone making it transparent with Barbarian levels on the target. Possibly have the class be d8 HP and 3/4ths BAB so it's not wholly stupid to try being in melee yourself, even if you've not got much of anything particular to offer. 5-10 HP and +2 BAB for +4 Strength and Constitution 5/day across the party is a relatively good deal as far as Martial PRCs go. Though it probably needs a more proper Intimidate function so that it's doing something active personally.

[Metastachydium]

First and foremost: thanks a lot for the feedback!


Hmm... To start with, I think the Alignment requirement should be "Non-Chaotic non-Good", as the sort of person who deliberately provokes somewhat organized action against specific targets is not a sensible fit for Chaotic Alignment, especially with inbuilt Leadership, and the underlying theme fits perfectly well in a Lawful Neutral person looking to take action against an outgroup on a pure "Us vs. Them" basis, which is not D&D-type Evil. D&D-type Evil is specific to exploitation and cruelty, the entire premise of dungeon crawls requires "Because it helps my group" to be a non-Evil justification.

Well, I originally wanted it to be „any non-good”, but then I figured that someone whose whole shtick is deceiving folks into harming others is kind of Evil. I'll think a bit more about it, but probably I'll just revert to that.
As for Chaotic, well, I don't know. Siccing people on other people for kicks and giggles (which is not something that can't be done by the class) is Chaotic enough for me and Leadership (if I remember correctly) does not have an alignment restriction.


More mechanically, the use of constant dice rolls to gate the benefits is really sketchy,

Fair enough. Would something more like the bardic stuff work better (Bluff to prepare, Perform to initiate and it's on until the provocator stops talking)?


as is the single flat DC to change people's opinions to Hostile.

Technically, the attitude change is triggered by the Bluff check (which explicitly doesn't have a static DC) and a single succesful Diplomacy check can basically do the opposite, so it's not over the top. Maybe I could specify that the starting attitude must be Indifferent or worse?


In any case, the current situation is very much too redundant, as it's three different heavily overlapping bonuses with separate uses.

What do you mean by that?


I'd go with having it be fully transparent with Bardic Music and repeat the usage and qualifier properties, yet not count as Inspire Courage, with the Rage effect being the principal bonus and the capstone making it transparent with Barbarian levels on the target. Possibly have the class be d8 HP and 3/4ths BAB so it's not wholly stupid to try being in melee yourself, even if you've not got much of anything particular to offer. 5-10 HP and +2 BAB for +4 Strength and Constitution 5/day across the party is a relatively good deal as far as Martial PRCs go. Though it probably needs a more proper Intimidate function so that it's doing something active personally.

I intentionally made it next to useless in combat because it's primarily intended to be a buffer/miniomancer of sorts and I kind of assumed it will use its actions on stuff derived from the features of the base class.