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WrstDmEvr
2007-11-15, 11:52 PM
The Empathist
The Empathist is a master of emotions. They have trained themselves to become experts at the art of enchanting, being able to accomplish many tasks with their abilities. They can serve as diplomats for powerful kings, manipulating their victim's minds with whatever emotions they choose. However, many are also the adventurous type, questing far and wide to learn more in the path of enchanting. Many Empathists have the skill to feel emotions born in them, but some must learn how to follow their path. Some Empathists have suffered from many emotional distresses, and can use their power to get revenge on those who have wronged them, but there are others who are simply eager for power.

Hit Dice: d4

Requirements:
Able to cast 3rd level arcane spells
Able to cast at least two enchantment spells 2nd level or higher.
8 ranks Diplomacy
8 ranks Intimidate
8 ranks Sense Motive
4 ranks Bluff
4 ranks Gather Information
Class Skills:
Bluff(Cha.), Concentration(Con.), Diplomacy(Cha.), Gather Information(Cha.),
Intimidate(Cha.) Knowledge(Arcana)(Int.), Scry(Int.), Sense Motive(Cha.),
Spellcraft(Int.)

Empathist
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2| Exceptional Emotions + 1, Independent Spirit +1, Forceful Dominance + 1|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3| Calm Emotions 1/day|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+3|Independent Spirit + 2, Forceful Dominance + 2, Exceptional Emotions + 2 |+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

4th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4| Empathetic Cry|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

5th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Exceptional Emotions + 3|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

6th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5| Independent Spirit + 3, Forceful Dominance + 3, Emotional Bonding|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

7th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5| Exceptional Emotions + 4, Manipulate Mind|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

8th|
+4|
+2|
+2|
+6| Halt Actions |+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

9th|
+4|
+3|
+3|
+6|Independent Spirit + 4, Forceful Dominance + 4, Exceptional Emotions + 5, Purge the Mind|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

10th|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+7| Close the Mind.|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class [/table]

The basic save for any class abilities of an Empathist is 10 + class level + Cha. modifier + Forceful Dominence modifier

Exceptional Emotions: An Empathist has an unerring ability to figure out what another person feels. The Empathist gains a + 1 competence bonus to all Charisma-based skills. This is increased to a + 2 bonus at level 3, + 3 at level five, and so on for every odd level.

Independent Spirit: An Empathist has a certain degree of control over their minds, depending on their experience. The Empathist gains a + 1 competence bonus to saving throws against Enchantments. This ability increases by one every three class levels.(1st, 3rd, 6th, etc.)

Forceful Dominance An Empathist has such a control over Enchantments they are more difficult to resist. The DC to save against an Empathist's Enchantment spells is increased by one for every three levels in this class.

Calm Emotions: Once per day, an Empathist can calm emotions as the spell.

Empathetic Cry: Once an Empathist reaches 4th level, they can sense emotions and react to them. In a 1 mile radius, an Empathist can sense strong emotions and once per day can scry on the person emitting those emotions. The person the Empathist is scrying on is allowed a will save to negate the effect. If it is negated, the use of scry is used up for that day.

Emotional Bonding: At 6th level, an Empathist can now reach out and and help her allies when in need. Twice per day, as an immediate action, an Empathist can roll a second saving throw for an ally within 30' affected by an Enchantment spell.

Manipulate Minds: At 7th level, an Empathist can now control the minds of other people. She can add emotions of her choosing to the mind of another creature within 25' plus 2' per class level. For example, if an Empathist needs to gain the help of a warchief, she can add to his mind the emotion of happiness when he sees her. In the case of conflicting emotions(such as if the warchief hates all outsiders because one of them destroyed his camp a couple of years back), the target follows the emotion that is the most beneficial to him at that time(a person who hates the Empathist due to a deed she commited(killing a bunch of commoners, for example), they would hate her when they were doing something involved with those deeds, and would like her when not in that situation. A successful will save negates this effect.

Halt Actions: An Empathist can postpone another creatures actions at 8th level. As a standard action, she can force a creature within 25' plus 2' per caster level to halt the task they were doing for one round. A successful will save negates this effect.

Purge the Mind: By 9th level, an Empathist has more control over the emotions of others. She can now delete emotions from a creatures mind that is within 10 ' plus 1' per caster level. She can choose to either delete all emotions, emotions of a certain type, or only specific emotions. When deleting all emotions, it takes one standard action. To delete only certain emotion types takes up a full round action that provokes attacks of opportunity, and specific emotions take up one full round per deleted emotion. For example, if an Empathist deletes all emotions in a creature, that creature will not feel any emotions for anybody, and will act accordingly. If the Empathist instead deletes the emotion of hatred, the creature will not hate the Empathist, but will also not hate their controller who told them to fight the Empathist if they previously hated them. If the Empathist deletes only the emotion of hatred towards herself, the creature will not hate her. Of course, it doesn't like her, so it still might attack her. This ability cannot delete any orders the creature may have received that are now not in accordance with that creatures new feelings. A successful will save negates all forms of this ability.

Close the Mind : At 10th level, an Empathist can overload a creatures mind, forcing it to shut down. The affected creature must make a will save or be knocked unconscious for 1d4 rounds. On a successful will save, the creature is stunned for one round. This ability can only be used once per day at a creature within 20'.

Naihal
2007-11-17, 11:08 AM
Alright, the idea is interesting, but this needs to be toned down very very badly. Plus ten to both spell DC's and saves against enchantments? Able to scry on anyone within a one mile per level radius emitting strong emotions? No limit on the usage of the class's most powerful ability - the ability to shut down anyone by taking a full-round action? No, no, no, no, NO. This NEEDS to be weakened.

feras
2007-11-17, 11:23 AM
Nice idea! Keep up the good work!

WrstDmEvr
2007-11-17, 11:35 AM
Okay, maybe lower progression of Independent Spirit and Forceful Dominence, lower range of Emotional Cry, set a limit on Close the Mind?

Thanks for the comments, I'll fix it up.

Naihal
2007-11-17, 12:05 PM
Honestly, that's only the beginning of the problems here.

- Putting limits on Independent Spirit and Forceful Dominance is good, cap it our at maybe +3 for each at the end of 10 levels.

- Empathic Cry is just not well worded. First, your wording on the range should be fixed so that it's one mile per class level of the Empathist, since right now it's one mile for each total level the Empathist has. After fixing that, abolish the ability altogether, since it's just not balanced. As mentioned, being able to use this as many times per day as you want isn't right. Also, any event worth scrying - such as a battle, for example - is probably going to involve heated emotions. In addition, the wording could be construed to mean that the Empathist can sense any emotions within a one mile per level radius, allowing you to realize when anyone within that radius becomes hostile towards you. This is essentially a worse Foresight, and Foresight is a broken 9th level spell. Maybe give the Empathist the ability to use detect emotions as a 60 ft cone as a spell like ability a limited number of times per day instead, and slap on a Will save.

- Emotional bonding is good, maybe limit the number of times per day it can be used, and get rid of the AoO bit. If your ally is charmed, they probably won't want you undoing the spell, giving them a free AoO every time you use this.

- The text for Manipulate Mind and Purge the Mind is vague, you don't say what adding/removing emotions actually does.

- Halt actions is also vague, you might want to remove this and replace it with the cleric spell Command/Greater Command.

- Finally, Close the Mind. This needs more than a per day limit, this is just awful. Whenever it's used, the opponent is rendered helpless for a minimum of 1d4 rounds. This makes it similar to Irresistible Dance, except that that has a range of touch and this has no designated range limit. For a temporary solution, make it duplicate Irresistible Dance and give it a 1/day limit. It's still not perfect, but it's better.

This is all I can give on short notice, but I'll post back later with a more in-depth fix.

Naihal
2007-11-17, 01:21 PM
Alright, the class looks better now. I still don't like Empathic Cry, but that's just me. For Close the Mind, don't make the Empathist lose class features for that long, that's overkill. Keep it as it is and maybe set a limit of using it once or twice per day. For Emotional Bonding, make it an immediate action and let the Empathist use it on any ally who fails a save against enchantments within 30 ft. Finally, set ranges and saves for the class abilities. You state that several of your abilities allow a will save, but you need to specify the formula for that save. The standard formula should probably be 10 + prestige class level + Cha modifier. As for ranges, Manipulate the Mind, Halt Actions, Purge the Mind, and Close the Mind all need ranges added to them.

Alternative ways to use this class would be to adapt it for psionics or to use a point-based system. For a point based system, make the Empathist require Emotional Points (EP) to use class abilities, and set a certain number of EP per day per class level. For example, at first level, the Empathist would get maybe 1-2 EP per day, and could use calm emotions by expending 1 EP. Later class abilities would require more EP, and you would max out at 10-15 EP at tenth level. These are only suggestions for ways to portray the class; it looks like it's shaping up now.