Camp Half-Blood Head Counselor [3.P Prestige Class]

[SuperDave]

In honor of the new Percy Jackson and the Olympians series' debut on Disney+, I've decided to finally get off my duff and finish the Head Counselor prestige class for the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus d20 System (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kJTfWvkmd9CcQxOLJYsueNh_FTHzpLIvWX9Kwgjzvjc/edit#heading=h.f6os3xw4j74n) that my friends and I created many and many a year ago. Trouble is, it's been a long long time since I actually played 3.5 and my homebrew skills are a little rusty. I'd love to get some feedback on this class, and the other elements of the system, from people who actually know what they're doing.

My main difficulty is deciding which order the class features should be awarded in, and how many times per day head counselors should be able to heal their charges. I'd like for this PrC to focus on a support and battlefield management role, but still be able to hold its own in a fight when they're away from camp on a quest (or going after a camper who snuck off without permission).

Head Counselor

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/olympians/images/1/10/Percy_Jackson.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20180319172727

Hit Die
d8

Alignment
Cannot be opposed to divine parent’s alignment on both the law/chaos and good/evil axes. The Olympians care less about morality than they do about getting results, but working at complete cross-purposes to your divine parent is a good way to get smited. Smote? Smitten? Anyway, it’s a bad idea.

Requirements
To qualify to become a Head Counselor, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria:

Race
Demigod (can include non-human races, such as Cyclops, if at least one parent is divine) who has been enrolled in Camp Half-Blood and formally claimed by their divine parent

Base Attack Bonus
+6

Skills
5 or more ranks in Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge (Mythos), Survival, and divine parent’s favored skill (e.g. Bluff or Sleight of Hand for Hermes, Craft for Hephaestus, Spellcraft for Hecate).

Age
Typically the oldest camper in their cabin (usually 15 or older), though a younger camper who has been on more quests than the current head counselor may challenge the head counselor of their own cabin to a duel for their position. The current head counselor is obliged accept such a challenge, though the duel need not be a physical contest. Athena’s children have been known to challenge each other to chess matches; Hephaestus campers often dare each other to see who can construct the most powerful weapons or armor; and the sons and daughters of Hecate are known to throw down in truly epic Mythomagic showdowns.

Class Skills
The head counselor’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are: Climb (Str), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (Mythos) (Int), Listen (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Skill Points at Each Level
4 + Int modifier.



Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special


1st

+0

+2

+0

+2
Home-Field Advantage


2nd

+1

+3

+0

+3
Rallying Cry


3rd

+2

+3

+1

+3
Hold the Line


4th

+3

+4

+1

+4
He Said She Said


5th

+3

+4

+1

+4
First Aid


6th

+4

+5

+2

+5
Mentee


7th

+5

+5

+2

+5
Requisition Artifact


8th

+6

+6

+2

+6
Walk It Off


9th

+6

+6

+3

+6



10th

+7

+7

+3

+7
Leonidas' Last Stand


Class Features
All of the following are Class Features of the head counselor prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
A head counselor is proficient all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor, and with shields.

Home-Field Advantage (Su)
As long as you are physically within the borders of Camp Half-Blood, you gain advantage on combat checks and saving throws (this means you may roll twice and take the higher result). If the magical barriers around Camp Half-Blood fail, you lose this ability until they are reinstated.

Rallying Cry (Ex)
All allies within earshot who can hear you may take a bonus action during your turn to move up to 10 feet closer to you (this movement provokes attacks of opportunity as normal).

Hold the Line (Su)
You exhort your fellows to hold their positions; any allies within earshot who can hear you gain a morale bonus to attack, equal to your levels in Head Counselor, as long as they do not retreat (i.e. moving in any direction which takes them further away from all enemy combatants).

He Said, She Said (Sp)
Once per day you may cast zone of truth as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to your total HD.

Mentee (Ex)
You have become a mentor to a younger camper (not necessarily from your own cabin) and taken them under your wing... or else one has glommed onto you and you can’t shake the kid off no matter how hard you try. They follow you everywhere, attempting to be helpful as best they can, though their limited experience and bias towards you means that sometimes their “help” is really more of a hindrance. Your mentee can deliver messages, serve as a lookout, run errands, spy on your rivals, or perform other simple favors for you. They will assist you in combat to the best of their abilities (unless the enemy is too scary, in which case you’re on your own). You are considered responsible should any serious or permanent harm befall them, in which case you will likely have to answer to their divine (and/or mortal) parent for your negligence. To determine your Mentee’s level and abilities, see the Leadership (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#leadership) feat.

Walk It Off (Su)
Once per day per levels of Head Counselor, you can remove one negative status effect from one ally who can see and hear you.

First Aid (Sp)
You can cast cure light wounds on one creature you can touch, with a caster level equal to your total HD, a number of times per day equal to one-half your Head Counselor level (rounded up).

Leonidas' Last Stand (Ex)
Anytime you deal damage with an attack of opportunity against an opponent entering a square you threaten, that creature’s movement ends in that square.

Requisition Artifact (Ex)
Once per adventure, with a successful Bluff or Sleight of Hand or Forgery check, you can “borrow without permission” one major magic item, wondrous item, legacy item, or artifact from the attic of the Big House. If it’s not returned undamaged before the next time the cleaning harpies make their rounds you're in deep doo-doo with Mr D, and possibly Chiron as well.

[Maat Mons]

Looking at your various classes, it all seems quite numeric.

[SuperDave]

Looking at your various classes, it all seems quite numeric.

Numeric? How do you mean? If anything, specific numbers are what it really lacks, and what I've come here to get suggestions on. For instance, what should its Fort, Ref, and Will progressions be?

[Maat Mons]

The “numeric” comment wasn’t directed at the Head Councilor PrC specifically, but the Heroes of Olympus d20 System in general. The PrC largely avoids filling the Special column with modifiers to die rolls. I should clarify there’s nothing inherently wrong with bonuses to die rolls. Scaling numbers should definitely be a part of leveling up. But there should also be an ample quantity of features in every class that aren’t simply numeric increases. For the Head Councilor PrC, Hold the Line is the only entry in the Special column that boils down to adding a number to certain die rolls. And that can largely be forgiven since it’s a group buff. The second use per day of First Aid isn’t a bonus to a die roll, but still feel to me like just a numeric increase. Again, numeric increases are fine, but I don’t regard them as interesting enough to be the sole entry in the Special column for an entire level.

For an example of a class that exemplifies what I was getting at when I said “numeric,” let’s look at, for example, Child of Aphrodite. Over one-third of the Special column consists of nothing but a scaling bonus to certain skill checks. For a class that gives +10 to specific skills over 20 levels, I’d typically just write something like “Gift of Gab: Beginning at 2nd level, a Child of Aphrodite gains a bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, and Sense Motive checks equal to half their Child of Aphrodite level.” I would then only list it in the Special column once because it doesn’t really need to be there multiple times.

Similarly, the enhancement bonus to Charisma that scales up to +10 across 20 levels could have just been one entry in the special column, with the ability itself noting the scaling with a simple formula. Half the class level would work here too, but if both Gift of Gab and Divine Beauty come every other level, you might want to put one on odd-numbered levels and the other on even-numbered levels. It would suffice to note that one rounds up after halving your level, while the other instead rounds down. On the other hand, I’d be tempted to add the full class level to Charisma. I mean, the Bite of the Wearbear spell gives a +16 bonus to Strength at level 11, and I never liked the double standard of mental ability scores being harder to boost than physical ones.

Increases to the number of uses per day of Charmspeak account for about another one-third of entries in the Special column. This is especially odd because the class notes that 95% of Children of Aphrodite don’t even possess this ability. Combined with so many of the Aspects only being useful if you have Charmspeak, this is a lot of variation between the average person with the class and the few lucky ones who get the ability.

[SuperDave]

The “numeric” comment wasn’t directed at the Head Councilor PrC specifically, but the Heroes of Olympus d20 System in general. The PrC largely avoids filling the Special column with modifiers to die rolls. I should clarify there’s nothing inherently wrong with bonuses to die rolls. Scaling numbers should definitely be a part of leveling up. But there should also be an ample quantity of features in every class that aren’t simply numeric increases. For the Head Councilor PrC, Hold the Line is the only entry in the Special column that boils down to adding a number to certain die rolls. And that can largely be forgiven since it’s a group buff. The second use per day of First Aid isn’t a bonus to a die roll, but still feel to me like just a numeric increase. Again, numeric increases are fine, but I don’t regard them as interesting enough to be the sole entry in the Special column for an entire level.

For an example of a class that exemplifies what I was getting at when I said “numeric,” let’s look at, for example, Child of Aphrodite. Over one-third of the Special column consists of nothing but a scaling bonus to certain skill checks. For a class that gives +10 to specific skills over 20 levels, I’d typically just write something like “Gift of Gab: Beginning at 2nd level, a Child of Aphrodite gains a bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, and Sense Motive checks equal to half their Child of Aphrodite level.” I would then only list it in the Special column once because it doesn’t really need to be there multiple times.

Similarly, the enhancement bonus to Charisma that scales up to +10 across 20 levels could have just been one entry in the special column, with the ability itself noting the scaling with a simple formula. Half the class level would work here too, but if both Gift of Gab and Divine Beauty come every other level, you might want to put one on odd-numbered levels and the other on even-numbered levels. It would suffice to note that one rounds up after halving your level, while the other instead rounds down. On the other hand, I’d be tempted to add the full class level to Charisma. I mean, the Bite of the Wearbear spell gives a +16 bonus to Strength at level 11, and I never liked the double standard of mental ability scores being harder to boost than physical ones.

Ah, okay, I think I see what you mean: most of the Head Counselors abilities (and Child of Aphrodite, for that matter) could be reduced to bonus based on class level and only included once. That definitely makes for smoother progression and more economy of word, but then it does raise the question of what to put in the dead levels. Got any suggestions?


Increases to the number of uses per day of Charmspeak account for about another one-third of entries in the Special column. This is especially odd because the class notes that 95% of Children of Aphrodite don’t even possess this ability. Combined with so many of the Aspects only being useful if you have Charmspeak, this is a lot of variation between the average person with the class and the few lucky ones who get the ability.

True true, we decided as a group when we were writing the system that since our only CofA player would be a charmspeaker for plot reasons, it wasn't necessary to build the class twice (with and without charmspeak). Let's be honest though: everyone who plays this class is going to want to be a charmspeaker, and NPCs don't need to follow the same progression as PCs because they're by definition less powerful and important. But that is a valid criticism, and one we should probably address.

Also, is Home-Field Advantage kind of useless, since it only functions at CHB where monster attacks are extremely unlikely? I wanted to make the Head Counselors ' authority more difficult to challenge, but since they're already typically the oldest and highest-level camper in their cabin that might be a bit unnecessary. Plus, it'll be useless on a quest.