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View Full Version : [PrC] Just Passing Through (PEACH)



Maldraugedhen
2008-05-10, 12:04 PM
The Traveler

"Now, now, I'm just passing through. I'm sorry I don't have the money for your toll, but really, will letting me walk by be that much of an inconvenience to you?"
The man asking was a cloaked figure--a heavy brown cloak, hood down, with an unruly tousle of fairly short brown hair. He was leaning fairly heavily on a very sturdy-looking walking stick. Under the cloak, of what could be seen, he was equipped for a journey--a small skinning knife, some maps poking half-out of their cases (worn at the corners, of course, as any good map will get) and an unusually large waterskin, all tied to his belt. His boots were ankle-high, thick leather boots stained with so many layers of stuff that they no longer held their original brown hue. And yet, despite his apparent well-traveled nature, he seemed too young for a beard.
"But, y'see, if I let you by, I set a precedent. And I'm not one for setting precedents. Word'd get around that I let somebody by without payin', and then I'd be outta business, y'see?"
"Well, I apologize, but I do not have the money, and I simply must be going through."
The cloaked man simply began walking. Reaching out to stop him, the guard grasped at air.
"Hey!"
The guard drew steel and swung as quickly as he was trained to do--the sword arced through the air, rapidly approaching the back of the man's cloak at shoulder-width.
It passed through.
The odd thing about it, though, was that it didn't pass through with the usual accompaniment of spurting blood, a scream, or even a gasp. It just... passed through.
Thrown off balance, the guard stumbled back. The cloaked man turned, raised his walking stick, and delivered a short, powerful blow with the base. It passed through the guard's breastplate as if it were open air, and struck the guard squarely in the chest. Winded and surprised, the guard raised his sword again, stumbling to catch his footing.
"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone you let me by."
The cloaked man swung the staff with both hands, and, though the guard attempted to parry with his sword, once again the stick passed through, this time striking the guard squarely in the head. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious, the barest of moans emanating from his lips as he fell. The man sighed and pulled the guard to the side of the road, propping him up against a stump, then, once standing upright with his stick firmly in hand, just kept walking.


Travelers are, at their core, devotees of Fharlanghan. After traveling for a good long time on the road, they have received his blessing, and gain minor control over travel itself--motion. They use this in combat by influencing the motion of their weapons and the weapons of people attacking them, allowing them to pass through seemingly solid objects.

HD: d10.

Requirements:
Alignment: Any.
BAB: +4.
Skills: 7 ranks in any two of the following: Climb, Escape Artist, Jump, Ride, Survival, Swim, Tumble.
Special: Must have at least a +2 Constitution modifier, and have done one of the following:
- Must have visited at least three planes without access to the Road. If the Road is accessible, must have visited at least ten planes, and spent at least a day traveling in each.
- Must have traveled for at least two consecutive weeks without stopping in one place for a day.
- Must have traveled 5000 miles on foot during their lifespan.

Class Skills: Bluff, Climb, Diplomacy, Disguise, Escape Artist, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Geography, Local, Planes, Dungeoneering, Nature, and Architecture), Listen, Ride, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope

Skill Points Per Level: 6 + intelligence modifier.

{table="head"]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1st|+0|+2|+2|+0|Quick Pace +10 ft, Never Footsore
2nd|+1|+3|+3|+0|Come Along +2
3rd|+2|+3|+3|+1|Persuasive Motion
4th|+3|+4|+4|+1|Unbound, Come Along +3
5th|+3|+4|+4|+1|Passer-By, Quick Pace +20 ft.
6th|+4|+5|+5|+2|Won't Stop It, Come Along +4
7th|+5|+5|+5|+2|Greater Teleport 3/day, Plane Shift 3/day, Keep Moving
[/table]

Class Features

Quick Pace (Ex): A traveler is quite adept at maintaining a high speed. At first level, he adds 10 feet / round to his movement, and another ten at fifth level.

Never Footsore (Ex): A traveler is very used to walking extremely long distances, and so will automatically pass Fortitude saves caused by forced marching.

Come Along (Ex): Traveling with a Traveler is easier than traveling with other people. At second level, any allies of the Traveler (himself included) gain an untyped +2 modifier to skill checks relating to traveling, namely, Climb, Escape Artist, Jump, Ride, Survival (for things other than foraging, such as tracking), and Tumble, so long as they are within 100 feet. This increases to a +3 modifier at fourth level, and a +4 at sixth level.

Persuasive Motion (Ex): When a Traveler says you are going to travel, odds are, you are going to travel--and when they say they aren't, odds are they won't. Third level Travelers gain a +4 bonus to their Trip attempts, Bullrush attempts, and Overrun attempts, and defend from these actions also at a +4.

Unbound (Su): A number of times per day equal to the Traveler's class level, a Traveler may attempt to escape any bindings as a free action. If it is a magical entrapment, such as Maze or Entangle, the Traveler forces a second save as appropriate for the spell. If a nonmagical entrapment, the Traveler makes an appropriate skill check to escape the binding, if a skill check would apply to escaping it, at a +5 to the check. If no skill check could apply to escaping a binding, then the Traveler simply makes a Wisdom check at DC 20. On a success, the Traveler has escaped the binding in some elaborate fashion--if the trap occupies a specific area, he is moved to the outside edge of that area as part of his movement for that round, and is considered unaffected by it (although he retains any ill effects he suffered for being subject to it in the first place).

Passer-By (Su): A number of times per day equal to the Traveler's class level plus their charisma modifier, a Traveler may move from a threatened square as if an opponent did not threaten it (without provoking an attack of opportunity). One use of Passer-By is consumed per enemy threatening the square.

Won't Stop It (Su): A number of times per day equal to the Traveler's class level, a Traveler may add twice their full dexterity modifier to their armor class (instead of their dexterity modifier as limited by the Max Dex Modifier of the armor) before an attack on them is made. A Traveler can use this ability while flatfooted, but may not use it if they are unaware of the attack. This ability can only be used in light armor.

Spell-Like Abilities: A seventh-level traveler can use Greater Teleport or Plane Shift three times per day each as spell-like abilities.

Keep Moving (Su): A number of times per day equal to the Traveler's class level plus their Charisma modifier, a Traveler may declare their next attack with their weapon in a full attack a touch attack instead of a normal attack against a target's full AC.


So, what do people think? Balanced for a seven-level progression, or potentially gamebreaking?

wakazashi.juice
2008-05-10, 07:42 PM
I like the idea behind the class and the story, but the class has too many special requirements; perhaps you should change it to:
Special Must have at least a +2 Constitution modifier, and any 1 of the following:
1:Must have visited at least three planes.
2:Must have traveled for at least two consecutive weeks without stopping in one place for a day.
3:Must have traveled 100 miles on foot during their lifespan.

As far as being game-breaking, I don't think so.

Edan
2008-05-10, 08:26 PM
I don't usually homebrew, but that class is just begging for Freedom of Movement. Either a continuous effect or as a SLA.

Just a thought.

Chumbaniya
2008-05-11, 12:40 PM
Just a little issue, but the 100 miles travelled requirement is pretty meaningless. Everyone with functional legs will have done this by a very young age. Consider, for example, that my walk to school used to be a mile, so each day, not even considering other walking, I'd travel 2 miles, so I'd fulfil the requirement after going to school for 10 weeks.

Maldraugedhen
2008-05-11, 12:45 PM
Unbound mimics Freedom of Movement, so I'm just going to leave it in as that. It is distinct from Freedom of Movement, but it covers the same basic purpose.

Scaled up the distance to 5000 miles. That would mean that walking ten miles a week, it would take 500 weeks to do.

Also changed the requirements to either-or-or, as you suggested, wakazashi.juice.

Also scaled up the number of planes for my actual campaign, since, considering one of the aspects of the setting in the game I'm running, (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37230) three would be really easy to hit.
I'd say three's reasonable for a non-plane traveling campaign, though.

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll
2008-05-11, 01:08 PM
First thing first, I absolutely love the flavour text.

This class makes for the worst enemy of any lockdown build. The Passer-By ability alone can destroy that build.

It seems pretty balanced.

Flickerdart
2008-05-11, 01:12 PM
Maybe granting the Traveler a limited selection of travel-related spells or Psychoportation powers instead of the Greater Teleport and Planeshift? For a 5-level class, progression might be hard to do, but maybe you can do some casting as an optional requirement and grant spells as appropriate from the right Arcane spells, Psychoportation or the Travel domain?

Maldraugedhen
2008-05-12, 12:15 AM
That would make it remotely appealing for a caster-type, which would make sense, I suppose. Lemme take a look at some divine and arcane stuff and see how I can integrate it.

...

Alright, so here's the proposal:
Clerics who take levels in Traveler, if they have a domain that Fharlanghan grants, continue to progress in their domains--but not their main spells per day. Traveler levels are counted as caster levels for spells in those domains, but not in any other divine spells. Ranger spell progression continues as normal (it's pretty well suited to this kind of thing anyway, and really isn't the reason somebody takes ranger in the first place).

That leaves druid, paladin, wizard / sorcerer, and bard out of the base classes. Barring making a list of all travel-related spells and having that as a casting list (something I would rather avoid), no simple solution really leaps out at me.

Hrm.

Well, how about giving spells from the Travel, Protection and Luck domains to anybody who takes the prestige class? Maybe have the character pick one of the three at each level to gain the spell for that level as an SLA, or have the character pick one for the overall progression. Then maybe I could swap the end SLAs with the granted power of the selected domain.

Naleh
2008-05-13, 02:19 AM
He really is passing through... Through solid objects...

As far as spells go, I'd prefer the second proposal. It might not be as powerful, but it's simpler, and leaves the option of spells open to previously non-spellcasters (so even a fighter or barbarian can get everything out of the class). On the other hand, one spell per level? Not a great amount of flexibility there. Also, presumably, they never get access to the level 8 or 9 spells.

Obviously, you'd swap the "cleric" references in domain abilities to "traveler".

wakazashi.juice
2008-05-13, 07:20 PM
Alright, so here's the proposal:
Clerics who take levels in Traveler, if they have a domain that Fharlanghan grants, continue to progress in their domains--but not their main spells per day. Traveler levels are counted as caster levels for spells in those domains, but not in any other divine spells. Ranger spell progression continues as normal (it's pretty well suited to this kind of thing anyway, and really isn't the reason somebody takes ranger in the first place).

That leaves druid, paladin, wizard / sorcerer, and bard out of the base classes. Barring making a list of all travel-related spells and having that as a casting list (something I would rather avoid), no simple solution really leaps out at me.


I'd suggest making a series of feats that allows that, or class feature substitutions: i.e. swapping out Greater Teleport 3/day and Plane Shift 3/day for +1 level of existing spellcasting class or something like that.