Fury
"He was bleeding like a river by the end, and every strike left him wide open, but no matter how many men we sent against him, he just kept hitting harder." - General Darian Rhomes, after a battle with a Fury
Furies are walls of destruction and death. They become consumed by madness as they fight and are so embroiled in destruction that they abandon their own defense for the sake of eviscerating their foes.
Adventures: Furies are perfectly amicable out of combat and adventure for many of the same reasons fighters do - riches, fame, duty, or heroism.
Characteristics: Furies are practically unkillable. They focus on high-risk high-reward combat, dealing heavy damage by making themselves vulnerable to counterattack. Their ability to take an immense amount of damage while being a tempting target for foes makes them a powerful tank.
Alignment: Furies come from all stripes. Good-aligned furies tend to be almost afraid of their own powers, whereas evil ones wholeheartedly embrace them. Furies paradoxically lean toward lawful alignments due to the self-control required by their powers.
Religion: There are few religious trends among furies. Erythnul, god of slaughter, however, is a popular god among evil furies, and many consider them his paladins. Good- and neutral-aligned furies often worship Kord as a drive to embrace their strength.
Background: Most furies have a powerful or traumatic moment in their past that they tap into as they descend into insanity. Some, however, are always on the brink, and are simply pushed over it by the stresses of combat. Either way, they are typically isolated individuals. There is no central order of furies, though mentoring between a more experienced fury and a neophyte is common.
Races: Larger and stronger races are more capable of handling the stresses that a fury's combat style puts on the body, but any race is capable of becoming a fury.
Other Classes: The immense emotional control required to tap into inner madness without being consumed by it typically makes furies very reserved, calm people outside of combat. This leads to them getting along well with - although rarely befriending - most others they meet. They have respect for monks, wizards, and other classes who gain power from their self-control and self-discipline. They identify with barbarians, but operate upon a different level than them and thus tend not to get along well.
Role: Furies are frontline damage dealers and tanks - their abilities focus largely on the tank role.
Adaptation: Furies have no class features (save Clouded Vision) that cannot be flavored as coming from raw mental focus. A masterful martial artist or monk could use the same chassis without seeming out of place.
GAME RULE INFORMATION
Furies have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Strength and Constitution help improve a fury's role on the frontlines, while Wisdom and Dexterity help shore up their weak saving throws. Dexterity's AC boost is surprisingly counterproductive, since Madman's Stance will be obliterating the fury's AC anyway.
Alignment: Any alignment.
Hit Die: d12
Starting Age: As barbarian.
Starting Gold: As barbarian.
Class Skills
The fury's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), and Spot (Wis).
Skill Points at First Level: (2 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier
FURY
{table=head]
Level|
Base Attack Bonus|
Fort Save|
Ref Save|
Will Save|
Special
1st|
+1
|
+2
|
+0
|
+0
|Insanity, Madman's Stance, Simmering Rage 5, Know My Pain (1/2x)
2nd|
+2
|
+3
|
+0
|
+0
|Clouded Vision
3rd|
+3
|
+3
|
+1
|
+1
|Madness Manifest
4th|
+4
|
+4
|
+1
|
+1
|Simmering Rage 10
5th|
+5
|
+4
|
+1
|
+1
|Know My Pain (return damage)
6th|
+6/+1
|
+5
|
+2
|
+2
|Madness Manifest II
7th|
+7/+2
|
+5
|
+2
|
+2
|To the Brink (1/day)
8th|
+8/+3
|
+6
|
+2
|
+2
|Simmering Rage 15
9th|
+9/+4
|
+6
|
+3
|
+3
|Madness Manifest III
10th|
+10/+5
|
+7
|
+3
|
+3
|Know My Pain (1x)
11th|
+11/+6/+1
|
+7
|
+3
|
+3
|To the Brink (2/day)
12th|
+12/+7/+2
|
+8
|
+4
|
+4
|Simmering Rage 20, Madness Manifest IV
13th|
+13/+8/+3
|
+8
|
+4
|
+4
|Mettle
14th|
+14/+9/+4
|
+9
|
+4
|
+4
|To the Brink (3/day)
15th|
+15/+10/+5
|
+9
|
+5
|
+5
|Madness Manifest V
16th|
+16/+11/+6/+1
|
+10
|
+5
|
+5
|Simmering Rage 25
17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2
|
+10
|
+5
|
+5
|To the Brink (4/day)
18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3
|
+11
|
+6
|
+6
|Madness Manifest VI
19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4
|
+11
|
+6
|
+6
|To the Brink (at-will)
20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5
|
+12
|
+6
|
+6
|Simmering Rage 30, Madness Incarnate[/table]
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Fury.
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Furies are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light, medium, and heavy armor.
All other class features go here (Use the format shown directly below if you don't know what to do.)!
Insanity: Furies draw from their own madness in combat. This madness is represented by their Insanity score, which begins each combat at 0 and increases by 1 each time the Fury makes a successful attack or is successfully hit. His Insanity cannot be higher than half his Fury level (rounded up). Insanity immediately reduces to 0 when combat ends.
Madman's Stance (Ex): Insanity drives a Fury's attacks. In combat, he gains a bonus to attack rolls equal to his current Insanity. However, his wild swings put him off balance, giving enemies an equal bonus to attack rolls to hit him.
Simmering Rage (Ex): Pain is hidden behind a mask of rage for a fury. When they are struck, they are not immediately injured. Furies have a delayed damage pool that begins each encounter at 0. Any damage dealt to them by attacks is added to this pool. At the end of their next turn, they take the amount of damage stored in the pool and the pool is reduced to 0. This damage cannot be mitigated in any way. Any healing received can be split between a fury's Simmering Rage pool and their hit points as desired.
At 1st level, a fury's delayed damage pool holds up to 5 points of damage. Any damage beyond this amount is dealt directly to your hit points, as normal. At 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th level, the amount of damage held by the pool increases by 5.
Know My Pain (Ex): A fury can release their own injuries upon their foes. Each time they hit with a weapon, they deal additional damage equal to their insanity as long as there is at least one point of damage in their Simmering Rage pool. At level 5, each such attack reduces their Simmering Rage pool by up to half the bonus damage (rounded up). At level 10, the attacks instead reduce their Simmering Rage pool by up to the value of the bonus damage.
Clouded Vision (Ex): Starting at level 2, a fury becomes too embroiled in combat to be able to quickly differentiate friend and foe. If the fury has built at least one point of insanity and an ally provokes an attack of opportunity in a square the fury threatens, he must take the attack of opportunity if he is able.
Madness Manifest (Su): The central pillar of the fury is the eldritch power they gain from their madness in combat. At level 3, they choose one of three paths to follow to determine how they draw strength from their rage.
<TBA>
To the Brink (Ex): With a tense of their muscles and a bloodcurdling roar, a fury can bring themselves instantly to a state of pure rage. Once per day they can set their insanity instantly to its maximum value. Activating this ability is a free action. At 11th level and every three levels thereafter, To the Brink can be used an additional time per day. At level 19, it is usable at-will.