Adrenal Savant [Base Class, PEACH]

[Extra Anchovies]

Adrenal is on the list of words I don't like the sound of. It makes me think of glands, and glands aren't as cool as hitting people until they die, which is what this class does. Wish I could come up with a better name but I'm drawing only blanks here. Surgemaster? Surgefighter? Surge... dude? For some reason I think a surge-related title would be better.

The document should include one piece of fluff, and that is:

"Give it 110%!"

I'm not sorry.

Anyways, feedback:

The pseudo-full-BAB is awesome. There needs to be more of that sort of thing. You might want to explicitly state that they don't get a fourth attack, just to be clear.

Regeneration of Con points per minute means they only need to wait 1 minute/level to regain all of their points. This means they can nova like there's no tomorrow and recover very quickly. Maybe 1 or 2/minute? Encourages being a little more conservative with the points.

When they use a Surge, do they have to pre-select how long a Surge will last? If not, all of the penalties usually won't mean much, because they can keep extending it every round until all baddies are dead, then just suffer the penalties.

Nice to see a class that gets Cunning Action Surge and won't just use it to spam Iaijutsu Focus or UMD.

Ultimate Surge is intense, and comes online too early. To contrast, Time Stands Still is a 9th-level maneuver, and Eternal Blade's capstone (get an extra full round 1/encounter as an immediate action) can only be acquired at character level 20. Level 12 is waaay too early for that sort of thing.

Strong recommendation: disallow the use of Movement Surge, Action Surge, and Ultimate Surge out-of-turn. Celerity with no drawbacks or uses/day limits? Yeah, that's pretty broken.

Fast Reactions is pretty strong, but Diviner wizards get the same thing so eh. Might want to specify class level.

BIG THING: There's a clause in Adrenaline Pool's description that says Surges can be used out of turn, but then Immediate Surge is a thing. Clear this up please. I'd recommend removing the clause from Adrenaline Pool's description. I'd also very strongly recommend not allowing Action Surge, Movement Surge, and Ultimate Surge out-of-turn at all, for the above Celerity-is-effing-broken-even-for-a-martial-character reason.

Regarding the Surge system as a whole: This class would be most easily broken by spamming the hell out of Surge abilities. I'd recommend adding a points/round limit, maybe equal to class level (a la manifesting caps), and reducing the cost of Speed Surge to 1 point/5 feet (both so it's usable at level 1 and because speed increases are situational). This still lets them get +10 to attack (or +5 attack/damage if they want)... wait.

Now that I look at the math behind it, Combat Surge isn't very good. Easy buff: let them choose two options to apply the bonus to, and add DR/— as an option. So they can get AC and DR for defense, attack and damage for offense, defense and damage to try to outlast high-DR enemies, or some other combination. I can see this as a buff that would get extended a lot.

Energy charge is nice, but you may want to provide a duration (presumably till the end of the round).

Body of the Elements is damn strong at a 1:1 ratio, especially since Ray of Frost and Jolt let friendly arcane casters spam recharge effects on a Surgefighter (I'm calling them that now). Maybe they don't recharge if they take an amount of damage less than their Con modifier (to prevent cantrip recharge abuse), and only recharge 1 point plus (damage taken – class level)? Then, they gain a little bit back if they would have been dealt some damage, and can potentially gain a lot back if they're hit by, say, an elder red dragon's breath weapon.

14, 15, 17, and 18 are all dead levels. There's only a bonus feat at 16. This is bad, because it's a five-level stretch with one non-unique class feature. Maybe scale the Surges differently? Speed Surge at level 1, Combat Surge at level 2, Assault Surge at level 5, Movement Surge at level 8, Swift Surge at level 11, Action Surge at level 14, and Ultimate Surge at level 17? Clears up two of the dead levels, evens out the scaling, moves Action and Ultimate Surge to levels where having them is balanced, and sets the progression on track for a level 20 capstone.

On the topic of capstones, the current one is kinda weak compared to, say, Magical Supremacy, Grand Discovery, or Weapon Mastery. Something that builds on their existing features would be better. Maybe this:

Endless Adrenaline (Ex): At 20th level, a Surgefighter has full control over their body's processes, and may redirect their energy however they choose. Each round, they may choose a single Surge ability and gain the benefits of that Surge as if they had spent a number of Adrenaline points equal to their Constitution modifier. They may not choose a Surge they do not have enough points for, and the number of effective points spent is rounded down to the nearest multiple of the chosen Surge's cost (for example, if a Surgefighter with a Constitution score of 24 chose to use this ability to gain the benefits of Assault Surge, they would only gain one additional attack), but the penalty of using that Surge does not apply. They may not use Endless Adrenaline to gain the benefits of Swift Surge, Action Surge, or Ultimate Surge. Effective points spent do not count towards the number of Adrenaline Points a Surgefighter may use each round.