[Class] Constable (needs help)

[Myiven]

As a real life cop and as a huge fan of Terry Pratchett, I've wanted a medieval/fantasy cop class for D&D. Since I'm working on designing a homebrew campaign, I decided to go for it and design one.

My idea was for sort of a city ranger with no magic ability, and some interesting codes of ethics to follow and rules to obey.
It is most definitely not a powerhouse of combat, and a Munchkin would run away screaming if told to play this class. At best it's a sub-par Rogue outside of a city, and a better-than-average Ranger inside a city.

I need a few more features to make it more interesting to play, and it needs BAB advancement tables.


Constable
The Law of the City
With cities come civilization, with civilization comes law, with law comes crime, and with crime comes the Constable in hot pursuit. Sworn to a city through an oath of office, bound to enforce the law for good or for evil, the Constable is the paragon of strict ethics and lawfulness.
Adventures
Constables prefer to stay in the city, where their network of contacts and informants gives them a vast pool of resources to draw on, and their skills of tracking are best put to use. Constables will leave the city if necessary, but lose many of their police powers and privileges on the road.
Characteristics
The Constable is proficient with Rogue weapons, preferring the less-lethal weapons to blades. A typical Constable uses a cudgel and a short sword, but other combinations exist. Constables are masters of the streets, where they wade through the mass of humanity like predators in the wild. They can fight, track, run, talk, and trick their way through nearly any urban situation, though their usefulness outside a city is limited.
Alignment
Constables can be of any Lawful alignment. Good Constables serve the law because they believe it will bring justice and fairness to all. Neutral Constables serve the law due to the fairness and balance its brings between the poor and the rich classes, and acts as a great equalizer. Evil Constables use the law to their own ends, abusing their power for their own ends.
Religion
Constables can follow any religion, though many are agnostic due to their often cynical mindset.
Background
All Constables are employed by a city in the city's watch, guard or law enforcement organization. They can swear in to other cities' organizations, but must swear into a city to gain their authority and police powers. Some Constables work for less moral cities, but all of them work for cities with a Lawful ethical alignment.
Races
Humans are usually Constables, but all races with cities can be Constables if they live in a city that employs a police or guard force.
Classes
A Constable, as a rule, gets along with law abiding people. Good Constables are natural allies of Paladins, and Constables of all alignments get along with Monks. Rogues are the antithesis of the Constable, and while most Constables are pragmatic enough to work with a Rogue for a common goal, they are wary of them and don't like them. their natural enemy.
Game Rules
Abilities: Constables draw heavily on cunning, guile, and manipulation to bring in their culprit, but must also fight. Intelligence, Charisma, Constitution and Strength are all important, but a clever Constable can make up for his shortcomings with other abilities
Alignment: Any Lawful
Hit Die: d10
Class Skills
The constable's class skills are: Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidation, Gather Information, Knowledge (Local, City), Listen, Search, Sense Motive, Spot
Skill points at 1st level: (6+Int modifier) x 4
Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Light and Medium Armor, Short Sword, Mace, Crossbow
Special Abilities: Call for Backup: A Constable in good standing can summon other members of the Watch to aid him, regardless of his situation. Ability requires the Watch to have backup on duty, requires that the Watch know where the Constable is, and requires some way for the Constable to call for help.
Track: Constables gain the Track feat at their 3rd level.
Hound on the Trail: Constables gain a +8 bonus to their Climb, Jump and Tumble skills when in hot pursuit of a criminal within city limits. This bonus disappears if they engage anyone in combat, leave the limits of a city, or retreat. The ability does not count towards non-criminal enemies.
Improved Non-Lethal Damage: Constables cannot deal lethal damage in city limits except in defense of their lives, but their training in non-lethal subduing damage allows them to do double damage towards incapacitation.


Comments and suggestions are most welcome!

[Winged One]

The city version of Track

[chaosbrand]

I remember the Ravnica novel when I see this.

As for its class features, you might want to add in some more as it seems underpowered (they even have a disadvantage, as they can't deal lethal damage). Perhaps something that would aid them in combat.

[Fizban]

You could always make it an NPC class, unless you want the PC's enforcing the law.

[chaosbrand]

Maybe you can give it some bonuses for gather information and intimidate, since real-life cops are better at those than ordinary people.

Does their track only apply within urban area, or anywhere at all?

[Myiven]

It should probably apply to both, but be limited to humanoids. I'm not sure. I really need to get a group together to playtest some of this stuff in an actual game instead of just a quick me vs me scenario.

[Lord Iames Osari]

If you are basing this class even loosely on the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, how the heck do you justify requiring a Lawful alignment? ;)

[Myiven]

Mostly because we don't need a new Rogue class. Plus Lawful doesn't always mean nice, and if it *were* the AMCW, the only alignment that would fit them would be Chaotic Nonsense.

Cloning the AMCW would lead to a comedy class, and I'm trying to make a class that lends itself to serious play, but has potential for comedy in some things. I'm working on a special ability called "What's All This Then?" to add to it.

[Wizzardman]

Looks pretty good. You might want to take a look at the Justiciar class from Complete Warrior; I made a Watchman character myself, recently, and have been using that as a prestige class.

Ideas that may be helpful: Unarmed Strike and Improved Grapple are both very popular and very useful for law enforcement [especially since they don't require weapons, and can be used for nonlethal attacks]. Improved Disarm might also be nice. Some sort of ability to help handle magical problems would also help [magic can be really annoying for cops].

Heal might be a good skill to have; usually, you want to avoid killing off the guy you just beat down, so he/she can stand trial. Other than that, seems pretty good.

[Myiven]

Some new features I'm adding in:

What's All This Then?: Constable receives a +4 bonus to Diplomacy, Bluff and Intimidation checks in the first five minutes after arriving on a scene or the beginning of an encounter.

Improved Grapple: Constables receive the Improved Grapple Feat at level 6.

You're Nicked, Chum: Constabled receive a +1 bonus to Grappling checks for every 2 levels of Constable (capped at +8) if the subject they are arresting their target.


By and large, this is a class for me to play with a GM who's approved it, but I want it to be playable and fun for someone who wants to play a copper. :)