Heartbroken (Prc)

[Elurindel]

To love someone is life's greatest joy. To have that joy ripped from you is its greatest pain, to the extent, where some few, tormented individuals epitomise the emotion, to the point where it takes magical form. These are those individuals. Most Heartbroken are loners by nature, and almost always have turned to evil, in a numb-minded, overpowering wave of grief and spite, to cause the same sort of pain ti feels to all around it.

Pre-requisites:
Knowledge (arcana) 8 ranks
Alignment: Any Evil
Special: The character must have lost their love somehow, be it a break up, or death.

Hit Dice: D8
BAB: +1 per level
Skill Points: 2+Int Modifier
Class Skills: Bluff (Cha), Diplomacy (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Listen (Wis) Move Silently (Dex) and Spot (Wis)

Special Abilities.
1. Manifestation: This is where the beginnings of the Heartbroken's power begins to show. Hir body is wracked with an aura of cold, unstoppable grief, and shi begins to almost take comfort in it.
A 1st level Heartbroken gains resistance to Cold 5, and exudes an aura that brings the temperature down by 10 degrees celsius to everyone within 5ft. In addition, shi may exist comfortably in cold conditions, as per Endure Elements, but without the heat.
However, a heartbroken also permanently suffers from Crushing Despair, as per the spell.

2. Spread of Misery, 10ft. : At 2nd level, the aura of the Heartbroken is noticeable from a small distance, and more powers begin to manifest themselves. The Crushing Despair the Heartbroken feels affects all creatures within 10ft (DC to resist = 10+Heartbroken level+Cha modifier). The creature is also able to cast Love's Pain, as per the spell, with a caster level equal to 6+Heartbroken levels.

3.Greater Manifestation: A Heartbroken by this time has lost all hope of ever puling itself out of the grief that it feels, and seeks only to spread it, under the slightest provocation. The effects of the Crushing Despair upon it double to a -2 penalty (This includes those within range of its aura), its cold resistance goes to 10, and the character must succeed on a DC 14 Will save to resist the temptation to attack any intelligent creatures that are obviously acting as a couple within range of its sense.

4. Spread of Misery 20ft. The range of the Heartbroken's aura increases to 20ft.

5. Epitome of Despair and Destruction:
The Heartbroken becomes a wreck of its former self, seeking only to strangle the happiness from all of life. Its hope in all things solid in life deteriorates, to the point where even its possessions reflect this, and not even the dreadest cold penetrates its hide, and physical pain serves only to reinforce its fervent belief in hopelessness.
The Heartbroken becomes immune to cold, and its aura radiates a temperature of 0 degrees.
Any damage inflicted upon the Heartbroken is treated as if shi were under the effects of a Masochism spell. The extra effects wear off 10 rounds after the damage was inflicted.
In addition, every object in the Heartbroken's inventory begins to feel the effects of the endless misery, and each week spent in the possession of Heartbroken causes it to lose a point of hardness, to the point where the item simply falls apart at 0 points. Magic items get a fortitude saving throw against this effects, equal to their caster level, DC = 10+Heartbroken Level+cha modifier.
Coins do not suffer this effects until they are used to buy something. By which point, they will crumble within weeks of the other party receiving them.
Mending cast upon objects damaged in this way gain a point of hardness back.

Ok, this is my first try at a prestige class, so please be nice. What do you think? (I recently split up with somebody, and the way I feel right now inspired this)

[jdrich]

I believe that one of the incorporeal undead creatures are the result of lovelorn torment leading to death. Perhaps this PrC could be a magical, living transition into that creature?

That is to say, the PrC is so wrapt with unhappiness that they die out of a supremely powerful lack of the will to live.

Just I thought. I can't quite remember the name of the creature, however. I'll check my books.

[Umbral_Arcanist]

Very cool idea, i like it. If Jonathen finds that undead, you may want to advance the class to transform into that eventually. Don't forget to add the saves, which are good and which are bad. As to the constant crushing dispare, i do not know that spell very well so that may not be worth benifits the class brings.

Also what if the character gets his/her love back, whether they find another or their old love comes back?

[Maryring]

I would say that it is underpowered. And what would happen if the heartbroken was subjected to a Good Hope spell? Also, having all his items ruined and all rolls with a substraction of -2... I would NEVER choose this class so I would say that it is VERY underpowered.

[Elurindel]

Thanks for the feedback. It was a momentary thought, and I am thinking of expanding the PrC to 10 levels, ending with the Heartbroken being able to cast Apocalypse From The Sky without the necassary material component, but that would take a little working. It's more of an NPC PrC.

[Maryring]

Uh... no. That spell is WAY too powerful and shouldn't be an inborn ability from the class. And even then, you need to be a part of the vilest evil to use it. This seems more like a MitD type class. Evil, but not to the core.

[Ugly_Panda]

It's cool (no pun intended), but really weak for a player class. As an npc class, it's fine, but I don't think there are any npc presstige classes, so it needs more power. There has to be some type of reason why somebody's heart would just suddenly manifest power. Maybe this class should require you to be a spellcaster or have been exposed to undead, or something odd like that.
Nobody should be able to cast apocalypse from the sky at will. That desecrated spell is nuts, its range is measured in miles.

[Venatius]

I really dunno about the mechanics, but what initially sounded like a lame idea actually turned out pretty cool by the time I was done reading. I'd love to see this developed and honed.

[Elurindel]

It's cool (no pun intended), but really weak for a player class. As an npc class, it's fine, but I don't think there are any npc presstige classes, so it needs more power. There has to be some type of reason why somebody's heart would just suddenly manifest power. Maybe this class should require you to be a spellcaster or have been exposed to undead, or something odd like that.
Nobody should be able to cast apocalypse from the sky at will. That desecrated spell is nuts, its range is measured in miles.

I know, but the fact that it takes 24 hours to cast means any bystanders would get approximately 2400 attacks of opportunity, and the constant wisdom drain until you get into the right place to cast it would be seriously detrimental. not to mention that you are also caught in the blast.
I was thinking of having it so that you could prepare it as a one-off thing, like the Heartbroken's revenge against the world.

[OzymandiasVolt]

Hmm...looks interesting, but I'm not sure it's very practical.
Also, why do people insist on making PrCs for every horrible thing that happens to a person? Sometimes things happen, and don't need a class to go with it.

Examples of homebrew PrCs I've seen that make bad things grant power for some strange reason include: losing an arm (I am inexplicably better at fighting than a guy with two arms!), being blind (oh ho, I am blind and thus can see better than you even though it makes no sense at all and is completely counterintuitive and annoying and this really means anyone who want to have amazing sight should BLIND THEMSELVES FIRST), and person who has suffered severe mental problems (because being insane should entitle you to amazing powers, instead of entitling you to a padded room).

Two comments:
1. The auras and such as more suited to single-PC parties or NPCs, since nobody's going to want to get anywhere near this guy.
2. Lose the pretentious 'hir' and 'shi' nonsense. They aren't real words, and in this instance it's not even necessary since 'he' and 'his' can refer to an entity of unspecified gender. (Of course that doesn't stop a bunch of hypocritical people from zeroing in on it and complaining about how 'sexist' it is, but that's a different discussion altogether.)

(Actually, shi and hir ARE real words, but not in the way you were using them. <_<)

[Casualgamer]

Woah, mega emo, but I guess it could work for certain slimy villians...

[FlashFire]

It's Debbie Downer, the Prestige Class! Actually I kind of like it... but it almost seems like a one-shot character situation thing. I would lend it more to service in the NPC world. I like custom prestige classes being used AGAINST players because it gives them something they didn't expect to see.

"An Aura of Cold from this guy? Where the heck did that come from?!" Little things they may not be able to predict. Fun times.

[BardicLasher]

I think the Dirgesinger is designed to be something like this?

[Elurindel]

I've already seen the Dirgesinger.
As for being Emo, this is cooler than any emo. He doesn't have the ridiculous hairstyle that affects his depth perception, for one :p
Oh, and that was my first use of "shi" and "hir", and I don't think I'll use them again. Too much effort to remember, and I don't actually believe in extreme political correctness.