The Fettered and the Unfettered [3.5 PrCs] (PEACH)

[Mr.Bookworm]

Fettered

Most find chains constricting. The Fettered don't. They have seen what comes of allowing yourself to cast your limits aside, and are disgusted by it. The Fettered take their power, their strength, from their code. They may rest easy with the knowledge that no matter how far the world descends into madness, that they and their code will endure.

BECOMING ONE OF THE FETTERED

A Fettered is a follower of a code. From that code, and their devotion to it, they can draw almost unlimited strength.

Becoming one of the Fettered is not something that can be taught. It is an intensely personal journey, one that can only be realized by boundless commitment to a code.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Alignment: Any non-Chaotic
BAB: +8
Feat: Iron Will
Special: Must follow a code of conduct. This may be anything from a simple promise made to yourself, to a set of hundreds of complex rules instated by your church, to a divine compact. No matter what form it takes, you must follow this code without reservations and in whole.

Class Skills
The Fettered's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spot (Wis).
Skill Points at Each Level: 4+Intelligence modifier

Hit Dice: d12

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|

+1

|

+2

|

+0

|

+2

|Mettle, Fearless

2nd|

+2

|

+3

|

+0

|

+3

|Doubtless Grace, Smite 1/encounter

3rd|

+3

|

+3

|

+1

|

+3

|Fortress of Principles

4th|

+4

|

+4

|

+1

|

+4

|Ultimate Conviction, Smite 2/encounter

5th|

+5

|

+4

|

+1

|

+4

|Unbreakable Chains[/table]

Weapon Proficiencies: A Fettered gains no additional proficiencies in any weapons or armor.

Mettle (Ex): At 1st level and higher, a Fettered can resist magical and unusual attacks with the power of their convictions. If he makes a successful Will or Fortitude save against an attack that normally would have a lesser effect on a successful save (such as any spell with a saving throw entry of Will half or Fortitude partial), he instead completely negates the effect. An unconscious or sleeping Fettered does not gain the benefit of Mettle.

Fearless (Ex): At 1st level, a Fettered becomes immune to fear (magical or otherwise).

Doubtless Grace (Su): The Fettered acts with the sureness only those without doubts can muster. He may add his Charisma bonus as an untyped bonus to his saving throws.

Smite (Ex): By focusing their rage and determination into a single attack, once per encounter at 2nd level a Fettered can make a smite attack. They add their Charisma bonus (if any) to a single melee attack and deal 1 extra point of damage per character level. At 4th level, they gain an additional use of this ability per encounter.

Fortress of Principles (Ex): At 3rd level, a Fettered's all-consuming belief protects their mind from outside intrusion. They gain immunity to all mind-affecting effects.

Ultimate Conviction (Ex): For the Fettered, failure in serving their code is not an option. A number of times per day equal to their Charisma bonus (minimum 1), a Fettered may draw upon their limitless conviction to act in a single moment of perfection. They may treat any single d20 roll as if they had rolled a 20. This does not count as a natural 20.

Unbreakable Chains (Su): Even death can only delay the Fettered. Their chains will drag them from the deepest depths of hell, if necessary. Once per day, if the Fettered is killed, they are instantly restored to life with (Charisma score) HP.

If a Fettered is killed, and is not returned to life within a year, they return to the world of the living as if a true resurrection spell had been cast on them. They return to a whatever location they call home.

If they are killed while in violation of their Code of Conduct, they do not gain the benefits of this ability, and must seek resurrection in the normal fashion.

Code of Conduct: A Fettered follows a Code of Conduct that he holds sacred above all else. If he ever breaks his Code in spirit or letter, he immediately loses all Fettered class features. He may atone by following his Code faithfully for a number of days equal to his class level. At the end of this period, he regains all class features.

Multiclass Note: A Paladin may gain levels of Fettered and still advance as a Paladin.

---

PEACH above all else, please. I'm not very experienced at this, and I need all of the honest criticism I can get.

With that out of the way, this isn't quite finished, beyond the usual editing that I'm sure will happen to the Fettered. There's another 5-level PrC called, as you can probably guess, the Unfettered, who are in many ways mirrors the Fettered. Unlike the Fettered, they have almost no limits, and from that they derive their strength. I'm not finished with it, yet, but it'll be up soon-ish.

Oh, and in case you don't read TV Tropes, these are based on tropes of the same names.

So, thoughts, comments, insults, dances?

[Flickerdart]

Doubtless Grace stacks with Divine Grace anyway - they are differently named features. Unless you mean that a Paladin/Fettered adds 3xCHA to saves, that disclaimer is unnecessary. It should also be (Su) as are most or all abilities of that type.

The capstone is quite powerful for a 5-level class with nil requirements - a Fettered NPC, even acting alone, is impossible to eliminate without resorting to Evil practices or imprisoning them (at which point they can go on a hunger strike, which isn't "being killed" so much as suicide, and reform anyway). That's not necessarily a bad thing, but something to consider.

[Mr.Bookworm]

Doubtless Grace stacks with Divine Grace anyway - they are differently named features. Unless you mean that a Paladin/Fettered adds 3xCHA to saves, that disclaimer is unnecessary. It should also be (Su) as are most or all abilities of that type.

Ah, really? I thought they would count as the same type of bonus, but I guess not.

The capstone is quite powerful for a 5-level class with nil requirements - a Fettered NPC, even acting alone, is impossible to eliminate without resorting to Evil practices or imprisoning them (at which point they can go on a hunger strike, which isn't "being killed" so much as suicide, and reform anyway). That's not necessarily a bad thing, but something to consider.

True. Hm. I'll add in a clause to the ability that if they die while their CoC is violated, they don't get auto-resurrected. Thus, the best way to kill them in a permanent fashion is to force them to violate their beliefs, which fits in with the rest quite nicely. Even if they can't do that, it'll still be a year before they come back. Sound good?

[Flickerdart]

Ah, really? I thought they would count as the same type of bonus, but I guess not.

You didn't assign a type for your bonus, so it stacks with everything. The standard Divine Grace is likewise untyped.

True. Hm. I'll add in a clause to the ability that if they die while their CoC is violated, they don't get auto-resurrected. Thus, the best way to kill them in a permanent fashion is to force them to violate their beliefs, which fits in with the rest quite nicely. Even if they can't do that, it'll still be a year before they come back. Sound good?

That's a very flavourful way to handle it.

[Mr.Bookworm]

You didn't assign a type for your bonus, so it stacks with everything. The standard Divine Grace is likewise untyped.

Alright. Took out the second line, and changed it to (Su).

That's a very flavourful way to handle it.

...Do you mean that as a good thing or a bad thing?

[lesser_minion]

You didn't assign a type for your bonus, so it stacks with everything. The standard Divine Grace is likewise untyped.

I'd recommend a clarification -- a better wording would be "you may add your charisma bonus (if positive) as an untyped bonus to all saving throws".

As written, it's really an ability score bonus, and I'd argue that bonus stacking extends to those as well (so in this case, it would stack with divine grace, but not necessarily with the default Con/Dex/Wis to a save).

[Mr.Bookworm]

I'd recommend a clarification -- a better wording would be "you may add your charisma bonus (if positive) as an untyped bonus to all saving throws".

As written, it's really an ability score bonus, and I'd argue that bonus stacking extends to those as well (so in this case, it would stack with divine grace, but not necessarily with the default Con/Dex/Wis to a save).

Good point. Wording changed for clarification.

[Flickerdart]

Alright. Took out the second line, and changed it to (Su).



...Do you mean that as a good thing or a bad thing?

Flavour is always good!

[TabletopNuke]

I like this flavor a lot, and look forward to seeing the second PrC. However, I'm not sure about the balance. It seems very powerful, and a 13th-level character maxed out in the class would be pretty unkillable. It could be a decent way to counteract the slipping power of melee characters at high levels, though, perhaps by changing the BAB requirement to something high like +12.

[Mr.Bookworm]

I like this flavor a lot, and look forward to seeing the second PrC. However, I'm not sure about the balance. It seems very powerful, and a 13th-level character maxed out in the class would be pretty unkillable. It could be a decent way to counteract the slipping power of melee characters at high levels, though, perhaps by changing the BAB requirement to something high like +12.

Eh. It's a decent point. But most full BAB classes need some love anyway, and I wanted to place it at the "sweet-spot" of D&D. ~10th level is the highest level a lot of people play at.

The Unfettered is almost done.

[boomwolf]

This is a very very strong class that I think every level 8 melee will want to take by only wasting a single feat and making a promise to never ever have sex with a troll.

I think the "code" thing needs clarification, or making the abilities related to the code. otherwise, its just too damn strong for no cost at all.

[lesser_minion]

Yes, that is a good point -- you need to put some guidelines in place on what the code can be.

[Mr.Bookworm]

Eh...

It's a good point, but I like to think that in actual play, any DMs would slap their players over the head if they tried something like that. I also deliberately left it open-ended to make it compatible, as well as to avoid the problems that can plague the Paladin's code.

Trying to pin down what exactly kind of code would be required would be pretty hard as well, since the kind of characters I had in mind while I was writing this were Dogs, Paladins, Sir Samuel Vimes, Spiderman, Batman, a lot of characters from Warhammer 40k, and a bunch of others. That covers a massive variety of different kinds of codes.

[jiriku]

Looks pretty good. Simple, to-the-point. Normally I'd be leery of a class that's so heavily defensive in nature, but the defenses are SO GOOD that it's worthwhile.

Needs more class skills. I'd especially urge you to consider the skills that are key skills for the ToB disciplines, as that makes this a more viable option for a crusader or warblade, or just anyone who's taking Martial Study for the odd maneuver.

[Prime32]

A troper, eh?


For the kinds of vows that would be allowed... I considered making some kind of vow system before, where any character could choose to take a vow from a list (which were divided into minor and major) and gain pseudo-magical benefits from the act of doing so.

Let's say...

• Cannot tell a lie
• Cannot attack a certain creature type (Humanoid, Undead, etc.)
• Cannot attack someone of the same alignment
• Cannot attack someone of the same religion
• Must honour all challenges
• Cannot use poison
• Cannot attack a helpless enemy
• Cannot benefit from flanking
• Cannot benefit from limited-duration magical effects

These vary in strength, obviously.

[Mr.Bookworm]

Oh, yeah, I completely forgot about ToB. Thanks for reminding me. Most of the skills are already in there (Intimidate for Devoted Spirit would be the primary thing), but I'll add in Balance for Iron Heart and Stone Dragon.

And, yeah, it was primarily intended as more defensive. The Unfettered, which should be up tomorrow, as it's "mirror" of sorts, will be offensive-focused.

EDIT:

A troper, eh?


For the kinds of vows that would be allowed... I considered making some kind of vow system before, where any character could choose to take a vow from a list (which were divided into minor and major) and gain pseudo-magical benefits from the act of doing so.

Let's say...

• Cannot tell a lie
• Cannot attack a certain creature type (Humanoid, Undead, etc.)
• Cannot attack someone of the same alignment
• Cannot attack someone of the same religion
• Must honour all challenges
• Cannot use poison
• Cannot attack a helpless enemy
• Cannot benefit from flanking
• Cannot benefit from limited-duration magical effects

These vary in strength, obviously.

Oh, and in case you don't read TV Tropes, these are based on tropes of the same names.

Ninja'd by the OP. That's pretty impressive.

I also see that you like Fax's revised Paladin. I do too, but I don't really feel it fits with this. It's intended to be able to cover everything from a religious crusader, to a police officer, to a honor-bound thief, to a Warhammer 40k Inquisitor, to a fanatic minion devoted to a genocidal warlord (sorry for repeating myself). I wanted it to be able to cover a lot of ground, and I feel that if I tried to put limitations on it, something would get left out.