When You're the One Left Standing Here, You've Reached the Final Bell! (PF PrC PEACH)

[NeoSeraphi]

The Karate Kid

Spoiler

Show

"Try your best to win them all
And one day time will tell
When you're the one left standing here
You've reached the final bell!
You're the best!
Around!
Nothing's gonna ever keep you down!"
Joe Esposito- You're the Best

The Karate Kid is a martial artist who trains in the art of self-defense rather than powerful offense. Karate Kids are generally monks who seek the power offered by the monastery rather than the faith. Unlike monks, Karate Kids do not use ki or spiritual power to fight, they are simply trained warriors.

Prerequisites:
In order to become a Karate Kid, you must meet the following prerequisites:
Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Combat Reflexes
Skills: Acrobatics 5 ranks
Special: A Karate Kid is a defensive warrior. He does not fight with power or strength, and instead focuses on protecting himself and exploiting an enemy's weakness. You may not enter this class if you possess any feats that have a minimum Str prerequisite, such as Power Attack. Taking one of these feats after you have entered this class immediately removes all Karate Kid class features (including bonus feats gained through the class) permanently.

HD: d8
Class Skills: Same as monk
Skill Points Per Level: 4+Int

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special

1st|+0|+2|+2|+2|Dodge, Monk Abilities, You're Open! +1d4

2nd|+1|+3|+3|+3|Crane Style

3rd|+2|+3|+3|+3|Wax On Wax Off +1, You're Open! +2d4

4th|+3|+4|+4|+4|Crane Wing

5th|+3|+4|+4|+4|Unexpected Counter, You're Open! +3d4

6th|+4|+5|+5|+5|Wax On Wax Off +2, Crane Riposte

7th|+5|+5|+5|+5|You're Open! +4d4

8th|+6|+6|+6|+6|Swept Leg

9th|+6|+6|+6|+6|Wax on Wax Off +3, You're Open! +5d4

10th|+7|+7|+7|+7|You're the Best!
[/table]

Class Features: The following are the class features of the Karate Kid.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A Karate Kid does not receive any additional proficiencies. A Karate Kid cannot use any of his class features while wearing armor, carrying a shield or while encumbered.

Dodge (Ex): The Karate Kid gains the Dodge feat as a bonus feat if he didn't already have it. The Karate Kid's quick reflexes and defensive training allow him to get extra use out of the feat. At 5th level, and again at 10th level, the dodge bonus to AC granted by the Karate Kid's Dodge feat increases by +1, to a total of +3 at level 10.

Monk Abilities (Ex): The Karate Kid's levels stack with monk levels when determining the damage of his unarmed strike, his AC Bonus, and his flurry of blows attack routine (this means the Karate Kid levels are also treated as "monk levels" for determining the Karate Kid's BAB when using flurry of blows). If the Karate Kid has no monk levels, he instead gains each of the above class features as if he were a monk of his class level.

You're Open! (Ex): The Karate Kid does not directly engage the enemy, rather, he protects himself and then delivers a devastating blow when the enemy attacks him. Whenever the Karate Kid delivers a successful attack of opportunity, he deals an additional +1d4 points of damage. This damage is not multiplied on a critical hit. The damage increases by +1d4 every odd level, to a maximum of +5d4 at level 9.

Crane Style (Ex): At 2nd level, the Karate Kid gains the Crane Style feat as a bonus feat if he didn't already have it. He doesn't need to meet any prerequisites. The Crane Style is special to the Karate Kid, as it was developed for them specifically. A Karate Kid receives an additional number of attacks of opportunity per round equal to his Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) while in Crane Style.

Wax On Wax Off (Ex): A Karate Kid's hands move quickly and deflect incoming attacks. Starting at 3rd level, as long as the Karate Kid has both hands free, he receives a +1 shield bonus to his AC. This bonus is lost whenever the Karate Kid is flat-footed or would be denied his Dexterity modifier to AC. At 6th level and at 9th level, the shield bonus to AC increases by +1.

Crane Wing (Ex): At 4th level, the Karate Kid receives Crane Wing as a bonus feat. He need not meet the prerequisites. The Karate Kid may spend an attack of opportunity to use the Crane Wing feat an additional time in a round. He may do this a number of times per round equal to his Wisdom modifier (minimum 1).

Unexpected Counter (Ex): The Karate Kid is the ultimate master of defense. No one sees his fists coming from even the most guarded of stances. Starting at 5th level, the Karate Kid still threatens all squares within reach and may still take attacks of opportunity while using the total defense action.

Crane Riposte (Ex): The Karate Kid gains the Crane Riposte feat as a bonus feat at 6th level. He need not meet the prerequisites. When the Karate Kid responds with the Crane Riposte feat, his enemy is caught off-guard and needs to take some time to recover. Any enemy that is successfully hit and takes damage from a Karate Kid's attack of opportunity granted by the Crane Riposte feat takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls and AC for one round. This penalty does not stack with itself.

Swept Leg (Ex): The Karate Kid doesn't take crap from cheaters. By spending a swift action, the Karate Kid may ignore the penalties inflicted by a dirty trick combat maneuver for the rest of the round. He may do this once per day per class level.

You're the Best! (Ex): The 10th level Karate Kid is a master of defensive combat. He no longer provokes attacks of opportunity for moving through or out of an opponent's threatened square. The Karate Kid may move up to half his speed when taking a 5' step. Finally, the Karate Kid gains DR 5/- when fighting defensively or using the total defense action.

[Wyntonian]

Hahaha, I like this! That's a pretty decent movie.

Pre-reqs just reinforce a 3.5/PF truism, that you really need to know from level 1 what you plan to do with your character all the way through. Whether that's good or bad is up to you. An alternative would be preventing use of class features for 24 hours after using a str-based feat.

Dodge and Wax on, Wax off come out to what, a +6 to AC over 10 levels? Nice, but not OMFGBBQ great.

Crane bonus feats are bonus feats. Woot, I guess, frees up those resources for something else.

You're Open.... I'd recommend either including something to make AoO's occur more frequently (Yes, Crane Riposte at 6th, I know), or bump up the damage die to d6 or d8. Right now, it's kind of your only really unique class feature, and it gives you... 12.5 average bonus damage on an AoO. Maximum of one melee weapon attack per turn. Little uninspiring.

How frequently do people do Dirty Tricks? I know there's a fighter archetype centered around those, but still. Thematic, but kinda specialized.

You're the Best is rather excellent. Wouldn't change a thing. Maybe a flat DR 5/- and 10/- when Fighting Defensively, but meh. It's a 10-level PrC's capstone, it should be pretty worthwhile.

[NeoSeraphi]

Hahaha, I like this! That's a pretty decent movie.

Pre-reqs just reinforce a 3.5/PF truism, that you really need to know from level 1 what you plan to do with your character all the way through. Whether that's good or bad is up to you. An alternative would be preventing use of class features for 24 hours after using a str-based feat.

The idea is that the guy has been training properly to become a Kid, not that he has some kind of code of conduct that requires him to not use strength in his favor.

Dodge and Wax on, Wax off come out to what, a +6 to AC over 10 levels? Nice, but not OMFGBBQ great.

Yes. And then when you fight defensively, that's an additional +3 AC (because you have at least 5 ranks in Acrobatics).

Crane bonus feats are bonus feats. Woot, I guess, frees up those resources for something else.

Please reread those features. I actually gave the Karate Kid something special for each of those feats, making them much stronger.

You're Open.... I'd recommend either including something to make AoO's occur more frequently (Yes, Crane Riposte at 6th, I know), or bump up the damage die to d6 or d8. Right now, it's kind of your only really unique class feature, and it gives you... 12.5 average bonus damage on an AoO. Maximum of one melee weapon attack per turn. Little uninspiring.

Because the Karate Kid has Combat Reflexes plus an extra AoO per Wisdom modifier (Crane Style), and powers his Crane Wing feat with AoOs, and gets an AoO every time he uses Crane Wing, he actually has quite a few AoOs per round as long as he keeps getting attacked. It's a nice little set up, I think.

And it's not a maximum of once per turn. You must have Combat Reflexes to take the class, and you get Wis to AoOs per round from Crane Style. I'm starting to think you were just skimming again, Wyn...

How frequently do people do Dirty Tricks? I know there's a fighter archetype centered around those, but still. Thematic, but kinda specialized.

Dirty Tricks are freaking awesome. You get to entangle or blind or sicken a creature for a few rounds, at will, with a CMB check and very little invested resources. So, yeah, the ability to ignore that stuff is important.

You're the Best is rather excellent. Wouldn't change a thing. Maybe a flat DR 5/- and 10/- when Fighting Defensively, but meh. It's a 10-level PrC's capstone, it should be pretty worthwhile.

Thanks. And since the Fighter gets DR 5/- while wearing Heavy Armor at level 19, I figured I'd use that as my balance point.

[Wyntonian]

You're right, I just read the feats without your additions. With that in mind, this is a rather well-thought-out class. In fact, I think it qualifies as neat. A little limited, but eh, 3.5/PF mundane melee, it has some fun tricks. Well done!

Honestly, I think these guys deserve a full fort save. They're tough, even if it's not their focus. Seriously, in the movie the kid dislocates his knee and then keeps fighting. Pretty tough.

[NeoSeraphi]

You're right, I just read the feats without your additions. With that in mind, this is a rather well-thought-out class. In fact, I think it qualifies as neat. A little limited, but eh, 3.5/PF mundane melee, it has some fun tricks. Well done!

Honestly, I think these guys deserve a full fort save. They're tough, even if it's not their focus. Seriously, in the movie the kid dislocates his knee and then keeps fighting. Pretty tough.

Why thank you. Alright then, I'll up the Fort save.

[NeoSeraphi]

Any other comments/critique?

[The Boz]

Seems good and fluffy, even balanced for the most part... but dem saves, mang. Dem saves. Very dippable.

[Wyntonian]

Seems good and fluffy, even balanced for the most part... but dem saves, mang. Dem saves. Very dippable.

Considering the pre-reqs, you're best served by entering from Monk. Monks already have 3 good saves. I mean, of course it's good, but if you're spending a whole level on 3 +2's, and building specifically for that, you could have just gone monk 1 and got the same benefit.

At a second glance, I like this just as much as I did earlier. It's a fun class with some cool synergy that takes you a notch above "I hit it again".