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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Chainsaw Hobbit's Avatar

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    Default [Pathfinder/3.5 PrC] The Witch Hunter (PEACH)

    Witch Hunter

    "You have tampered with things man was not meant to touch, girl! I can smell the corruption on your soul. Tonight, you will face the gods you have betrayed."
    - Amareo, Witch Hunter

    Witch Hunters are warriors devoted to the cause of hunting down and killing spellcasters. The reason they do so could be religious, philosophical, or even practical - such as in the case of a specialized bodyguard. Some Witch Hunters target all mages, while others only target mages of a certain alignment or school of magic.

    Role: Witch Hunters are trained to resist the effects of magic, and have decent hit points, a good base attack bonus, and superb saving throws. Because of this, they are very well suited to fighting spell-casting foes, and are more than able to pull their weight in other combat situations.

    Witch Hunters are specialized damage dealers in specific and warriors in general. They primarily use melee weapons, wear armour, and fight on the front-lines.

    Alignment: Due to inherent prejudice, Witch Hunters are slightly less likely to carry good alignments. Due to an inherent powerful philosophy, they lean strongly towards law.

    Hit Die: d8.

    Prerequisites: To qualify to become a Witch Hunter, a warrior must meet the following criteria.
    • Base Attack Bonus: +3.
    • Feats: Iron Will, Weapon Focus.
    • Spells: Inability to cast any arcane spells, other than inherent abilities gleaned from something such as race.


    WITCH HUNTER
    {table=head]Level|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

    1st|
    +1
    |
    +2
    |
    +2
    |
    +2
    |Spell Resistance

    2nd|
    +2
    |
    +3
    |
    +3
    |
    +3
    |Smell of Corruption

    3rd|
    +3
    |
    +3
    |
    +3
    |
    +3
    |Smite Witches

    4th|
    +4
    |
    +4
    |
    +4
    |
    +4
    |Uncanny Dodge

    5th|
    +5
    |
    +4
    |
    +4
    |
    +4
    |Sapping Strike

    6th|
    +6/+1
    |
    +5
    |
    +5
    |
    +5
    |Dampening Aura

    7th|
    +7/+2
    |
    +5
    |
    +5
    |
    +5
    |Improved Magic Resistance

    8th|
    +8/+3
    |
    +6
    |
    +6
    |
    +6
    |Improved Dampening Aura

    9th|
    +9/+4
    |
    +7
    |
    +7
    |
    +7
    |Death to Witches

    10th|
    +10/+5
    |
    +8
    |
    +8
    |
    +8
    |Ultimate Dampening Aura, Absorb Essence[/table]

    Class Features: The following are class features of the Witch Hunter.

    Spell Resistance (SU): A Witch Hunter gains spell resistance equal to 5 + its Witch Hunter level. If it already has spell resistance, it uses whichever is higher.

    Smell of Corruption (SU): Starting at second level, a Witch Hunter is capable of smelling the ability to use arcane magic on all creatures within 30 feet. They can also tell what level of arcane spells each creature within 10 feet can cast.

    Smite Witches (SU): Starting at third level, if a Witch Hunter hits a creature that cast an arcane spell within the last five minutes with an attack, the Witch Hunter can choose to deal 1d10 extra damage.

    Uncanny Dodge (EX): At fourth level, the Witch Hunter gains the Uncanny Dodge feat. If they already have the feat, they instead gain a different feat of their choice.

    Sapping Strike (EX): Starting at fifth level, after hitting with an attack, the Witch Hunter can opt to use Sapping Strike. The target of the attack is then unable to cast arcane spells during their next turn. This power can be used a number of times per day equal to half the Witch Hunter's base attack bonus.

    Dampening Aura (SU): Starting at sixth level, the Witch Hunter becomes surrounded by a 15-foot aura that weakens the effects of magic. Enemies within the aura are treated as one level lower for the purpose of determining the effects of their spells. This does things such as lowering the save DCs and durations of their spells. They still have access to all the same spells.

    Improved Magic Resistance (SU): Starting at seventh level, the Witch Hunter can roll twice and use the better result on any saving throw against the effects of an arcane spell.

    Improved Dampening Aura (SU): Starting at eighth level, the Witch Hunter's dampening aura now treats foes as being two levels lower for the propose of determining the effects of spells.

    Death to Witches (SU): Starting at ninth level, whenever the Witch Hunter uses Smite Witch, and the result of the d10 roll is equal to 6 or higher, the target's maximum hit points are permanently reduced by 5.

    Ultimate Dampening Aura (SU): Starting at tenth level, the Witch Hunter's dampening aura now treats the target as being three levels lower for the propose of determining the effects of spells.

    Absorb Essence (SU): Whenever the Witch Hunter kills a creature capable of casting arcane spells, they gain temporary hit points equal to five times the maximum spell level of the slain foe.

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Ettin in the Playground
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    Default Re: [Pathfinder/3.5 PrC] The Witch Hunter (PEACH)

    First thoughts from skimming:

    • Smite Witches should probably be more like, "If the target of a Witch Hunter's attacks is capable of preparing and casting arcane spells or is capable of using arcane spell-like abilities, the Witch Hunter deals an extra 1d10 points of damage."
    • Isn't the radius for Dampening Aura kind of on the small side and requires you to be in the caster's face? How are they going to deal with flyers?
    • Death to Witches looks overpowered to me. I'd suggest having it deal either Con damage or negative levels instead.
    • Absorb Essence is kind of weak for a capstone.

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Goblin

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    Default Re: [Pathfinder/3.5 PrC] The Witch Hunter (PEACH)

    Thoughts on this, more or less in the order I have them:
    • The class requires 2 feats which are generally considered to be largely useless, so you can probably get away with some pretty good class features, on the other hand they are fairly common prereq feats, so dipping may be an issue.
    • The spell resistance you're granting is laughably low. Even when it's first granted equal level spellcasters have nearly no chance of failing against it and that doesn't get better as time goes on.
    • Does Smell of Corruption work like Blindsight, Blindsense or Scent?
    • Smite witches should probably just deal extra damage to anyone who can cast arcane spells. Changing it to a flat damage bonus instead of a rolled one would speed things up a bit, which never hurts.
    • What is your intention with Damping Aura? Do you want all spells to have their DC decrease by 1? Do you want caster levels to go down? Do you want caster to lose access to their highest level spell slots? Your wording is weird and non-specific, referencing things which have nothing to do with the the game terms you're making use of.
    • Death to witches is...pretty terrible to be honest. It's so trivial as to never matter when used by the players and so dangerous as to be unusable by anyone who doesn't want a book thrown at them from the DM side. Adding some way to remove it would fix the second problem, but it may be better to just scrap it and start over.
    • This thing really needs true sight at some point. And probably some way to shut down teleportation too, as is the class has a couple kind of neat things(Sapping strike, Dampening Aura, Improved Magic Resistance) but they have absolutely nothing to deal with any of the really good mage tricks like dimension door or mirror image or Solid fog.

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Firbolg in the Playground
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    Default Re: [Pathfinder/3.5 PrC] The Witch Hunter (PEACH)

    Good points made by the previous two. One question--do you mind at all if I adapt some of this stuff to the setting I'm developing? It totally fits with the idea I have for the role of Paladins in a setting with grey morality.

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Chainsaw Hobbit's Avatar

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    Default Re: [Pathfinder/3.5 PrC] The Witch Hunter (PEACH)

    Quote Originally Posted by Amaril View Post
    Good points made by the previous two. One question--do you mind at all if I adapt some of this stuff to the setting I'm developing? It totally fits with the idea I have for the role of Paladins in a setting with grey morality.
    Go ahead. Put this stuff out there so that people can use and enjoy it.

    I don't even play D&D anymore, having moved on to other tabletop RPGs. I just enjoy making stuff for it.

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