New prestige class for review: The Reaver

[pestilenceawaits]

I have created a new prestige class. Is it over powered? general criticisms welcome.

Reaver


Reavers are what constitute the nightmares of evil creatures everywhere. Reavers are or once were good men who through battle or some great personal tragedy have become frustrated and jaded with the way evil has run rampant in the world and they seek to stop it at the cost of everything else in their lives. With grim and unstoppable determination they trudge silently forward, efficiently and mercilessly slaying evil. Stories are told of reavers walking through a field of battle shrugging off blows that would have killed lesser men seeking out the greatest evil threat. They are considered by many to be the ultimate judge, jury, and executioner and great champions. Others see them as crazed vigilantes that must be stopped. The only thing that they agree on is that once a reaver has targeted someone that they consider evil they are nearly unstoppable. They have an intimidating presence and rarely have close friends. Because of the nature of their work many cut all ties with their previous lives and go by aliases to prevent retaliation enacted upon former friends or family.

Races

Most reavers are humans, half-orcs or half-elves but particularly jaded elves and dwarves also join their ranks. It is very rare for halflings or gnomes to become reavers.

Other classes

Many classes can join the ranks of the reavers but by far the majority are paladins and fighters. Clerics, barbarians, and rangers are the next most prevalent group among reaversand most rogues are terrified of them, but it is not unheard of for rogues to turn to this profession. Druids, wizards, bards, and sorcerers very rarely become reavers.

Alignment

Reavers are vehemently opposed to acts of evil and in their relentless pursuit of it the can at times be unforgiving. Their lifestyle requires them to be extremely disciplined, the must always be on guard from evil, and from retribution by others. Reavers are all either LG or LN.
Religion

Many reavers are or once were very religious some of them lost faith in their deities other lost faith in the system of laws of the land depending on how they became reavers. Most reavers that are religious worship gods of justice or vengeance some follow non-evil deities of death.

Requirements
Base attack +7
Skills: Intimidate 10 ranks, gather information 4 ranks, and knowledge religion 4 ranks
Feats: Power attack, weapon focus (any weapon)
Special: Reavers must have witnessed or been the victim of a great evil perpetuated by an evil individual or organization that went unpunished. (this can be done in game if desired by the DM) Paladins that become reavers are considered fallen and have special caveats explained further later.
Table 1.1 The Reaver Hit dice 1d10

Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1st +1 +2 +0 +2 Grim determination, Smite evil 1/ day
2nd +2 +3 +0 +3 Fearless, Fast movement 10
3rd +3 +3 +1 +3 Unstoppable force DR 1/-
4th +4 +4 +1 +4 Freedom of Movement
5th +5 +4 +1 +4 Fear Aura
6th +6/+1 +5 +2 +5
7th +7/+2 +5 +2 +5 Unstoppable force DR 2/-
8th +8/+3 +6 +2 +6
9th +9/+4 +6 +3 +6 Smite evil 2/ day
10th +10/+5 +7 +3 +7 Final Judgment

Grim determination: Through shear force of personality reavers shrug off the effects of most spells and spell like effects. This ability grants them a bonus to their saves equal to their charisma modifier (minimum +1) this functions like the paladins divine grace but it does not stack with any other similar ability.

Smite evil: This functions like the paladin ability and levels stack from any class that grants the ability.

Fearless: The reaver is immune to all fear effects (this does not grant aura bonuses like the paladin)

Unstoppable force: Reavers gain damage reduction of 1/- at 3rd level this increases to 2/- at 7th level.

Freedom of Movement: This functions like the spell always active.

Fear Aura: at 5th level the reaver projects as a free action a 30ft fear aura around himself that requires all creatures caught in its affect to make a will save DC 10+class levels+chr modifier or be shaken for 2d6 rounds.

Final Judgment: As a full round action a reaver may make an attack against a single evil creature which opens a one way gate to one of the nine hells and forces the creature through. The creature that is struck must make an opposed strength check with the reaver if the hit is successful. The reaver receives a bonus to the check equal to his charisma modifier in addition to any other bonuses from size etc. if the hit is a confirmed critical the multiplier is applied to the charisma modifier for example a reaver with a 16 charisma would normally add 3 to his strength check but if he hit with a critical with a great sword it would be 6 or 9 with a great axe. If the creature isn’t evil the attack fails and is wasted for the day but does damage normally the same applies if the reaver fails the strength check.

Ex-paladins: Once a paladin becomes a reaver he has violated his oaths his tactics are too violent and unmerciful. In addition to his levels stacking for smite evil (his smite evil attempts per day are dictated by his reaver levels) if he switches to a deity that accepts reavers or his own deity will accept him as one he retains the abilities to detect evil and turn undead as a paladin of his paladin plus reaver levels. All other paladin abilities are lost including special mount, laying on of hands, cure disease, spells, etc.

[icke]

Good idea. But.

1) Taking into account the background information You supplied for this class, they should not be restricted to LG and LN. if they are as grim and merciless as You presume, they should be anything but good, so You should think about either leaving the restriction or change it to "any nongood".

2) the Unstoppable Force is a bit weak, make it DR 2 and 4, respectively.

3) The Final Judgement should not depend solely on strength and charisma, this way the reaver will never banish a succubus or a vrock, for example. Why not change it to something similar to a bull rush attempt, with added charisma for the reaver?

[pestilenceawaits]

if they are as grim and merciless as You presume, they should be anything but good, so You should think about either leaving the restriction or change it to "any nongood".

Thanks for the input. Did you mean any non-evil? I wondered if the DR was low and I am still trying to figure out a good way for final judgment to work I did it the way I did because it is a combination of str and personality that forces the creature away. But I really like the bull rush idea and think that could work well for it I will have to look some stuff up and edit it.

[Kevka Palazzo]

He probably meant "non-good". Your class makes it sound like a vigilante who has decided to take law into his own hands because of whatever event that he witnessed. He's saying that these guys are way too evil in their attitude and behavior to be good. Just because they think they're fighting for good doesn't mean they are.

[Fualkner Asiniti]

Final judgement should be a 1/day ability.

Aura of Fear should be able to be used 1/2 Reaver level + Charisma.

[icke]

Did you mean any non-evil?

I definitely meant non-good, these guys have been good to begin with and now think it's better to feed evil its own medicine. At least that's what I took out of Your flavor text.

Final judgement should be a 1/day ability.

Aura of Fear should be able to be used 1/2 Reaver level + Charisma.

Final Judgement is too prone to failure to be only usable once a day, make it once per 2 reaver levels per day. It is just a different kind of Banishment after all, so if he targets any outsiders with it they 're bound to be back the next day. So maybe the name is not really fitting...

The fear aura is fine if usable at will, since it is not really more powerfull than the paladin's Detect Evil ability. Maybe make it a swift action only usable on the characters' turn if You're uncomfortable with the free action.

[pestilenceawaits]

Thanks for the input I think I will modify it some. I did want the final judgment to be sort of like banishment a little more powerful and not subject to SR maybe I should add a caveat that they are unable to return for a number of days equal to the charisma modifier or something like that.

[jlousivy]

so 5 times a day he can do a 1 shot k-o to an evil person? i'd agree with fualkner, 1/day, max 3/day. He already has a high bab and should have a high str, and i'd say that the reaver is Chaotic Neutral/good.... not quite evil enough to kill good people, but definitely isnt a real law abider, sounds like he'd take the law into his own hands (since before no1 did)

[icke]

so 5 times a day he can do a 1 shot k-o to an evil person? i'd agree with fualkner, 1/day, max 3/day. He already has a high bab and should have a high str, and i'd say that the reaver is Chaotic Neutral/good.... not quite evil enough to kill good people, but definitely isnt a real law abider, sounds like he'd take the law into his own hands (since before no1 did)

Ok, concidering it will be almost certain death for evil non-outsiders, three times per day will be fine. However, if You've got a creative(read: cruel) DM the banishment of evil non-outsiders can result in a stronger evil non-outsider with a devil patron and a grudge against te character...

Chaotic neutral definitely will be te most common alignment among reavers, but maybe we also want to allow for the occasional revenge-driven ex-paladin to exist.
Oh, and a reaver will slay people of good alignment if they consider them evil. In general, they have no means of alignment detection so if, say, a good commoner helps a wounded evil warrior out of mercy, a reaver might well misjudge the situation and attack both.