Player Class Warden(City Guard)

[Tornado Justice]

Howdy! It's been a long time since I've been on these forums, but I was wondering if I could get some opinions on this homebrew class designed for Player Character use (but really is intended to be used for NPC's that aren't complete pushovers). I wanted a good option to use in the 'city guard' problem that some of us GM's have when dealing with Player Characters. Now, one could simply give the guards insane AC so that the PC's can't just walk all over them when they achieve higher levels, but I found it unrealistic to give uber amounts of armour to guards of a small town that has little in the way of smithing resources. Making the Guards butch as hell didn't work either, as they could simply one-hit kill the PC's. So here, I present the alternative: The City Guard Player Class that allows GM's to scale city guards based on their needs.



Warden

Some heed the call for honour, some for coin, and some for power. Whatever their intentions, wardens are the defenders of the populace, and upholders of law and order. They are trained to adhere to whatever doctrines their system of government establishes, and to ensure others living within that government do so as well. They enforce the law through expert martial prowess as much as they do through knowledge of local systems. Empathetic yet detached from personal feelings, wardens are not only capable of managing the local populace, but are trained to defend against those who would raze their homes, and can fill the role of a professional soldier. Many are also seen as people to go to in order to learn about customs, places, and to assist during emergencies. Whatever their routines are, they can be counted on to do their job, and do it well.


Role: Wardens intend to accomplish their namesake, guarding their allies and upholding the law. They are tough as nails and proficient with the weapons that represent their city, but their real strength lies in their ability to takedown opponents and force them to surrender using non-lethal means.

Alignment: A warden can be any lawful alignment.

Hit Dice: d12

Class Skills:
Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Local), Knowledge (Nobility), Knowledge (Religion), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession(Wis), Ride (Dex), and Sense Motive (Wis)

Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Starting Wealth: 5d6x10gp/175gp average

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fortitude Save	Reflex Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+2	+0	+2	Combat Training, Bonus Feats
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+3	Bonus Feats
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+3	Guardian of People
4th	+4	+4	+1	+4	Bonus Feats
5th	+5	+4	+1	+4	Guardian of People, Guardian of Law
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+5	Bonus Feats
7th	+7/+1	+5	+2	+5	Guardian of People, Guardian of Law
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+6	Bonus Feats
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+6	Guardian of People, Guardian of Law
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+7	Bonus Feats
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+7	Guardian of People, Guardian of Law
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+8	Bonus Feats
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+8	Guardian of People, Guardian of Law
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+9	Gang Defense
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+9	Guardian of People, Guardian of Law
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+10	Improved Gang Defense
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10	Guardian of People, Guardian of Law
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+11	Greater Gang Defense
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+11	Guardian of People, Guardian of Law
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+12	Ranged Combat Maneuvers

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: A warden is proficient with all simple weapons, City Weapons, all armour (heavy, light, and medium) and shields (including tower shields).

Combat Training: At 1st level, a warden gains proficiency with a one-handed melee weapon, a light melee weapon, and a ranged weapon from the martial or exotic weapons group. These three weapons are known as City Weapons. A warden also gains a bonus to their combat maneuvers equal to their Constitution modifier + half level. He does not need to have a hand free in order to attempt a combat maneuver so long as he has a City Weapon or a shield (excluding tower shields) in hand. At 10th level, rolling a natural 19 while attempting a combat maneuver is always a success. At 20th level, rolling a natural 18 while attempting a combat maneuver is always a success.

Bonus Feats: Starting at 1st level, wardens gain Combat Expertise or Power Attack as a bonus feat even if they do not meet the prerequisites. At 2nd and 4th levels, wardens gain two bonus feats from the following list as long as they meet the prerequisites:

Improved Disarm, Improved Feint, Improved Trip, Improved Grapple, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Overrun, Improved Sunder, Improved Dirty Trick, Improved Drag, Improved Reposition, Combat Reflexes, Furious Focus, Gang Up, Pushing Assault, Shield Focus, Saving Shield, and Blind Fight.

At 6th and 8th levels, wardens gain two bonus feats that may be chosen from the list above, or from the following list if they meet the prerequisites:

Greater Disarm, Greater Feint, Greater Trip, Greater Grapple, Greater Bull Rush, Greater Overrun, Greater Sunder, Greater Dirty Trick, Greater Drag, Greater Reposition, Bodyguard, In Harm’s Way, Team Up, Second Chance, Shield Specialization, Charge Through, Missile Shield, Greater Shield Focus, Swift Aid, and Improved Blind Fight.

At 10th and 12th levels, wardens gain two bonus feats that may be chosen from the lists above, or from the following list if they meet the prerequisites:

Bull Rush Strike, Disarming Strike, Repositioning Strike, Sundering Strike, Tripping Strike, Dazing Assault, Punishing Kick, Ray Shield, Greater Shield Specialization, and Greater Blind Fight.

Guardian of People: Wardens are often putting themselves in harm’s way, and have developed superior physical and mental defenses to help them deal with the constant threats that would fell lesser men. At 3rd level, and every second level thereafter, a warden may choose one ability from the options below.

Restful Sleep - Gain 5 temporary hitpoints after every 6 hour rest.

Empowering Critical - Everytime a critical success is confirmed with a City Weapon, gain 5 temporary hitpoints.

Adrenaline Rush - Everytime an enemy is slain by you while you wield a City Weapon, gain 5 temporary hitpoints.

Hardy - All temporary hitpoints stack, and do not dissipate unless you take damage.

Endless Adrenaline - Once per day as a swift action, you gain 1 temporary hitpoint at the beginning of your turn for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution modifier + half level.

Victory Rush - Everytime you successfully use a combat maneuver with a City Weapon in hand, or successfully defend a combat maneuver with a City Weapon in hand, you gain 1 temporary hitpoint.

Regeneration - You gain fast healing 1 as long as you are wielding a City Weapon or shield.

Second Wind - As a swift action, you may heal 1d6 + Constitution modifier’s worth of damage. This ability is usable a number of times per day equal to half of your Warden level.

Invigoration - Whenever you regain hitpoints, so long as you had a City Weapon in hand, you gain a +2 bonus to AC until the start of your next turn.

Combat Medic - Whenever you regain hitpoints, you may choose to have an adjacent ally regain that same number of hitpoints instead.

Empowerment – As long as you wield a City Weapon, you gain an aura 1 (5ft.) filled with positive energy. Allies regain 1 hitpoint when they enter or start their turn within your aura.

Bloodlust - Whenever an enemy is slain within 30 ft. of you, as long as you have a City Weapon in hand, you may regain hitpoints equal to your Constitution modifier.

Thick Skin - You gain a +1 natural armour bonus to you AC. You may take this ability twice; if taken a second time, instead gain a +2 natural armour bonus to AC

Mind and Body - Gain a bonus to your Fort and Will saves equal to your Constitution modifier.

Meat Shield - Once per round, whenever somebody attacks you while you are grappling another creature and you are wielding a City Weapon, you may gain an immediate +2 bonus to your AC against that attack.

Upper Hand - Whenever you successfully use a combat maneuver and you are wielding a shield, you gain a +2 bonus to AC, Fort, and Will against the creature upon which the combat maneuver was used.

Mage Hunter - Gain a bonus to your Will saves vs. Spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities equal to your Constitution modifier.

Situational Awareness - You cannot be flanked while grappling.

Durable - You gain energy resistance [choice] equal to your Constitution modifier as long as you are wearing armour.

Stone Skin - You gain damage resistance equal to your half-level as long as you are wearing armour.

Excellent Health- You gain a bonus to saves against becoming sickened, nauseated, or exhausted equal to your Constitution modifier.

Intuitive - You become immune to charm effects and the fascinated condition.

Quick Healing - You become immune to poison and bleed effects.

Forceful - You gain a bonus to checks against becoming entangled, pinned, and paralyzed equal to your Constitution modifier as long as you are wielding a City Weapon.

Guardian of Law: At 5th level, and every second level thereafter, a warden gains a special ability that allows him to deal with threats outside the common riffraff normally encountered on a watch. A warden treats his caster level as half of his city guard class level -1 for determining the effects of his spell-like abilities.

Spell Strike – Wardens on occasion are stationed in a city rife with spellcasters. A warden may, as a standard action or as part of a full-round action, dispel a magical effect while wielding his City Weapon so long as the magical effect is within weapon range. No ammunition is expended as a result of using Spell Strike with a ranged City Weapon. Spell Strike otherwise functions like the Dispel Magic spell.

Giant Takedown – Wardens sometimes deal with foes bigger than himself. As an immediate action, a warden gains the benefits of the spells Ant Haul, Bear’s Endurance, and Bull’s Strength for a number of rounds per day equal to his Constitution modifier + half level.

Spell Hunter – Wardens become adept at hunting not only for mundane clues, but for magical ones as well. The warden may use Detect Magic at will as a spell-like ability, and gains training in Knowledge (Arcana).

Pommel Strike – Wardens are experts at discombobulation. Upon making a successful melee attack with a City Weapon, the warden may choose to have the target become dazed until the end of its next turn instead of dealing damage.

Wall Archer – Wardens become accustomed to dealing with threats from a distance. The wardens ranged City Weapon ignores penalties to its first five range increments, and treats damage from this weapon as if it were one size category larger than normal.

Rooftop Chaser – Wardens must sometimes chase down offending criminals. For a number of rounds per day equal to his Constitution modifier + half level, a warden may, as an immediate action, gain the beneficial effects of the spells Feather Step, Feather Fall, and Jump as a spell-like ability.

City Champion – Few manage to muster this level of heroism in the face of danger. For a number of rounds per day equal to his Constitution modifier + half level, a warden may, as an immediate action, gain the beneficial effects of the spells Displacement, Heroism, and Mage Armour.

Swift Responder – Some wardens are eager to be the first on scene, and first to be on the offensive. For a number of rounds per day equal to his Constitution modifier + half level, a warden may, as an immediate action, gain the beneficial effects of the spells Haste, Keen Edge, and Magic Weapon as long as he is wielding a City Weapon.

Interrogator – A warden must learn how to reveal the truth. A warden may use the spells Discern Lies and Detect Thoughts in conjunction with each other at will, and gains a +5 bonus to Sense Motive checks.

Gang Defense: At 14th level, wardens have learned to deal with two foes at the same time. So long as a warden has a City Weapon or a shield in one of his hands, he may use a combat maneuver against two creatures that are adjacent to each other instead of against a single creature. The rolls against the first creature also apply to the second creature.

Improved Gang Defense: At 16th level, wardens have learned to deal with three foes at the same time. So long as he has a City Weapon or a shield in one of his hands, he may use a combat maneuver against three creatures that are adjacent to each other instead of against two creatures adjacent to each other. The rolls against the first creature also apply to the second and third creature.

Greater Gang Defense: At 18th level, wardens have learned to deal with multiple foes at the same time. So long as he has a City Weapon or a shield in one of his hands, he may use a combat maneuver against each creature that is adjacent to himself, or becomes adjacent to himself during a movement in which he uses a combat maneuver. The rolls against the first creature also apply to all other creatures that he becomes adjacent to upon the activation of the combat maneuver.

Ranged Combat Maneuvers: At 20th level, wardens have mastered the ability to take down foes to the point where they can pin people to doors with a barrage of arrows, knock a spellcaster on his back from a distance, or destroy a giants boulder just before he hurls it at the wardens allies. he may use his combat maneuvers with his ranged weapon as far away as his weapon range will allow. He take no attacks of opportunity when enemies are adjacent to him and he uses a ranged combat maneuver. He expends ammunition when he uses range combat maneuvers as if he was making normal attacks.

[jedipotter]

City Weapon Training while the plus is good, +5 is hardly worth it.

Advanced Maneuvering Is good only for high strength guards.

Maybe just roll the above two together and do a +1 per level bonus?

Bonus Feats looks ok

Unarmed Strike I don't really see the need to toss this in. How often will a guard really punch someone?

Guardian Traits I really, really hate the ''pick from this list''. I know people think it makes a more ''versatile character'', but I think it is dumb.

And a lot of the ''cool powers'' don't help a guard at all. Like sleeping in armor? What guard needs that? The same way guards don't need to move fast.

Fearsome Guardian at 14th level? It's a waste then....this needs to come much early, like 2nd level.

And the guard is lacking some basic guard powers like:

Super Natural Sense Motive

See Though Illusions

Detect Polymorph

Dispel Magic

[Extra Anchovies]

Dispel Magic

Agreed on this count. Maybe a dispelling strike ability sometime between 5th and 10th? Or possibly as a Guardian Trait.

[nonsi]

One problem: this class is very front loaded.
1st level grants the equivalent benefit of at least 5 feats.
This makes the class perfect for cherry picking.


Also, you should go over the fluff of this class.
E.g. seems weird to me that someone that acts as a city's defender would automatically possess knowledge of siege weapons.

[Tornado Justice]

Thanks for the input guys! I re-read it several times before I posted, but I guess I was way too tired to pick up on these things y'all mentioned.

City Weapon Training while the plus is good, +5 is hardly worth it.

Advanced Maneuvering Is good only for high strength guards.

Maybe just roll the above two together and do a +1 per level bonus?

Bonus Feats looks ok

Unarmed Strike I don't really see the need to toss this in. How often will a guard really punch someone?

Guardian Traits I really, really hate the ''pick from this list''. I know people think it makes a more ''versatile character'', but I think it is dumb.

And a lot of the ''cool powers'' don't help a guard at all. Like sleeping in armor? What guard needs that? The same way guards don't need to move fast.

Fearsome Guardian at 14th level? It's a waste then....this needs to come much early, like 2nd level.

And the guard is lacking some basic guard powers like:

Super Natural Sense Motive

See Though Illusions

Detect Polymorph

Dispel Magic

I took your advice with rolling Advanced Manoeuvring and City Weapon Training together. It seems a little less cluttered now, and I dropped the weapon training bonus. I was a bit worried that might make it more difficult for the City Guard to doll out damage later in the game (because sometimes you can't hogtie a titan) if I dropped the +5, but decided to change the Guardian Traits into Guardian Powers, which to me feels a bit more relevant to the class, and makes up for the loss of the +5 (Thanks for planting that seed in my brain Anchovies!). The "cool powers" were heavily modified to give them a bit more oomph, and give the guard class a little bit more versatility when it comes to situations where you would actually need to have something like that. Personally, I do like options like these, but you were right about the powers not helping the character.

One problem: this class is very front loaded.
1st level grants the equivalent benefit of at least 5 feats.
This makes the class perfect for cherry picking.


Also, you should go over the fluff of this class.
E.g. seems weird to me that someone that acts as a city's defender would automatically possess knowledge of siege weapons.

Aaand you're right. I dropped the power attack from the bonus feats, so that the player would need to take that himself to access the other half of his bonus feats. I also dropped unarmed strike. I was trying to model the City Guard class partially over a police officer, so that's why I originally included that, but since you guys mentioned it, why would a dude with a sword need to punch anything? On that note, it wouldn't make any sense to have a guard know about siege weaponry. I was thinking about bigger cities, and for some reason I had it in my mind that they should know about something like that. Dropped that.

I changed the damage reduction so that it is available earlier on, progresses at a reasonable rate, and carries throughout the entirety of the class.

I have the problem now though, of what to do with the dead levels? I mean, I could fill them up with Bonus Feats, but then that'd just be silly. Perhaps something related to defending others? Maybe something armour related?

EDIT: Also gave the class some starting gold.

[ThatOneGuy79]

I really like the potential I see in this class! Definitely will keep poking my head in to check on it. :D

[Tornado Justice]

I believe I have polished this class up, and am now ready for more critiques!

- I dropped Fearsome Guardian at level 3 in favour of Guardian of People, which gives characters minor situational benefits that can stack with each other to create more powerful effects as the characters progress.

- I gave the players a choice between combat expertise and power attack instead of simply just combat expertise for Bonus Feats.

- I filled in levels 14, 16, 18, and 20 with feat-like abilities that make the city guard's combat manuevers more powerful.

- I switched the good reflex progression to bad reflex progression, and bad will progression to good will progression.

- I switched the name of Guardian Power to Guardian of Law, to reflect its offensive nature of enforcement.

- I dropped the second wind Guardian Power, modified it, and added it to the Guardian of People list.

- I altered and added many powers to include the reliance of Constitution as a secondary stat

- I made the prominence of City Weapons more important by making the bulk of offensive and defensive abilities reliant upon them being wielded or used in some way.

- I also changed the name of the class to make it appeal more to players, and to make it less...weak.

[Steward]

Second Wind - As a swift action, you may heal 1d6 + Constitution modifier’s worth of damage per day equal to your half level.

Is this supposed to be "usable a number of times per day equal to half of your Warden level"?

[Tornado Justice]

Is this supposed to be "usable a number of times per day equal to half of your Warden level"?

Oopsie. Yeah, that's what it's supposed to be. Fixed.