Tunnel Drow Prestige Classes for D&D 3.5 (Please Peach!)

[Warmatt]

So, I've been doing a D&D 3.5 fanfic, and sort of doing some of the mechanical things. Mostly because just having some fun making things. But, I was curious of how you all would find them, and if I did a good job of them.


Tunnel Drow War Mother

Leaders of the gangs of drow out in the tunnels beyond the great caverns, rule of a gang comes down to the one who is strong enough to take on all comers... and fertile enough that much of the gang can be traced back to her. They lead from the front, because without personal strength, how can she defend her right to rule over her children? And yet, if she cannot effectively make her children into an extension of her own will on the battlefield, how can they overcome the many dangers of the deep places of the world? Only the strongest, most ruthless and cunning become of the gang bosses become War Mothers, rising to become formidable bandit chieftains.

And perhaps, in time, a new house in a great cavern city....

Requirements

Gender; Female
Race; Drow
Class Features; Juggernaut Might, Greater Auras
Feats; Fertile
Special; Must lead a gang of Tunnel Drow


HD; D10
Level BAB Fort REF Will Special
1 +1 +2 +0 +2 Raging Warlord
2 +2 +3 +0 +3 Mothers Toughness, Extended Aura (90ft)
3 +3 +3 +1 +3 Commanding Juggernaut
4 +4 +4 +1 +4 Fleet-Footed, Extended Aura (120ft)
5 +5 +4 +1 +4 War Mother
Skill points per level; 4+Int Mod

Class Skills; Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (local) (Int), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (nobility and royalty) (Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str) and Warfare (Int/Cha)

Class Features

Raging Warlord; Levels in Tunnel Drow War Mother stack with levels of Barbarian to determine the number of times per day she can rage, and the rage intensity (Greater, Mighty, Perfect, etc), but not for Tireless, Unstoppable or Infinite Rage. Levels in Tunnel Drow War Mother stack with levels of Marshal to determine auras known and aura strength.

Mothers Toughness; A War Mother uses her character level to determine her DR progression, not just her Barbarian levels. Additionally, she adds her Charisma modifier to her HP per HD.

Extended Auras; At second level and again at fourth, the range of the War Mothers auras expands by thirty feet.

Commanding Juggernaut; At third level, the War Mother can add her Charisma modifiers to the damage dealt with all attacks and to her saving throws. Unlike other similar abilities, the War Mother adds the damage to the roll, instead of replacing the damage. If an aura or ability grants a bonus to the character's Charisma modifier (such as that from the war mother herself, or from items), the bonus does not apply in this case; however, direct bonuses to Dexterity, Intelligence or Charisma do apply. This ability does not stack with Commanding Talent (damage).

Fleetfooted; The war mother determines her barbarian speed bonus based on her character level instead of solely her barbarian class levels.

War Mother; At fifth level, the War Mother gains Barbarian and Marshal class features based on her combined Barbarian, Marshal and War Mother class levels.







Tunnel Drow Fire Keeper

Fire is needed in the tunnels. Less for light, and more because without it, how will they cook their food, purify their water and ward off the chill of the stone? It is for this reason that tunnel drow keep a central fire in their strongholds that cannot be allowed to go out. And while true spellcasters are rare among them, devotion and mystical potential can unlock powers that are unexpected. Bound to the hearths that they guard, Fire Keepers have social and spiritual weight to their words, weight backed up by the fact that they find their native spell-like abilities changing and becoming more linked to the fires. To be sure, their civilized, city dwelling kin would call it petty elementalism, but the fires must keep burning.


Requirements

Gender; Female
Race; Drow
Skills; Survival 8 Ranks, Concentration 5 Ranks
Feats; Master of Shadows, At least two feats that allow you alternate uses of your SLA's


HD; D8
Level BAB Fort REF Will Special
1 +0 +0 +2 +2 Bonus Feat, Hearth Keeper
2 +1 +0 +3 +3 Fire Lore (Dancing Lights)
3 +2 +1 +3 +3 Bonus Feat, Hearth Guardian
4 +3 +1 +4 +4 Fire Lore (Faerie fire)
5 +3 +1 +4 +4 Bonus Feat, Hearth Mother
Skill points per level; 4+Int Mod

Class Skills; Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Class Features


Bonus Feat; At First, Third and Fifth level, the Fire Keeper may pick a bonus feat from the following list. They must meet all requirements. Feats which grant spell-like abilities use your caster level instead.

Skill Focus, Self Sufficient, Seer, Blend into Shadows, Dazzling Fire, Deceptive Illumination, Fade Into Darkness, Fascinating Illumination, Gift of the Spider Queen, Instinctive Darkness, Intensify Darkness, Radiant Flicker, Communicator, Insightful, Necropolis Born, Night Haunt, Highborn Drow.


Hearth Keeper; The chief purpose of a Fire Keeper is to make sure that the gangs central fire, from which all the others spring, does not go out. However, the first lessons she gleans from the fire is how to preserve it. Fires she spends at least ten minutes tending require 10% less fuel per class level. With access to a fire and 5 SP of clay, a Fire Keeper can create an ember in a water and air proof container that will burn and can act as a fire starter for one week per class level.


Fire Lore (Dancing Lights); The fire keeper learns of the following methods to tweak their Dancing Lights spell like ability. At its most basic, they may direct a light as a ranged touch attack to deal 1d6 fire damage to a struck target. Each use of Dancing lights provides four such 'charges' and when all lights are expended, the effect ends. Additional, the following feats allow for additional options.

Deceptive Illumination; You may spend an additional use of Dancing Lights to mimic the effects of a Shadow Conjuration spell, except all damage is fire damage.

Fascinating Illumination; Twice per day per class level, you may give a Suggestion to a target fascinated by your Hypnotic pattern.

Gift of the Spider Queen; You can expend one daily use of dancing lights and darkness to create a Wall of Fire lasting 1 round per caster level. Your mirror images are created being able to use Dancing Lights 3/Day and benefit from Fire Lore (Dancing Lights).


Hearth Guardian; By tending to the fires so carefully, some of the guardians essence seeps into the flames, making them harder to quench. So long as she spends ten minutes per day tending to the flame, separate from her Hearth Keeper abilities, the fire shared her spell resistance and may make saving throws as if it were a magic item (using her saves) to avoid being extinguished. Secondly, she gains a number of additional uses of her Dancing Lights spell-like ability per day equal to her class level.


Fire Lore (Faerie fire); The Hearth Guardian learns to tap into the offensive potential of their Faerie fire. You can choose to add a Reflex saving throw equal to 10 + Class Level + Highest mental ability score modifier. Success ,means they are not affected by your Faerie fire. On a failure, they take fire damage equal to your highest mental ability score modifier per round. Additional, the following feats allow for additional options.

Dazzling Fire; You can choose to add a Will saving throw equal to 10 + Class Level + Highest mental ability score modifier to your Faerie fire. On a failure, they are Confused as per the spell for the duration of the Faerie fire.

Radiant Fire; While a friendly target is benefiting from the concealment, they also deal an extra amount of fire damage on their melee attacks equal to your highest mental ability score modifier.

Gift of the Spider Queen; Your mirror images are affected by Body Blaze. You may spend a daily use of darkness and Faerie Fire to create a Glyph of Warding (Blast and Fire damage only).


Hearth Mother; Those who bond the deepest to the mysteries of the flame end up... changed. At fifth level, the Hearth Mother gains the Fire Subtype and regains one hit point for every two points of fire damage prevented. Finally, the Hearth Mother gains additional uses of her Faerie fire spell-like ability per day equal to her class level.





Tunnel Drow Resourceful Male

City or tunnel, the fate of a drow male is more or less the same. Born into servitude and treated like trash by their larger and more dominant female kin, male drow can still get by. It is literally beaten into them however, that they cannot openly challenge, or even worse beat, females in their chosen spheres. So, a Resourceful Male grovels, carries things and blends in, serving perhaps one or two mistresses and getting by on the scraps, able to find just the things she was looking for, as she left it over there, yes! After all, he is the one carrying their things, while they attend to more important matters. And so, they listen, they hide by being harmless... and they make sure that they never steal the glory that belongs to their kin. They much prefer survival.

Requirements

Gender;Male
Race; Drow
Skills; Survival 2 Ranks, Bluff 2 Ranks, Hide 2 Ranks, Move Silently 2 Ranks, Listen 2 Ranks, Search 2 Ranks, Gather Information 2 Ranks, Any Craft 2 Ranks, Any Perform 2 Ranks



HD; D6
Level BAB Fort REF Will Special
1 +0 +2 +2 +2 Porter, Constant Guardian Sneak Attack +1d6
2 +1 +3 +3 +3 Darkstalker, Scavenge, Aid Other +4
3 +1 +3 +3 +3 Light Step, Sneak Attack +2d6
4 +2 +4 +4 +4 Harmless Wretch, Endurance Aid Other +6
5 +2 +4 +4 +4 Poison Healer, Sneak Attack +3d6
Skill points per level; 6+Int Mod
Class Skills; The Resourceful Male can choose any ten skills to be class skills, in addition to the class skills of one class they previously had levels in.

Class Features


Sneak Attack; As the Rogue.


Bonus Feats; At first level, they gain Constant Guardian as a bonus feat. At second level, Darkstalker. At third level Light Step. At fourth Endurance. At fifth Poison Healer.


Porter; The Resourceful Male multiplies their carrying capacity by their class level plus one.


Scavenge; Each week, the Resourceful Male can make a search check, finding that many in GP for raw materials that can be used in Craft checks.


Aid Other; At the listed levels, the bonus from the Resourceful Males Aid Other action improves.


Harmless Wretch; The lot of a Resourceful Male is to serve, but if they last enough enough? Why, they tend to blend in and know their place well enough they they do not need to be subject to corrective abuse. At fourth level, the Resourceful Male may hide in plain sight with a bluff check, making themselves beneath the notice of their female kin.

[Warmatt]

Mostly just looking for some feedback/thoughts on these. Meant for drow setting out the main caverns and in the tunnels and smaller caves. A more primitive sort of existence for the most part.

[Debihuman]

Clearly you are using homebrew rules about fires in Drow society that I'm completely unaware of. This makes it much harder to assess. In a game, I'd probably never use these. For fleshing out your fanfic or for a homebrew game, these might make more sense.

The drow tunnel keeper is just weird. Drow normally aren't tied to anything like this so I'm guessing this is specific to your fanfic.

What is the penalty if the fire goes out? I'm just curious.

Debby

[Warmatt]

So, its actually based on something I read a little while ago. Basically, 'Tunnel Drow' are the ones that are forced out of even the slums of drow cities and into the wilds. Effectively becoming 'wild drow' in the underdark. However, while the temperature is usually stable (there are a few things that change that), there remains the problems of clean water and cooking food. If the fire goes out, they would not be able to purify water, nor would they be able to cook food.

What would follow then are disease and starvation if the fire goes out, which could lead the gang/clan to disperse and die out. Basically, the dangers of being in a lower tech level in an environment where it can be difficult to climb back up the tech ladder.

[Maat Mons]

If you’re going to design something to stack Barbarian and Marshal levels, I think a feat would be a better way to go.

Fire consumes oxygen, which is in short supply in deep underground caves. It also produces smoke, which doesn’t really have anywhere to go. And where are drow getting wood or whatever it is they’re burning?

It only costs 3 sp + 3 gp to craft a tindertwig. Spending 5 sp in materials to craft a fire-starting solution seems overpriced.

I feel like a prestige class centering itself on spell-like abilities would be better served by adopting the Warlock model. Also, if you’re granting spell-like abilities themed around making food and water fit for consumption, Purify Food and Drink would have been much more direct.

I’m not a fan of giving a bunch of predetermined feats as class features.

It seems weird to put Sneak Attack on a class with poor base attack bonus. If the class is focused enough on combat to get damage bonuses, it seems it should also be focused enough on combat to get medium base attack bonus.

Does Harmless Wretch only apply against female drow? Or can Resourceful Males also bluff animals, constructs, plants, and oozes into ignoring them?

An issue I’ve always had with the Commoner class is that anyone cool enough to be higher level than 1st is too cool to be a Commoner, so 95% of the class doesn’t really have any reason to exist. Tunnel Drow Resourceful Male seems to have a similar issue, in that the theme of the class seems at odds with being the kind of person who would ever attain enough levels to see most of these class features.

[nonsi]

What does Juggernaut Might do?