The Empowered (Class in 10 minutes, PEACH)

[Jormengand]

Yeah, I decided to up my game and create a class in just 10 minutes! Plus, this one is a character who gains additional options simply by having extra numbers. Please give a warm welcome to the empowered!

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special	Bonus	Speed Bonus
1st	+1	+2	+2	+2	Attack/Damage Bonus	1	-
2nd	+2	+3	+3	+3	Speed Bonus	3	10 ft
3rd	+3	+3	+3	+3		6	20 ft
4th	+4	+4	+4	+4	Skill Bonus	8	40 ft
5th	+5	+4	+4	+4		12	60 ft
6th	+6/+1	+5	+5	+5	Ability Bonus	15	80 ft
7th	+7/+2	+5	+5	+5		19	100 ft
8th	+8/+3	+6	+6	+6	Range Bonus	23	120 ft
9th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+6		27	140 ft
10th	+10/+5	+7	+7	+7	AC bonus	32	170 ft
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+7	+7		37	190 ft
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+8	+8	DR bonus	42	220 ft
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+8	+8		47	250 ft
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+9	+9	Resistance Bonus	53	280 ft
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+9	+9		59	300 ft
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+10	+10	Save Bonus	64	330 ft
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+10	+10		71	360 ft
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+11	+11	All Roll Bonus	77	390 ft
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+11	+11		83	420 ft
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+12	+12	Action Bonus	90	450 ft

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: 1d12

Class Skills:
All skills are class skills of the empowered.
Skill Points at 1st Level: (10 + Int modifier) × 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 10 + Int modifier

Weapon and Armour Proficiency
Empowered are proficient with all types of weapons, armour and shields.

Bonuses (Ex)
The number given as "Bonus" on Table: The Empowered is given as a bonus to certain rolls and statistics.

At first level, it is added to attack and damage rolls. At fourth level, it is added to skill rolls. At 6th, it is added to ability checks such as strength checks and initiative checks. At 8th, it is added as a number of 5-foot increments to the range increment of any ranged attacks. At 10th it is added to AC, at 12th to DR/- (giving you DR/- if you hadn't already or stacking with pre-existing DR/-), at 14th it is added to all resistances (again giving you resistances if you didn't have them), at 16th it is added to all saving throws, and at 18th it is added to all rolls.

Speed bonus (Ex)
Empowered get a bonus to all speeds as given on Table: The Empowered, starting at second level.

Action bonus (Ex)
At 20th level, empowered get a +1 bonus to the number of actions of each type (swift, move and standard) they can take in a round.

[tsj]

A speed bonus of 450 ft seems rather excessive... even for level 20.

or + 80 ft at level 6 ?

Unless this class is supposed to be flash the super hero... But the class also gains many other
types of bonus.

I like the premise of the class though.

I guess also that the extreme speed of such a build would be kinda fun.

Hmm... A race with wings that takes this class would end up being a hyper sonic one creature aircraft?

A DR of 42/- at level 12, isn't that like enabling GOD MODE for that charecter?

A save bonus of 64 at level 16, it that fortitude, reflex and will saves? Seems pretty excessive :-)

Attack, skill and damage bonus values seem to very quickly grow to be way way to large ?

Added to all rolls, this might need more explanation?

[Jormengand]

Well, let's have a look. At level 20, you end up moving super fast, yeah, and you get a +90 bonus on all your rolls, DR 90/-, and resistance to everything 90. That's also all you get, though. Ways to defeat you include random no-save material, spells that deal untyped damage, and so forth. It's a bit nasty, yeah, but you're 20th level. You're meant to be nasty.

A save bonus of 64 at level 16, it that fortitude, reflex and will saves?

It would also apply to your base attack bonus for Bladewind's base attack save

Added to all rolls, this might need more explanation?

All rolls. All of them. Well, okay, unless you're rolling on a table like the rod of wonder or something.

[noob]

It combine greatly with a one level dip into cleric(for one particular domain)

[ImperatorV]

Let's see... Loses to a sorcerer with good spell selection, wins against a warblade without much trouble. Top end tier three or low end tier two. Surprisingly balanced for something with +90 to everything. Guess that says a lot about the tier system.

[sengmeng]

May I point out that if you have DR from some other source and it isn't -, that would hurt rather than help you?

Feels like superman without flight or heat vision.

[Jormengand]

May I point out that if you have DR from some other source and it isn't -, that would hurt rather than help you?

No, it doesn't. The DR/- only stacks with pre-existing DR/-: if you have some other type of DR then they're two different instances. For example, you might have DR 10/magic and 42/-

[sengmeng]

No, it doesn't. The DR/- only stacks with pre-existing DR/-: if you have some other type of DR then they're two different instances. For example, you might have DR 10/magic and 42/-

Ahh, I see now. It's a bit much to put in one paragraph.

[JPlayah]

This is flat-out one of the most broken things I have ever seen in D&D. This class does EVERYTHING minus spellcasting. It's the ultimate martial character. Max BAB (though that isn't bad), max all saves, max HD, more skill points than any other PC class, max proficiencies... It's far too much. If you were going for a joke class, you've done a fantastic job. If you were trying to make something fair and balanced, you have not succeeded at ALL.

The bonuses and movement speed are absurd. With these kinds of numbers, the class will almost never fail a roll and will be almost impossible to even damage at higher levels. (Can you even imagine having DR 90/-??) Overall, the numbers are outrageous and they scale far FAR too well.

Thematically, the problem with this class is that it doesn't really specialize. It doesn't have a clear theme, focus, or area where it can say "This is my specialty. I am really good at THIS thing." It's just good at everything, better in fact than every other class in pretty much every area.

I strongly recommend two things. First, dramatically lower the bonuses, speed boost, and skill points. They aren't reasonable. (A bonus of 10 at 20th level MIGHT be reasonable.) Second, give the class options to specialize in different areas. For example, at a given level, you might be able to gain the bonus on either damage reduction or energy resistance, or maybe the player can choose which new thing to add from a big list of options every few levels.

If this is meant to be an overpowered "I can do everything" joke class, disregard everything stated above, consider changing its name to "The Overpowered," and add in a full spellcasting progression with access to all sorcerer/wizard spells or cleric spells.

[ImperatorV]

This is flat-out one of the most broken things I have ever seen in D&D. This class does EVERYTHING minus spellcasting. It's the ultimate martial character. Max BAB (though that isn't bad), max all saves, max HD, more skill points than any other PC class, max proficiencies... It's far too much. If you were going for a joke class, you've done a fantastic job. If you were trying to make something fair and balanced, you have not succeeded at ALL.

The bonuses and movement speed are absurd. With these kinds of numbers, the class will almost never fail a roll and will be almost impossible to even damage at higher levels. (Can you even imagine having DR 90/-??) Overall, the numbers are outrageous and they scale far FAR too well.

Thematically, the problem with this class is that it doesn't really specialize. It doesn't have a clear theme, focus, or area where it can say "This is my specialty. I am really good at THIS thing." It's just good at everything, better in fact than every other class in pretty much every area.

I strongly recommend two things. First, dramatically lower the bonuses, speed boost, and skill points. They aren't reasonable. (A bonus of 10 at 20th level MIGHT be reasonable.) Second, give the class options to specialize in different areas. For example, at a given level, you might be able to gain the bonus on either damage reduction or energy resistance, or maybe the player can choose which new thing to add from a big list of options every few levels.

If this is meant to be an overpowered "I can do everything" joke class, disregard everything stated above, consider changing its name to "The Overpowered," and add in a full spellcasting progression with access to all sorcerer/wizard spells or cleric spells.

Don't go around throwing words like "Overpowered" at people without thinking.

Let's see... Loses to a sorcerer with good spell selection, wins against a warblade without much trouble. Top end tier three or low end tier two. Surprisingly balanced for something with +90 to everything. Guess that says a lot about the tier system.

Like I said. Compared to spellcasters, this is actually balanced. The fact that it outclasses everything without spellcasting says more about spellcasting then it does about this class. A well-optimized wizard would roll over the Empowered in a few rounds. A smart sorcerer would probably straight-up win in a fight unless the Empowered got lucky.

Not to mention this class is really item dependent. You need magic and preferably ghost touch weapons to do anything at all against incorporeal opponents, you need a way of mitigating miss chances and illusions (+90 to hit does literally nothing when you have only a 1 in 10 chance of hitting at all), you need a fly speed and you need one with good or better maneuverability or that huge speed will work against you, and probably any number of other things I'm forgetting. Also you have no healing so you lose to magic missiles over a long period of time while you swipe at mirror images and incorporeal miss chance. Wait, I've got it: use your uber-fast movement speed to run away - oh wait solid fog. Even if you do have the items necessary, celerity doesn't care about your initiative modifier and greater dispel or disjunction has a good shot at taking out the items the empowered needs to win.

Actually, this class is a good case study in how no matter how big of a number you give to martials they still lose to magic because magic simply has more options.

If you want an example of martials being Overpowered, Jorm actually has done that. Look and the veteran, mundane trickster, ect in his sig.

EDIT: Actually... Now that I think about it there is one thing about this class that is completely OP. The bonus to diplomacy. With a RAW reading a high level empowered can make any NPC worship the ground he stands on. That one might need to be modified.

[JPlayah]

Don't go around throwing words like "Overpowered" at people without thinking.

I'm sorry. That was really tactless of me. Still, how on earth can +90 to everything be considered balanced?

[JNAProductions]

I wouldn't say it is. It's broken in one way or another-either it's overpowering everything, or it's up against something it can't handle without spells, and it crumples.

[ImperatorV]

I'm sorry. That was really tactless of me. Still, how on earth can +90 to everything be considered balanced?

When you've been hanging out way too long on forums

Since I started reading online I have learned a lot of things about how WotC D&D 3.5 can work, and martial-caster disparity. Have you seen stuff like the mailman build? 800+ damage in a single round out of a sorcerer built with first-party material, and I think that was before level 20 too. Oh, and he's still has a bunch of spells known to spend on defensive buffs, BFC, ect. And the mailman still loses to a wizard who knows what he is doing.

When critiquing homebrew you have to keep in mind the goal of the homebrewer. Some people try to balance casters downward to close the gap, while some try to balance mundanes upwards. I've noticed Jorm tends towards the latter a lot and so was looking at this in comparison to tier 2 classes, which it can compete with in some areas but falls behind overall. Thus, I considered it balanced.

[Jormengand]

The real reason I made this class was because this kind of thinking:

Bigger numbers (except in truly extreme cases) don't change how you interact with the world. They certainly don't give you options.

...seems a little ridiculous to me. For example, a +90 to jump checks allows you to jump the previously unjumpable; to strength checks, break the previously unbreakable. Throw the unthrowable, ride the unridable, open the unopenable. Certainly, it adds to the number of meaningful options you have (dealing 12 damage to a creature with 100 hit points isn't meaningful. Dealing 102 damage to it is more meaningful.)

---

As to it being broken... well, a level 1 utterance can shut it in place. Then you can just drop untyped reversed words of nurturing... oh, wait, sorry, you're not me, you don't play truenamers all the time. Okay, how about dropping an energy drain on it? DMM: Intensify would be funny to knock 16 levels off it at once. Similarly, Stygian Conflagration works wonders for a psion. If you overchannel, you can make it 1d4+3 negalevels, and if you wild surge you can get another one off.

You can also lob ice storms from a location he can't hit to deal no-save bludgeoning damage. Solid fog will keep him from progressing.

If you're not a caster? Yeah, it's a little harder, though there are ways. For a start, Disciples of the Word can get through DR/- (though no-one knows what the DC is). They can also dodge all of the thing's attacks, which is nice. If you're just a fighter, you can build ubercharger and watch as he reduces your 500 damage to 410 damage and ends up just as dead. Yes, of course you have that much attack bonus.

Ooh, ooh, I know, trick him into fighting on a bridge and then drop him in a lake, then grab a wand of freezing sphere and freeze the surface. He can keep breaking the ice, but because freezing sphere has a duration (you might want to get an extended version or cast it more than once) the ice will return whenever he does. Or, or, or, grab a wand of wall of thorns and use that to prevent him getting out of the water. Yeah, it can only be broken by spending ages with an axe. Now, each round he's trapped after the (con*2)th, the con check DC increases by 1. Eventually, then, he's going to drown. As an alternative, put him in fast-flowing water, which will deal 1 point of nonlethal damage (because everything deals at least 1 nonlethal) each round.

In fact, just dropping the character off a cliff could potentially deal up to 30 damage.

There are lots of interesting options for dealing with this monstrosity, at least by the time you reach 20th level.

[nikkoli]

Or this would be perfect for a party of optimizers like, I run for, as a couple of +4 mooks, they will hurt and they will be hard to kill but they lack evasion or mettle or SR or PR to completely ignore casters.

[Orderic]

Or this would be perfect for a party of optimizers like, I run for, as a couple of +4 mooks, they will hurt and they will be hard to kill but they lack evasion or mettle or SR or PR to completely ignore casters.

That is actually a good idea. I could use this class to get some quick and easy enemies to throw at my players. Maybe add a few levels of this to a monster and suddenly something that should be level appropriate will actually offer a challenge.