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ChaotikLawfull
2006-01-14, 12:54 PM
In a fit of boredom, I decided to craft a custom prestige class. The result is the nightblade. It is a mix of Arcane Trickster and Assasin, and was made for those evil (or just nongood) rogue-mages who don't really want to go with either of the two. Please examine and critique honestly.

THE NIGHTBLADE
Hit Die: d4

Feats: Spell Focus: Illusion
Skills: Hide 6 Ranks, Move Silently 6 Ranks
Spells: Ability to cast Invisibility and at least three other Illusion spells of 2nd level or greater.

Class Skills: Bluff, Hide, Move Silently, Gather Information, Concentration, Spellcraft,
Knowledge (Local) , Knowledge (Arcana) , Disguise, Disable Device, Spot, Listen, Search,
Sleight of Hand, Use Rope, Escape Artist, Tumble, Jump, and Climb.

Skill Points at each level: 4+Int modifier

BAB: As Rogue
Saves: As Rogue
Spells: As existing spellcaster class

Class Features:
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Nightblades are proficient with daggers, shortbows, saps, shortswords,
light and hand crossbows, and rapiers. They are proficient with light armor but not with shields of
any type.

Sneak Attack: Exactly like the rogue ability. The extra damage dealt increases by +1d6 every two levels
starting at second level. (2,5,7,9)

Uncanny Dodge: Starting at 4th level, a Nightblade retains his Dexterity bonus to AC regardless of
being caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. (He still loses any Dexterity bonus to
AC if immobilized.) If a character gains uncanny dodge from a second class the character automatically
gains Improved Uncanny Dodge.

Invisibility: At 2nd level, a Nightblade can cast Invisibility once per day as a spell-like ability.
Its caster level is equal to the character's amount of Nightblade levels.

Darkness: At 4th level, a Nightblade can cast Darkness once per day as a spell-like ability.
Its caster level is equal to the character's amount of nightblade levels.

Spell Failure reduction: At 3th level, a Nightblade's Arcane Spell Failure decreases by 5%, but only
when wearing light armor. His spell failure further decreases by another 5% at the 7th level.

Hide in Plain Sight: At 10th level, a Nightblade can use the Hide skill even while being observed.
As long as he is within some sort of shadow, an assasin can hide himself from view in the open without
having anything to actually hide behind. He cannot, however, hide in his own shadow.

The Prince of Cats
2006-01-15, 12:59 PM
Wasn't Nightblade a 2e kit that could use any 'shadow'-type spell with extra proficiency?

ReluctantDragon
2006-01-15, 08:38 PM
On quick examination the best thing to take this PrC would be a disgruntled bard. You might want to go back and fiddle with the prerequisites make it more suitable for a rogue base class with a shot of arcane caster.

Deleran
2006-01-15, 09:32 PM
How useful are the spell-like abilities, really? The character can undoubtedly cast those anyway. And at only 1/day.

Beelzebub1111
2006-01-15, 10:17 PM
add spellcraft as a class skill

Everyman
2006-01-15, 11:00 PM
Based off your requirements to enter the class, I would say the focus of the class was to be an invisible mage/slayer, with a big emphasis on rendering the senses (notably sight) useless.

NIGHTBLADE REVIEWRequirements: Not too bad. Requiring a total of four different Illusion spells is a bit much, though. Instead, why not lower the required supplement spells from three to two? This simplifies the design a bit, and allows characters to take this around 6th or 7th level (the usual ideal for starting a PrC).
HD, BAB, Saves: This fits the sneaky ideals that you seem to be leaning towards, so there's no problems here.
Spell Progression: Here's my first big objection. I understand why this class would have spell progression. However, full progression plus a bunch of abilities doesn't seem right to me. I'd remove at least two levels of progression (perhaps 3rd and 8th level).
Sneak Attack: For starters, your progression says "every two", but you list it starting at 2nd and then progressing at 5TH. Also, you're running into the same design flaw as above (too many progressions). Start at 2nd level, but go every three (2, 5, and 8).
Uncanny Dodge: No problems here.
Spell-like Abilities: Overall, these are pretty useless as single shot abilities (especially since the duration is so short). Either give them additional uses (suggested) or add some more to the list.
Everything Else Listed: Looks good to me.

There is just one thing about your class that bugs me: it's kind of hollow. After 4th level, there is little flavor in your class (other than allowing some progression on spells and adding some sneak attack). Since you seem so focused on fooling others, why grant some other abilities to help fill in the gap. Here's some ideas:
* Upgrade how often nightblades can use their spell-like abilities. I know I said it once, but it seemed important to mention it again.
* Grant some sort of superior sight ability, such as the ability to see in complete darkness, even magical darkness, or perhaps even a true sight effect/spell-like ability. (NOTE: The latter should not come any earlier than 9th level).
* Make their Illusion spells paticularly hard to dispel (+1 bonus to the DC).
* Improve invisibility and darkness to greater invisibility and greater darkness.
Now, I would recommend incorporating all these ideas. You really only need to add about a between 6th and 9th level. Here's my suggested build:

6th level: Greater Invisibility 2/day
7th level: "Superior Sight"...Able to see in complete darkness, etc.
8th level: Greater Darkness 2/day

All in all, not a half bad job. Nice.