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View Full Version : [D&D 3.5 Base Class] Adept of the Beasts



Lohj
2012-06-17, 02:36 AM
Adept of the Magical Beasts

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gkDiG1iZS_8/TNi8xysvjXI/AAAAAAAAAt0/oPg5ahUtG2E/s1600/displacer-beast.jpg

http://www.cranialherbs.com/srd/doc/SRD/img/MonstersB-C.Blink_Dog.jpg

The two mortal enemies of the animal world: The Displacer Beast and the Blink Dogs. These two monsters shift the world around them, making them both dangerous foes. The Adept of the Beasts is someone who wishes to do nothing more than become like one or the other. In this pursuit, he loses touch with some of his humanity, but gains power in the soul of the beasts.

Class Skills:
The Adept of the Beasts class skills(and the key ability for each skill) are: Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str)
Skill points: (4 + Int Mod) x 4 at 1st level

Alignment: Lawful Good or Lawful Evil. The Blink Dogs are a Lawfully Good species, and imitating them requires one to follow their code of honor; Never kill more than you need to survive, only fight as a last resort, defend those who cannot defend themselves, put the Evil ones to Death. Displacer Beasts are the opposite; they simply do what keeps them alive and wealthy, the others be damned. They keep their word, but them giving it requires the bargain to be of significant gain for the beast.
Hit Dice: d8

{table]Level|BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special
1st|+0|+2|+2|+0|Nature of the Beast, Sneak Attack +1d6
2nd|+1|+3|+3|+0|Pact of the Beast 1, Animal Reflexes
3rd|+2|+3|+3|+1|Sneak Attack +2d6, Fast Movement
4th|+3|+4|+4|+1|Pact of the Beast 2, Fast Healing 1
5th|+3|+4|+4|+1|Sneak Attack +3d6
6th|+4|+5|+5|+2|Pact of the Beast 3
7th|+5|+5|+5|+2|Sneak Attack +4d6
8th|+6/+1|+6|+6|+2|Pact of the Beast 4, Fast Healing 2
9th|+6/+1|+6|+6|+3|Sneak Attack +5d6
10th|+7/+2|+7|+7|+3|Pact of the Beast 5, Form of the Beast
11th|+8/+3|+7|+7|+3|Sneak Attack +6d6,
12th|+9/+4|+8|+8|+4|Pact of the Beast 6, Fast Healing 3
13th|+9/+4|+8|+8|+4|Sneak Attack +7d6
14th|+10/+5|+9|+9|+4|Pact of the Beast 7, Altered Power
15th|+11/+6/+1|+9|+9|+5|Sneak Attack +8d6
16th|+12/+7/+2|+10|+10|+5|Pact of the Beast 8,Fast Healing 4
17th|+12/+7/+2|+10|+10|+5|Sneak Attack +9d6
18th|+13/+8/+3|+11|+11|+6|Pact of the Beast 9
19th|+14/+9/+4|+11|+11|+6|Sneak Attack +10d6
20th|+15/+10/+5|+12|+12|+6|Pact of the Beast 10, Fast Healing 5, [/table]

Weapon Proficiencies: The Adept is not proficient with any weapons, but is proficient with light armor.

Sneak Attack (EX): If an adept can catch an opponent when he is unable to defend himself effectively from his attack, he can strike a vital spot for extra damage. Basically, the adept’s attack deals extra damage any time his target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), or when the adept flanks his target. This extra damage is 1d6 at 1st level, and it increases by 1d6 every two adept levels thereafter. Should the adept score a critical hit with a sneak attack, this extra damage is not multiplied. An adept can sneak attack only living creatures with discernible anatomies—undead, constructs, oozes, plants, and incorporeal creatures lack vital areas to attack. Any creature that is immune to critical hits is not vulnerable to sneak attacks. The adept must be able to see the target well enough to pick out a vital spot and must be able to reach such a spot. An adept cannot sneak attack while striking a creature with concealment (see page 152) or striking the limbs of a creature whose vitals are beyond reach.

Nature of the Beast (Su): The Adept of the Beasts is not a class taken lightly. By following the paths of the Magical Beasts, you bind yourself to their Alignment. At level 1, pick one Beast Pact. This choice cannot be changed once made. This choice also completely changes how the Adept works in life. The Adept gains a +2 bonus to Hide, Survival, Heal, and Climb checks. This bonus increases by 1 for every 2 levels of adept.
Also, at level 1, the Adept’s canines extend, and the jaw muscles grow, allowing him to bite with more power. An Adept gains a bite attack of 1d6 + Str modifier damage, which increases by 1d6 for every 3 Adept levels ( 1d6 at 1, 2d6 at 4, 3d6 at 7, 4d6 at 10, 5d6 at 13, 6d6 at 16, 7d6 at 19)

Pacts of the Beasts (Su):
Displacer Pact:
By choosing this pact, you have secured your self-preservation instinct, and are going to follow the blurred path of the Displacer Beast.

Pact Boon: The Adept gains a partial blur effect. At level 2, enemies attacking the Adept suffer a 5% miss chance to their ranged and melee attacks for every 2 levels of Adept. (5% at 2, 10% at 4, etc… 50% at 20). A true seeing negates this effect, but see invisibility and the like do not.
Additionally, anytime a creature attacks the Adept and misses is subject to the adept's sneak attack before the end of his next turn.

Blink Pact: By following the path of the Blink Dog, you have installed yourself as a bastion of goodwill, and strength against those who would do evil.

Pact Boon: The Adept gains a teleport ability. At level 2, the Adept can teleport as Dimension door as a move action, and continue to act after using it, except the maximum range of the teleport is equal to 1/2 the adept's level x 10. If this teleport was the adept's only action for the round, he can perform a full attack.
Additionally, any opponent adjacent to the adept after teleporting is subject to the adept’s sneak attack damage for the round.

Animal Reflexes (EX): The adept's mind is changing, allowing them to react more quickly to attacks. He gains a +1 dodge bonus to his armor class. This improves by 1 with every 2 levels he gains.

Fast Movement (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, an Adept gains a +10 foot enhancement bonus to his base land speed. At 11th level, this bonus increases to +20 feet.

Fast Healing: The adept is now faster at recovering from damage. Starting at level 4, the adept gains Fast Healing 1. This increases by one point every 4 levels, as indicated by the table above.

Form of the Beast (Su): The adept is now so akin to the beasts they emulate that they take on certain aspects of their respective pacts. They also gain the Magical Beast Subtype, Changing the Adept's Hit Die to a d10 (They do not reroll current hit points. Simply use the d10 for later levels.). In addition, the adept gains Darkvision out to 60ft, and low-light vision, a +3 racial bonus to Reflex and Fortitude, and a +2 racial bonus to all attack rolls.
Pact of Displacer: Two tentacles sprout from the adept's back, giving him two tentacle attacks (3d6 + Str mod). He is proficient with these tentacles for making attacks. These tentacles are dextrous enough to handle simple tasks like turning a knob, flipping a switch, holding a lantern, opening a bag, taking an item, etc. The have no digits to articulate fine items, such as a piano, a harp, a lock pick, etc...

Blink Pact: The adept can now evoke or end blink as a free action.

Altered Power (SU): The strength of the magical beasts is now at a high level in the adept's body, granting him better usage of his power.
Displacer Pact: Your shadowy body grants you better hiding. If your enemy looks away for even the slightest second, you can fade away completely. You gain a natural +4 bonus to all hide checks. You can make a hide check even while being watched as a free action, and when you make a successful hide check, you become invisible as the spell, caster level equal to your adept level.
Blink Pact:Your control over your form while blinking has grown. When the adept is under the effect of the Blink spell, the 20% chance to miss no longer occurs, and when moving through solid objects, the 50% chance of becoming real drops to 25%.[/spoiler]

Empedocles
2012-06-18, 08:50 PM
Could you add some flavor text? I'm not really sure what it is you're trying to accomplish.

Lohj
2012-06-28, 09:00 PM
Updated: Added in descriptor

nonsi
2012-06-29, 01:43 AM
You could easily move Form of the Beast to level 10.
It would also be nice if there were other features in that line at levels: 6, 14 & 18.

Btw, what tier were you aiming for ?

Lohj
2012-06-29, 11:01 AM
You could easily move Form of the Beast to level 10.
It would also be nice if there were other features in that line at levels: 6, 14 & 18.

Btw, what tier were you aiming for ?

Aiming fore T3, and as for features, what would you suggest? He can already teleport/is hard to hit at will, and I don't know what to add that won't make him T2.

Empedocles
2012-06-29, 10:57 PM
Aiming fore T3, and as for features, what would you suggest? He can already teleport/is hard to hit at will, and I don't know what to add that won't make him T2.

You're severely underestimating tier 2. It's described as having a game breaking trick, of which this has nothing of the sort. What you do have here is a low tier 3, maybe even a high tier 4.

Virdish
2012-06-29, 11:12 PM
You also might want to add some weapon proficincies as this guy is currently pretty much boned in that aspect since he's not even proficient with his displacer tentacles... Honestly Tier wise I would say it is Tier 4 I mean Tier 3's deffinition is actually fairly stringent.

Rainbownaga
2012-06-30, 04:48 AM
An interesting class. I assume that any miss against a displacer-adept triggers the sneak attack penalty, which could be devastating (but unpredictable) at mid levels.

It's basically a more combat focused rogue with some quirky powers added in. If the blinkdog adept gets the ability to full attack after teleporting, it will become pretty devastating,

The problem with this class (as far as I see) is that the same as the rogue: it depends on sneak attack for damage, and unless you can find some way of avoiding the restrictions on sneak attack, they will be awesome in some fights and useless in others.

Also, fast healing is an annoying ability. It means tracking small numbers of points each round, you no longer have the resource management issue since you start each battle at full health.

Sure, any practically optimized group is gonna have wands of lesser vigor, but they'll also be dealing and receiving so much damage that the 15-25 hp you heal in a battle at level 20 is going to be nearly meaningless.


Presentation-Wise: Pact boon and Pact of the Beast are clearly the same ability, but they have a different name in the text and table.

Lohj
2012-07-01, 12:38 AM
Edited an ability or two.
Added in an ability.

What would I replace Fast Healing with?
Regeneration?

TuggyNE
2012-07-01, 01:08 AM
Edited an ability or two.
Added in an ability.

What would I replace Fast Healing with?
Regeneration?

Gah, no, by no means. PC access to regeneration is very destabilizing to game balance, and probably makes bookkeeping even worse.

If you want the ability to heal, you could consider some sort of healing pool modeled off the paladin's or monk's (though hopefully a lot more useful than the latter).

Alternatively, if you can justify it, DR may also work.