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Saidoro
2013-03-26, 06:03 PM
Madclaw Rager

Alignment:Any
Hit Dice: d8
Requirements:

Base Attack Bonus: +5
Feats:Mental Leap, Psionic Weapon
Martial Manuevers: Any two Tiger claw Maneuvers
Special:Surging Euphoria Class Feature
Class Skills: The madclaw fager’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Escape Artist (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Listen (Wis), Martial Lore(Int), Psicraft (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).
Skill Points per Level: 4+int


Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
Manifesting
Manuevers Known
Manuevers Readied
Stances Known


1st

+1

+2

+0

+2
Roiling Mind, Claws of Fury
+1 Wilder
1
0
0


2nd

+2

+3

+0

+3
Surging Strike
+1 Wilder
0
0
0


3rd

+3

+3

+1

+3
Claws of Hate
+1 Wilder
1
1
0


4th

+4

+4

+1

+4
Madness
+1 Wilder
0
0
0


5th

+5

+4

+1

+4
Claws of Rage
+1 Wilder
1
0
1


6th

+6

+5

+2

+5
Flesh Roil
+1 Wilder
0
1
0


7th

+7

+5

+2

+5
Claws of Fury
+1 Wilder
1
0
0


8th

+8

+6

+2

+6
Euphoric Slaughter
+1 Wilder
0
0
0


9th

+9

+6

+3

+6
Claws of War
+1 Wilder
1
1
0


10th

+10

+7

+3

+7
True Madness
+1 Wilder
0
0
0



All of the following are class features for the madclaw rager:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
A madclaw rager gains no additional weapon or armor proficiencies.

Manifesting
At each level the madclaw rager gains additional power points and access to new powers as though they had gained a level in wilder. He does not gain any other benefits of that class.

Maneuvers
At each odd-number level the madclaw rager gains a new maneuver known from the Tiger Claw or Iron Heart disciplines. You add your full madclaw rager levels to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest-level maneuvers known.
At 3rd level, 6th level, and 9th level, you gain an additional
maneuver readied per day.

Stances Known
At 5th level the madclaw rager gains a new stance for which they meet the prerequisites from the Tiger Claw or Iron Heart disciplines.

Roiling Mind
The madclaw rager may use their initiator level in place of their wilder level for calculating the effects of their wild surge and surging euphoria. When manifesting powers of the psychometabolism discipline they may reduce their chance of psychic enervation by their madclaw rager level.

Claws of Anger(Ex)
At first level the madclaw rager adds claws of the beast to their list of powers known. Claws gained through this power are treated as tiger claw school weapons and are valid weapons for any tiger claw maneuver. A madclaw rager using two claws granted by claws of the beast and no other natural or manufactured weapons in treated as two-weapon fighting for any tiger claw ability for which that matters.

Surging Strike(Su)
Beginning at second level the madclaw rager can attempt to wild surge when initiating a martial strike. Doing so adds a bonus to all attack and damage rolls made as part of that strike equal to the bonus to manifester level normally granted by wild surge. They may also add that number less the level of the maneuver to the DCs of any saves it provokes if doing so would be beneficial. This carries the risk of psychic enervation as normal, but upon enervation the madclaw rager is staggered until the end of their next turn rather than being dazed and must expend a readied maneuver of equal or higher level to the one on which they surged rather than lose power points. In all other ways this works as wild surge, including activating surging euphoria.

Claws of Hate(Ex)
At third level the madclaw rager gains the rend ability when using two claws granted by the claws of the beast power and no other natural or manufactured weapons. When they strike a single target with at least two claw attacks in a single round that target takes additional damage equal to the claw's base damage plus one and a half times the madclaw rager's strength score.

Madness(Ex)
A madclaw rager of fourth level or higher who fails a save against a mind-affecting spell or power may choose to become confused for a number of rounds equal to the spell or power's level rather than be subjected to the normal effects. Doing so activates surging euphoria as though the madclaw rager had just used wild surge for their maximum bonus.

Claws of Rage(Ex)
Beginning at fifth level, whenever the madclaw rager expends their psionic focus to apply the psionic weapon feat or any feat which lists it as a prerequisite to a claw attack granted by claws of the beast they may also apply the same benefit to the other claw granted by the power. Additionally, whenever the madclaw rager initiates a maneuver that involves making a single attack action they may deal rend damage as though they had hit with both claws if the attack is successful.

Flesh Roil(Su)
At sixth level the madclaw rager gains the ability to knit closed their wounds with the power of their fury. A madclaw rager under the effects of surging euphoria may at any time choose to end that effect as a free action that can be taken out of turn to heal a number of hit points equal to twice the remaining duration of the euphoria.
Alternately, by ending their euphoria they may render themselves immune to a single dose of poison or remove one of the following conditions from themselves: blinded, dazzled, deafened, diseased, exhausted, fatigued, nauseated, sickened.

Claws of Fury(Ex)
Beginning at seventh level the madclaw rager's rend improves, any time they strike a single opponent with at least four claw attacks in a single round they may apply rend damage to that target a second time.

Euphoric Slaughter(Ex)
At eighth level the madclaw rager's joy in slaughter reaches new heights. Any time the rager kills an opponent with a challenge rating at least equal to their own less four they may enter surging euphoria as though they had just used wild surge for their maximum bonus.

Claws of War(Ex)
Beginning at ninth level the madclaw rager gains the ability to manifest their claws of the the beast power as a free action once per round. They must still pay any costs associated with manifesting it.

True Madness(Ex)
At tenth level the madclaw rager reaches a strange sort of peace with their inner turmoil. A madclaw rager benefiting from surging euphoria may choose to immediately end that euphoria to ignore the effects of psychic enervation from a single wild surge. That wild surge does not activate surging euphoria. Additionally, the madclaw rager may use Madness to ignore the effects of any spell based on alignment in addition to mind-affecting spells.


There haven't been any officially published ToB/Psionic classes and exceedingly few homebrewed ones, so I decided to fill the gap. Also, wilder is terrible and I decided to fix that too. Any thoughts?

JoshuaZ
2013-03-26, 08:45 PM
Oh, boy, ToB and Psionics, too of my favorite systems. And in a hybrid PrC, my favorite type of PrC. And a lot of these features look clever and mechanically neat. Awesomesauce.

Comments: Clarifying which abilities are (su) and which are (ex) would be helpful.


The madclaw rager may use their initiator level in place of their wilder level for calculating the effects of their wild surge and surging euphoria. When manifesting powers of the psychometabolism discipline they may reduce their chance of psychic enervation by their madclaw rager level.

This is a little weird since this could actually reduce your effective wilder level. Maybe instead have any level that adds a full initiator level add to the effective wilder level?

It might be nice to add some feature that lets you recover maneuvers with surging euphoria. Maybe letting you recover all maneuvers whenever you gain the benefits of surging euphoria?

Saidoro
2013-03-26, 10:42 PM
Glad you like it.

Ability types now clarified. Note that while most are Ex only Euphoric Slaughter can actually be used in an antimagic field for self-evident reasons.

The ability has a may in it, if your base wilder level is higher you can use that instead.

Madclaws are supposed to be gaining surging euphoria a LOT. Multiple times per turn, sometimes. That's the whole reason I added flesh roil, to give them something to do with the extras. Any recovery mechanic would have to be pretty minor and would probably wind up stepping on that psionic feat in tome of battle's toes. (Also, just to clarify: you can activate flesh roil in the time between succeeding on your psionic enervation roll and the new surging euphoria coming into effect, out with the old in with the new.)

eftexar
2013-03-26, 10:57 PM
I'm a bit concerned about the power here. Advancing psionic and manuevers, in addition to class features, is a bit much.

I think that someone taking this class should lose at least one, maybe two, manifesting levels. The main problem is getting the higher level maneuvers combined with the damage potential of psionics with wild surge.

Saidoro
2013-03-26, 11:17 PM
It's advancing wilder. The single worst full caster ever made.(Healers and bards cast better.) The class requires either two feats and a one level dip (two if you want the earliest possible entry) or four feats. Feats which could have been spent on things like hidden talent or expanded knowledge or psionic endowment or robilar's gambit or power attack.

eftexar
2013-03-27, 12:09 AM
Ah, I apologize. I saw full psionics and manuever progression, but am not very familiar with the Wilder class.

Still let me take a look at the class again. I could Moment of Prescience, quickened more ably with wild surge, my skill check for the Greater Insightful Strike manuever, gaining a +20 bonus to my skill check.

With maximum skill ranks (23), a decent constitution (+4), a small magic item (+2), and Prescience (+20) I can make a concentration check of 60 (if I roll an 11), dealing 120 damage on a successful hit (or 240 on a critical hit). If I get a lucky roll of 20 I deal 138 damage or (276).
*Because damage from concentration is not 'added' damage, it has replaced the damage die, I can arguably multiply it.

If I couple this with Contingency, to activate when my bonus from moment of prescience is used or I initiate a maneuver, I can follow up with a second strike with the same bonuses using my swift action to quicken a breath of the black dragon to deal the damage I did last round, plus an additional 11d6 damage (a whopping 153 damage is dealt, 33 of which also strikes all other targets in a breadth of area). Then follow with Temporal Acceleration and well the penalties from it don't much matter now...

And keep in mind that I haven't spent very many additional power points, so with a few feats I'm still free to augment these powers.

This is compared to an average melee attack of d8 (+4), plus strength (+8), plus power attack (+8), times three (if your lucky to hit thrice) to equal 60 (or 180 on if you manage to crit on all 3 attacks)

Or I could use a maneuver that adds +100 damage, and deal 120 some damage in a single blow.
Because this is added damage, and doesn't replace base damage like the concentration check, I don't believe it is multiplied on a crit. Regardless that maneuver can't be used again until manuevers are re-readied, while my other combo can.

Saidoro
2013-03-27, 12:59 AM
In short, wilder is bad because it doesn't get enough powers known to adequately cover even a fraction of its bases, they might be able to put together one really good combo or have something relevant to most situations but nothing specialized enough to solve problems on their own but that's about as good as it gets. This fixes that to a degree by tacking on a fair bit of martial prowess.

Either way, skill boosting is skill boosting. A ruby knight vindicator could do worse sooner with quickened Guidance of the Avatar (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20010504a) and at that level there are plenty of effects which flat out don't care how many hit points you have(besides, Madclaws don't get diamond mind so they'd have to spend more feats). Wilders don't have the powers known to nab psionic contingency without sacrificing some other important thing. And you seem to be forgetting that the average attacker has shock trooper and leap attack and a valorous weapon and a one level dip in lion totem barbarian.

I admit it's a fairly powerful class, it's designed to run around in the same world as psions and druids and swiftblades, even if it isn't quite as effective as any of them. Whether it fits into your campaign's power level or not is really something for you to figure out.

eftexar
2013-03-27, 02:22 PM
I concede then. Since you are going for a higher power level than I will peach from that standpoint instead. A few of my suggestions might be too powerful in combination with each other.

Claws of anger should be a spell-like or psi-like ability since they are based on a power and use power points. Even if the ability were extraordinary power points, which are arguably not, have to be supplied making it a moot point anyway.

I would suggest adding surging strike's boon to the maneuvers' skill check and saving throws. The saving throws of maneuvers scale horribly (while it is equal to spells, maneuvers are weaker and need to remain useful longer).

Madness is an interesting mechanic, props for that.

For Claws of Rage I think a better mechanic for it might be to only roll damage for one claw attack and automatically deal rending damage if the maneuver hits.
It negates the need for superfluous, and possibly twistable, wording, sounds like both claws are hitting at once, and eliminates the need for a second attack roll.

I think flesh roil should offer the option to heal from status conditions ala the Panacea spell.

I think at the point of claws of war you should just grant the benefits of it's associated power to be usable at will without power points. It is the class' main ability and most other abilities are based off of it.

Saidoro
2013-03-27, 03:34 PM
Claws of anger should be a spell-like or psi-like ability since they are based on a power and use power points. Even if the ability were extraordinary power points, which are arguably not, have to be supplied making it a moot point anyway.
I based it on the thrallherd's psionic charm and dominate abilities.
I would suggest adding surging strike's boon to the maneuvers' skill check and saving throws. The saving throws of maneuvers scale horribly (while it is equal to spells, maneuvers are weaker and need to remain useful longer).
That works well for lower level manuevers, but it might overpower top level ones. I'll think on this, see if I can't come up with a reasonably non-clunky cap on the DCs before implementing it.(I REALLY wish they'd just standardized maneuver saves rather than including them individually.)
Madness is an interesting mechanic, props for that.
Thank you:smallbiggrin:
For Claws of Rage I think a better mechanic for it might be to only roll damage for one claw attack and automatically deal rending damage if the maneuver hits.
It negates the need for superfluous, and possibly twistable, wording, sounds like both claws are hitting at once, and eliminates the need for a second attack roll.
Good idea. I was originally thinking of how weird it was to just be attacking with one claw but I suppose the fluff of your suggestion is basically indistinguishable from what I've got now anyway.
I think flesh roil should offer the option to heal from status conditions a la the Panacea spell.
It would have to use a shorter list(recovering from dazed staggered or confused would be wonky) but I could probably fit a few statuses in as flavor if nothing else.
I think at the point of claws of war you should just grant the benefits of it's associated power to be usable at will without power points. It is the class' main ability and most other abilities are based off of it.
Claws of the beast lasts for an hour per level, they won't go without. The purpose of the free action is giving you more ways to gain euphoria and letting you "quick draw" as a free action rather than spending a swift to activate their claws.
Replies in blue, making changes. Thanks for the input.

eftexar
2013-03-27, 05:24 PM
For Surging Strike, how about increasing the save DC by the amount that the Wild Surge increase exceeds the maneuver's level?

Saidoro
2013-03-30, 12:50 AM
That works.