GiTP Prestige Class Contest XLII: Homebrew Heroes (Voting Thread)

[Techwarrior]

Alright folks, it's time to have a final stand to see who's going to win the GiTP Prestige Class Contest XLII: Homebrew Heroes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=291321)! Lots of good work, but only one can emerge as the most heroic of these heroes.

The rules are simple: Vote once, ranking your top 3 favorites. 1st place gets 3pts, 2nd place gets 2pts, and 3rd place gets 1pt. Whoever has the most points wins. When you vote, bold your entries please, and tell us why you voted for those classes. Voting is open til next Saturday, September 6th. Get voting!

And the entries are...
{table=head]Prestige Class|Author|1st|2nd|3rd|Total
Thaumic Armorer|malonkey1||1|1|2
Radiant Senshi|Zhdarkstar|1||1|4
Ze Good Doctor|necroon|2|||6
Precession's Guide|sirpercival|1|5|1|14
Holocaust Sun|Xefas|2||1|7
Loreshifter|Temotoi|2|3|3|15
Evolved Devastator|Zarthrax||1||2
Tenebrous Knight|Gadzooks27|||2|2
Blood Frenzy|Jm2c|3|1|1|12
[/table]

Apologies to those disqualified, but let's get voting!

-Techwarrior

[zhdarkstar]

1st) Ze Good Doctor: This PrC elicited a lot of nostalgia for me as Xenoalchemy was part of the build that led me to GiTP in the first place. Although my Xeno/Engineer never got to reach Medicineer levels, Tony Douchebaggerus will always play a vital role in the universe my group created.

Not to mention that this class made me think of my favorite examples of the mad scientist trope.

2nd) Thaumic Armorer: This is another choice that was biased via nostalgia. Iron Man was half of the first contest entry I made here: the Mecha Senshi.

3rd) Tenebrous Knight: This was a tough decision to make, but I had to go with the one that is something I'd like to play. The Harrowed base class is a very interesting one that I may come up with something for in the future.

[Zarthrax]

1st) Xefas' Holocaust Sun - 'Cause I like this class so much, it made me go back and figure out Teramach....lol

2nd) My Evolved Devastation - Kinda bland, but considering the classes involved, I feel confident that it holds its own.

3rd) Gadzooks27's Tenebrous Knight - There are two homebrew base classes that will automatically get my vote every time, this is one.

[Jm2c]

Aren't we not supposed to vote for ourselves?

#1: sirpercival's Precession's Guide - A solid class built on a solid base. The flavor ought to be better fleshed out - there's a fair amount of wasted potential here. Mechanically and conceptually, it deserves my top vote.

#2: Temotei's Loreshifter - A good runner-up with just two major elements that bother me. First, I'm never a fan of XP costs on anything, as it's a bit like a level adjustment that sometimes matters (because you're a level behind, in which case it's often not worth it) and more often does nothing whatsoever. Second, the strength of writing a five-level PrC is that you get to sell your concept in a very compact manner. Submitting fourteen full chronoshifts along with it works directly against that one advantage - they take up almost half again as much combined wordcount as the PrC itself. So, effectively, you're more submitting chronoshifts of a specific flavor than a PrC. It's not bad content, by any means, just not the right path to go down in this case, in my view.
That all said, the content itself is fine and interesting, so it takes place two for me without competition.

#3: zhdarkstar's Radiant Senshi - A functional class with solid enough mechanics. There's not really much else to say on it, which is really the problem - its fatal flaw is that it's overall uninspired in mechanics and flavor. It's the quintessential dual-progression class in a way: You take one part, you take another part that fits well with the first, then you put them both together and you're done. Giving it some unique schtick that sets a radiant Senshi apart from someone who just happens to be both a Sentai and an Illumination user would've done extremely well by the class.

[necroon]

1) RADIANT SENSHI by zhdarkstar - Another simple, clean, and functional combination between Sentai and something else... and this time the result is something almost sickeningly adorable. I'm not going to lie: Part of this vote is due to the fact that I FINALLY have an excuse to sing out the Sailor Moon theme song at my LGS.

2) LORESHIFTER by Temotei - The chronoshifter is probably one of my favorite homebrew classes and this PRC brings it in a very fun direction. The Chronoshifts are useful and fun and I would certainly play one myself.

3) PRECESSION'S GUIDE by sirpercival - In case anyone missed my Astronomer fanboy-sim I'll put it out there again. The astronomer is awesome. Super-mega-special-awesome. This is a very flavorful way to incorporate a bit of Gish-Ism to the class and looks like a lot of fun to play.

Honorable mention: The Card Shark - It's a shame this came in after the deadline - I like it quite a bit!

Good job everyone and a big thanks to Techwarrior for picking up the torch!

[Xefas]

I couldn't find some kind of official rubric, so I judged on the following criteria. Firstly, is the class appreciably different from the base class(es) it draws from to merit a separate class? Secondly, does the class have unique abilities that meaningfully change the way a character is played? Thirdly, is the chassis of the prestige class constructed well - does it have too many or too few levels, does it have extraneous prerequisites, etc? Fourthly, do the mechanics of the class adequately evoke its flavor?

I didn't take into account personal preference for theme or flavor, or my opinions on the merit of the base class(es) the prestige classes drew from.

1st) The Loreshifter by Temotei. This is the class submitted with the least number of levels, and I think it greatly benefits from this. Each level is interesting, each ability is interesting, and it conveys its idea very clearly and concisely. Its theme logically follows from the base class it is based on, while being adequately different.

2nd) The Precession's Guide by sirpercival.

3rd) I'd like to abstain from naming a 3rd place class if I can. I really liked all the classes posted, to be sure, but they all, in my opinion, had strong enough flaws that I don't feel comfortable putting one above the rest in terms of quality. I'll spoiler my thoughts, just in case someone wants to know.


The Radiant Senshi is cool. I think it does a great job merging two other classes into a coherent whole. However, on its own, it doesn't feel to me like it does much else. It's useful, but not exciting. The only reason I would want to take levels in Radiant Senshi is because two other classes, which are not part of this contest, are awesome. This just isn't enough to put it on the same level as the Precession's Guide or the Loreshifter, in my opinion.

Ze Good Doctor made me smile. It gave me a few chuckles, I enjoyed reading it, and I think it has the potential to be something great, but I don't think it's really there yet. I see where every ability is going, but they could all use work. "Power Word: Science" is funny, but the Machinist (one of the classes Ze Good Doctor is built from) already lets you shoot lightning bolts with the power of science; so why isn't this an ability that interacts with that in some way, instead of being redundant? Irrational Behavior rewards you for randomizing your character's actions in combat, but not for actually engaging in mad scientist behavior. Etc.

The Evolved Devastation is awesome, and I'll always be biased towards it because it uses some of my own homebrew. But, it suffers from the same problem as the Radiant Senshi. In ten levels, you give me two abilities that aren't just things from other classes (Variable Evolutions and Monster Reborn), and they're just things from other classes crooked slightly so.

The Tenebrous Knight is a fine idea. But, it has exactly one ability of note. One really cool ability. One really cool ability that I would've loved to see as a feat for the Harrowed, with 'Dark Deal' as a prerequisite. I don't think it needed an entire ten level prestige class to justify its existence.

The Blood Frenzy was almost my pick for #3. But there's one thing I cannot get over. The theme of this contest was creating a prestige class for a homebrew base class. And, I can't understand how this has anything to do with the War Frenzy. Or rather, I can't understand why it has more to do with the War Frenzy than any other warrior~esque class. If you tweaked its progression of the War Frenzy's madness to be more generally inclusive to other classes, none of its actual mechanics or flavor would distinguish it as being made for the War Frenzy. It could just as easily be for Barbarians, Monks, Warblades, Swordsages, Duskblades, Crusaders, Hexblades, Knights, etc, etc. Which, I think is a shame, because I'd like to see more classes like this - that can be applied to lots of classes and still work - but it just seems counter to the contest's purpose, in my opinion.

And, of course The Holocaust Sun is so metal that it's like Odin lactating molten steel into my eye holes while power-sliding through an exploding municipal building full of used heroin needles, but I don't trust myself to fairly judge something I made against things other people made.

[FireInTheSky]

1st - Blood Frenzy, by Jm2c - War-Frenzy is one of my favorite homebrew classes to begin with, and this class - from both a fluff AND mechanics perspective - takes it to another level. I could 100% see myself playing this at some point in the near future.

2nd - Precession's Guide, by sirpercival - Like War-Frenzy, Astronomer is one of my favorite homebrews. In fact, it might be my single favorite stand-alone class. Unfortunately, for the purposes of this contest, that means that I feel less inclined to PrC out of it, and the fluff for Precession's Guide, while funny, just doesn't grip me enough to put it ahead of Blood Frenzy.

3rd - Loreshifter, by Temotei - As Jm2c said above, making a 5-level PrC is slightly lower-hanging fruit, so a point or two gets deducted right there. However, I'm always in favor of time-based options when they're done well, so this gets my 3rd place vote.

[Techwarrior]

Votes tallied, and we currently have a tie for 1st place. Keep the votes coming folks!

[Gadzooks27]

Loreshifter, 1st place.
Precessions Guide 2nd place.
Thaumic Armorer 3rd.

I just wanna say... Making prestige classes off of homebrew material that hasn't been properly reviewed is a pain in the butt- mainly since the systems involved are typically foriegn and come with no supplement material, and the base classes are so versatile and overpowered that making a prestige for them, within normal limits, is actually going to weigh down the base class.

The above nominees I elected to vote for truly earned the feedback of the voters- primarily on flavor and prestige balance alone. The base classes still need lots of work, so you guys really worked well with what you had, considering.

Congrats.

[Temotei]

1st: "The Holocaust Sun is so metal that it's like Odin lactating molten steel into my eye holes while power-sliding through an exploding municipal building full of used heroin needles." :smalltongue:

...Actually, though.

2nd: Precession's Guide - The mechanical implementation is so smooth and the fluff works just right for me. I really like it.

3rd: Blood Frenzy - I don't have many comments on this one. I liked it to an extent, but really, it gets my third place vote because it gives more than a couple of new things in a 10-level chassis and it all fits well enough. Scarlet mark is my favorite part, but mainly because of being able to burst out of somebody in a gory mess and be like HEY MAN I'M HERE WHAT DO YOU NEED OH RARRRAHHHHHHH

Ze good doctor made me laugh, so it'll always have a nice little spot in my heart. <3

[InstinctsKill]

1st: Ze Good Doctor by necroon - I really like what this class has to offer. Xenoalchemy is already a pretty interesting system, but when you are essentially able to collect up body parts of your enemies to create your own Frankenstein...well that takes it to a whole new (and awesome!) level in my eyes.

2nd: Blood Frenzy by Jm2c - So. Much. Blood. What intrigues me most here (besides being able to cut STEEL with the pure arterial spurts of one's bodily fluids!) is how you can bleed yourself out in order to get rid of some pesky effect. Talk about one of hemophilia's greatest advantages. The image of becoming a living "blood elemental" is a pretty interesting one too.

3rd: Loreshifter by Temotei - Because there are few things more fun and interesting that completely controlling and altering time to one's pleasure. What I like about this class as well (much like Blood Frenzy, though I didn't mention it) is that using your powers, or Chronoshifts here, potentially has a price, but overcoming that obstacle of putting yourself in danger becomes very rewarding. Besides that, who wouldn't want to simply change the past or future simply by willing yourself to do so?

[Techwarrior]

Votes tallied. The Loreshifter and Precession's Guide are really keeping up with each other.

[Bozwevial]

1st: Jm2c's Blood Frenzy. I'm very fond of the War-Frenzy, and this makes a solid expansion that does exactly what a prestige class should. The tradeoffs of War-Frenzy abilities versus Blood Frenzy gains are well-judged, and it's flexible enough to fit a wide variety of concepts while still staying true to the core idea. The class abilities, too, are a nice blend of risk versus reward.

2nd: sirpercival's Precession's Guide. The Astronomer is a good base to work from, and the Precession's Guide branches out neatly into a more specialized domain. Notably, it manages to take the conjunction system and play on that in a number of useful ways without getting into needlessly complex territory.

3rd: Temotei's Loreshifter. An all-around nice package - it gets in, gets the job done, and gets out. The exception, of course, is the chronoshifts, which are a hefty chunk of text compared to the class proper. It's more of a presentation issue, and I don't think it would have been quite as problematic with a ten-level prestige class, but it does detract from the short and sweet punch of a five-level class.

[sirpercival]

This was rough. But hey, I decided.

1st - Blood Frenzy, by Jm2c. War-Frenzy is one of my faves, so BF gets some love, especially since the writing matches J's usual exceptional quality.

2nd - Loreshifter, by Temotei. Ditto for Chronoshifter.

3rd - Holocaust Sun, by Xefas. Because why not?

[Techwarrior]

All votes tallied.

[Temotei]

All votes tallied.

I think the thaumic armorer is supposed to have three points, rather than two.