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Tiiba
2013-10-25, 02:05 AM
Hey, guys. I have this idea. Remember that I don't even play any RPGs, but I learned about DND 3.5 to keep up with OOTS. And then I learned about homebrew. And about prestige classes, and variant classes. I started thinking what I'd like to be if I did play, and somehow stumbled on the idea of a hero dedicated to eliminating slavery. I learned about the Paladin of Freedom, which is a chaotic paladin, and the Holy Liberator, which is a chaotic paladin. I saw no connection between chaos and an opposition to oppression, and classes that require the Chaotic Good alignment make even less sense than ones that require Lawful Good (and even the PoF's COHORTS must be CG, some freedom).

Before I get any further: if an elf marries a celestial human, is that a half-celestial elf, or a half-celestial half-elf?

Now, about my thing. I made up a hero, an organization, and a base class. I described the class's main features, but left out any numbers. Can you help me put in values that would stay with the theme and make the class fun and useful and balanced?

EDIT: I totally rewrote the class now, added all the numbers, even have tables of numbers, and added new features and, when it occured to me, humor. (I hope this will help me get more attention than last time.)

Intro:
Good people have many reasons to hate slavery. Paladins oppose it because it is the definition of evil and a source of horrible suffering. For druids and rangers, it represents the suppression of the slave's natural desires, and is thus an abomination without equal. Bards do not sing in a cage. Rogues and barbarians have no use for masters, and wouldn't wish such a life on another. Whatever your path, if you have a compassionate heart, you are an enemy of slavery.

But there are people who hate slavery specifically, rather than as a special case of opposing evil in general. It's their pet peeve, and in some cases, a berserk button that makes them fly into a murderous rage. (This can be a feat of some sort, I guess, that grants barbarian rage.) One hundred fifty years ago, a half-celestial half-elf named Invakar Mirus created an organization for such people: the Order of the Broken Chain.

Invakar Mirus:
Invakar's mother, Cassandra Mirus, was a celestial human paladin who served in the army of a Lawful Good god. She was part of a legion sent to assist an elven nation in a war with the drow. Who won that war depends on whom you ask, and some will tell you that the drow only ever fought one war that started when they were created and has yet to end. But Invakar's mother was captured and made a slave of a drow wizard who was, also, not a gentleman. During Cassandra's long imprisonment in the Underdark, she was repeatedly raped and tortured for nothing but sadistic gratification. The wizard forced her to abort several times, but eventually decided to keep one child. That child was Invakar.

The wizard did not know that Cassandra was a celestial, because he never saw one before. Therefore, it came as a shock to him when the young Invakar showed not the slightest interest in learning to run the wizard's estate staffed by a hunded slaves, worshipping Lolth, or assassinating a neighbor with whom the father had a land dispute. This last offense was the last straw, and Invakar joined the ranks of the slaves.

For ten long years he labored on the estate and in his father's factory, doing jobs unpleasant and demeaning even by the low standards of slave labor. Then, he finally rebelled. With a few allies, he killed the factory guards and led around thirty slaves, including his mother, away.

Unfortunately, the plan was less than perfect. There was nowhere to go in the colossal cave filled with hostiles. Half the escapees were killed, including Cassandra, and the rest found an unguarded exit to the surface only after half a year of searching - and even then, it only became unguarded after a fair bit of work by Invakar and his stronger allies.

After leaving the Underdark, Invakar found himself poorly adapted to the free life. He tried many jobs, from janitor to blacksmith, but eventually became an adventurer. He found during his adventures that while things like government corruption or thievery or even murder made him understandably angry, even a rumor of slavery made him feel a mix of blinding rage, terror, and nausea, and reminded him of his frail, almost insane mother. He decided that he will create an organization dedicated unecquivocally to rooting out the evil of slavery everywhere in the world.

Invakar Mirus is a Neutral Good Half-Celestial Half-Elf Rogue 10/Knight of the Broken Chain 10.

The Order of the Broken Chain:
This organization has offices and schools in most large free cities. It accepts people from every walk of life, be they paladins, wizards, or barbarians, but has also developed its own class - the Knight of the Broken Chain - which is what the schools are for. It sends agents to counter slaver incursions from abroad, as well as illegal slavers within the supposedly free nation's borders, and sometimes makes incursions of its own. (The resulting political instability only makes Invakar angry, but doesn't dissuade him. He always had a bit of Stupid Good in him, for all his genius.)

Knight of the Broken Chain:
Many members of the Order continue to accrue levels in classes that they had before, and this is a good thing, since a good raid requires a balanced party. But there are also those who choose to make liberty the theme of their entire career, with matching class features. This is the class for them.

Alignment:
any good

Hit Die:
d6

Class Skills:
Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex; Armor Check Penalty), Hide (Dex; Armor Check Penalty), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex; Armor Check Penalty), Open Lock (Dex; Trained Only), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis)

Skill Points at 1st Level:
(4 + Int modifier) × 4

Skill Points at Each Additional Level:
4 + Int modifier.

Requirements and philosophy:
A Knight of the Broken Chain must avoid deliberate evil acts, particularly crimes against the free will of other sentient beings. He should not create or use golems (which are powered by enslaved earth elementals), and may have doubts about spells like Summon Monster or even Summon Nature's Ally (What's so natural about dragging a bear to your location and making it fight a battle it didn't expect?). He avoids mind-affecting spells, particularly compulsions. All these rules can be bent briefly if the situation warrants it - after all, adventuring is about hurting people - but the necessary evil must be reversed as soon as it becomes an unnecessary evil.

Ex-Knights:
A Knight who has committed enough unnecessary evil or has gained an oppressor's aura loses his spells and cannot progress until he atones. If the crime is truly severe, the moment can be heralded by the fallen Knight becoming sickened and frightened for one round (no save). As an independent consequence, he may be punished in some way by the Order, and may even become their enemy. The punishment may come long before the loss of spells, since, as mentioned, Invakar Mirus has daddy issues that the gods do not. Those who have atoned find that they cast spells as if they were one level lower.

{table=head] Level | Base Attack Bonus | Fort Save | Ref Save | Will Save | Fort Save | Special
1st | +0 | +0 | +0 | +2 | Detect Oppression, Detect Evil
2nd | +1 | +0 | +0 | +3 |
3rd | +2 | +1 | +1 | +3 | Let Freedom Ring 1/day
4th | +3 | +1 | +1 | +4 |
5th | +3 | +2 | +1 | +4 | Liberty, Equality, Fraternity #1
6th | +4 | +2 | +2 | +5 |
7th | +5 | +3 | +2 | +5 | Liberty, Equality, Fraternity #2, Let Freedom Ring 2/day
8th | +6 / +1 | +3 | +2 | +6 |
9th | +6 / +1 | +4 | +3 | +6 | Liberty, Equality, Fraternity #3
10th | +7 / +2 | +4 | +3 | +7 |
11th | +8 / +3 | +5 | +3 | +7 | Mindless Servant, Let Freedom Ring 3/day
12th | +9 / +4 | +5 | +4 | +8 |
13th | +9 / +4 | +6 | +4 | +8 | Four Freedoms #1
14th | +10 / +5 | +6 | +4 | +9 |
15th | +11 / +6 / +1 | +7 | +5 | +9 | Four Freedoms #2, Let Freedom Ring 4/day
16th | +12 / +7 / +2 | +7 | +5 | +10 |
17th | +12 / +7 / +2 | +8 | +5 | +10 | Four Freedoms #3
18th | +13 / +8 / +3 | +8 | +6 | +11 |
19th | +14 / +9 / +4 | +9 | +6 | +11 | Four Freedoms #4, Let Freedom Ring 5/day
20th | +15 / +10 / +5 | +9 | +6 | +12 | Drapetomania
25th | +18 / +13 / +8 / +3 | +12 | +9 | +15 | Impenetrable Mind
[/table]

Spells:
A Knight of the Broken Chain casts divine spells from the Liberation, Good, and Protection Cleric domains. You do not gain domain powers. If you follows a deity, you may replace either Protection or Good, but not both, with one of that deity's domains. (As mentioned, it's permissible to cast compulsion spells when the need is dire, so Charm domain can be chosen. Certainly, it may be better to charm an enemy than to burn him to ashes. But abusing this privilege leads to its loss.)

You may not learn or cast any spell that is opposed to your alignment (which means you probably will not choose Evil or Death domains).

Preparing spells:
You prepare spells like a cleric, but you do not gain the benefit of spontaneous casting.
Casting spells: As with clerics, you must have Wisdom equal to 10+spell level to cast a spell. Also like clerics, the save DC is 10+spell level+your Wisdom modifier ((Wis-10)/2, rounding down). Your caster level is equal to your Knight of the Broken Chain class level.
Heightened Liberation: Liberation domain spells are cast at +1 caster level

{table=head] Level | New Spell | Spells Per Day, by level
1st | Level 1 #1 | 1
2nd | Level 1 #2 | 2
3rd | Level 2 #1 | 2/1
4th | Level 2 #2 | 2/2
5th | Level 3 #1 | 2/2/1
6th | Level 3 #2 | 3/2/2
7th | Level 4 #1 | 3/2/2/1
8th | Level 4 #2 | 3/3/2/2
9th | Level 5 #1 | 3/3/2/2/1
10th | Level 5 #2 | 4/3/2/2/2
11th | Level 6 #1 | 4/3/3/2/2/1
12th | Level 6 #2 | 4/4/3/2/2/2
13th | Level 7 #1 | 4/4/3/2/2/2/1
14th | Level 7 #2 | 4/4/4/3/2/2/2
15th | Level 8 #1 | 4/4/4/3/2/2/2/1
16th | Level 8 #2 | 4/4/4/4/2/2/2/2
17th | Level 9 #1 | 4/4/4/4/2/2/2/2/1
18th | Level 9 #2 | 4/4/4/4/3/2/2/2/2
19th | 1 extra spell from your domains | 4/4/4/4/4/3/2/2/2
20th | 1 extra spell from your domains | 4/4/4/4/4/3/3/2/2
[/table]


Weapon Proficiency:
A Knight of the Broken Chain is proficient with all simple and martial weapons.
Armor and shields proficiency: A Knight of the Broken Chain is proficient with all light and medium armors and shields, except tower shields.

Special abilities:

Detect Evil (Sp):
Like the Paladin ability.


Detect Oppression (Sp):
Like Detect Evil, but reveals those who have used physical or magical coersion and are willing to do so again. Unlike Detect Evil, this spell detects, for example, formians, and sometimes even paladins who get overzealous.
The strength of the aura detected depends on Hit Dice plus a modifier based on the creature's attitude toward slavery - the "oppressor rating".

{table=head] Oppressor Rating (HD * Multiplier) | Aura Strength
<=10 | Faint |
<=25 | Moderate |
<=50 | Strong |
>50 | Overwhelming |
[/table]

{table=head] Attitude | Multiplier for oppressor rating
Accepts slavery or despotism because everyone else seems to | 1
Likes oppression, and likes oppressing | 2
Actively promotes oppression, is deeply involved in it, or enjoys it above and beyond other evils | 3
A world where I can't order a man to castrate himself and expect to be obeyed is too horrible to be allowed to exist | 4
[/table]


In addition, it can indicate that a creature has been the victim of oppression recently, without a strength rating. The presence of the victim aura roughly correlates with whether the victim should still feel like he is one, after all this time; but it doesn't actually detect self-pity, so people whose false sense of entitlement was violated will not be detected.

Both indicators can apply to the same creature.

Let Freedom Ring (Su):
You clap your hands, but instead of a slap, there is the sound of a great bronze bell. Slaves, previously cowed and resigned to their miserable fates, are once again inspired to throw off their yokes, and heroes are moved to fight for them. Everyone who is not an oppressor (see Detect Oppression) within 40 feet is affected as if by the Heroism spell cast at a caster level equal to your level in Knight of the Broken Chain.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (Ex):
Three powers that you can select in any order. You can only select each power once.
1) Liberty: Due to your stalwart belief in your cause, you gain a +3 bonus to Will saves against spells from the Compulsion subschool, and +3 to any skill check made against an oppressor (as defined by Detect Oppression).
2) Equality: All are equal before the gods, and all are equally entitled to a righteous ass-kicking. You gain a +3 bonus on attack rolls against creatures with 4+ more hit dice than you, and a -3 penalty to AC against creatures with 4 HD less than you.
3) Fraternity. There is power in friendship. You gain a +3 bonus to attack rolls and AC when you fight alongside your dearest friends.
3a) College Fraternity: The bonuses become +6 if both you and your friend had drunken, unprotected sex with the same stranger within the past week. (No rape, you're the good guys.)

Mindless Servant (Sp):
Knights of the Broken Chain do not like to summon and bind sentient creatures. When they need extra help, they can use this power 4 times per day to animate objects or command (or summon) mindless creatures (but not golems, which are created by binding an earth elemental, or undead that were created by reanimating a formerly sentient creature, such as zombies and skeletons).
1) The Animate Objects effect is like the cleric/bard spell of that name, and is cast at a caster level equal to your level in Knight of the Broken Chain.
2) The Command Mindless Creature effect operates like Command Undead wizard spell, but only affects mindless creatures that do not exist due to oppression. The affected creatures cannot save against this, but their current commander can, if there is one. The save DC is as if this was a 2nd-level spell
3) Summon Mindless Creature summons a creature with hit dice equal to half your class level in Knight of the Broken Chain. You may specify its type, as well as such restrictions as "must not be longer than 20 feet, and must be rust-proof".

Four Freedoms (varies):
Four powers you can select in any order/ You can only select each power once.
1) Freedom of Speech (Sp): You can continue to speak through ventriloquism (and cast spells) even if you are gagged, and are immune to the spell Silence if you are unwilling to be affected.
2) Freedom of Worship (Sp): The save DCs of your spells increase by 4 when cast against perpetrators of religiously motivated oppression.
3) Freedom from Want (Sp): You learn three bonus spells: Create Food and Water (spell level 3), Heroes' Feast (spell level 6), and Mage's Magnificent Mansion (spell level 7). Each of these spells can be prepared normally and also cast once per day as a spell-like ability with at your current caster level.
4) Freedom from fear (Ex): You are immune to all fear effects, magical or otherwise, like a Paladin.

Drapetomania (Ex):
All your speed values (land, sea, air) double.

Impenetrable Mind (Ex):
You are permanently under an effect like the Mind Blank spell, which cannot be removed by any magic but that of a god.


Feat: Rage Against the Oppressor
Requirements: Knight of the Broken Chain level 1, and/or some believable reason to hate slavers more than most of your peers do.

You really, REALLY hate slavers. Can't think about the bastards without breaking something. Once per day, when within the presence of an Oppressor with at least a Moderate aura, you can rage like a level 1 Barbarian. The oppressor must be the target of your current assault, and you must be aware of the strength of his aura (or the gravity of his crimes).

ArcturusV
2013-10-25, 02:32 AM
Well, I'm with you on the "Chaotic" thing. Eliminating slavery is something a Good person of any alignment would be on board with. Much less the nature of "Chaotic" alignments is not to spit in the eye of authority (Which is why they claim such things have to be chaotic) but is to fail to recognize authority of any sort beyond what is forced upon you.

Or rather if you think about it... Chaotic Evil Societies practice slavery just like Lawful Evil societies do. Thus Law/Chaos would have no bearing on the act of Slavery. So why should Law/Chaos have any bearing on it's opposition, compared to the straight forward Good (Supports the freedom and rights of people) versus Evil (Oppresses others)?

More on topic, mechanical notes:

I fail to see how this is really a "base class". The fiction you have written, and even the rules you want to reference are all typically the domain of Prestige Classes (Other classes adopting this mantle, progressing the features of a different class as you take it, something I think only Prestige Classes ever do).

Note that if you DO make it a "Base" class, with the idea of progressing your prior classes as well? You effectively have made it a Prestige Class, as people more Optimization minded will go, "Okay... I'll be a Cleric Level 1... and then take 19 levels in Chain Breaker as Cleric 2-20 gives nothing unique and Chain breaker will still give me all my Cleric casting, plus additional domains, plus additional powers, plus my Turning progression, etc".

Hard to come up with numbers otherwise. I'm thinking going with a 3/4 BaB gain at best, maybe 1/2. Particularly if you keep the "Advances other classes" bit, it'd have to be pretty much the worst progressions on it's own, worst BAB, worst Saves, etc, to make up for the otherwise high level of power you get from having a class with no requirements that advances other classes on top of feeding it's own. Maybe give it a good Will Progression as that might fit theme.... then again if you gave them an effect like a permanent Protection from Evil. Which would negate some of the need for a good will save thematically (Like resistance to most compulsions).

Hmm... I'll keep thinking about this.

Tiiba
2013-10-25, 08:16 AM
It does not give all of a cleric's casting, just the domains. I wanted it to have a few specialized spells to help out, but I was actually envisioning something relatively sword-oriented. Did I screw it up?

Turning? I totally forgot about that. Maybe they have it, or maybe not. But I don't want a cleric with extra domains.

The "Advances other classes" bit? I didn't say anything about that. Is that some rule that applies to base classes? What does it do exactly?

Anyway, thanks for the response!

Tiiba
2013-10-27, 03:04 AM
Bump, basically. I thoroughly rewrote the main post, adding all the stats that I previously left to your imagination, a number of features, pretty tables, and a feat. But none of that bumps the thread. So, I gotta do this.

Tiiba
2013-11-22, 11:24 AM
Another bump. I'd really like to know how I did. Is it balanced? Is it boring? Does it betray a lack of understanding of the rules? Does it need more special abilities? Less, to make things simpler? Does it not serve the purpose for which it was designed?