Thunderfist12's Class Compendium [PF, please PEACH]

[Thunderfist12]

Thunderfist12's Class Compendium

My little brother, yet again, wants Middle Earth statted out. This time, he wants it in Pathfinder. So, first and foremost, I must make the classes (with your help). Remember, though these are intended for play in Middle Earth, I shall strive to keep them open to any campaign or campaign setting. Thank you who PEACH this in advance.

So, without further ado, I shall present to you a new set of classes: the wild Berserker; the crafty Burglar; the steadfast Guard; the mysterious Ranger; the primal Shaman; the hardened Warrior; and the wise Wizard. May they serve their purpose well.

[Thunderfist12]

Alright, I need some revision on the abilities and some additional ideas (ie. an ability for level 5).



The Berserker

Reserved space for fluff.


The Berserker (Table 1-1)
{table="head"]Level | Base Attack | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | Furies
1st | +1 | +2 | +0 | +0 | Common Furies, Resolve | 2
2nd | +2 | +3 | +0 | +0 | Grit, Frightening | 3
3rd | +3 | +3 | +1 | +1 | | 3
4th | +4 | +4 | +1 | +1 | Destructive | 4
5th | +5 | +4 | +1 | +1 | | 4
6th | +6/+1 | +5 | +2 | +2 | Mighty Furies | 5 [/table]

Hit Die: d12
Class Skills: Still working on that.
Skill Ranks: 4 + Int modifier per level.

Common Furies (Ex): Each of the berserker's first three furies starts as a common fury. These are the lowest of all furies he can use in combat. Each one can be activated at will, but only one can be active at a time. Activating a fury takes a move action.

Strike Down (Ex): Any time the berserker delivers a critical hit while this is active, the victim is immediately knocked prone.


Resolve (Ex): When a berserker fails a save against a fear effect or a curse, he may re-roll that check and take the higher result. He may never re-roll a re-roll.

Grit (Ex): Once per encounter, a berserker may take a full-round action to convert an amount of damage he has taken into nonlethal damage. This amount is equal to 5 + (5 x berserker level).

Frightening (Ex): Whenever the berserker makes a successful melee attack, he can make an Intimidate check to render the victim shaken.

Destructive (Ex): Raise the critical multiplier for all weapons wielded by the berserker by one.

Mighty Furies (Ex): The fury the berserker chooses at level six is a mighty fury. This works like his common furies, but is chosen from the following list.

Still needs work.

[Thunderfist12]

Reserved for...



The Burglar

[Thunderfist12]

Reserved for...



The Guard

[Thunderfist12]

Reserved for...



The Ranger

[Thunderfist12]

Reserved for...



The Shaman

[Thunderfist12]

Reserved for...



The Captain

[Thunderfist12]

Reserved for...



The Wizard

[Scholar23]

Hi I will be watching this:smallbiggrin:

*Clicks*

[ngilop]

I am confused on one little aspect

You have the Beserker, Guard AND, Warrior. What is exactly going to be the difference between the three. I know the Guard and Beserker are going to have different abilities and theme. But the warrior it seems superfluous.

There is just going to be too much overlap between your 2 previous fighting classes and the Warrior.

Might I instead suggest that you replace your Warrior with the Captain? That fits perfectly into the Middle Earth ( faramir, Imrahil, Ugluk, Bolg are some examples of Captains)

that way you cna have your offensive focused warrior (The Beserker) defensive focused warrior (The Guard) and the leadership commadning forcused warrior (The Captain)

[Thunderfist12]

I am confused on one little aspect

You have the Beserker, Guard AND, Warrior. What is exactly going to be the difference between the three. I know the Guard and Beserker are going to have different abilities and theme. But the warrior it seems superfluous.

There is just going to be too much overlap between your 2 previous fighting classes and the Warrior.

Might I instead suggest that you replace your Warrior with the Captain? That fits perfectly into the Middle Earth ( faramir, Imrahil, Ugluk, Bolg are some examples of Captains)

that way you cna have your offensive focused warrior (The Beserker) defensive focused warrior (The Guard) and the leadership commadning forcused warrior (The Captain)

... that... is... an awesome idea. I'll do that when school's over.

[Machinekng]

Have you already started stating out the classes, or are you still looking for ideas? Also, do you plan to have the classes span the entire 1-20 level range? The Middle-Earth setting is fairly low-powered, and could work well with an E6 or perhaps E8 range.

Anyways, here's some ideas:

Berserker
The Barbarian is a fairly well-made class, especially with Pathfinder edits, so I'm not sure what you really need to change. I'd assume your inspiration for this class comes from heroes such as the Dwarven warriors, as well as enemies such as the Uruk-Hai.

Burglar
Again, the standard rouge fits this archetype fairly well, so I'm not sure what you need to change. You could probably introduce new rouge talents as necessary to emulate the actions of character like Bilbo and Frodo.

Captain
I definitely agree with ngilop, this class concept would serve well in Middle-Earth (although Faramir would likely be a ranger, while Boromir is a captain.) A mundane version of inspire courage would work well for this class, and you could give it a stronger version of the Cavalier's tactician ability (in my experience, this ability is underpowered by its limited use and the general weakness of teamwork feats.) You could probably add a a mounted archetype to this class to emulate characters like Eomer, which would switch out a set of class features for a version of the Cavalier's charge and mounted combat abilities.

Guard
One of the big issues with guardian classes is that they tend to have trouble controlling the battlefield, as enemies will simply skirt their effective AoO range. I would look to classes such as the Tome of Battle Crusader and the Path of War Warder for inspiration. This class needs to have the ability to interdict attacks against allies, and to effectively lock down multiple enemies simultaneously.

Ranger
I would simply buff up the the core ranger for this class. You could replace the animal companion and spell casting with a mix of ranger's tricks, as demonstrated in the Skirmisher ranger archetype. However, you need to make sure that these tricks scale well and are a suitable replacement for spellcasting, which probably means that one should be able to change his tricks on a daily basis.

Shaman
What is your particular inspiration for this class? I can't think of a good example of a shaman in the Hobbit of the Lord of the Rings, although I think the Simillarion mentions sorcery practiced by the Black Numenoreans. Regardless, to keep with the power level of Middle-Earth, you should probably keep it as a 2/3 spellcaster.

Wizard
This one is real tricky. You see, there are only 5 wizards in Middle-Earth, and they're all Maia, Angelic beings from Valinor (Balrogs and Sauron are also Maia, but of differing power levels.) They're no so much a class, but rather a race. Although they are Maia, the wizards have the bodies of old men, their power is self-limited. Their job is to mobilize and inspire the free people of Middle-Earth against Sauron's forces, and not to face them directly unless absolutely necessary.

Other Ideas
One idea would be to make the Eleven and Dwarven races classes, like original D&D. As Elves and Dwarves are physically superior in nearly every way to humans in the LotR sage, this would help balance that. Most of the elves and dwarves seen also have a similar set of capabilities.

[ngilop]

I have to agree here with Machinekng, middle earth was decidedly more deadly than the standard D&D world, capping out the level at 6 or 8 would be for the best I think. That way you do not have to create 7 full classes, you only have to create 7 1/3-ish classes. Less work for you and the characters fit into middle earth much better. Yeah you can be Boromir and be hacking through an army of Uruk-Hai but you can still die.

I can see you using the standard Barbarian and adding in some new class abilities for the beserker. The same thing with the Burglar maybe less about sneak attack and more like theif-acrobat abilities. Also same with ranger minus any spell casting

Id take a look at The Marshal class and the Bard's inspire stuff for the Captain.

It be easy to make the Guard actually be a threat to enemy forces give them a taunt like ability for example what I have for my still working upon fighter Taunt: As a standard action a Fighter can force all within 30 feet to focus their attacks, abilities, and spells on him. An Will save at DC 10 + 1/2 Fighter Levels + Charisma Modifier overcomes. Mindless creatures are immune to this discipline. For every 7th rank of intimidate the Fighter has the DC is increased by 1. Those successfully taunted do their best to rush and engage the fighter in combat to the best of their abilities. Melee will close in regardless of what dangers they put themselves in and ranged will focus the Fighter regardless of their other circumstances. Spellcasters must have the Fighter as a viable target for a spell if not they close in for melee. make them halt movement with a successful attack and other such annoying abilities like that so the enemy is forced to deal with them out of pure frustration on not being able to get to the other guys

Shaman would be easy take the Adept NPC class slap in some cool class abilities.

AS for the wizard well.. TECHNICALLY the blues did teach magic to man so.. they still are no where near as powerful as the standard D&D wizard Id suggest giving them the Bard spell progression but let them pick any wizard spell.

take a look at these (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=236469) and this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=317055) to get some class ability ideas.

[Thunderfist12]

Alright, I'm back. Computer wasn't turning on for the past two days (no idea why).

Anyways, first of all, responding to Machineking (ngilop's next).


Have you already started stating out the classes, or are you still looking for ideas? Also, do you plan to have the classes span the entire 1-20 level range? The Middle-Earth setting is fairly low-powered, and could work well with an E6 or perhaps E8 range.

Anyways, here's some ideas:

Berserker
The Barbarian is a fairly well-made class, especially with Pathfinder edits, so I'm not sure what you really need to change. I'd assume your inspiration for this class comes from heroes such as the Dwarven warriors, as well as enemies such as the Uruk-Hai.

Burglar
Again, the standard rouge fits this archetype fairly well, so I'm not sure what you need to change. You could probably introduce new rouge talents as necessary to emulate the actions of character like Bilbo and Frodo.

Captain
I definitely agree with ngilop, this class concept would serve well in Middle-Earth (although Faramir would likely be a ranger, while Boromir is a captain.) A mundane version of inspire courage would work well for this class, and you could give it a stronger version of the Cavalier's tactician ability (in my experience, this ability is underpowered by its limited use and the general weakness of teamwork feats.) You could probably add a a mounted archetype to this class to emulate characters like Eomer, which would switch out a set of class features for a version of the Cavalier's charge and mounted combat abilities.

Guard
One of the big issues with guardian classes is that they tend to have trouble controlling the battlefield, as enemies will simply skirt their effective AoO range. I would look to classes such as the Tome of Battle Crusader and the Path of War Warder for inspiration. This class needs to have the ability to interdict attacks against allies, and to effectively lock down multiple enemies simultaneously.

Ranger
I would simply buff up the the core ranger for this class. You could replace the animal companion and spell casting with a mix of ranger's tricks, as demonstrated in the Skirmisher ranger archetype. However, you need to make sure that these tricks scale well and are a suitable replacement for spellcasting, which probably means that one should be able to change his tricks on a daily basis.

Shaman
What is your particular inspiration for this class? I can't think of a good example of a shaman in the Hobbit of the Lord of the Rings, although I think the Simillarion mentions sorcery practiced by the Black Numenoreans. Regardless, to keep with the power level of Middle-Earth, you should probably keep it as a 2/3 spellcaster.

Wizard
This one is real tricky. You see, there are only 5 wizards in Middle-Earth, and they're all Maia, Angelic beings from Valinor (Balrogs and Sauron are also Maia, but of differing power levels.) They're no so much a class, but rather a race. Although they are Maia, the wizards have the bodies of old men, their power is self-limited. Their job is to mobilize and inspire the free people of Middle-Earth against Sauron's forces, and not to face them directly unless absolutely necessary.

Other Ideas
One idea would be to make the Eleven and Dwarven races classes, like original D&D. As Elves and Dwarves are physically superior in nearly every way to humans in the LotR sage, this would help balance that. Most of the elves and dwarves seen also have a similar set of capabilities.

re (Berserker): Yep. It is. However, I was hoping to remake it with per encounter abilities, or even at will and triggered abilities, based on going berserk. That way, the berserker, unlike the barbarian, doesn't run out of rage for the day, instead having minor rages for the entire day.

re (Burglar): The point of this is to make a rogue that is not focused on sneak attack. In fact, I'm hoping to make it work without sneak attack at all. I think I'll base it more on talents, burglar paths, and courage abilities instead.

re (Captain): I was going to do the whole Inspire Courage thing. Also, I'll be adding in Stand Fast and other such abilities.

re (Guard): This. Exactly this.

re (Ranger): Yeah, I was thinking of ditching the spells and adding Lore abilities about the wild, as well as changing the animal companion selection to include animals that can be used as mounts, such as horses.

re (Shaman): I got the inspiration for this from various places. For one, the Strategy Battle Game has a ton of shamans, and I thought it was a pretty cool concept the way they portrayed it (Curses). Also, various games based on Middle Earth have quite a bit of shamans. I thought it was necessary, though I'm sure now it isn't. I'm still keeping it, though.

re (Wizard): See below for clarification, but at the point where this campaign's taking place, the true wizards are gone. These are technically not wizards, but are instead ordinary people who were taught the art of magic by their fathers, who learned it from their fathers, all the way back to a true wizard that entrusted their family with the sacred art. Also, I wanted to do an invocation thing, because, again, I don't see any reason why anyone should be useless at the end of the day while everyone else can keep going.

re (Other Ideas): Alright, here it is. The campaign takes place a long time after LOTR. Meaning after Aragorn's dead. At this point, the elves are mostly gone, so they won't be a player race. Dwarves, however, will be, since there are still enough of them hanging around (even though they are now just beginning to fade). Hobbits... well, at this point, they'd be a bit different. They're supposed to adapt to be like men, so they'd be Medium at this point, although they are still much smaller than mankind. I'll work on the races when I'm done with the classes, so paragons/racial levels will be in there.

[Thunderfist12]

I have to agree here with Machinekng, middle earth was decidedly more deadly than the standard D&D world, capping out the level at 6 or 8 would be for the best I think. That way you do not have to create 7 full classes, you only have to create 7 1/3-ish classes. Less work for you and the characters fit into middle earth much better. Yeah you can be Boromir and be hacking through an army of Uruk-Hai but you can still die.

I can see you using the standard Barbarian and adding in some new class abilities for the beserker. The same thing with the Burglar maybe less about sneak attack and more like theif-acrobat abilities. Also same with ranger minus any spell casting

Id take a look at The Marshal class and the Bard's inspire stuff for the Captain.

It be easy to make the Guard actually be a threat to enemy forces give them a taunt like ability for example what I have for my still working upon fighter Taunt: As a standard action a Fighter can force all within 30 feet to focus their attacks, abilities, and spells on him. An Will save at DC 10 + 1/2 Fighter Levels + Charisma Modifier overcomes. Mindless creatures are immune to this discipline. For every 7th rank of intimidate the Fighter has the DC is increased by 1. Those successfully taunted do their best to rush and engage the fighter in combat to the best of their abilities. Melee will close in regardless of what dangers they put themselves in and ranged will focus the Fighter regardless of their other circumstances. Spellcasters must have the Fighter as a viable target for a spell if not they close in for melee. make them halt movement with a successful attack and other such annoying abilities like that so the enemy is forced to deal with them out of pure frustration on not being able to get to the other guys

Shaman would be easy take the Adept NPC class slap in some cool class abilities.

AS for the wizard well.. TECHNICALLY the blues did teach magic to man so.. they still are no where near as powerful as the standard D&D wizard Id suggest giving them the Bard spell progression but let them pick any wizard spell.

take a look at these (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=236469) and this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=317055) to get some class ability ideas.

re (Guard): Taunt? Last time I saw that was as a kender's race ability. Might work, though...

re (Everything Else): I think I answered the rest in the previous post.

[ngilop]

Well, I am no middle earth scholar with published papers or anything official..

But ive read the works.. maybe too mnay times, LOL so you ever need help on getting your classes with a middle earth setting feel free to ask me via PM.

Im looking forward to the classes you have here being worked on and wish you the best :)

[ngilop]

With Frightening make it so that when the Beserker successfully damages an oppoenent he gets a free action Intimidate to cause the foe to be shaken.


On Strike Down turn that into a Fury.

I would up the count of Furies to go 2-3-4-5-6-6 myself, 1 more per level is not going to hurt.


I think the Grit abilities is a bit.. too powerful.

[Thunderfist12]

With Frightening make it so that when the Beserker successfully damages an oppoenent he gets a free action Intimidate to cause the foe to be shaken.


On Strike Down turn that into a Fury.

I would up the count of Furies to go 2-3-4-5-6-6 myself, 1 more per level is not going to hurt.


I think the Grit abilities is a bit.. too powerful.

Fixed

Also, how should I fix Grit?