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View Full Version : The Mook [NPC/Joke Class] 3.P



Milo v3
2014-01-12, 01:52 AM
The Mook
"They may be called the Palace Guard, the City Guard, or the patrol. Whatever the name, their purpose in any work of heroic fantasy is identical: it is, round about Chapter Three (or ten minutes into the film) to rush into the room, attack the hero one at a time, and be slaughtered. No one ever asks them if they wanted to."

These are the pathetic people you send against the heroes to show how awesome they are.

Prerequisites
Special: You cannot have any levels in a PC class.

Game Rule Information
Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d4
Skill Points Per Level: 2 + Int modifier

Class Skills: The mook's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Craft (Int), Profession (Wis).

The Mook
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special

1st|+0|+0|+0|+0|Expendable, Forgettable, Precise Aim

2nd|+1|+0|+0|+0|Dramatic Aura, One Death is Inconsequential

3rd|+1|+1|+1|+1|Memorable, Critical Failure

4th|+2|+1|+1|+1|Band of Thugs

5th|+2|+1|+1|+1|Showing Promise[/table]

All of the following are class features of the Mook.

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies: Mook are proficient with one simple or martial weapon. They are proficient with one form of light armour.

Expendable (Ex): A mook never succeeds on saving throws against massive damage or to not lose hit points while dying. You also only require half your current hit points in non-lethal damage to fall unconscious.

Forgettable (Ex): A depressing factor of being a mook is that no one seems to care about you or even bother to learn your name. Anyone that doesn't have levels in an NPC class must make a will save (DC 30) or immediately forget specific details about you and your appearance.

Despite this, mooks are rather easy to recognize as the pathetic weaklings they are can be identified as such as a free action by any other creature that can currently sense them.

Precise Aim (Ex): Mooks are known for their precise aim during training, when in a non-combat situation or attacking a creature with NPC class levels they have a +10 bonus to attack rolls.

Dramatic Aura (Ex): Despite the fact that you are completely unimportant, dramatic things seem to happen around you a fair bit, though it doesn't always end well for you. Any creature without NPC class levels within 60 ft. of you gain a +10 bonus on any check or attack roll against you.

One Death is Inconsequential (Ex): The death of one mook is meaningless, thus killing only one isn't very dramatic. Whenever the mook is killed, the attacker gains an additional 5 ft. step and standard action. If an attacker kills multiple mooks at the same time (same attack not same round), they only gain a single standard action and 5 ft. step instead of multiple.

Additional standard actions must be used to harm mooks, and only mooks.

Critical Failure (Ex): Who doesn't love to see a mook exploded with a punch, sliced into tiny pieces, or completely cleaved in two. At 3rd level, any attack against a mook by someone without NPC levels is automatically a critical hit.

In addition, the One Death is Inconsequential ability activates whenever they are hit by a critical hit in addition to being killed.

Memorable (Ex): Upon reaching 3rd level, we throw the mook a bone. He loses the forgettable ability.

Band of Thugs (Ex): After attaining 4th level, the mook starts to permanently work with a group, gaining two second level mook cohorts. These cohorts must be of a race with zero level adjustment.

Showing Promise (Ex): Once a mook reaches his fifth level, he gains the amazing ability to stop being so pathetic. He may select one PC class of his choice, he immediately loses all his levels in Mook and any NPC classes he has, and gains levels in the selected class equal to half the number of levels lost.

Lord Vukodlak
2014-01-12, 01:57 AM
I'd make the following adjustment

Precise Aim (Ex): Mooks are known for their precise aim during training, when in a non-combat situationor attacking opposing mooks on the heroes side they have a +10 bonus to attack rolls.

Remember the Stormtroopers did an amazing job cutting down nameless rebels

Milo v3
2014-01-12, 02:15 AM
I'd make the following adjustment


Remember the Stormtroopers did an amazing job cutting down nameless rebels

Akay modified.

Knaight
2014-01-12, 02:49 AM
Precise Aim (Ex): Mooks are known for their precise aim during training, when in a non-combat situation or attacking a creature with NPC class levels they have a +10 bonus to attack rolls.

Dramatic Aura (Ex): Despite the fact that you are completely unimportant, dramatic things seem to happen around you a fair bit, though it doesn't always end well for you. Any creature without NPC class levels within 60 ft. of you gain a +10 bonus on any check or attack roll against you.

One Death is Inconsequential (Ex): The death of one mook is meaningless, thus killing only one isn't very dramatic. Whenever the mook is killed, the attacker gains an additional 5 ft. step and standard action.

Critical Failure (Ex): Who doesn't love to see a mook exploded with a punch, sliced into tiny pieces, or completely cleaved in two. At 3rd level, any attack against a mook by someone with NPC levels is automatically a critical hit.

In addition, the One Death is Inconsequential ability activates whenever they are hit by a critical hit in addition to being killed.

Memorable (Ex): Upon reaching 3rd level, we throw the mook a bone. He loses the forgettable ability.

Band of Thugs (Ex): After attaining 4th level, the mook starts to permanently work with a group, gaining two second level mook cohorts. These cohorts must be of a race with zero level adjustment.

Showing Promise (Ex): Once a mook reaches his fifth level, he gains the amazing ability to stop being so pathetic. He may select one PC class of his choice, he immediately loses all his levels in Mook and any NPC classes he has, and gains levels in the selected class equal to half the number of levels lost.

Precise aim should probably be "when attacking a creature without PC levels" to better fit the genre.

Critical Failure should be someone with PC levels.

Dramatic Aura should probably be for anyone with PC levels, to prevent weirdness like a PC Class X/Expert 1 not getting the bonus.

Milo v3
2014-01-12, 03:12 AM
Precise aim should probably be "when attacking a creature without PC levels" to better fit the genre.
I chose to not do that, as then they would get the bonus against nearly every creature they face in combat. As racial hit dice are not PC class levels.


Critical Failure should be someone with PC levels.
Fixed. Don't know how I forgot the "out".


Dramatic Aura should probably be for anyone with PC levels, to prevent weirdness like a PC Class X/Expert 1 not getting the bonus.
Expert... Why would a PC take levels in Expert or any NPC class? Factorum is effectively the PC version of the expert class.

Rhynn
2014-01-12, 04:35 AM
One Death is Inconsequential (Ex): The death of one mook is meaningless, thus killing only one isn't very dramatic. Whenever the mook is killed, the attacker gains an additional 5 ft. step and standard action.

Between Cleave, Great Cleave, and any number of AoE attacks, this is asking for trouble. Action economy breakage, ahoy!

I make a Great Cleave attack as a standard action, and kill a mook... then I start a chain of taking free 5 ft. steps and using the Great Cleave attacks to murder mooks, and taking free standard actions to, say, cast spells (or start parallel or subsequent Great Cleaves during the same turn). Incidentally, do those extra actions take place before or after my initial action finishes?

Or I fireball and kill 20 mooks, and cast 20 more spells...

You need to change, specify, and/or clean that up.

Milo v3
2014-01-12, 04:41 AM
Between Cleave, Great Cleave, and any number of AoE attacks, this is asking for trouble. Action economy breakage, ahoy!

I make a Great Cleave attack as a standard action, and kill a mook... then I start a chain of taking free 5 ft. steps and using the Great Cleave attacks to murder mooks, and taking free standard actions to, say, cast spells (or start parallel or subsequent Great Cleaves during the same turn). Incidentally, do those extra actions take place before or after my initial action finishes?

Or I fireball and kill 20 mooks, and cast 20 more spells...

You need to change, specify, and/or clean that up.

.... Mass killing of NPC's is the point of this :smallconfused:

Those actions would also happen afterwords, as you can't make those actions in the middle of other actions without specific abilities that allow you to.

Though I have changed the rule slightly so you don't get millions of standard actions with Locate City Bomb.

Rhynn
2014-01-12, 05:25 AM
.... Mass killing of NPC's is the point of this :smallconfused:

Right, but by killing 20 mooks in one round, you could have in that same round made 20 standard action attacks/cast 20 spells at something that's not a mook, such as a dragon (or just non-mook NPCs).

Even in the altered form, you just need to catch one mook in an AoE with any number of non-mook monsters/NPCs in order to get a free action and cast another spell.

Extra actions are one of the most powerful resources in D&D 3.X/PF.

Basically, it doesn't do just what you want it to do, it does a lot of other stuff, too, and there's bound to be better ways to achieve what you want; maybe just something about getting a free 5-ft. step and one free attack on any mook you can reach before or after the free step.

Milo v3
2014-01-12, 05:32 AM
Right, but by killing 20 mooks in one round, you could have in that same round made 20 standard action attacks/cast 20 spells at something that's not a mook, such as a dragon (or just non-mook NPCs).

Even in the altered form, you just need to catch one mook in an AoE with any number of non-mook monsters/NPCs in order to get a free action and cast another spell.

Extra actions are one of the most powerful resources in D&D 3.X/PF.

I know. It's going to be hard to not appear to have a rude tone with this but, I don't care. The point of this is to allow the players to kill NPC's one after the other after over and over, until everyone in the room is dead except for the PC's. In the space of 6 seconds.

This NPC class is more of a joke than anything.

Rhynn
2014-01-12, 05:41 AM
This NPC class is more of a joke than anything.

Well, that certainly explains why you posted it in a forum where people will usually earnestly comment on your homebrew material, such as trying to help you balance classes...

Milo v3
2014-01-12, 05:43 AM
Well, that certainly explains why you posted it in a forum where people will usually earnestly comment on your homebrew material, such as trying to help you balance classes...

It's the forum I use for my homebrew, that's why I put it here.

Also, please know that I didn't want to sound rude, I just couldn't figure out a better way to word my reply.

Tanuki Tales
2014-01-12, 11:34 AM
Well, that certainly explains why you posted it in a forum where people will usually earnestly comment on your homebrew material, such as trying to help you balance classes...

Yeah, it's not like we ever get joke classes, feats, spells, monsters, etc. This is the first time ever!

Though you might want to put a joke disclaimer somewhere in the title or first post Milo.

Knaight
2014-01-12, 03:07 PM
I know. It's going to be hard to not appear to have a rude tone with this but, I don't care. The point of this is to allow the players to kill NPC's one after the other after over and over, until everyone in the room is dead except for the PC's. In the space of 6 seconds.

The issue is that the standard action can be used against someone other than a mook. Take a typical fantasy scene - there's someone actually dangerous, with a host of mooks. They send the mooks out at the heroes, who proceed to cut through them as they trickle towards them. When the mooks are dead, the fight with the actually dangerous enemy starts.

Your rule undermines that scene. A spell caster could do something like fireball a mook group, then proceed to blow a few dozen spells on the actually dangerous threat, along with any buffs they need. It allows an absurd nova. Basically, it breaks if there are non-mooks with mooks, and works well for only mooks.

To fix this, you could restrict the options for the standard action. If they could only be used as offensive actions against only mooks, the problem is largely solved. There are still some oddities (e.g martial adepts basically being able to use mooks to build real attacks, or with Devoted Spirit heal), but these oddities are largely a non-issue.

roko10
2014-01-13, 11:46 PM
I'd want to add the following ability:

What Measure is a Mook?: Upon reaching 4th level, the mook always carries something from home(a picture, a doll, ect.), to show that he has an family or a loved one. PC characters who kill him must do a Will save at DC 5+the Mook's charisma modifier, or be stunned fo 1d6 rounds, shocked by the fact that he killed a human being, and tons, too.

However, a PC who flanks the mook automatically kills the mook, and gains two extra actions and a 5-feet step, because remembering your family when ou are a guard in a facility is just dumb.

Amechra
2014-01-14, 08:45 PM
I'd replace anything that grants another standard action with a free attack that can only be used against Mooks.