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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Class Fecund Healer (3.5 PrC) [PEACH] - make people explode with positive energy!



Heliomance
2014-12-02, 09:09 AM
Fecund Healer

I bring life. So much life! Be healed, my children, be healed! -Jarissa Meadowlark, Fecund Healer

Fecund Healers are disciples of Life. They devote their existence to healing, to imbuing the world with life and fertility. They are vibrant wielders of positive energy, and their services are widely sought by adventuring parties and kingdoms alike.

BECOMING A FECUND HEALER
There are several possible entries into this prestige class. People from all walks of life can become a Fecund Healer. The main requirement is a desire to fill the world with glorious Life.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Skills: Heal 10 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 5 ranks, Craft (Alchemy) 2 ranks.
Race: Must be a living creature.
Special: Must be able to heal others at least 20 points of hit point damage per day.
Special: Must have been healed to twice your normal maximum hitpoints (e.g. by a strongly positive aligned plane, another Fecund Healer, or any similar method of destructive healing) and survived.


Class Skills
The Fecund Healer's class skills are Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Profession, Spellcraft.
Skills Points at Each Level: 4 + int

Hit Dice: d8



Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
Spellcasting


1st

+0

+2

+0

+2
Unlimited Healing, Healing Hands
-



2nd

+1

+3

+0

+3
Vivacious Blast +1d6
+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class



3rd

+2

+3

+1

+3
Brew Restorative Draught
+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class



4th

+3

+4

+1

+4
Vivacious Blast +2d6
+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class



5th

+3

+4

+1

+4
Defy Death, Greater Healing Hands
-



6th

+4

+5

+2

+5
Vivacious Blast +3d6
+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class



7th

+5

+5

+2

+5
Brew Restorative Draught (4th)
+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class



8th

+6

+6

+2

+6
Vivacious Blast +4d6
+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class



9th

+6

+6

+3

+6
Brew Restorative Draught (5th)
+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class



10th

+7

+7

+3

+7
Vivacious Blast +5d6, Zoetic Transformation, Holy Hands, Master of Life
-



Weapon Proficiencies: You do not gain any armor or weapon proficiencies.
Spellcasting: At each level except 1st, 5th, and 10th, you gain new spells per day and an increase in caster level (and spells known, if applicable) as if you had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If you had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming a fecund healer, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day, caster level, and spells known.

Unlimited Healing (Su): Your connection to Life is such that there are very few restrictions on who and what you can heal. If any of your healing methods have a limit on the hit point level they can heal a creature to (for example, the Fast Healing Draconic Aura), that limit is removed - you may always use your healing on a creature no matter how many hit points they are on. This does not turn limited hitpoint-per-day healing sources (for example, Lay On Hands) into unlimited healing sources. You may heal Constructs with half effectiveness, and if they have the Living Construct subtype, you may heal them as if they were living creatures. You may also bypass healing immunity, but you only heal half the normal amount of hitpoints to immune creatures. You may not heal undead, however, as they are an affront to Life and are not compatible with your energies. Any source of healing you have can damage undead as if it were positive energy.

You may also heal yourself and others above their normal maximum hit points. Any healing effect that you personally produce (not including the effects of magic items you wield) that would take someone above maximum hit points grants them temporary hit points equal to the excess healing. These temporary hit points can stack without limit, and last 24 hours. Every round that a creature is above their maximum hit points due to this effect, they must make a Fortitude save, with a DC equal to 10, plus 1 for every 5 points by which their hit points exceed their normal maximum. If they fail two saves in a row, they immediately fall unconscious until they are brought back down below their maximum hit points, plus an additional 1d4 rounds. If they fail a further two consecutive saves in a row while unconscious, they explode in a riot of positive energy and are instantly slain. This destroys their body, and leaves only a handful of golden leather.

This leather is imbued with positive energy, and when used as an optional material component for a spell that heals hit point damage, causes the spell to heal 1 additional point per level of the spell. It carries a market price of 100gp per dose, and one creature leaves enough leather for one spell.

Healing Hands (Sp): You may use Remove Disease and Lesser Restoration as spell-like abilities, once per day per class level. You may use Raise Dead as a spell-like ability once per week, but you must pay XP equal to one fifth of the normal material component cost in GP. Your caster level is equal to your Fecund Healer level.

Vivacious Blast (Sp): A vivacious blast is a ray with a range of 60 feet. It is a ranged touch attack that affects a single target, allowing no saving throw. A vivacious blast heals 1d6 points of damage at 2nd level and increases in power as the Fecund Healer rises in level. A vivacious blast is the equivalent of a spell whose level is equal to the Fecund Healer’s class level (round down), with a minimum spell level of 1st and a maximum of 9th when a Fecund Healer reaches 9th level or higher. Unlike other spells and spell-like abilities, a vivacious blast has a x3 critical.

A vivacious blast is subject to spell resistance, although the Spell Penetration feat and other effects that improve caster level checks to overcome spell resistance also apply to vivacious blast.

If you have the Eldritch Blast class feature, then you may treat Vivacious Blast as an eldritch essence invocation. Your Eldritch Blast damage stacks with the healing your Vivacious Blast does. The reverse, however, is not true - your Eldritch Blast does not increase in damage unless using the Vivacious Blast ability.

Brew Restorative Draught (Su): You gain the benefits of the Brew Potion feat, with the following differences: You may only use this ability to brew potions of Conjuration (Healing) spells, and you do not need to know a spell to be able to brew a potion of it. At 7th level and again at 9th, this ability improves, allowing you to brew potions of 4th and 5th level spells respectively. If a spell appears on multiple spell lists at different levels, use the Cleric spell list to determine what level it counts as, unless you can cast the spell at a different level. In that case, use the level that you have access to it at.

Defy Death (Su): Your connection to Life is so strong that you can bind those you heal tightly to it for a short time. Whenever you heal a creature (including yourself) 5 points of damage in one go, they gain the benefits of Diehard and Delay Death for one round per two class levels. They become unable to die from hit point damage for that time, and may continue to fight without penalty when below 0 hit points. A condition or spell that destroys enough of the subject's body so as to not allow raise dead to work, such as a disintegrate effect, still kills the creature, as does death brought about by ability score damage, level drain, or a death effect. If a creature has fewer than -9 hit points when the duration of this ability runs out, they die instantly. Creatures may only gain this benefit once per activation of an ability - if you grant a creature Fast Healing 5 through some means, for example, they only gain the benefits of Defy Death at the point at which it is granted, not every round subsequently.

Perhaps even more impressive, you can even imbue life into the recently dead. Your healing abilities may affect creatures who have been dead for up to one round per three class levels, so long as there is enough of a body left that Raise Dead could function. If in this time you can bring them to a point where they could survive (through healing hit points, removing Constitution damage, curing negative levels, and so forth), then they are restored to life with no penalty. Note that a dead creature does not receive Diehard and Delay Death from this healing, and so does not reanimate for a short time every time you heal them.

Greater Healing Hands (Sp): You may use Restoration as a spell-like ability once per day. Your caster level is equal to your Fecund Healer level. You may use Resurrection as a spell-like ability once per week, but you must pay XP equal to one fifth of the normal material component cost in GP.

Zoetic Transformation: You have attained the ultimate expression of Life. Your type changes to Outsider (positive energy). You gain Regeneration 5 (Ex), overcome by negative energy and Vile damage (this regeneration is not affected by Unlimited Healing, nor does it trigger Defy Death). You may not be immune to the non-lethal damage caused by your regeneration converting lethal damage. If you would normally be immune to non-lethal damage, you take this non-lethal damage anyway. This damage cannot be prevented or reduced in any way.

Holy Hands (Sp): You may use True Resurrection once per week as a spell-like ability, but you must pay XP equal to one fifth of the normal material component cost in GP.

Master of Life (Sp): You are a conduit for the raw, primal force of Life itself. As a full round action that provokes attacks of opportunity, you may widen the conduit to a raging torrent. You may emulate a Miracle spell, restoring any number of allies within a one mile radius to full health, and even raising those who have fallen back to life (so long as there is enough of a body for Raise Dead to work). Even you, however, are not able to channel this amount of Life safely, and you must make a DC 40 Fortitude save to contain the power, or explode as if from being over-healed. Even if you succeed the Fortitude save, you lose the benefits of Zoetic Transformation for a year and a day. You must be under the effects of Zoetic Transformation to be able to use this ability.



Positive Energy subtype: This subtype usually is used for elementals and outsiders with a connection to the Positive Energy Plane. Positive Energy creatures never need to make Fortitude saves for having too many hit points until they reach twice their normal hit point maximum, and if the DC of such a save is based on the amount by which they exceed their normal maximum hit points, it is instead based on the amount by which they exceed twice their normal maximum hit points. Furthermore, they may choose to have healing simply not affect them if it would take them to a level which would require them to make Fortitude saves, allowing them to safely exist on strongly Positive-dominant planes.

Fecund Healer

I bring life. So much life! Be healed, my children, be healed! -Jarissa Meadowlark, Fecund Healer

Fecund Healers are disciples of Life. They devote their existence to healing, to imbuing the world with life and fertility. They are vibrant wielders of positive energy, and their services are widely sought by adventuring parties and kingdoms alike.

BECOMING A FECUND HEALER
There are several possible entries into this prestige class. People from all walks of life can become a Fecund Healer. The main requirement is a desire to fill the world with glorious Life.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Skills: Heal 10 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 5 ranks, Craft (Alchemy) 2 ranks.
Race: Must be a living creature.
Special: Must be able to heal others at least 20 points of hit point damage per day.
Special: Must have been healed to twice your normal maximum hitpoints (e.g. by a strongly positive aligned plane, another Fecund Healer, or any similar method of destructive healing) and survived.


Class Skills
The Fecund Healer's class skills are Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Profession, Spellcraft.
Skills Points at Each Level: 4 + int

Hit Dice: d8



Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
Spellcasting


1st

+0

+2

+0

+2
Unlimited Healing, Healing Hands
-



2nd

+1

+3

+0

+3
Vivacious Blast +1d6
+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class



3rd

+2

+3

+1

+3
Brew Restorative Draught
+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class



4th

+3

+4

+1

+4
Vivacious Blast +2d6
+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class



5th

+3

+4

+1

+4
Defy Death, Greater Healing Hands
-



6th

+4

+5

+2

+5
Vivacious Blast +3d6
+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class



7th

+5

+5

+2

+5
Brew Restorative Draught (4th)
+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class



8th

+6

+6

+2

+6
Vivacious Blast +4d6
+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class



9th

+6

+6

+3

+6
Brew Restorative Draught (5th)
+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class



10th

+7

+7

+3

+7
Vivacious Blast +5d6, Zoetic Transformation, Holy Hands, Master of Life
-



Weapon Proficiencies: You do not gain any armor or weapon proficiencies.
Spellcasting: At each level except 1st, 5th, and 10th, you gain new spells per day and an increase in caster level (and spells known, if applicable) as if you had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If you had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming a fecund healer, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day, caster level, and spells known.

Unlimited Healing (Su): Your connection to Life is such that there are very few restrictions on who and what you can heal. If any of your healing methods have a limit on how much they can heal a target (for example, the Fast Healing Draconic Aura), that limit is removed. You may heal Constructs with half effectiveness, and if they have the Living Construct subtype, you may heal them as if they were living creatures. You may not heal undead, however, as they are an affront to Life and are not compatible with your energies. Any source of healing you have can damage undead as if it were positive energy.

You may also heal yourself and others above their normal maximum hit points. Any healing effect that you personally produce (not including the effects of magic items you wield) that would take someone above maximum hit points grants them temporary hit points equal to the excess healing. These temporary hit points can stack without limit, and last 24 hours. Every round that a creature is above their maximum hit points due to this effect, they must make a Fortitude save, with a DC equal to 10, plus 2 for every 5 points by which their hit points exceed their normal maximum. If they fail two saves in a row, they explode in a riot of positive energy and are instantly slain. This destroys their body, and leaves only a handful of golden leather.

This leather is imbued with positive energy, and when used as an optional material component for a spell that heals hit point damage, causes the spell to heal 1 additional point per level of the spell. It carries a market price of 100gp per dose, and one creature leaves enough leather for one spell.

Healing Hands (Sp): You may use Remove Disease and Lesser Restoration as spell-like abilities, once per day per class level. You may use Raise Dead as a spell-like ability once per week, but you must pay XP equal to one fifth of the normal material component cost in GP. Your caster level is equal to your Fecund Healer level.

Vivacious Blast (Sp): A vivacious blast is a ray with a range of 60 feet. It is a ranged touch attack that affects a single target, allowing no saving throw. A vivacious blast heals 1d6 points of damage at 2nd level and increases in power as the Fecund Healer rises in level. A vivacious blast is the equivalent of a spell whose level is equal to the Fecund Healer’s class level (round down), with a minimum spell level of 1st and a maximum of 9th when a Fecund Healer reaches 9th level or higher. Unlike other spells and spell-like abilities, a vivacious blast has a x3 critical.

A vivacious blast is subject to spell resistance, although the Spell Penetration feat and other effects that improve caster level checks to overcome spell resistance also apply to vivacious blast.

If you have the Eldritch Blast class feature, then you may treat Vivacious Blast as an eldritch essence invocation. Your Eldritch Blast damage stacks with the healing your Vivacious Blast does. The reverse, however, is not true - your Eldritch Blast does not increase in damage unless using the Vivacious Blast ability.

Brew Restorative Draught (Su): You gain the benefits of the Brew Potion feat, with the following differences: You may only use this ability to brew potions of Conjuration (Healing) spells, and you do not need to know a spell to be able to brew a potion of it. At 7th level and again at 9th, this ability improves, allowing you to brew potions of 4th and 5th level spells respectively.

Defy Death (Su): Your connection to Life is so strong that you can bind those you heal tightly to it for a short time. Whenever you heal a creature (including yourself) 5 points of damage in one go, they gain the benefits of Diehard and Delay Death for one round per two class levels. They become unable to die from hit point damage for that time, and may continue to fight without penalty when below 0 hit points. A condition or spell that destroys enough of the subject's body so as to not allow raise dead to work, such as a disintegrate effect, still kills the creature, as does death brought about by ability score damage, level drain, or a death effect. If a creature has fewer than -9 hit points when the duration of this ability runs out, they die instantly. Creatures may only gain this benefit once per activation of an ability - if you grant a creature Fast Healing 5 through some means, for example, they only gain the benefits of Defy Death at the point at which it is granted, not every round subsequently.

Perhaps even more impressive, you can even imbue life into the recently dead. Your healing abilities may affect creatures who have been dead for up to one round per three class levels, so long as there is enough of a body left that Raise Dead could function. If in this time you can bring them to a point where they could survive (through healing hit points, removing Constitution damage, curing negative levels, and so forth), then they are restored to life with no penalty. Note that a dead creature does not receive Diehard and Delay Death from this healing, and so does not reanimate for a short time every time you heal them.

Greater Healing Hands (Sp): You may use Restoration as a spell-like ability once per day. Your caster level is equal to your Fecund Healer level. You may use Resurrection as a spell-like ability once per week, but you must pay XP equal to one fifth of the normal material component cost in GP.

Zoetic Transformation: You have attained the ultimate expression of Life. Your type changes to Outsider (positive energy). You gain Regeneration 5 (Ex), overcome by negative energy and Vile damage (this regeneration is not affected by Unlimited Healing, nor does it trigger Defy Death).

Holy Hands (Sp): You may use True Resurrection once per week as a spell-like ability, but you must pay XP equal to one fifth of the normal material component cost in GP.

Master of Life (Sp): You are a conduit for the raw, primal force of Life itself. As a full round action that provokes attacks of opportunity, you may widen the conduit to a raging torrent. You may emulate a Miracle spell, restoring any number of allies within a one mile radius to full health, and even raising those who have fallen back to life (so long as there is enough of a body for Raise Dead to work). Even you, however, are not able to channel this amount of Life safely, and you must make a DC 40 Fortitude save to contain the power, or explode as if from being over-healed. Even if you succeed the Fortitude save, you lose the benefits of Zoetic Transformation for a year and a day. You must be under the effects of Zoetic Transformation to be able to use this ability.



Positive Energy subtype: This subtype usually is used for elementals and outsiders with a connection to the Positive Energy Plane. Positive Energy creatures never need to make Fortitude saves for having too many hit points until they reach twice their normal hit point maximum, and if the DC of such a save is based on the amount by which they exceed their normal maximum hit points, it is instead based on the amount by which they exceed twice their normal maximum hit points. Furthermore, they may choose to have healing simply not affect them if it would take them to a level which would require them to make Fortitude saves, allowing them to safely exist on strongly Positive-dominant planes.

Inevitability
2014-12-02, 09:48 AM
Positive Energy is not a subtype.

Heliomance
2014-12-02, 09:57 AM
Positive Energy is not a subtype.

It's not a subtype that's currently listed in any book. There's no good reason why it shouldn't be a subtype, to bring it in line with fire, water, earth, and air.

Inevitability
2014-12-02, 02:05 PM
Then at least give it some meaningful benefits. Now it is meaningless.

Heliomance
2014-12-02, 05:30 PM
Then at least give it some meaningful benefits. Now it is meaningless.

It means just as much as the Hellbred subtype. It's fluff.

Does anyone have any comments on balance, design, anything else?

Heliomance
2014-12-03, 04:40 AM
Made a few minor balance changes, and created the Positive Energy subtype as requested. Also added a powerful and flavourful ability as another capstone, because I like things like that.

I kinda want a way for Warlocks to qualify for the class, but I think simply making Vivacious Blast (without the extra dice) an eldritch essence invocation that any Warlock can pick up would be a bit too good.

Inevitability
2014-12-03, 10:46 AM
Can I just say I really approve of the new thread name? :smallbiggrin:

Heliomance
2014-12-03, 01:31 PM
Modified the save DC versus explosion. Makes it a bit easier to use offensively, and a bit harder to pre-buff the barbarian with loads of hitpoints. What do people think of the DC - too high? Too low?

Heliomance
2014-12-04, 04:05 AM
Added some resurrection abilities, because I felt that a class based around channeling Life really needed to be able to do that.

Eno Remnant
2014-12-04, 05:14 AM
It has been brought to my attention, after showing this class to a friend, that a caster with a caster level of, let's say fifteen, could cast Heal and force the target to make a DC 70 Fortitude save or explode. Which seems just a little broken. Especially if you apply Chain Spell or Reach Spell.

EDIT: Additionally, they'd have to make two of those. And the odds of pulling out two natural 20s in a row are... well, I'm not going to do the math, but it's not likely (Then again, probably more likely than my friend rolling two 1s, a 6 and then another 1 in a row on attack rolls. That was a fun game).

Magery
2014-12-04, 05:39 AM
To elaborate on what Eno said (I'm the friend who read the class and thought of this):

Let's say you're a Cleric 7/Fecund Healer 6. Your caster level is 11 (it could be 13, if you were sensible and took Practiced Spellcaster to make up for the four levels you'll lose in Fecund Healer, but let's pretend you had other priorities).

The first round of combat, you walk up to the biggest, baddest enemy around, and touch them (assuming you land the touch attack, but that's the easiest part), casting Heal.

If they're undead, well, unless your DM is being nasty and giving them Mettle, they're going to take a minimum of 55 damage, or 110 if they fail the save. Not too shabby, but not great, either.

If they're not undead, though... Heal is described as "Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)". Your enemy, unless they've made some pretty good Knowledge (religion) checks, probably aren't going to be aware of what's going to happen. I doubt they'd make the save (it might be anecdotal evidence, but if I were a DM, I wouldn't have them even consider saving unless their intelligence was decently high, or they already are aware of your character's capabilities, since it wouldn't really make sense otherwise).

So they let you Heal them.

(If they don't, well, you've probably got a decent save DC going, especially if you realise the potential of actually landing the Heal and take Spell Focus (healing) or whatever feats would boost the DC - Divine Metamagic: Irresistible Spell, anyone?).

Congratulations.

You've now forced your opponent to make two DC 54 Fort saves, or explode. And it's not a Death effect (or, at least, it isn't labeled as a Death effect, and it would make no sense for it to be so given the flavour and fluff text of the class).

The odds of surviving that are 1 in 400 (unless your opponent has a Fortitude save of +35 or higher, which is somewhat unlikely).

I'd love to be able to force people to make a single save that high at level 20, let alone forcing two at level 13.

Now don't get me wrong: I really like the idea of this class, and most of the class features are pretty fantastic, and the mental image of doing what I described above is awesome XD

Certainly, it's well-crafted (both mechanically and descriptively) enough to make me consider waving goodbye to the maxim Thou Shalt Not Lose Caster Levels in exchange for the power to heal people so well you push them through healthy and out the other side.

But I do think that Unlimited Healing is fairly broken (or breakable, at any rate) right now.

Heliomance
2014-12-04, 09:02 AM
You're reading the saves wrong - you have to make that save every round your health remains too high, but you have to fail two in a row to explode. If you succeed every other round, you're fine.

That's... annoying. The big problem there is that Heal operates on a completely different order of magnitude than any other healing effect. If I drop the save DC back down to 1 per 5 points over, as I had it before, you're never going to be making anyone explode with anything other than Heal.

The fact that you have to fail twice on subsequent rounds, though, does give them some leeway to do something about it - they can realise what's happened after they fail the first save, and attack themselves on the next turn to drop their own health!

Magery
2014-12-04, 06:46 PM
"You're reading the saves wrong - you have to make that save every round your health remains too high, but you have to fail two in a row to explode. If you succeed every other round, you're fine."

Oh. Whoops.

It's still basically natural 20 or bust, though, so the enemy have a ~90% chance of getting examaploded :xykon:

"That's... annoying. The big problem there is that Heal operates on a completely different order of magnitude than any other healing effect. If I drop the save DC back down to 1 per 5 points over, as I had it before, you're never going to be making anyone explode with anything other than Heal.

The fact that you have to fail twice on subsequent rounds, though, does give them some leeway to do something about it - they can realise what's happened after they fail the first save, and attack themselves on the next turn to drop their own health!"

Attacking yourself? Didn't think of that, and it's certainly a solution, since it's just eating into the temporary hitpoints that will kill you if you don't get rid of them :smalltongue: Plus, making the enemy waste a couple of rounds hitting themselves is a far more balanced--but still useful--ability when compared to effectively nuking them down in two turns (since any decently strong enemy, which would be the sort you'd usually try to target with this, can probably shave off a lot of the damage and reduce the save significantly; taking away half of the overheal halves the save, and if they're attacking themselves with a full-attack they're probably going to do a fair bit more than just half).

I'm still a little leery of what could happen if the Fecund Healer is throwing down Empowered Heals with a little of Irresistible Spell, Twin Spell, and/or Chain Spell+Reach Spell on the side, but that's getting into ridiculous turning attempt costs/feat requirements, which wouldn't really be feasible outside of a character specifically optimised to do exactly that - and if we're getting into that style of optimisation, well, that's more theorycraft than anything else since I doubt many people would allow a build like that in a campaign :smalltongue:

commander panda
2014-12-05, 12:45 AM
can i just say that i wholeheartedly approve of the concept of this class? i've always wanted my lawful good cleric of pelor to be able to give someone cancer by overstimulating cell growth with positive energy. this isn't quite the same thing, but its close enough to maintain appropriate levels of awesome.

ben-zayb
2014-12-24, 02:42 AM
Nice! I can imagine a cleric cultist of Ragnorra taking this class.:smallamused:

I just want to point out that Vivacious blast, can still heal Undead by RAW, which is probably not the intent given the Vivacious name. Maybe point out the obvious, that 1. it uses Positive Energy and 2. damages Undead instead?

As for balance, I'm just not sure about Zoetic Transformation's feasibility as a PC ability. Negative Energy damage is far more difficult to acquire than aligned or energy weapons. The best (damage-wise) two types of sources on my mind are 1. Energy Drain or similar negative level afflicting ability ridden with Sneak Attack damage, and 2. spells that either deal piddly damage or allows Will for half (used on a... 1. divine 2. caster). Vile damage is worse, as sources are largely build-dependent. Of course, unless the intent of the capstone is indeed to make you virtually immortal in terms of lethal HP damage.

Michael7123
2014-12-24, 01:30 PM
I'm sorry if I'm missing something here, but how often can vivacious blast be used?

Heliomance
2015-01-09, 01:17 PM
Nice! I can imagine a cleric cultist of Ragnorra taking this class.:smallamused:

I just want to point out that Vivacious blast, can still heal Undead by RAW, which is probably not the intent given the Vivacious name. Maybe point out the obvious, that 1. it uses Positive Energy and 2. damages Undead instead?

As for balance, I'm just not sure about Zoetic Transformation's feasibility as a PC ability. Negative Energy damage is far more difficult to acquire than aligned or energy weapons. The best (damage-wise) two types of sources on my mind are 1. Energy Drain or similar negative level afflicting ability ridden with Sneak Attack damage, and 2. spells that either deal piddly damage or allows Will for half (used on a... 1. divine 2. caster). Vile damage is worse, as sources are largely build-dependent. Of course, unless the intent of the capstone is indeed to make you virtually immortal in terms of lethal HP damage.

Unlimited Healing forbids VB from healing undead. And yes, I've seen a couple of builds of this and I'm convinced I need to nerf Zoetic Transformation. I'm not sure whether to go whole hog and knock it down to Fast Healing, or whether to just say that you can't be immune to non-lethal damage, because as-is it's far too easy to become totally invulnerable - immunity to non-lethal (from one of many sources) plus Death Ward, and you're set. Like you say, it's not like Vile damage comes up that often. I do want it to be hard to kill someone with ZT - they just keep on healing no matter how much you pound them - but I don't want it to be impossible.


I'm sorry if I'm missing something here, but how often can vivacious blast be used?

At will. The wording is lifted straight from the Warlock's Eldritch Blast.

deuxhero
2015-01-10, 10:39 PM
So at least 1 in 400 people (more if they don't know or can't hurt themselves) who come within 30 feet of you from going pop if you go through a crowded area with the dragonic aura feat?

Actually, what stops anything too minor to be stated (bacteria, ants ect) from exploding into endless leather?

Heliomance
2015-01-11, 05:15 AM
So at least 1 in 400 people (more if they don't know or can't hurt themselves) who come within 30 feet of you from going pop if you go through a crowded area with the dragonic aura feat?

Actually, what stops anything too minor to be stated (bacteria, ants ect) from exploding into endless leather?

You can turn auras off, and wandering around with it up would be thoroughly irresponsible.

As for the latter, good point - I should probably restrict it to creatures with at least one HD.

ericgrau
2015-01-11, 05:47 PM
At level 15 I would probably mass CCW foes in rounds 1-3 of a fight, then ask them to make DC 21, DC 32 then DC 43 fortitude saves or explode (if 2 in a row fail). Possibly DC 15, DC 21 and DC 26 fortitude saves if they pass all their will saves vs CCW. Meanwhile I would leave 1-2 foes out of the effect so allies could target them, while including wounded allies in the chain to simultaneously heal and hurt each round. Add on a material component from my previously slain foes and all those DCs go up by a stacking 3 on average (or 1.5 on a passed save vs CCW). Feats like augment healing boost the DCs even farther. This feat also works better on mass spells since it's also by spell level. So with a little optimization foes start popping in 2-3 rounds from just 1 PC, while the other PCs can focus fire on a weak monster or two you left out and try to drop him in 1-2 rounds. And you heal on top of that during the same turn. Use shield other and imbue with spell ability to spread out the damage further and get more out of your mass heals. Considering how hard this can be abused with a little optimization, I'd lower the DC per hp or make them scale by something other than hp such as the Fecund Healer's stats.

The thing with heal is that it's will negates rather than will half. So it's either a DC 70 check or no check. What you get is a melee touch range will save or die at spell level 6 which isn't that OP. Especially since there's a 2 round delay on the go boom. So heal isn't really the problem.

You might think foes would welcome healing and get duped into voluntarily failing their save and energy exploding, but they don't know you're healing unless they have spellcraft, and even then it's a bit dubious.

Yes, any high hp healing without a save is a Big Problem. If there is any.

Farming animals for leather is an easy source of unlimited wealth. Buy, hunt or raise 1-2 HD animal, pop it, sell for 50 gp. You may want to nix this ability entirely for simplicity. Or restrict it way more, but it's hard to get around farming issues without making it a bit complex. Even without intentional animal abuse PCs may be easily tempted to knock out monsters, tie them up then leatherize them for more loot. Or hold off on killing the wyrm so they can slay 200 goblins first and get rich. It's hard to find a way that doesn't force the players to act stupid or else abuse the system.

Heliomance
2015-02-06, 12:27 PM
Made several balance changes and clarifications in response to the Iron Chef Optimisation Challenge.

Deadasadoor
2015-02-06, 01:28 PM
Looks good. Unlimited healing seems to be cleaned up and easier to interpret for how it interacts with constructs. Four saves in a row before death and two before unconsciousness is much easier on a DM and offers some chance to recover (coup de graceing your allies to save their lives would be hilarious). The Zoetic Transformation changes mean it no longer grants invincibility when a PC has negative energy immunity, like Death Ward, which I guess was the point of changing it. Overall it seems to be much more balanced. Maybe this should be the new way to get feedback for homebrew prestige classes :smallwink:, as it lets people really find a way to poke holes in balance.