Aasimar Paragon: Complete overhaul of the Paragon System (PEACH)

[Michael7123]

CHANGELOG:

v 1.0 (12/24/2014) : Created class.

v 2.0 (1/9/2015): Complete overhall. Ditched the basic Paragon template and came up with a completely new concept.



Aasimar Paragon

http://th08.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2013/355/4/d/juno_wip_2_by_travthemad-d6yqyo1.jpg

Aasimars are humans with a touch of celestial ancestry. While they are not as powerful as half-celestials, their ancestry gives them access to several bonuses to mental abilities, resistances, and spell like abilities. Most Aasimar feel a strong urge to do good in the world, and great majority of them favor good alignments. However, there are a few who for whatever reasons, reject these urges and head down darker paths.

Aasimar paragons are usually beacons of goodness and hope, using their powers for altruistic purposes. An evil Aasimar paragon might appear to be a knight in shining armor in his appearance, but his actions would appall their otherworldly ancestors, using his actions to further his own selfish desires.


Requirements:

Race: Aasimar or Lesser Aasimar

Level: 7th or higher.

Characteristics

Alignment: While the vast majority of Aasimar Paragon's are good, nuetral and evil paragons do exist, but are extremely rare. Aasimar paragons have a slight tendency to favor law over chaos.

Religion:
Most Aasimar Paragons worship good aligned deities.

Adventures: Most Aasimar Paragons embark on adventures in order to benefit others or destroy evil. If given a choice between looting an ancient ruin or defending a village against a horde of goblins, most would choose the latter. They work at their best when embarking on campaigns against great evils in the world.

However, just because an Aasimar gains powers to fight evil doesn't mean they have to use them for good causes. Aasimar who fall from goodness make some of the darkest villains, seeking to accumulate power at any price.

Role: The Aasimar Paragon can fill a wide range of roles, but is best suited for the same role a paladin fills. Alternatively, it can allow evil characters access to abilities usually reserved for characters of good alignments.

Class Skills:
Diplomacy (Cha), Craft (Int), Concentration (Con), Handle Animal(Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (Arcana) Knowledge (Nobility and Royallty), Knowledge (Planes),Profession (Wis), Ride(Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int)

Skill Points Per Level: 4 +Int Modifier

Table:



Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort. Save
Ref. Save
Will Save
Special
Spells Per Day


1st
+0
+2
+0
+2
Improved Resistance
-


2nd
+1
+3
+0
+3
Skill Bonus
+1 of existing class level


3rd
+2
+3
+1
+3
Special ability
-


4th
+3
+4
+1
+4
Extra Daylight
+1 of existing class level


5th
+3
+4
+1
+4
Ability Boost
-


6th
+4
+5
+2
+5
Greater Skill Bonus
+1 of existing class level


7th
+5
+5
+2
+5
Special Ability
-


8th
+6
+6
+2
+6
Holy Word
+1 of base class level


9th
+6
+6
+3
+6
Improved Resistance
-


10th
+7
+7
+3
+7
Celestial Transformation, Heavenly Wings, Special Ability
+1 of existing class level



Note: Celestial Paragon levels stack with a paladin's for determining the effectiveness of her lay on hands ability.

Class Features:

Hit die: d8

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Aasimar Paragons are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, all types of armor, and shields (except tower shields).

Improved Resistance (Ex): At level one and nine an Aasimar paragon can choose to increase any one of his pre-existing energy resistances (cold, electricity, and acid) from 5 to 10. An Aasimar Paragon cannot use this to increase a resistance score from 10 to fifteen.

Special Ability: At levels three, seven, and ten, the aasimar paragon can choose from one of the following special abilities.


Jovar Proficiency (Ex): You become Proficient with the Jovar (see Planar Handbook page 68.)

Celestial Creature (Su): If you have a Familiar, Animal Companion, or Special mount, it gains the celestial template. You can take this ability regardless of your alignment, and you creature does not change alignment upon acquiring the new template. If you have more than one of these creatures, you must choose one to give the celestial template to. If this ability is taken multiple times, the celestial template is applied to a different creature each time.

Smite Evil: You gain the ability to smite evil two times per day. If you take this ability more than once, you gain additional two attempts for each time it is taken. You can take this ability regardless of alignment.

Judicious Spellcaster (Ex): You gain spells as if you had progressed normally your class.

Bright Eyed (Su): You're glow blue, and appear soft and welcoming. You gain a +5 bonus to diplomacy checks against good or nuetral creatures, and your dark vision extends by 60ft. You can take this ability regardless of your alignment.

Heavenly Domains (Su): If you are a cleric or other divine spellcaster, you can gain access to one of the following domains: Good, Healing, Protection, Purification, Glory, or Sun. You can take this ability regardless of alignment.

Detect Evil (Su): You can detect evil at will, just like a paladin can.

Lay on hands (Su): If you don not have the lay on hands ability, you gain it, with your Aasimar Paragon level determining how effective it is. If you already have the lay on hands ability from another class, the ability becomes twice as effective, allowing you to heal double the amount of hit points normally allowed. you can take this ability regardless of alignment.

Celestial Shielding (Su): 3 Times per day, you can add your charisma bonus as a sacred bonus to your shield's AC. This effect lasts for five rounds. You can take this regardless of alignment.

Celestial Wrath (Su): All attacks, spells, or effects you create count as good aligned for the sake of overcoming damage reduction. This can be taken regardless of your alignment.



Skill Bonus (Ex): At level two, an Assimar paragon's racial bonuses to spot and listen checks increase to +3.

Daylight(Sp): At fourth level, an Aasimar Paragon can use his daylight spell like ability ability up top 3 times each day. If you already have a feet that increases the amount of daylight uses from 1 to 3 (Such as from the Celestial Bloodline feat), you are now able to use this ability 6 times per day.

Ability Boost (Ex): At level five, an Aasimar paragons can choose to increase his Charisma, Constitution, or Wisdom score by +2 permanently.

Greater Skill Bonus (Ex): At level six, an Aasimar paragon's racial bonuses to sport and listen checks increase to +4

Holy Word (Sp): Once Per day, at level eight or above, an Aaisimar Paragon can use Holy Word as a spell like ability, with a caster level equal to your character level. If the Aasimar Paragon is not good-aligned, he can still use this ability and does not suffer it's harmful effects. He is still affected normally by any other use of Holy Word.

Celestial Transformation (Su): You gain the celestial template. Your alignment does not change.

Heavenly Wings (Su): A pair of feathery wings sprout out from your back. These wings grant you a fly speed of twice you base movement speed with good maneuverability. Your flight speed will always be double the amount your armor would allow you to walk.

The exact appearance of the wings depends on the alignment of the individual Paragon.

Lawful Good: Your wings are golden and shine in yellow light.

Neutral Good: Your wings are Pure white, and shine in alabaster light.

Chaotic Good; Your wings are white and wreathed in red, pure fire. This fire does not give off heat or deal damage, but does provide bright red light.

Lawful Neutral: Your wings are metallic grey and give off pale light.

Neutral: Your wings are bland and grey and give of low light.

Chaotic Neutral: You're wings are grey and are wreathed in blue flame.

Lawful Evil: You're wings are dark, Obsidian Black, and glow with black light.

Neutral Evil: Your wings are back, and the outer rim of every feather is read. It glows with black light.

Chaotic Evil: Your wings are blood Red, and are surrounded by dark Purple flame. They glow with dark purple light.

These wings colors are a spectrum. A Lawful good Aasimar Paragon. that has nuetral good leanings, for example could have pale gold wings instead of bright gold wings.

If you use this class in any sort of game, please let me know! You don't need my permission, but I would love to know how it turned out! :smallbiggrin:

[Jallorn]

I wouldn't take levels in this because it's not interesting. That's a general problem for most Paragon classes, but still.

Also, what's the skills per level?

Let's take a look at the pieces: good BAB, two good saves, ok fine. Unknown skills, but probably not a lot looking at the class skills. The exclusion of Lesser Aasimar is stupid from a game perspective, but does make some sense from a fluff perspective. Improved Resistence is really kinda boring, unless you're in a themed campaign it just doesn't come up that often. Daylight is just not that useful of a spell to be excited at 2, or maybe 3, extra uses, as a whole class feature, and the skill bonus doesn't count. No complaints about the ability bonus though, it's a fine cap for a three level class. However, the bonus types make me question the full BAB.

Honestly, the problem here is that you're following the original Paragon template, which is a pretty boring, underpowered template. I'd advise coming up with a more interesting template.

[T.G. Oskar]

Also, what's the skills per level?

Judging from Tiefling Paragon? 4 + Int per level. Tieflings often make good Rogues, plus Outsiders get a lot of skill points, and they yet have 4 skill points. Aasimar Paragon has roughly the same number of skills, and it makes slightly more sense for them as they make better Clerics and Paladins, which often have 2 + Int skill points per level.

The Aasimar Paragon's version of Improved Resistance is slightly better, since it adds the possibility of Fire Resistance. Honestly, the problem with the resistances is part of the race itself: they simply don't scale, and are easily overpowered with a spell or magic item, making them redundant. Boosting it to 10 does nothing.

One particular thing I noticed is that there's no "+1 to Paladin spellcasting" bit. This happens with all other Paragon classes. Tieflings don't have this because their favored class is Rogue; that said, they don't get Sneak Attack, so there's an argument (albeit flimsy) to lack of spellcasting progression. On the other hand, Half-Elves get a +1 to any class' spellcasting progression, and Humans get up to +2, so there's an equally strong, if not stronger, argument against. I'd recommend something along the lines of "+1 to Cleric or Paladin spellcasting", with the caveat that Paladins get this bonus once they reach 4th level (and the benefit is retroactive, if necessary). That makes it more attractive to those classes; Clerics get near-full spellcasting in addition to full BAB and proficiency in all martial weapons, while Paladins get more skill points per level and better Will saves. This isn't really much to boost the Paragon class, but it makes taking levels in it more attractive for those particular combinations, specifically regarding the capstone.

That said: the Paragon classes are a cool idea, but only a few really work well. Elves are a good example (better BAB, better Reflex saves, free Weapon Focus feat, and all you lose is one Wizard spellcasting level, which isn't really that much), Gnome (fixes you into Bard progression and makes you lose one point, but you get a +3 to the CL of Illusion spells and free use of Mirror Image), Half-Orc (free use of Rage, plus you can then qualify for Human Paragon) and Human (another free bonus feat, ability to choose class skills like an Expert and make one of them a free class skill, and your ability score bonus is flexible). The rest are really not that great, since they fail in one or another way. Since you're Homebrewing, you're free to adapt the Paragon class beyond the established template: while it's natural that all have d8 HD (all are humanoids, and the few that aren't are either Outsiders or Dragons, the Half-Dragon has a d12 HD, the Dwarf and the Half-Orc have a d10 HD even if they're humanoids and the Drow has a d6 HD) and 4+Int skill points (save for Dwarves, Elves and Orcs), you can see that the distinctions really hammer in the idea that you don't have to be that fixed into the template. 4+Int skill points is fairly good (I would have gone for better skill points on other Paragon classes, IMO), and the save bonuses are also pretty fair as you're aiming for full BAB rather than all good saves (mimicking the benefits of outsiders; you may want to consider thinking if adding full BAB + all good saves is a good idea, since the Aasimar IS an outsider).

As for Lesser Aasimar: I would allow it. There's virtually no distinction between one or another to merit restrictions, and remember that Lesser Aasimar can be banned by the DM/are restricted by campaign setting. The way it is, it doesn't behave like a full Outsider, and the difference is honestly 1 level; if you're using Paragon classes, might as well add Level Adjustment buy-off as well and call it a day (the only other difference is that the Aasimar is an Outsider while its lesser incarnation is Humanoid, thus an Aasimar that has bought its LA eventually becomes better than the Lesser Aasimar). When you think about it, a Lesser Aasimar is a minor variant of the original race, but not different enough to merit its own Paragon class, and by the general rule, they should qualify. You're adding a specific restriction in the name of fluff, but with a mechanical reason behind that falls flat when strictly analyzed.

[Michael7123]

New update, completely scrapped the paragon system found in the source and came up with a new prestige class format entirely

[Jallorn]

Well, I had gotten partway throught the class, when my browser decided to close, so here goes again:

First reaction, I dislike the 10 level size. A 10 level class defines a character, and can be used as a primary descriptor. Assassin, Blackguard, Duelist, etc. Being a Paragon is not that sort of a quality, and is more akin to a Thief-Acrobat to the Assassin. That is, where an Assassin focuses on stealth murderizing, a Thief-Acrobat adds some toys to the Rogue's toolbelt, but doesn't dictate a job or career that the Rogue wasn't already doing the way an Assassin kind of does.

If possible, I really like the 3 level size for Paragons, since it's just a little blip that adds flavor, but I concede that 3 level PRCs are incredibly hard to make interesting given how fast their toys can be picked up, so I don't think a 5 level calss is too much.

Immediately, I want the casting to be limited to Divine Spellcasting, and if you insist on the 10 level chassis, then it needs to be 2/3s casting, instead of 1/2. BAB, HD, Skills, and Saves are all okay, except Knowledge (Religion), Spot, and Listen should be on that list.

Improved Resistence: Bleh. Boring, underwhelming, not really very useful. Just not really the sort of ability that belongs on a PRC, IMO.

Skill Bonus: This is absolutely terrible. Two skills, which ought to be one anyway, get a +1 each? Ew. Also, the text for this feature is out of order, being below the Special Ability which appears a level later.

Special Abilities: I'm going to judge each individually, but this seems the right way to go. Especially for a smaller class chassis. This provides exactly the flavor the class needs while keeping it from being too powerful. Needs a better name though. Also, some abilities seem to lack the clause, "May be taken regardless of alignment." Should one assume, then, that the ones that lack this clause are, in some unspecified fashion, limited? The clause is likely unnecessary, and so should be removed altogether.

Jovar Proficiency: Meh. It's a better weapon than a greatsword, sure, and if it was free I'd take it, but compared to the others, no. Never.

Celestial Creature: I love this. It's fun, synergizes well with other classes, which the Paragon classes ought to do, since they're not really a thing in and of themselves, and it's flavorful. I'm not entirely certain of the power, but it can be mitigated by limiting the effective character level for determining Animal Companion bonuses. Even if that's not necessary, it should have a sentence saying that it doesn't effect that.

Smite Evil: Servicable. Not incredibly exciting, but certainly useful. 2 is the right number here. A note: I vastly prefer Smite Evil to be per encounter, and while that makes this ability that much better, I still think it's balanced. As is, I think it's on the lower end. If you houserule Smite Evil to be per encounter, it's... not exactly on the upper end, but higher.

Judicious Spellcaster: I dislike this in the 10 level 1/2 spellcasting chassis, since it basically tells full casters, "Here, have a handful of mediocre to bad class features and a little durability in exchange for a two of your caster levels. They miss out on all the fun bits. However, I have less problem with it if it's instead: have some durability and mediocre stuff for free, or toss in a fun ability for a caster level.

Bright Eyed: I think this can be fixed (see Detect Evil below), but as is, it's just... boring. Skill bonuses are finicky. Personally, I prefer to give small bonuses to a large number of skills, rather than a large bonus to a one skill. Skill bonuses, while undeniably useful to a character who likes that skill already, can also feel limiting on a character's focuses, and a little boring. It's just a flat passive bonus. Yay. The Darkvision boost is similarly boring, only more so. It's rather bland, and generally a little under powered. I would shift the bonus to instead be a +2 to Diplomacy, Sense Motive, Handle Animal, and maybe Spot, but probably just those three. Then I'd add Detect Evil (see below).

Heavenly Domains: I absolutely love this. Getting an extra domain as a Cleric, or getting access to any at all as a Paladin or Ranger is fun and flavorful. The only problem with the latter is that you don't have a lot of spell levels, but hey, it's just an option, so you'll know what you're getting into.

Detect Evil: No. Just no. If the DM is doing their job right, this can't be used as a, "Detect Enemy," button, meaning that it serves two purposes: detecting valid targets for a Smite attack (useful) and getting a little insight into the psyche of another character (debateable). Paladins already have it for the former, and the latter is not, by itself, equivalent in power to the other options. However, as a rather inconsequetial ability, it could be wrapped up in Bright Eyed, since I do rather like the idea of it being possible to get this from the class, and if, say, a Ranger also picked up some Smite Evil, he'd want to be able to Detect Evil as well.

Lay on Hands: Okay, this should be here, but that's not what it should do. Instead of the class autostacking for Lay on Hands, you should be able to take this to get that quality. Then, if you take this a second time it will double. If you don't have Lay on Hands, the first one gives you the ability and the second doubles.

Celestial Shielding: I dunno, maybe? I can't seem to say anything terribly useful about this one other than that it shouldn't say Shield AC. Get a second opinion.

Celestial Wrath: Yeah, okay, seems fine.

Daylight: Again: Yawn.

Ability Boost: Yeah, sure.

Greater Skill Bonus: Again: Disgusting.

Holy Word: Eh, okay, but it seems more fun for an evil character.

Celestial Transformation: Celestial Template provides: Smite Evil 1/day, Darkvision 60 (seems Bright Eyed was even less useful than I thought), DR 10/Magic (which is everywhere by level 16/17/whichever), more Resistances (which are fine here since they're packaged with other things), and Spell Resistence (Which is always AMAZING). This feels more or less a solid capstone. But wait! There's more!

Heavenly Wings: Flight is always good in a PRC, and I would definitely suggest keeping Celestial Transformation and Heavenly Wings as a capstone for a five level version of this, especially given that you're past the point where flight is fairly ubiquitous. That said, I very much dislike the color coded alignment detector. It undermines far too many character possibilities for me.

Recommended changes: 5 levels. 1/2 spellcasting, so 3 levels of spellcasting. At 2nd and 4th you gain a Special Ability. At 5th you gain Wings and Celestial. 3rd can be the ability boost, and 1st... Honestly, I think the most fun option would be a Special Ability. Why don't we call it Racial Talent, while we're at it, then we've got a nice chassis for future, improved, more interesting Paragons.