Sublime Blade of Heironeous (ToB PrC, PEACH)

[Solaris]

This is a fairly utilitarian method of renovating the execrable shining blade of Heironeous to something more along the lines of the ruby knight vindicator. Because getting low-grade magic items as a class feature just sucks, this class is a means of combining a smite mechanism with maneuvers and adding on additional spell-like effects (inspirations were lightning bolt/holy lightning for the shock blade, holy smite for the holy blade, and sunburst for the radiant blade). It also takes advantage of a bit of thematic synergy between the selected disciplines; they all have longswords as a discipline weapon. The class doesn't really have any new features beyond that; it already gets access to some nice disciplines and 4/5 spellcasting.


http://i358.photobucket.com/albums/oo26/SPSchnepp2/tumblr_nk8ssklLDm1rfyiu4o1_1280%20-%20Copy_zpslxwjvbr4.jpg

The longsword is the classical weapon of knighthood and valor, and as a Heironeous's favored weapon is used by many of his servants. Among his elite servants are the sublime blades, who blend divine magic with martial prowess.
Hit Die: d10.

Requirements
To qualify to become a sublime blade of Heironeous, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria. Alignment: Lawful good.
Skills: Knowledge (religion) 8 ranks.
Feats: Sacred Vow, Weapon Focus (longsword).
Martial Maneuvers: Must know at least one Devoted Spirit maneuver.
Martial Stances: Must know at least one Devoted Spirit stance.
Special: Ability to smite (as the paladin or crusader class features, or similar abilities), ability to cast 1st-level divine spells.
Class Skills
The sublime blade's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Martial Lore (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

The Sublime Blade of Heironeous



Level

BAB
Fort
Save
Ref
Save
Will
Save
Man.
Known
Man.
Readied
Stances
Known

Special


1st
+1
+2
+0
+2
0
0
1
Detect evil, smite +1/day


2nd
+2
+3
+0
+3
1
0
0
Shock blade, +1 of existing class


3rd
+3
+3
+1
+3
0
0
0
+1 of existing class


4th
+4
+4
+1
+4
1
0
0
Smite +2/day, +1 of existing class


5th
+5
+4
+1
+4
0
1
0
Holy blade, +1 of existing class


6th
+6
+5
+2
+5
1
0
1



7th
+7
+5
+2
+5
0
0
0
Smite +3/day, +1 of existing class


8th
+8
+6
+2
+6
1
0
0
+1 of existing class


9th
+9
+6
+3
+6
0
1
0
Radiant blade, +1 of existing class


10th
+10
+7
+3
+7
1
0
0
Celestial transformation, smite +4/day, +1 of existing class



Class Features
All of the following are class features of the sublime blade prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Sublime blades are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all armor, and with shields.

Detect Evil: A sublime blade can detect evil as a spell-like ability.

Smite (Su):]b\ At 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th levels, the sublime blade gains an additional daily use of his smite ability. His sublime blade levels stack with the levels of the class granting the smite ability to determine its effects.

[b]Spellcasting: At each level except 1st and 6th, the sublime blade gains new spells per day and an increase in caster level (and spells known, if applicable) as if he had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class to which he had belonged before adding the prestige class level. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If he had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming a sublime blade, he must decide which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day, caster level, and spells known.

Maneuvers: At each even-numbered level, the sublime blade gains one new maneuver from the Devoted Spirit, Iron Heart, or White Raven disciplines. He must meet a maneuver prerequisite to learn it. He adds his full sublime blade levels to his initiator level to determine his total initiator level and his highest-level maneuvers known.
At 5th and 9th level, the sublime blade gains an additional maneuver readied per day.

Stances Known: At 1st level and again at 6th level, the sublime blade learns a new martial stance from the Devoted Spirit, Iron Heart, or White Raven disciplines. He must meet a stance's prerequisite to learn it.

Shock Blade (Su): As a swift action, the sublime blade may expend one of his daily smites while using a Devoted Spirit, Iron Heart, or White Raven maneuver to deal +1d6 celestial electrical damage per two caster levels (max of 10d6) while wielding a favored weapon of the discipline, with a bonus to attack rolls equal to the sublime blade's Charisma bonus. Celestial electrical damage ignores energy resistance. At the sublime blade's option, this attack may discharge a stroke of lightning in a line 5 ft wide and up to 60 ft long, damaging all within its effect. Those caught within the bolt can attempt a Reflex save (same DC as the maneuver) for half damage.

Holy Blade (Su): At 5th level, the sublime blade may take a swift action to expend one of his daily smites while using a Devoted Spirit, Iron Heart, or White Raven maneuver to deal +1d8 damage per two caster levels (max +10d8) to evil creatures and a bonus to attack rolls equal to the sublime blade's Charisma bonus while wielding a favored weapon of the discipline. If the maneuver hits an evil creature, in addition to its normal effects the creature must make a Will save (same DC as the maneuver) or be blinded for 1 round. Evil outsiders and undead instead take +1d6 damage per caster level (maximum of +20d6 damage) and take a -4 penalty on the Will save. The extra damage dealt by this maneuver is divine electrical damage, which ignores both damage reduction and energy resistance.

Radiant Blade (Su): At 9th level, the sublime blade may take a swift action to expend one of his daily smites and resolve a maneuver of the Devoted Spirit, Iron Heart, or White Raven disciplines as a touch attack while wielding a favored weapon of the discipline, with an attack roll bonus equal to the sublime blade's Charisma bonus. If the maneuver hits an evil creature, that creature must make a Fortitude save with a DC of 10 + 1/2 the sublime blade's character level + the weapon's enhancement bonus (if any) + the sublime blade's Charisma modifier or be instantly slain in a burst of brilliant energy. Evil outsiders and undead take a -4 penalty on this saving throw. This burst deals 6d6 damage and blinds all creatures other than the sublime blade within a 10-ft. radius of the evil creature. A successful Reflex against the maneuver's save DC save negates the blindness and reduces the damage by half. Evil outsiders and undead take 1d6 damage per caster level, and they have a -4 penalty to saving throws against damage and blindness. Good creatures take half damage (none on a successful save) and are not at risk of blindness.

Celestial Transformation: A 10th-level sublime blade actually becomes a celestial creature, taking on a shining, metallic appearance and gaining many features of the celestial creature template.
The sublime blade's type changes to outsider, with the augmented, Lawful, and Good subtypes. He gains darkvision with a range of 60 feet and spell resistance equal to his HD + 5 (maximum of 25). The sublime blade gains DR 10/magic and acid, cold, and electricity resistance 10.

Multiclass Note: Paladin characters can freely multiclass with the sublime blade.

[Zaydos]

Trying to think of the best way to enter this and I notice it lacks the prerequisite of having Heironeous as a patron god. Is that intentional?

Without that my go to thought is Cleric of St. Cuthbert (or an ideal) with the Destruction domain 4/Crusader 1 to get 9th level spells at 20th. The other makes things more difficult (you lose out on recovery method and IL or on 1 extra level of casting.

Either way moving on.

Maneuvers Known: Why does it get more than a Crusader/Warblade or RKV over 10 levels? I'd go with the standard every even or odd level instead of throwing the 5 level PrC progression on twice.

As for the specific abilities:

Why base them off caster level instead of character level or BAB thus encouraging Paladin entry or Crusader focus over the otherwise already superior Cleric entry/focus?

Radiant Blade: This one has problems. Let's look at the damage you'll be dealing with this ability at level 14. You'll be able to use Divine Surge for +36 damage, +your Strength (lets say +6 with a longsword wielded 2 handed) +1d8 base weapon +its enhancement. Well okay most of this doesn't matter. You'll be dealing 43+ damage, not impressive in and of itself, but that's a DC 53 Fort save vs death; the average CR 20 Fort save bonus is ~+22, the tarrasque i.e. the big block of big numbers that is supposed to be the scariest thing in the game because biggest numbers has +38, even a CR 26 Great Wyrm Red Dragon cannot make this DC only surviving with a nat 20. DCs scaling off of damage only work in very specific circumstances, and even then not particularly well. Base it off of level like a normal DC. Especially as not only can you already hit 95% of the time with a single attack if you build for it even as a cleric, and this is a touch attack (that doesn't say it's a touch attack for some reason but specifies ignoring the things that touch attacks do) meaning you will hit.

[Solaris]

Trying to think of the best way to enter this and I notice it lacks the prerequisite of having Heironeous as a patron god. Is that intentional?

Yes, it's intentional; I prefer designing for more fluff flexibility, so while it's attached to Heironeous fluff-wise, the class could be entered by most any paladin-type (although, admittedly, the lightning bolts wouldn't be nearly so thematically appropriate except perhaps for a sublime blade of Bahamut). I prefer classes to be easily re-fluffed to suit a character concept, particularly when I haven't come up with any good fluff for them.

I wouldn't bat an eyelash to someone adding in the deity requirement, though I'm not going to myself.


Without that my go to thought is Cleric of St. Cuthbert (or an ideal) with the Destruction domain 4/Crusader 1 to get 9th level spells at 20th. The other makes things more difficult (you lose out on recovery method and IL or on 1 extra level of casting.

Something along those lines is one of the entry options I'd had in mind. Another was Paladin 4 / Crusader 1, depending on the degree of spellcasting prowess (and thus overall power) desired.


Maneuvers Known: Why does it get more than a Crusader/Warblade or RKV over 10 levels? I'd go with the standard every even or odd level instead of throwing the 5 level PrC progression on twice.

'Cause I made a typo when setting up the table; it's supposed to match the RKV in its maneuvers/stance progression. 5th level shouldn't get a new maneuver.


As for the specific abilities:

Why base them off caster level instead of character level or BAB thus encouraging Paladin entry or Crusader focus over the otherwise already superior Cleric entry/focus?

My reasoning is twofold.

The first is because I prefer to design something to be scaled up or down - in a lower-powered game, you'd be running with the paladin/crusader entry, while in a higher-powered game it'd be a cleric/cleric entry. I believe it was coined as the Snowbluff Axiom, and I think it's actually a fairly decent way to design a game if the game's designers understand the different power levels within it and demonstrate some examples of different levels of optimization.

The second is because I didn't want to scale it off of levels or BAB, and the other option I'd liked was scaling it off the smite damage itself, which kept turning out too clunky in the phrasing by even my standards.


Radiant Blade: This one has problems. Let's look at the damage you'll be dealing with this ability at level 14. You'll be able to use Divine Surge for +36 damage, +your Strength (lets say +6 with a longsword wielded 2 handed) +1d8 base weapon +its enhancement. Well okay most of this doesn't matter. You'll be dealing 43+ damage, not impressive in and of itself, but that's a DC 53 Fort save vs death; the average CR 20 Fort save bonus is ~+22, the tarrasque i.e. the big block of big numbers that is supposed to be the scariest thing in the game because biggest numbers has +38, even a CR 26 Great Wyrm Red Dragon cannot make this DC only surviving with a nat 20. DCs scaling off of damage only work in very specific circumstances, and even then not particularly well. Base it off of level like a normal DC. Especially as not only can you already hit 95% of the time with a single attack if you build for it even as a cleric, and this is a touch attack (that doesn't say it's a touch attack for some reason but specifies ignoring the things that touch attacks do) meaning you will hit.

Yeah, that's what happens when I'm banging out a prestige class at two in the morning. Now it's a standard Cha-based save, with the addition of the weapon's enhancement bonus added to the DC.