GrayDeath
2018-02-25, 01:35 PM
Preface: as with all my CLasses, this CLass is meant to be "Full 3.p" Material.
If you are only using 3.5 Material, reduce the SKillpts/Level by 2, adapt the Skill List accordingly and you should be fine.
The Monks of the Seven Shadows
Long centuries ago, there was a monastery of rather ... evil aligned Monks. It had been decaying in power and reknown for a while, and decided that was the fault of the Lawful Neutral Concurring Orders in the Area.
They spent most of their remaining Influence (and cash) to hire a well known Guild of Assassins to remove the leadership of their competitors.
THe Guild succeeded ... but sadly a Mage friendly to the Orders leader found out, and decimated the Monasteries Monks rather completely.
Fast forward 15 years, and one of the Assassins decided he did not want to be one any longer, and chose to buy the abandoned Monastery.
Finding the sutras and Zeachings of the Monks was childs play for an experienced Assassin ... and to his surprise there were many among them that did not really say "Monk" as much as "Shady but disciplined"...
He himself was too old to profit from them much, but he decided to teach 7 pupils in them.
And thus the Monks of the 7 Shadows were born.
Relations to other CLasses/Races
Like most more or less secret society, the relations depend heavily on their relating being knowing about the order. If they do then many a Rogue, Warlock, or ... less than faithful Monk might start drooling and insisting on Initiation.
Most Traditionally good aligned People are wary about them, even if they are not necessariy non-Good themselves.
Usefulness-wise they are best to provide flexible and fast support to Casters and slower melee Classes, but with many stealthier sorts they might cause redundancies.
They are alsp good at semipermanently debuffing foes, and striking well armored Creatures.
Mechanics:
Requirements: Alignment non-CHaotic
BAB 3+, Sneak Attack +1d6, No Save total below +5.
Improved Initiative and Uncanny Dodge.
5 Ranks in Stealth and either Intimidate or Bluff.
Monks of the 7 Shadows, not unlike Rogues or regular Monks, thriwve on mobility and speed. Therefore they need high values in Dexterity, as welol as the usual good Values in Strength and Constitution for Frontline Combattants. They also need one high mental Stat, whichever they choose, so are quite MAD (but not as much as a Monk).
Hitdie: D8
Proficiency: Becomes prof. with the Unarmed Attack, the Spear, the Quarterstaff, the Kama, the Kusamagiri and one more close combat Weapon of simple or martial make of the Players choice. All these weapons are compatible with any special Attacks Except Sjadow Strike the Mo7S makes.
Does not gain any Armor or Shield Proficiencies.
Skillpts/Level: 6+Int Modification
Class Skills: Acrobatics, Bluff, Climb, Disguise self, Escape Artist, Intimidate, Knowledge (Planes, Religion, Local), Perception, Stealth, use Magic item and any one from the Monks or Rogues List of the players choice.
Class Feature Progression: Each level of Monk of the 7 Shadows except for the 7th counts as Rogue Level regarding Sneak Attack Progression.
A Character with levels in this Class counts as Monk of Level of Mo7S+1 (or adds its Level of Mp7S if Monk Levels exist) for Monks Bonus Movement and Bonus AC and suffers from the same Armor Restrictions as a Monk.
Unless specified otherwise, all Abilities of the Mo7S except their Spells are [Ex]
Mo7S4
Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
1st
+1
+0
+2
+2
Shadow Monks Strikes, Shadows Evasiveness
2nd
+2
+3
+3
+0
Shadow Strikes 1,
3rd
+3
+3
+3
+0
Evasion, Superior Lowlight Vision
4th
+4
+4
+4
+1
Hide in Plain Sight, Flurry
5th
+5
+4
+4
+1
Weapon Fcus and Specialization: Unarmed Strike
6th
+6/+1
+5
+5
+2
Shadow Strike 2
7th
+7/+2
+5
+5
+2
Movement of 7 Shadows
8th
+8/+3
+6
+6
+2
Greater Evasion, Improved Uncanny Dodge
9th
+9/+4
+6
+6
+3
Shadow Strikes 3
10th
+10/+5
+7
+7
+3
Shadow Form, Shadow Spell
Shadows Evasiveness: The Mind of a Mo7S is shadowy indeed.
At gaining this feat, choose one mental Attribute. You gain a Bonus to your AC eual to its attribute bonus, and you use it as your casting Stat for all Spells gained via Levels of this class.
Shadow Monks Strikes: The Unarmed Strikes of a Monk of the 7 Shadows begin at 1d6 Bashing/Piercing, 20-20*2. For each Level (starting with the first) one of the following Modifications may be applied to them:
+1 Die Size (Progression is: 1d8. 1D10. 1D12. 2D6, 2d8, 3d6, 2d10, 3d8 Max), Crit Range +1 (up to 16-20), Crit Multiplier (up to *4). Also, for every 3 Levels in this class, round down, they count as being +1 magical Weapons. (Evample: A Level 7 Mo7S could have 3d6, 19-20 *2 or 1d8, 17-20*4, in both cases counting as +2 weapons.
attention: This progression does NOT stack with the Monks Unarmed Progression!
If the Mo7S aquires enough Monk Levels that he would gain additional Unarmed Damage Die increases, he instead may choose a Single Bonus Feat from the Monk Bonus Feat List.
Shadow Strike 1: Shadow, both metaphorical and literal, infuses the attacks of the Mo7S.
The Mo7S Strikes can attack incorporeal Enemies normally. THis Mode of Attack is always "on".
Shadow Strike 2: The Strikes of the Mo7S if concentrated attack Touch AC. Reduce the number of attacks made by one (down to one, can only be done if the number CAN be reduced by 1, cannot be combined with Flurry or other ways to incfrease the number of Attacks/Turn) to enable this ability.
Shadow Strike 3: The strikes of the Mo7S, if properly focussed, sap the strength of their targets if they focus on them doing so.
Choose one: Either they also deal 1d2 Strength Damage (DC 10+Level in SMo7S+Mental Att. Mod, fortitude saves) OR Deal one Negative Level at hit (DC 10+Level in Mo7S+Mental Attribute Mod, fortitude saves).
As this action needs a lot of focus, this means this ability cannot be combined with any ability adding additional Attacks, and if combined with Shadow Strike 2, the necessary focus increases, subtracting another attack per turn (again, this needs to be possible, so they can only be combined if the Mo7S would have 3 or more attacks!).
The Duration of these maluses is as usual. The Maximum number of negative Levels applicable on a single target via this ability is 3.
Flurry: Some times, more is better. The Mo7S may decide to forgo accuracy and Power for maximised number of attacks.
At any time he makes a melee attack, he may accept a malus of –2 and a reduction of the Strength Bonus of 1 point and add another attack. This cannot provide him with more Bonus attacks than his Level in this Class/2 (so at Level 10 he may accept an Attack penalty of -10 and a Strength Bonus Penalty of 5 pts to all his attacks, and add 5 Extra Attacks).
Flurry can only be used on your turn and cannot be combined with any ability that requires Focus (reduces Attack numbers, or requires certain Combat Maneuvers/other actions than simply attacking). It can however be combined with the Monks Flurry of Blows (al maluses stack for that purpose!).
Movement of 7 Shadows: At this Level, the Monk moves in a way that makes observing him increasingly difficult.
As a passive Bonus, whenever he moves more than 30ft he gains 50% Concealment until his next turn.
Depending on which of the Principles of his order he follows, he gains one of the follwing 3 active abilities:
1.: First Shadows Movement: Created by the founder of the Order, even if he himself was never a true member, this movement concentrates around maximum deadliness. Whenever attacking an Enemy in Darkness OR by stepping out of a Shadow of any kind, the attack makes its target much easier to wound with followups. The Target is stunned for 1d3 turns (DC 5+Level in Mo7S+ Chosen Mental Stat Modifier).
2. :Third Shadows Movement: Created by the first female leader of the Order, this movement centers around supernatural lightness of Step. Up to an amount of 2 minutes per Mental Stat Bonus (See Shadows Evasiveness) per day, to be spent in increments of 1 minute or more, the Monk may move his full speed (including Running/Charging) without incurring any stealth penalties or making any sound, no matter the grund he is walking on.
3.: 7th Shadows Movement (Su): The Pinnacle, many say, of the Orders abilities. A monk choosing this movement can enter any shadow that can hide him completely, and merge with it. As long as he does not take any actions except a 5ft step, he remains part of the shadow and is udnetectable by any non-epic means and immune to all AOE Damage except Light Effects or other Effects that would completely remove the SHadow.
If a strong magical or Sunlight Light should remove the shadow, he is expelled and suffers 5d6+5 untyped Damage and one point each of Constitution and Strength Damage.
Shadow Form: At achieving the tenth level, a Mo7S gains the ability to transform into a Shadow Form. He looks like a shadow of himself, lacking any depth or details.
In this form he is incorporeal, but his unarmed attacks can strike corporeal foes normally. He looks like a shadow of himself. He gains DR 30/Magic, Fortification 100% and Darkvision 120ft, as well as a fly Seed of 70ft/perfect. While in this form and not in direct light, he gains +15 to Stealth Checks. This transformation lasts until the next sunrise/Sunset or 5 hours, whichever is less, and cannot be ended prematurely.
However, this form is not without danger: First he is wounded by positive Energy (and healed by negative, as if he were undead). Secondly, whenever he suffers enough Damage to bring him to 7 HP or lower, roll a D20 (add 1 for every time this has happened within the last week). On a Roll of 20 he permanently transforms into a Shadow (See Template on the PFSRD).
Shadow Spell: [Su] At Level 10 the Mo7S gains the Ability to use the Shadow Conjuration Spell as a SLA 2 times/(Day. In addition to its normal effects, every time a Mo7S casts a Shadow Conjuration and is in SHadow while doing so, he is healed 3d6+10 Hitpoints.
Spell-Casting: Mo7S gain a limited amount of Spells which they can cast.
Spells can only be chosen only from Abjuration, Divination or Necromancy Schools, free choice from the Wizard/Cleric Lists.
Spells are cast Spontaneously, Casting Stat is the Stat chosen at gaining the Shadows Evasiveness Feat. Bonus Spells/Day calculation works as with the Paladin/Ranger.
Mo7S Spells are always silent and also always (not removable via metamagic) require somatic components.
They do not require Spell Components costing less than 50 Gold. Components of higher value are required normally.
B]DB/Mo7S Spells known[/B]
=======================
Level 1 2 3 4
=======================
1 1 - - -
2 2 - - -
3 2 1 - -
4 3 2 - -
5 3 3 1 -
6 3 3 2 -
7 3 3 3 -
8 3 3 3 1
9 3 3 3 2
10 3 3 3 3
DB/Mo7S Spells/Day
=======================
Level 1 2 3 4
=======================
1 2 - - -
2 3 - - -
3 4 2 - -
4 5 3 - -
5 6 4 2 -
6 6 5 3 -
7 6 6 4 -
8 6 6 5 2
9 6 6 5 3
10 6 6 5 4
If you are only using 3.5 Material, reduce the SKillpts/Level by 2, adapt the Skill List accordingly and you should be fine.
The Monks of the Seven Shadows
Long centuries ago, there was a monastery of rather ... evil aligned Monks. It had been decaying in power and reknown for a while, and decided that was the fault of the Lawful Neutral Concurring Orders in the Area.
They spent most of their remaining Influence (and cash) to hire a well known Guild of Assassins to remove the leadership of their competitors.
THe Guild succeeded ... but sadly a Mage friendly to the Orders leader found out, and decimated the Monasteries Monks rather completely.
Fast forward 15 years, and one of the Assassins decided he did not want to be one any longer, and chose to buy the abandoned Monastery.
Finding the sutras and Zeachings of the Monks was childs play for an experienced Assassin ... and to his surprise there were many among them that did not really say "Monk" as much as "Shady but disciplined"...
He himself was too old to profit from them much, but he decided to teach 7 pupils in them.
And thus the Monks of the 7 Shadows were born.
Relations to other CLasses/Races
Like most more or less secret society, the relations depend heavily on their relating being knowing about the order. If they do then many a Rogue, Warlock, or ... less than faithful Monk might start drooling and insisting on Initiation.
Most Traditionally good aligned People are wary about them, even if they are not necessariy non-Good themselves.
Usefulness-wise they are best to provide flexible and fast support to Casters and slower melee Classes, but with many stealthier sorts they might cause redundancies.
They are alsp good at semipermanently debuffing foes, and striking well armored Creatures.
Mechanics:
Requirements: Alignment non-CHaotic
BAB 3+, Sneak Attack +1d6, No Save total below +5.
Improved Initiative and Uncanny Dodge.
5 Ranks in Stealth and either Intimidate or Bluff.
Monks of the 7 Shadows, not unlike Rogues or regular Monks, thriwve on mobility and speed. Therefore they need high values in Dexterity, as welol as the usual good Values in Strength and Constitution for Frontline Combattants. They also need one high mental Stat, whichever they choose, so are quite MAD (but not as much as a Monk).
Hitdie: D8
Proficiency: Becomes prof. with the Unarmed Attack, the Spear, the Quarterstaff, the Kama, the Kusamagiri and one more close combat Weapon of simple or martial make of the Players choice. All these weapons are compatible with any special Attacks Except Sjadow Strike the Mo7S makes.
Does not gain any Armor or Shield Proficiencies.
Skillpts/Level: 6+Int Modification
Class Skills: Acrobatics, Bluff, Climb, Disguise self, Escape Artist, Intimidate, Knowledge (Planes, Religion, Local), Perception, Stealth, use Magic item and any one from the Monks or Rogues List of the players choice.
Class Feature Progression: Each level of Monk of the 7 Shadows except for the 7th counts as Rogue Level regarding Sneak Attack Progression.
A Character with levels in this Class counts as Monk of Level of Mo7S+1 (or adds its Level of Mp7S if Monk Levels exist) for Monks Bonus Movement and Bonus AC and suffers from the same Armor Restrictions as a Monk.
Unless specified otherwise, all Abilities of the Mo7S except their Spells are [Ex]
Mo7S4
Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
1st
+1
+0
+2
+2
Shadow Monks Strikes, Shadows Evasiveness
2nd
+2
+3
+3
+0
Shadow Strikes 1,
3rd
+3
+3
+3
+0
Evasion, Superior Lowlight Vision
4th
+4
+4
+4
+1
Hide in Plain Sight, Flurry
5th
+5
+4
+4
+1
Weapon Fcus and Specialization: Unarmed Strike
6th
+6/+1
+5
+5
+2
Shadow Strike 2
7th
+7/+2
+5
+5
+2
Movement of 7 Shadows
8th
+8/+3
+6
+6
+2
Greater Evasion, Improved Uncanny Dodge
9th
+9/+4
+6
+6
+3
Shadow Strikes 3
10th
+10/+5
+7
+7
+3
Shadow Form, Shadow Spell
Shadows Evasiveness: The Mind of a Mo7S is shadowy indeed.
At gaining this feat, choose one mental Attribute. You gain a Bonus to your AC eual to its attribute bonus, and you use it as your casting Stat for all Spells gained via Levels of this class.
Shadow Monks Strikes: The Unarmed Strikes of a Monk of the 7 Shadows begin at 1d6 Bashing/Piercing, 20-20*2. For each Level (starting with the first) one of the following Modifications may be applied to them:
+1 Die Size (Progression is: 1d8. 1D10. 1D12. 2D6, 2d8, 3d6, 2d10, 3d8 Max), Crit Range +1 (up to 16-20), Crit Multiplier (up to *4). Also, for every 3 Levels in this class, round down, they count as being +1 magical Weapons. (Evample: A Level 7 Mo7S could have 3d6, 19-20 *2 or 1d8, 17-20*4, in both cases counting as +2 weapons.
attention: This progression does NOT stack with the Monks Unarmed Progression!
If the Mo7S aquires enough Monk Levels that he would gain additional Unarmed Damage Die increases, he instead may choose a Single Bonus Feat from the Monk Bonus Feat List.
Shadow Strike 1: Shadow, both metaphorical and literal, infuses the attacks of the Mo7S.
The Mo7S Strikes can attack incorporeal Enemies normally. THis Mode of Attack is always "on".
Shadow Strike 2: The Strikes of the Mo7S if concentrated attack Touch AC. Reduce the number of attacks made by one (down to one, can only be done if the number CAN be reduced by 1, cannot be combined with Flurry or other ways to incfrease the number of Attacks/Turn) to enable this ability.
Shadow Strike 3: The strikes of the Mo7S, if properly focussed, sap the strength of their targets if they focus on them doing so.
Choose one: Either they also deal 1d2 Strength Damage (DC 10+Level in SMo7S+Mental Att. Mod, fortitude saves) OR Deal one Negative Level at hit (DC 10+Level in Mo7S+Mental Attribute Mod, fortitude saves).
As this action needs a lot of focus, this means this ability cannot be combined with any ability adding additional Attacks, and if combined with Shadow Strike 2, the necessary focus increases, subtracting another attack per turn (again, this needs to be possible, so they can only be combined if the Mo7S would have 3 or more attacks!).
The Duration of these maluses is as usual. The Maximum number of negative Levels applicable on a single target via this ability is 3.
Flurry: Some times, more is better. The Mo7S may decide to forgo accuracy and Power for maximised number of attacks.
At any time he makes a melee attack, he may accept a malus of –2 and a reduction of the Strength Bonus of 1 point and add another attack. This cannot provide him with more Bonus attacks than his Level in this Class/2 (so at Level 10 he may accept an Attack penalty of -10 and a Strength Bonus Penalty of 5 pts to all his attacks, and add 5 Extra Attacks).
Flurry can only be used on your turn and cannot be combined with any ability that requires Focus (reduces Attack numbers, or requires certain Combat Maneuvers/other actions than simply attacking). It can however be combined with the Monks Flurry of Blows (al maluses stack for that purpose!).
Movement of 7 Shadows: At this Level, the Monk moves in a way that makes observing him increasingly difficult.
As a passive Bonus, whenever he moves more than 30ft he gains 50% Concealment until his next turn.
Depending on which of the Principles of his order he follows, he gains one of the follwing 3 active abilities:
1.: First Shadows Movement: Created by the founder of the Order, even if he himself was never a true member, this movement concentrates around maximum deadliness. Whenever attacking an Enemy in Darkness OR by stepping out of a Shadow of any kind, the attack makes its target much easier to wound with followups. The Target is stunned for 1d3 turns (DC 5+Level in Mo7S+ Chosen Mental Stat Modifier).
2. :Third Shadows Movement: Created by the first female leader of the Order, this movement centers around supernatural lightness of Step. Up to an amount of 2 minutes per Mental Stat Bonus (See Shadows Evasiveness) per day, to be spent in increments of 1 minute or more, the Monk may move his full speed (including Running/Charging) without incurring any stealth penalties or making any sound, no matter the grund he is walking on.
3.: 7th Shadows Movement (Su): The Pinnacle, many say, of the Orders abilities. A monk choosing this movement can enter any shadow that can hide him completely, and merge with it. As long as he does not take any actions except a 5ft step, he remains part of the shadow and is udnetectable by any non-epic means and immune to all AOE Damage except Light Effects or other Effects that would completely remove the SHadow.
If a strong magical or Sunlight Light should remove the shadow, he is expelled and suffers 5d6+5 untyped Damage and one point each of Constitution and Strength Damage.
Shadow Form: At achieving the tenth level, a Mo7S gains the ability to transform into a Shadow Form. He looks like a shadow of himself, lacking any depth or details.
In this form he is incorporeal, but his unarmed attacks can strike corporeal foes normally. He looks like a shadow of himself. He gains DR 30/Magic, Fortification 100% and Darkvision 120ft, as well as a fly Seed of 70ft/perfect. While in this form and not in direct light, he gains +15 to Stealth Checks. This transformation lasts until the next sunrise/Sunset or 5 hours, whichever is less, and cannot be ended prematurely.
However, this form is not without danger: First he is wounded by positive Energy (and healed by negative, as if he were undead). Secondly, whenever he suffers enough Damage to bring him to 7 HP or lower, roll a D20 (add 1 for every time this has happened within the last week). On a Roll of 20 he permanently transforms into a Shadow (See Template on the PFSRD).
Shadow Spell: [Su] At Level 10 the Mo7S gains the Ability to use the Shadow Conjuration Spell as a SLA 2 times/(Day. In addition to its normal effects, every time a Mo7S casts a Shadow Conjuration and is in SHadow while doing so, he is healed 3d6+10 Hitpoints.
Spell-Casting: Mo7S gain a limited amount of Spells which they can cast.
Spells can only be chosen only from Abjuration, Divination or Necromancy Schools, free choice from the Wizard/Cleric Lists.
Spells are cast Spontaneously, Casting Stat is the Stat chosen at gaining the Shadows Evasiveness Feat. Bonus Spells/Day calculation works as with the Paladin/Ranger.
Mo7S Spells are always silent and also always (not removable via metamagic) require somatic components.
They do not require Spell Components costing less than 50 Gold. Components of higher value are required normally.
B]DB/Mo7S Spells known[/B]
=======================
Level 1 2 3 4
=======================
1 1 - - -
2 2 - - -
3 2 1 - -
4 3 2 - -
5 3 3 1 -
6 3 3 2 -
7 3 3 3 -
8 3 3 3 1
9 3 3 3 2
10 3 3 3 3
DB/Mo7S Spells/Day
=======================
Level 1 2 3 4
=======================
1 2 - - -
2 3 - - -
3 4 2 - -
4 5 3 - -
5 6 4 2 -
6 6 5 3 -
7 6 6 4 -
8 6 6 5 2
9 6 6 5 3
10 6 6 5 4