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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Class The Cardinal (a robe-wearing, Charisma-based Tier 1 Divine Caster)



Giegue
2018-04-15, 10:27 PM
Cardinal

https://i.imgur.com/FDSd5zx.png
Momo Shiratori, Fox Hengeyoukai Cardinal

The armored priest, charging forth into battle is an iconic image, burned into the heads of adventurers and peasants everywhere who have been audience to a Cleric's deeds. However, a just as common sight is that of the learned, charismatic robed priest, the political representative who advocates for her faith in the courts and inspires the masses with her moving sermons. While Clerics act as the fighting arm of churches and Archivists their scholars, Cardinals are their leadership and political representatives. One part politician, one part scholar, one part priest, Cardinals are masters of divine magic and dynamic leaders who's passionate faith and fiery zeal allows them to channel divine energies with the same skill, or perhaps some would say more skill, than the wisest of clerics. Through their privileged positions in their churches, Cardinals are afforded access to magical secrets and training that allows them to become true masters of divine magic, taking on more domains and divine powers than the more militant clerics at the cost of martial training.

Adventures: While many Cardinals are content to stay among the courts and major power centers of their faith, there are some who are tasked with going out into the world to act as a face, political representative and bureaucratic agent of the church. With their political training and naturally high charisma, Cardinals are often the best-suited of their church's clergy to spread their faith to the peasants and act as evangelists. Thus, many Cardinals take it upon themselves to adventure for exactly that reason, seeking any opportunity they can to convert people to their faith and spread the teachings of their deity.

However, by the same token, the leadership position Cardinals have in their churches also come with extra responsibilities. While Clerics often have the freedom to adventure and evangelize unfettered by church bureaucracy, Cardinals are intimately plugged into it. As a result, Cardinals are often forced to undertake political, diplomatic and bureaucratic tasks for their church, and while some may wish for the freedom to adventure solely as an evangelist, many are instead forced by their church to go out into the world for more wordy and political reasons. For every Cardinal who wanders freely as an evangelist, there are at least two who adventure to do things like provide oversight over small, backwater temples for the church's leadership or act as an Inquisitor, investigating, hearing and judging crimes against church law.

Characteristics: Due to the fact they draw their divine magic from their own strength of conviction and zeal as oppose to an innate connection to their deity, Cardinals favor Charisma above all other ability scores. Charisma is what powers their divine magic and allows them to better sway others in the political engagements they are often called to participate in by their church. Intelligence also tends to be a high ability score among Cardinals, as they need a keen mid to be able to learn the prayers and invocations needed to cast their spells and fill their traditional role as a scholar of both the spiritual and secular laws of their churches. Adventuring Cardinals are also usually hardier and quicker on their feat than those that stay cloistered in their church's center of power, having enough Dexterity and Constitution to survive the rigors of life on the road.

Alignment: A Cardinal's alignment depends entirely on the nature of her church and her deity. Cardinal's alignments are thus as varied as the deities they can serve. However, while Chaotic Cardinals exist, the close link between a Cardinal's training and their position in a church's hierarchy makes them rare; Chaotic faiths usually lack the hierarchical structure and political dealings that creates the need for Cardinals. As a result, the majority of Cardinals come from lawful faiths, though neutral faiths may also produce Cardinals if they feel the need to engage the political landscape more aggressively.

Religion: Religion is at the core of who a Cardinal is. While she may be a bureaucrat, political agent or inquisitor for her church, she will always be first and foremost a priestess and servant of her deity. Her strong convictions and passionate faith in her deity is what gives her magic, and as a result she lives to do the will of her deity above all. A Cardinal's faith will fundamentally shape her personality and outlook, and unlike Cleric's who can serve no god, Cardinal's position as the authorities in churches assures that all Cardinals at least pay lip service to a deity, even if their magic instead comes from their adherence to a philosophy or personal code.

Background: Unlike Clerics who can come from any walk of life, Cardinals usually come from a position of privilege that qualified them for training as a Cardinal. The typical origin of Cardinals is to either be born into their church, being raised and trained in the magical arts from a young age by other Cardinals in their church's main power center, or as often the case for churches that require celibacy from their clergy taken at a very young age from the nobility to be trained. Indeed, it is an exceptionally common practice among noble families to send their daughters and non-firstborn sons into the leadership of whatever church(es) have influence in their societies, using the position of Cardinal as a means to make those among their children unable to inherent a title still useful to the family.

However, while these represent the most common origins for Cardinals, exceptions to them do exsist, and it is not unheard of for a commoner or outsider to the church to show enough faith and talent to be brought into the fold of a church's leadership and trained as a Cardinal.

Races: While Cardinals of many races exist, Cardinals from tribal societies don't. Due to the fact Cardinals are a product of organized, hierarchical religion (and in the case of chaotic faiths the desire to subvert or break them down through the very politics they use to prop themselves up), races that favor more shamanic spiritual traditions and/or who don't organize themselves into permanent settlements and create large organized religions tend not to produce Cardinals. However, while Cardinals of races such as Orc, Gnolls, Lizardfolk, Goblin etc.. are rare, if a member of such a "tribal" race was raised in a civilized settlement with organized religion instead of among their own kind, they could still become a Cardinal if the right stars aligned.

Humans in particular produce more Cardinals than any other race, since they have a penchant for creating particularly large, far-reaching and politically influential religions. The scholarly bent of elves and their appreciation for the craft of magic also makes them view the Cardinal's arts favorably, and many elves prefer the path of the Cardinal to the path of the Cleric as a result. Aasimar, while a rare sight in the world, are held in such high esteem by good-aligned churches that many Aasimar are drafted into the Cardinal's life, sometimes even against their own wishes. With their closeness to the Gods, such faiths will go out of their way to try and funnel Aasimar into church leadership and the role of Cardinal, seeing their blessed birth as a reason enough that they should hold a rank of authority in their church.

Other Classes: As men and woman of the cloth, Cardinals get along well with other religious classes that follow their own religion or an allied faith, such as Clerics and Paladins. However, by the same token, religious classes of enemy churches and religions are their greatest foes, and a Cardinal will never adventure with such individuals unless trying to undermine their activities from within. Their views on other classes depend entirely on their church. Cardinals tend to respect and appreciate most people they adventure with due to their diplomatic nature, and will travel with just about anybody that can hold their own, though depending on their church's teachings there may be some classes they view unfavorably.

Cardials of good-aligned faiths typically find classes that use blatantly evil magic and powers, such as Blackguards, Warlocks, Hexblades, necromancy specialist Wizards and Dread Necromancers, to be abhorrent. Cardinals of lawful churches may be quick to mistrust and chastise more unscrupulous classes like Rogues, Beguilers and Bards if their religion is particularly stringent when it comes to thievery and honesty (though this will not prevent them from adventuring with such people to show them the higher road). Cardinals of evil faiths will typically detest Paladins and other classes rooted in goodness, while enjoying the company of Blackguards, Dread Necromancers, necromancy specialist wizards, Warlocks and other evil divine spellcasters.

Role: Being a divine spellcaster who has focused themselves on mastering magic an the expense of martial training, a Cardinal tends to fill a similar role to a wizard or Mystic theurge in the party, staying in the back lines and supporting her party with her spells. However, due to the fact she uses the cleric spell list and can cast the Cleric's many personal and self range buffs on her allies, she is typically a buffer and healer as oppose to a debuffer and crowd control specialist, though if she focuses on the latter she can fill the role with surprising competency. She is also one of the few classes that can make healing in-combat a viable tactic due to her ability to tack healing onto her non-healing spells. An evil Cardinal, meanwhile, can make a frighteningly potent necromancer, being able to take the Deathbound domain regardless of her faith and lace negative energy into her spells, becomming a peerless undead healer as a result. Outside of combat Cardinals class skills and high charisma make them natural diplomats and "party faces", though a rare few may instead choose to invest in the many linguistic and knowledge skills they can access and take on the role of a scholar instead.

Adaptation: Cardinals can fit into any setting with hierarchical, organized religion and divine magic. While they are made the the imagery of a western pope, cardinal or other religious "higher up" in mind, the Cardinal fits seamlessly into eastern settings with a simple change of imagery. In fact, the Cardinal is particularly suited to eastern settings, as Shinto Priests in Japan and Chinese spiritual mystics are often portrayed as robed figures rather than warriors in armor. As a result, such settings may prefer to entirely replace the Cleric with the Cardinal, as the more scholarly and social bent and less-martial nature of the class tends to more accurately reflect the common fantasy ideal of priests, shrine maidens and mystics in those settings. However, in such eastern settings the class should be changed to reflect the wisdom such mystics are usually said to possess. If adapting the Cardinal into a shinto priest, shrine maiden or Chinese spiritual mystic, it is recommended that the class be changed to use Wisdom in place of Intelligence for both its casting and class features, and have its skill points increased to 6 + Int (and (6+ Int) x4 at 1st level.) to compensate for the lower intelligence it will have. Likewise, Church Authority should be replaced with a more thematic feature when making this conversion, such as a scaling bonus on knowledge checks made in relation to haunts, spirits and kami for a shrine maiden or shinto priest.

GAME RULE INFORMATION

Cardinals have the following game statistics:

Abilities: Charisma powers a Cardinal's divine magic and governs her ability to advocate and evangelize on behalf of their church. Intelligence allows the Cardinal to learn the prayers needed to cast her spells and both the spirtual and secular laws of her church. Dexterity and Constitution are also helpful for bolstering the Cardinal's poor hit points and defenses.
Alignment: A Cardinal's alignment must be within one step of her deity's.
Hit Die: d6
Starting Age: As a Cleric or Sorcerer (your choice). The rigors of Cardinal training, while different from those of Cleric training, are no less strenuous. However, unlike Clerics, it is common for Cardinals to recieve their training at a much younger age since it is common practice for the nobility to send their second or third-born children into the priesthood's upper echelons while they are still very young.
Starting Gold: As an Aristocrat. As representatives of their faith that often come from nobility, Cardinals tend to be well-cared for by their church hierarchy.

Class Skills: The Cardinal's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Knowledge (History) (Int), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) (Int), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Knowledge (The Planes) (Int), Perform (Oratory) (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (Int), Spellcraft (Int), Read/Write Language (Int)

Skill Points at First Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier




Saves

Spells Per Day


Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
0th
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th


1st
+0
+0
+0
+2
AC Bonus, Cardinal’s Hand (Touch), Infused Casting (1 hp/level), Turn/Rebuke Undead
3
1+1
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—


2nd
+1
+0
+0
+3
Church Authority
4
2+1
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—


3rd
+1
+1
+1
+3
Cardinal’s Hand (Close)
4
2+1
1+1
—
—
—
—
—
—
—


4th
+2
+1
+1
+4
Prayer 1/day (1 minute)
5
3+1
2+1
—
—
—
—
—
—
—


5th
+2
+1
+1
+4
Infused Casting (2 hp/level)
5
3+1
2+1
1+1
—
—
—
—
—
—


6th
+3
+2
+2
+5
Bonus Domain (Deity's)
5
3+1
3+1
2+1
—
—
—
—
—
—


7th
+3
+2
+2
+5
—
6
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
—
—
—
—
—


8th
+4
+2
+2
+6
Prayer 2/day (1 round)
6
4+1
3+1
3+1
2+1
—
—
—
—
—


9th
+4
+3
+3
+6
Infused Casting (3 hp/level)
6
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
—
—
—
—


10th
+5
+3
+3
+7
Bonus Domain (Personal)
6
4+1
4+1
3+1
3+1
2+1
—
—
—
—


11th
+5
+3
+3
+7
—
6
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
—
—
—


12th
+6/+1
+4
+4
+8
Prayer 3/day (move action)
6
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
3+1
2+1
—
—
—


13th
+6/+1
+4
+4
+8
Infused Casting (4 hp/level)
6
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
—
—


14th
+7/+2
+4
+4
+9
Bonus Domain (Deity's)
6
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
3+1
2+1
—
—


15th
+7/+2
+5
+5
+9
—
6
5+1
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
—


16th
+8/+3
+5
+5
+10
Prayer 4/day (swift action)
6
5+1
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
3+1
2+1
—


17th
+8/+3
+5
+5
+10
Infused Casting (5 hp/level)
6
5+1
5+1
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1


18th
+9/+4
+6
+6
+11
—
6
5+1
5+1
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
3+1
2+1


19th
+9/+4
+6
+6
+11
Prayer 5/day (free action)
6
5+1
5+1
5+1
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
3+1


20th
+10/+5
+6
+6
+12
Divine Intervention
6
5+1
5+1
5+1
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
4+1
4+1



Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Cardinals are proficient with the club, dagger, light crossbow, heavy crossbow and quarterstaff. They are not proficient with any kind of armor or shields.

Aura (Ex): A Cardinal of a chaotic, evil, good, or lawful deity has a particularly powerful aura corresponding to the deity's alignment (see the detect evil spell for details).

Spells: A Cardinals casts divine spells (the same type of spells available to the clerics, druid, paladin, and ranger), which are drawn from the cleric spell list. However, her alignment may restrict her from casting certain spells opposed to her moral or ethical beliefs; like a cleric, she cannot cast spells with alignment descriptors oppose to the alignment of herself and her deity. A Cardinal must choose and prepare her spells in advance (see below). To prepare or cast a spell, a Cardinal must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell’s level (Int 10 for 0-level spells, Int 11 for 1st-level spells, and so forth). The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a Cardinal's spell is 10 + the spell's level + the Cardinal's Charisma modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a Cardinal can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on the table above. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Charisma score (see Table 1—1: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells, page 8). A Cardinal also gets one domain spell of each spell levels he can cast, starting at 1st level. When a Cardinal prepares a spell in a domain spell slot, it must come from one of her two domains (see the Domains sub-heading below for details).

Cardinals do not acquire their spells from books or scrolls, nor do they prepare them through study. Instead, they pray to and petition their deity for their magic, using their sheer force of devotion and passionate zeal to convince their deity to grant them power. Each Cardinal must choose a time at which she must spend 1 hour each day in passionate prayer and supplication to regain her daily allotment of spells. Typically, this hour is at dawn or noon for good Cardinals and at dusk or midnight for evil ones. Time spent resting has no effect on whether a Cardinal can prepare spells. Like a Cleric, a Cardinal can leave spell slots open and prepare spells into them at different times during the day regardless of how many times she has prepared spells prior, though in the same way as a cleric she must spend 1 hour each time she dose so. (regardless of how many spells she is preparing.) A Cardinal may prepare and cast any spell on the cleric spell list, provided that she can cast spells of that level, but she must choose which spells to prepare during her daily prayer.

Domains: At 1st level a Cardinal gains access to two domains of her choice. Whenever she gains access to a domain, a Cardinal gains both its spells and granted power, as a Cleric would. However, unlike a Cleric a Cardinal does not need to select both of her domains from those offered by her deity. Instead, only one of those domains must be one offered by her deity. Her other 1st level domain, referred to as a "Personal" domain, can be any domain of her choice, even one that is not normally offered by her deity. However, a Cardinal's selection of personal domain cannot conflict with the ethos and morality of her deity and faith. (So for example, a Cardinal of Falazure, the NE dragon god of undeath, could chose the Deathbound or Spell domain as her personal domain, but not the Good or Repose domain.)

Spontaneous Casting: A good Cardinal (or a neutral Cardinal of a good deity) can channel stored spell energy into healing spells that the Cardinal did not prepare ahead of time. The Cardinal can "lose" any prepared spell that is not a domain spell in order to cast any Cure spell of the same spell level or lower (a cure spell is any spell with "cure" in its name). For example, a good Cardinal who has prepared Command (a 1st-level spell) may lose command in order to cast Cure Light Wounds (also a 1st-level spell). Cardinals of evil clerics can do the same, except for inflict spells instead of cure spells. (an inflict spell is any spell with "inflict" in its name)

AC Bonus (Ex): Instead of training with armor, Cardinals put their faith in their deity, drawing strength from their wholehearted belief that their god or goddess will protect them. A Cardinal gains a bonus to her AC equal to her Charisma modifier while unarmored and not carrying a shield. At her 4th character level (regardless of what class she takes a level in), this bonus increases by +1, and it also increases by an additional +1 for every four character levels (regardless of what classes they are in) thereafter (to a maximum of her Cha mod+5 at 20th level).

Cardinal's Hand (Ex): The time Clerics would spend training with armor and weapons a Cardinal instead spends learning how to better channel and control the magical energies they receive. As a result, Cardinals learn how to extend the range of their divine magics, doing from a distance what a cleric could normally only do by touch. While wearing no armor and carrying no shield, the Cardinal treats divine spells with a range of Personal or Self as having a range of Touch. (Meaning the Cardinal can cast such spells on creatures other than themselves and those creatures would gain their benefits as-if they where the Cardinal.)

Additionally, starting at 3rd level the Cardinal may cast any divine spell with a range of Touch as-if it had a range of Close instead (making a ranged touch attack in place of a melee touch attack they would normally, if applicable) while she is wearing no armor and carrying no shield. Against a spell cast this way, an unwilling target gains a +4 bonus to their effective AC against any ranged touch attack made as apart of it, and to any saving throws they would make against it.

Infused Casting (Su): While Cleric learn only to heal through spells made to do so, Cardinals also learn how to infuse there non-healing spells with healing energies. Living creatures affected by a Cardinal's spells regain hp equal to her character level plus her Intelligence modifier, in additional to the spell's normal effects. If a Cardinal spontaneously casts cure spells, any undead creature affected by her spells takes positive energy damage equal to half this amount a living creature would heal. If a Cardinal spontaneously casts inflict spells, undead are instead affected in the same way living creatures are by her infused casting, healing the same ammount they would.

At 5th level and every 4th level thereafter, the hp restored by a Cardinal's spells increases by an amount equal to her character level (eg. a 6th-level Cardinal would restore 12hp + her Int modifier), and the damage that would be dealt also scales accordingly. (Still being 1/2 of what the Cardinal would heal.) A Cardinal can omit any number of creatures affected by her spells that she wishes from the effects of her infused casting.

Turn/Rebuke Undead (Su): A Cardinal turns (and destroys) or rebukes (and dominates) undead as a Cleric of her Cardinal level a number of times per-day equal to 1 + her Charisma modifier (minimum 1). Whether she turns or rebukes undead is based on her alignment. If she is good (or neutral but worships a good deity) she turns undead. If she is evil (or neutral but worships an evil deity) she instead rebukes undead. If she is a neutral Cardinal of a neutral deity, this is instead determined by whether she spontaneously casts cure of inflict spells; if she spontaneously casts cure spells, she turns undead, if she spontaneously casts inflict spells, she rebukes undead.

Church Authority: At 2nd level, a Cardinal has proven herself a faithful and skilled enough servant of her faith to take on a leadership role in her church, gaining the privilege to act as one of its political representatives and authorities. She gains four new uses for the Diplomacy skill, none of which function in combat. These new uses are outlined below:

Requisition: You can draw upon the resources of your
church, gaining the use of them and overriding the wishes of
their owner if necessary.

Intrude: You can, at any time, search the home, person
or possessions of a member of your church. You may search and impound
any evidence of wrongdoing, if found. Your authority
does not extend to confiscating items for personal use.

Accuse: You may have a member of your church imprisoned indefinitely,
awaiting the gathering of evidence against him. You may
only imprison one suspect in such a manner at any given time.

Judge: You may pass judgment on a member of your church. This
includes setting fines, prison sentences, death sentences, excommunicating them or
anything else you wish, within the laws of your church.

The types of individuals and resources you can target with these new uses of Diplomacy depend on your rank in the skill. The table below shows what kind of individuals and resources you can target, and the Diplomacy ranks required to target them. Failure to comply with these demands is usually sanctioned with fines, imprisonment, heretic status, and possibly excommunication.

Any of these abilities can be contested by another Cardinal, who can move to have the action reversed with an opposed Diplomacy check. If the challenger wins the opposed roll, the defending Cardinal's action is reversed (for example an imprisoned individual is set free). If the defender wins the opposed roll nothing happens. Church Authority can be contested in a particular case only once. A defending character who loses the opposed roll may not contest the result. Nor can she use Church Authority to repeat the action that was contested against the same target. A Cardinal may use Church Authority a number of times per-day equal to her Cardinal level, plus an additional use per-day for every 4 levels she has in a class other than Cardinal.



Diplomacy Ranks
Valid Targets


[tr]
4
Intrude on and Accuse Commonor


5
Requisition Troops


6
Intrude on non-Cardinal Clergy Member


[tr]
7
Judge Commonor


8
Accuse Non-Cardinal Clergy Member


9
Requisition Gear


[tr]
10
Intrude on Noble


11
Judge Non-Cardinal Clergy Member


12
Accuse Noble


[tr]
13
Requisition Spellcaster


14
Intrude on Cardinal


15
Judge Noble


[tr]
16
Accuse Cardinal


17
Requisition Property


18+
Judge Cardinal



Prayer (Su): At 4th level the Cardinal learns how directly petition her deity for magic with a single, passionate prayer. The Cardinal can pray for 1 minute (provoking attacks of opportunity) to spontaneously cast any one spell from any spell list as-if it was a "cure" or "inflict" spell of the same level. (She must still "lose" a prepared spell of an equal level, as normal.) A Cardinal can do this once per-day.

As she grows in power, a Cardinal becomes more effective at convincing her deity for immediate aid. At 8th level this feature’s activation time decreases to 1 round the Cardinal can use this feature twice per-day. At 12th level it's activation time decreases to a move action and she can use it three times per-day. At 16th level, it's activation time decreases to a swift action and she can use it four times per-day. At 19th level, its activation time decreases to a free action and she can use it five times per-day. (She still provokes attacks of opportunity when she uses this feature, regardless of how long it takes to use) If the spell requires an action that takes more time than this feature's activation time, the Cardinal must also expend an action of that type. (So if a 19th level cardinal wanted to use this feature to spontaneously cast a spell with a cast time of 1 standard action, she would need to use a standard action in addition to the free action she used to activate this feature)

Bonus Domain (Deity's/Personal): As she grows in power, the Cardinal gains access to additional domains. At 6th level and and again at 14th level, she gains access to one more domain offered by her deity, while she gains access to an additional personal domain at 10th level. (This personal domain follows the normal rules for selecting a personal domain, as stated in the domains subheading of the spells feature above.)

Divine Intervention (Su) At the height of her power the Cardinal learns to demand direct intercession by her deity...and receive it. As a standard action, the Cardinal can request her deity to intervene on her behalf. The Cardinal's player describes the assistance she seeks and the DM grants it in a way they see fit. (Including having their deity deny them aid entirely, if appropriate.) The DM chooses the nature of the intervention; the effect of any spell from any list would be appropriate. If her deity intervenes, the Cardinal can’t use this feature again for 7 days. Otherwise, she can use it after getting at least 8 hours of rest.

This class was made to be Tier 1. I know, Tier 1 is not an ideal balance point by any means. However, I wanted a tier 1 charisma-class and this is a result. It is meant to make a tier 1 divine caster mental score trinity with cleric (wis) and archivist (int). However, while I am shooting for tier 1 with this class, I do not want it to be SO tier 1 that it eclipses other tier 1 options, thus making it totally unplayable in a real game. As a result, I am looking for help and advice of all of you on what, if anything, this class needs to see play in an actual game of 3.5e, but with the thought in-mind thatr this class is designed to be a tier 1 class and should remain as such. With that stated, I'd appreciate any and all comments, suggestions and thoughts on this class!