Erk
2007-10-29, 12:43 AM
I need a class of antimagic NPCs for my campaign world. They need to be an order of powerful mage slayers who do not themselves employ magic, although they aren't above turning magic items against their enemies. Alchemy is also acceptable; I am actually working on some crafting feats that allow non-magic-users with the right skills to brew alchemical potions and things with pseudomagical effects.
Since the mageslayer classes I can find are all fantastically weak, and I need something tough... something actually able to scare a wizard of equal level. I present to you the Order of Cold Iron and their appropriate PrC. It is meant for NPC use, but I would like it to balance well for PCs as well so feel free to offer feedback and suggestions.
This is, as should be clear, in the development stages. I am not sure how far to take their power: to deal with the variety of wizards, they need to be quite potent, but I don't want a PC with this class to be able to rip the whole game apart. Part of this is dealt with by having them focus on a single school, meaning I can have NPCs work in teams to make them totally murderous. How much room for exploitation do you see in these ideas?
Flavour text and explanation - very rough and dry so far:
The Order of Cold Iron was founded by a servant of none other than the god of Magic himself (boccob in my campaign world but not very much like the "default" boccob). They are, oddly, sworn against the use of magic: their role is to protect the balance of the world, a balance that misused magic can easily overthrow. To avoid the temptation of fighting fire with fire, and therefore further upsetting the balance, members of the Order are sworn against employing magic of their own. They are not above using already-made magical items, although they prefer not to, and they work hard to collect and seize such items to prevent them falling into the wrong hands.
Cold Iron Keep, the Order's central command, is a fortress-like monastery high in the mountains. The entire building and its outlying wall are constructed of sheer stone and laced with cold iron. In the center of the monastery is the Order's most holy item, Boccob's Tear. The Tear is a crystalline chunk of metal the size of an obelisk. It slowly seeps a watery liquid highly valued by the Order's alchemists in the creation of Cold Iron. It also projects an Antimagic Field in a 2-mile radius around the monastery.
The Order espouses alchemy as the safe alternative to magic. Their precepts say that magic is the force of the will attempting to change the world, while alchemy works with the world's natural properties to achieve similar goals. The Order's alchemists are unquestionably the world's most skilled, and they willingly share their knowledge with any practitioner with a serious interest in learning.
Tactics and Character Notes
Most knights start as a Fighter or Monk, and a few as Paladins. The typical strike team consists of a Paladin-Knight, several Fighter-Knights, and a couple Monk-Knights (note these guys are not all 5th level knights). It usually consists of a knight with a specialisation in each Iron School, and a crack strike force will also be sure to have at least one knight with a full feat tree from each of the feat trees in the [cold iron] list, meaning at least 3 or 4 5th level knights. Lower-level wizards are met with at least two fighter-knights and a monk-knight, each specialising in a different school and therefore providing defense against up to half of the wizard's deadlier spells.
The occasional Rogue who enters the Order is highly valued as a strike member and specialist. They often receive even better training than the mainline knights, becoming Iron Assassins (effectively a different prc with mostly the same powers. I imagine it as kind of a gestalt of rogue and knight; I'll try to draw it up later).
No knight fights alone if he is working on the Order's missions, though some do set out on their own as adventurers. Knights are generally unwilling to work alongside arcane casters, particularly wizards, though they will work with clerics and druids and occasionally sorcerors provided their allies limit their use of magic. Knights are not too bothered by more limited casters: for example, bards and beguilers are usually acceptable, as they do not typically have access to spells that can completely upset the balance of the world. Like paladins, knights in these situations have a bad reputation for getting preachy to their comrades.
Iron Knight PrC
Requirements:
Iron Will feat
Base Attack Bonus 5 or higher
Acceptance into the Order of Cold Iron
Non-chaotic alignment (neutral evil and neutral good characters are not admitted, but members who "fall" to those alignments are not kicked out).
Cannot be able to cast spells, or must permanently forswear the use of spells and spell-like abilities.
Hit Die: d8
Skills: 3+int modifier
Class skills: Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft(alchemy), Gather Information, Heal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge(Arcana), Ride, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device, Use Rope
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special
1st|
+1|
+2|
+0|
+2|First Chosen School (Iron School), Spell Resistance 10, Spell Turning
2nd|
+2|
+3|
+0|
+3|SR 12, Bonus Feat
3rd|
+3|
+3|
+1|
+3|Second Chosen School (Silver School), SR 14
4th|
+4|
+4|
+1|
+4|SR 17, Bonus Feat
5th|
+5|
+4|
+1|
+4|SR 20, Bonus Feat, Iron Soul[/table]
Chosen School:
At 1st and 3rd level, the Iron Knight choose a school of arcane magic to which he is exceptionally resistant. The first school chosen is the Iron School: a knight is virtually immune to his Iron School and gains special powers based on which school he chooses as his Iron School. The second school chosen, the Silver School, is less important to his development as a knight. All Iron Knights may add their Iron Knight level to spell resistance and saves against spells from either of their chosen schools.
Iron School
At first level, the Knight gains a special power based on which school he has chosen as his Iron School. so far the mechanics are not finished, just the powers I want. Feel free to suggest better ways to word these. I would also not mind seeing alternate ideas for powers which could be selected as a choice, ie. "choose 1 of these anti-abjuration abilities". These are supposed to be rather powerful, as each knight can only ever have one, while their opponents have access to all, or all but two, of these schools.
Abjuration: The knight may use any cold iron object as a rod of cancellation against abjuration fields effects such as prismatic sphere. Nearly any field effect is instantly dispelled.
Conjuration: The knight may control and alter the flow of cloud- or fog-type spells (obscuring mist, cloudkill, acid fog, etc) that are affected by airflow, provided he is wielding any cold iron object. Beginning control is a standard action; afterwards the Knight can manipulate the cloud as a free action.
Divination: The knight is instantly and automatically aware of any divination attempt that includes him (from scrying him to viewing him in the future), provided some part of his skin is in contact with cold iron. He may either block this attempt (effectively a nondetection spell, caster level equal to his base attack bonus) or he may choose to reflect it, allowing the diviner to see and detect him but gaining precisely equal knowledge of the diviner. The diviner is unaware of this reflected knowledge.
Enchantment: The knight is completely immune to mind-altering enchantments provided cold iron is touching his skin. Under the same conditions he can intuitively detect mind-affecting enchantments on another mind within 60' and can identify who is enchanted and with what spell by touching them with cold iron. He can further identify who or what is controlling them, on a will check (DC equal to the enchantment's save DC). If the knight has never encountered the controller, he gets a flash of an image: usually a face or an object.
Evocation: The knight can contain area effect damaging spells using cold iron. He can either block the area effect, or he can shape it to suit his will, bending the fireball area around himself and his allies but allowing it to harm their foes. Doing so can be done as an immediate action, but costs the knight his next standard action (he can still perform a move action on his next turn).
Illusion: If the knight disbelieves an illusion, he can cause any other creature (up to his wis bonus) within 60' of him to disbelieve it as well.
Necromancy: This is most commonly chosen by Paladins who have entered the Order of Cold Iron, and almost never by anyone else. It allows a knight who can turn undead to turn as a cleric equal to his knight level+turning class level (eg a pal5/knight5 can turn as a 10th level cleric). The paladin's aura of courage works to dispel magical fatigue and exhaustion effects, and lay on hands can remove negative levels (still need a mechanic for this).
--- problem is that necromancy has so many varied and powerful effects. Suggestions for a better power for necro-fightin-knights would be nice!
Transmutation: The knight may treat transmutations as illusions, and save for them as such. If he passes the save, any effects from the transmuted form pass over him as shadow-illusions, and he may interact with the "true form" of the transmuted object. For example, if the knight "disbelieves" a wizard who polymorphs into a dragon, he may attack the wizard and ignore the dragon's breath weapons and new AC. Claw attacks from the dragon are treated instead as armed attacks from the wizard in terms of damage and effect. The wizard can still use dragon effects which the knight has no direct influence over, such as flight, and the wizard may still have a higher attack bonus while in dragon form; this is not disbelievable. The knight himself may not be polymorphed (willingly or otherwise) provided he is touching cold iron. ed: I think this is too fuzzy. Need more definition or a better power. Suggestions?
Universal: Rather than fighting a single school, the knight is somewhat better suited to facing all schools. He does not get to add his knight level to saves vs. any particular school, but his spell resistance is 4 points higher at 1st level and increases by +1 point per level of Iron Knight for a total bonus of +8 at 5th level (SR28 without any feats to improve it). He also gains 2 more Spell Turning "usages" (ie. levels reflected) per level.
Spell Resistance
Every Iron Knight has an innate spell resistance, provided his skin is in contact with Cold Iron. This spell resistance can be lowered as a free action that does not provoke an attack of opporunity, but raising it again takes a move or standard action of concentration.
Spell Turning
The Iron Knight can use any object made of Cold Iron to turn spells, as per Spell Turning. The Knight can turn a number of spell levels per day equal to 3 x (Knight Level + Wis Bonus): for example, a ftr5/Iron Knight 4 with a Wis of 14 can turn 3x(4+2)=18 spell levels per day. Feats or resistance to the "universal" school can increase this. Turning is a free action that does provoke an attack of opportunity. Turning can be combined with an Intercept attempt (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60843) to protect nearby allies.
Silver School
The knight selects a Silver School at 2nd level. This school does not gain the special power associated with the Iron School, but the knight gets to add his knight level to saves and spell resistance vs. his Silver School. Universal may not be selected as a Silver School.
Bonus Feat
At 2nd, 4th, and 5th level, the Iron Knight can choose a bonus feat of the [Cold Iron] type. These feats are only available to characters with levels in the Iron Knight class (or in some cases, other involvement with the Order of Cold Iron). I might make them more of a class feature, so that knights can't take more than 3 ever.
Iron Soul
At 5th level, the cold iron touching a Knight's body is considered part of his body for the purposes of all arcane or divine spells. That means that, for example, cold iron armour is included in touch AC vs. spells (not vs other touch effects), and cold iron equipment is not affected separately even by magic that affects "attended" objects.
-------
[Cold Iron] Feats
Just some notes for now. Suggestions welcome, mechanics to follow. So far I am leaning towards only allowing each Knight to select 3 of these, since otherwise after Knight Level 5 the character could take a few Fighter levels and become more effective than I would really like. Each feat tree is 3 feats, with a very powerful capstone if you follow one single tree.
-Thaumatomagnetic Field: allows the knight to project a 5'/level antimagic field at will.
-----Improved version: This field can be strengthened with concentration, which increases its power to the near-equivalent of disjunction (it only nullifies magic items though, does not dispel them), and nullifies any magic entering the radius - rays, blasts etc, but the knight can only take either a std or move action each round while concentrating. This field causes magic duration-effects that were cast before the field arrived to wink out temporarily; they will blink back on after the field passes, unless their duration expires.
-----Greater version: the knight can still take a full-round action while strengthening the field (but has to maintain concentration). This field causes magic duration-effects that were cast before the field arrived to wink out temporarily; they will blink back on after the field passes, unless their duration expires.
-Thaumatomagnetic Blast: a magnetic effect projected from a cold iron object that can "pull" on spells. Tugs magically flying folks out of the sky, closes teleport portals and gates. Don't know the mechanic yet but it should limit mage mobility and there should be 3 levels of the feat. At level 3 the knight can follow mages through teleport gates and things, even hours after the teleportation happened. Also, I want this one to have some effect over magical time dilation: haste, slow, and time stop.
-Dispelling Lodestone: use magnetic cold iron to dispel magic on touch, caster level equal to bab. Improved version of the feat dispels as greater dispel magic and has 15' reach (5'cone of effect). Greater version of the feat dispels as disjunction and has 30' reach (10' cone of effect).
-Implacable Resistance: when the knight successfully saves on a spell there is no effect, even if normally there is a weakened effect. Improved version allows the knight to apply the weaker effect when he passes the save, vs. spells of his Silver and Iron schools only. Greater version allows the knight to make will saves even on spells that don't normally allow them.
-Silver to Iron Turns: the knight can upgrade his Silver School to an Iron School, allowing him to gain a second Iron School power. Knights who chose Universal as their Iron School may not take this feat.
-Improved SR: increases the knight's SR (+3 I think?)
-Iron Mind: increases will save (+4 I think.)
Since the mageslayer classes I can find are all fantastically weak, and I need something tough... something actually able to scare a wizard of equal level. I present to you the Order of Cold Iron and their appropriate PrC. It is meant for NPC use, but I would like it to balance well for PCs as well so feel free to offer feedback and suggestions.
This is, as should be clear, in the development stages. I am not sure how far to take their power: to deal with the variety of wizards, they need to be quite potent, but I don't want a PC with this class to be able to rip the whole game apart. Part of this is dealt with by having them focus on a single school, meaning I can have NPCs work in teams to make them totally murderous. How much room for exploitation do you see in these ideas?
Flavour text and explanation - very rough and dry so far:
The Order of Cold Iron was founded by a servant of none other than the god of Magic himself (boccob in my campaign world but not very much like the "default" boccob). They are, oddly, sworn against the use of magic: their role is to protect the balance of the world, a balance that misused magic can easily overthrow. To avoid the temptation of fighting fire with fire, and therefore further upsetting the balance, members of the Order are sworn against employing magic of their own. They are not above using already-made magical items, although they prefer not to, and they work hard to collect and seize such items to prevent them falling into the wrong hands.
Cold Iron Keep, the Order's central command, is a fortress-like monastery high in the mountains. The entire building and its outlying wall are constructed of sheer stone and laced with cold iron. In the center of the monastery is the Order's most holy item, Boccob's Tear. The Tear is a crystalline chunk of metal the size of an obelisk. It slowly seeps a watery liquid highly valued by the Order's alchemists in the creation of Cold Iron. It also projects an Antimagic Field in a 2-mile radius around the monastery.
The Order espouses alchemy as the safe alternative to magic. Their precepts say that magic is the force of the will attempting to change the world, while alchemy works with the world's natural properties to achieve similar goals. The Order's alchemists are unquestionably the world's most skilled, and they willingly share their knowledge with any practitioner with a serious interest in learning.
Tactics and Character Notes
Most knights start as a Fighter or Monk, and a few as Paladins. The typical strike team consists of a Paladin-Knight, several Fighter-Knights, and a couple Monk-Knights (note these guys are not all 5th level knights). It usually consists of a knight with a specialisation in each Iron School, and a crack strike force will also be sure to have at least one knight with a full feat tree from each of the feat trees in the [cold iron] list, meaning at least 3 or 4 5th level knights. Lower-level wizards are met with at least two fighter-knights and a monk-knight, each specialising in a different school and therefore providing defense against up to half of the wizard's deadlier spells.
The occasional Rogue who enters the Order is highly valued as a strike member and specialist. They often receive even better training than the mainline knights, becoming Iron Assassins (effectively a different prc with mostly the same powers. I imagine it as kind of a gestalt of rogue and knight; I'll try to draw it up later).
No knight fights alone if he is working on the Order's missions, though some do set out on their own as adventurers. Knights are generally unwilling to work alongside arcane casters, particularly wizards, though they will work with clerics and druids and occasionally sorcerors provided their allies limit their use of magic. Knights are not too bothered by more limited casters: for example, bards and beguilers are usually acceptable, as they do not typically have access to spells that can completely upset the balance of the world. Like paladins, knights in these situations have a bad reputation for getting preachy to their comrades.
Iron Knight PrC
Requirements:
Iron Will feat
Base Attack Bonus 5 or higher
Acceptance into the Order of Cold Iron
Non-chaotic alignment (neutral evil and neutral good characters are not admitted, but members who "fall" to those alignments are not kicked out).
Cannot be able to cast spells, or must permanently forswear the use of spells and spell-like abilities.
Hit Die: d8
Skills: 3+int modifier
Class skills: Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft(alchemy), Gather Information, Heal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge(Arcana), Ride, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device, Use Rope
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special
1st|
+1|
+2|
+0|
+2|First Chosen School (Iron School), Spell Resistance 10, Spell Turning
2nd|
+2|
+3|
+0|
+3|SR 12, Bonus Feat
3rd|
+3|
+3|
+1|
+3|Second Chosen School (Silver School), SR 14
4th|
+4|
+4|
+1|
+4|SR 17, Bonus Feat
5th|
+5|
+4|
+1|
+4|SR 20, Bonus Feat, Iron Soul[/table]
Chosen School:
At 1st and 3rd level, the Iron Knight choose a school of arcane magic to which he is exceptionally resistant. The first school chosen is the Iron School: a knight is virtually immune to his Iron School and gains special powers based on which school he chooses as his Iron School. The second school chosen, the Silver School, is less important to his development as a knight. All Iron Knights may add their Iron Knight level to spell resistance and saves against spells from either of their chosen schools.
Iron School
At first level, the Knight gains a special power based on which school he has chosen as his Iron School. so far the mechanics are not finished, just the powers I want. Feel free to suggest better ways to word these. I would also not mind seeing alternate ideas for powers which could be selected as a choice, ie. "choose 1 of these anti-abjuration abilities". These are supposed to be rather powerful, as each knight can only ever have one, while their opponents have access to all, or all but two, of these schools.
Abjuration: The knight may use any cold iron object as a rod of cancellation against abjuration fields effects such as prismatic sphere. Nearly any field effect is instantly dispelled.
Conjuration: The knight may control and alter the flow of cloud- or fog-type spells (obscuring mist, cloudkill, acid fog, etc) that are affected by airflow, provided he is wielding any cold iron object. Beginning control is a standard action; afterwards the Knight can manipulate the cloud as a free action.
Divination: The knight is instantly and automatically aware of any divination attempt that includes him (from scrying him to viewing him in the future), provided some part of his skin is in contact with cold iron. He may either block this attempt (effectively a nondetection spell, caster level equal to his base attack bonus) or he may choose to reflect it, allowing the diviner to see and detect him but gaining precisely equal knowledge of the diviner. The diviner is unaware of this reflected knowledge.
Enchantment: The knight is completely immune to mind-altering enchantments provided cold iron is touching his skin. Under the same conditions he can intuitively detect mind-affecting enchantments on another mind within 60' and can identify who is enchanted and with what spell by touching them with cold iron. He can further identify who or what is controlling them, on a will check (DC equal to the enchantment's save DC). If the knight has never encountered the controller, he gets a flash of an image: usually a face or an object.
Evocation: The knight can contain area effect damaging spells using cold iron. He can either block the area effect, or he can shape it to suit his will, bending the fireball area around himself and his allies but allowing it to harm their foes. Doing so can be done as an immediate action, but costs the knight his next standard action (he can still perform a move action on his next turn).
Illusion: If the knight disbelieves an illusion, he can cause any other creature (up to his wis bonus) within 60' of him to disbelieve it as well.
Necromancy: This is most commonly chosen by Paladins who have entered the Order of Cold Iron, and almost never by anyone else. It allows a knight who can turn undead to turn as a cleric equal to his knight level+turning class level (eg a pal5/knight5 can turn as a 10th level cleric). The paladin's aura of courage works to dispel magical fatigue and exhaustion effects, and lay on hands can remove negative levels (still need a mechanic for this).
--- problem is that necromancy has so many varied and powerful effects. Suggestions for a better power for necro-fightin-knights would be nice!
Transmutation: The knight may treat transmutations as illusions, and save for them as such. If he passes the save, any effects from the transmuted form pass over him as shadow-illusions, and he may interact with the "true form" of the transmuted object. For example, if the knight "disbelieves" a wizard who polymorphs into a dragon, he may attack the wizard and ignore the dragon's breath weapons and new AC. Claw attacks from the dragon are treated instead as armed attacks from the wizard in terms of damage and effect. The wizard can still use dragon effects which the knight has no direct influence over, such as flight, and the wizard may still have a higher attack bonus while in dragon form; this is not disbelievable. The knight himself may not be polymorphed (willingly or otherwise) provided he is touching cold iron. ed: I think this is too fuzzy. Need more definition or a better power. Suggestions?
Universal: Rather than fighting a single school, the knight is somewhat better suited to facing all schools. He does not get to add his knight level to saves vs. any particular school, but his spell resistance is 4 points higher at 1st level and increases by +1 point per level of Iron Knight for a total bonus of +8 at 5th level (SR28 without any feats to improve it). He also gains 2 more Spell Turning "usages" (ie. levels reflected) per level.
Spell Resistance
Every Iron Knight has an innate spell resistance, provided his skin is in contact with Cold Iron. This spell resistance can be lowered as a free action that does not provoke an attack of opporunity, but raising it again takes a move or standard action of concentration.
Spell Turning
The Iron Knight can use any object made of Cold Iron to turn spells, as per Spell Turning. The Knight can turn a number of spell levels per day equal to 3 x (Knight Level + Wis Bonus): for example, a ftr5/Iron Knight 4 with a Wis of 14 can turn 3x(4+2)=18 spell levels per day. Feats or resistance to the "universal" school can increase this. Turning is a free action that does provoke an attack of opportunity. Turning can be combined with an Intercept attempt (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60843) to protect nearby allies.
Silver School
The knight selects a Silver School at 2nd level. This school does not gain the special power associated with the Iron School, but the knight gets to add his knight level to saves and spell resistance vs. his Silver School. Universal may not be selected as a Silver School.
Bonus Feat
At 2nd, 4th, and 5th level, the Iron Knight can choose a bonus feat of the [Cold Iron] type. These feats are only available to characters with levels in the Iron Knight class (or in some cases, other involvement with the Order of Cold Iron). I might make them more of a class feature, so that knights can't take more than 3 ever.
Iron Soul
At 5th level, the cold iron touching a Knight's body is considered part of his body for the purposes of all arcane or divine spells. That means that, for example, cold iron armour is included in touch AC vs. spells (not vs other touch effects), and cold iron equipment is not affected separately even by magic that affects "attended" objects.
-------
[Cold Iron] Feats
Just some notes for now. Suggestions welcome, mechanics to follow. So far I am leaning towards only allowing each Knight to select 3 of these, since otherwise after Knight Level 5 the character could take a few Fighter levels and become more effective than I would really like. Each feat tree is 3 feats, with a very powerful capstone if you follow one single tree.
-Thaumatomagnetic Field: allows the knight to project a 5'/level antimagic field at will.
-----Improved version: This field can be strengthened with concentration, which increases its power to the near-equivalent of disjunction (it only nullifies magic items though, does not dispel them), and nullifies any magic entering the radius - rays, blasts etc, but the knight can only take either a std or move action each round while concentrating. This field causes magic duration-effects that were cast before the field arrived to wink out temporarily; they will blink back on after the field passes, unless their duration expires.
-----Greater version: the knight can still take a full-round action while strengthening the field (but has to maintain concentration). This field causes magic duration-effects that were cast before the field arrived to wink out temporarily; they will blink back on after the field passes, unless their duration expires.
-Thaumatomagnetic Blast: a magnetic effect projected from a cold iron object that can "pull" on spells. Tugs magically flying folks out of the sky, closes teleport portals and gates. Don't know the mechanic yet but it should limit mage mobility and there should be 3 levels of the feat. At level 3 the knight can follow mages through teleport gates and things, even hours after the teleportation happened. Also, I want this one to have some effect over magical time dilation: haste, slow, and time stop.
-Dispelling Lodestone: use magnetic cold iron to dispel magic on touch, caster level equal to bab. Improved version of the feat dispels as greater dispel magic and has 15' reach (5'cone of effect). Greater version of the feat dispels as disjunction and has 30' reach (10' cone of effect).
-Implacable Resistance: when the knight successfully saves on a spell there is no effect, even if normally there is a weakened effect. Improved version allows the knight to apply the weaker effect when he passes the save, vs. spells of his Silver and Iron schools only. Greater version allows the knight to make will saves even on spells that don't normally allow them.
-Silver to Iron Turns: the knight can upgrade his Silver School to an Iron School, allowing him to gain a second Iron School power. Knights who chose Universal as their Iron School may not take this feat.
-Improved SR: increases the knight's SR (+3 I think?)
-Iron Mind: increases will save (+4 I think.)