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Lord Tataraus
2008-02-01, 05:00 PM
Splinter Sword
"By sword and soul, I shall vanquish thee!!"

Great warriors live by their swords and the values by which they use them. Some warriors learn to use those very values as they exist in his soul and mind to destroy his enemies with power beyond the mortal realm.

Splinter Swords are usually very focused and dedicated to their values, if a bit reckless to sunder their souls so frivolously. True, the soul and mind repair themselves with time, but the pain begins to fade and the Splinter Sword becomes more confident, sundering more and more of his soul and mind. Many Splinter Sword become too confident or consumed with the unnatural power, utterly destroying themselves by expelling their entire soul for the rush of power. However, even among the reckless their are those who see that their must be some restraint. The most powerful of the Splinter Swords have learned to balance the sundering of soul and mind and to conserve it for when it is truly needed.

Hit Dice: d12
Class Skills:
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

Prerequisites:
Feats: Improved Toughness or Toughness or Iron Will
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Special: You must have had at least 2 points of constitution or wisdom damage or drain.

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special
1st|
+1|
+2|
+0|
+2|Splinter Soul, Splinter Guard
2nd|
+2|
+3|
+0|
+3|Splinter Blade
3rd|
+3|
+3|
+1|
+3|Splinter Body
4th|
+4|
+4|
+1|
+4|Splinter Mind
5th|
+5|
+4|
+1|
+4|Splinter Reality
[/table]

Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A Splinter Sword gains no new weapon or armor proficiencies.

Splinter Soul: The soul is the easiest of the three parts of a person to splinter into pieces, thus an acolyte of the Splinters learns this technique first. The Splinter Sword has an unlimited number of Splinter points to spend on his abilities. Every time the Splinter Sword uses a splinter point, add those points to his splinter pool. If the Splinter Sword's splinter pool has a number of points greater than or equal to his total hit dice, his splinter pool goes to zero and he takes one constitution damage.

Splinter Guard: The Splinter Sword learns how to use his essence to to absorb hits. Whenever the Splinter Sword takes damage he may any number of splinter points to ignore 5 points of damage for every 4 splinter spent.

Splinter Blade: The Splinter Sword learns to imbue his weapon with his essence to increase its power. For every splinter point the Splinter Sword may deal +1 damage with weapon attacks for one round.

Splinter Body: The Splinter Sword learns how to relocate his essence to temporarily boost his body. For every 2 splinter points spent the Splinter Sword may increase either his dexterity or strength by 1 for one hour per Splinter Sword level.

Splinter Mind: The Splinter Sword learns how to splinter his mind as well as his soul. Whenever the Splinter Sword would take constitution damage from the Splinter Soul ability, he may choose to instead take 2 wisdom damage. The Splinter Sword cannot use this ability if his effective wisdom score is less than 4.

Splinter Reality: The last ability the Splinter Sword learns is to use his essence to splinter reality itself, surviving the impossible. Whenever the Splinter Sword makes a saving throw he may gain a +1 bonus for every 2 splinter points spent. Additionally, upon death the Splinter Sword may take 2 points of permanent constitution drain. If he does so, he instead goes to 1 hp. The Splinter Sword may not use this ability if this would cause his effective constitution to become less than 4.

<hr>
Here is the start of my Splinter Sword, I will hopefully get the fluff up soon. But for now, please critique the crunch. Thanks!

Lord Tataraus
2008-02-01, 05:01 PM
Splinter Sage
"My mind is my power and with its purest essence, I can surpass the boundaries of reality."

Wizards and Sorcerers have dedicated their lives to the study of magic and use it to defy natural laws everyday. Some of these casters choose to dedicate their entire existence to the study of magic, learning to use their very essence of Body, Mind, and Soul to enhance their powers and even escape certain death.

Splinter Sages are the most dedicated to magic, recklessly sundering their very souls and minds to increase their power. Once a Splinter Sage has sundered his mind or soul, he is never the same again. True, the soul and mind repair themselves with time, but the pain begins to fade and the Splinter Sage becomes more confident, sundering more and more of his mind and soul. Many Splinter Sages become too confident, utterly destroying themselves by expelling their soul through their magic, lost forever. However, even among the reckless their are those who see that their must be some restraint. The most powerful of the Splinter Sages have learned to balance the sundering of mind and soul and to conserve it for when it is truly needed.

Hit Dice: d4
Class Skills: Concentration (Con), Craft (alchemy) (Int), Knowledge (all skills taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), and Spellcraft (Int)
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

Prerequisites:
Feats: Improved Toughness or Toughness or Iron Will
Spells: You must be able to cast 3rd level spells
Special: You must have had at least 2 points of constitution or wisdom damage or drain.

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spellcasting
1st|
+0|
+2|
+0|
+2|Splinter Mind, Splinter Deflect|-
2nd|
+1|
+3|
+0|
+3|Splinter Spell|+1 Level of Existing Class
3rd|
+1|
+3|
+1|
+3|Splinter Thought|-
4th|
+2|
+4|
+1|
+4|Splinter Soul|+1 Level of Existing Class
5th|
+2|
+4|
+1|
+4|Splinter Form|-
[/table]

Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A Splinter Sword gains no new weapon or armor proficiencies.

Splinter Mind: The mind is the easiest of the three parts of one so attuned to magic to splinter into pieces, thus an acolyte of the Splinter Sages learns this technique first. The Splinter Sage has an unlimited number of Splinter points to spend on his abilities. Every time the Splinter Sage uses a splinter point, add those points to his splinter pool. If the Splinter Sage's splinter pool has a number of points greater than or equal to his total hit dice, his splinter pool is reduced by a number of points equal to his hit dice and he takes one wisdom damage.

Splinter Block: The Splinter Sage learns how to use his essence to to absorb hits. Whenever the Splinter Sage is attacked he may gain a +1 deflection bonus to AC for every 2 splinter points spent.

Splinter Spell: The Splinter Sage learns to imbue his magic with his essence to increase its power. For every 2 splinter points the Splinter Sage may increase the duration his spells as if his caster level was one higher to a maximum effective caster level equal to 5 plus his hit dice or increase the save DC of his spells by +1 for one round.

Splinter Thought: The Splinter Sage learns how to relocate his essence to temporarily boost his mental and social capacity. For every 2 splinter points spent the Splinter Sage may increase either his intelligence or charisma by 1 for one hour per Splinter Sage level.

Splinter Soul: The Splinter Sage learns how to splinter his soul as well as his mind. Whenever the Splinter Sage would take wisdom damage from the Splinter Mind ability, he may choose to instead take 2 constitution damage. The Splinter Sword cannot use this ability if his effective constitution score is less than 4.

Splinter Form: The Splinter Sage learns how to completely sever his mind and soul from his body in times of great need. Whenever the Splinter Sage would be dropped below 0 hit points he may take 2 points of permanent wisdom drain to instead take no damage. However, the Splinter Sage's body is completely destroyed and the Splinter Sage gains the incorporeal subtype. While incorporeal due to this ability the Splinter Sage must spend one splinter point to cast spells that effect corporeal creatures. The Splinter Sage cannot be returned to his normal form until 1d6+1 days have passed at which point his body reforms around his incorporeal form and he returns to normal. The Splinter Sage may not use this ability if it would cause his effective wisdom to drop below 4.

Neek
2008-02-02, 02:34 AM
I like the flavor you're going for. It's really nifty and really unique. However, I have a few things to add about it.

1). You list as the prerequisite feats "Improved Toughness or Toughness or Iron Will", does that mean you need one of those three? or Improved Toughness or (Toughness and Iron Will)?

2). The Splinter Sage has two abilities (Splinter Guard and Splinter Reality) that are the same as the Splinter Sword. Not that cross abilities are bad, it's just that it would be cooler to something unique about it.

3). The Splinter Reality ability is really overpowering, and with a splinter character in the party, can really cause you to pay more attention to the events in combat, moreso than you should. This puts too much work on the DM to adjudicate the effect. I'd just simply rule it, if you spend more than twice your HD in splinter points, the damage drops you to 1 hp and no less. This ability is near-epic, and I'd only let it go if these were 10 level PrCs.

4). Splinter Mage gets full BAB. I'd reduce this to poor BAB, same as Wizards, and add in at fourth level a gain in spells (so this decreases the spell level loss by one, not two.)

Ideas for the Splinter Sage: Increase effective caster level when using Splinter Points, this would be a nice feature. Increase effective AC instead of granting DR. I would recommend changing the names of some of the abilities. Calling them all "Splinter X" seems to be too... redundant?

Lord Tataraus
2008-02-02, 03:19 AM
I like the flavor you're going for. It's really nifty and really unique. However, I have a few things to add about it.

1). You list as the prerequisite feats "Improved Toughness or Toughness or Iron Will", does that mean you need one of those three? or Improved Toughness or (Toughness and Iron Will)?
Any of the three.


2). The Splinter Sage has two abilities (Splinter Guard and Splinter Reality) that are the same as the Splinter Sword. Not that cross abilities are bad, it's just that it would be cooler to something unique about it.
Yeah, I know. I've removed those, but I can't think of a good capstone of Splinter Sage.


3). The Splinter Reality ability is really overpowering, and with a splinter character in the party, can really cause you to pay more attention to the events in combat, moreso than you should. This puts too much work on the DM to adjudicate the effect. I'd just simply rule it, if you spend more than twice your HD in splinter points, the damage drops you to 1 hp and no less. This ability is near-epic, and I'd only let it go if these were 10 level PrCs.
Yeah, I was originally going to have it be a just save from death, but I went to far. Hopefully it is much better now, though still a bit powerful, I might up the cost or just make it pure con damage/drain


4). Splinter Mage gets full BAB. I'd reduce this to poor BAB, same as Wizards, and add in at fourth level a gain in spells (so this decreases the spell level loss by one, not two.)
Oops, I meant to give them 1/2 BAB. As for the spell increases, I don't know yet, I might increase it later...


Ideas for the Splinter Sage: Increase effective caster level when using Splinter Points, this would be a nice feature. Increase effective AC instead of granting DR. I would recommend changing the names of some of the abilities. Calling them all "Splinter X" seems to be too... redundant?
I changed the DR thing to AC bonus for the Sage. Oh, and it already has a caster level increase, that's one option for Splinter Spell. Sure calling all the abilities "Splinter X" is redundant, but its a theme.

Thanks for the critique!

EvilElitest
2008-02-02, 10:33 AM
any chance of fluff?
from
EE

Fizban
2008-02-03, 03:25 AM
You're going to want to put a cap on the Splinter Spell ability, otherwise they just got a +tons to save DC's whenever they want it. The Fatespinner gets +5/day spread out as he likes, and a -10 on one enemy's save 1/day. This guy gets +7 probably at least 3/day, and he's only losing wisdom.

Edit: that is, the spinner gets a total of 5 bonus points, and the sage will get a flat +7 (at minimum level) 3 different times.

DeadPlatypus
2008-02-03, 12:00 PM
Splinter Soul: The mind is the easiest of the three parts of one so attuned to magic to splinter into pieces, thus an acolyte of the Splinter Sages learns this technique first. The Splinter Sage has an unlimited number of Splinter points to spend on his abilities. Every time the Splinter Sage uses a splinter point, add those points to his splinter pool. If the Splinter Sage's splinter pool has a number of points greater than or equal to his total hit dice, his splinter pool goes to zero and he takes one wisdom damage.

First of all, that should be Splinter Mind, not Soul. Second, I know it's probably not what you mean, but I think the current wording allows the player to spend 40 points at once and take only one wisdom or constitution damage.

Lord Tataraus
2008-02-03, 02:18 PM
any chance of fluff?
from
EE

Sorry, I meant to get it up yesterday, but I had a really rough night.


You're going to want to put a cap on the Splinter Spell ability, otherwise they just got a +tons to save DC's whenever they want it. The Fatespinner gets +5/day spread out as he likes, and a -10 on one enemy's save 1/day. This guy gets +7 probably at least 3/day, and he's only losing wisdom.

Edit: that is, the spinner gets a total of 5 bonus points, and the sage will get a flat +7 (at minimum level) 3 different times.

Hmm...good point, I'll add a cap.


First of all, that should be Splinter Mind, not Soul. Second, I know it's probably not what you mean, but I think the current wording allows the player to spend 40 points at once and take only one wisdom or constitution damage.

Oops, good catch. As for the splinter pool thing, I'll reword it. You are correct I meant the splinter points to basically be delayed damage for the Splinter Sword. I am considering changing the wisdom damage from Splinter Sage to intelligence damage to be more effective (and cause death), what do you think?