Frost Reaper (3.5 PrC)

[Bobmufin52]

I came up with this prestige class for a campaign setting I made, and I though it was really cool and was worth posting here.

Frost Reaper
{table=head]Level|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Snow glide, cold touch 1d4|

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3|Damage reduction 1/fire|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+3|cold touch 2d4|

4th|
+3|
+1|
+1|
+4|Damage reduction 2/fire|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+3|
+1|
+1|
+4|cold touch 3d4, Icy soul|

6th|
+4|
+2|
+2|
+5|Damage reduction 3/fire|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+5|
+2|
+2|
+5|cold touch 4d4|

8th|
+6|
+2|
+2|
+6|Damage reduction 4/fire|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+6|
+3|
+3|
+6| cold touch 5d4|

10th|
+7|
+3|
+3|
+7|Damage reduction 5/fire, Frozen Litch|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Hit dice: d8
Requirements
BAB: +3
Skills: Knowledge (geography or nature or arance) 5 ranks, Survival 9 ranks OR Feat:greater fortitude
Special: Must live in a place that is mostly tundra

Class Skills
Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Ride (Dex), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Tumble (Dex) (Special: if the character already has levels in an arcane spellcasting class(es), add Knowledge (arcane) and Spellcraft to the Frost Reaper’s list of class skills. If they have levels in divine spellcasting class(es), add Spellcraft only.)
Skill points per level: 4+Int modifier

Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Frost Reapers are proficient with scythes. Frost reapers do not gain any proficiency with any armor or shields.

Spells and Caster Level: If the character already had a spellcasting class before taking levels in Frost Reaper, they can add a level of spellcasting every 2 levels. If the character had multiple spellcasting classes before becoming a Frost Reaper, they must choose one at every 2 levels. If the character doesn’t have any spellcasting classes, they don’t gain any spell levels.

Snow Glide: A Frost Reaper’s first trick is to learn how to use his A Frost Reaper is not slowed down by difficult snowy terrain; also, a frost reaper can add 5 feet per level in Frost Reaper to their base land speed when on icy or snowy ground.

Cold Touch: A Frost Reaper's flesh becomes cold to the touch, to the point where his mere touch can cause a frozen death. A Frost Reaper who uses an unarmed strike deals 1d4 points of lethal cold damage. The Frost Reaper can also just use a touch attack and inflict only the cold damage if he wishes to. Also, the Frost Reaper can add this cold damage when useing any two handed melee weapon they are proficient with. This damage increase ever two levels, 2d4 at level 3, 3d4 at level 5, 4d4 at level 7, and maximizes at 5d4 at level 9.

Damage Reduction: A Frost Reaper's skin becomes icy and hard, making it harder to cause harm to him. Beginning at 2nd level, a Frost Reaper gets 1 point of damage reduction to every form of attack except ones with the fire type attacks. This amount increases every 2 levels, becoming 2 at level 4, 3 at level 6, 4 at level 8, and finally 5 at level 10.

Icy Soul: A Frost Reaper becomes one with his snow filled surroundings, that its cold powers go beyond his mortal body and actually starts to affect his soul. A Frost Reaper of 5th level gains the cold subtype.

Frozen Litch: A Frost Reaper of this level has become one with the cold so much that his very lifespan has been frozen in time. A Frost Reaper of this level gains the undead subtype. However, the creature’s hit dice do not become d12s, the base attack bonus remains the same, and skill points gained are dependent on the class taken. The reason this happens is that the Frost Reapers very soul has become completely frozen and is able to leave the Frost Reaper’s body. It comes out as a perfect sphere about an inch by diameter, and has a brilliant blue light when held up to the sun. A Frost Reaper can not be truly destroyed unless its frozen soul is as well. Treat this as a Lich’s phylactery, except you don’t need any feats or spend any XP to gain it. The sphere has a hardness of 8 and 15 hp.

This is my first ever homebrew, so I have no clue how balanced it is, so I am very open to suggestions that anyone has.

[Violet Octopus]

OK, the only straightforward entry from the core rulebooks is through Ranger. Which is fine, if that's what you were after. It does make it hard to get into the class without any spellcasting though, you'd have to deliberately multiclass out of ranger.
Or there's Scout. That actually sounds like a lot of fun. Or the Educated feat, which sounds kinda odd.
I suggest changing the requirements to knowledge (geography or nature) 5, so barbarians can enter.
Since they get supernatural cold powers, I feel another prerequisite ought to be access to spells or a spell-like ability with the cold subtype. Non-caster characters could take the Soul of the North feat from Complete Arcane to qualify.

If you do change the prerequisites, add knowledge (nature) to the clas list. Knowledge (religion) should probably be there too, as it covers undead.

I don't know if you're interested in noncasters entering, but if you are, maybe let them get something like bonus feats, more rages or skirmish dice to make up for no caster levels.

The image of a death-obsessed ranger gliding over the snow towards me with a big scythe is frightening, until he punches me instead. Maybe let Cold Touch be channeled through a 2 handed melee weapon?

[Zeta Kai]

You could enter this class by 6th level, & go Lich by 16th level. That seems a little early. I'd suggest raising the requirement bar a bit higher.

Also, the rules for Snow Glide make the entries on the table at each level superfluous.

[Bobmufin52]

OK, the only straightforward entry from the core rulebooks is through Ranger. Which is fine, if that's what you were after. It does make it hard to get into the class without any spellcasting though, you'd have to deliberately multiclass out of ranger.
Or there's Scout. That actually sounds like a lot of fun. Or the Educated feat, which sounds kinda odd.
I suggest changing the requirements to knowledge (geography or nature) 5, so barbarians can enter.
Since they get supernatural cold powers, I feel another prerequisite ought to be access to spells or a spell-like ability with the cold subtype. Non-caster characters could take the Soul of the North feat from Complete Arcane to qualify.

If you do change the prerequisites, add knowledge (nature) to the clas list. Knowledge (religion) should probably be there too, as it covers undead.

I don't know if you're interested in noncasters entering, but if you are, maybe let them get something like bonus feats, more rages or skirmish dice to make up for no caster levels.

The image of a death-obsessed ranger gliding over the snow towards me with a big scythe is frightening, until he punches me instead. Maybe let Cold Touch be channeled through a 2 handed melee weapon?

Thanks for the feed back. I think I’m going to make the knowledge skill entry be geography or nature or arcane, so that more than just the Ranger can join. Also, about the cold touch, I kinda like the idea of sending it through a weapon, especially if it’s from a scythe. (It gets the imagery I wanted from the class across very well.) On another note, I’d like it if a fighter could get into this class without multiclassting, any ideas on how to do that?

[DracoDei]

Needs a lot more fluff... which if you actually used it in a campaign I would THINK you would have available.

Weapon Focus (Scythe), and Weapon Specialization (Scythe), replacing the skill point entry requirements would be the most straight-forward way to let single-class fighters get into it, but... I don't know how much sense that makes...

[Violet Octopus]

Except Weapon Specialisation forces you to take fighter.

Survival is hard to get on the fighter list. If you're using Frostburn, that has a flavorful feat called Cold Endurance. If not, you could just use Great Fortitude. You could have those as alternate requirements, or keep it simple and just lose the Survival requirement.

edit: didn't realise you meant Weapon Focus, Specialisation as alternate requirements

[Bobmufin52]

Except Weapon Specialisation forces you to take fighter.

Survival is hard to get on the fighter list. If you're using Frostburn, that has a flavorful feat called Cold Endurance. If not, you could just use Great Fortitude. You could have those as alternate requirements, or keep it simple and just lose the Survival requirement.

I like the idea of taking grater fortitude instead of needing ranks in survival, and I think I'll make it the player's choice of witch to do. I'm also going to add a bunch of flavor text. I have a large back story for this class, but I wasn't sure if I should have put it in or not.

[DracoDei]

edit: didn't realise you meant Weapon Focus, Specialisation as alternate requirements
Precisely.