Hellsing, always cool. Peach time!
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Originally Posted by
dyslexicfaser
Hit Dice: d10
{table=head]Level|[b]Ba
Weapon Proficiencies: A No-Life King gains proficiency with all simple weapons but no armor.
HD seems fine, table looks good, proficiencies fine for a class that will probably very quickly rely on natural attacks. One question though: What's with the HD column in the table? Does this class sometimes not get it's HD? That's weird and shouldn't happen.
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No-Life King: A No-Life King does not age, and receives no penalties for aging (though still gaining the benefits to mental stats), nor does she need to eat or breathe. A No-Life King is also not undead as we know the term, and so does not lose her constitution score nor does she gain the immunities common to undead. She may also be healed normally with curative magic.
... Well, I'm never playing this as anything other than venerable, then. No real reason not to. The entry on undead-ness seems unnecessary. Is he undead typed? If not, then the second half of this doesn't need to exist, it's just confusing. You just say that they aren't undead, and thus don't get the benefits of being undead. Ok? Makes sense. I never was lead to believe it was undead >.>
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Vampiric Weaknesses: A No-Life King is weakened by the following: sunlight, silver, running water and certain other vulnerabilites.
K.
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Sunlight: A No-Life King of 5th level or lower takes d6 damage and receives a -2 check on skills for each round she remains in direct sunlight; a No-Life King of 6-10th level takes only 1 damage a round, and one of 11th or greater takes no damage, only the skill penalty. This damage cannot be healed by the No-Life King’s fast healing, and must be healed normally, through rest.
This makes the class almost unplayable for 11 levels. A round is roughly 6 seconds, so even 1 damage/round makes daytime travel/normal everyday life nearly impossible, which is a big deal for a DnD character. Again, the main benefit you have from this class so far is... you can be really old and not worry about it. I mean, level 1 I walk outside and die, and forget any combat, even if we allow parasols.
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Running Water: No-Life Kings are physically unable to cross running water under their own volition. They must be carried or otherwise ferried across, falling into a sort of torpor from which they cannot awaken while crossing. No-Life Kings of 10th level or greater are not affected by this weakness as their lesser brethren are, though they still may not bear the actual touch of running water, requiring a bridge, flight or similar.
Weird, but not as crippling as the sunlight thing.
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Silver: Weapons of silver retard the fast healing of a No-Life King. Damage taken from such a weapon is only healed at a rate of 1hp/round, regardless of whatever her fast healing actually is. No-Life Kings of 15th level or greater are not affected by this weakness as their lesser brethren are.
This is fine.
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Earth of the Homeland: A No-Life King is bound in strange ways to the land of her birth. If traveling, she must bring with her soil from her homeland and sleep in it (this may be placed in her coffin, bedroll or other often-used resting place). For each week this condition is not met, the No-Life King receives a cumulative negative level that may not be removed with anything short of a Wish or Limited Wish cast on her behalf. If reduced to level 1 in this way, a No-Life King falls into a torpor from which they can only be roused by the taste and subsequent consumption of virgin blood.
So what happens if I get some soil back midway through the process? Do I get my levels back? Or only through wishes? Again, this is really nasty penalty just for playing a class. These weaknesses are thematic and all, but in play, they're just crazy restricting for just picking this class. A sorcerer has to keep a pouch of components onhand or he'll be restricted to only a few spells. This class can only travel at night, can't cross any amount of running water, and if his pack gets stolen that has his dirt, needs a Wish spell to get back to normal. Harsh.
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Blood Drain:
A No-Life King can suck blood from a living victim with her fangs by making a successful grapple check, dealing 5 points of damage and giving the vampire 5 temporary hit points that last for a number of hours equal to the HD of the victim. If she pins the foe, she drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution drain each round the pin is maintained.
Does this scale at all? Otherwise, it becomes really useless really fast. Like level 3 or so. Earlier if you have a good Str score and some potions.
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Blood is the Currency of the Soul: By draining a humanoid or monstrous humanoid until death, a No-Life King takes their immortal soul into her body. They can no longer be resurrected by anything short of a Wish, Limited Wish or True Resurrection. Even with those spells, the one resurrected returns to a soulless existence; the soul remains in the vampire's keeping. The one resurrected is tormented by the feeling of missing something undefinably precious. The only true way to retrieve the soul is to slay the No-Life King involved. For each opponent drained this way, the No-Life King gains some of their memories (resulting in an untyped +2 to a skill the opponent had in life), another d10 (though her total HD can never be higher than her character level) and a feat that the victim could use in life (this ability can only gain a number of feats equal to 1/3rd of her class levels, rounded down).
o.O ok, maybe it'll be useful longer than I thought. Question though: assuming you get a HD every level, like normal, you'll never get the health benefit of this ability. This also leads to interesting problems as to how much adventuring the PC has done before a campaign started when it comes to how many skill boni and feats he starts out with. Does this only work if the only thing I used to kill them is the drain ability? Or does that just need to get the last hit?
This has the potential to be pretty freaking insanely good. Nearly impossible to balance right.
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Progeny: All No-Life Kings are of the line of Alucard, once called Dracula. Their blood drain works differently than that of other vampires. When a victim is drained and their soul taken by a No-Life King, the deceased returns within 24 hours as a zombie five levels lower than they were in life. This creature is only barely intelligent (their intelligence is reduced to 3) and follows their master’s orders absolutely. They may only be rescued from this state by slaying the zombie as well as the No-Life King that created them, and then being the target of a resurrection or true resurrection.
When a virgin is drained to death and then fed a drop of the No-Life King’s blood, they do not become a zombie, but a No-Life King themselves. They retain levels in any other class previously taken, but may hereafter only advance in the No-Life King class.
So what if I drain a monster to death? Or someone else with no class levels? This plays right back into the other ability in being almost impossible to balance properly. Basically free undead at your discretion. A horde of low-level zombies is still a horde of zombies, especially if you let stuff like the Corpsecrafter feat apply.
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Third Eye: At 3rd level, A No-Life King’s eyesight is exceptional; she may treat targets of her ranged attacks as though they were two increments closer. At 12th level, she may see through illusions as though under the effects of true seeing.
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Fine.
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Mutable Form: A No-Life King’s flesh is mutable. She may use the spell Disguise self at-will up to a total number of hours per day equal to her class levels. At 7th level, she may use Alter self instead.
Fine, but with the usual Alter Self concerns.
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Speed bonus: At 4th level, and again at 9th, 14th and 19th, a No-Life King gains a 10ft movement bonus to all movement types she possesses.
What type is the speed bonus? Otherwise fine.
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Familiar I: At level 5, the No-Life King gains a familiar, though not one like a wizard or sorcerer obtains. Her familiar is an amorphous mass of darkness that may extend from her body as an immediate action. The player chooses the form this darkness takes, though it may be a d6 bite, claw, gore, or slam.
... Random. I suddenly gain... a natural attack? How does this work with my other attacks? Consider renaming it. Yes, I know why, but when there is already something vastly different called a familiar, this'll only be confusing.
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Familiar II: At level 8, the No-Life King’s familiar increases in strength. You may choose one of the following: the familiar’s reach increases by 5’, the familiar’s attack increases by 1 step (as though by the Imp Natural Attack feat), or the No-Life King gains another movement type (flight, burrow, climb), though she cannot use her familiar to attack while using it to move.
Fine.
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Alternate Form: A No-Life King of 10th level may assume the form of a swarm of bats, centipedes, rats or similar creatures (set when they gain this ability) for a number of hours equal to their class level. When in this form, they lose all other special abilities and gain the natural weapons and extraordinary special attacks of the new form.
Fine.
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Familiar III: At level 11, the familiar of a No-Life King may gain another natural attack (of the same type as the first, or different), or it may ignore up to 5 DR and/or hardness. She also may instead choose to gain two abilities from any previous Familiar list. In addition, any natural attacks gained via the familiar may be used when using the familiar’s alternate movement type.
... you really need to elaborate more on the familiar. The way it was described earlier, it just sounded like a special natural attack the No-Life King got. Now I don't know for sure.
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Lore of the Fallen: A strong No-Life King can wring more knowledge from the tortured souls which comprise her being. A No-Life King of 13th level gains an ability that works like Bardic Knowledge, the check being 1d20+1 per soul devoured with the Blood Is the Life (A result of 10 is common knowledge, 20 is uncommon, 25 is obscure, and a roll of 30 or higher is extremely obscure).
Fine... with the caveat of the drain boni problem.
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Familiar IV: At level 14, the No-Life King’s familiar may gain the improved grab ability, or the familiar has the Ghost Touch property, or may grapple those under the Freedom of Movement spell (at a -20 modifier). She also may instead choose to gain two abilities from any previous Familiar list.
This is... weird. You need to elaborate much more on the familiar. Much much more. How is my familiar grappling things? Does it have a strength score? Any stats at all? I'm lost.
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Familiar V: At level 17, the No-Life King’s familiar inflicts a negative level with each strike, or her familiar gains the Greater Multigrab feat (enabling her to have no penalty for maintaining a hold with the body part with which you grappled, leaving her hands and any other familiar natural attacks free), or she may effectively use the Swallow Whole ability with her familiars (drawing her enemy into the familiar’s shadowy substance with a successful grapple check if already grappling it). Once done so, the foe takes 2d8+str damage, plus 8 vile damage a round, but may free themselves with a successful grapple check (resulting in them being merely grappled, where they may be Swallowed Whole again) or by doing slashing or piercing damage equal to ¼ of the No-Life King’s total HP (thereby ending the grapple). She also may instead choose to gain two abilities from any previous Familiar list.
The Swallowed Whole stuff is really, really good. If I had any idea how to go about doing so, I'd pump my familiar's grapple ability and just eat everything, since there's no listed size limitations.
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Familiar VI: At level 20, the familiar may instead make a single attack a round that forces a Fort-save (DC 10 + ½ class level + cha) or death, or the No-Life King’s familiar gains the ability to pierce through its enemies and continue on to strike others up to its maximum reach, or a vampire may summon one of his souls’ shadows as a full-round action (the vampire loses one of her familiars for the duration of this ability). This shadow is an exact replica of the soul when it was taken, though its appearance may drip blood, be missing its head, or other suitably gruesome appearance. This shadow will last for a number of rounds equal to the No-Life King’s HD and may not move beyond 120ft of its master. She also may instead choose to gain three abilities from any previous Familiar list.
Whoa whoa whoa, since when do I have multiple familiars? Also, the save-or-die is the best option here. I already have shadowy nomming on their strength score, shadows are too squishy at this level to do much good anyway.
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The Blood is the Life: At 20th, a No-Life King may put the souls she has devoured to good use. When she is slain, she may sacrifice one of her bound souls in her place (if this would reduce her number of souls below 9, she begins losing the HD gained from her Blood is the Currency of the Soul ability). When she does so, her body begins to liquefy into a pool of blood, a process which takes 1d4 minutes. Once this is done, she may move freely at a speed of 10ft per round as a mass of blood, or transform into a swarm of bats for a number of rounds no more than her Con modifier. During this time, she cannot attack anyone, nor can she be hurt. At the end of this time, she reforms, regaining HP equal to the number of minutes x10 the process required. She may do this even if her body was vaporized or turned to dust. If she was slain by a thinaun weapon or otherwise had her soul removed, she loses an additional soul from her stock, effectively requiring two souls to come back to life.
If you've found good ways to get souls in you (like say, eating housecats or chickens. They work by your ability) then you're basically immortal forever with this. That's probably what you're going for, but I just thought I'd point it out.