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    Ettin in the Playground
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    You lost the game.
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    Male

    Default Re: [3.5, Base] The Arbiter: Embodiment of Neutrality (PEACH)

    Well, I promised to look this over completely. So, I have. Note: sarcasm levels are high. Please wear radiation suits. All hazardous material is marked in Dark Red, and may indicate a failure of truth, an indication of a considered problem, or a lack of social interaction. Proceed with caution. Lethal Farce is authorized.

    Also, included in this are a few little things I noticed; places that I was an optimizer breaking this class.
    ---
    In keeping with RPG tradition, I'll use the Treatmonk (c) system:


    Bad. Whether it's a necessary counter-balance, or just something to fill the levels, this isn't the best part.
    Situational. This is something that's OK, in some places.
    Good. A strong choice, useful.
    GREAT! A great part of the class, something to look for.

    Let's dig in!

    Chassis

    Alignment: True Neutral. Fluffy drawback to the class. This shouldn't come up very much at all, TN is the notorious "I couldn't decide", so you can act Good/Evil anyway.

    Hit Dice: d8. It's not a d10, but, you can walk into melee for short spurts (did I say short? I should have said infinitesimal.). Average.

    Skills: 4+Int. Starting to see a pattern? Decent enough skill bonus, but nothing fancy. The likelihood you'll actually have a reasonable Int bonus is low. You're not going to ever be a skill monkey ([COLOR="dark red"]Strike that, you will... Pretty soon, too...[/COLOR])...

    Skill List. Everything is on here that you could possibly need, except possibly Bluff and K: Local. Oh, and SPOT. Which was oddly enough, left off of a Wisdom-based class. [Note to TravelLog, I'd put Spot on the list. Just saying.]

    Best things to pick up are going to be: Diplomacy (for all the awesome stuff you can do out of combat, it's just amazingly useful, no matter what), K: Arcana/K:Planes/K:Religion (This should cover the majority of important enemies fought, and are the three most common, not including Nature), Sense Motive (Useful as well, and keys off of Wis), and UMD (Sure, you won't be great with Cha, but it's an amazing skill, and one anyone who has should use).

    Next, Class Features.

    Spellcasting
    Well, you've got a spell list, and some spell casting! YAY! However, you don't actually get spells until level 3 (Actually, at level 2, you'd get the ones from having a high Wis score, but still), so don't count on these. The progression is kinda anemic, as it should be. Your spell casting is NOT your main shtick, but it has enough of the good stuff (True Strike, Enlarge Person, Charm Person, so on and so forth) to make it worth investing time in. I'd look through this spell list, and cross-check with the Spell Compendium (which is not on hand, right now...)

    This class (arcane) gets a ton of different types, too: Heal/Harm (Literally. Lesser Vigor, too, Restoration, Remove Blindness, etc, etc. Not much, but it's enough to be a second-string cleric.), buffs out the wazoo (Fly, Blink, Haste, Stoneskin, Nerveskitter, Bear's Strength, Greater Magic Weapon, just to mention a few of the best), some LIMITED battle-field shaping (Control Water, AMF, Passwall. Not really much), Even blasting! (kinda. Don't get your hopes up, it's just Disintegrate). There's some stuff that you may want. BUT NOT MUCH.

    Your main problem is really the number of spells you can cast. It's not much. However, there's an AWESOME clause in the spell casting section: you know all your spells, but cast spontaneously. So, even if you don't get a whole bunch of spells, you have enough choices and versatility to do good stuff with it. All in all, only the tiny number of spells keeps this from being AWESOMER than AWESOME. Still pretty stinking good, though.

    Aura of Neutrality and shifting bonuses.
    Your other class feature. It is basically the area in which FRIGGIN EPIC happens. Yeah. Like that. No, I'm serious. Also, you often don't even need to pay attention to this limitation: it's anywhere were an ally is. Yup.

    Also, you gain a ton of abilities to move scores around, unhindered by distance.

    Breakdown:

    1.At first level (assuming standard Wis of 18), you can give adjacent people a +1 bonus to AC/Attack. This, I suppose, includes you. You may also shift it any bonuses to AC, Attack/Damage, and ABILITY SCORES to other people. You have a 12 in Charisma? Give your party bard a +1. Nice, not OP. It is limited by 1/2 Wis.

    [TravelLog: Friendly Arbitration is written a little confusingly, especially the part that reads:
    Quote Originally Posted by TravelLog
    The total must equal the original bonus, no matter how it is distributed.
    I'm not sure quite what this means. ]

    2. At level 2, you can take away a single enemy's bonus to AC, and give it to yourself. This means that (assuming the enemy failed his save), you are now the local station for the AC Train. When you take out an enemy's AC bonus, you ship it to the nearest useless needy melee character. Very, very, good. You are now the ultimate debuffer/buffer combo.

    It is at this point that I say this: there is no possible way that any one enemy will make this save later than level 3 with anything past god-induced luck. Why? I'm glad you asked. The save is 10+ Wis + Level. This means at level 3, when most people are casting level 2 spells and getting a DC of 15, you're taking away people's basic stats, and it's at a DC of 17 (Wis +4, + 3 level). Anything past this scales WAY faster than anyone can keep up with, and your ability is now pretty much at will. Which makes sense, though. Kind of.

    But, as our now deceased favorite TV Salesman Billy Mayes would tell us... "WAIT! There's more!"


    Level 3: You now are a skill monkey. And you don't have to invest in skills. Say you need to give knowledge to your caster as he is trying to figure out what an item is? No worries. You can take a -10 to Spellcraft, and then the wizard has everything he needs. Is your rogue needing to get his hide saved after a very bad bluff roll? Meh, give him a +30. So long as you don't need to bluff, (you better hope you don't, too! Cause you'd be majorly flubbed). Also, your Necromancer buddy has a great new pet for raising: the rogue (who committed suicide by now).



    You also get a +2 as to what bonuses of yours you can give to your friends.

    Level 4: You can now switch save bonuses around. Not stellar, but I guess it could be useful sometimes. Also, you gain the ability to switch around bonuses from your "Shifting the Scales" ability to your allies. Erm. More directly? There's no reason why you wouldn't have already been shifting it to them piece by piece before, so not big. However, a big thing is that even on a successful will save that your enemies can't possibly make without massive amounts of DM Fiat, you get 1/2 the bonus anyway!

    From here on out, it ONLY. GETS. BETTER. Level 8 gives you MISS CHANCE, Initiative, and also speed. Nice. Also, a second enemy. MOAR advantages! Level 12 gives you DR/Resistance. Perfect! My enemy now is left with their Su/Ex/SLAs. Not much in the way of defense.

    At this point, the class is complete to me. BUT! "There's more!"

    From here on out (starting at level 6, actually...), you can shift your negative conditions and bonuses BACK to your enemy, and give yourself theirs. You boost your allies' speed. Oh. AND NEGATE ANY ACTION that anyone can take. This means that as long as you have negation points, everyone in your party is safe. Problem is that you have next to none of these.

    At level 20, you get Time Stop. This is nice, and provides the perfect time to rebalance the field. By the time 1d4+1 rounds are up, your enemies will have NO bonuses to ANYTHING. No defenses. Oh, and did I mention that you're an outsider with a perfect fly speed?

    You are now the proverbial taker of candy from babies. Enjoy.

    ---

    There's a more or less rambling explanation of my thoughts on the class. I think it needs some work... I just now realized how powerful that thing is.
    Last edited by SamBurke; 2011-11-04 at 01:49 AM.
    James/TheDoge Avatar by Ceika!

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    Quote Originally Posted by TravelLog View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by SamBurke View Post
    *snip* ...Hands down the funniest class critique ever... *snip*
    I cannot tell you the number of times I laughed while reading this.

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