Base Class Contest XXXII - Tipping the Scale II [3.5]

[Salasay]

Verrück Balancer

They thought me Mad. They thought me Insane. I have now removed that possibility. It has changed Nothing and Everything. It has made me Pure and Vile. It has made me Me. -Ludwig Nkrizo, the first Grey Monk, from his book De Obscuram et Lucium

NOTE: The abilities of the Verrück Balancer are demonic or celestial. They are not good or evil. They may be dark or light, but they should only be referred to as demonic or celestial

The Verrück who learn to harness the magic of both parents become Balancers, or Grey Monks. These Balancers learn to use powerful celestial and demonic abilities. However, if the Grey Monk favors one side too much, his very blood fights him, enfeebling him while he leans to one side or the other.

Adventures: Often the Grey Monks travel to seek self knowledge, learning to control themselves better. Some travel to seek sanctuary. Adventure, however, is most commonly found in those who joined the order to make a change, not simply to improve themselves or the order. They adventure to bring their focus and discipline to the world.

Characteristics: Verrücken have a tendency to go insane later in life. This is due to the literal war that their blood wages on itself. A Balancer learns to prevent that. While not all sane Verrücken are Balancers, all have at least cursory training in meditation techniques. Most Grey Monks are educated Verrücken who realize early on that they will become mad later in life.

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral, Lawul Neutral, or True Neutral. Only Neutrality of alignment and morality can conduce neutrality of Spirit.

Religion: The Grey Monks tend to follow the Three of Paramyth, particularly Santulana.

Background: The Grey Monks require intense and dedicated study and devotion to controlling themselves in order to properly harness their abilities.

Races: The Grey Monks are an exclusively Verrück:class, as no other race has the mixed blood required for such magics.

Other Classes: They are mostly considered to be the same as regular monks, though they do suffer some prejudice because they are Verrück.

Role: Grey Monks tend to fulfill the role of a supporting spellcaster. They do not do well at being the primary spellcaster, and are more adept at providing tactical combat assistance than direct damage spells (fireball, lightning bolt) or role-playing spells (Knock, Scry). However, a Balancer can dish out his share of spellfyre when needed, but are better at protection and de/buffing. Most of his damage will come from his swords and bolts. Balancers tend to fight near the front-lines, but not so much in the middle. While a properly balanced Grey Monk has the health and AC to take being attacked repeatedly, he prefers not to be in that situation.

Adaptation: The flavor of the Verrück is an integral part of the class, so any campaign into which the Balancers is transplanted must also import the Verrück themselves, a much more challenging proposition. The class could be overhauled to allow for human entrants, but doing so would require DM approved balancing (power-wise, not flavor-wise) adjustments.
GAME RULE INFORMATION
Grey Monks's have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Wisdom and Constitution are both important for the abilities of the Grey Monk, as well as Dexterity to aid in evasion and Strength to aid in damage.
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral, Lawul Neutral, or True Neutral.
Hit Die: d8
Starting Age: As Monk
Starting Gold: As Monk

Class Skills
The Grey Monk’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are...
Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Tumble (Dex).

Skill Points at First Level: (6 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier

BALANCER

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	0	1	2	3	4	5	6
1st	+0	+0	+2	+2	Balanced Blood, Grey Meditation, Yin-Yang Sword and Bolt	2	-	-	-	-	-	-
2nd	+1	+0	+3	+3	-	3	0	-	-	-	-	-
3rd	+2	+1	+3	+3	Yin-Yang Bolt 2d6	3	1	-	-	-	-	-
4th	+3	+1	+4	+4	Yin-Yang Sword +2, Heal/Harm	3	2	0	-	-	-	-
5th	+3	+1	+4	+4	Insightful Balance	3	3	1	-	-	-	-
6th	+4	+2	+5	+5	Yin-Yang Bolt 3d6, Shield/Curse	3	3	2	-	-	-	-
7th	+5	+2	+5	+5	Yin-Yang Sword +3	3	3	2	0	-	-	-
8th	+6	+2	+6	+6	Improved Heal/Harm	3	3	3	1	-	-	-
9th	+6	+3	+6	+6	Yin-Yang Bolt 4d6	3	3	3	2	-	-	-
10th	+7	+3	+7	+7	Yin-Yang Sword +4, Root/Cripple	3	3	3	2	0	-	-
11th	+8	+3	+7	+7	-	3	3	3	3	1	-	-
12th	+9	+4	+8	+8	Yin-Yang Bolt 5d6, Greater Heal/Harm	3	3	3	3	2	-	-
13th	+9	+4	+8	+8	Yin-Yang Sword +5, Improved Shield/Curse	3	3	3	3	2	0	-
14th	+10	+4	+9	+9	-	4	3	3	3	2	1	-
15th	+11	+5	+9	+9	Yin-Yang Bolt 6d6	4	4	3	3	3	2	-
16th	+12	+5	+10	+10	Yin-Yang Sword +6, Elite Heal/Harm	4	4	4	3	3	2	0
17th	+12	+5	+10	+10	-	4	4	4	4	3	3	1
18th	+13	+6	+11	+11	Yin-Yang Bolt 7d6	4	4	4	4	4	3	2
19th	+14	+6	+11	+11	Yin-Yang Sword +7	4	4	4	4	4	4	3
20th	+15	+6	+12	+12	Improved Root/Cripple, Equilibrium Frenzy	4	4	4	4	4	4	4

Balance is needed to sustain sanity. Sanity is needed to sustain balance. Thinking along such lines is the path to losing both. -De Obscuram et Lucium


Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Grey Monk.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Grey Monks are proficient with club, crossbow (light or heavy), dagger, handaxe, javelin, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, siangham, and sling.

Grey Monks are not proficient with any armor or shields.

While wearing armor or bearing a shield, the Grey Monk may not use any class abilities nor gain any benefit from Balanced Blood (the penalties are not negated, however).

Spells: To cast a particular spell, you must have an Wisdom score of at least 10 + the spell's level. Your bonus spells are based on your Wisdom. Saves to avoid the effects of your spells have a DC of 10 + the spell's level + your Wis bonus (if any).

You cast spells as a Sorcerer does. Grey Monks know all spells on the following lists, and are only limited by the number of spells per day they have. An epic Ausgleich’s number of spells per day does not increase after 10th level.

Celestial Spells:
0—Cure Minor Wounds, Daze, Light
1st—Cure Light Wounds, Divine Favor, Shield of Faith, Shield, Burning Hands
2nd—Daylight, Cure Moderate Wounds, Shield Other, Flaming Sphere, Scorching Ray, Blur
3rd—Cure Serious Wounds, Remove Disease, Remove Curse, Fireball, Displacement, Slow
4th—Cure Critical Wounds, Confusion, Stoneskin, Fire shield, Wall of Fire
5th—Cure Light Wounds (Mass), Heal, Flame Strike, Hold Monster, Interposing Hand
6th—Cure Moderate Wounds (Mass), Irresistible Dance, Forceful Hand, Chain Lighting, Stone to Flesh

Demonic Spells:
0—Inflict Minor Wounds, Touch of Fatigue, Ray of Frost
1st—Bane, Inflict Light Wounds, Command, Chill Touch, Ray of Enfeeblement
2nd—Darkness, Inflict Moderate Wounds, Hold Person, Scare, False Life, Touch of Idiocy
3rd—Inflict Serious Wounds, Contagion, Curse, Vampiric Touch, Suggestion, Ray of Exhaustion
4th—Inflict Critical Wounds, Enervation, Ice Storm, Fear, Crushing Despair
5th—Inflict Light Wounds (Mass), Harm, Cone of Cold, Dominate, Mass Suggestion
6th—Inflict Moderate Wounds (Mass), Eyebite, Disintegrate, Freezing Sphere, Flesh To Stone

Neutral Spells:
0—Resistance, Virtue, Prestidigitation, Dancing Lights
1st—Endure Elements, Obscuring Mist, Faerie Fire, Magic Missile, Expeditious Retreat
2nd—Resist Energy, Owl's Wisdom, Hypnotic Pattern
3rd—Telepathic Bond, Lesser, Fly, Haste
4th—Air Walk, Divine Power, Rainbow Pattern, Greater Invisibility, Dimension Door
5th—Plane Shift, Righteous Might, Telepathic Bond, Waves of Fatigue, Wall of Force
6th—Owl’s Wisdom (Mass), Mislead, Repulsion, Shadow Walk, Contingency, True Seeing


Balanced Blood: A Verrück Balancer must maintain a balance of his demonic and celestial sides. Whenever he uses a spell with the Celestial or (C) modifier, he gains one "Celestial" point, and Dual Abilities give two points to their aligned side. Whenever he uses an ability with the Demonic or (D) modifier, he gains one "Demonic" point. If he has Demonic points and uses a Celestial ability (or vise versa), he instead looses a Demonic point. Thus one Balance Point pool will be at 0 at all times. Consult the following Table to determine benefits and penalties imbalance.

BALANCED BLOOD

Points	Name	Effect
11-10 (C)	Overly Celestial	-8 Con, +6 Str, +4 caster level for (C), -4 caster level for (D), -2 caster level for all.
9-8 (C)	Fully Celestial	-6 Con, +4 Str, +3 caster level for (C), -3 caster level for (D), -1 caster level for all.
7-6 (C)	Celestially Aligned	-4 Con, +2 Str, +2 caster level for (C), -2 caster level for (D)
5-4 (C)	Celestially Leaning	-2 Con, +1 caster level for (C), -1 caster level for (D)
3-2 (C)	Neutral	None
1(C) - 1(D)	Fully Neutral	+2 Con, +1 caster level
2-3 (D)	Neutral	None
4-5 (D)	Demonically Leaning	-2 Con, +1 caster level for (D), -1 caster level for (C)
6-7 (D)	Demonically Aligned	-4 Con, +2 Str, +2 caster level for (D), -2 caster level for (C)
8-9 (D)	Fully Demonic	-6 Con, +4 Str, +3 caster level for (D), -3 caster level for (C), -1 caster level for all.
10-11 (D)	Overly Demonic	-8 Con, +6 Str, +4 caster level for (D), -4 caster level for (C), -2 caster level for all.

After 11 Balance Points, every 2 levels gives an additional -2 Con, +2 Str, +1 caster level for aligned abilities and spells, -1 caster level for un-abilities and spells, and -1 caster level for all abilities and spells. Balance Points can stack up until the Grey Monk dies from the Constitution penalties. However, he may only get Bonuses from imbalanced points of up to his Base Attack Bonus, and cannot get any bonuses from Imbalanced Blood if he has no constitution score at all.

Grey Meditation: A Grey Monk gains Fast Movement, Flurry of Blows, and Unarmed Strike as a Monk of half his class level +2 (But no more than his character level). If he already has levels in Monk, every two levels of Verrück Balancer counts as one additional level of Monk to determine Fast Movement, Unarmed Strike, and Flurry of Blows. The Balancer may multi-class with monk freely. Additionally, if the Grey Monk has a ranger animal, he may count his levels in Balancer as additional levels in ranger for determining his effective druid level.

Yin-Yang Swords/Bolt (Su): As a swift action, a Balancer can create two semisolid blades composed of celestial and demonic energy distilled from his own blood (the demonic one is black, the celestial one is white). The blade which is in your main hand is chosen upon summoning, and may be switched at will. The blades are identical in all ways (except visually) to shortswords of a size appropriate for their wielder, except that the celestial sword deals +1 fire damage and the demonic sword deals +1 cold damage (bonus damage increases at higher levels). Balancers who are smaller or larger than Medium create Yin-Yang blades identical to short swords appropriate for their size, with a corresponding change to the blade’s damage. The wielder of a Yin-Yang blade gains the usual benefits to his attack roll and damage roll from a high Strength bonus, as well as adding the bonus elemental damage (to a maximum of his wisdom mod) to attack rolls.

The blades cannot be broken - any time they should be broken (such as if the Balancer were to use one as a crowbar), it becomes immaterial for an instant. The moment he relinquishes his grip on his blade, it dissipates. Yin-Yang blades are considered magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

A Grey Monk can use feats such as Power Attack or Combat Expertise in conjunction with the Yin-Yang blades just as if they were normal weapons. He can also choose Yin-Yang blades for feats requiring a specific weapon choice, such as Weapon Specialization. Powers or spells that upgrade weapons can be used on Yin-Yang blades.

Even in places where magic effects do not normally function, Yin-Yang blades function normally. A Grey Monk may treat his Yin-Yang blades as monk weapons.

Bolt

A Balancer may also, as a swift action, fire the energy which makes up one of his blades at an opponent (this action can only be made if he has not yet attacked with that blade). Like magic missile, this bolt strikes its target perfectly. It deals 1d6+1 damage of the same type as the sword it came from (fire for celestial, cold for demonic). The damage for this bolt increases by 1d6 at 3rd, 6th, and every third level after. After this bolt has been fired, he may not re-summon the blade until the next turn, and cannot convert that blade into another bolt for 2d2 rounds. Using this bolt ability gives him one Balance Point in the appropriate pool.

Heal/Harm (Sp): : A fourth level Grey Monk gains his first dual ability. This ability may be used in either form, but not both at the same time. After using a specific form, he my not use that form again for 2d2 rounds. However, he may use the other form during the cool-down time; the second form then would not be able to be used for 2d2 rounds.

• Heal (C) (Sp): As cure light wounds, using his caster level without Balanced Blood effects.
• Harm (D) (Sp): As inflict light wounds, using his caster level without Balanced Blood effects.

Insightful Balance (Ex): Verrück grow up with constant distractions and such from the competing impulses in their blood. The art of maintaining balance allows the Verrück Balancer to cut out those distractions and, because he is used to them and has adapted to dealing with them, the Verrück Balancer can pay much more attention to his surroundings than a normal person when his blood is balanced. While he is Fully Neutral, he may add his wisdom bonus to his AC and initiative rolls, and his Concentration modifiers. While he is either Neutral or Fully Neutral, he may add a quarter of his level (round up) to AC and initiative rolls.

Shield/Curse (Sp): This ability may be used in either form, but not both at the same time. After using a specific form, he my not use that form again for 2d4+1 rounds. However, he may use the other form during the cool-down time; the second form then would not be able to be used for 2d4+1 rounds. This ability is touch range, and requires a standard action.

• Shield (C) (Sp): Subject gains a +3 deflection bonus to AC. Every bonus caster level he gains from Balance Points adds an additional +1 (to a maximum of +5) and every negative caster level he gains from Balance Points reduces the bonus by 1 (to a minimumn of +1). This ability lasts for 1 minute per caster level.
• Curse (D) (Sp): Target must make a Will save (DC 15 + Wis bonus ± bonus caster levels) or get a -3 penalty penalty on attack rolls, saves, ability checks, and skill checks permanently. Every bonus caster level he gains from Balance Points adds an additional -1 (to a maximum of -5) and every negative caster level he gains from Balance Points reduces the bonus by 1 (to a minimumn of -1) The curse bestowed by this ability cannot be dispelled, but it can be removed with a break enchantment, limited wish, miracle, remove curse, or wish spell

Improved Heal/Harm (Sp): The cure and inflict spells from Heal/Harm increase to Moderate wounds.
Root/Cripple (Sp): This ability may be used in either form, but not both at the same time. After using a specific form, he my not use that form again for 1d6+1 rounds. However, he may use the other form during the cool-down time; the second form then would not be able to be used for 1d6+1 rounds. This ability has a range of 20ft, and requires a standard action.

• Root (C) (Sp): Your target is rooted in place, preventing them from moving. They cannot move from the square that they were in unless moved by teleportation or similar effect, cast by another character (the subject cannot teleport on his own). Once he reaches the destination of the teleportation, he becomes rooted to the spot at which he comes out. While rooted, the subject takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls, AC, and Reflex saves. This ability lasts for 1 minute per caster level.
• Cripple (D) (Sp): Your target is crippled and is now slowed, fatigued, and sickened. Fortitude save (DC 17 + Wis bonus ± bonus caster levels) negates the fatigue, and sickness. This ability lasts for 1 minute per caster level (except for the fatigue, which lasts until the target gets 8 hours of complete rest).

Greater Heal/Harm (Sp): The cure and inflict spells from Heal/Harm increase to Serious wounds.

Improved Shield/Curse (Sp): The effects in the Shield/Curse Spell increase to +/- 4, and the maximums increase to +/- 8

Elite Heal/Harm (Sp): The cure and inflict spells from Heal/Harm increase to Critical wounds.

Improved Root/Cripple (Sp): Root/Cripple now affects a 15ft radius circle on the ground and has a range of 30ft.

Equilibrium Frenzy(Ex): Once per day while Balanced at Fully Neutral, the Grey Monk may enter a trance to excite both halves of his blood, taking a full round to complete (this does not provoke attacks of opportunity). For 1 minute afterwards, the Grey Monk gains +8 Strength, +6 caster level for both (D) and (C) abilities and spells, and adds +3 fire and +3 cold damage to his Yin Yang Blades and Bolts. However, once the minute has concluded, the Grey Monk’s blood rebels with vengance. The Grey Monk gets –8 Constitution and –7 to his caster level for both (D) and (C) abilities and spells, looses all bonus damage to for his Yin-Yang Sword, and gains no benefit from being aligned at Fully Neutral. This condition lasts for another minute. During the entire two-minute affair, the Balancer may use abilities and spells without moving his Balanced Blood alignment away from Fully Neutral.

NOTE: this is a Base class adaption specifically for this contest of a PRC that I had made already. If that is still not admissible, I appologize