Potpourri Creation Contest Chat Thread

[Glimbur]

Mine are up. No points if you find the inspiration for the vestige, it's pretty obvious.

[DragoonWraith]

Lots of bonus points to anyone who knows what mine is referring to; I don't expect this will be obvious at all, considering it's a reference to something that was planned but ultimately never happened.

But I would absolutely love a PEACH on this one.

[Hyooz]

I can whip out a quick mini-PEACH

First off: whoa. This totally changes the way the base class plays >.> I dunno, seems to reach a little far for substitution levels, and into the area of alternate class features, but hey, this is for homebrew, why not.

Eldritch Claws: This is really very good. I mean, you suddenly have a melee weapon with damage that scales really well, and you can also stick eldritch essence invocations on here. This probably makes the Cabal Warlock one of the better melee classes out there (short of ToB.) Especially since I have two of these, and a ton of secondary natural attacks that do the same amount of damage, and iterative attacks... wow. I guess this isn't that much worse than a warlock taking eldritch glaive (excepting full BAB)... but this is a really sudden shift into uber melee territory. Definitely outclasses any core melee-ers.

Fiendish Growths: Watch the wording in the paragraph before the block of growths. You call them Fiendish Shapes a couple of times. The growths themselves vary in good-ness. I would probably go Sting over tail for reach and AoOs, that pretty much beats out a fairly limited minor AoE. Why does Bite do half damage? Because it's secondary? Also: most bite attacks do piercing, bludgeoning and slashing damage. Just a note. I'm kind of up in the air on Bite vs. Horns. Moar full attack vs. 2x damage on a charge. I'd probably take Bite over Horns more often than not.

Tentacles wins hands down vs. Wings. I've been able to fly since 7th~ level with invocations, and I get two more attacks with 15ft reach. Wings really fall short here.

Spines is really underwhelming for my one Dark Growth. I mean, it's not bad by any means. Reactive abilities are a little underwhelming in general. Still... I'd pick it up. Punishing the dragon for full-attacking me is nice.

One other note: They're always active? That's going to make social situations pretty awkward. Just going through town at a high enough level I'll have tentacles, giant teeth, and a 10ft stinger on me. Are they supposed to be physical growths or like, eldritch energies?

Really, you're gaining a TON of stuff with these levels and giving up... ranged attacks and blast shape invocations? This might be way TOO good for a substitution level. Why play base warlock anymore? This is strictly better in every way.

The rest of the abilities are fine, make sense, and feel right for sub. levels. It's a nice choice between Detect Magic and pumping Will saves and thatkind of thing.

[DragoonWraith]

I can whip out a quick mini-PEACH

I really, really appreciate it!

First off: whoa. This totally changes the way the base class plays >.> I dunno, seems to reach a little far for substitution levels, and into the area of alternate class features, but hey, this is for homebrew, why not.

Yeah, I was going to do it as a base class, but the more I thought about it, the more it was like "this doesn't sound very different from a Warlock..." and then I saw this thread and it kind of clicked. Personally, I think it works very, very well.

Eldritch Claws: This is really very good. I mean, you suddenly have a melee weapon with damage that scales really well, and you can also stick eldritch essence invocations on here. This probably makes the Cabal Warlock one of the better melee classes out there (short of ToB.) Especially since I have two of these, and a ton of secondary natural attacks that do the same amount of damage, and iterative attacks... wow. I guess this isn't that much worse than a warlock taking eldritch glaive (excepting full BAB)... but this is a really sudden shift into uber melee territory. Definitely outclasses any core melee-ers.

The core melee sucks, so I don't care about that. Being on par with Tome of Battle is more what I'm going for. However, I'm not sure I agree with your assessments of this. One, there are not that many natural attacks; if you take all of them, you get 7, which is equivalent to a TWF rogue, and less than a Totemist could do. The secondaries, for the most part, deal half damage, also. And natural attacks don't get iteratives. Add in the loss of the touch attack, and I don't think this is much stronger than Eldritch Glaive.

Fiendish Growths: Watch the wording in the paragraph before the block of growths. You call them Fiendish Shapes a couple of times.

Oops. That was the old name.

EDIT: Fixed, I think. Don't see any remaining mentions of Shapes.

The growths themselves vary in good-ness. I would probably go Sting over tail for reach and AoOs, that pretty much beats out a fairly limited minor AoE.

I dunno, the Tail has an opportunity to do 3x damage (hitting three targets), while Sting will never do more than 1x. That's pretty significant.

Why does Bite do half damage? Because it's secondary?

Precisely. Since you now can do Claw, Claw, Bite on a full-attack, the Bite's not as good.

Also: most bite attacks do piercing, bludgeoning and slashing damage.

Oops, will fix.

EDIT: Fixed.

Just a note. I'm kind of up in the air on Bite vs. Horns. Moar full attack vs. 2x damage on a charge. I'd probably take Bite over Horns more often than not.

You can, you know, take both, if you wanted. But yeah, I think that's a pretty fair one.

Tentacles wins hands down vs. Wings. I've been able to fly since 7th~ level with invocations, and I get two more attacks with 15ft reach. Wings really fall short here.

Wings get you two attacks as well, and also Ex flight, as opposed to Fell Flight's Sp flight. I'd think that does make a difference. On the other hand, yeah, I probably went overboard on the Tentacles. I could either halve their damage, reduce them back down to 10 ft., or I could up the Wings to full damage. Also, the Flight should probably be as good as Fell Flight, huh? Thoughts?

EDIT: Reduced Tentacle range to 10 ft., upped Wing damage to full, and swapped 40 ft. Flight speed (Average) for Land speed + 10 ft. Flight speed (Good). That would make it marginally better than Fell Flight at all times.

Spines is really underwhelming for my one Dark Growth. I mean, it's not bad by any means. Reactive abilities are a little underwhelming in general. Still... I'd pick it up. Punishing the dragon for full-attacking me is nice.

I will probably add another Dark, but yeah, considering how Robilar's Gambit is considered rather good, I figured this would be as well.

One other note: They're always active? That's going to make social situations pretty awkward. Just going through town at a high enough level I'll have tentacles, giant teeth, and a 10ft stinger on me. Are they supposed to be physical growths or like, eldritch energies?

Physical growths, and yes, this is intentional. Look at the image! The exact social impact will vary, though, of course.

Really, you're gaining a TON of stuff with these levels and giving up... ranged attacks and blast shape invocations? This might be way TOO good for a substitution level. Why play base warlock anymore? This is strictly better in every way.

You're giving up touch attacks, which is frankly massive. I feel like Eldritch Glaive works out to be about as good as this.

The rest of the abilities are fine, make sense, and feel right for sub. levels. It's a nice choice between Detect Magic and pumping Will saves and that kind of thing.

Yeah, I figured those would be fine. The only one I wasn't sure of was the Carapace; +Con NA seems kinda weak compared to taking 10 on UMD, which is, ya know, huge. Fiendish Summoning is also rather good, but Imbue Item is great and the only reason Warlocks manage to be Tier 3, so... losing that is a very big deal.

[DragoonWraith]

I intend to, once again, PEACH everyone, but since Hyooz was nice enough to PEACH mine, he's going first. Considering that they're only substitution levels and there aren't very many entries at this point, this probably won't take very long.

Warforged Druid - Hyooz
First, I love the idea of a Warforged Druid. I played a Warforged Totemist once that was very interesting.

Hit Dice - Why the better HD? That... doesn't really seem to follow from the rest of the abilities.

Natural Metal Body - I really like how the Druid loses some of his knowledge of nature and survival for this, shows how the Warforged is not as familiar with the natural world. I really like this.

Clockwork Wild Shape - My only concern is that the ability that takes less time is the much better version of the ability. That seems very strange to me. Also, it's a pretty significant augmentation to Wild Shape without losing anything. On the flavor end, though, this is excellent, I really like it.

Natural Weapon Arsenal - Awesome. But I do feat it will be abused. Giving up Venom Immunity seems... a little silly, considering that Warforged are already immune to poison, but then to retain that feature when it's pointless is even dumber, so that gets a thumbs up.


Conclusion
Ultimately, the Warforged Druid is better than your average Druid. But then I suppose the -2 Wisdom offsets that, huh? Yeah, that seems to work out nicely, this is pretty good. I like it.



Warforged Barbarian - volthawk
An amusing, and possibly terrifying concept, heh!

Construct Toughness - This is effectively Con +4 all the time (well, except it doesn't affect Fort saves or Concentration). That's a pretty good deal. Considering you're... not really losing anything to get this, and Warforged have Con +2 to begin with, I do find this feature rather confusing.

Heavy Armor - Those... are two very good feats for any Warforged. You can't even qualify for Improved Fortification at 1st level, it requires BAB +6. I could see a lot of Warforged dipping this just for those. Still, giving up Fast Movement means giving up Pounce, so I'm not sure... I dunno. Those are very good feats.

Resilient - Uhm. Losing Trap Sense +1 for AC/DR +1? Yeah, that's rather overpowered.

Impenetrable Body - Well, this makes sense and I like this, but... you have so much DR.


Conclusion
It's overpowered. You get much better benefits than the standard Barbarian features you're replacing.

[Hyooz]

Still, just comparing what you get and what you lose from the warlock gets pretty scary. We give up range and touch attacks (which ARE good, but with your BAB, even with the Glaive, not that good) for: d12 HD, full BAB, and access to touch attack shenanigans that make the totemist cry. And I have all the fun damage upping shenanigans full-on melee-ers have. If we decide to get really cheatsy with stuff like Amulets of Wraithstrike and Bloodwind... and hold a sword to also get iterative attacks (yeah, lots of penalties, I know)

A dip in Soul Eater makes this one of the most terrifying things out there.

Oh, also: Do items that would boost eldritch blast damage also work here? What about spells like Greater Mighty Wallop or Magic Fang/Weapon?

[Hyooz]

Huh... I thought I gave it the same HD. Will fix that. Lol.

Clockwork Wild Shape is the way it is because, well, that's how I could make it make the most sense flavor-wise, and really, you're probably going to use the better Wild Shape anyway, so instead of just making them always robot animals, I figured I'd include classic Shape for the purposes of pretending to be a real-type animal. It is strictly better than normal wild shape, but not that much better, in my mind. So I'm ok with it.

I agree that Venom Immunity is a little silly, but I only had so many choices >.> Really, I don't see that much room for abuse, since you were just that animal anyway. This just lets you use what you already have access to in a different way. There might be some way to trick this the hell out I'm not thinking of, but I can't stop everything. As long as it's not overtly broken, I think it's ok.

[DragoonWraith]

Still, just comparing what you get and what you lose from the warlock gets pretty scary.

OK, lesse.

We give up range and touch attacks (which ARE good, but with your BAB, even with the Glaive, not that good)

I think you underestimate Touch attacks. The difference between average Touch ACs and average ACs is greater than the difference between full BAB and 3/4 BAB at any given level. Seriously. The only advantages of a higher BAB are more iteratives (which aren't getting your Eldritch Claws' damage), and able to sacrifice more attack to Power Attack (which is a bad trade for Natural Weapons since none count as two-handers). Power Attack with Eldritch Glaive > Power Attack with Eldritch Claws.

d12 HD

You get four d12s, the rest of your levels are still d6s. If you take all four levels, this averages to +15 HP (+6 at 1st since 1st is maximized, average of +3 on 2nd, 4th, and 12th) versus the normal Warlock. And you're in melee.

full BAB

Yes, it's pretty good. Not as good as Touch Attacks.

access to touch attack shenanigans that make the totemist cry.

Wha huh? How?

And I have all the fun damage upping shenanigans full-on melee-ers have. If we decide to get really cheatsy with stuff like Amulets of Wraithstrike and Bloodwind... and hold a sword to also get iterative attacks (yeah, lots of penalties, I know)

An Amulet of Wraithstrike doesn't exist and while massively under-priced by the custom item guidelines, those are specifically guidelines and Wraithstrike is an excellent example of exactly the kind of spell the guidelines state are not appropriate for the usual guidelines. Bloodwind the same. Plus, a Totemist could use either of those just as easily as you, and make more attacks.

A dip in Soul Eater makes this one of the most terrifying things out there.

Not familiar with that class.

Oh, also: Do items that would boost eldritch blast damage also work here? What about spells like Greater Mighty Wallop or Magic Fang/Weapon?

Magic Fang, yes. Magic Weapon, no. Greater Mighty Wallop, I believe that means manufactured weapons and wouldn't work on natural weapons, though I could be wrong. But since your claws do the same damage no matter your size, advancing them a size category does nothing, so that doesn't really matter, does it? Items that advance Eldritch Blast, I'm tentatively saying yes, since the current wording states that anything that advances Eldritch Blast damage advances Eldritch Claws instead. I'm not familiar with those items; I know they exist, but don't know the details. Where are they?

Huh... I thought I gave it the same HD. Will fix that. Lol.

Yeah, I had to double check myself.

Clockwork Wild Shape is the way it is because, well, that's how I could make it make the most sense flavor-wise, and really, you're probably going to use the better Wild Shape anyway, so instead of just making them always robot animals, I figured I'd include classic Shape for the purposes of pretending to be a real-type animal. It is strictly better than normal wild shape, but not that much better, in my mind. So I'm ok with it.

I'm just leery of giving anything extra to the Druid, I suppose. The Racial bonuses of the Warforged are rather good. Still, I basically agree with you on this.

I agree that Venom Immunity is a little silly, but I only had so many choices >.> Really, I don't see that much room for abuse, since you were just that animal anyway. This just lets you use what you already have access to in a different way. There might be some way to trick this the hell out I'm not thinking of, but I can't stop everything. As long as it's not overtly broken, I think it's ok.

Yeah, I agree with this too.

[DragoonWraith]

Tibbit Beguiler - Stompy
As soon as I saw this, I wanted to make a Beguiler Beguiler, heh. This is really awesome.

Fluff looks good, if a little silly. A little silly seems appropriate.

Emotion Magic - what about highest level spells and bonus spells? Beguilers get both of those from Int, and unless you specify that they also change, you're introducing MAD here that you probably don't want.

Anyway, I like this change, assuming you meant to change all of it.

Look at the kitty! - OK, this is pretty good. Not sure about losing both Cloaked Casting and Surprise Casting to this, though.

Meow Meow Meow Meow - Can you provide material components in cat form? Seems plausible, but you seem to conspicuously leave it out...

Undeniable - Excellent, was hoping to see this. However, the "sources" at the very end of the description ("provided by these sources") is really ambiguous. I would just say that "such creatures get a bonus of 10 minus your CHA modifier (minimum 0) to any saves against your Mind-Affecting spells."

[Stompy]

Tibbit Beguiler - Stompy
As soon as I saw this, I wanted to make a Beguiler Beguiler, heh. This is really awesome.

Why thank you! I shall have to return the PEACH favor. (I'm not stopping anyone from making Beguiler Beguiler. )

Fluff looks good, if a little silly. A little silly seems appropriate.

It can't be helped.

Emotion Magic - what about highest level spells and bonus spells? Beguilers get both of those from Int, and unless you specify that they also change, you're introducing MAD here that you probably don't want.

Anyway, I like this change, assuming you meant to change all of it.

Yup. Didn't want it to be MAD between INT and CHA at all.

Look at the kitty! - OK, this is pretty good. Not sure about losing both Cloaked Casting and Surprise Casting to this, though.

They are honestly both synergistic abilities, and I felt like both had to go. In the first draft I had another ability to replace Suprise Casting, CHA to will instead of WIS and CHA to unarmored AC. The first is a feat and the second is too much in the realm of monk to my liking though.

Meow Meow Meow Meow - Can you provide material components in cat form? Seems plausible, but you seem to conspicuously leave it out...

I know. I am still trying to figure out the best way to go about that. (I would like to leave them out entirely, but DnD rules and capture sequences bar me from doing that.)

Undeniable - Excellent, was hoping to see this. However, the "sources" at the very end of the description ("provided by these sources") is really ambiguous. I would just say that "such creatures get a bonus of 10 minus your CHA modifier (minimum 0) to any saves against your Mind-Affecting spells."

Sorry, that might be the MTG talking. I am going to fix that wording, but I can't absolutely say mind-affecting because I believe the are enchantment spells that aren't mind-affecting? (Final rebuke?) I may be wrong on that though.

EDIT: Here's the PEACH. I am relatively new to it (and warlock) though.

There is a little known cult of warlocks that refers to themselves only as "the Cabal"...

I saw this, and thought, "Oh no, DW went crazy homebrew again." Not that it's a bad thing.

Anyway, love the flavor. I do have one question/comment regarding it:

The alignment for warlock is, any chaotic or evil. Should that change to CE? Within one step of CE? Honestly, I could see LE devils trying to harness the power to use against demons, or a CG pariah who's cursed into the class, though I'm not sure if this is your intention or not.

Hit Die: d12.

At the very least, the meleeing warlock can take a punch now :)

Table 1: Cabal Warlock Substitution Levels
{table="head"]Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | Invocations Known
4th | +4 | +4 | +0 | +0 | Fiendish Carapace | 3[/table]

The saves should be +4/+1/+1 /nitpick

Base Attack Bonus and Saving Throws - A Warlock who takes the 1st level Cabal Warlock substitution level treats all levels in Warlock as having a full Base Attack Bonus progression (as Fighter), and also has a good Fortitude saving throw but a poor Will saving throw. Note that any Warlock who does not take the 1st level of Cabal Warlock substitution levels will have a different base attack bonus and different saves from those listed on the table above.

I'm a big fan of ACFs that do a radical change, as opposed to ones that are like "swap this feat for this one." The Raptoran Fighter has this problem in my mind.

Eldritch Claws (Ex)

Can't comment on the warlock essences on them, but honestly, I compared a lvl 8 this and a lvl 8 (girallion arms based) totemist, with the warlock (claws only) doing an average 6 damage more per full-attack. However, the totemist had pounce. The totemist also had ~ 4 more AC, while the warlock had invocations. Everything else was about the same, HP, relative saves, relative skills, etc.

I cannot definitively say that the class is broken; and if I do, It'll probably be either wraithstrike's fault, or the darkness/see in darkness combo's fault. (I also don't know how bad a glaivelock gets.)

My other comment, relating to Hyooz, is that does the eldritch blast damage stack onto the claws from items? PrCs? (Hellfire PAUNCH?!) I know Hyooz had already asked, but it is an important point. In the regards of items giving eldritch blast damage, there is a vest (?) that can either add 1d6 or 2d6 to eldritch blasts, as well as a rod that can spend charges to do more eldritch blast damage in Complete Arcane.

The other ACFs

As to the rest of the abilities, I like them. The CON to natural armor I thought was excellent in keeping with this ACF going into melee. I am not sure power-wise how much of an impact a "permanent" summon has.

Hyooz's comments

Hmm. Soul eater says that a (natural?) attack that hits someone gives a negative level. Dipping Soul Eater is not a class fault, but is Soul Eater's fault. (The same can be said for wraithstrike; it makes classes broken because it IS broken.)

I believe there IS a wraithstrike amulet, called the Heartstrike Amulet (may have the name wrong) in MiC. It gives wraithstrike 3/day, and is horribly underpriced/overpowered.

[Glimbur]

I was going to worry about an Elan Cabal warlock with Rapidstrike, but that's a significant investment of race choice, and a feat, to get one more attack. Probably not a big deal, but worth thinking about.

[DragoonWraith]

Why thank you! I shall have to return the PEACH favor. (I'm not stopping anyone from making Beguiler Beguiler. )

Hehe, I was going to, but then realized I didn't really know much about Beguilers, or, well, Beguilers, so heh.

It can't be helped.

Haha.

Yup. Didn't want it to be MAD between INT and CHA at all.

Then yeah, you also need to change the highest level spell he can cast to Cha and his Bonus Spells to Cha.

They are honestly both synergistic abilities, and I felt like both had to go. In the first draft I had another ability to replace Suprise Casting, CHA to will instead of WIS and CHA to unarmored AC. The first is a feat and the second is too much in the realm of monk to my liking though.

Yeah, that seems reasonable.

I know. I am still trying to figure out the best way to go about that. (I would like to leave them out entirely, but DnD rules and capture sequences bar me from doing that.)

Personally, I feel that spell components have always been a joke (a bad one at that), and one shouldn't worry too much about the non-costly ones. How about if they had a spell component pouch in mannish form, it melds into them when they become a kitty and they can use non-costly components automatically?

Sorry, that might be the MTG talking. I am going to fix that wording, but I can't absolutely say mind-affecting because I believe the are enchantment spells that aren't mind-affecting? (Final rebuke?) I may be wrong on that though.

I'm rather sure there isn't. The definition of the Enchantment school specifically says that they all are. Of course, Mind Blank doesn't block "Enchantments", just all mind-affecting effects.

EDIT: Here's the PEACH. I am relatively new to it (and warlock) though.

Don't worry about it! I really appreciate it.

I saw this, and thought, "Oh no, DW went crazy homebrew again." Not that it's a bad thing.

Heh. Honestly, I think the Cabal itself is the weakest part of this.

Anyway, love the flavor. I do have one question/comment regarding it:

The alignment for warlock is, any chaotic or evil. Should that change to CE? Within one step of CE? Honestly, I could see LE devils trying to harness the power to use against demons, or a CG pariah who's cursed into the class, though I'm not sure if this is your intention or not.

I believe I addressed this in the "Becoming a..." section - the Cabal doesn't honestly care what you do with the power. Therefore, they don't care what your alignment is.

At the very least, the meleeing warlock can take a punch now :)

Heh, it's only +15 HP by level 12. Nice, but not amazing.

The saves should be +4/+1/+1 /nitpick

D'oh, right.

I'm a big fan of ACFs that do a radical change, as opposed to ones that are like "swap this feat for this one." The Raptoran Fighter has this problem in my mind.

Yeah, it seemed right to me.

Can't comment on the warlock essences on them, but honestly, I compared a lvl 8 this and a lvl 8 (girallion arms based) totemist, with the warlock (claws only) doing an average 6 damage more per full-attack. However, the totemist had pounce. The totemist also had ~ 4 more AC, while the warlock had invocations. Everything else was about the same, HP, relative saves, relative skills, etc.

The Totemist has good Ref saves and 4 + Int skills, though they probably don't matter much. Just having UMD on the skill list is a point in the Warlock's favor. Pounce is a very big deal, but the Warlock could have been a Barbarian 1/Warlock 7 and had Pounce, without any loss of damage, so... Thanks for running the numbers.

I think I'll make him start with just one Claw, and add a... Lesser? Growth to pair it with another. How does this sound?

EDIT: Moved the second Claw attack to Greater, reduced the damage of the Tentacles and the Wings to half Eldritch Claw damage. This means at the cost of 5/7 Invocations, the Cabalist has a +8/+8/+3/+3/+3/+3/+3 attack sequence at 11th, dealing 6d6+Str/6d6+Str/3d6+½Str/3d6+½Str/3d6+½Str/3d6+½Str/3d6+½Str damage. If all of those hit, it averages to 140 damage, assuming maximized Str, in a variety of types. It's a very heavy investment, but it's also a ton of damage. I'm not sure about this.

Couldn't actually do that, not enough Greater Invocations at that level. It would be 15th before they could do all of that, and that means giving up a Dark invocation...

I cannot definitively say that the class is broken; and if I do, It'll probably be either wraithstrike's fault, or the darkness/see in darkness combo's fault. (I also don't know how bad a glaivelock gets.)

Well, the Glaivelock at 8 would deal the same 2x4d6 damage, but not add his Str modifier and he'd have a -5 attack penalty on the second. On the other hand, they'd be touch attacks. Power Attack would also let you ditch attack for damage at a 1:2 ratio, which could pretty quickly overcome the Cabalist's Str bonus, I'd think (assuming max Str at start, a +2 Str race, adding Str at 4 and 8, and a +2 Str item, you have 26, or +8, which means a -4 for Power Attack.

My other comment, relating to Hyooz, is that does the eldritch blast damage stack onto the claws from items? PrCs? (Hellfire PAUNCH?!) I know Hyooz had already asked, but it is an important point. In the regards of items giving eldritch blast damage, there is a vest (?) that can either add 1d6 or 2d6 to eldritch blasts, as well as a rod that can spend charges to do more eldritch blast damage in Complete Arcane.

Ah, Hellfire Blast I hadn't considered. Uhm. I may do Cabal substitution levels for the Hellfire Warlock, then, because that would get ridiculous. The Rod seems less than a worry because if you're holding that, you're not using a Claw. The vest... I feel like if it's balanced for a Warlock, it shouldn't be imbalanced for the Cabalist...

As to the rest of the abilities, I like them. The CON to natural armor I thought was excellent in keeping with this ACF going into melee. I am not sure power-wise how much of an impact a "permanent" summon has.

By level 12, the duration isn't really the big issue, it's the ability to swap them at-will. But Imbue Item really is that good, I think.

Hmm. Soul eater says that a (natural?) attack that hits someone gives a negative level. Dipping Soul Eater is not a class fault, but is Soul Eater's fault. (The same can be said for wraithstrike; it makes classes broken because it IS broken.)

Uh, yeah. That's disgusting - and would be worse on the Totemist.

I believe there IS a wraithstrike amulet, called the Heartstrike Amulet (may have the name wrong) in MiC. It gives wraithstrike 3/day, and is horribly underpriced/overpowered.

Aha. Normally I'd be all for it - melee needs all the help they can get - but it's a bit (lot) much in this case, or in the case of other competent melee classes (Totemist, martial adepts, etc).

I was going to worry about an Elan Cabal warlock with Rapidstrike, but that's a significant investment of race choice, and a feat, to get one more attack. Probably not a big deal, but worth thinking about.

Doesn't Rapidstrike require a fairly high BAB, too? I thought that was something that doesn't really come into play until high levels...

[Glimbur]

Doesn't Rapidstrike require a fairly high BAB, too? I thought that was something that doesn't really come into play until high levels...

Yeah, you need +10 BAB and an unusual type. Elan is the easy way to qualify for it as a PC, but that won't come up until mid/high levels due to BAB concerns and at that point... feats are expensive, that should be ok.

[Hyooz]

Only Raptoran Druid remaining!

[Glimbur]

Also, I have never made a vestige before and I have no idea if Theodoroosevelt is a) worth binding or b) of appropriate level.

[DragoonWraith]

Since you've asked Glimbur, I'll bump you ahead of Khabuem; sorry Khabuem! I'll get to you soon!

Human Paragons - Glimbur
This is an awesome idea for a theme. I really like this.

Martial
You should format a little more - bold Hit Die, Requirements, Skills, etc. to make them stand out more.

d10 makes sense, rest is the same and makes sense... oh wait, why don't they get full BAB? They should get full BAB.

Tricky Fighting - uh... what if it's a weapon that cannot be used with combat maneuvers? I guess Disarm and Sunder are always options, but they're pretty poor options... and I can't really think of any weapons that work with Grapple (usable in a Grapple, yes, help you Grapple someone, not so much). Mostly, though, this is just not a very good feature. Not nearly equitable to a spellcasting level for a mage.

Versatile Fighting - This is awesome. A floating feat is always nice, I appreciate this.

Ultimately, I wanted this to advance Martial Maneuvers, and I'm disappointed that it doesn't...


Sneaky
Extra skills are nice, though it's less than a Rogue... probably not a big deal. You might consider allowing them to choose 12 class skills?

Otherwise, chassis looks fine.

Favorite Skill - Yeah... this isn't even close to as good as a spellcasting level. Why not let them always take-10 on that skill? That would be much more useful.

Sneak Attack - Seems appropriate.


Psionic
Chassis as the normal Human Paragon, looks fine.

Bonus Power - Why not just let them have the Bonus Feat? They could take Expanded Knowledge if they wanted to...

Manifesting - as expected, looks good.


Binder
"Pact Magic Human Paragon", perhaps? Anyway, chassis is fine.

Binding - uh... neither the requirements nor this specify that you actually need a level in Binder to gain this bonus. Someone who took Whatever-that-isn't-Binder X/Paragon 3 would count as a 2nd level Binder. Which is a little strange, honestly.

Theodoroosevelt - Kind of ridiculous, though then again so was Teddy. I'm thoroughly amused by this, really. Anyway, the Special Requirement thing is weird; I'd suggest just not listing it as a Special Requirement, and put it in the Manifestation section instead, perhaps. Maybe give him an actual Special Requirement.

Die Hard - perfect!

Human Resourcefulness - Hmm... like Naberius's skills, but with a sizable bonus to them. Still, 3rd level Vestige versus 1st level. I'll say it's fine.

Arms of Fire - Not sure the old-fashioned spelling of gun is appropriate; how would Teddy have spelled it?

Bear Wrestler - Cancels out size advantages, nice. Very nice, actually, this is something that basically every grappler ever would need to get. I dunno, it's something that should have been in the game somehow, but making this the way you get it is very odd.

Inspirational Oratory - Sounds very good. I like it.

Overall, I love this Vestige. I think the level's just fine, too. One point, though: As a 3rd level Vestige, those with Improved Bind Vestige can bind him. The Special Requirement says you only need 2 levels in Human Paragon, meaning you could be the default one or whatever. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you need to decide which features they get for both Bind Vestige and Practiced Binder.

Oh, and I dunno if access to Theodoroosevelt is really appropriate as a replacement for a Bonus Feat. For a Grappler, certainly, but for anyone else I dunno.

[Glimbur]

Bonus Power for the psionic paragon is subtly better than expanded knowledge because it doesn't have the limits of expanded knowledge: you don't have to be able to use the power now to add it to your powers known (which is probably dangerous) and it doesn't have to be one level lower than the maximum level power you can manifest. I suppose this could lead to silliness like a Psi-War learning a 7th level psion power, or otherwise getting one higher level power than expected, but I'm rather ok with that idea.

I'd like to give the Sneaky Human Paragon more skill points at first level and more class skills, but they only have one thing to take away at that level and I don't want to remove it. Unfortunate.

Martial Human Paragon now has full BAB and is a little better at ToB. It's still not great because you don't get new maneuvers or stances from it though.

I decided Theodoroosevelt wasn't worth a feat, and so threw him in for free. He should also be impossible to get without binding levels, so I don't have to name the features that people who bind via feats get. I changed the wording on the binding advancement so you have to actually have binding in the first place.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

I need to stop giving people ideas.

[Glimbur]

I need to stop giving people ideas.

Thanks for the idea! I made it awesome.

[DragoonWraith]

Bonus Power for the psionic paragon is subtly better than expanded knowledge because it doesn't have the limits of expanded knowledge: you don't have to be able to use the power now to add it to your powers known (which is probably dangerous) and it doesn't have to be one level lower than the maximum level power you can manifest. I suppose this could lead to silliness like a Psi-War learning a 7th level psion power, or otherwise getting one higher level power than expected, but I'm rather ok with that idea.

OK, interesting. Much better for a PsyWar than a Psion, but I'm OK with that. Yeah, sounds fine.

I'd like to give the Sneaky Human Paragon more skill points at first level and more class skills, but they only have one thing to take away at that level and I don't want to remove it. Unfortunate.

Eh... you could probably afford to give these classes prerequisites, and requires like 1d6 Sneak Attack. That would be enough to justify 8+Int skills, IMO...

Martial Human Paragon now has full BAB and is a little better at ToB. It's still not great because you don't get new maneuvers or stances from it though.

I don't see why you can't give like, one maneuver at 2nd. Still, yeah, it is better now.

It's kind of annoying that these are substitution levels instead of class variants. With a variant, you can give things up later for things early or whatever, but with substitution levels they can just take the levels they want and ignore the ones they don't...

I decided Theodoroosevelt wasn't worth a feat, and so threw him in for free. He should also be impossible to get without binding levels, so I don't have to name the features that people who bind via feats get. I changed the wording on the binding advancement so you have to actually have binding in the first place.

This looks good now, and I agree with the decision regarding Theodoroosevelt.

[DaTedinator]

Sorry to be so absent, everyone! I've been pretty busy, and tomorrow I'm gonna go on a two-week vacation. But! Everyone's entries look great, and things seem to be going swimmingly!

DaTedinator, I suggest you put links to your contest and the chat thread in your sig, just like ErrantX. It would be convenient.

Good thinking! I'll do that.

[DragoonWraith]

Well, I'm updating the class a bit, to clarify on the points of items with Eldritch Blast and Hellfire Blast. I've also clarified a lot of the rules around the Eldritch Claw, and I'm changing the names of the Fiendish Growths to take after various Demons. I'm currently avoiding the use of Devils since they have DR/silver while Demons have the DR/cold iron that the Warlock gets.

[DragoonWraith]

Feral Substitution Levels - Khabuem
Cool, like the concept.

Feral Bard
You know there's already a Savage Bard, right? It's a class variant, though, not a set of substitution levels, so that's probably fine.

HD - Makes sense, since Feral has d10's instead of the usual d8's for Monstrous Humanoids.

Requirements - Oooh, you need the Feral template. That's really cool. OK.

Skills - Spot and Survival are fitting.

Inspire Rage - Hmm, interesting. Very interesting. I like it.

Inspire Pack Tactics - Awesome.

Song of the Free Spirit - Heh, a lot better than Song of Freedom, but then I think that's a good thing. Cool.

Conclusion
Love it!


Feral Cleric
Cool. I like the flavor text.

Skills - No Survival? Seems odd.

Turn Humanoids - Much more powerful than Turn Undead, but again, that doesn't seem really all that bothersome.

Share Vitality - Is this 10 minutes per day? 10 minutes at a time (spend another Swift action to continue)? Needs clarification. As is, it seems like they get to do this once, ever...

Dangerous Metamagic - Powerful but limited, and you fix the Strongheart Vest/Naberius issue, which is good.

Conclusion
Excellent all around, though Share Vitality needs some clarification.


Feral Ranger
Neat-o.

Wrestling Style - Hrm. I feel like they should get a Monk's Unarmed Damage Progression somehow. Anyway, it's a decent feat and waiving the pre-req is nice.

Improved Wrestling Style - That's extremely useful, nice. You should specify that they can grapple things up to 4 size categories larger than themselves, then.

Wrestling Style Mastery - Awesome. Again, you need to waive the limitation on how many size-categories larger than you an opponent can be.


Conclusion
I think you did a really good job with this one, making grappling actually reasonable for once.

[DragoonWraith]

Druid Substitution Levels - Hyooz
Already got the Warforged, so continuing on...

I should point out that I've never played a Druid, never statted a Druid, and am almost entirely unfamiliar with the specifics of their abilities or spell list.

Dragonborn Druid
Fluff sounds good.

Breath Weapon - Animal Companion makes sense, but I don't see why you'd lose Wild Empathy or Nature Sense. I mean, it's not like those features are particularly important, but the Animal Companion, I'm pretty sure, is better than the breath weapon. Otherwise, looks very solid.

Scales - Looks good.

Draconic Companion - Hmm, interesting. I'm not familiar enough with Dragon Cohort or the Animal Companion to really judge this though. Does the Dragon count as a "higher level" companion for the sake of determining the Animal Companion features? Also, this sort of seems to contradict the first substitution level.

It would be a bit strange if they didn't take the first substitution level but did take the 5th one, gaining the Animal Companion and Dragon Companion. *shrug* Not really a big deal, though.

Conclusion
Fitting, I like the breath weapon a lot, and the flavor all fits with the possible exception of the "no Animal Companion, but Dragon Companion yes" thing.



Changeling Druid
Hehehe, this oughta be interesting.

Skills - I like it.

Urban Casting - Whoa, you're giving up a lot here for a generally-inferior casting stat. Uhm. I don't think that's necessary, at all.

Humanoid Shape - Kind of weird that you get Elemental shapes at the end there... and the delay on Large shapes seems like a minor nerf, but that's perfectly OK.

Social Dexterity - A Thousand Faces is kind of redundant for a Changeling, but also the most appropriate... Heh, I dunno. I think you're right about this.


Conclusion
Urban Casting hurts quite a bit. Mostly because you lose the Animal Companion. I'd actually do a swap for Cha-based casting, and additional features that cost Animal Companion and Nature Sense (+2 to Gather Information and Knowledge (Local) makes sense for Nature Sense; not sure what to give instead of Animal Companion)...

[zagan]

Hello, all just want to say that I'm working on something for the contest, shifter substitution level to be exact. I hope to be able to post it soon. I will try to PEACH your work soon.

[zagan]

Ok, first PEACH.

Warforged Barbarian

When Warforged discover true emotion, considering their warrior mind, it's not really surprising some use it to fight better. These warriors are some of the toughest of the Warforged, with armour that is near impenetrable, and still offensive capabilities through their rage.

Short but nice, I like it.

HD and skill

Standard

Class Features
All the following are class features of the Warforged Barbarian substitution levels.

Construct Toughness: Since Warforged are constructs, they are extremely tough, especially when combined with the fortitude of barbarians

Warforged Barbarians gain a bonus to hit points equal to double their class level.

This doesn't replace anything ?

Heavy Armour: Warforged that become Barbarians are the toughest of the lot, and have improved armour.

This substitution feature replaces the standard Barbarian's Fast Movement class feature. Instead, they gain Admantine Body and Improved Fortification as bonus feats.

Ah, I presume that the bonus hp are to counteract the improve fortification side effect.

Resilient: Warforged Barbarians are extremely hard to kill, as their armoured plating stops most blows.

This substitution feature replaces the standard Barbarian's Trap Sense class feature. The Warforged Barbarian gets Improved Damage Reduction as a bonus feat, and gains it again every time the Warforged Barbarian would usually gain an increase in their bonus from Trap Sense. Additionally, they gain an armour bonus to AC equal to the bonus they would have had from Trap Sense.

Nice.

Impenetrable Body: An experienced Warforged Barbarian's armour plating are exceptional, and very hard to pierce with weaponry.

This substitution feature augments the standard Barbarian's Damage Reduction class feature. They gain the Improved Damage Reduction feat every time they would normally gain Damage Reduction. Additionally, all the Warforged Barbarain's Damage Reduction from warforged feats changes to DR x/-.

Improve damage reduction again ? That give them a total of DR 13 at 19. Yeah okay it's not that much by that level.

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1

|

+1

|

+2

|

+0

|

+0

|Construct Toughness, Heavy Armour, Rage 1/day, Illiteracy

3

|

+3

|

+3

|

+1

|

+1

|Resilient

7

|

+7

|

+5

|

+2

|

+2

|Impenetrable Body
[/table]

Simple but effective change to make a warforged even tougher. I like it.

[zagan]

Second PEACH, I'm on a roll.

Tibbit Beguiler
-image-

Very cute image, but couldn't you find something that would hint at the magic ?

Enchantment works best when the recipients unwillingly let it enter their emotions. Tibbits beguilers have developed their own style, with more personality and enchantment than stealth and know-how. They tend to love attention, and charm those they desire, with magic, cute purring, or both. Tibbit Beguilers come in all shapes, colors, and alignments, as feline curiosity is universal.

Tibbit beguilers, or Enchant-a-cats as mused by some, first started when Sir Tigger became curious. "I wonder if I can get anyone I want to like me?" Sir Tigger was also very vain, and tried to be adorable to every noble he met in cat form, with no success. After being yelled at, and even kicked, took to beguilement, and with practice, learned how to use the innate adorableness of a cat, with beguilement, and was the first reputed to cast while as a cat.

After that, love and adoration came way too easily. Sir Tigger would go disguise himself with illusion spells, use enchantment to charm nobility, use his guile to become pampered, only to run out in the middle of the night, and brag to the other tibbits he knew. It all came so easily that Sir Tigger was then fabled to try to beguile the king of the kingdom. No one can agree on the story after that, with many saying that his curiosity killed him.

Many others, inspired by the tale, took up beguilement, with much better success than Sir Tigger. The beguiler tradition was then to pass between tibbits in the night, with formal instruction out of the sight of everyone.

Very nice fluff.

HD, skill

Standard.

Class Features

All the following are class features of the Tibbit Beguiler substitution levels.

Emotion Magic (Ex): Your force of personality lets you truly understand the emotions of people. It makes your enchantment accepted much more readily, and your illusion much more believable. You use your charisma stat to determine your save DCs, bonus spells per day, and highest level spell you can cast, instead of your intelligence stat.

This substitution feature replaces the INT-based spellcasting the Beguiler normally has.

Okay, more synergy with social skill so less mad but less skill point so it balance out.

Look at the cute kitty! (Su): D'aw...... A quick charm developed by other tibbits, this technique magnifies the sympathy of those that would dare strike you, making them suddenly hesistant to do so. As an immediate action, choose a subject within 30' of you, and spend a spell slot. That subject must make a will save (DC = 10 + spell level expended + CHA modifier), or they take a penalty to all attacks made against you that round equal to the spell level spent plus 1. You may use this ability after someone has declared attacks (or spells cast) on you. This ability is a mind-affecting ability.

At 8th level, this ability is usable at 60'.

At 14th level, this ability is usable at 90'.

In addition, any subject that fails to make the save and has targeted you with a spell immediately stops the spell, and wastes the spell (and action used to cast it). You must expend a 7th level spell or higher to gain this ability.

At 20th level, this ability is usable at 120',

In addition, anyone that is affected by this ability and causes you to die will feel their sympathy overtake them. They start involuntarily crying over your death, fall to the floor, and question why they killed you in the first place, doing nothing else in the process. That person cannot take any actions and is treated as prone and helpless for 10 minutes. You must expend a 9th level spell or higher to gain this ability.

Emphazise mine. "to use this ability" sound better.

This substitution feature replaces the standard Beguiler's Cloaked Casting class feature, at all levels. It also replaces the standard Beguiler's Surprise Casting class feature at level 2 and 6.

Lose some powerfull ability but worth it I think.

Meow Meow Meow Meow (Ex): You master Sir Tigger's signature style, and find that casting in cat form is no different than being a short human. You can cast beguiler spells in cat form, but must still provide verbal, somatic, and material components for your spells. You can substitute paw movement and feline sounds for the verbal and somatic components, and can use material components that are on your person. (This has caused the need for cat collars that store spell components.) This class feature does not give you the ability to speak in cat form nor does it give you opposable thumbs.

This substitution feature replaces the Beguiler's Silent Spell bonus feat at level 5.

Okay, nice and fitting.

Undeniable (Ex): Being the paragon of all things charming, you reach out and affect those who would normally not think about compassion. You can affect any subject with a INT score of 1 or higher with your mind-affecting spells and abilities (like the "Look at the cute kitty!" class feature if you have it), regardless if they are normally immune to it. (This class ability even supercedes the Mind Blank spell.) Such creatures get a bonus of 10 minus your CHA modifier (This bonus can never be negative, but it can be 0.) to any saves against your mind-affecting spells and abilities.

This substitution feature replaces the Beguiler's Still Spell bonus feat at level 10.

Bypassing immunity to mind affecting effect is powerfull but the limit are enough to balance it I think. It could be nice (abusable ?) to not take the first substitution level and have a cha of 10 as to not give a bonus.

Table: Tibbit Beguiler Substitution Levels
{table="head"]Level|BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spellcasting
1st|+0|+0|+0|+2|Emotion Magic|Same as Beguiler
2nd|+1|+0|+0|+3|Look at the cute kitty!|Same as Beguiler
5th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Meow Meow Meow Meow|Same as Beguiler
10th|+5|+3|+3|+7|Undeniable|Same as Beguiler[/table]

All in all a very nice job for a rarelly use race.

[zagan]

And I present you my shifter substitution level.
Big thanks to Sliver for proofreading it.

[DragoonWraith]

Whoo!

Shifter Substitution Levels - zagan
First, I approve wholeheartedly of this choice.

Shifter Totemist
Incredibly fitting, of course. Should have been their Favored Class to begin with.

Skills - I'm surprised those weren't Totemist class skills to begin with. Good.

Cobalt Shifting - excellent. Seriously, I really like this.

Soul Shifting - You have a typo on Swiftwing, you called it "Swifwing", and you need to pluralize "trait" in "If you have multiple trait" - should be "If you have multiple traits". Other than that, this looks good - simple, fitting, etc.

Incarnum Shifting - This is awesome, but comes at a steep cost. Hmm... I dunno. Both are very valuable, but I feel like I'm giving up more than I'm gaining. Not sure.

Lycanthrope Avatar
For one thing, I don't like how it's so similar in name to Totem Avatar; I dunno, a different name on the end there might be appropriate Hardly a big deal. Anyway...

Basic Effect - looks good.

Arms - A 9th level Totemist who doesn't already have Multiattack is doing something wrong. Say, at least, that if you have it you gain Improved Multiattack; far fewer Totemists will bother with that. Alternatively, consider allowing secondary Natural Weapons to take the full Str bonus to damage a la the Bloodclaw Master feature.

Otherwise, this is good, because Multiattack is a great feat. Just too likely to be wasted on a Totemist.

Brow - Iron Will? At 9th level? Anyone who ever shapes this is a moron. That's a terrible feat, and this is a mid-level Chakra. This needs to be better.

Feet - this is excellent, very useful and fitting feature.

Hand - awesome! Seems odd for Gorebrutes and Longteeth, but not much can be done about that.

Heart - Perfect! I really, really like this one, well done!

Shoulder - Appropriate, both in theme and in level. This is good.

Totem - Ehh... OK, because Shifters have their own Natural Weapons and don't necessarily need the Totem. But honestly it'd be pretty rare that I'd want to bind a Totem that didn't give me another attack. Considering you can only get up to +3 on your chosen Ability's modifier, this doesn't seem very good...


Conclusion
I'm asking my DM if I can make my Shifter Totemist one of these! I think the Lycanthrope Avatar needs some tweaks, but otherwise this is great.



Shifter Binder
Sort of unusual, but then... hehe, my Shifter is also a Binder, so! This is awesome if only for that reason.

HD - Fitting, but the wording on the comment seems a little weird. Consider perhaps the wording I used on my Warlock substitution levels?

Skills - Binders get only 2+Int skill points per level. It's really dumb, but they do. I'm not sure the Shifter is justified in increasing this.

Pact Augmentation - Wording here on how you choose Augmentations when you bind Vestiges is a little weird - I'd recommend just copying the text from Tome of Magic, it's a small enough quote that it shouldn't be a problem.

Bonus Feat - This implies that the Shifter Binder gets the Binder Bonus Feat and a bonus Shifter feat as well. I assume that wasn't intended? I'd recommend that you just state that Shifter feats are added to the list of choices.

Vestige Shifting - Very interesting. There are some wording issues here - "vestige ability that can only be use once every 5 round" should be "vestige ability that can only be used once every 5 rounds", and "For example if you have 2 round" should be "For example, if you have 2 rounds". Other than that, this is a very interesting feature - I like it.

Granes, the First Cursed - If you have Photoshop, I have a .PSD file that could allow you to create a "Vestige card" for Granes, if you'd like. Anyway, there's an issue with using the Special Requirement field for restricting Granes away from normal Binders, and that's the Ignore Special Requirements feat. I suggested to Glimbur that he instead add that requirement to a note in his Manifestation. Anyway, DC looks fine for the level, so that's fine. Legend looks good, Manifestation is very cool, but you should have "envelope you before disappearing, as if fusing with you" - should be a comma, not a period there.

Alternate Form - Looks good. The only commentary I have here is that I'm not quite clear on how the ability scores thing works - so like, if an animal has 16 Str, 8 Dex, and 13 Con, you gain +3 Str, -1 Dex, and +1 Con? An example here might be helpful.

Animal Will - You really like that Iron Will feat, huh? Binders have pretty good Will saves, I'm not really sure this is even all that helpful, but let's see what else you get...

Damage Reduction - Nice, very nice.

Animal Command - Awesome! This is great, I really like this.


Conclusion
I don't know enough about the animals you can choose for Granes to really judge him. Depends on that, really. Anyway, other than that, a clarification on the Bonus Feats is necessary, but this is otherwise very cool. I'll also be asking my DM if my Shifter can take this, heh.



Shifter Swordsage
Seems... oddly, this works. I mean, Tiger Claw, and the Dreamsight Shifters gain bonus Wisdom... I never would have thought it, but this works quite nicely.

Maneuvers and Stances - both refer to "Tiger claw" - it should be "Tiger Claw", it's a proper noun.

Discipline Focus (Shifting) - Very cool.

Beasthide - Ooh, I like this - but "from you chosen discipline" should be "from your chosen discipline".

Cliffwalk - "Climb becomes", but otherwise looks... OK. I'm not sure who useful this becomes, and in some cases it will be very weird (Diamond Mind maneuvers come to mind immediately). Eh. It's a neat idea, but Climb is a strange skill for it.

Dreamsight - Interesting. Very interesting, I like this.

Gorebrute - Nice! Maybe you should give Weapon Focus (Horn)? Can you even take Weapon Focus in Natural Weapons?

Longstride - Cool!

Longtooth and Razorclaw - Again, Weapon Focus (Bite/Claw) seems appropriate.

Swiftwing - typo'd as "Swifwing" again. Anyway, I really like this, awesome!

Truedive - Same issues as Cliffwalk. Same grammatical error, too.

Wildhunt - Nifty! But you should have a comma after discipline, not a period.

Extra Shifting - What doubles at 15th level? You gain +2 rounds and +2/day? If so, just say you gain another round of Shifting and another use per day, I think. Anyway, looks good.

Shifting Recovery - "to use their maneuvers more often". Anyway, one maneuver for giving up Shifting? That seems kinda weak. Why not as many maneuvers as you have rounds of shifting remaining?

Dire Tiger Claw - Using the discipline's name in the maneuver seems a bit odd, especially for such a low level maneuver. Anyway, +1 or +2 (on average) to damage is pretty weak for a stance - Punishing Stance gives +1d6 (average +3.5) as a 1st level stance. This is weaker than it should be.

Lycanthrope Fury - Awesome, this I really like. I like the imagery of how it builds.


Conclusion
Shifting Recovery and Dire Tiger Claw are a little on the weak end, but other than that, this looks really good. I don't have a Shifter Swordsage, but this is awesome.

[zagan]

Whoo!

Thanks for the peach.

Shifter Substitution Levels - zagan

First, I approve wholeheartedly of this choice.

I was inspired by the winner prc from the last prc contest that combine binder and totemist and that use a shifter for the example character maybe you heard about it ?

More seriously I was also inspired by Sinfire titan who comment at some point that a shifter totemist substitution level would be awesome and since then the idea stayed in the back of my mind.


Shifter Totemist

Spoiler

Show

Incredibly fitting, of course. Should have been their Favored Class to begin with.

Skills - I'm surprised those weren't Totemist class skills to begin with. Good.

Yeah me too and seeing that shifter get a bonus there it was logical.

Cobalt Shifting - excellent. Seriously, I really like this.

Copied nearly word for word from the moonspeaker Prc, it's need if you don't want to spend all your feat on shifter feat.

Soul Shifting - You have a typo on Swiftwing, you called it "Swifwing", and you need to pluralize "trait" in "If you have multiple trait" - should be "If you have multiple traits". Other than that, this looks good - simple, fitting, etc.

I'll correct the typo.

Incarnum Shifting - This is awesome, but comes at a steep cost. Hmm... I dunno. Both are very valuable, but I feel like I'm giving up more than I'm gaining. Not sure.

Yeah but you still gained the ability later, and the fact that you have a hard time chosing mean that it's probably balanced.

Lycanthrope Avatar
For one thing, I don't like how it's so similar in name to Totem Avatar; I dunno, a different name on the end there might be appropriate Hardly a big deal. Anyway...

The name is chosen to remind of the totem avatar.

Basic Effect - looks good.

Ok.

Arms - A 9th level Totemist who doesn't already have Multiattack is doing something wrong. Say, at least, that if you have it you gain Improved Multiattack; far fewer Totemists will bother with that. Alternatively, consider allowing secondary Natural Weapons to take the full Str bonus to damage a la the Bloodclaw Master feature.

Otherwise, this is good, because Multiattack is a great feat. Just too likely to be wasted on a Totemist.

Yeah your probably right, I'll add that it become improve if you already have it.

Brow - Iron Will? At 9th level? Anyone who ever shapes this is a moron. That's a terrible feat, and this is a mid-level Chakra. This needs to be better.

The lycanthrope template grant it so I went with that but yes it need to be better any idea ? i might scrap that chakra alltogether.

Feet - this is excellent, very useful and fitting feature.

Thanks.

Hand - awesome! Seems odd for Gorebrutes and Longteeth, but not much can be done about that.

Natural weapon need something like that.

Heart - Perfect! I really, really like this one, well done!

I stole it from the shifter druid acf and the moonspeaker.

Shoulder - Appropriate, both in theme and in level. This is good.

Cool

Totem - Ehh... OK, because Shifters have their own Natural Weapons and don't necessarily need the Totem. But honestly it'd be pretty rare that I'd want to bind a Totem that didn't give me another attack. Considering you can only get up to +3 on your chosen Ability's modifier, this doesn't seem very good...

I don't want it to be too good because you get it at second level, perhaps 2 + 1 per 1 essentia invest ?
Edit: Are you sure that you read it right ? You can get +3 at second level maw equal 1+essentia so +6 to +8. The old version was +1 per two essentia but it was never on the site are you psychic ?

Conclusion
I'm asking my DM if I can make my Shifter Totemist one of these! I think the Lycanthrope Avatar needs some tweaks, but otherwise this is great.

Thanks, I hope your DM approve. for the avatar I was hoping to make it extra special by giving an option for all chakra but i run out of ability to grant or it would overlap with the vestige.

Shifter Binder

Spoiler

Show

Sort of unusual, but then... hehe, my Shifter is also a Binder, so! This is awesome if only for that reason.

see above for the inspiration.

HD - Fitting, but the wording on the comment seems a little weird. Consider perhaps the wording I used on my Warlock substitution levels?

I'll take a look, theoricaly we shouldn't have to give that level of detail its part of the basic rule of substitution level but like you i want to be clear on that point.

Skills - Binders get only 2+Int skill points per level. It's really dumb, but they do. I'm not sure the Shifter is justified in increasing this.

I don't think so but you're right it's dumb.

Pact Augmentation - Wording here on how you choose Augmentations when you bind Vestiges is a little weird - I'd recommend just copying the text from Tome of Magic, it's a small enough quote that it shouldn't be a problem.

I'll probably do that.

Bonus Feat - This implies that the Shifter Binder gets the Binder Bonus Feat and a bonus Shifter feat as well. I assume that wasn't intended? I'd recommend that you just state that Shifter feats are added to the list of choices.

i'll clear that up.

Vestige Shifting - Very interesting. There are some wording issues here - "vestige ability that can only be use once every 5 round" should be "vestige ability that can only be used once every 5 rounds", and "For example if you have 2 round" should be "For example, if you have 2 rounds". Other than that, this is a very interesting feature - I like it.

My proffreader miss that one, i'll correct it.

Granes, the First Cursed - If you have Photoshop, I have a .PSD file that could allow you to create a "Vestige card" for Granes, if you'd like.

Sorry don't have photoshop.

Anyway, there's an issue with using the Special Requirement field for restricting Granes away from normal Binders, and that's the Ignore Special Requirements feat. I suggested to Glimbur that he instead add that requirement to a note in his Manifestation. Anyway, DC looks fine for the level, so that's fine. Legend looks good, Manifestation is very cool, but you should have "envelope you before disappearing, as if fusing with you" - should be a comma, not a period there.

Its mentione in the substitution level that only shifter can use it but using the manifestation line for that is a good idea.

Alternate Form - Looks good. The only commentary I have here is that I'm not quite clear on how the ability scores thing works - so like, if an animal has 16 Str, 8 Dex, and 13 Con, you gain +3 Str, -1 Dex, and +1 Con? An example here might be helpful.

I copied the text from the lycantrhope template and no in your example you would gain a + 6, -2, +3. I'll try to word it better.

Animal Will - You really like that Iron Will feat, huh? Binders have pretty good Will saves, I'm not really sure this is even all that helpful, but let's see what else you get...

No i don't particulary like it but it allow me to grant four ability and as i said the template grant it.

Damage Reduction - Nice, very nice.

thematic.

Animal Command - Awesome! This is great, I really like this.

There's an obsucre faerun feat that grant the same thing and it seem fitting.

Conclusion
I don't know enough about the animals you can choose for Granes to really judge him. Depends on that, really. Anyway, other than that, a clarification on the Bonus Feats is necessary, but this is otherwise very cool. I'll also be asking my DM if my Shifter can take this, heh.

I chose the animal in relation to the various shifter trait.
I'm glad you like it.

Shifter Swordsage

Spoiler

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Seems... oddly, this works. I mean, Tiger Claw, and the Dreamsight Shifters gain bonus Wisdom... I never would have thought it, but this works quite nicely.

Yes, isn't it.

Maneuvers and Stances - both refer to "Tiger claw" - it should be "Tiger Claw", it's a proper noun.

I'll correct that.

Discipline Focus (Shifting) - Very cool.

Beasthide - Ooh, I like this - but "from you chosen discipline" should be "from your chosen discipline".

kay.

Cliffwalk - "Climb becomes", but otherwise looks... OK. I'm not sure who useful this becomes, and in some cases it will be very weird (Diamond Mind maneuvers come to mind immediately). Eh. It's a neat idea, but Climb is a strange skill for it.

I was out of idea and it's not overpowered even if weird.

Dreamsight - Interesting. Very interesting, I like this.

Thanks

Gorebrute - Nice! Maybe you should give Weapon Focus (Horn)? Can you even take Weapon Focus in Natural Weapons?

You can and i'll probably do that.

Longstride - Cool!

Thanks.

Longtooth and Razorclaw - Again, Weapon Focus (Bite/Claw) seems appropriate.

Yeah.

Swiftwing - typo'd as "Swifwing" again. Anyway, I really like this, awesome!

I'll correct that.

Truedive - Same issues as Cliffwalk. Same grammatical error, too.

kay.

Wildhunt - Nifty! But you should have a comma after discipline, not a period.

I had a hard time thinking of something.

Extra Shifting - What doubles at 15th level? You gain +2 rounds and +2/day? If so, just say you gain another round of Shifting and another use per day, I think. Anyway, looks good.

i'll change the wording to clear thing up.

Shifting Recovery - "to use their maneuvers more often". Anyway, one maneuver for giving up Shifting? That seems kinda weak. Why not as many maneuvers as you have rounds of shifting remaining?

Yeah, thinking about it, i'll probably do that.

Dire Tiger Claw - Using the discipline's name in the maneuver seems a bit odd, especially for such a low level maneuver. Anyway, +1 or +2 (on average) to damage is pretty weak for a stance - Punishing Stance gives +1d6 (average +3.5) as a 1st level stance. This is weaker than it should be.

Yeah hum, Claw of the Dire Tiger could be a better name.
Punishing stance does impose a -2 penality to AC but I see what you mean.
I'll try to come up with an additional bonus.

Lycanthrope Fury - Awesome, this I really like. I like the imagery of how it builds.

Thank you.

Conclusion
Shifting Recovery and Dire Tiger Claw are a little on the weak end, but other than that, this looks really good. I don't have a Shifter Swordsage, but this is awesome.

Thanks again.