3.5 Commissar Prc (PEACH)

[Darth Stabber]

Based on the commissars of 40k (and the ww2 Russians that inspired them), I give you the D&D Version

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COMMISSAR
Frequently military units have issues with moral and disloyalty. When a fighting force has too big an issue with these, certain individuals are tasked with keeping the troops in line. Some get really good at it, and can keep a force fighting the enemy if for no other reason than they scare their allies more than the enemy. They tend to be disliked by the troops, but the Commissars tend not to hear about this unpopularity. They command through intimidation, brutality, and occasionally obfuscation. Sometimes they are attached to a unit with out being in command. In these cases they are testing the fitness of the leader, and if the leader is found wanting he may be demoted, stripped of command or executed (though LG commissars rarely perform the later). Some Commissars end up adventuring (usually after the troops get sick of him and find a way to ditch him in unfamiliar territory), though they still tend to bully their new comrades around. Many commissars learn the hard way that healing spells come easier when you are nicer, and save the scary for the enemy.

Abilities: - Charisma is the most important ability to commissars, it fuels intimidate, and affects several class abilities (though strangely the term charismatic is rarely used when describing them). Strength and/or Dex are important, because you are still expected to fight.

Starting classes: - Any class with intimidate as a class skill can enter this class easily, but it is a favorite of fighters and paladins. Evil Barbarians sometimes become commissars, but given their view of loyalty it is a rarity.

Races: - Most Commissars are humans or dwarves. Elves, Halflings, gnomes, and half orcs rarely have the mindset necessary to excell at the browbeating that passes for this classes features. There are small but significant numbers of Commissars amoung the Drow, Deep Dwarves, and Hobgoblins.

Prerequisites
Alignment: any Lawful or Evil (frequently both).
Skills:
Intimidate: 8 Ranks
Sense Motive: 5
Feats:
Skill focus(intimidate)
Iron Will

Commissar
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|

+0

|

+2

|

+0

|

+2

|Brutal Commander

2nd|

+1

|

+3

|

+0

|

+3

|Get A Hold of Yourself Man

3rd|

+2

|

+3

|

+1

|

+3

|Commissar's Intuition

4th|

+3

|

+4

|

+1

|

+4

|Scarier than the enemy

5th|

+3

|

+4

|

+1

|

+4

|Unsettling comments

6th|

+4

|

+5

|

+2

|

+5

|There is no fear, there are no lies

7th|

+5

|

+5

|

+2

|

+5

|You Better Square Yourself Away Maggot

8th|

+6/+1

|

+6

|

+2

|

+6

|Loyalty Beyond Question

9th|

+6/+1

|

+6

|

+3

|

+6

|Scare the dead, Because I say it will work

10th|

+7/+2

|

+7

|

+3

|

+7

|Exude fear, Fear Immunity[/table]

Hit die: d10
Skill-points: 4 + Int modifier.
Class Skills: Intimidate, Sense Motive, Perform(oratory), Concentration, Ride, handle animal, diplomacy, jump, climb, swim, search, spot, listen, use rope, heal, hide, move silently.
Proficiencies: A Commissar gains no additional weapons proficiency, but is proficient with light and medium armor, but no additional shields.
Note: Unless otherwise specified, all Commissar abilities are Extraordinary.


Brutal Commander - You and all allies within 10'/per commissar level gain a +2 bonus on save against fear and count as 2 levels higher for purposes of resisting intimidate attempts (except against you). If you have the leadership feat, your leadership score is not affected by your cruelty or the deaths of your followers/cohorts.

Get A Hold of Yourself Man - You have the ability to slap the silly out of your charges, and get them ready for action. If an ally is Shaken, Frightened, Panicked, Confused(but not insane), cowering, dazed, sickened, under the effect of a fear spell, or just have a stupid look on their face, you may slap some sense into him. As a standard action, You may make a touch attack against an ally that deals 1d4+str nonlethal damage, and subtract the damage dealt from the remaining rounds of the effect. This provokes attacks of opportunity from the person you are slapping, but not from anyone else.
You may do this every turn if you have to, and believe me, you probably will. This may only be used against allies.

Commissar's Intuition - Commissars are good at smelling out dissension. If character that portrays himself as friendly to the Commissar or his allies attacks, the Commissar is not flat footed, and gets a surprise round against the betrayer. Also commissars receive a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls against those that have ever betrayed him or any institution he is affiliated with, this includes those under the effects of charms and compulsions, but only while under those effects. You also gain the Uncanny dodge ability (or Improved uncanny dodge if you already had uncanny dodge).

Scarier than the enemy - At third level the Commissar has a reputation for not accepting cowardice in any form. If an ally with in 10'/commissar level is subject to an intimidate attempt or fear effect you may attempt to counter it with your own intimidate check. In the case of intimidate attempts you merely make a contested intimidate check against the intimidator, if you succeed the attempt is neutralized and that ally cannot be intimidated by that creature for the rest of the encounter. If an ally is affected by a fear effect and fails their save, you may have them re-roll using your total intimidate modifier instead of their save. On a success they are shaken for 1 round with no other effects (if you have an action before they do you may apply Get a Hold of Yourself Man to their face to cancel the shaken before it effects their turn). You may attempt either only at the time of the attempt, if an ally is already affected you have to resort to Get A Hold of Yourself Man. Using this ability is an immediate action

As a Note: by now, when allies are subjected to a phantasmal killer spell, it tends to look like you.

Unsettling comments - You may (as a standard action that does not provoke AoO) Make some threatening and unsettling gestures and/or comments. Treat this ability as frightful presence with a radius of 30', and a saving throw = 10+commissar level+charisma modifier. Those that fail the save are shaken for 2d6 rounds. Those that make the save are immune to your unsettling comments for 24 hours.

There is no fear, there are no lies - You may use your intimidate skill in place of Sense motive and gather info. you are immune to being frightened and panicked, if you would be one of these you are instead shaken. The bonus you recieve against other fear effects from Brutal commander is equal to your Commissar level instead of 2 (allies still gain the flat +2).

You Better Square Yourself Away Maggot - You may now use Get A Hold of Yourself Man, to reduce the duration of Charm and Compulsion effects by 1 minute per damage dealt. Using Get A Hold of Yourself Man in this manner is considered Supernatural.

You may now add your charisma modifier to damage for all uses of Get A Hold of Yourself Man in addition to strength.

Once per day you may also use Greater dispel magic as an SLA replacing caster level with an intimidate check, this may only be used on allies, it does not suppress magic items, you may have it ignore helpful spells, it effects only the targeted ally, and you still have to slap them.

Loyalty Beyond Question - The commissar demands loyalty, and he is scary enough to ensure it. If any one attempts to betray you, they are subject to a special intimidate check. The GM makes a secret intimidate check(for you) against the potential betrayer. If you succeed succeeds the target must not attempt that action for at least another 24 hours. This functions against enchanted allies.

Scare the Dead - You gain turn undead (even if evil), Treat your Intimidate ranks -3 as your cleric level. This ability is not positive energy based, and will never destroy undead (no matter how well you roll). These turn attempts may only be used to turn undead, they may not be used to activate feats or class features. If already have turn undead, keep track of the sets of uses seperately.

Because I say it will work - You may make intimidate checks in place of UMD. You count as trained in UMD if you weren't before. You may use an intimidate check instead of a will save against intelligent item's ego.

Exude Fear - You may use Unsettling comments as a swift action. If you devote a standard action to it, those that fail the save are frightened, and those that succeed are merely shaken.

Fear Immunity - You are now immune to fear effects, whether they be spells or mundane and intimidate checks. This immunity does not function against other Commissars

Multi-Class Note - Paladins may still level in paladin after taking levels in Commissar.

Thoughts???

[Darth Stabber]

New Feats (the first 4 are serious, the rest not so much)

Bright Slap
Requirements: Get a Hold of Yourself Man class feature
Benefits: you may as a full attack action make your full iterative of attacks as slaps to an affected ally, each counts as a Get a Hold of Yourself Man attempt.

On your feet turd!
Requirements: Get a Hold of Yourself Man class feature
Benefits: Get a Hold of Yourself Man is now also effective against the stunned, slowed, and entangled conditions, and will instantly bring a prone ally to his feet. Get a Hold of Yourself Man may now instantly end the fatigued condition, and once per target per day it may reduce the exhausted condition to fatigued (and a subsequent slap cures that)

Under Cover Commissar
Requirements: Rogue 1, Commissar 1
Benefits: Your Rogue and Commissar levels stack for purposes of determining Sneak attack. In addition you may add you Sneak attack to Get a Hold of Yourself Man damage, You may choose to add only some of the dice.

Church Whip
Requirements: Paladin 1, Commissar 1
Benefits: Your Paladin and Commissar levels stack for purposes of Smite Evil (both effects and uses), and mount. In addition you may combine smite with Get a Hold of Yourself Man, and treat you ally as though they were evil for it's purposes. You may associate with evil characters without losing you paladin powers but every time they perform an evil act you must make a will save (DC = your Charisma modifier + their level). If you fail you must administer a Get a Hold of Yourself Man slap to their face at your earliest opportunity, you may also do so if you succeed, but the point is you don't have to. Not that it will make them not evil, but at least you are doing something.

Loyalty Beyond Death
Requirements: loyalty beyond question class feature
Benefits: Creatures formed, in whole or in part, from the body, mind, or soul of a person with whom you each considered yourselves allies of the undead or construct type do not gain any of the normal immunities gained from those types, even if mindless. Example if bob was an ally of yours, after his death his body was made into a flesh golem. It is affected by any fear related ability you possess as though it lacked the construct type and mindless trait. Other undead and constructs are unaffected.

Scare Projectile
Requirements: Unsettling remark, cha 17
Benefits: When you are subject to subject to a ranged attack you may oppose the attack roll with an intimidate check. If you succeed the projectile immediately drops to the ground harmlessly. Using this ability counts as your attack of opportunity for the round, and thus you may not make another that round unless you have combat reflexes. This is an extraordinary ability.

Scare Spell
Requirements: Scare Projectile, cha 19
Benefits: When you are the target of a spell you may attempt to scare the spell into submission. The caster makes a caster level check opposed by your intimidate check. If the caster fails the spell is countered, and the caster is required to save against your unsettling remark or be shaken. You may use this ability once per encounter.

Scare Earth
Requirements: Scare Spell, cha 21
Benefits: You may attempt a DC30 intimidate check. If you do you gain a fly speed equal to you land speed and good maneuverability for a number of minutes equal to the check result-30 minutes. You may attempt this while falling. You may not set foot on the ground or enter a cave while your fly speed is in effect, and you may not use this ability underground. You may not voluntarily dismiss this effect, as it effects the ground not you.

Scare Light and Dark
Requirements: Scare Earth, cha 23
Benefits: You may attempt to dispel any spell of the light or darkness descriptors with an intimidate check opposed by the caster's Caster level check.

Magic Item
Commissar's Hat - the Commissar's hat is a defining badge of office. The sight of one of these hats is enough to make hardened veterans consider the merits of hiding. It improves intimidate checks (granting a +2 competence bonus) and once per day, while ripping into an ally for perceived weakness or failure with the brim touching their forehead menacingly, you may grant them immunity to fear in their next encounter.
CL3 faint abjuration and necromancy. scare and remove fear 800gp

[Mongoose87]

New Feat

Bright Slap
Requirements: Get a Hold of Yourself Man class feature
Benefits: you may as a full attack action make your full iterative of attacks as slaps to an affected ally, each counts as a Get a Hold of Yourself Man attempt.

Hilarious mental image.

[Darth Stabber]

New feats and some minor tweaks have been added.

[Jota]

I'll do a full review later, but I think you could just have the Bright Slap feat make the ability an attack action. That way you could alternate between stabbing and slapping people in the face instead of doing one in one round and the other in the next.

[Ormagoden]

Ahahahahhahhahhahahahahahhaha

I Love It!

[Darth Stabber]

Added 4 joke feats.

[Darth Stabber]

New magic item added.

[Lix Lorn]

I'm not sure on power level, but...I love this. So, very, very much. XD

[Doorhandle]

Well, i think it's power would be low, considering the only thing it does well is let others make will saves, but in a will-save filled campaign or a comedic one he'll do just fine...

Edit: Aw, Brightslap me. i just realized i committed thread necromancy AGAIN.

[Darth Stabber]

Well, i think it's power would be low, considering the only thing it does well is let others make will saves, but in a will-save filled campaign or a comedic one he'll do just fine...

Edit: Aw, Brightslap me. i just realized i committed thread necromancy AGAIN.

I've been considering powerlevel on this class, and I really don't know how to power it up. It has every ability I wanted it to have, and I even gave it a funny version of turn undead to give it something to do against the primary fear immune type, and giving multiple skill's effects rolled into intimidate. It still keeps from being powerful (I guess if I gave it familiar and allowed it to speciallize). My only other thoughts are: a)more dispelling stuff, b) some buff SLAs, c) some type of execution related abilities.

[Lix Lorn]

Maybe something similar to Weird? SO TERRIFYING you kill something.