Malefactor [3.5, Hexblade Re-Imagining] [PEACH]

[Lord_Gareth]

Just saw this class, and it looks excellent. I haven't done any calculations on the balance, but it seems reasonable. Unfortunately, I don't have any opportunity to play one right now. Maybe I'll use one as an NPC, but that's not the same.

Since Sense Malice is being discussed, I have an idea that would be interesting for it, although a bit odd mechanically. Treat antagonistic creatures (and yourself) as "light sources" with a certain radius (maybe 10-15'), in which you can see as per blindsense/blindsight. Makes more sense than seeing inanimate objects via hatred, but still allows you to move around without bumping into things, and lets you see mindless enemies if you maneuver non-mindless ones correctly.

Yes, this does theoretically enable a "bag of angry rats" tactics, but given the effort required to position them and the fact that it's kinda thematic, I don't see that as a show-stopper.

There's actually a feat that does this (Lifesense) that I could hijack the wording from once I've got my copy of Libris Mortis available once more.

But, ah...I mean, necroing isn't as bad on Homebrew, but this was still a bit of a necro post. Next time slinging me a PM might be a better plan.

Since this got bumped anyway, though, I'm still accepting critique and ideas on it. Someone mentioned using the wording from Death Urge for Curse of the Unworthy Demise, which I think I'll go ahead and do whenever I can concentrate enough. Other thoughts are always welcome.

[Kane0]

Nice work, may I pinch some of this for some of my work? I'm short a good Hexblade in my class lineup

Im kind of surprised you put in a source of bonus damage and took out the curses (not completely though) but it looks like it turned out really well.

[Lord_Gareth]

Nice work, may I pinch some of this for some of my work? I'm short a good Hexblade in my class lineup

Im kind of surprised you put in a source of bonus damage and took out the curses (not completely though) but it looks like it turned out really well.

I did what now?

[mikalife1]

awesome class

Im kind of surprised you put in a source of bonus damage and took out the curses (not completely though) but it looks like it turned out really well.

I think he may have been expecting the old scaling bestow curse version but I could be wrong.
so any word on the benefactor

[T.G. Oskar]

Nice work, may I pinch some of this for some of my work? I'm short a good Hexblade in my class lineup

Im kind of surprised you put in a source of bonus damage and took out the curses (not completely though) but it looks like it turned out really well.

awesome class

I think he may have been expecting the old scaling bestow curse version but I could be wrong.
so any word on the benefactor

I believe the same as mik.

Gareth decided that the Malefactor would be a re-imagining of the Hexblade, and thus it was re-imagined as a roguish character rather than a gish. The number of skill points, the BAB and the extra damage point towards that. In fact, the first page mentions that.

The curse, on the other hand, is a debuff that works to reduce the stats of the enemy, but does little to damage. The curses are there, of course (what was removed was the spells, replaced by invocation-equivalents that subsume the original Hexblade's curse), but they've shifted their "protagonism", to phrase it better. Tormenting the Weak took the "spot" of the old Hexblade's Curse, but that's because the old curse was turned into a whole set of Malefactions that took the "spot" of spellcasting. With judicious choice, you could get the Hexblade's curse as usual, but you can also get other curses as well. What you lack, to an extent, is the plethora of buffing spells the old Hexblade had; some of the most useful become class features, whereas the others can be accessed through UMD.

By now, the Malefactor should count as an archetype of its own, rather than a re-imagining of the Hexblade, because otherwise you'd get confusions like this from people who expect to see a Hexblade fix.

[Lord_Gareth]

so any word on the benefactor

Stalled out on some of the concept work, but I'm not giving up on the idea yet.