GitP PrC Contest Chat Thread IV

[JoshuaZ]

Ok, I think it's pretty close to finished now. Did I miss anything, mess anything up?

Um, why nothing at 10th level? A 9 level class is fine, but having just a deadish level at 10 is weird, although they do get an additional +1 to a few things which is nice. It does seem like it needs some sort of capstone things if it is going to be 10 levels.

Also, it may make sense to state explicitly that Focused Training counts as a favored enemy bonus. This will be relevant potentially for some feats and the like that they may want to qualify for.

[Tragak]

Thanks for the tip. I just added a Special Abilities progression (as was also recommended earlier), and I'm going to flesh out the details soon.

Also, I was thinking that the character's AC wouldn't include the DEX modifier due to heavy armor, so I didn't give her significant DEX, whereas I should've noticed by paying any attention at all, before double checking right this second, that mithril breastplates would actually allow significant DEX bonuses, and the whole point of the scenario should've reminded me that even paladins aren't wearing their heaviest armor all of the time and DEX would still be important.

More importantly, until I double checked the previous, I somehow forgot that both her shield and armor were magic (and would add 13 instead of 7) taken care of.

Is "noobed" an accepted verb for when somebody missed a bunch of stuff that's this basic?

[inuyasha]

Is "noobed" an accepted verb for when somebody missed a bunch of stuff that's this basic?

usually: yes
when your new to the forums: naw we dont care

[Rabidmuskrat]

Leader of Men PrC posted.

Still working on the fluff, but the crunch is pretty much finished. Just the capstone that still needs to be done. It is just going to make pretty much everything BETTER.

PEACH me, if you would be so kind. Odds are I screwed up big time somewhere, especially the terminology.

[Techwarrior]

I'd appreciate it greatly if someone could take a look at the Ymurri Stalker for me balancewise. I'll try to get PEACHes out to the other competitors after this weekend, time permitting. I've got the capstone finished, but don't have time to type it out quite yet.

[Mephibosheth]

OK! *breathes*

The crunch of Vessel of the Ancient Gods is finally ready, pending comments and input from the playground. Complete with new vestiges. I hope you enjoy it!

I have no practical experience playing a binder, so I would really appreciate people's input on the balance and appropriate level of the new vestiges he asks hopefully, his heart in his throat. Any input you have would be wonderful!

[Temotei]

This is a really cool theme. I'm thinking either Fahrenheit 451 or The Picture of Dorian Gray. We'll see which one I get more inspiration on.

[Glimbur]

I'm not making a class based on the Art of War anymore. It was turning into a Marshal fix, rather than a PrC.

I am making a class based on Cobra, by Timothy Zahn.

[ErrantX]

Trying to be more active here on the contest, I noticed a drop off of activity in it from the forums as of late and I think my absence at times it impacting it. I do my best, but and I will try harder from this contest on.

I will try to hit up classes tonight with some critique's / advice / ideas tonight. If you want me to look at your class, just post here and it would help me especially if there is something in particular you want me to look out or if it's just a general look-over.

Thanks!

-X

[sirpercival]

I would LOVE if you (as LoB god) would take a look at Glass Elevator, part of the Candysmith.

[Tesla]

I just wanted to say thank you for all the helpful and swift answers ErrantX. My first draft has been made thanks to those allowances. Best of luck everyone.

[Kazyan]

I would contribute to the activity, but I have no ideas. I don't read enough books.

Would it be valid to make an entry based off the main character of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality? It's strictly a fanfic of a book, but easily as long.

[Tragak]

Couldn't you just base it on the real thing?

[ErrantX]

I would contribute to the activity, but I have no ideas. I don't read enough books.

Would it be valid to make an entry based off the main character of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality? It's strictly a fanfic of a book, but easily as long.

As the opening says, please cite your influence and provide links to information about it (even it's just a wiki). The idea was to make classes AND broaden people's horizons. That's fine with me, just link it!

And to everyone else, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE link your influence, again, even it's just the wikipedia entry. Something. Thanks!

-X

[Mephibosheth]

PEACH of Crack Lawyer:

This is obviously (and appropriately) a very niche class; it has almost no combat utility and explicitly exempts combat applications of a lot of its bluff-related abilities, but it can be very useful in a social skills- and intrigue-heavy campaign. Doubly so if that campaign involves any legal proceedings. But the utility of a lot of the abilities depends on how the DM deals with social skills. I'd definitely want to have that nailed down before I chose this PrC.

The basic chassis and proficiencies reinforce this understanding; poor BAB, poor physical saves, high will save, lots of skill points, no new weapon or armor proficiencies. This class is clearly going to be avoiding combat and using social skills to great effect.

Courtroom Demeanor is helpful in limiting the number of skills a crack lawyer has to invest in seriously and helping maximize other social skills. Not much else to say.

The Courtroom Maneuvers are a mixed bag.

• I Object! needs to have its effects more clearly stated, imo. What happens if you succeed on your Profession (lawyer) check)? I would imagine that the skill check you interrupted fails, but it doesn't actually say that in the text. Going off this assumption, this ability could be helpful until you realize that bluff is really the only social skill intended to be used against PCs. Diplomacy use against PCs is frowned upon, iirc, because it can take agency away from the players. Otherwise, it really depends on how you're using Perform (oratory) and Profession (lawyer). If it's a courtroom campaign and there's a defined role for these skills, this could be great. It could also have some helpful uses outside the courtroom. But its usefulness really depends on how the DM runs social skills. Also, could a crack lawyer use this ability to preempt a bardic performance that's based on Perform (oratory)? That could be something important to nail down...
• Cross Examination is pretty niche. It seems geared more toward an adventuring party than an actual courtroom, unless there's a team of lawyers led by the crack lawyer. Could be helpful in an intrigue-heavy campaign, but that seems about it. Also, how long does the lawyer have to cross examine for before her allies get the benefit? Or is it just the time required for a Sense Motive check?
• Approach the Bench seems really niche, even for a niche class. How often are you going to be having a whispered conversation? How often are your going to be having a whispered conversation with someone against whom you'd like to use a Bluff or Intimidate check. If the circumstances are right it'd be great, but the circumstances seem rare to me.
• Now Star Witness I really like. It could be gold in an intrigue and investigation campaign, letting the best person for each interaction make social skill checks using the crack lawyer's modifiers. Adds a lot of flexibility to the party, since just about anyone could be the face. You should specify who constitutes "the target." My guess is it's the ally who's making the check.
• Surprise Witness seems to be the only ability that has any combat utility. It's like free circumstantial Leadership! Unless the "only in a courtroom or similar setting" caveat at the end applies to all uses of the ability rather than just the extra 2 uses per day.

The rest of the abilities seem like more of the same; pumping your social skills and letting you substitute Profession (lawyer) or Perform (oratory) (because of Courtroom Demeanor) for most of your social skills. Helpful, but not overwhelmingly inspiring. And again, great in the right campaign but underwhelming otherwise.

My only other crunchy comment is that a lot of the abilities are about letting you be more effective at abilities you already have rather than giving you cool new things to do. That's fine; there's enough meat in this class to make it attractive to the right character, but it is something to think about. Some of the abilities that just give bonuses to skill checks or replace skill checks with other skill checks might be more inspiring if they gave some cool new abilities too.

Fluff-wise, I think this class is really good at portraying the great attorneys of fiction. I'm only really familiar with Atticus Finch, but I think he'd work well as a crack lawyer. In fact, going slowly off the Atticus Finch example, it might be fun to inject some abilities based on a principled stand taken by the crack lawyer when she takes her first level. Some legal or moral principle that she won't budge on, even if it destroys her career. Then, when she's defending that principle, she gets some interesting bonuses or new abilities. I don't know; just an idea.

Please don't take my repeated "this is a niche class" comments as criticism. I think there's definitely a place for this class and it fills that place well. It's just a very very specialized place.

Those are my thoughts, for what it's worth.

[Zelkon]

Really? No Mockingjay yet? Up to me, I guess.

[Mephibosheth]

PEACH of Glass Elevator:

Bear in mind that I have limited experience with ToB in games and have never homebrewed anything for the subsystem. So this is just based on reading carefully and looking at the core ToB content. But hopefully it will be somewhat helpful.

Black Box of Frogs seems a little powerful for a 6th level maneuver. No attack roll, no save, just dragged underground. That's at least one round wasted automatically. Plus they have to make Con checks to avoid suffocating. Maybe a barbarian or fighter could last a while, but this could be death on swift wings for a character with lower Con. A DC 20 Str check isn't too hard to make, unless you don't have a Str bonus.

How long to the temporary hit points granted by Cavity-Filling Caramels last? Until they're lost?

Chocolate River is also a little confusing. You say that affected creatures take damage the initial round and the following round and are unable to breathe. Are they still unable to breathe after the 2nd round? The fact that it takes 3 rounds to scrape the chocolate off indicates that such is the case, but it's not clear, at least to me.

Does Exploding Candy allow you to use a maneuver of a higher level than your initiator level would allow you to learn? I'm guessing it doesn't, but the text isn't clear and the only example seems to indicate that the limiting factors are more circumstantial (i.e. could any candysmith initiate this maneuver, given the situation in combat) than level-based.

I love Fizzy Lifting Drink!

Fragile Egos seems a bit underwhelming for a 4th level maneuver. I know that failing a Will save can suck hard, but it seems like a 4th level maneuver should be better.

Can the target of Fudge Mountain do anything to clear its lungs if it is suffocating? Or does it need to be rescued from without?

I also love Glumptious Globgobblers! Risky since it could allow an enemy to down a potion of its choice without taking an action to do so, but fun!

And Three-Course Dinner Chewing Gum, too!

So...not too many useful comments. Sorry for the underwhelming PEACH. Mostly things I thought were a bit confusing. Like I said, I don't have a ton of ToB experience. But I thought the discipline as a whole was very well done and a terrific adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Can't wait to see the rest of the candysmith class abilities!

[sirpercival]

PEACH of Glass Elevator:

Thank you!

Spoiler

Show

Bear in mind that I have limited experience with ToB in games and have never homebrewed anything for the subsystem. So this is just based on reading carefully and looking at the core ToB content. But hopefully it will be somewhat helpful.

No worries. I appreciate this :)

Black Box of Frogs seems a little powerful for a 6th level maneuver. No attack roll, no save, just dragged underground. That's at least one round wasted automatically. Plus they have to make Con checks to avoid suffocating. Maybe a barbarian or fighter could last a while, but this could be death on swift wings for a character with lower Con. A DC 20 Str check isn't too hard to make, unless you don't have a Str bonus.

It's a round lost, but it's also a round where the PCs can't attack you, so it's not exactly a death sentence. Also doesn't stop purely mental actions like psionic powers or no-component spells. Gives them a 1-round respite, at least. As for the Con checks, remember that you can hold your breath for rounds = Con SCORE *2 before you even need to start making checks. So the suffocation thing will almost never be a problem.

How long to the temporary hit points granted by Cavity-Filling Caramels last? Until they're lost?

Correct. And temp hp don't stack.

Chocolate River is also a little confusing. You say that affected creatures take damage the initial round and the following round and are unable to breathe. Are they still unable to breathe after the 2nd round? The fact that it takes 3 rounds to scrape the chocolate off indicates that such is the case, but it's not clear, at least to me.

Yes, damage is over 2 rounds, and not-breathing lasts until the chocolate is scraped off.

Does Exploding Candy allow you to use a maneuver of a higher level than your initiator level would allow you to learn? I'm guessing it doesn't, but the text isn't clear and the only example seems to indicate that the limiting factors are more circumstantial (i.e. could any candysmith initiate this maneuver, given the situation in combat) than level-based.

This shouldn't be a problem, since Exploding Candy is a 9th-level maneuver.

I love Fizzy Lifting Drink!

:)

Fragile Egos seems a bit underwhelming for a 4th level maneuver. I know that failing a Will save can suck hard, but it seems like a 4th level maneuver should be better.

Duly noted, I'll see if I can beef it up a little.

Can the target of Fudge Mountain do anything to clear its lungs if it is suffocating? Or does it need to be rescued from without?

Hmm... I'll clarify.

I also love Glumptious Globgobblers! Risky since it could allow an enemy to down a potion of its choice without taking an action to do so, but fun!

And Three-Course Dinner Chewing Gum, too!

:D

So...not too many useful comments. Sorry for the underwhelming PEACH. Mostly things I thought were a bit confusing. Like I said, I don't have a ton of ToB experience. But I thought the discipline as a whole was very well done and a terrific adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Can't wait to see the rest of the candysmith class abilities!

Thank you, you definitely pointed out a couple things that need to be addressed. I'm glad you like it!

[Zelkon]

I hope I have enough time to finish the Mockingjay because I have an absolutely awesome idea for it!

[Rabidmuskrat]

The Leader of Men is completely finished. PEACH away, if you please. I suspect it may be a little underpowered for its 10 levels.

Once I've rested a bit I'll take a look at some of the other PrC for some PEACH love.

[Mephibosheth]

PEACH of Leader of Men:

So, I think this is an interesting PrC that attempts to implement an archetype that, I think, is hard for D&D to accommodate effectively.

Part of the problem is that a leader-type character either has to focus on enhancing the capabilities of the other PCs in her team or on bringing her own team to the table as a feat or class ability. The former can be done effectively but can seem somewhat lackluster in actual play experience; it's more difficult to see the effects of your actions if most of what you do is enabling other characters do perform their tasks better. The latter is difficult to balance; bringing one or more entire new characters to the table can be very powerful, split the player's focus, and make the initial character seem less special; the thing that makes her cool isn't her abilities, it's her cohort. So, which is the PC?

It seems like the idea behind Leader of Men is to address this conundrum by building a class around a group that includes a fair number of low-level but still resilient team members. The sample NPC bears this out; an ECL 9 Leader of Men with a group of 8 2nd level fighters. The problem with this approach is that, if I'm in an adventuring party of anywhere above 5th level, when I see 8 2nd level fighters I'm more likely view them as AoE fodder than credible threats. Admittedly, many of the Leader of Men's class features ameliorate this concern by making them more resilient and better at teamwork, but it doesn't address the underlying problem that, typically, many low-level opponents is an easier challenge than a few higher-level ones.

Another problem I see with Leader of Men is that, while the sample NPC is a fighter and the class seems geared toward martial types with decent Charisma, the optimizer in me wants to enter the class as a bard or sorcerer, pump my Charisma through the roof, and have as powerful a Band of Brothers as possible. So, my hypothetical bard 7/LoM 1 with a Charisma of 18 would be able to have 27 hit dice of followers (4*[1+4]+7=27 if I remember my order of operations correctly). And there's nothing keeping me from having as few followers as possible, so theoretically I could be an ECL 8 character with one 27 HD member of my Band of Brothers. Even if I were more reasonable and split things up, I could still have a 4 member group where everyone (myself included) is 8th level, plus a 2nd level comic relief guy. If I went bard 5/mindbender 3/LoM 1 instead, I'd have even more followers and be able to communicate with them all telepathically! These are easy problems to solve; just impose a per-member HD cap or a minimum number of brothers. But the rules as written allow for a pretty powerful group, if I'm understanding them correctly.

Another thing to think about is that the PrC requires Leadership for entry. This is already considered a very powerful feat and it doesn't even come close to the power level of Band of Brothers. But you don't talk about how they interact. Does the Band of Brothers take the place of the benefits of Leadership? Is it separate? How does that work?

One other thing I thought might be interesting to incorporate is abilities that promote other types of teams. Right now, all the abilities except Inspirational Speech are geared toward combat. But it might be fun to incorporate some abilities for a leader of the Danny Ocean or Henry Gondorff archetype. Abilities that give bonuses to skill checks or certain types of spellcasting.

I hope I'm not being too harsh. I like the class and think it has a lot of potential. And maybe I'm misunderstanding the Band of Brothers ability. But as I read it, it seems far more powerful than I'd be comfortable with.

[Rabidmuskrat]

Ah, perhaps I should go clarify the ability a bit, it seems there is a slight misunderstanding.

The Band of Brothers ability allows you to add willing individuals to your 'Unit' but provides no way for you to obtain these willing individuals. This is where the leadership feat comes in. You may add cohorts, followers, party members, whatever you have available to your unit, but you don't get anything new. Yes, you could have a single 27HD creature in your unit at fairly low level if you can find one. And if you can find one, why can't you just have it tagging along even without the LoM class? The class feature is actually quite weak in that regard - it provides zero benefit on its own. The Unit is an empty shell, it is up to the player to fill it and odds are he won't be able to (or want to) fill it to capacity as those cohorts/followers/other party members take their cut of the xp/loot.

And you are absolutely right about the archetype I'm trying to do with this class. I got the idea for it from a game I'm playing in which I play both a fighter and the party leader. As a leader I am quite successful, but I find myself falling behind all the other melee characters in terms of combat ability and wishing I could do more to play up my leadership aspects during an engagement.

[Mephibosheth]

Ah. That makes sense. You should definitely clarify that in the ability itself; it reads like the group springs into existence when you take your first class level. Of course, now you have the problem that your character's power is almost entirely dependent upon the sufferance of the DM. If the DM wants to railroad or cut your power for some reason, he can just refuse to have people willing to join your band. Or have everyone be too low level to be useful. Hopefully that isn't the case, but you never know.

[Rabidmuskrat]

Somewhat. But the idea is more that you add the people already in your party to your Unit as a baseline. Remember, nowhere does it say you cannot add the other players to your Unit, nor does it give you any ability to control them. In addition to that, your cohorts and followers can all become Unit Members as well, or not as you prefer.

The Unit is just a mechanic to prevent you from arbitrarily assigning bonuses to whatever vaguely allied creature happens to be nearby. Otherwise you are a bard without spells. I could probably remove the Band of Brothers class feature entirely and have all the other class features simply key off the party instead, but I originally thought this would be easier. Now I'm not so sure.

Also, if the DM allows the Leadership feat then he has already made additional NPCs available to join you.

Edits to PrC:
Clarified Band of Brothers rule text.
Fixed Encounter HPs (boosted slightly).
Added Encounter equipment: Ring of Counterspells.
Added the Direct Action and Planning Ahead class features.

[Mephibosheth]

PEACH of Ymurri Stalker:

First, I'm anxiously awaiting the fluff on this one. I have no idea where Ymurri Stalkers come from or what role they play in whatever piece of media they appear, but they seem fantastic!

Out of curiosity, why require 9 ranks in Ride instead of 8, or BAB +6 instead of BAB +5. In my experience, the jumping off point for a PrC is typically either 5th level (8 ranks or BAB +5) or 10th level (13 ranks or BAB +10). Obviously there are exceptions and it's not a balance concern in any way, but I was just curious.

Also, a list of class skills would be a good thing!

The spellcasting description is a little confusing for characters that don't start with any spellcasting levels. You say that they gain the spellcasting progression of a 1st level ranger, which is...nothing. Ranger spells don't kick in until 4th level. Unless your intention was for a Ymurri Stalker to gain no spells until her 4th class level. Easy fix; just give them spellcasting as a 4th level ranger instead!

The skirmish progression is a little unconventional. Usually, skirmish damage and AC bonus increase alternate (so, 1st level is a damage increase, 3rd level is an AC increase, 5th level is a damage increase, etc.). Maybe it was your intention to shake this up, but I thought I'd mention it.

Ymurri Mount also looks fine, though it too could use some clarifying. I assume that your intention was for the numbers listed on the table to be the cumulative total bonus, not that they gain +4 HD at 1st level, another +6 HD at 2nd level, and so on. If so, you should clarify in the text, since one could interpret the table as the bonus gained at each level rather than the cumulative bonus gained. Also, you're missing a plus sign on Con at 6th level on the chart. And finally, I'm afb right now and haven't really played many paladins, but the section about non-standard mounts confuses me. Maybe it will become clear when I get back to my DMG this afternoon, but you might want to consider clarifying what you mean there. Other than that, everything looks fine.

Ride as One is fine; pretty standard bonus to Ride checks. Moving on.

I can't think of any specific problems right now, but I'm generally leery of effects that give extra actions. Admittedly, a move action isn't as bad as a standard action, but it's something to consider. Maybe a limited number of times per day? Also, the last sentence could use some cleaning up. I'd suggest, "The Stalker must use the move action in the round it is acquired, or it is lost, and the Stalker must be remain mounted during for the duration of their turn."

No major problems with Stalk as One. The change in the mount's space seems a little strange; I assume its to facilitate hiding behind smaller objects. I can envision situations in which it would be useful in combat too; fewer adjacent squares leads to fewer flanking opponents, for example. I like it, and it seems to synergize with the flavor of the mount's slight build ability.

Sniper is a bit confusing. What do you mean by "attack modes normally restricted to melee?" Trip/grapple/disarm/etc.? Power attack? How far does it go? Also, I'd suggest re-wording, "Essentially, the Stalker may choose to use the listed range for an abilities maximum range or the distance of one range increment for the weapon they are using, whichever is higher." as "The Stalker can use these abilities while within one range increment of their current weapon or within the maximum range of the ability in question, whichever is greater." Finally, there's an incomplete sentence at the end. "While sniping..."

No problems with Flow as One, either. Mutual evasion and sharing saves is pretty standard for mount PrCs. I really like Swift Eye, too, though I might include a per day or per encounter limit, since a swift action each round means that they would probably always be making touch attacks.

Strike as One seems fine to me, too. It's a powerful ability but comes late in the progression. On thing I will caution (and this, now that I think of it, is a concern for the whole class) is that the scout errata clarified that movement while mounted doesn't trigger skirmish. I'd suggest adding an ability to deal with this issue, otherwise Ymurri Stalkers aren't going to be dealing any of their precision damage.

Cluster Shot is awesome! You just need to clarify what sort of action it takes to use the ability. I'm assuming full-attack action, since it basically distills all the stalker's attacks into one attack roll.

Finally, what do Move as One and Body and Mind do? They're on the table but don't have descriptions.

Great looking class so far! Can't wait for the fluff!

[Rabidmuskrat]

PEACH of Vessel of the Ancient Gods

First a Disclaimer: My experience with binders is limited to one player in a game I'm DMing. And he basically just tells me what he can do and I don't ask further.

Nothing much to say about the actual class, its basically just a binder with some funny signs. One question, how does this compare to a Binder balance wise? What do you lose out on by taking this class instead of more levels in Binder? It doesn't sound like you miss much at all. If so, it is perhaps a bit too strong.

Bird
At what level does the VotAG rebuke? Character level? Class level? How does it stack with levels in cleric? The description is very vague.
The at will summon is very very strong. You can effectively summon a creature of your own level AT WILL. True, only 1 at a time, but you can summon them in sequence as they die.
Hit Dice are also a very bad metric for what you can summon in any way. Rather give a specific list at each level (like the summon monster spells). To give you an idea, at lvl 1 you can summon a cockatrice (CR 3 with save or die). At lvl 2 you can summon a Lammasu (CR 8). At lvl 5 you can summon a Golden Protector (CR 13).

Elephant
This allows a second save against mind affecting, but it does not specify what exactly the DC of this save is, though I'm probably nitpicking now. I suppose it would be the same DC.
It also seems strange that a Lion gains a bonus to natural armour, but an Elephant does not.

Lion
Only problem is that at lvl 10 his dex falls from 17 to 15. I suspect that is merely a typo (con goes from 15 to 17).

Spider
What abilities can the 'Goofy' ability stop? Activated abilities? What about passive abilities such as a Medusa's gaze attack?
At level 10 there are no dex gains, and his stats in general seem a bit weak for his level.
No poison attacks? Poison is a rather iconic spider ability.
The fluff stats that Spiders prefer to use trickery and bluffing, but receive no class features to assist in such endeavors.
Once again, the spider has at will summons which present the same problems of those Bird experiences. The summon itself seems a bit more balanced, though, although having 2 seperate summons could once again present problems (resummon as they die).

All in all, the summoners just seem a bit overpowered.

[Mephibosheth]

Thanks for the comments! I really appreciate the input.

Nothing much to say about the actual class, its basically just a binder with some funny signs. One question, how does this compare to a Binder balance wise? What do you lose out on by taking this class instead of more levels in Binder? It doesn't sound like you miss much at all. If so, it is perhaps a bit too strong.

It does miss out on some of the binder secondary abilities (a few of which are actually fairly decent), but now that you mention it, I think I'm going to rein it in a little. I changed the nature of its soul binding to be more effective with binding the ancient gods than with other vestiges. So each Vessel of the Ancient Gods level counts toward EBL and vestige level when binding one of the ancient gods, but only the odd levels count for binding other vestiges.

Bird
At what level does the VotAG rebuke? Character level? Class level? How does it stack with levels in cleric? The description is very vague.

Good catch. I've updated the description. EBL determines any level-dependent variables of the ability. And classes that grant Turn/Rebuke Undead don't stack.

The at will summon is very very strong. You can effectively summon a creature of your own level AT WILL. True, only 1 at a time, but you can summon them in sequence as they die.
Hit Dice are also a very bad metric for what you can summon in any way. Rather give a specific list at each level (like the summon monster spells). To give you an idea, at lvl 1 you can summon a cockatrice (CR 3 with save or die). At lvl 2 you can summon a Lammasu (CR 8). At lvl 5 you can summon a Golden Protector (CR 13).

I tried to rein this in, taking your suggestion of a list of possible summons. I don't have a ton of experience with summoning-based characters and tend to get lazy, looking for a general rule rather than doing the work of compiling a list. Which is probably the worst thing you can do with summoning abilities for the very reason you pointed out. *slaps self on the wrist* Hopefully the new version is less abuse-prone.

Elephant
This allows a second save against mind affecting, but it does not specify what exactly the DC of this save is, though I'm probably nitpicking now. I suppose it would be the same DC.
It also seems strange that a Lion gains a bonus to natural armour, but an Elephant does not.

Thanks for catching that. You're right; same DC. I should have specified. Updated.

In terms of NA for Lion and not for Elephant, I struggled a lot with what abilities to give Lion. I wanted to include it because Lion has a brief speaking role in the book, which can only be said of a few of the ancient gods. But the book doesn't really get into Lion's character and a lot of Lion-related abilities were ones I wanted to include in Tiger. So NA was really just included because I couldn't think of anything else. Whereas Elephant had a bunch of different abilities that I wanted to include, many of which are pretty powerful, especially when you factor in the great Shadow of the Ancient Gods modifications.

Lion
Only problem is that at lvl 10 his dex falls from 17 to 15. I suspect that is merely a typo (con goes from 15 to 17).

I don't know what you're talking about. *shifty eyes*

Spider
What abilities can the 'Goofy' ability stop? Activated abilities? What about passive abilities such as a Medusa's gaze attack?

All of the above. It's meant to be fairly powerful and broadly-applicable. I realize that it might be a bit too powerful, but the duration is short and it can only be used twice per day.

At level 10 there are no dex gains, and his stats in general seem a bit weak for his level.

I bumped up the Dex at 10th level; thanks for catching that. But I agree that the stats are weak in comparison to some of the others. That was kind of intentional; Anansi's strength is in his cleverness, not his physical prowess.

No poison attacks? Poison is a rather iconic spider ability.

He can get poison from his summoning ability. But the book doesn't describe Anansi as using poison himself. And since Anansi is the main focus of the novel, this was a case where I was struggling with having too many ideas for abilities rather than not enough. I had to draw the line somewhere and poison didn't seem iconic enough to the character to make the cut.

The fluff stats that Spiders prefer to use trickery and bluffing, but receive no class features to assist in such endeavors.

Another good call and a criminal oversight on my part. Skill bonus on Bluff and Disguise, coming right up! I'm also going to throw in a minor image ability, too. For use when attacked by a swarm of flamingos!

Once again, the spider has at will summons which present the same problems of those Bird experiences. The summon itself seems a bit more balanced, though, although having 2 seperate summons could once again present problems (resummon as they die).

Again, I combined the two into one ability and tried to rein it in. I hope this version is better.

[Rabidmuskrat]

My pleasure. PEACH for a PEACH. Would you be so kind as to have a look at the Direct Action and Planning Ahead class features of the LoM? I think its okay, balance wise, but being able to poop out fate points might be considered a bit overpowered. Not sure whether I've taken everything into account.

[Mephibosheth]

1d4 rounds seems like a really short delay time for Direct Action, seeing that all the other re-roll abilities I can think of are only 1/day or, a few times/day, or consumable. I know that you have to spread them out over more targets with Direct Action, but it still might be a bit too frequent. Not overwhelmingly so, but enough that it makes me slightly uncomfortable. Especially since you could do it all day with almost no penalty or meaningful delay out of combat.

I guess I'm a bit confused by Planning Ahead. Basically, it's Direct Action but set up in advance instead of used ad hoc. It still can only be used every 1d4 rounds, though, and there's no per/day limitation to Direct Action so why not just use it ad hoc? Why even bother to plan ahead? Also, "1 + 1/level above 3rd level" is a little confusing. I'd just say, "At 3rd level, each member of the Leader of Men's Unit can have one planned ahead reroll. This limit increases by 1 at each subsequent level, to a maximum of 8 planned ahead rerolls at 10th level." But again, unless this ability allows you to break the 1d4 round delay, I don't really see the point.

[Zelkon]

So, how much is our deadline extended by because of the shutdown?