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2011-11-20, 03:50 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2011
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Attempt at a challenging, High Tier NPC Class
The Grim ProtectorSpoiler
Grim Protectors are not the ones you'd see partying all day. Their goal is to defend a given objective, and their pursue is unrelenting. Literally nothing could sway them from their duties, and all who try are welcomed with a swift death.
Locations: Grim Protectors can be found defending the city gates of towns (together with 5-20 warriors) or small cities (together with 5 other Grim Protectors and 30-50 warriors), protecting bridge passes, throne rooms and secret sites of power.
Race: Grim Protectors are usually members of a race with a long militia tradition and strong lawful tendencies, such as the dwarves. Humans also make great Grim Protectors due to their tendency to get overly passionate with their own goals, whatever those may be. Although there are many Grim Protectors, they do not vary much in terms of race.
Alignment: Lawful Neutral. A Grim Protector who changed his alignment on the Good-Evil axis cannot use his class features (but still levels) until he reverts to Neutral and Atonement is cast on him. A Grim Protector who changed his alignment on the Law-Chaos axis loses all class levels except the first one, and cannot level (in any class, not only Grim Protector) until Atonement is granted to him, and he reverts to Lawful.
Religion: Grim Protectors can be of any faith, as long as the god they worship is specifically Lawful Neutral.
Special Restrictions: Unless the very first level taken at character creation is Grim Protector, a character cannot advance in this class at all. If someone DOES have a level in this class, his class level must be at least equal to his ECL/2 to use class features.
Starting Age: moderate
Starting Gold: as paladin
Class Features
Skill Points per Level: 2 + int mod (x4 at first level)
Class Skills: Appraise, Bluff, Diplomacy, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (Local), Listen, Profession, Search, Sense Motive, Spot, Tumble
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Spells/Powers|Feats
1st|+1|+2|+1|+2|Vow of Defense, Suppress Supernatural, Unworthy|1|1
2nd|+2|+3|+1|+3|Precision Blow, Agile Joints|2|1
3rd|+3|+3|+2|+3|Efficacy, Evasion|2|2
4th|+4|+4|+2|+4|Mediated Conflict, Guard's Vengeance|4|2
5th|+5|+4|+3|+4|Perceptive Dodge, Mental Fortress|4|3
6th|+6/+1|+5|+3|+5|Return to Duty, Vow of Death|7|3
7th|+7/+2|+5|+3|+5|Bonus Feat|7|4
8th|+8/+3|+6|+4|+6|Mettle|11|4
9th|+9/+4|+6|+4|+6|Hold My Ground|11|5
10th|+10/+5|+7|+5|+7|Repurposing|16|5
11th|+11/+6/+1|+7|+5|+7|Bonus Feat|16|6
12th|+12/+7/+2|+8|+6|+8|Denied Retreat|16|6
13th|+13/+8/+3|+8|+6|+8|Penetrating Strikes|22|7
14th|+14/+9/+4|+9|+6|+9|Statue Guard's Toughness|22|7
15th|+15/+10/+5|+9|+7|+9|Bonus Feat|22|8
16th|+16/+11/+6/+1|+10|+7|+10|Defense Line: Repulsion|29|8
17th|+17/+12/+7/+2|+10|+8|+10|Defense Line: Suffering|29|9
18th|+18/+13/+8/+3|+11|+8|+11|Defense Line: Devour|29|9
19th|+19/+14/+9/+4|+11|+8|+11|Bonus Feat|37|10
20th|+20/+15/+10/+5|+12|+9|+12|Repurposing, Statue Guard's Slumber|37|10[/table]
SpoilerSpells/Powers Known
{table]Level|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th
1st|4|2||||||||
2nd|5|2||||||||
3rd|5|3||||||||
4th|6|3|1|||||||
5th|6|4|2|||||||
6th|7|4|2|1||||||
7th|7|5|3|2||||||
8th|8|5|3|2|1|||||
9th|8|5|4|3|2|||||
10th|9|5|4|3|2|1||||
11th|9|5|5|4|3|2||||
12th|9|5|5|4|3|2|1|||
13th|9|5|5|4|4|3|2|||
14th|9|5|5|4|4|3|2|1||
15th|9|5|5|4|4|4|3|2||
16th|9|5|5|4|4|4|3|2|1|
17th|9|5|5|4|4|4|3|3|2|
18th|9|5|5|4|4|4|3|3|2|1
19th|9|5|5|4|4|4|3|3|3|2
20th|9|5|5|4|4|4|3|3|3|3[/table]
A Grim Protector can learn a spell or power as long as his Int score is 11 or higher, regardless of the spell or power's level
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A Grim Protector is proficient with simple and martial weapons, all types of armor, and all shields.
Vow of Defense: A Grim Protector vows to protect a certain place, pass, or object. It must be relatively immobile (a mast on a floating ship is eligible, a coin in a puch the Grim Protector is carrying, not so much). The defended target must fit horizontally in a circle with a radius of 100 feet (it can have any size on the vertical). The Grim Protector cannot choose to vow defense on another objective, unless his current one is destroyed or a recognized superior tells the Grim Protector to change targets. A Grim Protector CAN, however, not vow defense at all. If a class feature is marked (*), it means that the Grim Protector can use it only if he is currently respecting a Vow of Defense, and within 1 mile of his target
*Suppress Supernatural (Su/Sp): A Grim Protector has the innate ability to separate those able to tap into currents of magic or astral energy from their source of power. He is granted a number of points per day, that are recharged via an 8 hour sleep, as displayed in the Spells/Powers column. They can be used in 2 ways:
Firstly, when a character is casting or manifesting, the Grim Protector can expend an Immediate Action to counter their spell or power. If the spell or power are basic, 1 point is expended, if the spell has metamagic applied to it/the power is augmented, 2 points are expended. This is treated as a supernatural ability. Secondly, a Grim Protector can ward a target within line of sight with a specific spell/power as a swift action spell-like ability, so that when they cast/manifest a specific spell/power it is countered. The wards expend 1 point at creation, are subject to SR, stack, and can only be removed by triggering them.
Grim Protectors can only block spells and powers that they have learned. They are granted bonus Spells/Powers known for having a high Int score. They also add their Cha mod to Spell/Power blocking points per day.
*Unworthy (Ex): Once every 2 levels, starting at level 1, a Grim Protector may choose a feat from any category. The Grim Protector must qualify for all feats chosen this way, with one exception: for the purpose of qualifying for metamagic and metapsionic feats only, a Grim Protector treats himself as a Wilder and a Sorcerer of the same level. All creatures within 5 feet*level of the Grim Protector are affected by this ability.
Creatures within range are treated as if they do not have the passive feats (except where it would make no sense, such as with Leadership) chosen by the Grim Protector (casting a spell that has been enhanced with metamagic as a prepared caster is treated as passive for this purpose). If they choose to use an active (requires a full round action or less) feat that was chosen by the Grim Protector, they must make a Will Save against a DC of 15+Class Level/2+Wis mod.
Precision Blow (Ex): Right before attacking, a Grim Protector can declare a Precision Blow. Precision Blows never threaten a critical, never fail on a roll of 1, never deal nonlethal damage (not even against Regenerating foes) and instead of rolling for their weapon damage they use the average by default.
Agile Joints (Ex): A level 2 Grim Protector treats the maximum dex of his armor as being 1 point higher.
Evasion (Ex): If subjected to an attack that allows a Reflex save for half damage, a character with evasion takes no damage on a successful save.
*Efficacy (Ex): Keeping his movement tight and efficient, a Grim Protector does not expend his swift action when performing an immediate action. He is still normally limited to one immediate action per round.
Mediated Conflict (Su): The Grim Protector controls a battle situation by minimizing unwanted harm. He must choose 2 targets within line of sight as a standard action: those targets must be either willing or have lower or equal HD to him. If a target that has lower HD but is unwilling is selected, he is not offered a save. The selected targets cannot deal any kind of direct damage to each other (direct damage meaning any attack involving a weapon, or any spell/power that takes SR/PR into account) for Cha mod rounds. The Grim Protector may not choose himself, nor any other character with levels in the Grim Protector class.
*Guard's Vengeance (Su): And all who dare approach the Grim Protector's objective shall cry in pain. He can use this ability when hitting an opponent in melee (doesn't stack). If, voluntarily or against his will, the opponent then gets closer to the defended objective than he was when he was hit, he receives the damage he took when this ability was first used on him again, except it will be treated as untyped.
Perceptive Dodge (Ex): A Grim Protector always has a clear mind and a deep awareness of the battlefield. Due to this, he cannot be sneak attacked.
*Mental Fortress (Ex): A Grim Protector can resist charms and compulsions by clearing his mind of everything but his vow of defense, gaining a +4 bonus to Will saves made to resist mind-affecting effects.
*Return to Duty (Ex): A Grim Protector can shake abuse off by focusing on his duty. After he fails a fortitude save to avoid being stunned, he can make a will save against the same DC. If he succeeds, the duration is halved, then rounded down (if the duration is 1, the ability fails).
Vow of Death (Ex): A Grim Protector cannot allow morals or empathy to sway him from his path. He gains a bonus to damage rolls equal to his class level. Additionally, while within 1 mile of his defended objective, acts of murder committed by him are never treated as evil.
Bonus Feat: At levels 7, 11, 15 and 19, a Grim Protector may choose to gain one feat from the bonus fighter list. He must have the necessary prerequisites. He may, however, refuse to gain a feat in any of those instances, and choose another feat for his Unworthy feature instead.
Mettle (Ex): Starting at level 8, a Grim Protector's determination allows him to shrug off magical effects that would otherwise harm him. If a Grim Protector makes a successful Will or Fortitude save that would normally reduce an abilitys effect (such as a spell with the entry Will partial or Fortitude half) he receives no effects.
*Hold My Ground (Su): A Grim Protector's worst nightmare is to be separated from his defended objective. Both the objective and the protector himself are treated as planar locked while within 1 mile of each other.
Repurposing: At levels 10 and 20, a Grim Protector may completely change his spells/powers known list.
*Denied Retreat: A Grim Protector must make sure that foes never get a second chance to mess with his objective. Astral travel is not allowed 100 feet around the objective and the Grim Protector can make attacks of opportunity against withdrawing opponents.
Penetrating Strikes (Su): A level 13 Grim Protector rips the veil between worlds with every one of his hits. As a result, his attacks damage incorporeal and ethereal foes normally.
Statue Guard's Thoughness (Ex): Whenever a Grim Protector would take non-energy lethal damage, he can make a Fort save against a DC equal to the damage. If he succeeds, the damage he receives becomes nonlethal. If he fails, he receives DR 5/- and cannot use this ability for 3 rounds.
*Defense Lines: A high level Grim Protector can conjure up additional defenses to protect his objective. All the abilities presented below disappear if the Grim Protector is unconscious and can be made by the Grim Protector to specifically not work on certain targets, including himself.
Repulsion: The space up to 250 feet away from the objective is treated as being under a permanent Antipathy effect. The exact race/alignment being warded off by Antipathy can be changed by the Grim Protector once per day.
Suffering: All creatures within 200 feet of the objective receive 5d8 of untyped lethal damage per round. If their hit points drops below maximum/2, they become fatigued until they leave the area.
Devour: If a creature dies within 1 mile of the objective, its soul is destroyed.
Statue Guard's Slumber (Su): A level 20 Grim Protector can completely turn himself into a statue. No kind of magic, no matter how strong, can detect that he is alive, or even that the statue is magical. As a statue, the Grim Protector is treated as an immovable (dex 0) construct with +20 hit points and hardness 30. While a statue, the Grim Protector does not age, is not affected by poison or disease (which is suppressed on him but still exists), and is treated as sleeping although not unconscious. While a statue, the Grim Reaper loses his sight and hearing, but gains Tremorsense out to 240 feet. Turning into a statue and back are both free actions, but the Grim Reaper must remain at least 1 hour in the statue conditions after turning.Last edited by Phosphate; 2011-11-20 at 01:36 PM.
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2011-11-20, 05:56 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2006
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Re: Attempt at a challenging, High Tier NPC Class
Base Saves: Doesn't match any standard save progression. Is there any particular reason for that?
Vow of Defense: Doesn't state how often you can declare a spot to be defended, how quickly you can change it, etc. Do they just defend "This spot in the ground" every fight? What happens if their defended spot is destroyed?
Unworthy: Ooookaaay... Not sure exactly why you're allowing them to cancel feats. It also suffers from the oddity of "Too restrictive". Anti-PC abilities should reduce effectiveness, but they shouldn't say "No, you can't do that ever". It's also add about what it blocks and what it doesn't block, when it cancels some spellcasters, doesn't cancel other spellcasters, gives saves for some but not others... It's a bit awkward.
Suppress Supernatural: So... They learn spells for the specific ability to counter them? That seems a little wonky, when you're planning on throwing this against a party, and you'll most likely see many different spells getting thrown around.
The same goes for how blocking spells works. It's weird that the same person has to spend more effort blocking a level 9 spell, in comparison to blocking a level 1 spell modified with silent spell or something.
The name is also misleading, because of what supernatural abilities actually are, and how this cannot affect supernatural abilities at all.
On the whole, you'd probably want to find a better swapping mechanism than your current one, because the way it works, it has "Built to counter one and only one person in one place", which is a bit too restrictive, even for NPCs.
Precision Blow: I'm really not sure what the goal of this is. Even without auto-misses, it still auto-hits on 20s. Natural 1s would miss enough even without the auto-fumble. And I'm really not sure how it fits.
Agile Joints: Pretty simple. Doesn't hurt, but with their build, Dex isn't a high priority, so it doesn't help too much, either.
Evasion: When reflex is their weak save? How exactly does that work?
Efficacy: Seems a bit too strong to come at such an early level. Most times, getting bonus actions comes at a cost, or at a very high level. A free immediate action every turn, when there's an easy way to use said immediate action...
Mediated Conflict: Mentions a save, doesn't actually say what KIND of save it is. And no matter what, even if they're low level, it needs to have a save. Otherwise, you're dealing with cases where you completely control players with an action. Needs to state what kind of action is used, and how many uses per day/encounter/whatever.
Guard's Vengeance: Again: needs to declare a type of action, a duration, etc. In addition, it simply seems too strong because all a guard has to do is move towards their object and they get free damage. If a guard is an archer, stacks this or the like... Good luck with that.
Perceptive Dodge: Again, too strong for a low level. Uncanny Dodge/Improved Uncanny Dodge already exist, and there doesn't really seem to be a good reason to use this instead.
Mental Fortress: +4 seems like a bit much for a sudden jump. It'd probably be better to split this over levels, instead of plopping it in suddenly. Past that, pretty handy, nothing too special.
Return to Duty: Odd. Halving the duration could be useful, but it's limited to only Stunned. It also uses fortitude saves only, when the Stunned effect isn't usually linked to fortitude.
Vow of Death: What. "Go nuts and kill everybody! As long as you're close to this object! What? You're not actively defending this object? That's okay!" Not to mention the free smiting damage is excessive when it's on every attack with no restrictions.
Bonus Feat: Nothing too special. Seems kind of filler-ish. Probably needs to be restricted instead of allowing any feat.
Mettle: So... Evasion PLUS mettle? Mettle by itself is plenty. Just drop it into Evasion's place.
Hold My Ground: It's... odd. Formally, I believe it's "Treated as Dimensional Anchor" or something like that, but you have to remember that it's weird when they have to move 1 mile away before a beneficial teleport. They want to dimension door closer TO their object? Sorry, can't do that. Reasonable, but it seems a bit too restraining.
Repurposing: Seems like too sudden of a change. The sorcerer's trade-in mechanics seem better than a sudden complete swap.
Denied Retreat: Astral Travel is not the only cross-planar travel around. Random attacks on withdrawing opponents is... Okay, though a little weird.
Penetrating Strikes: Nothing too special. It could probably be gained earlier.
Statue Guard's Thoughness: Typo aside... Huh? So, they randomly get DR for failing? How long, exactly, does it last? And nonlethal damage still means they'll be dead after, not to mention you're rolling saves on everything... This is a really awkward manner of reducing damage/lethality. A flat damage-to-nonlethal-damage would work better.
Defense Lines: Nothing too special at this level. Could be spaced out better along his levels, instead of all coming at the end of the class.
Statue Guard's Slumber: REALLY weak capstone. Asleep is an odd way of do it, tremorsense isn't much when people fly easily, and plenty of things bypass hardness.
On the whole, his abilities tend to be everywhere. Some are a bit strong, some are a bit weak, and some are awkwardly worded. It just needs a good bit of reworking to properly space out its features, and have features which are more useful for its goal, due to the odd way "defending a place" is phrased.
The location guard effect is a good idea. However, forcing them to build and take anti-feats and anti-spells pretty much against a SINGLE target is straining it. Generalizing abilities but giving them more practical counters would be a good idea.Last edited by Ruduen; 2011-11-20 at 09:41 PM.
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I have a part-time job as an NPC...
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2011-11-20, 06:13 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2009
Re: Attempt at a challenging, High Tier NPC Class
While I'll leave others to quibble over the details, the basic concept is a good one: By making most of his powers incompatible with travelling a lot, it stays an NPC class despite the high power.
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2011-11-21, 03:35 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2011
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Re: Attempt at a challenging, High Tier NPC Class
While I must agree that some of your critique is constructive and frankly valuable advice, there were places where you simply misunderstood the class. So let's do this :D.
The reflex save is what is called an average save. It simply averages between good and bad, and while I admit that no official class has such progression, I have seen homebrews that do. Fact is, this class is a quick thinking guard with keen reflexes, so it wouldn't fit the flavor to give him a poor reflex. The problem with giving him good reflex was purely a balance issue, as I don't think any normal class aside from the Favored Soul has all good saves, and Favored Soul is broken. But, being an NPC, I might rethink it and give him good reflex after all....
Vow of Defense: Doesn't state how often you can declare a spot to be defended, how quickly you can change it, etc. Do they just defend "This spot in the ground" every fight? What happens if their defended spot is destroyed?
The Grim Protector cannot choose to vow defense on another objective, unless his current one is destroyed or a recognized superior tells the Grim Protector to change targets.
Unworthy: Ooookaaay... Not sure exactly why you're allowing them to cancel feats. It also suffers from the oddity of "Too restrictive". Anti-PC abilities should reduce effectiveness, but they shouldn't say "No, you can't do that ever".
It's also add about what it blocks and what it doesn't block, when it cancels some spellcasters, doesn't cancel other spellcasters, gives saves for some but not others... It's a bit awkward.
Suppress Supernatural: So... They learn spells for the specific ability to counter them? That seems a little wonky, when you're planning on throwing this against a party, and you'll most likely see many different spells getting thrown around.
The same goes for how blocking spells works. It's weird that the same person has to spend more effort blocking a level 9 spell, in comparison to blocking a level 1 spell modified with silent spell or something.
The name is also misleading, because of what supernatural abilities actually are, and how this cannot affect supernatural abilities at all.
On the whole, you'd probably want to find a better swapping mechanism than your current one, because the way it works, it has "Built to counter one and only one person in one place", which is a bit too restrictive, even for NPCs.
Which means that, if a Protector is indeed able to block a single person, but do so completely and comprehensively, it has done its intended job and is actually somewhat better than it should be.
Precision Blow: I'm really not sure what the goal of this is. Even without auto-misses, it still auto-hits on 20s. Natural 1s would miss enough even without the auto-fumble. And I'm really not sure how it fits.
Agile Joints: Pretty simple. Doesn't hurt, but with their build, Dex isn't a high priority, so it doesn't help too much, either.
Evasion: When reflex is their weak save? How exactly does that work?
Efficacy: Seems a bit too strong to come at such an early level. Most times, getting bonus actions comes at a cost, or at a very high level. A free immediate action every turn, when there's an easy way to use said immediate action...
Mediated Conflict: Mentions a save, doesn't actually say what KIND of save it is. And no matter what, even if they're low level, it needs to have a save. Otherwise, you're dealing with cases where you completely control players with an action. Needs to state what kind of action is used, and how many uses per day/encounter/whatever.
Guard's Vengeance: Again: needs to declare a type of action, a duration, etc. In addition, it simply seems too strong because all a guard has to do is move towards their object and they get free damage. If a guard is an archer, stacks this or the like... Good luck with that.
Perceptive Dodge: Again, too strong for a low level. Uncanny Dodge/Improved Uncanny Dodge already exist, and there doesn't really seem to be a good reason to use this instead.
Mental Fortress: +4 seems like a bit much for a sudden jump. It'd probably be better to split this over levels, instead of plopping it in suddenly. Past that, pretty handy, nothing too special.
Return to Duty: Odd. Halving the duration could be useful, but it's limited to only Stunned. It also uses fortitude saves only, when the Stunned effect isn't usually linked to fortitude.
Vow of Death: What. "Go nuts and kill everybody! As long as you're close to this object! What? You're not actively defending this object? That's okay!" Not to mention the free smiting damage is excessive when it's on every attack with no restrictions.
As for the bonus damage, it's pretty much the only thing helping them stay competitive. Remember they are supposed to go toe to toe with spellcasters. I mean, seriously, they increase their damage by 1 tiny point per level, while a Wizard Transmuter increases it by 2d6 per level and a Psion increases it by d10. And either way, smite is not that great.
Bonus Feat: Nothing too special. Seems kind of filler-ish. Probably needs to be restricted instead of allowing any feat.
They must be chosen from the bonus fighter list. Can you get more restrictive than THAT. Also, I find it laughable that you consider a guard having fighter training to be filler-ish, since a guard IS, essentially, a fighter.
Mettle: So... Evasion PLUS mettle? Mettle by itself is plenty. Just drop it into Evasion's place.
Hold My Ground: It's... odd. Formally, I believe it's "Treated as Dimensional Anchor" or something like that, but you have to remember that it's weird when they have to move 1 mile away before a beneficial teleport. They want to dimension door closer TO their object? Sorry, can't do that. Reasonable, but it seems a bit too restraining.
They're guardians with a rigid morality whose prime goal in life is to protect their objective. Why would they even LEAVE it? Also, please note all the abilities that are not *ed. That is all they have when they are not within 1 mile of their objective. Now, I know what you're thinking, might as well say it out loud: TIER 6.
Repurposing: Seems like too sudden of a change. The sorcerer's trade-in mechanics seem better than a sudden complete swap.
Denied Retreat: Astral Travel is not the only cross-planar travel around. Random attacks on withdrawing opponents is... Okay, though a little weird.
Penetrating Strikes: Nothing too special. It could probably be gained earlier.
Statue Guard's Thoughness: Typo aside... Huh? So, they randomly get DR for failing? How long, exactly, does it last? And nonlethal damage still means they'll be dead after, not to mention you're rolling saves on everything... This is a really awkward manner of reducing damage/lethality. A flat damage-to-nonlethal-damage would work better.
Defense Lines: Nothing too special at this level. Could be spaced out better along his levels, instead of all coming at the end of the class.
Statue Guard's Slumber: REALLY weak capstone. Asleep is an odd way of do it, tremorsense isn't much when people fly easily, and plenty of things bypass hardness.
However, I didn't think about flying stuff, to be quite frank. Should I give them the Sighted ability as per the psicrystal?