Base Class Challenge Chat Thread III: Gotta 'Brew 'Em All!

[Silva Stormrage]

Fury Critique

Fury

"He was bleeding like a river by the end, and every strike left him wide open, but no matter how many men we sent against him, he just kept hitting harder." - General Darian Rhomes, after a battle with a Fury

Furies are walls of destruction and death. They become consumed by madness as they fight and are so embroiled in destruction that they abandon their own defense for the sake of eviscerating their foes.

Adventures: Furies are perfectly amicable out of combat and adventure for many of the same reasons fighters do - riches, fame, duty, or heroism.

Characteristics: Furies are practically unkillable. They focus on high-risk high-reward combat, dealing heavy damage by making themselves vulnerable to counterattack. Their ability to take an immense amount of damage while being a tempting target for foes makes them a powerful tank.

Alignment: Furies come from all stripes. Good-aligned furies tend to be almost afraid of their own powers, whereas evil ones wholeheartedly embrace them. Furies paradoxically lean toward lawful alignments due to the self-control required by their powers.

Religion: There are few religious trends among furies. Erythnul, god of slaughter, however, is a popular god among evil furies, and many consider them his paladins. Good- and neutral-aligned furies often worship Kord as a drive to embrace their strength.

Background: Most furies have a powerful or traumatic moment in their past that they tap into as they descend into insanity. Some, however, are always on the brink, and are simply pushed over it by the stresses of combat. Either way, they are typically isolated individuals. There is no central order of furies, though mentoring between a more experienced fury and a neophyte is common.

Races: Larger and stronger races are more capable of handling the stresses that a fury's combat style puts on the body, but any race is capable of becoming a fury.

Other Classes: The immense emotional control required to tap into inner madness without being consumed by it typically makes furies very reserved, calm people outside of combat. This leads to them getting along well with - although rarely befriending - most others they meet. They have respect for monks, wizards, and other classes who gain power from their self-control and self-discipline. They identify with barbarians, but operate upon a different level than them and thus tend not to get along well.

Role: Furies are frontline damage dealers and tanks - their abilities focus largely on the tank role.

Adaptation: Furies have no class features (save Clouded Vision) that cannot be flavored as coming from raw mental focus. A masterful martial artist or monk could use the same chassis without seeming out of place.

GAME RULE INFORMATION
Furies have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Strength and Constitution help improve a fury's role on the frontlines, while Wisdom and Dexterity help shore up their weak saving throws. Dexterity's AC boost is surprisingly counterproductive, since Madman's Stance will be obliterating the fury's AC anyway.
Alignment: Any alignment.
Hit Die: d12
Starting Age: As barbarian.
Starting Gold: As barbarian.

Class Skills
The fury's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), and Spot (Wis).

Skill Points at First Level: (2 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier

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

1st|

+1

|

+2

|

+0

|

+0

|Insanity, Madman's Stance, Simmering Rage 5, Know My Pain (1/2x)

2nd|

+2

|

+3

|

+0

|

+0

|Clouded Vision

3rd|

+3

|

+3

|

+1

|

+1

|Madness Manifest

4th|

+4

|

+4

|

+1

|

+1

|Simmering Rage 10

5th|

+5

|

+4

|

+1

|

+1

|Know My Pain (return damage)

6th|

+6/+1

|

+5

|

+2

|

+2

|Madness Manifest II

7th|

+7/+2

|

+5

|

+2

|

+2

|To the Brink (1/day)

8th|

+8/+3

|

+6

|

+2

|

+2

|Simmering Rage 15

9th|

+9/+4

|

+6

|

+3

|

+3

|Madness Manifest III

10th|

+10/+5

|

+7

|

+3

|

+3

|Know My Pain (1x)

11th|

+11/+6/+1

|

+7

|

+3

|

+3

|To the Brink (2/day)

12th|

+12/+7/+2

|

+8

|

+4

|

+4

|Simmering Rage 20, Madness Manifest IV

13th|

+13/+8/+3

|

+8

|

+4

|

+4

|Mettle

14th|

+14/+9/+4

|

+9

|

+4

|

+4

|To the Brink (3/day)

15th|

+15/+10/+5

|

+9

|

+5

|

+5

|Madness Manifest V

16th|

+16/+11/+6/+1

|

+10

|

+5

|

+5

|Simmering Rage 25

17th|

+17/+12/+7/+2

|

+10

|

+5

|

+5

|To the Brink (4/day)

18th|

+18/+13/+8/+3

|

+11

|

+6

|

+6

|Madness Manifest VI

19th|

+19/+14/+9/+4

|

+11

|

+6

|

+6

|To the Brink (at-will)

20th|

+20/+15/+10/+5

|

+12

|

+6

|

+6

|Simmering Rage 30, Madness Incarnate[/table]

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Fury.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Furies are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light, medium, and heavy armor.

All other class features go here (Use the format shown directly below if you don't know what to do.)!

Insanity: Furies draw from their own madness in combat. This madness is represented by their Insanity score, which begins each combat at 0 and increases by 1 each time the Fury makes a successful attack or is successfully hit. His Insanity cannot be higher than half his Fury level (rounded up). Insanity immediately reduces to 0 when combat ends.

Madman's Stance (Ex): Insanity drives a Fury's attacks. In combat, he gains a bonus to attack rolls equal to his current Insanity. However, his wild swings put him off balance, giving enemies an equal bonus to attack rolls to hit him.

Simmering Rage (Ex): Pain is hidden behind a mask of rage for a fury. When they are struck, they are not immediately injured. Furies have a delayed damage pool that begins each encounter at 0. Any damage dealt to them by attacks is added to this pool. At the end of their next turn, they take the amount of damage stored in the pool and the pool is reduced to 0. This damage cannot be mitigated in any way. Any healing received can be split between a fury's Simmering Rage pool and their hit points as desired.
At 1st level, a fury's delayed damage pool holds up to 5 points of damage. Any damage beyond this amount is dealt directly to your hit points, as normal. At 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th level, the amount of damage held by the pool increases by 5.

Know My Pain (Ex): A fury can release their own injuries upon their foes. Each time they hit with a weapon, they deal additional damage equal to their insanity as long as there is at least one point of damage in their Simmering Rage pool. At level 5, each such attack reduces their Simmering Rage pool by up to half the bonus damage (rounded up). At level 10, the attacks instead reduce their Simmering Rage pool by up to the value of the bonus damage.

Clouded Vision (Ex): Starting at level 2, a fury becomes too embroiled in combat to be able to quickly differentiate friend and foe. If the fury has built at least one point of insanity and an ally provokes an attack of opportunity in a square the fury threatens, he must take the attack of opportunity if he is able.

Madness Manifest (Su): The central pillar of the fury is the eldritch power they gain from their madness in combat. At level 3, they choose one of three paths to follow to determine how they draw strength from their rage.
<TBA>

To the Brink (Ex): With a tense of their muscles and a bloodcurdling roar, a fury can bring themselves instantly to a state of pure rage. Once per day they can set their insanity instantly to its maximum value. Activating this ability is a free action. At 11th level and every three levels thereafter, To the Brink can be used an additional time per day. At level 19, it is usable at-will.

Insanity: Insanity is a bit clunky right now. You will pretty much always have maxed insanity after the first round of combat right now unless you sacrifice it with Know my Pain. I would suggest making it take a bit longer to fill up, make it cap at your character level but only grant you 1/2 your insanity score to hit from Madman stance.

Simmering Rage: Cool, maybe at higher levels allow him to delay the damage for 2 or more rounds?

Know My Pain: If you take my suggestion on insanity reduce the amount of damage to half your insanity pool or something similar. If you don't take my suggestion then its good right now. Why would you want to reduce your insanity though? I would imagine most characters taking this class would take shock trooper and try to tank with miss chances.

Clouded Vision: Hm I don't like this ability. It basically makes it so that allies have to essentially stay away and it has no check to resist. I like the flavor but I think it should have a will save or something to resist murdering your allies. Also put this ability in the order that you get them, it makes it easier to read.

To the Brink: Like I said, at the moment you pretty much will almost always have max insanity.


Suggestion for other abilities:
Bull rush type abilities including improved bull rush as a bonus feat.
Power Attack bonuses, maybe not extra damage as it doesn't need it but maybe stuff like bonus on trip attempts equal to power attack penalty? Things like that.
Extra hit points and tanking abilities. DR maybe?

Cool class but it needs some more work before the final version. You still have some time to fix it though.

[Xhosant]

Also: If I'm reading this correctly, Know My Pain grows weaker as you level. At 10 level and later, it will empty your insanity every time, whereas before that it just slowly drains it. Unless that's the point, but i'd doubt that.

As for Clouded vision, i'm skeptical. Although the flavor is great, it becomes a liability, and a harsh one at that. Second, if it is to be gained at level 2, people will actually dread the level, which isn't good. It needs to either offer something in return or be "gained" at level 1. Bonus points if it is offset as you level, in a "learning to control it" way (such as increased tools to not attack). Finally, as a tank, i think you'll be relying on reach and AoO, so this is really dangerous as is, possibly crippling.

[Cheesy74]

Insanity: Insanity is a bit clunky right now. You will pretty much always have maxed insanity after the first round of combat right now unless you sacrifice it with Know my Pain. I would suggest making it take a bit longer to fill up, make it cap at your character level but only grant you 1/2 your insanity score to hit from Madman stance.

I like this idea. It does seem to fill too fast as-is. A pervasive miscommunication here seems to be that Know My Pain drains insanity. It doesn't - it drains the delayed damage pool.

Simmering Rage: Cool, maybe at higher levels allow him to delay the damage for 2 or more rounds?

If it's delayed for multiple rounds it'll keep getting filled back up and it'd be either ambiguous regarding when the damage actually hits the fury or would be overcomplicated and difficult to track.

Know My Pain: If you take my suggestion on insanity reduce the amount of damage to half your insanity pool or something similar. If you don't take my suggestion then its good right now. Why would you want to reduce your insanity though? I would imagine most characters taking this class would take shock trooper and try to tank with miss chances.

See my prior comment - Know My Pain reduces your delayed damage pool, which isn't related to your insanity. I hadn't thought of miss chances as an effective tactic for this type of tank, though - that's inspiration for one of the Madness Manifest paths, thanks!

Clouded Vision: Hm I don't like this ability. It basically makes it so that allies have to essentially stay away and it has no check to resist. I like the flavor but I think it should have a will save or something to resist murdering your allies. Also put this ability in the order that you get them, it makes it easier to read.

I'll reorder them, thanks. And I may just remove this ability entirely. It needs the "maddened, unpredictable" flavor but I don't like the tank being a land mine on the field and adding a will save to a low-will-save class seems weird. I'll think of something else.

To the Brink: Like I said, at the moment you pretty much will almost always have max insanity.

After your modifications it should be much more useful.

Suggestion for other abilities:
Bull rush type abilities including improved bull rush as a bonus feat.

I'll consider it.

Power Attack bonuses, maybe not extra damage as it doesn't need it but maybe stuff like bonus on trip attempts equal to power attack penalty? Things like that.

Power Attack as a bonus feat will be a pretty good replacement for level 2...I'll brainstorm ways to modify it.

Extra hit points and tanking abilities. DR maybe?

My current ideas for Madness Manifest paths are fast healing, temporary HP, and miss chance. I may swap out one of them for DR, not sure.

Thanks for the critique!

[Xhosant]

A pervasive miscommunication here seems to be that Know My Pain drains insanity. It doesn't - it drains the delayed damage pool.

Well, that solves my worries about Know My Pain, but I'm afraid about it's power. Essentially, after level 10 you're only damaged after the pool is full, provided you get to attack. At level 20, that means DR30/-, only split over all attackers. Not to mention your attacks will decimate them if they manage to go through the pool, with a hard-hitting weapon and pumped-up strength, you're usually looking at Massive Damage when your pool is full.

[Cheesy74]

I think you may have misread something again - it only boosts damage by half of maximum insanity (changed from full insanity after taking Silva's advice to double max insanity), so it's only giving you, at most, a +10 to damage at level 20. That's nothing. And besides, massive damage for a heavy-damage-dealing class at level 20 is par for the course. I'd be ashamed if it weren't toeing that line.

If I remove the upgrade to Know My Pain at level 10, it'll let you eliminate 20 damage from the Simmering Rage pool per round at level 20 if every attack lands. Would that be more reasonable?

[Xhosant]

I think it'll be tame if you change the effect to work on successful basic attack. So not on AoO, and for the love of Batman not on full-round attack. Post-10, that bit won't matter, but it boosts your drain before that.

Also, consider: after 10, deals damage equal to pool but still drains half of it. That will make it more dependable as an attack while balancing the defence bit, if it turns out too strong.

As for Paths, an idea is the heavy-armored/shielded that is particularly pissed when attacked, and a more reckless heavy-hitter (give him free Monkey Grip if you're feeling evil).

[Pyromancer999]

I've decided to remove my current entry, seeing as I came up with an even better idea that more fits the theme. For anyone who may have liked what they say, no worries, it will come up later outside the contest, albeit in a somewhat altered format for the class, at least.

Is it fine if I create a new entry? My last entry wasn't finished, but the rules say one entry per person, so I wasn't sure on that.

[Xhosant]

It is, happens all the time (mine included). Only thing is, you're really low on time at the moment. Think you can cope?

[Temotei]

I've decided to remove my current entry, seeing as I came up with an even better idea that more fits the theme. For anyone who may have liked what they say, no worries, it will come up later outside the contest, albeit in a somewhat altered format for the class, at least.

Is it fine if I create a new entry? My last entry wasn't finished, but the rules say one entry per person, so I wasn't sure on that.

It is, happens all the time (mine included). Only thing is, you're really low on time at the moment. Think you can cope?

Completely fine, as Xhosant says. The one-entry limit is to keep people from posting several different classes they had in the works that fit the theme and getting a much higher chance of winning because of that. It's also harder to tell if someone is cheating if they have multiple classes since you have to look for all of them, not just one. And what happens if they cheated with one class, but not the other(s)? There aren't many positives to balance the negatives of allowing multiple entries.

However, all of that doesn't apply to you. Deleting your entry and putting in a new one is fine, since we'll only be voting on one and only one will be subject to contest rules. Just be sure not to post something outside the contest, then change your mind and put it back in or something.

[Network]

Would someone please comment on my class, the Apostle of Madness? I didn't complete it, but I plan to use all the time I get, so doing otherwise would mean I won't have much replies.

I'm going to give them the ability to bypass immunity to mind-affecting effects by accepting to take the effect of their own spells. Do anyone have an idea for the name of that class feature?

[Pyromancer999]

Completely fine, as Xhosant says. The one-entry limit is to keep people from posting several different classes they had in the works that fit the theme and getting a much higher chance of winning because of that. It's also harder to tell if someone is cheating if they have multiple classes since you have to look for all of them, not just one. And what happens if they cheated with one class, but not the other(s)? There aren't many positives to balance the negatives of allowing multiple entries.

However, all of that doesn't apply to you. Deleting your entry and putting in a new one is fine, since we'll only be voting on one and only one will be subject to contest rules.

Cool, good to know.

Just be sure not to post something outside the contest, then change your mind and put it back in or something.

Definitely will not.

[Silva Stormrage]

Apostle of Madness Review

The Apostle of Madness

Image

WHAT? You dare to question my knowledge!? My masters will come to kill you all!

The power of the Far Realm is very attractive to would-be oracles and sages. Not only are the residents of that plane generous in their gifts, but they accept almost anyone amongst their followers. Unknown to most, the Far Realm is a threat to the entire Multiverse, but the Apostles of Madness know the truth. Driven by insanity or personal gain, they willingfully allow their masters to get a grip on reality, and especially on themselves.

Adventures: Typically, an Apostle of Madness will adventure in hope of spreading their warnings of impending doom. Good Apostles believe that the more people they convert, the more will be saved on the last days. Evil Apostles do everything in their power to make sure to be saved, including adventuring.

Characteristics: What your class is capable of.

Alignment: Apostles of Madness are necessarily Chaotic, because no mind can stay orderly for long after touching pure madness. Most of them are Chaotic Neutral, but some have an unexplanable tendency toward evil, as it is more in line with the destructive nature of chaos and madness.

Religion: Apostles of Madness are the servants of nameless entities from outside time, space, and possibly the Multiverse itself. They believe these beings to be more powerful than gods. For this reason, they rarely, if ever, follow any kind of religion.

Background: How you become part of your class and why.

Races: Most Apostles of Madness are human, simply because few other races have both an attraction to the Far Realm and enough willpower to retain their sanity upon touching it. Elves are the next most common.

Other Classes: An Apostle of Madness have no special opinion of fighting classes, except barbarians, which they see as interesting allies to team up with. They despise divine spellcasters, whom they consider to be pale imitators, and who think the same of them. They always consider themselves superior to arcane spellcasters and psionics, as they received enlightenment (of a sort) and not them. Finally, they hate Harrowed, as they believe their interior monster to be trapped Far Realm entities, which only need to be freed once more.

Role: What your class does in and for a party.

Adaptation: If you do not want to include the Far Realm as a substantial threat in your campaign world, the powers of the Apostle of Madness may come from a combination of innate psychic abilities and mental instability. In this case, the Mad Dreams class feature is the result their ability to immerse themselves into the collective consciousness, while the various Gifts of the Ancient are applications of (in any combination) their ability to mix reality and imagination, to predict the future and to use alchemy in formely unheard of ways.

GAME RULE INFORMATION
The Apostle of Madness have the following game statistics.
Abilities: The most important ability of an Apostle of Madness is Wisdom. Constitution is also useful as she has few hit points. Dexterity will let them dodge attacks, which may be helpful should they be forced into melee.
Alignment: Any Chaotic.
Hit Die: d6
Starting Age: What age your class starts at level one as normally ("As barbarian," "As bard," and "As cleric" are the standard options, though feel free to put down the numbers, as well.).
Starting Gold: What amount of currency your class starts at level one with normally ("As barbarian," "As cleric," "As druid," "As fighter," "As monk," and "As sorcerer" are the standard options, though feel free to put down the numbers, as well.).

Class Skills
The Apostle of Madness' class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), Psicraft (Int) and Spellcraft (Int)

Skill Points at First Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Apostle of Madness.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Apostles of Madness are proficient with all simple weapons. They are not proficient with any type of armor or shield. Armor does not, however, interfere with the manifestation of powers.

Sanity Points/Day: An Apostle of Madness ability to manipulate sanity is limited by the sanity points she has available. Her base daily allotment of sanity points is given on Table: The Apostle of Madness. She also gains bonus sanity points equal to (Wisdom modifier * Class level)/2. To recover her sanity points, the Apostle of Madness must sleep or rest eight continous hours.
Should the Apostle of Madness be reduced to 0 sanity points in any way, she instantly take 1d6 points of Wisdom damage.

Sanity Control (see text): As the Apostle of Madness follows the path of her masters, she gains the ability to control her mind and those of people around her. Each time she achieves a new level, she unlocks the knowledge of a new psionic power or arcane spell, which she can use by spending sanity points.
{table=head]Class level|Maximum level of powers/spells known
1st-2nd|

1

3rd-4th|

2

5th-6th|

3

7th-8th|

4

9th-10th|

5

11th-12th|

6

13th-14th|

7

15th-16th|

8

17th-20th|

9

[/table]
Choose the powers and spells known from the Apostle of Madness lists below. Instead of power points or spell slots, the Apostle of Madness uses sanity points. A power or spells costs a number of sanity points equal to (its level * 2) -1, but the Apostle of Madness can only spend one sanity point per level on a given power or spell (she has an effective caster and manifester level equal to her class level).

The Apostle of Madness can use Metamagic and Metapsionic feats, if she has any, but doing so increases the cost of the casting (as normal for a power, according to the modified spell level for a spell).

Powers and spells granted by the Sanity Control ability are neither spell-like nor psi-like, with all of the accompanying benefits and drawbacks. In the case of powers, sanity points replaces power points for the purpose of augmentations.

The Difficulty Class for saving throws against powers and spells is 10 + the power’s or spell's level + the Apostle's Wisdom modifier.

To learn, manifest or cast a power or spell, an Apostle of Madness must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the power’s or spell's level.

Apostle of Madness list of powers :
1- Attraction, Déjà Vu, Demoralize, Disable
2- Aversion, Brain Lock, Ego Whip, Inflict Pain, Mental Disruption
3- Crisis of Breath, False Sensory Imput
4- Death Urge, Personality Parasite, Psionic Modify Memory, Schism
5- Shatter Mind Black
6- Co-Opt Concentration
7- Crisis of Life, Insanity
8- Mind Seed
9- Apopsi, Microcosm

Apostle of Madness list of spells :
1- Cause Fear, Color Spray, Confusion, Lesser
2- Black Karma Curse (PHBII), Hypnotic Pattern, Scare
3- Cruel Disappointment (BoVD), Curse of the Putrid Husk (BoVD), Rage, Reality Bind (BoVD)
4- Confusion, Crushing Despair, Fear, Friend to Foe (PHBII), Phantasmal Killer, Rainbow Pattern
5- Dream, Mind Fog, Nightmare
6- Aura of Terror (SpC), Symbol of Fear
7- Insanity, Symbol of Stunning
8- Antipathy, Scintillating Pattern, Symbol of Insanity, Sympathy
9- Mindrape (BoVD), Weird

Mad Dreams (Su): The Apostle of Madness has the unique ability to grasp alien knowledge in her sleep. She can choose to take 1d4 points of Wisdom damage during her daily recovery of sanity points to gain an additional amount of sanity points equal to her class level and a +2 bonus to the DC of her powers and spells. In addition, if she holds an objects in her sleep, she can spend an additional 1 point of Wisdom damage to target the item with an Identify spell, without the usual material, somatic and verbal components of the spell. She can cast this spell as many times as she wants, spending Wisdom damage each time.

At 3rd level, she can take 2 points of Wisdom damage during her daily rest to cast Locate Object without material, somatic and verbal components.

At 7th level, she can take 2 points of Wisdom damage to cast Locate Creature instead. She keeps the ability to cast the former spells.

At 9th level, she can take 4 points of Wisdom damage to cast Contact Other Plane instead.

At 11th level, she can take 4 points of Wisdom damage to cast Legend Lore instead.

At 15th level, she can take 4 points of Wisdom damage to cast Discern Location instead.

Gift of the Ancients (Su): At 2nd, 6th, 10th, 14th and 18th level, the Apostle of Madness receives a gift from her masters. She can choose any gift for which she qualifies from among those described below, classified by their minimum class level requirement. To choose a gift, she must fulfill the prerequisites of it (including the minimum class level requirement).

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Level 2

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Eldritch Summoning: The Apostle of Madness adds the Summon Monster spells to her spell list. She automatically add these spells to her list of spells known when she gains access to the appropriate spell level. However, the creatures she summons come from the Far Realm. Replace the celestial or fiendish creature templates with the pseudonatural creature template ; she cannot summon a creature that is not of pseudonatural origin. To select this gift, the Apostle of Madness must have 5 ranks in Knowledge (the planes).

Glimpse of the Future: The entities from the Far Realm live outside of time as it is currently understood, and are known to whisper secrets about possible futures to some of their servants. By selecting this gift, the Apostle of Madness becomes one such servant. She can spend 1 sanity point as a standard action to either cast True Strike or manifest Destiny Dissonance as a caster/manifester of her class level. This is a supernatural ability, not subject to arcane spell failure chance, psionic resistance, or counterspelling.

Non-Euclidian Movement: Certain Far Realm entities have more than the three dimensions of the mortal world. They bestowed to the Apostle of Madness the ability to warp these additional dimensions of space. By spending 1 sanity point, the Apostle of Madness can take a 10-foot step instead of the usual 5-foot step. She doesn't occupy the space between the two cases ; to all observers, she was absorbed by a rift in space and rejected by another. Difficult terrain does not affect her, but she must have a line of effect to the desired location.

Level 6

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Send into the Future: The Apostle of Madness not only receives informations from the future, but can send people (including herself) into it. As a standard action, she can spend 5 sanity points to cast Time Hop as a manifester of her class level. The power is augmented without additional spending of sanity points, in the limit of her effective manifester level. This is a supernatural ability and is not subject to psionic resistance. To select this gift, the Apostle of Madness must have the Glimpse of the Future gift.

Level 10

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Improved Non-Euclidian Movement: The Apostle of Madness gains the ability to fold the additional dimensions of space to a greater extend, allowing her to spend 7 sanity points as a standard action to either cast Dimension Door or Dimension Swap as a caster/manifester of her class level, with the difference that she can continue to act after using this version of Dimension Door. This is a supernatural ability, not subject to arcane spell failure chance, magic and psionic resistance or counterspelling. To select this gift, the Apostle of Madness must have the Non-Euclidian Movement gift.

Reanimator: Mad dreams are doors to unmatched occult knowledge and alchemical secrets. The Apostle of Madness learns from them the ability to use an effect similar to Animate Dead as a supernatural ability, but with the following differences : she can only animate zombies, and through an alchemical process instead of magic. The reanimation requires 10 minutes and an alchemist's lab with a value of 500 gp. Finally, the Apostle of Madness spends 10 sanity points and specific alchemical materials worth at least 25 gp per Hit Dice of the undead. The Apostle of Madness use her class level as her effective caster level to count the amount of undead HD she can control at a time. This select this gift, the Apostle of Madness must have 13 ranks in Craft (Alchemy) and must not be good-aligned.

Level 14

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Greater Non-Euclidian Movement: The Apostle of Madness acquires a prodigious control over the unknown dimensions of space. By spending 13 sanity points as a standard action, she can cast either Dream Travel, Plane Shift or Shadow Walk as a caster/manifester of her class level. This is a supernatural ability, not subject to arcane spell failure chance, magic and psionic resistance or counterspelling. To select this gift, the Apostle of Madness must have the Non-Euclidian Movement and Improved Non-Euclidian Movement gifts.

Improved Reanimator: The Apostle of Madness perfected her reanimation process in such a way that she can create sentient undead. The effect is similar to Create Undead, but the reanimation process has the same material and temporal requirements as for the Reanimator gift. The cost in sanity points is of 14 and she doesn't control the undead she creates. Unlike with the spell, sentient undead created through this process retain their mental ability scores, their class skills and their feats (in the limit of their new Hit Dices), which replaces the usual attributes of the undead type. To select this gift, the Apostle of Madness must have the Reanimator gift, 17 ranks in Craft (Alchemy), and must not be good-aligned.

Level 18

Spoiler

Show

Time Mastery: The Apostle of Madness ability to see and project things into the future improves considerably. By spending 17 sanity points as a standard action, she can manifest either Mass Time Hop and Timeless Body as a manifester of her class level. This is a supernatural ability. In addition, she instantly adds Time Regression to her list of powers known for this class. To select this gift, the Apostle of Madness must have the Glimpse of the Future and Send into the Future gifts.

Bonus Feat: At 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th level, the Apostle of Madness gains a bonus feat. At each such opportunity, she can choose a metamagic feat, a metapsionic feat, an item creation feat, Iron Will, or a feat with Iron Will as a prerequisite. The Apostle of Madness must meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat. An evil Apostle of Madness may also take Insane Defiance (EE) or a deformity feat as bonus feats, assuming she fulfills their prerequisites.

CLASS FEATURE NAME (Ex, Su, Sp, Ps):

The Threat of the Far Realm
The Apostle of Madness class mentions the Far Realm as the source of the character's powers, and as a threat on top of it. It may raise the question as to why the class is not inherently evil, and why would a good character ever help the Far Realm entities in the slightest. The fact that many Apostles of Madness slowly lose their sanity may help, but a simpler explanation is that the threat is subtler than it sounds. In most possible scenarios, it is philosophical rather than physical. The Far Realm is a non-malignant place of madness ; its victims are much more likely to lose their sanity than their life. To all rules however, there is an exception. There is at least one malignant Far Realm entity : Thoon, who is somehow closely associated with mind flayers. However, even amongst evil Apostles of Madness, only a few know of its existence, and its worshippers are even rarer.
If the GM does not want to include Thoon or another Far Realm entity as a possible threat to him game world, it is suggested that he use the suggestions from the Adaptation section of the class.

Sanity Points and the Sanity System
Simply put, Apostles of Madness sanity points are unrelated to sanity points as described in Unearthed Arcana. In fact, it is suggested that an Apostle of Madness does not comply to the sanity variant system. If the GM decides to, he must make sure she is more likely to incur sanity loss as a result of spellcasting. Running out of the class' sanity points may also cause sanity loss. Don't forget to keep track of sanity points for the purpose of this class and of sanity points for the purpose of the variant system separately, possibly by giving them different names.

Apostles of Madness and Characters Options

Interesting fluff, I wonder how an apostle of madness would work in a standard party. Would definitely be an interesting dynamic roleplay wise at least. Also I am sure you know but just as a note your role section still needs to be finished as well as your starting gold and age.

Class Features:
Sanity Control: I am confused on the line "Powers and spells granted by the Sanity Control ability are neither spell-like nor psi-like, with all of the accompanying benefits and drawbacks." So they are not them but have the benefits of spell like abilities? It needs some clarity.

Do you need to augment spells to have similar effects like spell to power erudites? Or do spells naturally scale.

The spell list/power list is also incredibly small IMO. 53 spells and powers when you can select 20 isn't much. Especially when not a lot of people will choose some of them due to the spell power being very niche (Co-Opt Concentration, Shatter Mind Blank, Nightmare Symbol of fear). I would suggest trying to add more spells, there are plenty of insanity spells and effects that can be used.

Mad Dreams: Is the wisdom damage cumulative? Do I need to pay 4 wisdom for contact other plane or do I need to take 8 wisdom damage. Also do you get the ability to cast the spell at will or once its not quite clear. If its once when does the ability take place. Cool ability though.

Gifts:
2nd: Eldritch Summoning is pretty good and gives some much needed variety to the spell list. Glimpse of the future is interesting since true strike is so cheap in a point spellcasting system. Non Euclidian movement is also a cool balanced ability. I think Eldritch summoning is stronger than both of the other ones by a decent amount.

6th: So he gains time hop that is automatically augmented. Seems fine.

10th: Both of these are good.

14th: Greater non euclidian movement continues the progression. Improved Reanimator has a problem though, you can't control the undead you create. Create Undead doesn't give you control over them and they aren't added to your animate undead pool. So this ability lets you create flesh hungry undead that you can't control, not exactly the best ability.

18th: Time Mastery seems fine.

Bonus feats also seem fine.



A cool class its still needs more variety in the gifts and I would suggest maybe giving the summon monster gift some more options later on.

[Network]

Apostle of Madness Review



Interesting fluff, I wonder how an apostle of madness would work in a standard party. Would definitely be an interesting dynamic roleplay wise at least. Also I am sure you know but just as a note your role section still needs to be finished as well as your starting gold and age.

Class Features:
Sanity Control: I am confused on the line "Powers and spells granted by the Sanity Control ability are neither spell-like nor psi-like, with all of the accompanying benefits and drawbacks." So they are not them but have the benefits of spell like abilities? It needs some clarity.

Do you need to augment spells to have similar effects like spell to power erudites? Or do spells naturally scale.

The spell list/power list is also incredibly small IMO. 53 spells and powers when you can select 20 isn't much. Especially when not a lot of people will choose some of them due to the spell power being very niche (Co-Opt Concentration, Shatter Mind Blank, Nightmare Symbol of fear). I would suggest trying to add more spells, there are plenty of insanity spells and effects that can be used.

Mad Dreams: Is the wisdom damage cumulative? Do I need to pay 4 wisdom for contact other plane or do I need to take 8 wisdom damage. Also do you get the ability to cast the spell at will or once its not quite clear. If its once when does the ability take place. Cool ability though.

Gifts:
2nd: Eldritch Summoning is pretty good and gives some much needed variety to the spell list. Glimpse of the future is interesting since true strike is so cheap in a point spellcasting system. Non Euclidian movement is also a cool balanced ability. I think Eldritch summoning is stronger than both of the other ones by a decent amount.

6th: So he gains time hop that is automatically augmented. Seems fine.

10th: Both of these are good.

14th: Greater non euclidian movement continues the progression. Improved Reanimator has a problem though, you can't control the undead you create. Create Undead doesn't give you control over them and they aren't added to your animate undead pool. So this ability lets you create flesh hungry undead that you can't control, not exactly the best ability.

18th: Time Mastery seems fine.

Bonus feats also seem fine.



A cool class its still needs more variety in the gifts and I would suggest maybe giving the summon monster gift some more options later on.

Thank you for the reply, I need them to further improve the class. I clarified the class features and added the role line at the beginning.

I looked at some interesting mind-affecting spells and powers from the various books. There were 51 spells and powers on the list ; that's 24 more. In all honesty, I don't know how much more I can find, but 25 more should be enough. If you have ideas, please share, as long as all spells are mind-affecting and taken from the sorcerer/wizard spell list.

I may nerf Eldritch Summoning, probably by splitting it into a chain that also gives access to other summoning spells. Any further suggestion?

[GuyFawkes]

Hello all. Good to be finally back. I think I have completed my entry, the Delirium Blade. If someone is interested with a PEACH swap, that would be most helpful.

[sengmeng]

Throwing my tinfoil hat in the ring with the Psychocarnate.

PEACHes welcome.

[Xhosant]

The Arborist is fully uploaded. Only the seeds are still missing, but that will soon be fixed, and i'm only providing the bare minimum+guidelines anyway. Can I have a critique?

[Network]

I would've been interested in giving a full review of the Black Blood Vanguard class. A great class, btw. Unfortunately, I can only give a partial review, for now.

Black Blood Vanguard

[...]

Info: Black Blood Vanguards are warriors that use a substance called black blood as their main fighting tool. This black blood courses through each one of their veins and can be used in a variety of ways. Hardening to prevent damage, summoning waves of black blood to corrode opponents' minds and many other options. Black Blood Vanguards often work in the service of a Vector Witch whom sometimes can create Black Blood Vanguards by infusing subjects with copious amounts of various black blood compounds.

Characteristics: This class focuses control and debuffing opponents. The class itself is very mobile once it gets some black tentacles scattered around the battlefield which allow it to be pulled from one area of the battle to another almost instantly. Their black blood can make will saves incredibly difficult as the battle progresses.

Races: There isn't a race more prone to becoming a Black Blood Vanguard. Most of the time Vector Witches grab random test subjects to experiment with and those subjects can sometimes become Black Blood Vanguard.

Alignment: Vanguards tend to have different goals and reasons for following those goals. Most Vanguards are chaotic though as the black blood that flows through their veins makes it difficult to maintain complete devotion to law.

Other Classes: Vanguard's love to travel with enchanters as they can support him from the back lines of combat and they can control the weakened minds of those corrupted by the black blood. They tend to have an issue with some lawful classes such as paladin and cleric due to their chaotic nature and the collateral damage they can sometimes cause.

Role: The main role an Vanguard plays is that of a frontline melee combatant with high mobility and survivability. He can use black tentacles and his black blood wave abilities to control the battlefield and maneuver himself and minions around. He can slowly degrade opponents minds making them more vulnerable to control and other effects.



GAME RULE INFORMATION
Vanguards have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Strength is the most important ability for Vanguards since it modifies their melee attack rolls and damage rolls as well as modifying several of their Incantation abilities. Constitution is also important as it modifies their hit points which help them fuel their black tentacle abilities. Charisma is also important as it modifies the Vanguard's incantation's save dc's and other class features.

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d10
Starting Age: As paladin.
Starting Gold: As paladin

Class Skills
The Vanguard's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int) Listen (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Arcane), (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str)

Skill Points at First Level: (2 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier

Vanguard
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Incantations

1st|

+1

|

+2

|

+0

|

+0

|Black Blood, Black Ichor, Bloody Slicer|1

2nd|

+2

|

+3

|

+0

|

+0

|Bloody Bulwark 1/Day |2

3rd|

+3

|

+3

|

+1

|

+1

|Blood Tentacles|3

4th|

+4

|

+4

|

+1

|

+1

|Blood Wave|3

5th|

+5

|

+4

|

+1

|

+1

|Talent|4

6th|

+6

|

+5

|

+2

|

+2

|Bloody Bulwark 2/Day|5

7th|

+7

|

+5

|

+2

|

+2

|Blood Tidal Wave|6

8th|

+8

|

+6

|

+2

|

+2

|Black Thorn Wall, Talent |6

9th|

+9

|

+6

|

+3

|

+3

|Maddening Scream|7

10th|

+10

|

+7

|

+3

|

+3

|Specialized Tentacles, Bloody Bulwark 3/Day|8

11th|

+11

|

+7

|

+3

|

+3

|Talent|9

12th|

+12

|

+8

|

+4

|

+4

|Puppet, Mad Whispers|9

13th|

+13

|

+8

|

+4

|

+4

|Blood Tsunami|10

14th|

+14

|

+9

|

+4

|

+4

|Bloody Bulwark 4/Day, Talent |11

15th|

+15

|

+9

|

+5

|

+5

|Mad Blood 1/Day, Maddening Symphony|12

16th|

+16

|

+10

|

+5

|

+5

|Mad Blood Spear|12

17th|

+17

|

+10

|

+5

|

+5

|Talent |13

18th|

+18

|

+11

|

+6

|

+6

|Bloody Bulwark (Continuous), Mad Blood 2/Day|14

19th|

+19

|

+11

|

+6

|

+6

|Black Forest|15

20th|

+20

|

+12

|

+6

|

+6

|Torrent of Madness, Talent, Mad Blood 3/Day|17[/table]

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Vanguard.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Vanguard are proficient with all simple weapons and martial weapons and with all types of armor and shields.

[...]

Black Blood: (Ex) The Vanguard has black blood flowing threw his veins. Black blood is an alchemical substance fused with the essence of madness which grants the Vanguard durability but at the expense of some sanity. The Vanguard gains damage reduction x/- where x is equal to 2+1/4 of his class level. This damage reduction stacks with all other damage reduction. The Vanguard also can generate incredible amounts of black blood and even when using abilities that generate large amounts of black blood he can still function (See Blood Tentacles, Blood Wave and similar abilities below). This defensive power also allows the Vanguard to ignore any extra damage caused by bleeding injuries as the black blood stops all bleeding wounds and the Vanguard can simply restore any lost blood.

This defensive power comes at a cost though and the Vanguard takes a -2 penalty on all wisdom based checks and skills and a -2 penalty on any saving throw against fear effects as the black blood messes with their mental stability.

The Vanguard can use black blood offensively as well, coating his weapon in it, conjuring waves of black blood or other abilities described below. Subjects being hit by these abilities occur madness tokens if they fail a will saving throw (DC: 10 + 1/2 Incanter Level + Charisma Modifier). Madness tokens grant a -1 penalty to will saves per madness token the subject has. If the subject gains a number of madness tokens equal to his HD + 2 (So 3 tokens at level 1, 8 tokens at level 6, etc) he goes insane under the influence of the black blood. The subject is irrevocably insane but dies after 10 minutes of being insane. The insane subject gains damage reduction 10/- as the black blood grants some defensive properties to the subject. Madness tokens from multiple Vanguards don't stack, if one Vanguard gives a subject 4 madness tokens and Vanguard gives the same target 3, then that target is treated as if having 4 madness tokens. If the Vanguard who gave the target 3 gives another 2 madness tokens then the target is treated as if having five madness tokens. Madness tokens can only be restored by a heal spell, greater restoration or more powerful restorative magic. These spells remove all madness tokens on a subject. Subjects with immunity to Mind Affecting abilities do not gain Madness Tokens.

The fluff is interesting, but you too have information missing. Don't forget to write them down.

The basic of the class (hit dices, skills, bab, saves and proficiencies) is standard for fighting classes, with the addition of class skills related to their Incantations. Nothing bad here.

The damage reduction from the Black Blood class feature is stronger than usual, but not alarming. Tokens are powerful though. Black Ichor make it easy to give them and the use of incantations make it easy to use Black Ichor. Still, it takes 6 rounds to be effective, so I think its balanced.

[mepstein]

Oh hey, so it's been almost a year since last I posted on GitP apparently. Craziness. Cheesy74 told me about this contest, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Just finished all the fluff, but now I actually have to design the class's features. I'm aiming for a slightly lower-powered, fairly niche class. Think that will hurt my chances?

(Also, yes, I know I've only got a week, but you know what? Still gonna be a fun exercise, win or lose).

[Xhosant]

50% completion on the flower department.

Right now, the Arborist can make his mark depressed, make them close everyone but him out, turn them into his puppet, and even mess with their sleep.

Yes, i think I like how this is coming along

Also, Wide Iris is intended to be used on oneself, to compensate for the absence of armor for a melee, a la monk. At a price, of course

[malonkey1]

Oh hey, so it's been almost a year since last I posted on GitP apparently. Craziness. Cheesy74 told me about this contest, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Just finished all the fluff, but now I actually have to design the class's features. I'm aiming for a slightly lower-powered, fairly niche class. Think that will hurt my chances?

(Also, yes, I know I've only got a week, but you know what? Still gonna be a fun exercise, win or lose).

Low-tier niche is no issue.

[Temotei]

Oh hey, so it's been almost a year since last I posted on GitP apparently. Craziness. Cheesy74 told me about this contest, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Just finished all the fluff, but now I actually have to design the class's features. I'm aiming for a slightly lower-powered, fairly niche class. Think that will hurt my chances?

(Also, yes, I know I've only got a week, but you know what? Still gonna be a fun exercise, win or lose).

No. That's perfectly fine. First example that comes to mind is the farmer. In the same contest, the redshirt was pretty popular and it has a basically "you die" class feature.

[Network]

I'd like a new review of the Apostle of Madness class. I especially need feedbacks on the Mind Warp class feature. Is it well-worded?

The class is not complete, of course, but it's all in the work. This list is a reminder of what I need, though feel free to post your ideas.
* Two sections in the introduction.
* 17th and 19th level class features.
* New Gifts of the Ancients (though I have some ideas, I need at least 15 gifts).
* The epic level progression (because no class is complete without one).
* Feats for the class.

[BelGareth]

Oh-up! Got my class done!

Changed direction a little bit, but I think it stands by itself...now I just gotta make an example character....

[sengmeng]

Changed direction a little bit, but I think it stands by itself...now I just gotta make an example character....

Uhh, has anyone else?

I'll trade PEACHes with you if you want.

[Network]

Psychocarnate Review

Psychocarnate

Put an optional image of your class here!

I’m a wizard! Rar! No wait, I’m a psion! And a bard! Now I’m a bicycle!

Any adventurer can evoke fear, respect, envy, awe, and even adulation from the common man, but only the Psychocarnate draws their pity. Manifesters are loathe to include them in their number, but they grudgingly admit that a Psychocarnate’s abilities resemble psionics more than anything else. However, Psychocarnates do not study and meditate to develop their mental powers. Instead, their powers often control them, and they struggle to wrench their minds free of the fantasy worlds in their heads and deal with reality. In their fantasies, they can control everything, and with effort, they can warp reality in the same way, though always at cost to themselves.

Adventures: Psychocarnates tend to wander if unattended.

Characteristics: A Psychocarnate has a short attention span, but in their brief moments of focus, they can move worlds.

Alignment: If their actions were the only way to judge, all Psychocarnates would be considered chaotic. However, most of their actions are not their choices. The jumbled mess of their thoughts may conceal motivations and depths that are not apparent in their behavior.

Religion: Psychocarnates may believe that they are gods, and don’t tend to worship other divinities. They also might not be wrong.

Background: Psychocarnates are born, not made. They are conduits of a powerful creative force whose origins are unknown. Some think that all intelligent creatures are latently psionic and they emanate power that the Psychocarnates unwillingly absorb and repurpose, but it could just as easily come from some other source. In any case, a Psychocarnate doesn’t choose this and can’t escape it.

Races: Psionic races tend to produce more Psychocarnates, but any intelligent creature can become one. However, many do not survive to adulthood or are not recognized as different from mundane mentally ill persons. Some who are recognized are also killed or otherwise dealt with because of their erratic and dangerous nature. The likelihood of a Psychocarnate coming from a particular race or society surviving to adulthood is directly related to that culture's compassion for the insane.

Other Classes: Psychocarnates don’t really need other classes to supplement their abilities, but rather to supervise them and help stabilize their constantly fracturing minds. They may annoy or frighten those who study, pray, or meditate for power, and often find empathy from more natural spellcasters and manifesters, such as sorcerers, favored souls, and wilders. Mundane classes often seem limited in both abilities and vision to them, but they are often starved for companionship and their basis for getting along with people will be personal rather than practical.

Role: Psychocarnates are the ultimate utility characters, able to call on all psionic powers.

Adaptation: An arcane or divine psychocarnate spellcaster could be created for campaigns without psionics.

Fluff is good, except the Other Classes section, which imply they don't need the help of fighting classes at all. Given that the class is not better in melee than a Wizard, they'd probably benefit from a fighting ally.

GAME RULE INFORMATION
Psychocarnates have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Wisdom is important to a Psychocarnate, because it determines how long they can keep their mind together while using their power. Charisma determines how hard their powers are to resist and they must have a Charisma score equal to 10 + a power’s level to manifest it. Constitution helps them survive longer, and Intelligence grants them more skill points. Strength and Dexterity don’t matter much to those who live almost entirely in their minds.
Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d4
Starting Age: As barbarian.
Starting Gold: As barbarian
Class Skills
The PSYCHOCARNATE's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentrate (Con), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Psionics)(Int), Profession (Wis), Psicraft (Int), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).

Skill Points at First Level: (2 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier

The abilities section should probably not contain rule information, but the Crazy Powers class feature also contains that information so it is not out of place. Skills and the rest are good.

CPSYCHOCARNATE
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Powers Known

1st|

+0

|

+0

|

+0

|

+2

|Insanity, Crazy Powers, Focus|0

2nd|

+1

|

+0

|

+0

|

+3

||1

3rd|

+1

|

+1

|

+1

|

+3

||1

4th|

+2

|

+1

|

+1

|

+4

||2

5th|

+2

|

+1

|

+1

|

+4

|1st School|2

6th|

+3

|

+2

|

+2

|

+5

||3

7th|

+3

|

+2

|

+2

|

+5

||3

8th|

+4

|

+2

|

+2

|

+6

||4

9th|

+4

|

+3

|

+3

|

+6

||4

10th|

+5

|

+3

|

+3

|

+7

|2nd School|5

11th|

+5

|

+3

|

+3

|

+7

||5

12th|

+6

|

+4

|

+4

|

+8

||6

13th|

+6

|

+4

|

+4

|

+8

||6

14th|

+7

|

+4

|

+4

|

+9

||7

15th|

+7

|

+5

|

+5

|

+9

|A Little Touched|7

16th|

+8

|

+5

|

+5

|

+10

||8

17th|

+8

|

+5

|

+5

|

+10

||8

18th|

+9

|

+6

|

+6

|

+11

||9

19th|

+9

|

+6

|

+6

|

+11

||9

20th|

+10

|

+6

|

+6

|

+12

||10[/table]

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the PSYCHOCARNATE.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: The Psychocarnate is proficient with all simple weapons, and no armor or shields of any kind.

Insanity (Ps): A Psychocarnate is functionally quite insane. They have serious trouble keeping their mind on present physical concerns. Out of combat, the Psychocarnate can function fairly normally, though any skill check in which they roll 5 or less on the d20 is treated as an automatic failure, reflecting a disastrous lapse in attention at exactly the wrong moment. In combat, the Psychocarnate is stricken with an effect identical to the confusion spell. In both cases, the Focus ability can remove these effects for one round or one skill check, whichever is greater (if a Psychocarnate performs a difficult physical maneuver which requires both a balance and a jump check as part of the same movement, but it takes only one round, the focus ability extends to both checks. If they are performing a skill check that takes place over several rounds, such as a perform check, the Focus ability lasts for the duration of the performance). A Psychocarnate must also use focus to take 20 or 10 on a skill check. However, the Psychocarnate’s insanity is also a powerful defense against mental intrusion. Targeting a Psychocarnate with a power from the telepathy discipline causes the manifester to come under a confusion effect that is permanent until or unless they succeed at a Will save of DC 10 + ½ the Psychocarnate’s level + their Charisma modifier. They get one attempt to retry their save each round. Casting detect thoughts, dominate person, or dominate monster causes the same effect to a spellcaster. The confusion effect does not represent an action on the part of the Psychocarnate. Psychocarnates are also immune to lesser confusion, confusion, insanity, and symbol of insanity.

A suck-or-suck class feature is unusual, but I can understand it. For the rest, the permanent insanity effect is both too powerful and overly specific. I suggest the following changes :
* Make it apply to mind-affecting powers of the Telepathy school (because I don't see why Shatter Mind Blank would trigger the insanity), to mind-affecting spells of the Enchantment (Compulsion) subschool (because two spells is too specific, and there are more variations of Dominate Person than that) and to Detect Thoughts.
* Make the confusion temporary. 10 minutes per Psychocarnate level is probably the longest amount of time it should last. A PC should not become unplayable after a fight with a first level character only because he cast the wrong spell and was unlucky on his saving throw.
* Mention this is a mind-affecting effect. It shouldn't come up before medium or high level, but at that level, it's important to mention.
Immunity to lesser confusion, confusion, insanity, and symbol of insanity could very well be reduced to immunity to confusion effects, but it's unusual for a 1st level class feature. To my knowledge, only two prestige classes give it, one at 2nd level, one at 6th.

Focus (Ps): A Psychocarnate who survives to adulthood does so by developing the willpower to wrench their mind into the here and now. Using Focus deals 1 point of Wisdom damage to the Psychocarnate. Focus can be used to eliminate the penalties of Insanity, or to automatically succeed on a Will save. Focus can reduce a Psychocarnate’s Wisdom score to zero, but not below it. Psychocarnates can take and benefit from metapsionic feats that require psionic focus by using Focus to become psionically focused. Psychocarnates also add their charisma bonus to all Will saves in addition to their Wisdom modifier. Psychocarnates heal Wisdom damage naturally at a rate of half their level per day.

The first part of the class feature is ok, but IMO, the ability to gain an at-will psionic focus at the cost of 1 Wisdom damage is too much. Adding it's Charisma bonus to Will saves in addition to the Wisdom bonus is a major boost, but otherwise ok again. The last ability (healing Wisdom damage at a rate of 1/2 level per day) needs clarification. Does it come in addition to natural healing? Does it apply even if the Psychocarnate isn't actively recovering?

Crazy Powers (Ps): Using powers represents a Psychocarnate simply willing their fantasies to become reality. Manifesting powers always deals Wisdom damage to the Psychocarnate. How much is determines by several factors. A known power is one that the Psychocarnate has performed often enough that it becomes easier. Manifesting one deals 1d2 points of wisdom damage. An unknown power deals at least 1d6 points of wisdom damage. A Psychocarnate can’t learn a power of a level higher than half his Psychocarnate level. Manifesting an unknown power higher than the highest level power the Psychocarnate knows incurs another 2 points of wisdom damage per 1 level of difference between that power’s level and the highest level power they know. Thus, at first level a Psychocarnate doesn’t know any powers, so manifesting a 1st level power causes 1d6+2 points of Wisdom damage (1d6 for being unknown, +2 points because 1st level is 1 higher than 0, times 2). Manifesting a power that may cause them to go to zero or lower wisdom is allowed, but if it would reduce them to less than zero, their Wisdom score becomes zero and the power fails. Manifesting a 9th level power would be technically possible at first level with 19 Charisma, but it would deal 1d6+18 Wisdom damage, and if the character had less than 19 Wisdom, they would automatically fail. A Psychocarnate’s Manifester level is equal to their level, and the save DC’s for their powers are Charisma based and they must have a Charisma score equal to 10 + a power’s level to manifest it. Power points are not necessary and do not help a Psychocarnate manifest powers. Powers learned from other manifesting classes do not count as known when manifesting as a Psychocarnate. Enhancing a power with a metapsionic feat deals 1 extra point of wisdom damage per two extra power points it normally increases the cost by. It also increases the power’s effective level by the same amount, causing additional damage if this increase would make it higher than the highest level power the Psychocarnate knows. Thus, maximizing a power, which normally costs 4 extra power points, deals two more damage and increases its effective level by two, so if it was same level as the highest level power the Psychocarnate knows, it deals another four damage for a total of 1d2+6 or 1d6+6 depending on if it is known or unknown.

Clearly overpowered, and the bold text implies that epic manifesting is allowed. Let's see how many ways in can find to break it :
* Give unlimited power points to your allies via Bestow Power, which requires 1d6 +4 Wisdom damage at first level and 1d6 +2 at second, but can be used in conjunction with Psionic Restoration at higher levels.
* Unlimited manifesting through Psionic Restoration. It is a 6th-level power, so manifesting it at first level costs 1d6 + 12 Wisdom damage, which any character with 18 in Wisdom can do safely to recover ability damage and ability drain at will. At second level, the damage becomes 1d6 +10, allowing the Psychocarnate to manifest a known power virtually at will. As the Psychocarnate's level increase, this becomes easier, up to the point only 6 in Wisdom is required, or 2 if the Psychocarnate actually take the time to learn the power.
* Abusing Psychic Reformation to always have the powers known, skills, and feats that he needs. Only 1d6 +10 Wisdom damage at first level, 1d6 +8 and second level, and no XP cost, because it's a psi-like ability.

School Familiarity (Ps): At 5th level, a Psychocarnate gains enough familiarity with one school of psionics that it reduces the Wisdom damage dealt by manifesting powers from that school. Known powers deal only a single point of Wisdom damage, and unknown powers deal 1d2 (plus any penalties for being of higher level than their highest known power). At 10th level, the Psychocarnate chooses an additional school.

It's even worse. In other words, it means you count all powers from a given school as powers known. Given what you can do with an unknown power, and given that a known power does it even better, School Familiarity is very powerful, though it stems from the fact Crazy Powers is overpowered.

A Little Touched (Ps): The Psychocarnate’s insanity is his weapon, but at 15th level, this becomes more literal. The Psychocarnate can deal 2d4 Wisdom damage at will with a melee touch attack as an attack action, with a Will save to reduce it by half. The DC is 10 + half the Psychocarnate’s level + their Charisma modifier. This can also be made as an unarmed attack, but it must beat the target's regular AC.

Fortunately, the Psychocarnate doesn't have a full BAB progression, and 4d4 Wisdom damage per round is of course more balanced than Crazy Powers, but this class feature still doesn't look right for me.

FEATS

Crazy Strong
Prerequisites: Focus class ability.
Benefits: Whenever you take damage to your Wisdom score from using the Focus class ability, you gain a morale bonus to your strength equal to the Wisdom damage. This bonus ends when the Wisdom damage is healed.

Remember when I said the Psychocarnate wasn't a fighting class? I was wrong.

A Lot Touched
Prerequisites: A Little Touched class ability
Benefits: the Wisdom damage from the A Little Touched Ability increases to 2d6, and the Will save DC goes up by 2. Additionally, when used as an unarmed attack instead of a touch attack, the Psychocarnate adds their strength bonus to the Wisdom damage.

Aside from pun in the name, and the fact it has all the benefits of a SRD feat, but more specific and powerful, this one is ok.

Flexible Mind
Prerequisites: Crazy Powers.
Benefit: Wisdom damage caused by using powers is reduced by 1, but not below 1.

If Crazy Powers wasn't OP, this one would be perfectly balanced.

Resilient Mind
Prerequisites: Crazy powers, knowing at least one 2nd level power.
Benefit: You heal 2 more points of Wisdom damage per day than you normally would.

It's a weaker and much more specific version of Mind Over Body. It should probably increase by the character's Charisma modifier instead of being static and require the Focus class feature instead of the Crazy Powers class feature.

Euphoria
Prerequisites: Crazy Powers
Benefit: Any round in which you take Wisdom damage, you gain a +2 morale bonus to attack, damage, saves, and skill checks for as many rounds as the Wisdom damage taken. This stacks with the benefits of Crazy Strong, but not any other morale bonuses.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times. Its effects stack, gaining a further +2 morale bonus every time the feat is taken.

How can it not stack with Crazy Strong? It doesn't even apply to the same thing. Crazy Strong gives a bonus to strength only, this one give a bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws and skilll checks (but not strength). Of course, bonuses that doesn't apply to the same thing stack. Also note that, by RAW, Euphoria remains active until the Wisdom damage is removed.

Mania
Prerequisites: Crazy Powers, Manifester level 15+
Benefit: You gain extra actions in a round when you take Wisdom damage, according to how much Wisdom damage you take.
{table]Wis Dmg|Action gained|Extra Column of Crazy
1|free 5 ft step|
2|swift|
4|move|
8|standard|
12+|full|[/table]
You can only gain 1 extra action per round with this feat, even if the extra action deals more wisdom damage. If the extra action deals wisdom damage, the damage is doubled.

If the Psychocarnate somehow finds a way to cast Psionic Restoration in only 1 round, he can really be up to something.

[sengmeng]

Psychocarnate Review



Fluff is good, except the Other Classes section, which imply they don't need the help of fighting classes at all. Given that the class is not better in melee than a Wizard, they'd probably benefit from a fighting ally.


The abilities section should probably not contain rule information, but the Crazy Powers class feature also contains that information so it is not out of place. Skills and the rest are good.

A suck-or-suck class feature is unusual, but I can understand it. For the rest, the permanent insanity effect is both too powerful and overly specific. I suggest the following changes :
* Make it apply to mind-affecting powers of the Telepathy school (because I don't see why Shatter Mind Blank would trigger the insanity), to mind-affecting spells of the Enchantment (Compulsion) subschool (because two spells is too specific, and there are more variations of Dominate Person than that) and to Detect Thoughts.
* Make the confusion temporary. 10 minutes per Psychocarnate level is probably the longest amount of time it should last. A PC should not become unplayable after a fight with a first level character only because he cast the wrong spell and was unlucky on his saving throw.
* Mention this is a mind-affecting effect. It shouldn't come up before medium or high level, but at that level, it's important to mention.
Immunity to lesser confusion, confusion, insanity, and symbol of insanity could very well be reduced to immunity to confusion effects, but it's unusual for a 1st level class feature. To my knowledge, only two prestige classes give it, one at 2nd level, one at 6th.

The first part of the class feature is ok, but IMO, the ability to gain an at-will psionic focus at the cost of 1 Wisdom damage is too much. Adding it's Charisma bonus to Will saves in addition to the Wisdom bonus is a major boost, but otherwise ok again. The last ability (healing Wisdom damage at a rate of 1/2 level per day) needs clarification. Does it come in addition to natural healing? Does it apply even if the Psychocarnate isn't actively recovering?

Clearly overpowered, and the bold text implies that epic manifesting is allowed. Let's see how many ways in can find to break it :
* Give unlimited power points to your allies via Bestow Power, which requires 1d6 +4 Wisdom damage at first level and 1d6 +2 at second, but can be used in conjunction with Psionic Restoration at higher levels.
* Unlimited manifesting through Psionic Restoration. It is a 6th-level power, so manifesting it at first level costs 1d6 + 12 Wisdom damage, which any character with 18 in Wisdom can do safely to recover ability damage and ability drain at will. At second level, the damage becomes 1d6 +10, allowing the Psychocarnate to manifest a known power virtually at will. As the Psychocarnate's level increase, this becomes easier, up to the point only 6 in Wisdom is required, or 2 if the Psychocarnate actually take the time to learn the power.
* Abusing Psychic Reformation to always have the powers known, skills, and feats that he needs. Only 1d6 +10 Wisdom damage at first level, 1d6 +8 and second level, and no XP cost, because it's a psi-like ability.

It's even worse. In other words, it means you count all powers from a given school as powers known. Given what you can do with an unknown power, and given that a known power does it even better, School Familiarity is very powerful, though it stems from the fact Crazy Powers is overpowered.

Fortunately, the Psychocarnate doesn't have a full BAB progression, and 4d4 Wisdom damage per round is of course more balanced than Crazy Powers, but this class feature still doesn't look right for me.

Remember when I said the Psychocarnate wasn't a fighting class? I was wrong.

Aside from pun in the name, and the fact it has all the benefits of a SRD feat, but more specific and powerful, this one is ok.

If Crazy Powers wasn't OP, this one would be perfectly balanced.

It's a weaker and much more specific version of Mind Over Body. It should probably increase by the character's Charisma modifier instead of being static and require the Focus class feature instead of the Crazy Powers class feature.

How can it not stack with Crazy Strong? It doesn't even apply to the same thing. Crazy Strong gives a bonus to strength only, this one give a bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws and skilll checks (but not strength). Of course, bonuses that doesn't apply to the same thing stack. Also note that, by RAW, Euphoria remains active until the Wisdom damage is removed.

If the Psychocarnate somehow finds a way to cast Psionic Restoration in only 1 round, he can really be up to something.

Thanks for taking the time. I have to look over some of the powers you mentioned and try to eliminate loophole abuse (I already barred them from casting Psionic Restoration at all, I just forgot to save changes). The Insanity effect that causes confusion in anyone trying to dominate the Psychocarnate allows a retry on the will save every round, so only someone who could NEVER make the save will have it be permanent. I suppose it should also be curable with a restoration or remove curse as well. I was modeling it after the Wilder's Volatile Mind class feature, which is suggesting the same idea and also applies to all telepathy powers. I admit I got a little lazy about looking through all the powers and considering which make the most sense. I also forgot to mention how overbleed works with Crazy Powers (and I haven't actually nailed it down).

But, the main thing is Crazy Powers is OP. Yes, they still need to hit 19 wisdom and charisma to manifest 9th level powers at 1st level, but they could theoretically try it. Those would obviously be one-shot deals (and it would keep them out of action for weeks, unless the 1st level Psychocarnate is hanging out with clerics high enough level to cast restoration).They can't do epic manifesting until they can get the feat, so 21st level like everyone else. But I still agree that it is OP; that's usually the direction I err in and then dial it back. Would higher wisdom damage balance it? I'd like to keep the power level and add penalties.

[Network]

Thanks for taking the time. I have to look over some of the powers you mentioned and try to eliminate loophole abuse (I already barred them from casting Psionic Restoration at all, I just forgot to save changes).

When you are at it, also remember Psychic Chirurgery.
Thinking about it, though, I suggest you instead change ability damage for ability burn. It sucks more, but undead aren't immune to it and it can't be artificially healed. Given how slow the recovery of Crazy Powers would be in that case, they should probably recover from ability burn caused by their class features at an accelerated rate, somehow.

The Insanity effect that causes confusion in anyone trying to dominate the Psychocarnate allows a retry on the will save every round, so only someone who could NEVER make the save will have it be permanent. I suppose it should also be curable with a restoration or remove curse as well. I was modeling it after the Wilder's Volatile Mind class feature, which is suggesting the same idea and also applies to all telepathy powers. I admit I got a little lazy about looking through all the powers and considering which make the most sense. I also forgot to mention how overbleed works with Crazy Powers (and I haven't actually nailed it down).

I didn't notice any of that. You're right.

But, the main thing is Crazy Powers is OP. Yes, they still need to hit 19 wisdom and charisma to manifest 9th level powers at 1st level, but they could theoretically try it. Those would obviously be one-shot deals (and it would keep them out of action for weeks, unless the 1st level Psychocarnate is hanging out with clerics high enough level to cast restoration).They can't do epic manifesting until they can get the feat, so 21st level like everyone else. But I still agree that it is OP; that's usually the direction I err in and then dial it back. Would higher wisdom damage balance it? I'd like to keep the power level and add penalties.

Adding more penalties isn't a justification for OP, because a well built character can always exploit loopholes or have absurdly high ability scores. I instead suggest you put an upper limit to the level of power they can manifest based on their class level. This also gets around the abuse of ''epic powers count as 10th-level powers, therefore I can cast them for 1d6 +20 Wisdom damage''.

[Kazyan]

I've been away from this thread because procrastination and OOH SHINY around the board, but the Clown is now complete. Thank you, Temotei, for your critique. I've fixed what looks like needed fixing.

[Temotei]

Yeah, sorry about not critiquing the others. Been a bit busy and when I wasn't, I honestly really, really didn't feel like doing it. So, I owe everyone who I didn't give a critique this contest next time they enter.

Not that I'll only critique theirs. I just have to.

[sengmeng]

When you are at it, also remember Psychic Chirurgery.
Adding more penalties isn't a justification for OP, because a well built character can always exploit loopholes or have absurdly high ability scores. I instead suggest you put an upper limit to the level of power they can manifest based on their class level. This also gets around the abuse of ''epic powers count as 10th-level powers, therefore I can cast them for 1d6 +20 Wisdom damage''.

I like the wisdom burn idea.

How about a limit of the highest level power known + your Wisdom modifier? That should push back 9th level powers to level 8 (and take 1d6+10 wis damage), but only once since their wisdom would no longer be high enough afterwards (and it would take about 3 days to recover naturally).