The Dreadnought

[GrayDeath]

My go at the old "Tanky Menace Martial. As all my CLasses, this is meant to be played with full 3.p. If you want to use it with 3.5, reduce the SKillpts/Level by , and adapt the Class Skills accordingly. Replace Riven Hourglass with Iron heart or Stone Dragon, and change the Maneuver Progression to the Warblades.



The Dreadnought

We all have heard of them, the unstoppable Warrior marching through fire and acid towards a target to slay it.
The men and woman buried by avalanches or rockslides, just to get out of them almost unscathed and still willing to fight.

The Hardasses that just wont stay down, no matter the extreme violence visited upon them.

All these are Dreadnoughts.



Alignment: Any, although most of the time the necessary discipline to take all that punishment and keep going makes them lean towards Law more often than not.
Accordingly, they get along with compatible alignments, as most adventurers do.


Other CLasses: The Dreadnought cannot help but feel contempt towards classes lauded as tough", like barbarians and Fighters, that cant help but fall short of their own toughness.
They highly value more mobile and offense-oriented ROgues and similar classes, as they are simply an excellent source of support. Casters of all kind that specialize in support are almost beloved, those that aim to take care of the opposition themselves are almost hated by many Dreadnoughts.



Mechanics: Dreadnoughts are about the least subtle type of Martial Initiator there is. They take aim, march toward that target, and deal with it. And keep going afterward. Thats all there is to them.
Succinctly Constitution and Strength are by far their most important Attributes, followed by Wisdom to increase their already excellent Chances of withstanding mental attacks.
Most Dreadnoughts are neither particularly intelligent nor charismatic, and their love for the heaviest Armor in existance makes dexterity rather useless aside from providing Save Bonuses.



The Dreadnaught

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+2	+0	+2	Iron Will, Great Fortitude
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+3	Improved Toughness, Die hard
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+3	DR 2/-
4th	+4	+4	+1	+4	Resurgence, Survivors Reserve 1
5th	+5	+4	+1	+4	Fast healing 2
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+5	Survivors Reserve 2
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+5	DR 5/-
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+6	Dreadnaughts Skin
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+6	Survivors Reserve3, Armor Mastery 1
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+7	Greater Resurgance, Fast healing 4
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+7	Elemental Resistance, No Surrender
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+8	Dreadnaughts Will and Fortitude, Survivors Reserve 4
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+8	Elemental Resistance (2)
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+9	Immovable Object, Survivors Reserve 5
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+9	Impervious Physique, Ultimate Resurgance
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+10	Fast healing 10, Armor Mastery 2,
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10	Perfect Body, Survivors Reserve 6, Elemental Resistance 3
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+11	Immortality
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	11	+6	+11	No Weakness
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+12	True Dreadnaught, Elemental Resistance 4

Basics:

Hitdie: D12

Skillpts: 4+IntMod

Class Skills: Climb, Craft, Intimidate, Knowledge (Martial Lore, any 1 other), Perception, Profession, Sense Motive, Survival.

Proficiencies: Dreadnoughts are prificient with all Armors and shields, all simple and any 5 martial Weapons.



Initiating: Dreadnoughts use the Warders ( http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/classes/warder/) Maneuver and Stance Progression.

The available Martial Disciplines are: Devoted Spirit, Diamond Mind, Riven Hourglass



Survivors Reserve: For each level in this Ability, gain a reserve of 6 HP that are filled at the start of each combat (up to level in this ability times/Day). They can also be refilled by dealing damage (each succesful, damage dealing attack recovers 1d6+Level in this ability HP) and are affected first by any damage dealt to the Dreadnought. Damage in the Reserve does not count for massive Damage Rules.

No Surrender: A Dreadnought keeps fighting long after other warriors die. If reduced below 0HP, a Dreadnought has its COn Value of HP until they die. THey also do not fall unconscious, but can keep on fighting normally. if they do so, they lose 1 HP per turn. If they do not, they automatically stabilize.

DR: at Level 2 a Dreadnaught gains DR 2/-. This increases to 5/- at Level 8, and by another 3pts every 3 levels after this, to a maximum of at Level 17.

Resurgence: A Dreadnought of 4th Level may spend one Maneuver of any kind to heal himself by that Maneuvers Level*1d6+Con Bonus HP. Can be used 2 times/Day

Greater Resurgance: Starting at Level 10, this ability can be used as many times/day as the Dreadnaught has maneuvers readied.

Ultimate Resurgance: From level 15 onward, this ability can be used as long as the Dreadnought has Maneuvers readied left.

Dreadnoughts Skin At 8th level a Dreadnoughts Skin hardens to an amount similar to Armor. He gains + his Strength Bonus or Level in Dreadnought/3, whichever is higher, as Deflection AC. He also gains Fortification 25%

Elemental Resistance: Starting at Level 11, and every 3 levels thereafter, the Dreadnought gains +10 Energy Resistance vs. 3 Types of Energy of his choice. These choices may stack.

Dreadnoughts Will and Fortitude: At Level 12, the Dreadnought gains another +2 to his Will and Fortitude Saves. Additionally, once every day for every 5 Levels in Dreadnought, he can reroll a failed Will or Fortitude saving throw and take the better result.

Immovable Object: At Level 14 a Dreadnought becomes incredibly hard to affect with Combat Maneuvers. he gains +12 CMD against overrun and Bull Rush Attempts and +6 against Trip attempts

Impervious Physique: At Level 15 a Dreadnoughts Body is largely impervious to outside Influence- He gains Immunity to all Diseases and Poisons and does no longer suffer from Exhausted or fatigued conditions.

Perfect Physique: His training made the Dreadnought not simply hardier, but also better. At Level 17 he gains +2 to all physical Attributes and all Saves.

Immortality: A Dreadnought of this Level has shed the weakness to time completely. he becomes Immortal. Age penalties do no longer apply,he has no maximum age and cannot be aged unnaturally.

No Weakness: At this level a Dradnoughts horrible training regimen has purged him of almost all mortal weakness. He gains Fortification 75%, can move at half his Movement Speed even if effects would prevent movement, and cannot be dazed, Stunned or shaken.

True Dreadnaught At 20th level the Dreadnaughts Body undergoes a final transformation, making him as unassailable as any physical being can be. He gains Regeneration 5* (added to Fast Healing in cases where both apply), and becomes immune to: Attribute and level Drain and Damage, Instant Death and Polimorph Effects.

*: Damage types that deal lethal Damage. Force, Sonic.

[dethkruzer]

So two things I'd note: 1. If your class follows any progression aspect of another homebrew class, I'd suggest either replicating said progression on the table, or at the very least linking to this other class. 2. For the regeneration gained from the capstone, it needs to clarify what damage type(s), if any, deal lethal damage.

[GrayDeath]

Warders are not Homebrew. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/classes/warder/

I added the Link.



As for Regeneration youa re of course correct, I simply forgot to copy it in. Amended. :)

[GrayDeath]

Bumped for Upcoming Game.

[aimlessPolymath]

Hm.

Not a fan of the class design; the Warder does what this does but more elegantly.

Two class features per level plus maneuver progression is a whole lot of bloat.

A whole lot of class features just emulate feats and provide passive numerical benefits. It asks for a whole lot of work calculating out your character sheet, which can lead to forgotten bonuses and relatively boring play. Maneuvers are nice, but the Warder does this class's job in a much more interesting way.

Four bonus feats by second level is just gratuitous. They're boring ones, too. (Diehard at 2nd level... then a strictly better version of it in No Surrender at 3rd level? Really?)

This suffers from the basic problem of all tanks, too- there's no way to make people focus on you. This class will, essentially, outlast any other, but I don't see that as a good thing.

[GrayDeath]

With its maneuvers and the fact it can deal a whole lot of damage added in, it can tank reasonably well (again, as far as 3.5 allows it).

However, youa re correct, No Surrender comes online too early. WHat was I thinking? Corrected.

As for Elegance. yes, a warder you build for tanking does it mroe elegantly. However a Warder is not a Tank, it CAN BE one. This is meant to be a very specific direction of "High Damage Tank with lots of Defense".
Necessary? Not really. Still wanted to make it. :)