Unnatural [PrC]

[DanielLC]

Before I write this I'd like to add a dimension to alignments: Natural v. artificial. People of the natural alignment believe that there is something inherently beneficial about nature and everything about it should be preserved, while people of the artificial alignment believe there is nothing special about it, and a better artificial environment can and should be made and are perfectly willing to do unnatural things (such as animating dead). It's impossible to have three alignments (e.g. natural lawful good) because it ends up so washed-out it's essentially neutral. A druid must be natural, and a ranger must not be Artificial. Now I make a class that must be artificial.

"I don't hate nature, I just wish to improve upon it. It's cold, so I wear clothes. It's hard, so I sleep in a bed. It didn't give me enough arms, so I sewed on another pair."

Unnatural

Hit Die: d8

Requirements
Alignment: Any artificial.
Feats: Craft Wondrous Item.

Class Skills
Craft (Int)
Skill Points at Each Level
2+Spellcraft ability modifier modifier (see Magical Advancement)

Magical Advancement:
Unnaturals prefer to gain skill magically. Because of this, when gaining a level in unnatural, the skills gained are based on the ability score their spellcraft is based on rather than intelligence. If an unnatural has more than one magic-based class, he may choose the ability score from any magic class with at least three levels.

Craft Self (Su):
An unnatural can put any enchantment normally placed on a magic item on himself using 1.1 times the XP. Enchantments normally meant for weapons that only apply to a certain type of damage can only be done if the unnatural can deal that type of damage. A normal unarmed attack counts as bludgeoning.

Modify Self:
At the second level, an unnatural can add to his body in decidedly unnatural ways. Essentially, he adds an organ and any nerves, blood vessels, etc. needed to use it. Doing something like this requires taking the body part or parts needed It takes a week and 100XP to get the body part to work for a minor modification and 1,000XP and a month for a major one. If this isn't done, it will rot and fall off after a weak, and probably infect the unnatural, so don't cut corners on natural armor. You can count it as minor just to keep it alive, which is usually enough for natural armor, but you won't be able to feel or sweat with it. The actual results of the Modify Self aren't given until it is used. After all, you might be able to tell that an extra thumb on each hand would help you climb, but you wouldn't be able to tell how much it would help you, and you might not know that it would help keep you from being disarmed simply because it didn't occur to you.

Examples:

Spoiler

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Extra arm (major):
You get an extra offhand attack when using two weapon fighting and +2 bonus on climb and grapple checks. This can only be done twice

Eye in the back of your head (major):
You don't get penalties for being flanked, and you get a +2 bonus on spot checks.

Natural Armor (major):
You gain the benefits of the natural armor from the creature you took it from. This can be taken multiple times. Each time it replaces the armor from the last.

Extra thumbs (minor):
You get a +1 bonus on climb checks. You get a +2 bonus to resist being disarmed. You can take this twice.

Natural Armor shield (minor):
You get a +1 shield bonus to your AC.

The DM may decide to change these, and add to them on circumstances that didn't occur to me. A good rule of thumb for if a modification is major or minor is if it's adding a simple appendage, like a thumb, or replacing one already there, like replacing an eye with one with darkvision, it's minor. If it's adding something complex, like an arm, or if it just requires change over a massive area, like natural armor, it's major.

Aberration:
After using modify self enough, an unnatural gains the aberration type. The amount necessary is up to the DM. It is based on how much it changes the unnatural rather than the number done, for example grafting a prehensile tail onto his arm would do much more than natural armor. A good rule of thumb is that when onlookers would cease to recognize him as a person, he is an aberration.

Leach Enchantment (Su):
At the third level an unnatural can leech the magic out of a magic item over the course of a week. Doing so uses one-tenth the XP used to make the item, lost through the course of the week. When this process is complete, the unnatural can use the enchantment formerly on the item. During the process, the unnatural must be using it, if possible (e.g. wearing a ring). If not possible, he must be holding it. This doesn't need to be continuous, an the unnatural can drop the item when he fights. The item can't be used by anyone except the unnatural after 7/10ths of a day, effectively allowing the unnatural to use this just to keep anyone else from using the item for one tenth the XP used to make it. If the unnatural wants to undo the process, it takes just as long as it took so far, but no XP. An enchantment can be put back into an object other than the one it was taken out of, so long as the second object can hold the enchantment, and the second item isn't already enchanted.

Craft Able Item:
At the fourth level, an unnatural can craft an item capable of doing anything he has a supernatural, spell-like, or psi-like ability for, whether he got it from his species or class, including this one, or even imbue with spell ability, but in the last one he can no longer use the ability and only makes a one-use item. The cost for this is up to the DM's discretion, but generally costs 1.5 times as much a similar magic or psionic item would cost normally.

Quasi-Lichdom:
At the fifth level, an unnatural no longer gains penalties with age, and can't die of old age. This process is so unnatural that it shifts the unnatural's alignment to artificial, if it isn't purely that already.

Ex-Unnaturals
If an unnatural changes to a prohibited alignment, he can't level up in this class until he changes back. He also probably won't use the abilities he gained. If he changes to a natural alignment, he is likely to attempt to undo anything he did to himself with these abilities.

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

1st|

+0

|

+2

|

+0

|

+0

|Magical/Psyonic Advancement, Craft Self

2nd|

+1

|

+3

|

+0

|

+0

|Modify Self

3rd|

+2

|

+3

|

+1

|

+1

|Leach Enchantment

4th|

+3

|

+4

|

+1

|

+1

|Craft Able Item

5th|

+3

|

+4

|

+2

|

+2

|Quasi-Lichdom
[/table]

Note: this can be taken as a psionic-based rather than magic-based class. If this is done, everything changes to the psionic version of it. If the unnatural has at least three levels in both a magic and psionic class, he can do both magic and psionic versions.

[StickMan]

OK I love the idea here an the Aliment thing I may very well yonk that idea. I suggest you look up the D20 mutation system for this idea for this, because right now the whole Modify Self is very vague at best, and needs more too it and the mutation system may fill that in. Also you can look at my Transmutations which I have posted recently and you may have seen it around on the board.

[DanielLC]

I added a few examples to make it clearer. The idea here is that the player comes up with the modification. I don't want to make a table, and it doesn't seem like it would help much. Personally, if I played with this class, I'd try to come up with something creative and would purposely stay away from anything found in a table. Besides, the fact that the DM can make it end up however he wants might help balance this class out a bit. A normal player might be able to use a second arm coming out of his first fine, but if a munchkin does it, he would find it totally useless, allegedly because the nerves aren't made for going that far.

[Proven_Paradox]

The wording could use work in a few places. For example, I have no idea what you're talking about with "Magical/Psyonic Advancement." Are you trying to add caster progression here? If so, you need to clarify that in your table.

Also...

Leach Enchantment (Su):
At the third level, if an unnatural has the Craft Wondrous Item feat,

(Emphasis mine, of course.)

You don't need to add this bit; it's a prerequisite, one can't enter the class without it. I cannot think of any way they wouldn't have this.

Aberration:
After using modify self enough, an unnatural gains the aberration subtype. The amount necessary is up to the DM

You really should put down a set limit here. I think two minors or a major should be enough, personally.

You need to clarify what you mean with Craft Able Item. I'm not sure what exactly this ability does. Examples would probably be extremely helpful.

I would add something about no longer being able to take levels in this class and losing features if the character becomes non-artificial.


So, in all, you gain the ability to give yourself weapon enhancements--something only monks are really going to appreciate--the ability to graft parts onto yourself, the ability to leach enchantments out of items by paying XP, a craft ability I don't quite understand, and a dulled down form of lich. The power of this class depends entirely on the grafts, really, and you're going to spend so much XP on class features that you'll never level up. The fluff is excellent, but the crunch would keep me from ever playing it as written.

[DanielLC]

The magical/psyonic advancement is based on the idea that they use magic to improve their skills. If they are a sorcerer, they use charisma because that's what their magic is based on. I suppose I should have clarified that because it was designed to be nothing but fluff.

I made this so it would work with magic or psyonics. The point if the "if an unnatural has the Craft Wondrous Item feat" is that if they took that, they're magic. If the too Craft Universal Item, they're psyonic. I suppose I should make it just magic, then specify that you can change it all to the psionic versions.

The unset limit for the aberration is because it matters a lot what they are. Having a prehensile tail growing out of your right arm is going to make a much bigger difference than having natural armor, even though they're both major.

Craft able item is the same as crafting the item normally, except that instead of needing to cast a spell, you could have it as an ability, but since you don't really understand how it works, it's harder. As an example: suppose you're a half-giant and can manifest stomp once per day as a Psi-like ability, but you're not a psychic warrior. You can still make a dorje for it, but instead of a base price of 750 gp, it has a base price of 1,075gp. It's really more of a filler to make it harder to get to where you cheat death than anything.

It didn't occur to me that I needed to specify that you can't level up if you're non-artificial. You wouldn't actually lose abilities, but you'd be less likely to use them, and if you become natural you're likely to attempt to undo them.

I only added the weapon enhancements for completeness. You are supposed to use that ability for stuff like rings. It would make it so you have no upper limit on the number of rings you can use.

I don't have any of the actual books. I never played the game and I use d20srd.org for all of the stuff about the game, so I don't know what it takes to level up. Should I decrease the XP you need or take it out altogether? Is this for the magic abilities, or just the I'll decrease it by a factor of 10 for now.

It seems kind of weird that saying this class isn't very good moves it to the top of the forum. That's almost as messed up as the fact that I'm making a homebrewed class for a game I've never played that already has hundreds of official classes. Okay, it's nowhere near that messed up, but still.