Shaman of Wrath [PEACH]

[MammonAzrael]

This PrC was partly inspired by the Eldritch Glaive build of the Warlock. The frontlines are a place Warlocks usually don't like to be, but Glaivelocks are an exception, and that got me thinking what a character with Warlock powers would be like if he were born in a more brutal, physical world and raised in a society that emphasized physical prowess? Not all Warlock are born in cities or other areas that go with their common emphasis Dex and Cha. Shaman of Wrath plays up the demonic lineage more than an infernal lineage, and I think it works well. Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

Shaman of Wrath

Requirements
Alignment: Any Chaotic
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Skills: Intimidate 10 ranks
Special: Rage class feature; Eldritch Blast class feature

HD: d8
Skills: 2 + Intelligence modifier
Class Skills: Climb, Concentration, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (the planes), Listen, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Survival, and Swim.
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|

+1

|

+2

|

+0

|

+0

|Eldritch Blast +1d6, Eldritch Fury

2nd|

+2

|

+3

|

+0

|

+0

|DR 1/Cold Iron, Rampaging Blast

3rd|

+3

|

+3

|

+1

|

+1

|Eldritch Blast +1d6

4th|

+4

|

+4

|

+1

|

+1

|Eldritch Fury (Essences), Essence Invocation

5th|

+5

|

+4

|

+1

|

+1

|Eldritch Blast +1d6, DR 2/Cold Iron

6th|

+6

|

+5

|

+2

|

+2

|Inhuman Rage, Furious Presence

7th|

+7

|

+5

|

+2

|

+2

|Eldritch Blast +1d6

8th|

+8

|

+6

|

+2

|

+2

|DR 3/Cold Iron, Wrathful Blast

9th|

+9

|

+6

|

+3

|

+3

|Eldritch Blast +1d6

10th|

+10

|

+7

|

+3

|

+3

|Eldritch Fury (Full Attack)
[/table]

Shaman of Wrath levels stack with Barbarian levels to determine the number of times per day you can rage.

Shaman of Wrath levels stack with Warlock levels to determine the type of invocations you can learn and your caster level.

Weapon and Armor proficiencies: A Shaman of Wrath gains no new weapon or armor proficiencies.

Eldritch Blast (Sp): At 1st level and every odd-numbered level thereafter, the damage of your eldritch blast improves by 1d6 points.

Eldritch Fury (Su): By tapping into his demonic ancestor's rage, a Shaman of Wrath can channel that savagery into his blows.

You can use a standard action while raging to cast your Eldritch Blast and deliver it through your weapon with a melee attack. Casting Eldritch Blast in this manner does not provoke attacks of opportunity. If the melee attack is successful, the attack deals damage normally; then the effect of the Eldritch Blast is resolved.

At 4th level a Shaman of Wrath gains a stronger ability to direct his fiendish power into more focused destruction. You can apply Eldritch Essences to this Eldritch Blast.

At 10th level a Shaman of Wrath makes a deep connection to the furious power within himself. You can cast Eldritch Blast as part of a full attack action, and it affects each target you hit in melee combat that round.

Damage Reduction (Su): Fortified by the supernatural power flowing through your body, you become resistant to physical attacks. You gain damage reduction 1/cold iron at 2nd level; this stacks with damage reduction gained from other sources. Your damage reduction improves to 2/cold iron at 5th level, and to 3/cold iron at 8th level. Any damage reduction received from the Barbarian class becomes DR X/Cold Iron.

Rampaging Blast (Sp): Focusing the madness of your ancestors into your arcane blast, you can enrage a creature past all reason. This invocation (Greater; 6th; Eldritch Essence) allows you to change your eldritch blast into a rampaging blast. A creature hit by a rampaging blast must make a will save or fly into a mindless rage.

The affected creature temporarily gains a +6 bonus to Strength and a +2 morale bonus on Will saves, but he takes a -2 penalty to Armor Class and it must attack the nearest creature the the best of his ability (as confusion).

While raging, the affected creature cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except for Balance, Escape Artist, Intimidate, and Ride), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that require patience or concentration, nor can he cast spells or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger (such as a wand), or spell completion (such as a scroll) to function. He can use any feat he has except Combat Expertise, item creation feats, and metamagic feats.

The rage lasts for 1 round/2 class levels. At the end of the rage the target loses the rage modifiers and restrictions and must make a Fortitude save or become fatigued for 3 rounds. This is a mind-affecting effect.

Essence Invocation (Sp): At 4th level, you learn any one least, lesser, or greater essence invocation.

Inhuman Rage (Su): At 6th level a Shaman of Wrath unlocks the potential of his lineage, giving himself to the terrible power of his demonic sires. You may spend a daily use of your Rage ability to enter an Inhuman Rage.

The Shaman of Wrath temporarily gains a +4 bonus to Strength, a +4 bonus to Constitution, a +4 bonus to Charisma, energy resistance 10 to acid, cold, electricity, and fire, and spell resistance 15 + character level, but he takes a -2 penalty to Armor Class.

While raging, you cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except for Balance, Escape Artist, Intimidate, and Ride), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that require patience or concentration, nor can you cast spells or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger (such as a wand), or spell completion (such as a scroll) to function. the Shaman of Wrath can use any feat he has except Combat Expertise, item creation feats, and metamagic feats.

A fit of inhuman rage lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the character’s Constitution modifier. A Shaman of Wrath may prematurely end his rage. At the end of the rage, the Shaman of Wrath loses the rage modifiers and restrictions and becomes Exhausted for the duration of the current encounter. At the end of the encounter he is fatigued.

You may use Eldritch Fury during an Inhuman Rage.

Furious Presence (Ex): A Shaman of Wrath can unsettle foes with its mere presence, as they can feel the rage and anger boiling just below the Shaman's skin. The ability takes effect automatically whenever the Shaman of Wrath attacks, charges, makes an Intimidate check.

Opponents within a radius of 30 feet are subject to the effect if they have fewer than or the same HD as the Shaman's level. A potentially affected creature that succeeds on a Will save (DC 10 + ½ character level + Cha modifier) remains immune to that Shaman of Wrath's furious presence for 24 hours.

On a failure, creatures with 4 or less HD become panicked for 4d6 rounds, those with 5-8 HD become frightened for 4d6 rounds, and those with 9 or more HD become shaken for 4d6 rounds. Shamans of Wrath ignore the furious presence of other Shamans of Wrath.

Wrathful Blast (Sp): Concentrating on the whirling chaos and anger in the deepest parts of your soul, you can imbue that undying madness into your eldritch blasts. This invocation (Dark; 8th; Eldritch Essence) allows you to change your eldritch blast into a wrathful blast. A creature hit by a wrathful blast must make a will save or fly into a frenzied whirlwind of death.

The affected creature temporarily gains a +10 bonus to Strength, a +4 bonus to Constitution, and immunity to all mind-affecting effects (except this one). If it makes a full attack action it gains a single extra attack at it's highest bonus (this does not stack with haste or other effects that grant additional attacks). It also takes a -4 penalty to Armor Class, 2 points of nonlethal damage per round, and it must attack the nearest creature the the best of his ability (as confusion) with a melee attack. If there are no creatures within reach the affected creature must move to the closest target as quicky as possible.

While raging, the affected creature cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except for Intimidate), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that require patience or concentration, drink a potion, nor can it cast spells or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger (such as a wand), or spell completion (such as a scroll) to function. He can use any feat he has except Combat Expertise, item creation feats, and metamagic feats.

As long as the frenzy continues, the affected creature is not treated as disabled at 0 hit points, nor dying a -1 to -9 hit points. If reduced to -10 hit points or less, it continues to fight normally until the frenzy ends. At that point the effects of the wounds apply normally if they have not been healed. This does not prevent death from massive damage or spell effects such as slay living or disintergrate.

The frenzy lasts for 1 round per class level. At the end of the frenzy the affected creature loses the frenzies' modifiers and restrictions and must make a Fortitude save or become fatigued for 3 rounds. This is a mind-affecting effect.

Edits

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Edit #1

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• Added BAB +5 as a requirement.
• Added the clause "Any damage reduction received from the Barbarian class becomes DR X/Cold Iron." to Damage Reduction.
• Cleared up which parts of Eldritch Fury could be used during Inhuman Rage.
• Changed Essence Invocation from 8th level to 4th level, removed dark essences.
• Added Wrathful Blast at 8th level.

Edit #2

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• Shaman of Wrath levels now stack with Warlock levels to determine caster level.
• Added Furious Presence

[MammonAzrael]

Is it really that boring/bland? Not even any I like it/dislike it comments?

[GrassyGnoll]

It's not boring. It's just that I find it hard to express my reaction to this class. Something that angry deserves a fiery response.

I expected a sort of spirit shaman variant when I opened this thread and was pleasantly surprised.

Um, RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWR!!!

[Stycotl]

a couple of things off the top of my head.

i'd give a bab prereq, maybe +5 or so.

damage reduction. i am not sure--don't have any books or pdf's open--but i don't think that class-given dr usually stacks with anything. prc-given dr usually stacks with class-based dr as far as i remember. so assuming that i am remembering right, i would limit the things that his dr can stack with. put a clause in there that says that it stacks with warlock dr, or barbarian dr, whichever is highest; if barb dr is highest, barb dr becomes #/cold iron instead of #/-. something like that. i suppose you could probably stack both barb and warlock, since this is a prc, and so far does not seem to me to be too powerful.

next, rampaging blast is cool, but i think it would be better to just make it a normal invocation; i am not sure that it is worth a precious prc ability. just my thought though. maybe make it a prereq or something.

essence invocation at 8th level seems kinda lonely. i'd either scrap it and give him another ability, or give another essence invocation at 3rd level or so (obviously not a dark invoc though).

maybe i missed it, but can he use essences while in the inhuman rage? i know he can blast in the rage, but couldn't tell if the essences were legal or not. part of the confusion is that you explain what you can and can't do blast-wise during an inhuman rage, in the eldritch fury desc, instead of the inhuman rage description. i know that in some places they like to be redundant and put the info of two meshing abilities in both descriptions, but if you were going to just put it in one, i would pick the inhuman rage description, and clarify whether shapes and essences are legal during the rage.

i am looking forward to seeing the finished product; this is a good idea. it never dawned on me to mix barb and warlock in some kinda primal, hellscreaming berserker; they have good chemistry together in this class. good job.

[MammonAzrael]

The BAB requirement is a good suggestion, and fits well.

The DR clause I worded from the Eldritch Theurge. But you bring up a good point with the Barb DR. I'll update that.

As for the two Essences the Shaman of Wrath gets, I guess I was just worried about over loading the class. At this point, you don't get any new invocations while advancing in this class (just like Enlightened Spirit), so I should probably be a little more forgiving in getting them. As it stands now, those are the only two you get!

Yeah, you can apply Essences during an Inhuman Rage, I'm clearing that up now.

Edit: Updated the PrC. I'm thinking about making Wrathful Blast only be applied on melee eldritch blasts (either through Eldritch Rage, Hideous Blow, Eldritch Glaive, etc), that way you have to be right there when you shoot that monster up with PCP. Opinions?

[MammonAzrael]

Bumbin'! I hope to get some more responses, I'd like to see this into a good PrC, since I really like the concept. Lemmie know what you think people!

[Stycotl]

for some reason i had not noticed that this class does not advance invocations known.

i would specify that the class does increase caster level. you might have already, but i didn't see it.

some good improvements. i am still confused i guess, as to the reasons for the wrathful blast and its equivalents. why on earth would we want to give our foes a bonus to strength and stuff? the only scenario i can think of is when you are fighting hordes of bad guys and you can target one of them that is surrounded only by his buddies.

maybe make the abilities a normal invocation, so that you can use it on your party members when they want it (and that they can control who and what they attack to some degree), but then also say that it can be used specially as a blast essence, in which case it does something mildly different, maybe a little more detrimental. makes them go completely bloodthirsty.

tell me if i am missing part of the concept here.

aaron out.

[MammonAzrael]

Hey, sorry for the delay in responding!

Increasing caster level is a good call, I'll add it in.

The idea behind the Wrathful and Rampaging Blasts are you're sending the enemy into a violent rage. So they get the bonuses to stregnth and so on, but they have to attack the closer creature, as the spell confusion (as if they had rolled a 71-100). Obviously, this isn't great against single opponents, and I'm open to any ideas for abilities/invocations that are more useful against single opponents.

I guess they could be normal Invocations, but I like the idea of a Shaman of Wrath full attacking a bunch of opponents and sending them all into a crazy rage and they start lashing out at each other.

I added Furious Presence to give a greater incentive for melee combat. Too much? should it be tweaked to only affect creature in melee combat, a single creature, removed, or it's fine?