Build your own mecha/battlesuit! (Bastion 3.5 PrC) PEACH

[Veklim]

Arise, Bastion of Caern Mul'Toth, you are needed once more.

For all of remembered time there have been a chosen few with the power and determination to become Bastions. They come from many races, all walks of life and every creed and ethos, but they share one thing; a person, a place or an item that they would die to protect. A Bastion is physically imposing, and their defensive capabilities are usually immediately apparent, but this is merely the surface of a Bastion's power as a deep mystical connection runs beneath the surface of these rare individuals. Some say it is raw, untrained arcane might, others insist the influence is divine, but fail to find whence the power originates, sensitive psionics can feel a Bastion's power radiating about them and insist they are latent psions, but all would be wrong. The truth of the Bastion's power is in their own conviction, a power which allows them to do incredible things.

THE BASTION Hit Dice: D12

REQUIREMENTS

Skills: Concentration 8 ranks
Feats: Iron Will, Forge Bastion
Special: Must hold a person, group, object or place in such high regard that they are willing to devote their lives to it's protection.

LEVEL	BAB	FORT	REF	WILL	SPECIAL	CONVICTION
1st	+1	+2	+0	+2	Purpose, Strength of Conviction	1
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+3	Hardware	3
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+3	Hardware, Call to Arms 1/day (no AoO)	5
4th	+4	+4	+1	+4	Strength of Conviction	7
5th	+5	+4	+1	+4	Hardware	9
6th	+6	+5	+2	+5	Hardware, Call to Arms 2/day (move)	11
7th	+7	+5	+2	+5	Strength of Conviction	13
8th	+8	+6	+2	+6	Hardware	15
9th	+9	+6	+3	+6	Hardware, Call to Arms 3/day (free)	17
10th	+10	+7	+3	+7	Strength of Conviction, Immortal Bastion	19

Skills per level: 4 + Int modifier
Class Skills: Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Architecture & Engineering, History, Nobility & Royalty) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis) and Spot (Wis)

CLASS FEATURES

Purpose: (Su)
At first level, a transformation of sorts happens within the Bastion and his armour. The Bastion must dedicate themselves utterly to someone or something (this is very much up to DM approval) like a town's population, a royal family, a performing troupe, a temple, a naval ship or trading caravan, or perhaps a single person or item. This is forever more linked to you via the same bond your Bastion armour is, becoming entwined with your very soul, and is henceforth referred to as the Bastion's 'Purpose'. You always know instinctively where your Purpose is and it's general state (fine, under attack, damaged, etc) as long as you remain on the same plane as it. With DM permission a Bastion may choose another player character to become their Purpose, but you may never have a Bastion as another Bastion's Purpose. Because that's just silly.

If the Bastion fails to protect their Purpose from harm and it is subsequently killed or destroyed, the Bastion loses all class features which use conviction (see below), and is compelled as if by a Geas (CL 20) to search for a way of restoring their Purpose to it's former state (if the Purpose is a town or a sizeable population of people, the DM must choose what constitutes enough damage, loss of life, etc to trigger this effect). If you seek vengeance for the loss of your Purpose, you may use conviction abilities for as long as you do so, but not for any other reason. If the Purpose is a person who simply dies of old age, or a building which becomes defunct (a chapel being demolished and replaced by a temple, for instance), the Bastion either lays down his burden and retires, or searches for a new Purpose (in the case of the chapel being replaced, the Bastion would almost certainly take on the temple as his Purpose). A Bastion in search of a new Purpose for this reason may still use Conviction abilities, but only for as long as he actively searches (DMs are advised to discuss this with the player).

From now onwards, your Bastion armour cannot be removed in the classic sense, rather it is absorbed by your own body until such time as it is needed again. This has 2 major effects and one downside. The first effect is that the armour may no longer be destroyed, the only way to directly harm it is to harm you, the armour no longer has a hardness, saves or HP, the armour can no longer be targeted, and doesn't count as being made of it's actual materials for the purposes of spells and effects like Rusting Grasp, Heat Metal and Repel Wood. Secondly, you may call your armour to you as a full round action (which provokes attacks of opportunity), whereby it seems to burst forth from your flesh and knit itself onto you. You may absorb your armour at any time as a move action. This causes no damage to the Bastion or any of his equipment or clothing, but is apparently quite painful. If you are polymorphed, wildshaped or anything of the like, the effect is suspended whilst you wear your armour (it will resume if the armour is absorbed before the end of any duration the effect may have).
On the downside, when you're wearing your Bastion armour, it now covers you entirely, moves unnaturally and distorts your voice, rendering a +20% arcane spell failure chance and a -10 penalty to all social interaction skills and Charisma checks except feinting in combat, intimidation and sense motive checks (this does not affect your actual ability scores, nor any static bonus you may gain from ability modifiers, like a Paladin's Divine Grace ability).

Strength of Conviction: (Su)
At the very heart of a Bastion's power lies their conviction. From 1st level onwards, you have a pool of conviction points equal to the number on the table above + your Constitution and Wisdom modifiers. The points may be invested (held in reserve to activate the ability) or spent (used for the day to gain extra benefit) from this conviction pool to power your abilities, and are replenished after a full night's sleep (or whatever may be appropriate for your race, etc). Conviction abilities have two types of use; Passive (which requires invested conviction to activate) and Active (which requires spending conviction once activated). Investing conviction takes a standard action per ability being invested and spending it is a swift action, unless stated otherwise. You may not spend conviction once it is invested for the day, these points only return to your conviction pool once you have rested enough to replenish your conviction.

At 1st level, and every three levels thereafter, you gain a Strength of Conviction ability, chosen from the following list.

Spoiler

Toughness of The Bastion:
Passive. The Bastion and his Purpose gain DR 1/- for each conviction point invested (if the Purpose has a hardness, it gains +1 hardness for each conviction point instead).
Active. The Bastion and his Purpose gain an amount of fast healing equal to the number of conviction points spent on activation (if the Purpose is a construct, building or object it repairs damage at this rate instead). This lasts for a number of rounds equal to your class level.
Note. If the Purpose is multiple people or objects then they each gain the passive bonus, but the Active ability can only affect you and one other at a time, healing the most injured first, then the next, then the next, round by round.

Determination of The Bastion:
Passive. The Bastion and his Purpose gain a morale bonus to all saves equal to the number of points invested.
Active. Whenever the Bastion or his Purpose fails a save, you may immediately spend a point of conviction to gain a new save for that effect with a bonus equal to half your class level (rounded up). You may only do this once for each effect saved against.
Note. If the Purpose is multiple people or objects then they each gain this bonus if it's applicable.

Knowledge of The Bastion:
Passive. The Bastion may make untrained knowledge checks to identify creatures and gains a bonus to do so equal to the number of points invested.
Active. The Bastion and his Purpose gain an insight bonus until the end of the encounter (or 1 minute / class level outside of combat) to all rolls made against a particular creature type, equal to 2 / point spent. The creature type must have already been identified by the Bastion to use this ability.

Speed of The Bastion:
Passive. The Bastion's base land speed increases by 5ft / point invested.
Active. As a full round action action, The Bastion may spend 3 points of conviction to teleport to anywhere within 10ft of their Purpose as long as they are both on the same plane. Treat this effect as a Greater Teleport, except you may only ever travel to your Purpose, and cannot take anyone else with you.

Tenacity of The Bastion:
Passive. The Bastion and his Purpose gain energy resistance to one type of energy (fire, cold, acid, electricity or sonic, chosen when investing) equal to 2 / point invested. You may choose a different energy type for each point invested this way.
Active. The Bastion may spend 1 point of conviction to grant himself and his Purpose immunity to a single energy type until the start of your next turn.
Note. If the Purpose is multiple people or objects then they each gain this bonus.

Hardware: (Ex/Su)
A part of every Bastion is his armour which develops and grows as he does. This may also use conviction to do amazing things. Beginning at 2nd level, and then again at every level marked in the table above, you gain a Hardware upgrade for which you qualify. These are only usable when you have your armour on unless otherwise stated. These each grant an ability which is always active (these effects are Extraordinary in nature). They also each have a Power, which requires you spend conviction points to use (these effects are Supernatural in nature). As such, a Bastion who has lost their conviction abilities may still gain limited use of their Hardware, but not the associated Powers.
Some Hardware also grants class skills to the Bastion, these do not require the armour to be worn to have an effect, they are permanently added to your class skill list.

Entry Class Specific Hardware:

Spoiler

Arcane Attenuator

Requires: 5+ levels in Sorcerer or Wizard
Benefit: +1 level of arcane spellcasting (you gain this even when not in your armour). You gain Knowledge (Arcana) and Spellcraft as class skills.
Power-Up: You may expend a conviction point as part of casting any spell to ignore the arcane spell failure chance of your Bastion armour.
Special: You may select this Hardware multiple times, gaining +1 spellcasting each time you do so.


Arcane Converter

Requires: 5+ levels in Bard
Benefit: You may expend a spell slot or prepared spell as a standard action to do one of the following things:
You and all allies within 10ft gain an insight bonus to attack and damage equal to the spell or slot level expended for rounds equal to your Bastion level.
You and all allies within 10ft gain a dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves equal to the spell or slot level expended for rounds equal to your Bastion level.
You make a ranged touch attack (60ft range) which deals 1D6 damage / spell or slot level expended.
(Cantrips count as level 1 spells for these purposes)
You gain Perform and Spellcraft as class skills.
Power-Up: Whenever you expend a spell slot you may spend conviction points as well. Each conviction point spent counts as an additional spell level when calculating the effects of your Arcane Converter. You may only expend a number of conviction points this way equal to half your Bastion level (rounded up) in any one turn.


Divine Capacitor

Requires: 5+ levels in Paladin
Benefit: Bastion Levels stack with Paladin levels for the purpose of calculating your Smite and Lay on Hands abilities.
Power-Up: You may spend conviction to power your Smite and Lay on Hands abilities at the following rates; 2 conviction points / Smite attack, 1 conviction point / 5 HP.


Morphic Resonator

Requires: 5+ levels in Druid
Benefit: You may use your Bastion armour whilst wildshaping, but you do not gain the benefit of any Hardware other than this if you do so. Knowledge (Nature) and Survival are class skills for you.
Power-Up: For every point of conviction you spend, you gain the use of a single Hardware ability from the ones you have obtained for your Bastion armour whilst wildshaping. This benefit lasts until the end of the encounter


Mystic Amplifier

Requires: 5+ levels in Ranger
Benefit: Bastion Levels count as Ranger levels for the purpose of calculating Ranger spells per day, access to new levels of Ranger spells and calculating caster level.
Power-Up: You may spend conviction points to recall and cast a spell you have already used today. Doing so requires 1 conviction point / spell level of the recalled spell.


Sacred Seals

Requires: 5+ levels in Cleric
Benefit: You no longer take penalties to turn/rebuke checks whilst wearing your Bastion armour, and your Bastion level stacks with your Cleric level for the purposes of turn/rebuke checks.
Power-Up: You may expend two conviction points instead of a turn attempt to power turn/rebuke checks and other divine feats which use turn attempts.


Servo-Assist

Requires: 5+ levels in Barbarian or Fighter (or a mixture of both).
Benefit: You gain +2 Strength, +1 Dodge bonus to AC and +1 to Reflex saves. This stacks with rage benefits. Climb and Swim are class skills for you.
Power-Up: Whenever you score a critical threat with a weapon, you may spend a conviction point to automatically confirm the critical.


Targetting Array

Requires: 5+ levels in Rogue
Benefit: The distance at which you may attempt ranged sneak attacks increases by 5ft / Bastion level. Hide and Move Silently are class skills for you.
Power-Up: You may spend a conviction point to make your next attack a sneak attack, regardless of whether or not the target is normally immune to such, or not in a situation where one would be open.

General Hardware:

Spoiler

Aquatic Impeller

Requires: At least one Hardware, 9 ranks in Swim
Benefit: You gain a swim speed equal to half your base land speed and the ability to breath under water.
Power-Up: You may spend a conviction point to propel yourself through the water at 4x your swim speed (as if running) as a standard action. If you so choose, you may use this movement as a full round action as part of a charge attack, gaining a +1 / class level bonus to attack and damage.
Special: If you have the Run feat, you move at 5x your swim speed when powered up.


Digger Drill

Requires: At least one Hardware
Benefit: You gain a burrow speed equal to half your base land speed.
Power-Up: Whenever you make a charge, bullrush or overrun attempt you may spend a conviction point to ignore the Hardness or DR of the target for that attack. Any target hit by this attack must make a fortitude save (DC = Damage dealt) or take a -5 penalty to it's Hardness or DR for the duration of the encounter.


Extra Plating

Requires: Increased Mass, Medium or Heavy Bastion armour
Benefit: Your Bastion armour grants an additional +2 AC, this is added to the base AC of the armour as an untyped bonus.
Power-Up: Whenever a critical threat is scored against you, or you are subject to a sneak attack or other form of precision damage, you may spend 2 conviction points as a free action to negate it and receive a normal attack in it's place (as if the critical didn't confirm or you weren't flat-footed, etc).


Increased Mass

Requires: Any 2 Hardware (not compatible with Lightweight Components)
Benefit: Varies with Bastion armour type as follows:
Light armour. You gain powerful build.
Medium armour. You gain a size category and a +2 bonus to melee damage rolls.
Heavy armour. You gain a size category and a +4 bonus to melee damage rolls.
Power-Up: You may spend a conviction point to gain a bonus equal to your Bastion level on a Strength check or Strength based skill check.


Integrated Weapon/Shield

Requires: Masterworked or better weapon (but no thrown weapon) or shield with which you are proficient
Benefit: You absorb your chosen weapon or shield into your Bastion armour with a 10 minute ritual per item integrated (requires no xp or gold, just time). Integrated items may only be used whilst in your armour, but benefit from being integrated as follows; It can no longer be destroyed, the only way to directly harm it is to harm you, the weapon or shield no longer has hardness, saves or HP, the weapon or shield can no longer be targeted, and doesn't count as being made of it's actual materials for the purposes of spells and effects like Rusting Grasp, Heat Metal and Repel Wood. Removing a weapon or shield from your armour also takes a 10 minute ritual per item removed, but again, requires no xp or gold, just time. You may only have one weapon or shield integrated for each instance of this Hardware (see Special below).
Power-Up: You may spend a conviction point to allow your next attack to ignore resistances, DR and hardness.
Special: You may select this Hardware multiple times. Each time you take it you may integrate one additional weapon or shield into your armour at any given time(you may still only benefit from one shield at a time).


Lightweight Components

Requires: Any 2 Hardware (not compatible with Increased Mass)
Benefit: Varies with Bastion armour type as follows:
Light armour. The maximum Dexterity bonus of your Bastion armour increases by 3 and armour check penalties are removed. Gain +5ft to your base speed.
Medium armour. The maximum Dexterity bonus of your Bastion armour increases by 2 and armour check penalties are reduced by 2 (to a minimum of -2)
Heavy armour. The maximum Dexterity bonus of you Bastion armour increases by 2 and armour check penalties are reduced by 2 (to a minimum of -4)
Power-Up: You may spend a conviction point to gain a bonus equal to your Bastion level on a Dexterity check or Dexterity based skill check.


Micro-Missile Miasma

Requires: Integrated Weapon with a ranged weapon, any one other Hardware.
Benefit: As a standard action you may fire an integrated ranged weapon using multiple Micro-Missiles instead of normal ammunition. You fire 1 missile / Bastion level at a range of 100ft (+20ft / Bastion level), rolling a single attack roll at full base attack bonus as normal for your weapon and applying the result to each missile separately (this has no critical, but a natural 20 may still be considered an auto-hit). Each individual missile may be targetted at any creature within range and deals damage equal to 1D4 + any enhancement or feat bonuses to the weapon. This damage is of the same type the weapon normally deals and is considered magic if the weapon is considered magic. For example: You have Weapon Specialisation (Longbow), 14 Strength, and you use an integrated +1 magic composite (+2) longbow, each missile would deal 1D4 + 5 piercing damage (magic)
Power-Up: When you fire a Micro-Missile Miasma, you may chose to spend a conviction point as part of that action to turn the missle damage into force damage and increase the die to a D6.


Overdrive Engine

Requires: -
Benefit: You gain +5ft / 2 Bastion levels (rounded up) to your base land speed.
Power-Up: Whenever you would use a Hardware power-up as a standard action, you may spend an additional conviction point as part of it's cost to make it a move action instead.


Phoenix Pack

Requires: At least one Hardware, 9 ranks in Jump
Benefit: With a successful DC 20 Jump check, the Bastion may propel himself aloft as if under the effects of a Fly spell (caster level equals character level). This does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Power-Up: Whenever the Bastion takes off or lands whilst using this ability he may spend a conviction point to produce an explosive burst of fire in a 10ft radius around him dealing 1D6 / class level fire damage. A successful reflex save halves this damage, DC = 5 + Bastion's ranks in Jump.


Reactive Camouflage

Requires: Light or Medium Bastion armour, Lightweight Components
Benefit: You gain 5% concealment / Bastion level whenever you remain in the same square for at least 1 round. You may supress or resume this at any time as a free action.
Power-Up: You may move with your concealment active for 1 round / conviction point spent.


Rocket Barrage Unit

Requires: Medium or Heavy Bastion armour, Micro-Missile Miasma
Benefit: You gain a ranged 'secondary attack system' with an area of effect which may be used 3 times per day. You may use this as part of any full attack action you make, or as a standard action attack, similar to a secondary natural weapon except there is no attack roll. Everything in a 10ft radius centered on a target area take 2D6 + 1 / Bastion level damage (fire and bludgeoning), and must succeed on a fortitude save (DC = 10 + Con mod + class level) or be knocked prone in the square they occupy. This is a ranged attack (40ft +5ft / Bastion level) which provokes attacks of opportunity.
Power-Up: You may spend a conviction point to imbue your next rocket barrage with an additional 2D6 damage and increase it's DC by 2. For each attack, you may only spend one conviction point for each instance of this Hardware (see Special below).
Special: You may select this Hardware multiple times. Each time you take it you gain an additional use / day and may spend an additional conviction point to Power-Up your barrage.


Rocket Punch!

Requires: Improved Unarmed Strike
Benefit: Your unarmed strike damage goes up by one die size and you gain +5 ft reach when making unarmed attacks.
Power-Up: As a standard action, you may spend a conviction point to make an unarmed strike at a range of 10ft / class level by detaching and launching your fist at the enemy. If the attack hits it deals maximum damage and the target must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC = 10 + Con mod + class level) or be knocked back 5ft / class level. The fist returns to the end of your arm at the end of the attack, regardless of whether it hit or not, as if it had the Returning weapon property. This strike counts as a melee attack and follows all other normal rules for such.
Special: You may use a stunning fist attempt or similar strike as part of this attack, as if it were a standard unarmed strike.

Call to Arms: (Ex)
Your instincts are sharp, and you have become accustomed to the pain of calling your armour, no longer flinching in anticipation of it. Beginning at 3rd level, the Bastion no longer provokes attacks of opportunity when calling his armour. Furthermore, 1/day the Bastion may provide himself and all allies within 10ft/class level with a bonus to their initiative checks equal to his Bastion class level. This is a free action which may only be made when initiative is rolled, and before results are declared.
At 6th level, the Bastion may call his armour as a move action, instead of a full round. You may use Call to Arms 2/day.
At 9th level, the Bastion may call his armour as a free action, instead of a move. You may use Call to Arms 3/day.

Immortal Bastion: (Ex)
At 10th level, you gain the living construct type and all it's benefits whenever you are in your Bastion armour and for as long as you remain armoured, you no longer age. Ageing resumes as normal when not in your armour, but any physical age penalties accrued from now onwards are removed when you are in your Bastion armour, and return as normal when the armour is absorbed.
Some Bastions choose to forsake their mortal lives at this point, and some do not. The choice is for the individual to make.

[Veklim]

FEATS

Believe in me, who believes in you!
Requirements: Any 2 Strength of Conviction Bastion class features.
Benefits: Choose a Strength of Conviction ability you have access to. You are always treated as if you have 1 point of conviction invested in this ability, even if you are unconscious or have no remaining conviction for the day. This point may not be spent in any other way.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times, either choosing a new Strength of Conviction ability or adding 1 point of conviction to one you have selected with this feat already.

[Veklim]

OK, a brief statement of purpose is a reasonable thing at this juncture I believe!

Much is explained in the link to the Forge Bastion feat (in the requirements section of the class), but I shall endeavour to clear a few things up, right off the bat...

I have a fair few plans for the Hardware, but really want to have the rest of the Chassis checked out by the playground first. This has been brewing in my mind for over a year now, but translating everything into 10 levels of PrC is insanely awkward!

Hardware includes melee and ranged weaponry options, movement options and armour upgrades (limited to armour size of you Bastion armour) like heavy plating (medium/heavy), camouflage (light/medium) and size increase (light gets powerful build, medium gains size category with small strength bonus, heavy gains size category with larger strength bonus).

The Hardware section is also going to include at least one entry for each SRD base class, designed to enhance/advance a key aspect of the entry class, and I will welcome any and all ideas to cover the myriad other base classes out there. Arcane spellcasting will be one of them, so wizards, sorcerers and even bards will be covered by a single entry here, allowing them to channel spell slots into attacks or defences, a little like an Eldritch Blast with options I guess...although thinking about it, why a Bard would wanna become a Bastion is beyond me honestly...

Feats will also be included, probably in the cunningly reserved post above this one, featuring things like a feat which grants a permanently invested conviction point in one (or perhaps two..?) of your Strength of Conviction abilities (ideas on any more of these would be awesome btw, I'd like to have one or two more yet).

Ideas, oversights, thunderous applause and cutting critiques are all equally welcome!
Except maybe the 'cutting' bit

[DracoDei]

How does having the armor be part of you (and thus all damage and saves applying to you yourself) work if your Bastion is Full-Plate and someone goes for a Rusting Grasp spell on you? Is it a save-or-die?


Knowledge of the Bastion should PROBABLY just be the ability to make checks untrained as long as you have at least 1 point invested, and a bonus to checks to ID creatures. This would let it stack with actual ranks in the skills, which the entry classes would actually tend to have access to since Forge Bastion has knowledge ranks pre-requisites, and the PrC itself requires ranks in concentration. Admittedly the increased ASF discourages arcane entry, but I could see a cleric or druid entry (Dragon-scale full-plate?) stacking their Knowledge(Religion) and/or Knowledge(Nature), etc.

Is picking one of the other PCs as your Purpose within the realms of balance?

Let's say that your purpose is the citizens of your home village, and you activate "Toughness of the Bastion" in response to an orc raiding party attacking the village. Does each citizen of the town gain fast healing or is the healing distributed each round randomly among the injured of the townsfolk (but with no individual getting 2 points until everyone who is injured gets at least 1 point and etc)? Similar questions may apply to other Strength of Conviction abilities.

This too may use conviction to do amazing things.

Should be "to".

Arcane Converter seems like it wouldn't get much use except if you are gishing to buff yourself before "kicking in the door" then summoning the armor. Consider allowing a free action (or swift if you want to keep the quickened spells more under control) to spend a single Conviction to negate ASF for one round or half-class-level rounds or something... this should also add Spellcraft to the class skills. Of course I just realized that, the PrC doesn't advance spell-casting so I don't think you are going to get many full-casters.... maybe just taking this Hardware should cause you to ignore ASF and advance your spellcasting by a level (new spells per day, caster level, etc), and then you can take it more than once to keep advancing your spellcasting.

Targeting Array is VERY nice. Then again, it requires a standard action apparently, and the class doesn't stack for sneak-attack dice, so those sneak attacks won't be very impressive (and you are limited to one at a time with the special benefit).

[Veklim]

A PEACH! All of my very own!

Originally Posted by DracoDei

How does having the armor be part of you (and thus all damage and saves applying to you yourself) work if your Bastion is Full-Plate and someone goes for a Rusting Grasp spell on you? Is it a save-or-die?

Yeah, that needs clarification. The armour can no longer be targeted at all, and doesn't count as being made of it's actual materials for the purposes of spells and effects like Rusting Grasp, Heat Metal and Repel Wood.

Originally Posted by DracoDei

Knowledge of the Bastion should PROBABLY just be the ability to make checks untrained as long as you have at least 1 point invested, and a bonus to checks to ID creatures. This would let it stack with actual ranks in the skills, which the entry classes would actually tend to have access to since Forge Bastion has knowledge ranks pre-requisites, and the PrC itself requires ranks in concentration. Admittedly the increased ASF discourages arcane entry, but I could see a cleric or druid entry (Dragon-scale full-plate?) stacking their Knowledge(Religion) and/or Knowledge(Nature), etc.

That makes much sense actually. Shall change that!

Originally Posted by DracoDei

Is picking one of the other PCs as your Purpose within the realms of balance?

Depends on the PC, and the DM more to the point. I'd say yes, since the meat shield becomes truly dedicated to only one party member and actually loses a lot of stuff if that PC drops. The thought had crossed my mind about 2 Bastions having each other as their Purpose, and whereas that's ridiculous and shall be vetoed now, it did make me chuckle.

Originally Posted by DracoDei

Let's say that your purpose is the citizens of your home village, and you activate "Toughness of the Bastion" in response to an orc raiding party attacking the village. Does each citizen of the town gain fast healing or is the healing distributed each round randomly among the injured of the townsfolk (but with no individual getting 2 points until everyone who is injured gets at least 1 point and etc)? Similar questions may apply to other Strength of Conviction abilities.

Heh, yeah. Welcome to my headache, it worked so much better in my mind...
I intend it to spread the healing about amongst the injured, most severely first, followed by the next and so on. Wording issues here are my worry, if you can think of a succinct and elegant way of putting it I'd be grateful!

Originally Posted by DracoDei

Arcane Converter seems like it wouldn't get much use except if you are gishing to buff yourself before "kicking in the door" then summoning the armor. Consider allowing a free action (or swift if you want to keep the quickened spells more under control) to spend a single Conviction to negate ASF for one round or half-class-level rounds or something... this should also add Spellcraft to the class skills. Of course I just realized that, the PrC doesn't advance spell-casting so I don't think you are going to get many full-casters.... maybe just taking this Hardware should cause you to ignore ASF and advance your spellcasting by a level (new spells per day, caster level, etc), and then you can take it more than once to keep advancing your spellcasting.

I've been trying to gauge whether spellcaster progression was a good idea or not, you may have just swayed my opinion on the matter though...if I were to make Arcane Converter do as you say above (which I think I will, thankyou), then I can change the existent material into a Bard ability (which was always the best fit for it anyhow). What do you think?

Originally Posted by DracoDei

Targeting Array is VERY nice. Then again, it requires a standard action apparently, and the class doesn't stack for sneak-attack dice, so those sneak attacks won't be very impressive (and you are limited to one at a time with the special benefit).

True (and true), but fear not! Some small help is at hand! I have actually planned on advancing some of these abilities with feats which allow full attacks to benefit from normally standard action attack options (expect some attack Hardware to appear soonish) or stack Bastion with classes for more stuff (sneak attack, favoured enemy, bardic music/knowledge, etc). There is also at least one weapon enhancement which adds sneak attack dice to the weapon's attacks, so that would certainly help these guys.

Edits shall take place tomorrow after work, many thanks for the advice!

[DracoDei]

Originally Posted by Veklim

A PEACH! All of my very own!

You are welcome?

Originally Posted by Veklim

Yeah, that needs clarification. The armour can no longer be targeted at all, and doesn't count as being made of it's actual materials for the purposes of spells and effects like Rusting Grasp, Heat Metal and Repel Wood.

Sounds good to me.

Originally Posted by Veklim

That makes much sense actually. Shall change that!

Glad to be of service.

Originally Posted by Veklim

Depends on the PC, and the DM more to the point.

True, but the scenario seemed worth considering at least a little, which we just did, which is good enough.

Originally Posted by Veklim

I'd say yes, since the meat shield becomes truly dedicated to only one party member and actually loses a lot of stuff if that PC drops. The thought had crossed my mind about 2 Bastions having each other as their Purpose, and whereas that's ridiculous and shall be vetoed now, it did make me chuckle.

I dunno, look up "Battle Couple" on TVTropes (CAUTION: USE TVTROPES RESPONSIBLY!)... sure it is kinda cheesy, but only incrementally so more than a single Bastion in a group having another PC as their Purpose.

Originally Posted by Veklim

Heh, yeah. Welcome to my headache, it worked so much better in my mind...
I intend it to spread the healing about amongst the injured, most severely first, followed by the next and so on. Wording issues here are my worry, if you can think of a succinct and elegant way of putting it I'd be grateful!

..."succinct and elegant" are REALLY not my usual strong-points.

Originally Posted by Veklim

I've been trying to gauge whether spellcaster progression was a good idea or not, you may have just swayed my opinion on the matter though...if I were to make Arcane Converter do as you say above (which I think I will, thankyou), then I can change the existent material into a Bard ability (which was always the best fit for it anyhow). What do you think?

Yeah, that works. Mithril chain shirt presents an odd image of a Bastion, but it works.

Originally Posted by Veklim

True (and true), but fear not! Some small help is at hand! I have actually planned on advancing some of these abilities with feats which allow full attacks to benefit from normally standard action attack options (expect some attack Hardware to appear soonish) or stack Bastion with classes for more stuff (sneak attack, favoured enemy, bardic music/knowledge, etc). There is also at least one weapon enhancement which adds sneak attack dice to the weapon's attacks, so that would certainly help these guys.

Turn 1:Tumble into flanking position(or move to better sniping location), activate ability.
Turn 2:Nail jelly to a board... AKA pin-cushion an ooze.

Originally Posted by Veklim

Edits shall take place tomorrow after work, many thanks for the advice!

Again, you are welcome.

[Veklim]

Made edits as per suggestions & comments discussed, added a few new Hardware options. Starting to look right yet?

Needs a few more options on the Hardware list, then a feat or 2 methinks...

[Eldan]

Right, then. Starting with the feat.

The enhancement bonus from the bastion is really cheap, moneywise. 500 gold is what even a +1 suit of armour would cost, and this bonus increases later. Not to mention the many other benefits. Yes, it costs a feat, but I think even the fatigue/exhaustion immunity would be worth that. I would probably make the increasing bonus part of the prestige class. I mean, compare it to Ancestral weapon, which also costs a feat and requires you to pay for every upgrade.

Requirements for the prestige class:
6th level... I would not make this a pure level requirement, that is relatively rare. 8 skill ranks is more common.

Purpose: three parts. First part, knowing where and how your purpose is. Very flavourful, hardly overpowered, very nice.

Second part, losing your purpose. I don't like it, as I generally don't like abilities that utterly cripple a PC in this way. Consider letting the Bastion keep their abilities when the purpose is destroyed, as long as they seek vengeance. (Otherwise, seeking vengeance would be rather hard). After seeking vengeance or restoring their purpose, let them take on a new one.

THird part, calling the armour. I?m not sure if this is an unintended side-effect, but it seems that the armour gives you what is basically an immunity to hostile transmutation spells. Get targeted by Baleful Polymorph, call your armour, get your shape back.

Strength of Conviction: small thing, but: change "At 1st level, then again at 4th, 7th and 10th levels" to "At first level, and every three levels thereafter". Make it slightly similar to make an epic progression, if ever one is needed.

Toughness of the bastion: I'm not sure if creatures can have hardness. Is there even a way to do that?
Edit: derp, the purpose can be it, of course.

Determination of the bastion: Unnamed bonus. Is that intended? Morale bonus might fit.

Arcane Attenuator: I'm not sure about the purpose of this. +1 level of casting over ten class levels is, well. Really weak. Unless the intention was that you can take the same upgrade multiple times, but it never says that. Best case for a caster would be to take only two levels in this class to gain conviction points and one ability at the cost of one spellcasting level, but then they'd eat the spell failure. Which is the second problem: the spell failure. You shouldn't have to spend points to ignore it, I feel as if that should be always included, otherwise, this becomes even more pointless.

Arcane Converter: why do bards, of all classes, gain the ability to shoot energy rays?

Integrated weapons, power up: Any resistance or immunity? Does that mean you can use flame blades to harm fire elementals? You can bludgeon incorporeal creatures? Deal nonlethal damage to undead? Ignore regeneration? This needs more specifications.

Micro-missile Miasma. Strange name. Why Miasma? It doesn't seem to involve poison gas in any way.

Rocket barrage unit: Unless I?m very mistaken, secondary natural weapons are not used as part of a standard action or single attack, they are used either instead of normal attacks or as part of a full attack.



Overall: I don't quite see the fluff for this one. It seems to be two classes in one, one that has a powerful mechanical suit, and one that is a dedicated servant of a cause. Now, I know magical mecha show tropes, but it still seems strange, especially with weapon systems entirely powered by conviction.

[Waargh!]

The Good
1) I like it :) It is straightforward, it has a specific role that usually makes role-playing more interesting
2) It is simple concept and yet rich. It is easy to understand yet you have a lot of options/possibliites. The key of success if you ask me.
3) The strength of conviction point system is very good. I find this trade-off passive and active abilities work the best, maybe one of my favorite systems. It has a lot of advantages.

Spoiler

You can enhance one ability or use multiple without breaking the balance. You cannot mindlessly pile up abilities. It might require a player to think of combinations, but that is better than just pilling up everything. It is easy to imagine as you cannot handle too much power at one time rather than keeping the idea that if you had the option of being buffed by 10 casters, you could do so. You balance your defense and offense usually by balancing passive and active abilities.

4) Hardware accommodates all classes

The Bad
1) ...yet you break your system saying that you can spend points invested!! Think of having +20 on all saves or gain 20 DR/- or resistance 40 on an energy type and give that to one more ally. You can bypass a whole dungeon of traps possibly. Or just be the ultimate meat shield. Yet you sacrificed nothing! Give more points, enhance the abilities, but don't dump down the system, I say. I would prefer if whatever is invested is lost for the day. Maybe a feat or ability to enable some trade (i.e. use up to your Wis modifier).
2) I agree on the armor bonus being too cheap as Eldan said.

The Ugly
1) Organize the hardware per class! If I am playing a Paladin why should I search through a list to find the appropriate ones??
2) The Strength of conviction is too powerful as mentioned above to be an EX ability, but this might be a detail. Also it might be better to put SU/EX per ability on the Hardware list (maybe again a detail, was just looking at Rocket punch...)

[Veklim]

Thankyou both for the detailed PEACH guys, sorry it took so long to get around to this, but work has me doing multiple split-shifts on the trot, and this last week has been hellish!

OK then, comments in bold and such...

Originally Posted by Eldan

Right, then. Starting with the feat.

The enhancement bonus from the bastion is really cheap, moneywise. 500 gold is what even a +1 suit of armour would cost, and this bonus increases later. Not to mention the many other benefits. Yes, it costs a feat, but I think even the fatigue/exhaustion immunity would be worth that. I would probably make the increasing bonus part of the prestige class. I mean, compare it to Ancestral weapon, which also costs a feat and requires you to pay for every upgrade.

Should I add the need for payment to benefit from the enhancement increase tied to character level do you think? If so, how much would you suggest increasing cost by? I originally considered tying the advancement to the PrC, but once I started fleshing out what was going into the class, it became apparent that clutter would be an issue. Besides, you still pay for any armour abilities, and even have to pay out xp for the enchanting, regardless of who does the actual enchanting process.

Requirements for the prestige class:
6th level... I would not make this a pure level requirement, that is relatively rare. 8 skill ranks is more common.

Fair point I suppose, 8 ranks in concentration would suffice in this case I guess, since this PrC is designed to be accessible by any class.
Changed

Purpose: three parts. First part, knowing where and how your purpose is. Very flavourful, hardly overpowered, very nice.

Thankyou, it made sense to me!

Second part, losing your purpose. I don't like it, as I generally don't like abilities that utterly cripple a PC in this way. Consider letting the Bastion keep their abilities when the purpose is destroyed, as long as they seek vengeance. (Otherwise, seeking vengeance would be rather hard). After seeking vengeance or restoring their purpose, let them take on a new one.

I took a cue from Paladin on this basis, since the PrC is quite powerful in it's way and needed a drawback somewhere to balance out. You may be right though, perhaps I should add that as long as you are seeking vengeance you may retain conviction abilities.
Tweaked

THird part, calling the armour. I?m not sure if this is an unintended side-effect, but it seems that the armour gives you what is basically an immunity to hostile transmutation spells. Get targeted by Baleful Polymorph, call your armour, get your shape back.

This was entirely intentional, yes. The effect is twofold, it stops the worst of polymorph munchkinism, but also provides defence against hostile applications of these effects. Bare in mind that it only suppresses the effect for as long as you are in the armour, if you wished to remove the armour for any reason, the effect would resume (I may need to make that clearer though).
Reworded

Strength of Conviction: small thing, but: change "At 1st level, then again at 4th, 7th and 10th levels" to "At first level, and every three levels thereafter". Make it slightly similar to make an epic progression, if ever one is needed.

Fair point.
Changed.

Toughness of the bastion: I'm not sure if creatures can have hardness. Is there even a way to do that?
Edit: derp, the purpose can be it, of course.

Heh!

Determination of the bastion: Unnamed bonus. Is that intended? Morale bonus might fit.

My bad! Was meant to be morale from the beginning, good catch.
Changed.

Arcane Attenuator: I'm not sure about the purpose of this. +1 level of casting over ten class levels is, well. Really weak. Unless the intention was that you can take the same upgrade multiple times, but it never says that. Best case for a caster would be to take only two levels in this class to gain conviction points and one ability at the cost of one spellcasting level, but then they'd eat the spell failure. Which is the second problem: the spell failure. You shouldn't have to spend points to ignore it, I feel as if that should be always included, otherwise, this becomes even more pointless.

It already states in the Special: section hat it may be taken multiple times. This is why you must spend conviction to ignore the spell failure. Remember, only spells with somatic components suffer from ASF anyhow, and the idea of a dedicated battlemage build casting freely in their armour as standard is honestly horrific to me. This PrC is available to all, but also intended to help level the playing field for mundane classes.

Arcane Converter: why do bards, of all classes, gain the ability to shoot energy rays?

I originally made this for all arcane classes, and an Eldritch Blast-esque option made perfect sense. Now it's Bard only, it seems reasonable still, since a Bard is rather sub-optimal for Bastion use. I had to decide whether offering them Arcane Attenuator was reasonable, but since Bards rely more on their non-spell magics and buffs, it became obvious to me that it wasn't enough for them. Just allowing buffs seemed too little as well, so I left them the attack option so a Bard would still be tempted by the class. Remember the Charisma and social skill checks penalty for being in the armour, I had to give them something back!

Integrated weapons, power up: Any resistance or immunity? Does that mean you can use flame blades to harm fire elementals? You can bludgeon incorporeal creatures? Deal nonlethal damage to undead? Ignore regeneration? This needs more specifications.

Hrmmmm, you have a point...even though the image of battering a ghost is a rather amusing one...
Removed 'immunities' from the list. Think that should do it?

Micro-missile Miasma. Strange name. Why Miasma? It doesn't seem to involve poison gas in any way.

A miasma doesn't have to be poisonous, merely an unpleasant space of air, which this certainly creates. Besides, I like alliteration and it sounds good!

Rocket barrage unit: Unless I?m very mistaken, secondary natural weapons are not used as part of a standard action or single attack, they are used either instead of normal attacks or as part of a full attack.

Ooooops *slaps self on wrist* don't know WHAT I was thinking there...
Fixed

Overall: I don't quite see the fluff for this one. It seems to be two classes in one, one that has a powerful mechanical suit, and one that is a dedicated servant of a cause. Now, I know magical mecha show tropes, but it still seems strange, especially with weapon systems entirely powered by conviction.

It IS an odd concept, with mixed messages and strange mechanics all over the place, yes. This is because it's designed using classic Mecha references in mind, and all those references show these same oddities.
On a more serious note, presenting the class WITHOUT the Purpose would be foolish in the extreme, it's too powerful a concept to be allowed free reign on the world. The conviction they use to power their abilities comes from their absolute resolve and dedication to their Purpose, without it, they would not be able to do such incredible things. I guess it's a matter of taste in the end, but I will write full fluff at some point, and hopefully the concept will become clearer when I do so.

Originally Posted by Waargh!

The Good
1) I like it :) It is straightforward, it has a specific role that usually makes role-playing more interesting
2) It is simple concept and yet rich. It is easy to understand yet you have a lot of options/possibliites. The key of success if you ask me.
3) The strength of conviction point system is very good. I find this trade-off passive and active abilities work the best, maybe one of my favorite systems. It has a lot of advantages.

Spoiler

You can enhance one ability or use multiple without breaking the balance. You cannot mindlessly pile up abilities. It might require a player to think of combinations, but that is better than just pilling up everything. It is easy to imagine as you cannot handle too much power at one time rather than keeping the idea that if you had the option of being buffed by 10 casters, you could do so. You balance your defense and offense usually by balancing passive and active abilities.

4) Hardware accommodates all classes

Glad you like it, as I said in earlier posts, this has been brewing in my mind for a long time now. I've always wanted to create a PrC which invites anyone to enter, and offers unique abilities depending upon the capabilities of the character entering it.

The Bad
1) ...yet you break your system saying that you can spend points invested!! Think of having +20 on all saves or gain 20 DR/- or resistance 40 on an energy type and give that to one more ally. You can bypass a whole dungeon of traps possibly. Or just be the ultimate meat shield. Yet you sacrificed nothing! Give more points, enhance the abilities, but don't dump down the system, I say. I would prefer if whatever is invested is lost for the day. Maybe a feat or ability to enable some trade (i.e. use up to your Wis modifier).

I actually agree with you here. This was my original intention, but I was afraid of going too far and putting people off. If you think it's cool to not spend invested conviction too, then perhaps I should throw caution to the wind and make it so.
Changed BACK

2) I agree on the armor bonus being too cheap as Eldan said.

I do see the point, as I mentioned above. Suggestions are welcome, since this is something I struggled to balance when initially creating the feat, and I still don't know exactly how much is appropriate if I'm honest!

The Ugly
1) Organize the hardware per class! If I am playing a Paladin why should I search through a list to find the appropriate ones??

If I were to organise the Hardware into a 'Class Specific' list and a 'General' list, would this make it easier? Beyond those 2 categories, I think it's pretty open as to which you choose, so I don't want to make anyone feel overly limited by labelling any particular Hardware as 'For X class only', if you see my meaning...

2) The Strength of conviction is too powerful as mentioned above to be an EX ability, but this might be a detail. Also it might be better to put SU/EX per ability on the Hardware list (maybe again a detail, was just looking at Rocket punch...)

This is true, SoC SHOULD be (Su). This is the trouble with typing up an entire class in a single sitting, I make the odd stupid mistake whilst trying to get all the swirling mass of ideas in head down into coherent text!
Changed
With regards to the Hardware, I wanted the benefits to be (Ex) and the power-ups to be (Su), since it's the conviction stuff which fits (Su) best. The occasional powerful (Ex) ability is deliberate though, there is a distinct lack of funky (Ex) abilities across the board in 3.5, and I have always tried to rectify this in my 'brews. Rocket Punch is a perhaps extreme example of this, but isn't inherently broken as such, at least IMO.

With all that in mind, is the class looking a little more solid now?