Infernal Juggler [PRC]

[The Great Skenardo]

A solitary wagon drawn by a couple mules drags slowly along the road, kicking up clouds of dust. A solitary cloaked figure walks lightly alongside, and the faded sound of humming drifts through the still landscape The wagon is gaudy and painted in faded rainbow colors, and the legend "Talgot the Talented's Sublime Circus!" can barely be seen below the dust that settles over everything like a shroud.
The Bugbears were practiced ambushers, charging from the hilltop with clubs and axes at the ready, but they weren't prepared for what happened next. The hooded figure, taking notice, flung his cloak away, revealing a jangling costume of bright red and black cloth and a face painted bone-white with disturbing sworls of blue. Faster than the eye could follow, the strange man dipped a hand into a pouch at his waist and produced a handful of knives and clubs and vials and began tossing them into the air with fluid ease. Grugtooth the Basher fell victim first, clawing at the knife that had sprouted from his throat as he toppled over. Big Bub and Muknuk went next, consumed by two flaming vials. Hubru the Fearless, strongest and biggest of the bunch, charged towards the man so calmly juggling wicked-looking knives and clubs and, with a roar, latched his arms around him, pinning the strange man's arms to his sides.
"Puny Human! I'll crush the life from your lungs!" Hubru roared. The man simply looked up at the bugbear's livid face with eerie golden eyes and smiled.
"Funny Man, huh?" snarled Hubru, "I'll rip off your nose an-"


Infernal Juggler

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+0	+0	+2	+0	Juggling 1,Adaptable Finesse
2nd	+1	+0	+3	+0	Endless Cascade
3rd	+2	+1	+3	+1	Juggling 2
4th	+3	+1	+4	+1	Delicate Touch
5th	+3	+1	+4	+1	Firey Show, Masterful Manipulation
6th	+4	+2	+5	+2	Juggling 3
7th	+5	+2	+5	+2	Unearthly Precision
8th	+6	+3	+6	+3	Quick as a Wink
9th	+6	+4	+6	+4	Juggling 4 Boomerang Backstab
10th	+7	+4	+7	+4	Deadly Artist

Juggling is a hallmark skill of performers and acrobats the world over, providing a display of amazing skill and coordination for the audience, and a living for the performer. Amidst this motley crew, however, are a few masters of the craft who have taken the training of a juggler and applied it to combat. Infernal Jugglers are tricky and deceptive opponents, and often don't seem to be an opponent at all until a rain of juggling clubs and knives descends upon her often bewildered foes. Some Infernal Jugglers act as assassins, using the pretense of a circus to travel and gain access to their targets. Others are simply wandering performers seeking to provide themselves with some security through their own skill, and a few view the deadly nature of their juggling as part of an elaborate demonstration of skill, something to be perfected through practice.
Hit Die: d6

REQUIREMENTS
To qualify to become an Infernal Juggler, a character must fulfill the following criteria:
Dex 15
Base Attack Bonus: +3
Skills: Sleight of Hand 8 ranks, Bluff 8 ranks
Feats: Weapon Finesse, Quick Draw

CLASS SKILLS
The Infernal Juggler's class skills (and the ability linked to each skill) are
Balance(Dex), Bluff(Cha), Climb(Str), Disguise(Cha),Escape Artist(Dex), Listen(Wis), Perform(Cha), Sense Motive(Wis), Spot(Wis), Tumble(Dex), Use Magic Device(Cha)
Skill Points per level: 6+Int modifier

CLASS FEATURES

Armor and Weapon Proficiencies: Infernal Jugglers have proficiency with all simple weapons, but gain no new proficiency with any type of armor.
Juggling(Ex): An Infernal Juggler has taken the performer's craft and turned it into a deadly discipline. As a move action, an Infernal Juggler may begin a cascade of up to three Diminutive or smaller inanimate objects. The usual choices are knives and clubs, but other objects (such as keys, stones and fruit) may also be used. As a standard action, The Infernal Juggler can shift her routine slightly and hurl one of these items as a ranged weapon with a range of 30'. This attack is treated as a Feint at a penalty of -4 added to the bluff check for each successive projectile per round.
An Infernal Juggler may maintain a number of items in her cascade less than or equal to 3+ her class level. Adding items to a cascade can be done with a move action.
The concentration required to maintain this cascade imposes a -2 penalty to AC while juggling.
At 3rd-level, and for every 3rd level beyond that, the number of projectiles that can be thrown per standard action increases by 1 to a maximum of 4 at 9th level.
The Infernal Juggler must have both hands free to use this ability.
If the Infernal Juggler is damaged while maintaining a cascade, she must make a perform(Juggling) check at a DC equal to the damage dealt in order to prevent dropping the cascade.
While Juggling, the Infernal Juggler may only wear light or no armor.

Adaptable Finesse(EX): At first level, an Infernal Juggler has learned to harness her natural dexterity beyond what others normally could. She can now apply Weapon Finesse to all simple weapons (including improvised weapons).

Endless Cascade(Ex): at second level, an Infernal Juggler learns to adjust her throws such that her projectiles return to her. Any projectile thrown by an Infernal Juggler may be treated as if it had the returning special ability, at the Infernal Juggler's option. This ability does not actually confer magical power to the projectile, but is instead a hallmark of the Infernal Juggler's skill.

Delicate Touch(Ex): Starting at 4th level, an Infernal Juggler gains the ability to handle things that would ordinarily be too dangerous to juggle. She can now incorporate fragile items such as flasks of Alchemists' Fire and Thunderstones into her cascade without breaking them. These items may be flung as part of a Juggling attack with a range increment of 30'. Note that if an Infernal Juggler drops her cascade then these items affect her as if thrown into the square she occupies.

Fiery Show(Su): starting at 5th level, an Infernal Juggler learns to tap into an internal reserve of power. Once per round, any projectiles the Infernal Juggler flings burst into magical flames. These weapons may be treated as if they had the flaming special ability. This ability is usable a number of times per day equal to half the Infernal Juggler's class level plus her Charisma modifier (+0 minimum)

Masterful Manipulation(Ex): At 5th level, the Infernal Juggler gains greater mastery of her craft in battle. She no longer suffers the -2 penalty to AC while maintaining a cascade, and starting a cascade can now be combined with a move action. Furthermore, an Infernal Juggler can maintain a cascade even while running.

Unearthly Precision(Ex): at 7th level, An Infernal Juggler's eyes take on a slightly yellow glow as her vision becomes supernaturally sharp. The Infernal Juggler gains Darkvision out to 30' (or adds 30' to any existing Darkvision). In addition, her ranged attacks ignore any thing but total concealment.

Quick as a Wink(Su): at 8th level, an Infernal Juggler gains the ability to act as if under the influence of a haste spell for a number of rounds per day equal to half her class level plus her Charisma bonus (if any). These rounds need not be continuous, and may be split up between uses as the Infernal Juggler sees fit. Activating and this ability is a free action.

Boomerang Backstab(Ex): No juggler enjoys being handled roughly while in the middle of an act. at 9th level, whenever an opponent successfully initiates a grapple on the Infernal Juggler, she can fling her entire cascade from herself all at once. Scything away and then returning, each of these projectiles attacks the grappler as if he were flat-footed. Roll a separate attack for each type of projectile. An Infernal Juggler cannot apply any extra damage to these attacks from her strength bonus, nor extra damage resulting from a flat-footed opponent. This attack counts as a swift action.

Example: Talgot the Talented, a Rogue 5/9th-level Infernal Juggler, is facing an otyugh. The Otyugh attacks and hits Talgot with a tentacle and immediately initiates a grapple. Talgot (who made his save to retain his cascade after the tentacle's damage) activates his boomerang backstab, and flings his entire cascade (3 medium daggers, 4 clubs, and 5 alchemist's fires.) Since Talgot had earlier in the round used his Fiery Show ability, the projectiles are all counted as being flaming. Talgot succeeds on his ranged attack against the Otyugh's flat-footed AC with the daggers and alchemists fire, but misses with the clubs, dealing 3d4 slashing+5d6 fire+8d6 fire damage to the Otyugh and forcing both Talgot and the creature to make a Reflex save or catch fire. Note that Talgot cannot apply his sneak attack damage to any of these projectiles.

Deadly Artist(Ex): At 10th level, the Infernal Juggler has reached the pinnacle of her unique art. Her skill is such that she can maintain a cascade with only hand free, and any weapon she throws is treated as adamantine for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. Furthermore, as a free action once per day, the Infernal Juggler may whirl her weapons around her such that all of her threatened squares are treated as if under the effects of a blade barrier spell (caster level 10th, REF DC 20 for half) until the beginning of her next turn. Lastly, the Infernal Juggler gains the ability, once per day, to fling her entire cascade at an opponent within 30 ft, as a Boomerang Backstab.


Suggestions are welcome!

[The Great Skenardo]

EDIT: Pre-reqs changed to include quick draw instead of combat expertise.

[Arbitrarity]

Some of the throwing abilities at level 10 seem maybe too powerful, but considering you really can't use magical items (much) with this, it's not bad..

Note that this won't penetrate magic DR...

Table error, you have 7/1 on BAB.

The blade barrier can always be up, so anyone who approaches takes 10d6?!

Feints as a free action with up to 4 attacks? Ouch.

Does haste give any bonuses to the number of objects juggleable, or throwable?

[The Great Skenardo]

Hmm.. perhaps you're right. Deadly Artist may be too deadly. Perhaps the Blade Barrier ability can also only be used once per day.

EDIT: Also, the Feint ability of Juggling adds a successive -4 penalty to bluff. So, by the time the Infernal Juggler can make four attacks, it'll be at a -16 bluff.

[The Great Skenardo]

EDIT: Reduced number of rounds for Quick as a Wink to half the class level +Cha modifier.

[Myatar_Panwar]

Hmmm, seems pretty balanced to me, and I love the idea of it!

[Proven_Paradox]

I could see this quickly becoming really, really powerful with a few enchanted short swords. I don't see anything about this class that excludes it from using small magical weapons, and in addition to that it gives everything returning in addition to that.

Note that the rest of this post is made with the thought of a character juggling three or so +4 short swords or something similar. If there's something in the class that actually forbids that and I just don't see it, disregard the rest of this post.

You need to make it clearer that each additional attack adds more to the bluff check penalty. I initially read it so that each attack simply had a -4 to the check, not that each attack piles that up.

I think Fiery show is a bit strong as is. Perhaps make it apply to a single projectile per use, or make it usable fewer times per day. 10 + uses of that as is a bit strong for my tastes.

[Myatar_Panwar]

Well throwing +4 short swords isn't much different from shooting with a +4 short bow. And its alot cheaper to buy a +4 short bow than it is to buy 4 +4 short swords. Unless I'm misunderstanding something.

Edit: And a juggler can throw more weapons if her attack bonus permits, correct?

[The Great Skenardo]

Throw, yes, but not part of the juggling attack. The fancy thing about Juggling is that it's a standard action that allows for up to 4 attacks. Her base attack bonus does not grant additional projectiles per round through juggling (although certainly for normal throws as a full attack).

Note: I'll fix the wording on the -4 penalties; I concur.

[Fireball.Man.Guy.]

I say a special ability at one level increases the size of your objects. Otherwise you can't juggle chainsaws! *gasp*

And medium daggers are Tiny, I belive.

[The Great Skenardo]

Really? This according to the SRD:
Height or Length |Weight
Tn 1'-2' | 1lb-8lb
Dm 6"-1' | .125lb-1lb

Hmm... The length is right, but weight? Let's check.
Daggers weigh 1 lb, a club weighs 3lb.

I think I would rather make it the exception to be able to use clubs than expand the size categories, for fear of rogues deciding to juggle rapiers.

[The Great Skenardo]

EDIT: For Fear of Rogues deciding to Juggle Keen Rapiers

Also: Chainsaw idea is cool, but if that were the case, each "chainsaw" would have to count as two or three smaller items for the sake of balance. I think Juggling is a complicated enough mechanic as it is, at the moment.

[Assasinater]

The flavor looks nice, except for Endless Cascade and the "treated as adamantine" part of Deadly Artist, which I had trouble putting them into the picture in my mind.

[The Great Skenardo]

In the endless cascade, let your mind imagine a cartwheel of flying wood and steel supported by a capering harlequin. Now imagine a step in one direction, and a flick of a motley-covered hand. A wooden club flies from the cascade and strikes an advancing swordsman with a resounding *thunk*, rebounding into the air with a spinning pirouette before landing with ease back in the hand of the juggler, and just as easily incorporated back into the wheel.

The "Treated as Adamantine" part simply refers to her ability to put the club or knife or whatever with such speed and precision that it pierces or harms where an ordinary knife could not (meaning yes, a 10th-level Infernal Juggler could damage an iron golem with a wooden club. I think that adds some level of awesome, outside of the mechanical aspect)

[Assasinater]

Hmm, I admit that I can imagine that, but not a dagger getting out of the wound it caused and back into the hand of the juggler. Maybe you should limit it to bludgeoning weapons only.

And for the second part, I believe you can manage to find a better ability/bonus to reflect such a skill, because damage reduction is kind of a solid thing, which represents (for example)that the mentioned iron golem's every part is built from cast iron, giving one no chance to pierce through that to find any substance softer behind it. I may suggest something like an increasing bonus to the Feint check for every attack you make, and/or the first attack of each round threatening a critical, or anything that can be a better example of pure skill.

[Hypertext]

I think this is an awesome concept and you seem to have done a very good job putting it together. A friend of mine basically made the same character that you describe in your intro a while back but he used master thrower and we made up a juggling rule.

Great minds think alike!

[The Great Skenardo]

Originally Posted by Assasinater

Hmm, I admit that I can imagine that, but not a dagger getting out of the wound it caused and back into the hand of the juggler. Maybe you should limit it to bludgeoning weapons only.

Once again, I feel that this would complicate the ability needlessly. How can any dagger be enchanted with the returning property? One pictures the knife whirring through the air and driving home with a fleshy *thunk* and then wrenching itself free in a manner similar to the club's return. Physically impossible, of course, but she's just that good

Originally Posted by Assasinater

And for the second part, I believe you can manage to find a better ability/bonus to reflect such a skill, because damage reduction is kind of a solid thing, which represents (for example)that the mentioned iron golem's every part is built from cast iron, giving one no chance to pierce through that to find any substance softer behind it. I may suggest something like an increasing bonus to the Feint check for every attack you make, and/or the first attack of each round threatening a critical, or anything that can be a better example of pure skill.

I'm leery of making it any easier to sneak attack with this class's abilities. Your suggestion probably makes more logical sense, but I'm focusing on the balance aspect of the class in this particular point (i.e. making it potentially useful even against super-hard enemies such as constructs that would otherwise shut her down completely. DR vs. other sources (Good, cold iron, etc.) are still problems) I don't think the compromise costs much in the way of awesome, however.

[Assasinater]

I see your point, anyway, this is already good as the way it is, I just(as you said) tend to put realism in front of balance issues in general, but of course, this is a game to be played, and it has to be balanced for that reason. Good work.

[crazedloon]

I have to say this is one of the coolest classes I have ever seen. It seams very cool but I just have a few notes.

The returning seams very cheesy. I understand that the class is focused around throwing but so are the master thrower and you don’t even see it getting returning as chosen class ability.

If you ask me I like the idea of juggling knives but I would think it would much more interesting to reward using non-weapon items (like torches and other things) perhaps give them returning only with improvised weapons and or give them bonus damage with improvised weapons like a drunken master.

Other then that i like the idea. Well made

[The Great Skenardo]

Originally Posted by crazedloon

I have to say this is one of the coolest classes I have ever seen. It seams very cool but I just have a few notes.

The returning seams very cheesy. I understand that the class is focused around throwing but so are the master thrower and you don’t even see it getting returning as chosen class ability.

If you ask me I like the idea of juggling knives but I would think it would much more interesting to reward using non-weapon items (like torches and other things) perhaps give them returning only with improvised weapons and or give them bonus damage with improvised weapons like a drunken master.

Other then that i like the idea. Well made

I maintain that the returning aspect is one of the most integral parts of this class. The notion of juggling comes from maintaining a cascade despite the sheer number of things that you're keeping off the ground at the same time. The Endless Cascade allows the juggler to take this one step further by incorporating strikes into her routine after level 2. In a strictly crunchy sense, this also keeps her from needing a bag of holding full of knives and clubs.

As for improvised weapons, the advantage would be the ability to be almost instantly armed no matter where you perform, no matter how thoroughly the guards have searched you. When you can make a handful of apples, goblets and small stones into a deadly wheel of flaming projectiles...well, that's when you know you've achieved something special.

[fleet]

I think we need to redfine a knife attack in this case. The juggler is not throwing a knife into you. Instead the juggler would be grazing you with a knife as part of the knifes arc through the air. Awsome class btw.

[Fireball.Man.Guy.]

Originally Posted by The Great Skenardo

As for improvised weapons, the advantage would be the ability to be almost instantly armed no matter where you perform, no matter how thoroughly the guards have searched you. When you can make a handful of apples, goblets and small stones into a deadly wheel of flaming projectiles...well, that's when you know you've achieved something special.

Exactly. Whiich is why they should get them.

[The Great Skenardo]

But the trade-off for seeming innocuous is using a slightly-inferior weapon. I think that the penalties should still apply for using improvised weapons, because no matter how good you are, a dagger does more than a peach when thrown at someone. If you think about it, the situations in which you would need to use improvised weapons at all (assassination, infiltration, etc.) are all cases where the -4 penalty to hit is less likely to make a difference (Hopefully your opponent should be less (if at all) armored).

The bottom line is that you can use improvised weapons, but the standard penalties for damage and such should apply. I'd need more convincing before I'd change that aspect.

Besides. Isn't it awesome enough that you could damage an iron golem by throwing peaches at it? Why make it any easier?

[crazedloon]

Originally Posted by The Great Skenardo

Besides. Isn't it awesome enough that you could damage an iron golem by throwing peaches at it? Why make it any easier?

Lol that is one way of putting it and it is very true but if you can assume that your juggler can bounce a knife off of someone with enough force to deal damage and come back to them then I can easily see them being able to throw that peach at an eye or other particularly vital spot and that they have done it often enough to be able to ignore the normal weirdness that a character should have using such an item. The -4 is on the attack role because it is weird to use such items as weapons not because they are less effective. The less effective comes into play with the damage.

It’s much the same way a drunken master is good at using improvised weapons because they get in bar fights more often your excuse is that you are often seen juggling fruit or torches or some other non-weapon item and then lash out with them.

Just my .02 (not trying to force a change just think it would be flavorful and not to cheesy)

[Raum]

I like most of it, but a couple of the abilities such as returning and adamantine start to kill verisimilitude for me. Conferring adamantine qualities on weapons doesn't even seem to fit the class flavor.

One other question, with rogues being the likely entry class have you considered keeping some form of the Sneak Attack ability? It'd be fairly easy to replace things like returning and adamantine with an extra d6 of SA. SA also helps surpass damage resistances when you're not necessarily using magic weapons.

[The Great Skenardo]

The thing to note about the juggling attack is that each attack is potentially a sneak attack (albeit less likely as you go along; they start to catch on after a while).
Monk is another interesting possibility as a stepstone to this class.

[Annarrkkii]

I really like it. I occasionally imagined what it'd be like to fight by juggling. Really impractical, of course, but cool anyway.

The class seams sound, but I would eliminate the endless cascade. It just doesn't make sense. You can justify a dagger returning if it's magical, but I just can't see a juggler pulling it off with everything that comes to hand. I say that if you insist on using the ability, make sure it's supernatural (meaning it doesn't work inside anti-magic fields), or have any attack with it deal bludgeoning damage, even if you're using knives.

[The Great Skenardo]

Originally Posted by Annarrkkii

The class seams sound, but I would eliminate the endless cascade. It just doesn't make sense. You can justify a dagger returning if it's magical, but I just can't see a juggler pulling it off with everything that comes to hand. I say that if you insist on using the ability, make sure it's supernatural (meaning it doesn't work inside anti-magic fields), or have any attack with it deal bludgeoning damage, even if you're using knives.

Hm. A supernatural ability perhaps. I still think the idea of the things you throw coming back to you is a vital part of the "feel" of this class. Otherwise you're just making a Master Thrower that's an incorrigable showman.

[oliana0]

I find watching juggling fascinating. Perhaps for each round the juggler participates in juggling without engaging in an attack, they can fascinate a certain HD of beings (who can see and be fascinated).

Also, two jugglers in the same room are infectious. If two (or more) infernal jugglers are within passing range (30'?) they can enter into a pass routine. The passers can then do something special, like improved feint (+2 to feint checks), the jugglers will all be immune to flanking, and AoO would be provoked if an attacker approaches one of the jugglers (the AoO would be delivered by the juggler making the passes to the one that is approached).

Or maybe everyone in a pass routine can use the highest "Juggling" special attack rate at a penalty of everyone in the routine using the lowest Perform(juggling) skill. :)

[The Great Skenardo]

Originally Posted by oliana0

I find watching juggling fascinating. Perhaps for each round the juggler participates in juggling without engaging in an attack, they can fascinate a certain HD of beings (who can see and be fascinated).

I would agrue that the second-most likely progression to this class (Bard) already allows for this as a part of bardic music.

Originally Posted by oliana0

Also, two jugglers in the same room are infectious. If two (or more) infernal jugglers are within passing range (30'?) they can enter into a pass routine. The passers can then do something special, like improved feint (+2 to feint checks), the jugglers will all be immune to flanking, and AoO would be provoked if an attacker approaches one of the jugglers (the AoO would be delivered by the juggler making the passes to the one that is approached).

Or maybe everyone in a pass routine can use the highest "Juggling" special attack rate at a penalty of everyone in the routine using the lowest Perform(juggling) skill. :)

This to me sounds like an interesting (and higher-powered) version of Aid Another. It's definitely an attractive idea (and sound in balance), but I worry about throwing in too many abilities and granted powers out of enthusiasm for the concept. I'll think about it, though, definitely.