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    Bugbear in the Playground
     
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    Default [3.5 Prestige] Muscle Man [PEACH]

    Muscle Man

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    Some people are content to be strong, to be tough, and to allow their armor to take the blows for them. This class is not for those people. This class is for the toughest of the bunch, the ones who fight unarmored rushing into the fray ready and willing to take the hits, and to deal them out just as well. The ones who piledrive their enemies through the ground, crushing them with their massive muscles and boldly striding through battles, aware of the death all around but in no danger themselves.

    Entry Requirements
    BAB: +5
    Feats: Improved Toughness
    Special: Has a maximum HP of at least 50.

    Class Skills:
    Muscle Man's class skills: Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Jump (Str), Ride (Dex), Swim (Str)
    Skills per level (2 + Int)

    Hit Dice: d12

    {table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|DR|Maneuvers Known|Maneuvers Readied|Stances Known

    1st|
    +1
    |
    +2
    |
    +0
    |
    +0
    |Greater Toughness, Muscle Code|1|1|1|0

    2nd|
    +2
    |
    +3
    |
    +0
    |
    +0
    |Man's Mettle, Unbreakable Fury 1/day|2|0|0|0

    3rd|
    +3
    |
    +3
    |
    +1
    |
    +1
    |Block It With Your Chest|3|0|0|0

    4th|
    +4
    |
    +4
    |
    +1
    |
    +1
    |I Don't Feel A Thing, Unbreakable Fury 2/day|4|1|0|0

    5th|
    +5
    |
    +4
    |
    +1
    |
    +1
    |Chest Bump|5|0|1|1

    6th|
    +6
    |
    +5
    |
    +2
    |
    +2
    |Even More Unbreakable, Unbreakable Fury 3/day|6|0|0|0

    7th|
    +7
    |
    +5
    |
    +2
    |
    +2
    |Block It ALL With Your Chest|7|1|0|0

    8th|
    +8
    |
    +6
    |
    +2
    |
    +2
    |Improved Chest bump, Unbreakable Fury 4/day|8|0|0|0

    9th|
    +9
    |
    +6
    |
    +3
    |
    +3
    |Death Is Merely A Man To Be Beaten|9|0|1|0

    10th|
    +10
    |
    +7
    |
    +3
    |
    +3
    |Toughest Of All, Unbreakable Fury 5/day|10|1|0|0[/table]

    Weapon Proficiencies: A Muscle Man gains no proficiency with any weapon or armor. In fact he loses his class abilities if he wears armor, so typically swears off of it.

    Maneuvers: A Muscle Man gains new maneuvers known at levels 1, 4, 7, and 10. These may be chosen from the Iron Heart or Stone Dragon disciplines. You add your full Muscle Man level to your initiator level. For a non martial adept class they may recover a number of maneuvers spent by taking damage from an enemy equal to the amount of damage divided by 10. This can only be used on a round when they did not otherwise use a maneuver. A martial adept may choose to replace his standard recovery mechanic with this one.

    In addition, a muscle man gains new maneuvers readied at 1st, 5th, and 9th levels.

    Stances Known: A Muscle Man gains a new stance known at 5th level, this must be from either the Iron Heart or Stone Dragon disciplines.

    Damage Reduction (Ex): A Muscle Man gains damage reduction equal to his class level. This damage reduction is overcome by no materials or alignment, as a barbarian's, and stacks with all similar damage reduction from other sources.

    Greater Toughness (Ex): At 1st level a Muscle Man gains Improved Toughness as a bonus feat, and has the unique ability for this to stack and increase. This instance of Improved Toughness grants him 2 extra HP per HD, bringing it to 3 total combined with the prerequisite feat. This feature also enables him to take Improved Toughness as many times as he likes, each time stacking more, for example if he took it 2 additional times he would be gaining 10 extra HP per level.

    Man's Mettle (Ex): At 2nd level and higher, a Muscle Man can resist magical and unusual attacks with great fortitude. If he makes a successful Fortitude save against an attack that normally would have a lesser effect on a successful save (such as any spell with a saving throw entry of Fortitude partial), he instead completely negates the effect. An unconscious or sleeping Mucle Man still gains the benefit of Man's Mettle.

    Unbreakable Fury (Ex): Once per day starting at second level, (And one more time per day for every 2nd level thereafter) a Muscle Man may go into a fury, becoming almost impossible to put down. Entering this state requires no action, and may be done even when not your turn, so it can be a response to another's action. This state gives him +2 bonus to Strength and a +6 bonus to Constitution and the benefits of the Diehard feat. This state lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the Muscle Man's newly modified con modifier. This ability counts as rage for prerequisites or other things like feats. This ability can only be used one per encounter.

    Block It With Your Chest (Ex): At 3rd level a Muscle Man can become such an imposing presence, that by thrusting his chest forward he can have blows deflect off of him harmlessly. When you use this you lose one maneuver that you had prepared as if you had initiated it, though you gain no effect, then you make a Concentration check with DC equal to the damage dealt, minus any damage reduction, and if you are successful you take no damage.

    I Don't Feel A Thing (Ex): At 4th level A Muscle Man becomes able to delay damage, appearing to shake off blows, though suffering the effects later. Whenever a Muscle Man takes damage he can choose to put any number into his delayed damage pool, equaling a total of 2 x his constitution modifier. This is similar to a Crusader's Steely Resolve feature, so it starts at 0 at the beginning of an encounter, and at the end of the next turn since you have taken damage you take the damage from the delayed damage pool.

    Chest Bump (Ex): At 5th level a Muscle Man gains a natural slam attack dealing 1d8 damage if medium, and adding 1 1/2 times his strength modifier to damage. If he already had a slam attack then he gains this as an additional natural attack. A Muscle Man does not need his hands free to use this attack.

    Even More Unbreakable (Ex): At 6th level a Muscle Man's Unbreakable Fury improves, giving +4 to Strength and +8 to Constitution, as well as granting the additional benefit of the Steadfast Determination feat, and the Diehard feat.

    Block It ALL With Your Chest (Ex): A Muscle Man has become so adept at blocking blows that he is able to block area of effect spells too, taking their complete focus. A Muscle Man of 7th Level or higher who is affected by an area spell like Fireball may block most of it, providing a 15 ft. Cone of protection in any direction he chooses, he then takes 150% of the damage, even if it was already empowered.

    Additionally a Muscle Man may leap in front of an effect, shielding his allies. By making a jump check with DC equal to the amount of feet moved he may jump to a square as an immediate action, and block any effect as above.

    Improved Chest Bump (Ex): A Muscle Man of 8th level or higher skills have improved so he may chest bump with the gods. A Muscle Man of medium size's slam attack improves to 2d6, and adds twice his strength modifier to damage.

    Death Is Merely A Man To Be Beaten (Ex): A Muscle Man of 9th level or higher may shrug off even the direst of effects, even death. Whenever a Muscle Man is targeted by a death effect he may expend a readied maneuver and make a concentration check with a DC equal to that of the spell plus 10, and if he succeeds he ignores the spells effect.

    Toughest of All (Ex): A Muscle Man is unbeatable in toughness, withstanding blows which would drop giants and gods. All of his hit dice, retroactively, are now maximized, and he gains the feat Epic Toughness. He also becomes immune to constitution damage and drain, because of his sheer muscle.

    In addition during his Unbreakable Fury he can literally not be killed. His fury increases to +4 Strength and +12 Constitution, and he continues fighting from -1 until -9, and is not killed if brought to -10 or below, as long as he is still in his fury.

    Muscle Code: A Muscle Man abstains from armor, believing that all things in life can be blocked with his chest. If he ever wears armor he loses the abilities and maneuvers granted by this class for 24 hours, this includes any feats gained from this class, and it may drop his HP below 0, or even kill him. Typically Muscle Men don't wear shirts, though it is not actually a requirement.


    I feel that I'm mostly done with this class, I just have to add a little bit more fluff, and do some editing, which is what you guys are for. Though I need advice on a better name, as well as a homebrew discipline that would add some much needed choice to the class.
    Last edited by Dumbledore lives; 2012-05-13 at 02:55 AM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aquillion View Post
    If you're ever in a situation where you can't survive, go for the broke and fill all of creation with chickens. Just imagine the reaction of people halfway around the world when every square inch of space in their world is suddenly and completely full of chickens.
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    1st in Iron Chef XXXIV with a Warforged bard

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Default Re: [3.5 Prestige] Muscle Man [PEACH]

    The requirements are odd for a martial adept PrC in that they don't actually require any ability to use maneuvers.

    You shouldn't have a readied maneuver at level 1. It makes the class too good of a dip for a martial adept. Most ToB PrCs don't give the first extra readied maneuver until level 3. The only one that gives as few as 4 known maneuvers (Shadow Sun Ninja) instead of the usual 5 only gives 2 readied maneuvers instead of the usual 3, so you should consider dropping the readied maneuvers to 2 or increasing the known maneuvers to 5.

    Greater Toughness is a nice boost, giving 40 hp by level 20. However, it scales with your character level, rather than your class level, making this PrC very dippable.

    I Don't Feel A Thing doesn't describe what its delayed damage pool is or how it works. It should refer to the Crusader's Steely Resolve ability to define its delayed damage pool.

    Chest Bump should specify, similar to a Monk's Unarmed Strike, that you don't need to use your hands to make use of this slam attack.

    How does Block It ALL With Your Chest interact with spells and effects that are already Empowered? As written, you'd just take the normal Empowered damage that you would have taken anyways, since the spell is already dealing the damage it would deal were it empowered. How does the ability interact with non-damaging effects, or non-damaging side-effects that may or may not be dependent on the spell's damage being dealt?

    By the time you get Toughest of All, the Greater Toughness ability you got at level 1 is providing as much hp as Epic Toughness, just FYI (although not as much as a retroactive maximization of hit dice will on average). Does the maximization of hit dice retroactively affect previous levels? Some campaigns use alternative methods of hp generation than straight rolling, such as taking averages or granting maximum hit points at each hit die. Is there some alternative bonus you could give that would work equalize the benefits of this ability across the range of common hp generation variants?
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    Default Re: [3.5 Prestige] Muscle Man [PEACH]

    Fluff-wise, Block It ALL With Your Chest would make sense for it to only block the area behind the Muscle Man (making it dependant on your location how many people would be safe from it), but you could add in a Tumble check DC 15 + amount of feet, to which you recieve your Strength modifier, that you may use as an immediate action to move yourself into the way of the AoE to block more of it.

    Instantly also adds a movement aspect to the class.
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    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: [3.5 Prestige] Muscle Man [PEACH]

    Looks fun

    Some nitpicks:


    The table head reads "maneuvers/stances known/readied", but the numbers in the table shows additionla maneuvers/stances gained. If you would take the table as written, you would have 1 maneuver know and one maneuver readied at level 1, but when reaching level 2 you would loose both. Thats probably not what you meant.

    The recovery mechanic is unclear. It states you have to take damage, but also you can only use it on your turn. Under normal circumstances you dont take damage on your turn.
    Do you mean: "If you had been damaged after the end of your last turn, but before beginning of your current turn, you can recover a number of maneuvers spent by taking damage from an enemy equal to the amount of damage divided by 10, provided you dont use a maneuver within your turn."?

    Damage Reduction: Wording is confusing. It should read "A Muscle Man gains damage reduction /- equal to his class level. This stacks with other DR /-". I assumed you mean DR /-, since you didnt specified a type.

    Block It ALL With Your Chest: This ability, as written, probably wont do anything, since AoE spells typically target squares not creatures. But this ability requires the Muscle Man to be the target of an AoE spell...

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    Default Re: [3.5 Prestige] Muscle Man [PEACH]

    Quote Originally Posted by Zombimode View Post
    The table head reads "maneuvers/stances known/readied", but the numbers in the table shows additionla maneuvers/stances gained. If you would take the table as written, you would have 1 maneuver know and one maneuver readied at level 1, but when reaching level 2 you would loose both. Thats probably not what you meant.
    This is also how it is done in Tome of Battle, actually, so unless you prefer a reading more asinine than necessary for infinite loopholes, this is simply how it's done.
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    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: [3.5 Prestige] Muscle Man [PEACH]

    Maybe my comment was misunderstanding.

    The table states "maneuvers known" and the table entry at level 2 reads "0", while it should read "1", because the class had 1 maneuver known at 1st level, he should not have less maneuvers known at 2nd level.

    When I flip up my copy of ToB, say pg. 20 (Warblade) the table reads:
    1st level: maneuvers known 3, maneuvers readied 3, stances known 1.
    2nd level: maneuvers known 4, maneuvers readied 3, stances known 1.

    No, if I have understood you correctly you are saying, that at 2nd level a warblade gains 4 additional maneuvers known, 3 additional maneuvers readied and one additional stances known. This is not what the grammar involved implies and probably not what the desingers have intended. But probaly I havent understood your comment correctly.
    Last edited by Zombimode; 2011-09-27 at 12:12 PM.

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    Default Re: [3.5 Prestige] Muscle Man [PEACH]

    Quote Originally Posted by Zombimode View Post
    But probaly I havent understood your comment correctly.
    It's because you aren't checking the PrC section of ToB as you should be.
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    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: [3.5 Prestige] Muscle Man [PEACH]

    Dang, your right. Odd, I never noticed that

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    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: [3.5 Prestige] Muscle Man [PEACH]

    No strength requirement?

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    Default Re: [3.5 Prestige] Muscle Man [PEACH]

    "And I, your faithful balladeer
    Cry out in zealous joy, 'Round Clear!' "

    This class has everything a man should! Full BAB, good Fort, d12 HD, DR, tons of extra hit points, and most importantly, Iron Heart Surge!

    But you have forgotten one thing, my friend! One always important class feature that manly men use to shrug off cowardly poisons and stunning with their chests: Mettle! (The Fort version of evasion)

    I suggest putting Mettle in at level 2 and Improved Mettle at 9. (Both as the Hexblade class features)

    Additionally, you should change the prerequisites to "maximum hit points of 50 or higher". As the Complete Warrior rules state, if you stop qualifying for a prestige class, you lose all benefits. So in this situation, technically, if you have higher or lower hit points than 50, you have no class features.

    The Damage Reduction class feature is oddly worded. Try this:

    "The muscle man gains damage reduction equal to his class level. This damage reduction is overcome by no materials or alignment, as a barbarian's, and stacks with all similar damage reduction from other sources."

    Also, with this description, you really don't need that spot in the table dedicated to it.

    Also, because this man is so incredibly muscular, no amount of foolish poison, Stone Dragon maces, or spellcasting would remove his vitality. I say, as a capstone, you make the muscle man immune to Constitution damage and drain.

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    Default Re: [3.5 Prestige] Muscle Man [PEACH]

    Okay I looked at all the comments, and made changes appropriately. I decided to leave the maneuver learned and readied at 1st level because by taking this class you have to give up using armor, which is a fairly steep price for another maneuver readied and known. It is also because this class is not only for martial adepts, but also barbarians or fighters who want to be the toughest.

    Also just doing some calculations, and using some assumptions it looks like you can have 1073 health, assuming you use all feats for improved toughness after taking this class and took toughness for one of your feats, were a dwarf, and used a couple con boosting items. That seems pretty sweet.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aquillion View Post
    If you're ever in a situation where you can't survive, go for the broke and fill all of creation with chickens. Just imagine the reaction of people halfway around the world when every square inch of space in their world is suddenly and completely full of chickens.
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    1st in Iron Chef XXXIV with a Warforged bard

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    Default Re: [3.5 Prestige] Muscle Man [PEACH]

    Quote Originally Posted by Dumbledore lives View Post
    Also just doing some calculations, and using some assumptions it looks like you can have 1073 health, assuming you use all feats for improved toughness after taking this class and took toughness for one of your feats, were a dwarf, and used a couple con boosting items. That seems pretty sweet.
    Dragonborn Mongrelfolk with an LA+3 template that primarily boosts Con (or Incarnate Warforged with several Con-boosting templates up to LA+5), with LA buyoff, perhaps a bloodline to boot, taking Barbarian 5/Muscle Man 10/[d12 HD class, perhaps more Barbarian].

    Include items/grafts (if grafts give a different bonus from items, both) and at level 20 you will have a Con of at least 44 (possibly up to 55 even).

    Your HP will be at least 630 if you only took Improved Toughness once. 910 if you take only Improved Toughness after entering this class (starting with your level 6 feat). If your last five levels will be Fighter 2/Feat Rogue 2/Psychic Warrior and you count Improved Toughness as a Fighter feat (which it officially isn't), you get 1692 hp.

    This is without the measly 3 from Toughness and without raging or Unbreakable Fury, which would bring that up to 1852 hp (without Toughness, if you only took Toughness feats and one Improved Toughness pre-Muscle Man, with two flaws, you'd have 9 more hp).

    I do recommend not doing that though. Getting tons of damage is much easier than tons of hp. And you'd already have 630 or so. Put some Binder in there or DFA, since your save DCs would be ridiculous.
    Last edited by Morph Bark; 2011-09-28 at 04:44 AM.
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    Bugbear in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: [3.5 Prestige] Muscle Man [PEACH]

    Quote Originally Posted by Morph Bark View Post
    Dragonborn Mongrelfolk with an LA+3 template that primarily boosts Con (or Incarnate Warforged with several Con-boosting templates up to LA+5), with LA buyoff, perhaps a bloodline to boot, taking Barbarian 5/Muscle Man 10/[d12 HD class, perhaps more Barbarian].

    Include items/grafts (if grafts give a different bonus from items, both) and at level 20 you will have a Con of at least 44 (possibly up to 55 even).

    Your HP will be at least 630 if you only took Improved Toughness once. 910 if you take only Improved Toughness after entering this class (starting with your level 6 feat). If your last five levels will be Fighter 2/Feat Rogue 2/Psychic Warrior and you count Improved Toughness as a Fighter feat (which it officially isn't), you get 1692 hp.

    This is without the measly 3 from Toughness and without raging or Unbreakable Fury, which would bring that up to 1852 hp (without Toughness, if you only took Toughness feats and one Improved Toughness pre-Muscle Man, with two flaws, you'd have 9 more hp).

    I do recommend not doing that though. Getting tons of damage is much easier than tons of hp. And you'd already have 630 or so. Put some Binder in there or DFA, since your save DCs would be ridiculous.
    Yeah, I think an ubercharger can still one or two hit kill that, though I guess with Unstoppable Fury it'll be a matter of who's rage like thing ends first, and you're not going to be dealing the damage to actually bring him down.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aquillion View Post
    If you're ever in a situation where you can't survive, go for the broke and fill all of creation with chickens. Just imagine the reaction of people halfway around the world when every square inch of space in their world is suddenly and completely full of chickens.
    Homebrew
    1st in Iron Chef XXXIV with a Warforged bard

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