Red Suns Burn It All Down! [PrC]

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Scion of the Fury Entity

Kasteth, another scion ready to spill more blood.

There are some who have taken their anger and have turned it into their most useful tool, leading barbarian tribes to greatness with animalistic cries and a sharpened axe. There are some who would instead become tools of the rage itself, and the Far Realm Entity that embodies it. These scions of the Fury Entity are not users of rage, they are rage incarnate. They manifest their incredible hatred in fires of crimson and cracked shells, just as their Entity. Scions of the Fury Entity typically stand out for such a reason, their crimson fires acting as a small crimson sun.
Many scions of the Fury Entity as they progress in power, eventually become Slayer Princes, the true champions of the endless hatred and malice that the Entity embodies. Slayer scions are some of the most feared monsters existence has ever laid it's eyes upon.

HD: d8

Requirements
Alignment: Any chaotic
BAB: +5
Skills: Intimidate 6 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 2 ranks
Feats: Extend Rage, Instantaneous Rage
Deity: The Fury Entity
Spellcasting: Ability to cast 2nd level divine spells, including bull's strength, bear's endurance and shatter.
Special: Must have access to the Fury domain. Must have had your mind torn ever so slightly asunder by knowledge of the Fury Entity.

Class Skills: Concentration, Climb, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Listen, Ride, Spellcraft, Survival and Swim
Skill-points per level: 4+Int modifier

{table="head"]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Spellcasting
1st|+1|+2|+0|+0|Rage, twisted thoughts, burning clarity|--
2nd|+2|+3|+0|+0|Red sun vengeance|+1 of existing divine spellcasting class
3rd|+3|+3|+1|+1|Breath of fury|+1 of existing divine spellcasting class
4th|+4|+4|+1|+1|Cracked mind|+1 of existing divine spellcasting class
5th|+5|+4|+1|+1|Rage renewed|+1 of existing divine spellcasting class
6th|+6|+5|+2|+2|Burning body|--
7th|+7|+5|+2|+2|Shattered mind|+1 of existing divine spellcasting class
8th|+8|+6|+2|+2|Claws of the entity|+1 of existing divine spellcasting class
9th|+9|+6|+3|+3|Blood burning rage|+1 of existing divine spellcasting class
10th|+10|+7|+3|+3|Furious incarnation, mind of beyond|+1 of existing divine spellcasting class
[/table]

Weapon and armor proficiencies: Scions of the Fury Entity gain no additional weapon or armor proficiencies.

Spellcasting: At each level except first and sixth, you gain new spells per day and an increase in caster level(and spells known, if applicable) as if you had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If you had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming a scion of the Fury Entity, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day, caster level, and spells known.

Rage: Your connected to the creature that is all rage is a bond that's scarce to be severed. Your scion of the Fury Entity and barbarian levels stack for determining the power of your rage, including increased bonuses the rage grants and whether or not the rage still tires you.

Twisted Thoughts (Ex): You have taken but a single step into the madness that is the Far Realms, and the first step is always the most shattering. At 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th levels, you gain a -1 penalty to your Wis score as a sign of your degenerating mental capacities. Additionally, your far more fragile than your average mind when stress takes it's hold. In any situation where you would be considered shaken, frightened or panicked you instead become confused for the duration.

Burning Clarity (Ex): The mind of the scion is a strange and terrible thing. It's aberrant connection to the Fury Entity seems to manifest a strange, furious clarity that removes some of the crippling effects of their rage. A scion of the Fury Entity is now fully capable of concentrating while in a rage, including casting spells and using otherwise restricted skills.

Red Sun Vengeance (Ex): At 2nd level, revenge against those who have wronged you is a natural part of your being. Against any creature that has done at least a number of points of damage to you equal to your scion of the Fury Entity level will taste your wrath. Against them, you deal an additional amount of damage equal to twice your scion of the Fury Entity level. Additionally, you are psychotically compelled to offer them no help and make sure they at least suffer for their audacity.

Breath of Fury (Su): The red fires of the Fury Entity well up within your very soul, and eject themselves through your lungs and throat. At 3rd level, you gain a breath weapon that deals 10d6 points of damage in a 30-ft. cone. Creatures caught within this breath weapon can make a Reflex save (DC 10+scion level+Con modifier) for half damage. Half this damage is fire, while the other half is sheer hatred made manifest and not affected by energy resistance or immunity. Once this ability is used it cannot be used again for 1d6 rounds.
At 8th level the damage dealt increases to 15d6.

Cracked Mind (Ex): At 4th level, your mind becomes stronger against the effects of insanity because of high exposure to it. You gain a +2 bonus to all mind-affecting spells and effects, with an additional +4 on saves against all confusion effects(including insanity). A scion can lower this resistance(and further advances of this resistance or future immunity) to allow beneficial effects, or allow another to read their mind, for the benefits of the mind of beyond class feature gained at 10th level.

Rage Renewed (Su): At 5th level, a scion of the Fury Entity is capable of burning magical energy to increase it's own furious desire to kill. By expending a spell slot of any level as a swift action, the scion may increase the duration of their rage by a number of rounds equal to the spell level expended.

Burning Body (Su): The run-sun corona that encompasses the bodies of the scions, and the Entity itself is something that rips through all that wish to touch them. At 6th level, a scion of the Fury Entity deals 6d6 points of damage to anyone attempting to grapple with it per round. Half this damage is fire, and the other half is sheer hatred made manifest.

Shattered Mind (Ex): At 7th level, your mind breaks down even more, making it even more resistant to the effects of madness. Your bonus to saves against mind-affecting spells and effects increases to +4, while your mere resistance to insanity becomes immunity to such effects.

Claws of the Entity (Su): At 8th level, the very body of the Fury Entity bursts through your flesh so it might claw at everything it hates. Whenever the scion enters a rage, they grow four crab-leg-like limbs from their back that glow with crimson light. These claws are all primary natural weapons that deal 1d8+Str modifier damage(for medium scions) per hit. They can be used in conjunction with a normal melee attack, but in such case count as secondary natural weapons.

Blood Burning Rage (Su): The fires of the Fury Entity's soul begins to burn the blood of the scion and of the scion's enemies. At 9th level, the scion may deal to themself 1 point of Con damage to cause their melee attacks to burn away their enemies blood. Each melee attack the scion makes deals an additional 2d6 damage and 1 Con damage, both until the beginning of their next turn. This ability can only be used if the scion is in a rage.

Furious Incarnation (Ex): At 10th level, your body becomes closer to being one with the Fury Entity itself. While you are raging, the bonus to your Strength score increases by 4, your size increases by one step category(to a maximum of colossal, and without the increased or decreased ability scores of an increased size), your natural armor increases by a number equal to your Con modifier and all your weapons deal an additional 2d6 fire damage.
Additionally, when you do enter this rage and take on this terrible new form all those who look upon you must make a Will save (DC 10+scion level+Cha modifier) or become frightened until they lose sight of you.

Mind of Beyond (Ex): At 10th level, your mind is an impenetrable wall of rage and insanity, one which none can pierce. You gain immunity to all mind-affecting spells and effects, and your insanity can spread to others. Anyone attempting to read your mind must make a Will save (DC 20+Cha modifier), and on a failed save they are affected as though by the insanity spell. Anyone who passes the save still cannot read the thoughts of the creature, as it's a garbled jumble of screams and raw hatred.

[The Tygre]

That, ser, is the very definition of metal. Are the other entities going to get prestige classes?

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

That, ser, is the very definition of metal. Are the other entities going to get prestige classes?

Quite possibly, this is something I've been sitting on for months and only recently gave it the Fury Entity theme. I'm going to try(keyword: try) to finish the two other entities, too.

[Eikonos]

Woooo Hoooo !! Krimm is back in action [playing the A Team theme]

[jiriku]

I like the badass moon elf chick with the spiked chain.

But hrm, 8/10 caster with presumably a barbarian level or two as an entry requirement, and a series of rage-related powers. You need the ability to cast while raging, or never shall these two themes be reconciled with one another.

[Edge]

The cracked mind class feature refers to the veneficus esoterica, rather than the the scion. Minor copypasta.

Other than that, it seems fine. I disagree with it needing to be able to cast whilst raging - I get the image of them casting a few spells, channelling the divine power of their "deity" until it makes them explode in furious ecstasy and use their rage ability.

But that's just me.

[Milskidasith]

Spellcasting text and table don't match up.

Casting while in rage should be a level 1 ability.

The thing I don't get is just this... why is it a spellcasting class? It's got nearly nothing to do with spellcasting besides the ability to burn spell slots to increase the duration of your rage, and doesn't even get the ability to cast during it's rage until later on. It would work just fine as a pure melee or ToB prestige class.

[Morph Bark]

Minor nitpick: unless you made some new spells, shouldn't those spellcasting prereqs list bull's strength and bear's endurance rather than bear's strength and bull's endurance?

[Eldan]

Would a post composed entirely of girlish squeeling be considered to be in bad taste?

On the other hand, I could just post those whenever you type something, Krimm.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

I've covered a few of the minor mistakes that would come from not making anything for a few months, mostly conflicting errors between the text and the table. I also took away the ability to cast while raging feature of the 5th level class feature, and gave them the ability(with a slight improvement) as a separate, first level ability. I might rework this class to include a bit more barbarian/cleric synergy.

[SurlySeraph]

Nice. I am a bit concerned that the Wis penalties make it annoying for a cleric; there are ways around that (i.e. Favored Soul or Archivist into Contemplative to get the Fury domain), but that's not an ideal path.

Also, the idea of an Archivist or Cloistered Cleric of the Fury Entity really amuses me.
DEAR WORLD,
HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE.
LOVE, THE FURY ENTITY.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Nice. I am a bit concerned that the Wis penalties make it annoying for a cleric; there are ways around that (i.e. Favored Soul or Archivist into Contemplative to get the Fury domain), but that's not an ideal path.

Yes... that occurred to me literally two minutes before reading this. I will... figure this out.

Also, the idea of an Archivist or Cloistered Cleric of the Fury Entity really amuses me.
DEAR WORLD,
HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE.
LOVE, THE FURY ENTITY.

I'm using this for a villain in a campaign.

[DragoonWraith]

I really really like it, all except the name. Not "The Fury Entity", that's pretty sweet, but "Scion of the Fury Entity" is really a mouthful. I don't have any better ideas, but I feel compelled to point it out in case others might.

[horngeek]

Also, the idea of an Archivist or Cloistered Cleric of the Fury Entity really amuses me.
DEAR WORLD,
HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE.
LOVE, THE FURY ENTITY.

I'm using this for a villain in a campaign.

I'd play in that campaign.

[Milskidasith]

I don't understand why a casting class loses points in its key ability and gets absolutely no focus on the spellcasting side. It just doesn't make sense.

[Temotei]

I don't understand why a casting class loses points in its key ability and gets absolutely no focus on the spellcasting side. It just doesn't make sense.

It would probably work better to have the class deal 1 Wisdom damage per day, rising by 1 at 4th, 7th, and 10th levels, unless the character makes a DC 10 + class levels + Wis modifier Will save or something.

That would make the Will save at 1st level 11 + Wis modifier (let's assume +4 for this example), for a total of DC 15 every day, on penalty of losing 1 Wisdom for the day.

At 4th level, it'll be 14 + Wis modifier (+4 again?), for DC 18, on penalty of losing 2 Wisdom for the day.

Of course, then you risk the absolute need for a restoration spell every few days if the character has an awful Will save.

[Milskidasith]

It would probably work better to have the class deal 1 Wisdom damage per day, rising by 1 at 4th, 7th, and 10th levels, unless the character makes a DC 10 + class levels + Wis modifier Will save or something.

That would make the Will save at 1st level 11 + Wis modifier (let's assume +4 for this example), for a total of DC 15 every day, on penalty of losing 1 Wisdom for the day.

At 4th level, it'll be 14 + Wis modifier (+4 again?), for DC 18, on penalty of losing 2 Wisdom for the day.

Of course, then you risk the absolute need for a restoration spell every few days if the character has an awful Will save.

That method means you'll constantly be taking huge penalties at DCs that are far higher than your will save unless you buy epic cloaks of resistance, dip a ton, or get a different stat to saves. That's even worse for a divine caster.

[Temotei]

That method means you'll constantly be taking huge penalties at DCs that are far higher than your will save unless you buy epic cloaks of resistance, dip a ton, or get a different stat to saves. That's even worse for a divine caster.

You could lower the DCs (DC 10 + 1/2 class levels - Wis mod?). I don't particularly like my suggestion, now that I think about it, but whatever. It's an idea.

[DragoonWraith]

I don't understand why a casting class loses points in its key ability and gets absolutely no focus on the spellcasting side. It just doesn't make sense.

Yeah, I had missed that in my initial skim - I have to say, I don't think Twisted Thoughts is all that good an idea. I really do like the name Burning Clarity, however.

Actually, I'm going to just do a full PEACH, it'll help make sure I haven't missed anything:

Scion of the Fury Entity
As noted above, the name is a mouthful. I don't really like it. It's also really weird that rage, which strikes me as an amazingly real emotion, has as its source the Far Realms; that doesn't really make sense to me. Fury is understandable, even simple - things the Far Realms should never be, IMO.

Barring those issues, though, the intro is awesome and I really like it. The writing is superb and the idea is great.

Prerequisites - BAB +5 is quite high, but Divine classes often get 3/4 BAB so that should be fine. Intimidate makes sense, though only 6 ranks seems odd. The feats make sense, though Extend Rage seems to me to be something that you'll rarely need; Extra Rage seems like it would be better. Religious requirements are usually done in a Special section (as in, Special: Must worship the Fury Entity as his/her deity.), but that's hardly an issue. Requiring those specific spells sucks for a spontaneous caster, who usually isn't going to take those; not sure if that's intended but I'd consider revisiting that. 2nd level spells is fine, though. Requiring a Domain is somewhat tricky, but hardly unusual or even all that problematic. You might, however, consider allowing them to qualify by being able to cast, say, two spells from the Domain, a la Walker in the Waste.

Class Features
Skills, HD, BAB, Saves - d8 seems really low for any Barbarian PrC, caster or not. Lack of a Will save is... somewhat odd, seeing as Rage generally benefits Will, rather than hinders it... but really, this is all fine. The Skill list is a bit sparse, though. Don't really have any suggestions though.

Spellcasting - OK, you've now certainly lost 3 spellcasting levels; spontaneous casters no longer have 9ths, and prepared casters have nearly lost theirs... Quite a serious loss. I haven't fully reviewed everything, but I'm tempted to suggest that they get the level 1 spellcasting back.

Rage - As expected, looks fine.

Twisted Thoughts - As I mentioned above, and Milski has referenced a few times, this is problematic. It's... sort of flavorful, but it's a huge penalty and the mechanics of the class don't justify it, not when most Divine casters, including the presumably expected entry, use Wis as the casting stat.

This was bad on the Alienist, a PrC for classes that typically use Wis as a dump stat and had a good Will save progression to boot; on a class that probably has Wis as its main stat, and has a poor Will save, this is awful. I really think you need to come up with something else here. Probably a benefit rather than a drawback, honestly; 1st level is really hurting for features here.

Burning Clarity - I just love the name of this, though. Excellent choice there.

Red Sun Vengeance - Uhhh... so this feature gets harder to use the higher your level gets? And it's permanent? And has massive roleplaying ramifications that are apparently mechanically beyond the player's control? I don't know how wise this is. Extra damage against foes who have harmed you - cool. Inability to ever look past that and help them no matter how much it is beneficial to you? Not cool. The wording suggests that you should be able to ("at least make them suffer" implies that once they've 'suffered' you might be able to help them out, but there's no rules for this that overrule the initial rule stating that you cannot help them). I get the fluff here, but it's over-the-top, I think. Too much designer dictating how the class is played, IMO.

My suggestion is to just stick to extra damage, and probably penalties to Bluff and Diplomacy or something when dealing with them. Going beyond that seems problematic, IMO.

Breath of Fury - This seems like it could progress more evenly - say, 10d6 damage plus 1d6 for every level beyond 3rd? Would still equal 15d6 at 8th, but it would scale in between and beyond that, and I think that would be good. Otherwise, flavorful and fitting.

Cracked Mind - Neat feature, nice name for it.

Rage Renewed - Uhm... it's really really really rare for Rage to need extending. Not many battle last more than 3 rounds, much less the, I dunno, 12 rounds the average Rage lasts. Plus you already have Extended Rage. I don't see this ability ever being used.

Burning Body - What's a "run-sun"? Anyway, that half-fire/half-hatred thing should probably be applied to the breath weapon, and anyway, this is pretty cool. Might say it also applies to people in your space, regardless of why they're that, and potentially against those who make unarmed/natural weapon attacks against you.

Shattered Mind - Nice, nice. It's a good feature.

Claws of the Eternity - Neat - weird image, but neat.

Blood Burning Rage - This might be better done by burning spell slots, just to give some synergy between the two. Still, cool feature. If you stay with Ability Damage, you should apply standard blurbs about not being able to mitigate the damage without preventing the effect.

Furious Incarnation - The caveats on the size increases (maximum size, lack of ability score changes) seem odd. I mean, you're probably around level 17, and this is... Bull's Strength plus Enlarge Person? Sure, it stacks with Enlarge Person, and it's both as a free action, but I'm really not overly impressed here.

The Frightening Presence and Natural Armor are better, but still a bit disappointing.

Mind of Beyond - Very cool, this I rather like, from a flavor perspective. For mechanics, it's powerful but extremely circumstantial; it's entirely possible that this will never come up.


Conclusion - Twisted Thoughts ruins the class by itself. That one feature is a massive problem.

Even ignoring that, you lose two spellcasting levels for immunity to insanity effects (not that common), a decent bonus to mind-affecting effects (much more common but it's no Mind Blank), a breath weapon (nice-ish), extra damage to those that hurt you (but become unable to control your character with respect to those characters....), some natural attacks (quite nice, honestly, but...), some more extra damage but only by taking Con damage (still quite nice), a size increase and a bonus to Str, and finally, the chance to make people who read your mind insane. A sizable collection of flavorful and occasionally useful features, but it's not three spellcasting levels worth.

Honestly, the class could probably be full-casting. You've already lost a spellcasting level to Barbarian, that's probably enough to justify this, even without the major problems (Twisted Thoughts and Red Sun Vengeance). Even as a full-caster, though, you don't really synergize well between your spellcasting, and every other class feature you have. Better synergy might justify a lost level or two, which is certainly aesthetically more pleasing than a Barbarian PrC with full-casting kind of tacked on there.


All that aside, it's an interesting, flavorful class. It's exceptionally well-written and does an excellent job of consistently reinforcing its own theme. I still like it, despite the problems.

[Morph Bark]

Scion of the Fury Entity
As noted above, the name is a mouthful. I don't really like it. It's also really weird that rage, which strikes me as an amazingly real emotion, has as its source the Far Realms; that doesn't really make sense to me. Fury is understandable, even simple - things the Far Realms should never be, IMO.

Myself, I think you could simply say that while fury isn't exactly something of the Far Realms, the things that the connection to the Far Realms inspires in someone is incredibly strange and their minds do not know how to cope with it. They go temporarily mad, which registers to their minds similar to fury, or at least to those who look upon them. While it isn't fury that is going on within them, fury still is the closest Material Plane counterpart to whatever it is the Far Realm instills into the Scion.

As for the name, just "Scion of Fury". It doesn't quite exactly make a reference to the Fury Entity with its name, but close enough, and fluff is independant (though closely tied if done well) of names.

[SurlySeraph]

Or just Fury Scion, for that matter.

I'm using this for a villain in a campaign.

I'm imagining a red-faced man sitting at a desk, veins pulsing in his forehead as he slowly and carefully writes out a sickeningly detailed description of what he wants to do to the people angering him in beautiful calligraphy.

In fact, that gives me an idea for a magic item: a collection of writings from a worshipper of the Fury Entity, part diary, part meditation on the nature of anger, and all ludicrously profane and horrifying. I'd call it the Litany of Fury. Its powers would probably run off charges, which can be expended either to cast Rage or to attempt to nauseate a target for one round. Making it language-dependent might work well; while "ARRRRRRGH" makes sense in any language, more refined portions of the Litany such as "I'M GOING TO MAKE YOUR CHILDREN DRINK VOMIT FROM YOUR BROKEN SKULL" need to be understood to have their full impact. Perhaps it could give access to the Fury domain's ability, as well. As a nice bonus feature, the scrolls can be rolled up and used as a light mace, as the magic of the words makes the paper as hard as iron when used in the service of rage.