[3.5] Expanded Monster Cultist Prestige Classes

[Death Monkee]

Hi, for a while now I've been tinkering with these and thought I might as well release them and see what everyone else thought of them.

These Prestige Classes are expanded versions of a couple 3.0 prestige classes that appeared in Dragon Magazine, I don't know who thought them up but whoever did only wrote them to Level 5. I decided to write them another 5 levels, so here you all go. I may upload pictures later.

Expanded Waker of the Beast

Spoiler

HD:d12

Requirements:
Race: Any humanoid or monstrous humanoid
Alignment: Any evil
Bab: +7
Feats: Power Attack, Tougness, Willing Deformity
Special: Must have been within 150 feet of the Tarrasque and survived.

Waker of the Beast

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Natural Armor +1, Locate the Sleeper
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0	Strength of the Beast
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1	Claws and bite, Natural Armor +2
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1	DR 5/-, Str +2, Int -1
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1	Tarrasque Apothesis 1, Natural Armor +3
6th	+6	+5	+2	+2	Regen 1, Str +2, Int -1
7th	+7	+5	+2	+2	DR 10/-, Natural Armor +4
8th	+8	+6	+2	+3	Regen 2, Str +2, Int -1
9th	+9	+6	+3	+3	Horns and Tail, Natural Armor +5
10th	+10	+7	+3	+3	Tarrasque Apotheosis 2, Regen 3, Str +2, Int -1

Skills: Climb, Perception, Knowledge(nature), Intimidate
Skill Points: 2 + Int

Natural Armor(Ex): At 1st level, a waker of the beast begins to grow a tough carapace that provides him with natural armor. This increases the waker's natural armor by +1 per every odd level of this class.

Locate the Sleeper(Su): A 1st level waker of the beast begins having vision about the tarrasque. These visions (or nightmares) take place only when the waker is asleep. Through these dreams, the waker learns the current location of the tarrasque. These visions also give the waker an understanding of how to awaken the slumbering tarrasque. Once a waker is within 1 mile of the tarrasque, he can begin chanting to call the tarrasque from its sleep. The waker can try to awaken it once per month, with a percent chance equal to his class level. Multiple wakers can attempt the chant together by joining hands, combining their class levels for the total percentage. Upon waking, the tarrasque begins its reign of terror on the landscape. The waker of the beast in no way controls the tarrasque.

Strength of the Beast(Su): Every even level in this prestige class increases strength by +2 and lowers intelligence by -1, minimum 3.

Claws and Bite(Ex): At 3rd level, the waker of the beast gains 2 claw attacks and a bite attack, if he did not already have them. Use the base values below or the waker's base claw and bite attacks, whichever are better. Bite 1d6, Claws 1d4.

Damage Reduction: At 4th level, the waker takes less damage as he grows closer in nature to his master.

Tarrasque Apotheosis 1(Su): At 5th level, the waker of the beast's type permantly changes to monstrous humanoid.
In addition, the waker of the beast grows larger by one size category. He also gains scent to a range of 20 feet.

Regeneration(Ex): The waker of the beast regenerates non-lethal damage dealt to him. All damage dealt to him is non-lethal. As a full round action he may re-attache severed limbs. At level 10 he gains the ability to function despite having his head cut off, he can survive for 1 minute per point of Constitution without his head.

Horns and Tail(Ex): At 9th level, the waker of the beast gains 2 horn attacks and a tail attack, if he did not already have them. Horns 1d6, Tail 1d6.

Tarrasque Apotheosis 2(Su): At 10th level, the waker's type changes again, this time to magical beast as he grows yet closer to his master. He also grows in size by another step, to a maximum size of Huge. From this point on Armor no longer fits the waker, nor provides any benefit. The waker loses the Armor body slot. He also gains an additional amount of natural armor equal to his Constitution modifier, as his skin hardens into tough plates.

And the Expanded Sphere Minion.

Spoiler

SPHERE MINION

Among some humanoids and monstrous humanoids, insane individuals worship the terrible gods of the beholders. To these people, beholders are perfect beings that have reached the pinnacle of evolution. They look at their own bodies, with only two feeble eyes and flawed, crude limbs and are filled with
disgust. By venerating the Great Mother of the beholders, they hope to receive her blessing.
The sphere minion is typically one of the many slaves that belong to a beholder community. Through constant brainwashing and exposure to beholders, they lose any sense of their former identity, making obedience to their masters the only goal worth pursuing. They are the masters and elite among the
slaves, preaching the message of the Great Mother and the superiority of beholderkind. Beholders treat sphere minions slightly better than the other slaves, but they still look at them with disgust and disdain. The other slaves view them with awe and envy, for the sphere minion has been touched and
changed by the Great Mother.

Variant: Another variation is to remove the alignment and patron requirement of these prestige classes in order to make them destroyers of the monsters they emulate. These crusaders give up a great deal of their being to become more like their enemy.
• A group of wizards capture beholders in order to harness their intrinsic powers, turning unwitting pawns into “sphere slayers.”

HD: d6

Requirements:
Race: Any humanoid or monstrous humanoid.
Alignment: Lawful evil.
Patron: The Great Mother.
Knowledge (Arcana): 5 ranks, Perception 1 rank.
Feats: Alertness, Weapon Focus(ray).
Special: You must recieve the blessing of a beholder before you may begin the transformation.

Sphere Minion

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Eye stalk 1 1/day, Bonus Feat
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	All-around vision, Natural Armor
3rd	+2	+1	+1	+3	Eye stalk 2 1/day, Eye stalk 1 2/day
4th	+3	+1	+1	+4	Levitate, Improved Eyestalk 1
5th	+3	+1	+1	+4	Beholder Apotheosis 1,eye stalk 3 1/day,2 2/day,1 3/day
6th	+4	+2	+2	+5	Eyeball Companion
7th	+5	+2	+2	+5	Eye-stalk 4 1/day, ect....
8th	+5	+3	+3	+6	Anti-magic cone 15' 2/day
9th	+6	+3	+3	+6	Eye-stalk 5 1/day, ect....
10th	+7	+3	+3	+7	Beholder Apotheosis 2, Anti-magic cone 15' at will

Skills: Craft, Knowledge(Arcana), Perception, Profession, Bluff, and Intimidate.
Skill Points: Int +2

Eye-stalks(Su): As the Sphere Minion levels up it grows eye-stalks from its head. You gain the base amount of uses per day plus a number of uses equal to your cha mod. Your caster level is equal to 5 + your class level.
Unlike a beholder, the sphere minion can aim his eye stalks in any direction without problems. Using an eye stalk is a standard action.
Each ray resembles a spell as though cast by a sorcerer of a level equal to 5 + the sphere minion’s class level but follows the rules for a ray. Each has a range of 50 feet and a saving throw DC of 10 + sphere minion class level + Charisma modifier.

Eye Stalk I (Su):
Charm Person: The target must succeed at a Will save or be affected as
though by the spell.
Inflict Light Wounds: This works just like the spell, causing 1d8+5 points of damage (Will half).
Sleep: This works like the spell, except that it affects one creature with a number of HD up to the character level of the sphere minion. The target must succeed at a Will save to resist.

Eye Stalk II (Su):
Fear: This works like the spell, except that it targets one creature. The target must succeed at a Will save or be affected as though by the spell.
Charm Monster: The target must succeed at a Will save or be affected
as though by the spell.
Slow: This works like the spell, except that it affects one creature. The target must make a Will save to resist.

Eye Stalk III (Su):
Flesh to Stone: The target must succeed at a Fortitude save or be affected as though by the spell.
Finger of Death: The target must succeed at a Fortitude save or be slain as though by the spell. The target suffers 2d6+6 points of damage if his saving throw succeeds.
Disintegrate: The target must succeed at a Fortitude save or be affected as though by the spell.
Telekinesis: The sphere minion can move objects or creatures, as per the spell. Creatures can resist with a successful Will save.

Eye Stalk IV (Su):
Pick any spell, level 8 or lower.

Eye Stalk V (Su):
Pick any spell, level 9 or lower.

Improved Eyestalk: Choose one of the level 1 eye-stalks you have not yet chosen. You gain it as normal except you may use it at will, once every 1d4 rounds.

Natural Armor: As your skin hardens and your form shifts you gain natural armor and become unable to wear traditional armor ever again. You have Natural armor equal to your level in this class. At level 6 you may never wear traditional armor again(You also lose the armor body slot).

Levitate(Sp): At 4th level, you gain the ability to cast Levitate on yourself with a caster level equal to your class level. This is an at will ability.

Beholder Apotheosis 1(Ex): Your limbs shrink and become gangly and your skin changes to a leathery texture and becomes yellowish. Both of your eyes merge into one larger eye in the middle of your forehead. You gain a bite attack(1d4) as your teeth turn needle-like and abundant. Your type changes to monstrous humanoid.

Eyeball Companion: At 6th level, you aquire a familiar of sorts. A beholderkin Eyeball(Monsters of Faerun) comes to you in the dark of night and pledges itself to you. It will do anything you tell it to, within reason. As you level it recieves benefits as a familiar, if you have any levels which grant a familiar those levels stack for determining the Eyeball's bonuses. You gain a second eyeball companion at 10th level.

Anti-Magic Eye(Su): Can maintain for cha mod in rounds. Full round action to maintain. In the area covered by the cone, magical and supernatural effects are suppressed. After using this ability you must wait 1d20 rounds before you are able to use it again.

Beholder Apotheosis 2(Ex): From this point on it is impossible to lose any abilities granted by this class, and you are treated in all respects as a beholder. Your type changes to Aberration. Pick two of your eyestalks, you may use them at will, once every 1d4+1 rounds.

Ex-Sphere Minions: A sphere minion who ceases worshiping the Great
Mother or willingly opposes a beholder loses almost all the class features of this prestige class. Any eye stalks that the former sphere minion has cease working and then fall off. He also loses the ability to levitate. The only class feature that is not lost is the beholder apotheosis. The creature is permanently warped and twisted into a monstrous humanoid, retaining the single, merged eye as a sign of his former allegiance to the beholder goddess. Once you achieve level 10 in this class you can no longer lose your abilities through any means.





Eyeball
Tiny Aberration
Hit Dice: 1d8–1 (3 hp)
Initiative: +3 (Dex)
Speed: 5 ft., fly 40 ft. (good)
AC: 18 (+3 Dex, +4 size, +1 natural)
Attacks: Eye ray +7 ranged touch, bite –3 melee
Damage: Bite 1d3–2
Face/Reach: 1 ft. by 1 ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Eye rays
Special Qualities: Immunities, all-around vision, flight
Saves: Fort –1, Ref +3, Will +2
Abilities: Str 6, Dex 16, Con 9, Int 2, Wis 10, Cha 10
Skills: Hide +15, Search +6, Spot +6
Climate/Terrain: Underground
Organization: Solitary (1), pod (2),
or pack (4)
Challenge Rating: 1/2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Usually neutral evil
Advancement: 2–3 HD (Tiny)

Eyeballs are 8-inch-wide relatives of the dreaded beholders. Normally
they live as wild animals, but they can also be adopted as
familiars by evil spellcasters.
Like their kin, the true beholders, eyeballs have a central eye and
smaller eyestalks atop their orb. Eyeballs have only four smaller
eyes, and their central eye is only used for vision. Even so, eyeballs
living in the wild are fierce underground predators, particularly in
the rare circumstances when enough of them come together to
hunt as a pack.
Eyeballs cannot be domesticated or trained in any fashion unless
they are taken on as familiars by evil spellcasters.
COMBAT
Hunting in the wild, eyeballs rely on their ray of frost. Wild eyeballs
tend not to pick fights with creatures that are much bigger than they
unless the eyeballs are operating in a pack, in which case some will
attempt to daze the target while others frost-burn it. Like normal
animals, wild eyeballs flee situations they feel they cannot win.
Eye Rays (Su): Unlike true beholders, which can use all their
eye ray attacks the same round, eyeballs can use only one of their
four rays at a time. In addition, an eyeball that fires a daze ray or a ray
of frost cannot fire another daze or ray of frost for 2 rounds.
Each eye’s effect resembles a spell cast by a sorcerer (levels vary
depending on the eye) but follows the rules for a ray (see Aiming a
Spell in Chapter 10 of in the Player’s Handbook).
Cause fear: As the spell, range 35 feet. The Will save DC is 10.
Daze: As the spell, range 35 feet. The Will save DC is 10.
Mage hand: As the spell cast by a 4th-level sorcerer, except that
the eyeball can use the ray without having to use a move-equivalent
action to move an unattended object weighing no more than 5
pounds up to 15 feet a round. The ray has a range of 35 feet.
Ray of frost: As the spell, range 35 feet.
Immunities (Ex): Eyeballs are immune to charm and command
effects.
All-Around Vision (Ex): Eyeballs are exceptionally alert.
Their many small eyes give them a +4 racial bonus on Spot
checks and a +8 racial bonus on Search checks. Opponents gain
no flanking bonuses when attacking an eyeball. Once an eyeball
has acted during an encounter, its all-around vision negates any
sneak attacks.
Flight (Ex): An eyeball’s body is naturally buoyant. This buoyancy
allows it to fly as the spell, as a free action, at a speed of 40 feet.
This buoyancy also grants it a permanent feather fall effect with personal
range.

[Death Monkee]

Come on, no comments? No annoying, "This is unbalanced, fix it". What am I doing wrong here. Should I just say bugger it and not write another thing?

Come on!!! Hm....how bout a little incentive?

If enough people comment on this I will share some of my Uber-builds, like a wizard build for getting caster level 166 by level 20. Or a build for a Warlock that does 1500 damage a round to multiple things. Or a build that gets Caster level 89 and casts as a level 19 wizard level 18 cleric at level 20.

[Edit]
God, that was cheesy bait......

[Mulletmanalive]

people haven't been commenting, most likely, because like me, they couldn't be bothered to read your messy post.

Fax's Guide to Homebrewing is where you can find the code needed to make tables [it can be scooped from the spoilers]. Then seperate all the paragraphs with a double break so there is a line between them and bold all of the titles to the different sections.

Then I'll happily comment, though I'd prefer not to know how you use RAW to make other DMs weep. Really not interested.

Stick a [Revised] tag in the title when you've done that and i'll have a look.

[Realms of Chaos]

Originally Posted by Death Monkee

Come on, no comments? No annoying, "This is unbalanced, fix it". What am I doing wrong here.

You want people telling you that what you wrote up isn't good?

If you are expecting people to tell you that something is overpowered, the fact that you haven't fixed it already likely shows that you have some sort of defense for whatever you did. Though few people still do it nowadays, it's perhaps better to address the issues you expect to be brought up and your reasons for doing so in the form of a miniature FAQ. In that way, you can better communicate your points and recieve an influx of positive replies (which are better than negative replies) or at least recieve criticisms that you aren't already expecting on some level.

You're not doing anything wrong in particular, though using more formal formatting such as the tables Mulletmanalive linked to or putting the names of your class features in bold never hurts.

Originally Posted by Death Monkee

Should I just say bugger it and not write another thing?

That would be a rather sad response.
Everyone has their posts that die without response. It doesn't mean that you should take off your homebrewing cap for good. Try updating your tables and see if people respond to that.
If not, keep in mind that how well an artist does depends almost entirely on the tastes of the public. Even if this thread doesn't seem interesting, your next one might be quite fascinating.

Originally Posted by Death Monkee

Come on!!! Hm....how bout a little incentive?

If enough people comment on this I will share some of my Uber-builds, like a wizard build for getting caster level 166 by level 20. Or a build for a Warlock that does 1500 damage a round to multiple things. Or a build that gets Caster level 89 and casts as a level 19 wizard level 18 cleric at level 20.

I'll admit that I've never seen someone try to gain replies quite like this.
Many of us on the boards (for better or worse) are already familiar with basic CharOp tricks and even a bit of advanced min-max fu. That sort of stuff is typically reserved for the gaming forum and would likely serve to distract viewers from your classes.

As for the classes themselves, I can only really comment on the first at the moment as it is the only one that I have the remaining willpower to sort through at the moment.
At first glance... it looks a tad too powerful.

By 10th level, you get 6 natural weapons, +5 natural Armor, DR 20/-, Gain +10 Str, Increase to Huge size (do the size increases modify your stats, by the way?), Gains Scent, and gain unpassable Regeneration 5.
You gain a couple of other abilities as well, reducing your Int by -5 as you gain an increased chance of awakening the tarasque. Oh, and you turn into a magical beast.

There are some downsides to this arrangement, of course. Along with the -5 Intelligence, you eventually lose the ability to wear armor (taking a huge hit to your AC) and using your natural weaponry means foregoing magical weaponry as well. Oh, and it requires a bad feat as a prerequisite.

The prerequisites have yet to be fully established, it seems (I suggest having the "special" being having seen the tarrasque and escaping with your life) but this still seems powerful. I know that it's intended for NPCs only and that an Evil PC probably couldn't meet whatever tarrasque-based special requirement this class ends up with without DM assistance. Unfortunately, the Rainbow Servant, which did pretty much the exact same thing, is still considered overpowered anyways. Same thing goes for this, I'm afraid.

I know that the defenses of this class are purely physical and that there are many ways around them (especially while in PVP against an optimized caster or manifester) but it still seems a bit unreasonable to give this class abilities that outclass all other official classes with similar themes by such an obvious degree. Yeah, I use relative balance at times. I'm a wierd person like that.

On a side-note, many people on these boards have a decided dislike of dragon material due to the fact that it is generally editted and playtested less than official WotC material was, if at all. Updating such material isn't a bad thing in and of itself but be careful not to let the magazine dictate your desired power level.

My personal recommendations for the class are...

1. Downgrade the Damage reduction to DR 5/- and DR 10/-
2. Give this class extra natural armor equal to your Con modifier as a part of your second size increase (to compensate for lack of armor).
3. Give the class a pool of points for its regeneration (say 5 or 10 points/level) that regenerate at the start of each day. You subtract all hit points healed through your regeneration from this pool and lose regeneration while the pool is empty. In this way, you can convert massive amounts of damage into nonlethal damage but your regeneration gains some limit.
4. Remove craft from the skill list as this guy is very likely to only end up with one skill point per level and the cultist of an ultimate destroyer probably won't spend that skill point learning to create something.

[Death Monkee]

Sorry I haven't gotten on for awhile, my last laptop blew up.

Anyways, I wanted negative reviews because criticism is the best way to plug any holes in something you write.

Okay now for mechanics, thanks for the ideas Realms and Mullet. I reduced the DR as suggested, I added the addition natural armor as suggested, I reduced the regen down to a max of 3. As for the changing his regen suggestion, I am tossing around ways to change it right now.

And yes, this thing would get the full bonuses for going up a size.

I am also getting those class tables and will be moving the two classes onto them shortly.

And yes Mullet, it was a bit of a messy post. It was a rough draft so to speak. You did not have to be so impolite about it.

Also, anyone have suggestions for the other PrC?