[3.5 PrC] Battlefiend

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

BATTLEFIEND


To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.
- Conan the Barbarian

Battlefiends are the crazed warriors driven mad in the carnage of battle. They live for the blood and screams of relentless combat and the feel of their rusty blades cutting into soft, yielding flesh. They are a formidable force on the battlefield, brutally tearing through hordes of enemies and shrugging off injuries that would cripple any other warrior.

BECOMING A BATTLEFIEND
To become a battlefiend, one must be both psychotic in nature and skilled in handling sharp pieces of metal.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Base Attack Bonus: +7.
Feats: Cleave, Power Attack.
Alignment: Any non-good.

Class Skills
Climb (Strength), Intimidate (Charisma), Jump (Strength), Ride (Dexterity), Survival (Wisdom), Swim (Strength).
Skills Points at Each Level: 2 + int

Hit Dice: d12

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Bloody Critical
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0	Deadly Mobility
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1	Psychotic Frenzy
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1	Fuel the Fire
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1	Insane Thrill

Bloody Critical (EX)
Your critical hits deal 1d10 extra damage for each battlefiend level.

Deadly Mobility (EX)
While wearing light or no armor, your critical range is increased by one.

Psychotic Frenzy (EX)
Whenever you score a critical hit, you can make another attack against the target of your choice.

Fuel the Fire (EX)
While at less than half hit points, your critical range is increased by one.

Insane Thrill (EX)
Whenever you score a critical hit, you regain hit points equal to twice your strength modifier.

PLAYING A BATTLEFIEND
Battlefiends have insane in the most dangerous way, always in a sort of psychotic trance and on the edge of falling into a killing frenzy. This does not mean they have to attack every living being they see, but the temptation is always there.
Combat: Battlefends usually try to put themselves in the middle of a clump of enemies and brutally hack them apart, taking full advantage of Cleave and later Psychotic Frenzy.

BATTLEFIENDS IN THE WORLD
Oh Gods! Is that really what my spleen looks like!?

Battlefiends live short, violent lives and tend to be horribly scarred and disfigured by the time they die.
NPCs tend to fear and shun them, so they live in the wilderness or on the fringes of society.

Daily Life: When denied brutal violence, battlefiends go into an obsessed trance. As this tends to deter others, they become loners; living in isolation and supporting themselves.
Notables: Jason Voorhees (Fighter 16/Battlefiend 2), River Tam (Psychic Warrior 7/Weilder 3/Battlefiend 2)

NPC Reaction
As noted above, battlefiends tend to be shunned outcasts; driven out of society and feared by all.

BATTLEFIENDS IN THE GAME
Battlefiends are masters of widespread heavy damage, but are somewhat vulnerable to ranged attacks. They are meant to be tier two.
Adaptation: It isn't hard to fit battlefiends into your campaign setting. they have no magical powers and the concept isn't that strange.
Encounters: Battlfiends can be leaders of barbarian tribes, gladiators, demented war veterans, mercenaries, monsters, psychopaths, or anyone who has experienced a lot of brutal combat. Be creative.

[Spiryt]

Problems I see :

- Increasing critical range by one obviously favors high damage criting weapons
- I don't really like light or no armor, if one is a reckless abandon berserker, armor definitely would be handy. But that's mostly flavor thing.

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

Originally Posted by Spiryt

I don't really like light or no armor, if one is a reckless abandon berserker, armor definitely would be handy. But that's mostly flavor thing.

Battlefiends doon't need a high AC. They have more than enough hit points and their enemies are more likely to be running than fighting.

[Jota]

Bloody Critical is not game-friendly. Ability damage in general sucks for a DM because you have to recalculate a whole bunch of ****, but in addition to your critical you're doing an extra 3 * HD of opponent damage and inflicting a -3 penalty on Fortitude saves (at the level you get it, assuming a base of 18, and it gets crazier). I would change it to something like critical dice, where you do an extra d10 (or 2d6, or whatever) per class level on a critical hit and the opponent is shaken, no save (or a difficult one, say 12 + 1/2 HD + Strength mod), for a number of rounds equal to your Battlefiend level. Makes for easier bookkeeping.

I would also suggest making this partially advance maneuvers, as it's very one dimensional as is. Maybe an additional known at two and four, additional readied at one and five (or flip those), and a stance at three.

You've also misspelled Cleave on the pre-reqs.

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

Originally Posted by Jota

Bloody Critical is not game-friendly. Ability damage in general sucks for a DM because you have to recalculate a whole bunch of ****, but in addition to your critical you're doing an extra 3 * HD of opponent damage and inflicting a -3 penalty on Fortitude saves (at the level you get it, assuming a base of 18, and it gets crazier). I would change it to something like critical dice, where you do an extra d10 (or 2d6, or whatever) per class level on a critical hit and the opponent is shaken, no save (or a difficult one, say 12 + 1/2 HD + Strength mod), for a number of rounds equal to your Battlefiend level. Makes for easier bookkeeping.

I would also suggest making this partially advance maneuvers, as it's very one dimensional as is. Maybe an additional known at two and four, additional readied at one and five (or flip those), and a stance at three.

You've also misspelled Cleave on the pre-reqs.

Fixed.

[DMofDarkness]

Does the increased crit threat range stack with Improved Critical? If so... a person with a keen rapier or elvish thinblade and the feat would be downright terrifying on the battlefield with this, and in many other builds critical hits don't come up too often. Consider generic bonuses to stats, like a blood rage or something, rather than just boost the criticals the whole time. [/2cents]

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

Originally Posted by DMofDarkness

Does the increased crit threat range stack with Improved Critical? If so... a person with a keen rapier or elvish thinblade and the feat would be downright terrifying on the battlefield with this, and in many other builds critical hits don't come up too often. Consider generic bonuses to stats, like a blood rage or something, rather than just boost the criticals the whole time. [/2cents]

I made the entire PrC revolve around crits for two reasons: to differentiate it from the barbarian, and to emphasize brutality. I know this is quite strong, but I plan to play up a weakness against ranged attacks.

[Barbarian MD]

Yes! Advance maneuvers! That's a fantastic idea.

Also, I would tend to agree with Spiryt on the armor thing, because I'm always in favor of giving melee nice things without penalties, but it's your show.

I'm going to seem to do an about-face, now: I would find some way to reward bigger weapons when it comes to improving crit ranges. Otherwise, everyone will focus on rapiers and kukris and other Nancy-Weapons (Sorry, had to do it).

[Bibliomancer]

The fact that so many of the abilities revolve around critical hits would favor a rapier or elven thinblade as a weapon over a greataxe. Was this intentional?

Additionally, an advanced NPC nimblewright (MMII) with levels in this class would be a ridiculously powerful melee combatant, since its crit range for its sword hands is 11-20 and automatically trips at opponent hit by a critical.

The class right now is very streamlined in terms of its abilities, but overall doesn't really seem evil. I assume that the decision to include neutral people who fight periodically when provoked was a conscious decision.

[Land Outcast]

The rapier/thinblade/kukri thing being said, I suggest:

• Critical is only increased for one-handed weapons with x3 critical multiplier, and all two-handed melee weapons.

Note that we still have the Falchion, which along with Improved Critical can get its critical threat to 13-20 here... at least it's a Big Metal Chunk and not cutlery.

Deadly Mobility (EX)
While wearing light or no armor, your critical range is increased by one.

Considering this, I'd give Improved Toughness for free, perhaps at level 1.
Not a great bump to hp, but it helps to compensate the nigh absolute lack of defense.

[Barbarian MD]

Josha, how do you feel about it advancing martial maneuvers, perhaps as a crusader in terms of maneuvers known/readied? Or perhaps just say +1 existing class (though that might be a little much? maybe)?

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

Originally Posted by Land Outcast

The rapier/thinblade/kukri thing being said, I suggest:

• Critical is only increased for one-handed weapons with x3 critical multiplier, and all two-handed melee weapons.

Note that we still have the Falchion, which along with Improved Critical can get its critical threat to 13-20 here... at least it's a Big Metal Chunk and not cutlery.


Considering this, I'd give Improved Toughness for free, perhaps at level 1.
Not a great bump to hp, but it helps to compensate the nigh absolute lack of defense.

Originally Posted by mhvaughan

Josha, how do you feel about it advancing martial maneuvers, perhaps as a crusader in terms of maneuvers known/readied? Or perhaps just say +1 existing class (though that might be a little much? maybe)?

I want the PrC to only require the core books to play, so Martial Maneuvers and Improved Toughness are out of the question.

[Barbarian MD]

What if you made it open ended, so that it advanced whatever class you had?

Like, if you have levels in fighter, you gain the fighter bonus feats, or if you have levels as an initiator, you continue to gain maneuvers. Ditto for rage progression for barbarians. You get the idea. You don't gain all the abilities, but you advance the main ability of each, sort of like the way Epic progressions work. You can specify that you have to pick one class to advance (and only one).