Homebrew DesignRoll up your sleeves and get working: there's lots of homebrewin' to be done! Post your custom creation for critiques or review those of your peers.
Fluff suggests that we are going to get a companion, cohort, whatever you want to call it, that is undead.
Skill requirements mean you get in after level 7, which is unusual but fine. Feat requirements: I read it as any one of (Spell Focus (necromancy), Extra Turning, or Iron Will). If you wanted Spell Focus (Necromancy) and one of Extra Turning, or Iron Will then write it differently. You have misspelled Spellcasting, and you should bold the 'or' in the first sentence to make it stand out more clearly. Requiring specific spells known is probably ok, I find it inelegant but it fits what I think you want to do so go for it. Special requirement is whatever; it is probably unnecessary but not very hard either.
Made some minor fixes; all good now. Big one is that corpsecrafter replaces iron will as one of the options.
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Skill list looks like typical caster skills; it is anemic but I suspect this is purposeful. d4 hit die is typical for casters.
1/2 bab and only good will is very wizard.
6/10 casting with 2 bonus CL is painful.
Actually, It's 7/10 casting. You lose 1st, 4th, and 8th. Do you think that's too much? I might need to bump the BaB up a bit to make it cleric viable.
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The order of what you describe for Undead Ally is kind of strange. I would start with its basic stats: where attributes come from, how many hit dice, special abilities, etc. Then make a paragraph on how you interact with it.
Fixed. Also, lowered cost for re-creating the ally.
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Are Necromantic Powers at-will or uses/day? Do spontaneous casters decide day by day to suppress normal spells and instead use powers, or do they have powers in addition to their spells?
Clarified that they are once/day. I don't quite get the rest of the question, but a spontaneous caster has a separate pool of spells known and powers known that draw off the same spells/day.
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Raise Undead is cheaper than standard necromancy, but also not very strong minions. Could have synergy with Destruction Retribution or whatever that Corpsecrafter feat is that causes neg energy explosions, otherwise chaff.
Improved to meat standards. Level one version is good for rezing a bunch of expendable minions to protect you and other squishes, level two is good for actually attacking, and the above levels can be used as a nice combo of both.
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Draining touch: does this heal me or give me temp hp? It becomes a nasty debuff at higher levels, but that happens at level 19 or 20, at which point I question the wisdom of a caster who is touching things. Spectral Hand exists, but even so high levels are wonky.
Actual health. Also remember that the Undead Ally can deliver your touch attacks at that level when you stay with the PrC for a while.
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Gaining a d12 hit die is rather strange... also your party might intentionally cast Sleep on people before combat to use this on them. You might want to add some sort of mind control on the enemies who are revived by this at 5th level, otherwise it's a bad idea.
Well, the HD fits in with the undead template...
Also, changed from unconscious to dying, and added that mind control effect.
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Defile Ground looks strong. Really strong. Especially since you can prepare a battlefield with it, what with the hours/level duration and all. I might make it rounds/level, which still leaves it scary but costs an action in combat.
Debuffed accordingly. Now eats your Undead Ally's action and is rounds/level.
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Cemetery is, again, long lasting which makes it stronger. Metamagic reduction is only helpful to spont casters, since prepared casters have to metamagic the night before. I see why you turn all dead into human commoners, but it's strange to imagine a dragon rising as... a human zombie. The 7th level version is really strong...
A human zombie is only the mechanics; describe the dragon however you want (it keeps its size). 7th level version debuffed in a rather roundabout way, if I do say so myself.
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Soul Theft is very strong. Look at Planar Binding. Look at this class feature. Cry. In addition, a save-or-die as an 8th level that doesn't get benefits from Spell Focus (Necro) or other misc stuff is probably fine even with permadeath. Kind of lame to face as a PC, but you should expect straight up murder at this level.
No action taken. This is a PrC made with players in mind, and if the DM feels compelled to use such a horrifying ability on a PC, I'll be left to wonder what that PC had done to deserve it.
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Undead Sacrifice is a lot of things smushed together. Nausea for hours is a death sentence, exploding undead are good fun, and raising undead from explosions is pretty strong. You might make the type of undead strictly based on the HD of the victim, with control determined by your CL. As it stands, you could penalize your CL (negative levels are an easy way) and make vampires out of commoners.
Changed explicitly to avoid abuse.
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Disrupt Necrotic Energy is... underwhelming.
I tried to fix that... don't know if it worked.
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Befriend Undeath could be lower level.
Fixed. Buffed up durations, scaling, and effect if they make the save.
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Slay is like Finger of Death, but longer ranged, raises them as undead, and requires at least one level of this PrC to get access to. Underpowered.
Well, considering the chance you'll get lucky and kill a dragon with it or something...
I did boost the successful save effect a bit, but other than that, I don't see why it's underpowered if it's like a better Finger of Death.
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Ah, Necromantic Flexibility sort of answers the question I asked about spells known v powers. Add "that you can cast" to the end of your sentence about spont casters, otherwise you'll get a joker with that feat that lets you spend two slots of level N to get a spell of N+1 casting spells before they are supposed to.
Done.
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Bolster Undead is a waste of an action in combat. Maybe make it last [casting mod] rounds instead of one. How many times per day is this supposed to be usable?
Done. The number of times is shown in the table.
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Improved Creation is an ok buff.
No action taken.
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Channel Spell is nice. Normal pet-class stuff, but necromancy has some nasty touch spells.
Two or three necrotic powers are helped by this, too.
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Life to Undeath is like your Slay power without any of the good bits: you strip the nice stats, special abilities, natural armor... I would rather kill the critter some other way and raise it normally. This is a waste of a corpse. Maybe take out all those caveats about what it does not inherit, but make it take ten minutes to rise so it's not as good in one combat.
Done. Just took away a bunch of limits and made it not count towards your total HD of undead.
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Master of Necromancy is no big deal. It helps a little with the loss of 9th level spells.
Slight buff to twice/day. Also, this is any necromancy spell, not just limited to ones you know.
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Sentient Ally is like Leadership, but you have 10 class levels to play with when a normal leader at level 17 has 15 levels. Maybe tie its number of class levels to your character level. Of course, Leadership is pretty powerful so comparing stuff to it is questionable.
Sigh. This is power creep right here. "well, this super-OP thing is better than this, so lets make this better than the super-OP thing." Well, I did buff it up to level-3 and allow it to spellcast better and some other stuff that makes it a worthy capstone. Hopefully now it's worth it.
All in all, this class got a good buff. I hope that allows it to be on par with others.
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Akrim.elf made my wonderful ponytar.
Spoiler
"Curse that infernal yellowish-brown text right under comics! When shall you turn normal brown again?" -every OOTS fan ever.
I support laziness. Call me Z if you can't be bothered to spell my full name. Come help build a fantasy setting!
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Akrim.elf made my wonderful ponytar.
Spoiler
"Curse that infernal yellowish-brown text right under comics! When shall you turn normal brown again?" -every OOTS fan ever.
I support laziness. Call me Z if you can't be bothered to spell my full name. Come help build a fantasy setting!
Home stretch, tomorrow night at midnight Central time I'm calling it closed, I'll post a voting thread and by the weekend have the next contest started. Get your classes done! :D
Home stretch, tomorrow night at midnight Central time I'm calling it closed, I'll post a voting thread and by the weekend have the next contest started. Get your classes done! :D
-X
Need emergency PEACH badly!
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Originally Posted by Chilingsworth
Wow! Not only was that awesome, I think I actually kinda understand Archeron now. If all the "intermediate" outer planes got that kind of treatment, I doubt there would be anywhere near as many critics of their utility.
Would like a quick PEACH as well, I'm almost positive I won't win with the familiarist, but I still want some feedback.
I'll take a look at yours Gareth. Give me a bit.
EDIT: Okay, PEACHing the Judex
Maneuvers/Spells: Pretty standard fair, good and simple, always a plus.
Masoleum Training: Seems to be more of a fluff thing but it is quite a nice boost for a ranger Judex. I see no problems here.
Bonded Keris: Ah the main feature of the class, I happen to like it, having a weapon made from an intelligent undead plant is interesting to say the least, and many of the features revolve around it so that makes this even more important. The fact it can't be lost/destroyed/stolen is useful too. The secondary function is also quite nice as a fluff ability. I like it.
Mandrake's Gift: Oh I like these, I'll have to get back to you later on the individual gifts, but none of them seem to be too powerful and are quite useful for the intended function.
Keris Blessing: Another very useful feature, it is great to have some customizability with the Keris. And most of the abilities are rather nice. Again, I'll have to get back to you on the individual ones, but I like them, personally.
Resist Death's Hunger: Standard fluff ability for many undead themed warrior classes. It's useful for the class's intended purpose and simple to work with.
Pale Judgement: Now this is a nice ability, though it is mainly fluff. Using this would be a good option if you have leadership or undead leadership. Would let you have some nice options for them without the constant feeding requirements.
Sacred Keris: Bane is a good property for a weapon if you go up against that specific type a lot, and the chosen banes are good, I think this is a pretty nice array. Not the best, but definitely a nice array.
Closing the Circle: A built in revival system is very useful. Though i have to ask, if you have the One with Nature mandrake's gift, would you lose the undead type and remain a plant or would the undead type override it?
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Originally Posted by GFawkes
You didn't poke fate with a stick. You set fate on fire, then whacked it with a 2x4 several times.
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Originally Posted by blackwind1kaze
good thing they did body attribute instead of Physical attribute, otherwise the stats would look like:
Basically all excellent (great job!), but a few issues with the blessings/gifts.
The fly one and the damage reduction one are very powerful compared to the others. Incredibly so. Maybe stick level requirements on there. Also, give either hardness OR damage reduction. The two stack oddly (ie there are no rules do how they stack). Pick one: I'd use DR over hardness.
The only other balance comment is that Bloodlust is something NO one will pass up, meaning it's either to strong or everything else is to weak. As it's a HUGE amount of effectively free healing, I think it's WAY to strong. Even at 5-10 hit points back per it it would be a fairly strong ability, and combined with the DR granting ability I think you'll find that Judexes are FAR tanker than expected. Hitting twice and getting hit twice makes this combo the equivalent of 40 extra hp per round of combat. O_o. This also turns the +100 damage maneuver into a +100 damage / regain >200 hit points. That's obscene.
Rest of it is great though. I wish I had time for a more in-depth review, but I think the balance of the rest is pretty close. Good luck, my friend!
I had an idea for a long time, but figured the execution would just suck unless I really invested in it, which I couldn't do until now, but it would have lots of effort, which I couldn't bring up so much so quickly now after everything. My main idea was basically making a Mecha Pilot PrC, which could advance both martial prowess or magical prowess, depending on how you entered it. A beef I had with the idea was that people would most likely complain that I didn't actually include the mecha with it, as that would likely be a seperate, entire project, too big for this. On the other hand, if I did include it as part of this, it would be made too simplistic, or in a way that mecha could only be used by them, which wouldn't be my intention; they'd just be way better at it and could use other class abilities through the mecha.
It would be part of my campaign setting, so at some point, I'll have to make it anyway.
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Strawberries is thanked for being an awesome avatarist.
Man...if I weren't away from a computer, Morph, I'd challenge you to a last-minute homebrew-off for this contest. But I suspect my girlfriend might object to me taking several hours of my visit and using it to type up a class on my phone. :-P
Man...if I weren't away from a computer, Morph, I'd challenge you to a last-minute homebrew-off for this contest. But I suspect my girlfriend might object to me taking several hours of my visit and using it to type up a class on my phone. :-P
For the next contest lets travel back in time so we can chisel our homebrew into rock walls with nail and hammer, so we don't need these pesky electronic devices!
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Strawberries is thanked for being an awesome avatarist.
For the next contest lets travel back in time so we can chisel our homebrew into rock walls with nail and hammer, so we don't need these pesky electronic devices!
Wait...you don't do that already? That's how I draft EVERYTHING. It was really hard for the class I wrote an hour before the contest closed, let me tell you!
So I have less than two hours to get the two most important class features of the daemonchain cultist out of my head and written down. (Assuming I have the timezones right.)
Wow! Not only was that awesome, I think I actually kinda understand Archeron now. If all the "intermediate" outer planes got that kind of treatment, I doubt there would be anywhere near as many critics of their utility.
Down to the wire, 15 more minutes and the contest closes. I'm exhausted, so I'm going to bed. I'll put up a voting thread between 8-9am Central time. Good night everyone, happy homebrewing!
Lord_Gareth, what does tres gauche mean? Google translate has it as "very left."
__________________
Akrim.elf made my wonderful ponytar.
Spoiler
"Curse that infernal yellowish-brown text right under comics! When shall you turn normal brown again?" -every OOTS fan ever.
I support laziness. Call me Z if you can't be bothered to spell my full name. Come help build a fantasy setting!
__________________
Akrim.elf made my wonderful ponytar.
Spoiler
"Curse that infernal yellowish-brown text right under comics! When shall you turn normal brown again?" -every OOTS fan ever.
I support laziness. Call me Z if you can't be bothered to spell my full name. Come help build a fantasy setting!
Normally considered fine if you honestly consider it the best of the best from an impartial angle. No rule AGAINST it, but it's not often done.
Well, as long as I don't get any more votes (quite likely), the joke's on me. "hey, look at the idiot who voted for himself. He was just being super biased."
Well, I won't do it next time. I put a good deal of effort into this one so I'll go with it just this once.
__________________
Akrim.elf made my wonderful ponytar.
Spoiler
"Curse that infernal yellowish-brown text right under comics! When shall you turn normal brown again?" -every OOTS fan ever.
I support laziness. Call me Z if you can't be bothered to spell my full name. Come help build a fantasy setting!
Oh, hey - try to grab other folks to vote too. More the merrier.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chilingsworth
Wow! Not only was that awesome, I think I actually kinda understand Archeron now. If all the "intermediate" outer planes got that kind of treatment, I doubt there would be anywhere near as many critics of their utility.
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Re: GitP PrC Contest Chat Thread IV
I almost forgot to post a feat... still meant to make another 2-3 aberrant feats.
