Sometimes the World Needs Heroes. [3.5 Base Class] PEACH

[Empedocles]

This is a base class designed to fill a huge role in the fantasy universe that 3.5 D&D more or less fails to deliver. The archetypical hero. For fear of starting arguments though, I won't expand on that right now. So enjoy this brand new base class, and please PEACH, or just compliment

The Hero

"Stope me!"

The hero is a warrior chosen not necessarily by a god, but who fate seems to favor nontheless. They haven't trained to the same extent as the knights of the realms, but they're capable of superhuman feats regardless. Heroes encompass an enormous variety of characters, from those archetypical in fantasy to anti-heroes or peasant warriors.

Hero

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special
1st	+1	+2	+2	+2	Bonus Feat, Heroic Points
2nd	+2	+3	+3	+3	Flurry
3rd	+3	+3	+3	+3	Strike
4th	+4	+4	+4	+4	Bonus Feat, Evasion
5th	+5	+4	+4	+4	Fly, Shift
6th	+6/+1	+5	+5	+5	Mettle
7th	+7/+2	+5	+5	+5	Bonus Feat
8th	+8/+3	+6	+6	+6	Maester
9th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+6	Inhuman Speed 1/day
10th	+10/+5	+7	+7	+7	Bonus Feat, Truesight
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+7	+7	Lesser Invocations
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+8	+8	Improved Evasion
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+8	+8	Bonus Feat
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+9	+9	Inhuman Speed 2/day
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+9	+9	Over Here 1/day
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+10	+10	Bonus Feat
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+10	+10	Greater Invocations
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+11	+11	Inhuman Speed 3/day
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+11	+11	Bonus Feat
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+12	+12	Over Here 2/day

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: 1d10

Class Skills:
The hero can select any 10 skills to be class skills.
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: The hero is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light and medium armor, and shields (but not tower shields).

Bonus Feat: At 1st level, and every 3 levels thereafter, the hero can select one bonus feat of his choice that he meets the prerequisites for.

Heroic Points: A hero has a number of heroic points equal to his class level + his wisdom modifier. The hero's hero points are restored after a full eight hours of sleep. In addition, whenever a hero lands a successful critical hit he recovers half his maximum number of heroic points (he cannot exceed his normal limit of heroic points). They can be spent as a free action, unless otherwise noted, to produce any of the following effects:

• Bonus on all attack and damage rolls equal to his class level for 1 round.
• +4 bonus to all skill checks for 1 round.
• Bonus to all attack rolls equal to his class levels plus twice his wisdom modifier for 1 round.
• Bonus to all damage rolls equal to his class levels plus twice his wisdom modifier for 1 round.
• He can automatically take 10 on 1 skill check during the round in which the heroic point is spent.
• Bonus to all saves equal to his class levels plus his wisdom modifier plus his class levels for 1 round. This use of heroic points can be used as either a free or immediate action.
• Bonus to initiative equal to his class levels plus twice his wisdom modifier for 1 round. This use of heroic points can be used as either a free or immediate action.
• Activate 1 least invocation from the warlock invocation list.

The hero learns new ways to use his heroic points as he levels up.

Flurry: As a swift action starting at 2nd level the hero can expend a heroic point to make one additional attack at his highest base attack bonus.

Strike: At 3rd level, as a swift action the hero can spend two action points to receive a bonus on all attack rolls equal to twice his class levels plus his wisdom modifier.

Evasion: As the rogue ability.

Fly: At 5th level the hero gets a fly speed equal to half his highest current form of speed. Flying costs 1 heroic point per 5 minutes of flight (cumulative throughout the day. He can't just start and stop continuously) so it is generally only practical for combat, not as a general form of transportation. If a hero already has flight from another source, he instead can choose to receive a bonus feat.

Shift: As a move action a hero can expend one heroic point to teleport in any direction up to 30 feet.

Mettle: At 6th level and higher, if a hero makes a successful Will or Fortitude save against an attack that would normally have a lesser effect with a successful save, he instead completely negates the effect.

Maester: At 8th level, by expending two heroic points, the hero receives a bonus on all skill checks for 1 round equal to 10 + his class levels + his wisdom modifier.

Inhuman Speed: At 9th level, once per day, the hero can expend two heroic points as a free action and take one additional move action. He can use this ability twice per day at 13th level and three times per day at 18th level.

Truesight: By expending a heroic point as a standard action, the hero is treated as being affected by the spell true seeing. It lasts as long as the hero wants it to, but every two rounds he must expend an additional heroic point or the effect ends.

Lesser Invocations: At 11th level the hero can use lesser invocations with his heroic points instead of least invocations.

Improved Evasion: As the rogue ability of the same name.

Over Here: At 15th level, once per day, the hero can expend three heroic points as a free action to gain 1 additional standard action that turn. He gains an additional use of this ability at 20th level. This ability cannot be used in the same round as inhuman speed.

Greater Invocations: At 17th level the hero can use greater invocations with his heroic points instead of least invocations.



Designer's Notes

Spoiler

The hero has some odd stuff with it, most notably the ability to fly at 5th level. Why did I include this? Well...because everyone should fly at 5th level. On the other hand, it is sort of clunky, so I'll be providing some ACFs later on. The same goes for the invocations, although they make more sense to me.

Right now, he just needs more cool stuff, and I need a good capstone...

Additional Rules for the Hero

Dedicated Hero
Prerequisites: Must have a heroic point reserve.
Benefit: You gain an additional heroic point.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times. Its effects stack.

True Hero
Prerequisites: Must have at least 10 heroic points, and the dedicated hero feat.
Benefit: You receive a number of bonus heroic points equal to your wisdom modifier. This feat can only be selected once.

Heroic Points and Action Points

If you're playing with action points (from the Eberron Campaign Setting) a hero can expend 1 action point to recover all of his heroic points.

[DoomHat]

Shouldn't Fly cost some Hero Points?
Also, how do Hero Points refresh?

Is there any incentive for someone with this class to behave heroically?

[Virdish]

I like the concept. One of the first things that pop out at me is the capstone. I mean it's nice but it just feels blah. You usually have awesome capstones so this one stands out as a little lackluster. Though without full fluff I can't think of anything to add to it.

[Empedocles]

Originally Posted by DoomHat

Shouldn't Fly cost some Hero Points?
Also, how do Hero Points refresh?

Is there any incentive for someone with this class to behave heroically?

There doesn't seem to be a good way to have fly cost hero points. It would either cost them by the round, which would make it generally too costly, or you would spend them once, in which case everyone would always spend those hero points.

@Virdish, I'll definitely work on the capstone.

[toapat]

Originally Posted by Vilpich

There doesn't seem to be a good way to have fly cost hero points. It would either cost them by the round, which would make it generally too costly, or you would spend them once, in which case everyone would always spend those hero points.

1 point/5 minutes

[Empedocles]

Originally Posted by toapat

1 point/5 minutes

Done

As to making this guy act heroically, that's what roleplaying is for.

[toapat]

Originally Posted by Vilpich

Done

As to making this guy act heroically, that's what roleplaying is for.

or you know

Anti-hero,
Anti-Villian, and
Villain protagonist

[Empedocles]

Originally Posted by toapat

or you know

Anti-hero,
Anti-Villian, and
Villain protagonist

Are you saying those are all possibilities for this class? (which I would agree with)

[silphael]

Maybe add some way to recover your heroic points without sleeping, for exemple each time you threat a critical hit or things like that...

[Empedocles]

Originally Posted by silphael

Maybe add some way to recover your heroic points without sleeping, for exemple each time you threat a critical hit or things like that...

Almost like maneuvers?

Also, I might add some corollary rules to heroic points and Action Points from Eberron.

[toapat]

Originally Posted by Vilpich

Almost like maneuvers?

Also, I might add some corollary rules to heroic points and Action Points from Eberron.

Eberron's action points from what i could dredge from the cryptic texts ive read dont get restored, ever, you only gain them each level without limit and expend them once.

hero points, instead, are a resource to be used like maneuvers, so they should be able to be easily replaced.

[Empedocles]

Originally Posted by toapat

Eberron's action points from what i could dredge from the cryptic texts ive read dont get restored, ever, you only gain them each level without limit and expend them once.

hero points, instead, are a resource to be used like maneuvers, so they should be able to be easily replaced.

I added a rule that you can immediately use an action point to recover all of your heroic points, and a recovery rule for heroic points.

[eftexar]

It works, but it is really odd. With the right invocations I could probably mirror every archetypical 'hero' in the stories and legends...

I'm going to do my usual complaining about all good saves. I don't like it (I don't even think dragons should have them).

I also think the recovery mechanic, for heroic points, is way too high. I would say 1 point per critical hit and fallen foe. And then just add his full class levels to the total instead of half.

[Kazyan]

2cp here.

Think about expanding on your concept, even though you declined on that initially, because there is no solid concept for anyone to hold onto right now. You have a slew of abilities whose generality is second only to the Fighter--some bonuses, some action economy benders, and a few "well, you should have this at this level". This class is easy to mistake for being 100% mechanics based, because there is no indication of where these abilities come from or what their in-game representation is, and the features seem disjointed. Even if you say that roleplaying makes this class heroic, you have provided no justification in the fluff or mechanics.

As-written, this is the class you take when you want nothing but pluses. Even the chassis and double-the-feats thing is extremely pluses-oriented.

A class nigh-devoid of story ("Hero?") and built around pluses (the class-specific feats just give you a bigger number) is not something that will get played, so, it should be fixed. At least don't make your bonuses untyped.

By the way, op-fu with this class: Insightful Strike critfisher something something look at my pile of points that is never going away ever.