Leaders of Men - Aura Classes

[Garryl]

Consumptive/Bloodlust, do you want it on attack spells (like melf's acid arrow) or all spells (like fireball/magic missile)?

As we discussed a couple of days ago, I wouldn't mind letting it trigger on all damaging effects, just as long as it's appropriately limited to not scale up too high with AoEs or do silly things with persistent and continuing damage effects well outside of where you're at.

Maybe something along the lines of: "Heal 1/2 the damage dealt with any attack you make or effect you produce. Each attack or effect cannot heal you for more than a maximum of your aura bonus, no matter how many times it deals damage or how many targets it deals damage to. Ongoing effects only heal based on the damage dealt as they are produced (not continuing damage they may deal later on)."

Natural World, the best I can come up with is either granting a type of movement speed at higher bonuses or maybe granting a ten foot step instead of a five foot step at higher bonuses.

Spitballing here, but maybe something different for some of the classes in fitting with the exact themes they have going for each of their versions of the aura.
- Natural World (mantle): Bonus on damage with natural weapons.
- Motivate Urgency (major): ...
- Alacrity (divine): Saves against fatigue and exhaustion.
- Swiftness (draconic): AC vs. AoOs.

Marshal Auras
Everything seems fine to me, what do you want to buff?

Not any specific aura, just making sure to take a look that there aren't any that need a buff (or nerf, but I seriously doubt any there are too strong) while we're doing this balance pass.

[Nanshork]

Consumptive/Bloodlust - maxing out at no more than aura bonus seems a little low.  If you're concerned about too much healing, how about something like this:
"Heal 1/2 the damage dealt with any attack you make or effect you produce. You only gain healing for the first damage dealing attack or effect that you make during your turn and this healing only applies once per turn.  If your attack/effect has more than one target, only gain healing for the target that was dealt the most damage. Ongoing effects only heal based on the damage dealt as they are produced (not continuing damage they may deal later on)."

I feel like this will scale better at higher levels, although it is clunkier.


I'm not against aura differentiation between classes.  Oohh, and then I can come up with higher level abilities for each one, because I like that.  Feel free to ignore my off-the-cuff suggestions.
- Natural World (mantle) - Bonus on damage with natural weapons, at high bonuses grant secondary natural weapons (or improve existing ones? or something?  I'm less sure of this one)
- Motivate Urgency (major) - Increase speed, at high bonuses make 10 foot step instead of 5 foot.
- Alacracity (divine) - Saves against fatigue and exhaustion, at high bonuses reduce exhaustion to fatigue.
- Swiftness (draconic) - AC vs AoOs, at high bonuses if foe misses you with AoO gain 5 foot step as an immediate action.

[Garryl]

Pain and Suffering/Stamina/Motivate Endurance are due for a boost, too. Probably going to add something like "allies die or are destroyed at 5 lower hp/pt of aura bonus", maybe also an AC bonus or something below 1/2 hp like Fury (draconic) has for attack and damage. The first is so that you and your allies actually have a chance to make use of the aura instead of just overshooting the 0 to -9 hp range and straight up dying (and so that nonliving creatures can benefit at all). The second part is so that its actually useful when you're not quite at the brink of death.

Consumptive/Bloodlust - maxing out at no more than aura bonus seems a little low.  If you're concerned about too much healing, how about something like this:
"Heal 1/2 the damage dealt with any attack you make or effect you produce. You only gain healing for the first damage dealing attack or effect that you make during your turn and this healing only applies once per turn.  If your attack/effect has more than one target, only gain healing for the target that was dealt the most damage. Ongoing effects only heal based on the damage dealt as they are produced (not continuing damage they may deal later on)."

I feel like this will scale better at higher levels, although it is clunkier.

Consumptive/Bloodlust is the Lifedrinking Crystal to Guardian/Hardy Soldiers' Iron Ward Diamond. One gives you health back when you're hit, the other when you're doing the hitting. And they're both in the same domain as the fast healing up to 1/2 auras that every class gets (which are better for long-term health maintenance, but are less immediate and thus weaker mid-battle). That said, Consumptive/Bloodlust are getting buffed to 2x aura bonus, like the fast healing and DR auras were a long time ago.

I know it's weird about the damage being half, but limited to a small number, but the concept is from the other way around (on hit, heal for aura bonus). The limit of half the damage dealt is to stop Martial Spirit silliness of healing more damage on hit than you deal.

I'm not against aura differentiation between classes.  Oohh, and then I can come up with higher level abilities for each one, because I like that.  Feel free to ignore my off-the-cuff suggestions.
- Natural World (mantle) - Bonus on damage with natural weapons, at high bonuses grant secondary natural weapons (or improve existing ones? or something?  I'm less sure of this one)
- Motivate Urgency (major) - Increase speed, at high bonuses make 10 foot step instead of 5 foot.
- Alacracity (divine) - Saves against fatigue and exhaustion, at high bonuses reduce exhaustion to fatigue.
- Swiftness (draconic) - AC vs AoOs, at high bonuses if foe misses you with AoO gain 5 foot step as an immediate action.

Interesting.

[Nanshork]

Pain and Suffering/Stamina/Motivate Endurance are due for a boost, too. Probably going to add something like "allies die or are destroyed at 5 lower hp/pt of aura bonus", maybe also an AC bonus or something below 1/2 hp like Fury (draconic) has for attack and damage. The first is so that you and your allies actually have a chance to make use of the aura instead of just overshooting the 0 to -9 hp range and straight up dying (and so that nonliving creatures can benefit at all). The second part is so that its actually useful when you're not quite at the brink of death.

These changes sound fine.

Consumptive/Bloodlust - maxing out at no more than aura bonus seems a little low.  If you're concerned about too much healing, how about something like this:
"Heal 1/2 the damage dealt with any attack you make or effect you produce. You only gain healing for the first damage dealing attack or effect that you make during your turn and this healing only applies once per turn.  If your attack/effect has more than one target, only gain healing for the target that was dealt the most damage. Ongoing effects only heal based on the damage dealt as they are produced (not continuing damage they may deal later on)."

I feel like this will scale better at higher levels, although it is clunkier.

Consumptive/Bloodlust is the Lifedrinking Crystal to Guardian/Hardy Soldiers' Iron Ward Diamond. One gives you health back when you're hit, the other when you're doing the hitting. And they're both in the same domain as the fast healing up to 1/2 auras that every class gets (which are better for long-term health maintenance, but are less immediate and thus weaker mid-battle). That said, Consumptive/Bloodlust are getting buffed to 2x aura bonus, like the fast healing and DR auras were a long time ago.

I know it's weird about the damage being half, but limited to a small number, but the concept is from the other way around (on hit, heal for aura bonus). The limit of half the damage dealt is to stop Martial Spirit silliness of healing more damage on hit than you deal.

I get the concept, I was just having an issue with gaining 1 hp per hit at level 5.  Two works, that matches the Martial Spirit stance and then it scales.

I'm not against aura differentiation between classes.  Oohh, and then I can come up with higher level abilities for each one, because I like that.  Feel free to ignore my off-the-cuff suggestions.
- Natural World (mantle) - Bonus on damage with natural weapons, at high bonuses grant secondary natural weapons (or improve existing ones? or something?  I'm less sure of this one)
- Motivate Urgency (major) - Increase speed, at high bonuses make 10 foot step instead of 5 foot.
- Alacracity (divine) - Saves against fatigue and exhaustion, at high bonuses reduce exhaustion to fatigue.
- Swiftness (draconic) - AC vs AoOs, at high bonuses if foe misses you with AoO gain 5 foot step as an immediate action.

Interesting.

What can I say, I have a thing for the scaling auras.  I'm not sure if that's a concept you want to go with though (aside from the auras that require enemies to make saves).

[Garryl]

Aura changes are done, except for the bits with the speed boost auras.

Added Inspire Discord, Inspire Pain, Inspire Vulnerability, Inspire Weakness, and Motivate Retribution major auras to the Marshal.

[Nanshork]

The new auras all look fine.

[Garryl]

New versions of the speed boost auras. What do you think?

• Alacrity: Allies gain a bonus to all movement speeds equal to 5 feet per point of aura bonus. Allies gain a bonus equal to twice your aura bonus on Balance, Climb, Survival, and Swim checks, and on saves against fatigue and exhaustion. If your aura bonus is at least +3, an ally who would become exhausted while not yet fatigued instead becomes fatigued, and an ally who would become fatigued while already fatigued remains fatigued (rather than becoming exhausted).
  Personal: You are immune to fatigue and exhaustion. You gain the benefits of the Endurance feat.
  
  
• Natural World: Allies gain a bonus to all movement speeds equal to 5 feet per point of aura bonus. Allies gain a bonus equal to twice your aura bonus on Balance, Climb, Survival, and Swim checks. Allies gain a bonus on attack rolls with secondary natural weapons. This cannot raise a character's attack modifier above what it would be with a primary natural weapon. If your aura bonus is at least +3, allies natural weapons and unarmed strikes deal damage as a weapon one size category larger.
  
  
• Motivate Urgency: Allies gain a 5-foot bonus to all movement speeds, plus an additional 5 feet per point of aura bonus. Allies gain a bonus equal to twice your aura bonus on Balance, Climb, Survival, and Swim checks. If your aura bonus is at least +3, allies can move 10 feet as a swift action, using any movement mode they possess, as long as they perform no other movement during the round (as with a 5-foot step). If your aura bonus is at least +4, this movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
  
  
• Swiftness: Allies gain a bonus to all movement speeds equal to 5 feet per point of aura bonus. Allies gain a bonus equal to twice your aura bonus on Balance, Climb, Survival, and Swim checks, and to their Armor Class against attack of opportunity. If your aura bonus is at least +3, the maneuverability category of any movement mode an ally possesses with a maneuverability category (such as fly or glide speeds) improves by 1 category, to a maximum of perfect.
  Boost: Allies gain all movement modes that any other affected ally possesses for 1 round per point of your aura bonus.
  Boost Cost: 10 DV
  

Also, I'm working on a rework of the Paladin's special along the lines of what I did with the Death Knight's steed. Important changes include dropping the 30-day penalty to just one day (if not removing it entirely), letting you call a new steed after 1 week (rather than 30 days), changing the scaling to a move consistent every-3-levels sort of deal, and expanding the alternative mount list beyond 8th-level (including juvenile/young adult metallic dragons as a 20th level option). I'm largely just in the process of picking out the higher-levels' replacement mount lists.

[Nanshork]

Does Natural World stack with things that already increase the size category of your attacks?

I'd ask the same about Swiftness but I'm sure it does.

Looks good otherwise.

Reworking the mount along the lines of death knight sounds great.

[Garryl]

Quick thought: Should I change the wording of the fast healing auras so they keep removing nonlethal damage regardless of your hit points?

Does Natural World stack with things that already increase the size category of your attacks?

I'd ask the same about Swiftness but I'm sure it does.

Looks good otherwise.

Yes, they stack (or at least, they should). They're not bonuses, so the usual rules about bonuses stacking and overlapping doesn't really apply, unless something else talks about morale bonuses to your effective size category or whatever. They shouldn't stack with the same aura from another projector, because that's the same effect. I'm not sure if the wording as-is lets that happen, although I don't think so. The only issue I can think of coming up is if I make a different aura that does the same thing and whether or not they would stack then, but I'd be inclined to allow it anyways.

Reworking the mount along the lines of death knight sounds great.

Any ideas on what to look at for higher level mount options? There just aren't as many mount-appropriate good-aligned creatures as there are evil-aligned ones, so the higher level lists look like they're going to wind up with a lot of celestial dire/giant animals right now.

(click to show/hide)

5th Level or Higher (Normal Level)

• Heavy warhorse
• Dire weasel
• Large shark¹
  
• Riding dog (has trip attack, as though trained for war)
• Warpony

8th Level or Higher (Level -3)

• Dire bat
• Dire boar
• Dire wolf
• Dire wolverine
• Dire badger

11th Level or Higher (Level -6)

• Celestial cachalot whale¹
  
• Unicorn

14th Level or Higher (Level -9)

• ...

17th Level or Higher (Level -12)

• Celestial tyrannosaurus
• Roc

20th Level or Higher (Level -15)

• Brass dragon, young adult³ (you are unaffected by your mount's Frightful Presence ability)
  
• Bronze dragon, juvenile² (you are unaffected by your mount's Frightful Presence ability)
  
• Copper dragon, young adult³ (you are unaffected by your mount's Frightful Presence ability)
  
• Silver dragon, juvenile² (you are unaffected by your mount's Frightful Presence ability)
  
• Gold dragon, juvenile² (you are unaffected by your mount's Frightful Presence ability)
  

Normal Paladin mounts I haven't looked at yet

• Normal: 6th (-1)
  
• Celestial heavy warhorse
• Celestial large shark
• Celestial riding dog
• Celestial warpony
• Hippogriff
• Large monstrous spider
• Monitor lizard
• Normal: 7th (-2)
  
• Giant eagle
• Giant owl
• Pegasus
• Rhinoceros
• Sea cat¹
  
• Normal: 8th (-3)
• Dire lion
• Griffon

¹ Available only in an aquatic environment.
² Available to non-chaotic Paladins only.
³ Available to non-lawful Paladins only.

[Nanshork]

Yes, the wording as is allows stacking, I was just making sure it was intentional.

For paladin mounts, all I can think of is the Leadership special cohorts table.

Blink Dog
Lammasu
Dragonne

[Garryl]

I'm going to put this here, since:
1) All of the people I know of who are deeply invested in aura-based homebrew character classes are here.
2) I haven't gotten around to updating things on the new/old/recovered board yet.

Please let me know what you think. These are just my current thoughts on the matter, not final changes.

Motivate Endurance: Allies gain a bonus to their Armor Class while the ally has half of its maximum hit points or less. Allies within the aura that are reduced to 0 or lower hp automatically stabilize, can act normally, are are not at risk of damage from performing strenuous actions. While at 0 hp or lower, allies gain 5 temporary hit points per point of your aura bonus each round at the beginning of your turn. These temporary hit points last until the beginning of your next turn (when they are granted anew). Allies do not die and are not destroyed until their hit points are 5 lower than normal per point of your aura bonus.

Current thoughts on the matter of Motivate Endurance: The current version (above) seems like it would be too potent in the earliest of levels. Thanks to the Diehard aspect, there's an extra 10 hp to work with in a pinch for everyone in the party (at least until the marshal himself dies). It's a risky 10 hp, since you're eating into the buffer between unconsciousness and death, but it's there, and with it the aura effectively adds 15 hp to your staying power right at 1st level. There's also an inconsistency in power level, as nonliving creatures don't actually get that extra 10 hp buffer to use.

Also, technically, Motivate Endurance has a similar problem with nonlethal damage as Diehard from the PHB does. Any nonlethal damage is greater than your hit point total if you're at negative hp, so you fall unconscious anyways. That, or you're functionally immune to nonlethal damage, but only when at 0 or lower hp. Either way is inane.

There's also a small issue of Motivate Endurance functionally adding to your hp total, yet not really doing so, thus allowing it to stack with things that actually do, like the Tough It Out minor aura, which it shouldn't stack with.

One last thing, not directly related to the rebalancing effort, is the way temp hp gets granted. It's entirely binary, meaning that 1 hp difference can grant you 5 or more temp hp each round. There's also a little confusion with the timing, as there is either a theoretical moment where you've lost the previous round's temp hp but haven't received the temp hp for the new round, or you might not actually get temp hp in the new round at all due to the remaining temp hp from the previous round pushing you above the threshold. It's bugged me for a long time, but it never seemed worth the effort to rework on its own.

Proposed changes: Essentially rewriting the aura's mechanics, although keeping to the same concepts. Remove the Diehard aspect (conscious and can act at negative hp), although keep the automatic stabilization. Change the extended death threshold thing to a hit point bonus instead (similar to the Tough It Out minor aura). The temp hp at 0 or lower gets rejiggered, too. Note that the change from extending the death and consciousness thresholds to adding hp directly means that the AC bonus on 1/2 hp doesn't kick in until you've taken slightly more damage than before.

Motivate Endurance: Allies gain a bonus to current and maximum hit points equal to five times your aura bonus. These hit points are not lost first like temporary hit points, and disappear when the aura is lost. Allies with half their (newly increased) maximum hit points or less gain a bonus to their Armor Class. Allies reduced to 0 or lower hit points automatically stabilize. Each round at the beginning of your turn, allies with fewer hit points than five times your aura bonus, excluding temporary hit points, gain temporary hit points equal to the difference. These temporary hit points last until the beginning of your next turn as new temporary hit points as granted, or until the aura is lost.

Note: These changes would also apply to Pain and Suffering (divine mind mantle aura) and Stamina (dragon shaman draconic aura).

Side note: Add in a bonus to Endurance-modified checks/rolls (as the Long Haul minor aura) as an additional minor benefit. It's thematic, if nothing else, and it feels weird to have an aura called Motivate Endurance not boost Endurance. I believe the standard for secondary skill boosts on major-tier auras (divine, draconic, major, mantle) is 2x the aura bonus.

Edit: Forgot that sufficient temp hp will make you conscious, which defeats the purpose of removing the Diehard element from this rework. Need to either rework the temp hp part, which would probably make an aura with lots of moving parts even more complicated, or replace it with something else entirely.

Inspire Pain: Each round at the beginning of their turn, enemies in the aura take damage equal to twice your aura bonus. This damage can be either lethal or nonlethal damage, chosen when the aura is activated. You can change this selection as the same type of action as activating an aura. This damage is not affected by damage reduction.

Inspire Pain and the auras like it for the divine mind (Death, Fire) and paladin (Wrath), are intended to provide a small but consistent source of damage to nearby enemies. They are intended to build up damage across multiple foes to aid the actual attacks and AoEs in dropping them, similar to how damage buffing auras do, but along a different vector. The auras are only intended to actually finish off enemies that have already been weakened by attacks that nearly, but not quite, dropped them already.

Inspire Pain's damage value is low, but unlike the similar auras of other classes, is available at 1st level, when monster hit points are also low. At higher levels, the damage the aura deals is insufficient to drop all but the weakest of enemies in a reasonable time frame, but CR 1/2 and lower monsters can often have 6 hp or less.

Proposed changes: The damage trigger changes from the beginning of enemy turns to the end. This gives enemies one extra round of actions before being dropped, and allows some counterplay by allowing them to flee beyond the range of the aura in order to avoid the damage before it triggers.

Note: These changes would also apply to Death, Fire (divine mind mantle aura), and Wrath (paladin divine aura).

Motivate Retribution: Melee attacks that hit allies cause the attacker to suffer 1d6 damage per point of aura bonus. This damage is not affected by damage reduction.

Motivate Retribution's reactive damage is a concern, much like Inspire Pain's automatic damage. The numbers are larger, although the triggers are less frequent. Motivate Retribution also has a slightly more direct comparison to damage adders like Motivate Ardor, which add +1d4 damage per point of bonus to allies attacks.

Against any melee attacker, Motivate Retribution is guaranteed to trigger if the enemy wishes to actually do anything in the fight. If the attacker needs to trigger the reactive damage enough to be dropped himself in the process of dropping a PC, then the battle is effectively won automatically by the Motivate Retribution aura, and that's a bad thing. Small hp pools, small to moderate damage values, and a prevalence of melee attacks (as opposed to ranged or magical attack vectors) at low levels make this a concerning issue. The variance in the retributive damage, and in standard damage rolls, does make an absolute guarantee of this much harder, at least.

Proposed changes: None yet, although I'll be keeping my eye on this aura's potential.

That'll teach me to quickly pop on the board before going to bed.

Okay...Motivate Endurance.

I do agree that it is a huge power boost at our level.  Too huge.  The rewrite feels like more work, but the hp function like extra hp from Rage so it's not too bad as long as people don't pop in and out of the aura during combat.  The HP + Temp HP feel like too much, but I'm too tired to look at the auras it is being compared with that I obviously thought were okay because I reviewed them awhile ago.


Right now I don't have any helpful thoughts on Inspire Pain and Motivate Retribution except that balancing for level 1 is hard.

Oops. I forgot that sufficient temp hp will make you conscious, which defeats the purpose of removing the Diehard element from Motivate Endurance. Need to either rework the temp hp part, which would probably make an aura with lots of moving parts even more complicated, or replace it with something else entirely.

Quick comments:

Motivate Retribution is 2x the damage of the Commander's Energy Shield, and you were worried that Energy Shield was too strong, even though it's also typed damage and affected by DR. So based on that, Retribution needs a nerf.

Inspire Pain I would agree with the changes, although if you're really worried about damage, make it lock to non-lethal for the first level or two.

Motivate Endurance doesn't specify what the bonus to AC is. Assumption is aura bonus, but that's not called out anywhere. And I would honestly just ditch the temp hp mechanic and replace it with something less likely to cause mechanical quandaries, like healing. Also, the way its written is odd, because it means that someone fully healthy, except with only 4.5 hp a level (a wizard with crappy con, for ex), gets bonus THP above their natural maximum. Not sure if that's intentional.

You also might consider stealing the Crusader's Delay Damage pool mechanic instead of the THP one. Just suggestions, though.

Almost forgot, I also want to change the Aura Focus feat (+1 bonus and +2 DC to a single aura). Similar to Strat's commander's feats, giving it a minimum level requirement (probably 3rd) will keep it out of the hands of 1st level characters.

One other minor consideration (that is enough to push me to get things updated and try to move this discussion to the thread it really should be in) is that marshal auras alone are extraordinary abilities, rather than supernatural. That's why all of the damaging marshal auras say they ignore DR. It also means that incorporeal creatures are immune. I'm not sure what (if anything) should be done about this.

I finally got around to updating the aura classes homebrew thread, yay.

Quick comments:

Motivate Retribution is 2x the damage of the Commander's Energy Shield, and you were worried that Energy Shield was too strong, even though it's also typed damage and affected by DR. So based on that, Retribution needs a nerf.

Probably, although my concerns with the commander's version were amplified by the version that could get +4 (8 damage) or higher at level 1. It didn't come up in conversation, but while I was a little wary of the temporary iteration your character at the time was using (+2 at 1st level w/ the feat, 4 damage), it was in a similar boat in my mind; watch and see.

This recent discussion has made me less enamored with the mechanic in general, though. I might ultimately end up changing it out for something else entirely.

Inspire Pain I would agree with the changes, although if you're really worried about damage, make it lock to non-lethal for the first level or two.

I don't see how changing it to nonlethal damage affects the auras power level. Creatures drop with the same total damage either way.

Motivate Endurance doesn't specify what the bonus to AC is. Assumption is aura bonus, but that's not called out anywhere. And I would honestly just ditch the temp hp mechanic and replace it with something less likely to cause mechanical quandaries, like healing. Also, the way its written is odd, because it means that someone fully healthy, except with only 4.5 hp a level (a wizard with crappy con, for ex), gets bonus THP above their natural maximum. Not sure if that's intentional.

You also might consider stealing the Crusader's Delay Damage pool mechanic instead of the THP one. Just suggestions, though.

The wording of the AC bonus is the same as all the other auras that give simple bonuses and penalties. Yes, it's equal to the aura bonus.

[Garryl]

I'm thinking of replacing Inspire Pain and Inspire Retributions' effects entirely. Marshal auras directly dealing damage is a bit odd since they're extraordinary abilities, unlike the other classes which have supernatural abilities. This means that incorporeal creatures ignore the damage, and its affected by damage reduction, too (unless its energy damage or a force effect, neither of which fit the marshal fantasy). Unlike with standard attacks, there is no weapon to be enchanted with magical properties to enable the standard 50% chance of damage incorporeal creatures or to bypass the frequently present yet always ignored DR/magic. the ability to bypass these defences is so omnipresent, especially with other similar abilities as spells or supernatural abilities, I doubt most players would even stop to consider that they would even apply to this.

Note to self: I also need to adjust the Death Comes For You command. It, too, is an extraordinary ability that deals damage. It should probably also be a fear effect while I'm at it. Might as well just make it supernatural like several of the other commands, including both the other damage dealers.

Before, I (partially) addressed this with exceptions built into the auras, letting them ignore damage reduction. It was a quick fix, and it wasn't even a complete fix, as I forgot about incorporeal creatures that, conceptually, should be affected, too.

Anyways, this is a long-winded way of saying that, since I'm rebalancing them already and I don't want to make only a couple of the marshal's auras into supernatural abilities, I would like to look at alternative effects for Inspire Pain and Inspire Retribution. Here are some options I'm considering.

Inspire Pain: Enemies suffer a penalty on all skill and ability checks. The first time each round each enemy takes damage, it must make a Fortitude save or be staggered for 1 round.

Motivate Retribution: Whenever an ally is attacked, if the attacker rolls less than or equal to your aura bonus on the d20, it provokes an attack of opportunity from the ally. If the attack already provoked an attack of opportunity from the ally (such as an attack with an unarmed strike), this aura does not cause it to provoke another. (Similar to, but inverted from paladin's Retribution aura, which could also stand to be looked at.)

Motivate Retribution: Allies gain a bonus on attack rolls and on weapon damage rolls. These bonuses only apply while attacking an opponent that attacked that or another ally subject to this aura in the past 1 round. (Similar to dragon shaman's Fury aura.)

[Nanshork]

I feel like Staggered might be a little too powerful for low levels.

Both Motivate Retribution auras look good, the second one is definitely more useful than the first.

[Garryl]

Staggered is the condition where you can only take a single standard or move action per round. You can even still charge while staggered, although you only move normal speed instead of double. It's generally weaker at low levels, since fewer enemies are losing out on full attacks due to only getting one attack in the first place.

Edit: At least, that's my impression of the condition. I can't say it's actually ever come up in a game I've played.

[Nanshork]

Staggered is the condition where you can only take a single standard or move action per round. You can even still charge while staggered, although you only move normal speed instead of double. It's generally weaker at low levels, since fewer enemies are losing out on full attacks due to only getting one attack in the first place.

Edit: At least, that's my impression of the condition. I can't say it's actually ever come up in a game I've played.

I've only ever seen staggered come up in the double digit levels so I'm just guessing about its power at low levels.

[Garryl]

I'm working through a few different variations on Motivate Endurance. The general principle I'm going for is some amount of bonus hp, and while you're at or below that amount, you have a bonus to defenses, you gain fast healing until you're above the amount of bonus hp. One of the things I'm waffling over is how much bonus hp should be granted. I've been trying to work out a version or two where it scales based on the recipient's level times your aura bonus, so the bonus hp scales up a bit at higher levels quadratically, much like actual hp winds up doing once you add in Con boosters. This also lets it give a slightly smaller bonus at low levels so it's not as significant compared to 1st- and 2nd-level hp pools while still scaling up to remain useful at higher levels. I'm just not sure the added complexity is worth the benefit.

[Nanshork]

Whenever you're ready for input on the possibilities feel free to post them.

[Garryl]

• Motivate Endurance: Allies gain a bonus to current and maximum hit points equal to five times your aura bonus. These hit points are not lost first like temporary hit points, and disappear when the aura is lost. Allies with hit points equal to or less than five times your aura bonus gain a bonus to their Armor Class and on all saving throws equal to your aura bonus and gain fast healing equal to your aura bonus. Allies reduced to 0 or lower hit points automatically stabilize.
  
  
• Motivate Endurance: Allies gain a bonus to current and maximum hit points equal to five times your aura bonus. For every 4 levels of the recipient, the bonus to hit points increases by your aura bonus. These hit points are not lost first like temporary hit points, and disappear when the aura is lost. Allies with hit points equal to or less than the bonus hit points granted to them gain fast healing equal to your aura bonus. Allies reduced to 0 or lower hit points automatically stabilize.
  

I was waffling at various points about the AC/saves bonus, whether it should be just AC, just saves, none, or both. Hence why one of these versions has both and the other has neither. I'm still not sure which way to go on that, and it'll partly depend on the hp scaling (or lack thereof) I go with.

[Nanshork]

Hmm, I'm not sure.  Both versions feel a little too book-keepy for me.

[Stratovarius]

Hmm, I'm not sure.  Both versions feel a little too book-keepy for me.

I agree with Nan on that one. They also have the downside of potentially killing anyone who forgets and wanders out of the radius, especially at low levels.