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Topics - RobbyPants

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1
Preface
The idea is that I wanted to make a relatively small amount of changes to 5E to help fix a few things I don't like about 5E. This is meant to be fairly short, so it's not meant to be a wholistic fix to the entire system. Pretty much any version of this game has always involved heavy use of agreement of everyone at the table (whether they realize it or not) and mind caulk.


What I don't like
  • I'm fine with the -5/+10 aspect of Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter. I don't mind the increased damage it brings to the table. What I don't like is that the only two viable choices of weapons are either great weapons or ranged weapons. This locks small-sized melee characters from contributing and makes many iconic weapon choices terrible. Further, once you throw in Polearm Master or Crossbow Expert, the list of viable weapons drops to just halberd, glaive, or hand crossbow. That's terribly limiting and is a feat tax for martials to contribute.
  • Some classes and subclasses are great as an idea, but are just terrible at the table. I wanted to boost some of these.
  • There is very little reason to take more than two levels of warlock.
  • Squishy casters (sorcerers, wizards, and non-hexblade warlocks) can easily pick up medium armor and shield proficiency and often run around with some of the best armor classes in the game. I'd like them to still feel squishy and have to use their spell slots for those defenses.
  • Two Weapon Fighting is pretty weak compared to the other styles.
  • Some feats are interesting on paper but not good enough to ever make the cut.
  • The simplicity of advantage and disadvantage sometimes lead to absurdity.


Quick overview:
So, the biggest thing I did on the martial end was to create an ability under Combat both called Power Attack and Called Shot. It allows you to take a penalty on the attack equal to your proficiency bonus and gain double the bonus to damage rolls. This only applies to attacks taken with the Attack option. This removes the feat tax for Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter while opening the damage up for other weapons (and unarmed strikes). Not working with bonus attacks means that extra attacks from Polearm Master and Crossbow Expert are far less valuable, making these feats less mandatory.

I made the extra attack on Two Weapon Fighting part of the attack action once you have the Extra Attack class feature or Thirsting Blade invocation. This was based on me looking at the damage outputs compared to fighting with a heavy weapon on their own, with the respective fighting styles, and when using Power Attack. They're pretty well in line this way.

A lot of the weaker feats are now "half feats", granting a single ASI as part of the feat.

As for squishy casters being squishy, I'm taking an idea from Treantmonk's channel, limiting casting in armor to class proficiency. The only change I made to his rule was to exclude ritual casting from the limitation.

I feel most of the absurdity of advantage and disadvantage can be fixed by simply applying whichever of the two has more. They only cancel in equal number.

Moving the armor proficiency and +Charisma to attack and damage rolls from the Hexblade subclass to the Pact of the Blade is mostly a personal choice. It's not that I mind people getting those benefits at level 1, but rather I'd like to be able to see Archfey warlocks and Genie warlocks be able to use those abilities. I feel it being tied to a patron called "the Hexblade" was more of an artifact of how the class was designed several years earlier. I wasn't really fixing a perceived balance issue here.


Thanks
That's the long and the short of it. I'd like your feedback on the ideas. I know I've said a couple times that this is meant to be short and sweet and not fix everything, but I don't want that excuse to shield me from criticism.

2
Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / [5E] Artificer (Puppeteer)
« on: February 27, 2022, 08:06:09 PM »
I've liked this concept of a character for a while. Getting into 5E, it seemed like a good fit for the artificer. I know the class itself is a bit on the weak side, and I'm not sure how well this thing would play. Perhaps it should get some sort of boost to Electric damage to make it an okay back-up blaster. Only getting 3 zombies from levels 5-8 keeps it from getting very powerful. It seems that they're mostly utility creatures more than anything else. I could possibly specify that any slain zombies could be repaired and reanimated so long as the body isn't completely destroyed.


PUPPETEER

Some artificers choose to dabble in the sciences of life and death, looking to manipulate them magically and mechanically. While alchemists turn this pursuit into an ability to heal, you have chosen to use your knowledge of anatomy, electricity, and necromancy to animate corpses as foul puppets. Many will mistake your creations for zombies, but in fact, they are animated puppets. As your skills improve, you look for ways to puppet objects and even living beings.

BONUS PROFICIENCIES
3rd-level Puppeteer feature
You gain proficiency with the Medicine skill and Leatherworker’s tools.

PUPPETEER SPELLS
3rd-level Puppeteer feature
You always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class. As shown in the Puppeteer Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you prepare.

PUPPETEER SPELLS
Artificer Level   Spells
3rd               False Life, Thunderwave
5th               Blindness/Deafness, Gentle Repose
9th               Animate Dead, Call Lightning
13th              Blight, Storm Sphere XGtE
17th              Animate Objects, Dominate Person


ELECTRIC ADEPT
3rd-level Puppeteer feature
You learn the Shocking Grasp cantrip. In addition, you can cast it with a range of 30 feet.

DREAD PUPPETS
5th-level Puppeteer feature
You may prepare a corpse of a humanoid creature for animating with a ten-minute ritual. Using your leatherworker’s tools and understanding of anatomy, you patch up the corpse and animate it with Shocking Grasp at the culmination of the ritual.
   The corpse animates, under your control. Use the statistics of a zombie from the Monster Manual for this creature, except it is considered a construct instead of an undead creature. You may have a number of these dread puppets created at any time equal to your proficiency bonus. You may issue commands to your dread puppets using the rules found in Animate Dead.
   You may repair your dread puppets during a short or long rest using your Leatherworker’s tools. Doing so restores a number of hit points equal to 2d6 plus your Intelligence modifier. You may heal a number of dread puppets per rest equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum one).
   Any zombies you animate with Animate Dead are also constructs and count as dread puppets for purposes of your class abilities. These zombies are controlled as normal per additional castings of Animate Dead rather than counting against the number of dread puppets you can have created at one time.

VIGOR
9th-level Puppeteer feature
As you continue to master forces of electricity and death, you and all of your dread puppets gain resistance to lightning and necrotic damage.

IMPROVED PUPPETS
9th-level Puppeteer feature
When animating a zombie using Dread Puppets or Animate Dead, you may animate a large-sized humanoid corpse, using the statistics of an ogre zombie. It has all of the other properties as usual per Dread Puppets. This counts as four zombies for purposes of maintaining control.

CHARGED PUPPETS
15th-level Puppeteer feature
Your dread puppets become infused with electricity. They are now immune to electric damage and each of their melee attacks deal 1d6 lightning damage in addition to their normal damage. Any time a dread puppet is hit by a metal melee weapon or a natural weapon, the attacker takes 1d6 lightning damage.

3
Other Games / Hubris of UAC: my Doom mod
« on: May 28, 2020, 12:02:52 PM »
I've been working on a Doom mod for a while now. I finished it a couple of weeks ago and after a bit of tinkering, I've put it up at ModDB for download!

Hubris of UAC download at ModDB

The general plot starts out similar to the 2016 Doom game. You start on Mars, then go to Hell for a while. I made a few levels set on Earth and then you go back to Hell to wipe out the rest of the threat.

Screen shots:
(click to show/hide)

For those interested in playing this:
  • Go to the above link and click the red Download Now button.
  • Unzip the download file. Hubris.WAD is the game file that you play with GZDoom.
  • You will need GZDoom (at least 4.3.3) installed. You can find it at zdoom.org. Click the left-most download.
  • I set this up to make UltraViolence pretty hard. I have beat every level from a pistol start, but I know where all the secrets are. If you haven't played Doom in a while, you might want to try an easier difficulty.
  • Let me know if you have any questions.

4
Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / A bard and rogue ACF
« on: November 16, 2019, 10:59:39 AM »
I have two ACFs I created, and I'm curious about your thoughts on these (both from a balance standpoint and interestingness to play).


Bard Variant: Arcane Rogue
Arcane Rogues are bards that have given up their inspirational abilities for guile and subterfuge.
Gain: Add the following class features.
  • Add Disable Device, Open Lock, and Search to the Arcane Rogue’s class skills.
  • An Arcane Rogue gains the Rogue’s Trapfinding ability at 1st level.
  • An Arcane Rogue gains the Ranged Legerdemain ability of an Arcane Trickster at 1st level. He can use this ability once per day and gains an additional daily use every three levels (2/day at 3rd level, 3/day at 6th, etc).
  • At 2nd level an Arcane Rogue gains the Sneak Attack ability of a Rogue. He gains +1d6 Sneak Attack damage at 2nd level, and an additional 1d6 damage every two levels thereafter (+2d6 at 4th level, +3d6 at 6th, etc).
  • An Arcane Rogue gains the Uncanny Dodge ability of a Rogue at 5th level and Uncanny Dodge at 11th.
Lose: Remove the following features from the Bard:
  • The Arcane Rogue has a poor Reflex save progression (same progression as the Fortitude save).
  • Bardic Music
  • Countersong
  • Fascinate
  • Inspire Courage
  • Suggestion
  • Inspire Greatness
  • Song of Freedom
  • Inspire Heroics
  • Mass Suggestion
I'm struggling thinking about how good a full (albeit slightly delayed) Sneak Attack progression is. Is this about right? Is the loss of a good Reflex save necessary?

I'm basically looking to make something like an Arcane Trickster playable from level 1. I toyed with adjusting the spell list, but I currently decided to go with the same Bard list.

5
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / thoughts on Spirit Shaman
« on: November 06, 2019, 08:29:14 AM »
What are your overall thoughts on the Spirit Shaman class from Complete Divine?

It gets spells off the druid list. It has an odd casting mechanic that gives it a lot of flexibility. Sadly, it comes with dual-stat casting, which sucks. Other than that, it gets a weird set of class features as opposed to Wild Shape and Animal Companion.

If the casting were just based on Wisdom, how good would the class be?

6
Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Favored Soul Changes
« on: November 03, 2019, 10:48:36 AM »
The idea of the favored soul is kind of interesting, but it falls way behind the cleric. The biggest two problems I can think of with the class are that they don't get Turn Undead (which shuts them out of cleric tricks) and they don't have enough spells known to fulfill the restorative duties of a cleric. Clerics as a class work because they're only ever 24 hours away from having the proper Remove ___ spell prepared for long-duration debuffs.

I was tossing around some relatively simple changes that could deal with that. Also, I moved up some of the class features that are just granted way too late.


Skills: Add Intimidate and Knowledge (Religion) to the favored soul class list.

Spells: Use Charisma to determine spell DCs, bonus spell slots, and the highest level spell the favored soul can cast.

Damage Reduction: Gained at 2nd level instead of 20th; however, instead of 10 points of damage reduction, the damage is reduced to half the favored soul level (round down).

Deity’s Weapon Specialization: Gain at 6th level instead of 12th.

Wings: Gain this ability at 9th level instead of 17th.

Divine Focus (Su): at 1st level the favored soul can focus divine energy into her spells. Once per round, as a swift action, she may lower the effective level of a favored soul spell effected by one or more metamagic feats. She gains a number of “levels” of this ability equal to her Charisma modifier plus three.
   When used, this ability lowers the effective level of the spell cast equal to a number of “levels” of Divine Focus spent. The effective level of the spell cannot be lowered below its original level. The maximum number of “levels” that may be applied with each use of this ability is equal to half the Favored Soul’s class level, round up.
   For example, a 3rd level Favored Soul could apply two “levels” of Divine Focus to cast an Empowered Cure Moderate Wounds as a 2nd level spell. She could also apply two “levels” to cast a Maximized Cure Light Wounds as a 2nd level spell. She would not be able to cast a Maximized Cure Moderate Wounds because it would be a 3rd level spell, still beyond her ability to cast.
    Uses of Divine Focus can be used to trigger other abilities (such as some domain abilities, devotion feats, or [Divine] feats) as Turn/Rebuke Undead attempts. This ability counts as Turn/Rebuke Undead for purposes of meeting prerequisites for feats and prestige classes. She may take the Extra Turning feat to instead grant four more daily uses of Divine Focus.

Restorative/Destructive Magic: At 1st level, the favored soul automatically adds several spells to her list of spells known, in addition to any spells she would already know. A favored soul that turns undead gains Restorative Magic and a favored soul that rebukes undead gains Destructive Magic.
  • Restorative Magic spells gained: 0 – Cure Minor Wounds; 1st -0 – Cure Light Wounds, Remove Fear; 2nd – Cure Moderate Wounds, Lesser Restoration, Remove Paralysis; 3rd – Cure Serious Wounds, Remove Blindness/Deafness, Remove Curse, Remove Disease; 4th – Cure Critical Wounds, Restoration; 5th – Mass Cure Light Wounds, Raise Dead; 6th – Mass Cure Moderate Wounds; 7th – Greater Restoration, Mass Cure Serious Wounds, Resurrection; 8th – Mass Cure Critical Wounds
  • Destructive Magic Spells gained: 0 – Inflict Minor Wounds; 1st – Cause Fear, Inflict Light Wounds; 2nd – Hold Person, Inflict Moderate Wounds, Touch of Idiocy*; 3rd – Bestow Curse, Blindness/Deafness, Contagion, Inflict Serious Wounds; 4th – Enervation*, Inflict Critical Wounds; 5th – Mass Inflict Light Wounds, Slay Living; 6th – Mass Inflict Moderate Wounds; 7th – Destruction, Mass Inflict Serious Wounds, Waves of Exhaustion*; 8th – Mass Inflict Critical Wounds
    *From Sorcerer/Wizard list. Cast as divine spell.
Domains: At 2nd level, a favored soul gains one of the domains of her deity. She gains the granted ability for the domain and adds every domain spell to her list of spells known. These are in addition to the spells she knows for her class level. Any spell she learns with this ability that she already knows (either from having chosen it for through Restorative or Destructive Magic) is cast at +2 caster level. For example: if the favored soul has Cure Light Wounds from her Restorative Magic class feature and she chooses the Healing Domain, she could cast the spell at +3 caster level (+2 from this ability, and +1 from the Healing Domain’s granted ability).
At 7th level and 12th level, the favored soul gains an additional domain granted by her deity. She gains the granted ability and spells just as she did for her first domain.


So, evil favored souls still lack the wide access to the various Cure, Restoration, and Remove ___ spells, but they get some offensive ones in place. Personally, I could see dropping this feature, but the rest of the system seems to really like evil divine casters getting these types of spells, so I'm adding this for legacy reasons. They can always take CLW and get wands, like many other classes.


What do you think? Is this something you'd play? Do you see any abuses? I don't think it's better than the cleric, but I wanted to close the gap a bit.

7
Other Games / Zombie DOOM mod
« on: April 27, 2019, 02:51:33 PM »
Back in 2013, I started modding DOOM, and decided to make a zombie survival mod. Over the course of a year or so, I got all the behavior of the enemies I wanted down, the new "realistic" guns, and some of the graphics. The graphics are the most time-consuming part, so I never really worked on them, and largely put the project away, occasionally revisiting it.

About a week ago, I had some renewed interest in this project, and have started putting in a lot of time making new graphics for the monsters, as well as creating objects to place in the maps. I'm going to have to start creating maps, soon, to get your character running around through an apartment building and later down the city streets.

Here's some of the progress, so far:


Using lots of pallet-swapping, I'm able to make zombies with different clothes, skin, and hair colors, to add variety to the game.




I added in humans that will turn into zombies if killed by zombies or any of the green slime in the game. The humans have the same color combinations as the zombies, so you don't run into issues of red-shirt humans spawning blue-shirt zombies.




In addition to humans, I added cops. They will fight instead of running, and are pretty competent against the slow zombies. Fast zombies and zombies with ranged attacks will kill them much faster. If they come back as zombies, they're twice as tough as the other slow zombies because of their armor.




There are zombies that will crawl out of the dirt, seemingly coming from nowhere.




There are some cultists (that replace the cacodemons). They largely behave the same, albeit more aggressively. There are several other types, including necromancers that summon zombies (replacing the pain elementals that spawn lost souls).




Here is some of the arsenal of guns you can find. You're limited in terms of how many you can carry at a time, and each has an internal capacity, forcing you to spend time reloading.




The knife replaces the chainsaw. One advantage to keeping the pistol instead of the Uzi is that you can hold the knife in your other hand, making quick attacks. This saves on both time and ammo in a mod where things are meant to be scarce.




Some graphics I made a while back for reloading the AK-47.




The cross-hairs on the rifle scope. If you have the time and space to use the thing, it's fantastic, but not advised for running around in tight spaces.




I've created some cars. The police cars actually have lights:




I was working on new types of exploding barrels today. I decided to make eight of them stacked on a skid, which makes a much larger explosion. I had to tweak the radius a bit, because I was obliterated a fraction of a second after taking this screen shot. :p




Some furniture I recently added in, with some rotation sprites. That's where all the time comes from when making graphics. If you track rotation, you're probably doing around five images for still objects, and 40-60 for each individual monster.


8
Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Bonus spell feats
« on: January 11, 2019, 08:26:06 PM »
What are everyone's thoughts on the following two feats:


Minor Magic [General]
Benefit: You may cast Detect Magic at will as a spell-like ability. In addition, pick a 0-level spell from the Cleric, Druid, or Sorcerer/Wizard spell list. You may use it as a spell-like ability. If it is a damage-dealing spell*, you may cast it at will, otherwise you may use it three times per day.
   If the spell you picked was off the Cleric or Druid list, any saving throw DCs are Wisdom-based. Otherwise, choose if you want to use Intelligence or Charisma for the saving throw DCs. Once made, you cannot change this.

Magical Study [General]
Prerequisite:
Minor Magic.
Benefit: Pick one spell from the Cleric, Druid, or Sorcerer/Wizard spell list. The spell level cannot be higher than one half your level round up. You may use this spell as a spell-like ability once per day. The spell you choose must come from the same spell list as the spell you chose for Minor Magic. Use the same ability score for DCs as the one you selected for Minor Magic.
   You must provide any expensive material components and pay any XP costs of spells, as though you cast them.
Special: You may take this feat more than once. Each time you do, you either gain a new spell from the same spell list or you gain another daily use of a spell you already selected.


(* I had elsewhere defined this as Acid Splash, Disrupt Undead, Electric Jolt, Launch Bolt, Ray of Frost, and Sonic Snap. I also have them dealing increased damage.)


Anyway, I took the inspiration from Martial Study. I don't have the hard limit of taking this just three times. It seems it could be a nice way to give non-casters something to play with. Obviously, it doesn't fix any issues with any broken spells. I'd considered putting in some restriction to limit how much full-casters can take this, but I haven't yet.

Do you think this would be a net improvement to the game? Do you see any abuses or issues? The only thing that jumps out at me as it's currently written is full casters could start cherry picking off of other lists.

9
Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Some class improvements
« on: December 08, 2018, 02:46:33 PM »
I was working on some improvement to some base classes that I thought could be spruced up.


Paladin

Spells: The paladin can prepare and cast divine spells off the paladin spell list. She can prepare a number of spells per day the same as a bard of equal level. Bonus spell slots, spell DCs, and the highest level of spell the paladin can cast is based on her Charisma score. Her caster level is equal to her class level.
Spell List: Add the following spells to the paladin’s spell list. Spells marked with an (*) have their level changed.
  • 0 level: Create Water*, Cure Light Wounds*, Detect Magic*, Detect Poison*, Read Magic*, Virtue*
  • 1st level: Cure Moderate Wounds*, Remove Fear
  • 2nd level: Calm Emotions, Cure Serious Wounds*, Lesser Restoration*, Remove Disease
  • 3rd level: Cure Critical Wounds, Dimensional Anchor, Dismissal, Protection from Energy, Restoration*
  • 4th level: Mass Cure Light Wounds, Stoneskin
  • 5th level: Atonement, Commune, Greater Dispel Magic, Greater Restoration, Heal, Mass Bull’s Strength, Mass Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass Eagle’s Splendor, Plane Shift, Righteous Might, Spell Resistance, True Seeing
  • 6th level: Antimagic Field, Banishment, Blade Barrier, Dictum, Forbiddance, Holy Word, Mass Cure Serious Wounds, Regenerate, Undeath to Death, Word of Recall
Smite Evil: At 1st level, the paladin may make a powerful melee attack against an evil foe. She must declare the smite as a swift action. The next melee attack she makes this round gains a bonus to hit equal to her Charisma bonus (minimum 1) and adds an amount of damage equal to double her class level. This bonus only applies against evil targets. If she accidentally smites a non-evil foe, the smite is resolved as a normal melee attack.
   The paladin may smite one time per day, although she gains additional daily uses as she gains levels. If her attack misses or she targets a non-evil foe, she does not spend a daily use, although the swift action to declare the smite is still spent.
   The paladin may make an extra smite beyond her daily limit by spending a Turn Undead attempt. A missed smite or a smite against a non-evil foe does not use up a Turn Undead attempt.
Lay on Hands: At 2nd level, a Paladin may spontaneously convert any prepared spell to a “cure” or “remove” spell of lesser or equal level. This happens as a free action at the time of casting the spell.
   The paladin may also cast a “cure” or “remove” spell as a swift action a number of times per day equal to her Charisma bonus (minimum of 1). She may use this ability while spontaneously converting a spell.
Remove Disease: Remove this ability, as the paladin can cast it more often.

Notes: Bard spellcasting gives them magical abilities to use out of the gate. The lowered level on the Cure spells (and some others) is to keep them more level appropriate. Yes, this could be further abused by the Archivist (and maybe Warlock), but I'm not nerfing this class because of some poorly-worded features in another class. The Lay on Hands change was to make healing worthwhile in combat, which seems a good fit for the class. Smite should be a bit more useful now, too.

I didn't add non-core spells to the list, which is mostly laziness on my part.



Sorcerer

Bonus Feats: At 1st level, gain either Eschew Materials or a [heritage] feat as a bonus feat. At 5th level and every five levels thereafter, gain a bonus [metamagic] feat, [item creation] feat, or [heritage] feat as a bonus feat.
Spells: Use the following tables for spells per day and spells known:
Spells per day:
Level 0   1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th
_____________________________________________
1     5   3   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
2     6   4   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
3     6   5   3   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
4     6   6   4   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
5     6   6   5   3   -   -   -   -   -   -
6     6   6   6   4   -   -   -   -   -   -
7     6   6   6   5   3   -   -   -   -   -
8     6   6   6   6   4   -   -   -   -   -
9     6   6   6   6   5   3   -   -   -   -
10    6   6   6   6   6   4   -   -   -   -
11    6   6   6   6   6   5   3   -   -   -
12    6   6   6   6   6   6   4   -   -   -
13    6   6   6   6   6   6   5   3   -   -
14    6   6   6   6   6   6   6   4   -   -
15    6   6   6   6   6   6   6   5   3   -
16    6   6   6   6   6   6   6   6   4   -
17    6   6   6   6   6   6   6   6   5   3
18    6   6   6   6   6   6   6   6   6   4
19    6   6   6   6   6   6   6   6   6   5
20    6   6   6   6   6   6   6   6   6   6

Spells known:
Level 0   1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th
_____________________________________________
1     5   3   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
2     5   4   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
3     5   4   2   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
4     6   4   3   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
5     6   5   3   2   -   -   -   -   -   -
6     7   5   3   3   -   -   -   -   -   -
7     7   6   4   3   2   -   -   -   -   -
8     8   6   4   3   3   -   -   -   -   -
9     8   6   4   4   3   2   -   -   -   -
10    9   6   5   4   3   3   -   -   -   -
11    9   6   5   4   4   3   2   -   -   -
12    9   6   5   5   4   3   3   -   -   -
13    9   6   6   5   4   4   3   2   -   -
14    9   6   6   5   5   4   3   3   -   -
15    9   6   6   5   5   4   4   3   2   -
16    9   6   6   5   5   5   4   3   3   -
17    9   6   6   5   5   5   4   4   3   2
18    9   6   6   5   5   5   4   4   3   3
19    9   6   6   5   5   5   4   4   4   3
20    9   6   6   5   5   5   4   4   4   4


Notes: Basically, I'm getting them new spells on odd levels instead of even levels, and starting them with a bit more spells known on a new level. The bonus feats are there mainly to match the wizard. You'll still almost certainly PrC out of this class.

I would use this progression for the Beguiler, Dread Necromancer, and War Mage.



Dread Necromancer (HoH)

Spells Per Day: Use the sorcerer Spells Per Day table listed above.
Spell List: Add the following spells to the dread necromancer’s list of spells known. Any spell marked with an (*) has a changed level.
  • 0 level: Acid Splash, Cure Minor Wounds, Detect Magic*, Detect Poison, Inflict Minor Wounds, Touch of Fatigue, Virtue
  • 1st level: Cure Light Wounds
  • 2nd level: Cure Moderate Wounds
  • 3rd level: Animate Dead*, Cure Serious Wounds, Dispel Magic*, Stinking Cloud
  • 4th level: Cure Critical Wounds
  • 5th level: Mass Cure Light Wounds
  • 6th level: Mass Cure Moderate Wounds
  • 7th level: Mass Cure Serious Wounds
  • 8th level: Mass Cure Critical Wounds
Charnel Touch: Increase damage to 1d6 per odd class level. When healing undead, Charnel Touch heals one point per odd level.

Notes: This isn't a bad class. I just would be fine with it healing, and I feel Charnel Touch scales poorly. I dropped Animate Dead to 3rd level, when a Cleric gets it, and added Stinking Cloud, because the class normally gets Cloudkill and Acid Fog.



Hexblade (CW)

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Add proficiency with medium armor. A hexblade may also cast spells in medium armor without suffering arcane spell failure.
Spells Known: A hexblade knows as many spells as a Bard of equal level.
Spells Per Day: A hexblade has the same spells per day as a Bard of equal level.
Spell List: Add the following spells to the hexblade’s spell list. Any spell marked with an (*) has a changed level.
  • Level 0: Arcane Mark*, Dancing Lights, Daze, Detect magic*, Ghost Sound, Light*, Prestidigitation*, Read Magic*, Touch of Fatigue
  • Level 3: Bestow Curse
  • Level 5: Baleful Polymorph*, Break Enchantment*, Cloudkill, Contact Other Plane*, Dominate Person*, Feeblemind, Mind Fog, Nightmare, Symbol of Pain, Symbol of Sleep, Waves of Fatigue
  • Level 6: Acid Fog, Antimagic Field, Circle of Death, Eyebite, Flesh to Stone, Greater Dispel Magic, Mass Suggestion, Mislead, Repulsion, Symbol of Fear, True Seeing
Hexblade’s Curse: Now takes a swift action to use. You gain a number of additional daily uses equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum zero). At 8th level, you may affect a number of targets equal to your Charisma bonus (minimum 1), so long as they are all within 30 feet of each other.

Notes: Really, I'm relying on extra casting to help fill in some gaps, and to make the signature curse a little more useful.



Scout (CAd)

Skirmish: Increase damage boost to 1d6 per odd level. Increase the AC boost to +1 per even level. This bonus also applied to Reflex saves. These bonuses last until the start of the scout’s next turn.
Blindsense: At 4th level, the scout gains blindsense with a radius of five feet per class level.
Stealth: At 4th level, the scout can cast Invisibility and Silence as a spell-like ability, each once per day. Her caster level is equal to her class level. The saving throw is Wisdom-based.
Climbing: At 6th level, the scout gains a climb speed equal to her land speed.
Blindsight: At 7th level, the scout gains blindsight with a radius of five feet per two class levels.
Improved Stealth: At 8th level, the scout may use Air Walk and Greater Invisibility as a spell-like ability, each once per day. Her caster level is equal to her class level.
Freedom of Movement: At 9th level, the scout can gain the benefits of Freedom of Movement for one round as a swift action. She may use this a number of rounds per day equal to her class level.
True Sight: At 10th level, the scout gains the effects of True Seeing with a radius of five feet per two class levels. As a move action, she may extend the range to 120 feet for one round.
Plane Shift: At 12th level, the scout may use Plane Shift as a spell-like ability once per day. Her caster level is equal to her class level. The saving throw is Wisdom-based.

Notes: I still feel it's lacking truly high level stuff, but this should get you into double digits nicely.



Swordsage (ToB)

Base Attack Bonus: Increase to full progression (+1/level, as Fighter).
Maneuver Recovery: All maneuvers are recovered for a full-round action.
Armor Class Bonus: The Wisdom bonus is applied to AC in light or no armor.

Notes: Nothing big here, although I also advocate for halving the level on all stances, and creating new 5th - 8th level stances. I may post those elsewhere...



Warlock (CAr)

Invocations Known: Increase to 2 at 1st level, +1 each level thereafter.
Eldritch Blast: Increase damage to 1d6 each level not divisible by 3. So it would be 1d6 at 1st, 2d6 at 2nd, 3d6 at 4th, 4d6 at 5th, 5d6 at 7th, etc…
Bonus Eldritch Invocations: At 3rd level and every three levels thereafter, the warlock learns a new Eldritch Essence or Blast Shape invocation.


Notes: See next post for modified and new invocations.


Warmage (CAr)

Hit Dice: Increase to d8.
Base Attack Bonus: Increase to medium progression (+3/4 levels, as Cleric).
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Add proficiency with one martial weapon.
Spells: Use Intelligence instead of Charisma to determine the highest level of spell the warmage can cast, bonus spell slots, and the DC for his spells.
Spells Per Day: Use the Sorcerer Spells Per Day table listed above.
Warmage Edge: Increase the bonus damage to the warmage’s Intelligence bonus (minimum 1 point) + 2 points for each spell level beyond 1st.
Advanced Learning: Gained at 2nd level and every even level thereafter. The warmage may select any one Wizard spell from the Abjuration, Conjuration, or Evocation schools. The spell cannot be a higher level than the warmage can cast.

Notes: This makes it a bit more gish-like, which I feel makes sense, and makes it more viable at low level. The class is somewhat less MAD. Advanced Learning is beefed up to help with the mediocre spell list.



Let me know what you think. I may add more later, as I work on them.

10
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / 2E multiclassing in 3E
« on: November 27, 2018, 02:18:46 PM »
We all are aware of the problems of 3E multiclassing. I was thinking back to 2E, which seemed to give you a more genuine trade off.

In 2E you'd pick two classes and start out as level 1 in each. For things like Hit Dice, you'd roll HP and divide by 2 for each class. Back then, different classes advanced at different rates, and you had to track XP separately, but that wouldn't strictly be necessary for the concept to work. Because of the XP progression tables of 2E, it took double the XP for each subsequent level. Because your XP was being split between two classes, this effectively meant you were about a level behind everyone else. So, if the group was level 5, your Fighter/Cleric would probably be around 4/4.

That honestly didn't seem too bad. I'm not saying it's perfect, but you'd be advancing both classes at the same time, rather than one level at a time in 3E. The closest 3E got to this was classes like the Mystic Theruge, which was too little, too late. But, what if I took that basis and tried to make a PrC where you could stay just one level behind. This is a bit of a working prototype:

(Note: I was thinking this out with vanilla 3.5 rules, not Tome classes.)





Multi-class (Or, insert better name, here)

Prerequisites: At least one level in two different base classes.

Hit Die: An "average" of the two base classes. Add the number of faces on each die, divide by two, and round down to the nearest die type. So, a d10 and d4 = 10 + 4 = 14, divide by 2 = 7, round down to d6.

Base Attack Bonus: An average of the two base classes. I could write up a 7/8 and 5/8 progression table if needed, or we could round down to the existing three 1/1, 3/4, and 1/2 progressions. Personally, I'd prefer the first approach.

Saving Throws: Each saving throw is an average of the two base classes. Again, we could come up with an intermediate progression that is an average of the good and poor progressions. *

Skill Points: Get an average of the two classes. All skills from both classes are class skills.

Weapon/Armor Proficiencies: Nothing new gained.

Class Features: Each level, you gain all the class features of both base classes as though you'd gained a level in each.


* Also, I know every base class and PrC gives out that +2 bonus to every good save at level 1. If we wanted to pretend that this PrC wasn't actually a separate class, we could forego that bonus. I'm not heavily set on either approach.





So, how well would this work in practice? It's simple, and relatively easy to implement. I'm curious how abusable this is. The obvious benchmark is casters. They're what make the world go round. Doing this would cost you a caster level, which means you'd be behind in your highest level of spell available half the time, and half the time you wouldn't be.

The direct comparison would be the Mystic Theruge. At level 12, you'd be a Wizard 11/Cleric 11, which is pretty damn solid. That's a lot of spell slots, although, a Wizard 12 or Cleric 12 has quite a few by that point, too. Compared to the Mystic Theruge at level 12 would be casting at 9/9. That's clearly too weak, but is 11/11 too much? Probably your biggest gain would be at levels 3 through maybe 5 or 7. You'd get a lot of extra spell slots relative to what you'd normally have at that level straight-classed.

Similarly, you could take some martial class to beef up your chassis a bit at the cost of a caster level. You're probably better off just straight-classing.

Classes like Rogue could be thrown in for lots of Sneak Attack progression. I'm sure you could figure out ways to cheese it and get some pretty good damage progressions with touch spells. Still, I'm not sure it's that much worse than a straight caster.

Regarding martial classes, you could throw Rogue in and it'd be almost a straight-up improvement, at a slight cost to HP and BAB. I don't see this as a problem, as those classes get worse and worst as you gain levels, anyway.


Is there anything I'm missing? Obviously, some combinations fare better than others. Does this break the game terribly, or is it still the same Mystic Theruge problem, but just less so? I'd made something like this a while ago that required more sacrifice of class levels, but I wanted to try this 1/1 entry to see if mimicking a 2E multiclassing system was viable.

11
Off Topic Fun / My big adventure
« on: August 03, 2018, 02:02:07 PM »
I never post here anymore other than the PbP and Homebrew sections, but I figured I'd fill any of you old-timers in on my upcoming massive life changes:


Back a year-and-a-half ago (very early November 9 to be precise), my wife decided she wanted to move to Canada. I was pretty hesitant for a while, but ultimately came to agree with her. Over the last year or so, we've been taking steps to get our permanent residency set up in Canada, and for her to get a teaching job lined up. Well, it's finally happening!

When: It looks like we're targeting moving on August 18. There are a few things we have to get pinned down, but that's the current plan.

Where: We'll be moving up to a reservation in rural Ontario. It's a small community that makes its money from its tourism fishing industry. It's a small enough place that they don't have a store, so we'll have to drive (quite!) a ways to do any shopping. Still, they have an air strip for easier travel or having things shipped. Also, despite not having a store, they have an ice arena, because Canada. They also have a pretty new water treatment plant, which will be nice. One of the other reservations we looked at has to have water shipped in (think those big water coolers you see in offices).

My wife's job: She has been teaching for 13 or 14 years, but got sick of doing it in Michigan (see Betsy Devos and Michigan's right to work act). In Canada, people want to teach to the point where new teachers often have to start substitute teaching. She looked into the Teach for Canada program, and wanted to teach at a reservation for a while. It's the type of adventure she wanted to go on, that will only get harder the more settled we get. She will be teaching in a school of only 50 kids, and will be the 1st through 4th grade teacher.

My job: I've been doing web development for a freight company. I was originally planning to do this same job remotely, but it's gotten more difficult, and I just found out last week I'll have to start my own LLC to contract myself out across the border, and... I just don't feel like learning all of that. Once we get settled in, there, I'll look for a job at a Canadian company that is open to remote employment (which I hear is common).

Our kids: My two girls are 9 and 6. The older daughter is much more apprehensive about the move and about leaving her friends. The younger one seems less upset about it, and keeps asking when we're moving. The two of them are definitely being affected by stress, and I'm trying to be mindful of that when I can be. We were looking at the curriculum of the school, and part of it includes dressing a moose and gutting a fish (life skills, up there!). My older daughter is pretty squicked out by the idea, but the younger one is morbidly curious.

Our cats: The cats can come, and they don't have to be quarantined! It turns out there isn't so much of a hassle as we expected. We'll probably have to leave our expensive, one-year-old mattress behind, because apparently that's a pain to move. At least our family will be intact!

The house: That thing sold super fast. We certainly picked a good time to sell our house and rent. Within 30 hours of listing, we had eleven showings and five offers. The best one came in notably above our asking price. We'll be staying at a furnished place right across from the school, and the rent is stupidly cheap. Also, I'll have better internet in the middle of the woods than I have in the city, here, because Canada. Yay subsidized infrastructure!

All the incidentals: My wife is currently in Canada training. I have to pick her up this weekend. We each drive old Hondas, and we're going to have to find a truck of SUV with four-wheel drive. The current plan is to buy one across the border so we don't have to import it when we move. Since the place we're buying is furnished, we'll be selling a lot of our old, used furniture right before we go. We're only keeping the stuff we care about (like the table we made last year, and the chairs from her great grandmother). My parents offered to come up and help us move, so we're hoping to get all of our stuff up that way. We still have a lot of annoying things to do, like get new cell phones and set up a bank account. Still, this is all moving quite quickly!

12
Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Oneiromancer (3.5) - a dream mage
« on: October 29, 2017, 01:24:16 PM »
Note: this class was made based on the cosmology I'm using for my campaign. One of the planes is the plane of dreams, which is known for having both time and space being very fluid. Because of this, the plane is especially suited for divination and teleportation magic. The plane also has a bunch of aberrations living on it. Teleporting more than a few hundred feet risks a chance of encountering one on the way to the destination, and any divination spell with a range greater than long needs to be cast from this plane to work.

That being said, I created this class to be a sort of dream/divination/teleportation/time mage. It will fulfill a role of a rogue/specialist caster.


Oneiromancer

“I told you that would happen.”

(click to show/hide)

An oneiromancer is an arcane caster who focuses on magic from the dream plain; mainly divination, teleportation, and dream magic. He is gifted at seeing a moment into the future and stepping briefly back in time to avoid calamity. His foresight makes him capable of dealing well-placed strikes and generally being in the right place at the right time.

The Oneiromancer   Hit Die: d8
Level  BAB  Fort  Ref  Will  Special
            Save  Save Save

________________________________________________________________________________
1      +0   +0    +2   +2    Focus, anticipation
2      +1   +0    +3   +3    Sneak attack +1d6, focused precision
3      +2   +1    +3   +3    Evasion, perform under pressure
4      +3   +1    +4   +4    Hop back
5      +3   +1    +4   +4    Improved meditation, uncanny dodge
6      +4   +2    +5   +5    Sneak attack +2d6, short hop
7      +5   +2    +5   +5    Glimpse of madness, penetrating perception
8      +6   +2    +6   +6    Improved focused precision, distant divinations
9      +6   +3    +6   +6    Improved uncanny dodge, improved short hop
10     +7   +3    +7   +7    Sneak attack +3d6, improved perform under pressure
11     +8   +3    +7   +7    Improved evasion
12     +9   +4    +8   +8    Improved teleportation
13     +9   +4    +8   +8    Improved hop back
14     +10  +4    +9   +9    Sneak attack +4d6
15     +11  +5    +9   +9    Improved distant divinations
16     +12  +5    +10  +10   Hijack teleportation
17     +12  +5    +10  +10   Supreme evasion
18     +13  +6    +11  +11   Sneak attack +5d6
19     +14  +6    +11  +11   Supreme short hop
20     +15  +6    +12  +12   Glimpse of the future
________________________________________________________________________________

Skill Points: 4 + Int modifier per level, x4 at 1st level.
Class Skills: Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Any)(Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).

Class Features
Your class features focus on dreams, meditation, and the manipulation of space and time.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Oneiromancers are proficient with simple weapons, but not with armor or shields.

Spells: The oneiromancer is able to cast magical spells. At 1st level, he learns all 0-level spells on his spell list, and learns new spells of other levels based on the table below. Upon reaching 2nd level, and every level after that, the oneiromancer can choose to learn a new spell in place of one he already knows. In effect, he "loses" the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged. He may swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that he gains new spells known for the level. To cast a spell, the oneiromancer needs to have a Wisdom score of 10 + the spell's level. The Difficulty Class of any spell cast by his is 10 + the spell's level + his Wisdom modifier.
   The oneiromancer does not prepare spells from slots like many other casters. Instead, he uses his internal focus (see below) to harness his magical abilities. This means that he cannot prepare or spontaneously cast spells with metamagic feats by using a higher spell slot.
   So long as he has at least one point of focus, he can cast a 0-level spell for free. he may cast his highest two levels  of spells known for two points of focus, and all other spells for one point. For example: a 7th level oneiromancer would cast his 3rd and 4th level spells for two points of focus, his 1st and 2nd spells for one point, and his 0-level spells for free.

Spells known:
Level  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9
_________________________________________
1      6   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
2      7   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
3      7   5   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
4      8   6   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
5      8   6   5   -   -   -   -   -   -
6      8   7   6   -   -   -   -   -   -
7      9   7   6   5   -   -   -   -   -
8      9   8   7   6   -   -   -   -   -
9      9   8   7   6   5   -   -   -   -
10     10  8   8   7   6   -   -   -   -
11     10  9   8   7   6   4   -   -   -
12     10  9   8   8   7   5   -   -   -
13     10  9   9   8   7   5   4   -   -
14     10  10  9   8   8   5   5   -   -
15     10  10  9   9   8   6   5   4   -
16     10  10  10  9   8   6   5   5   -
17     10  10  10  9   9   6   6   5   4
18     10  10  10  10  9   7   6   5   5
19     10  10  10  10  9   7   6   6   5
20     10  10  10  10  10  7   7   6   6
_________________________________________


Focus (Ex): An oneiromancer gains a number of points of focus equal to one third his level, plus his Wisdom bonus (minimum 1), plus two. He may attempt to regain a point of focus by making a DC 15 Concentration check as a full-round action. He gains one extra point of focus for each 5 points he exceeds the DC. He may alternately attempt a DC 20 Concentration check as a move action.
   Note that he may not regain focus when stopping time, such as with Temporal Acceleration or Time Stop.

Anticipation (Ex): So long as the oneiromancer has at least one point of focus, he can see a fraction of a second into the future. Because of this, he adds his Wisdom bonus (if any) as an insight bonus to his Armor Class. Every three levels, his insight bonus to AC increases by +1.
   He does not add this bonus any time he is immobilized or helpless. he loses this benefit any time he is wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying more than a light load.

Sneak Attack (Ex): At 2nd level, the oneiromancer's ability to see slightly into the future improves, allowing his to exploit openings in combat. He gains the ability to use sneak attack as a rogue (PHB 50), albeit at a slower progression.

Focused Precision (Ex): At 2nd level, the oneiromancer may spend a point of focus as a swift action. If so, the next opponent he strikes this round is denied their Dexterity bonus to Armor Class against his first attack.

Evasion (Ex): At 3rd level, so long as the oneiromancer has at least one point of focus, he gains the benefits of Evasion (PHB 50).

Perform Under Pressure (Ex): At 3rd level, the oneiromancer may spend a point of focus as an immediate action to take 10 on a skill check, even when he would not normally be able to. In addition, he gains a +2 competence bonus to the check.

Hop Back (Su): At 4th level the oneiromancer may spend a point of focus as a swift action to teleport to any square he was in this round or the last. He may not teleport to a square further away than Close range (25' + 5'/2 levels). This is a [teleportation] effect and does not require line of effect to his new location.

Improved Meditation (Ex): At 5th level,  the oneiromancer becomes better at traveling to Oneirus through meditation. He does not need to make a Wisdom check each hour to be able to wake up; he is always aware his mind is in Oneirus. Anyone meditating with the oneiromancer may also wake up at will, so long as they are within 30 feet of him in Oneirus and can communicate with him.
   If his mind is killed in Oneirus while meditating, he may immediately attempt a DC 20 Will save to wake up, avoiding having his body die and his mind become trapped.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 5th level, so long as the oneiromancer has at least one point of focus, he gains the benefits of Uncanny Dodge (PHB 50).

Short Hop (Su): At 6th level, the oneiromancer may spend a point of focus to teleport to any location within Close range, as a standard action. This is a [teleportation] effect and does not require line of effect to his new location.

Glimpse of Madness (Ex): At 7th level, the oneiromancer no longer gains madness for spending time on Oneirus. In addition, any time he makes a Will save to avoid gaining madness, he gains a +4 bonus to the saving throw.

Penetrating Perception (Su): At 7th level, for a point of focus, the oneiromancer may make a Perception check as a full-round action to observe things past solid barriers. It costs one point of focus per round. This ability is blocked by any material and thickness that would block Detect Evil (PHB 218).

Improved Focused Precision (Ex): At 8th level, the oneiromancer's Focused Precision ability applied to all attacks he makes this round.

Distant Divinations (Ex): At 8th level, the range of the oneiromancer's Divination spells increase. Any spell with a range category (Close, Medium, or Long) increases up to the next category. A range that was originally Long increases to one mile per level. All other numeric ranges double. In addition, any Divination with a cone-shaped area becomes an emanation centered on the caster.

Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 9th level, so long as the oneiromancer has at least one point of focus, he gains the benefits of Improved Uncanny Dodge (PHB 50).

Improved Short Hop (Su): At 9th level, the oneiromancer may use his Short Hop ability as a move action. Alternately, he may teleport to any location up to Medium range (100' + 10'/level) as a standard action.

Improved Perform Under Pressure (Ex): At 10th level, the oneiromancer may use his Perform Under Pressure ability for saving throws as well as skill checks.

Improved Evasion (Ex): At 11th level, so long as the oneiromancer has at least one point of focus, he gains the benefits of Improved Evasion (PHB 51).

Improved Teleportation (Ex): At 12th level, the oneiromancer becomes more skilled at teleporting. Any time he rolls a percentage chance to see if he is on target or if he encounters an aberration, he may roll twice and take either result.

Improved Hop Back (Su): At 13th level, when the oneiromancer uses his Hop Back ability, he may teleport to a square up Medium range away.

Improved Distant Divinations (Ex): At 15th level, the range of the oneiromancer's Divination spells increase even further. Each spell with a range category increases to the next category a second time, as described in Distant Divinations. A spell that's range was already increased to one mile per level is increased to one hundred miles per level. All other numeric ranges are multiplied by five, on top of the previous doubling (to ten times their original range).

Hijack Teleportation (Su): At 16th level, so long as the oneiromancer has at least one point of focus, he may affect the teleportation of others. He may direct any [teleportation] effect that starts or ends within Long range (400' + 40'/level) of himself to instead arrive at any location he chooses within Long range. Each affected creature may attempt a Will save (DC 10 + ½ the oneiromancer's level + his Wisdom modifier) to negate this effect. He must be aware of the teleportation to use this ability. This is a [teleportation] effect and does not require line of effect to the new location.

Supreme Evasion (Ex): At 17th level, whenever the oneiromancer makes a Reflex save to take half damage, he takes half damage on a natural 1 and no damage otherwise.

Supreme Short Hop (Su): At 19th level, when the oneiromancer uses his Short Hop ability, he may teleport to any location in Close range as a swift action, to Medium range as a move action, and to Long range as a standard action.

Glimpse of the Future (Ex): At 20th level, the oneiromancer and any allies within 30 feet gain an insight bonus to Initiative checks equal to his Wisdom bonus (if any).


Oneiromancer Spell List

(click to show/hide)

13
Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Berserker (3.5)
« on: August 24, 2017, 11:27:17 PM »
Berserker

"Honestly, I don't know how much of the blood is mine and how much is his."

(click to show/hide)

Berserkers are exceptionally tough combatants. They have mastered a fighting style that channels their fury and rage into well-directed attacks. Their inner strength allows them to stay standing while injured in ways that defy logic, and makes them capable of inhuman feats of strength. While many associated this style of fighting with primitive races and cultures, a good number of berserkers are trained in more advanced societies. Several armies are known for training berserkers specifically to be used as shock troopers.

The Berserker  Hit Die: d12
Level BAB             Fort Ref  Will  Special
                      Save Save Save

______________________________________________________________________
1     +1              +2   +0   +0    Fury, adrenaline surge, iron skin
2     +2              +3   +0   +0    Uncanny dodge, sprint, bombard
3     +3              +3   +1   +1    Demolish, vigor
4     +4              +4   +1   +1    Resilience, leap
5     +5              +4   +1   +1    Clout (15')
6     +6/+1           +5   +2   +2    Improved uncanny dodge, haste
7     +7/+2           +5   +2   +2    Break magic, burst
8     +8/+3           +6   +2   +2    Shout, my love for you is like a truck berserker!
9     +9/+4           +6   +3   +3    Never stop, second chance
10    +10/+5          +7   +3   +3    Clout (30'), haste (continued)
11    +11/+6/+1       +7   +3   +3    Bone breaker
12    +12/+7/+2       +8   +4   +4    Shake it off
13    +13/+8/+3       +8   +4   +4    Just a flesh wound
14    +14/+9/+4       +9   +4   +4    Foresight
15    +15/+10/+5      +9   +5   +5    Clout (45')
16    +16/+11/+6/+1   +10  +5   +5    Focused rage
17    +17/+12/+7/+2   +10  +5   +5    Back on your feet
18    +18/+13/+8/+3   +11  +6   +6    Tireless rage
19    +19/+14/+9/+4   +11  +6   +6    Vorpal strike
20    +20/+15/+10/+5  +12  +6   +6    Tenacity, clout (60')
______________________________________________________________________


Skill Points: 4 + Int modifier per level, x4 at 1st level.
Class Skills: As Barbarian.

Class Features
Your class features focus on combat and channeling your fury.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Berserkers are proficient with simple and martial weapons, as well as light armor, medium armor, and shields (but not tower shields).

Fury (Ex): A berserker is able to fly into a rage, channeling his fury into raw power. Any time the berserker deals damage (to a creature or an object), he may gain a point of fury. He may only gain one point per attack. If he takes damage (lethal or nonlethal, but excluding damage from thirst, starvation, suffocation, or similar threats), he must succeed at a Will save (DC 15) or gain a point of fury. He may voluntarily fail this saving throw if he wants to gain fury. The first time the berserker gains fury (starting from zero points), he gains three points. Each gain thereafter is only one point.
   Once the berserker has at least one point of fury, he enters a state of rage. Upon entering the rage, he gains a number of temporary Hit Points equal to double his level. These temporary Hit Points are lost when his rage ends. During this time, he gains a +4 rage bonus to Strength, a +2 rage bonus to Fortitude and Will saves, but suffers a -2 penalty to Armor Class. Each round, at the beginning of his turn, he loses one point of fury. If he is fatigued, he loses two points at the beginning of his turn, and three points if he is exhausted. If at any point he has zero points of fury, his rage ends, and he becomes fatigued for five minutes. He may not gain fury during this time. Even if he keeps his fury total above zero, his rage cannot last longer than one minute per point of his Constitution bonus (minimum one). At this time, he loses all fury and becomes fatigued as normal.
   A berserker may have a maximum number of fury points at any time equal to his Constitution bonus (minimum one) plus one quarter his level (round down), to a total minimum of three points. In addition, when the berserker gains levels, he gains new abilities to use during his rage. Some of these are passive, working so long as he has fury. Some are activated by spending points of fury.
   Note that a berserker does not gain fury by making an attack that uses fury, such as Demolish. He may gain fury from attacks made while under the effects of abilities powered by fury, such as Haste.

Adrenaline surge (Ex): At 1st level, the berserker may spend a point of fury as a swift action to heal an amount of damage equal to double his level. In addition, he gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength until the beginning of his next turn. This bonus increases to +6 at 6th level, +8 at 12th, and +10 at 18th.
   For two points of fury, the berserker may use this ability as an immediate action.

Iron Skin (Ex):  At 1st level, if the berserker has at least one point of fury, he gains a +4 Armor bonus to his Armor Class. This bonus increases by 1 point every even level.
   Regardless of if he has any fury, he may get tattoos of magical ink to enchant his skin as though he were enchanting magic armor. The costs and abilities are identical to the costs of enchanting armor normally. The bonuses function with or without fury, but do not function if he is wearing any armor.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex):  At 2nd level, the berserker gains Uncanny Dodge as a Barbarian (PHB 26).

Sprint (Ex):  At 2nd level, the berserker may spend a point of fury as a full-round action to run at incredible speeds. He may move up to five times his base land speed, but he is not limited to running only in a straight line. He may change direction by up to 90 degrees every 20 feet. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity nor cause him to lose his Dexterity bonus to Armor Class. He also gains a +4 bonus to Reflex saves and a +10 bonus to Jump checks until the beginning of his next turn.

Bombard(Ex):  At 2nd level, the berserker may spend a point of fury as a standard action to throw a creature or object that weighs less than or equal to his light load. The thrown object or creature is treated as a thrown ranged weapon with a range increment of 30 feet, and deals 1d6 points of damage per 25 pounds (maximum 1d6 per level), plus his Strength modifier. Both the target and the creature or object thrown take this damage. Soft objects (such as a bag of flour) deal nonlethal damage.
   To throw a creature, the berserker must already be successfully grappling it.

Demolish (Ex):  At 3rd level, the berserker may spend a point of fury as a standard action to make a single powerful melee attack. The attack deals an extra 1d6 points of damage per level and ignores damage reduction and hardness.

Vigor (Ex):  At 3rd level, the so long as the berserker has at least one point of fury, he heals one Hit Point per two levels per round. He also heals one point of ability damage to each ability score per round.

Resilience (Ex):  At 4th level, if the berserker has at least one point of fury, he gains damage reduction X/-, where X is 1/3 his level.

Leap (Ex):  At 4th level, the berserker lessens any falling damage he takes by an amount equal to his damage reduction per damage die. He may also spend a point of fury as a move-action to jump a distance of up to his base land speed. He may instead use a full-round action to jump up to double his land speed. If he does, he may make a charge attack at the end of his movement. 
   At 6th level, this ability no longer costs fury, but he must have at least one point to use it. The berserker may also use this ability to jump off of walls or other surfaces that could support his weight. He may end his turn on such a surface. On his next turn, he must jump again to continue his movement, or he falls.
   At 9th level, the berserker may make leaps that last longer than one round. Each round, he travels at four times his base land speed in a straight line or downward arc. He may jump for a number of consecutive rounds equal to one third his level. He may make a single charge attack each round at any point along the movement.

Clout (Ex): At 5th level, the berserker may spend a point of fury as a standard action to make a single, powerful melee attack. If the attack hits the target, all creatures in a 15-foot cone directly behind the target take damage equal to half the amount the primary target took.
   All affected creatures must make a Reflex save (DC 10 + ½ the berserker's level + his Strength modifier) or fall prone. Any of the secondary creatures affected in the cone take half damage if their save is successful. Creatures with the stability trait may apply its bonus to this save.
   The cone extends to 30 feet at 10th level, 45 feet at 15th level, and 60 feet at 20th.

Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 6th level, the berserker gains Improved Uncanny Dodge as a Barbarian (PHB 26).

Haste (Ex):  At 6th level, as a swift action, the berserker may spend a point of fury to gain the effects of Haste (PHB 239) for one round.
   At 10th level, the berserker may choose to extend the duration to one round per level, or until his rage end, whichever comes first.

Break Magic (Su): At 7th level, the berserker may spend a point of fury as a standard action to make a single attack. If the attack strikes the target, it is affected by a targeted version of Greater Dispel Magic (PHB 223). The attack does not need to deal damage for this ability to work. The berserker uses his class level for the caster level check.

Burst (Ex):  At 7th level, the berserker may spend a point of fury as a swift action to gain a +10 rage bonus on checks and saving throws to escape a grapple, being entangled, or similar effects. This ability lasts until the start of his next turn.

Shout (Ex): At 8th level, the berserker may spend a point of fury as a standard action to let out a terrifying shout. All opponents within 30 feet must make a Will save (DC 10 + ½ the berserker's level + his Charisma modifier) or be shaken for one round per level. All opponents with 4 or fewer Hit Dice than the berserker are frightened for the first round. This is a [fear] effect.

My Love for You is Like a Truck, Berserker! (Ex): At 8th level, if an ally is the target of an attack, spell, or ability, the berserker may place himself in harm's way, making himself the target. As an immediate action, he may move up to his base land speed, so long as he would end adjacent to the ally, in a square that is a valid target for the effect he is intercepting. For example: if he is attempting to take a melee attack for his ally, he must end within one of the attacking creature's threatening squares. If he is already in a valid square when he uses this ability, he does not need to move for it to work.
   Using this ability uses the berserker's move-action for the next round, instead of his swift action. This ability may only be used once per round, even if the berserker has an extra immediate action.
   If the ability affects an area rather than individual targets, the original target gains a +4 cover bonus to its Armor Class, saving throws, and other d20 rolls against the effect.
   Note that the berserker may choose whom he considers an ally when using this effect, such as innocent bystanders, or even an object he is guarding.

Never Stop (Ex):  At 9th level, the berserker may spend a point of fury as a free action to gain another swift or immediate action for their turn. This new action must be spent on an ability that costs rage to use.
   The berserker may use this ability when it is not his turn when gaining an immediate action.

Second Chance (Ex):  At 9th level, the berserker may spend a point of fury to reroll a save as an immediate action. He may decide to use this ability after he finds out if his initial save succeed or not, but if used, he must accept the result of the second roll. This ability can only be used once per saving throw made, although it can be used more than once per round on different saves if the berserker has sufficient immediate actions to spend.

Bone Breaker (Ex):  At 11th level, the berserker may spend a point of fury to make a bone-breaking attack as a standard action. The target must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ the berserker's level + his Strength modifier) or take 2d6 points of Constitution damage in addition to the normal damage. If the target takes Constitution damage, a bone is broken. The effects last until the Constitution damage is fully healed. Pick the type of injury at the time of making the attack:
  • Head – Target has a -4 penalty to Will saves and Perception checks.
  • Ribs  – Target has a -4 penalty to Fortitude saves and any skill check that is affected by Armor Check Penalty.
  • Arm  – Target cannot use the arm to attack, perform skills, or other actions. If all arms are broken, it cannot perform somatic gestures.
  • Leg  – Reduce target's land speed:
    • to ½ speed if fewer than half its legs are broken.
    • to 5' if at least half its legs (but not all legs) are broken.
    • to crawling only, if all of its legs are broken.
  • Wing  – Target cannot use its wings to fly.
If the target succeeds at their Fortitude save, the Constitution damage is halved, and they do not suffer any of the above-listed effects.
   Note that a creature must have bones for this ability to work on them. At the DM's discretion, creatures with bones that would normally be immune to ability damage may be affected by this ability.

Shake it Off (Ex): At 12th level, the berserker may spend a point of fury as a swift action to remove any one status condition from himself, so long as he is capable of acting. If he is nauseated, he may use this ability as a move-action.
   Conditions such as ability damaged, ability drained, and energy drained cannot be removed directly, but one individual negative level, or an amount of ability damage or drain to one ability equal to his class level can be removed. He may not use this ability to remove fatigue or exhaustion.
 
Just a Flesh Wound (Ex):  At 13th level, if the berserker has at least one point of fury, he converts one half  of the damage he takes (round down) to nonlethal damage. This ability does not work if he is immune to nonlethal damage.

Foresight (Ex):  At 14th level, the berserker adds his Wisdom bonus (minimum of 1) to Initiative rolls and Reflex saves.

Focused Rage (Ex):  At 16th level, if the berserker has at least one point of fury, he is immune to charms, compulsions, and fear.

Back on Your Feet (Ex):  At 17th level, if the berserker has at least one point of fury, if he becomes dead, unconscious, paralyzed, or petrified, he automatically recovers at the beginning of his next turn. He loses any and all of the above-listed conditions, and if he is below half his maximum Hit Points, he is healed to that amount.   He then immediately loses all of his fury and cannot regain fury this round. At the end of that turn, he is exhausted.
   This ability does not work if his body is wholly destroyed.

Tireless Rage (Ex):  At 18th level, the berserker may spend two points of fury a as a swift action to remove the fatigued condition from himself, or to lessen exhaustion to fatigue.

Vorpal Strike (Ex):  At 19th level, the berserker may spend three points of fury as a standard action to cut off his opponent's head. If the target fails a Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ the berserker's level + his Strength modifier), it dies. Targets without heads cannot be targeted by this ability, and targets that do not need their head to survive (such as trolls) are decapitated, but not killed.

Tenacity (Ex): This ability functions as Back on Your Feet, except instead of losing all fury, the berserker instead loses three points of fury. Tenacity may only be used once per round, even if the berserker has extra immediate actions.

14
Off Topic Fun / Letter swap game v8
« on: March 31, 2017, 08:34:35 AM »

15
Other Games / Paperback
« on: February 15, 2017, 08:48:00 AM »
I got my wife Paperback for her birthday. It's a combination of Dominion (the deck builder) and Scrabble. You basically spell bigger words to earn more for more letters (some with abilities) and victory cards (which are playable as wilds). For anyone who has played Dominion, it's quick to pick up.

Has anyone else tried it?

16
Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Tome of Battle rework
« on: November 29, 2016, 10:22:56 PM »
This is part of another project I've started that was born out of wanting to make some house rules that didn't obviate the majority of my books. The idea was to try and use as much of the published material as possible rather than rewriting it. This is largely done by making things come online earlier than normal.

The two probably biggest changes outside of this thread is that I plan on granting a feat every level, and I plan to largely do away with the prerequisites on feats. This thread is concerned with beefing up the Tome of Battle in a way that will hopefully let them operate side-by-side with casters. I think with something like two exceptions, I left the maneuvers as-is, but bumped many of them up one or more levels. Then, I added a bunch of new maneuvers to fill the gaps and grant some other abilities that I've found lacking in the ToB.

Also, to note: I've done away the notions of class skills. If you're worried about that, just use the ones printed in the books. I did make a mention of class skills in one of the Swordsage ACFs.

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Off Topic Fun / Letter swap game v7
« on: July 15, 2016, 03:27:41 PM »
stoners

+s

Since we're keeping this going.

nesters

o -> e

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Other Games / Splendor
« on: January 08, 2016, 07:18:14 AM »
Has anyone played Splendor? It's been out a while now, and I just played it over the holidays. I liked it enough to buy it.

What I really like about it is how simple it is to play and explain. There's not a lot of complexity to the game, but each turn, you still have meaningful choices to make. Another interesting thing is, with the exception of the "reserve off the top" mechanic (which seems to be rarely used), there's no real hidden information (apart from cards still in the deck). All of the cards available are visible for all to see. While a card reserved from the center will be placed face-down, you still get to see the card before they reserve it. With all of that open information, a lot of the game involves around trying to see if someone else is trying to get a key card before you are.

On a side note, I like the art on the cards and the heft of the chips. It's a really nice quality game on top of being fun to play.

I've noticed that I haven't really been able to figure out what makes an effective strategy vs an ineffective one. I mean, I can identify obviously bad moves, but I have a hard time telling good moves apart from optimal moves. For example: it would seem wise at the beginning to look at the colors of the gems in the nobles in play. Colors that appear in more of them are going to be more valuable than ones that don't. Of course, if everyone else notices the same thing, it can make those gems more scarce. That being said, I'd say half of the games I've played resulted in the person winning not having a single noble. So, that doesn't seem to be nearly as important as I think it is.

If you've played it, what are your thoughts?

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The only time I see this feat mentioned is when someone is building a Factotum and trying to give it as large of a pool of Inspiration Points as possible. Looking at the text, the thought is the first time you take it, you get one point, then the second time, you get two more points (for a total of three), and three more the next, etc.

Quote
Benefits: When you take this feat for the first time, you gain 1 inspiration point.

Special: You can take this multiple times. Each time you take this feat after the first time, the number of inspiration points you gain increases by 1 (for example, you gain 2 inspiration points if you take the feat a second time). The maximum number of times you can take this feat is equal to your Intelligence modifier.

However, those points don't actually stack; the benefits of the feat overlap. So, the first time you take it, you gain 1 IP. The second time, you instead, gain 2 IP (not for a total of 3). This is explained in the "benefit" section where feats are explained (emphasis mine):

Quote
What the feat enables the character ("you" in the feat description) to do. If a character has the same feat more than once, its benefits do not stack unless indicated otherwise in the description.

 In general, having a feat twice is the same as having it once.

Font of Inspiration does not explicitly say that it stacks, ergo, its effects overlap. Compare and contrast to Toughness:

Quote
A character may gain this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

The stacking is explicit, so it works.


So, basically, the author chose a particularly odd way to simply say "Special: You may take this feat multiple times, and its effects stack. Each additional time you take it grants you an additional Inspiration Point."

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