Author Topic: The Savage Handbook  (Read 4844 times)

Offline Stratovarius

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The Savage Handbook
« on: July 06, 2015, 04:29:27 PM »
The Savage Handbook


This guide is meant to introduce people to the first of the base classes from the Arhosa Campaign Setting, the Savage. This guide will be focused less on the CharOp capability of the base class (although it will be discussed), and more upon the features that are available to it. It will cover the pros and the cons of the base class, feats, races, and other material, and suggest certain archetypes for which the Savage is most suited. The discussion thread can be found here.

P.S. For those who are unaware, although I've had a great deal of help from this community in building Arhosa, I'm also the homebrewer who originally wrote this class. It (and all Arhosan classes) are generally aimed at Tier 3.

Introduction
The Savage, as a base class, is Arhosa's replacement for the Barbarian base class of PHB fame. Thematically, it falls almost exactly along the same lines as the Barbarian, being a warrior of less advanced and more remote civilizations, although there is less of the "noble savage" archetype, and much more of the wild lust for combat of the Frenzied Berserker. In terms of closest historical antecedent, the Savage takes inspiration from the woad-painted warriors of the Celtic period in history. All of the powers that the Savage possesses (with the exception of Martial Fusillades, which will be discussed later) can be used at any time, or are effectively always on - including the ability to charge, which from an early level he can use across any terrain. Savages are Strength and Constitution based characters, with the mental stats being unused by any class abilities. Because of their focus on "hit first, hit hard, hit often", while building a Savage can be a complicated affair, playing one isn't. The class, regardless of build, should be useful in a party of Tier 3s. Above that, CharOp utilizing Ubercharger and similar builds is likely necessary.

Party Role
The task that the Savage fulfils is that of damage dealer, primarily through Blood Frenzy, gaining extra attacks, and bonus damage dealt on charges. As a class, it does not have the skill access to duplicate other party roles, nor does it have any abilities in that direction. Its primary out of combat usefulness comes of being one of two base classes with access to the Animalism skill, which allows the Savage to take on the form and abilities of animals of the character's hit dice or less, this being ideal for scouting and sneaking. However, that is a decidely secondary role, and any attempt to stray outside of the bounds of being a primary damage dealer is ultimately doomed to failure.

As a side note, because of the massively changed nature of the Craft skill in Arhosa, the Savage can construct a great deal of items should it choose to do so. However, as that applies to all Arhosan classes with the Craft skill, it is somewhat outside the realm of this handbook.

Grading
Everyone's used to this, but just in case...

Blue: The good stuff, and the strong points of the class.
Green: Standard to weak material. Every class will have some of these.
Red: Weak or inappropriate material. Avoid if possible.

Helpful Links
Thanks
Nanshork, Garryl, Phaedrus, Gazzien, SkyDragonKnight, VennDygrem, and all of the others who have either contributed or critiqued Arhosa and all the content it holds
SirPercival and FireInTheSky, who liked my old BrilliantGameologists content so much they brought it over, cleaned it, tweaked it, and then graciously helped me get back up to speed when I returned
The Binder Handbook, from whom I'm cribbing the layout
Finally, the CharOp/BG/MMX forums, for giving me a home for D&D for close to a decade or more
« Last Edit: July 06, 2015, 04:40:44 PM by Stratovarius »

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: The Savage Handbook
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2015, 04:39:23 PM »
Attributes and Races

Alignment
Unlike the Barbarian, the Savage is unrestricited in which alignment he can choose. Nor does the alignment materially affected the gameplay for the character, except for the choice of prestige classes, several of which are restricted along the good/evil axis.

Attributes
Attributes for the Savage are fairly easy, being as the class is focused on only needing the physical statistics, with Strength almost always being the highest stat. This is because multiple abilities for the Savage key off of doing damage and two handed weapons, thus making Strength the logical choice. Constitution is necessary because despite the melee nature of the class, the Savage does not possess great natural defenses, and so will need to rely on a deep hitpoint pool from time to time. Dexterity is somewhat less necessary, as a Savage will almost always be in Blood Frenzy when in combat, meaning he has a +4 or better bonus to his Dexterity score. Of the mental stats, only Wisdom is somewhat useful, for its dual contribution to Will saves and certain skills, primarily Animalism. That being said, the priority order for the Savage is fairly clear at Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Wisdom, and so on.

Races
This will look only at Arhosan races, it being well understood what WotC races are good for strong melee builds.
  • High Caste Biyou - Purely caster focused race, and rubbish at melee with negatives to important stats.
  • Low Caste Biyou - A bonus to Strength, negatives to two useless stats, and a bonus to Natural Armour and saves against spells fits perfectly with the Savage, including partially covering its weak points.
  • Boncyff - A bonus to Constitution, natural armour, an ability to get a saving throw bonus, and a large number of immunities all suit the Savage perfectly. However, difficulty healing and being (living) undead are significant drawbacks. Based off of the Warforged.
  • Ceath - A bonus to Constitution is the primary benefit here, although the character does get access to a single ritual. Reasonable without being the best.
  • Casglwyr - The notable benefit of this race is the access to (and starting with) undead grafts, but while the drawbacks are generally minimal, so are the benefits.
  • Cyfnewid - Granted a feat from a very limited list, as well as a bonus to Animalism, the class has no drawbacks, but limited benefit.
  • Ascetic Ferthyr - A penalty to Dexterity is balanced by bonuses to saves and defense boosts, but in general, not an optimal choice.
  • Sybaritic Ferthyr - A race primarily of benefit to a skill-focused class, it does not mesh well with the Savage.
  • Flonha - Focused around healing, the Flonha can use their abilities to self heal, but as those are primarily out of combat focused, they do not provide much boost to the more direct goals of the Savage.
  • Gollwyd - Negatives to Constitution and a difficulty being healed make this class entirely negative for the Savage.
  • Hanian - Arhosa's Human analogue, a free bonus feat is always an excellent choice
  • Hastro - A penalty to Dexterity and a focus on ritual magic make this an inappropriate race for the Savage
  • Heginyn - A bonus to Strength, natural armour, and a free ancient martial feat make this an excellent choice. With the drawback that mind-affecting spells are even more likely to affect the already low Will save.
  • Hegni - Purely caster focused race, and rubbish at melee with negatives to important stats.
  • Hegwyd - A bonus to Dexterity offset by a penalty to Strength, and other benefits more appropriate for a merchant or skill based class, the Hegwyd are unlikely to make a reasonable Savage.
  • Helfarch - Large, and with good stat boosts, as well as a claw claw bite attack routine and a pounce ability, the Helfarch would be an excellent choice were it not for the LA and 3 racial hit dice.
  • Llethu - Arhosa's Half-giants, the Llethu are large, with amazing stat boosts, and would be an excellent choice were it not for the LA and 2 racial hit dice.
  • Niwl - The Niwl have no drawbacks that particularly hamper being a Savage (aside from being small), but they likewise have few benefits. Given the surfeit of options, chosing another is better.
  • Pybyr - With a bonus to Constitution offset by a penalty to Strength, as well as their small size, the Pybyr are not ideal candidates for being a Savage, but they are possessed of a racial ability that allows them to store energy for a given statistic, using it when the time is right. This allows them to use the long out-of-combat periods to provide shorter in combat boosts to important stats.
  • Tokunnir - A Dwarf, although with several of the secondary bonuses replaced with benefits granted from Runecarving. As a result, somewhat less automatic as a racial choice.
  • Air Tro Ar Fyd - A +4 bonus to Dexterity and elemental traits are more than offset by a-2 Strength penalty and a +1 LA, as well as small size.
  • Earth Tro Ar Fyd - A +2 bonus to Constitution and elemental traits are more than offset by a-2 Strength penalty and a +1 LA, as well as small size.
  • Fire Tro Ar Fyd - A +2 bonus to Dexterity and elemental traits are more than offset by a-2 Strength penalty and a +1 LA, as well as small size.
  • Water Tro Ar Fyd - A +2 bonus to Dexterity and Constitution elemental traits are more than offset by a-2 Strength penalty and a +1 LA, as well as small size.
  • Yn Gyntaf - With a 50ft base movement speed and a bonus to thrown weapons based off of distance moved before attacking, the Yn Gyntaf fit perfectly with the charging ethos of the Savage. However, their pure statistical bonuses are not as good as several of the other races.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: The Savage Handbook
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2015, 08:27:23 PM »
Class Features and ACFs

Class Features
  • Martial Fusillades (1st) - The Savage's bread and butter active class ability. It is a point based alternative to ToB that allows him to pick and choose from a variety of different attack options and boosts, although it is daily and not refreshing, like ToB. Use of this will allow the Savage to make sure that he always triggers his damage dependent abilities.
  • Savage Fury (1st, 7th) - On every hit for more than 10 damage, the Savage gains 5 temporary hitpoints (stacking). This ability is the base for a large number later Savage abilities, and is a fairly reasonable one on its own, especially if a large number of attacks are available, but comes with the drawback that the Savage must always attack the nearest enemy creature, if possible, much like a Frenzied Berserker, thus negating the ability to fight in a more tactical manner. Depending on the situation, this can drop the class feature into the red. At 7th, the benefit becomes 10 hitpoints.
  • Blood Frenzy (2nd, 8th, 14th, 20th) - The Savage's replacement for Rage. It's an almost always on +4 to Strength and Dexterity, increasing by +2 at each indicated level, meaning that once in combat, the Savage has a very strong Reflex save and damage dealing capability. On the other hand, use of the ability isn't voluntary, and it comes with an AC penalty equal to the Strength bonus. The penalty is partially offset by the Dexterity boost, rendering it less painful. Blood Frenzy does not trigger on unliving foes (Undead and Constructs, primarily), meaning that in an undead heavy campaign, the Savage may be without one of his primary class features. However, there is a feat that offsets that.
  • Mettle (3rd) - Identical to the Hexblade's Mettle, it allows the Savage to completely shrug off effects, making it a useful if not particularly thrilling addition to the character.
  • Primeval Flurry (4th) - Allows up to five additional attacks (one per four character levels), taking a -1 penalty to AC and attack rolls for each additional attack taken. Extra attacks that take advantage of Savage Fury and Blood Frenzy, and at the highest base attack bonus, are a significant boost in average damage output, effectively doubling it when first gained.
  • Headlong Rush (5th) - Two abilities in one, the first allows charging across difficult terrain and changing direction while charging. A useful if not always necessary boost. The second causes enemies close to the target of the charge to become shaken if they are weaker than it. A free to trigger area effect debuff is always nice, and if combined with an ally who assists in fear stacking, can quickly turn the tide of the fight. Much less useful when dealing with a BBEG or fear-immune enemies.
  • Woad (6th) - Grants a small bonus to attack and damage if the opponent is wearing heavier armour than the Savage. A situational bonus that will only trigger when fighting generally humanoid enemies, it also requires the Savage to be wearing light or no armour. It'll never be a drawback, but is often likely not much of a benefit either.
  • Savage Redemption (9th, 18th) Whenever Savage Fury triggers, the Savage also regains a small number of martial points. The amount is small enough that unless the Savage is only using low cost fusillades, it is unlikely to slow the drain too much. On the other hand, it allows him a method to replenish his martial points, and chipping away with small boosts here and there. Recovery increases by +1 at 18th.
  • Thunderous Charge (10th) - A big boost to the Savage's charges, they no longer generate attacks of opportunity, and deal an extra 35 damage. At this point, a Savage should probably be charging each and every round he can.
  • Inspire Blood Frenzy (11th, 17th) - The Savage gains the ability to give willing allies his Blood Frenzy. Whether this is a benefit depends greatly on the other members of the party. Heavy armour combatants will like the Strength boost and heavily dislike the AC loss, while lighter armour types and those that rely on defenses other than AC will be much better off. Obviously inapplicable to casters.
  • Savage Cleave (12th) - An extra attack on every Savage Fury. However, much like Cleave, it requires a second foe in melee range, and is thus somewhat situational as to whether the benefit is useful.
  • Great Swing, Mighty Swing, Massive Swing (13th, 16th, 19th) - Direct copies of the abilities that made the Warhulk famous, here they can also trigger extra attacks via Savage Cleave. Excellent when getting stuck into a group of enemies, obviously less so against smaller numbers of enemies.
  • Wild Assault (15th) - At the end of a charge, the Savage may attack a second creature in range. If there are two creatures, it allows the Savage to trigger both Thunderous Charge and Headlong Rush, as well as use each charge attack to trigger a Savage Cleave on the other target. Useful, but not always appropriate.
  • Savage's Onslaught (20th) - The capstone of the class, it allows the Savage to lead a group of allies in a charge, granting attack and damage bonuses, as well as the ability to stun creatures struck by multiple charges. Most useful with a large number of summons, cohorts, or melee companions, a group charge should be able to one-shot almost any target.
Alternate Class Features
Currently, no ACFs exist for the Savage class.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: The Savage Handbook
« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2015, 09:38:11 PM »
Skills and Feats

Skills
The skill list of the Savage is Animalism, Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Profession, Ride, Spot, Survival, and Swim. Of these, the only particularly notable skill, and the one that grants much of the out of combat usefulness of the Savage, is Animalism. Primarily, it grants two abilities (the third is more focused on combat) - the ability to become an animal, and the ability to pick a single special quality of an animal. The use of the first ability is quite obvious - changing into small and unobtrusive creatures for scouting or sneaking purposes, such as an eagle for scouting or a rat for infiltration. The second will almost always be used for picking up the scent special quality, which makes tracking easier, and gives a very limited form of detect invisibility. On the whole, though, the Savage's skills are not the strongest feature of the class.

Feats
As with races, I'll only be mentioning Arhosan feats here, the generally good charging feats (Shock Trooper, Power Attack, and so on) being just as applicable to the Savage as they are to a Barbarian. As there are too many Arhosan feats for me to cover all of them, I'll be looking at the most applicable to the Savage.

  • First Into Battle - Being the first creature to land a melee strike in an encounter gets the Savage +2 attack/+4 damage for the rest of the combat, this feat is too situational to be chosen frequently by Savages, and should be avoided unless gifted with a high initiative. However, it's one of two Yn Gyntaf feats, and their racial prestige class boosts it noticeably.
  • Keeping Score - Granting a cumulative bonus to AC and damage for creatures killed, it's most useful when playing in a campaign with large numbers of lower level enemies, as the Savage can kill one or more a round when built properly. In other types of campaigns, Keeping Score loses much of its usefulness.
  • Knock Aside - When dealing 10 damage or more, the Savage can push enemies around the battlefield as a free rider effect. Very handy for pushing them into flanking situations with allies, or away from the more vulnerable members of the party. However, loses useful against larger/stronger foes due to being based on bullrush.
  • Mighty Thewed - Free disarm attempts on any hit over 15 damage. If dealing with a large number of humanoid enemies, this allows the Savage to swat weapons, wands, and staves away with ease. Against natural attackers, this feat is obviously useless. Red in a campaign with limited humanoid opponents.
  • Throwing Charge - A free attack with a thrown weapon on every charge, something the Savage will be doing frequently. The thrown weapon can also trigger all of the Savage's abilities that rely on doing damage. The other Yn Gyntaf feat, and designed to combo with that race's Momentum Throw ability.
  • Trophy Collector - All enemies adjacent to the Savage must save or become sickened. Easy entry requirements mean that the Savage can, with luck, debuff most creatures who come into melee range of him. Not a must have feat, but it helps shore up the hole that is the Savage's AC. Red in an undead campaign.
  • Bloodless Frenzy - Making Blood Frenzy trigger on every enemy, this feat is an absolute must have in any campaign involving undead, constructs, or other non-living creatures. However, in campaigns without unliving creatures, it becomes red.
  • Frightening Frenzy - A copy of the Intimidating Rage feat, it allows the Savage to render a single foe shaken at a time. Given the low Charisma of the Savage, unless he has found a way to use Strength for Intimidate checks, this feat will most likely fail.
  • Naked Frenzy - Granting DR equal the Strength bonus of Blood Frenzy, this feat also requires the Savage to go into battle wearing no armour. Given the highly boosted Dex score of the Savage, at low levels this is a benefit. At higher levels, the tradeoff between DR and magical bonuses from armour will likely lose out. Green to start, changing to red as strong magical armours appear.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: The Savage Handbook
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2015, 06:24:33 PM »
Prestige Classes

As before, this only focuses on Arhosan Prestige Classes.

Anaraf Hunter
Requirements: Three feats (Track, Pierce the Hide, Hunter's Strike), some minor skills
What You Lose: Five levels worth of class features and martial fusillade points, hit points
What You Gain: 5th level Nature spells, minor class bonuses
On the whole, this class is almost certainly a downgrade for the power of the Savage, unless the player is very good at optimizing the use of the spell levels. Its abilities outside of the casting are flavourful, but mechanically weaker than the abilities those same levels of Savage would grant, and while the accelerated casting is certainly stronger than martial fusillades, it adds another stat that the Savage needs, and, once the five levels of the class are taken, has no further progression available to it. The high feat cost to entry is also painful. In general, avoid.

Havoc Mage
Requirements: 4th level arcane casting, BAB +4, some skills.
What You Lose: Five levels worth of class features
What You Gain: Battlecast, combined arcane and martial progression
Optimal entry for this is Savage 2/Arcanist 4, meaning that the class, although perfectly functional, does take the character very quickly away from being a Savage and entirely melee focused. On the other hand, it grants full dual progression in martial fusillades and arcane casting, as well as full BAB, and the ability to cast spells while making full attacks. Combine all of that, and the Havoc Mage is better than a pure Savage, and more versatile too. If going for a spellsword type build, there's really no reason to avoid taking Havoc Mage.

Hordebreaker
Requirements: Two feats (Power Attack, Cleave), some minor skills
What You Lose: Five levels worth of class features
What You Gain: Full fusilier progression, a pile of class features
A Savage looking to get into Hordebreaker needs to take a dip into Champion or another class in order to get in at a reasonable time, but even if taken late, the Hordebreaker offers plenty for the Savage to be happy with. Designed to kill large numbers of weaker enemies, the Hordebreaker fits neatly into the Savage, although its focus on defense and endurance doesn't always gibe with the Blood Frenzy and offensive nature of the Savage. However, the 5th level Anvil of Doom ability neatly sidesteps the overly aggressie nature of the Savage and allows more tactical play. However, certain class abilities apply to the chosen horde enemy, and in certain areas of Arhosa, that's simply not applicable. Because of this and the defense vs offense fit with the Savage, it's only a green class.

Warchief
Requirements: Must have led a tribe in battle, BAB
What You Lose: Five levels worth of class features, hit points
What You Gain: Mass melee ally boosting, Charisma
The class realistically has only two abilities - one is +6 in Charisma over the five levels, which is nice but somewhat irrelevant to most Savages. The other grants up to a +10 bonus to strength to all allies within 30 feet at the cost of some minor hitpoint damage. This is the bread and butter of the class, and the reason to take it. It's ideal if there are a large number of melee followers, be they summons, party members, or hirelings. Even without those, however, it's nice because it stacks with the bonus from Blood Frenzy. The downside is it doesn't stack with the benefits from magical items, by and large. Definitely better in lower-level campaigns, and in ones with larger numbers of melee hitters. Class can vary from green to blue depending on party makeup.

Yn Gyntaf Tribal Champion
Requirements: One feat (Long Distance Runner or First to Strike), some minor skills, BAB, Yn Gyntaf race
What You Lose: Three levels worth of class features
What You Gain: Throwing and ambush abilities
The racial PrC for the Savage's intended race, the Tribal Champion is almost entirely focused around throwing weapons from a combat point of view. Of note, throwing weapons (and indeed all range weapons) trigger most of the Savage's abilities, so a good strike with a thrown weapon can have the Savage set up to enter melee on the following round. The Tribal Champion also can add a fair bit of bonus damage in the surprise round, and can occasionally coup de grace monsters with an exceptional throw, all of which make the class a reasonable entry, especially in campaigns that are shorter in nature. The racially specific entry requirements, however, force the Savage to be built just to take the class. And in longer campaigns, the levels are most likely better spent elsewhere.

Carrion Carver
Requirements: Two feats, BAB, must exist on carrion
What You Lose: Ten levels worth of class features and martial fusillade points, hit points
What You Gain: 5th level Osseins, class features including flight
A fairly easy class to enter, the Carrion Carver focuses on turning melee classes into partial spellcasters, although it does require Wisdom, usually 4th on the Savage's priority list. The second biggest benefit of the class is the ability to permanently fly, which is gained early on. There's also a number of passive defensive benefits that discourage enemies from being in melee range via poison and sickening, and bonuses against those that are sickened by the class ability. Finally, there's the capstone, which allows the Carrion Carver to nuke a small town with putresence. Perfect for holding those petty lords to ransom. On the whole, the class gives up a little of the direct damage of the Savage for the versatility of spellcasting and some excellent defensive benefits and flight, making the class an upgrade over the base Savage.