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Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / [3.5][WIP] Steelsoul Knight
« on: February 27, 2012, 06:27:02 AM »
So I've been playing with this class idea for a while, even made a few posts on GITP in order to get some advice/ideas, this didn't really yield much though, so I'll try and post the current version of the PrC here instead ^^
A bit of background information: I'm not sure where I got the idea for this PrC from, but I ended up thinking about the idea of playing a character which specialises in changing equipment rapidly during battle. Incarnum was pretty awesome, but the fact that you could only change your equipment at the beginning of each day was too restricting and felt too much like common spellcasting. So I said "what the heck" and decided to make a martial adept PrC which could do what I wanted, instead of trying to find all sorts of exotic weapon/armor enchantments and feats in order to emulate my concept.
As I've stated, this is a WIP, and I'm hoping I might get some advice and guidance in order to finish it, I'm rather new at making classes after all :3
What I'm specifically looking for are additional class features, balancing and/or changes to the Soul Shape ability as well as ideas and suggestions concerning the fluff and lore behind the class. But all comments are welcome.
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Requirements: To qualify to become a Steelsoul Knight, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria:
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Skills: Concentration 4 ranks, Martial Lore 6 ranks, Tumble 4 ranks,
Feats: Adaptive Style
Martial Stances: Must know at least one stance from two different disciplines
Martial Maneuvers: Must know at least one maneuver from four different disciplines
Steelsoul Knight
A Steelsoul Knight is a warrior with a unique connection to the concepts of war and battle, allowing him to bond with items embodied with these same concepts on a spiritual level, and call upon them in the heat of battle, allowing him to quickly change his equipment and tactics based on the situation.
Wherever this ability comes from is unknown, and the fact that Steelsoul Knights are exceptionally rare does not help solve this mystery. Some believe that the power lies in the blood of the person, a remnant of some ancient bloodline, others believe that they are the reincarnations of great warheroes and generals, their lives so dedicated to battle that their soul is forever affected by it. The more religious minded people believe that it is a blessing given by Deities of war and combat, as a way to mark and choose their future champions.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
: Base Attack Bonus: +5
: Skills: Balance 4 ranks, Concentration 4 ranks, Jump 4 ranks, Martial Lore 6 ranks, Tumble 4 ranks
: Feats: Adaptive Style
: Martial Stances: Must know at least one martial stance from two different disciplines
: Martial Maneuvers: Must know at least one martial maneuver from four different disciplines
Class Skills
The Class Name's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are: Balance (Dex), Craft (Int), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Jump (Str), Martial Lore (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Tumble (Dex)
Skills Points at Each Level : 4 + int
Hit Dice: d8
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: the Steelsoul Knight is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor, and with all shields
Weapon Aptitude (Ex): Your training with a wide range of weaponry and tactics allows you the opportunity to gain great skill with particular weapons. You can qualify for feats requiring a minimum number of fight levels as if you had a fighter level equal to your combined warblade and steelsoul knight levels -2.
Furthermore, you have the flexibility to adjust your weapon training. Each morning, you can spend 1 hour practicing and change the weapons selected for any feat you have that applies only to a single chosen weapon. For example, you could change your Weapon Focus (greataxe) feat so its benefit applies to longswords instead.
You can adjust any number of feats in this way, and you don’t have to adjust them all in the same way. You can’t change the weapon choices in such a way that you no longer meet a feat’s prerequisites. You must also have that weapon available during practice; if you don’t have a longsword handy, you can’t assign your feats to affect longswords.
Soul Shape (Su): The Steelsoul Knight gains the ability to manipulate a portion of his soul so that it manifests as a weapon, armor or shield that he owns. In order to do so, the Steelsoul Knight must absorb such a piece of equipment, allowing it to become one with his soul. Absorbing a piece of equipment in such a way takes 10 minutes of meditation. The item becomes known as a soul shape. The Steelsoul Knight’s soul shapes are completely hidden when they are not manifested and cannot be found by any form of searching.
A Steelsoul Knight can conjure any number of soul shapes (one for each applicable body slot) or a set of soul shapes as a full-round action (a set being defined as one weapon, shield and armor or two weapons and armor, etc.) and the shape is normally manifested in a specific thematic way. A ranged soul shape still requires the Steelsoul Knight to provide ammunition for it. If a Steelsoul Knight’s soul shape is thrown or disarmed, then the soul shape dissipates after 1 minute, becoming part of the Steelsoul Knight’s soul once more. A Steelsoul Knight can reabsorb a soul shape or a set of soul shapes as a move action, he can also change between sets of soul shapes as a full-round action.
A Steelsoul Knight can only make a soul shape out of melee weapons, ranged weapons, shields and armor. He cannot make a soul shape from ammunition or improvised weapons. The Steelsoul Knight must be proficient with the item before it can be made into a soul shape. A crossbow, or a similar ranged weapon, is stored with a full-round of ammunition.
Broken pieces of equipment are automatically absorbed back into the Soulsteel Knight’s soul and cannot be conjured again until 24 hours have passed, at which point the item is fully repaired.
A Steelsoul Knight can keep a number of soul shapes equal to 1 plus his class level.
Additionally, a Steelsoul Knight can use Adaptive Style and change his soul shapes in the same full-round action.
As a full-round action, the Steelsoul Knight can part one of his soul shapes from his body. The item returns to its original material state.
At 4th lvl you can conjure or change your soul shapes as a standard action which provokes an attack of opportunity, and at 8th lvl you can do it as a swift action which does not provoke an attack of opportunity.
Bonus Fighter Feat (Ex): Steelsoul Knights study all aspects of combat and as such they gain increased prowess in martial disciplines. At 3rd, 6th and 9th level, you gain a bonus feat chosen from the list of fighter bonus feat. You must meet the prerequisite of the feat to take it.
A bit of background information: I'm not sure where I got the idea for this PrC from, but I ended up thinking about the idea of playing a character which specialises in changing equipment rapidly during battle. Incarnum was pretty awesome, but the fact that you could only change your equipment at the beginning of each day was too restricting and felt too much like common spellcasting. So I said "what the heck" and decided to make a martial adept PrC which could do what I wanted, instead of trying to find all sorts of exotic weapon/armor enchantments and feats in order to emulate my concept.
As I've stated, this is a WIP, and I'm hoping I might get some advice and guidance in order to finish it, I'm rather new at making classes after all :3
What I'm specifically looking for are additional class features, balancing and/or changes to the Soul Shape ability as well as ideas and suggestions concerning the fluff and lore behind the class. But all comments are welcome.
--------------------------------------------------
Requirements: To qualify to become a Steelsoul Knight, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria:
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Skills: Concentration 4 ranks, Martial Lore 6 ranks, Tumble 4 ranks,
Feats: Adaptive Style
Martial Stances: Must know at least one stance from two different disciplines
Martial Maneuvers: Must know at least one maneuver from four different disciplines
Steelsoul Knight
A Steelsoul Knight is a warrior with a unique connection to the concepts of war and battle, allowing him to bond with items embodied with these same concepts on a spiritual level, and call upon them in the heat of battle, allowing him to quickly change his equipment and tactics based on the situation.
Wherever this ability comes from is unknown, and the fact that Steelsoul Knights are exceptionally rare does not help solve this mystery. Some believe that the power lies in the blood of the person, a remnant of some ancient bloodline, others believe that they are the reincarnations of great warheroes and generals, their lives so dedicated to battle that their soul is forever affected by it. The more religious minded people believe that it is a blessing given by Deities of war and combat, as a way to mark and choose their future champions.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
: Base Attack Bonus: +5
: Skills: Balance 4 ranks, Concentration 4 ranks, Jump 4 ranks, Martial Lore 6 ranks, Tumble 4 ranks
: Feats: Adaptive Style
: Martial Stances: Must know at least one martial stance from two different disciplines
: Martial Maneuvers: Must know at least one martial maneuver from four different disciplines
Class Skills
The Class Name's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are: Balance (Dex), Craft (Int), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Jump (Str), Martial Lore (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Tumble (Dex)
Skills Points at Each Level : 4 + int
Hit Dice: d8
Level | Base Attack Bonus | Fort Save | Ref Save | Will Save | Special | Man. Known | Man. Readied | Stances Known |
| 1st | +1 | +2 | +2 | +0 | Weapon Aptitude, Soul Shape | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2nd | +2 | +3 | +3 | +0 | - | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 3rd | +3 | +4 | +3 | +1 | Bonus Fighter Feat | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4th | +4 | +4 | +4 | +1 | Soul Shape (Standard Action) | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 5th | +5 | +4 | +4 | +1 | - | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 6th | +6 | +5 | +5 | +2 | Bonus Fighter Feat | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 7th | +7 | +5 | +5 | +2 | - | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8th | +8 | +6 | +6 | +2 | Soul Shape (Swift Action) | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 9th | +9 | +6 | +6 | +3 | Bonus Fighter Feat | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 10th | +10 | +7 | +7 | +3 | - | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: the Steelsoul Knight is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor, and with all shields
Weapon Aptitude (Ex): Your training with a wide range of weaponry and tactics allows you the opportunity to gain great skill with particular weapons. You can qualify for feats requiring a minimum number of fight levels as if you had a fighter level equal to your combined warblade and steelsoul knight levels -2.
Furthermore, you have the flexibility to adjust your weapon training. Each morning, you can spend 1 hour practicing and change the weapons selected for any feat you have that applies only to a single chosen weapon. For example, you could change your Weapon Focus (greataxe) feat so its benefit applies to longswords instead.
You can adjust any number of feats in this way, and you don’t have to adjust them all in the same way. You can’t change the weapon choices in such a way that you no longer meet a feat’s prerequisites. You must also have that weapon available during practice; if you don’t have a longsword handy, you can’t assign your feats to affect longswords.
Soul Shape (Su): The Steelsoul Knight gains the ability to manipulate a portion of his soul so that it manifests as a weapon, armor or shield that he owns. In order to do so, the Steelsoul Knight must absorb such a piece of equipment, allowing it to become one with his soul. Absorbing a piece of equipment in such a way takes 10 minutes of meditation. The item becomes known as a soul shape. The Steelsoul Knight’s soul shapes are completely hidden when they are not manifested and cannot be found by any form of searching.
A Steelsoul Knight can conjure any number of soul shapes (one for each applicable body slot) or a set of soul shapes as a full-round action (a set being defined as one weapon, shield and armor or two weapons and armor, etc.) and the shape is normally manifested in a specific thematic way. A ranged soul shape still requires the Steelsoul Knight to provide ammunition for it. If a Steelsoul Knight’s soul shape is thrown or disarmed, then the soul shape dissipates after 1 minute, becoming part of the Steelsoul Knight’s soul once more. A Steelsoul Knight can reabsorb a soul shape or a set of soul shapes as a move action, he can also change between sets of soul shapes as a full-round action.
A Steelsoul Knight can only make a soul shape out of melee weapons, ranged weapons, shields and armor. He cannot make a soul shape from ammunition or improvised weapons. The Steelsoul Knight must be proficient with the item before it can be made into a soul shape. A crossbow, or a similar ranged weapon, is stored with a full-round of ammunition.
Broken pieces of equipment are automatically absorbed back into the Soulsteel Knight’s soul and cannot be conjured again until 24 hours have passed, at which point the item is fully repaired.
A Steelsoul Knight can keep a number of soul shapes equal to 1 plus his class level.
Additionally, a Steelsoul Knight can use Adaptive Style and change his soul shapes in the same full-round action.
As a full-round action, the Steelsoul Knight can part one of his soul shapes from his body. The item returns to its original material state.
At 4th lvl you can conjure or change your soul shapes as a standard action which provokes an attack of opportunity, and at 8th lvl you can do it as a swift action which does not provoke an attack of opportunity.
Bonus Fighter Feat (Ex): Steelsoul Knights study all aspects of combat and as such they gain increased prowess in martial disciplines. At 3rd, 6th and 9th level, you gain a bonus feat chosen from the list of fighter bonus feat. You must meet the prerequisite of the feat to take it.
and I've always been interested in the mechanical parts of the rules, usually optimizing my characters a bit more than my fellow players :3