Hello, everyone. First time poster, don't really know the etiquette and such-like, so I hope I am doing this right.
Anyway, as someone who enjoys playing paladins on both sides of the spectrum, I got to thinking that what I really wanted to try out is a paladin who is attuned to the plane of fire rather than to a specific deity. A champion of flames, rather than a mere worshiper. This is what I've got so far.
Emberknight:
The Emberknight
1st: Smite ____ 1/day;
2nd: Burning brand; wreathed in flames
3rd: Fiery embrace
4th: Channel elemental energy; smite ____ 2/day
5th: Elemental boon
6th: Heat of the forge
7th: Smite ____ 3/day
8th: Aura of pain
9th: Conflagration
10th: Smite ___ 4/day
11th: Improved fiery embrace
12th: Molten steel
13th: Smite ____ 5/day
14th: Breath of fire
15th: Aura of agony
16th: Smite ____ 6/day
17th: Incendiary armor
18th: Greater fiery embrace
19th: Smite ____ 7/day
20th: Champion of flames
- Spell list: TBA
- Skills: as antipaladin, but replace Knowledge (religion) with Knowledge (planar).
Smite (Su): Not sure, maybe all opposing elementals and their champions. Maybe just water elementals and water paladins/clerics.
Burning Brand (Su): Beginning at level 2, the Emberknight may spread his love of fire to his enemies. This ability is useable a number of times per day equal to the Emberknight's Charisma modifier plus 1/2 his
Emberknight level. As a melee touch attack, the Emberknight may inflict 1d6 points of fire damage per Emberknight level. Using this ability is a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. If used against objects, this ability will ignite them if they are flammable.
Alternatively, an Emberknight may use this ability to heal fire elementals, granting them 1d6 hit points for every two levels the Emberknight possesses.
Wreathed in Flames (Su): The Emberknight gains a bonus equal to his Charisma bonus (minimum 0) on all saving throws.
Fiery Embrace (Su): The Emberknight himself becomes immune to fire. Allies within 10 feet of the Emberknight are protected from fire, gaining fire resistance 10.
Beginning at 11th level, increase this to fire resistance 25. Beginning at 18th level, all allies within 10 feet of the Emberknight become immune to fire.
Channel Elemental Energy (Su): As channel negative energy, but it deals fire damage and heals fire elementals.
Elemental Boon (Su): This functions as the antipaladin ability fiendish boon, with one key difference.
Rather than be given the option to choose a fiendish servant, the Emberknight who takes the second path must choose a medium fire elemental. When the Emberknight reaches 9th level, it becomes a large fire elemental. When the Emberknight reaches 11th level, it becomes a huge fire elemental. When the Emberknight reaches 13th level, the fire elemental gains the Advanced template. When the Emberknight reaches 15th level, it becomes a greater fire elemental. Finally, upon reaching 17th level, it becomes an elder fire elemental.
Should the Emberknight's fire elemental die or be banished, the Emberknight may not summon another servant for 30 days or until he gains an Emberknight level, whichever comes first. During this 30-day period, the Emberknight takes a -1 penalty on attack and weapon damage rolls.
Heat of the Forge (Su): Burning brand now causes metal armor worn by the opponent to become heated, causing an additional 2d6 damage per round for 1d6 rounds as long as they continue to be in contact with the armor.
Aura of Pain (Su): Beginning at 8th level, any opponent adjacent to the Emberknight at the start of that opponent's turn takes fire damage equal to the Emberknight's Charisma modifier.
Conflagration (Su): Beginning at 9th level, any opponent dealt damage by the Emberknight's burning brand must succeed at a Reflex save (DC 10+Charisma+1/2 Emberknight level) or catch fire, causing them to panic for one round.
Molten Steel (Su): Armor afflicted by the Emberknight's heat of the forge ability now loses hardness at a rate of 2 per round. Upon reaching half of its hardness, it gains the broken condition as though it were at half its original hit points. If it reaches 0 hardness, it is destroyed from having melted, and the person wearing it must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC 10+Charisma+1/2 Emberknight level) or take 1d6 Constitution damage from molten metal in their flesh. This hardness "damage" overlaps with actual damage the item has taken; i.e. if it incurs the broken condition from losing half of its hit points, then being reduced to half hardness will not cause it to become destroyed.
TO DO: how to repair hardness damage if not fully melted?
Breath of Fire (Su): Beginning at 14th level, the Emberknight may expend two uses of channel elemental energy in order to unleash a torrent of flames in a 120 foot line or a 60 foot cone. Opponents within the cone must succeed at a Reflex save (DC 10+Charisma+ 1/2 Emberknight level) or else be afflicted as though by the Emberknight's burning brand ability. On a successful Reflex save, they only incur half damage and are not subject to the burning brand's additional effects.
Aura of Agony (Su): Beginning at 15th level, opponents who are affected by the Emberknight's aura of pain ability must make a Reflex save or catch fire, becoming panicked for one round. Additionally, for each consecutive round that the enemy remains threatened by the Emberknight, they are dealt a cumulatively increased amount equal to the Emberknight's Charisma modifier.
For instance, if an Emberknight has a Charisma modifier of 4, then on the first round aura of pain deals 4 damage normally. On the second consecutive round that the same opponent triggers aura of pain, they take 8 damage. On the third, they take 12. This has an upper limit of four times the Emberknight's Charisma modifier.
Incendiary Armor (Su): Beginning at 17th level, the Emberknight may cloak himself in flames, granting himself 20% concealment. While he is so armored, opponents striking at the Emberknight in melee are immediately dealt fire damage equal to half his Emberknight level, even if their attack does not connect. Additionally, while the Emberknight wears his incendiary armor, he gains cold resistance 15.
This incendiary armor may be donned once per day per four Emberknight levels, and it lasts for one minute per Emberknight level each time.
Champion of Flames (Su): The Emberknight becomes a conduit of the elemental plane of fire. When donning his incendiary armor, his cold resistance increases to 30. Whenever the Emberknight deals damage with his burning brand or channel elemental energy powers, he always deals the maximum possible amount of damage.
When successfully smiting an Outsider, the target of his smite is subject to a banishment spell using his Emberknight level as the caster level (his holy symbol and weapon automatically count as objects the subject hates). After the banishment effect and the damage from the attack is resolved, the smite immediately ends.
Some notes: The class is obviously unfinished, but I managed to give it something at each level.
I couldn't think of anything for it to detect, nor any aura for it to give off to alignment-detecting spells. Maybe make it alignment-dependent. Same could be done for the Smite power.
The reason that burning brand deals 1d6 per level rather than 1d6 per two levels is that fire damage is more easily resistable, has no versatility, and the Emberknight does not get to choose cruelties.
Some of the cooler abilities are too far up, but I worry that they'd be too powerful if they were lower.
EDIT HISTORY:
E1: Changed breath of fire a bit to make it worth using. Also formatting changes.
E2: Wording change on aura of pain. One-round duration on panic effects from being set on fire.
I think "spreading his love of fire to his enemies" sounds like he's turning people into pyromaniacs, not burning them (and thus making them love fire less). Reword that.
Other than that, good idea, dotting for when I have more time to look over it.
The Emberknight
1st: Smite ____ 1/day;
2nd: Burning brand; wreathed in flames
3rd: Fiery embrace
4th: Channel elemental energy; smite ____ 2/day
5th: Elemental boon
6th: Heat of the forge
7th: Smite ____ 3/day
8th: Aura of pain
9th: Conflagration
10th: Smite ___ 4/day
11th: Improved fiery embrace
12th: Molten steel
13th: Smite ____ 5/day
14th: Breath of fire
15th: Aura of agony
16th: Smite ____ 6/day
17th: Incendiary armor
18th: Greater fiery embrace
19th: Smite ____ 7/day
20th: Champion of flames
- Spell list: TBA
- Skills: as antipaladin, but replace Knowledge (religion) with Knowledge (planar).
Smite (Su): Not sure, maybe all opposing elementals and their champions. Maybe just water elementals and water paladins/clerics.
Burning Brand (Su): Beginning at level 2, the Emberknight learns to channel the elemental plane of fire through his body. This ability is useable a number of times per day equal to the Emberknight's Charisma modifier plus 1/2 his Emberknight level. As a melee touch attack, the Emberknight may inflict 1d6 points of fire damage per Emberknight level. Using this ability is a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. If used against objects, this ability will ignite them if they are flammable.
Alternatively, an Emberknight may use this ability to heal fire elementals, granting them 1d6 hit points for every two levels the Emberknight possesses.
This ability is modified by any feat, spell, or effect that specifically works with the lay on hands paladin class feature. For example, the Extra Lay On Hands feat grants an Emberknight 2 additional uses of the burning brand class feature.
Wreathed in Flames (Su): The Emberknight gains a bonus equal to his Charisma bonus (minimum 0) on all saving throws.
Fiery Embrace (Su): Beginning at level 3, the Emberknight himself becomes immune to fire. Allies within 10 feet of the Emberknight are protected from fire, gaining fire resistance 10.
Beginning at 11th level, increase this to fire resistance 25. Beginning at 18th level, all allies within 10 feet of the Emberknight become immune to fire.
Channel Elemental Energy (Su): As channel negative energy, but it deals fire damage and heals fire elementals.
Elemental Boon (Su): This functions as the antipaladin ability fiendish boon, with one key difference.
Rather than be given the option to choose a fiendish servant, the Emberknight who takes the second path must choose a medium fire elemental. When the Emberknight reaches 9th level, it becomes a large fire elemental. When the Emberknight reaches 11th level, it becomes a huge fire elemental. When the Emberknight reaches 13th level, the fire elemental gains the Advanced template. When the Emberknight reaches 15th level, it becomes a greater fire elemental. Finally, upon reaching 17th level, it becomes an elder fire elemental.
Should the Emberknight's fire elemental die or be banished, the Emberknight may not summon another servant for 30 days or until he gains an Emberknight level, whichever comes first. During this 30-day period, the Emberknight takes a -1 penalty on attack and weapon damage rolls.
Heat of the Forge (Su): Burning brand now causes metal armor worn by the opponent to become heated, causing an additional 2d6 damage per round for 1d6 rounds as long as they continue to be in contact with the armor.
Aura of Pain (Su): Beginning at 8th level, any opponent adjacent to the Emberknight at the start of that opponent's turn takes fire damage equal to the Emberknight's Charisma modifier.
Conflagration (Su): Beginning at 9th level, any opponent dealt damage by the Emberknight's burning brand must succeed at a Reflex save (DC 10+Charisma+1/2 Emberknight level) or catch fire, causing them to panic for one round.
Molten Steel (Su): Armor afflicted by the Emberknight's heat of the forge ability now loses hardness at a rate of 2 per round. Upon reaching half of its hardness, it gains the broken condition as though it were at half its original hit points. If it reaches 0 hardness, it is destroyed from having melted, and the person wearing it must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC 10+Charisma+1/2 Emberknight level) or take 1d6 Constitution damage from molten metal in their flesh. This hardness "damage" overlaps with actual damage the item has taken; i.e. if it incurs the broken condition from losing half of its hit points, then being reduced to half hardness will not cause it to become destroyed.
TO DO: how to repair hardness damage if not fully melted?
Breath of Fire (Su): Beginning at 14th level, the Emberknight may expend two uses of burning brand in order to unleash a torrent of flames in a 60 foot line or a 30 foot cone. Opponents within the cone must succeed at a Reflex save (DC 10+Charisma+ 1/2 Emberknight level) or else be afflicted as though by the Emberknight's burning brand ability. On a successful Reflex save, they only incur half damage and are not subject to the burning brand's additional effects.
Aura of Agony (Su): Beginning at 15th level, opponents who are affected by the Emberknight's aura of pain ability must make a Reflex save or catch fire, becoming panicked for one round. Additionally, for each consecutive round that the enemy remains threatened by the Emberknight, they are dealt a cumulatively increased amount equal to the Emberknight's Charisma modifier.
For instance, if an Emberknight has a Charisma modifier of 4, then on the first round aura of pain deals 4 damage normally. On the second consecutive round that the same opponent triggers aura of pain, they take 8 damage. On the third, they take 12. This has an upper limit of four times the Emberknight's Charisma modifier.
Incendiary Armor (Su): Beginning at 17th level, the Emberknight may cloak himself in flames, granting himself 20% concealment. While he is so armored, opponents striking at the Emberknight in melee are immediately dealt fire damage equal to half his Emberknight level, even if their attack does not connect. Additionally, while the Emberknight wears his incendiary armor, he gains cold resistance 15.
This incendiary armor may be donned once per day per four Emberknight levels, and it lasts for one minute per Emberknight level each time.
Champion of Flames (Su): The Emberknight becomes a conduit of the elemental plane of fire. When donning his incendiary armor, his cold resistance increases to 30. Whenever the Emberknight deals damage with his burning brand or channel elemental energy powers, he always deals the maximum possible amount of damage.
When successfully smiting an Outsider, the target of his smite is subject to a banishment spell using his Emberknight level as the caster level (his holy symbol and weapon automatically count as objects the subject hates). After the banishment effect and the damage from the attack is resolved, the smite immediately ends.
Changelog:
Wording changes in burning brand and a slight wording change in fiery embrace.
Changed breath of fire to a more intuitive model.
1. Being flat-out immune to fire at 3rd level is notably stronger than being immune to fear effects.Instead I would give him fire resistance that improved as he leveled.
2. Smite can be creatures with the Water subtype, perhaps Water and Aquatic
3. Gaining cold resistance with Incendiary Armor doesn't really parallel the Antipaladin equivalent ability, since the DR 5/Good means that good-aligned weapons overcome this weakness, while in the Emberknight's case, his resistance has no weakness. I would remove the cold resistance and have spells with the Water descriptor or cold-damage weapons ignore the concealment.
1. I agree that flat-out immunity to fire is quite powerful at 3rd level, and now that I look back at aura of cowardice, the ability I gave the Emberknight seems more like it's mirroring aura of courage than aura of cowardice. In the next build, I think I'm going to end up finding a more offensive version with which to replace it. Perhaps at lower levels negating fire resistance, and at higher ones negating fire immunity? Still wouldn't make sense to, say, burn a salamander, though.
2. I had the same idea, but it seems a bit narrow in focus. Smite good/evil can affect a rather wide variety of opponents, but smite water seems like it would rarely find much use.
3. With incendiary armor, my concern was again the rather narrow focus of having damage resistance only against cold, so I added the concealment. Your idea actually much more closely mirrors aura of depravity; I'll definitely give it due consideration when overhauling the ability.
Do you think dealing 1d6 per level with burning brand is too high? When he learns it, it does 7 damage on average, compared to touch of corruption's 3.5 damage. At level 6, it's 21 average damage compared to the antipaladin's 10.5. At level 20, each use is dealing 120 compared to the antipaladin's 60. Given that its main use is damage, whereas the antipaladin's touch of corruption is for applying cruelties, do you think forgoing a full attack is worth the added effects of burning brand?
You could probably do the same thing with spells as the stonelord did with spells. Replace it with a fire elemental(or whatever was replaced I don't remember)
I missed the stonelord entirely. The stonelord does in fact do much of what I intended the emberknight to accomplish, with the exception of the way the Elemental Channel feat works; using it to binarily harm or heal fire elementals is, again, pretty narrow in focus. I like my model of channeling elemental energy better, where the emberknight just sends out a radial wave of flame. It still carries the drawback of needing the Selective Channeling feat to spare allies, and isn't tied to dealing negative damage.
The other problem with the stonelord is this. In the same way the antipaladin is bad at fighting undead, the emberknight should be bad at fighting fire elementals, whereas the stonelord actually excels at fighting earth elementals.
At any rate, complete overhaul is a day (or so) away for the emberknight.
Well having a fire elemental companion is pretty nice. I do think it's weird how the Stonelord excels at fighting earth elementals, but you would figure someone who trains with and worships the earth would also know it's weaknesses.
The Emberknight
1st: Inferno sword 1/day
2nd: Burning brand; wreathed in flames
3rd: Fiery embrace
4th: Channel elemental energy; inferno sword 2/day; incendiary armor
5th: Elemental servant
6th: Heat of the forge
7th: Inferno sword 3/day
8th: Aura of pain
9th: Conflagration
10th: Inferno sword 4/day
11th: Aura of enmity
12th: Molten steel
13th: Inferno sword 5/day
14th: Aura of agony
15th: Breath of fire
16th: Inferno sword 6/day
17th: Blistering heat
18th:
19th: Inferno sword 7/day
20th: Champion of flames
- Skills: as antipaladin, but replace Knowledge (religion) with Knowledge (planes).
Inferno Sword (Su): Once per day, the emberknight draws upon the planes to empower his weapon for one minute. As a swift action, can set his weapon aflame, causing it to deal an additional 1d8 fire damage per attack. At level 4, and every 3 levels thereafter, inferno sword deals an additional 1d8 damage, and he gains one additional daily use, up to a maximum of 7d8 and 7 uses at level 19.
Burning Brand (Su): Beginning at level 2, the Emberknight learns to channel the elemental plane of fire through his body. This ability is useable a number of times per day equal to the Emberknight's Charisma modifier plus 1/2 his Emberknight level. As a melee touch attack, the Emberknight may inflict 1d6 points of fire damage per Emberknight level. Using this ability is a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. If used against objects, this ability will ignite them if they are flammable.
Alternatively, an Emberknight may use this ability to heal fire elementals, granting them 1d6 hit points for every two levels the Emberknight possesses.
This ability is modified by any feat, spell, or effect that specifically works with the lay on hands paladin class feature. For example, the Extra Lay On Hands feat grants an Emberknight 2 additional uses of the burning brand class feature.
Wreathed in Flames (Su): Beginning at level 2, the Emberknight gains a bonus equal to his Charisma bonus (minimum 0) on all saving throws.
Fiery Embrace (Su): Beginning at level 3, enemies near the emberknight become more susceptible to being set aflame. Each opponent within 10 feet of the emberknight loses half of their fire resistance, rounded up.
Channel Elemental Energy (Su): Upon reaching 4th level, the emberknight gains the supernatural ability to channel fire in an explosive burst. He may expend two uses of his burning brand ability to create a wave of fire dealing 1d6 damage per two emberknight levels to all creatures within 30 feet of his position. All creatures affected get a reflex save (DC 10 + half his emberknight level + his Charisma modifier) to take half damage.
Alternatively, the emberknight may choose for this ability to heal fire elementals. If that is the case, it deals no damage, and heals all fire elementals within 30 feet of the emberknight for 1d6 per two emberknight levels.
This ability can be modified with the Selective Channeling feat as though it were the cleric's channel energy class feature.
Incendiary Armor (Su): The emberknight does not learn spells. Instead, beginning at 4th level, the emberknight may cloak himself in flames, granting himself 20% concealment. While he is so armored, opponents striking at the emberknight in melee are immediately dealt fire damage equal to half his emberknight level, even if their attack does not connect. Spells with the water or cold descriptor and weapons that deal additional cold damage both ignore the armor's concealment. This incendiary armor may be donned once per day per four emberknight levels, and it lasts for one minute per emberknight level each time.
Elemental Servant (Su): At 5th level, an emberknight may call a Small fire elemental to his side, as a paladin calls her mount. This fire elemental's alignment mirrors the emberknight's and it has a permanent increase of 4 Strength and 4 Constitution over its base attributes. Further, it increases in size as the emberknight gains levels, becoming Medium at 8th level, Large at 11th level, Huge at 14th level, Greater at 17th level, and Elder at 20th level.
This ability replaces fiendish boon.
Heat of the Forge (Su): Beginning at 6th level, burning brand now causes metal armor worn by its target to become heated and uncomfortable, reducing that opponent's armor bonus by 2 and doubling its armor check penalty for 1d4 rounds. If the opponent is wearing non-metal armor such as hide armor or the mage armor spell, heat of the forge has no effect. If the opponent is using a shield, the emberknight chooses whether this affects their armor or their shield (potentially both with repeated useage).
Aura of Pain (Su): Beginning at 8th level, any opponent adjacent to the emberknight at the start of that opponent's turn takes fire damage equal to the Emberknight's Charisma modifier.
Conflagration (Su): Beginning at 9th level, any opponent dealt damage by the Emberknight's burning brand must succeed at a Reflex save (DC 10 + half the emberknight's class level + the emberknight's Charisma modifier) or catch fire, causing them to panic for one round.
Aura of Enmity (Su): At 11th level, the emberknight gains the ability to expend two uses of inferno sword ability to grant the inferno sword ability to all allies within 10 feet, using his level to determine its damage. Allies must use the inferno sword ability by the start of the emberknight's next turn. Using this ability is a free action. Creatures with the water or cold subtype and clerics or paladins of a god with the water domain cannot benefit from this ability.
Molten Steel (Su): Beginning at 12th level, armor afflicted by the emberknight's heat of the forge ability now loses hardness at a rate of 2 per round. Upon reaching half of its hardness, it gains the broken condition as though it were at half its original hit points. If it reaches 0 hardness, it is destroyed from having melted, and the person wearing it must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC 10 + half the emberknight's class level + the emberknight's Charisma modifier) or take 1d6 Constitution damage from molten metal in their flesh. This hardness "damage" overlaps with actual damage the item has taken; i.e. if it incurs the broken condition from losing half of its hit points, then being reduced to half hardness will not cause it to become destroyed. This hardness damage can be repaired in the same way as repairing an item's hit points on a 2 hp to 1 hardness basis.
Breath of Fire (Su): Beginning at 14th level, the Emberknight may expend two uses of burning brand in order to unleash a torrent of flames in a 60 foot line or a 30 foot cone. Opponents within the cone must succeed at a Reflex save (DC 10+Charisma+ 1/2 Emberknight level) or else be afflicted as though by the Emberknight's burning brand ability. On a successful Reflex save, they only incur half damage and are not subject to the burning brand's additional effects.
Aura of Agony (Su): Beginning at 15th level, opponents who are affected by the emberknight's aura of pain ability must make a Reflex save or catch fire, becoming panicked for one round. Additionally, for each consecutive round that the enemy takes damage from aura of pain, they take a cumulative additional amount equal to the emberknight's Charisma modifier.
For instance, if an Emberknight has a Charisma modifier of 4, then on the first round aura of pain deals 4 damage normally. On the second consecutive round that the same opponent triggers aura of pain, they take 8 damage. On the third, they take 12, and so on.
Blistering Heat (Su): At 17th level, the emberknight's flames burn so hot that not even creatures who normally resist fire are safe from him. Enemies within 10 feet of the emberknight lose their fire immunity if they had any, getting fire resistance 60 instead (this fire resistance is halved by the emberknight's fiery embrace class feature). Otherwise, creatures who originally had fire resistance lose that ability.
Champion of Flames (Su): The Emberknight becomes a veritable conduit of the elemental plane of fire. When donning his incendiary armor, his concealment increases to 50%. Whenever the Emberknight deals damage with his burning brand or channel elemental energy powers, he always deals the maximum possible amount of damage. Additionally, the emberknight becomes permanently immune to fire damage.
Still trying to think of an additional effect for burning brand at level 18. Fire only does so much in combat, at least for an offense-oriented character. It burns, it melts, and it spreads; but at level 18, just spreading the burning brand around seems kind of useless, and overlaps with the utility of breath of fire.
Inferno sword seems like it may be bit weak over using burning brand at higher levels. 17d6 = 59.5 average damage and it only has to hit touch AC. On the other hand, the 7d8 on inferno sword averages 126 fire damage from all four hits, but carries the drawback of having to hit full AC. Also, is there anything to stop the emberknight naming his fist as his weapon with inferno sword and just punching people for 7d8+17d6 at that point? Not that I necessarily think that needs to be stopped -- it sounds pretty awesome.
If fire only does so much, why not make it do more?
Have his Burning Brand and Channeling heal himself along with fire elementals. I don't know when it would be fair, but remember that normal Paladins and Stonelords can self heal out the ass with nought an action.
Emberknight lacks that unless he just so happens to be a Salamanders.
Also, does the Emberknight have to be Chaotic Evil or?
@Urit: I have an idea for an ability called Cauterize to give him some more in-combat usefulness, healing while inflicting some Constitution damage. Could be used on allies or enemies. As for alignment, I tried to make it open-ended. He could follow Sarenrae or he could follow Asmodeus just going by the PF pantheon. Only requirement is that he is in league with the elemental plane of fire.
@Toaster: Not a bad idea, but over-time damage is generally not that useful in PF to my experience. It'd need something in exchange.
@Urit: I have an idea for an ability called Cauterize to give him some more in-combat usefulness, healing while inflicting some Constitution damage. Could be used on allies or enemies. As for alignment, I tried to make it open-ended. He could follow Sarenrae or he could follow Asmodeus just going by the PF pantheon. Only requirement is that he is in league with the elemental plane of fire.
@Toaster: Not a bad idea, but over-time damage is generally not that useful in PF to my experience. It'd need something in exchange.
Check out the Gunslinger deed Utility shot has one use, Stop Bleeding, that is essentially cauterizing a wound. It doesn't heal damage (which Cauterizing does not actually do) it simply ends a bleeding effect.
Damaging Constitution for the sake of healing would not be worth it and it wouldn't be realistic either. Why would this fire damage constitution when every other fire effect deals hit point damage? Just have it negate, saying that the fire deals as much damage to the skin as it heals by closing the bleeding wound, cancelling out any damage and havign the benefit of stopping a bleed effect.
I disagree about DoT being bad, though. 1d6 fire damage per round (the amount Alchemist's Fire deals each round if I recall) regardless of what you're doing is really good. You could set someone on fire and back up to cast some buff spells or heals on your fire minion while the guy tries to put himself out.
Damaging Constitution for the sake of healing would not be worth it and it wouldn't be realistic either.
I was thinking more along the lines of a big burst heal in exchange for a loss of overall efficiency. Sort of a panic button thing. Only worth it in the long run in the sense that someone would die otherwise. I do agree that it probably wouldn't see much use.
Big Lemon wrote:
I disagree about DoT being bad, though. 1d6 fire damage per round (the amount Alchemist's Fire deals each round if I recall) regardless of what you're doing is really good. You could set someone on fire and back up to cast some buff spells or heals on your fire minion while the guy tries to put himself out.
Many of the burn effects already cause a one-round panic effect in addition. Maybe I could do it this way: he can choose to have burning brand deal its damage over time and stagger somebody until they put it out. It would lose much of its damage output but it would still waste one or more of the enemy's turns. In this case, touch of corruption is better, as it should be, on the debilitation end of things, but burning brand retains its superiority in the damage department. That is, when used to debuff, it's worse than touch of corruption, but when used for damage, it's superior.
I like this but think I will reflavor as hellfirem
I dig this guy's idea. Maybe the fire damage could eventually act like flamestrike at the discretion of the EMberknight (in that half the damage is divine or profane or w/e and thus only half of the damage is subject to fire immunity).
My assumption is that you are using the paladin as a baseline for how powerful this class should be. So, with that in mind...
Inferno Sword
Its pretty hard to put this class feature next to Smite Evil and say which one is better because they can be conditional/situational, but my gut tells that Inferno Sword is better. Lets take a look.
*Smite Evil
-Is static damage, so rolling low doesn't affect it.
-Is multiplied on a crit.
-Bypasses DR.
-Might deal 2 points per level.
-One use could last all day if your foe runs away
-AC bonus against one enemy
-Only affects evil creatures.
-Only affects one creature at a time.
-Might end very quickly if the creature dies quickly.
*Inferno Sword
-Dice damage, so might the damage could be anywhere. An average roll will be higher that Smite Evil's. This does not take into account crits, attacks against undead, dragons, outsiders
-Does not discriminate based on alignment.
-If your party uses effectively uses focused fire, the bonus damage can be used against multiple foes, one after another, with a single use of the ability.
-If the emberknight possesses an ability to attack multiple foes at once, the damage can be spread around.
-Does not multiply on a crit.
-Fire resistantance is the most common resistance (is that still true?)
-In a long battle, your bonus damage will end before you are done.
I would tone the damage back, and add some lesser class features to level 1. The paladin has Aura of Good. The emberkight have an aura of heat/flame/ember aura. Other creatures could feel the heat rolling off of him, and he gets fire resistance equal to his level (this could double when Inferno Sword activates). Instead of detect evil, the emberknight could be able to sense fires, fire elementals, know how long a fire has been extinguished.
Burning Brand
This is meant to equate to Lay On Hands, correct? Then why is it so much more powerful? It deals 1d6 per level to any creature. Lay on hands deals only half that amount to undead.
Wreathed In Flames
A paladin or antti-paladin gains this protection from a diety or whatnot. What is your justification for the emberknight being protected? Is he protected by fiery outsiders?
Fiery Embrace
Fire resistance cut in half is pretty arbitrary. As an alternate way to do it, resistance could be lessened by a number equal to his class level, or if your prefer it could be in chunks of five at a time. A higher level version of this could turn fire immunity in to fire resistance 40 (or whatever)
Channel Elemental Energy, Incendiary Armor, Elemental Servant
Now we're doing better. I like all of these, although I can think of no reason to point out that the emberknight does not learn spells.
Heat of the Forge, Aura of Pain
I might try to combine these two somehow, such that the more metal someone wears, the greater the damage. Chain shirt is not as bad as plate mail. I might also looks up the Heat Metal spell, create some kind of improveed form that scales with level, and give him the ability to eventually cast it as a swift action.
Conflagration
Rewrite this so it makes sense. It there additional fire damage from catching fire, or no? Also, "it becomes panicked for 1 round" is more clear than "causing them to panick for 1 round."
Thorough as always, Ciaran. In defense of OP's design though, I think I might have an answer for you on the inferno sword and burning brand.
Burning brand is more comparable to the anti-paladin's negative energy damage than the paladin's lay on hands. Negative energy hurts more things in the game than it heals and the same can be said for fire. Fire might be a little more versatile than negative energy, but I think that an antipaladin can easily fill in that gap in his offensive strategy by taking the command undead feat or whatever.
^^Quick question, though: can this ability be used with Crusader's fist as Touch of Corruption can?
On inferno sword: this is way better than smite good. Even in evil campaigns, I feel like it is not that common that you fight good creatures. It is more likely that you fight other evil creatures or neutral creatures. Meanwhile, most creatures don't like being on fire. I will note that this class does not get any real accuracy bonuses though. And I also think that this positive trade is offset by some weaker trades elsewhere in the class. For instance: I think incendiary armor is weaker than spellcasting, especially at higher levels.
Thank you sir. What you say makes sense in that the numbers are higher because positive energy is more versatile than fire/negative energy. I haven't look at the anti-paladin, as I assumed his ability was simply the opposite of Lay on Hands.
Incendiary Armor is weaker, in that spellcasting gives you the ability to choose a tool and use it at the opportune time. If anything, I change it so that cold/water effects are less potent, instead of more potent.
Spells are versatile, that class feature is not. However, I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. I think Pathfinder has a place for a class whose build has very few choices to make (in this case, only skills and the standard feats). What you get at each level is already determined for you. If the OP can use this format, but leave versatility in the way the class features are used, then that would be something worth doing.
Well, I want to say that at levels 1-3 smite good and inferno blade are kind of tied for me (or close enough to tied). Charisma to accuracy really is pretty good. Then at level 4 when the antipaladin would be getting spells, the damage steps up to 2d8 (twice the damage bonus of smite at that level) so things start evening out.
I don't think that I am in favor of an archetype design philosophy that says that every single thing traded out from the initial class must be of equal value to the original class ability. That is certainly a convenient guide-line for not f$*&ing things up, but I appreciate more open approaches like this one that give room for more finesse in altering many abilities at once rather than altering them one at a time. Sometimes a new class feature just needs to be more powerful than any one original class feature to do all the things you want the class feature to do. In that case, I think there is room to work with scaling in power over different levels and "downgrading" other class features to less useful ones.
Incendiary armor is weaker--I assume--than spells because other class features are the ones that are meant to shine.
My problems with elemental servant
Reading elemental servant again though: I am a little worried. I feel like you (Minosheep) are going to have a problem keeping this elemental relevant as the character progresses. At higher levels, I think this elemental will be tough as hell (as in tough to kill), but really too big to be walking around with. Huge is pretty huge when you want to stay in cities, go down the narrow passageways of a dungeon, or not burn down the dense sacred forest of the wither-elves.
Moreover, at level 5, that small elemental is a worthless chump. It is going to have just 15 hit points which is a potential one hit kill by level 5 that seems likely with the fire elemental's paltry 16 AC.
I feel like this class feature should be rebuilt, perhaps taking some inspiration from the summoner's eidolon, theming it as an efreeti (which is to say you stat up the familiar using those rules more or less but make sure the thing is neither too useful nor broken).
I'd just like to say that this Alternate Class has given me an inspiration for a similar idea that I didn't even know I wanted to make. So, thank you Minosheep for this idea, and I hope the Emberknight went over well with your group.
