Hello all, I'm a new fan of the Pathfinder system and mostly as a kind of thought experiment/system understanding test I have here attempted to create a class. I am very keen to hear your thoughts and criticisms.
Role:
Alignment: Any non-lawful.
Hit Die: D8
Starting Wealth: 4d6 × 10 gp (average 140 gp.) In addition, each character begins play with an outfit worth 10 gp or less.
Class Skills
The jumpers class skills Acrobatics (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Disable Device (Dex), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (Geography) (Int), Knowledge (Local) (Int), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), and Stealth (Dex).
Skill Ranks: 4 + Int modifier.
Good Save: Reflex
Table: Jumper
1: Jump 10 ft, Jump Pool
2: Epiphany, Evasion
3: Bonus Feat
4: Epiphany
5: Jump 10/5, Uncanny Dodge
6: Epiphany
7: Swift Jump, Mobile
8: Epiphany
9: Jump 15/5, Improved Uncanny Dodge
10: Epiphany
11: Bonus Feat
12: Epiphany
13: Jump 20/10, Improved Evasion
13: Epiphany
15: Free Body
16: Epiphany
17: Jump 30/15, Free Mind
18: Epiphany
19: Bonus Feat
20: Master Jumper, Epiphany
Class Features
Weapon and Armour proficiency: A jumper is proficient with all simple weapons, plus the hand crossbow, one-handed firearms, short bow, short sword, scimitar, rapier, and whip. She is also proficient with light armour and shields (except tower shields).
Jump Pool (Su): Jumpers have the ability to see space in a way most people cannot comprehend. The jump pool is a measure of a jumper’s ability to manipulate the dimensions.
At 1st level, the jumper gains a reservoir of energy that she can draw upon to manifest her powers. This jump pool has a number of points equal to 1/2 her jumper level (minimum 1) + her Charisma modifier. This pool regains 1 point every round.
Jump (Su): Seeing the twisted structure of space, a jumper is able to shunt themselves through bumps and rifts in reality, effectively teleporting themselves to nearby spaces. At 1st level a jumper can expend one point from her jump pool to teleport to a nearby space. This movement does not provoke an attack of opportunity. You cannot take other creatures with you when you use this ability. If you attempt to jump into an occupied space the jump fails. After jumping you are able to take the rest of your actions as usual.
At 1st level a jumper can jump up to 10 ft. as a move action.
At 5th level a jumper can jump up to 15th ft as a swift action or a move action. Iterative jumps are still free actions.
At 9th level any round a jumper jumps she can spend an addition point to make a secondary jump of up to 5 ft. as a free action.
At 13th level the primary jump is increased to 20 ft. and the second jump gained at 9th level is increased to 10 ft.
At 17th level the primary jump is increased to 30 ft. and the second jump gained at 9th level is increased to 15 feet.
Epiphanies: As a jumper gains better understanding of her unique ability she acquires a number of powers. At 2nd level a jumper gains one epiphany. At 4th level and every two levels after a jumper can gain another epiphany.
At 2nd level you can choose from the following:
Phase Striker (Ex): You become more adept at attacking out of jumps. Jumping grants you a +1 insight bonus to attack rolls for the rest of the round.
Force Strike (Su): You strike as you re-enter this dimension, your weapons still resonating with otherworldly vibrations. As part of a jump you can spend one jump point to add 1D6 force damage to your attacks for the rest of the round.
Silent Operator (Su): You gain experience at hiding your jumps and using your power to improve your sneaking abilities. All jumps are silent and as a swift action you can spend 1 jump point to gain a bonus to Stealth equal to your charisma modifier for one round.
Requires: Stealth 3 Ranks.
Phasing Missile (Su): You use your powers to make projectiles jump closer to your target. As long as you have at least one jump point, when you use thrown weapons you calculate attack and damage rolls as if you were up to 10 ft. closer (minimum 0 ft away from target).
Planar Stamina (Su): Your power does not tire you as easily. Your jump pool is increased by one.
At 6th level you add the following to your list:
Spatial Rend (Su): You gain the ability to violently distort the dimensions around a target. As a full round action you can target one enemy with a ranged touch attack. If it hits this attack deals 1D6 force damage for every point in your jump pool. This depletes your jump pool.
Distraction (Su): Your instability makes it hard for enemies to focus on protecting themselves. You gain a circumstance bonus on attack rolls equal to your charisma bonus when flanking.
Requires: Dex 15.
Improved Force Strike (Su): When using the Force Strike ability you gain an extra 1D6 of damage.
Requires: Force Strike epiphany.
Phase Shift: You flit in and out of the physical plane, making you exceptionally hard to hit. As a swift action you can spend one jump point to grant yourself 20% miss chance until your next turn.
Requires: Dex 15.
Out of Harm’s Way (Su): Your keen reflexes allow you to jump out of the way of threats. After an attack is declared you can use an immediate action to spend 3 jump points and add your charisma modifier to your AC. If the attack fails to hit, you can immediately jump 10 ft. as a free action.
Blink Thief (Su): Your powers are a natural fit for a thief, and you use this fact to your advantage. You gain Improved Steal even if you don’t meet the requirements.
Requires: Dex 13.
At 10th level you add the following to your list:
Greater Force Strike (Su): When using Force Strike you an additional 1D6 of force damage and do an additional 1D10 force damage of a critical hit.
Requires: Improved Force Strike epiphany.
Planar Blur (Su): You learn to rapidly phase in and out of reality. As a move action you can spend two jump points to grant yourself 50% miss chance until your next turn. This does not stack with Phase Shift.
Requires: Dex 17, Phase Shift epiphany.
Spectral Hands (Su): Furthering your training as a thief you learn to snatch objects as you come out of a jump. On any round you jump you can use your jumper level instead of your BAB and your Dexterity in place of your strength when you perform a steal maneuver.
Requires: Dex 17, Blink Thief epiphany
At 14th level you add the following to your list:
Frequency Saw (Su): You learn to vibrate your weapon(s) in and out of the material plane, allowing them to more easily cut through matter. As a swift action you can spend four jump points and ignore hardness and DR for the rest of the round.
Twisted Space (Su): You learn to violently distort space around a target, turning his attacks against himself and his allies. You can spend four jumper points to cast Twisted Space as a standard action. The DC is 10 + your jumper level + your charisma modifier.
Requires: Spatial Rend epiphany.
Deadly Distraction: Your jumps become startling in combat and enemies find it difficult to defend against an enemy that can appear from anywhere. After a successful jump you provide flanking from all squares you attack. Flanking starts from the moment you make an attack until the start of your next turn. You can effectively flank with yourself and with multiple allies when using this feat.
Requires: Dex 17, Distraction epiphany.
Long Port (Su): You gain the ability to jump incredible distances. If you have at least 8 points in your jump pool you can cast teleport as a full round action (caster level equal to your jumper level). Using this ability drains all of your jump points.
At 18th level you add the following to your list:
Dimensional Precision (Su): You learn to guide your weapons in and out of the material plane like a seamstress guides a needle. As a free action you can spend five jump points to make all melee attacks for the round resolve against touch AC.
If you have Phasing Missile this also applies to thrown weapons.
Requires: 19 Dexterity, Phase Striker epiphany.
Blade Prism (Su): You warp the dimensions to your will, making one strike hit in multiple places at once. As a full round action you can spend eight jump points to make a single melee or ranged attack at full BAB -5. You roll for attack and damage once and this applies eight times to a single target or eight times split however you like amongst multiple targets within a 30 foot radius of you.
Requires: Spatial Rend epiphany.
Hide in Plain Sight (Su): You have mastered the art of jumping discretely and can use your power to aid stealth. You can use the Stealth skill even while being observed
Requires: 19 Dexterity, Silent Operator epiphany, Stealth 10 ranks
Evasion (Ex): At 2nd level and higher, a jumper can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If she makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if the jumper is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless jumper does not gain the benefit of evasion.
Bonus Feats: At 3rd level, and every six levels thereafter, a jumper gains a bonus feat in addition to those gained from normal advancement. These bonus feats must be selected from those listed as combat feats. She must meet the prerequisites for these feats as normal.
Uncanny Dodge: Starting at 5th level, a jumper can react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so. She cannot be caught flat-footed, nor does she lose her Dex bonus to AC if the attacker is invisible. She still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. A rogue with this ability can still lose her Dexterity bonus to AC if an opponent successfully uses the feint action (see Combat) against her.
If a jumper already has uncanny dodge from a different class, she automatically gains improved uncanny dodge (see below) instead.
Mobile (Su): At 7th level, a jumper can move through difficult terrain without penalty and leaves no trail unless she chooses to do so.
Improved Uncanny Dodge: A jumper of 9th level or higher can no longer be flanked.
This defense denies another jumper the ability to sneak attack the character by flanking her, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target does.
If a character already has uncanny dodge (see above) from another class, the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank the character.
Improved Evasion: At 13th level, a jumper's evasion ability improves. She still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth she takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless jumper does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.
Free Body (Su): At 15th level a jumper can use their power to escape any restraint and ignores any effect that would impede their movement as per the Freedom of Movement spell as a constant effect. This cannot be dispelled by any means.
Free Mind (Su): At 17th level a jumper’s thoughts transcend the material plain even when her body stays put. She gains a circumstance bonus to saving throws against mind-affecting spells and spell-like abilities equal to half her class level. In addition if she fails a roll to which this bonus applies, once per day she can choose to immediately reroll and take the better of the two results.
Dimension Master (Su): At 20th level a jumper has mastered her skill. Both primary and secondary jumps use no jump points and one epiphany of your choice has its cost reduced by one jump point (to a minimum of 0).
Some explanations:
I wanted to create a martial oriented character that focuses not on obvious bonuses to damage and defense such as sneak attack dice or barbarian's increased Con, but rather on mobility and positioning. The jump ability allows this class to get full attacks with move and also deny enemy full attacks by moving away afterwards a la Spring Attack. From what I understand the movement/full attack dynamic is vitally important to combat and this allows the class to have a potent but unique power.
Another goal of mine was to have a wide range of options open but to nudge the player in the direction of lesser used options. You are perfectly able to use common options such as being a strength focused two-handed user, but a lot of the class nudges you towards using two weapons or thrown by allowing consistent full attacks, adding flat damage dice additions, and requiring high Dex for certain abilities. The bonus feats are there to facilitate odd builds.
The jump pool was made to regenerate because I really like the feel of nova-ing as a magus, but I hated how the power of the class is so intimately tied with the pace of the game and how casters in general changed so much depending on how much you fight in a day. With the way it regenerates you sort of always have the option of blowing your load but you still have resources for fighting after and are back at full capacity for the next fight. You also have the choice of blowing increments of your load and in general you have a lot of options every turn (another thing I like about the Magus).
This is my first homebrew class and I don't really have that much experience with Pathfinder so a lot I'm unsure about. I don't know how this class would fair in an actual game, particularly at higher levels and some of the class feature decisions are pretty arbitrary. The Evasions and Dodges are just there because they felt obligatory with the theme of the class. Some of the higher level abilities were kind of forced in and I feel like some of the optional abilities should be standard class features.
Also the fluff and naming is pretty bad, though I do have an idea of how the abilities would transcend numbers I just need to express it in the right way.
So anyways, looking forward to your replies!
So it's based on the movie of the same name I take it?
I collaborated on a monk alt class that does this
Unbound
Rynjin: Sort of not really. I definitely took the naming from there but most of my ideas came from Nightcrawler and the multitudes of video game characters who can teleport at will. I have seen the Jumper movie but I think that's too much long range jumping for me whereas I want someone who can be pesky in combat but doesn't have the really long range teleports to mess with adventure design too much.
Liongold: Thank you! As I said Nightcrawler was one of the figures I had in mind, I guess I better work on incorporating his signature "teleprot bad guys to high places and then drop them" move.
For "more jumping less bab" what would you suggest? A third jump/round and half bab? I didn't specify but I believe having a D8 hitdie corresponds to 3/4s BaB. I think having a half bab martial could be pretty interesting, maybe if I make the bonus to hit on flanking a class feature.
+5 Toaster: Yeah your link doesn't work for me either. I would be interested in seeing your work.
Thanks for the replies guys! This is still rough so I'll definitely be making a lot of changes in the future.
whoops link It is primarily wintersrage's work.