Currently I'v completed 3 classes and I want them to be viable options for melee characters in an upcoming home campaign. They were designed to be stronger than pure martials, set at about the strength of 1/4 casters who had time to pre-buff. The idea was that if you didn't have a full caster in the party, you'd still be okay at dealing with the Big Bad. With that said, may I present....
The Aggro Able to take a beating and keep enemies focused on him instead of your swishies. Honestly, this guy is basically just a cherry pick of all the full BAB classes thrown together, not particularly proud of it.
The Manipulator A monk alternate class that manipulates the elements to not rip off Avatar, I swear..... also the name may be changed to Elementalist, still haven't decided on that one.
The Regenerator Uses enhanced chemical and metabolic activities to perform amazing deeds. The homebrewiest of the three, I'm particularly concerned with balancing the archetypes on this one since some of the trade offs are very powerful.
All three of these classes are quite combat-central as well, so any suggestions on how to make them less one trick pony-y would be appreciated.
*cough cough* bump *cough cough* but seriously, any input would be appreciated :)
Alright. The Agro. How is this at all balanced at 1st level?
Hit Die
There is only one class that gets a d12. I'm not saying no others can, but it should be justified. Then the character adds twice his con mod when leveling up? An 18 con delivers 20 hit points at 1st level. Its overboard, and is a needless complication. The character is already going to have piles of HP.
Skills
Its like a jumble of the barbarian, fighter, and paladin. I don't see any indication in your class description to justify such an odd mix-up of skills. Does every home made class really need Perception on it's class list? This has seemingly become an automatic skill everywhere I look.
One Good Save
Considering how much else you have handed out, this is appropriate.
Proficiencies
Same as the d12 hit die, tower shield proficiency is kind of the fighter's turf, which is not saying it's wrong to give out.
Agro
A rage variant. Ok. I see you have build charisma into it, making the character dependent upon one more ability score at early levels, but this will become less meaningful at higher levels. The bit you wrote on changing creatures' attitude towards him is not enforcable in any way. What you are suggesting this class feature cause the GM do is exactly what the GM should be doing anyway. I would scrap it, and build an actual mechanic. We have +2 to strength, +2 to constitution, and +2 to AC. Aside from the Cha bit, this is completely superior to Rage. This might be OK if it were the only class feature at 1st level, but its not.
Agro Powers
A barbarian has to wait until 2nd level to get rage powers, while the Agro gets a power with a one level investment.
Agro Training
Again, you take away a unique ability of the fighter. Every other class (to my memory) that grants the character virtual fighter levels to qualify for feats does so with a restriction, such as the Magus counting as a fighter of half his level.
Armor Training & Fortified Armor
You've doubled up on AC bonuses. The fighter only gets one of these abilities, and that one is intended to make him the best armor wearer alive. I don't see why both are needed. FA grants an enhancement bonus that stacks with other enhancement bonuses. Why not not simply make it an untyped bonus?
I can appreciate when someone has a lot of ideas. You foster the creativity and use them all. You can always trim them down until things are reasonable. However, I feel that you need to develop a clearer idea of what you want this class to be. What is it? It seems to be a lot of things, with not much of a binding concept I can detect.
The fact that the attitude change thing for the aggro is not really enforceable was largely by design. I didn't want to make it so that the power automatically drew people towards him, just that while active a GM should attempt to make him a larger target, even if he just happens to be turtling at the time. That's also why it received fairly significant AC boosters, I want it to get attacked A LOT but not die right away. Maybe reducing them a bit would be a bit better for balance over all though...
I guess it's important to know that the game I'm running is VERY high challenge with very competent min/maxers, so I wanted these classes to reflect that as well (although the monk variant is largely simply that, a monk variant)
Oh gosh, my eyes! Please don't use a serif font for a online documents. Just stick to Arial or something.
I have to agree that I'm not a fan of Aggro either. It's not just the fact that it's basically an overpowered barbarian that steals abilities from the ranger and other classes. It also doesn't really have a roleplay identity. Even the class's name and role explains that the class only exists as a game mechanic rather than a roleplaying experience, using gamer jargon like "aggro," "tank," and "squishy."
The premise of manipulator intrigued me, a sort of elemental monk. However, this isn't quite what I'm seeing here. For a monk that's supposed to be attacking by manipulating elements, I'm actually not really seeing ANY abilities that let a monk attack with energy aside from Elemental Fist's bonus damage and the elemental focus blast attacks, which aren't very well defined. I also think giving air elemental fist sonic damage is not a good idea. Electricity is associated with air in Pathfinder, and sonic is way better than pretty much all of the options.
Some of the elemental focus stuff looks interesting, but mostly, this seems like a monk with a few minor changes. I felt like this should have been an archetype rather than an alternate class, which would have eliminated a lot of redundancy. For example, elemental flurry is exactly the same as the base monk. It's also kind of overpowered as this monk can do melee attacks with a 30 foot reach with really powerful damage dice. The class doesn't even explain exactly HOW his reach is increasing. Is the monk's arms getting stretchy or something? There's a surprising lack of flavor with this class.
Honestly, I would like to see a class that has some kind of supernatural special attack that works like a reach full attack. However, the entire class would have to be balanced around it. But that's for another discussion...
As for the regenerator, I'm not really sure how I feel about it. Like the other two, it strikes me as a first draft, even having several typos throughout it. For some reason, it makes me think of Dr. Mundo from League of Legends.
Elemental Flurry is a little different in the fact that you can add in variable reach with each attack and as written is the only way I know of to add strength to elemental attacks, but I can see where that and some of the other features don't have enough flavor to really define the class yet. I wanted to make sure that the crunch was fine first and foremost before I started really focusing on the fluff.
For the manipulator, it's the element that they're wielding that extends, not their actual body (like how as water benders can manipulate water farther away from them as their abilities improve in Avatar) I thought that was fairly clear, but apparently I need to work on clearing that up a bit in the text. I felt that adding in the elemental focus came with enough perks that it warranted an alternate class so you couldn't stack archetypes with it. That and you don't get a ki pool anymore (yes the martial artist doesn't have one either, but their new mechanics don't add quite as much versatility).
Everything is basically in first to second draft at this point, they definitely need polishing for sure. I really do value the input that's been said so far though, this is my first attempt at writing up classes, so every little bit helps :)
Edit: Just looked at the text for the improved elemental reach, apparently Google decided not to load the most recent version of that paragraph when I uploaded the document (happened a couple times now that I think about it, kinda weird). The text has been altered to better reflect what I had in mind.
The class doesn't define elements as weapons. It just mentions
You say that you did not focus on fluff, but there's a lot of redundant descriptive text that doesn't explain the game mechanics. Take the fire focus description as an example and let's break it down sentence by sentence:
In its truest form fire manipulation is the manipulation of raw energy, and fire manipulators have proved time and time again that their destructive power is a sight to behold. At first level, a fire manipulator learns how to manipulate the energy around him, combusting the air surrounding his movements. These fiery blasts can be created as an attack action and deal fire damage equal to the manipulator’s elemental damage shown on Table: Manipulator. Unlike other forms of manipulation, a fire manipulator can only extend his fire in a straight line. Treat all of his elemental focus reach attacks as ranged touch attacks that do not provoke attacks of opportunity.
In its truest form fire manipulation is the manipulation of raw energy, and fire manipulators have proved time and time again that their destructive power is a sight to behold. At first level, a fire manipulator learns how to manipulate the energy around him, combusting the air surrounding his movements.
These two sentences (three if you count the compound sentence) serve little function. The first sentence feels completely unnecessary, because it describes neither mechanics nor flavor of the ability. The second does not adequately describe the flavor of this ability, and the only useful information about the mechanics is that the manipulator gets the ability at 1st level. And it should have conveyed this information at the very beginning of the description.
These fiery blasts can be created as an attack action and deal fire damage equal to the manipulator’s elemental damage shown on Table: Manipulator.
Okay, it's an attack action, but...what is it? Am I firing a ray? Am I making an unarmed strike? What's the weapon?
Unlike other forms of manipulation, a fire manipulator can only extend his fire in a straight line.
The class does not explain what a manipulation is or whether you can attack around corners with it. Besides, unless the ability specifically says so, all ranged/reach attacks take cover into consideration anyway. This sentence feels completely pointless and just confuses the reader.
Treat all of his elemental focus reach attacks as ranged touch attacks that do not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Wait, reach attacks? So, it's a melee attack? Okay, melee attacks with reach usually work like ranged attacks for cover and such, but you say it's a ranged touch attack. What's the range on it? Why doesn't it provoke attacks of opportunity? This is the one part of the ability that describes the crunch, and yet it raises so many questions. The fire focus ability is a complete mess. I could have rewritten it as the following:
I'm not even getting into the balance issues here either (though, why is elemental focus an extraordinary ability when it has many sub-abilities that all strike me as supernatural?). No player could run a character with this class, because the crunch is ambiguous and the fluff doesn't explain how anything works. Overall, this class feels like a first draft.
When I begin designing an ability, I typically first think of the fluff and then write a short outline of mechanics that support it. After I'm satisfied with the mechanics, I then write a draft of the ability's text and do a few revisions/rewrites as necessary to make sure the ability is concise, flavorful, and unambiguous.
For the aggro and your description of your games, why not simply use a gestalt?
While I was reading the agro class, "this is basically a gestalt" kept running through my head.
Fixed up some of the issues with the aggro, it's been toned down a little but it's lost some of the little flavor it had in the process... it reads even more like a gestalted barbarian now which I'm not particularly thrilled with. Honestly, I could achieve what I want from just doing that, but I do want to work on making the aggro mechanic into something fun and unique. Haven't had much time to sit down and work on the manipulator, so that'll have to wait until tomorrow. I would like to hear a little more input on the regenerator class though if someone's willing to tackle it, since it's the farthest from a standard class to compare to.
I feel the same about the regenerator as I do with the manipulator. It feels like a first draft. You aren't indicating what kind of abilities these are. There's random formatting of phrases and words for no reason, like italicizing 'surge' in one ability and not italicizing them in another (keep in mind the monk class italicizes ki because it's a romaji word, not an English word). I do like that you format the names of spells properly, though. Design-wise, it feels weird this is a non-spellcaster that's clearly meant to be a martial class, but they have a 3/4 BAB. Also, the class doesn't fit the tone of the game very well as it uses science fiction tropes of aliens and symbiotes. Language is a key factor here. Pathfinder text doesn't call something an "alien." They call them an "aberrant creature from another world." A symbiote might be called a sentient plague or disease. If text ever describes something as "alien," they're using the real meaning of the word rather than science fiction jargon.
On the manipulator:
Am I missing something? Is this class's elemental fist worse than the 4 winds monk's elemental fist? Their unarmed strikes step up and their elemental fist steps up even more than the progression listed here (getting to 4d6 extra damage at level 15 if memory serves).
On the regenerator:
I like the regenerator, actually. I don't mind sci-fi in my fantasy (see HP Lovecraft) so I like the space virus. I don't like the inspire courage and frightful presence abilities, though. Other similar effects in the game have magical connotations that are absent here. With the regenerator, I feel like the logic is "people are all freaked out and inspired because my character is just that teh hardcorez edgy".
I worry that power surge might boarder on being broken, but I don't really care. I think it is situational enough that I don't mind that 18th level regenerator getting a +60 to strength and dex for a round or two. Ostensibly the character would risk dying (taking 20 damage a round), but there would realistically be no danger of dying. Who could hit a guy whose touch AC and CMD both jumped by 30? Pretty much only mages could but they can't really do that much HP damage anyways. But you can really only do that once a day so I think that might be fine and also kind of funny.
On the Aggro:
I don't like the Aggro. Doubling that guy's constitution bonus to AC does not seem like the right way to approach the class and I agree that "Aggro" is not really a role playing identity.
On the regenerator:
I worry that power surge might boarder on being broken, but I don't really care. I think it is situational enough that I don't mind that 18th level regenerator getting a +60 to strength and dex for a round or two. Ostensibly the character would risk dying (taking 20 damage a round), but there would realistically be no danger of dying. Who could hit a guy whose touch AC and CMD both jumped by 30? Pretty much only mages could but they can't really do that much HP damage anyways. But you can really only do that once a day so I think that might be fine and also kind of funny.
On the Aggro:
I don't like the Aggro. Doubling that guy's constitution bonus to AC does not seem like the right way to approach the class and I agree that "Aggro" is not really a role playing identity.
Because surge points are so slow to regenerate (the 18th level character would need 10 hours to replenish the surge points used in your example) and the class gets medium armor proficiency, it's more economical to wear armor than use Power Surge to up your AC for the most part. A +5 Breastplate would save you 12 surge points per battle, even more at lower levels, so while AC can potentially get out of hand, I imagine in play it wouldn't happen often since it's both painful to do so and poor resource management. But yes, the ability to hyper-nova with the class is something that I want to have as an option, but I don't want it to be the only tactic the PC would ever use so I think I hit an okay middle ground with that.
As far as the aggro is concerned, yeah, I'm not a huge fan of it either anymore, especially since I've started working on other projects that are more interesting. I might scrap that class or completely revamp it, only time will tell.
On the manipulator:
Am I missing something? Is this class's elemental fist worse than the 4 winds monk's elemental fist? Their unarmed strikes step up and their elemental fist steps up even more than the progression listed here (getting to 4d6 extra damage at level 15 if memory serves).
Yes, their elemental fist is weaker than the monk of the 4 winds', the reason for that is that I didn't want their elemental fist to be stronger than their elemental focus attacks when they are manipulating the same element in a very similar way. With the increased reach on elemental focus attacks and therefore increased ability to full attack, I felt it would be safer to use monk unarmed strike damage than monk of the 4 winds elemental damage for everything.
Now I'm assuming that your game is a quite by-the-book game, since you say you play highly optimized etc, but why would it matter if you just got medium armor proficiency by 18th level? By then the Mithral Celestial Plate will have made armor proficiencies as a whole pretty redundant, except for having other materials than mithril. So yeah, you miss out on DR 2/-, which is such a binor boon at that point why even mention it?
Also, with regards to the regenerator, I feel it's kind of unnecessary to let Inspire Greatness affect itself. I'd make it "other allies" rather than allies; the class has enough dakka as is.
In a more general vein, I don't feel that the classes as a whole feel... Right. It could be me having internalized D&D/PFs disdain for martial classes, but I try to consider: "If I wanted to play a powerful character, would I rather play one of these at high levels, or a cleric?" and, well, it would depend so heavily on the campaign. Thing is, in combat these things are MONSTERS, but out of combat they're... meh. I don't know how your games are, but if I try to place these in the experiences I have, they'll be very "either or". Either the session is a combat encounter, and then I'd feel that hell yeah these remain power houses (unlike a fighter), or the session is lighter on combat and then they are as boring as a fighter. And that's where I feel the real issue is at high level.
So, if you play the game as a tactical combat game (and there's nothing wrong with that) they don't seem off, but if it's played with more out of combat problems - not necessarily "roleplay encounters" but things where other kinds of narrative power matters - then they feel meh.
So in terms of empowering them compared to vanilla classes, I feel that you're kind of missing what the actual issues of the martial classes are (at least those of the barbarian, paladin and ranger, which from what I've experienced and heard perform quite nicely in combat at higher levels).
The issues with the martial classes aren't so much "lack of high numbers" (which your classes would solve) as "lack of out of combat options and "soft" abilities". And with soft abilities I mean open-ended abilities like illusions, conjurations and transmutations which allow for narrative power and creativity.
On armor: just find a way for a buddy to take your armor off and/or rely on a monk robe and bracers of armor. You are still king of dodging.
On the manipulator:
Am I missing something? Is this class's elemental fist worse than the 4 winds monk's elemental fist? Their unarmed strikes step up and their elemental fist steps up even more than the progression listed here (getting to 4d6 extra damage at level 15 if memory serves).Yes, their elemental fist is weaker than the monk of the 4 winds', the reason for that is that I didn't want their elemental fist to be stronger than their elemental focus attacks when they are manipulating the same element in a very similar way. With the increased reach on elemental focus attacks and therefore increased ability to full attack, I felt it would be safer to use monk unarmed strike damage than monk of the 4 winds elemental damage for everything.
What happens to the damage of elemental fist if the class take the dragon style tree of feats (that give it access to four-winds elemental fist damage progression)?
On armor: just find a way for a buddy to take your armor off and/or rely on a monk robe and bracers of armor. You are still king of dodging.
What happens to the damage of elemental fist if the class take the dragon style tree of feats (that give it access to four-winds elemental fist damage progression)?On the manipulator:
Am I missing something? Is this class's elemental fist worse than the 4 winds monk's elemental fist? Their unarmed strikes step up and their elemental fist steps up even more than the progression listed here (getting to 4d6 extra damage at level 15 if memory serves).Yes, their elemental fist is weaker than the monk of the 4 winds', the reason for that is that I didn't want their elemental fist to be stronger than their elemental focus attacks when they are manipulating the same element in a very similar way. With the increased reach on elemental focus attacks and therefore increased ability to full attack, I felt it would be safer to use monk unarmed strike damage than monk of the 4 winds elemental damage for everything.
Dragon Ferocity specifically says monks who take the feat gain the bonus damage. Since this is a monk alternate class and not a monk, the bonus damage does not apply.
King of dodging with the caveat that you'll bleed out because of it (7 to 20+ damage per round equals a pretty steep price to pay for that AC bonus, especially if you get caught flat-footed) and only be good for one combat.
@Gaberlunzie: In the case of the regenerator, natural flight and extendable limbs can help for a number of out of combat scenarios, as does the natural healing (party in an anti-magic field and need a quick escape route from the dragon barreling after you? Power Surge so that you can hold the weight of everyone, Speed Surge to GTFO and Flight Surge to get over that pit that you had to fly over earlier, wrap everyone else in a Protect Surge as you blast through the molten lava entrance to the dungeon and be on your merry little way), they just require a little more thought than "Do I have a spell for that?"
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@Gaberlunzie: In the case of the manipulator, natural flight and extendable limbs can help for a number of out of combat scenarios, as does the natural healing (party in an anti-magic field and need a quick escape route from the dragon barreling after you? Power Surge so that you can hold the weight of everyone, Speed Surge to GTFO and Flight Surge to get over that pit that you had to fly over earlier, wrap everyone else in a Protect Surge as you blast...
(Assuming you mean the regenerator? This is a problem when you name your classes based on a specific thing they do rather than conveying who they are)
All of those examples you mention are still largely combat orientated and don't encourage creativity beyond solving a specific problem or solving all problems of a certain type. They just don't feel very inspired, largely because they feel like they're designed with combat in mind rather than as a cool aspect of a character or bolstering the character's development.
Ah, whoops, edited previous post. I am very open to suggestions as to how to de-combatize the classes or to branch them out, so if anyone has any ideas I'm all ears.
As I mentioned before, you can begin by stop thinking about the classes in terms of combat. Instead, think of them in terms of flavor. Avoid abilities that can completely render a whole class of problems trivial.
The problem is, there's extremely little mundane problem solving intrinsically designed into any class for inspiration. The only mundane problem solving presented in any class are the rogue's trapfinding, the ranger's tracking abilities(and the ranger is a quarter casting class, so that argument is almost invalid) and the bard's various performances (which count even less since the bard is a half caster). The regenerator's surge powers provide some narrative power while staying completely mundane.
But as I said, I don't have many actual ideas on how to help them impact the narrative, unless I wanted to introduce spellcasting to one of the classes (I don't). Cyrad, I really do appreciate you pointing me in the right direction, but I have very little to draw on so some ideas instead of just concepts would help a lot in showing what you would want mundane narrative power to look like.
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Rage powers are a good place to start because several of them are not magical, but do very interesting things. The monk has many abilities like slow fall. The ranger's animal companion is a really nice class feature that has many consequences for roleplay and combat.
Finding a flavor hook for abilities should be simpler than you think with the regenerator. He's some kind of scientist or physician that mutates his body. Think in terms how this concept would exist outside of a game. Wouldn't he have the ability to apply his research elsewhere than simply boosting his body? Wouldn't he be able to function as a medical doctor? What if he could research a poison that only works on a certain creature? What if he could apply his enhancement serums on his allies? What if he could help cure diseases? How does a regenerator fit in the world and what does he do in the world?
For the sake of problem solving, rage powers don't really add (m)any options (flight is measured in rounds and you'll only need to break out of so many jail cells/sunder so many locks) but they do add versatility to the class, so I can draw some inspiration from them.
I personally don't envision the regenerator as a scientist or physician, and the flavor for that treads on the alchemist's toes a little. I saw him as gaining his abilities through a mix of desperation and determination, with a little bit of guidance from his symbiote partner. Regenerators are supposed to be ordinary folk with an extraordinary drive, given the ability to let physical limitations sit on the back burner for a bit while they get the job done. In that regard, having a primary "role" in society is off with what I envisioned the class as.
In that vein, I could rework the class so there's a list of surge powers to choose from instead of automatically receiving X power at Y level and have more interaction between the symbiote and its host. Maybe have the symbiote work more like the alchemist's tumor familiar but have it so that when it detaches you lose your regeneration and ability to perform surge powers. The symbiote would be able to use a reduced or different list of surge powers while not attached and would have a smaller pool of surge points and no regeneration ability, maybe it would even take bleed damage while not attached. In return, maybe it recovers surge points at an accelerated rate of 1 per minute or even 1 per round instead of the slower rate that it has while fused.
Of course that would mean adding a couple non-surge abilities to the class so that your human/elf/whatever isn't useless while they're separated. Thoughts?
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Rethinking the symbiotes role is probably a good idea. But I highly recommend thinking about the class design in terms of life style and profession. Every class has an identity as a being that exists in the world. The fighter involves a person who lived a life as a knight, a soldier, or a sword for hire. The wizard is an intellectual scholar. The ranger is largely a loner that lives in the wilderness and is skilled at hunting specific targets. The barbarian is an uncivilized, likely tribal warrior driven by bloodlust in battle. There exists subversions of these identities, but they cannot exist without a core identity to subvert.
The regenerator is just some dude with a thing in his head. There's no identity here. Who is he? What does he do for a living? How does he live his life? What niche does he fill in the world or in society? Why would I want to roleplay such a character?
Outside of the opening flavor paragraph, there is nothing within the classes themselves that directly defines their societal position. How they interact with the world at large and fit into the theme of the game is up to whoever wrote the world into existence, and even then, the same chassis can be used for a variety of ideas (necromancers and mad men are just as much a wizard as the academy graduate). To say that lifestyle and profession are intrinsically part of the mechanics of a class is unsupported by the classes themselves, but certain professions or lifestyles can definitely be supported by the mechanics of a class. In the case of the regenerator, personally, I like the idea that he was just Joe Blow the Dreamer until he got a brain slug, and now he's Joe Blow the Doer. The idea of being "The Chosen One" isn't tied to a specific group of people (although the number of down-on-their-luck lower middle class attractive-thirty-year-old-white-people-attempting-to-pass-off-as-teenagers that Hollywood portrays would have you thinking otherwise) and as such I think it's fine that anyone can have a brain slug.
Admittedly, that would work better as a prestige class option (Jimmy was just a regular Fighter until he got a brain slug, now he's AWESOME) but there isn't enough room in a prestige class to really play around with surge points and powers without them either being A) too situational or B) too weak to matter, because I would have to tone down some of the more powerful surges and abilities so that you don't grossly outperform your allies by the time you finish the prestige class. Also, with a reduced surge point pool I'd have to bump the class back up to d10 and full BAB, something I decided against despite being a melee class since Joe Blow used to be a regular person so should have regular hit dice and BAB progression.
As to why you would want to roleplay a regenerator, mayhaps because having a symbiotic relationship with an alien sounds like a fun time (I am working on doing the changes I mentioned earlier, it helps a lot more than just having the surge powers in creating a unique roleplaying experience) or being able to challenge your body's limits spurs some kind of inspiration for some kind of character concept you never would have thought of without the class being there (maybe a character from Claymore or a human-titan from Attack on Titan fun fact, when I first came up with the bare bones original draft for this class two years ago (it took me a while to get back to it) I hadn't seen either of those two shows). You can be a book worm as a wizard or a fighter, be a noble as a wizard or a fighter, be pretty much whatever flavor you want as any class, so I don't see the need to restrict the class to a specific subsect of the populace since what a class means in the game world is not directly related to what the class itself does but rather what the GM wants the class to represent. Done with my micro-rant on the subject. As always, the feedback is appreciated :)
Alright, finally got all the changes done to the regenerator that I wanted. Here is the class redesigned so that the symbiote has a more prominent role and the student/teacher/partner relationship is brought out a bit more. I think that the limitation of two advanced surges balances out their crazy power, but I'm sure other people have other opinions and I would be glad to hear them. Also, Power Surge got a bit of a nerf.
Anyone want to take a gander at the changes and let me know what they think?
Decided that I liked playing around with the teamwork aspect of the design, so reduced the number of surge powers the host gets and added in bonus teamwork feats and a teamwork feat sharing feature. Now the regenerator feels like he's using his knowledge to help the party achieve their goals and not just him his, so I like how the flavor is progressing. Outside of tweaking a little bit of the wording, I think I've done everything I want for this class.
My only concern is that multiclassing this with 5 levels of barbarian makes for a MUCH stronger character since you don't have to worry about losing Dex to AC from flanking anymore, making Power Surge lose the more important of its two drawbacks...
Also, I realized that I didn't spell out regeneration's weakness to fire and acid earlier, that has been fixed. You have reason to fear fireballs again (unless you dip 2 levels of monk to get evasion, since you WILL be passing your reflex saves while Power Surging).
Hmm, and therein lies the largest problem with the class, it's easy to dip and/or splash other classes in to really reduce its weaknesses without severely limiting it's abilities.... any suggestions on how to make it less obvious to multiclass with it would be appreciated.