| Ankroo |
First of all, thank you avr for clearing up the link misconception and everyone for your insights.
Ok, so.
I quickly red the fighter viking archetype, and the Ulfen Guardian (or Furious Guardian) prestige class and I thought it was really interesting in how they merged the fighter and barbarian mechanics.
But there was a component I wanted to develop that was missing from these sources : the mythologically-inspired warrior fighting for the glory of his gods and to be worth returning alongside his ancestors in Valhalla. Maybe it could just be an RP element but I'd really like to see which aptitudes could emerge from that. Also, from a rule point of view, I was trying with this aspect to make this class "Death or Glory"-friendly, or at least, give the opportunity to use this feat because of how well it can fit with the Viking spirit.
Now,
I'd suggest lining up the rage bonus increases with where a barbarian would get them. Levels 1, 11, 20 rather than 1, 8, 16.
Thing is, I was worrying that if I gave the hersir the same rage progression as the barbarian, it could be unbalanced. So I mimicked the rage progression of the skald, that also inherits this ability from the barbarian class. I thought that with the bonus feats from the fighter it would give to the hersir too much of an advantage. But for now it is just my feeling, so I wondered how could I mesure the rage's impact on the overall hersir power ?
Despite that until level 9, when they get the first in the rigorous inspiration line, this is a very defensive character class. Anyone who can get bane whenever they want qualifies as more than defensive. Although some fighter advanced armor training options (which a hersir could get) add a little to offence.
This is surprising because I didn't really think of this class as a defensive one to be honest. Also I recently discovered the fighter's advanced weapon and armor training options and it is clearly a good way of making the hersir more aggressive, considering that they could be completed/modified if needed. I will surely work on this aspect.
Concerning the rigorous inspiration bonuses, for now I simply exctracted the upgrades that could fit with the hersir abilities (regarding the fact that in their culture it is pretty impossible to find a weapon creating thunder for example, even if that could be an incredible benediction from Thor himself) without really thinking about which ones were, in the classic pathfinder world, rare or pretty strong, so it still needs to be refined.The heroic inspiration rage powers seemed odd. It took me a little while to figure out that they would boost the will save bonus of glorious inspiration. It might be useful to refer back to that class feature under minor heroic inspiration.
Noted.
There's a few bits of French left in the writeup. I imagine that's not a problem for you, and I can figure out what they mean despite knowing about three words of French myself before this.
On it.
I would look at the Ulfen Guardian prestige class and turn that into a normal class. It's basically the viking fighter but with a focus on being a bodyguard.
In fact, I wanted to let the player free to choose to incarnate a bodyguard-oriented warrior, a tall intimidating character, a mounted combat specialist, etc etc, but it is indeed good material to draw from.