well Wizards went into detail as to how to revamp evil and good detection skills in heroes of Horror, some good ideas there.
However if you dont like the way HoH does it, use my suggestion:
Fading influence: when a creature does an evil or good act, they emit an aura of that act based on the degree of that act, and for a set time period based on that degree.
I wholely reject the idea that evil creatures should be detectable at all times, and view evil / good diacodomy based on the actions of the particular individual.
This comes in conflict with your problems, though, and we can modify this to match your needs.
Fading influence: when a creature does an act of good or evil, that creature takes on a hint of that for thier aura (this is dirrectly put upon them by the entire pantheon of gods) which lasts as long as the creature is alive. a greater act of either good or evil grants a more significant aura, and auras such as these cannot be suppressed magically or willfully. Auras cease to be found in areas of anti-magic.
Eh, played with a few riddles in game, but for the most part I or my party wouldnt be able to get the answer>
A DM I have been playing with recently got an idea from his other DM about character intelligence - a character can know things that thier players who play them wouldnt normally know (normally this is quantified by a skill check). In cases where there are riddles, he suggested using a DC 15 intel check success means a hint, failure means an indirrection (conducted by the DM). Success by a great amount can give a better hint.
This leads me to a few items of importance:
Riddles can be used to make a game interesting, however it shouldnt be the basis for determining advancement in a situation. Although it can be fun for the PCs to figure out, it could take a very long time (greater than a combat session) to coordinate and finish.
One I got from my friend was this:
"Petals around the rose" the name of this game is the key of this game -
roll X d 6 and have the players guess the number from the d6s (the more dice you do the more confused they may get):
Answer::
two ways mathmatically or visually,
Math- take all odd numbers and subtract 1 from them and add up the results
Visual- count the number of dots around the center dot of a die
In the game mechanics, a cleric switching to another diety is not really easy, nor should it ever be easy.
First off: Said Cleric must "ditch" his patron diety and thereby loose cleric powers
Second: Said Cleric must adopt another diety and do some type of attonement quest to have this new diety as his / her patron diety
Third: Said Cleric must undertake this process with followers or other clerics from new diety to "ensure" that the cleric will be faithful (utilizing some ritual or contract bond).
this is pretty strait forward as in "real life" where a beleiver switches their faiths. the quest can be more Roleplay based or more fighting based, however I would advocate that at least some roleplay and story arc comes into place.
If you want to do a "rebuild", take a look at PHB 2 and DMG 2 so that this quest can be actually formalized and not made too hard or too easy.
I was always a fan of state based rage (PHB2 resilience for barbarians).
but in the intrest of keeping the ability consistant with terms of combat I think a simple change should suffice :
PF rounds is 2 + fixed con mod + 2 / level rounds no limit to amount of rounds per encounter
on average, this is "lesser" than that affect of rage from 3.5 at mid levels and even higher levels.
I think you are trying to do the following:
entering a rage requires at least 1 round investment, however if the barb doesnt want to spend more than 1 the barb gets a "cool down effect" much like the bard's PF ability for bardic music. this equates to N rounds of used rage + Con mod rounds extension after desired end.
Given the average encounter time of a mid level encounter of 10 rounds, and a normal permanant con score of 16, this would mean that 7 rounds of base use would occur with 3 "free" rounds though the "free" rounds would occur based on the barb's decision, and is typically not optimal.
with the PF round count, a level 8 barb would be 21 rounds, meaning 3 encounters a day. this is "almost" in line with 3.5e raging so i would say its pretty good.
Ok I Guess I'll start, I didn't add any descriptions to these items, and most of these items can be easily made (I try not to do exotic items as they are hard to price):
Glove of Wracking touch (UMD unlimited) 9000gp Wracking touch usable once per round
Headband of ranged resilience (Continuous) 10000gp prevents up to 10 damage per round from small projectiles such as bullets or arrows.
Angry Helm of blessed aim (3/day blessed aim) 840 only usable by barbarians.
Angry Bracers of Divine Sacrifice (continuous Divine Sacrifice) 10200 only useable by barbarians
Angry Gloves of Blood (10/day Blade of Blood) 4800 only usable by barbarians must use a standard action to charge weapon with spell, must use an intimidate check dc 10 to charge lasts for 2 rounds
Angry Pearl of Health returning (5/day vigor lesser) 1400 only usable by barbarians
Angry Vest of Resurgence (2/day Resurgence) 560 only usable by barbarians
Angry Belt of Healthful Rest (continuous Healthful rest) 700 only useable by barbarians
Angry Healer Shamen’s Neck Bag (3/day Lesser Restoration) 1680 only usable by barbarians
note that I had no imagination for names. The items which only can be used by barbs are -15% price, add this 15% back in for universal items
if you want to avoid the mount / summon in breaking combat kalliban raises a good point, disabling attacking in combat with it is perfect.
use a cursed sadle of traverlers mount, tie this into the character story to explain how the mount is in your control and has no choice but to follow you in combat.
Not to be an MoI fanboy (I really dont like the concept of MoI anyways, but Magic of Incarnum works great with a low magic campaign.
Its the problem of "magic item wielding soulmeld shapers" who would have a higher equivalent wealth than a regular melee class. there are different solutions though, shape soulmeld the feat allows for use of a single soulmeld. 1 feat for 1 magic item seems like a good trade. The drawback of using MoI is that none of the soulmelds ever increase stats, and very few actually add damage or AC (several give you different attacks or enhance other abilities).
Either way, all the other suggestions about superior masterwork weapons are great. (you could also do wild magic modifiers on the equipment =D but alas that may make the game too complicated).
well how about a side-grade to make it fair yet not nerf or buff it.
Originally the intent of Hold X was to immobalize another creature for a certain amount of rounds, thier ability to perform actions was mainly the use for this spell.
The intent of the spell also limited the creature to 1 save per round, but it was poorly implemented in 3.5e, nullifying the intent of the spell. now with the PF conversion, it seems that the intent is again nullified, requring a person who has no actions to use a full action?
Now without making a whole stirup about this, here is what I would use as a house rule for hold x:
description - this spell affects the target, making him / her / it unable to physically move (effect paralysis / helpless) if the subject fails the initial will save. On each round that the spell is in effect, at the begining of the caster's turn, the subject gets a will save as an immediate action (this action can be taken regardless of any limitation of action unless the subject is otherwise incapable of making will saves) to negate this spell effect.
this bypasses the slow effect as well as makes sure that a subject must loose at least 1 turn after failing the initial cast. also makes the spell caster able to decide what to do AFTER the subject passes the will save.
well not trying to beat a dead horse, but either conversion viable / is on the same power level for use in pathfinder?
I havnt ever played a shadow caster in 3.5e, always wanted to, but it seemed that 3.5e made the shadow caster so much more weaker compared to other spell casters up until 5th level when they would start to dominate, and again at level 10-15 when the power curve would change. after level 15, I always thought pure shadow casters were pretty rediculous.
For me, a shinigami would be something that exists on another plane of existance, however in the same plane of reality:
if you are okay with it, I say use the dark template from Tome of Magic and make the shinigami a shadow based creature. Apply this template to any creature who uses melee weapons (I am actually thinking of the Protean Scourge from MM3 3.5e, since it utilizes a huge scythe and has interesting abilities). These creatures should exist on the plane of shadow, and should come through in rifts, but can be seen by those with the ability to see both real and shadow planes (this is perfect as the plane of shadow coexists in the plane of reality).
Ion Raven has a good idea - this "bonding" is actually done in the Kensai PRC in complete warrior (of course we will ignore the fact that the Kensai class is broken and will never be allowed to play in PF without major rebalancing).
OK, lets change wording to "equipment summoning" since this PrC should be able to summon much more than armor and weapons.
I am in favor with your reasoning, the "equipment summoning" should be short cast, however I believe the abilities should be "long term". Many people would be against it, however it doesn’t make this class ability broken at all...
Right now, two concurrent abilities deal with "equipment summoning":
Summoning the equipment itself, and augmenting the equipment to let you do something special.
I would advocate that the summoning of the equipment occur once per day, and take about the time it normally takes to prepare spells. I would say you would be able to switch augmentation pretty much as swift actions, or even immediate (for the flashy appeal, since there is not that much difference between the two) and can be done any number of times you want and lasts as long as you will it. As the magic knight gains in levels, the number and types of augmentations the magic knight can use at the same time goes up (start out with 1 augmentation to use at a time, then work up to something like 3).
We will have to build the equipment sets, an ongoing task. Note that since this class is so dependant on the equipment sets as it's class abilities it doesn’t really make this class broken. One thing to note that MoI deals with very elegantly, magically created and equipped items versus worn items, they do not stack. I’d envision this class not spending a lot of money because the class wouldn’t need the money, thus, money would not allow the class to over buff on one magic item since all the body slots should be filled with summoned equipment. The problem occurs when a party absorbs the share of the gold, this is not an issue in a 5-7 man team, but more of an issue for a 3-4 man team, granting others an approximate wealth gain of 33-50% greater than the Magic Knight. I would say that the Magic Knight absorbs the appropriate portion of wealth when treasure is rewarded as a condition to “power” his/her equipment.
The information you provided was very helpful in determining your needs:
MoI probably wont work for you, as shaping soulmelds only can be done once a day (except in a few situations).
If your intent was just to allow a magic warrior who is ready for any situation, I'd say that uses per day or minutes of use isn’t effective in this.
I kind of compared this ability to another anime: Gundam Seed's Strike Gundam (multi-changing armor / effects). Modules could be easily added or removed based on the needs of the situation, in as little as 1 minute allowing for long range fights, from doing melee combat.
With the above non-sense I just spouted off though, I make a few suggestions:
Change the armor sets to functional types - Less combinations can give the class a solid foundation
1 for Aggressive Melee combat
1 for Defensive Melee combat
1 for Ranged combat
1 for Magical effects combat
1 for Skillful
1 for Capstone (special armor to be combined with any other armor set)
Each armor set should have a base of items given, and effects given.
Then add special effects – augmentation effects of all the armor sets
Winged armor: this augmentation allows the user to fly with a speed of 30 feet at level 1 and then +10 feet for every 4 levels thereafter. Depending on the armor set selected, this augmentation gives additional abilities as follows: aggressive provides the ability to do a fly by attack even if you do not meet the requirements for this feat, defensive gives you the ability to avoid attacks of opportunity when flying including beginning and ending the flight, ranged gives you the ability to fire arrows, bolts, and other ranged ammunition accurately extending the ranged increment by 100%, magical allows you to cast fly on your allies as a spell like ability at will, skillful allow you to use acrobatics with an automatic +5 bonus, capstone allows you to fly perfectly.
Angelic armor: this augmentation gives the user the detect evil ability. Depending on the armor set selected, this augmentation gives additional abilities as follows: aggressive gives all melee weapons the good and lawful alignment type to all wielded weapons, defensive grants the protection from evil spell constantly, ranged gives ranged weapons the good and lawful alignment type, magical gives the ability to use daylight at level 5 at will as a Sp, skillful allows for a +5 bonus on all charisma based abilities, capstone grants a continual status effect for all evil creatures in detect evil range
Demonic armor: detect good. Aggressive +2d6 damage for all melee attacks, but take 1d6 damage per hit, defensive sacrifice up to CL in HP at beginning of turn as a swift action to gain DR good and lawful equal to the HP sacrificed for one full round, ranged sacrifice 1d6 HP to do an additional 1d8 damage and grant the same amount of sacrificed HP to attack roll, magic use darkness at level 5 as will as a SP, skillful grants +5 bonus to all intelligence based skill checks, capstone grants a continual status effect for all good creatures in detect good range.
Elemental armor: you get the idea.
You should limit the number of augmentations per armor, however make this consistent across the board.
Lastly, make the armor last as long as the magic knight wills it: a 1 minute time span to change armor instead of round based actions (to limit abuse of situational bonuses), also ability to change augmentations when changing armor as well. You might want to scale the armor sets themselves with the level.
Sorry about our disagreement on exploit weakness, I was just thinking based on the title that it should be a constant effect.
Either way, I'd suggest to rename exploit weakness to something like "Critical Exploitation".
However Lets improve blood touch for a bit here:
Current Blood touch (Su): ½ CL+WisMod uses per day, Will save DC= 10 + ½ CL+WisMod negates, treated as a touch attack, 1d6 per 2 CL no energy / damage type (can either heal or hurt any creature).
Proposed Blood touch (Su): usable WisMod number of times per day (minimum 1) on each single living creature to do 1d6 per 2 CL positive or negative energy, will save DC = 10 + ½ CL+WisMod negates, treated as a touch attack.
This change will make this ability more viable for combat and not really break healing conventions. Also adding the negative / positive energy convention makes good sense for this ability.
Perhaps a Pathfinder-ized version of the Shield Ward feat like so:
Warding Shield [combat]
prerequisite: Shield Focus
benefit: You may add your base shield bonus to your touch armor class and your CMD.
special: Your base shield bonus is the bonus provided by the shield itself and feats such as Shield Focus and Greater Shield Focus. Magical enhancements to your shield do not increase this.
That seems like a good conversion: of note is the fact that magical enhancements do not add into CMD, this is why the converted feat is worded as such.
If you think this is too "powerful" you can make this only apply when fighting defensively or on a complete defend.
Also needing to be addressed by this feat are magical effects to sheild bonus, such as shield spell (the feat should only affect the appropriate shield chosen for shield focus):
Warding Shield [combat]
prerequisite: Shield Focus
benefit: You may add your base shield bonus of the type of shield you have shield forcus with and are actively wielding to your touch armor class and your CMD while you are fighting defensively or using the complete defend option. You get no benifit from this feat for any other shield types you do not have shield focus in, nor any magical or special abilities which grant you a shield bonus to AC.
special: Your base shield bonus is the bonus provided by the shield itself and feats such as Shield Focus and Greater Shield Focus. Magical enhancements to your shield do not increase this.
normal: Your shield does not count against touch attacks and does not normally apply to your CMD.
should be all simple and a few exotic and martial.
the flavor of the class is alot like a combat medic / kung fu artist, so lets try taking all the monk weapons and adding it to the platter, then add in all knife / doctor based weapons:
kukri + dagger + spiked dagger + saw (find equivalents) + surgical instruments
Its not as big of a concern, however, the shield proficiency should probably be droped, and the armor should go to heavy - justification would be due to the idea that the anatomist utilizes 2 hands to do the fun work, but typically uses superior protection incase of mishap.
I don't really care if Monkey Grip is too powerful or too weak. I just don't like the visual flavor of someone wielding a two-handed weapon in one hand. It feels silly to me. Like wearing two pairs of magical boots at once and gaining the benefits of both. Silly.
So does that mean you won't ever do a version of it James?
Monkey Grip never allowed a PC to wield a two handed weapon in 1 hand.
That was never the issue, the issue was mostly about reach arguments combined with wielding effort and the effect that it would have on a game's realism.
Although PCs should be allowed to do what they want to do in game, and feats allow PCs to do things which creatures in the game normally cannot do, this does not mean that the DM must allow everything to be acceptable. The game is controlled by the DM, and the players romp around in the world for which was designed in the confinds of that game.
World = player owned - game = DM owned
Sharpen Blade (Su)[Transmutation]:
When a Sword-Sorcerer reaches 6th level, he/she can take a single prepared blade and alter it into a sharpened blade as part of a ritual which requires 1 day of preparation and 1 day of work with a special Caster Level check against a set creation DC. A Sword-Sorcerer can only have a single such sharpened blade at a time, and a Sword-Sorcerer can made another sharpened blade when the last one is either destroyed or the prepared blade effect has worn away. A sharpened blade must be applied to only a prepared blade (meaning that only bladed weapons can be used).
Making a sharpened blade in this fashion gives the weapon the keen ability (doubling the threat range of the weapon) without raising the magical point bonus. The DC to create such a sharpened blade is equivalent to 10 + Construction Mod + Material Mod + Enchantment Mod.
Construction Mod: +1 if masterwork or elven craft
Material Mod: +1 if mithral, +2 if Cold iron or Silver, +3 if Adamantine
Enchantment Mod: +1 for every magical point bonus
Intent: Sharpen blade is only to exist on one single prepared blade at a time granting a "free" keen effect. The DC should rise as the weapon materials, construction, or enchantments increase, meaning that a weapon which is powerful should be harder to get this additional "free" ability attached.
As for PF or 3.Xe balancing, take a look at the PHBII class Duskblade as a basis for what types of skills / spell progression / saves / BAB / and other abilities should be considered to be included or taken out from this class. Be sure to note that Duskblade needs to be converted to PF before you do the comparison if you are looking for PF balance.
As shown in DB, it is possible to be almost fully armored, have a high BAB and have spell progression like a bard.
Constant darkness as the spell however only when no light sources exist in range.
27. slippers of elevated spider climb
ability to use spider climb as the spell but only while flying
28. belt of the in place acrobat
+10 on acrobatic checks to avoid attacks on you but only when your start and end movement square is the same
29. cursed Merciful sword of mighty cleaving (possible to make)
you get an additional attack when you kill an opponent with this weapon, however the cursed nature of this weapon forces all magical effects to be active.
30. goggles of repeat analysis
you get a +10 perception bonus to items / things you have already noticed
@SiD:
You have very good points, I initially thought that the point was to claim what MG would allow a PC to do, and what it wouldn't.
Lets try to do a conversion to Pathfinder which makes more sense and is a bit more amicable to all people:
Conversion to PF considers intent as the main reason for modification.
Changing the concise description is important to match the intent.
Monkey grip intent: Allows you to decrease the effort class down by 1 for a larger weapon regardless of weapon size (this allows you to use a large 2 handed, a huge 1 handed, and a gargantuan light as two handed weapons). Normal larger weapon penalties apply, and if the weapon is a reach weapon you are only able to use the reach weapon as if it were normally sized for you. If you wield a weapon 1 size increment larger than your size in this way with 1 hand you are unable to use an offhand weapon and also apply the normal larger weapon penalties to your CMD as well.
Reasons for the above intent: Reach should not be granted for larger weapons for balance problems (granting creatures reach who should not get reach), normal penalties should apply, and if trying to wield a larger weapon you *should* use both hands.
Monkey grip suggested PF conversion: This feat allows you to decrease the effort class to wield larger weapons by a single effort class. If this decrease in effort class still would not allow you to use this weapon, Monkey grip has no effect. Normal larger weapon penalties still apply, and non-reach weapons do not gain reach capabilities through this feat, nor do reach weapons gain increased reach beyond what is normal for your size of the weapon. In order to maintain the benefits of this feat, the weapon must be equipped to your mainhand. if you are using this weapon only in your mainhand, and not two handed, you take additional penalties to CMD equal to the size penalty. If you are using this weapon only in your mainhand you cannot use any other weapon in your offhand, or use an offhand attack.
this sounds pretty good, as allies should be able to wack a dire weasle off of the wizard, but balance problems ensue:
every time a creature is damaged does it need to do another check? or just in the next round take a certain penalty based on the damage dealt to it.
I suggest the following -
add up the strength and constitution scores of the creature and subtract that from the damage dealt last round to determine what the penalty (if any) is on this round's CMA
Lets talk about this concept: as a casual watcher of Anime, I can say it is pretty nifty to have the ability to summon magic items / armor when you need them and only summon those you need. It also is desirable for a low treasure campaign. Having summonable items can break the game, so try to match to other classes which have these abilities which are being emulated by summoning of the item. for example, if an item gives you sneak attack, progression against your class's class skill list should account for this and have the nessesary dedication to that item once every 2 levels (just like SA).
However this gives us the opportunity to talk about a 3.5e book which gives you exactly (or alot of what you were looking for):
In going with your story, I believe it would be a nice segway into introducing Magic of Incarnum to pathfinder.
Take a look at Magic of Incarnum to get ideas on some of the concepts as laid out in there if you want a magic equipment summoning fighter class.
Unfortunatly MoI takes at least 2-5 reads to really get right and straight, and many DMs do not want to introduce this "lifeforce" based concept to thier games (much like psionics).
A brief overview:
Soulmeld - magical item summoned for use by the caster, gives different abilities
essentia - powers those soulmelds, however there is an essentia cap
chakra - bind the soulmeld to chakras for extra power (corresponds to magical item slots)
MoI replaces the need for some skill/combat enhancing magic items, and is very flexible in battle (essentia points are commonly reassigned to power another soulmeld if situations change and are not consumed in the process). Be aware that MoI has very stiff restrictions (essentia capacity of soulmelds, actual narative effect soulmelds have) but if you can live with it, you can base your class around some of the other MoI classes.
I would only suggest converting MoI to PF if you are up to it, a whole book conversion could take a month or more =/
Noxious inoculation (Ex): Through years of controlled exposure to dangerous chemicals, compounds, and mediums the anatomist slowly becomes immune to all but the most harmful of all substances and ailments. At 2nd level, an anatomist gains a +2 bonus on all saving throws against all poisons or diseases. This bonus increases to +4 at 6th level and then again to +6 at 10th level. At 14th level, an anatomist becomes completely immune to poison and disease.
Ok just a few, its important to note the environment that this class will be used in.
3.PF or 3.Xe?
Campaign mode: deadly, dangerous, hard, normal, easy, walk in the park
Party structure: less magical healing, more nuking, more melee, more ranged
Next, a few comments I have made for myself (if I were to play this class myself)
I am a min-maxer as a PC, though I try not to be, and I can understand how to break the game with almost any class ability:
Blood touch: infinite healing or infinite damage, is this a Sp Su or Ex? is there any downside for using this ability.
My suggestions version 1: change this ability to times per day equal to twice char level or tied to something which grows as the charter does.
My suggestions version 2: change this ability to have a downside, such as transfer of wounds only to another creature, so you could do up to 10d6 damage if you had that much damage on you in the first place (also able to heal party non-infinitely, by transferring their wounds to you). Consider creating a multiplier in this case so the ability is not too weak.
My suggestions version 3: make a spell like ability usable only in touch range so that this is a lot like a melee caster spell. In this case you don't really need to change the uses per day or the damage.
Exploit weakness: the intension of this ability is lost for me, and to have this ability to only work on crits is too much like the other crit feats and energy burst weapons.
My suggestions version 1: change intent to be, exploits any available weakness the creature has such as low ability scores / skill checks / save in combination with another activated ability. So for example, you would get to use this ability on any attack, spell, special ability, or skill check against another creature; an exploit weakness attack could use the creature's lowest ability score replacing DEX for AC, a spell could use the creature's lowest save vs the DC, a special ability could use the creatures lowest check vs the DC, and a skill check could potentially use a lower other related skill check vs your skill check. (this is the most creative part of the class, this will make your created class shine)
My suggestions version 2: make the ability itself work to disable an advantage for the creature, such as regeneration, a successful check with this ability means that for 1 round the creature looses one Su Sp or Ex ability (not all, differing DCs for each). This also means it replaces your attacks and other actions, but this is a very innovative and small price to pay to be able to kill a tarasque.
Everything else looks great, I mean they give the character flair and the ability to stand out.
I will try to recap all the reasons why Monkey grip should not get reach and only applies in certain cases, as well as why meta-gaming PCs deserve to die in lava.
First off - Monkey grip does not give any additional penalty to hit, this penalty already exists. Mg also only lets you use weapons +1 size larger than weapons that are properly sized for you at no additional effort meaning that the weapon class is maintained.
Next - Reach is inherent to the wielder: a giant (large or huge) would get reach, but a large club would not grant reach to a medium user. For consistency sake, this should remain true for reach weapons.
Third- Lava swimming may be possible, however remember that there is no such spell as lava breathing, and that even with complete fire immunity you would have to technically levitate to prevent eventual sinking and being lost in the earth's soft embrace.
Support for 1) 3.5e Monkey Fist states that the penalty does not change, though the effort taken to wield such a larger weapon does not (only of 1 size larger than your size).
Support for 2) recap only, my full explanation spanned about 1 page of text:
Thanks to pres man we have a maximum length difference per size categories, but according to my calculations, the length increase for each size beyond medium should be 1.1x current length. This means that a Spiked chain (favorite “abused” weapon) cannot actually increase from 10ft normal reach to 15ft, it comes just 0.4ft shy at colossal.
Support for 3) there is a passage which specifically says “immunity to acid does not grant you the ability to survive if suffocated by it”. This applies to lava. Immunity to fire does not give you the ability to breathe lava, even if you didn’t have to breathe it wouldn’t mean you wouldn’t sink in lava unless you had some sort of lava swim speed (like burrow but needs to be explained by the DM). To have a player think just because he/she is immune to fire damage does not let the player breathe lava or swim in it.
For the first 2 reasons, I believe the use of monkey grip is warranted in 3.PF, but the PC needs to understand WHY weapon size is conducted in the way as shown above.
The third reason is to point out that even rules can be used to justify a DM for laying down the boundaries of imaginary and just plain impossible.
