Dwarven Defender
Fearsome warriors, dwarven defender are rare even among their folk. Their durability and toughness are legendary. They are are feared for their abilities to take blows that would fell a weaker race and do their duty even unto Death.
Only dwarves can become dwarven defender, they are usually fighters, some paladins taking up the call are not unheard of.
Role: Dwarven Defenders have the ability to take anything thrown at them and endure them while they go to work on hacking away at their opponents.
Alighment: Lawful
Hit Die: d12
REQUIREMENTS
To qualify to become a defender, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Race: Dwarf
Base Attack Bonus: +7
Feats: Dodge, Endurance, Toughness
Class Skills
The defender’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Craft (Int), Listen (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spot (Wis).
Skill Ranks at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.
Level Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Ref Save Will Save Special
1st +1 +2 +0 +2 Stalwart Stance
2nd +2 +3 +0 +3 Uncanny dodge
3rd +3 +3 +1 +3 Damage Reduction 2/-, Dodge Bonus +1
4th +4 +4 +1 +4 Spell Sense +1
5th +5 +4 +1 +4 Shrug It Off
6th +6/+1 +5 +2 Damage Reduction 4/-, improved Uncanny Dodge, Dodge Bonus +2
7th +7/+2 +5 +2 +5 Improved Stalwart Stance
8th +8/+3 +6 +2 +6 surprise Rush, Spell Sense +2
9th +9/+4 +6 +3 +6 Damage Reduction 6/-, Dodge Bonus +3
10th +10/+5 +7 +3 +7 Most Stubborn
Class Feature
All of the following are class features of the vanguard.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
A dwarven defender is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, all types of armor, and shields.
Stalwart Stance
He can use the stalwart stance for a number of rounds per day equal to 4 + Constitution modifier. At each level after first, he can use stalwart stance for 1 additional round. Temporary increases to Constitution, such as those gained from stance, rage, and spells like bear’s endurance, do not increase the total number of rounds that a dwarven defender can use stalwart stance per day. A dwarven defender can enter stalwart stance as a fee action. The total number of rounds of stalwart stance per day is renewed after resting for 8 hours, although these hours do not need to be consecutive.
While in stalwart stance, a defender gains phenomenal strength and durability. He gains +2 to Strength, +4 to Constitution, +4 Dodge bonus to his AC and can add his newly modified Constitution bonus to AC instead of his Dexterity. The dwarven defender loses this Constitution bonus to his Armor Class whenever he would normally be denied his Dexterity bonus to AC. In such a situation, the dwarven defender would still be considered flat-footed. The Constitution bonus to AC cannot be more than his armor’s Maximum Dexterity as normal for Dexterity.
The increase in Constitution increases the defender’s hit points by 2 points per level, but these hit points go away at the end of the stalwart stance when the Constitution score drops back 4 points. These extra hit points are not lost first the way temporary hit points are.
A defender can end he stance as a free action and is fatigued after stalwaft stance for a number of rounds equal to 2 times the number of rounds spent in the stalwart stance. A defender cannot enter a stalwart stance while fatigued or exhausted but can otherwise enter stalwart stance multiple times during a single encounter or combat. If a defender falls unconscious, his stalwart stance immediately ends, placing him in peril of death.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex)
Starting at 2nd level, a dwarven defender retains his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) regardless of being caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. (He still loses any Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized.)
If a character gains uncanny dodge from a second class, the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge (see below).
Damage Reduction (Ex)
At 3rd level, a dwarven defender gains damage reduction. Subtract 2 points from the damage the dwarven defender takes each time he is dealt damage. At 6th level, this damage reduction rises to 4/- and at 9th level to 6/-. Damage reduction can reduce damage to 0 but not below 0.
Dodge Bonus (Ex)
The dwarven defender receives a dodge bonus to Armor Class that starts at +1 at 3rd Level and improves to +2 at 6th and +3 at 9th.
Spell Sense (Ex)
At 4th level, a dwarven defender gains a +1 bonus on saves made against spells and spell-like effects and a +1 dodge bonus to AC against touch attacks by spells and spell like effects. At 8th level, these bonuses rise to +2.
Shrug It Off (Ex)
At 5th level and higher, a dwarven defender can scorn death and unconsciousness while in stalwart stance. As long as his stance continues, he is not treated as disabled at 0 hit points, nor is he treated as dying at –1 to –9 hit points. Even if reduced to –10 hit points or less, he continues to fight normally until his stance ends. At that point, the effects of his wounds apply normally if they have not been healed. This ability does not prevent death from massive damage or from spell effects such as slay living or disintegrate.
Damage Reduction (Ex)
At 3rd level, a dwarven defender gains damage reduction. Subtract 2 points from the damage the dwarven defender takes each time he is dealt damage. At 6th level, this damage reduction rises to 4/- and at 9th level to 6/-. Damage reduction can reduce damage to 0 but not below 0.
Dodge Bonus (Ex)
The dwarven defender receives a dodge bonus to Armor Class that starts at +1 at 3rd Level and improves to +2 at 6th and +3 at 9th.
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex)
At 6th level, a dwarven defender can no longer be flanked. This defense denies rogues the ability to use flank attacks to sneak attack the dwarven defender.
The exception to this defense is that a rogue at least four levels higher than the dwarven defender can flank him (and thus sneak attack him).
If a character gains uncanny dodge (see above) from a second class the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge, and the levels from those classes stack to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank the character.
Improved Stalwart Stance (Ex)
At 7th level, his bonuses to his Strength and Constitution increases to +4 and +6 while in stalwart stance. He may avoid becoming fatigued upon leaving stalwart stance by rolling a Constiution check. The DC is 10+two times the number of rounds spent in stalwart stance. The bonus from Endurance may be included on his roll.
Counter Attack Rush (Ex)
At 8th level, a dwarven defender’s base movement is doubled in the round after using a Fighting Defensively or Total Defense action for one round.
Most Stubborn (Ex)
At 10th level, a dwarven defender may add his Endurance bonus to saves made against effects that would result from damage or death attack such as the Death Attack from Assassin. 3 times per day he may reroll a failed saving throw against death attacks or spells and spell-like effects which cause damage that would put him at 0 HP or lower including disintegrate and slay living. This ability does not prevent death from damage through disintegrate or slay living even if he succeeded on his new saving throw. He must take the new second roll, it cannot be rerolled through this ability.
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Well it's not polished, so I appreciate some criticism.
I do have an ability in mind that can replace either Stubborn or Shrug It Off. I tried to make the PRC a little more player friendly so that it could be used outside dungeons or dwarven delvings.
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It's nice to see a revamp. Since you've based it mostly on the Stalwart Stance, have you read about the stances from (WotC) tome of battle? It might help expand upon the options available to the Dwarven Defender (like rogue talents did for rogues) to make it extremely player friendly and give the possibility to never play the same DD twice. :)
oh heh I didn't base it on that stalwart stance, stalwart is just a good name for durable, tough, and so on. Maybe I need to pick another name.
Nice, personally looking to update the dwarven defender and i saw the post. Anyway, i like the way its set up but i have to say i don't agree with the base attack requirements. I know that's how the original was set up but the +7 always seemed somewhat odd, as almost all other prestige classes only go up to 6, especially in pathfinder.
Anyway looks good so far, though i think doing something similar to the barbarian (with different abilities attached to the Dwarven defenders Stance ability) might be interesting.
Like the spell sense ability, though you might wanna think about changing the name. Looks good just needs some polishing. :)
I made a version of the defender a few months ago, but I liked some of what I saw in yours so I incorporated it. Namely, getting rid of the movement restriction, cuz not moving kinda sucks and renaming the main ability to Stalwart Stance.
Anyways, here's my cobbled version. Hope ya'll like it.
Hit Die: d12
REQUIREMENTS
To qualify to become a defender, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Alighment: Lawful
Race: Dwarf
Base Attack Bonus: +6
Feats: Dodge, Endurance, Toughness
Class Skills
The defender's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Engineering) (Int), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) (Int), Perception (Wis), and Sense Motive (Wis).
Skill Ranks at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.
Level Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Ref Save Will Save AC Special
1st +1 +1 +0 +0 +1 Stalwart Stance
2nd +2 +1 +0 +0 +1 Combat Readiness +1, Uncanny Dodge
3rd +3 +2 +1 +1 +1 Damage Reduction 2/-
4th +4 +2 +1 +1 +2 Bonus Feat
5th +5 +3 +1 +1 +2 Combat Readiness +2
6th +6 +3 +2 +2 +2 Damage Reduction 4/-, Improved Uncanny Dodge
7th +7 +4 +2 +2 +3 Improved Stalwart Stance
8th +8 +4 +2 +2 +3 Bonus Feat, Combat Readiness +3
9th +9 +5 +3 +3 +3 Damage Reduction 6/-
10th +10 +5 +3 +3 +4 Greater Stalwart Stance
Class Feature
All of the following are class features of the dwarven defender.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A dwarven defender is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, all types of armor, and shields.
AC Bonus (Ex): The dwarven defender receives a dodge bonus to Armor Class that starts at +1 and improves as the defender gains levels, until it reaches +4 at 10th level.
Stalwart Stance: A dwarven defender can assume a defensive posture that makes him incredibly hard to kill. When he adopts a defensive stance, a defender gains phenomenal strength and durability. Starting at 1st level, a dwarven defender can be in a stalwart stance for a number of rounds per day equal to 4 + his Constitution modifier. At each level after 1st, he can remain in a stalwart stance for 2 additional rounds. The total number of rounds of stalwart stance per day is renewed after resting for 8 hours, although these hours do not need to be consecutive.
While in a stalwart stance he gains +2 to Strength, +4 to Constitution, and a +4 dodge bonus to AC. In addition, he gains a bonus to his CMD equal to his dwarven defender level.
The increase in Constitution increases the defender’s hit points by 2 points per level, but these hit points go away at the end of the defensive stance when the Constitution score drops back 4 points. These extra hit points are not lost first the way temporary hit points are.
A dwarven defender can end his stalwart stance as a free action and is fatigued afterwards for a number of rounds equal to 2 times the number of rounds spent in the stalwart stance. A defender cannot enter a new stalwart stance while fatigued or exhausted but can otherwise enter his stalwart stance multiple times during a single encounter or combat. If a defender falls unconscious, his stalwart stance immediately ends, placing him in peril of death.
Using the stalwart stance takes no time itself, but a defender can only do so during his action.
Combat Readiness (Ex): Beginning at 2nd level, a dwarven defender is always ready for combat. He gains a +1 bonus on all attacks of opportunity and he can make one additional attack of opportunity each round. This bonus attack of opportunity stacks with the Combat Reflexes feat.
As the dwarven defender rises in level he gains an additional attack of opportunity and bonus to such attacks, for a total of +2 at 5th level and +3 at 8th level.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a dwarven defender retains his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) regardless of being caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. (He still loses any Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized.)
If a character gains uncanny dodge from a second class, the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge (see below).
Damage Reduction (Ex): At 3rd level, a dwarven defender gains damage reduction. Subtract 2 points from the damage the dwarven defender takes each time he is dealt damage. At 6th level, this damage reduction rises to 4/–. At 9th level, this damage reduction rises to 6/–. Damage reduction can reduce damage to 0 but not below 0.
Bonus Feat: At 4th level, a dwarven defender may choose a bonus combat feat. This is in addition to the feats that a character of any class normally gets from advancing levels. The character must still meet any prerequisites for these bonus feats. A dwarven defender gains an additional combat feat at 8th level.
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 6th level, a dwarven defender can no longer be flanked. This defense denies rogues the ability to use flank attacks to sneak attack the dwarven defender.
The exception to this defense is that a rogue at least four levels higher than the dwarven defender can flank him (and thus sneak attack him).
If a character gains uncanny dodge (see above) from a second class the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge, and the levels from those classes stack to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank the character.
Improved Stalwart Stance (Ex): At 7th level, a dwarven defender no longer becomes fatigued at the end of his stalwart stance.
Greater Defensive Stance (Ex): At 10th level, when a defender enters his stalwart stance, the bonus to his Strength increases to +4 and the bonus to his Constitution increases to +6.
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I always had issues with the Dwarven defender as a race specific class. I personally think they should just be called something along the lines of Champion Defender or something. This is saying that only dwarves have specialized trained solders in the art of defense.
It makes sense for Dwarves to be a mass majority of the classes ranks, but would there not be a human defender? royal guards... an Elven defender he might not be in the heaviest of armors and trained in a more dexterous style but everything about the class still would apply.
If you ever get this to a final state, feel free to add it to the Pathfinder Database!