I am running a Pathfinder RotRL campaign and the Paladin in my group is looking for a prestige class. He wants to have a super cool weapon and some earth powers so I worked this up. I'm throwing out for everyone to look at and critique before I allow it in the game. My biggest concern is does the class remained balanced with other higher level characters. So.. Thanks in advance, be harsh, offer suggestions and let me know what you think.
Heart Forged Champion
Role: Dedicated servants of Torag who seek out to eliminate the affliction of evil in the world.
Alignment: Lawful Good
Hit Die: 1d10
Requirements
Race: Dwarf
Base Attack Bonus: +9
Feats: Master Craftsman, Weapon Focus (war hammer)
Skills: Knowledge (religion) 5 ranks
Special: Divine Bond Special Ability (celestial weapon option); Smite Evil Special Ability
Class Skills
Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Chr), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Chr), Knowledge (arcane) (Int), Knowledge (engineering) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int)
Ranks per Level: 2+Int modifier
Special Abilities at each level
1 Craft Magical Weapons/Armor; Divine Bond Affinity; Heart Forge Ritual
2 Aura of Justice
3 Dancing Weapon
4 Smite Evil +1/day
5 Mercy; Acid Resistance
6 Tremor Strike
7 Smite Evil +1/day
8 Aura of Faith
9 Mercy
10 Earthquake Strike
Spells Advance as follows: LVL (1st/2nd/3rd/4th)
1 (2/1/0/-)
2 (2/1/1/-)
3 (2/1/1/-)
4 (2/2/1/-)
5 (2/2/1/-)
6 (3/2/1/0)
7 (3/2/1/0)
8 (3/2/1/1)
9 (3/2/1/1)
10 (3/2/2/1)
The follwing spells are added to the Champions spell list
1st: acid splash, mending
2nd: make whole, soften earth & stone
3rd: shrink item, stone shape
4th: minor creation, spike stones
BAB, FOR, WILL, REF all follow the Paladin Advancement from 11th to 20th level.
Explination of Special Abilities
Craft Magical Weapons/Armor: At first level Heart Forged Champions gain this as a bonus feat.
Divine Bond Affinity (SP): The Heart Forged Champion develops a stronger bond with the celestial powers that enhance his weapon. The number of enhancement bonuses and uses per day increase faster for the Champion then the regular paladin.
(LVL/Enhancement Bounus/Use per day)
1 +3 3 per day
2 +3 3 per day
3 +3 3 per day
4 +4 3 per day
5 +4 4 per day
6 +4 4 per day
7 +5 4 per day
8 +5 4 per day
9 +5 5 per day
10 +6 5 per day
Heart Forge Ritual: The Heart Forged Champion can perform the Heart Forge Ritual when crafting a magical weapon to imbue it with special qualities: (Still under developement; should have something to do with allowing earth powers and extended life to the user)
Aura of Justice (SU): A Heart Forged Champion can expend two uses of his smite evil ability to grant the ability to smite evil to all allies within 10 feet, using his bonuses. Allies must use this smite evil ability by the start of the paladin's next turn and the bonuses last for 1 minute. Using this ability is a free action. Evil creatures gain no benefit from this ability.
Dancing Weapons (SU): You can give a Heart Forged Weapon touched the dancing special weapon quality for 4 rounds. You can use this ability once per day at 3rd level, twice per day at 6th level, and three times per day at 9th level. Any enhancements the Champion has placed on the weapon will continue to function while the weapon is dancing but will cease if the weapon becomes controlled by someone other that the Heart Forged Champion.
Smite Evil (SU): At 4th and 7th levels the Heart Forged Champion gains an additional use of the Paladin Smite Evil ability.
Mercy (SU): At 5th level the Heart Forged Champion can select a mercy from the Paladins list as a 9th level paladin. At 9th level the Heart Forged Champion can select a mercy from the Paladins list as a 12th level paladin.
Acid Resistance(EX): At 5th level, you gain resist acid 10. This resistance increases to 20 at 10th level.
Tremor Strike (SP): As a standard action the Heart Forged Champion can use a weapon created using the Heart Forged Ritual to strike the ground and create an earthquake like tremor. The tremor radiates through the ground as a 30’ cone in the direction the Champion is standing. The effect lasts for 1 round, during which time creatures on the ground, within the cone, can't move or attack. A spellcaster on the ground must make a Concentration check (DC 18 + spell level) or lose any spell he or she tries to cast. The tremor affects all terrain, vegetation, structures, and creatures in the area. The specific effect depends on the nature of the terrain where it is cast.
Cave, Cavern, or Tunnel: The roof breaks apart, dealing 4d6 points of damage to any creature caught under the falling debris (Reflex DC 15 half).
Open Ground: Each creature standing in the area must make a DC 15 Reflex save or fall down.
Structure: Any structure standing on open ground takes 50 points of damage. Hardness does not reduce this damage, nor is it halved as damage dealt to objects normally is. Any creature caught inside a collapsing structure takes 8d6 points of bludgeoning damage (Reflex DC 15 half) and is pinned beneath the rubble (see below).
River, Lake, or Marsh: Fissures open under the water, draining away the water from that area and forming muddy ground. Soggy marsh or swampland becomes quicksand for the duration of the spell, sucking down creatures and structures. Each creature in the area must make a DC 12 Reflex save or sink down in the mud and quicksand. At the end of the tremor, the rest of the body of water rushes in to replace the drained water, possibly drowning those caught in the mud.
Pinned Beneath Rubble: Any creature pinned beneath rubble takes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage per minute while pinned. If a pinned character falls unconscious, he or she must make a DC 15 Constitution check or take 1d6 points of lethal damage each minute thereafter until freed or dead.
Aura of Faith(SU): At 8th level a Heart Forged Champions weapons are treated as good-aligned for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. Any attack made against an enemy within 10 feet of her is treated as good-aligned for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
Earthquake Strike(SP): As a full round action the Heart Forged Champion can use a weapon created using the Heart Forged Ritual to strike the ground and create the effects of an earthquake spell . The earthquakes 80’ radius is calculated from the striking point and the Champion is immune to the effects.
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Why the racial restriction? Torag is not a strictly Dwarf god, so I don't see why a specialty PrC of his would be so restrictive. PrCs with racial restrictions are quickly falling out of trend. Even the Arcane Archer is likely losing it's Elven restriction in future printings (or so has been hinted on these forums). The general idea is that PrCs shouldn't have requirements that you can't adapt a character to post-creation.
I would also suggest possibly removing the smite and special bond requirements to enter. Say a cleric or fighter comes into this class, they should either just skip the paladin-enhancing abilities of the class (making this PrC more attractive to Ppallies then others, but not paladin-exclusive), or get a lesser use of them. For example, you could have the PrC count as a paladin (and thus stacking) for granting uses per day of smite evil.
The Divine Bond Affinity ability would be harder to fix, but you could likely break it into two abilities, one granting continued Divine Bond progression of a paladin, and a second offering additional pluses. The goal would be that a pure pally coming into the class might get +3 3x per day, while a cleric might be only getting a +1 1x a day. Again, making the PrC much more aimed at paladins, but not exclusive to them.
It might be better to have each level of spellcasting of the PrC stack with a previous divine casting class. Otherwise, paladins that take this class, they will have two spell lists, and two spells per day allotments. Your spell progression table is a non-standard implementation, which I suspect was a kinda patchwork attempt at bumping pally spell progression without outright stating that.
Why the racial restriction? Torag is not a strictly Dwarf god, so I don't see why a specialty PrC of his would be so restrictive. PrCs with racial restrictions are quickly falling out of trend. Even the Arcane Archer is likely losing it's Elven restriction in future printings (or so has been hinted on these forums). The general idea is that PrCs shouldn't have requirements that you can't adapt a character to post-creation.
Since its homebrew I made it with my players character in mind. He is a Dwarf Paladin and wants a special order of dwarven paladins to belong to so I thought I'd use a prestige class to detail it. I agree that in another DM's game it could be open to any race.
I would also suggest possibly removing the smite and special bond requirements to enter. Say a cleric or fighter comes into this class, they should either just skip the paladin-enhancing abilities of the class (making this PrC more attractive to Ppallies then others, but not paladin-exclusive), or get a lesser use of them. For example, you could have the PrC count as a paladin (and thus stacking) for granting uses per day of smite evil.
Since the idea behind the class is an elite order of dwarven paladins I designed it to be paladin specific using the Divine Bond with a weapon as the aspect of paladins that this order are most focused on.
The Divine Bond Affinity ability would be harder to fix, but you could likely break it into two abilities, one granting continued Divine Bond progression of a paladin, and a second offering additional pluses. The goal would be that a pure pally coming into the class might get +3 3x per day, while a cleric might be only getting a +1 1x a day. Again, making the PrC much more aimed at paladins, but not exclusive to them.
Agreed to open it up to other classes the requirments could be altered and the divne bond becomes a new ability if worded right it would stack to already existing divine bonds from the paladin class.
It might be better to have each level of spellcasting of the PrC stack with a previous divine casting class. Otherwise, paladins that take this class, they will have two spell lists, and two spells per day allotments. Your spell progression table is a non-standard implementation, which I suspect was a kinda patchwork attempt at bumping pally spell progression without outright stating that.
Actually, the progression is the same as adding one level of Divine Casting for Paladins at every other level. I just wrote the chart out to make it easy for me to read. The idea being that to gain the other abilities the Champion spends less time with magic so a character who is Paladin 10/Champion 10 would have the same ammount of spells as a Paladin 15
Thanks for your comments, I agree with you about changing things to open it for all classes but since this is special for one character I'm not to worried about that. Any comments on if the Divine Affinty and earth powers unbalance the class with other prestige classes or high level base classes?
Actually, the progression is the same as adding one level of Divine Casting for Paladins at every other level. I just wrote the chart out to make it easy for me to read. The idea being that to gain the other abilities the Champion spends less time with magic so a character who is Paladin 10/Champion 10 would have the same ammount of spells as a Paladin 15
That's fine for that particular entry, but you can just as easily be a paladin 4/fighter 6/Champion 10. A spell progression table needs to work no matter what allowable combo of classes you use to get in.
Actually, the progression is the same as adding one level of Divine Casting for Paladins at every other level. I just wrote the chart out to make it easy for me to read. The idea being that to gain the other abilities the Champion spends less time with magic so a character who is Paladin 10/Champion 10 would have the same ammount of spells as a Paladin 15That's fine for that particular entry, but you can just as easily be a paladin 4/fighter 6/Champion 10. A spell progression table needs to work no matter what allowable combo of classes you use to get in.
Agreed, but since this is being made for one character not for any character I am not to worried about how all classes might get into it and how the powers would effect them. Its a homebrew idea for one particular character that is going to level as a paladin 10 then into the prestige class. I am interested in if anyone thinks the the powers are over or underpowered compared to other classes. The Player presented me an option I felt was way to overpowered compared to a regular paladin. I want to allow the characters creativity for the game but keep some sense of fairness for the other players at the table.
the only thing i would say is that all the other pathfinder prestige classes have a maximum level requirement of 5th level. if you look at the other prestige classes most of them have a skill rank of 5 as the primary level requirement.