OK so here it is, i have an idea for a new class the problem is that im not sure how to go about it.
first thing i would like to say is that i do not wish to use any of the existing classes or options that already exist so if your only thought is how to use the existing classes please don't comment.
this is what i have so far, it will be a full combat class that draws its power from a new source, this source is the elder beings in the depths of space, it will not be divine but it will be a new power source that is similar to divine.
the class will gain permanent alterations to his body and he will have armor and weapons that are actually alive and can be altered like the way the Edelon can be.
the idea is that the class gains something of a companion with his weapon, it will function as a standard weapon but its alive and can act on its own also the armor the class wears will be living both the armor and weapons lose the option of being sundered and are actually alive.
i would love to hear any ideas on this and would really appreciate all the help i can get.
assume full base attack and a d10 HD.
think kind of like aberration worriers.
i am thinking of using evolution points that will be allocated between the character, the weapon and there armor.
i am thinking of them gain proficiency with one weapon of there choice instead of martial weapon proficiency, they would still gain simple weapon proficiency.
that weapon would be there bound living weapon that will have 2 forms, its weapon form and a creature form so that it can move around and even fight on its own.
sorry for the constant posts i just keep getting ideas.
so i also want to make a point to say that i am not looking to make a holy champion for the elder gods nor do i want the character to simply become an aberration.
again sorry for all the posts i just have to get this out so i dont forget it.
im thinking that the size of the weapon companion will be light=tiny, one handed=small, and two-handed= medium.
also i was thinking that maybe a character who chooses to use a light weapon actually will gain 2 of them both living just to balance out the options and give a person a reason to choose light weapon.
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My idea is to create a base class amalgam using the class features of the Alienist & Green Star Adept (Complete Arcane, pages 21 & 41, respectively). You can swap out the features you don't want for the ideas listed above.
thanks for the thought, i will take a look
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The living weapon could be done as symbiotes, using the appropriate rules, or you could just skip the idea of weapons seperate from the individual entirely, and have the weapons form out of the body when needed, and remain attached (lower arm turning to a blade of bone and keratin and chitin or whatever). If your super-cool living weapon is destroyed or lost, you could grow another, but it might take 30 days or something, during which time, you are stuck using stuff you've picked up, or claws and other natural weapon attacks.
Similarly, armor would be natural, and probably incompatible with mundane armor. Perhaps your carapace changes from level to level, as you gain natural armor, and options like armor spikes would be a logical addition to the Evolutions list. The natural armor progression would have to move along at a faster pace than it does for Eidolons, since being stuck with a +2 NA bonus, and no armor, until 10th level, would suck beyond the telling of it for a melee class.
The character would save a ton of money, not having to buy magical weapons and armor, and should perhaps have some means of wasting money built into it, such as expensive reagents that must be used to change his Evolutions (similar to the Transmogrify spell, for the Summoner), allowing him the powerful ability to customize himself in advance for a specific adventure (Against the Frost Giants? I swap some stuff around to add Cold Resistance and the ability to spit Alchemist's Fire!).
super cool idea guys, and would like to see how this works out on a finished class. Il throw in my two cents whenever you guys come up with a basic class and stats. Not really into making the class from scratch right now (exams my a**).
Just an idea with the items. You could have him making rituals to the greater universe dieties or something, kind of the ritual cost for legendary weapons, that way he wont just get an expensive piece of magic armor for free.
I think the evolution points are a good idea. If you want a basis for rules for living weapons, what about the weapons of a 3.5 soul knife. The class itself was luke warm in my opinion but the rules for the mind blade might be a good basis for shapable living weapons.
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I think the evolution points are a good idea. If you want a basis for rules for living weapons, what about the weapons of a 3.5 soul knife. The class itself was luke warm in my opinion but the rules for the mind blade might be a good basis for shapable living weapons.
A useful bit of advice, there.
Some enhancements might not make sense, like bane or frost or flaming, but it's entirely plausible for enhancements like keen or shocking (electric eel tissue?) or acidic to be added to an organically grown weapon-limb-thing. Swap stuff around, perhaps add some qualities like blood draining (similar to a stirge attack) or venomous (weak giant spider / wasp / etc. venom).
I think the evolution points are a good idea. If you want a basis for rules for living weapons, what about the weapons of a 3.5 soul knife. The class itself was luke warm in my opinion but the rules for the mind blade might be a good basis for shapable living weapons.A useful bit of advice, there.
Some enhancements might not make sense, like bane or frost or flaming, but it's entirely plausible for enhancements like keen or shocking (electric eel tissue?) or acidic to be added to an organically grown weapon-limb-thing. Swap stuff around, perhaps add some qualities like blood draining (similar to a stirge attack) or venomous (weak giant spider / wasp / etc. venom).
Indeed, i would also probably leave out the part about being able to throw them, though I guess its not impossible to be able to grow throwing weapons like Spike from the Xmen series of comics. But starting as a longsword equivalent, and then improving to either a bastard sword or 2 short swords seems like a good idea for living weapons.
i think i will have three different evolution lists, one for the character one for the weapon and one for armor.
was wandering though, should i just use the same point progression as the Edilons evolution points.
beyond the evolution ideas what do you think the class should get as basic class features.
i have no idea what skills to give this class, im thinking of giving them 2+int to skills but im not sure what skills they should get.
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i have no idea what skills to give this class, im thinking of giving them 2+int to skills but im not sure what skills they should get.
Physical bodily skills that make sense for someone who is turning himself into an animalistic predator / fighting machine, like Acrobatics, Climb, Fly, Perception, Stealth and Swim.
Heal, to represent a knowledge of anatomy and physiology. Knowledge (nature) for the study of animals and natural biological systems (important if you are going to be reshaping flesh and bone to emulate animalistic traits). Survival (cause you're gonna be out there, tooth and claw).
Pure shapechanger-y stuff could include Disguise (likely) or Escape Artist (less so).
I'd probably just go with all of the above (plus the skills everybody has, Craft and Profession), except for Escape Artist, and then make it 4+Int skill points per rank, since, like a Druid or Barbarian, they are going to need more than two skills to get by. Note that Craft (weaponsmith) might be used if the character is going to be creating special organic weaponry, like chitin swords or bone spears, and not just growing claws.
Other stuff would be learend cross-class, if needed. Bob the Tentacle-Freak might have some ranks in Knowledge (dungeoneering) because of his extensive studies on Aberrant anatomy, and Jane the Hound-Shaper might have Handle Animal, to maintain her kennels of flesh-warped spike-bone-plated gore-hounds, but those would not be class skills.
Nice, those will work really well.
at what level should i give them living armor, i was thinking around fith level.
i need some ideas for there class abilities, im not sure what to give them,this is not counting there evolutions.
ok so for there basic class abilities i will be giving them there living weapon companion at 1st level, i will be giving them there living armor at 5th level and more then likely i will be scavenging a few abilities from the summoner like life link.
any other ideas for some basic class features.
any thoughts on if i should just go with the evolution point progression that the Edilon uses or should i come up with my own point progression.
should this class have more points sense they will be spending them on them selves there weapon and there armor, i was also thinking of putting a max number of points you could put on one thing so you need to spread them out.
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should this class have more points sense they will be spending them on them selves there weapon and there armor, i was also thinking of putting a max number of points you could put on one thing so you need to spread them out.
That last might be a good choice, to have X number of points you can put into your 'living armor,' and X number of points you can put into your 'living weapon' (which could just be claws or tentacles or something), and then X number of points you can put into utility effects like alterations to movement rates (or new movement types, like climb, swim or fly), enhanced senses, etc.
i really do see the character him self changing quite a bit so eventually the character may not be recognizable as a specific race, you know like they may gain gills, claws, wings, tail, tentacles, extra eyes, so on and so forth.
so as alien as the armor and weapon may be the character will be very alien so expect that.
Didn't the Necromancer or Dread Necromancer class in 3.5 have a type of bone armor and grafts that worked on class levels? If so maybe this is a good place to mine for the armor ideas...
Or the Fleshwarper from Lords of Madness, which is a bit more in tune with the idea of self-modification in an aberrant sort of way. The Aberrant feats from that same book are a good way to approach inhumanizing your humanoid.
i don't have that book but my friend does, i will take a look at it.
do you think i should give the class alterations to the character as part of the basic class features i was thinking that all the alterations them selves would be there evolutions they choose but I'm not sure.
i don't have that book but my friend does, i will take a look at it.
do you think i should give the class alterations to the character as part of the basic class features i was thinking that all the alterations them selves would be there evolutions they choose but I'm not sure.
Well, the aberration feats give benefits, often with slight drawbacks, at the cost of a feat... and with an "aberration blood" feat prerequisite. Each aberrant feat gives a cumulative -1 to a lot of charisma based skills. There's a tradeoff to becoming inhuman, but a lot of potential benefits.
If you expanded on the aberration feat list, or created a similar list for your outworldly type, you could feasibly have characters that ARE trading away their humanity for abilities, but not restrict them to a specific base class in doing so. A prestige class that lets them focus on their aberrant natures would work - just have it have a BAB, knowledge (planes) and number of aberrant feats prereq and then any class can dive into their inhumanity.
Class-specific aberrant feats would work, too. There's an aberration wild shape feat that works for druids, but aberrant mind blades and so on might work out. Alternative class features would work too - look at the "Dragon Husk" alternative feature that replaces heavy armor proficiency, in the "Dragon Magic" book.
i think you missed the point where i said i don't want to use the existing material, i may steal some ideas from those feats but i don't want to just give them the feats nor do i want to make a prestige class.
i think you missed the point where i said i don't want to use the existing material, i may steal some ideas from those feats but i don't want to just give them the feats nor do i want to make a prestige class.
No, I think I'm missing the reason you're hellbent on not using existing material if it already suits the concept. As I say, much of what exists will only be a starting point and will require retooling (dragonscale husk being an example). It is always safest to START with things that exist, at the very least, and work your way from there.
you should also make a way for them to spend money on their weapon and armour. So they dont get OP on magic items compared to other classes. What about saying that at lvl 6 10 14 and 18 they have to sacrifice some gold to the older gods, to change the maximum limit of points in their weapons bodys and armour.
maybe something like. Giving them 2 evolution points per level. and having a restriction on their body, weapon and armour as
limit: body weapon armour
lvl 1 4 4 4
lvl 6 8 8 8
lvl 10 12 12 12
lvl 14 16 16 16
lvl 18 20 20 20
But then they should also be denyed to use any weapons other than their own, and any armour (after lvl 5). They should be able to use anything else. They could then pay gold, or equal in magic items to be able to gain the increase in the above table. That and they need the minimum level requirement.