JadedDemiGod |
Dwarven Defender
Role
Alignment
Hit Die: d12
Requirements
To qualify to become a Dwarven Defender
Race: Dwarf
Alignment: Any Lawful
Base Attack Bonus: +6
Feats: Dodge, Endurance, Toughness
Class Skills
The Defenders class skills (and the key abilities for each skill) are Craft (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Perception (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis).
Skill Ranks at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier
Level_BAB___Fort S_Ref S_Will S_______Special
1st __ +1 ___ +1 _ +0 _ +1 _ Defenders Stance, Stalwart Defense
2nd __ +2 ___ +1 _ +1 _ +1 _ Bonus Feat, Uncanny Dodge
3rd __ +3 ___ +2 _ +1 _ +2 _ Stance Ability, DR 2/-, Trap Sense +1
4th __ +4 ___ +2 _ +1 _ +2 _ On the Move
5th __ +5 ___ +3 _ +2 _ +3 _ Improved Uncanny Dodge, Bonus feat
6th __ +6 ___ +3 _ +2 _ +3 _ Stance Ability, DR 4/-, Trap Sense +2
7th __ +7 ___ +4 _ +2 _ +4 _ Endurance of the Earth
8th __ +8 ___ +4 _ +3 _ +4 _ A good offense, Bonus feat
9th __ +9 ___ +5 _ +3 _ +5 _ Stance Ability, DR 6/-, Trap Sense +3
10th _ +10 __ +5 _ +3 _ +5 _ Shall not Pass
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the dwarven defender prestige class
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The dwarven defender is proficient with all simple and martial weapons. Dwarven defender's are also proficient with all types of armor, as well as shields.
Defenders Stance (Ex): When required, dwarven defenders can become stalwart champions of defense, Immovable warriors defending their homes and people to the last. Starting at first level of defender, a defender can enter his defensive stance for a number of rounds each day equal to 4 + her Constitution modifier. At each level after the 1st, she gains an additional 2 rounds. Temporary increases to Constitution, such as those gained from the defenders stance and spells like bear's endurance, do not increase the total number of rounds that a defender can stay in his stance per day. A defender can enter his stance as a free action. The total number of rounds of stance per day is renewed after resting 8 hours, although these hours need not be consecutive.
While in her stance, a defender gains a +2 morale bonus to Strength, a +4 morale bonus to Constitution, and a +2 morale bonus on all saving throws, as well as a +2 dodge bonus to Armor Class. The increase in Constitution gives the defender an additional 2 hit points per Hit Dice, but these disappear when the stance ends and are not lost first like temporary hit points. While in her stance, a defender can not use any skills or abilities requiring the defender to shift their position, unless otherwise stated.
A defender can leave her stance as a free action and is fatigued after her stance for a number of rounds equal to 2 times the number of rounds spent in the stance. The defender cannot enter into a new stance while fatigued or exhausted but can otherwise enter rage multiple times during a single encounter or combat. If a defender falls unconscious, her stance immediately ends, placing her in peril of death
Stalwart Aegis (Ex): A dwarven defender adds 1 point of her wisdom bonus (if any) per defender class level to her Armor Class and CMD. This bonus is considered a morale bonus.
Bonus Feats: At 2nd level and every 3 levels after (5th, 8th) the dwarven defender gains a bonus feat which may be chosen from the list below.
The Dwarven defenders bonus feats are as follows: Alertness, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Diehard, Defensive Combat Training, Great Fortitude, Greater Shield Focus, Self-Sufficient, Stand Still.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 2nd level, a defender cannot be caught flat footed, even if the attacker is invisible. He still loses his dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. A defender with this ability can still lose his Dexterity bonus to AC if an opponent successfully uses the faint action against him.
If an defender already has uncanny dodge from a different class, he automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead.
Stance Ability (Ex): As a defender gains levels, he learns to use his stance in new ways. Starting at 3rd level He gains another stance ability for every three levels attained after 3rd level. A defender gains the benefits of stance abilities only while in her stance, and some abilities require the defender to take an action first. Unless otherwise noted, a defender cannot select an individual ability more then once.
Battle Hymn (Ex): By hitting her shield while in her stance, a defender gives all allies within 30 ft a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls. This bonus increases by +1 for every three levels the defender has gained. A defender may use this ability as a full round action and can me be maintained as a free action.
Dauntless Defender (Ex): While in her stance, a Dwarven defender gains a +4 moral bonus to all Fear affects (magical or otherwise) and provides all allys within 10 feat a +2 bonus to their will saves versus fear affects.
This ability can be only used once per stance and activating this ability is a swift action.
Steadfast Vigor (Ex): As a standard action, the defender heals 1d8 points of damage + her Constitution modifier. For every three levels the defender has attained above 3rd, this amount of damage healed increases by 1d8, to a maximum of 3d8 at level 9. This power can be used only once per day and only while in the defender's stance.
Dedicated Zeal (Ex): While in her stance, the defender gains a +4 moral bonus against all Enchantment spells and effects. The defender may use this ability as a swift action and only once per stance.
Courageous attack (Ex): The defender gains a +3 bonus to a single attack roll. This bonus increases by +1 for every three levels the defender has attained. This power is used as a swift action before the roll to hit is made. This ability can only be used once per stance.
Deft Strike (Ex): The defender can make an attack of opportunity against a foe that moves into any square threatened by the defender , regardless of whether or not that movement would normally provoke an attack of opportunity. This power can only be used once per stance.
Guardsman's Riposte (Ex): While in her stance, the defender may make an attack of opportunity against one opponent who's attack successfully misses the defender. This ability may be taken up to 2 times allowing for a total of 2 attacks of opportunity, this ability is used as a swift action.
Damage reduction (Ex): At 3rd level the defender gains damage reduction. Subtract 2 from the damage the defender takes each time she is dealt damage from a weapon or natural attack. At 6th level and every three defender levels thereafter (9th), this damage reduction rises by 2 points.Damage reduction can reduce damage to 0, but never below.
Trap Sense (Ex): At 3rd level, a defender gains an intuitive sense that alerts her to danger from traps, giving her a +1 bonus on Reflex saves made to avoid traps and a +1 dodge bonus to AC against attacks made by traps. These bonuses rise to +2 when the defender reaches 6th level, to +3 when she reaches 9th level.
Trap sense bonuses gained from multiple classes stack.
On the Move (Ex): At 3rd level, the defender is able to make a 5-foot step once every round in lue of her normal movement action, while in her stance
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): A defender of 5th level or higher can no longer be flanked.
This defense denies a rogue the ability to sneak attack the defender by flanking her, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target has character levels.
If a character already has uncanny dodge (see above) from another class, the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the level required to flank the character.
Endurance of the Earth (Ex): At 7th level the defender is immune to all diseases, including supernatural and magical diseases. The defender also gains +4 bonus to save against all poisons and death spells and attacks,
A Good Offense (Ex): The defender is now a able to move at half her normal speed while in her stance, she still may only move once per round.
Shall not Pass (Ex): At 10th level, when the defender enters her stance, the morale bonus to her Strength increases to +4 and the morale bonus to her Constitution increases to +6. The dodge bonus to her AC increases to +4 and the defender is able to make a number of attacks of opportunity equal to her wisdom modifier (this ability stacks with combat reflexes).
Anyway, id put all the other stuff (role, alignment, defenders in the world, etc) but im just trying to get the mechanic's down. So read over and tell me what you think.
Tim4488 |
A lot of good stuff going on here. I really like the stance abilities. A lot. I'd rephrase On the Move to something like "While in a Defender's Stance, a Dwarven Defender is able to take a 5-ft step each round without losing the benefits of the stance." Did you intend for that 5-ft step to count as a move action (and thus eliminating the capability for full attacks), or is it just a normal 5-ft step? If the former, make it "able to take a 5-ft step each round as a move action without losing the benefits of the stance."
Shall not Pass is nifty. The extra AoOs are a good idea to add on to what is otherwise perhaps too obvious (but useful).
Prerequisites looks about right. As for skills, you could probably give them a few more Fighter-y things like Intimidate, maybe Ride (okay probably not Ride), maybe Survival. Appraise fits Dwarves? I'm not sure exactly what to add, it just seems too short right now.
Stalwart Aegis worries me a bit, I'm afraid this class, in heavy armor, with the extra defensive abilities... but I would have to playtest it or at least do some test builds to see if it's overpowered or not. Hard to say off that bat. If I take real issue with any part of the class, though, it'd be that.
That said, really well done overall. I was sad to see the Dwarven Defender go when PF came out, and you did a good job converting it over. Kudos.
JadedDemiGod |
Thanks, and yea, i was going for the ability to make a 5 ft movement, i just worded it wrong. As for the abilities, i realized that the defender and the barbarian are very similar and went from their.
Im pretty sure that the Stalwart aegis ability shouldn't be to overpowering. The skills i ripped right off the original PRC, and following the Paizo conversion doc i tried to keep the skills simple though you could add more, wouldn't change a whole lot.
But having someone test it out would be fantastic... anyway thanks again for the input... now if i could just figure out how to edit my post...
SmiloDan RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |
Maybe give them an ability that increases the DC to use Acrobatics to move through their space or a space they threaten equal to their class level? I would also give them a bonus on CMD to avoid being bullrushed, overrun, or tripped. Maybe even a way force opponents to treat the Dwarven Defender's adjacent squares as difficult terrain?
To be honest, Trap Sense doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense for the Dwarven Defender. Her job is to stand there and hit things; she's not likely to set off a trap by just standing there.
You might want to add Intimidate to the list of class skills and maybe some way to use it to "get aggro" so the DD's opponents are more likely to go to her....especially since she can't go to them.
You might want to add a Stance Ability that allows the DD to boost her resiliency.
Shrug it off. Once per Stance as an immediate action, the dwarven defender multiplies her Damage Reduction by 5 against a single attack that has successfully hit her.
Resilient Defender. While in her stance, the dwarven defender gains Fast Healing equal to the amount of her Damage Reduction.
EDIT:
I just thought of something else.
Avalanche of Blows (Ex). For each previous successful hit the dwarven defender has struck against the target in the same round, the dwarven defender adds +2 to her damage roll. For example, if she hit once before this round, she adds +2 to her damage roll; if she hit twice before this round, she adds +4 to her damage roll; if she hit three times before this round, she adds +6 to her damage roll.
JadedDemiGod |
Good suggestions smilodan ill have to work it around after work, and yeah giving them the rogue ability might be to much with the steadfast vigor ability tim4488, but ill check it out and see...
Little off topic, i could almost make this a 20 level class with the way its looking lol... but seriously ill continue adjusting the Defender on my personal document and ill repost it once i get a chance to see about some of the changes that have been suggested.
After this im hoping to get the warmage up to PF, main concern with that is the skills could use some tweaking and its abilities could use some help. Ill delve more into that later ;).
Andre Caceres |
This seems very well done. I'm converting an old 3.5 Defender to yours. From what I'm reading forsee very few issues as is.
I always wondered why this class never made it to the Pathfinder core book. I'd like to think that it was simply a space issue, but in all honesty, much as I enjoy Pathfinder I always gotten a sense that Paizo as a whole, and not just with their home setting, just has a disliking towards Dwarven culture.
As to making this into a 20 level class, to an extent most 10 level PC can be expanded as such (going all the way back to 3.0) In a lot a ways 5 level PC are far more logical mechanically speaking, but also more difficult to make intersting.
As for your warmage plans I was thinking about updating that class, I have been thinking along the lines of combining aspects of it and the Arcane Warrior class from Blackmore. If you have that resorce you might want to look at it for some insperation.
TTFN DRE
Tryn |
I like this concept, but at "Shall not pass" I thought for something different:
"If a dwarven defender is in defensive stance and hit an enemy with an Attack of Opportunity, he makes an CM Check, if he succeed, he stops every movement from this enemy till his next round. Additional all squares threatend by a dwarven defender count as difficult terrain for movement."
Hexcaliber |
I always felt that DD's should occupy multiple squares, that way they can actually defend an area instead of just being ignored by an enemy that knows there abilities. Like, if at 4th level they occupied two squares as if they were in both and then at 8th increased it to a block of four squares. Also give them an improved version of lunge with no AC penalty.
So far the class is amazing looking, but only for an NPC. As a players most of the abilities would be useless outside of a tight coridor.
Cartigan |
Increasing space doesn't matter because he can't reach.
Without a way to force, or even just encourage, attackers to go after the Dwarven Defender instead of allies, it is useless.
A better class is the Knight from PHB II. Look at combining both classes into a generic Defender class and you might get something worthwhile.
Ellington |
I always thought just reducing his speed by half while in the stance was good enough. Since it's a dwarf only class, it's only going to be 10 ft anyways, but it's still better than nothing.
Either way, the dwarven defender is more of an NPC class, really, for specialized encounters where the dwarf is at an advantage (a narrow dwarven tunnel, for example).
Hexcaliber |
I always thought just reducing his speed by half while in the stance was good enough. Since it's a dwarf only class, it's only going to be 10 ft anyways, but it's still better than nothing.
Either way, the dwarven defender is more of an NPC class, really, for specialized encounters where the dwarf is at an advantage (a narrow dwarven tunnel, for example).
Well that is a lot of effort for something that could just be a template. If you increase spacing along with reach then you create an area of the map that is very dangerous for the enemy. If you really want this to just be NPC only then a template will be simpler, but that looks way too cool to just be non-players only.
I stand (defensively) on increased spacing and reach.