So I was digging around in the Monte Cook forums archive and found this PrC with a cool concept; transcribed below. I was looking for some help converting it into Pathfinder.
Caveat 1: The Designer didn't allow monks in his settings.
Caveat 2: The Designer didn't allow the purchasing of magic items in his setting.
Keep these in mind when reading below.
Kordian Wrestler PrC
"How are we supposed to get past that guard?" the young Ferin mumbled to himself; awaiting just inside the shadows of the gatehouse. He looked over at his companion, whom he had only met yesterday. He was an odd looking man, bald, muscular, and wearing no armor and having no armaments to boot. Ferin wondered what he was thinking taking the advice of his guild leader in hiring this man.
"I can take care o' dis!" the man said, a gruff hint of confidence lingering off of his voice. Ferin shook his head no "We can't kill them, they're under some sort of magical control..." he explained- but even as he was, the man was just cracking his knuckles. He shot Ferin a knowing glance, then held up his taped palm. "Who says imma gonna kill 'im?" he chuckled.
The next thing Ferin knew, the man dashed out from hiding, his head down and charging the man head on! The guard turned just in time to see him; then he got bowled over, the bald man mounting him on his stomach. "We can do dis da easy way or da hard way man." he said to his downed foe. The guard slowly began reaching for his dagger at his side. "Well.." the wrestler said, rearing his fist back with a smile, "The hard way it is!"
Many recognizes the disciples of Kord as armored warriors, weilding greatswords, axes, anything a burly warrior would carry to dish out massive pain unto his foes. Many forget, that on a more common level Kord is also the patron of athletes, especially wrestlers and boxers. Enter the Kordian Wrestler.
The Kordian Wrestler serves as warrior, entertainer and guard at some of Kord's more prestigious temples, needing weapon nor armor to perform his duties. Kordian wrestlers often come from a common background, those who wrestle and box for a living, prize fighters and others who shun the use of anything but what Kord gave'em - fists.
Kordian Wrestlers often start out a priests in the order, but find the general duties of clericing for the diety a bit restrictive or just not their taste. Becoming a Kordian Wrestler solves the problem, as he is still a disciple of Kord, but also a warrior and athelete.
As NPC's, Kordian Wrestlers are often the champions of boxing and brawling circuts, as well as temple guards. Others find more common work as bouncers and bodyguards for nobles, especially some female nobles who find having a topless muscle man at their side boosts their self-esteem.
Hit Die: d8
Requirements
To qualify to become a Kordian Wrestler, (KNW) the character must fufill the following criteria.
Alignment: Chaotic Good
BAB: +4
Skills: Knowledge: Religion 5 Ranks
Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike
Ambidexterity
Two Weapon Fighting
Spellcasting: The ability to cast 1st Level Divine Spells
Chosen the "Strength" Domain.
Special: The Kordian Wrestler must be sponsored by another Kordian Wrestler or Cleric of Kord, and must complete the training to become a Kordian Wrestler, which is often quite difficult.
Class Skills: The Kordian Wrestler's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (STR) Concentration (CON) Craft (INT) Intimidate (STR* see below) Jump (STR) Knowledge: Religion (INT) and Swim (STR)
Skill Points at Each Level: 4+INT Modifier
The Kordian Wrestler
LV.....BAB..........F....R....W.....Special
1........+1........+2...+2....+0....Fists of Iron, Body of Iron
2........+2........+3...+3....+0....Kordian Might (+1)
3........+3........+3...+3....+1....Improved Bull Rush
4........+4........+4...+4....+1....Kordian Might (+2)
5........+5........+4...+4....+1....Defensive Stance
6........+6........+5...+5....+2....Kordian Might (+3)
7........+7........+5...+5....+2....Fists of Steel, Body of Steel
8........+8........+6...+6....+2....Kordian Might (+4)
9........+9........+6...+6....+3....Improved Grapple
10......+10........+7...+7....+3....Kordian Might (+5)
Class
All of the following are class features of the Kordian Wrestler presitge class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
The Kordian Wrestler gains no new weapon or armor proficiencies.
Fists of Iron
Through rigorous training and countless broken fingers, the Kordian Wrestler is able to allows his fists to deal normal damage as if it were a weapon. He may opt to have his fists do subdual damage though, if he so chooses. However, this power comes with a ban. The Kordian Wrestler may never use a weapon aside from his fists, under any circumstances. This even includes gauntlets. Only his bare fists are acceptable. Breaking this ban causes the Kordian Wrestler to lose all of his Kordian Wrestler abilities until he atones.
Body of Iron
Months of lashes with a whip, breaking of bricks over thier chest, and sucking uppercuts to the jaw has toughened up the Kordian Wrestler beyond belief. This ability confers the bonus of adding the Kordian Wrestlers CON Modifier + his Level as a Kordian Wrestler to his AC. This is considered a Natural Armor bonus. (For Example, a Level 3 Kordian Wrestler with a 16 CON adds 6 to his AC) However, this also comes with a ban. No Kordian Wrestler, no matter what, may ever wear armor of any sort, or carry a sheild. This includes magical armor, ioun stones, rings, bracers, ect. (Basically anything that adds to your AC that is an item or armor piece besides this ability is taboo.) Breaking this ban causes the Kordian Wrestler to lose all of his Kordian Wrestler abilities until he atones.
Kordian Might
Through the blessings of Kord, and practicing hardening and honing his fists on rock, metal and other things, the Kordian Wrestler's fists become gifted by Kord and thus become magical weapon themselves. The bonus indicated on the chart (+1,+2 ect) reflects the bonus his fists are imbued with. This + affects in all ways as if it were a magical weapon (hit bonus, damage bonus, bypassing DR, ect).
Improved Bull Rush
At third level, the Kordian Wrestler gains the Improved Bull Rush feat even if he does not have the prerequistes for it.
Improved Grapple
A Kordian Wrestler learns when to grab, how to grab and how to punish his foes when they are grappled. A Kordian Wrestler does not provoke an AOO when grappling. Also, the Kordian Wrestler does not suffer the stadard -4 penalty when attempting to deal normal damage to opponent when grappling them.
Fists of Steel
The hardening of the Kordian Wrestler's fists continue, allowing them to strike decisive blows more readily. This ability increases the threat range on a Kordian Wrestlers fists to 19-20 rather than just 20.
Body of Steel
Through beatings and bruises, the Kordian Wrestler's body again reaches a new pinnacle of toughness. He gains a DR equal to his CON modifier +2 against subdual damage as a result.
Defensive Stance
The Kordian Wrestler may sacrafice his mobility in order to gain the upper hand defending himself. His dukes up and his body low, the Kordian Wrestler becomes even more difficult to hurt, guarding his vital areas with his more ressilient limbs.
The Kordian Wrester must make a move-equivalent action to enter a defensive stance. This ability confers two bonuses. First; the Kordian Wrestler gains a +2 circumstance bonus to his AC. Secondly, the defensive stance helps ward off potentially crushing blows. Whenever the Kordian Wrestler is threatned with a critical hit, the attacker suffers a -4 attack penalty on the second critical hit roll.
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There were also two abilities that were discarded from the original build for balance reasons which seemed to have awesome flavor:
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Counter Jab
The Kordian Wrestler has learned to take advantage of an opponets attack, after they realize that it is more difficult to hurt him than it seems. Once per round, a Kordian Wrestler may take a jab back at anyone who misses him in combat. This jab deals normal damage for a punch attack, however the Kordian Wrestler denies his opponet his dex bonus to AC with a counter jab, as it is done immediately after an attack is levied on him.
I know this seems a bit powerful BUT it was designed from a fighting standpoint, more specifically to punish Full Attack Actions, or rather, the last hits of them, with the low BAB and all. Think of the boxer who punishes his opponets with a quick jab after they are slow to recover.
Mounting Tackle
The culmination of the Kordian Wrestler's training and prowess come together in this move. He mounts his opponets chest and proceeds to pummel his face with repeated jabs. Getting into this position (called the Mount Position, or MTP) can be a bit more difficult.
The first way to enter MTP is a bull rush. Instead of knocking your opponet back on a successful bull rush, you may make an opposed Strength Checks, your at a -2 penalty, to knock him down and mount him. Failure indictaes a normal bull rush. If you take damage during a bull rush, any attempt to enter MTP fails.
The second way to enter MTP is during a grapple. If during a grapple you score a critical hit, you may automatically chose to enter mount position instead of dealing damage. Also, you may use a "feat of strength" granted power to automatically force your opponet into mount position, unless he can counter with his own "feat of strength". The final condition, is if in a grapple you deal damage to an opponet, you may make contested grapple checks, your at -5, to see if you can force him into mount position.
Being in mount position itself is somewhat like a grapple. You dont threaten an area, you dont get your Dex bonus to AC. The benefits, however, far outweigh the consequences. When mounting your opponet, you make attacks at a +4 to hit and damage bonus for proximity and favorable circumstance, plus his dexterity and armor bonus do not apply to his AC (Your pounding his face after all!!). You may take a full attack action in MTP to gain more out of it if you choose. An opponet can sway his head to the side and dodge your attacks with a Dexterity check, the DC being your attack roll.
There are 2 ways to break MTP:
On his turn, he may opt to try and throw you off with opposed grapple checks, done exactly as breaking a grapple is done, with a +2 to his DC for your favorable circumstance and position. If he succeeds, he throws you off.
Secondly, he may Wriggle Free, as the escape attempt from a grapple on p138 of the PHB.
If it MUST be said, you can only mount creatures one size category larger, equal to, or smaller than your own.
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So yeah, I absolutely love the idea of this class; but I'm not as versed with the rules as some (or maybe even the majority) of the players on this forum? Where to being converting it? What concerns should I be aware of? Help!
-Idle
A very nice take indeed! The problems I see with this class are not so much on a technical level but rather background considerations. As you say, no monks and no buying of magical items, and this class seems to be another idea for the monk. It might be not so good in another setting, where monks overshadow him and magical equipment plays a bigger role.
But on to technicalities: HD d8 and full BAB does not go together under the PF rules. Giving him d10 HD should not be a serious balance issue. Requirements seem ok to me, they translate to fighter level 4 and cleric level 1.
One thing is a little strange: everything relating to weapons and armor from the fighter levels is forever useless after taking this PrC. Weapon specialisation? Better put it on unarmed strike right away, but an unarmed non-monk fighter sucks on low levels.
Saves are ok IMO. Special abilities: Fists of iron is ok for a start, but perhaps raising the fist damage to 1d6 is called for. No magic items whatsoever for attack is very hard and IMO not fully compensated. At level 6, a fighter4/cleric1/Kordian Wrestler1 has BAB+5 and, say, +3 from str to attack and 1d3+3(20/x2) damage, with an AC of, say, 15 or 16. A regular fighter has a BAB of +6/+1, probably a masterwork longsword at least for +1 to attack, and damage of 1-8+3(19-20/x2), and an AC of around 20 or more. Until that point, the Kordian Wrestler does not come across as being a powerful fighter - any regular fighter of the same level will probably kill him. At higher levels it gets a little better, but even at level 10, you have attack +5, damage 1d3+5 (each +str) and crit at 19-20/x2, and an AC of 23 or thereabouts - we are talking about a level 15 character here. The feats he gets are still not an adquate compensation.
I would recommend giving him a true damage reduction like the barbarian has, perhaps alternating with Kordian might (so, on every odd level). It should stack if the +4 BAB comes from barbarian, which might be a viable alternative to fighter. Give him a bonus feat list and some other abilities as special instead of fixed feats. Counter Jab and Mounting Tackle don´t seem that overpowered to me, these might be good as bonus feats or special abilities (similar to rogue talents). Allowing him to use one offensive and one defensive item might not break the class.
I´m sure I´ve missed a few things, but thats what you get for quick´n´dirty review.
Stefan
Any chance you'd like to add this to the Pathfinder Database?