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So one of my players would like to play a cloud giant war hulk, but we've agreed that the War Hulk is a little on the blah side. These are what I'd do to it for a conversion. Wanted other opinions.
Prestige Class is from 3.5 Miniatures Handbook.
d12 - stays
2+Int skills - stays
Climb and Intimidate stay, but Jump becomes Acrobatics.
Saves change to +1/+0/+0 as per the new rules of Pathfinder PrCs.
all Toughness feats stay, and stack giving him +3 hp per HD at War Hulk 10.
BAB goes from +0 for 10 levels to a wizard's 1/2 BAB instead.
Special attacks and qualities stay the same.
Requirements change to Power Attack and Cleave since you need Power Attack to GET Cleave.
I know a lot of people think that the War Hulk is fine by itself without any BAB because of the Strength increases, but that was also back when you could take a level of cleric for Divine Power and magically gain a BAB of 20. Pathfinder nerfed that hard. Now you get a max of +6 to your attack, and it's a luck bonus. The extra attack you also gain doesn't stack with Haste or the Speed property.
I like jump but not acrobatics. Tough call.
I'm really not sure about the addition of BAB, for the reasons you already know about. Ability scores increases are an awfully juicey class feature.
Otherwise it seems fine.
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I like jump but not acrobatics. Tough call.
I'm really not sure about the addition of BAB, for the reasons you already know about. Ability scores increases are an awfully juicey class feature.
Otherwise it seems fine.
Jump's gone so that only leaves Acrobatics as per the Pathfinder Conversion guide. The main issue is that Acrobatics isn't Strength based, which sucks.
Yeah, the +2 Str is nice but it's not all that much. You don't get more attacks at all. Just more damage. And if you're big, your attack's got a decent number of penalties.
I supposed I could reduce it to +1 Str instead and keep the BAB. That should balance it some.
Maybe instead of Acrobatics he gets a special ability that allows him to add his Strength bonus to Acrobatics checks made to jump?
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Maybe instead of Acrobatics he gets a special ability that allows him to add his Strength bonus to Acrobatics checks made to jump?
Well, he could still get Acrobatics, but maybe at 1st level he use his Str for Acrobatics instead of Dex. Kind of like how some animals, like cats, can use their Dex to the normally Str-based Climb checks.
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What's interesting is if you use a class builder (can build a class from scratch), a Prestige Class costs 100 pts over 10 levels (10 pts a level on average). A war hulk as it stands in 3.5 is actually considered underpowered by it. Ability score increases only count as 1 pt per +1 modifier.
Here's the breakdown.
War Hulk
Base class = 200 pts
Prestige class = 100 pts
10 levels at 0 BAB = 0 pts
Saves are Fort strong @ +5/+3/+3 at level 10 for 1 pt each = 5+3+3 = 11 pts
2+Int for 10 levels = 0.5 x 10 = 5 pts
d12 HD for 10 levels = 3 x 10 = 30 pts
Special abilities count as 1.5 feats = 2.5 x 7 abilities = 17.5 pts
Ability score boosts aka "Enhanced Stats" = 0.5 (+1 Str) x 20 (+20 Str) = 10 pts
Toughness feat x 3 = 2 x 3 = 6 pts
0+11+5+30+17.5+10+6 = 79.5 pts
Increasing BAB to +5 = 3 x 5 = 15 pts
79.5+15 = 94.5
Special ability to use Str in place of Dex for Acrobatics = 2.5 pts
Total = 97
A class is allowed to be +/-2%.
Enhancement bonuses aren't as good as untyped, permanent bonuses. Regardless of my complaints, the class would probably play out fine as you describe it in the first post.