I've been trying to find something that's kind of like a bard but less...spoony. The battle herald is pretty close, but I thought I'd try my own class. I decided to base it off the inquisitor class, but it's really a mash up of bard, inquisitor, and cavalier. It's primarily a buffer with potential for some battlefield control and can be a face out of combat.
The Strategist
The lone inquisitor has a place in rooting out enemies of the faith, but sometimes the faith needs an army and, more importantly, someone to lead it. The strategist is pragmatic, cunning, and ruthless, seeking out the greatest threats to the faith and eliminating them.
Role: Strategists are often found in areas of great discord. They specialize in locating threats, analyzing them, and concocting strategies to defeat them using whatever and whoever is available. This means that though they prefer to work with those of their faith, strategists will even partner with those they hate as long as they are working toward their goals.
Alignment: A strategist’s alignment must be within one step of their diety’s along the good/evil axis. They tend toward neutral alignments due to their pragmatic nature.
Oops. Ignore the difference in names in the class table. I was still figuring that out as I went and forgot to change it after. The names listed at each ability are the ones I want to use.
OK, so it looks like you took the bard, replaced its goofball abilities with more useful combat-oriented ones, and streamlined how inspiration bonuses work. I like all that. It's a little awkward to reject Pathfinder's "rounds of use per day" and go back to 3.5 edition's "uses per day" without a note why, but that's hardly a deal-breaker.
Gonzo initiative bonuses are something I don't like in Pathfinder, and I'd like even less to see them proliferate. I'd strongly recommend re-considering this one, especially when you get to the point where you're granting free intitiative bonuses to allies as well.
Finally, I get to "delete the last few rounds of combat," and, not to put to fine a point on it, but that has seriously got to go. In use, it will grind play to a total halt while everyone tries to rememeber how much damage they took (and the DM needs to do that for every single mook you hit during that time). Also, there's no range or anything, so presumably a 10th level Strategist can delete entire continent-scale mass battles in the middle of a full-on world war -- but that's a lesser concern than the fact that the ability, while cool idea in theory, won't actually work in game play. I know this sounds a bit harsh on paper, but presumably you're playing with friends, and I personally wouldn't be willing to put mine through the kind of bookkeeping, game-stopping grief that this would entail.
Kirth Gersen wrote: Good stuff First, I like your version of PF. Thanks for making that available to folks
Second, PF is the only thing I played, so the x/day thing isn't a throwback (not that it really matters), it's there because I based the ability of the inquisitor judgments which are x/day. I could make it rounds if that makes more sense. Honestly, I kinda think the whole x/day or rounds/day thing is a weird mechanic; this guy who can do these things can suddenly not do these things for no discernible reason? anyway, i digress
Third ...yeah, I had a feeling the imaginary scenarios might be a problem. I guess i just wanted a second opinion. It seemed like such a cool idea I didn't really want to let it go :P
As far as initiative goes, is there a reason for hating the bonuses? I can see where granting big bonuses to allies might be over the top, but there's a bunch of classes with similar ability already and it seemed thematically appropriate.
Finally, thanks for looking over it and giving me some feedback. I really appreciate it :)
Sensten, thanks for your kind words. I'm very happy to help!
For whatever they're worth, here are some replies:
My whole group (myself included) also dislikes the X/day thing, but it's hard to get around in a game that's pretty much based on resource management. Basically, I live with it because I haven't been able to come up with a better alternative.
Initiative, to me, is the single most important stat in the game. Combats I run are quick and brutal, and usually consist of whoever goes first trying to curb-stomp the opposition badly enought that the fight is in the bag before the second round. Improved Initiative is about as far as I'm comfortable with, as far as buffing that; I even ban the "reactionary" trait (which pretty much 100% of everyone always takes). PF seems to assume that fights will last 4-6 rounds, so to them, initiative is less of a big deal. If that's your experience, too, then you can probably go with it and not hurt anything too much.
I'm a bit prejudiced against the whole "that never happened" thing because I've seen it in other systems (ones that didn't track hp, so it was easier to adjudicate), and it didn't work there, either. The idea is logical and very flavorful, especially the way you've presented it -- but mechanically implementing it is always problematic. Also, you have to be very careful not to get into a "why do we bother, if we're just going to reset everything?" mentality, which can creep in very quickly.
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