I wanted to try my hand at making a custom archetype, and figured I'd try giving the Cavalier a new type of mount. I seriously doubt this is balanced well in any shape or form, and there's probably too much convoluted math involved, but it's at least a start, right? With some balancing, I think this could be an interesting alternative to use in modern, post-apocalyptic, or high-tech campaigns. Introducing the:
The Steel Rider loses the ability to use heavy armor and shields, but gains the ability to use all firearms.
This modifies the Cavalier's normal weapon and armor proficiency.
Rather than gain the use of an animal mount, the Steel Rider uses a motorcycle. It is treated as one size category larger than the Steel Rider himself and has a Hardness of 10, 30 Hit Points, and a +1 natural armor bonus to its AC modifier, and does not receive a penalty to its AC from being an inanimate object or from having Dex of 0 so long as it is being ridden. If the motorcycle is left unattended, it follows the same rules as any other inanimate object. Others with the Steel Horse class feature may ride another Steel Rider's motorcycle, but take a -5 penalty to all Ride checks involving it unless they gain ownership of it and gain a Cavalier level while it is in their possession; this penalty may be circumvented in certain circumstances where the Steel Rider already has a bond with the motorcycle's previous rider (such as inheriting it from a fallen friend, or being given it by a family member who crafted it specifically for their use). It cannot gain feats the same as a traditional mount can, but can be modified as the Steel Rider sees fit whenever he gains the Bike Mod class feature (see below). It is always considered to have a riding saddle, but does not benefit from Horse Master, nor from the bonus to Ride provided by Animal Affinity.
As with other Cavalier mounts, the Steel Rider does not suffer Ride penalties when using his own motorcycle, and the GM may allow him to have a similar mechanical mount at their discretion. He may have a single passenger riding behind him outside of battle, but they take the same penalty as any other person riding a mount they are unskilled with.
Like other Cavaliers, a Steel Rider forms an emotional bond with his motorcycle; if it is destroyed beyond repair or he critically fails an attempt to repair it, he must spend a week in mourning before he can purchase or build a new motorcycle, and if the previous motorcycle had any Bike Mods applied to it, he must spend a full day to replace a single one of those previous Bike Mods. The cost to replace a motorcycle averages at 9000 GP plus an additional 3000 GP for each modification the previous motorcycle had, but this cost, as with most other costs associated with the motorcycle, may be changed based on the time period and rarity of technology within the campaign by the DM.
While riding a motorcycle, the Steel Rider may travel as quickly as 1 mile per minute. However, he must be able to do so without distractions. If he is distracted from his riding while traveling faster than 960 feet per minute, he must check concentration (, with DC of , rounded up); failing this check will result in the Steel Rider crashing and the motorcycle suffering damage equal to (, rounded up), ignoring Hardness and AC, while he and any passengers riding with him as well as all items in their possession take an equal amount of damage, but may take Hardness and AC into account for these. Stopping the motorcycle while traveling faster than 960 feet per minute requires at least enough space ahead of it that it could travel another round () or the Steel Rider must make the same concentration check.
Motorcycles require fuel to run. The DM may modify fuel prices based on location and availability, as well as the rarity of modern technology in the campaign, but the average price is approximately 100 GP per unit of gasoline. The motorcycle begins play with its tank full and a capacity of 80 units, and loses 1 unit per hour while being ridden.
This replaces the Mount class feature.
The Steel Rider is experienced with tinkering with vehicles, as well as taking care of minor wounds he sustains in that effort. He loses Handle Animal as a class skill, but gains Heal and Knowledge (Engineering) as class skills. Any effect that would ordinarily require a Handle Animal check involving his mount instead uses Knowledge (Engineering).
Additionally, starting from 4th level, he may choose once per day to either use his Heal skill instead of Craft to repair a vehicle or add half his Cavalier level as a skill bonus to a Craft check to repair a vehicle. He must choose to use this ability before performing the check. At 8th level he may use this ability once more per day, and an additional time per day for every 4 Cavalier levels after that.
This alters the Cavalier's class skills and replaces his Order's Challenge bonus.
At 4th level, the Steel Rider becomes more accustomed to automobiles. He receives a bonus equal to half his Cavalier level when using Knowledge (Engineering) on vehicles of all types, or a bonus equal to his Cavalier level when using Knowledge (Engineering) on his own motorcycle.
This replaces the Expert Trainer class feature.
At 1st level, the Steel Rider may take some time off to add a special modification to his motorcycle in the form of special feats from the list below that only the motorcycle may take. He begins play with this first modification already in place. At 4th level, he may spend one full day and the cost of appropriate materals to add one additional modification to his bike for a maximum of two modifications, and this limit increases by one for every 3 levels beyond 4th, for a total of seven maximum modifications at 19th level.
The modifications he can add to his motorcycle are:
- Mithril Plating: The Steel Rider adds mithril plating to the chassis of his mount. This increases its Hardness to 15, and if the motorcycle has any Additional Plating modifications, he may add d3 - 1 HP per instance, or spend an additional day reinforcing the plating to instead add 2 HP per instance of the Additional Plating modification.
- Additional Plating: The Steel Rider adds scrap metal to the chassis of his mount. This increases its HP by d6. Increase this to d8 if the motorcycle has Mithril Plating, or d10 if it has Adamantium Plating. The Steel Rider may have the metal reshaped or do so himself if he has the appropriate skills to do so to maximize this; reshaping the metal plating himself takes an additional day's work. This modification may be taken multiple times.
- Chassis Spikes: The Steel Rider adds spines to the body of his motorcycle. Any time it takes an attack from an unarmed strike, natural weapon, or melee weapon that does not have reach, the attacker and their weapon each take 1d6 damage. If hit by a melee weapon with reach, only the weapon takes the damage. This modification may be taken up to three times.
- Improved Fuel Tank: The Steel Rider replaces the bike's previous fuel tank, increasing the maximum fuel capacity by 20 units. He may fill the new tank with the fuel from the previous tank, but in doing so he loses 5 + d10 units of fuel. This modification may be taken multiple times.
- Ride or Die (Ex): The Steel Rider can charge at enemies with his motorcycle at great speeds. Add +1 to damage rolls multiplied by ((, rounded down, minimum 1). Requires Cavalier's Charge.
- Exhaust Blast (Sp): The Steel Rider may blow a cloud of exhaust fumes from the back of his motorcycle, as if using Stinking Cloud with a CL equal to his Cavalier level / 3 (minimum CL 1). This may be done up to three times per day.
- Sidearm (Ex): The Steel Rider mounts a machine gun to his motorcycle. Treat this as a firearm with a range of 30 feet, dealing 1d8 damage, and critical multiplier of x2. This must be loaded with ammunition as any firearm, and costs the Steel Rider an additional 5000 GP to apply (though this cost may be adjusted by the DM depending on the technology level and rarity of firearms in the campaign). The Steel Rider may attack with this weapon as part of his normal attack as if he was wielding it so long as he is riding the motorcycle, but he is never otherwise considered to be holding or wielding it. This weapon may be treated as the mount's natural weapon for the purpose of Order abilities. It may be damaged or broken as a normal firearm; in such case the Steel Rider may replace it for an additional 5000 GP (or whatever price the DM has decided to charge for the initial application) without needing to take this modification again.
- Side Knives (Ex): The Steel Rider adds blades to the sides of his motorcycle. If he fails to hit with a Charge maneuver while riding it, enemies must make an additional Reflex save or else take 1d8 slashing damage which also takes the Iron descriptor. If the motorcycle has the Mithril Plating modification, this damage additionally has the Mithril descriptor, and if it has the Adamantium Plating modification the damage has the Adamantium descriptor. This additional damage is affected by Supreme Charge, but is unaffected by Cavalier's Charge, Mighty Charge, and any feats the Steel Rider has taken.
At 10th level, the Steel Rider adds the following to the list of modifications he may take:
- Adamantium Plating: The Steel Rider replaces the plating on the chassis of his motorcycle with adamantium. This increases the Hardness of the motorcycle to 20, and if the motorcycle has any Additional Plating modifications, he may add d3 - 1 HP per instance, or spend an additional day reinforcing the plating to instead add 2 HP per instance of the Additional Plating modification. You may take this modification multiple times, but rather than further changing the motorcycle's Hardness or further increasing its HP, each additional modification adds DR 2/adamantium. Requires Mithril Plating.
- Hybrid Motor: The Steel Rider replaces the motor with one that can be charged electrically. It begins with 0 charges, but may be attached to any electrical source for 24 hours for one charge, for a maximum of seven charges. It loses a unit of charge for every 12 hours the motorcycle is being ridden. So long as it has at least 1 charge, the motorcycle expends fuel at 1 unit per two hours instead of 1 unit per hour.
- Flaming Exhaust (Sp): The Steel Rider can shoot a blast of flames from his motorcycle's exhaust, as if using Dragon's Breath with a CL equal to his Cavalier level / 3 (minimum CL 1). This must be treated as if he'd used the scale of a gold, red, or brass dragon as the material component. This may be done once per day. Requires Exhaust Blast.
- Secondary Sidearm (Ex): The Steel Rider adds a second machine gun to his motorcycle with the same specifications as in the Sidearm modification. When using these to attack, the Steel Rider is treated as if he was dual-wielding these weapons and takes all the bonuses and penalties for doing so. Requires Sidearm.
- Sidecar: The Steel Rider connects a retractable sidecar to his motorcycle, allowing it to hold one additional passenger. This modification may be taken twice.
At 19th level, the Steel Rider may add the following to the list of modifications he may take:
- Blaze of Glory (Ex): The Steel Rider dismounts his motorcycle and sends it speeding in a straight line. Each time it strikes a creature or object along this path, they must make a Reflex check with DC of 15 + his Cavalier level, and if they fail, they take 6d6 bludgeoning damage with the Iron descriptor, which additionally has the Mithril descriptor if the motorcycle has the Mithril Plating modification and the Adamantium descriptor if it has the Adamantium Plating modification. If they are equal size to the motorcycle or smaller and receive any damage, must make an additional Fort save against the same DC. Failing the Fort check will result in the target being pushed back into the next creature or object in line. At the first successful Fort save, or upon hitting a solid object (such as a wall or tree) or a creature or object larger than it, the motorcycle explodes, dealing an additional 6d6 fire damage to everything in a 10 foot radius. Anything in the motorcycle's path that succeeds its Reflex save will dodge, negating any damage and preventing it from being pushed forward. If the motorcycle falls from a height of more than 30 feet before exploding, it will explode when it lands; otherwise it will continue on its path. Using this ability destroys the motorcycle beyond repair, but the Steel Rider may shorten his period of mourning its loss to one full day, after which he can craft or buy a new motorcycle as if he'd gone through the full week of mourning. Requires Ride or Die and either Chassis Spikes or Side Knives.
- Perpetual Energy Tank: The Steel Rider replaces his fuel tank with a perpetual energy motor, bypassing the need for fuel. The motorcycle may be ridden for any length of time without expending fuel or charges. However, the motorcycle must now get a full-night's rest or else it suffers fatigue and begins to drain charges from the hybrid engine. Requires Improved Fuel Tank and Hybrid Motor.
- Incendiary Exhaust (Sp): The Steel Rider can shoot a cloud of white-hot smog from the exhaust pipe, as if using the Incendiary Cloud spell with a CL equal to his Cavalier level / 3. However, you cannot concentrate to make the cloud move, and it does not dissipate when it moves out of your range. This may be done once per day. Requires Exhaust Blast.
Whenever the Steel Rider adds a modification, he may also replace one previous modification; this takes an additional day of work to remove the old modification before any time and money spent to place the new one, but provides him with scrap metal he can use as material for the new modification (although it holds no other value). He may not replace any modification added at 1st, 4th, or 7th levels with ones that only become available at 10th level and up, and can't replace any modification with one that only becomes available at 19th level. He also cannot replace a modification if it's a requirement for another modification that's already in place.
This replaces the Challenge and Demanding Challenge class features.
This one is pretty out there, so I'm having a tough time wrapping my head around how to address it. Here goes...
STEEL HORSE
Instead of trying to blend a vehicle and a mount together, I think you should do the following:
-Completely remove all notion of this being anything resembling a mount, since a chopper is entirely a vehicle, and nothing like a mount. Treat it more like the gunslinger and his guns.
-Devise a set of rules separate from this class for using a vehicle of this kind. PF already has vehicle rules, so you can look to those for ideas on how to go about this. The game has rules for firearms, and the gunslinger's stuff abides by those so I think there is a precedence. Simplify the rules involving speed. Decide on a speed for tactical movement (like a horse or a character has), and a separate, faster speed for long-distance overland travel. All of your formulas are distracting. Maybe come up with 2 or 3 different weight categories of bikes that serve a a base, and then have your bike mods affect those.
-I like using the Ride skill for this, but perhaps write a feat that allows any character to use the Ride skill for vehicles like this.
-So I said that the bike is a vehicle, not a mount, but let's revisit that. The AC, hardness, and HP of the vehicle should increase as he goes up in level.
-I'm not sure that bringing fossil fuels in is a great idea. It might be fine, but it could also be worthwhile to have engines based on other fuels, such as magic items, spell slots, blood, hit points, fear, gemstones, etc. Who knows. Go wild.
MECHANIC
I would drop the whole Heal skill thing. I like being being able to use Craft of Engineering though.
EXPERT RIDER
This is confusing because I don't know if it is intended to help repair the bike or to ride it. Since this is a vehicle, grant a bonus to piloting checks (which is a part of the existing vehicle rules).
If you want a good motorcycle class, maybe some kind of gunslinger/cavalier hybrid class is in order.
This one is pretty out there, so I'm having a tough time wrapping my head around how to address it. Here goes...
"Out there" is good! That tells me that it's not something that's been seriously considered before.
STEEL HORSE
Instead of trying to blend a vehicle and a mount together, I think you should do the following:
-Completely remove all notion of this being anything resembling a mount, since a chopper is entirely a vehicle, and nothing like a mount. Treat it more like the gunslinger and his guns.
-Devise a set of rules separate from this class for using a vehicle of this kind. PF already has vehicle rules, so you can look to those for ideas on how to go about this. The game has rules for firearms, and the gunslinger's stuff abides by those so I think there is a precedence. Simplify the rules involving speed. Decide on a speed for tactical movement (like a horse or a character has), and a separate, faster speed for long-distance overland travel. All of your formulas are distracting. Maybe come up with 2 or 3 different weight categories of bikes that serve a a base, and then have your bike mods affect those.
-I like using the Ride skill for this, but perhaps write a feat that allows any character to use the Ride skill for vehicles like this.
-So I said that the bike is a vehicle, not a mount, but let's revisit that. The AC, hardness, and HP of the vehicle should increase as he goes up in level.
-I'm not sure that bringing fossil fuels in is a great idea. It might be fine, but it could also be worthwhile to have engines based on other fuels, such as magic items, spell slots, blood, hit points, fear, gemstones, etc. Who knows. Go wild.
I actually didn't realize there were already specific rules for vehicles, so I'll have to delve into those before I revise this. That said, I actually don't want to completely disavow the motorcycle being a mount, because that's exactly how I want the Steel Rider to treat it. This isn't just a hunk of metal that he rides around, it's his steed. It's his baby. In a lot of cases it may even be his creation.
Also, yeah, I knew the numbers were gonna be a problem. If you've gotta break out a calculator to work the math out, that's probably not a good sign. That said, I can definitely work on some speed limits that apply the chance to crash (like say over 15 miles per hour in combat, more than 40 outside, and mounting the damage and chance to crash for every X miles per hour above those limits you're going? Again, something I'll need to figure out after I check out vehicle rules)
Allowing the bike to gain HP, hardness, etc. as the player levels wouldn't be too shabby an idea. This would further reinforce the idea of it being as much a mount as a vehicle. Regarding the fuel, I never specifically said it was fossil fuels; while blood might not be feasible (at least without it being a bike mod), it could easily be water charged with mana, some kind of wood, powdered crystals, or anything else that could fit into the campaign aside from a battery charge (which is something already provided by one of the bike mods) or anything that provides perpetual energy (again a bike mod, unless the DM decides that keeping track of fuel points is too much of a pain and just throws the perpetual energy bike mod in for free). In fact you gave me a few more bike mod ideas as well which may mean expanding bike mods to a few more levels, maybe even having them every odd level so the Steel Rider can have as many as 10 to accommodate this change.
MECHANIC
I would drop the whole Heal skill thing. I like being being able to use Craft of Engineering though.EXPERT RIDER
This is confusing because I don't know if it is intended to help repair the bike or to ride it. Since this is a vehicle, grant a bonus to piloting checks (which is a part of the existing vehicle rules).
Yeah, I was iffy about Heal too, so I'll likely just leave it as just adding Craft (Engineering) and allowing him to use it in place of Handle Animal when dealing with vehicles that double as mounts.
Honestly, Expert Rider is just named as such because I wanted to relate it to Expert Trainer, and calling it Expert Mechanic just made it seem like an upgrade to the Mechanic feature. I do like your idea about letting it modify something specific to vehicles, though.
Losing Challenge really hurts. What you've got from the regular Cavalier is the charge abilities and Tactician, which are both OK but not amazing or as central as Challenge.
Can you use guns while doing a motorcycle charge?
The Challenge is what is being replaced by Bike Mods. I'd thought it was more or less an even trade, and it felt right since I don't imagine most bikers would just call individuals out for duels in the midst of a group battle, but perhaps not. Maybe add something specific that replaces the Orders' modifiers to Challenge, and Bike Mods only replaces Challenge and Demanding Challenge?
I actually hadn't thought about altering the rules to the Charge feats to fit with guns! Considering the motorcycle expands your movement range by a considerable amount and firearms can allow you to shoot from around 30 feet away, that means, so long as you're in a flat area, a Steel Rider might be able to attack literally anyone in the battlefield with a Charge. I'm thinking that you could use guns, but there'd be a reduction to Attack Rolls made to do so. Or perhaps you need to be within half your weapon's range instead of its full range to make the attack. Either one should be enough to balance out being able to make a ranged attack with a charge.
As for how the Charge feats affect it? I think Cavalier's Charge can be left as it is, since I still want players to have a good reason to use melee weapons with a Steel Rider. Mighty Charge might still double the threat range as normal, but probably wouldn't allow you to attempt combat maneuvers. Supreme Charge I think would be left untouched.
Now that you mention it, this could be something that could replace the Order's Challenge modification; allow the Steel Rider to get Deeds with either Grit or Panache (their choice) at a certain level, which would limit them either to guns or one-handed melee weapons. Granted this means you're not gonna be dual-wielding or using two-handers as a Steel Rider ideally, but I can't imagine trying to ride a chopper AND swing a greatsword simultaneously. They would probably treat their effective Gunslinger/Swashbuckler level as their Cavalier rider -4 or so? This would make them work as a sort of combo of Cavalier and Gunslinger as Ciaron suggested without removing the possibility of wielding melee weapons instead. I can imagine the Swashbuckler's Derring-Do deed being incredibly useful early on. It'd also be interesting to see a biker being the party's face when they decide to roll with Panache!
I can't wrap my head around the math, besides that it should progress. Possibly creating an entirely new Animal Companion progression, or some kind of archetyped version of Animal Companion progression. Instead of feats you get Bike mods and you get HP at all the right places.
Regardless, it's a cool concept and I needed to link this.
...now we just need to work out a multiclass progression taking this into Red Mantis Assassin, go rogue from the organization, and become a Kamen Rider. :D