New Base Class: Exarch (Easier to Read Edition!)

[olePigeon]

http://wreckcenter.com/exarch/index.html

I made a website now that I can update, and the link is now at the very top of the thread so people will always see the latest revision. I also Photoshopped a picture and added that in. I don't know who drew the original, so I can't credit it. If someone finds out, I'll put that in.

Hopefully with the Easier to Read Edition I can get a little more feedback as the first thread I made probably scared people off. I'm (hopefully) going to play test the class this weekend in a friend's campaign. I'll see how it goes and report back.

Ideas I'm toying with:

* Aura is centered on a standard or flag instead of the Exarch.
* A smaller, condensed list of Exhortations from which you choose if it's a Buff or a Penalty.
* Rogue Talent style list with basic and advanced Exhortations instead of being separated by level.

I'll post variants of the class as I make the changes.

Here's the old thread so you can read through it. Best to scroll down near the bottom.

In this most recent change, I removed the DR Piercing, Slashing, & Bludgeoning.

[olePigeon]

OK, we played a 3rd level game yesterday with heroic stat block.

By shear coincidence, we also had a Bard, a Sorcerer/Witch/Ranger Freebooter (I think), and a half-orc Viking in the game. The bonuses got pretty insane.

Combat didn't last longer than 5 rounds, and I never had to renew the exhortations which lasted 3 rounds.

I made a LN Human Exarch Justicar follower of Erecura, picking the Positive Energy path, and took Power Attack, Overtone Chanting, and Lingering chant. For my Exhortations I picked Zealous Charge (+1 hit) and Punish the Unworthy (-1 to AC.)

The most entertaining combat was when rolled an encounter during camp (20% chance, and we rolled an 8 on percentile). so we were ambushed by a small band of goblins. Since we were all concentrated around the campfire, it worked out pretty well. I was able to position my Exarch to include 4 goblins and 2 allies.

2 of the 4 goblins failed their DC 16 will save and had -1 to armor class for that round. By the time the 1st round was over, we had +1 luck to hit & damage, +1 competence to hit & damage, and for 2 of my allies, they had +1 sacred to hit. Against 2 of the goblins, one of my allies had an effective total bonus of +4 to hit and +2 damage, and against one of the goblins that had Freeboter's Bane, it was +5 to hit and +3 damage. :o It was pretty nuts.

The half-orc Viking wielding a Falchion with power attack one-hit all the goblins, and with at least a +3 to hit and extra +2 damage, it wasn't hard to hit them. :P

So, some observations: I'm glad I had decided on 1 round + 1/2 level for duration and a 10' radius instead of my original 15', because Sacred/Infernal bonuses stack with a LOT of stuff. The bonuses got pretty darn crazy.

I never dropped below my maximum Indulgence coins. My friends were really good and staying close to my character and drawing in the monsters, so either they or a monster were almost always under the influence of an exhortation when something died.

However, I felt that I got them back too easily. I'll need to reexamine the conditions upon which an exarch gets back indulgence coins.

Something else I noticed was that I was often in the middle of a combat to maximize the effectiveness of my auras, but I also wasn't adjacent to any baddies to personally engage in combat. I'm going to retrain my 1st level feat from Power Attack to Phalanx Formation, and then get a longspear or pike. With the 10' radius aura, it occurred to me that a reach weapon would be just about perfect. I'll also want to take a Polearm weapon trick so I can choke up at a -2 and still attack stuff adjacent to me.

[olePigeon]

Something that came up was that since you don't get the bonuses or penalties until the start of your turn, my ally couldn't benefit from the extra +1 to hit for an attack of opportunity because the monster moved before the start of his first turn (he wasn't flat footed because of a class feature.)

[olePigeon]

Also, something that occurred to me: Instead of using the Indulgence Coins to increase the power of an exhortation, perhaps all the Exhortations increase in relative power at regular intervals like a Bard's Inspire Courage, then you spend coins to set the number of rounds the exhortation lasts.

So at 15th level, for example, all the Exhortations would be a 3x multiplier (i.e. +3 to hit, energy resist 15, 3 targets get something, etc.) Then you'd use the coins to make an aura last for X number of rounds per coin spent.

At 15th level, it wouldn't be unreasonable to have a 26 Charisma (20 at level 1, +2 or +3 from levels, +4 from magic items or spells) for a total of 8 coins.

So you could have 8 auras last for 1 round each, or you could have 4 auras last for 2 rounds each, or have 2 auras last for 4 rounds each (or 1 aura last for 7 rounds, and 1 aura last for 1 round.) Anyway, you get the idea.

Then the rate at which I was getting back coins wouldn't seem too bad because you'd be spending those coins like mad for relatively short, but powerful bursts.

It would also force you to choose between shorter duration but more powerful bonuses or penalties, or, much longer duration but smaller effect to maximize your chances of regaining Coins during combat. This would be especially important at higher levels when you typically don't one-shot everything, and combat can potentially last much longer.

[Here4daFreeSwag]

Good to have some updated free peekings into the Exarch out there. ;)

[olePigeon]

Thanks?

[olePigeon]

http://wreckcenter.com/exarch/index.html

OK, major overhaul to the class. I completely reversed the mechanics and streamlined all the exhortations into a smaller list. There are no longer targeted exhortations. Exhortations either affect all allies or all enemies within the zealous aura radius.

Now the exhortations advance in power automatically every 3 levels similar to Bard, but you pick them like Rogue Talents. So all the exhortations are available with no level restriction.

At 11th level you get access to Advanced Exhortations that you can pick in place of a regular exhortation.

Indulgence is instead used to increase the duration of an exhortation. This gives you more control over whether you want more bonuses over a shorter period of time, or fewer but more sustained bonuses, but the relative power of the bonuses doesn't change. I'm hoping this will solve the problem of reduced effectiveness at higher levels.

Let me know what you guys think of this more streamlined version.

I also added a new religion trait and changed the feats a bit.

[olePigeon]

http://wreckcenter.com/exarch/index.html

Some more feedback from friends has resulted in lots more changes.

Cleaned up the abilities granted per level in the advancement table. I realized I had left a bunch of crap from older versions of the class.

Exhortations are back to lasting 1 round +1 round per 2 levels. They cost 1 indulgence to start an exhortation as a standard action, but can be maintained as a move action at no cost. You can maintain an exhortation as a free action at the cost of 1 indulgence per round.

I removed advanced exhortation, but added in Revelries (to be expanded.) Revelries are exhortations without a numerical component, and are not dependent on Affirmation. They provide unique effects to that of the normal bonuses or penalties that exhortations provide.

I removed all the immunities, then added in a new ability called Mantles. This is to give the zealous aura a passive bonus that would apply even outside of combat with no exhortations.

I added two new abilities at 6th and 12th called Devotion and Blind Faith. At 6th level, so long as an exarch has at least 1 indulgence, allies or enemies normally immune to mind-affecting effects and are subjected to one or more exhortations still receive 50% of the effects of each exhortation. At 12th level, so long as an exarch has at least 1 indulgence, enemies and allies normally immune to mind-affecting effects are no longer immune to the effects of exhortations.

Exemplar (and Practiced Exhortation) was updated to reflect the new action based mechanic for the exhortations. You now pick 2 exhortations you already have. So long as you have 1 indulgence, you can start (and maintain as a free action) the exhortation at no cost. Additional costs from feats still apply.

[olePigeon]

Already see an issue with the durations. At higher levels you'll likely never need to spend indulgence to maintain an exhortation. :/

[olePigeon]

http://wreckcenter.com/exarch/index.html

Some more changes. Make sure to shift-reload after clicking the link to refresh the page and not load the cached version.

Exhortation duration is now dependent on the Affirmation value.

Updated Mantles.

Added more Revelries.

Exarchs can now channel energy at level 2 for 1d4 + 1d4 every 2 levels after 2nd. Consumes 2 indulgence.

Added another trait.

Added some Favored Class options.

[olePigeon]

Even though I'm designing the class, I keep forgetting how small 10' is. They're not even 20' auras like a Paladin.

The effects of exhortations or other abilities should be small, short in duration, costly to maintain, but also powerful. Balancing the power with cost and duration has proven very difficult.

I'll be making some more significant changes shortly. One is that I'm removing Channel Energy again. It just doesn't fit the Fire & Brimstone theme of an exarch. They're not about fluffy healing, they're about enacting righteous retribution and enforcing their laws.

[olePigeon]

http://wreckcenter.com/exarch/index.html

As promised, some more changes.

Exhortations cost 1 indulgence and now last 1 round. They may be maintained as a move action at no additional cost, or as a free action for 1 indulgence.

Removed channel energy.

Conviction now only works if you have at least 1 indulgence point.

Updated and added more Revelries.

Updated feats.

Added a new Religion Trait: Solid Foundation. +2 trait bonus to a single Mantle.

Updated and modified Mantles. Now an incremental bonus every 4 levels.

Updated Favored Class options.

Added Ritual Self-flagellation as an option to regain Indulgence points: An exarch may spend 1 hour in ritual self-flagellation inflicting 1d4 points of Constitution damage. For every point of Constitution damage an exarch receives, she also receives 1 point of indulgence.

[olePigeon]

http://wreckcenter.com/exarch/index.html

Heh, OK. I've come full circle. I experimented with treating the exhortations like bard songs, except that unlike bard songs, you can have as many exhortations as actions/indulgence available to use. So having a fixed bonus and trying to limit duration didn't work, and made it way too powerful at later levels.

So instead I've gone full circle, back to having fixed duration and using indulgence to buff the exhortations. This way the total amount of bonuses will rarely exceed the same amount of bonuses you'd get from a similar level bard.

The duration is 1 round +1 round per 3 levels. You can maintain an exhortation for free as a move action, or as a free action for 1 point of indulgence.

Affirmation is now back as a single ability acquired at 4th level: Starting at 4th level, and every 3 levels thereafter, an exarch may spend 1 additional point of indulgence when she starts an exhortation, multiplying the numerical effects of an exhortation by the total number of indulgence spent. For example, a 7th level exarch may spend 2 additional points of indulgence when starting an exhortation, increasing the bonus for Zealous Strike to +3 damage, or Enduring Cold to cold resist 15, or Light From Within to 60 foot dark vision. Revelries are not affected by affirmation.

I added more Revelries. They always cost 2 to start.

[olePigeon]

We have a game this weekend, I'll give the revised exarch another go and report back here how it went.

[olePigeon]

One more tiny change before the game: The exarch itself has to get the killing blow while either an ally or an enemy is under the influence of an exhortation (this includes dropping an enemy below zero with a damaging aura such as Purify the Wicked [Aura of fire damage 1])

This should reduce the amount of indulgence points gained during combat and encourage an exarch to enter melee combat rather than just only rely on auras.

[olePigeon]

http://wreckcenter.com/exarch/index.html

Small update: Added a new reach weapon, the crosier.

[olePigeon]

Small update: Added a new weapon, the shepherd's staff.

[olePigeon]

Added a Spring-Loaded Crosier (ala Ladyhawke). Also adjusted the gold piece value using the Design Point system.

[olePigeon]

OK, back from the game session, and it went fairly well. :)

Lots of little combats, so I actually ran out of indulgence points to spend. Perhaps most annoying for my character was that we fought nothing but vermin and undead so far (we went into a haunted, ruined, ancient school house.) That meant, at my current level, my offensive exhortation had no affect. :o

Also, no one in our party are healers. So it's not looking too good. Next game session we'll like have to retreat outside to recuperate and buy some more healing items. We used to have a cleric NPC, but the NPC left.

Anyway, we might level during our current respite, and if we do, I'll have an ew exhortation to pick. I'm going to take the Revivification exhortation for a little bit of healing.

--------------

OK, so, for the issues that came up:

I was asked why the DC for the offensive acid exhortation was a Will save and not a Reflex save. I hadn't thought about it because 90% of the exhortations would have been Will saves, and I wanted them to have a simple saving throw regardless of which one you use.

So the excuse I came up with was that Exhortations are all about the power of suggestion with some help of divine magic to help manifest a creature's own fears. If they think they're burning in acid or being scorched by fire, then that's what happens.

So I may need to clarify that in the exhortation descriptions, even though I stated that they're mind-affecting abilities.

Creatures that are resistant or immune to those energy types still get those resistances.

--

Another issue that we discussed was whether or not my character should be allowed to maintain an exhortation outside of combat. If an exarch did so, they're giving up a move action to do it. Unless on mounts (which is unlikely in a dungeon unless you're a small sized character), the exarch would be moving at half speed compared to everyone else.

[Halek]

Seems like a bard had a baby with a paladin. An unmounted cavalier with different flavor. Isnt broken as in nonfunctional or broken as in to strong. Good homebrew class.

[olePigeon]

Thanks. :) Was trying to mix it up a bit.

[olePigeon]

You know, I had never played a Bard before. I tend to have bad experiences with magic users in general, so I avoid them. Looks like I was trying to reinvent a mechanic that already existed.

Only now do I realize how Bard songs work. I thought that bard songs lasted a whole combat, I didn't realize that you have a set number of rounds per day that can perform Bard songs.

I was trying to balance duration with power, and it was already done for me with the Bard songs.

Now I'm thinking of going back to the fixed bonuses, but with the same pool of rounds per day like a Bard. However, I do like the Indulgence mechanic and having to spend the points. If I use the Bard system, I no longer need the point system.

Sigh.

[olePigeon]

http://wreckcenter.com/exarch/index.html

So after reading through the Custom Class guidelines for Pathfinder, I've retooled the Exarch.

Although I really liked the Indulgence point system, it wouldn't have followed the guidelines very well. One too many primary class features. I may revisit it in the future and put up an alternate version with a medium BAB. Perhaps I can convince people to take a look at both and tell me which they like better? Interest appears to have all but disappeared, so I may just stick with latest version. It seems pretty solid.

In any event, the class has been streamlined even more. Now it's more of a Hybrid class (Paladin / Bard) instead of a base class, sharing some of the class mechanics of each

The exhortations now operate more like miniature Bard songs, but since the class doesn't have spells, the exhortation bonuses/penalties progress faster, can have more than one exhortation active at once (though this uses up your rounds faster), and have more options in the types of bonuses or penalties provided.

I changed the Crosier a little bit. It now requires the exotic weapon proficiency, however, it is treated as a martial weapon for divine casters. Exarch is proficient with crosiers.

I also added a couple more abilities to round it out and help match the number of secondary features for a Paladin or Bard:

Ablation (Su)
Beginning at 2nd level, an exarch can grant temporary hit points (to herself or to others) by touch. Each day she can use this ability a number of times equal to 1/2 her exarch level plus her Charisma modifier. With one use of this ability, an exarch can grant 1d6 temporary hit points for every two exarch levels she possesses, lasting 1 hour per 2 levels of exarch. Using this ability is a standard action, unless the exarch targets herself, in which case it is a swift action. An exarch only needs one free hand to use this ability. Temporary hit points from this source do not stack, but the highest result from multiple uses is used.

And I changed Mantle just a tiny bit to synergize with Ablation:

Mantle (Su)
At 2nd level an exarch may choose one Mantle from the list below. Mantles are the foundation of an exarch's faith, providing continuous bonuses to her and her allies while under the influence of her zealous aura. At 6th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, an exarch may choose one additional mantle. In addition, at each such interval, the bonus to all mantles increases by +1. Furthermore, whenever an exarch uses Ablation on a creature affected by a condition covered by one of her mantles, the creature immediately receives a new saving throw to avoid that condition.

And finally, at 5th level, they now get Deafening Silence:

Deafening Silence (Su)
At 5th level, as a part of a full round action, an exarch may end all active exhortations, dealing 3d4 points of sonic damage per exhortation ended to all enemies within the radius of the zealous aura. Affected creatures must make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 exarch level + charisma modifier) to avoid being deafened for 1d6 rounds. Using this ability makes the exarch fatigued.

[olePigeon]

http://wreckcenter.com/exarch/index.html

Tiny update to the new weapons. I misread how the total design points worked. Had an extra 3 because they're two-handed weapons.

So I adjusted them slightly.

Shepherd's Staff is now a simple weapon.

Crosier is now a martial weapon and significantly cheaper.

Spring-Loaded crosier is still an exotic weapon, and is sold at 4x the base price. I couldn't find a weapon that was similar to it to figure out how they factored in the cost, so I had to take some liberties with the pricing.

It functions as two different weapons, but it's not a double weapon. It's a single-ended quarterstaff when not extended, then it becomes a crosier when extended. Because it's exotic and spring-loaded, I doubled the base cost. Because it functions as a second weapon, I doubled the base cost again.

[olePigeon]

http://wreckcenter.com/exarch/index.html

A friend of mine who's really good at min-maxing took a look at the class. He noticed that you didn't really need Charisma, even though I had originally designed the class to be Charisma based. He also offered a bunch of other constructive criticism and how he thought it might be too powerful in some areas, and not good enough in others.

So I've tweaked the abilities to be more dependent on Charisma. I removed the class ability to later affect creatures immune to mind-affecting abilities. It was thought of as too powerful. An exarch should focus on supporting her party if she runs into that type of situation.

Each exhortation may now only affect the exarch herself + 1 creature per Charisma modifier.

Making a saving throw to resist an exhortation makes the creature immune for 24 hours. This keeps it in line with the majority of affects from other similar creature abilities or affects.

Conviction now works like the Charmed Life class ability for the Swashbuckler.

Purify the Wicked, Punish the Sinners, Mark the Betrayers, and Sanitize the Mad now do 2 points per multiplier.

Summer's Burn, Winter's Chill, Monsoon's Mark, Lightning's Spark now reduce resistance by 5 instead of having a Percentage vulnerability. He said this would be better so you don't have to invent a new type of damage.

I didn't think that I was inventing a new type of damage. Vulnerability is normally a 50% increase in damage. Setting it at 10% didn't seem like it was inventing a new one to me. I may add both at some point.