Hi, the past few days I had to think about about the Guardian, some of the issues the class has as it is right now, and how I would go about fixing them. I had a lot of (What I think to be) cool ideas and now want to share them across a few posts on this sub. This post is one of those. I will first write down the ideas I had as rules, and then later add some comments explaining my thoughts and reasoning behind those ideas.
Disclaimer: This is not me saying that this is what the Guardian SHOULD BE. I also don't claim that these changes would even necessarily be for the better. My goals with these posts is not to dictate how to make the Guardian properly. My goals with these posts is discussing potential issues with the Class (many of which have already been pointed out, some of which I haven't seen discussed much), talking about potential ways of fixing them and discussing game design in general, but primarily, my goal with this is just to share and discuss some cool ideas I had because I love homebrewing :). And how knows, maybe a Paizo designer stumbles across one of these and takes some inspiration, but that would already be far more than I would hope to accomplish.
Here is a list of all parts:
Reworking The Guardian Part 1: The Taunt Mechanic
Reworking The Guardian Part 2: Class Options
Reworking The Guardian Part 3: Class Mechanics & Subclasses
In my last post I want to first go into general class changes, then I want to discuss my idea of a subclass system. This constitutes probably the biggest departure from the original Guardian, but these are also some of the ideas I am most excited about.
___________________________________________________________________________ ____________
General Changes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------
Key Attribute: Constitution or other
Hitpoints per Level: 12
Class DC: Your choice of Constitution, Wisdom, Charisma or Intelligence (Lv 9: Expert; Lv 17: Master)
Perception: Lv 1: Expert; Lv 11: Master
Progresses in proficiency with all armors including unarmed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------
Level 1 Class Feature: Guardians Resistance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------
During your daily preparations you can choose 3 damage types. You gain resistance equal to half your level against those damage types (minimum 1). This stacks with resistances your armor might grant you. You can spend 10 minutes to switch one resistance for another.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------
Subclasses
(The Defensive Strategies are explained in my post about class options: Reworking The Guardian Part 2: Class Options )
Every Subclass grants you a choice between different Key Attributes, a different Defensive Strategy, some upgrade to that Defensive Strategy and a unique ability.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------
Strength-Based
* Key Attribute: Constitution or Strength
* Defensive Strategy: Hampering Sweeps
-> Bonus Effect: The enemy always has to attempt the save, even if they do not leave your reach, unless they use a Step action.
* Subclass Ability: Striking your allies triggers a Reactive Strike from you.
Dexterity-Based
* Key Attribute: Constitution or Dexterity
* Defensive Strategy: Tackle Ally
-> Bonus Effect: You can push your ally 5 feet into any direction.
* Subclass Ability: Whenever an ally you can see is subject to a hostile effect, you can Stride towards them as a reaction. Afterwards, you can immediately use one Guardian reaction as a free action if its requirements are fulfilled.
Wisdom-Based
* Key Attribute: Constitution or Wisdom
* Defensive Strategy: Danger Sense
-> Bonus Effect: You grant the +1 circumstance bonus on a success and grant a +2 circumstance bonus on a critical success.
* Subclass Ability: If an enemy you can see attacks an ally you can see and the ally is off-guard to the enemy, the enemy first has to succeed a check against your Perception DC using the relevant modifier (Usually attack modifier or spell attack modifier). On a failure, your ally isn't off-guard to the attack.
* Special: You become Master in Perception at 7th level and legendary at 15th level.
Charisma-Based
* Key Attribute: Constitution or Charisma
* Defensive Strategy: Command Attention or Challenge
-> Bonus Effect: If you take Command Attention, increase the area to "20-foot or 40-foot emanation". If you take Challenge, after it would normally end, the creature still is taunted 1 for an additional round. You only get the bonus for the ability you chose as part of this subclass.
* Subclass Ability: Successful Diplomacy, Intimidation and Deception checks against enemies make them taunted 1 for 1 round (taunted 2 on a critical success).
Intelligence-Based
* Key Attribute: Constitution or Intelligence
* Defensive Strategy: Guardian Lore
-> Bonus Effect: When you successfully Recall Knowledge about a creature/object, the first time an ally is you can see is subject of a hostile effect of the creature/object in question, they gain a +1 circumstance bonus to the relevant defense (+2 on a critical success).
* Subclass Ability 1: You can spend 10 minutes to grant one of your allies one of your Guardian Resistances while they are within a 30-foot emanation. If you do so, any Guardian Resistance you granted to another ally ends. If they leave that area, they loose the resistance, but they regain it if they enter it again.
Special: You become Master in Perception at 7th level and legendary at 15th level.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------
___________________________________________________________________________ ____________
Comments
As I wrote in my post "Reworking The Guardian: Class Options", I wanted to expand the scope of the Guardian from "Specific Heavily Armored Defender" to "Defender In General". So this is probably where I made the most extreme changes.
Key Attribute
As you can see, the Guardian can take literally every Score as their ability score, depending on their subclass. They can always take Con, which I thought was fitting for what thematically is the most defensive class in the game. You being able to take every other score is, on one hand, meant to give players as many options as possible, and on the other, is meant to embody the various different ways in which one can go about defending others. Want to be the classical Strength-based Guardian? You can! But you can also be the Dexterous Protector who is always where he needs to be, a Wise Bodyguard, who sees dangers coming from miles, or a Charismatic leader, who pulls attention to himself.
Hit Points per level
As I said, I think it is only fitting for the most defensive class to have the maximum HP per level. Not only that, but since their class features see them pulling aggro to themselves, I think they need the higher HP.
Class DC
There are multiple things to talk about in reference to the class DC.
Firstly, I made it scale faster. The Guardian's protective abilities rely on their Class DC so I think it needs to be on the higher side of Class DCs. Maybe not up to legendary but definitely close.
Secondly, you can choose CON or any of the mental stats as the score you use for it, but not DEX or STR. The reason why I did this is firstly, to balance the mental subclasses with the physical ones (Now some have better combat stats, in return the others are slightly better at protecting with their higher DC) and secondly because I think this gives players a difficult but interesting choice in regards to what they want to focus on.
Perception
I feel like a Protector needs to be decently perceptive. You need to spot a danger to protect others from it after all.
Guardian's Resistance
I think the Guardian should have resistances as a primary class feature, and for that, they need to be more general. The resistances as they are right now are too specific imo. Letting you choose between resistances also rewards you for planning ahead. And while I haven't added them to my other post where I list feat ideas, this also opens up the possibility for feats that allow you to change resistances during combat.
Subclasses
I might later invent some class-specific feats. I already have a few ideas, but this is gonna be a different post I might make some other day.
Strength-based
This is meant to embody the more classical form of Defender, akin to for example the Sentinel feat from D&D. They defend by being an immovable object you cannot get by. This is what most probably think of when they hear "tank".
Dex-based
This is meant to be more of a Guardian Angel, who is always there to protect you. The ability to make a full Stride as a reaction makes this subclass pretty mobile. One consideration you will have to make, however, is that there is some counter synergy with the speed reduction of heavy armor, which is why I considered giving it improved unarmored defense. However, I decided against it, because for one, I think this is the monk's thing, and secondly, because I think that it is an interesting trade-off. Either you maximize your defense at the cost of some mobility, or you sacrifice a bit of AC to maximize your mobility.
Wis-based
This is the embodiment of the wise protector who sees danger coming from miles away that I referenced in my other post. I think that this could be a very cool "archetype" to lean into. The better perception proficiency also sets it apart from other subclasses and reinforces this "Wise Protector" theme. I have also heard people discuss the potential of focus spells, and while I think the idea is cool and would really fit the mental Guardian Subclasses, thinking of a focus spell system is unfortunately far too much work for now xd.
Cha-based
This is meant to embody leaders, knights in shining armor, or braggarts who protect their allies by demanding the attention of their enemies. This is an aggro-taking based tank, that, as far as I know, is typical for MMORPGs. This subclass also has a lot of debuff capabilities in its kit.
Int-based
This is meant to embody the kind of Guardian that protects by planning ahead and being prepared for any form of danger. It is also the subclass I put the least effort into (I basically came up with it while writing). The giving allies resistances part is meant to reward planning ahead, although I am not sure if it accomplishes that well enough. I can also imagine a later feat or feature that just allows you to change a resistance on the fly. What this subclass might also benefit from, is a Prescient Planner-esque feat/feature, but for resistances or other prepareable defensive options. Needless to say, I think this subclass still needs the most work.
