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Frank and K (talk)
Date Created:	5/12/08
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Contents 1 Races of War 1.1 Forward: A Brief History of Fighting Men 1.2 War in D&D 1.2.1 Fighting with Honor 1.3 Unusual Races 1.3.1 Aasimar 1.3.2 Drow 1.3.3 Goblin 1.3.4 Hobgoblin 1.3.5 Orc 1.3.6 Half-Orc 1.3.7 Tiefling 1.4 Powerful Races 1.4.1 Converting Monsters Into Characters: 1.4.1.1 Method 1: The Easy Way 1.4.1.2 Method 2: 1.4.1.3 Method 3: 1.4.1.3.1 Gnoll (Minimum Level 2) 1.4.1.3.2 Bugbear (Minimum Level 3) 1.4.1.3.3 Ogre (Minimum Level 4) 1.4.1.3.4 Frost Giant (Minimum Level 10) 1.5 Warriors with Class 1.5.1 Base Classes 1.5.1.1 Some Base Classes are Short 1.5.1.2 Warrior 1.5.1.3 Fighter 1.5.1.4 Barbarian 1.5.1.5 Knight 1.5.1.6 Samurai 1.5.2 Prestige Classes 1.5.2.1 Death Knight 1.5.2.2 Demon Samurai 1.5.2.3 Dragon Lancer 1.5.2.3.1 Sample Dragon: 1.5.2.4 Legendary Strategist 1.5.3 Multiclassing Characters 1.5.3.1 XP Penalties 1.5.3.2 Favored Classes 1.5.3.3 Saving Throws 1.5.3.4 Skill Points 1.6 Warriors with Style 1.6.1 Character Background 1.6.1.1 War Profiteer 1.6.1.2 Veteran of The War 1.6.1.3 Street Rat 1.6.1.4 Slave of the Hobgoblin Clans 1.6.1.5 Royalty of a Fallen Nation 1.6.1.6 The Resistance 1.6.1.7 Refugee from The War 1.6.1.8 Raised by Owlbears 1.6.1.9 Moil Wrought 1.6.1.10 Hero of the Peasants 1.6.1.11 Experimental Stock 1.6.1.12 Apprenticed 1.6.1.13 Amnesia 1.6.2 The Failure of Feats 1.6.2.1 Exploits 1.6.2.2 The New Feat System: 1.6.2.2.1 Blind Fighting [Combat] 1.6.2.2.2 Blitz [Combat] 1.6.2.2.3 Combat Looting [Combat] 1.6.2.2.4 Combat School [Combat] 1.6.2.2.5 Command [Combat] [Leadership] 1.6.2.2.6 Danger Sense [Combat] 1.6.2.2.7 Elusive Target [Combat] 1.6.2.2.8 Expert Tactician [Combat] 1.6.2.2.9 Ghost Hunter [Combat] 1.6.2.2.10 Giant Slayer [Combat] 1.6.2.2.11 Great Fortitude [Combat] 1.6.2.2.12 Horde Breaker[Combat] 1.6.2.2.13 Hunter [Combat] 1.6.2.2.14 Insightful Strike [Combat] 1.6.2.2.15 Iron Will [Combat] 1.6.2.2.16 Juggernaut [Combat] 1.6.2.2.17 Lightning Reflexes [Combat] 1.6.2.2.18 Mage Slayer [Combat] 1.6.2.2.19 Mounted Combat [Skill] 1.6.2.2.20 Murderous Intent [Combat] 1.6.2.2.21 Phalanx Fighter[Combat] 1.6.2.2.22 Point Blank Shot [Combat] 1.6.2.2.23 Sniper [Combat] 1.6.2.2.24 Subtle Cut [Combat] 1.6.2.2.25 Two Weapon Fighting [Combat] 1.6.2.2.26 Weapon Finesse [Combat] 1.6.2.2.27 Whirlwind [Combat] 1.6.2.2.28 Zen Archery [Combat] 1.6.3 Advanced Combat 1.6.3.1 Base Attack Bonus and Combat Maneuvers 1.6.3.1.1 Attacks of Opportunity 1.6.3.1.2 Bonus Attacks and BAB 1.6.3.1.3 Attack Options 1.6.3.1.3.1 Expertise 1.6.3.1.3.2 Power Attack 1.6.3.2 Special Attack Actions 1.6.3.2.1 Bullrush 1.6.3.2.2 Coup de Grace 1.6.3.2.3 Covering Fire 1.6.3.2.4 Disarm 1.6.3.2.5 Feint 1.6.3.2.6 Grapple 1.6.3.2.6.1 Grab On 1.6.3.2.6.2 Hold Down 1.6.3.2.6.3 Lift 1.6.3.2.7 Trip 1.7 Tools of the Trade 1.7.1 Weapons 1.7.2 Bows 1.7.2.1 Ammunition 1.7.3 Armor 1.7.3.1 Fantastic Armors 1.7.3.1.1 Non-Proficiency and Heavier Armor 1.7.3.1.2 Armor Check Penalty, Arcane Spell Failure, Armor Stealth Penalty, and Max Dex Bonus 1.7.3.2 Not Armors 1.7.3.2.1 Camouflaged Clothing 1.7.3.2.2 Fancy Clothing 1.7.3.2.3 Functional Clothing 1.7.3.2.4 Magic Clothing 1.7.3.3 Light Armors 1.7.3.3.1 Brigandine 1.7.3.3.2 Chain Shirt 1.7.3.3.3 Cord Armor 1.7.3.3.4 Darkleaf Armor 1.7.3.3.5 Gray Armor 1.7.3.3.6 Leather Armor 1.7.3.3.7 Mithril Shirt 1.7.3.3.8 Padded Armor 1.7.3.3.9 Spiderweb Clothing 1.7.3.3.10 Still Suit 1.7.3.3.11 Studded Leather Armor 1.7.3.3.12 Wicker Armor 1.7.3.3.13 Winter Clothing 1.7.3.4 Medium Armors 1.7.3.4.1 Adamantine Breastplate 1.7.3.4.2 Animal Spirit Armor 1.7.3.4.3 Bone Armor 1.7.3.4.4 Breastplate 1.7.3.4.5 Chitin Carapace 1.7.3.4.6 Dragonscale shirt 1.7.3.4.7 Elaborate Gowns 1.7.3.4.8 Gith Armor 1.7.3.4.9 Hide Armor 1.7.3.4.10 Lamellar Armor 1.7.3.4.11 Lobster Mail 1.7.3.4.12 Mithril Suit 1.7.3.4.13 Rime Hauberk 1.7.3.4.14 Ringmail 1.7.3.4.15 Scale Mail 1.7.3.5 Heavy Armors 1.7.3.5.1 Adamantine Carapace 1.7.3.5.2 Coral Armor 1.7.3.5.3 Demon Armor 1.7.3.5.4 Elukian Clay Armor 1.7.3.5.5 Dragonscale Suit 1.7.3.5.6 Full Plate 1.7.3.5.7 Great Armor 1.7.3.5.8 Half Plate 1.7.3.5.9 Hoplite Armor 1.7.3.5.10 Mechanus Armor 1.7.3.5.11 Silk Steel Armor 1.7.3.5.12 Stone Plate 1.7.3.5.13 Sun Plate 1.7.3.6 Shields 1.7.3.6.1 Adamantine Shield 1.7.3.6.2 Buckler 1.7.3.6.3 Dragonscale Shield 1.7.3.6.4 Force Shield 1.7.3.6.5 Mithril Shield 1.7.3.6.6 Steel Shield 1.7.3.6.7 Vine Shield 1.7.3.6.8 Wooden Shield 1.7.3.7 Great Shields 1.7.3.7.1 Bone Wall 1.7.3.7.2 Crystal Shield 1.7.3.7.3 Ice Aegis 1.7.3.7.4 Kappa Shell 1.7.3.7.5 Kite Shield 1.7.3.7.6 Tower Shield 1.8 Logistics and Dragons 1.8.1 The Demographics of D&D 1.9 A World At War 1.9.1 The Stone Ledger: The Dwarves Remember 1.9.1.1 Campaign Seed: Secrets Revealed 1.9.1.2 Campaign Seed: The Blank Spot 1.9.2 Gnolls: Too Lazy to Win 1.9.3 Vistas of the Giants: Big and Important Stuff 1.9.3.1 Campaign Seed: The Land Above 1.9.3.2 Campaign Seed: Vacillating Terrors 1.9.4 The Goblin Empire: Silent Loyalty, Silent Dissent 1.9.5 Elves: Servants of the High Wizards 1.9.6 Warrens of the Gnomes: Guerilla Illusionists 1.9.7 Orcs: The Endless War 1.9.8 Borderlands of the Sahuagin: Sore Winners 1.9.8.1 Campaign Seed: Free Your World 1.9.8.2 Campaign Seed: The Price of Hubris 1.10 After the War 1.10.1 Triumph of the Halflings: Reconstructing the Shire 1.10.2 Defeat of the Halflings: They Came and Took Our Land 1.10.3 Triumph of the Dwarves: Breaking the Cycles 1.10.4 Defeat of the Dwarves: The Tunnels Forgotten 1.10.5 Triumph of the Goblins: What's Yours is Mine 1.10.6 Defeat of the Goblins: A Land of Banditry 1.10.7 Triumph of the Necromancers: Endless Night 1.10.8 Defeat of the Necromancers: Resource Rush!

[edit] Races of War

[edit] Forward: A Brief History of Fighting Men

In its origins, D&D was a wargame like Warmachine or Warhammer. You had a field filled with tiny men, and they fought each other with swords and bows. Eventually, someone got really lazy, and wanted to replace a large number of fighting men with heroic fighting men who would be easier to paint because there were much less of them. And that, right there, is the origins of DnD. The smaller number of better Fighting Men would be your "army" and eventually people started playing magical teaparty with their fighting men, and it turned into a roleplaying game. So it isn't surprising that at first you "roleplayed" a small group of heroic fighting men.

When the new classes (such as "Magic User" and eventually "Thief" and "Cleric") were introduced, they were intended to be better than the Fighting Men. And, well, they totally were. Indeed, players still controlled lots of characters, and it was deemed impractical for more than one or two of those characters to be any good or in any fashion important. So you rolled up stats for each guy, and if you rolled well enough on a guy he could be something other than a Fighting Man, and the rest of your guys were basically just speed bumps whose lot in life was to stand between the monsters and the Magic Users so that the real characters could survive to another day.

Well, that isn't how things work anymore. Now every character is supposed to be individually important and have some background and so on and so forth. No longer are we allowing our Fighting Men to go without a last name unless and until they get to fourth level without being eaten by an owlbear. And so we really need Fighting Men to be a lot more interesting and effective than they are in the rules. The basic setup of the game has changed a lot, but Fighters have changed only a little. In a very real way, the Player's Handbook hands us Fighting Men who would be better suited to appear in groups of 3 per player than to stand alone. And really, that has got to stop.

[edit] War in D&D

"War is not about who is right, but who is left."

D&D is a game about stabbing people in the face, rifling through their pockets and/or home, and then going back to your own home where the beer is cold and the woman are warm and waiting for the next foolio to present himself for stabbing (and rifling). That being said, war is the same thing, but writ large.

War in the DnD universe is very nasty, very brutal, and very short. It all comes down to the question "who's got the bigger heroes?" Peasant uprisings of plucky farmers just don't happen in a world where a 1st level mage with a Wand of Fireballs and a decent Hide check can set an army of thousands on fire, and the bravest and best trained units of knights just aren't going to conquer the land/government that has a guy chain-binding vrocks to serve as elite terror squads to kill every peasant in a hundred mile radius of your capital.

If you have the bigger heroes, they knock down any smaller heroes, then walk up to the Kingdom of Good King Draxall … yada yada yada…and hear the lamentation of his womenfolk. It doesn't really matter if King Draxall's castle is now full of lava because the attackers opened a gate to a volcano in his throne room or if they went all Die Hard on the King's personal guard and gutted the bunch….the truly important troops (i.e. heroes) traveled at least as fast as griffonback and smashed the Kingdom while the King was still training his peasants on which end of a spear to poke people with.

That doesn't mean that armies don't have a place in DnD. Once the important business of nailing enemy heroes to a tree is done, someone has to pacify the new populace, enslave them to work the salt mines, collect taxes, and generally put down any rebellions or resistance movements of local yahoos (which might be gnoll bandits, a wandering ankheg, or other unimportant challenge for our heros). Heroes are generally more concerned with bigger and more rewarding problems like the undead pouring out of the newly discovered (ie unlooted) ruins in Moil than the fact that the peasants of the former King Draxell are up in arms over the latest taxes on grain.

But occasionally, someone does attempt a military victory. It might be an aristocrat with more gold than sense or a necromancer with an animation fixation, but troops will be secretly trained, mercenaries will be hired, and cadres of spies will pour into the prospective target land. Sometimes this crap works, as the relevant heroes who might defend the land might be bribed to stand aside, assassinated with extreme prejudice, or just be on another plane at the time, and then it’s the Wytch King's skeletal footman vs. King Draxall's Knights of the Holy Relic for real old-timey war on respectable battlefields.

The problem is that this kind of thing is that it generally doesn't last. Once the local hero population replenishes itself, those guys will become the local rulers by default, even if they only pay lip service to King Draxall in public. Empires lasting thousands of years are not products of military might, but a good PR department with an eye for finding up-and-coming heroes who are smart enough to maintain the fiction of a stable society rather than upset the peasants by reminding them that they live and die by the whims of guys who think that summoning angels from heaven to set off dungeon traps is an acceptable practice.

[edit] Fighting with Honor

"There is only one ethical system and it is pragmatism. Only goals change."

The concept of honorable combat is pretty fishy when you look at it carefully. Your goal is to painfully kill another sapient being with a deadly weapon, and the other guy is attempting to do the same to you. Why then, would any rational person take time to consider the "honor" of whatever horribly painful and potentially lethal act they were intent upon inflicting on another?

The answer is: The Long Term. The concept of honor in War is incredibly ancient, and the ideas of what is and is not an honorable act have varied unrecognizably over that period. But one thing has remained the same throughout: the idea of what is honorable in warfare has always been inextricably linked to the needs of the powerful. In olden days, the powerful had superior nutrition, superior training, superior equipment and came in really small numbers. So naturally of course, the rule was that you didn't gang up on people or use poison. In modern days, bullets go through pretty much anything, but powerful people have more troops and helicopters, so the rule is that you don't assassinate people in honorable combat. The penalties for being dishonorable have remained pretty static over the generations – you get kicked out of the rosters of the powerful and other power blocs attempt to band together to crush you.

That's all fine and dandy, but what does that mean for characters in the D&D world? The risks of using poison gas in terms of collateral damage really aren't there (cloudkill goes pretty much exactly where you tell it to), and the ranks of the powerful really do include high level Rogues and Assassins. Most of the stuff you think of as being dishonorable in historical chivalric codes are perfectly fine in D&D chivalric codes. Like all chivalric codes, the one found in the D&D universes is there to keep people in their place – in this case powerful adventurers on top, and little people and monsters on the bottom. Here's how it works:

• Getting a lot of help on any project is dishonorable. A 9th level wizard can wave his hands and make a dungeon, and two rogues can stab a frost giant in the back of the head and the face in synchrony. But peasants can't do jack without the help of like 20 guys. Therefore, working in groups larger than about 10 on any single project is dishonorable in the extreme. The end result is that decent goods can really only be produced by the master artisans and the little people are trapped in obscurity.

• Poisoning Food is without honor. Druids can spit poison and Assassins can shoot poison darts, but pretty much anyone can put warfarin into an enchilada. So while injected poisons aren't considered dishonorable, ingested poisons are.

• Being Gargantuan or Larger is dishonorable. It may seem downright bizarre that people in the D&D world endeavor to look down on things which stand tall. But when you think about the locations that the truly tremendous live in, it makes sense. When gargantuan creatures rear themselves, it is expected practice for all groups to drop what they are doing and attack. And that is why Titans and Dragons live on remote mountaintops instead of owning the world. It isn't that taking them down isn't a lot of effort, it's that the small creatures made a gentleman's agreement to actually put that effort in a long time ago.

• Honorable people do not create Spawn: This is one that bones the monsters and certain kinds of spellcasters like necromancers, and its designed so that people don't take Steve the Crap-Covered Farmer and turn him into a hero-level threat like a vampire spawn. We know how this works for the people that do it: they tip the balance in favor of the monsters and the heroes and society loses. Even if every Shadow only makes one other Shadow each day, in three weeks your kingdom is full of Shadows….people in the DnD universe know how this is going to end and it makes them very unhappy.

• Impersonating specific people with magic is a dishonorable act. Heroes live and die by their reputation, and part and parcel of being a hero is that people know who you are and where to find you so that they can shower you with job offers and money. That actually works for society, because this is a pre-Internet universe and we don't have Craigslist to make sure that people get the right jobs.

• Destroying Magic Items is something no honorable person would do. Magic is in many ways, a finite resource. The people in power, need it to stay in power. Artifacts are essentially irreplaceable, but they are corruptible. Maybe not by you, but by someone. If you destroy a great artifact of Evil, you've actually hurt Good some too. You've reduced the total amount of power available to anyone. And that doesn't fly for people who have all the power.

• Changing Alignment is dishonorable. Every power group wants people to pretty much stay on whatever side they are on, because otherwise how do you know who is on what side? It's very pragmatic, those who switch sides are never afforded the same trust in their new side as they were given from their old side lest they change back. That isn't to say that Good and Evil aren't proselytizing

• Honorable people take credit for their kills. Not only is it just good form to advertise your abilities so that people know who in the kingdom actually can kill an Ettin in single combat, but its actually safer for everyone if society in general know why powerful monsters keep dropping out of the sky. When people find an Old Red Dragon dead in a random field, they are going to want to know what killed it and if it has plans on their favorite tavern. Not claiming your kills means that actual hero-hours are going to be spent finding out the nature of this threat when they could be better spent curbing the excesses of the Wytch King's Empire. That pisses people off, and leads to occasional hero-on-hero violence that only serves Team Monster.

So you want to be honorable, right? Maybe give your coat to handsome members of the opposite sex, keep your word, and make sure your taxes are paid on time? Yeah, that has to do with your alignment probably (depending upon what you think Law, Chaos, Good, and Evil actually represent), not with you overall honor. Honor really is about whether society in general is going to attempt to ostracize you. So you can be Evil and Chaotic and still fit into society, still be considered honorable. In fact, D&D has entire Chaotic Evil societies where that sort of thing is expected.

[edit] Unusual Races

For a long time, there has been a definite pro-prettiness bias in the rules of D&D. That is, elves (who are pretty) get a much better deal as player characters than do hobgoblins (who are ugly). This dates back to when races had mandatory alignments and people wanted to discourage Evil player characters from coming in and ruining games (which, let's face it, a lot of evil PCs do). And while this has had the desired effect of keeping the number of orc player characters down and their impact minimal, it hasn't been good for game balance at all. Some people really want to be a gray skinned dude with shark's teeth, and they'll play whatever game mechanics are given to them. These players will be playing at the same level as other characters, and that means that they should be playing at the same power level! Really, all the unusual races are optional, so there's no purpose served in screwing them over. In the past, many races have simply been given insufficient goodies to be worth playing (Half-Orcs), or were given good enough abilities but then over-charged in levels for them so horribly as to make the character unplayable (Hobgoblins). We don't hold with that at all. If you don't want someone to play an ogre or goblin in your game, just don't let them play one. It's seriously not even a deal.

Furthermore, for some reason there has been a massive fear of giving straight statistic enhancements to characters without a level adjustment. I don't even understand that, because Halflings already get all that and more. Really, a character who gets +2 to two attributes and a total of +4 to skills and darkvision isn't even impressive compared to a Deep Halfling, so the ginormous fear that people have of letting Hobgoblins and Aasimar into games is perplexing. That being said, what follows are write-ups for the following races playable as normal starting characters in a 1st level game:

[edit] Aasimar

"My ancestors were more beautiful than you can imagine."

Aasimar get a short stick from just about everyone. They get screwed as PCs by the Level Adjustment rules, and they get no respect from players. Frankly, Celestials just don't have a lot of dramatic tension most of the time. Sure you can have the occasional "Legacy" scenario where you couldn't possibly live up to your awesome ancestors, but generally when it's important that someone has powerful family members it's so that you can introduce evil family members, not additional heroes.

So here's the deal: Aasimar are the great grandchildren of beautiful outsiders. They aren't just for being dudes with Devas as ancestors, the same game stats represent characters who come from Erinyes or Marilith stalk.

• Medium Size
• 30' movement.
• Outsider Type (Native and Human subtype)
• Darkvision
• +2 Charisma, +2 Wisdom
• Aasimar with a Charisma of at least 10 may cast light as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to their character level once per day.
• +2 bonus to Spot, and Listen checks.
• Favored Classes: Paladin and Sorcerer
• Automatic Languages: Common
• Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Aquan, Auran, Celestial, Formian, Ignan, Slaad, Sylvan, Terran.

[edit] Drow

"Time to die for the Spider Queen."

The Drow are perhaps the most overused bunch of villains ever. Their entire ability set is one that is supposed to neutralize the advantages of player characters so that characters can have mirror matches against NPC parties without doubling their treasure. With magic items that turn off once they are brought out of Drow controlled regions, spell-resistance, and spell-like abilities designed to specifically negate common player-character tactical advantages, they can easily compete with Player Characters with massively more permanent magical equipment. And that means that they can be fought and killed several times without supercharging party treasure.

But if you want to play a Drow character, you don't want any of that crap. In fact, if you want a Drow character, probably the maxim you are looking for is "WWDD?" and the answer is probably "Fight with two scimitars." But more than that, there are a number of abilities that Drow characters in stories exhibit that people want. And then there are the game mechanical abilities in the rulebook that the characters in stories obviously don't have (like Touch of Fatigue, what's up with that?) So here it is, the LA +0 Drow that people actually want to play:

• Medium Size

• 30' movement.
• Humanoid Type (Elf subtype)
• Darkvision 120'
• +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution
• Daylight Sensitivity: While in brightly lit surroundings (such as a daylight spell), a Drow suffers a -2 penalty to attack rolls and precision-based skill checks.
• Drow with a Charisma of at least 10 may cast deeper darkness (duration 4 hours), and fairie fire as spell-like abilities with a caster level equal to their character level once per day each.
• +2 bonus to saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities.
• +2 bonus to Spot, and Listen checks.
• Drow never sleep and are immune to sleep effects. Drow must still perform their 4 hour daily trance to stay coherent and rested.
• Drow live an exceedingly interesting life and every Drow has proficiency with the rapier and an exotic ranged weapon of their choice.
• Favored Classes: Cleric and Wizard
• Automatic Languages: Elvish
• Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Beholder, Common, Draconic, Drow Sign Language, Dwarvish, Gnome, Kuo-Toa, Terran, Undercommon.

[edit] Goblin

"You weren't hired to think. You were hired because you have opposable thumbs."

Goblins are the weakest and smallest of the Goblinoid races, and that means that in society in general they get a really crap deal. But that's not really important for a Player Character, because player characters get access to classes like Rogue, Knight, and Wizard for whom being small is not a huge problem. Indeed, Goblins have a number of saving graces that in the wild barely keep them alive that when used by a player character can make them very effective. Naturally adept at stealth, Goblins are virtually made to be a Rogue or Wizard, and indeed most Goblins who have class levels are one or the other.

But the Goblins are also extremely gifted mounted combatants. And why is that? Because they are the smallest and weakest of the Goblinoids, the Worgs long ago enslaved the Goblin people. That's right, the Worgs came in and imposed their dominion upon Goblins, not the other way around. But time does funny things… Worgs are pretty stupid, and they don't have thumbs. So while they are individually powerful, eventually they were forced to have the Goblins do all the important stuff – like keep records and make decisions.

So now, the Worgs have gone many generations doing pretty much whatever it is that their "servants" tell them to do. Which means that really the Goblins are totally in control. And because of this, Goblin children are practically born into the saddle. Those rich enough to afford a wolf to ride (like well, player characters) can be devastatingly effective lancers.

• Small Size
• 30' movement (despite small size).
• Humanoid Type (Goblinoid subtype)
• Darkvision
• +2 Dexterity, -2 Strength, -2 Charisma
• +4 bonus to Move Silently and Ride checks.
• Bonus Feat: Mounted Combat
• Goblins benefit from an ancient pact with the Worgs, and every Goblin receives a +2 bonus to any Bluff, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Sense Motive, or Survival check made with respect to a Worg.
• Favored Classes: Rogue and Wizard
• Automatic Languages: Common, Goblin
• Bonus Languages: Draconic, Elvish, Dwarvish, Giant, Gnoll, Infernal, Orcish, Undercommon, and Worg.

[edit] Hobgoblin

"That's some tough talk from a man who wears a basket on his head."

Hobgoblins are totally awesome at everything they do. They don't have any telling weaknesses, and their strengths are general enough that they excel at everything they put their mind to. And like Humans, this can seem like they are overpowered. But the thing is, each character is made separately. While many of the armies of the world are created of a single race, each player character can be something unique and crazy. So for the Hobgoblin people there is a substantial advantage to being good at any class. But a player character probably never sees that. A Hobgoblin [anything] is a viable character, but if you want your mouth to taste like velveeta you'd make your Rogue a Deep Halfling, you'd make your Wizard a Gray Elf, and you'd make your Fighter a Dwarf.

But there's more to being a Hobgoblin than being able to ably fill any party role without overpowering the world. You get to have orange or gray skin, sharp teeth, and depending upon which version of D&D Hobgoblin you're using – either radically more or radically less body hair than a human. So what does that mean? It means that an influential Hobgoblin character in your campaign is going to be played by Robin Williams. But while that means that Hobgoblins can be portrayed in a humorous light, chances are that the humor is going to be more like that in The Big White or Death to Smoochy. These guys have an incredibly baroque system of laws and an interlocking system of fealties that are actually a parody of Feudal Japan.

• Medium Size
• 30' movement.
• Humanoid Type (Goblinoid subtype)
• Darkvision
• +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution
• +4 bonus to Move Silently checks.
• Favored Classes: Fighter and Samurai
• Automatic Languages: Common, Goblin
• Bonus Languages: Draconic, Elvish, Dwarvish, Giant, Gnoll, Ignan, Infernal, Orcish.

[edit] Orc

"Waaarrrggghhhh!"

Orcs get the short end of the stick. They can eat pretty much anything and they have to because their race has lost every major war since… well forever. Orcs are extremely specialized, and rarely see play as anything except a Barbarian. However, some players will want to diversify the concept into say… a Rogue, Assassin, or Fighter build. That works OK, but remember that an Orc always brings "hitting things really hard" to the party. The Orcs other limitations are pretty severe, so taking a class combination that doesn't accentuate the narrow scope of Orc advantages is probably a mistake in the long run.

• Medium Size
• 30' movement.
• Humanoid Type (Orc subtype)
• Darkvision 60'
• +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma, -2 Wisdom
• Daylight Sensitivity: While in brightly lit surroundings (such as a daylight spell), an Orc suffers the dazzled condition and is thus at a -1 penalty to attack rolls and precision-based skill checks.
• +2 bonus to saving throws vs. Poison and Disease.
• Immunity to ingested poisons.
• +2 to Jump and Survival checks.
• Favored Classes: Barbarian and Cleric
• Automatic Languages: Orc, Common
• Bonus Languages: Dwarvish, Elvish, Giant, Gnoll, Goblin, Sylvan, Undercommon.

[edit] Half-Orc

"I don't fit in anywhere, but you may be surprised to know that this dagger fits all kinds of places."

Ah, the Half-Orc. Has any race ever gotten quite as dusty a drumstick as they? The reason that we have half-orcs at all is because they were around in Tolkien. But they didn't really do much in those books, they were just easily deluded villains who were borderline racist stereotypes and made us want to forget them altogether. But time moves on, and where once the Half-Orcs were debased and pathetic pawns of The Dark One, now we have them as a legitimate playable race. And yet, their game mechanics have never really been compatible with that.

Here's what they're supposed to be: Half-Orcs have the smarts of a human and the strength of an Orc. If people didn't hate them so much, they'd rule everything. But people do hate them so much. And here's why: Human women are, compared to Orcs, weak; Orcish women are, compared to Humans, gullible. Making Half-Orcs is easy, and since the modern Orc looks like an Orc from World of Warcraft more than a pig-man, perfectly understandable.

With all the wars that Orcs and Humans have, even periods of relative peace are rarely considered periods of friendship. So any time a Half-Orc happens, both races tend to consider it an abomination. It doesn't matter that a Half-Orc is a better leader than any of the other Orcs. It doesn't matter that the Half-Orc is tougher than any of the other Humans – he's hated for his talents. And that makes him perversely really good at finding out things he wants to know from people. He's dealt with prejudice all his life, and knows pretty much everything you'd want to know about working around it.

• Medium Size
• 30' movement
• Humanoid Type (Orc and Human subtype)
• Darkvision
• +2 Strength
• +2 to Intimidate, Gather Information, and Survival checks.
• Favored Classes: Assassin and Barbarian
• Automatic Languages: Orc, Common
• Bonus Languages: Any.

[edit] Tiefling

Tieflings are the most popular of the bad touched races, and for good reason. They are awesome. Not mechanically, they're kind of unimpressive. But they have pizzazz as characters. They have fiendish ancestry, and that makes them great villains and great tortured heroes. What it doesn't make them is particularly powerful. Tieflings aren't actually that great. Darkness appears on some class lists as a cantrip, and that's not an accident. Fundamentally, darkness just isn't a good effect.

Tieflings are honestly somewhat less powerful than Aasimar are (having as they do, some reasonably annoying penalties), but they are descended from hideous monsters from all over the planes, and they are generally speaking more fun to play.

• Medium Size
• 30' movement.
• Outsider Type (Native and Human subtype)
• Darkvision
• +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
• Tieflings with a Charisma of at least 10 may cast darkness as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to their character level once per day.
• +2 bonus to Bluff, Hide, and Move Silently checks.
• Favored Classes: Rogue and True Fiend
• Automatic Languages: Common
• Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Aquan, Auran, Celestial, Formian, Ignan, Slaad, Sylvan, Terran.

[edit] Powerful Races

Level adjustments don't work at all. Characters end up with skill rank maximums that prevent them from taking prestige classes appropriate to their level and they have hit dice that are low enough that they end up getting caught by spells like cloudkill that are designed to keep the henchmen out of a climactic battle, and so on and so forth. Furthermore, while the concept is busted, the implementation is even worse. Characters end up getting LAs assigned to them based on the sum total of their abilities (disregarding hit dice) and then having them added on to the hit dice (disregarding abilities). Monstrous creatures end up paying for rather minor abilities more than once and the end result is that characters who really aren't good at anything end up being counted as being higher level than "normal" characters who can outperform them in every way. That has to stop. In general, a monster that is built like a PC is about 1 CR better than one right out of the Monster Manual. CR really is supposed to equal Level, so we're going to be running with the races which are playable under that rubric:

Powerful Monsters As PCs, or “Beholder Mages That Don’t Make Us Cry.” Monsters need to be able to be easy blends of character levels and monster stats. We know that its completely awesome to fight evil mastermind wizards that might just be beholders or giants or some other big monster, and its equally neat to play a cursed vampire warriors who’s trying to redeem his soul. Designers up to this point have attempted to stop players from doing both by making these options unplayable or “the suck”, so its time to right this wrong. To start, let us be perfectly honest about two things:

• We want to play monsters.

• We know that the current ECL (Effective Character Level), LA (Level Adjustment), monster PrCs, and monster progression systems don’t work… like, at all.

Ok, now that we’ve cleared that up, we can begin. [I could get into elaborate explanations of why these separate systems don’t work, but lets just say that the flaws are self-evident if you put a PC frost giant with only Wizard levels up against an NPC frost giant with only Wizard levels and CRed at the PC’s level, or you try to play a Vampire with its +8 level adjustment and minimum character level of 5. We don’t even have to talk about the Beholder Mage, an atrocity against the DnD community in both its incarnations.]

Monsters tend to be build along four kinds of design philosophies.

• Characters: This is the “as a character” philosophy, which makes monsters at a certain CR where they are perfectly suited to fight parties of characters at that level, but might overpower a weaker party or single character or be a total pushover to more powerful individuals or parties. Giants, gnolls, yuanti, goblinoids and other monsters who are expect to use PC-level tactics and equipment fall into this category.

• Glass Jaws and Sucker Punches AKA Suckers: These monsters, which we’ll just call “Suckers” for their ability to suck and sucker punch. Usually they have an extremely powerful attack that can sucker punch a party, but they have some glaring weakness that means that they will go down extremely quickly if you exploit this weakness. Sprites, with their fabulously low HPs and powerful magic are a fine example of this monster. “Closet trolls” like trolls and Pouncing dire animals fall into this category because they are extremely dangerous in enclosed spaces (better than any three fighting characters of their CR), but they die easily if you can attack them at range and stay at a distance.

• Puzzle Monsters: These monsters are in fact more puzzle than monster. They usually are unbeatable unless you know their one weakness, meaning that players who don’t know the right Monster Manual by heart usually die to these things. Classic examples from old editions of DnD like the Windwalkers would only die to a single spell from the spell list which you may or may not know or have on hand, but 3.x has from eased away from this level of arbitrariness. Now we have monsters like Swarms and incorporeal monsters who may be immune to all your normal weapon attacks (a killer for a party without a damage-capable spellcaster) and several kind of plants or oozes that seem to have random and crazy defenses when you attack them (like splitting into more monsters).

• Awesome Because Its Awesome AKA Player Killers (PKs): Some Monsters are just built to make players cry. Dragons are the classic example, as they are traditionally CRed about two to four lower than they should be, and some other monsters have also been unofficially given the [awesome] subtype, meaning that players will always remember these monsters for being Party Killers. Angels, beholders, monsters with PC spellcasting, and drow typically fall into this category.

Can you see the problem with making these creatures into playable and balanced characters? Character monsters and PKs can be easily modified into playable characters by modifying raw stats, but Suckers and Puzzle Monsters need massive rewrites before they can be playable characters.

[edit] Converting Monsters Into Characters:

[edit] Method 1: The Easy Way

Assume that a monster is a character of its CR+1(modified if it is a monster with the [Awesome] tag), and that its stat modifiers are derived from the assumption that the base monster was built using the Elite Array (highest monster stat – highest elite stat, then repeat for next lowest, etc). For level-dependant effects like skill point maxes, feat prereqs, etc, use the monster’s CR+1. Round ability stat mods down to nearest multiple of 2(negative mods up to multiple of 2), and CRs down to nearest whole number.

The nice part of this method is that it is easy, fast, and you can get to playing a monster immediately without as lot of DM intervention or paperwork. The downside is that you might get an underpowered or overpowered monster character if you are not careful (like you forgot that Dragons are actually CRed two less than they should be, or that Sprites are unplayable).

Here’s two examples:

• Minotaur: Its Base CR is 4, and add +1 for being a PC. Its stat mods are (monster-elite array) Str 19-15=+4, Con 15-14=+0(rounded down) Dex 10-13=-2 (rounded) Wis 10-12= -2 Int 10, Cha 8-10= -2 Int 8-7=+0, for a total of +4 Str, -2 Dex, -2 Int, -2, Cha -2 Wis, which is perfectly reasonable. It’s a level 5 PC with skill rank maxes of 8 and 6 monster HD. Frankly, it's a warrior class with a little bit of punch from natural armor, small stat mods from its size, and some fun but not good noncombat abilities. It's nothing to write home about as a 5th level character, and that's much more reasonable than the ECL 8 the MM would have you play it at.

• Succubus: CR 7, +1 for being a PC. Stat mods equal Cha 26-15=+10(rounded), Int 16-14=+2, Wis 14-13=+0(rounded), Str 13- 12=+2, Con 12- 10= +2, Dex 12-8=+4 for a +10 Cha, +2 Int, +2 Str, +2 Con, +4 Dex. It’s an 8th level character who is almost as good as a Warlock of its level. Generally, it’s a far better 8th level character than the than the ECL 14 the MM would have you pay. The fact that its abilities will never grow in power is offset by the fact that it has a high Cha, and so good DCs on its spell-likes.

[edit] Method 2:

This method is the same as Method 1, but it goes a bit further by converting HD to actually appropriate HD by giving the monster the HD that equals its CR and BAB. This corrects problems just as excess HD from giants and undead.

Basically, look that the monster’s HD and BAB. What kind of HD would it need to keep about the same BAB and HPs, but would give it the appropriate number of HD to fit its CR/level (which also fixes Saves to reasonably levels). Assign it that HD, and move on with your life.

Here’s an example:

• Fire Giant. Ok, the Fire Giant is a CR 11 as a PC, and notice that it has a BAB of 11, Great! Normally, it has 15 HD which leads to some craziness if he ever gets a Con boost and it has saves that are a little too big, so lets convert it. Lets give it 11 Barbarian HD(d12s, +1 BAB, good Fort save). We see that he keeps his BAB of 11, his HPs change from 142 to 133, and its base saves are Fort +7, Will/Ref +3 like an actual 11th level character instead of Fort +9, Will/Ref +5.

[edit] Method 3:

This Method is being saved for our upcoming Tome of Tiamat. Lets just say that is the version of monster progression classes that you actually wanted to be written.

Here are some relatively simple character conversions:

[edit] Gnoll (Minimum Level 2)

Lazy Hyena men filled with awesome? Where do I sign!?

• Medium Size
• 30' movement
• Humanoid Type (Gnoll subtype)
• Darkvision 60'
• +4 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
• Proficiency in Light Armor, Shields, Simple & Martial Weapons, and the Flindbar.
• +1 level in the first Divine Spellcasting class a Gnoll takes.
• Scent.
• +1 Natural Armor.
• Favored Classes: Ranger and Druid
• Automatic Languages: Gnoll, Common
• Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Blink Dog, Giant, Goblin, Infernal, Loxo, Orc, Sphinx, Sylvan, Worg.
• 2 Starting Hit Dice (2d8 HP; 4 + Int Bonus x 5 skill points; +3 Fort Save; +1 BAB)

[edit] Bugbear (Minimum Level 3)

• Medium Size
• 30' movement
• Humanoid Type (Goblinoid subtype)
• Darkvision 60'
• +4 Strength, +2 Constitution, +2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma
• Proficiency in Light Armor, Shields, Shuriken, and all Rogue Weapons.
• +2 levels in the first Sneak Attack or Sudden Strike class a Bugbear takes.
• +3 Natural Armor.
• +4 Racial bonus on Move Silently checks.
• Favored Classes: Rogue and Ninja
• Automatic Languages: Goblin, Common
• Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Draconic, Elvish, Giant, Gnoll, Orc, Undercommon.
• 3 Starting Hit Dice (3d8 HP; 4 + Int Bonus x 6 skill points; +1 Fort, +3 Reflex, +1 Will; +2 BAB)

[edit] Ogre (Minimum Level 4)

Giants, even the lowly Ogre, are very specialized creatures. They dominate melee at their level, and really suck at everything else. As monsters, that makes them dangerous. While their glass jaws often leave them in situations that they cannot survive or even put up a decent showing, their laser-like focus can allow them to brutalize characters higher level than themselves if the lighting is just right. As characters, though, this makes them somewhat underwhelming. The ability to win super hard in one encounter only to die horribly in the next is worth less than nothing in a campaign game. An Ogre is a vulnerable and weak character for his level, but he does shine brightly if he can sucker opponents into melee. As such, Ogres really only do well in large, highly varied parties. As long as the remaining characters have potential bases covered extremely well, the fact that a single Ogre can't always pull his weight won't matter as much. For this reason, an Ogre often makes a better cohort than he does a primary character.

• Large Size
• 40' movement
• Giant Type (Cold subtype)
• Low-light vision and Darkvision (60')
• +6 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence, -4 Charisma.
• +5 Natural Armor
• Proficiency in Light Armor, Medium Armor, Martial Weapons, and Simple Weapons.
• Favored Classes: Barbarian and Ranger
• Automatic Languages: Giant, Common
• Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarvish, Goblin, Halfling, Orc, Terran.
• 4 Starting Hit Dice (4d10; 4 + Int Bonus x 7 skill points; +4 Fort, +1 Reflex, +1 Will; +4 BAB)

[edit] Frost Giant (Minimum Level 10)

Right out of the box, the Frost Giant is a bad dude capable of rescuing the head of state from ninjas. Based largely on Norse mythology, these bad boys are big and bad. In fact, at 15 feet tall, they are about as big as you can get and still count as a large creature. That makes it pretty hard for them to find mounts, or fit into small buildings, and do all kinds of other crap that adventurers want to do. But it's not impossible. A Frost Giant isn't a Cloud Giant, he doesn't need people to make new doors to accommodate him, he just needs special doors to get through without it being really inconvenient.

A frost giant gets by in human society mostly because most people wouldn't dare mess with him. And that makes for a decent enough 10th level character.

• Large Size
• 40' movement
• Giant Type (Cold subtype)
• Low-light vision
• +12 Strength, +8 Constitution, +2 Wisdom
• +9 Natural Armor
• Proficiency in Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields, Simple Weapons, and Martial Weapons.
• Rock Throwing and Catching (a Frost Giant's rocks have a range increment of 120 feet).
• Favored Classes: Fighter and Barbarian
• Cold Immunity and Fire Vulnerability
• Automatic Languages: Giant, Common
• Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Aquan, Auran, Draconic, Dwarvish, Gnoll, Orc.
• 10 Starting Hit Dice (10d10; 4 + Int Bonus x 13 skill points; +7 Fort, +3 Reflex, +3 Will; +10 BAB)

[edit] Warriors with Class

The biggest single impediment to playing Dungeons and Dragons is that the Warriors are not set up to scale to the same exponential power scale as the Wizards and Monsters. Ideally, this section addresses that point.

[edit] Base Classes

[edit] Some Base Classes are Short

Some characters can go on forever within the same milieu. A wizard can continue mastering more and more powerful magics, poring over strange and cryptic books and learning the arcane secrets of the universe without end and still be basically the same person he was when he was a bumbling apprentice whose spells dazzled and delayed onrushing orcs to buy his compatriots some time. A Monk can master more and more impressive Kung Fu indefinitely off into Epic level and still be the same unruly child from the Shaolin monastery. But some characters really can't do that. By the time a Knight hits 10th level, he's already probably riding around on a winged steed and wielding a sword made out of fire, and let's be honest – he's barely recognizable as the ogre challenging lancer from the beginning of the campaign. And that's fine, but it means that writing levels of Knight past that point is an exercise in futility. We can't really predict what your Knight will be doing at 10th level so it would be folly to pretend that there was a "normal" line of advancement for a Knight after that point. Characters need to get level appropriate abilities from 11th level on, but the D&D gameworld does not actually have any 13th level Knights in it. It has Death Knights, and Dragon Riders, and Knights of the Chalice, and Brazen Serpent Knights, and a whole bunch of other things that have Knight levels and are CR 13+, but every one of them has a Prestige Class. That's no accident, by the time you get to that point in your character's life, the direction your character is going to take should be fairly clear, and you will take a Prestige Class. That's fine, and for the short classes we encourage that sort of behavior.

[edit] Warrior

"Guards! Get them!"

The worlds of D&D have a multitude of powerful champions who slay dragons with their swords and break necromancers over their knees. But while these characters are often the primary focus of the D&D game, the fact remains that the way of the sword is traveled quite frequently by orcs and elves alike, and the vast majority of those who do so are not actually capable of performing such awesome displays of martial prowess. These are the Warriors – the people who wield weapons in a manner that is entirely unlikely to get their names told in lasting song and story.

Warriors in the Game: Warriors aren't playable as PCs. They lack the depth and tactical versatility to be an interesting character and they are not powerful enough to pull their weight in any real adventuring setup. They have a CR equal to half their Warrior level and don't get multiclassed with real classes at all. In order to keep this from being potentially unbalanced, we strongly suggest that warriors show up in groups. So while a 4th level Warrior is nominally a CR 2 opponent, he's not really a good challenge for a 2nd level party. But 2 of them are an appropriate challenge for a 4th level party. And that's really what the Warrior is for – showing up in groups and getting smacked around anyway.

Hit Die: d8

Class Skills: The Warrior's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), and Use Rope (Dex).

Skills/Level: 4 + Intelligence Bonus

BAB: Good (1/1), Saves: Fort: Poor; Reflex: Poor; Will: Good

Level, Benefit

1 Replaceable

2 Signature Weaponry

3 Loyal to Death

4 Rank

5 Unshakable Morale

All of the following are Class Features of the Warrior class:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Warrior is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, as well as Light and Medium Armor and Shields. In addition, a Warrior is proficient with either Heavy Armor or an Exotic Weapon.

Replaceable: Warriors represent the faceless hordes of grunts, guards, and mooks. They are intended to be easy to use, and very easy to replace. Instead of worrying about the feats that a Warrior has, simply give Warriors +1 to-hit for each feat they would be eligible for.

Signature Weaponry: 2nd level warriors are proficient with all racial and cultural weapons and armor of their people. For example, 2nd level Dwarven Warriors are proficient with the Dwarven Waraxe and Stone Plate armor, while 2nd level Elven Warriors are proficient with Elven Thinblades and Darkleaf Armor.

Loyal to Death: 3rd level Warriors will fight to the death and remain conscious when below 0 hit points (they are still staggered as normal).

Rank: 4th level Warriors are qualified to lead troops, and have a Command Rating equivalent to being a Sergeant.

Unshakable Morale: 5th level Warriors never have to make Morale checks and receive a +2 bonus on saves vs. Fear.

Trading Out Warrior Levels: Warrior levels aren't capable of doing anything good. If for some reason a Warrior became a named character, he becomes a member of a real character class. That is, simply trade levels of Warrior for levels in a real class that has a full BAB progression.

[edit] Fighter

"I've seen this kind of fire-breathing chicken-demon before. We're going to need more rope. Also a bigger cart."

The Fighter is a versatile combatant who is able to actively disrupt the activities of his enemies. Fighters represent plucky heroes and grizzled veterans, but they always appear to surmount impossible odds. Which means in retrospect that the odds weren't all that impossible. At least, not for someone with a Fighter's talents.

Playing a Fighter: Fighters are often handed to beginning players in order to help them learn the ropes. This is a cruel practice that dates back to when the Fighter was explicitly a weak class that players were forced to play to the (quit proximate) death if for whatever reason they didn't roll well enough on their stats to play a real character. The Fighter described here is not the hazing ritual of old, but it is a more complicated character than many others, being the non-magical equivalent to the Wizard. Beginning characters should probably be given a Barbarian, Conduit, or Rogue character to introduce them to the game mechanics of D&D.

A Fighter has an answer for virtually any circumstance and a great deal of adaptability and flexibility, and benefits greatly from being played by a player who actually knows how far a Roper's strands or a Beholder's rays reach. The Fighter character is archetypically a character who uses her opponent's limitations against them, and it really slows down play if the player needs to have those limitations explained during combat. As such, a full classed Fighter is recommended for experienced players of the game.

That being said, a level or two of Fighter can give some breadth and resilience to almost any martial build, and makes a good multiclassing dip even (sometimes especially) for inexperienced players.

Alignment: Every alignment has its share of Fighters, however more Fighters are of Lawful alignment than of Chaotic Alignment.

Races: Every humanoid race has warriors, but actual Fighters are rarer in societies that don't value logistics and planning. So while there are many Fighters among the Hobgoblins, Dwarves, and Fire Giants, a Fighter is rarely seen among the ranks of the Orcs, Gnomes, or Ogres.

Starting Gold: 6d6x10 gp (210 gold)

Starting Age: As Fighter.

Hit Die: d10

Class Skills: The Fighter's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (all skills individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), and Use Rope (Dex).

Skills/Level: 6 + Intelligence Bonus

BAB: Good (1/1), Saves: Fort: Good; Reflex: Good; Will: Good

Level, Benefit

1 Weapons Training, Combat Focus

2 Bonus Feat

3 Problem Solver, Pack Mule

4 Bonus Feat

5 Logistics Mastery, Active Assault

6 Bonus Feat

7 Forge Lore, Improved Delay

8 Bonus Feat

9 Foil Action

10 Bonus Feat

11 Lunging Attacks

12 Bonus Feat

13 Array of Stunts

14 Bonus Feat

15 Greater Combat Focus

16 Bonus Feat

17 Improved Foil Action

18 Bonus Feat

19 Intense Focus, Supreme Combat Focus

20 Bonus Feat

All of the following are Class Features of the Fighter class:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Fighters are proficient with all simple and Martial Weapons. Fighters are proficient with Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor and with Shields and Great Shields.

Weapons Training (Ex): Fighters train obsessively with armor and weapons of all kinds, and using a new weapon is easy and fun. By practicing with a weapon he is not proficient with for a day, a Fighter may permanently gain proficiency with that weapon by succeeding at an Intelligence check DC 10 (you may not take 10 on this check).

Combat Focus (Ex): A Fighter is at his best when the chips are down and everything is going to Baator in a handbasket. When the world is on fire, a Fighter keeps his head better than anyone. If the Fighter is in a situation that is stressful and/or dangerous enough that he would normally be unable to "take 10" on skill checks, he may spend a Swift Action to gain Combat Focus. A Fighter may end his Combat Focus at any time to reroll any die roll he makes, and if not used it ends on its own after a number of rounds equal to his Base Attack Bonus.

Problem Solver (Ex): A Fighter of 3rd level can draw upon his intense and diverse training to respond to almost any situation. As a Swift action, he may choose any [Combat] feat he meets the prerequisites for and use it for a number of rounds equal to his base attack bonus. This ability may be used once per hour.

Pack Mule (Ex): Fighters are used to long journeys with a heavy pack and the use of a wide variety of weaponry and equipment. A 3rd level Fighter suffers no penalties for carrying a medium load, and may retrieve stored items from his person without provoking an attack of opportunity.

Logistics Mastery (Ex): Fighters are excellent and efficient logisticians. When a Fighter reaches 5th level, he gains a bonus to his Command Rating equal to one third his Fighter Level.

Active Assault (Ex): A 5th level Fighter can flawlessly place himself where he is most needed in combat. He may take a 5 foot step as an immediate action. This is in addition to any other movement he takes during his turn, even another 5 foot step.

Forge Lore: A 7th level Fighter can produce magical weapons and equipment as if he had a Caster Level equal to his ranks in Craft.

Improved Delay (Ex): A Fighter of 7th level may delay his action in one round without compromising his Initiative in the next round. In addition, a Fighter may interrupt another action with his delayed action like it was a readied action (though he does not have to announce his intentions before hand).

Foil Action (Ex): A 9th level Fighter may attempt to monkeywrench any action an opponent is taking. The Fighter may throw sand into a beholder's eye, bat aside a key spell component, or strike a weapon hand with a thrown object, but the result is the same: the opponent's action is wasted, and any spell slots, limited ability uses, or the like used to power it are expended. A Fighter must be within 30 feet of his opponent to use this ability, and must hit with a touch attack or ranged touch attack. Using Foil Action is an Immediate action. A Fighter may not wait until an action is partially completed before deciding to attempt to foil the action, but must instead attempt to foil an action as it is declared. Note that this means that a Fighter may not foil a Full Attack (because it is not declared until after it has already begun), nor may he foil a move or charge action that began out of range. At 17th level, Foil Action may be used at up to 60 feet.

Lunging Attacks (Ex): The battlefield is an extremely dangerous place, and 11th level Fighters are expected to hold off Elder Elementals, Hezrous, and Hamatulas. Fighters of this level may add 5 feet to the reach of any of their weapons.

Array of Stunts (Ex): A 13th level Fighter may take one extra Immediate Action between his turns without sacrificing a Swift action during his next turn.

Greater Combat Focus (Ex): At 15th level, a Fighter may voluntarily expend his Combat Focus as a non-action to suppress any status effect or ongoing spell effect on himself for his Base Attack Bonus in rounds.

Intense Focus (Ex): A 19th level Fighter may take an extra Swift Action each round (in addition to the extra Immediate Action he can take from Array of Stunts).

Supreme Combat Focus (Ex): A 19th level Fighter may expend his Combat Focus as a non-action to take 20 on any die roll. He must elect to use Supreme Combat Focus before rolling the die.

[edit] Barbarian

"My name is Sharptooth of the Wolf Tribe. Your women, lands, and riches are mine."

Playing a Barbarian: Playing a Barbarian is actually very easy. In general, you hit things, and they fall down. A Barbarian's action in almost any circumstance can plausibly be "I hit it with my great axe!" As such, a Barbarian character can be a good method to introduce a new player to the game or kill some orcs when you've had a few glasses of brew.

Alignment: Every alignment has its share of Barbarians, however more Barbarians are of Chaotic alignment than of Lawful Alignment.

Races: Anybody can become a barbarian, and in areas with little in the way of civilization, a lot of people do.

Starting Gold: 4d6x10 gp (140 gold)

Starting Age: As Barbarian.

Hit Die: d12

Class Skills: The Barbarian’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge: Nature (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Skills/Level: 4 + Intelligence Bonus BAB: Good (1/1), Saves: Fort: Good; Reflex: Poor; Will: Poor

Level, Benefit

1 Rage, Fast Healing 1

2 Rage Dice +1d6, Combat Movement +5’

3 Battle Hardened

4 Rage Dice +2d6, Combat Movement +10’

5 Sidestep Hazards , Fast Healing 5

6 Rage Dice +3d6, Combat Movement +15’

7 Great Blows

8 Rage Dice +4d6, Combat Movement +20’

9 Great Life

10 Rage Dice +5d6, Combat Movement +25’, Fast Healing 10

11 Call the Horde

12 Rage Dice +6d6, Combat Movement +30’

13 Watched by Totems

14 Rage Dice +7d6, Combat Movement +35’

15 Primal Assault, Fast Healing 15

16 Rage Dice +8d6, Combat Movement +40’

17 Savagery

18 Rage Dice +9d6, Combat Movement +45’

19 One With The Beast

20 Rage Dice +10d6, Combat Movement +50’, Fast Healing 20

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Barbarians are proficient with simple weapons, martial weapons, light armor, medium armor and with shields.

Rage (Ex): When doing melee damage to a foe or being struck by a foe, a Barbarian may choose to enter a Rage as an immediate action. While Raging, a Barbarian gains a +2 morale bonus to hit and damage in melee combat and may apply any Rage Dice he has to his melee damage rolls. He also gains a +2 to saves, a -2 to AC, and he gains DR X/- with “X” being equal to half his Barbarian level +2 (rounded down). For example, a 1st level Barbarian has DR 2/- while Raging and a 10th level Barbarian has DR 7/- while Raging.

While Raging, a Barbarian may not cast spells, activate magic items, use spell-like abilities, or drop his weapons or shield. Rage lasts until he has neither struck an enemy for three consecutive rounds nor suffered damage from an enemy for three consecutive rounds. He may voluntarily end a Rage as a full-round action.

Fast Healing: Barbarians shrug off wounds that would cripple a lesser man, and have learned to draw upon deep reserves of energy and stamina. At 1st level, they gain Fast Healing 1. At 5th level this becomes Fast Healing 5, Fast Healing 10 at 10th level, Fast Healing 15 at 15th level, and Fast Healing 20 at 20th level. This healing only applies while he is not raging.

If a Barbarian ever multi-classes, he permanently loses this ability. A multiclass character does not gain this ability. A character with 4 or more levels of Barbarian gains this ability even if multiclassed.

Rage Dice: While Raging, a Barbarian may add these dice of damage to each of his melee attacks. These dice are not multiplied by damage multipliers, and are not applied to any bonus attacks beyond those granted by Base Attack Bonus. These dice are not sneak attack dice, and do not count as sneak attack dice for the prerequisites of prestige classes or feats.

Combat Movement: While Raging, a Barbarian moves faster in combat, and may add his Combat Movement to his speed when he takes a move action to move.

Battle Hardened: At 3rd level, a Raging Barbarian’s mind has been closed off from distractions by the depths of his bloodlust and battle fury. While Raging, he may use his Fortitude Save in place of his Will Save. If he is under the effects of a compulsion or fear effect, he may act normally while Raging as if he was inside a protection from evil effect.

Sidestep Hazards(Ex): At 5th level, a Raging Barbarian learns to sidestep hazards with an intuitive and primal danger sense. While Raging, he may use his Fortitude Save in place of his Reflex Save.

Great Blows (Ex): At 7th level, a Raging Barbarian’s melee attacks are Great Blows. Any enemy struck by the Barbarian’s melee or thrown weapon attacks must make a Fort Save or be stunned for one round. No enemy can be targeted by this ability more than once a round, and the save DC for this ability is 10 + half the Barbarian’s HD + his Constitution modifier.

Great Life (Ex): While Raging, a 9th level Barbarian is immune to nonlethal damage, death effects, stunning, critical hits, negative levels, and ability damage (but not ability drain).

Call the Horde(Ex): An 11th level Barbarian becomes a hero of his people. He gains the Command feat as a bonus feat, but his followers must be Barbarians. In campaigns that do not use Leadership feats, he instead gains a +2 unnamed bonus to all saves.

Watched by Totems (Ex): At 13th level, a Barbarian may immediately reroll any failed save. He may do this no more than once per failed save.

Primal Assault (Ex): At 15th level, a Raging Barbarian’s may choose to radiate an effect similar to an antimagic field when he enters a Rage, with a caster level equal to his HD. Unlike a normal antimagic field, this effect does not suppress magic effects on him or the effects of magic items he is wearing or holding.

Savagery (Ex): At 17th level, a Raging Barbarian may take a full round action to make a normal melee attack that has an additional effect similar to a mordenkainen’s disjunction. Unlike a normal Imordenkainen’s disjunction, this effect only targets a single item or creature struck.

One With The Beast: At 19th level, a Barbarian may no longer needs to be in a Rage to use any Barbarian ability.

[edit] Knight

"Do you hear me you big lizard? You unhand that young man this instant!"

Knights are more than a social position, in fact many knights don't have any social standing at all. These knight errants uphold the values of honor, and make a name for themselves adventuring.

Playing a Knight: A Knight has the potential to dish out tremendous damage to a single opponent, and it is tempting to think of them as monster killers. However, it is best to realize in advance that the Knight does not often realize their tremendous damage output. The threat of the Knight's Designate Opponent ability is just that – a threat. A Knight excels at defensive tasks, and attacking a Knight is often one of the least effective options an opponent might exercise.

So by making it be a logical combat action for your opponents to attack your party's defensive expert, you've really contributed a lot to the party. A Knight can take a lot of the heat off the rest of the party. So don't get frustrated if enemies constantly interrupt your Designate Opponent action – that's the whole point. A Knight's role is to protect others, and the best way you can do that is to provide a legitimate threat to your opponents.

Alignment: Many Knights are Lawful. But not all of them. You have to maintain your code of conduct, but plenty of Chaotic creatures can do that too.

Races: Knights require a fairly social background to receive their training. After all, a solitary creature generally has little use for honor. As such, while Knights often spend tremendous amounts of time far from civilization, they are almost exclusively recruited from the ranks of races that are highly urban in nature.

Starting Gold: 6d6x10 gp (210 gold)

Starting Age: As Fighter.

Hit Die: d12

Class Skills: The Knight's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (History, Nobility, and Geography) (Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Skills/Level: 4 + Intelligence Bonus

BAB: Good (1/1), Saves: Fort: Poor; Reflex: Poor; Will: Good

Level, Benefit

1 Designate Opponent, Mounted Combat, Code of Conduct

2 Damage Reduction

3 Energy Resistance, Speak to Animals

4 Immunity to Fear, Knightly Spirit

5 Command

6 Defend Others, Quick Recovery

7 Bastion of Defense, Draw Fire

8 Mettle, Spell Shield

9 Sacrifice

10 Knightly Order

All of the following are Class Features of the Knight class:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Knights are proficient with all simple weapons and Martial Weapons. Knights are proficient with Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor, Shields and Great Shields.

Designate Opponent (Ex): As a Swift Action, a Knight may mark an opponent as their primary foe. This foe must be within medium range and be able to hear the Knight's challenge. If the target creature inflicts ay damage on the Knight before the Knight's next turn, the attempt fails. Otherwise, any attacks the Knight uses against the opponent during her next turn inflict an extra d6 of damage for each Knight level. This effect ends at the end of her next turn, or when she has struck her opponent a number of times equal to the number of attacks normally allotted her by her Base Attack Bonus.

• Example: Vayn is a 6th level Knight presently benefiting from a haste spell, granting her an extra attack during a Full Attack action. On her turn she designates an Ettin as her primary opponent, and the Ettin declines to attack her during the ensuing turn. When her next turn comes up, she uses a Full Attack and attacks 3 times. The first two hits inflict an extra 6d6 of damage, and then she designates the Ettin as her opponent again. It won't soon ignore her!

Mounted Combat: A Knight gains Mounted Combat as a bonus feat at 1st level. If she already has Mounted Combat, she may gain any Combat feat she meets the prerequisites for instead.

Code of Conduct: A Knight must fight with honor even when her opponents do not. Indeed, a Knight subscribes to honor to a degree far more than that which is strictly considered necessary by other honorable characters. Actions which even hint at the appearance of impropriety are anathema to the Knight:

• A Knight must not accept undue assistance from allies even in combat. A Knight must refuse bonuses from Aid Another actions.
• A Knight must refrain from the use poisons of any kind, even normally acceptable poisons such as blade toxins.
• A Knight may not voluntarily change shape, whether she is impersonating a specific creature or not.
• A Knight may not sell Magic Items.
• A Knight who fails to abide by her code of conduct loses the ability to use any of her Knightly abilities which require actions until she atones.

Damage Reduction (Ex): A Knight trains to suffer the unbearable with chivalry and grace. At 2nd level, she gains Damage Reduction of X/-, where X is half her Knight level, rounded down.

Energy Resistance (Ex): A Knight may protect herself from energy types that she expects. As a Swift Action, a 3rd level Knight may grant herself Energy Resistance against any energy type she chooses equal to her Knight Level plus her Shield Bonus. This energy resistance lasts until she spends a Swift Action to choose another Energy type or her Shield bonus is reduced.

Speak to Animals (Ex): A Knight can make herself understood by beasts. Her steed always seems to be able to catch the thrust of anything she says. A 3rd level Knight gains a bonus to any of her Ride and Handle Animal checks equal to half her Knight Level. In addition, there is no limit to how many tricks she can teach a creature, and her Handle Animal checks are not penalized for attempting to get a creature to perform a trick it does not know.

Immunity to Fear (Ex): At 4th level, a Knight becomes immune to [Fear] effects.

Knightly Spirit (Ex): As a Move Equivalent Action, a 4th level Knight may restore any amount of attribute damage or drain that she has suffered.

Command: A Knight gains Command as a bonus feat at level 5.

Defend Others (Ex): A 6th level Knight may use her own body to defend others. Any ally adjacent to the Knight gains Evasion, though she does not.

Quick Recovery (Ex): If a 6th level Knight is stunned or dazed during her turn, that condition ends at the end of that turn.

• Example: Vayn is hit by a mindblast and would be stunned for 7 turns. She misses her next action and then shakes off the condition ready to fight.

Bastion of Defense (Ex): A 7th level Knight can defend others with great facility. All adjacent allies except the Knight gain a +2 Dodge bonus to their Armor Class and Reflex Saves.

Draw Fire (Ex): A 7th level Knight can exploit the weaknesses of unintelligent opponents. With a Swift Action, she may pique the interest of any mindless opponent within medium range. That creature must make a Willpower Save (DC 10 + ½ Hit Dice + Constitution Modifier) or spend all of its actions moving towards or attacking the Knight. This effect ends after a number of rounds equal to the Knight's class level.

Mettle (Ex): An 8th level Knight who succeeds at a Fortitude Partial or Willpower Partial save takes no effect as if she had immunity.

• For example, if Vayn was hit with an inflict wounds spell and made her saving throw, she would take no damage instead of the partial effect in the spell description (half damage in this case).

Spell Shield (Ex): An 8th level Knight gains Spell Resistance of 5 + her character level. This Spell Resistance is increased by her shield bonus to AC if she has one.

Sacrifice (Ex): As an immediate action, a 9th level Knight may make herself the target of an attack or targeted effect that targets any creature within her reach.

Knightly Order: What is a powerful Knight without a descriptive adjective? Upon reaching 10th level, a Knight must join or found a Knightly order. From this point on, she may ignore one of the prerequisites for joining a Knightly Order prestige class. In addition, becoming a member of an order has special meaning for a 10th level Knight, and she gains an ability related to the order she joins. Some sample orders are listed below:

• Angelic Knight: The Angelic Knights are a transformational order that attempts to live by the precepts of the upper planes. An Angelic Knight gains wings that allow her to fly at double her normal speed with perfect maneuverability. Also an Angelic Knight benefits from protection from evil at all times.

• Bane Knight: The Bane Knights stand for running around burning the countryside with extreme burning. Bane Knights are immune to fire and do not have to breathe. In addition, a Bane Knight may set any unattended object on fire with a Swift Action at up to Medium Range.

• Chaos Knight: Chaos Knights stand for madness and Giant Frog. With the powers of Giant Frog, they can Giant Frog. Also their natural armor bonus increases by +5 and they are immune to sleep effects.

• Dragon Knight Dedicated to the Platinum Dragon, the Dragon Knights serve love and justice in equal measure as dishes to those who need them. A Dragon Knight gains a +5 bonus to Sense Motive and any armor she wears has its enhancement bonus increased to +5 (it also gains a platinum sheen in the process, and as a side effect a Dragon Knight is never dirty for more than a few seconds).

• Elemental Knight: The Elemental Knights may be dedicated to a particular element, or somehow dedicated to all of them. An Elemental Knight can planeshift at will to any Inner plane or the Prime Material plane. Also, she is immune to stunning and always benefits from attune form when on any Inner Plane.

• Fey Knight: Using the powers of the Sprites, the Fey Knight has many fairy strengths. Firstly, she gains DR 10/Iron. Also, any of her attacks may do non-lethal damage at any time if this is desired. Also she never ages and does not need to drink.

• Great Knight: Clad in opulent armor, the Great Knight cares only for her own power. The Great Knight gains a +4 bonus on Disarm or Sunder tests, and gains a +4 Profane bonus to her Strength.

• Hell Knight: Forged in the sulphurous clouds of Baator, the Hell Knight is bathed in an evil radiance. In addition to being granted a ceremonial weapon made of green steel, a Hell Knight gains the coveted see in darkness ability of the Baatorians. Also, she has an inherent ability to know what every creature within 60' of finds most repugnant.

• Imperial Knight: The great Empire needs champions able to unswervingly support its interests, and the Imperial Knight is one of the best. She may impose a zone of truth at will as a Supernatural ability, and all of her attacks are Lawfully aligned. Also, she continuously benefits from magic circle against Chaos.

Iconic Knight: In examples, we will always use the Lady Vayn, the Iconic Goblin Knight.

[edit] Samurai

"My ancestors had words for people who would do such a thing. They were not nice words."

The war torn countrysides of many a land are held together with tremendous amounts of dedicated work by masters of weaponry and honor. These martial specialists represent the structure of society by their very existence, and beat the living crap out of any who would dare to stand against it.

At least, that's the idea. In truth, there are those who take upon the mantle of the Samurai only to betray its ideals. Those who trample the fabric of the social network they are supposedly sworn to protect.

Alignment: The Samurai can be of any alignment. All of them must maintain the veneer of honor and civility, though there is no reason that they have to actually be Lawful.

Races: The Samurai is primarily found in societies where the law of the land is held in primacy over other things. So while a Samurai himself does not have to be Lawful, Lawful races bear the vast majority of Samurai.

Starting Gold: 4d6x10 gp (140 gold), plus one masterwork weapon

Starting Age: As Fighter.

Hit Die: d8

Class Skills: The Samurai's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (all skills individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).

Skills/Level: 4 + Intelligence Bonus

BAB: Good (1/1), Saves: Fort: Poor; Reflex: Poor; Will: Good

Level, Benefit

1 Ancestral Weaponry, Pledge of Loyalty

2 Horde Breaker

3 Kiai!

4 Whirlwind Attack

5 Ancestral Guidance

6 Blindfighting, Terrible Blows

7 Iaijutsu

8 Parry Magic

9 Subtle Cut

10 Blade of Devastation

11 Iaijutsu Focus

12 Cut Magic

13 Deny Arcane Defenses

14 Final Cut

15 Iaijatsu Master

16 Reflect Magic

17 Blade of Souls

18 Deny Armor

19 Iaijutsu Grandmaster

20 Scrolls of Wisdom

All of the following are Class Features of the Samurai class:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Samurai are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, as well as a single Exotic weapon appropriate to the Samurai's tradition. Samurai are proficient with Light and Medium Armor, but not with shields of any kind.

Ancestral Weaponry: Every culture with a Samurai tradition has a signature weapon that Samurai from that culture use. Whether it is the Spiked Chain of the Hobgoblin Khanate of Khadun or the Katana of the Human Empire of Rokugan, the weapon serves as a symbol of the office and prowess of the Samurai. A samurai can only have one weapon designated as his Ancestral Weapon at a time, and this weapon must be a masterwork weapon exalted by the Samurai's warrior culture. He must perform a 24 hour ritual to call his ancestral spirits into the weapon and designate it as his Ancestral Weapon. This ritual costs 100 gp in incense and offerings, and once performed grants the following abilities:

• Counts as his Ancestral Weapon for all Samurai abilities.
• Has a minimum enhancement bonus to attack and damage equal to his level divided by three (maximum of +5 for a samurai of 20th level or lower).
• The Ancestral weapon has double HPs and +10 Hardness, and has the Ghost Touch special

property.

Example: Bandy Humaido is a halfling samurai, and his people greatly extort the halfling skiprock as a weapon of war – but because the skiprock is thrown weapon ammunition, it is inappropriate as an Ancestral Weapon (which, of course, you could only have one of). As such, Bandy instead draws the power of his ancestors into a short sword.

Pledge of Loyalty: Samurai pledge their loyalty to a Lord, a figure of temporal power and head of a noble family or clan. To retain this Lord, they must follow this Lord's orders and uphold any Code of Conduct the Lord obeys. As long as a Samurai does these two things, he cannot be forced to act against his Lord or Lord's family by mind-affecting effects.

Samurai who have broken their vows to their lord are called ronin, while samurai who have never been pledged to a lord or are unwilling to do so are weaponmasters called kensai, sword saints, or simply "master swordsman" or other descriptive title. Regardless of their name, Samurai without a Lord receive a +4 bonus against mind-affecting effects.

Horde Breaker: A Samurai gains Horde Breaker as a bonus feat at 2nd level. If the Samurai already has this feat, he may choose a [Combat] Feat instead, but only if he meets the prerequisites of that feat.

Kiai! (Ex): At 3rd level, a Samurai may convert a successful strike into a confirmed critical hit. He may use this ability a number of times per day equal to his half his Samurai level +2. This ability is a free action that is declared after the strike is rolled and confirmed as a hit, but before damage is rolled. This ability cannot be used on Attacks of Opportunity.

Whirlwind Attack: A Samurai gains Whirlwind Attack as a bonus feat at 4th level.

Ancestral Guidance(Sp): At 5th level, a Samurai may seek guidance from his ancestors. This counts as a commune effect that can be used once a day. A samurai can also seek guidance from other peoples' ancestors if they are available. This works like a speak with dead effect that may be used once per day.

Blindfighting: A Samurai gains Blindfighting as a bonus feat at 6th level. If the Samurai already has this feat, he may choose a [Combat] Feat instead, but only if he meets the prerequisites of that feat.

Terrible Blows (Su): At 6th level, a Samurai's Ancestral Weapon bypasses Damage Reduction and ignores Hardness.

Iaijutsu (Ex): When a 7th level Samurai has the Edge on an opponent, he may take an attack of opportunity against that opponent as an immediate action at any time.

Parry Magic (Su): At 8th level, a Samurai may use his Ancestral Weapon to parry magic targeted at him. When the Samurai is targeted by a spell or supernatural ability, he may take an Attacks of Opportunity against the targeted effect. If he can make an attack roll against an AC equal to the spell or effect's DC with this Attack of Opportunity, the effect does not affect him.

Subtle Cut: A Samurai gains Subtle Cut as a bonus feat at 9th level. If the Samurai already has this feat, he may choose another [Combat] Feat instead, but only if he meets the prerequisites of that feat.

Blade of Devastation (Su): At 10th level, the Samurai may attack enemies within his reach through objects and walls, his Ancestral Weapon automatically destroying any unattended object or wall in the way with a Hardness less than 20. As a result, enemies do not gain cover bonuses against an attacking Samurai. This effect can also pierce [force] effects.

As a standard action, he can also destroy unattended objects of any Hardness with a successful Ancestral weapon attack, or dispel up to a 10' by 10' section of a [force] effect.

Iaijutsu Focus (Ex): At 11th level, a Samurai may make up to his per round limit of Attacks of Opportunity against any opponent(s) that he threatens as an immediate action.

Cut Magic (Su): At 12th level, a Samurai may attack ongoing spell effects by attacking the square they are in for Area of Effect effects or the object or person for targeted effects (which does damage as normal to the object or person). This attack is handled like the Samurai's Parry Magic ability, but it only dispels a 10' by 10' section of an Area of Effect spell or spell-like ability.

Deny Caster Defenses (Ex): At 13th level, a Samurai attacking with his Ancestral Weapon ignores any AC bonuses on his targets that come from spells or spell-like abilities.

Final Cut(Ex): At 14th level, a Samurai's Ancestral Weapon gains the Vorpal Special quality, even if it is not a slashing weapon.

Iaijatsu Master(Ex): At 15th level, any enemy struck by a Samurai's Attacks of Opportunity must make a Fortitude save against a DC equal to 10 + half the Samurai's HD +the Samurai's Wisdom bonus or be dazed for one round. A successful save against this effect makes the enemy immune to this effect for five rounds.

Reflect Magic(Su): At 16th level, an spell effect that would be dispelled by a successful use of the Samurai's Parry Magic ability can instead be reflected back on the caster, as per a spell turning effect.

Blade of Souls: At 17th level, any enemy killed by a Samurai's Ancestral Weapon has his soul sucked into it, and this enemy cannot be raised, resurrected, or otherwise returned to life until the Ancestral Blade is broken. Each time the Ancestral Weapon takes a soul, the Samurai gains a single bonus use of his Kiai! ability that must be used before the next sunrise.

Deny Armor(Su): At 18th level, a Samurai attacking with his Ancestral Weapon ignores any AC bonuses on his targets that come from armor or natural armor.

Iaijutsu Grandmaster (Ex): At 19th level, any Attack of opportunity made by the Samurai is automatically a confirmed critical hit.

Scrolls of Wisdom: At 20th level, the Samurai has reached the pinnacle of his art, and he may compose a treatise of his collected wisdom. If he spends one month composing this treatise, he may distribute it and spread his wisdom. Anyone who reads this treatise gains a +2 competence bonus to attack characters with Samurai levels, but a -8 penalty to attack the writer of the treatise.

In addition, a Samurai who writes his treatise no longer takes ability penalties for aging as long as one copy of the treatise exists.

Iconic Samurai: In examples, we will always use Bandy Humaido, the Iconic Halfling Samurai.

[edit] Prestige Classes

[edit] Death Knight

"There is no horror you have known that can prepare you for what I am about to reveal."

Those who take up the black sword of the Death Knights in the name of powerful evil gods are not all undead. They aren't even all evil, since sometimes evil gods simply curse warriors in order to screw with them. But a lot of them are evil and undead, and that gives the Death Knight his classic image.

Prerequisites:

BAB: +6

Skills: Knowledge (Religion) 4 ranks

Special: Must have proficiency with all martial weapons.

Special: Must have had nonviolent contact with a Fiend.

Hit Die: d12

Class Skills: The Death Knight's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (all skills individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str).

Skills/Level: 4 + Intelligence Bonus

BAB: Good (1/1), Saves: Fort: Poor; Reflex: Poor; Will: Good

Level, Abilities:

1 Sword of Death, Life and Death

2 Army of the Dead

3 Sphere: Bone

4 Bonus Feat

5 Sphere: Fire

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The Death Knight gains no proficiency with armor or weapons.

Sword of Death (Su): A Death Knight can transform his blade into a black instrument of destruction. His melee attacks inflict 2d6 of Unholy damage against living creatures.

Life and Death: A Death Knight can transform himself into a Vampire, Ghoul, Revenant, or Swordwraith if he chooses either upon becoming a Death Knight or at some later date. Rules for being these undead creatures are found in the Tome of Necromancy. In addition, a Death Knight may qualify for and use Necromantic Feats using his Base Attack Bonus instead of a caster level.

Army of the Dead (Su): A 2nd level Death Knight may raise undead as per animate dead or create undead with a caster level equal to his hit dice.

Spheres: At 3rd level, a Death Knight gains the Sphere of Bone. At 5th level, he gains the Sphere of Fire.

Bonus Feat: At 4th level a Death Knight gains a bonus feat. This may be any Combat feat or Fiend feat he meets the prerequisites for.

[edit] Demon Samurai

“The Oni Lords have granted me great power, and in return I shall give them a world of blood.”

Samurai are men of honor and duty, but are men nonetheless, and they have needs and desires that may not be understood by their fellows. To attain these desires, some samurai pledge their loyalty to powerful fiends, and in return they are invested with demonic power. Cruel, dangerous, and loyal to a force of primal evil, Demon Samurai wander the land or lead armies of their lesser fellows, seeking to restructure the world to fit their own deviant desires.

Prerequisites:

BAB: +5

Skills: 4 ranks in Knowledge: Religion

Special: Must have the ability to have an Ancestral Weapon by class ability or feat.

Alignment: Must be Evil.

Hit Die: d10

Class Skills: The Demon Samurai's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Hide (Dex), Intimidate(Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge: Religion (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Ride (Wi