Epic/Immortal Prestige Classes

Slight aside: This request and subsequent thought exercise has stimulated my creative juices again; I went back over some of my unfinished PrCs and started jotting down ideas for those too. I finally finished one that I've been wresting with for awhile, and can close up a couple more this weekend. Thanks!

On topic: I forgot to mention that I've got a couple low-epic PrCs myself... the Cloud Dancer (acrobatic fighters who can literally dance on clouds), the Reality Shifter (master of space and time), and the Souleater (mystical assassins who aren't living or dead, but something in between). The last one I don't recommend for PC use, since it's rather powerful (for standard D&D; it would probably be all right for an IH game).

I like the Soul Eater a lot, it reminds of Cotillion the Rope, Patron God of Assassins, from the Malazan Book of the Fallen, who, among other feats, decerberates people with his rope through their eye-sockets. Fun.

That said, there's already a class of the same name in the Book of Vile Darkness that's not even remotely similar. Not sure if that's a problem or not.

I haven't had the chance to look at the other two in-depth yet.

Also, for the class we're working on, I'm thinking it definitely needs to focus on the stealing aspect, since we already have Void Incarnate for stealth and Soul Reaver from Dragon 297 to handle improved assassin abilities and spells.

Belzamus said:

I like the Soul Eater a lot, it reminds of Cotillion the Rope, Patron God of Assassins, from the Malazan Book of the Fallen, who, among other feats, decerberates people with his rope through their eye-sockets. Fun.

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Eeugh. Mine was based on an assassin from one of those role-playing, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books I read when I was teenager. The assassin in question was a cloaked figure that used a cloth garrote; I made up the rest myself.

That said, there's already a class of the same name in the Book of Vile Darkness that's not even remotely similar. Not sure if that's a problem or not.

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BoVD. WotC's version of "evil". *snicker*

Also, for the class we're working on, I'm thinking it definitely needs to focus on the stealing aspect, since we already have Void Incarnate for stealth and Soul Reaver from Dragon 297 to handle improved assassin abilities and spells.

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I've got some ideas. I was thinking about this the other day, and I thought that necromancy would best fit the stealing aspect, and a necromantic assassin would be really cool - it lends itself to the other abilities as well. Then it hit me - I already have a PrC like that. Well, it's not really mine; a friend of mine made it, but I rewrote it, so I'm going to adapt some of the abilities. It centers around stealing skills, feats, memories, stats, and even the victim's skin from someone you've killed (we had to make a new skill called Craft (taxidermy) to cover that one), which you could use to assume the victim's identity.

Anyway, I'm on a PrC kick lately, like I said. I've already finished up four that I had lying around, and I'm working on a fifth, which will clear out my backlog (finally). I'll post some ideas for this one (the Maleficus Lamnia?) later today when I have a chance.

I'm a little burned out, since I finished and posted 4 (!) PrCs earlier today, but I'll post some rough ideas. Maleficus Lamnia is still a working name; I tossed it in as a placeholder for the time being. I changed the focus a little bit - instead of it being strictly mage/assassin, I opened it up to clerics as well; thus, we can have clerics of the god of murder taking levels in this as well, though necromantic spells are still more the purview of the mages, for some reason.


The Maleficus Lamniae (Dark Blades) are a sect of necromancers who have turned their skills to the assassin's arts. They use negative energy to steal abilities and even life energy from their victims before they kill them, leaving them as drained, lifeless husks.

HD: d6

L1: ???

L2: ???

L3: Necromantic death attack (you can use a necromantic touch/ranged touch spell like enervation as a death attack; it all uses one DC (the death attack DC), and a successful save avoids both effects.

L4: ???

L5: ???

L6: Vampiric death attack (you inflict negative levels with a death attack, gaining the energy as healing)

L7: ???

L8:

L9: ??? death attack (another DA ability)

L10: ???

At this point, I've tentatively got Steal skills (use the victim's base skill ranks in place of your own), physical and mental attributes, spells/SLAs, and Ex and Su abilities. They'd be every other level, probably the even ones; since we have DA abilities at 3/6/9, all we'd need is something at 2/5/8. Oh, and of course it gets spellcasting at every other level.

I was looking around some of the older threads here and I came across one that intrigued me enough to actually work on it. Phantom Llama originally posted a request for a prestige class 9/17/2006.
My first attempt at an epic prestige class. Comments appreciated. Is it EPIC enough?

Colossus Slayer<O</O
Off in the distance, the sounds of thunder can be heard, but there are no clouds in the sky. The ground shakes fervently as the enormous stone construct lumbers toward the village. People scatter for their lives, hoping to escape the notice of the immense monster. However, one person stands still waiting for the creature’s approach. His resolve is firm. There is no fear in his eyes or his heart, for he has defeated many of these before and today will be no different. He is the colossus slayer.<O</O
Hit Die: d10

Requirements<O</O
To qualify to be a colossus slayer, a character must fulfill the following criteria.<O</O
Base Attack Bonus: +35<O</O
Skills: Climb 40 ranks<O</O
Feats: Clever Wrestler <SUP>CW</SUP>, Giantbane <SUP>CW</SUP>, Improved Critical<O</O
Epic Feats: Legendary Wrestler
<O</O
<O</O
Class Skills<O</O
The colossus slayer’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Tumble (Dex)<O</O
Skill Points at each level: 3 + intelligence modifier<O</O
<O</O

Class Features<O</O
All of these features were designed to combat larger constructs though these same tactics can be used against living creatures. However for any of these tactics to work, the opponent must be at least three size categories larger than the user. So a medium sized humanoid can only use these tactics against opponents that are at least gargantuan in size.<O</O
Leverage (Ex): The colossus slayer begins with the ability to effectively take away size advantages from his enemies. Whenever the colossus slayer is attempting a grapple or is being grappled his opponent’s size bonus is reduced by two sizes. So a gargantuan sized creature only has the size bonus for a large creature, a colossal sized creature has the size bonus for a huge creature, and so on. The size bonus can only be negated through this ability. Leverage can only even the playing field.<O</O
For every two levels thereafter, the size bonus is reduced by another one. So at the third level of the prestige class for a medium sized character, the gargantuan sized creature only has the size bonus for a medium creature and is thus effectively negated. A fifth level medium colossus slayer can negate the size bonus of a colossal creature.<O</O
Debilitating Strike (Ex): The colossus slayer is able to weaken his opponent through the use of this ability first gained at second level. Once per day when a critical hit is scored, the colossus slayer can choose to inflict additional ability damage to his opponent. The colossus slayer can choose which physical score can be reduced by 2d6 whether it is Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution. Opponents immune to critical hits are not affected by this ability.<O</O
Combat Advantage (Ex): At his fourth level of colossus slayer, he is better able to land attacks on larger foes due to his ability to effectively climb aboard and harass his opponent. For every three ranks he has in the Climb skill, he gains a +1 competence bonus to hit. This bonus increases to +1 to hit for every two ranks he has in the Climb skill at the eighth level.<O</O
<O</O

Level Special<O</O
1 leverage (size bonus to grapple reduced by two sizes)<O</O
2 debilitating strike 1/day<O</O
3 leverage (size bonus to grapple reduced by three sizes)<O</O
4 combat advantage (+1 to hit per 3 ranks in Climb)<O</O
5 leverage (size bonus to grapple reduced four sizes)<O</O
6 debilitating strike 2/day<O</O
7 leverage (size bonus to grapple reduced five sizes)<O</O
8 combat advantage (+1 to hit per 2 ranks in Climb)<O</O
9 leverage (size bonus to grapple reduced six sizes)<O</O
10 debilitating strike 3/day

Hey guys!

The Colossus Slayer is an interesting concept, though I wonder how viable the whole stripping size category advantage is with regards quickly calculating changes to the monster - no more problematic than the rest of 3E I suppose.

However, recently I have been tinkering with the idea of Mega sized creatures being potentially spread over multiple encounters.

[Spoilers ahead...sort of]

Case in point, the Egyptian Godslayer Ammut, who I wanted as an encounter in the Against the Reptile God 4E adventure. Ammut would be encountered within the titular Reptile God's Black Pyramid. I was thinking that the battle would be spread over four encounters in the necropolis section of the Pyramid. At first, the heroes would drop down into the necropolis and face an encounter on the back of the monster (initially the monster will seem more like a hazard). Then they'd realise what they were up against and face the monster itself (as well as the undead in the encounter). Once they bloody the beast they'd be able to attack it from the inside as well to assault its less well protected innards. However, when they slay it they realise that the monster cannot die because Anubis (God of the Dead) won't allow it. So they would first have to defeat Anubis (or drive him off, so he can't keep Ammut alive) and then beat the monster. All the while this thing would be rampaging around a massive necropolis, awakening undead as it disturbs their sleep (by desecrating their resting places).

So the Mega-monster would still have a normal stat-block, but it would also have a Hazard stat-block. It mays also have a number of weak points where you could attack a certain part of it to induce a condition (immobilize it by taking out a leg, weaken it by wounding its innards, blind it by striking at the eyes, etc.) or bypass a certain resistance.

I think I had about 15 ideas or thereabouts, I'll see if I can find any notes.

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Upper Krust, please find the notes, hmmm (the curiosity is killing me !! )

Hey there Erevanden!

Erevanden said:

Upper Krust, please find the notes, hmmm (the curiosity is killing me !! )

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I'll have a hunt for them in a day or two (working next two nights including tonight), I think I have a vague idea where they might be hiding (actually just popped into my head as I read your message).

Off the top of my head I remember there was a Familiarist (spellcaster with multiple familiars which could combine and do stuff).

There was a martial prestige class pencilled down as "Mithril Drinker" who eventually turned into a magic weapon/artifact.

There was an Ioun 'Cyborg' who replaced body parts with Crystalline Limbs.

all of those ideas sound awesome. i'd like to see them too

Frankly, the idea of turning my PC into a weapon has been a terrible one since the Sword portfolio.