Barbarian Chieftain Prestige Class (3.0)

Hi all,

I am just working on a prestige class for one of my players, an Uthgardt barbarian (Forgotten Realms). The Uthgardt barbarians are divided into distinct clans, each revering a totem animal, such as Red Tiger, Sky Pony (Pegasus), Black Raven and so on. The players character is a Sky Pony, so the following prestige class is geared towards the Sky Pony Chieftain. If something has (Sky Pony) behind it, it's meant to be clan-specific.

Uthgardt are reverring their ancestors and a god of battle (Uthgar). Their Totem animals are manifestations of their god.

Uthgardt Chieftain
Through fate, strength and valor you stand upon the shield of the chieftains, looking at your clan, strong men and women ready to bring sword and fire to the so-called civilization of the north if they dare to push their borders into your territory. You have struggled with orc hordes, defeated giants and trolls and plundered their hordes. You have suffered wounds which would have killed ten bulls but still you live against all odds. Your clan has chosen you to lead them, for your might has no equal and your axe is feared by your enemies.

Hit Die: d12

Requirements:
BAB: +7
Skills: Intimidate 10, Wilderness Lore 5, Ride 4 (Sky Pony Tribe)
Feats: Leadership, Power Attack, Mounted Combat (Sky Pony)
Race: Human (Uthgardt)
Special: must be chosen as the successor of a deceased chieftain or challenge the current chieftain

Class Skills: Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Intuit Direction, Jump, Listen, Ride, Sense Motive, Swim, Wilderness Lore

Skill Points at each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Class Features:

Chieftains Voice (Ex): The chieftain gains +2 on his Leadership score and on all charisma-based skill checks versus Uthgarth barbarians. This bonus increases to +4 at level 4.

Battle Cry (Ex): All allies within hearing range seeing you get +1 morale bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls and +2 morale bonus on saving throws versus fear and charm effects. This bonus lasts for an number of rounds equal to your charisma bonus (+ your chieftains voice bonus for clan members). You can shout a battle cry once per day per class level.

Veteran of Countless Battles (Ex): Your damage reduction increases by 1 at level 2 and 5. If you don't have damage reduction, you gain DR 1/- at 2nd and DR 2/- at 5th level.

Fearless(Su): Beginning at 1st level, a barbarian chieftain is immune to fear (magical or otherwise). Allies within 10 feet of the chieftain gain a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects. If standing on higher ground this bonus extends to all allies in 60' range seeing him.

Run for your Life (Ex): Once per day you can evoke a fear effect (DC 10 + charisma bonus + class level) on all enemies in 30' range witnessing you slaying an enemy (reducing him to to 0 or lower hit points). Your allies are immune to this fear effect.

Ancestral Guidance (Su): Once per day your ancestors may help you with guidance. This has the effect of an Augury spell.

Ancestral Wisdom(Su): Once per week your ancestors may help you with wisdom and knowledge. This has the same effect as the spell "Legend Lore".

Totem Power (Sky Pony): You gain a Pegasus cohort. This cohort does not count as your Leadership cohort, i. e. is additional to your normal cohort. The pegasus starts at maximum ECL allowed with your Leadership score, and is advanced accordingly in HD.

Ritual Enemy (Su): You can change your tribes ritual enemy. You can change it only once during your reign as a chieftain of your tribe. If you die the Ritual Enemy stays the same until changed by a new chieftain. Groups such as wolves, orcs, trolls, giants, and even people of a specific city may be chosen as Ritual Enemy.

The Hunt (Su): You can call out a Ritual Hunt. While on a Ritual Hunt called out by you, all members of your clan gain a +1 bonus to Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Wilderness Lore checks when using these skills against the Ritual Enemy. Likewise, they get the same bonus to weapon damage rolls against the Ritual Enemy. They also get the damage bonus with ranged weapons, but only against targets within 30 feet. The bonus doesn't apply to damage against creatures that are immune to critical hits. You can use this ability once a season, after communing with the tribes shaman and the spirits of your ancestors. Using this ability is a ritual and takes at least eight hours and the attendance of all clan members who benefit from it. The Ritual Hunt lasts from dusk until dawn of the next day.

Class Features per Level
1st: Chieftains Voice +2, Fearless, The Hunt
2nd: Battle Cry, Veteran of Countless Battles (+1/- DR)
3rd: Ancestral Guidance, Run for your Life (1/day)
4th: Chieftains Voice +4, Totem Power (Pegasus)
5th: Veteran of Countless Battles (+1/- DR), Ancestral Wisdom, Ritual Enemy

BAB: +3/4 Level

BAB/Fort/Ref/Will saves:
1st: +0/+2/+0/+2
2nd: +1/+3/+0/+3
3rd: +2/+3/+1/+3
4th: +3/+4/+1/+4
5th: +3/+4/+1/+4


Notes:
This prestige class seems a bit on the powerful side. Any comments?

The Knowledge requirements are for flavor and to burn some skill points on a character concept. The Leadership feat and the BAB reqs make this class available for barbarians of at least 7th level (my player will get it at 12th).

Ancestral Guidance/Wisdom and Totem Animal are also more a flavor thing but useful nonetheless, as is the Chieftains Voice. Fearless and Chieftains Voice have been added to strengthen the role as a leader.

- Battle Cry functions as the Inspire Courage bard ability but with lower duration.

- Run For Your Life is the same as the Purple Dragon Knight "Fear" ability, but with an additional requirement (slaying an enemy).

- Fearless is the same as the paladins ability with a "power-up" in range when standing on higher ground (inspired by the tradition of the chieftain standing on a shield carried by two warriors).

Changes:
- Edited Ancestral Guidance so that Legend Lore is usable less often (don't want this class to replace the bard role).
- Edited Fearless to be like the paladin ability Aura of Courage
- Changed saves to Cleric saves
- Changed BAB to 3/4a
- Changed Pegasus cohort, so that it starts at higher HD
- Removed Cleave as Pre-Req
- Changed Pre-Req Intimidate Ranks to 10
- Removed Pre-Req Diplomacy
- Added Ritual Enemy
- Added The Hunt
- Removed Run For Your Life (2/day)
- Modified Battle Cry so that the chieftains bonus only adds to duration for clan members
- Removed Pre-Req Knowledge skills
- Removed Knowledge skills from Class Skills

Opinons anybody

Ok, a few comments would be very helpful. It's not that I'm asking yet another AoO question.

I actually don't find it overly powerful. Quite balanced actually. Well done! One question though: Why does the prestige class require Power Attack and Cleave? As far as I can tell, nothing in the PrCs abilities reflect these feats, other than in the flavor text. Since it requires the Leadership feat and BAB +7, no class can fulfill the requirements before 7th level anyway. I would just remove them and add some more mounted combat related feats instead. That is, if it must require four feats.

Instead of the Fearless ability, I would use something similar to the Paladins aura of courage instead. Just a suggestion. Not that it's something wrong with the ability or anything, just personal preference

Now that I think about it ... I find this prestige class less combat-oriented. To reflect this I would probably drop the BAB to +3/4, the HD to d10/d8, and up the Will save to good. Also personal preference.

Thanks for your comment! It's actually my first prestige class, thats why I am a bit unsure about it.

Sertimon said:

One question though: Why does the prestige class require Power Attack and Cleave? As far as I can tell, nothing in the PrCs abilities reflect these feats, other than in the flavor text. Since it requires the Leadership feat and BAB +7, no class can fulfill the requirements before 7th level anyway. I would just remove them and add some more mounted combat related feats instead. That is, if it must require four feats.

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Power Attack and Cleave were just added for flavor. As practically every barbarian has them they are not meant as steep requirements. As one of the reasons to design this prestige class is that one of my players wants to take something like this, I can't require too many feats he doesn't have yet (Mounted Combat in this case).

Sertimon said:

Instead of the Fearless ability, I would use something similar to the Paladins aura of courage instead. Just a suggestion. Not that it's something wrong with the ability or anything, just personal preference

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Good suggestion. I am also a great fan of using existing abilities instead of making up similar ones. I'll add that with a minor "flavor" advantage, since it's a low level ability.

Sertimon said:

Now that I think about it ... I find this prestige class less combat-oriented. To reflect this I would probably drop the BAB to +3/4, the HD to d10/d8, and up the Will save to good. Also personal preference.

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As this is intended for a barbarian who fights his way up, I think it should keep some combat ability. Thats why he still has DR increases. If I come up with other non-combat flavor abilities, I would drop the HD to d10.

Intimidate is a class skill for Barbarians. Diplomacy is not. I would reccomend doubling the number of Intimidate ranks to 10, so that either choice is the same investment of skill points.

Personally, I would rather that it required Intimidation 10 and Diplomacy 5, and remove the Knowledge requirements.

I'll also second Sertimon's reccomendation to lower the hit dice and BAB, and improve his Will save. 3/4 BAB is still very solid, especially after seven levels in Barbarian, and his inspiration abilities are quite powerful. Since it's only a five level class, I suspect that the Chieftain would return to Barbarian, having lost only two points of BAB.

Sertimon said:

Now that I think about it ... I find this prestige class less combat-oriented. To reflect this I would probably drop the BAB to +3/4, the HD to d10/d8, and up the Will save to good.

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Im thinking much the same, give him cleric saves, let him keep the D12 and reduce the BaB and I think youre on a winner. Overall though I do like it a lot.

Thresher said:

Im thinking much the same, give him cleric saves, let him keep the D12 and reduce the BaB and I think youre on a winner. Overall though I do like it a lot.

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Ok, I changed it to Cleric BAB and saves. This also serves to remove a big barbarian weakness (WILL save) a bit. +4 WILL in exchange to -2 BAB is probably ok.

I also upgraded the Pegasus cohort a bit. This is useful only in aerial battles, so i don't think it's overpowered.

I still have some ideas for flavor abilities:

Theses barbarian tribes always have one ritual enemy which they hunt/attack during a so-called ritual hunt which takes place a few times during the year. It's also a ritual for young barbarians to ascend to manhood.

Declare Ritual Enemy (Su): You can declare a group or race as your tribes ritual enemy. All members of your tribe gain the same benefits against this ritual enemy as a ranger against his first favored enemy, but only during a ritual hunt. You can use this ability only once.

Looks good.

I am okay with requiring Power Attack, knowing that personal strength and martial prowess is kinda important in uthgardt society. Still, I'd much rather just remove Cleave from the list of requirements. Don't take this the wrong way and no offense to your player ... but so what if your player has Cleave? It still doesn't make much sense for this prestige class anyway. I just think it's an unnecessary requirement. Not that the feat sucks or anything, I just don't think it fits the concept.

I like the Declare Ritual Enemy ability. It really depends on where you put it. Even if this PrC doesn't grant overpowered abilities, he/she gains at least 2 class features every level! So I really don't know where you could fit it in without removing something. There are some things that are unclear to me at the moment. How many times can an Uthgardt Chieftain use it? Once per ritual hunt? Once per week? Although you have written "You can use this ability only once" doesn't tell me much

Sertimon said:

I am okay with requiring Power Attack, knowing that personal strength and martial prowess is kinda important in uthgardt society. Still, I'd much rather just remove Cleave from the list of requirements. Don't take this the wrong way and no offense to your player ... but so what if your player has Cleave? It still doesn't make much sense for this prestige class anyway. I just think it's an unnecessary requirement. Not that the feat sucks or anything, I just don't think it fits the concept.

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I agree, Cleave is probably a bit unnecessary. I'll remove it.

Sertimon said:

I like the Declare Ritual Enemy ability. It really depends on where you put it. Even if this PrC doesn't grant overpowered abilities, he/she gains at least 2 class features every level! So I really don't know where you could fit it in without removing something. There are some things that are unclear to me at the moment. How many times can an Uthgardt Chieftain use it? Once per ritual hunt? Once per week? Although you have written "You can use this ability only once" doesn't tell me much

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Well, I really meant once, as in once in a lifetime. The Ritual enemy of a tribe has a strong tradition, and can't be changed often, perhaps only once in a generation. Thats why I thought a chieftain may change it once during his reign.

Calling out for a Ritual Hunt is something which I would require to be roleplayed well. The chieftain should for example ask the tribes shaman and their ancestors in case of an "emergency" ritual hunt, such as war.

I wanted to put it at 5th level, as it has the most "prestige" out of all the abilities.