Critiques wanted-New Prestige Class

In my attempts to find a prestige class for my Paladin/Cleric multiclass, I've not had much luck.
She is definately a fighter-type that has taken a turn towards holy.

Radient Servant of Pelor (Dragon 283) and Hunter of the Dead each came close... but, they will weren't quite what I was looking for...

So, I've attempted to combine the two of them into my personalized prestige class..

I would appreciate any comments any of you have about the class... over-powered? under-powered? just right? an ability that I've missed or suggestions for substitution...

Thanks a bunch!
--LizzyB

The Class...

Requirements:

Alignment: Lawful Good.
Skills: Knowledge Religion (7 ranks).
Spell casting: Must be able to cast divine spells.
Special: Ability to turn undead and access to the Sun Domain.
Base Attack: +7

Class Features:
Hit die: d8
Skill points/level: 2 + Intelligence Mod.

Class Skills:
Concentration, Heal, Knowledge (Religion), Ride, Search.


This Prestige Class (don’t have a clever name, yet) focuses on the ability to turn Undead. The ability is specifically tied to the “patron” of the class—The Apecto—a long dead saint that, in his day, was a very powerful Cleric.

Level 1
Attack Bonus: 0
Saves: 2/0/2
Special:
Prestige Domain, extra turning*
Spells:
+1 existing class

Level 2:
Attack Bonus: 1
Saves: 3/0/3
Special:
None
Spells:
+1 of existing class

Level 3:
Attack Bonus: 2
Saves: 3/1/3
Special:
Improved Turning*
Spells:
+1 existing class

Level 4:
Attack Bonus: 3
Saves: 4/1/4
Special:
None
Spells:
+1 of existing class

Level 5:
Attack Bonus: 3
Saves: 4/1/4
Special:
Greater Turning (Cha. Mod. times/day)*
Spells:
+1 of existing class

Level 6:
Attack Bonus: 4
Saves:
5/2/5
Special:
None
Spells:
+1 of existing class

Level 7:
Attack Bonus: 5
Saves: 5/2/5
Special:
None
Spells:
+1 of exisiting class

Level 8:
Attack Bonus: 6
Saves: 6/2/6
Special:
Positive Energy Burst*
Spells:
+1 existing class

Level 9:
Back Attack: 6
Saves: 6/3/6
Special:
True Death*
Spells:
+1 of existing class

Level 10:
Base Attack: 7
Saves: 7/3/7
Special:
Sealed Life*
Spells:
+1 existing class

* Special Abilities
Prestige Domain: an additional domain.
Extra Turning: Character can turn 4 additional times/day.
Improved Turning: turn creatures as if you were one level higher than you are in the class that allows you to turn.
Greater Turning: As the special ability of the Sun Domain an additional Cha. Mod. times/day. Undead creatures that would be turned are destroyed.
Positive Energy Burst: At the cost of 2 turning attempts, character can use a standard action to create a positive energy burst that deals 1d6 points of damage to undead within 100 feet.
True Death: Creatures killed by character cannot rise as undead.
Sealed Life: Character cannot lose levels due to energy drain.

Just so I'm correct, you're a Paladin X/Cleric X, right?

Access to the Sun domain not only means they can turn undead, but also can cast Divine spells, so it's fairly redundant. Since this is a Paladin/Cleric prestige class, I would make the requirements something like needing the Sun Domain and Lay on Hands.

Otherwise... I think it's kind of bland. The premise is good, but why not start with the Hunter of the Dead, take out what you don't like and substitute in? HotD seems almost exactly what you're looking for, save for flavor text, requirements, and a couple of abilities. My only caution is if you do that, to not have spellcasting increase every level.

Maybe I'll whip something up tonight, if you're still interested?

LightPhoenix said:

Just so I'm correct, you're a Paladin X/Cleric X, right?

Access to the Sun domain not only means they can turn undead, but also can cast Divine spells, so it's fairly redundant. Since this is a Paladin/Cleric prestige class, I would make the requirements something like needing the Sun Domain and Lay on Hands.

Otherwise... I think it's kind of bland. The premise is good, but why not start with the Hunter of the Dead, take out what you don't like and substitute in? HotD seems almost exactly what you're looking for, save for flavor text, requirements, and a couple of abilities. My only caution is if you do that, to not have spellcasting increase every level.

Maybe I'll whip something up tonight, if you're still interested?

Click to expand...

Initially, I wrote my character with Hunter of the Dead in mind... however, the closer I got to the actual class, the more I realized that it wasn't really on track... character developments made turning much more important than the actual smitting.
Hunter gives me no inhanced turning abilities which is really what I'm going for so, starting there doesn't do me a whole lot of good.

As such, I started to work toward Radient Servant of Pelor... which, is a cool class but mainly focuses on healing at the high levels... so, I based almost all the states for this class on the Pelor class.

The high level abilities are pretty much taken right from the Hunter, though-- any ideas as to what other abilities a Paladin/Cleric could utilize in those areas?

Realistically, I'm not as worried about the actual requirements as I am the abilities. I don't want the class to be too strong, etc... the DM and I have been working out the actual requirements... will do some tweaking there...

But, let me know what you can come up with. I really appreciate the feedback!

Positive energy burst does only 1d6 points of damage? Do you mean per level?

Greater Turning- the sun domain allows that once per day, right? Don't you think that adding cha mod Greater Turnings per day is an awful lot? For a paladin/cleric this could be 5 or 6 times. Maybe one additional time per day at level 3, and another time per day at level 7? A total of 3 times would seem to be less drastic.

Cheiromancer said:

Positive energy burst does only 1d6 points of damage? Do you mean per level?

Greater Turning- the sun domain allows that once per day, right? Don't you think that adding cha mod Greater Turnings per day is an awful lot? For a paladin/cleric this could be 5 or 6 times. Maybe one additional time per day at level 3, and another time per day at level 7? A total of 3 times would seem to be less drastic.

Click to expand...

I had based this ability on the extra greater turning in The Radiant Servant of Pelor that allows a cleric to utilize greater turning 3+cha mod times/day, a prestige class already approved by my DM...

That ability, grated to the Radiant Servant at first level, would allow my character to use greater turning 8 times... instead of the 5 times that my version would allow...

In comparison, does that still seem too powerful?

Cheiromancer said:

Positive energy burst does only 1d6 points of damage? Do you mean per level?

Click to expand...

Yep, it's 1d6 damage/level of class to all undead creatures within 100 ft.

In order to use it, I have to expend 2 turning attempts.

Hmmm. Radiant Servant of Pelor gets 3+cha mod greater turnings? Wow. And the positive energy burst sounds more reasonable at 1d6/class level.

Hope some other folks chime in.

Hey! Do you know how to use the {code} function? Write {code} and {/code} around text, with square brackets [] instead of curly ones {}, and you can print nice tables.

This looks very close to a Prestige Class I submitted to AMbient's Prestige Class Contest last year. It won and I am still awaiting its publication in LE3. It totally focused on turning abilities and improving them.

I think multiple greater turnings should require regular turning attempts at least. 5-8 greater turnings? As a DM I shudder at such a thought. I might allow as many as three (at 10th level and including the one from the Sun domain); and not even that many if I gave the PrC other strong abilities like true death and sealed life. That is just me, though; and my players claim I am a sadist.

Ciao
Dave

double post