Sumo Yokozuna Prestige Class

Hi there guys... first of all, I know nothing about real sumo, so this prc prolly doesn't really relate well to it. Fact is, the high-level monk imc wants a good wrestling-style prc, and this is what I came up with. I started with the image of a sumo wrestler and went from there.

Anyway, I haven't got a clue about monk prcs.... anyone with more experience in this department wanna give some feedback?

Sumo Yokozuna

There are many different schools of unarmed combat. Some focus on blows of the hand or feet, others on nerve pinches and strikes to vital organs. The sumo focuses on using his body mass to defeat his enemy, focusing on holds and locks. A sumo yokozuna is only appointed after a great tournament; it is he alone who is worthy of the title.

Most sumo yokozunas begin as monks, but some start as fighters. It is not unheard of for a barbarian to become a sumo yokozuna. Dwarves, halflings, half-orcs and humans are the most likely races to follow the path of the sumo.

Hit Die: d8
Prerequisites: Balance (8 ranks). Earth’s Embrace, Improved Grapple, Improved Unarmed Strike. The character must weigh at least 10% more than an average member of his race.

Class Skills: Balance (dex), Concentration (con), Intimidate (cha), Jump (str), Move Silently (dex), Perform (cha), Sense Motive (wis), Tumble (dex). Skill points per level: 4 + int bonus.

Base Attack: Medium (as monk)
Good Saves: Fort, Ref and Will

Level---Special Abilities
1---Monk abilities, stability
2---Stance of the oak
3---The tree topples
4---Stomp
5---Deafening blow
6---Stance of the elephant
7---Roar of the lion
8---Stunning clasp
9---Sky couples with the ground
10---Stance of the mountain

CLASS FEATURES
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A sumo yokozuna gains no new armor or weapon proficiencies.

Monk Abilities: A sumo yokozuna with monk levels stacks his monk levels with his sumo yokozuna levels for purposes of his unarmed damage, his AC bonus and his flurry of blows ability. If the sumo yokozuna does not have monk levels, he gains the AC bonus and unarmed damage of a monk of his sumo yokozuna class level.

Stability (Ex): A sumo yokozuna has a +4 competence bonus on any opposed roll to trip, bull rush or otherwise move him.

Stance of the Oak (Ex): A sumo yokozuna is trained to take a mighty, nigh-immovable stance in battle. As long as the sumo yokozuna has not moved from his square within the last full round, he gains a +4 dodge bonus to AC. Against any opponent who has not moved in the last full round, he also gains a +2 competence bonus on attack rolls with his natural weapons, unarmed strike or grapple attacks.

The Tree Topples (Ex): A sumo yokozuna can bring even the mightiest foes to the ground. Whenever a sumo yokozuna gets a hold on an enemy, he may choose to expend one use of his stunning fist for the day to make a trip attack as a free action with a +4 bonus. This trip attack does not count against his normal number of attacks for the round. If this trip attack succeeds, the sumo yokozuna may choose to either maintain the grapple and fall prone with his victim (inflicting 1d6 + str bonus damage to the victim in the process) or to allow the victim to escape the grapple and to remain standing. If the sumo yokozuna fails to trip his foe, his enemy may not react and attempt to trip him back.

Stomp (Ex): As a standard action, a sumo yokozuna can make an intimidating stomp. This follows the normal rules for a demoralize attempt (see the Intimidate skill description in the PH), except that the sumo yokozuna gets a +4 competence bonus on his check.

Deafening Blow (Ex): By expending one of his stunning attacks for the day, a sumo yokozuna can deafen an enemy with a successful unarmed strike or grapple attack. Unless the victim makes a Fort save, DC 10 + ½ the character’s HD + wis bonus, it will be deafened for 1d6 rounds.

Stance of the Elephant (Ex): The sumo yokozuna’s training has advanced to the point that he counts as being one size larger than he is when subjected to a bull rush, trip or other attack form that attempts to move him. As long as the sumo yokozuna has not moved from his square within the last full round, he gains a +4 morale bonus to strength. Against any opponent who has not moved in the last full round, he also counts as magic and adamantine when he attacks with his natural weapons, unarmed strike or grapple attacks.

Roar of the Lion (Su): Once per day the sumo yokozuna can let out a terrific battle roar as a standard action. All creatures in a 30’ cone directly in front of the sumo must make Will saves (DC 15 + wis bonus) or be frightened. Whether or not they save, all victims in the cone suffer a -2 morale penalty on saving throws for the next 1d4 rounds.

Stunning Clasp (Ex): As a standard action, a sumo yokozuna can make an opposed grapple check to use any ability that requires one use of his stunning fist ability on a victim that he is already grappling. The victim is allowed any normal saving throw or other chance to resist.

Sky Couples with the Ground (Ex): If the sumo yokozuna pins a prone enemy, he can inflict terrible damage at the cost of releasing his victim. As a full round action, with a successful grapple check a sumo yokozuna can inflict triple his normal unarmed damage plus one and a half times his strength bonus in either lethal or nonlethal damage.

Stance of the Mountain (Ex): A sumo yokozuna of tenth level stands tall and intimidating as the mountains themselves. As long as he has not moved from his present location in the last round, he gains a +8 competence bonus on defensive grapple checks and checks to resist bull rushes, trips or other effects that move the sumo yokozuna. He also gains a +4 competence bonus on Fortitude saves. He may give up this stance in a charge often called ‘the avalanche’ by those familiar with it. This charge may be either a normal charge culminating in an unarmed strike or a bull rush attempt, but either way the sumo yokozuna gains a +4 competence bonus on his attack or bull rush roll, and deals an extra 1d6 points of damage (if a charge) or knocks his foe an extra 5’ (if a bull rush).

House Rules, please.

I like this a lot - if you are just trying to make a good grappling class, I think you've hit it. A few notes, though, if you don't mind.

1) You should look up Dwarven defender - The defensive stance might model what you were looking for with your stances. And dwarven sumos would be really cool - in fact, they'd probably be dominant at it (Medium size, stability bonus, good con... hmmm.)
2) real sumos, to my knowledge, don't roar. They seem pretty quiet, actually.
3) I would toss in some other skills as prereqs - knowledge(religion) or something.
4) 10% bigger seems pretty small for a sumo. They eat tons of food to keep their weight up. Maybe that should figure into their powers just for flavor. They also then lose sometimes 100+ lbs in the six months after they retire.
5) Sumo wrestling matches start ambigously - the ref has them bow, they do some scattering of salt, then try to psych each other out. When both of them put both of their hands on the mat, then it starts, and they usually close to grappling distance lightning fast. So, IMO, Imp. Init should be a prereq.

Good work!

dcollins said:

House Rules, please.

Click to expand...

Oops, my bad- too many windows open at once! Thanks, whoever moved it.

Now then- jerichothebard, thanks for the feedback. To address your points:

1. The pc who has got me thinking about this is actually a dwarf, but I wanted something distinctly different than the dwarven defender stance (which actually was where I started conceptually); that's why I fiddled around with it. Also, iirc the dwarven defender stance is pretty nearly a mirror of rage mechanically, and I definitely didn't want that. Plus, having multiple stances that the character can adopt let me both fill in the special abilities I needed to make this a ten-level prc (which I definitely feel is warranted, as grappling is a major school of unarmed combat) and give the class cool options.

2. Again, I know almost nothing of real sumo. My research for this class consisted of looking for a cool title for it (in real life, there have only ever been 64 sumo yokozunas- the yokozuna is the highest honor in sumo). How's the balance on the roar of the lion?

3. I want to keep the prereqs reasonably easy for a monk to attain. I don't want this prc to be a monk power-up, I want it to be a reasonable alternative. So there are three feats (at least one of which a monk will get for free) and one skill, mostly to make it so that monks can't get in til 6th level and other classes will generally need to be a little higher level.

4. Yeah, now that you mention it, I agree that the weight should be higher- maybe 25% more than an average-weight member of the race? 50% higher seems a little extreme... but maybe... what do you think?

5. Again, I don't want to add more prereqs, but I'm much more prone to add another feat (perhaps delaying monkish entry a level) than more skills.

Well, I can understand wanting to make it an easy choice for monks, but your prereqs really boil down to only one feat. Balance any good monk is really likely to have anyway (and it's a class skill), and Imp Grapple and Imp Unarmed Strike are both free at first level. While the monk must, indeed, choose Imp. Grapple over Stunning Fist, a monk geared to grapple will likely do just that. So, pretty much it's just one feat. That's why I suggested adding a few other things to the prereq list. It isn't really a sacrifice if you were going to do it anyway.


I also think that you should add something to the stances about resisting a bull rush.

The Roar seems ok, though at 12th+ level, I don't expect that any on-level creature is going to fail that save. Figure a DC of about 17 or 18, isn't hard for a CR 12 creature. Good against mooks, though. You should note that it's a mind-affecting ability; undead, constructs and oozes, frex, would be immune.



A note on deafening blow - a monk that has chosen Improved Grappling isn't likely to have stunning blows to sacrifice - they have to choose between those two at first level. Which would lead to a situation where the character would have to take both - stunning fist as a monk ability and improved grapple as a feat.

jerichothebard said:

Well, I can understand wanting to make it an easy choice for monks, but your prereqs really boil down to only one feat. Balance any good monk is really likely to have anyway (and it's a class skill), and Imp Grapple and Imp Unarmed Strike are both free at first level. While the monk must, indeed, choose Imp. Grapple over Stunning Fist, a monk geared to grapple will likely do just that. So, pretty much it's just one feat.... A note on deafening blow - a monk that has chosen Improved Grappling isn't likely to have stunning blows to sacrifice - they have to choose between those two at first level. Which would lead to a situation where the character would have to take both - stunning fist as a monk ability and improved grapple as a feat.

Click to expand...

A very good point. Hmm, so I guess the stunning fist ability is sort of a virtual prereq, like having a cha bonus is for a paladin. Must mull that one over... maybe I will impose another prereq after all!

One other thing to keep in mind is that it's very difficult for a non-monk to get into this class- they have to burn three feats that aren't always optimal for a non-monk.

I like it.