Order of the Dodecahdron Initiate

I miss the d12 and I'm out to have a little fun. Who's with me?

Our goal is to brainstorm every possible way to use a d12 for a class' special abilities. I'm hoping to come up with enough d12 goodness to fill out a complete 20-level base class, but a PrC will work out alright if necessary.


So, I've got a start with some obvious ideas:
* d12 hit dice
* some sort of focus on wielding a greataxe

And some less obvious ideas:
* Instead of a greataxe, allow the user to wield a magical force weapon. This means you can get CRAZY with the d12's. I'm thinking (1d12-4)/level damage, so the more ODI levels you have the more d12's you roll! 1d12-4 averages to 2.5 damage, like a d4, with the slim chance of 8 damage.
* +1d12 bonus to a single saving throw as an immediate action. Usable once per day at first, possibly more ofen as you gain levels. A potentially powerful anti-death ability that requires an opponent to burn through all those d12 hit dice to kill you. It's not reliable enough to actually EXPECT it to make you nigh-invincible, but it could help. I'd pair it with a poor/poor/poor save progression.
* All spells that affect or create a sphere instead create a dodecahedron of the same size. (purely thematic, but potentially SOOOO cool when you run down an opponent with a 2md-level Flaming Dodecahdron )
* Hey, maybe build on the Flaming Dodecahedron idea, making that particular spell a spell-like ability that is usable and adaptable to the situation! Wow, I'll have to think about this one for a bit...
* Roll 1d12 to create a random effect from a list of 12 possible. Perhaps 12 buffing spells, all potentially useful, but you never know which one will show up!
* Perhaps you get to roll a d12, divide by 2, and round up for every instance in which you would otherwise roll a d6? It would be a minor advantage on your d6 rolls, and you'd be rolling an ENORMOUS number of d12's this way.

Also, I'm thinking a unique spell list could be created, utilizing ONLY spells that include a d12 roll. Unfortunately I can't think of a single such spell off of the top of my head, so perhaps spells that utilize d4's and d6's could be included to fill out the list, but you get to roll 1d12 for every 2d6 or 3d4. It's a stretch, I know, and it severely reduces the average damage of the spells. To make up for it, maybe the ODI's spells would work like a Warmage: you know every spell of every level you can cast, you can cast spontaneously, and you get a bunch of spells each day. I'd be much happier with spells that just straight up use d12's, but the conversion isn't too bad, I think.


This class, so far as I've envisioned it, would be extremely meta-gamey, since the very BASIS is to use more of a type of dice, and in D&D settings there are no such things as "rolling for damage" or "rolling for a random generation list".
Would it be more fun to have "serious" expanations for the in-game effects, with all of them just so happening to utilize d12's? That could be fun to write the fluff for!

You might try working in the Pythagorus angle- he's the one who essentially "discovered" the dodecahedron of pentagons, and kept it as secret knowledge for high-level initiates of his philosophy because the other four platonic solids (tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, icosahedron) were already well known in society at large and were thought to be the only ones. The existence of a new one was feared to have the potential to undermine popular philosophies if not destroy them outright- hence the secrecy.

I honestly don't know the topic in great detail, that was just off the top of my head. But if you research what Pythagorus and his disciples thought about the dodecahedron, you may come up with some very interesting ideas for the class- not to mention things that won't need to be metagame-y.

!

I could kiss you.

I'd have to do my best to prevent that, unless of course you're male and cute.

But glad I could help. I first heard about that myself from Carl Sagan's Cosmos, back when it played as a TV series in the 80s. That was the beginning of my dodecahedron obsession (and later obsession with all kinds of three-dimensional geometric solids). Which eventually led to me gaming when I noticed that one of the funny dice was dodecahedron-shaped. So it seems we come full circle.

OotDodI

Order of the Dodecahedron Initiate
Prereqs:
BAB: +6
Proficencies: proficient with greataxe.
Skills: 12+ ranks in any 12 skills.
Feats: Must have any combination of Toughness and Skill Focus, so long as they add up to at least four. Alternately, any three of the +2/+2 feats.


HD: d12
Skills: (d12 skill points/level + Int, or 6+Int, as you prefer) -- Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (any) (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha).


Special Abilities:

• Action d12 (Ex): Whenever you would gain +1d6 to your d20 roll thanks to using an Action Point, you instead gain +1d12. Additionally (and even if your game does not include Action Points) you gain the ability to add +1d12 to any d20 roll once each day. In either case, you must declare your intent to add stuff before rolling.
  At 3rd level, you may add your daily +1d12 twice each day.
  At 5th level, you may add your daily +1d12 thrice each day.
• Take 12 (Ex): Whenever you "take ten" on a skill roll, you gain a +2 bonus -- you effectively "take twelve" instead.
• d12 Curse (Su): Once each day, you may force an opponent to roll a d12 instead of a d20. This may be on a save, attack, crit confirm roll, skill check -- whatever.
• Melee Damage (Ex): Any melee weapon you wield deals 1d12 damage instead of its listed damage. Yes, even kukri and light picks. Go crazy.
• Ranged Damage (Ex): Any ranced you wield deals 1d12 damage instead of its listed damage. Yes, even pixie shortbows. Go crazy.
• Spell Damage (Ex): Once per day, any spell you cast deals d12s of damage instead of its listed dice. Yes, a 10th level caster casting fireball deals 10d12. Go crazy.

Nifft, that PrC hurts my head just looking at it. [Well, even moreso than before...stupid headaches]

Awesome idea, awesome prestige class, just plain awesomeness...go D12!

I think this would be a good prestige class for Deesiks (read as D6) the kobold warrior in my friends NPC class campaign. (Yes I broke down and used a die as my characters name)

-El Jeraldo

Wow, nifft, until the mention of the Pythagoreans derailed my original train of thought, those were the sorts of abilities I was working toward. They sound really fun, and on first glace the Damage abilities look insane!

Okay, the Melee Damage and Ranged Damage abilities are insane at first glance, but when you really get down to it, any character that can dump 96 skill points into 12 classes is already at least 5th level, assuming astronomical item bonuses to Int, and probably closer to 10th level. By then, the boost from even 1d4 to 1d12 is eclipsed by a weapon's bonus dice and other damage boosters.

The Spell Damage ability, however....... wow. That's killer. I mean, honestly, it's like completely free double-layered Empower on every d6 spell you cast (which are usually pretty nasty to start with).


Of course, now that I've got a cool-looking list of abilities sitting before me, you just KNOW I'm going to yoink them for my first draft class build, but with cosmetic changes. I've made up my mind that each game mechanic introduced will have a solid in-game explanation of the ability. The d12 roll, or a flat value of 12, will simply be the most useful mechanic to represent each ability, by design. For instance:
"Take 12: By taking a little extra time and effort to manipulate the universal framework on a fundamental level, the ODI can subtley influence the dynamics of any physical, social, psychological, or energetic system in his favor. At x level the ODI always gains a +2 bonus on any skill check when he takes 10."

You, Nifft, are pretty dang good at whipping the rules into a shape of your choosing. I'm impressed. Now I'll just apply my linguistic mojo *ahembullshyte* to your rules while crafting a few of my own



I'm attaching a brief "mission statement" I drafted, overviewing my plans for the ODI.

Nifft said:

Order of the Dodecahedron Initiate
Prereqs:
Proficencies: proficient with greataxe.
Skills: Eight ranks in any 12 skills.
Feats: Must have any combination of Toughness and Skill Focus, so long as they add up to at least four. Alternately, any three of the +2/+2 feats.

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Why eight ranks? Why not 5 or 12?

Let's see, a 5th level human rogue with 16 int has 96 skill points and three feats. But they don't qualify because of the greataxe proficiency. So a human rogue 4/ranger 1 with int 18 can just barely sqeak in. That's some requirement.

Nifft said:

[*] Spell Damage (Ex): Any spell you cast deals d12s of damage instead of its listed dice. Yes, a 10th level caster casting fireball deals 10d12. Go crazy.
[/list]

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That's some powerful ability. How about replacing one damage die for a 1d12 for each level in the class. So at 5th level, you can fireball for 5d6+5d12.

And shouldn't this be a 12 level class. I mean really.

maggot said:

Why eight ranks? Why not 5 or 12?

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Good point.

Also, I forgot to add BAB as a prereq. Now it's not a Wizard's wet dream.

maggot said:

That's some powerful ability. How about replacing one damage die for a 1d12 for each level in the class. So at 5th level, you can fireball for 5d6+5d12.

Click to expand...

Fixed it See above.

Cheers, -- N