Dark Reaper Prestige Class (formerly Grim Reaper)

[GnomeWorks]

If I had opted to add a sentence saying "this also causes living creatures to feel uneasy near a 6th-level Reaper and animal-intelligence creatures to generally stay away from him as it feels like there is something slightly amiss with him" to Immunity to Fear instead, would you have the same problem with it?

I suppose not.

I realize it doesn't have any mechanical implications beyond affecting creatures of animal intelligence, but the wording seemed awkward and the ability struck me as a little too... not really powerful, just awkward - ie, the 30th-level wizard is a little nervous because of the 12th-level guy holding a scythe? That seems a little ridiculous to me.

I guess, though, since it's mind-affecting... it's fine, I suppose.

 

[Knight Otu]

I'll make my Yes official.

 

[Dalamar]

I went and added a short sentence to the end of Unnerving Presence to handle the awkward situations.

...and creatures more powerful than the Grim Reaper can ignore it at the DM's discretion.

I left it vague on purpose, seeing how being more powerful enough (that sounds wierd, doesn't it) is rather subjective, and would probably also depend on a specific character's personality to some degree.


What are the Judges' thoughts on Xael's suggestion to make the PrC weapon-generic instead of scythe-focused?

 

[GnomeWorks]

Thanks for clarifying that.

What are the Judges' thoughts on Xael's suggestion to make the PrC weapon-generic instead of scythe-focused?

Hmm, I suppose it would work. I rather enjoy the scythe-focused thing, but making it weapon-generic would open it up for more characters, and the scythe isn't really a prerequisite for the concept.

 

[Dalamar]

I think it's time to dig this old baby up now that my character is reaching the level that he can qualify for the PrC.

I did some slight alterations to the PrC again. Mainly this was to expand the note on Unnerving Presence that some creatures may be unaffected by the ability. I also slightly reworded Frightful Presence so it flows better with fewer brackets, and added a Swift action cost and some other limits to its use. It should be much more balanced now.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

Hmm... I think I like where this PrC is going. Like you say, it's kind of like the Ventrid Swordsman, with a dark twist and scythes instead of swords. Pretty cool!

I'll address the flavor first: You make it sound like Grim Reapers just riddle the streets of Enworld. But to be one, you have to be reasonably powerful, and to be a powerful one, you have to be above L12. We've established that there are few such powerful characters in Enworld. I'm sure there are some fully progressed Grim Reapers in the world (and actually, I'll address this more later), but they are few and far between, and even the lower level ones should be rare. So basically, I think you need to reword it a little bit to say that Grim Reapers are less populous.

Another thing that's just personal, take it or leave it: I think they should be more affiliated with Seto. I'm sure some Grim Reapers are arrogant and full of pride and consider themselves the source of their power, but I also think that pretty much every GR probably pays at least some small homage to the God of Scythes. I certainly don't think too many, if any, GR's completely shun the god.

Now for some mechanics!

First and foremost, I think Greater Demoralize should simply be a required feat for the PrC, rather than having the contingency paragraphs in all of the improved demoralize abilities. A Grim Reaper would be foolish not to take GD. It shouldn't replace Persuasive, because it doesn't serve as a sacrifice feat. ... Though, Persuasive is not so bad, with all these new ways to use Intimidate. Which brings me to my next issue:

I think this should be a 5 level PrC. I'm not crazy about Skill of Fear, thematically or mechanically, and I feel like Frightful Presence just takes Intimidate to a whole new level, beyond what a simple skill should be able to do.

Unnerving Presence doesn't make sense at all, because Handle Animal is one of the Grim Reaper's skills!

I think Reaper's Blade is much better than Reaper's touch. Keen edge on scythes is good, that x4 crit suddenly becomes twice as likely to happen. So I think you should switch those two abilities, drop Reaper's Blade to L3 and Reaper's Touch to L5, and knock off the last 5 levels. Something like this:

GRIM REAPER (d10 HD)
 lvl  BAB Fort Ref Will Special
 1st:  +1  +2   +0  +0  Expert Demoralizer
 2nd:  +2  +3   +0  +0  Bonded Scythe
 3rd:  +3  +3   +1  +1  Reaper's Blade (+1 dmg)
 4th:  +4  +4   +1  +1  Master Demoralizer
 5th:  +5  +4   +1  +1  Reaper's Touch (increased crit)

Also, I don't think that Bonded Scythe needs that craft DC. A Grim Reaper would just take 10, unless he had a low Int. I think it's a needless penalty to make stupid Grim Reapers waste more than 1 day bonding with their weapons. Such characters are already spending 5 skill points on something they'll probably rarely use.

 

[Bront]

I like Rae's suggested modifications

I'm still not crazy about the GR imagery. Perhaps making it the Dark Reaper instead of the Grim Reaper might sepeate it from RL Grim Reaper myth. It also parts them from any death mythos a bit more, as they're about scythes and fear, not death.

 

[Dalamar]

Oo! I like the name modification to Dark Reaper, that does make it more generic.

As to why the PrC doesn't require Greater Demoralize, that is because it isn't a first tier feat. If you require Greater Demoralize, you also "require" Improved Demoralize, meaning the PrC would require four feats to enter. That's just a tad too much to require compared to the other prerequisites, especially when only Weapon Focus can be acquired as a bonus feat when going from Fighter.
A human non-fighter must dedicate all their feats to this so they can reach it by the minimum level, and a non-human non-Fighter would have to be 9th level before they could take their first level just so they can take the feats; a Fighter has a slightly easier time thanks to Weapon Focus being on their bonus feat list.

Unnerving Presence clashing with Handle Animal as a skill I would look at the other way round: they have Handle Animal because otherwise the Reaper would have a hard time getting a mount they could ride.


The flavor text I wrote along the same lines as the text for the PrCs from DMG, which suggest where one might run into them. I'll see about making it more appropriate.


Overall, I'm not adverse to the suggested modifications, as some of the abilities were indeed more for padding out the progression so it could fill 10 levels. I think I'll try to do a full rewrite to take everything into account later today.

 

[Dalamar]

Okay, I rewrote the flavour text, though it did end up significantly shorter than the original version.

The mechanical version is almost identical to what Rae suggested, though I shuffled the Bonded Scythe and Expert Demoralizer around so the class alternates between skill and scythe abilities. I also kept the original prerequisites as I would like to have more feedback on those.

 

[Bront]

I think I agree that one of the feats Demoralize should be a requirement, as some of the cooler abilities hinge on it. If that means that only human non-fighters can get in at 5th or any fighter, I don't have a problem with that.

The class as is lets a fighter, barbarian, or possibly paladin of tyrany in at 6th. Any other class can't make the skill AND BAB requirement (And will need to be at least 8th). And any characters likely to take this are going to want greater demoralize anyway, as it realy fits the character.

Other than that, I'd approve approve it as is