Dark Reaper Prestige Class (formerly Grim Reaper)

[SlagMortar]

Sorry, what I meant was that the Reaper can only ever demoralize someone passed shaken with a standard action. Keep the only once per opponent per round and then it takes two rounds to frighten someone. Basically make it so the Expert demoralizer and Master demoralizer powers are only effective against someone who is not already under a fear effect. If the opponent is already under a fear effect, the Reaper is not any better at demoralizing than any other intimidate focused person. Of course, that may not meet the goals of the class.

Since I said, "wouldn't it be simpler?" I think the answer to that question is no.

Edit: Just read Greater Demoralize feat. I see that lets a move action be used to Intimidate. That is pretty strong for two people working in tandem. I'm not sure how to reconcile the various ideas.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Sorry, what I meant was that the Reaper can only ever demoralize someone passed shaken with a standard action. Keep the only once per opponent per round and then it takes two rounds to frighten someone. Basically make it so the Expert demoralizer and Master demoralizer powers are only effective against someone who is not already under a fear effect. If the opponent is already under a fear effect, the Reaper is not any better at demoralizing than any other intimidate focused person. Of course, that may not meet the goals of the class.

Since I said, "wouldn't it be simpler?" I think the answer to that question is no.

Edit: Just read Greater Demoralize feat. I see that lets a move action be used to Intimidate. That is pretty strong for two people working in tandem. I'm not sure how to reconcile the various ideas.

Also, your way may (I'm not sure) prevent the perma-shaken, where the Reaper continually Intimidates the opponent with Swift actions when the 1d4 is wearing off to keep the Shaken condition from ever ending. This is quite powerful, as it gives -2 to hit and damage for the enemy, but it is not as abusive as perma-frighten, so I'm okay with it.

EDIT: Hmmm, the Greater Demoralise feat may still be okay if only due to the duration being 1 round, but doesn't that mean it allows someone to spend two move actions to Frighten every round?

 

[SlagMortar]

Greater Demoralize explicitly only allows using demoralize once per round.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Greater Demoralize explicitly only allows using demoralize once per round.

Ah, then it catches that difficulty. Honestly I don't see why the Dark Reaper doesn't keep that restriction and shift it from move to swift.

 

[Erekose13]

With Greater Demoralize and Master Demoralizer, even with that restriction, they can in three rounds of swift actions cause panic because the duration of the demoralize effect comes into play. Though having it limited to once per round limits the abuse of the ability.

 

[Rystil Arden]

With Greater Demoralize and Master Demoralizer, even with that restriction, they can in three rounds of swift actions cause panic because the duration of the demoralize effect comes into play. Though having it limited to once per round limits the abuse of the ability.

Holy smokes! I was about to say that it would be unlikely to last three rounds with 1d4 until I read it again and saw that it's actually 1d4 + Cha mod with Greater Demoralise! That could be a long time.

 

[Bront]

Keeping the one attempt per round is good for every ability. Allowing for anything to go with 2 swift actions from shaken to frightened for 1d4+Cha rounds is nuts, and even more letting it stack.

An easy way to write it would simply to say that the ability will not take you past staggered, and if you actualy want to have a fear enabling effect, write one up that has a per day limit, or a limit on how often it can be used (or perhaps, it may only effect a person once).

The issue isn't with your intentions, it's with how the rules work for fear.

Another option would be to simply detail what it does with moral penalties to particular rolls, which avoids the whole problem of being staggered.

 

[Dalamar]

Well, the original write-up for the Class was created before the feats. At that time, the demoralization did only last 1d4 rounds. When the feats were approved, I made additions to make it meaningful for a Reaper to have those feats as they fit the flavor (Greater Demoralize is what adds the Cha modifier to rounds being shaken).
The problem was, that it was possible for a character to have or take Greater Demoralize as they enter the class. That meant the first improvement to Demoralize, moving to a move action once per round, was completely useless. So, without giving something completely different, I didn't see any other option than making it a Swift action. But then that made the next ability useless to a Reaper with the feat, so I added multiple uses with a limit.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Well, the original write-up for the Class was created before the feats. At that time, the demoralization did only last 1d4 rounds. When the feats were approved, I made additions to make it meaningful for a Reaper to have those feats as they fit the flavor (Greater Demoralize is what adds the Cha modifier to rounds being shaken).
The problem was, that it was possible for a character to have or take Greater Demoralize as they enter the class. That meant the first improvement to Demoralize, moving to a move action once per round, was completely useless. So, without giving something completely different, I didn't see any other option than making it a Swift action. But then that made the next ability useless to a Reaper with the feat, so I added multiple uses with a limit.

I see...so it's the feats combined with the PrC that cause the trouble. Why do we have those feats again? Are active players even using them?

 

[Dalamar]

Perhaps one way to reconcile the matter would be to just completely replace the class abilities with the feats? While losing iterative attacks is a serious hit to the effectiveness of a melee class, going below a Move action is not exactly mandated.
Another related option is to grant the feats, and if the character already has them (or later gets them?), he can Demoralize as a Swift action. That could result in frightened status, but the duration of a single demoralize is only 1+Cha mod, which is still less than 1d4+Cha mod. And I don't see many melee classes pushing up their Cha very far, less they start suffering in the melee department.