Is this prestige class fair?

[Taneel BrightBlade]

I'm working on the first campain world I have made totally myself( my gods, my mosters, my dragons, etc), and I thought up this organizanton of knights that worship the dragon god of light and I made a prestige class for it and I wanted to see if you think its balanced, well here it is:

Draconic Knight

Hit dice: d10

Requirements
Alignment: LG, NG, LN
Base Attack Bonus: +7
Feats: Weapon Focus (lance), Dragon Friend (from Draconomicon), Power Attack, Mounted Combat
Skills: Ride 8 Diplomacy 4 Knowledge (religion) 4
Spells: Burning Hands or Cure Light wounds
Other: must be asked to join by a Draconic Knight and pass an initiation trial or apply and train for 3 years and pass initiation.

Class BAB Fort Ref Will Special Spellcasting
Level save save save
1 +1 +0 +0 +2 Shining Fire 1/day -
2 +2 +0 +0 +3 Lay on Hands +1 level of existing class
3 +3 +1 +1 +3 Shining Fire 2/day -
4 +4 +1 +1 +4 Demon Slayer+1 +1 level of existing class
5 +5 +1 +1 +4 Shining Fire 3/day -
6 +6 +2 +2 +5 Shining Eyes +1 level of existing class
7 +7 +2 +2 +5 Shining Fire 4/day -
8 +8 +2 +2 +6 Demon Slayer+2 +1 level of existing class
9 +9 +3 +3 +6 Shining Fire 5/day -
10 +10 +3 +3 +7 Dragon Sword +1 level of existing class

Shining Fire: As a standard action a draconic knight can shoot from his hand a beam on sacred fire that deals 1d8/draconic knight level. The beam is twenty feet long and two feet wide, creatures hit can make a reflex save for half, outsiders, dragons and undead take double damage from this fire. This is a spell-like ability.

Lay on Hands: see paladin in PHB

Demon Slayer: A draconic knight gains this bonus to attack against evil outsiders.

Shining Eyes: A Draconic Knight gains a +2 on all diplomacy and intimidate checks involving dragons or outsiders.

Dragon Sword: A draconic knight is given a +3 brilliant energy long sword or lance.

Oh and any suggestion on the trial would help. Thanks

 

[Milkman Dan]

Just a few criticisms I hope will be constructive.

If shining fire is a spell-like ability, you should specify a spell level and a caster level. Those are needed for things such as casting defensively, or punching through spell resistance.

In lay on hands, one could assume that it uses your draconic knight level, and one could even assume that it stacks with existing paladin level, but it's best to specify these things.

Dragon sword doesn't sound all that useful. What if the character already has a +3 brilliant energy weapon? And such a weapon wouldn't really help against evil outsiders, if that's the theme of the prestige class, since it cannot ignore natural armor. Perhaps it would be best to have a spell-like ability that transforms a held melee weapon into a brilliant energy weapon.

 

[Elephant]

I would consider changing Dragon Sword to be "At 10th level, any lance wielded by a Draconic Knight is treated as a +1 Bane (Evil Outsiders) lance. If the lance has existing magical enchantments, such as Flaming, those enchantments continue to be active. If the lance has an enhancement bonus greater than +1, the greater bonus applies instead of the +1."

Shining Fire needs a uses/day limit (3 maybe?). I would also change it to be d6/level damage, d8/level vs. evil outsiders. That is more in-line with published spell effects (like Searing Light).

 

[Arkhandus]

Shining Fire and the spellcasting advancement make the class too powerful. I'd suggest reducing Shining Fire to 1d4 or 1d6 damage per level in the class, and base it on Flame Strike to where half the damage is sacred energy and thus not subject to fire immunity/resistance, and that's the half that's suffered on a successful Reflex save. Also, make it a full-round action to activate, and cause the Draconic Knight 1d8 damage when activated successfully as it drains a bit of their life-energy for a moment, with the d8 not subject to any kind of damage reduction or absorption. Reduce the spellcasting progression to +1 level per 3 Draconic Knight levels, unless you're going to restrict it to only improving Paladin or Ranger spellcasting, since other classes would benefit too much from it given the class' other strengths. Otherwise, reduce the Base Attack Bonus to that of a Cleric, and leave the spellcasting as-is I suppose. And that's probably still making it pretty strong.

You never mentioned how many skill points per level, nor the class skills. Nor any proficiencies gained, if any.

Consider this: compared to taking 10 levels of Paladin, you Draconic Knight has the following differences. More lenient alignment and no discernable code. A few easy-to-match prerequisites. Shining Eyes and Dragon Sword instead of Divine Grace. Demon Slayer in place of Detect Evil and Cure Disease. A strong Will save instead of Fortitude. Shining Fire instead of Smite Evil, Special Mount, Divine Health, Turn Undead, and Aura of Courage. 5 levels of spellcasting ability that could be applied to cleric or sorcerer instead of dinky paladin spells. And Shining Fire really is that powerful as it stands currently, and then some. Consider that Smite Evil will, on average add +3 attack and +10 damage by 10th-level, once per day, to a melee attack. Shining Fire is useable 5 times/day by 10th-level and deals 10d4 damage with no need for an attack roll, just a Reflex save for half damage, which will even then still be around 2 times more damaging than Smite Evil.

 

[Taneel BrightBlade]

So how about this?

Draconic Knight

Hit dice: d10

Requirements
Alignment: LG, NG, LN
Base Attack Bonus: +7
Feats: Weapon Focus (lance), Dragon Friend (from Draconomicon), Power Attack, Mounted Combat
Skills: Ride 8 Diplomacy 4 Knowledge (religion) 4
Spells: Burning Hands or Cure Light wounds
Other: must be asked to join by a Draconic Knight and pass an initiation trial or apply and train for 3 years and pass initiation.

Class Skills
Diplomacy, bluff, knowledge(religion), knowledge(nobility), ride, handle animal, jump, climb swim, gather information, concentration, balance,
Skills/level 2+int

Class BAB Fort Ref Will Special Spellcasting
Level save save save
1 +1 +0 +0 +2 Shining Fire 1/day -
2 +2 +0 +0 +3 Lay on Hands +1 level of existing class
3 +3 +1 +1 +3 Shining Fire 2/day -
4 +4 +1 +1 +4 Demon Slayer+1 +1 level of existing class
5 +5 +1 +1 +4 Shining Fire 3/day -
6 +6 +2 +2 +5 Shining Eyes +1 level of existing class
7 +7 +2 +2 +5 Shining Fire 4/day -
8 +8 +2 +2 +6 Demon Slayer+2 +1 level of existing class
9 +9 +3 +3 +6 Shining Fire 5/day -
10 +10 +3 +3 +7 Dragon Sword +1 level of existing class

Shining Fire: As a standard action a draconic knight can shoot from his hand a beam on sacred fire that deals 1d6 at first level plus another 1d6 every odd level after the first, half of the damage is holy and not subject to fire restance or damage reduction. The beam is twenty feet long and two feet wide, creatures hit can make a reflex save for half, outsiders, dragons and undead take double damage from this fire. This is a spell-like ability with caster level = draconic knight level, spell level 3.

Lay on Hands: see paladin in PHB (uses draconic knight level, stacks with paladin)

Demon Slayer: A draconic knight gains this bonus to attack against evil outsiders.

Shining Eyes: A Draconic Knight gains a +2 on all diplomacy and intimidate checks involving dragons or outsiders.

Dragon Sword: A draconic knight is given a +3 brilliant energy long sword or lance.

There should be a code but I don't no what it should be.

Is this better?

 

[brehobit]

I'd argue that the high BAB, d10 hit die, spell advancement and other abilties still make it too powerful. I'd not worry about it if it is to be an NPC only class (which the 3 year training implies), but for PCs this guy will be too much and overshaddow his peers.

Drop the BAB to medium and limit the number of fire blasts (say CHR bonus + class level per day?) and I'd say your are okay. More powerful then a warlock in some ways, but... And is the save based on the knight's WIS, INT, or CHR?

So how about this?

Draconic Knight

Hit dice: d10

Requirements
Alignment: LG, NG, LN
Base Attack Bonus: +7
Feats: Weapon Focus (lance), Dragon Friend (from Draconomicon), Power Attack, Mounted Combat
Skills: Ride 8 Diplomacy 4 Knowledge (religion) 4
Spells: Burning Hands or Cure Light wounds
Other: must be asked to join by a Draconic Knight and pass an initiation trial or apply and train for 3 years and pass initiation.

Class Skills
Diplomacy, bluff, knowledge(religion), knowledge(nobility), ride, handle animal, jump, climb swim, gather information, concentration, balance,
Skills/level 2+int

Class BAB Fort Ref Will Special Spellcasting
Level save save save
1 +1 +0 +0 +2 Shining Fire 1/day -
2 +2 +0 +0 +3 Lay on Hands +1 level of existing class
3 +3 +1 +1 +3 Shining Fire 2/day -
4 +4 +1 +1 +4 Demon Slayer+1 +1 level of existing class
5 +5 +1 +1 +4 Shining Fire 3/day -
6 +6 +2 +2 +5 Shining Eyes +1 level of existing class
7 +7 +2 +2 +5 Shining Fire 4/day -
8 +8 +2 +2 +6 Demon Slayer+2 +1 level of existing class
9 +9 +3 +3 +6 Shining Fire 5/day -
10 +10 +3 +3 +7 Dragon Sword +1 level of existing class

Shining Fire: As a standard action a draconic knight can shoot from his hand a beam on sacred fire that deals 1d6/ 1/2draconic knight level, half of the damage is holy and not subject to fire restance or damage reduction. The beam is twenty feet long and two feet wide, creatures hit can make a reflex save for half, outsiders, dragons and undead take double damage from this fire. This is a spell-like ability with caster level = draconic knight level, spell level 3.

Lay on Hands: see paladin in PHB (uses draconic knight level, stacks with paladin)

Demon Slayer: A draconic knight gains this bonus to attack against evil outsiders.

Shining Eyes: A Draconic Knight gains a +2 on all diplomacy and intimidate checks involving dragons or outsiders.

Dragon Sword: A draconic knight is given a +3 brilliant energy long sword or lance.

There should be a code but I don't no what it should be.

Is this better?

 

[Arkhandus]

....Am I the only one who saw that he's had the Shining Fire's uses per day listed in the table since his original post? Yeesh. If you'd bother to look, you'd see Shining Fire is useable 5/day by 9th-level.

Now, Shining Fire makes less sense, is a bit less powerful it seems, and nothing else changed. Clarify the damage. 1d6 / 1/2 draconic knight level makes no sense, is it supposed to be 1d6 per 2 draconic knight levels? If so, you should state that you round their level up for purposes of this damage, or else the Shining Fire would deal 0 d6 damage at 1st-level when the ability is gained. When you mention the Reflex save, you should say that a successful Reflex save negates the fire damage only.

Reduce the Base Attack Bonus to that of a cleric and reduce the number of spellcasting increases, or this class will remain overpowered compared to the (already strong) Paladin and Ranger in 3.5. Prestige classes should be more powerful than normal classes, but shouldn't totally outdo them, as this Draconic Knight outdoes the Paladin and Cleric for fighting evil and also for just normal combat. The Draconic Knight isn't focused enough to warrant being much stronger than Paladins and Clerics.

 

[brehobit]

....Am I the only one who saw that he's had the Shining Fire's uses per day listed in the table since his original post? Yeesh. If you'd bother to look, you'd see Shining Fire is useable 5/day by 9th-level.

Opps....

In that case, Dropping the BAB would, IMO, be enough to bring this class into balance with the prestige classes in Complete Divine.

 

[Undead Lincoln]

This class has the same problem that many other PRCs have. Both paladin and cleric can qualify for it. For a paladin, this class would be weak. It might require full spellcasting progression to balance. For any class with full spellcasting (ex cleric) this class is too good.

Also, I don't like the Dragon Sword ability. It is gear and begs some questions. What happens if the sword is broken/stolen. Also, it is something that any other warior type could pick up for money.

Also, this class lacks a distinct flavor. Prestige classes should only exist to fill in for something missing. And a paladin that can shoot fire occassionally dosn't seems different enough to deserve its own class.

 

[maggot]

I'm not seeing how this is that overpowered. Even in the first version. Even for a cleric. You only increase caster level every two levels. Would you rather be a Cleric 10/Draconic Knight 10 and cast as a cleric 15 and shoot 10d8 bolts of energy 5 times a day, or would you rather be a cleric 20 who can cast 9th level spells 5+ times per day. I know which I would choose.

The fact it requires BAB +7 to get into makes it very hard for pure clerics.

Now for a paladin the levels of energy bolt replace smites, but the smites can be combined with melee damage and criticals. So you would have to get many levels in this PrC before it gets out of control. The earlies you can take this as a pure paladin is 7th, so a Paladin 7/Draconic Knight 10 can shoot five bolts of 10d8, but loses out on +10 on smites and some extra smites and some higher level spells and increasing his warhorse and increased turning ability and etc.

I might tone the blast down to 1d6/level instead of 1d8. And I would remove the extra damage to since the PrC seem to be allied with dragons.