Prestige Class: Disciple of Form

[Rystil Arden]

I think that the amount of AC this class receives is overkill: Art of Form gives a +1 bonus that increases to +2 at level 5. It stacks with Monk for the AC bonus, so there's another, so +3. Grabbing Preternatural Awareness, that makes +5. I don't know of any other class that will grant you a bonus to AC equal to the number of levels you take in it--and 3 of those 5 stack with everything, while the other 2 stack with everything but the insight Ioun stone (and that +2 is called out as applying to both Touc hand Flat-Footed AC.

 

[Bront]

For the DR, I chose adamantine as a "Skin of Steel" kind of thing. It's a substance, not magic. I guess magic works, but given most humanoids should be using something magical at that point, it's less usefull.

I aggree that +5 AC over 5 levels might be a bit much. Not sure of a good solution, I'll brainstorm a bit.

I'll think more on Celerity.

 

[Velmont]

I must tell I look at that class and I feel like it is really strong, too dtring for the moment. The permanent haste might be too much, but I think it is mainly the sum of all that give me that feeling, as most of teh otehr ability seems nice just liek that.

But I see one thing that should be in the pre-requisit: Improved Unarmed strike, or none except monk should continue to progress as a monk. It make no sense that, let's say, a Cleric/Rogue/Adept of the Form can fight like a monk without that feat.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

Velmont: Hmm, yes, I see what you're saying. I've been looking at it from a slightly different perspective: The monk gets all those crazy benefits because he loses them if he uses armor or weapons. So giving a cleric or a ranger the ability to fight like a monk doesn't really make sense, but denying a monk the ability to continue raising the power of his "natural equipment" isn't fair. So I'll change it so that only monks advance like monks.

Question: Should monks' Flurry of Blows attacks continue to increase as they gain levels in Disciple, or is that considered a Monk class ability like Slow Fall?

Answered it myself. The Psionic Fist from the SRD has a 'Monk Abilities' which I'll use.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

Rystil: About the AC bonus, I do agree, it seems like overkill. But also consider the fact that Preternatural Awareness is just one option for a Disciple to take. If he chooses the +2 AC, he is giving up blindsight or DR 3/adamantine.

I tweaked Extraordinary Focus again. +2 DEX at L3, twice per day. Thrice per day at L4. +4 DEX at L5. It's more comparable to the Barbarian's rage now.

I was thinking. I'm not crazy about Celerity at all anymore, not only is it overkill and a little unbalanced, it's rather boring and repetitive. I'm considering eliminating Celerity, adding another (lesser) Discipline, and moving things around a little, perhaps to look like this:

[B]Level   BAB     Fort    Ref   Will             Special[/B]
1       +0       +0     +2     +2              Art of Form, Monk Progression
2       +1       +0     +3     +3              Discipline
3       +2       +1     +3     +3              Extraordinary Focus
4       +3       +1     +4     +4              Discipline, Precision +1
5       +3       +1     +4     +4              Advanced Discipline, Precision +2

 

[Patlin]

Patlin, I can't find Part I of the Tournament of Flowers thread, did it get lost in the server crash? Do you have a history/details of the monastery that I could look at?

I can't find it either!

It wasn't one of my adventures, I did part II after the original DM (Roger) went MIA. At that point, not having access to any of Roger's note I changed the plot rather severely and took off for a new location almost immediately.

The server crash occurred near the beginining of the module, so perhaps it anihilated the full original adventure... I'm not sure.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

I'm writing the back history of the class. It's giving me a fresh focus on exactly what I want. I may change the name of the class and change the abilities as well. The back story includes a monastery and details on the wooded area north of Orussus and Lakenwold Reach. Should I make a separate location/history proposal?

 

[Patlin]

I can't find it either!

It wasn't one of my adventures, I did part II after the original DM (Roger) went MIA. At that point, not having access to any of Roger's note I changed the plot rather severely and took off for a new location almost immediately.

The server crash occurred near the beginining of the module, so perhaps it anihilated the full original adventure... I'm not sure.

OK, found some info.

It's the "Long Zhen Monastery" and it's within a day's travel of Orussus.

 

[Bront]

Velmont: Hmm, yes, I see what you're saying. I've been looking at it from a slightly different perspective: The monk gets all those crazy benefits because he loses them if he uses armor or weapons. So giving a cleric or a ranger the ability to fight like a monk doesn't really make sense, but denying a monk the ability to continue raising the power of his "natural equipment" isn't fair. So I'll change it so that only monks advance like monks.

Question: Should monks' Flurry of Blows attacks continue to increase as they gain levels in Disciple, or is that considered a Monk class ability like Slow Fall?

Answered it myself. The Psionic Fist from the SRD has a 'Monk Abilities' which I'll use.

I think it's better if you require Improved Unarmed Combat than remove the monk advancement stuff.

All the monk abilities only work while not wearing armor anyway (well, beyond unarmed damage), so if a Ranger took it, and wanted to keep wearing armor, he looses the benifits anyway.

With most of the tweeks, it's not too powerful, I think. I'm still trying to figure out a good fix for Celerity.

 

[Bront]

I can't find it either!

It wasn't one of my adventures, I did part II after the original DM (Roger) went MIA. At that point, not having access to any of Roger's note I changed the plot rather severely and took off for a new location almost immediately.

The server crash occurred near the beginining of the module, so perhaps it anihilated the full original adventure... I'm not sure.

It did. Roger's adventure was basicly killed.