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Purifier

robjh

First Post
Hi. Do you think that the following prestige class is properly balanced? Are there any issues that need addressing? Thank you. :)

Purifier

The elite holy warriors of Thoshanir have dedicated their life and spirit to cleansing the lands of all that is most vile, putrid, and loathsome. The members of this religious order are prone to extreme measures to accomplish their mission, and they have developed a certain reputation for fanaticism utmost discipline. They are hardened against all that is unclean, and never flinch from an unpleasant task that serves their cause. At their core, however, they are actually decent, caring, and spiritual individuals.

The purifiers view disease, manufactured toxins, and the undead as part of an evil whole that seeks to destroy all living things. Those who practice the arts of poison alchemy or the reanimation of a corpse are the embodiment of this evil, while disease and decay are more subtle and insipid agents. Purifiers spend much time in practicing their disciplines of cleanliness and self-denial, finding true strength and inner discipline through their repetitive rituals. They will never voluntarily imbibe alcohol, cheese, or other products of decay, and always favor freshed fruits, vegetables, and meats.

Most purifiers are clerics and paladins, although sorcerers and even wizards can be drawn to the calling. Rangers and druids find the extremist philosophies of the purifier at odds with their views of nature, and almost never join this order. Likewise bards are often conflicted by the self-discipline and rigors of the purifier lifestyle, although they may greatly enjoy recording and celebrating their exploits.

Hit Die: d8.

Requirements

To qualify to become a purifier of thoshanir, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Alignment: Lawful Good.
Feats: Great Fortitude.
Spells: Ability to cast the daylight spell.
Patron: Thoshanir.

Class Skills

The prestige class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A purifier is proficient with all simple weapons, all types of armor, and with shields (except tower shields).

Spells per day: When a new purifier level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in any one spellcasting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (bonus metamagic or item creation feats, and so on). This esentially means he adds the level of purifier to the level of whatever other spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly. If a character has more than one spellcasting class before becoming a purifier, he must decide to which class he adds the new level for purposes of determining spells per day.

Smite Unclean: Once per day, a purifier may attempt to smite undead with one normal melee attack. She adds her Wisdom score (if any) to her attack roll and deals one extra point of damage per purifier level. For example, a 4th-level purifier armed with a flail would deal 1d8+4 points of damage, plus any additional bonuses for high Strength or magical effects that would normally apply. If the purifier accidently smites a creature that is not undead, the smite has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day.

At 5th level the purifier may smite unclean one additional time per day.

Turn Undead: A purifier can turn or destroy undead as a good-aligned cleric. For the purpose of determining the success, her purifier class levels stack with the levels of any other classes that also grant a turn undead ability.

Cleansing Touch: Beginning at second level, a purifier with a Wisdom score of 12 or higher can draw out diseases, poisons, and other unwholesome impurities by touch. Each day she can heal a total number of ability damage points equal to her level. Using cleansing touch is a standard action.

Untouched: Beginning at third level, a purifier suffers less ability score damage from disease, poison, or the touch attacks of undead. Each time a save check is performed against one of these special attacks, the resulting ability score damage is reduced by one point. For example, suppose a poison requires a Fortitude save to avoid 1d3 Strength damage. Then the purifier would only receive 1d3-1 Str damage on a failed save against the initial or secondary damage.

Circle of Sanctity: Once per day starting at fourth level, a purifier can surround herself with a sphere of positive energy. This sphere is activated as a standard action. It has a radius of 15 feet about the purifier, and lasts one minute per purifier level. Any undead entering this sphere suffer minor disruption, giving it a -1 penalty on attack rolls, damage rolls, and saves. Undead cannot be created or summoned into this sphere while it remains active. The sphere is dispelled by a desecrate spell.

Table: Purifier

Base
Class Attack Fort. Ref. Will
Level Bonus Save Save Save Special

1st +0 +2 +0 +2 Smite unclean 1/day, turn undead
2nd +1 +3 +0 +3 Cleansing touch
3rd +2 +3 +1 +3 Untouched
4th +3 +4 +1 +4 Circle of sanctity
5th +3 +4 +1 +4 Smite unclean 2/day

The Purifier also gains "+1 level of existing class" at each level.
 

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John Q. Mayhem

Explorer
It's a good start, but it falls into the typical trap of 'caster PrCs: they give everything the base class had, and then cool abilities on top. I might suggest chopping off 'caster levels 1 and 3 or 2 and 4.
 

FireLance

Legend
It's actually not too bad for a paladin as it only gets medium BAB, and +1 level of paladin spellcasting is not too powerful. I don't think it has been done before, but maybe you could have separate spellcasting advancements for paladins (and similar "half-casters") and other "full" spellcasters?

You might also want to add to the prerequisites. Since they are focused against undead, disease and poison, some minimum ranks in Knowledge (religion) and Heal may be appropriate.
 

the Jester

Legend
Not balanced, due to the fact that a cleric gains extra goodies, loses nothing and pays no real cost to enter. JQM pegged the problem. Frankly, I'd say that you should drop caster levels to 2nd and 4th only... or not at all if this bit from the Smite Unclean ability really means what it says:

robjh said:
She adds her Wisdom score (if any) to her attack roll...

Crikey! That's essentially a +18 or more for a decent-level cleric/purifier of Thoshanir or whoever it is. If that is the intent, I'd move Cleansing Touch to 1st level and Smite Unclean to 2nd level (1/day) and 5th level (2/day) and completely lose the spellcasting.

Assuming you meant that she adds her wisdom bonus to her attack, it's not nearly so bad. :)
 

domino

First Post
That "(if any)" leads me to think that he meant wisdom BONUS rather than score. Because really, who needs to put the "if any" caveat to a score. If you have a negative score, you're obviously not doing ANYTHING based on that score.
 

Cheiromancer

Adventurer
The "Cleansing touch" ability should be 1 point of ability damage per class level, I think. And smite unclean should be wisdom bonus.

It would be nice if it could give half casting to clerics (+1 caster level at levels 2 and 4) but full casting to paladins. The paladins sacrifice BAB, and the clerics sacrifice spellcasting, and the class isn't unbalanced. I don't know how such an ability would be worded, however, unless you specifically reference paladins and clerics.
 

the Jester

Legend
Cheiromancer said:
The "Cleansing touch" ability should be 1 point of ability damage per class level, I think. And smite unclean should be wisdom bonus.

It would be nice if it could give half casting to clerics (+1 caster level at levels 2 and 4) but full casting to paladins. The paladins sacrifice BAB, and the clerics sacrifice spellcasting, and the class isn't unbalanced. I don't know how such an ability would be worded, however, unless you specifically reference paladins and clerics.

What about wizards or sorcerers? They can qualify too.
 


FireLance

Legend
Perhaps something along the lines of:

Spells per day: As the character gains purifier levels, he gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in any one spellcasting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (bonus metamagic or item creation feats, and so on). A purifier level counts as a full level for spellcasting classes whose caster level is half class level (such as a paladin) or half a level for spellcasting classes whose caster level is the same as class level (such as a cleric or wizard). A character gains no additional advantage from having half a level in a spellcasting class.

This esentially means he adds his purifier level (or half his purifier level, if he is adding them to a spellcasting class whose caster level is the same as class level) to the level of whatever other spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly.

If a character has more than one spellcasting class before becoming a purifier, he must decide to which class he adds the new level for purposes of determining spells per day. He may decide to add each new level to a different class, but once he has made a decision, it cannot be changed.
 

the Jester

Legend
What about bards? They don't fall quite into either pattern, really.

Edit: which is to say, they have a full caster level but are less powerful than a full caster.
 

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