Capstone Abilities

[victorysaber]

i'm not sure where the term came from, but supposedly it was said somewhere tt each class/prestige class is supposed to haf a capstone ability. a capstone ability is an ability received at very high levels which is the "ultimate ability" of the class and such. as far as i can discern, these r the following capstone abilities for the classes

barbarian - mighty rage
bard - inspire courage +4, mass suggestion
cleric - 9 lvl divine spells
druid - huge elemental wild shape, 9 lvl divine spells
fighter - a bazillion feats
monk - perfect self, unlimited slow fall, ac bonus +4, unarmed damage 2d10
paladin - smite evil 5 times, remove disease 5 times
ranger - 5 favoured enemies, possible +10 bonus on a favoured enemy
rogue - +10d6 sneak attack
sorcerer/wizard - 9 lvl arcane spells

while some of these capstone abilities may be clear and appropriate (like the barbarian, druid), some are just hafing many uses of the same ability (paladin, fighter, ranger) or just slow progression of a given ability tt peaks at high lvls (bard, monk, rogue), or they r just... spell progression (cleric, sorcerer/wizard). yup there's a grouse for every class.

in the spirit of giving capstone abilities, i was thinking of perhaps other capstone abilities, like for eg, giving the rogue immunity to attacks of opportunity, giving the fighter the ability to make an attack of opportunity on any melee attacker tt hits him, giving the full casters the ability to cast spells wifout using up spells slots for 10 rounds/day, and so on. in the spirit of giving capstone abilities, wat do u all think?

 

[nittanytbone]

Say goodbye to game balance.

Each class ALREADY has unique and interesting abilities at high levels. Rogues -- if they want to -- can avoid many AofO due to absurd tumble scores and they get special abilities such as "crippling strike" and "opportunist."

Fighters can pursue the underwhelming but unique weapon spec tree. Rangers get all sorts of cool stuff. 9th level spells are nothing to scoff at, especially for clerics (who at that level probably attract personal attention from deities) and wizards (who can bend the universe to their liking).

 

[Hypersmurf]

Moved to House Rules.

-Hyp.
(Moderator)

 

[Cecil Solomon]

Capstone abilities are a nice way to provide a concept focus for prestige classes, but I don't think the basic classes need to be tweaked all that much (if they do, it's usually tweaking for a specific campaign where the campaign flavor favors certain classes--nothing wrong with that, BTW).

Although, I would add this to your capstones:
Rogue: Skill monger

You may also want to look at the saving throw progression as a means of determining class flavor. Rogues = reflex,, Fighter types = Fortitude

 

[Tonguez]

I agree that Capstones a great for PrCs (and my homebrew PrCs all use them eg the Whalrider has as their Capstone ability aquiring the Aquatic Type (and the ability to control sea creatures))

However I don't think they should be applied to the base classes and in fact the more general nature of the base classes is the way it should be (albeit greater flexibility would be an advantage)

That being said I think talent trees (or heroic paths etc) that can be used to customise individual characters are cool and developing these towards a particular capstone ability is also an ideal route to take. But that of course is an entirely different discussion...

 

[the Jester]

in the spirit of giving capstone abilities, i was thinking of perhaps other capstone abilities, like for eg, giving the rogue immunity to attacks of opportunity, giving the fighter the ability to make an attack of opportunity on any melee attacker tt hits him, giving the full casters the ability to cast spells wifout using up spells slots for 10 rounds/day, and so on. in the spirit of giving capstone abilities, wat do u all think?

Dude, you don't think 9th level spells are sexy enough??

You don't think potentially adding +10d6 points of damage per attack is sexy enough??

I say the base classes are fine as is.

 

[victorysaber]

how about for the paladin? he doesn't seem to have any niche or choice in his capstone ability or at least at high levels it seems all he receives are just more uses of his smite evil and remove disease abilities.

 

[the Jester]

Paladins prolly have the weakest high-level progressions. However, I think that making new divine feats with high prereqs might be your best fix- give 'em options that are worth taking at high levels.

 

[Nyaricus]

clerics also get good rebuke undead at high levels, wizards get a few magical feats, etc.

I agree with the jester here. While not all of these things are "capstone abilities" per se, theres plenty of things that make up for that.

Just a thought.

 

[victorysaber]

ok, thanks alot for the input!