Complete Warrior and Miniatures Handbook Base Classes

[pawsplay]

Rangers dodge snares and pits all the time, and the newer, more lightly armored Ranger is probably good for a wildly acrobatic dodge or two. I still don't find it weird. Swashbucklers are quick, but they're quick with a sword.

 

[green slime]

I looked rather closely at the Hexblade last night, and in my opinion, they suck. They are very cool, but they suck.

The suckage is in the enormous Stat dependance, and the fact that they don't do either job really well.

Even with their Good BAB, they are unlikely to be able to compete with the other mainstream warrior types. Fighters concentrate on Str or Dex to increase their ability to hit even further, Rangers go Dex, while Paladins chase Cha but can compensate this with Divine Might, and thus still lay considerable smackdown.

The Hexblade on the other hand has suckage spells, that don't increase AC, can only increase Strength with difficulty (all special abilities are tied to Charisma, including the atractive Arcane Resistance), and ideally needs a good Dexterity in order to compensate the loss of heavy armours (because none of his spells increase AC). This funnels the hexblade into being a variant Dex-fighter, but with feats sorely lacking to do anything. The half caster level also means that otherwise impressive spells become next to pointless. The number of spells per day is pitiful.

A hexblade is a cool concept that suffers from lack of spell access, IMO. He can cause minor ability loss in enemies, and that is about it. He is a supporting character, even more so than the Bard.

 

[The Souljourner]

Hexblade is an arcane paladin. I'm sure that's the basis upon which he was created. Unfortunately he suffers the same problems as Paladins (multiple stat dependance, weak secondary abilities and crap-all for spell ability), with the addition of a few new problems, mainly the armor restriction - paladins walk around in full plate pretty much 24/7, this guys doesn't get that option.

I also don't like the "hex" part of the equation. Arcane Paladin = cool. Hexblade = lame.

-The Souljourner

 

[Shazman]

I agree with everything sojourner just said. The class does look cool, but may turn out to be weak in actual play. Of course we may be discounting the "hex" part of the class. At high levels, he can give his enemies a whopping -6 to practically every kind of roll. That combined with the arcane strike and improved familiar feats could make for a pretty potent damage machine.

 

[ConcreteBuddha]

Hexblade- NPC. That curse screams NPC.

Samarai- Bleh.

Swashbuckler- PC. Yay!

Favored Soul- Wizards: "Let's make a class that's better than the cleric!"

Healer- NPC until level 8, then rock the world with a unicorn as a PC.

Marshal- NPC. A cleric does the aura/buff thing better and can heal.

Warmage- NPC. A wizard with mage armor is better.

 

[HellHound]

Warmage- NPC. A wizard with mage armor is better.

Until you slip the warmage into +5 mithril full plate.

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* I can't find my Miniatures Handbook right now... but I do believe that at higher levels they get the ability to wear medium armor without spell failure.

 

[Remathilis]

Warmage- NPC. A wizard with mage armor is better.

Until you slip the warmage into +5 mithril full plate.

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* I can't find my Miniatures Handbook right now... but I do believe that at higher levels they get the ability to wear medium armor without spell failure.

No, you are correct.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Yes, a bonanza of new base classes. I was quite impressed with both books.

As for specific thoughts, I do not really thing the Hexblade, Favored Soul or Healer are very impressive, all for different reasons. Hexblade mainly for survivability. Cruddy spells, horrible BAB progression and not much in thr way of good abilities for a few levels.

Perhaps you're thinking of the Marshal, who gets cleric BAB?

As for Favored Souls, a great PRC, but as a base class, too odd.

While some of the abilities may be more apt to be a PrC, I don't see how you'd have a spontaneous divine casting ability as a PrC ability.

Specialization I don't mind, because it's so high level so as to be mostly useless. (The Templar did bug me, but I just renamed it with teh same effect.)

Wings are at 17th level, I don't know if thet'll matter.

Domains, I think there's a need for it. Perhaps give them one, perhaps just allow the spells from their domains to be chosen. Dunno.

 

[pawsplay]

He can cause minor ability loss in enemies, and that is about it.

I think a lot of people underestimate the Hexblade's curse power. At 19th level, it caues a -6 penalty to attack rolls, saves, ability checks, skill checks, and damage rolls. It's Su, so it ignores Spell Resistance. It has a monster-like DC (10 + half level + Cha) against their primary casting state.

Level 20 Hexblade, Cha 18 (boosted to 22), with Ability Focuse (curse) = DC 28. And you really don't want to fail. If you happen to fall prey to the curse, you suddenly have all -6 to save against all of their pesky little 4th level spells.

Check out their spell list. Mirror image, touch of idiocy, and enervation are on there. Handy little things.

They do suffer an AC disadvantage. There are workarounds, like mithril armor, one of spellsword, and such. But besides that, there is Aura of Unluck, which gives a 20% miss chance... that's even better than an AC bonus versus opponents with a high bonus to attack.

 

[Gez]

Marshalls don't get spells.