Dancer of Silk PrC - Please Comment

[Mista Collins]

After going through the FR Faiths and Pantheons book, one of my players wanted to create a PrC based off of Sune's personality and favored weapon. Any comments on this Prc would be appreciated. What needs to go, what needs to stay, what needs to be changed. I am looking for all and any comments.

Dancer of Silk



<Flavored Text Describing Prestige Class Pending Due To My Laziness>



Level BAB Fort Reflex Will Special

1st +0 +0 +2 +0 Sash Damage 1d4, Close combat, Wound

2nd +1 +0 +3 +0 Silken Shield +1, Kip up

3rd +2 +1 +3 +1 Grace, Sash Snap

4th +3 +1 +4 +1 Blinding Strike

5th +3 +1 +4 +1 Sash Damage 1d6, Spinning Attack

6th +4 +2 +5 +2 Silken Shield +2

7th +5 +2 +5 +2 Elaborate Dance

8th +6 +2 +6 +2 Behind the Curtain

9th +6 +3 +6 +3 Sash Damage 1d8, Silken Escape

10th +7 +3 +7 +3 Silken Shield +3, Whirlwind of Silk


Prerequisites
Alignment – Any Non-Evil and Non-Lawful
Feats – Exotic Weapon Proficiency (sash), Weapon Finesse, Combat Reflexes
Perform – 8 Ranks
Move Silently – 8 Ranks
Escape Artist - 5 Ranks


Hit Die: d6
Skill Points: 6 + Intelligence modifier


Class Skills
The Dancer of Silk’s class skills (and key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), and Tumble (Dex), Use Rope (Dex). See Chapter 4: Skills in the Player’s Handbook for skill descriptions.

Class Features

Close Combat: At 1st level, the Dancer of Silk can attack an opponent in a threatened square with a sash and not provoke an attack of opportunity.

Wound: At 1st level, a Dancer of Silk can use a sash to deal regular damage to an opponent, instead of sub dual damage, at her option. This allows the Dancer of Silk to inflict damage on creatures with an armor bonus of +1 or better or a natural armor bonus of +3 or better. If using the sash to deal sub dual damage, it deals no damage to creatures with a +1 or more armor bonus or +3 or more natural armor (as usual).

Silken Shield: The way in which you circle your sash around your body while in combat provides a certain amount of protection from your opponents. You get a +1 Shield bonus to AC at 2nd level. This protection increases by +1 every fourth level (+2 at 6th level, and +3 at 10th level). This bonus is only granted when a Dancer of Silk is using a sash in combat and does not stack with any other shield bonus.

Kip up (Ex): A Dancer of Silk can stand up from a prone position as a free action.

Grace: At 3rd level, the Dancer of Silk gains an additional +2 competence bonus to all Reflex saving throws. This ability functions for the Dancer of Silk only when she is using a sash in combat.

Sash Snap: The Dancer of Silk can make attacks of opportunity with her sash against foes within 5 feet as if it were a melee weapon.

Blinding Strike (Su): At 8th level, a Dancer of Silk learns how to blind her opponents with her sash as if with the blind spell. If she makes a successful touch attack against an opponent, that opponent is blinded for 1d2 + 1 rounds. An opponent may make a reflex save with a DC of 20 to avoid being blinded. This is a full round action that may only be used when the Dancer of Silk is in combat and using a sash.

Spinning Attack (Ex): If two or more opponents are within ten feet of a Dancer of Silk, she may make a Perform [dance] check (DC 20 + the number of opponents). If the Dancer of Silk succeeds, she may make one attack against each opponent at her highest base attack bonus. This is a full round action that may only be used when the Dancer of Silk is in combat and using a sash.

Elaborate Dance (Ex): At 7th level, if a Dancer of Silk chooses to fight defensively, or use all-out defense in melee combat, she against an additional +1 dodge bonus to her AC for each class level of Dancer of Silk she has advanced. This bonus to AC is only granted if the Dancer of Silk is in combat and using a sash.

Behind the Curtain (Ex): As you become more familiar with the use of your sash, you learn how to control its motions to partially conceal your form from your opponents. While in combat and using a sash, you gain 20% concealment from attacks made with melee and ranged weapons.

Silken Feint (Ex): As a free action, the Dancer of Silk may make a Bluff check against her opponent’s Sense Motive check and succeeds, that creature is denied any Attacks of Opportunity against the Dancer of Silk during that round. The Dancer may do this once a round as a free action a number of times a day equal to her Dancer of Silk levels + Cha mod.

Whirlwind of Silk (Ex): As a free action, the Dancer of Silk may deny one opponent his Dex against all attacks from the Dancer of Silk for one full round. This ability maybe be used a number of times a day equal to the Dancer of Silk’s Cha modifier.

 

[CombatWombat51]

I don't have Faiths and Pantheons... is the sash described as a weapon? Do they actually explain how you can inflict pain with a silk sash, or is that your idea? Not that I can't stretch my imagination, but I'm curious to see if someone else has done my stretching for me

EDIT: Come to think of it, I'm sure there must be stats for the weapon now that I read the class a bit more. Care to share?

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

I'm not the greatest judge of rules and power gaming so I'll leave that to others. (Looks fine to me though.)

But I'm curious as or why their is no religion Prerequisite for Sune. (Note: I'm not saying cleric only but just a believer.)

Also your screwing Sune's Paladins for their lawful good but can't take the PrC.

Maybe you should give Weapon Focus: sash at some point, as this weapon is really underpowered.

What about divine spells?

Again all of my rules suggestions are that, I've never created a PrC but this one seems sort of weak.

 

[ShadowTheft]

But I'm curious as or why their is no religion Prerequisite for Sune. (Note: I'm not saying cleric only but just a believer.)

I mi'se well step in here and answer some questions since Mista C is my DM and I'm the idjit who created this PrC. There used to be a religious prereq. Basically, you had to be a follower of Sune... which isn't too stringent. However, we decided that not everyone would be playing FR campaigns and wanted to make the PrC more accessable to standard playing.

Also your screwing Sune's Paladins for their lawful good but can't take the PrC.

Maybe you should give Weapon Focus: sash at some point, as this weapon is really underpowered.

The class is more targeted towards Rogues and Bards. I origionally designed the PrC with the dogma and personality of Sune in mind (In short, she'll only enter combative circumstances if something beautiful is being destroyed). There's a PrC in the FR Faiths and Pantheons book that's more oriented towards clerics and paladins as well . I wanted something that other classes could strive for since most of the PrC's in the FR FnP book were for clerics and pallys. Also, We changed the title from Dancer of Sune to Dancer of Silk, thus taking away the religious aspect of it. A lawful good paladin would skip over this now non-religious oriented PrC without a second thought.

This isn't meant to be an offensive class. In fact, the combat style of this PrC is focused more on the defensive. AC levels can get way up there, and you can get 20% concealment as a class skill. If you feel the sash is really underpowered (and it is, to those who like face smashery), go two weapon fighting and have a light weapon in your other hand. Also, with levels in bard, you have arcane spells to play with.

 

[Mista Collins]

... is the sash described as a weapon? Do they actually explain how you can inflict pain with a silk sash, or is that your idea? [\QUOTE]

In the FR FnP book, Sune's favored weapon is, quote, "Sash (whip)"
We treat the sash as a whip in all ways except for a few chages. We bumped the damage down to 1d2 and treat it as a melee weapon with 10' reach instead of the whip's 15'. Until you start taking levels in the PrC, it acts as a normal whip. It does subdual damage, and doesn't effect creatures with an armor bonus of +1 or a natural armor bonus of +3. It doesn't threaten the 10' it can strike, and attacking with it when adjacent to an opponent causes an attack of opportunity. Once you travel up the levels in Dancer of Silk, most of that changes for the better. Sure, a sash is a craptacular weapon by itself... but for people who want to have a little flare or something different weaponwise, this PrC allows them to use it more effectively.

 

[reapersaurus]

The class is more targeted towards Rogues and Bards.
(In short, she'll only enter combative circumstances if something beautiful is being destroyed).
This isn't meant to be an offensive class.
Also, with levels in bard, you have arcane spells to play with.

Wow, did you miss the boat then.
You do realize that all of the PrC's abilities are combat-related, right?
This means the PrC is meant to be used in combat - however, there's a fatal flaw: it has D6 HD, and mid-BAB.
This is an example of a PrC that doesn't fill it's (great) promise due to design.
It is intended to make the sash a combat-viable weapon, yet any PC that takes it will suck in combat. The acid test (IMO) for a PrC that specializes in a weapon is: Take all 10 levels of the PrC, stat out a character with them, and see what he can do in combat with the weapon. If he or she is not significantly better than a generic fighter using any number of weapons, than there's no reason that this character would have dedicated 10 levels to something that doesn't let them absolutely kick ass with this weapon (not to mention the significant prerequisite requirements). He or she should be among the best on the planet with this weapon - someone that tales are told about.

You mentioned that they'll have arcane casting from Bard perhaps? Not anything worth note - and that's even if they took all 5 levels in Bard. Plus, if they cast in combat, they take AoO.

I just don't see a good transition from either Bard or Rogue into this PrC : basically, they'd have to abandon the progression they were studying for, then go into this PrC which has little synergy with their previous levels. (Oh - in my experience, these kinds of specialist classes work better as a core class, if you could do it that way - then there's no 'wasted levels' or bad synergy between the classes)

However, the reason why I give this much feedback is because I love the idea.
It is similar to a Fan Dancing PrC and core class that I worked up.
Also, I really like the Spinning Attack and Behind the Curtain - nice creativity.

Suggestions: I can't picture this PrC being heavily armored and doing these things. Think of adding a Light armor restriction, and giving an AC bonus to CHA around level 3 or so. I'd also consider continuing some spellcasting advancement with the PrC.

BTW: Good call on the Religion skill, Brother Shatterstone