Dog Soldier prestige class

[the Jester]

What do you all think of this...?

DOG SOLDIER
Trained to fight as a pack, dog soldiers work best in groups. They constantly maneauver for advantage, luring their foes into gauntlets of steel. Most dog soldiers begin as fighters, but their flank attack abilities are an obvious incentive for rogues. The discipline required to be a dog soldier is sometimes too much for chaotic characters to maintain.
Hit Die: d10

Requirements: Base Attack +5; sense motive (4 ranks), bluff (4 ranks); Combat Reflexes, Dual Stike, Side-Step, Tandem Fighting.

Class Skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Ride, Sense Motive. Skill points/level: 2+int bonus.

Base Attack: As fighter.
Good Saves: Fort.
Level--Special Ability
1st- Friendly Parry +1
2nd- Flank Attack +1d6
4th- Nip At The Heels
5th- Flank Attack +2d6
6th- Friendly Parry +2
8th- Flank Attack +3d6
9th- Friendly Parry +3
10th- Dogpack Attack

Class Features: Proficiency in all armor and shields and in all simple and martial weapons.
Friendly Parry (ex): All allies within 5' of the dog soldier are granted the indicated bonus to AC. This is a deflection bonus.
Flank Attack (ex): When flanking the dog soldier deals extra damage, subject to the same limitations as a rogue's sneak attack.
Nip At The Heels (ex): For purposes of establishing flanking with another dog soldier only, dog soldiers are considered to have a natural reach of 5' greater than normal. This does not allow additional attacks of opportunity, it only establishes whether the dog soldier is flanking an enemy.
Dogpack Attack (ex): When flanking an opponent with another dog soldier, a dog soldier is considered to have the spring attack feat with respect to that enemy only.

 

[the Jester]

Oh yeah, these are the custom feats in the prereq's...

SIDESTEP (General)
You can adjust your position when enemies are not prepared to respond to you.
BENEFIT: You may take a 5' step in lieu of an attack of opportunity as long as no enemy threatens you who doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity. This is in addition to your normal 5' step.

TANDEM FIGHTING (General, Fighter)
Your teamwork in combat allows you extra attacks.
PREREQUISITES: Base Attack +5, Combat Reflexes, Dual Strike
BENEFIT: If you and an ally both have this feat and are flanking an opponent, you may each make one extra attack at the flanked opponent each round at your highest attack bonus, but all your attacks (including the bonus attack) suffer a -4 penalty.

(Dual strike is in Sword and Fist).

 

[Leopold]

whats the purpose of nip at the heels? It doesn't seem like it does anything special..am i missing something?

 

[the Jester]

It lets them surround an enemy 10' away and still get flank attack bonuses (or 15' if they have reach weapons).

 

[Leopold]

It lets them surround an enemy 10' away and still get flank attack bonuses (or 15' if they have reach weapons).
Nip At The Heels (ex): For purposes of establishing flanking with another dog soldier only, dog soldiers are considered to have a natural reach of 5'

so this extends their range of flanking? Can you add that into the line, it didn't make sense to me..

 

[the Jester]

Uh... it already specifies that it extends the dog soldier's natural reach by 5' for purposes of establishing flanking only... I thought that was clear? Maybe you just missed it...

 

[RobNJ]

The only thing that seems to be prone to abuse would be the parry bonus. When you consider that a lot of feats require that a character sacrifice something just to get an AC bonus on herself (Expertise), this seems pretty severe. I might suggest that the parryer give up his attacks for the round, or something like that.

 

[mmadsen]

So a Dog Soldier is a soldier trained to fight as part of a unit? Why isn't that just a Fighter with group-fighting Feats?

Oriental Adventures, for instance, has Great Teamwork (+4 for flanking, instead of +2) and Improved Aid (+4 for Aid Another, instead of +2). Wouldn't those convey the same Dog Soldier concept?

 

[Gez]

From the title I thought it was a class for fighters using trained wardogs as allies when battling...

 

[the Jester]

So a Dog Soldier is a soldier trained to fight as part of a unit? Why isn't that just a Fighter with group-fighting Feats?

Oriental Adventures, for instance, has Great Teamwork (+4 for flanking, instead of +2) and Improved Aid (+4 for Aid Another, instead of +2). Wouldn't those convey the same Dog Soldier concept?

Well, likely he is, but it's the nip at the heels ability, combined with flank attack, that set a dog soldier apart. I wanted to simulate the way a dog pack attacks, encircling their target and then darting in from the rear, causing the enemy to turn so another dog can dart in from the rear. I think that these two abilities are likely too good to be feats, but I wanted to design a teamwork fighting prc...

Dog soldiers in an earlier incarnation were a class that worked for a major villain, so they were usually encountered in groups, and even with low level dog soldiers, if there were enough of them they could challenge a decent high-level party.