FR PrC- Shining Hand Disciple - need feedback

[DonAdam]

The Shining Hand Disciple
by Adam Martin
don_adam@yahoo.com

Requirements
Alignment: Any Lawful
Patron: Azuth
Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Attack or monk’s stunning ability, Combat Casting, Still Spell
Skills: Concentration 10 ranks, Spellcraft 8 ranks, Tumble 8 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 5 ranks
Spells: Ability to prepare and cast 2nd level arcane spells.
Special: Membership in the monks of the Shining Hand, a monastic order dedicated to Azuth.


Class Skills: Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge [any](Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Scry (Int), Spellcraft (Int), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex)

Skill Points per Level: 4 + Int modifier

HD: d8

BAB: Medium
Saves: Fort poor, Ref good, Will good

Special
1 Monk Abilities, Ki Caster (+1 spellcasting level)
2 Arcane Strike +1
3 Dispelling Touch (+1 spellcasting)
4 Arcane Strike +2
5 Spellstrike (+1 spellcasting)
6 Arcane Strike +3
7 Abundant Step (+1 spellcasting)
8 Arcane Strike +4
9 Timeless Body (+1 spellcasting)
10 Arcane Strike +5

Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The Shining Hand Disciple gains no new weapon or armor proficiency.

Monk abilities: The Shining Hand Disciple may stack monk, wizard, and disciple base attack bonus when determining iterative unarmed attacks. Also, the Shining Hand Disciple gains stunning attacks as a monk does, one per level per day.

Ki Caster: The Shining Hand Disciple gains a level of spellcasting from the class he belonged to previously for every other level of SHD. He also learns how to power his spells with his internal ki, meaning that he may expend a number of daily stunning attacks equal to the spell level of a spell he has prepared to cast that spell without losing it from memory. So a 4th level Shining Hand Disciple/4th level monk/3rd level wizard has all the spells per day of a 3rd level wizard, but can spend 1 of his 8 stunning attacks to cast a 1st level spell that he has prepared or 2 to cast a 2nd level spell and not lose the spell from memory. If he had Jump prepared, he could use the spell 8 times with stunning attacks and once by casting the spell. These spells must be touch attack spells or spells which target the Shining Hand Disciple.

Arcane Strike: The Shining Hand Disciple gains the ability to enchant his hands with magical weapon effects for 5 minutes per level. Enchantments are selected from table 8-15 in DMG and similar sources, but the DM should exercise his judgment as to what enchantments to allow. Throwing, for instance, makes no sense, and all abilities should be able to be applied to bludgeoning weapons. The total maximum daily bonus for this ability is indicated on the chart, and can be distributed among multiple uses. For instance, the 4th level Shining Hand Disciple could enchant his hands with the holy ability for 20 minutes per day, or use the flaming ability for two separate 20 minute spans. The Shining Hand Disciple may only use one ability at a time. Enchanting the hands is a free action, and can be done while the hands are currently already enchanted, causing the balance of the time on the primary enchantment to be lost.

Dispelling Touch: By expending 2 stunning attacks, the Shining Hand Disciple can, as a standard action, touch any person or magical effect, causing it to be effected as if a Dispel Magic cast at the disciple’s caster level had been cast on it. If the Shining Hand Disciple touches an effect that would cause him harm, such as a Wall of Fire, he takes damage normally and then attempts to dispel.

Spellstrike: The Shining Hand Disciple can cast one touch attack spell as a free action each round in which he uses the full attack action.

Abundant Step: The Shining Hand Disciple masters the arcane-like secrets of a normal monk, gaining the ability to use Dimension Door once a day as a wizard of his caster level.

Timeless Body: To both the monk and the wizard, who seek to master their abilities with constant study, age is the enemy. Thus Shining Hand Disciples spend time mastering the secrets of their monk brethren, and at 9th level no longer suffer ability score penalties for aging, although bonuses still accrue.

 

[Tylias]

Ooh, I like this Really neat, and nice class flavor too. Doesn't seem unbalanced, though I have a tweak or two to suggest (of course)

BAB: Medium is a bit high, considering that the Shining Hand disciple gets to (A) stack all his (wimpy) BAB for purposes of iterative unarmed attack and (B) will be doing *lots* of touch attacks, making it much easier for him to hit lots of targets. I'd suggest either a d6 Hit Die or knocking down the BAB.

However, neither of the above would be really necessary or appropriate if the character does not gain increasing Monk Unarmed Damage bonuses; if that's the case, the BAB and the hit dice, he should keep, since he's not gaining level based damage and AC bonuses like a normal monk would.

Also, with the Arcane Strike - should the character be required to know (as an arcane spell) the requirement for the weapon enchantments he could use? Holy might not be appropriate since there's no arcane spell that would serve as the prerequisite for creating a weapon with that enchantment. But knowing Fireball would grant the Shining Hand disciple access to Arcane Flaming and Flaming Burst Strike, and Summon Monster spells would let the Disciple use Bane Arcane Strike?

I might also consider being more generous with the Abundant Step ability - it seems to fit the idea well - why not award it more than once? It would help equalize the loss of extra monk foot speed and jump distance.

 

[DonAdam]

Unarmed damage and AC do not continue to stack, only Base Attack Bonus. Arcane Strike is a replacement for increased unarmed damage, and with Ki Caster the monk should be able to keep mage armor and other pump spells on himself. If damage did go up, you'd be right in wanting to tone down the class for sure.

I'm wary of requiring the spell needed to enchant the item for arcane strike, simply because the monk might have to wait until third level to use most of the +1 enchantments.

You're right about holy though. I'll include a note that they can't use any enchantment that Azuth himself would not be able to use (so you would be able to do lawful, but not holy or evil).

As far as abundant step goes, that might be a good idea if the class needs an extra kick at the end, but I think that their wizard spells can cover fine for the lack of movement abilities.

 

[wolfpunk]

I like what you have come up with, but I have a quick question. If the character is still predominantly a monk, why do they lose their good fort save? They get timeless body which to me symbolizes their unity with their body, so a poor fort save doesnt seem to make sense to me?

 

[DonAdam]

They get a poor fort save because of
a) balance reasons. Better to underpower than overpower them when I'm conceiving the class.
b) They just don't strike me as tough guys since they're part wizard.