Knight PrC please critique

[Arcanus]

Some of this was borrowed and the rest was made up becuase I couldn't find the class that I borrowed it from to begin with. So I needed a PrC for a knight and went ahead and tried to do it from memory and the rest is things I kinda wanted to see in the class.

Please let me know if it is too much and what and how to fix it.

I am worried that the formatting will get messed up.

Knight Champion Prestige Class
Their martial strength and skill untouchable, knight
champions are unparalleled warriors, masters of the
battlefield, and defenders of any just cause. Knight
Champions work well with other classes when following the
same goals. Paladins may multi-class freely with this class.
Monks may not be well suited to adapt to this class.

Hit Die: d10
Requirements:
To become a knight champion, a character must meet all the
following requirements:
Alignment: Any lawful
Base Attack Bonus: +6
Feats: Armor Proficiency (heavy), Shield Proficiency,
Cleave, Great Cleave, Mounted Combat, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (any
melee martial weapon or melee exotic weapon except for
double weapons)
Race: Any except monster races
Skills: Diplomacy 4 ranks, Knowledge (Heraldry) 2 ranks, Ride 6 ranks

Class Skills:
The knight champion’s class skills (and key abilities)
are Animal handling, Climb (Str), Craft, Diplomacy (Cha),
Gather Info. (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge
(Nobility and Royalty) (Int), Knowledge (Heraldry) (Int),
Profession, Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis),
and Spot (Dex). See Skills in the Player’s Handbook for all
descriptions.

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features
The following are class features of the knight champions.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Knight champions
are proficient in all simple and martial weapons, all armor,
and shields.

Knights Vengeance (Ex): Once per day, a knight
champion can let loose a great, tremendous strike at any
opponent that has damaged the knight champion in the same
encounter that he wants to use this ability. This strike
inflicts maximum damage. At 5th level he gets a +1 to hit
against this opponent, at 7th level he gets a +2 to hit and at
10th level he gets +4 to hit.

Courage (Su): Beginning at 1st level, a knight
champion is immune to fear (magical or otherwise).

Second Skin (Ex): When wearing medium armor or
heavy armor, a 1st level or higher knight champion’s
maximum Dexterity bonus is increased by 1, his armor
check penalty is reduced by 1, and the knight champion can
don or remove the armor in 75% of the time as normal. He
must select only 1 armor type and another type every 3
levels (i.e. breastplate at 1st, full plate at 4th, ½ plate at 7th
etc.).

Battle Focus (Ex): At 2nd level the knight
champion is a skilled adversary in battle. So skilled that he
never leaves himself open for attacks from wild swings or
deadly charges. The knight champion keeps his normal AC
during a charge (normally you lose -2 AC during a charge).
Furthermore he gains the Mobility feat for free even if he doesn't meet the prerequisites.

Fatal Blow (Ex): When an 5th level or greater knight
champion fights wielding one melee weapon that he’s taken
the Weapon Focus feat with, he increases his weapons threat
range and critical multiplier by 1. The knight must select
only one weapon and only that weapon type get this bonus
no matter how many Weapon Focus feats he has. This
ability can be used 1/day every 5 levels of the knight
champion for a total of 1 round per use.

Knights Rush (Ex): When using the charge action a 3rd
level knight champion can continue moving after his attack
as long as he does not exceed twice his speed and if he can
continue to move in a straight line. This can draw Attacks of
Opportunity if he moves through threatened spaces. The
knight must stop when he threatens a new opponent and can
make a cleave attack against this one provided he has
dropped his previously charged opponent. This ability can
be used 1/day.


TABLE: THE KNIGHT CHAMPION

Lvl- BAB- Fort- Ref- Will- Special Abilities:
1 +1 +2 +0 +2 - Second Skin, Courage
2 +2 +3 +0 +3 - Battle Focus
3 +3 +3 +1 +3 - Knights Rush
4 +4 +4 +1 +4 - Fatal Blow
5 +5 +4 +1 +4 - Knights Vengeance +1 to hit
6 +6 +5 +2 +5 -
7 +7 +5 +2 +5 - Knights Vengeance +2 to hit
8 +8 +6 +2 +6 -
9 +9 +6 +3 +6 -
10 +10 +7 +3 +7 - Knights Vengeance +4 to hit

 

[abri]

WAY too powerfull: everyone will take the class instead of fighter levels (BTW every fighter I've seen take these feats so the requirements are too lenient).
For 10 Lv you gain 3 feats and a lot of POWERFUll abilities, vs 5 feats if you were a fighter. You also have a better save than a fighter.
Honnestly you need to drop a lot of abilities: supreme cleave in itself is the whole point of taking certain prestige class (and they are much harder to get than this one).
My advice: drop the extra feats, remove fatal blow (that's one of the weapon master coolest abilities), move supreme cleave to a higher LV. Remember, you don't need an ability for each level.
Also the abilities seems really to be for a fighter on foot, so the ride skill requirement doesn't fit in. Make the requirement tougher.

 

[Arcanus]

changed some stuff

added requirement for Mounted Combat (thought I already had it in there)

Added knowledge skill heraldry requirement

Took away supreme cleave and bonus feats and good will saves.

 

[Dagredhel]

First off, have you taken a look at the Cavalier PrC from Sword & Fist? If not, you can find it here.
Also well worth checking out are the Knights of Solamnia and Knoghts of Takhisis write- ups by the extremely talented James O'Rance at the Dragonlance Nexus.

My Comments:

1) The Lawful alignment requirement would suggest that Knight Champions belong to an order that demands adherence to a certain code of conduct. What are the strictures that a Knight Champion must obey?

2) The BAB requirement is superfluous. In order to meet the feat requirements, a character would have to be of sufficient level to have a BAB of +6 or better.

3) Knowledge (Heraldry) should be changed to Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty), which covers heraldry in 3E.

4) Gather Information, Climb, Jump, Sense Motive, and Spot are all nice skills to have, but somewhat peculiar choices for a knightly class with a combat focus. Craft is arguable, as pertains to weapons and armor, depending on whether you imagine the knight would care for his own arms. I'd restrict the class skill list to the following: Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty), Profession, and Ride.

5) Personally, I don't like Excellent abilities that are limited to a certain number of uses per day. I'd prefer to see Knight's Vengeance and Fatal Blow replaced. How about bonus feats instead, that are only usable while mounted?

6) Second Skin reminded me of the following from the Netbook of Feats.

ARMOR FOCUS [General, Melee]
COPYRIGHT 2001, B. Marcus Lindberg, Scott Metzger
You move around in a certain type of armor without effort.
Prerequisite: Proficient with armor, base attack bonus +1 or higher
Benefit: When wearing a specified type of armor it inflicts 1 less skill penalty and the maximum Dex bonus is raised by one. This cannot reduce the penalties to sub zero levels.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. The effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new type of armor.

ARMOR SPECIALIZATION [Special]
COPYRIGHT 2001, B. Marcus Lindberg
Your advanced training while wearing a specific type of armor has enabled you to maximize its defensive capabilities by positioning the armor in excellent deflective angles.
Prerequisite: 4 fighter levels, Armor Focus in the type of armor
Benefit: When you are wearing the specified type of armor you get a +2 dodge bonus to your Armor Class.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. The effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new type of armor.

ARMORED VIGILANCE [General, Melee]
COPYRIGHT 2001, Eric D. Harry
You can hastily don and remove armor.
Prerequisite: Proficient in armor donned or removed.
Benefit: You can don, don hastily and remove armor in half the standard time.

7) My best advice would be to focus on refining your conception of the PrC as much as possible. I always imagine a character that will be the archetype for the PrC, come up with abilities to suit, and then get rid of all but the truly essential features, paring it down until its balanced.

I hope I've been of help!