Master of the Hounds Prestige Class

[the Jester]

Help me out here, guys! I want to make this one worth taking but not overpowered using multiple animal companions as the balancing factor. How did I do?

***

Master of the Hounds

Whether for hunting, herding, guarding or simple companionship, many humanoid creatures raise dogs. Some cultures are so symbiotic with their canine friends that a person is considered crippled if she doesn’t have one. A master of the hounds exceeds even the greatest ability that others might show with dogs. Some masters of the hounds raise their dog pack from the time they are puppies while others put a pack together out of alley strays.

Many masters of the hounds are employed by nobles, maintaining a proud hunting pack for knights or dukes. Some are druids in the wilderness, living with packs of wolves. Others are crusty rogues in urban settings, using their dogs to help fleece victims. Still others are old women in houses with hundreds of different animals.

Hit Dice: d8

Prerequisites: Handle Animal (10 ranks). Animal Affinity, Run.

Class Skills: Handle Animal (cha), Heal (wis), Intimidate (cha), Listen (wis), Sense Motive (wis), Survival (wis), Swim (str), Tumble (dex), Use Rope (dex). Skill points per level: 2 + int bonus.

Base Attack: Medium (as cleric).
Good Saves: Will.
Poor Saves: Fort and Ref.

Level-Special Abilities
1---Hounds (2)
2---Speed increase +10’
3---Flanking attack +1d6
4---Hounds (3)
5---Perfect understanding
6---
7---Hounds (4)
8---Flanking attack +2d6
9---Speed increase +20’
10--Hounds (5)

CLASS FEATURES
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A master of the hounds gains no new proficiencies.

Hounds: A master of the hounds has at least two, and possibly more, hounds that accompany him wherever he goes. These may be any canine animal of a size no larger than medium. These hounds are formidable examples of their kind, possessed of greater than normal intelligence, and as the master of the hounds advances in levels his hounds increase in power. The master of the hounds’ dogs’ type changes to magical beast.

A master of the hounds with a dog, wolf or similar animal companion may use this companion as one of his hounds. If he chooses to do this, all the special abilities gained from both classes stack.

A master of hounds gains more hounds as time passes. These hounds are just as powerful as the hounds he has had since 1st level. They gain all the appropriate abilities, etc.

If a master of the hounds loses one of his hounds to death or other misfortune, he can replace it after a month of mourning. He must spend 1000 gp and 100 xp and take another month to train the new hound.

Level-HD-Natural AC-Int-Special Abilities
1--+4--+2--+1--Devotion, evasion
2--+5--+3--+1--Flanking attack +1d6
3--+6--+4--+2--Ability increase +2
4--+6--+5--+3--
5--+7--+6--+4--Flanking attack +2d6
6--+7--+7--+5--Ability increase +2
7--+7--+8--+6
8--+8--+9--+7--Flanking attack +3d6
9--+8--+10--+8--Ability increase +2
10--+8-- +11--+9--Class level

Level: The master of the hounds’ class level.
HD Increase: As the master of the hounds advances, all of his hounds gain hit dice. (These are d8s; the hounds are treated as animals for purposes of base attack bonus, skill advancement, etc.)
Natural AC: The hounds’ natural AC bonus increases as noted on the chart.
Int: Eventually, a master of the hounds may have dogs as smart as he is!
Special Abilities: As the hounds advance, they gain the following abilities:

-Devotion: The hounds’ devotion to their master is so complete that they gain a +4 morale bonus on Will saves against enchantment spells and effects.

-Evasion: If a hound makes a Reflex half saving throw, it instead takes no damage.

-Flanking Attack: Whenever flanking, a hound inflicts extra damage unless its target possesses the improved uncanny dodge ability. This extra damage stacks with sneak attack and similar effects.

-Ability Increase: The master of the hounds, by intensive training, may choose one ability score of each of his hounds to improve by two at each indicated level.

-Class Level: Each of the hounds may take a single level in any class. Given their increased intelligence, there could even be hound wizards.

Speed Increase (Ex): The master of the hounds must keep up with his animals. His base speed increases as he advances.

Flanking Attack (Ex): Whenever flanking, a master of the hounds inflicts extra damage unless its target possesses the improved uncanny dodge ability. This extra damage stacks with sneak attack and similar effects.

Perfect Understanding (Ex): The master of the hounds can communicate clearly with his dogs, as if under a speak with animals spell at all times.


***

I'm definitely waiting to finalize this until I see the tamer of beasts update in Complete Adventurer, but I've been thinking about a master of hounds for a while. What do you guys think? Is the sheer number of slightly lower-powered companions a good balance? Does it compensate for losing whatever class abilities you had before?

Interesting builds: a druid/MotH... a halfling paladin with a riding dog mount multiclassing into it... a wizard whose familiar is a dog going into MotH... etc.

 

[DragonTurtle]

Cool PrC. Looking at it and comparing to a Ranger, he has worse saves, BAB and skills. I think increasing skills to 4+ a level would be fair. This next part is total brainstorming. How about getting rid of the perfect understanding and add a small number of spells like a ranger but only work on canines. Magic Fang, Animal Growth, etc. This way the MotH sits back buffs the hounds and let them tear the opponent to shreds.

Also wild empathy on canines may be cool.

 

[DragonTurtle]

Oh, looked at it a little more, the dogs if a riding dog or wolf will have as many HD as the MothH if taken for the 6th character level. Especially since he is getting 2 of them at that level. I would recommend keeping them 2 HD lower than the character. Also for the 10th level for the hounds I would let them only take the class level and gain those benefits and not the added extra benefits of NAC and Int.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Very interesting PrC Jester. Consider it yoinked.

 

[the Jester]

Oh, looked at it a little more, the dogs if a riding dog or wolf will have as many HD as the MothH if taken for the 6th character level. Especially since he is getting 2 of them at that level. I would recommend keeping them 2 HD lower than the character. Also for the 10th level for the hounds I would let them only take the class level and gain those benefits and not the added extra benefits of NAC and Int.

First, note that you can't get into MotH until you're 8th level (you first need 10 ranks in Handle Animal). That said, let's compare the HD of the hounds to the MotH's total HD, assuming they start at 2 HD each and there's no animal companion ability to muddy the waters:

MotH lvl---HD---Hound HD each/total
1---8---6/12
2---9---7/14
3---10---8/16
4---11---8/24
5---12---9/27
6---13---9/27
7---14---9/36
8---15---10/40
9---16---10/40
10---17---10/50

Interesting- seems like a lot of total HD. But! -I think the fact that each hound is not too powerful compared to the master makes a big difference. For instance, a 10th level MotH can expect to face CR 17 challenges fairly often. Is a typical CR 17 monster threatened by five 10 HD dogs? I'd say not too much- the dogs are very limited in their capabilities, even with a single class level. Given this, what do you think?

Furthermore, the reason the MotH gets almost no skill points, and is generally weaker in and of himself than a typical d8 HD base class, is that his hounds are there to make the difference. I'd be interested in seeing what this looks like in a playtest, actually- if anyone tries it out please let me know!

I might want to tweak the numbers a little, though- looks to me like I could stand the move some of the HD advancement to later levels, and the more I think about it the more I think the dogs should eventually get a bite that penetrates DR like magic.

 

[Corlon]

hmmm, the losing dogs seems a bit harsh.

I mean, granted it's flavorful for the guy to need time to train new dogs and mourn and such, but...if they're just dogs wouldn't they die a good deal?


Then again, they DO have about as many HD as the owner.


At any rate, it's cool. If I get the chance, I'll definitely play test it.

 

[jaker2003]

Constructive (I hope) Critisism:

Hit Dice: If all the perks of the class come from the hounds, shouldn't this drop down to a D6.

Prerequisistes: I think you should drop the ranks in handle animal to only 8. Also, I don't think Run should be necessary to handle a pack of dogs.

Saves: I think the good save should be Reflex: If you fail your handle animal check and the dog wants to bite you, what do you do . . . pull your hand back real quick-like.

Flanking Attack: Isn't this just a Sneak Attack +1d6 and +2d6?

Perfect Understanding: I think this is too powerful for an Extraordinary ability. Maybe you should make this into a supernatural ability;or if you want to avoid dabbling in magic, you could change this to an Experience Handler ability that would allow the MotH to take 10 on Handle animal checks and allow him to infer what the dogs are trying to tell him with a handle animal check (DC 30-Hound's Intelligence bonus).

Speed Increase: I don't think it should be necessary for the MotH to keep up with his canines. If they are trained, they would stay near him when commanded to. If they are intelligent (I noted they get smarter), then they would realize that the MotH can't always keep up with them.

I think this is a great Prestige class. I can definately see a Wiz/MotH outfitting his hounds with magical collars. Kudos to you, man. . . Oh, can i have some, they taste pretty good.

 

[LeifVignirsson]

Nice! I was planning on just being a boring ol' nomad fighter, but this might be a good goal to go after with my new character. I will hammer out some of the details with my DM and go from there, but considered this horked with love!

If I get some good feedback, I will let you know as well as anything I can hammer out on my own.

 

[the Jester]

Hey, thanks to everyone who has given me feedback here!

Jaker2003, You make some good points. I thought a d6 HD would be too little for the class to remain attractive, and I thought 7th level was a good place to peg entry (after all, at high levels you have considerable oomph with your hound). Would this class still be attractive with a d6 for hit points?

As to having Run as a prereq, I find that making suboptimal feats prereqs for cool prcs serves to both get less-used feats into play and also to make characters really consider whether it would be worth dipping into it for a level or two, rather than dedicating a character to the path.

Flanking attack is like sneak attack, but it only works when you're flanking. This is to encourage dog pack style attacks.

I think perfect understanding is okay- have you ever seen someone who seems almost preternaturally aware of his pet's meanings? I've seen it plenty, and I've been that guy. If we can do it in the real world, I don't see why being able to do it a little better as an exceptional ability is broken. It's basically like a limited, undispellable, unsuppressable speak with animals that only works with your hounds.

You might have a point about the Ref save thing- it was kind of a toss up for me on that one (I could actually see good arguments for all three save types). I chose Will in part because the most likely people to take this prc are rangers, and giving them a good Will save serves to make the prc more attractive to them. The fluffy reason, of course, is because they spend their time being 'alpha' and constantly establishing their alphaness (who's the leader of the pack? Damn right!) I might change that, though.

Thanks again for the feedback!

 

[LeifVignirsson]

Here are the mods I did so far

Obviously this isn't set in stone and this is more tailored towards my DM's campaign, seeing that I have had a hand in designing some things for him in the past. Remember, these are just suggestions and it is not finished as far as the mods go on my end. This may not appeal to any of you, but this is what I get as a feel for this PrC...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prerequisites:
Skills: Handle Animal (10 ranks).
Feats: Animal Affinity, Run.
Special: Must have a hound companion/familiar/cohort

Class Skills: Handle Animal (cha), Heal (wis), Intimidate (cha), Listen (wis), Sense Motive (wis), Survival (wis), Swim (str), Tumble (dex), Use Rope (dex). Skill points per level: 4 + int bonus.

Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1st +0 +2 +0 +2 Hounds (2)
2nd +1 +2 +0 +2 Pack Attack +1
3rd +2 +3 +1 +3 Tracking (or increase)
4th +3 +4 +1 +4 Hounds (3)
5th +3 +4 +1 +4 Perfect Understanding
6th +4 +5 +2 +5 Pack Attack +2
7th +5 +5 +2 +5 Hounds (4)
8th +6 +6 +2 +6 Hound Senses
9th +6 +6 +3 +6 Pack Attack +3
10th +7 +7 +3 +7 Hounds (5)

CLASS FEATURES
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A master of the hounds gains no new proficiencies.

Hounds: A master of the hounds has at least two, and possibly more, hounds that accompany him wherever he goes. These may be any canine animal of a size no larger than medium. These hounds are formidable examples of their kind, possessed of greater than normal intelligence, and as the master of the hounds advances in levels his hounds increase in power. The master of the hounds’ dogs’ type changes to magical beast.

A master of the hounds with a dog, wolf or similar animal companion may use this companion as one of his hounds. If he chooses to do this, all the special abilities gained from both classes stack.

A master of hounds gains more hounds as time passes. These hounds are just as powerful as the hounds he has had since 1st level. They gain all the appropriate abilities, etc.

If a master of the hounds loses one of his hounds to death or other misfortune, he can replace it after a month of mourning. He must spend 1000 gp and 100 xp and take another month to train the new hound.

Level HD AC Int Special Abilities
1 +1 +1 +1 Devotion, evasion
2 +2 +1 +1 Flanking attack +1d6
3 +3 +2 +2 Ability increase +2
4 +4 +3 +2
5 +4 +3 +3 Flanking attack +2d6
6 +5 +4 +3 Ability increase +2
7 +6 +5 +4
8 +7 +5 +4 Flanking attack +3d6
9 +8 +6 +5 Ability increase +2
10 +8 +7 +5 Template added (unless previously owned)

Level: The master of the hounds’ class level.
HD Increase: As the master of the hounds advances, all of his hounds gain hit dice. (These are d8s; the hounds are treated as animals for purposes of base attack bonus, skill advancement, etc.)
Natural AC: The hounds’ natural AC bonus increases as noted on the chart.
Int: Eventually, a master of the hounds may have dogs as smart as he is!
Special Abilities: As the hounds advance, they gain the following abilities:

-Devotion: The hounds’ devotion to their master is so complete that they gain a +4 morale bonus on Will saves against enchantment spells and effects.

-Evasion: If a hound makes a Reflex half saving throw, it instead takes no damage.

-Flanking Attack: Whenever flanking, a hound inflicts extra damage unless its target possesses the improved uncanny dodge ability. This extra damage stacks with sneak attack and similar effects.

-Ability Increase: The master of the hounds, by intensive training, may choose one ability score of each of his hounds to improve by two at each indicated level.

-Template added: Each of the hounds may have a template added to them in one of the following six; Celestial, Infernal, Earthen, Mist, Fire and Shadow.

Pack Attack (Ex): The master of Hounds can orchestrate a large attack with his hounds and himself at the same time. When two or more hounds are within 5’ of the Master of Hounds, all gain an attack bonus of +1. At 6th level the attacks can be considered flanking, giving a +d6 to each attack, while at 9th level each attacker gains an additional attack due to the barrage.

Tracking (Ex): Master of the Hounds gains the ability to track as well as his hounds do themselves. If the master does not already have the ability to track, he gains it. If the master already knows how to track, it is now increased by +2 due to the attachment to his hounds.

Perfect Understanding (Ex): The master of the hounds can communicate clearly with his dogs, as if under a speak with animals spell at all times.

Hound Senses (Ex): The Master of the Hounds is so in tune with his hounds that he gains the ability to hear even the faintest noise as if it were right next to him, giving him a +2 for Listen checks. His ability to smell things have been increased as well, giving him the ability to track by scent as well as to spot even the most sudden moments. +2 to survival skill when tracking by smell and a +2 to spot checks.