My Yeoman...concerned about balance

[Aqua Vitae]

It's clear that you've spent a fair amount of effort trying to balance this class, and I think that you have succeeded - at least enough to use it in your campaign.

Thank you! Of course, I didn't put up my other core classes, but I am trying to keep the yeomen (and the rest) rooughly parallel to the basic 3.5 classes.

The main issue that I have with it is that you have taken all of the keystone warrior abilities and made them available to this one class... Rage, Smite, Favoured Enemy. Keeping in mind that your bonus feats include many of the most popular fighter feats, AND then the capacity to get the main abilities of a Ranger or Paladin (Just slightly faster than they do)... even with the decent spacing of the abilities, I'd suggest limiting either the feats or abilites just a smidge more than you have.

Yes, but do keep in mind that in my campaign, paladins and rangers (as the classes detailed in D&D) don't exist. The paladin and fighter have essentially been replaced by my Knight, and the Yeoman (along with the NPC Yokel class, but that's another story ;-) fills the role of ranger. Class-specific Talents are available to each class; a Yeoman could, indeed, look very much like the original ranger or even, to some degree, the paladin, but neither class exists in my campaign to lodge complaints with the gods! ;-)

My suggestion; lose the first two bonus feats, and insert a cool - but not powerful - ability in for Lv.2. Perhaps one of the bonus feats, like Track or Alertness (not Weapon Focus, or 2 Weapon Fighting).
Hrmmm... it loses some of the 'oomph' that way, but I dunno what to tell ya - it starts off like a fighter who can also do rage, smiting, or favour an enemy.

Yes, I was really concerned about balance at level 1...however, if you look at the 3.5 ranger, they do get Track, a Favored Enemy, and Wild Empathy all at 1st level. Since, in my campaign, Knights are the only other fighter/warrior class, I wanted to give the Yeoman some 'oomph', as you put it, and the two are actually balanced w/respect to each other.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll definitely take your comments into consideration!

 

[Aqua Vitae]

Some of these abilities don't seem balanced with each other - compare Resist Disease with Uncanny Dodge. I can't see a lot of players ever choosing the former, especially as your Yeoman has a high base fort save anyway.

You make a good point. How about Disease Immunity and Venom Immunity (as per the druid ability), with a higher level prerequisite? Actually...I'm beginning to like that idea the more that I think about it!

Also, most players would choose another new ability rather than just gain one more use of an existing ability - you may want to make additional picks give more than one extra daily use.

Good point and worth considering!

The class is definitely more useful as an adventurer than a fighter or a ranger. In a campaign which also used the base classesI'd fix the first couple of bonus feats to less attractive ones, and increase the number of yeoman levels needed to qualify for the weapon spec feats.

I would not recommend the above Yeoman class in a standard D&D campaign without at least some modification, probably along the lines you suggest.

In my campaign, it's stradled alongside nine other base classes: Artificer, Harlequin, Knave, Knight, Magus, Minstrel, Noble, Priest, Savant. Each of these also use Talents, and some have Bonus Feats. I tried picking Bonus Feats and Talents for each that would balance them with respect to each other. Thus, the Knight has by far the largest selection of combat-related feats, but pales in comparison to the Yeoman's archery-related feats and his choice of other less combat-oriented feats.

I assume you're currently saying that they can qualify for weapon specialisation with 4 levels of Yeoman, I might make that 6 levels. Also rather than give them all martial weapon proficiencies I might give them one martial weapon of their choice. Weren't yeomen part-time soldiers?

Interesting idea...as it stands, they compare pretty well (in terms of the number of Bonus Feats and Talents) with my Knight, so likely I'll keep it as is. If a DM were to thrust the Yeoman into his or her regular 3.5 campaign, though, I'd suggest trimming the Talents and Feats.

"Yeoman" has been used in varying ways throughout history. The general idea was that they were freeholders and independent farmers with military obligations. I've retained that idea, more or less, except that I hoped with my use of Talents and Bonus Feats, rather than strictly assigning specific abilities/feats, individual Yeomen may go in any direction, from land-holding soldiers serving a Knight or Noble to "Robin Hood"-type forest-dwelling archers semi-divorced from the feudal system.

 

[Aqua Vitae]

Hi, Winding Road. Nice pic.

A few other small notes:
- Improved Uncanny Dodge doesn't require Uncanny Dodge; was that on purpose?

As with the barbarian, there is a progression here that sort of "assumes" prior possession of the ability (a barbarian with Uncanny Dodge from a previous class automatically gains Improved Uncanny Dodge).

- Really, only 4 skill points per level? I'd suggest either bumping up to 6 or paring down the skill list.

I tried to balance out the number of Skill Points with the Base Attack Bonus, the good Ref and Fort saves, and the plethora of bonus Talents and Feats. Granted they only have d8 HD, but they get a goodly number of (potentially very useful combat-related) feats at 1st-4th level. If I were to scale up their Skill Points, I'd be tempted to scale them down in some other regard. I'm more tempted to consider your suggestion of pruning the skill list. ;-)

- Why is Leadership on the feat list? It seems an odd choice compared to the rest of the list.

I chose that feat because of the role that some Yeomen play in my campaign and have also played historically. Some have ascended to almost the same social status as Knights. The basic idea, here, is of a Yeoman gaining a fiefdom or other property via his Knight or Noble liege lord (or whomever) and so benefiting from the feat.