New Class -- Historian (think Indiana Jones / Tomb Raider)

[malcolm_n]

[sblock=Historian Paragon Path]TEMPLE RAIDER OF OLLIDAMARA[/sblock][sblock=Historian Paragon Path]
Prerequisite: Historian, at least one divine utility

Ollidamara was believed to be an ancient god of rogues and dungeon delvers. In modern times, she is little more than a whispered name in the prayers of adventurers as they explore dark and overgrown temples and other long-forgotten locations. A sparse few understand enough of this forgotten deity to offer her more than lip service. These champions of hidden paths and secret passages are the Temple Raiders of Ollidamara.

Ollidamara’s Gambit (11th Level): Once per encounter, when you would fail an attack or check, you can reroll it and apply your Wisdom modifier instead.

Raider’s Reaction (11th level): You can spend action points as an immediate interrupt with no trigger. If you do, you cannot spend an action point on the following round, if you could otherwise do so.

Blessings of Ollidamara (16th level): When you use a daily attack triggered by an ally or a daily utility that can target an ally, any allies involved in the trigger or use of that power also gain temporary hit points equal to your level.

Aside: The historian powers that trigger this are:

- Follow My Lead
- Desperation Move
- Lead the Way
- You’ve Got His Back
- Life Saving Lunge

Temple Raider Powers

A Friend in Need Raider Attack 11
Encounter * Divine, Healing, Weapon
Immediate Interrupt Ranged 10
Trigger: A bloodied ally is attacked
Target: The attacking creature
Effect: Your ally can spend a healing surge, and the target is marked by you. If you are adjacent to the target, make an attack.
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Wisdom modifier damage.

Don’t Forget Your Hat Raider Utility 12
Daily * Martial
Free Action Personal
Effect: Until the end of the encounter, you gain a bonus to grabs and checks made to hold onto an important object equal to your Wisdom modifier. If you would drop the object or let go of a grabbed creature, you can make an immediate save to avoid doing so.

A Friend Indeed Raider Attack 20
Daily * Divine, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One Creature
Attack: Intelligence or Wisdom vs. AC
Hit: 4[W] + Wisdom modifier damage
Effect: Until the end of the encounter, allies adjacent to you can use any of your defenses instead of their own.[/sblock]

 

[Inlicere]

I got a kick out of your reprisal of the "temple raider" prestige class malcolm! I'll take a closer look asap!

 

[malcolm_n]

Bump for any updates forthcoming.

 

[Inlicere]

Bump for any updates forthcoming.

Thanks for prompting! I've been working on setting information for my campaign, which launches this weekend, so I haven't been able to do "round 2" on the historian yet.

Good news though... the historian is going to enter real play this weekend, so we'll start getting feedback on how it works in practical situations.

 

[Wraith Form]

Yet another wee bump.

 

[Inlicere]

Yet another wee bump.

A brief status update for all the interested parties:

My 4e campaign kicked off this weekend as scheduled, so I've now seen the Historian in play. It held it's own, but there was general feedback from the party that was similar to some of the comments that I've received on this board, and on the WotC forums -- namely, that some of the at-will powers are too situation-specific (Slough off Mark), and that it would be nice to see more use of Intelligence-based powers.

There was also some discussion of whether "historian" is really the right name for the class, since it evokes an image of a quiet scholar rather than an action-oriented character like I.J. / Tomb Raider. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has other thoughts on this.

I'm going to take the comments from my players and the boards, and get cracking on the next round asap. You can expect to see some updates to the class this week.

 

[WanderingMystic]

I personally don't mind the name it reminds me of the librarians from Deadlands Hell on Earth who adventured though a post apocalyptical wasteland trying to salvage books so information would not be lost.
But if you want a different name I would try Field Scholar to show that these are people who go out adventuring in order to study (monster, history, archeology, explorers ect…)
They are the type of person who you picture always writing in a journal so they can take their findings back to share with others

 

[ziegander]

You should name it The Journeyman.

 

[Inlicere]

The updated Historian is available

The updated PDF for the Historian class is available on the google group for my campaign. The direct link to the PDF is here.

I've tried to address the key issues that were pointed out here and in the WotC forums. Also, paragon paths have been added. Thank you all for your great feedback!

FWIW, I'd love to get suggestions for more class-specific feats.

Let me know what you think!

 

[WanderingMystic]

I love the changes you have made to the class.

Personally I feel that Master of Your Trade is a touch to powerful it makes it pointless to buy new skills when you can just buy 2 feats to get a +4 to all unknown skills as opposed to taking Skill Training twice and getting trained in 2 unknown skills (a +5). Instead maybe just +1 to all unknown skills which stacks with Jack of all Trade.

The class still doesn't showcase Intelligence that much and depending on the Esoteric Knowledge you have learned you can become very MAD making spending points on Intelligence much less appealing. As it stands unless I am taking a lot of Wizard powers my Int. should be kept tertiary.

I would change the powers in Aberrant Master to be keyed off of Charisma rather than Wisdom to allow better synergy with learning Warlock powers.
I also don't think they need their own power type since starlock tap into the same type of energies and use arcane I feel that arcane works for these. Needs some kind of implement to keep these powers in line with all of your other ones.