New Psionic PrC: Chain Dancer

[Seule]

Chain Dancer

The Chain Dancer is loosely based on the Blade Dancer from Oriental Adventures. I’ve modified it to use a Spiked Chain and psionics for a Psychic Warrior in my game, but I’ve tried to keep the basic flavour of the PrC: a maneuverable warrior who can enhance his weapon in combat. Please let me know what you think balance and flavour wise both.

Hit Die: d8

Requirements:
Base Attack Bonus: +6
Skills: Jump 12 ranks, Perform 1 rank (dance), Tumble 8 ranks
Feats: Mental Leap, Power Attack, Psionic Weapon, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Spiked Chain
Powers: Ability to manifest psionic powers
Special: Ability to wield a spiked chain, which requires size of at least Medium.

Class Skills
The Chain Dancer’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Balance (Dex), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Jump (Str), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), and Tumble (Dex). See Chapter 4: Skills in the Player's Handbook for skill descriptions.
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Table: The Chain Dancer
Class
Level Special Abilities
1st Acrobatics (+4), fast movement
2nd Imbue chain I, leap of the clouds
3rd
4th Ride the wind, fast movement
5th Acrobatics (+8)
6th Imbue chain II
7th Fast movement
8th
9th Acrobatics (+12)
10th Imbue chain III, fast movement

BAB: 1/level (as fighter)
Fort Saves: Low
Ref Saves: High
Will Saves: Low

Class Features
The following are class features of the Chain Dancer

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Chain dancers are proficient with no new weapons and light armor. A chain dancer who wears medium or heavy armor, or carries a medium or heavy load, cannot use any of his special abilities except for imbue chain. All Chain Dancer abilities require the character to be wielding a spiked chain to use.

Acrobatics (Su): a 1st level chain dancer gains a +4 competence bonus on Balance, Jump and Tumble checks. At 5th level, this bonus increases to +8, and at 9th level it is +12. In addition, a chain dancer can always choose to take 10 on a Balance, Jump or Tumble check, even when circumstances would normally prevent him from doing so.

Leap of the Clouds (Su): As the Player's Handbook Monk ability.

Fast Movement (Su): A chain dancer moves faster than normal. A dwarven chain dancer moves more slowly than other chain dancers, as shown on the table below:
Chain Dancer Base Speed
Level 20 ft. 30 ft.
1st-3rd +5 ft. +10 ft.
4th-6th +15 ft. +20 ft.
7th-9th +20 ft. +30 ft.
10th +30 ft. +40 ft.

Imbue Chain I (Su): At 2nd level, a chain dancer can temporarily imbue his chain to achieve a specific effect. The effect lasts 1 minute/level, and the chain dancer can choose from the following special abilities to bestow on his blade: charged, dissipater, parrying, shock, or sundering.

Ride the Wind (Sp): A Chain Dancer of 4th level or higher can use air walk as a spell-like ability once per day.

Acrobatic Attack (Ex): As the Duelist special ability in Sword and Fist.

Imbue Chain II (Su): At 6th level, a chain dancer can choose from the following abilities to bestow on his spiked chain: bane (choose type of creature), body feeder, mind feeder, shocking burst or wounding. Alternatively, he can add two imbue chain I abilities to his chain, either simultaneously or separately.

Imbue Chain III (Su): At 10th level, a chain dancer can choose from the following abilities to bestow on his spiked chain: flying, mindcrusher, soul feeder, speed. Alternatively, he can add three imbue chain I abilities to his chain, or one imbue chain I and one imbue chain II ability, either simultaneously or separately.
(Flying can be found in Oriental Adventures. Basically, the weapon flies through the air, and can pull the wielder).


--Seule

 

[Rybaer]

Sounds like it's probably pretty well balanced as is. Fairly powerful class abilities, but the armor restrictions should counter those well.

The only question that came to mind pertained to the Imbue ability. Is this restricted in uses per day? It's not very clear. My best interpretation is that when he gains access to Imbue II, these would be his options:
1 - use Imbue II once per day (and that's all he gets)
2 - use Imbue I twice per day (can split it up)
3 - use Imbue I once per day, but choose two powers to overlap

Is that correct? Either way, just a bit of clarification would do the trick.

Otherwise, I like it. Definitely fits the flavor of some of the other Oriental Adventures prestige classes.

 

[Seule]

I agree, the imbue ability isn't very clear as written, but that is also how I interpret it. However, I was also not very clear in my introduction: this is for a non-oriental adventures game. The base class had +10/+20/+30 bonuses for Acrobatics, and I thought for a non-wire-fu game that that was out of line. Given that my game is standard fantasy with Psionics, with nary an Oriental Advanture in sight, what do you think of the balance?

--Seule

 

[Rybaer]

I agree, the imbue ability isn't very clear as written, but that is also how I interpret it. However, I was also not very clear in my introduction: this is for a non-oriental adventures game. The base class had +10/+20/+30 bonuses for Acrobatics, and I thought for a non-wire-fu game that that was out of line. Given that my game is standard fantasy with Psionics, with nary an Oriental Advanture in sight, what do you think of the balance?

--Seule

Ah, I see. Well, I think it still fits with the psychic warrior. There are a lot of psi feats that emulate enhanced physical movement. Good call on bringing the bonuses down into the realm of reality. Looks like a good class!