Non-Monk Pugilist

Wystan

Explorer
I have tried my hand at class creation. Please tell me what you think: (Word Doc attached as this is UGLY)

New Version :
http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=3039877&postcount=13

Pugilist:
Role: Unarmed, lightly armored fighter – Non Oriental
Alignment: Any
Class Skills: The Pugilist’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are –
Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Heal (Wis), Profession (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex)
Skill Points at 1st level: (3 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at each additional level: 3 + Int Modifier

Table: The Pugilist
Level BaseAttack Bonus FortSave RefSave WillSave UnarmedDamage1 ACBonus Special
1st +1 +2 +2 +0 1d6 +0 Unarmed Strike
2nd +2 +3 +3 +0 1d6 +0 Evasion, Bonus feat
3rd +3 +3 +3 +1 1d6 +0 Uncanny Dodge
4th +4 +4 +4 +1 1d8 +0 Knock Down, Low Blow (Magic)
5th +5 +4 +4 +1 1d8 +1 Endurance
6th +5 +5 +5 +2 1d8 +1 Bonus feat
7th +6/+1 +5 +5 +2 1d8 +1 Fast Movement
8th +7/+2 +6 +6 +2 1d10 +1
9th +8/+3 +6 +6 +3 1d10 +1 Improved Evasion
10th +9/+4 +7 +7 +3 1d10 +2 Bonus feat, Low Blow (Lawful)
11th +10/+5 +7 +7 +3 1d10 +2
12th +10/+5 +8 +8 +4 2d6 +2 Improved Uncanny Dodge
13th +11/+6/+1 +8 +8 +4 2d6 +2
14th +12/+7/+2 +9 +9 +4 2d6 +2 Bonus feat
15th +13/+8/+3 +9 +9 +5 2d6 +3
16th +14/+9/+4 +10 +10 +5 2d8 +3 Own the Ring, Low Blow (Adamantine)
17th +15/+10/+5 +10 +10 +5 2d8 +3
18th +15/+10/+5 +11 +11 +6 2d8 +3 Bonus feat
19th +16/+11/+6/+1 +11 +11 +6 2d8 +3
20th +17/+12/+7/+2 +12 +12 +6 2d10 +4 Knock Out, Low Blow (Silver, Chaotic, Good, Evil)

Class Features:

AC Bonus (Ex): When unarmored and unencumbered, the Pugilist adds his Intelligence bonus (if any) to his AC. In addition, a Pugilist gains a +1 bonus to AC at 5th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every five Pugilist levels thereafter (+2 at 10th, +3 at 15th, and +4 at 20th level).

These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when the Pugilist is flat-footed. He loses these bonuses when he is immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armor, when he carries a shield, or when he carries a medium or heavy load.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Pugilist is proficient with all simple weapons and light armors.

Bonus Feats: The Pugilist gains an additional bonus feat at 2nd level and every four Pugilist levels thereafter (6th, 10th, 14th,and 18th). These bonus feats must be drawn from the feats noted as fighter bonus feats. A Pugilist must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums.
These bonus feats are in addition to the feat that a character of any class gets from advancing levels. A Pugilist is not limited to the list of fighter bonus feats when choosing these feats.

Fast Movement (Ex): At 7th level the pugilist’s land speed is increased by +10 feet. This benefit applies only when he is wearing no armor, light armor, or medium armor and not carrying a heavy load. Apply this bonus before modifying the pugilist’s speed because of any load carried or armor worn.

Endurance: A Pugilist gains Endurance as a bonus feat at 5th level.

Evasion (Ex): At 2nd level or higher if a pugilist makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a pugilist is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless pugilist does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 3rd level, a pugilist retains his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if he is caught Flat-Footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, he still loses his Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. If a pugilist already has uncanny dodge from a different class, he automatically gains improved uncanny dodge (see below) instead.

Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 12th level and higher, a pugilist can no longer be flanked. This defense denies a rogue the ability to sneak attack the pugilist by flanking him, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target has pugilist levels. If a character already has uncanny dodge (see above) from a second class, the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead, and the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum level a rogue must be to flank the character.

Unarmed Strike: At 1st level, a Pugilist gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A Pugilist’s attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees, and feet. This means that a Pugilist may even make unarmed strikes with his hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a Pugilist striking unarmed. A Pugilist may thus apply his full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all his unarmed strikes.

Usually a Pugilist’s unarmed strikes deal lethal damage, but he can choose to deal non-lethal damage instead with no penalty on his attack roll. He has the same choice to deal lethal or non-lethal damage while grappling.

A Pugilist’s unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.

A Pugilist also deals more damage with his unarmed strikes than a normal person would, as shown on Table: The Pugilist. The unarmed damage on Table: The Pugilist is for Medium Pugilists. A Small Pugilist deals less damage than the amount given there with his unarmed attacks, while a Large Pugilist deals more damage; see Table: Small or Large Pugilist Unarmed Damage.

Table: Small or Large Pugilist Unarmed Damage
Level Damage (Small Pugilist) Damage (Large Pugilist)
1st–3rd 1d4 1d8
4th–7th 1d6 2d6
8th–11th 1d8 2d8
12th–15th 1d10 3d6
16th–19th 2d6 3d8
20th 2d8 4d8

Knock Down: At 4th level, a Pugilist gains Improved Trip as a bonus feat. As part of a critical confirmation the Pugilist may make a trip attempt against the enemy that was hit.
A Pugilist need not have any of the prerequisites normally required for this feat to select them.

Improved Evasion (Ex): At 9th level, a Pugilist’s evasion ability improves. He still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth he takes only half damage on a failed saving throw. A helpless pugilist does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.

Low Blow (Su): At 4th level, a pugilist’s unarmed attacks are empowered with magic. His unarmed attacks are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction. Low Blow improves with the character’s pugilist level. At 10th level, his unarmed attacks are also treated as lawful weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction. At 16th level, his unarmed attacks are treated as adamantine weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction and bypassing hardness. At 20th level, his unarmed attacks are also treated as Silver, Chaotic, Good, and Evil weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction.

Own the Ring: At 16th level the pugilist gains a bonus to hit, damage, AC, and initiative equal to his Intelligence Bonus +2 for 5 rounds. The Pugilist may use this ability 4 times per day.

Knock Out: At 20th level the pugilist may as part of a critical attack confirmation cause a reflex save DC40 to the opponent to avoid the Unconscious Status. This will drop the opponent to the Unconscious status and cause Non-lethal damage equal to their current hit points.
 
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Seems like a good start - but you may want to reword or rethink "Low Blow" a little - it seems weird that a boxer type character somehow gains "magic fists". Monks explain this ability with Ki...

Also, do the special abilities Knock Down, Own the Ring and Knockout only work with unarmed attacks, or with any weapon?
 


Fair enough.

Like I said, looks like a class with good potential. Nice one. ;)

Oops, just noticed, unless I need new glasses, you haven't listed hit dice...
 

Couple of points...

but first, a plug for the new Enworld Publishing Grappling series... the Advanced pdf has a pugilist base class in it :)

On to your creations:
Missing HD :)
Skills, suggest Sense Motive vice Spot. THe pugilist should be good at feints and avoiding feints.
Skills, why 3+int? the standard classes have even numbers here.

BAB... odd progression.. shouldn't this be a .75 progression that ends with a +15?

Perhaps a fighting style approach could be taken... strong and study offering DR/rage benefits similar to barbarian, elusive strikes could offer increased movement/avoid AoO benefits with standard actoin strikes that deal more damge, etc...?

Abilities:
Low Blow.. needs flavor text as to why. As is the ability looks like a 'we need to make up for the lack of items
KO.. I don't like the static DC, nor that this is a REF save. It is also somewhat of a save or die effect. Perhaps a flat "successful critical unarmed attacks have a chance of knocking out the target. The target must make a successful Fort save vs DC of pugilist level + damage taken or be knocked unconcious for 1D10-con mod rounds {minimum 1}"
THen the ability could be granted at a lower level and scale up with the character...the peice de resitance would be a top level fighting style ability {assuming you go that way}
 

Wystan,
I like the general idea but have some suggestions, questions:
Why give them proficiency with Light Armor and then state that they can't use class abilities (AC Bonus) unless they are unarmored? Also, on a related note, I would modify the increased speed to NOT include medium armor.
Low Blow- I like the idea (would like to see what you come up with for in game rationale) but don't understand why they would automatically gain Lawful. I would suggest granting this ability at several levels: For instance 8-choose one of the character's alignment portions and treat unarmed attacks as that alignment for overcoming DR. (a CG character could choose Chaotic or Good) A neutral character can choose any alignment (a NG character could choose Lawful, Chaotic or Good; while a N character could choose Lawful chaotic, good or evil). Then again at say 13 gain the other alignment.
At 10th the character chooses: silver, adamantine, cold iron, etc.) and grant another every 2 or 3 levels. I don't like them getting 4 at once at 20th level. Also, this would allow the character a certain level of customization (my pugilist can overcome DR/Silver; yeah well mine can overcome DR/Cold Iron)
On skills, BAB and KO I agree with Primitive Screwhead.
 

The Base Attack Bonus is to place it between Monk and Fighter. He is better than a monk at straight fighting, but does not get the extra iterative attacks, and not quite as good as a fighter of his level. I will rethink the Low Blow mechanics, but I wanted him to have the monk unarmed combat weapon like bonus without the Ki flavor....
I might change the class abilities to allow armor, but that makes them more powerful than a monk in a lot of ways, maybe just remove the armor completely?

Editing now.... :)
 

Version 2.0 with changes suggested.

Pugilist:
Role: Unarmed, lightly armored fighter – Non Oriental
Alignment: Any
Hit Dice: 1d10
Class Skills: The Pugilist’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are –
Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Heal (Wis), Knowledge – Tactics (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex)
Skill Points at 1st level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at each additional level: 4 + Int Modifier

Table: The Pugilist
Level BaseAttack Bonus FortSave RefSave WillSave UnarmedDamage1 ACBonus Special
1st +1 +2 +2 +0 1d6 +0 Unarmed Strike
2nd +2 +3 +3 +0 1d6 +0 Evasion, Bonus feat
3rd +3 +3 +3 +1 1d6 +0 Uncanny Dodge
4th +4 +4 +4 +1 1d8 +0 Knock Down, Low Blow (Magic)
5th +5 +4 +4 +1 1d8 +1 Endurance
6th +5 +5 +5 +2 1d8 +1 Bonus feat
7th +6/+1 +5 +5 +2 1d8 +1 Fast Movement
8th +7/+2 +6 +6 +2 1d10 +1
9th +8/+3 +6 +6 +3 1d10 +1 Improved Evasion
10th +9/+4 +7 +7 +3 1d10 +2 Bonus feat, Low Blow (Special)
11th +10/+5 +7 +7 +3 1d10 +2
12th +10/+5 +8 +8 +4 2d6 +2 Improved Uncanny Dodge
13th +11/+6/+1 +8 +8 +4 2d6 +2
14th +12/+7/+2 +9 +9 +4 2d6 +2 Bonus feat
15th +13/+8/+3 +9 +9 +5 2d6 +3
16th +14/+9/+4 +10 +10 +5 2d8 +3 Own the Ring, Low Blow (Adamantine)
17th +15/+10/+5 +10 +10 +5 2d8 +3
18th +15/+10/+5 +11 +11 +6 2d8 +3 Bonus feat
19th +16/+11/+6/+1 +11 +11 +6 2d8 +3
20th +17/+12/+7/+2 +12 +12 +6 2d10 +4 Knock Out, Low Blow (Special)


Class Features:

AC Bonus (Ex): When unarmored and unencumbered, the Pugilist adds his Intelligence bonus (if any) to his AC. In addition, a Pugilist gains a +1 bonus to AC at 5th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every five Pugilist levels thereafter (+2 at 10th, +3 at 15th, and +4 at 20th level).

These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when the Pugilist is flat-footed. He loses these bonuses when he is immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armor heavier than light, when he carries a shield, or when he carries a medium or heavy load.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Pugilist is proficient with all simple weapons and light armors.

Bonus Feats: The Pugilist gains an additional bonus feat at 2nd level and every four Pugilist levels thereafter (6th, 10th, 14th,and 18th). These bonus feats must be drawn from the feats noted as fighter bonus feats. A Pugilist must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums.
These bonus feats are in addition to the feat that a character of any class gets from advancing levels. A Pugilist is not limited to the list of fighter bonus feats when choosing these feats.

Fast Movement (Ex): At 7th level the pugilist’s land speed is increased by +10 feet. This benefit applies only when he is wearing no armor, or light armor and not carrying a heavy load. Apply this bonus before modifying the pugilist’s speed because of any load carried or armor worn.

Endurance: A Pugilist gains Endurance as a bonus feat at 5th level.

Evasion (Ex): At 2nd level or higher if a pugilist makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a pugilist is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless pugilist does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 3rd level, a pugilist retains his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if he is caught Flat-Footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, he still loses his Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. If a pugilist already has uncanny dodge from a different class, he automatically gains improved uncanny dodge (see below) instead.

Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 12th level and higher, a pugilist can no longer be flanked. This defense denies a rogue the ability to sneak attack the pugilist by flanking him, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target has pugilist levels. If a character already has uncanny dodge (see above) from a second class, the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead, and the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum level a rogue must be to flank the character.

Unarmed Strike: At 1st level, a Pugilist gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A Pugilist’s attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees, and feet. This means that a Pugilist may even make unarmed strikes with his hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a Pugilist striking unarmed. A Pugilist may thus apply his full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all his unarmed strikes.

Usually a Pugilist’s unarmed strikes deal lethal damage, but he can choose to deal non-lethal damage instead with no penalty on his attack roll. He has the same choice to deal lethal or non-lethal damage while grappling.

A Pugilist’s unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.

A Pugilist also deals more damage with his unarmed strikes than a normal person would, as shown on Table: The Pugilist. The unarmed damage on Table: The Pugilist is for Medium Pugilists. A Small Pugilist deals less damage than the amount given there with his unarmed attacks, while a Large Pugilist deals more damage; see Table: Small or Large Pugilist Unarmed Damage.

Table: Small or Large Pugilist Unarmed Damage
Level Damage (Small Pugilist) Damage (Large Pugilist)
1st–3rd 1d4 1d8
4th–7th 1d6 2d6
8th–11th 1d8 2d8
12th–15th 1d10 3d6
16th–19th 2d6 3d8
20th 2d8 4d8

Knock Down: At 4th level, a Pugilist gains Improved Trip as a bonus feat. As part of a critical confirmation the Pugilist may make a trip attempt against the enemy that was hit.
A Pugilist need not have any of the prerequisites normally required for this feat to gain it.

Improved Evasion (Ex): At 9th level, a Pugilist’s evasion ability improves. He still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth he takes only half damage on a failed saving throw. A helpless pugilist does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.

Low Blow (Su): At 4th level, a pugilist’s unarmed attacks are empowered with the gathered skill of past pugilists; this infuses the pugilist’s blows with magical energy. His unarmed attacks are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction. Low Blow improves with the character’s pugilist level. At 10th level, his unarmed attacks are also treated as weapons of alignment (the player must choose one part of the alignment spectrum to represent, Lawful/Good/Chaotic/Evil) for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction. At 16th level, his unarmed attacks are treated as adamantine weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction and bypassing hardness. At 20th level, his unarmed attacks are also treated as Silver, and one additional alignment (Lawful, Chaotic, Good, or Evil) weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction.

Own the Ring: At 16th level the pugilist gains a bonus to hit, damage, AC, and initiative equal to his Intelligence Bonus +2 for 5 rounds. The Pugilist may use this ability 4 times per day.

Knock Out: At 20th level the pugilist, as part of a critical attack confirmation, causes a reflex save DC (20+Damage inflicted) to the opponent to avoid the Unconscious Status. This will drop the opponent to the Unconscious status and cause Non-lethal damage equal to their current hit points.
 

Attachments


This all looks pretty solid the only thing I'd suggest is ditching the non standard BAB progression. If you want him to fall some where between the fighter and monk without the extra attacks just give him a 2/3 progression then say he can add his Int modifier (because Own the Ring already uses it) to attack this way he is capped at 3 attacks but he will have a higher to hit than most monks.
 

So use the monk progression with an Int bonus, hmm that would front load the class a bit as he would get that bonus from first level, making him a better combatant than the warrior usually.
 

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