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*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Playing Like Celebrim - The Explorer Class
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5440740" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>Ok, so...</p><p></p><p>fast movement: Fast movement is a skill under my rules called 'Run'. Explorers basically get fast movement already, as do the other martial classes, and they can easily afford to max that skill out as well as put a Skill Focus in it to get a few levels ahead of the curve if they want to. He also already has 'Dash', 'Fleet of Foot', ect. in his bonus feat list, so if he really wants to go for a 'Speedster' build movement rates of 70' or so (and even higher effective movement rates) aren't out of the question by level 20. Remember, these classes are meant to be balanced against full casters. How they get there might not be fully obvious from these excerpts I'm posting, but they are meant to get there.</p><p></p><p>climb speed: I generally avoid mechanical variation in skill enhancing things beyond that of Skill Focus and Skill Mastery. Between having both Run and Climb as skills, an Explorer is likely to be getting quite good at climbing and certainly at higher levels of ability about equaling the ability of animals with a natural climb speed. This is especially true as anyone with 5 ranks in climb already retains dex bonus while climbing, which is the main reason in 3.5 you'd want a natural climb speed. It's worth considering some 'extra fast movement' feats though, and those would fit nicely on the Explorer bonus feat list.</p><p></p><p>slow fall: Tumble based ability, and hense more Rogue than Explorer. Certain feats that enhance character ability to fall long distance successfully already exist in the campaign. Making class based abilities that did this which were less effective than true supernatural (feather fall) would be mechanical variation for its own sake.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yeah, though I already have 'Double Strike' which lets you hit with both hands when charging or making AoO's, so between that and fast movement you are pretty much gauranteed to make at least 2 attacks even when moving. The explorer in my current campaign has already hit upon the 'Double Strike' + 'Powerful Charge' combo, which can get pretty nasty. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I've considered 'Bounding' type feats that let you take more than a 5' step as part of a full attack. The big worry there is reach weapons, which get far more out of that strategy than two-handed weapons ever could, which is why I've hitherto kept them out of the game. Typically in my game there are feats that give ways to split up your movement, for example taking the 5' step in the middle of your full attack, taking a 5' step between every attack, or making one attack at every target along your movement path (which can be fun with someone whose base move is 50'). Enhancing access to those sort of things might be a possibiity, but the current build only allows at most 5 bonus combat feats over 20 levels. Granted, if you start adding things up its 5 combat feats + 4 skill focus feats + 4 fixed combat feats + 1 noncombat fixed feat + 7 general feats and you can get to the end of most combat trees eventually, but the explorer lacks the Fighters ability to just feat up into a combat monster and again, I don't want to make it just a fighter variant. That's the reason I'm looking for non-damage focused ways of keeping the explorer relevant. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>By the time you are talking about feat chains of that depth, it's really outside what you can reasonably expect of an Explorer. I'd rather just make 'Double Strike' work with Spring Attack. Much like 'bounding' that chain works even better for two-handed reach weapons anyway.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Also a possibiity, though it breaks the symmetry of the class advancement (improvements to its two-handed ability every 8 levels).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 5440740, member: 4937"] Ok, so... fast movement: Fast movement is a skill under my rules called 'Run'. Explorers basically get fast movement already, as do the other martial classes, and they can easily afford to max that skill out as well as put a Skill Focus in it to get a few levels ahead of the curve if they want to. He also already has 'Dash', 'Fleet of Foot', ect. in his bonus feat list, so if he really wants to go for a 'Speedster' build movement rates of 70' or so (and even higher effective movement rates) aren't out of the question by level 20. Remember, these classes are meant to be balanced against full casters. How they get there might not be fully obvious from these excerpts I'm posting, but they are meant to get there. climb speed: I generally avoid mechanical variation in skill enhancing things beyond that of Skill Focus and Skill Mastery. Between having both Run and Climb as skills, an Explorer is likely to be getting quite good at climbing and certainly at higher levels of ability about equaling the ability of animals with a natural climb speed. This is especially true as anyone with 5 ranks in climb already retains dex bonus while climbing, which is the main reason in 3.5 you'd want a natural climb speed. It's worth considering some 'extra fast movement' feats though, and those would fit nicely on the Explorer bonus feat list. slow fall: Tumble based ability, and hense more Rogue than Explorer. Certain feats that enhance character ability to fall long distance successfully already exist in the campaign. Making class based abilities that did this which were less effective than true supernatural (feather fall) would be mechanical variation for its own sake. Yeah, though I already have 'Double Strike' which lets you hit with both hands when charging or making AoO's, so between that and fast movement you are pretty much gauranteed to make at least 2 attacks even when moving. The explorer in my current campaign has already hit upon the 'Double Strike' + 'Powerful Charge' combo, which can get pretty nasty. I've considered 'Bounding' type feats that let you take more than a 5' step as part of a full attack. The big worry there is reach weapons, which get far more out of that strategy than two-handed weapons ever could, which is why I've hitherto kept them out of the game. Typically in my game there are feats that give ways to split up your movement, for example taking the 5' step in the middle of your full attack, taking a 5' step between every attack, or making one attack at every target along your movement path (which can be fun with someone whose base move is 50'). Enhancing access to those sort of things might be a possibiity, but the current build only allows at most 5 bonus combat feats over 20 levels. Granted, if you start adding things up its 5 combat feats + 4 skill focus feats + 4 fixed combat feats + 1 noncombat fixed feat + 7 general feats and you can get to the end of most combat trees eventually, but the explorer lacks the Fighters ability to just feat up into a combat monster and again, I don't want to make it just a fighter variant. That's the reason I'm looking for non-damage focused ways of keeping the explorer relevant. By the time you are talking about feat chains of that depth, it's really outside what you can reasonably expect of an Explorer. I'd rather just make 'Double Strike' work with Spring Attack. Much like 'bounding' that chain works even better for two-handed reach weapons anyway. Also a possibiity, though it breaks the symmetry of the class advancement (improvements to its two-handed ability every 8 levels). [/QUOTE]
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Playing Like Celebrim - The Explorer Class
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