Single-Level Flavor (heh!) Classes

[Bugaboo]

Craziest thing happened today, kiddos. Some guy named Henry asked me to remain as active as possible on this thread, just because he enjoyed my writings soooooooo much.

Now, I sorta lost interest in your ideas here, especially after sharing my own alternative (better!) level progression system. But ol' Henry felt it was important to contact me about it anyway. Wacky guy!

You might want to thank Henry, if you see him any time soon, for bringing this topic back to my attention.

So. What have I missed?

Ah, yes! I was about to suggest a single prestige level of the "Mysterious Flavor" specialist... This is a great idea. You'll love it:

The prereqs are +4 ranks of any skill, +0 BAB, and must be a male or female character of some alignment, with at least 1 hitpoint.

When you take a level of "Mysterious Flavor," you get +1d10 hit points, +3 save points (to distribute among Will, Reflex and Fortitude), +8 skill points, and you can pick up to eight skills of your choice. As a special ability, you can pick a feat of your choice from any known D&D supplement (except Skill Focus).

I hope that's flexible enough. Ya think?

... Tell ya what: If you want me to visit you guys again, PLEEEEEASE have Henry send another e-mail.

 

[Bugaboo]

And by the way, Mongoose Publishing produced a delightful little pamphlet for the Hedge Wizard core class, at a reasonable cost of just $2.95 U.S. ... I'd strongly recommend its purchase. Even if you don't want to call your character by that title, the spell progression table and cantrip abilities are delightful alternatives to the standard wizard.

(shock) Did I just contribute something useful?! Oh my.

 

[Piratecat]

Oh, would that be Henry the moderator? Go re-read it, please. Thrice.

Since Henry isn't here at the moment and I am, I'll let him put words in my mouth: we would prefer that this thread suffer no more hijacks or rudeness. Thanks.

 

[demiurge1138]

Wow, I'm actually posting on topic!

Master Chef
A master chef is a character thoroughly devoted to the culinary arts. They often act as the heads of staff at castles, culinary academies and mansions. Some master chefs have even turned their skills into a performance art.
Hit Die: d8
Saves: Fort +1, Ref +0, Will +1
Class Skills: Appraise, Concentration, Craft (foodstuffs), Knowledge (culinary), Profession (chef)

Weapons Proficiency: All master chefs are proficient in the cleaver (Tiny weapon, 1d4 slashing).

Class Skills: Appraise, Concentration, Craft (foodstuffs), Knowledge (culinary) and Profession (chef) are forever class skills of the master chef.

Iron Gut: Master chefs are accustomed to tasting unusual spices and bizarre plants in order to find the perfect ingredients. All master chefs get a +2 bonus to Fortitude saves made against poison.

Skill Under Pressure: Master chefs are skilled at producing excellent results under conditions other chefs would buckle in. They gain a +2 bonus to all Profession (chef) checks made within a strict time limit, and a +2 bonus to Craft (foodstuffs) checks made with restricted, or required, ingredients.

Demiurge out

 

[Khaalis]

Hey IC. One MAJOR request...

For those of us that are late into the dicsussion, rather than going through 3 pages of rules changes and switches back and forth, can you do just a single post listing the full Mechanics on how to develop one of these Flavor Classes as they exist right now?

It is nearly impossible to figure out what the base mechanics are right now after reading through all 3 pages.

BTW - I like the idea and this is why I wish to see the mechanic so I can play with the idea a bit and see if I think it is mechanically sound, make suggestions or not if not needed, maybe even post a few concepts.

Thanks!

 

[Frostmarrow]

Hey IC. One MAJOR request...

For those of us that are late into the dicsussion, rather than going through 3 pages of rules changes and switches back and forth, can you do just a single post listing the full Mechanics on how to develop one of these Flavor Classes as they exist right now?

It is nearly impossible to figure out what the base mechanics are right now after reading through all 3 pages.

BTW - I like the idea and this is why I wish to see the mechanic so I can play with the idea a bit and see if I think it is mechanically sound, make suggestions or not if not needed, maybe even post a few concepts.

Thanks!

Well these are just guidelines but this is what we've come up with (everything below hasn't been cleared by the majority yet and I expect it to be scrutinized.):

1) +2 BAB/saves-split. This means that you have two points to allocate to BAB, Fort, Ref and Will. If a spell-casting level is added I guess you will have to finance it with one of these two points.

2) If you add a point to BAB or Spellcasting you should limit the special abilities to one.

3) A class should have a number of class skills equal to the number of skill points +1. You should add as many skillpoints as necessary but try to balance it with the special abilities and the usefulness of the skills for an adventurer. That is you could add Craft (Baking) to a baker almost "for free" because it won't help his adventuring career much, yet it adds a lot of flavor. By the same token if you add tumble to a class you should be aware that tumble is a very useful skill. That is an acrobat should perhaps only get two class skills; Tumble and Perform (Juggling) on account of the usefulness of tumbling.

4) You should try to add the Permanent Class Skills ability.

5) Pick weapon (and armor) proficiencies that are suitable on a weapon for weapon basis. That is, feel free to add an exotic weapon if it fits the concept. Moreover you should (or might want to) add heavy armor to a Palace Guard but that doesn't mean the Palace Guard automatically knows how to use medium or heavy armor. Try to pick weapons that does 1d6 damage or less. If you need a better weapon you'll have to balance it with fewer skill points or weaker special abilities.

6) Assign a hit die depending on balace and concept. 1d6 is considered tough and 1d8 is very tough. D10s and d12s should only be used for highly specialized survivors.

7) Invent a special ability or two that will be a benefit for the character in an adventuring context. Don't add a special ability that won't have an impact on the character's adventuring career. It matters not if the Baker has an ability that allows him to easily win pie baking contests. Instead add an ability that allows the Baker to bake Trail Rations (lembas) for half the price or that weighs half the weight. Still, these are just guidelines and who am I to judge the usefulness of a particular ability?

If you are cheap early on in the creation process you will have more room to make interesting abilities. Try to make these abilities both exotic and useful. Avoid duplicating pre-existing feats. Also remember that these abilities can be quite powerful. Think of the abilities a first level character gets such as the paladin's Divine Grace. That ability is a lot better than any feat and as such would make a great special ability for a flavor class (provided the rest of the class is balanced).

[edit: Profession (Juggling), what was I thinking!?]

 

[Graf]

I think another way the guildlines could be summed up would be:

Focus: The character should have a tight focus, and abilities that corespond strongly with that focus.
I don't think that abilites have to be perteniet to adventuring. Personally if I were going to play a "master chief" I'd be much happier with an abiltiy related to being a really good cook; master chiefs as a group don't cook trail rations so there's no reason why they would be better at it than anyone else.

Balance wise:
Make the class a bit weaker in terms of combat power than a core class, but with a few neat abilities, or else access to a feat that is availible at first level.
Personally I would think that we should never give out certain powerful kinds of class abilities, including stuff like: sneak attack, anything a paladin gets, turning, or a full spell casting progression (though I think partial could be Ok).


One balance thing I'm wondering about:
Though I was initally opposed to the no more than +2 bonus to bab & saves I have to admit that it's probably a good idea. Otherwise it's basically a free multi-class, which is a bad idea.
(it harms humans and, especially, half-elves because it makes their favored class:any ability less useful).

For example if you were an gnomish ranger (4th)looking to take the exotic weapon feat you'd look at a fighter. But you'd have to pay the xp penalty cost. But, because, flavor classes don't give an xp penalty (similar to prestige classes) a gladiator would be a much better choice. The system is constructed to discourage multi-classing-for-cookies and I think that's good. On the other hand I -do- like the gladiator (once you jigger the bonus-for-being watched anyway).

A hedge mage is the usual stereotype associated with the wizard who only has a few powers and makes trinkets in the local village, very like the concept of the adept.

He's basically a backwater mage.

Bingo. That's the line of thought that I was following: charms (very limited), and maybe a local reputation bonus in exchange for a partal spellcasting level like the court magus.

 

[Frostmarrow]

I don't think that abilites have to be perteniet to adventuring. Personally if I were going to play a "master chief" I'd be much happier with an abiltiy related to being a really good cook; master chiefs as a group don't cook trail rations so there's no reason why they would be better at it than anyone else.

It was a bad exmple on my part. The point is: try to make a useful special ability. Don't make a useless special ability from an adventuring point of view. I think that everybody in the world has skills that could be put to good use on the road.

 

[Iron_Chef]

uh-oh. the thread's dying, LOL. Don't blame me, I was on vacation.

 

[Iron_Chef]

uh-oh. the thread's dying, LOL. Don't blame me, I was on vacation.