Tarnished Knight PrC (Vigilante Mod)

[Brasswatchman]

So I need a prestige class that resembles the private detective protagonists of the old film noirs, which is geared towards paladins and clerics. The vigilante PrC in Complete Adventurer came pretty close to what I wanted; but I decided I needed to gear it more towards paladins and clerics, and gear it more towards investigation than ass-kicking; less Batman, and more Phillip Marlowe. Anyway, here's what I have so far. Thanks.

TARNISHED KNIGHT
Hit Dice: d8
BAB: Average
Good Saves: Ref, Will.

Prerequisites:
Alignment: any nonevil
BAB: +5
Skills: Bluff 2 ranks, Gather Info 4 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 4 ranks, Sense Motive 4 ranks.
Feats: Alertness.
Special: Able to use divine magic.
Affiliation: Private Inquisition.

Class Skills:
Bluff, Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (all variants, taken individually), Move Silently, Open Lock, Search, Sense Motive.
Skill Points Per Level: 6 + Int.

1: moral sense, operator +2.
2: smite evil 1/day; spells per day: +1 level of existing class.
3: quick search
4: speak with dead 1/day; spells per day: +1 level of existing class.
5: quick hide
6: smite evil 2/day; spells per day: +1 level of existing class.
7: operator +4
8: dimensional anchor; spells per day: +1 level of existing class.
9: True seeing; operator +6.
10: smite evil 3/day; spells per day: +1 level of existing class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The tarnished knight is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, plus the hand crossbow. They are not proficient with any type of armor or shields.
Paladins can take ranks in the tarnished knight without losing their paladin abilities.

Moral Sense: At 1st level, a tarnished knight can immediately learn a creature or object’s alignment with a single glance. Treat this as a spell-like ability where the tarnished knight, at will, can cast the spells detect law, detect chaos, detect good and detect evil all at the same time. Moral sense effectively replaces a paladin’s detect evil ability.

Operator (Ex): A tarnished knight knows how to negotiate the dangerous streets. At 1st level, she gains a +2 competence bonus on Diplomacy and Gather Information checks while working in an urban environment. At 7th level, this bonus increases to +4; at 9th level, the bonus increases to +6.

Smite Evil: At 2nd level, and every three levels afterwards, a tarnished knight can use the smite evil ability, as per the paladin special ability (pg. 44, PHB). This ability stacks with the smite evil ability of the paladin class; so that a paladin 5/tarnished knight 2 can use the ability 3 times per day.

Quick Search (Ex): As per the vigilante special ability (pg. 88, Complete Adventurer). Allows the tarnished knight to search a 5-foot-square area as a move-equivalent action.

Speak with Dead (Su): Starting at 4th level, a tarnished knight can use speak with dead once per day. Her caster level equals her class level.

Quick Hide (Ex): As per the vigilante special ability (pg. 88, Complete Adventurer). Allows a tarnished knight to make a Bluff check as a distraction for a Hide check as a move-equivalent action. Gains a +4 bonus on Bluff checks made for this purpose.

Dimensional Anchor (Sp): Starting at 8th level, can use dimensional anchor once per day. Her caster level equals her class level.

True Seeing: At 9th level, a tarnished knight can cast true seeing (as per the cleric spell, pg. 296, PHB) at will.

 

[Brasswatchman]

annndd just moving this thread to the top of the queue...

 

[Brasswatchman]

So, yeah. Anything? Guess it's a pretty simple mod.

 

[Nifft]

Film noir is the opposite of "tell alignment exactly at a glance".

If a dame walks into your office late on a dark and stormy night -- a classy broad, mind you, with an angel's face and a voice like jazz soaked in top-shelf sherry -- you better not know if she's the vitcim, the bait, the mastermind, or the love interest until the last page.

-- N

(You might want to look a few pages back in Complete Adventurer -- Shadowbane Foo seems like what you're looking for.)

 

[Brasswatchman]

Film noir is the opposite of "tell alignment exactly at a glance".

If a dame walks into your office late on a dark and stormy night -- a classy broad, mind you, with an angel's face and a voice like jazz soaked in top-shelf sherry -- you better not know if she's the vitcim, the bait, the mastermind, or the love interest until the last page.

-- N

(You might want to look a few pages back in Complete Adventurer -- Shadowbane Foo seems like what you're looking for.)

I don't know. Sure, Phillip Marlowe might not be able to tell what said classy broad is about - but he will know right off the bat that she's trouble with a capital T. And Sam Spade or the Continental Op have all the angles figured out from the second page. So I'm saying there's precedent here for the ability.

But thanks for the feedback. I was starting to worry if the board wasn't displaying my posts.

Also - sorry, were you talking about the Shadowbane Stalker or Inquisitor?

 

[Balgus]

As a Tarnished Knight, I pictured someone who has fallen out of favor with his deity. For that, I didn't understand why there was still spell progression.

Barring that, It looks pretty balanced.
Avg HD, Avg BAB, 2 good saves, high skill points, but the class abilities don't seem all that powerful for a PrC- but has lots of specialized flavor.

(reread it) But it seems that he only gets spell/day that grows. Not the spells known or new spell slots. So that takes it down a lot. Maybe you should add something to strengthen it a little bit more.

Another option would be a fighter that chose to go another direction. For that, he has a new set of abilities that take hm away from combat specialization and into a more skil oriented path. For that, skill point increase, smite and other abilities would apply- but not the spells. ... Yeah- the spells still get me...

 

[the Jester]

I would prolly recommend dropping the skill points to 4/level- it's just a little bit much right now imho. Other than that it looks good though!

 

[Brasswatchman]

Thank you for your comments, everyone. That helps a lot.