Tweaking Core Classes

[sinmissing]

Based on some Class Construction documents I found, and a table from the DMG (I'm sure this is where I found it), I made some optional rules to tweak character classes. Can I get some feedback?

Tweaks
Tweaks are small modifications to the Core Classes to accommodate the tastes of the individual player. The value of individual Tweaks are based on the tables found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. A tweaked version of a class is still considered to be the same class as the un-tweaked version. You cannot, for example, tweak the Bard class and then multiclass into the un-tweaked Bard class. The following tweaks are the most typical requested in my experience.
In designing tweaks, the following guidelines were used: The classes are balanced as is (this is not my personal opinion, but it is the stance I need to take in order to make this work). No ability was watered down. It was replaced completely with one or more abilities. Certain tweaks were available based on conceptual similarities between classes. Unused points are lost.

Barbarian
Barbarian Tweaks
Substitutable Abilities: Barbarian Rage (15), Fast Movement (5), Damage Reduction (10)
Tweaks: Woodland Stride (5), Trackless Step (5), Wildshape (20), Resist Nature’s Lure (10), Track (5), Favored Enemy (15), Ranger Two-Weapon Technique (10)

Bard
Bard Tweaks
Substitutable Abilities: Spell Casting (80)
Tweaks: D8 Hit Dice (30), Martial Weapon Proficiencies (15), Medium Armor Proficiency (10), 6 Skill Points (15) or 8 Skill Points (30), Durable: Good Fortitude Save (10), Uncanny Dodge (15), Aura of Courage (10), Evasion (10), Fighter Attack Progression (20)

Cleric
Free Tweak: Clerics substitute spontaneous casting of healing/harming spells, with spontaneous casting of Domain spells.

Druid
Substitutable Abilities: Wild Shape (20)
Tweaks: 6 Skill Points (15), Barbarian Rage (15), D10 Hit Dice (20), Domain Spells: Two from Animal, Plant, Air, Earth, Fire, Water (5), Divine Gift or Bonus Domain Spell (10), Spell Substitution: Substitute memorized spells for healing spells (5), Druidic Spell Substitution: Substitute memorized spells for spells that affect animals or plants* (10), Fast Movement (5), Fighter Attack Progression (20), Expanded Druidic Weapons: axe (throwing), battleaxe, club, dagger, dart, greataxe, greatclub, halfspear, handaxe, javelin, kukri, longspear, morningstar, net, quarterstaff, scimitar, sickle, shortbow, shortspear, sling, trident (5), Damage Reduction (10)

* Summon Nature’s Ally is not an Animal Spell

Paladin
Paladin Tweaks
A Paladin may freely multiclass, within the limits of their alignment, by losing access to one of the following abilities: Detect Evil, Divine Grace, Lay on Hands, Aura of Courage, Smite Evil, Remove Disease, Turn Undead, or Spell Casting

Monk
A Monk may freely multiclass, within the limits of their alignment, by losing access to one of the following abilities: Stunning Attack, Fast Movement, Wholeness of Body, Ki Strike, Diamond Soul, Quivering Palm, Empty Body, or Perfect Self

Ranger
Free Tweak: Rangers can swap their bonus feats for Point Blank Shot, and one other Archery Feat. At 8th Level, she may take an additional Archery Feat even if she does not quality for it. The rules governing when a Ranger can use these feats remains unchanged from the Player’s Handbook.

Ranger Tweaks
Substitutable Abilities: Spell Casting (15)
Tweaks (Ability or Progression is gained at 4th Level): Barbarian Rage (15), Fast Movement (5), Nature Sense (10), Resist Nature’s Lure (10), Sneak Attack (15), Trackless Step (5), Woodland Stride (5)

Rogue
Rogue Tweaks
Substitutable Abilities: Sneak Attack (15)
Tweaks: 10 Skill Points (15), Martial Weapons (5), D8 Hit Dice (10), Durable: Good Fortitude Saves (10), Ranger Two-Weapon Fighting Technique (10), Track or Shadow, and Wilderness Lore as a Class Skill (5), Willful: Good Will Saves (10)

Sorcerer
Free Tweak: The Sorceror can substitute her Sorcery Spell List for the Druid Spell List. The character is now referred to as a Druidic Sorceror. The Sorceror is now a Divine Spellcaster.

Sorceror Tweaks
Substitutable Abilities: Familiar (15), Simple Weapon Proficiencies: Sorceror has Wizard Proficiencies instead (5)
Tweaks: 3 Skill Points (5) or 4 Skill Points (10), Martial Weapon Proficiencies*: Individual (1), or all (15), D6 Hit Dice (10), Nature Knowledge: May learn Spells from Druid List, but only spells chosen are considered to be on the Sorceror’s Spell List (5), Draconic Knowledge: May learn Spells from the Wizard List, but only spells chosen are considered to be on the Sorceror’s Spell List (5), Natural Meta Magic (20): The sorcerer automatically gains access to all Meta Magic Feats. These feats can only be used on Sorceror spells. The Sorceror must still purchase any meta magic feat that are a prerequisite for a Prestige Class. Furthermore, spells modified with Natural Meta Magic Feats cannot be prepared via the Arcane Preparation Feat.

* All Martial Weapons cannot be chosen if the Sorceror has substituted Simple Weapon Proficiencies.

Wizard
Wizard Tweaks
Substitutable Abilities: Bonus Feats (40), Familiar (15), Scribe Scroll (10)
Tweaks: 3 Skill Points (5) or 4 Skill Points (10)or 6 Skill Points (30) or 8 Skill Points (45), Weapon Proficiencies: Individual (1), or All Simple (10), or All Simple and Martial (25), D6 Hit Dice (10), Studious Magician*: See Table 1-1 (50)

* Although (8) Feats should cost 80 points, the price is reduced because the feats gained are a fixed, and are gained one level after they could be used.

The Wizard gains Meta Magic Feats as detailed on Table 1-1.
Table 1-1 Wizard Meta Magic Feat Progression
Level Feats Gained
4 Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, Heighten Spell, Silent Spell, Still Spell
6 Empower
8 Maximize
10 Quicken

 

[MadScientist]

Very cool idea! I just skimmed through it but overall I like it. You may need to tweak the costs of some things though for balance. Just on a first look natural meta magic seems much more worth while to a Sorcerer than a familiar and simple weapon proficiencies, for example (of course IMO the sorcerer class could use a little boost anyway.) Perhaps if the meta magic feats were given once very 4 levels (like bonus feats) instead of all at once.

 

[sinmissing]

Just on a first look natural meta magic seems much more worth while to a Sorcerer than a familiar and simple weapon proficiencies, for example (of course IMO the sorcerer class could use a little boost anyway.) Perhaps if the meta magic feats were given once very 4 levels (like bonus feats) instead of all at once.

Thanks for the feedback!

Agreed. The cost seems to be very cheap, but let me point out that getting all the feats at once does not allow you to use them all at once. Consider for a moment that Stilled Spell can't be used until the caster is 4th Level, then you realize that the bonus has its own control on its effectiveness. By restricting the feats to Sorceror spells only, not allowing them to fill a prerequisite for PRC, and also restricting their use in combination with Arcane Preparation, I think I may have balanced the bonus well. I'm not entirely certain though.

One idea: I could take away all of the Sorceror's weapon proficiencies. What do you think about that?

My only concern at the moment is that barbarians can give up rage and fast movement to take wild shape, while still keeping DR. I don't like this. I wanted the abilities to cost the same across the board, but I'm not sure what to do here. I am sort of unwilling to do remove Fast Movement as a substitutable ability, but I may have to in order to keep things balanced.

 

[Nine Hands]

Interesting. It looks like Skills and Powers (a second Editon book for customizing characters) without the disadvanges.

I may never use it in my campaign, but its a pretty good idea

 

[jmucchiello]

See my sig. It's coming. I use a very different mechanic but it does allow barbarians to get wild shape or sorcerers with sneak attack.

 

[Centaur]

Looks kinda neat, I may use these as an option in my game.

Something I have considered for my game was to beef up the Rangers Favoured enemy ability a little. Currently, I don't think the favoured enemy ability is worth the time to track.

What I have considered doing is allowing the +1 modifer each time it is gained to be applied as a threat Modifier when attacking the favoured enemy.

The +1 could either be used to increase the threat range by one point (19-20 for longsword becomes 18-20) for the favoured enemy. OR the damage multipler could be increased by one (x2 for longsword becomes x3) for the FE.

The modifer is set at the time it is taken and applies to all weapons that the ranger uses but only against his favoured enemy. This mean that if the ranger uses is first two FE bonus against the same creature type, he could increase the base threat range by 2, the multiplier by 2 or each by 1. It would work for all weapons against the FE.

I was also thinking of changing it from 1,5,10,15,20 to 1,4,8,12,16,20.

Just a thought.

 

[Nine Hands]

See my sig. It's coming. I use a very different mechanic but it does allow barbarians to get wild shape or sorcerers with sneak attack.

Will it be for 3.5, 3.0 or both?

 

[jmucchiello]

Will it be for 3.5, 3.0 or both?

3.0 only. It should have come out 3 months ago. Several things in 3.5 make parts of it, how shall I say this, insufficient. My take on customizing the ranger is part of 3.5 in a different way. Basically, I will put this out before 3.5 hits shelves and then I'll scurry to update it by August with 3.5 changes, trying to minimize the time where I'm an edition behind the times. (Upgrade will be free for purchasers of the older version.)

I don't have access to the 3.5 material and only know as much about it as the rumor mill spits out. And 3 out of 5 rumors involving classes just make me go "No! Dagnabbit! I wrote that 3 months ago!" But that's just my personal heck.

Thanks for the interest

 

[Steverooo]

Multiclassing Problems

Well, I can see some problems, right off... With the Barbarian, you need to limit abilities gained from passing on DR to being gained at the same level as DR would have been, like you did with the Ranger's powers being invoked at 4th. Otherwise, I could take one level of Barbarian for my Ranger (to get the Fast Movement), give up the Rage once/day and the DR that I'll never get, and pick up some cool new abilities, basically for "free".

Also, on the Ranger, how does the Sneak Attack work? Begins at 4th level as a first-level Rogue, then advances as a Rogue of Level-3?

And what about "stacking" problems? Suppose I take Barbarian, lose Rage and DR, and take Track, then become a Ranger and get it, again. Do I get anything for it? Suppose you have a Barbarian/Cleric who takes Rage as the Cleric, too. Does her number of uses/day double? And if a Ranger/Rogue shifts spells for Sneak Attack, how many dice damage do they get, anyway? ("Can you say 'OUCH!', boys and girls? Sure you can... I knew you could!") Things like that...

 

[jmucchiello]

Re: Multiclassing Problems

Well, I can see some problems, right off... With the Barbarian, you need to limit abilities gained from passing on DR to being gained at the same level as DR would have been, like you did with the Ranger's powers being invoked at 4th. Otherwise, I could take one level of Barbarian for my Ranger (to get the Fast Movement), give up the Rage once/day and the DR that I'll never get, and pick up some cool new abilities, basically for "free".

Also, on the Ranger, how does the Sneak Attack work? Begins at 4th level as a first-level Rogue, then advances as a Rogue of Level-3?

And what about "stacking" problems? Suppose I take Barbarian, lose Rage and DR, and take Track, then become a Ranger and get it, again. Do I get anything for it? Suppose you have a Barbarian/Cleric who takes Rage as the Cleric, too. Does her number of uses/day double? And if a Ranger/Rogue shifts spells for Sneak Attack, how many dice damage do they get, anyway? ("Can you say 'OUCH!', boys and girls? Sure you can... I knew you could!") Things like that...

I did put some thought about this. Buy the book.

Bbn/Clr both with rage works like standard bbn/rog and Uncanny Dodge: The levels stack to determine when the abilities are gained. Likewise, multiclassing takes an XP Penalty. You are supposed to create the class you want to follow to the end.

Finally, altered classes are never favored classes. Thus a rogue with the druid's wild shape ability is not the favored class of a halfling.