Classy Classes
Part II
July 11th, 2011
Last time on Dark Designs, we had started making a new Races with Class class for the kyton, with me stopping to demonstrate why things were done the way they were and generally show you what goes into the creation of such a class. By the time we’d finished, we’d laid out all the things we needed to add to the class, and determined that we were going to do so in 10 levels.
Here’s an “empty” version of the class table we’ll be working with:
According to our plan (eight hit dice over ten levels) we’re going to need two levels without an increase in hit dice. These should be relatively evenly spread out. I’m partial to 3rd and 7th, personally, though I think 3rd and 6th would be equally valid. Some might suggest that 5th and 10th seem obvious, but this doesn’t really spread them evenly through the class: 5th is five away from the first level, but 10th actually is the last level. Further, having one on the last level is going to make the last level seem really disappointing, which is just about the opposite of what we want. 3rd and 7th get us pretty close to even from both the first and last level, and about the same distance between them, as well. Now that that’s decided, the table fills out a bit more:
Now we just need to start taking items from our list above, and putting them in our table. I like to start with the things that feel, flavorfully, as something that is inherent to the creature. For example, it would be weird to have a kyton start out as anything but an outsider, and since that outsider status doesn’t grant that much, I typically like to give it out at first level.
Of course, if we had to list “Outsider type, evil subtype, extraplanar subtype, kyton subtype, lawful subtype” in the list, it’d take up a whole lot of room. Instead, I like to group these sorts of things together and come up with a title that covers the whole effect, which is treated as a single class feature. In this case, I think I’ll go with “hellspawn.” The chain armor also seems like a good thing to give out at first level, so let’s put that here, too.
Before I forget, let’s deal with the kyton’s natural armor. He gets +4 and has eight hit dice, so let’s just say one per two hit dice. Most likely, that’ll give him +9 at 20th level, which will leave him pretty heavily armored, especially in conjunction with his chain armor ability, so that’s something we might want to keep an eye on.
Next, let’s deal with the regeneration, the DR, and the SR, because those are going to be some of the “big hitters” for our class here. The SR seems like it should increase as the kyton goes up in levels (though, it’s odd that its SR is 17 instead of 18 or 19, since it has eight hit dice, indicating that it’s either an arbitrary number or the kyton’s SR is equal to 9 + it’s hit dice), because otherwise it will very quickly become useless. The exact rate is a little tricky, but I think that 9 + hit dice is probably the best we’re going to get without breaking the rule that at the end of the 10 levels the class should grant all the same things as a normal kyton. On the other hand, 9 + hit dice is weird, and we may wind up taking some liberties with the dancing chains ability, so let’s call it an even 10 + hit dice. Why don’t we throw that in somewhere around the middle, say, 5th level? Even if it scales with hit dice, SR isn’t something we really want to throw in at first level.
The regeneration we’ll want to split in two: the first time the kyton gets it it’ll be regeneration 1, and the second time it’ll be regeneration 2. This serves two purposes: one, spreading it out helps minimize dead levels, and two, regeneration 0 to regeneration 1 is shock enough, especially at relatively low levels. A major goal here is to avoid major spikes (or lengthy plateaus) in the class’s overall power level. 3rd and 7th level will already be hurting from a lack of hit dice, so let’s put these there. This is a little earlier than I normally would put the regeneration, but it’s only a level or two, and it’ll keep those levels strong.
Next, the damage reduction. If there was a good place for it, I would consider having the relatively weak “5/good or silver” be a single leap, but there’s no level that really screams for it, and we could split it in two by having it start as DR/magic. 4th and 8th levels seem good. Finally, we’ll throw in the cold immunity (split into resistance 10, and then immunity). Now our table looks something like this:
Now it’s time to look at the class’s offensive abilities. These include the dancing chains, the unnerving gaze, and, though not technically an ability for the kyton, we’ll need to address the ability to make four attacks at the character’s full base attack bonus.
The easiest of these to deal with is unnerving gaze, which isn’t very powerful and can be thrown in just about anywhere. Second level looks kind of lonely, so we’ll put it there for now.
Next up is dancing chains. This ability feels like something we can split into two or three different abilities, which increase in power as the kyton levels up. These lesser versions will need names, something that won’t upstage “dancing chains,” which we’ll probably grant at 10th level. We can call these “influence chains,” “writhing chains,” and, of course, “dancing chains,” respectively.
Finally, we need a way of giving the kyton all those attacks. Since we need to hand out three attacks in 10 levels, we’ll probably need to start relatively early: let’s do one at 3rd, one at 6th, and one at 9th (since 6th and 9th currently have holes). As a class feature, it’ll need a name. For now, we’ll call it “chain warrior,” though we may want to change that later. Let’s see how that looks.
That looks pretty good, but something’s bothering me: now that the class is starting to take better shape, I don’t really like having our regeneration before our DR. It seems backwards. The DR is almost as powerful as the regeneration, so it should keep those levels from feeling dead, and, on top of that, both of those levels now have the cold resistance/immunity to boot. Let’s switch those.
Also, we’ll need to add the “ascension” class feature at 10th level.
Oh, I almost forgot! We also need to include those ability score bonuses. Generally, I find that it’s best to spread these out, rather than clump them all in one place (especially if that place is the beginning), and generally I try to match ability score bonuses with class features that either mechanically or flavorfully are appropriate, so, for example, that +2 Charisma would go pretty well alongside unnerving gaze.
Much better. Now that we’ve got our class all laid out, it’s time to start turning those class feature outlines into fully-fledged class features. Usually there’s not much to this for the first half of the class, but in this in particular case, it will probably have some interesting twists and turns, which we’ll have to deal with in a couple of weeks, because we’re unfortunately out of time for today. Tune in next week for devil week, and be back here in two when we continue our epic kyton-related saga.