The Goblin King Prestige Class

August 27th, 2010

Welcome again to From the Workshop, where we showcase a bevy of new magic items, monsters, and even alternate class features. This week, in honor of the release of our adventure the War of the Goblin King, I have created a prestige class that is a must for any would-be goblin king.

Goblin King

Goblin kings are the proud leaders of goblinkind, raising their kin up from the squalor heaped upon them by the “civilized” races.

While nearly any class is capable of becoming a goblin king, barbarians suit the part more than any other, due to how well their rage ability compliments the war dance.

Role: The goblin king takes a role of support, whipping his followers into a frenzied state. Most goblin kings are content to let their follower do all of the work.

Alignment: Due to the fact that to become king of the goblins, you must assassinate the previous king, most goblin kings are evil-aligned.
Hit Die: d8.

Requirements

To qualify to become a goblin king, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Race: Any goblinoid or goblin-like race (barghest, bugbear, goblin, and hobgoblin are just a few examples of potential goblin kings).
Feats: Leadership
Skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate 7 ranks.
Special: The character must kill the previous goblin king and become the new leader of that goblin tribe.

Class Skills
The goblin king's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis).
Skill Ranks at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+0	+0	+0	+1	Goblin leadership, war dance, trap sense +1
2nd	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1 save bonus against poison, frenzy power
3rd	+2	+1	+1	+2	Competent followers
4th	+3	+1	+1	+2	+2 save bonus against poison, frenzy power, trap sense +2
5th	+3	+2	+2	+3	Greater war dance, uncanny dodge
6th	+4	+2	+2	+3	+3 save bonus against poison, frenzy power
7th	+5	+2	+2	+4	Trap sense +3
8th	+6	+3	+3	+4	+4 save bonus against poison, frenzy power
9th	+6	+3	+3	+5	Devoted Champion
10th	+7	+3	+3	+5	+5 save bonus against poison, frenzied zeal, trap sense +4

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the goblin king prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Goblin kings gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Goblin Leadership: At 1st level, for the purposes of attracting a goblinoid cohort and goblinoid followers a goblin king no longer receives penalties to his leadership score due to his reputation or having caused the death of followers. In addition, a goblin king receives a bonus to his leadership score equal 1/2 his goblin king class levels (minimum +1).

War Dance (Su): A goblin king can perform a war dance that causes all goblins of his tribe (other than himself) that can hear and see him to be whipped into a frenzied state. A goblin war dance isn’t so much a dance as a lot of jumping and shouting. Whipping his followers into a frenzied state is a standard action, but it can be maintained each round as a move action. This frenzied performance cannot be disrupted, but it ends immediately if the goblin king is killed, paralyzed, stunned, knocked unconscious, fails his Constitution check to maintain the war dance, or is otherwise prevented from taking a move action to maintain it each round. Each round after the first, the goblin king must make a Constitution check (DC 10 +2 per pervious successful check). If the goblin king fails the check the war dance ends, the goblin king becomes fatigued for a number of minutes equal to the number of rounds spent in performing the war dance, and the effects of the frenzy immediately end.

After ending a war dance, a goblin king is fatigued for a number of rounds equal to 2 times the number of rounds spent in performing the war dance. A goblin king cannot start a new war dance while fatigued or exhausted, but can otherwise war dance multiple times during a single encounter or combat.

At 1st level, this frenzy functions just like a barbarian’s rage ability, except its duration is determined by how long the goblin king maintains his war chant and the goblins under the effects of the frenzy aren’t fatigued when the frenzy ends.

Trap Sense (Ex): At 1st level, the goblin king gains a +1 bonus on Reflex saves made to avoid traps and a +1 dodge bonus to Armor Class against attacks made by traps. These bonuses increase by +1 every three goblin king levels thereafter (4th, 7th, and 10th). Trap sense bonuses gained from multiple classes stack.

Save Bonus against Poison: At 2nd level, the goblin king gains a +1 saving throw bonus against poisons. This bonus increases by +1 every two levels.

Frenzy Powers: As a goblin king levels up, he can learn frenzy powers. This functions identically to a barbarian’s rage power ability, and the powers are chosen from the same list, but frenzy powers are granted to goblins affected by his war dance. If the goblin king has the barbarian rage ability, he can also use his frenzy powers as though they were rage powers, granting them to himself while raging. Additionally, if the goblin king already has rage powers from another source, he may substitute his rage powers in place of his frenzy powers, though he can never grant a total number of combined rage and frenzy powers through a single war dance than the number of frenzy powers he knows. Starting at 2nd level, the goblin king gains a frenzy power. He gains another frenzy power at 4th, 6th, and 8th level.

Competent Followers: At 3rd level, the goblin king becomes better able to weed out weakness in his followers. The followers granted by the leadership are no longer limited to having levels in NPC classes; the goblin king may now attract followers with levels in PC classes. A level 1 warrior still takes up the same 1st level follower spot as the 1st level fighter now takes.

Greater War Dance (Su): At 5th level, the frenzy granted by his war dance ability improves to now function like the barbarian greater rage ability.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 5th level, a goblin king gains the ability to react to danger before his senses would normally allow him to do so. He cannot be caught flat-footed, even if the attacker is invisible. He still loses his Dexterity bonus to Armor Class if immobilized. A goblin king with this ability can still lose his Dexterity bonus to Armor Class if an opponent successfully uses the feint action against him.
If a goblin king already has uncanny dodge from a different class, he automatically gains improved uncanny dodge (see below) instead.

Devoted Champion: At 9th level, the goblin king has fewer restrictions on who he can recruit as his cohort, and his cohort can become more powerful. The goblin king may have a cohort whose alignment is opposed to his alignment on either the law/chaos or good/evil axis, but will take a –2 penalty to his leadership score to do so, and may recruit a cohort of an alignment that is different from (but not opposed to) his own without penalty. In addition, you can now recruit a cohort who is one or more levels lower than yourself, rather than two or more levels lower than yourself. A goblin king’s devoted champion will gladly die to protect his king.

Frenzied Zeal: At 10th level, the goblin king’s war dance not only makes his followers stronger and more durable, it makes them much faster. All goblins under the effects of the war dance frenzy are now affected as if under the effects of the haste spell, in addition to the previous benefits granted by the frenzy.