The Gaming Den

You probably want something like:

"A Friend of All Men: When you're awesome to people, people tend to be awesome right back--this is doubly true for a Doctor who doesn't mind rolling up the sleeves and pitching in. You get a +1 bonus per character level to Diplomacy and the local people in the areas where they reside longer than a week treat them at a minimum of friendly attitude."

"Go Native: What most people don't remember is that 'doctor' means 'teacher'. But before you can teach, you must learn, so a good teacher is an eternal student. A Doctor gets the hang of doing as the local do fairly quickly, picking up customs and lore. This has a side effect of keeping him competent in all the different kinds of trades, allowing levels of Doctor to count as levels of another knowledge-based/mystical class for the purpose of spellcasting, as long as the levels of the class don't exceed levels of Doctor. He also gets free max ranks in the local handicrafts, such as pottery, basket weaving, leathermaking, whatever."

"Field Practictioner: Nothing helps you learn how to get results like getting it done under bad conditions. As a result, a the effects of any healing or beneficial effect a Doctor may provide are doubled--including the results of rolling for healing. So, if a Doctor brewed a potion of Cure Light Wounds, roll the dice then double the result for the final total of healing. Likewise, if a Doctor acquires an ability to give allies a +2 morale bonus, it is now a +4 morale bonus. This extends to class features, but not spells, gained from other classes."

That's a starting point at least.

Instead of doing wonky things where it counts as levels in a different spellcasting class for no god damn reason, why don't you make doctor a prestige class?

Given the source material, I'm assuming that it's desirable for low-level characters to be Doctors, so a prestige class might be problematic.

If I were designing a Doctor class that synergized with Witch, I'd take inspiration from the Conduit's capstone ability and write a 5 level sneak attacker / healer that gained Witch magic at its last level. You'd then multiclass into Witch, and you'd be a full caster with alternate Class Features for the first 5 levels.

I could probably hack something together, though I'll admit to not being familiar with any of the source material - Africa has never really interested me that much. About the closest I could draw from would be reading the ___ Adventure series in grade 4, where in one of them they do go to Africa and there is a weird Leopard Cult thing that uses witchdoctors and poison and sacrifices leopards.

I mean, if someone said "I want a doctor class" without context, I'd probably give them skill-based healing, alchemy, something related to Criticals/Augmentation, an ability called "It's Never Lupus" and resistance to Divine Magic, because they believe in science and the real world, not all this mystical sky fairy ooglyboo stuff (even in a world where the gods throw rocks through your windows).

I take it you want less of a doctor, more of a tribal healer thing that happens to synergise with the Witch but still allow for a Witch/Doctor multiclass?

Incidentally, could one of the more critical people glance over the feats and tell me where I fucked up? That was a whole bunch, so I wouldn't be surprised if some things ended up too good or kind of naff or "Um, X doesn't work this way".

Josh_Kablack wrote: Plus Spirit Shaman is already in the game, and fairly well-integrated into the setting. It is not getting renamed.

I was going to recommend this too. OK, I will anyway. It's pretty much a Druid/Cleric that only knows protections, astral-oriented stuff, and some elemental. No Turn Undead. No Wild Shape. I think they can See Invisible.

Maxus's abilities do have the general flavor of what I'd like

Bad puns aside, there is an actual adventuring Doctor/Professor archetype that shows up in source material - it's basically the guy who knows stuff, learns stuff and generally wants to learn more and/or help people. My examples were the real-world missionary, Dr. David Livingston - (most famous for Stanley's "Dr. Livingston I presume" quot); the main character in Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days (although really Verne's work is full of guys like this), and the father character in HR Hagard's She. And C'mon, I know you Aussies do everything backwards, but you gotta know who Professor Jones is.

If I had to build that sort of guy out of core 3.x classes, it would be somewhere between a rogue who trades sneak attack for bardic knowledge and tongues and maybe Use Magic Device bonuses or something bardlike with different flavor (no singing) and some swapped spells (more breaking curses, dispelling ancient magics and seeing through superstition, less enchantment, trickery and music). But going that route doesn't help set up the bad pun through synergy with Koumei's witch.

That's why I wrote Field Practictioner. The Witch can get a lot of things like...brew potion and some classes features which give bonuses, I recall.

I know *of* Doctor Livingstone, but no actual exploits. And right, Indiana Jones... which I seriously never watched. I mean, I know it involves whips, so you'd think I'd watch it...

Anyway, so something like the following? (Abilities to be written out properly if this is what you're after)

The Doctor

"If you're not joking about the spellcasting I will murder your family" - an actual Doctor

Doctors make everything better, with their sharp things and their poisons and their knowledges of said poisons. They know how the body works, so they can keep it working. Or if villainous, they can stop it from working.

Alignment: most Doctors do what they do so they can be an active force of Good, but this isn't actually necessary
Races: races with hands, the more the better
Starting Age: like a Wizard
Starting Gold: like a Cleric

Hit Dice: 1d6
Base Attack Bonus: Medium
Good Saves: Fortitude
Skill Points: 6+Int

Class Skills: Appraise, Bluff, Concentrate, Craft (Alchemy), Decipher Script, Diplomancy, Disable Device, Forgery, Gather Information, Heal*, Intimidate, Knowledge (Any), Listen, Search, Sense Motive, Spot, Use Magic Device
*The Doctor automatically has Maximum ranks in Heal, even if he doesn't want to.

Proficiencies: Simple weapons, the Dire Syringe and the Scalpel, as well as Light Armour.

Sidebar: the Scalpel
Light Martial weapon
Costs 15GP
1d3 Slashing (Medium), Critical 16-20/x2
A critical hit also results in a single point of Constitution Damage through bloodloss.

Level:	Special:	Remedies:
1	Remedies	Minor Salve, Lotion
2	Deathwatch, People Person	Deep Heat, Burn Salve
3	Sneak Attack +1d6, Used To It	Special Medicine
4	He's Not Quite Dead	Booster Shot
5	The Doctor Is IN!	Epi-Pen
6	Sneak Attack +2d6, Fast Learner	Antidote
7	It's Never Lupus	Amazing Medicine
8	Saviour	Tranq, Happy Pills
9	Sneak Attack +3d6	Nose Candy
10	SCIENCE!	Life Saver, The Good Stuff

Class Features:

Remedies (Ex): level 1, ability to make potionlike things, also you can Brew Potions as the feat, using your Class Level as your Caster Level, and don't even have to know the spells or have them handy. Maximum spell level is half your level (round up), up to the usual limit for potions.

Deathwatch (Su): level 2. as per the spell, always on

People Person (Ex): level 2, bonus on Sense Motive, Bluff and Diplomancy

Sneak Attack (Ex): levels 3 6 9, like a Rogue, Slashing/Piercing only

Used To It (Ex): level 3, immune to Disease

He's Not Quite Dead (Su): level 4, revive someone who died within 1 round

The Doctor Is IN! (Ex): level 5, boost all healing done

Fast Learner (Ex): level 6, gain knowledges and stuff

It's Never Lupus (Ex): level 7, Remedies grant 24 hours of immunity to Disease

Saviour (Su): level 8, aura of immunities and Fast Healing, annoy deities

SCIENCE! (Ex): level 10, gain 7-8 levels of non-Divine casting, gain SR lvl+8 against Divine magic

Remedies:

Minor Salve 1 (Cure Light)
Lotion 1 (1d6 Temporary HP & remove 2d6 Nonlethal)
Deep Heat 2 (resist Cold, +4 against Fatigue)
Burn Salve 2 (resist Heat)
Special Medicine 3 (Cure Moderate)
Booster Shot 4 (extra save at +4 against Disease, remove Ability Damage)
Epi-Pen 5 (Rage, followed by Exhaustion)
Antidote 6 (remove Poison)
Amazing Medicine 7 (Cure Critical)
Tranq 8 (Sleep)
Happy Pills 8 (Good Hope + remove all Morale penalties)
Nose Candy 9 (Haste, Temp HP and Immune: non-lethal, -6 Int Penalty)
Life Saver 10 (actually restore the dead back to life)
The Good Stuff 10 (make potions of any spells known, even above the level caps)

You should give them Brew Potions, and the Item Creation ability of Artificers and Warlocks that lets them emulate any spell for crafting.

sigma999 wrote:You should give them Brew Potions, and the Item Creation ability of Artificers and Warlocks that lets them emulate any spell for crafting.

look at the abilities

Prak_Anima wrote: look at the abilities

It's not the same. Remedies are severely limited in comparison.

sigma999 wrote:

Prak_Anima wrote: look at the abilities

It's not the same. Remedies are severely limited in comparison.

Koumei wrote:The Good Stuff 10 (make potions of any spells known, even above the level caps)

edit: I just caught the "Spells Known" caveat.

Okay, one of my players wants a Tome-style Ranger. I mentioned that Ranger could mean a number of things, so we talked and came up with a list of goals:

• Dex+Wis-based warrior-type.
• Archer combat focus. Scout noncombat focus.
• Spontaneous nature caster, small # of spells known picked from a modest list.
• Some sort of Swift-action shenanigans like most of the other Tome warriors.

If anyone wants to take a shot at that, I'd appreciate it. The class can end at level 10, because the game's certainly going to.

And I see Koumei updated, kthxbai

Yeah, I was totally going to post saying that, but I forgot and wandered off to take the dog for AFTERNOONIES, IT'S THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER, OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY WE'RE GOING FOR AFTERNOONIES.

FrankTrollman wrote:
Armor and Weapon Proficiencies: The Mechanus Warrior is proficient with light, medium, and heavy armor, a well as with shields, tower shields, Mechanus Armor, Golem Armor, and Omega Armor.

What the heck does Omega armor do?

Klaatu Verada Necktie!

HAHAHA, THE THREAD LIVES ONCE MORE!

Er. Never mind.

So I've been entertaining the idea of a D&D game that's a bit steampunk-ish (what with that being the new in-thing), with weird alchemists and gadgeteers and shit. One of the key things is limiting the classes, and pretty much limiting them mostly to a bunch of the more out-there Den-made ones.

Though with actual ties to some of the planes (Mechanus where people "steal" technology from, and the Fire plane which is the new Hell, with Efreeti and Salamanders going around enslaving people to work Lavabronze in their fiery forges). A little bit Iron Kingdoms-ish, except without wargame-tie-ins, a retarded fanbase, a contradictory setting, classes that are total ass, and being affiliated with PP.

So there would be:
[*]Rogues, I guess, because people tend to like playing them - or maybe a Full BAB Thief-Acrobat?
[*]The Alchemist (my recent invention which shares the name and the thematic idea of some abilities with the PF one. That is all)
[*]The Gadgeteer (I think I toned it down to sensible in the "Re-doing my classes" thread?)
[*]The Mechanus-Knight Frank did in this thread
[*]The Bio-Spark (ditto). Hilariously missing a Hit Die, so I'm going to hazard a guess at d10. Whatever. Doesn't need post-10th abilities added because seriously.
[*]The Gun Mage (link to it in this thread somewhere)
[*]The Soldier
[*]The Totemist (yeah, for actual magic, your choices are largely this and Gun Mage)

But there should also be a guy who uses guns and is awesome at it even at high levels, without casting spells through them, by just having class features that are awesome and happen to use guns. Am I better off just saying "Use Soldier, fire guns" or could someone make a decent Gunner class?

Also, there might be mecha as a higher level thing (so, Prestige Class territory). Mostly I'm stumped on the best way to handle mecha/giant robots/pilotable golems. Someone have an idea on how to best make it workable, and thus the prestige class that lets you stomp around in one?

While a bit afraid of posting in a thread that still reeks of the grave, I'd love to see a functional blue mage base class. I'm not even sure why, it would be a potential nightmare to balance and it'd have a much worse version of the ranger's favored enemy problem. But I loved having them in party in FF.

The Totemist basically covers that.

Int based sorceror with class features supporting necromancy and diabolism.

Koumei wrote:The Totemist basically covers that.

"But they don't come with a blue turban!"

Anyways. Having read Dragonmech, played it (a couple of times), and made my own mech on it:
I can say the easiest way would be to have individual mechs have a CR so it can become character replacement.

Or at the most complicated level, several mech chassis (large to start with, various sizes, even past Bigmcfuckenlargehuge, with "This chassis can pick from THIS list of features/weapons/gizmos). And while giant walkers are cool, they get used to exclusion of rolling tanks or spider-legged things and those things are cool, too.

So characters go "I see it's a Tirnog mech with a back-mounted cannon. I don't recognize the gun it's carrying, but it looks like a kinda of boltmaker...And the jointwork looks reinforced. Probably faster than your average Tirnog."

Question, Re: Mechanus Warrior

I am playing this class in a game and the question comes up as to whether the level 4 Vision Enhancement Class feature See in Darkness is meant to mean see in magical darkness or whether it just means darkvision with unlimited range.

Seeing as how he italicized other spells or conditions it would seem to me that Frank intended it to see in magical darkness but since there is no spell 'see in darkness' my DM is ruling it applies to only regular darkness....this seems lame to me as a level 4 class feature, especially given Tome standards, and if Frank meant Darkvision I would have thought he would have stated the class feature as Darkvision.

Does anyone have a way to reach Frank more directly? My DM tried to contact him but got no reply, so he is ruling against me. I'm going to PM Frank myself for an appeal but if anyone else has any insight that might help my DM be sensible it would be greatly appreciated.

Or...am I wrong and it really was just supposed to be Darkvision? I think we can all agree that Frank's post was pretty much shot from the hip...

I'd like to see a Warmage fix that The Den won't bitch about. No one agrees on the proper amount of evocation damage here. Ever.

I just want to be a multi-elemental blaster mage like FF style Black Mage with the hat n shit. At-wills or a mana pool are a must.

I wouldn't dare make it myself, after my "Bloodied condition" thread turned into arguments about beating people into rape sessions.

Thistledown wrote:Question, Re: Mechanus Warrior

I am playing this class in a game and the question comes up as to whether the level 4 Vision Enhancement Class feature See in Darkness is meant to mean see in magical darkness or whether it just means darkvision with unlimited range.

Seeing as how he italicized other spells or conditions it would seem to me that Frank intended it to see in magical darkness but since there is no spell 'see in darkness' my DM is ruling it applies to only regular darkness....this seems lame to me as a level 4 class feature, especially given Tome standards, and if Frank meant Darkvision I would have thought he would have stated the class feature as Darkvision.

Does anyone have a way to reach Frank more directly? My DM tried to contact him but got no reply, so he is ruling against me. I'm going to PM Frank myself for an appeal but if anyone else has any insight that might help my DM be sensible it would be greatly appreciated.

Or...am I wrong and it really was just supposed to be Darkvision? I think we can all agree that Frank's post was pretty much shot from the hip...

See in Darkness is the same as the racial ability of Devils, which explicitly allows them to see through magical darkness.
EDIT:

See in Darkness (Su): Some devils can see perfectly in darkness of any kind, even that created by a deeper darkness spell.

Thank you kindly!