The Gaming Den

Maxus wrote:Where can I find Evil Brand?

Originally it was in the Book of Vile Darkness. It may have been reprinted in one of the Fiendish Codexes (Codi? Codices?).

The plural of Codex is Codices. Or Codexes, we are English speakers.

-Username17

It got reprinted in FC1.

Basically you're marked as a servant of evil (which doesn't necessarily reveal your patron's identity) and, because other evil creatures recognize this sign as one showing you depravity, dedication, evil-cred, whatever, you get +2 to diplomacy and intimidate.

Maxus wrote:Where can I find Evil Brand?

Fiendish codex 2. It basically does nothing, so is just a feat tax for other things. I think it gives +1 to a single roll 1/day (chosen before you roll it of course).

Oops, mixed it up with the other brand feat. In any case, the feat is useless shouldn't be used as a prereq.

you're thinking of a completely different feat, Ubernoob, probably Devil's Favour, which is still better than what you say it does, +2 on a save, attack or check usable a number of times per day equal to the number of Devil-touched feats you have.

Evil Brand isn't being used as a prereq, but Devil's Favour is. I may change it to Brand of the Nine Hells, more useful, but it's prereqs make it impossible for this class to be used as intended (LE, devil)

Prak_Anima wrote:you're thinking of a completely different feat, Ubernoob, probably Devil's Favour, which is still better than what you say it does, +2 on a save, attack or check usable a number of times per day equal to the number of Devil-touched feats you have.

Evil Brand isn't being used as a prereq, but Devil's Favour is. I may change it to Brand of the Nine Hells, more useful, but it's prereqs make it impossible for this class to be used as intended (LE, devil)

In any case, negotiator, but different should not be a requirement for a TOME level class. Just take out the feat and require some ranks in knowledge(planar) or whatever the fuck. A lot of level ten characters only have 4 feats total. Spending 25% of your feats to get into a not spectacular prestige class is a kick in the nuts.

Requirements wrote: feats: Devil's Favour

Class Abilities wrote: The Contract: Once a year, the Hell Rider must track down a bounty for his fiendish patron. In addition to capture of a person, this bounty can take many other forms. It can be assassination, recovery of an item, destruction of an item to keep it from enemies, or any single service, really. Usually this service is one that requires the Hell Rider's personal abilities, and is seldom (but occasionally) frivolous, as the patron can only do this once per year.
This ability functions as the feat Evil Brand at all times, and while pursuing a bounty, no devil of lesser rank than the Hell Rider's master may interfere with the task.

again, "Negotiator, but different" isn't a requirement, you're getting it as a bonus feat in the first level, because my last idea of "Pledge of Loyalty, but different" made little to no damned sense.

I'm requiring "Someone owns your soul, so you can scrounge up that extra +2 you might need X times per day," but more in it's capacity of "A Fucking Devil* owns your god-damned soul," than "+2 whocares/day"



*yes, a Fucking Devil, the class is now dedicated to Belial, or whoever the wincest devil lord was... alternately, you may be a hell rider of his daughter, Fierna.

Prak_Anima wrote: Requirements
skills: Ride or Drive 9r, Kn (the Planes) 6r
feats: Devil's Favour

Am I missing something? You totally require a shitty feat to enter the class. And don't tell me that hellbred get the feat by taking the body aspact so it isn't a feat tax. Either explicitly require it to be a hellbred (so they aren't locked into one aspect) or take away the shitty feat prereq.

It's not that shitty a feat in my opinion. But whether I get rid of that feat or not, there's going to be a "you made a pact with a devil" feat as a prerequisite, gimme a bit to work something up. I was focusing on making a class and didn't want to write up a feat, but I'll figure something out.

Prak_Anima wrote:It's not that shitty a feat in my opinion. But whether I get rid of that feat or not, there's going to be a "you made a pact with a devil" feat as a prerequisite, gimme a bit to work something up. I was focusing on making a class and didn't want to write up a feat, but I'll figure something out.

Special: [Story thing in flavor with class] is totally fine. Requiring shitty uber specific feats is not. Remember, feats that people actually care about are things like blitz or elusive target or extend spell.

started writing up a scaling feat, based on the Brand of the Nine Hells and Mark of feats, tell me how it looks at this point:

Damned soul [Aura]
You've made a contract with a devil, damning your soul to hell. But really, as long as you're good at being bad, you're just getting rewarded twice.
This feat scales to your evil magnitude.
Granted Benefit: You have an evil aura as a cleric of your hit die-2. Also, you can see through magical and mundane darkness.
Minor: You gain fire resistance 5 per Evil Magnitude (5 at minor, 10 at moderate, etc.)
Moderate: You are branded as serving one of the Lords of Nine. This brand essentially gives you a moderate magic item, either with natural attacks/touch, or an actual weapon with the cursed. Usually this is the effect of one moderate and one minor weapon or armour ability, tied to your body in the appropriate way. It may also, however, be tied to a physical weapon (if the moderate ability is Cursed) or may be usable on any weapon you pick up. Work with the DM to pick up an appropriate form for the brand to take based on who owns your soul.
Major: Your brand evolves, becoming more obvious and giving you more power. It now is more obvious, making it more difficult to hide, and gives you an appropriate bonus to an ability score and one other trait (armour, skill, etc.) Again, work with your DM
Vile: You have gained enough evil power that your master fucking loves you. When you die, you become a fiend of power equal to your level, bypassing all the normal shit you'd have to go through (you gain the feat Product of Infernal Dalliance when you die, and your type changes to the Outsider type after death). Generally your master will have some kind of task for you, but it may just be to continue adventuring with your old party, kill celestials, and try and damn your friends.
Also, in life, you gain the ability to summon fiends as if you were the appropriate type for your master's alignment. You may summon as a fiend of CR equal to or less than your own Character Level, gaining a +10% chance of success for every level your character level exceeds the CR of the fiend you're mimicing.

For example, a CE level 16 character can summon Tanar'ri as a Nalfeshnee, +20%: "Twice per day you can attempt to summon 1d4 vrocks, 1d4 hezrous, or one glabrezu with a 70% success chance, or a nalfeshnee with a 40% success chance". When he gained a level, he could summon as a marilith. Alternatively, he could summon as a succubus and gain a +90% success chance (at 16th level) or automatically summon as one at 17th level.

Evil Magnitude
Minor: A Bad Feeling- you've started being evil. You probably kick dogs and pull the wings and legs off of bugs. You also get an urge to beat and humiliate passing paladins, and do unsavoury things to attractive wenches in the taverns. You're free to act or not act on these urges as you wish. 1-5 HD evil aligned creature, 1-3 HD cleric of an evil god or evil aligned undead creature, 1 HD evil-subtyped outsider.
Moderate: A Lasting Evil- your evil has matured slightly, like the first few years of a fine whiskey. You've probably slaughtered a settlement or two of creatures that couldn't properly defend themselves from you, or killed trusting townsfolk. You probably follow through on the urge to beat paladins and corrupt fair young maidens on occasion, and likely have made some kind of contact with one greater evil or another. 6-10 HD evil aligned creature, 4-8 HD cleric of an evil god or evil aligned undead creature, 2-5 HD evil-subtyped outsider.
Major: A Great and Powerful Malevolence- you've probably raised or led undead armies to devour innocents, or slaughter their former comrades from life. You laugh at lesser demons and devils, and occasionally use them for your own pleasure. Minor evils ask you for your autograph, and you give it to them in their own blood. 11-15 HD evil aligned creature, 9-13 HD cleric of an evil god or undead, 6-10 HD evil-subtyped outsider.
Vile: Darkness Like The World Has Never Seen Before- Your footsteps wither the grass and salt the earth, your touch drains the goodness from small creatures, and paladins who scan you with detect evil tend to faint. You've probably committed genocide at least once, or been instrumental in the birth of an evil god, possibly yourself, and almost certainly murdered a legendary hero of light. 16+ HD evil creature, 14+ HD cleric of an evil god or undead, 11+ HD evil-subtyped outsider.

A creature has the same Lingering Effects of Evil as described in the entry for the italicized description for their magnitude in the Book of Vile Darkness, page 35.

Prak_Anima wrote:Damned soul [Aura]
Granted Benefit: You have an evil aura as a cleric of your hit die-2. Also, you can see through magical and mundane darkness.

What does this mean? Like Darkvision? 60ft? Or full blown See in Darkness?

Seriously?

It means you see in normal darkness, and magical darkness from spells like darkness. Like a devil.

What part of that isn't clear?

That is way too much fucking text for one feat. I don't even have to read it to tell you this falls under my 'requiring an uber specific feat' clause of stupid.

If you want to give some flavor class features to the class, just do that. Don't tie up shit in stupid prereqs.

If you're REALLY hardon for a fiend type feat, just use product of infernal dalliance since a lot of players take that anyways.

EDIT: You know, you're right, it's a five god damned level prestige class. It doesn't need the feat requirement.

I'd still like to know if the feat is balanced or if I need to go back and fix things before I put in more effects.

Prak_Anima wrote:It means you see in normal darkness, and magical darkness from spells like darkness. Like a devil.

What part of that isn't clear?

The part where it doesn't say "Like a Devil" anywhere, or specifically call out one of the 5 different methods for seeing in darkness?

But it says you see in magical and mundane darkness, that should pretty clearly spell out the ability. Is there a third kind of darkness of which I'm unaware?

Prak_Anima wrote:EDIT: You know, you're right, it's a five god damned level prestige class. It doesn't need the feat requirement.

I'd still like to know if the feat is balanced or if I need to go back and fix things before I put in more effects.

Cut the length down to something reasonable and then I'll look at it. As is, it should be vetoed in any game simply for making the DM read that much for a single god damn feat.

Prak_Anima wrote:But it says you see in magical and mundane darkness, that should pretty clearly spell out the ability. Is there a third kind of darkness of which I'm unaware?

There are different ways to see in darkness and magical darkness.

There is Darkvision, there is regular vision limited to a certain range.

It isn't entirely unclear whether this hypothetical character can see infinitely or is vision restricted, but it is undefined and only implied because the feat is obviously supposed to mimic devilness.

I think "See in Darkness, as a Devil" would be shorter and more clear.

..."You see through mundane and magical darkness"

this isn't a new sensory ability, you're seeing as if the darkness isn't there.

ok, edited the feat, it's not quite as long anymore.

Prak_Anima wrote:ok, edited the feat, it's not quite as long anymore.

Any feat that includes the words "Work with your DM" for the bonus from it is complete shit. Let me rewrite the feat for you.

Evil McEvil
You're a very bad man.
Benefit per character level:
1: You gain fire resistance equal to three times your character level, and may choose to be treated as evil if it would benefit you (such as a balor casting blasphemy).
6: You gain a fiendish subtype and all the abilities that go along with it. Unlike product of infernal dalliance, this does not let you take fiend feats.
11: You're totally scary and shit. Any enemy with fewer hit dice than you must deal with frightful presence as the dragon ability.
16: You're totally a demon. You may use plane shift and greater teleport at will.


Seriously, I just pulled that out of my ass because as far as I can tell, you want a "Be evil and cool looking" feat that isn't product of infernal dalliance, but you have NO idea what you want it to actually do.

I'm not even going to get into how stupid it is that the same feat gives different benefits to a conduit of the lower planes, an evil cleric, and an evil wizard.

Please don't give out the fiendish subtype if you don't want the character to count as fiendish. Just give them the 'nasty' or 'evil' subtype.

CatharzGodfoot wrote:Please don't give out the fiendish subtype if you don't want the character to count as fiendish. Just give them the 'nasty' or 'evil' subtype.

Actually, (Su) Freedom of movement and immunity to poison is pretty sweet.