Altering the Thrallherd PrC

[Voss]

So, as a thought experiment (sorta) while I'm stuck at work, I was toying with the idea of an actual themed mentalist/dominator. I really liked the idea of sticking a wilder with just the telepath/clairsentience disciplines and going with a few powers known. Mind thrust, sense link, recall agony, psionic blast, mindwipe and true seeing (which works nicely with sense link in theory), along, of course, with charm and dominate. Now, I like the idea of a thrallherd in concept- the ultimate dominator. But frankly, leadership++ is stupidly good, what with ultimately 2 'cohorts', one of which is just a single level behind. Add in the low cost dominate, and this guy is essentially his own party, which is kind of stupid good, not to mention annoying for everyone else.

So, tweaking the thrallherd:
I was thinking of just ripping out the thrall abilities and adding the manifester levels back in at 1st and 10th. Does it need something else (in addition to the mostly negated cost of charm and dominate) or is it pretty much still amazing as-is?

Alternately, I could just adjust the wilder from the ground up specifically for this theme. the 'Natural Telepath' or whatever.
Rip out wild surge and related stupid shit, and replace it with a progression for lowered costs on charm and dominate.
Powers would be restricted to telepathy discipline (including telepath only list), and a few appropriate ones from clairsentience.

Basically get charm for free at 1st, dominate at 7th, and keep volatile mind, since its in theme.

Wild surge, surging euphoria and elude touch would go.
Charm/dominate costs would decrease at 3rd and every odd level (like the thrallherd abilities)
Greater and superior dominate (from thrallherd) could kick in at levels 10 and 12.

Oh, and add diplomacy as a class skill.

And, well, I don't know if it needs much else. psionic dominate is fairly good to start with, and having it at a low cost is very good. (though like the thrallherd version, you still can't exceed the normal cost vs. manifester level)

Essentially, I guess its a sorcerer replacement class for psionicists. But themed, with the grab bag of random crap that are encouraged by the psionics subsystem. (Hmm, maybe expanded knowledge should be restricted to its own power list)

Thoughts?

[Voss]

Thinking about it, I like the second option better. Waiting until 8th level to pick up fucking charm, and 10th for dominate is really, really stupid.

[SunTzuWarmaster]

The biggest problem is that it needs to be at least equal to a wizard or comparable level. That, and wizards get crazy-awesome charming. I'm watching a class right now, so lemme take a stab at it?

[SunTzuWarmaster]

Figure it's a fairly straight-forward Enchanter with some tricks, really.

Thrall Master
Alignment
Any.

Class Skills
The sorcerer’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Points
2+Int Mod

Hit Die
d4

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Thrall Masters are proficient with the club, dagger, heavy crossbow, light crossbow, and quarterstaff, but not with any type of armor or shield. Armor of any type interferes with a Thrall Master’s movements, which can cause her spells with somatic components to fail.

Class Abilities
1 - Spell Like Abilities, Caster Level, Followers
2 - Telepathy
3 - Mind Rape
4 - Acquire or Remove Knowledge
5 - Acquire Skill
6 - Acquire Feat
7 - Dominate Person 1x/day, Superior Resistance
8 - Greater Mind Rape
9 - Superior Ability
10 - Destroy Minds

Spell Like abilities: At the indicated level, the Thrall Master gets the following Spell Like abilities usable at will with a DC based on Int and treated as the highest spell a wizard of equal level could cast. These spells have a caster level equal to character level.
Note - I want these to be supernatural, but I don't want them cast in Full Plate...
1 - Charm Person
2 - Hypnotism
3 - Daze Monster (no HD cap)
4 - Scare (no HD cap)
5 - Hold Person
6 - Suggestion
7 - Charm Monster
8 - Confusion
9 - Lesser Geas
10 - Dominate Person

Caster Level - If the Thrall Master is to gain additional spell like abilities (say, from a Domain feat), the caster level is equal to character level, and the DC on Int.

Followers - The Thrall Master may have a number of followers equal to: (level)/2 rounded up.

Mind Rape - A Thrall Master may spend a full round action to reduce an opponents Will save by 1 for 1 round per caster level. This ability stacks with itself.

Acquire or Remove Knowledge - A Thrall Master may spend a full round action to tap into the knowledge of any creature he controls. This ability allows the target a Will save. A Thrall Master may substitute any Knowledge roll in replace of his, or may acquire memories. A Thrall Master may also delete a single memory or memory of an event in this manner.

Acquire Skill - As a swift action, a Thrall Master may use the skill of any controlled creature in place of his own (the relevant action must still be spent).

Acquire Ability - As a swift action, a Thrall Master may use a feat or Supernatural Ability of any controlled creature (the relevant action must still be spent)

Greater Mind Rape - A Thrall Master may use Mind Rape as a swift action.

Superior Resistance - Any creature controlled by the Thrall Master has +1/3 levels to all of his saves. This is an untyped bonus.

Superior Ability - Any creature controlled by the Thrall Master may add the Charisma bonus of the Thrall Master to any roll to-hit, damage, or skill check.

Destroy Minds - You may target any creature with a mind for any of your spell like abilities, even if they are normally immune to Mind Affecting Spells. For instance, with the use of this ability, you may still use Charm Person on a Lemure.

[Username17]

Mind Control is a very difficult prospect in D&D, because it's broken as fuck and slows the game down. A wizard with even a passing affinity for charm monster, prepared amongst his normal daily spells and utilized as appropriate in his ordinary adventures, will quickly Syndicate himself up to having a brutal posse of ass whupping that shall far outshine any or all of the other characters simultaneously. Maintaining a charm monster lock is childishly simple, as a maintenance dose is just one spell slot per week at the lowest level where it becomes an issue, and even an untrained character can diplomacize the effects of charm monster into non-magic perpetuity with 10 minutes of discussion.

Any and all builds based around charm are going to have to be likewise based on player restraint. That being said, you should probably give them a lot more effects like mind blast that they can use in combat to feel useful without grabbing ogres left and right and running a never ending stream of cannon fodder at their new enemies while they power up their persuadatron.

-Username17