"Could you please tell me, what about being submerged under thousands of tons of water surrounded by monsters would most upset you? I really want to tailor the next few minutes to you."
Lords of the Deep are big strong shapeshifters who shape shift with sea monster themes to beat people up. They also have some more minor water based magic powers. Lords of the Deeps move with the Tides alternating offense and defense, and wearing their enemies down over a fight (But really they just get tougher as the fight goes on because that's easier to design around). It's kind of like an aggro mechanic!
You probably should not let a Lord of the Deep take the Fiend feats that give extra fuck off strength, but like, I can't stop you.
Hit Die: d12
Base Attack Bonus: Full
Good Saving Throws: All Good Saves
Skill Points: 4+Int
Class Skills: Balance (Str), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Str), Listen (Wis), Spot (Wis), Ride (Str), Survival (Str), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex)
| Level: | Abilities: |
| 1: | Tides, Basic Offensive Shifts, Basic Defensive Shifts |
| 2: | Swim Speed, Darkvision |
| 3: | Dowsing |
| 4: | |
| 5: | Scary Offensive Shifts, Scary Defensive Shifts |
| 6: | Water Breathing |
| 7: | See Through Water |
| 8: | Whale Form |
| 9: | |
| 10: | Terrifying Offensive Shifts, Terrifying Defensive Shifts |
| 11: | |
| 12: | |
| 13: | One With Water |
| 14: | |
| 15: | Horrifying Offensive Shifts, Horrifying Defensive Shifts |
| 16: | |
| 17: | |
| 18: | |
| 19: | |
| 20: |
Proficiencies: A Lord of the Deep is proficient with any light armor, anything made out of water or sea creatures (including weapons) and tridents. Also with all natural weapons created by their Shifts. Yes, this means you should make a Spiked Chain where each link is crafted of carefully treated Shark Jawbones or whatever.
Tides (Ex): Whenever a fight starts the Tides are Out. Whenever the Tides are Out a Lord of the Deep can bring the Tides In by spending a standard action transforming some part of their body with an Offensive Shift and then immediately using it to attack. They always can choose from any Offensive Shifts they are high enough level to access as per the class table. Whenever the Tides come In a Lord of the Deeps heals for twice their Class Level.
When the Tides are In, any time the Lord of the Deeps is subject to an attack roll, is forced to make a save, takes damage, or has a condition imposed, the Tides go Out. When this happens, the Lord of the Deeps can as an immediate action transform any Defensive Shift they are high enough level to access retroactively before the triggering event, possibly negating it, but the Tides still went Out.
They can only ever transform a Shift that they haven't already used this Fight or the last Fight. So having your favorite Offensive doesn't mean you get to use it every round. The DM does kind of have to actually enforce the rules of what counts as a “Fight” or not, because otherwise they would just walk around with all their shifts active all the time, but the general concept is let them keep it going in a long running kite battle or wading through alerted enemies in room after room of a fortress, but if the party is sitting down to rest for a few minutes without interruption Fights Over sometimes during the break. Go back to normal form.
Swim Speed (Ex): At level 2 a Lord of the Deep has a Swim speed equal to twice their base land speed. Apply any speed enhancements, either general or specific to swim, to the base land speed, and then multiply that number by 2 to get the swim speed. Don't apply any enhancements after that. Lords of the Deep Swim Fast. They can also hold their breath for 10 times as long as normal.
Darkvision (Ex): At level 2 a Lord of the Deep gets Darkvision out to 60ft which is all you need in deep water anyway because sight is occluded beyond that range by particulates.
Dowsing (Ex): At level 3 a Lord of the Deep knows where any water sources are based on how big they are.
They can detect about person sized sacks of water out to 10ft per Lord of the Deep Level which does give them some creature locations through walls and stuff, but only water sack ones (animals, humanoids, ect, but not like, constructs or living constructs unless they are a weird one, only water subtyped water elementals and stuff, you get the point), it can also find water in a desert if you need that.
They can detect a small creeks or groundwater out to one mile per Lord of the Deep level and they can detect a big river, a lake, underground reservoir, or the ocean out to 10 miles per Lord of the Deep Level. This works great for Orienteering if you aren't too far away from anything.
Water Breathing (Ex): At level 6 a Lord of the Deep can breathe water as if it was air if they couldn't beforehand. Honestly I'm surprised it took them this long.
See Through Water (Su): At level 7 a Lord of the Deep can cast Clairvoyance and Clairaudience at the same time targeting any water they have Dowsed. It will travel with the water, if you want to target a barrel of rain water for some reason. The duration can last as long as they want, but they can only have one at a time and casting a new one ends the old one. Also a Lord of the Deep's Darkvision works through this effect.
Whale Form (Su): At level 8 a Lord of the Deep can transform into a big ass Whale of whatever size they want, but unlike normal whales, the inside of their mouth takes up the vast majority of the space and is watertight and they don't saliva it up and they can make comfortable furniture out of the walls and floor. Basically they are a personal sub. They can even be a Colossal sized sub if that's important to them. They get a slam attack, but can't use any other shifts, so fighting your way through the Ocean is not ideal. Probably just use this for transporting cargo and friends.
One With Water (Ex): At level 13 a Lord of the Deep becomes a being fundamentally at one with water. This means their Clairvoyance effect gets True Seeing, they get True Seeing all the time, and also that they can touch any source of water anywhere and come out of any Medium Creature sized or larger body of water anywhere else they have Dowsed.
Also a fun thing they can do is instead of transporting through water they can form a Water Body at the other end which in all ways acts just like them and has all their abilities and is basically just them. Except that when it dies or whenever their real body stops concentrating on it, it falls into a puddle of water, and they are totally fine whereever their real body was sitting. Unless their real body stopped concentrating because someone stabbed them in the face or something. Their real body's senses have to be turned off to control the Water Body, so they don't know what's going around, but any amount of damage or any status condition inflicted to their real body they become aware of, and probably want to respond to.
Shifts: All Shifts that give saves use 10+1/2 Lord of the Deep Level+Str bonus. All Shifts that need a Caster Level for some reason use Lord of the Deep level.
As discussed above, Offensive Shifts are usually used as part of the same standard action where they are transformed.
Shifts transform body parts. If all your body parts are replaced with a thing, then you can still replace the shifts you did with new ones, but a body part can only have one Shift at a time. Sometimes body parts overlap in like a human body conception, but you can still have multiple ones active as long as the names are different. IE, you can shift an EYE and HEAD at the same time.
The valid body parts that have shifts are:
Arm: Usually two, maybe you are a thrikeen and have more though.
Hand: Usually two.
Legs: Usually two.
Torso
Skin
Heart
Head: Not always one. Big surprises here.
Eye: Usually two.
Tentacle: Usually zero for base forms, but you might have some after a Shift.
Tail: Even if you have zero, you can grow one with the Shift but only one at a time.
Basic Offensive Shifts (Su):
Big Tentacle: An arm becomes a Big Tentacle which can wield a two handed weapon in one hand doing Str and a half damage and attacking and threatening out to 15ft, or can allow the Lord of the Deep to grapple an enemy out to 15ft without being considered grappling themselves.
Tentacle Legs: Legs become 6-10 tentacles. Lord of the Deep gets various stability bonuses and also can Trample people with movement doing 1d8+Str damage.
Shark Head: A head becomes a big old shark head that can Bite people for 2d8+2 times Str bonus damage as a standard action or be part of a full attack routine.
Squid Face: A head turns into a Squid and the mouth spits ink at people like the Blinding Spittle spell as a standard action.
Crab Claw: A hand becomes a big old Crab Claw that does 1d8+Str damage as a primary natural attack and has Improved Grab.
Snakey Torso: A torso becomes all long and ripply and you gain a Constrict that does 2d6+Str damage on successful grapple checks. When you transform this you can make a grapple attack against and adjacent enemy.
Extra Claws: Two tentacles become clawy and you get two Rake attacks that do 1d6+1/2 Str damage, but fun fact, you only get these Rake attacks while swimming, not on land. On the turn you Shift this If and Only If you are already grappling something, you get to use those Rake Attacks.
Just a Big Tail: You get a Tail Slap that does 2d8+1.5 Str damage.
Basic Defensive Shifts (Su):
Shell: A torso grows a cool Turtle Shell that gives you an Armor Bonus to AC of 8+1 per three Lord of the Deep levels.
Tough Scales: A skin gets all scaly and you get an enhancement bonus to Natural Armor equal to 3+1 per three Lord of the Deep levels. This is like Barkskin in that it stacks with other enhancement bonuses even Barkskin.
Shield Crab Claw: An arm becomes a giant crab claw that looks like a Shield and works like one too, giving a Shield Bonus of 4+1 for every 3 levels of Lord of the Deep.
Hippo Flex: A skin grows thick as hell and provides DR/bludgeoning equal to twice the Lord of Deep level.
Scary Offensive Shifts (Su):
Naga Fangs: A head grows two fangs and a dislocating jaw. In addition to a Bite attack doing 1d8+str damage, it also forces a Fort save against poison which does 1d8 Con damage and the save repeats the next round.
Chuul Tentacle: A tentacle gets the ability to force a Fort Save against Paralysis for 3 rounds if it's grappling. You can make a grapple check with that tentacle on the transformation.
Nixie's Smile: A head becomes a little tiny Nixie head, and you can Charm Person people as a Standard Action. Yes, it still uses your Str for the DC.
Jellyfish Tentacles: Any number of tentacles get contact poison that does 3 Con and Str damage. But if you trample people they only have to make one save.
Quill Fire: A Torso grows a bunch of quills that you can fire off at enemies, hitting anything out to 60ft with an attack that uses Str to hit and does 1d4+1/2 Str damage. But it also causes sticks in the target and causes distraction on spellcasts or anything else that concentrates, with subsequent quills adding 1 to the DC of the distraction effect. Also if an enemy is grappling you, get one free action Quill attack on them each round.
Hag's Appearance: A head becomes a Sea Hag head. Everyone in sight rolls the turn you do this shift. It's a Fort Save against taking 2d6 Strength damage if they see your face. This doesn't work on Sea Hags, gives you Immunity to Hag stuff as if you were a Sea Hag, and anyone who makes the save is immune for 24 hours even if you transform another head or a later time.
Scary Defensive Shifts (Su):
Hydra: A head becomes two heads, and any time you are decapitated you grow two heads from each decapitated head in 1d4 rounds. You also get Fast Healing 5. Application of five points of Acid or Fire damage prevents the new heads from appearing. Special: You can use this shift as many times as you want, and each time it turns one head into two new heads. If things go just right you can have 30 heads, but you still only have Fast Healing 5.
Mucus Cloud: A skin starts outputting aboleth mucus. Anyone that contacts it such as by attacking you, has to make a Fort Save or start being unable to breath air like the Aboleth effect.
Shockingly Eel Like: A Torso starts charging up electricity. Anyone you touch, such as by hitting you, or anyone that touches you with a metal weapon, even if they have some insulation, or anyone that you touch the metal armor of, gets electrocuted with the discharge that does 1d6 Electricity damage per Lord of the Deep level.
Water Manipulation: A head turns into a giant three eyed fish head with fourth tentacles growing off of it. You get water manipulation powers that let you, as part of the activation, and as an immediate action at any other time, create a small temporary Wall of Water in between you and an attack. This effect negates any fire attack or spell and provides Cover against any other attack or spell. Just for you though.
Agathion Tail: You grow a cool Dolphin Tail. For reasons, it provides you and also any ally who can see it, a bonus against any attempt to move you (or them) equal to your Lord of the Deep level. It works to avoid being tripped, bullrushed, as a save against any spell that would move you (even a teleport) and other similar effects. This is an untyped effect.
Terrifying Offensive Shifts (Su):
Kraken's Big Tentacle: You can slap two arms together to make a single super big tentacle. You can do a lot with this. First, it can wield a weapon or grapple like the previous tentacle, but it operates as a Huge Creature with +8 Strength over your own and it has 30ft Reach. But it can also attack everything in a 90 degree cone with an attack instead of one thing. Still getting that Str bonus and doing 4d6+1.5 Str damage.
Hag's Eye: An eye becomes a Sea Hag eye instead, and as a Standard Action you can designate any creature within 30ft and they have to make a Will Save and a Fort Save. If they fail the Fort Save they are dead, if they fail the Will Save they are Dazed for 3 days or until you unshift the Eye. This is NOT a mind affecting effect. But it is a Fear Effect and a Death Effect, so a lot of stuff will tend to be immune anyway. Also remove curse or dispel evil clears the Daze.
Siren Head: A head becomes a Siren head and you start singing. This song is a sonic, mind affecting, compulsion effect. Everyone who can hear it (Assume you have fuck off lungs and can hit people out to long range just fine and in specific circumstances can exceed that) must make a Will save. If they fail, they start moving towards you can keep moving towards you only using standard actions to convert to move actions to move towards you as well. You can sustain this effect for as long as you have the Siren head. Once they reach you, they stand there in awe while you beat them to death if you want. But this also effects allies too. However, once someone makes a save, they are immune to this effect for 24 hours. Enemies cannot clear this effect from their allies in any way except by giving them immunity or in some mysterious way granting them Still Mind so they can take another save or whatever.
Charybdis Funnel: When you transform you belch out a torrent of water that acts as a tidal wave effect. You Bullrush every creature in a 90 degree cone in front of you out to 90ft as if you were a Colossal creature with +10 Strength. If they move at all you knock them prone at the end of the movement. If they are 85ft away and you roll well you can still smack them another 100ft away from you. The tidal wave goes a long way, it just only bullrushes within 90ft.
In future rounds whenever the Tide is In you can do this again if you want as a Standard Action. If the Tide is Out you instead create a giant funnel to pull things into your gaping maw. If you are in water, it's a water Typhoon that works just like that Tides In version but towards you. If you are in the air it will instead create windstorm winds towards you in the same cone. Not very useful in a vacuum though.
The Final Claw: A hand Becomes a giant claw. This claw does slashing damage when you pincher people in it, but it doesn't have Improved Grab because the blades are too sharp. An attack with this claw does 8d6+2Str damage and also forces a Ref save and a Fort Save against being cut in half. Most people die pretty soon after being cut in half. This save is not a death effect, or any kind of effect except a being chopped in half effect, so it does effect undead and golems and stuff without con scores. Sometimes Oozes don't mind though. If either save is made, the cut in half effect doesn't happen, only the damage because the successfully avoided being chopped.
Death Poison: A skin just becomes a super fucked up contact paralytic poison from a blowfish. Anyone that comes into contact with you has to make a Fort Save or be Paralyzed for 1 minute and then die. The Paralysis is not a death effect, but the death definitely is. Both effects are poison effects though, so practically everything is immune already. When you activate this, you can also punch someone in the face which is also contact, triggering the save.
Terrifying Defensive Shifts (Su):
Skrag Heart: Your heart becomes a Skrag Heart, and you now have Regeneration 10 that can only be bypassed by Fire, which you probably can avoid with water stuff. If you were immune to nonlethal damage, you aren't now. You have a heart, and implicitly a vascular system.
Shell of Fuck Off: You grow a Big Old Conch Shell from somewhere, it can be any external part of you. The shell provides total cover, and Spell Immunity to you while you are inside. You probably will just want to leave it on your turn, which you can do as part of a move action to move, because the Total Cover applies in both directions.
Energy Immunity: Your Skin becomes really rubbery and you are Immune to Cold, Fire, Acid, and Electricity, but not Sonic which you are now Vulnerable to.
Ultimate Knowledge: A head grows into into a giant fuck off long necked worm looking thing. You are not flat footed or flanked. You know where everyone is and they never have Total Concealment if they are within range of your Tremorsense 120ft, True Seeing 120ft, Blindsight 120ft, all of which you now have. You still can't activate this when Flat Footed though.
Water Elemental Form: You get the Immunities of a Water Elemental, and you can fit through any cracks if you want. This is all over and doesn't use any parts of your body, it's just a fun thing you can do.
Horrifying Offensive Shifts (Su):
I'm not saying I'll never write these, but you should probably write your own if you've played this class for a bunch of levels. Your Lord of the Deep might have developed some specializations.
Horrifying Defensive Shifts (Su):
I'm not saying I'll never write these, but you should probably write your own if you've played this class for a bunch of levels. Your Lord of the Deep might have developed some specializations.