[3.X] Prak's D&D Material

[Prak]

Ok, I tweaked Ride the Lightning so it doesn't stack with Increased Mass Punch (well, it does, but it's more difficult, and less useful now), and I reworked Infinite Mass Punch so that it just gives Spring Attack and says "you gain one size category/round"

[radthemad4]

I'm still going to vouch for super speed reading and some form of nerfed super speed crafting. They're minor non combat shticks and we don't see too many of those on non casters. You sure you couldn't tone it down a few notches? It does look like a fun class to play. If you think the per round speed is a bit too much, you could put in some sort of acceleration mechanic, e.g. making it so you need to be continually moving for entire rounds (possibly enjoying a better blur effect if you spend a whole round moving) to gain access to more ridiculous per round speeds and higher increased mass punches. Also, you could specify here that Tome Whirlwind doesn't let you hit more than 10 enemies at a time or something, for those of us using Tome materials.

[Prak]

Ok, I worked in mundane task time discounts and the initiative bonus I kept saying they should have and forgetting to give to them. At 20th level, you can outfit 12 people with greatswords per round, or whatever.

Edit: regarding Tome Whirlwind- Speedsters have 3/4 BAB, so it's really not even an issue. They're 8th level before they can take a move action and attack everyone on their path, and 21st before they can charge and destroy a village, so I don't even care.

[radthemad4]

Awesome . Time discount as a percentage was an interesting way to do it.

Do you think Animal Shifter is a workable class concept? Perhaps a version of Beastboy that doesn't use Pathfinder's nerfed version of Polymorph, but a version that's powerful enough to be his class's main shtick?

[Prak]

I think polymorph shenanigans is a tangled snakes nest i don't really want to get into at the modern.

[radthemad4]

Do you think Professor X style telepath is workable? If it's not a good fit for a class, there's always Jean Grey. If telepath is workable, Jean Grey could be a prestige class for a multiclass Telepath and Telekineticist.

By the way, did you consider recruiting other Denners for this? There's a few other superhero classes floating around IMOI. sigma made a Kineticist class a while back and there's a Warper as well.

Something else that comes to mind is toggleable elemental body templates or element reinforced body templates, e.g. Colossus, Johnny Storm, Emma Frost.

[Prak]

I want to keep this my stuff, or stuff which the creator has said "I really don't give a shit, do what you want" since I'm planning on selling this.

I'm working on an Alchemical Warrior class too, which replicates Bane/Lizard/Man Bat/etc, but once that's done, I think I'll call it good for the first pdf. I might make another if I write more material, but I've got 2 base classes, 7 PrCs (including the Hellspawn, but it needs posting and fixing), and 3 items, as well as needing to put in the Sphere rules since several classes rely on spheres. That should be a pretty solid pdf.

[Prak]

Soulknight
It is known that the mind blade of a soulknife is a highly morphic weapon. Thri Kreen soulknives learn to manifest gythkas, dwarven soulknives urgoshes, and so on.
Some soulknives, rather than drawing on their heritage, draw on specialized martial training.
The Soulknight feels the call of mounted combat in his veins. He feels more at home around horses and other steeds than in a throng of warriors. When he manifests his mind blade, he can feel it tugging on his hand, as if longing to extend, to meet the enemy.
A soulknife called to be a Soulknight commonly sees the mental energy of his blade wreathing his hand, wrist, even forearm, as if it were trying to coat him fully, a sheath of armour to protect him in combat.

Soulknights use the same inherent power that soulknives do, but in much greater, showier ways. They form steeds, armour and shields from mental energy.

A Word on Soulknives

Yeah, the soulknife kind of sucks. It's a cool concept, though, and there are a handful of fixes for it. One of the most common fixes is giving them full BAB, which helps a surprising amount.

This isn't the first PrC which modifies the soulknife's iconic ability, and the first--Soulbow--actually implies an errata. The soulbow gets full BAB with their mind arrows, and implies that the soulknife is supposed to as well. It's nothing solid, but it's there. This class is built based on that assumption. When it talks about BAB in requirements, it counts the soulknife's BAB with their mind blade, not the BAB on the class table.

Requirements
BAB: +5
Feat: Mounted Combat
Special: Ability to manifest a Mind Blade

HD: d10
BAB: 3/4 (Full with Mind Blade et al)
Saves: Good Ref and Will
Skills: Autohypnosis (Wis), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Tumble (Dex)
(4+Int Mod)

Level	Special
1	Mind Lance, Mind Blade Enhancement +1, Astral Mount (third level), Armour of the Mind
2	Psychic Strike +2d8
3	+2 Mind Blade, Astral Mount (fourth level), Armour of the Mind (second level)
4	Psychic Strike +3d8, Armour of the Mind (Enhanced)
5	Mind Blade Enhancement +2, Astral Mount (fifth level), Armour of the Mind (third level)

Mind Lance (Su): When manifesting their mind blade, a soulknight has the option of manifesting it as any two handed melee weapon with reach, most notably, a lance.
In addition, levels of soulknight and soulknife stack for the purposes of the Mind Blade, Mind Blade Enhancement and Psychic Strike class abilities. The class table shows these features for simplicity's sake.

Astral Mount (Su): The soulknight gains the ability to use a specialized form of the Astral Construct power. A portion of the soulknight's mind splinters from the rest, creating a second consciousness inside him which is still completely separate from his own.
As a full round action, he may project this consciousness into the world, wrapping it in ectoplasm pulled from the astral plane to create a steed. This is effectively identical to the power Astral Construct. The soulknight does not use power points to manifest this mount, instead manifesting it at will.
The astral construct manifested by this ability is equivalent to a third level construct created with the feat Ectopic Form (Agile Loper), including appearing like a baurier, save that it is large size with a stout frame and has an intelligence of 6.
At third level, the soulknight's astral mount is equivalent to a 4th level astral construct with the above changes, at 5th level to a 5th level agile loper astral construct with Int 6, and every two character levels thereafter, it grows in level by one, maintaining it's agile loper form and Int.
The consciousness created by this ability is identical to the personality fragment which a psion creates as a psicrystal. If the soulknight has or later acquires the feat psicrystal affinity, the psicrystal personality and Astral Mount consciousness are one and the same. The astral mount improves as the psicrystal does, and when the soulknight forms their astral mount, the psicrystal is subsumed within it, studding it's forehead.

Armour of the Mind (Su): The soulknight learns to manifest his inner power in one more way. As a full round action, he may sheath his body in a combination of mental energy and ectoplasm akin to a psion using the feat Skin of the Construct, creating what appears to be a suit of platemail made of glowing mental force. The soulknight gains benefits based on a first level astral construct--an armour bonus equal to a first level Astral Construct's natural armour (5), 1d8 temporary hp for 1 hour per astral construct hd, and the menu abilities of a first astral constuct (one menu A ability).
At third level, the armour bonus from this ability becomes 6 and the temporary hp increase by 1d8.
At fifth level, the armour bonus grows to 8, and the temporary hp increases by another d8.
This ability continues to improve as the soulknight levels. Every two levels in a psionic class increase the armour level by one--so after gaining two levels in psionic classes past soulknight 5 the soulknight manifests armour equivalent to a fourth level astral construct, granting a +10 armour bonus, 5d8 temporary hp, and one ability from menu B. With another two levels in psionic classes, the soulknight would manifest armour equivalent to a fifth level astral construct, gaining a +13 armour bonus, 7d8 temporary hp, and one ability from menu B, and so on.
The soulknight cannot benefit from worn armour while they have Armour of the Mind manifested.
At fourth level, the soulknight may manifest their Armour of the Mind with a +3 or less armour special ability in place of an Astral Construct ability.

---

So, just an idea I'd had. It honestly might as well be some ACFs, but whatever. Someone tell me whether it's any good.

[radthemad4]

I like the flavor, but I'm not qualified to rate balance.

I'd recommend making creating the blade a swift action so you can switch weapons every round, lance for mounted charges, ranseurs for disarming, scythes for tripping, halberds against chargers, greatswords for pure damage, etc. which you can also use as a ranged weapon every round using throw mind blade.

How about a mind shield feature?

I'm working on an Alchemical Warrior class too, which replicates Bane/Lizard/Man Bat/etc

I think Pathfinder's got those: Ragechemist, Beastmorph.

[Prak]

Honestly, I'm considering restricting it to lances and spears, and then maybe adding the shield.

Though apparently there's some Soulknife ACF which allows the soulknife to manifest shields.

[radthemad4]

Did you check out the Pathfinder Soulknife? I think they buffed it. They also have archetypes that aren't mutually exclusive for Psionically Shielded and/or Armored Soulknives.

At the moment, the Soul Knight just gets improved features as it levels beyond 1st, but doesn't get any new abilities. I think some horizontal advancement would be nice. Perhaps some Mount enhancements like flight and improved trample. Maybe some sort of ability where he raises his mind blade high in the air and it glows extra bright or something and he shouts to buff nearby party members and debuff enemies. Consider stealing from the Tome Knight to give him Spell Resistance and bonuses to adjacent allies.

[Prak]

The Soulknight is just a concept that popped into my mind, not a thing for my PF srd. That's good to know though.

Honestly, I'm really thinking I made a mistake by making it a PrC, rather than Substitution Levels or such.

[codeGlaze]

Honestly, I'm really thinking I made a mistake by making it a PrC, rather than Substitution Levels or such.

So fix it.

[Prak]

Fell Magic[Necromantic, Metamagic]
Your magic kills people. Sometimes those people get back up again and kill other people for you.
Fell Magic is a metamagic feat which scales to your caster level
0: People slain by your magic get back up and serve you.
When an enemy is killed by a non-mundane (spell, spell-like, surpernatural) effect you created, they rise at the beginning of your next action as a zombie under your control.
The creature must normally be a creature you could turn into a zombie, and must not have more hit dice than twice your level.
You may control up to your unmodified charisma modifier in undead with a CR no greater than (your level-2), just like any other Necromantic feat.
1: Your spells sap your enemies' strength. You may modify spells you cast or prepare such that enemies damaged by them also take a -4 penalty to their strength for 1 minute. This penalty does not stack with multiple applications of itself. A spell modified this way takes up a spell slot 1 level higher.
6:
You spells drag at the life force of your enemies. You may modify a spell

---

I need to rethink this.

[Prak]

War-arach has been updated to actually be a Tome Spherelock PrC, rather than a tome-balanced 3.5lock PrC.

[Prak]

I started a blog for my material. The plan is to update weekly with at least 1000 words of material, and a pic. My first post was my magical girl class, and I just made the Friday update schedule if we don't count tweaking appearance.

Let me know what you think of the blog.

[Prak]

Week Two of Cog Scribbler is about Familiars, adding Lantern Beetles (bat-sized beetles which glow like torches), Meerkats (+4 Initiative!), Personal Dis Assistants, and Witch's Dolls (voodoo dolls) as familiar options, and gives people who stumble across the blog my Acquire Familiar feat.

[Prak]

Jägermonster
Jägermonsters are augmented humans created to be super soldiers by a lineage of powerful and feared human artificers. It is generally known that the transformation of a human into a Jägermonster is achieved through a noxious draught known as Jägerbräu. Only the most elite soldiers were granted the privilege of being subject to this transformation, and even then, only 1 in 10 survived.
To date, only humans have been transformed into Jägermonsters, and it is generally believed it does not work on other races, though there are theories that the Jägerbräu could transform non-humans into other Jäger-like forms, possibly with race-tailored formulae.

Size and Type: Jägermonsters generally remain the roughly the same size that they were pre-transformation, though do gain muscle mass and bone density. However, it is not unheard of for Jägermonsters to grow in size. See Special.
Jägermonsters remain genetically human, the Jägerbräu only acting as a catalyst for structural changes. Jägermonsters gain the augmented subtype, but otherwise remain Humanoid (Human).
Armour Class: Jägermonsters have slightly thicker skins than humans, gaining a natural armour bonus of +2.
Attacks: Jägermonsters gain 2 claws and a bite attack which do normal damage for a creature of their size (typically 1d4 for claws and 1d6 for bite, but if the character is differently sized for whatever reason, they deal the damage a creature of their size would).
Special Attacks and Qualities: Jägermonsters are super soldiers known for their durability, strength, and insensitivity to pain. They also, however, show a great amount of mutation, often demonstrating other abilities (See Below)
All Jägermonsters gain the following abilities:
Combat Obsession: Jägermonsters were created and live for combat. In combat, they fall into a state with a passing similarity to the rage of a barbarian. They gain a +2 morale bonus to Will saves (which replaces the penalty from Foolhardiness on Will saves for the length of the encounter) and take a -2 penalty on Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except for Balance, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Hide, Intimidate, Ride and Use Magic Device) and the Concentration skill. Jägermonsters in combat also often rely on their durability far more than agility to survive their frequent attacks, and suffer a -2 Circumstance penalty to AC.
Damage Reduction: Jägermonsters are hard to hurt, and grow more durable as they age. They have DR 3+character level overcome by magic.
Energy Resistance: Jägermonsters have Cold, Fire and Electricity resistance 5.
Foolhardiness: Jägermonsters can be as sagacious and wise as any human, but they do suffer from a difficulty in controlling impulses, and will frequently knowingly follow courses of action which are less than wise. They suffer a morale penalty on all Wisdom related rolls of -2, but receive the full benefit of their wisdom score or modifier for determining bonus spells, sanity, prerequisites, spell level availability, etc.
Scent: Jägermonsters have powerful senses of smell which they cant track by, and even use to discern illness, wounds, and lineages. In addition to the usual benefits of the Scent ability, they also gain the benefit of the Status spell on all creatures within 60', and can recognize when people are part of lineages they are familiar with (useful for finding lost heirs and scions).
Jägermonsters also frequently display additional traits gained in the Jägerbräu transformation, and roll a number of times on the following table equal to their (pre-template) Con Modifier. Traits rolled multiple times do not stack unless stated otherwise.

1	Distended limbs	The Jäger's arms are freakishly long, increasing their reach by 50% (round up to the nearest multiple of 5')
2	Tusks	The Jäger has large tusks which make it hurt even more when they bite. Increase their Bite damage by one size category.
3	Horns	The Jäger has impressive horns or antlers. While this makes it difficult to find a hat which fits, it does give them a Gore attack which deals appropriate damage for their size.
4	Chameleon Skin	Most Jäger display garish coloured skin and hair which immediately sets them apart from their human kin. Some, however, can change the colour of their skin and hair at a whim. In addition to the vain and social applications of this ability, they also gain a +4 bonus when hiding (and able to see their surroundings) or disguising themselves as a different Jäger.
5	Ludicrous Maw	The Jäger has a ridiculously oversized mouth, allowing them to swallow whole objects and creatures two or more size categories below them, and dealing damage with their bite as if they were a size larger.
6	Massive Physique	The Jäger is a truly immense specimen, their bones and muscles having been greatly enhanced by their transformation. They gain the Powerful Build trait. If this trait is rolled again, they lose powerful build and increase a size category, gaining the normal benefits.
7	Keen Eyes	The Jäger's eyesight was considerably improved by his transformation. He ignores the effects of Foolhardiness for visual-based checks (such as spot), and gains a +4 bonus to visual-based checks such as Spot, Search and most Appraise checks, as well as being able to take a Move Action to search for weak points in an enemy's defenses, gaining a +2 to their next attack.
8	Sensitive Skin	The Jäger's skin was not thickened as much as his fellows' in his transformation. He has only a +1 natural armour bonus, but gains +2 dexterity, and can make a Tactile search check which uses his dexterity in place of intelligence and receives a +4 bonus.
9	Keen Ears	The Jäger's hearing was greatly enhanced by his transformation. He ignores the effects of Foolhardiness on Listen checks, as well as receiving a +4 bonus, gains a +4 appraise checks of musical instruments, and a +2 bonus to Disable Device and Sense Motive checks (the bonus to Disable Device only applies when the Jäger is adjacent to the device he disabling).
10-12	No Mutation	This roll adds no mutation to the Jäger.

Abilities: +4 Str, +4 Con, -2 Cha.
Skills: Jägermonsters' reputation for carnage and slaughter precedes them. They may use their Strength modifier in place of Charisma on Intimidate checks. Their claws also aid them in climbing, and they gain a +2 bonus to climb checks made to scale a surface with hardness less than 3+Str Mod. Add 1 to this amount for every size category larger than Medium they are.
CR:+1
Equivalent Character Level: A Jaegermonster with three Barbarian HD (d12, Full Bab, 4+Int skills, Good Fort) is an appropriate third level character.

[Red_Rob]

You should call the Jagermonster ability something other than 'Combat Focus'. That's already the name of a pretty well known ability even ignoring the Tomes, do you really want to go the 4e 'Evil Eye' route? Also, how do you determine whether you are 'in combat' for the purposes of this ability?

[Prak]

Oh, shit, I didn't even think about Combat Focus being a thing. An obscure thing (the Non-Tome version, anyway), but a thing.

Basically being a Jaeger is like being a Barbarian raging all the time, except not quite because that would actually suck a bit. Not sure what the 4e evil eye thing is.

[Prak]

Was trying to think of a good "Demon based caster" class to dangle in front of one my players, now that her character has a demonic familiar graft on his neck, and I remembered this old thing. Apparently it's only current online presence is the Brilliant Gameologist boards archive, so I figured I'd transfer it over here and workshop it a bit.

Abyssal Lyricist


The Abyssal Lyricist is a performer who has plucked the strings of the multiverse to draw forth a chord of power from the lowest planes. Their music is infused with darkness and evil and carries the power to call forth beasts from the lowest layers of the Abyss.

Requirements
Alignment: Any non-good
Skills: Perform (Any) 8 ranks, Kn. (The Planes) 6 ranks
Special: Must be or have made peaceful contact with a demon.

Game Info:
d6 HD
Good Will
3/4 BAB

Class Skills:As Bard, plus Intimidate.
Skill points per level: 6 + Int mod.

Level	Special	Spells
1	Bardic Music, Tongue of Graz'zt, Least Incanting Music, Call to the Abyss	+1 Spellcaster Level
2	Power Chord	+1 Spellcaster Level
3	Loyal Fanatics, Lesser Incanting Music	+1 Spellcaster Level
4	Band of Demons, Evil Hiss	+1 Spellcaster Level
5	Greater Incanting Music	+1 Spellcaster Level

Bardic Music: The Abyssal Lyricist gains the Bardic Music ability with the following abilities, in addition to any abilities they gain as a Bard, and their levels stack with Bard levels to determine the number of uses per day.
Least Incanting Music (Sp): An abyssal lyricist with 9 or more ranks of Perform can use Bardic Music to mimic low level spell effects. He makes a perform check, the DC set by the spell he is trying to mimic. This ability can only mimic necromancy spells, spells which have (or will gain upon casting, such as Summon Monster I used to summon a fiendish animal) the Darkness, Death, Evil, Fear, or Shadow descriptors, or spells from the Corrupt or Demonologist spell lists. Least Incanting Music only allows the mimicry of 0-3rd level spells. The abyssal lyricist's caster level for these spells is equal to his character level, and he must spend an amount of time performing equal to the casting time of the spell.
The verbal components of a mimicked spell are fulfilled with the abyssal lyricist's performance. Any somatic components are fulfilled through gestures and motions made during the performance--meaning that held instruments are not a hindrance to the casting of the spell. Material components must be as close as possible--often hung off of instruments. All other components must be fulfilled as normal, despite this being a spell-like ability. Spells which normally do not have vocal or somatic components gain them as appropriate to the abyssal lyricist's performance type (an abyssal lyricist who sings adds verbal components to their mimicked spells, an abyssal lyricist who dances adds somatic components, etc). The base DC for this ability is 10+(Mimicked Spell Level times 5), with modifiers set below:

Spell Level or Factors	DC or modifier
Material or Somatic Components	+5
Known Metamagic*	+5/added spell level
Unknown Metamagic*	+10/added spell level
*ie, has or does not have the appropriate feat

Power Chord (Su): An abyssal lyricist of second level with at least 10 ranks of Perform can use his performances to actually harm others. This Bardic Music ability lasts 3+Charisma Modifier rounds. Once activated, the abyssal lyricist can use a standard action to deal 1d6 points of sonic damage per class level. For every two extra uses of Bardic Music they expend when they first activate the ability, they add another d6 per class level of damage (ie, 3 uses for 2d6/class level, 5 uses for 3d6/class level, etc.)

Lesser Incanting Music (Sp): An abyssal lyricist of third level with at least 11 ranks of Perform can mimic 4th through 6th level spells with Bardic Music, this works exactly like Least incanting music, though spells with a level greater than half his character level plus 1 require more uses of Bardic Music as laid out on the below table:

Spell Level	Uses of Bardic Music
(Character Level+1)/2	1
(Character Level+2)/2	2

Evil Hiss (Sp.): An abyssal lyricist of fourth level with at least 12 levels of Perform may use Bardic Music to produce a mind-numbing hiss of evil sound which lingers in the air and makes it difficult for others to think clearly, mimicking the effects of a Mind Fog spell.

Greater Incanting Music (Sp.) An abyssal lyricist of fifth level with at least 13 ranks of Perform can mimic 7th through 9th level spells with Bardic Music. This works exactly like Lesser Incanting Music, save that higher level spells may require more uses of Bardic Music as laid out in the table below:

(Character Level+3 or 4)/2	3
(Character Level+5 or 6)/2	4
(Character Level+7 or 8)/2	5

Tongue of Graz'zt (Ex): The lawyers and bargainers of Hell are always eager to steal an Abyssal Lyricist for their side. Abyssal lyricists are not defenseless though, and actually become quite experienced in negotiations, as well as gain aid from their patrons in the Abyss. They gain a profane bonus equal to class level to Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Perform and Sense Motive. Their tongue also actually elongates and forks, granting them the feat Deformity (Tongue) as a bonus feat.

Call to the Abyss (Sp): The Abyssal Lyricist is aided in his knowledge by that of demons. He gains the Bardic Knowledge ability, and levels of Bard and Abyssal Lyricist stack for this purpose. He also gains a bonus to Bardic Knowledge checks equal to his charisma modifier.

Loyal Fanatics: A third level Abyssal Lyricist has reached a certain level of fame-- he attracts followers who are devoted fans of his performances. Such followers are non-good and non-lawful. He does not gain a cohort, and causing the death of followers does not negatively affect his leadership score.

Band of Demons (Su): A fourth level Abyssal Lyricist is able to summon up a band of demons to accompany him.
Once per day, as a full-round action, an abyssal lyricist may magically call his band from the abyssal realm in which it resides. This ability is the equivalent of a spell of a level equal to one-third the abyssal lyricist’s character level. The band immediately appears adjacent to the abyssal lyricist and remains for 2 hours per character level; it may be dismissed at any time as a free action. The band is composed of one demon whose CR is no higher than the abyssal lyricist's character level minus 2, and three demons whose CRs are no higher than the abyssal lyricist's character level minus 4. All four demons have max ranks in perform and an appropriate masterwork instrument.

[Prak]

Shibboleth
Huge Aberration
Hit Die: 15d8+20
Init:+2
Spd: 10 ft., swim 60 ft.
AC: 15 (+2 dex, -2 dex, +5 natural)
Base Attack/Grapple: +7/+21
Attack: Tentacle +13m (1d6+6)
Full Attack: 6 tentacles +13m (1d6+6)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft.
Special Attack: Inquisitor's Lash, Brainwashing, Psionics
Special Qualities: Aquatic Subtype, Darkvision 60 ft., Improved Grab
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +15
Abilities: Str 22, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 20, Wis 24, Cha 24
Skills: Autohypnosis +20, Bluff +19, Diplomacy +21, Intimidate +37, Kn. (Arcana) +18, Listen +20, Sense Motive +42, Spot +20, Swim +6
Feats: Alertness, Combat Casting, Iron Will, Negotiator, Memory Eater (LoM), Skill Focus (Sense Motive)

Shibboleths are aboleths who have been exposed to the fell eldritch energies of strange blue rocks. They are cruel and hateful beings, filled with paranoia and the belief that they are surrounded by impostors and deceivers. It is possible these creatures filled an exalted place in the antedeluvian aboleth empires, and indeed, aboleths tend to defer to them, as they expect all creatures to--those who do not are immediately suspected of being diabolical infiltrators seeking the aboleth race's precious bodily fluids and purity of essence.

Combat
Shibboleths are frail, physically weak things compared to their prior form, but what they lose in strength and durability, they gain in mental acuity and presence.

Inquisitor's Lash (Su) The slime of a shibboleth is quite different from that of an aboleth. Instead of transforming the target, it cuts through all manner of illusion and attempt to deceive.
A target struck by a shibboleth's lash, including areas containing illusions (treat as striking an appropriately sized object), is affected as by a targeted Greater Dispel Magic effect with a caster level of 15. This effect only dispels effects from, or which mimic effects from, the schools of Enchantment, Illusion and Transmutation.

Brainwashing (Su): A Shibboleth which has maintained a grapple on an intelligent target and has two free tentacles may insert those tentacles into the creature, usually into the brain via the ears, though this will differ depending on the nature of the creature, and exert influence directly on the creature. This functions as the spell Mindrape as cast by a 17th level wizard. This effect may be used at will.

Psionics: Shibboleths manifest as 10th level psions with the Telepathy discipline.

Skills: Shibboleths excel at rooting out falsehoods, both through guile and implied force, and have a +12 racial bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate and Sense Motive. While this, coupled with their powers and natural presence makes them supreme deceivers themselves, those who over use these abilities are quickly turned on by other shibboleths, who then investigate how an impostor could have become a shibboleth. As creatures with swim speeds, shibboleths also receive a +8 to swim checks made to perform a special action or avoid a hazard. They always can choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered when swimming and can use the run action while swimming, provided that it swims in a straight line.

[TiaC]

Shibboleth
Huge Aberration
Hit Die: 15d8+30
Init:+2
Spd: 10 ft., swim 60 ft.
AC: 15 (+2 dex, -2 size, +5 natural)
Base Attack/Grapple: +7/+21
Attack: Tentacle +11m (1d6+6)
Full Attack: 6 tentacles +11m (1d6+6)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft.
Special Attack: Inquisitor's Lash, Brainwashing, Psionics
Special Qualities: Aquatic Subtype, Darkvision 60 ft., Improved Grab
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +15
Abilities: Str 22, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 20, Wis 24, Cha 24
Skills: Autohypnosis +20, Bluff +19, Diplomacy +21, Intimidate +37, Kn. (Arcana) +18, Listen +20, Sense Motive +39, Spot +20, Swim +6
Feats: Alertness, Combat Casting, Iron Will, Negotiator +2 more

Shibboleths are aboleths who have been exposed to the fell eldritch energies of strange blue rocks. They are cruel and hateful beings, filled with paranoia and the belief that they are surrounded by impostors and deceivers. It is possible these creatures filled an exalted place in the antedeluvian aboleth empires, and indeed, aboleths tend to defer to them, as they expect all creatures to--those who do not are immediately suspected of being diabolical infiltrators seeking the aboleth race's precious bodily fluids and purity of essence.

Combat
Shibboleths are frail, physically weak things compared to their prior form, but what they lose in strength and durability, they gain in mental acuity and presence.
Inquisitor's Lash (Su) The slime of a shibboleth is quite different from that of an aboleth. Instead of transforming the target, it cuts through all manner of illusion and attempt to deceive.
A target struck by a shibboleth's lash, including areas containing illusions (treat as striking a square, AC 10, with a size penalty based on the space covered as if it were a creature, ie AC 9 for a 10' area, AC 8 for a 15' area, etc)Perhaps use these rules instead?, is affected as by a targeted Greater Dispel Magic effect with a caster level of 15. This effect only dispels effects from, or which mimic effects from, the schools of Enchantment, Illusion and Transmutation.

Brainwashing (Su): A Shibboleth which has maintained a grapple on an intelligent target and has two free tentacles may insert those tentacles into the creature, usually into the brain via the ears, though this will differ depending on the nature of the creature, and exert influence directly on the creature. This functions as the spell Mindrape as cast by a 15th level wizard. (Should probably be 17th as it's a 9th level spell) This effect may be used at will.

Psionics: Shibboleths manifest as 10th level psions.(Any discipline?)

Skills: Shibboleths excel at rooting out falsehoods, both through guile and implied force, and have a +12 racial bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate and Sense Motive. While this, coupled with their powers and natural presence makes them supreme deceivers themselves, those who over use these abilities are quickly turned on by other shibboleths, who then investigate how an impostor could have become a shibboleth.

Comments and corrections in bold.

[Prak]

Thank you.

[Prak]

So, I'm working on a Martial Artist class that is really supposed to be a fix of the monk class (monk is a dumb term for a class unless 100% of the members ape shaolin monk aesthetics). I'm not using the Tome monk, because at this point my players recoil from tome like vampires from the fucking bible.

So I'm really at the brainstorming stage, but am wondering about opinions on the abilities I'm looking at:

The Mastered Fist
Unarmed Strike deals lethal or non-lethal at your option, is magical and masterwork (no enhancement at first), deals increasing damage as you gain levels. If you wear a gauntlet, you still deal your level appropriate damage*. Basically this is just the monk ability with "your fists are magic. Happy birthday."

*Fuck you, Kaelik.

Candle Snuffing Fist
Your Unarmed Strike can be used to make ranged attacks by punching hard enough that a shockwave strikes non-adjacent opponents. It gains a range increment of 5'. You also can actually reduce or snuff flames, as the name, and the mundane technique it is based on, imply. A successful ranged unarmed attack on a flame (treat as attacking an object of appropriate size) reduces the flame one size category per 10 damage (if this would reduce the flame below Fine size, it is blown out). Creatures with the Flame subtype are vulnerable to this effect as well, but rather than being reduced in size, take half again as much damage from a successful ranged unarmed attack.

Adaptable Assault
One of the hallmarks of martial artists is their abilities to adapt their fighting to their environment and opponent. At the martial artist's option, they may use either Strength or Dexterity to modify their attacks and damage with unarmed attacks and their Technique weapons (like special monk weapons, assume those at base, but add longsword, all gauntlets and chain).
Martial Artists are also adept at turning their surroundings into weapons, and may use improvised weapons with no penalty, and with the stats of the object closest approximate weapon (weighted rope>kusari-gama or weighted chain, ladder>man catcher, cricket bat>club or sword).

Deny the Whispering Swarm
Your swift hands and feet can deflect arrows in flight from reaching their targets. You may take a full round action to protect your threatened area from ranged attacks made into it.
When a ranged projectile attack is made against one of your threatened squares or a creature within one of your threatened squares, you may make an opposed attack roll modified by your choice of Dex or Str. If you beat your enemy's attack roll, you deflect the attack.
While you are using this style, making a ranged attack into your threatened area explicitly provokes an AoO from you. If you wish to take this AoO you can, and in fact must, make it as a ranged attack, either reflecting a projectile as it comes in, or propelling it from the ground around you were a previous round's attacks have fallen.

The Eyes May Lie, but the Fist Knows the Way
Martial Artists learn to not rely or even trust on their eyes, to instead follow the flow of the universe around them. A martial artist who is blinded (including blindfolds and just closing the eyes) unerringly knows the way to opponents as if they had Blindsight.

Refuge in Audacious Odds
The martial artist is frequently specifically trained in how to overcome numerous opponents at once. To such a trained martial artist, being outnumbered is an advantage, rather than a disadvantage. They use the pressing mass to elude attacks, and are literally surrounded in targets.
When a Martial Artist is adjacent to more than one enemy, they gain +1 AC for each enemy beyond the first, and all attacks made within 10 ft of him are resolved as thrown weapons targeting squares (ie, if an attack misses, calculate which square is struck. Creatures' AC are still used for determining successful attacks, however).

Grow Between the Rocks
A martial artist is taught to fight on, despite discomfort, pain, and even grievous bodily harm. Any time they fail a Fort or Will Save, they may immediately make a second save of the same type at a DC five lower than the original DC. If they succeed, they postpone the effects of whatever forced the save until combat ends. As soon as no enemies remain fighting the martial artist or their allies, they are immediately subject to all effects they postponed this way.
Basically, I want them to be able to say "I know you petrified me, but I'm too busy slapping you with my rock hard cockfists to care right now, and shrug off poison until after combat, but not necessarily ignore things like entangle. I feel like there's a better way to write this, though