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Tactician PrC

Dog Moon

Adventurer
The name is actually Knight of Zevstoven, but I left out most of the flavor, though since the PrC constantly refers to Knight, I figured I'll say why.

Just trying to get some help seeing if this looks okay/balanced. Please let me know.

Prerequisites:

BA +5
Skills: Knowledge Geography +8, Spot +8
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Vexing Flanker


HD: 1d8
Skills: 2 + Int modifier.
Skills: Climb, Gather Information, Jump, Knowledge (Geography), Knowledge (Nobility/Royalty), Ride, Search, Spot, Tumble

Code:
[U]Level	BAB		Fort	Ref	Will	Special[/U]
1st	+1		+2	+2	+0	See the Battlefield
2nd	+2		+3	+3	+0	Taking Advantage
3rd	+3		+3	+3	+1	Flanking Bonus
4th	+4		+4	+4	+1	
5th	+5		+4	+4	+1	Avoiding a Charge
6th	+6		+5	+5	+2	Free Movement
7th	+7		+5	+5	+2	Battlefield Positions
8th	+8		+6	+6	+2	
9th	+9		+6	+6	+3	Avoidance
10th	+10		+7	+7	+3	Provoke

Knights are trained to survey a battlefield within an instant and determine the best positions for allies and where the enemy would best position itself and then to use everything in the battlefield to his advantage as best as possible. Knights do a great variety of tasks and have learned that virtually any location could potentially be a battlefield, whether is an actual battlefield, or if it's the inside of a tavern or upon the streets. Enemies are lurking everywhere and he must be ready to use everything to his advantage when fighting.

Taking Advantage (Ex): Knights are always ready to take advantage of when foes leave themselves open. When they take an Attack of Opportunity against an opponent, they add their Knight level on damage rolls if they successfully hit their target.

See the Battlefield (Ex): Knights excel at positioning themselves and their enemies. They also enjoying using every advantage they have available to them, such as maneuvers like Tripping and Bull Rushing. When attempting these maneuvers, they use what the enemy may [hopefully] not even be aware such as a branch sticking out of the ground, a crack in the street, etc. This grants them a +1 circumstance bonus on Tripping and Bull Rush attempts. This improves to +2 at 5th level and +3 at 8th level.

Flanking Bonus (Ex): Flanking is a useful tactical maneuver, and the Knights have learned to use this to their advantage. They gain an additional +2 bonus on attack rolls when flanking. At 8th level, the Knight also gains +2 damage against a flanked opponent.

Avoiding a Charge (Ex): Enemies charging forward is a dangerous thing and the Knights are trained that the best defense against such attacks is to straight up avoid them. As an Immediate Action, they may take a 5' step [which does not provoke Attacks of Opportunity] out of the way to avoid an enemy when they are using the Charge Action, Bull Rush Action or Trample Action. In cases where they are unable to completely escape such an attack [for example, if the enemy has a long reach], their sudden motion grants them a +4 bonus on their Armor Class or Reflex Save to avoid the hit or trample, respectively.

Free Movement (Ex): The ground can be tricky or slippery. This can slow movement down and while the Knights prefer the enemies to suffer from such penalties, the Knights themselves do not. They can move freely upon the ground without being forced to make Balance checks to stand or taking movement penalties for difficult ground. This does not allow them to walk on objects they are normally unable to walk on, however, such as water, nor does it grant them any bonus in Balance checks if they are attempting to balance on a narrow ledge or wire.

Battlefield Positions (Su): Sometimes, allies are just not in a good position, such as one who has inadvertently let himself be surrounded. Or, the Knight needs an ally in a better position, such as when attempting to flank, but there is no one there. Enemies also frequently tend to put themselves into annoying positions, such as archers in trees or leave themselves open for a good shove but no one else is around, such as when they stand a little too close to an open pit. As a Move Action, he may move an ally or enemy up to that creature's movement. This is a Command that the Knight makes to which is immediately followed out. The creature uses it's fastest/easiest mode of movement to move to where it is Commanded, though they cannot go through a creature or object unless the creature is somehow able to. If a creature cannot move to a specific spot, it moves to that stop to the best ability using the movement is has. Despite moving, the creature does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

This is usable a number of times per day equal to 1 + the Knight's Intelligence modifier. Those targeted may make Fortitude saves [DC 10 + Knight's level + Int modifier] to avoid being pulled into the new square. Soldiers under the direct command of the Knight suffer a -2 penalty on this save, though few soldiers should willingly go against their officer's will.

Avoidance (Su): This ability works as the Evasion ability except that the Knight can use this ability no matter what type of armor they are wearing. When attempting to Avoid a spell, the Knight may move up to 5' per two Knight levels in any direction only if there is something to hide behind [This does not provoke attacks of opportunity despite moving through threatening squares, though the Knight still cannot pass through the physical square an enemy is occupying. For a Medium creature, the object to hide behind must be Medium or Larger or a creature Large or Larger. If there is nothing of the sort, the Knight is unable to avoid the attack.

Provoke (Ex): As a Full-round action, the Knight may strike an opponent just right to open an opponent for attack. This can be to knock him off-balance slightly, lower his shield, anything. The effect of this attack is that it causes the opponent to provoke attacks of opportunity for all allies within 5 feet of the enemy.
 
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Arkhandus

First Post
Hmm. At first look, it seems rather strong, but I dunno. Just a few things to mention right now:

1) Avoidance, Allied Positions, and Enemy Positions should specify if their movements provoke attacks of opportunity.

2) Those same abilities don't specify anything about whether or not the movement has to be over ground or similar surfaces; unless you specify otherwise, they could just as easily toss an enemy or ally or the Knight up into the air or something (or shove them underwater or under lava or over a cliff or the like).

That could be damaging and disruptive to someone, tossing them easily up into the air each turn to fall and hit the ground for several d6 of damage and landing prone if they're not good at Tumble or the like. They would then have to waste their turn on standing back up and trying to approach again, only for the Knight to repeat the process easily every single turn until the creature dies helplessly from repeated falling damage, unable to even make an attack unless it has a ranged weapon.

3) Allied Positions should allow a saving throw to resist. An ally won't always want to be shoved aside, no matter what the Knight thinks is best, and the Knight could always use the ability to shove an ally into harm's way (or off a cliff....) if he felt like it, since 'ally' is a vague term. The ally could, for example, be a fiend that the party has temporarily joined forces with. Once the fight is just about over, though, the Knight could shove it into a pool of lava or something else, for example, unresisted. Sure, it's not terribly likely, but allies should still have the option of attempting a save against the ability, when they feel like it.

4) The save DC for Enemy Positions seems rather high, but I'm not sure yet if it's TOO high. The character is likely to have a huge Strength score, and it's far, FAR, FAAAARRR easier to pump up Strength in D&D than it is to bump up a spellcasting stat like Intelligence.
 

Dog Moon

Adventurer
Thank you for your post; I appreciate it.

I agree with all of your points and believe I addressed every one of your points and made changes accordingly [I made this class in about an hour starting a little bit before midnight, so I don't think I did too badly. :)]. The movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity and I explained the movement and how it works for Enemy/Allied Positions, which I renamed to Battlefield positions.

The save DC has also been slightly modified and uses Int instead of Str. While I think Cha may be slightly more appropriate, I view this class as using Int more than Cha, so it should be fine enough.

If you have any more suggestions or comments, I would certainly like to hear them, as well as comments from anyone else who might be passing by.
 

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