Superior [expert class]People have always sort to exceed their natural limits, both out of a sense of manifest destiny and to reach out to some concept of the divine. Superiors are one expression of this, physical powerhouses of striking appearance and capacity for violence. Depending on the campaign, a Superior can be...
- A genetically engineered super-soldier
- The next stage of evolution
- Members of an elite warrior sect
- A young hero granted the favour of the gods
Party Role: Combatant. Superiors develop their bodies to peak human performance (and perhaps beyond) and though that can compliment social and intellectual aspects of their character, they still find their greatest expression in physical conflict.
Class Features Requirements: Constitution 13+, Impress 4+ ranks, Resolve 4+ ranks, Guts
Favoured Attributes: Strength, Charisma
Vitality: 12 + Con modifier per level.
Class Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Impress, Intimidate, Medicine, Notice, Resolve, Sense Motive
Skill Points: 4 + Int modifier.
Caster Level: Each level taken in this class increases your Caster Level by 1.
Core Ability Unstoppable Force: Once a Superior begins to exert herself, it seems like there is no stopping her! Each time you spend one or more action dice to increase a Strength-based attack check or skill check, you also benefit from a single Refresh action using the result of that roll.
Class Abilities Blockbuster: At Level 1, you are considered one size category larger for all bull rush, trip, and grappling attempts and your Strength is considered (5 + class level) higher for carrying capacity and Strength-based skill checks. Additionally, exactly once, when you level you may choose to reduce any single attribute by 2 in order to either gain Hearty Appetite or else increase your size by 1 category to a maximum of Large (1x1).
Unearthly Splendour: Your body subtly shifts towards an ideal physical form. At levels 2 & 7, you gain the Unearthly Splendour feat.
Agoge: At levels 3, 5, 7 & 9, you take one step along the Path of either
the Bat, Travel or War. If you don't possess a ritual weapon, the benefits of War apply to your unarmed attacks.
Bulwark I: Your presence is a shield. At level 4, once per scene as a free action, you may expend your spell points to grant you and any team mates who remain adjacent to you an amount of subdual resistance equal to the points spent that lasts until the end of the scene.
Additionally, once per scene as a full action you may spend 2 spell points to automatically cast Brawn I on yourself. Bulwark II: At level 8, your Bulwark I ability also generates an equal amount of stress resistance.
Additionally, once per scene as a full action you may spend 4 spell points to automatically cast either Brawn II or Wits I on yourself. Drop Zone: At level 4, so long as you aren't
paralyzed,
unconscious, or dying you instead suffer subdual damage when falling and the distance between damage dice increases from 10 ft to 5 ft x your class level. Also, you gain
superior jumper I. You lose these abilities if you wear moderate or heavy armor.
Adamant: At Level 6, your three lowest attributes each rise by 1.
Wuxia I: At Level 8, your Jump results are no longer limited by your height and the distance you Jump increases by 50% (rounded up).
Self-Perfection: At Level 10, your three lowest attributes each rise by 2, your other attributes each rise by 1.
Level | | | BAB | | | Fort | | | Ref | | | Will | | | Def | | | Init | | | Lifestyle | | | Legend | | | SP | | | Class Abilities |
1 | | | +0 | | | +2 | | | +1 | | | +0 | | | +1 | | | +0 | | | +1 | | | +1 | | | 1 | | | Blockbuster, unstoppable force |
2 | | | +1 | | | +3 | | | +2 | | | +0 | | | +1 | | | +1 | | | +2 | | | +1 | | | 2 | | | Unearthly splendour |
3 | | | +2 | | | +3 | | | +2 | | | +1 | | | +2 | | | +1 | | | +2 | | | +2 | | | 3 | | | Agoge |
4 | | | +3 | | | +4 | | | +2 | | | +1 | | | +2 | | | +2 | | | +2 | | | +2 | | | 4 | | | Bulwark I, drop zone |
5 | | | +3 | | | +4 | | | +3 | | | +1 | | | +3 | | | +2 | | | +3 | | | +3 | | | 5 | | | Agoge |
6 | | | +4 | | | +5 | | | +3 | | | +2 | | | +4 | | | +2 | | | +3 | | | +3 | | | 6 | | | Adamant |
7 | | | +5 | | | +5 | | | +4 | | | +2 | | | +4 | | | +3 | | | +4 | | | +4 | | | 7 | | | Agoge, unearthly splendour |
8 | | | +6 | | | +6 | | | +4 | | | +2 | | | +5 | | | +3 | | | +4 | | | +4 | | | 8 | | | Bulwark II, wuxia I |
9 | | | +6 | | | +6 | | | +4 | | | +3 | | | +5 | | | +4 | | | +4 | | | +5 | | | 9 | | | Agoge |
10 | | | +7 | | | +7 | | | +5 | | | +3 | | | +6 | | | +4 | | | +5 | | | +5 | | | 10 | | | Self perfection |
Since Val asked so nicely, here's my translation of it. I've stripped out somewhere between a third to a half of the original in favour of benefits using the new tools to hand that aim to achieve a similar flavour.
To whit, the abilities dealing with psionics are gone to make way for
Agoge because that seemed the best suited to the idea of the class as a supersoldier, even though Superhuman was nice. I had considered Path of Strength, but
Blockbuster renders most of that moot. The size boost of the original is now something you have to pay extra for instead of being a freebie
Take It has been transformed into
Bulwark in order to give the class something to help it play better with others. I'm not terribly bothered by the idea of a mage/avatar abusing this because any spell points spent on Bulwark aren't being spent on any spells. The formerly high lifestyle was dropped to medium to pay for the SP progression
Given the Candidate feat doesn't exist at the moment,
Bioefficiency was dropped partly because I like my superhumans with hearty appetites and partly so I could use the nearest equivalent to the feat it granted as an entry requirement (which also has the added advantage of allowing the class to play with non-humans: pech and half-orc avatars are cool).
While the the style feats of the original do have mastercraft counterparts,
Unearthly Appearance just worked better for me as the expression of that aspect of the class, and by targeting the lower of two attributes gives a more rounded end product in line with
Self PerfectionWuxia ran into the problem that granting it as a D slot power potentially makes for "a dead level" for people entering late from or returning to martial artist, so moving Wuxia I to the 8th level slot and bringing in Dropzone at 4th at least solves that.
ETA: Tweaked Bulwark to take the possibility of someone picking up the Spell Power into account. In short, it's an option I like in much the same way that picking up Blessed is a sensible idea for classes such as this that offer only 4 steps of a Path
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