Night Cloak (Expert Class)

[Big_Jim]

I had a secret society/guild/brotherhood set for my campaign setting that was kinda like harpers-turned-armoral.. or something. Basically, bad asses for hire, often working both sides (good and evil) with a series of goals that aren't really ever revealed. One may be acting as a bodyguard of the pope, while another is an evil cult's nastiest assassin - and the organization as a whole is fine with this. They've got a plan or reasons for these weird contradictions, just you never mind.

Well, I didn't have anything that made them stand out... which was kinda cool - you would never know when you were dealing with one if their plots, etc. Then I saw the Cloak Brother B/M/S feat chain and read the excerpt from the Shattered World by Michael Reaves. That worked for my needs. My bad asses now had an iconic look, weapon, and fighting style. That in turn made me want an expert class that would really turn them up to eleven. Also, you can play medieval Batman with this. Sweet!

NIGHT CLOAK (EXPERT)
There are those for whom subterfuge and shadows are not only a way of life, but preferred. Not all such men are of low morals, however. No, some are quite noble and desire justice that is at odds with their habits of skulking in alleys. No matter their disposition, many choose a most unassuming weapon; the weapon cloak (and therefore practice subterfuge of the highest caliber).
Such men practice with their cloaks, learning the subtle nuances and uses of these versatile, difficult to master weapons. But those that master them are quite dangerous, and they can exude an aura of menace with a flip of cloth that would be envied by the most powerful in land. Such is the way of the Night Cloak.

Depending on your campaign, a Night Cloak could be...
•   A dark avenger of the night, protecting those less capable.
•   An able enforcer, silent in bearing, but speaking volumes with a glare.
•   A man of mystery, swooping in with fluttering cloak, dealing with miscreants, and just as quickly disappearing into the darkness again.
•   A spy, able to get to intelligence others thought safe in the heart of a castle.
•   An assassin, seemingly unarmed, until it’s too late.

Party Role: Combatant. Sneaky and deadly, the Night Cloak is a capable combatant at low levels, and a bag of tricks at higher levels.

CLASS FEATURES
Requirements: Dexterity 13+, Intimidate 4+ ranks, Sneak 4+ ranks, Weapon Cloak Basics
Favored Attributes: Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom
Class Skills: Acrobatics, Blend, Bluff, Intimidate, Notice, Prestidigitation, Resolve, Sense Motive, Sneak, Tactics
Skill Points: 6 + Int mod per Level
Vitality: 9 + Con mod per Level

CORE ABILITY
Silent and Nimble: You travel the rooftops and alleys as others do a simple street. Your Dexterity score rises by 1. Also, at Level 1 and for each Class Level thereafter, you gain 1 additional skill point that must be spent on Acrobatics or Sneak.

CLASS ABILITIES
Clothes Make the Man: At Level 1, when wearing a cloak, you gain a gear bonus to Intimidate equal to your class level.
Cut From a Different Cloth I: At Level 2, you gain the Weapon Cloak Mastery feat and your maximum rank in Acrobatics increases to your Career Level + 5.
Cut From a Different Cloth II: At Level 7, you gain the Weapon Cloak Supremacy feat and your maximum rank in Acrobatics increases to your Career Level + 7.
Bonus Feat: At Levels 3, 5, 7, and 9, you gain an additional Covert or Melee Combat feat.
Uncanny Dodge I: Your senses are supremely sharp, letting you react quickly to danger. At Level 4, you retain your Dexterity bonus to Defense (if any) even when flat-footed.
Uncanny Dodge II: At Level 8, you never become flanked.
Urban Legend: To your foes you appear out of nowhere and your gaze pierce their souls. At Level 4, each time you fail a Sneak or Sense Motive check and don’t suffer an error, you still succeed as long as the check DC (or your opponent’s check result) is equal to or less than your Class Level + 20. If several grades of success are possible, you achieve only the lowest possible positive result.
If you gain this ability for either skill from two or more classes, add together your levels in all classes granting the ability when determining its effect.
I’ll Cut You! I: At Level 6, each time you successfully Anticipate, Disarm, Distract, Feint, Taunt, or Tire an adjacent opponent, he must also make a Reflex save (DC 10 + the number of Covert feats you possess + your Dex modifier) or begin bleeding.
More Than Just Cloth: You get the most out of your cloak. At Level 8, you may use a weapon cloak to perform hammer, shield, and whip tricks.
Versatility Exemplified: Your cloak is flexible... and versatile. At level 10, if you can perform tricks with your weapon cloak of a different weapon type than the cloak, then your cloak now also counts as that type of weapon for the purposes of feats and abilities only (it’s type does not actually change).
Example: If you have Flail Mastery (which grants use of club and garrote tricks to your flail), then your readied Weighted-Cloak (a flail-type weapon) now counts as a readied 1 handed club, flail, garrote, hammer, shield, and/or whip for benefits from your feats and abilities, but not for actual use of proficiencies.

CLASS LEVEL CHART
BAB: High
Fort: Low
Ref: High
Will: Med
Def: Med
Init: Med
Life: Low
Leg: Med

NPC CLASS ABILITIES
Class Ability                  XP Value
Urban Legend                    2
More Than Just Cloth          5
Versatility Exemplified         10

MELEE COMBAT FEATS
WEAPON CLOAK BASICS
You have learned the use of a most unusual weapon – one that most would never recognize as one…
Prerequisites: Edged or Blunt forte
Benefit: While wearing a cloak you gain a +2 gear bonus to feint, hide, and stash checks. While wearing a weapon cloak you also gain thick hide 2.
WEAPON CLOAK MASTERY
Your practice with a weapon cloak has revealed its more elegant tricks.
Prerequisites: Weapon Cloak Basics
Benefit: Your gear bonuses and thick hide from Weapon Cloak Basics increase to 3 each. While wearing a cloak, once per round as a free action you may attempt to disarm an adjacent opponent after they have missed you with an attack.
WEAPON CLOAK SUPREMACY
Let others have their toys. The only weapon you need is draped across your shoulders.
Prerequisites: Weapon Cloak Mastery
Benefit: Your gear bonuses and thick hide from Weapon Cloak Basics increase to 4 each. You also gain a trick.
Swirling Shadows (Cloak Anticipate Trick): Until your initiative count next round, if the target attacks you they must roll an additional die for each attack check and discard the highest result.

WEAPON CLOAKS
Weapon cloaks are specialized garments that contain modifications that allow their use as effective weapons in properly trained hands. Their use is fairly showy, with broad flaring sweeps and dramatic maneuvers that maximize the cloak’s concealing nature.
Blade-Cloak: This cloak has sharpened blades of some hard material sewn into the hem. This allows those skilled in its use to slash at their opponents with whipping, whirling attacks. Its weapon category is ‘Edged (Knife)’ for proficiency, use, feats and effects.
Weighted-Cloak: This cloak had relatively heavy weights concealed inside its corners, which facilitates its use as a surprisingly effective striking weapon. Its weapon category is ‘Blunt (Flail)’ for proficiency, use, feats and effects.
Master Cloak: This is the trademark garment of a true cloak-fighter. It is, in effect, a Weighted-Blade-Cloak. It counts as both a Blade-Cloak and a Weighted-Cloak for effects that require such distinction (feats, abilities, etc.) and when making an attack with it, it operates as whichever of the two you desires for that attack (See the cloak descriptions, above).

Table X.XX: Weapon Cloaks
Name                          Dmg      Threat     Qualities                       SZ/Hand    Const   Comp  Weight     Era       Cost
Blunt Weapons (Flails)
Weighted-Cloak*  1d6 subdual  20   Grip, lightweight, pummel      M/1h        Soft 2   10D     10 lbs.  Ancient    50s
Edged Weapons (Knives)   
Blade-Cloak*          1d6 lethal    20   Double, grip, lightweight      M/2h       Soft 2   15W      5 lbs.   Feudal    100s
Combination Weapons
                            Damage, Threat, Qualities and Hand are                                                                           
Master Cloak**         determined by the weapon’s use as a      M/See Left   Soft 2  20W     10 lbs.   Feudal    150s
                              Weighted-Cloak or a Blade-Cloak for
                             each individual attack, as appropriate.

[Mister Andersen]

I'd swap your first level and core abilities

[Big_Jim]

I'd swap your first level and core abilities

Hmmm. The core is the same mechanically (+1 to a stat, +1skill rank for one of two skills) as the core for Force of Nature. That and I want the scary mystique offor all the Night Cloaks, not just those with the core ability.

Maybe there is some tweak to the abilities that makes the theme work without losing the "I'm scary when I'm wearing a sheet." effect as the Establishing (A) ability.

[Mister Andersen]

The problem is your current 1st level ability is pretty piss weak: a conditional +1 bonus to a single skill. While yes it eventually builds to an additional +10 on your check by the end of the class, on it's own it's not worth the effort.

I'd suggest that you drop it all together and combine it with the C-slot abilities to form a spine that we'll call "I Am The Night" until someone pipes up that it's already taken. IATN would let you take the previously nominated bonus feats or a step along one or both of the Path of the Bat or Path of Night.

Your 8th and 10th level abilities are also problematic as thanks to the hugely irritating flaw in Mastercraft's design that restricts such things to feats, you can only pick up weapon tricks by taking a dedicated chain to at least mastery level instead of far more sensibly being able to purchase them on their own using your proficiency slots. Assuming the character picks up the rest of the cloak chain and keeps their 3 level based feats (6/9/12) for other categories, that's precisely 1 non-cloak trick and 1 weapon type.

Cloaks also need more thought; a knife cloak is just a cloak with the spike upgrade. More later.

[Big_Jim]

The problem is your current 1st level ability is pretty piss weak: a conditional +1 bonus to a single skill. While yes it eventually builds to an additional +10 on your check by the end of the class, on it's own it's not worth the effort.

So it could be perked up. Noted.

I'd suggest that you drop it all together and combine it with the C-slot abilities to form a spine that we'll call "I Am The Night" until someone pipes up that it's already taken. IATN would let you take the previously nominated bonus feats or a step along one or both of the Path of the Bat or Path of Night.

I don't know. I really think that ability needs to be there, but some of the stuff in the paths fit (others don't), and could be a replacement. Also, there's the problem of caster levels and path granted spells. I really don't want to give the class a genuine caster level - so if it has path access, it needs caster levels that only reference the path, like your suggestions for the JoAT. I'll mull the possibilities over.

Your 8th and 10th level abilities are also problematic as thanks to the hugely irritating flaw in Mastercraft's design that restricts such things to feats, you can only pick up weapon tricks by taking a dedicated chain to at least mastery level instead of far more sensibly being able to purchase them on their own using your proficiency slots. Assuming the character picks up the rest of the cloak chain and keeps their 3 level based feats (6/9/12) for other categories, that's precisely 1 non-cloak trick and 1 weapon type.

Baring is mind that your feat presumptions ignore the character's 1-4 build, and that you'll have the cloak chain thanks to the 2 and 7 slot whether you like it or not, what about the wording of the gamebreaker? Does it get across what I was trying to say? I haven't had any of the people I've bounced this class off of have a problem comprehending it with the example there, but I did before I added it.

Cloaks also need more thought; a knife cloak is just a cloak with the spike upgrade. More later.

Well, I wholeheartedly disagree with you on this one.

[Mister Andersen]

I don't know. I really think that ability needs to be there, but some of the stuff in the paths fit (others don't), and could be a replacement. Also, there's the problem of caster levels and path granted spells. I really don't want to give the class a genuine caster level - so if it has path access, it needs caster levels that only reference the path, like your suggestions for the JoAT. I'll mull the possibilities over.

I'm a fan of caster level=starting AD in such cases.

Your 8th and 10th level abilities are also problematic as thanks to the hugely irritating flaw in Mastercraft's design that restricts such things to feats, you can only pick up weapon tricks by taking a dedicated chain to at least mastery level instead of far more sensibly being able to purchase them on their own using your proficiency slots. Assuming the character picks up the rest of the cloak chain and keeps their 3 level based feats (6/9/12) for other categories, that's precisely 1 non-cloak trick and 1 weapon type.

Baring is mind that your feat presumptions ignore the character's 1-4 build, and that you'll have the cloak chain thanks to the 2 and 7 slot whether you like it or not, what about the wording of the gamebreaker? Does it get across what I was trying to say? I haven't had any of the people I've bounced this class off of have a problem comprehending it with the example there, but I did before I added it.

Hmm, I managed to miss that ability. However, that makes it just 2 mastery-level melee chains and only 2 tricks, which still is rather weak for career level 12 and 14 level abilities. And while I get how the game breaker works, it really doesn't strike me as being overly useful given you won't have access to any particularly significant number of weapon-specific character options.

I'm building my conjecture that that the character is most likely to come into the class through something like assassin (though they'd need to Origin skill Sneak), burglar, or martial artist, and would like to pick up at least a couple of covert feats prior to or during their career in the class as well as something like Glint of Madness since they're meant to be scary.

When it comes down to it, it's not wise to base abilities on the assumption people will have things the class doesn't explicitly give or require of them. Especially so very late in the game. Speaking of which, Cloak-fighting is far better suited as a covert chain Garrote B/M/S because (a) that does seem the whole point of the technique, and (b) I'll Cut You builds on Covert feats, which apart from being mentioned as a bonus feat option have no real integration with the class given your assumption charcters will all be taking melee weapon chains.

When you look at the various weapon chains, the one with the most synergy is perhaps not surprisingly Garrote B/M/S, followed by Club B/M/S and Flail B/M/S. Heck, Flail Mastery even lets you use the tricks of the other two chains. All of them are far beter conceptual fits than the hammer, shield or whip chains.

Cloaks also need more thought; a knife cloak is just a cloak with the spike upgrade. More later.

Well, I wholeheartedly disagree with you on this one.

Cloaks are clearly exotic blunt weapons -- I'd be really tempted to classify them as flails for the sake of mechanical benefit -- that have the double, finesse and guard qualities. Weighting it adds bludgeon, sticking blades in the hem adds spike.