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[PTU] Highlander; Because I play Etrian Odyssey too much
Topic Started: Nov 3 2014, 04:43 PM (2,164 Views)
DNA
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King of Thought
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Highlander

"Warriors from the far-off Highlands, commissioned to carry out their own special brand of justice. Their origins are shrouded in mystery, and their techniques even more so. A very peculiar and stoic fighter by nature, they focus on draining their own HP to devastating effect, using the weapon they know so well."

~~~

Highlanders are, at first glance, a combat class, but they have a rather unique playstyle, utilizing the style of 'high-risk, high-return'. For a Highlander, their strength comes from their own vitality; they drain their own life force into their attacks for devastating effect. All of their features, save one, have two effects: an initial base effect that can be used for relatively little cost, and a secondary effect that may be used to add to it, but at the cost of your own resources (either spending extra HP, AP, or both). You can achieve a lot as a Highlander, but take care not to over-extend yourself.

Combat Role: Active
Field Role: None
AP Usage: High
Learning: No
Item Crafting: No
Active/Static: Active
Prime Mechanic: Spending your own HP to trigger features/increase power

If you are playing PTU 1.05, the stat tag is just [+HP]. No other changes are needed.

~~~

Feature List:

Highlander
[Class] [+1 HP] [+1 Any]
Prerequisities: Weapon of Choice
Static
Effect: Attacks made with your Weapon of Choice, including those made through features, deal extra damage equal to your Combat rank, and cause Flinch on 19+. This range cannot be extended, except via Highlander features.
When making any attack with your Weapon of Choice, as a Swift Action, you may choose to lose 1/10 of your max HP to extend the Flinch range by 2 OR cause that attack to deal further extra damage equal to your Combat rank again, for that attack only. (You may choose to lose 2/10 of your max HP for both effects.)

Note: Several Highlander features cause the user to sacrifice his/her own HP to gain their effects, and the HP loss takes place BEFORE the attack or feature effect is fully executed. This can potentially cause injuries and possibly even fainting (or, in very rare cases, death). When this would happen, make sure you fully resolve the attack or feature BEFORE applying the effects of the new injury or fainting.


Turning Tide
[+1 HP] [+1 Any]
Prerequisities: Highlander
Scene - Free Action
Trigger: You damage an opponent with your attack using your Weapon of Choice, and cause it to faint
Effect: You, and all allies in the encounter within 3 metres of you, heal HP equal to your Combat Rank doubled.
Once per day, you may choose to extend the range of Turning Tide to "all allies in the encounter (regardless of range)" for that use only. However, if you do, it Drains 2 AP. (You can still only use Turning Tide once per scene.)


Allied Bonds
[+1 HP] [+1 Any]
Prerequisities: Highlander, Turning Tide
Static
Whenever you lose HP for a Highlander feature, you can choose 1 ally within 3 metres of you, and heal his/her HP by an amount equal to half the HP you lost. (Do this after fully resolving the other feature.)
If, when you lost HP for a Highlander feature, you gained an injury in the process, the ally you choose to heal may also remove 1 injury of his/her choice. (This effect may only happen once per day. It is still subject to the maximum number of injuries that may be healed per day.)


Battle Instinct
[+1 HP] [+1 Any]
Prerequisites: Highlander, Adept Combat
Daily - Standard Action, Priority
Trigger: An encounter starts.
Effect: At the start of the battle (before anyone takes a turn), you may use Safeguard, as if it were on your move list, as a Priority move.


Blood Fortune
[+1 HP] [+1 Any]
Prerequisities: Highlander, Battle Instinct
At-Will - Standard Action
Effect: Choose either yourself or 1 willing ally within 3 metres. The target loses 1/10 of its max HP, and for the target's next X/2 turns after this one (rounding down), the Effect Range of all of that ally's attacks is increased by 2. (X is your Combat Rank.) If you targeted an ally for this, you can choose to lose the HP in place of your ally.
Once per scene, if Blood Fortune's effect would wear off on an ally or yourself, that player can choose to lose 1/10 of its max HP to set the duration back to its maximum. (You can't lose the HP in place of your ally in this case; Blood Fortune's benefactor has to pay for it him/herself.)
Blood Fortune can only target the same ally once per encounter, cannot stack with itself, and has no effect outside of combat.


Draining Thrust
[+1 HP] [+1 Any]
Prerequisites: Highlander, Expert Combat
Static
Effect: Gain the move Draining Thrust. Draining Thrust is a move (and thus can be disabled, etc.) made with your Weapon of Choice, with the following properties:
~*Accuracy Check = Varies based on your Weapon of Choice (see below)
~Frequency = EOT
~*Damage Base = Varies based on your Weapon of Choice (see below)
~Type = Typeless
~*Range = Varies based on your Weapon of Choice (see below)
~Damage Class = Physical
~Keywords = Smite, sometimes (see effect)
~Other Effects = You can only use this move while equipped with your Weapon of Choice.
When you declare the use Draining Thrust, you lose either 1/10, 2/10, or 3/10 of your max HP. Each willing ally within 3 metres of you can also choose to lose 1/10 of his/her max HP. For each tenth of HP lost in this way, this move's Damage Base (for that use only) increases by 1. Losing HP to increase the Damage Base in this way is done BEFORE rolling the Accuracy Check.
You can't increase the Damage Base by more than 6 in this way. If you/your allies lost enough HP to increase the move's Damage Base by 4 or more, this move gains the Smite keyword for that use only.

*The starting Damage Base, Accuracy Check, and Range of this move depends on what type of weapon your Weapon of Choice is:
~Small Melee Weapon: AC4; DB6; Melee, 1 Target
~Large Melee Weapon: AC5; DB7; Melee, 1 Target
~Short-Range Weapon: AC4; DB5; Ranged 4, 1 Target
~Thrown Weapon: AC4; DB5; Ranged 6, 1 Target
~Long-Range Weapon: AC5; DB6; Ranged 12, 1 Target (but no closer than Ranged 4)

For the purposes of Forewarn, Draining Thrust's Damage Base is whatever its cap is (so 11 for Short-Range weapons, 12 for Small Melee and Long-Range weapons, and 13 for Large Melee weapons).

(For example, if you choose to use Draining Thrust, your Weapon of Choice is a small melee weapon, and there are 2 allies within 3 metres of you who each wish to give up 1/10 of their max HP, plus you also spend 2/10 of your max HP, Draining Thrust would have a DB of 10: 6 at base, plus 1 from an ally, plus 1 from the other, plus 2 from yourself. Then you roll the Accuracy check.)


Bloodlust
[+1 HP] [+1 Any]
Prerequisites: Highlander, Master Combat, Turning Tide, Blood Fortune
1 AP - Free Action
Trigger: You're hit by an opponent's damaging attack, while your Weapon of Choice is equipped
Effect: You make a Struggle Attack with your Weapon of Choice against the attacker. (You may not Shift while doing this, unless an outside effect permits you to do so. Thus, your attacker must be within range of your Struggle Attack without you moving.)
You may only use Bloodlust at most 3 times per round of initiative, provided you meet the trigger each time. The first time each round may be used at no extra cost; the second and third times each round Drain 1 AP instead.


~~~

Been on my mind for a while to make this class, but never bothered to make it until now. I know I'm rather wordy, so I apologize for whatever wading you will have to do. I know the class is much stronger when your own HP is low, so that's why it has the HP tag, to prevent exploitation. (A lot of the things in the class are also exploitable, to a degree, which is why some things have caveats to prevent that.) Since the class requires Weapon of Choice, it is somewhat synergistic with Weapon Specialist, but only as far as the base feature (or, at least, that was my intent).

Comments, critiques, and criticism are very much appreciated! After it's been edited enough and deemed 'acceptable', I'll put up a Notepad file of it here for people to download.
Attached to this post:
Attachments: Highlander_PTU_Class.txt (7.18 KB)
Edited by DNA, Mar 8 2015, 04:34 PM.
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Lwmons
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Lemon
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I think it looks pretty good. Might want to change that "Heal HP" to "Gain Temporary HP" though, seems a bit more thematic and accurate for what it is supposed to represent.
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DNA
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King of Thought
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...actually, the Highlander actually does heal HP when using Turning Tide; there is no concept of 'temp HP' in Etrian Odyssey.

In the interest of things I'm going to actually leave it as actual HP, because I compare it to the other class feature Affirmation, which grants temp HP but is At-Will; Turning Tide grants actual HP, but is Scene.

It doesn't really suffer that much if I leave that one as is, but I thank you for the input!
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Onidrill
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Allied Bonds lets a particularly bulky Highlander heal better than a Musician, and with better turn economy. They do have to spend their own HP to do it, but for a passive, static effect that doesn't cost any more than what you're already spending, it's pretty powerful.
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Elemental Knight
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Knight of the Spread Sheet
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Highlander + Cook = Amazing, because Leftovers. Or if they can somehow get Ingrain, Aqua Ring, or other regenerative effects.

If one has Pokeballs as their Weapon of Choice, do they need to have one equipped? Pokeballs are kind of weird like that, in that they're weapons for some people but not for most, and they typically aren't 'equipped' so much as 'thrown from the backpack'.

I really like Turning Tide. Nothin' more to say about it, but it sounds like something everyone would love when it's activated that one time per fight.

I understood what was going on with the class and it seems kinda interesting, but I do worry that someone somewhere is gonna find a good way to exploit the heck out of it. I just don't know what it is off the top of my head.
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Captain_Six
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Fightsmith
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The question about equipping pokeballs applies to all thrown weapons.
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DNA
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@Onidrill: Is that a bad thing? If you're spending 12 and a nearby ally is healing 6, that isn't too bad. Granted, you will be probably near your allies anyway, but it prevents weird stuff from happening - plus, it lets you play some nice support if you want to try out Blood Fortune or whatever. Would you suggest something different, though?

@EK: If you have Poke Balls as a weapon of choice, then yes, you need to have one equipped. As Captain_Six said, that'd be the case for any thrown weapon: you need to actually be wielding one. But that makes Draining Thrust look all the more hilarious visually.
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Dark_Star
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Kinda off-topic, but does anyone know if it's possible, using only the official, non-homebrew stuff, for a trainer to get Drain Punch or a similar move on their movelist? I just think that'd make a class like this incredibly good.

On topic, this looks like a very cool and interesting class, and could possibly reach insane levels of power if paired with some source of healing, such as a Medic or a Musician. So, basically, like any other variant on the "Casts From HP" character concept.
Edited by Dark_Star, Nov 5 2014, 04:13 AM.
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castfromhp
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Mawile Ace
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Disciple learns Drain Punch.
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DNA
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King of Thought
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Quote:
 
"Casts From HP"

har har har

I had another friend of mine review this, and based on the suggestions, I made the following small tweaks:
~The Base Feature's capability to deal extra damage/flinch range is a Swift Action
~Turning Tide requires your KO to be with your Weapon of Choice
~Battle Instinct now has you use Safeguard with the "Priority" Keyword (basically you would forfeit your turn on round 1)
~Blood Fortune's effect range expander now caps at 3 with Virtuoso, or 2 without it (instead of 4 and 3)
~Draining Thrust is now re-written to grant a move by that name - technically not a mechanical change, but it makes things a bit clearer, e.g. Draining Thrust can be disabled, and so on

I have also attached the Notepad file if you want a .txt format file, such as to show to a GM for approval in your campaign or whatever. (I would have before, but I wanted to scrutinize it first before doing so.)

Enjoy Highlander!
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