[Tome] The Driller

The homebrew forum

Moderator: Moderators

Post Reply
shirak
Knight
Posts: 468
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Thessaloniki, Greece

[Tome] The Driller

Post by shirak »

"Ore no Drill wa ten no Tsukuru Drill da!"

To be a driller is to be a man! Your drill is your soul! It means never giving up! It means always fighting! IT MEANS SHOUTING ALL THE TIME!

Prerequisites
BAB: +5
Feat: Insightful Strike
Special: You must have a Drill

Hit Die: d10
BAB: Full
Good Saves: Fort, Ref and Will
Skill Points: 4+Int

Proficiencies: Drills. Obviously.


Level Abilities
1 Drill, Hot Blooded, Stubborn, Drilling Jump
2 Do the Impossible, Kick Reason to the Curb
3 See the Invisible, Epic Sunglasses, Ike yo, Kyodai!
4 Break the Unbreakable, Fight Da Powah!
5 Heaven Piercing Drill, Giga Drill Breaker!!!, Believe!


Drill: You gain a Burrow speed equal to your land speed. You must use your Drill to burrow and you leave a tunnel. You are specifically allowed to charge and/or run while Burrowing and you don't even have to run/charge in a straight line. Drilling Charges gain a bonus to attack equal to your Cha mod. You ignore the Hardness of stone, earth and dirt. You gain the title [The Digger].

Hot Blooded: In combat, if there is no Surprise round, the Driller gains her own Surprise round. If there IS a Surprise round, the Driller can act in it, going first. The only action a Driller is allowed is a Drilling Charge.

Heroic Willpower: You gain Iron Will as a bonus feat.

Drill Jump: You gain a bonus equal to your Cha mod to Jump checks for every 5' you burrowed during this round. Ignore any maximum distance for Jump checks.

Do the Impossible: You ignore the Immunities, Resistances and DR of creatures. Additionally, creatures provoke an attack of opportunity from you if they say “That's impossible” or anything along those lines.

Kick Reason to the Curb: You may cast Word of Chaos 1/day. You can only use this ability if you have your Drill on hand. Any Trip attempt you make against Lawful creatures has The Edge.

See the Invisible: You gain Ghost Hunter as a bonus feat.

Epic Sunglasses: Any Headgear you have turns into a pair of Epic Sunglasses. In addition to any other benefits you become Immune to Light damage, immune to Blindness and you gain a +4 bonus to your Diplomacy and Intimidate checks. If you don't have headgear your Epic Sunglasses materialize out of thin air and the sheer awesomeness of your soul.

Ike yo, Kyodai! : Whenever you are under a detrimental magical effect that prevents you from moving or is [Mind Affecting], you have a flashback. At the beginning of your next round you are free of the effect and forever more immune to this effect from this caster. Note that, while your character has to have a flashback, you and the rest of the party don't have to go through it every single time.

Break the Unbreakable: As a Full Round Action you may Disintegrate a number of continuous 10-foot cubes equal to your class level. Caster level equal to your character level. You move along the path of disintegration since it is actually ultra-fast drilling though you do not provoke AoOs. You must end your round within the last 10-foot cube you disintegrate. You can only use this ability if you have your Drill on hand.

Fight Da Powah!: You have The Edge against any opponent with more hit dice/levels than you and they can never have The Edge over you. You can only use this ability if you have your Drill on hand.

Heaven-Piercing Drill: Your Drill pierces the heavens! You may use Teleport without Error and Planeshift but you may only affect yourself plus 50 pounds. You can only use this ability if you have your Drill on hand.

Giga Drill Breaker!!! : As an Immediate action with a lot of special FX, throw your Epic Sunglasses at an enemy within charging distance. If they cannot succeed on a Reflex check (DC 10+ half level + Cha mod) they may not move until the end of your next round. During your next round you MUST make a Charge attack against them with your Drill and it is an automatic critical hit. Your Epic Sunglasses return to you then. Note that the three exclamation points are an essential part of the name which is shouted by your character whenever you use this. The exclamation points are shouted extra loudly.

Believe! : All allies within 30' of you gain a bonus to Will checks equal to your Cha mod. Any and all Morale bonuses affecting allies within 30' are increased by 1. When you Aid Another increase the bonus you provide by your Cha mod.




Drill
This Major Weapon requires a special proficiency.
Reach: 5'
Damage: 1d6 Piercing damage per 2 levels. Strength modifier still applies. Remember that it's 2-handed.
Critical Hit: 20 x4

Special:

Your Drill is your Soul. It cannot be disarmed, sundered or even harmed in any way and it is weightless. However, if you don't have a soul you can't have one. You can materialize your Drill as easily as others draw their swords. Obviously, you can only have one and it disappears if you lay it aside.

The Drill is really good at destroying things. You may roll critical hits against objects as if they were creatures. This includes Constructs and living objects.

You may shatter a Force Effect with your Drill by inflicting 30 damage on it. You may also roll Critical hits against Force Effects.

Edit: New abilities and clarifications. v1.2
Last edited by shirak on Sat Apr 10, 2010 1:52 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Mask_De_H
Duke
Posts: 1995
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:17 pm

Post by Mask_De_H »

This is pretty glorious. I know it breaks up the song, but I think Fight the Power and Do the Impossible should be switched. Cockslapping any and all physical resistances is pretty killer, even if it loses to illusions and such.

I could see a standard loadout Tome Barbarian/Fighter being scary with this.
FrankTrollman wrote: Halfling women, as I'm sure you are aware, combine all the "fun" parts of pedophilia without any of the disturbing, illegal, or immoral parts.
K wrote:That being said, the usefulness of airships for society is still transporting cargo because it's an option that doesn't require a powerful wizard to show up for work on time instead of blowing the day in his harem of extraplanar sex demons/angels.
Chamomile wrote: See, it's because K's belief in leaving generation of individual monsters to GMs makes him Chaotic, whereas Frank's belief in the easier usability of monsters pre-generated by game designers makes him Lawful, and clearly these philosophies are so irreconcilable as to be best represented as fundamentally opposed metaphysical forces.
Whipstitch wrote:You're on a mad quest, dude. I'd sooner bet on Zeus getting bored and letting Sisyphus put down the fucking rock.
shirak
Knight
Posts: 468
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Thessaloniki, Greece

Post by shirak »

On the one hand, a Fire Mage's Ray of Light comes online at lvl 14. On the other hand, a Fire Mage does more damage per attack and can TWF for more attacks. On the Griping Hand, a Driller does crazy high crits. I'd call them about even but I'll have to check the math. Maybe move the prerequisite BAB up?

And the really scary Drillers are Samurai. Automatic (6d6+STR+Bonuses)x7 8 times a day anyone?
Rejakor
Master
Posts: 199
Joined: Sun Jun 07, 2009 6:25 pm
Location: Like Wales, but New and South

Post by Rejakor »

Not MY samurai. My samurai only do double damage with Kiai, because otherwise all samurai use war scythes, and that's silly. However I do allow Kiai to double crits (not add an extra multiplier, double the multiplier), because then you get Heaven Shattering Strikes, which are just awesome.

Lower the requirements so a level 5/6 character can take this. There is no reason to be level 11 to get this. Break the Unbreakable is strong, but the rest of the class doesn't really synergize with anything. Change Break the Unbreakable to be a standard action that may be taken only once per round, and allow the player to 'move with' the disintegration without provoking AoOs or having to tumble to move through squares.

Hot Blooded should allow you to act in every surprise round, or create one if there is none (like the Ninja ability), furthermore, it should allow you to Iron Heart Surge the shit out of mind-affecting effects. It can also give Iron Will, that's cool too, but mainly the first two.

It's The Edge, not the Edge. Fight Da Powah (row row) should specify that your opponent can never gain The Edge against you if they have more hit dice/levels than you do(yes, two people can both have The Edge against each other, it's confusing, deal with it). Why? FIGHT DA POWAH.

The Driller needs to be able to Banish planar creatures with his drill.

Great class! I like it a lot.

-Rejakor
User avatar
Vebyast
Knight-Baron
Posts: 801
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 5:44 am

Post by Vebyast »

Something that's been bugging me: is this character class intended to automatically grant a Drill at some point?
DSMatticus wrote:There are two things you can learn from the Gaming Den:
1) Good design practices.
2) How to be a zookeeper for hyper-intelligent shit-flinging apes.
shirak
Knight
Posts: 468
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Thessaloniki, Greece

Post by shirak »

Version 1.1 is up. Hope this clarifies a few things.

Rejakor, lvl 5 seems excessive. I am open to persuasion however. Banishing things happens with Kick Reason to the Curb. I like Iron Heart Surge for Hot Blooded and I hope I did a credible job with Ike yo, Kyodai! The Surprise thing, not so much.
IGTN
Knight-Baron
Posts: 729
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:13 am

Post by IGTN »

Vebyast wrote:Something that's been bugging me: is this character class intended to automatically grant a Drill at some point?
It's a prereq.
"No, you can't burn the inn down. It's made of solid fire."
User avatar
Vebyast
Knight-Baron
Posts: 801
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 5:44 am

Post by Vebyast »

IGTN wrote:It's a prereq.
I think that was one of the changes he made in the last round of edits.

Further ideas:

Let him use his epic sunglasses to make ranged attacks. Treat as magic returning throwing axe, maybe.

You might want to make sure your Drill doesn't prevent you from using Heaven-Piercing Drill. It doesn't take very much metal to get up to 50 pounds, and a drill has to be pretty big to actually move earth.

Can a Drill roll crits against undead or oozes? It seems like it would fit better as "can roll crits against anything, I don't care what the rules say."

"Believe in me who believes in you!" as a short-term party buff?
DSMatticus wrote:There are two things you can learn from the Gaming Den:
1) Good design practices.
2) How to be a zookeeper for hyper-intelligent shit-flinging apes.
User avatar
Prak
Serious Badass
Posts: 17340
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Prak »

so, this guy:
Image
Rejakor
Master
Posts: 199
Joined: Sun Jun 07, 2009 6:25 pm
Location: Like Wales, but New and South

Post by Rejakor »

Considering relative power levels, this is perfect as a level 5 or 6 PrC. By the time you're level 12, you literally don't care about anything this class does, and you're basically punishing yourself by taking it. At no time should a class be either mandatory, or a punishment. Even the disintegration thing is only good against mooks/walls, and at level 12 you have other stuff to deal with both those things. If you're seriously worried about it, give the disintegrate ability a caster level of 3/4 character levels, which more than balances it as a 5th lev prestige.

Furthermore, if you're a drilldude, forcing someone to wait til 5th level to be a drill dude is hard enough. Forcing them to wait til 12th? Is just painful. At level 4 you have most of the thematic powers of the class. That's level 9 if it starts at level 5, giving you 4-5 levels of 'being a drill dude' to enjoy. If the class starts at level 12, you get.. 1 level, maybe? of being a drill dude. Which is kinda crap. Also compare these abilities against spells. A 12th level caster can emulate any of these quite easily and can do all sorts of other things as well. A 5th level can't. The Driller gets a bunch of stuff, but he doesn't get to pick from a list each morning. A caster does. Waiting until a caster can replicate all his abilities to let someone be him isn't balanced. Because the caster can replicate him and replicate a bunch of OTHER stuff the Driller can't.


Leaping into combat in the surprise round is really my view of Hot Blooded, if we're thinking of the same Hot-Blooded. I get where you're coming from with Iron Will, it does have the 'gets over bad stuff' element, but there's also and almost more importantly, the 'not looking before you leap' part. And really, automatically acting in the surprise round is only broken if wizards do it.

Ike Yo, Kyodai! Is fine. I like the flashback thing, it's a nice touch.

-Rejakor
shirak
Knight
Posts: 468
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Thessaloniki, Greece

Post by shirak »

Rejakor, you've convinced me on both counts. See above.
Vebyast wrote:
IGTN wrote:It's a prereq.
I think that was one of the changes he made in the last round of edits.
Yes, it was. Thanks for the heads up btw.
Vebyast wrote:Let him use his epic sunglasses to make ranged attacks. Treat as magic returning throwing axe, maybe.
Done, sort of. See Giga Drill Breaker!!!
Vebyast wrote:You might want to make sure your Drill doesn't prevent you from using Heaven-Piercing Drill. It doesn't take very much metal to get up to 50 pounds, and a drill has to be pretty big to actually move earth.
By design intention, Drills weigh nothing. After all, your Drill is your soul. Clarified above.
Vebyast wrote:Can a Drill roll crits against undead or oozes? It seems like it would fit better as "can roll crits against anything, I don't care what the rules say."
Not my intention. Drills destroy objects all the time and in the fight with Lordgenome Simon drilled him a new one. I can see drilling Undead but Oozes?

On the other hand, I won't sent ninja after you if you do :wink:
Vebyast wrote:"Believe in me who believes in you!" as a short-term party buff?
Done, sort of. See above.

So version 1.2 is Cha dependent. This is very thematically appropriate but mechanically it induces MAD. Maybe change it to Str?
Rejakor
Master
Posts: 199
Joined: Sun Jun 07, 2009 6:25 pm
Location: Like Wales, but New and South

Post by Rejakor »

Word of Chaos stuns and stuff, but I was thinking more a when your drill hits stuff, it hits them so hard, if they're extraplanar they have to make a save not to be knocked off the entire plane. You could make it just lawful extraplanar stuff, though. I'm not fussed. I just want the Driller to drill people so hard they get thrown through time and space, and Outsiders are used to that sort of shit happening to them.

Str doing things Cha normally does is thematic for this class, but making it rely on a secondary attribute is also nice. I dunno, i'm happy with either way.

If it was me, i'd have both Believe! and Believe in me who believes in you! The first i'd have as you have it. The second i'd have the driller get earlier, but have it upgrade at level 5. I'd make it that either he burns a 1/day or times/day thing to power everyone up significantly (add his stat to everything, add his class level in d6 damage to all attacks, basically a Power Gauge style maneuver but for the whole party, when gets it half the bonus of at level 5), or allow other people to burn actions to power him up for a period of time. So everyone burns a full round action and for each one he gets he adds their HD as stacking temporary hp, some fraction to hit, some fraction to damage, some multiplier as extra movement speed, and a list of special abilities (pounce, gaze attack, wings) that he gets as he gets successively more HD boosting him. And it all lasts for class level rounds, after which he's exhausted. Gets half bonus before level 5.

-Rejakor
User avatar
Vebyast
Knight-Baron
Posts: 801
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 5:44 am

Post by Vebyast »

Rejakor wrote:[...] allow other people to burn actions to power him up for a period of time. So everyone burns a full round action and for each one he gets he adds their HD as stacking temporary hp, some fraction to hit, some fraction to damage, some multiplier as extra movement speed, and a list of special abilities (pounce, gaze attack, wings) that he gets as he gets successively more HD boosting him. [...]
I really like this idea. Everybody burns their turn for one round, and in return the Driller turns into badassness incarnate. Works just as well when you have an army of mooks behind you as when you have a party believing.



Stubborn doesn't have a definition block, and Heroic Willpower isn't in the table. Are these supposed to be the same thing?
DSMatticus wrote:There are two things you can learn from the Gaming Den:
1) Good design practices.
2) How to be a zookeeper for hyper-intelligent shit-flinging apes.
shirak
Knight
Posts: 468
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Thessaloniki, Greece

Post by shirak »

Rejakor wrote:[...] allow other people to burn actions to power him up for a period of time. So everyone burns a full round action and for each one he gets he adds their HD as stacking temporary hp, some fraction to hit, some fraction to damage, some multiplier as extra movement speed, and a list of special abilities (pounce, gaze attack, wings) that he gets as he gets successively more HD boosting him. [...]
Either the Driller is a wimp who needs a power up from his friends or he is a badass who goes off the RNG. Either way the class breaks if we include this ability. And that does not even go into the whole "What if 3 or 7 guys power him up instead of 5?"
Vebyast wrote:Stubborn doesn't have a definition block, and Heroic Willpower isn't in the table. Are these supposed to be the same thing?
Last minute name change from Stubborn to Heroic Willpower. Will be fixed on the next version.
Rejakor
Master
Posts: 199
Joined: Sun Jun 07, 2009 6:25 pm
Location: Like Wales, but New and South

Post by Rejakor »

Adding damage and cookie cutter special abilities doesn't go off the RNG, and if it was a once a day thing, it's more like a surge of heroic awesome/trump card than a 'this happens every combat' thing. Just ignore the tohit bonus part of what I said and it's fine.
User avatar
Prak
Serious Badass
Posts: 17340
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Prak »

w-why did no one tell me this referred to a much more epic anime?
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.

You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
shirak
Knight
Posts: 468
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Thessaloniki, Greece

Post by shirak »

Prak_Anima wrote:w-why did no one tell me this referred to a much more epic anime?
I... kinda took it for granted that people would know what I was talking about. Sorry about that.
User avatar
Prak
Serious Badass
Posts: 17340
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Prak »

I mean when I posted this:
Prak_Anima wrote:so, this guy:
Image
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.

You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
shirak
Knight
Posts: 468
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Thessaloniki, Greece

Post by shirak »

I thought you were being flippant...
Post Reply