Second, that class idea I mentioned.
[edit] This class has moved to the wiki here.[/edit]
Speedened
"Objection!"
To most, combat is a frenzied whirl of destruction. No time to think, barely even time to act. No so to a Speedened. Through specialized training and nontrivial magic, they have accelerated themselves beyond the reach of even the fastest mundane athlete. To a Speedened's accelerated eye, combat is a graceful dance of cause and effect, more like a puzzle than a struggle. The Speedened's abilities let him dissect that puzzle, picking at momentary weaknesses and disrupting his enemies' efforts.
Playing the Speedened: A well-played Speedened is a flurry of precise, calculated interruption, denying enemies even the chance to attack. Ideally, the vast majority of your actions should occur during other peoples' turns. When a caster tries to blow you up, break his concentration. When a fighter tries to attack you, dodge him and trip him. Move when you shouldn't be able to move, do things that people don't expect you to be able to do. The class gives you the ability to take action at basically any time, and you should use that ability.
Since the Speedened is highly complex tactically, it is not recommended for inexperienced players. Speedened may not have as many different abilities as a caster of equal level, but they may act in response to nearly any action, and knowing which actions to react to requires a great deal of experience.
Alignment, Races and People: Speedened arise in most races, but are more common in very dexterous or graceful races such as Elves and Halflings. Their abilities make them useful in emergencies and when speed is critical, since they can safely accomplish in minutes tasks that would take others hours. They are also commonly trained as thieves, ninjas, and assassins, as their incredible speed allows them to easily penetrate defenses that would otherwise be unassailable.
On the Naming of Action Types: In D&D, there are six different types of actions that can be taken during a round. They are "full-round", "standard", "move", "swift", "immediate", and "free". Unfortunately, the two most common of these were named directly from their most common uses. Given how much this class monkeys around with the action economy, some clarification will be required. A "Standard Move" is distinct from a "Move Action". The first is an action that takes a Move Action and moves you your speed. The second is a unit of time.
In this class, "Move Action" is used consistently in the second meaning, as a unit of time. "Movement action" means changing your position by any means listed in "Modes of Movement"; this typically take a Move Action.
Class Skills: the Speedened's class skills are: Balance (Dex), Disable Device (Int), Knowledge [dungeoneering] (Int), Hide (Dex), Concentration (Con), Climb (Str), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Craft (Int), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Tumble (Dex)
Skill Points per Level: 4
Hit Dice: d6
BAB: Moderate
Fortitude save: Poor
Reflex save: Good
Will save: Poor
| Level | Abilities | ||||||
| 1 | Slide Movement, Slide, Opportunism, Speed Tricks | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Advanced Learning | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | You Move Like They Do | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Blueshift | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Integrated Slide | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Whoa | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Reflexes | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Blueshift 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| 10 | Improved Reflexes | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | |
| 12 | Blueshift 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| 13 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | |
| 14 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | |
| 15 | Precognition | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
Spellcasting: spellcasting
Abilities:
Slide Movement (Ex): Speedened are so blindingly fast that they can even do things while it is not their turn. A Speedened has a pool of "Slide Movement", which they can expend to interrupt others' actions. Most uses of Slide are free actions at any time; Speedened can even do things like wait until a Wizard declares the target square of his ''Fireball'' before choosing how to use their Slide Movement. A Speedened has five feet of Slide Movement per round per Speedened class level; this improves to five feet of Slide Movement per character level when they gain Integrated Slide later. A Speedened's Slide Movement replenishes at the beginning of his turn. Speedened may not expend Slide Movement while flatf-footed until they gain the Reflexes ability later.
Note that attack rolls and damage rolls occur simultaneously, so Speedened must choose to use their abilities before attack rolls are resolved.
Slide (Ex): The most basic use of Slide Movement, and the ability from which it takes its name, is the ability to move. By expending 5' of Slide Movement as a free action at any time, a Speedened may move 5' by any means for which they have a listed movement speed. For example, a Speedened with a land speed could expend 10' of Slide Movement to instantly translate 10', moving himself out of the area of a Fireball. Sliding does not allow a Speedened to dodge targeted attacks, but it does allow him to void preconditions such as range, areas of effect, or line of effect. For example, a Speedened being attacked by an archer could not move out of the way once an attack roll has been made, but could move to break line of effect so that the archer could not make the attack roll in the first place. In general, Speedened may Slide out of areas of effect and may void preconditions, but it's too late once a roll has been made.
A Speedened provokes attacks of opportunity as normal while Sliding, although they may also make tumble checks to suppress attacks of opportunity as normal.
Opportunism: Speedened are able to take advantage of any opportunity they see. They make make any number of AoO's per round.
Speed Tricks (Ex): At every level, the Speedened gains one ability from the following list:
- Snatch: You can attempt to grab spell components, arrows, or similar small objects held by an adjacent target as an immediate action. The target makes a reflex save against your own reflex save bonus; if they fail, you ends up holding the item, and their action fails if it was employing that item.
- Hey, Over Here!: You attempt to distract enemies, safely provoking attacks of opportunity from them in hopes of catching them off-balance. By expending 5' of Slide Movement while in a square adjacent to an enemy, you may provoke an attack of opportunity from every enemy that threatens you, all of which automatically miss.
- Contrail: When you begin a run or double move action, until the beginning of your next turn, any square you occupy immediately becomes filled with condensation clouds formed the shock of your passage. These squares behave as if filled with Obscuring Mist. These clouds disperse after one round per Speedened level.
- Defensive Awareness: When taking a full defense action, you may additionally concentrate on responding more efficiently to threats nearby. When in the square you declared the full defense action in and any squares adjacent to it (edges and corners), you may use your Slide ability without expending Slide Movement.
- Defensive Mastery: The area affected by Defensive Awareness expands to any square adjacent to its original area (any square touching any square touching your original square).
- Faster: All of your listed modes of movement improve by 15'.
- Air Dodge: You may Slide as though you had a perfect fly speed listed. This ability does not allow you to negate falling damage. If you try to do that the DM gets to hurt you (more than the falling already would, that is).
- Ground Dodge: You may Slide through earth, clay, sand, etc as though you had a burrow speed listed. You do not leave a tunnel behind you. Note that if you end your movement inside, say, a rock, you get what you deserve.
- Pop: Once per round as a free action, you may spend up to 10' of Slide movement to teleport an equal distance, as Dimension Door (except that this effect does not end your turn). You must be able to cast Dimension Door to take this speed trick.
- Back Attack: Whenever you slide or move out of a space, you threaten enemies as if you were in that space until the beginning of your next turn.
- Dive for Cover: You may spend 5' of Slide Movement to automatically succeed on any single reflex saving throw against an attack that deals half damage on a successful save. If you have Quicken 2, you may spend an additional 5' of Slide Movement to avoid the attack entirely.
- Surf the Shockwave: If you are subjected to an area attack which allows a reflex saving throw for half damage, you may spend 10' of Slide Movement to attempt to have the power of the effect carry you to its edge without hurting you. Make a Balance check against the DC of the effect's reflex save. If you succeed, you move to the nearest edge of the effect and you take no damage. If you fail, nothing happens, and you automatically fail the reflex save to avoid half damage.
- Deflect: If you are within 5' of the origin of a non-conical area of effect, you may expend Slide Movement to deflect the effect. For every 5' of Slide Movement that you spend, you may move the origin of the effect up to 10' in any direction. If you are within 5' of the origin of a conical area of effect, you may expend Slide Movement to change the direction of the cone by 45 degrees per 5' expended.
- Block: If a line of effect passes within 5' of you, you may choose to block that line of effect with yourself, causing it to hit you or your square instead of its original target. For example, you could intercept an arrow, taking damage as if it had hit its original target, or you could intercept a Fireball, causing it to detonate in your square.
- Standing Still: Your incredible speed and precision make you able to see through an opponent's dodges and parries as if they didn't exist. You may spend 10' of Slide Movement to make your target flat-footed against one attack you make against them before the end of your next turn.
- Facestab: Your speed allows you to take perfect opportunities in combat. When you hit with an attack, you may expend Slide Movement to add bonus damage to your attack at a rate of 2d6 damage per 5' expended. This ability can't be used against things immune to sneak attacks.
- Keyhole: You have all the time in the world to line up shots. You ignore any concealment less than total, and you may fire into melee without penalty.
- Double Team: You may expend 5' of Slide Movement to create an illusion of yourself, as the spell Mirror Image. This image lasts for one round, though you may expend an additional 5' of Slide Movement at the beginning of your next turn to maintain a Mirror Image that you created earlier using this speed trick. You may maintain as many of these images as you want. Images created using this ability interact with actual castings of Mirror Image as if they were part of the spell. You must be able to cast second-level Speedened spells to take this Speed Trick.
- Friction: By rubbing your hands together really really fast, you can make fire. You gain Produce Flame, as the spell, as a supernatural ability usable at will (it can be Blueshifted), using your Speedened class level as the caster level. You must be able to cast first-level Speedened spells to take this Speed Trick.
- Sonic Boom: By moving really fast in a straight line, you can create a powerful blast of air. Any time you use Slide to move ten or more feet in a straight line, you may choose to generate a Gust of Wind effect in roughly the direction of the movement (up to about 45 degrees of deflection). This effect uses your Speedened class level as its caster level.
- Hide in Plain Speed: You literally move fast enough to avoid eyes. By expending 20' of Slide Movement, you may evade one person's gaze. You benefit from the effects of Greater Invisibility as far as they're concerned until the end of your next turn. This also protects you from gaze attacks.
- Spelltrail: When you cast a spell with an area of effect, you may choose to trail it behind you as you move instead of using its normal area of effect. When you do this, determine the number of 5' squares that its area fills. For the next ten minutes or until you have moved that number of squares, whichever comes first, every square you leave is immediately filled with that spell effect.
- Judo: Immediately following a successful Trip attempt, you may expend Slide Movement to throw the enemy. This is like the Violent Thrust ability of Telekinesis, except that it allows an opposed reflex save instead of a will save and it has no weight limit. The target is thrown 10' per 5' of Slide Movement expended.
You Move Like They Do (Ex): You may cause a single ranged attack to miss you by spending 5' of Slide Movement. For example, a Speedened could expend 15' of Slide Movement to cause three Scorching Rays to automatically miss.
Blueshift (Ex): Speedened simply move faster in every way. Every action that the Speedened takes may be moved one step to the right in the following list. If an action does not fit cleanly into one of these categories or takes longer than ten minutes, use the DM's best judgment. Something that is already an immediate action remains as an immediate action, although in ludicrous circumstances (an immediate action reduced by four steps, for example) the DM may make a custom ruling.
Ten minutes --> One minute --> Full-round --> Standard action --> Move action --> Swift action --> Immediate action
This ability does not apply to spellcasting not gained as part of the Speedened class, nor does it apply to spell-like abilities. You also don't get to try to break the game using Runestaffs or crap like that. If you do, the DM gets to hurt you.
This ability does not work while the Speedened is flat-footed.
Speedened with this ability may converse at length as a free action, although some limits still apply (DM's judgment).
Integrated Slide: The Speedened has learned how to integrate his Slide not only with the techniques specially created for Speedened combat, but with all of his actions. The amount of Slide Movement he gets per round is now based on his character level instead of his class level.
Whoa (Ex): The Speedened moves fast enough that they can trick the eye into misplacing them for a split second, and the Speedened is fast enough that this split second is enough. When a Speedened uses You Move Like They Do to evade a ranged attack, they may expend an additional amount of Slide Movement to cause that ranged attack to retarget itself on something nearby. The Speedened chooses a valid target for the attack within 10' for every 5' of Slide Movement they expended, and the attack is treated as if it had been originally targeted at the new target.
Reflexes: The Speedened has sped up so much that they can react before they physically should be able to. The Speedened can now expend Slide Movement while flat-footed.
Blueshift 2 (Ex): The Speedened's Blueshift ability improves so that he may Blueshift every action by two steps instead of one. For example, a Speedened with this ability could reduce full actions to move actions, allowing them to take two full run actions per round.
Improved Reflexes (Ex): As their reactions approach physical impossibility, Speedened become able to react to events before they happen. A Speedened with this level of ability is never flat-footed and is never denied their Dexterity bonus.
Blueshift 3 (Su): The Speedened's Blueshift ability to move faster improves even further, allowing them to reduce every action by up to three stages. The third stage of reduction is a supernatural ability.
Precognition: A Speedened of 15th level gains a limited grasp of the immediate future, allowing them to optimize their movements' efficiency as well as their speed. A 15th-level Speedened may make three Swift or Immediate actions per round.
Speedened Spells:
0th level: Acid Splash, Cure Minor Wounds, Daze, Detect Magic, Ghost Sound, Mage Hand*, Prestidigitation*, Ray Of Frost
1st level: Color Spray, Command, Entangle, Grease, Magic Missile*, Obscuring Mist, Produce Flame, Sanctuary*, Shield*, Sleep, Summon Monster I
2nd level: Fog Cloud, Gust Of Wind*, Hold Person, Invisibility, Mirror Image*, Protection From Arrows, Pyrotechnics, Resist Energy, Scorching Ray*, Silence, Suggestion*, Web
3rd level: Blink, Daylight, Dispel Magic*, Fireball, Gaseous Form, Invisibility Purge*, Major Image*, Protection From Energy, Sleet Storm, Spike Growth, Stone Shape, Wind Wall
4th level: Black Tentacles, Charm Monster, Dimension Door*, Dimensional Anchor, Dominate Person, Greater Dispel Magic, Rainbow Pattern*, Resilient Sphere*, Solid Fog, Wall Of Fire, Wall Of Ice
5th level: Control Winds*, Dismissal, Feeblemind, Greater Command, Mislead, Persistent Image, Telekinesis*, Teleport, Transmute Mud To Rock, Transmute Rock To Mud, True Seeing*, Wall Of Force, Wall Of Stone
*: When cast by a Speedened, this spell is treated as if one step of Blueshift has already been applied to it
Design notes
Intended purpose: pissing off melee characters, interrupting spellcasters, wasting other peoples' actions by invalidating the preconditions of their planned next action.
Intended weaknesses: cage matches with pissed off melee characters, good archers, uninterruptible casters with stupidly large AoE spells, and things with really hard passive defenses.
Suggestions for advancement after level 15: classes or feats that grant easy-to-use teleportation abilities would be a massive power boost to a Speedened. The ability to Teleport or Dimension Door out of the way of incoming spells at will, for example, would be extremely useful. The same goes for abilities that allow the user to interrupt actions other than spellcasting, such as improved tripping, grappling, mind control, or knockdowns.
Current problems: No playtesting.
Changelog:
[edit] Changed class name to Speedened and Quicken ability to Blueshift to avoid confusion.[/edit]
[edit] Tableified, missed a few instances of the class name. [/edit]
[edit] "Speedened" is a placeholder. I'm trying to think of a better name, but one isn't coming to me. Also clarified move action versus standard movement. [/edit]
[edit] No more trying to break blueshifted spellcasting. Deleted "modifications for tomes" section. Blueshift now usable for movements. Fixed formatting in spell list. [/edit]
[edit] Specified exactly when slide distance recharges [/edit]
[edit] Added Speed Tricks and boosted slide movement. Clarified Slide vs. Ranged Attacks (LoS negates, otherwise no). [/edit]
[edit] Changed title to [Tome]. This isn't really balanced under standard 3.x character options any more. [/edit]
[edit] Edited "How to play a" entry. [/edit]
[edit] Decreased "faster" option to flat bonus. [/edit]
[edit] Did some more editing on the speed tricks, moved You Move Like They Do and Whoa out into class features. [edit]
[edit] Converted to classbuilder. Turned a few class abilities into speed tricks and added a bunch more, tweaked basically all of them. Moved everything around. [/edit]
[edit] Updated to be closer to the Wiki version for demonstration purposes. [/edit]