Balance Help - Graftpunk Prestige Class

[Steerpike]

In my Cadaverous Earth Campaign, which uses Iron Heroes as its system (principally), Conundrum Crow is playing as the sinister Mr. Carver, a human obsessed with becoming inhuman by grafting bits and pieces of other species onto his body.  To help represent this I thought I'd make a small prestige class he could take levels in to reflect his growing monstrosity.

As with Kaius' Revenant class, however, I want input on how to balance this class.  Is it too weak?  Too strong?

The Graftpunk

The Graftpunk gets Average Base Attack Bonus Progression and Average Base Defence Bonus Progression.

Prerequisites: 4 or more non-cosmetic grafts.

Base Attack Bonus +5

Hit Die: 1d4+4 per level.

Skills: Graftpunks gain access to the Agility, Athletics, and Perception Skill Groups.

Skill Points per Level: 4 + Intelligence Modifier

Feats:

Graftpunks select a primary and a secondary mastery as an area of study from the following list: Defense, Finesse, Projectile, Power. Their masteries otherwise progress in a manner identical to the Weapon Master.

Graftpunk Abilities

1 - Archetype Ability

2 - Archetype Ability

3 - Archetype Ability

4 - Archetype Ability

5 - Archetype Ability

6 - Archetype Ability

7 - Archetype Ability

8 - Archetype Ability

9 - Archetype Ability

10 - Archetype Ability

Graftpunk Archetypes

A Graftpunk can select abilities from one of several Archetypes.  While he can freely choose from abilities from any Archetype so long as he meets that Archetype's prerequisites, he must proceed in order through each: for example, if a Graftpunk acquires two levels' worth of abilities from the Gearborg Archetype and then switches to the Horrific Abomination Archetype, he cannot immediately acquire that Archetype's 3rd level ability (Greater Desensitization) but must begin with its 1st level abilities (Desensitization, Horror Aura).  As a character can take up to ten levels of the Graftpunk prestige class he can completely master the abilities of up to two Archetypes.

Horrific Abomination

Prerequisites: At least three grafts from three different species.

1 '" Desensitization, Horror Aura

2 '" Preternatural Anatomy

3 '" Greater Desensitization

4 '" Greater Horror Aura

5 '" Aberrant Apotheosis

Gearborg

Prerequisites: At least two clockwork grafts.

1 '" Unnatural Healing, Mechanical Metabolism

2 '" Mechanical Resilience

3 '" Improved Mechanical Metabolism

4 '" Mechanical Invulnerability

5 '" Biomechanoid

Multitudinous

Prerequisites: At least one graft that grants you a natural attack.

1 '" Multiattack, Natural Weapon Finesse

2 '" Improved Natural Attack

3 '" Improved Multiattack

4 '" Improved Natural Attack

5 '" Deadly Profusion

Patchwork Blademaster

Prerequisites: At least one grafted weapon.

1 '" Multiweapon Fighting, Pounce

2 '" Off-Hand Parry

3 '" Multiweapon Fighting Expanded Mastery

4 '" Improved Off-Hand Parry

5 '" A Thousand Cuts

Possessed

Prerequisites: At least two demoniac grafts or bound souls.

1 '" Shadow Soul, Diabolic Kinded

2 '" Infernal Resistance

3 '" Dark Blessing

4 '" Demoniac Glare

5 '" Symbiosis

Graftpunk Archetype Abilities:

Horrific Abomination

Desensitization: You are numbed to sights of horror and gain a +4 bonus on all Horror saves.

Horror Aura: Your deformation is so extreme that others are Horrified at the sight of you. Those unfamiliar with you who come within 10 ft. of you must make a Horror save (DC 10 + your Graftpunk level + the number of non-cosmetic grafts you possess) or suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls, saves, and checks while they remain within 10 ft. Those who make the save cannot be affected for 24 hours. You can only suppress this ability by concealing at least some of your misshapen body with obfuscating clothes or glamers. It is an extraordinary ability.

Preternatural Anatomy: You have a 25% chance to ignore critical hits and sneak attacks, as your bizarre physiology confuses foes.

Greater Desensitization: You are immune to all Horror effects, having become completely desensitized to even the most horrific of sights.

Greater Horror Aura: Your Horror aura's base DC increases to 15 and its range increases to 20 ft. Creatures are now Shaken (-2 to attack rolls, saves, and checks).

Aberrant Apotheosis: Your type changes to Aberration - spells and abilities affecting only humanoids no longer affect you. You gain +2 Constitution and have a 50% chance to ignore sneak attacks and critical hits. You do not gain Aberration Darkvision.  Note that if you acquire both the Biomechanoid ability and the Aberrant Apotheosis ability you are effectively immune to critical hits and sneak attacks; you count as both an Abberation and a Living Construct for the purposes of spells and abilities.

Gearborg

Unnatural Healing: Your body, now more machine than flesh, heals at only half the normal rate, and any healing spells or effects are only half effective.  Craft (clockwork) now functions identically to the Heal skill for you (Heal still functions normally).  However, when reduced to negative hit points you automatically stabilize, and you are not susceptible to death by massive damage.

Mechanical Metabolism: You now only need to eat and drink half as much as normal.  This stacks with any other grafts that improve your metabolism (such as Chloroplast Skin).

Mechanical Resilience: You gain Hardness 1.  This effective functions as if you gained +1 DR, but eldritch weapons cannot bypass your Hardness.

Improved Mechanical Metabolism: You now only need to eat and drink a quarter as much as normal.  In addition you gain an immediate +2 to Fortitude saves.

Mechanical Invulnerability: Your Hardness increases to 2.

Biomechanoid: Your type changes to Living Construct - spells and abilities affecting only humanoids no longer affect you.  You retain your Constitution score, gain an immediate +2 Strength, and have a 50% chance to ignore sneak attacks and critical hits.  You do not gain Construct Darkvision of low-light vision, and you can still run.  You do not gain any Construct immunities.  Note that if you acquire both the Biomechanoid ability and the Aberrant Apotheosis ability you are effectively immune to critical hits and sneak attacks; you count as both an Abberation and a Living Construct for the purposes of spells and abilities.

Multitudinous

Multiattack: You gain the Multiattack feat as a bonus feat.

Natural Weapon Finesse: You can now use the Weapon Finesse feat for your grafted natural weapons.

Improved Natural Attack: You have grown more adept at fully utilizing your grafted weapons. One of your natural attacks such as a (single) claw, bite, or gore attack increases in damage by one die type (note that grafted artificial weapons i.e. swords, axes, etc. cannot be improved in this way); each time you gain this ability you must apply it to a different natural weapon.

Improved Multiattack: Your secondary attacks with natural weapons have no penalty. They still add only one-half of your Strength bonus, if any, to damage dealt.

Deadly Profusion: When you use a full attack action, you confuse your opponent with a flurry of attacks from your natural weapons. For each one that hits, you gain a +1 bonus to your remaining attacks. This bonus, which stacks with each successful hit, lasts until the end of your current action.

Patchwork Blademaster

Multiweapon Fighting: You gain the Multiweapon Fighting feat as a bonus feat.  If you already possess the feat you can instead select one of its Expanded Masteries, provided you possess the requisite Mastery level.

Pounce: While charging, you can sacrifice your usual charge bonus to attack with all of your grafted weapons.  You still suffer a -2 penalty to Defence until the start of your next turn.

Off-Hand Parry: Using one of your many grafted weapons you block an opponent's attack.  By sacrificing an off-hand attack with a grafted weapon you gain an additional +2 dodge bonus to Defence.

Multiweapon Fighting Expanded Mastery: You gain one of the Mulitpweapon Fighting Expanded Masteries you possess the requisite Mastery level for.

Improved Off-Hand Parry: You can now sacrifice as many off-hand attacks with grafted weapons as you like every round.  For each attack you sacrifice you gain an additional +2 dodge bonus to Defence.

A Thousand Cuts: Once per day you can double your melee attacks for one round while performing a full attack action.  If hasted you still receive a bonus attack, but it is not doubled.

Possessed

Shadow Soul: You gain a +4 bonus to Intimidate checks and +2 to Knowledge (demonology) checks, just as if he possessed the Shadow Born Background Trait (if you already possesses the trait, he still gains the additional bonuses).

Diabolic Kindred: Demons recognize you as a creature kin to themselves.  You gain a +4 bonus to Diplomacy checks when dealing with demons.  If you can speak Hellspeak this increases to +8.

Infernal Resistance: The Graftpunk gains Fire and Cold Resistance 5.

Demoniac Glare: You gain the supernatural ability to unnerve opponents with a ferocious glare once per day. This is not a gaze attack, and the target need not meet your eye. Glaring is a standard action that affects any creature he can see within 100 feet. Opponents must succeed at a Will save (DC 10 + your Graftpunk level + the number of demoniac grafts you possess) or be appalled by the terrible promise of retribution in your eyes, suffering a '"2 morale penalty to attack rolls, damage rolls, and saving throws for 10 minutes. A creature with 50 or fewer hit points is also stunned for 3d4 rounds, one with 51 to 100 hit points is stunned for 2d4 rounds, and one with 101 to 150 hit points is stunned for 1d4 rounds. A creature with 151 hit points or more is not stunned but still suffers the '"2 morale penalty if it fails its saving throw.

Dark Blessing: You apply your Charisma modifier (if positive) to all saving throws.

Symbiosis: Your type changes to Outsider - spells and abilities affecting only humanoids no longer affect you.  You gain Fire and Cold Resistance 10.  You do not gain Darkvision.  If you possess either the Biomechanoid or Aberrant Apotheosis abilities you retain these abilities and still count as a Living Construct or Abberation.

[Seraph]

Not too familiar with Iron Heroes, but it seems decent.  I have a question though:

Multiattack: You gain either the Multiattack feat as a bonus feat.

You put in an "either," but not the corresponding "or."  Is there another option that didn't get listed, or is the "either" a mistake?

[LD]

For Horror aura- how does someone become familiar with Mr. Carver to avoid the effects?

[Steerpike]

Thanks Seraphine, that was a typo when I was playing with other abilities I then later dropped.

Light Dragon, basically it means any allies of Carver, or close friends or associates, such as Needlefingers for example.  All party members would be exempt, for example.

EDIT: I'm also interested in Crow's opinion, of course.  Is this a class that might fit with Carver's general arc/build?

[Llum]

It looks pretty good. My only worry is the Preternatural Anatomy and Aberrant Apotheosis. Becoming immune to critical hits and sneak attack is a Mastery 10 armor feat, basically limiting it to Armigers and some fancy multi-classing cases. And 50% chance to escape crits is a Mastery 8 feat. These are high level things, and while they are level 5 and 3 respectively the prestige class can be taken at a very low level. This somewhat invalidates those very high level feats.

My other question is regarding (Un)natural Weapon Proficiency. Does this apply to all grafted weapons of that type? Like could I graft 6 claws onto myself and then improve all of their damage with that one feat?

[Superfluous Crow]

This looks very cool Steerpike! A lot of good stuff, so definitely worth taking levels in.
It appears well-balanced, at least in D&D terms. I always have some trouble translating that to "Iron Heroic". I have seen other similar 5 level prestige classes grant critical resistance, e.g. the Impure Prince from Magic of Eberron. Even the warforged have 25% immunity.
We could of course always change Preternatural Anatomy to 25% and Apotheosis to 50%, might be more fair.

[Magnus Pym]

We could of course always change Preternatural Anatomy to 25% and Apotheosis to 50%, might be more fair.

Although I don't know Iron Heroes and pretty much only played D&D under the NWN franchise, I agree with this.

How many levels of whatever-class does he need to get the prerequisite for the prestige class, and what total level could he attain lvl 5 Graftpunk? If this is under 15 I would definitely reccomend removing the total immunity and going with Crow's suggestion.

[Llum]

We could of course always change Preternatural Anatomy to 25% and Apotheosis to 50%, might be more fair.

He could qualify for Graftpunk now probably. And it could easily be attainable by level 2-4 no problem. So character level 7-9 for level 5 Graftpunk.

I mean another thing to put into consideration is Shades have crit immunity and sneak attack immunity (amongst a host of other stuff) but have a +3 level adjustment!

[Magnus Pym]

Do Shades have any kind of disadvantage to balance this?

This class doesn't -seem- to have disadvantages at all, except for having to take levels the class of courses. 1d4 Hit Die too... pretty low

[Steerpike]

Llum, great point about the armour feat, and one I hadn't noticed.  I decreased it to 25%/50%, which is actually what I had originally.

I added a +5 BAB requirement ensuring that low-level characters can't get into the class too quickly.  Perhaps I should add some Skill or Feat requirements as well, though I`m not sure what they'd be.

I also added an extra (Un)natural Weapon Proficiency ability and a lesser version of Desensitization.  Do these additions make the class too powerful?

...

Magnus, IH classes use different hit die types than other classes.

The class's intended disadvantages are its fairly mediocre skill points, attack and defense progressions, and HD.  It lacks any token abilities (prominent in Iron Heroes) or spells.

Any other suggestions or critiques?

EDIT: I cut access to the Mysticism skill group - didn't really fit.  Also decreased the base DC for Horror Aura from 12 to 10.

My broad vision for the class is a warrior whose abilities improve dramatically the more he modifies himself - the more limbs he has, the more inhuman features he possesses.

[Superfluous Crow]

Maybe you could add something like (Un)natural Weapon Proficiency that applies to skill grafts instead of weapon grafts, boosting the skill bonus the graft grants.
Also, perhaps you should call it Mastery rather than Proficiency, just to avoid the rather specific associations with the word in D20.

[Steerpike]

Tweaked!  Also tweaked the (Un)natural Weapon Finesse ability wording after rereading the Weapon Finesse Feat.

[CoyoteCamouflage]

A few questions, concerns, etc.

1. An echo of Llum's concerns. Does (Un)natural Skill/Weapon Mastery affect all grafts of the same type, or just one specific graft? In particular, if you have two claw grafts, do you apply the bonus to one or both claws? I will admit, however, I do not know well the power balance of IH in general, so I am not sure which stance to take.

2. (Un)natural Skill/Weapon Mastery mentions: "You have grown more adept at fully utilizing your grafted weapons", but then you disallow an entire section of grafts (weapon grafts, assuming I have the idea right). Personally, I think you should still be able to apply some kind of bonus to artificial weapons that are part of weapon grafts. The size increase is much too powerful, but something basic like a Weapon Focus or Weapon Specialization type bonus might be helpful.

3. I assume Horror=Fear in IH. From experience, I have only ever found Fear effects to be annoying, so I do not think that immunity to them is all that over-powered at that level. I may be wrong, however.

4. Bah. My original wording wasn't working for this comment, so it's been clipped down to something short, sweet, and coherent. For the average player, I think this would serve as a very good, balanced class to develop melee combat. However, I also think that the class has the potential to see a great deal of abuse by power-gamers, especially with combat challenges. I could try to go in depth about that, but first I really need to find a copy of the Core books, so I can see if there is any validity to that impression.

...Not that power-gaming is a valid concern in our current group. But as far as general applications, it is an impression I got that is bothering me.

[Steerpike]

Thanks for your input, Coyote!

1) You apply your bonus to a single claw attack.  Otherwise, what if some graftpunk grafted on 5 cheap claw attacks, then took a level and upgraded them all?  This is part of my attempt to counter the issue you raise in your fourth point.

2) I'll rework the ability a little bit to accommodate those with grafted man-made weapons.

3) Horror is similar to Fear, but actually slightly different.  There are 3 "special Will saves" in my campaign, a mechanic borrowed vaguely from the 3.5 version of Ravenloft: Horror, Fear, and Madness.  Fear makes you run away, get panicked or frightened, or avoid a fearful creature; more extreme eldritch effects that allow for a fear save include some paralyzing attacks and having your blood freeze in  your veins for cold damage.  Horror, by contrast, makes you nauseous, disturbed, or otherwise revolted; you have to save or become physically sickened, though it can have psychological effects as well.  It's less likely to make you run away, and more likely to make you take a penalty.  Madness is fairly self explanatory - save or you lose your mind in some fashion, from wisdom drain to hallucinations to extreme paranoia.

4) I think you're probably right - there are opportunities for abuse here.  Probably the very existence of grafts at all in such abundance is a power-gamer's wet dream - with a little money you can basically get permanent magic items that can't be disarmed or destroyed.  I've tried to keep grafts relatively tame (or, if they're powerful, very expensive), but I'm sure an inventive munchkin could probably abuse them, and this class does help that.  Fortunately, none of you guys are power-gamers, and if used with a modicum of sanity I don't think grafts or the class itself pose a huge balance issue - it's only if abused that they'd become problematic.

Any ideas to shut down hypothetical abuse?

[Llum]

I have another question, can you shuffle around (Un)Natrual Weapon Mastery? If you lose a graft? (someone has already lost eyes, so I doubt limbs are out of line) or you want to upgrade, does it still apply or do you lose the ability?

And I'd like to state that I am/was a Power Gamer when I played in the CE game!

I'd say that you have to meet the requirements for the Weapon Feats gained from Weapon Mastery. I think that's in the spirit and this change is basically just errata.

BAB of +5 is possible at level 5 for most classes, so Aberrant Apoetheosis is at level 10. Mastery feat level 8 should be available around level 13 I believe for classes that gain the max feat advancement.