The Mime Class 3.5

[ThisGuy01]

This is my idea for a class based off of stereotypical mimes.  It's not finished, and I would appreciate any help finishing it or suggestions on what I have currently.  Thank you to everyone in advance.


Mime Class Chart
[spoiler]
Lvl   BAB                  Saves (F/R/W)           Special
1   +0                           0/2/2         Mime Oath, Mime Offense (+1), Bonus Feat
2   +1                           0/3/3         Rope Pull
3   +2                           1/3/3   
4   +3                           1/4/4         Rope Trip
5   +3                           1/4/4         Mime Offense (+2)
6   +4                           2/5/5         Invisible Box
7   +5                           2/5/5         Bonus Feat
8   +6/+1                      2/6/6   
9   +6/+1                      3/6/6   
10   +7/+2                    3/7/7         Stair Climb, Mime Offense (+3)
11   +8/+3                    3/7/7         Bonus Feat
12   +9/+4                    4/8/8   
13   +9/+4                    4/8/8   
14   +10/+5                   4/9/9   
15   +11/+6/+1              5/9/9         Mime Offense (+4)
16   +12/+7/+2              5/10/10      Bonus Feat
17   +12/+7/+2              5/10/10   
18   +13/+8/+3              6/11/11   
19   +14/+9/+4              6/11/11   
20   +15/+10/+5             6/12/12      Bonus Feat, Mime Offense (+5)[/spoiler]



Mime Class Features
[spoiler]Hit Dice: d8
Skill Points: 4+Int
Skill List: Climb, Craft, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (locale), Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Profession, Search, Spot, Swim, Use Rope

1st Mime Oath:1st Mimed Offense (Ex):2nd Rope Pull (Su):5th Rope Trip (Ex):Bonus Feat:  A mime can choose any two weapon fighting feat, weapon focus, weapon specialization, greater weapon focus, greater weapon specialization, power attack, cleave, great cleave, lightning reflexes or iron will.  The mime must meet any prerequisites for the feats, and is treated as a fighter of 4 levels lower for feat prerequisites.  Any feat that requires you to chose a single weapon can apply to (Mime Offense) to apply to any weapon the mime creates by use of the ability with the same name.

6th Invisible Box (Su):  A number of times per day equal to 3+Cha modifier, the mime may surround himself in an invisible box of force.  He may activate this ability as an immediate action in response to an attack or spell.  The spell or attack automatically fails unless it can bypass force effects.  The box lasts just long enough to stop an attack or spell, so if there are residual effects from a spell, the mime must deal with those effects normally after this effect ends.

10th Stair Climb (Ex):  A number of times per day equal to his charisma modifier, the mime can activate Air Walk as the spell but with certain differences.  The mime moves at full speed when using this ability and is unaffected by high winds.  The effect of this ability is invisible and it seems as though the mime walks on air. [/spoiler]

[ThisGuy01]

I was thinking of an ability which lets them use a mimed rope to climb up to certain distances, any thoughts by anyone?
They would retain AC while using this rope and it would require the proper use rope check to actually hook it to something, they would also be able to climb at full speed as a full round action with a -5 penalty or something.

[Bloody Initiate]

Where are the walls of force?

Plus, the class overall seems pretty weak, and you seem to be stuck in 3.0 in terms of overcoming damage reduction. The weapons should gain descriptors at least as well as the monk class, preferably better and faster.

Plus telepathy might be nice, since they can't talk, and without it I'm not sure they can communicate at all.

[ThisGuy01]

Plus, the class overall seems pretty weak, and you seem to be stuck in 3.0 in terms of overcoming damage reduction. The weapons should gain descriptors at least as well as the monk class, preferably better and faster.

What exactly do you propose? I'm not used to giving classes those kinds of abilities so any help would be nice.

Plus telepathy might be nice, since they can't talk, and without it I'm not sure they can communicate at all.

They're mimes, they communicate through...mimery? I dunno, I thought it would be a nice feature to make the character more like an actual mime.  Does it seem to strict of a restriction?

[Catty Nebulart]

Plus telepathy might be nice, since they can't talk, and without it I'm not sure they can communicate at all.

They're mimes, they communicate through...mimery? I dunno, I thought it would be a nice feature to make the character more like an actual mime.  Does it seem to strict of a restriction?

The restriction as written means that if it's a non-combat encounter you are even more useless than the fighter.

This should make the class unplayable in most campaigns.

[ThisGuy01]

I edited the oath, they can make skill checks now if they could use actions to get the point across, and telepathy is no longer forbidden.  Would that make the class more playable?

[Bloody Initiate]

You can pull inspiration from whips (PHB, 121) and the Entangle ability of the Erinyes (MM, 54) for the mime's rope ability.

While it may not be appropriate at level 1, you will want to eventually do away with the "only nonlethal damage" and "don't threaten squares in which you can attack" drawbacks of the whip. The whip would have been a very strong weapon without those restrictions.

I think the Entangle ability would be fine for level 1, since DFAs can do it to a crowd at level 1.

You need to pick a role for the class, and then build to that role.

De-buffer and Battlefield controller are jobs that are already done very well by other classes, but that doesn't mean you can't be effective at doing the same thing a different way. Also, the best class for both of those is probably wizard, and since I consider the wizard and its spells poorly built, building something Tier 3 that does the job would be worthwhile.

Give the class the ability to make walls of force with a caster level equal to class level and perhaps the restriction that it has to touch each square in which the wall will reside. That is also a pretty low level ability believe it or not, and could be really funny at lower levels against charging opponents.

Also you can make it so that everything a mime does has a somatic component.

If you want to hurt people, then you need to focus more on your invisible weapons (Although you should probably be less restrictive in the styles).

A good melee weapon isn't much without the ability to move to opponents and use it, to hit them with it in a way they would prefer you didn't, and the ability to survive their counterattack.

[ThisGuy01]

Also you can make it so that everything a mime does has a somatic component.

I had thought about that ability, but I'm not sure how to implement it. Should I just put it in the beginning as a note? Something like this; All abilities gained by the mime class have a somatic component.  This is usually an elaborate gesture relating to what the ability does such as miming throwing a rope to use it's rope pull ability.  These gestures are part of using the ability and take no extra time, because of this, the mime cannot use any ability gained from this class if completely immobile.

3rd Sudden Stop: A mime excels in confusion, and what better way than to stop an enemy in it's tracks with something it can't see.  As an immediate action, the mime may create an invisible wall of force 10'x10'.  As part of their move action, the mime may lay down 10'x10' walls of force for as far as they can move as long as they have uses of this ability left.  The mime may create these walls horizontally or vertically as the mime sees fit at the time.  The mime may create a number of 10'x10' walls equal to his class level x his Cha modifier.

How does that sound? Too good or not good enough?

[Bloody Initiate]

I had thought about that ability, but I'm not sure how to implement it. Should I just put it in the beginning as a note? Something like this; All abilities gained by the mime class have a somatic component.  This is usually an elaborate gesture relating to what the ability does such as miming throwing a rope to use it's rope pull ability.  These gestures are part of using the ability and take no extra time, because of this, the mime cannot use any ability gained from this class if completely immobile.

That would do fine. You don't even have to call it a "somatic" component, but there's nothing wrong with what you've written.

You also have no proficiencies listed.

You could just say they
3rd Sudden Stop: A mime excels in confusion, and what better way than to stop an enemy in it's tracks with something it can't see.  As an immediate action, the mime may create an invisible wall of force 10'x10'.  As part of their move action, the mime may lay down 10'x10' walls of force for as far as they can move as long as they have uses of this ability left.  The mime may create these walls horizontally or vertically as the mime sees fit at the time.  The mime may create a number of 10'x10' walls equal to his class level x his Cha modifier.

How does that sound? Too good or not good enough?

That looks good. Why not make it begin as a standard or move action, then turn into a swift action, then into an immediate, and perhaps eventually free?

[ThisGuy01]

That looks good. Why not make it begin as a standard or move action, then turn into a swift action, then into an immediate, and perhaps eventually free?

The reason I have it like that is they may use the immediate action to do something like stop a charge or create an instant ceiling if needed.  I liked your ability of making them tough the squares the target which is why i made it part of a move action, that way it uses no extra time...unless they don't plan to move I guess.

But for tonight I must call it quits, though please feel free to keep pumping criticism/ideas at me.

[Bloody Initiate]

I understand why you made it like you did, but if you make weakened versions you can give it at an earlier level and they can enjoy its utility a lot earlier. You can then scale up to the best version as the mime gains levels.

[ThisGuy01]

Do they really need the ability before 3rd level though?  I'm going to add in that the walls don't need to connect when made.  Wait, what if I started the ability that they need to touch the squares, then move up to a range of 20', then up to 40'.  That would give them versatility when they use it.

[Bloody Initiate]

Ah, I didn't see how you'd placed it at 3rd. When I first read it I missed any associated level. That's a damn fine 3rd level ability, some might say it's a bit too good for 3rd, but I kinda like it there.

[ThisGuy01]

I put it as 3rd level because it won't get really good until later, but should I up it to maybe 5th or so?  I don't want to make the walls of force too powerful or make them the best ability of the mime, I'm currently working on a rewrite of the weapons and shield, making it less restrictive and more of a 'build your own weapon scheme'

[ThisGuy01]

1st Mimed Offense The mime may create a weapon, weapons, or a shield to help them in offense.  They can create a light, one handed, two handed weapon, or any combination that they could wield.  Any light weapons created this way deal 1d4/3 levels damage with a 18-20 critical threat range and a multiplier of x2.  Any one handed weapon created deal 1d6/3 levels damage with a 19-20 critical threat range and multiplier of x2.  Any two handed weapon deals 1d8/3 levels damage with a 20 critical threat range and a x2 multiplier.  They may create a shield that gives them a +2 shield bonus to armor class, increasing by +1 every 5 levels.  These weapons function the same no matter what form the mime envisions them as because they are invisible to all but the mime.  If the mime creates two weapons to fight with, the weapons must be a one handed and a light weapon, regardless of whether or not a feat would allow the mime to use a different combination of weapons.

Mimed weapons start with a +1 enhancement bonus that increases by 1 every 4 levels.  These weapons are also aligned to the mime's alignment and can overcome any damage reduction that is overcome by a specific type of metal.

Additionally, the mime gains a pool of points to give the weapon special abilities.  At 5th level, the pool has 1 point, allowing the mime to add any +1 ability to it.  This pool increases to +2 as 10th level, +4 at 15th level, and +6 at 20th level.  If the mime is using two weapons for fighting, the weapons both gain the appropriate enhancement bonus for the mime's level, but the pool of special ability points must be divided among the two any way the mime wishes.


There, I think that will make for a much more customizable character.  Any thoughts or comments?