How does this look? :-)

http://www.myth-weavers.com/wiki/ind...stige_Class%29

A few things I noticed:

1) The "Charisma score + 4" seems a bit much for the number of Flair uses per day. I would cut it down to maybe 4 + Charisma modifier at the 1st level of Dashing Swordsman, plus 2 more uses per level of Dashing Swordsman. So, at full Dashing Swordsman, that's 22 uses, plus the character's Charisma modifier, which is a good number, without giving too many Flair uses to people who only dip into the class who happen to have very high Charisma scores.

2) The Dramatic Entrance ability seems much too mechanics-heavy for something you'll possibly be doing every battle, especially having to get the CR of the encounter from the DM. I would change it to something much simpler, like after all Initiative is rolled, you can expend a Flair usage as a free action and roll a d20 + 1/2 your Dashing Swordsman level + your Charisma mod. If your result equals or exceeds the highest Initiative rolled for the current encounter, you may place yourself anywhere in the Initiative order you choose (letting you choose the time where it would be most dramatic for you to act), and may get a Surprise round, if you so choose (which isn't that powerful, considering you can only do a single action (move or standard) in the surprise round RAW).

3) I would change Thespian's Luck to simply being a Flair usage ability, with my included statement on changing the number of uses of the Flair ability per day, rather than a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier. It would make usage of the ability more tactical, since the Flair ability can be used for so many other useful class features.

4) Better Lucky than Skilled seems a bit too detrimental and restrictive for something that has the potential to be completely useless (since with two dice, you could still roll low on both). Instead, I would change it so that by expending a Flair use for the day, you can reroll any dice roll, but you must choose to use the ability before the results of the original roll are revealed, and must take the rerolled result, no matter what it is. Also, remove the exhausted/unable to use other class features penalty, as it seems unnecessary for an ability that doesn't have a guaranteed benefit (as you could still roll low again).

5) Also, simply from a presentation perspective, I would move the level 1 Dashing Swordsman ability to add his class level to a skill check by expending a Flair use to it's own separate ability, and put Flair and it's number of uses per day on it's own, so as to present Flair as more of it's own class feature (since it's used so much for so many other class abilities) and not tied to the skill enhancement class ability.

I just read most of this, but alas I have to get to class. I will respond later today :-) Thanks for your input!

In Response, Point by Point.

1) That was my bad, it never should have said score it was always to be the modifier. Currently I am working on getting a play group together to test and see just how many flairs should be included. I did not add the feat in the listing but I made the Feat: Extra Flair- Adds 4 more uses of the flair ability. And it is included in the test build, currently the test model has 18 uses of the flair ability per day.

2) I like this, i had been hoping for feedback on this, but I was not sure how to fix it. But that helps out a lot :-)

3) I got kind of confused about this statement. This ability uses a one flair charge, and it lasts a number of rounds equal to your modifier. So if the character is getting hit a lot he/she can choose to use this and it lasts 4-6 rounds for that one use, depending on the modifier. If he needs to do it again in the same day he/she will have it ready, if they have more flair attempts, does that make sense? I hope I engaged this topic properly and addressed your point adequately. Let me know if there are any linger issues with how I presented this feature.

4) This is another ability that is going to need to be play tested. This ability will need to be tried and weighed to make sure it is worthy of being the 10th lvl ability. It is true that there is a chance to roll two low numbers, however on the flip side, a character with four attacks per round could get multiple crits, or more than one chance to make a save, etc. At this point it really just needs to be play tested to see if the ability needs further adjusting. Which I will report here as soon as the tests begins. I have mods ready, now I am looking for DMs and players, or both. To tag along and add input to further refine the character.

5) I made a separation between the two, take a look and see if that helps :-)

Thanks again for all your help, if you want to be added to game as a reader, player, etc. and see how this draft grows, let me know.

In response to your responses:

3) I think the problem I had, which I was trying to fix, was the fact that Thespian's Luck acted so similar to Flashy Defense, resulting in the Dashing Swordsman adding their Charisma modifier to their AC twice, just as two different bonus types. This is mechanically sound, but not very creative, especially in a class so devoted to the theatrics of things. Here's an idea to work with: Make Thespian's Luck act similar to a mounted character with Mounted Combat. As an immediate action, a Dashing Swordsman can expend one daily use of his Flair ability to confound an attack with dramatics and acting skill. The Dashing Swordsman rolls a Perform check, and if his check result equals or exceeds the attack roll he's defending against, the attack is negated. If that seems underpowered for a 7th level PrC ability, you can add that if the Dashing Swordsman's Perform check exceeds the attack roll by five or more points, he can redirect the attack, using the original attacker's roll result, into a target adjacent to the Dashing Swordsman. I believe this, or something like it, would retain the defensive nature of Thespian's Luck, while making it into a more interesting mechanic that flows better with the theme of the rest of the class.

As for the rest of it, beyond some grammatical overhaul, it looks pretty solid, barring the playtest to see how it reacts with the class features of the other classes that could interact with it, and real-game scenarios. If you'd like to add me into the game as a Reader, that would be fine. This class looks interesting, and I'd be glad to assist in further polishing it and seeing it to it's final version.

I just got home to look at this and thats a good point, ill look over that in a bit. Thanks again! :-D

Ok so after re reading that, i am reminded of something the co creator said, if the flashy defense offers a bonus to AC from Chr, and so does this, then it stands to reason, they will not stack. So essentially it is useless to have a second bonus to AC from a Chr modifier. There was something like what you are describing in one of the builds I pulled from already online, but good catch though, it really helps! :-D Im going to go see if i can find that online and present it here.

After a fine and furiously productive chat with my friend about this, here is what we came up with.

As a readied action, the dashing swordsman parries the first attack from a designated melee or ranged attacker. If the attacker is within melee range the Dashing Swordsman gets one counter attack at a -2 penalty for free. This penalty increases cumulatively by -2 each time it is used on the same attacker.

So he gets a -2, cumulative, each time he uses the ability (which I assume is the reworked Thespian's Luck) on the same attacker? Is that per day, or per encounter? Also, I can see it being sort of weak being a readied action, as readied actions are kind of a pain to deal with... you spend your entire turn readying an action, and if what you ready for doesn't happen, your whole turn is wasted, so I'm not sure a melee-specific counterattack at a -2 cumulative penalty is strong enough to make up for the risk you take using a readied action for it.

There are a few things i remembered now that should have been added in there. My DM friend told me a readied action only takes a standard action, and so there would be a move action still left. But I thought it would be worth it more to do one counter attack for Thespian's luck and then another for Reposite. Now I am playing with the idea of allow it to add extra damage, like say a 1d6, then 2d6 later, or 1d6 per attack? Something to play with at the very least. Thoughts?