Talk:Dreg Knight (3.5e Class)

Ratings

Hammerhead is neutral on this article and rated it 2 of 4.

Alright, this class is insane. I have not seen a more extreme example of any archetype, nor a more extreme class design. The Death Druid, taken to the degree of being a Nurgle-Swamp-Thing-Monster. While the writing style is irritating to me (certain words are overused and some sentences are little more than nonsensical), I have to admit that this class has a good degree of depth to it's flavor, as is demonstrated in the "Campaign Information" section (Though, the Example NPC was poorly executed, and would require some extra work to incorporate into a campaign). The mechanics unnerved me at first, but I soon realized that this class only has two abilities: Poison and Surviving. The Poison starts out strong enough that the class with have an impact, but weak enough that it doesn't break the game. Then, it scales up well enough that it is playable at later levels. The survivability, while similar, goes too high, in my honest opinion. 50 bonus hp at level 10 is like having a bonus to your con score of +10. It only goes up from there, gaining immunity to destruction and heavy fortification. This exceedingly high survivability, along with the repetitiveness in combat that a player of this class would experience due to it's single form of attack, is what lowers my rating to a Neutral. Honestly, I wouldn't feel comfortable using this in my own campaigns. Though, the flavor is very well done.

	Surgo is neutral on this article and rated it 2 of 4.
	I've seen way worse than this, but I've also seen better. It works, but I think its scaling is boring and should not be a 20 level class.

	Foxwarrior likes this article and rated it 3 of 4.
	The flavor is delicious, and using poisons makes it mechanically distinctive for a simplistic attack class.

Eiji-kun likes this article and rated it 3 of 4.

This is sort of a diseased fighter, and it makes me think of some chaos spawn of Nurgle. Anyway, making the DC of Toxin based on your HD is a good move, so that even if you multiclass in late (recieving lower damage as a result) your DCs will at least be relevent. Striking at ability scores is dangerous, but the damage isn't so intense that it's a one hit kill. It should be noted that this class is a real dragon killer, just hit that Dex. Other than that, the flavor is present and juicy (eewww) and the mechanics are sound. It is very strong, with its listed poison on every hit, but it is not so strong that I think it will always kill things immediately and not versitile to be wizard level. I approve.

Ghostwheel opposes this article and rated it 0 of 4.

Ability damage is a really bad mechanic from a design aspect in a number of different ways, the biggest of which is the downtime while the DM has to refigure a quarter of the stats off of a monster depending on the ability score that's lowered. Furthermore, this class can often be hit-or-miss, being incredibly effective in some situations to the point of one-shotting an enemy that was meant to be relevant, while at other times being completely ineffective as far as their class features go. Finally, apart from the poison, the class doesn't really have many interesting mechanics going for it, most of its abilities coming down to, "Nah nah nah nah, you can't kill me".

AC Bonus

Might wanna reduce the enhancement bonus to natural armor to 1/3 levels, since 1/2 can push characters too high on the RNG. --Ghostwheel 05:33, September 25, 2009 (UTC)

See Talk:Threat (3.5e Class) for further details on this conversation. → Rith ^(talk) 03:41, September 26, 2009 (UTC)

Constitution Bonus

Why not combine some abilities in one? +4 fort every 3 levels could replace the +Fort from Numb, as well as the bonus HP from Putrid Toughness. Then just make Toxin's DC equal to 10 + Con mod, since Constitution will scale accordingly, and you have around the same DC while simplifying abilities. You could even call the bonus to Con "Putrid Toughness" so you remain with no dead levels, and don't change anything as far as the class ability names are concerned. --Ghostwheel 05:33, September 25, 2009 (UTC)

I don't think so, since the purpose of 'Putrid Toughness X' is to be a bonus to hp, and a bonus to hp only. If I make it be a flat bonus to Con, it opens far to many gaps in the system, allowing for abuse far too easily. → Rith ^(talk) 03:47, September 26, 2009 (UTC)

Could you give some examples? Especially since you'd need a considerable amount of levels in Dreg Knight to have a really high Constitution. --Ghostwheel 08:18, September 26, 2009 (UTC)

I have editted the AC progression, but I perfer to keep it as bonus hp, and not a change to the characters core stats, since that is very dangerous territory. → Rith ^(talk) 10:37, September 26, 2009 (UTC)

Ah, that might actually not work, in the case of a Dreg Knight 18 / Impediment 2, for example, since you'd get con to AC, which would be super-high with boosted Constitution. --Ghostwheel 15:26, September 26, 2009 (UTC)

Virulence

Does Virulence make his Toxin bypass immunity to poison?

	MisterSinister likes this article and rated it 3 of 4.
	This is an interesting class, with good flavour and fun, if not always balanced, mechanics. I suspect that a High balance point is also off-key for it, as it seems to do a lot of things that a High-balance class shouldn't. It also has a few hilarious omissions that need addressing. Otherwise, good work.