Confessor (class idea) from Terry Goodkind Books/Show

[SmootRK]

So... my daughter (8) has come to me wanting me to incorporate the idea of a Confessor from Sword of Truth Books (or Legend of the Seeker show more properly). On the off-chance, has anyone developed or seen something designed for Basic style games that would suffice? Care to point me in that direction?

My own thoughts are that the abilities are a little sparse and one-dimensional (but powerful)... so I think if I have to design this out, I will probably do it more like one of the Quasi-Classes... something layered upon one of the other classes.

Ideas out there?

EDIT: now a well (or better) written, downloadable version of this idea is available on the second page of this thread.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=389&start=10#p9711

[Dimirag]

How about a Cleric Sub-Type?

(This is based on Legend of the Seeker)

Req: Wis & Char.
HD: As Cleric
BTH: As Cleric, but can use Swords & Dagger.
Save: As Fighter
AC: As Thief.

Instead of Turning Undead -> Confession.
Detect Lies at will with 100% accuracy.

She would loose spells and the armor training...

XP: Should be lower than Cleric's XP requirement.

[SmootRK]

That is about all they do it seems. Which is why I may just go ahead a cobble the idea together, putting my own spin on it, by making it into a Quasi-Class... but doubt I will bother with trying to make it an "Supplement".

Otherwise, they strike me as watered-down warriors with a powerful charm ability... not so cool for a gaming group, even if it makes a decent story.

[Joe the Rat]

Yeah, best off as a one-off or an NPC.

I'd barely caught the show (though what I did see was a nice distillation for tv format), but their basic ability is a no-save, permanent charm person effect. That's a boss-monster NPC right there. Individuals vary in other abilities. Confessor is something you're born with, anything else you learn comes on top of that. Kahlan was a warrior because she was trained to fight - and to lead. The rest, not so much.

So... Q-class seems like a good way to handle it - or else make them a separate race. Water it down for a semblance of balance, though - standard charm person effect(touch range, limited daily use), maybe some divination (limited to truthiness issues)... no idea what to do with the Con Dar. This lets you do fighty confessors, priestly confessors... The setting would be disinclined to thiefy confessors, and the nature of the power may preclude wizardy confessors, but in a "inspired by" world, they may be allowable.

Nothing BF I can think of, but there are several monsters, and a few ridiculously overstuffed variant races from the last three and a half versions of the game's source material, at least one or two of which have some charm abilities - might be a starting place.

[SmootRK]

For the main power, I am thinking that it (for game balance reasons) will be equivalent to Charm Person Spell, getting stronger as levels increase. I will give them the ability to use it 1 time per day, per level, modified by Wisdom Bonus (or perhaps Charisma). Drawback is that using the CONFESS ability drains (temporary) 1d4 Constitution points. Unlike other Con loss (which 'heal' at 1/day), I will allow 1d4 points of these (only these) to be healed each hour of rest.

Later levels the ability can be used with some perks.. such as:
Longer Duration
Stronger Mode, working more like "Command" or Complete Devotion.
Charm Animal
Charm Monster
as Quest/Geas
or even Permanent Confess

Each of the 'stronger' versions use up additional slots (to be determined) of the per day allotment, and will have minimum level requirements which (hopefully) keeps them in congruence to when a mu or cleric would get similar powers (or maybe a little bit before they get those spells).

The other main power that I have seen is the Detect Lies. I will just make it an ability check (Wis based) with a bonus of like +1 every 3 or 4 levels on top of that... I don't really want to make this something automatic or whatever.

As far as Base Classes go, I am in the Inspired by mode, not the total Emulation Mode... so I would allow it to be layered upon any class, even thief... and bad guys would be able to be in the mix as well. It is basically just charms anyhow.

Thoughts?

[Joe the Rat]

Look at the Bardic Q-class as well. The way the abilities grow reminds me a bit of the song-buffing.

[dymondy2k]

Glad she is watching the show and not reading the books..

[SmootRK]

Glad she is watching the show and not reading the books..

She is a very advanced reader, but the subject matter gets a little too adult... not sure I will let her read them yet. Maybe when she is nine

[Dimirag]

"Detect Lie" can be done with an Wisdom Skill Roll (wich reduces the difficulty by class level).
Instead of the CON loss give her/him an "fatigued status" every time she/he confess someone (its a gaze attack with charm/control effect).

I like the idea of a Priest Sub-Class meaning their abilities come from "divine gifts", using the "turn undead" system work, it doesn't allow a Saving Throw but its based on the Level of the victim.
You can put a "max confessed limit" something like for followers.
Instead of "turn/control" 3d6 HD. Only controls One character and requires direct eye contact.

You can give it some spell access to spell related with truth and some ST bonus for some charm/spell abilities (they are "protected with divine gifts"

[dymondy2k]

Glad she is watching the show and not reading the books..

She is a very advanced reader, but the subject matter gets a little too adult... not sure I will let her read them yet. Maybe when she is nine

Exactly.. and it was a really good read until that whole S&M thing about 2/3 the way through..