Originally posted by bengeldorn:
NIKSILAE
“Tkaesali is honor. Honor is life. A life without tkaesali is like a life without honor.”— Miklaas, nikaal niksilae.
The niksilaes are highly respected nikaal warriors who have been gifted with a specially crafted tkaesali due to their unwavering devotion and service to their tribe. These individuals focus their mental energies to supplement their already impressive skills with this sacred weapon. The niksilae’s tkaesali is regarded as symbol of honor amongst the nikaal people and they will risk life and limb to protect it. If a niksilae ever loses his tkaesali, he risks dishonoring himself as well as his tribe.
Most nikaals who become niksilae aspire to enter the class early in their careers. The niksilaes continually seek out challenges in order to prove their worth to their people. No niksilae will ever train another nikaal to become one of their own. Aspiring niksilaes are self-taught and must find their own way in the world.
Psychic warriors and fighters with psionic talent are attracted to the niksilae class due to its blending of the unseen Way and weapon prowess. Its not uncommon for the occasional bard or rogue to achieve the niksilae stature within their tribe. Although gladiators could benefit from the abilities and increased sense of honor gained by the niksilae, they usually don’t take to this class. This is mainly due to the difficulty of earning their tribe’s respect and the gladiator’s aversion to focusing on a single weapon.
Most niksilaes stay with their people and act as tribal protectors in order to defend the tribe from the lurking and hidden horrors of the wastes. Others take to adventuring, seeking out further dangers with the hopes of strengthening the respect and honor of their tribe.
Hit Die: d10
REQUIREMENTS
To qualify to become a niksilae, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Race: Nikaal.
Base Attack Bonus: +5.
Skills: Concentration 5 ranks, Knowledge (psionics) 5 ranks
Feats: Weapon Focus (tkaesali).
Psionics: Must have a power point reserve of at least 1 power point.
Special: Must have earned a masterwork tkaesali by a tribal elder for an honorable task.
TABLE 1–1: THE NIKSILAE
LevelBABFORTREFWILLSpecialPP/day<br />1st+1+2+0+0Tkaesali focus, augment tkaesali, tribal honor1<br />2nd+2+3+0+0—2<br />3rd+3+3+1+1Bonus Feat4<br />4th+4+4+1+1—7<br />5th+5+4+1+1—11<br />6th+6+5+2+2Bonus Feat16<br />7th+7+5+2+2—22<br />8th+8+6+2+2—29<br />9th+9+6+3+3Bonus Feat37<br />10th+10+7+3+3Augment tkaesali (two at once)46
CLASS SKILLS
The niksilae’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), and Survival (Wis).
Skill Points at each Level: 2 + Int modifier.
CLASS FEATURES
All of the following are class features of the niksilae prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Niksilaes gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.
Power Points/Day: A niksilae’s ability to augment her tkaesali is limited by the power points she has available. Her base daily allotment of power points is given in the Table 1–1. In addition, she receives bonus power points per day if she has a high wisdom score (see Table 2–1: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Power Points, EPH 18). Her race might also provide bonus power points per day, as might certain feats and items.
Tkaesali Focus (Ex): The Niksilae’s favored weapon is the tkaesali. The tkaesali is a symbol of the niksilae’s honor, and a niksilae is devoted to protect his honor by all means. The niksilae’s tkaesali is given to him as a gift and a sign for the niksilae’s reputation. The niksilae’s Augment Tkaesali class feature is based on this single weapon. She cannot use this ability on any other weapon, not even another tkaesali. A niksilae, who looses her tkaesali has lost her honor and becomes an ex-niksilae (see ex-niksilae). If the niksilae’s tkaesali is destroyed, she becomes an ex-niksilae as well.
A niksilae’s tkaesli is a symbol of her honor, but the weapon itself can be destoyed by others. Therefor a niksilae pays attention to keep her tkaesali undamaged. As long as a niksilae is psionically focused, her tkaesali’s hardness increases by 1 per every two niksilae levels. In addition, her tkaesali gains 2 temporary hit points per niksilae level while a niksilae is psionically focused.
For example, the tkaesali of a 5th level niksilae would have a hardness of 7 and 20 hit points, if the niksilae would be psionically focused. After a sunder attempt from an opponent the tkaesali’s hit points dropp to 8. If the niksilae would loose her psionic focus, her tkaesali’s hit points would still be 8 (temporary hit points are lost first), but if the niksilae would become again psionically focused (increasing the tkaesali’s hit points to 18) and loose her focus again, her tkaesali’s hit points would still be 8 (the temporary hit points don’t “heal” the weapon).
Tribal Honor: A niksilae eminently respected in her tribe and by other nikaals. She gains a bonus equal to her niksilae levels to all charisma related checks dealing with other nikaals. In addition, a niksilae with the feat leadership gains a +1 bonus to her leadership score for every two niksilae levels. This bonus only applies for determining the niksilae’s companion level and her numbers of followers, but only if the companion or the followers are nikaals.
Augment Tkaesali (Ex): Beginning at 1st level, the niksilae can augment her tkaesali by selecting an ability from her available tkaesali augments. Her level determines the abilities available for her to use (see Table 1–2). In some cases she can use power points to increase the power of her augment tkaesali ability. The power of the augment tkaesali ability lasts for 1 round or until the niksilae’s next attack, unless otherwise noted. If the attack misses, that use is wasted.
Using an augment tkaesali is a swift action. When powering an augment with power points, a tkaesali cannot spend more power points than her niksilae level on any single augment tkaesali. A niksilae can use her augment tkaesali ability a total number of times per day equal to her niksilae level + her wisdom modifier.
At 10th level, a niksilae can choose two augments from the list in the same swift action. Both augments count against her daily total. The total power points spent on the augments is still limited to her niksilae level.
TABLE 1–2: AUGMENT TKAESALI BY LEVEL
Minimum<br />LevelAbility<br />1stDefensive Whirlwind<br />1stEnhance Tkaesali<br />3rdClose Double Attack<br />3rdSneak Attack<br />5thStunning Attack<br />5thTrip Attack<br />7thRanged Attack<br />7thWounding Attack<br />9thGhost Touch<br />9thPower Drain
Defensive Whirlwind: The niksilae receives a +1 shield bonus for 1 round or until his next attack. She can choose to use this augment after an opponent attacks her, but before she knows the result of this attack. For every 2 power points spend, the bonus increases by 1 (maximum +5). Minimum level 1st.
Enhance Tkaesali: The niksilae’s tkaesali gains a +1 enhancement bonus on attack damage rolls. The weapon counts as psionic weapon to for bypassing a creature’s damage reduction. For every 3 additional power points spend the bonus increases by 1 (maximum +5). Minimum level 1st.
Close Double Attack: The niksilae’s tkaesali is treated as a double weapon (but no longer being reach weapon) for the next attack (1d10/1d6,
Originally posted by methvezem:
Great job Bengeldorn! 
It’s a neat expansion of the nikaal-tkaesali relationship, hinted in the MC but not much described.
While the contrary is true, are all nikaal tkaesali-wielders niksilae?
Originally posted by kalthandrix:
I will post some comments later, but I like my initial read of the class- so after a few round of reviews and edits I am hoping you will send it to me.
Originally posted by bengeldorn:
[quote]Great job Bengeldorn!
It’s a neat expansion of the nikaal-tkaesali relationship, hinted in the MC but not much described.
While the contrary is true, are all nikaal tkaesali-wielders niksilae?[/quote]
Thanks for the compliments.
Well, in 2nd edition the tkaesali was only given to celebrated warriors, shamans and tribal elders. The relationship between a Nikaal and its tkaesali are pretty much like those I diskribed in my niksilae write up, but without the powers given. I allways thought, since the tkaesali is a martial weapon could now theoretically wielded by any fighter, that the relationship between nikaals and their tkaesali might get lost. By creating this PrC, I was hoping to bring back a little of this flair back to the nikaal (which could be easaly make a core race for DS IMHO). SO now, to your original question, I would say that with the v3.5 mechanics not every nikaal that wields a tkaesali is a niksilae, but tribal elders will certainly have some levels in this class IMHO (unless some creates another PrC that would cover their status.
Sure. That was kind of the plan. 
EDIT: I think the introduction part could need some more work, so any help would be appriciated. In addition I’d like to know if anybody knows other sources besides DS-MCII and ToA, where I could find more infos about nikaals.
Originally posted by Sysane:
Am I blind, or is there no hit die listed?
Originally posted by bengeldorn:
Well…it’s d10. I must have missed marking it, while I was copy/pasting the text.
Originally posted by Sysane:
Its all good. It happens.
What did you base this PrC’s power points per day progression on? Its not the usual advancement rate from what I see.
Originally posted by bengeldorn:
[quote]Its all good. It happens.
What did you base this PrC’s power points per day progression on? Its not the usual advancement rate from what I see.[/quote]
It’s the previous level in power points.
1st->2nd = +1
2nd->3rd = +2
3rd->4th = +3
4th->5th = +4
.
.
.
Originally posted by Sysane:
[quote]It’s the previous level in power points.
1st->2nd = +1
2nd->3rd = +2
3rd->4th = +3
4th->5th = +4
.
.
.[/quote]
Hmmm… I’d suggest maybe basing it off of either a psi warrior of equal level or a war mind’s power point progression. I would personally opt for the psi warriors progression though. I’m a little leery of the PrC having a skill point progression 4+ Int mod. It might just be me, but I’d personally lower it to a 2+ Int mod per level to balance out the fact the PrC offers a d10 HD and full BaB.
I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between this PrC and the lurk class from the Complete Psionic. If you haven’t seen the lurk, I’d suggest checking it out. It may lend some more insight for your PrC
Originally posted by xanthus:
I do enjoy the class and the flavor of the background is nice (I also believe that the nikaal could easily be a core race), a few critiques:
I like the augmenting weapon thing, it provides a neat factor and customization in combat that gives plenty of options. One thing I’d add into the focus with their weapon is that each level in the class adds to the hardness of their weapon and gives it twice their class level in additional hp to the weapon. My reason for saying this is because as Athasian weapons are often made of shoddy and poor materials (even most masterworked items like this), it’s pretty easy to sunder them. Their constant trickle flow of psychic energy into the weapon could easily fortify it to make it tougher and stronger.
Otherwise… I’ve got nothing that Sysane didn’t already cover Good show on it.
-X
Originally posted by Pennarin:
Good job with both mechanics and flavor!
Originally posted by Sysane:
Beng,
I tried to clean this up for you a bit while trying to stay true to your orginal fluff. Don’t feel as if you have to use it though.
[quote]The niksilae are highly respected nikaal warriors who have been gifted with a specially crafted tkaesali due to their unwavering devotion and service to their tribe. These individuals focus their mental energies to supplement their already impressive skills with this sacred weapon. The niksilae’s tkaesali is regarded as symbol of honor amongst the nikaal people and they will risk life and limb to protect it. If a niksilae ever looses his tkaesali, he risks dishonoring himself as well as his tribe.
Most nikaals who become niksilae aspire to enter the class early in their careers. The nilsilae continually seek out challenges in order to prove their worth to their people. No niksilae will ever train another nikaal to become one of their own. Aspiring niksilaes are self-taught and must find their own way in the world.
Psychic warriors and fighters with psionic talent are attracted to being niksilaes due to its blending of the unseen Way and weapon prowess. Its not uncommon for the occasional bards or rouge to achieve the niksilae stature within their tribe. Although gladiators could benefit from the abilities offered by the niksilaes and an increased sense honor, they usually don’t take to this class. This is mainly due to the difficulty of earning their tribe’s respect and the gladiator’s aversion to focusing on a single weapon.
Most niksilaes stay with their people and act as a tribal protector in order to defend it from the lurking and hidden horrors of the wastes. Others take to adventuring, seeking out further dangers with the hopes stregthening the respect and honor of their tribe.[/quote]
Originally posted by xanthus:
Seconded wholeheartedly.
-X
Originally posted by huntercc:
fantabulous! My PC’s might be running into one or two of these
Originally posted by squidfur-:
This intro does indeed sound much better, but there are a few grammatical/spelling errors…
[quote]The niksilae are highly respected nikaal warriors who have been gifted with a specially crafted tkaesali due to their unwavering devotion and service to their tribe. These individuals focus their mental energies to supplement their already impressive skills with this sacred weapon. The niksilae’s tkaesali is regarded as symbol of honor amongst the nikaal people and they will risk life and limb to protect it. If a niksilae ever loses his tkaesali, he risks dishonoring himself as well as his tribe.
Most nikaals who become niksilae aspire to enter the class early in their careers. The niksilae(the plural form already appears as niksilae, if the added “s” is needed then add it to all plural entries) continually seek out challenges in order to prove their worth to their people. No niksilae will ever train another nikaal to become one of their own. Aspiring niksilaes are self-taught and must find their own way in the world.
Psychic warriors and fighters with psionic talent are attracted to the niksilae class due to its blending of the unseen Way and weapon prowess. Its not uncommon for the occasional bard or rogue to achieve the niksilae stature within their tribe. Although gladiators could benefit from the abilities and increased sense of honor gained by the niksilae , they usually don’t take to this class. This is mainly due to the difficulty of earning their tribe’s respect and the gladiator’s aversion to focusing on a single weapon.
Most niksilae stay with their people and act as tribal protectors in order to defend the tribe from the lurking and hidden horrors of the wastes. Others take to adventuring, seeking out further dangers with the hopes of strengthening the respect and honor of their tribe.[/quote]
I’d also like to see the special ability “defensive twirl” be renamed. The reason for this is perhaps to do with the word "twirl"s relation with such things as baton tossing and ballet. Not very aggressive or heroic if you ask me. hee hee
Also, perhaps an ability could be added to show the classes effect on other nikaal, ie. level of respect/honor/etc.
Originally posted by bengeldorn:
The reason, why I gave the niksilae this progression was, that he could use his augment tkaesali class feature almost every time with an augment. For example, a 8th level niksilae with an Wisdom score of 16, would be able to his augment tkaesali ability 11 times per day and would have about 43 to 62 PPs (makes an avarage of about 50 PPs). This means he could use his augment tkaesali 11 times per day augmenting each with about 4,5 PP (his maximum would be 8). This is something about the half of the full possibility for each use and seams ok IMHO.
If I’d take the psychic warrior’s PP-progession a niksilae would have about 33 to 45 PPs (makes an avarage of about 39 PPs). This means he could use his augment tkaesali 11 times per day augmenting each with about 3,5 PP. This still is something about the half but still less than the half. It could work to, but I’d like to see a niksilae using his augment ability as often, with many augments as possible.
For my callculations I used a base class with Wild Talent (2 PP) as a feat and a Psychic Warrior (14 PP).
I don’t know, I still tend for the actuall PP-progression. Maybe some more arguments will change my mind.
You are right, d10, full bab and 4 skill points/level are pretty unsual (I’ve only seen the RoW’s Wildrunner PrC having that), but this class is a racial class, and therefore it can be made more powerfull than other classes IMHO. I was thinking about to add having any lawful alignment to the requirements, maybe this would balance the class, if more people think its too unbalanced.
Oppionions?
You caught me. :embarrass I have to agree, that I used the basic idea (and some abilities) from the Complete Psionic’s lurk class, but I guess there are some of my own creation. I didn’t want to take to many abilities from the lurk, because the lurk’s background is different to a niksilae’s one, and so should be the abilities. If you (or someone else) have some additional ideas to augment a tkaesali, I’m pleased to take a look at them.
[quote]I do enjoy the class and the flavor of the background is nice (I also believe that the nikaal could easily be a core race), a few critiques:
I like the augmenting weapon thing, it provides a neat factor and customization in combat that gives plenty of options. One thing I’d add into the focus with their weapon is that each level in the class adds to the hardness of their weapon and gives it twice their class level in additional hp to the weapon. My reason for saying this is because as Athasian weapons are often made of shoddy and poor materials (even most masterworked items like this), it’s pretty easy to sunder them. Their constant trickle flow of psychic energy into the weapon could easily fortify it to make it tougher and stronger.
Otherwise… I’ve got nothing that Sysane didn’t already cover Good show on it.
-X[/quote]
Mmmh… intresting idea. What about this?
Class feature’s name (Ex): As long as the niksilae is psionically focused his tkaesali’s hardness increases by one per two levels and the weapon gains two temporary hit points per level. These temporary hit points are lost first.
Well, I looked the word up in a dictionary and most of translation did fit on the actuall idea. If you have any other suggestion, I’d be pleased to see them. My only other suggestion would be “Whirlkwind of Defense”.
Actually, I was just thinking about too. My idea would be:
Respect of the tribe: A niksilae gains a bonus to all Charisma related skill checks equal to his niksilae level. In addition, a niksilae with the leadership feat, can add half of his niksilae level to his leadership score, to determine his companion and followers, if his companion or followers are nikaals.
If I add this ability, then I’d properbly change the skill points per level to 2.
@Sysane & squidfur: Thank you for the flavour part. I allways have my difficulties in wording my ideas in english, but fortunatelly this board has willing members still try to help me with this. 
@everyone else: Thank you for your compliments. It’s realy nice to see, that this prestige class seems to find favor.
Originally posted by xanthus:
[quote]Mmmh… intresting idea. What about this?
Class feature’s name (Ex): As long as the niksilae is psionically focused his tkaesali’s hardness increases by one per two levels and the weapon gains two temporary hit points per level. These temporary hit points are lost first.[/quote]
I’d call the class feature “Strength of Honor” myself. And if I had to rename Defensive Twirl, I’d name it something like “Defensive Wind” or “Defensive Whirlwind” or “Defensive Insight”.
And definitely add in the tribal honor trait. If you add both of these reduce the skills to 2/level. With or without these additions, I think you’d have gotten something pretty original and with some staying power and good Athasian flavor. When you’re happy with it, I think you should submit it to Kalthandrix, as he had suggested. It’s neat and belongs in the PrC Appendix 2
-X
Originally posted by bengeldorn:
I included the namless ability in the tkaesali focus class feature. I guess this makes sense and has a proper name too.
So far I changed Defensive Twirl to Defensive Whirlwind. Although it fits the flavour I had in mind with this augment, I’m not quite happy with its sounding. 
Done! 
[quote]With or without these additions, I think you’d have gotten something pretty original and with some staying power and good Athasian flavor. When you’re happy with it, I think you should submit it to Kalthandrix, as he had suggested. It’s neat and belongs in the PrC Appendix 2
-X[/quote]
With all help I got so far, I’m pretty sure this won’t take to long.
When is the deadline, Kal?
I’d like to ask you to take a closer look at the mechanics of the augments. Are they ok as they are? Is there something missing or unclear? Especially the trip attack augment worries me wether it works as it is.
Besides that, I was wondering, why nobody asked where the name “niksilae” comes from, but I guess you all figuered that I just thought that this would sound like something nikaal. As nobody has complained about it, I’m happy that you like the name.
Originally posted by kalthandrix:
Per Jon via the newsletter there is no set deadline at this point, but I have already begun the labor intensive work of reviewing PrCs and formatting.
To date i have about 40 PrCs, but have yet to review a mojority of them and of course some will not be in the final, so the more there are to choose from the better.
Originally posted by bengeldorn:
[quote]Per Jon via the newsletter there is no set deadline at this point, but I have already begun the labor intensive work of reviewing PrCs and formatting.
To date i have about 40 PrCs, but have yet to review a mojority of them and of course some will not be in the final, so the more there are to choose from the better.[/quote]
Good to know. I gues I’ll see where this PrC goes in the next three days. Then I’m going to e-mail you the doc.
Originally posted by Pennarin:
This is exciting: we now have several PrC options for those PC races least chosen by players, and by that I mean this nikaal class and Sysane’s tari classes. Those are terrific incentives to play these, sad but true, seldom-used races.
Yippi! 
Can we have more, about other races?! Please please please please please!
Originally posted by Pennarin:
Looking at the thesaurus, what about Defensive Whirl ? Its either that or whirligig or gyrate (woot!).
Originally posted by methvezem:
Any suggestions or concepts Penn?
Originally posted by kalthandrix:
I do not want to rail road this thread, but I am hoping to get at least one or two racial PrCs for each of the core races: two because I cannot garentee any one PrC will make it in [sorry].
If there is interest- I will post a thread naming off the racial PrCs that I have and ones I would like to see.
Originally posted by Sysane:
I’ve been thinking of doing a druidish/ranger warrior PrC for the Lizardmen of the Last Sea.
But, not to rail road this thread any further, maybe a new thread should be made regarding other possible PrCs for the atypical races of Athas.