Psycho (3.5e Class)

Psycho

“	I HAVE THE SHINIEST MEAT BICYCLE!	”
—Krieg, Human Psycho

Making a psycho

Undoubtably a combat class, a psycho can cut a bloody path through hordes of weaker enemies or take chunks out of a stronger one. However, they have trouble working without a group of adventurers to aid in social interactions.

Abilities: Strength and Constitution are the most important abilities for a psycho. Dexterity can help with the lack of armor and Wisdom can help a psycho's perceptiveness and AC. Charisma is useful for a psycho's impressive intimidation skills and Intelligence grants extra skill points.

Races: Any physically strong race susceptible to insanity. Humans. half-orcs, and bestial humanoids like Gnolls and Bugbears are among the effective races.

Alignment: Any chaotic

Starting Gold: 1d6×10 gp (35gp).

Starting Age: Simple

Table: The Psycho

Hit Die: d12

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Unarmed Damage
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+1	+2	+2	+0	Unarmed Strike, Sucker Punch, Insane, Merciless, Meatshield, Fast Movement +10ft.	1d6
2nd	+2	+3	+3	+0	Reckless, Evasion, Rampage 1/day	1d6
3rd	+3	+3	+3	+1	Improved Grapple	1d6
4th	+4	+4	+4	+1	Cleave, Blood Fuel	1d6
5th	+5	+4	+4	+1	Body Slam, Fuel the Rampage	1d8
6th	+6/+1	+5	+5	+2	Fast Movement +20ft.	1d8
7th	+7/+2	+5	+5	+2	Terrifying Strength, Rampage 2/day	1d8
8th	+8/+3	+6	+6	+2	Eviscerate	1d8
9th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+3	Cleaving Charge	1d10
10th	+10/+5	+7	+7	+3	Massacre	1d10
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+7	+3	Mad Cleave, Fast Movement +30ft.	1d10
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+8	+4	Devastating Blow	1d10
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+8	+4	Psychotic Cleave, Fuel the Frenzy	2d6
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+9	+4	Uncommandable, Rampage 3/day	2d6
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+9	+5	Crushing Strength	2d6
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+10	+5	Fast Movement +40ft.	2d6
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+10	+5	Tireless Rampage	2d8
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+11	+6		2d8
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+11	+6	Infinite Cleave	2d8
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+12	+6	Release the Beast	2d10
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level) Climb (Str),Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex)

Class Features

Psycho's are powerful melee combatants whose rampages continue as long as there's something left to kill. All of the following are class features of the Psycho.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A psycho is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, but not with armor or shields.

Meatshield (Ex): A psycho is covered with dense bruise and scar tissue, and possesses quick reflexes. When unarmored and unencumbered, the psycho adds his Constitution bonus and Wisdom bonus (if any) to his AC. When wearing armor heavier than light armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a psycho loses his AC bonus.

The Constitution bonus stacks with the psycho's natural armor and applies even when he is immobilized or helpless. The Wisdom bonus is a dodge bonus and applies even against touch attacks or when the psycho is flat-footed. He loses the bonus when he is immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armor, when he carries a shield, or when he carries a medium or heavy load.

Sucker Punch (Ex): When unarmored, a psycho making an melee attack with one or more melee weapons (including a standard attack, full attack, or even a strike maneuver), may make an additional attack at his highest attack bonus. This attack is an unarmed attack that deals damage equal to the psycho's base unarmed attack damage + 1/2 Str bonus. The psycho takes a -2 penalty on all attack rolls made that round.

Unarmed Strike: At 1st level, a psycho gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A psycho's attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees, and feet. This means that a psycho may even make unarmed strikes with his hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a psycho striking unarmed. A psycho may thus apply his full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all his unarmed strikes.

A psycho's unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.

Insane: A psycho, while useful in combat has difficulty behaving like a normal person. He takes a -6 penalty on all Charisma and Intelligence checks with the exception of Intimidate, for which he receives a +4 insanity bonus. His charisma modifier is always positive for intimidation checks. He also has an innate urge to enter any fight he sees, thus he takes a -6 penalty with non-thrown ranged weapons. A psycho is also immune to all Fear effects.

Merciless:A psycho must always deal lethal damage if possible. A psycho may only deal nonlethal damage after being instructed to do so and succeeding on a Will save (DC= 5 + damage done). Additionally, on a missed attack roll there is a 10% chance the attack will instead strikes the nearest creature within 20ft (friend or foe). This attack either hits the nearest creature in melee range or the psycho releases his weapon and if flies at the nearest creature. Roll against that creatures Flat Footed AC.

Fast Movement: When wearing no armor and unencumbered, a psycho adds 10ft. to the speed of his base race. This increases by +10ft. every five levels after.

Rampage (Ex): At 2nd level psycho can go on a bloody rampage once per day. In a rage, a psycho temporarily gains a +4 bonus to Strength, a +4 bonus to Constitution, a +2 morale bonus on Will saves, and +10ft. to his movement speed, but he takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class. The increase in Constitution increases the psycho's hit points by 2 points per level, but these hit points go away at the end of the rage when his Constitution score drops back to normal. (These extra hit points are not lost first the way temporary hit points are.) While raging, a psycho cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except for Balance, Escape Artist, Intimidate, and Ride), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that require patience or concentration, nor can he cast spells or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger (such as a wand), or spell completion (such as a scroll) to function. He can use any feat he has except Combat Expertise, item creation feats, and metamagic feats. A rampage lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the character’s (newly improved) Constitution modifier. A psycho may not prematurely end his rampage as long as he can see or sense enemies. At the end of the rampage, the psycho loses the rage modifiers and restrictions and becomes fatigued (–2 penalty to Strength, –2 penalty to Dexterity, can’t charge or run) for the duration of the current encounter (unless he is a 17th-level psycho, at which point this limitation no longer applies; see below).

Note: For the purpose of qualifying for feats and prestige classes that cite rage as a prerequisite, treat a psycho as if it was a barbarian of an equal level. Thus psychos qualify for said prestige classes and feats at the same level as barbarians.

Blood Fuel (Ex): At 4th level, a psycho may extend his rage by continuing to do damage. On the last round of the rampage, if a psycho kills an enemy or deals equal to his Str modifier to a creature (friend, foe, or himself) he extends his rampage to the next turn. The next turn, the required damage to extend the rampage increases by one, then by two the next round, then by three the round after that, etc. The required damage does not increase if the psycho kills an enemy.

Fuel the Rampage (Ex): At 5th level, a psycho who takes damage equal to 50% (rounded up) the hit points he started the day with may go on an additional rampage.

Fuel the Frenzy (Ex): At 13th level the required damage to unlock another rampage decreases to 33% (rounded up) of the psycho's starting health that day. Additionally, for every creature killed during a rampage, the psycho gains one temporary hit point for every HD the slain creature possessed. These hit points last for one minute or until the rampage ends, whatever comes last; a psycho can have a number of temporary hit points equal to his maximum normal hit points.

Tireless Rampage (Ex): At 17th level, a psycho is no longer fatigued after a rampage.

Evasion (Ex): At 2nd level or higher if a psycho makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a psycho is wearing no armor. A helpless psycho does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Reckless: At 2nd level, when it comes time to roll initiative, a psycho may subtract up to his Con + Wis bonus from his AC for the first three rounds of combat and add that to his Initiative roll. He also gains this bonus to his first attack and +10ft. to his movement speed for the first round if he is the first to act in combat.

Improved Grapple: At 3rd level, a psycho gains the Improved Grapple feat.

Cleave: At 4th level, a psycho gains the Cleave feat regardless of whether or not he has the prerequisites.

Body Slam: At 5th level, a psycho gains Improved Bull Rush, and Improved Overrun as bonus feats regardless of whether or not he has the prerequisites. Additionally, any creature who is successfully bull rushed or overrun by a psycho takes damage equal to the psycho's unarmed strike.

Terrifying Strength: At 7th level, a psycho gains the Monkey Grip feat, allowing him to use melee weapons one size category larger than he is with a -2 penalty on the attack roll. The amount of effort it takes to use the weapon does not change. For instance, a Large longsword (a one-handed weapon for a Large creature) is considered a two-handed weapon for a Medium creature that does not have this feat. For a Medium creature that has this feat, it is still considered a one-handed weapon.

Eviscerate (Ex): At 8th level, when a psycho kills a creature with a critical hit or deals enough damage to drop the creature's hit points from a positive number to less than -10 in one attack, he may make a free Intimidate check against all creatures who can see him. Creatures intimidated this way remain shaken for 1+Cha (min 1) rounds.

Cleaving Charge (Ex):At 9th level, a psycho may take a full round action to trace a path up to twice his speed in a straight line. This path must be generally clear, the psycho may make Jump or Tumble checks to avoid obstacles. The psycho must attack the first opponent along his path, and must move at least 10 ft. before the first attack. If the opponent is reduced to zero or fewer hit points, the psycho can take a cleave attack on the next available target. If no targets are in reach the psycho continues moving along the path. A psycho must stop moving when an attack fails to drop the opponent. Any opponent dropped will not hinder movement even if they originally blocked the path. The psycho are considered to be charging and get the usual +2 bonus to hit on all attacks for the round, and -2 to AC until his next action. He still provoke attacks of opportunity as normal.

Massacre (Ex): At 10th level, any creature intimidated by the psycho's Eviscerate ability are nauseated for 1+Cha (min 1) rounds. Those who succeed their check are sickened for one round.

Mad Cleave: At 11th level, a psycho can take a 5-foot step between attacks when using the Cleave or Great Cleave feat. He is still limited to one such adjustment per round, so he cannot use this ability during a round in which she has already taken a 5-foot step.

Devastating Blow (Ex): At 12th level, as a standard action, the psycho may choose to subtract 4 from a melee attack roll and deliver a devastating blow. If the psycho hits a corporeal opponent of equal or smaller size than himself with an awesome blow, the two initiate a special bull rush (treat the psycho as if he had the improved bull rush feat including the +4 bonus). The struck opponent flies backward the number of feet, dictated by the bull rush result, in a direction of the attacking creature’s choice and fall prone. The psycho can only push the opponent in a straight line, and the opponent can’t move closer to the psycho than the square it started in. If an obstacle prevents the completion of the opponent’s move, the opponent and the obstacle each take 1d6 points of damage per 5ft. of distance dictated by the bullrush. The opponent then falls in the space adjacent to the obstacle.

Psychotic Cleave (Ex: At 13th level, a psycho may take a 5ft. step between cleave attacks. He may not take more steps than the number of attacks he may perform in a full round. A psycho may not use this ability to take steps when performing a cleaving charge.

Uncommandable (Ex): At 14th level, a psycho's mind is so broken he gains immunity to mind-affecting enchantments (charms, compulsions etc).

Crushing Strength (Ex): At 15th level, a creature damaged by a critical hit must make a fortitude save (DC= 10 + damage done) or takes one point of Dexterity and Strength damage as their body is crushed by the force of the blow; this effect is cumulative. Since this effect is not poison based or magical, it may effect any creature with discernible anatomy, such as undead even if they're typically immune to critical hits, however such creatures get a +4 bonus to their save against Crushing Strength. Creatures without defined anatomy, such as oozes are still immune to this effect.

Infinite Cleave (Ex): At 19th level, a psycho can make an unlimited number of cleave attempts in a round, and may take a 5-foot step between attacks as dictated by Psychotic Cleave.

Release the Beast (Su): At 20th level, once per day when a psycho would normally be reduced below zero hit points or killed by massive damage, he may expend all his remaining rampage and gains 10 hit points for each level in psycho and goes on a rampage. When this rampage ends, he is exhausted (ignoring the Tireless Rampage ability) until the end of the encounter and fatigued until he rests for at least 8 hours. A psycho must have at least one rampage left to use this ability.

Ex-Psychos

Like a member of any other class, a psycho may be a multiclass character, but multiclass psychos face a special restriction. If choosing psycho as a second class, the character becomes insane, taking the penalties from level 1 of the class. If a psycho adds another class, he may choose to remain insane, if he gains sanity he looses access to the abilities: Reckless, Rampage, Mad Cleave, Psychotic Cleave, and Infinite Cleave. Additionally, a psycho may never multiclass as a prepared spellcaster or psionic class except for the wilder without gaining sanity.

A Psycho who becomes nonchaotic also gains sanity and can no longer level as a psycho. However, their sanity at this point is still tenuous at best; they can re-lose their sanity and continue progression as a psycho if they are affected by a confusion or insanity spell.

Epic Psycho

Table: The Epic Psycho

Hit Die: d12

Level	Special
21st	Rampage 4/day, Fast Movement +50ft.
22nd
23rd
24th	Bonus Feat
25th
26th	Rampage 5/day, Fast Movement +60ft.
27th
28th	Bonus Feat
29th
30th
4 + Int modifier skill points per level.

Rampage: The epic psycho gains one extra rampage per day every five levels after 21st.

Unarmed Strike: The damage for a psycho's unarmed strike does not increase after 20th level.

Fast Movement: A psycho's movement speed continues to increase by +10ft. every five levels after the 21st.

Bonus Feats: The epic psycho gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic bonus feats) every four levels higher than 20th (Prerequisites still must be met).

Epic Psycho Bonus Feat List: Armor Skin, Chaotic Rage, Damage Reduction, Devastating Critical, Dire Charge, Epic Endurance, Epic Prowess, Epic Speed, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus, Fast Healing, Incite Rage, Legendary Climber, Legendary Leaper, Legendary Rider, Legendary Tracker, Legendary Wrestler, Mighty Rage, Overwhelming Critical, Ruinous Rage, Terrifying Rage, Thundering Rage.

Playing a psycho

Religion: Psychos who worship gods choose to worship almost exclusively gods of battle and war. Erythnul, Hextor, and Kord are common.

Other Classes: One psycho is quite different from the next. They typically get along with Barbarians, Bards, and Rogues. They have difficulty understanding the self-control of Paladins, Monks, and Clerics. Interactions depend largely on the psycho's alignment and how long it's been since said psycho has killed something.

Combat: Front line brawler; a psycho's cleave enhancements make him ideal for wading through hordes of weaker enemies

Advancement: The sneakier psychos may multiclass as Rogues while the stronger may multiclass as fighters. Barbarian psychos are redundant so they rarely multiclass as eachother. Psychos that favor a more bestial style of combat may multiclass as Druids or Wildshape Rangers to gain an animal and access to the wildshape ability.

Psychos in the World

“	Such a pretty color... You know I didn't understand people until I cut one open to see how it worked?	”
—"Doctor" Barnes, Human psycho

Psychos live on the outskirts of society or away from civilization entirely. Their life is one of blood and survival.

Daily Life: Wake up, kill something, breakfast, kill something, lunch, kill something, dinner, kill some things, sleep, repeat...

Organizations: Psychos are too insane to form organizations, although psychos of similar alignment have been known to fight together on occasion.

NPC Reactions: NPCs almost always shun psychos and label them (often correctly) as bringers of violence, death, and destruction.

Psycho Lore

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (local) can research psychos to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Knowledge (local)

DC	Result
5	Psychos are madmen or women who roam the edges of the civilized world.
10	A provoked psycho may fly into a murderous rage and kill everything he can reach.
15	Their years of surviving with only their strength has left them talented in unarmed combat.
20	While less refined than the style of a monk, their brutal style of close combat is just as effective.

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