Meat Shield, Sublime (3.5e Prestige Class)


 * Credit to Cid for the original premise, which can be found here. A somewhat less powerful variant of this class (Sublime Meat Shield) can be found here.



Meat Shield
"“Whether the knife falls on the melon or the melon on the knife, the melon suffers.”"

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the meat shield.

You must meet the maneuver's prerequisite to learn it. Add your meat shield levels to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest level maneuvers known.

At first level you gain an additional maneuver readied per encounter, and at fifth level you gain an additional granted maneuver at the beginning of an encounter.

Stances Known: At fifth you learn a new martial stance from the Devoted Spirit, Stone Dragon, or White Raven disciplines. You must meet the stance's prerequisite to learn it.

 (Ex): When the meat shield is adjacent to an ally who is targeted with an attack or single-target spell effect, the meat shield can move into that ally's space (taking the attack or spell effect as though he were the intended target) and move that ally anywhere within the meat shield's base reach (according to size, not weapon) as an immediate action.
 * A meat shield cannot be more than one size smaller than the ally he displaces.
 * If the meat shield takes up less space (e.g. Medium, one square) than the ally he protects (e.g. Large, four squares), he must place himself within reach of the attacker.
 * A meat shield cannot make an intercession if there is no space to move the original target into, unless the creatures may normally occupy the same space, in which case they do so.


 * If the meat shield takes up more space than the ally he protects, he may position himself however he chooses as long as his space covers all of the space his ally previously occupied.
 * If, due to size differential, the meat shield cannot move into his ally's space (whether because of other enemies or the nature of the terrain), he cannot make an intercession.

Making an intercession does not use the meat shield's immediate action for the round, nor does it count against his ability to use a swift action in the following round. The movement from an intercession does not provoke an attack of opportunity for either the meat shield or his ally, even against effects that explicitly state otherwise. A meat shield can make a number of intercessions per encounter equal to his Charisma modifier (minimum 0) + his initiator level.

 (Ex): As a free action, a meat shield may voluntarily not receive one of his readied maneuvers at the end of his turn in order to recover a number of uses of his intercession class ability equal half his class level, rounded up.

 (Ex): The meat shield may spend an immediate action to move up to his base land speed, but only if he does so in order to make an intercession. This movement provokes attacks of opportunity as in-turn movement.

 (Ex): A meat shield no longer takes any penalties to his movement speed for wearing heavy armor or carrying more than his light load, and runs at his normal speed even while carrying a medium or heavy load.

 (Ex): As part of an intercession, a meat shield may expend an additional use of his intercession ability to make a single melee attack against the aggressor, provided he can reach them.

 (Ex): A meat shield's class levels stack with his crusader level's for determining the maximum capacity of his delayed damage pool. Furthermore, after a round in which the meat shield has made an intercession, he may add his twice his class level to the value of his delayed damage pool.

 (Su): A meat shield can force an attacker to partake in his agony when he is struck. Whenever the meat shield takes damage and the attacker is within close range, the attacker receives half the damage that the meat shield took. This damage is untyped and not subject to any form of resistance or damage reduction. This ability does not function against effects that do not specifically deal damage.

 (Ex): As part of an intercession, a meat shield may expend two additional uses of his intercession ability to make a full attack against the aggressor, provided he can reach them.

 (Ex): As part of an intercession, a meat shield may expend three additional uses of his intercession ability to make a single melee attack against the aggressor, provided he can reach them. The meat shield may use a martial strike as part of this attack.

 (Ex): At fifth level a meat shield may burn uses of his intercession class ability to grant himself one of his readied maneuvers at random. Consult the table below for the selected action and the requisite number of intercession uses.