God Fist (3.5e Prestige Class)

Summary::The paragon of physical potential, your martial arts allow you to exceed above and beyond through mystical eastern fighting arts. Length::10 Minimum Level::20 Base Attack Bonus Progression::Good Fortitude Save Progression::Good Reflex Save Progression::Good Will Save Progression::Good Class Ability::Other Class Ability Progression::Other

This article use rules from Complete Epic.

God Fist
"You never taught me how to stop using my fists!"

Strike like the fist of an angry god! The god fist is in essence a monk, one who trains their body to physical perfection and beyond. For such pugilists, their fists become as those of deities while retaining their original frames of flesh and bone, and then exceeding them.

Becoming a God Fist
God fists seek to fight without relying on the tools of war to carry them through. While all abilities are important, the god fists Mind and Body ability means that whichever abilities are focused upon, only three will ever be required.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the God Fist.

Each god fist level counts as two levels of monk. If you don't have any monk levels, your unarmed strike damage rises as if you were a monk twice your god fist class level but you do not gain the other class abilities. You can ignore the alignment restriction of the monk class as well.

Beyond monk 20th, the monk gains a +1 bonus to AC at 24th and every four levels beyond. They gain a +10 bonus to speed at 21st and every three levels beyond. When they reach monk 21st, their unarmed strike gains an additional 1d6 points of damage and begins rising again from monk 1st. Therefore a effective 21st level monk would deal 2d10 + 1d6 + strength modifier in damage, and an effective 40th level monk would deal 2d10 + 2d10 + strength modifier in damage. This additional damage is base weapon damage, not bonus damage, and thus is multiplied on a critical hit. This pattern continues indefinitely (60th level monks deal 2d10+2d10+2d10, and so forth).

Finally, the monk's bonus speed becomes extraordinary and untyped, not enhancement.

Fighting styles are functionally equivalent to martial initiator stances, and as such they cannot normally be used at the same time as a martial stance (barring effects such as being able to use two stances at once). To enter a fighting style is a swift action, and it lasts indefinitely until you are rendered helpless or uncentered. Unlike martial stances, fighting styles offer more than just a constant passive benefit. While in a fighting style you gain access to a series of maneuvers and abilities which can be used while maintaining said style. Most maneuvers, by default, can be used at will as a listed action. They are classified into minor, moderate, and major abilities, as well as one final ability at 10th.

A god fist starts only knowing one fighting style but gains more as he gains levels. The list of fighting styles and their minor, moderate, major, and final abilities are listed in their own section below.

Even while completely naked, a god fist treats his unarmed strikes as masterwork weapons. However the real benefit is that he may enhance his body as if it were light armor with an AC bonus of +0, and enhance his unarmed strike as if it were a masterwork weapon. If his unarmed strike is already able to be enhanced by a similar class ability or racial feature, he instead gets a +1 bonus to attack and damage.

 : A god fist cannot be found suffering from MAD just to fight, and he knows there is little separation between the physical and the metaphysical. A god fist chooses one physical ability score to match up with one mental ability score. For example, strength with wisdom, dexterity with intelligence, and constitution with charisma. He may use whichever ability score is highest for any ability which uses an ability score (however, skill points are not changed). He can switch the pairings to a new array by meditating for 1 hour.

 : The god fist is not one to be limited by the mere laws of physics. At 2nd level, a god fist is under a constant air walk effect, allowing him to treat any area as solid ground, even mid-air. It can be dispelled (caster level equal to character level) but the effect can be re-assumed as a free action on the god fists turn. As a side effect, the god fist no longer takes any fall damage even when falling at full speed.

 : At 5th level the god fist's unarmed strikes improve, allowing him to bypass DR/epic and DR/cosmic, as well as acting as ghost touch weapons.

 : A 6th level god fist is under the effects of adapt body as a constant extraordinary ability.

 : A 8th level god fist has a unquenchable life spark that transcends life and death itself. The god fist becomes biologically immortal and ceases to age. The god fist no longer takes penalties to his ability scores for aging and cannot be magically aged. Any such penalties that he has already taken, however, remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, up to the maximum +3 as normal. In addition, the god fist becomes immune to Death effects.

If a god fist is killed and its soul is not taken within 10 minutes of death, the god fist will respawn on the astral plane in 1d10 days within a golden egg. If the god fist can be found before then and the process interrupted the god fist will actually die, otherwise he will return to life and be transported to the location of his choice as if using gate. The golden egg has hardness equal to your effective monk level and as many hit points as the monk in question.

 : At 9th level, a god fist gains a monk's wholeness of body, except that they can recover up to 5x their effective monk level in hit points per day. If the god fist already has the wholeness of body class feature, then their pool of healing recovers per encounter instead of per day.

 : At 10th level, a god fist can maintain two stances at the same time (be it martial initiator stances or fighting styles). However changing each stance is its own separate swift action, or they can change both at once as a standard action.

The advanced god fist gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of advanced god fist feats) at 11th and every three levels beyond (14th, 17th, etc).

Advanced God Fist Bonus Feat List: <-list of bonus epic feats->

Fighting Styles
A god fist can choose from several fighting styles. Choose from the list below.

PENDING

Playing a God Fist
Combat: God fists are melee fighters who need not use weapons to battle. Their stance use allows them to adapt for the situation, becoming a brutal direct damage attacker, battlefield control, skirmish, utility, or whatever the situation calls for.

Advancement: God fists benefit from any melee oriented class, from monk-specific classes to fighter and barbarian classes. Initiator classes benefit even more with dual stance.

Resources: God fists are few and far between, and almost all have been ancient and mystical hermits and practitioners of martial arts who have long since traveled beyond mortal kinship and thought.

God Fists in the World
"I have trained my fists in molten lava, roasting them until they could survive the fires of the sun itself. LOOK! My fists are glowing red!  Their loud roar tells me to grasp victory!"

NPC Reactions: Most cannot understand the secrets a god fist has unlocked about mortal potential, and as a result rarely recognize a god fist for what he is. Most god fists make no effort to change this, for being unsuspected is an advantage.

God Fist Lore
Characters with ranks in Knowledge Arcana or Knowledge Psionics can research god fists to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

God Fists in the Game
Sample Encounter: A powerful warrior appears, seeking the mystical plot McGuffian the PCs just uncovered. Though powerful, he is defeated but warns that there are more of his kind coming, even stronger and faster, the fists of god themselves. The PCs have 1 year to prepare before they come to destroy their planet.

EL 25: PENDING