Talk:HellFire Destroyer (3.5e Prestige Class)

Ratings

DanielDraco opposes this article and rated it 0 of 4.

I was going to let this article pass by unmolested for now, because you're a new user and I didn't want to discourage you. But then I saw that you set the status as "up for review" -- so, good, you're looking for feedback. That's always a good sign. To be blunt, this isn't good. But if you're just starting, that's natural. And that's what these reviews are for -- to tell you what's wrong so you can learn what not to do. So here's a list to start with. Firstly, some nitpicky details: You refer to the class as a Pyromancer in a few places. Might want to fix that. Your gender references are inconsistent. Your prereqs don't gel to the same level -- you require 7 levels of a spellcasting class, and 5 levels of Knowledge (Arcana). That's not a problem per se, but it's a little weird. Your capitalization is weird. CamelCase is generally not considered a good stylistic choice outside of code, and you've got some flat-out incorrect capitalizations (e.g., "high temperature air Blast," "one Standard action," "the dc of swim and Jump checks,"). In at least one place, you refer to adding Strength instead of Strength modifier to a roll -- an important distinction, even if people can guess what you meant. You blend a lot of American English spellings with British English spellings. Stuff that Actually Matters: Grammar in general. A single grammar mistake doesn't matter so much, but there are pervasive problems here. Full saves, full BAB, and full casting is generally a big big no-no, even at VH. You use a lot of metric measures. D&D, however, uses the U.S. system. 9 meters is not a meaningful measure of distance, 100 kg is not a meaningful measure of matter, etc. Heat Blast does not explain what it actually does. It throws enemies away...but what direction is "away"? How far does it throw them? Are they just pushed, or also knocked prone? Does it target one foe, or everyone in range? Can he specify targets, or is it an uncontrollable area effect? Heat Blast's DC doesn't scale the way save DCs are meant to. The basic guideline is 10 + 1/2 character level + an ability modifier. Anything close to that can work, but there's little reason to not just use that. Hellish Smelter is also vague. You might want to look at spells like transmute rock to mud for guidance on what needs to specified there. Holy hell is Everburning Aura overpowered. He can cast an 8th level spell for 2 Con damage and 8 HP? What if he's undead? What if he's got a wand of lesser restoration? Hell, what if he doesn't have either of those things? It's still really fucking strong when he's just soaking up that damage. It isn't clear how Everburning Aura interacts with prepared casters. Magmatic Armour sucks. He takes damage every round just for a 6.5 average armor bonus? And by the way, when is that 1d12 rolled? Upon casting? Every time his AC is checked? Once per round? Spontaneous Combustion doesn't give any effects of being on fire. An ability that takes 3 rounds to use is an ability that is just never going to be used in combat. Especially when it deals so little damage, which scales so weirdly with character level. Gift of the Blessed Fire is a downgrade. He was already immune to fire, and now you've given him vulnerability. Several abilities are SLAs, but give no spell level. And yes, that does matter. Spontaneous Burst is really really weak for how late it's coming. Thermal Vision is actually pretty cool. Thought you might appreciate one note of praise among this criticism. I have no idea what Incandescent Rain does.

	Foxwarrior opposes this article and rated it 0 of 4.
	Most of the abilities are fine, even if they could be better written. However, nearly unlimited spell slots from Everburning Aura cannot be tolerated.

Hello, I' ve read the review, it's the first time I create a prestige class, I appreciate the constructive criticism and I am going to fix as many mistakes as possible and as soon as I can --Dragher (talk) 13:35, 4 November 2012 (UTC)

I've fixed EverBurning Aura which now deals 1 constitution damage per spell level, tried to simplify Incandescent Rain, empowered Volcanic Blow, decreased the Bab and save throws values, specified that Heat Blast knocks down enemies, specified the effect of Hellish Smelter and some other minor things (gift of the belessed fire make the HellFire Destroyer Lose his vulnerability, therefore it's an upgrade). Other fixes will come eventually later this week.Sorry about using the metric system and for the grammar mistakes, I am italian. --Dragher (talk) 14:16, 4 November 2012 (UTC)

I'll take a look at the changes later and see if I have anything to say about them. This isn't bad for a first try, by the way -- you should have seen my first class :P

For the grammar, just do your best. When you get to a relatively final version of the class, you can ask someone to go through and clean up the grammar -- I'd be happy to do it myself. As for the measurements, I can understand how it might be difficult to work within the U.S. system, but it's unfortunately necessary; the game works in 5-foot squares and measures weights in pounds (or at least the English edition does), and a class needs to use those measures to fit properly into the game. --DanielDraco (talk) 15:13, 4 November 2012 (UTC)

Make Everburning Aura do Constitution Burn and only function if the character can have their Constitution burned (or something similarly unavoidable), and I'll re-review. --Foxwarrior (talk) 18:14, 4 November 2012 (UTC)