General Prestige Class : Goliath Liberator
Giants - especially frost and hill giants - sometimes kidnap and enslave goliaths, putting them to work performing menial labor in their mines or camps. Particularly evil giants might even capture goliaths for the cook-pot or the sacrificial altar. When goliaths don't return to camp, the entire tribe mobilizes to find them. If the tribe is fortunate, it has one or more goliath liberators among irs members to lead the rescue.
Goliath liberators are experts at infiltrating giant dwellings, freeing the captives within, then exacting revenge on the giants while the freed goliaths escape. Many are their tribe's best soldiers and hunters, and they have honed their combat techniques against giants through bitter experience. Fully half of all goliath liberators have spent time in the chains of giants.
Barbarians, rangers, and rogues are the classes most likely to have the combination of stealth and fighting prowess necessary to become a goliath liberator. A few fighters and druids take a level or two of the prestige class as well.
When a goliath liberator is on the trail of captured goliaths, she brooks no opposition or delay, but she's often willing to enlist whatever allies happen to be available. NPC goliath liberators sometimes strike up deals with adventurers, lending their strength to an assault on a giant fortress as long as they can free any goliath prisoners in the process. If giants ever capture the PCs, their best hope for rescue might take the mottled, musclebound form of a goliath liberator.
Adaptation: While this prestige class is specific to goliaths, it can be converted into a different giant-fighting class with little difficulty. If you do so, balance giant-specific class features (such as favored enemy) with class features that are useful against giants but more broadly applicable (such as avoid thrown weapons).
Requirements
To qualify to become a Goliath Liberator, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Race: Goliath
- Skills: Hide 5 ranks, Move Silently 5 ranks.
- Feats: Track,
- Base Attack Bonus: +7.
- Special: The character must have participated in the successful rescue of captives held by giants, or must have been imprisoned by giants and escaped.
Class Skills
The goliath liberator's class skills are Climb, Craft, Heal, Hide, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Search, Spot, Survival, and Use Rope.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the goliath liberator prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Goliath liberators gain proficiency with martial weapons and with light and medium armor.
Favored Enemy (Giant) (Ex): A goliath liberator has giants as a favored enemy. Due to her extensive sturdy of giants and training in the proper techniques for combating such creatures, the liberator gains a +2 bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks when using these skills against giants. Likewise, she gets a +2 bonus on weapon damage rolls against such creatures.
These bonuses stack with those gained from the favored enemy (giants) class feature of other classes (such as ranger), but this ability does nor increase those classes' other favored enemy bonuses. For instance, if a 5th-level ranger/1st-level goliath liberator has already selected giants as one of her ranger favored enemies, this +2 bonus would stack with the favored enemy (giants) bonus she already had. It would not increase the character's favored enemy bonuses against other types of creatures.
This bonus increases to +4 when the liberator reaches 5th level.
Avoid Thrown Weapons (Ex): A goliath liberator of 2nd level or higher is adept at dodging rocks thrown by giants, and by extension has learned to avoid other thrown weapons. She has a +2 dodge bonus to her AC against thrown weapons.
Equal Footing (Ex): The bigger they are, the harder a goliath liberator can make them fall. Ar 3rd level, a goliath liberator gains Improved Trip as a bonus feat, even if she does not meet the prerequisites. In addition, when making a trip attack against a creature at least one size category larger than she is, the goliath liberator gains an additional +4 bonus on her Strength check made to trip the opponent.
Avoid Reach (Ex): At 4th level and higher, a goliath liberator knows how to duck under and around the blows of even the longest-limbed giant. This ability grants the liberator a +2 dodge bonus to AC against melee attacks made by creatures that are not adjacent to her.
| Goliath Liberator | Hit Die: d10 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
| 1st | +1 | +2 | +0 | +0 | Favored enemy (giants) +2 |
| 2nd | +2 | +3 | +0 | +0 | Avoid thrown weapons |
| 3rd | +3 | +3 | +1 | +1 | Improved trip |
| 4th | +4 | +4 | +1 | +1 | Avoid reach |
| 5th | +5 | +4 | +1 | +1 | Favored enemy (giants) +4 |
Source: Races of Stone