PrC: Operators

Working on a first draft for a Prestige Class based on operating one of three classes of exo-skeleton, a Huge-sized fighting one, a Large-sized support one and a Medium-sized casting one.

Rationale is that I wanted these options available to any and every class, rather than having a dedicated class that would, most likely, be something people multiclassed into if they were interested, thereby ignoring many of the later features. Also class design is hard. (Adept is the second one I tried and the only one I've finished.) "Operators", as they're called, use these Living Armours (or Mantles, as the precursors called them) primarily for combat, unsurprisingly. They are not the only ones capable of using them, the mundane are fully able to pilot these creations, just at a much diminished level. The user takes on the physical stats and AC of the Living Armour, and their available actions are dictated by the suit they wear.

Arguably the most difficult aspect so far has been trying to decide the tone and terminology for the document. Generally speaking the writing style of the Southern Reaches documents err toward in-universe terms and understanding, as things the players could come to know and understand themselves, should they so want. A strong benefit to this is it leaves specifics somewhat vague, a definite goal for what I've written so far. (Both for my own sake and to allow anyone using these options to be more comfortable making things their own.) The downside to this is purely cosmetic. I personally feel that Mantle is a more interesting and frankly simpler name, compared to the somewhat cumbersome but more believable Living Armour. I'm still stuck on the classification names, first ideas have been Earthshaker/Wavebreaker/Manastriker or Shaker/Breaker/Striker for the Huge/Large/Medium exos respectively but ehhhhhh, I'm not decided.

On a related note I'm mulling some ideas over for another draft of the Lord Commander and Heron-Marked Fighters. Also still thinking about the Way of Flowing Water Monk and some ideas for a Warlock pact relating to magic armour in a similar vein to the Hexblade/Pact of the Blade. Might even be time to get them some new invocations.