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PersonMan
2011-08-02, 03:21 PM
As a continuation of the Eldritch Project (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10583004#post10583004)(which is now too old to post in without necro-ing; please don't do so, as I still edit some things in there from time to time), I've made my second ToB PrC. Due to some issues I had with the first one(the Singing Blade (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=201899), also within the thread dead-zone now), I decided to narrow the entry down to Swordsages, rather than just any martial maneuver-using class.



The Eldritch Blade



Entry Requirements:

Invocations: Must know at least 2 least invocations
Martial Maneuvers: Must know 5 maneuvers of the Desert Wind or Diamond Mind school
Class Features: Eldritch Blast 1d6, AC Bonus, Detect Magic as a spell-like ability


Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d8

Class Skills:
Balance(Dex), Bluff(Cha), Concentration(Con), Craft(Int), Hide(Dex), Intimidate(Cha), Jump(Str), Knowledge(arcana) (Int), Knowledge(history) (Int), Knowledge(local) (Int), Knowledge(nature) (Int), Knowledge(nobility and royalty) (Int), Knowledge(the planes) (Int), Knowledge(religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Martial Lore(Int), Move Silently(Dex), Profession(Wis), Sense Motive(Wis), Spellcraft(Int), Tumble(Dex) and Use Magic Device (Cha)

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier




Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
Invocations
Maneuvers Known
Maneuvers Readied
Stances Known


1st

+0

+0

+2

+2
Eldritch Strike
+1 level of existing class
1
0
0


2nd

+1

+0

+3

+3
Bonus feat, Personable Shield
+1 level of existing class
0
1
0


3rd

+2

+1

+3

+3
Lesser Invocations, Stance Protection
+1 level of existing class
1
0
0


4th

+3

+1

+4

+4
Bonus feat, Discipline Focus(insightful strike)
+1 level of existing class
0
0
0


5th

+3

+1

+4

+4
Eldritch Recovery, Damage Reduction +1
+1 level of existing class
1
0
0


6th

+4

+2

+5

+5
Bonus feat, Eldritch Stance
+1 level of existing class
0
1
1


7th

+5

+2

+5

+5
Eldritch Surge
+1 level of existing class
1
0
0


8th

+6/+1

+2

+6

+6
Greater Invocations, Bonus feat, Discipline Focus(defensive stance)
+1 level of existing class
0
0
0


9th

+6/+1

+3

+6

+6
Damage Reduction +1, Martial Surge
+1 level of existing class
1
0
0


10th

+7/+2

+3

+7

+7
Bonus feat, Blast Strike
+1 level of existing class
0
1
0


11th

+7/+2

+3

+7

+7
Essence Strike
+1 level of existing class
1
0
0


12th

+8/+3

+4

+8

+8
Bonus feat, Eldritch Overload
+1 level of existing class
0
0
0




Weapon and Armor Proficiency: An eldritch blade gains no new proficiency with weapons or armor.

Initiator Level: An eldritch blade's eldritch blade levels stack with his swordsage levels for determining initiator level, maximum level of maneuvers known, etc.

Maneuvers: An eldritch blade can learn maneuvers and stances from the Desert Wind, Diamond Mind, Setting Sun, Shadow Hand,
Stone Dragon, and Tiger Claw disciplines.

Maneuvers Known: At every odd-numbered level, an eldritch blade gains one additional maneuver known from the disciplines available for him.

Maneuvers Readied: At levels 2, 6 and 10 an eldritch blade gains an additional readied maneuver.

Stances Known: At level 6 an eldritch blade gains an additional stance known from the disciplines available to him.

Invocations: At every level, an eldritch blade gains new invocations known and an increased caster level as if he had taken another level of warlock(although he does not gain any other benefits, such as access to new grades of invocations).

At levels 3 and 8, an eldritch blade gains access to a new grade of invocation. If he already has access to this grade of invocations, he instead gains access to the next highest grade.

Eldritch Strike (Su): Starting at 1st level, an eldritch blade can channel eldritch power into his martial maneuvers. When initiating a strike, an eldritch blade can, as a swift action, infuse the attack with an eldritch blast. If the strike hits, the target also takes normal eldritch blast damage. An eldritch blade can do this once per encounter, plus 1 per two eldritch blade levels he has, up to 7 times per encounter at 12th level.

Bonus feats: At levels 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12, an eldritch blade gains a bonus feat, chosen from the following list: Adaptive Style, Blade Meditation, Desert Fire, Desert Wind Dodge, Eldritch Boon*, Eldritch Sunder✝, Flexible Recovery*, Improved Eldritch Stance*, Powerful Blasts✝, Rapid Assault, Sudden Recovery, Unnerving Calm, Vital Recovery.

*New feat, see below post
✝New feat, see the original Eldritch Project thread

Personable Shield: At level 2 an eldritch blade learns to shield himself with a field of eldritch power. An eldritch blade can use his Charisma modifier rather than Wisdom modifier to calculate his bonus to AC from the AC bonus swordsage class feature.

Stance Protection (Su): Starting at level 3, an eldritch blade gains a greater measure of control over his eldritch power, and can blend it with his martial maneuvers more easily. Whenever the eldritch blade enters a stance he can, as a free action, choose to expend Eldritch Strike uses to surround himself in a corona of eldritch power. This power gives him a bonus on saves and concentration checks equal to 1 + the number of Eldritch Strike uses used to power it. This protective field of energy lasts for 2 rounds +1 per Eldritch Strike used to power it.

At level 7, the eldritch blade gains a bonus to AC equal to the bonus to saves when using Stance Protection.

Discipline Focus: At level 4 an eldritch blade unlocks the next level of understanding of his chosen discipline. He gains the insightful strike feature of Discipline Focus. If he already has insightful strike, he instead receives the next level of Discipline Focus.

At level 8 the eldritch blade gains the defensive stance feature of Discipline Focus. If he already has defensive stance, he instead receives the next level of Discipline Focus.

Eldritch Recovery (Su): At level 5 an eldritch blade can use a flush of eldritch power to recover an expended maneuver. As a swift action, the eldritch blade can expend 1 Eldritch Strike use to recover an expended maneuver. If a maneuver above level 1 is recovered in this manner, it costs 1 additional Eldritch Strike use per 2 levels of the maneuver(so 2 for a level 2 maneuver, 3 for a level 4 maneuver, etc.).

Damage Reduction: At level 5 an eldritch blade gains an additional point of damage reduction/cold iron. If he does not already have damage reduction, he instead gains damage reduction 1/cold iron.

At level 9, he gains another point of damage reduction.

Eldritch Stance: At level 6 an eldritch blade learns how to use a martial stance to increase the power of his eldritch blasts. For a number of rounds equal to the level of the stance initiated after initiating a stance, an eldritch blade deals 1d6 extra eldritch blast damage.

At level 11, this bonus increases to 2d6.

Eldritch Surge (Ex): At level 7 an eldritch blade can use his martial maneuvers to increase the power of his invocations. As a move action, an eldritch blade can expend one maneuver to gain a number of points equal to one-half the level of the maneuver(minimum 1, round up). These points can be used for the following benefits, which last for a number of rounds equal to the number of points gained by expending the maneuver. The maximum number of points that can be invested in a single benefit is 1 per 3 class levels.


+1 bonus to the save DC of one invocation per point spent
+1 bonus to caster level
+1 use of Eldritch Strike


Martial Surge (Ex): At level 9 an eldritch blade can use his eldritch powers to enhance his martial prowess. The eldritch blade can, as a swift action, reduce the damage dealt by his eldritch blast by up to 1d6 per 3 class levels. For each d6 he reduces the damage by, he gains one point. Points can be spent on the following benefits, which last for a number of rounds equal to the number of points gained by reducing the damage of his eldritch blast. The maximum number of points that can be invested in a single benefit is 1 per 3 class levels. The reduction in eldritch blast damage lasts for as long as you keep the benefits(maximum 1 round per class level).


+1 bonus to the save DC of one maneuver per point spent
+1 bonus to initiator level
+1 use of Eldritch Strike


Blast Strike: At 10th level an eldritch blade learns to apply some martial maneuvers to his eldritch blast. When using his eldritch blast, an eldritch blade can choose to, instead of applying an eldritch essence or blast shape invocation to it, use a strike with it. Instead of its normal range, the strike has the range of the eldritch blast. If the strike effects an area, the area can extend from the eldritch blade or the target of the blast, chosen when the maneuver is initiated.

Essence Strike: At 11th level an eldritch blade can modify his attacks with energy normally only usable on his eldritch blast. When initiating a strike maneuver, the eldritch blade can choose to, instead of the normal effects of the strike, apply an eldritch essence invocation to his attack. The save DC of the eldritch essence is calculated normally, as is the effect. If the invocation changes the type of damage the eldritch blast deals, it does so for the attack, modifying all damage that is not already of a different energy type(for example, a Hellrime Blast attack with a flaming longsword would deal 1d8 cold damage and 1d6 fire damage).

Eldritch Overload (Su): At 12th level an eldritch blade can overload his body with eldritch power, causing it to blast from his body and fill the air with crackling energy. Activating this ability is a free action. For the rest of the encounter, all of the eldritch blade's strikes receive the bonus damage from Eldritch Strike, without using up uses of the ability. Additionally, when using the Martial Surge or Eldritch Surge class features, the eldritch blade gains one additional point to spend. When using the Stance Protection class feature, the eldritch blade is treated as having used one additional use of Eldritch Strike. This state can only be entered once per day.

PersonMan
2011-08-02, 03:22 PM
New Feats

Some of the feats here are [eldritch] feats. It's a new feat type used often in the eldritch project.

Eldritch Boon [Eldritch]
Through training or simple ability, you have an abundance of power, easily mixed with that of the Sublime Way.
Prerequisites: Eldritch Strike class feature, Eldritch Blast 2d6
Benefits: You can use your Eldritch Strike one additional time per encounter.
Normal: You can use your Eldritch Strike 1+1/2 of your eldritch blade level times per encounter.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Flexible Recovery [Eldritch]
You've found that, by taking more time to do so, you can reduce the amount of eldritch power needed to refresh your maneuvers.
Prerequisites: Eldritch Recovery class feature
Benefits: You can choose to take a move action instead of a swift action when using Eldritch Recovery. If you do so, recovering the maneuver you choose costs 1 less use of Eldritch Strike(minimum 1 use).
Normal: You recover maneuvers using Eldritch Recovery as a swift action.

Improved Eldritch Stance [Eldritch]
You gain more eldritch power when using your stances.
Prerequisites: Eldritch Stance class feature
Benefits: You gain an additional 1d6 bonus eldritch blast damage after initiating a stance.
Normal: You gain 1d6 bonus eldritch blast damage after initiating a stance, or 2d6 if you have 11 or more eldritch blade levels.

Tacitus
2011-08-02, 10:07 PM
Before I begin, without even looking at the class I was instantly reminded of similar PrCs, that you've probably seen already. Bullet Hellbringer I think is one, but thats turning swordsage into a warlock, not a warlock into a swordsage. Eldritch Blade is the other, a Krimm Blackleaf work that turns the eldritch blast into a lightsaber and the martial adept into a jedi. Well, not really, but eh. So, lets see where you went with it.

Prerequisites. Lets see... Warlock 2, Swordsage 2? Or more likely Warlock 4/Swordsage 2 to have an IL of 3 at your first swordsage level and also get deceive item. But earliest entry is still 5th level.

Skills and HD look fine, though the number of class skills versus the number of skill points means that a large majority of the class skills are going to waste unless you've got like a +16 Int mod.

Why 12 levels? Its a little strange, especially if you go by the whole thing from WotC that PrCs that aren't exactly 10 levels can't be extended to epic. Its not a particularly bad thing to make something longer, but still a little odd and its never quite sat right with me.
Also, 3rd level, maneuvers readied is blank.

Hmm... on the maneuvers, don't feel constricted to ToB disciplines. Look into some homebrew and see if any strike your fancy. Meshing between homebrewers is always a good thing. Also, giving the same disciplines of a swordsage kinda maks it feel like you're not sacrificing anything for your awesome.

The math on times per encounter for Eldritch Strike is wonky. 1+1/2LvLs would be 6 times at level ten. Limiting it to 4 would be 6th level. wut? That said, why? If its your iconic go-to means of murder, why limit it to a certain number of uses per encounter? Given that it has to be delivered along with a strike that can make for a fair number of dice, but... wait... Yeah.. you don't progress EB damage, except when initiating a new stance (which you should specify either does or does not stack with itself). So... yeah, as written at 18th level, assuming WL4/SS2/EB12 you get 3d6 eldritch blast damage, as progressing Invoking doesn't progress EB. Unless, of course, I've missed something.

Bonus feats. Fun, and useful for helping distinguish one Eldritch Blade from another.

Ah, change the AC bonus to reduce MAD. You might also consider changing Swordsage strike DCs to Cha as well.

Alright, so now we see another use for eldritch strike uses per encounter. When gained, assuming nova for this purpose, thats +3 Untyped to concentration and saves for 4 rounds. A decent ability, that seems to favor Diamond Mind for the wee little Concentration boost it gives in addition to the defensive benefits. Given that uses also power the main focus (ie, laser-swording someone), I can't see it meshing well.

Advancing discipline focus, cool. Nothing to see here.

And more uses for the per encounter Eldritch Strike in the Eldritch Recovery. So assuming a maximum of 6 eldritch strike uses (instead of the 4, which I assume is in typo land) you could recover one level 8/9 maneuver and either strike once or use +2 Protection for 3 rounds, or some other combination thereof. Eh, it still seems fairly sparse, but I never was one with a good eye for balance, so I might be focusing too hard on this.

DR, 'kay.

Eldritch Stance I touched on earlier, and I rather like the idea, but it needs a mention of what happens when you initiate another stance while the first activation is still running. Reset duration, stacks, universe explodes, etc.

Eldritch/Martial Surge. Ah, so here you can gain more Eldritch Strike uses. See, that alleviates the problem somewhat, and probably makes me look fairly silly. So, at level 12 in the PrC (assuming WL4/SS2/EB12) you can burn an 8th level maneuvers and use all 4 of those points all at once.
[Side note, the bit about reducing EB damage from Martial Surge suggests you intended to advance EB damage, but aside from feats and that stance, you've only got 1d6 or 2d6 EB. Also, it says you can reduce the EB damage, but it never specifies that you have to use EB for anything. Intentional?]
So in one round you Swift to reduce EB by 4d6 (assuming you have it) and burn an 8th level maneuver as a Move Action to say... gain 5 ES uses and +3 to the DC or CL of an invocation. Funnel the ES uses into regaining that maneuver next round, and you've lost nothing but time.

Blast Strike, nice. Throw a strike 60ft instead of at melee range. I like it.

Essence Strike. Hmm... so instead of something like Time Stands Still I instead use something like Hellrime Blast on my melee attack? That... doesn't seem very useful at all. I know that is an extreme case, but why wouldn't I just blast someone and use a shape along with it? Chain an Utterdark at 60ft instead of wasting a maneuver. Am I misunderstanding the usefulness of this, or is it mostly just there as a reverse of Blast Strike?

Eldritch Overload. Ah, the capstone. Once a day for an entire encounter, go nutscrazy with cool special effects. Ah, and as a free action, nice. No using ES uses to ES, cool. Extra points from E/M Surge, always nice. Makes positive numbers instead of equal numbers in my earlier example. And with Protection it gets a +1 to its effects. Nice.

And now we come to the wrapup. Going into the class, I wasn't really impressed. Until you hit Eldritch Surge, it seems scattered with too little resources to use the tools it has been given. Once you get up to that point, however, you've just gained 2 extra ES uses per round, more or less, in exchange for your move action, meaning you can actually use your class features. So at level 7 you burn a 4th level maneuvers for the ES uses as a Move action, dump them all into Protection as a Free for +7 to AC/Saves/Concentration for 8 rounds, and go about your business as tanky mctanktank. Maybe blast somebody as your standard action that round, or Shadow Jaunt to a better spot and Adaptive Style into new maneuvers the next round.

In the end, its a nice class and I like it, but aside from the few comments I can give, I don't have much to offer in terms of balance or whatnot. I'm probably way out in left field on the whole ES uses business, but there you go.

PersonMan
2011-08-03, 05:03 AM
Before I begin, without even looking at the class I was instantly reminded of similar PrCs, that you've probably seen already. Bullet Hellbringer I think is one, but thats turning swordsage into a warlock, not a warlock into a swordsage. Eldritch Blade is the other, a Krimm Blackleaf work that turns the eldritch blast into a lightsaber and the martial adept into a jedi. Well, not really, but eh. So, lets see where you went with it.

Prerequisites. Lets see... Warlock 2, Swordsage 2? Or more likely Warlock 4/Swordsage 2 to have an IL of 3 at your first swordsage level and also get deceive item. But earliest entry is still 5th level.

That's intentional. Essentially all of the classes are made for level 4 entry, to allow equal investment to each side(2/2 rather than 2/3 or 3/2).


Skills and HD look fine, though the number of class skills versus the number of skill points means that a large majority of the class skills are going to waste unless you've got like a +16 Int mod.

I was looking at the skill lists of Warlock and Swordsage and wasn't really sure about cutting many, or which to cut.


Why 12 levels? Its a little strange, especially if you go by the whole thing from WotC that PrCs that aren't exactly 10 levels can't be extended to epic. Its not a particularly bad thing to make something longer, but still a little odd and its never quite sat right with me.
Also, 3rd level, maneuvers readied is blank.

I made it 12 levels so that the combination would be more viable at high levels(warlock 2/swordsage 2/EB 12/warlock +2/swordsage +2, for example, rather than +3 for each), based on some advice I got in the original thread.

Oops. Thanks.


Hmm... on the maneuvers, don't feel constricted to ToB disciplines. Look into some homebrew and see if any strike your fancy. Meshing between homebrewers is always a good thing. Also, giving the same disciplines of a swordsage kinda maks it feel like you're not sacrificing anything for your awesome.

I'll take a look for some.

I'm not sure about the maneuvers, actually. Compared to a straight swordsage, you have 6 or 7 less maneuvers known, 3 less maneuvers readied and 2 less stances known. Would taking away access to some disciplines(which would, IMO, just mean that people going into the PrC wouldn't take many, or any, maneuvers in those disciplines) really do much that the stunted maneuver progression hasn't?


The math on times per encounter for Eldritch Strike is wonky. 1+1/2LvLs would be 6 times at level ten. Limiting it to 4 would be 6th level. wut? That said, why? If its your iconic go-to means of murder, why limit it to a certain number of uses per encounter? Given that it has to be delivered along with a strike that can make for a fair number of dice, but... wait... Yeah.. you don't progress EB damage, except when initiating a new stance (which you should specify either does or does not stack with itself). So... yeah, as written at 18th level, assuming WL4/SS2/EB12 you get 3d6 eldritch blast damage, as progressing Invoking doesn't progress EB. Unless, of course, I've missed something.

Oops. Yeah, originally it was 1+1/3 levels. When I started using it as a fuel for other class features, I changed it to 1+1/2.

As for EB damage, well, when I made the first class of the project(Eldritch Fist), I had an eldritch blast progression included, but was informed that invocation progression also progresses eldritch blast. If it normally doesn't, I'll just add a note, something like "treated as have taken another level of warlock for the purposes of invocations known, caster level and eldritch blast".


Bonus feats. Fun, and useful for helping distinguish one Eldritch Blade from another.

Yeah, I've found that they're a nice little thing to add to levels where you don't get much.


Ah, change the AC bonus to reduce MAD. You might also consider changing Swordsage strike DCs to Cha as well.

I think I'll do that. When do you think would be a good place for it? At level 7, with Eldritch Surge?


Alright, so now we see another use for eldritch strike uses per encounter. When gained, assuming nova for this purpose, thats +3 Untyped to concentration and saves for 4 rounds. A decent ability, that seems to favor Diamond Mind for the wee little Concentration boost it gives in addition to the defensive benefits. Given that uses also power the main focus (ie, laser-swording someone), I can't see it meshing well.

Well, what was meant to result from the limited uses was an increased level of resource management, but if there aren't enough uses I could bump the uses up to 3+1/2 level or something.


Advancing discipline focus, cool. Nothing to see here.

Yep.


And more uses for the per encounter Eldritch Strike in the Eldritch Recovery. So assuming a maximum of 6 eldritch strike uses (instead of the 4, which I assume is in typo land) you could recover one level 8/9 maneuver and either strike once or use +2 Protection for 3 rounds, or some other combination thereof. Eh, it still seems fairly sparse, but I never was one with a good eye for balance, so I might be focusing too hard on this.

Well, if you dump a load of feats into it, you could have quite a few more-Eldritch Boon(+1 ES use/encounter) is on the bonus feat list, after all, and it stacks with itself. I'm considering making it like Font of Inspiration and adding a cap of 3 times, which would allow you to double your number of ES uses for 3 feats.


DR, 'kay.

Yep.


Eldritch Stance I touched on earlier, and I rather like the idea, but it needs a mention of what happens when you initiate another stance while the first activation is still running. Reset duration, stacks, universe explodes, etc.

I hadn't thought of that, actually. I think I'll just have the duration reset.


Eldritch/Martial Surge. Ah, so here you can gain more Eldritch Strike uses. See, that alleviates the problem somewhat, and probably makes me look fairly silly. So, at level 12 in the PrC (assuming WL4/SS2/EB12) you can burn an 8th level maneuvers and use all 4 of those points all at once.

Yep.


[Side note, the bit about reducing EB damage from Martial Surge suggests you intended to advance EB damage, but aside from feats and that stance, you've only got 1d6 or 2d6 EB. Also, it says you can reduce the EB damage, but it never specifies that you have to use EB for anything. Intentional?]

Well, you can just not use EB or Eldritch Strike for the duration, but that removes one of the big Eldritch Blade-y things you can do.

See above for the advancing of EB.


So in one round you Swift to reduce EB by 4d6 (assuming you have it) and burn an 8th level maneuver as a Move Action to say... gain 5 ES uses and +3 to the DC or CL of an invocation. Funnel the ES uses into regaining that maneuver next round, and you've lost nothing but time.

If you have 15 levels of Eldritch Blade. Maximum investment in each benefit is 1/3 of your Eld. Blade class level(primarily to +lolololol to save DCs).


Blast Strike, nice. Throw a strike 60ft instead of at melee range. I like it.

Yeah. I wasn't sure if it'd work with some strikes, but if it's good I'm happy.


Essence Strike. Hmm... so instead of something like Time Stands Still I instead use something like Hellrime Blast on my melee attack? That... doesn't seem very useful at all. I know that is an extreme case, but why wouldn't I just blast someone and use a shape along with it? Chain an Utterdark at 60ft instead of wasting a maneuver. Am I misunderstanding the usefulness of this, or is it mostly just there as a reverse of Blast Strike?

Partially the second. However, you can also burn a random 1st level strike to instead, say, have a save-or-suck(blinded) or the like. It's a bit of a niche thing, but it's there if you need it.


Eldritch Overload. Ah, the capstone. Once a day for an entire encounter, go nutscrazy with cool special effects. Ah, and as a free action, nice. No using ES uses to ES, cool. Extra points from E/M Surge, always nice. Makes positive numbers instead of equal numbers in my earlier example. And with Protection it gets a +1 to its effects. Nice.


Yeah, I was considering instead making it a passive sort of thing, like Eldritch Fist, but then I was all 'nah, going super-glowy 1/day is cool'.


In the end, its a nice class and I like it, but aside from the few comments I can give, I don't have much to offer in terms of balance or whatnot. I'm probably way out in left field on the whole ES uses business, but there you go.

Thanks for taking a look at it.