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GammaPaladin
2011-08-25, 03:47 AM
So I've seen a few attempts to add maneuvers to some of the core classes, and some of them are quite nice. But generally they strip elements of both classes away in order to maintain balance with core, or with the ToB classes themselves.

What I want to do is throw away both and replace them with gestalts of a sort. I'm not concerned with how well these are balanced against the existing core classes, nor the fact that they are generally stronger than the ToB classes. I'm attempting to balance everything UP to high tier 3/low tier two. That's my balance target, and I'm hoping for some feedback on how closely these achieve that goal.

There will be no Bard. Sorry, I just don't like them enough to put in that kind of effort on them.

Design Goals

Add maneuvers to all core classes except full casters.
Improve underperforming classes (Monk, Paladin, Fighter)
Achieve some semblance of parity with tier two classes.
Make classes more flexible.
???
Profit!

GammaPaladin
2011-08-25, 03:49 AM
Barbarian

HD: D12

{table=head]Level |BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Maneuvers|Readied|Stanc es
1st|+1|+2|+0|+0|Fast Movement, Illiteracy, Rage|7|2/5|1
2nd |+2|+3|+0|+0|Uncanny Dodge|7|2/5|1
3rd|+3|+3|+1|+1|Trap Sense +1|8|2/5|1
4th|+4|+4|+1|+1|Bonus Feat|8|2/5|2
5th|+5|+4|+1|+1|Improved Uncanny Dodge|9|2/5|2
6th|+6/+1|+5|+2|+2|Trap Sense +2|9|2/5|2
7th|+7/+2|+5|+2|+2|Damage Reduction 1/--|10|2/5|2
8th|+8/+3|+6|+2|+2|Bonus Feat|10|2/5|2
9th|+9/+4|+6|+3|+3|Trap Sense +3|11|2/5|2
10th|+10/+5|+7|+3|+3|Damage Reduction 2/--|11|2/5|3
11th|+11/+6/+1|+7|+3|+3|Greater Rage|12|3/6|3|
12th|+12/+7/+2|+8|+4|+4|Bonus Feat, Trap Sense +4|12|3/6|3
13th|+13/+8/+3|+8|+4|+4|Damage Reduction 3/--|13|3/6|3
14th|+14/+9/+4|+9|+4|+4|Indomitable Will|13|3/6|3
15th|+15/+10/+5|+9|+5|+5|Trap Sense +5|14|3/6|3
16th|+16/+11/+6/+1|+10|+5|+5|Bonus Feat, Damage Reduction 4/--|14|3/6|4
17th|+17/+12/+7/+2|+10|+5|+5|Tireless Rage|15|3/6|4
18th|+18/+13/+8/+3|+11|+6|+6|Trap Sense +6|15|3/6|4
19th|+19/+14/+9/+4|+11|+6|+6|Damage Reduction 5/--|16|3/6|4
20th|+20/+15/+10/+5|+12|+6|+6|Bonus Feat, Mighty Rage|16|4/7|4[/table]

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Barbarian is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light armor, medium armor, and shields (Except tower shields).

Maneuvers: The Barbarian may learn maneuvers from the Iron Heart, Stone Dragon, and Tiger Claw Disciplines. Number of maneuevers and stances known are as shown on the table.

Maneuvers Readied: The Barbarian is an instinctive fighter. He does not rely on extensive study and constant drill. As such he does not spend time thinking about what maneuvers he will use, he simply acts. The number of maneuvers a Barbarian can have readied is represented on the table in the format of min/max, where min is the minimum number of maneuvers the Barbarian has readied at any time, and max is the maximum number he can have readied. At the beginning of an encounter, randomly select the minimum number of maneuvers readied from your pool of known maneuvers. These are the maneuvers that immediately spring to your character's mind, based on the situation.

At the beginning of the next turn, if the Barbarian has less than his minimum number of readied maneuvers, he gains random maneuvers up to his minimum. If the Barbarian has at least his minimum readied maneuvers, and less than his maximum, one more maneuver is randomly readied.

For instance, a level 11 Barbarian runs into a group of monsters. He randomly selects 3 maneuvers from his list of known maneuvers, and can immediately employ any of those three. If he expends one maneuver in his turn, at the beginning of the next turn he has 2 readied maneuvers, which is less than his minimum of three, and therefore he readies another, random maneuver.

In this turn, he chooses not to use a maneuver, and at the beginning of his next turn, he has 3 maneuevers readied. This is less than his maximum of 6, so another random maneuver is readied, bringing him to 4.

If he starts a turn with 6 maneuvers, he does not ready another, as he is already at his maximum.

If he starts a round with 1 maneuver readied, he immediately readies two more, to bring him to his minimum of 3.

Rage (Ex): As core Barbarian, but uses per day are no longer limited. It is simply an encounter ability.

Notes: When a Barbarian uses the Adaptive Style feat, he randomly selects a number of maneuevers equal to the number he had readied before using the feat. If a level 11 Barbarian had 5 maneuvers readied, when he used Adaptive Style, he would expend those 5 maneuvers, and immediately choose another 5. The new set of readied maneuvers may include the maneuvers that were already readied, as the new set is randomly chosen from his entire list of known maneuvers.

GammaPaladin
2011-08-25, 03:50 AM
Warblade (Replaces Fighter)

Rationale: The fighter is a terrible class. It is weak compared to darn near any other class in the game. It's only strength is flexibility, but this ceases to be meaningful somewhere between level 5 and level 10. The Warblade is superior to the fighter in essentially all respects, but it was hamstrung by the need to balance it with the core melee classes. By making the Warblade a replacement for the Fighter class, the Warblade can subsume all the Fighter's abilities without breaking the game, as this still only makes it a tier 3 or tier 2 class. If there is no fighter class, the fact that the Warblade is Fighter ++ is no longer relevant.

Summary of Changes:
Kept Warblade's HD rather than Fighters, to make Barbarian's D12 more unique and account for the added benefit of the Warblade's abilities.
Allowed Warblade access to 4 disciplines of the player's choice in addition to Iron Heart. This was to preserve the flexibility that is the Fighter's main strength.
Added Fighter's bonus feat progression, and gave Warblade access to both the Fighter and Warblade bonus feats.
Made Warblade level count fully towards anything that has a Fighter level as a prerequesite.
Added 5 bonus Iron Heart only Maneuvers to eliminate levels where no features were granted.

HD: D10

Race: Any.

Alignment: Any.

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Maneuvers|Readied| Stances
1st|+1|+2|+0|+0|Bonus Feat, Battle Clarity (Reflex Saves), Weapon Aptitude|3|3|1
2nd|+2|+3|+0|+0|Bonus Feat, Uncanny Dodge|4|3|1
3rd|+3|+3|+1|+1|Battle Ardor (Critical Confirmation)|5|3| 1
4th|+4|+4|+1|+1|Bonus Feat| 5|4|2
5th|+5|+4|+1|+1|Iron Heart Mastery|6|4|2
6th|+6/+1|+5|+2|+2|Bonus Feat, Improved Uncanny Dodge|6|4|2
7th|+7/+2|+5|+2|+2|Battle Cunning (Damage)|7|4|2
8th|+8/+3|+6|+2|+2|Bonus Feat|7|4|2
9th|+9/+4|+6|+3|+3|Iron Heart Mastery| 8|4|2
10th|+10/+5|+7|+3|+3|Bonus Feat|8|5|3
11th|+11/+6/+1|+7|+3|+3|Battle Skill (Opposed Checks)|9|5|3
12th|+12/+7/+2|+8|+4|+4|Bonus Feat|9|5|3
13th|+13/+8/+3|+8|+4|+4|Iron Heart Mastery|10|5|3
14th|+14/+9/+4|+9|+4|+4|Bonus Feat|10|5|3
15th|+15/+10/+5|+9|+5|+5|Battle Mastery (Attacks of Opportunity)|11|6|3
16th|+16/+11/+6/+1|+10|+5|+5|Bonus Feat|11|6|4
17th|+17/+12/+7/+2|+10|+5|+5|Iron Heart Mastery|12|6|4
18th|+18/+13/+8/+3|+11|+6|+6|Bonus Feat|12|6|4
19th|+19/+14/+9/+4|+11|+6|+6|Iron Heart Mastery|13|6|4
20th|+20/+15/+10/+5|+12|+6|+6|Bonus Feat, Stance Mastery|13|7|4[/table]

Class Skills:
Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Local), Martial Lore, Ride, Swim, Tumble
Skill Points: 4 + Int modifier per level, * 4 at 1st level.

Starting Gold: 5d4 * 10

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Warblade is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, and with all armor (heavy, medium, and lifht) and shields (including tower shields).

Bonus Feats: At 1st level a Warblade gets a bonus combat-oriented feat in addition to the feat that any 1st level character gets, and the bonus feat granted to a human character. The Warblade gains an additional bonus feat at 2nd level and every two Warblade levels thereafter. Bonus feats may be drawn from the Fighter bonus feat pool, or from the ToB Warblade bonus feat pool. Any feat from any supplement which is listed as a Fighter or Warblade bonus feat may be chosen as a Warblade bonus feat.

Iron Heart Mastery: At levels 5, 9, 13, 17, and 19, a Warblade may learn one bonus maneuver. This maneuver must be drawn from the Iron Heart discipline.

Maneuvers: As ToB Warblade. Except for disciplines. A Warblade has access to the Iron Heart discipline, and any four additional disciplines, selected at character creation.

Maneuvers readied: As ToB Warblade.

Stances Known: As ToB Warblade.

Weapon Aptitude (Ex): The Warblade is a replacement for the Fighter class, therefore Warblade levels count as Fighter levels for the purposes of prerequesites for any feat, ability, item, or any other game feature.

GammaPaladin
2011-08-25, 03:52 AM
Coming soon: Monk

GammaPaladin
2011-08-25, 03:53 AM
Coming Soon: Paladin

GammaPaladin
2011-08-25, 03:54 AM
Coming Soon: Ranger

GammaPaladin
2011-08-25, 03:55 AM
Coming soon: Rogue