PDA

View Full Version : D&D 3.x Class Focus Your Chi (PEACH)



Quellian-dyrae
2014-07-31, 02:35 PM
Introduction

This is a complete overhaul of OA-style classes. It fully revises the monk, samurai, and ninja, and replaces the shugenja and wu jen with a new class - the mystic. The goal is to take these four classes and develop them together. Ideally, a party of a samurai, ninja, monk, and mystic would serve as an alternative to fighter, rogue, cleric, and wizard - but be a fair bit better balanced against each other. All four classes should individually operate as strong tier 3s; they should each be able to tackle multiple distinct roles with credit, be really good at at least one thing, and have a high enough optimization floor that a novice player should be able to use them effectively, while hopefully having a low enough ceiling to not break the game at the high end. They're also designed to be very multiclassing friendly, with relaxed attribute dependencies and some cross-class scaling built into several of their core features.

I'm intentionally going rather light on fluff, since it's not like these classes are all new by any means and I probably won't be able to say it any better than anyone else can :smallamused:.

Post 1 - Introduction and Basics: Covers the core rules of Chi-using classes; these classes have several options and advantages that are open to all of them, although perhaps to differing degrees.

Post 2 - The Monk: The most skilled at using Chi, the monk has a flexible chassis, and can serve the party as a striker, healer, and scout. Monks have impressive mobility and senses (though their mobility lends itself a bit more towards raw ability to cover terrain as compared to a ninja's peerless ability to circumvent obstacles), and make a solid backup skillmonkey or secondary fighter.

Post 3 - The Samurai: The greatest warrior of the classes, the samurai has the strongest raw combat stats, and works as a tank, leader, and face. Samurai have potent personal defense - with enough offense to back it up - and social skills, and can direct their allies in battle to improve their performance while actively protecting them from enemy attacks.

Post 4 - The Ninja: Possessing the most skills of the four, the ninja is still a capable combatant, and operates as a skirmisher, debuffer, and infiltrator. Ninja of course possess uncanny stealth and amazing mobility (more short-range than a monk, but they easily bypass all manner of obstructions), and combine high spike damage with long-lasting debuffs.

Post 5 - The Mystic: Though the weakest in raw stats, the mystic is a spellcaster, so that makes up for it. A solid backup in just about any role if it has the right spells, mystics shine in a supportive role, and have native features to assist with battlefield control, buffing, and information gathering. They supplement their spells with elemental commands and spiritual guidance, although if pressed, they can still display a surprising amount of martial skill - for a caster.

Post 6 - Specialties: The Specialties available to Chi-using classes.

Post 7 - Feats: New feats that use the Chi system.


Chi Basics

The four classes presented below tap into a power called Chi for many of their abilities. Chi is, in essence, the character's spirit or life force. Higher-level characters have stronger spirits, and are thus capable of performing greater feats of Chi. However, Chi isn't all about strength of spirit - learning to harness and use it requires extensive training. Meditation and martial arts are two of the primary means of training Chi, bringing the mind, body, and spirit into balance. As a result, among other abilities dictated by class, all characters who are able to tap into their Chi reap the benefits listed below, to greater or lesser degrees.

The spirit is energy, and bringing it into harmony with the body and mind enables feats far greater than mundane training and exercise would allow for. However, while advanced Chi users can all be said to be in some way superhuman, they aren't necessarily supernatural. The effects of Chi are generally Exceptional abilities (and all of these basic capabilities are considered Exceptional), although some may be Supernatural.

All classes cabable of using Chi receive the following benefits.

Body, Mind, and Spirit

True mastery of Chi requires fitness of body, clarity of mind, and harmony of spirit. Upon taking a level in a Chi-using class, a character designates a certain physical ability score (Str, Dex, or Con) as its Body stat, and a certain mental ability score (Int, Wis, or Cha) as its Mind stat. These designations are determined by the class that the character's first Chi-using level is in - even if the character later multiclasses (and even if that first level does not actually confer a point of Chi), and do not generally change thereafter. Samurai use Strength and Charisma. Ninja use Dexterity and Intelligence. Mystics use Constitution and Wisdom. Monks may choose any pair of scores they wish.

In addition, the lower of these two ability scores is designated as the character's Spirit stat (Spirit is always the lower of the two, even if the one that was originally lower eventually exceeds the one that was originally higher).

Chi-using classes generally call upon Body, Mind, and Spirit stats, rather than specific individual ability scores. They are treated like ability scores, and have relevant ability modifiers.

Specialties

Chi-using classes gain Specialties at first level, and at every level evenly divisible by three. Initially, a given Specialty can only be taken once. However, for each five character levels you gain past first, Specialties can be taken one additional time. Each additional purchase of the same Specialty improves its effectiveness in some way.

Each time you gain a new Specialty, you may exchange your current purchases in any two Specialties. You may not simply deduct purchases from one to add to another; you must entirely swap the total purchases of each.

Some Specialties are linked to certain classes (noted in brackets next to the Specialty's name). You must have at least one level in those classes to take these Specialties. You must have at least three levels to take them twice, six levels to take them three times, and ten levels to take them four times. Add up all levels of qualifying classes for this purpose. The Diverse Specialization feat lets you circumvent this limit.

You only get your full number of Specialties in classes that are: Your highest-level class, no more than one level lower than your highest-level class, or your most recently leveled class. Any class that does not meet one of these criteria loses one Specialty until it does.

Scaling Features

Each Chi-using class has a Scaling Feature; a single class feature which progresses over time. Scaling Features progress at levels 1, 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 20. Levels in other classes also progress Scaling Features, to a lesser degree; every three levels in other classes progresses your Scaling Features by two levels (following a pattern of 011011), up to a maximum effective level of twice your actual levels in the class.

For example, a Ninja 5/Samurai 7 would count as a 9th level Ninja for purposes of Sneak Attack, and a 10th level Samurai for purposes of Bonus Feats. A Ninja 5/Samurai 7/Monk 3 would count as a 10th level Ninja (six bonus levels, but capped at twice its class level) for Sneak Attack, a 12th level Samurai for Bonus Feats, and a 6th level Monk (eight bonus levels, but capped) for Chi Healing.

You only get your full Scaling Feature in classes that are: Your highest-level class, no more than one level lower than your highest-level class, or your most recently leveled class. Any class that does not meet one of these criteria loses one increment of its Scaling Feature until it does. This loss occurs after capping.

Martial Arts

Chi training often involves practice of the martial arts. A character who possesses a Spirit stat may add its Spirit modifier to its attack and weapon damage rolls. This replaces its Strength or Dexterity modifier if they would normally apply to the attack or damage roll. When using a two-handed weapon, add half again the Spirit modifier to damage rolls. When using two weapons, add three-fourths the Spirit modifier, rounded up, to the damage rolls for both weapons. When using a single weapon in one hand and not using the other hand for combat, add half again the Spirit modifier to attack rolls.

Similarly, when unarmored, the character can add its Spirit modifier to AC. This does not stack with any other form of armor bonus or with any other ability that lets you add additional ability modifiers to AC, but does stack with shield bonuses, with the normal Dex modifier to AC, or with abilities that substitute a different ability modifier for Dexterity to AC. This bonus is not lost when the character is flat-footed, and it applies against touch attacks. It is lost when the character is helpless.

Chi Bonuses

ChiDamageCritReachMobilityEnhancement
1-31d820/X25'+0+0
4-61d1020/X210'+5+1 (Magic)
7-91d1219-20/X210'+10+2 (Adamantine)
10-121d8+1d619-20/X215'+15+3 (Aligned 1)
13-151d10+1d619-20/X2.515'+20+4 (Ghost Touch)
16-181d12+1d619-20/X2.520'+25+5 (Aligned 2)
19-211d8+2d618-20/X2.520'+30+6 (Epic)
22-241d10+2d618-20/X2.525'+35+7 (Untyped)
25-271d12+2d618-20/X325'+40+8 (Force)
28-301d8+3d618-20/X330'+45+9 (Aggravated)

Chi: The character's Chi rating is a factor of both how strong the character's spirit is, and also how skilled the character is at tapping into its spiritual energy. A character's Chi can never exceed its total Hit Dice. Chi is generally gained by taking levels in certain classes, though characters may possess other feats, items, and options to improve one's Chi. A character's total Chi is the sum of all sources that provide it. Monks gain a point of Chi every level. Samurai and Ninja gain 0.75 Chi per level. Mystics get 0.5 Chi per level. Fractions are rounded down. These numbers are given on each class's table with rounding already done, but in the case of multiclassed characters, add up the totals similarly to the Fractional BAB variant (so a Samurai 2/Mystic 1 has a Chi rating of 2, not 1).

Damage: Any character with at least 1 Chi can focus its Chi into its strikes. Its minimum base damage with any weapon begins at 1d8 and increases by one die size per three additional points of Chi, as shown on the above table. This damage overwrites the base damage for the weapon. Size can further raise (or lower) this damage, but each size difference adjusts the damage by one step on the above table, rather than using the normal size progression. A character may use the normal base damage for its weapon (including normal size scaling) if desired. Damage from a Chi-focused weapon can be lethal or nonlethal at the attacker's option with no penalty, and limitations on a weapon's damage (such as a sap always dealing nonlethal damage or a whip being unable to damage armored foes) are ignored when attacking with Chi.

Nonproficiency and improvised weapon penalties still apply. A character fighting with a Chi focused weapon is considered armed, even if the "weapon" is a normally harmless item or an unarmed strike.

Chi-using characters are treated as having the Improved Unarmed Strike feat for purposes of meeting prerequisites.

While it is possible for a Chi-using character to dual wield an unarmed strike with both hands occupied (for example, with a two-handed weapon or a weapon and shield), doing so does take some additional effort. A two-handed weapon is treated as a one-handed weapon while doing so for purposes extra damage from Strength and power attack. Additionally, while doing so, a shield does not provide an AC bonus unless the character has the Improved Shield Bash feat. Normal two-weapon fighting penalties apply, and the character cannot use this option while already dual-wielding (although if the character has more than two attacks per round it may use weapons for some and unarmed strikes for others as always), nor does it entitle the character to use Multiweapon Fighting.

Crit: Characters with at least seven Chi are even more lethal with whatever weapon they get their hands on. They can replace the base critical entry of any weapon wielded with 19-20/X2. Each additional six points of Chi alternates between increasing their base critical multiplier by 0.5, or their base threat range by 1, as shown on the table. Any effects that modify threat range or critical multiplier apply directly to this new base.

Reach: Chi provides impressive speed and mobility, which masters of the martial arts can use to quickly move about the field to strike a foe or take advantage of an opportunity. A character with Chi can replace the normal reach of its weapon with the reach indicated on the above table. This is threatening reach, and covers all inclusive squares. Changing reach is a free action that can be taken once per round on the character's turn (so a low-level character armed with a longspear could use its spear's normal 10' non-inclusive reach as foes approach, and then switch to its basic 5' inclusive reach on its turn). This replaces the base reach of the weapon, and is thereafter modified by size and other effects that increase reach normally (calculate any increases as additions, not multiplications; a 12th level Large character would have a 20' reach, not 30', for example).

Mobility: Harnessing one's Chi allows a martial artist to develop incredible speed and acrobatic ability. A character with at least four Chi increases its base land speed by 5', plus an additional 5' per three more points of Chi. The character gets an equal bonus on all Balance, Jump, and Tumble checks. The skill bonus cannot exceed +5 per rank above 1 in the relevant skill. These are untyped bonuses.

Enhancement: A character with at least four Chi also gains a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls, and when unarmored, gains an equal bonus to AC (subject to the same rules as the basic Martial Arts AC bonus). If wielding a shield, the bonus also applies to its shield bonus to AC. This bonus goes up by one every three points of Chi gained. This overlaps any enhancement bonus on wielded weapons, but not any other enchantments. This also causes any weapon wielded to count as magic for purposes of overcoming DR, Regeneration, incorporeality, and the like.

Additionally, when this bonus reaches +2, any weapon the character wields is considered Adamantine. When the bonus reaches +3, and again at +5, the weapon gains one of the character's alignments. At +4, all weapons, armors, and shields so enhanced are treated as Ghost Touch items. When the bonus reaches +6, the weapon is considered Epic. At +7, weapons are treated as dealing Untyped damage rather than any form of physical damage when this would be beneficial, bypassing all DR. When the bonus reaches +8, the weapon is treated as dealing Force damage, allowing the character to strike fully ethereal targets. Finally, when the bonus reaches +9, the weapon's damage type is considered to be whatever material or energy is most harmful to the target, exploiting vulnerabilities, bypassing regeneration, and so on.

Alternate Playstyles

Gestalt: Chi is a gestalt resource; a character with Chi-using classes on both sides of the gestalt calculates its total Chi for each side, and then uses the highest. If its first level on each side is in Chi-using classes, it may choose from either one's Body and Mind scores individually (so a Samurai//Ninja could use Charisma as its Mind score and Dexterity as its Body score, for example).

Specialties are not considered the "same" class feature. A gestalt of Chi-using classes receives Specialties from both. The same Specialty, however, is still limited to its normal maximum purchases by level, and can't be "doubled up" on (although one could use Specialties from different sides of the gestalt to develop a single Specialty).

The bonus progressions to Scaling Features for levels in other classes is removed entirely in a gestalt game, even if the character multiclasses on one side.

Epic: Chi, Specialties, and Scaling Features progress into Epic levels following their normal patterns. In the case of Mystics, spell levels higher than 9th may be used for metamagic. Mystics may not select the Improved Spell Capacity feat, as their Scaling Feature affords this sort of progression natively.

At 22nd level, and every three epic levels thereafter, the classes provide a bonus epic feat.

E6: As an Epic Feat, an E6 Chi-based character may acquire its seventh-level class feature.

Pathfinder: Mystic HD increases to a d6, Ninja HD increases to a d8. Samurai Invigorating Shout uses a Perform check. Concentration can no longer be substituted against a ninja's Peerless Stealth. In the case of mechanics that involve ranks in a skill, count the bonus from class skill as additional ranks.

Monk Class Skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana, History, Religion) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Stealth (Dex), and Swim (Str).

Samurai Class Skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (History, Local, Nobility), Perception (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Ninja Class Skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana, Engineering, Dungeoneering, Local, Nature) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Stealth (Dex), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Mystic Class Skills: Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Fly (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (All skills, taken individually) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Favored Class Options:
Human: +1/6 of a Specialty.
Elf: +1/5 Mind Score (this doesn't increase the ability score itself, only for purposes of effects that specifically call out Mind Score or Modifier).
Half Elf: +1/4 Chi or +1/5 Spirit Score.
Dwarf: +1/5 Body Score (this doesn't increase the ability score itself, only for purposes of effects that specifically call out Mind Score or Modifier).
Gnome: +1/6 of a Scaling Feature (other than spellcasting; Mystics instead get +1/3 Energy Bolt damage).
Halfling: +1 Mobility (this doesn't count against the limit per rank in the relevant skills).
Half Orc: +1/2 Chi-focused Damage.

Quellian-dyrae
2014-07-31, 02:36 PM
The Monk

GAME RULE INFORMATION
Monks have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Monks may choose any physical ability score for their Body score, and any mental ability score for their Mind score. As such, which ability scores are most useful to a monk varies from case to case. However, both scores are always equally important, as monks rely heavily on their Spirit stat, rather than their Body and Mind stats, for most of their abilities.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d8.
Starting Age: As monk.
Starting Gold: As rogue.

Class Skills
The monk's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are...
Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Arcana, History, Religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Speak Language (N/A), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), and Use Rope (Dex).

Skill Points at First Level: (6 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier

MONK
LevelBase Attack BonusFort SaveRef SaveWill SaveChiSpecial
1st
+0
+0
+2
+2
1Chi, Chi Healing (X3), Specialty, Martial Arts Prowess.
2nd
+1
+0
+3
+3
2Chi Healing (X4).
3rd
+2
+1
+3
+3
3Specialty.
4th
+3
+1
+4
+4
4Ripples in the Pool.
5th
+3
+1
+4
+4
5Chi Healing (X5).
6th
+4
+2
+5
+5
6Specialty.
7th
+5
+2
+5
+5
7Hypercognition.
8th
+6
+2
+6
+6
8Chi Healing (X6).
9th
+6
+3
+6
+6
9Specialty.
10th
+7
+3
+7
+7
10Abundant Step.
11th
+8
+3
+7
+7
11Chi Healing (X7).
12th
+9
+4
+8
+8
12Specialty.
13th
+9
+4
+8
+8
13Waves in the Pool.
14th
+10
+4
+9
+9
14Chi Healing (X8).
15th
+11
+5
+9
+9
15Specialty.
16th
+12
+5
+10
+10
16Perfect Clarity.
17th
+12
+5
+10
+10
17Chi Healing (X9).
18th
+13
+6
+11
+11
18Specialty.
19th
+14
+6
+11
+11
19Abundant Stride.
20th
+15
+6
+12
+12
20Chi Healing (X10), Enlightenment.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Monk.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: The monk is proficient with simple weapons and special monk weapons, but not with armor or shields.

Chi (Ex): Monks are Chi-using characters. They receive one point of Chi per class level, and all attendant benefits.

Chi Healing (Ex): Chi is life. This much, anyone knows. Monks, however, pursue a deeper enlightenment into the order of things. All Chi is all life; every living thing is connected. As monks come to understand this connection, they learn how to use their Chi not only to strengthen their own bodies, but those of others as well. With a touch, a monk can share some of its Chi with another, healing that person's wounds. Doing so is a standard action. Each day, the monk can heal a total amount of hit points equal to its Spirit modifier times its total Chi score times three. At second level, and each three levels thereafter, the multiplier increases by one. The monk can only heal a maximum number of hit points with a single action equal to its Chi plus its Spirit modifier, times its Chi Healing multiplier.

For example, a 12th level monk with a Spirit modifier of +5 could heal up to 420 hit points per day, and could heal up to 119 hit points at a time.

The monk can also tap into its reserves of Chi to heal its own wounds.

Any time the monk receives instantaneous healing, it may spend an immediate action to convert any or all of the healing received to more points of Chi Healing. Fast Healing, Regeneration, and other forms of healing over time cannot be converted in this way. The monk's own Chi Healing cannot be converted in this way. Chi Healing from other monks can be converted, although a monk can never receive more points of Chi Healing than the other monk spends, even if abilities that improve the total healing or reduce the cost are in play.

Specialties: At first level, and every third level, the monk gains or improves a Specialty of its choice.

Martial Arts Prowess (Ex): When selecting feats that the original monk class could select as bonus feats, or that have Improved Unarmed Strike or Stunning Fist as a prerequisite, the monk may ignore any BAB prerequisites, use its Body stat to meet any physical ability score prerequisites, and use its Mind stat to meet any mental ability score prerequisites. It may also substitute its Spirit modifier for its Wisdom modifier for such feats.

Ripples in the Pool (Ex): A fourth level monk begins to feel the flow of Chi in others, like a pool of water. Through use of its own Chi, often coupled with pressure points, acupuncture, or similar techniques, the monk can bring another person's Chi into or out of balance.

Whenever the monk uses Chi Healing, it can spend points of the healing to remove negative conditions, rather than healing wounds. Points spent in this way count against the normal limit of healing for the action. Additionally, as a swift action upon succeeding with an attack, the monk can spend points of Chi Healing to inflict one or more conditions upon an enemy, paying the point cost of removing those conditions to attempt to impose them. The enemy gets a Fortitude save, DC 10 + 1/2 the monk's Chi + the monk's Spirit modifier, to resist (make a single save against all conditions imposed in one attack).

Conditions marked with an asterisk can only be removed by this ability, not imposed.

This ability only works against living creatures; undead, constructs, and other nonliving targets receive no effect, positive or negative.

5 Points: Asleep (remove), Dazzled.

10 Points: 1 Ability Damage, Charmed*, Deafened, Entangled, Fascinated, Fatigued, Flat-footed, Sickened, Shaken.

25 Points: 1 Negative Level, Blinded, Confused, Diseased*, Exhausted, Frightened, Immobilized, Poisoned*, Slowed, Staggered.

50 Points: 1 Ability Drain, Dazed, Nauseated, Stunned, Panicked.

100 Points: Asleep (impose), Cowering, Paralyzed, Petrified, Polymorphed*, Unconscious.

Most of these conditions last for one round when imposed by this ability, except as follows:
Ability Damage, Negative Levels, and Ability Drain are recovered from using normal rules.
Asleep lasts for eight hours unless the target is awakened beforehand.
Fascinated lasts for one minute unless broken by a threat or attack.

Hypercognition (Ex): A seventh level monk begins to sense the flows of Chi around it, and to feel its place in the universe. The monk gains Blindsense out to 10' per point of its Spirit Modifier. If the monk possesses any other enhanced senses, they extend out to its Blindsense range if their normal range is lower. Additionally, the monk can search the full area of its Blindsense in a single action (this also means that abilities that automatically allow Search checks when passing near something, such as an elf's ability to detect secret doors or a dwarf's Stonecunning, work whenever a trigger is anywhere in the monk's Blindsense range).

Abundant Step (Su): A tenth level monk can use its Chi to afford it exceptional mobility. The monk becomes immune to falling damage, gains an additional move action each round, and gains Run as a bonus feat. Additionally, each round it spends running continuously, its speed multiplier for running increases by one, to a maximum equal to its Chi.

Waves in the Pool (Ex): A thirteenth level monk has a much clearer sense of the flows of Chi around it, and can make - and soothe - far greater imbalances. The monk can use Chi Healing to heal the recently dead; if the target died within the past round, the monk must spend twice as much Chi Healing as it heals damage, but restores the target to life if it brings its hit points above 0. Each additional round that has passed increases the cost multiplier by one.

Likewise, the monk can disrupt the target's Chi directly. When it succeeds an attack and spends a swift action to impose conditions, it can spend points of Chi Healing to cause damage directly, inflicting one point of damage per three points of healing spent. The opponent gets its normal save to resist the damage. However, if the save fails, it must immediately save again or sustain the damage once more. This continues until it succeeds a save or has sustained enough damage to kill it.

Additionally, whenever causing any negative effect (including damage) in this way, the monk may choose to suspend the effect for up to a week (it chooses to do so after all saving throws or other defenses have been made). The target is aware that there is a latent effect upon it that the monk can trigger. While the target doesn't know exactly what effect it is, it does get a general sense of the severity (it would know if its life is at stake, for example, or the general level of the condition being imposed). The monk may trigger the effect as a free action at any time once applied; there is no further saving throw or other defense. Removing such an effect before it has triggered requires a spell no less potent than Greater Restoration.

Perfect Clarity (Ex): A sixteenth level monk can see the universe as it is. The monk can see invisible and ethereal creatures without difficulty, and is automatically entitled to a Will save, Spot check, Sense Motive check, or other applicable check immediately upon perceiving any illusion, disguise, lie, or any other form of falsehood. Additionally, the monk understands any creature who speaks to it, and any creature it speaks to understands it.

Abundant Stride (Su): A nineteenth level monk gains a second bonus move action each round, and may spend two move actions to take a Run or Withdraw action. Additionally, when running for multiple rounds, its speed multiplier is fully doubled each round, rather than increasing by one (still to a maximum number of doublings equal to the monk's Chi).

Enlightenment (Su): A twentieth level monk has achieved enlightenment. Its Spirit stat is now equal to the higher of its Body or Mind stat, plus the lower of its Body or Mind modifier. The monk no longer ages, receives ability score penalties for aging, or requires food, water, air, or sleep. It no longer dies of old age. Whenever subject to any effect, the monk may choose to function as any Type of creature and any alignment it wishes for purposes of that effect (this does not grant any actual Type-based immunities or other abilities, it simply alters the monk's effective Type for purposes of abilities that explicitly call out different effects when used on different creature Types).

Quellian-dyrae
2014-07-31, 02:37 PM
The Samurai

GAME RULE INFORMATION
Samurai have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Most samurai rely on physical strength to overcome their foes, and draw from the strength of their honor to lead by example and withstand enemy attacks. They use Strength as their Body stat and Charisma as their Mind stat.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d10.
Starting Age: As fighter.
Starting Gold: As fighter.

Class Skills
The Samurai's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are...
Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Cha), Knowledge (History, Local, Nobility and Royalty), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), and Use Rope (Dex).

Skill Points at First Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

SAMURAI
LevelBase Attack BonusFort SaveRef SaveWill SaveChiSpecial
1st
+1
+2
+2
+2
0Chi, Bonus Feat, Specialty, Ancestral Weapon.
2nd
+2
+3
+3
+3
1Bonus Feat.
3rd
+3
+3
+3
+3
2Specialty.
4th
+4
+4
+4
+4
3Bushido Blessing.
5th
+5
+4
+4
+4
3Bonus Feat.
6th
+6
+5
+5
+5
4Specialty.
7th
+7
+5
+5
+5
5War Shouts.
8th
+8
+6
+6
+6
6Bonus Feat.
9th
+9
+6
+6
+6
6Specialty.
10th
+10
+7
+7
+7
7Staredown.
11th
+11
+7
+7
+7
8Bonus Feat.
12th
+12
+8
+8
+8
9Specialty.
13th
+13
+8
+8
+8
9Heroic Defiance.
14th
+14
+9
+9
+9
10Bonus Feat.
15th
+15
+9
+9
+9
11Specialty.
16th
+16
+10
+10
+10
12Legendary Leader.
17th
+17
+10
+10
+10
12Bonus Feat.
18th
+18
+11
+11
+11
13Specialty.
19th
+19
+11
+11
+11
14Aura of Presence.
20th
+20
+12
+12
+12
15Bonus Feat, Indomitable Spirit.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Samurai.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: The samurai is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, all special monk weapons, light, medium, and heavy armor, and shields (except tower shields).

Chi (Ex): Samurai are Chi-using characters. They receive 0.75 points of Chi per class level, and all attendant benefits.

Bonus Feats: At first level, second level, and every three levels thereafter, the samurai gains a bonus feat which may be drawn from the list of fighter bonus feats.

Specialties: At first level, and every third level, the samurai gains or improves a Specialty of its choice.

Ancestral Weapon: At first level, the samurai receives its Ancestral Weapon. Choose a single weapon (a samurai with the Two Weapon Fighting feat can choose a matched pair of weapons); the samurai receives a masterwork version of that weapon free of charge, and gains proficiency with the weapon if it doesn't have it already.

The samurai may substitute its Body score for any physical ability score, its Mind score for any mental ability score, and its samurai level for its fighter level when selecting feats, but if it does so, they only apply while wielding its Ancestral Weapon.

A samurai with the Two Weapon Fighting feat may choose a pair of Ancestral Weapons, but it only gets the benefits of its weapon-specific feats with using both together.

Bushido Blessing (Ex): The samurai is an honorable warrior, and starting at 4th level, its honor serves as a shield against corrupt powers and deceptive intent. The samurai may choose to embody one or more of the codes of Bushido. It may embody a number of codes up to half its Spirit modifier, rounded up. Each code imposes some restriction on the samurai's actions, but in return allows it to add its Mind modifier to a certain type of check as a Morale bonus. Bonuses from multiple codes do not stack, even if multiple codes would apply to the same roll.

If the samurai is immune to an effect that it adds a bonus to saving throws against, it instead grants the bonus to all allies within 30'.

A samurai who violates one of its codes for any reason other than serving another one loses the benefit of that code for the duration of the violation, plus one day thereafter. It also takes a -2 penalty on its Spirit score (and thus a corresponding -1 on its Spirit Modifier) for this duration (which stacks if it is violating multiple codes). A samurai may change its codes with a week of meditation on its new commitment, or by receiving an Atonement spell.

Gi (Honesty and Justice): The samurai must not speak an untruth. The samurai adds its bonus to Sense Motive checks.

Yu (Heroic Courage): The samurai must not flee a fight. The samurai adds its bonus to saves against fear.

Jin (Compassion): The samurai must help those in need, provided they do not use that help to harm others. The samurai adds its bonus on saves against Death effects.

Rei (Polite Courtesy): The samurai must not act rudely. The samurai adds its bonus to Diplomacy checks.

Meyo (Honor): The samurai must act and, in particular, fight honorably. It may not attack flat-footed foes, attack from ambush, slay helpless opponents, utilize poison, attack from behind (it foregoes a flanking bonus on attacks, but can still help an ally get one) and so on. This is not to say that the samurai cannot fight strategically, but it does so in an open and honorable manner. The samurai adds the bonus to any check to resist, escape, or move through an effect that restrict its movements (such as paralysis, slows, entanglement, grapples, etc).

Makoto (Complete Sincerity): The samurai must not break a vow or promise. The samurai gains its bonus on Intimidate checks.

Chugo (Duty and Loyalty): The samurai obeys all orders from its lord, and acts for the greater good of those in its care. The samurai adds its bonus to saves against charms and compulsions.

War Shouts (Ex): A seventh level samurai has mastered exercises of breathing and concentration that allow it to focus its chi and its personal presence into powerful war shouts. The samurai can make three different types of war shout, and each one is usable as either a swift or standard action. War shouts are usable at will, but only while in combat.

Invigorating Shout: The samurai uses its shout purely as a focus for its own chi and determination. The samurai gains temporary hit points equal to its Concentration check modifier, which last for one round. If desired, on a successful attack, the samurai can spend up to its Spirit modifier of these temporary hit points to increase the attack's damage on a 1:1 basis. By shouting as a standard action, the benefits last for a number of rounds equal to the samurai's Mind modifier, the number of temporary hit points are doubled, and while the temporary hit points last, the samurai automatically succeeds any saving throws that it gains a bonus to from Bushido Blessing (if the samurai is immune to the effect, then this benefit extends to allies who receive the bonus).

Inspiring Shout: The samurai uses its shout to inspire its allies. As a swift action, it affects one ally within 5' per Diplomacy rank; as a standard action, it affects all allies in that area. Roll a Diplomacy check; each affected ally may either move a number of feet equal to the check result, or gain a damage bonus on its next weapon attack (as long as it occurs before the end of your next turn) equal to one-third the check result. This shout never affects the samurai itself.

Challenging Shout: The samurai uses its shout to challenge foes to face it in honorable combat. As a swift action, it affects one opponent within 5' per Intimidate rank; as a standard action, it affects all opponents in that area. Roll an Intimidate check; an opponent is affected if the check result exceeds a DC equal to the higher of: 10 + its Sense Motive modifier, 10 + its Intimidate modifier (calculating size bonuses relative to the samurai), or 15 + its Will save modifier. Affected targets take a penalty equal to the samurai's Mind modifier on all attack rolls and save DCs against characters other than the samurai, as well as on any check to avoid attacks of opportunity for any action other than moving closer to the samurai. Finally, any time it takes an offensive action that does not target or include the samurai, it provokes an attack of opportunity from everyone who threatens it. The effects last for a number of rounds equal to the samurai's Mind modifier.

Staredown (Ex): A tenth level samurai's presence is so overwhelming that it can cow foes with a glance. The samurai can demoralize opponents at a range of up to 5' per rank of Intimidate. It can demoralize a single opponent as a swift action, one opponent per point of its Mind modifier as a standard action, or all opponents in range as a full-round action. Demoralization lasts for a number of rounds equal to the samurai's Mind modifier. Multiple demoralizations can stack, but opponents get a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 the samurai's Intimidate ranks + the samurai's Mind modifier) to resist the stacking fear (note that the saving throw penalty for being Shaken does apply to this save). For each ten points the samurai's Intimidate check succeeds by, it acts as if it had successfully demoralized the target an additional time, requiring a Will save to avoid stacking fear (make only one save per Demoralize attempt, even if one attempt has multiple stacks).

Once an opponent succeeds a saving throw to avoid stacking fear, it becomes immune to further stacking fear from the samurai and all samurai with equal or lower Intimidate scores for the rest of the encounter.

Any opponent who is demoralized by the samurai is considered threatened by it as long as it remains within the samurai's demoralization range. While the samurai can't physically attack opponents it cannot reach, it may use attacks of opportunity to make ranged attacks against them. The samurai may also attempt to prevent the provoking action outright; rather than making an attack, the samurai forces the target to make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 the samurai's Intimidate ranks + the samurai's Mind modifier); if the save fails, the target immediately ends and loses the provoking action without effect, although any resources involved in the action are still expended. Preventing the action can be done at range, and does cost one of the samurai's attacks of opportunity for the round.

Heroic Defiance (Ex): A thirteenth level samurai refuses to falter. Once per round at the start of its turn, the samurai can make a Fortitude or Will save, whichever is higher. This does not require an action. It may apply the save against the DC of any spell, harmful ability, or condition upon it, or any spell whose area it occupies. If the save succeeds, the samurai no longer suffers from the spell or condition (if it applies to the samurai directly), or may ignore any effects of being within the spell's area for one round (note that only effects of being within the area are ignored; for example a Solid Fog spell won't slow the samurai, but will still impede its vision, since it can do that even to characters outside of the area). This applies regardless of whether a save is normally allowed against the effect.

If the effect would normally last for at least a day, or cannot be removed by normal dispelling, the samurai may only make one attempt per day to remove it. In the latter case, the samurai also takes a penalty on the saving throw equal to the spell level of the lowest-level spell called out as capable of removing it (so for example, if a spell could only be removed by Break Enchantment or stronger magic, the samurai would take a -5 penalty on the saving throw). If a spell appears on multiple lists, the priority for determining its spell level for purposes of this ability is Cleric > Wizard > Druid > Bard > Paladin > Ranger > Highest of other classes.

This ability cannot be used to remove the Dead condition, or any conditions imposed due to current hit points.

Legendary Leader (Ex): A sixteenth level samurai can lead its allies through encouraging commands and inspiring example alike. Every time the samurai hits with an attack, one ally within 5' per Diplomacy rank may take a move action. Taking the action granted is an immediate action for the ally. The samurai may not take these extra actions itself.

Aura of Presence (Ex): A nineteenth level samurai's presence is so dominating it hangs off the samurai like a cloak, cowing all who would oppose. Anyone within the samurai's Staredown range who can see the samurai is automatically Demoralized (and thus threatened by the samurai) as long as they remain within its Staredown range, unless the higher of their Sense Motive or Intimidate skill, plus any saving throw bonuses against fear, plus half their total Will save modifier, exceeds the samurai's Intimidate skill. The samurai may freely exclude people from this effect. The Shaken condition from this ability doesn't stack with others, including Staredown.

The samurai can also now use Staredown, and the mundane functions of the Intimidate skill, even against creatures who would normally be immune. Creatures immune to all mind-affecting abilities increase the DC of the Intimidate check by 2. Creatures immune to Compulsions specifically increase the DC by 5. Creatures immune to Fear specifically increase the DC by 10. These DC bonuses are also added to the amount the samurai must beat the DC by to inflict stacking fear, and to the target's Will save to resist stacking fear. Immunities still apply normally against the base effect of Aura of Presence.

Indomitable Spirit (Ex): A twentieth-level samurai is nearly impossible to neutralize. At any one time, the samurai can completely ignore a number of effects that it could remove or ignore with Heroic Defiance equal to half its Spirit modifier. No saving throw or other check is required to do so. The conditions remain active upon the samurai and their durations continue counting down normally; the samurai simply ignores their effects. The samurai can still use Heroic Defiance normally to attempt to truly remove these conditions.

Indomitable Spirit can also allow the samurai to ignore the Dead condition and conditions imposed due to current hit points. However, each round that the samurai does so, its Spirit score takes a -4 penalty (resulting in a -2 to its Spirit modifier and, thus, one fewer condition it can ignore at once). The samurai can be healed normally during this time, and death by means other than hit point damage simply set the samurai's hit points to -10. If the samurai's hit points become positive, the conditions are removed and the Spirit penalty fades immediately, but if the samurai falls below negative hit points again in the same encounter the previous penalty reasserts itself.

Quellian-dyrae
2014-07-31, 02:39 PM
The Ninja

GAME RULE INFORMATION
Ninja have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Ninja rely on speed and agility for combat and infiltration alike, and secret techniques passed down by their masters to achieve their supernatural powers. They use Dexterity as their Body stat and Intelligence as their Mind stat.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d6.
Starting Age: As rogue.
Starting Gold: As rogue.

Class Skills
The Ninja's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are...
Appraise (Int), Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Disable Device (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Arcana, Architechture and Engineering, Dungeoneering, Local, Nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Open Lock (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), and Use Rope (Dex).

Skill Points at First Level: (8 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 8 + Int modifier

NINJA
LevelBase Attack BonusFort SaveRef SaveWill SaveChiSpecial
1st
+0
+2
+2
+0
0Chi, Sneak Attack +1d6, Specialty, Trapfinding.
2nd
+1
+3
+3
+0
1Sneak Attack +2d6.
3rd
+2
+3
+3
+1
2Specialty.
4th
+3
+4
+4
+1
3Crippling Blade.
5th
+3
+4
+4
+1
3Sneak Attack +3d6.
6th
+4
+5
+5
+2
4Specialty.
7th
+5
+5
+5
+2
5Peerless Stealth.
8th
+6
+6
+6
+2
6Sneak Attack +4d6.
9th
+6
+6
+6
+3
6Specialty.
10th
+7
+7
+7
+3
7Ghost Step.
11th
+8
+7
+7
+3
8Sneak Attack +5d6.
12th
+9
+8
+8
+4
9Specialty.
13th
+9
+8
+8
+4
9Killing Blade.
14th
+10
+9
+9
+4
10Sneak Attack +6d6.
15th
+11
+9
+9
+5
11Specialty.
16th
+12
+10
+10
+5
12Latent Stealth.
17th
+12
+10
+10
+5
12Sneak Attack +7d6.
18th
+13
+11
+11
+6
13Specialty.
19th
+14
+11
+11
+6
14Ghost Walk.
20th
+15
+12
+12
+6
15Sneak Attack +8d6, Ghost Soul.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Ninja.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: The ninja is proficient with all simple weapons and simple monk weapons, and a single martial weapon of its choice, as well as with light armor, but not with shields.

Chi (Ex): Ninja are Chi-using characters. They receive 0.75 points of Chi per class level, and all attendant benefits.

Sneak Attack: At first level, second level, and every three levels thereafter, the ninja gains +1d6 Sneak Attack, as the rogue class feature.

Specialties: At first level, and every third level, the ninja gains or improves a Specialty of its choice.

Trapfinding (Ex): Ninja gain Trapfinding, as the rogue class feature.

Crippling Blade (Ex): A fourth level ninja is skilled in the use of poison and never risks poisoning itself when applying poison to a weapon. It can apply poisons to a weapon as a swift action. If it deals sneak attack damage with a poisoned weapon, both the save DC and the ability damage inflicted by the poison increase by +1 per die of sneak attack damage dealt.

Additionally, the ninja can use poison and precision to severely hamper targets. A number of times per encounter equal to its Mind modifier, the ninja can spend a swift action to allow its next attack with a weapon to deal sneak attack damage even if the target is not flanked or denied its Dexterity bonus to AC. This bonus damage is not precision-based, but is subject to immunity to poisons, and each +2 bonus a target receives to saves against poison lowers the damage by 1d6.

Whenever the ninja deals sneak attack damage, it may choose to sacrifice one or more dice of damage to impose various conditions. The target receives a Fortitude save, DC 10 + 1/2 class level + Mind modifier, to resist. If it fails, it suffers the chosen conditions for one minute. By sacrificing additional damage dice, the ninja can improve the duration of all conditions inflicted with a single attack by one step per extra die: one minute becomes ten minutes, ten minutes becomes one hour, one hour becomes one day, and one day becomes permanent.

The ninja may impose multiple conditions with multiple sneak attacks, but cannot add together the dice from multiple sneak attacks to pay for a single condition. The target should roll a single Fortitude save against all conditions imposed by a single attack or full attack action.

One Die: Charmed, Deafened, Entangled, Fascinated, Fatigued, Flat-footed, Sickened, Shaken.

Two Dice: Blinded, Confused, Exhausted, Frightened, Immobilized, Slowed, Staggered.

Four Dice: Dazed, Nauseated, Stunned, Panicked.

Alternately, the ninja may sacrifice dice of damage to impose ability damage at the rate of 1 Constitution damage per two dice sacrificed or one point of damage to another ability score per die sacrificed (a Fortitude save is allowed against this effect). Finally, the ninja may sacrifice dice of sneak attack damage to deal a flat +2 physical damage per die (neither poison nor precision based, and with no save to negate).

Peerless Stealth (Ex): A skilled ninja can vanish into thin air and evade the senses of beasts, monsters, and mages alike. A seventh level ninja no longer needs cover or concealment to hide, and can hide even under observation. It reduces any penalties to Hide or Move Silently checks for moving, attacking, or other situations by its class level (total all penalties before applying the reduction). Finally, while hiding, the ninja cannot be detected without a successful skill check opposing its Hide or Move Silently check, regardless of what special senses or magical detections may be in play. However, senses other than normal vision may substitute Survival or Concentration for Spot or Listen if desired, and magical detections may substitute Spellcraft.

Ghost Step (Su): A high-level ninja can slip past any guard and circumvent any obstacle. Starting at tenth level, the ninja may spend a number of rounds per hour equal to two times (its Spirit modifier + its Chi) invisible, as per Greater Invisibility. Becoming invisible is an immediate action; returning to visibility is a free action. By spending two rounds worth of this ability per round, the ninja instead becomes incorporeal. By spending four rounds, it instead becomes ethereal.

Once the ninja has initiated and ended a use of this ability, it cannot use it again for one minute.

Killing Blade (Ex): A thirteenth level ninja can easily neutralize vulnerable opponents. As a one-round action, the ninja lines up a strike, and ends the action by making a single attack. This provokes attacks of opportunity at both the start and end of the action. If the ninja takes any damage or fails a saving throw, or if the target moves from its space between the start and end of the action, the attempt is ruined and the action wasted. If the attack hits and qualifies for Sneak Attack damage, the target must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 class level + Body modifier). If the Fortitude save fails, the ninja may choose for the attack to inflict any amount of lethal or nonlethal damage up to the target's current hit points + 10 (although in the case of abilities that scale with inflicted damage, the attack's technical damage should be rolled normally). The ninja may additionally impose the Asleep, Paralyzed, Cowering, or Unconscious conditions upon the target, which last for up to one hour per level.

If the save succeeds, the attack is merely treated as an automatic critical hit that deals maximum sneak attack damage (the ninja may, however, choose to deal less damage or to make any or all of the attack's damage nonlethal).

Performing a Killing Blade attack at range is possible, but requires three full rounds rather than one, plus three additional rounds per range increment of distance between the ninja and its target.

A target who succeeds its saving throw against a Killing Blade attack automatically succeeds any future saves against Killing Blade attacks from that ninja for the next twenty-four hours.

Latent Stealth (Ex): A sixteenth ninja is so skilled at stealth and misdirection that its foes often don't notice even the results of its actions. If the ninja's Hide check beats a character's Spot check (or other sensory skill check) by at least five, that character does not notice the direct results of the ninja's actions unless they directly affect it. For example, it would not notice the ninja opening a door, or attacking one of its allies.

If the ninja's Hide check succeeds by at least twenty points, characters fail to notice indirect results of the ninja's actions, or direct results of actions that affect them. So a character might not only fail to notice the ninja attacking one of its allies - but it would fail to notice the ally fighting back!

Bonuses to Hide checks from Invisibility or other magic do not count towards the ninja's check for purposes of this ability.

Ghost Walk (Su): A nineteenth level ninja may use its Ghost Step ability for prolonged periods. If the ninja activates an instance of Ghost Step as a one-round action, rather than an immediate action, each minute spent counts as one round.

Ghost Soul (Ex): A twentieth level ninja is utterly immune to all forms of divination or supernatural information gathering, both direct and indirect. It is invisible to scrying, its thoughts cannot be read, the souls of its victims cannot report on its crimes, its future cannot be predicted, and it doesn't so much as cause a blip on a deity's portfolio sense, and even True Seeing effects cannot pierce the illusions it weaves. Further, any time someone uses any form of divination or supernatural ability to attempt to gain information about the ninja, the ninja immediately learns about it, may choose to provide false information of its own devising, and learns about the diviner whatever the diviner was attempting to learn about the ninja.

Quellian-dyrae
2014-07-31, 02:40 PM
The Mystic

GAME RULE INFORMATION
Mystics have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Mystics seek enlightenment and harmony with the world around them. Their magic comes to them intuitively as their understanding of the world and their place in it improves. Channeling such power through their bodies and spirits is strenuous however. Mystics use Constitution as their Body stat and Wisdom as their Mind stat.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d4.
Starting Age: As wizard.
Starting Gold: As wizard.

Class Skills
The Mystic's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are...
Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (All skills, taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (N/A), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Skill Points at First Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

MYSTIC
LevelBase Attack BonusFort SaveRef SaveWill SaveChiSpecial
1st
+0
+0
+0
+2
0Chi, Spellcasting (0), Specialty, Energy Bolt.
2nd
+1
+0
+0
+3
1Spellcasting (1st).
3rd
+1
+1
+1
+3
1Specialty.
4th
+2
+1
+1
+4
2Spiritual Guidance.
5th
+2
+1
+1
+4
2Spellcasting (2nd).
6th
+3
+2
+2
+5
3Specialty.
7th
+3
+2
+2
+5
3Spiritual Imbue.
8th
+4
+2
+2
+6
4Spellcasting (3rd).
9th
+4
+3
+3
+6
4Specialty.
10th
+5
+3
+3
+7
5Spiritual Directive.
11th
+5
+3
+3
+7
5Spellcasting (4th).
12th
+6
+4
+4
+8
6Specialty.
13th
+6
+4
+4
+8
6Spiritual Communion.
14th
+7
+4
+4
+9
7Spellcasting (5th).
15th
+7
+5
+5
+9
7Specialty.
16th
+8
+5
+5
+10
8Spiritual Possession.
17th
+8
+5
+5
+10
8Spellcasting (6th).
18th
+9
+6
+6
+11
9Specialty.
19th
+9
+6
+6
+11
9Spiritual Awakening.
20th
+10
+6
+6
+12
10Spellcasting (7th), Spiritual Enlightenment.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Mystic.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: The mystic is proficient with any three simple or special monk weapons of its choice, but not with armor or shields.

Chi (Ex): Mystics are Chi-using characters. They receive 0.5 points of Chi per class level, and all attendant benefits.

Spellcasting: Mystics cast divine spells drawn from the Druid spell list. Mystics retrieve spells following similar rules to a Spirit Shaman; that is, at the start of the day, they retrieve a certain number of spells of each level, and then they have a separate pool of spells per day which they can use to cast those spells spontaneously.

A first level mystic can only cast 0-level spells. At second level, and each three levels thereafter, the maximum spell level available to the mystic increases by one.

The number of spells a mystic can retrieve each day is determined by adding together the bonus spells of each spell level for the mystic's Mind and Spirit scores. The number of spells a mystic can cast each day is determined by adding together the bonus spells of each spell level for the mystic's Body and Spirit scores. The save DC for a mystic's spells is equal to 10 + 1/2 the mystic's class level (NOT the Spell level) + the mystic's Spirit modifier. To retrieve or cast a spell, a mystic must have a Spirit score of at least 10 + the spell level.

For the purpose of 0-level spells, consider the mystic's bonus spells for each score as equal to the relevant ability modifier (so it can retrieve a number of 0-level spells equal to its Mind + Spirit Modifiers, and cast a number equal to its Body + Spirit Modifiers).

Specialties: At first level, and every third level, the mystic gains or improves a Specialty of its choice.

Energy Bolt (Su): At will as a standard action, a mystic can fire a bolt of Chi energy out to Medium range. The mystic must make a ranged touch attack to hit the target. A successful hit deals 1d6 points of damage per odd-numbered class level, plus additional damage equal to the mystic's Mind modifier.

Starting at 8th level, the mystic can also fire an Energy Bolt as a move action once per round.

Starting at 15th level, the mystic can also fire an Energy Bolt as a swift action.

Spiritual Guidance (Su): A fourth level mystic can commune with spirits for guidance. Once per day, by spending an hour in meditation, the mystic can choose to gain one of the following benefits:

Spiritual Discussion: The mystic communes with ancient spirits to gain insight. The mystic gains a bonus equal to its class level on a number of Knowledge checks equal to its Mind modifier. The mystic is treated as trained in any Knowledge check it makes using this ability.

Spiritual Warning: The mystic communes with local spirits to predict what might come. This functions as an Augury spell, but there is no need to roll for the result. However, it is also more limited in that in can only provide advice based on present and local circumstances (generally meaning, within about a mile). For example, the mystic could communicate with the spirit of a cave and learn of weal (such as treasure) or woe (such as a hungry dragon) for going in, but couldn't learn of what might happen if the group travels to a city ten miles down the road, or wouldn't receive warning if there is an enemy battalion five miles away but en route to the place the mystic seeks information about.

Spiritual Interview: The mystic summons a recently dead spirit. This functions as a Speak with Dead spell, but the corpse must have died within twenty-four hours to serve as a proper link to the spirit (unlike a normal Speak with Dead spell, the mystic does actually communicate with the spirit of the deceased). The DC of the Will save is 10 + 1/2 the mystic's class level + the mystic's Mind modifier.

Spiritual Imbue (Su): The mystic deals with spirits, and at 7th level has come to find that the spirits of men are not so different than the spirits of beasts. Any spells that mystic casts that normally affect animals may now affect animals, humanoids, vermin, magical beasts, giants, and monstrous humanoids.

Spiritual Directive (Su): A tenth level mystic can alter the terrain by commanding its spirits. This is a full-round action that can be used once per day. The mystic can make a number of terrain alterations equal to its class level, affecting any terrain it can see in Long range. The effects last for one hour per class level. Each alteration can be used to accomplish one of the following. Unless otherwise stated, the same effect applied on the same area doesn't stack.

Increase or decrease the wind speed over a 100' radius per point of Mind modifier by 10 MPH. Multiple applications of this effect can stack over the same area.
Make a 10' radius per point of Mind modifier difficult terrain.
Remove difficult terrain in a 10' radius per point of Mind modifier.
Make one ten-foot cube per point of Mind modifier hazardous; anyone passing through affected squares on foot takes damage equal to your Spirit modifier for each square traveled. This damage can be fire, cold, electricity, slashing, piercing, or bludgeoning at your option.
Create a wall or other obstruction with Hardness equal to your class level, a thickness of one inch per point of your Spirit modifier, a height of 5' per point of Chi, a length of 10' per point of Mind modifier, and hit points equal to your Body score (not Modifier) per inch of thickness.
Remove up to one 10' cube of unworked material, or one 5' cube of worked structures (not individual loose objects, structures such as walls and buildings), per point of your Mind modifier, with Hardness scores no higher than your Body modifier.
Increase or decrease the Climb, Swim, Balance, Tumble, or Escape Artist DCs to move through up to a 10' radius per point of your Mind modifier by an amount equal to your Chi.

Spiritual Communion (Su): At thirteenth level, the mystic can use each form of Spiritual Guidance once per day. Additionally, one of those daily uses can have an improved effect:

Spiritual Discussion: The mystic can question the spirits more directly, treating this ability as a Commune spell.

Spiritual Warning: The mystic can contact greater spirits with a larger area of influence and greater degree of sapience. This functions as a Divination spell rather than Augury. All other modifications apply, but the area of influence extends to a hundred miles.

Spiritual Interview: The mystic can compel the spirit to helpfulness, if it fails its Will save. There is no limit on the number of questions the mystic can ask, and the spirit must answer each question fully and honestly to the best of its knowledge.

Spiritual Possession (Su): At sixteenth level, the mystic can use its augmentative spells to summon powerful elemental spirits to imbue its allies. The mystic may change any bonus provided by one of its spells to a Sacred or Profane bonus (depending on its alignment, neutrals choose when they gain this class feature). The same spell cannot be placed on the same target multiple times concurrently, even if the two castings grant different bonus types.

Spiritual Awakening (Su): A nineteenth level mystic can call upon the greater spirits of the land to aid or obey it. It may now use Spiritual Directive once per hour, and once per day, it may perform a Spiritual Directive that multiplies the affected areas by its class level.

Spiritual Enlightenment (Su): A twentieth level mystic can freely tap into the knowledge of the spirits. It may use basic Spiritual Guidance at will (although each attempt still requires an hour of meditation), may use Spiritual Communion once per day for each type of Guidance, and is constantly under the effects of a Foresight spell.

Quellian-dyrae
2014-07-31, 02:41 PM
Specialties

Way of the Clouded Mind [Ninja] (Su): You have chosen to specialize in the crafting of illusions...and smoke bombs.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you gain the ability to create illusions as a standard action, which last for as long as you concentrate. You may do so a number of times per day equal to your Chi plus your Mind modifier. The DC to disbelieve your illusion is 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Mind modifier. Your illusion may have a single effect, chosen from the following: Duplicate a Silent Image; duplicate a Ghost Sound; duplicate a Ventriloquism; duplicate a Disguise Self (except you can affect other characters in Medium range); duplicate a Fog Cloud (in this case, no concentration is required and the effect is not an illusion, so there is no save to disbelieve).

The second time you gain this specialty, your illusions can acquire the following effects: Improve a Silent Image to a Major Image; add the effects of Stinking Cloud to a Fog Cloud; reduce the action cost to create or maintain by one step (standard -> move or swift -> free or immediate); mimic speech in any voice you have heard; simultaneously create one illusion per point of your Mind modifier; or cause anyone who perceives the illusion to be Sickened, Shaken, or Fascinated (Will negates and results in immediate disbelief; this is a Mind-affecting Compulsion).

The third time you gain this specialty, your illusions can acquire the following effects: Act on a program; appear only to certain individuals; add the effects of Solid Fog to a Fog Cloud; or improve an illusion that causes a status effect to Nauseated, Frightened, or Dazed, respectively. Additionally, you can create single-effect illusions at will.

The fourth time you gain this specialty, your illusions can acquire the following effects: Improve a program so the illusion appears, acts, and reacts in ways drawn from the observer's own thoughts and beliefs (Will negates, but you can set a default program that applies to those who make their Will saves); add the effects of Cloudkill to a Stinking Cloud; or cause enemies who disbelieve or see through the illusion (including with True Seeing) to become Blinded or Confused for one round per point of Chi if they fail a Will save. Additionally, you can create two-effect illusions at will.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, your illusions can have one additional effect.

Way of the Dancing Foot [Monk, Ninja] (Ex): You have chosen to specialize in speed and mobility.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you may ignore difficult terrain and charge through squares occupied by allies and noncombatants.

The second time you gain this Specialty, you can move up to half your speed as a 5' step (only for a normal 5' step on your turn, not for other effects that provide 5' steps), treat standing jumps as running jumps, and can roll a Jump check to leap the indicated distance as a swift action. You may also move freely over any solid or liquid surface, regardless of its orientation or ability to hold your weight, without any reduction of speed or damage from contact, although you must end your turn on a surface capable of supporting you normally.

The third time you gain this Specialty, you can change direction freely while running and charging, and you may move in any direction freely; your range of movement is functionally equivalent to flight. However, you must still end your turn solidly supported, or you will fall. When moving and attacking, you may move before, after, or between any attacks you make, dividing up your normal movement for the round as you wish (though this still only counts as one instance of movement for mechanics based on such).

The fourth time you take this Specialty, you are constantly affected by Freedom of Movement and Air Walk.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, your speed in all movement modes increases by 10', and your speed multiplier for running increases by 1.

Way of the Diamond Soul [Monk, Samurai] (Ex): You have chosen to specialize in withstanding various forms of special attack.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you gain immunity to fear and sleep effects.

The second time you gain this Specialty, you gain immunity to disease and poison, and you gain Mettle.

The third time you gain this Specialty, you gain immunity to negative energy and death effects, and you gain Spell Resistance 6 + your Spirit modifier + your Chi. Your maximum effective Spell Resistance cannot exceed 16 + your character level, but if you manage to increase it beyond that, the excess points will directly reduce any penetration bonus or boosted caster levels (for purposes of overcoming your SR) that an attacking caster may possess. You may allow spells to bypass this Spell Resistance freely.

The fourth time you gain this Specialty, you gain immunity to mind-affecting effects.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, you gain a +2 resistance bonus on saving throws.

Way of the Dragon's Skin [Samurai] (Ex): You have chosen to specialize in raw durability.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you gain 25% Fortification. Additionally, the first time each round that you lose actual hit points, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Body modifier plus your BAB. These do not stack with other temporary hit points, and last for one minute. The temporary hit points are acquired after the damage, but will prevent unconsciousness and death if they bring your hit point total above 0 or -10 (although you must still be healed before they expire or you suffer whatever condition will be appropriate to your actual hit point total). If you get DR from this Specialty, it is DR/magic.

The second time you gain this Specialty, you gain Resistance to acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic damage equal to your Body modifier plus your BAB, and you gain 50% Fortification. Your DR from this Specialty is DR/either alignment opposed to your own (if you are neutral on an axis, choose which alignment on that axis overcomes your DR).

The third time you gain this Specialty, choose one of the following: You may either begin each encounter with temporary hit points equal to your normal hit point total, or you may choose to redirect up to half of any damage taken from your hit points to a pool of hit point healing you possess (such as a monk's Chi Healing or a paladin's Lay on Hands). You also gain 75% Fortification. Your DR from this Specialty is DR/both alignments opposed to your own (if you are neutral on an axis, choose which alignment on that axis overcomes your DR).

The fourth time you gain this Specialty, weak attacks will literally bounce off you. Any time you reduce an instance of damage to 0 due to resistance, DR, or an immunity (but not due to, say, a save to negate or an attack missing; you have to be subject to the damage and just reduce it to 0), the damage is instead reflected back on the attacker. You also become immune to any instance of damage that is lower than your DR, before counting any other resistances, even if it is of a type that DR does not apply to (this doesn't reduce the damage if higher than your DR; it's all or nothing). Your DR from this Specialty is DR/-, and you gain 100% Fortification.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, you gain DR equal to one-third your Body modifier (round the total DR up).

Way of the Gentle Hand [Monk] (Su): You have chosen to specialize in your healing talents.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you gain Rapid Recovery - you remove nonlethal damage equal to your Spirit modifier every round, and you can use Healing Chi out to Close range.

The second time you gain this Specialty, your Rapid Recovery becomes Quick Healing - as Fast Healing, but only while below half hit points. You may also dispel magical effects using Healing Chi, following the same rules as removing or imposing conditions. This costs 25 points of Chi Healing, and requires a check pitting 1d20 + your Chi against a DC of 10 + the caster level of the effect. You can remove any effect that could be removed by Dispel Magic.

The third time you gain this Specialty, your Quick Healing becomes Fast Healing, and by spending 50 points of healing, your dispel can remove effects that could be removed by Break Enchantment. Additionally, by doubling the cost in points of a healing attempt, you can provide healing as a swift action. Further, you can heal multiple targets at once; you must spend healing points for each target, but you spend only one action, and receive a separate cap for each target. You can't affect the same target more than once in the same action.

The fourth time you gain this Specialty, your Fast Healing becomes Regeneration, overcome by attacks with an alignment opposed to your own (if you are neutral on an axis, choose which alignment of that axis overcomes your Regeneration), your dispels can remove effects that can be removed by Greater Restoration or Limited Wish, and when you restore hit points with Chi Healing, you may also remove an equal number of points worth of conditions.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, your Chi Healing multiplier increases by 1 (if you do not already possess Chi Healing, you gain it, but it only has the multiplier gained from these Specialties).

Way of the Hidden Knife [Ninja] (Ex): You have chosen to specialize in stealth and ambush tactics.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you gain the ability to take a full normal turn during a surprise round in which you can act.

The second time you gain this Specialty, actions you take during a surprise round do not in any way reveal your position or cause you to break stealth. They similarly will not break any Invisibility or similar stealth-boosting effects upon you.

The third time you gain this Specialty, your exact position becomes difficult to pin down. You can teleport up to Close range as a move action. You may use this ability at will, but only in rounds where you are not directly targeted by any action or personally interacted with by someone who can perceive you. You do not need line of sight or line of effect, but if your teleport would leave you in an occupied location, it fails, wasting the action.

The fourth time you gain this Specialty, any opponent who is surprised, denied its Dexterity bonus to AC, and unaware that you are present is considered Helpless against you.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, you gain +1d6 Sneak Attack.

Way of the Inner Eye [Monk, Ninja] (Ex): You have chosen to specialize in improving your senses and reflexes.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you gain either Trapfinding or Track as a bonus feat, and either Disable Device or Survival (respectively) become class skills for you for all your classes. If you have already spent skill points on these skills at the cross-class rate, they are retroactively upgraded to the class skill rate and excess skill points are refunded.

The second time you gain this Specialty, you gain Evasion, Uncanny Dodge, and either the ability to make a Search check upon passing within 5' of a trap or secret door, or Scent.

The third time you gain this Specialty, you gain Improved Evasion, Improved Uncanny Dodge, Tremorsense 30', and add your Spirit Modifier to your Initiative checks.

The fourth time you gain this Specialty, you gain constant True Seeing, you do not lose any actions during a surprise round (whether surprised or not), and both your flat-footed and touch AC are set to equal your normal AC.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, you fully double the distance at which you take penalties on Spot and Listen checks.

Way of the Iron Fist (Ex): You have chosen to specialize in dominating physical prowess.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you may substitute your Body modifier for your Strength or Dexterity modifier, and your Chi for your BAB, whenever performing or resisting a combat maneuver. You no longer provoke an attack of opportunity for making a combat maneuver, and opponents cannot react to a failed combat maneuver to perform the same maneuver against you. When you hit with an unarmed attack, you may also perform a free combat maneuver of your choice as a swift action. When you succeed a combat maneuver, you can also spend a swift action to apply the effects of a second combat maneuver. Combat maneuvers used as a swift action using this Specialty don't trigger any extra effects from other feats or abilities, such as the bonus attack from an Improved Trip (though if you performed a normal trip, you could still get the bonus attack and spend a swift action to apply a different combat maneuver as a secondary effect).

The second time you gain this Specialty, when you succeed a combat maneuver, you may spend a swift action to apply an additional condition to the target. A target you Grapple is also Silenced while the Grapple lasts, an enemy you Trip is also Staggered for one round, an enemy you Bull Rush is also reduced to half speed for one round, an enemy you Disarm is also flat-footed for one round, an enemy you Overrun is also nauseated for one round, and an enemy whose weapon you sunder takes equal damage as the weapon did.

The third time you gain this Specialty, every time you hit with an attack, compare the attack roll to a DC of 20 + the Reflex save modifier of all enemies within 5' of the target per size category you are above Medium; if it beats the DC, those enemies take half damage from a shockwave.

The fourth time you gain this Specialty, enemies who take damage from the shockwave are also knocked back five feet per ten damage sustained. If the attack roll beats the DC by at least 10, they are also knocked prone.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, you and all weapons you wield are treated as one size category larger for purposes of damage, opposed checks dependent on size, special abilities dependent on size, and what size of creatures that you can affect/can affect you with combat maneuvers.

Way of the Martial Arts (Ex): You have chosen to specialize in mastery of the martial arts.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you may substitute your Chi for your initiator level, if it is higher. You gain Martial Study as a bonus feat, and you may select two maneuvers every time you take the Martial Study feat, rather than one. You may also recover one maneuver per round by spending both a full-round action and a swift action. You may not recover a maneuver in the same round you initiate it. You may change one maneuver known each time you level up. If your purchases of this Specialty would bring your total purchases of Martial Study above three or Martial Stance above 1, you can trade the feat gained for a different feat you qualify for.

The second time you gain this Specialty you gain Martial Stance as a bonus feat, and every time you take the Martial Study feat, you may also learn a stance. Recovering a maneuver now only requires a full-round action.

The third time you gain this Specialty, you gain another instance of Martial Study as a bonus feat. Martial Study also now gives you a second bonus maneuver, but you may only ready two maneuvers per Martial Study purchase at a time. Recovering a maneuver now only requires a standard action.

The fourth time you gain this specialty, you gain a third instance of Martial Study as a bonus feat. Recovering a maneuver now only requires a move action. Any time you recover a maneuver, you can instead swap it for one of your currently unreadied maneuvers.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, you gain one point of Chi or one point of BAB (neither can exceed your character level). If both are already at your character level, you instead gain two additional ability score points, which may be spent following the rules for point-buy ability score bonuses (note that this is not the same as a flat +2 points to one of your ability scores).

Way of the Master's Blade [Samurai] (Ex): You have chosen to specialize in versatile combat tactics.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you gain the ability to draw or sheathe a weapon as a free action, and any feats that apply to a single chosen weapon (but not feats that apply to entire specific groups of weapons) now apply to any weapon you are proficient with.

The second time you gain this Specialty, when qualifying for feats on the list of fighter bonus feats, you may use your Body modifier to fulfill any physical ability score prerequisites, your Mind modifier to fulfill any mental ability score prerequisites, and your BAB + 3 to fulfill any skill rank prerequisites.

The third time you gain this Specialty, choose a number of your current feats equal to one-third your BAB. These feats are composed into a Feat Group. For each three points of your Mind Modifier (rounded up), you gain an additional Feat Group. In each additional Feat Group, you may choose an equal number of feats that you qualify for (so if your main Feat Group has four feats, you may select four bonus feats for each Feat Group you possess). You only benefit from one Feat Group at a time. Changing your current Feat Group is a swift action. You may use feats from your Feat Groups to qualify for prerequisites, but you only gain benefits so qualified for while the qualifying feat is active. A Feat Group may not contain any feats that require a choice upon purchase, such as Skill Focus or Martial Study. Additionally, if the feat slot of your original Feat Group was restricted to a list of feats, the corresponding slot in additional Feat Groups must select from the same list.

The fourth time you gain this Specialty, once per encounter per three points of your Spirit modifier as a free action, you may gain the benefit of a single feat that you qualify for for one round. This cannot be a feat that requires a choice upon purchase.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, you gain a bonus feat from the fighter list of bonus feats.

Way of the Noble Voice [Samurai] (Ex): You have chosen to specialize in social influence.

The first time you gain this specialty, your advice and commands begin to carry great weight. Once per day per point of your Mind modifier, you can invest your words with the power of a Suggestion. This is a full-round action, and the DC to resist is 10 + 1/2 your ranks in either Diplomacy or Intimidate + your Mind modifier. At its option, a target may instead roll a Sense Motive check opposed by your own Diplomacy or Intimidate check. You may only create a Suggestion to do something that the target already has some desire or good reason to do - you could suggest that a weary guard abandon his post to go to bed, for example, or for an overmatched enemy to flee or surrender. Suggestions that will directly harm or hinder the target, or that are against its nature, are ignored automatically. Anyone who successfully saves becomes immune to your Suggestions for twenty-four hours. While these Suggestions remain mind-affecting language-dependent compulsions, they are treated as an Exceptional ability, and are received as particularly persuasive advice or authoritative commands, not as mental manipulation.

The second time you gain this specialty, you gain the ability to make Suggestions that the target doesn't already have a reason to follow. Also, if someone is willing to accept your Suggestion, then a number of times during its duration equal to half your Mind modifier, the character may roll a check that is directly related to carrying it out twice, taking the better result.

The third time you gain this specialty, you gain the ability to make Suggestions that might lead to harm or hindrance to the target (as long as they do not directly threaten the target's life or livelihood), or that are against its nature. Also, you can simultaneously command a number of targets equal to your Mind modifier, but all must receive the same Suggestion. When Suggesting multiple targets, any given target can forego its own check and instead use another target's check result; this must be done before either have rolled.

The fourth time you gain this specialty, you are no longer restricted in what Suggestions you can make, and you can simultaneously Suggest a course of action to anyone who can hear you. Your Suggestions can also affect any intelligent being, regardless of language or immunities, though a character who would normally be immune receives a minimum result of 12 on its saving throw or Sense Motive check.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, you get a +2 bonus to Diplomacy, Intimidate, Sense Motive, and your Leadership score (if any).

Way of the Rapid Strike (Ex): You have chosen to specialize in swift, powerful attacks.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you can now take a partial charge as a normal standard action, rather than only during rounds where you only have a standard action available. You also no longer need to charge into the closest square to your target; you may charge into a more distant square before attacking if doing so is tactically advantageous or allows you a clear path (although such movement may put you at greater risk of attacks of opportunity).

The second time you gain this Specialty, you gain the Pounce ability. However, you cannot Pounce as part of a partial charge, only with a full normal charge.

The third time you gain this Specialty, you can take a full round action to move up to twice your speed and make a single attack against every enemy who is in your reach at any point during your movement. Once you use this ability, you must wait five rounds before you can use it again.

The fourth time you gain this Specialty, you can take a full round action to immediately make a single attack against every enemy who is within a radius equal to your speed + your reach of your position. This area is calculated as a spread, so it can go around obstacles but not through them (although you could attack an obstacle as well and go through it if your attack breaches it). You may end this action in any square within the area. Once you use this ability, you must wait five rounds before you can use it again.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, you gain one additional allowed attack of opportunity per round and a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls for attacks of opportunity.

Way of the Searing Flame [Mystic] (Su): You have chosen to specialize in elemental fire.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you add all Shugenja spells of the Fire element for spell levels 0-2 to your Mystic spell list. You may also choose a Shugenja Order associated with Fire, and you automatically learn the spells of that order for spell levels 0-2 (if or when you are high enough level to cast them). Additionally, if you wish, you may choose for your Energy Bolt to deal fire damage rather than untyped damage. If you do so, it deals additional damage equal to your character level.

The second time you gain this Specialty, the effects extend to third and fourth level spells, and the spells of your Order have their spell levels reduced by 1, to a minimum of 1st.

The third time you gain this Specialty, the effects extend to fifth and sixth level spells, and all spells gained from this Specialty have their spell levels reduced by 1, rather than just spells of your Order.

The fourth time you gain this Specialty, the effects extend to seventh and higher level spells, and any target reduced below 10% of their normal maximum hit points by your Fire Bolts are burned to ash, much as if disintegrated.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, you gain Fire Resistance 10. If your Resistance would exceed 30, you receive immunity instead.

Way of the Shifting Winds [Mystic] (Su): You have chosen to specialize in elemental air.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you add all Shugenja spells of the Air element for spell levels 0-2 to your Mystic spell list. You may also choose a Shugenja Order associated with Air, and you automatically learn the spells of that order for spell levels 0-2 (if or when you are high enough level to cast them). Additionally, if you wish, you may choose for your Energy Bolt to deal Electricity damage rather than untyped damage. If you do so, targets struck must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 level + Mind Modifier) or be Staggered for one round. If you hit the same target with multiple Energy Bolts in the same round, it only saves once, but the DC increases by 2 per additional hit.

The second time you gain this Specialty, the effects extend to third and fourth level spells, and the spells of your Order have their spell levels reduced by 1, to a minimum of 1st.

The third time you gain this Specialty, the effects extend to fifth and sixth level spells, and all spells gained from this Specialty have their spell levels reduced by 1, rather than just spells of your Order.

The fourth time you gain this Specialty, the effects extend to seventh and higher level spells, and a failed save against your Lightning Bolts causes the target to be Stunned rather than Staggered.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, you gain Electricity Resistance 10. If your Resistance would exceed 30, you receive immunity instead.

Way of the Solid Rock [Mystic] (Su): You have chosen to specialize in elemental earth.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you add all Shugenja spells of the Earth element for spell levels 0-2 to your Mystic spell list. You may also choose a Shugenja Order associated with Earth, and you automatically learn the spells of that order for spell levels 0-2 (if or when you are high enough level to cast them). Additionally, if you wish, you may choose for your Energy Bolt to deal Acid damage rather than untyped damage. If you do so, targets struck must make a Reflex save (DC 10 + 1/2 level + Mind Modifier) or be Sickened for one round. If you hit the same target with multiple Energy Bolts in the same round, it only saves once, but the DC increases by 2 per additional hit.

The second time you gain this Specialty, the effects extend to third and fourth level spells, and the spells of your Order have their spell levels reduced by 1, to a minimum of 1st.

The third time you gain this Specialty, the effects extend to fifth and sixth level spells, and all spells gained from this Specialty have their spell levels reduced by 1, rather than just spells of your Order.

The fourth time you gain this Specialty, the effects extend to seventh and higher level spells, and a failed save against your Acid Bolts causes the target to be Nauseated rather than Sickened.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, you gain Acid Resistance 10. If your Resistance would exceed 30, you receive immunity instead.

Way of the Soothing Waves [Mystic] (Su): You have chosen to specialize in elemental water.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you add all Shugenja spells of the Water element for spell levels 0-2 to your Mystic spell list. You may also choose a Shugenja Order associated with Water, and you automatically learn the spells of that order for spell levels 0-2 (if or when you are high enough level to cast them). Additionally, if you wish, you may choose for your Energy Bolt to deal Cold damage rather than untyped damage. If you do so, targets struck must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 level + Mind Modifier) or be Slowed for one round. If you hit the same target with multiple Energy Bolts in the same round, it only saves once, but the DC increases by 2 per additional hit.

The second time you gain this Specialty, the effects extend to third and fourth level spells, and the spells of your Order have their spell levels reduced by 1, to a minimum of 1st.

The third time you gain this Specialty, the effects extend to fifth and sixth level spells, and all spells gained from this Specialty have their spell levels reduced by 1, rather than just spells of your Order.

The fourth time you gain this Specialty, the effects extend to seventh and higher level spells, and a failed save against your Ice Bolts causes the target to be Paralyzed rather than Slowed.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, you gain Cold Resistance 10. If your Resistance would exceed 30, you receive immunity instead.

Quellian-dyrae
2014-07-31, 02:42 PM
New Feats

Additional Specialty
You have mastered an additional capability

Prerequisites: At least three Specialties.

Benefit: You gain another Specialty.

Special: You can take this feat once per three Specialties you get from your class(es), gaining a new Specialty each time.

Chi Focus
Your Chi is strong.

Prerequisites: Chi 3+.

Benefit: You gain three additional Chi.

Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Its effects stack. Remember that Chi cannot exceed your total Hit Dice.

Diverse Specialization
You have learned a different way to use your Chi.

Prerequisites: Access to Specialties.

Benefit: Choose a Specialty; that Specialty is no longer considered linked to any class for you. Note, however, that some Specialties do rely on other features of the classes they are linked to, and this feat does not provide any way to emulate those features.

Special: You may choose this feat multiple times, selecting a new Specialty each time.

Flash Step
You move too quickly to perceive.

Prerequisites: Way of the Dancing Foot 2.

Benefit: When you take a five-foot step, you can teleport up to half your speed rather than simply moving. Additionally, as a standard action, you can teleport up to 100' plus 10' per point of Chi, but once you have done so you must wait five rounds before using this ability again. You must have Line of Sight and Line of Effect to the location that you teleport to.

Flash Step, Improved
You can teleport about the battlefield with incredible ease.

Prerequisites: Way of the Dancing Foot 3, Flash Step.

Benefit: You may treat any or all of your movement during a round as teleportation. You may change your facing while teleporting, allowing you to turn freely while running or charging with a series of teleports. You may freely mix normal movement and teleportation. When teleporting as a standard action, you travel 400' plus 40' per point of Chi. You now only require Line of Sight or Line of Effect to the location that you teleport to.

Harmony of Spirit
Your body and mind are in perfect harmony.

Prerequisites: Chi 4+.

Benefit: Your Spirit stat is now equal to the average of your Body and Mind stats, rounded up, rather than the lower of the two.

Special: A character may only possess one feat that alters how it calculates its Spirit stat.

Log Trick
You silly samurai! You didn't hit the ninja! You just hit a plain old log!

Prerequisites: Ghost Step class feature.

Benefit: Whenever you take an immediate action to activate Ghost Step, you may simultaneously move up to your speed or activate a teleportation ability you possess. You must have line of sight and line of effect to the place you move or teleport to. In the case of Way of the Hidden Knife, the action that you respond to doesn't count as an action targeting you for purposes of the teleport. If you wish, you may leave behind some innocuous object to be struck in your stead.

Martial Arts Expert
You are particularly skilled at the martial arts.

Prerequisites: Combined Chi and BAB of 7+, possess a Spirit stat.

Benefit: Rather than your Spirit Modifier, you may add your Body Modifier to your attack and damage rolls in place of Strength or Dexterity, and/or your Mind Modifier to AC when unarmored.

Martial Arts Master
You are a master of the martial arts.

Prerequisites: Combined Chi and BAB of 15+, possess a Spirit stat, Martial Arts Expert.

Benefit: You gain a competence bonus on weapon damage rolls equal to your Mind Modifier, and DR/- equal to your Body Modifier.

Martial Arts Grandmaster
You have mastered every aspect of the martial arts.

Prerequisites: Combined Chi and BAB of 23+, possess a Spirit stat, Martial Arts Expert, Martial Arts Master.

Benefit: You may substitute your Chi for your BAB, or your BAB for your Chi (neither can exceed your HD, in the odd case that some quirk of math would allow them to). Further, your Spirit stat becomes equal to the higher of your Body or Mind stats.

Special: A character may only possess one feat that alters how it calculates its Spirit stat.

Martial Spirit
Your disciplined combat training has strengthened your spirit.

Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +1, possess a Spirit stat.

Benefit: Your Spirit stat becomes equal to 14 plus your Base Attack Bonus (and thus, your Spirit Modifier is equal to 2 + 1/2 your Base Attack Bonus).

Special: A character may only possess one feat that alters how it calculates its Spirit stat.

Spiritual Awakening
You have gained new insights into the development of your Chi.

Prerequisites: Chi 1+.

Benefit: You may choose any physical ability score as your Body stat, and any mental ability score as your Mind stat, rather than having them dictated by the class you took your first Chi-progressing level in.

Unity of Spirit
Your body, mind, and soul are one.

Prerequisites: Chi 10+.

Benefit: You gain a bonus to your Spirit stat equal to one-six the sum of all of your ability modifiers, rounded down. Size modifiers to your ability scores do not count for this calculation, and each point of Level Adjustment you possess lowers the sum by two.

Special: A character may only possess one feat that alters how it calculates its Spirit stat.

Wealth of Spirit
You have foregone material wealth in the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment.

Prerequisites: None, but this feat is mutually exclusive with Vow of Poverty.

Benefit: Your Chi is set to be equal to your character level. If you would possess a Chi score by other means, you may treat it as additional ability score points following the Point Buy ability method. You may use these points to raise a score above 18, at the cost of four ability score points per additional +1 to the score, to a maximum of 18 + one-fourth your Chi (so you generally can't do so in conjunction with ability score increases for levels if the score started at 18). If you do not already possess a Chi score, you may choose any physical ability score as your Body score and any mental ability score as your Mind score.

At Chi 2, you receive a +1 Resistance bonus on saves. This increases by +1 per three additional points of Chi.
At Chi 3, you receive a +1 Armor Enhancement bonus to AC. This increases by +1 per three additional points of Chi. If you wield a shield, it receives an equal Enhancement bonus. If you are unarmored, then rather than an armor bonus, you increase the AC bonus provided by the Martial Arts benefits of Chi.
At Chi 4, you receive a +1 Natural Armor Enhancement bonus to AC. This increases by +1 per four additional points of Chi.
At Chi 5, you receive a +1 Deflection bonus to AC. This increases by +1 per five additional points of Chi.
You gain a +1 Enhancement bonus to your Body and Mind scores per two points of Chi.
At Chi 2, you no longer need to eat, and are constantly protected by Endure Elements.
At Chi 5, you no longer need to drink, and only require four hours of sleep per night.
At Chi 8, you no longer need to breathe, and only require two hours of sleep per night.
At Chi 11, you no longer age or receive ability modifiers for aging, and do not need to sleep.
At Chi 14, you may be resurrected without material components by paying one-fifth the component cost in XP.
At Chi 17, you no longer receive a level or Constitution loss for being resurrected.
At Chi 20, resurrecting you no longer costs components at all.
You also gain one bonus Specialty at levels 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and every level thereafter. These bonus Specialties are not restricted by class, but normal limits on maximum purchases still apply.

If you cast spells, you may ignore material components with a value of less than one gold. Spells with more expensive components can be cast by spending 1 XP per 5 gold value of the component. Spells with foci can be cast freely as long as the cost of the focus is less than your character level times 25 gold.

Special: You may not own valuable items. This always includes magical items of any kind. You may own and use simple tools and basic equipment necessary for performing your trade, but all of your gear must be average quality. You may also carry enough money to maintain an inexpensive lifestyle - staying fed and sheltered at minimal but livable standards. In any event, the sum total value of your equipment cannot exceed the average starting gold for a first-level member of your class, and cannot equate to more than a light load for you. If you intentionally violate these rules, you lose the benefits of this feat until you have divested yourself of the offending items and spent twenty-four total hours meditating to regain your spiritual balance (these hours need not be consecutive).

Equipment explicitly granted by class features do not count for the purposes of this feat; a samurai still gets its masterwork weapon, a wizard still gets its spellbook, etc.

You may handle and carry items of value, so long as you do not use or benefit from them. Others may use their items on you without trouble, and you may accept perishable items gifted to you by others so long as you use them in a relatively short time frame - you cannot hoard or keep them, but could drink a healing potion an ally gives you, or accept spell components donated by an ally so you can cast a useful spell, for example.

The DM should not take you into account when calculating party treasure. If this would prove difficult, you may be required to actively divest yourself of your share of treasure (say, by donating it to a worthy cause, or symbolically destroying it, or tithing it to your liege) at DM discretion. In any case, your taking this feat should not result in additional treasure accumulation by your party.

Regalus
2014-08-01, 03:34 PM
Greetings Quellian, quite an interesting brew you have for us this time around. I must confess I was a bit hesitant when I saw so many levels only filled by Bonus Feats, or Sneak Attack dice, but after reading through the while document I must admit I'm pleasantly surprised by how it all fits together. The specialities are all quite nice and worth the Feat and Class features slots they're given, I definitely approve of the little bonusus you accrue just for specializing in one more than once. It's a nice bag of tricks that can lead to a whole host of different character archetypes. My favorite class is presently the Ninja, if only for the imagery of sneaking up behind someone and Charming them for the day Sneak Attacking them. Though I'm a bit iffy on Samurai since it feels like it doesn't really come to its own until Level 7 when it gets the War Shouts.

I'm also rather fond of Wealth of Spirit, I normally don't pay much mind to Vow of Poverty like effects, since they tend to be either underpowered or over powered comparatively, but this looks nice. I think I'd actually like trying to take that feat out for a spin, never been much of a fan of DnDs Christmas Tree disorder; so this in combination with Specialties seem like a nice alternative.

Now then, I do have several queries regarding your work.


Why did you choose to use this progression method for Martial Arts Damage? I can see that each set up increases the max damage by 2, yet the dice choices you made are odd. Like how you go from rolling 4d6 to 1d6+1d8+1d12 of all things.
I'm kinda surprised Samurai don't get some option to allow them to use their Martial Art's bonuses while wearing at least light armor, is there a reason why you neglected this kind of option?
Does Martial Arts apply to Ranged Weapons such as Shurikens and Long Bows, or is it intended to only work on Melee weapons?
How does the Temporary HP gained via Invigorating shout interact with the first option from the third Dragon Skin SPecialization (the one that gives you a regenerating Temporary HP pool equal to your normal hitpoints that is refreshed via the first specialization)? I mean if your temporary HP pool goes down say12, and you use invigorating shout and roll a 16; does that Temporary HP refill the Temporary HP pool or does it over lap until the Temporary HP pool regenreates enough to become larger than the number rolled? In the case they overlap, what happens if you get hit? DO you deduct the damage from one pool, or from both despite the other being overlapped by the first one?
How do you expend an AoO inorder to use the teleportation ability from Hidden Knife? Does it mean to say you can perform the teleport instead of an AoO if it were triggered, or can you effectively teleport at any time so long as you have unused AoOs? If so how does that function with the Free Action Teleport from Flash Step if you Teleport before or after your Turn, can you still use Flash Step or does one inhibit the use of the other?
The wording in the third specialization for Master's Blade is weird, and could use some clarification. If I'm reading your intent the point is that you choose a small set of your own Feats, and get the Abilities to swap that set of Feats for another set of new feats; but the wording itself of the ability makes it sound like each Feat group is made out of Feats you already have rather than new ones, which makes the references of switching Feat Groups or using them to fufill prerequisites sound rather odd.
I have some distaste for how the Martial Arts Specilization works currently. As is it makes you into a pseudo initiator, but doesn't actually let you act like it. You need to burn feats just for that Specialty to actually do something in practice, and to get any milage out of it you have to take the Second Specialization. Otherwise all you've done is pay a Specialty and a Feat in order to maybe give an attack an extra 1d6 damage twice per encounter, which just seems like poor design to me when compared to how all the other Specializations operate.

I get that it gives you extra manuevers and stances when you take the feats, but people only have around 6 Feats per character by level 20, so unless people burn through their feats it's not going to amount to much. As written, I don't think it stacks up all that well with the others and seems like a exp Trap. I'd recommend changing the bonus you get each time you take the Specialization to actually gaining a Maneuver or Stance from your favored Discipline, as well as allowing the First specializations to grant you (Spirit Mod) Manuevers and for the Second Specialization to grant you a stance for taking them. Otherwise it just falls flat in comparison to every other Specialization in execution; forcing you to build your entire character around this to get some mileage out of it, when all the other Specializations are designed to add or expand a character's abilities in new and interesting directions.
Is the Diverse Specialization feat meant to give you a Specialty you wouldn't normally be able to take, or does it just give you the ability to take one specific Specialization via Class progression or Feats that you normally wouldn't be able to take? I do hope its the former, otherwise it suffers from the same problem as Martial Arts specialization. You're making me pay a Feat, but you're not actually giving me anything in return for it. If you want it to just grant access, I'd suggest that the Feat allow you to treat yourself as if you belong to X class for the purpose of choosing Specializations; X being a class chosen upon taking the Feat. That way it's at least providing you a new capability in exchange for one of the only 6 Feats you may ever have.

Though I'd recommend you just say that the you actually gain the specialization by taking the feat instead.
Does the DR gained via Martial Arts Grandmaster stack with DR gained via Dragon Skin or other sources of Untyped DR you might have due to Race, Spells, or Stances?
Unity of Spirit is seriously under powered as it is. One-tenth out of the sum total moves from 6 stats is barely ever going to grant you more than a single point. Even if we assume someone was lucky enough to get a +2 in every mod except their Body and Mind Mods, which we'll say are at 8 for debates sake, that's a total of 20, which turns out to just be a +2 bonus to the score... You literally need to be power gaming for it to day anything noteworthy. I'd recommend to at least making it so the bonus is equal to your average attribute mod (a.k.a 1/6th your total mods); that way it atleast does something for people who aren't template staking for the lols. Otherwise it's a trap for anyone who isn't playing some kind of monstrous race or broken template combos. :/
Multiple Feats refer to something called Combined Chi, yet I find no mention of it in this document. Is it suppose to be referring to Harmony of Spirit and/or Unity of Spirit?
While I like Wealth of Spirit, I have a problem with the present wording of the Feat as it seems to encompass more than its intended effect. Rather than carry or possess, I think the word you want to use is Ownership or intent to use on themselves. As it is, it creates severe RP problems well beyond the intention of the user not stuffing himself full of magical items while taking advantages of the Feat's benefits..

Need to take a magical Mcguffin away from the bad guy before he ends of the world? However has this Feat can't carry it otherwise they get boned by the Feats closes, so if you're the only one in range capable of grabbing that ring of 3 wishes the bad guy is about, and all your other friends are a floor down holding back the bad guys reenforcements? Too bad! You can't carry it around with you, so sure you can grab it. But you can't run off with it. Can't even escape without the party to keep out of his hands because you can't carry the bloody thing.

The wizard needs to hand out potions of Neutralize poison to the party so all of you can all split up and treat important NPCs in seperate locations suffering from Poison? Well, you ain't helping; because you can't so much as carry the Potion for the sake of using it on someone else without your Feat slapping you on the face. Which will be hilarious if the Poison is some kind of environmental hazard, and you were only safe because of this feat.

Need to hide a magical artifact from an Evil cult, and want to travel the land undercover until you find a suitable place to hide or destroy it? Not so long as you have this feat you don't!

Exploring a dark dungeon and everyone needs a magical lantern in order to find their way around? Better buddy up, cause if you try to use it as Equipment to get through the area you're boned.

I apologize if my examples make use of hyperbole a bit too much, but they make a good example of how this Feat may be overstepping it's intended bounderies and actually inhibiting roleplay; or preventing the user from doing rather logical action to help others.

All in all, I like what you've made here. It was the potential to lead to some good characters; but there's still several places where things could be refined a bit more to make it really shine.

Quellian-dyrae
2014-08-01, 04:18 PM
Thanks for the review! Let's see here...


Why did you choose to use this progression method for Martial Arts Damage? I can see that each set up increases the max damage by 2, yet the dice choices you made are odd. Like how you go from rolling 4d6 to 1d6+1d8+1d12 of all things.

Yeah, it's rather awkward, but I didn't want to use the normal damage die scaling because past a certain point that starts going too fast. The basic Chi abilities are definitely meant to be solid, but not really super-strong. So in this case it was basically a matter of sacrificing elegance for appropriate numbers (I suppose on the weirder ones I could have used the lower dice and just added like +1...but even though that's largely what it amounts to it just feels kinda piddly when put that way).


I'm kinda surprised Samurai don't get some option to allow them to use their Martial Art's bonuses while wearing at least light armor, is there a reason why you neglected this kind of option?

The only martial arts ability that is lost in armor is the ability to add Spirit modifier to AC. All others apply regardless of armor worn. It wasn't meant to be a direct AC boost, just something to make unarmored combat viable, since that's something of a classic of the genre. Even with samurai, the iconic images in my head are either "full lamellar armor" or "unarmored kensai". Could just be my experience, but light-armored samurai don't strike me as particularly iconic, and I wouldn't really want it to be a mechanically superior option to the more traditional ones.


Does Martial Arts apply to Ranged Weapons such as Shurikens and Long Bows, or is it intended to only work on Melee weapons?

It applies to any weapon wielded, although you may choose to use the weapon's normal stats where they are better. A character with a high Chi is just as deadly with a shuriken, knife, fist, silk scarf, whatever as a normal character with an enchanted blade.


How does the Temporary HP gained via Invigorating shout interact with the first option from the third Dragon Skin SPecialization (the one that gives you a regenerating Temporary HP pool equal to your normal hitpoints that is refreshed via the first specialization)? I mean if your temporary HP pool goes down say12, and you use invigorating shout and roll a 16; does that Temporary HP refill the Temporary HP pool or does it over lap until the Temporary HP pool regenreates enough to become larger than the number rolled? In the case they overlap, what happens if you get hit? DO you deduct the damage from one pool, or from both despite the other being overlapped by the first one?

Ooh...good catch. As I have it now, they probably wouldn't stack, but there should be some interaction since Dragon Skin is the Tanky Samurai specialty. I'll need to review that.


How do you expend an AoO inorder to use the teleportation ability from Hidden Knife? Does it mean to say you can perform the teleport instead of an AoO if it were triggered, or can you effectively teleport at any time so long as you have unused AoOs? If so how does that function with the Free Action Teleport from Flash Step if you Teleport before or after your Turn, can you still use Flash Step or does one inhibit the use of the other?

I'll need to clarify that...honestly, thinking about it, I'm not sure which I had in mind when I wrote it :smallconfused:. Thinking about it some, it just seems awkward in general, really. Might need to revise that a bit.


The wording in the third specialization for Master's Blade is weird, and could use some clarification. If I'm reading your intent the point is that you choose a small set of your own Feats, and get the Abilities to swap that set of Feats for another set of new feats; but the wording itself of the ability makes it sound like each Feat group is made out of Feats you already have rather than new ones, which makes the references of switching Feat Groups or using them to fufill prerequisites sound rather odd.

Yes, you initially choose a list of your existing feats to make your first Feat Group, and then create X additional groups of feats you don't currently have, and then you can swap between them. I'll edit for clarity.


I have some distaste for how the Martial Arts Specilization works currently. As is it makes you into a pseudo initiator, but doesn't actually let you act like it. You need to burn feats just for that Specialty to actually do something in practice, and to get any milage out of it you have to take the Second Specialization. Otherwise all you've done is pay a Specialty and a Feat in order to maybe give an attack an extra 1d6 damage twice per encounter, which just seems like poor design to me when compared to how all the other Specializations operate.

I get that it gives you extra manuevers and stances when you take the feats, but people only have around 6 Feats per character by level 20, so unless people burn through their feats it's not going to amount to much. As written, I don't think it stacks up all that well with the others and seems like a exp Trap. I'd recommend changing the bonus you get each time you take the Specialization to actually gaining a Maneuver or Stance from your favored Discipline, as well as allowing the First specializations to grant you (Spirit Mod) Manuevers and for the Second Specialization to grant you a stance for taking them. Otherwise it just falls flat in comparison to every other Specialization in execution; forcing you to build your entire character around this to get some mileage out of it, when all the other Specializations are designed to add or expand a character's abilities in new and interesting directions.

The reason for this, which for now I think I stand by, is that maneuvers can be quite powerful. They fit the theme well enough that I wanted there to be at least some interaction with them, but I'm very, very leery of making it step on the toes of the dedicated initiator classes, all of which use maneuvers as their "big thing" and have notably weaker native abilities than these classes beyond the maneuvers. A "full" Specialty (basically, keeping it maxed out) isn't a trivial cost by any means, but it isn't excessive either, and certainly not equal to high-end initiation. By requiring feats as well, it becomes a much greater investment to really compete with the martial adepts at their own game, which I think it should be.


Is the Diverse Specialization feat meant to give you a Specialty you wouldn't normally be able to take, or does it just give you the ability to take one specific Specialization via Class progression or Feats that you normally wouldn't be able to take? I do hope its the former, otherwise it suffers from the same problem as Martial Arts specialization. You're making me pay a Feat, but you're not actually giving me anything in return for it. If you want it to just grant access, I'd suggest that the Feat allow you to treat yourself as if you belong to X class for the purpose of choosing Specializations; X being a class chosen upon taking the Feat. That way it's at least providing you a new capability in exchange for one of the only 6 Feats you may ever have.

Though I'd recommend you just say that the you actually gain the specialization by taking the feat instead.

It only provides the option to take it. However, remember that the same Specialty can be taken multiple times. Basically, it's an opportunity cost to be able to ignore some of another class's niche protection.


Does the DR gained via Martial Arts Grandmaster stack with DR gained via Dragon Skin or other sources of Untyped DR you might have due to Race, Spells, or Stances?

This is based on normal stacking rules, which I think for DR is "they stack if they're overcome by the same thing, otherwise they overlap (but if one is pierced the other might not be)".


Unity of Spirit is seriously under powered as it is. One-tenth out of the sum total moves from 6 stats is barely ever going to grant you more than a single point. Even if we assume someone was lucky enough to get a +2 in every mod except their Body and Mind Mods, which we'll say are at 8 for debates sake, that's a total of 20, which turns out to just be a +2 bonus to the score... You literally need to be power gaming for it to day anything noteworthy. I'd recommend to at least making it so the bonus is equal to your average attribute mod (a.k.a 1/6th your total mods); that way it atleast does something for people who aren't template staking for the lols. Otherwise it's a trap for anyone who isn't playing some kind of monstrous race or broken template combos. :/

Hmm...it might be worth shifting it down some. I'm a little concerned about it becoming too powerful; Spirit increases are very good, since things that rely on Spirit are balanced around the fact that it's equal to your second-best ability score. Unity of Spirit also is unique among the Spirit-recalculating feats that it directly increases Spirit rather than merely changing how you calculate it, and at high levels it's quite doable to boost all of your ability scores with magic items. That said, maybe 1/8 or even 1/6 would give it a bit more oomph without overpowering it; I'll have to compare it to the others a bit and see.


Multiple Feats refer to something called Combined Chi, yet I find no mention of it in this document. Is it suppose to be referring to Harmony of Spirit and/or Unity of Spirit?

Do you mean total Chi? That's just your Chi score, based on class and whatever modifiers you have, to a max of character level.


While I like Wealth of Spirit, I have a problem with the present wording of the Feat as it seems to encompass more than its intended effect. Rather than carry or possess, I think the word you want to use is Ownership or intent to use on themselves. As it is, it creates severe RP problems well beyond the intention of the user not stuffing himself full of magical items while taking advantages of the Feat's benefits..

Very good points, I'll edit the wording there.


All in all, I like what you've made here. It was the potential to lead to some good characters; but there's still several places where things could be refined a bit more to make it really shine.

Awesome, and again, thanks for the critique!

Regalus
2014-08-01, 05:59 PM
Thanks for the review! Let's see here...

Yeah, it's rather awkward, but I didn't want to use the normal damage die scaling because past a certain point that starts going too fast. The basic Chi abilities are definitely meant to be solid, but not really super-strong. So in this case it was basically a matter of sacrificing elegance for appropriate numbers (I suppose on the weirder ones I could have used the lower dice and just added like +1...but even though that's largely what it amounts to it just feels kinda piddly when put that way).

Okay, how 'bout using this model; using the base damage of Improved Unarmed Strike as a basis for it's progression. i.e. Work of Improved Unarmed Strike's d4 unarmed damage rather than outright increasing dice size.

1-3 1d8 > 2d4
4-6 1d10 >2d4+2
7-9 1d12 >3d4
10-12 1d6+1d8 > 3d4+2
13-15 2d8 >4d4
16-18 3d6 >4d4+2
19-21 2d10 >5d4
22-24 1d10+1d12 > 5d4+2
25-27 4d6 > 6d4
28-30 1d6+1d8+1d12 > 6d4+2

The end result is simple to keep track of as people level up or use Size Increasing abilities using a simple to follow logical progression, and only uses one kind of dice so it looks neater and more elegant. Moreover it maintains the exact same damage growth that you want, without screwing with people's Average rolls every other rank. Best of all, it gives some much needed love to our good friend the d4, without just defaulting to piddly flat bonuses every level. What do you think?


I'll need to clarify that...honestly, thinking about it, I'm not sure which I had in mind when I wrote it :smallconfused:. Thinking about it some, it just seems awkward in general, really. Might need to revise that a bit.

When you get down to brass tacks Flash Step is theoretically better, longer range and no limitation of when you can use it and you can even activate it as a Free Action. Personally, I'd suggest replacing AoO with Immediate Action; letting it act as the iconic Ninja Smoke bomb of popular lore. It seems like the kind of ability you use when in a theoretical pinch while stealthing, ala a Ninja Smoke Bomb. So having it be an Immediate Action gives you the chance to switch positions in an Emergency. Like if you're hiding behind the curtain and someone is going to try to open them, you can just use this to pop on over to somewhere else right before you'd get caught.

Maybe add in the option later on, or at a higher tier, to dodge an attack in return for effectively relocating to a hiding position; giving Ninja's a combat escape button in the event their stealth mission goes south and they either don't want to, or can't, kill everyone around them to make their way out. It'd give it an extra niche that would stop it from becoming obsolete if people try to grab the Flash Step line.


The reason for this, which for now I think I stand by, is that maneuvers can be quite powerful. They fit the theme well enough that I wanted there to be at least some interaction with them, but I'm very, very leery of making it step on the toes of the dedicated initiator classes, all of which use maneuvers as their "big thing" and have notably weaker native abilities than these classes beyond the maneuvers. A "full" Specialty (basically, keeping it maxed out) isn't a trivial cost by any means, but it isn't excessive either, and certainly not equal to high-end initiation. By requiring feats as well, it becomes a much greater investment to really compete with the martial adepts at their own game, which I think it should be.
True, and I'm not saying it should make them better than War Blades or anything. I just synch it would be fair to at least give people who grab it one or two Maneuvers for grabbing the Specialty, even if they must be limited to level 1 or 2 maneuvers of your Favored Discipline. It's just a personal design philosophy of mine that people shouldn't have to go outside the class/system I'm making to be able to use the options I present. If you want to optimize by grabbing stuff from ToB, ToM or whatever go ahead; but your base investment should at least give you something tangible.

Not trying to make it the most minmaxiest option, or telling you to give it initiator manuever progression, just trying to throw a bone to the guys who are interested in it so they don't need to dedicate a third of their Feats to make use of the first two ranks of the Specialty; two ranks being a third of how many Specialties they get to begin with. So maybe Spirit Mod or Half Spirit Mod manuevers, and a stance limited to only level 1 and 2 manuevers of their Favored Discipline wouldn't be out of place here, or break anything.

As is it's by no means a bad specialty, it's just one of the weaker options. Unless someone is multiclassing/gestalting with an Initiator class already I don't see it seeing as much use as the other options on the table for better or worse.


Do you mean total Chi? That's just your Chi score, based on class and whatever modifiers you have, to a max of character level.

Well no. I refer to these:


Martial Arts Expert
You are particularly skilled at the martial arts.
Prerequisites: Combined Chi and BAB of 7+, possess a Spirit stat.
Benefit: Rather than your Spirit stat, you may add your Body stat to your attack and damage rolls in place of Strength or Dexterity, and/or your Mind stat to AC when unarmored.

Martial Arts Master
You are a master of the martial arts.
Prerequisites: Combined Chi and BAB of 15+, possess a Spirit stat, Martial Arts Expert.
Benefit: You gain a competence bonus on weapon damage rolls equal to your Mind stat, and DR/- equal to your Body stat.

Martial Arts Grandmaster
You have mastered every aspect of the martial arts.
Prerequisites: Combined Chi and BAB of 23+, possess a Spirit stat, Martial Arts Expert, Martial Arts Master.
Benefit: You may substitute your Chi for your BAB, or your BAB for your Chi (neither can exceed your HD, in the odd case that some quirk of math would allow them to). Further, your Spirit stat becomes equal to the higher of your Body or Mind stats.

Special: A character may only possess one feat that alters how it calculates its Spirit stat.



ON aside not I just realized that a Multiclass Monk/Samurai, or one of those two classes with the Diverse Specialization feat, can grab Dragon Skin rank 3, Gentle hand 3, and Diamon Soul and Inner eye 2 becomes one of the tankiest things in the universe. I mean, you won't have alot of offensive options (beyond using the Monk's healing ability to damage, or just straight up bashing skulls if you're a samurai); but you're going to be hell to put down. Not saying its a bad thing (since it would pretty much take 20 levels and most of your feats to pull off unless you're gestalting or grab Wealth of Spirit); just amazed by the staying power behind that kind of build. Not sure how well it stands up to Rocket Tag though, and Enchantments still bone you unless you can squeeze in a few more Ranks of Diamon soul in there, and one more rank of Inner Eye. Then you're the tankiest thing alive.

Quellian-dyrae
2014-08-01, 06:13 PM
Okay, how 'bout using this model; using the base damage of Improved Unarmed Strike as a basis for it's progression. i.e. Work of Improved Unarmed Strike's d4 unarmed damage rather than outright increasing dice size.

1-3 1d8 > 2d4
4-6 1d10 >2d4+2
7-9 1d12 >3d4
10-12 1d6+1d8 > 3d4+2
13-15 2d8 >4d4
16-18 3d6 >4d4+2
19-21 2d10 >5d4
22-24 1d10+1d12 > 5d4+2
25-27 4d6 > 6d4
28-30 1d6+1d8+1d12 > 6d4+2

The end result is simple to keep track of as people level up or use Size Increasing abilities, and only uses one kind of dice so it looks neater and more elegant. Moreover it maintains the exact same damage growth that you want, without screwing with people's Average rolls every other rank. Best of all, it gives some much needed love to our good friend the d4, without just defaulting to piddly flat bonuses every level. What do you think?

I was considering something like that. A d3 per step, actually. Or maybe a d6 per two steps. Dunno for sure, might switch to something along those lines, though.


When you get down to brass tacks Flash Step is theoretically better, longer range and no limitation of when you can use it and you can even activate it as a Free Action. Personally, I'd suggest replacing AoO with Immediate Action; letting it act as the iconic Ninja Smoke bomb of popular lore. It seems like the kind of ability you use when in a theoretical pinch while stealthing, ala a Ninja Smoke Bomb. So having it be an Immediate Action gives you the chance to switch positions in an Emergency. Like if you're hiding behind the curtain and someone is going to try to open them, you can just use this to pop on over to somewhere else right before you'd get caught.

Maybe add in the option later on, or at a higher tier, to dodge an attack in return for effectively relocating to a hiding position; giving Ninja's a combat escape button in the event their stealth mission goes south and they either don't want to, or can't, kill everyone around them to make their way out. It'd give it an extra niche that would stop it from becoming obsolete if people try to grab the Flash Step line.

It's meant to be more of an "offscreen teleportation" sort of ability, but yeah, I'll take another look at it. Because you made me realize that I didn't givve the ninja a smoke-bomb-like ability and that just can't be allowed :smallbiggrin:.


True, and I'm not saying it should make them better than War Blades or anything. I just synch it would be fair to at least give people who grab it one or two Maneuvers for grabbing the Specialty, even if they must be limited to level 1 or 2 maneuvers of your Favored Discipline. It's just a personal design philosophy of mine that people shouldn't have to go outside the class/system I'm making to be able to use the options I present. If you want to optimize by grabbing stuff from ToB, ToM or whatever go ahead; but your base investment should at least give you something tangible.

Not trying to make it the most minmaxiest option, or telling you to give it initiator manuever progression, just trying to throw a bone to the guys who are interested in it so they don't need to dedicate a third of their Feats to make use of the first two ranks of the Specialty; two ranks being a third of how many Specialties they get to begin with. So maybe Spirit Mod or Half Spirit Mod manuevers, and a stance limited to only level 1 and 2 manuevers of their Favored Discipline wouldn't be out of place here, or break anything.

As is it's by no means a bad specialty, it's just one of the weaker options. Unless someone is multiclassing/gestalting with an Initiator class already I don't see it seeing as much use as the other options on the table for better or worse.

This one I'll need to think on some, run some numbers.


Well no. I refer to these:

Ah! That's saying "Combined Chi and BAB" of X+. So, add your Chi and BAB together, the total must equal or exceed whatever (so Monk and Samurai both qualify for them most easily, Ninja it's a bit harder, Mystics it's real hard).


ON aside not I just realized that a Multiclass Monk/Samurai, or one of those two classes with the Diverse Specialization feat, can grab Dragon Skin rank 3, Gentle hand 3, and Diamon Soul and Inner eye 2 becomes one of the tankiest things in the universe. I mean, you won't have alot of offensive options (beyond using the Monk's healing ability to damage, or just straight up bashing skulls if you're a samurai); but you're going to be hell to put down. Not saying its a bad thing (since it would pretty much take 20 levels and most of your feats to pull off unless you're gestalting or grab Wealth of Spirit); just amazed by the staying power behind that kind of build. Not sure how well it stands up to Rocket Tag though, and Enchantments still bone you unless you can squeeze in a few more Ranks of Diamon soul in there, and one more rank of Inner Eye. Then you're the tankiest thing alive.

Yeah, that'd be a pretty darn hard target. Too hard? Honestly, I was focusing most intently on the idea of characters focusing on a couple Specialties. I should probably go back through and spend more time considering how lower levels of multiple Specialties would interact. A theme I'm noticing from your comments and my responses to them is that I didn't.

Regalus
2014-08-01, 06:38 PM
Hey now, don't beat yourself to hard over it. As someone who's been struggling to put his own class and subsystem on 'paper' as it where I can tell ya, you've already got passed the hard par; writing it all down. You got a lot of good material here, it just needs some polishing. And hey, if you feel like trying to bounce ideas for this drop me a line.

If nothing else, ya got me interested in this project of yours.

Quellian-dyrae
2014-08-02, 12:14 PM
Okay, made some changes.

Chi damage is...well, it's still using different types of dice. But now at least it looks cleaner, basically going d8, d10, d12, and then repeating but with an extra d6. So it's a logical pattern rather than whatever combination of dice makes the max damage two points higher.

Dragon Skin 1st purchase now grants temporary hit points the first time each round that you lose actual hit points. So a samurai's three sources of temp hp won't directly stack, but kinda serve as three separate layers of defense; Dragon Skin 3 starts each encounter off with a huge temp hp pool, Invigorating Shout lets you spend actions to gain a fairly high number of temp hp as needed, and Dragon Skin 1 gives you fallback temp hit points in any round that you actually get injured (and interestingly enough should actually make it mechanically possible for a samurai to be mortally injured, keep fighting, be conscious to give a final speech, and then expire, which is kinda cool).

Simplified Hidden Knife 3.

The third time you gain this Specialty, your exact position becomes difficult to pin down. You can teleport up to Close range as a move action. You may use this ability at will, but only in rounds where you are not directly targeted by any action or personally interacted with by someone who can perceive you. You do not need line of sight or line of effect, but if your teleport would leave you in an occupied location, it fails, wasting the action.

Added smoke bomb functionality and some other tweaks to Way of the Clouded Mind, and added a new ninja feat: Log Trick (seriously, I like totally forgot two of the most important parts of being a ninja!)

Way of the Clouded Mind [Ninja] (Su): You have chosen to specialize in the crafting of illusions...and smoke bombs.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you gain the ability to create illusions as a standard action, which last for as long as you concentrate. You may do so a number of times per day equal to your Chi plus your Mind modifier. The DC to disbelieve your illusion is 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Mind modifier. Your illusion may have a single effect, chosen from the following: Duplicate a Silent Image; duplicate a Ghost Sound; duplicate a Ventriloquism; duplicate a Disguise Self (except you can affect other characters in Medium range); duplicate a Fog Cloud (in this case, no concentration is required and the effect is not an illusion, so there is no save to disbelieve).

The second time you gain this specialty, your illusions can acquire the following effects: Improve a Silent Image to a Major Image; add the effects of Stinking Cloud to a Fog Cloud; reduce the action cost to create or maintain by one step (standard -> move or swift -> free or immediate); mimic speech in any voice you have heard; simultaneously create one illusion per point of your Mind modifier; or cause anyone who perceives the illusion to be Sickened, Shaken, or Fascinated (Will negates and results in immediate disbelief; this is a Mind-affecting Compulsion).

The third time you gain this specialty, your illusions can acquire the following effects: Act on a program; appear only to certain individuals; add the effects of Solid Fog to a Fog Cloud; or improve an illusion that causes a status effect to Nauseated, Frightened, or Dazed, respectively. Additionally, you can create single-effect illusions at will.

The fourth time you gain this specialty, your illusions can acquire the following effects: Improve a program so the illusion appears, acts, and reacts in ways drawn from the observer's own thoughts and beliefs (Will negates, but you can set a default program that applies to those who make their Will saves); add the effects of Cloudkill to a Stinking Cloud; or cause enemies who disbelieve or see through the illusion (including with True Seeing) to become Blinded or Confused for one round per point of Chi if they fail a Will save. Additionally, you can create two-effect illusions at will.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, your illusions can have one additional effect.

Log Trick
You silly samurai! You didn't hit the ninja! You just hit a plain old log!

Prerequisites: Ghost Step class feature.

Benefit: Whenever you take an immediate action to activate Ghost Step, you may simultaneously move up to your speed or activate a teleportation ability you possess. You must have line of sight and line of effect to the place you move or teleport to. In the case of Way of the Hidden Knife, the action that you respond to doesn't count as an action targeting you for purposes of the teleport. If you wish, you may leave behind some innocuous object to be struck in your stead.

Clarified Way of the Master's Blade. Also added a clause to prevent funny business with certain types of feats and Way of the Martial Arts in particular.

The third time you gain this Specialty, choose a number of your current feats equal to one-third your BAB. These feats are composed into a Feat Group. For each three points of your Mind Modifier (rounded up), you gain an additional Feat Group. In each additional Feat Group, you may choose an equal number of feats that you qualify for (so if your main Feat Group has four feats, you may select four bonus feats for each Feat Group you possess). You only benefit from one Feat Group at a time. Changing your current Feat Group is a swift action. You may use feats from your Feat Groups to qualify for prerequisites, but you only gain benefits so qualified for while the qualifying feat is active. A Feat Group may not contain any feats that require a choice upon purchase, such as Skill Focus or Martial Study. Additionally, if the feat slot of your original Feat Group was restricted to a list of feats, the corresponding slot in additional Feat Groups must select from the same list.

The fourth time you gain this Specialty, once per encounter per three points of your Spirit modifier as a free action, you may gain the benefit of a single feat that you qualify for for one round. This cannot be a feat that requires a choice upon purchase.

I revised Way of the Martial Arts fairly extensively, partially from the above suggestions, partially because I realized Martial Study counts as a fighter bonus feat so a samurai could out-initiate a swordsage if it wanted to and that doesn't work.

The first time you gain this Specialty, you may substitute your Chi for your initiator level, if it is higher. You gain Martial Study as a bonus feat, and you may select two maneuvers every time you take the Martial Study feat, rather than one. You may also recover one maneuver per round by spending both a full-round action and a swift action. You may not recover a maneuver in the same round you initiate it. You may change one maneuver known each time you level up. If your purchases of this Specialty would bring your total purchases of Martial Study above three or Martial Stance above 1, you can trade the feat gained for a different feat you qualify for.

The second time you gain this Specialty you gain Martial Stance as a bonus feat, and every time you take the Martial Study feat, you may also learn a stance. Recovering a maneuver now only requires a full-round action.

The third time you gain this Specialty, you gain another instance of Martial Study as a bonus feat. Martial Study also now gives you a second bonus maneuver, but you may only ready two maneuvers per Martial Study purchase at a time. Recovering a maneuver now only requires a standard action.

The fourth time you gain this specialty, you gain a third instance of Martial Study as a bonus feat. Recovering a maneuver now only requires a move action. Any time you recover a maneuver, you can instead swap it for one of your currently unreadied maneuvers.

Additionally, if you have at least four HD, then for each time you take this Specialty, you gain one point of Chi or one point of BAB (neither can exceed your character level).

Buffed Unity of Spirit for normal characters. Nerfed it for characters that would probably be exploiting it.

You gain a bonus to your Spirit stat equal to one-six the sum of all of your ability modifiers, rounded down. Size modifiers to your ability scores do not count for this calculation, and each point of Level Adjustment you possess lowers the sum by two.

Tweaked Wealth of Spirit some to make it more sensible (also adjusted how it deals with spell foci).

Edited Way of the Dancing Foot 3.

The third time you gain this Specialty, you can change direction freely while running and charging, and you may move in any direction freely; your range of movement is functionally equivalent to flight. However, you must still end your turn solidly supported, or you will fall.

And changed the "each time" bonus for Gentle Hand to just a +1 Chi Healing multiplier that also grants Chi Healing if you don't already have it.

Regalus
2014-08-02, 02:25 PM
Chi damage is...well, it's still using different types of dice. But now at least it looks cleaner, basically going d8, d10, d12, and then repeating but with an extra d6. So it's a logical pattern rather than whatever combination of dice makes the max damage two points higher.
Admit it, you just have a thing for weird dice combinations :smallamused:

But seriously, this does progress a lot better.


Dragon Skin 1st purchase now grants temporary hit points the first time each round that you lose actual hit points. So a samurai's three sources of temp hp won't directly stack, but kinda serve as three separate layers of defense; Dragon Skin 3 starts each encounter off with a huge temp hp pool, Invigorating Shout lets you spend actions to gain a fairly high number of temp hp as needed, and Dragon Skin 1 gives you fallback temp hit points in any round that you actually get injured (and interestingly enough should actually make it mechanically possible for a samurai to be mortally injured, keep fighting, be conscious to give a final speech, and then expire, which is kinda cool).

So if I'm reading right combat for a Dragon Skin Samurai goes like this: Start Battle, gain HP value in Temp HP. When an enemy hits them with an attack that goes over their temporary HP dealing, say, 6 damage to their actual HP; they gain 6 Temp HP to help cushion any extra hits from their enemies. Then on their turn they Spend a Swift action to use Invigorating Shout to give themselves a new pool of temp HP equal to what they roll. Rinse and repeat until all enemies are dead or you are.


The third time you gain this Specialty, your exact position becomes difficult to pin down. You can teleport up to Close range as a move action. You may use this ability at will, but only in rounds where you are not directly targeted by any action or personally interacted with by someone who can perceive you. You do not need line of sight or line of effect, but if your teleport would leave you in an occupied location, it fails, wasting the action.
Do you mean to say that you can teleport into an enemy's close range, or that they can perform a Close Range Teleport? Close Range is 25ft +5ft per level. The former definition has you teleporting anywhere within Close Range of a target, the latter allows you teleport up to your maximum CLose Range distance. I believe you mean the later, though rather than saying close range I'd suggest putting the actual distance for simplicity's sake.


Added smoke bomb functionality and some other tweaks to Way of the Clouded Mind, and added a new ninja feat: Log Trick (seriously, I like totally forgot two of the most important parts of being a ninja!)

I must confess some disappointment at the loss of being able to avoid eating up your Illusion's uses for the day by taking that one Rank 2 option, but considering you can now get Cloud Kill at higher levels that seems fair. That said, do you need to take Stinking Cloud (and Fog Cloud by Proxy) in order to use Cloud Skill or was that a Typo?

And yes, you should be quite ashamed of forgetting the power of log.

Clarified Way of the Master's Blade. Also added a clause to prevent funny business with certain types of feats and Way of the Martial Arts in particular.
Good catch there, I'd completely forgotten that it might have some weird interaction with the Martial Arts SPecialization



I revised Way of the Martial Arts fairly extensively, partially from the above suggestions, partially because I realized Martial Study counts as a fighter bonus feat so a samurai could out-initiate a swordsage if it wanted to and that doesn't work.

Do the "Every time you take an instance of Martial Study you gain x" line of upgrades work retroactively, or just starting from the level when you took the specialization? That is, if I for some reason already have 3 purchases of Martial Study when I take the first or third Rank of this specialty, do I still get the bonus maneuver for each one or am I basically boned?



Tweaked Wealth of Spirit some to make it more sensible (also adjusted how it deals with spell foci).
Okay, this seems to solve the negative exploitations I was worried about.


Edited Way of the Dancing Foot 3.

Oh that is very nice, especially the part about being able to move freely; it opens up a lot of neat tactical options


And changed the "each time" bonus for Gentle Hand to just a +1 Chi Healing multiplier that also grants Chi Healing if you don't already have it.
ANd with this my theoretical Monk/Samurai Tank is no longer the nigh unstoppable juggernaut it used to be. Really it's for the best, and granting others access to Chi Healing makes it a noteworthy pick for Diverse Specialization now.

All in all, a good set a fixes and additions to the system.

Quellian-dyrae
2014-08-02, 02:37 PM
Admit it, you just have a thing for weird dice combinations :smallamused:

But seriously, this does progress a lot better.

:smallamused:

To be honest, they do somewhat annoy me. But I don't want any faster scaling and...bunches of really small dice apparently annoy me more :smalltongue:.


So if I'm reading right combat for a Dragon Skin Samurai goes like this: Start Battle, gain HP value in Temp HP. When an enemy hits them with an attack that goes over their temporary HP dealing, say, 6 damage to their actual HP; they gain 6 Temp HP to help cushion any extra hits from their enemies. Then on their turn they Spend a Swift action to use Invigorating Shout to give themselves a new pool of temp HP equal to what they roll. Rinse and repeat until all enemies are dead or you are.

Correct.


Do you mean to say that you can teleport into an enemy's close range, or that they can perform a Close Range Teleport? Close Range is 25ft +5ft per level. The former definition has you teleporting anywhere within Close Range of a target, the latter allows you teleport up to your maximum CLose Range distance. I believe you mean the later, though rather than saying close range I'd suggest putting the actual distance for simplicity's sake.

Just a straight Close-range teleport. I removed the relativity to enemies entirely (primarily so it also allows things like...the group is trying to figure out how to get through the door, the ninja just opens it from the inside and says let's go).


I must confess some disappointment at the loss of being able to avoid eating up your Illusion's uses for the day by taking that one Rank 2 option, but considering you can now get Cloud Kill at higher levels that seems fair. That said, do you need to take Stinking Cloud (and Fog Cloud by Proxy) in order to use Cloud Skill or was that a Typo?

I added low-effect at-wills to the higher purchases, and yes, Cloudkill requires the earlier two to make it a three-effect smoke bomb, so it can't be used at will even at four Specialties.


Do the "Every time you take an instance of Martial Study you gain x" line of upgrades work retroactively, or just starting from the level when you took the specialization? That is, if I for some reason already have 3 purchases of Martial Study when I take the first or third Rank of this specialty, do I still get the bonus maneuver for each one or am I basically boned?

They are intended to be retroactive, yes.


All in all, a good set a fixes and additions to the system.

Thanks!

Thokk_Smash
2014-08-10, 01:14 AM
For the Martial Arts Expert feat line, it says "Spirit/Body/Mind stat" to certain rolls, not the modifier. Is this a typo, or are you actually adding the full Body statistic to the feature? I would assume the former, I'd just like to make sure.

Unrelated to the feat line, I'm planning to use the Ninja in an epic game. If I get in, I'll let you know how things go.

Quellian-dyrae
2014-08-10, 01:26 AM
Yeah, that's an error, should have been modifier (except on the Grandmaster since that is altering the actual stat calculation). Fixed. Thanks!

And awesome, I'll be interested to hear about it!