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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Class Whirlwind Blade [3.5 PrC] - Totally not LoL inspired



Xerlith
2014-10-08, 05:04 PM
Whirlwind Blade
http://i.imgur.com/aXauupb.jpg?1



Level
BAB
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special


1st

+1


+1


+1


+0

Biting Winds, Steel Tempest


2nd

+2


+2


+2


+0

Way of the Wanderer, Wind Barrier


3rd

+3


+2


+2


+1

Sweeping Blade


4th

+4


+3


+3


+1

Gathering Storm


5th

+5


+3


+3


+1

Last Breath



HD: d10
Skills: 4+int
Class Skills: Acrobatics, Climb, Craft, Intimidate, Knowledge (Nature), Knowledge (Martial), Perform (Dance), Sense Motive, Survival
- Balance, Concentration, Escape Artist, Iaijutsu Focus, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Nature), Knowledge (The Planes), Sense Motive, Survival, Tumble

Requirements:
BAB: +4
Maneuvers: Must know at least two 2nd level martial maneuvers and one stance.
Feats: Quick Draw, Improved Initiative
Skills: Knowledge (Nature) 3, Acrobatics 5


BAB: +4
Maneuvers: Must know at least two 2nd level martial maneuvers and one stance.
Feats: Quick Draw, Improved Initiative
Skills: Knowledge (Nature) 2, Balance 4, Iaijutsu Focus 8


Class Features:
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A Whirlwind Blade gains no new weapon or armor proficiencies.

Maneuvers: Every odd level you learn a maneuver from the following disciplines: Mithral Current, Scarlet Throne, and Primal Fury or Thrashing Dragon (chosen at 1st level of the Prestige Class).
[3.5 Disciplines - Desert Wind, Iron Heart and Diamond Mind]

On every even level you gain a new maneuver readied.

Stances: On 3rd level you learn a new stance. It must be a stance from the Mithral Current, Scarlet Throne, or either Primal Fury or Thrashing Dragon discipline.
[3.5 Disciplines - Desert Wind, Iron Heart and Diamond Mind]



Level
Maneuvers
Known
Maneuvers
Readied
Stances


1st
1
0
0


2nd
0
1
0


3rd
1
0
1


4th
0
1
0


5th
1
0
0




Biting Winds (Ex): The critical range of any slashing weapon you wield increases by 1. This applies after effects that double your weapon's threat range, such as the Keen weapon ability or the Improved Critical feat.

Beginning at 5th level, you gain an additional 5ft of reach.

[If using Tome of Battle disciplines: Your Desert Wind maneuvers that deal Fire damage deal slashing damage instead]


Steel Tempest (Ex): Once per round you may use Steel Tempest instead of a normal melee attack. If you do, you roll attack once and apply it to all your enemies in a line equal to your weapon's reach + 5ft, then deal your normal damage as normal.
If you use Steel Tempest in conjunction with a martial Strike, only the first target hit suffers its effects.


Way of the Wanderer (Su): As you move across the battlefield, the winds gather swirling around you.
On every turn in which you move at least 20ft, you gain Temporary Hit Points equal to your Initiator Level. Those hit points dissipate at the beginning of your next turn.

Additionaly, you threaten all the adjacent squares even with your weapon sheathed.


Sweeping Blade (Ex): You move in an instant, slashing your foe as you pass by.
Beginning at 3rd level you may move up to half your speed as a swift action. If you succed on a Tumble check for moving through an enemy's threatened area, you may attack them with one normal melee attack as a part of this movement. You may attack only one enemy per use of Sweeping Blade.

If you use Steel Tempest immediately after using Sweeping Blade, its attack may strike all the enemies in your reach instead of the usual line.


Wind Barrier (Su): Beginning at 2nd level you may, as an immediate action, expend one martial maneuver to replicate the effect of the Wind Wall spell with a caster level equal to your Initiator level. It lasts until the beginning of your next turn.


Gathering Storm (Su): Beginning at 4th level, if you succesfully hit an enemy with at least two Steel Tempests during previous three rounds, you may, as a standard action, attack all your enemies in a 30ft line. Roll an attack roll once and apply it to all the enemies in line. Each enemy hit is Staggered for a round in addition to your normal damage.

If you use Gathering Storm immediately after using your Sweeping Blade ability, its area becomes a burst equal to your reach+5ft.


Last Breath (Su): At 5th level you may, once per encounte as an immediate action, move up to twice your speed to an enemy that was succesfully tripped, checked, or staggered (such as by your Gathering Storm ability). If you do, you may execute a full attack or a martial Maneuver against them as a part of this immediate action. You are staggered on your next turn, but gain temporary Hit Points equal to your Way of the Wanderer bonus. For all purposes, this movement counts as a charge atack.

Xerlith
2014-10-11, 08:28 AM
I'd really like input on this.

D4rkh0rus
2014-10-11, 09:13 AM
Looks really powerful and highly exploitable. But it does sound like a real fun thing. I would make it into a 10 lvl prc with a higher crit multiplier but 10% lower damage. Then to stop stuff like kukri or chain abuse, make it require a katana or similar for its abilities (have a feature make it a discipline weapon)

Also of note, yasu-desu always sheathes his blade after every attack... Perhaps a quick sheathe or similar?

Xerlith
2014-10-11, 11:44 AM
I tend to shy away from percentage modifiers, since it needlesly slows down the game. If you may point out some of the possible to exploit things, I'll be happy to change them..

And he doesn't actually sheathe it after every attack, but he does it when he's got some idle time. At best I'd say he may move to up to half his speed while sheathing his weapon - as a move action, as normal.

About the restrictions - I considered making it either light armor-only or bladed weapons (swords?) only.

Extra Anchovies
2014-10-11, 01:06 PM
It should be slashing weapons only, IMO. Wouldn't make sense to use Desert Wind strikes to deal extra slashing damage with, say, a mace.

Way of the Wanderer is hella strong, especially with free-movement gimmicks like Travel Devotion. But then, Minor Shapeshift is about as strong, giving slightly fewer temp HP but without situation dependence, so Way of the Wanderer is fine. It could be slightly abused with speed increases + Sweeping Blade (i.e. pump speed to 60 feet, use all 30 feet of the movement allowed by Sweeping Blade, and gain the temp HP along with a free attack and some bonus movement), but that only makes it slightly better than minor shapeshift (up to 5 more temp HP, but it requires movement).

I like the capstone, too. It feels like a capstone.

Also, excellent job with the prerequisites. Two useful skills, plus a few ranks in a less-useful, probably CC skill, one good feat, and one feat tax. PrCs should require that little bit of extra effort (e.g. nabbing Quick Draw and 2 ranks in K(Nature)) to enter.

All in all, this is definitely one of the better homebrew PrCs I've seen in my (relatively short) time on the homebrew forum. Good job!

Xerlith
2014-10-12, 05:31 AM
First - Thanks for your positive opinion and input. Then let's get down to crunching the bits you mentioned:
Slashing weapons - while restricting the abilities to those only, I feel that it'd be a bit unnecesarily cramping some style - a nice fluff requirement, but I can totally see a piercing or bludgeoning weapon producing enough air pressure for this to work.
Which reminds me, I've got to label the abilities (Su) or (Ex).

Way of the Wanderer... Well, I could drop the Hit Die to d6, taking the avg 5hp down.
Or I could employ a different mechanic, either DR (equal to the class level, stacking?) or anything from deflection/dodge bonus to AC to miss chance (that'd probably be too strong). The ability is conceptually all about gathering the winds around you as you move, which dampen the impact of any blow you could suffer.

As for the capstone - thanks. I worried about it being a bit too strong, so I nerfed it and then worried I've nerfed it too much. Glad that isn't the case.

Extra Anchovies
2014-10-12, 01:20 PM
First - Thanks for your positive opinion and input. Then let's get down to crunching the bits you mentioned:
Slashing weapons - while restricting the abilities to those only, I feel that it'd be a bit unnecesarily cramping some style - a nice fluff requirement, but I can totally see a piercing or bludgeoning weapon producing enough air pressure for this to work.
Which reminds me, I've got to label the abilities (Su) or (Ex).

Way of the Wanderer... Well, I could drop the Hit Die to d6, taking the avg 5hp down.
Or I could employ a different mechanic, either DR (equal to the class level, stacking?) or anything from deflection/dodge bonus to AC to miss chance (that'd probably be too strong). The ability is conceptually all about gathering the winds around you as you move, which dampen the impact of any blow you could suffer.

As for the capstone - thanks. I worried about it being a bit too strong, so I nerfed it and then worried I've nerfed it too much. Glad that isn't the case.

Regarding Way of the Wanderer, the issue is that, when used properly, it lets you (assuming level 20) ignore the first 25 damage you take each round, which is a considerable amount. Maybe have it grant temp HP equal to class level * 2, for a maximum of 10? It seems more fair to me, but that might not be enough.

Regarding Last Breath: Taking a second look at it, it actually does seem a little over-nerfed. Since it's situational to begin with (can only be used in the round following a successful Gathering Storm), I would remove the 1/encounter limit and make it 1/round. Then it can only be used against one enemy per successful Gathering Storm, and can only be used once per three rounds anyways (i.e. Steel Tempest, then Steel Tempest, then Gathering Storm + Last Breath). After all, Steel Tempest eats their swift action (so no boosts), and Gathering Storm eats their immediate action (so no boosts or counters). In the context of it limiting their ability to use maneuvers, removing the per-encounter cap makes sense to me.

As an aside, I love the artwork you put at the top of your first post. Also, I want to use this class, because it's a ToB prestige class that doesn't feel too supernatural. All of the others give semi-magical abilities, but sometimes I just want a (mostly) mundane Warblade who sticks to Iron Heart, Tiger Claw, and Diamond Mind. Not needing those fancy (Su) abilities is fun. Sure, this PrC has some semi-magical stuff going on with wind, but at least it doesn't give you a Navi-like spirit guide (Eternal Blade), let you turn into a tiger-human hybrid (Bloodclaw Master), or other such silly things.

Xerlith
2014-10-13, 03:50 AM
Okay. Ex and Su tags slapped on.
I'm thinking about gaining flight with Perfect maneuverability when using Last Breath (At the price of making this Su). Thoughts?

Xerlith
2014-10-15, 05:32 PM
Balance changes.

Xerlith
2015-06-08, 05:40 AM
Ah, whatever. Remade to be Pow/Pathfinder-specific.

Extra Anchovies
2015-06-11, 12:01 AM
Now that I've actually played some League I realize it makes sense for Last Breath to be 1/encounter, so you should keep it that way (I rescind my previous comment on the usage).


Ah, whatever. Remade to be Pow/Pathfinder-specific.

Gotta say, I preferred it for 3.5. Slashing-damage Desert Wind stuff does a much better job of emulating Yasuo's wind abilities than anything DSP has put out. Mithral Current is a nice way to put some mechanical oomph behind his tendency to keep his blade out while he has Gathering Storm stacks, though. This is certainly a dilemma.

Regardless, it would be nice if you put the 3.5 version in a spoiler somewhere, and added a Special that lets you get slashing-damage Desert Wind and Mithral Current on the same character in a 3.P game.

Xerlith
2015-06-12, 09:04 AM
Edited it back. I guess this format works, the saves are easy enough to backport (Add +1 to the high ones, done), so I guess this is enough.
Still worried about Way of the Wanderer.

Extra Anchovies
2015-06-12, 09:16 PM
Edited it back. I guess this format works, the saves are easy enough to backport (Add +1 to the high ones, done), so I guess this is enough.
Still worried about Way of the Wanderer.

I think it's a good ability. It rewards the use of move+standard attack, which pairs nicely with martial strikes.