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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Other Phantom Garden discipline - elegant TWFing (PEACH)



Elves
2019-05-07, 06:14 PM
This is a revised version of Oslecamo’s Ancient Temple (https://web.archive.org/web/http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=147.0). This is NOT for Age of Warriors, I just liked the quirky maneuver names. It could instead be called Phantom Flower.

As described in the intro, the discipline is supposed to be fairly niche and rare, geared for someone who specializes in it.

Even after toning it down from the original, it makes a better TWF disc than Tiger Claw. That’s not inherently a problem, since I think Tiger Claw should be about big leaps and crazy savagery rather than purely TWF.

But I may switch it back to having a prereq feat (Netherworld Gardener, below), like it did in the original version. More likely, will simply nerf it further: I don’t want to get into a treadmill of having “elite disciplines”.



Phantom Garden

“The things my Youkai-Forged Blades cannot cut are next to none!"

Long ago, a noblewoman rose as a ghost after her death. Without descendants, she declared she would keep running her lands and demanded all the comforts she enjoyed while alive. Most of her servants ran away in fear rather than work under an undead, but her loyal gardeners, who were responsible for the estate's famously gorgeous terraces and grounds, stayed and did their best to continue tending the gardens that were their lives’ accomplishment — as well as to serve the lady’s meals and tea, maintain the house and even patrol the property in place of the missing guards. The lady was satisfied with being taken care of by these dedicated servants, and never ventured out from her lands. But the story spread of how a powerful ghost now ruled the area, and necromancers began converging on it, eager to bring this being under their control. Each brought their undead minions with them, to subdue her by force. Moreover, the lady’s unexplained rise as a ghost drew conspicuous attention in the spirit world, attracting phantoms and malicious yokai.

Despite their loyalty, the gardeners were powerless against most of the undead since their working tools couldn't hurt them, and all would have died or worse. But the lady’s ghost intervened, gifting her servants with powerful swords that could slice through the unholy invaders. In a series of battles across the grounds, from the hedge maze to the flowery groves to the fountains, the gardeners destroyed all the undead, combining their skill honed from years of cutting plants with their new weapons. The lady was pleased. Enemyless for the moment, the gardeners dedicated themselves to developing a martial art that perfectly blended the elegant cutting of plants with the cutting of those who dared disturb their mistress’s lands, and she shared certain secrets of the ghost world with them to augment their efforts. The result was Phantom Garden.

As for the Ghost Mistress herself, she said she would one day make peace with worldly affairs and ascend to nirvana, but that's another story. For now she stayed in this world, becoming preoccupied with overseeing the development and expansion of her gardens. They soon regained and passed their former fame, attracting visitors from far around, and being guarded by sword-wielding gardeners, no necromancer or malign spirit dared approach.

Some gardeners did grow weary of serving the Ghost Mistress, as they worked from dawn to night and weren't even getting paid anymore. Through these ex-employees, rumor of the discipline spread, prompting martial adepts to travel to the Mistress’s manor and apply as gardeners. She was happy to receive them, and ever since, since mortal bodies wilt, the Ghost Mistress has found it necessary to take on new students to tend and defend her grounds.

And in fact her gardeners no longer work in the mortal world alone. They also cross the barrier, landscaping and florisculpting great gardens in the spirit world, for joy or for phantom lords, so much that some become half-spirit themselves.

The favored weapons of this discipline are the youkai-forged blades that only the Ghost Mistress seems to know how to get. The discipline skill is Profession (Gardener), as in order to know how to cut flesh and soul at the same time one must first learn how to gracefully cut trees and flowers. Although some question if this philosophy is really true, the fact that it's upheld by gardener-warriors who serve an apparently mad ghost doesn't leave much room for discussion if you wish to learn their methods.

Classes: Crusader, Swordsage, Warblade. Crusaders trained in this school emphasize its spirituality and connection to the ghost world, swordsages emphasize the aesthetic and philosophical nature of gardening, and warblades emphasize the application of gardening skill to swordplay. As a result of their differing foci, not all of the school’s maneuvers are available to all.

The discipline wondrous item is a pair of gardening gloves.


The Phantom Garden school is all about showing the best from yourself, in all senses of the word.

Netherworld Gardener

You were trained in the gardens of the Ghost Mistress herself.

Prerequisites: 1 Phantom Garden maneuver

Benefit: In return for your loyalty to the Ghost Mistress, you're gifted with a pair of youkai-forged blades. You gain proficiency with youkai blades of all types (they’re exotic weapons).

By default these blades are katanas, but each may instead be any 1-handed simple or martial masterwork slashing weapon.

Youkai blades feel like natural extensions of your body, allowing you to count them as light weapons whenever it would be beneficial.

As a result of the ethereally charged material they’re made of, they benefit from a permanent ghost touch effect. As a material property this does not contribute to their +10 maximum enhancement bonus, and can’t be suppressed by Dispel Magic. The blades can be enchanted normally. They have hardness 19 and 50 hit points in the Material Plane, slightly less hard than adamantine but less brittle; in the Ethereal Plane or other ghostly realms, they’re stronger, with hardness 21 and 60 hit points.

Finally, a youkai-forged blade counts as a masterwork tool that grants a +2 competence bonus on Profession (Gardener) checks. This is helpful for Phantom Garden maneuvers that require such checks, since normal masterwork gardening tools count as improvised weapons.

Logistics: If lost or destroyed, new blades can be gotten from the Ghost Mistress, from another one of her past or present students, or from another one of the rare ghosts capable of creating ghostforged weapons — if you can convince them to do so.

If the blade or blades were lost through carelessness, the Ghost Mistress will require a level-appropriate task or atonement in return, such as single-handedly building and florisculpting a huge new garden. She may also refuse if you have become abominable to her.

Normal: If you’re not proficient with youkai-forged blades you can’t count them as light weapons when beneficial, can’t use them as masterwork gardening tools, and take the normal -4 improficiency penalty on attacks, but can still use their natural ghost touch property.


Mystic Dream

Ahh, opening my eyes, there's so much light all of a sudden.

Prerequisites: 1 Phantom Garden strike

Benefit: Your sword dance drives you to a state of incredible tolerance; even if blasted back thirty feet you can keep on chonking.

You gain 2 temporary hit points every time you hit an enemy with an attack made as part of a Phantom Garden strike. At 5th, 15th and 20th levels the number of temporary hit points increases by 1. The temporary hit points last until the start or end of an encounter, or 5 minutes in a prolonged battle.

Note: this is meant as a crappy prereq for the tactical feat. If playing without flaws, change the prereqs of the feat below to be Mystic Dream OR Netherworld Gardener.


Half-Spirit with Desire for Death

"The temple has a strict ban on murder!"
"Um, er, no, I don't strictly want to MURDER..."

Prerequisites: Mystic Dream, 9 ranks in Profession (Gardener), 3 Phantom Garden maneuvers

Benefit: You can use the three following tactical options:

Aspiring Sword Angel Dance - Mortals know that the first step to ascend into a higher being is to act as said being. Once per round whenever you hit an opponent with two weapons in a single turn, you can move your speed without provoking attacks of opportunity.

If you do, you can choose to leave behind a cloud of petals that works as a Fog Cloud centered on your previous position, lasting 1 round.

All in one moment... I think she moved
too fast for my eyes to follow.
Seems like it'll be impossible to catch her in that moment.

Celestial Star Sword "As the Silent Nirvana"- The culmination of one's pursuit of liberation from this world of imperfectly captured and arranged beauty. To use this option you must perform a Phantom Garden strike that would allow you to make multiple attacks, but choose to only make one.

If you hit, your opponent must succeed on a Will save with DC 10+1/2 HD+wismod or suffer a Silence effect, as the spell, for 1 round, and a Reflex save with the same DC or be blinded for 1 round.

This was a surprise. She could focus so well as to cut out sound and color altogether.
If you can't hear, it gets harder to avoid. If the color is lost, you can't tell things apart.

Four Births "Resounding of the Restless Beings" - The four kinds of birth are viviparity, oviparity, birth from marsh and incarnation of the angel. However certain beings cannot become divine congenitally.

TBA

Considering it's in the blink of an eye,
being attacked at that speed is scary.


Till When?

"When one dies, how long will their corpse remain unattended?
I pray I might die beneath a cherry blossom under spring's full moon."

Prerequisites: 9 Phantom Garden maneuvers, BAB +11

Benefit: If you would die while in a Phantom Garden stance, you instead heal all HP and remove all ill effects from yourself. When this happens, you leave your stance. For the next 10 minutes, you cannot enter any stances or recover Phantom Garden maneuvers. This can't happen again until after you take a long rest.


Ghostly Connection

Prerequisites: 1 Phantom Garden stance

Benefit: You gain one daily use of Turn Undead, which may be used to turn, bolster, or rebuke undead as a cleric, using your IL, divine CL, or arcane CL, whichever is highest. You can’t get extra uses of this ability through items, feats, or other means.

Furthermore, while you’re in a Phantom Garden Stance, any undead you control or summon gain an enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls equal to the level of the stance.

...
In addition, Phantom Garden users going for full nova potential will typically use their 15th or 18th slot to get the other 8th level stance.


Phantom Garden maneuvers are supernatural unless noted otherwise. When a maneuver specifies that you may make an attack with multiple weapons, off-hand attacks are still made at a penalty. You can’t Quick Draw a weapon during a maneuver.

As with all maneuvers, unless noted otherwise, the save DC is 10+1/2 IL+class-relevant mental ability modifier (Cha for crusader, etc).


Maneuvers

1st level
Acceptance of Life and Death: Strike – Opponent is afraid while you attain calm.
200 Hell Realm Flowers in 1 Slash: Strike – Move fast and slice en route.
Heaven’s Arranger: Utility – Rearrange allies in small area.
Ghostly Terraform Landscaping: Utility – Smoothen difficult terrain.
Fasting of the Young Ghost: Stance – Partially separate your soul from yourself.
Obsession with the Present World: Counter – Stay in the present.

2nd level
Spring Rainbow Swath: Strike – Release colorful energy from your blades.
Beast Realm Brute Sword: Strike – Combine your slashes with basic combat maneuvers.
Netherworld Reflection Slash: Counter – Deflect ranged attacks with your swords.
Karmic Punishment of the Idle and Unfocused: Boost – Daze opponent, or accelerate a friend.

3rd level
Flashing Slash Formation as Karma Gust: Strike – Move even faster while slicing with both your swords.
Storybook of the Ghost Realm: Utility – Draw on ghostly lore.
Blossoming Soul Stance: Stance – Divide your soul even more.
Asura Realm Pride of Ascension: Strike – Free a friend with the beauty of your attacks.
Verdict of the Phantom Judges: Boost – Your blades launch energy slashes

4th level
Mortal Realm Rise from Delusion: Strike – Break free of a negative condition.
Swirling Blossoms: Boost – Glowing flower petals fall around you concealing your next move.
Disappearing Elegance: Strike – Gracefully vanish out of sight, then slice from impossible angles.
Ghostly Terraform Horticulture: Boost – Draw in foliage from the spirit world.

5th level
Heaven of Summer: Stance – Bind your soul into your blades.
Floral Nirvana: Counter - Remove yourself from reality for a moment.
Secret of Life and Death: Strike - Opponent may die if you hit with two weapons, or use as raise dead.
Soul Gardener: Strike - Draw out a friend’s ghost.

6th level
Tower Watching Blade's Bullet-Cutting Third Eye: Counter – Block an enemy attack in a heaven-sent moment.
Five Signs of the Dying Deva: Strike – Your blows reveal your opponent's doom, stripping them of defenses.
Slicing Enlightenment Bladeform: Stance – +10ft reach as you cut though the illusion of reality.
Slashing a Flower Upon One's Head: Strike – Cut only what must be cut, harming a foe or freeing an ally.

7th level
God's Flashing Slash as Karma Gust: Strike – Move an impossible distance while slicing at all who oppose you.
Slash Clearing the Six Senses: Strike – Ignore the illusions of reality to strike at your target's true core.
Approaching Disillusion: Strike – Slash reality, forming dangerous rifts.
Maiden Runs in Autumn: Boost – Run fast.

8th level
Attainment of Eternal Truth: Boost – See everything as it truly is, then close the gap with your target.
Body Falls Behind: Stance – Your ghost self has grown into a full-fledged double, but one that now seeks to be free of you.
Deva Realm's God Swords: Strike – Your attacks keep repeating until your opponent is dead.
Moon-Reflecting Satellite Slash: Strike – Clear all obstacles in your path before striking with the power of the moon.
Sinking Year Ghost Fog: Utility – Sinister fog washes in, bringing ghosts.
Six Realms Ageless Obsession: Stance – Enter the border between life and death to attain extreme power, cannot keep it for long.

9th level
Winter For Bodies And Souls: Strike – Cause carnage and rise as a ghost.
Sword Blizzard: Strike – Keep attacking until your opponent dies or you miss.

Acceptance of Life and Death
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Crusader 1, Swordsage 1, Warblade 1
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: see text
Target: up to one enemy and up to one ally
Duration: instantaneous
Save: None

Everything dies and is reborn. The realization of this fact makes some despair, while others are actually calmed by it.

Attack with up to two weapons. If all your attacks hit, your opponent must succeed on a Will save or be shaken for 1 round (this doesn't stack with other fear effects).

Eeeh~ It's going to get really chaotic in the other world.
It's a pain so maybe I'll kill some off now.


Obsession with the Present World
Phantom Garden (Counter)
Level: Crusader 1, Swordsage 1, Warblade 1
Initiation Action: Immediate
Range: 60ft
Target: one creature

There's no past or future. There's only now, and it lasts forever.

This counter has two uses. First, when a creature tries to set a readied action, you can use this maneuver to interrupt and prevent them. They can’t ready any actions until their next turn. They don't actually lose any actions.

Second, this counter can cancel any Celerity or Lesser Celerity spell. With IL 15+ it can cancel Greater Celerity. With IL 17+, it can cancel Time Stop. It can also cancel other effects that grant extra actions, but only those that do so through time manipulation — so not, for example, a belt of battle — and for any but the mentioned effects your IL must at least equal the effect’s caster level.

Please concentrate on NOW, not what happens NEXT.


200 Hell Realm Flowers in 1 Slash
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Crusader 1, Swordsage 1, Warblade 1
Mv prereq: 1
Initiation Action: Full round action

The massive gardens of the Ghost Mistress demand their caretakers move at extreme speeds to maintain them.

You move up to twice your speed in a straight line. At any point during your movement you may make an attack with up to two weapons.

You may also make a Profession (Gardener) check as part of this maneuver. For every 5 points of the result, you instantly remove one 5-foot cube of soft terrain from your path, carving it into an elegant passage. This could include vegetation, loose-packed dirt, hay, etc, or several separate panes of sliceable material such as cloth or paper walls. With adamantine or high enhancement bonus weapons, you may be able to tunnel through somewhat harder substances.

Hell!
Wait, I'm a being of the netherworld.
Why must I be judged!?


Heaven’s Arranger
Phantom Garden (Utility)
Level: Crusader 1, Swordsage 1
Initiation Action: Standard
Area: 10ft emanation centered on you

Gardening. The world is too big to change so you draw a line around what you choose to affect and make things perfect inside.

You may rearrange the positions of every ally in the area to anywhere else in the area.

At ILs 5, 10, 15 and 20 the emanation increases by 5ft.

I've just been waiting SO long to be reorganized.


Ghostly Terraform Landscaping
Phantom Garden (Rush)
Level: Crusader 1, Swordsage 1, Warblade 1
Mv prereq: 1
Initiation Action: Move

Move your speed. Every square of difficult terrain you enter becomes normal terrain. This happens before you pay the extra cost to enter the square.

This doesn’t affect obstacles or barriers that impede movement.

This maneuver may be supernatural or not, depending on the type of difficult terrain altered: whether insanely rapid bladework, cleanup, and the kicking aside of obstacles suffices, or if it involves the drawing in of phantom terrain from the ghost realm. In the latter case, in addition to the maneuver being supernatural, the landscaping only lasts 1 minute before fading back to how it was.

Any Phantom Garden user should be ashamed of herself if she doesn't leave her battlefield in a better condition than how it started.


Fasting of the Young Ghost
Phantom Garden (Stance)
Level: 1
Initiation Action: Swift
Target: Personal

The path of the Ancient Temple demands one to go between the way of the living and the dead.

When you enter this stance, you partially remove your own soul from your body, making it float around you like a small changing round cloud. It cannot be damaged or separated from you by any means, but cannot do much on its own either.

Once per round as a free action during your turn, your separated soul can either make use a mental (Int, Wis or Cha based) skill check that would normally take a Standard action or less to make, or can shoot a projectile of spiritual energy as a melee or ranged touch attack with a range of 5ft/IL that deals Cold damage equal to your IL. Both the mental skill check and ranged touch attack use your own stats.
Spring Rainbow Swath
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Swordsage 2, Warblade 2
Mv prereq: 2
Initiation Action: Standard action
Area: 30ft cone
Targets: 2 creatures in cone
Duration: Instantaneous
Save: Reflex half

You gather spiritual energy around you before elaborately slicing it to create a rain of colorful projectiles.

Make a Profession (Gardener) check. Two creatures in the area take damage equal to the result of this check, or four take damage equal to half of this check, or so on. A successful Reflex save halves the damage.

In addition, you may apply the result of your profession (Gardener) check to the area of effect as if you had worked 1 hour in it.

At IL 10, you may affect one additional target, and the halving becomes 6/12/etc.

The Phantom Garden school carefully balances magic, blade skill and the art of gardening.


Beast Realm Brute Sword
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Crusader 2, Swordsage 2, Warblade 2
Mv prereq: 2
Initiation Action: Standard
Range: Melee
Duration: Instantaneous

Certain tasks demand less elegant solutions.

Make one melee attack with each wielded weapon. You may perform a sunder, disarm or bullrush atempt as a free action without provoking attacks of opportunity against each opponent hit.

If you use this maneuver on an inanimate object or plant, you may make a single profession (Gardener) check on it.

Items sundered by Beast Realm Brute Sword turn into beatiful exotic flowers that wither extremely slowly and are worth as much as the destroyed item on the open market.

Right, so I'll just slash her with my Blade!


Netherworld Reflection Slash
Phantom Garden (Counter)
Level: Crusader 2, Swordsage 2, Warblade 2
Mv prereq: 2
Initiation Action: Immediate
Duration: Instantaneous

Everybody pays for their sins sooner or later.

You may initiate this maneuver when an opponent targets you with a ranged attack or ranged touch attack. Roll an opposed melee attack roll. If you win, you deflect the attack, turning it against one creature within 20 feet, or for a spell, one creature within the spell’s range.


Karmic Punishment of the Idle and Unfocused
Phantom Garden (Boost)
Level: Crusader 2, Swordsage 2, Warblade 2
Initiation Action: Swift
Target: One enemy who has not yet acted this round, whom you’ve just hit with a non-touch attack

Those who idle themselves without worries are bound to never accomplish anything.

This target must succeed on a Will save or be slowed for 1 round.

Alternately, you may harmlessly rap one adjacent ally with your blade to cut through their laziness and grant them a Haste effect for 1 round.
Flashing Slash Formation as Karma Gust
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Crusader 3, Swordsage 3, Warblade 3
Mv prereq: 3
Initiation Action: Full round action

As 200 Hell Realm Flowers in 1 Slash, but your movement doesn’t provoke and you may strike once with up to two wielded melee weapons at any point during this movement.

Yes, we're in a hurry.
Well then, where should we go next?


Storybook of the Ghost Realm
Phantom Garden (Utility)
Level: Crusader 3, Swordsage 3
Mv prereq: 2
Initiation Action: One minute or one hour

You draw upon the knowledge of the ghost realm, letting you make any Knowledge check even if you are untrained in that skill. If you spend one hour meditating, you may take 15 on the check and optionally substitute your wismod for your intmod.

Normal: An untrained Knowledge check is simply an Intelligence check. Without actual training, you know only common knowledge (DC 10 or lower).

Trust me. Ghosts—know things.


Blossoming Soul Stance
Phantom Garden (Stance)
Level: 3
Mv prereq: 1
Initiation Action: Swift
Personal

Your ghost-self separates from you even more, like an immature flower emerging from the ground. It now functions as an Unseen Servant, CL=IL. Whenever it would be damaged or killed, it automatically returns to your position.

Furthermore, as you start to straddle the line between realms, you’re healed by both negative and positive energy, and have a 25% chance to be unaffected by ability and level drain. This is rolled individually for each negative level, but only once for each instance of ability drain.


Asura Realm Pride of Action
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Crusader 3, Swordsage 3, Warblade 3
Mv prereq: 2
Initiation Action: Standard Action
Range: Melee
Duration: instantaneous

You make one attack with up to two melee weapons. For each attack that hits, you may remove one of these conditions from yourself an adjacent ally:
- Daze
- Stun (ally only)
- Paralysis (ally only)
- Or grant a Lesser Restoration effect.

You have to face reality here.
Every moment we waste arguing, the corrupted moon sinks lower in the sky.
How can we leave things like this, when the entire world is in serious trouble?


Verdict of the Phantom Judges
Phantom Garden (Boost)
Level: Crusader 3, Swordsage 3, Warblade 3
Mv prereq: 2
Initiation Action: Swift
Target: Personal
Duration: 1 round

The judges of rebirth decide the fate of all ghosts, and you enact their will. Your youkai-forged blades are surrounded by eerie energy from the surrounding souls, and every slice from you sends them to a new destiny while punishing your opponents.

Until the end of your current turn all your melee attacks send waves of energy or rains of glowing projectiles, which hit as hard as your melee weapon attacks. In this way you can strike opponents who are up to 10 feet away per rank you have in Profession (Gardener) as if they were in melee range.


A vile demon wrongly thinks she's safe in the air while raining down fire on a Phantom Garden user.
Mortal Realm Rise from Delusion
Phantom Garden (Boost)
Level: Crusader 4, Swordsage 4, Warblade 4
Mv prereq: 2
Initiation Action: Free
Target: Personal
Duration: Instantaneous

The work of a gardener never ends, and stopping for anything but being dead is not an option. When you initiate this maneuver, you are freed of one adverse effect, spell, or condition with a duration other than instantaneous that is currently affecting you.

In the case of a non-personal effect, such as a forcecage, this maneuver does not end the effect itself, but it provides you with one round of unaffectedness.

Unfortunately, this maneuver is not truly a healing tool and is not equivalent to remove disease. Diseases, unlike other personal effects, are suppressed rather than ended — so for example, a Phantom Garden swordsage with cancer might spam this maneuver as often as possible, halving the speed of their tumor’s growth, but they could not actually cure themselves and it would take almost all their actions, effectively being a form of focused meditation. —Finally, this maneuver cannot end, only suppress, fatigue and exhaustion resulting from insufficient rest.

Special: You may initiate this maneuver even if you would be normally unable to act, so long as the removed effect was the one stopping you from acting.


Swirling Blossoms
Phantom Garden (Boost)
Level: Crusader 4, Swordsage 4, Warblade 4
Mv prereq: 3
Initiation Action: Swift action
Target: Personal
Duration: Instantaneous

You're suddenly surrounded by a pattern of flower petals of your choice, which grant you concealment for 1 round. In addition to the normal 20% miss chance, add double your ranks in Profession (Gardener). For 1 round, enemies can’t take immediate actions that affect you.

After this boost the flower petals can be used for decoration and gardening works. They don’t wilt for a day or two, but you can’t draw in infinite numbers of spirit flowers; if you spam this maneuver the number of petals it yields quickly decreases.

[I]Hurry up, my Lady, the night is very short!
We must find the villains and cut them to pieces as soon as we can!


Disappearing Elegance
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Crusader 4, Swordsage 4, Warblade 4
Mv prereq: 2
Initiation Action: Standard action
Target: at least one opponent within melee range

A gardener shouldn't really left herself be seen doing her work. You disappear from sight as with Greater Invisibility (duration 2 rounds) and may make one attack with each wielded weapon. You can’t use this maneuver without a target.


Ghostly Terraform Horticulture
Phantom Garden (Boost)
Level: Crusader 4, Swordsage 4
Mv prereq: 2
Initiation Action: Swift action
Mv prereq
Area: 5 foot emanation centered on you.
Duration: 2 rounds

You become surrounded by exotic flowers planted in the ghost realm. Since their roots are in the ghost realm, they writhe up inexplicably from the ground. Among them are Harken carnelians, lovedotes, ice-eyes, and evenblooms. As a swift action that provokes attacks of opportunity, anyone in or adjacent to the area can stoop to pluck a flower and gain its effect. Each effect lasts 1 round. These are the flower effects available:

+1 attack
5 temporary HP
melee attacks gain the frost property
+1 shadow bonus to AC
- okay these are pretty uninspired I’ll add more.

At IL 12 and 17 the area increases by 5 feet.

Flowers are...
The humans from the outside world see them as illusions.
Not even realizing they have died,
pitiful flowers of souls.
If ghosts who lose their place increase,
what happens as a result is this.

Heaven of Summer
Phantom Garden (Stance)
Level: 5
Mv prereq: 2
Initiation Action: Swift
Personal
Save: Will

In summer, flowers bloom at the full. The spirit is free yet the illusion of the world is at its height.

You put your ghost into your weapons, which slice away the rationality of your opponents. Any enemy hit by your melee attacks must succeed on a Will save or be Confused for 1 round.

Your weapons also leave behind a trail of flower petals when swung.


Secret of Life and Death
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Crusader 5, Swordsage 5, Warblade 5
Mv prereq: 3
Initiation Action: Fullround action
Range: Melee
Target: one creature
Duration: instantaneous
Save: Fort partial

You say a small prayer for your target and then strike at the thread of their life. Make one attack with two weapons against a single opponent. If you hit with both, they must make a Fortitude save or die.

If you use this maneuver on a corpse that's been dead for no longer than 1 round for every rank you have in Profession(Gardener), and you offer 1000xp as a sacrifice, you may cut through its cycle of rebirth and make them come back to life as if with a Raise Dead spell. With IL 15 and a 2000xp sacrifice you may instead make them come back to life as with Resurrection.

This incident... you're behind it, aren't you?
If you are, I'll slash you. If you aren't, I'll slash you and move on.


Floral Nirvana
Phantom Garden (Counter)
Level: Crusader 5, Swordsage 5, Warblade 5
Mv prereq: 3
Initiation Action: Immediate
Target: Personal
Duration: Instantaneous

When you would be struck down, instead you reach Nirvana for some moments. You may initiate this counter when you would be harmed by any save-or-x effect, after any saves/checks are rolled and knowing what would affect you. Your body dissolves in flower petals and you disappear from reality. On the turn after your next, you reappear where you were.


Soul Gardener
Phantom Garden (Boost)
Level: Crusader 5, Swordsage 5
Mv prereq: 3
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: 30ft
Target: One ally
Duration: 1 round

Most people have a secret inner side. A Netherworld Gardener learns how to bring it out to help in her endless tasks.

One ally’s ghost emerges from their body, acting as their duplicate, except that powers it uses — spells, maneuvers, etc — are only half real, ie havea 50% chance of having no effect, and if they have a duration, it ends when this maneuver does. Permanent things they create, such as a Wall of Iron, also vanish at the end of this maneuver. If used on the Ethereal Plane, the ghost and all the powers it uses are fully real and persist to full duration while on that plane. The ghost acts on the target’s initiative -5.
Tower Watching Blade's Bullet-Cutting Third Eye
Phantom Garden (Counter)
Level: Crusader 6, Swordsage 6, Warblade 6
Mv prereq: 3
Initiation Action: Immediate action
Range: see text
Target: one creature.
Duration: Instantaneous
Save: None
Trigger: An opponent hits an ally with a melee or ranged attack or touch attack

In skillful hands, a sword doubles as a shield to protect what's important to you.

If the triggering attack was melee, you move up to twice your movement speed toward the attacker. If the triggering attack was ranged, you move toward any square in the missile’s trajectory. This movement can be through the air even if you normally lack a fly speed, and it does not provoke AoOs from the triggering opponent (but may from others).

If this movement ends adjacent to the attacker (melee) or in the missile’s path (ranged), you may make an attack roll opposed to the opponent’s attack roll. If it’s higher, the attack is cancelled.

If wielding more than one weapon, you may use each off-hand weapon to cancel another attack roll the opponent makes against that ally as part of their current turn, including those made simultaneously (eg manyshot, twinned spell).

If blocking a melee attack made with reach, you may come between the opponent and your ally instead of being adjacent to the opponent.

If you used this maneuver to go into midair, you may subtract any leftover movement granted by this maneuver from the calculation for consequent falling damage.

The hardest shield in all the Netherworld.


Five Signs of the Dying Deva
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Crusader 6, Swordsage 6, Warblade 6
Mv prereq: 3
Initiation Action: Fullround action
Range: melee
Target: up to five creatures
Duration: instantaneous
Save:

Death comes for all, but it rarely comes quickly, many times being pressaged by signs of decay that most beings try to conceal. With a cut, you can reveal or hide them.

Perform three attacks with your main weapon and, if applicable, two with your off-hand. Each successful hit causes one of the following effects on the enemy unless they suceed on a Fortitude save (each effect has its own save, choose before making each attack):
-Lose Fast Healing for 1 round
-Lose Regeneration for 1 round.
-Lose 5 points of non-epic damage reduction for 1 round.
-Lose 15 points of one energy resistance for 1 round.
-Lose natural armor for 1 round.
-Become exhausted for 1 round .
-Receive one negative level.
- One beneficial spell/power on creature dispelled. Instead of a Fortitude save, you make a dispel check, IL=CL.

These debuffs stack, if applicable.

Like the signs a celestial sees when it time for it to die. The five signs are loss of self-awareness, the flower crown withering, sweating from the armpits, dirtying the robe, and the body losing its light. To put it in an easy to understand and less incredibly boring way, your hair gets messy, you sweat, your clothes get dirty, and you stink. Something like that.


Perennial Flower
Phantom Garden (Boost)
Level: Crusader 6, Swordsage 6
Mv prereq: 4
Initiation Action: Full round action

Everything that looks like a cycle is just repetition. But maybe we can draw one more repetition out of you.

You hasten someone’s cycle of rebirth, mimicking a reincarnate spell. Cost: 500xp.


Slicing Enlightenment Bladeform
Phantom Garden (Stance)
Level: Crusader 6, Swordsage 6, Warblade 6
Mv prereq: 4
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: -
Target: you.
Duration: stance
Save: none

You reach enlightment, and learn you really don't need to get close to your opponent to cut them. You may also slice enemies at distance with your swords as you cut trough the illusion of reality if you prefer.

Your melee reach increases by 10 feet.


Slashing a Flower Upon One's Head
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Crusader 6, Swordsage 6, Warblade 6
Mv prereq: 3
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: See text
Target: up to two creatures
Duration: 1 round
Save: 16+Wisdom Modifier

The best sword is not the one that cuts everything, but the one that only cuts what must be cut.

You perform one standard attack with all wielded weapons. Those attacks ignore any miss chances and mirror images from your targets.*

If you hit an ally, they take no damage and all harmful conditions that they are currently suffering from end, as if with Mortal Realm Rise From Delusion.
God's Flashing Slash as Karma Gust
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Crusader 7, Swordsage 7, Warblade 7
Mv prereq: 3
Initiation Action: Full round action
Duration: instantaneous

As "Flashing Slash Formation as Karma Gust", but you can move up to 3x your movement speed in a straight line.

If there's any solid obstacle in your path, you attempt to break trough using a Profession (Gardener) check instead of a Strength check. If there's a magic/psionic obstacle in your path, you may attempt to dispel it with a Profession (Gardener) check instead of caster level check. You may even take down undispellable effects like Wall of Force, but the DC is 5 higher.


Displeasure of the Seven Sins
Phantom Garden (Counter)
Level: Crusader 7, Swordsage 7, Warblade 7
Mv prereq: 3
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: -
Target: You
Duration: instantaneous
Save: none

To attain purity one must overcome the weaknesses of the soul.

TBA

I know, I know. You're rotten already, yeah?
But rotten or not, it's my duty to protect you.


Slash Clearing the Six Senses
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Crusader 7, Swordsage 7, Warblade 7
Mv prereq: 4
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: melee
Target: one opponent
Duration: instantaneous
Save: See Text

To see nothing, hear nothing, smell nothing, taste nothing, feel nothing, think nothing of impurities — to cut away the impure world.

When you initiate this maneuver, you close all your senses and become automatically aware of every opponent within your melee reach even if they're somehow hidden. Choose one of them and make a standard attack with all wielded weapons. Those attacks ignore all defences and directly damage your opponent's HP.

Alternately, you may teleport up to 10ft/IL (except through ethereal barriers) as you cut through the impure world.


Approaching Disillusion
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Crusader 7, Swordsage 7, Warblade 7
Mv prereq: 4
Initiation Action: Standard action
Area: 50ft cone or 5ft x 5*IL ft line.
Target: All in area
Duration: Instantaneous, then 1d4+1 rounds
Save: Will or Reflex negates

You tear a gap in reality that reveals other strange and captivating realities, threatening to engulf your opponents.

You can use this maneuver in one of three ways.

First, you can mesmerize opponents. Any creature caught in a 50-foot cone emanating from the gap you cut is dazzled, confused, and fascinated. They make a separate Will save for each condition. These conditions end if the creature leaves the area. Creatures can only be affected once each time you use this maneuver, even if they re-enter the area. This use is mind-affecting.

Second, you can make a blinding beam burst through the gap. Any creature caught in a 5ft by 5*IL ft line emanating from the gap you cut takes 6d6 positive energy damage (Reflex half). Another beam shoots out at the start of every round that the gap persists.

With these two uses the gap persists for 1d4+1 rounds. Hiding directly behind it provides concealment.

Finally, you may use this maneuver to replicate a Plane Shift effect, except if used hostilely, an opponent must succeed on a Reflex save instead of a Will save.
Attainment of Eternal Truth
Phantom Garden (Boost)
Level: Crusader 8, Swordsage 8, Warblade 8
Mv prereq: 5
Initiation Action: Swift
Target: Personal

You see what must be done, and realize how simple it is to accomplish it. When you initiate this boost you gain a True Seeing effect for 1 round and an extra swift or immediate action this turn.


Body Falls Behind
Phantom Garden (Stance)
Level: 8
Mv prereq: 4
Initiation Action: Swift
Target: you.
Duration: stance
Save: none

Your soul starts to outpace your wilting, temporal form. Your ghost manifests outside you as a full-fledged ethereal double. Besides having the incorporeal subtype, its stats are the same as yours are when you enter this stance, and you share a mind. Anything that targets, affects or damages one of you affects you both. But spells, maneuvers and other powers are shared between you.

This stance can’t create creatures or duplicate creatures other than you and a familiar. This includes summoning spells, calling spells and this stance itself. The ethereal double does not have its own xp pool.

As your spirit escapes, your body suffers massive strain and pressure. You take 50 points of damage at the end of each turn during which you’ve had this stance active.

You may instead choose to use the “weak” version of this stance when initiating it, resulting in only a ghostprint of your soul emerging. Used this way, you share the same pool of actions with your ghost-self, making its advantage the ability to be in two locations at once. This version of the stance deals only 10 points of damage per turn.

If you die while in this stance, whether the weak or strong version, your spirit can continue acting for 1 round, and you are 50% likely to rise as a ghost within a month if not raised from the dead.


Moon Reflecting Satellite Slash
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Crusader 8, Swordsage 8, Warblade 8
Mv prereq: 4
Initiation Action: Fullround action

The Moon is a mysterious nexus between the dead and the living, and with this strike you directly borrow its power.

Choose one creature you can see. You're both transported to a featureless plain with a full moon (or multiple moons, if appropriate) in a starry night sky over you. You may close with your opponent and deliver one attack with each of your weapons. If you hit with both attacks, your opponent must make a Reflex save or be sealed in a luminous magical flower, as if with Trap the Soul. You can either leave the flower in place — growing in the middle of the ghostly plain — or pluck it and take it with you. The person’s flower can be discovered only through Discern Location, and they can be freed from the flower with Break Enchantment or Greater Dispel Magic; the way in which a prospective rescuer might reach your spirit plain is left to DM adjudication, as is your ability to add additional protections and wards. Regardless of what protections or guards you add, when you use this maneuver, you and your foe are always alone, and on flat ground.

So long as they have not been flower-trapped, the target may make a Will save each turn to escape the plain. As long as they remain on the plain, you may continue to make the attack described above, but may not use other maneuvers. You can return to where you were at will, leaving the other person on your plain if you wish. If you are not present, someone else can stay on the plain for only 1 minute before automatically returning, unless they found a way into that place on their own, in which case they may make a Will save at the start of every minute thereafter to avoid being banished. If someone does manage to get in, you are automatically aware of it.

You may also use this maneuver to transport only yourself.

Every time you use this maneuver, you are transported to the same plain. The most powerful Phantom Garden warrior in the world has a plain filled with flowers.


Deva Realm’s God Swords
Phantom Flower (Strike)
Level: Crusader 8, Swordsage 8, Warblade 8
Mv Prereq: 5
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: melee
Target: up to two creatures

Your attack cuts through time and keeps repeating itself in an endless cycle, slashing enemies and covering for allies.

Make one standard attack with all wielded melee weapons. If you hit, each attack repeats itself at the beginning of each new round until the target dies, you miss two attacks in a row, or you dismiss the effect as a free action. Roll new attacks every round. They always use the same attack bonus as the original attack, except that they can’t benefit from insight bonuses. You can’t retarget these attacks.

If the target on whom a weapon echo is trained tries to use any spell or effect that grants extra actions, you may have the echo be consumed in order to automatically cancel that effect.

Once you clash with her, there's no running away from a Phantom Flower warrior-gardener.


Sinking Year Ghost Fog
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Crusader 8, Swordsage 8
Mv prereq: 5
Initiation Time: 1 hour
Range: 80ft
Area: 40ft emanation centered on you or a point
Duration: 30 minutes

The maneuver shrouds an area in obscuring mist, as the spell. Out of this unnerving fog, ghosts periodically manifest.

When the maneuver is complete,*2d4*5th level human fighter ghosts appear. Ten minutes later,*1d4*8th level human fighter ghosts appear. Ten minutes after that, one 10th level human fighter ghost appears. Each ghost has maximum hit points per HD. Once these creatures appear, they serve you for the duration of the maneuver, but they cannot leave the maneuver’s area.

The ghosts obey you explicitly and never attack you, even if someone else manages to gain control over them. You do not need to concentrate to maintain control over the ghosts. You can dismiss them singly or in groups at any time.
If the mist is dispersed prematurely, no further ghosts manifest. If the mist is centered on a point, and that point is in range of you, you can spend a full round action to move the fog, or portions of it, 30 feet. The fog must still form one contiguous area (diagonals don’t count).


Six Realms Ageless Obsession
Phantom Garden (Stance)
Level: Crusader 8, Swordsage 8, Warblade 8
Initiation Action: Swift
Personal

Phantom Garden maneuvers base themselves on the six realms of rebirth, Hell, Ghost, Beast, Mortal, Asura and Deva. This dangerous stance encompasses all at the same time.

You simultaneously benefit from all Phantom Garden stances you know, and you automatically recover any Phantom Garden maneuvers you know when you enter it.

You can only maintain this stance for 2 rounds, at the end of the second you automatically exit it.

When you exit this stance, you're swallowed by the endless cycle of Rebirth and disappear in a flash of light and petals. Three rounds later you manage to slash your way through time and space and end up back in existence, but not precisely where you were; treat this just as if you had suffered a teleport mishap (False Destination) when trying to teleport to your previous location. All your Phantom Garden maneuvers are considered expended and you're irremovably stunned for 1 round.
Winter For Bodies And Souls
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Crusader 9, Swordsage 9
Mv prereq: 6
Initiation Action: Standard
Targets: 1 target/IL within 60 feet
Duration: Instantaneous
Save: Fort negates

In winter, the whole garden looks bare. We trim and clear away the dead foliage, preparing the way for new growth.

All affected wither away, and must make a Fortitude save or die. If immune to death effects they may still voluntarily die. You die automatically.

You and all slain allies immediately manifest as ghosts for 24 hours, at which point you fade away. You can fade away before then if desired.

I'm still living in the netherworld...
and I can still kill ghosts!


Sword Blizzard
Phantom Garden (Strike)
Level: Swordsage 9, Warblade 9
Mv prereq: 6
Initiation Action: Full round action
Range: Melee
Target: One creature

You make attacks with each of up to two wielded weapons at your highest base attack bonus until the opponent is dead or you miss. This is per-weapon; when you miss with one weapon you can keep attacking with the second, if applicable. Hopefully for the target they have immediate actions to escape!

Elves
2019-05-07, 06:17 PM
Legacy Weapon

https://i.imgur.com/yGHvLvt.jpg?1

Ghostfire

The most powerful sword the Ghost Mistress ever made.

Omen: The sword glows with fragmenting ghostly energy.

History

x (DC 15)

Because of her interest in the spirits of the dead, the second and final Devoted Spirit master at the Temple of Nine Swords was known as the Spirit Seeker. So when rumors of the Phantom Garden discipline emerged, it was she who took on the task of investigating them on the Temple’s behalf. But when she rode to the Phantom Gardens, she found their wrought iron gates closed, guarded by custodial staff with eyewatering swords. The Ghost Mistress had sensed her approaching and mistaken her for a necromancer. (DC 20; Rite of Mistaken Intent)

x (DC 26)

x (DC 31)

Legacy Rituals

x Cost: 1500gp. Feat Granted: Least Legacy (Ghostfire)
x Cost: 13,000gp. Feat Granted: Lesser Legacy (Ghostfire)
x Cost: 39,000. Feat Granted: Greater Legacy (Ghostfire)

Wielder Requirements

5th level, martial weapon proficiency (or EWP (bastard sword) to use 1-handed).

Legacy Item Abilities

Nonlegacy characteristics: +1 youkai-forged katana. Sheds light as a torch (see Magic Weapons, DMG); the glow is ghostly and pallid.

For a character without the Netherworld Gardener feat, youkai-forged weapons are simply weapons that have ghost touch as a material property, like serren arrows: not counting toward the +10 maximum enhancement bonus, nor subject to dispelling. Normally they'd also take a -4 improficiency bonus but in Ghostfire's case this is waived.

GHOSTFIRE

5 +1 weapon ability free choice, Spectral Brand
6 creature compass: undead
7 -
8 speed +10ft
9 -
10 x
11 at-will swift action true strike
12 +1 weapon ability free choice
13 x
14 x
15 x
16 x
17 x
18 x
19 x
20 x

Weapon Ability Free Choice - These can be split or saved up for weapon properties of a different value.

Spectral Brand - When the sword is commanded to shed light as a torch, the pallid ghostly light also reveals ethereal beings and objects within the radius of its illumination (40ft). Once per day it may also show arcane magic within this radius, revealing auras as with Arcane Sight, invisible creatures as with See Invisibility, and any miscellaneous arcane marks hidden from plain view. This effect is CL 5, but the range remains 40ft.

Creature Compass: Undead - While holding, wearing, or wielding Ghostfire, you can detect undead creatures within 60 feet, but you must concentrate (a standard action) to do so. You ignore any damage reduction of undead creatures when attacking with it, as well as with any other weapon or natural weapon so long as you have it drawn and in hand.

Elves
2019-05-07, 06:27 PM
Reserved.

If I end up revising this more heavily, I want to draw a line between Tiger Claw's TWFing style focusing on crits and this discipline focusing on a) rider effects that trigger from multiple attacks hitting and b) opportunities to trade extra attacks for effects.


The 8th level stances are a main balance concern. Body Falls Behind in particular.

jjordan
2019-05-07, 09:57 PM
I really like the concept, though the backstory needs to be edited down a little. I wanted the skills/feats/abilities to be more closely related to gardening. E.G. Prune the bush, Weed the garden, Tend the hybrid, Nurture the helpful insect, Water the lawn, and etc...