Flying on the wings of an eagle [PrC]

Whew, put a lot of work into this'n.

Eaglewing Striker
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/cov_gallery/92342.jpg
Jazdia Redmoon and Beak-hook, doing away with treacherous bandits

The deadliest and most noble creatures of the sky are the giant eagles. These noble beasts are tamed by few, but eaglewing striker's are undoubtedly the ultimate masters in combat on the backs of the giant eagles. They gain benefits similar to the natural abilities of the eagle, while the mount in turn gains martial prowess when the eagle is mounted by it's master. Eaglewing strikers are also a diverse breed, one of few martial adepts that are as potentially skilled with a bow as they are with a sword or lance.

HD: d10

Requirements
BAB: +6
Skills: Martial Lore 2 ranks, Ride 8 ranks, Spot or Listen 4 ranks
Feats: Mounted Combat, Ride-by Attack or Mounted Archery
Maneuvers: Ability to use 3rd level maneuvers, including at least one strike and one stance
Special: Must have spent one week finding and summoning forth a giant eagle from nature, which grants you the Eagle Mount class feature.

Class Skills: Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Martial Lore, Ride, Spot, Swim and Tumble.
Skill-points per level: 4+Int modifier

{table="head"]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1st|+1|+2|+0|+0|Eagle mount, eagle senses
2nd|+2|+3|+0|+0|Honor of the Eagle
3rd|+3|+3|+1|+1|Stance of the predator
4th|+4|+4|+1|+1|Improved flight (good)
5th|+5|+4|+1|+1|Peerless archer stance
6th|+6|+5|+2|+2|Dive of the eagle
7th|+7|+5|+2|+2|Improved flight (perfect)
8th|+8|+6|+2|+2|Lightning talon strike
9th|+9|+6|+3|+3|Fearsome raptor
10th|+10|+7|+3|+3|Aerial dragoon stance
[/table]

{table="head"]Level|Man. Known|Man. Readied|Stances Known
1st|0|0|0
2nd|1|0|1
3rd|0|1|0
4th|1|0|0
5th|0|0|0
6th|1|0|0
7th|0|0|1
8th|1|1|0
9th|0|0|0
10th|1|0|0
[/table]

Weapons and armor proficiencies: Eaglewing strikers are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, but no additional types of armor or shields.

Maneuvers: At levels 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 10th, an eaglewing striker gains new maneuvers known from the Falling Star, Iron Heart, Tiger Claw or Twin Spirit disciplines. You must meet a maneuver's prerequisite to learn it. You add your full eaglewing striker levels to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest-level maneuvers known.
At levels 3rd and 8th, you gain additional maneuvers readied per day.

Stances Known: At 2nd and 7th levels, you learn a new martial stance from the Iron Heart, Falling Star, Iron Heart, Tiger Claw or Twin Spirit disciplines. You must meet the stances prerequisites to learn it.

Eagle Mount: The eaglewing striker has gained the friendship of a powerful creature, the giant eagle. The benefits of the mount you gain are defendant on the eaglewing striker's initiator level. The benefits are described on the table at the bottom of the page.

Eagle Senses (Ex): You gain a small portion of the natural keen senses of the eagle. You gain a bonus to both Spot and Listen checks equal to your eaglewing striker level, with a maximum of +10.

Honor of the Eagle (Ex): At 2nd level, the battle cunning and strength of will belong to both you and your eagle. To use this ability, choose a single foe, attacks and damage rolls made by your mount against this foe while you ride it gain a bonus equal to your eaglewing striker level divided by two. The drawback of this means you cannot focus on attacking other enemies, both mount and rider taking a -2 on all attack rolls against other enemies in the encounter.
Once this foe has been felled you may choose another one to gain the benefits again. The benefits of this last until the end of the encounter.
An eaglewing striker may choose not to designate a foe for the round using this ability, but once chosen they cannot take their focus off them until they are felled.

Stance of the Predator (Ex): Your taloned companion becomes a very part of you, and you a part of it. At 3rd level you gain a special stance that you and your mount both enter simultaneously. You both take a swift action to lose the benefits of any stance you're in to gain the benefits granted by this stance. While in this stance, you are capable of channeling your maneuvers strait through your mounts talons. When making an attack with it's talons it may use and thus expend one of your readied boosts or strikes. Your mount is also capable of regaining maneuvers in the same way you might, such as a warblade recovering his with a single melee attack or flurry of styling swings in mid-air, or a swordsage recovering one of their maneuvers in a similar fashion.

Improved Flight (Ex): Through rigorous training with your eagle mount, it's agility in the sky is unmatched by most creatures in nature. At 4th level, it's flight speed maneuverability increases to good and increases again to perfect at 7th level.

Peerless Archer Stance (Su): At 5th level, you get a special stance that increases your deadly power with a bow while on the back of an eagle. You take a swift action to lose the benefits of any stance you're in to gain the benefits granted by this stance. While in this stance and wielding any kind of bow, ranged attacks used with the bow gain a bonus to attack rolls equal to your eaglewing striker level. Additionally, you are granted the benefits of the Rapid Shot and Shot on the Run feats. The benefits of this stance only work while mounted on your giant eagle mount.

Dive of the Eagle (Ex): At 6th level, you've trained your mount to deal more damage in a swooping attack. Whenever it makes a flying charge attack and attacks with it's talons it deals an additional amount of damage equal to 1d6 times your class level divided by two.

Lightning Talon Strike (Ex): At 8th level, you learn a maneuver unique to eaglewing strikers, the Lightning Talong Strike. By using your empathic link with your mount, you hone it's skills as a predator. This is treated just as a normal martial maneuver: you must ready it and expend it normally. It is a 7th level strike, and does not belong to any discipline. This strike takes a full-round action to initiate and requires you begin while mounted, and while your mount is making a flying charge. The second part of the action is your giant eagle making an attack with both talons simultaneously, rolling separately for each talon. If one of the talons hits and deals damage, it is allowed to make a grapple check as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity, and a +4 bonus on the grapple check. If the attack and grapple are both successful, the eagle may immediately take another move action, and are lastly given a choice of two things; either at the end of the move action drop the foe, forcing it to take falling damage as normal, or as part of the move action, allow the eagle to make a bite attack against the foe, who is considered flat-footed against the attack.
Alternatively, the eagle may keep it's hold against the foe, but must make a new grapple check as normal each round to maintain a hold on a struggling opponent. This allows the eagle to fly to greater heights and increase the potential falling damage they might take.

Fearsome Raptor (Su): At 9th level, your mount gains a special fear aura. Whenever it flies over a creature or attacks it with it's talons or beak, it instills fear into that foe. It must make a Will save equal to 10+half your initiator level+your Cha modifier. Opponents that fail this save become frightened for as many rounds as your eaglewing striker level. Enemies that pass their save against this ability become immune to it for 24 hours.

Aerial Dragoon Stance (Su): At 10th level, your mount is an unstoppable killing force on wings. You take a swift action to lose the benefits of any stance you're in to gain the benefits granted by this stance, and you must be mounted on your eagle mount. While in this stance, your mount gains a few benefits. Firstly, it gains bonus to it's natural armor and Dex score equal to your eaglewing striker level. Secondly, it's talon attacks increase to deal 1d10 points of damage plus their Str modifier, and receives a critical multiplier for it's claws of x3 instead of x2. Thirdly, it gains all the benefits of the Dodge, Improved Critical (claw) and Mobility feats. Lastly, it's flight speed increases to 120 feet instead of 90 feet.
Being in this stance counts for both rider and mount, so the eagle may not take this stance while the rider takes another one.
__________________

Giant Eagle Mount
The eaglewing strikers giant eagle mount is a paragon of it's kind, with abilities above and beyond those of a normal giant eagle.

{table="head"]Initiator Level|Bonus HD|Nat. Armor Adj.|Str Adj.|Special
5th-7th|+2|+4|+1|Empathic link, improved evasion, share saving throws
8th-10th|+4|+6|+2|Improved speed
11th-14th|+6|+8|+3|Command birds
15th-20th|+8|+10|+4|Spell resistance
[/table]

Eagle mount basics: Use the base statistics for a giant eagle, but make changes to take into account the attributes and characteristics summarized on the table and described below.

Bonus HD: Extra ten-sided (d10) Hit Dice, each of which gains a Constitution modifier, as normal. Extra Hit Dice improve the mount’s base attack and base save bonuses. A special mount’s base attack bonus is equal to that of a fighter of a level equal to the mount’s HD. A mount has good Fortitude and Reflex saves (treat it as a character whose level equals the animal’s HD). The mount gains additional skill points or feats for bonus HD as normal for advancing a monster’s Hit Dice.

Natural Armor Adj.: The number on the table is an improvement to the mount’s existing natural armor bonus.

Str Adj.: Add this figure to the mount’s Strength score.

Empathic Link (Su): The eaglewing striker has an empathic link with her eagle mount out to a distance of up to 1 mile. The eaglewing striker cannot see through the mount’s eyes, but they can communicate empathically.
Note that even intelligent mounts see the world differently from humans, so misunderstandings are always possible.
Because of this empathic link, the eaglewing striker has the same connection to an item or place that her mount does, just as with a master and his familiar.

Improved Evasion (Ex): When subjected to an attack that normally allows a Reflex saving throw for half damage, a mount takes no damage if it makes a successful saving throw and half damage if the saving throw fails.

Share Saving Throws: For each of its saving throws, the mount uses its own base save bonus or the eaglewing striker's, whichever is higher. The mount applies its own ability modifiers to saves, and it doesn’t share any other bonuses on saves that the master might have.

Improved Speed (Ex): The mount’s flight and base land both speed increases by 10 feet.

Command Birds (Sp): Once per day per two initiator levels of its master, an eagle mount can use this ability to command other any mundane bird, as long as the target creature has fewer Hit Dice than the mount. This ability functions like the command spell, but the mount must make a DC 21 Concentration check to succeed if it’s being ridden at the time. If the check fails, the ability does not work that time, but it still counts against the mount’s daily uses. Each target may attempt a Will save (DC 10 + ½ master's initiator level + master's Cha modifier) to negate the effect.

Spell Resistance (Ex): A mount’s spell resistance equals its master’s initiator level + 5. To affect the mount with a spell, a spellcaster must get a result on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) that equals or exceeds the mount’s spell resistance.

I don't know how you keep pulling them out of your ass, but another great work by Krimm Blackleaf.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Guyr Adamantine

I don't know how you keep pulling them out of your ass, but another great work by Krimm Blackleaf.

---

:biggrin: You're very kind.

Quote:

---

:biggrin: You're very kind.

---

Seriously. The only thing that goes against my taste is Talon Warrior Stance, because I dislike transformational powers unless its the whole point of the class.

But again, its mere taste.

Riding giant eagles plus Tome of Battle? Awesome. Just awesome. :smallbiggrin: :smallcool:

ok, where to start?

first, very nice. and you put in some great fluff, btw.

second, i agree with talon stance. it seems out of place with the rest of it.

third, the aerial dragoon stance, i am assuming (ok, not assuming, since you did write that the pc enters the stance) you have to enter this, even though it kinda sounds like the bird has to enter it. do you have to be mounted in order to enter the stance, and once in the stance, do you have to remain mounted for the bird to keep its bonuses? it would be kinda cool to say something like, if you enter this stance from the stance of the predator, the bird can then adopt the aerial dragoon stance all by itself, and you can assume another stance, allowing you to focus on shooting star stances or twin spirit stances or something. i realize that this would be powerful, in effect granting two stances at the same time, especially if you are still mounted, but by then you are at least 16th level, and probably concentrating on ranged attacks yourself, which, while versatile, are still generally underpowered even with a martial discipline to beef them up. although i suppose instead of archery, you could be charging with a lance or something.

also might want to specify what the twin spirit stances that do trample damage translate to with the eagle. i assume claw damage, but you might want to make that a case-by-case basis for some of them.

and, i feel that the archer aspect of the guy was lost. maybe trade out that talon stance transformation thing for some cool archer goodness, maybe a unique strike or boost, or maybe just a good archer feat.

i am sure there is more tumbling around in here, as always. if so, i'll let you know. good job. very flavorful. very nice. aaron out.

I got rid of the Talon Warrior Stance and replaced it with the more archer friendly Peerless Archer Stance. I also changed the prerequisite feats slightly.

dude all i have to say is great job and do u mind if i play this at all.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by D Knight

dude all i have to say is great job and do u mind if i play this at all.

---

I encourage people to use my homebrew. :biggrin:

golden. (mm-k. comp is telling me that my message was too short, and that i have to put more letters in it. how's this, i wonder?)