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    Ogre in the Playground
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    Nov 2011

    Default Re: [PF] Striking from the Shadows, a Guide to the PoW Stalker

    WIP! This is just a copypasta of Broken Blade at time of posting.

    Edit: Levels 1-4 are done.

    Edit: Working on the rest on paper. Typing up the rest.

    [SPOILER]
    Veiled Moon

    Veiled Moon is a discipline focused on teleportation, mysticism, and stealth. Its associated skill is Stealth, and its associated weapon groups are light blades, double weapons, and spears. Veiled Moon has one of the lowest damage outputs of the new disciplines, but probably has the highest utility. The entire discipline is supernatural - stay out of antimagic fields, and you'll be fine.

    1st
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    Dimensional Strike***: Strike. Your foe is automatically flat-footed. Not bad. A fun trick: If you have the Deadly Ambush stalker art, you automatically apply your deadly strike damage.

    Disturbing Blow****: Strike. If you hit, your opponent takes a -4 penalty on their next d20 roll. Wait for, say, the party Wizard or Psion dropping a save-or-suck ability, and you've got a nasty combo. Also, at low levels, it's almost a guaranteed failed attack roll from an enemy bruiser.

    Ghost Hunting Blow***: Boost. Your attacks gain the ghost touch property for 1 round. The usefulness of this ability scales hard with your DM's choices. Know you're going to be fighting ghosts? You might be the only party member who can hit them with this. Know for a fact you're only going to be fighting goblins for the first 5 levels? This is worthless.

    Inner Sense****: Counter. +2 insight bonus on a single saving throw. Obviously, it's worthless if you're getting an insight bonus from another source (such as defensive precognition), but otherwise, you can definitely do worse than a 1/combat bonus to saves.

    Leaping Spirit Stance**: Stance. +2 dodge bonus to AC and +2 competence bonus to Reflex saves as long as you move 10 feet each round. It's not bad, per se, especially when you're probably going to have mobility options from maneuvers, but you're probably going to have better options for a go-to stance. In general, I'd recommend Inner Sphere Stance from Thrashing Dragon if you want a dodge bonus from your stance.

    Spirit Sensing Stance***: Stance. Scent is quite useful (both in combat and out of combat). If you don't know what else to pick, consider this for your second level 1 stance.


    2nd
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    Cursed Fate*: Strike. They're allowed a Will save and only lose their move action? Take Shards of Iron Strike in Broken Blade every time.

    Fading Strike*****: Strike: Engage. Disengage. Teleport around the battlefield, while hitting people. There's so many great plays this opens up. It's only a standard action, so you can:
    1. Move, teleport, attack (get in range to teleport, then attack).
    2. Attack, teleport, move (hit someone, teleport out of reach, run).
    3. Teleport, attack, move (jump to someone, then keep moving).
    3. Move, attack, teleport (move up, hit someone, teleport away).
    Seriously, if you don't pick this up, I don't understand you as a person (unless, of course, you're starting at higher levels and can pick up Flicker Strike to begin with...then MAYBE).

    Half-Gone***: Counter. Your Stealth vs. your opponent's Perception. If you win, you're treated as incorporeal for that attack/effect. So you have a chance to give your opponent's ability a 50% chance to miss (if magical) or automatically miss (if completely mundane). Certainly not a bad choice, but there will be better counters later on. Obviously much better if everything your DM throws at you just has natural attacks or regular/masterwork weapons and/or no investment in Perception.

    Resonance Strike**: Melee touch attack for 2d6+initiation modifier force damage. On the one hand, force damage is almost entirely unresistible, but the scaling is so bad that this will become worthless relatively quickly.


    3rd
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    Altered Penumbra****: Counter. Your Stealth vs. their Perception to teleport 10 feet away and leave a mirror image in your place. I told you there were going to be better counters, didn't I? One of the best parts of this counter is that if you teleport out of their reach, you're not just avoiding one attack - you can interrupt a full attack from them.

    Brilliant Moon***: Strike. Ignore armor bonus (except force-effect armor like mage armor) and deal an additional 4d4 force damage. The bonus chance to hit is nice, but remember that 4d4 is an average of 10 damage - not that much as you go up in levels.

    Formless Dance*****: Stance. Blur on its own is a great effect; see invisibility is just icing on the cake.

    Ghostwalk*****: The ability to walk through walls (if only for 6 seconds at a time) is incredible for dungeon crawls and espionage, as well as a clutch defensive ability in combat.


    4th
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    Breath of the Moon*** Strike: Confusion is a painful condition (especially in Pathfinder), but forcing a target to be unable to attack you is excellent. Will save negates, unfortunately.

    Ethereal Reminiscence** - Stay away from this maneuver until you're sure you can make the save reliably. Even then, healing isn't that important that you should be reliant on it; wands of cure light wounds are cheap. Even so, remember that you can keep this as a maneuver known (not readied), and just use it out of combat.

    Flicker Strike*****: Strike. It's an improved version of Fading Strike (teleport before and after the attack, you can substitute a CMB check for an attack, and your opponent is considered flat-footed). All my praise for Fading Strike applies here; if you've got the maneuvers readied, consider readying both for double the teleportation fun.

    Fading Leap****: It's a move action maneuver, which is quite rare. Teleport up to double your base movement speed away. Incredible in- and out-of-combat utility, but remember Stance of the Ether Gate is just around the corner. Because it's a move action, you can combo this with any standard action strike.


    5th
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    Essence Shattering (Strike)****: Strike. Bonus damage+chance to daze is pretty great.

    Stance of the Ether Gate*****: Stance. At will teleportation. If that doesn't get you excited, I don't know what will. Something that needs to be stated: One of the reasons why many of the other high-level maneuvers are rated where they are is because of their usefulness compared with this stance.

    Twisting Ether****: Boost. Change places with an ally. Great stuff, but it'll usually be more useful for getting an ally to safety (as you have plenty of ways to get into and out of combat).

    Warp Worm***: 10d6 force is nice (especially at this level), but no scaling means it won't remain relevant forever, and you have better options for teleportation.


    6th
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    Ether Wave***: You don't have many AoE options, but this one isn't bad. If you need one, this can suffice.

    Phantom Penumbra - Unrated. There are a few rules questions I have about this one, so I'm withholding judgement until I know exactly how it works.

    Spiritual Weapon Stance**: Stance. Perma-ghost touch weapons plus a small amount of force damage (remember that 2d4 is an average of 5). You've got plenty of better options for stances unless you're fighting Lord Phantom McGhosty and His Shadow Army.

    Vaporform Crash***: Strike. Part of a combo: You can only use it against incorporeal targets, right? Use Dispersal Strike to knock them incorporeal, then follow it up with Vaporform.



    7th
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    Dispersal (Strike)**** Strike. Especially brutal against melee-types, as they have no Strength score while incorporeal, but nobody likes getting hit with this.

    Fade Through***: It's definitely good - you've just got a ton of options for movement at this point.

    Flashing Ether Touch - I've got some rules questions, so I'm holding off rating it.



    8th
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    Anchoring Spirit****: Stance. Be the Dimensional Anchor You Want to See in the World. Or something. It shuts down your opponents' teleportation effects, which is pretty worthwhile. Obviously, you're not going to be in it 24/7, but being able to say "Nope" to that Wizard's quickened dimension door is awesome.

    Eclipsing Moon***: When you strip away all the fluff, you're basically just making a full attack with a minor bonus to attack and damage rolls against your opponent's flat-footed AC. Is it a REALLY AWESOME full attack? Yes; yes, it is.

    Lunar Penumbra*****: One of the best counters in Path of War. Make someone hit themselves with their own attack by swapping places with them. Brilliant.



    9th
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    Banish to the Beyond: Strike. No save, just suck (read it carefully). Arguably more powerful than Astral Projection (and when you're more powerful than a 9th level sorcerer/wizard spell, you're on edgy ground). As a DM, I would never allow it at my table - 1 minute CC with a touch attack? Nope. Withholding judgement for a bit.



    Edit: Errors found

    -In Maneuver Lists by Discipline:
    ---Cursed Fate has several errors, and it isn't anything like what the actual strike does.
    ---Essence Shattering is called Essence Shattering Strike in the maneuver descriptions.

    -In the maneuver descriptions
    -Resonance Strike still references "primary initiator attribute."
    -Breath of the Moon is listed as "Will (negates)" instead of "Will negates."
    Last edited by Novawurmson; 2013-12-13 at 02:40 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by CTrees View Post
    Knowledge (local) being trained only, and not a class skill for many classes, means that your average human may well not be able to identify other humans! This may explain the exceptional quantity of half-human hybrids.