Tier One Martials: A discussion

[danzibr]

One punch man is a decent starting point.

I can think of three different ways immediately to justify strategic movement that aren't spellcasting. You could use your impossible swordsmanship to cut a hole in reality and step through. You could be the Flash, and just be that damn fast. You could have a seven-league stride. Interplanar movement is a little trickier, but still possible.

Agreed.

Agreed with Tippy. You can remove any mechanical association with 3.5 spellcasting, for example by not requiring any expendable resource, but the ability to take other forms is going to be magic, no two ways about it.

You can do what (greater) teleport/plane shift does by 'slipping between the planes', using an Escape Artist check.

You can do what ice assassin does with a Craft check, fusion with a Heal check, and astral seed with a Survival check.

Are those things less magical because they are (Ex) and done via skill checks? I really doubt it.

Man, I dunno. Seems to me they're way less magical.