Diamond Eye Adept

[Auroch]

Reposting and reworking this from an earlier version. This is the class of Zatoichi and Daredevil, or any other butt-kicking blind guy.

Diamond Eye Adept

Requirements:
Base Attack Bonus +5
Hearing the Air
One Diamond Mind maneuver of 3rd level
Insightful Strike(Diamond Mind)
Special: Must spend at least one week in a single Diamond Mind stance during all waking hours and be completely blind for the week



{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Maneuvers|Stances|Special

1st|+1|+0|+2|+2|1|0|Blind Awareness, Blind Stare|

2nd|+2|+0|+3|+3|1|0|Mind's Eyes, Sightless Adept

3rd|+3|+1|+3|+3|1|1|Forsake Vision, Evasion

4th|+4|+1|+4|+4|1|0|Bound Eyes-Free Mind, Uncanny Dodge

5th|+5|+1|+4|+4|1|0|Blind Master, Improved Evasion, Improved Uncanny Dodge
[/table]

Maneuvers: At each even level you gain a Diamond Mind maneuver. At each odd level the you gain a maneuver from the swordsage list. You gain an additional maneuver able to be readied at 3rd and 5th levels.
Stances: At 3rd level, you gain one Diamond Mind stance.

Blind Awareness: You gain Blind-Fight as a bonus feat at 1st level.

Blind Stare (Ex): If you are visibly sightless, you gain a +2 bonus in duels of wills and their opponent cannot refuse your challenge; they are too unnerved by your sightless gaze to look away.

Mind's Eyes (Ex): At 2nd level, the Diamond Eye's senses improve further. You may ignore concealment less than total concealment. You may re-roll twice if you miss because of concealment on a melee attack. You take no penalties to movement in darkness. You also gain the effects of the Blind-Fight feat against ranged attacks in addition to melee (An invisible attacker gets no advantages related to hitting you. That is, you don’t lose your Dexterity bonus to Armor Class, and the attacker doesn’t get the usual +2 bonus for being invisible.)

Sightless Adept (Ex): At 2nd level, you permanently gains the effect of the “Hearing the Air” stance. When in a Diamond Mind stance, the benefits from this ability double to 60ft blindsense and +10 on Listen checks.

Forsake Vision: In order to gain 3rd level or higher in this class, you must bind your eyes permanently or gain some other form of permanent blindness. You lose all benefits from 3rd level or higher if you regain your vision, and must be blind for 24 hours before you regain the benefits.

Unnerving Stare (Ex): From 3rd level, your sightless stare is even more disturbing. As long as you are in a Diamond Mind stance, sighted opponents are treated as flat-footed against your attacks. In addition, you also gain Unnerving Calm as a bonus feat, or gain a +4 bonus on Concentration checks in duels of will if you already had the feat.

Evasion: At 3rd level, you gain Evasion (as rogue and swordsage).

Bound Eyes-Free Mind (Ex): At 4th level, you gain 30ft blindsight while in a martial stance, or 60ft blindsight while in a Diamond Mind stance. If you previously had blindsight from another source, it's range increases by 30 ft while you are in a Diamond Mind stance.

Uncanny Dodge: At 4th level, you gain Uncanny Dodge. If you already had uncanny dodge, you gain improved uncanny dodge and the class levels stack as normal.

Blind Master (Su): As a 5th-level Diamond Eye, you have gained unearthly senses. Your blindsight can see around corners, and you can read with it. In addition, while in the Hearing the Air stance you gain the ability to mimic True Seeing 3/day, seeing into the ethereal world and past magical disguises.

Improved Evasion: At 5th level, you gain Improved Evasion.

Improved Uncanny Dodge: At 5th level, you gain Improved Uncanny Dodge, and your class levels stack with any other classes that provide uncanny dodge as normal.

I'm trying to make this balanced, but powerful enough that any swordsage specializing in Diamond Mind would want to take it. It started out under-powered and I've been adding goodies until it gets too good.

[Frog Dragon]

I'm guessing Blind awareness and Blind stare are supposed to be in the special column?

[DracoDei]

Blind-Fight feat against ranged attacks in addition to melee

I MIGHT consider making this only effective against attacks originating within range of your blindsight... or does it already work that way WITHOUT this ability?

you must bind your eyes

Do you mean "bind" (as in blind-fold) or Blind?


Also, the entire rules for "Unnerving Stare" got accidentally bolded. Also it could make for some NASTY rogue or Shadow-hand synergy to always treat most opponents (it doesn't work on mindless things, right?) as flat-footed.

[Auroch]

I MIGHT consider making this only effective against attacks originating within range of your blindsight... or does it already work that way WITHOUT this ability?

It doesn't work that way, and I think this is complicated enough without adding that modifier. I already feel I should make a Will save vs. Wall of Text or lose interest as is.

Do you mean "bind" (as in blind-fold) or Blind?

Yes, bind as in blind-fold. If you are not actually Blind, you must bind your eyes, making yourself effectively Blind.

Also, the entire rules for "Unnerving Stare" got accidentally bolded. Also it could make for some NASTY rogue or Shadow-hand synergy to always treat most opponents (it doesn't work on mindless things, right?) as flat-footed.

It does work on some mindless things. Zombies? Yes. Golems? Yes. Oozes? Generally No. Yrthaks? No. If it sees, this affects it. I recognize that this could be quite powerful, but I think it fits I would welcome suggestions on what abilities to move around/ tone down to make this work better.

Also, thank you for taking a look. A few things got screwed up in the repost, and I didn't have time to proofread at the time.