Behold: The Shattered Armillary (Martial Discipline+Weapons) (3.5, PEACH)

[havocfett]

So, I've been working on something for a homebrew setting I'm preparing for a campaign, figured I'd throw it up for review. Quite obviously, much of the fluff doesn't apply outside of that setting.

The maneuvers (And an adjustment to flintlock-era guns) are still being made, unfortunately. I'll try to get them up soon.

Shattered Armillary Discipline:

Once the multiverse was...not perfect, but stable and beautiful, a titanic series of interlinked armillaries, containing untold thousands of nigh-infinite planes, held together through the near-bottomless magical power of the Creator God, a being so ancient his name has been lost to all but the eldest of the gods and Aboleths. Now, there is one Armillary, shattered and strained, with rogue planes in a doomed deathspiral around it. The Creator's corpse is bound to it in the greatest crime of the myriad gods since the shattering of the planes, enforcing a twisted view of morality on behalf of an anonymous deity.

To most, this is simply accepted as a fact of life.

To some, it is not. The sins of gods will not simply be allowed to hold, shackling the entire universe with their failures and mistakes. Vengeance will be wrought upon them, the Corpse freed, and allowed its death, and the Armillary shall be repaired by the inhabitants of the Prime, not fumbling Dieties.

Shattered Armillary Discipline is the weapon of these few who object to the state of the universe, who quest and strive to rip apart a system enforced by the gods themselves.

The skill for Shattered Armillary is Knowledge (The Planes) -to repair the planes and comprehend the sins of the gods in bringing them to their present state requires knowledge of them that rivals that of the gods themselves, and to truly master Shattered Armillary requires one to truly know the gods' sins. Its associated weapons are guns and unarmed strikes. Any bayonet or other weaponized attachment to a gun is also treated as an associated weapon when in melee.

There are two ways for a character to purchase Shattered Armillary, both of which require either a teacher, or to learn the discipline indepently through a DC 30 martial lore check upon learning of new sins of the gods, in order to pioneer the discipline on your own. You may not take ten or twenty on this check.

The first is to sacrifice an existing discipline, losing its class skill in favor of Knowledge (Planes) and trading all of its maneuvers and stances for equivalent-level maneuvers from other disciplines, ideally Shattered Armillary.

The second is to purchase the Rage Against Undeserving Gods feat, which gives you access to the discipline as detailed in the feat.

Any creature who has access to Shattered Armillary maneuvers is automatically has their alignment irrevocably changed to evil. In addition, for the purpose of spells and abilities, they have the alignment least favorable to them in regards to an effect. They lose levels from wielding holy and unholy weapons, take extra damage from axiomatic and anarchic affects, etc. This alignment change does not affect behavior, An aasimar who is otherwise a saint but refuses to abide the injustices of the gods and learns Shattered Armillary detects as just as evil as the most vile of devils but the change does not make them act differently. The change is due to a failsafe in the alignment system embedded in the Creator's Corpse, which automatically declares any who would oppose the system vile, while sheltering those who would protect it under the umbrella of exaltation.

As the Malfeasant Heart Discipline, this discipline uses the distinction of a Divine Being, which is any outsider, creature that can cast divine spells or creature that has access to the devoted spirit discipline. Any creature with access to Shattered Armillary is explicitly not a divine being.

Rage Against Undeserving Gods:
Prerequisites: BAB+1, Ability to prepare first level maneuvers
Bonus: You gain access to the Shattered Armillary discipline, access to its discipline weapons, as well as Knowledge (The Planes) as a class skill permanently, regardless of classes you choose in the future. In addition, if you are already proficient with one or more martial weapons, then any guns, weapons attached to guns, guns attached to weapons, or weapons with guns attached you use increase their effective size by one for purposes of damage. This stacks with any augmentation to gun damage you receive.

New and Modified Weapons:

Due to the technological state of Tath, firearms are not exotic weaponry. Flintlock rifles, as well as more primitive guns, are all simple weapons, while cutting edge percussion cap firearms are martial, and bleeding edge or culturally unique firearms are exotic.

Simple Weapons

Spoiler

Name	Cost	Damage(M)	Damage(S)	Crit	Range	Damage Type	Weight
Dueling Pistol	1 gold	1d8	1d4	x3	50 feet	Piercing	1 pound
Fowling Gun	8 gold	2d6	1d8	19-20	80 feet	Piercing	9 pounds
Musket	4 gold	2d6	1d8	x3	110 feet	Piercing	10 pounds
Balls and Powder (16)	2 gold	-	-	-	-	-	2 pounds
Shot and Powder (8)	5 silver	-	-	-	-	-	1 pound

Pistol:

The venerable dueling pistol has been a favorite of rogues, buckaneers, swashbucklers, duelists pirates and nobles for years. Cheap, deadly and, most importantly, light a dueling pistol is light enough to dual wield with next to no penalty. Dueling pistols can be used one handed with no penalty, are treated as light weapons when dual-wielded, and when dual-wielded with a melee weapon, do not penalize its attack rolls. In addition, drawing a pistol is a free action.

Unfortunately, pistols are a bit awkward to reload in the middle of combat, requiring a standard action, therefore most pistol-wielders hold not one loaded pistol on their person, but entire bandoliers, allowing them to keep up a withering fullisade of shots by simply throwing away already fired pistols.

Pistols are loaded with Ball and Powder.

Musket

The line weapon of most of the militaries on Tath, the musket is reliable, long ranged, simple to use and, most of all deadly. Within a few days a horde of unwashed, smelly peasants can be organized into a musket line that can crack a charging orc horde right in half, and ward off some of the nastier monsters that menace small towns.

Though it takes a standard action to reload, the muskets ease of use and trivially cheap cost has resulted in it revolutionizing warfare and becoming a favorite home defense weapon.

Muskets are loaded with Ball and Powder.

Fowling Gun

A primitive flintlock used primarily for hunting, fowling guns fire a cluster of shot instead of the bullet most other guns use. They see much use where locals must fight monsters of a more...diminutive persuasion, or where hunting is particularly popular. Though they take a standard action to reload, fowling guns are treated as shotguns in regards to small and smaller creatures, halving their size bonus to AC, rounded down, to a minimum of 0.

Fowling guns use Shot and Powder as ammunition.

Martial Weapons

Spoiler

Name	Cost	Damage(M)	Damage(S)	Crit	Range	Damage Type	Weight
Wallgun	125	3d8	3d6	x3	600 feet	Piercing	18 pounds
Wallgun Round(1)	1	-	-	-	-	-	1/4 pound
Revolver Carbine	100	2d6	1d8	x3	100 feet	Piercing	8 pounds
Double Barreled Shotgun	50	2d6	1d8	19-20	80 feet	Piercing	9 pounds
Breach Loading Rifle	80	2d8	1d10	x3	200 feet	Piercing	8 pounds
Revolver	30	1d12	1d8	x3	60 feet	Piercing	3 pounds
Rifle Cartridges (6)	1	-	-	-	-	Piercing	1/16 pound
Shotgun Shell(8)	3	-	-	-	-	Piercing	1/8 pounds

Wallgun

Almost five feet in length, the four-bore flintlock wallgun is best compared to a primitive sniper rifle, or perhaps a particularly small cannon. Wallguns cannot be fired without first spending a round setting it up on a mount of some sort, normally the edge of a wall, an enormous bipod, or a brave volunteer with a strong shoulder. In addition it requires a full round to clean and reload the musket after a shot, a standard action if the wielder has a BAB of +3 or more.

Revolver Carbine

Just over three feet long, the Revolver Carbine has become a favorite of professional cavalry forces, high end mercenaries and would-be adventurers in the year and a half since its introduction onto the modern battlefield. Shorter than a proper rifle, the Carbine trades off range and damage for portability and the ability to fire off a full six rounds before being forced to reload. The short length of a carbine means that one takes no penalties for firing it mounted and may fire it with one hand at a -2 penalty.

A revolver carbine takes a move action to reload.

Double Barreled Shotgun

A favorite of soldiers who expect to get...intimate with their opponents, the Double Barreled Shotgun takes advantage of experimental, still expensive boxlocks in order to turn the fowling guns of old into a weapon of their own. In addition to being able to spray someone with shot one barrel at a time, a double barrel shotgun can be used for a Two Barrel Special, firing both barrels at a target, albeit, with a 15 foot range increment and at -3 to hit on both attacks. The Two Barrel Special does not provoke attacks of opportunity, even when fired in melee. Like all shotguns, the double barrel halves size bonuses to AC, rounded down, to a minimum of 0.

It takes a move action to reload both barrels.

Breach Loading Rifle

A favorite among infantrymen for particularly well to do barons or elite mercenary companies, the Breach Loader's long range and excellent penetration capabilities make it a truly fearsome weapon on any battlefield. Unfortunately, it must be reloaded (as a move action) after every shot, making it decidedly less popular with adventurers who must deal with awkwardly short-ranged combat against creatures that often will not give them time to reload.

The ammunition for the Breach Loading Rifle and Revolver Carbine are interchangeable.

Revolvers:

The big problem with pistols is that they just take too long to reload. The cap-and-ball revolver mitigates this problem by being loaded with six to eight rounds, depending on the model.

Revolvers take three minutes to reload, have a base ammunition capacity of six, which can be increased by one for ten gold, to a maximum of eight. They use ball and powder ammunition. They are mostly used by officers in various militaries.

Exotic Weapons

Spoiler

Name	Cost	Damage(M)	Damage(S)	Crit	Range	Weight
Anadi Wallgun	500	3d8	2d8	19-20/x3	600 feet	20 pounds
Ereen Triple Shotgun	450	3d4	1d10	18-20	100 feet*	12 pounds
Tothik Rifle	175	2d8	1d10	x3	300 feet	10 pounds
Tothik Ammunition(10)	3	-	-	-	-	1/8 pounds
Brindoli Double Action	100	2d6	1d10	x3	100 feet	2 pounds
Revolver Ammunition(9)	2	-	-	-	-	1/8 pounds

Anadi Wallgun

An Anadi wallgun is a massive, two yard long breach-loading rifle developed as an emplaced defensive cannon by Anadi Firearms (Owned by the Anadi clan of Blackspawn Raiders). It uses experimental percussion-cap technology in order to greatly decrease reload time compared to traditional flintlock wallguns. It is treated like a normal wallgun in terms of mounting, but only requires a move action (lessened to being part of an attack if the reload time is reduced in any way) to reload, in addition, due to its relative rarity and the nascent nature of alchemical and arcane research involving it alchemical ammunition for the wallgun costs twice as much. Wallguns ignore DR and armor bonuses under 5, and ignore cover that does not provide concealment.

Anadi Sights may be attached to Anadi Wallguns for a hundred and fifty gold, increasing the range increment by fifty feet, and increasing the critical threat range to 18-20.

Ereen Triple Shotgun

Showcasing the Ereen disregard for things like 'subtlety', 'finesse' and 'care for collateral damage', this three-barreled Elvish Shotgun is an absolute monster to face on the battlefield. Produced by Ereen Heavy Industries, the elvish hand-cannons are all personalized for their purchaser, meaning that each and every one is either enchanted or masterwork, and they all have room for two weapon augmentation crystals. In addition, they fire fragmentation rounds instead of shot, resulting in greater accuracy than most shotguns.

Like the double barrel, the Ereen may choose to unleash all of its barrels in a blast best described as 'cataclysmic'. The Ereen Triple Barrel Special is made at -2 per shot instead of minus three, and if it hits, everyone in a 5 foot radius of the impact zone must save versus half the damage of the shot as the fragmentation rounds detonate spectacularly. Only one of the Ereen's rounds per special detonate. It takes a move action to reload an Ereen. Like all shotguns, Ereen's halve the size bonus to AC of creatures they target, rounded down to a minimum of 0.

Tothik Rifle:

The Tothik, like most hobgoblin-made weapons, is efficient, powerful and absolutely cutting edge. Originally made as an air combat carbine, the lever-action Tothik swiftly became popular among mercenaries, adventurers and airship crews for its 13-round tubular magazine, high-grade attachments, and absolutely unprecedented rate of fire.

Like other carbines, the Tothik may be fired one-handed at a -2 penalty, and doesn't suffer penalties due to firing while mounted. In addition, Dar'Aan Gunworks has released modular modifications for high-end Tothiks, allowing for Masterwork Tothiks to be upgraded with a variety of add-ons, including extra weapon augmentation crystal slots, expanded magazines and a modified receiver to remove the penalty for using alchemical rounds.

Many forces, especially those serving more powerful gods, are wary of the Tothik due to allegations that its sole producer, Dar'Aan Gunworks, has sympathies with masters of the Shattered Armillary discipline. Certainly, Orthak Tun's victory in his duel against Jorvan Selik, a very high ranking cleric of Pelor, with a Tothik hasn't helped the manufacturer's reputation.

Brindoli Double Action:

[havocfett]

And the current list of maneuvers, just about none of which are complete.

Maneuvers:

Level One:
Two-Plane Burst: Strike, Ranged touch attack to deal 1d6+1/2IL positive or negative energy damage. Divine beings cannot be immune.
Blood of the Corpse: Boost, Create [Highest Mental Modifier] bullets from primordial firmament, allowing you to reload as a move action.

Level Two:
Arcane-Crush Blow: Counter, make attack of opportunity in response to cast attempt. Divine beings take 1 bleeding damage/turn for IL/3 turns.
Seal the Planar Wounds: Strike, Ranged attack knocks opponent prone, deals 1d4 force damage/IL to summoned/called creatures.

Level Three:
Fellowship in Exile: Stance, Mark enemies for your friends to kill.
Apotheosis of Two Planes: Strike, Ranged touch attack to deal 1d6+1d6/2IL positive or negative energy damage. Divine Beings cannot be immune.

Level Four:
Bridging the Sphere: Strike, Make a ranged touch attack to teleport, suppress dimensional travel/calling effects around entry and exit points.

Level Five:
Pierce the Corrupt Aegis: Stance, Take 1d6 damage/round, ignore DR, hardness, resistances, and regeneration.

Design Notes:

Spoiler

I was trying to avoid, for the most part, 'repeat' strikes, where you just get a powered up version of a previous ability at higher levels. I'm trying to go for more scaling abilities, based on IL, as well as more esoteric effects that assist your allies.

There are, quite obviously, a lot of Anti-Divine Being effects, which is purposeful, but I'm trying to avoid tacking them onto everything, the style will ideally be useful even in campaigns without many outsiders or clerics to fight.

I am having some issues with keeping things together conceptually, where I've been aiming for three real 'tracks':

Smite the Sinning Gods: Anti-Divine Being effects, most of which are riders on previous effects. See: Piercing the Corrupt Aegis and most of the riders. This'll probably contain the level 9.

Repair the Shattered Armillary: Effects to do with the planes themselves and manipulating them, normally with riders that affect summoning and dimensional travel. Bridging the Sphere and the Planar Wounds duo are here.

Channel the Armillary and God Corpse: Effects thematically tied to planes and the God-Corpse that the alignment system in setting relies on. This is the biggest issue because it's broad and, admittedly, not very well defined while having to be the backbone of the project.

[havocfett]

First Level Maneuvers

Spoiler

Two-Plane Burst
Shattered Armillary (Strike)
Level: Shattered Armillary 1
Initiation Action: Standard Action
Range: Equal to range of current weapon
Target: One living or undead creature
Duration: Instantaneous

Among the many sins of the gods is the demonization of Negative Energy, and the exaltation of Positive Energy. Despite what their imposed system claims, Negative Energy is not inherently evil, merely dangerous, and Positive Energy not inherently good, merely useful.

You level your gun, letting lose a blast of positive energy then a blast of negative, and remind the world of this.

As part of this maneuver make a ranged touch attack as if firing the gun you have in your hands, and declare if it is positive or negative energy. If it hits, this attack deals 1d6+1/2 initiator levels points of the energy of your choice. Positive energy functions like a positive energy surge, damaging undead, healing living creatures, and possibly killing living creatures through oversaturation if it raises them to twice their normal hit points or more. This positive energy blast can explicitly raise living creatures above their normal HP. Negative energy functions like a negative energy surge, healing undead creatures, damaging living ones, and possibly killing undead creatures through oversaturation if it raises them to twice their normal hitpoints or more. You may voluntarily remove the d6 and lessen the static number when attacking with this maneuver, but must declare this before rolling.

Divine Beings normally immune to negative or positive energy are not immune to this attack. This maneuver does not consume ammunition.

Blood of the Corpse
Shattered Armillary (Boost)
Level: Shattered Armillary 1
Initiation Action: Swift Action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Five Rounds

You reach out, pulling the blood of the Creator's Corpse from its place filling the gaps between the planes, and shape it. Within a second, half a dozen bullets fall into the palm of your hand, bright red and gleaming in the night

You create a number of bullets equal to your highest mental ability score modifier, each of which gains a bonus to attack and damage equal to your IL/4 (minimum +0). Using this bullets reduces the time it takes to load a gun with them by one action. Full round action reload weapons become standard action, standard action become move action, move action become swift action, swift action become free action. Weapons with a loading time of more than one full round action reduce the amount of full round actions it takes to load them by one.

Second Level Maneuvers

Spoiler

Arcane-Crush Blow
Shattered Armillary (Counter)
Level: Shattered Armillary 2
Initiation Action: One Immediate Action
Range: Two Range Increments of Equipped Weapon
Target: One enemy
Duration: Instantaneous

Some people claim that bending the fabric of the very universe through the power of their will, intellect and charisma makes them inherently superior to people who do not do this.

As you shoot a would-be caster in his smug face, you think to yourself '**** those people'.

In response to an attempt to cast a spell or use a spell like ability within your line of sight you may make an attack of opportunity against them. If it hits, they must make a concentration check to cast as normal, and lose the spell if they fail.

Divine Beings take one bleeding damage per round if struck by this maneuver. If they attempt to cast while taking bleeding damage they add all bleeding damage taken as a result of this maneuver to the damage originally dealt by the strike to determine check DC.

Third Level Maneuvers

Spoiler

Fellowship in Exile
Shattered Armillary (Stance)
Level: Shattered Armillary 3
Initiation Action: One Swift Action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance

The Path of the Armillary is often a lonely one, one where you are cut off from what would otherwise be friends and allies by the design of the alignment system itself. As you enter this stance, you draw power from the Creator's Corpse, outlining opponents and targets that you've shot in brilliant green-orange, destroying their ability to hide.

As you enter this stance you gain the ability to, as a free action that uses an attack of opportunity, attempt to mark an opponent or piece of scenery. You make a ranged touch attack versus an object, creature or enemy within one range increment of your current weapon. If it succeeds, the target begins to glow orange-green, removing any concealment bonuses it may have, giving it a -5 to hide checks, and providing all allies with +2 to attack and critical confirmation rolls when attacking that opponent. A marked opponent may make a DC (13+dexterity modifier) reflex save on their turn to attempt to remove the mark. Success takes up a move action, but failure uses no action on their part. Divine Beings may not make this save. The mark fades naturally after 2d4+1 turns.

You may mark a number of opponents equal to your IL/2.

Fourth Level Maneuvers

Spoiler

Bridging the Sphere:
Shattered Armillary (Strike)
Level: Shattered Armillary 4
Prerequisites: One Shattered Armillary Maneuver
Initiation Action: One Swift Action
Range: One range increment of currently equipped weapon per five initiator levels.
Target: You
Duration: Instantaneous

You take a moment to examine the fabric of the planes around you, fishing for weak points. You inhale as you spot one, firing directly below you and then at the top of a statue to Pelor. There's a flash of blue-orange as the planes shift and heal, repairing the damage done to them by millenia of disrepair, and then, you're gone, safely sitting on top of the statue.

You may make a ranged touch attack against a piece of scenery or a creature two or more size categories larger than you within the abilities range. If the attack succeeds, you are immediately teleported to the piece of scenery or creature you hit. Attempts to summon Divine Beings, travel the planes or teleport within thirty feet of where this maneuver began or ended are made at -2 CL for a number of turns equal to the initiator level of the initiator. This maneuver does not consume ammunition.

Fifth Level Maneuvers

Spoiler

Pierce the Corrupt Aegis
Shattered Armillary (Stance)
Level: Shattered Armillary 5
Prerequisites: Two Shattered Armillary Maneuvers
Initiation Action: One Swift Action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance

You unlock the smallest portions of the Corpse's powers and see the defenses of your foes for what they are, illusions of strength and delusions of invulnerability. You raise your weapon, and stop playing into their delusions, even as your eyes begin to bleed from the revelations your new awareness bestows upon you.

While in this stance, you take 1d6 damage at the end of each turn. In return, your attacks ignore DR, hardness and elemental resistances, though not immunities, deal double damage against weaknesses, and are treated as unhealable damage by foes with regeneration. If attacking a divine being, you also ignore their immunities. Allies within 30 feet can ignore the DR, resistances and regeneration of Divine Beings.