The Demented One
2009-01-03, 11:48 AM
The Homebrew forums have always been a fertile breeding ground for new martial disciplines–now it's your turn to make one. Ideally, within a few weeks, this thread should have created a complete, new martial discipline. As made by you.
Rules of Voting and Submission (Read before Posting!)
1. Only a single vote per person per aspect is allowed. Multiple voting will not be counted. For submission rounds, however, feel free to submit as many ideas as you like.
2. Post votes in this thread; but send any submissions (like for this first round) to me by PM, please.
3. Please do not criticize or disparage the votes of other forum members. Let the votes fall where they may. Just be patient, and allow other voters to voice their own opinions.
4. Changing of votes is not permitted. Just because something has a lot of votes at some point, doesn't mean you have to hop on the bandwagon.
6. If your vote cannot be tallied due to violation of any of these rules, I will post to inform you of that before voting ends. I will also ask you to modify your vote, so that it may be changed.
7. Unless otherwise stated, each poll's result will be winner-takes-all.
8.Upon commencing each vote I will announce the deadline by which time votes must be in. Voting rounds will last about a week, submission rounds will last until I get a goodly number of submissions. All times are by the Central Time Zone.
Past Rounds
Round 1: Discipline Concept
Any ideas for the discipline concept–send them in! No matter how outlandish or silly they may be, all submissions will get a fair chance to be voted on (and even if they lose, I might still draw them up). All I need is a name, and a brief description of what the discipline is inspired by or can do. Please send all submissions by PM. Once I get a good dozen twenty or so concepts, we'll move on to the next round.
Submitted Disciplines
Absolute Energy: A discipline which uses force effects to push and pull foes, and to add power to its strikes.
Army's Bane: A discipline that specializes in fighting large numbers of opponents.
Azure Soul: Martial incarnum. Maneuvers should be able to be improved by an essentia pool.
Black Talon: Tiger Claw's little brother. Less wolves and bears and more things like scorpions and snakes.
Celestial Menagerie: A discipline based upon the zodiac.
Center of All: A discipline inspired by a philosophy of neutrality, with a heavy emphasis on maneuvers that can be used in two different ways–both offensively and defensively. Also has supernatural maneuvers that affect enemies differently based on their alignment.
Deep Tide: Martial discipline that uses psychology to get in your enemies’ heads, analyzing their abilities or playing mind games with them. (Alternate Names: Hidden Shadows, Dreams of Steel, Piercing Gaze, Numinous Clarity)
Dripping Edge: The Desert Wind of acid, corroding away the opposition with caustic liquids.
Drunken Bear: Martial Adepts of the Drunken Bear are an interesting lot. To most, they appear to be slackers, drunkards and sloths. But when confronted in battle, they lure enemies into a false sense of security, then attack with the viciousness of a mother bear defending her cubs. In order to perfect their style, they must convince everyone of their truancy.
Drunken Fist: Inspired by the martial arts technique of the same (in Chinese) name, Zui Quan, in which the practitioners mimic the movements of drunkards to confuse and surprise their enemies. Characterized by stumbling steps and fluidity of movement.
Ectoplasmic Onslaught: Draw ectoplasm from the Astral Plane to shape the battlefield and create short-lived effects. (Alternate Names: Ghostly Legion)
Elegance of Steel: Steampunk disciplines that creates and uses various weapons, gadgets, and traps.
Ethereal Warden: Supernatural discipline that reaches into the ethereal plane to strike foes where they can't (or can barely) see them.
Flawless Bastion: A discipline focusing on a perfect defense; if you can do it, this discipline can stop it, undo it, screw it up, and generally tick you off in the process. (Alternate Names: Fivefold Bulwark)
Giant's Fall: A discipline for fighting larger foes.
Glass Bulwark: Force foes back that never see it coming. A discipline focused on brutal attacks made from stealth.
Golden Phoenix: Epitomizes perseverance and determination by using radiant attacks and healing that get stronger when the battle is desperate.
Gong Fu/Wushu: A discipline based on the idea of using your opponents' energy against them. Deflection, redirection, & throws are the hallmarks of this style. (Alternate Names: River's Bend)
Harlot’s Kiss: Martial discipline that relies on seducing your foes, using charms and compulsion maneuvers to turn them on their allies. (Alternate Names: Bewitching Steel, Bewitching Sword, Siren's Coil)
Ineffable Terror: A discipline focusing on aberrations, fear, and misdirection; whether you're afraid of tentacled monsters or things that go bump in the night, this discipline has them in spades.
Ironskin: Discipline that involves almost living in one's armor, with the ability to do tricks like rolling into a ball popping out spikes, and then rolling around the battlefield. (Alternate Names: Born of Adamant)
Journeyman of the Planes: Using advanced knowledge of the planes, you can evoke many different attacks. You start off mastering the inner planes (fire, water, positive,etc.) and eventually master the outer planes (Ysgard, Baator, etc.) (Alternate Names: Eternal Wanderer, Plane Dance, Planeswalker)
Lethal Anarchy: A discipline focusing on randomness, chance, and unexpected maneuvers; an adept of this discipline can pull tons of crazy tactics out of thin air, and chances are good that every one of them can kill you. (Alternate Names: Killing Joke)
Lifted Veil: A discipline relying on a strong connection to the world of spirits and the dead.
Living Siege: Initiators of the Living Siege discipline unleash powerful attacks with thrown weapons. They specialize in bypassing damage reduction and harming multiple foes with one ruinous attack. (Alternate Names: Mist on Water)
Midnight Eclipse: A discipline that pulls the darkness at the edge of the light onto its foes, striking deep into their souls.
Needle's Point: Apply pressure to specific parts of an enemies body to cause severe pain, and even paralyze them. Think evil acupuncturist. (Alternate Names: Surgeon's Blade, Ten Gates, Mercurial Elixer, Sanguine Wrath)
Noontide's Glory: A holy discipline that brings the wrath of the noonday sun down upon its foes.
Ocean's Tooth: A discipline devoted to using the harpoon. (Alternate Names: Leviathan's Bane)
Path of Ten-Thousand Fists: A discipline made exclusively of unarmed techniques, as a sort of counterpart to Iron Heart.
Pristine Light: Practicioners derive power from sacred purity, striking with mace, hammer and flail to bring the light of truth against the wicked.
Relentless Glacier: The Desert Wind of cold and frost, teaching the resilience and immovability of the glacier.
Rising Nova: A discipline focused around sustained attacks that take course over a number of rounds that get successively stronger the longer they are sustained. Possibly also involving backlash damage for some of the strikes to create a risk vs reward decision.
Shifting Sands: A sword is only more dangerous when in the hands of a shifter. (Alternate Names: Laughing Octopus)
Singular Legion: A discipline focusing on turning one adept into an army all his own; flanking with yourself, making mirror images, and generally multiplying what you do is a hallmark of this discipline. (Alternate Names: One and One Thousand, Army of One, Golden Phalanx, Unyielding Legion, Lord of War)
Spellborn Fury: Evince the power of magic into the fury of your sword (Requires spending spell slots when initiating).
Steel Arbiter: This discipline is a study in the mastery of self and the power of order and authority. Bearing, nobility and a sense of right purpose give this discipline and its students the power to strike down those less reasoned.
Sundered Chains: Movement-centric martial discipline that uses acrobatics and parkour techniques to move across the battlefield.
Supreme Lightning: Users of this discipline try to emulate the raw power, speed, and apparent randomness of lightning.
Surgeon's Blade: Initiates of the Surgeon's Blade discipline use their understanding of biology and healing to deliver devastating attacks. They can paralyze, sicken, and even kill foes with a single decisive strike.
Tempest's Rage: A discipline drawing power from anger, passion and the fury of the storm. Speed and viciousness are the hallmarks of this style, whose practicioners have little patience and lash out with violence and thunder against those who oppose them.
Thrusting Spear: A discipline focusing on reach weapons and piercing weapons; this discipline's strategy can be summed up as "Find every sharp pointy object within reach and point them at your enemies."
Tides of Fate: This discipline commingles cartomancy and blade magic into one seamless flurry of destruction. (Alternate Names: Sublime Arcana, Final Trump)
Towering Storm: The Desert Wind of electricity and thunder, emphasizing the sudden, brutal power of the oncoming storm.
Unspeakable Name: A discipline that is anathema to spellcasters, dispelling, reflecting, and suppressing their magic (Alternate Names: Flawless Reality, Thaumachy, Words Unwritten).
Wild Hunt: Martial discipline focused on survivalism, with techniques inspired by hunting and trapping.
Witching Hour: A discipline that draws power from time. (Alternate Names: Shattered Mirror, Time's Edge, Aeon Sutra, Hourglass's Turn, Triune Fate, War of Moments, Still Hand, Fleeting Ages, Final Hour)
Words of Subversion: Curse your foes with the power of Truespeak.
Wretched Tentacle: a discipline based on moving your enemies about the battlefield and messing with their mind (confusion, insanity, and the like). it has sort of an aberration theme
Round 2: Choosing the Discipline
We've got about 50 potential discipline concepts to choose from–good gods, that's a lot. For this round, each voter is to choose five disciplines from those submitted above, and post their choices in this thread. Voting will end at 7:30 PM, this Friday night (January 9th). If any one discipline has a clear majority by the end, we'll declare it the winner; if not, we'll have a run-off between the top 5-8 disciplines.
Votes
{table=head;sort=2d]Discipline|Votes
Absolute Energy|5
Army's Bane|8
Azure Soul|7
Black Talon|3
Celestial Menagerie|6
Center of All|6
Deep Tide|8
Dripping Edge|4
Drunken Bear|6
Drunken Fist|6
Ectoplasmic Onslaught|2
Elegance of Steel|8
Ethereal Warden|2
Flawless Bastion|6
Giant's Fall|2
Glass Bulwark|2
Golden Phoenix|8
Gong Fu/Wushu|2
Harlot’s Kiss|5
Ineffable Terror|2
Ironskin|3
Journeyman of the Planes|7
Lethal Anarchy|8
Lifted Veil|6
Living Siege|2
Midnight Eclipse|2
Needle's Point|10
Noontide's Glory|1
Ocean's Tooth|1
Path of Ten-Thousand Fists|3
Pristine Light|1
Relentless Glacier|2
Rising Nova|8
Shifting Sands|1
Singular Legion|15
Spellborn Fury|2
Steel Arbiter|1
Sundered Chains|8
Supreme Lightning|2
Surgeon's Blade|8
Tempest's Rage|4
Thrusting Spear|3
Tides of Fate|0
Towering Storm|1
Unspeakable Name|11
Wild Hunt|2
Witching Hour|8
Words of Subversion|2
Wretched Tentacle|4
[/table]
Bonus! Round 2A: Alternate Names
Love a discipline concept, but hate the name? Submit any alternate name ideas for any of the above disciplines by PM to me. If the winner has any suggestions, then we'll vote on those once it's determined, along with other discipline-y stuff like skills and weapons. Submissions last until we find a winner.
Round 3: Final Run-off
All right, we've narrowed it down from fifty to five. For the final round of discipline selection, you'll be voting for the three winners of round two, as well as two wild-cards from the massive tie for fourth place: Deep Tide, Needle's Point, Singular Legion, Unspeakable Name, and Witching Hour. Voting will last until 7:30 PM, Monday night.
Votes
{table=head;sort=2d]Discipline|Votes
Deep Tide|8
Needle's Point|6
Singular Legion|14
Unspeakable Name|1
Witching Hour|10
[/table]
Round 4
Round 4 is for coming up with details for the winning discipline, tentatively called Army of One. Round Four actually has four parts: You'll be voting for the discipline's name, skill, weapons, and which classes can use it. Voting will end at 9:00 PM, Thursday night.
Name
Vote on one name from the following list:
Army of One
Golden Phalanx
Lord of War
One and One Thousand
Singular Legion
Unyielding Legion
Skill
Vote on one skill to be Army of One's associated skill. You may choose from any skill in D&D 3.5, but please provide a reference if you use one from a book other than the Player's Handbook, or a link if you use a homebrew skill.
Weapons
Vote on up to five melee weapons to be Army of One's associated weapons. You may choose from any melee weapon in D&D 3.5, but please provide a reference if you use one from a book other than the Player's Handbook, or a link if you use a homebrew skill.
Class
For each initiating class (Crusader, Swordsage, and Warblade), please vote Yes or No on whether they should be able to access the discipline.
Votes
Names
{table=head;sort=2d]Name|Votes
Army of One|10
Golden Phalanx|1
Legion's Blade|4
Lord of War|1
One and One Thousand|2
Singular Legion|5
The Hand That Holds One Thousand Swords|1
Unyielding Legion|0
[/table]
Skills
{table=head;sort=2d]Skill|Votes
Balance|3
Bluff|2
Concentration|1
Escape Artist|1
Intimidate|11
Knowledge (Local)|1
Martial LoreToB|2
Spellcraft|1
Tumble|2
[/table]
Weapons
{table=head;sort=2d]Skill|Weapon
Bastard Sword|2
Battleaxe|5
Dagger|4
Dueling Shield (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5632524&postcount=142)|3
Dwarven Urgrosh|1
Glaive|14
Gnomish Hooked Hammer|1
Greataxe|2
Greatmace (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2280824&postcount=4)|1
Greatsword|8
Halberd|1
Heavy Mace|2
Kusari-GamaDMG|1
Lance|2
Longspear|5
Longsword|19
Orcish Double Axe|1
Quarterstaff|1
Ranseur|1
Rapier|3
Scimitar|5
Scythe|2
Shield Bash|4
Shortspear|1
Shortsword|3
Spear|8
Spiked Armor|1
Spiked Chain|5
Spiked Gauntlet|1
Spiked Shield|3
Two-Bladed Sword|2
Unarmed Strike|2
Warhammer|2
[/table]
Classes
{table=head]Class|Yes|No
Crusader|16|8
Swordsage|12|12
Warblade|22|2
[/table]
Round 5: Maneuver Submission
Round 5 will be submissions for maneuvers. I'll construct a discipline from the submitted maneuvers, and then post the finalized discipline. The only exception is the discipline's 9th level maneuver: that will be voted on based on the submissions.
Submit maneuver concepts via PM. Don't submit full maneuver write ups, but one-line descriptions like those found in ToB's maneuver list. Something the effect of [Name]: (Type)–Description is all I need. If you want to go into a bit more detail, though, that's fine. Don't specify the level of the maneuvers; and if they deal bonus damage, just stick an X in instead of an exact number, and I'll determine it. I'll assign all levels. The one exception is for 9th level maneuvers, please explicitly state that they're 9th level, so they can be voted on.
Unlike with the other submission rounds, not all submissions will be accepted. I'm going to draw up a big list of maneuvers based on the submissions I get and a few I make myself to plug gaps, but I can't guarantee all of them will get used.
Maneuver Guidelines
A few thoughts on making maneuvers for Army of One.
While the discipline's focused on fighting large numbers of enemies, it shouldn't let you fight without allies. Maneuvers that do away with the need for teammates shouldn't be submitted (but maneuvers that make you an utter combat monster are still fine).
All maneuvers should be original–don't just copy another discipline's maneuvers and reflavor them; I'll take care of that if gaps need to be filled.
Since only Crusaders and Warblades get the class, supernatural maneuvers should be avoided as much as possible. If you want to use something that would normally be supernatural, try to find a way to fluff it that makes it mundane.
Several of Army of One's favored weapons are reach weapons, so maneuvers that capitalize on a long reach would be useful and fit the spirit of the discipline well. So far, only Devoted Spirit has much in the way of battlefield control; maybe we can face that.
Maneuvers that scale based on the number of enemies you're in melee with fit the spirit of the discipline pretty well.
And above all, be creative. Throw out some crazy ideas, and we'll see what we get.
Round 6: 9th Level Maneuver
Okay, we now have four 9th level maneuvers for you to choose from. Vote for one of the following maneuvers, the winner will be the Army of One discipline's capstone (and while you vote, keep submitting lower-level maneuvers–submission ends once this vote is done). Voting for 9th level maneuvers will close Wednesday, at 8:30.
Your choices are:
Army of One: Strike–Move so quickly you appear in multiple places at once.
Infinite Procession of Steel: Strike–Charge, make a melee attack against all enemies you move past.
Twin Swordsmen Strike As One: Boost–Initiate two maneuvers of 7th level.
Victory-Seeking Assault: Strike–Attack deals +20d6 damage, you may attack again if you down an enemy.
Army of One
Army of One (Strike)
Level: Crusader 9, Warblade 9
Initiation Action: Full round action
Prerequisite: Four Army of One maneuvers
Range: 5 ft.
Effect: Three duplicates
Duration: End of turn
Mastering the battlefield, you move with such great speed that you appear to be everywhere at once. Three duplicates of you appear, in an adjacent square of your choice. The duplicates are not magic copies or clones–instead, they result from you moving so fast you appear to be in multiple places. Each duplicate has all your class features, abilities, and equipment. If one duplicate is damaged or effected by an ability, so are all of them (as well as you)–anything that happens to one duplicate happens to the rest. If an ability would effect multiple duplicates at once, it is instead only treated as affecting one. Each duplicate may take a single move action to move up to its base land speed, and a single standard action to either make a single melee attack or initiate any maneuver with an initiation action of one standard action. Duplicates are capable of initiating maneuvers of only 8th level or lower, and you must still expend the maneuver normally. Duplicates cannot take full round actions or swift actions, nor may they use their standard and move actions to do anything other than move, attack, or initiate. They can never recover maneuvers. At the end of your turn, the duplicates disappear. You may choose to remain in your own square, or to appear in a square that was occupied by one of your duplicates (this movement is not teleportation). You cannot use this maneuver if you are grappled, physically restrained, or otherwise incapable of movement.
Infinite Procession of Steel
Army of One (Strike)
Level: Crusader 9, Warblade 9
Initiation Action: Full round action
Prerequisite: Four Army of One maneuvers
Range: Melee attack, see text
Target: One creature, see text
With a heroic war cry, you charge across the battlefield, striking down entire armies. As part of this maneuver, you charge an opponent. Your charge attack deals an additional 15d6 damage. In addition, each time an enemy other than your target comes into your reach during the charge, you may make a secondary attack against them at your highest base attack bonus. These secondary attacks are treated as being made as part of a charge, and deal an additional 15d6 damage. For every secondary attack you make, the attack made at the end of the charge deals an additional 2d6 damage. Any foe you damage with an attack during this maneuver must make a Will save, DC 19 + your Strength modifier, or be shaken for the duration of the encounter. You do not provoke attacks of opportunity for moving as part of the charge.
Twin Swordsmen Strike As One
Army of One (Boost)
Level: Crusader 9, Warblade 9
Initiation Action: Full round action
Prerequisite: Four Army of One maneuvers
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Instantaneous
Moving with superhuman speed, you become like two warriors. As part of this maneuver, you may initiate two maneuvers of 7th level or lower that you know. Both maneuvers must be strikes, must have an initiation action of 1 standard action or less. You do not need to have the maneuvers readied, nor do you need to expend them if yo do. Any opponent you attack as part of the maneuvers loses their Dexterity to AC against that attack.
Victory-Seeking Assault
Army of One (Strike)
Level: Crusader 9, Warblade 9
Initiation Action: Full round action
Prerequisite: Four Army of One maneuvers
Range: Melee attack
Target: One creature, see text
With a whirling onslaught of steel, you strike down all foes around you. As part of this maneuver, you make a single melee attack against an opponent. If it hits, it deals an additional 20d6 damage. If the enemy you hit is dropped by the attack (typically by dropping it to below 0 hit points or killing it), then you may make another melee attack. The attack also deals 20d6, and allows you to make another if it drops the foe, as do all the other attacks made as part of this maneuver. No class feature, feat, item, or other ability can allow you to move or take 5-ft. steps between the attacks made as part of this maneuver.
Votes
{table=head;sort=2d]
Maneuver|
Votes
Army of One|6
Infinite Procession|6
Twin Swordsmen|1
Victory-Seeking Assault|0
[/table]
Rules of Voting and Submission (Read before Posting!)
1. Only a single vote per person per aspect is allowed. Multiple voting will not be counted. For submission rounds, however, feel free to submit as many ideas as you like.
2. Post votes in this thread; but send any submissions (like for this first round) to me by PM, please.
3. Please do not criticize or disparage the votes of other forum members. Let the votes fall where they may. Just be patient, and allow other voters to voice their own opinions.
4. Changing of votes is not permitted. Just because something has a lot of votes at some point, doesn't mean you have to hop on the bandwagon.
6. If your vote cannot be tallied due to violation of any of these rules, I will post to inform you of that before voting ends. I will also ask you to modify your vote, so that it may be changed.
7. Unless otherwise stated, each poll's result will be winner-takes-all.
8.Upon commencing each vote I will announce the deadline by which time votes must be in. Voting rounds will last about a week, submission rounds will last until I get a goodly number of submissions. All times are by the Central Time Zone.
Past Rounds
Round 1: Discipline Concept
Any ideas for the discipline concept–send them in! No matter how outlandish or silly they may be, all submissions will get a fair chance to be voted on (and even if they lose, I might still draw them up). All I need is a name, and a brief description of what the discipline is inspired by or can do. Please send all submissions by PM. Once I get a good dozen twenty or so concepts, we'll move on to the next round.
Submitted Disciplines
Absolute Energy: A discipline which uses force effects to push and pull foes, and to add power to its strikes.
Army's Bane: A discipline that specializes in fighting large numbers of opponents.
Azure Soul: Martial incarnum. Maneuvers should be able to be improved by an essentia pool.
Black Talon: Tiger Claw's little brother. Less wolves and bears and more things like scorpions and snakes.
Celestial Menagerie: A discipline based upon the zodiac.
Center of All: A discipline inspired by a philosophy of neutrality, with a heavy emphasis on maneuvers that can be used in two different ways–both offensively and defensively. Also has supernatural maneuvers that affect enemies differently based on their alignment.
Deep Tide: Martial discipline that uses psychology to get in your enemies’ heads, analyzing their abilities or playing mind games with them. (Alternate Names: Hidden Shadows, Dreams of Steel, Piercing Gaze, Numinous Clarity)
Dripping Edge: The Desert Wind of acid, corroding away the opposition with caustic liquids.
Drunken Bear: Martial Adepts of the Drunken Bear are an interesting lot. To most, they appear to be slackers, drunkards and sloths. But when confronted in battle, they lure enemies into a false sense of security, then attack with the viciousness of a mother bear defending her cubs. In order to perfect their style, they must convince everyone of their truancy.
Drunken Fist: Inspired by the martial arts technique of the same (in Chinese) name, Zui Quan, in which the practitioners mimic the movements of drunkards to confuse and surprise their enemies. Characterized by stumbling steps and fluidity of movement.
Ectoplasmic Onslaught: Draw ectoplasm from the Astral Plane to shape the battlefield and create short-lived effects. (Alternate Names: Ghostly Legion)
Elegance of Steel: Steampunk disciplines that creates and uses various weapons, gadgets, and traps.
Ethereal Warden: Supernatural discipline that reaches into the ethereal plane to strike foes where they can't (or can barely) see them.
Flawless Bastion: A discipline focusing on a perfect defense; if you can do it, this discipline can stop it, undo it, screw it up, and generally tick you off in the process. (Alternate Names: Fivefold Bulwark)
Giant's Fall: A discipline for fighting larger foes.
Glass Bulwark: Force foes back that never see it coming. A discipline focused on brutal attacks made from stealth.
Golden Phoenix: Epitomizes perseverance and determination by using radiant attacks and healing that get stronger when the battle is desperate.
Gong Fu/Wushu: A discipline based on the idea of using your opponents' energy against them. Deflection, redirection, & throws are the hallmarks of this style. (Alternate Names: River's Bend)
Harlot’s Kiss: Martial discipline that relies on seducing your foes, using charms and compulsion maneuvers to turn them on their allies. (Alternate Names: Bewitching Steel, Bewitching Sword, Siren's Coil)
Ineffable Terror: A discipline focusing on aberrations, fear, and misdirection; whether you're afraid of tentacled monsters or things that go bump in the night, this discipline has them in spades.
Ironskin: Discipline that involves almost living in one's armor, with the ability to do tricks like rolling into a ball popping out spikes, and then rolling around the battlefield. (Alternate Names: Born of Adamant)
Journeyman of the Planes: Using advanced knowledge of the planes, you can evoke many different attacks. You start off mastering the inner planes (fire, water, positive,etc.) and eventually master the outer planes (Ysgard, Baator, etc.) (Alternate Names: Eternal Wanderer, Plane Dance, Planeswalker)
Lethal Anarchy: A discipline focusing on randomness, chance, and unexpected maneuvers; an adept of this discipline can pull tons of crazy tactics out of thin air, and chances are good that every one of them can kill you. (Alternate Names: Killing Joke)
Lifted Veil: A discipline relying on a strong connection to the world of spirits and the dead.
Living Siege: Initiators of the Living Siege discipline unleash powerful attacks with thrown weapons. They specialize in bypassing damage reduction and harming multiple foes with one ruinous attack. (Alternate Names: Mist on Water)
Midnight Eclipse: A discipline that pulls the darkness at the edge of the light onto its foes, striking deep into their souls.
Needle's Point: Apply pressure to specific parts of an enemies body to cause severe pain, and even paralyze them. Think evil acupuncturist. (Alternate Names: Surgeon's Blade, Ten Gates, Mercurial Elixer, Sanguine Wrath)
Noontide's Glory: A holy discipline that brings the wrath of the noonday sun down upon its foes.
Ocean's Tooth: A discipline devoted to using the harpoon. (Alternate Names: Leviathan's Bane)
Path of Ten-Thousand Fists: A discipline made exclusively of unarmed techniques, as a sort of counterpart to Iron Heart.
Pristine Light: Practicioners derive power from sacred purity, striking with mace, hammer and flail to bring the light of truth against the wicked.
Relentless Glacier: The Desert Wind of cold and frost, teaching the resilience and immovability of the glacier.
Rising Nova: A discipline focused around sustained attacks that take course over a number of rounds that get successively stronger the longer they are sustained. Possibly also involving backlash damage for some of the strikes to create a risk vs reward decision.
Shifting Sands: A sword is only more dangerous when in the hands of a shifter. (Alternate Names: Laughing Octopus)
Singular Legion: A discipline focusing on turning one adept into an army all his own; flanking with yourself, making mirror images, and generally multiplying what you do is a hallmark of this discipline. (Alternate Names: One and One Thousand, Army of One, Golden Phalanx, Unyielding Legion, Lord of War)
Spellborn Fury: Evince the power of magic into the fury of your sword (Requires spending spell slots when initiating).
Steel Arbiter: This discipline is a study in the mastery of self and the power of order and authority. Bearing, nobility and a sense of right purpose give this discipline and its students the power to strike down those less reasoned.
Sundered Chains: Movement-centric martial discipline that uses acrobatics and parkour techniques to move across the battlefield.
Supreme Lightning: Users of this discipline try to emulate the raw power, speed, and apparent randomness of lightning.
Surgeon's Blade: Initiates of the Surgeon's Blade discipline use their understanding of biology and healing to deliver devastating attacks. They can paralyze, sicken, and even kill foes with a single decisive strike.
Tempest's Rage: A discipline drawing power from anger, passion and the fury of the storm. Speed and viciousness are the hallmarks of this style, whose practicioners have little patience and lash out with violence and thunder against those who oppose them.
Thrusting Spear: A discipline focusing on reach weapons and piercing weapons; this discipline's strategy can be summed up as "Find every sharp pointy object within reach and point them at your enemies."
Tides of Fate: This discipline commingles cartomancy and blade magic into one seamless flurry of destruction. (Alternate Names: Sublime Arcana, Final Trump)
Towering Storm: The Desert Wind of electricity and thunder, emphasizing the sudden, brutal power of the oncoming storm.
Unspeakable Name: A discipline that is anathema to spellcasters, dispelling, reflecting, and suppressing their magic (Alternate Names: Flawless Reality, Thaumachy, Words Unwritten).
Wild Hunt: Martial discipline focused on survivalism, with techniques inspired by hunting and trapping.
Witching Hour: A discipline that draws power from time. (Alternate Names: Shattered Mirror, Time's Edge, Aeon Sutra, Hourglass's Turn, Triune Fate, War of Moments, Still Hand, Fleeting Ages, Final Hour)
Words of Subversion: Curse your foes with the power of Truespeak.
Wretched Tentacle: a discipline based on moving your enemies about the battlefield and messing with their mind (confusion, insanity, and the like). it has sort of an aberration theme
Round 2: Choosing the Discipline
We've got about 50 potential discipline concepts to choose from–good gods, that's a lot. For this round, each voter is to choose five disciplines from those submitted above, and post their choices in this thread. Voting will end at 7:30 PM, this Friday night (January 9th). If any one discipline has a clear majority by the end, we'll declare it the winner; if not, we'll have a run-off between the top 5-8 disciplines.
Votes
{table=head;sort=2d]Discipline|Votes
Absolute Energy|5
Army's Bane|8
Azure Soul|7
Black Talon|3
Celestial Menagerie|6
Center of All|6
Deep Tide|8
Dripping Edge|4
Drunken Bear|6
Drunken Fist|6
Ectoplasmic Onslaught|2
Elegance of Steel|8
Ethereal Warden|2
Flawless Bastion|6
Giant's Fall|2
Glass Bulwark|2
Golden Phoenix|8
Gong Fu/Wushu|2
Harlot’s Kiss|5
Ineffable Terror|2
Ironskin|3
Journeyman of the Planes|7
Lethal Anarchy|8
Lifted Veil|6
Living Siege|2
Midnight Eclipse|2
Needle's Point|10
Noontide's Glory|1
Ocean's Tooth|1
Path of Ten-Thousand Fists|3
Pristine Light|1
Relentless Glacier|2
Rising Nova|8
Shifting Sands|1
Singular Legion|15
Spellborn Fury|2
Steel Arbiter|1
Sundered Chains|8
Supreme Lightning|2
Surgeon's Blade|8
Tempest's Rage|4
Thrusting Spear|3
Tides of Fate|0
Towering Storm|1
Unspeakable Name|11
Wild Hunt|2
Witching Hour|8
Words of Subversion|2
Wretched Tentacle|4
[/table]
Bonus! Round 2A: Alternate Names
Love a discipline concept, but hate the name? Submit any alternate name ideas for any of the above disciplines by PM to me. If the winner has any suggestions, then we'll vote on those once it's determined, along with other discipline-y stuff like skills and weapons. Submissions last until we find a winner.
Round 3: Final Run-off
All right, we've narrowed it down from fifty to five. For the final round of discipline selection, you'll be voting for the three winners of round two, as well as two wild-cards from the massive tie for fourth place: Deep Tide, Needle's Point, Singular Legion, Unspeakable Name, and Witching Hour. Voting will last until 7:30 PM, Monday night.
Votes
{table=head;sort=2d]Discipline|Votes
Deep Tide|8
Needle's Point|6
Singular Legion|14
Unspeakable Name|1
Witching Hour|10
[/table]
Round 4
Round 4 is for coming up with details for the winning discipline, tentatively called Army of One. Round Four actually has four parts: You'll be voting for the discipline's name, skill, weapons, and which classes can use it. Voting will end at 9:00 PM, Thursday night.
Name
Vote on one name from the following list:
Army of One
Golden Phalanx
Lord of War
One and One Thousand
Singular Legion
Unyielding Legion
Skill
Vote on one skill to be Army of One's associated skill. You may choose from any skill in D&D 3.5, but please provide a reference if you use one from a book other than the Player's Handbook, or a link if you use a homebrew skill.
Weapons
Vote on up to five melee weapons to be Army of One's associated weapons. You may choose from any melee weapon in D&D 3.5, but please provide a reference if you use one from a book other than the Player's Handbook, or a link if you use a homebrew skill.
Class
For each initiating class (Crusader, Swordsage, and Warblade), please vote Yes or No on whether they should be able to access the discipline.
Votes
Names
{table=head;sort=2d]Name|Votes
Army of One|10
Golden Phalanx|1
Legion's Blade|4
Lord of War|1
One and One Thousand|2
Singular Legion|5
The Hand That Holds One Thousand Swords|1
Unyielding Legion|0
[/table]
Skills
{table=head;sort=2d]Skill|Votes
Balance|3
Bluff|2
Concentration|1
Escape Artist|1
Intimidate|11
Knowledge (Local)|1
Martial LoreToB|2
Spellcraft|1
Tumble|2
[/table]
Weapons
{table=head;sort=2d]Skill|Weapon
Bastard Sword|2
Battleaxe|5
Dagger|4
Dueling Shield (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5632524&postcount=142)|3
Dwarven Urgrosh|1
Glaive|14
Gnomish Hooked Hammer|1
Greataxe|2
Greatmace (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2280824&postcount=4)|1
Greatsword|8
Halberd|1
Heavy Mace|2
Kusari-GamaDMG|1
Lance|2
Longspear|5
Longsword|19
Orcish Double Axe|1
Quarterstaff|1
Ranseur|1
Rapier|3
Scimitar|5
Scythe|2
Shield Bash|4
Shortspear|1
Shortsword|3
Spear|8
Spiked Armor|1
Spiked Chain|5
Spiked Gauntlet|1
Spiked Shield|3
Two-Bladed Sword|2
Unarmed Strike|2
Warhammer|2
[/table]
Classes
{table=head]Class|Yes|No
Crusader|16|8
Swordsage|12|12
Warblade|22|2
[/table]
Round 5: Maneuver Submission
Round 5 will be submissions for maneuvers. I'll construct a discipline from the submitted maneuvers, and then post the finalized discipline. The only exception is the discipline's 9th level maneuver: that will be voted on based on the submissions.
Submit maneuver concepts via PM. Don't submit full maneuver write ups, but one-line descriptions like those found in ToB's maneuver list. Something the effect of [Name]: (Type)–Description is all I need. If you want to go into a bit more detail, though, that's fine. Don't specify the level of the maneuvers; and if they deal bonus damage, just stick an X in instead of an exact number, and I'll determine it. I'll assign all levels. The one exception is for 9th level maneuvers, please explicitly state that they're 9th level, so they can be voted on.
Unlike with the other submission rounds, not all submissions will be accepted. I'm going to draw up a big list of maneuvers based on the submissions I get and a few I make myself to plug gaps, but I can't guarantee all of them will get used.
Maneuver Guidelines
A few thoughts on making maneuvers for Army of One.
While the discipline's focused on fighting large numbers of enemies, it shouldn't let you fight without allies. Maneuvers that do away with the need for teammates shouldn't be submitted (but maneuvers that make you an utter combat monster are still fine).
All maneuvers should be original–don't just copy another discipline's maneuvers and reflavor them; I'll take care of that if gaps need to be filled.
Since only Crusaders and Warblades get the class, supernatural maneuvers should be avoided as much as possible. If you want to use something that would normally be supernatural, try to find a way to fluff it that makes it mundane.
Several of Army of One's favored weapons are reach weapons, so maneuvers that capitalize on a long reach would be useful and fit the spirit of the discipline well. So far, only Devoted Spirit has much in the way of battlefield control; maybe we can face that.
Maneuvers that scale based on the number of enemies you're in melee with fit the spirit of the discipline pretty well.
And above all, be creative. Throw out some crazy ideas, and we'll see what we get.
Round 6: 9th Level Maneuver
Okay, we now have four 9th level maneuvers for you to choose from. Vote for one of the following maneuvers, the winner will be the Army of One discipline's capstone (and while you vote, keep submitting lower-level maneuvers–submission ends once this vote is done). Voting for 9th level maneuvers will close Wednesday, at 8:30.
Your choices are:
Army of One: Strike–Move so quickly you appear in multiple places at once.
Infinite Procession of Steel: Strike–Charge, make a melee attack against all enemies you move past.
Twin Swordsmen Strike As One: Boost–Initiate two maneuvers of 7th level.
Victory-Seeking Assault: Strike–Attack deals +20d6 damage, you may attack again if you down an enemy.
Army of One
Army of One (Strike)
Level: Crusader 9, Warblade 9
Initiation Action: Full round action
Prerequisite: Four Army of One maneuvers
Range: 5 ft.
Effect: Three duplicates
Duration: End of turn
Mastering the battlefield, you move with such great speed that you appear to be everywhere at once. Three duplicates of you appear, in an adjacent square of your choice. The duplicates are not magic copies or clones–instead, they result from you moving so fast you appear to be in multiple places. Each duplicate has all your class features, abilities, and equipment. If one duplicate is damaged or effected by an ability, so are all of them (as well as you)–anything that happens to one duplicate happens to the rest. If an ability would effect multiple duplicates at once, it is instead only treated as affecting one. Each duplicate may take a single move action to move up to its base land speed, and a single standard action to either make a single melee attack or initiate any maneuver with an initiation action of one standard action. Duplicates are capable of initiating maneuvers of only 8th level or lower, and you must still expend the maneuver normally. Duplicates cannot take full round actions or swift actions, nor may they use their standard and move actions to do anything other than move, attack, or initiate. They can never recover maneuvers. At the end of your turn, the duplicates disappear. You may choose to remain in your own square, or to appear in a square that was occupied by one of your duplicates (this movement is not teleportation). You cannot use this maneuver if you are grappled, physically restrained, or otherwise incapable of movement.
Infinite Procession of Steel
Army of One (Strike)
Level: Crusader 9, Warblade 9
Initiation Action: Full round action
Prerequisite: Four Army of One maneuvers
Range: Melee attack, see text
Target: One creature, see text
With a heroic war cry, you charge across the battlefield, striking down entire armies. As part of this maneuver, you charge an opponent. Your charge attack deals an additional 15d6 damage. In addition, each time an enemy other than your target comes into your reach during the charge, you may make a secondary attack against them at your highest base attack bonus. These secondary attacks are treated as being made as part of a charge, and deal an additional 15d6 damage. For every secondary attack you make, the attack made at the end of the charge deals an additional 2d6 damage. Any foe you damage with an attack during this maneuver must make a Will save, DC 19 + your Strength modifier, or be shaken for the duration of the encounter. You do not provoke attacks of opportunity for moving as part of the charge.
Twin Swordsmen Strike As One
Army of One (Boost)
Level: Crusader 9, Warblade 9
Initiation Action: Full round action
Prerequisite: Four Army of One maneuvers
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Instantaneous
Moving with superhuman speed, you become like two warriors. As part of this maneuver, you may initiate two maneuvers of 7th level or lower that you know. Both maneuvers must be strikes, must have an initiation action of 1 standard action or less. You do not need to have the maneuvers readied, nor do you need to expend them if yo do. Any opponent you attack as part of the maneuvers loses their Dexterity to AC against that attack.
Victory-Seeking Assault
Army of One (Strike)
Level: Crusader 9, Warblade 9
Initiation Action: Full round action
Prerequisite: Four Army of One maneuvers
Range: Melee attack
Target: One creature, see text
With a whirling onslaught of steel, you strike down all foes around you. As part of this maneuver, you make a single melee attack against an opponent. If it hits, it deals an additional 20d6 damage. If the enemy you hit is dropped by the attack (typically by dropping it to below 0 hit points or killing it), then you may make another melee attack. The attack also deals 20d6, and allows you to make another if it drops the foe, as do all the other attacks made as part of this maneuver. No class feature, feat, item, or other ability can allow you to move or take 5-ft. steps between the attacks made as part of this maneuver.
Votes
{table=head;sort=2d]
Maneuver|
Votes
Army of One|6
Infinite Procession|6
Twin Swordsmen|1
Victory-Seeking Assault|0
[/table]