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Ikkitosen
2004-07-20, 08:00 AM
Aiko Ishida, Ikkitosen for Daimyo Jun did not sleep well. The feud with Daimyo Kitana was not going well, and no one warrior, not even she, could win a war on her own. There was some canker infecting the warriors who shared her barracks that night, but it was not her place to question her leadership or theirs. Duty demanded that she serve, and serve she would.

Had she been sleeping and not worrying, she might not have heard the stealthy approach of footsteps, the hushed breath or the quiet hissing of a blade being drawn in the dark of the room around her. As it was she barely had time to clap her hands across that ninja-to as it was thrust with murderous force at her unarmoured stomach. A deft twist had weakened her assailant's grip, and a thrusting kick found his groin with enough force to cause him to relinquish the blade, which she then re-sheathed in its owner's side. Silently lowering the body into its own pool of rapidly-spreading blood, she padded toward the doorway and found the hole cut neatly through it.

Damn. If the ninja were already in the building then the whole compound would soon be compromised. And as if on cue, the palace rocked with the sound of the mighty gates being unhinged and falling uselessly to the ground.

Emerging from a secret door just yards from the main gate, Aiko realised just how much trouble Lord Jun's warriors were in. Only a handful stood to oppose the dozens of Kitana warriors that could be seen ascending the hill toward the gates.

Hearing the sound of her exit, a nearby Kitana warrior, armed with an exotic repeating crossbow and standing only a few feet away, swung around to fire. As quickly as a striking snake Aiko shifted from tactician to warrior, and her well-honed instincts served her well. With an explosion of motion she struck the front end of the bow upward, whilst simultaneously reaching a hand forward to reach the butt end - and the trigger. A quick click had the archer falling and the crossbow in her hands.

Calling on her considerable experience the ikkitosen put the weapon to good use, cutting down several of the attacking samurai before the bolt hopper was empty. A dozen Kitana samurai spotted her unarmoured and now unarmed form, and ran forward to begin the easy slaughter they expected repeated throughout the compound. Throwing the bow into the face of the first man, Aiko went through a rapid series of attacks, stiffened fingers and searching feet striking at any and all of the vulnerable points in the men's armour, every strike coming with the efficiency of motion of a true master. A wrist chop and a turn had one samurai taking a blade meant for her and his own blade parrying another attack. A slice and foot catch gave her a second blade before she was completely surrounded by men jockeying for a position from which to skewer her. Standing firm in the gateway, and with a fluid grace one would think impossible for a mere human, she switched from almost reckless attack to steely defense, each sweep of her katana blocking several blows, more men closing in with each passing moment. One blade was struck from her hand, but even as it clanged to the floor she deftly disarmed the assailant of his sai, which flickered through the torchlight and found resting place in its previous owner's forehead. Even with such skills though, Aiko knew this was a losing battle unless reinforcements arrived soon.

The braying of horns the sounded throughout the compound then, and Lord Jun rode out of the stables at the head of two dozen loyal samurai. As the Kitana warriors retreated from the gates, Aiko took a long and steadying breath. She knew the war was far from won, but they had survived the night, she had held the gate, and there was hope for tomorrow's battle.................

Ikkitosen

Ikkitosen (literally "matchless warrior" in Japanese) are a breed of warriors apart from others. Unlike many western warriors, who master a weapon and are almost undefeatable whilst wielding it, the ikkitosen are masters of all forms of combat. They learn the arts of attack and defense and then apply them to whatever situation they find themselves in, and are thus almost as dangerous in a bar fight as they are wielding daisho and wearing lamellar armour. Whilst maybe not a match for a weapon master wielding her chosen weapon or a monk when unarmed, they are almost certain to win the reciprocals of these fights.

Combining monk-like devotion with a fighter's broad range of abilities, ikkitosen should never find themselves in a fight in which they cannot compete, and in fact are dangerous even when unarmed or armed only with improvised weaponry. Due to the style of their training, almost any item can become a weapon in their hands, and it is exactly this flexibility that leads to them becoming much sought-after bodyguards and sensei.

HD: D10

Requirements:

BAB +6
Improved Unarmed Strike
Power Attack
Combat Expertise
Any one of: Improved Bull Rush, Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, Improved Sunder, Combat Reflexes
6 Ranks in Concentration
Proficiency in all Martial Weapons
Proficiency in Light, Medium and Heavy armours

Alignment: Any non-chaotic

Ikkitosen are trained by masters, not in schools but in small groups (3-10). These masters often lead their students to out-of-the-way places to train in solitude, and may be as hard or as easy to find as the DM requires.

Ikkitosen

{table]


Level

BAB

Fort

Ref

Will
Special



1

+1

+2

+0

+0
Improved Combat Expertise (+6)



2

+2

+3

+0

+0
Trance, Fast Movement



3

+3

+3

+3

+1
Improved Power Attack (+6), Mastery of Body



4

+4

+4

+4

+1
ICE (+7), Unagi



5

+5

+4

+4

+1
Weapon Familiarity



6

+6

+5

+5

+5
IPA (+7), Mastery of Mind



7

+7

+5

+5

+5
ICE (+8), Combat Mastery



8

+8

+6

+6

+6
Shunsui Kangae



9

+9

+6

+6

+6
IPA (+7)



10

+10

+7

+7

+7
ICE (+9), Improved Weapon Familiarity, Danger Sense

[/table]

Class Skills

Climb, Concentration, Heal, Jump, Listen, Ride

Skill points: 2 + intelligence modifier per level.

Features

W/A: Ikkitosen gain no additional weapon or armour proficiencies, but see below.

Abilities

1. Improved Combat Expertise (ICE) (Ex) (+6): Ikkitosen can exceed the normal +/-5 limit on Combat Expertise, up to the amount shown. This ability increases at class levels 4, 7 and 10.

2. Meditation (Ex) (1) - Trance: Ikkitosen of 2nd level or higher may meditate instead of sleeping. This allows them to remain aurally aware of their surroundings (no penalty to listen checks) and, with a successful Concentration (18) check, to heal twice the normal number of hit points from a night's rest . Ikkitosen must get at least one normal night's sleep per week, however.

Fast Movement (Ex): As the Barbarian ability of the same name. These bonuses don't stack with one another.

3. Improved Power Attack (IPA) (Ex) (+6): Ikkitosen of third level or higher can exceed the normal +/-5 limit on Power Attack, up to the amount shown. This ability increases at class levels 6 and 9.

Mastery of Body: From third level onwards, an Ikkitosen's Reflex saves become Good.

4. ICE (+7).

Meditation (2) - Unagi: From 4th level onwards an Ikkitosen gains the Uncanny Dodge ability. This stacks with any other class levels which grant this ability.

5. Weapon Familiarity: From 5th level onwards an Ikkitosen suffers only a -2 penalty when attacking with an weapon in which he has no proficiency (including improvised weapons). This ability improves to -1 at level 10.

6. IPA (+7).

Mastery of Mind: From sixth level onwards, an Ikkitosen's Will saves become Good.

7. ICE (+8).

Combat mastery (Ex): By this stage the Ikkitosen's ability to switch from attack to defense is way beyond that of the average fighter. Whenever he uses his ICE or IPA abilities, the penalty to hit is reduced by one for every 3 full points placed into that ability (i.e. +3/-2, +6/-4, +9/-6).

8. Meditation (Ex) (3) - Shunsui Kangae: At this level of mastery, an Ikkitosen gains the ability to enter a trance-like state of pure concentration, albeit at a cost of bodily health. Entering this Shunsui Kangae requires 10 minutes of uninterrupted concentration, during which the Ikkitosen must sit still, eyes closed, and a successful Concentration (27) check. Upon entering the state the Ikkitosen gains temporary hit points sufficient to return him to full health, and then loses 2 points of temporary constitution. Any remaining temporary hit points are lost once the trance ends. Thereafter he loses 2 points of temporary constitution for each full 10 minutes he remains in the trance. Nothing can prevent these constitution losses, and Shinsue Kangae cannoted be achieved by beings with no constitution score.

Whilst in the state of Shunsui Kangae the Ikkitosen enjoys several advantages. First, he gains the ability to ignore injury, granting Damage Reduction 6/-. He also gains a +4 bonus to saves against mind affecting spells (such as compulsions and language-based attacks) and the feat Deflect Arrows, if not already possessed. Finally, his ICE and IPA abilities improve by +2/+1, respectively.

Once successfully attempted, Shinsue Kangae can be maintained for as long as desired. It cannot be re-entered until a number of days have passed equal to the number of Constitution points lost have passed, whether or not it takes this long to recover the lost points. Failed attempts have no penalties (except for wasted time) and can be retried freely.

9. IPA (+7).

10. ICE (+9).

Improved Weapon Familiarity (-1).

Danger Sense (Ex): By this level the Ikkitosen is completely attuned to his surroundings, so much so that he is never suprised. This means that the Ikkitosen can always act in the suprise round of a combat on his normal initiative, maybe even before the (suprising) enemy has acted. In such a situation, the DM should give the Ikkitosen some idea of the upcoming danger, such as "you're about to be shot in the back by a missile weapon" or "the man that just passed you is about to attack you". This ability requires the DM to be reasonable and fair, as no mechanic can cover all possibilities.

Ikkitosen
2004-07-20, 08:09 AM
So, a few quick notes 'n stuff.

Firstly, thanks Gorbash for the table code - very useful :)

I wanted to make a flexible warrior somewhere between monk and fighter. There was a class called Kensai, or Sword Saint in the old Oriental Adventures book, which I loved. No magic weapons, just a pure ability-fueled warrior. They rocked, but were useless without their weapon of choice. It occurred to me that there should be a class that represented a warrior not so specialised, but still more advanced than a fighter. Plus I started learning Japanese last year, and got lucky with my screen name :)

Just a couple of points:

1. The armour requirement is there to stop all you 6th level rangers out there from joining - this is more a combat class than a skills class. I can live with the Paladin that's spent all his feats qualifying, since that shows commitment, and Paladins are mroe dedicated warriors imho.

2. I really like the flexibility offered by Combat Expertise and Power Attack, so I took this idea and ran with it as the theme for the class really.

3. I think the Bard powers that focus on a skill are a cool idea. I was tempted to add more meditation-based abilities, but didn't want to overpower too much. Considering the high entry requirements I think this is okay (opinions welcome).

4. The Good saves are staggered to stop people just taking 1 level for BAB and saves, since this is a sucky tactic.

5. I'm away in Japan atm, so have no access to any books. I also don't own anything but the Core rules, so if I have repeated anything from supplements then please forgive me - I've never even read them.

That's enough ranting for now, methinks ;)

Starbuck_II
2004-07-20, 11:08 AM
Konnichiwa lol

Anyway, Power attack has no limit: Unlike Combat Expertise which can't go beyond +5 Penalty, Power attackj can keep going up to Base Attk bonus.

So your Improved Power Attk ability needs reworking.

Maybe Instead it adds extra damage when you use Power attack. First +1 dam, +2, then +3.
This extra damage stacks with Power attk bonus gained from lowering Accuracy.

Up to you, but that might be a decent idea.

You wrote IPA (+7 ) twice lol

Maybe add Spot or Tumble to skills?
Tumble because the ability to dodge/tumble around battlefield would help.
Spot because they are great detectors of danger so seeing makes sense.

Other than those small issues great ideas.

Ikkitosen
2004-07-20, 08:24 PM
Bugger. I knew lack of books would be a problem, but the class was fun to write anyhow. Thanks for the proofread/feedback :)

I deliberately left out spot because, well, I think the class is good enough already. Plus the whole awareness thing is supposed to be a more subconscious thing that develops with experience, more a danger sense/feeling then a seeing and acting thing.

As for tumble.....that's not really in my vision for the class. For battlefield movement I'd prefer the player to take Mobility. Tumble always strikes me as a way for rogues and other sneaky types to avoid getting too battered in a straight fight. This class isn't sneaky, just tough and flexible.

Right, I'd better go think of some way to rework the Power Attack thing. Thanks!

Ikki.

Zherog
2004-07-23, 12:20 PM
Howdy, Ikki. An interesting class. It looks like Fighter 2/Monk 4 might be the best way in - at least from a quick peek. The problem there, of course, would be a monk would lose all his abilities for wearing any of the armor he's proficient with.

Specific comments below...


<<snipped flavor text>>

Your flavor text was interesting to read, but it was a little long for a PrC intro. It works OK here, I guess, but if you could shorten it somehow, it might help.


Requirements:

BAB +6
Improved Unarmed Strike
Power Attack
Combat Expertise
Any one of: Improved Bull Rush, Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, Improved Sunder, Combat Reflexes
6 Ranks in Concentration
Proficiency in all Martial Weapons
Proficiency in Light, Medium and Heavy armours

Alignment: Any non-chaotic

Ikkitosen are trained by masters, not in schools but in small groups (3-10). These masters often lead their students to out-of-the-way places to train in solitude, and may be as hard or as easy to find as the DM requires.

Pretty heavy requirements. Actually, the class can be qualified for by a straight fighter rather easily by level 6. The more I think about it, the more I think Monk levels for this class would be a waste. Either you'd not wear armor, thus wasting those proficiencies, or you do wear armor and surrender your monk abilities. So straight Fighter seems the best way to go here - assuming it can gain enough ranks in concentration. A fighter/ranger would solve that, and would synergize better.


Class Skills

Climb, Concentration, Heal, Jump, Listen, Ride

Skill points: 2 + intelligence modifier per level.

Wow! I think that's about the shortest class skill list I've ever seen. I think you need to pop a few more skills on that list. I'd recommend Craft, Profession, Spot and Tumble.


1. Improved Combat Expertise (ICE) (Ex) (+6): Ikkitosen can exceed the normal +/-5 limit on Combat Expertise, up to the amount shown. This ability increases at class levels 4, 7 and 10.

I know you don't have supplements, but I thought I'd point it out. There's a feat in Complete Warrior (Improved Combat Expertise) that is immediately better than this class ability. It removes the limitation on BAB complately, whereas your ability is gradual.


2. Meditation (Ex) (1) - Trance: Ikkitosen of 2nd level or higher may meditate instead of sleeping. This allows them to remain aurally aware of their surroundings (no penalty to listen checks) and, with a successful Concentration (18 ) check, to heal twice the normal number of hit points from a night's rest . Ikkitosen must get at least one normal night's sleep per week, however.

Very nice flavor ability. Often times, a PrC requires ranks in a skill that is pretty much useless (Concentration for Monks, for example). I like it when the PrC that requires ranks in those skills actually uses them. Nicely done.


Fast Movement (Ex): As the Barbarian ability of the same name. These bonuses don't stack with one another.

Does it stack with a Monk's fast movement. Really, I see no harm allowing it to stack with either the Monk or Barbarian.


3. Improved Power Attack (IPA) (Ex) (+6): Ikkitosen of third level or higher can exceed the normal +/-5 limit on Power Attack, up to the amount shown. This ability increases at class levels 6 and 9.

As has been pointed out, Power Attack already has no limit. Starbuck's idea of granting extra damage when using Power Attack isn't too bad of an idea as a replacement.


Mastery of Body: From third level onwards, an Ikkitosen's Reflex saves become Good.

The staggered saves are interesting. Me, personally, I don't mind PC's dipping. Some people do. I suppose this is one way to solve it.


Meditation (2) - Unagi: From 4th level onwards an Ikkitosen gains the Uncanny Dodge ability. This stacks with any other class levels which grant this ability.

A common "progression" for this is to say something like, "If the character already has Uncanny Dodge from another class (Rogue or Barbarian, for example), he instead gains Improved Uncanny Dodge. Levels in all his classes that grant these abilities stack."


5. Weapon Familiarity: From 5th level onwards an Ikkitosen suffers only a -2 penalty when attacking with an weapon in which he has no proficiency (including improvised weapons). This ability improves to -1 at level 10.

Not bad at all.


Combat mastery (Ex): By this stage the Ikkitosen's ability to switch from attack to defense is way beyond that of the average fighter. Whenever he uses his ICE or IPA abilities, the penalty to hit is reduced by one for every 3 full points placed into that ability (i.e. +3/-2, +6/-4, +9/-6).

How does this interact with the 2 for 1 that power attack grants? Also, you word it so the bonus is the driving factor ("the penalty to hit is reduced by one for every 3 full points placed into that ability"). I'd recommend that you turn it around, instead, so the ability drives off the penalty ("For every 2 points of penalty you take on your Attack, you gain 3 points of damage from power attack"). Otherwise, I can think of ways to abuse it rather easily, among them the 2 for 1 from Power Attack.


8. Meditation (Ex) (3) - Shunsui Kangae: At this level of mastery, an Ikkitosen gains the ability to enter a trance-like state of pure concentration, albeit at a cost of bodily health. Entering this Shunsui Kangae requires 10 minutes of uninterrupted concentration, during which the Ikkitosen must sit still, eyes closed, and a successful Concentration (27) check. Upon entering the state the Ikkitosen gains temporary hit points sufficient to return him to full health, and then loses 2 points of temporary constitution. Any remaining temporary hit points are lost once the trance ends. Thereafter he loses 2 points of temporary constitution for each full 10 minutes he remains in the trance. Nothing can prevent these constitution losses, and Shinsue Kangae cannoted be achieved by beings with no constitution score.

Whilst in the state of Shunsui Kangae the Ikkitosen enjoys several advantages. First, he gains the ability to ignore injury, granting Damage Reduction 6/-. He also gains a +4 bonus to saves against mind affecting spells (such as compulsions and language-based attacks) and the feat Deflect Arrows, if not already possessed. Finally, his ICE and IPA abilities improve by +2/+1, respectively.

Once successfully attempted, Shinsue Kangae can be maintained for as long as desired. It cannot be re-entered until a number of days have passed equal to the number of Constitution points lost have passed, whether or not it takes this long to recover the lost points. Failed attempts have no penalties (except for wasted time) and can be retried freely.

Usually a <<snip>> long abilities, but I'm leaving this one. The flavor of the ability is really cool. However, mechanically, it's really poor. We're talking about (most likely) a 14th level character when this ability is gained. That means that the character is going to lose 14 hit points for every -2 penalty to Con this ability inflicts. I would have to be really low on hit points to go through with this.

Finally, I don't quite understand how it works. Do I enter the trance for 10 minutes, then come out with the benefits (DR, etc), or do I have to maintain the trance (and therefore keep taking a slam to my Con score) to keep the benefits? If I have to stay in the Trance, isn't it more or less useless, since I can't do anything else except concentrate?

I think this ability has the potential for a really big 8) factor, but it needs to be cleaned up a bit, in my opinion. Once I understand it better, I think I can offer suggestions for fixing the way it's worded.


Danger Sense (Ex): By this level the Ikkitosen is completely attuned to his surroundings, so much so that he is never suprised. This means that the Ikkitosen can always act in the suprise round of a combat on his normal initiative, maybe even before the (suprising) enemy has acted. In such a situation, the DM should give the Ikkitosen some idea of the upcoming danger, such as "you're about to be shot in the back by a missile weapon" or "the man that just passed you is about to attack you". This ability requires the DM to be reasonable and fair, as no mechanic can cover all possibilities.

Never being surprised is a nice thing. You're right, in that mechanically a DM would need to (at times) tip off the player to something - otherwise, the potential of going first really doesn't help.

I'd suggest that you could perhaps improve this ability slightly by granting a small bonus to initiative. I'd suggest a +2 Insight bonus. This is a 10th level ability, after all. It should be really good.

***

Overall, the class has a bit of potential. You had some cool ideas such as Improved Combat Expertise that, unfortunately for you, WotC already put in a book (with a better version even). I think we could probably all work together to create a really cool class for you on this one - the potential is definitely there.

Nice job!

Exitor
2004-07-25, 08:05 AM
This class has huge potential.
A few things to consider,
1. Concentrate is cross class to Fighters.
2. Power attack and Combat Expertise cap at your BAB not at 5 (as a few others have pointed out already)

In order to qualify for this PrC as a straight warrior you need to be level 9. You can get around this by multiclassing, but if you want to avioid that, change the requirement to 4 ranks in concentratate, this way a truelly dedicated warrior can still get to this class after level 6.

Also, anyone who has put this much effort into getting this class deserves the rewards, and will probably stay in this class; go ahead and give this class good saves across the board, if you qualify for this class you deserve it.

Fenris
2004-07-25, 08:33 AM
Great Class I really like the story to.

One suggest/observation: Oriental Armor is consider medium or light in every thing that I have read so I would consider removing the heavy armor from the requirments. That would still make it difficult for a ranger to take the class with out more formal training (fighter etc.).

You should really add craft and profession to the skill list

And lastly I think the trance ability is great!

Zherog
2004-07-25, 01:07 PM
2. Power attack and Combat Expertise cap at your BAB not at 5 (as a few others have pointed out already)

Not quite. Combat Expertise caps at 5, power attack is unlimited against your BAB. And you can use both simulataneously, even.

There is a feat in Complete Warrior called Improved Combat Expertise that allows you to apply your full BAB.

Ikkitosen
2004-07-27, 01:55 AM
Hey everyone, thanks for the feedback!! (esp. Zherog - really, thanks)

So, with a screen name that means "matchless warrior", my immediate thought was "sounds good, let's not build a weaponmaster though, eh?". I didn't want an unbeatable warrior in one circumstance, like a weaponmaster with chosen weapon or (now) a Khazdaran Wolfrider of Gorbash's Hunt in open terrain on a dire wolf (gulp), but more of a rounded adaptable warrior. Hope that came across.

As for changes, of which there must be many......

Requirements.

I wanted these to be stringent, since no one specialty should have easier access to the class than any other. The ideal I had in mind as perfect was a Ftr/Monk, as mentioned.

ImprUnarmedStr was put in to make the choice a bit more interesting - take Monk to get it or "waste" a feat. Concentration the same. Of course the monk option loses BAB, so.....maybe I need to figure out exactly what level(s) should be needed here.

I'm afraid the heavy armour was blatantly added to stop R6 getting in too easy - I couldn't think of anything off-hand that a ftr/monk could get that a ranger could not.

I may, as a medium level ability give the class the ability to wear genuinely light armour and still use monk abilities - none of the mithril breastplate malarky! I think the Giant cleared that up actually - e.g. mithril breastplate still uses arm prof: medium but is treated as light. Careful wording may be required. Of course if I do add this then you'd be a fool not to have some monk in you when going for this PrC, but that's okay with me.

Changes.

Since PwrAtk and CbtExp seem to have been done to death in supplemets, I may just imrove the mods slightly as suggested and add in some more concentration-based abilities. Make them the main part of the class.

As for the Shinsue Kangae ability, the idea is that you need 10mins of sitting quietly to enter the state. Once there you lose 2 con. You can then run/jump/climb trees freely. Every 10 mins later you lose another 2 con. There's no dying from lost HP when you stop (which can be done wheneveryou choose) since they're proper temporary HP, but you can't come out with more HP than you went in - it's not s'posed to be a healing thing. Whilst in thetrance you gain the abilities listed (DR, better PA/CE, etc.). With changes to PA and CE this will need rewording.

More later - unfortunately work is intruding again! ;)

Please feel free to comment, especially on the mechanics front.

Ikki.

Ikkitosen
2004-08-01, 09:40 PM
Okay, so I've had no time at all to update this, and the deadline's gone :-[ Thanks to all who took the time to read and comment :)

Good luck everyone!

Ikki.