Help Me Make a Hitokiri Style Class

[ondonaflash]

What I want to develop is a class/prestige class which uses superior speed to deliver fast and lethal strikes, but is less reliant on stealth and more reliant on superior combat skills. I'm developing a D&D 3.5 setting in the midst of a cultural renaissance and this class will come in handy. I expect a class of this nature would be able to:


Kill a single enemy in two or three turns.

Be heavily focused on a single weapon and fighting style

Have superior speed and initiative

Use light or no armor

Have a few "Mage Buster" techniques to render mages incapable of casting or... you know... living.

Again, ideally stealth would be of less significance that elegant combat technique, perhaps some class abilities to reflect that combat technique? Special moves or the like?

Would probably shun "magical" or "Ki" based abilities in favor of lethal strikes and the disabling of vital nervous centers.


(Keep an eye out for my homebrewed Mage-Killing Monk update later this week)

[TooManySecrets]

1. System?

2. Do you think that it's necessary to create a new class/prestige class to do this? What would your class/prestige class do that isn't accomplished by a multi-class Swordsage, for example?

3. Do you have anything done already? If so, even if it's not fully done and sort of nebulous (I know how that is when homebrewing), post it up and it should help.

4. Is this for a homebrew campaign that you're running or are in? If so, what's the powerlevel of the campaign? If it's just for fun, then how powerful a character are we looking at?


Anyways, I'd be glad to help. Just want to know a bit more.

[ondonaflash]

1. Sorry, I always forget, Edited.

2. I'm... not familiar with that class.

3. I will do so shortly.

4. *Edited* The setting generally has the heroes fighting other humanoids and threats I could see a group of determined warriors facing. So I'd say probably low powered, however Magic is a cultural aspect which the the world has had to learn to deal with, in war and straight forward combat. Its a standard D&D setting but Wizards and magical items for everyday use are more common. It was a high magic world which suffered a collapse, and is now climbing back towards that cultural peak.

For more background, the setting is split between two opposing religions, who can't risk open warfare with each other. Instead they resort to assassinating political leaders, hiring private soldiers, assassinating said soldiers, and assassinating the aforementioned assassins. If you are familiar with the Meiji revolution of Japan, its a similar climate.

[TooManySecrets]

The Swordsage is in the Tome of Battle. Semi-affectionately known among certain people as the Tome of Weeaboo Fightan Magic. It basically provides fighting classes with maneuvers and special abilities and stuff like that. It was part of the basis for 4e's powers (though I prefer the maneuver stuff myself).

Give the Swordsage and Tome of Battle a check-out (I really like it). It could fulfill what you want to do. And if it doesn't, it can at least serve as some inspiration.

Anyways, while the fluff stuff is good (and is definitely required for making sure that the class feels right), I really sort of want to know about the power level. What I mean about that is stuff like is it a low-magic world, are the player's walking around kicking various gods every which way or are the having a hard time fighting a cat, what the average level of the world is, how generally powergame-y everything is, etc. Without this information, we could create a character whichever is perfectly fine for Core D&D, but is underpowered in your world. Or overpowered. Or whatever.

[ondonaflash]

HD: D6
Base Attack Bonus: Maybe Higher than average, its a melee class, so it might need some extra kick.

Fortitude:Normal
Reflex:High
Will:Normal

Skills: 4+int

Weapon proficiency: Simple, Martial
Armor Proficiency: Light, no shields

Requirements: Weapon Focus: Any, Dodge, Mobility, Combat Reflexes or Improved Initiative or something like that.

This is about as far as I've made it so far. I need to spend some time sitting down and writing out special abilities before I really can come up with anything. I know I want a technique that will let him render a mage unable to cast. I'd like a quick killer, or massive damage attack. Some sort of technique that will let him flee combat quickly

[Sairyu]

Have you looked at the Iaijutsu master PRC (Oriental Adventures p.41)?

You could reduce the HD to 6 as you wanted and change the required skills to include more than Iaijutsu Focus (Cha). Add in fast movement as a monk or barbarian and give them some sort of slashing dispel effect added to a single strike as a class feature with the iaijutsu master class' levels acting as the CLs. Maybe it'd act like smite, or something along the lines of,

declare ability use -> single strike -> if hit, dispel check -> resolve strike damage

Maybe 1/day at level 3 and an additional use every 3 levels?

But the PRC itself seems to be quite close to what you want. :3




Edit: If you're less interested in draw-and-cut and more in stand and fight, swordsage is probably a better option.

[ondonaflash]

More on this Sword Sagery! I find this exceedingly frustrating, lacking the source required to look it up. You wouldn't happen to have a... alternative to actually owning the sourcebook would you?

*Edit* This Iaijutsu master looks pretty good, I'd just like to add a move that allows him to disable spell casters. Nothing quite so simple as a dispel move though, I was thinking of...

Disrupt Ki: At level 7 the Iaijutsu Master's knowledge of the concepts of physical energy and balance is such that he can strike a caster precisely enough to shatter the line of energy from which he draws his magic. On a non-caster this move serves simply to render the target off balanced and stunned, but on spellcasters this completely cripples their ability to cast spells. (Save DCs and stuff) It takes a Greater Restoration spell to undo the damage inflicted by this attack.

[TooManySecrets]

Oh, also, you might suggest that your characters take Elusive Target and/or Shock Trooper from Complete Warrior. Heedless Charge is very much a "I'm going to kill you even if it kills me" and Elusive Target is good for a lightly-armored person.

You might also want to check out Ronin in the same book. It could easily be refluffed and have some of its abilities changed to better suit what you need. Or you could just crib some of it's abilities.

[lsfreak]

If you want a look at the swordsage maneuvers, http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20061225a
They get everything but Devoted Spirit, Iron Heart, and White Raven. Maneuvers are like wizard spells; 2nd level at level 3, 3rd level at level 5, etc.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5687663) might be what you're looking for?