Blademaster (PrC)

[McDeath]

I posted this class a few weeksmonths ago, and it was absurdly unbalanced. Hopefully it's better now, but I want it fair, as I plan to unleash it on my players once it's balanced (beware).
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Blademaster
The Blademaster is more than a warrior. He is an artist, who writes new masterpieces with steel and courage. Using perfectly co-ordinated styles called forms, he can perform acts that leave lesser warriors staring. At the end of a blademaster’s life, he will have created his own form, unique and everlasting.

Prerequisites
Alignment: any lawful
BAB: +5
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Quick Draw, Weapon Focus (longsword)
Ranks: Concentration 3 ranks
Special: Must be initiated by another blademaster.

Level BAB Fort Will Ref Special
1 1 0 0 1 Blade Form, Bladestorm 1/day
2 2 0 0 2 Weapon Specialization (longsword)
3 3 1 1 2 Blade Form
4 4 1 1 3 Bladestorm 2/day
5 5 2 2 3 Blade Form
6 6 2 2 4 Greater Weapon Focus (longsword)
7 7 3 3 4 Blade Form, Bladestorm 3/day
8 8 3 3 5 Greater Weapon Specialization (longsword)
9 9 4 4 5 Blade Form
10 10 4 4 6 Blade Mastery, Bladestorm 3/day

The Blademaster’s class skills are Balance, Concentration, Heal, Diplomacy, Jump, Knowledge (history), Listen, Profession, Ride, Sleight of Hand, Speak language, Tumble.
The Blademaster gets 2 + Int modifier skill points per level.
Hit Dice: d8

Class Features
Blade Form – every few levels a Blademaster chooses a form to learn. During combat, the Blademaster may as a free action change form. He may only change between forms he knows, and he may choose to use no form. He may only fight using one form at a time. He may only use a form when unencumbered, wielding a longsword and without an Armour Check penalty.
Inner Fire: +2 to damage rolls
Serpent Tongue: +2 attack and +1d6 damage to all AoO
Wind Walker: +1 AC per Blademaster level, cannot attack
Relentless Mirror: +2 attack against creatures of same subtype as Blademaster
Twin Soul: does not count as flanked, -3 to attack rolls

Bladestorm – once per day, increasing at 4th, 7th and 10th levels, the Blademaster can make an attack of dazzling speed and skill with a longsword, as a standard action. This attack has +1 to hit per Blademaster level, and deals 1d6 damage plus another 1d6 per two Blademaster levels.

Blade Mastery – at 10th level, the Blademaster has nothing left to learn when it comes to the way of the sword. He keeps such a firm grip on his weapon that he gets +3 when opposing a disarm attempt, and he gets +3 on all Sense Motive checks when opposing a feint. He also gets the feats Improved Feint and Improved Disarm automatically; he doe not have to meet the requirements. His disarm attempts count as free actions, but he may make no more than he would normally be entitled to.

[Rei_Jin]

I'm sorry, but that is so broken it's not funny.

If you want to make something like that, try and get a look at the Weapon Master PrC from Sword and Fist.

Yes, it's a 3.0 book, but it is about the closest thing to what you want.

I would never allow this PrC, not even for epic.

[McDeath]

Ok, so it's still broken. Nuts.

What parts do I need to rip out?

[Rei_Jin]

Try this instead. This is more based on the weapon master, but still with your unique flavor.

Blademaster
The Blademaster is more than a warrior. He is an artist, who writes new masterpieces with steel and courage. Using perfectly co-ordinated styles called forms, he can perform acts that leave lesser warriors staring. At the end of a blademaster’s life, he will have created his own form, unique and everlasting.

Prerequisites
Alignment: any lawful
BAB: +10
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Quick Draw, Weapon Focus (longsword), Weapon Specialisation (longsword), Mobility, Spring attack, Combat Expertise
Ranks: Concentration 6 ranks
Special: Must be initiated by another blademaster.

Lvll BAB Fort Will Ref Special
1 0 0 2 0 Blade Form, Bladestorm 1/day
2 1 0 3 0 Longsword Focus
3 2 1 3 1 Improved longsword critical
4 3 1 4 1 Blade Form, Bladestorm 2/day
5 3 1 4 1 Longsword Specialisation
6 4 2 5 2 Greater longsword Focus
7 5 2 5 2 Blade Form, Bladestorm 2/day
8 6 2 6 2 Greater longsword specialisation
9 6 3 6 3
10 7 3 7 3 Blade Form, Blade Mastery, Bladestorm 3/day

The Blademaster’s class skills are Balance, Concentration, Heal, Diplomacy, Jump, Knowledge (history), Listen, Profession, Ride, Sleight of Hand, Speak language, Tumble.
The Blademaster gets 2 + Int modifier skill points per level.
Hit Dice: d8

Class Features
Blade Form – every three levels a Blademaster chooses a form to learn. To gain a blade form, he must have a total of Int Bonus + Level that equals the relevant skill he want. These bonuses stack, and are all useable at the same time. These forms may each only be chosen once.

1-2 Inner Fire: +2 to confirm a critical hit
3-4 Serpent Tongue: +1 attack and +1d6 damage to all AoO
5-6 Wind Walker: +1 AC per 2 Blademaster levels, only accessible when taking the partial defense or total defensive action.
7-8 Relentless Strike: If you hit the same foe twice in the same round you gain an extra attack against him at your highest bonus.
9-10 Twin Soul: Cannot be flanked, gains a +2 bonus to hit for all attacks.

Bladestorm – once per day, increasing at 4th, 7th and 10th levels, the Blademaster can make an attack of dazzling speed and skill with a longsword, as a standard action. This attack has +1 to hit per Blademaster level, and deals 1d6 damage plus another 1d6 per two Blademaster levels.

Blade Mastery – at 10th level, the Blademaster has nothing left to learn when it comes to the way of the sword. He is treated as if wearing a locked Gauntlet when wielding a longsword, and cannot be feinted against in combat. In addition, he gains the benefit of th Whirlwind feat. If he already has it, he may choose another feat in it's place.

The longsword Focus, greater Focus, and Specialization stack with other bonuses such as weapon focus, greater focus, and specialisation.

[McDeath]

Um...wow. Hang on while I copy that and save it..done. Thanks!

This is only my second PrC, so I'm pretty proud that it was only completely broken.

[Rei_Jin]

That's ok, just remember when you are making classes and PrC to refer to existing material and try to modify it, or build on it as much as possible.

[Imrix.]

Why only longswords? Why not just any form of bladed weapon?

[Rei_Jin]

The obvious answer to that is for the flavour McDeath wants. Change it for whatever you want.

[ILM]

I'm a bit confused here. If anything, Rei Jin's version looks more powerful than the OP's. Okay, so the BAB and saves have been changed. Okay, the wording has been fixed in some areas. As for the rest, it's all been powered up.

That, and the prereqs restrict the PrC to one single character progression. I mean, BAB +10, 8 fighter feats, and 6 ranks in Concentration (cross-class for fighters) mean that just about nobody can get into the PrC except a Fighter 10 who's spent all his skill points on Concentration (might be a moot-point if it's a NPC-only class).

[Rei_Jin]

In some ways it is more powerful, but it's more the restrictions on his character that balance it.

Drops from best BAB to middle BAB

HP are d8, not d10.

No bonus feats that fighter gets.

Trade Fort save for Refl save.

This PrC is, on average, a little more likely to hit than a fighter of the same level, but not by much. He gets +2 to hit from the focus and greater focus, so he's still down 1 point on the standard fighter.

His bladestorm can't be done very often.

He doesn't get all 5 of the blade forms, and to get lower level access to the better ones requires a decent Intelligence, which is assumed because you combat expertise.

He doesn't have as many HP as a fighter of the same level.

His fort save isn't as good, and he doesn't get evasion(which would make good use of his improved refl save.)

As you pointed out, it is basically open only to fighters who take the feats prescribed. Therefore, it is difficult to get into. The harder something is to get into, the more rewarding it should be. Roleplaying a Paladin can be difficult, but it can also be more rewarding than playing a fighter.

The concentration is to show that the character is devoted to the class, to the point of going against his normal training in order to move away from the norm.

Yeah, it is a little powerful, but in no way do I view it as broken. You have to be level 10 to take it, and a straight fighter. You give up a lot of skill points to get it, as well as choosing specific feats. Those feats might be useful, but this PrC doesn't even look at the cleave tree of feats, including the painful supreme cleave.

One extra attack with a longsword isn't going to kill anyone who wasn't going to die anyway, and it's like a rend attack (That was my idea for it).

I mean, compare this to the weapon master.

Best BAB
Strong Refl, weak fort & will.
d10 hit die
Auto max damage
Increase crit multiplier by 1
Extra critical range
Whirlwind as a standard action

And that was an approved PrC that in playing was not broken. This is either on par with it, or below it. I see no reason why this class is too powerful.

The reason the other one was was because of the structuring of the abilities, what some of the abilities were, the BAB, and the entry requirements.

[Shecky]

What I'd honestly like to see is a different prestige class for dwarves - there are Dwarven Defender and Deepwarden (forgive me if I've forgotten any), but there's nothing along the lines that I want, something like Dwarven War Machine. Basically, what I'm looking at is a PrC that takes advantage of racial weapon familiarity - specifically, dual-wielding dwarven waraxes. Does this ring a bell for anyone, or would someone like to take a swing at it? I have absolutely zero talent at creating PrCs (with one exception - I created a Swashbuckler PrC for a friend's campaign before either of us ever SAW the WotC Swashbuckler, and the DM absolutely loved the idea, but I never got the chance to play it).

[Rei_Jin]

Technically you could duel wield Dwarven waraxes, as long as you don't mind big penalties. If one of them got the enhancement bonuses that a sunblade gets, you could wield it as a light weapon.

For Dual Wielding PrC, look up the Tempest PrC or the Dervish PrC. Both are quite good. Adapt one to do what you want. And if you like dwarfs, try and pick up a copy of Races of Stone.

[OzymandiasVolt]

There's a normal feat that any shmuck can take. It grants +4 to attack rolls on AoOs at all times. Why should his CLASS ABILITY be so much weaker, Rei_Jin?

[Rei_Jin]

Because he already gets enough.

Now I've been told that it's too strong, and too weak.

If you don't like it, do your own.

[Shecky]

Already have Races of Stone; the paucity therein of the kind of thing I'm seeking is precisely why I was putting this question out here. It just kind of bugs me that the only extras that dwarves get with their racial weapons is so-called Familiarity. You'd think that something made BY dwarves precisely FOR dwarves would give a dwarven wielder at least potentially something more than one-handing a weapon that other races have to two-hand (which is nice, don't get me wrong, but... that's all?).

I mean, if any old shmo can take Blademaster or Weapon Master on the longsword (which is made for just about anyone), why can't a dwarf go full-on with a dwarven waraxe or even a pair thereof??? Racial weapons should offer considerably more to racially-appropriate wielders than "familiarity" in my opinion. Orc double axes, gnome pickhammers, etc. - sure, okay, maybe to BEGIN with they should offer a whole lot, but there oughta be at least the POTENTIAL for a lot more.

(^ my $0.02)

[Umbral_Arcanist]

Shecky: In Races of Fearun (or however it's spelled) there is the dwarven battlerager class, Is that what you are looking for?

On the blademaster: It's nice, i don't think i'd take it but i thinkt he revised version is much more balanced, with the original being pretty powerful considering that few longsword users wouldn't want it.

[Karellen]

Well, familiarity with a racial weapon is already one Exotic Weapons feat saved. I don't really think there's any reason why there should be any bonus to them beyond that, considering Exotic Weapons tend to be slightly better than normal ones. Special abilities beyond that, unless maybe part of some specific PrC, would unbalance the game. I guess the question is - if racial weapons were so awesome, why would any dwarf ever not use one?

[larnman2]

The Blademaster should only be immune to those feinting with a sword. He knos nothing of what someone with a warhammer is going to do. In fact, since they spent so much time focusing on the sword they should get minuses on other weapons for feinting

[ILM]

Because he already gets enough.

Now I've been told that it's too strong, and too weak.

If you don't like it, do your own.
Actually, I never said it was "broken" or "too powerful". I only said it was more powerful than the original version*, and considering your first comment was "I'm sorry, but that is so broken it's not funny", I found that confusing.

*due to : multiple stackable weapon focus/spec type abilities, gaining an extra attack at your highest BAB (that's nearly a perma-haste) and a boosted Blade Mastery. The hit to BAB doesn't hurt as much as it could since you're not going to be power-attacking anyway (and the loss in attack bonus is compensated by aforementioned weapon focus-like abilities), and personally I dislike the approach of tightening the requirements so much just to "balance" things out. If that's the way you want people to enter the class, why not just make it a base class ? (but that's just me). Again, notice I still haven't said it was too powerful - just moreso than the first version.

[bellerah]

Not commenting directly on this, but there is a Blade master prestige class in the Wheel of Time d20 book. you should look at that class and work off that for a basis, it is even called a blademaster.