Sublime Shadowdancer

[Serenity]

Has anyone made a reworked version of the Shadowdancer to incorporate Shadow hand maneuvers and stances? One of my players has just started taking levels in the class, and I'm looking for ways to improve its functionality. The changes Pathfinder made to it will be largely incorporated, but if I can get some Tome of Battle in there too--well, if ever there was a homebrew begging to be made, it's the Shadow Hand Shadowdancer.

[Narmy]

I don't think that I've ever heard of the Tome of Battle before coming to these forums, what system was it made for and by who?

Also, what is a Shadow Hand??

People are trying to add all these stances and maneuvers, it's confuzzling me. lol ><

[Temotei]

I don't think that I've ever heard of the Tome of Battle before coming to these forums, what system was it made for and by who?

Also, what is a Shadow Hand??

People are trying to add all these stances and maneuvers, it's confuzzling me. lol ><

You really should just find the book and read it. Or ask on the roleplaying games section of the forum, but the playgrounders are only at liberty to give you a rough idea of what the book is about.


Shadow Hand Swordsage.

So...you want a shadow hand swordsage, or a shadow hand shadowdancer?

[Serenity]

@Narmy: Tome of Battle was one of the last published splatbooks for 3.5 D&D, introducing three new melee classes that reworked the paladin, monk, and fighter, and a system of martial arts maneuvers.

@Temotei: Shadowdancer. Thanks for pointing out the typo; it's fixed now.

[Catch]

Considering the Shadowdancer is a somewhat-mediocre class, and was written at the start of the codex creep, I don't think just adding a maneuver progression would be unbalancing. Snag the progression from one of the existing ToB PrCs, like that of the RKV or Eternal blade, and just specify that only Shadow Hand maneuvers and stances can be selected. It'd give the Shadowdancer a decent offensive boost.

[Serenity]

That would be the simplest way, to be certain. However, I'll probably be using the Pathfinder version, mostly, as the base: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/shadowdancer. I doubt it would change the balance issues that much, but would it change anything for how you would add maneuvers?

[Catch]

Not really. The Pathfinder Shadowdancer has a few nice buffs, but none of what I see would change how maneuvers would be gained. I'd be sure to specify what recovery mechanic you'd be using, however.

[Serenity]

Given that its using Shadow Hand stuff, I'd assume the Swordsage mechanic. Unless I wanted to make a unique recovery involving hiding or some such, but that would probably be unworkable.

[Haven]

Given that its using Shadow Hand stuff, I'd assume the Swordsage mechanic. Unless I wanted to make a unique recovery involving hiding or some such, but that would probably be unworkable.

I think Warblade recovery could work--I don't know, somehow the image of a guy striking from the shadows and then doing a little flourish of his dagger seems appropriate. Besides which, the Swordsage mechanic is a balancing mechanism for that class since it has lots of readied maneuvers; I'd assume there wouldn't be as many in this case.

[Serenity]

True, at least not for this specific character who was a straight rogue before entering Shadowdancer. The rendition I give him will probably be slightly rules-bent though. The theoretical final version, you'd presumably enter from Swordsage...

EDIT: All right, how does this sound? A Shadow Hand Maneuver every even level, stances at 1st and 6th level of Shadowdancer, and an extra maneuver readied every 3 levels. (Though in this particular player's case, since I didn't key Shadowdancer to ToB stuff beforehand, he'll get the first maneuver readied at second level instead, when he gets access to his first maneuver known. The final version won't have that problem, since I'll add knowing at least one Shadow Hand Maneuver and one Shadow Hand stance to the requirements.)