Greymane
2010-02-26, 05:39 AM
For a campaign I'm currently working on, I will not be using Crusaders, Swordsages or Warblades. Really, the biggest reason is that various martial disciplines have not been united by someone like Reshar yet. Mechanically, I'm giving myself more work for a little bit of fluff, and I don't mind that, so please don't just tell me to use Warblades and what-not. I've gotten that already.
So, to remedy this, I've gone to going about adding disciplines and maneuver mechanics to other base classes, but making them function slightly different.
For example, my Fighters get access to two different schools of their choice (picking schools is uniquely theirs), however one of them is typically flavored by what race you are/region you hail from. Hobgoblins almost always have access to Iron Heart, as it was invented by them.
To better hit the notion home that people are masters of their discipline and not dipping all over the place like normal Martial Adepts, you gain access to very few disciplines, which I've divided into primary and secondary disciplines.
When a class has a primary discipline, that class gets every maneuver from that discipline as they level. Completely. They learn the entire maneuver list as they level. Now, most classes also have disciplines listed as secondary, meaning that every odd-numbered level, they are allowed to select a maneuver from a secondary discipline for free.
For example: Rogues select either Diamond Mind or Shadow Hand for a Primary Discipline. However, they get the one they did not select as a Secondary Discipline, and so can pick a maneuver from that list every odd-numbered level. Whereas he gets full access to the one he does pick. Rogues use the Warblade maneuver recovery mechanic
Now, I can finally get to the root of this post: I'm having trouble deciding how to handle multi-classing under this system. I don't use XP penalties, and I'm not sure if I want someone dipping into a few base classes late in their career for complete access to a few other schools; but I want there to be reason to multi-class too, as that adds delightful diversity and flavor to a lot of character concepts.
Assuming I haven't put you all to sleep with that exposition, would you fair folks of the Playground lend me your creative genius?
So, to remedy this, I've gone to going about adding disciplines and maneuver mechanics to other base classes, but making them function slightly different.
For example, my Fighters get access to two different schools of their choice (picking schools is uniquely theirs), however one of them is typically flavored by what race you are/region you hail from. Hobgoblins almost always have access to Iron Heart, as it was invented by them.
To better hit the notion home that people are masters of their discipline and not dipping all over the place like normal Martial Adepts, you gain access to very few disciplines, which I've divided into primary and secondary disciplines.
When a class has a primary discipline, that class gets every maneuver from that discipline as they level. Completely. They learn the entire maneuver list as they level. Now, most classes also have disciplines listed as secondary, meaning that every odd-numbered level, they are allowed to select a maneuver from a secondary discipline for free.
For example: Rogues select either Diamond Mind or Shadow Hand for a Primary Discipline. However, they get the one they did not select as a Secondary Discipline, and so can pick a maneuver from that list every odd-numbered level. Whereas he gets full access to the one he does pick. Rogues use the Warblade maneuver recovery mechanic
Now, I can finally get to the root of this post: I'm having trouble deciding how to handle multi-classing under this system. I don't use XP penalties, and I'm not sure if I want someone dipping into a few base classes late in their career for complete access to a few other schools; but I want there to be reason to multi-class too, as that adds delightful diversity and flavor to a lot of character concepts.
Assuming I haven't put you all to sleep with that exposition, would you fair folks of the Playground lend me your creative genius?