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View Full Version : The Star Dream the Martial Maneuvers of the Fey (ToB, PEACH)



Zaydos
2010-09-20, 03:52 PM
New Sword Sage Discipline:
Star Dream

After Reshar had founded the Temple of the Nine Swords and his students began to travel the world inadvertently spreading the Sublime Way, one of these disciples encountered a terrible baron of the fey court. The unseelie's champion was defeated with ease and the swordsmen was allowed to wander onward, the fey held back by a mixture of awe and fear.

Despite his seeming surrender, the unseelie baron was not one to allow defeat to rest easily upon him. For years he studied and reviewed the battle and the art of the blade that had been used to defeat his champion. He found another student of the sublime way and seduced the young warrior into his service. From there he placed his servants into a harsh training regime. For years they practiced and they learned.

They integrated the powers of Reshar's sublime way with their own innate, or bestowed, powers. When they had finished they unveiled a new style of battle technique, one that focused on the subtle power of the fey. He used this new army to begin a reign of terror over the neighboring woods. Unfortunately his reign was cut short when a band of mortal heroes rose up from the nearby farmlands and through harsh battle put an end to his life.

With his death his forces scattered and first fey, whether of the summer or the winter court, and then mortals learned this blade magic.

The Star Dream discipline focuses on the powers of the fey blending the wild powers of beasts and plants and the bewitching powers of the fey with the art of the sword perfected by the mortal races. Star Dream
In tune with the powers of nature and allowing the great spirit of the wild to flow through you is the path to great power. The Star Dream discipline taps into the powers of the fey and woods to perform unparalleled feats of martial prowess. With an emphasis on speed and agility, this discipline includes not only agility but control over plants and the channeling of animalistic powers.
Bluff is the key skill for the Star Dream disciple. The associated weapons for the Star Dream disciple are the rapier, elven thinblade, elven courtblade, and dagger.

Because the Star Dream discipline was never taught widely at the Temple of the Nine Swords or any similar center of training, most martial adepts do not know any maneuvers from it, or even know it exists. Only Crusaders, and Swordsages can learn maneuvers from the Star Dream discipline. There are two ways to master the discipline. The first is to have been trained in it. If you choose to make a martial adept that has already been trained in the Star Dream discipline, you simply replace one discipline that adept could normally learn maneuvers from with the Star Dream discipline. He loses the associated skill of the replaced discipline as a class skill, but gains Bluff as a class skill.

The other way is to seek out a master of the Star Dream–a martial adept capable of using at least 5th-level maneuvers from the discipline–and training under him. You must train for a month under the master, or spend a month in research, and spend 1,000 xp at the end of your training. You gain the ability to learn maneuvers from the Star Dream discipline, and add Bluff to your martial adept class’s list of class skills. In addition, you may exchange your maneuvers known for maneuvers of the Star Dream discipline. You may exchange one maneuver of each level, and the new maneuvers you learn must be of the same level as the exchanged maneuvers, unlike normal.

Note: All maneuvers and stances marked with a * are supernatural

Format and method to learn new maneuvers copied from The Demented One's martial initiator works.

1st level maneuvers:
Wolves of Shadow (Boost): You create a phantasmal wolf(s) to flank your foes *
Poison Thorn Strike (Strike): Strike marks a foe granting a bonus to damage and attacks against them.
Forest Guardian Blow (Strike): Successful attack grants DR/cold iron
Wood Walker (Stance): Move through difficult terrain with ease.*[/spoiler]

2nd level maneuvers:
Mind Venom Blade (Strike): Your blade intrudes into the mind of your foe weakening their will even as you attack.
Strike of Bestial Ferocity (Strike): You call on the powers of wild beasts to empower yourself giving them an offering of blood. *
Forest’s Vengeance (Strike): Strike deals extra damage to undead, constructs and aberrations

3rd level maneuvers:
Winter of the Mind (Counter): You unbalance the mind of your opponent when it is at its weakest
Summer Blessing (Counter): You protect yourself and those near you with the blessings of Summer.
Tongue of the Fey Woods (Stance): Your words become more persuasive.

4th level maneuvers:
Twisted Blade (Strike): Deceive your opponent to slip your soul into the cracks of their soul.*
Shadows of the Fey Woods (Boost): You call on the magic of the fey woods to hide yourself from mortal sight *

5th level maneuvers:
Accursed Thorns (Strike): Your blade scatters thorns into your foe digging deeper into their flesh every moment. *
Guidance of the Twinkling Star (Stance): Resist mental assault.
Wild Strike (Strike): Make a swift action melee attack at a range.*

6th level maneuvers:
Fangs of the Wolf (Strike): your blade is surrounded by the snapping jaws of spiritual wolves which rend your opponent.*
Viper Sword (Strike): Your blade becomes poisonous striking your foe and slowing his heart.*

7th level maneuvers:
Summer’s Caress (Strike): You restore your body by striking your foe.*
Winter’s Fury (Strike): You channel the fury of the winter court to perform a particularly deadly attack.*


8th level maneuvers:
Free the Mind (Boost): You break baleful effects upon the minds and souls of your allies*
Entangling Strike (Strike): You call plants to entangle each foe you strike.*
Favor of the Fey Court (Stance): Gain DR 10/cold iron and SR.

9th level maneuvers:
Blade of the Dancing Stars: (short description: Your blade dances like the stars dealing extra damage and stunning the opponent)*

Zaydos
2010-09-20, 03:54 PM
Star Dream Maneuvers:

1st:

Forest Guardian Blow – Successful attack grants DR/cold iron
Level: 1 (Strike)
Initiation Action: Standard Action
Range: Personal
Target: you
Duration: 1 round
As part of this maneuver you make a single attack. If you hit you gain DR 5/cold iron for 1 round.

Poison Thorn Strike – Strike marks a foe granting a bonus to damage and attacks against them.
Level: 1 (Strike)
Initiation Action: Standard Action
Range: Melee attack
Target: 1 creature
Duration: 3 rounds
As part of this maneuver you make a single attack. If you hit you gain a +2 to attack rolls and weapon damage against that foe for 3 rounds.

Wolves of Shadow – You create a phantasmal wolf(s) to flank your foes *
Level: 1 (Boost)
Initiation Action: Full-Round Action
Range: 30-ft
Effect: Summons phantasmal wolves
Duration: 1 round
This summons 1 phantasmal wolf/initiator level. These phantasmal wolves grant flanking bonuses but cannot take actions of their own. Anyone adjacent to a phantasmal wolf that attacks you whether in melee or with a ranged weapon or spell (including AoE or supernatural abilities) may suffer 1 attack from a phantasmal wolf. This is a melee touch attack which uses your BAB and a +1 Str bonus to hit and deals 1d6+1 damage per 5 initiator levels. Regardless of how many phantasmal wolves are adjacent to an opponent or how many times they attack you they will only be attacked by a single wolf once per turn.

Wood Walker *
Level: (Stance)
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: you
Duration: Stance
You ignore penalties to speed, movement, or skill checks related to moving through difficult terrain, although you still may not charge through difficult terrain. Also all squares adjacent to you are considered difficult terrain for other creatures.

2nd:

Forest’s Vengeance – Strike deals extra damage to undead, constructs and aberrations
Level: 2 (Strike)
Initiation Action: 1 standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: 1 creature
As part of this maneuver you make a single melee attack roll. If the target is a construct, undead, or aberration you deal an extra 3d6 damage and it suffers a –2 to Atk, Damage, AC and Saves for 1 round.

Mind Venom Blade – Your blade intrudes into the mind of your foe weakening their will even as you attack.
Level: (Strike)
Initiation Action: 1 standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: 1 creature
As part of this maneuver you make a single attack which deals +2d6 damage. If you hit the target suffers a -2 on Will saves for 1 round.

Strike of Bestial Ferocity – You call on the powers of wild beasts to empower yourself giving them an offering of blood. *
Level: (Strike)
Initiation Action: 1 standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: 1 creature
Duration: 1 round/2 initiator levels
As part of this maneuver you make a single attack. If you hit you gain an enhancement bonus to Str based on your initiator level for 1 round/2 initiator levels.
Bonus:
1st – 6th: +4 Str
7th – 9th: +6 Str
10th – 12th: +8 Str
13th – 15th: +10 Str
16th+: +12 Str


3rd:

Summer Blessing – You protect yourself and those near you with the blessings of Summer
Level: 3 (Counter)
Prerequisite: 1 Star Dream Maneuver
Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
Range: 20-ft
Area: 20-ft radius centered on you
Duration: 1 round
You and all creatures within the area gain a bonus to all saving throws equal to twice your Charisma modifier until the end of your next turn. In addition you gain a +2 insight bonus on attack and AC until end of your next turn.

Tongue of the Fey Woods:
Level: 3 (Stance)
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: you
Duration: Stance
You add one-third your initiator level as an insight bonus to Bluff and Diplomacy checks.

Winter of the Mind – You unbalance the mind of your opponent when it is at its weakest
Level: 3 (Counter)
Prerequisite: 1 Star Dream Maneuver
Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
Range: 10-ft
Target: 1 creature
You force your target to reroll any one Will save they just made after knowing whether they succeeded or failed. They must reroll the save. If they make the new save they gain a +2 morale bonus on Will saves for the next 3 rounds.

4th:

Shadows of the Fey Woods – You call on the magic of the fey woods to hide yourself from all sight *
Level: 4 (Boost)
Prerequisite: 1 Star Dream Maneuver
Initiation Action: 1 swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: See below
You turn invisible as per Greater Invisibility. The duration of this effect depends on your Bluff check result:
1 – 20: 1 round
21 – 30: 2 rounds
31 – 40: 3 rounds
41 – 50: 4 rounds
51+: 5 rounds
You must wait at least one round after this maneuver ends before using it again.

Twisted Blade – Deceive your opponent to slip your soul into the cracks of their soul. *
Level: 4 (Strike)
Prerequisite: 1 Star Dream Maneuver
Initiation Action: 1 standard action
Range: 30-ft
Target: 1 creature that can see you.
Duration: 1 round/level
You weave and wave your sword in a hypnotic pattern, invading the mind of your opponent.
As part of this maneuver you make a Bluff check opposed by an opponent’s Will save. If you succeed they take 3d6 damage and suffer a -2 on Will saves for 1 round/level. This is a mind-affecting, enchantment effect which requires sight.


5th:

Accursed Thorns – Your blade scatters thorns into your foe digging deeper into their flesh every moment. *
Level: 5 (Strike)
Prerequisite: 2 Star Dream maneuvers
Initiation Action: 1 standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: 1 creature
Duration: 3 rounds; see below
Ghostly thorns enwrap your weapon. When your blade strikes your foe thorns break away burrowing deep into your foe, digging deeper moment by moment.
As part of this maneuver you make a single melee attack dealing +2d6 damage. For the next 3 rounds your opponent takes additional damage at the start of their turn, starting at +1d6 at round 1 and increasing by +1d6 every round (+3d6 at round 3).

Guidance of the Twinkling Star:
Level: 5 (Stance)
Prerequisite: 2 Star Dream maneuvers
Initiation Action: Stance
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance
You gain +4 morale bonus on Will saves, this increases to +6 versus spells of the enchantment or illusion school, as well as mind-affecting effects. You gain a +2 insight bonus on Bluff and Diplomacy checks dealing with Fey.

Wild Strike*
Level: 5 (Strike)
Prerequisite: 2 Star Dream maneuvers
Initiation Action: Swift
Range: 30-ft
Target: 1 creature
This strike allows you to make a single melee attack at your normal attack bonus from a range of 30-ft. This attack uses your melee attack bonus and counts as a melee attack. Regardless of the weapon you wield it deals damage as a magic slashing weapon. It carries any alignment as the weapon you wield. Also based on your initiator level it counts as a silver and/or adamantine weapon. At Lv 13 it counts as a silver weapon, and at Lv 18 it counts an adamantine weapon.

6th:

Fangs of the Wolf – your blade is surrounded by the snapping jaws of spiritual wolves which rend your opponent. *
Level: 6 (Boost)
Prerequisite: 2 Star Dream maneuvers
Initiation Action: 1 standard action
Range: Melee attack
Duration: 1 round.
Target: 1 creature
You call upon spiritual wolves to infuse your blade with power. It glows brightly as you bring your blade straight into your enemy. These spiritual wolves tear into your opponent’s soul ripping through them.
During this maneuver your blade is surrounded by glowing blue wolves of energy (they provide light as a torch for about 2 seconds). You gain a bonus to hit and damage with your next attack equal to your Charisma bonus (if any). If you hit they take an amount of Charisma damage equal to your Charisma bonus (minimum 1).

Viper Sword – Your blade becomes poisonous striking your foe and slowing his heart. *
Level: 6 (Strike)
Prerequisite: 2 Star Dream maneuvers
Initiation Action: 1 standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: 1 creature
Save: Fort partial
You gather the venomous powers and trickery of the fey courts to strike at your foe. Your blade turns black as the poison flows through it and as you strike it wreathes like the serpent aiming straight at your opponent’s weakest spot.
As part of this maneuver you make a single melee attack. You gain a +4 to hit on this attack and your target takes 4 Con damage a Fort save (DC 16 + your Charisma modifier) halves this Con damage. One minute later your target must make another Fort save (same DC) or take 6 Dex damage.

7th:

Summer’s Caress – You restore your body by striking your foe *
Level: 7 (Strike)
Prerequisite: 3 Star Dream maneuvers
Initiation Action: 1 standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: 1 creature
You call on the Summer Court’s blessings of life and health channeling them through you to restore your body and soul.
As part of this maneuver you make an attack against a creature that poses an immediate threat to you or one of your allies. If you hit you deal +6d6 damage and heal 6d8+Initiator level in hp and remove all ability damage you have suffered as well as 1 negative level. If you miss you still heal 3d8+1/2 Initiator levels in hp and remove all ability damage you have suffered to one ability score.

Winter’s Fury – You channel the fury of the winter court to perform a particularly deadly attack.
Level: 7 (Strike) *
Prerequisite: 3 Star Dream maneuvers
Initiation Action: 1 standard action
Range: 30-ft
Area: cone
Saving Throw: Fort half.
You call upon the winter court’s cold, chill powers of death and decay, eradicating those foes who stand against you. This blast of annihilation is hard to stand against disintegrating those in its path.
When you activate this ability all creatures within the cone take 8d6 damage. Any creature reduced to 0 or less hp by this maneuver is disintegrated as per the disintegrate spell. A Fort save (DC 17 + your Cha modifier) halves this. This ability only affects living creatures and has no effect on undead, constructs, or objects.

8th:

Entangling Strike – You call plants to entangle each foe you strike. *
Level: Wyldwood knight 8 (Strike)
Prerequisite: Four Star Dream maneuvers
Initiation Action: 1 Full-Round Action
Range: Melee attack
Target: 1 or more creatures
Save: Will partial
Duration: Instantaneous/1d4+1 rounds.
Your blade slashes into your opponents leaving deadly seeds within which burst forth rending through your foes. As part of this maneuver you take a full-attack action. Each enemy you damage during this action must make a Fort save (DC 18 + your Cha) or take +3d6 damage as plants burst from within their wounds (DR does not apply). Any creature which fails its save is entangled for 1d4+1 rounds, but no creature must save more than once. This is a supernatural ability.

Favor of the Fey Court
Level: 8 (Stance)
Prerequisite: 5 Star Dream maneuvers
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: you
Duration: Stance
As long as you are in this stance you gain DR 10/cold iron as well as SR equal to your initiator level +10. Whenever an enemy misses you with an attack you gain a +1 luck bonus to your AC until end of turn; this bonus increases by one for each miss until the end of your next action.

Free the Mind – You break baleful effects upon the minds and souls of your allies *
Level: 8 (Boost)
Prerequisite: Four Star Dream maneuvers
Initiation Action: 1 swift action
Range: 30-ft
Area: 30-ft radius centered on you
Your intimate connection with the wildness of the fey allows you to disrupt mind-affecting magic on you and those around you. You make an initiator check to dispel each mind-affecting effect within 30-ft of you (as a targetted dispel magic). For each effect you dispel you gain a +2 to attacks and damage for 1 round. No single effect can be affected by two uses of this maneuver in the same day.

9th:
Blade of the Dancing Stars (short description: Your blade dances like the stars dealing extra damage and stunning the opponent) *
Level: 9 (Strike)
Prerequisite: Five Star Dream maneuvers
Initiation Action: 1 Standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: 1 Creature
Save: Will partial
Duration: Instantaneous/1d4 rounds
You call upon the secrets of fey swordsman long gone and striking forth you spin magic into your blade. It seems to dance and swirl turning into streaking lances of stellar light. The blades burn into your foe’s body and soul.
This attack gets a bonus to hit equal to your Charisma modifier and you deal +1d4 damage/rank in bluff you possess (max 23d4). Additionally, the target must make a will save (DC 19 + your Charisma modifier) or be stunned for 1d4 rounds. This aspect of the maneuver is a mind-affecting effect. Additionally, any ability that would apply to resisting spells and other effects from the Enchantment school applies to resisting this stunning effect.

Zaydos
2010-09-20, 03:56 PM
Star Dream Feats:

Dream of the Summer Stars:
Prerequisites: One Star Dream Maneuver
Benefits: Whenever you use a Star Dream maneuver you gain a number of temporary hp equal to the level of the maneuver you used; this temporay hp lasts for a number of rounds equal to the level of the maneuver used.

Dream of the Winter Stars:
Prerequisites: One Star Dream Stance
Benefit: When in a Star Dream stance you gain a +3 bonus to Initiative and a +1 bonus to Reflex saves.

Zaydos
2010-09-20, 03:59 PM
Concerns
Besides that my formatting for maneuvers is probably bad.

I'm not sure if I have enough maneuvers of each level or enough stances. I'm also uncertain on the power level of several strikes as well as if the ratio of strikes to boosts/counters is good or if it is too strike heavy.

So please tell me your thoughts and opinions on this discipline.

Note: I made this discipline a year ago and actually joined these forums when looking around to see if it was balanced. Seeing the vastly superior quality of some of the work here I've been too shy to post it. But here goes; PEACH away. If something is broken tell me; if something is weak tell me; if something is just plain lame tell me.

JoshuaZ
2010-09-20, 07:09 PM
Fluff- I like it.


Concerns
Besides that my formatting for maneuvers is probably bad.


This makes it hard to read but it isn't awful. You may want to look at some other homebrew disciplines to see good formatting options for this. My Narrow Bridge (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=113982) is an example that is I think well formatted. (Since you've read The Demented One's you could also look at his which is essentially where I got the formatting from. To see the actual code for formatting quote a post and then just look at that.)



I'm not sure if I have enough maneuvers of each level or enough stances. I'm also uncertain on the power level of several strikes as well as if the ratio of strikes to boosts/counters is good or if it is too strike heavy.

20 maneuvers is a good total overall and it looks like they are distributed close to evenly so that's good. The number of stances is low but it isn't so low that I'd be concerned. I wouldn't worry too much about the ratio of strikes to boosts/counters since that varies a lot in the standard 9 disciplines.

Some of your wording and grammar needs a bit of work; some parts would read better with commas while some commas should probably be periods. For example,

You say for Blade of the Dancing Stars "The target must make a Will save (DC 19 + your Charisma modifier) or be stunned for 1d4 rounds, this is a mind-affecting effect. This maneuver is a supernatural ability and any bonuses on saves/immunity versus Enchantment/mind-affecting effects apply against its stunning effect." I'd say something like

"Additionally, the target must make a will save (DC 19 + your Charisma modifier) or be stunned for 1d4 rounds. This aspect of the maneuver is a mind-affecting effect. Additionally, any ability that would apply to resisting spells and other effects from the Enchantment school applies to resisting this stunning effect."

Tongue of the Fey Woods- possibly too large a bonus especially at mid levels. Diplomancers are already a problem. This is asking for potential game breaking. If one used something like The Giant's modified diplomacy rules this might be less of an issue.


Prerequisites: One Star Dream Stance
Benefit: When in a Star Dream stance you gain a +3 to Initiative and a +1 on Reflex saves.

Do you mean bonuses? If so, say so. Are they unptyped? If so this should be clear. Something like "When in a Star Dream stance you gain a +3 bonus to Initiative and a +1 bonus on Reflex saves."


Whenever you use a Star Dream maneuver in actual combat when wielding a Star Dream weapon you heal a number of hp equal to the level of the maneuver you used.

So, um this is awkward. In general things that need to make a distinction about whether one is in actual combat is always an issue. You get weird situations with people harassing squirrels or with people engaging in deliberate non-lethal duels with other party members. It might make more sense to just make this give you temporary hp and forget about whether or not it is really in combat. However, in general I'm not sure I understand the fluff here exactly. What does the maneuver system have to do with healing?
There's a similar problem with Summer’s Caress in that what constitutes a threat could be a serious issue. Saying that a Level 1 Commoner doesn't count as a threat is reasonable but do you really want to have to leave this to the DM to adjudicate each time? Also, you could have situations where even a level 1 commoner is a threat, like when one of your allies is down to 1 hp or -1 hp and dying and the commoner is trying to kill the ally. Needs a clearer mechanism.

Winter’s Fury - I'd suggest having all or half the damage be cold damage.

DracoDei
2010-09-20, 08:34 PM
PLEASE don't phrase it as "Only Swordsages and Crusaders can use this discipline"... it makes it sound like you have read all the homebrew base classes and maybe even PrCs that are part of The Age of Warriors and decided that this doesn't fit ANY of them... while that is theoretically possible, I suspect it isn't the case. "Swordsages and Crusaders may learn maneuvers from this discipline normally, Warblades may not" would be a bit better of a phrasing.

Innis Cabal
2010-09-20, 08:44 PM
Considering they're homebrewed and this isn't part of the reboot...that's honestly a needless criticism. It's clear he's making this without any connection to the project at hand so he dosn't -have- to note any of the unoffical classes other people have made.

Zaydos
2010-09-20, 09:19 PM
Actually I phrased it that way because the others that are part of the reboot phrase it that way and I haven't read through all the other base classes; I also thought those were being decided on a case by case basis and that it wasn't my place to decide, but instead the forum-goers in general.

Also what would be a better way to phrase it?

Zaydos
2010-09-20, 10:36 PM
I changed the Summer Dream feat to temporary hit points and took out the line about a peasant in Summer Caress. I'm a little hesitant to change Winter's Fury to half cold damage because the damage is already a little low for that level and that throws in energy resistance; I should look at Lv 7 Desert Wind powers and compare and decide what to do. Also clarified that the Winter Dream feat does give bonuses.

The fluff reason for the healing is that the Summer (or Seelie) Court of the Fey is associated with healing and renewal so I needed to give them some power that reflected this.

Kallisti
2010-09-20, 11:02 PM
You probably want to put a duration on those temporary hit points. It's what makes them temporary.

Zaydos
2010-09-21, 12:09 PM
Changes

Made Tongue of the Fey Woods add only 1/3 (instead of 1/2) initiator level and be an insight bonus.

Put a duration on the temporary hit points from Dream of the Summer Stars.

Modified the wording of Blade of the Dancing Stars.

Put the names of maneuvers in bold so that they'd be easier to find.