[3.5]Kensei: A Martial T2 Base Class [PEACH]

[Valameer]

[[Caution: This class is terribly broken and should not be used by anyone, ever. Sorry for the inconvenience.]]


Kensei
"Just as one man can beat ten, so a hundred men can beat a thousand, and a thousand men can beat ten thousand. In my strategy, one man is the same as ten thousand, so this strategy is the complete warrior's craft."
-Miya, a Kensei

A weapon is more than just a piece of wood or metal. It is an extension of the warrior's very soul. At least, that's what a kensei will tell you. The kensei believes that combat is the truest form of art, and that it's practice can strengthen and enhance the very spirit of a warrior. They are dedicated to exploring the depths of their own soul through martial training and testing. Often, that leads them into the middle of the battlefield. Though they may claim to battle for a specific cause, in truth many would find themselves drawn to combat even without a war to win, simply because they follow the true path of the warrior. Kensei enjoy testing themselves against many types of challenges, but none more so that a rival kensei. Every mission is a step on the path to martial perfection, every battle a lesson to be learned. The kensei is a learned master of weaponry, and thus they master their own soul.

Adventurers: A kensei treats every new adventure as a step on the path to enlightenment. They may champion a cause just because they know it will lead to danger or a new challenge. Sometimes a kensei will enjoy a period of quiet contemplation, although it's just a matter of time before they find themselves walking down the road to new discovery once again.

Characteristics: The kensei's primary ability is the absolute mastery of their weapon style, and through this, perfection of their warrior's spirit. The kensei learns no magic, but quickly learns how to tap into the power of their own spirit. An advanced kensei will be able to reach out to the universal spirit of the multiverse, and may be able to counter or replicate certain effects that are usually the domain of spellcasters.

They do not often wear armor, as it hampers their abilities and their dedication to weaponry, and as such they rely on quick reflexes and grace to avoid being quickly defeated. Their enhanced agility also helps them against other, slower warriors, whom kensei believe rely too heavily on clunky equipment instead of reflexes and skill.

Alignment: Kensei may be of any alignment. Good kensei are champions of the people, using their weapon to protect and defend the innocent. Lawful kensei will find a just cause to lend their blade to, and follow their principles resolutely no matter what. Chaotic kensei are eternal wanderers, always lending their sword whenever and wherever they see fit, before moving on again. Evil kensei are absolutely devoted to increasing the power of their own spirit at the exclusion of everything else, and constantly long to test their abilities to push themselves further.

Religion: Kensei usually find themselves dedicated above all else to their martial artform, but some find that a particular deity shares similar goals to their own and will adhere to the teachings of certain temples. Kensei following a religion typically worship Heironeous, Fharlanghn, Kord, or Hextor.

Background: Kensei are very rare. A kensei typically trains under a known master. Masters tend to only train a handful of students at a time, and these students must constantly prove themselves to be dedicated and promising, lest their master refuse to train them further in the ways of the kensei. There are numerous strategic and philosophical scrolls produced by kensei masters that are often studied to learn the complicated forms of thought and theories behind the artform. Kensei may very rarely develop from castes of warriors who begin to study their fighting style as an artform instead of just a way to survive. These new kensei work down paths of thought and form to produce styles similar to the ancient schools of kensei. Each school of kensei has a different name and philosophy, and kensei long to test their schools unique teachings against the path of another.

Races: The oldest lineage of kensei can be traced back through human masters, and the highest percentage of kensei are human. Half-elves, elves and dwarves may also persue the way of combat mastery, and a fair number of kensei are drawn from these races. A few orc tribes have begun to discover the art of the kensei, and so some half-orcs follow these orcish lineages. Finally, some halflings that are dedicated to martial studies advance through either an elven or human school. Gnomes are not well suited to the disciplined goals of the kensei, but a few gnome masters are rumored to exist.

Among the savage humanoids, the races with a more distinguished caste or warriors sometimes develop the arts required to become kensei. Orcs and hobgoblin kensei schools are rare, but more common than any other type of savage humanoid.

Other Classes: Kensei respect the usefulness of all other classes, but may empathize with the martial discipline of monks, fighters, paladins, and rangers more easily than the magical discipline of druids, clerics and wizards. They are not condescending to the freer fighting styles of bards, sorcerers, barbarians and rogues, but have a more difficult time relating to these classes.

Role: Kensei consider that while other classes can provide a variety of useful roles to a party, the kensei's role is martial combat and spiritual guidance with room for little else. As such, they strive remorselessly to have absolute perfection in these two roles.

Starting Gold: 6d4 x 10 (150 gp)

Game Rule Information
Kensei have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Dexterity is the most important ability to a kensei, as it determines how skilled her techniques are. Wisdom improves the kensei's spiritual powers. Constitution helps a kensei survive despite her lack of armor. Intelligence helps a kensei broaden her skill set. A kensei fighting with melee weapons will find strength to be very helpful in combat.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d8.

Class Skills
The kensei's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Chr), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Chr), Handle Animal (Chr), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Chr), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Knowledge (History) (Int), Knowledge (Nobility & Royalty) (Int), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Chr), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skill Points at 1st level: (4 + int modifier) x 4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Kensei Class Abilities
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special
1st|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+2|Esoteric Style, AC Bonus

2nd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|Foe, Warrior's Spirit, Roll Like a Wave

3rd|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+3|Unstoppable, Mettle, Fast Movement

4th|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+4|Keen Senses, Daunt Foe, Uncanny dodge

5th|
+5|
+4|
+4|
+4|Soulbond, Iaido

6th|
+6/+1|
+5|
+5|
+5|Harrier, Evasion

7th|
+7/+2|
+5|
+5|
+5|Focus, Mirrorsoul, Quicker Than the Eye

8th|
+8/+3|
+6|
+6|
+6|Daunt Enemy, Improved Uncanny Dodge

9th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+6|Void, A Thousand Strikes, Diamond Soul

10th|
+10/+5|
+7|
+7|
+7|Soulshadow, Gale

11th|
+11/+6/+1|
+7|
+7|
+7|Shadowstep

12th|
+12/+7/+2|
+8|
+8|
+8|Soulflood

13th|
+13/+8/+3|
+8|
+8|
+8|Spiritwalk

14th|
+14/+9/+4|
+9|
+9|
+9|Kiai

15th|
+15/+10/+5|
+9|
+9|
+9|Ascend

16th|
+16/+11/+6/+1|
+10|
+10|
+10|Teach Soulbond

17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+10|
+10|Mastery

18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+11|
+11|
+11|Divine Soul

19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+11|
+11|
+11|Divine Wind

20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+12|
+12|
+12|Divinity[/table]

Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Kensei are proficient with all simple and martial weapons and any one exotic weapon they choose. They are not proficient with any armor or any shields.

Esoteric Style (Ex): Starting at 1st level, a kensei may choose to substitute her Dexterity modifier to melee attack rolls in place of her Strength modifier. A kensei only gains this bonus if she wears no armor.

AC Bonus (Ex): Starting at 1st level, a kensei gains a +4 dodge bonus to AC. This bonus is lost if the kensei wears any armor. At 3rd level and every additional 3 levels thereafter, the bonus increases by an additional +1. If the kensei is multiclassed, the AC bonus gained from this ability may not exceed her kensei class levels.

Foe (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a kensei may use an immediate action to issue a challenge to any creature within 100' + 10' per class level. The kensei is always regarded as having the better initiative compared to her foe, thus the kensei may act before her foe. The kensei gains the same initiative roll as the foe, excepting that the kensei acts first. From then on, the marked opponent is considered to be the kensei's foe. This ability must be used before or just as the designated foe is beginning their action. If the Foe's initiative order changes, the kensei's also changed so that she may still act directly before her foe. The opponent remains the kensei's foe until the kensei dismisses the effect (a free action), the foe is defeated, or after an hour has passed since the challenge was issued. If two kensei declare each other as a foe, initiative is rolled against each other, but both always act before any other combattant. A kensei may only use this ability once per encounter.

Warrior's Spirit (Su): At 2nd level and beyond, a kensei may cultivate her warrior's spirit. Doing so requires a ritual of meditation, training and fasting that lasts 24 hours and uses up special incense worth at least 100 gp. The spirit is the lifeforce of the kensei, and advances with her as she advances. Through communing with her spirit in meditation, a kensei may gain insights into the multiverse. Eventually, her spirit may become powerful enough to repair the damage done to reality by magical aberrations, or rethink reality itself.

Roll Like a Wave (Ex): At 2nd level and beyond, a kensei may roll with a hit to reduce it's damage. Any time the kensei is hit with an attack, she may roll a tumble check with a DC equal to the attack roll that hit her. If successful, the kensei takes only half damage from the attack, and may instantly take a 5' step. The kensei must be aware of the incoming attack to use this ability.

Unstoppable (Ex): At 3rd level and beyond, a kensei is immune to fear. Also, a kensei may become unstoppable as a full-round action. She may act without restraint as if under the effects of a freedom of movement spell for a number or rounds equal to her Dexterity modifier. Activating this ability costs a spirit point.

Mettle (Ex): At 3rd level and beyond, a kensei can resist magical and unusual attacks with great willpower or fortitude. If she makes a successful Will or Fortitude save against an attack that normally would have a lesser effect on a successful save (such as any spell with a saving throw entry of Will half or Fortitude partial), she instead completely negates the effect. An unconscious or sleeping kensei does not gain the benefit of mettle.

Fast Movement (Ex): At 3rd level, a kensei's base racial speed becomes faster by +10 feet. This benefit applies only when she is wearing no armor. Apply this bonus before modifying the kensei's speed because of any load carried. At 7th level, and every four levels thereafter, her land speed is increased by a further +10 feet.

Keen Senses (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a kensei's sight and hearing are so keen that they can substitute for one another. She gains a +2 bonus on all spot and listen checks. Also, she no longer suffers any ill effects from blindness or deafness, so long as she is not both blinded and deafened at the same time. Figments and glamers that do not have both audio and visual components (where applicable) can be instantly detected as false by a kensei who can hear and see. So long as she can hear an opponent, she knows exactly where they are and may act as if they have no concealment, including concealment provided by invisibility, total darkness, or even an effect like mirror image. She may also read lips automatically without a spot check so long as she can see them. A kensei can close her eyes to avoid gaze attacks without penalty so long as she can still hear.

Daunt Foe (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a kensei can cause confusion and lack of composure in her designated foe. As a standard action, a kensei can attempt to daze her challenged opponent for a number of rounds equal to her Wisdom modifier if they are within line of sight and 10' per class level. This ability is negated by a successful Fortitude save versus DC 10 + half the kensei's class level + her Wisdom modifier. The dazed opponent gets a new saving throw each round on their turn to shake off the effects. This is a mind-affecting effect. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a kensei can react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so. She retains her Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if she is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, she still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. If a kensei already has uncanny dodge from a different class (a kensei with at least two levels of barbarian, for example), she automatically gains improved uncanny dodge (see below) instead.

Soulbond (Ex): Starting at 5th level, a kensei may imbue some her own soul into her weapons. The soulbound weapons become an extension of her own self, and grow in power as she does. She may bind her soul in up to two different weapons or both ends of a double weapon. These weapons become soulbound (see soulbound weapons). Performing a soulbond ritual requires 24 hours spent in meditation, practice and fasting and uses up special incense worth at least 100 gp. The soulbound weapons may be of any quality, and may be magical or non-magical. The kensei need not be familiar with the weapons imbued, but they must be present for the entire soulbond ritual. While wielding her soulbound weapons, the kensei may choose to sustitute her Dexerity modifier in place of her Strength modifier to her attack and damage rolls with the weapon. At 10th level and beyond, the kensei may add both her Strength and Dexterity modifiers to attack rolls and damage rolls with her soulbound weapons.

Iaido (Ex): At 5th level and beyond, a kensei may draw her weapon, strike and sheathe her weapon in one lightning-quick motion. Any time a kensei readies a standard action to attack with her sheathed weapon, she may draw her weapon, move up to her speed, iaido strike, and sheathe the weapon again when the conditions for her readied action are met. This attack ignores hardness or damage reduction. If iaido is used to disrupt a spell being cast, add a modifier to the concentration check DC equal to the kensei's Dexterity modifier. Once iaido is resolved, the kensei's initiative score moves back to where it was before she readied the action. If a spirit point is used with Iaido, the strike gains a bonus equal the kensei's Wisdom modifier to hit and a bonus to damage equal to the her class level.

Harrier (Su): At 6th level and beyond, a kensei is a master of mercilessly hunting down an opponent. If the kensei's foe began their last turn no further from the kensei than the kensei's base movement speed, the kensei may use a move action to appear either 5' or 10' in an open space next to the opponent, on any side the kensei chooses. This can even include an opponent who has teleported or plane shifted away from the battlefield within the last round. If an open space does not exist for the kensei to occupy, she may not use harrier, although if she is shadowstepping she may pass through a solid object. If the kensei ends her movement in the air, she will fall immediately upon finishing her round unless other precautions have been taken (such as a fly spell or grappling a flying opponent to prevent falling). Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Evasion (Ex): A kensei of 6th level or higher can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If she makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack the normally deals half damage on a successful save (such as a red dragon's fiery breath or a fireball), she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a kensei is wearing no armor. A helpless kensei (such as one who is unconscious or paralyzed) does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Focus (Ex): At 7th level and beyond, the focus of a kensei's mind is more powerful than her body. As a full-round action she may enter a state of martial enlightenment. While focused, she gains phenomenal agility and accuracy, plus the ability to shake off normal effects. She temporarily gains a +6 bonus to Strength, a +6 bonus to Dexterity, and the ability to delay the effects of any single attack or effect used against her while she is focused until her focus ends. She is able to maintain her focus for one round per class level each time she enters into it, but she may elect to end her focus earlier as a free action. Immediately upon losing focus, the delayed attack or effect is resolved, beginning it's duration (if any) at the time the focus ended. Only one attack or effect may be delayed per use of the focus ability. The increased Dexterity modifier does not grant any extra spirit points. Activating this ability costs a spirit point.

Mirrorsoul (Ex): At 7th level and beyond, as an immediate action when wielding a weapon soulbound to her, a kensei may deflect any spell targeted at her harmlessly away, so long as it was cast by her foe. This effect works like the spell was turned by spell turning, but it works against any level of spell used on the kensei. At 11th level and beyond, this ability may be used against any enemy spellcaster, including the kensei's foe. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Quicker than the Eye (Ex): Starting at 7th level, a kensei may make two separate attacks at full BAB as a standard action. At 11th level, this increases to three attacks, with one additional attack every 4 levels thereafter up to a maximum of 5 attacks. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Daunt Enemy (Ex): Starting at 8th level, a kensei can cause confusion and lack of composure in her enemy. As a standard action, a kensei can attempt to daze a number of opponents equal to her class level for a number of rounds equal to her Wisdom modifier if they are within line of sight and 10' per class level. This ability is negated by a successful Fortitude save versus DC 10 + half the kensei's class level + her Wisdom modifier. The dazed opponent gets a new saving throw each round on their turn to shake off the effects. This is a mind-affecting effect. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): A kensei of 8th level or higher can no longer be flanked; she can react to opponents on opposite sides of her as easily as she can react to a single attacker. This defense denies a rogue the ability to sneak attack the character by flanking her, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target has kensei levels. If a character already has uncanny dodge (see above) from a second class, the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead, and the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank the character.

Void (Su): At 9th level and beyond, a kensei can, as an immediate action, move up to half her speed. This movement is a teleport, and can bypass obstacles or even solid objects. If this movement is used in response to an attack, the attack cannot connect unless the attack also targets the space the kensei moved into. For example, if a hostile wizard were targetting a kensei with a hold person spell, and the kensei voids to a different space in response, the spell has no target remaining where is was aimed, and fails. However, if the kensei is caught in a tight corridor, she may have no space available to escape from the wizard's lightning bolt spell. An attacker may not redirect an attack to compensate for the kensei's void movement, as the kensei moves the very instant the attack would have hit. Void may be used to bypass objects such as doors, even outside of combat. If there is no open space to move to (say, behind a fake door) the kensei's void does nothing, but still costs a spirit point. A kensei may use this ability only once per round. Activating this ability costs a spirit point.

A Thousand Strikes (Ex): At 9th level and beyond, a kensei can become a charging whirlwind of destruction. As a full-round action, she may move up to double her speed in a straight line in any direction. While moving she shifts to the very border of the ethereal plane. While moving with this attack she may pass through solid objects, including occupied spaces, except those which an ethereal creature could not pass. The movement from this ability does not provoke attacks of opportunity, nor is it hampered by difficult terrain or obstacles. At the end of this movement, she rolls one attack and applies it to each creature that was within her reach at any point along her movement. If the kensei ends her movement in the air, she will fall immediately upon finishing her round unless other precautions have been taken (such as a fly spell). Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Diamond Soul (Ex): At 9th level, a kensei gains spell resistance equal to her current kensei level + 12. In order to affect the kensei with a spell, a spellcaster must get a result on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) that equals or exceeds the kensei's spell resistance.

Soulshadow (Su): At 10th level and beyond, as a full-round action, a kensei can create a double of her own soul. This is an exact replica of herself when she created the soulshadow, and has an ethereal duplicate of all her non-magical equipment (except the kensei's soulbound weapons, which are duplicated, but may not be soulburnt). Expendable or limited use powers from items may not be used by the soulshadow and the equipment fades into nothingness if the soulshadow loses possession of it. The soulshadow does not have a warrior's spirit, and thus does not benefit from abilities that cost spirit points. Her double is treated as an ethereal creature for defensive purposes, but still may attack material creatures from the ethereal plane as a force effect. The soulshadow lasts for one round per kensei level, and mentally obeys the kensei's thoughts. Only one soulshadow may exist at a time. Summoning a new soulshadow while another is still in existence will cause the former one to be dismissed. The soulshadow is as intelligent and aware as the kensei, and can use her psuedo-ethereal nature to scout through walls and unlock doors for the kensei. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Gale (Ex): At 10th level and beyond, a kensei can create a vacuum of force with her attacks that can strike at a distance. When gale is activated as a free action, all of the kensei's weapon attacks for that round can hit an opponent at a range of up to 100' + 10' per class level, so long as they are within line of sight. These ranged strikes are determined exactly as if the kensei was striking the opponent directly with her weapons, including magical weapon qualities, bonus damage, etc. The kensei threatens all targets within her new reach for this round, and may flank from a distance. Activating this ability costs a spirit point.

Shadowstep (Su): At 11th level and beyond, a kensei may shift herself into the border of the ethereal plane as a standard action for up to as many rounds at a time as she has class levels. She becomes insubstantial and translucent, capable of moving in any direction, even up or down. As an insubstantial creature, the kensei can move through solid objects, including living creatures. From the border of the ethereal plane, the kensei can see and hear on the material plane, but everything looks gray and misty. Force effects (such as magic missile and wall of force) and abjurations affect her normally. The kensei can attack creatures on the ethereal or material plane, and while shadowstep lasts, her attacks are considered to be force effects. While shadowstepping, the kensei treats ethereal creatures and objects as if they were material. If shadowstep ends while she is inside a material object (such as a solid wall), the kensei is shunted off to the nearest open space, taking 1d6 points of damage per 5 feet she so travels. Activating this ability costs a spirit point.

Soulflood (Su): At 12th level and beyond, as a full-round action, a kensei can create a group of weaker soulshadows called soulflood. This ability works like soulshadow except that each soulshadow created thusly has only 1 HP each. A kensei can create a number of soulflood up to her class level. Only up to her class level of soulflood may exist at one time. The soulflood exist for a number of rounds equal to half the kensei's class level. A soulshadow may also exist at the same time as the soulflood. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Spiritwalk (Su): At 13th level and beyond, while shadowstepping, a kensei can move great distances through the ethereal plane in a single step. As a move action, she may use a power that duplicates the spell greater teleport, but this ability moves her to the border of the ethereal plane (as she is still shadowstepping) at the new location. The kensei may bring one other creature per two class levels with her so long as they are within 30' from her, but using her ability this way is a full-round action. The creatures she brings with her are not ethereal. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Kiai (Su): At 14th level and beyond, a kensei may send out a wave of spiritual energy with a yell as a standard action. This wave hits any opponent the kensei chooses within a 10' radius per class level spread. All targeted opponents within the wave must make a fortitude save DC 10 + half the kensei's class level + the kensei's Wisdom modifier or be paralyzed, blinded, and deafened for 1 round. If the kensei's foe is targeted, these effects last for 2 rounds on her designated foe. The kensei must be able to yell to activate this ability, but the targeted opponents do not necessarily need to hear her to be affected. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Ascend (Su): At 15th level and beyond, while shadowstepping, a kensei can move across planar boundaries via the ethereal plane in a single step. As a standard action, she may use a power that duplicates the spell plane shift, but moves her to the border of the ethereal plane (as she is still shadowstepping) on the desired plane. The kensei may bring one other creature per two class levels with her so long as they are within 30' from her, but using her ability this way is a full-round action. The creatures she brings with her are not ethereal. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Teach Soulbond (Ex): At 16th level, a kensei may direct an ally in making their own soulbonded weapons. The kensei and the ally who will receive the soulbonded weapon must be present for the entire ceremony, as well as the weapon to be imbued. The ally pays the experience point cost, and may have one soulbonded weapon as if they were a kensei of half the participating kensei's level. If they lose their soulbonded weapon (or burn it's soul) they must find a kensei to do the ritual with them again. They may not do the ritual without a kensei. The reduced time benefit from the Earth Circle Warrior's Spirit applies to the ally's soulbond component time and prices, if the kensei uses the Earth Circle.

Mastery (Ex): At 17th level and beyond, a kensei may activate extreme quickness as a free action at the beginning of her round, enabling her to act three full rounds worth of actions in the span of one round. Any extra rounds gained this way do not count against ability durations. This ability may only be used once per (non-bonus) round. Activating this ability costs a spirit point.

Divine Soul (Su): At 18th level and beyond, as a full-round action, a kensei can create a version of herself that is a perfect divine soul. This ability creates either a balor, a pit fiend, or a solar (the kensei's choice) with HD advanced to up to double the kensei's class level. The divine soul has none of the kensei's equipment, skills, or abilities, but instead has the skills and abilities appropriate to the balor, pit fiend, or solar that the kensei wishes to create. The divine soul faithfully serves the kensei's mental commands for one round per class level, and then vanishes. The kensei may choose when creating the divine soul for it to benefit from shadowstep as if it were a kensei for it's duration. Any number of divine souls may exist at the same time, though their duration is limited. Using this ability costs a spirit point and 1000 xp.

Divine Wind (Su): At 19th level and beyond, a kensei can summon a whirlwind of spiritual energy from her own soul, blasting any number of targets within 10' radius per class level for 1d6 force damage per class level and stunning them for one round. Creatures succeeding on a Fortitude save vs DC 10 + half the kensei's class level + her Wisdom modifier negate the stunning effect. This is a spread effect. Using the ability is a standard action and costs a spirit point.

Divinity (Ex): Starting ar 20th level, a kensei is forevermore treated as either an outsider (an extraplanar creature) or her original creature type, whichever is more favorable at the time. She gains fast healing 5, immunity to fire, cold, electricity, acid, sonic and paralyzation, darkvision out to 60', and the ability to speak any language. After remaining in constant meditation for a year, the kensei also may choose to undertake a spiritual quest to gain a divine rank of 0.

[Valameer]

Warrior's Spirit
A warrior's spirit is supernaturally cultivated by the kensei. Only kensei may sense another kensei's warrior's spirit. If a kensei is within line of sight, she becomes instantly aware of another kensei's warrior's spirit. This gives her an immediate sense of how powerful another kensei is. Only the kensei who cultivated the spirit can contact it through meditation. As the kensei grows in power, she may lead a meditation ritual that allows allies to commune with her warrior's spirit as well. There are five circles of warrior's spirit, each tied to a circle of spirits. The special abilities granted to the kensei vary according to her spirit's circle. If a kensei runs out of spirit points, her warrior's spirit is destroyed and a new spirit must be cultivated. Otherwise, a current warrior's spirit must be dismissed before a new warrior's spirit can be cultivated by the kensei.

{table=head]Circle|Special
Earth|A soulbond ritual takes a full-round action instead of 24 hours, but uses up diamond dust worth 2000 gp per soulbound weapon. Also, when you roll a natural 20 on an attack with a soulbound weapon, you gain an immediate extra attack with that weapon with the same modifiers as the attack that caused it. Soulburn: Critical does not necessarily cause a second critical, it must be rolled.

Water|Hit Points and Spirit Points are regained every 15 minutes instead of every hour while meditating. Also, you (and any ally with you) may flank an opponent that is adjacent to both of you, regardless of whether your position would normally count as flanking.

Fire|Enemies threatened by you take a -4 insight penalty to all rolls made every round they do not attempt to attack you with a melee weapon. Also the space you threaten is treated as difficult terrain to your enemies, and impairs movement.

Wind|If a designated foe uses a spell or attack against you, you gain a insight bonus to AC or Saving Throws against the attack equal to half your Dexterity modifier. The saving throw DCs for your abilities are also raised by half your Dexterity modifier.

Void|Void, shadowstep and spiritwalk have no spirit point cost. You may crush your health to quickly regain your spirit points as a move action. Doing so requires you have more than 1 HP remaining and deals 3d6 damage to you per spirit point regained. There is no way to avoid or negate damage taken this way.[/table]


A warrior's spirit also grants the kensei special abilities as she grows in strength.
{table=head]Kensei Level|Spirit Abilities
2nd|Spirit Points, Meditate

3rd|Serenity

4th|Awareness, Resistance

5th|Aurasense, Identify

6th|Cleanse, Sustenance

7th|Detect Scrying, Cleanse Magic

8th|Farseeing, Purification

9th|Spiritsight, Unbind

10th|Lead Meditation, Aura of No Thought

11th|Visions, Unfetter

12th|Aura of No Change, Aura of No Body

13th|Aura of No Void, Banishment

14th|Pure Spirit, Quickened Farseeing

15th|No Thought, Epiphany

16th|Without Deliberation, No Form

17th|No Limit, Foresight

18th|No Magic, No Injury

19th|Zen

20th|No self[/table]

Spirit Points: Starting at 2nd level, a kensei with a warrior's spirit gains a maximum amount of spirit points equaling her class level + her Dexterity modifier and Wisdom modifier combined. These points are used to activate other kensei class abilities, and can be regained by meditation. A spirit point can be spent to add a +1d6 insight bonus on any attack roll, saving throw, or skill check. Only one spirit point may be used to add a bonus to any one roll. The spirit point bonus may be added after the d20 roll it will be applied to, but must be declared before the result is determined. Spirit points may also fuel other kensei abilities, detailed in that abilities description. If the kensei uses all of her spirit points, her warrior's spirit is destroyed.

Meditate (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a kensei with a warrior's spirit may enter a state of meditation as a full round action. For every hour spent in meditation, the kensei benefits as if she had rested for a full 8 hours and regains one spirit point per class level. Meditation also eliminates fatigue after an hour, or exhaustion after two hours. Meditation does not accelerate the rest required by a spellcaster to regain their spells. One hour spent in meditation by a spell caster counts as only one hour of rest for the purposes of regaining spells. The kensei is fully aware of her surroundings while meditating, but is considered flat-footed and may not move or use any actions or abilities unless otherwise specified. She may break meditation as a free action, but may only benefit from one ability activated by breaking meditation per meditation broken.

Serenity (Ex): At 3rd level and beyond, a kensei gains serene insight while meditating on her warrior's spirit. The first attack she makes after she breaks meditation gains a +20 insight bonus to hit, so long as she makes this attack on the round her meditation ended. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Awareness (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a kensei becomes even more aware while meditating than while not. While meditating, she gains a +2 insight bonus on all spot and listen checks.

Resistance (Su): At 4th level and beyond, a kensei who breaks meditation may as a free action use a power that duplicates the spell resist energy on a single creature within 10' per class level. Her class level is her effective caster level for this ability. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Aurasense (Su): At 5th level and beyond, while meditating a kensei may use an ability that duplicates the spell detect magic out to a radius of 10' per class level. This requires a standard action and concentration while it is maintained. This effect is centered on the kensei, and works over the whole area instead of a cone.

Identify (Su): Starting at 5th level, a kensei that spends an hour focusing her attention on a magical object for an hour while meditating may determine all magical properties of that item, including how to activate those functions (if appropriate) and how many charges are left (if any). This ability does not function when used on an artifact. She may not use any other abilities while meditating for this hour. If her concentration is interrupted, she must begin the identify again from the start. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Cleanse (Ex): Starting at 6th level, a kensei restores 1d4 ability point drain or damage on herself each hour she spends meditating.

Sustenance (Ex): Starting at 6th level, a kensei has mastered the spiritual art of sustenance. If she spends at least an hour in meditation, she gains the benefits of the spell endure elements, and does not suffer from the effects of thirst or starvation for 24 hours. This effect is not magical and cannot be dispelled. She does not need to meditate to maintain the benefits of sustenance. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Detect Scrying (Su): Starting at 7th level, while she meditates, a kensei is treated as having the an effect duplicating the spell detect scrying, using her class level as her effective caster level.

Cleanse Magic (Su): At 7th level and beyond, as a standard action while meditating, a kensei may use a power that duplicates the spell greater dispel magic on any target within 10' per class level of her. Her class level is her effective caster level for this spell. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Farseeing (Su): Starting at 8th level, while meditating, a kensei may send out her awareness through the spiritual realm. This is a power that duplicates the spell scrying. Her class level is treated as the caster level for the effect, and the save DC is 10 + half the kensei's class level + her Wisdom modifier. This ability takes a full hour to activate. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Purification (Ex): Starting at 8th level, the kensei eliminates one poison or disease from herself for every hour spent in meditation.

Spiritsight (Ex): Starting at 9th level, while meditating, the kensei can perceive things as they truly are, gaining the effects similar to a true seeing spell as far as she can normally see.

Unbind (Su): Starting at 9th level, the kensei eliminates one curse or restores blindness or deafness from herself for every hour spent in meditation.

Lead Meditation (Su): At 10th level and beyond, while she meditates, a kensei may lead a number of creatures up to her class level into meditation with her. The allies the kensei selects must be within 10' per class level of her to receive the bonus of meditation, and cannot take any actions that would normally break the meditation. Her allies who are part of the meditation gain all the benefits from meditating that the kensei does, although they may decline to enter meditation or break meditation at any time if they desire. If the kensei breaks meditation, all others meditating through her are forced to break meditation as well. Any ability that requires spirit points to activate may not be used by any ally who normally does not have spirit points to spend. Also allies who normally have no spirit points never regain any spirit points from the meditation. Any ranged abilities emanate from the kensei instead of the participating creatures. Activating this ability costs a spirit point.

Aura of No Thought (Su): At 10th level and beyond, while a kensei meditates, she may project a aura of no thought that duplicates the spell Mage's Private Sanctum in an area no larger than 10' radius per class level centered on her. This ability can be activated or lowered as a free action while she meditates. A kensei may only have one aura activated at a time. Activating this ability costs a spirit point.

Visions (Ex): At 11th level and beyond, a kensei can reach her mind out to a multiversal awareness. If she concentrates for an hour on a certain quandary, her thoughts will become clear and she will gain an insight into the quandary as if she had cast a divination spell. Her effective caster level for this ability is her class level. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Unfetter (Su): At 11th level and beyond, the kensei who spends an hour concentrating on a creature or object while she meditates may use a power that duplicates the spell break enchantment on that thing. Her class level is her effective caster level for determining whether the effect succeeds. If the kensei's concentration is broken during this hour, she must begin concentrating anew for a full hour again. The kensei can only use this ability on a creature or object within 10' per class level of her. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Aura of No Change (Su): At 12th level and beyond, while a kensei meditates, she may project an aura of no change that acts like an antimagic field out to an area no larger than 10' radius per class level centered on her. This ability can be activated or lowered at a standard action while she meditates. The antimagic field effects everything within the area of effect except for the kensei (it negates the kensei's soulshadow, soulflood, divine soul and any ranged supernatural abilities). A kensei may only have one aura activated at a time. Activating this ability costs a spirit point.

Aura of No Body (Su): At 12th level and beyond, while a kensei meditates, she may project an aura of no body that acts like a repulsion spell out to 10' per class level centered on her. This ability can be activated or lowered as a free action while she meditates. Her effective caster level is her class level and the save DC is 10 + half the kensei's class level + her Wisdom modifier. Any allies that are being led in meditation are not affected so long as they remain meditating while this aura is activated. A kensei may only have one aura activated at a time. Activating this ability costs a spirit point.

Aura of No Void (Su): At 13th level and beyond, while a kensei meditates, she may project an aura of no void that disables any extradimensional travel in an area out to 10' radius per class level centered on her. This ability can be activated or lowered as a free action while she meditates. Forms of movement barred include astral projection, blink, dimension door, ethereal jaunt, etherealness, gate, maze, plane shift, shadow walk, teleport, another kensei's void or spiritwalk or similar spell-like or psionic abilities. This aura does not interfere with the movement of creatures already in ethereal or astral form when the aura activates, nor does it block extradimensional perception or attack forms, such as a soulshadow's attack. Also the aura does not prevent summoned creatures from disappearing at the end of a summoning spell. A kensei may only have one aura activated at a time. Activating this ability costs a spirit point.

Banishment (Su): At 13th level and beyond, a meditating kensei can force an extraplanar creature back to their home with her tremendous willpower. This is a power that duplicates the spell banishment. The kensei's class level is her effective caster level, and the save DC is 10 + half the kensei's class level + her Wisdom modifier. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Pure Spirit (Ex): Starting at 14th level, while meditating, the kensei is immune to ability score drain or damage. Also she instantly heals all ability score drain or damage upon entering meditation.

Quickened Farseeing (Su): At 14th level and beyond, a kensei becomes even more spiritually aware. She may now use farseeing as a power duplicating the spell greater scrying. Her class level is treated as the caster level for the effect, and the save DC is 10 + half the kensei's class level + her Wisdom modifier. This ability takes a standard action to activate. She may also use her aurasense ability through the farseeing. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

No Thought (Ex): Starting at 15th level, a kensei has mastered the spiritual art of no thought. If she spends at least an hour in meditation, she gains the same benefits as if she had a mind blank spell on her for the next 24 hours. This effect is not magical and cannot be dispelled. She does not need to meditate to maintain the benefits of no thought. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Epiphany (Su): At 15th level and beyond, a kensei can send her mind out to find a specific object or creature's exact location. This power duplicates the spell discern location. A kensei must concentrate on finding the object or creature while meditating for an hour. At the end of the hour, she gains insight as if the spell were cast. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Without Deliberation (Su): Starting at 16th level, a kensei has mastered action without deliberation. If she spends at least an hour in meditation, she gains a powerful sixth sense in relation to herself. Once, in the next 24 hours she is granted one insight bonus of her class level on any single attack roll, opposed ability or skill check, or saving throw she chooses. Alternatively, she may apply the insight bonus to her AC against a single attack, even if she is flat-footed. Activating this bonus is an immediate action. She must choose to use the insight bonus before the roll it is to modify. If the bonus is not activated within 24 hours of gaining it, it is lost. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

No Form (Su): At 16th level and beyond, a kensei may meditate on the form of any one object or creature within 10' per class level from her. As a free action while she breaks meditation, she may revise the form of that creature or object with an ability that duplicates the spell polymorph any object. The kensei's class level is her effective caster level for the spell, and the save DC is 10 + half the kensei's class level + her Wisdom modifier. The same rules and limitations apply to the duration of the effect as listed under the polymorph any object spell. The kensei may revise her own form in this manner as well. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

No Limit (Su): At 17th level and beyond, a kensei who breaks meditation may as a free action use a power that duplicates the spell freedom on a single creature within 10' per class level. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Foresight (Ex): Starting at 17th level, a kensei has mastered the technique of her body being a step ahead of her mind. If she spends at least one hour in meditation, she gains a power that duplicates the effects of the spell foresight for the next 24 hours. This effect is not magical and cannot be dispelled. She does not need to meditate to maintain the benefits of foresight. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

No Magic (Su): At 18th level and beyond, a kensei who breaks meditation may as a free action use a power that duplicates the spell mage's disjunction in an area up to 10' radius per class level centered on the kensei. The kensei and her carried equipment are not affected by this power, but her allies may be unless they shared the meditation with her. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

No Injury (Su): At 18th level and beyond, a kensei who breaks meditation may as a free action use a power that duplicates the spell heal on herself and any allies that shared her meditation. The kensei's class level is her effective caster level for this power. Using this ability costs a spirit point.

Zen (Ex): Starting at 19th level, a kensei can act normally while maintaining her meditation, allowing her to almost continually meditate. If a meditation requires that she concentrate, she may use immediate, free, swift or movement actions without breaking her own concentration, but standard actions or full round actions will ruin her concentration for these abilities.

No Self (Ex): Starting at 20th level, a kensei can enter a meditation as a free action, but may not enter a meditation if she has broken meditation on the same round. However, she may enter a meditation as a free action, and then break it as a free action to unleash a power all on the same round, if she chooses.

----

Soulbound Weapons
Each carrying an extension of the kensei's own soul, these weapons become a signature of her style. As she grows in power, their power increases as well. If a soulbound weapon is lost or broken, the kensei may attune herself to a new weapon by undergoing a new soulbonding ritual. While her soul is in at least one weapon and that weapon is in her possession, a kensei is immune to soul-affecting effects, such as magic jar, soulbind, trap the soul, soul effects of the deck of many things, and demonic possession. The soulbound weapons special bonuses only work for the kensei while they are being wielded by the kensei, unless otherwise noted. These effects overlap pre-existing magical effects on a weapon. They do not overwrite or stack with pre-existing magic.

{table=head]Kensei Level|Soulbond Ability|Bonus Damage
5th|Quick Draw, Magical Weapon, Ghost Touch Weapon, Soulburn: Critical

6th|Aligned Weapon|
+1d6

7th|Returning Weapon

8th|Split Psyche|
+2d6

9th|Soulkeep

10th|Adamantium|
+3d6

11th|Soulburn: Heal

12th|Brilliant Energy Weapon|
+4d6

13th|Soulguard

14th|Break Force|
+5d6

15th|Weaponsoul

16th|Soulburn: Limited Wish|
+6d6

17th|Soulburn: From the Ashes

18th|Soulburn: True Resurrection|
+7d6

19th|Alignment Infusion

20th|Soulburn: Wish|
+8d6[/table]

Quick Draw (Ex): Starting at 5th level, a kensei is considered to have the quick draw feat, but only when applied to her soulbound weapons.

Magical Weapon (Su): Starting at 5th level, a soulbound weapon is treated as a magical weapon for purposes of overcoming damage reduction. Note that it is not actually a magical weapon, and gains no magical bonuses to hit unless they are derived from another source.

Ghost Touch Weapon (Ex): Starting at 5th level, a soulbound weapon is treated as having the ghost touch magical weapon quality. This ability may be suppressed by the kensei at will.

Soulburn: Critical (Ex): At 5th level and beyond, a kensei may burn the soul in one of her soulbound weapons as a free action, so long as she is wielding it. The next attack roll she makes with any weapon is considered a natural 20. She must still make the roll to confirm the critical before it is a critical hit. This attack must be delivered on the same round soulburn was used, or else it's power is wasted. The weapon loses it's soulbound qualities permanently, and a new ritual must be used to make the weapon soulbound again.

Bonus Damage (Ex): Starting at 6th level, a kensei's soulbound weapons begin dealing additional damage when used by her. This damage is an extra +1d6 at 6th level and an additional +1d6 per two class levels thereafter. The damage is the same type as the weapon normally deals (slashing, piercing, bludgeoning) and effects even creatures not subject to critical hits, such as undead, constructs and oozes. The damage is added to any successful strike, but is never multiplied under any circumstance such as a critical hit or a mounted charge.

Aligned Weapon (Ex): Starting at 6th level, a kensei's soulbound weapons share her alignment. For example, if she is good aligned, they can bypass damage reduction good/10. This ability may be suppressed by the kensei at will.

Returning Weapon (Su): Starting at 7th level, a soulbound weapon is treated as having the returning magical weapon quality, even when not wielded by the kensei. This ability may be suppressed by the kensei at will.

Split Psyche (Ex): Starting at 8th level, a kensei's soul is split evenly between herself and her soulbound weapons. If she is subject to a mind-affecting effect, or any mental malady (such as an intelligent item possessing her), she may continue to make will saving throws every round to throw off the effects. Her weapon's soul takes over her mind and restore her to her normal state. She may continue a saving throw each round until she succeeds or the effect ends.

Soulkeep (Ex): Starting at 9th level, a soulbound weapon can aid in raising a kensei back from the dead. If a soulbound weapon is near the kensei's body when she is raised from the dead, the material cost for the spell is halved and the kensei loses no experience points, levels or constitution from being brought to life. The soulbound weapon nearest to her body when she is raised is soulburnt in the process, and must be bound again through a new ritual.

Adamantium Soul (Ex): Starting at 10th level, a soulbound weapon is treated as though it were made from adamantium while it is in the kensei's possession. It shares all the qualities of a regular adamantium weapon, including the masterwork quality if it was not previously masterwork.

Soulburn: Heal (Su): At 11th level and beyond, when a kensei burns the soul in one of her soulbound weapons (a free action), she may choose to use a power that duplicates the spell heal. Using this power is a standard action, and it must be used on the same round soulburn was used, or else it's power is wasted. The weapon loses it's soulbound qualities permanently, and a new ritual must be used to make the weapon soulbound again.

Brilliant Energy Weapon (Ex): Starting at 12th level, a soulbound weapon is treated as having the brilliant energy magical weapon quality. This ability may be suppressed by the kensei at will.

Soulguard (Ex): Starting at 13th level, a kensei that possesses at least one soulbound weapon is no longer subject to level draining effects.

Break Force (Ex): Starting at 14th level, a kensei may attempt to break through force effects (such as wall of force or forcecage) with her soulbound weapons as part of a move action. This requires a DC 20 Dexterity check. If she is successful, the force effect ends.

Weaponsoul (Ex): Starting at 15th level, a kensei that possesses at least one soulbound weapon is no longer subject to death effects.

Soulburn: Limited Wish (Su): At 16th level and beyond, when a kensei burns the soul in one of her soulbound weapons (a free action), she may choose to use a power that duplicates the spell limited wish. Using this power is a standard action, and it must be used on the same round soulburn was used, or else it's power is wasted. The weapon loses it's soulbound qualities permanently, and a new ritual must be used to make the weapon soulbound again. There is no experience point cost for the limited wish.

Soulburn: From the Ashes (Su): At 17th level and beyond, if a kensei's soulbound weapon is within 5' of her when she is dead or dying, she may soulburn that weapon as an immediate action to be raised to life with 1 HP. Immediately upon using this ability, she may act with a instant surprise round. She may use this ability even if she has been dead for up to one year per class level, so long as her soulbound weapon is within 5' when she activates it. Being raised from the dead in this way causes no experience point, level, or constitution point loss. The weapon loses it's soulbound qualities permanently, and a new ritual must be used to make the weapon soulbound again.

Soulburn: True Resurrection (Su): At 18th level and beyond, when a kensei burns the soul in one of her soulbound weapons (a free action), she may choose to use a power that duplicates the spell true resurrection. Using this power is a standard action, and it must be used on the same round soulburn was used, or else it's power is wasted. The weapon loses it's soulbound qualities permanently, and a new ritual must be used to make the weapon soulbound again.

Alignment Infusion (Ex): Starting at 19th level, a soulbound weapon is treated as having the holy magical weapon quality if the kensei is not evil, the unholy magical weapon quality if she is not good, the axiomatic magical weapon quality if she is not chaotic, and the anarchic magical weapon quality if she is not lawful. Any of the above effects that the kensei qualifies for are applied. This ability may be suppressed by the kensei at will.

Soulburn: Wish (Su): At 20th level and beyond, when a kensei burns the soul in one of her soulbound weapons (a free action), she may choose to use a power that duplicates the spell wish. Using this power is a standard action, and it must be used on the same round soulburn was used, or else it's power is wasted. The weapon loses it's soulbound qualities permanently, and a new ritual must be used to make the weapon soulbound again. There is an xp cost equal to 500 xp for the wish, on top of the cost in renewing the soulbonding ritual.

----

New Kensei Feats
Human Adaptability [Kensei]
Human versatility makes them the master of any discipline, including the path of the kensei.
Prerequisite: Kensei level 1st, Human, only by spending a extra feat gained from being human can a kensei select this feat.
Benefit: If this feat is selected with the human's extra feat, that kensei gains a +4 racial bonus to her Dexterity score.

Extra Spirit Circle [Kensei]
Your warrior's spirit is more robust than most, allowing you to choose the bonus from an extra spirit circle when cultivating it.
Prerequisite: Kensei level 3rd.
Benefit: Choose one extra spirit circle special ability when cultivating your warrior's spirit. Also, your maximum spirit points increase by 2.
Special: This feat may be chosen more than once. Each time, you gain another extra spirit circle ability and an extra 2 spirit points.

Riposte [Kensei]
As you parry, you strike.
Prerequisite: Kensei level 3rd.
Benefit: You may make attacks of opportunity while using the total defense action. Also, while you are using the total defense action, one melee attack against you per round provokes an attack of opportunity if it misses. If your attack of opportunity from riposte hits, you may take an immediate 5' step.

Master of Iaido [Kensei]
You have become a master of iaido striking, capable of slashing down before anyone sees your draw.
Prerequisite: Kensei level 6th.
Benefit: Your iaido strike is considered a charge, gaining a +2 bonus to hit, but you suffer no AC penalties from the iaido strike. Your iaido strike also catches foes flat-footed due to it's speed. You do not need to spend a spirit point to benefit from the bonus to hit and damage.

Master Harrier [Kensei]
You have become an absolute master of hunting down your quarry in battle.
Prerequisite: Kensei level 6th.
Benefit: After using harrier on a foe, you may elect to harry the foe every round thereafter by warping within striking distance of that foe at the beginning of your turn as a move action. This costs no extra spirit points, and is capable of moving you across any distance or planar boundary so long as you never fail to use it at the start of every round. If you willingly move away from an opponent, even as little as a 5' step, the effect ends. Also if you do not attempt to attack your foe at least once per round, the effect ends. If you wish, you may use shadowstep (if you have the ability) as a free action while continuing to harry. Using shadowstep while harrying costs a spirit point unless you have a void circle warrior's spirit.

Master of Blades [Kensei]
You have become a whirlwind of aggressive strikes, using the full impact of your momentum.
Prerequisite: Kensei level 9th.
Benefit: When attacking your foe, you may use a full attack action at the end of a charge instead of a single attack, but you lose your dodge bonus to AC for the rest of the round.

Whirlwind [Kensei]
You have learned the true art of the thousand sword strikes.
Prerequisite: Kensei level 9th.
Benefit: Any target hit by your A Thousand Strikes takes additional damage equal to your Wisdom modifier.

Master of Souls [Kensei]
The shadows of your soul hold a great power of their own.
Prerequisite: Kensei level 12th.
Benefit: Your soulshadow are created with 1 spirit point that they may spend, allowing them to use some of your kensei abilities that were previously unavailable to them. Your soulshadows still have no Warrior's Spirit and may not meditate. They have no way of renewing their spirit point once it has been spent, but a newly created soulshadow will have a new point to spend.

Master of Elemental Winds [Kensei]
Your vacuum cuts bear elemental force.
Prerequisite: Kensei level 12th.
Benefit: You can substitute the damage type caused by the attacks of your gale ability to any of the following when you use it: fire, cold, electricity, or sonic. You may choose a different damage type each time you activate gale.

[Valameer]

//As my original design intent has changed, this space is now reserved for kensei specific magical items, and perhaps a more martial Tier 3 prestige class that will redo levels 11-20.//

[Benly]

So, first off: it's not Tier 1. The reason is that inherent to Tier 1 is versatility: each of the tier 1 classes is not only a class where the class as a whole is capable of pulling off anything, but each individual T1 is capable of pulling off anything limited only by his spellbook (if that). A class with a fixed progression of abilities, unless those abilities are all Do Anything (such as the shadowcraft mage), isn't tier 1. That doesn't mean he can't roll with the T1s and pull his weight (sorcerers are often better at their fewer tricks than wizards are at any one of their thousands) but it means that's not where he goes in the taxonomy.

(Arguably, he becomes T1 at level 18 because he gets a solar in his pocket, which is a T1 caster. Then again, level 18-20 only isn't really the determining point.)

So we get to "as much raw power as a T1 without as wide a variety of tricks", which is right there in the definition of Tier 2. I've only skimmed the class as of this moment, so I don't know if he makes it to T2, but I think it needs to be clear from the start that if he's successful as designed, the kensei will be a T2 martial class, not a T1, just because of how the class is structured. This will, however, satisfy the goal of "a martial character who can play in a tier 1 party effectively" if achieved.

[NineThePuma]

I don't have time to read this, but I am totally going to [Subscribe]

[jseah]

What happens to Expert Harrier when there isn't simply isn't space to exist?

Eg. enemy wizard turns gaseous form and stands in Cheese Grater AlleyTM

[true_shinken]

This is not tier 1.

[jseah]

Meditate... could be broken, I think.

It depends on a specific reading of "benefits as if she had rested for a full 8 hours"

I could totally see a caster dipping 2 levels of Kensei in order to refresh spells every two hours... (one and a quarter hours for sorcerors IIRC)

[Valameer]

So, first off: it's not Tier 1.
So we get to "as much raw power as a T1 without as wide a variety of tricks", which is right there in the definition of Tier 2. I've only skimmed the class as of this moment, so I don't know if he makes it to T2, but I think it needs to be clear from the start that if he's successful as designed, the kensei will be a T2 martial class, not a T1, just because of how the class is structured. This will, however, satisfy the goal of "a martial character who can play in a tier 1 party effectively" if achieved.

I think that's acceptable. And if that's the consensus, I'd rather level the class out to a nice T2 instead of trying to reach for T1. I agree that if this class ever hits T1, it is right near the end.

Some abilities might still prove useful, however, such as an AMF at 12th level, or limited wish at 14th. I also kept open the option for PaO shenanigans starting at 16th. But yeah, the kensai gets all these abilities a little bit late compared to other T1 classes, and the are very limited by necessity (could you imagine a *longer* write-up?)

If the kensai can play along with T1's and T2's, though, I feel like I've hit my design goal.

[Valameer]

Meditate... could be broken, I think.

It depends on a specific reading of "benefits as if she had rested for a full 8 hours"

I could totally see a caster dipping 2 levels of Kensei in order to refresh spells every two hours... (one and a quarter hours for sorcerors IIRC)

Nice catch, I'll switch it so meditate can't restore spellcasting abilities more quickly than usual, as that wasn't the intent.

I kinda want this class to be a *terrible* dipping sauce.

[Valameer]

What happens to Expert Harrier when there isn't simply isn't space to exist?

Eg. enemy wizard turns gaseous form and stands in Cheese Grater AlleyTM

I'll clear it up - with regular harrier has to have an open space (unless she is already shadowstepping). Master Harrier feat will allow you shadowstep for free as part of harrier.

[NineThePuma]

Extra bonus feat at level 1. (Exotic Weapon Proficiency)

EDIT: Wow, I was very verbose.

I feel that you should add a single Exotic Weapon to their proficiencies to allow the badass Katana feel ^3^

[Glimbur]

I am most concerned by the abilities which do not offer a save. If you designate someone as your foe, they lose a turn. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. You can later trade turn-for-turn with them as long as they're vulnerable to mind-affecting fear effects. Harrier is stronger than what other classes have available at level 5, but it's also a bad idea to use in some situations... if your foe just planeshifted, you can follow if you want to leave your party behind and find your own way home. At level 5. Void is poorly defined... how long does the Kensei spend ethereal/other? What if they are dimensionally anchored/locked? Divine Soul is just plain silly, but so are many things at that level.

This class is encouraged not to wear armor by its move speed boost and the clause on its Evasion, but at the same time that means it has to get AC normally found in armor and shields from Dex alone. The class does increase Dex at various times throughout the progression, but even at level 20 it is only +10 AC, compared to +5 full plate and a +5 animated shield for +20 AC.

Finally, it's not Tier 1. How does this class destabilize an economy (wall of iron/salt), predict the future (divinations), raise the dead, create magic items, create minions (long term, the spirit shadow is more like summoning than animate dead), see the invisible (true seeing while meditating is nice, but not combat helpful), discern lies, build its own plane, grapple a group of enemies at once, or... etc.

[Valameer]

Extra bonus feat at level 1. (Exotic Weapon Proficiency)

EDIT: Wow, I was very verbose.

I feel that you should add a single Exotic Weapon to their proficiencies to allow the badass Katana feel ^3^

The katana is a refluffed bastard sword, right? Or is it something different? You could always use the bonus feat at first level to pick up EWP.

But you're right - a katana goes perfectly with this class. I'll think about adding it in at 1st level. :smallsmile:

[NineThePuma]

Refluffed bastard sword, yes. But a free EWP is totally not horrible x3

[Benly]

I think that's acceptable. And if that's the consensus, I'd rather level the class out to a nice T2 instead of trying to reach for T1. I agree that if this class ever hits T1, it is right near the end.

Some abilities might still prove useful, however, such as an AMF at 12th level, or limited wish at 14th. I also kept open the option for PaO shenanigans starting at 16th. But yeah, the kensai gets all these abilities a little bit late compared to other T1 classes, and the are very limited by necessity (could you imagine a *longer* write-up?)

If the kensai can play along with T1's and T2's, though, I feel like I've hit my design goal.

That's fine, but I would highly recommend changing the thread title (and link in your sig) to reflect that so that you don't get dozens more posts saying "this is not Tier 1 lol" (you know, like you already have:smallsmile:).

Also, your sig calls it a nonmagical class, which... it's not. It's non-spellcasting but its abilities are magical as heck.

[Valameer]

I am most concerned by the abilities which do not offer a save. If you designate someone as your foe, they lose a turn. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. You can later trade turn-for-turn with them as long as they're vulnerable to mind-affecting fear effects. Harrier is stronger than what other classes have available at level 5, but it's also a bad idea to use in some situations... if your foe just planeshifted, you can follow if you want to leave your party behind and find your own way home. At level 5. Void is poorly defined... how long does the Kensei spend ethereal/other? What if they are dimensionally anchored/locked? Divine Soul is just plain silly, but so are many things at that level.

This class is encouraged not to wear armor by its move speed boost and the clause on its Evasion, but at the same time that means it has to get AC normally found in armor and shields from Dex alone. The class does increase Dex at various times throughout the progression, but even at level 20 it is only +10 AC, compared to +5 full plate and a +5 animated shield for +20 AC.

Finally, it's not Tier 1. How does this class destabilize an economy (wall of iron/salt), predict the future (divinations), raise the dead, create magic items, create minions (long term, the spirit shadow is more like summoning than animate dead), see the invisible (true seeing while meditating is nice, but not combat helpful), discern lies, build its own plane, grapple a group of enemies at once, or... etc.

I am somewhat concerned about the 'no save,' abilities as well, but those abilities (foe, daunt foe, daunt enemy) generally aren't too powerful, or they have their own mitigating factors. The daunt abilities use up your entire action - but your party would be able to mince a single bad guy if your kept them 'daunt locked'. This was intentional, and an attempt to do something better than color spray, but I'm keeping it in mind.

Harrier is a level 6 ability, and yeah, it's pretty crazy. It's modeled on countering fly, burrow, and later dimension door or plane shift. A kensei could get into a lot of trouble using it, but it has the potential to really bridge the gap between magically mobile creatures and the kensei.

Void is supposed to be a 'nearly instantaneous' effect, somewhat like blinking. A kensei in dimensional lock wouldn't be able to void. I'll clean up the wording.

Divine soul is a dumb power, but it's my gate mimic, which is a dumb spell.

I'll check the AC concerns. The kensei doesn't have a whole lot of required things to throw their WBL at (maybe fly and invisibility would be nice), so I figured Bracers of Armor +x would help a lot. The class initially multiplied their own effective dexterity modifier by 2 at level 5 and 3 at level 10. It was to encourage stacking dex - but I was worried it would get out of hand. A kensei needs little other than dex, though, and should be stacking it as high as possible. Having a fire circle spirit helps mitigate melee attacks against you. But yeah, defense possibly needs some work.

The class can't destabilize and economy, except perhaps by curing every disease, affliction, curse, blindness, wound, poison, petrification, etc by level 11 just by sitting around leading tai-chi classes. No permanent building though.

Divinations, however, we've got you covered. Visions is a level 11 ability granted through the warrior's spirit.

Raising the dead? Well, not until 16th level with limited wish, no. But they still get it.

Create magic items? Only the soulbound weapons, which I know aren't very game-breaking. They are powerful. Perhaps if at a certain level the kensei could perform a soulbond ritual to let another build their own soulbound weapons.

Soulshadow is just a summon. With divine soul you could make minions through the solar's spells, but that's a fairly late ability. However, soulflooding a battlefield once an encounter would cause a lot of craziness.

A kensei can "see" the invisible through the keen senses ability at level 4 so long as they are making noise, and they get a few other ways after that as well.

Grappling a group of enemies at once can be accomplished somewhat through daunt enemy, so long as they can be hit my mind-affecting fear effects. Also you could send your soulflood out to grapple.

As for making their own plane - at level 20 they can go for divine rank 0. I'm not 100% clear on what abilities come along with that, but I bet you could find a way to make it possible.

Keep in mind UMD, sense motive, and diplomacy are some of the more easily broken skills, and the kensei has all of them. That's not saying you aren't right about T2, but they are things that might keep the power level higher.

But a lot of good stuff to keep in mind, thank you kindly. I'll look it all over. Also, I think it's fair to say that I'll be aiming for T2 soon. I think I'll do an edit tomorrow and post what I've changed in a final stab at the versitility required for T1, but failing that (very likely) I'll switch kensei to a self-proclaimed T2.

So long as the kensei can stand beside the wizard, cleric and druid and still have lots to contribute in a higher end game, I think I'll be happy.

Has anyone looked at the damage potential of building the kensei as an uber-charger? I'm worried I either went too far or didn't go far enough.

[Valameer]

That's fine, but I would highly recommend changing the thread title (and link in your sig) to reflect that so that you don't get dozens more posts saying "this is not Tier 1 lol" (you know, like you already have:smallsmile:).

Also, your sig calls it a nonmagical class, which... it's not. It's non-spellcasting but its abilities are magical as heck.

True, true. I'll do it now. Non-spellcasting (I think) is what I meant anyway.

[lade5]

Use this class, as an epic destiny type class , it's abilities are formidable enough to be considered epic. Limit it to the monk and fighter classes due to specialization in weapons and mystical inclinations.Instead of a base class 1 to 20 , instead make 21-40, since ascension offers the option of divinity to the class upon completion and the weapons used with soul-burning could be considered deific weapons. that's my two cents

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Only two thoughts on it at the moment:

1) I'd change the "class bonus" to Dex to one of the established bonus types. There are already far too many types, and making a new one just gives them the opportunity to pile on the Dex bonuses with all the magic and wealth at their disposal. I'd make it an insight bonus, or possibly sacred/profane.

2) Saving throws. Despite the fact that the Foe abilities affect only a single target, I think there should still be saving throws on them. No-save spells are usually what push very powerful builds into broken territory, and if the goal is to make a T2 class that can play like the sorcerer (anywhere from low-op to very high-op depending on the build) there should be few if any no-save abilities. While you mentioned that being able to lock down one target for the party to beat on was intentional, you'll note that very few spells let you do similar without a save, and most win spells of that sort are mind-affecting or necromantic and thus more easily resisted or negated at higher levels. My suggestion would be to give them a save DC of 10 + 1/2 level + Dex, following the usual formula, and then let them spend spirit points to add +2 to the DC (scaling the amount added at higher levels as needed to match caster DC boosters).

Otherwise, quite nice.


Use this class, as an epic destiny type class , it's abilities are formidable enough to be considered epic. Limit it to the monk and fighter classes due to specialization in weapons and mystical inclinations.Instead of a base class 1 to 20 , instead make 21-40, since ascension offers the option of divinity to the class upon completion and the weapons used with soul-burning could be considered deific weapons. that's my two cents

No, it's fine as a normal base class. You're probably getting the knee-jerk feeling that it looks too good because you're used to the Fighters Don't Get Nice ThingsTM school of game design.

[NineThePuma]

... Actually, now that I think about it...

OP, would you kindly stat up an Elite Array Level 20 Kensai without WBL, just so we can see him, please? I'm having trouble telling what all he's capable of.

[Barbarian MD]

One suggestion: mettle.

[Tacitus]

So I did some mathamancy and started building a Kensei Example.

I got about halfway through and decided to see what a level 20 Human Kensei with full spirit points, two soulbound nonmagical steel weapons (light pick and any other), The Year of Meditation to become DvR 0 (which only adds 30ft of movement speed for this thought experiment), no magic items, and no stat points (and assuming an array of all 8s aside from the Human Adaptability Feat) could do. This assumes that Free Actions are not limited and the intent was to allow any number of "Free Action after Breaking Meditation" effects, as it is not stated otherwise. I only gave it the feats listed with this project and Weapon Finesse.

Free Action: Quickdraw two Soulbound Weapons (Light Pick and X)
Free Action: *Mastery
Free Action: Enter Meditation
Heal all ability damage and drain
True Sight up to max visual range.
Free Action: Break Meditation
+20 Insight on an attack roll
Free Action: *No Magic (200ft radius Disjunction)
Free Action: *Aura of No Body
Free Action: *No Limit (Freedom) if Needed
Free Action: *Resist Energy
Free Action: *No Injury (Heal spell)
Free Action: Soul Burn: Critical
Immediate Action: Declare Foe
Free Action: *Unstoppable (Freedom of Movement)
Full Round: *Focus (+6 Str/Dex)
Standard: *Shadowstep
Move: *Spiritwalk Maybe?
Full Round Action: *Deadly Rush (300ft line)
Attack Roll of Natural 20 for 75 minimum, against -8 AC if you pass through their square. Still have to roll 1d20+55 to confirm. (Brilliant Energy if desired)
Damage: Minimum Light Pick 1d4+8d6+2+Alignment (+3d6+6 on a Confirm), and then double all damage for those you pass through, one of which should be your Foe, the Enemy Commander, who you can pick out with your True Sight

So for up to 11 spirit points (which is your Dexterity Bonus btw) and a Soulburn you pretty much completely heal any ailments, ignore all impediments, focus yourself like crazy, and then flip the f- out and kill an army, and then skid to a stop behind the enemy commander and laugh like a madman as his entrails fall around you. (Though for raw damage Divine Wind would be a larger overall AoE and probably preferable)
The Aura of No Body, No Limit, and Resistance are merely for kicks and or awesome. (Repulsion right after a Disjunction? hellsyeah, shockwave of anger and raw manliness)

Feats such as Martial Study and Shadow Blade pump this up heavily.
The 4 bonus feats the class gets, you say these can only be taken from the PHB list of fighter bonus feats. Is this specifically because you don't want people taking fighter bonus feats from other sources or because you copypasta'd? If you can take any fighter bonus feats the bonus feats many people will probably take are Weapon Finesse, Martial Study, Martial Stance and then pick up Shadow Blade at 6. At the end with the above set of circumstances that would increase damage by 14, or 28 when moving through their square.

And its now way late, so I'll let this simmer. XD I'm in love with this, btw, but so far any DM I've shown it to has been unsettled by fighters getting nice things.

Edit: Can Soulshdows and Soulflood duplicates use Spirit Points? Do they even have any? Would they draw from your pool? (If I missed this, I apologize, but it is fairly late. XD)

[Valameer]

I'm working on a revision right now, keeping in mind all the wonderful suggestions I've got here.


This assumes that Free Actions are not limited and the intent was to allow any number of "Free Action after Breaking Meditation" effects, as it is not stated otherwise.

In "No Self," the ability that allows a kensei to enter meditation as a free action, it's stated that they cannot enter a meditation on a round where they've broken meditation. So you don't quite get to field all those "break meditation and do this" abilities at once. But you can do any one of them for free once per round. This limit was intentional (or else the kensei's turns would take forever to resolve if they were optimizing), so if there's a way to use more than one "break meditation and do this" per round still out there, please point it out to me so I can fix it.

Soulflood and Soulshadow aren't intended to be able to use spirit points, and thanks for noticing that. I might make a kensei feat where soulshadow have one spirit point to spend when created, thus creating a kind of power loop. But soulflood never should be able to have spirit points, so I'll clear that up.

The bonus feats error is due to copypasta, so thanks for pointing that out. Kensei's bonus feats should work exactly like a fighters.

My main goal is going to be bolstering the first few levels a touch, while trimming out some of the poorly thought-out or abusable bits. Kensei's AC is pretty low. This was intentional, but I think I overdid it. Clerics and Wizards don't have to worry so much about low AC 'cause they aren't frontlining like the kensei.

Foe needs an overhaul. It shouldn't affect the target at all, I'm thinking of making it an "Oh wait, I go first" like Celerity, as that was it's intended purpose.

Void needs to be very clearly defined. I obviously know what it's supposed to do, but I've had a few questions about it. I'm having trouble writing that one down correctly. It's supposed to mimic spells like Wings of Cover.

Basically,
Monster: "36 to hit, I hit you."
Kensei: "I void, spending a spirit point, so you hit nothing as I momentarily turn incorporeal."

Void may be a big problem to some DMs, but you have to look at what a wizard can do at that level. Wings of Cover, Blink, Celerity, Displacement, Improved Invisibility, Mirror Image. Many of those can be used at the same time as each other, and that's not even touching all the other non-defensive stuff the wizard can do to stop opponents.

A level 20 kensei is a beast, and rightly so. He's built to have a chance against beings who now have their own planes of existence, who may or may not chain gate or chain wish, depending on the DM. The difference is, while the cleric and wizard hide away on their plane, carefully choosing their spells and crafting contingencies, the kensei is moving anywhere he wants, any instant he wants, and almost effortlessly changing the tides of war or challenging the gods if he chooses.

I'll point out to wary DMs, however, that a level 18 kensei is not nearly as dangerous as at level 20, as he hasn't fully mastered the destruction of the action economy yet. And I would only advise allowing a kensei if you were willing to allow a full wizard with access to all WotC books. The power level is intended to be similar, however, many of the kensei's abilities focus on defense, and so won't be nearly as world (and game) shattering as a wizard.

I'll post again when the revision has been finished, and go over what I changed.

Thanks again for all the feedback!

[Tacitus]

Ah, on reading No Self it does say "a power," but you may want to more clearly define that each time you break meditation that only one ability may be used, as currently all of those I listed say that you may take a free action when you break meditation, not as a function of breaking it once for that purpose. If you turned the wording backwards on each and said something to the effect of they may break meditation as a free action to xxx, then that would clear it up but no doubt involve a lot of editing.

I would probably just add in a clause to Meditate that specifies that you may not use more than one ability on each Break.

On Soulshadow, perhaps allow for the transfer of a single spirit point from your pool to its pool on creation? Not entirely sure on that though.

And yeah, I've built a 6, and 10, and a 20 Kensei and without gestalt or losing class levels its really damn hard to get your AC up. I'd consider adding a second stat to AC, cause we've seen how well that helps the monk. XD

Mmm... I actually like how Foe is now, but you're right, forcing a Delay on an opponent is WAY powerful. I'd just have them change their initiative to that of the declared Foe, and if they've already acted in the round perhaps grant a single action or otherwise let them continue as normal. Maybe allow for an Iaido when declaring a Foe after it is gained, just without setting Init back to where it was.

I had to read it three times on three different days to understand Void. And then I realized the Wings of Cover and suddenly understood. I'd specify that you become insubstantial for a few moments, and just long enough to avoid an attack or spend your momentum on a fall or pass through a thin barrier, likely with a maximum thickness based on your speed.

Oh, and on that note, is Fast Movement an adjustment to Base Land Speed to create a different Base Land Speed (which is powerful) or a Bonus (Enhancement is the most common) of some kind?

If you want to cover up some of the lackluster defensive qualities I may suggest adding to the Resistance meditation (to also grant a bonus to saves equal to some number [level/3? Cha? Wis?]) or just adding that to the class itself.

Given that DvR 0 gives Charisma as a Deflection Bonus to AC I would suggest adding that somewhere along the way, as at the end game you get DvR 0 anyway. Dread Necromancers become liches for free and get all the benefits therein over the course of 20 levels, so why not follow that model with this lovely little sword saint?

[Barbarian MD]

Indeed, on building one of my own, I found that its AC was in the tank. Even a gestalt using a fairly high Dex bonus HD/LA didn't bring it up to what I would expect of a Tier 2 martial character.

Now, I'll caveat that by saying that Void as a defensive action helps to solve that, but we're working with a limited number of spirit points, and you'd end up using one every round to avoid getting hit.

I would advise two things (in addition to my suggestion of "mettle" earlier): give a bigger HD, or a Con bonus, and find another in-class way to increase AC.

EDIT: Actually, one more question: does Void work only for one attack, or do you decide when to return to the material plane? If Void only works for one attack, it's not going to save this guy from taking a big series of hits, particularly with his AC being what it is.

[Tacitus]

Eh, the cost of Void can be mitigated with the right Warrior Spirit (I'm a fan of Fire and Void starting at 3rd level) as that means that most people are only rolling BAB to hit you and if they seem particularly competent you just Void the first attack for free.

The Single Cut seems to be the way to go with the Kensei, readying actions and then Iaido-ing people to death. My favored build so far has been Martial Study/Stance and Shadow Blade along with Weapon Finesse, Extra Circle, and Master of Iaido.

I don't think it really needs the larger HD, but it certainly wouldn't hurt. Perhaps at regular intervals have them treat their HP as having rolled higher on the die to a maximum of 10? DvR 0 also grants max HP, and taking steps towards that along the way would be an interesting little quirk, but you'd have to be careful with implementation. Though it would be easier, I doubt you'd want to flat out grant Improved Toughness a couple times as then when they hit DvR0 they'd have all that extra HP.

A Con bonus doesn't really fit though. Gaining bonuses to two stats over the course of the class wouldn't feel right, as even just the one is probably enough to make people balk at it. I would second Mettle though.

[Barbarian MD]

Ach! I had completely overlooked Warrior's Spirit: Void. Combined with Extra Spirit Circle/Warrior's Spirit: Fire (which no self-respecting Kensei would NOT take), it's pretty potent. I cede the point.

P.S. I'm insanely jealous that you've gotten a DM to approve this for a campaign. Your co-applicants have no idea what they're signing on for, and your DM probably doesn't either. :smallbiggrin:

[Grendus]

Copied verbatem from my rant in the recruitment thread where it was accepted. Note: this was in response to a Kensei posted.

Whoa... that Kensai is kinda... well, let me lay it out for you.

He gets three bonus feats. On his first four levels. The fighter gives up all his class features for that. The warblade doesn't start getting those until level 5, and then not nearly at that rate.

Warrior's Spirit is a carbon copy of the first level arcane spell Inhibit, except it's a free action. True, the two classes that can cast that spell (Sorcerer/Wizard) are fairly powerful, but it still costs them a standard action or a 5th level spell slot and a feat. You can do it at second level once per minute (or 10 rounds).

Freedom of Movement (or "f*** you caster"), as a free action.

Free Mind Blank. Complete immunity to any mental spells from a single target. Unless the group you're fighting is made of several spellcasters, you're completely immune to any mental spell.

Increased base speed. That's +90 ft/round by level 20. That's faster than a horse. Heck, that's faster than most flying creatures. That's also significantly faster than the monk, for whom fast movement is a major class feature.

Free blindsight. Granted, a lot of blinding and deafening spells are overpowered, but things like mirror image are a caster's last resort. Note, this would also let you ignore early illusions. You get this at level 4. For free.

Double damage against any spellcaster within her land speed. Sure, it costs you a ready action, but you get your level as a bonus to attack and you ignore hardness/dr. That's... well, that's one of the things that make the ToB classes popular. Also noteworthy, this is one of the few abilities that doesn't cost spirit points, that exp based limiting factor.

+8 dex. Understand, a lot of people pay actual levels in level adjustment to get +2 to dex. Kensei gets that for free along with being able to ready an action against anyone within his base land speed. It's also an untyped bonus, so it stacks.

Teleport. Screw the meatshield, forget any natural terrain or spells cast to protect the wizard. Just jump over them, as a move action. Combined with flurry, which you get next level, and you can full attack any spellcaster who doesn't spend at least two rounds surrounding himself with summons.

Get an uber buff as a full round action. +6 untyped strength and dex bonus. Shrug off any single attack until the buff wears off. Failed a save or die (I'll get to that in a second)? Meh, I'll die in five rounds.

Spell reflect. Even wizards don't get that until the 13th level, and it has a chance to fail against higher level spells. It also costs them a standard action to activate (since they don't get high enough spell slots to make it swift until epic).

Pounce. This is the Barbarian's most redeeming quality, and it gives up fast movement to get it. But even the barbarian has to move before it can do that. Kensei can do it on any standard action.

Daze the entire room. That's one hell of a crowd control, a wizard can unmake and reform the entire world in one round.

Simply avoid any attack. I cannot even begin to fathom how this is supposed to be balanced. As a free action, you could avoid the entire team beating you to death, so long as you had spirit points for it.

Attack any creature within 10 (15 with a reach weapon) feet of a straight line. This is Paimon's Dance of Death ability but without attacks of opportunity (unless he moves through the target, in which case he still puts his opponent at -8 attack power). The only other class who gets this is binders, and they suffer MAD and have to use one of their precious binding slots on Paimon.

Spell resistance. Normally, you have to pay a hefty LA to get a monster race for spell resistance.

Copy himself. Ethereal copy of himself. Hard to hit, does force damage, uses all his stats and gear. Can move freely through solid objects, and even stand in other characters.

And that's not counting the full BAB and full resistances. With all the bonuses, you're sitting on 20 AC without armor (which can be gained fairly easily from magic items). Who needs full plate. You have saves higher than an equal level ToB class could get for it's concentration->save abilities at that level without magic items. Only one other class gets full saves (Favored Soul), and that alone was considered overpowered by many.

The only vague weakness is armor, which is itself not that great, and even without it you have 20 AC. That's touch AC folks, and with uncanny dodge and improved uncanny dodge you'll never be considered flatfooted short of the off chance you fail a check and get entangled.


Short version: two things strike me. First, short of the druid, t1 classes are fairly easy to screw up. Because all that class's powers are class features, anybody can pick it up. Sure, there's room for some optimization, but not a lot. Every level has more class features than the monk, and all of them are good. I'm not sure it's possible to screw this class up, short of spamming spirit point abilities (it's probably t3 even without those).

Second, it's still not t1. It can't remake the multiverse in under a minute. It doesn't have the answer for everything. It's more like a uber t3. Granted, it's a t3 that will make t1's cry, but it's still t3.




What strikes me most is that it seems to be trying very hard to be capable of taking down the batman wizard from the get-go, even though the batman wizard doesn't grow teeth until much, much later.

[Barbarian MD]

I hear what you're saying, but you're still operating under the mentality of "Fighters can't have nice things." It's not as powerful as you think it is. Yes, it's HUGELY more powerful than the fighter, but the fighter is not our baseline--the fighter is underpowered.

What I get the feeling you're saying is this: "the Kensei puts my character submission to shame." But the fundamental problem is this: a campaign should not have a Wizard, a Fighter, and a Kensei. It should have a Wizard and two Kensei. Or a Wizard, a Kensei, and a Tome Barbarian. The Fighter needs to be retired in a campaign that's accepting Kensei.

[Valameer]

Thanks for the thorough critique, Grendus. A lot of people seem eager to play the kensei, which is great, but I feel it wouldn't be right to play the class as it is now. It needs a lot of love first.

I'm kicking myself for attempting such a lengthy class to begin with - shoulda just made a gish with spellcasting.

Even when this class is balanced where I want it to be, it's still going to look like too much to people who think warriors shouldn't get nice things. If ToB bothers you, kensei is going to make you puke.

I sincerely thank everyone for putting up with the length of this class. It's quite the undertaking.

I don't want to fool anyone: This class is not a class that is meant to play beside a fighter, a monk, and a samurai. It's a class meant to replace those three classes.

Anyhow, Grendus, my responses in bold.



Whoa... that Kensai is kinda... well, let me lay it out for you.

He gets three bonus feats. On his first four levels. The fighter gives up all his class features for that. The warblade doesn't start getting those until level 5, and then not nearly at that rate.

Good point. The bonus feats will be gone in the revision. My original template for the class was all the fighter's abilities, all the monk's, and all the CW samurai's. These bonus feats are a left-over from that template. I wanted feats to be an option to kensei so that they could somewhat grow through splat-book power creep the way other classes do. But now I've decided to try to step on other classes toes less, as the kensei will invariably be played alongside fighters and monks from time to time.

Warrior's Spirit is a carbon copy of the first level arcane spell Inhibit, except it's a free action. True, the two classes that can cast that spell (Sorcerer/Wizard) are fairly powerful, but it still costs them a standard action or a 5th level spell slot and a feat. You can do it at second level once per minute (or 10 rounds).

I'm sure you mean Foe. I've never read inhibit, but I do see celerity cited often. Foe is the "no you don't" to celerity. It will, however, be getting a big overhaul in the revision. It will be more about bolstering the kensei rather than nerfing the enemy.

Freedom of Movement (or "f*** you caster"), as a free action.

Costs a spirit point. Basically, web, grease, entangle, etc are all very low level spells that are "f*** you melee," and this is the counter. It will be revised, however. I want to pull away from my million free actions - that was poor design. Unstoppable will be activated as a standard action, leaving the kensei a move action to escape.

Let me just clarify right now the power level of spirit points: They are the equivalent of well thought out, but limited spells. Such as a sorcerer's spell slots. A little different since there are no levels of spirit point slots, just one base pool. But a spirit point isn't there to copy a feat - it's going to be as powerful as casting mirror image, entangle, time stop, or prismatic wall.

Free Mind Blank. Complete immunity to any mental spells from a single target. Unless the group you're fighting is made of several spellcasters, you're completely immune to any mental spell.

Clerics, wizards, sorcerers all have access to a very low cost mind blank as well. One spell slot. They get access to this at the same level the kensei does. A major difference is the kensei's cannot be dispelled. That's a huge advantage against casters - however, the point of this class (experiment) is a melee class that isn't invalidated by T1 casters.

Increased base speed. That's +90 ft/round by level 20. That's faster than a horse. Heck, that's faster than most flying creatures. That's also significantly faster than the monk, for whom fast movement is a major class feature.

Good point. This will be roughly halved in the revision. Keep in mind that what casters can do by around level 11 make a term like "increased base speed" look silly.

Free blindsight. Granted, a lot of blinding and deafening spells are overpowered, but things like mirror image are a caster's last resort. Note, this would also let you ignore early illusions. You get this at level 4. For free.

Illusions from minor illusion (level 2 spell) up have visual and audio components, negating the perfection of this ability. However, mirror image and invisibility are foiled, unless the caster targets the kensei's ears. Unlikely, yes, but this lets your melee person actually *do* something when the party is attacked by invisible creatures.

Double damage against any spellcaster within her land speed. Sure, it costs you a ready action, but you get your level as a bonus to attack and you ignore hardness/dr. That's... well, that's one of the things that make the ToB classes popular. Also noteworthy, this is one of the few abilities that doesn't cost spirit points, that exp based limiting factor.

Iaido started off weak, then I overbuffed it before putting it up, and it needs a nerf. It does not do double damager to casters, as is - only double damage when used to interrupt a cast. It's mobility will definitely be hampered, but I'll keep the ignoring DR part. It fits the class. Also, it will cost a SP.

+8 dex. Understand, a lot of people pay actual levels in level adjustment to get +2 to dex. Kensei gets that for free along with being able to ready an action against anyone within his base land speed. It's also an untyped bonus, so it stacks.

This will be an insight bonus, and will possibly be receiving a big overhaul when I recalculate the kensei's AC. I will, however, attempt to keep the kensei as SAD as possible.

Teleport. Screw the meatshield, forget any natural terrain or spells cast to protect the wizard. Just jump over them, as a move action. Combined with flurry, which you get next level, and you can full attack any spellcaster who doesn't spend at least two rounds surrounding himself with summons.

This is a class that can hopefully defeat a well played wizard - in fact, most of the kensei's abilities are geared towards this. But what makes a melee capable of teleporting any more broken than a caster being able to teleport? The kensei has more mobility than a wizard, and that's intentional.

Get an uber buff as a full round action. +6 untyped strength and dex bonus. Shrug off any single attack until the buff wears off. Failed a save or die (I'll get to that in a second)? Meh, I'll die in five rounds.

Focus is a replacement for polymorph. Granted, it's on a full BAB class, but it's still nowhere near polymorph. Fail two save or dies, you still die. Plus, how much fun is it to take one SoD and bite it?

Spell reflect. Even wizards don't get that until the 13th level, and it has a chance to fail against higher level spells. It also costs them a standard action to activate (since they don't get high enough spell slots to make it swift until epic).

Kensei get spell reflection earlier and better. But it costs a SP, so you are trading blow for blow. This is a major point on the kensei - the ability to defeat a T1. Nonetheless, it's taking a nerf. It will only deflect the spell, not reflect.

Pounce. This is the Barbarian's most redeeming quality, and it gives up fast movement to get it. But even the barbarian has to move before it can do that. Kensei can do it on any standard action.

Flurry was intended to make TWF an option again, but I overdid it. This ability will be getting a major revision, or hacked out.

Daze the entire room. That's one hell of a crowd control, a wizard can unmake and reform the entire world in one round.

Most abilities that didn't allow a saving throw will now allow a saving throw. I at least need the appearance of a fair fight, right?

Simply avoid any attack. I cannot even begin to fathom how this is supposed to be balanced. As a free action, you could avoid the entire team beating you to death, so long as you had spirit points for it.

Well, once per round, and it's not like no one has ever heard of blink, ethereal jaunt or the like. The kensei goes ethereal, so they could still be attacked by force effects, ghost touch weapons, etc. But void was not only poorly written, it's also a major point of contention. The revision will try to keep it cool, make it fair, and clean it up so it's understandable.

Attack any creature within 10 (15 with a reach weapon) feet of a straight line. This is Paimon's Dance of Death ability but without attacks of opportunity (unless he moves through the target, in which case he still puts his opponent at -8 attack power). The only other class who gets this is binders, and they suffer MAD and have to use one of their precious binding slots on Paimon.

Deadly Rush was intended to give the kensei a wicked AoE, but by allowing it to be combined with uber-charging, and again the lack of a saving throw, I overdid it. I'll try to keep the feel of an AoE while cutting out the potential for cheesy charge damage. Actually, I originally subtly intended the kensei to be an uber-charger, hence a lot of the charging abilities are usable on horseback (so you can stack spirited charge on them) but I think I'll try to pull the damage down to a more reasonable level.

Spell resistance. Normally, you have to pay a hefty LA to get a monster race for spell resistance.

Or play a monk. Or a cleric.

Copy himself. Ethereal copy of himself. Hard to hit, does force damage, uses all his stats and gear. Can move freely through solid objects, and even stand in other characters.

A lot of the 'exact duplicate' stuff is to make book keeping easier. This is the kensei's version of summoning-shenanigans. I think a general nerf to the kensei will pull this into line. It's still amazing, but it's things like this that pull the class up to T2.

And that's not counting the full BAB and full resistances. With all the bonuses, you're sitting on 20 AC without armor (which can be gained fairly easily from magic items). Who needs full plate. You have saves higher than an equal level ToB class could get for it's concentration->save abilities at that level without magic items. Only one other class gets full saves (Favored Soul), and that alone was considered overpowered by many.

Monk also gets full saves. Honestly, every class should have full BAB and full saves. Casters get a lot of ways around poor saves. I don't think defense it going to make the class (more) broken.

The only vague weakness is armor, which is itself not that great, and even without it you have 20 AC. That's touch AC folks, and with uncanny dodge and improved uncanny dodge you'll never be considered flatfooted short of the off chance you fail a check and get entangled.

Thematically, the class should have higher AC. I mentioned before how instead of a +4, +8, etc bonus it was originally written as x2 effective dex bonus, x3 effective dex bonus. But that seemed too wonky, OPed, and out of line with the rest of 3.5. I'll try to give this class AC in penance for nerfing it's more broken abilities - to bring it all in line.





Short version: two things strike me. First, short of the druid, t1 classes are fairly easy to screw up. Because all that class's powers are class features, anybody can pick it up. Sure, there's room for some optimization, but not a lot. Every level has more class features than the monk, and all of them are good. I'm not sure it's possible to screw this class up, short of spamming spirit point abilities (it's probably t3 even without those).

A clear problem for me is that I am not using a caster progression (which makes this class so lengthy - all its "spells" have to be typed out, and are built in) and there will be no support for the class outside what I write for it. Therefore there will be no power creep, and very few broken combos that aren't explicit from the get go.

So yes, it's hard to screw up. Use your moves, and you come out shining like a god (literally). Originally, the class had full fighter feat progression, and a lot less other abilities. Though it made the class weaker yet more adaptable, I didn't like it because: A) Fighter feats are generally not a very fun mechanic. You build your fighter a certain way, and he's stuck like that. B) The class was looking like a fighter -armor +uber too much.

I said earlier I wanted this class to be able to trump a wizard but lose against a fighter at level <6. I don't think that's going to be a design goal anymore. It feels too much like doing a design limbo dance. Gotta stay below this, but I don't want to fall over backwards! I think I ended up both falling over and tipping the bar off.


Second, it's still not t1. It can't remake the multiverse in under a minute. It doesn't have the answer for everything. It's more like a uber t3. Granted, it's a t3 that will make t1's cry, but it's still t3.

Ok, I get it, it will NEVER be T1. People can stop with that now. However, I do believe this class is a T2. There's a lot of broken stuff in there that no one even jumped on yet. Mage's Disjunction? Wish? Free Solars? Raise self from dead? Send soulshadow around as impervious spies/assassins? Heck, Polymorph any Object? Play this class, use your imagination. At high levels, the kensei can change the world just like a sorcerer can. They can remake it just like a cleric can.


What strikes me most is that it seems to be trying very hard to be capable of taking down the batman wizard from the get-go, even though the batman wizard doesn't grow teeth until much, much later.

Honestly, where are the kensei's teeth at low levels? It seems like you are looking at the levels of power a wizard progresses through, and stacking it up against a level 20 kensei. The kensei almost always (except for mirrorsoul, which you cleverly caught) does not pick up an ability until a caster can do the same thing, or even later.

The kensei gets a lot of abilities that shut casters down, but casters get a whole ton of abilities that shut everyone down. Should a non-caster be able to threaten a caster at level 1 through level 20? I think so. Should a non-caster be able to effortlessly destroy casters 1 through 20? No, and the kensei shouldn't be able to.

But again, thank you for being critical. It will really help me eventually turn this class from an experiment into something that can be played.

[Tacitus]

He gets three bonus feats. On his first four levels. The fighter gives up all his class features for that. The warblade doesn't start getting those until level 5, and then not nearly at that rate.

Bonus feats are good, but Fighter is what, T4, T5 without Dungeoncrasher? Alright, its better than a fighter. In fact, it looks like a Monk with Fighter strapped to the chasis with a dose of Swordsage. Most of anything I'm going to be saying is going to come back to what mhvaughan presented. Fighters CAN have nice things. I can think of ten homebrew classes off of the top of my head trying to fix the Fighter and the Monk and just make them playable alongside ToB, and this class is trying to go beyond that.


Warrior's Spirit is a carbon copy of the first level arcane spell Inhibit, except it's a free action. True, the two classes that can cast that spell (Sorcerer/Wizard) are fairly powerful, but it still costs them a standard action or a 5th level spell slot and a feat. You can do it at second level once per minute (or 10 rounds).

You mean Foe, and Foe is only 1/minute. So yeah, once per encounter you get a free Inhibit with no save. Probably against a spellcaster. And no, it is an immediate action, and Lyceios already stated that the Foe specific abilities might need toned down and some of them to offer a save. I'm playing the Kensei to help playtest it, and this is another one of those things that will need to see play.


Freedom of Movement (or "f*** you caster"), as a free action.

A Spirit Point and for only one single round. Yeah, its good, but if someone is trying to grapple you several times over subsequent rounds you're screwed.


Free Mind Blank. Complete immunity to any mental spells from a single target. Unless the group you're fighting is made of several spellcasters, you're completely immune to any mental spell.

Again, Foe is against a single target and can only be used once per minute and mind-affecting spells are just a slim margin out of any number a spellcaster could throw at a Kensei.


Increased base speed. That's +90 ft/round by level 20. That's faster than a horse. Heck, that's faster than most flying creatures. That's also significantly faster than the monk, for whom fast movement is a major class feature.

Again, land speed stops mattering after a certain point and comparing to the monk is apples to oranges. I agree that it is quite fast, but half the monk fixes I've seen look just the same.


Free blindsight. Granted, a lot of blinding and deafening spells are overpowered, but things like mirror image are a caster's last resort. Note, this would also let you ignore early illusions. You get this at level 4. For free.

This one I can actually see your beef. I hadn't thought about the illusions, so this may actually need to work more like the Synthesete psionic power (or whatever its called, 2nd level I think) instead of being a blanket passive to get by everything given.


Double damage against any spellcaster within her land speed. Sure, it costs you a ready action, but you get your level as a bonus to attack and you ignore hardness/dr. That's... well, that's one of the things that make the ToB classes popular. Also noteworthy, this is one of the few abilities that doesn't cost spirit points, that exp based limiting factor.

At 6th level any spellcaster that is threatening is probably flying. Flying monsters are also becoming more common. So yes, I'm going to ready an action to charge that spellcaster right across the sky. Oh wait. It is a powerful ability and I'm not going to try to minimize that fact, but the Single Cut is one of those classic swordsman things that has never been represented well except for this. Cut that block of granite right in half, sir. Also, do note that with how it is written you must have your weapon sheathed, which usually means that you are going to be unarmed and you cannot make AoOs.


+8 dex. Understand, a lot of people pay actual levels in level adjustment to get +2 to dex. Kensei gets that for free along with being able to ready an action against anyone within his base land speed. It's also an untyped bonus, so it stacks.

I admit that the Dex bonus could be handled better, and if you have any suggestions to replace it I'm sure they would be welcome.


Teleport. Screw the meatshield, forget any natural terrain or spells cast to protect the wizard. Just jump over them, as a move action. Combined with flurry, which you get next level, and you can full attack any spellcaster who doesn't spend at least two rounds surrounding himself with summons.

Requires Foe and a spirit point, but thats absolutely correct. If you want to get stuck behind enemy lines and take out the squishy or the commander then by all means, but that isn't a good place for a Kensei to be once their foe is gone. And if they have teleported way far away you've probably just gotten yourself captured.


Get an uber buff as a full round action. +6 untyped strength and dex bonus. Shrug off any single attack until the buff wears off. Failed a save or die (I'll get to that in a second)? Meh, I'll die in five rounds.

Its slightly better than the Delayed Damage Pool and Rage stuck together. Yes, that Save or Die will probably be looming over your head, but in a situation where there is a reasonable chance of Save or Dies a T1 or T2 tosses up a Death Ward and just gets immunity.


Spell reflect. Even wizards don't get that until the 13th level, and it has a chance to fail against higher level spells. It also costs them a standard action to activate (since they don't get high enough spell slots to make it swift until epic).

Immediate Action on Foes at 7th and anyone at 11th. Action Economy is screaming at the Kensei by this point because of how many Immediate Actions options they have before them and how quickly you can burn through your spirit points. So yeah, reflect that spell and then not get any other Immediate action. Spell Reflection also has a duration, where this is instantaneous.


Pounce. This is the Barbarian's most redeeming quality, and it gives up fast movement to get it. But even the barbarian has to move before it can do that. Kensei can do it on any standard action.

And I've seen a handful of monk fixes that make the Flurry of Blows a standard action period. Its the fighter getting nice things. I'm sure there are maneuvers that let you make multiple attacks in a round.


Daze the entire room. That's one hell of a crowd control, a wizard can unmake and reform the entire world in one round.

The Foe line is under review and these may be getting saving throws. Stay tuned.


Simply avoid any attack. I cannot even begin to fathom how this is supposed to be balanced. As a free action, you could avoid the entire team beating you to death, so long as you had spirit points for it.

"as an immediate action" And this is currently being discussed with the 'brewer as how it truly works. The inspiration was Wings of Cover, so one single attack/spell/etc.


Attack any creature within 10 (15 with a reach weapon) feet of a straight line. This is Paimon's Dance of Death ability but without attacks of opportunity (unless he moves through the target, in which case he still puts his opponent at -8 attack power). The only other class who gets this is binders, and they suffer MAD and have to use one of their precious binding slots on Paimon.

Dance of Death... a limited number of times per day. You seem to be missing just how limited these spirit points are. You can burn through your entire compliment of spirit points in a single combat without going crazynuts, especially if it dragons for more rounds than twice your level. Paimon can do it every 5 rounds for the entire day and will just tumble if thats their business. And honestly, how often are you going to get more than a handful in a line in most games? If the DM knows its coming, you won't hit more than 5 or so, less if you end up going through the Big Bad.


Spell resistance. Normally, you have to pay a hefty LA to get a monster race for spell resistance.

Based on class level, so its the exact same ability as the monk has. I'm serious, fighters CAN have nice things. Note that SR works against allies too.


Copy himself. Ethereal copy of himself. Hard to hit, does force damage, uses all his stats and gear. Can move freely through solid objects, and even stand in other characters.

Yeah, its powerful, but it can't use Spirit Points ('brewer notes above, and even then it might get a single spirit point) and doesn't have any longer of a duration than summons or planar bindings or astral constructs, which are getting into their prime at about this level.


And that's not counting the full BAB and full resistances. With all the bonuses, you're sitting on 20 AC without armor (which can be gained fairly easily from magic items). Who needs full plate. You have saves higher than an equal level ToB class could get for it's concentration->save abilities at that level without magic items. Only one other class gets full saves (Favored Soul), and that alone was considered overpowered by many.

So its one of the half dozen monk fixes that I see around the boards but without Wisdom to saves on top of everything else? (Monk also gets all good saves, btw, and almost every fix I have seen gives it a full BAB) Favored Soul is T2, and thats about where we were aiming, so... thanks? Also, FS overpowered? Who have you been talking to?


The only vague weakness is armor, which is itself not that great, and even without it you have 20 AC. That's touch AC folks, and with uncanny dodge and improved uncanny dodge you'll never be considered flatfooted short of the off chance you fail a check and get entangled.

So people hate on the monk, with its inability to wear armor, and play Swordsages instead so they can wear armor, and this doesn't translate as not being able to wear armor as being bad? Yes, really good Dex to AC, but it takes progressively more WBL to cover up the inability to wear even light armor. +4 Mithral Shirt is 17100. +8 Bracers of Armor are 64,000 and take up the arms slot. A Swordage doesn't get the +20 dex, but they get Armor and Wisdom. +10 additional from Dex or Wisdom (which despite being MAD is awesome) and that little chunk of light armor will make the raw Dex soon useless.


And I went off and had dinner before hitting reply so L probably covered all of this by now...

Edit again:
L, while I agree that some things went a wee bit too far, mostly the no-save Foe stuff, I wouldn't want to see this project swing too far back in the direction of Melee Can't Have Nice Things. Iaido is one of the things that I really and truly like about this class and the Flurry ability may seem powerful but its not nearly as game breaking as its being made out to be.

For Iaido I would remove the multiplier on damage but perhaps make it count as double when determining spellcaster Concentration DCs.

For more anti-caster, maybe toss in some minor penalty to spellcaster Defensive Casting concentration checks when threatened or something.

On Flurry, it may be too powerful at that level, but if you push it back some or specify it can't be used with TWF it should hopefully alleviate some problems.

Also, removing any references to charging and specifically stating you can't combine some things with a charge would greatly tone down ubercharger abuse.

[NineThePuma]

Eh, who cares if it's super awesome? I'm totally going to ask someone to play test it.

[Valameer]

You're right, Tacitus. My aim is to keep or improve the "style factor" while ironing out the blantant abuses.

A lot of the "you don't get a save" would probably make eyes roll at the table. Even if the abilities are generally balanced compared to certain spells and abilities, this is a homebrew class and that sets people on edge. I want this class to be acceptable in high tier games, since there are no melee options up there other than cleric - and all those spells and buffs and prep time give the melee cleric a decidedly caster feel. Kensei should be able to feel free from tons of prep, while still being able to do very cool things with style.

What you suggested for Iaido was along the lines of what I'm going for. I'm debating keeping any to hit or damage bonus on the ability since soulbound weapons already have a bonus to damage. What I would like best is a way to add "style factor" to this move (since, thematically, it's awesome) without making a DM eyeroll and ask where the heck he found this class.

I think flurry is going to turn into a manouver used as a standard action where you may attack a fixed ammount of times. Weaker than pounce, but more adaptable since you can use it more often. I think it will cost a spirit point, which will mitigate it while still allowing the kensei to "go nova" like a caster.

Thank you very much everyone for the support you've given. I will work hard to make this class awesome so that you can enjoy playing it thoroughly. I think the best way is to continually state upfront what this class is capable of and should be capable of, so they will feel comfortable allowing it in a game.

[Tacitus]

Eh, I'd be careful about giving too many things a spirit point cost. Something that emulates supernatural ability should come from raw fighting spirit, something a trained warrior could potentially do (like Iaido) shouldn't have a cost.

On allowing a number of attacks on a Flurry... why? Would it be more or less than full attack? Why not just Full attack with the caveat that it can only use one weapon and forfeits additional attacks from haste and the like?

[Valameer]

Kensei: Version 1.1.0


Patch notes

MAD: Many abilities, especially the spell-like abilities are now tied to Wisdom.
Light Armor Proficiency: Added. To get you through those early levels. Never becomes invalidated, due to the +Dex bonus disappearing, and works with evasion.

Bonus Feats: Removed. Added one free EWP at 1st level.

AC Bonus: Added. +1 per level, dodge bonus. This scales with BAB in a way that AC always should have, but never did. Should give the Kensei a medium AC at low levels scaling to a high AC at high levels.

Foe: Redone. Now alters the kensei's initiative instead of the foes, largely to the same effect, but less annoying to a DM. Still an "I go first" sort of thing. Costs a SP.

Unstoppable: Costs a standard action now, so instead of being completely impervious to terrain spells, you'll feel them. Slightly.

Unwavering Resolve: No longer grants immunity. Instead grants two saves, pick the favourable one. This is more in line to what a 3rd level ability should look like, while still befuddling befuddlers.

Fast Move: Roughly halved. I like it for effect, not because 120' is SO MUCH MORE ADVANTAGEOUS than 80'. Really, beyond a certain speed (say, 60') you won't notice a difference. This will silence the peanut gallery, and let the monk reign supreme in oddly high move speeds.

Keen Sense: Clarified that it only trumps the simplest of illusions (visuals without sound, sound without visuals) and doesn't work on phantasms, obviously.

Daunt Foe: Added Fort save DC, tied to Wisdom - our new "casting" stat.

Iaido: No damage multipliers, not counted as a charge. An optional SP payment turns this move from a cool DR bypasser into a good attack to couple with Power Attack.

Lightning Agility: All + to Dex abilities gone. They weren't in line with other published material at all, and it was a half-brained mechanic. I still encourage you to stack your dex if you can.

Harrier: Range set to base speed, instead of 100+10/level. Makes more sense.

Mirrorsoul: Deflects spells instead of reflecting. You have other ways to kill casters, hopefully. And this came at a lower level, so shouldn't be as good as full spell turning.

Flurry: Changed into Quicker Than the Eye. Good for leap attacking, encourages Two handed fighting over TWF, but the damage bonus granted by Soulbond does the opposite. Your choice. Actually, I'd like to see someone crunch the numbers of THF vs TWF for this class.

Daunt Enemy: 1 target / level. Wis based save DC

Void: Now insta-ports you up to 10' which will make the attack miss. HOPEFULLY this writeup is a lot clearer. It feels clearer, and better, honestly. Less of a NO and more of a "Hah I'm too cool to be hit just yet - so mobile!"

Deadly Rush: Turned into A Thousand Strikes. Hopefully clearer than that whole "line of effect" thing. You invinci-dash, you hit everything you passed once. No charging, no damage multipliers.

Gale: Moved from 16th level to 10th level. It came way too late, hopefully now it will see use. Considering bumping it back further.

Soulshadow: Cleaned up. No magical items except soulbonded weapons, no warrior's spirits, no SP. Still pondering a 15th level feat that allows your soulshadow to have 1 SP on creation. I think I'll add it later. Compared to 8th level spells...

Teach Soulbond: New ability. Amaze the locals by building unlimited almost free magical weapons for everyone you know! Take that, T3.

Kiai: Has SP cost.

Divine Wind: Grants Ref saving throw for half damage, like the spells most similar to it. Also drastically reduced it's AoE from 100+10/level radius to 10/level radius. That should still hit pretty much everything you want it to, without making this power a good way to clear out a city.

- Warrior's Spirit revisions -
Earth - Now gives an additional 'floating' EWP while you have it.
Water - Please let me know if this isn't clear. Position no longer matters to a kensei trying to flank, so long as a kensei and an ally both threaten the enemy, it's as if they are on opposite sides.
Fire - Sorry for the nerf. Now you can tank, though? *wince*
Wind - Hey, sort of a buff. That other ability wasn't really useful, and would only make DMs mad. This one is more palpable.
Void - Ok, shameless buff, I don't know why. Void should be your default choice at mid to high levels, if using SP abilities as often as possible is your thing. Plus, the health crush thing has that "style factor" I wanted. What a gamble!

Spirit Points: Now = Level + Dex mod + Wis mod.

Meditate: Clarified that only one power may be used per break of med. Nice catch, by the way.

Aura of No Body, Banishment, Farseeing, Quickened Farseeing, No Form: All DCs tied to Wis now.

Soulbound Weapons: No longer total Str mod + Dex mod, only use one or the other.----------

I feel the class is more playable now. A lot of the bad mechanics such as no save debilitators were fixed, as were the odd bonuses to dex. The damage multipliers I had shamelessly put in have all been removed, so the kensei is no longer an ubercharger. But there's a lot more to the kensei than damage.

I hope that the strangest or most OP feeling abilities are reviewed alongside the spells that a full caster may get at the same level. The kensei has a lot going for it that specifically counters casters, but doesn't wreak as much havoc on the campaign outline as a full caster might.

I'm still somewhat concerned about the AC calculations. I *may* have tipped it too far at the later levels. But what is AC at level 20 anyway? Also concerned about the rampant teleports this class gets. Ideally, a kensei could teleport an obscene amount of times per day.

I very much want to add another feat or two that lets the kensei do 'cool stuff' while not being completely OP and perhaps another ability along those lines. Hopefully future revisions will be less drastic.

Sorry for the lack of quality in these patch notes. I'm up 4 hours past my regular bedtime 'cause I got on a roll. That probably means I'll wake up tomorrow and see something that I did terribly wrong. Ah well.

[NineThePuma]

Might I suggest removing the AC bonus and instead replacing it with the Column C Defense Bonus (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/defenseBonus.htm) if you feel uncomfortable with the current one?

I'll look over other changes in a bit. ^^

[Tacitus]

Notes within the Spoiler


MAD: Many abilities, especially the spell-like abilities are now tied to Wisdom.
Light Armor Proficiency: Added. To get you through those early levels. Never becomes invalidated, due to the +Dex bonus disappearing, and works with evasion.

Little bit of MAD goes a long way sometimes. XD


Bonus Feats: Removed. Added one free EWP at 1st level.

I'm almost tempted to suggest just adding a list of Exotics to the weapon proficiencies, but as is, the feat is irrelevant as you could just add "and one Exotic of their choice" to the proficiency line. The feat is superfluous. I would honestly just go with EWP in Bastard Sword and let them Finesse one if they so desire (which I am aware is later trumped if a bastard sword becomes soulbound).


AC Bonus: Added. +1 per level, dodge bonus. This scales with BAB in a way that AC always should have, but never did. Should give the Kensei a medium AC at low levels scaling to a high AC at high levels.

Ah, uh, hmm... I'm not sure +1 at each level is precisely the direction you should have taken. I've seen Half BAB as a Dodge Bonus (which allows multiclassing easier) but class level as a dodge bonus? That might be harder to swallow than the Dex bonuses.


Foe: Redone. Now alters the kensei's initiative instead of the foes, largely to the same effect, but less annoying to a DM. Still an "I go first" sort of thing. Costs a SP.

I'm not a fan of making it cost a SP, but otherwise it looks good. The 1/minute (maybe 1/encounter...) is plenty of a restriction without adding the SP cost in my opinion, but it might need to see play to determine that.


Unstoppable: Costs a standard action now, so instead of being completely impervious to terrain spells, you'll feel them. Slightly.

I'm almost tempted to suggest letting it last for Dex or Wis rounds but instead take a Full Round to activate. Again, it would have to see playtesting. I'm mainly thinking about grapple situations.


Unwavering Resolve: No longer grants immunity. Instead grants two saves, pick the favourable one. This is more in line to what a 3rd level ability should look like, while still befuddling befuddlers.

Hmm... while 2d20b1 isn't as outrageous as immunity, it essentially means the natural 1 drops from a 5% chance to a 0.25% chance, and I'm unsure of whether or not a Stat to save(s) vs foe would be better.


Fast Move: Roughly halved. I like it for effect, not because 120' is SO MUCH MORE ADVANTAGEOUS than 80'. Really, beyond a certain speed (say, 60') you won't notice a difference. This will silence the peanut gallery, and let the monk reign supreme in oddly high move speeds.

You should still specify what type of bonus to movement speed this is.


Keen Sense: Clarified that it only trumps the simplest of illusions (visuals without sound, sound without visuals) and doesn't work on phantasms, obviously.

Cool beans.


Daunt Foe: Added Fort save DC, tied to Wisdom - our new "casting" stat.

Cool beans, for flavor you might toss in something like flat-footed foes take a -5 penalty or the DC is instead 10+Level+Wis instead of 1/2lvl. As it allows a save I don't think it should still be a full round action, but thats just me.


Iaido: No damage multipliers, not counted as a charge. An optional SP payment turns this move from a cool DR bypasser into a good attack to couple with Power Attack.

Hah, Ki Smite! Keeps the awesome of the original and makes the new version even more awesome. Love it.
Did you change Master of Iaido? I don't recall the bit on SP, so I'm assuming you did, and that means you always Ki Smite.


Lightning Agility: All + to Dex abilities gone. They weren't in line with other published material at all, and it was a half-brained mechanic. I still encourage you to stack your dex if you can.

Noted. XP


Harrier: Range set to base speed, instead of 100+10/level. Makes more sense.

Much shorter range means this is now much easier to get away from, and therefore not as broken. I think there is a swift action Dimension Door somewhere (as in, without Quickened, probably the psychic version), would someone that Greater Teleports then uses such an ability (or just a Quickened Teleport) still get a Kensei right next to them or would the Kensei drop into where the original teleport ability took the caster? Disallowing the follow of the second teleport might be a manner in which to nerf this in the future if people still hate on it.


Mirrorsoul: Deflects spells instead of reflecting. You have other ways to kill casters, hopefully. And this came at a lower level, so shouldn't be as good as full spell turning.

No comment


Flurry: Changed into Quicker Than the Eye. Good for leap attacking, encourages Two handed fighting over TWF, but the damage bonus granted by Soulbond does the opposite. Your choice. Actually, I'd like to see someone crunch the numbers of THF vs TWF for this class.

Huh, I had never consider TWF, though thats mainly a function of my dislike for it. XD


Daunt Enemy: 1 target / level. Wis based save DC

Again, not sure if it needs the Full Round


Void: Now insta-ports you up to 10' which will make the attack miss. HOPEFULLY this writeup is a lot clearer. It feels clearer, and better, honestly. Less of a NO and more of a "Hah I'm too cool to be hit just yet - so mobile!"

Hmm... not entirely sure on the Abrupt Jaunt vs the Momentary Etherealness. Abrupt Jaunt means that you move out of the area of a lot of stuff, but sometimes its just plain useless. The 10ft in exchange for your Immediate is going to fall behind, fast. Fireball, centered on Kensei. (Well, maybe not fireball due to Evasion, but you get the picture) Though that having been said, the original would eventually peter out against some foes anyway, but not all. Maybe Immediate to move half land speed, but terrain slows as normal?


Deadly Rush: Turned into A Thousand Strikes. Hopefully clearer than that whole "line of effect" thing. You invinci-dash, you hit everything you passed once. No charging, no damage multipliers.

"At the end of this movement, she rolls one attack and applies it to any creature that was within her reach at any point along her movement."
The current wording means you attack one guy. Swap Any out for Each and you get...
"At the end of this movement, she rolls one attack and applies it to each creature that was within her reach at any point along her movement."
Dance of Death. Also, planeshifts is not the best term either, as it denotes full on planar travel. Shifts is better, and specify whether or not AoOs are allowed against her (and if so, note how etherealness interacts with them)


Gale: Moved from 16th level to 10th level. It came way too late, hopefully now it will see use. Considering bumping it back further.

Hmm... hadn't thought about that, but yeah, having a ranged attack form around 10 seems about right.


Soulshadow: Cleaned up. No magical items except soulbonded weapons, no warrior's spirits, no SP. Still pondering a 15th level feat that allows your soulshadow to have 1 SP on creation. I think I'll add it later. Compared to 8th level spells...

No comment.


Teach Soulbond: New ability. Amaze the locals by building unlimited almost free magical weapons for everyone you know! Take that, T3.

Hah! I approve. Flavorful and doesn't break the game too badly, though it can quickly make a peasant army into Badass Normals if they have the xp. I might suggest adding a note that allows the to benefit from your Earth spirit if you have it.


Kiai: Has SP cost.

Kay. >.> I didn't notice that it didn't in the first place. XD I didn't pay much attention to the Holy Word the first dozen times through the Kensei. >.> Woo, status conditions.

I just noticed something. All of the DCs have been a static number plus stat mods. While this follows the general spell save DC, I'd suggest using half Kensei Level as a variable DC instead of a static equal to half level when the ability is gained. Casters have a much easier time boosting DCs that you do, and 1/2lvl isn't game breaking. DC 20+Wis at 20th level is going to be just as easy as 12+Wis for a 20th level cleric. And thats assuming they don't have fear immunity.
Cause really, the Mind-Affecting tag means that after a certain point people laugh when you use it unless its against mooks. The fear tag means that after a much earlier point even the mooks laugh at you if they have a commander of any sort.


Divine Wind: Grants Ref saving throw for half damage, like the spells most similar to it. Also drastically reduced it's AoE from 100+10/level radius to 10/level radius. That should still hit pretty much everything you want it to, without making this power a good way to clear out a city.

Could I convince you to make it a different type of saving throw? Psions can change the damage type of most energy powers to fortitude and thereby get around Evasion. Though force damage isn't easily resisted (okay, so like never resisted except for exceptions) a 19th level ability should have a little more oomph, and even then most things except mooks are going to save anyway, and if the mooks have evasion those are the kind of mooks I want in my army. XD


- Warrior's Spirit revisions -
Earth - Now gives an additional 'floating' EWP while you have it.
Water - Please let me know if this isn't clear. Position no longer matters to a kensei trying to flank, so long as a kensei and an ally both threaten the enemy, it's as if they are on opposite sides.
Fire - Sorry for the nerf. Now you can tank, though? *wince*
Wind - Hey, sort of a buff. That other ability wasn't really useful, and would only make DMs mad. This one is more palpable.
Void - Ok, shameless buff, I don't know why. Void should be your default choice at mid to high levels, if using SP abilities as often as possible is your thing. Plus, the health crush thing has that "style factor" I wanted. What a gamble!

Earth: Why?
Water: Look at the Island of Blades stance from Tome of Battle. Does exactly what you describe so copypasta.
Fire: Now its no longer the default spirit to take for any kensei with a brain, which is a good thing. Again, its another 1st level Stance from ToB, so cool.
Wind: I liked the other one better for the flavor, but it was also a little silly. No spellcaster would use the same spell on you more than once in most cases and it would mean that in melee you'd be immune to full attacks. This version though... eh, I'm not sure I like it. It just doesn't seem quite right. Maybe something like the Black Pearl of Doubt stance or just Stat to AC and Saves against Foe to give it a little scalability.
Void: An amusing ability to say the least. However, no one will use it in combat unless they have a contingency or a cleric with a readied action or intent to make use of crazy meditation shenanigans at really high levels (possibly with a belt of battle before then). For more use I'd suggest allowing you to burn... say 15-20hp for each 1SP gained.


Spirit Points: Now = Level + Dex mod + Wis mod.

Cool beans. On average I think this will mean only slightly more SPs


Meditate: Clarified that only one power may be used per break of med. Nice catch, by the way.

Cool beans.


Aura of No Body, Banishment, Farseeing, Quickened Farseeing, No Form: All DCs tied to Wis now.

Cool beans.


Soulbound Weapons: No longer total Str mod + Dex mod, only use one or the other.

What? I missed anything about this the first time around, and was probably why I was building Shadow Blade into the characters because I felt it needed it, and oh look... XD
You may want to make that easier to find, like put it after the table with its own heading and boldness. I was sooooo confused when I saw this in the changelog.
I would suggest the either/or early on and then both near the mid-late game and I don't think it would imbalance anything.

Also, and excuse me if you've answered this but I'm also on towards up too late again, but its been bugging me. Why did you even include the XP costs at all? That personal power flowing into something else to get fantastic benefits, or just because you wanted to and it felt right, or what?
I can see XP costs on the Gate-esque Solar/Balor/PitFiend summoning, but on your weapons and main class feature?
I'm just curious, as in those situations where you get stripped of your gear and placed in a cell (can be common in some games, and a hilarious quirk of a Kensei Harrier) you burned the XP for nothing and if you do it again on a lesser weapon just to have an effective fighting implement then you probably broke the bond with a previous one and double-lose the XP.
It just feels like you're asking to eventually fall behind the level curve. I could see a gold expenditure with like ointments and sacrifices to ancestors and spirit shrines, but XP costs can just be grating on some players.

As an aside, for the two Kensei I built (and have since retracted) the DMs waived the XP cost as already paid and regained where applicable, and one game was one of those 'wake stripped bare in chains' scenarios.

Now that I've gone through all of that, allow me to direct you to one of my favorite projects here on Giants, the D&D Heroic Edition by Chambers.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162365
His monk, look at Mystic Insight and Flury of Blows for starters, and then the rest of it if you feel like it. Amazing Monk fix, and I'm not saying you should copy anything, but I keep referencing a 'handful of monk fixes' so I figured I'd point you to the one I'm comparing your Kensei against.

[Valameer]

I'll explain. This class build really started as a thought experiment based on a thread about building a T1 melee class. A lot of people gave suggestions on what the class would have to be able to do to get into T1, but they were all vague on the overall scope of what a T1 "martial melee" class would look like.

The thread I'm talking about itself was the offspring of a bunch of other threads that much about how much more powerful a wizard is than a fighter at *every level*. One of the things that came up fairly often was how certain spells like gate and wish had XP costs to keep them balanced, as do item creation feats. The majority of posters seemed to concur that XP costs on abilities don't actually inhibit the wizard much, if at all. Since if you fall behind in levels, you gain more XP per encounter, and you end up catching up within a session or two.

I don't necessarily agree with this, but I wanted to use XP as an inhibitor on the kensei to keep as parallel to the wizard as I could.

However, in my games, I loathe tracking separate XP for each character, and tend to let everyone level up at the same time when it seems appropriate, while only giving a general nod to the XP charts in the DMG. So - really the decision wasn't for my benefit.

Before I even completed the kensei, the thread that spawned her was pretty much caput. The theorists didn't seem to give a hoot about the class when I posted it, and generally just popped by to tell me how un-T1 it was. But I don't want to make a warrior that can actually do what T1 is accepted to be able to do, it turns out. I was more interested in giving T1 a run for it's money without being unfair.

The people that have been actually taking to the class are the ones that find it fun to play, or interesting in style. So now that's my focus. And XP costs aren't fun to play, or interesting in style. So I would like a way to replace them reasonably. And that's where I'm stumped.

If it were a GP cost, I either make it scale with level (it gets more expensive to raise the dead as you level up?) or I make it a base fee that will probably be staggering early on, and pocket change later on. Maybe the trick is to make it have a time cost, but those can screw up play too. I've played a wizard many times who couldn't spare a day or two to scribble a few more spells in his book - it sucks.

Maybe no cost is the way to go? I have no clue. I have the rest of the revision-of-the-revision done, and I guess I'll post it in a sec - but I didn't touch the XP costs.

I want to. But I want to think up a clever mechanic for it that makes it taxing to be constantly soulburning without taking the kensei out of the game or giving him unnecessary paperwork.

[Tacitus]

Honestly, a cost of time is plenty massive in many types of games. 24 hours of staring at an item and doing nothing else before it becomes cool means that you miss an entire adventuring day, and if the hobgoblin horde is slowly rolling across the valley you probably don't have the time the waste. You wake up naked without your spirit and have to escape from captivity you're not going to have the time to sit down and focus on that chair leg to make it an awesome chair leg of doom.

I suggest against 8 or fewer hours as they can just meditate anyway, and therefore just do it while people are sleeping. 8 is meaningless, 24 is a cost. 48 is a heft cost. 7 days is a heavy burden.

At first this may seem like the major drawbacks of spirit points and whatnot are now suddenly gone, but not so much. Its still a finite resource, compared to the Tier3 Tome of Battle classes that can potentially murder face all day long and never run out of arm swinging.

Random sidenote I caught while scrolling through the Soulbound weapons, without the Dexterity bonuses on the class the DC 28 Dexterity Check at 14th level to break force effects is pretty much only a 5% or lower chance for an unoptimized character. Assuming 18 starting dex, 3 stat points, and a +6 item thats only a +8 dex mod. Maybe grant 1/2level as a bonus to Dex checks and Dex based skill checks somewhere along the line? Or if thats too much, Wis to Dex based stuff?

For a frame of reference, after 10th level (or when available) a Kensei picks up a Thought Bottle and spend 500xp to fill it. He then dismisses his spirit and soulburns his weapons, probably gaining something cool for it. He then cultivates a new spirit and soulbind two new weapons. What should cost up to 150xp/level only costs 500 from that point on, so if the XP costs stay people are only going to circumvent them anyway.

However, there isn't really a whole lot you can do to put up some sort of cost like that without making it an annoying little bit of paperwork or making it too large to even consider bothering with. A GP cost is not a terribly good thing as you'd have to continuously pay it for soulburning your weapons and that just turns the class into a gold eating machine after a certain point.

So really, all you have is time.

[Valameer]

Kensei v.1.1.1

Patch Notes

Hit Die: Lowered from d10 to d8. The kensei isn't particularly hardy, but it more about mitigating damage than absorbing it.

Light Armor Proficiency: Removed in light of new AC calculation.

Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Added one choice in Weapon Proficiencies.

Esoteric Style: New ability. Allows the kensei to rely on Dex instead of strength right from level 1.

AC Bonus: Pulled from the defense bonus chart NineThePuma cited. Great stuff. +1 AC / level might work for Star Wars Saga Edition, but there's no similar mechanic in 3.5, so it was out of place.

Foe: Finally changed it to 1/encounter, like I had wanted to do all along. I didn't think 3.5 did /encounter abilities... then I remembered the barbarian's rage. My bad.

Roll Like a Wave: New ability. At level 2 you have a chance of rolling with a hit. I want the kensei to have active mitigations and options. Needs playtesting though - I hope the extra rolling won't become a chore.

Unstoppable: Now grants immunity to fear, pulled from Unwavering Resolve. A full-round action to activate, and thereafter gives it's effect for a few rounds. So now those effects eat up a full round and a spirit point - similar to a caster with the same ability.

Unwavering Resolve: Removed.

Mettle: Added to replace unwavering resolve. Handles the same problem in a more graceful (less cheesy) way.

Save DCs: All streamlined to the formula 10 + 1/2 level + Wis mod. Tacitus is right, the abilities would otherwise fall far behind shortly after the kensei gained them.

Daunt Foe: No longer a fear effect. Still mind-affecting. Standard action, and will daze for a number of rounds, allowing a save to break free each round. Daunt's range was lowered to 10'/level as opposed to 100' +10'/level.

Soulbond: Moved the +to hit and +to damage rule to the soulbond ability, instead of couching it in some flavour text under soulbound weapons (no idea why I listed it there to begin with).

Daunt Enemy: Got the same treatment as Daunt Foe, above.

Void: Immediate action to move up to half your speed, instead of 10'. Stresses the kensei's emphasis on mobility.

A Thousand Strikes: Wording cleaned up. Thanks Tacitus.

Divine Wind: Now also stuns for one round. Fort save to negate stunning, but damage gets through either way. I figure force damage usually cannot be mitigated by evasion, so having this tied to reflex made it too weak.

-Warrior's Spirit-
Earth Circle: Incomplete right now as the XP mechanic is up in the air. Pulled the EWP from this ability until I figure out how good it is going to be.

Water Circle: Instead of doubling the amount healed by meditation, this ability now quarters the time required. Makes it a better build choice for a dungeon delver that needs survivability. Clarified the ez-mode flanking.

Fire Circle: Added a difficult terrain aura around the kensei, allowing him to lock down an opponent. Before, there was nothing keeping the enemy from easily moving away from the kensei every round. Now you really can tank - whether the rest of the class has been built to tank is questionable though.

Wind Circle: Bonus to AC and Saves is = to half your Dex bonus now, allowing this feature to scale. Also added a way to increase your save DCs, for the more "caster" type of kensei.

Void Circle: Health Crush regulated to 3d6 damage taken per SP returned. Probably more useful for just grabbing a point here or there when you absolutely need it, or semi-abusable with a good healer around.

Break Force: Now that Dex isn't so buffed, the DC has been lowered from 28 to a more reasonable 20.

-Forgot these last time, so I'll add them here-
Feat: Master of Iaido: Now allows Iaido to be a charge, and iaido gains the benefit of the spirit point activation without costing the SP.

Feat: Master of Blades: Against your foe, you get pounce, but lose your entire dodge bonus, which coupled with the normal charging penalty, will probably throw your AC into the dumpster for a round.

Feat: Whirlwind: Instead of making Deadly Rush better, this adds Wisdom to damage on A Thousand Cuts.


With every step this class is getting more streamlined and playable. It's still mighty powerful, but a lot of that power is in it's mitigation defense - which makes it a different sort of build from most.

I have two concerns with the current write-up. 1) The XP costs may need a revision, so I'm looking at simpler alternatives. 2) The class might be too good a dipping class now. Although it finally feels like a kensei should at level 1 (not a 13 AC, high dex with no way to use it, fragile frontliner) - I feel like 4 extra AC would be too good for any unarmored, non-caster build to pass up. Especially coupled with the super-weapon finesse, good BAB and good saves.

This is where I would want to put in "A kensei that stops being a kensei is no longer a kensei." But no one enjoys that sort of limitation. I could also push back some of these abilities to level 3 or further, but that would just make the kensei once again unfun to play for the first 2 levels. Hm.

[Tacitus]

I'm seeing the Kensei like this. Dexterity becomes your physical prowess and Wisdom becomes your Spiritual power. I'm liking it.

Esoteric Style should include the unarmored caveat.

Not a big fan of the defense bonus way of working it. The +4 Dodge AC makes it way way too dip-able, even though it only works unarmored. Dodge stacks with everything. I still advocate the Monk AC bonus model for this purpose.

The Half dex mod to AC and Saves from the Wind spirit doesn't feel right to me, but switching it over to Wisdom might start the shift over to a wisdom based class, which isn't really the intent. I do like the the half-dex to DCs though, but as this evolves it kinda seems like Wind and Void should be reversed. From my point of view Void should be all about spiritual power and one-ness with the universe and that sort of blending between the Physical (Dex) and Mental/Spiritual (Wisdom) is perfect for Void where Wind is all Mobility (and sometimes secrets, but eh) and the fact that Void is not a rapid dash sidestep kinda thing means that Wind just feels right.
The obvious problem with this is that Wind doesn't feel like spirit crushing unless its flavored drastically different, so I don't know what to tell you there. >.>

Riposte feat, reminds me of a cheaper Robilar's Gambit with a free 5ft step. Interesting.

On the multiclass restriction, I can see that for the Kensei given the amount of focus it would supposedly require, but I've seen people just flat out ignore those too often to put any support behind it.

[ForzaFiori]

Kensei v.1.1.1


This is where I would want to put in "A kensei that stops being a kensei is no longer a kensei." But no one enjoys that sort of limitation. I could also push back some of these abilities to level 3 or further, but that would just make the kensei once again unfun to play for the first 2 levels. Hm.

You could put it in, and add an ability later on that lets you ignore it. So they're forced to take at least a few levels of Kensei, which will prevent dipping without making them lock it in for a full 20 levels.

[Valameer]

v 1.1.2

Patch Notes
This patch cleaned up the hindering XP costs, and avoided making a complete dipping class without sacrificing the kensei's early abilities.

Esoteric Style: Not usable in armor.

AC Bonus: Now gives a limited bonus tied to your kensei level if you multiclass. After a few levels, this restricition probably wouldn't matter, so it will only discourage 1 or 2 level dips.

Warrior's Spirit: Costs 24 hours of meditation, plus 100 gp flat fee. Removed xp cost.

Soulbond: Costs 24 hours of meditation, plus 100 gp flat fee. Removed xp cost.

Soulflood: Removed xp cost, but halved the duration.

Teach Soulbond: Cleaned up parts that referred to an xp cost.

Divine Soul: Made a flat 1000 xp cost, like gate.

Warrior's Spirit-
Earth Circle: Now drastically reduces time, but has a gp cost (2000) that will add up at low through mid levels. Also added in a mechanic for a bonus attack that I had wanted to put somewhere on the class. This makes Earth Circle viable at lower levels, instead of being only for end-game cheese.

Soulbound Weapons-
Soulburn: Limited Wish: Cleaned up references to an xp cost.

Feats-
Riposte: Altered so that it bolsters the total defence action, instead of free AoO's every round.

Master of Souls: Added. Level 12 feats are here. This one gives your soulshadow a SP to use.

Master of Elemental Winds: Added. Change the damage type of gale to an energy type.

Well, folks. I think that's it. Barring any typos or general errata, I think I finally have the class where I want it to be. Powerful (but limited in endurance, compared to ToB) for a T3, some abilities that can push it into T2 later on, and perhaps the ability to challenge unsuspecting T1s.

Tacitus, I agree the Wind Circle really didn't end up feeling "windy", but I like how Void turned out. The Circles are obviously based loosely on Miyamoto Mushashi's Book of Five Rings. Earth is versatility in (weapon) options, Water is flexibility in tactics, Fire is pressing the advantage and using terrain wherever you can, Wind is understanding your enemy and finding his flaws, and Void is learning to perceive something you can't understand or comprehend, a way to master things without thinking about them.

I've received a request to add a little more fluff to the class, so I'll do that soon. But as for the crunch, this is it. Since people want to start playing the class, I think it would be a disservice to them to continue tweaking it unnecessarily.

I want to thank everyone who helped contribute to this class. This was my first big project posted online, and I keep feeling I overdid it in length. This single class could fill a handbook! And I would add more - but I should probably stop at some point, right?

Tacitus, I want to thank you especially. Your viewpoint kept me on track where I otherwise would have got lost - so I hope you'll get to enjoy playing a kensei (one that won't be retracted) in an upcoming game soon. I kept the AC bonus as is (it's roughly parallel to the one in the Monk fix) because I'd rather not tie physical defense too closely to Wis. So the Monk got 1 + Wis, the kensei gets a built in +4. The Monk's Wis probably scales more, giving it the edge later on, but the kensei probably has an earlier advantage since it's less MAD.

[Benly]

What do you think of an ACF giving monklike unarmed damage progression in exchange for exotic and martial proficiency? (Obviously, some powers take a bit of tweaking to work with unarmed strikes - iaido would require some fairly goofy hands-in-pockets shenanigans otherwise, and it would be necessary to be able to soulbond your unarmed strikes.)

[NineThePuma]

A monkish version sounds more like a Variant Class than an ACF.

[Tacitus]

Lyceios, it has been my pleasure to assist in the final stages of this class's formation and I will be doing everything in my power to get it playtested and report my findings.

On the Monk ACF/Variant... you really don't need it. Spiked Gauntlets or just Improved Unarmed Strike (and Superior if you think you need it) and you suddenly punch people to death. The only problem I see in Soulbinding your hands would be that your soul wouldn't be in two/three different places and therefore some of the mechanics don't look right. Though in that instance I could see using gems and depositing bits of your soul in them as the foci for the soulbinding. They'd be like mini-phylacteries!

The increased damage for unarmed strike as Monk wouldn't be necessary as Soulbinding nets you extra dice anyway. So what if its only 1d3x2 on a crit and not 2d10x2. The variable numbers on crits generally cease being important after a while, especially if you Iaido* with Master of Iaido with maxed out power attack and have both Dex and Str to damage.

*Iaido with a fist would more or less be a sucker punch. Iaido is mental presence and immediate reaction, not fancy sword tricks. Yeah, Iaido with a sword is how it is meant to be done, but in D&D land not everything translates properly. Iaido with a spiked chain? Iaido with a great hammer? Iaido with a ballista?

Okay, maybe not the ballista. Though how cool would that be? XD

[Benly]

On the Monk ACF/Variant... you really don't need it. Spiked Gauntlets or just Improved Unarmed Strike (and Superior if you think you need it) and you suddenly punch people to death.

Spiked gauntlets are a pretty unsatisfactory solution when you want to be the Kung Fu Dude. It's certainly not an absolutely necessary class feature if you want to punch dudes to death. The main reason I think it would be a good idea is because, first, wanting to play an unarmed variant seems like a fairly obvious thing to do with this class (especially if it's supposed to supercede the monk in high-tier games) and, following on that, I'm not a fan of making people spend feats on what is essentially a flavor decision rather than an actual mechanical benefit. There's no real advantage gained from making an unarmed kensei other than looking cool, so taxing players' actual feats (IUS at the minimum) in exchange for wanting to look cool is kind of a jerk move.

You're right that the class feature can be largely replicated by two feats, which is why I suggested trading off a class feature that can be largely replicated by two feats for it. :smallsmile:


My quick thought on the mechanics for it: the kensei's weapon proficiencies are replaced with the monk list, he gets Improved Unarmed Strike and monk unarmed damage progression, and the Returning soulbond feature is replaced with an equivalent to Versatile Unarmed Strike (select freely whether unarmed strikes deal slashing, piercing, or blunt damage). You do lose a bit of ranged advantage that would be gotten from Returning, but on the other hand the kensei has remarkable mobility anyway. It is a bit of a nerf, but it's not like Returning Spiked Gauntlets make a whole lot of sense anyway. :smallsmile:

[Tacitus]

Aye, and that reminds me of the other point I was going to make but forgot.

Alternate choices for Ghost Touch, Returning, and Brilliant Energy in general. I'd suggest either giving a small list of possible choices or giving a scaling bonus akin to the Monk fix by Chambers I linked where the player can chose the benefits. (Returning doesn't make sense on most weapons without Throwing added to it...)

Then again, its not like the current properties of the weapon are erased when soulbound, so ye probably shouldn't complain when getting free weapon properties. XD

[Valameer]

That reminds me: I hadn't intended to leave it at "returning" at all. I wanted to make it a "your weapon can jump into your hand from across the room" sort of thing - but I completely forgot about that very early on.

I'll consider opening options up there, like "Choose a magical weapon property worth no more than +1, etc." Instead of the factory-made default soulbound weapons that I have now.

Also, Benly, I like the idea of an ACF for unarmed kensei. Another half-baked idea I had when I started was keeping the class write-up open to unarmed builds. I lost that goal early on, but an ACF might be possible to bring it back.

Perhaps Iaido could use a touch up - as I have wording like "sheathed" in there when I intend for the ability to be usable with any weapon.

That's what I love about you guys, you've always got me thinking.

[Tacitus]

Ah, the Crystal of Return from Magic Item Compendium has Quick Draw as a Least ability, Move action to call to your hand w/in 30ft as a Lesser (and Quick Draw), and the Returning Property (and above) as Greater. The lesser version is 1000gp, so a Close range (or range that scales like Close until 10 then Medium then 15 its Long and at 20 Anywhere).

[pyrefiend]

Looks pretty good in general, although there is one little problem: that +4 dodge bonus at level one, while not overpowered at all, makes for a really good dip. Given that they get light armor, you might want to push that bonus ahead a bit, or start it off small and let it scale faster. Just my two cents.

[NineThePuma]

They don't get light armor anymore

[Tacitus]

Not only do they not get light armor but when multiclassing the Dodge bonus is limited to your Kensei level.

[Chambers]

(Bringing the conversation over here from here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178553&page=6))
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Divine Rank 0 Benefits (minus the speed and armor bonus)



Deities receive maximum hit points for each Hit Die.

Transmutation
A deity is immune to polymorphing, petrification, or any other attack that alters its form. Any shape-altering powers the deity might have work normally on itself.

Energy Drain, Ability Drain, Ability Damage
A deity is not subject to energy drain, ability drain, or ability damage.

Mind-Affecting Effects
A deity is immune to mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).

Divine Rank Damage Reduction
Quasi-deity (0) 10/epic

Energy Resistance
A deity has fire resistance of 5 + its divine rank.

Spell Resistance
A deity has spell resistance of 32 + its divine rank.

Immortality
All deities (even those of rank 0) are naturally immortal and cannot die from natural causes. Deities do not age, and they do not need to eat, sleep, or breathe. The only way for a deity to die is through special circumstances, usually by being slain in magical or physical combat. Deities of rank 1 or higher are not subject to death from massive damage.


Even though these lines reference 'deity' or 'deities', I'm pretty sure they apply to Divine Rank 0 deities as well. My reasoning for this is the first part of the Divine Ranks section:

Divine Ranks
Each deity has a divine rank. A deity’s divine rank determines how much power the entity has.

Rank 0
Creatures of this rank are sometimes called quasi-deities or hero deities. Creatures that have a mortal and a deity as parents also fall into this category. These entities cannot grant spells, but are immortal and usually have one or more ability scores that are far above the norm for their species. They may have some worshipers. Ordinary mortals do not have a divine rank of 0. They lack a divine rank altogether.

So deities with Divine Rank 0 are still deities in terms of the rules, even though sometimes they are referred to as quasi-deities at times, such as the Damage Reduction list. This is also supported by the line:


Immortality
All deities (even those of rank 0) are naturally immortal and cannot die from natural causes.

Instead of referring to deities and quasi-deities, they say deities and include those with Divine Rank 0.

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So. The point of all this is to say that I think Divine Rank 0 is overpowered as a base class ability, even the 20th level capstone. :smallsmile:

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Edit:

Tactitus, can you repost your reply to the above here too? I didn't know the class got a bunch of these abilities already.

[Valameer]

Yeah, by level 20, the kensei has a lot of that stuff already - which I know is kinda unsettling at first glance.

First the kensei gains these abilities through meditation - and usually they are only usable in meditation (which ties you down/prevents attack). Once the kensei hits Zen at 19th level, though, it's a new ball game. I'd say 19th is where the kensei gets really crazy. But, compared to T1 full casters (that this class is supposed to chase) who hit that crazy level at level 17 if not sooner, I don't know if it's too terrible. Genesis alone is probably superior to or at least more abusable than Divine Rank 0. And Divine Rank 0 isn't off the table for many other classes at that level.

But - DMs shouldn't be forced to allow the kensei to become a deity. I can change the wording so that it will require an ambiguous "quest" to activate. That leaves it more in the DMs hands.

[ForzaFiori]

Just a small nitpick, the bonus damage a soulbound weapon gets isn't on the table for the weapon, though it is listed beneath it.

[Valameer]

Whoops, the Soulbond Weapon table was malfunctioning this whole time. Good catch, Forza.

Fixed.

[Critical]

First of all, it seems to be a great class for those high power campaigns and I like it a lot. :smallbiggrin:

Second, Iaijutsu Focus (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/3.5_L5R_Skills) (originally in Oriental Adventures D&D setting) isn't on the class skill list... Why? It seems damn appropriate.

[Tacitus]

Iaido essentially replicates the intended effects of the Iaijutsu Focus skill, at least by my interpretation. Combining Iaido, the Master of Iaido feat, and Iaijutsu Focus skill might get a wee bit out of hand. Every Iaido would trigger Iaijutsu Focus and at 6th level you'd get the 1d6 without fail at max ranks and no optimization or 3d6 with some optimization all the way up to a cap of 4d6 or 6d6 on top of +Wis+2 to hit a FF AC and +6 damage, probably with added power attack and as these effects scale up it'd get into some pretty heavy ubercharger shenanigans.

Yes, give melee nice things, but don't break said things. Besides, if the Iaijutsu Focus is really needed that badly just go for a level of Factotum or somesuch. I personally just don't feel its necessary.*

*Though I have gestalted a 6th level Kensei with a homebrew Rogue upgrade for SA dice and Int to AC. It got silly.