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Thurbane
2011-02-03, 08:57 PM
Hey all, just wondering what your experiences with class (and other) adaptations are? The famous Unarmed Swordsage, Arcane Swordsage, divine variant of the Anima Mage etc.

Which have you used in your games, and how did you find them? I’m assuming Unarmed Swordsage is one of the more popular ones. Do you generally find DMs in your games allow these adaptations, or is it on a case-by-case basis? Do DMs ban adaptations outright?

Cheers - T

AslanCross
2011-02-03, 09:22 PM
I allow most adaptations thanks to me running games in Eberron. As such, a lot of the default fluff in splatbooks has to be adapted anyway.

I've used unarmed swordsage as a base for enemy mooks. I simply gave them the complete Monk unarmed strike feature: Stacking unarmed strike progression, Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat, and yes, proficiency with unarmed strikes. :smallsigh: Arcane Swordsage gets a "lol, no" however.

Other adaptations I use/allow:
-Ordained Champion for any religion with a martial bent. As such, in Eberron, the Silver Flame, Dol Arrah, Dol Dorn, and the Mockery may have Ordained Champions. Tiamat and the Lord of Blades works as well.
-Ruby Knight Vindicator: I've allowed these for Tiamat and the Mockery. For Tiamat, I called them "Knights of Five Sorrows." No idea what to call them for the Mockery, though.

true_shinken
2011-02-04, 06:17 AM
While not official adaptations, I have some in my current game. A Shiba Protector adapted as a user of a special meditation technique, Cyran Avengers adapted as an elite hunter force (enemy region swapped for favored enemy) and Otherwordly adapted as a weaker bloodbound to outsiders than being a planetouched.

Psyren
2011-02-04, 06:50 AM
Hey all, just wondering what your experiences with class (and other) adaptations are? The famous Unarmed Swordsage, Arcane Swordsage, divine variant of the Anima Mage etc.

Did my Anima Priest build get this idea in your head? :smallwink:

Are ACFs part of this discussion as well, or just adaptations? e.g. Mystic Ranger, Soulbound Weapon Psywar, Dungeoncrasher Fighter, Feat Rogue etc.

Thurbane
2011-02-04, 07:07 AM
Did my Anima Priest build get this idea in your head? :smallwink:
It did, actually. :smallbiggrin:

Until recently, in another thread about Anima Mages, I'd never noticed the divine adaptation before...

FMArthur
2011-02-04, 08:51 AM
Ur-Priests have an adaptation where they can be warshippers of dead gods, which I find to be far more interesting and believable than a guy who steals spells from the gods.

true_shinken
2011-02-04, 09:06 AM
Ur-Priests have an adaptation where they can be warshippers of dead gods, which I find to be far more interesting and believable than a guy who steals spells from the gods.

Damn dead gods and their warships! :smallbiggrin:

FMArthur
2011-02-04, 09:08 AM
Damn dead gods and their warships! :smallbiggrin:

Nonono, War Shippers. Some wars just have that twinkle in their eye when they look over at other wars. The fans just know the two are gonna get involved.

Psyren
2011-02-04, 09:10 AM
Some of my favorite adaptations:

- baby-eating Necrocarnates can be turned into fluffy good Vivicarnates.
- Daggerspell Mage can be made psionic. (Daggermind :smallamused:)
- RKV does not have to worship Wee Jas.
- RSoP does not have to worship Pelor. (New god must have Sun domain however.)
- Child of Night has a fluff adaptation for Illusionists to transform themselves slowly into living images.
- Master of Shadow lets you swap the shadow elemental for another type, and tweak its abilities to fit the theme (e.g. a Master of Earth would get an earth elemental that gains Con instead of Dex.) This makes it awesome for, say, Shugenja.
- Shadowsmith can form weapons out of Force or Light instead, and change the abilities it gains. (e.g. Shadow Striking can be changed to Ghost Touch.)
- Eldritch Disciple can be modified to use Wild Shape instead of Turn Undead.

(Can you tell I read ToM a lot)

mint
2011-02-04, 09:18 AM
I used the arcane swordsage as a boss once. For some reason it didn't strike me how crazy that could've turned out.
You'd need to give so many parameters when giving it to a player that it would just feel kind of lame.
The arcane swordsage was part of a trio with an unarmed swordsage and a druid with maneuvers and a bunch of lions.
Since they were tailored for a particular occasion they worked out fine.

The unarmed swordsage turned out to be the most dramatic battle. This adaption feels solid, both mechanically and as a concept.
My players were the most scared of the arcane swordsage.
Some of that was that I gave him some mean SoS spells. Most may have been because he had been impersonating a cute and harmless pastry chef (who was suspiciously buff). They'd found him bound and gagged in a pantry a few sessions before they fought him. I had led my players to believe that he had been stashed to set up an ambush on the PCs etc. Apparently the long con is scary.




I played a druid with casting fully based on CHA. It was fun flavor but I don't know what it altered the class that much.

true_shinken
2011-02-04, 09:19 AM
- Shadowsmith can form weapons out of Force or Light instead, and change the abilities it gains. (e.g. Shadow Striking can be changed to Ghost Touch.)
Force Smith actually sounds pretty powerful.

Psyren
2011-02-04, 09:21 AM
Force Smith actually sounds pretty powerful.

Instant awesome, just add Riverine