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Xefas
2011-02-05, 05:56 AM
The history of the Void Messiah discipline begins with an unlikely Crusader pledged to the congregation of Pelor. Even in his first life, he was a champion with few peers; an implacable tide of light as brilliant and unstoppable as the coming dawn, banishing the horrors of the night back to their fetid crypts with his passing. He was considered a master of the Stone Dragon and Golden Saint disciplines, and students came from far and wide to learn from him. Eventually, his superiors urged him to settle into a cloister and train the next generation of heroes, but he would have none of it. He would always proclaim that he was not yet done with his own growth; that he could not teach if he was still a student himself. They argued that he was the pinnacle of piousness and courage, a master of his craft; where had he to go from here?

Where indeed. This problem had long troubled the champion, and so it was that he turned his eyes to the powers of his greatest foes. In his time, he had fought countless zombies, wights, and ghouls. He had exorcised ghosts and spectres, and even dusted the occasional vampire. These had a strength in them - a perverse, wicked strength, but a strength that the champion had never known. And they were nothing compared to the Lich-Kings and the Deathknights he had become famous for vanquishing; they wielded arts honed over centuries that he knew he would never have as a mortal man. It was a simple by-product of his many adventures that he knew so much about the darkness of undeath; not intentional at all. And yet, it was too tempting now. The knowledge ate at him until he could stand it no longer, and so he delved into the blackest of arts.

Over time, it became increasingly apparent to the deacons and high priests that something had changed in their champion. He was quiet, and sallow, and would occasionally disappear on personal business, which was something he had never done before. The next time they requested he teach, he did not decline, though he always insisted that his training be in private, away from the monasteries and cloisters of the church. Many acolytes blossomed under his tutelage, and even many highly experienced paladins and crusaders flocked to these "secret" meetings, never disclosing what they saw.

In truth, the formation of the Black Nadir Concordat had begun: a blasphemous cult centered around combining the teachings of the Sun with the profanity of undeath. When, inevitably, the church of Pelor discovered the truth, they excommunicated their former-champion, sparing him from execution only because of his countless deeds in service to them prior. What they had not counted on, however, was that the champion's followers would prefer to stay with him, rather than remain in the grace of the church. And so it was that the Black Nadir descended into the Negative Energy Plane, forsaking the Prime entirely, so that they might plumb its depths for the forbidden knowledge that assuredly resided there. They would not be heard from in the Prime for a long while.

When the fallen champion re-emerged centuries later, it was under the title "The Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible", and he was unrecognizable from his former self. With him came prophets that proclaimed the word of the "Shining Path": a philosophy more than a religion, it claimed that the true and rightful state of the multiverse was to fall into the Void, a state of being that few outside of the Outer Planes are familiar with. For, when a mortal dies, their soul goes to the Outer Planes. When an Outsider dies, their soul merges with their own plane. The Void is a state that exists only for those who have had their soul "extinguished". It is an oblivion without life, unlife, or afterlife, and a fate that no creature, even the most depraved Lich or psychotic Demon Prince, wishes to experience.

Few mortals subscribed to the Shining Path, and so it became clear what the Bishop's plan would be. His servants, dark Crusaders and Deathknights, armed with the vile Void Messiah Discipline, went forth and ravaged the inhabitants of the world, snuffing out souls as easily as life. Capable warriors who pledged themselves to the Shining Path were spared, temporarily, and taught the ways of the Void Messiah.

Fortunately for the Prime, their holocaust was short-lived. They say the final battle lasted a full day - a single day in which archon and demon, and modron and slaad, and devil and eladrin fought shoulder-to-shoulder, along with the heroes of mankind. Together, they descended upon the Bishop's forces, and sent them careening into the afterlife, where the poor souls were consigned to the foulest reaches of the Lower Planes, which was still considered to be too good for the likes of them. To this day, it is a celebrated honor among the Pit Fiends and Pain Devils of Nessus to be allowed the pilgrimage into the Coil and partake in the violation of Hell's allotment of these damned betrayers, who would commit such an atrocity as removing souls from the multiverse. Even to the devils, who routinely grind, shred, and burn the souls of the wicked in their magics - that energy goes somewhere. It is not lost. The multiverse balances itself. Not so with the machinations of the Void.

As for the Bishop himself, he has evaded capture, and mostly faded into history. His citadel, the Hidden Tabernacle, is a fortress that resides in the Negative Energy Plane, but somehow aggressively avoids all means to find it.

Still, knowledge wishes to be free. There may still yet be ancient mummies, vampires, lichs, and deathknights on the Prime that retain a part or the whole of the Void Messiah discipline. Mortals they have taught may have taught other mortals, always taking great pains to hide the source of their powerful martial art.

The skill for Void Messiah is Knowledge (Religion) - an intuitive knowledge of Undeath and, eventually, the horror that lurks beyond the threshold of even that great blasphemy is the best tool for refining this style of fighting. Its associated weapons are unarmed attacks, natural weapons, spiked chains, kusari-gamas, armor spikes, spiked gauntlets, and clawed gauntlets (a variant of the spiked gauntlet that is identical in all ways, except that it deals slashing damage in place of piercing).

All Warblade, Swordsages, and Crusaders (and any homebrew initiating classes, at the DM's discretion) may learn the Void Messiah discipline, in one of two ways.

The first way requires you to forsake one Martial Discipline you would normally be allowed. You lose all maneuvers and stances of that discipline, and must replace them with others of the same level (preferably Void Messiah ones). You may also, at your discretion, lose its associated skill as a class skill and gain Knowledge (Religion) as a class skill, if you wish.

The second is to purchase the discipline as a feat. You gain access to it in addition to all of your other known disciplines, as well as Knowledge (Religion) as a class skill permanently, regardless of classes you choose in the future. As an extra bonus for using a feat slot, you treat all 1-handed weapons associated with this discipline as 2-handed for the purposes of determining the bonus damage granted by Power Attack.

Maneuver List
Level 1
Blood-Scenting Hunger (Stance) - You can feel the life receding from those around you.
Inescapable Iron Grip (Grapple) - Your grasp is as difficult to break as the grip of death itself.
Lunging Phantom Method (Boost) - Twist your body in ways that are impossible for a living creature, confounding your victim's defenses.
Ravaging Blow (Strike) - Pierce straight through your opponent's armor.

Level 2
Leaping Horror Approach (Strike) - Visit a whirlwind of death with the unnatural grace of the undead.
Shrouded Claw Attack (Strike) - Your foe sees his death coming, and submits to the inevitable.

Level 3
Hungry Ghost Form (Stance) - Forfeit your mind to the horrors beyond the grave.
Power-Reaping Prana (Counter) - Drink in the life of your dying victims.

Level 4
Foe-Blinding Jab (Strike) - Show your foe the emptiness that awaits them.
Unnatural Shambling Deftness (Counter) - Your inhuman gait is difficult to predict.

Level 5
Charm-Smothering Technique (Counter) - Sap the will to fight from your would-be adversaries.
Dark Messiah Form (Stance) - Break the mortal limitations on your capacity to murder.

Level 6
Bone-Shattering Blow (Strike) - Pulp the bones and organs that sustain the pathetic meat-puppet which houses your true foe.
Grievous Agony Attack (Strike) - Show your foes the zenith of pain their imperfect bodies can experience.
Illustrative Overkill Technique (Counter) - Set an example for the survivors.

Level 7
Consuming Entropy Strike (Strike) - Reveal the true, naked weakness of life.
Scuttling Apparition Defense (Counter) - Move as the immaterial specters and wraiths that haunt the living.

Level 8
Blood-Freezing Technique (Strike) - Open your victim's soul to the unknowable cold that awaits it.
Void Avatar Prana (Stance) - Become as impossible to fight as the non-existence of the Void.

Level 9
Soul-Flaying Strike (Strike) - End a soul.

Level 1
Blood-Scenting Hunter
Void Messiah (Stance)
Action: Swift
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance

The ravenous dead see the heartbeat of fresh victims; they smell the blood pumping through their veins; they hear the thrum of their soul.

While in this stance, you know the current hit point totals of all creatures within 60 feet. Because of this, you can tell if invisible or hidden creatures are within this area, but you cannot pinpoint their location, with a few degrees of exception. If a creature is currently at less than full hit points, you can tell what square they're in, though you take penalties as normal for not being able to see them if they are invisible. If a creature is at less than half hit points, you take no penalty for fighting them due to their being invisible.

This stance's benefits do not function against mindless undead, or constructs without the [Living] subtype.

Inescapable Iron Grip
Void Messiah (Counter)
Action: Immediate
Range: Personal
Target: You

It takes powerful miracles indeed to wrench one's self free of the sweet embrace of death. One must pray for a similar miracle to leave your implacable grasp.

You may activate this maneuver in response to one of the following:
Failing a Grapple Check
Failing a Climb Check
Failing a roll to prevent your weapon from being disarmed

By doing so, you may re-roll the appropriate check.

Lunging Phantom Method
Void Messiah (Boost)
Action: Swift
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Until end of turn

Popping sinew, torn muscles, rent bones - these are mortal concerns. For all of their bodies' complexity, they are woefully limited. In undeath, these limitations are removed, allowing its fearsome scions to bend and contort in ways that would otherwise be impossible.

When you activate this maneuver, you must choose one of two possible bonuses, each of which only last until the end of your turn. The first choice is a +8 bonus on Escape Artist checks, a +4 bonus on Tumble checks, and a +2 bonus on Reflex saves. The second is for all of your attacks to automatically be considered flanking, as your movements are too grotesquely awkward to defend against properly.

Ravaging Blow
Void Messiah (Strike)
Action: Standard
Range: Melee
Target: One creature

Though mortals like to put themselves at ease by pretending layers of non-living metal will somehow make up for the weakness of their very much living flesh, this is not the case. It is as if they recognize how pathetic they are, but their hubris will not allow them to simply die as befits such fragile creatures. The unholy might of death pierces all such pretensions.

You make a melee attack as normal. If you fail to hit your opponent's armor class, compare your result to their touch armor class instead. If that would have resulted in a hit, then roll damage as normal as if you had hit, but you only deal half of that amount.
Level 2
Leaping Horror Approach
Void Messiah (Strike)
Action: Full-Round
Range: Melee
Target: One or more creatures

Few mortals will ever experience the blood-lust of the undead. The exhilarating hatred and twisted fulfillment of a Wight squeezing the air from a victim's lungs, the arousing megalomania of a Vampire freshly fed, the simple, primal, all-consuming urge to feast on living flesh that drives a Zombie to kill.

When you activate this maneuver, you make a full-attack action as normal, but with one additional attack at your highest base attack bonus. However, except for the first attack, you must move between half your move speed and your full move speed in a straight line before making each attack, as you leap in a whirlwind of carnage, slaughtering as many victims as you can in your frenzy.

Shrouded Claw Attack
Void Messiah (Strike)
Action: Standard
Range: Melee
Target: One creature

There is something viscerally disturbing for a mortal fighting the undead. Aside from the claws, fangs, flesh-rotting diseases, and assortment of horrible curses, they also serve as a constant reminder of mortality. Most experience this feeling when a loved one dies, and they must stare into the cold eyes of a corpse so similar in appearance to their parent, or sibling, or child but so decidedly not. However, those corpses then lay in the ground, very politely not shambling towards you howling and brandishing blood-drenching talons. That makes a significant difference.

This maneuver has two variants, once activated.

The first allows you to make a normal melee attack, but the target sees their impending doom flash before their eyes a moment before your attack connects. They are consumed by the pointlessness of their continued living, and the inevitability of death, rendering them flat-footed towards your attack.

The second allows you to make an intimidate check. This doesn't effect the demoralizing use of Intimidate, which is already a standard action, but the check to change a target's attitude normally requires 1 minute, which this would reduce.
Level 3
Hungry Ghost Form
Void Messiah (Stance)
Prerequisite: One Void Messiah Maneuver
Action: Swift
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance

You take a wild and obviously inhuman stance as necrotic essence suffuses your muscles and tendons, allowing you to bend and stretch at obscene angles. A fine layer of negative energy floats delicately above your skin, giving you an obviously darker and deathly silhouette in anything brighter than total darkness.

Firstly, as a swift action once per round, you may activate an effect identical to Lunging Phantom Method, owing to your indefinitely warped physique. Secondly, the negative energy in your body allows you to directly interact with incorporeal undead as if they were corporeal. This includes bypassing the miss chance invoked from their being incorporeal. This works both ways, allowing them to strike you in their incorporeal form unhindered. Lastly, you are considered to have the Improved Unarmed Strike feat if you did not already.

Power-Reaping Prana
Void Messiah (Counter)
Prerequisite: One Void Messiah Maneuver
Action: Immediate
Range: Personal
Target: You

It is the nature of the undead to feast upon the living. Whether it be flesh, blood, sanity, age, or their very life-force, mortals offer a delicious meal to almost any bearer of unlife.

This maneuver may only be activated in response to a creature taking hit point damage within 60ft. You restore your own lost hit points by an amount equal to the number they lost, up to a maximum of your initiator level. Alternatively, if you would heal at least 5 points of damage, you may instead forgo that healing in place of removing all Fatigue and Exhaustion from yourself. This transfer is obvious, as a trail of scarlet energy is drawn forth from the wounded and drains into you.

This has no effect if the triggering creature is undead or a construct without the [Living] subtype.
Level 4
Foe-Blinding Jab
Void Messiah (Strike)
Prerequisite: Two Void Messiah Maneuvers
Action: Standard
Range: Melee
Target: One creature

Blessed are the blind, who glimpse the Void to come. Blessed are the deaf, who hear its wondrous calm.

You make a normal melee attack as part of this maneuver, specifically striking your opponent's eyes. Due to their unprotected nature, your attack bypasses damage reduction that is not the effect of a spell or spell-like ability. If you hit and deal damage, your target is also rendered permanently blind until his ravaged eyes are restored via "Remove Blindness/Deafness" or similar magic.

Unnatural Shambling Deftness
Void Messiah (Counter)
Prerequisite: Two Void Messiah Maneuvers
Action: Immediate
Range: Personal
Target: You

The undead need not be creatures of constant motion. They do not breathe, their muscles do not spasm, their heart does not beat. When they rest, they do so fully, unperturbed by the nuisances of life, and when they fight, they move with a vicious purpose. To those that are accustomed to fighting the living, the sudden shifts from perfect stillness to intense motion and back can be difficult to predict.

This maneuver may only be activated in response to you missing with a melee attack roll. You may immediately re-roll your attack roll, treating your opponent as being flat-footed for this one attack, as you shift your strike with seemingly no regard to inertia or the capabilities of a mortal body.
Level 5
Charm-Smothering Technique
Void Messiah (Counter)
Prerequisite: Two Void Messiah Maneuvers
Action: Immediate
Range: Any
Target: One creature

At some point, everyone will reach their limit and give in. There is no way to gain ground against the Void - no way to fight it. The march to Oblivion is inevitable, and its apostles need only show the world this truth to be victorious.

This maneuver may only be activated in response to a maneuver being activated, a spell or spell-like ability being cast, or a supernatural ability being used. The triggering ability must be targeting you, or including you in its area of effect, and the user must have either line of sight or line of effect to you, though you need not even be aware of their existence.

When the aggressor attempts to bring his powers to bear against you, he notices an inky darkness suffusing your being, a shroud so black that it seems to suck in all light and hope, existing as a hole in their field of perception. As their mind contemplates the meaning of the nothingness, even if only for a second, they find it difficult to continue.

A character using a maneuver against you must immediately expend another unexpended maneuver, or else have their action negated, expending their current maneuver as normal. A character using a spell must immediately sacrifice a spell of the same level or higher, or else have their action negated, losing their current spell as normal.

A character using a spell-like ability or supernatural ability with a set number of uses per day must sacrifice one of those additional uses, or else have their action negated, losing the original use as normal. If they have no remaining uses of that ability, they may substitute a use of a different spell-like or supernatural ability that has a set number of uses per day. If they have no more such uses, then their ability is negated without the possibility of avoiding it.

A character using a spell-like ability or supernatural ability that is continuous or at-will must submit to having their ability "shut off" and become unusable for 5 rounds, or else have their action negated (in the case of continuous abilities that require no action to activate, you are instead spared for 1 round).

Dark Messiah Stance
Void Messiah (Stance)
Prerequisite: Two Void Messiah Maneuvers
Action: Swift
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance

When you activate this stance, it becomes obvious to all the darkness that resides within you, as it burns forth, curling around your body in black wisps and wafting outwards in morose, gossamer strands. While you tap into this power, you cannot help but loathe life, as all of its flaws become so apparent to your senses. Even the most beautiful maiden is revealed as hideous, as you feel the grease churning in her skin, hear the bile bubbling from her liver, and see just how infuriating imperfectly spaced the pattern on her irises is. She must die; how can the rest of the world not see how much better it is without this useless wretch in it?

The first effect of this stance is detrimental. Any round in which you are not at least attempting a physical attack of some kind against a living creature (defined as any undead or construct without the [Living] subtype), you take a -8 penalty on all rolls from the extraordinary pain you feel at allowing life to continue to exist. This does not apply if you are not aware, in any way, of a living thing other than yourself.

However, when you actually are attacking, you take no iterative penalty for making multiple attacks in a round. This includes using multiple natural weapons at once, but does not include the penalty for wielding two (or more) weapons. In addition, every time you deal hit point damage to a living creature, you gain a number of hit points equal to your initiator level.

In this case, carrying around a sack of bunnies to murder in between battles is not only perfectly acceptable, but expected. You have created a tiny fissure of darkness beyond darkness within yourself, and it cannot help but reward you for every pain inflicted or life extinguished.
Level 6
Bone-Shattering Blow
Void Messiah (Strike)
Prerequisite: Two Void Messiah Maneuvers
Action: Standard
Range: Melee
Target: One creature

When the world slides into Oblivion, it will not be blissfully ignorant of its fate. The very land will scream in horror as it is dismembered and devoured piece by piece, impotent to stop its final death.

As part of this maneuver, you make a melee attack roll. If you succeed, you have struck one of your foe's limbs or vital organs, with various negative effects depending on which you part you choose.

If you strike an arm, that arm is rendered useless as its bones and musculature is disintegrated. The victim may not utilize objects with that arm, and somatic components are impossible.

If you strike a leg, the victim immediately falls prone as it withers and rots in the span of a moment. The best they can do to move is to crawl 5ft per round.

If you strike a vague torso blow, the victims organs have crumpled and broken, causing severe internal bleeding. They take one point of Constitution damage at the beginning of each of their turns.

These crippling effects are suffused with entropic power, and resist all attempts for mortal medicine to cure them. Only a Restoration spell, or something of similar or greater power can fix someone so inflicted.

Once you reach an initiator level of 15 or higher, this crippling effect becomes even more difficult to shrug off, requiring a Greater Restoration or more to cure.

Grievous Agony Attack
Void Messiah (Strike)
Prerequisite: Two Void Messiah Maneuvers
Action: Standard
Range: Melee
Target: One creature

Mortals suffer from imperfect design. Their cruel gods constructed them with the capacity for pain, supposedly as a way of "teaching" them. Touch a flame, feel pain, and learn not to touch the flame. For their own good, of course.

Oblivion will free them from this with one final lesson. Live, feel pain, and choose to live no longer.

As part of this maneuver, make a normal melee attack roll. If you succeed, the victim is inflicted with terrible pain, enforcing a -2 penalty on all attack rolls, damage rolls, skill checks, and saving throws. In addition, they must make a DC (10 + 1/2 your character level + your highest ability modifier) Fortitude save or be confused. Both effects last one round per initiator level.

Subsequent uses do not stack the penalty, but refresh the duration, and inflict greater debilities from further failed saving throws. If a character fails their Fortitude save against this maneuver a second time while they are already under its effects, the duration of their confused status extends to one day. A third extends it to a month. A fourth, a year. A fifth causes the victim to become permanently insane, requiring a Greater Restoration or stronger effect to cure their shattered mind.

This maneuver has no effect against undead, non-[Living] Constructs, or other beings that feel no pain.

Illustrative Overkill Technique
Void Messiah (Counter)
Prerequisite: Two Void Messiah Maneuvers
Action: Immediate
Range: Any
Target: One creature

When someone close to a mortal dies, they mourn, but they continue living through some fallacious defect in their brain that allows them to resist contemplation of their own eventually demise. The truth is hard to swallow.

This maneuver may only be activated when you drop a living creature to -10 hit points or below. All other creatures of the same type (Humanoid, Outsider, Animal, etc - subtype doesn't matter) that perceive the death in some way are immediately rendered shaken.

Deaths supplemented by this maneuver are always vicious and disgusting to behold, and always render the body "not whole" for the purposes of spells such as Raise Dead. Depending on the description, of which you are encouraged to embellish upon, there may indeed not even be enough usable bits for spells such as Resurrection (if, for instance, after pulling chunks of viscera out of their newly opened chest cavity, you gazed into their still-living eyes as their bones boiled away, their body was pulled inside out, and negative energy consumed the remains, leaving nothing but a puddle of faintly sizzling bile that will echo the victim's dying shrieks from now until the end of days).

The effects of this maneuver may progress someone who is already shaken into higher states of fear, but in that case, they are allowed a DC (10 + 1/2 your character level + your highest ability modifier) Will saving throw to resist.
Level 7
Consuming Entropy Strike
Void Messiah (Strike)
Prerequisite: Three Void Messiah Maneuvers
Action: Standard
Range: Melee
Target: One creature

Death cares nothing for the fragile baubles constructed by the living. All metal rusts, all walls crumbles, all stones erode, and all dust is eventually devoured by the march of Oblivion.

As part of this maneuver, you make a normal melee attack, dealing damage as normal if you hit. In addition, if you hit, or if you miss but would have hit your target's touch armor class, then you deliver a pulse of pure eroding essence into their armor and clothing.

If their armor and/or clothing is non-magical in nature, it shrivels and crumbles away into nothingness, leaving the victim bare. If their equipment is magical, then it is allowed a Fortitude save. Success prevents damage. Failure causes the magical equipment to become mangled, halving its base armor bonus and maximum dexterity bonus, and doubling its armor check penalty and the time required to don it. This persists until someone with the Craft (Armorsmithing) skill or similar has time to fix it.

This maneuver has the same effect when targeted at objects independent of attacks made against creatures, instantly destroying non-magical objects. If used on a large object, such as a stone wall, it merely burns a 3-foot diameter hole into it. Other magical objects that are mangled should have similar debilities, such as mangled weapons dealing half damage.

Against Constructs, or other creatures made of metal, this maneuver simply causes its associated attack to become a touch attack and ignore damage reduction.

Scuttling Apparition Defense
Void Messiah (Counter)
Prerequisite: Three Void Messiah Maneuvers
Action: Immediate
Range: Personal
Target: You

One of the most unsettling qualities of undead is how their features make it so obvious they are not of this world. Ghosts, Shadows, Wraiths, Specters, and similar creatures take it one step further, embodying the unknown that all things bound to life intrinsically fear. They are darkness and terror incarnate, unassailable by mortal men.

Until the beginning of your next turn, you gain one of two effects.

Either you become ethereal (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#etherealness), or you may merely become incorporeal (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#incorporealSubtype), depending on just how intangible you would prefer to be.
Level 8
Blood-Freezing Technique
Void Messiah (Strike)
Prerequisite: Three Void Messiah Maneuvers
Action: Standard
Range: Melee
Target: One creature

By placing a hand against your foe, you draw them close to Oblivion. They feel its gut-churning absence, as the warmth drains from their soul and their body freezes from its spiritual center outwards.

As part of this maneuver, make a normal melee attack. If you succeed, in lieu of the normal effects of your attack, your opponent takes 2d6 Dexterity damage. This bypasses any immunity to ability damage a creature has as a result of their creature type, so long as they have a soul in some form (the obvious example being Liches or Ghosts).

If this maneuver is used on a creature who has an effective dexterity score of 0, they die, and their soul is frozen, preventing it from moving on to the afterlife. As a result of this, they may not be returned to life unless the user of such an effect is in possession of the body in which the soul is frozen. However, because of the soul's preserved state, and the lack of planar boundaries it must be drawn across, a person so revived will not lose an Experience Level as a result of a Raise Dead spell or similar.

Void Avatar Prana
Void Messiah (Stance)
Prerequisite: Three Void Messiah Maneuvers
Action: Swift
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance

You assume an open stance, welcoming the embrace of Oblivion, as you declare yourself an enemy of all the cosmos. Your form frays at the edges for a moment, as if you had just been cut out of a picture of your surroundings, and then, slowly, you fall away into darkness, leaving only a silhouette in the fabric of reality. While "black" is the closest term mortals have for describing you, this is wholly inaccurate, and you gain no bonus to Hide checks from the stance, as even on a moonless night or in the deepest canyon of Nessus, it is easy to distinguish the gaping void amongst true darkness.

While in this stance, if an attack roll succeeds against you, you may make a Fortitude or Will save, whichever is higher, with a DC equal to the result of the attack roll. If you succeed, the attack's effects slide into Oblivion, leaving you untouched, as if the attack had never happened.

In addition, in this form, your merest touch deals 2d8 damage. This is added to all unarmed attacks you make, and is dealt to anyone whenever they make a successful grapple check or successful unarmed attack against you.
Level 9
Soul-Flaying Strike
Void Messiah (Strike)
Prerequisite: Four Void Messiah Maneuvers
Action: Standard
Range: Melee
Target: One creature

The destruction of a soul is a difficult thing. The first obyrinth that crawled forth from the primordial chaos, before space and time were concepts, had a soul fused with its being. When the gods formed all the mortal races of the world, they fashioned a cycle of life and death and afterlife, constructing these transient souls with all the divine power at their disposal, so that their creations would one day return to them and gain them power in the eternal planar struggle. It is the thing most precious in all the multiverse; the beauty that makes life and thought and existing worthwhile.

You will unravel all this. The apex maneuver of the Void Messiah seeks to draw forth and end a soul, sending it to the non-existent Void beyond and adjacent to all things.

As part of this maneuver, you make a normal melee attack. If you succeed and deal damage, you deal twice as much damage as you normally would (if it was a critical hit, normal multiplicative stacking rules apply - x2 to x3, x3 to x4 and so on).

If you drop an enemy to -10 hit points or below with this damage (or if you happen to be targeting a corpse that has a soul frozen inside of it from your Blood-Freezing Technique), you ensure they will never trouble you again. The planes tremble as your opponent's soul is blotted from existence in an instant. There is no sorrowful trail of light fading into darkness. No valiant explosion of life.

It is there. And then it isn't. And now it never will be.

Xefas
2011-02-05, 05:57 AM
For additional feats and such.

Zarthrax
2011-02-05, 10:52 PM
Subscribed for future awesomeness!

Primal Fury
2011-02-05, 11:46 PM
I look forward to seeing how you blend Dark Messiah and Hungry Ghost.

What comes next is obligatory, and does not reflect poorly on you at all.


Void Avatar Prana
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!! :furious:

Xefas
2011-02-08, 03:24 AM
Finished Level 1 and Level 2.

Back with my Adamantine Chef discipline, I experimented with maneuvers having both a combat and non-combat application. As you'll notice, I'm trying that out again.

It also made me wonder how many Storytellers would accept "Can I use Inescapable Iron Grip to grab the cliff-side and just not fall?" or "Can I reflexively use Inescapable Iron Grip to give my opponent a penalty on his disarm roll?" as a valid use of the charm, despite it clearly only being able to supplement a grapple attack. I know the only connection is fluff, but then I also wonder just how many people stick with Exalted for its stellar mechanics.

Xefas
2011-02-10, 02:29 AM
Finished Level 3, 4, and 5.

After this, I may have to do a more up-beat discipline. After the RAAAGE of Infernal Monster and the grimdark of this one, I'm kinda ready for Solar Hero, or at least Throne Shadow.

Zarthrax
2011-02-24, 07:17 PM
Heh, well, considering I already have a character who could really use this one, I appreciate what you've done so far, and look forward to the rest of it!


Edit: So yeah, the DM's agreed to check to allow the discipline if it's finished before the game starts. Characters are due by Tuesday. Not asking you to rush on it, but I will remain hopeful that this miraculously gets finished this weekend.... ;) lol

Xefas
2011-02-27, 10:08 PM
Heh, well, considering I already have a character who could really use this one, I appreciate what you've done so far, and look forward to the rest of it!


Edit: So yeah, the DM's agreed to check to allow the discipline if it's finished before the game starts. Characters are due by Tuesday. Not asking you to rush on it, but I will remain hopeful that this miraculously gets finished this weekend.... ;) lol

Alright, level 6 is done. I'll try to finish the last few levels either tonight or tomorrow.

EDIT: Mmkay, finished Level 7.

Amechra
2011-02-27, 11:45 PM
Interesting. Will need to give a thorough read-through, though.

This might actually be more vile than my little (unfinished) Unrepentant Hunter discipline, which can only be learned though Planar Touchstone, and includes a stance that lets you inflict nonlethal damage on Undead and Constructs, because nonlethal damage is pain...

And the capstone strike is very similar, only trapping the soul rather than destroying it. I can see both going together, somewhat.

Xefas
2011-03-01, 11:49 PM
And it's done. Iffy on some balance, but there it is.

Interesting. Will need to give a thorough read-through, though.

Cool, cool. Make sure to tell me what you think when you're done. :smallsmile:

absolmorph
2011-03-06, 01:46 AM
Finished Level 1 and Level 2.

Back with my Adamantine Chef discipline, I experimented with maneuvers having both a combat and non-combat application. As you'll notice, I'm trying that out again.

It also made me wonder how many Storytellers would accept "Can I use Inescapable Iron Grip to grab the cliff-side and just not fall?" or "Can I reflexively use Inescapable Iron Grip to give my opponent a penalty on his disarm roll?" as a valid use of the charm, despite it clearly only being able to supplement a grapple attack. I know the only connection is fluff, but then I also wonder just how many people stick with Exalted for its stellar mechanics.
"I grapple the cliff!"