crazydude369
2011-05-26, 03:43 AM
So I had this crazy idea for a face to face melee combatant that would only stick to the smaller weapons. This is what I came up with:
The Knife Fighter
Characteristics: While many legendary heroes are remembered for slaying fearsome beasts with their longswords and greataxes, fewer are those known for bringing down their enemies with nothing but a few well placed stabs and slices from a blade no longer than a few inches. It is this offbeat path that the knife fighter walks, using deadly precision and tact to defeat his (often larger) foes. While some sneakier types make use of smaller weapons while clinging to the shadows, knife fighters are capable of taking on opponents face to face, bringing them down with nothing more than superior skill.
Abilities: Dexterity affects both a knife fighter's accuracy and damage in melee, and helps improve his AC, as he's restricted to light armor. Constitution will help increase a knife fighter's hit points, something he'll need to stay in the front line of combat. Intelligence increases the save DC of his piercing strike ability.
Starting Age: As a fighter.
Starting Wealth: 4d4 X 10.
Hit Die: d8
The Knife Fighter
Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special
1st|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+0|Weapon Finesse, Dexterous Fighter, Piercing Strike 1/encounter for 1d4/round
2nd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+0|Point Blank Shot
3rd|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+1|Piercing Strike 2/encounter for 2d4/round
4th|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+1|Evasion, Combat Maneuvers
5th|
+5|
+4|
+4|
+1|Parrying Bonus, Improved Range 10ft.
6th|
+6/+1|
+5|
+5|
+2|Piercing Strike 3/encounter for 3d4/round
7th|
+7/+2|
+5|
+5|
+2|Deflect Arrows, Everything Bleeds (25%)
8th|
+8/+3|
+6|
+6|
+2|Improved Critical for 1st weapon, Armor Cutter 1
9th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+3|Piercing Strike 4/encounter for 4d4/round, Enhanced Combat Maneuvers
10th|
+10/+5|
+7|
+7|
+3|Improved Evasion, Improved Dexterous Fighter, Improved Range 20ft.
11th|
+11/+6/+1|
+7|
+7|
+3|Parrying Expert
12th|
+12/+7/+2|
+8|
+8|
+4|Piercing Strike 5/encounter for 5d4/round, Improved Critical for 2nd weapon
13th|
+13/+8/+3|
+8|
+8|
+4|Defensive Roll, Armor Cutter 2, Everything Bleeds (50%)
14th|
+14/+9/+4|
+9|
+9|
+4|Snatch Arrows, Expert Combat Maneuvers
15th|
+15/+10/+5|
+9|
+9|
+5|Piercing Strike 6/encounter for 6d4/round, Improved Range 30ft.
16th|
+16/+11/+6/+1|
+10|
+10|
+5|Double Improved Critical for 1st weapon
17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+10|
+5|Armor Cutter 3
18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+11|
+11|
+6|Piercing Strike 7/encounter for 7d4/round
19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+11|
+11|
+6|Everything Bleeds (75%)
20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+12|
+12|
+6|Double Improved Critical for 2nd weapon, Legendary Combat Maneuvers, Improved Range 40ft.
The knife fighter’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (local) (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Preform (Cha), Sleight of Hand (Dex), and Tumble (Dex).
Skill Points Per Level: 6 + Int modifier (X 4 at 1st level).
Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A knife fighter is proficient with the dagger, punching dagger, sickle, dart, throwing axe, kukri, short sword, kama, siangham, and sai. Knife fighters are proficient with light armor, but no shields. A knife fighter must be wielding one of these weapons in order to preform any class feature that involves attacking, unless otherwise noted. He also loses access to any class feature while wearing more than light armor or using a shield.
Weapon Finesse: A knife fighter gains Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat.
Dexterous Fighter(Ex): When wielding a knife fighter weapon in his main hand, a knife fighter adds his Dex modifier to his damage rolls. When wielding a knife fighter weapon in his off hand, he adds ½ of his Dex modifier to his damage rolls. This is in place of the normal Str modifier added to melee damage; a knife fighter does not add both his Str and Dex to his damage rolls. A knife fighter may choose to use his Str modifier instead (if he happens to have a higher Str than Dex, for instance). At tenth level, a knife fighter adds his Dex modifier plus ½ to damage rolls for knife fighter weapons in his main hand, and his entire Dex modifier to his off hand.
Piercing Strike (Ex): A knife fighter possesses the ability to strike his foes in a way that wounds them over time. Before making a melee attack with a knife fighter weapon, he may declare that it is a piercing strike. If the attack is successful, the struck target must make a fortitude save with a DC of 10 + ½ the knife fighter’s level + the knife fighter’s Int modifier. If failed, he will take additional damage each round based on the knife fighter’s level. The damaged target may continue to make fortitude saves each round until he succeeds, with the DC decreasing by 1 each round. This bleeding damage may also be stopped if the target receives any magical healing or someone preforms a heal check (of the same DC) on the target; doing so is a full round action that provokes attacks of opportunity. Any creature immune to critical hits is also immune to piercing strikes. A piercing strike may be made at a range of up to 30 feet. The knife fighter may initially use this ability once per encounter for an additional 1d4 points of damage done per round, and it increases in uses per encounter and d4s done by 1 at 3rd level, and at every 3 levels thereafter. If he is able to use this ability more than once per day, he may use it more than once on the same target with the effects stacking.
Point Blank Shot: At second level, a knife fighter gains the benefit of the Point Blank Shot feat when using a thrown knife fighter weapon.
Evasion (Ex): At fourth level and higher, a knife fighter can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If he makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. A helpless knife fighter does not gain the benefit of evasion.
Combat Maneuvers (Ex): At fourth level, a knife fighter selects one of three combat maneuvers to specialize in: tripping, disarming, or feinting.
If he selects tripping, he gains the Improved Trip feat, even if he lacks the normal prerequisites. In addition, he may use his Dex modifier on trip attempts instead of his Str modifier.
If he selects disarming, he gains the Improved Disarm feat, even if he lacks the normal prerequisites. In addition, he takes no penalty for disarming with a light weapon (including unarmed strikes).
If he selects feinting, he gains the Improved Feint feat, even if he lacks the normal prerequisites. In addition, he may now use his Dex modifier on the Bluff check required to feint instead of his Cha modifier.
Parrying Bonus (Ex): At fifth level, a knife fighter gains the ability to deflect incoming blows. While wielding a knife fighter weapon in his main hand, he may add half of his Dex modifier to his AC as a shield bonus.
Improved Range (Ex): At fifth level, a knife fighter’s range increments for all thrown knife fighter weapons increase by 10 feet. This bonus continues to increase by an additional 10 feet every 5 levels thereafter.
Deflect Arrows:At seventh level, a knife fighter gains the benefit of the Deflect Arrows feat while wielding a knife fighter weapon in his main hand, even if he lacks the normal prerequisites for this feat.
Everything Bleeds (Ex): A walking corpse has no beating heart, and a moving pile of slime has no veins, but every creature has its weak points. At seventh level, a knife fighter learns how to strike these points on even the most outlandish creatures. Against any opponent normally immune to critical hits, the knife fighter now has a 25% chance of still scoring a crit. This also allows the use of any other abilities normally unusable on creatures immune to critical hits, such as the knife fighter's piercing strike or a rogue's sneak attack (if they've multiclassed), using the same chance. This increases to a 50% chance at thirteenth level, and a 75% chance at nineteenth level. Any armor that has a chance to negate critical hits by a percentage lowers this ability by that percentage. So armor that has a 25% chance to negate crits would cause a nineteenth level knife fighter to have a 50% chance to score one, for example.
Armor Cutter (Ex): At eighth level, a knife fighter becomes skilled enough with his weapons to strike right through the chinks in his enemy’s armor; he may now ignore one point of an enemy’s armor bonus to AC when making attack rolls against them. This improves to two points at thirteenth level, and finally to three points at seventeenth level.
Improved Critical: At eighth level, a knife fighter gains the benefit of the Improved Critical feat for any one knife fighter weapon of his choosing. At twelfth level, he gains the benefit of the Improved Critical feat for a second knife fighter weapon of his choosing. At sixteenth level, the critical range for his first selected weapon doubles once more. At twentieth level, the critical range for his second selected weapon also doubles once more.
Enhanced Combat Maneuvers (Ex): At ninth level, a knife fighter’s selected maneuvering capabilities improve further.
If he selected tripping, he may now attempt ranged trips. To do this, the knife fighter makes a ranged touch attack with any thrown knife fighter weapon. If the attack is successful, it deals 1 damage and trips the target. The target cannot automatically attempt to trip the knife fighter on a failed attempt.
If he selected disarming, he may now attempt ranged disarms. This works just like a normal disarm attempt, except that the knife fighter makes a ranged attack with any thrown knife fighter weapon, and the target cannot automatically attempt to disarm the knife fighter on a failed attempt.
If he selected feinting, he may now feint against creatures at a range. This works like a normal feint, except that the knife fighter takes a -2 penalty to his Bluff check for each 10 feet of distance between him and his target, and may not feint at a range greater than 50 feet. If successful, the knife fighter can apply the benefits of the feint to his next attack with a thrown weapon.
Improved Evasion (Ex): This ability works like evasion, except that while the knife fighter still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks henceforth he takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless knife fighter does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.
Parrying Expert (Ex): At eleventh level, a knife fighter gains the ability to entirely negate certain hits in melee. If an enemy makes a melee attack against a knife fighter, before he knows the result of the roll, a knife fighter may choose to forgo his attack of opportunity for that round in order to make an opposed attack roll against the enemy. If the knife fighter’s result is equal to or higher than the enemy’s result, the hit is negated. If a knife fighter has multiple attacks of opportunity, such as from the Combat Reflexes feat, he may use this ability multiple times as well.
Defensive Roll (Ex): At thirteenth level, the knife fighter can roll with a potentially lethal blow to take less damage from it than he otherwise would. Once per day, when he would be reduced to 0 or fewer hit points by damage in combat (from a weapon or other blow, not a spell or special ability), the knife fighter can attempt to roll with the damage. To use this ability, the knife fighter must attempt a Reflex saving throw (DC = damage dealt). If the save succeeds, he takes only half damage from the blow; if it fails, he takes full damage. He must be aware of the attack and able to react to it in order to execute his defensive roll—if he is denied his Dexterity bonus to AC, he can’t use this ability. Since this effect would not normally allow a character to make a Reflex save for half damage, the knife fighter's evasion ability does not apply to the defensive roll.
Snatch Arrows: At fourteenth level, a knife fighter gains the benefit of the Snatch Arrows feat as long as he has one free hand, even if he lacks the normal prerequisites for this feat.
Expert Combat Maneuvers (Ex): At fourteenth level, a knife fighter becomes even more skilled with his selected maneuvering.
If he selected tripping, then all successful trips (including ranged trips) made by the knife fighter now also stun the target for one round.
If he selected disarming, then the knife fighter can now attack other enemies with disarmed weapons. Upon preforming a successful disarm on an enemy; he may immediately use the disarmed weapon as a thrown weapon to make a ranged attack against another enemy within range as a free action. If the disarmed weapon cannot normally be thrown, the knife fighter suffers the normal – 4 penalty, and he may only do this with a light,one-handed, or thrown weapon.
If he selected feinting, the knife fighter no longer takes any penalty for feinting against nonhumanoids or creatures of animal intelligence.
Legendary Combat Maneuvers (Ex): At twentieth level, a knife fighter becomes able to preform awe-inspiring stunts on the battlefield.
If he selected tripping, he may now preform the Long Sweep maneuver. Upon a successful melee trip attempt, the knife fighter may continue making trip attempts on all adjacent enemies; up to 2 + the knife fighter's Int modifier extra trips per attack, or until he fails. These extra trips are made with the same weapon and at the same bonus as the initial attack. All enemies tripped in this fashion are stunned for one round, and the knife fighter receives the free attack from the Improved Trip feat on all tripped enemies.
If he selected disarming, he may now preform the Joint Stab manuever. Every attack he preforms that hits is now also an automatic disarm. The target first takes damage, than makes the opposed roll for the disarm. If the disarm is successful, the target makes an immediate fortitude save with a DC equal to that of the knife fighter's piercing strike. If they fail, they are unable to hold a weapon or manipulate an item in the targeted hand. This includes any magic items that require manipulation to use. This makes it impossible to use a two-handed melee weapon; a ranged weapon requiring two hands (such as a bow) may be used at a -4 penalty. Any spell cast that requires somatic components has a 50% chance to fail if one hand has been affected this way, or a 75% chance if both hands have been. This affect lasts for the duration of the encounter.
If he selected feinting, he may now preform the Throat Slit maneuver. If a knife fighter preforms a successful feint against an enemy after studying them being engaged in melee for a number of rounds equal to 5 – the knife fighter’s Int modifier (minimum of 1 round), his next successful melee attack with a knife fighter weapon on that enemy is an automatic Coup De Grace. The enemy being studied can be engaged in melee with anyone, but must be within 30 feet of the knife fighter and able to be clearly observed. As long as his attention stays on that enemy, he may continue to use this ability each round, however every new Throat Slit requires its own successful feint. If he attacks any other enemy, or his focus is lost in any other way, the rounds of study are required again before using this ability.
The Knife Fighter
Characteristics: While many legendary heroes are remembered for slaying fearsome beasts with their longswords and greataxes, fewer are those known for bringing down their enemies with nothing but a few well placed stabs and slices from a blade no longer than a few inches. It is this offbeat path that the knife fighter walks, using deadly precision and tact to defeat his (often larger) foes. While some sneakier types make use of smaller weapons while clinging to the shadows, knife fighters are capable of taking on opponents face to face, bringing them down with nothing more than superior skill.
Abilities: Dexterity affects both a knife fighter's accuracy and damage in melee, and helps improve his AC, as he's restricted to light armor. Constitution will help increase a knife fighter's hit points, something he'll need to stay in the front line of combat. Intelligence increases the save DC of his piercing strike ability.
Starting Age: As a fighter.
Starting Wealth: 4d4 X 10.
Hit Die: d8
The Knife Fighter
Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special
1st|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+0|Weapon Finesse, Dexterous Fighter, Piercing Strike 1/encounter for 1d4/round
2nd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+0|Point Blank Shot
3rd|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+1|Piercing Strike 2/encounter for 2d4/round
4th|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+1|Evasion, Combat Maneuvers
5th|
+5|
+4|
+4|
+1|Parrying Bonus, Improved Range 10ft.
6th|
+6/+1|
+5|
+5|
+2|Piercing Strike 3/encounter for 3d4/round
7th|
+7/+2|
+5|
+5|
+2|Deflect Arrows, Everything Bleeds (25%)
8th|
+8/+3|
+6|
+6|
+2|Improved Critical for 1st weapon, Armor Cutter 1
9th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+3|Piercing Strike 4/encounter for 4d4/round, Enhanced Combat Maneuvers
10th|
+10/+5|
+7|
+7|
+3|Improved Evasion, Improved Dexterous Fighter, Improved Range 20ft.
11th|
+11/+6/+1|
+7|
+7|
+3|Parrying Expert
12th|
+12/+7/+2|
+8|
+8|
+4|Piercing Strike 5/encounter for 5d4/round, Improved Critical for 2nd weapon
13th|
+13/+8/+3|
+8|
+8|
+4|Defensive Roll, Armor Cutter 2, Everything Bleeds (50%)
14th|
+14/+9/+4|
+9|
+9|
+4|Snatch Arrows, Expert Combat Maneuvers
15th|
+15/+10/+5|
+9|
+9|
+5|Piercing Strike 6/encounter for 6d4/round, Improved Range 30ft.
16th|
+16/+11/+6/+1|
+10|
+10|
+5|Double Improved Critical for 1st weapon
17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+10|
+5|Armor Cutter 3
18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+11|
+11|
+6|Piercing Strike 7/encounter for 7d4/round
19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+11|
+11|
+6|Everything Bleeds (75%)
20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+12|
+12|
+6|Double Improved Critical for 2nd weapon, Legendary Combat Maneuvers, Improved Range 40ft.
The knife fighter’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (local) (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Preform (Cha), Sleight of Hand (Dex), and Tumble (Dex).
Skill Points Per Level: 6 + Int modifier (X 4 at 1st level).
Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A knife fighter is proficient with the dagger, punching dagger, sickle, dart, throwing axe, kukri, short sword, kama, siangham, and sai. Knife fighters are proficient with light armor, but no shields. A knife fighter must be wielding one of these weapons in order to preform any class feature that involves attacking, unless otherwise noted. He also loses access to any class feature while wearing more than light armor or using a shield.
Weapon Finesse: A knife fighter gains Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat.
Dexterous Fighter(Ex): When wielding a knife fighter weapon in his main hand, a knife fighter adds his Dex modifier to his damage rolls. When wielding a knife fighter weapon in his off hand, he adds ½ of his Dex modifier to his damage rolls. This is in place of the normal Str modifier added to melee damage; a knife fighter does not add both his Str and Dex to his damage rolls. A knife fighter may choose to use his Str modifier instead (if he happens to have a higher Str than Dex, for instance). At tenth level, a knife fighter adds his Dex modifier plus ½ to damage rolls for knife fighter weapons in his main hand, and his entire Dex modifier to his off hand.
Piercing Strike (Ex): A knife fighter possesses the ability to strike his foes in a way that wounds them over time. Before making a melee attack with a knife fighter weapon, he may declare that it is a piercing strike. If the attack is successful, the struck target must make a fortitude save with a DC of 10 + ½ the knife fighter’s level + the knife fighter’s Int modifier. If failed, he will take additional damage each round based on the knife fighter’s level. The damaged target may continue to make fortitude saves each round until he succeeds, with the DC decreasing by 1 each round. This bleeding damage may also be stopped if the target receives any magical healing or someone preforms a heal check (of the same DC) on the target; doing so is a full round action that provokes attacks of opportunity. Any creature immune to critical hits is also immune to piercing strikes. A piercing strike may be made at a range of up to 30 feet. The knife fighter may initially use this ability once per encounter for an additional 1d4 points of damage done per round, and it increases in uses per encounter and d4s done by 1 at 3rd level, and at every 3 levels thereafter. If he is able to use this ability more than once per day, he may use it more than once on the same target with the effects stacking.
Point Blank Shot: At second level, a knife fighter gains the benefit of the Point Blank Shot feat when using a thrown knife fighter weapon.
Evasion (Ex): At fourth level and higher, a knife fighter can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If he makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. A helpless knife fighter does not gain the benefit of evasion.
Combat Maneuvers (Ex): At fourth level, a knife fighter selects one of three combat maneuvers to specialize in: tripping, disarming, or feinting.
If he selects tripping, he gains the Improved Trip feat, even if he lacks the normal prerequisites. In addition, he may use his Dex modifier on trip attempts instead of his Str modifier.
If he selects disarming, he gains the Improved Disarm feat, even if he lacks the normal prerequisites. In addition, he takes no penalty for disarming with a light weapon (including unarmed strikes).
If he selects feinting, he gains the Improved Feint feat, even if he lacks the normal prerequisites. In addition, he may now use his Dex modifier on the Bluff check required to feint instead of his Cha modifier.
Parrying Bonus (Ex): At fifth level, a knife fighter gains the ability to deflect incoming blows. While wielding a knife fighter weapon in his main hand, he may add half of his Dex modifier to his AC as a shield bonus.
Improved Range (Ex): At fifth level, a knife fighter’s range increments for all thrown knife fighter weapons increase by 10 feet. This bonus continues to increase by an additional 10 feet every 5 levels thereafter.
Deflect Arrows:At seventh level, a knife fighter gains the benefit of the Deflect Arrows feat while wielding a knife fighter weapon in his main hand, even if he lacks the normal prerequisites for this feat.
Everything Bleeds (Ex): A walking corpse has no beating heart, and a moving pile of slime has no veins, but every creature has its weak points. At seventh level, a knife fighter learns how to strike these points on even the most outlandish creatures. Against any opponent normally immune to critical hits, the knife fighter now has a 25% chance of still scoring a crit. This also allows the use of any other abilities normally unusable on creatures immune to critical hits, such as the knife fighter's piercing strike or a rogue's sneak attack (if they've multiclassed), using the same chance. This increases to a 50% chance at thirteenth level, and a 75% chance at nineteenth level. Any armor that has a chance to negate critical hits by a percentage lowers this ability by that percentage. So armor that has a 25% chance to negate crits would cause a nineteenth level knife fighter to have a 50% chance to score one, for example.
Armor Cutter (Ex): At eighth level, a knife fighter becomes skilled enough with his weapons to strike right through the chinks in his enemy’s armor; he may now ignore one point of an enemy’s armor bonus to AC when making attack rolls against them. This improves to two points at thirteenth level, and finally to three points at seventeenth level.
Improved Critical: At eighth level, a knife fighter gains the benefit of the Improved Critical feat for any one knife fighter weapon of his choosing. At twelfth level, he gains the benefit of the Improved Critical feat for a second knife fighter weapon of his choosing. At sixteenth level, the critical range for his first selected weapon doubles once more. At twentieth level, the critical range for his second selected weapon also doubles once more.
Enhanced Combat Maneuvers (Ex): At ninth level, a knife fighter’s selected maneuvering capabilities improve further.
If he selected tripping, he may now attempt ranged trips. To do this, the knife fighter makes a ranged touch attack with any thrown knife fighter weapon. If the attack is successful, it deals 1 damage and trips the target. The target cannot automatically attempt to trip the knife fighter on a failed attempt.
If he selected disarming, he may now attempt ranged disarms. This works just like a normal disarm attempt, except that the knife fighter makes a ranged attack with any thrown knife fighter weapon, and the target cannot automatically attempt to disarm the knife fighter on a failed attempt.
If he selected feinting, he may now feint against creatures at a range. This works like a normal feint, except that the knife fighter takes a -2 penalty to his Bluff check for each 10 feet of distance between him and his target, and may not feint at a range greater than 50 feet. If successful, the knife fighter can apply the benefits of the feint to his next attack with a thrown weapon.
Improved Evasion (Ex): This ability works like evasion, except that while the knife fighter still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks henceforth he takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless knife fighter does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.
Parrying Expert (Ex): At eleventh level, a knife fighter gains the ability to entirely negate certain hits in melee. If an enemy makes a melee attack against a knife fighter, before he knows the result of the roll, a knife fighter may choose to forgo his attack of opportunity for that round in order to make an opposed attack roll against the enemy. If the knife fighter’s result is equal to or higher than the enemy’s result, the hit is negated. If a knife fighter has multiple attacks of opportunity, such as from the Combat Reflexes feat, he may use this ability multiple times as well.
Defensive Roll (Ex): At thirteenth level, the knife fighter can roll with a potentially lethal blow to take less damage from it than he otherwise would. Once per day, when he would be reduced to 0 or fewer hit points by damage in combat (from a weapon or other blow, not a spell or special ability), the knife fighter can attempt to roll with the damage. To use this ability, the knife fighter must attempt a Reflex saving throw (DC = damage dealt). If the save succeeds, he takes only half damage from the blow; if it fails, he takes full damage. He must be aware of the attack and able to react to it in order to execute his defensive roll—if he is denied his Dexterity bonus to AC, he can’t use this ability. Since this effect would not normally allow a character to make a Reflex save for half damage, the knife fighter's evasion ability does not apply to the defensive roll.
Snatch Arrows: At fourteenth level, a knife fighter gains the benefit of the Snatch Arrows feat as long as he has one free hand, even if he lacks the normal prerequisites for this feat.
Expert Combat Maneuvers (Ex): At fourteenth level, a knife fighter becomes even more skilled with his selected maneuvering.
If he selected tripping, then all successful trips (including ranged trips) made by the knife fighter now also stun the target for one round.
If he selected disarming, then the knife fighter can now attack other enemies with disarmed weapons. Upon preforming a successful disarm on an enemy; he may immediately use the disarmed weapon as a thrown weapon to make a ranged attack against another enemy within range as a free action. If the disarmed weapon cannot normally be thrown, the knife fighter suffers the normal – 4 penalty, and he may only do this with a light,one-handed, or thrown weapon.
If he selected feinting, the knife fighter no longer takes any penalty for feinting against nonhumanoids or creatures of animal intelligence.
Legendary Combat Maneuvers (Ex): At twentieth level, a knife fighter becomes able to preform awe-inspiring stunts on the battlefield.
If he selected tripping, he may now preform the Long Sweep maneuver. Upon a successful melee trip attempt, the knife fighter may continue making trip attempts on all adjacent enemies; up to 2 + the knife fighter's Int modifier extra trips per attack, or until he fails. These extra trips are made with the same weapon and at the same bonus as the initial attack. All enemies tripped in this fashion are stunned for one round, and the knife fighter receives the free attack from the Improved Trip feat on all tripped enemies.
If he selected disarming, he may now preform the Joint Stab manuever. Every attack he preforms that hits is now also an automatic disarm. The target first takes damage, than makes the opposed roll for the disarm. If the disarm is successful, the target makes an immediate fortitude save with a DC equal to that of the knife fighter's piercing strike. If they fail, they are unable to hold a weapon or manipulate an item in the targeted hand. This includes any magic items that require manipulation to use. This makes it impossible to use a two-handed melee weapon; a ranged weapon requiring two hands (such as a bow) may be used at a -4 penalty. Any spell cast that requires somatic components has a 50% chance to fail if one hand has been affected this way, or a 75% chance if both hands have been. This affect lasts for the duration of the encounter.
If he selected feinting, he may now preform the Throat Slit maneuver. If a knife fighter preforms a successful feint against an enemy after studying them being engaged in melee for a number of rounds equal to 5 – the knife fighter’s Int modifier (minimum of 1 round), his next successful melee attack with a knife fighter weapon on that enemy is an automatic Coup De Grace. The enemy being studied can be engaged in melee with anyone, but must be within 30 feet of the knife fighter and able to be clearly observed. As long as his attention stays on that enemy, he may continue to use this ability each round, however every new Throat Slit requires its own successful feint. If he attacks any other enemy, or his focus is lost in any other way, the rounds of study are required again before using this ability.