Cheesy74
2011-09-17, 12:15 AM
Tempest
[photo needed]
TBA stuff for personal use:
Slashing: Improve first-level ability
Even-level utility abilities [major project]
The whirling slices of a vortex, the manifold stings of a wasp hive, or the crushing blow of a falling rock. Such vicious descriptions are rarely associated with the delicate style of two-weapon fighting. However, some schools of combat have begun teaching a much more martial style of two-weapon fighting to its students, something that emphasizes form and effectiveness and makes two-weapon combat a deadly force rather than an auxiliary to other skills. These new students, known as the tempests, have revolutionized combat, surpassing their two-handed peers and pioneering new skills with this new way of approaching battle.
Adventures: Tempests typically adventure for a personal motivation such as fulfilling a duty, redeeming past wrongs, or simply paying the month's rent. Very rarely do they adventure for some unifying purpose such as practicing their combat ability.
Characteristics: Tempests wield a pair of weapons of their specialized type, quickly becoming a deadly, nigh-magical force in close range, but rarely threatening foes out of their reach. Depending on their chosen style, their tactics can emphasize brute force, arcing blows, or lightning-fast strikes.
Alignment: Tempests tend in no particular direction on the good and evil axis, but tend toward lawful alignments due to the discipline their techniques require. They can, however, be any alignment.
Religion: Tempests often revere gods of strength, valor, or tactics, but do not venerate any god in particular.
Background: Most tempests are formally trained in a military school, be it in a royal training camp, a private academy, or otherwise, and learn their abilities from an even more skillful trainer. However, there are rare pioneers who create their weapon styles by pure intuition and experimentation. These tempests are typically less bound by form and convention and tend to be in less official roles in society.
Races: Tempests are found in all races, even those less suited to martial endeavour, though their race may predispose them to certain styles. Hobgoblins and their savage kin hold many masters of the vicious bludgeoning style, while elven swordmasters are well-known for their slashing tempests. Even the smaller races, such as gnomes and halflings, have many skilled users of the vicious piercing school among them.
Other Classes: Tempests work well with any class able to adapt to a combat strategy, and are especially fond of fighters and rangers, often having trained in the same academies as them. They have mild disdain for more intuitive classes like warlocks, seeing them as undisciplined and unpracticed in their techniques.
Role: Tempests, regardless of the role they choose, are equipped to be highly mobile skirmishing combatants. They are at their best when they can move among enemies, dispatching and controlling as many of them as they can with their unique abilities. Due to their mobile, quick natures, they are also most effective against groups rather than single targets.
GAME RULE INFORMATION:
Abilities: A high dexterity, while not necessary for their two-weapon fighting, helps shore up a tempest's otherwise weak AC and synergizes well with feats such as Combat Reflexes, which are extremely useful to tempests. As melee combatants, they can benefit well from a high strength and constitution. Intelligence helps with a tempest's typically strong repertoire of skills, but they have little use for wisdom or charisma.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Dice: d8.
Starting Age: As Fighter.
Starting Gold: As Rogue.
Class Skills: Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str) Knowledge (History) (Int), Knowledge (Local) (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), Use Rope (Dex)
Skill Points at 1st Level: (6+Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6+Int modifier
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1st|
+0|
+0|
+2|
+0|Weapon Style, Two-Weapon Fighting
2nd|
+1|
+0|
+3|
+0|Ambidexterity 1, Combatant's Insight +1d6
3rd|
+2|
+1|
+3|
+1|Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Combatant's Insight +2d6
4th|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+1|Mobility, Ambidexterity 2
5th|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+1|Improved Weapon Style, Combatant's Insight +3d6
6th|
+4|
+2|
+5|
+2|Master Tumbler
7th|
+5|
+2|
+5|
+2|Combatant's Insight +4d6
8th|
+6/+1|
+2|
+6|
+2|Spring Attack
9th|
+6/+1|
+3|
+6|
+3|Combatant's Insight +5d6
10th|
+7/+2|
+3|
+7|
+3|Mastered Weapon Style
11th|
+8/+3|
+3|
+7|
+3|Combatant's Insight +6d6
12th|
+9/+4|
+4|
+8|
+4|Bounding Assault
13th|
+9/+4|
+4|
+8|
+4|Combatant's Insight +7d6
14th|
+10/+5|
+4|
+9|
+4|
15th|
+11/+6/+1|
+5|
+9|
+5|Pioneering Weapon Style, Combatant's Insight +8d6
16th|
+12/+7/+2|
+5|
+10|
+5|Rapid Blitz
17th|
+12/+7/+2|
+5|
+10|
+5|Combatant's Insight +9d6
18th|
+13/+8/+3|
+6|
+11|
+6|
19th|
+14/+9/+4|
+6|
+11|
+6|Combatant's Insight +10d6
20th|
+15/+10/+5|
+6|
+12|
+6|Ascended Weapon Style, Whirlwind Dance[/table]
Class Features:
All the following are Class Features for the Tempest.
Armor and Weapon Proficiencies: Tempests are proficient with the use of all simple weapons and all light or one-handed martial weapons as well as with light armor.
Weapon Style (Ex): At first level, the Tempest chooses the type of weapon he will use in his unique combat style. He must choose between piercing, bludgeoning, and slashing weapons. He gains none of his Weapon Style benefits when not using his chosen type of weapon. Once he has made this decision, it cannot be changed. At first level, he gains his first taste of the style he has chosen.
Bludgeoning: Both the Tempest's weapons are considered to be held in the main hand for the purposes of bonus damage from high strength. In addition, they can be considered either light or one-handed weapons, whichever is most advantageous at the time. He gains the Power Attack feat as a bonus feat.
Piercing: The Tempest can make a quick flurry of strikes, gaining an extra attack but taking a -2 penalty to all other attacks in the round.
Slashing: The Tempest receives Cleave as a bonus feat and a +2 to attack and damage rolls made as a result of Cleave.
Ambidexterity (Ex): Tempests are so extensively trained in two-weapon combat that they are better balanced than most, using their weapons as counterweights. They reduce the penalties from two-weapon fighting by the listed amount.
Combatant's Insight (Ex): The Tempest's skill develops not just in accuracy and technique, but in power. As they train, they gain ways to deal increased damage within their school's techniques. They can deal damage up to the listed value, increased in the ways listed below.
Bludgeoning: The Tempest's strength can be exerted more effectively than by most brutes. He can use the Power Attack feat to exchange 1 point of attack bonus for 1d6 extra damage up to the listed value. They can still trade additional points of attack bonus up to their base attack bonus, but this is done at the normal one-to-one ratio.
Piercing: The Tempest's assault opens wounds and tears apart armor, causing further attacks to deal an additional 1d6 damage for every prior successful attack made that round, up to the listed value.
Slashing: The Tempest makes a single whirling strike to an unprotected area of a foe, dealing additional damage equal to the listed amount but sacrificing their ability to hit an area with that attack. This extra damage can only be dealt to a given foe once per round.
Improved Weapon Style (Ex): At fifth level, the Tempest's skill with his weapons has advanced considerably, and he begins to truly epitomize his chosen weapons' style. He gains one of the following abilities, depending on his chosen style.
Bludgeoning: The Tempest's strikes are powerful enough to knock foes off balance. Whenever a foe is hit by a Tempest's attack, they must make a Fortitude save (DC 10+the Tempest's strength modifier+the weapon's enhancement bonus) or be dazed for 1 round.
Piercing: The Tempest moves with incredible speed and viciousness in combat. He gains an extra attack with his off hand weapon at a -5 penalty. He gains the Pounce ability and is able to make a full attack at the end of a charge.
Slashing: The tempest's attacks become sweeping strikes. Instead of a single foe, each attack a tempest makes can target any two adjacent squares the tempest threatens. He makes a single attack roll to attack all enemies in the threatened area.
Master Tumbler (Ex): When making a tumble check, the Tempest can now travel his full movement speed with a single action rather than half his speed with no penalty.
Mastered Weapon Style (Ex): At tenth level, the Tempest has thoroughly mastered his chosen weapon style and begins to perform incredible feats with his weaponry. He gains one of the following abilities depending on his chosen weapon style.
Bludgeoning: The Tempest gains the Knockback feat as a bonus feat, even if he does not meet the prerequisites. His strikes ignore damage reduction if it can be pierced by any special material.
Piercing: The Tempest gains an extra attack with his main hand weapon at a -5 penalty. He can make one additional attack during a Spring Attack, Bounding Assault, Rapid Blitz, or Whirlwind Dance.
Slashing: The Tempest's attacks now target three adjacent threatened squares instead of two. Foes hit with the tempest's weapons more than once in a round have their wounds torn open, dealing additional damage equal to double their weapon's physical damage.
Pioneering Weapon Style (Ex): By fifteenth level, the tempest has surpassed all known teachings in his weapon style and has begun creating his own techniques. He gains one of the following abilities depending on his chosen weapon style.
Bludgeoning: The tempest can now choose to treat any of his attacks as an Awesome Blow (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsterFeats.htm) with no penalty to its attack roll. It remains an attack action rather than a standard action.
Piercing: The tempest gains an extra attack with his off hand weapon at a -10 penalty. In addition, the tempest begins to twist his blades as they strike, causing their wounds to bleed. The tempest's attacks deal a stacking 1 bleed damage per round with each successful hit. This damage stops when the victim is the recipient of any form of magical healing.
Slashing: The tempest's attacks now hit all enemies in a half-circle with a radius of the tempest's reach. Their rending attacks are now so severe that they harm the enemy's internal organs, causing them to buckle in pain. Any creature that takes damage from the tempest's rending attack must make a fortitude save (DC 10+1/2 class level+dexterity modifier) or be stunned for 1 round.
Ascended Weapon Style (Ex): The tempest has reached the pinnacle of their art and becomes a living weapon, their very swings striking fear into opponents' hearts. They gain one of the following abilities, depending on their chosen path.
Bludgeoning: The tempest learns to make unstoppable overhead blows against vulnerable enemies. Any successful attack against a prone foe automatically threatens a critical hit. The tempest gains a +4 bonus to confirm this critical hit. If they roll a critical threat on the first attack roll, the attack is instead automatically a confirmed critical. These attacks also deal an additional 4d6 damage whether or not they critically hit, and this damage is multiplied as if physical damage by a successful critical hit.
Piercing: The tempest gains an additional attack with their main hand weapon at a -10 penalty. In addition, they may make two additional attacks instead of one during a Spring Attack, Bounding Assault, Rapid Blitz, or Whirlwind Dance. Finally, the wounds they leave become so vicious that they wound the very core of their victims. Every successful attack against an enemy forces a fortitude save (DC 10+dexterity modifier) versus 2 con damage. The DC increases by 2 for every prior time in the round that the target enemy was hit by one of the tempest's attacks. A given enemy can only fail this save once per round, but can be forced to save as many times as the tempest hits them.
Slashing: The tempest's attacks strike all enemies in the tempest's reach rather than only a half-circle. Any attack made against an enemy stunned by the tempest's rending attack automatically threatens a critical hit. If the first attack roll already threatens a critical hit, the attack is instead automatically a confirmed critical hit. In addition, attacks against these targets deal an additional 4d6 damage, and this damage is multiplied as if physical damage by successful critical hits.
Whirlwind Dance (Ex): As Rapid Blitz, except the Tempest can make four attacks during a movement instead of three.
[photo needed]
TBA stuff for personal use:
Slashing: Improve first-level ability
Even-level utility abilities [major project]
The whirling slices of a vortex, the manifold stings of a wasp hive, or the crushing blow of a falling rock. Such vicious descriptions are rarely associated with the delicate style of two-weapon fighting. However, some schools of combat have begun teaching a much more martial style of two-weapon fighting to its students, something that emphasizes form and effectiveness and makes two-weapon combat a deadly force rather than an auxiliary to other skills. These new students, known as the tempests, have revolutionized combat, surpassing their two-handed peers and pioneering new skills with this new way of approaching battle.
Adventures: Tempests typically adventure for a personal motivation such as fulfilling a duty, redeeming past wrongs, or simply paying the month's rent. Very rarely do they adventure for some unifying purpose such as practicing their combat ability.
Characteristics: Tempests wield a pair of weapons of their specialized type, quickly becoming a deadly, nigh-magical force in close range, but rarely threatening foes out of their reach. Depending on their chosen style, their tactics can emphasize brute force, arcing blows, or lightning-fast strikes.
Alignment: Tempests tend in no particular direction on the good and evil axis, but tend toward lawful alignments due to the discipline their techniques require. They can, however, be any alignment.
Religion: Tempests often revere gods of strength, valor, or tactics, but do not venerate any god in particular.
Background: Most tempests are formally trained in a military school, be it in a royal training camp, a private academy, or otherwise, and learn their abilities from an even more skillful trainer. However, there are rare pioneers who create their weapon styles by pure intuition and experimentation. These tempests are typically less bound by form and convention and tend to be in less official roles in society.
Races: Tempests are found in all races, even those less suited to martial endeavour, though their race may predispose them to certain styles. Hobgoblins and their savage kin hold many masters of the vicious bludgeoning style, while elven swordmasters are well-known for their slashing tempests. Even the smaller races, such as gnomes and halflings, have many skilled users of the vicious piercing school among them.
Other Classes: Tempests work well with any class able to adapt to a combat strategy, and are especially fond of fighters and rangers, often having trained in the same academies as them. They have mild disdain for more intuitive classes like warlocks, seeing them as undisciplined and unpracticed in their techniques.
Role: Tempests, regardless of the role they choose, are equipped to be highly mobile skirmishing combatants. They are at their best when they can move among enemies, dispatching and controlling as many of them as they can with their unique abilities. Due to their mobile, quick natures, they are also most effective against groups rather than single targets.
GAME RULE INFORMATION:
Abilities: A high dexterity, while not necessary for their two-weapon fighting, helps shore up a tempest's otherwise weak AC and synergizes well with feats such as Combat Reflexes, which are extremely useful to tempests. As melee combatants, they can benefit well from a high strength and constitution. Intelligence helps with a tempest's typically strong repertoire of skills, but they have little use for wisdom or charisma.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Dice: d8.
Starting Age: As Fighter.
Starting Gold: As Rogue.
Class Skills: Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str) Knowledge (History) (Int), Knowledge (Local) (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), Use Rope (Dex)
Skill Points at 1st Level: (6+Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6+Int modifier
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1st|
+0|
+0|
+2|
+0|Weapon Style, Two-Weapon Fighting
2nd|
+1|
+0|
+3|
+0|Ambidexterity 1, Combatant's Insight +1d6
3rd|
+2|
+1|
+3|
+1|Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Combatant's Insight +2d6
4th|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+1|Mobility, Ambidexterity 2
5th|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+1|Improved Weapon Style, Combatant's Insight +3d6
6th|
+4|
+2|
+5|
+2|Master Tumbler
7th|
+5|
+2|
+5|
+2|Combatant's Insight +4d6
8th|
+6/+1|
+2|
+6|
+2|Spring Attack
9th|
+6/+1|
+3|
+6|
+3|Combatant's Insight +5d6
10th|
+7/+2|
+3|
+7|
+3|Mastered Weapon Style
11th|
+8/+3|
+3|
+7|
+3|Combatant's Insight +6d6
12th|
+9/+4|
+4|
+8|
+4|Bounding Assault
13th|
+9/+4|
+4|
+8|
+4|Combatant's Insight +7d6
14th|
+10/+5|
+4|
+9|
+4|
15th|
+11/+6/+1|
+5|
+9|
+5|Pioneering Weapon Style, Combatant's Insight +8d6
16th|
+12/+7/+2|
+5|
+10|
+5|Rapid Blitz
17th|
+12/+7/+2|
+5|
+10|
+5|Combatant's Insight +9d6
18th|
+13/+8/+3|
+6|
+11|
+6|
19th|
+14/+9/+4|
+6|
+11|
+6|Combatant's Insight +10d6
20th|
+15/+10/+5|
+6|
+12|
+6|Ascended Weapon Style, Whirlwind Dance[/table]
Class Features:
All the following are Class Features for the Tempest.
Armor and Weapon Proficiencies: Tempests are proficient with the use of all simple weapons and all light or one-handed martial weapons as well as with light armor.
Weapon Style (Ex): At first level, the Tempest chooses the type of weapon he will use in his unique combat style. He must choose between piercing, bludgeoning, and slashing weapons. He gains none of his Weapon Style benefits when not using his chosen type of weapon. Once he has made this decision, it cannot be changed. At first level, he gains his first taste of the style he has chosen.
Bludgeoning: Both the Tempest's weapons are considered to be held in the main hand for the purposes of bonus damage from high strength. In addition, they can be considered either light or one-handed weapons, whichever is most advantageous at the time. He gains the Power Attack feat as a bonus feat.
Piercing: The Tempest can make a quick flurry of strikes, gaining an extra attack but taking a -2 penalty to all other attacks in the round.
Slashing: The Tempest receives Cleave as a bonus feat and a +2 to attack and damage rolls made as a result of Cleave.
Ambidexterity (Ex): Tempests are so extensively trained in two-weapon combat that they are better balanced than most, using their weapons as counterweights. They reduce the penalties from two-weapon fighting by the listed amount.
Combatant's Insight (Ex): The Tempest's skill develops not just in accuracy and technique, but in power. As they train, they gain ways to deal increased damage within their school's techniques. They can deal damage up to the listed value, increased in the ways listed below.
Bludgeoning: The Tempest's strength can be exerted more effectively than by most brutes. He can use the Power Attack feat to exchange 1 point of attack bonus for 1d6 extra damage up to the listed value. They can still trade additional points of attack bonus up to their base attack bonus, but this is done at the normal one-to-one ratio.
Piercing: The Tempest's assault opens wounds and tears apart armor, causing further attacks to deal an additional 1d6 damage for every prior successful attack made that round, up to the listed value.
Slashing: The Tempest makes a single whirling strike to an unprotected area of a foe, dealing additional damage equal to the listed amount but sacrificing their ability to hit an area with that attack. This extra damage can only be dealt to a given foe once per round.
Improved Weapon Style (Ex): At fifth level, the Tempest's skill with his weapons has advanced considerably, and he begins to truly epitomize his chosen weapons' style. He gains one of the following abilities, depending on his chosen style.
Bludgeoning: The Tempest's strikes are powerful enough to knock foes off balance. Whenever a foe is hit by a Tempest's attack, they must make a Fortitude save (DC 10+the Tempest's strength modifier+the weapon's enhancement bonus) or be dazed for 1 round.
Piercing: The Tempest moves with incredible speed and viciousness in combat. He gains an extra attack with his off hand weapon at a -5 penalty. He gains the Pounce ability and is able to make a full attack at the end of a charge.
Slashing: The tempest's attacks become sweeping strikes. Instead of a single foe, each attack a tempest makes can target any two adjacent squares the tempest threatens. He makes a single attack roll to attack all enemies in the threatened area.
Master Tumbler (Ex): When making a tumble check, the Tempest can now travel his full movement speed with a single action rather than half his speed with no penalty.
Mastered Weapon Style (Ex): At tenth level, the Tempest has thoroughly mastered his chosen weapon style and begins to perform incredible feats with his weaponry. He gains one of the following abilities depending on his chosen weapon style.
Bludgeoning: The Tempest gains the Knockback feat as a bonus feat, even if he does not meet the prerequisites. His strikes ignore damage reduction if it can be pierced by any special material.
Piercing: The Tempest gains an extra attack with his main hand weapon at a -5 penalty. He can make one additional attack during a Spring Attack, Bounding Assault, Rapid Blitz, or Whirlwind Dance.
Slashing: The Tempest's attacks now target three adjacent threatened squares instead of two. Foes hit with the tempest's weapons more than once in a round have their wounds torn open, dealing additional damage equal to double their weapon's physical damage.
Pioneering Weapon Style (Ex): By fifteenth level, the tempest has surpassed all known teachings in his weapon style and has begun creating his own techniques. He gains one of the following abilities depending on his chosen weapon style.
Bludgeoning: The tempest can now choose to treat any of his attacks as an Awesome Blow (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsterFeats.htm) with no penalty to its attack roll. It remains an attack action rather than a standard action.
Piercing: The tempest gains an extra attack with his off hand weapon at a -10 penalty. In addition, the tempest begins to twist his blades as they strike, causing their wounds to bleed. The tempest's attacks deal a stacking 1 bleed damage per round with each successful hit. This damage stops when the victim is the recipient of any form of magical healing.
Slashing: The tempest's attacks now hit all enemies in a half-circle with a radius of the tempest's reach. Their rending attacks are now so severe that they harm the enemy's internal organs, causing them to buckle in pain. Any creature that takes damage from the tempest's rending attack must make a fortitude save (DC 10+1/2 class level+dexterity modifier) or be stunned for 1 round.
Ascended Weapon Style (Ex): The tempest has reached the pinnacle of their art and becomes a living weapon, their very swings striking fear into opponents' hearts. They gain one of the following abilities, depending on their chosen path.
Bludgeoning: The tempest learns to make unstoppable overhead blows against vulnerable enemies. Any successful attack against a prone foe automatically threatens a critical hit. The tempest gains a +4 bonus to confirm this critical hit. If they roll a critical threat on the first attack roll, the attack is instead automatically a confirmed critical. These attacks also deal an additional 4d6 damage whether or not they critically hit, and this damage is multiplied as if physical damage by a successful critical hit.
Piercing: The tempest gains an additional attack with their main hand weapon at a -10 penalty. In addition, they may make two additional attacks instead of one during a Spring Attack, Bounding Assault, Rapid Blitz, or Whirlwind Dance. Finally, the wounds they leave become so vicious that they wound the very core of their victims. Every successful attack against an enemy forces a fortitude save (DC 10+dexterity modifier) versus 2 con damage. The DC increases by 2 for every prior time in the round that the target enemy was hit by one of the tempest's attacks. A given enemy can only fail this save once per round, but can be forced to save as many times as the tempest hits them.
Slashing: The tempest's attacks strike all enemies in the tempest's reach rather than only a half-circle. Any attack made against an enemy stunned by the tempest's rending attack automatically threatens a critical hit. If the first attack roll already threatens a critical hit, the attack is instead automatically a confirmed critical hit. In addition, attacks against these targets deal an additional 4d6 damage, and this damage is multiplied as if physical damage by successful critical hits.
Whirlwind Dance (Ex): As Rapid Blitz, except the Tempest can make four attacks during a movement instead of three.