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View Full Version : Fist of Earth and Sky [Catapult Discipline, VARIOUS ACRONYMS]



Eldan
2013-01-10, 02:39 PM
"How would you rather face a dragon or giant? With a sword, from thirty feet away? Or with a catapult and four good engineers, from half a mile away? I know what my answer is to that."

Fist of Earth and Sky

Most disciplines deal with one man and his weapon. But there are as many disciplines out there as there are ways to wage war. The Fist of Earth and Sky was a discipline developed not by warriors, but by siege engineers for siege engineers. It is thought at a few select martial academies throughout the world, but involves not training of the body, but of the mind. It's adherents learn about parabolas, angles, acceleration and weather, instead of tendons, bones and muscles, and about how to lead a team of engineers.

The favoured weapon of the Fist of Earth and Sky is the light catapult or heavy catapult. Unlike other disciplines, it can only be used with those weapons and none other. Its associated skill is Profession (Siege Engineer).

A short definition of terms:

Aim check: A check of base attack bonus, intelligence modifier, weather modifier and range increment modifier against a set DC, usually 15, to hit the right square.

Evasion check: a reflex DC, usually 15, made to only take half the primary damage from a catapult.

Primary damage: damage dealt depending on the size of the catapult, to all creatures in the target square.

Scatter damage: damage dealt by some strikes and specialized ammunition, to targets within a certain radius of the landing ball. Unless mentioned otherwise, this is piercing and slashing damage.


Special catapult ammunition:

Over the years, alchemists, mages and engineers have developed a variety of specialized catapult ammunition, to make this deadly tool of destruction even deadlier.

Alchemical meta ball: These balls overcome the damage reduction of creatures vulnerable to either cold iron or silver, depending on their compsition.

Flameball: a hollow clay sphere filled with alchemical fire, these balls have their primary damage reduced to 1d6, but deal 5d6 points of fire scatter damage within 15 feet.

Lead ball: these balls are considerably heavier than normal catapult balls. They have half the range increment of normal catapult balls, but deal an additional 2d6 damage (for light catapults) or 3d6 damage (for heavy catapults).

Scatterball: these balls have their damage halved to 3d6/2d6 damage, but also deal 1d6 points of scatter damage within 10 feet.

Spellball: these balls can store a single melee touch or burst spell cast on them by a spellcaster for up to ten minutes, which is then cast either on each creature which suffers primary damage (touch spells) or on the square of impact (burst spells).

Eldan
2013-01-10, 02:41 PM
[reserved for maneuver descriptions]

Morph Bark
2013-01-10, 02:48 PM
*prepares (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCoekGTBEoo&t=13s)*