sirpercival
2013-02-09, 07:24 PM
DEVOURING CRYPT
Stolen wholesale from TheDementedOne: Rules for Epic Martial Disciplines
Epic Martial Disciplines
Epic martial disciplines are the fighting styles of the most powerful warriors and swordsmen in all creation. Powerful secret techniques wielded by gods, archfiends, and epic heroes, they represent the absolute pinnacle of the Sublime Way.
Learning Epic Martial Disciplines
Every epic discipline has an epic feat associated with it, called an initiation feat. Once an epic character has taken the initiation feat of a discipline, he gains the ability to learn the maneuvers of that epic discipline. Unlike normal maneuvers, epic maneuvers must be learned individually–each one has a unique XP cost and training time to learn. Learning even a single epic maneuver is an arduous quest for the mightiest of heroes, as they must seek out a master of the discipline to learn it from. Such beings include deities, demon princes, and things far more strange. Without such a mentor, the training time required to learn an epic maneuver is doubled–and even then, the pinnacle maneuver of an epic discipline can never be learned without a mentor. As with normal martial maneuvers, a martial adept must meet certain prerequisite number of maneuvers known from the same discipline to learn epic maneuvers. Each discipline has a single “pinnacle” maneuver, one that requires all other maneuvers of the discipline to be learned before it can be mastered.
Using Epic Maneuvers
Epic maneuvers are readied and initiated differently than normal maneuvers. Whenever a martial adept readies his maneuvers, he may choose a single epic martial discipline to ready for that day. Doing so readies all epic maneuvers of that discipline that he has learned. They do not count towards his normal maneuvers readied. Each readied epic maneuver can be initiated once per encounter–they cannot be recovered by any means. The martial adept may enter epic stances of his readied discipline as if they were normal martial stances, save that no ability or effect can ever allow him to gain the benefits of any other or second stance at the same time as he gains the benefits of an epic stance. Epic maneuvers do not have a level, but are treated as being of 10th level for all purposes. The saving throw against an epic maneuver has a DC of 20 + the listed ability modifier, although many epic maneuvers list ways in which their DC can be increased. All epic maneuvers are extraordinary abilities, unless otherwise listed.
Fluff to be added.
Key Skill: Heal
Discipline Weapons: Scythe, longsword, club
Ravenous Scorn [Epic, Initiation]
You are a paragon of anti-life.
Prerequisites: Heal 24 ranks, Martial Lore 24 ranks, must be capable of initiating 9th-level maneuvers from any one discipline.
Benefit: You are immune to all death spells, magical death effects, energy drain, negative levels, and negative energy effects. In addition, whenever a creature within 30 feet of you receives one or more negative levels, you gain 5 temporary hit points per negative level. These temporary hit points last for 1 hour. Finally, you may learn maneuvers from the Devouring Crypt discipline.
Maneuvers:
All of these maneuvers are supernatural abilities unless indicated otherwise, and have the [Evil] descriptor.
Entropy Nimbus
Devouring Crypt (Boost)
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round
XP Cost: 20,000 XP
Training Time: 10 days
You are surrounded by a swirling aura of decay. Until the beginning of your next turn, each attack you make inflicts 1 negative level on the target. The DC to remove the negative levels is equal to 10 + 1/2 initiator level + your Wisdom modifier. If you attack a creature which is normally immune to negative levels, that opponent instead receives 1 negative level on a confirmed critical hit (despite its immunity).
Consuming Rapture
Devouring Crypt (Boost)
Prerequisite: 1 Devouring Crypt maneuver
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Close (25 ft + 5 ft/2 levels)
Target: One dead creature
Duration: 1 minute
XP Cost: 30,000 XP
Training Time: 15 days
Opening your mouth in ecstasy, you inhale a newly-freed soul, merging its essence with yours. Choose a creature which has been dead for no more than 1 round; you consume that creature's soul. If the creature had a number of hit dice no less than half your initiator level, you gain 5 temporary Hit Dice that last for 1 minute. These are normal Hit Dice for a creature of your type; they carry no class features, but increase your initiator level by 5 (instead of 2 or 3 as normal for racial hit dice). Additionally, when you consume a soul in this manner, you automatically recover all your expended non-epic maneuvers.
Consuming a soul in this way prevents any form of raising or resurrection. There is a 10% chance that a wish, miracle, or true resurrection spell can restore a devoured victim to life; only check once for each soul consumed this way. If the check fails, a creature whose soul you have consumed cannot be brought back to life by mortal magic.
Reactive Necrosis
Devouring Crypt (Counter)
Prerequisite: 1 Devouring Crypt maneuver
Initiation Action: Immediate action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round
XP Cost: 30,000 XP
Training Time: 15 days
In response to a threat, you briefly alter your state of living. When you initiate this maneuver, you become undead until the end of your next turn, gaining the undead type (though your hit points do not change). You automatically recover this maneuver when you initiate it (this is an exception to the rule that epic maneuvers cannot be recovered).
If you are already undead, then instead you lose the undead type, gaining whatever type you had when you were still alive (or the Outsider type, if you were never alive). Your hit points still do not change, but you gain a Constitution score of 10. If you were an incorporeal undead, you may choose to remain incorporeal or become corporeal for the duration of the effect.
Salvaged Husks
Devouring Crypt (Boost)
Prerequisite: 1 Devouring Crypt maneuver
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Close (25 ft + 5 ft/2 levels)
Effect: One undead creature
Duration: 3 rounds
XP Cost: 30,000 XP
Training Time: 15 days
You construct a temporary undead minion out of spare body parts and pieces of carcasses. When you initiate this maneuver, the remnants of long-dead (or newly-dead, as the case may be) creatures rise from the ground and form a creature made of refuse and held together by negative energy. The creature has the undead type and racial Hit Dice equal to your initiator level. It is one size category larger than you (with the space and reach of a normal Tall creature of that size) and roughly humanoid in shape. It has two slam attacks which deal 2d6 damage (for a large creature) + its Strength modifier. The creature has a Strength score equal to twice your ranks in Heal, Dex 14, no Con or Int score, Wis 10, and Cha 1. It has a natural armor bonus equal to its Strength score, and gains Awesome Blow as a bonus feat (even though it doesn't meet the prerequisites). It's a mindless creature, but follows your commands as if via the command undead spell; it is immune to being controlled or commanded by creatures other than you. The creature lasts until it is destroyed or until 3 rounds have passed, at which point it collapses into its component parts.
Theft of Virtue
Devouring Crypt (Strike)
Prerequisite: 1 Devouring Crypt maneuver
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: Attacked creature
Duration: Instantaneous and permanent; see text
XP Cost: 30,000 XP
Training Time: 15 days
Your attack severs your opponent's life force, leaving a rotting corpse that obeys your commands. As part of initiating this maneuver, make a melee attack against your opponent, which deals +10d6 damage (half negative energy, half vile) if successful. If your opponent dies from the attack, it rises at the beginning of your next turn as an undead under your control. The subject cannot have more HD than your initiator level.
The target's type becomes undead, and it retains any subtypes it had. The creature retains all class features, as well as any supernatural or spell-like (but not extraordinary) abilities it possessed in life (though any spells cast or daily uses expended before the creature's death count against its normal limits). The subject is completely loyal to you and obeys any commands given it (if no commands are given, it simply attacks your foes). The creature remains animate until it is destroyed or you release it (at which point it falls dead).
You can reanimate no more than one corpse at a time using this maneuver; if you reanimate a second one while the first is still active, the first one falls dead as if you had released it. An undead created with this maneuver does not count against limits of undead you can create or control by other means.
Cryptic Doom
Devouring Crypt (Counter)
Prerequisite: 2 Devouring Crypt maneuvers
Initiation Action: Immediate action
Range: Melee touch attack
Target: Touched creature
Duration: 1 round
XP Cost: 45,000 XP
Training Time: 20 days
Your attacker shrinks back in horror as it sees its own end, locked in eternal torment for its crimes (whether or not it has actually committed any). Initiate this maneuver in response to a melee attack. Make a melee touch attack against your attacker with your weapon. If you are successful, the target suffers a penalty equal to half your initiator level on all d20 rolls until the beginning of your next turn.
Embrace of the Last Sin
Devouring Crypt (Stance)
Prerequisite: 2 Devouring Crypt maneuvers
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance
XP Cost: 45,000 XP
Training Time: 20 days
As your posture shifts, corpses all around you rise up to do your bidding. When you enter this stance, almost every corpse within 60 feet of you is animated as per the animate dead spell. Affected corpses must have no fewer than 1 HD and no more HD than half your initiator level, but you can animate and control any number of undead this way. The undead are under your control for as long as you stay in the stance; once you exit the stance, any remaining undead created when you entered the stance become uncontrolled. This stance grants a separate pool for animating and controlling undead, and does not affect the number of undead you can create or control using the animate dead spell or other similar effects.
Tomb of Remorse
Devouring Crypt (Strike)
Prerequisite: 2 Devouring Crypt maneuvers
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: Attacked creature
Duration: Instantaneous and 1 round/level
XP Cost: 45,000 XP
Training Time: 20 days
You channel all the pain and suffering around you into a single horrifying attack. As part of initiating this maneuver, make a melee attack against your opponent. If it succeeds, in addition to receiving normal damage, the subject takes additional damage equal to half of the total damage dealt to all creatures within 60 feet so far in the encounter (not including the damage from this attack). The creature must also make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 initiator level + your Wisdom modifier) or suffer from all conditions (shaken, fatigued, etc.) currently affecting any creature within 60 feet. The target does not suffer the Dead or Dying conditions, if applicable. The conditions last for 1 round/level before disappearing.
Final Unrest
Devouring Crypt (Strike) [Pinnacle]
Prerequisite: 8 Devouring Crypt maneuvers
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: Melee touch attack
Area: Touched creature
Duration: 1 round
XP Cost: 100,000 XP
Training Time: 50 days
The zenith of the Devouring Crypt discipline is an attack which can destroy an opponent utterly, aided by the souls of the damned. As part of initiating this maneuver, make a melee touch attack against your opponent with your weapon. If you succeed, greyish black mist shrouds your opponent in darkness. Use your attack roll result as the result of a dispel check against every active spell effect, magic item, and other spell-like effect currently affecting your target. For every 2 effects which you dispel, the creature suffers a -1 penalty on saves until the beginning of your next turn.
Once the dispel checks have been resolved, the mist dissipates to reveal ghostly figures reaching out of the ground to grasp your opponent, reaving its essence rather than its physical body. Your target makes a Will save against a DC of 10 + 1/2 initiator level + your Wisdom modifier; on a failed save, your target receives a number of negative levels equal to its HD as its soul is torn from its body. On a successful save, or if the target is immune to negative levels, the target instead suffers 1d8 vile damage per initiator level.
Stolen wholesale from TheDementedOne: Rules for Epic Martial Disciplines
Epic Martial Disciplines
Epic martial disciplines are the fighting styles of the most powerful warriors and swordsmen in all creation. Powerful secret techniques wielded by gods, archfiends, and epic heroes, they represent the absolute pinnacle of the Sublime Way.
Learning Epic Martial Disciplines
Every epic discipline has an epic feat associated with it, called an initiation feat. Once an epic character has taken the initiation feat of a discipline, he gains the ability to learn the maneuvers of that epic discipline. Unlike normal maneuvers, epic maneuvers must be learned individually–each one has a unique XP cost and training time to learn. Learning even a single epic maneuver is an arduous quest for the mightiest of heroes, as they must seek out a master of the discipline to learn it from. Such beings include deities, demon princes, and things far more strange. Without such a mentor, the training time required to learn an epic maneuver is doubled–and even then, the pinnacle maneuver of an epic discipline can never be learned without a mentor. As with normal martial maneuvers, a martial adept must meet certain prerequisite number of maneuvers known from the same discipline to learn epic maneuvers. Each discipline has a single “pinnacle” maneuver, one that requires all other maneuvers of the discipline to be learned before it can be mastered.
Using Epic Maneuvers
Epic maneuvers are readied and initiated differently than normal maneuvers. Whenever a martial adept readies his maneuvers, he may choose a single epic martial discipline to ready for that day. Doing so readies all epic maneuvers of that discipline that he has learned. They do not count towards his normal maneuvers readied. Each readied epic maneuver can be initiated once per encounter–they cannot be recovered by any means. The martial adept may enter epic stances of his readied discipline as if they were normal martial stances, save that no ability or effect can ever allow him to gain the benefits of any other or second stance at the same time as he gains the benefits of an epic stance. Epic maneuvers do not have a level, but are treated as being of 10th level for all purposes. The saving throw against an epic maneuver has a DC of 20 + the listed ability modifier, although many epic maneuvers list ways in which their DC can be increased. All epic maneuvers are extraordinary abilities, unless otherwise listed.
Fluff to be added.
Key Skill: Heal
Discipline Weapons: Scythe, longsword, club
Ravenous Scorn [Epic, Initiation]
You are a paragon of anti-life.
Prerequisites: Heal 24 ranks, Martial Lore 24 ranks, must be capable of initiating 9th-level maneuvers from any one discipline.
Benefit: You are immune to all death spells, magical death effects, energy drain, negative levels, and negative energy effects. In addition, whenever a creature within 30 feet of you receives one or more negative levels, you gain 5 temporary hit points per negative level. These temporary hit points last for 1 hour. Finally, you may learn maneuvers from the Devouring Crypt discipline.
Maneuvers:
All of these maneuvers are supernatural abilities unless indicated otherwise, and have the [Evil] descriptor.
Entropy Nimbus
Devouring Crypt (Boost)
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round
XP Cost: 20,000 XP
Training Time: 10 days
You are surrounded by a swirling aura of decay. Until the beginning of your next turn, each attack you make inflicts 1 negative level on the target. The DC to remove the negative levels is equal to 10 + 1/2 initiator level + your Wisdom modifier. If you attack a creature which is normally immune to negative levels, that opponent instead receives 1 negative level on a confirmed critical hit (despite its immunity).
Consuming Rapture
Devouring Crypt (Boost)
Prerequisite: 1 Devouring Crypt maneuver
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Close (25 ft + 5 ft/2 levels)
Target: One dead creature
Duration: 1 minute
XP Cost: 30,000 XP
Training Time: 15 days
Opening your mouth in ecstasy, you inhale a newly-freed soul, merging its essence with yours. Choose a creature which has been dead for no more than 1 round; you consume that creature's soul. If the creature had a number of hit dice no less than half your initiator level, you gain 5 temporary Hit Dice that last for 1 minute. These are normal Hit Dice for a creature of your type; they carry no class features, but increase your initiator level by 5 (instead of 2 or 3 as normal for racial hit dice). Additionally, when you consume a soul in this manner, you automatically recover all your expended non-epic maneuvers.
Consuming a soul in this way prevents any form of raising or resurrection. There is a 10% chance that a wish, miracle, or true resurrection spell can restore a devoured victim to life; only check once for each soul consumed this way. If the check fails, a creature whose soul you have consumed cannot be brought back to life by mortal magic.
Reactive Necrosis
Devouring Crypt (Counter)
Prerequisite: 1 Devouring Crypt maneuver
Initiation Action: Immediate action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round
XP Cost: 30,000 XP
Training Time: 15 days
In response to a threat, you briefly alter your state of living. When you initiate this maneuver, you become undead until the end of your next turn, gaining the undead type (though your hit points do not change). You automatically recover this maneuver when you initiate it (this is an exception to the rule that epic maneuvers cannot be recovered).
If you are already undead, then instead you lose the undead type, gaining whatever type you had when you were still alive (or the Outsider type, if you were never alive). Your hit points still do not change, but you gain a Constitution score of 10. If you were an incorporeal undead, you may choose to remain incorporeal or become corporeal for the duration of the effect.
Salvaged Husks
Devouring Crypt (Boost)
Prerequisite: 1 Devouring Crypt maneuver
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Close (25 ft + 5 ft/2 levels)
Effect: One undead creature
Duration: 3 rounds
XP Cost: 30,000 XP
Training Time: 15 days
You construct a temporary undead minion out of spare body parts and pieces of carcasses. When you initiate this maneuver, the remnants of long-dead (or newly-dead, as the case may be) creatures rise from the ground and form a creature made of refuse and held together by negative energy. The creature has the undead type and racial Hit Dice equal to your initiator level. It is one size category larger than you (with the space and reach of a normal Tall creature of that size) and roughly humanoid in shape. It has two slam attacks which deal 2d6 damage (for a large creature) + its Strength modifier. The creature has a Strength score equal to twice your ranks in Heal, Dex 14, no Con or Int score, Wis 10, and Cha 1. It has a natural armor bonus equal to its Strength score, and gains Awesome Blow as a bonus feat (even though it doesn't meet the prerequisites). It's a mindless creature, but follows your commands as if via the command undead spell; it is immune to being controlled or commanded by creatures other than you. The creature lasts until it is destroyed or until 3 rounds have passed, at which point it collapses into its component parts.
Theft of Virtue
Devouring Crypt (Strike)
Prerequisite: 1 Devouring Crypt maneuver
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: Attacked creature
Duration: Instantaneous and permanent; see text
XP Cost: 30,000 XP
Training Time: 15 days
Your attack severs your opponent's life force, leaving a rotting corpse that obeys your commands. As part of initiating this maneuver, make a melee attack against your opponent, which deals +10d6 damage (half negative energy, half vile) if successful. If your opponent dies from the attack, it rises at the beginning of your next turn as an undead under your control. The subject cannot have more HD than your initiator level.
The target's type becomes undead, and it retains any subtypes it had. The creature retains all class features, as well as any supernatural or spell-like (but not extraordinary) abilities it possessed in life (though any spells cast or daily uses expended before the creature's death count against its normal limits). The subject is completely loyal to you and obeys any commands given it (if no commands are given, it simply attacks your foes). The creature remains animate until it is destroyed or you release it (at which point it falls dead).
You can reanimate no more than one corpse at a time using this maneuver; if you reanimate a second one while the first is still active, the first one falls dead as if you had released it. An undead created with this maneuver does not count against limits of undead you can create or control by other means.
Cryptic Doom
Devouring Crypt (Counter)
Prerequisite: 2 Devouring Crypt maneuvers
Initiation Action: Immediate action
Range: Melee touch attack
Target: Touched creature
Duration: 1 round
XP Cost: 45,000 XP
Training Time: 20 days
Your attacker shrinks back in horror as it sees its own end, locked in eternal torment for its crimes (whether or not it has actually committed any). Initiate this maneuver in response to a melee attack. Make a melee touch attack against your attacker with your weapon. If you are successful, the target suffers a penalty equal to half your initiator level on all d20 rolls until the beginning of your next turn.
Embrace of the Last Sin
Devouring Crypt (Stance)
Prerequisite: 2 Devouring Crypt maneuvers
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance
XP Cost: 45,000 XP
Training Time: 20 days
As your posture shifts, corpses all around you rise up to do your bidding. When you enter this stance, almost every corpse within 60 feet of you is animated as per the animate dead spell. Affected corpses must have no fewer than 1 HD and no more HD than half your initiator level, but you can animate and control any number of undead this way. The undead are under your control for as long as you stay in the stance; once you exit the stance, any remaining undead created when you entered the stance become uncontrolled. This stance grants a separate pool for animating and controlling undead, and does not affect the number of undead you can create or control using the animate dead spell or other similar effects.
Tomb of Remorse
Devouring Crypt (Strike)
Prerequisite: 2 Devouring Crypt maneuvers
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: Attacked creature
Duration: Instantaneous and 1 round/level
XP Cost: 45,000 XP
Training Time: 20 days
You channel all the pain and suffering around you into a single horrifying attack. As part of initiating this maneuver, make a melee attack against your opponent. If it succeeds, in addition to receiving normal damage, the subject takes additional damage equal to half of the total damage dealt to all creatures within 60 feet so far in the encounter (not including the damage from this attack). The creature must also make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 initiator level + your Wisdom modifier) or suffer from all conditions (shaken, fatigued, etc.) currently affecting any creature within 60 feet. The target does not suffer the Dead or Dying conditions, if applicable. The conditions last for 1 round/level before disappearing.
Final Unrest
Devouring Crypt (Strike) [Pinnacle]
Prerequisite: 8 Devouring Crypt maneuvers
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: Melee touch attack
Area: Touched creature
Duration: 1 round
XP Cost: 100,000 XP
Training Time: 50 days
The zenith of the Devouring Crypt discipline is an attack which can destroy an opponent utterly, aided by the souls of the damned. As part of initiating this maneuver, make a melee touch attack against your opponent with your weapon. If you succeed, greyish black mist shrouds your opponent in darkness. Use your attack roll result as the result of a dispel check against every active spell effect, magic item, and other spell-like effect currently affecting your target. For every 2 effects which you dispel, the creature suffers a -1 penalty on saves until the beginning of your next turn.
Once the dispel checks have been resolved, the mist dissipates to reveal ghostly figures reaching out of the ground to grasp your opponent, reaving its essence rather than its physical body. Your target makes a Will save against a DC of 10 + 1/2 initiator level + your Wisdom modifier; on a failed save, your target receives a number of negative levels equal to its HD as its soul is torn from its body. On a successful save, or if the target is immune to negative levels, the target instead suffers 1d8 vile damage per initiator level.