Zweisteine
2014-01-21, 10:20 PM
I've always found the limited number of classes an initiator can go into before losing high-level maneuvers to be something of a restriction on the versatility of the classes, so I thought I'd do something about it.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Playground, I bring you...
Practiced Initiator
Prerequisites
Martial Lore 4 ranks, three martial maneuvers
Benefit
Your initiator level increases by 2. A character with two or more initiating classes must choose which class this bonus applies to. The bonus to initiator levels applies only to that class. If that class (even if it is a prestige class) also provides the prerequisite for an initiating prestige class, that presitge class also gains the benefit of this bonus.
This benefit can't increase your initiator level to higher than your hit dice. However, even if you can't benefit from the full bonus immediately, if you later gain Hit Dice in levels of noninitiating classes, you might be able to apply the rest of the bonus. For example, a human 5th-level warblade/1st-level fighter who selects this feat would increase his initiator level from 5th to 6th (since he has a 6 Hit Dice). If he later gained a fighter level, he would gain the remainder of the bonus and his warblade initiator level would become 7th (since he now has 7 Hit Dice). This feat does not affect your maneuvers per day or maneuvers known. It increases your initiator level only, which allows you to learn higher level maneuvers.
Special
You may take this twice. Its effects stack, or it may be applied to two different intiating classes. For each point of epic attack bonus you have, you may take this feat one additional time. A fighter may select Practiced Initiator as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Suggested adaption
In a high-optimization game, you may want to lower the bonus grante by this feat to +1. This prevents excessive use of the feat to gain noninitiating class' abilities as well as high-level maneuvers.
This feat aims to allow for larger dips and a wider array of prestige classes to be available to the Tome of Battle classes, but without allowing them to devote their entire paths to
I realize that this feat is quite powerful, but it does not seem to be on a game-breaking level. I would hesitate to allow this to a player known for over-optimization, but other than that, it seems very useful. It effectively allows you to treat two full BAB levels as full Initiator level for purposes of learning higher level maneuvers.
The main issue with this feat is that it applies inequally to Swordsages, who do not have a full base attack bonus to begin with. My only idea for a fix for this is to make the cap on how high it can boost your initiator level be "the portion of your base attack bonus derived from noninitiating classes," but that seems to be a bit of a clunky wording, though it does allow Swordsages to benefit from the fit quite a bit more.
This is no longer an issue, as the bonus is now limited by hit dice rather than base attack bonus.
This is my first (posted) homebrew, so don't go at all easy on me, please. :smallwink:
Thanks!
Ladies and gentlemen of the Playground, I bring you...
Practiced Initiator
Prerequisites
Martial Lore 4 ranks, three martial maneuvers
Benefit
Your initiator level increases by 2. A character with two or more initiating classes must choose which class this bonus applies to. The bonus to initiator levels applies only to that class. If that class (even if it is a prestige class) also provides the prerequisite for an initiating prestige class, that presitge class also gains the benefit of this bonus.
This benefit can't increase your initiator level to higher than your hit dice. However, even if you can't benefit from the full bonus immediately, if you later gain Hit Dice in levels of noninitiating classes, you might be able to apply the rest of the bonus. For example, a human 5th-level warblade/1st-level fighter who selects this feat would increase his initiator level from 5th to 6th (since he has a 6 Hit Dice). If he later gained a fighter level, he would gain the remainder of the bonus and his warblade initiator level would become 7th (since he now has 7 Hit Dice). This feat does not affect your maneuvers per day or maneuvers known. It increases your initiator level only, which allows you to learn higher level maneuvers.
Special
You may take this twice. Its effects stack, or it may be applied to two different intiating classes. For each point of epic attack bonus you have, you may take this feat one additional time. A fighter may select Practiced Initiator as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Suggested adaption
In a high-optimization game, you may want to lower the bonus grante by this feat to +1. This prevents excessive use of the feat to gain noninitiating class' abilities as well as high-level maneuvers.
This feat aims to allow for larger dips and a wider array of prestige classes to be available to the Tome of Battle classes, but without allowing them to devote their entire paths to
I realize that this feat is quite powerful, but it does not seem to be on a game-breaking level. I would hesitate to allow this to a player known for over-optimization, but other than that, it seems very useful. It effectively allows you to treat two full BAB levels as full Initiator level for purposes of learning higher level maneuvers.
The main issue with this feat is that it applies inequally to Swordsages, who do not have a full base attack bonus to begin with. My only idea for a fix for this is to make the cap on how high it can boost your initiator level be "the portion of your base attack bonus derived from noninitiating classes," but that seems to be a bit of a clunky wording, though it does allow Swordsages to benefit from the fit quite a bit more.
This is no longer an issue, as the bonus is now limited by hit dice rather than base attack bonus.
This is my first (posted) homebrew, so don't go at all easy on me, please. :smallwink:
Thanks!