Ilorin Lorati
2014-02-05, 03:41 PM
Mentor
"The abilities I show you are not to be taken lightly, young one, nor are they meant to be squandered. Power of this kind is a curse darker than even the depths, and one day I hope you forgive me for showing it to you."
- Eshi of the Deep, Gillman Mentor
For a few weeks now, I've been on a bit of a Tome of Battle / Path of War kick with my own games, finally introducing the PoW classes in my campaign to allow my players to take, and making a few of my own PCs with the rules (Hawkguard is the most amazing, trolly thing in the game and I would recommend you never let a player that knows how to use it take the archetype). One of the things I really noticed with the maneuver subsystem and the classes that use it is that there really was no real class focused on support and that really the only places that the concept existed was in individual disciplines, and even then as more of an undercurrent than a focus. At the same time, I was somewhat disappointed at ErrantX's admission that any psionics support was going to have to wait until the second Path of War book.
This ended up being the result of those two lines of thought clicking into place as a singular concept a few days ago. It's pretty heavily a work in progress, and there are a number of things that I'm still working on:
Tweaking maneuver and stance numbers.
I don't like a fair number of the ability names and will be looking at alternate names for them.
Balance. Lots and lots of balance. I don't know where it is yet, so it'll take a bit of time for me to get this cleaned up.
If you ask ten people to describe a mentor, you'll receive twenty different answers and change, from old wise men and favored school teachers, to best friends that you look up to and that girl in the next town that showed you a new application of an old skill last time she came to shop. The only thread that remains constant is that they all connected with you in a way that goes a step beyond simply teaching you: they made something make sense that didn't before. On the battlefield, the best mentors take on similar, if much more active role: almost as fast as they show you something, you can take it and make it your own.
These mentors have a spark of psychic power aiding them with this task, connecting with their students in ways beyond the ken of mere mortals and imprinting the knowledge of maneuvers almost instinctively into the minds of those they're closest with.
Adventurers: Adventuring mentors typically do so because they and their students have a grand quest that they feel they must embark on, but a large number also begin adventuring to look for students or just because they have a burning need to travel and find their students and their reason for questing on the road.
Characteristics: Mentors span the whole range of personality quirks, but a common thread among them is that a mentor nearly always has a desire to teach or guide, even if they do not realize it themselves.
Alignment: Any Non-Chaotic. All but the most reckless and emotional of initiators can be a mentor to others.
Role: The mentor is a capable front-line combatant on his own, but is at his best supporting his students from the front line, protecting them from dangers even if they themselves do not stand beside him.
Hit Die: d8
Starting Gold: As Fighter.
Starting Age: As Fighter.
Class Skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Autohypnosis (Wis), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (History) (Int), Knowledge (Local) (Int), Knowledge (Martial) (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), and Survival (Wis).
Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Intelligence Modifier.
Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
Power Points/Day
Maneuvers Known
Maneuvers Readied
Stances Known
1st
+0
+0
+0
+2
Collective, Student’s Strike, Teacher’s Guard Stance
1
6
3
0
2nd
+1
+0
+0
+3
Strike as One (1st)
2
7
4
1
3rd
+2
+1
+1
+3
Application of Knowledge, Telepathy
4
8
4
2
4th
+3
+1
+1
+4
Student’s Strike +1
6
9
5
2
5th
+3
+1
+1
+4
Strike as One (2nd)
8
10
5
2
6th
+4
+2
+2
+5
Imprint Stance
12
11
6
3
7th
+5
+2
+2
+5
Application of Knowledge
16
12
6
3
8th
+6/+1
+2
+2
+6
Strike as One (3rd), Student’s Strike +2
20
13
7
3
9th
+6/+1
+3
+3
+6
Willful Recovery
24
14
7
3
10th
+7/+2
+3
+3
+7
Teacher’s Guard Stance (Permanent)
28
15
8
4
11th
+8/+3
+3
+3
+7
Application of Knowledge, Strike as One (4th)
36
15
8
4
12th
+9/+4
+4
+4
+8
Strike as One (Increased Duration), Student’s Strike +3
44
16
8
4
13th
+9/+4
+4
+4
+8
Imprint Stance (Two Targets)
52
16
8
4
14th
+10/+5
+4
+4
+9
Strike as One (5th)
60
17
9
4
15th
+11/+6/+1
+5
+5
+9
Application of Knowledge, Collective Range (Unlimited)
68
17
9
5
16th
+12/+7/+2
+5
+5
+10
Student’s Strike +4
80
18
9
5
17th
+12/+7/+2
+5
+5
+10
Strike as One (6th)
92
18
9
5
18th
+13/+8/+3
+6
+6
+11
With Age Comes Wisdom
104
19
10
5
19th
+14/+9/+4
+6
+6
+11
Application of Knowledge, Collective Range (Planar)
116
19
10
5
20th
+15/+10/+5
+6
+6
+12
Perfect Recollection, Strike as One (7th), Student’s Strike +5
128
20
11
6
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A mentor is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with light armor.
Power Points/Day: A mentor's ability to manifest some of his abilities is limited by the power points he has available. His base daily allotment of power points is given on Table: The Mentor. In addition, he receives bonus power points per day if he has a high Wisdom score, treating his manifester level for the purposes of bonus power points as equal to his class level. His race may also provide bonus power points per day, as may certain feats and items.
The mentor also treats his class level as his manifester level for the purpose of spending power points when using class features and initiating maneuvers.
Maneuvers: A mentor begins his career with knowledge of six martial maneuvers. The disciplines available to him are Philosopher's Muse, Golden Lion, and any two other disciplines that are on more than one classes discipline list. He gains the associated skills for his chosen disciplines as class skills if he does not already have them. Once he knows a maneuver, he must ready it before he can use it (see Maneuvers Readied, below). A maneuver usable by Mentors is considered an extraordinary ability unless otherwise noted in its description. His maneuvers are not affected by spell resistance, and he does not provoke attacks of opportunity when he initiates one. He learns additional maneuvers at higher levels, as shown on Table: The Mentor. The mentor must meet a maneuver’s prerequisites to learn it.
Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even mentor level thereafter, he can choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one he already knows. In effect, the mentor loses the old maneuver in exchange for the new one. He can choose a new maneuver of any level he likes, as long as he observes his restriction on the highest-level maneuvers he knows; the mentor need not replace the old maneuver with a maneuver of the same level. The mentor can swap only a single maneuver at any given level. A mentor’s key initiator attribute is Wisdom.
Maneuvers Readied: A mentor can ready three of his six starting maneuvers, but as he advances in level and learns more maneuvers, he must choose which maneuvers to ready. He readies his maneuvers by going through weapon drills or meditating for 10 minutes. The maneuvers he chooses remain readied until he decides to repeat this again and change them. Mentors do not need to sleep or rest for any long period of time to ready their maneuvers; any time he spends 10 minutes in practice, he can change his readied maneuvers. He may not ready any individual maneuver more than once. He begins an encounter with all readied maneuvers unexpended, regardless of how many times he may have already used them since he chose them. When the mentor initiates a maneuver, he expends it for the current encounter, so each of his readied maneuver can be used once per encounter (until they are recovered, see below). Once a maneuver is readied, he may only use it once until it has been recovered by a Student's Strike or through some other means (see below).
For a mentor to recover maneuver, he must perform one of two types of actions: a student's strike, in which he relies on a member of his collective to assist him (see Student's Strike, below), or he may spend a standard action to recover a single readied maneuver of his choosing.
Stances Known: Mentors begin play with knowledge of no stances ( but see Teacher's Guard Stance, below). At the indicated levels (see class table), the mentor selects an additional new stance. Unlike maneuvers, stances are not expended and he does not have to ready them. All the stances he knows are available to him at all times, and he can change the stance he is currently using as a swift action. A stance is an extraordinary ability unless otherwise stated in the stance description. Unlike with maneuvers, the mentor cannot learn a new stance at higher levels in place of one he already knows.
Collective (Su): A mentor learns to use psionic power to connect willing minds through an internal network that strengthens their psychic bonds. As a standard action, a mentor can join any number of willing targets into his collective (up to his limit, see below). The mentor must have line of sight to each target, each target must have a Wisdom score of at least 1, and all targets must be within Medium range (100 ft. + 10 ft. per class level). The collective can contain up to his key ability modifier or half his mentor level, whichever is higher. The mentor is always considered a member of his own collective, and does not count against this limit.
The mentor can choose to remove a member as a free action on his turn, and any member can voluntarily leave the collective as a free action on their turn. Any member whose Wisdom drops to zero or who moves out of range of the collective is automatically removed. If a member enters a null psionics field, the connection to the collective is suppressed until the member leaves the field. A member who leaves the collective for any reason immediately loses any and all benefits they may have gained from being a member. A mentor is aware of the status of his collective and can, roughly, sense the presence of each member, although beyond telling if such a creature is still a member, this has no mechanical benefit without the assistance of other abilities given by the class.
If the mentor has levels in a class that grants the ability to manifest psionic powers, he may manifest any power with the network descriptor through his collective, regardless of their actual ranges or targets.
If a member of the collective dies, the member is removed from the collective and the mentor must make a Fortitude save (DC 15) or lose 1 power point for every hit die of the fallen member and be sickened for an equal number of rounds.
At 15th level, a mentor’s collective range is limitless on the same plane as the mentor.
At 19th level, a mentor’s collective reaches even across to other planes and dimensions.
Student’s Strike (Su): A mentor does not only protect his students, he also conveys knowledge of his art unto them. As a full-round action, the mentor may imprint a single member of his collective other than himself with knowledge of one of his expended maneuvers until the beginning of his next turn; during that time, the maneuver is treated as if it is a bonus readied maneuver on the target’s own list. The target must have an initiator level capable of using this maneuver in order to use it (with some exceptions, see "maneuver-granting abilities and non-initiators" below). A maneuver cannot be granted by Student's Strike more than once per encounter.
The student, however, does not go at this alone. Gaining guidance from the mentor, the target gains a bonus to damage rolls made as a part of this maneuver or while it is active equal to the mentor’s Wisdom modifier. At 4th level, the student gains a +1 competence bonus to any attack rolls made as part of the maneuver. This bonus increases by +1 at 8th level and every 4 levels thereafter.
If the target succeeds at the maneuver, they gain the bonuses from Student’s Strike to the target’s next initiated maneuver or attack within a number of rounds equal to the mentor’s Wisdom modifier, and the mentor recovers a number of maneuvers as well as gaining temporary HP equal to his Wisdom modifier. This temporary HP fades at the beginning of the next encounter.
Sidebar: Maneuver-granting abilities and non-initiators
Initiators are not the only people who can gain the bonuses provided by the mentor. If the target granted a maneuver does not have an initiator level, treat the target as if that maneuver had been granted to them by the Martial Training feat, regardless of the actual level of the maneuver. If the target's effective initiator level is too low to initiate a given maneuver normally, they may not initiate that maneuver.
For maneuver-granting abilities that last for longer than one encounter, treat the maneuver as being readied at the beginning of every encounter as normal.
Teacher’s Guard Stance (Su): Once a mentor has made a connection with his students, he quickly learns to extend his watchful reach even further than his blade or shout could ever hope to. At 1st level, the Mentor gains a special stance of no particular discipline unique to his class. As a swift action, the mention may forego the use of any other martial stance and enter this stance.
While in this stance, any maneuvers or stances that he uses that target one or more allies have have a range greater than personal may affect the members of his collective regardless of the range of the actual maneuver. Maneuvers and stances initiated in concert with this stance are considered supernatural if they aren't already.
At 10th level, Teacher’s Guard Stance becomes a constant effect that no longer requires an action gain or maintain, and no longer requires the mentor to forego the use of other martial stances.
Strike as One (Su): Starting at 2nd level, the mentor can unleash a burst of insight to all of his students. As a swift action, the mentor may grant a member of his collective (other than himself) knowledge of one of his maneuvers known. Choose a single known maneuver of first level; until the end of his next turn, all targets treat that maneuver as a bonus maneuver known, as long as their initiator level is high enough to use that maneuver normally. The maneuver is automatically readied upon gaining it, and may be recovered by the target as normal for as long as they have it. The mentor may grant this maneuver to additional members of his collective by spending a number of power points equal to the level of the maneuver per collective member he wishes to grant it to.
Maneuvers granted this way gain the same attack and damage bonuses granted by Student’s Strike. At 5th level and every 3 levels thereafter, the maximum level of maneuver that the mentor can grant using Strike as One increases by 1.
At 12th level, the maneuver granted lasts for a number of rounds equal to the mentor’s Wisdom modifier.
Application of Knowledge (Su): At 3rd level, the mentor may share his understanding of how to use the knowledge that the members of his collective have. Choose one skill that the mentor has as a class skill: all members of the collective gain a competence bonus to that skill equal to the mentor’s Wisdom modifier (if positive). At 7th level, and every 4 levels thereafter (11th, 15th, 19th), the mentor chooses an additional skill to grant this bonus to. The mentor may change most recent skill he chose whenever he readies maneuvers.
Telepathy (Su): When a mentor reaches 3rd level, all willing members of his collective (including the mentor himself) can communicate with each other telepathically, even if they do not share a common language. Psionic creatures who are willing members in a mentor's collective (including the mentor himself if he has a manifester level) may manifest unknown powers from powers known by another willing psionic creature in the collective as if they were making physical contact.
A mentor may temporarily deactivate, and reactivate, this ability as a swift action.
Imprint Stance (Su): At 6th level, the mentor may project the knowledge of stances over his collective, allowing his allies to gain the effect of them. Whenever the he is in a mentor stance other than Teacher’s Guard Stance the mentor may grant one of his allies in the collective the effects of that stance. This does not count as the ally being in a stance, and the ally may dismiss or recall the effect as a free action at any point it is still being granted to them.
At 13th level, the mentor may expend psionic focus as a free action to grant effect of Imprint Stance to a second member of his collective for one round.
Willful Recovery (Su): Beginning at 9th level, the mentor may recover a single maneuver by expending psionic focus as a move action.
With Age Comes Wisdom (Ex): As the mentor gets older, his mind continues to sharpen and his training prevents him from growing frail and weak. Starting at 18th level, the mentor may ignore the penalty to his physical ability scores caused by middle age, and he reduces the penalties for the old and venerable age categories by 1 for each ability score. In addition, the bonuses to mental ability scores increase to +2 for each ability score in the old and venerable age categories.
If the mentor was already in these age categories, he adjusts his ability scores accordingly. This does not change the maximum age for his race, nor does it prevent him from dying when his time has come.
Perfect Recollection (Su): When a mentor reaches the pinnacle of his skill, the abilities he shows his students become nearly permanent. At 20th level, when the mentor readies maneuvers, he can choose one of his readied maneuvers of up to 7th level. All members of the collective gain that maneuver as a bonus maneuver known and readied until they leave the collective or the mentor chooses a different maneuver.
Change Log
2014/2/5
Added sidebar describing interaction between maneuver-granting abilities and non-initiators.
2014/2/6
Added abilities for levels 13 and 18.
Derp. Corrected placement of level 13 ability. It's where it should be, as an upgrade to "Imprint Stance"
Typo correction and other minor readability changes.
2014/2/8
Added limitation to Student's Strike to prevent certain strikes to be attempted every single turn.
Added minor defensive boon to mentor to offset light armor.
2014/2/9
Closed dead level at 9th with use of psionic focus.
Finished draft of Philosopher's Muse
2014/2/11
Minor redesign of Strike as One to make it usable when gained.
2014/2/24
Bookkeeping and playability adjustments
"The abilities I show you are not to be taken lightly, young one, nor are they meant to be squandered. Power of this kind is a curse darker than even the depths, and one day I hope you forgive me for showing it to you."
- Eshi of the Deep, Gillman Mentor
For a few weeks now, I've been on a bit of a Tome of Battle / Path of War kick with my own games, finally introducing the PoW classes in my campaign to allow my players to take, and making a few of my own PCs with the rules (Hawkguard is the most amazing, trolly thing in the game and I would recommend you never let a player that knows how to use it take the archetype). One of the things I really noticed with the maneuver subsystem and the classes that use it is that there really was no real class focused on support and that really the only places that the concept existed was in individual disciplines, and even then as more of an undercurrent than a focus. At the same time, I was somewhat disappointed at ErrantX's admission that any psionics support was going to have to wait until the second Path of War book.
This ended up being the result of those two lines of thought clicking into place as a singular concept a few days ago. It's pretty heavily a work in progress, and there are a number of things that I'm still working on:
Tweaking maneuver and stance numbers.
I don't like a fair number of the ability names and will be looking at alternate names for them.
Balance. Lots and lots of balance. I don't know where it is yet, so it'll take a bit of time for me to get this cleaned up.
If you ask ten people to describe a mentor, you'll receive twenty different answers and change, from old wise men and favored school teachers, to best friends that you look up to and that girl in the next town that showed you a new application of an old skill last time she came to shop. The only thread that remains constant is that they all connected with you in a way that goes a step beyond simply teaching you: they made something make sense that didn't before. On the battlefield, the best mentors take on similar, if much more active role: almost as fast as they show you something, you can take it and make it your own.
These mentors have a spark of psychic power aiding them with this task, connecting with their students in ways beyond the ken of mere mortals and imprinting the knowledge of maneuvers almost instinctively into the minds of those they're closest with.
Adventurers: Adventuring mentors typically do so because they and their students have a grand quest that they feel they must embark on, but a large number also begin adventuring to look for students or just because they have a burning need to travel and find their students and their reason for questing on the road.
Characteristics: Mentors span the whole range of personality quirks, but a common thread among them is that a mentor nearly always has a desire to teach or guide, even if they do not realize it themselves.
Alignment: Any Non-Chaotic. All but the most reckless and emotional of initiators can be a mentor to others.
Role: The mentor is a capable front-line combatant on his own, but is at his best supporting his students from the front line, protecting them from dangers even if they themselves do not stand beside him.
Hit Die: d8
Starting Gold: As Fighter.
Starting Age: As Fighter.
Class Skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Autohypnosis (Wis), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (History) (Int), Knowledge (Local) (Int), Knowledge (Martial) (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), and Survival (Wis).
Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Intelligence Modifier.
Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
Power Points/Day
Maneuvers Known
Maneuvers Readied
Stances Known
1st
+0
+0
+0
+2
Collective, Student’s Strike, Teacher’s Guard Stance
1
6
3
0
2nd
+1
+0
+0
+3
Strike as One (1st)
2
7
4
1
3rd
+2
+1
+1
+3
Application of Knowledge, Telepathy
4
8
4
2
4th
+3
+1
+1
+4
Student’s Strike +1
6
9
5
2
5th
+3
+1
+1
+4
Strike as One (2nd)
8
10
5
2
6th
+4
+2
+2
+5
Imprint Stance
12
11
6
3
7th
+5
+2
+2
+5
Application of Knowledge
16
12
6
3
8th
+6/+1
+2
+2
+6
Strike as One (3rd), Student’s Strike +2
20
13
7
3
9th
+6/+1
+3
+3
+6
Willful Recovery
24
14
7
3
10th
+7/+2
+3
+3
+7
Teacher’s Guard Stance (Permanent)
28
15
8
4
11th
+8/+3
+3
+3
+7
Application of Knowledge, Strike as One (4th)
36
15
8
4
12th
+9/+4
+4
+4
+8
Strike as One (Increased Duration), Student’s Strike +3
44
16
8
4
13th
+9/+4
+4
+4
+8
Imprint Stance (Two Targets)
52
16
8
4
14th
+10/+5
+4
+4
+9
Strike as One (5th)
60
17
9
4
15th
+11/+6/+1
+5
+5
+9
Application of Knowledge, Collective Range (Unlimited)
68
17
9
5
16th
+12/+7/+2
+5
+5
+10
Student’s Strike +4
80
18
9
5
17th
+12/+7/+2
+5
+5
+10
Strike as One (6th)
92
18
9
5
18th
+13/+8/+3
+6
+6
+11
With Age Comes Wisdom
104
19
10
5
19th
+14/+9/+4
+6
+6
+11
Application of Knowledge, Collective Range (Planar)
116
19
10
5
20th
+15/+10/+5
+6
+6
+12
Perfect Recollection, Strike as One (7th), Student’s Strike +5
128
20
11
6
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A mentor is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with light armor.
Power Points/Day: A mentor's ability to manifest some of his abilities is limited by the power points he has available. His base daily allotment of power points is given on Table: The Mentor. In addition, he receives bonus power points per day if he has a high Wisdom score, treating his manifester level for the purposes of bonus power points as equal to his class level. His race may also provide bonus power points per day, as may certain feats and items.
The mentor also treats his class level as his manifester level for the purpose of spending power points when using class features and initiating maneuvers.
Maneuvers: A mentor begins his career with knowledge of six martial maneuvers. The disciplines available to him are Philosopher's Muse, Golden Lion, and any two other disciplines that are on more than one classes discipline list. He gains the associated skills for his chosen disciplines as class skills if he does not already have them. Once he knows a maneuver, he must ready it before he can use it (see Maneuvers Readied, below). A maneuver usable by Mentors is considered an extraordinary ability unless otherwise noted in its description. His maneuvers are not affected by spell resistance, and he does not provoke attacks of opportunity when he initiates one. He learns additional maneuvers at higher levels, as shown on Table: The Mentor. The mentor must meet a maneuver’s prerequisites to learn it.
Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even mentor level thereafter, he can choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one he already knows. In effect, the mentor loses the old maneuver in exchange for the new one. He can choose a new maneuver of any level he likes, as long as he observes his restriction on the highest-level maneuvers he knows; the mentor need not replace the old maneuver with a maneuver of the same level. The mentor can swap only a single maneuver at any given level. A mentor’s key initiator attribute is Wisdom.
Maneuvers Readied: A mentor can ready three of his six starting maneuvers, but as he advances in level and learns more maneuvers, he must choose which maneuvers to ready. He readies his maneuvers by going through weapon drills or meditating for 10 minutes. The maneuvers he chooses remain readied until he decides to repeat this again and change them. Mentors do not need to sleep or rest for any long period of time to ready their maneuvers; any time he spends 10 minutes in practice, he can change his readied maneuvers. He may not ready any individual maneuver more than once. He begins an encounter with all readied maneuvers unexpended, regardless of how many times he may have already used them since he chose them. When the mentor initiates a maneuver, he expends it for the current encounter, so each of his readied maneuver can be used once per encounter (until they are recovered, see below). Once a maneuver is readied, he may only use it once until it has been recovered by a Student's Strike or through some other means (see below).
For a mentor to recover maneuver, he must perform one of two types of actions: a student's strike, in which he relies on a member of his collective to assist him (see Student's Strike, below), or he may spend a standard action to recover a single readied maneuver of his choosing.
Stances Known: Mentors begin play with knowledge of no stances ( but see Teacher's Guard Stance, below). At the indicated levels (see class table), the mentor selects an additional new stance. Unlike maneuvers, stances are not expended and he does not have to ready them. All the stances he knows are available to him at all times, and he can change the stance he is currently using as a swift action. A stance is an extraordinary ability unless otherwise stated in the stance description. Unlike with maneuvers, the mentor cannot learn a new stance at higher levels in place of one he already knows.
Collective (Su): A mentor learns to use psionic power to connect willing minds through an internal network that strengthens their psychic bonds. As a standard action, a mentor can join any number of willing targets into his collective (up to his limit, see below). The mentor must have line of sight to each target, each target must have a Wisdom score of at least 1, and all targets must be within Medium range (100 ft. + 10 ft. per class level). The collective can contain up to his key ability modifier or half his mentor level, whichever is higher. The mentor is always considered a member of his own collective, and does not count against this limit.
The mentor can choose to remove a member as a free action on his turn, and any member can voluntarily leave the collective as a free action on their turn. Any member whose Wisdom drops to zero or who moves out of range of the collective is automatically removed. If a member enters a null psionics field, the connection to the collective is suppressed until the member leaves the field. A member who leaves the collective for any reason immediately loses any and all benefits they may have gained from being a member. A mentor is aware of the status of his collective and can, roughly, sense the presence of each member, although beyond telling if such a creature is still a member, this has no mechanical benefit without the assistance of other abilities given by the class.
If the mentor has levels in a class that grants the ability to manifest psionic powers, he may manifest any power with the network descriptor through his collective, regardless of their actual ranges or targets.
If a member of the collective dies, the member is removed from the collective and the mentor must make a Fortitude save (DC 15) or lose 1 power point for every hit die of the fallen member and be sickened for an equal number of rounds.
At 15th level, a mentor’s collective range is limitless on the same plane as the mentor.
At 19th level, a mentor’s collective reaches even across to other planes and dimensions.
Student’s Strike (Su): A mentor does not only protect his students, he also conveys knowledge of his art unto them. As a full-round action, the mentor may imprint a single member of his collective other than himself with knowledge of one of his expended maneuvers until the beginning of his next turn; during that time, the maneuver is treated as if it is a bonus readied maneuver on the target’s own list. The target must have an initiator level capable of using this maneuver in order to use it (with some exceptions, see "maneuver-granting abilities and non-initiators" below). A maneuver cannot be granted by Student's Strike more than once per encounter.
The student, however, does not go at this alone. Gaining guidance from the mentor, the target gains a bonus to damage rolls made as a part of this maneuver or while it is active equal to the mentor’s Wisdom modifier. At 4th level, the student gains a +1 competence bonus to any attack rolls made as part of the maneuver. This bonus increases by +1 at 8th level and every 4 levels thereafter.
If the target succeeds at the maneuver, they gain the bonuses from Student’s Strike to the target’s next initiated maneuver or attack within a number of rounds equal to the mentor’s Wisdom modifier, and the mentor recovers a number of maneuvers as well as gaining temporary HP equal to his Wisdom modifier. This temporary HP fades at the beginning of the next encounter.
Sidebar: Maneuver-granting abilities and non-initiators
Initiators are not the only people who can gain the bonuses provided by the mentor. If the target granted a maneuver does not have an initiator level, treat the target as if that maneuver had been granted to them by the Martial Training feat, regardless of the actual level of the maneuver. If the target's effective initiator level is too low to initiate a given maneuver normally, they may not initiate that maneuver.
For maneuver-granting abilities that last for longer than one encounter, treat the maneuver as being readied at the beginning of every encounter as normal.
Teacher’s Guard Stance (Su): Once a mentor has made a connection with his students, he quickly learns to extend his watchful reach even further than his blade or shout could ever hope to. At 1st level, the Mentor gains a special stance of no particular discipline unique to his class. As a swift action, the mention may forego the use of any other martial stance and enter this stance.
While in this stance, any maneuvers or stances that he uses that target one or more allies have have a range greater than personal may affect the members of his collective regardless of the range of the actual maneuver. Maneuvers and stances initiated in concert with this stance are considered supernatural if they aren't already.
At 10th level, Teacher’s Guard Stance becomes a constant effect that no longer requires an action gain or maintain, and no longer requires the mentor to forego the use of other martial stances.
Strike as One (Su): Starting at 2nd level, the mentor can unleash a burst of insight to all of his students. As a swift action, the mentor may grant a member of his collective (other than himself) knowledge of one of his maneuvers known. Choose a single known maneuver of first level; until the end of his next turn, all targets treat that maneuver as a bonus maneuver known, as long as their initiator level is high enough to use that maneuver normally. The maneuver is automatically readied upon gaining it, and may be recovered by the target as normal for as long as they have it. The mentor may grant this maneuver to additional members of his collective by spending a number of power points equal to the level of the maneuver per collective member he wishes to grant it to.
Maneuvers granted this way gain the same attack and damage bonuses granted by Student’s Strike. At 5th level and every 3 levels thereafter, the maximum level of maneuver that the mentor can grant using Strike as One increases by 1.
At 12th level, the maneuver granted lasts for a number of rounds equal to the mentor’s Wisdom modifier.
Application of Knowledge (Su): At 3rd level, the mentor may share his understanding of how to use the knowledge that the members of his collective have. Choose one skill that the mentor has as a class skill: all members of the collective gain a competence bonus to that skill equal to the mentor’s Wisdom modifier (if positive). At 7th level, and every 4 levels thereafter (11th, 15th, 19th), the mentor chooses an additional skill to grant this bonus to. The mentor may change most recent skill he chose whenever he readies maneuvers.
Telepathy (Su): When a mentor reaches 3rd level, all willing members of his collective (including the mentor himself) can communicate with each other telepathically, even if they do not share a common language. Psionic creatures who are willing members in a mentor's collective (including the mentor himself if he has a manifester level) may manifest unknown powers from powers known by another willing psionic creature in the collective as if they were making physical contact.
A mentor may temporarily deactivate, and reactivate, this ability as a swift action.
Imprint Stance (Su): At 6th level, the mentor may project the knowledge of stances over his collective, allowing his allies to gain the effect of them. Whenever the he is in a mentor stance other than Teacher’s Guard Stance the mentor may grant one of his allies in the collective the effects of that stance. This does not count as the ally being in a stance, and the ally may dismiss or recall the effect as a free action at any point it is still being granted to them.
At 13th level, the mentor may expend psionic focus as a free action to grant effect of Imprint Stance to a second member of his collective for one round.
Willful Recovery (Su): Beginning at 9th level, the mentor may recover a single maneuver by expending psionic focus as a move action.
With Age Comes Wisdom (Ex): As the mentor gets older, his mind continues to sharpen and his training prevents him from growing frail and weak. Starting at 18th level, the mentor may ignore the penalty to his physical ability scores caused by middle age, and he reduces the penalties for the old and venerable age categories by 1 for each ability score. In addition, the bonuses to mental ability scores increase to +2 for each ability score in the old and venerable age categories.
If the mentor was already in these age categories, he adjusts his ability scores accordingly. This does not change the maximum age for his race, nor does it prevent him from dying when his time has come.
Perfect Recollection (Su): When a mentor reaches the pinnacle of his skill, the abilities he shows his students become nearly permanent. At 20th level, when the mentor readies maneuvers, he can choose one of his readied maneuvers of up to 7th level. All members of the collective gain that maneuver as a bonus maneuver known and readied until they leave the collective or the mentor chooses a different maneuver.
Change Log
2014/2/5
Added sidebar describing interaction between maneuver-granting abilities and non-initiators.
2014/2/6
Added abilities for levels 13 and 18.
Derp. Corrected placement of level 13 ability. It's where it should be, as an upgrade to "Imprint Stance"
Typo correction and other minor readability changes.
2014/2/8
Added limitation to Student's Strike to prevent certain strikes to be attempted every single turn.
Added minor defensive boon to mentor to offset light armor.
2014/2/9
Closed dead level at 9th with use of psionic focus.
Finished draft of Philosopher's Muse
2014/2/11
Minor redesign of Strike as One to make it usable when gained.
2014/2/24
Bookkeeping and playability adjustments