Ilinoris
2014-05-20, 12:47 PM
Hello!
I am currently running a campaign using Tome of Battle and Asian inspired themes!
I have been working on this PrC (based on other people's previous works((can't remember source! Sorry!)), aswell as the Eternal Blade from ToB) and I would love to get a second pair of eyes to look this over, just to see if it seems ridiculous or needs balancing or something :-)
Edit: My main concern is that giving a magic weapon can be dangerous, since my campaign is based on Low/to no-Magic.
So here goes:
Wielder of Ancestral Weapon
Requirements:
Base Attack Bonus: +10
Feats: Weapon Focus (with selected weapon)
Proficiency: Proficient in selected weapon.
Special: In order to pursue the path of the Ancestral Weapon, you must acquire a masterwork weapon that was used regularly by at least one of your deceased ancestors; all feat prerequisites must match the selected weapon.
Hit Dice: D8
http://i60.tinypic.com/20psu8g.jpg
Class skills (2 + Int modifier per level): Climb, Concentration, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Martial Lore, Ride, Sense Motive, Tumble.
Ancestral Weapon (Su): Starting at 1st level, the wielder learns to use her heirloom weapon as a channel for the spirit of her dead ancestor, granting the object increasing magical power as the wielder advances and achieves deeper levels of meditation. The maximum power of the enchantment is equal to half her class level(minimum 1), so that at 1st level, she can grant her weapon a +1 enhancement bonus, while at 10th level, she could enchant it with powers up to the cost equivalent of +5.
Each time the Wielder wishes to increase the power of her ancestral weapon, she must spend 24 hours at a shrine paying homage to her ancestors.
If the weapon used to fulfill the "Special" prerequisite for this class is already magical, the bearer may not further enhance the weapon's power until her class level exceeds its current total "plusses". The wielder may only have one Ancestral Weapon at a time; if it is destroyed, she must locate another heirloom that belonged to one or more of her ancestors and begin the process anew. If the new weapon belonged to a different ancestor, the DM is free to have a different spirit possess it.
Unity of Purpose (Su): The magic of the Ancestral Weapon is such that the weapon wants to remain whole and in its descendant's hand. Add the wielder's class level to opposed attack rolls to resist attempts to disarm the weapon from her. The weapon cannot be sundered while it is wielded by the bearer, though it can be damaged or even destroyed while unattended or in the hands of another.
Eternal Training (Ex): Each night, your ancestor's spirit enter your mind. Instead of the usual 8 hours of sleep, you are able to reduce this to a 4 hour meditative trance, in which you spar with your ancestor's spirit. Once per day, you can draw upon this nightly training to aid you in a single battle. You gain an insight bonus equal to your Wisdom bonus (if any) on attack rolls and damage rolls against creatures of a single type. If you select humanoid or outsider as the type, you must also choose a subtype. You gain an additional use per day of this ability at 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th level. Even if you have multiple uses of this ability per day, you can use this ability only once per encounter. You can use this ability only while you are wielding your Ancestral Weapon.
Greater Unity (Su): By 5th level, whenever the weapon is separated from the bearer, she can sense its direction by concentrating for a full round. She cannot sense the weapon if it lies on another plane.
Island in Time (Ex): At 10th level, you can throw yourself into a fight under your blade guide’s careful direction. You meld with it, allowing it to control your actions while you draw upon its vast combat experience. Once per encounter, you can take your turn as an immediate action. Using this ability does not change your initiative count, and you can use all your actions as normal. For example, if your initiative count is 15, you could act normally, use this ability to act again on initiative count 14, then act normally on the following round on initiative count 15. If you lose access to your blade guide, you lose this ability until it returns.
Spirit of the Ancestor (Su): As the bearer learns to channel her ancestor, the previous owner's spirit comes to reside in the weapon itself. Starting at 2nd level, the Ancestral Wow becomes an intelligent magical item; the bearer does not need to spend any time, money, or XP for this metamorphosis to occur. The ancestor has difficulty manifesting its will at first, but as the bearer continues her meditations and follows the path of the weapon, the spirit gains in power. Eventually, the weapon takes on the full personality and memories of the ancestor. The bearer presumably attempts to contact an ancestor of similar tendencies as her own; the spirit's alignment is thus always within one step of that of the bearer herself. However, the ancestor may have its own ideas on how to solve problems, and might even attempt to take control of the bearer if their views differ sharply on an issue. The weapon's Ego score is equal to that of a weapon with the sum of its accumulated powers. The DM should fully detail the ancestor's history and personality as he or she would any NPC, and play them appropriately.
The spirit of the ancestor gains the following powers:
Empathy (Su): Starting at 2nd level, the weapon can communicate via empathy, pulsing or throbbing to indicate approval or dissent while the bearer wields it.
Speech (Su): By 4th level, the spirit learns to speak aloud, learning one language per point of Intelligence bonus (and gaining an additional language whenever the spirit's Intelligence raises).
Telepathy (Su): At 8th level, the Ancestral Weapon has mastered telepathy, and can communicate with its bearer silently while within 30 feet. Either the bearer or the sword can initiate telepathic communication as a free action on their turn.
Senses (Ex): As the spirit becomes more adept at channeling itself through the heirloom, its ability to perceive the world increases. Its vision and hearing ranges increase, and eventually evolves Blindsense.
Edit: Removed the Requirement which was specific only to the homebrew campaign :-)
Edit: Made a typo in the title...
I am currently running a campaign using Tome of Battle and Asian inspired themes!
I have been working on this PrC (based on other people's previous works((can't remember source! Sorry!)), aswell as the Eternal Blade from ToB) and I would love to get a second pair of eyes to look this over, just to see if it seems ridiculous or needs balancing or something :-)
Edit: My main concern is that giving a magic weapon can be dangerous, since my campaign is based on Low/to no-Magic.
So here goes:
Wielder of Ancestral Weapon
Requirements:
Base Attack Bonus: +10
Feats: Weapon Focus (with selected weapon)
Proficiency: Proficient in selected weapon.
Special: In order to pursue the path of the Ancestral Weapon, you must acquire a masterwork weapon that was used regularly by at least one of your deceased ancestors; all feat prerequisites must match the selected weapon.
Hit Dice: D8
http://i60.tinypic.com/20psu8g.jpg
Class skills (2 + Int modifier per level): Climb, Concentration, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Martial Lore, Ride, Sense Motive, Tumble.
Ancestral Weapon (Su): Starting at 1st level, the wielder learns to use her heirloom weapon as a channel for the spirit of her dead ancestor, granting the object increasing magical power as the wielder advances and achieves deeper levels of meditation. The maximum power of the enchantment is equal to half her class level(minimum 1), so that at 1st level, she can grant her weapon a +1 enhancement bonus, while at 10th level, she could enchant it with powers up to the cost equivalent of +5.
Each time the Wielder wishes to increase the power of her ancestral weapon, she must spend 24 hours at a shrine paying homage to her ancestors.
If the weapon used to fulfill the "Special" prerequisite for this class is already magical, the bearer may not further enhance the weapon's power until her class level exceeds its current total "plusses". The wielder may only have one Ancestral Weapon at a time; if it is destroyed, she must locate another heirloom that belonged to one or more of her ancestors and begin the process anew. If the new weapon belonged to a different ancestor, the DM is free to have a different spirit possess it.
Unity of Purpose (Su): The magic of the Ancestral Weapon is such that the weapon wants to remain whole and in its descendant's hand. Add the wielder's class level to opposed attack rolls to resist attempts to disarm the weapon from her. The weapon cannot be sundered while it is wielded by the bearer, though it can be damaged or even destroyed while unattended or in the hands of another.
Eternal Training (Ex): Each night, your ancestor's spirit enter your mind. Instead of the usual 8 hours of sleep, you are able to reduce this to a 4 hour meditative trance, in which you spar with your ancestor's spirit. Once per day, you can draw upon this nightly training to aid you in a single battle. You gain an insight bonus equal to your Wisdom bonus (if any) on attack rolls and damage rolls against creatures of a single type. If you select humanoid or outsider as the type, you must also choose a subtype. You gain an additional use per day of this ability at 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th level. Even if you have multiple uses of this ability per day, you can use this ability only once per encounter. You can use this ability only while you are wielding your Ancestral Weapon.
Greater Unity (Su): By 5th level, whenever the weapon is separated from the bearer, she can sense its direction by concentrating for a full round. She cannot sense the weapon if it lies on another plane.
Island in Time (Ex): At 10th level, you can throw yourself into a fight under your blade guide’s careful direction. You meld with it, allowing it to control your actions while you draw upon its vast combat experience. Once per encounter, you can take your turn as an immediate action. Using this ability does not change your initiative count, and you can use all your actions as normal. For example, if your initiative count is 15, you could act normally, use this ability to act again on initiative count 14, then act normally on the following round on initiative count 15. If you lose access to your blade guide, you lose this ability until it returns.
Spirit of the Ancestor (Su): As the bearer learns to channel her ancestor, the previous owner's spirit comes to reside in the weapon itself. Starting at 2nd level, the Ancestral Wow becomes an intelligent magical item; the bearer does not need to spend any time, money, or XP for this metamorphosis to occur. The ancestor has difficulty manifesting its will at first, but as the bearer continues her meditations and follows the path of the weapon, the spirit gains in power. Eventually, the weapon takes on the full personality and memories of the ancestor. The bearer presumably attempts to contact an ancestor of similar tendencies as her own; the spirit's alignment is thus always within one step of that of the bearer herself. However, the ancestor may have its own ideas on how to solve problems, and might even attempt to take control of the bearer if their views differ sharply on an issue. The weapon's Ego score is equal to that of a weapon with the sum of its accumulated powers. The DM should fully detail the ancestor's history and personality as he or she would any NPC, and play them appropriately.
The spirit of the ancestor gains the following powers:
Empathy (Su): Starting at 2nd level, the weapon can communicate via empathy, pulsing or throbbing to indicate approval or dissent while the bearer wields it.
Speech (Su): By 4th level, the spirit learns to speak aloud, learning one language per point of Intelligence bonus (and gaining an additional language whenever the spirit's Intelligence raises).
Telepathy (Su): At 8th level, the Ancestral Weapon has mastered telepathy, and can communicate with its bearer silently while within 30 feet. Either the bearer or the sword can initiate telepathic communication as a free action on their turn.
Senses (Ex): As the spirit becomes more adept at channeling itself through the heirloom, its ability to perceive the world increases. Its vision and hearing ranges increase, and eventually evolves Blindsense.
Edit: Removed the Requirement which was specific only to the homebrew campaign :-)
Edit: Made a typo in the title...