Building a class

[vampirious86]

So I have been thinking about building a class of my own for about 6 years now or so and have a class construction guide but I would like to see if anybody has any ideas of how to bring the idea of the class I want to do to life, I want the class to be called the blind swordsman and the idea behind the class is a swordsman that only uses a katana and a battle scabbard and two weapon fighting but I want to give it it's own feel by having the swordsman be able to perform special attacks and actions by shaping and using his own ki energy, any thoughts?

[Doc_Maynot]

Well two things.

A. It'd sounds like it would function as an Initiator/Soulmeld Theurge type prestige class. Probably with a pretty specific requirement of Two-Weapon Fighting, Blindsense or Blindsight, and Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword)

B. This would be better in Homebrew Design.

[vampirious86]

I was thinking about trying to make it a base class if it would be at all possible, also the class construction guide that I found only covers abilities of the core classes and doesn't have any psionic abilities listed in it, also I forgot to mention in my original post that the class would have some restrictions as well, alignment restriction any lawful, and a minor code that is similar to the code of bushido.

[HammeredWharf]

Sounds more like a character than a class in my opinion.

[vampirious86]

It could just be a unique character build too, but I am a little lost and don't know how I would make the whole idea come together, like how would you go about essentially sending a wave of ki energy out from your sword to strike your enemies?
I want it to be actual ki energy and not just an arcane strike.

[vampirious86]

Another thing that I forgot to mention as well is that I don't want the character to wear any armor and essentially have similar armor abilities like a monk.

[Xerlith]

Refluffed Bloodstorm Blade abilities.

Factotum 2/Decisive Strike Martial Monk 2/Warblade1/Bloodstorm Blade2/Factotum+6/Warblade+7

Obligatory stance: Hearing the Air

Stack on Tiger Claw, Diamond Mind and Iron Heart maneuvers

Feats: Carmendine Monk allows Int bonus to AC when unarmored.
Two-Weapon fighting. Duh.
Font of Inspiration. Get flaws. Get more Font of Inspiration.
Oh, Snap Kick.

Decisive Strike + Factotum means Iaijutsu Focus fun, Factotum 8 gives more standard actions... You end up with 15th Initiator Level, so 8th level maneuvers... Bloodstorm Blade grants you the ability to send a "ki wave", which is basically refluffed you throwing your sword. Oh, and you get a 2nd level arcane spell in the process. The Heroics spell gives you what basically is a floating Martial Study feat. Have fun with it.
That's the gist of a build doing what you want.

Yeah. The concept may be good for a prestige class, but must be made broader.

[Coidzor]

So the first thing I can think of is that it would want something like the ability of the Soulknife or Kensai or OA Samurai for its Katana & Battle Sabbard to help make enchanting them more cost-effective. Or maybe an ability like Artificer crafting/ability to suck the magic out of items to make other items & craft reserve but only for those two items (& maybe weapon crystals for them).

Automatic TWF feats when they're eligible, both TWF & TWF Defense line. Scabbard counts as a light weapon automatically when wielded in off-hand. Can enchant scabbard as a shield(ala spiked shields being enchanted as weapons and shields) and have its shield bonus stack with the Two Weapon Defense feat line. Maybe lose the penalty for TWFing in the first place.

Tack on, say, Blindsense that gains range every level or every other level and then Blindsight extends around half that distance & maybe encompasses the whole distance at higher levels. Gain Wisdom to Attack certain level, maybe to Damage later on. Gain Wisdom to AC at some point.

Then give it progression as a Martial Adept from some number of schools, possibly Tiger Claw, Iron Heart, Stone Dragon, Diamond Mind, Shadow Blade, and/or Devoted Spirit. Tiger Claw & Diamond Mind seem especially pertinent though. Maybe make the progression advance to a maximum of 6th level maneuvers like a Bard.

Follow up with Psychic Warrior powers known and power points with Adept style access to higher level powers. Key manifesting to Wisdom.

Tweak from there.

[vampirious86]

Those are some pretty sound ideas, and I kind of forgot about bloodstorm blade to be honest, refluffing his ability is a possibility if I can get a DM to go with it, but as far as being blind goes I want to find ways for him to sense the battlefield around him without needing magic items like blindfolds, so if there are other ways to maybe hear where my enemies are or sense them and be able to still block and strike them effectively as well as possibly avoiding ranged attacks or at least knowing where ranged attacks come from.

[Xerlith]

Those are some pretty sound ideas, and I kind of forgot about bloodstorm blade to be honest, refluffing his ability is a possibility if I can get a DM to go with it, but as far as being blind goes I want to find ways for him to sense the battlefield around him without needing magic items like blindfolds, so if there are other ways to maybe hear where my enemies are or sense them and be able to still block and strike them effectively as well as possibly avoiding ranged attacks or at least knowing where ranged attacks come from.

Yeah. That's what the Hearing the Air stance is for. And the Blind-Fight feat.
Alternatively, there's this wonderful thing called refluffing, which basically means you can say your character is blind, but honed his senses to such an extent that he doesn't need sight to perceive his surroundings. And leave it mechanically as is. Works a bit funky with invisibility and the like, but that's why you need to quickly grab some kind of blindsight anyway.

[Coidzor]

Well, Blindsight is a 3rd level spell for Clerics & Druids in Spell Compendium. It gives 30' Blindsight with a pretty good duration.

I suppose you could get a Permanency OK'd for it?

Or just give blindsight (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#blindsightAndBlindsense)as a class feature or work out a feat or feat chain that gives it.

Or finagle a more playable Grimlock (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/grimlock.htm).