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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Other Epic Fail [Maneuvers are cool, but what happens when you miss?]



Kazyan
2015-03-20, 01:43 PM
This is another skill trick-discipline, using similar mechanics as Remote Silhouette. There are fewer maneuvers because there's not a lot of conceptual room to work with, and because there doesn't need to be a whole bunch; it's a skill trick-discipline.

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Epic Fail


Fighting at the Temple of Nine swords could be frustrating. Much of combat was based on hitting with a bladed weapon particularly hard, and those who weren't the best at it were shown up. Of course, this is normal for any fighting establishment, but the Temple of Nine Swords also taught martial tricks that didn't involve an attack. In time, after the Temple faded into history, some of these techniques became viable even for noncombatants. But the fact still remains: to be a true practitioner of the Sublime Way, you have to be about to hit just about anything. Otherwise, it doesn't matter how fancy your sword trick is—nothing happens if you miss.

And this discouraged all but the best warriors, time and time again. It crushes one's will to have finally perfected a maneuver against a training dummy, only to never be able to actually land a hit with it. Apparently these frustrations ran almost as deep as the disciplines themselves, as discovered by an enterprising swordsage trying to decipher a martial script bought from an antiques store. She was flabbergasted to discover that it came from the Temple of Nine Swords itself, obviously a mere prototype and presumably thrown out in the selection process for disciplines. This was probably due to the fact that it didn't work if you actually hit.

Epic Fail's key skill is Sleight of Hand. Its favored weapons are the dagger, quarterstaff, club, unarmed strike, spiked chain, and sugliinFB. Because Epic Fail was never taught at the Temple of the Nine Swords, few martial adepts know of its existence, but it is possible for any martial adept to learn this discipline.

Unlike most disciplines, Epic Fail maneuvers do not count as maneuvers known, and are not learned conventionally. Instead, they are skill tricksCS, and thus follow all of the rules for skill tricks (but they are also maneuvers). Per the rules for skill tricks, one Epic Fail maneuver can be learned per two character levels. Epic Fail maneuvers are always considered readied except during the duration required for the skill trick to become usable again, during which it is expended. To learn an Epic Fail maneuver, the martial adept must have either an initiator level of at least twice the maneuver level or a number of ranks in Sleight of Hand equal to at least twice the maneuver level plus three. If the martial adept has both, the maneuver does not count towards their limit of skill tricks known. All Epic Fail maneuvers are Movement skill tricks.

Epic Fail maneuvers are triggered immediately after missing with a strike maneuver (and, as such, they are all immediate actions). Epic Fail stances have a duration of 1 round, but this increases by 1 round every time you miss with a strike maneuver. Misses do not count for either of these purposes if they are intentional.

Maneuver List

1st

Close Call: Strike—Target is shaken, concerned about what could have happened if you hit.

2nd

Warmup: Boost—Next martial strike gains a +2 bonus to attack roll.

3rd

Needless Motion Method: Stance—Move while missing.

4th

Shake the Ground: Strike—Your weapon hits the ground hard enough to knock your target prone.

5th

How Not To Do It: Strike--Target you missed finds you too inept to bother attacking you.

6th

I Meant To Do That: Boost—Recover a maneuver of much lower level than the strike you expended.

7th

Origami Weapon Stance: Stance—Attack multiple targets simultaneously; miss all but one.

8th

Onslaught of Ineptitude: Strike—Reduce target's AC with repeated misses until you eventually hit.

9th

Pretentiously-Named Sword Move: Strike—Target is stunned, dumbfounded at how much you suck.

Close Call
Epic Fail (Strike)
Level: Any Martial Adept 1
Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
Range: Previous strike's range
Target: 1 creature you missed
Duration: 1 round

Your attack appears fearsome, unsettling the creature you could have it. They must make a Will save (DC 11 + your Strength modifier) or be shaken for 1 round.

How Not To Do It
Epic Fail (Strike)
Level: Any Martial Adept 5
Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
Range: Previous strike's range
Target: 1 creature you missed
Duration: 1 round/initiator level

Your attack misses wildly, and your target can't take you seriously anymore. You are affected as if by a sanctuary spell, except that it is nonmagical and it only applies to the target you missed. Instead of a Will save, the target is allowed a Sense Motive check, opposed by your Sleight of Hand check. If they succeed, they are the sanctuary fails, and vice versa.

I Meant To Do That
Epic Fail (Boost)
Level: Any Martial Adept 6
Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Instantaneous

You turn your terrible weapon flailing into a simple brandishing display, although you're only fooling yourself. You immediately recover one maneuver of a level equal to or less than half of the level of the strike you missed with to activate this boost, minimum 1.

Needless Motion Method
Epic Fail (Stance)
Level: Any Martial Adept 3
Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance: 1 round + additional round per miss

You skitter around while attacking, which only gets in the way of you actually hitting anything. Whenever you miss with a martial strike while in this stance (including the miss you used to activate this stance), you may take a free 5-foot step immediately afterwards.

Onslaught of Ineptitude
Epic Fail (Strike)
Level: Any Martial Adept 8
Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
Range: Previous strike's range
Target: 1 creature you missed
Duration: 1 round

You fling your weapon around in your opponent's general direction in frustration. It's too pointless to actually do damage, but it interferes with your opponents' defense. Make an attack roll with a +2 bonus. If you miss, the target takes a stacking -1 penalty to AC, and make another attack with a further +2 bonus. If this misses, the target takes another stacking -1 penalty to AC, you make another attack with a further +2 bonus, and so on. When you eventually hit, this maneuver ends, and the hit is treated as a miss. Do not apply the -1 AC penalty again for this final miss.

Origami Weapon Stance
Epic Fail (Stance)
Level: Any Martial Adept 7
Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round + additional round per miss

You take broad, arcing strikes with your weapon, banking on the idea that if you try to hit everything, you'll eventually hit something. Every time you attack while in this stance, you instead attack every creature within reach of the weapon you're using. You choose which order to attack in. However, you can only hit one creature per split-up attack set; as soon as you hit something, stop making attack rolls. The remaining attacks in the split-up attack set all automatically miss.

Pretentiously-Named Sword Move
Epic Fail (Strike)
Level: Any Martial Adept 9
Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
Range: Previous strike's range
Target: 1 creature you missed
Duration: 2 rounds

You miss so spectacularly that your target just stares at you, dumbfounded at how much you suck. The target must make a Will save (19 + the difference between their AC and your attack roll, at the time of attacking) or be stunned for 2 rounds.

Shake the Ground
Epic Fail (Strike)
Level: Any Martial Adept 4
Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
Range: Previous strike's range
Target: 1 creature you missed
Duration: Instantaneous

Your weapon swings by your target and instead hits the ground, causing a small shockwave. The target must make a Reflex save (DC 14 + your strength score) or fall prone.

Warmup
Epic Fail (Boost)
Level: Any Martial Adept 2
Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round

If at first you don't succeed—which seems to happen a lot for you—try again. You gain a +2 morale bonus to the first attack roll of the next strike maneuver you initiate during the next round.

Wondrous Items

A trinket of trickeryCS can only grant access to an Epic Fail maneuver of 3rd level of lower. Two specialized versions for more powerful Remote Silhouette Maneuvers exist: the Epic Fail Trinket (Scholar) and the Epic Fail Trinket (Master). These function like a trinket of trickery that can only grant access to Epic Fail maneuvers, but the Scholar version can grant up to a 6th level maneuver, and the Master version can grant up to a 9th level maneuver. They cost 5,000 and 15,000 gp and have caster levels of 10 and 15, respectively. They otherwise function just like a trinket of trickery.

Construction (Scholar): Craft Wondrous Item, knowledge of a maneuver from the Epic Fail discipline; 2,500 gp, 200 XP, 5 days.

Construction (Master): Craft Wondrous Item, knowledge of a maneuver from the Epic Fail discipline; 7,500 gp, 600 XP, 15 days.

Zaydos
2015-03-20, 07:23 PM
If a strike grants multiple attacks (Time Stands Still, Desert Tempest, Steel Wind) do you need to miss with all the attacks or just one of them to use one of these maneuvers?

Kazyan
2015-03-20, 08:46 PM
If a strike grants multiple attacks (Time Stands Still, Desert Tempest, Steel Wind) do you need to miss with all the attacks or just one of them to use one of these maneuvers?

Just one, provided you can actually take the immediate action in the middle of the maneuver. I can't think of a reason why you couldn't, but it depends on your DM and other homebrew disciplines.

roko10
2015-03-21, 07:11 AM
Is it just me, or are all of the Skill Trick maneuvers that you made condescending to the user?