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Xefas
2015-09-17, 07:12 PM
The Inheritor

"Ever since a second mortal graced this world, someone has wanted to kill somebody else. Fast forward a few millennia, a few thousand wars, a few million murders,
a few billion souls scarred by violence, pain, and death... and now you have me."

Inheritors are incarnum-sensitive individuals who could've become Incarnates, but something in their background made them a beacon for the single most common trait possessed by all the soulstuff of the cosmos - the scars of violence - before they could cultivate a more 'pure' understanding of incarnum.

Unlike their cousins, each and every soulmeld an Inheritor forges is amassed from cherry-picked morsels among violent souls; the welts and black eyes of abused children, the moment of adrenaline when a soldier takes a life so that she might live, the righteousness of a knight splitting open a dragon's belly, the momentary relief as a serial murderer flays their latest victim alive, the enjoyment of a constable beating a starving thief in the gutter, the casual word given by a king to spend the lives of thousands of people he will never meet to win a war they never wanted, the confusion of a gladiator as they lay dying before the warrior who stole the glory they had dreamed of.

Making An Inheritor

An Inheritor is an odd melee combatant, not as directly strong and durable as a warblade or crusader, but with the added utility and adaptability that incarnum provides.

Abilities: As a frontline fighter and meldshaper, Constitution is the most important ability for an Inheritor. They can certainly appreciate the ability to suffer violence longer before their eventual death. After that, they should focus on either Strength or Dexterity, which their class features allow either to be a valid choice, depending on what kind of perpetuator of suffering and misery they choose to be. Mentally, Inheritors may run the gamut; some are quiet, emotionally dead individuals, eyes eternally swiveling for the next threat to their life, with a low Charisma and high Wisdom, and some are glorious revelers in the split organs and shattered bones of battle without any care for pursuits other than ending life, with a high Charisma and low Intelligence. As well as anything and everything in between.

Races: All know violence, but some know it more than others. Militant, vicious, war-like, and sadistic races have a relatively higher rate of Inheritors, such as Hobgoblins, Gnolls, and Orcs, while more peaceful ones that shy away from conflict, like Halflings and Gnomes, have fewer. However, meldshaping being as rare a talent as it is, the numbers aren't particularly noteworthy either way. Kobolds would be a prime culture for the development of Inheritors, being both sadistic killers and routinely victimized, themselves, by every race under the sun, but those with a talent for anything mystical are much more likely to cleave towards sorcery.

Alignment: Violence knows no alignment. Demons kill the just, angels kill the unjust, collectives kill individuals, individuals kill collectives, and people who just want to sit at home and be left alone can still be senselessly butchered by passing bandits, or may themselves have taken a life or two defending their family or homeland. There are as many reasons for violence as there are reactions to it, and so Inheritors are diverse in morality and ethos.

Starting Gold: As Rogue
Starting Age: As Rogue

Playing An Inheritor

Before you had power, you were a killer or a victim, and now you have the tools to rise above the rest of your people and become something more. You could be a hero, valiantly fighting against the very source of your own strength, in the hopes that you might one day see a world without senseless bloodshed, even as you evolve into a more perfect expression of what you hate. Or you could be a mercenary, a hatchet-man, best at what you do, working your way through one contract after another either because you just enjoy the thought of killing without reason, or as a way to work out your own inner demons one butchered monster or mob-boss at a time. Or perhaps the whispered words of a thousand murderous souls pulsing through your very essence has finally broken, no, no - fixed - you, and now you see the world for how backwards and arbitrary it really is. Pain is the sweet song of life, only the dead do not feel it, a gift from you to anyone that will receive it, to remind them that they are alive, and death is the warm embrace of a moment without suffering, a heartfelt favor for those who ask kindly.

Religion: Inheritors tend to worship warrior-gods as violent as themselves, such as Hextor and Heironeous, or else the complete opposite, praying to Yondalla or Olidammara for a world of peace and love that will spawn no more of their kind. Unsurprisingly, a few choose the ill-fated path of atheism (or misotheism, as the case may be), deciding that no god that allows the world to be as it is should be worshiped.


LevelBABFortRefWillSpecialSoulmeldsEssentiaChakra Binds
1st+0+2+0+2Variable Combat Style, Soul Of A Killer100
2nd+1+3+0+3Born To Suffer (Endurance)210
3rd+2+3+1+3Chakra Bind (Crown)221
4th+3+4+1+4Overcharge Soulmeld 1/day231
5th+3+4+1+4Chakra Bind (Hands, Feet)332
6th+4+5+2+5Born To Suffer (Toughness)342
7th+5+5+2+5Born To Suffer (Diehard)352
8th+6/+1+6+2+6462
9th+6/+1+6+3+6Chakra Bind (Arms, Brow, Shoulders)462
10th+7/+2+7+3+7Overcharge Soulmeld 2/day473
11th+8/+3+7+3+7583
12th+9/+4+8+4+8Born To Suffer (Steadfast Determination)593
13th+9/+4+8+4+85104
14th+10/+5+9+4+9Chakra Binds (Throat, Waist)5114
15th+11/+6/+1+9+5+9Overcharge Soulmeld 3/day6124
16th+12/+7/+2+10+5+10Chakra Bind (Heart)6134
17th+12/+7/+2+10+5+10Born To Suffer (Indomitable Soul)6145
18th+13/+8/+3+11+6+117165
19th+14/+9/+4+11+6+11Chakra Bind (Soul)7185
20th+15/+10/+5+12+6+12Violence Incarnate7206


Hit Dice: d10
Skill Points: 4 + intelligence modifier (x4 at first level)
Class Skills: Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (History, Local), Listen, Martial Lore, Move Silently, Ride, Search, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope
Proficiencies: Inheritors are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, as well as light and medium armor, and all shields (except tower shields).

Class Features

Meldshaping: An Inheritor has the ability to shape incarnum souldmelds, which are drawn from the Inheritor Soulmeld List (see below). You know and can shape any soulmeld from this list.

The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against Inheritor soulmelds is (10 + essentia invested in the soulmeld + your Constitution modifier). Your meldshaper level is equal to your Inheritor level.

An Inheritor can shape only a certain number of soulmelds per day. Your base daily allotment is given on the above class table. The maximum number of soulmelds that you can have shaped simultaneously is equal to your Constitution score minus 10 or the number of soulmelds allowed for your level, whichever is lower. At 1st level, you can shape one soulmeld. As you advance in level, you can shape an increasing number of soulmelds.

At 2nd level, you also gain access to your personal pool of essentia, which can be invested in your soulmelds to increase their power. Your essentia pool's size is shown on your class table. Your character level determines the maximum quantity of essentia that you can invest in any single soulmeld (MoI, pg 19). As a swift action, you can reallocate your essentia investments in your soulmelds every round (MoI, pg 50).

An Inheritor does not study or prepare soulmelds in advance, but must have a good night's rest and must meditate for 1 hour to shape their soulmelds for the day (MoI, pg 49).

Inherited Maneuvers: Inheritors do not gain access to maneuvers and disciplines in the traditional way. They have no maneuvers or stances known. Instead, each of their soulmelds is associated with a particular discipline (see the Inheritor Soulmeld List below). When they shape a soulmeld, they choose one 1st level maneuver or stance from its associated discipline, which becomes one of their readied maneuvers or available stances. If a soulmeld is bound to a chakra, it grants a higher level maneuver or stance instead. A soulmeld bound to the Crown Chakra grants a 2nd level maneuver. A soulmeld bound to the Feet or Hands Chakra grants a 3rd level maneuver. A soulmeld bound to the Arms, Brow, or Shoulders Chakra grants a 4th level maneuver. A soulmeld bound to the Heart Chakra grants a 5th level maneuver, and a soulmeld bound to the Soul Chakra grants a 6th level maneuver. An Inheritor may always choose to gain a lower level maneuver or stance from the same discipline, if they desire.

Maneuvers are considered Extraordinary abilities unless otherwise stated in their description, and do not provoke attacks of opportunity when activated. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an Inheritors maneuvers is not calculated as normal. Instead, the saving throw is (10 + 1/2 your character level + your Constitution modifier), as their power is drawn from the soul energy you shape, rather than your actual skill at arms.

You begin an encounter with all your readied maneuvers unexpended. When you initiate a maneuver, you expend it for the current encounter as you stress the essence pathways throughout your body, so each of your readied maneuvers can be used once per encounter, or until you recover them.

At the beginning of your turn, before taking any other actions, you may choose to take a swift action in order to recover all of your expended maneuvers, as well as reallocate your essentia, and enter, leave, or switch into a stance if you choose. However, this repairing of your essence pathways is not instantaneous; you cannot activate any maneuvers for the remainder of your turn as they heal.

Variable Combat Style: A 1st level Inheritor may substitute their Dexterity modifier in place of their Strength modifier for the purposes of their bonus to attack and damage rolls with melee weapons, wielding their instruments of war with finesse, rather than brute force. They may substitute their Strength modifier in place of their Dexterity modifier for the purposes of their bonus on initiative checks, as their muscles catapult them into battle with a bloodthirsty speed that makes up for a slightly slower reaction time.

Soul Of A Killer: While an Inheritor has at least one soulmeld bound, their body becomes synchronized with their soul's purpose to inflict violence on the world. They gain a +1 bonus on all melee attack rolls. This bonus increases by 1 every four levels after 1st (+2 at 5th, +3 at 9th, etc).

Born To Suffer: Over an Inheritor's career, they gain several bonus feats to represent their increased ability to take physical punishment. They need not meet the prerequisites for these feats, and if they already possess the feat in question, they instead gain a different feat of their choice that they do meet the prerequisites for.

At 2nd level, they gain Endurance. At 6th level, they gain Toughness. At 7th level, they gain Diehard. At 12th level, they gain Steadfast Determination (PHBII). At 17th level, they gain Indomitable Soul (PHBII).

Overcharge Soulmeld: At 4th level, an Inheritor gains the ability to pool an excess of their murderous energy in a single soulmeld, causing it to output an increased amount of power until it finally shatters. Overcharging a soulmeld is a swift action that can be used once per day, and causes the souldmeld to shine brightly like a torch for the duration.

When you Overcharge a soulmeld, you gain a special pool of hit points separate from any other. These hit points cannot be healed, and damage is removed from them before your normal hit point pool, and even before any Temporary Hit Points you might have. This pool begins with (Constitution modifier x Essentia invested in the soulmeld at the time of overcharging) hit points in it. When these hit points reach zero, or the encounter ends, or five minutes pass, whichever is soonest, the pool disappears.

While this special pool of hit points is active, the Overcharged soulmeld functions as if it had one more essentia invested in it than it actually does. This can break the normal cap on how much essentia you can normally have in one soulmeld. Furthermore, you gain a bonus on melee damage rolls equal to your Constitution modifier.

When this special pool of hit points disappears, your Overcharged soulmeld shatters, unshaping itself, and leaving a blue-tinted, blood-like residue on the part of your body it was shaped. This residue burns away completely over the course of an hour. If, before this hour elapses, you spend 5 minutes meditating on the blood, you may draw it out and reshape it into a different soulmeld (it cannot be the same one, but it may occupy the same or a different slot on your body). If you have a free chakra bind available, you may also bind the new soulmeld to that chakra.

At 10th level, you may use Overcharge Soulmeld two times per day. At 15th level, you may use it three times per day instead.

Violence Incarnate (Su): At 20th level, an Inheritor holds tremendous power within their body and soul, though they are unable to release it themselves. The first time that they would be reduced to 0 hit points or less by the actions of another, including damage that would kill them, or if they are killed by an effect that does not deal hit point damage originating from someone other than themselves, that damage or effect is negated, and they instead assume the form of Violence Incarnate. This form lasts for (Constitution modifier) rounds, during which time their flesh melts away to be replaced by roiling blue energy with a core of erratic, angry-red light. In this form, no form of violent action may harm them. Swords float through them with no effect, rays of disintegration bounce off of them harmlessly, and so on. Furthermore, when an act of violence is directed at them, regardless of distance, they may spend a free action (which may be taken outside of their turn) to teleport to a space adjacent to the aggressor and make a free melee attack against them.

After Violence Incarnate ends, the Inheritor reconstitutes their flesh, leaving them at one half of their maximum hit points, or whatever their current hit point total is, whichever is more, and must wait 24 hours before assuming the form again.

Xefas
2015-09-17, 07:13 PM
ChakraSoulmeldAssociated Discipline
CrownCrystal HelmIron Heart
Diadem of PurelightDevoted Spirit
Enigma HelmDiamond Mind
Hunter's CircletTiger Claw
Necrocarnum CircletShadow Hand

FeetAcrobat BootsTiger Claw
Airstep SandalsSetting Sun
Cerulean SandalsDiamond Mind
Impulse BootsDiamond Mind
Thunderstep BootsStone Dragon

HandsBloodwar GauntletsIron Heart
Lightning GauntletsDesert Wind
Lucky DiceTiger Claw
Mauling GauntletsIron Heart
Necrocarnum WeaponShadow Hand
Theft GlovesShadow Hand

ArmsBloodwar GauntletsIron Heart
Bluesteel BracersDiamond Mind
Mauling GauntletsIron Heart
Necrocarnum TouchShadow Hand
Riding BracersWhite Raven

BrowFearsome MaskTiger Claw
Keeneye LensesDiamond Mind
Mage's SpectaclesDesert Wind
Silvertongue MaskDevoted Spirit
Truthseeker GogglesSetting Sun

Shoulders[/td]Mantle of FlameDesert Wind
Pauldrons of HealthDevoted Spirit
Wind CloakSetting Sun

ThroatApparition RibbonSetting Sun
Necrocarnum MantleShadow Hand
Planar WardDevoted Spirit
Silvertongue MaskDevoted Spirit

WaistFlame CinctureDesert Wind
*Hungry Blade SashDiamond Mind
Necrocarnum ShroudShadow Hand
Necrocarnum VestmentsShadow Hand
Strongheart VestIron Heart
Vitality BeltStone Dragon

Heart*Juggernaut StrapsStone Dragon
Necrocarnum VestmentsShadow Hand
Spellward ShirtDevoted Spirit
Strongheart VestIron Heart

SoulFellmist RobeSetting Sun
Keeneye LensesDiamond Mind
Necrocarnum ShroudShadow Hand
*Sublime SpiritIron Heart

Soulmelds marked with an asterisk (*) are new soulmelds detailed below.

New Soulmelds

Hungry Blade Sash
Classes: Incarnate, Inheritor
Chakra: Waist

You wind incarnum into a single, long band of energy around your waist, which wraps around several times, and ends in a four-fingered claw-like hand. As you finish shaping the soulmeld, the hand twitches of its own accord, and lashes out, drawing a shimmering, intangible sheathe and accompanying shortsword from the surrounding aether, before affixing it to one of its own coils about your hip.

The sheathed shortsword created by this soulmeld seems even more ephemeral than other unbound soulmelds, phasing through any physical attempt to remove it from its resting place. Under normal circumstances, the sash itself remains as inanimate as any clothing, but when a combat encounter begins, its claw stirs restlessly, as if it can sense the imminent bloodshed, despite its lack of eyes or ears.

When you make a Full Attack, including at least one melee attack against a creature, after all of your own attacks have been resolved, the sash springs to life, unwinding several of its coils, grasping its incarnum shortsword with its attached claw, and lashing out at a creature of your choice within 10ft of you. This melee attack uses your highest base attack bonus, deals (1d6 + your Constitution modifier) damage on a successful hit, is effected by your Power Attack or Combat Expertise feats, if you have them active, as if it were one of your own attacks, threatens a critical hit on a 19 or 20, and suffers a -5 penalty. Afterwards, the sash sheathes its blade and returns to its resting position.

Essentia: For every point of Essentia invested in your Hungry Blade Sash, the penalty on its attack roll is reduced by 1 (to a minimum of a -0 penalty; it cannot become a bonus), and it deals 1 additional damage on a successful hit.

Chakra Bind: Waist
The sash around your waist loses the last vestiges of its patience, and now writhes without end, clasping and unclasping its claw around its weapon, as if to strike at every passing stranger or flickering shadow. Every now and again, it digs its sharp fingers into the flesh of your side, as if to ask why it has been so long without a meal.

When your Hungry Blade Sash attacks, it now bypasses damage reduction as if it were magical, and deals an extra 1d6 damage against a target that is caught flat-footed or flanked. Furthermore, it now makes an attack whenever you spend a standard action to melee attack a creature (including a standard action martial strike that involves a melee attack), in addition to its normal function of attacking after a Full Attack.

Juggernaut Straps
Classes: Incarnate, Inheritor
Chakra: Heart

You infuse incarnum around your torso, crafting an intricate harness of buckles and blue, leather-like straps that fits tightly, but not uncomfortably, even under clothing and armor.

As part of the process of donning a set of armor, you may attach your Juggernaut Straps to it. The straps are easily separated upon doffing the armor.

Armor attached to your Juggernaut Straps is extremely comfortable. You may sleep in it without difficulty, regardless of the heaviness of the armor, and the armor's weight does not count towards your encumbrance.

Essentia: For each point of essentia invested in your Juggernaut Straps, any attached set of armor has their Armor Check Penalty reduced by 1 and their Maximum Dexterity Modifier increased by 1.

Chakra Bind: Heart
Your incarnum harness becomes more intricate, and any armor it is attached to emits a dim blue shimmer around itself.

While you are not wearing armor, you may spend a swift action to touch a set of armor within your Reach, that is properly sized for you, and your Juggernaut Straps will spring to life, stretching themselves forth to collect the armor and don it to you instantaneously, attaching themselves to it in the process. While you are wearing armor, you may spend a swift action to instantly doff the armor, as your Juggernaut Straps detach themselves and neatly deposit the set in a careful heap adjacent to you.

The Armor Bonus granted by a set of armor attached to your Juggernaut Straps also applies to your Touch AC, as the shimmering shield it provides imparts a minor dose of invulnerability to your person.

Sublime Spirit
Classes: Inheritor
Chakra: Soul

You gather incarnum from the souls of martial adepts long passed and yet to be, forging a billowing nimbus of soft blue light around yourself from their peerless life-long dedication to the infliction of pain and death on other sapient beings.

The Sublime Spirit invests you with knowledge of all martial disciplines, granting you a +2 bonus on all Martial Lore checks. Furthermore, while it is shaped, you may sheathe one or more held weapons or shields as a free action once per round and, as part of the same action, draw one or more different weapons or shields, as long as you have the hands to hold them, from any sheathe, backpack, bag of holding, or other container on your person.

Essentia: For each point of essentia invested in your Sublime Spirit, your bonus on Martial Lore checks increases by 2, and you gain a +2 bonus on melee damage rolls when initiating a martial strike with a weapon associated with that strike's discipline.

Chakra Bind (Soul)
The nimbus surrounding you suddenly becomes more real, more solid, igniting like a brilliant, heatless flame from your skin.

Your Sublime Spirit now casts light as a torch.

When you initiate a readied 1st or 2nd level Strike maneuver, it is not expended and does not need to be refreshed to be used again. When you make an Attack of Opportunity, you may replace the normal melee attack with a readied Strike maneuver of 1st or 2nd level that has an activation time of one standard action. When you make a Full Attack, you may replace each individual attack you would make with a readied Strike maneuver of 1st or 2nd level (they can be the same maneuver, or different ones) that has an activation time of one standard action.

Amechra
2015-09-17, 10:01 PM
1. You keep swapping between 2nd and 3rd person. Stop doing that.

2. I'm... not entirely sure I like the recovery method. It feels a bit clunky.

3. Overcharge Soulmeld is neat, but it is ultimately pretty weak. Unless you're cranking out those Stone Dragon maneuvers, martial initiating isn't exactly known for damage prevention, and twice your Constitution modifier is peanuts by the time you've hit your 2nd use of the ability.

I like the new Soulmelds - Sublime Spirit has a kinda ridiculous Soul bind, but it's ultimately not too big of a deal.

Actually, wait a second; I can just initiate Flashing Blade in place of each attack I make as a full attack - that's 12 attacks right there. Actually, since Flashing Blade is specifically a full attack, I can make all of those 12 attacks into other maneuvers - I think I'll swap two of them off for Burning Brand and Burning Blade, so I can get +5ft reach and a bunch of fire damage.

Or maybe I should replace some of those attacks with Dancing Flame (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1191.0) or Shadow Jump, so that I can have stupid amounts of mobility?

I'm going to suggest that maybe, just maybe, you limit it to Strikes that take a Standard action to initiate?

Xefas
2015-09-18, 02:01 PM
1. You keep swapping between 2nd and 3rd person. Stop doing that.

It's intentional to emulate the writing style I found in Magic of Incarnum. For example, in the 'Meldshaping' class feature of the Incarnate, it switches perspective five times. The whole book is written like that. It's awful.

I would kind of hope, based on my Mythos stuff, you'd know I can write better than that. But this isn't my own thing. Hell, it was painful enough using that godawful "Making An 'X' / Playing An 'X'" format for the class description - I couldn't even bring myself to use the 'Other Classes' heading - but that's how this kind of class is written, so that's how I wrote it.


2. I'm... not entirely sure I like the recovery method. It feels a bit clunky.

It's basically the Warblade recovery mechanic, worded differently, plus the utility of swapping essentia and stances at the same time because it's a gish, and action economy is usually an issue for gish classes.


3. Overcharge Soulmeld is neat, but it is ultimately pretty weak. Unless you're cranking out those Stone Dragon maneuvers, martial initiating isn't exactly known for damage prevention, and twice your Constitution modifier is peanuts by the time you've hit your 2nd use of the ability.

That's true. My original thought was to use that hit point mechanic as a way of 'tanking' - as in, the enemy is incentivized to hit you instead of your allies, because it will actually disrupt your power. But on further review, it does seem like an incidental AoE could knock it off at mid levels. Do you think I should keep with the Constitution scaling? Just scaled up at higher levels to something like (Constitution modifier x 5) and (Constitution modifier x 10)? Or is there enough incentive to focus on Constitution, and I should scale the hit point shield off of something like character level?


I like the new Soulmelds - Sublime Spirit has a kinda ridiculous Soul bind, but it's ultimately not too big of a deal.

Writing soulmelds is pretty fun. But yeah, I wish they were a little stronger overall. I feel like Sublime Spirit is indeed pushing it, but only by being remotely reasonable for a high level power that you trade a magic item slot for.


Actually, wait a second; I can just initiate Flashing Blade in place of each attack I make as a full attack - that's 12 attacks right there. Actually, since Flashing Blade is specifically a full attack, I can make all of those 12 attacks into other maneuvers - I think I'll swap two of them off for Burning Brand and Burning Blade, so I can get +5ft reach and a bunch of fire damage.

Or maybe I should replace some of those attacks with Dancing Flame (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1191.0) or Shadow Jump, so that I can have stupid amounts of mobility?

I'm going to suggest that maybe, just maybe, you limit it to Strikes that take a Standard action to initiate?

Eh, I honestly don't think those are all that powerful. But I'll close the loophole anyway - I closed it for the Bellator too, so it's only fair.

noob
2015-09-18, 03:17 PM
Well it seems correct for a one level dip(two good saves+ something equivalent to two feats allowing you to have a near SAD character even with ranged weapons) but is the second passive at level 1 increasing with levels in other classes(it is only written +1 every four levels) in this case it is a correct dip for a fighter or barbarian.
Else there is the built for suffer which is named born for suffer in the table and mostly contains fluff(those feats are small bonuses very few people will feel(I never have seen someone run enough long for benefiting from endurance and toughness at level 6 is negligible)) but is ab-usable because of spells allowing to transform your feats in other feats.

Amechra
2015-09-18, 03:32 PM
1) Oh, I know you can write better. If I didn't know that you were, I wouldn't have commented.

2) In retrospect, you are right there - however, it is stronger than Warblade recovery. If I were the one writing this class, I would probably have recovery contingent on either reallocating Essentia or changing your Stance, with an additional class feature letting you do both as the same action. It feels cleaner to me, and might shake out as more memorable in play (I can't think of the proper terms to express why, though.)

3) You could go with basing it off the amount of Essentia invested in the Soulmeld. I would go with (Con. Modifier x Invested Essentia), since the assumption is that you're going to be using it on a Soulmeld that you have filled to the brim, just so that you can get the absolute most out of it. So it scales from 2X to 5X over the course of your career, and can be boosted to 7X pretty easily.

4) We're dealing with 3.x here - closing loopholes is a necessity (if this was for OD&D or whatever, I wouldn't even care)!

AtlasSniperman
2015-09-18, 03:53 PM
Even though I'm not too excited about using this class in my campaigns, I do like the new soulmelds and will nick them if that's alright :D

Xefas
2015-09-19, 02:04 PM
Well it seems correct for a one level dip(two good saves+ something equivalent to two feats allowing you to have a near SAD character even with ranged weapons) but is the second passive at level 1 increasing with levels in other classes(it is only written +1 every four levels) in this case it is a correct dip for a fighter or barbarian.

Soul Of A Killer only progresses with Inheritor levels. I'm pretty sure the features for all classes only progress with levels in that class, unless something is particular called out as using 'character level'.


Else there is the built for suffer which is named born for suffer in the table and mostly contains fluff(those feats are small bonuses very few people will feel(I never have seen someone run enough long for benefiting from endurance and toughness at level 6 is negligible)) but is ab-usable because of spells allowing to transform your feats in other feats.

Thanks for pointing out the name incongruity. The name of the class feature has been corrected to 'Born To Suffer'.

It is my opinion that, in a game in which your party's spellcasters are effectively utilizing strategies as esoteric as the Chaos Shuffle, an Incarnum/Martial Adept gish is going to need all the help they can get to stay remotely relevant, and a couple of extra feats to shuffle is not going to do that for them.



In retrospect, you are right there - however, it is stronger than Warblade recovery. If I were the one writing this class, I would probably have recovery contingent on either reallocating Essentia or changing your Stance, with an additional class feature letting you do both as the same action. It feels cleaner to me, and might shake out as more memorable in play (I can't think of the proper terms to express why, though.)

This seems reasonable. Although, I'm curious to hear from your experience how often you've seen stances get changed in the middle of combat. For me, the majority of the time, it's been zero, with the occasional one change.

Maybe the Inheritor could use an ability that rewards stance dancing? I like those.


You could go with basing it off the amount of Essentia invested in the Soulmeld. I would go with (Con. Modifier x Invested Essentia), since the assumption is that you're going to be using it on a Soulmeld that you have filled to the brim, just so that you can get the absolute most out of it. So it scales from 2X to 5X over the course of your career, and can be boosted to 7X pretty easily.

Good idea. Done.


Even though I'm not too excited about using this class in my campaigns, I do like the new soulmelds and will nick them if that's alright :D

That's perfectly okay. I'm glad you like them. I've had that Hungry Blade Sash idea in my head for a long time.

Solaris
2015-09-19, 02:36 PM
Brilliant class - I was thinking of doing something blending incarnum and martial initiating myself, but you've beaten me to the punch and executed it rather nicely. Having the disciplines linked to the soulmelds is rather clever and inspired, and it's what makes this class.

Amechra
2015-09-19, 06:14 PM
I actually have never had anyone ask to play a martial initiator. So I can't talk about it with any authority.

I do think that encouraging the stance dance is always a good thing. Always.

Amnoriath
2015-09-20, 09:03 AM
You have a very interesting concept and will work effectively the problem is though it is very front heavy class. While Incarnum classes have issues with this in general they make it so that it frees up some of the limitations of it and increases the numbers of them to make Incarnum more interesting. All this does is give everything at base what this is almost immediately and some key build versatility features and just increases uses as well as natural progression. It also has some clear dead levels. All in all it is balanced between the two with a couple interesting twists but being that it is a base class it lacks a star mechanic that makes it definitive in both play as well as flavor.

AtlasSniperman
2015-09-21, 04:03 AM
It's nice to see someone else interested in Incarnum. As I am terrible at homebrew'ing, I was wondering if you have any custom soulmelds apart from the ones listed here?

Xefas
2015-09-21, 09:19 AM
You have a very interesting concept and will work effectively the problem is though it is very front heavy class. While Incarnum classes have issues with this in general they make it so that it frees up some of the limitations of it and increases the numbers of them to make Incarnum more interesting. All this does is give everything at base what this is almost immediately and some key build versatility features and just increases uses as well as natural progression. It also has some clear dead levels. All in all it is balanced between the two with a couple interesting twists but being that it is a base class it lacks a star mechanic that makes it definitive in both play as well as flavor.

As per Amechra's input, the dead levels will probably be solved with some kind of stance mechanic (possibly with some shuffling of other features). And I don't think the Inheritor is any more front-loaded than its most comparable classes, the various official Incarnum and Martial Adept ones.


It's nice to see someone else interested in Incarnum. As I am terrible at homebrew'ing, I was wondering if you have any custom soulmelds apart from the ones listed here?

If you want to give me a theme, I might be convinced to make a few more. :smallsmile:

Amnoriath
2015-09-21, 04:45 PM
As per Amechra's input, the dead levels will probably be solved with some kind of stance mechanic (possibly with some shuffling of other features). And I don't think the Inheritor is any more front-loaded than its most comparable classes, the various official Incarnum and Martial Adept ones.


No this is more front-loaded than either of them, both the Totemist and Incarnate gives essentia expansion as well as abilities to change their sets of abilities through out the day over the course of their progression. This though gives everything that defines this class at 4th level. Additionally your maneuvers known mechanic can be hijacked by any other Incarnum combo and this only gets up to 6th level maneuvers in which it needs feats to gain more than 1. At least other initiators progress up to 9th. While the feat chain helps it is purely a defensive.

Nanoblack
2015-09-23, 08:58 AM
I know this is really reaching back for you, but have you considered adding more content to your Ruthless Catechism discipline? Probably my favorite homebrew of all time, especially flavor wise. Thank you for the awesome writing, as always!

Stratovarius
2015-09-23, 11:10 AM
On the whole, I would agree that this is a really nicely done class, but there's a couple things I think need tweaking:

Maneuvers:
It currently grants maneuvers from all 9 disciplines, but in a rather haphazard fashion that means it's simply impossible to use higher level maneuvers from a number of the disciplines. White Raven, Tiger Claw, and Desert Wind are the ones most directly affected.

Violence Incarnate:
This is simply an undefeatable "I win" button once a day. And it's one that can be voluntarily triggered by your ally kicking you in the shins as the BBEG fight commences. Against a BBEG, how are they supposed to counter this without running away?

khadgar567
2015-09-23, 12:42 PM
xefas small question about this class and katados/omphalion
how you gonna handle their final mythos create a soulmeld from scratch ability because it allows hybrid party to custom fit at lest one soulmeld to specially to get maximum benefit from lets say black seraph maneuvers which currently has no support from this class

Solaris
2015-09-23, 04:16 PM
Violence Incarnate:
This is simply an undefeatable "I win" button once a day. And it's one that can be voluntarily triggered by your ally kicking you in the shins as the BBEG fight commences. Against a BBEG, how are they supposed to counter this without running away?

This is at the level where spellcasters have several "I win" buttons that they can press whenever they like. It doesn't increase his offensive power, it just makes him momentarily invulnerable to damaging effects (hello, resilient sphere and grapple checks) and lets him attack a little more often if people are attacking him.
The BBEG, if he lacks casting of his own, counters this by ignoring the Inheritor and beating on his buddies. If the Inheritor is so astonishingly stupid as to voluntarily let his buddies maim him as a fight begins and leave himself at max total hit points after 5-6 rounds where the BBEG has the option of just waiting him out, then he kinda deserves what happens to the group.

Stratovarius
2015-09-23, 04:34 PM
This is at the level where spellcasters have several "I win" buttons that they can press whenever they like. It doesn't increase his offensive power, it just makes him momentarily invulnerable to damaging effects (hello, resilient sphere and grapple checks) and lets him attack a little more often if people are attacking him.
The BBEG, if he lacks casting of his own, counters this by ignoring the Inheritor and beating on his buddies. If the Inheritor is so astonishingly stupid as to voluntarily let his buddies maim him as a fight begins and leave himself at max total hit points after 5-6 rounds where the BBEG has the option of just waiting him out, then he kinda deserves what happens to the group.

Theoretically infinite (obviously much less) free attacks doesn't count as increasing his offensive ability? Especially since anyone full attacking the Inheritor gets a free action full attack right back? The BBEG guy makes that mistake once, and a reasonably optimized Inheritor will kill it. Also, it's not immune to damage, it's immune to "violent effects", which is pretty easy to read as "anything hostile". If the player wants to be a real rules lawyer about it, they can argue any spell or ability attempting to stop them from Ubercharging the BBEG is a "violent effect" and thus ignored. You're also making the assumption the BBEG knows what the ability is and how to counter it. Which he won't, because the PC will be the only 20th level Inheritor in the world, or damn close to it, unless the world is customized around this class. So, no, it's a poorly written, overpowered "I win" button.

Solaris
2015-09-28, 07:03 PM
Theoretically infinite (obviously much less) free attacks doesn't count as increasing his offensive ability? Especially since anyone full attacking the Inheritor gets a free action full attack right back?

No, it doesn't, because he still deals just as much damage with those attacks as he did before and his getting free attacks is contingent on their making the mistake of hitting him multiple times. That's the sort of mistake an intelligent opponent only makes once, and with most intelligent opponents, they don't need to wait to see if it'll happen to them too when there's a party full of softer targets around.


The BBEG guy makes that mistake once, and a reasonably optimized Inheritor will kill it.

You're building BBEGs wrong if a single full attack from the party's beatstick will kill them.


Also, it's not immune to damage, it's immune to "violent effects", which is pretty easy to read as "anything hostile". If the player wants to be a real rules lawyer about it, they can argue any spell or ability attempting to stop them from Ubercharging the BBEG is a "violent effect" and thus ignored.

No. That's not what it says.
It says that no violent effect may harm them. If your player is trying to argue that effects that deal no explicit damage are harmful, you have greater problems at your table and need to look into ways to deal with rule lawyers.


You're also making the assumption the BBEG knows what the ability is and how to counter it. Which he won't, because the PC will be the only 20th level Inheritor in the world, or damn close to it, unless the world is customized around this class. So, no, it's a poorly written, overpowered "I win" button.

I missed where it said this in the class. Where's it mention that incarnates are any rarer than any other class in the setting?

Amechra
2015-09-28, 07:39 PM
d2 Crusader says hello. It would like you to meet its good buddy, d2 Inheritor. That's how a single attack takes down the BBEG.

It's not rules lawyering if you are using the English meanings of undefined terms. Xefas is a precise sophont - if they say meant that "you take no damage", they would have written "you take no damage". Keep in mind that one of the examples is a ray of disintegration bouncing off - Disintegrate doesn't deal damage as its primary effect, as it were.

"Directed at them" also doesn't mean "targeted at them". I presume this is to cover cases where you're inside the area of an AoE or stuff that doesn't actually have an explicit target, such as attacks.

That being said... Violence Incarnate is simultaneously too strong and too weak for a capstone. It's too weak if you don't have some means to provoke opponents, and is too strong if you do.

Solaris
2015-09-30, 05:11 PM
If we're homebrewing with TO as our benchmark, we're doing it wrong.

Disintegrate has a harmful effect. The examples I've been giving, while annoying to someone who wants to murder all the things, are not harmful effects. There can be no harm directly ascribed to them with or without a failed saving throw or skill check, as inconvenience is not defined as harm.

So yes, it is rules lawyering to try claiming a non-harmful effect would trigger Violence Incarnate's ability.

Amechra
2015-09-30, 05:29 PM
TO would be using Fusion to fuse the Inheritor with a Psion, and using an obscure combo set up to move Violence Incarnate's duration to forever and ever a hundred years. Merely pointing out that the ability isn't written tightly is not TO.

The d2 Inheritor was just me making a joke.

Please, nobody is urinating in your choice of breakfast victuals. We're all friends here.



My issue is less that it has vague triggers (would stuff like Mind Rape or Imprisonment be harmful acts? They are permanently harming your agency in a way that a grapple doesn't), and more that it's really clumsy.

Solaris
2015-09-30, 05:51 PM
TO would be using Fusion to fuse the Inheritor with a Psion, and using an obscure combo set up to move Violence Incarnate's duration to forever and ever a hundred years. Merely pointing out that the ability isn't written tightly is not TO.

The d2 Inheritor was just me making a joke.

A joke, sure, but d2 Crusader/Inheritor is TO. Just because you can do better doesn't make it not.

I'd make use of an elan (immortal), an item which permits travel between planes, and a demiplane that moves forward 24 hours for every 1 round that passes on the Prime Material. Trigger Violence Incarnate, and as soon as it expires head back to the demiplane, wait for 24 hours, have a buddy kick your shins until you trigger it again, and come back.
Repeat until all the world is destroyed.


My issue is less that it has vague triggers (would stuff like Mind Rape or Imprisonment be harmful acts? They are permanently harming your agency in a way that a grapple doesn't), and more that it's really clumsy.

This I agree with. Just because the DM can adjudicate it doesn't mean (especially in the legalistic 3.5E) that it shouldn't be explicated as clearly as possible.