[ToB] Reinventing Desert Wind

[Edo]

I'm in the process of doing a supplement/redesign of Desert Wind and Setting Sun (which will get its own thread once I playtest it a bit), both of which (IMHO) have serious crunch/fluff incongruity and aren't very useful as written.

More will be posted as I finish it up, but for starters...

Dune Raider Style
Desert Wind (Stance)
Level: Swordsage 3
Prerequisites: One Desert Wind maneuver
Initiation Action: 1 swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance

While you are in this stance, you gain the skirmish ability, if you do not already have it, which gives you a +1 competence bonus to AC and deals an additional +2d6 points of damage. If you already have the skirmish ability, your existing skirmish ability deals an extra 2d6 points of damage and grants an extra +1 competence bonus to AC. See the scout class feature (CAdv 12) for a description of the skirmish class ability.

[Edo]

The one other thing I've written up for Desert Wind is a tactical feat, Wasteland Winds - partially to reflect what my future add-ons will focus on (skirmishing and DoT), and partially because Scorching Sirocco's design was just wonky. Thank you, Fax, for helping me work out Burning Stillness.

Wasteland Winds
You command the secrets of the sandstorms. Through long study and many hours of practice, you have learned to move like a storm in the wasteland, and can use this to maneuver the battlefield like few others.
Prerequisite: Desert Wind Dodge, BAB +6, two Desert Wind maneuvers.
Benefit: The Wasteland Winds feat enables the use of three tactical options.
Dust Devil Dance: To use this tactical option, you must deal skirmish damage to your opponent. On your next turn, you can attempt a DC 20 Tumble check as a swift action. If you succeed, your opponent may not make attacks of opportunity against you this round.
Snow on Sand: To use this tactical option, you must have an enemy ignore any fire damage you do because of fire resistance or immunity. On your next turn, you may select a different energy type. All Desert Wind-related energy damage you deal (including from feats) is dealt as this energy type until the end of your turn.
Burning Stillness: To use this tactical option, you must deal fire damage to a foe from Desert Wind Dodge or a Desert Wind maneuver. On your next turn, you must deal fire damage to that foe again. If your opponent moves more than 10' from their original position before the start of your next turn, they catch fire (DMG 303.)More will be posted as it gets composed.

[I_Got_This_Name]

Dune Raider looks a bit overpowered; at the same level, Shadow Hand offers Sneak Attack +2d6 (as a rogue two levels lower than the minimum to use the stance); you're giving Skirmish +2d6/+1, which is what a Scout of the minimum level to use your stance gets. I'd drop it to either +2d6, or +1d6/+1.

No stance should give a class's primary feature at the same effectiveness as the class gets it (at the level that you get the stance).

Also, Dust Devil Dance should not require skirmish damage; no tactical feat should be so narrow as to only work if you're in a specific stance (assuming you don't multiclass).

[Fax Celestis]

Also, Dust Devil Dance should not require skirmish damage; no tactical feat should be so narrow as to only work if you're in a specific stance (assuming you don't multiclass).

Er, that's how tactical feats work. Look at the ones presented in Dungeonscape: Hammer and Piton requires you to have a hammer and a piton. Weapon and Torch requires you to fill your second hand with a torch. Gnome Tunnel Fighting requires you to be a gnome.

[I_Got_This_Name]

Having a torch in your off-hand, or a hammer and piton, or whatever, is a different thing than being in a specific martial stance. Likewise, racial prerequisites or class prerequisites are different from requiring a specific stance to activate, when that stance isn't a prerequisite.

A tactical feat shouldn't have a "when you cast magic missile" option, or a "while your protection from arrows spell is in effect" option, especially if knowing those spells isn't a prerequisite for the feat; using a specific martial stance is little different than having a specific spell running.

I'd rephrase it so that it works whenever you would do skirmish damage (move before attacking), even if you don't actually have any. Increases the power a bit, but makes the mechanics seem better. Alternately, put skirmish damage or Dune Raider Stance in the prerequisites. I find anything else to look sloppy.

[Edo]

Dune Raider looks a bit overpowered; at the same level, Shadow Hand offers Sneak Attack +2d6 (as a rogue two levels lower than the minimum to use the stance); you're giving Skirmish +2d6/+1, which is what a Scout of the minimum level to use your stance gets.I had a few considerations for this.

First, you're going to be doing less damage skirmishing than sneak attacking. You don't get skirmish damage out of turn, and it's easier to set up a sneak attack than a skirmish - especially if you're trying to get multiple attacks. (Flashing Sun doesn't help much, since it's a full-round action that takes a Sudden Leap to qualify for skirmish.)

Second, skirmishing swordsages (and it's already doable with Desert Fire) don't skirmish like scouts. Scouts get around the limits of skirmishing by being mobile archers; swordsages don't have the feats for that. A skirmishing swordsage is going to face more AoOs and readied spears than most scouts ever will; +1 AC isn't going to make them unstoppable.


Also, Dust Devil Dance should not require skirmish damage; no tactical feat should be so narrow as to only work if you're in a specific stance (assuming you don't multiclass).Desert Wind already has a way to do skirmish damage (Desert Fire), one that technically applies to hadokens too. (Dune Raider Style isn't meant to, and I should clarify that.)

Also, at least a few of my homebrew Desert Wind strikes are going to involve skirmish damage, which opens it up even more. (Which isn't to say that Dune Raider isn't the most reliable way of setting up for Dust Devil Dance, but Gloom Razor has the same synergy going with Child of Shadow as well.)

[Yuki Akuma]

Desert Wind currently has no way of dealing skirmish damage, as it in no way ever states that anything you're doing is even similar to the skirmish ability. If a rule doesn't say it is something, but doesn't say it isn't, it most likely isn't.

A feat that relies on you using an ability not actually spelled out in the prerequisites is just sloppy feat design.

[Gnomick]

Yuki, look again. He wrote a new Desert Wind stance that deals skirmish damage.