Getting stronger as a battle progresses?

[heavyfuel]

Player wants something that makes him stronger the more rounds an encounter lasts. Does such a thing exist? Maybe in the form of feats or classes.

The only things I can think that come to mind are the (Greater) Consumptive Field (3.5) and the Deadly Juggernaut (PF) spells, but he's more of a martial guy.

Is there such a thing? Like a bonus per enemy killed, or a bonus per round?

Thanks

Edit: I talked to my friend and he also suggested something that triggered off damage taken. Everytime he takes damage, he hits harder (similar to a Crusader's delayed damage pool, but more permanent)

[Manyasone]

'Blood in the water' or 'Pearl of black doubt' springs to mind. Both are 'Tome of Battle' stances

[Venger]

Player wants something that makes him stronger the more rounds an encounter lasts. Does such a thing exist? Maybe in the form of feats or classes.

The only things I can think that come to mind are the (Greater) Consumptive Field (3.5) and the Deadly Juggernaut (PF) spells, but he's more of a martial guy.

Is there such a thing? Like a bonus per enemy killed, or a bonus per round?

Thanks

the spell "sadism" gives a bonus based on the amount of damage dealt if your player's a caster.

what kind of character is he playing?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

This one's fairly literal. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/strengthofMyEnemy.htm)

[JeminiZero]

Blood in the Water has been mentioned (which is part of the Sleeping Raven Infinite Blood Frenzy (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?241913) trick).

There is also Consumptive Field (as well as its Greater variant) from Spell Compendium which gives +2 stacking str bonus for each creature it kills. It only lasts 1 rnd/level, but it has a fixed range and can be persisted with DMM, or other Metamagic reducers.

[heavyfuel]

'Blood in the water' or 'Pearl of black doubt' springs to mind. Both are 'Tome of Battle' stances

Had forgotten about "Blood in the water", but "Pearl" only last one round, so it's too good for this. "Blood" might work, but he's a Swordsage focused on the Desert Wind school, so he doesn't crit that often.


the spell "sadism" gives a bonus based on the amount of damage dealt if your player's a caster.

what kind of character is he playing?

Pretty nice spell. Too bad it only lasts for the round.

He's a Swordsage focused on the Desert Wind school.


This one's fairly literal. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/strengthofMyEnemy.htm)

This one is pretty cool!

[ShurikVch]

How about the Mantle of Pure Spite from the Heroes of Horror?

[heavyfuel]

I talked to my friend and he also suggested something that triggered off damage taken. Everytime he takes damage, he hits harder (similar to a Crusader's delayed damage pool, but more permanent)

Speaking of which:


How about the Mantle of Pure Spite from the Heroes of Horror?

Might work. He's far from the level where an 8th lv spell would be attainable, but I can always create a lesser version of it.

Any other suggestions?

[Flickerdart]

Basically any character capable of casting buff spells becomes stronger every round, because he can cast buff spells on himself. If he also wants to attack people, he can quicken the buffs.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Basically any character capable of casting buff spells becomes stronger every round, because he can cast buff spells on himself. If he also wants to attack people, he can quicken the buffs.And there are very few that are better at doing so than a psion or psychic warrior with the Linked Power feat and the synchronicity power. Lots of options for breaking the action economy, so you can buff hard without worrying about interrupting your action flow.

[Eldariel]

Spells and Powers, particularly the linked Strength of My Enemy, seem like exactly what he's looking for. Long story short, as Ardents choose powers based on their manifester level, not their class level, a level 1 Ardent with the appropriate Mantle (you'll have to make use of power substitution (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a)) could learn it. A Swordsage could easily multiclass in Ardent thanks to the Wisdom-based casting and get access to it. Of course, getting enough Power Points per day to reliably cast it is a tricky matter not to mention wanting to probably Quicken it, but 2 levels in Ardent would at least provide you with enough manifester level and power points to quicken it. Power points can always be acquired through items.


Far as purely martial stuff goes, there are some on-off abilities though, such as Barbarian's PHBII Berserker Rage ACF or some similar abilities that trigger when you've taken ½ your HP in damage or similar. Sadly it's just on-off.

The only thing not-mentioned that does exactly what you want that I can think of is Pain Mastery [Savage Species], where you get a stacking +2 strength bonus until end of encounter for every 50 damage you take. The downsides are of course:
1) It requires 20 Con and Toughness.
2) It requires you to take a lot of damage. 50 is neither trivial to take nor to survive.
3) It's from Savage Species.

Still, it's at least something you can mention though not really practical with the amounts of HP your average Swordsage is going around with.

[flappeercraft]

I talked to my friend and he also suggested something that triggered off damage taken. Everytime he takes damage, he hits harder (similar to a Crusader's delayed damage pool, but more permanent)

Speaking of which:



Might work. He's far from the level where an 8th lv spell would be attainable, but I can always create a lesser version of it.

Any other suggestions?

He can use Sadism's weaker counterpart Masochism which for every 10 hp of damage yo take you gain a +1 luck bonus on attack rolls, saving throws and skill checks made in the following round. Unfortunately it does not give extra damage like you asked.

[ShurikVch]

Maybe, Karmic Strike?

Divine Justice feat allow to strike enemy for the same damage it caused to you (required ability to turn or rebuke undead)

What's about the lycanthropy?
Certain animals would give some advantages:
(Dire) Badger or (Dire) Wolverine go into Rage - when take a hit;
Carcass Eater (Libris Mortis) - Blood Frenzy - on successful attack.

[Cerefel]

There's a feat in Savage Species that gives bonus strength from taking damage, but the conversion rate is pretty unfavorable most of the time.

[Val666]

the spell "sadism" gives a bonus based on the amount of damage dealt if your player's a caster.

what kind of character is he playing?

The Book of Vile Darkness (Pg 118) contains a pair of earings called the Rhapsody of Pain which grants the wearer the constant effects of the Sadism & Masochism spells.

[CaPtMalHammer]

If you were a Barbarian could take the alternate class feature that when you drop below 50 percent you rage :) Also I like Karmic Strike. Doesn't make you stronger per say but allows you to dish out the damage you are taking back:)

[supersonic29]

As a lot of these options are, this isn't exactly buffing your character as the battle goes on, but (Greater) Cleave can have you dishing out extra attacks as the end of the battle draws near and your opponents (assuming they are plural) are all dropping to downable range. Would kinda go hand in hand with the buffs you received with the strength stealing when you try to cleave right through the remaining guys riding that buff, like a culmination of strength gathered.

[Zaq]

The current round of Iron Chef has a collection of builds using Serene Guardian, which is a class that builds up "resonance" in its enemies as the battle wears on (and then spends that resonance to make its enemies unhappy). As you can tell from the fact that it's an Iron Chef ingredient, the class has some issues (not least among them that you can only build up 1 or 2 points of resonance per foe per round, and as we all know, D&D 3.5 doesn't usually favor players who leave enemies alive for many rounds), but it's a neat idea, at least.

The other thing I can think of is some kind of character with a lot of abilities that take a swift action to turn on but that last for more than a round or two. So every round, you use a swift action to bring some kind of new trick online, but you've still got your other actions to actually fight things. This is usually not the world's most amazing strategy, of course.

Oh, wait, I know! Get a whole bunch of fancy psionic tattoos (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20031225a) that use Relays and Capacitors (and maybe a Mental Tap to kick things off)! On round 1, you activate the first tattoo, and then on rounds 2 and 3, the Relays activate your later tattoos automatically. Capacitors make the tattoos not just be single-use. It's not the cheapest option, and you are kind of limited by the fact that tattoos can only hold powers of up to level 3 (and you can't augment them), but I've always wanted to see a character who goes all-in with that Mind's Eye article.

[ShurikVch]

Some more stuff:

Maneuvers/Stances
Fountain of Blood - fear DC depend on damage you caused in prev. round
Shifting Defense - 5' step each time enemy miss you
Tactical Strike - adjacent allies move 5'; you are your one ally, and alwats adjacent to yourself
Wolf Pack Tactics - 5' step each successful attack

Feats
Crushing Strike (Players Handbook II)
Involuntary Rage (Savage Species)
Stormguard Warrior (Tome of Battle)

PrC: Hellreaver (Fiendish Codex II): you must spend holy fury points to make you things; from the 5th level, you may also restore all your holy fury points by taking 2 Con damage (*Naberius* :smallwink:)

Monstrous stuff (in case you can get it somehow)
Kaiju (Dragon #289): Battle Frenzy - if go down to 25% of your full health, get +4 Str and extra natural attack
Thoon Thrall (Monster Manual V): Overdrive Healing - if you will find way to turn it off (detachable symbiont?)

[heavyfuel]

When looking for something entirely different I came across the Fury Domain (http://ftm3.altervista.org/ASMoNM/domains.html) (FC1), and its granted power. It's pretty cool for a concept like this. Now, if only we could get more uses per day.