Don't hurt my friends!

[Clopin Silk]

Wondering if you guys had some advice for how D&D can implement one of the most cliche'd Shonen anime tropes, namely, the hero who will straight-up end you if you hurt their friends. Are there any feats, skills, spells or magic items that would allow a character to punish enemies for dealing damage to other party members? Stuff that specifically allows for quick and nightmarish retribution, explicitly triggered by a party member (not my character, but the rest of the party) taking damage?

[Mordaedil]

Well, normally I wouldn't play D&D if I wanted to do anything anime like (albeit Slayers d20 has some good takes for stuff like this) But if forced to, I'd look to the barbarian rage and maybe work with that.

Or you could go the Mega Man X route, become immune to status effects, full recovery of health, all spell slots (if applicable) restored and all of the enemy's resistances are ignored through sheer force of will.

[Fizban]

Basically, no. There are a few effects that give you a small bonus when allies fall, but it's never more than +2 or so and they're never worth the price compared to other options. The way to do the trope is just make a suitably overpowered character who only fights at full strength if someone drops. This doesn't make any more sense in dnd than it does in anime, but there it is. Just make a character with rage who only rages when their friends are threatened because reasons.

If you want to be more proactive, try something like the Scarlet Bravura (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?101008-Just-Who-The-Hell-Do-You-Think-We-Are!-Discipline) discipline, which works the opposite way: lower your defenses to fighter harder and if you drop, your allies get boosted. If one of your allies is using it, you fight at full strength like you should, and then if they drop (after using the appropriate maneuver) you get an extra effect. That way you can fight at full strength all the time and still have "more" since it comes from someone else.

Alternatively, you implement some form of action points or hero points. Some players will use them whenever needed, while the player of the grief berserker hordes them so they can spam all their action points in response to someone dropping.

[Tohsaka Rin]

Functionally, the cliche represents a character having a reason to stop holding back. Typically, a shounen hero is several levels ahead of their friends, and just (knowingly or not) imposes penalties upon themselves...

But that's stupid.

Because most shounen heroes are stupid.

They're idiots.

Because they never fight at their peak, until they get their friends hurt by their own inaction.

...Signed,
A shounen anime fan.

Oh! Right, something constructive... Maybe something using roblier's (forgetting how to spell that) gambit, and temporary hit points to come out ahead of the curve in the tradeoff.

[Diarmuid]

These are likely not as powerful as you're looking for, but the Ardent gets a couple abilities that fit in this theme.

The Guardian mantle allows for taking a hit for an adjacent ally that gets attacked and the Justice mantle lets you make an AoO against someone who attacks an adjacent ally. Both are Immediate actions to use and require expending your Psionic Focus to utilize.

Lastly, I'm playing War of the Burning Crusade and there is a setting specific feat that lets you designate a target that has damaged an ally and you receive +2 damage against them for the remainder of the encounter. It's usable 1/encounter.

Not much, but hope it helps.

[Segev]

Build a buffer wizard (a "God" archetype in optimizing terms) who keeps one or two super-strong direct punishment spells that he never uses. Or feats to let him swap out spells spontaneously for such things, even if it's at a bad exchange rate.

The thing about well-written showmen action heroes who follow this tripe is that they are not actually stronger when their friends get hurt; they are less careful. They shift from maximizing their resources and defending themselves and others to throwing everything into killing the offender, and darn the consequences.

So playing a nave who usually efficiently maximizes his allies' effectiveness it who can burn through his resources to shift to the mailman archetype or otherwise give up his most effective powers for faster and more brutal beat down capability would work.

The reason to hold back is so you can keep going and so you maximize your effectiveness per spell slot. When you cut loose, you're leaving yourself and your party more vulnerable in the medium term in favor of maximizing short-term destruction of those who've made you mad.

[The Viscount]

The Defensive Rebuke maneuver does this.
Defensive Strike from Devoted Defender applies for a moderate bonus. Tactical Soldier's capstone will as well, but that's not worth 10 levels of the class.

[Deophaun]

The thing about well-written showmen...
Well played, autocorrect. Well played.

...action heroes who follow this tripe is that they are not actually stronger when their friends get hurt; they are less careful. They shift from maximizing their resources and defending themselves and others to throwing everything into killing the offender, and darn the consequences.
Teh. Of course they get stronger. I have been reliably informed that friendship is magic.

[Segev]

It was also supported to be "trope" and not "tripe."

And friendship makes them stronger with or without their friends being hurt. :smalltongue:

[Troacctid]

The character needs some reason why she's not fighting at full power all the time. D&D already has a convenient mechanic for this: daily abilities. Have a powerful 1/day buff ability and save it for when your friends are in danger.

[Telonius]

You might be able to wrangle something out of Intelligent Magical Items, too. Something where it only starts casting or acting on behalf of its owner when friends start getting hurt. (That way the hero has some excuse for not giving it their all, all the time; it's not totally up to them).

EDIT: "Defend a particular race or kind of creature" is already one of the options for Intelligent Items. Not too much of a stretch to say that "friends of the bearer" is a particular kind of creature.

[Flickerdart]

Doesn't the Devoted Spirit discipline have all sorts of effects that are all about punishing attacks on people that aren't you?

[Segev]

The character needs some reason why she's not fighting at full power all the time. D&D already has a convenient mechanic for this: daily abilities. Have a powerful 1/day buff ability and save it for when your friends are in danger.

There are fears that let you start to burn spells less efficiently for more versatility. Swap out for the hammer spells when you get mad at bad guys for hurting your friends. Use more efficient spells for your normal behavior.

[Hogsy]

Wondering if you guys had some advice for how D&D can implement one of the most cliche'd Shonen anime tropes, namely, the hero who will straight-up end you if you hurt their friends. Are there any feats, skills, spells or magic items that would allow a character to punish enemies for dealing damage to other party members? Stuff that specifically allows for quick and nightmarish retribution, explicitly triggered by a party member (not my character, but the rest of the party) taking damage?

There's this paladin (https://sites.google.com/site/bardawilcampaignsite/core-classes/paladin) variant from a homebrew setting called Witchdusk that has the following ability among many other goodies(Including but not limited to free devoted spirit stances):

Divine Challenge (Su): At will, a paladin can issue a divine challenge against any creature within 30 feet. The challenged creature take a -2 penalty to the attack rolls and/or DCs of any attack, spell, or other ability it uses that does not include the paladin as a target. Furthermore, the target is rebuked by the paladin's divine power for such offenses, taking damage equal to twice the paladin's class level. If the creature is undead, it instead takes damage equal to three times the paladin's class level.

The challenge lasts until the paladin uses this ability again. The challenge also ends at the end of the paladin's turn if she didn't engage the target, meaning she neither attacked it during her turn nor is adjacent to it at the end of her turn.

At 3rd level, the paladin adds her her Cha bonus (if any) to any damage dealt by the Divine Challenge ability.

[Stealth Marmot]

The problem isn't designing the feat to make this viable, the problem is designing the feat or skill in a way that doesn't result in the players doing some of the weirdest and most horrifying methods of munchkinning the feat.

Say you make it so if half of the party is bloodied (Under half HP) you get bonuses to your attack rolls, then the player would carry around 5 or 6 mice or birds or henchmen that are perpetually bloodied. Every day they punch out the hit points that they heal up during the night, that way they keep their +3 to hit at all times since "I count the mice/birds/henchmen as part of the party!"

[Flickerdart]

Actually, the paladin talk reminds me - there's an ACF (Berronar Valkyrie?) that allows a paladin to Pounce, but only against an enemy threatening an ally.

[danielxcutter]

Nightsong Enforcer might be good, as the entire prestige class revolves around teamwork. Especially the 6th-level feature, Opportunist;


Opportunist (Ex): Once per round, a nightsong enforcer of 6th level or higher can make an attack of opportunity against an opponent who has just been injured in melee by another character. See the rogue class feature, page 51 of the Player's Handbook.

[Cozzer]

In general, the Paladin class covers the "so-so fighter that becomes fearsome when the enemy is X" kind of character. The class itself kinda sucks in 3.5 (I like the Pathfinder version, though!), so you can use whatever homebrewed version you want and then redefine the character's code of honor with "I will protect my friends and never betray them!" and change "Smite Evil" to "Smite Whoever Hurts My Friends!".

This last change needs a bit of thought, since in every group fight every enemy is trying to hurt your friends... maybe the Shonen Paladin is only able to Smite an enemy who has already downed another PC, or put another PC in critical state? I don't know how that would compare with Smite Evil, balance-wise, but it would fit with the theme since the Shonen Paladin would become more powerful as the fight nears its end and characters start to be on the verge of dying.

(Pathfinder also has an interesting 2nd level spell for Paladins, that can be used outside of your turn and lets you take the damage of an attack that just hit another PC. Using that and then retaliating with a Smite Whoever Hurts My Friends would fit very well with the theme.)

[Fizban]

Outcast Champion (Races of Destiny) has "smite person who damaged one of my friends" as essentially its main feature, cha to attack and up to 5d6 damage usable cha/day. Its other abilities are aura of will save boost, minor clearheaded rage/group version, and improved aid another bonuses for everyone in the party. Sounds about perfect now that I line it all up, aside from not progressing any abilities from cha based classes or working with cha bonus races (angsty half-humans only). Good for groups that use wacky overpowered rolling methods though.

[WhamBamSam]

The Defensive Rebuke maneuver does this.
Defensive Strike from Devoted Defender applies for a moderate bonus. Tactical Soldier's capstone will as well, but that's not worth 10 levels of the class.Defensive Rebuke was going to be my suggestion. As a boost, it's one of the maneuvers which actually works at range, so you can plink at all of your enemies with a bow or something and put yourself in a position to punish any foe that attacks your allies, provided you have some means of making use of AoOs provoked by enemies you don't threaten. To that end there are a few options.

1. The most unambiguous option is the Ghostly Tail spell in Races of the Dragon, which is Sorcerer 1 (so available on a dip or to a Kobold or Racial Emulation Changeling via the Draconic Rite of Passage if you don't want to be a spellcaster) and does the following.
A partially translucent, scaled tail uncoils from behind you, as if it had always been there, and slaps at foes that leave themselves open to attack.
You evoke a partially translucent, scaled tail that can attack foes that are vulnerable to attacks of opportunity.
If your foe takes an action that would provoke an attack of opportunity from you, even if you are not holding a melee weapon that would normally threaten your foe, your evoked dragon's tail attacks the target with a melee touch attack, dealing 2d6 points of damage on a successful hit.
You can only strike with a ghostly tail if you have not already taken your allowed number of attacks of opportunity in the round.
Special: A dragonblooded character, or a character with the dragon type, deals an extra 1 point of damage per level with a ghostly tail (maximum 20 points).So if a foe performs an action that would provoke (like attacking one of your buddies after being Defensive Rebuked) they get smacked as a melee touch attack even if you're not anywhere near them. Play it up as your character's inner wrath surging out to strike with spiritual force or somesuch. The tail also has some phallic imagery potential, which is good if you're going for a Shonen anime type.

2. The Stormguard Warrior feat (Tome of Battle) has the Combat Rhythm tactical maneuver, which does the following.
Channel the Storm: To use this option, you must choose to refrain from making one or more available attacks of opportunity against a single opponent. On your next turn, you gain a +4 bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls for each attack that you refrained from making against the same opponent. You gain this bonus only against an opponent that you refrained from making an attack of opportunity against in the previous round.If you can convince your DM that not AoOing an enemy that provokes counts as foregoing the AoO even if you don't actually threaten them, then you can use the Defensive Rebuke AoOs to charge up your attack and damage rolls and punish the foe with righteous fury on the following round.

3. The Evasive Reflexes feat (Tome of Battle) lets you take a 5ft step instead "when an opponent gives you a chance to make an attack of opportunity," which should mean when they provoke from you. If you're a Swift Hunter, you can use this movement to set up skirmish damage (try looking up Flip the Bird from Stormwind and Co's old Weekly Optimization Showcase), or if you can optimize your 5ft step ability (Sparring Dummy of the Master/DC40 Tumble check to take 10ft steps, the Press The Advantage stance may or may not allow you to double up on Evasive Reflexes 5ft steps) you might be able to close with the enemy on their first attack then AoO them if they make a second attack while within reach.

[DMVerdandi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHt1Tj6Kes0


The most powerful expression of this is the Tactician and Vitalist classes from Ultimate Psionics by Dreamscarred press (Pathfinder). Doubly so if you were to gestalt them together.

Friendship becomes Psionics in the most potent of ways. It would cause you to become slightly MAD, but rocking 20 in Wis and Int is nothing. Totally doable. Especially with point buy.

You aren't going to be super Psionic, but It will wreck faces. Especially with the vitalist. So, here is how it would work.



With the Tactician and Vitalist, they have two very potent Class abilities that they share. Collective and Spirit of many. What these two abilities allow you to do is:

A: Manifest powers (or Cast spells) that have a range greater than touch from ANY range on allies within a Collective (What you would consider a Party in a video game).

B:Make powers with the Network Descriptor work as supernatural abilities (Bypassing and SR, or immunities)
As well as being able to multi-target Network powers for 1 additional power point.



Tactician alone specializes more in using teamwork feats and strategies (Which give bonuses similar to Bardic Performances while also marking certain targets.). They can also manifest powers that other members in the collective have later on, as well as taking effects that one collective member has, and distributing them to others.


Vitalist works similarly, but has more focus on healing the team, mostly.
As far as retributive powers, Empathetic Feedback is probably the best, and it lets the enemy experience a quarter of the damage that you take, as damage back on them.
You hit me, and you feel it too.

Now, with the shared power Metapsionic feat, this essentially means you can take that power, which initially only works on the manifester, and distribute it to your allies.
So, at level 11, you can begin to make it so that one ally that is not you can return damage that is obtained back in melee. Every level after that, you can add it to one extra ally for one power point using Spirit of many, and it also loses it's mind-affecting descriptor, making it untyped damage.

Vitalist is also best at using Empathetic feedback.

Secondly, Both Vitalist and tactician can use Trigger Power in combination with Shared power and Spirit of many. This means you can use really good buffs that have conditions that you write into the power.
So, If you wanted to use a specific buff on a collective member, or All collective members, with specific conditions like "One of our "nakama" is in distress" The Vitalist/Tactician would Manifest Trigger power, Attach said power, and then use Spirit of many to add it to each team member.

Lets say you Have Psionic Lion's Charge from expanded knowledge. You want everyone to go all out for one attack if they hear one of their allies cry for help. The V/T would Manifest Trigger power(P.Lion's Charge)+Shared power and then use Spirit of Many to Add it to... 3 other allies (PP Cost: 3+4+1/Number of allies),

So, if everyone is in the room, And one ally goes down and yells "Tasukete(Help!!!)"
Everyone Powers up, and Gets ready to unleash holy hell on the next turn.





So, Yeah, either one, or the other is really good at Team Buffing, And turning their feelings towards their all of their friends(Minna tomodachi-san) into power. Even furthermore if you use Metaconcert, which extended over a network allows you to transcend space/time to gain the energy of your buddies into a spirit-bomb esque reserve of power and friendship and love, that you can convert into a genki-dama, or kamehameha of fatherly adoration (If you have Energy Ray or Ball from expanded knowledge.)



Even better if you can Gestalt Psychic mage//Tactician or Vitalist 20.
Pure Nanoha-Mode.


More anime Clips for visualization
]
https://youtu.be/VdS6yKSRWYo

endorphin surge/Physical acceleration]
https://youtu.be/f98QxW1_91g


https://youtu.be/lJ9ezp_HxJc

[Prime32]

Are there any feats, skills, spells or magic items that would allow a character to punish enemies for dealing damage to other party members?The Cyran Avenger PrC from Five Nations gets a kind of smite attack that can be used against someone who attacked your friends or countrymen in the last hour, and has many uses per day.

[Clopin Silk]

The Cyran Avenger PrC from Five Nations gets a kind of smite attack that can be used against someone who attacked your friends or countrymen in the last hour, and has many uses per day.

Why am I not surprised that someon with a Kamina avatar has an answer?