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dramatic flare
2017-03-11, 03:30 AM
Warpaths
When the magician fights god, the god is afraid of the magic. The magician himself is only a conduit for a greater power. When the cleric fights a god, the god is afraid of the other god. The cleric himself is only a conduit for a greater power. When I fight god, the god is afraid of me. The power I manifest comes from within.

This is an attempt to alleviate, and only alleviate, caster-martial disparity in 3.x Dungeons and Dragons, and Pathfinder more specifically. While some believe the proper way to achieve balance is to nerf casters, and that is a legitimate strategy depending on the type of game you wish to play during your high level adventures, this system will instead buff martial classes with a series of broad-stroke “paths” that provide new options to martial classes without requiring any rewrite of the classes themselves.

(note: I started this almost a year ago, but changes in life have pulled me away from gaming so I am not certain I'll finish this anytime soon as the impetus is not there anymore. I have decided to post the first four warpaths as-is and others can take and use them if they see the interest. That said, if there's a way to do this better I will be interested to hear about it.)

WHY:
If this is your first time encountering the idea of caster-martial disparity, allow this excellent post to explain the reasoning behind the need for a fix:

Well, let's have a look at what a wizard can do by the time he's level 9:

- Create a noise equivalent to 20 shouting humans wherever he likes within 45 feet (Ghost sound, 0lvl)
- Create small objects, warm things up, change their taste, (Prestidigitation, 0lvl)
- Make any humanoid his friend (Charm person, 1st)
- Knock out a roomful of low-level guards (Colour spray, 1st)
- Slow fall as the monk's 18th-level ability, only better (Feather Fall, 1st)
- Walk through a raging inferno unburned (Prot. Energy, 2nd)
- Become invisible (Invisibility, 2nd)
- Create four to seven illusory copies of himself and control all of them at once. (Mirror Image, 2nd)
- I prepared explosive runes this morning. (Explosive Runes, 3rd)
- Summon a frankly ridiculous horse. (Phantom Steed, 3rd)
- Definitely not scrying. (Clairvoyance/Clairaudience, 3rd)
- Brutally murder a roomful of low-level guards. (Fireball, 3rd)
- Fly (Fly, 3rd)
- Definitely scrying. (Scrying, 4th)
- Shoot off 760 feet as a standard action. (Dim. Door, 4th)
- Create a raging inferno. (Wall of Fire, 4th)
- "Wall is immune to damage." That's a nice summary. (Wall of force, 5th)
- Brutally murder a roomful of mid-level guards, and badly injure any high-level guards that might have snuck in there. (Cloudkill, 5th)
- Utterly control someone. (Dominate person, 5th)
- Murder a 1st-level character from anywhere on the same plane while they sleep (Nightmare, 5th)

You have to be able to stand up to that somehow. And "I hit it with my axe. I trip it. I grapple it." doesn't really stand up to that.

Given the amount of sheer potential full casters bring to the table, without nerfing them it would be impossible for martial classes to keep up with it all by level 20 short of just also giving them spells. Since one of the joys of pathfinder is the feel of your class and your playstyle, just making everyone wizards is the incorrect approach. In fact, any type of one-size-fits-all approach is probably the wrong one.
This approach is designed around higher levels of optimization, though not game-breaking levels of optimization. War Paths are for DMs and players who want to, each and every one of them, fight gods at level 20. The wizard will still be the best, but after walking the Warpaths a fighter or barbarian can keep up.

The Warpaths are a series of abilities that can be added onto the martial classes for the extra feeling of power and potential they provide. Unlike archetypes, these do not replace any class abilities or features with other ones, and unlike variant multi-classing this does not impact the number of feats a character gets. Warpaths are purely additional.

WHO:
The following classes are intended to receive the benefits of Warpaths:
Barbarian, Cavalier, Fighter, Gunslinger, Hunter, Monk, Ninja, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Samurai, Slayer, Swashbuckler, Vigilante
Additionally, the Bard, Bloodrager, Kineticist, Inquisitor, Investigator, Magus, Skald and Warpriest could benefit from Warpaths in terms of increased viability, however as these classes already have access to 6 levels of magic (as opposed to a Paladin’s or Ranger’s 4 levels of magic) or other functions, I am reluctant to immediately give them the additional power. A possible balancing point is giving this second list of classes only one Warpath, whereas the first list of classes are intended to have two Warpaths each. Use at your discretion.

WHEN:

Character LevelWar Path Ranks
1 -
2-
3-
4-
5-
6-
71st Path I
8-
91st Path II
10-
111st path III
12-
131st Path IV
142nd Path I
151st Path V, 2nd Path II
162nd Path III
171st path VI, 2nd Path IV
182nd Path V
192nd VI
20Path Capstone


HOW
Each Warpath will possess 6 abilities of ascending power, obtained in order as part of normal level progression. Additionally, each Warpath will have a Capstone. A player receives only one Warpath Capstone, but can choose from either their first or second Warpath.
Warpaths fit their powers into thematic character archetypes, such as the Determinator (think Judge Dredd or Punisher) or the Juggernaut (like the Incredible Hulk or Colossus or, well, Juggernaut). These archetypes as touched on by normal level progression and martial abilities in Pathfinder leave something to be desired in the gameplay. For instance, a stuck stone door requires a DC 28 strength check to break, which would be a difficult DC even for a level 20 fighter with the not-unreasonable strength score of 34, whereas a wizard has inbuilt spells to defeat such a challenge. Therefore, the Warpaths will codify and grant more of the abilities such archetypes possess.
Further, while some of these abilities deal damage in some manner, the vast majority do not and almost all abilities come with a limitation in use. In effect, these abilities will not replace the fighter’s skill with their weapon as the main form of combat, but will give them new and interesting ways to handle challenges the sword doesn’t handle on its own.

dramatic flare
2017-03-11, 03:32 AM
BATTLE HARDENED
Examples include: Ogami Ittō from Lone Wolf and Cub, Ajax of The Illiad.
Forged in the fires of battle and quenched in the blood of the fallen, the Battle Hardened Warpath is for those with ironclad willpower, those who will always know what is coming to the fight. The Battle Hardened are those who stand defiant in the face supernatural threats with preternatural calm.

Rank I: Sense Threat (ex):
A Battle Hardened character can sense threats to his person from other creatures up to a number of feet away equal to 10 times his wisdom or intelligence score, whichever is higher. This feature gives him knowledge of the number of such threats and their directions from him. Therefore creatures initiating combat from within the range of sense threat do not surprise a Battle Hardened character. In addition, a Battle Hardened character can pinpoint the exact square from which such threats originate within 5 feet of themselves for every rank of Battle Hardened they possess (thus a VI ranked Battle Hardened can pinpoint the location of hostile creatures within 30ft.) This does not negate the miss chance of concealment or total concealment if such creatures have such against the Battle Hardened character.
A threat qualifies as a direct intent to harm the character or his allies. Therefore guards hiding but wary on the other side of a door waiting for their master’s signal to defend him do not qualify, however guards waiting to ambush the Battle Hardened character do. Similarly, an opponent turning invisible to sneak past the Battle Hardened character and attack an ally qualifies, but turning invisible to run away does not.
This ability does not work on mindless creatures or creatures without an intelligence score.
At Rank III, this ability works when the character is asleep.

Rank II: Know weakness (ex):
On an attack roll that hits (though it does not need to deal damage), the Battle Hardened instantly learns many of the target’s weaknesses, as if you had made an appropriate Knowledge skill check. If the creature is polymorphed, disguised, or hidden by an illusion and the character is not aware of it’s true form, the creature can make a free bluff check (vs 10 plus the Battle Hardened character’s Sense Motive or its wisdom modifier, whichever is higher) to hide these weaknesses.
At Rank IV, you may choose to learn either weaknesses or resistances on each hit, though the rules for free bluff checks apply to the target in either case.

Rank III: Spell Resistance (ex):
As an extraordinary ability, the Battle Hardened character may spend a swift action to get spell resistance equal to 10 + their BAB for 1 minute per character level each day. The minutes do not need to be consecutive but must be spent in 1 minute increments. The Battle Hardened character may choose to lower Spell Resistance as normal, though if any part of a minute of spell resistance was used, the rest of the minute is lost as if spent.
At Rank V, this effect is instead permanent.

Rank IV: Aura of Doom (ex):
Your mere presence causes enemies to become afraid. Whenever you choose, all non-allies within 20 feet of the Battle Hardened character must make a will save or become shaken. Activating or deactivating the aura is a standard action. The save DC is equal to 10 + Battle Hardened Ranks + the character’s intelligence or wisdom modifier, whichever is higher. A successful save negates the effect. Creatures must continue to make this save when beginning their turn in the aura or when they first enter it.
This is a mind-affecting fear effect.
If you take the Battle Hardened capstone, the save DC is 13 + Battle Hardened Ranks + the character’s intelligence or wisdom modifier, whichever is higher.

Rank V: Contingent Action (ex):
A battle-hardened character may, at any time, have a single contingency action ready to go. Preparing a Contingent Action takes five minutes of total mental preparation; you can not take other actions while preparing a Contingent Action. Contingent Actions operate as readied actions, although they do not modify the Battle Hardened character’s initiative placement when triggered and remain readied until discharged; a Battle Hardened character does not need to take any special actions to maintain a Contingent Action once readied.
The conditions needed to bring the Contingent Action into effect must be clear, although they can be general. If complicated or convoluted conditions are prescribed, the Contingent Action may fail when triggered.
If a second Contingent Action is prepared without the first one having been triggered, the first Contingent Action is lost.

Rank VI: Perfect Resistance (ex):
Up to 2 + your Wisdom or Intelligence Modifier times per day, you can immediately negate the particular effects of an attack you’ve suffered. As a free action, you gain DR 15/adamantine, and may negate any blindness, critical hits, ability score damage, deafness, disease, drowning, poison, stunning, and all further effects that affect your physiology or respiration applied by the attack.

Capstone: Foresight (ex):
You gain a permanent, powerful sixth sense that gives you instantaneous warnings of impending danger or harm. Thus, if a rogue were about to attempt a sneak attack on you, or if a creature were about to leap out from a hiding place, or if an attacker were specifically targeting you with a spell or ranged weapon, or if you were about to ingest a harmful substance, etc., you would be warned in advance. You are never surprised or flat-footed. In addition, this sense gives you a general idea of what action you might take to best protect yourself and gives you a +2 insight bonus to AC and on Reflex saves. This insight bonus is lost whenever you would lose a Dexterity bonus to AC.



BLITZKRIEGER
Examples include: The Flash, Hermes, a wide selection of anime ninjas.
You are speed given personification, the first to or from a fight by simple virtue of your all encompassing mastery of locomotion. The Blitzkrieger does not leave their opponents time to react, for they are the blur of motion hurtling forward without equal.

Rank I: Hustler (ex):
A Blitzkrieger can hustle during overland travel without incurring non-lethal damage or becoming fatigued. Additionally, a Blitzkrieger gets a +10 foot enhancement bonus to their landspeed. You may run for a number of minutes equal to your constitution score instead of rounds.
Secondly, the distance a Blitzkrieger can jump either vertically or horizontally is doubled. Coincidentally, instead of taking 1d6 damage for every ten feet fallen, a blitzkrieger takes 1d6 damage for every twenty feet fallen. Modify all language based on fall damage to reflect this (i.e. you can make a DC 15 acrobatics check to ignore the damage from the first 20 feet fallen instead of 10).
At Rank III, you may instead run during overland travel without incurring non-lethal damage or becoming fatigued, and a Blitzkrieger is immune to slow effects.

Rank II: Blink (ex):
Whenever you move at least 30 feet in a round under your own power, you may choose to blink in and out of the ethereal plane as the spell blink. This is a free action. You may do this a number of rounds per day equal to your character level. These rounds do not need to be consecutive.
At Rank V, you may blink for rounds up to twice the number of character levels you possess in this manner.

Rank III: Water Walk (ex);
As long as you move 30 feet each round under your own power, you may walk on water and other unstable surfaces as the spell water walk. This effect can be ignored if the Blitzkrieger desires. If you do not move during a round in which you stand on such a liquid, you immediately sink below the surface and must start swimming as normal. If you are swimming and desire to begin water walking, you must first spend 20 feet of movement moving upward as you build the necessary speed to remain above the surface. This movement does not count towards the 30 feet of movement required to maintain the water walk effect (likely requiring two consecutive move actions to effectively begin the ability).
At Rank VI, you learn the delicate art of standing on such surfaces without moving, and do not fall in the water for moving less that 30 feet each round unless you want to.

Rank IV: Incredible Step (ex):
You may, as a standard action, swiftly teleport to another point within 5 feet per point of BAB you possess. You may do this a number of times per day equal to half your Blitzkrieger ranks.
You must either have line of sight to your destination or you must specify a direction and distance within range. Creatures and objects in the path of your passage take 5d8 bludgeoning damage. A successful Reflex save halves the damage, against a DC of !0 + your Blitzkrieger ranks. If your unarmed attacks are magical, this damage is also magic for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
If your path intersects with a solid object, you damage the barrier accordingly. If the damage is enough to break through the barrier, you continue beyond the barrier as long as the Incredible Step’s range permits; otherwise, your movement stops in the square adjacent to the barrier and the effect ends.
If you take the Blitzkrieger’s capstone, you may do this a number of times per day equal to your Blitzkrieger ranks +1, and it only takes a move action to perform.

Rank V: Air Mastery (ex):
A blitzkrieger learns how to ride the air around them in extraordinary ways.
The subject can tread on air as if walking on solid ground. Moving upward is similar to walking up a hill. The maximum upward or downward angle possible is 45 degrees, at a rate equal to half the air walker's normal speed.
A strong wind (21+ miles per hour) can push the subject along or hold it back. At the end of a creature's turn each round, the wind blows the air walker 5 feet for each 5 miles per hour of wind speed. The creature may be subject to additional penalties in exceptionally strong or turbulent winds, such as loss of control over movement or physical damage from being buffeted about.
Further, their knowledge of air currents allows them to ride particularly strong currents at a rate of 600 feet a round, however they are considered to have poor maneuverability when doing so. These currents are common enough a Blitzkrieger can find them effortlessly when they are 500 feet above the ground, and have a 50% chance of finding them below that elevation.
Blitzkriegers are not immune to falling damage, therefore an unconscious Blitzkrieger takes falling damage as normal.

Rank VI: Mislead (ex):
Once per day, you move so quickly as to leave behind a false afterimage of yourself in your space, in the same moment turning invisible and taking one move action. This afterimage operates as major image, although you can’t control it and it disappears after one round.
You may remain invisible indefinitely. Though all normal rules for the invisibility spell apply. Additionally, interacting with any object that is not on your person also causes the invisibility to end.
You perform this action as a move action or as an immediate action.

Capstone: Time Stop (ex):
Once per day, for 1d4+1 rounds, you can make time seem to cease to flow for everyone but you. In fact, you speed up so greatly that all other creatures seem frozen, though they are actually still moving at their normal speeds. You are free to act for 1d4+1 rounds of apparent time. Normal and magical fire, cold, gas, and the like can still harm you. While the time stop is in effect, most other creatures are invulnerable to your attacks and spells, however you can target one creature with any one attack or spell. A spell that affects an area and has a duration longer than the remaining duration of the time stop have their normal effects on other creatures once the time stop ends.
You cannot move or harm items held, carried, or worn by a creature stuck in normal time, but you can affect any item that is not in another creature's possession. You are undetectable while time stop lasts.

dramatic flare
2017-03-11, 03:37 AM
DETERMINATOR
Examples include Judge Dredd, The Punisher, certain varieties of Batman.
A Determinator can not be stopped, only slowed down. They are perseverance incarnate. If one is hunting you, there is no where you can go that they will not eventually find you in. If you hunt the Determinator, they will outlast you. They see their will realized without fail, and may the gods help those who get in the way.

Rank I: Sleepless Vigil (ex):
The Determinator only needs to sleep 2 hours to get the equivalent of 8 hours rest. However, in order to get the benefit of a full day of bed rest, they must still rest for 24 hours as normal.
A Determinator is immune to fatigue.
At Rank III, A Determinator needs only two hours or sleep to get the equivalent of 8 hours rest, and every additional two hours of sleep counts as 24 hours for recovery of hit points, ability damage, and enduring poisons, diseases, and other afflictions. This means 8 hours of rest counts as 3 days and 8 hours of rest. When suffering from diseases, poison, or other afflictions, sleepers experience vivid dreams that help them track their recovery. If things go poorly they can, at any time, wake themselves up in order to seek a better alternative. Further, A Determinator is immune to exhaustion.

Rank II: Shake Off (ex):
The Determinator can resist the impediments of certain effects through sheer perseverance. As a move action, as many times per day as the character has Determinator Ranks, the Determinator can suppress certain conditions they are afflicted by. This Shake Off lasts a number of rounds equal to 2 + their Determinator ranks. This does not remove the condition, merely its effects. Thus a Determinator may Shake Off a poison effect, but this does not remove the poison from their body and after their Shake Off ends, they are again subject to any penalties the poison inflicts (unless, of course, the effect ended before the end of the Shake Off).
The Determinator can Shake Off the following conditions: Dazzled, Dazed, Diseased, Frightened, Nauseated, Poisoned, Shaken, Sickened, and Staggered, .
At Rank IV, A Determinator can also Shake Off Cursed, Panicked, Paralyzed, and Stunned, and the effect lasts for 4 + their Determinator ranks.

Rank III: Resilient Reservoir (ex):
The Determinator gains a well of retribution that a they can unleash. Damage from attacks and targeted spells gets transferred into a special pool that they can then redirect.
Each time you are struck by such attacks that deal hit point damage, 1 point of damage is negated and transferred into the Determinator’s reservoir. The total number of points in the reservoir cannot exceed your character level (to a maximum of 20 points at 20th level). As an immediate action, you can expend any number of points from the reservoir, granting yourself an insight bonus on one skill check, attack roll, damage roll, or combat maneuver check, but you must do so before the roll is made. The bonus is equal to the number of points spent. You may do this once a day per five character levels.
If you are reduced to negative hit points with points still in the reservoir, the reservoir automatically releases the remaining power in a concussive blast of force. All creatures within a 15-foot radius take 1d6 points of force damage per 2 points remaining in the reservoir (maximum of 10d6). A successful Reflex save vs. 13 + Determinator ranks halves this damage.
At Rank V, a Determinator can spend points from the pool at will, and starts each day with at least 5 points in their reservoir.

Rank IV: Adaptation (ex):
By spending time in harmful environments, a Determinator can learn to immunize themselves against certain effects. After spending five minutes exposed to and without magical protection from dangerous environments, the Determinator can gain resistance against that environment such as toxicity, extreme weather, or the retroactive penalty to visiting a timeless plane. Further, if the environment involves a certain variety of elemental damage (such as cold from a blizzard or the elemental plane of cold), the Determinator gains resist 20 against that energy type.
At Rank VI, a determinator needs only spend one minute exposed to the environment to gain resistance against its harmful effects.

RANK V: Determined Mind (ex):
You are immune to all mind-affecting effects and spells.

RANK VI: Planeswalk (ex):
At will, you can move yourself to another plane of existence or alternate dimension by forcing yourself through the gaps in between planes. In these gaps, you move at a rate of 50 miles per hour, moving normally relative to the borders of other planes but much more rapidly relative to the Material Plane. Thus, you can use this ability to travel rapidly by stepping into a planar gap, moving the desired distance, and then stepping back onto the Material Plane.
Because of the blurring of reality between the Planes, you can't make out fine details of the terrain or areas you pass over during transit, nor can you predict perfectly where your travel will end. It's impossible to judge distances accurately, making this ability virtually useless for scouting or spying. Furthermore, when the effect ends, you are shunted 1d10 x 100 feet in a random horizontal direction from your desired endpoint. If this would place you within a solid object, you are shunted 1d10 x 1,000 feet in the same direction. If this would still place you within a solid object, you are shunted to the nearest empty space available.
Travelling to any plane requires 1d4 hours.

CAPSTONE: Self Resurrection (ex):
Your business isn’t finished. You can restore yourself back to life.
24 hours after you die, whatever remains of a Determinator exist reanimate in the nearest safe location. The condition of the remains is not a factor. So long as some small portion of the creature's body still exists, it can be resurrected. (The remains of a creature hit by a disintegrate spell count as a small portion of its body.) If the remains have been used to create an undead creature, the Determinator does not resurrect until the creature is destroyed.
On resurrection, the Determinator is immediately restored to full hit points, vigor, and health, with no loss of prepared spells. The Determinator gains one permanent negative level when it is raised, just as if it had been hit by an energy-draining creature. If ever the Determinator would have more negative levels than character levels, the Determinator can no longer resurrect.
The Determinator can not resurrect itself back if they died from old age.




JUGGERNAUT
Examples include: Juggernaut (x-men), Jessica Jones, Hercules, The Hulk
A Juggernaut has trained to rearrange the environment as he sees fit. Breaking and recreating is his specialty. When a warrior breaks a door with repeated axe blows, the Juggernaut removes the wall the door is attached to. The Juggernaut is the idea of breaking down barriers made manifest.

Rank I: Destroyer (ex):
Your carrying capacity by strength doubles, allowing you pick up and lift significantly more weight. Similarly, you double your strength modifier bonus for the purposes of damaging unattended objects or breaking them with sudden force, and for making strength checks to lift objects.
When damaging unattended objects, you ignore 10 points of hardness.
At Rank III, you instead quadruple your strength modifier for the purposes of damaging or breaking unattended objects or making strength checks to lift them, and you ignore hardness completely.
A Juggernaut can smash through a Wall of Force with a DC 60 strength check.
At Rank V, you can attempt to use your body to smash through objects as part of a move action, however if you fail the strength check your move action stops in the square just before the object.

Rank II: Tremor Blast (ex):
As a standard action, you can create a minor earthquake that can trip creatures in a 30 foot cone in front of you. Attempt a single combat maneuver check and apply the result against the CMD of every creature in the area. If your roll equals or exceeds a creature's CMD, that creature is knocked prone. This trip attack does not provoke an attack of opportunity, nor are you knocked prone if you fail the check by 10 or more. Unlike with a regular trip attack, you can trip any creature touching the ground, regardless of size. The bonus from Improved Trip applies to this ability. Though the earthquake is small and focused on the ground, if the area is particularly unstable, the ability might cause items to topple, stones to shake loose from the walls or ceiling, and so on at the GM's discretion.
At Rank IV, the cone expands to 60 feet out, and you may choose to also subject creatures to a bull rush effect. Creatures that are burrowed within the area of effect are driven 10 feet towards the surface.

Rank III: Tremor Wall (ex):
Half the number of Determinator ranks per day your character possesses, as a Standard action, you smash the earth, causing a rippling wall of loose earth, mud, snow, sand, or gravel to spring up in a designated space within the 25 feet. The wall is 1 foot thick, 10 feet high and 20 feet wide. This wall provides total cover to all large or smaller creatures and objects. The tremor wall can only spring up in an area of natural, unworked ground. The ability that forms the wall does not lend it stability, and if left unattended will fall back down over the course of a day. A tremor wall has an AC of 9, hardness 0, and 5 hit points per Juggernaut Rank. At the Juggernaut’s discretion, when a tremor wall reaches 0 hit points, the barrier shatters with explosive results, sending sharp chunks of the materials comprising the wall out along both sides faces. Any creature that is adjacent to a blast barrier when it explodes takes 2d6 points of slashing and bludgeoning damage for every 2 Juggernaut ranks. A successful Reflex save versus 10 + The Juggernaut’s strength score + the character’s ranks in Juggernaut halves the total damage done.
At Rank V, the Juggernaut the wall is instead 2 feet thick, 20 feet high and 40 feet wide, and the Juggernaut can choose to have the wall only explode in one direction or both.

Rank IV: Shape Rock (ex):
You can form an existing piece of stone into any shape that suits your purpose. While it's possible to make crude coffers, doors, and so forth with Shape Rock, fine detail isn't possible. There is a 30% chance that any shape including moving parts simply doesn't work.
To make an object from stone, the material must be contiguous in the size you desire. If you wish to make a sword, you can’t take two rocks the size of your fist and smash them together until they stick properly. You must start with a sword-sized or larger rock.
A small item (such as a sword or smaller) takes a standard action to make. A large item (such as a door or wagon-sized wheel) takes a full round action to make. Objects larger than this take a full round action per 10 cubic feet of originating material. This does mean that, given enough time, you can turn a mountain into a castle. This ability provokes an attack of opportunity no matter what action it is to complete.
At Rank VI, you can choose to harden items formed this way, granting them an extra point of hardness for every 2 points of your strength modifier.

Rank V: Growth (ex):
For a number of minutes per day equal to the character’s ranks in Juggernaut, the character can operate effectively as one size larger than their normal size. This does not actually change their size or reach, but does grant them a +4 size bonus to strength and constitution, a -2 penalty to dexterity, a +2 size bonus to their natural armor, and allows them to wield a weapon of their new size at no penalty. Activating this ability is a swift action. These minutes do not need to be consecutive, but must be spent in at least one minute increments. You may, by spending two minutes instead of one, actually increase in size as well, however this includes the normal size penalties to attack and armor class.
If you take the Juggernaut Capstone ability, You operate as one size larger permanently, and can operate as two sizes larger (+8 Strength and Constitution, -4 Dexterity, a +4 size bonus to natural armor and the ability to wield weapons of the new size) using the above activation rules.

Rank VI: Move Earth (ex):
By rhythmically striking soft ground, The Juggernaut moves dirt (clay, loam, sand, and soil) within a thousand feet of himself, possibly collapsing embankments, moving hillocks, shifting dunes, and so forth. In no event can rock formations be collapsed or moved.
The area to be affected determines the time spent maintaining the effect. For every 50-foot cube of area to be moved, the Juggernaut must spend 10 minutes working the earth.
This extraordinary ability does not violently break the surface of the ground. Instead, it creates wavelike crests and troughs, with the earth reacting with glacial fluidity until the desired result is achieved. Trees, structures, rock formations, and such are mostly unaffected except for changes in elevation and relative topography.
The ability can be used for tunneling if desired, though is generally too slow to trap or bury creatures. Its primary use is for digging or filling moats or for adjusting terrain contours before a battle. This ability has no effect on earth creatures.

Capstone: Earth Tremor (ex):
Twice per day, substituting your character level for caster level, you may mold the earth via an extraordinary ability mimicking either earthquake or world wave. (opinion: lazy writing even as it fits the theme).

dramatic flare
2017-03-11, 03:42 AM
[RESERVED]

notes, future possible content:
THE PROFESSIONAL timing and ranged attacks (how is this different from battle hardened in theme?)
WHIRLWIND/WARGOD one man army, inspiration? (basically uber bard? Meh.)
DAREDEVIL limits are for the weak of will (acrobat blitzkreiger, not different enough in scope)
etc

Special mention must be made of Jormengand, whose homebrew classes inspired parts of some these.

build notes:
The point of balance (roughly) when mimicking spells is to give a spell in spell level equal to the war path rank. Thus Rank VI abilities frequently mimic level 6 spells (+/-1 if a better option occurred elsewhere.) For example, The Juggernaut's Rank III ability Tremor Wall more or less mimics the level 3 wiz/sorc spell blast wall. This means that full casters should get access to those abilities first by a level or two, though martial classes should get them at least as frequently in use if not more so.

dramatic flare
2017-03-11, 03:44 AM
Reserved reserved

Digitalfruitz
2017-03-11, 10:20 PM
This looks amazing. Me and my players usually stick to E6 due to the inevitable OP'ness of full casters but because of this we might not have to do that anymore.

dramatic flare
2017-03-12, 01:06 AM
This looks amazing. Me and my players usually stick to E6 due to the inevitable OP'ness of full casters but because of this we might not have to do that anymore.

I'm glad they seem like something you can use! If you do use them, let me know how they work out in practice. My playtests with these never got off the ground for the aforementioned life changes.

nonsi
2017-03-12, 04:49 AM
.
Given that the first candidate for Warpaths is the Fighter, I'd push 1st Path I...IV either one level up or down, to fill the Fighter's dead levels better.
Notice that if you do that, you also cover 3 dead levels for the Paladin and 2 dead levels for the Samurai.

dramatic flare
2017-03-12, 05:38 AM
.
Given that the first candidate for Warpaths is the Fighter, I'd push 1st Path I...IV either one level up or down, to fill the Fighter's dead levels better.
Notice that if you do that, you also cover 3 dead levels for the Paladin and 2 dead levels for the Samurai.
That's a good point. Given the situation, I think I would move it up to level 7, as 5~6 seems to be where most people agree the martial caster disparity is the least disparate.

nonsi
2017-03-12, 06:17 AM
That's a good point. Given the situation, I think I would move it up to level 7, as 5~6 seems to be where most people agree the martial caster disparity is the least disparate.

2 more observations:
1. The left column should be Class level, not Character level, methinks.
2. Now that I see the new progression, I notice another possible improvement... Since non-spellcaster-feats are less impressive at 10th level and on, and for a nice even spread, consider the following shifts to the progression of 2nd Path:
- 2nd Path I: 10th level
- 2nd Path II: 12th level
- 2nd Path III: 14th level
- 2nd Path IV: 16th level

dramatic flare
2017-03-13, 09:13 AM
2 more observations:
1. The left column should be Class level, not Character level, methinks.
2. Now that I see the new progression, I notice another possible improvement... Since non-spellcaster-feats are less impressive at 10th level and on, and for a nice even spread, consider the following shifts to the progression of 2nd Path:
- 2nd Path I: 10th level
- 2nd Path II: 12th level
- 2nd Path III: 14th level
- 2nd Path IV: 16th level

No, it specifically should be character level to account for taking level dips. Having not playtested it, I don't know where exactly to start cutting off or delaying warpath abilities for characters that start with a martial class and then add spell casting later, though I suppose keeping them down to only one warpath with no capstone might help the fighter 10/ wizard 10 keep up with the wizard 20. Multiclassing is definitely this idea's current weak point.
That being said I think I would keep the second warpath in levels 14 - 19, as I am less concerned with replacing or improving martial feats as I am with accounting for a full caster's ascension into godlike power.