The Martial Artist, a Combat Stamina-focused Unchained Monk archetype (PEACH)

[FlameUser64]

This archetype revolves almost entirely around the Combat Stamina optional rule system from Pathfinder Unchained. Its class abilities include multiple new uses for Combat Stamina, and it is based heavily on a number of abilities that allow it to view raw d20 rolls from enemy actions and respond with stamina expenditure accordingly. And yes, I realize the name of this archetype overlaps with an existing monk archetype. Feel free to suggest better name ideas! :smallbiggrin:


Unchained Monk archetype: Martial Artist

The martial artist eschews monastic tradition in favour of tempering his body to extremes. A martial artist anticipates his foe's next move, and slips in through the openings they leave. A martial artist must know his limits, work within them, yet strive to surpass them.

Alignment: A martial artist may be of any alignment.

Class skills: Acrobatics, Climb, Craft, Escape Artist, Intimidate, Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local), Perception, Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Stealth, Survival, Swim
This replaces the monk's class skills.

1. Combat Stamina, flurry of blows (bonus attack), flow of battle, unarmed strike, AC bonus +0
2. Bonus feat, evasion
3. Adrenaline rush, piercing strike +1 (magic), quick step (10 ft.)
4. Impact guard, anticipate battle, style strike (1/round), AC bonus +1
5. Style strike, combat insight
6. Bonus feat, single strike, quick step (15 ft.)
7. Piercing strike +1 (cold iron/silver)
8. Persistence, style strike, AC bonus +2
9. Improved evasion, style strike, quick step (20 ft., 2/round)
10. Bonus feat, snap pivot, piercing strike +2 (alignment)
11. Flurry of blows (bonus attack), style strike (2/round)
12. Knockout (1/day), style strike, AC bonus +3, quick step (25 ft., 2/round)
13. Style strike, backdraft
14. Bonus feat, healing focus
15. Style strike, quick step (30 ft., 2/round)
16. Knockout (2/day), piercing strike +3 (adamantine), style strike, AC bonus +4
17. Style strike (3/round), opportunistic strike
18. Bonus feat, final flurry, quick step (35 ft., 3/round)
19. Unbreakable
20. Knockout (3/day), style strike, unstoppable, AC bonus +5

Weapon and Armour Proficiency:
When wearing armour, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a martial artist loses his AC bonus, quick step, flurry of blows, and snap pivot abilities.


Combat Stamina:
A martial artist gains Combat Stamina as a bonus feat. If he already has a stamina pool, such as if he already has the Combat Stamina feat or it comes standard for martial characters in your campaign, he instead gains Extra Stamina as a bonus feat.

This replaces the bonus feat normally gained at 1st level.


Flow of Battle (Ex):
At 1st level, a martial artist gains the ability to see the attack rolls for attacks made against him, so long as he is aware of the attack. He sees only the natural d20 roll; modifiers (such as base attack bonus and modifiers due to ability scores) remain invisible to him.

In addition, after an attack roll against him is made for an attack he is aware of (and thus is visible to him), but before the results are revealed, the martial artist may spend up to 5 stamina points. If he does, he gains a dodge bonus to AC against that attack equal to the number of stamina points he spent. Even if the attack hits, the stamina points he spent are still lost.

This ability replaces stunning fist.


Bonus Feats:
A martial artist adds Stunning Fist, Extra Stamina, and Push the Limits to the list of feats he may select using his monk bonus feats. As usual, a martial artist need not meet the prerequisites of these feats.


Adrenaline Rush (Ex):
Upon reducing a foe to -1 or fewer hit points, upon destroying a foe (usually only applicable to undead or constructs), or upon making a foe's nonlethal damage exceed their current hit points, a martial artist of 3rd level or higher recovers a number of stamina points equal to half the foe's hit dice (rounded up). This does not allow the martial artist to exceed their normal maximum number of stamina points.


Piercing Strike (Ex):
At 3rd level, so long as he has at least 1 stamina point, a martial artist's unarmed strikes are treated as magic weapons for purposes of overcoming damage reduction, and the martial artist gets a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls with his unarmed strikes.

At 7th level, the martial artist's unarmed strikes are also treated as cold iron and silver for purposes of overcoming damage reduction.

At 10th level, the martial artist's unarmed strikes are also treated as alignment weapons for purposes of overcoming damage reduction. The martial artist must choose lawful, chaotic, good, or evil for this purpose, and the alignment aspect chosen must match his own alignment. If the martial artist is true neutral, he may choose any one of these freely. Once this choice is made, it cannot be changed.
In addition, the bonus to attack and damage rolls with the martial artist's unarmed strikes increases to +2.

At 16th level, the martial artist's unarmed strikes are also treated as adamantine weapons for purposes of overcoming damage reduction and bypassing hardness, and the bonus on attack and damage rolls increases to +3.

This ability and adrenaline rush replace ki pool and the improvements gained to ki pool at 7th, 10th, and 16th levels.


Quick Step (Ex):
At 3rd level, a martial artist may move up to 10 feet as a free action once per round. He may use his quick step even in the middle of a full-round action if he wishes, allowing him to juke to one side during a run action, or move between multiple targets during a full attack. At 6th level, the amount of distance he may move with his quick step increases to 15 feet.

At 9th level, the martial artist may split his quick step movement among up to 2 quick steps per round, and may move up to 20 feet per round using quick step. At 12th level, the martial artist's quick step movement increases to 25 feet. At 15th level, it increases to 30 feet.

At 18th level, the martial artist's total quick step distance per round increases to 35 feet, and may be divided up among up to 3 quick steps per round.

The martial artist may instead choose to, as a free action, spend all of his quick step distance for the round to increase his base land speed by that same amount for one round. If the martial artist has other methods of movement that are tied to his base land speed (such as a fly speed equal to his base land speed), the increased base land speed affects those methods of movement accordingly.

This ability replaces fast movement. A martial artist counts his quick step movement capacity as his fast movement bonus for purposes of feats, monk class features, etc. that rely on fast movement.


Anticipate Battle (Ex):
At 4th level, a martial artist gains the ability to see the natural d20 roll of all known opponents during their initiative checks. In addition, as part of his initiative check, after his roll and his known opponents' rolls have been made (and thus are visible to him) but before the results are revealed, the martial artist may spend up to 5 stamina points. If he does, he gains a competence bonus to his initiative check equal to twice the number of stamina points spent.

This ability replaces still mind.


Style Strike (Ex)
A martial artist learns his first style strike at 4th level. He learns an additional style strike at 5th, 8th, 9th, 12th, 13th, 15th, and 16th level.

A martial artist may use up to 2 style strikes per round starting at 11th level. At 17th level, he gains the ability to use up to 3 style strikes per round.

This ability alters style strike and replaces the additional conditions a monk learns to apply with his stunning fist at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th levels.


Impact Guard (Ex)
When a foe misses him with a melee attack, a martial artist of 4th level or higher may, as an immediate action, spend anywhere from 2 to 4 stamina points. The martial artist makes a free bull rush attempt against the attacking foe; this bull rush attempt does not provoke an attack of opportunity, and the martial artist may not move with the target of his bull rush. If the bull rush attempt is successful, in addition to the normal effects of a successful bull rush the target takes a -1 penalty to attack rolls, AC, CMB, and CMD per stamina point spent beyond 2. This penalty lasts until the end of the martial artist's next turn.

This ability replaces the ki power gained at 4th level.


Combat Insight (Ex)
At 5th level, as part of a knowledge check made to identify a foe, the martial artist may spend up to 5 stamina points. He may spend these points after the roll has been made, but before the results are revealed. The martial artist adds an insight bonus to his check equal to twice the number of stamina points spent. A martial artist with this ability may make such knowledge checks untrained, and may use his Wisdom modifier in place of his Intelligence modifier on such checks.

This ability replaces purity of body.


Single Strike (Ex)
At 6th level, the martial artist may designate a single unarmed strike he makes during his turn as a style strike, even if he is not making a flurry of blows attack.

This ability replaces the ki power gained at 6th level.


Persistence (Ex)
At 8th level, when making a Fortitude, Reflex, or Will save, a martial artist may spend up to 8 stamina points. If he does so, he adds a competence bonus on his saving throw equal to half the number of stamina points spent. He may use this ability after the roll is made, but before the results are revealed.

This ability replaces the ki power gained at 8th level.


Snap Pivot (Ex)
At 10th level, when a foe misses him with a melee or ranged attack, a martial artist with at least 1 stamina point may, as an immediate action, disappear from his current location and reappear adjacent to the foe who made the attack, provided that foe is within the martial artist's total Quick Step distance for a round. The martial artist may appear in any square adjacent to the attacker, even if the square he chooses to reappear in is outside his Quick Step distance. The martial artist must have line of effect to the attacker, and there cannot be any difficult or impassable terrain between the martial artist and the attacker, but the martial artist may spend 2 stamina points to ignore these two restrictions. In addition, the martial artist may spend up to 5 stamina points to increase the range of his snap pivot by 5 feet for each stamina point spent in this way. A martial artist cannot use snap pivot if he is prevented from moving, such as if he is being grappled by a foe or is entangled and rooted to the ground. He also cannot use snap pivot while prone or while staggered.

This ability replaces the ki power gained at 10th level.


Knockout (Ex)
At 12th level, the martial artist gains the ability to perform a knockout blow. This functions as the brawler's knockout class feature, except that the save DC is Constitution-based, and the martial artist may spend up to 10 stamina points to increase the save DC by 1 for every 2 stamina points spent in this way.

The martial artist may use this ability once per day at 12th level, twice per day at 16th level, and three times per day at 20th level.

This ability replaces the ki powers gained at 12th, 16th, and 20th levels.


Backdraft (Ex)
At 13th level, the martial artist can strain his physical health to improve performance. Once per round, the martial artist may inflict up to 12 points of nonlethal damage to himself in order to regain 1 stamina point per 3 nonlethal damage taken in this way. This nonlethal damage may not be reduced in any way; doing so negates the benefits of the ability. If the martial artist is immune to nonlethal damage, he may deal lethal damage instead of nonlethal damage to himself to regain stamina at a rate of 1 stamina point regained per 3 damage taken in this way. Using this ability is not an action. The next time in the same round that the martial artist uses any feat or class ability that allows him to expend stamina points, the cap on how many stamina points he may expend is increased by the amount of stamina he regained using this ability.

This ability replaces tongue of the sun and moon.


Healing Focus (Ex or Su)
As a standard action, a martial artist of 14th level or higher may cure a single condition affecting himself or another creature with a touch. Curing conditions in this way costs stamina points. Unlike other uses of stamina, a martial artist can expend stamina to use this ability even if fatigued, but is still unable to do so if exhausted. The amount of stamina cost varies depending on the condition cured, as listed below. Any condition not listed cannot be cured through the use of Healing Focus.
— Shaken or Dazzled costs 6 stamina points to remove from the martial artist himself, or 8 points to remove from an ally.
— Fatigued or Sickened costs 8 stamina points to remove from the martial artist himself, or 10 points to remove from an ally.
— Staggered can be removed from the martial artist at the cost of 11 stamina points, provided he is not at 0 or fewer hit points and provided that his nonlethal damage does not exactly equal his current hit points. It can be cured from an ally who is not at 0 or fewer hit points and whose nonlethal damage does not exactly equal their current hit points for a cost of 13 stamina points.
— Confused costs 9 stamina points to remove from the martial artist himself, or 11 points to remove from an ally.
— Nauseated can be removed from an ally for the cost of 16 stamina points. For obvious reasons, the martial artist cannot normally remove this condition from himself.
— Paralyzed or Stunned can be removed from an ally for the cost of 17 stamina points. For obvious reasons, the martial artist normally cannot remove either of these conditions from himself. If the martial artist is somehow able to act while under either of these conditions, they may be cured from him for a cost of 15 stamina points.
This is an Extraordinary ability when used to cure conditions from the martial artist himself, or a Supernatural ability when used to cure conditions from an ally.

This ability replaces the ki power gained at 14th level.


Opportunistic Strike (Ex)
At 17th level, the martial artist may designate an unarmed strike made as part of an attack of opportunity as a style strike. If used when it is not his turn, this uses style strikes from his following turn's limit, in the same way that an immediate action consumes your swift action for the following turn. This extends his threatened area to anywhere he could hit with a style strike from his current location, so long as he still has at least one style strike available to him for the round.

This ability replaces timeless body.


Final Flurry (Ex)
At 18th level, a martial artist may, once per round as part of an attack action, charge, spring attack (if he possesses the spring attack feat), full attack action, or flurry of blows, unleash a Final Flurry. The martial artist expends all of his remaining stamina points. For every 4 stamina points expended in this way, he may make an additional unarmed strike at his highest attack bonus. These bonus attacks stack with those granted by his flurry of blows class ability, as well as with those granted by haste or similar effects. The martial artist may gain a maximum of 8 bonus attacks from a single use of this ability. The martial artist's adrenaline rush class ability does not apply during a turn in which he uses a Final Flurry.

This ability replaces the ki power gained at 18th level.


Unbreakable (Ex)
When a martial artist of 19th level or higher is subject to damage that would kill him, he may expend all remaining stamina points. Each stamina point expended in this way reduces the incoming damage by 2 points. If this reduces the damage to 0, the martial artist regains 1 stamina point. This cannot reduce the damage below 0, and if the amount of "excess" damage reduction is 5 points or more, the source of the damage provokes an attack of opportunity from the martial artist if applicable and if it is within his threatened area.

This ability replaces flawless mind.


Unstoppable (Ex)
At 20th level, once per day, a martial artist may grant himself unlimited stamina points for a single round. This ability is a free action if used during his turn, in which case it lasts until the start of his next turn. It may be used as a non-action when it is not the martial artist's turn, as well. If used in this way, it lasts until the end of his next turn. In addition to the martial artist having infinite stamina points, the stamina point expenditure caps on all feats and class abilities are removed during this time, excluding ones that increase the damage dealt by any effect. While Unstoppable is active, Healing Focus can be used on the martial artist himself as a purely mental action. When Unstoppable's effect ends, the martial artist is left with 1 stamina point.

This ability replaces perfect self.

[FlameUser64]

A few notes on the reasoning behind some things:

— The intended gameplay of the martial artist is that the player themselves will, over the course of play, learn the statistics of foes they fight repeatedly through observation. Over time, you'll learn exactly how high the attack bonus of certain foes is, exactly how high their AC is, exactly what the save DCs of their abilities are, etc., and thus be able to make more efficient use of your stamina points. Even over the course of a single combat, you'll learn more about your foe's abilities and exactly how much stamina you need to spend to counter them, as well as when it is or isn't worth expending stamina. Your goal, then, is to attempt to feel out your foe's abilities without running yourself too low on stamina to put your analysis to good use. In this way, playing the martial artist archetype should evoke the feeling of a real sparring match.
A battle between two martial artists would likely be particularly intense, as each would need to not only feel out their foe's basic abilities but also attempt to take advantage of the foe's stamina expenditure habits, and trick the foe into spending more stamina than they need to and wearing themselves thin, or not spending as much as they should have and having it go to waste.

— Flow of Battle is the first enabler of the above-mentioned playstyle that the class gets. It is to AC what the default stamina pool ability is to attack rolls.

— Quick Step gives the martial artist a mobility advantage over a normal unchained monk. They are more able to make use of Flurry of Blows and more able to maneuver into tactically advantageous positions such as flanking. A martial artist can use Quick Step outside of combat and still remain resting to recover stamina, so being limited to a single standard or move action each round for several minutes after each combat should be somewhat less painful in the event that other party members want to speedrun the dungeon.

— Adrenaline Rush helps make the martial artist more sustainable in larger combats featuring multiple foes.

— Piercing Strike's small scaling bonus to attack and damage rolls helps mitigate the increased Multi-Attribute Dependency that their newfound Con focus would otherwise cause, because they can afford to not go all-in on Str as heavily as they would otherwise. It does, however, lock the martial artist into unarmed unless they take the Ascetic Style feats.

— The increased number of Style Strikes learned, in conjunction with Quick Step, gives the martial artist more freedom to choose Style Strikes other than Flying Kick early on. Finally, yes it is intentional that the 15th level increase in Style Strikes per round is swapped with the new Style Strike learned at 17th, even though that breaks the pattern. 3 Style Strikes per round is beyond the limits of what a normal unchained monk ever gains the ability to do, and thus it is intended to be very much an endgame ability.

— Impact Guard is of course based on the push-block or Advancing Guard mechanics found in many fighting games. It also allows you to apply debuffs to foes that can aid allies.

— Combat Insight helps give you some combat utility beyond simple mobility and damage. It can also act as a sort of "cheat sheet" to partially avoid having to feel out the foe's abilities the hard way, if you can roll high enough on the Knowledge check that the DM, say, tells you the foe's AC outright. This is, of course, highly dependent on the DM.

— Single Strike further increases the martial artist's ability to contribute to combat while remaining mobile. They can now Flying Kick on a charge for a massive 105 ft. charge range, Spin Kick on a charge to hit flat-footed AC while gaining the +2 to hit from charging, Elbow Strike for two attacks on a charge, and more!

— Persistence is to saving throws what Flow of Battle is to AC, albeit more limited.

— Snap Pivot allows you to "teleport" to foes who miss you with attacks. It can aid in slipping through the threatened areas of very large creatures without taking an Attack of Opportunity, in setting up flanking, or in dealing with archers firing at you from arrow slits. It's inspired by a certain medical student with martial arts training from a certain JRPG series….

— I will fully admit that putting Knockout here is something of a filler ability, especially considering how late it comes online compared to the Brawler's Knockout.

— Backdraft opens up more potential hilarity from your other abilities. With the use of Backdraft, Impact Guard can inflict greater penalties, and Snap Pivot gains more range, allowing you to instantly get into melee combat with an enemy in increasingly unlikely scenarios. It can even be worthwhile to accept Backdraft damage in order to avoid taking a far more painful hit from an enemy, or to ensure an attack lands when you know that your next hit will finish them off.

— Healing Focus makes you harder to lock down, though it does come online a bit late. It can also be used to aid allies, though the stamina costs are steep. It is inspired by the same character as Snap Pivot. I'm considering whether it should be allowed to cure afflictions with longer-term consequences, such as blindness or poisons and diseases, in order to grant the martial artist more out-of-combat utility.

— Opportunistic Strike lets you Flying Kick spellcasters in the face for daring to try to cast within 30 ft. of you. At least, assuming they're not able to cast defensively for whatever reason, which is a pretty big assumption. It also, of course, makes it very difficult for those foes not capable of teleportation to escape you, since you can Flying Kick them just as they try to leave the edge of your threatened area to maximize the distance traveled.

— Final Flurry is a nova tool, plain and simple. It's quite possible you could end a fight very early with it, but of course you can't then spend stamina to ensure that your attacks hit (until your capstone gets involved), because you spent it all initiating the Final Flurry in the first place. And of course, you can't use Adrenaline Rush to recover stamina when you KO a foe with Final Flurry. Furthermore, using it leaves you fatigued since it drains your stamina points to 0.
Quite frankly, I'm very uncertain about the balance of this one; it feels as if it might be inherently broken. That said, all game balance has already gone out the window for the most part by the time you get it.

— Unbreakable is pretty standard. Similar to the swashbuckler's Cheat Death but more aggressively over-the-top.

— And finally, your capstone is Unstoppable. Yes, for 1 round per day, you have AC ∞ (only a nat 20 can hit you), CMD ∞ (again, only a nat 20 can hit you), +∞ to hit (only a nat 1 can miss), +∞ to all saving throws (you only fail saves on a nat 1), +∞ to initiative checks (so if you use Unstoppable at the start of combat, you can guarantee that you go first, and your absurd initiative will last for the entire combat unless you do something to change it), +∞ to all "monster lore" Knowledge checks (so you automatically know everything there is to know about whatever monster you made the check against and the DM may as well just hand you the stat block), +10 to all nonlethal damage rolls with unarmed strikes, and 8 free bonus attacks. You also have a DC ∞ Knockout (meaning a foe cannot succeed on the save except with a nat 20). Additionally, any creature you use Impact Guard against during this time takes a -∞ penalty to attack rolls, CMB, AC, and CMD for 1 round (meaning all attacks they make hit only on a nat 20 regardless of target, and all attacks against them miss only on a nat 1 regardless of source; that said, I originally had Impact Guard's penalties hard-capped at -5, and am considering changing it back to that). And for extra shenanigans, your Snap Pivot has infinite range, meaning even the likes of the Star Scraper legendary Sniper talent from Spheres of Might is not necessarily safe from your wrath.
And while that's all very powerful, just remember: it's only for 1 round per day. And when it ends, you're left with a measly 1 stamina point. So use it wisely. (I had considered having it leave the user at full stamina points, but I decided that having the player be able to Final Flurry three turns in a row, one of which is guaranteed to hit almost all of its attacks, would probably lead to huge problems. Heck, even as-is a player can Final Flurry two turns in a row and I have no idea what I could possibly do about that.)
Unstoppable's name is inspired by a motto from my karate classes. As for why I came up with it: It looks simple enough at a glance, but leaves the reader to consider its massive mechanical implications.


Something I would kinda like to be able to do is perhaps let the martial artist spend stamina points on Acrobatics, Climb, Escape Artist, and Swim checks, but the early levels feel pretty crammed already and it doesn't seem right for that to come online at high levels.

(I really would like some feedback on this archetype, as I've put a lot of time and thought into it.)