Lost Spheres Presents: Codex of Blood (Parasite Class/Initiator Archetypes Playtest)

[Thealtruistorc]

Well, here's a project that I didn't think I'd be returning to.

After a whole lot of bouncing around between publishers, I am proud to announce that Codex of Blood is returning under Lost Spheres Publishing, now even more expansive than before.

The Parasite, other Animus Users, and new feats (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HeG0jGT94TtNtA3CUbf6nQFoJsWkxyNa1tKzwn1ko_0/edit#)

Archetypes part 1: Martial Champions (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dxALHSKLbKg9tiquXnXMmq51RX_e-qsB3xgxJju7cJI/edit#)

Archetypes part 2: Battlefield Terrors and Class Templates (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KMPwkugU39ORt4o5Vo5eajjGhvaz07q_M-ZwjQMVCNw/edit#)

New Disciplines (https://docs.google.com/document/d/19-azS0Cu88G8p_a-m9eV67SYyk7Uiop8gyg6nxz9xzg/edit#)

The Martial Maneuver system from Path of War has been a noteworthy reinterpretation of martial combat ever since it was introduced, and Codex of Blood is intended to expand upon it even further. Enclosed within are numerous options for over a dozen iconic classes which previously lacked initiator options, as well as a new initiator class. What's more, this book contains numerous feats and monsters options as well as three new disciplines which can be utilized by maneuver users of all stripes.

Now let's break it all down.

The Parasite (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HeG0jGT94TtNtA3CUbf6nQFoJsWkxyNa1tKzwn1ko_0/edit#bookmark=id.85y692i0ugjq) class, an animus-using initiator class which leeches power from its foes and mutates itself into bizarre and powerful new shapes.

The Cutting Blur (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dxALHSKLbKg9tiquXnXMmq51RX_e-qsB3xgxJju7cJI/edit#bookmark=id.vu52rw7ivrqh), a flashy and agile class template for Gunslingers and Swashbucklers

The Bloodmaven (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KMPwkugU39ORt4o5Vo5eajjGhvaz07q_M-ZwjQMVCNw/edit#bookmark=id.v8k0swoch1o7), an antipaladin who claims their targets and hampers their capacity in battle

The Fulminant Vessel (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HeG0jGT94TtNtA3CUbf6nQFoJsWkxyNa1tKzwn1ko_0/edit#bookmark=id.xk4xofuc6hwa), a Bloodrager who channels the power of animus to unleash immense destruction on the battlefield

The Hetairos (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dxALHSKLbKg9tiquXnXMmq51RX_e-qsB3xgxJju7cJI/edit#bookmark=id.ethsp5oolf1n), a Cavalier who combines martial skill with incredible mounted maneuverability

The Evocatus (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dxALHSKLbKg9tiquXnXMmq51RX_e-qsB3xgxJju7cJI/edit#bookmark=id.snjul6o07wvj), a Gladiator who blends immense martial force into its theatrical combat style

The Ferine Sentinel (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KMPwkugU39ORt4o5Vo5eajjGhvaz07q_M-ZwjQMVCNw/edit#bookmark=id.m1w5w3all5hk), a Hunter who shares her immense combat knowledge and tact with the body of her companions.

The Sublime Warmage (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KMPwkugU39ORt4o5Vo5eajjGhvaz07q_M-ZwjQMVCNw/edit#bookmark=id.ven0c3aw78i4), a Magus who blends magic and martial technique into a flowing combat style

The Armsmaster (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dxALHSKLbKg9tiquXnXMmq51RX_e-qsB3xgxJju7cJI/edit#bookmark=id.b9wxjim0nu1u) legendary spirit for the Medium, a mighty spirit of an ancient soldier who carrries with them the lore of countless battles

The Hypnotic Duelist (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KMPwkugU39ORt4o5Vo5eajjGhvaz07q_M-ZwjQMVCNw/edit#bookmark=id.f5272hqk5m5e), a Mesmerist who takes advantage of his foes' mental weakness to physically dominate them

The Silent Reaper (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KMPwkugU39ORt4o5Vo5eajjGhvaz07q_M-ZwjQMVCNw/edit#bookmark=id.fi746jem5435), a Ninja who excels in concealing their identity and capabilities

The Arsenal of the Initiator (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KMPwkugU39ORt4o5Vo5eajjGhvaz07q_M-ZwjQMVCNw/edit#bookmark=id.vhqc71by1mhl), an Occultist Panoply which endows the bearer with immense martial skill

The Furinkazan (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dxALHSKLbKg9tiquXnXMmq51RX_e-qsB3xgxJju7cJI/edit#bookmark=id.oy6k6b4ghpbf), a Samurai who blends skilled horsemanship with a mastery of iado

The Steel Valkyrie (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dxALHSKLbKg9tiquXnXMmq51RX_e-qsB3xgxJju7cJI/edit#bookmark=id.uotxqb9c8qyi), a Skald who combines primal energies with elaborate martial techniques

The Hero's Bane (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KMPwkugU39ORt4o5Vo5eajjGhvaz07q_M-ZwjQMVCNw/edit#bookmark=id.d6he0b8cgq2o), a Slayer who excels at countering the wiles of other initiators

The War Scion (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dxALHSKLbKg9tiquXnXMmq51RX_e-qsB3xgxJju7cJI/edit#bookmark=id.qmkx3yqcbkcj), a Spiritualist whose spirit is endowed with martial prowess

The Nexus Commander (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HeG0jGT94TtNtA3CUbf6nQFoJsWkxyNa1tKzwn1ko_0/edit#bookmark=id.y2h5nv9z8vuf), a Summoner who taps into the power of animus to command a vast army of skilled soldiers

The Climax Blade (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HeG0jGT94TtNtA3CUbf6nQFoJsWkxyNa1tKzwn1ko_0/edit#bookmark=id.jpt201sstphc), a Time Thief who weaves miniscule motes of time into complex maneuvers

The Formcrafter (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KMPwkugU39ORt4o5Vo5eajjGhvaz07q_M-ZwjQMVCNw/edit#bookmark=id.v4ddnuajl6cb), an Unchained Monk who gathers talents from the entire panoply of martial disciplines to devise his own complex tactics

The Einherjar (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dxALHSKLbKg9tiquXnXMmq51RX_e-qsB3xgxJju7cJI/edit#bookmark=id.hn0p0umu0yjh), a Valkyrie who transforms the triumphs of her allies into a power that keeps them going

The Brutal Crocodile Discipline (https://docs.google.com/document/d/19-azS0Cu88G8p_a-m9eV67SYyk7Uiop8gyg6nxz9xzg/edit#bookmark=id.ijim11tkxjcl), a martial discipline built around grappling and brutalizing targets into submission

The Leaden Hyena Discipline (https://docs.google.com/document/d/19-azS0Cu88G8p_a-m9eV67SYyk7Uiop8gyg6nxz9xzg/edit#bookmark=id.z5bf9xej4sse), dedicated to breaking the opponent's will to fight with a variety of underhanded tactics

The Mangled Gear Discipline (https://docs.google.com/document/d/19-azS0Cu88G8p_a-m9eV67SYyk7Uiop8gyg6nxz9xzg/edit#bookmark=kix.ikij727p3le1), built around exploiting or damaging the gear that so often ensures a combatant's survival

New Martial Traditions (https://docs.google.com/document/d/19-azS0Cu88G8p_a-m9eV67SYyk7Uiop8gyg6nxz9xzg/edit#bookmark=id.nfkgfzo0ukyt) for these disciplines, the Forsaken Does, Primeval Lodge, and Warsmith Brotherhood

Finally, we have Martial Simple Class Templates (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KMPwkugU39ORt4o5Vo5eajjGhvaz07q_M-ZwjQMVCNw/edit#bookmark=id.sep9wbbw7zjw) for monsters, enabling GMs to easily create monstrous versions of every Initiator class.

Enjoy! As this is a playtest, input is always appreciated.

[khadgar567]

İ dont unserstant parasites reason for mutating berserker style currently has. İf you want to create dream scared press version of cu cuhain i think you are looking in wrong angle but if you gents want to create eidonon in can class you might want to look it again one more time. But looks like we have another arcforge fiasco in our hands as some one decides mu homebrew is so good i need to publish it with every one. As whole book basicly thealturisticorc path of war homebrew with token new class to made sure it looked new product. İf i was oderator in this forum i moved this threat to homebrew and ban you for couple of days( just enough to made treat disapear on natural conditions.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Ignoring Khadgar’s wholly inappropriate and rude comment entirely (as should you), I’m interested to see where this goes! New initiator classes are always fun and getting archetypes for some of the lesser-loved classes even more so.

[khadgar567]

Ignoring Khadgar’s wholly inappropriate and rude comment entirely (as should you), I’m interested to see where this goes! New initiator classes are always fun and getting archetypes for some of the lesser-loved classes even more so.
sorry if it feel rude as 95% of the content was already published by alturisticorc on homebrew channel in past and seeing another of his homebrew getting published makes me some how wary that pathfinder might be hitting the limit on great content near future. as i like any other lost sphere content hell i actually join the kickstarter on city of seven seraps book but seeing codex of blood in same stage as arcforge after thealturisticorc get his paws on i feel we dont need another self glorified homebrew published just because you are working on some company. hell i have no problem with any of the content as long as its not homebrew already published in this forum. book lacks content that made codex of blood thats why if i was moderator i put this threat in to homebrew sentence came in previous post.

[Lotheb]

Interesting so far, still looking it over. I like a lot of the Parasite, but the the Vicious Strike animus augmentation feels kind off. As an initiator none of the bonus damage from your maneuvers or stances gets multiplied, and you don't have any class features that interact with a critical hit (critical predator and combat adaptation excepted, and both of those are optional), so a lot of the time Anima Surge will add comparable damage while being cheaper and more reliable. I don't think it's useless, but it doesn't mesh well with the rest.
There's a mutation listed called Purging Recovery with no description.

[Thealtruistorc]

Interesting so far, still looking it over. I like a lot of the Parasite, but the the Vicious Strike animus augmentation feels kind off. As an initiator none of the bonus damage from your maneuvers or stances gets multiplied, and you don't have any class features that interact with a critical hit (critical predator and combat adaptation excepted, and both of those are optional), so a lot of the time Anima Surge will add comparable damage while being cheaper and more reliable. I don't think it's useless, but it doesn't mesh well with the rest.
There's a mutation listed called Purging Recovery with no description.

Purging Recovery was a typo on my part, an alternate name for Parasitic Recovery. I may consider replacing Vicious Strike with something more flavorful/useful.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

I'll take a detailed look at this later, some of the new stuff from when this first made the rounds looks interesting. Always nice to see an Animus user.

[Lotheb]

Maybe make viscious strike part of critical predator? So it's still an option, and so Critical Predator does something on it's own instead of just letting you qualify for other abilities.
Edit:skimmed over the disciplines. Brutal Alligator seems very straightforward, most of the maneuvers are either grapple a guy or deal a bunch of damage to a guy you're grappling, with a little forced movement mixed in and ability damge at higher levels. Overall the damage seems high compared to other disciplinse, presumably balanced by the fact tha most of it only happens against foes you can keep in a grapple for a round, which makes it very all or nothing. Either you grapple them, they don't escape, and you rip their spine out, or you cant get/keep them in a grapple long enough to use your maneuvers. And eventaully you get Gorgonop's Jaws and you skip past the part where they get a chance to Escape. I think Paizo made the right choice when they excised most of the instant death abilities, so I'm not a fan of Neck Snap and Jaws of Death, especially in conjunction with Gorgonop's Jaws. 4 attempts from a full attack to instantly murder anything not immune to crits or percision damage seems like a lot, and that's before haste, TWF, natural weapons or other stuff.
Is Mage Breaker meant to apply to a creature you attempt to grapple or only one you successfully grapple? I would think the second, but once you successfully grapple them you are grappling them so the wording seems redundant, or unclear if you meant the first one.
Lead hyena I love conceptually as a shifty conniving counterpoint to Golden Lion's morale focused leadership. I feel like Taste of Defeat should be higher level, and Feed on Unease is prolly too high.

[legomaster00156]

Glorybreaker (Ex): At 6th level, a hero’s bane gains the ability to deprive enemies of their most coveted and powerful techniques, eventually developing the ability to use these iconic tricks against them. Once per round, when the hero’s bane damages their studied target with an attack, he may cause the struck target to immediately expend a single readied maneuver as if they had used it, chosen randomly from the creature’s readied maneuvers. At 12th level and every 6 levels thereafter, this ability may be used an additional time per round.
This ability replaces the additional sneak attack dice gained at 6th, 12th, and 18th levels.
This is fun and creative, but I would add that if the Slayer knows which maneuvers are readied by the target, they can instead choose to shut down specific maneuvers. Perhaps also throw in some kind of ability to shut down an opponent's ability to enter and remain in stances?

Demise of Heroics (Ex) Whenever the Slayer deals sneak attack damage to a studied target
This is pretty clearly incomplete.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

This is fun and creative, but I would add that if the Slayer knows which maneuvers are readied by the target, they can instead choose to shut down specific maneuvers. Perhaps also throw in some kind of ability to shut down an opponent's ability to enter and remain in stances?

This is pretty clearly incomplete.

I would think getting to choose would be too powerful, unless it was a guess the player makes and fails if they’re wrong (which opens it up to unfun gotcha moments from the DM).
The stance thing I could see as a Slayer Talent building off of this though. Throwing them off balance with your SA to knock them out of stances is cool

[legomaster00156]

I would think getting to choose would be too powerful, unless it was a guess the player makes and fails if they’re wrong (which opens it up to unfun gotcha moments from the DM).
The stance thing I could see as a Slayer Talent building off of this though. Throwing them off balance with your SA to knock them out of stances is cool
There are rules to this. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/skills/knowledge-martial-int-trained-only/) One can learn the disciplines known by an initiator and try and guess exact maneuvers from those. If they guess correctly, they can shut down specific maneuvers, but otherwise the attempt fails. They can also learn exact maneuvers known, but only upon seeing them used.

[Thealtruistorc]

Round of updates is up.

Addressing some requests that the playtest document was too large to be readable/loadable, I have split it up into four smaller documents, each containing some of the original content. They are each listed and fully hyperlinked for your convenience.

Vicious Critical has been made into a talent for the parasite, and the animus ability has been replaced with something more flavorful.

Neck Snap and Jaws of Death have been replaced with new maneuvers I hope folks will find more agreeable: Wing Ripper and Event Horizon.

Taste of Defeat and Feed on Unease have swapped levels with each other.

Clarified some text with the Hero's Bane, enumerating what it is now capable of.

[Alistaroc]

Where is the Valkyrie from? I see the Einherjar archetype for it but I can't find the base class.
Additionally the Champion's Shield and Call to Battle deeds are missing text.

[Thealtruistorc]

Where is the Valkyrie from? I see the Einherjar archetype for it but I can't find the base class.
Additionally the Champion's Shield and Call to Battle deeds are missing text.

The Valkyrie (http://paizo.com/products/btpy9zrd?The-Valkyrie-Hybrid-Class) is a hybrid class from Total Party Kill games, combining the Barbarian and the Paladin with a few cleric abilities thrown in as well. It's one of three non-paizo-or-DSP classes I covered in the book (the others being TPK's Gladiator (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/126159/The-Ultimate-Gladiator?manufacturers_id=3782&filters=0_0_44235_44499_0) Class and Rogue Genius Games' Time Thief (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/rogue-genius-games/time-thief/) class).

Fixed the missing text issue. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Alistaroc]

Alright reading through the Einherjar again I found this.

In order for the einherjar to recover maneuvers, she must offer a prayer to her patron as a full-round action. Whe she does this, the einherjar recovers a number of maneuvers equal to her charisma modifier, and she and all allies within 30 feet gain fast healing equal to the einherjar’s charisma modifier for 1 minute.
Is this a typo? It seems to me that this alone would make the Einherjar invaluable. Granting the whole party Fast Healing 3 to 5 for a minute as only a full round action? That's pretty powerful, especially at lower levels. I could see fast healing equal to the highest level maneuver recovered, but Charisma modifier seems a little much imho.

Additionally reading through the Bloodmaven;

Claimed creatures take a –2 penalty on damage rolls and to the save DCs of any abilities they may possess. Attacks against Claimed creatures deal an additional amount of damage equal to the bloodmaven’s initiation modifier.
Emphasis mine. This seems a little excessive imho. That's probably 3-5 damage on everyone's attacks. Starting at first level and scaling. Maybe use the same "max level of maneuver" in place of it?

[legomaster00156]

I would suggest, rather than fast healing, giving allies temporary HP equal to the class level + initiator modifier for one minute.

[Thealtruistorc]

Adjusted the Einherjar and Bloodmaven's abilities to stabilize progression more. Maven's claim no longer adds additional damage and the Einherjar's maneuver recuperation grants temporary hit points rather than fast healing (although a certain deed can grant fast healing still).

[Alistaroc]

Adjusted the Einherjar and Bloodmaven's abilities to stabilize progression more. Maven's claim no longer adds additional damage and the Einherjar's maneuver recuperation grants temporary hit points rather than fast healing (although a certain deed can grant fast healing still).
Love the fixes, can't wait to try these out!

Just picked up on a typo in Bloodmaven, don't forget this line.

The penalty as well as the extra damage are doubled at 10th level and again at 20th level.

I like Einherjar's fix, I will definitely be running one and seeing how it feels!
Minor typo in Champion's Shield deed, suggestions in bold.

Champion’s Shield (Su) When they target an ally with a boost or strike, an einherjar may spend a point of triumph to grant that ally fast healing equal to half the einherjar’s initiator level (minimum 1) for a number of rounds equal to the einherjar’s charisma modifier.

[Thealtruistorc]

Minor typo in Champion's Shield deed, suggestions in bold.

Fixed. Nice catch.

[Thealtruistorc]

Edited in rules for class skills in each archetype.

[AlienFromBeyond]

Are we to submit all our feedback here in this thread? I only ask because I'm pretty sure I'm going to hit the character limit and need multiple posts to cover everything I've seen instead of comments directly on the google docs.

[Thealtruistorc]

Are we to submit all our feedback here in this thread? I only ask because I'm pretty sure I'm going to hit the character limit and need multiple posts to cover everything I've seen instead of comments directly on the google docs.

The intention is for all feedback to be consolidated on the thread. If you want to make multiple posts, feel absolutely free.

[AlienFromBeyond]

Okay, well don't say I didn't warn you! If I don't really comment on something, that means I think it's mostly fine or even like it. This will only cover the class/archetypes/feats in the first 3 documents provided, the disciplines themselves in the 4th doc will take longer to look at and give feedback on. I know some of this is just editing nitpicking but it's best to get that cleaned up sooner rather than later, and without direct google doc comments them taking up space like this is just how it's going to have to be.

Parasite

I don't really understand the choice of name here. Nothing about it really says "parasitic" to me in any way. I get that the fluff is that they're supposed to be like a sort of parasite on society that feeds off of battle, violence, and war, but I feel like there's something that describes that more correctly. Isn't coming to mind right now though, maybe later.
Maneuvers Readied/Granted should be just Maneuvers Readied, just like the Mystic.
The Life Drain augmentation seems far too good. Being able to heal half of the damage you deal with a strike, which can be a lot indeed, is just a bit too much at level 4 and only 2 animus. It seems more appropriate for the level 9 section.
Speaking of the level 9 section of maneuver augmentations, Animus Endurance is part of why I recommend Life Drain move up and potentially this move down. The amount of healing from Life Drain is far larger, for cheaper, than Animus Endurance is. Purify Form is... fine I guess? It has a problem of needing to initiate a maneuver to use, but many of the truly bad effects you would want to reroll against with it would make that difficult.
Siphon seems completely unnecessary. The fact that it generates an animus when used means that a Parasite can generate the resource incredibly quickly, even faster than OG animus-user the Mystic. Twice as fast or more in fact depending on level, while also handing out an attack penalty debuff all with no save.
Phage's Resilience is nuts, it is not an okay ability in my book. It's incredibly overloaded, from getting Cha to natural armor (aka AC but stacking with armor unlike Monk), getting Cha to saves like a Paladin, the Stalwart class feature, and a suite of immunities to make even an undead blush.
Crippling Siphon let's you add even more debuffs to the already amazing Siphon, and they can happen in such a way to benefit the rest of your attack, like debuffing the save your strike is targeting. I would at the very least recommend breaking the choices up into tiers that require to have a certain amount of levels to start taking, much like Paladin Mercies.
Transformation makes Alchemists and any archetype that poaches Mutagen cry. +6 alchemical bonus to any[/b] three stats of your choice? Everyone is just going to take Cha, Dex (or Str, but tbh this class is stronger with Dex), and then whatever the hell they want.
Dual Siphon, while fitting and in line with similar abilities such as Dual Tactical Presence on the Warlord, is also far too much once you start being able to apply Siphon itself more than once a round. If anything, I would remove the ability to Siphon more than once a round from that ability entirely, and leave only this as an incentive that want to further their debuff capabilities.
Mutations, just, wow. At worst it's Fighter bonus feat progression, but the Myrmidon archetype for the Fighter gives up half of those bonus feats! Not to mention of the plethora of goodies in it, from being able to auto-threaten a crit (very dangerous with x4 crit weapons around), tons of energy resist, extra reach, fast healing at level 4, size changes that stacks with other size changes, and your choice of numerous strong polymorph abilities.
All put together, in terms of raw combat power, this may be the strongest martial or initiator there is.


Fulminant Vessel

I strongly dislike the 1/3/5 progression of the animus augmentation cap. It means you have a serious period of weakness compared to other animus users in the second half of working towards your +2 cap. I can understand keeping the augment progression, but it will just make leveling too painful to limit the animus cap in the same way too. Bloodragers have the slower spell progression, but had full caster level progression, which I liken to the augments gained and animus augmentation cap respectively.
The Surging Vitality augmentation makes no sense at all. Bloodrage doesn't give temporary hit points, are you confusing it with unchained barbarian rage? Also limiting the temporary hit points to not stack with ones from other sources seems unnecessary. The value is also iffy. Early on it's fairly decent, but only gets worse in value as you gain levels. Perhaps 1/2 level temp hp stacking with itself instead?
Volcanic Burst being a clone of the second ability of the Zealot's Storm of Steel makes sense for a Bloodrager, but the flat cost compared to the scaling "always max cost" the Zealot has makes me wary. It is a very potent ability indeed after all.
Only Disruptive Blow at level 16 seems worth it out of the three options given at that level. Explosive Surge is just a bad Fireball (it still hurts yourself even!) and Animus Form simply doesn't protect you enough over doing an offensive augment to just kill what is threatening you in the first place.
Animus Healing is really quite bad, and getting more uses of a bad feat doesn't make it feel any better.
The archetype doesn't replace the Blood Casting class feature, which is rendered into a dead feature since the class no longer has spellcasting with the archetype. You also need to alter Greater and Mighty Bloodrage to remove the text about casting a spell on yourself with no action when you start a bloodrage, as again the archetype has no casting.


Nexus Commander

Intimidate and Stealth should be capitalized in the section adding the new class skills. On a related note, the use of Nexus Summoner should [i]not be capitalized.
In the Animus class feature there is a missing word:
The Nexus Commander may use spell trigger and spell completion items as if he could cast summoner spells, using his initiator as his caster level.This is missing a "level" after initiator.
Does Grant Maneuver really let you spend say 3 animus to hand out a copy of a maneuver to 3 different creatures in your nexus? And of any maneuver as well, the Zealot (the class many would call the best support initiator in PoW) being restricted to only doing so with maneuvers at least 1 level lower than their maximum, with a scaling cost based on maneuver level, with only a single copy, to a single creature at a time total.
Nexus is used as a capitalized word many times throughout the class when stating that an effect affects a creature within your Nexus, but it should be all lower case just collective is for a Zealot.
It is not clear if Reconfigure Forces or Gift of Evolution work on non-summoned creatures in your nexus added to it through the use of Open Nexus.
The new eidolon evolutions, are those exclusive to the Nexus Commander, or available to all Summoners much like the akashic evolution options? I am a bit worried about them balance-wise. An Eidolon can have a large number of attacks, which can make certain stances and boosts for them incredibly powerful, even more so than a PC.
Planar Initiator evolution has a couple of uses of eidolon capitalized in it for no reason. It also mentions "gains additional aegis maneuvers", is this a copy and paste problem? Similarly, to recover maneuvers it mentions "he must realign himself to his astral suit a full-round action".
Additional Maneuvers evolution should say "The summoner must be at least 3rd level before selecting this evolution." instead of "Minimum Summoner level 3rd." The use of summoner should also be lower case.


Climax Blade

I don't really know anything about this class so my feedback here will be more limited. The name for both the archetype and its resource (climax energy) sound kind of weird and out of place though.
Climax Blade capitalization is inconsistent, and it should be lower case.
Climax Energy states "A climax blade can spend tempo as if it were animus when augmenting maneuvers from the Elemental Flux discipline." but the archetype does not have tempo, it has climax energy.


Feats

Animus Efficiency is good, maybe too good. It might be worth taking even if you could only ever take it once, but I don't know the animus classes as well in that regard.
Bred for Battle is kind of strange, but also potentially very interesting. It does allow the option of someone hard dumping their initiation modifier and then bringing it all the way back up to +2 while at level 1. It's probably okay, but is the sort of thing I would keep an eye on just in case.
Brutal Crocodile Desolation should turn ability damage into ability drain, not ability burn, as ability burn specifically can't be removed by magical means at all.
Lead Hyena Style might be too good, it's like Hammer the Gap except the bonus stacks up with all attacks, doesn't reset if you miss, and also gives an attack bonus per hit as well. Meanwhile the rest of the style chain for this is... not very good at all.


Cutting Blur

The only thing I'm not keen on in this class template is the ease of use with the recovery method it has letting you recover all of your grit/panache on demand.
You do have gunslinger and swashbuckler capitalized in many places it shouldn't be as well.


Hetairos

How come this gets to share its stances with its mount seemingly for free compared to say the Hussar class template?


Evocatus

Don't know the class this archetype is for, but it seems okay to me.


Armsmaster Legendary Spirit

The seance boon for this spirit is far too good compared to what the rest of the spirits give. I don't really see a reason to make it different from the regular Champion seance boon anyways.
Having free choice of both disciplines and maneuvers is a huge amount of versatility. While Archmage does give you your free choice of spells, they are restricted to wizard/sorcerer spells, with the equivalent for this spirit IMO being the disciplines it gives. Thus I feel that it should be a static list of disciplines, or perhaps your choice at level 1 but then they're locked in from now on.


Furinkazan

Having Warrior's Claim on top of Challenge as well as any boosts or counters you get from your maneuver means you're extremely strapped in the swift action economy. In fact, having both Warrior's Claim as well as Challenge seems a bit redundant thematically, and losing your order for it feels really bad as well.


Steel Valkyrie

Gambit rules text is based on the old version of gambits the Warlord has, you should make sure to look at the errata (gambits are half intiation mod now for instance).
Warpath Epic is actually crazy good. You could expend a level 1 maneuver to initiate the level 9 maneuver known by an ally, and then do that over and over again. It also technically allows the "borrowed" maneuver to be a stance if so desired.
Spell Kenning isn't altered or swapped for something else, leaving the class with a now dead class feature due to the loss of spellcasting.


New Gambits

You should reevaluate these due to the PoW errata and specifically how it relates to gambits and also Warlords in general. For example Tactical Assistance now makes Aid Another affect all allies within 30 ft. instead of using Cha mod for the bonus from Aid Another.
Fearmonger's Gambit is better than all the original gambits that give a damage bonus because they only give their damage bonus on the next attack (aka only one attack) made by the Warlord and each ally against a single specific enemy.


War Scion

This gets far too many feats! If you keep your phantom in your consciousness you get more total feats than a Fighter (up to 8 from the phantom, 4 more from Lessons of Past and Present). Probably shouldn't get the phantom's feats when it's not manifested.
I am also concerned about the phantom duplicating equipment you're using, this is very abusable with equipment that has limited uses per day or even artifacts! Not to mention it means you can manifest your phantom on demand and have it immediately ready for combat unlike other spiritualists, and also because it fake generates an enormous amount of gold in equipment to allow you to effectively fight side by side with your phantom in a way no one else can even come close to affording.


Einherjar

Your sidebar on combining Grit, Luck, Panache, and Triumph is wrong. The original text from the Sleuth archetype specifically says you do not add twice your Cha mod to the pool if you have both panache and luck. You're also missing the bit about luck not counting as a grit/panache user for feat prereqs (with triumph added in there of course).
Don't know anything else about the class, but the rest seems fine on initial inspection.


Bloodmaven

Maven's Claim should not follow a -2/-4/-8 progression for the penalty it inflicts, it should be -2/-4/-6. In addition, this penalty is huge and not appropriate at all. In combination with Malicious Claim you can effectively render any strong-ish enemy's abilities useless by crushing their DCs into nothing. That it also reduces their damage is simply extra. I would in fact cut the numbers in half to -1/-2/-3, and it may still be too good after that.
Inescapable Demise should say "may move his speed" instead of "may move him speed" and "This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity." instead of "This movement does not provoke attack of opportunity."
Angelbane mentions "knight disciple" twice instead of "bloodmaven". Also this ability isn't very good compared to how powerful Malicious Claim itself is. Fiendbane from the Knight Disciple wasn't that great, but relatively speaking wasn't as bad because Guardian's Shield can be a bit meh at times.
Malicious Claim mentions "bonus damage granted by the Maven's claim ability" when there is no such bonus damage from it, and also maven should not be capitalized here.
Cruel Claims needs lower case use of malicious claim and maven's claim.


Huay

Skinshifting seems kind of awkward, and is a lot of additional bookkeeping. You will essentially need a sheet for yourself, your animal companion, you skinshifted into your animal companion, and your animal companion shifted into your body. It might also get weird with stances, I'm not sure what would happen if you initiate a stance in one body and then shift over to the other body. The level 10 and 17 abilities are also potentially insane, but the level 10 is limited in forcing you to be in an animal form and thus requiring additional magic just to communicate, and level 17 is where the game gets broken anyways so that's probably fine I suppose?


Sublime Warmage

Frankly I'm really surprised this doesn't get Elemental Flux instead of Mithral Current.
How this archetype gains maneuvers is strange and makes it hard to evaluate, but it looks like you did it so they could keep casting on top of initiating?


Hypnotic Duelist

Claiming Gaze is confusing, it counts as Painful Stare for the purpose of prerequisites but many feats that have that directly affect your Painful Stare (specifically when you trigger it), and so it becomes unclear how say Intense Pain interacts with Claiming Gaze.
Use of painful stare in Claiming Gaze is capitalized when it shouldn't be.
The multi-Bold Stare capability of Claiming Gaze is very strong, though in this case it may be okay because of being a more debuff-oriented archetype considering the loss of Painful Stare's damage.


Arsenal of the Initiator Panoply

I would be careful here, it shares an implement with Trappings of the Warrior, so if you invest as much mental focus as you can into that shared implement (in this case a weapon for Transmutation) you could essentially be a full BAB initiator with 6 casting on top.
The ratio of mental focus to maneuvers gained is very favorable, between that and getting to choose how many maneuvers you get and also being redone every day you can be highly efficient in maneuver choices compared to regular initiators. In addition Combat Renewal means you can take out focus and put it back in to change your maneuvers on the fly, making you even more of a batman wizard initiator than the Armsmaster Legendary Spirit is. The rest is fine, and Punch Through might not even be good enough.


Hero's Bane

What does the sentence "the hero's bane recovers a single expended maneuver whenever he uses studied target a creature" actually mean?
In Stances it mentions hypnotic duelist instead of hero's bane.
So focused that it's only good if most of the enemies you are fighting are also initiators.


Formcrafter
Actually one of my favorite things in this, I think it's in a good place letting the Unchained Monk get access to initiating and also what the Master of Many Styles does.

[OgresAreCute]

Parasite
I don't really understand the choice of name here. Nothing about it really says "parasitic" to me in any way. I get that the fluff is that they're supposed to be like a sort of parasite on society that feeds off of battle, violence, and war, but I feel like there's something that describes that more correctly. Isn't coming to mind right now though, maybe later.


In the real world, we call people like that "warhawks" or "warmongers" I believe. They usually don't do much of the fighting themselves, though.

[legomaster00156]

So focused that it's only good if most of the enemies you are fighting are also initiators.
I wouldn't say that. It's still an initiating archetype, which already makes it superior to the base Slayer. I find that it really shines, though, as an enemy of initiating PC's. :smallbiggrin:

[AlienFromBeyond]

I wouldn't say that. It's still an initiating archetype, which already makes it superior to the base Slayer. I find that it really shines, though, as an enemy of initiating PC's. :smallbiggrin:
Being better than base Slayer isn't high marks in my book, if you aren't able to put the anti-initiating stuff to use you should just play a better class instead. Initiating enemies can be frustrating enough to play against as it is, playing against one that also deny your own initiating sounds even worse and not something the archetype should be balanced around IMO.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

In the real world, we call people like that "warhawks" or "warmongers" I believe. They usually don't do much of the fighting themselves, though.

Warhawk does have that “class name” zing to it, though we have so many classes that start with “War-“ already

[khadgar567]

Warhawk does have that “class name” zing to it, though we have so many classes that start with “War-“ already
yet parasite does not give the wuxia master of martial arts feel so +1 to warhawk name

[Thealtruistorc]

Alright, another round of revisions is officially finished.


(miscellaneous grammar and formatting issues)
Thank you for pointing these out. They have all been fixed.



Parasite

The class has gotten substantial nerfs. Most of its abilities have been reduced in power and in a few cases have been outright removed. Something to note is that the parasite does not generate animus from performing maneuvers, unlike the mystic.

As for the name, I am considering several alternatives at this point. Top five are Enyal, Enyalian, Tyrant, Devastator, and Devourer.



Fulminant Vessel

Added a new feature to replace bloodcasting while streamlining the animus progression. Various animus abilities have been tweaked and rebalanced.



Nexus Commander

Rebalanced animus abilities, placing some of the more potent ones at higher levels. Clarified the text on some others.



Climax Blade

The title of the class is designed to indicate its focus on specific moments in time, drawing power from climactic stress points in a fight. That was my logic behind this, at least.



Feats

Tweaked these and added a few new ones.



Cutting Blur

In all honesty, I don't see much of an issue with easy grit recovery. The gunslinger already had plenty of ways to obtain grit mid-fight, and I don't see this variant as making it that much easier so as to unbalance it.



Hetairos

Changed the mount-stance thing into a feat.



Armsmaster Legendary Spirit

Seance Boon reverted to normal champion's. The medium is able to grab quite a bit more than sorcerer/wizard spells, able to freely obtain cleric spells in addition to druid and bard ones with certain legendary spirits. Hence, I don't find it particularly over-the-top for them to be able to grab pretty much any maneuver combination.


Furinkazan

Challenge was removed from this archetype (it says it is replaced in the maneuvers section). As for order, I may consider re-implementing it if folks think it would be okay.


Steel Valkyrie

Gambits fixed, warpath epic nerfed, and spell kenning swapped out for a new ability



War Scion

Removed the overpowering abilities listed above.


Einherjar

Fixed the sidebar


Bloodmaven

Maven's claim nerfed.


Huay

While I understand your issues, I'm not quite sure what the best way to address them is. Reworking the archetype entirely is a possibility.


Sublime Warmage

The idea behind Sublime Warmage's progression was to make it compatible with as many archetypes as possible. For that reason, I decided to make maneuver progression very flexible.


Hypnotic Duelist

Cleared up text with claiming gaze.


Arsenal of the Initiator Panoply

Reworked to reduce on-the-fly adaptation substantially.


Hero's Bane

While it does lose some things, I don't think that the Hero's Bane is substantially gimped. It still has maneuvers of its own, after all, and retains the Slayer's studied target feature for enhanced accuracy and damage.

[AlienFromBeyond]

In all honesty, I don't see much of an issue with easy grit recovery. The gunslinger already had plenty of ways to obtain grit mid-fight, and I don't see this variant as making it that much easier so as to unbalance it.
While true, it also doesn't recover all grit typically, and generally requires being in combat (recovery methods can be used at any time).



Seance Boon reverted to normal champion's. The medium is able to grab quite a bit more than sorcerer/wizard spells, able to freely obtain cleric spells in addition to druid and bard ones with certain legendary spirits. Hence, I don't find it particularly over-the-top for them to be able to grab pretty much any maneuver combination.
Hmm maybe, I don't know Medium as well, and what I've seen has had it be difficult to obtain Legendary Spirits at best. Maybe I've just seen hardass GMs.



Challenge was removed from this archetype (it says it is replaced in the maneuvers section). As for order, I may consider re-implementing it if folks think it would be okay.
Man how did I miss that. If keeping regular challenge is too much, maybe get a crappy mini-challenge that doesn't do much (if really anything) besides counting as Challenge for the purposes of stuff that activates on it like Order abilities or perhaps certain feats. I just don't like seeing classes that have class features that don't do anything.



While I understand your issues, I'm not quite sure what the best way to address them is. Reworking the archetype entirely is a possibility.
I'm not sure either. Reworking may be the easiest way of addressing it, but I assume you're also trying to keep its identity separate from the Ambush Hunter archetype for the Ranger. Maybe you have the companion have maneuvers in a similar manner, and the unique ability is like when you initiate a maneuver you can initiate it from your animal companion's space using your own stats and vice versa. Thus the two can work in concert to threaten a much larger area, without needing to worry about potentially changing stats all the time. The skinshifting is certainly a neat idea, and giving some sort of polymorph effect is fun.



The idea behind Sublime Warmage's progression was to make it compatible with as many archetypes as possible. For that reason, I decided to make maneuver progression very flexible.
Yup that's what I thought. One thing I would point out that I just realized is that Martial Development lets the Magus get far too many stances compared to even full PoW classes. Perhaps it should give an additional stance every second time you take the arcana instead?



While it does lose some things, I don't think that the Hero's Bane is substantially gimped. It still has maneuvers of its own, after all, and retains the Slayer's studied target feature for enhanced accuracy and damage.
I guess, I just don't think highly of Slayer as a class in general, and there is power budget allocated to the anti-maneuver stuff (3 sneak attack dice). I may just be making a mountain out of a molehill in this regard.

EDIT: I may do a followup post about what I think about the changes, I quickly looked at the Parasite and really liked what I saw.

[Thealtruistorc]

Adjusted the Sublime Warmage and Furinkazan, returning the latter's order while nerfing the former's stance progression.

Replaced the Huay hunter with a new archetype, the Ferine Sentinel. Check it out and give me your thoughts.

[legomaster00156]

Glorybreaker (Ex): At 6th level, a hero’s bane gains the ability to deprive enemies of their most coveted and powerful techniques, eventually developing the ability to use these iconic tricks against them.
The Hero's Bane has no ability to back this up.

[Thealtruistorc]

The Hero's Bane has no ability to back this up.

An early draft had an ability that let it use any maneuvers that it deprived opponents of. In practice, it didn't quite work out, but I may revisit the concept if folks are that interested.

[legomaster00156]

One way to go about it could be to allow the Hero's Bane to have up to one deprived maneuver "stored" and readied for up to one minute after stealing it, and have it work sort of like how the Contender's Martial Flexibility allows them to get bonus maneuvers known and readied.

[AlienFromBeyond]

On the subject of the changes you've made, I quite like them so far. Everything looks much better balanced. Now, onwards to the discipline feedback! Much like before, anything I don't directly comment on is in what I consider to be a fine state.

Brutal Crocodile

The bonus of adding initiator level to CMB and CMD is way crazy out of line. Brutal Crocodile initiators will basically win every grapple ever.
I see a lot of "Target: Grappled creature" but technically all these strikes with that could be used against creatures grappled by someone other than you. It should probably be "Target: Creature you are grappling" instead.
Snatching Talons doesn't have a clear duration listed for the "deal 1d8 points of damage every time you maintain a grapple." I'm guessing the intent is whenever you maintain the grapple initiated from that strike? Because a duration of "Instant plus grapple" is weird and I'm not sure defined by the game either, and doesn't make it clear which grapple.
Trampling Pin does too much damage for being level 1, it's more than a Butchering Axe for a medium sized character while also inflicting the powerful pinned condition. 2d8 would be more appropriate I think, with maybe increasing if the target is already pinned?
Bestial Dash needs to state what position grappled creatures do end up in if the "would end its turn in the same space as another creature or object" clause kicks in. Do they stay in the same relative position for example, or could you stay in place and then spin them around in a circle to hit something around you? It also probably does too much damage as well since it inflicts it to potentially every creature you are grappling and then also every creature you rammed them into. Also not a fan of no save/attempt to escape for movement into hazardous terrain, you can end a fight instantly pretty easily with that. They already have the grappled condition for -4 Dex, it would be harder for them than usual anyways, might as well give them the chance. It's only a level 2 maneuver after all. That said I do really like having something for movement while grappled while dragging what you're already grappling.
Like Snatching Talons, Gar Rush has no proper duration/time limit is listed for the bonus damage when you maintain a grapple. The damage also seems to be a problem here, though the on charge damage is less problematic (but still problematic IMO) than Snatching Talons because it's just flat dice of damage with no stat modifier added.
Monkey Vault is a 3rd level maneuver in other disciplines (such as Taunting Laugh in Black Seraph).
Anaconda's Coils worry me, specifically the auto-pin part. Making a skill check in place of something else is fairly standard in PoW, but essentially getting it twice to grapple and then also pin is extremely potent. I think I would rather see it as a boost that you use whenever you make a grapple check with CMB to instead make a Climb check.
Catfish Hold is simply overloaded in how much it does. Ignoring all size modifiers is very powerful just by itself, but I can understand wanting a little bit more to go with it. Adding initiation modifier to CMB/CMD while also adding it as additional damage when you grapple seems a bit much. Maybe have just the damage bonus, with a higher level stance getting the CMB/CMD bonus.
Into the Earth does the equivalent of a 6th level maneuver (it does more than Iron Monger's Throw in Broken Blade, a discipline which is considered by many to be overtuned as it is).
Trapping Jaws has a duration of Instantaneous yet has a lasting effect (the 5d6 while you maintain the grapple) and echoes the issue with Snatching Talons and Gar Rush of not being specific enough on duration and target of the effect. I also think it's too much bonus damage since it's a counter and thus can easily be stacked with other grapple damage bonuses. Just canceling the attack and also grappling them out of turn is incredibly strong, I'm not sure the damage is even necessary on it as a 3rd level counter.
Okay this is getting out of hand with the damage from Alligator Suplex. This is equal roughly to a 7th level maneuver (not quite as good as Meteoric Throw at level 8, but still really good). If you want to keep it at the same level, reduce the damage and put a save on that daze.
Probably a bit too much damage from Silencing Grip, otherwise I think it's in a fine place.
Whoa Blood in the Water seems crazy powerful. The scaling it has of getting better as you get better [G] maneuvers is extremely potent, and gets you going far faster, to the point that I would consider it a must pick for any Brutal Crocodile disciple.
Mighty Throw is outright superior to Broken Blade's Meteoric Throw at 8th maneuver level. It deals more damage on average (45.5 vs 42), auto-deals the damage to the target (Meteoric Throw lets the target make a Reflex save to take half damage), works against everything (Meteoric Throw is limited to one size above you), and even has more range. The only downsides it has are using an attack roll instead of a ranged touch attack and the inability to hit multiple targets if throwing a Large or bigger creature.
I don't really understand the point of Wing Ripper. The movement speed reduction is only useful if the enemy breaks free/takes control of your grapple, otherwise they can't move anyways. At least the damage is roughly on point.
Atrophic Brutalization has the usual complaints of earlier maneuvers with duration and damage issues for maintaining the grapple.
Disfiguring Strike rivals Steel Serpent's Sting of the Viper, the ability damage discipline. It's not quite as much ability damage as that maneuver, but it's close while doing a ton of damage and a save for a fight winning condition on top.
Why does Insatiable Warpath mention not allowing you to perform more than one [G] maneuver in a single round, it's irrelevant because you can only do [G] maneuvers when maintaining a grapple as a standard action! In addition, I see that there is no limit on the free action grapple maintain, letting you theoretically do infinite grapple maintains as a free action and eventually stab the enemy you're grappling to death slowly. The simultaneously double damage clause is also confusing, does it mean for using one attack I do double damage to each grappled creature, or is it for some reason going over the use case of attacking your off-hand creature with your main-hand, and then hitting the main-hand creature with your off-hand?
In what world is Voracious Maul okay? Full-attack while grappling, except you can't miss at all? Excuse me?
Crushing Python is basically remove target opponent from the fight in a pretty hardcore way. This would be worth taking as an 8th, maybe even 9th, level maneuver.
I assume Meteoric Suplex is intended as a reference to Meteoric Throw in Broken Blade, and this time it might actually be appropriate. 1 level less, a bit more damage, but less accurate and less AoE damage.
For Event Horizon, this means their bodies are still around while they are subject to the Astral Projection effect right? Effectively making it a chance to paralyze the creatures you're grappling? I would say roughly comparable to the Scarlet Throne capstone, no bonus damage but the debuff is potentially stronger and can affect multiple enemies.
tl;dr Damage numbers are way overtuned, also think about whether the primary focus of the discipline is damage or crowd control and keep that in mind when balancing. I also feel that it runs into issues doing flat amounts of dice of damage with the [G] strikes instead of adding additional damage, it means weapon-specific bonuses get left by the wayside and that being bigger doesn't increase your damage like other martials, only increasing your CMB/CMD. I would prefer to see them like regular strikes, adding extra damage to the damage option of maintaining a grapple instead. I do wish it used a different skill than Climb to differentiate it from Fool's Errand. You could try to say Swim since there's a lot of water critters like crocodiles and hippos in the maneuver names, but that seems like a stretch.


Lead Hyena

I really don't like the name of this discipline. I keep reading Lead like the metal as that fits the naming scheme of many disciplines like Golden Lion, Steel Serpent, Silver Crane, except lead is not a metal I would want base the name of a martial discipline. Or is the intent that it's Lead Hyena like Lead Investigator, the head hyena if you will? Wouldn't Alpha Hyena be clearer with less chance for confusion in that case? If you are in fact trying to echo the Metal Animal naming scheme of other disciplines, I would recommend something other than lead. Was the idea behind lead to have something the "opposite" of gold (a metal of little value) because it's an enemy debuff/trickery oriented discipline, sort of the opposite of Golden Lion? Perhaps pyrite would be a better, or mercury/mercurial. But almost everyone I've talked to thinks the name needs to be changed away from Lead because of the confusing number of ways it can be read and interpreted.
Note that for Cruel Hyena'as Facade that feinting does not actually make the target flat-footed, it merely denies their Dexterity bonus against the next attack against them. It is a fine distinction, but a meaningful one, and the current text of the stance could mislead more people about how feints work. It is also be too good. It exceeds in fact Improved Feint, even exceeding Moonlight Stalker Feint (http://archivesofnethys.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Moonlight%20Stalker%20Fe int). That's a feat with multiple prerequisite feats, minimum level 6 just due to skill ranks, and only allows the swift action feint under specific circumstances. I know PoW martials are strong, but this is pushing it just a bit far, being able to swift feint every round would make a lot of boosts blush. Just giving Improved Feint for free + the shaken on feint would be enough I think, with perhaps a scaling ability to upgrade to swift at a certain level (many stances have some amount of scaling).
Incite Betrayal might be a tad too good as a level 1 maneuver, it scales very well with levels (since it's a skill check) and its damage and accuracy effectively scale with the power of your enemies, making it relevant at basically any level. This one you might want as a Will save instead.
Malignant Punisher Stance seems like a superior Crane Riposte (http://archivesofnethys.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Crane%20Riposte) and much earlier too, which is putting it lightly. It may in fact be the best stance in the game for a Warder, letting them generate even more AoOs than the AoO focused Eternal Guardian discipline. Perhaps a simple thorns-type effect of dealing initiation mod damage to enemies who miss you, increasing to x2/x3 initiation mod at certain levels?
Remember what I said about healing half the damage you deal for a round being really good? Sadistic Vitality is even better than that, because it gives temporary HP instead and thus works while at full HP. It does have the bit of funkiness of not doing anything the round you initiate, relegating it to doing its work on the 2nd round of combat, but this is almost better because it means in that second round you can effectively "stack" a 2nd boosts effect on top to try and get maximum out of Sadistic Vitality. They also will basically always last the entire fight. Also, the duration for the boost itself needs to be fixed. A duration of 1 round means it lasts for the turn you activated it and then ends right before your turn on the next round, but the effect clearly states that it does its work in the next round when you attack, when it should be gone by then. Perhaps it should just affect the current round and be a more immediate boost that fits the normal trend.
Scavenger's Leer is a better Witchfinder's Brand from Cursed Razor, being 2 levels lower, applicable to attacks if desired, and being a counter instead of a pre-emptive boost. The only thing it lacks is the ability to stop spell/psi-like abilities. A small price to pay to be able to swift action counter a wizard's spell (who most likely won't have Sense Motive trained well and will have bad AC).
Tripling bleeding from Wound-Gouging Blade is far too much, especially since it works on all type of bleeding the enemy is suffering. It should be no more than double, and I would lean more to +50% considering the other effects. It's also unclear if the 2d4 bleed damage against non-bleeding targets happens before or after this tripling. It also mentions a "save DC being required to stop the bleeding increasing by 5" but there is no such thing, I think you mean the Heal check DC (which is normally 15). Causing magical healing to fail entirely if they fail the CL check instead of merely preventing the bleeding from being removed but keeping the rest of the effects of the spell (such as the actual HP healing) is also incredibly excessive, as is the size of the DC that has to be beaten. Compare that effect alone to Flowing Gore Blow from Unquiet Grave, the death/undead themed discipline that is very, very good at bleed effects already.
Lead Hyena Stance is basically a super always-on Flickering Defense from Riven Hourglass (a very high power discipline). Yes it doesn't give -4 to the attack roll, but it works on every single attack and also works on skills and saves on top. Even just changing it to affect the first applicable roll each round per enemy would be very good as a stance, in fact that's probably better than the level 3 Sleeping Goddess stance Internal Dominion of the Sleeping Goddess.
I quite like Leverage Dismay actually, but it needs a limiter to prevent bag of rats shenanigans. Up to initiation modifier extra dice of damage should be fine, or perhaps 1/2 initiator level.
There is no such condition as "slowed" for what Bring to Knee does. If it means as the slow spell it should say so, otherwise change it to staggered.
Level 4 is more appropriate for something like Brutal Misdirection, but I still think the versatility and reactive capability of the counter is such that level 5 is better when compared to Witchfinder's Brand.
Pinning Iron Strike has a bit of a mistake, with part of the line detailing the damage it deals having been translated up into the line containing the name of the strike. Otherwise looks fine.
Surprisingly enough, I'm going to say that I think Cackling Mockery might actually be too weak. It doesn't make it clear whether the target must attack only you, and the fact that it only works when you are the one attacked limits its usefulness. If it could also be used to redirect an attack on an ally onto yourself with the DR boost and taunt I think that would greatly increase its usefulness.
Would a conditional attack penalty like a Warder's Armiger's Mark count for gaining the damage boost from Feed on Unease?
Standing Death should be a boost, not a counter. It has a long standing multi-round effect, and also has no trigger (a critical component of counters, and a large part of why PoW has needed discipline errata for years because many of the counters have missing or unclear triggers).
Technically in Conviction Breaker, cowering is not a part of the fear condition stacking. It's shaken, frightened, then panicked, and that's it. Cowering is simply something that happens if cornered while panicking. Being able to take someone all the way to panicked in one round is strong as it is anyways.
Fight-Taking Steel is at a much better maneuver level for its strength, but the CL check to heal should probably be changed in a similar manner to Wound-Gouging Blade so that it doesn't stop the spell entirely, only the healing's normal removal of bleeding.
Once again the same issue as the other bleeding maneuvers for Crippling Wound with the CL check bit.
Taste of Defeat is very cool and powerful, but too powerful. Not really any way to make it weaker while still making it work, so I would make it level 8. Honestly it's pretty close to even being the power of a level 9 maneuver, with proper coordination this boost is basically "target enemy dies."
Riot of Despair seems far too weak for a level 8 stance, it does not compare favorably with Foment Helplessness, a level 4 Lead Hyena boost. As well, the "in this encounter" text for the damage bonus is problematic just for arbitration. It's also not very good unless swarmed with mooks.
To counter, Cackling Madness of Utter Dissolution itself feels more like a level 7 maneuver than a level 9 one. Sure it can make a mess of a group of enemies, but the level 9s are more "mess up that one dude really bad". Frankly Swapping this with Taste of Defeat would seem just fine to me.
tl;dr There are some problem children (namely the stances and a few boosts/counters) in this discipline, but overall I think it's in a much better initial position than Brutal Crocodile is. Like Brutal Crocodile, I kind of wish it used a different skill to be more individual (in this case from Iron Tortoise) but the only other skill that could make sense would be Linguistics, what with the way it's able to shout out confusing and contradictory orders and the like regardless of language.


Mangled Gear

Given that this discipline is either supernatural or technological, it might make sense for the associated skill to change to Use Magic Device if you choose supernatural instead of technological (Disable Device making more sense with that).
Make it Work needs limitations on it, the fact that you could auto-succeed (not like auto get a 20) means you could theoretically activate some world ending artifact 20 levels of power above your own that only specific outsiders can use without fail. There is also mention of "discharge this boost" which has no meaning in the system, it should be initiate or more probably expend.
Free action drawing from Quick-Fingered Draw is a bit much for a level 1 stance, and also makes the utility of certain things like a Handy Haversack over a Bag of Holding less relevant. You could maybe give Quick Draw feat instead, and if they already have Quick Draw you increase the speed of drawing any item from anywhere by 1 step. In the Haversack example, this lets it retain its identity of faster draw because relative to the Bag of Holding it will still be superior.
Repurpose Power is a very dangerous maneuver to have around, especially at level 1. Careful usage can result in any charge based item you use to have effectively infinite charges. The idea is definitely cool however, and would like to see it stick around in some manner, whether it means having a worse ratio of conversion or being at a higher maneuver level, etc.
There is a period where there should be a comma in Conductive Retaliation, at "When you are targeted by a ranged touch attack or any other effect which would fire a nonsolid projectile (such as laser weapons or other energy weapons). Make a disable device check opposed by the attack roll of the effect." as this clearly should be one sentence, otherwise the first part is broken. In addition, I think the level of the maneuver is too low. It is much like the level 5 maneuver Twisting Parry from Piercing Thunder. Not quite as versatile, but also more likely to succeed and still usable against some of the most dangerous stuff in the game. I would say at least level 3, but 4 might be better.
A free quicken on use-activated items from the level 2 maneuver Emergency Application will certainly present issues, given the breadth of potentially available items to combo with.
Jam the Gears looks okay-ish for the non-creature attack portion, but 1 round/level staggered duration definitely too long. Broken Blade can do a single round with a level 1 strike, or Tempest Gale can stagger for initiation mod rounds with a level 4 strike.
Shutdown Shot should probably say the no cast/manifest/use items debuff lasts one round to echo the duration listed, just for consistency.
Mangled Gear Stance is potentially a little scary compared to Witchfinder's Brand, a 1 round lasting boost that is also a level higher, but -5 to the concentration check DC compared to it counts for a lot. Minor grammar error, should state "your initiation level + your initiation modifier", currently it has it written the other way around.
Compare Optimum Performance to Unfettered Progression im Black Seraph. Both level 3 boosts, both ignore damage reduction and give +2d6 damage, but Optimum Performance works on multiple attacks, gives an accuracy boost, and also ignores hardness. Unfettered Progression meanwhile gives a 10 ft. step after you attack. I know which one I would always choose.
Short Out only mentions "On a success, the item fails to function." but it also works when a creature is casting a spell or manifesting a power, but doesn't actually interfere with them. Might also be too easy of a counterspell effect for the level.
Shatter the Barrier may need a Will save to resist the saving throw penalty, or perhaps a reduction to 1/4 initiator level.
Systemic Bypass is very cool and usable, but it may introduce an annoying amount of bookkeeping for the GM tracking what gets affected and what doesn't for each NPC that gets attacked, especially if they have any buffs running on top of magical items.
Don't Die On Me gives truly infinite charges to any charge based item you have. Want to use a buff that lasts 1 hour all the time? Easily done! Infinite out of combat healing? Sure, though that is less problematic because of how easily PoW can handle that. I do like the broken ignore part of it, perhaps have any effects created with these temporary charges also only last the duration of the boost? That doesn't even get into the removal of use consumption.
Redirect Energy should be at least level 6. Piercing Thunder's Twisting Parry is level 5 and only counters an attack roll, while Elemental Flux can counter and redirect a spell as a level 7 maneuver. Redirect Energy is maybe less likely to work, but the versatility and power still merits at least one level bump.
With the way Energized Doom works, you're pretty much forced into use a two-handed weapon with it. This means both more weapon damage dice to multiply, but also adding more of your Strength modifier to also multiply (plus Power Attack!), and maybe most importantly, having more HP on the item so it can actually withstand attacking for that one round. Not sure how to fix it to be better for one-handers in a sword and board or dual wielding situation however.
Fearsome Blackfire feels more like an 8th level maneuver. Compared to Elemental Destruction Ring in Elemental Flux, it has twice the radius, deals more damage (or just as much but without spending animus), allows no save on the primary target, is an immediate action instead of standard, and counterspells instead of inflicting a debuff based on element. Could probably be kept at 7 if the no save on primary target was removed, or perhaps a reduction to a 30 ft. radius (or a combination).
Full Overdrive is super cool, and also super OP. Let me list the bonuses you would get with the most very basic of equipment: +6 Str/Dex (+3 to hit and damage depending on handedness), +6 mental stat (+3 initiation DCs and whatever else your stat does), +5 deflection to AC (from Ring of Protection), +5 resistance bonus to saves (from Cloak of Resistance), +5 natural armor to AC (from Amulet of Natural Armor), between +5 and +8 armor bonus to AC (depending on if using magic armor or Bracers of Armor), +5 to hit/damage (from magic weapon). That's +5 to saves (and a bit extra from stat boosts), +8 to hit/damage, and +15-18 AC. And that's just from the most basic of items! This doesn't take into account ioun stones or various other wondrous items (Gloves of Dueling anyone?), let alone doubling the bonuses from spells and powers. Even just +50% to the effect of all of these would turn you into a god for a round, let alone +100%. Also, it only working on spells, powers, and items feels really awkward because it means certain casters could get far more use out of the boost, while actual PoW classes with spell-like, supernatural, or extraordinary bonuses from class features get far less, even though they are class feature buffs just like actual spells and powers. Either expand the list it affects (would not recommend this) or shrink it, making it only affect numerical benefits from items, while also reducing the multiplier from it. Might even be still too good as a level 8 maneuver, it's something that's so cool and also so powerful that I could see it as the level 9 maneuver, especially in light of what you will see me say about the existing level 9 maneuver.
Keep the Flame Alive keeps the flame, and the OP, alive. Infinite uses of items with items on a uses system snaps the entire system in half. Infinite uses of Cyclops Helm for example. Just go onto Archive of Nethys and search "once per day" on magic items and see the dozens upon dozens of items that suddenly become infinite use. There are so many that I can't sort through them, but there will be something abusable in there. Just the infinite charges is slightly worrying because it gives infinite use staves, and if psionics are allowed infinite use dorjes. Both of these can have up to level 9 spells/powers, so don't mind the infinite free wishes/alter realities.
Shockwave Breakdown has an excessive amount of AoE item destruction. Remember that only magic armor and weapons get more HP from their magic, 10d6 ignoring hardness (even if it didn't ignore hardness!) will destroy every wondrous item, ring, wand, staff, potion, etc. that a target that fails their fortitude save is wearing. That is both a huge debuff on the, but also denies the player the opportunity to take that loot for themself afterwards. And then it happens in an AoE! This would be strong just against a single target. As an alternative, what about making a sunder attempt, and if you suceed and break the item you can have leftover damage go against another item that the same target has (as opposed to going to the target like with Greater Sunder), continuing until there is nothing left for you to break or you decide to dump the rest of the damage against the wielder instead. This gives more useful, targeted destruction while still allowing for the ability to mess up a lot of gear one guy has, with something that lets it be more useful against creatures who aren't using much or anything items.
Total Shutdown breaks one of the most fundamental unspoken rules in 3.PF, "DON'T BREAK MAGIC ITEMS." Everyone hates Disjunction, and adding an at-will version of it is both a huge amount of bookkeeping for anything that gets hit by it (mostly NPCs) but also triggers the MAD of Disjunction, that neither party will use it if the other doesn't. Once you start throwing it around the GM will too, and then no one has fun. I would instantly quit a game that had someone that used this maneuver, just like Disjunction. Frankly I would plain delete this and never look back.
tl;dr The most interesting of the new disciplines because of the item interaction stuff it has, but also the most potential for being broken as a result of that

[Thealtruistorc]

Maneuvers have been exhaustively rebalanced and clarified in all three disciplines. Thank you so much for all of your detailed advice.

Brutal Crocodile has been overall retuned in terms of damage, and should be more manageable now. The CMB boosting has been removed.

Lead Hyena's name has been changed to Leaden Hyena, for clarity. I was talking about the metal.

Mangled Gear's discipline skill remains disable device, in part because it's unique and also because it's used on both magical and technological items.

The one change that I didn't implement was the outright removal of Total Shutdown, although it has been nerfed substantially (it can no longer break magic items or artifacts, although it can still drain the charges of technological items, and lasts for 1 round). Being able to lock down somebody's magic items strikes me as the logical conclusion for a sundering-heavy discipline, and I doubt that any character who doesn't want to break things would be going for some of mangled gear's more offense-oriented maneuvers. That said, I am still open to removing this maneuver if folks think that such action would be wise.

[Thealtruistorc]

Updated the Hero’s Bane with an expanded use for Glorybreaker. Now you can utilize stolen maneuvers.

[Quarian Rex]

As for the name, I am considering several alternatives at this point. Top five are Enyal, Enyalian, Tyrant, Devastator, and Devourer.


While I agree that Parasite doesn't quite fit, I think that it's the best option so far. None of the others seem to capture the potential body horror aspects of the class as well as Parasite does.

The Natural Attacks mutation needs some cleaning up I believe. I think that Slams should be given the same treatment as Claws (one per arm) since they are just variations on limb-based attacks. Also, the 1d6 damage base should apply to Sting as well (single attacks should have a higher base damage that multiple attacks).

Making Claws the only primary attack seem like a pretty big missed opportunity here. How about whichever natural attack is first selected becomes primary and all others are secondary? Opens up a lot more options on how the character can be focused. Perhaps as another option for multiple selection allow the character to turn one type of secondary attack into a primary attack?

Lastly, two tentacles seems kind of low. How about an option to select Tentacles multiple time for additional attacks with minimum level requirements for re-selection? This may be my aberration-things-should-have-lots-of-tentacles bias but... there it is.

Thoughts?

[AlienFromBeyond]

None of the others seem to capture the potential body horror aspects of the class as well as Parasite does.
I don't see the Parasite as having a body horror aspect at all besides its name. Its mutations are a willing change and are to yourself only, while siphon is just a generic "feed off of enemy life-force" kind of deal.

[Thealtruistorc]

Patched up the natural attacks mutation so that players have more options, as requested.

If folks have a better name for the Parasite class, I would be glad to hear any ideas.

[AlienFromBeyond]

I just noticed this, but the Formcrafter doesn't ignore prerequisites of the bonus style feats it wants to take like Master of Many Styles does. This greatly limits it in comparison due to the many varied prerequisites of style feats. Is it because you were worried about that being used in combination with the PoW:E styles, letting the Formcrafter get a discipline style of a discipline they don't have? Isn't that kind of half the point of the archetype, style feat shenanigans on top of the Unchained Monk chassis with initiating? Or was it just an oversight in writing the ability?

[Thealtruistorc]

I just noticed this, but the Formcrafter doesn't ignore prerequisites of the bonus style feats it wants to take like Master of Many Styles does. This greatly limits it in comparison due to the many varied prerequisites of style feats. Is it because you were worried about that being used in combination with the PoW:E styles, letting the Formcrafter get a discipline style of a discipline they don't have? Isn't that kind of half the point of the archetype, style feat shenanigans on top of the Unchained Monk chassis with initiating? Or was it just an oversight in writing the ability?

Style Savant is intended to cover any prerequisite difficulties that the formcrafter may have (and has been adjusted to tremendously expand the options available for it). I am hesitant to waive prerequisites entirely, as some of the Discipline style chains are incredibly strong and seemingly gated to high levels for good reason (Radiant Daybreak, Veiled Moon Warp, Mithral Current Slice, and Iron Tortoise Snap strike me as too much for lower levels).

[AlienFromBeyond]

Style Savant is intended to cover any prerequisite difficulties that the formcrafter may have (and has been adjusted to tremendously expand the options available for it).
Ah, I should have read it more closely. It calls out so many things that it just seems it would be easier to ignore prerequisites instead and be less wordy.

I am hesitant to waive prerequisites entirely, as some of the Discipline style chains are incredibly strong and seemingly gated to high levels for good reason (Radiant Daybreak, Veiled Moon Warp, Mithral Current Slice, and Iron Tortoise Snap strike me as too much for lower levels).
None of these are style feats though (and I was only discussing this about style feats specifically). Only the first feat in the chain that actually has style in the name is a style feat, the rest are regular combat feats. That's why the prerequisite ignoring for style feats that Master of Many Styles has works just fine, and one of the draws of that archetype is being able to use that to get access to styles that are more difficult otherwise. For example, a Master of Many Styles Monk can grab Blood Frenzy Style without being aquatic, Formcrafter cannot, and that's kind of a letdown to me.

[Thealtruistorc]

That is a good point. Updated Formcrafter so you can ignore prerequisites.

[Val666]

*Necromancery*

The Enarlged Size mutation wouldn't stack with another "Ex" size increase ability right? I was looking at the Behemoth's Flesh (which also counts as an Ex ability) veil but idk if it would stack.