The Demented One
2008-01-18, 07:26 PM
The Warrior-Poet
Each warrior has his own inspiration, and for no one is this more true than martial adepts, blademasters devoted to the path of the Nine Swords. Crusaders draw on their faith in their deity to bolster their spirits in combat; Swordsages rely on instinct and insight to guide their blades, and Warblades employ their skill and tactical expertise to guide them through the fight. Warrior-Poets, however, pursue a different path. They seek to discover the inherent poetry of battle, to find the subtle beauty and rhythm to each swing of the sword, each arrow loosed, each warrior felled. Their style is fluid, unlike other adepts–rather than having a rigidly learned set of maneuvers, they are capable of adapting to the situations they find themselves in, drawing on the techniques they have need of. They are few in number, since the original center of martial training, the Temple of the Nine Swords, trained no Warrior-Poets: their tradition began after its fall, and, lacking any major center of training, never became as widespread as those of the other martial adepts. Warrior-Poets rely on light armor and armaments to fight with, preferring to employ a light weapon with grace and beauty than to swing a massive sword with overwhelming force.
Abilities
Dexterity is critical for a Warrior-Poet, with their reliance on light weaponry and armor. Charisma is also important, as it determines how many maneuvers they can recover at a time, and is also central to many of their class features. Being melee combatants, Constitution is also a critical ability.
Races
Most Warrior-Poets are either humans or elves. Humans predominated amongst the original Warrior-Poets, easily adapting to the new style, while elves soon found an appreciation for the more aesthetic style of combat. There is a sizable minority of gnome Warrior-Poets, and a few halflings. They are almost unheard of among dwarves and orcs, though there are always exceptions.
Alignment
Though there are no alignment restrictions placed on Warrior-Poets, most tend to be of chaotic alignment, though there are still lawful Warrior-Poets. Neither good or evil have a majority, both are equally represented.
Starting Gold
4d4 x 10 (100 gp)
Starting Age
As the Bard class.
Hit Die
d10
Class Skills
The Warrior-Poet's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Local), Martial Lore (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (N/A), Tumble (Dex)
Skills per Level
4 + Intelligence modifier (x4 at 1st level)
{table=head]Level|Base Attack[br]Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Maneuvers[br]Known|Maneuvers[br]Readied|Stances[br]Known
1st|
+1|
+0|
+2|
+0|Weapon Finesse|2|2|1
2nd|
+2|
+0|
+3|
+0|Stroke of Brilliance|2|2|1
3rd|
+3|
+1|
+3|
+1|Artistic Expertise|3|3|1
4th|
+4|
+1|
+4|
+1|Flash of Insight (1/day)|3|4|1
5th|
+5|
+1|
+4|
+1|Warrior’s Grace|4|4|1
6th|
+6/+1|
+2|
+5|
+2|Bonus Feat|4|4|1
7th|
+7/+2|
+2|
+5|
+2|Keen Wit|5|4|2
8th|
+8/+3|
+2|
+6|
+2|Canny Duelist|5|4|2|5|4|2
9th|
+9/+4|
+3|
+6|
+3|Class Ability|6|5|2
10th|
+10/+5|
+3|
+7|
+3|Bonus Feat, Flash of Insight (2/day)|6|5|2
11th|
+11/+6/+1|
+3|
+7|
+3|
–|7|5|2
12th|
+12/+7/+2|
+4|
+8|
+4|Beauty in Bloodshed|7|5|2
13th|
+13/+8/+3|
+4|
+8|
+4|Poet’s Riposte|8|5|3
14th|
+14/+9/+4|
+4|
+9|
+4|Bonus Feat|8|6|3
15th|
+15/+10/+5|
+5|
+9|
+5|
–|9|6|3
16th|
+16/+11/+6/+1|
+5|
+10|
+5|Flash of Insight (3/day)|9|6|3
17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+5|
+10|
+5|
–|10|6|3
18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+6|
+11|
+6|Bonus Feat|10|6|3
19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+6|
+11|
+6|
–|11|6|4
20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+6|
+12|
+6|Art of War|12|7|4[/table]
Class Features
All the following are class features of the Warrior-Poet.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Warrior-Poets are proficient with all light melee weapons, as well as the handaxe, kama, kukri, nunchaku, rapier, sai, short sword, and siangham. Warrior-Poets are proficient with light armor and light shields.
Maneuvers
Warrior-Poets are capable of using a diverse array of martial maneuvers from the Diamond Mind, Setting Sun, Shadow Hand, and Tiger Claw, and White Raven disciplines. Rather than learning maneuvers as they gain levels, they instead gain maneuver slots. Each maneuver slot is of the highest level of maneuver you can learn at the level you gain it. Each day, when they ready your maneuvers, you fill each slot with a maneuver of that slot’s level or lower from any of the disciplines you have access to. You ignore maneuver prerequisites when filling your maneuver slots. At first level, you have two 1st-level maneuver slots. At subsequent levels, you gain maneuver slots whose level is based off of the highest level of maneuver you can initiate, as determined by your initiator level. All of your maneuvers are extraordinary abilities, unless otherwise stated. They are not affected by spell resistance, and initiating one does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Once you have filled a slot with a maneuver, you must ready it in order to use it. At 1st level, you may ready two maneuvers. You ready your maneuvers by exercising or meditating for 5 minutes. The maneuvers you choose to ready remain readied until you decide to ready new maneuvers. You do not need any sleep or rest to ready new maneuvers. You begin each encounter with all of your readied maneuvers unexpended. Once you use a maneuver, it is expended, and you cannot use it again until you recover. As a standard action, you may refocus yourself and take stock of the situation in order to recover a number of maneuvers equal to your Charisma modifier, minimum one.
At 6th level, and at each subsequent even level, you may trade a maneuver slot of any level for one slot of the highest level of maneuver you can learn.
If you take levels in a prestige class that allows you to learn additional maneuvers, or multiclass into another martial adept base class, you learn maneuvers from those classes normally, and do not gain maneuver slots from them. However, if you take a prestige class (but not a base class), you can fill your maneuver slots with maneuvers taken from any disciplines that prestige class has access to.
Stances
Just as with your maneuvers, you do not learn stances. Instead, you gain stance slots, which you may fill with any stance of the slot’s level when you ready maneuvers. Stances can not be used to fill maneuver slots, or vice versa. At 1st level, you gain a single 1st-level stance slot. At subsequent levels, the level of the stance slots you gain is based on your initiator level, as normal. Unlike maneuvers, stances are not readied or expended. You can use any stance you have in a slot at any time, and can switch from one stance to another as a swift action. All your martial stances are extraordinary abilities unless otherwise stated. Unlike maneuver slots, you can never trade stance slots for higher-leveled slots.
Weapon Finesse (Ex)
At first level, you gain Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat.
Stroke of Brilliance (Ex)
At 2nd level, you seek out the art in battle, seeking the most beautiful attacks possible. When you make a melee attack as part of a martial maneuver, you gain a morale bonus on the damage roll equal to your Charisma modifier.
Artistic Expertise (Ex)
By 3rd level, your confidence in your art is unshakable. You may take 10 on attack rolls made to disarm an enemy, Bluff checks made to feint in combat, and Strength checks made to trip an enemy. In addition, you gain a +4 dodge bonus to AC against all attacks of opportunity you provoke whenever you attempt to disarm, feint, or trip a foe.
Flash of Insight (Ex)
At 4th level, you can draw on flashes of brilliant insight to adapt your martial style to the situation at hand. Once per day, as a swift action, you may expend one of your readied maneuvers to ready another maneuver of the same level or lower. That maneuver does not have to be one of those you filled your maneuver slots with that day, though it does have to be from one of the disciplines you have access to. You may use that maneuver as if you had prepared and readied it normally. However, once you use and expend it, you may not recover it. In addition, you cannot recover the expended maneuver until you have used the maneuver granted to you by this ability. You cannot gain maneuvers of the highest level of maneuver you can initiate using this ability. At 10th level, you may use this ability twice per day, and at 16th, you may use it three times per day. However, you may never use it more than once per encounter.
Warrior’s Grace (Ex)
At 5th level, your sense of the beauty in battle allows you to find ways to dodge clumsy, unskilled blows. Once per round, you may give yourself a dodge bonus to AC equal to your Charisma modifier, minimum +1, though this cannot exceed one-quarter of your initiator level. This bonus applies against a single attack only. You cannot use this ability if you are flatfooted, or wearing medium or heavier armor.
Bonus Feat (Ex)
At 6th, 10th, 14th , and 18th levels, you gain a bonus feat, chosen from the list below. You must meet all the prerequisites of the feat to gain it. Feats from Tome of Battle are marked with a *.
Acrobatic, Agile, Blade Meditation*, Blind-Fight, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Deflect Arrows, Dodge, Evasive Reflexes*, Falling Sun Attack*, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Critical, Improved Disarm, Improved Feint, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Unarmed Strike, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Mobility, Persuasive, Quick Draw, Shadow Blade*, Snatch Arrows, Spring Attack, Stealthy, Stunning Fist, Superior Unarmed Strike*, Two-Weapon Defense, Two-Weapon Fighting, Unnerving Calm*, Whirlwind Attack, White Raven Defense*
Keen Wit (Ex)
At 7th level, your mastery of reading your foes’ strengths and weaknesses lets you make devastating strikes. Whenever you confirm a critical hit, you gain a morale bonus on the damage roll equal to your Charisma modifier times the critical multiplier of the weapon you are attacking with. If you made the attack as part of a martial maneuver, this damage replaces, and does not stack with, that from the stroke of brilliance ability.
Canny Duelist (Ex)
You are in tune with battle, seizing on any flaw in an opponent’s style to work your art. At 8th level, whenever an opponent makes a melee attack against you that misses while you are fighting defensively, using the total defense action, or using the Combat Expertise feat, he provokes an attack of opportunity from you. Any penalties from fighting defensively, total defense, or Combat Expertise do not apply to this attack.
Beauty in Bloodshed (Ex)
At 12th level, the work of art you create with your blade refreshes your mind and body, allowing you a moment’s peace to recuperate. Whenever you successfully confirm a critical hit, you may immediately recover a single expended maneuver.
Poet’s Riposte (Ex)
At 13th level, your expertise allows you to flawlessly read an opponent’s moves. Whenever you fight defensively, use the total defense action, or use the Combat Expertise feat, you add your Charisma modifier to the bonus to your AC.
Art of War (Ex)
At 20th level, you perfect the art of martial skill, allowing you to employ two different maneuvers at once. As a full-round action, you may initiative two strike maneuvers that have an initiation action of 1 standard action or less. If both maneuvers require you to make an attack, you only make a single one, applying the benefits of both strikes to it. If one maneuver requires you to make multiple attacks, then you make as many as it requires, again applying the benefits of both maneuvers. You cannot use this ability to initiate maneuvers of the highest level of maneuver you can use. You may only use this ability once per day.
Each warrior has his own inspiration, and for no one is this more true than martial adepts, blademasters devoted to the path of the Nine Swords. Crusaders draw on their faith in their deity to bolster their spirits in combat; Swordsages rely on instinct and insight to guide their blades, and Warblades employ their skill and tactical expertise to guide them through the fight. Warrior-Poets, however, pursue a different path. They seek to discover the inherent poetry of battle, to find the subtle beauty and rhythm to each swing of the sword, each arrow loosed, each warrior felled. Their style is fluid, unlike other adepts–rather than having a rigidly learned set of maneuvers, they are capable of adapting to the situations they find themselves in, drawing on the techniques they have need of. They are few in number, since the original center of martial training, the Temple of the Nine Swords, trained no Warrior-Poets: their tradition began after its fall, and, lacking any major center of training, never became as widespread as those of the other martial adepts. Warrior-Poets rely on light armor and armaments to fight with, preferring to employ a light weapon with grace and beauty than to swing a massive sword with overwhelming force.
Abilities
Dexterity is critical for a Warrior-Poet, with their reliance on light weaponry and armor. Charisma is also important, as it determines how many maneuvers they can recover at a time, and is also central to many of their class features. Being melee combatants, Constitution is also a critical ability.
Races
Most Warrior-Poets are either humans or elves. Humans predominated amongst the original Warrior-Poets, easily adapting to the new style, while elves soon found an appreciation for the more aesthetic style of combat. There is a sizable minority of gnome Warrior-Poets, and a few halflings. They are almost unheard of among dwarves and orcs, though there are always exceptions.
Alignment
Though there are no alignment restrictions placed on Warrior-Poets, most tend to be of chaotic alignment, though there are still lawful Warrior-Poets. Neither good or evil have a majority, both are equally represented.
Starting Gold
4d4 x 10 (100 gp)
Starting Age
As the Bard class.
Hit Die
d10
Class Skills
The Warrior-Poet's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Local), Martial Lore (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (N/A), Tumble (Dex)
Skills per Level
4 + Intelligence modifier (x4 at 1st level)
{table=head]Level|Base Attack[br]Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Maneuvers[br]Known|Maneuvers[br]Readied|Stances[br]Known
1st|
+1|
+0|
+2|
+0|Weapon Finesse|2|2|1
2nd|
+2|
+0|
+3|
+0|Stroke of Brilliance|2|2|1
3rd|
+3|
+1|
+3|
+1|Artistic Expertise|3|3|1
4th|
+4|
+1|
+4|
+1|Flash of Insight (1/day)|3|4|1
5th|
+5|
+1|
+4|
+1|Warrior’s Grace|4|4|1
6th|
+6/+1|
+2|
+5|
+2|Bonus Feat|4|4|1
7th|
+7/+2|
+2|
+5|
+2|Keen Wit|5|4|2
8th|
+8/+3|
+2|
+6|
+2|Canny Duelist|5|4|2|5|4|2
9th|
+9/+4|
+3|
+6|
+3|Class Ability|6|5|2
10th|
+10/+5|
+3|
+7|
+3|Bonus Feat, Flash of Insight (2/day)|6|5|2
11th|
+11/+6/+1|
+3|
+7|
+3|
–|7|5|2
12th|
+12/+7/+2|
+4|
+8|
+4|Beauty in Bloodshed|7|5|2
13th|
+13/+8/+3|
+4|
+8|
+4|Poet’s Riposte|8|5|3
14th|
+14/+9/+4|
+4|
+9|
+4|Bonus Feat|8|6|3
15th|
+15/+10/+5|
+5|
+9|
+5|
–|9|6|3
16th|
+16/+11/+6/+1|
+5|
+10|
+5|Flash of Insight (3/day)|9|6|3
17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+5|
+10|
+5|
–|10|6|3
18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+6|
+11|
+6|Bonus Feat|10|6|3
19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+6|
+11|
+6|
–|11|6|4
20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+6|
+12|
+6|Art of War|12|7|4[/table]
Class Features
All the following are class features of the Warrior-Poet.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Warrior-Poets are proficient with all light melee weapons, as well as the handaxe, kama, kukri, nunchaku, rapier, sai, short sword, and siangham. Warrior-Poets are proficient with light armor and light shields.
Maneuvers
Warrior-Poets are capable of using a diverse array of martial maneuvers from the Diamond Mind, Setting Sun, Shadow Hand, and Tiger Claw, and White Raven disciplines. Rather than learning maneuvers as they gain levels, they instead gain maneuver slots. Each maneuver slot is of the highest level of maneuver you can learn at the level you gain it. Each day, when they ready your maneuvers, you fill each slot with a maneuver of that slot’s level or lower from any of the disciplines you have access to. You ignore maneuver prerequisites when filling your maneuver slots. At first level, you have two 1st-level maneuver slots. At subsequent levels, you gain maneuver slots whose level is based off of the highest level of maneuver you can initiate, as determined by your initiator level. All of your maneuvers are extraordinary abilities, unless otherwise stated. They are not affected by spell resistance, and initiating one does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Once you have filled a slot with a maneuver, you must ready it in order to use it. At 1st level, you may ready two maneuvers. You ready your maneuvers by exercising or meditating for 5 minutes. The maneuvers you choose to ready remain readied until you decide to ready new maneuvers. You do not need any sleep or rest to ready new maneuvers. You begin each encounter with all of your readied maneuvers unexpended. Once you use a maneuver, it is expended, and you cannot use it again until you recover. As a standard action, you may refocus yourself and take stock of the situation in order to recover a number of maneuvers equal to your Charisma modifier, minimum one.
At 6th level, and at each subsequent even level, you may trade a maneuver slot of any level for one slot of the highest level of maneuver you can learn.
If you take levels in a prestige class that allows you to learn additional maneuvers, or multiclass into another martial adept base class, you learn maneuvers from those classes normally, and do not gain maneuver slots from them. However, if you take a prestige class (but not a base class), you can fill your maneuver slots with maneuvers taken from any disciplines that prestige class has access to.
Stances
Just as with your maneuvers, you do not learn stances. Instead, you gain stance slots, which you may fill with any stance of the slot’s level when you ready maneuvers. Stances can not be used to fill maneuver slots, or vice versa. At 1st level, you gain a single 1st-level stance slot. At subsequent levels, the level of the stance slots you gain is based on your initiator level, as normal. Unlike maneuvers, stances are not readied or expended. You can use any stance you have in a slot at any time, and can switch from one stance to another as a swift action. All your martial stances are extraordinary abilities unless otherwise stated. Unlike maneuver slots, you can never trade stance slots for higher-leveled slots.
Weapon Finesse (Ex)
At first level, you gain Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat.
Stroke of Brilliance (Ex)
At 2nd level, you seek out the art in battle, seeking the most beautiful attacks possible. When you make a melee attack as part of a martial maneuver, you gain a morale bonus on the damage roll equal to your Charisma modifier.
Artistic Expertise (Ex)
By 3rd level, your confidence in your art is unshakable. You may take 10 on attack rolls made to disarm an enemy, Bluff checks made to feint in combat, and Strength checks made to trip an enemy. In addition, you gain a +4 dodge bonus to AC against all attacks of opportunity you provoke whenever you attempt to disarm, feint, or trip a foe.
Flash of Insight (Ex)
At 4th level, you can draw on flashes of brilliant insight to adapt your martial style to the situation at hand. Once per day, as a swift action, you may expend one of your readied maneuvers to ready another maneuver of the same level or lower. That maneuver does not have to be one of those you filled your maneuver slots with that day, though it does have to be from one of the disciplines you have access to. You may use that maneuver as if you had prepared and readied it normally. However, once you use and expend it, you may not recover it. In addition, you cannot recover the expended maneuver until you have used the maneuver granted to you by this ability. You cannot gain maneuvers of the highest level of maneuver you can initiate using this ability. At 10th level, you may use this ability twice per day, and at 16th, you may use it three times per day. However, you may never use it more than once per encounter.
Warrior’s Grace (Ex)
At 5th level, your sense of the beauty in battle allows you to find ways to dodge clumsy, unskilled blows. Once per round, you may give yourself a dodge bonus to AC equal to your Charisma modifier, minimum +1, though this cannot exceed one-quarter of your initiator level. This bonus applies against a single attack only. You cannot use this ability if you are flatfooted, or wearing medium or heavier armor.
Bonus Feat (Ex)
At 6th, 10th, 14th , and 18th levels, you gain a bonus feat, chosen from the list below. You must meet all the prerequisites of the feat to gain it. Feats from Tome of Battle are marked with a *.
Acrobatic, Agile, Blade Meditation*, Blind-Fight, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Deflect Arrows, Dodge, Evasive Reflexes*, Falling Sun Attack*, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Critical, Improved Disarm, Improved Feint, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Unarmed Strike, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Mobility, Persuasive, Quick Draw, Shadow Blade*, Snatch Arrows, Spring Attack, Stealthy, Stunning Fist, Superior Unarmed Strike*, Two-Weapon Defense, Two-Weapon Fighting, Unnerving Calm*, Whirlwind Attack, White Raven Defense*
Keen Wit (Ex)
At 7th level, your mastery of reading your foes’ strengths and weaknesses lets you make devastating strikes. Whenever you confirm a critical hit, you gain a morale bonus on the damage roll equal to your Charisma modifier times the critical multiplier of the weapon you are attacking with. If you made the attack as part of a martial maneuver, this damage replaces, and does not stack with, that from the stroke of brilliance ability.
Canny Duelist (Ex)
You are in tune with battle, seizing on any flaw in an opponent’s style to work your art. At 8th level, whenever an opponent makes a melee attack against you that misses while you are fighting defensively, using the total defense action, or using the Combat Expertise feat, he provokes an attack of opportunity from you. Any penalties from fighting defensively, total defense, or Combat Expertise do not apply to this attack.
Beauty in Bloodshed (Ex)
At 12th level, the work of art you create with your blade refreshes your mind and body, allowing you a moment’s peace to recuperate. Whenever you successfully confirm a critical hit, you may immediately recover a single expended maneuver.
Poet’s Riposte (Ex)
At 13th level, your expertise allows you to flawlessly read an opponent’s moves. Whenever you fight defensively, use the total defense action, or use the Combat Expertise feat, you add your Charisma modifier to the bonus to your AC.
Art of War (Ex)
At 20th level, you perfect the art of martial skill, allowing you to employ two different maneuvers at once. As a full-round action, you may initiative two strike maneuvers that have an initiation action of 1 standard action or less. If both maneuvers require you to make an attack, you only make a single one, applying the benefits of both strikes to it. If one maneuver requires you to make multiple attacks, then you make as many as it requires, again applying the benefits of both maneuvers. You cannot use this ability to initiate maneuvers of the highest level of maneuver you can use. You may only use this ability once per day.