Verdant Majesty (Martial Discipline, WIP, PEACH)

[Agrippa]

Verdant Majesty
{Image Removed}

The path of Verdant Majesty is an ancient one, originating from the drayds, treants and great elder arboreal creatures. They could use their natural affinity and kinship with plant life as a dealy weapon against the myriad of fiends, abberations and humanoid marauders who threatened to despoil their forrests and glades. As the centuries passed the art of Verdant Majesty was improved upon and perfected into the form it is today. At the same time the practice of this discipline has expanded from the sapient plants and fae of the wild to their favored champions, all taught to use mystical means to emulate the vegetal powers needed to master this discipline.

The Verdant Majesty discipline's key skill is Knowledge (nature). Weapons associated with the Verdant Majesty discipline include the sickle, falchion, flail, whip, net, billhook, machete and unarmed.

The Verdant Majesty discipline can be substituted for the Desert Wind or Shadow Hand disciplines. In addition all maneuvers from Verdant Majesty are supernatural abilities.

Maneuver list
1
Entangling Roots: Strike - Entangles enemies in 40 ft.
2
Blood of Poison Sap: Counter - Your blood becomes toxic to others.
Razor Leaf Barrage: Strike - Deal 2d6 points of damage in a cone at 30 ft. +1d6 on even levels.
Weaponry of Flora: Boost - Craft weapon of wood or other plant matter. Lasts three rounds plus one round per three levels.
3
4
Lethal Dance of Petals: Stance - Inflict 4d6 points of damage in a 40 ft. line and gain both cover and concealment.
5
Life-Swelling Sap: Strike - Make a normal attack and inflict an additional 8d6 points of damage as plant grows inside victim's wound. Undead harmed further by the plant's vital power.
6
7
8
9

[Agrippa]

1st level

Spoiler

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Entangling Roots
Verdant Majesty (Stirke)
Level: Swordsage 1
Initiation Action: 1 standard action
Range: Long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level)
Area: Plants in a 40-ft.-radius spread
Duration: 1 min./level
Saving Throw: Reflex partial; see text

You tap the sole of your foot to the earth and release a measure of power into it. A flat surface within range suddenly explodes with a flurry of vines and roots, forcing those touching that surface, within the area of the maneuver, to make a Reflex save or be Entangled until they move out of the effected area, or until the maneuver ends, whichever comes first. You may exempt your allies, if you so choose.

At the beginning of their turn, any creature Entangled by your roots takes your Wisdom modifier in points of bludgeoning damage.

The area of your Entangling Roots maneuver is considered "heavy vegetation" for the purposes of any other Verdant Majesty maneuvers.

This maneuver is a supernatural ability.

2nd level

Spoiler

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Floral Weapon
Verdant Majesty (Boost)
Level: Swordsage 2
Action: Swift
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 minute

With a flourish of your hand, you weaponize the will of nature to fight back against those that would trespass against it. Vines and leaves sprout from your outstretched arm, twisting and forming either one two-handed weapon, or, at your choice, one or two light or one-handed weapons. You must be proficient with the type of weapon you create, and each time you create a weapon with this maneuver, it may be of a different kind.

Weapons you create are always masterwork in quality. At initiator level 5, you may select a single magical enhancement for your floral weapon that is equivalent to a "+1". At 8th level, you may choose enhancements totaling up to "+2" (such as a +1 Keen Rapier or an Unholy Scythe). At 11th, 14th, 16th, 18th, 19th, and 20th level, the total amount of effective bonus your weapon can have increases to +3, +4, +5, +6, +7, and +8, respectively. The kind of bonuses you choose may be different every time you activate this maneuver. However, you may not activate this maneuver if the duration of a previous use of Floral Weapon has not yet elapsed.

Furthermore, if you are in a place with heavy vegetation, such as a grassland, plains, forest, jungle, savannah, or similar, the natural magic of the world bolsters your maneuver. Such an improved floral weapon cannot be sundered, instantly healing all damage, up to and including its own destruction, and can never leave your hand without your consent, effectively becoming immune to being disarmed.

This maneuver is a supernatural ability.

Blood of Poison Sap
Verdant Majesty (Counter)
Level: Swordsage 2
Initation Action: free action
Range: Personal
Duration: until your next turn
Save: Fortitude negates, see below

You learned

This maneuver is a supernatural ability.

Razor Leaf Barrage
Verdant Majesty (Strike)
Level: Swordsage 2
Initiation Action: 1 standard action
Range: 30 ft.
Area: Cone
Duration: Instant

You call to yourself, or in some cases shed, a large volume of leaves. Then with a thought you gather together these leaves and cacade them towards your target(s) with enough force to strip flesh from bone. Make a single ranged attack against all enemies in a 30 ft. long cone. Anyone hit suffers 2d6 points of slashing damage plus +1d6 points for every even level after 3rd level as the leafy flechette flays them.

This maneuver is a Supernatural ability.

3rd level

4th level

Spoiler

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Lethal Dance of Petals
Verdant Majesty (Stance)
Level: Swordsage 4
Initiation Action: 1 swift action
Range: Personal
Area: personal and 20 to 40 ft. line
Save: reflex half

Slowly and delibrately you begin to bring delecate petals from nearby flowers to yourself on mass. Petals start to dance around you, becoming faster and faster almost blindingly so. This mass of petals spins around you obscuring the enemies sight of you. With effort of will you can command the this swarm of petals to lash out at your foes.

The swirling petals called by this maneuver grant you both cover and concealment. Each round you can make a ranged attack roll at all enemies in range at the cost of either a move action or your first attack in a full atack action. If struck by the razor thin flower petals they suffer 4d6 points of slashing damage, +1d6 points of damage per every three levels after 7, as the delicate flower petals tear at his or her flesh. On the otherhand any stricken enemy may make a Relfex save for half damage at a DC of 10+1/2 initiator level+Wis modifier.

This maneuver is a supernatural ability.

5th level

Spoiler

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Life-Swelling Sap
Verdant Majesty (Strike)
Level: Swordsage 5
Initiation Action: 1 standard action
Range: varies.
Area: Cone
Duration: Instant

6th level

7th level

8th level

9th level

[Agrippa]

Just added the first few maneuvers to this discipline. Tell me what you think so far.

[Xefas]

Just added the first few maneuvers to this discipline. Tell me what you think so far.

First few? I only see one maneuver that's done.

Spoiler

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Razor Leaf Barrage
Verdant Majesty (Strike)
Level: Swordsage 1
Initiation Action: 1 standard action
Range: 30 ft.
Area: Cone
Duration: Instant

You call to yourself, or in some cases shed, a large volume of leaves. Then with a thought you gather together these leaves and cacade them towards your target(s) with enough force to strip flesh from bone. Make a single ranged attack against all enemies in a 30 ft. long cone. Anyone hit suffers 2d6 points of slashing damage plus +1d6 points for every even level as the leafy flechette flays them.

Seems a little strong for a first level maneuver. Unless you're going for that, I'd put it at second level. Even then, it's still better than Hatchling's Flame, a canon second level maneuver (although a weak one, so that's to be expected).

[Agrippa]

First few? I only see one maneuver that's done.

Don't worry, I'm getting to work on it. Though I'm a little stuck on how Poison Sap should work. And it could probably use a better name.

Seems a little strong for a first level maneuver. Unless you're going for that, I'd put it at second level. Even then, it's still better than Hatchling's Flame, a canon second level maneuver (although a weak one, so that's to be expected).

I'm moved it up to level 2.

[Agrippa]

By the way Xefas, would you mind lending me some help with this project. I have a few maneuver ideas, but I'm just not sure how to express them. Like my idea for a maneuver to use plant matter as weapons.

[Amnoriath]

1. You forgot to add a save DC. Namely, what attribute is it based off of?
2. Maneuvers: Entangling Roots, decent but usually try to find a way to distinguish this from the spell.
Razor Leaf Barrage, no save DC? If not quite brutal for level 3.
Lethal Dance of Petals, interesting but it really isn't worth it nor does it make it sense. Initiation action 2-3 rounds? Damages opponent for 1-2 rounds? What determines how long it takes or lasts? Then finally after waiting longer than most spells you shut-down the character for another 1d4 rounds? That is just mean to the player.
3. Poison sap, well for it to be useful in a few situations it should in response to a successful non reach melee or touch attack in which your skin spurts a contact poison. They would then have to make a fort. save against it. Typically poisons deal ability damage but they have primary damage then secondary damage 10 rounds later if they failed the first save. You could alternatively just make it deal damage every round after a failed save with a specified duration. If you want a more traditional poison I would suggest strength or dexterity damage as it can more noticeably weaken an opponent.
4. Plant weapon, simple allow them to make a temporary magical ironwood weapon that scales with initiator level. The properties could freely chosen ultimately allowing a +6 weapon to be created.

[Agrippa]

1. You forgot to add a save DC. Namely, what attribute is it based off of?

I'll have the save DC based off of Wisdom. Thank you for reminding me about this.

2. Maneuvers: Entangling Roots, decent but usually try to find a way to distinguish this from the spell.

I'll get to work on that.

Razor Leaf Barrage, no save DC? If not quite brutal for level 3.

That's because it requires a ranged attack roll. I'll think about it though.

Lethal Dance of Petals, interesting but it really isn't worth it nor does it make it sense. Initiation action 2-3 rounds? Damages opponent for 1-2 rounds? What determines how long it takes or lasts? Then finally after waiting longer than most spells you shut-down the character for another 1d4 rounds? That is just mean to the player.

I'll try to explain this one. Lethal Dance of Petals take 2-3 to three rounds to initiate, right. On the first round you make your first attack with your full-round action. Same thing for the second and hopefully third round.

3. Poison sap, well for it to be useful in a few situations it should in response to a successful non reach melee or touch attack in which your skin spurts a contact poison. They would then have to make a fort. save against it. Typically poisons deal ability damage but they have primary damage then secondary damage 10 rounds later if they failed the first save. You could alternatively just make it deal damage every round after a failed save with a specified duration. If you want a more traditional poison I would suggest strength or dexterity damage as it can more noticeably weaken an opponent.

So make a counter and have it deal 1d6 Strength or Dexterity damage or deal 1d4 Strength and Dexterity damafe.

4. Plant weapon, simple allow them to make a temporary magical ironwood weapon that scales with initiator level. The properties could freely chosen ultimately allowing a +6 weapon to be created.

Okay, good idea.

[Xefas]

By the way Xefas, would you mind lending me some help with this project. I have a few maneuver ideas, but I'm just not sure how to express them. Like my idea for a maneuver to use plant matter as weapons.

Well, it really depends on what you're going for as far as... I dunno, mechanical theme, or something. That's how I think about disciplines, anyway.

There's no one single mechanical way to do "I make a weapon out of plants". So, think about how you want the disciple to feel in play, and think about synergies you could build in with other maneuvers.

For instance, do you play Magic the Gathering? Or are familiar with it? To give an example - a White/Green deck might have a strong theme of inter-dependence. Some effects will produce a lot of cheap but weak monsters, some effects will give you a scaling bonus depending on how many monsters you have, and others might allow you to grant a small bonus, but to a lot of monsters at once. Each effect is different, but put together, they sort of feel "interdependence"-y. Playing them makes you feel like you have a horde of underdogs that work together to overcome a far greater threat.

So, your discipline? How do you want a player and/or character to feel by using it?

To give an example, if you want them to feel a strong link to the natural world, then you might have some maneuvers be stronger/more versatile when used in a natural setting. You can create a plant-sword anywhere, just using your supernatural connection to nature, but if you actually create it from pre-existing plant matter, then its better somehow. Maybe not highly better but, for instance, maybe it can't be sundered or disarmed, or maybe you can spend a swift actions to swap around the magical enhancements it has (swapping, say, Defending while you're in a tight spot, to Keen when you're more free to attack).

It might look like this:

Spoiler

Show

Floral Weapon
Verdant Majesty (Boost)
Action: Swift
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 minute

With a flourish of your hand, you weaponize the will of nature to fight back against those that would trespass against it. Vines and leaves sprout from your outstretched arm, twisting and forming either one two-handed weapon, or, at your choice, one or two light or one-handed weapons. You must be proficient with the type of weapon you create, and each time you create a weapon with this maneuver, it may be of a different kind.

Weapons you create are always masterwork in quality. At initiator level 5, you may select a single magical enhancement for your floral weapon that is equivalent to a "+1". At 8th level, you may choose enhancements totaling up to "+2" (such as a +1 Keen Rapier or an Unholy Scythe). At 11th, 14th, 16th, 18th, 19th, and 20th level, the total amount of effective bonus your weapon can have increases to +3, +4, +5, +6, +7, and +8, respectively. The kind of bonuses you choose may be different every time you activate this maneuver. However, you may not activate this maneuver if the duration of a previous use of Floral Weapon has not yet elapsed.

Furthermore, if you are in a place with heavy vegetation, such as a grassland, plains, forest, jungle, savannah, or similar, the natural magic of the world bolsters your maneuver. Such an improved floral weapon cannot be sundered, instantly healing all damage, up to and including its own destruction, and can never leave your hand without your consent, effectively becoming immune to being disarmed.

Then, you might change your Entangling Roots maneuver (it's quite powerful right now, as Entangle is a very powerful spell already for its level, and a martial adept will be able to use it more-or-less at-will) so that it has a small area, and a weaker effect, but that, while in an area effected by it, you are considered to be in "an area of heavy vegetation". So you can take the forest with you, even into dungeons!

It might look like this:

Spoiler

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Entangling Roots
Verdant Majesty (Strike)
Action: Standard
Range: 100ft + 10ft per initiator level
Area: 20ft radius
Duration: 1 minute

You tap the sole of your foot to the earth and release a measure of power into it. A flat surface within range suddenly explodes with a flurry of vines and roots, forcing those touching that surface, within the area of the maneuver, to make a Reflex save or be Entangled until they move out of the effected area, or until the maneuver ends, whichever comes first. You may exempt your allies, if you so choose.

At the beginning of their turn, any creature Entangled by your roots takes your Wisdom modifier in points of bludgeoning damage.

The area of your Entangling Roots maneuver is considered "heavy vegetation" for the purposes of any other Verdant Majesty maneuvers.

Then, if you have a few other maneuvers that also invoke areas of "heavy vegetation" and a bunch more maneuvers that are stronger when in "heavy vegetation" then, well... you have synergy!

You can even get fancy and do other things like, for example, maybe a boost where you absorb all the natural energy in a hundred foot radius, killing all the (non-creature) vegetation, which hurts the use of your other maneuvers, but gives you a large short-lived boost to your ability scores.

[Steamflogger]

If you want to convert Petal Dance from pokemon to a martial manoeuvre, I would suggest converting it a little less literally (forced multi-round manoeuvres don't really work in this situation). A full round (or even standard) action to initiate, plus an action of the same type each round to direct. In double/triple battles, petal dance targets randomly each round, so you don't actually have to have an ongoing effect against a single foe.

Alternatively, a stance that gives you a 60" range petal attack (weaker than the one in the manoeuvre, obviously) that can be mixed into a full attack without penalty would be pretty cool and have a similar visual style and theme, but would lose some of the pokemon connection, which might invalidate the purpose of this discipline (seeing as all other manoeuvres are pokemon moves so far).

[Agrippa]

I took some of your suggestions Xefas and Steamflogger and changed a few maneuvers around. I'm not sure if they enough but I feel okay right now.

[Amnoriath]

1. As Xefas said you need to know why a player choose to use this both for role play and battle. What sort of role in battle do you view as someone who would mostly do? Would it be area blasting, control, debuff, or what?
2. I think Xefas's suggestion for your entangling roots is a good one. The spell normally has to target plants this wouldn't have that restriction. I also would maybe add it not to affect you since the spell doesn't specify that so you have your own little protection patch warranting the lesser area and range.
3. Razor Leaf Barrage, I didn't see that in the text but keep in mind a L4 swordsage will be dealing 4d6+wis. mod. damage.
4. Lethal Dance of Petals, it is better but it really is a whirlwind attack on steroids. I mean a full-attack action against everyone in a 60 foot emanation as an always active ability? I can't even think of a capstone or spell that can come close. A lot of stances are either passive buffs or defensive in nature. I think maybe a moldable line of affect would be more appropriate and very interesting for a player to use. Lets start with a 20 foot and it grow to at least 40 but this line con move/contort at the player's control. It would be able to move 20 to 40 feet as either a move action or the first attack off the full attack action. It would provide concealment and cover against any attacker while on the opposite side but not for the user. It would also damage those in or touched by the line in which it would allow a reflex save for half.
5. Poison Sap, well strength damage generally hurts a character's offense making them less of a threat(less damage and attack including PA). Dexterity damage makes them more susceptible to other attacks(Unless they are a finesse build in which it does both). I would say 1d6, 1d8(IL 10), 2d6(IL 15) damage would be appropriate. The biggest issue is that its save would look like this 12+wis. mod.

[Agrippa]

1. As Xefas said you need to know why a player choose to use this both for role play and battle. What sort of role in battle do you view as someone who would mostly do? Would it be area blasting, control, debuff, or what?

I wasn't thinking in terms of what role a Verdant Majesty practiciner would play but what they base their power on. A Verdant Majesty warrior takes the very power of life, plant life to be more precise, and applies it to combat. Plants become their weapons of war and they learn to emulate them using the mystical techniques they learn. In striving to improve their martial abilities these warrior mystics develop a close bond with the trees, grasses and flowers they imitate. I'll figure out their role in combat a little later.

2. I think Xefas's suggestion for your entangling roots is a good one. The spell normally has to target plants this wouldn't have that restriction. I also would maybe add it not to affect you since the spell doesn't specify that so you have your own little protection patch warranting the lesser area and range.

I already took Xefas' advice and modified the maneuver.

3. Razor Leaf Barrage, I didn't see that in the text but keep in mind a L4 swordsage will be dealing 4d6+wis. mod. damage.

I meant for Razor Leaf Barrage to only inflict 2d6 points of damage at first. I just fixed it by stating that its damage only increases by 1d6 for every even level after level three.

4. Lethal Dance of Petals, it is better but it really is a whirlwind attack on steroids. I mean a full-attack action against everyone in a 60 foot emanation as an always active ability? I can't even think of a capstone or spell that can come close. A lot of stances are either passive buffs or defensive in nature. I think maybe a moldable line of affect would be more appropriate and very interesting for a player to use. Lets start with a 20 foot and it grow to at least 40 but this line con move/contort at the player's control. It would be able to move 20 to 40 feet as either a move action or the first attack off the full attack action. It would provide concealment and cover against any attacker while on the opposite side but not for the user. It would also damage those in or touched by the line in which it would allow a reflex save for half.

I'm taking you advice here. Thank you Amnoriath.

5. Poison Sap, well strength damage generally hurts a characters offense making them less of a threat(less damage and attack including PA). Dexterity damage makes them more susceptible to other attacks(Unless they are a finesse build in which it does both). The biggest issue is that its save would look like this 12+wis. mod.

I'm thinking taking a page from Xefas having maneuver save DC scale with level/hit dice. This means th Poison Sap have a base DC anywhere from 12 to 20.

[LordErebus12]

Some Ideas:

Perhaps something akin to grass knot?

Probably a Stance...

Immediate action (consuming 1 AoO, like it was one): Each charging foe passing through a square within 15 ft. must make a reflex save or fall prone, taking some damage, perhaps equal to a slam attack.

Requires: Combat Reflexes, one or more Verdant Maneuvers.

[Agrippa]

I'm not too concerned about prerequistes at the moment. Once all the maneuvers I'm going to post for a while are done I'll add them in.

[DracoDei]

Stances having a feat as a pre-requisite is something I haven't seen before, and don't think is justified in this case.

Note also that if it consumes BOTH an AoO AND an Immediate action that is fine I guess, but it isn't necessary to do both.

And I think that the pre-requisites of the feat is important to establish now if it is going to happen, rather than waiting until a later pass through the maneuvers.

Oh, and I applaud you on your sideways sort of theme that defies the categories people have been requesting.

[Agrippa]

And I think that the pre-requisites of the feat is important to establish now if it is going to happen, rather than waiting until a later pass through the maneuvers.

Prerequistes of what feat? I haven't agreed to any feats yet. I was talking about getting most of the maneuvers typed out before adding the prerequisites.

Oh, and I applaud you on your sideways sort of theme that defies the categories people have been requesting.

Thank you, I suppose.

[Amnoriath]

I wouldn't have feats as a prerequisite for maneuvers. I think though LordErebeus12's suggestion could be a good for the discipline's tactical feat.
Lethal Dance of Petals, I'm not sure if you understood what I meant. You do have most of it right but you have it is a line effect but you made the option I suggested for you to control that line into your whirlwind attack. You should remember that without what I suggested that line would be at a fixed position from when you initiate the stance. Also the idea is that you wouldn't make an attack roll as it is an area effect that sweeps across the enemies when you move, move it, or they move into it. It isn't that I would think that whirlwind attack option is thoroughly broken that it shouldn't be in the discussion but it would be best as a full-round action strike.
Other suggestions could be make a strike similar to Evard's Black Tentacle and/or have a boost that extends your weapon's range then initiate a trip on a successful attack.

[DracoDei]

Prerequistes of what feat? I haven't agreed to any feats yet. I was talking about getting most of the maneuvers typed out before adding the prerequisites.

Sorry, I phrased that in a misleading way. Someone had suggested a maneuver that had a feat as a prerequisite. I was commenting on that as well as one of your comments on that same maneuver (namely that you weren't worrying about pre-requisites yet).

Thank you, I suppose.

It was an honest compliment, although now that I think of it, it may depend on how skillful you are at homebrewing. Most people need to walk before they can run. You don't have any signature to contain links to your previous works, so I can't really tell what your skill-level is.



As for the poison sap thing, I agree it has to be "more poison ivy, less toadstool" to make the stance/maneuver worth taking, but I think it should also have a higher effect (or three total tiers of effects?) for your touch attacks (and things making skin-to-skin contact attacks that aren't bite attacks?), bite attacks, and swallow whole. You should also consider giving IL based bonuses to the DCs for at least the swallow whole aspect since stuff that swallows whole tends to have massive fortitude saves. Or, if it is a maneuver, just create scaling versions of it across the 9 levels.

A stance to grant immunity to poison (which plant creatures get) would be nice, and you can duplicate Stone Dragon's crit-immunity stance perhaps.

To generate more maneuvers I would create later-level sequels to the entangle-like effect, going with Black Tentacles and then ganking (with at least a link, and preferably permission)the results of some homebrew you find via the following web search:
site:www.giantitp.com "tentacles of forced intrusion" spiked

(I'd search myself, but I thought that providing the example might help someone reading this thread.)

[Amnoriath]

Going off on DracoDei's idea:
Child of the Mighty Oak, this stance would give some incremental fortification(25, 50, and 75 percent) and some fast healing(1 to 2) in areas of sunlight or heavy vegetation. Then maybe for some plant affinity fare they can use their Knowledge(Nature) check for a diplomacy check for creatures of the plant type while mindless plants are automatically indifferent unless otherwise provoked.

[DracoDei]

Remind me to give you a link to the similar arcane instead of martial, but still martial maneuver system based thing that Solooze from the play-test campaign (Shard of Terna) I am in has access to.

I can't do it from this computer.

[Amechra]

Agrippa, I think he's telling you to look up Spellshaping.

[DracoDei]

Yes, but it isn't on this board, and there are a lot of sub-areas within it. The details of my message were mostly to remind MYSELF what I was talking about.

http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.ph...sg5310#msg5310

[Agrippa]

I like what I have to see, but I'll have to take a closer look at spellshaping tomorrow morning.

[Agrippa]

I'm taking a little bit of inspiration from Exalted for one of these maneuvers. It'll sort of br a mix of Life-Swelling Sap Strike and Ravenous Thorn Technique. In this case it would be a ranged only attack. Don't worry I'll get to wrok finishing Blood of Poison Sap. I won't leave it unfinished for long.