Dreamscarred Press - Path of War Expanded! (Thread VII)

[Kaidinah]

Do you mind if I ask why it's different from the others? Is a Soul Hunter or Nightmare getting stronger recovery a balance issue, or is multi-claiming a potential problem with them somehow?

I have noticed that in general, the archetypes for base and core classes have slower recoveries. My guess as to why the Nightmare is barred from this is that it also has psionic powers, and in general can do more things than a harbinger can. The Soul Hunter? No clue, since its still a Stalker.

[Rentaromon]

I was looking at the mystic class and saw you can only spend a point of animus until higher levels, using more and more at a time as you gain higher levels. But what about the feat that grants you a pool of animus? The feat does not mention a limit at all.

I had no interest in mystic at all because i didnt like the random aspect of their maneuvers, but i liked the idea of animus and the elemental flux maneuvers, so i thought it was cool and planned to build up a big pool and throw one big fireball with huge damage that i earned. But after actually reading through the class it seems that is not how it works.

Any word?

[tekevil]

Was it ever mentioned which version of Hide in Plain Sight a War Soul can get by selecting the Veiled Moon Mystery blade skill?

Wait.... A Soul Knife can get access to hide in plain sight, but Stalkers can't?

[Kaidinah]

I was looking at the mystic class and saw you can only spend a point of animus until higher levels, using more and more at a time as you gain higher levels. But what about the feat that grants you a pool of animus? The feat does not mention a limit at all.

I had no interest in mystic at all because i didnt like the random aspect of their maneuvers, but i liked the idea of animus and the elemental flux maneuvers, so i thought it was cool and planned to build up a big pool and throw one big fireball with huge damage that i earned. But after actually reading through the class it seems that is not how it works.

Any word?

You might be misunderstanding. The only animus limit based on character level on the Mystic was on class abilities, not the discipline itself. Other than this, each individual Elemental Flux strike has its own separate augmentation limit. Lance of Power for example, can have as much animus invested in it as necessary to bring its number of damage dice up to your character level. This is separate from the enhancements available from the Mystic's Animus class feature.

[Swaoeaeieu]

Fun fact: there is a difference between the gunsmoke mystic in the mystic document and the one in the archetypes document.

Animus charged bullets costs animus in one, and is free in the other.

Wich one goes into the final product?

[Nyaa]

Fun fact: there is a difference between the gunsmoke mystic in the mystic document and the one in the archetypes document.

Animus charged bullets costs animus in one, and is free in the other.

Wich one goes into the final product?

Yay, stealth nerfs!

[Rentaromon]

You might be misunderstanding. The only animus limit based on character level on the Mystic was on class abilities, not the discipline itself. Other than this, each individual Elemental Flux strike has its own separate augmentation limit. Lance of Power for example, can have as much animus invested in it as necessary to bring its number of damage dice up to your character level. This is separate from the enhancements available from the Mystic's Animus class feature.

Good to know, maybe add a line in the elemental flux section saying there is no limit instead of saying read more about it in the mystic section, thats what threw me off.

[Kaidinah]

Good to know, maybe add a line in the elemental flux section saying there is no limit instead of saying read more about it in the mystic section, thats what threw me off.

No, Elemental Flux has its own separate limit. The maneuver can only get its animus augmentation as many times as specified in the maneuver.

[Sethis]

The difference between using a discipline weapon or not is a bonus to the DC's of your maneuvers iirc.

Just noticed this, it shows in the Systems and Use section under saves. A +2 competence bonus. Nice.

[MilleniaAntares]

Just to make sure, the Pikeman's Training feat, as written in the document, only applies to polearms, but not to spears. I do not believe this is intentional, so perhaps it would be a good idea to change it to be polearms and spears, or polearms or spears.

Edit: Found the iconic for the Fiendbound Marauder.

[tekevil]

I'm not really sure why they felt the need to buff Master of 1000 pokes while morphing it into Pikeman's training. Originally the feat only worked on the spear weapon group, since the polearm group is one of the strongest melee weapon groups.

My original idea was intended to preserve the power level usually associated with using a one handed weapon by forcing you to use something like a Long Spear if you wanted a melee reach weapon.

[Greenish]

Found the iconic for the Fiendbound Marauder.

It's a shame you can't combine Fiendbound Marauder with Dervish Defender.

[RedHeadSamurai]

In the final product will the bushi be getting modifications to allow the three new classes to take the template as well? was hoping to play a mystic bushi and would like to know if this will be a thing in the final product.

[Jurai]

They've said they aren't expanding the templates to the new classes already.

[Taveena]

Warlord and Warder lose bonus feats to be a Bushi, Stalker loses Arts. Zealot could potentially work by losing Convictions, and Mystic could lose its bonus feats, but there's nothing that Harbinger could really do.

Psychic and Arcane Samurai, Pirates, and cavalry aren't... quite as evocative as the idea of... I dunno, the Tsujigiri or the Flying Dutchman.

I mean you already got your mounted Harbinger, so there's no need for a Hussarbringer (see what I did there). But the other two probably also would need to be archetypes rather than class templates.

[oyzar]

I remember reading somewhere that even while dipping into the initiator classes you can still change out maneuvers every 4th Initator level. Is this an official rule or just proposed? In what document can I find it if so(to link to others)?

[Tome]

I was looking at the Knight Chandler and I noticed that while trading Elemental Glyphs for Candle Magic seems pretty even, where they trade Animus for Illumination there doesn't look to be anything compensates for the loss of the ability to augment maneuvers with Animus.

I'm pretty sure the Tap Animus feat doesn't give you the ability to augment maneuvers with Animus at least. Or does it?

Also, is Illumination supposed to just keep accruing as the combat progresses, or are there supposed to be ways to spend it?

[Lord_Gareth]

I was looking at the Knight Chandler and I noticed that while trading Elemental Glyphs for Candle Magic seems pretty even, where they trade Animus for Illumination there doesn't look to be anything compensates for the loss of the ability to augment maneuvers with Animus.

I'm pretty sure the Tap Animus feat doesn't give you the ability to augment maneuvers with Animus at least. Or does it?

Also, is Illumination supposed to just keep accruing as the combat progresses, or are there supposed to be ways to spend it?

Tap Animus exists specifically to permit you to augment Elemental Flux with animus, as well as access other animus-based feats. It can be used to power the class features that Chandler retained which require it.

Illumination is not spent; it builds.

[Tome]

Tap Animus exists specifically to permit you to augment Elemental Flux with animus, as well as access other animus-based feats. It can be used to power the class features that Chandler retained which require it.

Illumination is not spent; it builds.

So there's nothing to replace the standard Mystic's ability to augment maneuvers then? (Or their ability to count their class level as arcane spellcaster levels for that matter.)

Knight Chandler seems like a rather bad trade then, which is a shame because I otherwise love the concept.

[Taveena]

I know this is a stretch, but could Impulsive Reactions count as Combat Reflexes for the purpose of qualifying for feats? It feels stupid that my 10 dex lockdown Zealot needs to take a feat which gives NO benefit to qualify for Stand Still or Combat Patrol. (Or Mythic Combat Reflexes.)

[Nyaa]

Some FCBs look a bit off. +1/4 maneuver known grants five maneuvers over 20 levels. +1/5 combat feat (warlord) spent on Advanced Study grants eight maneuvers, not to mention other options. +1/4 stalker art spend on Advanced Study art or Combat Art (Advanced Study) grants ten maneuvers.

[Taveena]

Stalker is kinda balanced around having more maneuvers as its niche. Proportionally, the different FCBs keep that true.

[Tuvarkz]

It's a shame you can't combine Fiendbound Marauder with Dervish Defender.

Or with Zwei Sentinel. Sword+Chain would be awesome.
Also, big error in the reworked Eternal Guardian document: Intruder's End is marked as a Strike on the table, but the text marks it as a Counter.

[Prime32]

It occurs to me: is there any way for Warders to detect invisible things within range of their Defensive Focus? I've seen fictional techniques like it often enough, as exaggerations of real fighting techniques along the lines of DF.

Off the top of my head, maybe a feat with a similar format to Hawkeye?

Zone of Awareness [Combat]
When you turn your focus to defence, no intruder can escape your notice.
Prerequisites: Blind-Fight, Defensive Focus class feature
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Perception checks. Additionally, while using your Defensive Focus class feature, you gain the benefits of the blindsense ability against creatures and objects within your threatened area.
If you have 10 or more ranks in Perception, the bonus increases to +4 and you are considered to have blindsight instead of blindsense.

For comparison both Summoner Eidolons and Aegi can have 30ft blindsense with no restrictions at lv9, and 30ft blindsight at lv11. In 3.5, lv1 shifters with the Dreamsight Elite feat can spend a full-round action to get +5 Spot and see invisibility for the duration of their shifting. And Dampen Presence is a thing.

[Sayt]

That is extremely cool! I'd maybe even let it function within the Aegis range during combat?

[amberlink]

If i take a martial tradition, can I apply it to more than one class? For example a base class and then Mage Hunter, What about for unorthodox method?

[Swaoeaeieu]

So i noticed in my campaign that full attack with broken blade and thrashing dragon or primal fury gets pretty crazy damage wise. I have just started playing my gunsmoke mystic who, when getting out her two pistols makes a pretty dent in people too.

What or some of the playgrounds favorite combo's using path of war (and expanded of course)? Or rather, how crazy can this get?

[Taveena]

So i noticed in my campaign that full attack with broken blade and thrashing dragon or primal fury gets pretty crazy damage wise. I have just started playing my gunsmoke mystic who, when getting out her two pistols makes a pretty dent in people too.

What or some of the playgrounds favorite combo's using path of war (and expanded of course)? Or rather, how crazy can this get?

To be entirely honest, that's kind of considered - at this point - to be a bug, rather than a feature. Full attacking in PoW is a little insane at the moment, especially with Broken Blade, Thrashing Dragon, and Primal Fury having their weird little full-attack maneuvers let you hit with more'n two weapons.

There's an emphasis on using Strikes over full-attacks, even if the latter is a numerically superior option, at this point - which is admittedly a little counter-intuitive with the full-attack buffing stances.

I dunno. It's just a bit messy at the moment, y'know? Like the dude who brings a Leap Attack Shock Trooper Barbarian with a Valorous Lance to a 3.5e game.

[Swaoeaeieu]

To be entirely honest, that's kind of considered - at this point - to be a bug, rather than a feature. Full attacking in PoW is a little insane at the moment, especially with Broken Blade, Thrashing Dragon, and Primal Fury having their weird little full-attack maneuvers let you hit with more'n two weapons.

There's an emphasis on using Strikes over full-attacks, even if the latter is a numerically superior option, at this point - which is admittedly a little counter-intuitive with the full-attack buffing stances.

I dunno. It's just a bit messy at the moment, y'know? Like the dude who brings a Leap Attack Shock Trooper Barbarian with a Valorous Lance to a 3.5e game.

Oh i know, and i read that those disciplines are getting a nerf in the future. But you have to admit, even without the full attack crazy stuff there are some cool combo's when using PoW material. Like getting insane amounts of AoO's or maybe lots of movement. I want only looking for crazy dmg, just curious about combo's you guys have thought of.

And my mystic does comparable dmg to full attack broken blade using only time skitter and searing break. And a fire glyph now that i think of it.

[Vhaidara]

Well, I'm a fan of Harbinger with dark presence and the step up line. Claim target tries to 5-ft away? You get to stab them before they move, then 5-ft after them and stab them again. Perfect counter to reach fighters.

Similarly, dip Harbinger on a warder to lock people out of withdraw/5ft step in the zone of nope. Also int synergy

Dipping zealot on a warlord can let you seriously abuse Tactical Assistance (cha mod as your aid another bonus)