The Age of Warriors (Project Revived!)

[Morphic tide]

The Crusader variant seems off, to me, because it's replacing every baseline function but the Disciplines accessed, which still see significant alteration. Perhaps leave out Reconstructed Biology, Stopped Clock, Self Repair, and Mechanized Transcendence and put back Steely Resolve, to keep a core of Crusader ability interactions that define their playstyle and reduce the mechanical "weight" added, keeping it in line with the base Crusader in power and remaining readily identifiable as one. Keep it focused on the swap of Granted Maneuvers and Zealous Counterstrike, but preserve the root of the Stone Dragon and Devoted Spirit interactions that give the Crusader a defined playstyle based around leveraging Damage Reduction and healing exceptionally effectively.

The gradual mechanizing is, in my opinion, too "meaty" a mechanic to really fit any of the existing classes as an AFC or Variant property, which is why I'd suggested having the Clockwork Warrior and Mechanist merged into one class. If you insist on giving such a feature to an existing class, part it out to the Warblade or Swordsage, replacing their respective ability score bonuses and consequently being altered to some form of ability score scaling, then give the other bonuses for using Initiator-based itemization. Which could be split into several "themes", each mapping to one final Mechanist Discipline and area of mechanical focus.

Perhaps [Magitech] could be the home of my idea of powering added benefits with spell slots, then the power sources are a subset of the items generating a steady supply for the other items and associated Discipline to run on. On a per-encounter basis of generation, with the bonuses provided acting somewhat akin to a suite of Boosts, distancing from Incarnum by essentially having a budget for the encounter rather than a pile to redistribute as needed. Then an Artificer-theurge focusing on actually using these per-encounter slots for Infusions can be made.

Alchemy is the most direct to implement divergence, and is quite simple to integrate as an ammo setup, but in addition to the variety of consumable damage offerings, it would obviously come with methods to produce healing, buffs more meaningfully temporary than the [Magitech], and permanent changes such as providing in-house Inherent bonuses to assist the completion of exiting spellcaster dependence. PRC-wise, pretty much every route is ripping off one form or another of the PF1e Alchemist.

The clock/steam-work option would most likely take the direction currently touched on by the [Magitech] items, where it's mostly just better base items, maybe with a fuel aspect to powering them via consumables as contrasted against the [Magitech] generators if the overlap with central power isn't "too close", with an obvious bleed-through of a merged power source that doesn't need replacement fuel. And definitely Construct benefits.

Finally, the Warheart stuff. I'd alter the mechanic to be the bonus being equal to the Maneuver level, and adjusting prices accordingly. Then have the base feat allow the creation of Discipline Items alongside adding some form of Stance item, with a second feat adding Discipline-based item bonuses of the various basic plus varieties and loosening the restrictions on the item types. Ability scores, skills, probably Natural Armor for Wyrm's Might, generally have the basic item types easily covered by Warheart alone in a very blunt way where the other three get very weird.

In a general capacity, each of them can have separate Constructs that ask for their feat as a prerequisite, rather than having a particular "Craft Martial Construct" feat. Similarly, each might have a different surcharge to its Enhancement bonus save the Clockworks being powerful base items (and thus not eating into the 200,000 pre-Epic GP cap), with their Special Qualities contributing to the surcharge effect to restore 6th+ Maneuvers to Warheart. For [Magitech], this would be power source weapons and armor, while Alchemy goes for base weapon statistics on a schedule of automatic quality-worthy properties.

An item being several types at once would then be calculated by expressing the cost by the surcharge over the standard +x bonus, rather than expressing the total as the Warheart items currently do, possibly resulting in the removal of refusing Magic Item qualities on them, and a similar list of alternate prerequisites to doing Discipline Items as Warheart may be done to skip out on the pile of "Fiery Flaming Shocking"s by just taking the normal versions with different requirements. Of course, the specific items can be very heavy in such merging, and that surcharge inherently disables the +10 total.

[Elves]

and put back Steely Resolve, to keep a core of Crusader ability interactions

Ordered Action is Steely Resolve with a different trigger condition. That's what's good about the variant -- it not only puts a twist on the 2 core features, but the twist makes it so that they synergize.

Perhaps leave out Reconstructed Biology, Stopped Clock, Self Repair, and Mechanized Transcendence [...]
If you insist on giving such a feature to an existing class, part it out to the Warblade or Swordsage.

Mechanical transformation portion could be split off and used for a warblade variant. "Warframe"? Turning yourself into a mecha. Fits since TOB is vaguely anime. Or maybe no personal transformation, just mech suit. Mech suit could also be part of machinist, though it's best if that class is generic enough to fit in ancient and medieval era games.

Mechanically, I see 3 basic ways to represent mech suit:

1) As a Polymorph-like effect -- overrides your physical stats, adds a new [ex] and special attack
2) As a completely different creature that you pilot, but can initiate maneuvers through
3) As an "exoskeleton" that gives you bonuses and breaks when it takes a certain amount of damage.

Which seems best?

A basic mechanic to consider is what your suit getting broken looks like. Perhaps you can only initiate while wearing it. You want it breaking to be a real threat in each serious encounter, so having it break can't grind the adventure to a halt -- meaning you need a way to heal it on the spot, maybe a daily allotment or a repair wounds SLA or whatever.

Possibly when it breaks you have to spend a full round action to extract yourself from the wreckage, but then at some level there's an ejector seat ability that lets you exit as an immediate action when it breaks.

Then an Artificer-theurge focusing on actually using these per-encounter slots for Infusions can be made.

Early on, there was going to be a "warsmith" artificer theurge with a focus on creating magic weapons, most likely interacting with warheart weapons. I don't see a strong need for that now since machinist fulfills a niche similar to the artificer's. It's something you could do if you want, if so I'd personally prefer to see it kept simple and themed on combining maneuvers and infusions, instead of adding a third mechanical element. Someone playing a theurge is already taking on more complexity than normal.

providing in-house Inherent bonuses to assist the completion of exiting spellcaster dependence.

That sounds like a good thing to include.

Finally, the Warheart stuff. I'd alter the mechanic to be the bonus being equal to the Maneuver level

Not sure how this would work since they don't allow special abilities. And kind of hard to fluff special abilities when they're meant to be nonmagical. A list of plausibly nonmagical "approved abilities" is too clunky and creating custom properties is too long. I guess I could see a short list of minor benefits like improved hardness or hp that could be enhancement-equivalent (but significantly less powerful than corresponding magic item abilities).

Personally, I don't think warheart items should actually shake up the magic item meta, simply because that makes AOW less compatible with the existing game and people's acquired understanding of it. I think it's important to stay laser focused and not get to the point of trying to fix the game's underlying issues.

However, this could be a shtick for that "warsmith" prestige class -- mixing warheart items with infusions and magical weapon properties.

Perhaps [Magitech] could be the home of my idea of powering added benefits with spell slots

An actual, genuine magitech system that feels like making magitech and involves spellcasting is way outside the project scope IMO. But I agree that having it as a keyword that lets you use certain maneuvers only with certain equipment feels lackluster. There should at least be some interaction where you can power up your weapons or whatever as you advance in level.

If machinist is the TOB artificer, its "magitech" should be a very simplified way of fulfilling or mimicking an artificer-like role. I don't know artificer well so I have no idea what that would look like.

If [magitech] is kept as a maneuver keyword, in addition to weapon compatibility it could indicate applicability for certain class features.

[Just to Browse]

It's the same subsystem, it's just giving non-psi characters an allowance.

If the subsystem grants PP but not at the same cadence (turn by turn) and not in the same way (maneuver-only), it's not really the same subsystem. It's far closer to "your stance empowers 1 strike / boost this turn" with a PP integration attached at the end. I'm also skeptical of the reasons against it: maneuver levels & power levels are a strong incentive so I doubt forced dips are a thing, PoW was playtested so it's better to follow them than vice versa, and psi maneuver nova'ing is probably rare given maneuver prereqs. But this particular theorycrafting argument isn't important.

High-level design follows a pretty simple flow:

1. Identify an audience need
2. Find or make a design to fit that need
3. Test that design
4. Identify flaws from the test
5. GOTO 2

Giving psionic initiators a daily PP pool is a straightforward, synergistic way of granting the allowance you're looking for. It's also the default design -- it came pre-packaged with TDO's Sleeping Goddess and with ErrantX's Sleeping Goddess. Regardless of whatever abuse case you or I could imagine, it is the prime target for a psionic discipline PP source, and it should be tested that way before anybody commits to redesigning a chunk of the discipline.

Problematic -- especially if this is meant as a relatively ezplay class, 30 maneuvers plus 20 powers is too much to keep track of.

[snip]

This may be a problem with Sleeping Goddess getting too big after absorbing the best Mental Grip mvs.

The 3-readied is based on the idea that disciplines grant 2-4 maneuvers at each maneuver level, with an average <3. Following my in-game experience, I expect players to ready their 3 highest-level maneuvers because they are the coolest and strongest. Also (IME here) I haven't seen players struggle with maneuver selection in game since the stakes are low (next combat you can try something new). Most of the AP regarding selection comes from character feature selection, like picking the right number of maneuvers to fill prereqs. All maneuvers from 1 discipline gets rid of a lot of the bookkeeping there.

I also haven't been watching this thread so I don't know what's happening with Mental Grip, but as a person who has tried both, I don't think it's a great idea to merge them.

• Sleeping Goddess is the maneuver-as-powers discipline where you spend PP to strengthen maneuvers. It's very flighty, with a focus is on melee combat (call the heart's blade, dreaming nomad strike, dreams of future strife).
• Mental Grip is the psionic focus discipline, where you spend your psionic focus to strengthen maneuvers. The very smashy, with a focus on proxy-fighting at range (brain rush, hurl weapon, psychogenic wall).

They have different mechanical minigames, tactical niches, and they "feel" different to play. You all might have talked about this before, but if it's not decided yet then I would strongly recommend keeping them separate in AoW. It would also stop your maneuver count from ballooning by 50% compared to TDO's original

More to come on Sublime PsyWar. I'm skeptical about giving them all maneuver levels, because they already get theurge-like maneuver/power access. Going to try testing a few builds first.

[Elves]

I doubt forced dips are a thing

I'm not saying swordsages who take SG maneuvers will feel pressured to dip psionic classes, but rather that for those who do dip, the SG perk power points will be used on powers rather than maneuvers, because they represent a big increase to a low level psionic class's allotment. Which also creates a bad incentive to take a high level SG maneuver not because you like it but for an extraneous benefit.

Meanwhile, characters with a lot of levels in psionic classes have enough pp that they don't really need the perk anyway.

In other words, it doesn't fix the problem, because the only people who are relying on the SG granted power points to augment their maneuvers are the ones who don't have any psi ability. So making the granted points maneuver-only only changes things for the characters in that middle zone, who have 1-4 levels in psionic classes. And in their case it seems like getting rid of the current incentive is a good thing.

Also (IME here) I haven't seen players struggle with maneuver selection in game since the stakes are low (next combat you can try something new).

On that note, a base class that has both Vancian and maneuvers would definitely suck. Psi or spontaneous is viable because it balances permanent choices (power picks) with short term choices (readied maneuvers). That's why automatically knowing all Sleeping Goddess maneuvers is good, because having two sets of permanent picks (powers and maneuvers) would be redundant and confusing.

But Adaptive Style becomes almost mandatory and could throw a wrench in things. If you want to stick with static mvs readied, it may be a good idea to give class its own more limited way of changing readied maneuvers in combat, so that Adaptive Style feels less required. Alternately, could make Adaptive Style work differently for psywar.

The full round action recovery mechanism to refresh + regain focus could be an interesting option in this light. For someone with Adaptive Style, it creates a choice -- switch readied maneuvers (Adaptive Style) or regain focus (default recovery).

I also haven't been watching this thread so I don't know what's happening with Mental Grip, but as a person who has tried both, I don't think it's a great idea to merge them.

Having 2 psi discs just looks inelegant. The case in which they could be separate enough to justify would come from this flavor text in the original Sleeping Goddess blurb:

"This school of combat, the Sleeping Goddess discipline, is not combat as many would think of it — rather than using physical force to overwhelm an opponent, the discipline revolves around striking at the mind, not the body."

You could revise the discipline to really reflect this, rather than just being bash + debuff, and try to go for a more subtle/tasteful route. But ultimately I felt that was overthinking it. And w/o that divergence, they aren't different enough to justify 2 psi discs.

Sleeping Goddess is the maneuver-as-powers discipline where you spend PP to strengthen maneuvers. It's very flighty, with a focus is on melee combat[*]Mental Grip is the psionic focus discipline, where you spend your psionic focus to strengthen maneuvers. The very smashy, with a focus on proxy-fighting at range

I think this actually creates synergy, with the mvs from MG adding movement and ranged ability to the more straightforward strikes from SG. And from revising the disc, which I'm doing, gradually -- you can look at the doc to see current progress -- having both augment and focus seems like it works well. That's present in Pathfinder SG too.

More to come on Sublime PsyWar. I'm skeptical about giving them all maneuver levels, because they already get theurge-like maneuver/power access.

The starting concept you mentioned was a class that focuses on one discipline -- going theurge screws that up a bit, but if this is a one-discipline class with a discipline built for its theme, not having full access to that discipline simply makes it fall flat. I would much rather see cuts to their psionics portion (ranger/paladin equivalent psionic casting?). 2 powers per level 1st through 5th cuts it to 10, which seems manageable. Or only go to 4th but keep 3 1st & 3 2nd. Having their psi casting come in at 2nd, 3rd or 4th also good to avoid steep learning curve of having both systems at 1st.

A different approach would be granting per-day psi-like abilities -- one advantage here is that their pp pool could be balanced purely around spending to augment. Would certainly make balancing the pp value easier.

Looking forward to what you come up with.

[Just to Browse]

In other words, it doesn't fix the problem, because the only people who are relying on the SG granted power points to augment their maneuvers are the ones who don't have any psi ability. So making the granted points maneuver-only only changes things for the characters in that middle zone, who have 1-4 levels in psionic classes. And in their case it seems like getting rid of the current incentive is a good thing.

Like I said, this could possibly be a thing. I mean, it could be that non-psi characters who dip into psi classes heavily structure their build to meet prereqs so they can qualify for 1-2 extra PP... but it's very likely that initiators will take psionic disciplines for different reasons, or this incentive effect will be minimal. Just test the existing system and see if that incentive system actually comes to bear.

But Adaptive Style becomes almost mandatory and could throw a wrench in things. If you want to stick with static mvs readied, it may be a good idea to give class its own more limited way of changing readied maneuvers in combat, so that Adaptive Style feels less required. Alternately, could make Adaptive Style work differently for psywar.

I was looking at psionic focus expenditure as a one-time combat preparation. Should give 1-2 rounds each for a player twice, and if you want more then you need to buy into move action mediations, use battle trance, etc. I tried this out in combat and it worked decently with a way to expend psionic focus in combat (I used Extend Power).

Having 2 psi discs just looks inelegant. [snip]

Seems like there are 4 counterarguments here:

• Elegance: I don't agree that it's inelegant, certainly no more than a single psi discipline. I wouldn't make that judgment call off gut instincts if you have people who can check you. I took a look at Morphic Tide's comments, and he seems to agree that Mental Grip is a good fit for AoW.
• Needing Distinctions: The separations are already there along thematic lines, tactical lines, and mechanical lines. You don't really need to distinguish them more. Sleeping Goddess gives you a weapon conjurer that jumps on people and fights by messing with their mind. Mental Grip gives you a almost a controlling character that blocks off areas and throws people around without having the move.
• Synergies: Synergies don't necessitate discipline consolidation. And though these two are a little synergistic, it's not so much that they might as well be the same.
• Pathfinder did it: Path of War had 13 disciplines. You've got something like 25 new disciplines, not counting planar, lighthearted, poet, or machinist college disciplines. Psionics is a prime target for 2 disciplines, especially since it has 2 mechanics

The starting concept you mentioned was a class that focuses on one discipline -- going theurge screws that up a bit, but if this is a one-discipline class with a discipline built for its theme, not having full access to that discipline simply makes it fall flat. I would much rather see cuts to their psionics portion (ranger/paladin equivalent psionic casting?). 2 powers per level 1st through 5th cuts it to 10, which seems manageable. Or only go to 4th but keep 3 1st & 3 2nd. Having their psi casting come in at 2nd, 3rd or 4th also good to avoid steep learning curve of having both systems at 1st.

Having just tried it, I agree. But given the seed of the idea was a variant psychic warrior, I don't think dramatically reworking power access and/or adding a suite of new abilities is a good idea. I think it would be better to put the ideas you're suggesting into a separate base class. Maybe a dedicated base class that gets 1 discipline + a handful of class features associated with each discipline. You could give it a funny name like disciple.

Sublime PsyWar results: I tried out some builds for the SGT, and full access to maneuvers is definitely too much. A little too strong with full psywar buffs, call the soul's blade for offense, and death of the self for defense. 2/3 initiating is definitely more balanced while still being fun -- only real issue was that save DCs are pretty meh. I think a class feature (or maybe homebrew feat?) to solve that would be a nice solution.

[Elves]

Like I said, this could possibly be a thing. I mean, it could be that non-psi characters who dip into psi classes heavily structure their build to meet prereqs so they can qualify for 1-2 extra PP...

I was saying that re: the PoW method. If not going that way, that's not a problem, but then it's too stingy for non-psychs.

I was looking at psionic focus expenditure as a one-time combat preparation.

Yeah that could be a good class feature.

Having just tried it, I agree. But given the seed of the idea was a variant psychic warrior, I don't think dramatically reworking power access and/or adding a suite of new abilities is a good idea.

It's ok. Thus far, for the classes that get big overhauls (PairODice's swashbuckler redo, my soulborn redo) it's basically making them a whole new class. You should feel free to add what you want. The only case where the variant class vs new class distinction makes much difference is for ACFs, so the place continuity matters is leaving in class features that can be traded for ACFs you want them to be able to access. For psywar I think there's just that soulbound weapon ACF, which is no loss.

Sublime PsyWar results: I tried out some builds for the SGT, and full access to maneuvers is definitely too much.

IMO it's important. Again I'd recommend handicapping their powers before handicapping their maneuvers. If there are any SG maneuvers you think are too strong, those can also be nerfed.

a dedicated base class that gets 1 discipline + a handful of class features associated with each discipline. You could give it a funny name like disciple.

We have the Master of One prc, and there's nothing barring a base class from taking all 1 discipline maneuvers. Possibly there could be ACFs for crusaders/warblades/swordsages focused strongly on one of the nine.

only real issue was that save DCs are pretty meh

Changed SG key abilities to all of Int, Wis, Cha. Definitely they shouldn't have split stats.

[Just to Browse]

I was saying that re: the PoW method. If not going that way, that's not a problem, but then it's too stingy for non-psychs.

Again, maybe it's that way. But maybe not. Test it first.

IMO it's important. Again I'd recommend handicapping their powers before handicapping their maneuvers. If there are any SG maneuvers you think are too strong, those can also be nerfed.

The PsyWar is basically 2/3 fighter feat progression + 2/3 psionic power progression; reworking both of them and it's not really a PsyWar class.

How about a totally separate class with this?

• Higher HD, better saves, full BAB
• Half manifesting
• Full initiating
• New power list with fewer choices and re-leveled powers
• Free PP class feature or just a larger than normal pool
• Actual class features so you can do something outside of combat

[Elves]

Reworking the power list screams different class to me much more than an adjusted casting progression (remember the mystic ranger variant changes ranger from 4/9 to 5/9, having a psychic warrior variant that does the reverse, and removes bonus feats, in exchange for 1-disc full maneuver progression seems quite reasonable) and could create bloat in class presentation, but there are certainly benefits to a slimmed down list -- no one ever takes stuff like "elfsight", and the black dragon breath powers are weirdly off theme.

[Elves]

Out of interest I skimmed the psywar power list and didn't find that much to cut. Here's the list I got after one cutting pass:

Spoiler

Show

1st-Level Psychic Warrior Powers
Biofeedback A: Gain DR 2/-.
Burst: Gain +10ft. to speed this round.
Catfall A: Instantly save yourself from a fall.
Chameleon: Gain +10 enhancement bonus on Hide checks.
Claws of the Beast A: Your hands become deadly claws.
Compression A: You grow smaller.
Conceal Thoughts: You conceal your motives.
Dissipating Touch A: Touch deals 1d6 damage.
Distract: Subject gets -4 on Listen, Search, Sense Motive, and Spot checks.
Empty Mind A: Gain +2 on Will saves until your next action.
Expansion A: Become one size category larger.
Float: Buoy yourself in water or other liquid.
Force Screen A: Invisible disc provides +4 shield bonus to AC.
Grip of Iron A: Your iron grip gives +4 bonus on grapple checks.
Hammer A: Melee touch attack deals 1d8/round.
Inertial Armor A: Tangible field of force provides you with +4 armor bonus to AC.
Metaphysical Claw A: Your natural weapon gains +1 bonus.
Metaphysical Weapon A: Weapon gains +1 bonus.
My Light A: Your eyes emit 20-ft. cone of light.
Precognition, Defensive A: Gain +1 insight bonus to AC and saving throws.
Precognition, Offensive A: Gain +1 insight bonus on your attack rolls.
Prescience, Offensive A: Gain +2 insight bonus on your damage rolls.
Skate: Subject slides skillfully along the ground.
Stomp A: Subjects fall prone and take 1d4 nonlethal damage.
Synesthete: You receive one kind of sense when another sense is stimulated.
Thicken Skin A: Gain +1 enhancement bonus to your AC for 10 min./level.
Vigor A: Gain 5 temporary hit points.


2nd-Level Psychic Warrior Powers
Animal Affinity A: Gain +4 enhancement to one ability.
Body Adjustment A: Heal 1d12 damage.
Body Equilibrium: You can walk on nonsolid surfaces.
Body Purification A: Restore 2 points of ability damage.
Concealing Amorpha: Quasi-real membrane grants you concealment.
Darkvision, Psionic: See 60 ft. in total darkness.
Detect Hostile Intent: You can detect hostile creatures within 30 ft. of you.
Dimension Swap A: You and an ally switch positions.
Empathic Transfer A: Transfer another’s wounds to yourself.
Energy Adaptation, Specified A: Gain resistance 10 to one energy type.
Feat Leech A: Borrow another’s psionic or metapsionic feats.
Hustle: Instantly gain a move action.
Levitate, Psionic: Subject moves up and down at your direction.
Painful Strike A: Your natural weapons deal an extra 1d6 nonlethal damage.
Prowess: Instantly gain another attack of opportunity.
Psionic Lion’s Charge A: You can make full attack in same round you charge.
Strength of My Enemy A: Siphon away your enemy’s strength and grow stronger.
Sustenance: You can go without food and water for one day.
Thought Shield A: Gain PR 13 against mind-affecting powers.
Wall Walker: Grants ability to walk on walls and ceilings.


3rd-Level Psychic Warrior Powers
Claws of the Vampire: Heal half of your claw’s base damage.
Concealing Amorpha, Greater: Quasi-real membrane grants you total concealment.
Dimension Slide A: Teleports you very short distance.
Duodimensional Claw: Increases your natural weapon’s threat range.
Ectoplasmic Form: You gain benefits of being insubstantial and can fly slowly.
Empathic Feedback A: When you are hit in melee, your attacker takes damage.
Empathic Transfer, Hostile A: Your touch transfers your hurt to another.
Evade Burst A: You take no damage from a burst on a successful Reflex save.
Graft Weapon: Your hand is replaced seamlessly by your weapon.
Keen Edge, Psionic: Doubles normal weapon’s threat range.
Mental Barrier A: Gain +4 deflection bonus to AC until your next action.
Ubiquitous Vision: You have all-around vision.
Vampiric Blade: You heal half of your base weapon damage.


4th-Level Psychic Warrior Powers
Dimension Door, Psionic: Teleports you short distance.
Energy Adaptation A: Your body converts energy to harmless light.
Freedom of Movement, Psionic: You cannot be held or otherwise rendered immobile.
Immovability A: You are almost impossible to move and gain DR 15/-.
Inertial Barrier: Gain DR 5/-.
Psychic Vampire: Touch attack drains 2 power points/level from foe.
Steadfast Perception: Gain immunity to illusory effects, +6 bonus on Spot and Search checks.


5th-Level Psychic Warrior Powers
Adapt Body: Your body automatically adapts to hostile environments.
Catapsi A: Psychic static inhibits power manifestation.
Oak Body A: Your body becomes as hard as oak.
Psychofeedback: Boost Str, Dex, or Con at the expense of one or more other scores.


6th-Level Psychic Warrior Powers
Dispelling Buffer: You are buffered from one dispel psionics effect.
Form of Doom A: You transform into a frightening tentacled beast.
Mind Blank, Personal: You are immune to scrying and mental effects.
Suspend Life: Put yourself into a state akin to suspended animation.

That's from cutting the stuff that either isn't related to combat, or which creates acid and poison since I don't see how that connects to telekinetic mind powers.

Clearly there would have to be more drastic cuts or changes in order to justify a whole new list. I wouldn't raise the level of any spells since you can achieve the same thing by delaying casting vs base psywar.

[Sgt. Cookie]

Checks in
Oh. Neat. This is still a thing.

Alright, so, I remembered something I made a *long* time ago, back in 2013, that might be a good fit:

Spoiler: Night-Wrought Soul, a Martial Adept Lich

Show

Nine Wrought Soul
(Martial Adept Lich)

It is a secret known to those who have mastered the Sublime Way, that death is not the end of their knowledge, that their mastery will not go to the grave. But few are willing to use this secret, as it twists and corrupts the very knowledge they seek to preserve. Something only the most unscrupulous masters would even consider, let alone do.

By marking their bodies with knowledge, they seek to empower their very corpses with their experience, personality and mastery over the Sublime Way. Such twisted abominations are called Nine Wrought Souls.

Creating a Nine Wrought Soul

A Nine Wrought Soul is identical to the Standard Lich, with the following exceptions:

Ability Score Adjustment: Increase from the base creature as follows: +4 Strength, +2 Dexterity. Nine Wrought Souls, being undead, have no Constitution score. However, any HP gained from a high Con score are not lost, see Nine Wrought Toughness.

Nine Wrought Toughness (Ex): A Nine Wrought Soul gains the Nine Wrought Toughness ability, allowing them to use their Charisma in place of their Constitution for HP.
If his unmodified Constitution score, prior to becoming a Nine Wrought Soul, was higher than his current Charisma score, he continues to gain extra HP, as though he still had his constitution score. If his Charisma Score ever becomes higher than his prior unmodified Constituition score, recalculate HP accordingly.


Phylactery Equivelent

Nine Wrought Souls don't have phylacteries, instead they scribe the knowledge of all maneouvers they know onto their own flesh and into the walls, celing, floor, etc, of a sanctum. This requires the Scribe Martial Script feat, and some sort of method of making permenant marks.

Marking yourself in such a way costs 120,000 gp and 4,800 XP, or the actual cost if you were making a martial script of every maneouver you know, whichever is greater. Creating a Sanctum incurs no additional cost.

1d4 hours after the Nine Wrought Soul is slain, it reappears in its sanctum (The Nine Wrought Soul predetermines where in its sanctum). 1d10 days later, it comes back to life.

To permenantly destroy a Nine Wrought Soul, you must slay it and destroy its catatonic form, before it comes back to life.

Unrelated, but good lord. Looking back at my old homebrew makes me question who allowed me access to a keyboard.

[Morphic tide]

Ordered Action is Steely Resolve with a different trigger condition. That's what's good about the variant -- it not only puts a twist on the 2 core features, but the twist makes it so that they synergize.

No, Ordered Action is Zealous Counterstrike with a different condition. The bonus for having damage delayed is a separate feature from the delayed damage pool, and there's nothing carrying forward the key functionality of the Delayed Damage pool that gives interactions and playstyle considerations to Devoted Spirit healing and Stone Dragon damage reduction. All the defining aspects of the Crusader outside which lists they draw from are replaced, when one of them could be very easily kept because it isn't locked to the overhauled elements and serve to preserve one significant portion of the original class's playstyle and the key to its original usage of two of its Disciplines.

Mechanical transformation portion could be split off and used for a warblade variant. "Warframe"? Turning yourself into a mecha. Fits since TOB is vaguely anime. Or maybe no personal transformation, just mech suit. Mech suit could also be part of machinist, though it's best if that class is generic enough to fit in ancient and medieval era games.

Mechanically, I see 3 basic ways to represent mech suit:

1) As a Polymorph-like effect -- overrides your physical stats, adds a new [ex] and special attack
2) As a completely different creature that you pilot, but can initiate maneuvers through
3) As an "exoskeleton" that gives you bonuses and breaks when it takes a certain amount of damage.

Which seems best?

Depends on the flavoring of why it's used, with the Warblade's case being most leaning towards an exoskeleton as the nearest to typical armor. The Polymorph-like effect is vastly better fitting a cybernetics case, while the separate piloted creature works more for a Tony Stark sort of equipment dependence where the entire fighting routine stems from the armor.

A basic mechanic to consider is what your suit getting broken looks like. Perhaps you can only initiate while wearing it. You want it breaking to be a real threat in each serious encounter, so having it break can't grind the adventure to a halt -- meaning you need a way to heal it on the spot, maybe a daily allotment or a repair wounds SLA or whatever.

Possibly when it breaks you have to spend a full round action to extract yourself from the wreckage, but then at some level there's an ejector seat ability that lets you exit as an immediate action when it breaks.

The major thing is that it'd most likely be replacing standard armor, and the damage mechanic is effectively a health buffer. Consequently, it could be that this Warblade variant has reduced hit dice and medium BAB, with these slightly more than directly countered by the innate progression separate from Intelligence bonuses as I'd mentioned, then the suit acts as a sort of automatic bonus progression, as long as the Warblade is at high health. The penalties are then primarily about losing your tricked-out armor's more complex benefits and thereby basically losing what could be a quarter of your overall character wealth, assuming it's mostly a particularly extreme form of the "advanced" armor craftable by other means.

Not sure how this would work since they don't allow special abilities. And kind of hard to fluff special abilities when they're meant to be nonmagical. A list of plausibly nonmagical "approved abilities" is too clunky and creating custom properties is too long. I guess I could see a short list of minor benefits like improved hardness or hp that could be enhancement-equivalent (but significantly less powerful than corresponding magic item abilities).

Personally, I don't think warheart items should actually shake up the magic item meta, simply because that makes AOW less compatible with the existing game and people's acquired understanding of it. I think it's important to stay laser focused and not get to the point of trying to fix the game's underlying issues.

However, this could be a shtick for that "warsmith" prestige class -- mixing warheart items with infusions and magical weapon properties.

The thing with Special Qualities is, as mentioned, writing up alternate prerequisites for the existing qualities as part of the Warheart crafting, and the idea is more having them be a viable alternative to the whole of the basic itemization instead of being useful solely as a Maneuver source. The thing is that a Warheart item can very much have the Desert Wind damage boosts, so why can't you go that small step to be permanently doing 1d6 Fire damage per hit? The effect's already there in Maneuvers, you can already give it to the user of the weapon because of the nature of Maneuvers, so there's not really much of a gap.

We literally have a Discipline solely about manipulating gravity. "Plausibly nonmagical" is entirely outside the equation at this point, because of giving Maneuvers. And as you already forbid Warheart items stacking with magic items, they fundamentally cannot possess special qualities at all; the alternate prerequisite thing is a whitelist of "this Discipline/Maneuver providing this effect makes sense", such as having a Fiery weapon take a Desert Wind Maneuver or making the Tiger Claw thing give a Strength bonus on top of the Maneuver. The thought is about a way of making Warheart crafting a direct alternative to the basic itemization that it is rendered incompatible with, allowing Initiators to self-source their key item effects, even if it might have some clunk in direct substitution.

An actual, genuine magitech system that feels like making magitech and involves spellcasting is way outside the project scope IMO. But I agree that having it as a keyword that lets you use certain maneuvers only with certain equipment feels lackluster. There should at least be some interaction where you can power up your weapons or whatever as you advance in level.

If machinist is the TOB artificer, its "magitech" should be a very simplified way of fulfilling or mimicking an artificer-like role. I don't know artificer well so I have no idea what that would look like.

If [magitech] is kept as a maneuver keyword, in addition to weapon compatibility it could indicate applicability for certain class features.

This is ultimately the reason I want to move away from [Magitech] and towards clock/steam work as the itemization, as it works better under the constraint of not being a sprawling system. Tying [Magitech] primarily to a Discipline and thus sharing complexity "budget" on being fueled by slots is mostly just me really being interested in extending the subsystem transparencies to spellcasting and dredging up possible places to stick it where it can be supported.

If we do have the Mechanist be an Artificer-alike, the functions should tend more towards improving use than improving creation, having it dependent on items in some capacity for its Initiating, leaving the hardcore Must Craft Everything to some form of variant class. Either of the Mechanist itself, or of the Artificer to better justify a more intense item dependence with an access mechanic mirroring its Infusions.

---

As for the PsyWar variant/substitute, I think the Powers retained should actually focus specifically on the areas the Discipline(s) don't cover. The acid and poison should be the most likely to keep, because they're some of the least overlapping with Initiating of the direct combat properties. In other words, focus the Psionics on widening the Discipline, covering effects that Initiating does rarely or poorly, rather than doubling down on the Sword Dude mechanics with the daily resource. Leverage Psionics for Weird Stuff and combat-wideners (mobility, damage types, other stuff that makes swording apply to more targets) to make up for being a single-Discipline Initiator.

Having Mental Grip just run on Psionic Focus doesn't quite work because there's not really any "meat" to that mechanic. You have it, or you don't, and you can expend it to do a thing. One thing, then you have to recover Psionic Focus. It'd be like having a large set of Maneuvers that require you to expend your Stance, except even worse because it takes even more significant actions to recover. Huge action hog, and compensating for it as a multiple times per turn thing causes issues with over-spamming Metapsionics.

Though having the Psionic Discipline Stances be a type of Psionic Focus could provide a big draw to the Psion dipping Initiator levels, since it gives them not only some per-encounter abilities that don't need PP, they also get an automatic Swift Action Psionic Focus with some passive benefits while they maintain it. Could go well with using PP generation as a combo mechanic that then expands to dumping your daily resource in for no-fuss power output when you have proper Psionics.

Of course, my own main thought is that since the Psychic Warrior's list is actually already extremely well suited to Initiator resource patterns, why not make a variant like Arcane Swordsage but with things actually properly spelled out for it to function properly (prune durations, keep effects level with Maneuvers, etc)? Then just directly use Powers as Maneuvers. Could even make it so the Psionic Discipline(s) are simultaneously sets of Powers added to the existing Psionic classes so they don't need to dig into Initiating to get those new capabilities, consequently skipping the need to specify the Disciplines are learnable on the use-Powers-as-Maneuvers variant.

The single-Discipline thing could instead be given to the Sublime Ranger, as the involved "ready any X Maneuvers from your one Discipline" goes well as a carry over of Divine prepared casting mechanics and lines up with the Fighting Style flavor.

[Just to Browse]

I forgot how much flavor goes into WoL, and lord does my brain shut down when I have to think about flavor. Did a very very light touch in all those places.

Blade of the Fox

The Blade of the Fox is a lightweight katana with a steel blade. Its hang guard is inlaid with a ring of blue cobalt stone.

Omen: A creature who touches the Blade of the Fox feels a slight static shock if they have not performed the least legacy ritual for it. If a martial adept holds the sword by its blade, it begins to vibrate and releases a barely audible, high-pitched hum.

History

This is tough because I don't think Person_Man had a preexisting lore. This is gonna be sketchy.

Fey creature (do kitsune exist in DnD 3e?) studies under one of the masters. They are much faster than other key. They are gifted a katana. (DC 15)

They get a little bored and go home to work on their own discipline. Take katana with them. (DC 20; A)

It takes a long time but fey live a long time. They create their own discipline around movement and acrobatics. They work on the sword so it becomes better. (DC 25; B)

They teach other fey about their discipline, and leave the sword in the community. The blade is to be gifted to someone who embodies the grace and speed that the original fey always wanted. (DC 31; C)


Legacy Rituals

The following three rituals are required to unlock all the abilities of the Blade of the Fox.

A: Dance through the woods, like the foxes do. Cost: 1,500gp. Feat Granted: Least Legacy (Blade of the Fox).

B: 24 hours in solitude, consulting with the blade and sleeping is all you can do. To you, the hum grows much louder and it's more like a song. No one else can pick up on the tiny changes in frequency. Cost: 13,000gp. Feat Granted: Lesser Legacy (Blade of the Fox).

C: Somehow get up to the sky and race on the clouds. Maybe jump between clouds? Cost: 39,000gp. Feat Granted: Greater Legacy (Blade of the Fox).


Wielder Requirements

• Knowledge of at least one maneuver or stance from Oncoming Storm discipline
• Weapon Proficiency (katana)
• Land speed of at least 40 ft

Legacy Item Abilities
+1 katana, Cost 2,335 gp; Weight 1 lb.

Level	Abilities
5	+1 eager rapier
6	Quick as the Fox
7	From All Directions
8	+1 eager Lightning Fox rapier
9	--
10	Dash
11	+2 eager shocking Lightning Fox rapier
12	--
13	Dance on Clouds
14	+3 eager shocking brutal strike Lightning Fox rapier
15	--
16	Biding Time
17	+4 eager warning shocking brutal strike Lightning Fox rapier
18	--
19	Dizzying Heights
20	Planar Streak

Quick as the Fox (Ex): At 5th level, you gain a +4 competence bonus on Tumble checks.

From All Directions (Ex): At 6th level, your motions are a blur. Each turn, you are considered to be present in all squares that you moved through for flanking and making an attacks of opportunity.

Dash (Ex): At 10th level, you can achieve unprecedented bursts of speed. 5 times per day, you can move up to half your land speed as a swift action.

Dance on Clouds (Ex): At 13th level, you can move on top of sources of fog and smoke as though they were normal terrain. Because you are on top of the fog or smoke, you are not affected by it. You can only be on top of these surfaces while you move. At the end of your turn, if you moved fewer than 30 feet* this turn, you fall through the cloud.

* The same movement qualifications for Lightning Fox maneuvers apply to this movement as well.

Biding Time (Ex): At 16th level, when you roll for initiative, you may take a penalty of -5 to your initiative before you roll. At the end of your first turn in combat, remove this penalty and you get a +10 bonus to your initiative.

This will likely change when you act in combat, and in some cases may cause you act twice in a row.

Dizzying Heights (Su): At 19th level, you can walk on the air as though you were constantly affected by the spell air walk.

Planar Streak (Sp): At 20th level, the Blade of the Fox allows you to leverage your speed to dash through planes. If you use the run action on a turn and move at least 200 feet, you may cast plane shift as a free action.

[Just to Browse]

On Mystic Ranger: that variant class keeps a ton of parts of the ranger. I would put it on par with the PsyWar losing all their feats (which we're already talking about doing). The variant PsyWar we're discussing loses all feats and has different powers. It's an extra step that I don't think allows for a normal class.

On a power list: I could take or leave some of the weird abilities... like, if someone wants to be a psychic black dragon, I guess that's okay?? I do agree that it's not very resonant.

One big question on the class: if I did make a brand new psionic + initiating class, is it actually something you think would be worth including in AoW? If not, I don't want to bloat the scope of the project unnecessarily. It would probably be better to work on legacy weapons or some other hole.

Also, does anybody like lore? It's actually kinda hard for me to kickstart some of these without a little seed. If anyone is willing to write out the story / rituals of some legacy weapons, that would make my life easier.

[DracoDei]

Lest I forget, I'm going to leave this brew-bunny (taxinomically related to the plot-bunny) here:
Merfolk Cetacean Knight with Black Rain (and probably at least a bit of Falling Anvil) duel-wielding (Dire) Pistol Shrimp.

[D&D_Fan]

What about a subclass/class/whatever that can summon hordes of minions?
Abilities:
It's abilities would be summoning minions, Being able to buff them with tactics, getting more powerful minions, and sprinkle in some stuff for the actual player character here and there, so you can jump into the fray with your troops.

Also, good chance to use Hordlings, but there would be a couple varieties of minion to choose from. Maybe it could be fiends, plants, undead, or something else entirely.

Now that I think about it, this would be better as a full class.

Thoughts?

[Just to Browse]

Thoughts?

Doesn't seem very Tome-of-Battle-y to me. I'm not sure how that would work with Strikes at all.

It's also a pretty big theme. I agree that it should probably be a base class of its own.

[Elves]

Checks in
Oh. Neat. This is still a thing.

Alright, so, I remembered something I made a *long* time ago, back in 2013, that might be a good fit:

Good to see you back around -- yes, started to work on this again a couple months ago. Obviously it's gone on a lot longer than I thought it would. I didn't realize at the time how much work there was still to do on the content, as opposed to just collation and formatting.

Thanks for the submission. Nine-wrought soul could be the basis for a death knight substitute that is more viable for players. It should probably get a lore connection and a mechanical connection to initiating.


Just to Browse:

Spoiler

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Blade of the Fox

Thanks Just. Added it to the doc. Linking it to kitsune is a good idea. Lore can be that they're the originators of the discipline. Say they live in a desert with a lot of lightning storms. Sword needs to have been used somehow; obvious thing would be a fast kitsune warrior against a big, lumbering monster. Giant ankheg/scorpion/bulette? Tarrasque? Huge ancient golem that awoke from a desert ruin and was stomping across the desert on a march of annihilation? Toward a city, and the people were grateful to the kitsune for killing it so they made them a sword? There are different ways you could go.

The climax should probably include a justification for the capstone. Wielder runs so fast they phase into the astral plane, etc.

I assume the discipline was named after the raiju monster. That could fit in somehow.

One big question on the class: if I did make a brand new psionic + initiating class, is it actually something you think would be worth including in AoW?

Yes. Maybe use the class name from 4e, "battlemind"? That fits in well next to "swordsage" and "warblade".

Even if it has a different name, it could be wink-nudged in as an "alternative" or "redone" psychic warrior. Or not. The labeling doesn't matter -- the important thing is to have a TOB take on the psychic warrior fantasy.

Looking at the list of psywar powers, the problem is they're mostly pretty boring and don't feel cinematic.

Also, does anybody like lore? It's actually kinda hard for me to kickstart some of these without a little seed. If anyone is willing to write out the story / rituals of some legacy weapons, that would make my life easier.

Sure, I can write some weapon lore and hand it over for mechanics. I'll PM you.

Morphic:

Spoiler

Show

Depends on the flavoring of why it's used, with the Warblade's case being most leaning towards an exoskeleton as the nearest to typical armor. The Polymorph-like effect is vastly better fitting a cybernetics case, while the separate piloted creature works more for a Tony Stark sort of equipment dependence where the entire fighting routine stems from the armor.

Good point. They could all work; as always the question is about choosing the possibility that fits the project at hand best.

The cybernetic approach, on reflection, doesn't fit. It's not conducive to the idea of the suit breaking. Rather, it's a thing where you'd have a suite of multiple forms and modifications to choose from, which is beyond the scope of a simple variant. And granting special attacks doesn't fit since warblade already has a way of spending its actions (maneuvers). On the whole, that one seems like its own class.

Having the mech as a separate creature you pilot could be an interesting twist -- normal warblade is all about physical perfection; warframe warblade is about the perfection of your mecha. It's also conducive to the idea I mentioned that you can only use maneuvers while in your mecha, which provides a very simple incentive for not having it break.

Exoskeleton, yeah, would basically be a HP buffer. It would be pretty much an inverse of the barbarian "berserker" variant that grants you benefits while you're under half health. And it's easy to see how the mechanical transformation benefits from clockwork warrior could be shopped in. The problem is it feels like an extraneous addition. How would it connect to your initiating? That's my question.

The thing is that a Warheart item can very much have the Desert Wind damage boosts, so why can't you go that small step to be permanently doing 1d6 Fire damage per hit?

I see what you're saying, but to add in a whole rubric of applicable benefits based on discipline is 1) tedious and long, and 2) adds extraneous incentives besides which maneuver you actually want to get.

As a compromise, maybe warheart weapons automatically count as a discipline weapon for the maneuver they're imbued with?

This is ultimately the reason I want to move away from [Magitech] and towards clock/steam work.

You may be right, best not to pose at something that's a big space on its own.

Tying [Magitech] primarily to a Discipline and thus sharing complexity "budget" on being fueled by slots is mostly just me really being interested in extending the subsystem transparencies to spellcasting.

Spellcasting transparency would be best to put in feats IMO. Don't want to lock theurges into a specific build or specific maneuver choices. If you want to write a couple of feats that do that, that would be a great addition.

Slot-maneuver transparency could be the basis of an alternative arcane PRC to Jade Phoenix Mage, but again, I would be cautious about upsetting the meta -- RKV/JPM theurge meta seems perfectly fine and it's what people are used to. Eg, I intentionally tried to make Seeker of Lost Swords an interesting niche alternative to, but not something that would supplant, either of those classes.

So feats is where I would be inclined to locate that.

If we do have the Mechanist be an Artificer-alike, the functions should tend more towards improving use than improving creation, having it dependent on items in some capacity for its Initiating

I think its artificer-lite capabilities should have 2 components: as you say, creating items that are in some way linked to their initiating abilities, and being able to fulfill a basic item provider/item enhancer role for their party, though not as efficiently as an artificer. How much should be in maneuvers vs class features is always a question.

Though having the Psionic Discipline Stances be a type of Psionic Focus could provide a big draw to the Psion dipping Initiator levels

Thus far I've been giving them benefits while you're in them and psionically focused, which is pretty much the same thing but allows more flexibility.

Of course, my own main thought is that since the Psychic Warrior's list is actually already extremely well suited to Initiator resource patterns, why not make a variant like Arcane Swordsage but with things actually properly spelled out for it to function properly (prune durations, keep effects level with Maneuvers, etc)? Then just directly use Powers as Maneuvers.

The problem is that, and I realized this when I skimmed the list, the psychic warrior powers are for the most part really boring. I don't think you would get a class that feels good if you just translated them as maneuvers.

D&D Fan:

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What about a subclass/class/whatever that can summon hordes of minions?

The animist when finished will have some minionmancy elements.

I don't know if you saw, but your futuristic warrior idea got taken up into a possible "mecha" warblade variant. Do you have any ideas for futuristic weapons they might use?

Good to see this thread more active again. There's still a lot of stuff that is only half-finished, but the groundwork is all in place and the end isn't far. So if you're working on something, keep chugging. I'll be posting a couple of things over the next few days.

(Though don't worry, I won't be posting a thread for every single PRC -- the theurge PRCs are just more complex and shouldn't suck.)

[D&D_Fan]

Weapons of the future:
Most of these need power. I would recommend a fusion battery.
These are made to be realistic. Also, high is between 3d10 and 20d20. Don't skimp on damage.

Plasma
Will do fire damage. followed by high necrotic, as you nearly explode from being evaporated.

Laser
High radiant damage. about 1 mile of range. Same effect as plasma.
Laser IRL

Railgun
Multiply all projectile damage of the gun by 10 or 20, and it should be fine.
Railgun IRL

Nuclear
These weapons do vicious mix of Melee, Acid, Fire, Radiant, Necrotic, Poison, and Thunder, but for simplicity radiant/necrotic represents radiation really well. Gives an awful poison effect. They would be guns like the Fatman from fallout

Antimatter
Turns targets into pure energy on impact. I suggest high chance of instakill (save 30 or so) otherwise you take around 20x(10d10) necrotic damage or something. Also, probably not availible for purchase.
Antimatter explained

Sonic
Deafen, High thunder.

Bioweapon
High poison, gives a disease. Hard save. Can spread.

[Morphic tide]

Okay, can somebody point D&D_Fan at a 3.5 primer? Because he keeps talking 5e. Radiant and Necrotic don't exist in 3.5, the nearest is Positive and Negative Energy, which have automatic Heal/Harm rules as described by the Cure line's ability to damage Undead.

[Elves]

Radiant energy was a good addition in later editions though. "Searing holy energy" is a staple fantasy trope and it's a shame to only have fire or half-fire-half-divine damage to represent that.

While you're here, Morphic, redid clockwork crusader per your suggest so that's there's no longer any explicit mechanical element. Like crusader, still feels like it lacks a capstone.

[D&D_Fan]

For my use of radiant and necrotic. Whoops sorry, wrong edition, here's a fix. I am not super expiriendced with 3.5e.
Here is a fix. Everything else should be good.

New damage: Rad, and Anti They are special, but can just be Untyped if you need it. I reference some obscure types in this list, but they are all 3.5e damage.

Plasma
Decent Fire damage followed by Scalding and Desiccation damage.

Laser
Same as plasma, but is Heat or Rad instead of Fire.

Railgun
Multiplies damage.

Nuclear
Heat and Sonic damage. Followed by Rad damage, and poisoning.

Antimatter
Kills almost instantly, but will deal 10x10d10 damage of Anti damage which might as well be Untyped.

[D&D_Fan]

Scalding, Desiccation, and Untyped are all real damage as well.
I made none of it up.
Also, you can find alternatives if you think Rad damage, and Anti damage aren't good for D&D.

Hope this helps!

Edit: I forgot the death flavor.
Plasma: Charred to a crisp, or better yet a skeleton, and partially exploded.
Laser: Reduced to ash, and exploded.
Rail: Ripped and torn apart, and partially reduced to a fine red mist.
Nuclear: Reduced to ash.
Antimatter: Nothing left.

[Elves]

Very high damage figures don't work for table balance, but these kinds of weapons can be incorporated as ranged attack options for the mech. Antimatter probably SOD.

Edit: that said, high base damage figures could substitute for no stat/enhancement/PA/etc bonuses.

[D&D_Fan]

I think Desiccation and Scalding work really well for these attacks. Also, there is a difference between Heat and Fire.
I'm guessing that Rad and Anti are probably not too problematic, but if the DM doesn't feel like it, Untyped damage works.

I think high base damage instead of good stat increases makes sense thematically.
The Mech does most of the heavy lifting, and combat, but the Pilot would maybe only get one increase for a few skills midway through.

Also, the Mech is more like power armor from Fallout, or an early Iron Man suit, right? Not a giant Gundam robot.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

The 3e DMG already has rules for laser and antimatter weapons, actually, under Futuristic Weapons on page 164. Laser pistols deal 2d10 and have a 50-shot energy cell, laser rifles deal 3d10 and have a 50-shot energy cell, and antimatter rifles deal 6d10 and have a 2-shot energy cell.

All the stuff about 10x10d10 damage or special damage types is really unnecessary. Keep in mind that the benchmark for "utterly obliterated" tops out at 40d6 (disintegrate with CL 20) so (A) anything more than that is ridiculous overkill and (B) if you want something to be save-or-die just make it save-or-die, don't make people roll a bunch of dice to get the same effect. And even then, a handful of d10s is more than enough because your average "realistic human" tops out at 5th level so if average damage will kill one of those you're fine; "20th-level fighters can tank an antimatter shot to the chest with a smile" is just another perk of being high level like "20th-level fighters can fall from orbit and walk it off."

And damage types only matter if you're going to make other things that interact with it. Any new damage type you come up with for a single weapon or a handful of weapons is identical to untyped damage for all practical purposes unless you write up e.g. things granting radiation damage resistance.

Radiant energy was a good addition in later editions though. "Searing holy energy" is a staple fantasy trope and it's a shame to only have fire or half-fire-half-divine damage to represent that.

Using plain ol' divine damage for that would have been fine, I think, because divine damage was otherwise no different than untyped damage. Why the devs didn't give alignment-based effects divine damage and incorporate it into things like "undead have vulnerability to Good-aligned divine damage" I have no idea.

[D&D_Fan]

I just came up with Rad since I needed light damage, but not good aligned. Rad can also just be replaced with Heat, or Poison. Radiation, and Holy just don't match up. That is why I made it. A light based damage that isn't good. It isn't bad. It is just light, heat and energy in the form of radiation. Also, as far as compatibility, add a Hazmat, make other subclasses able to use it. Done. It can be repurposed easily.

Anti is just basically Untyped damage. I could have put City damage, and It would have worked fine. It is just named because I decided to do so. It is basically negative energy, but without being alignment charged. That's it. The compatibility for Anti is less so than Rad. Maybe evil artifacts can create it, or reality warping subclasses could generate it just like anything else. If you can choose the damage type for an attack, it and Rad are just tacked on.

All the other damage is already in the game, so there should be no problem with that. Scalding is an environmental damage. Same with Heat (although Heat is nonlethal) Desiccation is from the spell of the same name. It is being forcible dehydrated to the point of damage.

[D&D_Fan]

I finished some weapons!

Plasma Weapons
Plasma weapons change the damage type of the weapon to Fire damage. It additionally deals 1d6 Scalding damage, and 1d6 Desiccation damage on a successful hit. Melee plasma weapons shed light in a 10 foot radius when activated.
A plasma weapon must be a sword, or firearm.

Laser Weapons
Laser weapons change the damage type of the weapon to Heat damage. It additionally deals 1d6 Scalding damage, and 1d6 Desiccation damage on a successful hit. Ranged laser weapons gain the Distance property, and Melee laser weapons gain the Defending property, as well as shedding light in a 20 foot radius when activated. Armor and shield bonuses to AC (including any enhancement bonuses to that armor) do not count against it because the weapon passes through armor. (Dexterity, deflection, dodge, natural armor, and other such bonuses still apply.)
A laser weapon must be a sword, or firearm.

Thoughts?

[Elves]

It's okay. The specifics don't matter at this point. The idea of the mech-warblade having a means of making ranged attacks in the form of scifi weapons such as lasers (including possibly an antimatter SOD) is the point. Specifics are a bridge we will get to.

If you want to make a whole suite of futuristic weapons for use by all characters, I'd encourage making a separate thread for that. Parts may make it into AOW, but for this project we're talking about just a single class variant.

[D&D_Fan]

Ok. Do you like the laser and plasma weapons though?
I will focus more on abilities for the one class, but the two weapons could be used by any player, not just the warmechablade subclass.

[Elves]

In the absence of radiant damage (btw, if you run with radiant damage, it should also cover radiation -- no need for a separate energy type) I would make plasma/laser do searing fire damage, like Searing Spell, and drop the other energy types.

If you want to imagine things for AOW, making up the name and story for a legacy weapon would be a good place to start -- you can see the ones we still need on the first page.