The Sublime Wanderer, a Tome of Battle NPC class

[Hazzardevil]

Sublime Wanderer

“Bubs! Bubs! I've used this Sublime way thing so you shank the wizard again! Do it!.”

—Bob the commoner using White Raven Tactics to help his ally kill the wizard.

Most commoners during life will have as much idea about the Art of War as an Earwig. The Sublime Wanderer has experienced the Sublime Way and rather than walk the path, they wander across it, not learning as much as a Swordsage or Warblade, but enough to gain that edge over the nasty neighboring Drow commoner or the goblin tribe.

Design Notes

Spoiler

Show

This isn't a prestige class for some Fighter to enter at 1st level This is what a commoner does when they decide they need nice things to fight the evil wizard.

Becoming a Sublime Wanderer
A Sublime Wanderer almost always enters as a commoner, because
Warriors would usually benefit more from kensai or knight protector and Experts would enjoy the utility of Exemplers.

Entry Requirements
Skills: 2 ranks in Martial Lore
BAB: +1
Special: A potential Sublime Wanderer must have an Initiator level of 1/2 his character level.


Sublime Wanderer
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Maneuvers Known|Maneuvers Readied|Stances Known|Special
1|+0|+2|+0|+0|2|1|1|Martial Study
2|+1|+3|+0|+0|1|2|0|Quick Recovery
3|+2|+3|+1|+1|2|3|1|Martial Study
4|+3|+4|+1|+1|1|4|0|Martial Stance
5|+3|+4|+1|+1|5|5|1|Sublime Wandering[/table]



Class Skills: Climb, Concentration, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local), Martial Lore,
Skill Points per Level: 4 + Int modifier


Class Features

Maneuvers: At the levels shown above, you learn maneuvers from your two chosen disciplines. You must still meet the maneuver’s prerequisite to learn it, and you add your full Sublime Wanderer levels to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest level of maneuvers known.
Maneuvers that are not readied may be used 1/encounter, at first level in this class, all maneuvers may only be used 1/encounter.

Stances Known: At each level noted on the table, you learn an additional stance from one of your favored disciplines. You must still meet the stance’s prerequisite to learn it.

Martial Study: As the Feat, you must choose a maneuver that is not from a discipline available to you.

Quick Recovery: (Ex) A Sublime Wanderer of second level can recover his maneuvers readied.
He may recover them as follows:
As a swift action he may recover one maneuver.
As a move action he may recover 2 maneuvers.
As a standard action he may recover 3 maneuvers.
As a Full-round action he may recover 6 maneuvers.

Martial Stance: As the feat, must have a requirement that was fulfilled by the martial study feats at levels1 and 3.

Sublime Wandering: (Ex) At 5th level a sublime wanderer may now treat levels that do not have full initiator level as 3/4 initiator level. You also learn an additional maneuver every 3 levels from now on and a stance very 4 levels.

Playing a Sublime Wanderer
To you, your maneuvers aren't part of you or something special, they are just a few good moves to use in a fight..

As a group, Sublime wanderers have no formal organizations; indeed, the closest they might have is group of them who drink in the local tavern regularly.

Combat
During combat you will mostly .

Masters of One in the World
“Now Bob is a good mate and everything, but for some reason he says I can't learn his blade-fu as me and the other mates call it. it is pretty damn impressive though.”

—Bubs the commoner

Sublime Wanderers are the dabblers and talented, but unskilled martial artists of the Sublime way. But what they lack in skill, they make up for in talent.

NPC Reactions
Most people cannot tell the difference between Sublime Wanderers and any other adept of the Sublime Way, but some martial adepts consider them simply dabblers who can't learn as many maneuvers as other adepts.

Sublime Wanderer
Characters with ranks in Martial Lore can attempt to learn more about Sublime wanderer.
DC 10: Each sublime wanderers disciplines are different for each one.Though most martial adepts learned maneuvers at the start of their adventuring career, Sublime Wanderers learnt it later on.
DC 15: Though most martial adepts learned maneuvers at the start of their adventuring career, Sublime Wanderers learnt it later on.
DC 20: The maneuvers of a Sublime Wanderer are less powerful and effective than the same maneuvers used by any other martial adepts, but the element of surprise often makes up for it.
DC 30: Information about a Sublime Wanderer in your campaign.

[wayfare]

Sublime Wanderer

“Bubs! Bubs! I've used this Sublime way thing so you shank the wizard again! Do it!.”

—Bob the commoner using White Raven Tactics to help his ally kill the wizard.

Most commoners during life will have as much idea about the Art of War as an Earwig. The Sublime Wanderer has experienced the Sublime Way and rather than walk the path, they wander across it, not learning as much as a Swordsage or Warblade, but enough to gain that edge over the nasty neighboring Drow commoner or the goblin tribe.

Design Notes

Spoiler

Show

This isn't a prestige class for some Fighter to enter at 1st level This is what a commoner does when they decide they need nice things to fight the evil wizard.

Becoming a Sublime Wanderer
A Sublime Wanderer almost always enters as a commoner, because

When becoming a Sublime Wanderer, you must choose a favored discipline. This choice determines which skill and feats are involved in the prerequisites for the class, as well as some of your class abilities. A Sublime Wanderer is thereafter known as a Master of his favored discipline, not a Sublime Wanderer; for example, a Sublime Wanderer specializing in White Raven as his favored discipline would simply be known as a Master of White Raven.

Entry Requirements
Skills: 2 ranks in Martial Lore
BAB: +1
Special: A potential Sublime Wanderer must have an Initiator level of 1/2 his character level.


Sublime Wanderer
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Maneuvers Known|Maneuvers Readied|Stances Known|Special
1|+0|+2|+0|+0|1|0|1|
2|+1|+3|+0|+0|0|1|1|
3|+2|+3|+1|+1|1|0|1|
4|+3|+4|+1|+1|0|1|0|
5|+3|+4|+1|+1|1|0|1|[/table]



Class Skills: Climb, Concentration, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local), Martial Lore,
Skill Points per Level: 4 + Int modifier


Class Features

Maneuvers: At levels 1, 3 and 5, you learn a maneuver from your chosen disciplines. You must still meet the maneuver’s prerequisite to learn it, and you add your full Sublime Wanderer levels to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest level of maneuvers known.

Stances Known: At each level besides 4, you learn an additional stance from your favored discipline. You must still meet the stance’s prerequisite to learn it.


Playing a Sublime Wanderer
To you, your maneuvers aren't part of you or something special, they are just a few good moves to use in a fight..

As a group, Sublime wanderers have no formal organizations; indeed, the closest they might have is group of them who drink in the local tavern regularly.

Combat
During combat you will mostly .

Masters of One in the World
“Now Bob is a good mate and everything, but for some reason he says I can't learn his blade-fu as me and the other mates call it. it is pretty damn impressive though.”

—Bubs the commoner

Sublime Wanderers are the dabblers and talented, but unskilled martial artists of the Sublime way. But what they lack in skill, they make up for in talent.

NPC Reactions
Most people cannot tell the difference between Sublime Wanderers and any other adept of the Sublime Way, but some martial adepts consider them simply dabblers who can't learn as many maneuvers as other adepts.

Sublime Wanderer
Characters with ranks in Martial Lore can attempt to learn more about Sublime wanderer.
DC 10: Each sublime wanderers disciplines are different for each one.Though most martial adepts learned maneuvers at the start of their adventuring career, Sublime Wanderers learnt it later on.
DC 15: Though most martial adepts learned maneuvers at the start of their adventuring career, Sublime Wanderers learnt it later on.
DC 20: The maneuvers of a Sublime Wanderer are less powerful and effective than the same maneuvers used by any other martial adepts, but the element of surprise often makes up for it.
DC 30: Information about a Sublime Wanderer in your campaign.

Conceptually awesome. I don't know enough about ToB to comment on balance, but I love the idea.

[Hazzardevil]

Conceptually awesome. I don't know enough about ToB to comment on balance, but I love the idea.

I was considering giving it a recharge mechanic, but it's not normally done.

[Ashtagon]

Entry Requirements
Skills: 2 ranks in Martial Lore
BAB: +1
Special: A potential Sublime Wanderer must have an Initiator level of 1/2 his character level.

How does that special entry requirement line work? Without levels in an initiator class, it can't ever be fulfilled, and a character with such levels wouldn't enter this class.

[Greenish]

You get one school, but four stances? Are you supposed to enter with Commoner 14 or so?

[Edit]:

How does that special entry requirement line work? Without levels in an initiator class, it can't ever be fulfilled, and a character with such levels wouldn't enter this class.

The "special" just means you can't enter if you have levels in an initiator class.

[Hazzardevil]

You get one school, but four stances? Are you supposed to enter with Commoner 14 or so?

[Edit]: The "special" just means you can't enter if you have levels in an initiator class.

Greenish has it right.
The whole point of this is that commoners take it.
Maybe I'll allow white raven as a school that has to b e taken.

[Volthawk]

Why do you get more stances than maneuvers? All the other ToB stuff that I can think of (both official and homebrew) have less stances that maneuvers.

[Ashtagon]

You get one school, but four stances? Are you supposed to enter with Commoner 14 or so?

[Edit]: The "special" just means you can't enter if you have levels in an initiator class.

Maybe rephrase it as follows:

Special: The character must have an initiator level of zero (0) to enter this class.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, requirements are normally understood to be "this much or higher".

[Greenish]

Maybe rephrase it as follows:

Special: The character must have an initiator level of zero (0) to enter this class.

Then you couldn't enter with a commoner, since they need two levels to have BAB 1.

…Did you forgot that non-initiating classes add 1/2 IL per level?

[Darthteej]

I can totally imagine how a conversation between one of these guys and a "real" initiator would go.

Swordsage: Greetings, fellow traveler, I cannot help but notice your use of Desert Wind techniques when we were warding off those goblins.

Bob: Oh yeah, I can do that.

Swordsage: I know practicers of our art do not usually divulge such things, but I am curious as to who you studied under. I did not know there were Masters of the Way in this region.

Bob:What? Studied? I just sort of...found it.

Swordsage: Found it?

Bob: Yep.

Swordsage: The Way takes years of study to attain even my moderate level of mastery. Where did you "find" it?

Bob: I guess I read a book...

[The Dark Fiddler]

They get a maneuver known at level one... but can't ready it until level two?

[Hazzardevil]

They get a maneuver known at level one... but can't ready it until level two?

Hmm, Well. By RAW a non martial adept that knows maneuvers would just use them 1/encounter, so Presuming I add a recovery mechanic then at 2nd level than at 1st level his maneuvers known would just be used 1/encounter, and then he could recover them.

[Ashtagon]

Then you couldn't enter with a commoner, since they need two levels to have BAB 1.

…Did you forgot that non-initiating classes add 1/2 IL per level?

Special: The character's initiator level must be no greater than half his character level.

Better?

[The Dark Fiddler]

Hmm, Well. By RAW a non martial adept that knows maneuvers would just use them 1/encounter, so Presuming I add a recovery mechanic then at 2nd level than at 1st level his maneuvers known would just be used 1/encounter, and then he could recover them.

I see you've edited the progression of maneuvers readied, but now it makes even less sense.

I mean, you end up with 12 maneuvers readied, but only 11 maneuvers known.

[drakir_nosslin]

Special: The character's initiator level must be no greater than half his character level.

Better?

Not really. You're only saying the same thing again. IL is either half character level, or higher if you've taken one or more levels in a sublime class. The original wording works fine..

[Talya]

A commoner 2 has an initiator level of 1 already, so I don't see the issue.

I don't understand the chart whatsoever, though. The maneuvers known and readied seem all over the place.

[Hiro Protagonest]

When becoming a Sublime Wanderer, you must choose a favored discipline. This choice determines which skill and feats are involved in the prerequisites for the class, as well as some of your class abilities. A Sublime Wanderer is thereafter known as a Master of his favored discipline, not a Sublime Wanderer; for example, a Sublime Wanderer specializing in White Raven as his favored discipline would simply be known as a Master of White Raven.
[...]
Maneuvers: At the levels shown above, you learn maneuvers from your two chosen disciplines. You must still meet the maneuver’s prerequisite to learn it, and you add your full Sublime Wanderer levels to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest level of maneuvers known.

Stances Known: At each level besides 4, you learn an additional stance from one of your favored disciplines. You must still meet the stance’s prerequisite to learn it.

So do you choose one discipline or two?

[Welknair]

What's this? Someone else making NPC PrCs? I'll need to read this through in greater detail when I get time.

[Hazzardevil]

So do you choose one discipline or two?

It`s supposed to be tw and I must have missed points where I said one.

What's this? Someone else making NPC PrCs? I'll need to read this through in greater detail when I get time.

You can`t have the monopoly on two sections of hombrew, I`m planning onmaking a set that allow commoners to access some different magic systems without burning feats or being half adozen levels behind soneone else.

[Welknair]

You can`t have the monopoly on two sections of hombrew, I`m planning onmaking a set that allow commoners to access some different magic systems without burning feats or being half adozen levels behind soneone else.

But I liked my monopoly!

[Hazzardevil]

But I liked my monopoly!

Well that's tough!

[The Dark Fiddler]

Okay, you fixed it so the class doesn't have more maneuvers readied than known, but the totals at the individual levels still don't line up perfectly...

{table=head]Level|Known|Readied
1|2|1
2|3|4
3|5|5
4|6|8
5|11|11[/table]

Not to mention the fact that it's a bit odd that they end up with all of their maneuvers readied... I'm pretty sure all the others end up having to choose between their maneuvers rather than having them all.

[wiimanclassic]

So how long till you could make a village of nothing but NPC classes that can fight off a group of PCs? Between you and other guy whos name escapes me I meen.

[Hazzardevil]

I'd say wait until I create prestige classes for wannabe binders and shadowcasters, then they probably could.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Becoming a Sublime Wanderer
A Sublime Wanderer almost always enters as a commoner, because
Warriors would usually benefit more from kensai or knight protector and Experts would enjoy the utility of Exemplers.

If I were a warrior, I would rather enter this at level 2 and choose Iron Heart/Tiger Claw/White Raven/Diamond Mind. Plus concentration is a class skill, so if I were aiming for kensai, it's better to dip a couple levels and lose a point of BAB.

[Hazzardevil]

If I were a warrior, I would rather enter this at level 2 and choose Iron Heart/Tiger Claw/White Raven/Diamond Mind. Plus concentration is a class skill, so if I were aiming for kensai, it's better to dip a couple levels and lose a point of BAB.

I'll rewrite that.

[Dumbledore lives]

I'm curious as to why an NPC class should get so many maneuvers known and readied. I mean even a swordsage, assuming you entered at the Commoner 2 route, will have one more maneuver known, but 5 less readied. I'd say give it maybe I readied maneuver per level if you want to be on the high end of things, and a couple less maneuvers known, maybe 6-8.

Also you may want to fix the chart, the text says you get one stance every level but fourth, which is again alot, but the chart says you miss out on 2nd and 4th.