Was under the weather today. I'll get an update out tomorrow hopefully. Sorry!

Oh, I know THAT feeling...

John's most been going for constant boosts hasn't he? But since we've only been having one or two real fights a day Khorolf's limited-use short-term boosts are really shining.

There's no reason not to mix them though; I've got to start on the constant stuff, there's no reason why John can't take some of the quick boosts.

My biggest problem right now is that I built him without realizing he could not mix-and-match techniques from his multiple disciplines. Now I'm trying to figure out which bonuses are constant and which ones are conditional. I may have to rely on gadgets more for Constant bonuses, if I can figure out the mechanics for that.

Would you like some tweaks? I did some for Khorolf.

Things like... Advanced Improved Augmented Bonus (Add Str Mod to Con Mod for HP Purposes), Specialized and Corrupted for Reduced Cost / only adds to the first six hit dice (6 CP). If your Str Bonus is +6 and you've got 5 HD, that's +30 HP - and would let you have the same HP while saving 30 CP on hit dice.

That's enough to buy a fair package of tricks - say seven Tome Of Battle style Martial Maneuvers (2L1, 2L2, 1L3, 1L4, 1L5), or a bunch of Witchcraft based boosts, or some extra actions, or quite a lot of other things.

That is a good one! Go berserk, Strength goes through the roof - and get a huge pile of temporary hit points.

Don’t corrupt John! He’s such a good boy.

Mystic Bartender! Corruption/Booze is my thing!

In reply to Gerad Waelhlem (msg # 922):

I'm wondering if it's possible to recreate Tome of Battle maneuvers in this system, but the downside is that unlike 3.5, I wouldn't be able to use Diamond Mind boosts for Defense-as-immediate actions, Tiger Claw or Stone Dragon for Offense, or Iron Heart for defenses in the same round. Unless I first recreate the Feat Adaptive Style, allowing me to switch styles mid-round?

"Adaptive Style" isn't needed. Since there's no fixed set of effects and schools, there's no need to swap between them. There are several ways to build things though. Any particular maneuvers that you'd like? I can see what can be done.

Well, first up... how about some Stances?

To copy from the blog...



So how about these?

• Heaven Thunder Hammer: Presence / Causes any target you hit in melee to be hit with Shocking Grasp cast at your level (2 CP).
• Blood Thirst Blight: Presence, Specialized and Corrupted for Increased Effect (Criticals Only, Once Per Round Only, L3 effect). Any creature you score a critical hit on is also affected by Vampiric Touch, cast at your level (2 CP).
• Whirling Hammer Bulwark: Presence (Master's Parry), All allies within 10' (including yourself) take fifteen fewer points of damage from any one attack per round (2 CP).
• Wrath Of The Thunder God: Presence (Doom). All enemies within 10' must save or be afflicted by Doom once per round.

That would be 8 CP, and you could change out what you were using as a free action each round. If you buy another set (they don't all have to be based on presence or anything, but that was a quick example), you could run two stances at the same time. For 24 CP - four feats worth - you could run three at the same time. Just using Shocking Grasp variants... +5d6 each Fire, Cold, and Lightning damage at higher levels with each blow?

It was suggested using Mystic Artist on your armor; that could be set up to provide a particular set of bonuses just for you each day fairly cheaply.

For Maneuvers... There are lots of ways to do those too - but I can't tell what will work with what you want without more details. Any particular maneuvers you had in mind?

Some of my favorites are low level maneuvers. The Diamond Mind defenses that allow a Concentration skill roll to substitute for a Will save or a Reflex save. In this case it might be a skill roll in the Discipline skill that is used. I love Iron Heart surge that allows you to cleanse yourself of negative effects like fatigue, exhaustion, blindness, or a host of other secondary effects. Another is the maneuver that allows you to substitute your attack roll for your AC, including your Touch AC. This has the effect of using your weapon to deflect Rays and other targeted spells.

Stances? Maybe the Hunter Sense that grants you the Scent ability, or White Raven tactics that add to an entire group's Charge bonuses?

The distinction is mostly that Stances grant ongoing abilities - like the four I made for examples - while maneuvers tend to be quasi-magical effects.

There are several ways to do the will save bit of course. Although it might be cheaper to just get some automatic successes. For the others, are these the ones you were thinking of?

LEADING THE CHARGE
White Raven (Stance)
Level: Crusader 1, warblade 1
Initiation Action: 1 swift action
Range: 60 ft.
Area: 60-ft.-radius emanation centered on you
Duration: Stance
You fire the confidence and martial spirit of your allies, giving them the energy and bravery needed to make a devastating charge against your enemies. The White Raven discipline teaches that tactics, leadership, and planning can overcome an opponent’s superior individual abilities. This stance embodies that teaching, allowing you to spur your allies on to greater feats of martial skill.
While you are in this stance, all allies who hear you and make a charge attack in the area gain a bonus on damage rolls equal to your initiator level.

And this one?

HUNTER’S SENSE
Tiger Claw (Stance)
Level: Swordsage 1, warblade 1
Prerequisite: One Tiger Claw maneuver
Initiation Action: 1 swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance
You sniff at the air like a hunting animal. After you focus your mind, an array of scents that normally eludes your awareness become clear to you. Your mastery of the Tiger Claw discipline allows you to become attuned to the feral side of your personality. On a fundamental level, you begin to think more like a wild beast and less like a civilized creature. Your enemies are prey to be hunted down and slain. Your allies are packmates. This shift in view spreads to your physical senses.
As long as you are in this stance, you gain the scent special ability (MM 314).


Now Iron Heart Surge is tricky, mostly due to being poorly written. After all "When you use this maneuver, select one spell, effect, or other condition currently affecting you and with a duration of 1 or more rounds. That effect ends immediately."

So I pick "Gravity". It is, after all, an Effect (it can't be a planar trait in any setting with planets and such, since that means that it has different effects in different locations in the plane), it is generally affecting me, and it has a duration longer than a round. And the universe pretty much ends.

Automatically trumping epic spells, and dinosaur-killer meteors, and such is a bit much for a third level discipline.

On the other hand, it won't work if you are tied up or paralyzed or some such (you have to be able to move to use maneuvers) and you have to be able to voluntarily take a standard action (so it's no use if something like a Charm spell is restricting that).

So it can completely block a super epic "destroy the universe" spell, but can't help you get up from where some kids were burying you in the sand while you slept at the beach.

There's an unofficial errata version (little actual errata was ever published for the Tome Of Battle), but it still really doesn't resolve most of the problems.

So... for that one, I'd need some more input on how you think it should work and what the limits would be. Or possibly just go with Reality Editing and leave all details up to the game master.

Yep, those are the ones I thought of.

Gravity, well, you could end that effect on yourself, but then you'd be adrift. And since the planet is rotating, spinning on an axis, and hurtling through space in a spiral pattern, chances are you'll start to drift away.

But yeah, seems a bit overpowered there. You'd think they would limit that to negative 'effects' or 'conditions' limited to this list... Otherwise, end a Geas, remove a wish imposed effect, oh oh, isn't DEATH or DEAD an effect? Take that Grim Reaper! I defeat old age! Oh, old age penalties, booyah!

Hmm, that is epic. Definitely a top contender for the worst phrased ability/power.

Oh, as written, it does indeed fully negate area of effect stuff. DC 1200 epic spell of twisting the entire setting into a nightmare maze of doom and corruption cast by a level 100 dark god? Not today! There is a fifth level Tome of Battle character around!

Most often used to destroy antimagic fields. It does require you to be able to take a standard action, but yeah - horribly phrased. And published near the end of the 3.5 cycle, so there will never be an official fix.

I think I can design a Reasonable version of Iron Heart Surge with a limited list of Conditions it can negate. Imposed negative conditions like Blindness or poison, yeah. Natural conditions like Gravity or Death, NO.

How about...

"Immediately ends any of the following conditions: blinded, confused, dazed, dazzled, deafened, diseased, exhausted, fatigued, frightened, nauseated, panicked, paralyzed, shaken, sickened, and stunned. Negates sleep effects and the effect of the feeblemind spell, and ends any additional effects from poison, as per neutralize poison. It also cures 1d8 points of damage + 1 point per user level (maximum +20)."

That one would be quick and easy.

I've been a bit busy, so it may take a couple of days to put something together. Since it will be a bit anyway, are there any other specific maneuvers that you would like versions of?

First up, some Stances. This set has a total set of 16 CP and you can pick two to be using each round. These are all presence-based, simply because that allows for some pretty good stances.

• Heaven Thunder Hammer: Presence (Shocking Grasp) Specialized for Increased Effect / only affects one target at a time that the user has just struck with a hammer in melee combat for +(Level, 5 Maximum)d6 of electrical damage, but can augment up to four individually-directed attacks per round. This damage is doubled in the case of a critical hit (2 CP).
• Blood Thirst Blight: Presence, Specialized and Corrupted for Increased Effect (Criticals Only, Once Per Round Only, L3 effect, Vampiric Touch). Any creature you score a critical hit on is also affected by Vampiric Touch, cast at your level (2 CP), renewing your hit points.
• Touch Of The Thunder Beasts: Presence, Specialized for Increased Effect (Two L1 Effects that apply only to the user: Embrace the Wild (Provides Low-Light Vision, 30' Blindsense, and Scent) and Lightfoot (Your movement does not provoke Attacks of Opprotunity) (2 CP).
• Spawn Of Lightning: Presence, Specialized for Increased Effect (Two L1 Effects: Summon Nature's Ally 1 (Limited to a chosen type of Elemental [in this case Lightning] to get a Small Elemental, only provides one such ally per five levels or part thereof of the user and only one will appear per every other round, either at the start or to replace "slain" elementals, and Resist Energy (lightning only, user only).
• Inspiring Presence Of The Thunder Gods: (Improvisation) The user, and all allies within 10', gain (2 x User Level) Luck Points each round, and may spend up to half of them to improve any given attack roll, skill check, or ability check. This does not count as an action.
• Wrath Of The Storm: Presence / All enemies within 10' must make DC (11 + Cha Mod) Will saves each round or be flat-footed, although this is a mind-affecting compulsion (2 CP).
• Lightning Stride (Presence, Specialized for Increased Effect / Two L1 effects that apply to the user only. Lion's Charge (May make a full attack at the end of a charge) plus Surefooted Stride (can move through difficult terrain at full speed, can run, charge, and tumble through such terrain as though it were clear terrain, and gain a +2 competence bonus on Climb checks) (2 CP).
• Clouds Above The Earth: Presence / Two L1 effects that apply to the user only. Floating Disk (the user may run a few feet above the ground - or above water - and Resurgence (the user gets a second chance on a saving throw once per round) (2 CP).

Presence-based means what? Presence is a Hero Games stat, but not D&D

Built using the "Presence" ability on page 39 of Eclipse. At it's base it says that your presence produces some effect equivalent to a first level spell on either enemies or allies within a ten foot radius. That offers a lot of flexibility. Not only are there an enormous number of useful first level effects, but you can Specialize and Corrupt it in a wide variety of ways to get more or stronger effects.

It was a quick and easy way to make some Stances, and the point cost of the overall ability is reduced since you can only use one-quarter of the points you've got in stances at any one time. If something looks really good to have on all the time... Triple the cost, and now it's on all the time (and you can buy more stances to replace it if you wish).

There are advanced things you can do with Presence of course, but for this the base level works just fine.

Presuming that the stances work for John, it looks like "Iron Heart Surge" will work best if broken up a bit - one maneuver for removing conditions and one for dispelling magical effects. Both are likely to be about 4 CP.

So: the first part would basically self-activate when needed, removing any one of attribute damaged (1d3 points), blinded, confused, damaged (1d8+5 HP), dazed, dazzled, deafened, diseased, exhausted, fatigued, feebleminded, frightened, nauseated, (one) negative level, panicked, paralyzed, poisoned, shaken, sickened, sleeping, slowed, or stunned.

The second part would basically be a touch-based Greater Dispel Magic effect - thus removing the problem of nonsensical effects.

For another maneuver or two...

Flash Step: Reflex Training, Specialized and Corrupted for Reduced Cost / 3/day the user may move just enough to catch or partially dodge an incoming attack, turning the damage it would normally inflict into a debilitating (equivalent to a Bestow Curse effect) injury" (2 CP).

Dolorous Stroke: Trick, 3/Fight add Bestow Curse or Blindness / Deafness on the creature struck if it fails to save (Will DC 10 + Level/2 + Str Mod). These heal in 1d10 days or can be removed immediately by Healing effects of level three or more or in 1d4+1 rounds by a Heal check against the original save DC (6 CP).

Most of this sort of thing is limited use rather than a recharge function because recharge functions generally call for weaker abilities - and it does little good, since parties tend to stop as soon as the people with limited-use abilities start to run out.

Not sure what the point is to alter damage into a curse, rather than just avoid it.

Presence is a 6 CP ability/Feat, or is it an inherent capability?


It occurs to me that the way to combine aspects of the Martial arts the way I have been doing would be to buy those maneuvers straight up and eliminate the things I don't use. But that seems.... For all the points I have poured into Martial Arts, they seem way less flexible or powerful than what Khorolf or Gerald are pulling off.

Well, the main point is that - rather than being converted to a pile of ash, or disintegrated, or taking a couple of hundred points of damage and becoming a smear on the ground, you are still alive and only in need of some decent medical treatment rather than True Resurrection.

The reason for making it a curse-equivalent effect instead of just evading it is to make it cheaper to buy, to give the GM some quick guidelines, to encourage the GM to let you buy it in the first place, and to make it more interesting to play with.

After all, which is more interesting? Barely evading the full impact of the massive strike and continuing the battle with (say) a -6 penalty to your dexterity due to cracked ribs and some dramatic declaration about how they will have to do better than that, or an exchange of "I launch a massive attack" "They evade that and launch their own massive attack" "I evade that and launch another massive attack!" until the secondary combatants manage to stack up enough minor stuff that isn't worth wasting evasions on to deal with the enemy while you accomplish nothing much?

It also means that characters can be defeated, or have to fall back, without necessarily being killed. This is a good thing for character survival.

Presence is a 6 CP ability.

Now, I helped set up Khorolf: he's using the Dolorous Stroke effect and martial maneuvers based on Mana/Reality Editing. That's potent - but he's only got a little bit of Mana to use to make them work, which is why he will run out of steam pretty fast. I think that he used up half his allowance of martial maneuvers with that first attack.

Gerad, of course, is a classical support mage type; his best shots were basically "wrap them in chains" (a slight improvement on Hold Person) and setting up to do 3d6 to a crowd if they got too close.

Finally home after a 6_day stint in the hospital. Maybe I can finally take a good look at my character and see what needs reworking.