Min/Max Boards

I recently took the time to review and reevaluate the initial set of rush maneuvers posted for the original nine disciplines. Some still hold but, but there are plenty that I'm not as fond of any more. Several of them feel like they should be boosts instead of rushes. Some are fine in principle but need a balance adjustment, particularly where avoiding AoOs is concerned (I think I undervalued it somewhat in the original writeups, and it's almost certainly too prevalent in general). However, my issue with some of them is a dislike of the core design, whether in the effect used or how so many rushes are just more powerful versions of lower-level ones.

Notes and analyses:

New ideas to replace or augment some of the rushes to be removed:

Tentative new rush writeups

Tentative strike/boost rewrites of original rushes

Tactician base class

Martial adept with a bit of Marshal in it.

Initial notes. Many ideas have since been changed, including such basics as how the core mechanic, plans, even works.

Disciplines: Setting Sun, Diamond Mind, White Raven, Revealing Light, ...
Recovery: Full-round action to abandon any of your implemented plans and recover all maneuvers not in any of your plans that are still implemented.
Auras: Project tactical auras, which are like major auras that also link in with plans. No minor auras, since you have stances as a martial adept. Aura bonus progression is slow, like the paladin, since you've got full martial adept goodness.



Maneuvers: You begin your career with knowledge of six martial maneuvers. The disciplines available to you are ..., and ....

Once you know a maneuver, you must ready it before you can use it (see Maneuvers Readied, below). A maneuver usable by a tactician is considered an extraordinary ability unless otherwise noted in its description. Your maneuvers are not affected by spell resistance, and you do not provoke attacks of opportunity when you initiate one.

You learn additional maneuvers at higher levels, as shown on the table above. You must meet a maneuver's prerequisite to learn it. See Table 3-1: Highest-Level Maneuvers Known (TOB 39), to determine the highest-level maneuvers you can learn.

Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even-numbered tactician level after that (6th, 8th, 10th, and so on), you can choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one you already know. In effect, you lose the old maneuver in exchange for the new one. You can choose a new maneuver of any level you like, as long as you observe your restriction on the highest-level maneuvers you know; you need not replace the old maneuver with a maneuver of the same level. For example, upon reaching 10th level, you could trade in a single 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd- or 4th-level maneuver for a maneuver of 5th level or lower, as long as you meet the prerequisite of the new maneuver. You can swap only a single maneuver at any given level.

Maneuvers Readied: You can ready all six of the maneuvers you know at 1st level, and as you advance in level and learn more maneuvers, you are able to ready more, but you must choose which maneuvers to ready. You ready your maneuvers by practicing for 5 minutes, going through the motions of the maneuvers over and over in order. The maneuvers you choose remain readied until you decide to exercise again and change them. You need not sleep or rest for any long period of time to ready your maneuvers; any time you spend 5 minutes in practice, you can change your readied maneuvers.

You begin an encounter with all your readied maneuvers unexpended, regardless of how many times you might have already used them since you chose them. When you initiate a maneuver, you expend it for the current encounter, so each of your readied maneuvers can be used once per encounter (until you recover them, as described below).

Tacticians are unique among martial adepts, relying on prepared plans to inform their next actions what maneuvers are best to be used in any given situation. When you ready your tactician maneuvers, you must assign them to plans. Each readied maneuver must be assigned to a single plan. Those plans remain fixed until you once again ready your maneuvers. You can prepare any number of plans at once, as long as each plan has at least one maneuver assigned to it, but each plan can have a maximum of two assigned maneuvers assigned.

Maneuvers assigned to unimplemented plans are withheld and inaccessible. When you implement a plan, the maneuvers assigned to that plan are granted to you, but the maneuvers assigned to your other plans remain withheld. Thus, you can only initiate the maneuvers assigned to your current implemented plan. Once implemented, a plan remains implemented until you abandon it, you recovery all of your maneuvers, or you ready your maneuvers and prepare new plans. You can implement a plan as a free action during your turn as long as you have fewer implemented plans than your maximum (typically one).

As a tactician, you can spend a full-round action to reevaluate your tactical situation. When you do, you can abandon any of your implemented plans, rendering the maneuvers assigned to them withheld again. Then, you recover all of your maneuvers not assigned to any still-implemented plans.

When preparing plans, you can assign an additional maneuver to each of them at 7th level (bringing your total to three), and again at 18th level (bringing your total to four).

Stances Known: You begin play with knowledge of one stance from any discipline open to tacticians. At *th, *th, and *th level, you can choose additional stances. Unlike maneuvers, stances are not expended, and you do not have to ready them. All the stances you know are available to you at all times, and you can change the stance you are currently using as a swift action. A stance is an extraordinary ability unless otherwise stated in the stance description.

Unlike with maneuvers, you cannot learn a new stance at higher levels in place of one you already know.



Auras (Ex): As a tactician, your presence and leadership exerts an effect on creatures in your vicinity. You can learn to produce different effects, or auras, over the course of your career. You may project one minor aura and one major aura at a time. If you possess the ability to project auras from multiple sources, the number of auras of any given type that you can project at once does not stack.

Activating an aura is a swift action. The aura remains in effect until you use a free action to dismiss it or you activate another aura of the same kind (major or minor). You can have an aura active continually; thus, an aura can be in effect at the start of a combat encounter even before you take your first turn.

As a tactician, activating an aura is a purely mental action. Unless otherwise noted, your auras affect all creatures within 60 feet (including yourself) that you can communicate with, even if you don't share a language. A creature must have an Intelligence score to be subjected to an aura (mindless creatures cannot be directly affected by your auras). Your aura is dismissed and you cannot project an aura while you are dazed, unconscious, stunned, paralyzed, or otherwise unable to communicate.

Some auras affect your enemies instead of, or in addition to, your allies. Unless otherwise stated, the save DC of your aura is equal to 10 + 1/2 your class level + your Charisma modifier.

Except where otherwise noted, all modifiers granted by your auras are morale bonuses (or penalties) with a magnitude equal to your aura bonus (bonuses add your aura bonus, penalties subtract it). These morale bonuses and penalties still affect targets immune to mind-affecting effects that are otherwise subject to your aura.

Tactical Aura: Beginning at 3rd level, you can project a tactical aura. A tactical aura grants allies bonuses or harms enemies. The magnitude of the bonus granted by your tactical auras is initially +1, and it improves by 1 at 8th level and every 5 levels thereafter. You learn two tactical auras of your choice at 3rd level. As your tactician level increases, you gain access to new auras, as indicated on the table above.

Unlike other auras, you cannot project tactical auras freely. When you prepare a plan, you can assign up to two of your tactical auras to it, although some abilities allow you to assign more auras at a time to the same plan. Unlike maneuvers, you can assign a given tactical aura to any number of plans at once. When you activate a plan, you can begin projecting any of its tactical auras as a free action. You can only project a tactical aura while a plan it is assigned to is active. Each tactical aura can only be assigned to a single plan at a time.

In addition to its standard effect for projecting it, each tactical aura lists a tactical condition. If a tactical aura is assigned to a plan and you witness the listed condition as it occurs, you can abandon one of your current plans as an immediate action to implement the associated plan. When a tactical condition refers to "a nearby ally", it means you or an ally that would be within the are of the aura if you were projecting it. Similarly, when a tactical condition refers to "a nearby opponent", it means an opponent that would be within the are of the aura if you were projecting it.

Some tactical auras also list one or more plan requirements. A plan must meet those criteria in order to have the aura assigned to it.


Dilate Aura (Ex): Starting at 7th level, the range of your auras increases by 30 feet (to a total of 90 feet). Their range increases by 30 feet again at each of 12th and 17th level.

Side Objectives (Ex): Beginning at 12th level, you can have an additional plan implemented at once. Additionally, you gain Extra Aura (tactical aura) as a bonus feat, allowing you to project one more tactical aura at once than normal (for a total of 2 tactical auras). You must activate or dismiss your auras separately. You need not meet the prerequisites of this feat.

Backup Plan (Ex): Beginning at xth level, when you prepare your plans, you can designate one of them as a backup plan. You can assign one fewer maneuver and tactical aura than normal to this plan. You can abandon a plan to implement the backup plan as though it was assigned an aura with a tactical condition of "any time".

ToB maneuvers to buff:
- Trying to buff up the maneuvers that are generally considered the weakest of the bunch and either don't have any practical use cases or are just so weak as to be traps to use.
- Not trying to make them as powerful as the strongest maneuvers. Just trying to bring them up to a level where they feel like they should be okay to use.
- Not trying to buff up maneuvers that are great for certain builds but poor for others. We're not trying for mass appeal.
- Not trying to buff up maneuvers that are highly situational, but very good in their situation. Depending on how specific the situation is, I might try to expand the range of situations a maneuver is useful in, but I'll try not to increase its power in situations it's already good in.


Desert Wind
1
- Blistering Flourish: Initiating this maneuver also grants you concealment for 1 round as lingering sparks and embers dance around you. You can't use this concealment to hide.
- Wind Stride: Also removes the -5 penalty on Tumble checks to move at full speed.
2
- Fire Riposte: Base damage reduced to 3d6. Add +1 damage per initiator level.
- Hatchling's Flame: Add +1 damage per initiator level.
3
- Fan the Flames: Base damage reduced to 5d6. Add +1 damage per initiator level. Range increased to 60 ft.
- Holocaust Cloak: Instead deals 3 damage + 1/2 IL to attacker. Also renders you and your equipment immune to damage from being set on fire.
4
- Firesnake: Add +1 damage per initiator level.
- Searing Blade: On crit, set target on fire if they're not already, making them take an extra 1d6 fire damage immediately and again every round until they put themself out.
5
- Dragon's Flame: Add +1 damage per initiator level.
- Lingering Inferno: The lingering flames amplify damage taken from fire. The creature takes +2d6 damage from other sources of fire damage, up to a maximum of 100% of the source's original fire damage.
6
- Ring of Fire: Base damage reduced to 10d6. Add +1 damage per initiator level. Your movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity for leaving threatened spaces. If you don't close the area, project a line with a length up to your movement speed in any direction. If that would close the area, the flames still ignite, albeit with reduced intensity, dealing half damage (Reflex negates).
- Fiery Assault: Add +1/2 damage per initiator level.
7
- Inferno Blade: On crit, set target on fire if they're not already, making them take an extra 1d6 fire damage immediately and again every round until they put themself out. If they're already on fire, fan the flames, dealing an extra 1d6 fire damage immediately, increasing the fire damage they take each round by 1d6, and increasing the Reflex DC to put themself out by 1 (up to a maximum of 17 + Wis modifier + any modifiers to this maneuver's save DC if it had one).
- Salamander Charge: Add +1/2 damage per initiator level to the damage for crossing or starting a turn in the wall of fire.
8
- Wyrm's Flame: Add +1 damage per initiator level.
- Rising Phoenix: Can fly at any altitude without ending the stance. At more than 10 feet above the ground, maneuverability drops to poor and the fire damage doesn't trigger from a full attack.
9
- Inferno Blast: Base damage reduced to 90. Add +1 damage per initiator level. Creatures that fail their Reflex saves must also make a Fortitude save or be knocked prone due to the concussive force of the blast wave. Save DC is 19 + Wis modifier (previously unlisted). The nature of this maneuver is to release a hellish blast of wild, uncontrolled flames, but you can exert some influence on it; if you wish, you may choose a cone in which the burst does not apply.
Rationale
- The community agrees that most Desert Wind maneuvers are subpar. A lot of them are pure blasting with no scaling, which is already a poor strategy. The theme of relying purely on fire damage, the most resisted damage type, makes them inflexible and often weaker than they look. I can't do anything about the fire lock without sweeping changes, but scaling up the damage to match what blasters can pull off when the maneuvers are first accessible and tapering off more slowly should help a bit.
- Blistering Flourish does basically nothing. It's a Bane spell, but with point blank range a worse save type, and no penalty on saves vs. fear. Even if it works, it only has a 1/20 chance of making a given attack miss. It probably still needs a buff, but at least the round of concealment gives a little more viable momentary defense and makes it less bad.
- Wind Stride is at the edge of fine, but poor, depending on who you ask.
- Hatchling's Flame compares poorly to Burning Hands, itself a poor blasting spell. It's behind by 0.5 damage at the level you get it and falls further behind as you go.
- Fan the Flames is actually okay, but it's mostly just outdone by Shadow Garrote in Shadow Hand, which trades 1d6 damage for double range, a minor debuff, and an unresistible damage type.
- Searing Blade and Inferno Blade aren't bad, they just don't add enough over the 1st-level Burning Blade to ever be worth trading up for.
- Lingering Inferno SUCKS. It adds 8d6 damage at best which is barely par for a pure damage 5th-level strike. You have to wait 3 rounds to get that damage, and any amount of fire resistance just neuters it due to being split over 4 instances. Hopefully, making it a debuff that amplifies other fire damage works.
- Dragon's Flame tries to pretend than a CL 6 Fireball's damage is relevant at level 9. At least it's a CL 9's worth of damage at level 9 now.
- Fiery Assault is 1d6 extra damage. Punishing Stance has been doing that since level 1, albeit with a -2 AC penalty, but also in a form that doesn't stack up against an entirely new defense (fire resistance). Burning Blade added 1d6 fire damage since level 1, and also added your IL, all at the cost of being a boost; by level 11 when you can get Fiery Assault, it's adding 1d6+11, more than four times what Fiery Assault gives. With these numbers, it's now a permanent half-strength Searing Blade, which doesn't seem too out of line for a stance.
- Ring of Fire does decent damage, it's just implausible to use. A base 30-foot movement speed covers an area barely larger than a 15-foot diameter, so this is really a single-target attack masquerading as an AoE. It's even smaller if you're moving at a lower speed (hitting a single 5-foot square requires at least 30 feet of movement), or have to take a strange path to move around creatures or obstacles. Also, any creature standing by a wall is basically not a viable target unless you can hit the DC 25 Tumble check reliably (not unreasonable at this level, but still worth mentioning as a further inconvenience). The extra bit of extended path lets you increase the area a bit, and gives you a better failure state if your movement is interrupted or blocked. Avoiding AoEs is vital to not taking more damage yourself than you deal to your enemies, and I don't know how the writers didn't think to put that in originally.
- Salamander Charge: Honestly, this one's pretty okay and I mostly felt the need to add more damage just because I was doing it for everything else. The fire wall has similar limitations to Lingering Inferno's damage, but the damage is in larger chunks and cover an area instead of a single target.
- Wyrm's Flame brings it up to just about the 1d6/level benchmark when you get it. It's still underperforming, but I can't be arsed to tweak the numbers even more.
- Rising Phoenix gives you flight but only where you don't need it. You're at least 15th level. Just take the damn flight!
- Inferno Blast does really good damage. That's all it does. It also has an annoying tendency of friendly fire. It didn't need the damage scaling buff, but everything else got it so why not.

Devoted Spirit
1
2
3
4
5
6
- Aura of Tyranny: You can also deal this damage to unwilling creatures that you dealt damage to with a melee attack within the last round. If you deal damage to at least 2 willing allies, you get a +2 bonus on attack rolls and saving throws for 1 round. If you deal damage to at least 2 unwilling creatures, you get a +2 bonus on weapon damage rolls and to AC for 1 round.
7
- Castigating Strike
8
9
Rationale
- Devoted Spirit is pretty good, overall. Very few maneuvers are off curve.
- Aura of Tyranny just doesn't do much unless you're cheesing a million summons for tons of free healing or something.

Diamond Mind
1
- Stance of Clarity
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Rationale
- Diamond Mind is pretty good, overall.

Iron Heart
1
2
3
4
5
6
- Manticore Parry: You can also choose to deflect the attack harmlessly instead of into another creature.
7
- Scything Blade: Dropped to a level 6 maneuver. Initiate after you hit with a melee attack to make another melee attack at the same attack bonus against a different creature you threaten. (This lets you trigger it off of more than just your first attack in the round, and doesn't force you to commit expending the maneuver preemptively before you even know if the normal attack will hit to trigger the extra one.)
8
- Supreme Blade Parry
9
Rationale
- Iron Heart is pretty good, overall.
- Scything Blade is a strictly worse Dancing Mongoose, but Dancing Mongoose is very good so just closing the gap might be okay.

Setting Sun
1
2
- Clever Positioning: Neither you nor the target provoke attacks of opportunity for this movement.
3
- Giant Killing Style: (Errata) Remove that nonsensical final sentence about it applying to all attacks for the rest of the turn. I think that's an editing fail from it possibly having been a boost instead of a stance in an earlier draft.
4
5
- Stalking Shadow: Dropped to a level 4 maneuver. Initiation action is 1 free action instead of 1 immediate action.
- Shifting Defense: (Errata) As per the table's description and the first non-italicized paragraph's flavor-like text, this only triggers on missed attacks, not all attacks.
6
- Scorpion Parry: You can also choose to deflect the attack harmlessly instead of into another creature.
7
- Hydra Slaying Strike: Add +4d6 damage. Effect changed to match what I think the designers were trying to accomplish, and so that it actually works against its namesake: The creature cannot make more than one attack during its next turn.
8
- Ghostly Defense: Also triggers when you make an attack miss due to a counter.
9
Rationale
- Setting Sun is a little weak and many of its maneuvers really want to be used by a dedicated tripper, but for the most part it's perfectly serviceable. Most of the changes listed here are just adjusting inconsistencies in the text and quirks of operation that feel unintended. Strictly speaking, those should be in a separate document.
- Stalking Shadow is strictly worse than Mirrored Pursuit in the same discipline at the same level. Since it only gives you a 5-foot step, maybe being a free action counter might be alright.
- Hydra Slaying Strike just doesn't do anything against most opponents. It's okay against random beatstick monsters, but even then you're just trading your attacks beyond the first (or other more useful maneuver effects) for their attacks beyond the first. Any spellcaster or martial adept doesn't care at all. White Raven Hammer is only one level higher and offers a stronger no save disable, and has bonus damage to boot.
- Ghostly Defense is just too narrow. The effect is good, but there are a whopping two maneuvers that let you get concealment or otherwise force miss chances on your own, and they're both in Shadow Hand. Child of Shadow would be a third, but it's a stance and so is mutually exclusive with this. Setting Sun, however, is the counter discipline, so why not lean into that?

Shadow Hand
1
2
3
- Shadow Garrote: Base damage reduced to 4d6. Add +1 damage per initiator level.
4
5
- Step of the Dancing Moth
6
- Ghost Blade: In addition to rendering the target flat-footed (as normal), roll two attacks and choose one (as Shadow Blade Technique). Taking the lower roll adds an extra 5d6 cold damage.
- Shadow Noose: Base damage reduced to 6d6. Add +1 damage per initiator level. Does not require target to be flat-footed, but if it isn't, a failed save renders it flat-footed until its next turn (as Shadow Garrote) instead of stunned for 1 round.
7
- Death in the Dark: In addition to functioning against a flat-footed opponent, also functions if the foe is denied Dex to AC and you have concealment from it.
8
9
Rationale
- Shadow Garrote is fine. Just giving it the same scaling I did for Fan the Flames in Desert Wind.
- Shadow Noose should be Shadow Garrote's older brother, but requiring a flat-footed foe makes it far more situational. This change makes it into that better, higher-level Shadow Garrote, since it now does the same thing with +2d6 damage against non-flat-footed creatures.
- Ghost Blade just doesn't do enough. Sapphire Nightmare Blade has been doing the same thing with an extra 1d6 damage since level 1, albeit with less reliability. The fluff describes it similarly to Shadow Blade Technique, so now it's Shadow Blade Technique's older brother.
- Death in the Dark is perfectly fine, just a little too narrow.


Stone Dragon
General
- Maneuvers can be initiated if you were in contact with the ground at any point since the beginning of your last turn. (This allows you to, for example, leap up and bat a flying foe down to the ground.)
- Stances that end when you move more than 5 feet are instead suppressed until your next turn (so you don't need to spend the swift action to reenter it). You can still reinitiate them while they're suppressed this way to get them back immediately.
1
- Charging Minotaur: This damage bypasses damage reduction and other defenses as though it was dealt through your unarmed strike (for example, if you wore an amulet of mighty fists +1, it would bypass DR/magic and would potentially be able to damage incorporeal creatures, if you could somehow bull rush them). Movement with this maneuver does not disable your Stone Dragon stances.
- Stonefoot Stance: Stance is suppressed until your next turn if you move more than 5 feet instead of ending (so you don't need to spend the swift action to reenter it).
2
- Stone Vice: Fort save is tagged object. If you hit a creature not on the ground, it must make the Fort save or be knocked to the ground, falling up to 30 feet (no AoO for this movement). If this causes it to land on the ground, it is affected by the speed reduction effect.
3
- Stone Dragon's Fury: Deals bonus damage to all creatures, not just constructs. If it hits a construct or object, it must make a Fortitude save (object, DC 13 + your Str modifier) or have any damage reduction or hardness reduced to half its normal value (rounded down) for 1 round.
- Roots of the Mountain: Stance is suppressed until your next turn if you move more than 5 feet instead of ending (so you don't need to spend the swift action to reenter it). Also causes non-teleportation forced movement to which you are unwilling to move you half the distance.
4
- Boulder Roll: Is a strike instead of a boost. Effect is instead: You move up to your speed. During this movement, you can make any number of overrun attacks, as a free action, once per target. If a target chooses to avoid you, you still make an opposed Strength check to knock it prone as though it had not, and you can continue your movement even if you fail to knock it prone. If a target blocks you, you gain a +4 bonus on your Strength check made to overrun, and if you fail your check, your target can't knock you prone. You simply stop moving in the last legal space you occupied. You do not provoke attacks of opportunity for the movement or the overrun attempts. Movement with this maneuver does not disable your Stone Dragon stances.
- Overwhelming Mountain Strike: Fort save is tagged object. Effect changed to match what I think the designers were trying to accomplish. On a failed save, the creature's normal allotment of actions during its turn is reduced. Instead of being allowed a standard action and a move action, two move actions, or one full-round action, the creature is allowed only a single standard or move action. The creature can otherwise act normally; this does not impact its swift action or free actions, nor does it affect any extra actions it may gain (such as from the quicksilver motion maneuver).
5
- Mountain Avalanche: Replace text with that of Crushing Advance, except with a base damage of 6d6. Movement with this maneuver does not disable your Stone Dragon stances. (I would've just written up the differences, except that the original version is a mess. It contradicts itself about whether you deal damage to any creature whose space you fully occupy (first paragraph) or if covering only part of its space is good enough (second paragraph). It's also even more vulnerable to AoOs than the basic trample monster ability. Not worth the effort when I already have some perfectly valid text to reference.)
- Giant's Stance: Stance is suppressed until your next turn if you move more than 5 feet instead of ending (so you don't need to spend the swift action to reenter it). Instead of increasing your effective weapon size, adds 1d6 damage and lets you add an additional 1/2 your Str bonus to weapon damage rolls that already add your Str bonus.
6
- Crushing Vice: If you hit a creature not on the ground, it must make a Fort save (object, DC 16 + Str) or be knocked to the ground, falling up to 30 feet (no AoO for this movement). If this causes it to land on the ground, it is affected by the speed reduction effect.
- Iron Bones: Add +4d6 damage.
- Irresistible Mountain Strike: Fort save is tagged object. Effect changed to match what I think the designers were trying to accomplish. On a failed save, the creature's normal allotment of actions during its turn is reduced. Instead of being allowed a standard action and a move action, two move actions, or one full-round action, the creature is allowed only a single move action. The creature can otherwise act normally; this does not impact its swift action or free actions, nor does it affect any extra actions it may gain (such as from the quicksilver motion maneuver).
7
- Colossus Strike: Can also target and affect objects. If an obstacle prevents the completion of the target's move, the obstacle takes 6d6 points of damage.
8
- Adamantine Bones: Add +8d6 damage.
- Earthstrike Quake: Duration 5 rounds. The ground continues to shake and rumble, forcing creatures that attempt to move through it to make a Balance check (DC 20 + your Str modifier). Each of the subsequent rounds after you initiate the maneuver, you can trigger an aftershock around the same point, forcing a Reflex save and Concentration check.
- Strength of Stone: Stance is suppressed until your next turn if you move more than 5 feet instead of ending (so you don't need to spend the swift action to reenter it). Also grants immunity to any effect that allows a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).
9
Rationale
- Oh boy, Stone Dragon. There's a lot of variance here. The Mountain Hammer maneuvers are ToB staples, but so much else is so flawed.
- Being usable only on the ground is thematic, but overly restrictive at higher levels. At least now you can jump up and swat someone out of the sky to bring them down to the ground where you want to fight them.
- Most of the Stone Dragon Stances end if you move more than 5 feet. I'm not going to try for a sweeping change that just edits that out, but at least this way (suppression for 1 round instead of ending), movement and Stone Dragon stances play better with boosts and counters. That said, most of them are on the weak side even without that limitation, although not horrendously so, so most of them got buffs.
- Charging Minotaur got the ability to bypass DR in a limited way, like I wrote into similar maneuvers for my Crushing Juggernaut homebrew discipline. It's less of an intended buff and more of a basic effect that I feel should be there in some manner, and I'm doing the same thing along the way as part of Mountain Avalanche's changes.
- For Stone Vice and Crushing Vice, these changes go hand in hand with the "jump up and swat someone out of the sky" thing I mentioned above.
- Stone Dragon's Fury is just too narrow, and the effect when it is applicable isn't enough.
- Roots of the Mountain is probably fine, but if it's going to protect you from the more "normal" forced movement, why not the special stuff as well?
- Boulder Roll was poorly written from day one. Even assuming the full-round action initiation for a boost is a typo, it just doesn't do much of anything. Overrun has two purposes for which you're spending your standard action: knock a foe prone, and move past the space the foe is occupying. Without preventing the target from avoiding you, which Improved Overrun does but Boulder Roll doesn't, the opponent chooses which of those two is more important to them and thus how to contest you. I would be hesitant to select that original Boulder Roll as even a 1st- or 2nd-level boost. This is basically a complete rework of the maneuver, which I don't want to do much of if I don't have to, but I feel like this trample-style multiple overrun fits the original theme much better.
- For Overwhelming and Irresistible Mountain Strike, I just made them work the way I think the designers intended (removing some of the target's actions, like the staggered or nauseated conditions). Also tagged them for objects so they can affect constructs and undead.
- Mountain Avalanche is a bad version of the trample monster ability, and its damage does not keep up with what is expected at this level. It was like Firesnake, but weaker, and with making you provoke AoOs, and with movement (which could be good, but could also disable your Stone Dragon stances).
- The Bones line of maneuvers provide a reasonable enough defense with their DR/adamantine to deal with the smaller hitters, although they don't scale up quite well enough to deal with big threats. A little extra damage on the higher-level ones lets you keep up that mix of offense and defense at higher levels.
- Giant's Stance's absolute best-case scenario is a +4 average damage bonus with a medium greataxe (going from 1d12 to 3d6). Punishing Stance has been doing +3.5 since level 1, albeit with a -2 AC penalty. Most of the rationale for the need for a buff is similar to what I wrote for Fiery Assault in Desert Wind. The implementation should wind up comparable, if a bit weaker.
- Colossus Strike is one of those maneuvers that feels like it should be good but doesn't quite stand up. The damage to the impactee is basically copying Setting Sun's Comet Throw and Ballista Throw. Also, now you can hit baseballs (and constructs and undead) with it. Batter up!
- Earthstrike Quake is most comparable to a Grease spell with a larger area and a scaled up save DC, but lots of downsides. It has no duration, hitting only once and not even obstructing the area. It's point-blank, not ranged, although honestly that's par for the course for spell-comparable maneuvers just from the basic paradigm. Hitting through walls is cool. Hitting creatures on the ground only it shares with Grease, but it's a limitation that doesn't hold up as well at 15th level as it did at 1st. It probably still needs a buff beyond this, but that would require a more substantial rework to it.
- Strength of Stone is heavy fortification. It's great against crit fishers and sneak attackers, but most monsters only have a 20/x2 crit, which means in terms of average damage taken, it's less effective than +1 AC against them. One can't knock the benefits of smoothing out damage spikes, but at this level things are throwing out multiple attacks and hp pools are large enough to absorb an extra singular hit now and again, so it's not as important as at lower levels. Plus, anyone can get this for 36000 gp and a -1 attack roll penalty by strapping a +1 Heavy Fortification buckler to your arm if you really want crit protection, which seems a bit cheaper than what I'd hope the equivalent value of an 8th-level stance would be.


Tiger Claw
1
2
- Claw at the Moon: If Jump check succeeds and attack hits, target must make a Will save (DC 12 + Str) or flinch, taking a -2 penalty on attack rolls for 1 round.
3
- Flesh Ripper: Add +2d6 damage. A successful save negates the attack roll penalty, but not the AC penalty.
- Wolverine Stance: You do not suffer the normal -4 penalties on attack rolls and to AC while prone or squeezing. When you hit a creature grappling you with a melee attack, you can make a grapple check as a free action to escape the grapple.
4
- Fountain of Blood: Can use after you reduce a living opponent's hp with a melee attack during your turn, regardless of the creature's hp. If it has more than half its hp, you only deal the extra 1d6 damage. If it has half its hp or less, it still deals the 1d6 damage but only the creature struck makes the Will save to avoid being shaken. If it has -1 or fewer hp, the maneuver functions as originally written.
5
6
7
- Prey on the Weak
8
- Wolf Pack Tactics
9
Rationale
- Claw at the Moon is basically Sapphire Nightmare Blade, but with an extra 1d6 damage and better crit confirmation in exchange for 1 higher level and not making foes flat-footed. Also, the Jump skill is harder to get to comfortable levels for hitting DC 20 or so (what lower-level enemies usually have) reliably compared to Concentration; Strength won't be meaningfully higher than Constitution, Jump is hit by your ACP, and it often eats a massive -6 penalty for having 20 ft. speed.
- Flesh Ripper's AC penalty is matched by Leading the Attack, a 1st-level White Raven maneuver with no save.
- Fountain of Blood is useless against single foes, and doesn't really do enough even against larger groups. By the time you start dropping foes, often it's after the party's spellcasters have already thrown down a bunch of disabling effects, so adding one more weak-ish debuff isn't going to add much.

White Raven
1
2
3
- Lion's Roar: Can use after you reduce an opponent's hp, regardless of the creature's hp. If it has more than half its hp, you only grant a +1 damage bonus. If it has half its hp or less, you only grant a +3 damage bonus. If it has -1 or fewer hp, the maneuver functions as originally written.
4
5
6
7
8
9
Rationale
- Lion's Roar is useless against single foes. Now it at least has a lesser effect.

I think Divine Retribution isn't bad as a general idea, it just needs a curated spell list. The Adept might make for a better starting point, as it has a bigger focus on divine damage spells like Scorching Ray and Lightning Bolt. The Warmage spell list and evocation-heavy cleric domains like the Fire Domain could be used to pad out spells above level 5. Or you could hand out a pseudo-Quicken Spell, so that weak low-level evocations stay relevant and work better with the action economy of mid-levels onward.

I concur. I love the idea of the ability and a curated spell list is exactly what it needs. I just don't feel like searching for spells for it at all right now. Well, actually, that's not quite right. I spent a bit of time looking through the SRD, and came up with the following (in the spoiler). Couldn't find anything at 6th level that fit, 2nd and 4th level were a little light, and I don't love how many of the 5th level spells were just save-or-lose.

The original version in 1001 homebrew ideas actually had the quicken aspect; the spells were cast as a swift action by default.

Iron Body Training is a little weird.

It's a bit of a design-by-committee ability, which is really weird to say given that it was only me working on it. There were a few different thought processes that went into it.

• 1) Make an ACF that is associated with Iron Heart. At one point, I was trying to do this for all nine disciplines, but Devoted Spirit (Divine Retribution), Desert Wanderer (Desert Wind), Battlefield Commander (White Raven), and Iron Body Training (Iron Heart) were the only ones I could come up with anything decent for.
• 2) Trade away something that doesn't overlap with the other warblade ACFs. Warblades don't actually have many class features at low levels, and I'd already written two for each of Uncanny Dodge and Battle Clarity, and I don't want an ACF that exchanges Weapon Aptitude, which doesn't give direct combat effects, for an ability that does. That basically leaves skills and proficiencies.
• 3) How about armor proficiency? And 5E's barbarian has that cool (but impractical) Con-to-AC instead of armor thing. How about something like that? Maybe do a monk's AC bonus-type ability, but based on Int, since it's already a warblade secondary stat? Just switch it to an armor bonus instead of untyped, so it can avoid stacking with armor without needing that pesky no-armor-worn clause explicitly spelled out, fit the barbarian-inspired theme of just blocking hits with your mighty thews rather than dodging them, and match the paradigm I tried out with my pressure strikes monk. And you can still use a shield, as intended, which is why that proficiency wasn't removed.
• 4) It's got to scale, since it's replacing armor, and I still want to tie it a bit more directly to Iron Heart. How about based on your Iron Heart maneuvers? Scaling with the level of maneuvers known keeps the numbers around the right place in napkin math land, although if it's a little high then the fact that it fluctuates up and down a bit based on whether or not you've actually used an Iron Heart maneuver might balance that out.
• 5) Uh, oh. It's a 1st-level class feature that gives an attribute to AC. We don't want Int to AC to be overly easily accessible with a 1-level dip for non-warblades. I know! Cap it by Strength, too, so that those wizards and jade phoenix mages can get something but not too much out of it. It won't affect pure warblades, since what kind of melee warblade won't have a higher Strength and Intelligence already?

So, yeah, a little weird. But I kind of like it, you know? If I get to doing another pass on it, I might tweak the numbers a bit, and the bit about needing to initiate Iron Heart maneuvers to keep the full benefit might get axed, no matter how much I appreciate its quirkiness. Even without that, its physical defensiveness fits Iron Heart better than I thought. Despite the aggressiveness associated with the discipline from Punishing Stance at level 1 and Strike of Perfect Clarity at level 9, more than half of its maneuvers and stances are about crowd control, defense, and damage mitigation (11/21). I'm pretty sure only Devoted Spirit and Setting Sun beat it on that front.

Miscellaneous Tome of Battle Alternative Class Features
On a whim (about a decade ago), I jotted up three ACFs for each of the three ToB base classes in the 1001 homebrew ideas thread. I got inspired again and added another three per class this week.

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Crusader

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Swordsage

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Warblade

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Change Log

In Progress, Deprecated, and Removed

Spheromancer base class
"Hi! Lea! Bye!"

Spheromancers harness the inherent power of points, circles, spheres, and higher-dimensional hyper-spheres to defeat their foes. They conjure instant matter, a simple and easily-manipulated magical material, to produce weapons and armor in combat.

The Spheromancer is a Warlock-like class, focused more heavily on combat and less on magical utility.

HD: d8
BAB: Good (+1/level)
Saves: Poor Fort, Good Ref, Good Will
Skills: 4+Int/level

Circuits (Su): Circuits allow you to channel elemental energies to manipulate instant matter in different ways. Initially, you only have access to the neutral circuit. At levels 4, 7, 10, and 13, you can choose another circuit to gain access to. You can only have up to one circuit activate at a time, and you must have a circuit active to use most Spheromancer abilities. You can activate a new circuit (or deactivate your current circuit) as a swift action. Each circuit provides various benefits while active and is associated with a specific form of damage.
- Neutral: A balanced, general purpose circuit that does not excel in any particular field. Useful for dissipating excess circuit load. +2 bonus to maximum load with this circuit, and you dissipate 1 additional load per round from each of your circuits. Whenever you generate neutral circuit load while it is active, you also dissipate an equal amount from all of your other circuits. Damage: Untyped damage from a force effect.
- Cold: A defensive circuit that is effective at disrupting enemy attacks, but struggles to inflict great damage itself. +2 bonus to AC and all saves. Damage: Cold.
- Fire: An aggressive circuit that excels at inflicting injury upon foes, but does so recklessly with lesser regard to personal wellbeing. +2 bonus on attack rolls. Damage: Fire.
- Shock: A studious and contemplative circuit that provides a number of utility effects, but struggles with direct combat. +2 bonus on caster level checks and to save DCs of circuit abilities. Damage: Electricity.
- Wave: A strange and poorly understood circuit that generally just does its own thing (healing and HP manipulation) without any care for what everyone thinks it should do. +2 bonus to HP per Spheromancer level and +1 fast healing per 5 levels that can't bring you above 50% of max HP. Damage: Sonic.

Load: Spheromancer abilities generate load on your active circuit. Load for each circuit is tracked separately. You can safely generate load in a circuit up to your load limit. If your load for any circuit exceeds your load threshold, you enter a state of overload in that circuit. Overload does not clear until the overloaded circuit's load drops back all the way to 0. When you overload a circuit, immediately after resolving the action that caused it to become overloaded, you deactivate it and activate the neutral circuit (or remain with no circuit active, if you overloaded the neutral circuit). You cannot activate an overloaded circuit. Load in inactive circuits dissipates at a rate of 1 load per round. Load in a circuit can never be less than 0.
- Note: You never need to overload. It's just a cost that you can pay if you want to use abilities that would bring you over your load limit.

Instant Matter Armaments (Sp): You can conjure instant matter and shape it into one of the following forms. Conjuring instant matter generates 1 load, although various circuit abilities can modify this. Instant matter weapons deal damage of the type of your active circuit. You are proficient with all instant matter weapons you conjure, and they count as magical weapons for purposes such as bypassing damage reduction and striking incorporeal creatures. This spell-like ability does not provoke attacks of opportunity, has a caster level equal to your Spheromancer level, and an effective spell level equal to its load generation, to a maximum of 9th-level. Except where noted, you can use this ability only once per round and only during your turn.
Instant matter itself is a very weak material, having 1 hp and a hardness of 0. It dissipates into nothingness immediately when destroyed.
- Chakram: You form instant matter into a sharp circle. This functions as a light melee weapon, dealing a base damage of 1d8 for Medium size. You can conjure multiple chakrams during your turn as part of the same use of this ability. Conjured chakrams last for 1 round, allowing you to threaten nearby spaces and perform attacks of opportunity with them outside of your turn. Conjuring chakrams is a free action.
- Ball: You form instant matter into a dense point. This functions as a light thrown weapon with a range increment of 30 feet, dealing a base damage of 1d6 for medium. You can conjure multiple balls during your turn as part of the same use of this ability, allowing you to perform multiple attacks with them. Conjured balls last until the end of your turn. Conjuring balls is a free action.
- Orb: You form instant matter into a large sphere. This functions as a two-handed thrown weapon with a range increment of 100 feet, dealing a base damage of 2d6 for medium. Unlike other instant matter weapons, you can only conjure a single orb with each use of this ability. A conjured orb lasts until the end of your turn. Conjuring an orb is a full-round action, but you can make a single attack with the orb as part of conjuring it.
- Bubble: You form instant matter into a multi-layered hypersphere. This surrounds you in layers of ablative instant matter, providing protection against attacks. You gain the benefits of taking the total defense action, and you gain an energy shield with absorption equal to triple your Spheromancer level and recovery 1 for 1 round. Damage of your active circuit's type only removes HP equal to half the damage absorbed by the energy shield, rounded up (although it can still only block an amount equal to its remaining HP). Track the energy shield's remaining HP and its recovery even while this ability is not active; you passively accumulate instant matter in higher dimensions even when not using this ability, and conjuring it is actually only rotating it into covering your position in three-dimensional space. Conjuring a bubble is a full-round action.

Instant Matter Focus: You gain Weapon Focus with each weapon form of your instant matter armaments.

Instant Matter Enhancement: At 3rd level, your instant matter weapons gain a +1 enhancement bonus, increasing by 1 every 3 levels therefter, to a maximum of +6 at 18th level. Each time, your orb also deals an additional +1d6 damage, and the recovery of your bubble's energy shield increases by 1.

Circuit Abilities: At 1st level, 3rd level, and every 5 levels beyond 1st and 3rd, you learn a new circuit ability for each of your circuits. When you acquire a new circuit, you retroactively learn circuit abilities for that circuit from previous level. Most circuit abilities require you to have their circuit active to use them, and are suppressed otherwise. Some circuit abilities are marked as "free circuit" and can be used with any circuit (although not while you have no circuit active). Initially, you can only learn basic circuit abilities. From 6th-level onwards, you can learn advanced circuit abilities. From 11th-level onwards, you can learn expert circuit abilities. From 16th-level onwards, you can learn master circuit abilities.
- Note: Circuit abilities are sort of like invocations, except that they aren't fully at will. The active ones all generate load. The passive ones instead reduce your load limit with their circuit, or possibly all circuits for free circuit passives. Most of these are blast shape/essence type abilities that modify a usage of one or more of your instant matter armaments, but some are abilities usable on their own, and some are passive effects that are always in effect as long as you have their circuit active.

I really like it. This is a very flavourful rework that greatly expands the things a monk can do - and the healing/buffing options also bring the reworked monks more in line with the things divine spellcasters can do, but in a different way.

Thanks for the feedback... Egads, it's over a decade since I first posted this here!

I think you should be able to do pressure strikes and build up resonance through ranged attacks with special monk weapons (i.e. shuriken, thrown sai) - that would greatly improve versatility and give something relevant to do in rounds where the monk can't get into melee range.

That was part of what the Martial Strikes feat was for, if you were to take Weapon Focus with a ranged weapon. That said, I think I'm going to change it to apply to all monk weapons regardless of whether or not you have Weapon Focus with them.

Note that resonance already generates regardless of what you use to make the attacks. You can even use Scorching Ray to generate it.

Double Mantra and Triple Mantra have a table entries, but not feature description.

The functionality is in the Mantras description, although I think I'm going to separate them out into their own dedicated abilities. It'll be clearer that way, and it will also keep using multiple mantras as a specific monk class feature in case of any future PrCs that advance a monk's mantras like spellcaster PrCs do.

Quote

Healing Hands
Grade: Student Pressure Strike
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will half (harmless)
If your attack hits, roll for damage normally. Instead of taking damage, the subject heals that amount of damage.

Unlimited out-of-combat HP healing for free may be a bit much. Other cheap options for that either cost money (wands) or have a limit for how much HP they can heal (Dragon Shaman Vigor Aura). Maybe a percentage cap like Vigor Aura, or a daily HP pool like Lay On Hands?

Seems reasonable. I don't want to tie it to a limited resource, since part of this revamped monk design is that there aren't any of those, just the build-up and release of resonance. Tying it to the usual limit of 50% seems like the way to go, although I think it might merit being a little stronger than that, since it's single-target, non-passive healing, unlike the Vigor aura and similar effects, and shows up at level 6 instead of level 1. A couple of possibilities jump to mind:
- Heal up to 50% + some limit (ex: 50% + Monk level).
- Healing above 50% is converted to temporary hit points, which can't bring the subject's effective HP up to above their normal maximum, and which last for 1 hour. Any healing received that generates HP while these temp HP remain also removes a like amount of them. As per normal temporary hit points, multiple uses of this ability don't stack and only the highest temp HP total applies.

Also, speaking of healing pressure strikes and any others that turn the damage into a beneficial effect on the subject, I also had a though that a coup de grace on a willing subject should not risk death, but instead maximize the damage (and thus healing/temp HP) roll. This would just be to minimize the amount of rolling at the table, especially for the proposed temp HP generation version of Healing Hands, which provides maximum benefit from a max roll crit.

Edit: Note that a similar change will be required for the Wave of Life release, unless it just gets pushed up to Master grade.

Also, for those confused and PMing me about the difference between the words 'Effect' and 'Affect' as both words are used in this mini handbook (and no, they are not interchangeable like flammable and inflammable, which mean the same thing), here is a simple memory tool: F*** Around & Find Out. Effect is you f***ing around (the thing that is happening). Affect is you finding out (the consequences of the thing having happened).

When an Effect like a fireball happens, those in the radius are Affected by the explosion. Having a fireball coming into being and heading towards you is 'f***ing around' (the Effect, which is the beginning of the process or 'the thing that is happening') and the results & consequences of the fireball going off (aka final results of 'the thing happening') is 'finding out' (the Affect it has on you, the end result of the process). Hope that helps, as that is the only real explanation that I can think of as it relates to the subject at hand.

Effect is a noun (as in something that happens). Affect is a verb (as in to influence the state of something). Typically. Effect is also a verb (as in to cause or induce something) and Affect is also a noun (as in an unusual mannerism), but those aren't their typical use cases.

The link for Ectopic Form leads to Advanced Construction's article instead. If I recall correctly, doesn't Ectopic Form trade away the ability to freely select ability menu options in favor of fixed choices, making it decidedly mediocre in many cases?

Subpsionic feats (https://web.archive.org/web/20050322110122/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/pse/20021025a) also add a few abilities via Tainted Construction. The abilities are pretty poor, though, so they're only worth mentioning for completeness's sake.

A small note about Menu D abilities. 9th-level Astral Constructs get 2 Menu C abilities by default, so they would be able to access a Menu D ability with just Ecto Manipulation (no need for Boost Construct). That said, Advanced Construction was made for 3.0 psionics, which gave even more menu abilities to Astral Constructs (up to 3 Menu C abilities at level 9), which made those abilities available even earlier.

Interesting concept. I don't think these are worth the cost, though. Spending a feat and additional limited resources to protect against a single type of energy damage is a big ask. The nature of the resource expended is also suspect.
- For spell slots, you have to have available a blasting spell of the appropriate energy type, which typically means reserving a spell slot for an often suboptimal spell. This does make a bit more sense for spontaneous casters, though, as they don't have to reserve the slot in advance and having a blasting spell or two among your spells known is often a decent enough choice if only for dealing with swarms.
- For breath weapons, monsters that have breath weapons usually (although not always) have immunity or high resistance to their breath's energy type. In case of immunity, the damage is already negated, and in the case of resistance, attackers are already discouraged from using that damage type against the monster. Player breath weapons tend not to be tied to associated resistances or immunities as frequently, but also tend to be much more limited in their damage or uses.

If I was worried about energy damage, I would prefer to reserve a 2nd and/or 3rd level spell slot for Resist Energy and/or Protection From Energy. They last for 10 minutes/level, which is usually long enough for multiple encounters or even a full adventuring day (especially when extended). They're also flexible enough to let you pick the energy type you're protecting against on the given day, instead of needing to pick/predict it multiple levels in advance.

For comparison, the example Sorcerer (who must be at least 12th level) with the Maximized Fireball is using a 6th-level spell slot to prevent up to 60 points of damage. A Quickened Resist Energy also uses a 6th-level slot and provides 30 points of resistance, granting equal total effective HP over the course of two hits as that single expended spell slot. A precast Extended Protection From Energy provides 120 points of damage protection (twice as much), lasts for at least 4 hours, carries over the remaining damage protection if the initial hit doesn't deplete it, and only uses a 4th-level spell slot.

I think there's something here, but the implementation across numerous feats doesn't work. Maybe condensing it into a single feat, covering all 5 energy types and possibly also positive/negative energy, with a followup feat to share the protection with your allies, to remove the immediate action cost (so you can use it multiple times per round), and/or to let any excess damage protection persist for a time. I could also see these as part of the class features for an energy-focused spellcaster or Dragonfire Adept PrC.