Author Topic: Initiate of the Sublime Void: A Binder/Martial Adept PrC  (Read 6062 times)

Offline Garryl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4503
    • View Profile
Initiate of the Sublime Void: A Binder/Martial Adept PrC
« on: December 14, 2011, 09:32:45 PM »
Initiate of the Sublime Void Prestige Class
For martial adept/Binders. Requested by PhaedrusXY.

Initiates of the Sublime Void are warriors who learn to channel the power of vestiges to improve their martial prowess, drawing on ancient knowledge of forgotten martial techniques, and harnessing the will of disincorporated spirits to command their own bodies. Such power does not come without a price though, as these warriors often grow to see even their own bodies as just another tool to be exploited, which can lead them to be careless, remorseless, and detached.

BECOMING AN INITIATE OF THE SUBLIME VOID

Abilities: Strength, Constitution, and Charisma are the Initiate's most important attributes.
Races: Any, but the willingness to allow a disincorporated spirit to share your own body is not something that comes easily to many races, especially those with strong religious inclinations.
Alignment: Any, though due to the focus on combat and spirit binding, evil initiates are more common than good ones.


   Feats: Adaptive Style
   Skills: Diplomacy 8 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 8 ranks, Martial Lore 8 ranks.
   Martial Maneuvers: Must know at least two White Raven maneuvers.
   Martial Stances: Must know at least one White Raven stance.
   Soul Binding: Must be able bind 2nd-level or higher vestiges.


Table: The Initiate of the Sublime Void      Hit Die: d10
        Base                                                                  -----Binding----   -------Maneuvers-------
        Attack  Fort Ref  Will                                                                   Maneuvers       Stances
Level   Bonus   Save Save Save    Special                                                        Known  Readied  Known
1       +1      +0   +0   +2      Martial Pact                                Soul Binding +1    0      0        1
2       +2      +0   +0   +3      Battle Pact                                 Soul Binding +2    1      0        0
3       +3      +1   +1   +3      Exploit Martial Memories (1 maneuver)       Soul Binding +3    0      0        0
4       +4      +1   +1   +4      Void Trance                                 Soul Binding +4    0      1        0
5       +5      +1   +1   +4      Battle Pact (correction)                    Soul Binding +5    1      0        0
6       +6      +2   +2   +5      Exploit Martial Memories (2 maneuvers)      Soul Binding +6    0      0        1
7       +7      +2   +2   +5      Battle Pact (protection)                    Soul Binding +7    0      1        0
8       +8      +2   +2   +6      Vestigial Maneuver                          Soul Binding +8    1      0        0
9       +9      +3   +3   +6      Exploit Martial Memories (3 maneuvers)      Soul Binding +9    0      0        0
10      +10     +3   +3   +7      Sublime Seal                                Soul Binding +10   0      1        0

Class skills (4 + Int modifier per level): Balance, Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (history), Knowledge (the planes), Martial Lore, Search, Sense Motive, Tumble

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: You gain no new proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Maneuvers: At 2nd level, 5th level, and 8th level, you learn a new martial maneuver from the Diamond Mind, Tiger Claw, Stone Dragon, or White Raven disciplines. You must meet a maneuver's prerequisites to select it. You add your full Initiate of the Sublime Void level to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest-level maneuvers known.
   At 4th level, 7th level, and 10th level, you gain an additional maneuver readied per day.

Stances Known: At 1st level and 6th level, you learn a new martial stance from the Diamond Mind, Tiger Claw, Stone Dragon, or White Raven disciplines. You must meet a stance's prerequisites to select it.

Martial Pact (Ex): Haggling with ornery, disembodied spirits is not as different as one might think from negotiating a battlefield with ornery, soon-to-be-disemboweled foes. You may make Martial Lore checks in place of binding checks when binding vestiges.

Battle Pact (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, when you make a good pact with a vestige, you choose to bargain further with the spirit you bind to your soul. By accepting the influences of a bad pact, you gain a floating pool of points that you can spend on various bonuses throughout the day. The pool initially has a number of points within it equal to the vestige's level + 1/2 your Initiate of the Sublime Void level. When your pact with the vestige ends, any remaining points in your Battle Pact pool are removed. If you make a Battle Pact with another vestige, any remaining points in your pool are removed. You can spend any number of points from your Battle Pact pool each round, up to a maximum of the vestige's level.
   Initially, you can spend any number of points from your Battle Pact pool to gain an equal insight bonus on any d20 roll you make. You must make this choice before making the roll.
   Starting at 5th level, you can spend 3 points from your Battle Pact pool to reroll a failed miss chance roll caused by concealment or incorporeality, or to change your stance as a free action, even if it is not your turn.
   Starting at 7th level, you can spend 5 points from your Battle Pact pool to force an attacker who hit you with an attack to reroll the attack roll, taking the worse result. You must make this choice after determining whether or not the attack hit, but before resolving the effects of the attack.

Exploit Martial Memories (Ex): When you bind a vestige, you can alter the pact you make, trading some of the raw power the vestige normally offers for a taste of its memories and knowledge to enhance your training. Whenever you bind a vestige, you may choose one of the abilities it grants. You do not gain that ability for the duration of the pact. Instead, you gain the knowledge of a single martial maneuver you do not know with a level less than or equal to the vestige's level. If you made a good pact, this can be any maneuver whose prerequisites you meet. If you made a bad pact, this can only be a maneuver with no prerequisites. Regardless, you may only select maneuvers from disciplines from the Diamond Mind, Tiger Claw, Stone Dragon, or White Raven disciplines, and must still qualify for it. You can only exchange a single ability of a given vestige in this way each time you bind that vestige, although you may exchange a different ability or gain different a maneuver (or make the normal pact) each time you bind it.
   You can make this trade with a single vestige at a time starting at 3rd level. This increases to two vestiges at once at 6th level, and three vestiges at once at 9th level. Each time, you must select a maneuver from another discipline.
   Despite the name of this ability, the vestige you bind need not have any martial experience at all, nor even reliable memories or knowledge. Simply drawing on what experiences you do learn about and what energy you can siphon from the pact, combined with your own training and experiences, is sufficient to extrapolate and mimic the chosen maneuver.
   Because your knowledge is only fleeting, you cannot use maneuvers learned this way to qualify for other maneuvers, stances, or other options.

Void Trance (Su): Beginning at 4th level, you can let the vestiges that you have bound to you take control of the lesser functions of your body in order to better focus on battle. While you have at least one vestige bound to you and are in a martial stance, you can forgo the stance's normal benefit as a swift action to gain the benefits of Void Trance. This ability lasts as long as you would maintain the stance, or as described below. If you fall unconscious or if you are no longer bound to any vestiges, the Void Trance immediately ends and you resume gaining the normal benefit of the stance. You can also stop using Void Trance and resume gaining the normal benefit of the stance as a swift action. You are still considered to be in a martial stance of the same discipline, and you are still considered to be in that stance for the purpose of Sublime Seal.
   While this ability is active, you are immune to the dazed, fatigued, nauseated, sickened, and staggered conditions, and you only suffer the effects of being fatigued if you would be exhausted (you are still considered to be exhausted). You gain a +2 insight bonus to your Armor Class and on all attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks. You also gain an insight bonus equal to the highest level vestige you have bound on all damage rolls made as part of your maneuvers. You automatically succeed on all Constitution checks made to continue running, to avoid nonlethal damage from a forced march, and to hold your breath, and all Fortitude saves to resist damage from suffocation. However, your body is not meant to be controlled by spirits only bound tentatively to it, causing it to subtly tear itself apart. Each round at the beginning of your turn while you remain in a Void Trance, you suffer 1d4 points of damage, plus an additional 1d4 damage for each round you have maintained the Void Trance beyond the first.

Vestigial Maneuver (Su): Starting at 8th level, while you bind any vestiges, you can adjust your daily practice to meld your martial maneuvers with the powers granted by your pacts. Whenever you spend at 5 minutes of practice, meditation, prayer, or other similar activity to refresh and reselect your maneuvers, you may choose a single readied maneuver and a single vestige-granted ability. This ability must be one with a recharge time expressed in rounds (or a similar minimum delay between uses expressed in rounds). Whenever you recover the chosen maneuver while it was expended, the chosen ability immediately recharges. Whenever the chosen ability recharges after being used, you recover the chosen maneuver and are granted it, if applicable. You can only have a single pairing of maneuver and ability linked this way at any time.

Sublime Seal (Su): Starting at 10th level, you learn the ultimate technique of melding the sublime way with pact-making. Whenever you make a good pact with a vestige, you can instead defer the pact, incorporating it into your martial stances. If you do, choose one martial stance you know that you are not already using as a Sublime Seal. That stance must have a level at least as high as the vestige you wish to incorporate into it. For the duration of the pact, you are not considered bound to the vestige except while you are in that stance. However, while you are in that stance, your very form and footwork must emulate the vestige's seal for a short time to remake the pact's connection, preventing you from gaining the stance's normal benefits for 1 round after you enter it. This allows you to switch between several pacts as needed throughout the day.
   All vestiges bound through Sublime Seal count as a single vestige when determining how many vestiges you can bind at once, regardless of whether or not you are in one of their stances.


Adaptation: Xenotheurgy
(click to show/hide)

11/02/2013: Reduced prerequisites to allow entry after 5 class levels instead of 6. Added the Battle Pact ability.
21/08/2011: Added a Xenotheurgy adaptation.

« Last Edit: February 12, 2013, 12:07:11 AM by Garryl »

Offline phaedrusxy

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 10708
  • The iconic spambot
    • View Profile
Re: Initiate of the Sublime Void: A Binder/Martial Adept PrC
« Reply #1 on: July 24, 2012, 10:31:03 AM »
This needs some fluff:
(click to show/hide)

Will try to add more later. I love this class! Glad you reminded me of it!
I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

Offline JohnnyMayHymn

  • Hero Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 762
  • Former Lord of the Kitchen Sink
    • View Profile
Re: Initiate of the Sublime Void: A Binder/Martial Adept PrC
« Reply #2 on: July 24, 2012, 11:17:39 AM »
This looks like fun w/ binder and arcane swordsage :D
The Emperor
Can you find the Wumpus?

Offline Garryl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4503
    • View Profile
Re: Initiate of the Sublime Void: A Binder/Martial Adept PrC
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2012, 12:24:48 PM »
Thanks a ton, Phaedrus. Fluff is always the hardest thing for me. Hence why I write very little of it.

I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Offline phaedrusxy

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 10708
  • The iconic spambot
    • View Profile
Re: Initiate of the Sublime Void: A Binder/Martial Adept PrC
« Reply #4 on: July 24, 2012, 04:31:33 PM »
You know... if you could make this enter-able at 5th level (as you mentioned in another thread), only requiring 2nd level vestiges, I'd really love it. :D I'd like to go Warrior-Poet 4/Binder 1/IotSV with the character I'm working on, taking homebrew disciplines focused around dancing and movement, and binding Paimon.
« Last Edit: July 24, 2012, 04:33:54 PM by phaedrusxy »
I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

Offline Garryl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4503
    • View Profile
Re: Initiate of the Sublime Void: A Binder/Martial Adept PrC
« Reply #5 on: July 24, 2012, 04:51:44 PM »
Alright, I'll add it to my to-do list. Until the official changes go through (which, I expect, will just be lowering the entrance requirements), play it as if it requires only 8 ranks in the skills and 2nd-level vestiges.

Edit: Done. Also lowered the Martial Lore ranks needed down to 4.
« Last Edit: July 25, 2012, 08:58:46 AM by Garryl »

Offline phaedrusxy

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 10708
  • The iconic spambot
    • View Profile
Re: Initiate of the Sublime Void: A Binder/Martial Adept PrC
« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2012, 05:17:34 PM »
While digging around in the homebrew compendium, I came upon this similar class by Krimm.
I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

Offline Garryl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4503
    • View Profile
Re: Initiate of the Sublime Void: A Binder/Martial Adept PrC
« Reply #7 on: July 26, 2012, 12:23:56 PM »
Do the first couple of levels feel a bit lacking? They do to me. I was always planning on adding more class features for levels 2, 5, and 7, anyways. How do some of these sound?

Battle Pact (Su): Beginning at level X, when you make a good pact with a vestige, you choose to bargain further with the spirit you bind to your soul. By accepting the influences of a bad pact, you gain a floating pool of points that you can spend on various bonuses throughout the day. The pool initially has a number of points within it equal to the vestige's level + 1 for every 3 points by which you succeeded on the binding check. When your pact with the vestige ends, any remaining points in your Battle Pact pool are removed. If you make a Battle Pact with another vestige, any remaining points in your pool are removed.
   Once per round, you can spend any number of points from your Battle Pact pool to gain an equal insight bonus on any of the following:
 - An initiative check
 - An attack roll against a flanked opponent
 - A critical confirmation roll
 - A saving throw against a mind-affecting effect
 - Your Armor Class against an attack for which you would be denied your Dexterity bonus
   Starting at level Y, you can spend 3 points from your Battle Pact pool to reroll a failed miss chance roll caused by concealment or incorporeality, or to change your stance as a free action, even if it is not your turn.
   Starting at level Z, you can spend 5 points from your Battle Pact pool to force a touch attack or incorporeal touch attack against you to be resolved against your full normal AC.


Edit: Actually, that's all I have for now.
« Last Edit: July 26, 2012, 03:19:44 PM by Garryl »

Offline phaedrusxy

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 10708
  • The iconic spambot
    • View Profile
Re: Initiate of the Sublime Void: A Binder/Martial Adept PrC
« Reply #8 on: July 27, 2012, 03:53:03 PM »
I like the idea, but it's too specific and fragmented. I would never remember to use it for half those things. How about making it more generic, like spend it to boost any d20 roll? And spend 3 (or 5, whatever) uses to reroll a d20 roll? I realize that might be more powerful than what you were shooting for, but you get the idea.

I do agree that the class needs something more in the earlier levels, though. And it would be more appealing if the discipline choices for new maneuvers and stances also included disciplines that you had access to before entering this class, rather than just the four.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2012, 03:57:29 PM by phaedrusxy »
I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

Offline Bauglir

  • Hero Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 629
  • Constrained
    • View Profile
Re: Initiate of the Sublime Void: A Binder/Martial Adept PrC
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2012, 01:04:54 AM »
Hmm... You might want to change Void Trance's insight bonus on damage with maneuvers to apply only to strikes. I suppose it wouldn't stack if you used a boost and a strike at once, but I'm not 100% sure what was intended.

Anyway, possible idea: Whenever you ready maneuvers, you can choose to ready a vestige's ability as if it were a maneuver. You can ready in this way only an ability that requires you to wait some number of rounds before you can use it again, and the ability must target another creature or have an area of effect. This readied ability is considered a martial strike, if using it is a standard action, or a martial boost if it is a swift action, and it is of the same level as the vestige that granted it. Using it does not require you to wait before using the normal version of the ability. You recover your readied ability just as you would a strike from the class with which you readied it.
You can use this readied ability just as if it were a readied maneuver. When you do, you make a single melee attack. If you are successful, the target of your attack is affected as if by the ability (if it is targeted) or the area of effect originates from your target's square (if the ability had an area). If the ability required an attack roll, it is considered successful. If the ability required the target to make a Reflex save for half damage, it is considered to have failed that save. You are immune to the effects of an ability you use in this way. Otherwise, the ability works just as if you had used it normally.

Sort of a duskblade for binders.

Offline Garryl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4503
    • View Profile
Re: Initiate of the Sublime Void: A Binder/Martial Adept PrC
« Reply #10 on: July 31, 2012, 12:19:52 PM »
I like the idea, but it's too specific and fragmented. I would never remember to use it for half those things. How about making it more generic, like spend it to boost any d20 roll? And spend 3 (or 5, whatever) uses to reroll a d20 roll? I realize that might be more powerful than what you were shooting for, but you get the idea.

I do agree that the class needs something more in the earlier levels, though. And it would be more appealing if the discipline choices for new maneuvers and stances also included disciplines that you had access to before entering this class, rather than just the four.

The available disciplines are in the style of ToB's PrCs (namely, giving you a fixed set based on the PrC, ignoring whatever classes you may previously have, if any). If you want to trade away some of the disciplines for others you already have, or for thematically-linked homebrew disciplines, go ahead, I can't see how it would be overpowered.

Offline Garryl

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4503
    • View Profile
Re: Initiate of the Sublime Void: A Binder/Martial Adept PrC
« Reply #11 on: February 12, 2013, 12:06:56 AM »
Rather significant update. I finally lowered the requirements for 5th-level entry, and I've added a new ability, Battle Pact, to fill out the levels (although it's no slouch of an ability and I'm not sure if it unbalances the class).