Infinite Shore [3.5, Discipline]

[Bozwevial]

Infinite Shore



And dreams in their development have breath,
And tears, and tortures, and the touch of joy;
They have a weight upon our waking thoughts,
They take a weight from off our waking toils,
They do divide our being.

The fool pays no attention to dreams. The product of an overactive imagination, such fantasies are precisely this, and nothing more. They are inconstant, fleeting, and of no worth to one concerned with what is real. To obsess over dream is to waste away, squandering what precious life one has. But always, always in the back of the mind during a dream, there is the burning, certain notion that this is real, and once this notion is seized, the very nature of the dream can be reshaped into any form imaginable. These sleepers who grasp this crucial skill often wonder if perhaps the waking world could be made more like dream, or if dream could be given form, for then their mastery over thought would become mastery over the world.

In this way was the school of the Infinite Shore founded. Surrounded by shrieking jungle, twelve warriors came together to forge a style of fighting which imposed their will onto reality. Favored by spies and assassins, the school is often dismissed as mere fiction, for its practitioners prize the secrecy their skills afford them. Even beyond that, they enjoy the notion that they are the bearers of a truth about the nature of reality which few have yet come to accept.

There are two ways to master the discipline. The first is to have been trained in it. If you choose to make a martial adept that has already been trained in the Infinite Shore discipline, you simply replace one discipline that adept could normally learn with maneuvers from with the Infinite Shore discipline. He loses the associated skill of the replaced discipline as a class skill, but gains Lucid Dreaming as a class skill.

The other way is to seek out a master of the Infinite Shore discipline–a martial adept capable of using at least 5th-level maneuvers from the discipline–and training under him. You must train for a month under the master, and spend 1,000 xp at the end of your training. You gain the ability to learn maneuvers from the Infinite Shore discipline, and add Lucid Dreaming to your martial adept class’s list of class skills. In addition, you may exchange your maneuvers known for maneuvers of the Infinite Shore discipline. You may exchange one maneuver of each level, and the new maneuvers you learn must be of the same level as the exchanged maneuvers, unlike normal.

While many of the discipline's abilities rely on a connection to dream, most of them do not depend on the target's ability to dream, as even creatures who do not dream such as warforged have minds which are connected, however intangibly, to the realm of dream. Unless otherwise noted, a creature's inability to dream or sleep does not render it immune to the maneuvers of this discipline. In addition, a creature who learns maneuvers from this school gains the ability to sleep and dream if it could not otherwise do so. Maneuvers of the Infinite Shore discipline are supernatural abilities unless otherwise noted in their descriptions. The associated skill for Infinite Shore is Lucid Dreaming, as virtually all of the school's abilities require mastery over dream. Its associated weapons are the scimitar, falchion, unarmed strike, dagger, short sword, and sickle, as well as any weapons created by Infinite Shore maneuvers.

[Bozwevial]

1st level:
Devouring Mirage: Strike - Bolster yourself by consuming your foe's dreams.
Drowned Aggression: Counter - Penalize your opponent's attack with a momentary flicker of idea.
Remembrance Splintered: Forge a weapon out of your memory.
Thoughtful Current Walker: Stance - Gain telepathic ability.

2nd level:
Hollow Darkness Mantra: Counter - Hide your mind from a mental effect.
Midnight Slaying Strike: Strike - Make an attack whose effects are felt when the target sleeps.
Tethered Wraith: Enter a coma and walk the world as your dreamself.

3rd level:
Epidemic of Thought: Strike - Infect your foe with a memetic virus.
In Dream Preserved: Counter - Convert an attack to subdual damage which quickly fades.
Mimicked Reflection: Boost - Gain temporary competence in a skill.
Tranquil Strife Walker: Stance - Enter a sleepwalking trance during combat.
Window to the Soul: Boost - See through the eyes of another.

4th level:
Dreams of Discord: Counter - Your opponent believes it has already defeated you.
Pond-Calming Strike: Strike - Erase your presence from the minds of your opponents.
Psyche Undertow: Boost - Briefly ignore immunity to mind-affecting effects.
Remembrance Shattered: As Remembrance Splintered, except created weapon fights autonomously.

5th level:
Cloying Horror Strike: Strike - Plague your opponent with nightmarish visions of you.
Dreamheart Dive: Boost - Conceal yourself within the mind of another.
Gathering Umbra Walker: Stance - Summon a shadowed dream creature.

6th level:
Inexorable Mirage Blow: Strike - Attacks deal extra damage, may be resolved as touch attacks.
In Nightmare Defended: Counter - As In Dream Preserved, except your resilience unnerves your foe.
Seven-Mind Stride: Boost - Use minds as temporary gateways.

7th level:
Reflection-Shattering Strike: Strike - Implant your personality into your foe's mind.
Shrouded World Walker: Stance - Hide your presence from all who observe you.
Sublimation of Form: Counter - Briefly infuse your flesh with dreamstuff.

8th level:
Cardinal's Fantasy: Boost - Attacks erode your foe's reality.
Gemini Phantasm Walker: Stance - Fight alongside your dreamself.

9th level:
Dreamtide Tempest: Strike - Blow cripples enemy's mind, may put them into a catatonic state.

[Bozwevial]

1st level:

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Devouring Mirage
Infinite Shore (Strike)
Level: Swordsage 1
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: One creature

You siphon off a bit of your enemy's psyche, devouring it to bolster your own form. As part of this maneuver, make a melee attack. If it hits, you gain 1d6+1/initiator level temporary hit points.

Drowned Aggression
Infinite Shore (Counter) [Mind-Affecting]
Level: Swordsage 1
Initiation Action: Immediate action
Target: One creature

A brief flicker of dream disrupts your opponent and spoils his aims. You may initiate this maneuver when you are targeted by an attack. Your attacker takes a -4 on his attack roll.

Remembrance Splintered
Infinite Shore
Level: Swordsage 1
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: See text

You forge one of your own memories into a weapon of pure dreamstuff. The created weapon may be any melee weapon with which you are proficient and which is within one size category of its wielder. It has the normal statistics for a weapon of its kind, except that it is made of dream and is weightless. It has a +1 enhancement bonus for every 4 ranks in Lucid Dreaming you possess. Regardless of your ranks in Lucid Dreaming, it also possesses the ghost touch property. The weapon cannot be sundered, but disappears if it leaves your hand, whether voluntarily, by disarmament or a thrown attack. In the latter case, the weapon persists until the attack is resolved.  You may create multiple weapons as part of this maneuver, but you must have a free hand available for each weapon created.

Thoughtful Current Walker
Infinite Shore (Stance)
Level: Swordsage 1
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance

Your heightened perceptions sense the ripples minds make in the fabric of dream. While you are in this stance, you gain telepathy out to a range of 10 feet per initiator level.

2nd level:

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Hollow Darkness Mantra
Infinite Shore (Counter)
Level: Swordsage 2
Initiation Action: Immediate action
Range: Personal
Target: You

You partition off your consciousness, hiding in dream from the oncoming storm. Whenever you would be required to make a Will save, you may initiate this maneuver. As part of this maneuver, make a Lucid Dreaming check and substitute the result for your Will save. A result of natural 20 on this check is not an automatic success, nor is a result of natural 1 an automatic failure. If you fail the save, you may opt to delay the effects for one round. This time counts against the effect’s duration, if it has one, and during this time it may be removed through any method that would normally do so. If you acquire immunity to the effect during the delay, that immunity applies normally when the delayed effect resumes.

Midnight Slaying Strike
Infinite Shore (Strike) [Mind-Affecting]
Level: Swordsage 2
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: One creature
Saving Throw: Will partial

You slash at your foe's physical form while making a delayed assault on their mind. As part of this maneuver, make a melee attack. If it hits, your target must make a Will save, DC 12+your Wisdom modifier, or fall prey to a malicious dream you implant in their head. Targets who fail their Will saves believe you attacked and missed. If they were unaware of you when you made the attack, they remain unaware of you. The secondary effects of the attack do not take place until the target next rests, at which point they take 4d6 points of damage as the dream ravages their physical form. Targets who do not dream (such as elves or kalashtar) are immune to the effects of this strike.


Tethered Wraith
Infinite Shore
Level: Swordsage 2
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: See text

You shed your physical form for that of your idealized mental persona – your dreamself. When you initiate this maneuver, you fall into a trance-like state, leaving your physical body behind and taking control of your dreamself. Your dreamself is incorporeal, invisible, and possesses a flight speed equal to your base land speed, but is otherwise identical to you except for its appearance, which typically reflects your personality in some way.

Maintaining your trance requires mental effort, and as such your dreamself cannot attack, activate items, use abilities, or interact with the world in any way. It can be attacked normally as an incorporeal creature, and it has the same number of hit points as you did when initiating the trance. If the dreamself is slain, the effect ends, and you cannot use this maneuver again for one hour while your psyche recovers from the shock, during which time you are shaken. Your body is considered helpless while you are controlling your dreamself, and if your body is slain, this effect ends and you die as normal.

The connection between you and your dreamself also grows more tenuous with distance. If your dreamself travels further than 20 feet per initiator level from your body, the effect ends as though the duration had expired. You may maintain the trance for one round per two ranks of Lucid Dreaming you possess, after which time the dreamself dissolves and you wake up in your physical body.

3rd level:

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Epidemic of Thought
Infinite Shore (Strike) [Mind-Affecting]
Level: Swordsage 3
Prerequisite: One Infinite Shore maneuver
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: One creature
Duration: 5 rounds

Your attack carries with it a mental contagion. As part of this maneuver, make a melee attack. If it hits, it deals an extra +2d6 damage, and the target must make a Will save, DC 13+your Wisdom modifier, or be infected with a memetic virus that propagates through dream. Any creature which begins its turn adjacent to an infected creature must also make a Will save or be infected by the virus. At the end of an infected creature’s turn, it must make another Will save or take 1d3 Charisma damage. Infected creatures who were not the strike’s original target also pass on the virus, but the duration of each infection is equal to the remaining duration of the original infection. A successful Will save ends the effect for that creature, and it cannot be reinfected by the same virus.

In Dream Preserved
Infinite Shore (Counter)
Level: Swordsage 3
Prerequisite: One Infinite Shore maneuver
Initiation Action: Immediate action
Range: Personal
Target: You

Blows that fall on your form fade quickly, as though they were idle dreams. Whenever you are attacked, you may initiate this maneuver. Make a Lucid Dreaming check, DC equal to the damage dealt by the attack. If you succeed, the attack is converted to nonlethal damage, and you heal a quarter of this nonlethal damage each round for the next four rounds as though you had regeneration. Only damage taken by this attack is regenerated in such a fashion.

Mimicked Reflection
Infinite Shore (Boost)
Level: Swordsage 3
Prerequisite: One Infinite Shore maneuver
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: One skill check

You siphon knowledge from the minds of all creatures who have ever dreamed. You initiate this maneuver as part of a skill check. When you make this check, you are treated as having a minimum of 4 ranks in the appropriate skill, and may thus make checks with skills such as Disable Device even if you are not trained in them. These virtual ranks also increase your modifier with the skill in question, assuming you do not already possess more ranks in the skill than virtual ranks granted by this boost. If instead you have witnessed someone else make a check using the same skill within the past minute, you are treated as having a number of virtual ranks equal to your initiator level plus 3, with the maximum number of virtual ranks equal to the ranks possessed by that person.

Tranquil Strife Walker
Infinite Shore (Stance)
Level: Swordsage 3
Prerequisite: One Infinite Shore maneuver
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance

When you enter this stance, you fall into a deep sleep, with your dreams mimicking reality in a metaphorical fashion. You are considered to be asleep when targeted by effects that function on slumbering creatures, but you are not helpless, do not automatically fail saves, and in fact are in no way hindered in your actions. As long as you maintain the stance, you may replace one attack roll per round with the result of a Lucid Dreaming check. A result of 20 on this check is not an automatic hit or critical threat, nor is a result of 1 an automatic miss.

Window to the Soul
Infinite Shore (Boost) [Mind-Affecting]
Level: Swordsage 3
Prerequisite: One Infinite Shore maneuver
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: 60 feet
Target: One creature
Save: Will negates
Duration: One minute

You open a conduit through dream into another’s mind, peering out onto the world through a fresh set of eyes. As part of this maneuver, select a target within range. You receive all the sensory information that target receives, and may perceive things as though you were in its square. Once forged, this link functions regardless of distance, even across planar boundaries. Unwilling targets are allowed a Will save, DC 13+your Wisdom modifier, to negate the effect. If they fail the save, they are unaware of your intrusion. As a side benefit, you cannot be flanked by a creature with whom you are linked in this fashion.

You may sever the link prematurely to use an effect through it. Treat the effect as though it originated from the target’s square. Only effects which are purely mental actions, such as psionic powers, may be used through the link.

You may only have one such link forged at a time. If you use this maneuver again before the previous link has expired, you may choose to refresh the duration of the existing link instead of forging a new one. This does not provoke a second Will save, but a given link may only last up to one hour, after which it expires regardless.

4th level:

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Dreams of Discord
Infinite Shore (Counter) [Mind-Affecting]
Level: Swordsage 4
Prerequisite: One Infinite Shore maneuver
Initiation Action: Immediate action
Range: Melee attack
Target: One creature
Save: Will negates

You pass off your foe’s aggressive intentions as memory, convincing them that you have already been struck. Whenever an enemy makes a melee attack against you, you may initiate this maneuver. Your opponent must make a Will save, DC 14+your Wisdom modifier, or be convinced briefly that it has already put you out of commission. The attack misses, and for the rest of its turn, it may not make any further attacks against you.

Pond-Calming Strike
Infinite Shore (Strike) [Mind-Affecting]
Level: Swordsage 4
Prerequisite: One Infinite Shore maneuver
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: One creature (see text)
Save: Will partial

You rip the very memory of your presence out of your enemies’ heads, calling on dream to fill in the gap. As part of this maneuver, make a melee attack. This attack deals an extra +5d6 damage, and at the end of your turn, every enemy within 100 feet who has witnessed your presence during this encounter must make a Will save, DC 14+your Wisdom modifier, or forget every action you have taken during this time, up to and including your very presence. A successful Will save lets them recall your presence, though not the details of your actions. Success by a margin of 5 or higher indicates they remember everything they normally would.

Psyche Undertow
Infinite Shore (Boost)
Level: Swordsage 4
Prerequisite: One Infinite Shore maneuver
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: 60 feet
Target: One creature
Duration: One round

Creeping tendrils of dream pull apart your enemy’s psychic barricade long enough for you to press the attack. As part of this maneuver, make an initiator level check, DC 10+the target’s Hit Dice. If you succeed, any immunities to mind-affecting effects the target may possess are negated for one round. Mindless creatures are not affected by this maneuver.

Remembrance Shattered
Infinite Shore (Boost)
Level: Swordsage 4
Prerequisite: One Infinite Shore maneuver
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: One round/initiator level

As Remembrance Splintered, except you may empower the created weapons with your own dreams to give them life. Weapons empowered in this way act of their own accord, as though they possessed the dancing property, except that they continue attacking until the duration expires or until you dismiss the effect. You may only have one weapon created by this maneuver in existence at a time.

5th level:

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Cloying Horror Strike
Infinite Shore (Strike) [Fear, Mind-Affecting]
Level: Swordsage 5
Prerequisite: Two Infinite Shore maneuvers
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: One creature
Save: Will partial
Duration: See text

You give your opponent terrifying hallucinations, emblazoning yourself against their dreams. As part of this maneuver, make a melee attack. If it hits, this attack deals an extra +6d6 damage, and your opponent must make a Will save, DC 15+your Wisdom modifier, or have its fears of you magnified to nightmarish proportions. As long as it can see you, it is shaken, and each time it rests thereafter it must make another Will save or be plagued by further nightmares of you, leaving it fatigued and unable to regain spells, powers, and other abilities which require rest for the next 24 hours. These conditions last until your opponent succeeds on his Will save.

Dreamheart Dive
Infinite Shore (Boost) [Mind-Affecting]
Level: Swordsage 5
Prerequisite: Two Infinite Shore maneuvers
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: 60 feet
Target: One creature
Save: Will negates
Duration: One hour

You delve bodily into your target's dreams, lurking among them as pure thought. The target must make a Will save, DC 15+your Wisdom modifier. If it fails, you enter the target’s mind in the form of a waking dream. While you are submerged inside the target’s mind, you and all the gear you are carrying disappear; for all intents and purposes, you cease to exist except as a dream. However, time spent submerged in the target’s mind counts against the duration of ongoing effects. As this is not a possession effect, protection from evil and similar effects do not prevent a target from being affected by this maneuver. The target is not aware of your presence (nor of your entry, if it witnessed you use this maneuver) and cannot communicate with you.

While you are submerged in the target, you receive any sensory information the target receives. You may read the target’s surface thoughts (as per detect thoughts, but without the need to concentrate for three rounds to read them, and the target is not allowed a Will save), and once during the duration of this effect, you may attempt to shape the target’s subconscious in a useful manner, issuing a suggestion (DC equal to the maneuver’s initial save) to your host. Beyond reading thoughts, issuing a suggestion, and choosing to exit, you may not take any other actions while submerged. Exiting the target is a swift action, while reading thoughts and issuing suggestions are standard actions.

When you choose to exit the target’s mind, the effect ends (prematurely or otherwise), or the target dies, you appear in any space adjacent to the target.

Gathering Umbra Walker
Infinite Shore (Stance) [Creation]
Level: Swordsage 5
Prerequisite: Two Infinite Shore maneuvers
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: See text
Duration: Stance; see text

You infuse dreamstuff into a dark memory dredged up from your subconscious. While you are in this stance, you may spend a full-round action to create a nightmare servant. Treat the nightmare servant as an astral construct with a manifester level and power point expenditure equal to your initiator level, except that you may only have one such nightmare servant in existence at a time, and the nightmare servant lasts until it is destroyed or you change stances. Additionally, you may select menu options from those afforded by the Tainted Construction feat. A nightmare servant may be shaped to resemble whatever its creator desires, but the roiling dreamstuff that makes up its form betrays its identity as a creature of nightmare.

6th level:

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Inexorable Mirage Blow
Infinite Shore (Strike) [Mind-Affecting]
Level: Swordsage 6
Prerequisite: Two Infinite Shore maneuvers
Initiation Action: Full-round action
Range: Melee attack
Target: One creature
Save: Will partial

You bolster your attacks with the inevitability of a nightmarish stalker, each blow cutting true and deep. As part of this maneuver, you may make a full attack against one opponent, and your opponent must make a Will save, DC 16+your Wisdom modifier, or an overwhelming nightmare crushes his defenses, allowing you to treat all your attacks made against it for the round as touch attacks. Whether or not your opponent makes his save, each of your attacks made in this round gains a +2d6 damage bonus.

In Nightmare Defended
Infinite Shore (Counter) [Fear, Mind-Affecting]
Level: Swordsage 6
Prerequisite: Two Infinite Shore maneuvers
Initiation Action: Immediate action
Save: Will negates
Duration: Two rounds; see text

Fear grips your foe as his killing blow rapidly fades from existence. This maneuver functions as In Dream Preserved, except that you heal half the damage taken from the attack each round for the next two rounds. In addition, your attacker is unnerved by your unnatural regeneration, which seems to be the stuff of nightmares, and must make a Will save, DC 16+your Wisdom modifier, or be frightened for two rounds.

Seven-Mind Stride
Infinite Shore (Boost) [Mind-Affecting, Teleportation]
Level: Swordsage 6
Prerequisite: Two Infinite Shore maneuvers
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Save: Will negates; see text
Duration: One round

You may use the minds of creatures as portals to dream. Until the end of your turn, when you move into the space of a non-mindless creature other than yourself, you may vanish into its mind and exit the space of any other non-mindless creature within 60 feet. Traveling between the two creatures’ minds takes up 5 feet of movement. If stepping between minds causes you to run out of movement while in another creature's space, you are deposited in the nearest empty space. Entering and exiting a creature's mind does not provoke an attack of opportunity. Whenever you exit a creature’s mind, either by traveling to a different creature or by stepping out, you may elect to read the creature’s surface thoughts as per detect thoughts. Alternatively, you may instead choose to daze the creature for one round. In either case, the creature receives a Will save, DC 16+your Wisdom modifier, to negate the effect, and a creature who makes its save cannot be further affected by that use of the maneuver.

7th level:

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Reflection-Shattering Strike
Infinite Shore (Strike) [Mind-Affecting]
Level: Swordsage 7
Prerequisite: Three Infinite Shore maneuvers
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: One creature
Save: Will negates
Duration: Five rounds; see text

You maroon your opponent’s psyche in dream and step into the momentary opening afforded. As part of this maneuver, make a melee attack; if it hits, your opponent must make a Will save, DC 17+your Wisdom modifier, or have your persona briefly overwrite its own.

While your persona is in control, it may dictate the target’s actions. Treat the target as being you in mind, with your own mental ability scores. The host has access to none of your abilities save your maneuvers, which it may initiate as normal. Maneuvers the host initiates are expended as normal. You may also use the target’s abilities as though they were your own; however, your unfamiliarity with the host body means that it gains four negative levels while this effect lasts. (These negative levels don’t last long enough to risk becoming permanent and cannot reduce the target below first level.)

At the end of each of the host’s turns, it may struggle for dominance by making an opposed Wisdom check against you. If it succeeds on the check, the effect ends immediately.

Shrouded World Walker
Infinite Shore (Stance) [Mind-Affecting]
Level: Swordsage 7
Prerequisite: Three Infinite Shore maneuvers
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Save: Will negates
Duration: Stance

Dream shrouds you and makes you no more than a passing phantasm. While you are in this stance, any creature which is not immune to mind-affecting effects cannot perceive you without making a Will save, DC 17+your Wisdom modifier. If a creature fails this save, you are completely invisible and inaudible to it, and it cannot detect your presence by means of blindsense, blindsight, scent, tremorsense, nor pinpoint your location by any means, as dream erodes your presence from its mind.

A creature that fails its save remains unaware of your presence as long as you maintain this stance, with the following exceptions. If you make an obvious change in the creature’s environment (such as moving a large object the creature can see or attacking another creature), it is entitled to another saving throw. If another creature which is able to perceive you warns the creature of your presence, that creature receives another saving throw. Finally, if you attack an affected creature, the effect ends for that creature.

You may designate one or more creatures, up to a maximum of your Wisdom modifier, when you enter this stance. These creatures retain the ability to perceive you.

Sublimation of Form
Infinite Shore (Counter)
Level: Swordsage 7
Prerequisite: Three Infinite Shore maneuvers
Initiation Action: Immediate action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: See text

For an instant, your flesh boils away into pure dreamstuff. You may initiate this maneuver when you are attacked. You become ethereal until the start of your next turn.

8th level:

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Cardinal's Fantasy
Infinite Shore (Boost)
Level: Swordsage 8
Prerequisite: Three Infinite Shore maneuvers
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Two rounds

Your blows wrap your enemies in tendrils of dream, drawing them further and further away from the waking world. Until the end of your turn, your attacks erode the reality of your enemies. If you hit an opponent with an attack, each action that opponent undertakes has a 10% chance to fail to no effect, swept away by the undercurrent of dream. Multiple hits each add another 10% to the chance of failure, to a maximum of 100%.

Gemini Phantasm Walker
Infinite Shore (Stance)
Level: Swordsage 8
Prerequisite: Three Infinite Shore maneuvers
Initiation Action: Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance

You breach the border between dream and reality, bringing your dreamself into the physical world. Your dreamself appears in any square adjacent to you. It acts on the same initiative count as you, though it may only take a move action each round. It is incorporeal and possesses a flight speed of 60 feet with perfect maneuverability, but is in all other ways identical to you save for its appearance, which typically reflects your personality in some way. The dreamself appears with as many hit points as you had remaining when you entered the stance. It remains until it is slain, the two of you are further than 20 feet per initiator level apart, or until you leave this stance.

While your dreamself persists, you can perceive anything it can perceive as though you were in its space. Furthermore, you may make attacks, use maneuvers, and in all other ways originate effects as though you were in its space, though if you would provoke attacks of opportunity for doing so, they are resolved against your dreamself and not you. Additionally, you and your dreamself may switch places as a swift action, although the switch fails if it would leave you in a square you could not occupy (such as one occupied by another creature or a solid object). If you are subject to a planar travel effect, your dreamself follows, appearing in the same position with respect to distance and orientation that it previously occupied. Finally, while your dreamself persists, as a swift action, you may choose any one effect currently affecting you with a duration of one or more rounds. That effect is lifted from you and passes to your dreamself instead. Effects active on your dreamself when it leaves, either because of separation, death, or changing stances, are transferred back to you. If the dreamself is slain, you immediately exit this stance and may not enter it again for an hour while your psyche recovers from the trauma, during which time you are shaken.

9th level:

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Dreamtide Tempest
Infinite Shore (Strike) [Mind-Affecting]
Level: Swordsage 9
Prerequisite: Four Infinite Shore maneuvers
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range: Melee attack
Target: One creature
Save: Will partial
Duration: See text

Your blow submerges your foe's mind in the raw chaos of the Dreamheart. As part of this maneuver, make a melee attack. If it hits, it deals an extra +10d6 damage, and the target must make a Will save, DC 19+your Wisdom modifier, or take a -2d6 penalty to its Wisdom score. On a successful save, it instead takes half this amount. This penalty lasts for one hour.

If this penalty would reduce the creature’s Wisdom to 0, it becomes a prisoner of its own dreams, sealing its consciousness into a mental world of its own devising to prevent permanent damage. The creature is treated as though it had been subject to a microcosm effect.

[Bozwevial]

Reserved for discipline feats and miscellany.

Posting from here on is not only kosher but also the thing that all the cool kids do.

[Drammor]

Oh holy carp. I am so excited to see the descriptions.

Also, I've been posting on this thread since before it was cool.

[Bozwevial]

Descriptions are up.

[Garryl]

1st

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Devouring Mirage: A much weaker version of Crusader's Strike? Just split the difference. No save, just 1d6+IL temp hp to yourself or something.

Drowned Aggression: Wall of Blades-type defense, -1 level, except weak. Save + only a penalty (and why Wisdom-based?). The nearest direct comparison is Zephyr Dance, a 3rd level Desert Wind counter, which is a flat +4 AC against an attack. No one uses that. This is two levels lower and even weaker.
   Also to compare with Zephyr Dance and Wall of Blades, I'd suggest nixing the save + Wis-based penalty thing. If you go more like Zephyr Dance, pick some fixed penalty to apply on a failed save. If you go with a -4 penalty and remove the save entirely, even, I won't say boo, and negating the attack entirely on a failed save isn't out of line either, though probably deserving of being a couple levels higher. If you go more like Wall of Blades, you'll want some sort of roll on your part to negate the attack. Making a Will save to oppose the attack roll could be neat.

Remembrance Splintered: One 1st level boost that replaces the Soulknife class? /applaud. This feels more like it should be a stance than a boost, or an unclassified maneuver, maybe.
   If you have 3 or fewer ranks in Lucid Dreaming, it won't have an enhancement bonus. How does that interact with whether or not Ghost Touch is applicable?

Thoughtful Current Walker: I'd give the telepathy or the attack bonus, not both.

2nd

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Hollow Darkness Mantra: Complete immunity to any Will-based effect with a duration from 1 to 5 rounds seems too strong.

Midnight Slaying Strike: The delayed damage seems a bit high (equivalent to ~5d6 at level 3). The nature of the effect is very anti-player.
   Why is the damage healable only through natural methods?

Tethered Wraith: So, short-range scouting? I don't see why this is classified as a boost. It should be an unclassified maneuver.

3rd

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Epidemic of Thought: That's a lot of Charisma damage.

In Dream Preserved: Cool.

Mimicked Reflection: Cool. I'd cap the skill ranks for mimicking someone else to the number of ranks that person had.

Tranquil Strife Walker: An attack roll of 20 is an automatic hit and (usually) a critical threat, not a critical hit.
   I think you're trying to do too much here. Replacing an attack roll with Lucid Dreaming 1/round would be enough for a 3rd level stance, as would the sleep/+4 vs. mind-affecting. Both is too much.

Window to the Soul: Intriguing.

4th

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Dreams of Discord: Cool.

Pond-Calming Strike: That's a ridiculously high DC to remember anything.
   Your party mates are going to call you a slacker whenever you use this strike.

Psyche Undertow: Okay. It'll be pretty much mandatory, though, given all the mind-affecting maneuvers in this discipline, which is a very bad thing.

Remembrance Shattered: What's the bit about using your normal attack bonus? That's what Dancing weapons do normally.

5th

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Cloying Horror Strike: Okay.

Dreamheart Dive: I have no idea no idea how to evaluate this one. Should be revised as a strike, not a boost, I think.

Gathering Umbra Walker: Nice.

Shrouded World Walker: I'd up this to at least 7th level. Compare to Superior Invisibility or Mass Cloud Mind.

9th

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Dreamtide Tempest: Any particular reason for Wisdom burn instead of damage? The only difference is whether you can heal it magically or not, right? Personally, I might have made this a Wisdom penalty instead, so that it doesn't automatically fail against creatures immune to ability damage while remaining relevant to everyone else.
   I'd drop the ability burn/damage/penalty/whatever you go with to 2d6, not 3d6. The 9th level Stone Dragon strike does only 2d6 Con damage (not burn), but it also doesn't have the 10d6 bonus damage, either.
   I worry that having a 9th-level maneuver be mind-affecting trivializes it too much, as far too many sources of immunity to mind-affecting are available by this level.

Will look at levels 6-8 later.

[phaedrusxy]

Dude... this is awesomeness. I will try to provide more constructive mechanical feedback later, but the fluff is spectacular. Definitely going to include this in my Mindscapes sub-system somehow.

[Bozwevial]

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Devouring Mirage: A much weaker version of Crusader's Strike? Just split the difference. No save, just 1d6+IL temp hp to yourself or something.

I always forget that exists. Changed, and lopped off the [Mind-Affecting] tag so it fits thematically.

Drowned Aggression: Wall of Blades-type defense, -1 level, except weak. Save + only a penalty (and why Wisdom-based?). The nearest direct comparison is Zephyr Dance, a 3rd level Desert Wind counter, which is a flat +4 AC against an attack. No one uses that. This is two levels lower and even weaker.
   Also to compare with Zephyr Dance and Wall of Blades, I'd suggest nixing the save + Wis-based penalty thing. If you go more like Zephyr Dance, pick some fixed penalty to apply on a failed save. If you go with a -4 penalty and remove the save entirely, even, I won't say boo, and negating the attack entirely on a failed save isn't out of line either, though probably deserving of being a couple levels higher. If you go more like Wall of Blades, you'll want some sort of roll on your part to negate the attack. Making a Will save to oppose the attack roll could be neat.

True on all counts. I think I'll stick to the original fluff and make it a flat -4.

Remembrance Splintered: One 1st level boost that replaces the Soulknife class? /applaud. This feels more like it should be a stance than a boost, or an unclassified maneuver, maybe.

What soulknife? This is the new soulknife. And probably, although I generally dislike unclassified maneuvers. There are a fair few boosts in this discipline that aren't really boosts. Maybe I'll make one or two of them Rushes? I'll leave the Remembrance duo untyped for now.

If you have 3 or fewer ranks in Lucid Dreaming, it won't have an enhancement bonus. How does that interact with whether or not Ghost Touch is applicable?

It remains, I'll clarify.

Thoughtful Current Walker: I'd give the telepathy or the attack bonus, not both.

Fair enough. Telepathy is probably nice enough.

Hollow Darkness Mantra: Complete immunity to any Will-based effect with a duration from 1 to 5 rounds seems too strong.

One round delay fix it?

Midnight Slaying Strike: The delayed damage seems a bit high (equivalent to ~5d6 at level 3). The nature of the effect is very anti-player.

It's meant to be somewhat high given that the strike itself is oriented toward assassin-types, but I can see scaling it back to, say, 4d6? Would giving the adept the option of triggering it early assuage your concerns about the effect being anti-player, or is it offensive on a conceptual level?

Why is the damage healable only through natural methods?

Er, legacy text, apparently.

Tethered Wraith: So, short-range scouting? I don't see why this is classified as a boost. It should be an unclassified maneuver.

This is another one of those which is a boost because...well, what else? Unclassified it is.

3rd

Epidemic of Thought: That's a lot of Charisma damage.

I think I meant to stipulate that a successful save ends the effect.

In Dream Preserved: Cool.

You would say that, clever devil.

Mimicked Reflection: Cool. I'd cap the skill ranks for mimicking someone else to the number of ranks that person had.

Good point, fixed.

Tranquil Strife Walker: An attack roll of 20 is an automatic hit and (usually) a critical threat, not a critical hit.

Fixed.

I think you're trying to do too much here. Replacing an attack roll with Lucid Dreaming 1/round would be enough for a 3rd level stance, as would the sleep/+4 vs. mind-affecting. Both is too much.

Alright, I can nix the sleep and mind-affecting bonus. They're mostly thematic.

Window to the Soul: Intriguing.

And here I thought the wall of text on that one would leave gaping holes.

Dreams of Discord: Cool.

Déjà fu.

Pond-Calming Strike: That's a ridiculously high DC to remember anything.

How's the new gradient?

Your party mates are going to call you a slacker whenever you use this strike.

I did specify "every enemy."

Psyche Undertow: Okay. It'll be pretty much mandatory, though, given all the mind-affecting maneuvers in this discipline, which is a very bad thing.

I really should find some way to mitigate that. Probably some of these maneuvers don't really merit the tags, and I can knock those off. Maybe fold this functionality into a higher level stance? Suggestions?

Remembrance Shattered: What's the bit about using your normal attack bonus? That's what Dancing weapons do normally.

It specifies base attack bonus, which...I don't even know. That wording is just weird. Fixed.

Cloying Horror Strike: Okay.

Cool.

Dreamheart Dive: I have no idea no idea how to evaluate this one. Should be revised as a strike, not a boost, I think.

Maybe as a rush?

Gathering Umbra Walker: Nice.

I thought so.

Shrouded World Walker: I'd up this to at least 7th level. Compare to Superior Invisibility or Mass Cloud Mind.

It is mind-affecting, though, which...hrm. Maybe. It's not like that'd leave me without a 5th level stance.

Dreamtide Tempest: Any particular reason for Wisdom burn instead of damage? The only difference is whether you can heal it magically or not, right? Personally, I might have made this a Wisdom penalty instead, so that it doesn't automatically fail against creatures immune to ability damage while remaining relevant to everyone else.

Yeah, I guess that'd work. Burn was so that it would have to be healed naturally instead of making it something you can easily wand away after the fact.

I'd drop the ability burn/damage/penalty/whatever you go with to 2d6, not 3d6. The 9th level Stone Dragon strike does only 2d6 Con damage (not burn), but it also doesn't have the 10d6 bonus damage, either.

No one ever pointed at Stone Dragon as a paragon of balance...but you're right, it probably needs to be rescaled.

I worry that having a 9th-level maneuver be mind-affecting trivializes it too much, as far too many sources of immunity to mind-affecting are available by this level.

Part and parcel of the entire discipline having too many [Mind-Affecting] tags, really. I'll try and come up with a solution, but if you have suggestions they're very welcome.

Will look at levels 6-8 later.

Thanks much for doing this.

[Drammor]

In Reflection-Shattering Strike, is this intended to make wights out of characters of 4 and fewer HD?

Also, what happens if your Gemini Phantasm stops being on the same plane as you?

[Bozwevial]

In Reflection-Shattering Strike, is this intended to make wights out of characters of 4 and fewer HD?

Nope. I've amended that.

Also, what happens if your Gemini Phantasm stops being on the same plane as you?

It should probably dissolve, clarified.

[Bozwevial]

Moved Shrouded World Walker to 7th level as per Garryl's suggestions. I'll also be going back through and stripping the [Mind-Affecting] tag from maneuvers which probably don't merit it later, as well as adding options to mitigate that drawback through discipline feats. If you have any suggestions for additional material you'd like to see or balance concerns, do let me know.

[sirpercival]

Looking over this again for a new homebrew... I'm once again struck by how ridiculously awesome it is.  Kudos given.

EDIT: And don't forget feats, legacy item, etc.!

[sirpercival]

EDIT: And don't forget feats, legacy item, etc.!

Bump...

[Garryl]

Remember when I said I'd look at levels 6-8 later? I lied.

(Okay, maybe not.)

6th

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Cool stuff here.

Seven-Mind Stride: I'm not 100% sure how this works. It seems to be that you enter a creature's space, initiate the maneuver, pop over to someone else, and the maneuver's done, but the intent feels like you're supposed to be able to do that repeatedly over the course of one round.
   This should also be a teleportation effect.
   Unless you're using Tumble at a DC of 25 or higher, you're gonna provoke a lot of AoOs from this maneuver. One from the creature you move into and one from the creature you move out of, at the very least.
   Is there anything stopping you from stepping into your own mind? I don't see anything.

7th

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Reflection-Shattering Strike: So... Dominate Monster on a tactical level? Cool.
   There are no ties in opposed checks. If the results are equal, whoever had the highest modifier wins. If both are equal, you keep on rerolling until the tie is broken.

Shrouded World Walker: DC is 2 points too low. I think you forgot to adjust when raising it to 7th from 5th.

Sublimation of Form: Have your trained trouserfang snake ready an action to attack you whenever someone else does (or on your command, if you want to walk through walls or something), thus ensuring an easy Lucid Dreaming check for 1 round etherealness rather than a potentially difficult one that would protect against only one attack.

8th

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Cardinal's Fantasy: Just give it a fixed duration. It's 3 rounds when you get it anyways, and it only goes up to 4 if you're at level 20. Is there anything in ToB that uses IL-based durations? I'd be tempted to leave this at only 2 rounds, personally, since it's only a boost and gives no save, especially since it's also in a discipline with a great many full-attack-granting strikes (many of which strongly encourage gaining extra attacks).
   Actions are resources, too, so technically, this effectively shouldn't do anything. How about instead of going back on something that's already happened and leaving things open to loopholes and other problems, just say that the subject has an X% chance when taking an action to lose the action, doing nothing instead.
   Wording needs some tweaking. As far as I can tell, each attack grants a separate failure chance, which each attack also boosts, so 2 hits = 36% chance, 3 hits = 65.7%, etc. Also, "successful attack" is ambiguous. Try something like: "If you hit an opponent with an attack, each action that opponent undertakes has a 10% chance to fail to no effect, swept away by the undercurrent of dream. Multiple hits each add another 10% to the chance of failure, to a maximum of 100%."

Gemini Phantasm Walker: What happens if you swap places into a space you can't occupy (such as another creature's space or a solid object)?
   Planar travel ending the stance seems too harsh, especially with a maneuver but one level lower that does exactly that! Just have the dreamself transport to the same plane as you (at the same distance and orientation). That will also stop arguments about whether or not teleportation (most commonly involving a momentary stop on the astral plane) kills it.
   Wording about effect transference is unclear. When do you make this decision? How many effects can you transfer? Does it transfer back automatically when the duration falls below 1 round? Depending on what it is, you may be granting persistent effective immunity to all effects with durations grater than 1 round, which is way too much power for a non-epic ability.

[Bozwevial]

Seven-Mind Stride: I'm not 100% sure how this works. It seems to be that you enter a creature's space, initiate the maneuver, pop over to someone else, and the maneuver's done, but the intent feels like you're supposed to be able to do that repeatedly over the course of one round.

You have the intent correct. I added clarifying language.

This should also be a teleportation effect.

That it should. Fixed.

Unless you're using Tumble at a DC of 25 or higher, you're gonna provoke a lot of AoOs from this maneuver. One from the creature you move into and one from the creature you move out of, at the very least.

That appears to be legacy text. Fixed.

Is there anything stopping you from stepping into your own mind? I don't see anything.

Well, now there is.

Reflection-Shattering Strike: So... Dominate Monster on a tactical level? Cool.
There are no ties in opposed checks. If the results are equal, whoever had the highest modifier wins. If both are equal, you keep on rerolling until the tie is broken.

You're right. Deleted the relevant sentence.

Shrouded World Walker: DC is 2 points too low. I think you forgot to adjust when raising it to 7th from 5th.

Fixed.

Sublimation of Form: Have your trained trouserfang snake ready an action to attack you whenever someone else does (or on your command, if you want to walk through walls or something), thus ensuring an easy Lucid Dreaming check for 1 round etherealness rather than a potentially difficult one that would protect against only one attack.

Yeah, that seems to be a common problem with counters that have effects which last longer than the triggering action. I'm just going to axe the Lucid Dreaming check and give it the full duration. The effect isn't especially crazy at that level, it's just the trigger condition that's weird if you exploit it. If you have a more elegant solution in mind, I wouldn't mind hearing it. (I could scrap the attack requirement and make it a boost, but eh.)

Cardinal's Fantasy: Just give it a fixed duration. It's 3 rounds when you get it anyways, and it only goes up to 4 if you're at level 20. Is there anything in ToB that uses IL-based durations? I'd be tempted to leave this at only 2 rounds, personally, since it's only a boost and gives no save, especially since it's also in a discipline with a great many full-attack-granting strikes (many of which strongly encourage gaining extra attacks).

True on all counts. Modified.

Actions are resources, too, so technically, this effectively shouldn't do anything. How about instead of going back on something that's already happened and leaving things open to loopholes and other problems, just say that the subject has an X% chance when taking an action to lose the action, doing nothing instead.
   Wording needs some tweaking. As far as I can tell, each attack grants a separate failure chance, which each attack also boosts, so 2 hits = 36% chance, 3 hits = 65.7%, etc. Also, "successful attack" is ambiguous. Try something like: "If you hit an opponent with an attack, each action that opponent undertakes has a 10% chance to fail to no effect, swept away by the undercurrent of dream. Multiple hits each add another 10% to the chance of failure, to a maximum of 100%."

Thanks for the clarification. Fixed.

Gemini Phantasm Walker: What happens if you swap places into a space you can't occupy (such as another creature's space or a solid object)?

The swap fails, clarified.

Planar travel ending the stance seems too harsh, especially with a maneuver but one level lower that does exactly that! Just have the dreamself transport to the same plane as you (at the same distance and orientation). That will also stop arguments about whether or not teleportation (most commonly involving a momentary stop on the astral plane) kills it.

Fair point. Changed.

Wording about effect transference is unclear. When do you make this decision? How many effects can you transfer? Does it transfer back automatically when the duration falls below 1 round? Depending on what it is, you may be granting persistent effective immunity to all effects with durations grater than 1 round, which is way too much power for a non-epic ability.

Changed the text of the maneuver so that transferring a condition takes a swift action. The 'one or more rounds' was to prevent transferring instantaneous effects – I don't think there would be any problem with durations dipping below one round, since typically the time quantum for tracking effects is one round. I could be wrong, of course.

[Garryl]

Seeing as you can repeatedly use it in a round, what's stopping you from hopping back and forth between two creatures over and over with Seven-Mind Stride until one or both of them fail the Will save (or, you know, you run out of movement, although you've got up to 5 shots at it even with only a 30 foot speed)?

P.S.: Cool imagery, and it's neat to have mind-affecting and teleportation mingle together. It's not a descriptor combo you see very often.

[Bozwevial]

Seeing as you can repeatedly use it in a round, what's stopping you from hopping back and forth between two creatures over and over with Seven-Mind Stride until one or both of them fail the Will save (or, you know, you run out of movement, although you've got up to 5 shots at it even with only a 30 foot speed)?

P.S.: Cool imagery, and it's neat to have mind-affecting and teleportation mingle together. It's not a descriptor combo you see very often.

I'll limit that to one save per use of the maneuver. And thanks, I'm glad you like it. That's one of my favorite maneuvers in the discipline.