The Blademaster
If you haven’t had the opportunity to take a look at A Necromancer’s Grimoire: the Book of Martial Action, you should really take the chance to do so. It was released back in February, but I think it is quite possibly one of my favorite books that we’ve ever released, though it does have stiff competition from The Deluxe Guide to Fiend Summoning and Faustian Bargains, as far as recent products go. Whatever the case, I felt that a martial action prestige class would be fun and useful, and so I decided to throw one together. I’m pretty happy with the results, which you’ll find below.
New Prestige Class
Blademaster
Blademasters devote themselves to mastering the art of combat in all its forms, and specialize in the complex but rewarding martial techniques that allow them to fight strategically, bringing their fighting skill to bear with numerous techniques to outwit and outmaneuver even stronger or more powerful foes. A blademaster’s devotion to these techniques not only grants him a variety of powerful martial maneuvers, but also allows him to use more of them in a single round than his peers, and, at the end of his time in the class, grants him special access to one of the most powerful martial techniques of all.
Requirements
Base Attack Bonus: +7
Feats: Any five technique feats.
Class Skills
The blademaster’s class skills are Acrobatics (Dex), Climb (Str), Escape Artist (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), and Perception (Wis).
Skill Ranks Per Level: 2 + Intelligence modifier.
Hit Dice: d10.
Class Features
The following are class features of the blademaster prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A blademaster gains no proficiency with any weapons or armor.
Bonus Feat: At 1st level, and every odd-numbered level thereafter, the blademaster gains a single technique feat as a combat feat. The blademaster must still meet all prerequisites for the chosen feat.
Technique Specialist (Ex): Beginning at 2nd level, the blademaster becomes able to perform more complicated martial action techniques than his peers. The maximum number of martial action points that the blademaster can spend in a single turn increases by 1. At 4th level, and every two levels thereafter, the maximum number of martial action points that the blademaster can spend in a single turn increases by an additional 1 (to a maximum of 5 additional martial action points at 10th level).
Swift Technique (Ex): Beginning at 4th level, a blademaster learns how to perform his techniques with incredible alacrity, allowing him to do more in a single round. Once per round, when using a technique feat that requires a swift action to activate, he may spend 1 additional martial action point in order to do so as a free action, rather than a swift action. Alternatively, once per round, if the blademaster has not already used this ability since the beginning of his last turn, he can use a technique feat that requires an immediate action to activate, even if he already used a swift action this round, though he must spend 1 additional martial action point to do so.
Signature Technique (Ex): At 6th level, the blademaster adopts a single martial action technique to be his signature technique, and he becomes so practiced with that technique that he can use it more easily. The blademaster must choose a single technique feat that he knows. Whenever he uses that technique feat, the cost in martial action points to do so is reduced by 1 (to a minimum of 1 martial action point).
Greater Swift Technique (Ex): Beginning at 8th level, the blademaster can draw upon his martial abilities in order to perform even complicated techniques with incredible speed. Whenever the blademaster uses a technique feat that typically requires a move action to activate, he may spend 3 additional martial action points to activate it as a swift action, instead. He cannot combine this ability with the swift technique class feature to activate it as a free action.
Master Technique: At 10th level, the blademaster learns the secrets of one of the most powerful martial action techniques. He gains a single technique feat of his choice that has “base attack bonus +20” as a prerequisite. He does not need to meet this prerequisite of the feat, but must meet all other prerequisites of the chosen feat.