Sword School - Serene Tempest

[Lestat]

Serene Tempest is a school of utter preparation and regiment even in the heat of battle. On and off the battlefield an attack could come at any moment and you must be prepared to cut down anyone without hesitation. A sword spends most of its time in the scabbard, and that is where it returns after each kata. Only once you are as deadly with your weapon sheathed as another man is with his drawn can true mastery be achieved.

Reading your enemies motives and actions is the key to success under Serene Tempest, allowing you to respond to their future moves before they are even taken. Scrutiny is the key skill for practitioners of these techniques. Swiftly drawing your blade to react to threats is the difference between life and death leading the Ready action to be the chosen special action. The reliability and versatility of Ordinary weapons allows a true warrior to retaliate with confidence, and will always be the preferred weapon of grand masters.

You may take this sword school in place of the Shadow Hand sword school.

Level 1: Apprentice

Weapon (Ordinary): You may use Ordinary weapons with your martial maneuvers.

Action (Ready): Use Ready actions in martial maneuvers. Any attack-related advantages applied to this special attack instead are applied to your next attack if you use this action to ready a weapon and use that weapon in your attack. That attack may not be a Special Attack.

Level 2: Initiate

(-2) Iaido: The weapon used with this Special Attack can not be used for another Special Attack until it is stowed or sheathed.

(2) Jetstream Strike: Make an opposed weaponry test against an opponent. On a success this special attack gains the same benefits one of your attacks would gain from a successful Feint against that opponent.

Level 3: Journeyman

(-1) Skill (Scrutiny): As a part of this attack, make a Scrutiny test against the target's Static Defense. If it fails, the attack fails.

(3) Spatial Slice: This attack gains the same benefits one of your attacks would gain from the Sword Beam feat. If you aren't immobilized you may also appear adjacent to an enemy hit as a result of this action.

Level 4: Master

(3*) Hurricane Slash: For each time this advantage is taken this attack can target one additional creature. The targets pool their Static Defense into one number to be hit. If you hit this Static Defense they are all hit by the same attack.

Mastery (Lightning Sheath): You may use the Quick Draw feat one additional time per round, and drawing, stowing, or sheathing a melee weapon no longer provokes an opportunity attack. Weaponry tests made with a melee weapon you drew this turn gain a +1k1 bonus.

Level 5: Grand Master

(7) Gale Edge: When you hit with this attack you also hit with a number of extra bonus hits dependent upon how many raises you get on the attack roll. The first extra hit requires three raises, and each subsequent extra hit requires three raises plus one more than the last, the second hit requiring four additional raises, seven total, the next requiring five additional raises, twelve total, and so on. These bonus hits do not receive optional bonuses such as Power Attack.

[Lestat]

Gale Edge now costs 6 points rather than 7.
Edit 2: Gale Edge now returns to costing 7 points up from 6, but now automatically categorizes each attack as an extra hit instead. After an entire campaign of Gale Edge spam, and the extra attacks usually being a foregone conclusion as to whether or not they will hit due to being optimized for a near guaranteed hit being an obvious pairing for this sword school they now simply hit automatically. This should significantly cut down on dice rolled. This screws over dodge/parry builds as the initial feint now leads into the entire nova being unavoidable, but I would rather nerf other parts of it, and increase costs than call for 50+ dice to resolve one attack.
Edit 3: Hurricane Slash changed from attacking with auxiliary attacks with inherent Dexterity bonus range, and being able to draw this Dex range from any target you hit (chaining from target to target) to a new mechanic. You target additional enemies, and they are all hit by the same attack. The only downside is that all targets pool together their Static Defense. Mostly free against power armor soak tanks, a bit painful against high evasion enemies. Also upped cost from (2*) to (3*).

[GuardianTempest]

Is it really frequent to get enough raises to earn more than one bonus attack with Gale Edge?

[Amanojyaku]

Static Defense is not remotely as insurmountable a wall as you think it is, even with Dodge/Parry. A character that wants to hit you will hit you, full stop. One that bends resources toward hitting you is going to do so with effort to spare.