Sword School - Royal Arsenal

[ScrapyardDragon]

Royal Arsenal
Alternate for Iron Heart



One weapon is not enough. Neither is two, three, or seven. First used by an ancient king said to have collected all the treasures of the wheel, Royal Arsenal is a school about constant change and adaptation, to strike with a different weapon with every attack, the right tool for every situation.

The key skill for Royal Arsenal is Performer, the honed talents to juggle between several weapons in an awe-inspiring display of skill. Ordinary weapons are the ones apprentices are first trained to use in order to instill a firm knowledge of the fundamentals of most weapons before the student begins branching out as their collection expands.


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) Endless cycle: You are disarmed of the weapon used for this attack after it is resolved
(2) Mugen Ittoryu: You may ready a weapon as part of this attack


Level 3: Adept
(-1) Skill (Performer): As a part of this attack, make a performer test against the target's Static Defense. If it fails, the attack fails.
(3) Iaijutsu: If this attack is the first time a weapon has been used in the current scene, it deals +2k1 damage



Level 4: Master
Mastery (Armiger): You do not provoke attacks when readying a weapon. You gain the Quick Draw feat if you did not already have it.
(1) Changing blade: You may use any melee weapon type for this attack.


Level 5: Grandmaster
(7) Warchain: Each time a damage die explodes as part of this attack, you may drop or stow the weapon used and ready a new weapon, then add the base damage dealt by the readied weapon instead of rolling the die again.

[ScrapyardDragon]

I have been sitting on the idea of a "weapon switching" sword school for a while now, and finally got around to pushing it out. Obviously Noctis' armiger shenanigans from FFXV was the main and initial inspiration, but I also took some cues from Mifune from Soul Eater and a peek at the fluff will show some hinting towards everyone's favorite golden prick gilgamesh. yeah, I know armiger is just a worse version of lightning sheath from serene tempest, but I also think lightning sheath does TOO much, so yeah. The school itself is a pretty experimental concept because normally people pick one weapon and go all in on that, so I have no idea how strong all the advantages to enable and encourage constantly switching are, so there will probably be plenty of tweaks going forwards after input from others. I'm considering moving or replacing changing blade but I'm unsure. Its basically adaptive style from master of nine, but only for one special attack (and at a cost too), but you also dont need to actually go INTO master of nine to get and use it. The most irrelevant part I'm iffy about is performer being the key skill; my logic was "literally juggling weapons" because "five artifact knives" has been an in-joke I've been using for a while now and I wasn't sure what else to go with. I don't even know how often people take the skill disadvantages so maybe it doesn't even matter.

[Amalvi]

I think changing blade and warchain are painfully boring. This sword school should encourage changing weapons, and not just the typical problem of only ever using one weapon, which is what you are doing by adding advantages that translate to "you can carry several weapons on you, but you don't need to actually use them, just use a single weapon that counts as any of them". If you give me the cool mastery of "you can quick draw without worry", then give me reasons to quick draw in the face of the enemy, not to remain with the same weapon in hand

[GuardianTempest]

On the other hand, you don't have to worry about special attack requirements even if you don't invest in Master of Nine, as you can deliver an Unarmed special attack with a goremaul. With those two advantages, you can use a flail for a fencing maneuver, then quick swap to a power fist that uses a syrneth maneuver. It's mostly increased versatility.

But I think the reason the advantages are worded as they are is to abstract the representation of using Quick Draw several times in a single turn. In fluff, Warchain+Changing Blade looks like one swipe with Weapon A, then a flash of light changes it to Weapon B for the 2nd attack, then again to another weapon. All so you don't have to finagle with the cruft of using Quick Draw several times in a row.

[ScrapyardDragon]

Changing blade's cost decreased, I have no idea why I made it cb 2 points in the first place.

Warchain also got HEAVILY reworked and now operates in the same vein as ancient temple's "Deva realm's divine blades". Its a good bit more expensive than that advantage now at 7 points, but it isn't locking you into dual wielding, is compatible with 2-hander weapons, and since it readies the weapon it means the next attack you make with that weapon qualifies for all the "first attack with a readied weapon" effects such as the Iaijutsu advantage and shadow hand's mastery.