Sword School - Black Bane

[ScrapyardDragon]

Black Bane
Alternate school for tiger claw



To live, to die. To know one without the other would be maddening. That is the thesis of the Black Bane discipline. Its adherents exist on the precipice between life and death, burning away even their own flesh and blood in the name of destroying their enemies, riding a wave of adrenaline as they tear through the battlefield, and far too often, eventually themselves. Black Bane techniques push the body beyond its limits in the name of victory, its users often cloaked in an all-consuming darkness, many religious orders claiming the school was first taught to mortals by Malal himself. Scholars warn aspiring students to dig two graves before they begin their training; the students retort they're going to kill way more people than two.

Athletics is the key skill for Black Bane; keeping the body in as good a shape as possible is essential to endure the destruction the school inflicts upon it in battle. Two-Handed weapons are the dominant tool of the trade, heavy and brutal implements that throw aside all concepts of defense in the name of killing in a single blow.

Level 1: Apprentice
Weapon - Two handed: Use Two handed weapons with your Martial Maneuvers
Action - All out attack: Use all out attack actions in Martial Maneuvers

Level 2: Initiate
Wrath (3): While you are at or below half of your maximum hit points, this attack's damage die explode on either a 9 or a 10. If you have zero hit points, they also explode on an 8
Dark artes (-1*) : when you use this attack, you first take two wounds (E, body) for every time this disadvantage was taken

Level 3: Adept
Skill (Athletics) (-1): As part of this attack, make an Athletics test against the Static Defense of the target. If it fails, the attack fails.
Vengeance (2): This attack gains a static damage bonus equal to the amount of wounds you have taken from enemies since your last turn.

Level 4: Master
Mastery (Vantage): Melee attacks that target you while you are at or below half of your maximum hit points (round up), gain the Provokes keyword.
See you in hell (3): Double the damage dealt by this attack. You take the same amount of wounds that this attack dealt.

Level 5: Grandmaster
Dark wave (5): When you use this attack, you first take wounds equal the the amount of style points this attack has (X, gizzards), and this attack targets all enemies within 5 meters, regardless of the weapon's range. If using this special attack would kill you, you do not die until the special attack has resolved, it hits all targets automatically even if the attack roll would otherwise miss, and any damage this special attack deals is doubled.

[ScrapyardDragon]

so, after a bit of thought and discussion, I've come around to the conclusion that vantage is...really good. Its doing and being what I intended it to do and be, but I wasn't really aware of how bonkers that [TRUELY] was, and am considering different ways to nerf it while still keeping the spirit of "when in danger, clap back first" in proper low-hp fe skill fashion. I've got a couple different ideas on different ways to nerf it slightly.

-The attack can't be a special attack
-an accuracy penalty (1-2k1 die methinks)
-being once per round
-using reactions

Those are just the first couple that came to mind, obviously don't want to go with all at once. I'm not committed to any one of them either, I'm more just writing this up to ask for thoughts on it.

[GuardianTempest]

It'll be like parrying, except it's an actual attack roll. I'd say it uses a reaction, and resolves first before the enemy- but the enemy's attack still goes through. If you want to nerf it further, the enemy can dodge/parry it without needing reactions. Alternatively: If you miss, the enemy's incoming attack can't be dodged/parried. Alternatively alternatively: If you use the mastery, the enemy attack auto-hits?

[ScrapyardDragon]

I actually like the idea of 'you cannot dodge or parry an attack you made an attack of opportunity against'. It makes the vantage attacks far less 'free' by putting an actual risk to using it, while staying on theme as a no-fycks-given glass cannon dps machine.

(typo intentional)

[ScrapyardDragon]

I have done a tweak on black bane due to syntax complaints.
Using a reach weapon against a black bane master will protect you from vantage now. It didn't before because "specific overrides general" (even though that wasn't the intent), but thats been patched now. don't @ me.

[GuardianTempest]

You know, I don't see anything in the book that does say "specific overrides general"

[ScrapyardDragon]

im not the one who kept pressing that point either but this shuts the argument down.

[ScrapyardDragon]

Right, I have been reminded that the counter attack feat exists. Ergo, I have nerfed vantage. wrath+vantage? funny humongo damage dispenser (that still dies to ranged attacks). wrath+vantage but with one extra attack if you're a parrygod (which in turn means not taking damage)? thats where I draw the arbitrary line. I had been meaning to assign some sort of nerf to vantage anyways to make using it less "free" so preventing you from using the damage-avoiding reactions in exchange for the free attacks seems reasonable, and at half-hp being low is a window you may really WANT to be trying to dodge instead of hit things you know you can't one-shot on the OA.

also; I've added a "you get hit" clause. Leaping flame will not save you.

A reminder that opportunity attacks say they're standard attacks so you *can* use special attacks for them.

[username]

While I understand what you are going for, I think the lengths you are going for it is leaving Vantage rather awkward and poorly constructed. The exceptions for some circumstances of being hit but not others is peculiar because it can lead to some very strange scenarios with things like Snaring, Stunning, Wolf Pack Technique, Contingency or so on. It is also slightly short sighted as it is overly focused on normal damaging attacks and ignoring the many other possible attacks where "hitting" is not truly a part of the attack relevant so the downsides don't do anything.
Knock Down, Bull Rush, Disarm, Feint and even Grapple all have the "Melee" and "Attack" subtypes but don't necessarily have a "hit" as the effect of them works differently. Vantage would let you Attack them for trying allowing you to do all kinds of nasty nonsense and the "autohit" doesn't apply since those attacks don't "hit" but rather use opposed rolls. Grapple is a bit of an exception to this but is likely the whackiest one, since if someone wanted to grapple you then you could assassin strike, snare or use other odd special attacks to do... something? It hits, so you're grappled. Does that mean they move with you? After you? Before and then you immediately escape? Contingency for example, where it is on the contingency that my vantage doesn't kill or knock out the target and it teleports me 100 miles into the air. The contingency would trigger before their actual attack hits but it is mandated that it must hit so does the grappler end up there with you?
Even more fun than that is what happens with a Wraith that blows themselves up with their own special attack of opportunity (stone dragon 5 is recommended for this). When you run out of Plasm (from damage or otherwise) you go back to the Umbra but you don't die, would that mean the grappler is dragged in there with you and stuck? You'd be boned but they wouldn't be much better off either. The puddle of goop you leave behind isn't you so they wouldn't just grab that otherwise it would give a zillion other easy outs via lizard tailing the attack. If Wraith isn't your fancy, others can get in on it similarly via using an Orgone Array weapon to get all kinds of fun perils effects on your attacks.

[ScrapyardDragon]

after some council from Amanojaku I've gone ahead and tweaked vantage. again. The days of vantage-wrath tanking are sadly no more. sort of. The current version actually has some solid synergy with the counterattack feat as well as the vengeance advantage now. The former means that, whether you parry or not, you still get to clap back and still forces enemies to be wary of trying to attack you. Meanwhile, vengeance obviously WANTS enemies to hurt you, and the triggering attack hitting you first, and thus doing damage that will cause vengeance to scale up, means you will in fact, do a lot of damage, especially if enemies are foolish enough to try and gang up on you. No longer being able to preemptively crit anyone who tries to take a swing at you is the big sad, but now the school is better at doing what it wants to do; trade all those useless hit points for more damage right now!

Oh, and to anyone getting any funny ideas, I remind you that wolf pack technique making the target provoke does not mean you'd get an extra attack, because opportunity attacks are a free action and can thus only be done once per turn (not round, mind you), so if you smack someone on their turn with one, you can't do it again until it's somebody else's turn, but you can still use it on a whole mob in a single round since each of their turns is a new chance to proc vantage, assuming you survive that long. I suppose that technically given the way the provokes keyword works if you're in a big moshpit of your guys and enemy guys them provoking means not just you but ALL of your allies get to smack them, so with a bit of teamwork and a BB master at the spearhead you could totally still get up to some massive mass-damage. Of course you can also do that ANYWAYS with one guy using wolf pack technique and that setup lets you force the mass mobbing to happen rather than being reliant on enemies choosing to target you. Regardless, as always, if you need to take the player using BB down a peg, just shoot him. or poke him with a lance since reach prevents engagement meaning no provoking.

[ScrapyardDragon]

someone asked how the on-death effect of black wave works with things like snare. This has been ammended.

Also changed vantage once again because *the provokes keyword does not work that way*