Path of War: The Stalker (PFRPG) PDF

This pdf is 56 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with a total of 53 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?

So...what is this? Remember 3.X's Book of the 9 Swords? Yeah, it's the spiritual successor. In order to properly review this series, let me tell you where I'm coming from: I own the Bo9S and when I first read it, I loved it: Essentially, much like in fantasy martial arts movies and anime, the approach is to grant martial classes maneuvers and stances to allow them some of the versatility of the casting classes and that concept rocks. Unfortunately, the Bo9S's classes proved in game that they were not exactly well-balanced - from weird, cumbersome mechanics to determine available maneuvers to flawed balance within the disciplines (e.g. utterly op Diamond Mind, ridiculously weak Setting Sun), playtesting soon showed that I was swept away by the coolness of the concept and should have checked the system more thoroughly. Also from this experience arose my utter disdain for per-encounter abilities - while on paper, they may not seem that jarring, in game they proved to be exceedingly frustrating for both my players and me: Encounters are arbitrarily defined interruptions of the game - they can range from 1 round to multiple days in theory and basing the availability of abilities on such a random interval is just bad in my book. Take this example: PCs storm into a room, kill two goblins in the surprise round, combat over. 1 round later goblins from the adjacent room enter and combat breaks out again. In this example, per-encounetr abilities could be used twice for double the oomph. Had one goblin survived the initial assault, the new goblins would have entered combat, meaning all per-encounter abilities could be used only once. Basing any availability on anything but hard rounds, minutes, i.e. non-random time-frames is bad design in my book and one of the reasons I opted against 4th edition as my system of choice. And yes, I'm aware of the judgment-ability's duration as the ONE example of an encounter-spanning ability that has its duration thus defined, but judgment also has a daily limit. That being said, I'll be professional and mention design-philosophy like this when I see it and probably complain about it, but I won't condemn the pdf for it - I'll try my utmost to remain neutral. I do love the idea of maneuvers and giving fighters "nice things", as the pdf puts it - so whatever way this review goes, I actually do want this to succeed.

So, does Path of War succeed where its trailblazing predecessor failed? Let's take a look! The class introduced herein would be the Stalker, who gets d8, 6+Int skills per level, 3/4 BAB-progression, good will-saves, proficiency with simple and martial weapons and light armors, starting at 2nd level +1 dodge bonus to AC (+1 every four levels), starts with 6 maneuvers known, up to 4 readied and 1 stance and develops that to a total of 21 maneuvers known, 12 readied and 6 stances over the course of 20 levels. The Stalker has access to a total of 5 disciplines (which are maneuver-groups somewhat akin to schools of magic): Broken Blade, Solar Wind, Steel Serpent, Thrashing Dragon and Veiled Moon. Unless otherwise noted, maneuvers are extraordinary abilities that do not provoke AoOs and at 4th level and every even level after that, Stalkers may retrain one maneuver and choose another. The lack of restriction apart from not being able to surpass the level-restriction means that, while you can't freely retrain maneuvers as you could other class abilities, you may later exchange lower level maneuvers for higher level ones. The key attribute for the stalker's maneuvers would be wisdom - here designated as primary initiator attribute modifier. Now, each character may ready maneuvers - reading these requires meditating and focusing ki for 10 minutes. This means that readied maneuvers can, time permitting, be changed - which is nice. No single maneuver can be readied more than once. Now where I start cringing is with the sentence: "He begins an encounter with all readied maneuvers unexpended, regardless of how many times he may have used them..." - not because of the unlimited usability, but because it's EXACTLY the immersion-breaking problem I described earlier: Many short combats: You excel. One long, epic battle with various phases? Tough luck. Now to be fair, Path of War is MUCH smarter than Bo9S in its basic approach - as a standard action, stalkers may recover 1 expended maneuver and as a full-round action, wis-mod, min 2 expended maneuvers. When using the latter option, the Stalker gets a +4 insight bonus to AC - which makes no sense to me. The replenishing of resources should not offer a significant, non-scaling defensive boost that especially at low levels, is simply too much. Also: Why do these not provoke AoOs? The latter has the Stalker "centering his spirit completely to re-align his perceptions of the battle and his place in it." - that screams AoO to me.

Essentially, resource-management should require and reward smart tactics, not simply impose a action-tax. If a Stalker had to think whether to use his last maneuver and temporarily retreat from battle to replenish them, there'd be more strategy here. And the AC-bonus needs to DIE or at least be somewhat nerfed at low levels - why not go with a scaling bonus, perhaps +1, +1 for every 4 levels?. Seriously, +4, think about it: It's the maneuver-refreshment-tank! Constantly refresh and tank. Nah. Stances are the second resource of the stalker and changing stance is now a swift action. Stances cannot be retrained and are not expended. Also: The encounter-refreshment is simply an unnecessary design-relic from Bo9S at this point - with the option to refresh maneuvers via actions, we have clearly defined guidelines to refresh them in a set time-frame concisely defined by the rules - why overly complicate the mechanic and add a reason to metagame to the mechanic? Just get rid of the at this time thoroughly unnecessary per-encounter refreshment. And yes, sans the per-encounter humbug, I actually consider this mechanic utterly AWESOME. So the baseline WORKS! At this point, I was smiling from ear to ear.

At first level, the Stalker also gets a ki-pool of 1/2 level +wis-mod. As a swift action, stalkers may add a +4 insight bonus to perception of sense motive. At 5th level, he may use ki to enhance his deadly strikes, adding his deadly strikes to all martial strikes initiated for wis-mod rounds. What are Deadly Strikes? Whenever a stalker scores a critical hit, this ability activates for wis-mod rounds, increasing damage by 1d6 at 1st level +1d6 for every four levels after that. Weapons with higher crit-modifiers deal d8 and d10 bonus damage instead when within 30 foot of the target. I'm not 100% sold on the overall usefulness of this ability - when crit-fishing via keen-builds etc., it gets a bit powerful, but in combination with the ki-powered component, it does work - only, it does not specify whether the benefits/durations stack - what if one scores a crit with a maneuver via the ki-activation of Deadly Strike, do the durations overlap? Stack? Also "The stalker must be able to see the target well enough to pick out a vital spot and must be able to reach such a spot." - what does that mean? Does concealment make it impossible to hit the target with deadly strikes? What about those with fortification?

At 7th level, stalkers may expend 1 point of ki as an immediate action for a +4 insight bonus to saving throws. At 9th level, stalkers may also expend ki to get a readied maneuver available as a swift action. At least that's what the pdf specifies: "The character spends one ki point and may trade a readied maneuver for a maneuver known of the same level or lower and have it immediately readied and accessible for his use as a swift action a number of times per day equal to his Wisdom modifier." So does that mean that the temporarily available maneuver can be executed as a swift action? Or does it require a swift action IN ADDITION to the action it would usually take to activate? I'm honestly not sure, though I assume the latter.

At 2nd level, the Stalker also gets combat insight, which adds wis-mod to ref-saves and initiative - not a fan of adding any two attributes to the same skill/save etc. - especially since wis already covers will-saves -it's like adding con-mod to ref or will-saves: It makes no sense in game and can easily turn unpleasant. Later, he gets uncanny dodge, may regain ki or expended maneuvers when successfully criting. This latter ability fails the "bath of kittens"-test: While I don't object to maneuvers being thus regained, ki is a non-replenishing resource. Taking a burlap sack of kittens and criting the hell out of them (if you don't hit, you can sedate them first) would allow a stalker to regain all expended ki as long as his/her kittens don't run out. And yes, the example is ridiculous and the ki-abilities of the class not that impressive. But Ki stacks usually and more than one class uses it, as do various feats. When combined with other classes and options, this infinite replenishment of ki quickly gets out of hand - and needs to die a fiery death. At 18th level, stalkers get blindsight 30 foot. Okay, I guess.

At 3rd level and every 4 levels after that, a stalker gets a stalker art, essentially the talents of this class. a total of 18 such talents are provided and cover e.g. the advanced study-feat, +10 ft. movement and +wis-mod to acrobatics-check (again: two attribute modifiers to one skill - broken in my book) and expend ki to further increase speed, but at the cost of temporary fatigue. What's problematic would be combat precognition - choose one foe as an immediate action and spend 1 point of ki to make said for roll all attacks against you twice and take the worse result for 1+wis-mod rounds. NO SAVE. Supernatural ability? Seriously? This needs a mind-influencing-caveat, a save, something to bring it in line with e.g. the misfortune hex, which lasts only up to 3 rounds but extends its effects to more rolls and can only affect one target once per 24 hours and which comes witha SAVE. The defensive bonus when regaining maneuvers can be further enhanced by a 20% miss chance and even total concealment with a 50% chance. Now does the latter also mean that line of sight is broken as usual per total concealment? Relevant for spells and potentially broken as all hell, as it would allow the stalker to slowly creep forward sans being targeted. Also: I consider an AoO in line for the base ability and both would make this impossible, so in case there's a revision/ you houserule this, keep that in mind.

We also get easier qualification for critical feats and increased crit ranges. On the worse side of things, one Stalker Art allows the Stalker to expend one point of ki as a swift action to use deadly strikes in all attacks (not just maneuvers) against the target for wis-mod rounds. When successfully criting, the duration is instead extended by one round. Now where this becomes a huge clusterf*** is with the application of deadly strikes via ki to maneuvers - do they stack? At what duration? This whole complex of abilities and their interaction needs a thorough cleaning up. Another art allows the stalker to "While recovery[sic! - should probably read "recovering"] maneuvers as a full round action, the stalker gains the use of the Combat Reflexes feat (using his Wisdom modifier in place of his Dexterity modifier) and on attacks of opportunity triggered while he is recovering maneuvers, the stalker may add his deadly strikes damage to these attacks." - so what happens if the Stalker already has combat reflexes? At 11th level, the stalker may learn to regain 1 point of ki whenever s/he reduces an opponent to 0 hit points or below with a maneuver. This once again fails the basic kitten test. Stalkers may also conceal their presence as per the cloud mind psionic power (though that should probably be Sp, not Su) - the same extends to the art that allows you to duplicate charm monster, which imho needs a reduced duration since the DC is as regular (13+wis-mod) and ki isn't a particularly scarce resource for stalkers.

Where balance takes a nosedive would be with Phantom Reach: As a swift action, the character may "[...]spend one ki point and the character may initiate a melee martial strike with a range of melee attack with a range of close (25ft + 5ft / 2 levels)." Yeah. Full attack melee at range. While strikes with a range greater than melee don't work with this, it's still VERY powerful - as is the option to spend one point of ki to move for wis-mod rounds sans provoking AoOs. Yes. 1 ki= no movement AoOs. Do I really have to explain why that is insanely broken? These two abilities need a massive whack with the nerfbat.

At higher levels, stalkers may initiate 2 strikes as a full round action 1/day, later up to 3/day. As a capstone, the stalker can spend two points of ki as an immediate reaction to being hit by an attack, spell or ability to attack the target with a readied maneuver. I'm not sure whether the readied maneuver can be expended or not for the purpose of this ability, though. Other than that - appropriately cool capstone, though one essentially crippled in its impact due to the presence of the ranged stalker art - its only point remaining would be that it's reflexive and has a potentially longer range - that's it. When a talent-like ability available at 3rd level can steal the majority of the thunder of a capstone, something's severely wrong here - and it's not the capstone alone...

So that's the base class. We also get the new Knowledge (Martial)-skill, which essentially is spellcraft for maneuvers. Would have been nice to see DCs for style-feats and similar non-maneuver tricks. Also: A list of classes that should get this as a class skill when playing with Path of War would have been more than appreciated - fighters should e.g. have it added to their list of class skills when using the Path of War-rules. We also get 17 "new" feats, though extra ki isn't new and the usual suspects à la +1 stalker art, increased DC for one discipline etc. can be found here. We also get feats to add more maneuvers, have more readied maneuvers, 1/day recover a maneuver as a free action. There also is a feat which allows you to quick draw multiple weapons (and has a minor +2 bonus to CMD vs. disarm)...wait. Quick Draw. Allows you to draw weapons as a free action. So what are the benefits of this feat? Sheathing weapons! Since they are RAW exempt from the benefits of Quick draw and since disciplines require certain weapons, the feat may be useful for all groups not handling sheathing weapons as drawing them as per the RAW. Using weapon finesse with double weapons is a nice one, as are the 6 feats that allow other classes to access the martial discipline of choice and learn maneuvers. A feat that allows you to enter a fighting style and execute a maneuver at the same time also rather rocks. However, there are issues in here as well: First of which would be a feat that allows you to add dex-mod to damage in place of str. Which would be no issue for me, since it only applies to finesse-compatible weapons. However, with the option to go weapon finesse with double weapons, the thing gets ugly. I once had a character in my home game that had exactly that ability - and believe me, the result was ugly. Not sold here. Speaking of "not sold": Greater Unarmed Strike allows you to essentially go for a poor man's monk unarmed damage increase from 1d4 to 1d10. Not complaining about the nerfed damage, mind you - but sans the option to make the attacks count I don't see the long-term benefit here. Oh well, that are minor complaints compared to some of the issues with the base-class.

Part II of my review is post no. 8 of the product discussion.

Path of War is a series of PDFs inspired by the 3.5 book the Tome of Nine Swords. For those who don't know, the Tome of Nine Swords was a book released late in 3.5's tenure, that had a new set of abilities (plus classes that could use said abilities) called Maneuvers. Essentially, Maneuvers were mechanically spells that martial classes could cast that do awesome things, such as Jumping Slashes, and all sorts of cool stuff like that. The draw to them is that they are more dynamic (you could use them as counters to abilities, and as additional effects to your attacks), and give the party beef more options than just "get in full attack move on". Paizo's tried things like that with the style feats and has had some success with it (The Panther/Snake chain in specific makes things super fun and interactive), but some of the styles have some oppressive prerequisites, or are so specific that only very certain types of characters will appreciate (eg Monks).

The first PDF in this series covers the Stalker base class, information about a new skill that's used for the Maneuvers, feats for all sorts of classes, including on how to add the maneuvers to base classes, and 5 schools of maneuvers, Broken Blade, Solar Wind, Steel Serpent, Thrashing Dragon and Veiled Moon. This information spans 52 pages of content, with 1 page for a cover, 1 page of credits, 1 intro and ending with 1 page of OGL.

Starting with the Stalker base class, it's a medium BAB martial class with a d8 hd, a +2 bonus on its will saves and a scaling dodge bonus that comes with it. It starts out with the same wealth and age as a cleric, and has 6 skill points per level. One thing I've immediately noticed before I jumped right into this class was that it gave suggestions on how to build it, what roles it will serve in combat, and where you'd want to place your stats, something that's a small touch, but helps a lot. It's proficient with all simple/martial weapons, and with light armor, but not shields or any heavier armor. It also receives a scaling dodge bonus that it gets when it levels up, along with an ability called Deadly Strike. Deadly Strike is basically a sneak attack style ability that scales slower, but will apply on each attack if you critically hit, which is very nice, and gives you an idea of what kind of weapons and style you'd want to be taking in combat. However... if you use weapon with a higher crit multiplier, you'll be doing d8's instead of d6's on damage, and if you're insane and want to bring a scythe out, you'll be doing d10's. I like the balance in risk reward with that kind of thing, allowing you change how often you're doing the deeps vs how much it's going to hurt occasionally. The class itself uses wisdom for its manuevers and it also gains a ki pool (that admittedly isn't as versatile as a monks) at first level, which it can use to make it better at sense motive checks/perception checks, eventually gaining the ability to bolster a save, or even gain some manuevers back. At 2nd level, it gains an ability called combat insight, which allows it to add its wisdom to reflex saves and init, eventually giving it the uncanny dodge ability and finally acting like a supercharged critical focus, and even giving you blindsense all the way at level 18. At 3rd level and every few levels after you gain a stalker art, which allows you to take a talent that range from stuff that gives you Improved Unarmed Strike, to the ability to hit Deadly strikes on flatfooted targets and even the ability to take a rogue talent. Thankfully it stops you from taking Ninja tricks, otherwise we'd have Stalkers with vanishing trick running around and ruining our day, haha.

The Class itself is very very interesting. It works as a nice martial striker, without stepping on any other roles toes, except maybe the Rogue/Ninja. I’m almost a little sad this is the first class they brought out for this, as it’s a medium BAB style class as opposed to the full BAB stuff most people think of when they mention the Tome of Nine Swords, but I can’t complain too much. As far as the class itself it seems fine, it doesn’t get any bonus feats unless you wanna burn your stalker arts on it which are a little limited so you’re pretty much going to either be sticking to something like TWF or Ranged, and not much else.

The new skill it has is called Knowledge: Martial, which allows you to identify maneuvers being done, and the history of maneuvers. It also helps you know about the maneuvers that are popular in said region, and if you can hit a high enough DC, what maneuvers that someone is capable of. I’d almost wish it applied to Style feats, but I can only dream, haha.

The Feats it adds are interesting, ranging from something that can allow you to enter a maneuver stance and a style feat at the same time, to something that will allow you to add your dex to damage on all finesse weapons, or even lowering the penalty for using double weapons. Last but not least, it allows you to tack on maneuvers to any class so long as you have the BAB/Skill ranks for it, allowing Fighters/even stuff like Magus’ in on the fun. Deadly Agility (which lets you add DEX to damage) is a little scary, but you could practically already do that with no trouble with Dervish dance, and allows for more builds, is something I’m okay with. Breaking rules makes it so certain builds are possible, and every monk doesn’t have to hang itself when it has to do a 15 point buy.

All that only covers the first 11 pages of this PDF, where the bulk of it is mostly covering (with good reason, mind you) the new maneuver system. Maneuvers are set up into 4 different types, Boosts, which allow you to add something to an attack. Counters are another type that are used in response to certain abilities, such as getting hit and such. Strikes basically act as normal attacks with additional effects, to put them very lightly, and last but not least Stances change how your characters basics are going to react. Each of them take different actions to enter, such as Boosts usually being swift actions, counters being immediate, strikes ranging from full round to standard and stances being swift.

You know a set number of stances and always have those, but at the beginning of each day you get to prepare the maneuvers you know, much like how a wizard prepares his spells, so any class that can do maneuvers isn’t stuck packing up camp as the wizard decides what he wants to do for today. These abilities are per encounter abilities, so you can safely go all out, and still have resources for the rest of the day. Also; there are ways to recover maneuvers in combat as well, which differ class by class, but I believe they can all get some back as a standard action.

Starting from the top, the school of Broken Blade is all about being unarmed, and focuses on jumping around, snatching weapons out of enemy’s hands or snatching the enemies themselves. All in all, very brawly styles, being for those that prefer to do their own dirty work with their hands.

Solar Wind is next up, being the only ranged school introduced in this book. Only working with Bows, Crossbows and Thrown weapons, this style integrates some supernatural abilities into it, allowing you to shoot (or hurl) flaming arrows (or chakrams!) into the fray, multiple some precious ammo, or even do some awesome trick shots.

Next is Steel Serpent, allowing you to supernaturally add poison effects to weapons, and use your knowledge of the body to the enemy’s disadvantage. You can only do it with piercing or slashing weapons, with unarmed strikes being the exception to the rule. A dirty style, fit for Stalkers that want to play more like assassins.

Thrashing Dragon is my personal favorite from this set, using two weapons (or one weapon and a fist) turning you into a whirling dervish of death. Much like a dragon, you’re able to deal great amounts of damage with this, and you get all sorts of cool tricks alongside that.

Last but certainly not least is Veiled Moon style, which has you tapping into the power of the Ethereal plane, allowing you to hit ghosts, and eventually pop around the astral realm and turn you into a pseudo Nightcrawler, along with debuffing the enemy. Another Supernatural style, with the added side effect of being unable to use any abilities that mention the Ethereal plane when you’re somewhere that can’t access it.

There are quite a few editing errors which at this point I’ve realized is par for the course on anything based on the OGL (a few styles aren’t bolded, in the Art of the Blade section it mentions initiator level as manifester level, sometimes calls styles powers.), but the gist of it is still understood. As far as power concerns, I think this stuff is totally fine. If you’re playing in a groups that average class is a monk that will take weapon focus fist and quarterstaff just because you might run into some fire elementals, you might end up with some power concerns, otherwise this is VERY in line with most things, and requires a bit more thought.

All in all, this product basically makes melee combat more dynamic. Using all of your actions to make cool stuff happen is awesome, not to mention makes it more interactive. Some of the feats in here might have a bit more juice then you’re used to, but nothing game breaking, and certainly nothing that can’t be caught beforehand. Dreamscarred Press always continues to wow me, with not only their innovations onto the awesome old mechanisms that Paizo either left on the wayside or doesn’t want to do, and kicks it to 11 with adding some awesome to it… and it’s all well within balance. Don’t just buy this class, subscribe to the whole series, and never look back. 5/5 Stars, easy.