|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I had an idea for an unusual archetype for the samurai class. The Murumasa sword-smith, a wandering sword smith, cursed with the ability to create powerful and masterful swords, all of which are cursed in someway, afflicting their wielder with blindness, deafness, madness or worse, but also possessing qualities that counteract the curse, like restoring youth and vigor to counter relentless ageing, a heightening of the senses to those cursed with deafness or the blindness, the restoration of life to those cursed with a drain from the sword of their life's blood.
The abilities of this archetype would be, instead of a mount, the ability to forge cursed weapons(any of the weapons you are proficient in). The curse is applied, along with the benefit, when the weapon is drawn. These curses would last as long as the blade is drawn. You spend money on supplies to forge the weapons, based on their weight and their actual price, with time taken to forge it.
Later you could, instead of mounted combat, use all your cursed weapons as though you had weapon expertise and you only spend half the length of time making them.
Later still, instead of banner, you get the ability to forge blades at masterwork level, for no extra cost, make magic weapons for cheaper, and forge your weapons for less.
Finally, instead of greater banner, you can make either the Masamune or Murumasa level weapons. Masamune have all the strengths of a cursed sword but none of the curses. Murumasa however are extremely powerful versions of the cursed swords, enhancing the buffs the sword gives while still being cursed. Have fun with the bloodthirsty sword that drains the life out of all enemies in battle and gives it to you as temperary hit points.
Also loses ride and handle animal for appraise and Craft weapons.
|
|
The idea was, in part, based on the myths and speculations about the blades forged by Sengo Murumasa being evil (or at least cursed). Mixed in a bit of the legendary swordsmith, Goro Nyudo Masamune, and little bit of 'Murumasa: the demon blade' for good measure, you get a wanderer, carrying many swords(all cursed), seeking perfection, death, fame, or redemption, all the while combating daemons, spirits, monsters and evil men, along with his curse.
Pretty good pathfinder archetype idea, at least to me.
Any ideas on what it might look like mechanically or critiques on the idea are welcome.
You might want to swipe the Oracle Curse mechanic. It's certainly got a "power at a price" theme going on.
|
|
You might want to swipe the Oracle Curse mechanic. It's certainly got a "power at a price" theme going on.
I was thinking along those lines as well. The oracle curses are a good starting point, though some might need to be tweaked to fit the class. Tongues for example doesn't seem appropriate for the archetype, but modifying ravenous or blind from some of the other books could be really good, along with making some relevant curses like 'bloodthirsty- requiring a good amount of blood being spilt in combat to prevent the blade from leeching life away from the wielder. The bonus is that the weapon grants temporary hit points to the wielder for each kill or critical hit. The Murumasa version also drains the life from all enemies within a certain radius of the wielder, granting additional temporary hit points.
Or 'Mad rage', inflicting madness while also granting the rage abilities. Murumasa version has increases damage on attacks and doubles critical damage. On top of the critical multiplier of feats and the weapon itself. Have fun with that 4x katana or 8x tetsubo.
|
|
I thought his name was Muramasa not Murumasa.
But anyway, not a bad idea (thematically) for an archetype. Could also work as a crafting-focused Order. The problem is that in practice, crafting for mundies sucks kinda hard, and the crafting rules are meh.
A crafting order might work thematically, but mechanically it would look like a bunch of blacksmiths rather than a noble/secret society. Also consider what might happen if you have that many cursed swords in one place. It might be dead overnight from one blade imbuned massacre. That being said, maybe having the sword-smith use modified crafting rules, buying/finding materials to make his weapons, crafting them, breaking down other equipment for components to make more weapons and even going into the nature of magical weapons, like using runes or arcane components to imbue the weapons with magical properties.Even where to find some arcane components and how to make runes (possibly leading to trips into dungeons to copy the runes on a magic weapon or armour, so you can store those runes for later).
The funny thing is, the sword-smith might become one of the parties main money makers, provided a cursed sword doesn't get caught in the mix and get you run out of town. Which might happen if you don't mark your swords. Weapon making can be a lucrative business if done right.
|
|
On a separate topic to this one, I had another idea for an archetype for the ninja class. A Jiraiya-style ninja (not like the Naruto one, More like the classic Jiraiya from 'the tale of the gallant Jiraiya'). The archetype would have access to magic and abilities related to their relevent spirit animal (Toad, Snake, Slug, Fox, etc), leading into full blown transformations into giant versions and even further into summoning extremely large versions of those creatures. Imagine a fight against a kaiju and an ninja riding an slightly smaller giant toad.
Spirit animals (early Draft, Potentially more)
Rat
Ox
Snake
Tiger
Slug
Monkey
Toad
Dragon(imperial)
Rooster
Dog
Fox(multi-tailed)
Horse
Boar
Goat
Rabbit
Spider
Scorpion
Tortoise
Crab
Wolf
Phoenix
|
|
True, though it would be one heck of a party. All the wealthiest knights and ridiculous outfits, getting into heated debates on who has the best hat and earned the most money on a job, trying to out boast oneanother. and all while getting very, very, very drunk.
As for the orders side of things, most of the Muramasa sword-smiths are ronin due to their wandering nature. That being said, an order for them might be something like "the order of folded steel", with Edicts around bringing perfection into the world in any form, improving the lot of others, stuff like that.
Adds Craft And Perception as class skills, and a bonus based on appraise
Not sure about Abilities or challenge but i'm open to ideas.
|
|
thats a very good looking order. It ticks all the right boxs for samurai, caveiler, sword-smith... just wow. Thank you so much for your help.
also that allows the appraise skill to be used in battle effectively. If the enemy is using a rather poor quality blade, the party can exploit it.
A foe without a weapon is infinitely less threatening than a foe with a weapon.
|
You both go to the trouble of making Craft a class skill, but the problem with that is that it already is. Craft is the one skill that EVERYONE to date has received as a class skill. I don't think it would be overly out of line to grant a knight of this Archetype/Order Skill Focus (Craft [Weaponsmith]) or something - maybe clarify that it's gained at 2nd level so as to insulate it from cheesemongers.
Don't get me wrong; I approve of this idea. Gods know Samurai need more Archetypes that grant good alternatives to Mounts.
Are you familiar with the Master class from one of the later 3.5 Dragonlance books?
|
|
Are you familiar with the Master class from one of the later 3.5 Dragonlance books?
Not really. I haven't been into Pathfinder and D&D 3.5 until last year. I'm not familiar with most of the books and classes as a result. the first i even knew a master class existed was you linking it. I'm not really familiar with the dragonlance setting, aside from the minor details gleaned from spoony's counter monkey episode on youtube. I just hope theres a conversion of Dark Sun, Spelljammer and planescape to the pathfinder system so that people can re-wander the wheel, walk the streets of spire, get lost in the cosmos, crash into the deserts of Athus and try to get back to Glorion with our skins intact.
|
|
On a separate topic to this one, I had another idea for an archetype for the ninja class. A Jiraiya-style ninja (not like the Naruto one, More like the classic Jiraiya from 'the tale of the gallant Jiraiya'). The archetype would have access to magic and abilities related to their relevent spirit animal (Toad, Snake, Slug, Fox, etc), leading into full blown transformations into giant versions and even further into summoning extremely large versions of those creatures. Imagine a fight against a kaiju and an ninja riding an slightly smaller giant toad.
Spirit animals (early Draft, Potentially more)
Rat
Ox
Snake
Tiger
Slug
Monkey
Toad
Dragon(imperial)
Rooster
Dog
Fox(multi-tailed)
Horse
Boar
Goat
Rabbit
Spider
Scorpion
Tortoise
Crab
Wolf
Phoenix
The Problem i have is working out is if Should/need to remove the ninja tricks portion and the Master tricks portion of the class to fit in the relevant abilities of the archetype. Maybe have the spirit animal magics run on Ki, so the resource is not wasted. Any and all suggestions/criticisms would be appreciated.
Also, an Order of Folded Steel cavalier may challenge an unattended inanimate object (such a trunk of a tree, an iron bar, a stone wall, etc.); this uses up one of his daily challenges as usual, but if he breaks or destroys the item with one attack, he regains the use of that challenge.
Literally the best thing I've read all night. Mind if I adopt that order? I really like it.
ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester I'd like to try my hand at writing that cavalier archetype. It sounds like a lot of fun.
I hope someone more familiar with the Jiraiya tale volunteers for that archetype. Ninja already is archetype starved.
Sweet! Thank you very much!
|
|
Literally the best thing I've read all night. Mind if I adopt that order? I really like it.ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester I'd like to try my hand at writing that cavalier archetype. It sounds like a lot of fun.
I hope someone more familiar with the Jiraiya tale volunteers for that archetype. Ninja already is archetype starved.
Sure, go ahead. It's nice to know that you appreciate my idea. Good luck getting it going.
|
|
Okay, another order idea just came to me. Was reading a book on japanese culture/ history and I came to the entry on the Yakuza. The origins of the yakuza occur around the Edo period in japanese history(around the time of the samurai in their prime). Disgruntled samurai, often for being dismissed by their lords, began to become ronin. Some worked as mercenaries, others turned to banditry. Eventually these ronin formed gangs which would protect certain villages from threats like bandits(seven samurai style). Then some of these gangs started extorting money from the village, and you can see where the yakuza was born.
As an order, it imagine it could work for neutral or evil cavaliers, with abilities for dirty trick filled fighting, intimidation and criminal aspects, and could fall into something similar to a bandit order for the more European style knights. Not every knight is going to be lawful, noble or Honourable. Take the knight who killed someone with a punch while they were in a church because he was not allowed to spill blood.
A bandit order would enable a semi-criminal bend to the cavalier class, enabling players to hold no out-of-character qualms for throwing sand into someone's eye, intimidating the local peasantry and even some authoritarian figures into doing what you want or simply (if you are armed with a crossbow) SHOOTING the villain in the middle of his speech. Yes it's dishonourable but comparably it would make sense to do that so the threat to you(and your party, but mostly you) would be greatly reduced.
Would that be an okay order idea.
How does this make you feel? I might have made it too strong. Funnily enough, Wrecker is quite strong with Loneknave's order. You can make a great build between this archetype and his Order of the Folded Steel.
Curse Crafter
These wandering sword crafters can forge powerful blades. However this power comes at a price.
Cursed Blade Crafter (Su)
At 1st level, the curse crafter gains the ability to craft weapons that are as cursed as they are effective. He may maintain a number of weapons known as cursed blades equal to his intelligence modifier. He may remove a weapon’s cursed blade status by personally destroying the weapon. To create a cursed blade, the curse crafter must forge a masterwork weapon on their own with no outside assistance. The DC to create this masterwork weapon is increased by 5, and the cost to create the weapon is doubled (though neither of these increases affect the crafting time).
Upon crafting the cursed blade, the curse crafter chooses one of the following oracle curses: Clouded Vision, Consumed, Deaf, Legalistic, Tongues, Wrecker. When unsheathed, the wielder of the cursed blade suffers from the initial effect of the curse until the cursed blade is sheathed again. Wrecker and Legalistic apply to the wielder at all times, instead of only when drawn.
Also, adding any magical enhancements to a cursed blade increases its price by 2,000 gp. This increase is applied the first time the weapon is enhanced, not once per ability added. Despite the name, a cursed blade may be any melee weapon.
This ability replaces the samurai’s mount
Deep Curse (Su)
At 5th level, the curse in your craftsmanship seeps deeper into your work, though only a skilled swordsman can awaken the curse in full. Cursed blades you craft from this level onwards grant the 5th level effects of the oracle curse’s chosen if the wielder’s base attack bonus is 5 or higher.
At 10th level cursed blades you craft from this level onwards grant the 10th level effects of the oracle curse’s chosen if the wielder’s base attack bonus is 10 or higher.
At 15th level cursed blades you craft from this level onwards grant the 15th level effects of the oracle curse’s chosen if the wielder’s base attack bonus is 15 or higher.
The curse crafter may reforge a previous cursed blade, allowing it to count as a higher level for the effects of deep curse. This reforging process takes as many days as it would take to forge a masterwork weapon.
This ability replaces mounted archer, banner, and greater banner.
You are probably right. Also, after rereading the opening post, I have realized that I did not even meet all the design goals. I think I did a better job here:
Curse Crafter
These wandering sword crafters can forge powerful blades. However this power comes at a price.
Class Skills
A curse crafter loses ride and handle animal as class skills and gains appraise as a class skill.
Cursed Blade Crafter (Su)
At 1st level, the curse crafter gains the ability to craft weapons that are as cursed as they are effective. He may maintain a number of weapons known as cursed blades equal to his intelligence modifier. He may remove a weapon’s cursed blade status by personally destroying the weapon. To create a cursed blade, the curse crafter must forge a masterwork weapon on their own with no outside assistance. The DC to create this masterwork weapon is increased by 5, and the cost to create the weapon is doubled (though neither of these increases affect the crafting time).
Upon crafting the cursed blade, the curse crafter chooses one of the following oracle curses: Clouded Vision, Consumed, Deaf, Legalistic, or Wrecker. When unsheathed, the wielder of the cursed blade suffers from the initial effect of the curse until the cursed blade is sheathed again. Wrecker and Legalistic apply to the wielder at all times, instead of only when drawn.
Also, adding any magical enhancements to a cursed blade increases its price by 2,000 gp. This increase is applied the first time the weapon is enhanced, not once per ability added. Despite the name, a cursed blade may be any melee weapon.
At 5th level, the curse in your craftsmanship seeps deeper into your work, though only a skilled swordsman can awaken the curse in full. Cursed blades you craft from this level onwards grant the 5th level effects of the oracle curse’s chosen if the wielder’s base attack bonus is 5 or higher.
At 10th level cursed blades you craft from this level onwards grant the 10th level effects of the oracle curse’s chosen if the wielder’s base attack bonus is 10 or higher.
At 15th level cursed blades you craft from this level onwards grant the 15th level effects of the oracle curse’s chosen if the wielder’s base attack bonus is 15 or higher.
The curse crafter may reforge a previous cursed blade, allowing it to count as a higher level for the effects of deep curse. This reforging process takes as many days as it would take to forge a masterwork weapon.
This ability replaces the samurai’s mount
Accursed Expertise (Ex)
At 3rd level, a curse crafter gains an unparalleled expertise with his own cursed blades. Whenever he threatens a critical hit with his cursed blade, he gains a +2 bonus on the confirmation roll. Finally, his curse crafter levels stack with any fighter levels he possesses for the purposes of meeting the prerequisites for feats apply to his cursed blades such as Weapon Specialization.
This ability modifies the weapon expertise.
Deep Curse (Su)
At 4th level, cursed blades that the curse crafter creates gain more power, over both the enemy and their owners. When wielded in battle, these weapons deal 1d6 points of damage to their wielders every round that the wielder does not deal damage to an enemy creature. Wielders of your cursed blades also gain a +2 bonus to all damage dealt with your cursed blades.
This ability replaced mounted archery.
Accursed Masterpiece (Su)
At 14th level, the curse crafter gains the ability to make a true masterpiece. This accursed masterpiece acts as a curse blade, but does not count against the number of cursed blades the curse crafter can maintain. They may reforge a previous cursed blade into an accursed masterpiece the same way they may reforge cursed blades. When creating or reforging an accursed masterpiece, the curse crafter chooses to either imbue it with all positive aspects of the oracle curse, with no downsides, or imbue it with a new curse chosen from below:
Misfortune (Su): When this accursed masterpiece is wielded in battle, as an immediate action, you can force a creature within 30 feet to reroll any one d20 roll that it has just made before the results of the roll are revealed. The creature must take the result of the reroll, even if it’s worse than the original roll. Once a creature has suffered this effect, it may not suffer from it again for 1 day. The game master can choose to force the wielder of this weapon to suffer this effect a number of times per day equal to this accursed masterpiece’s enhancement bonus. The holder of this accursed masterpiece may never benefit from a luck bonus as long as he is in possession of it.
This ability replaces greater banner
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The ego idea is cool, with the likelihood of blade either trying to go with someone other than the wielder (like even the villain or the barmaid), getting angry for being insulted, refusing to be drawn, or cast the spells you want to without an opposed will check, charm roll, intimidate or bluff roll against the sword.
Curse Crafter"I challenge the door of the temple"
Sword "are you nuts. It's an inanimate F*%?ing object"
Curse Crafter "I draw."
Gm "make your will roll"
(Fails the opposed check with the sword)
Gm "the sword is stubbornly refusing to come out of its sheath.
Sword "no, I'm not coming out until you stop with this nonsense"
Curse Crafter "COME OUT OF THERE OR I PROMISE YOU, I WILL MELT YOU DOWN INTO A SENTIENT PAPERWEIGHT!" (rolls intimidate and passes)
Sword "okay, okay, you've made your point, coming out"
Gm "the sword relents and is drawn"
Sword "*muttering*bastard"
Curse Crafter "what was that"
Sword "nothing."
I wonder what kind of spells the weapon would have, though I imagine they could be personality based, with plenty of Buffing spells.
Mind writing an entry for Accursed Masterpiece to make an intelligent Accursed Masterpiece?
Do you think it should have a rule to be combined with any previous curse choice from the arhetype?
|
|
I'm not very good at writing entries since i have had relatively little to no experience with the game. that being said, i imagine some really funny things could happen with the Intelligent/Independent cursed blade. take for instance a sword with mental effecting spells like charm, compel etc. imagine the player tries to use the magic and fails against the sword. The spell could still go off, but the target is up to the sword, or is under the swords control. this can include the player, or any valid target within range of the swords spell.
Also I can see the sword having charges like a wand, but into any spells the sword can cast.
Personality wise, i imagine that swords would have personalities that suited the spells they could cast. A sword with lots of healing magic might be pacifistic or passive, not wanting to get into fights. Along similar lines, a very agressive, aggro sword might have spells suited for getting close and personal, wanting to get into fights more than other blades. Others might have a lecherous/womanising blade would probably have a lot of charm spells and try to get as close to women (or men-the personality does not have to be gender specific), or an inquisitive blade having more vision related spell and want to see the world. you get the idea, though also the personalities and spells don't have to match the character alignment. could you imagine the problems an evil character might have with a good personality weapon, or a lawful character with a chaotic personality weapon. or vise versa on both.