A Bevy of Blades ... 4 new themed base classes

[Volvogg]

Hey All,

I wanted to share something with everyone that I have been working on for a while now. In my 20+ years of gaming I have always, always loved the idea of a warrior/fighter type that runs around with a massive sword. Whether it was a paladin running around with a greatsword, a juicer running around with a giant vibro blade or a street samurai with his cybernetics and katana. I have played them all and still, as crazy as it may seem, I have never grown tired of it.

One of my biggest accomplishments within the gaming community was a prestige class that I created (with the help of a truly gifted freelancer by the name of Kolja Raven Liquette) that was published on the WotC site as an actual Web Enhancement. Afterwards I realized that my talents for writing were nothing to write home about so I instead concentrated on my other strengths. However, I have always wanted to publish an actual book, just one. Didn't matter what it was or if it would actually ever be published. I simply wanted to create something to share. Which brings me to the actual reason of my post.

Over the last few years I have been working on a few base classes with a theme. Gotta have a big weapon and the ability to summon or create it (yes, I truly love the ability to summon a weapon and have played a few soul knives because of this). Below are links to the first 3 that I have completed. The shadow blade, vital blade and the verdant blade. Each is different in some respects but all share the ability to summon or create a weapon. The last one that I will be finishing is known as the aether blade. His schtick is to summon a glyph like blade of force which he can "shatter" in order to generate auras that buff his allies. He can also cannibalize magic items in order to permanently enhance his aetheric blade.

Any and all comments are welcome. I hope you all find these amusing and actually decent enough to try one out in a game.

Also, please feel free to include and/or link classes that you have made that wields an overly massive weapon.:p

Here are the links folks:

• The Shadow Blade
  
• The Vital Blade
  
• The Verdant Blade
  
• The Aether Blade -> WIP!!

Cheers
Volf

[zadda2597]

I love these base classes, but I feel that they are all very similar in how they operate. And I think some rework on how the seed implanting of the verdant blade class would help balance it. Maybe upon a successful critical hit the woad weapon implants a seed of the verdant blade's choice into it's victim? The other thing is does the player get to choose to implant a seed of any from that list the moment he can implant seeds? or does he select what seeds he can implant as though they were like a rogue talent feature where every so many levels he can choose a new seed type to implant in his target?

[zadda2597]

Nevermind about how they select their seeds, lol I just reread the implant seed part and saw they select which seeds they want on certain levels.

[Volvogg]

Glad ya like them zadda2597! As for them being similar ... you're absolutely right.:) As I mentioned in my opening post I created them based a theme. So there's certainly going to be a bit of overlap with them. Hopefully this doesn't diminish the classes playability.

Cheers
Volf

[Luggs]

Very interesting classes. I do find the cap skill for vital blades rather underwhelming though. Being able to heal through the damage you deal seems like it should come earlier the skill progression.

The only other thought is maybe there's just a "blade" class and you make a choice on where your summoned blades powered originates from. Sort of like a sorcerer bloodline.

[Volvogg]

Luggs wrote:

Very interesting classes. I do find the cap skill for vital blades rather underwhelming though. Being able to heal through the damage you deal seems like it should come earlier the skill progression.

Happy to hear that you find the classes interesting Luggs.:) Thanks. The cap skill for vital blades isn't super flashy because I thought that the ability to heal and remove conditions on the fly during battle was pretty spiffy. I had another ability, bloody hurricane, that I was going to use but went with something a bit more defensive. I will post it tomorrow for you to check out.

Luggs wrote:

The only other thought is maybe there's just a "blade" class and you make a choice on where your summoned blades powered originates from. Sort of like a sorcerer bloodline.

Tried coming up with a base class and archetypes. It was a nightmare. To many different abilities.

Update: I have updated the aether blade class. Please see link in first post. It's still a WIP but it's starting to turn into something usable I think.

Thanks again folks!

Cheers
Volf

[zadda2597]

I'm liking the look of the Aetherblade! It has a very soul-knifey vibe to it but also keeps just that right tweak of originality to it as well.

[Volvogg]

zadda2597 wrote:

I'm liking the look of the Aetherblade! It has a very soul-knifey vibe to it but also keeps just that right tweak of originality to it as well.

Thanks zadda2597! The Aetherblade was the trickiest because I wanted them to be a group buffer. Trying to come up with an ability that reflected that idea took a loooooong time. Still ironing a couple of things out. It should be done sooner rather than later.

Cheers
Volf