So, there is a webcomic called Kill Six Billion Demons, which I personally think is fantastic, and has inspired me to write this archetype.
The intention is to create a weapon-using unchained monk archetype, which I feel is a specific open design space. I'd appreciate any feedback any of your might have on this archetype.
The sword saint is an ascetic who walks a path to perfection which is soaked in blood.
"I will tell you precisely what Royalty is,” said Intra, “It is a continuous cutting motion.”
Soul's Sword (Ex)
At 1st level, the sword saint selects a specific, individual piercing or slashing weapon as his Soul's Sword (such as the longspear inherited from their mother). The sword saint becomes proficient with than weapon, henceforth referred to as their Soul's Sword. If they are already proficient with this weapon, they instead gain a bonus feat which requires the choice of a specific weapon (such as weapon focus) and must select their Soul's Sword with this feat. 4th level, and every 4th level thereafter, the sword saint gains a bonus feat which requires the selection of a specific type of weapon (Such as Improved Critical or Weapon Focus). The sword saint may select a new weapon as their Soul's Sword, but doing to requires 24 hours of meditation, and incense and oils worth 200gp per sword saint level. If they do so, all feats gained from this class feature apply to the sword saint's new Soul's Sword.
Additionally, from 5th level onward, the sword saint gains Weapon Training as a fighter of his level, but only with his Soul's Sword.
The sword saint treats his level as fighter levels for qualifying for feats, and from 8th level may select Advanced Weapon Trainings in place of their bonus feats.
This ability replaces the monk's unarmed strike ability and bonus feats.
Royal Blade (Ex)
At 1st level, a monk gains Perfect Strike as a bonus feat, even if he does not meet the prerequisites. A sword saint may only use Perfect strike with his Soul's Sword, and may do so even if this is not one of the weapons usually useable with Perfect Strike.
At 10th level, the monk can roll his attack roll three times and take the highest result. If one of these rolls is a critical threat, the monk must choose one of his other two rolls to use as his confirmation roll. This ability replaces the monk's stunning fist
Slice Space (Su)
At 3rd level, the sword saint's connection to his blade allows him to flense the fabric of the universe as he cuts his enemy. This functions as the bladed dash spell, except the circumstance bonus is equal to your wisdom modifer. Using this ability is a standard action which consumes 2 ki points. This ability modifies the Monk's ki pool, replacing their ability to spend ki to make an extra attack when using flurry of blows.
At 6th level, the monk may use this ability as a swift action at the cost of 4 ki points.
Hunting for the Deathblow (Ex)
At 6th level, as a full round action, the monk may make a single devastating attack with his soul's sword. When he does this, he makes an attack against a single target, but makes as many attack rolls a full attack would allow him to make based on his base attack bonus. He makes attack rolls in order from highest bonus to lowest, as if he were making a full attack. If any of the attack rolls hit the target, the monk's single attack is considered to have hit. For each additional successful attack roll beyond the first, the monk deals his weapons damage dice an additional time.
If one or more rolls are critical threats, he confirms the critical once using his highest base attack bonus –5. For each critical threat beyond the first, she reduces this penalty by 1 (to a maximum of 0). Precision damage and additional damage dice from special weapon qualities are added only once per hit. The monk must spend 3 ki points to use this ability.
This ability replaces the Monk's flurry of blows.
Blade Techniques (Ex) or (Su)
At 5th level, the monk can learn one blade technique. Whenever he uses his Soul's Sword to make a full attack or uses his Hunting the Deathblow, he can use a blade technique. The Blade Technique may be incorporated into one of the attacks he makes or be activated using another action during or after the use of the blade technique. At 9th level and every 4 levels thereafter, a monk learns an additional blade technique. He must choose which style strike to apply before the attack roll is made. At 15th level he can designate up to two attacks with his Soul's Sword as a Blade Technique.
- Opening the Way : With a carefully placed strike, the monk cuts through his enemies defences. An enemy hit with this style strike is denied their dexterity bonus to AC until the beginning of the monk's next turn.
- Impale: By driving your place through the enemy, you gain leverage over them. When using this blade technique, the weapon's damage becomes piercing, and if the monk hits he may immediately make a grapple check against the struck enemy An enemy grappled in this way takes an amount of bleed damage equal to the monk's wisdom modifier. When using this ability, the monk does not gain the grappled condition. When the target of this ability loses the grappled condition, he begins to suffer an amount of bleed each round equal to the sword saint's soul's sword damage dice plus the sword saint's wisdom modifier. If the grappled creature succeeds at a disarm combat maneuver, or the sword saint releases their Soul's Sword, the grapple immediately ends without the impaled creature taking any additional damage. In this situation, the soul's sword can be removed as a full-round action and a DC15 heal check without taking bleed damage.
- The net of steel: By weaving a net of steel, the sword-saint may ward off blows. In any round in which the monk uses this blade technique, he gains a dodge bonus to AC as if he fought defensively, but does not take a penalty to attacks.
- Impending strike: Sword saints traditionally keep their weapons razor sharp, some to the extent that enemies do not realise they have been cut until their limbs fall away. When making an attack with the Impending Strike blade skill, the sword saint does not make an attack roll, or even appear to land an attack, instead he places an Impending Mark on an enemy within melee reach. These marks last for a number of rounds equal to the sword saint's wisdom modifier. As an immediate action, the sword saint may activate one or more Impending Marks he has placed on enemies, and makes an attack roll against each marked enemy for each mark on them as normal, except that the monk's critical threat range is increased by 1 for each round the Impending Mark had been on the marked enemy. This increase is applied after keen and/or improved critical, and is not multiplied by them. Each mark beyond the first which is activated in one round takes a cumulative -5 to hit. The sword Saint must have his Soul's sword drawn and ready to allocate Impending Marks.
- Broad Slash: Carving wide arcs with your blade, you may apply an attack made with this blade technique to two enemies within your reach who are adjacent to each other, comparing the same attack roll to each enemy's AC and applying the same damage to each enemy.
- Ki reaving: When the sword saint scores a critical hit with his soul's sword against an intelligent creature with at least half as many hit die as the sword saint's level they may take a swift action to attempt to steal the targets ki. The creature hit must make a fortitude save with with a DC equal to 10+1/2 level+Wisdom modifier, if the creature fails, the sword saint regains 1 point of ki.
- Cutting non-cutting: 'A man who finds pleasure in the result of cutting is the most hateful, crawling creature there is. A man who finds pleasure in the act of cutting is an artisan.' A sword saint who chooses to do nonlethal damage with his soul's sword doesn't not take the normal penalty to do so.
This ability replaces the monk's Style Strike ability.
Unceasing violence (Su)
Powerful sword saints are able to maintain their Soul's Sword solely through their commitment to commit violence. At 13th level, so long as the sword saint has at least one point in his ki pool, he ignores the penalties associated with wielding a broken weapon if the damaged weapon is his Soul's Sword. Additionally, if a the sword saint's Soul's Sword would be destroyed, the weapon's destruction is delayed until the sword saint relinquishes the weapon or uses their last point of ki.
This ability replaces tongue of sun and moon.
As a heads up, there's already a popular archetype called the sword saint.
1) Soul's Sword gains way more than what it takes away. You give up improved unarmed strike (a "meh" weapon made good only by its scaling damage dice) and bonus feats from a VERY limited list. You gain free proficiency in any weapon (even ranged weapons for some reason), Weapon Focus if you already have proficiency, and WAAAAY better bonus feat selection. As if it wasn't already a great trade, you then give the fighter's weapon training, which is the one class feature (thanks to advanced weapon training) that prevents the fighter from being total garbage compared to other martials. You should remove weapon training and fighter levels from this ability entirely. The unchained monk doesn't need it and they did not lose anything for it.
Also, why does the blade cost money to attune/replace? You don't gain any magical abilities with it.
2) Slice Space: I feel like this would be better as a ki power or a style strike with the circumstance bonus removed.
3) Hunting for the Deathblow: I think it would be better to just nerf this ability enough so it doesn't cost ki and can be taken at 1st level. Replacing/changing flurry of blows just throws the balance of the class totally out of whack. Also, the main appeal of using a weapon with the monk is being able to flurry of blows with it. So by removing the ability entirely, you made the concept unappealing.
4) Blade Techniques: I see many major problems with all these style strikes. One of the biggest issues is that they're way better than most of the style strikes a normal unchained monk gets. Also, this should be extraordinary as it's not clear what parts of the ability are supernatural and not supernatural. The second sentence is really awkward and doesn't make sense.
5) Opening the Way: Waaaaay too powerful. This not only guarantees the entire full attack is going to hit but also completely cripples the opponent for your allies to attack since it lasts until the beginning of your next turn. Compare to the spin kick style strike, which only makes someone flat-footed for a single attack.
5) Impale: This is too strong and goes out of the scope of what a style strike should do. Normally style strikes are effects that only work with respect to the attack being made. Any conditions they cause normally only last one round. This ability also seems to not prevent the monk from attacking further.
6) Impending Strike: Again, I feel like this falls out of the scope of what a style strike is supposed to do. Also, increases to critical range that stack with Improved Critical are generally things that should not exist in the game.
7) Broad Slash: I think the attack roll should get a -5 penalty with respect to the second target in order to keep this in line with other style strike options.
8) Ki Reaving: This style strike should be scrapped entirely. This isn't how style strikes are supposed to work. Style strikes are effects that apply to a single attack that you have to declare before attempting them. It's also not a good idea to have an ability like this regenerate ki points as it screws up the ki pool economy. Especially when it fails the bag of rats test.
9) Cutting Non-cutting: Again, this isn't how style strikes are supposed to work. They are effects that apply to a single attack that you have to declare. This should say something like "If the attack hits, it deals nonlethal damage, and the monk does not take penalties for attempting to deal nonlethal damage until the end of his turn."
Huh, I'd gotten mixed up in my mind that the Samurai archetype was called the Kensai, which is actually the magus archetype. To do: new name.
1) You make a good point about this archetype getting access to the cool new fighter toys, however, they don't get as many as the fighter does. This archetype gets 6 bonus feats, and if it wants AWTs, it has to take them in those feat slots. The fighter gets WT 2-4 and 8 bonus feats to pick up AWTs, as well as his main-line feats. That was my rationale for letting this archetype have access to them, and I felt they fit the theme for a monk who hyperspecialised in one weapon.
1a)Soul's Sword was meant to be restricted to melee weapon, oversight on my behalf.
1b) Possibly I don't rate specific-weapon-feats as highly as you, but I think that the base unchained monk's ability to select bonus feats without meeting their requirements is quite powerful (especially in the case, of, say, Medusa's Wrath), even with the restricted list.
1c) It doesn't grant magical abilities, but there are a few Supernatural abilities in archetype which work only with the the Soul's Sword, and it felt appropriate to allow the archetype to switch weapons while giving some incentive to stay with a given one.
I'll give this a think, Would it be better balanced, in your view, if the bonus feats only came at 1, 6, 12, 18?
2) The circumstance bonus is mostly just for reference to the spell, which calls out Int or Cha to hit. With the other numerical advantages offered by the class I can definitely see the advantage in removing the circumstance bonus.
3)I don't necessarily agree that the entire draw of the monk is in the flurry of blows, weapon-based or otherwise. The numerical increases in Soul's Sword were meant to counteract the loss of damage from losing the flurry. What would nerfing it to first level and not requiring ki look like? Would is necessitate gaining back flurry?
4) I will give a go at cleaning this up!
5) You're right about the comparison to spin kick, I'll take this down to next attack.
6) I get that increasing threat ranges beyond the norm is iffy grounds, but I felt that the scaling with time limited the abuse. That said, it may just make it swingy and unsatisfying when you invest the time and get no reward, so while I like the idea you're right that it should probably go.
7) Good point!
8) I'd have thought the HD requirement got around the bag of rats problem, but you're right about it being backwards for how style strikes are supposed to work.
9) You're right about this one, sloppy wording on my part, this was meant to function like your suggestion.
Thank you vewry much for the feedback!
The fighter doesn't have many toys. Weapon training + advanced weapon training options were deliberately created to make the otherwise lackluster fighter competitive and unique compared to the other classes. Giving those to a class that's already fairly strong for virtually nothing is no bueno.
I recommend the following for a rework of this archetype:
1. Replace unarmed strike and bonus feats with proficiency in a melee weapon of choice, and allow the weapon to be treated as a monk weapon.
2. Replace Stunning Fist with Perfect Strike that works with the special weapon (same as you wrote above)
3. Replace the style strikes with new style strikes using the weapon
4. Add bladed dash as a 2-point ki power and greater bladeded dash as a 3-point ki power.
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Okay, so, draft two!
Soul's Sword
At 1st level, the sword saint selects a specific, individual piercing or slashing melee weapon as his Soul's Sword (such as the longspear inherited from their mother). The sword saint becomes proficient with than weapon, henceforth referred to as their Soul's Sword, and always treats his Soul's Sword as a monk weapon.
This ability replaces the monk's unarmed strike ability and his bonus feats.
Royal Blade
At 1st level, a monk gains Perfect Strike as a bonus feat, even if he does not meet the prerequisites. A sword saint may only use Perfect strike with his Soul's Sword, and may do so even if this is not one of the weapons usually useable with Perfect Strike.
At 10th level, the monk can roll his attack roll three times and take the highest result. If one of these rolls is a critical threat, the monk must choose one of his other two rolls to use as his confirmation roll. This ability replaces the monk's stunning fist ability.
Sword Saint Arts
At 4th level, the sword saint may select the following ki powers in addition to those available to unchained monk's:
- Slice space (Su): the sword saint's connection to his blade allows him to flense the fabric of the universe as he cuts his enemy. This functions as the bladed dash spell, except that the sword saint does not get a circumstance bonus to hit. Using this ability is a standard action which consumes 2 ki points.
- Cutting non-cutting (Su): 'A man who finds pleasure in the result of cutting is the most hateful, crawling creature there is. A man who finds pleasure in the act of cutting is an artisan.' As long as the sword saint has at least one point in his ki pool, the sword saint may deal nonlethal damage without taking a penalty to his attack rolls.
- Double weapon flurry (Ex): If the sword saint's Soul's Sword is a double weapon, the sword saint may make further additional attacks when making a flurry of blows. When the monk spends a ki point to make an additional attack over those normally granted by flurry of blows, the sword saint may make additional attacks with the off-hand head of their Soul's Sword. Each off-hand attack is taken at a cumulative -5 to hit, and you may only take as many offhand attacks as your flurry of blows would grant you. In addition, when you use this ability, you take a -2 to hit in place of the usual penalties for two weapon fighting.
Blade Techniques
At 5th level, a sword saint can learn one type of style strike. Whenever he makes a flurry of blows, he can designate one of his attacks with his Soul's Sword to be a Blade Technique.
This attack is resolved as normal, but it has an additional effect depending on the type of strike chosen. At 9th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, a sword saint learns an additional blade technique. He must choose which style strike to apply before the attack roll is made. At 15th level, he can designate up to two of his attacks with his Soul's Sword each round as a blade technique, and each one can be a different type. The sword saint can choose from any of the following blade techniques.
- Opening the Way: With a carefully placed strike, the monk cuts through his enemies defences. An enemy hit with this style strike is flatfooted against the sword saint's next attack
- Pommel smash: The sword saint brings the pommel or haft around to strike the enemy in the head. If the attack hits, it deals damage equal to a club wielded in the offhand appropriate to the wielder's size, and the creature must take a fortitude save with a DC equal to 10+ the sword saint's base attack bonus or be staggered for one round
- Steel Net: By weaving a net of steel, the sword-saint may ward off blows. If this attack hits, he gains a dodge bonus to AC as if he had fought defensively as a full round action.
- Broad Slash: Carving wide arcs with their blade, the sword saint make strike twice with one blow the attack hits, the sword saint may make an addition attack against an enemy adjacent to the target of this style strike at the same attack bonus -5. This blade technique may only be used with a slashing weapon. If used with a weapon which slashing damage and another weapon damage type (such as a morningstar), these attacks deal half damage.
Unceasing violence
At 13th level, so long as the sword saint has at least one point in his ki pool, he ignores the penalties associated with wielding a broken weapon. Additionally, if a weapon wielded by the sword saint would be destroyed, the weapon's destruction is delayed until the sword saint relinquishes the weapon or uses their last point of ki.
This ability replaces tongue of sun and moon.
***
Overall, the class definitely needs some more style strikes, and possibly some more unique ki powers/Sword Saint Arts.