The Randori Master (Homebrew Prestige Class)

Randori is the Aikido exercise where multiple people attack one person (4-8 depending on the skill level I believe) and that person has to fend them off.

I thought that was a cool concept and I always thought that tripping, disarming, and such were never good enough to be used. Therefore, I made this Class.


The Randori Master

Prerequisites:
Base Attack Bonuse: +3
Feats: Improved unarmed strike, improved grapple (Oriental Adventures), improved disarm, combat reflexes
skills: tumble 8 ranks, ?
Special: Evasion Class Ability

Weapon/Armor Proficiency: Same as monk
Skills: Same as monk
BAB: medium
Saves: all high (as monk)

Lv Special
1 Monk Abilities, Any Size Defense
2 Opportunistic Fighting I
3 Defensive Toss I
4 Flying Disarm I
5 Size Doesn't Matter
6 Defensive Toss II
7 Opportunistic Fighting II
8 Flying Disarm II
9 Defensive Toss III
10 Master of Momentum

Monk Abilities: If the Randori master has any monk levels, add his master levels to his monk levels to determine number of attacks, unarmed damage, speed, and AC bonus. In 3.5 the monk gains the flurry of blows abilities as the monk.

Any Size Defense: At 1st level while grappling, disarming, tripping, or tossing (see below), the Randori master suffers no penalties due to size, and his opponent gains no bonuses due to size. The Master still gains bonuses for his size (if any).

Opportunistic Fighting: At 2nd level if any opponent attacks and misses the Randori master then he may immidiatelly make a disarm or trip attempt against that opponent. This uses up an attack of opportunity for that turn, and the Randori master can not use the improved trip feat along with this ability. At seventh level, the Randori master may attempt to initiate a grapple for free instead of disarming or tripping.

Defensive Toss: At 3rd level defensive toss may be used as an opportunistic fighting action (see above). When this ability is used, the Randori master and the target both make opposed grapple checks. If the target fails then he is thrown in the same direction he attacked up to the number of feet (10 at 3rd, 20 at 6th, 30 at 9th). The target can be thrown at another creature (granted the creature is within range) with a ranged touch attack. If the creature is hit then both the thrown and the thrown at creatures take 1d6 damage per 10ft. of force applied behind the throw. If the Randori master misses with this throw, the creature just lands in a square as far away as the force behind the throw dictates(ie: the randori master throws a creature at gorlack the minitaur who is 10ft. away. The randori master puts 30ft. of force behind the creature so that gorlack will be dealt 3d6 damage if he's hit. The Randori master misses, however, so the thrown creature is sent 20ft. past the minitaur). If the creature hits a barrier (wall, etc.) it is dealt falling damage as if it had been falling horizontally (ie: 1d6 per ten feet left in the throw). After thrown, the target may make a reflex save (DC 15 + Randori master Levels) to stay standing, otherwise they fall prone. This ability may not be used on creatures the Randori master cannot normally grapple. At 6th level, in addition to being able to throw the target 20ft., the Randori master can throw the target anywhere within a 180 spread, as opposed to directly in the direction the attacker attacked. At 9th level, in addition to being able the throw the target 30ft., the Randori master can throw the target in any direction.

Flying Disarm: At 4th level whenever the Randori master disarms an opponent, the Randori master may cause the weapon to fly in any direction up to ten feet. At 8th level, the weapon can be sent up to 20 feet, and the randori master can direct the weapon at any creature within range. The Randori master makes a ranged attack role with a -4 penalty per size category of the weapon above small.

Size Doesn't Matter: At 5th level, the randori master may grapple creatures up to three larger categories than him, rather than just two.

Master of Momentum: At 10th level, the Randori master can grapple creatures of any size.


First of all: Is the class balanced?
2nd: If not, how can it be balanced.
Should there be any more prerequisites?

Any Other Thoughts?

Corlon said:

Any Size Defense: At 1st level while grappling, disarming, tripping, or tossing (see below), the Randori master suffers no penalties due to size, and his opponent gains no bonuses due to size. The Master still gains bonuses for his size (if any).

Click to expand...

Hmm. That seems pretty front-loaded to me, honestly. I've seen feats that essentially halve the penalty for size difference in grappling, and this eliminates it for that and for several other features.

You might say something like 'counts as up to 1 size category larger, if desired, for purposes of' and then increase it later.

Opportunistic Fighting: At 2nd level if any opponent attacks and misses the Randori master then he may immidiatelly make a disarm or trip attempt against that opponent. This uses up an attack of opportunity for that turn, and the Randori master can not use the improved trip feat along with this ability. At seventh level, the Randori master may attempt to initiate a grapple for free instead of disarming or tripping.

Click to expand...

Again, this is very powerful, especially so early in the class. You might want to split it into at least two abilities - the first requiring you to designate an opponent and the second allowing you to use it on any opponent.

Alternately, have it be usable only on foes who miss you only due to your use of another feat - Dodge or Expertise come to mind.

These two abilities seem to be the big ones of the class, and I think as written you'd get a lot of people who wanted to 'cherry pick' them out and then go back to regular monk advancement. Spreading the benefits out makes taking more levels in the class attractive.

J

""Rondori

Requirements:
Dodge, Mobility, Improved Unarmed Combat, Improved Trip, Defensive Throw, Combat Reflexes

The amount of creatures that may safely surround (ie: come within contact of) you is reduced by half. Should a character find themselves surrounded by more creatures than is safe (by accident or deliberate design), he may force excess creatures out of combat.

With this feat, a character may choose a number of creatures within contact to make a Ref save (DC 10 + the character's Dex bonus + the number of surrounding creatures). A successful save means the creature may stay in combat for this round. On a failed save, the creature must take a 5 foot step in any direction the creature chooses, as long as the creature and the character are no longer in contact with each other. This same creature can only take a partial action on its next turn. The number of creaures that may be forced to make this save can be no more than the amount beyond what is concidered safe.

Example: with this feat, a human monk may only be safely surrounded by 4 medium creatures. Should he be surrounded by 6, he may choose two of them to make this ref save.

A character may force the above save whenever they are surrounded by more creatures than is safe. Different creatures may be chosen each time this ability is used.

Allies count against the amount of creatures who may safely surround you.

This feat is does not function if the character is immobilized (ie: hold spells, certain command spells, helpless/unconscious, grappled, etc)""



I came up with this as a feat a while back (took me FOREVER to find it). Rondori is the name given to it in Aikido (took it for 5 years ), but the principles are active in all martial arts (take advantage of an opening when they attack). So, I made it a feat. I tended to avoid using the trip/throw mechanics and tried to abstract the exercises principle (reduce the amount of enemies you have to deal with by putting them between you and other enemies, for a few seconds anyway). This help?

I believe it's randori, but then again, for Japanese words I always use the romangi spelling.

That's a pretty cool feat, and it embodies much better the exercise of Randori I think, but I think when I first made the prestige class it was called the "defensive master." I basically made it just to have a cool sort of kung fu guy that could trip, disarm, and throw people around better than everyone else, and those other feats never seemed to do it for me.

The defensive master just sounded really (pick one: cliche, stupid, stock, etc.) so I decided to change it to the Randori master.

Randori was an original inspiration (my dojo had done it a day or two before I made it up), but as with all DnD skills, it was completely blown out of proportion and by that I mean made into a cool class .





As for the changes, how about:
Any Size Defense 1 (1st leve): When doing those actions, the Randori master suffers only one half the penalties for size, and his opponents gain only 3/4 their bonuses for size.
Any Size Defense 2 (3rd level): When doing those actions, the Randori master suffers only one quarter the penalties for size, and his opponents gain only 1/2 their bonuses for size.
Any Size Defense 3(6th level): When doing those actions, the Randori Master suffers no penalties for size, and his opponents gain only 1/4 their bonuses for size.
Any Size Defense 4(9th level): Ditto, no bonuses or penalties.

With those changes, I don't think opportunistic fighting is all that good at all. It uses an attack of opportunity, at 2nd level they still suffer a good deal for disarming, they can't use improved trip, and they can't initiate grapples yet, AND they can't toss yet(which is by far one of the coolest abilities of the Randori master IMHO).

Are you familiar with Palladium's 'Ninjas & Superspies'?

There was a section specifically for Aikido that may or may not help.

I'll keep it brief (hoping you know how Palladium-based combat works).

The character got 1 (yep, ONE) attack per round. However, they received trips, locks, throws, and breakfalls for as Automatic actions (effectivelly free actions). Maybe that would work for what your after?

(Example: Upon reaching 10th level, the Defensive Master may not attack, but can use defensive moves as free actions)