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Variations on the Dervish theme

TheEvil

Explorer
The Dervish PRC from Complete Warrior is a mobile, slashing weapon themed light melee character. As a GM, would you see a problem with allowing modifications for a piercing or bludgeoning based dervish? Obviously, this could have significant impacts on feat and class synergies, but do you think they would be unbalancing?
 

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kitcik

Adventurer
The Dervish PRC from Complete Warrior is a mobile, slashing weapon themed light melee character. As a GM, would you see a problem with allowing modifications for a piercing or bludgeoning based dervish? Obviously, this could have significant impacts on feat and class synergies, but do you think they would be unbalancing?

Answer #1 - it is virtually impossible to boost melee enough to put them on par with casters, so fire away.

Answer #2 - as long as you ban Greater Mighty Wallop, it should be fine.

Answer #3 - just take Travel Devotion and any character can be a Dervish without actually taking a level of it.
 

StreamOfTheSky

Adventurer
No, it wouldn't be unbalanced. Dervish is already severely limited by the fact that you have to move between each attack and the duration (until you get tireless dance, it fatigues you after) is based on skill ranks, something that's impossible to pump up beyond the norm. As opposed to Barbarian Rage, where you can min-max your Con score for longer duration.

Especially if you allow the later 3E books that actually gave melee nice things and made skirmishing viable (Tome of Battle, PHB2 [Bounding Assault feat line], and C.Adventurer [Scout class] in particular), Dervish, with its massive feat pre-reqs and limitations, actualyl becomes pretty freaking weak.

Also, check out Tome of Magic sometime. A level 5 Binder (level 3 if he purchases a very good feat most binders will want anyway) can bind Paimon. This gives several benefits, including but not limited to: free access to the Whirlwind Attack feat, an untyped +4 to dexterity, and an ability VERY similar to dervish dance. It allows you as a full round action to move up to your speed and take one attack against any foe you move past. You have to wait 5 rounds to use it again (or 4 if you get a feat, and there's another easy method to be able to do it 2 rounds in a row 1/day that has no real cost at all). There is no restriction on what weapon you can use at all. Yeah, you can't spam it repeatedly, but you also get it at lower level and MUCH lower investment cost.

So, based on all that...no, I don't think it'd be overpowered to just let Dervish attack with any weapon during a dance.

EDIT: I forgot about that! Thanks, Kitcik. Travel Devotion feat and Lion Spirit Totem (both C.Champion) ALSO completely obsolete the entire prestige class. Poor dervish, I like it so much... :(
 

Samloyal23

Adventurer
Stylistically, a piercing weapon may not look right, since it makes an attack that stops its follow through from being part of a spinning movement. Just watch a modern fencer moving along a piste with an epee. But a staff or nunchaku would be good, if you don't want to use a slashing weapon...
 


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