Will the real martial artist please stand up...

[Garthanos]

Well, I think, clearly, there's room for classes like 'monk', and maybe something like 'ninja',

Some of the versions of Ninja work in D&D and I think they would work fine as the Rogue based Martial Artist but if one wants more magic then perhaps multiclass or hybrid and if one wants more KILL it immediately maybe it isnt Heroic fiction genre you are playing.

 

[Garthanos]

Using the heavier armors in 4e incur a penality to Checks... one of the differences I am considering for these martial arts is to have a different set of check penalties they are a distraction ... for instance the excessive focused personal defense penalizing wis and charisma based skill checks (or something like that).

(dropping and donning ones deep stance mind set also require 5 mnute meditation in the morning (to re-attain ones fighting center and night (to achieve the calm before normal sleeping ) ... however trancendental mediation practice will allow one to do rest without droping ones fighting center.. these may be mostly flavor but emulate putting on armor and removingit.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Remember the ranger was a type of fighter and the paladin was a type of fighter and so on... and till they made up the thief the "fighting man" would probably hve been the one best at sneaking around.

With this paradigm we have 4 types of core martial artists almost like the monk swallowed them all. Tee hee.

Well, I think 'martial power source' covers that quite well... I mean my issue was just that 'fighter' is awfully generic a term. I guess the other option is you just figure on having a lot of classes. lol. I mean, sure, you can have 'Samurai' as a class, though it may be a pretty minor variation of a 'fighter type' basically. There's many ways to parse the whole character concept space.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Using the heavier armors in 4e incur a penality to Checks... one of the differences I am considering for these martial arts is to have a different set of check penalties they are a distraction ... for instance the excessive focused personal defense penalizing wis and charisma based skill checks (or something like that).

(dropping and donning ones deep stance mind set also require 5 mnute meditation in the morning (to re-attain ones fighting center and night (to achieve the calm before normal sleeping ) ... however trancendental mediation practice will allow one to do rest without droping ones fighting center.. these may be mostly flavor but emulate putting on armor and removingit.

Another option with armor is to make it a bit more realistic. In essence what happened historically is armor generally provided roughly the same amount of protection, it just got lighter and easier to make and use over time. There were always people using older and less expensive and lighter versions when heavier armor wasn't warranted or possible. So you could get any particular armor class from say "leather armor" but "plate armor" will provide the better grades of protection with less weight (though maybe not cheaper, though at some point you won't care about that anymore). D&D's gradations of armor thus SORT OF make sense, but not really. For instance note that in later times light armor mostly consisted of just wearing partial plate armor (IE 16th Century soldiers for instance, who mostly wear only breastplates and helmets).

 

[Tony Vargas]

Using the heavier armors in 4e incur a penality to Checks... one of the differences I am considering for these martial arts is to have a different set of check penalties they are a distraction ... for instance the excessive focused personal defense penalizing wis and charisma based skill checks (or something like that).

Heavy armor also penalizes movement, which should be fine, the iron-skin-protection or whatever requires you to walk about in a calm, measured way, all the time.

(dropping and donning ones deep stance mind set also require 5 mnute meditation in the morning (to re-attain ones fighting center and night (to achieve the calm before normal sleeping ) ... however trancendental mediation practice will allow one to do rest without droping ones fighting center.. these may be mostly flavor but emulate putting on armor and removingit.

Sounds good.


You could make it more 'interesting,' of course, reduced AC for moving more than a set distance rather than a movement penalty, being able to instantly 'drop' the effect (or be knocked out of it somehow) but taking longer to get into it than just putting on armor, penalties to checks being based on the nature of the action rather than the skill, that kind of thing.

 

[Garthanos]

Heavy armor also penalizes movement, which should be fine, the iron-skin-protection or whatever requires you to walk about in a calm, measured way, all the time.

Also the formal stance for defence in some real martial arts is often not very conductive fast movement... it does emphasize balance and more controlled shifting of position

You could make it more 'interesting,' of course, reduced AC for moving more than a set distance rather than a movement penalty, being able to instantly 'drop' the effect (or be knocked out of it somehow) but taking longer to get into it than just putting on armor,

unconciousness ought indeed knock one out of it (effectively a morning only meditation)

penalties to checks being based on the nature of the action rather than the skill, that kind of thing.

I was considering that any activity that isnt specifically battlefield oriented might be interfered.

I have also considered treating a common art is the ability to drop in and out of this mindset easily (like the armor you summon and dismiss easily)

 

[Garthanos]

Does 4e ever actually specify how long it takes to put on armor.... LOL

answering self -- > My 5 minute meditation to enter or drop the fighting mind set is correct

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Does 4e ever actually specify how long it takes to put on armor.... LOL

answering self -- > My 5 minute meditation to enter or drop the fighting mind set is correct

It isn't very explicit about it, but my take was always you could do it in a short rest, more or less.

 

[Garthanos]

OK now here is what I made up for the Sensei Martial Practice

 

[Garthanos]

Kind of wish I can enable group purchases in the character building (ie you purchase multiple items under the banner of one selection)