Wulin Xia
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| Fan Content |
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| D&D 4e |
| This page is fan content for 4th Edition D&D. |
The Wulin Xia, a Ki Defender
Contents |
Introduction
The Wulin Xia (/woo-lin sha/) is my version of a Monk-like Defender, inspired by Chinese fantasy martial arts films. The name comes from the Chinese word for the fictional society of martial artists in Chinese fantasy stories (the "wulin") and the name of the heroes who populated these stories (the "xia"). The xia are not pure, unarmed fighters like the martial arts seen in stories set in more contemporary martial arts films. The Swordsage, from 3e's Tome of Battle, was much more in line with this genre of story.
If you're not familiar with the wuxia genre -- expect a bit of a fantastic take, but more in line with extensions of what's an extension of the body's abilities than an outright blurring of sorcery and martial arts, especially at Heroic tier. By Epic tier though, the gloves are off, and we kick reason to the curb.
If you'd like to learn more about the wuxia genre, read this fairly comprehensive primer. Movies that fall into this genre include "The Bride with the White Hair," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Iron Monkey," "Hero," "Curse of the Golden Flowers," "House of Flying Daggers," "Storm Riders," and "A Man Called Hero." Loving parodies include "Kung Fu Hustle" and "Shaolin Soccer."
New Feats
Heroic Tier Feats
Animal Style
Prerequisites: Unarmed Combat
Benefits: You can treat your unarmed attacks as belonging to a single other weapon group of your choice for purposes of feats and powers. For example, you might learn Rat Style, which lets you treat your unarmed attacks as if they were light blades, or you might learn Dragon Style, which lets you treat them as polearms. You do not gain the properties of any specific weapon with that category. (For example, if you pick polearms, you do not gain reach.) You are limited to weapon groups for melee weapons; in other words, no bows, crossbows, or slings.
Your unarmed attacks still count as a member of the unarmed weapon group. You can pick this feat more than once, gaining new styles, but you cannot benefit from multiple version of it at the same time. (For example, you can't treat your unarmed attacks as both a heavy blade and a polearm at the same time, even though weapons exist that fall into both groups.) Decide at the start of your turn which weapon group you are emulating if you have more than one Animal Style feat.
Example style names:
Boar Style: Maces
Crane Style: Spears
Demon Style: Axes
Dragon Style: Polearms
Eagle Style: Picks
Monkey Style: Staffs
Ox Style: Hammers
Rat Style: Light Blades
Snake Style: Flails
Tiger Style: Heavy Blades
Staff Flurry
Prerequisite: Dex 13, proficiency with the quarterstaff.
Benefit: When wielding a quarterstaff, you are considered to be wielding two weapons for purposes of all powers, feats, and other abilities related to two-weapon fighting. The quarterstaff counts as both the weapon in the character's main hand and off-hand.
Unarmed Combat
Prerequisite: Str 13 and Dex 13 or Dex 13 and Wis 13.
Benefit: All unarmed attacks are increased two steps in die size (to 1d8 for small & medium characters) and have a +3 proficiency bonus. You may treat unarmed attacks as off-hand weapons for purposes of two-weapon fighting.
Paragon Tier Feats
Staff Lunge [Wulin Xia]
Prerequisite: Wulin Xia, staff flurry
Benefit: You may treat a quarterstaff as a polearm and gain reach with it.
Epic Tier Feats
Two Roads, Same Journey [Wulin Xia]
Prerequisite: Wulin Xia and one Path of Mastery.
Benefit: You gain the benefits of another Wulin Xia Path of Mastery.
Multiclassing Feats
Martial Artist [Multiclass Wulin Xia]
Prerequisite: Unarmed Combat
Benefit: You gain training in one skill from the wulin xia's class skill list.
You gain the benefit of the wulin xia's Uncanny Awareness class feature when wearing cloth or no armor. In addition, you can benefit from a wulin xia talisman when making unarmed attacks.
Wulin Talismans
Wulin talismans are the equivalent of implements or weapons for unarmed attacks. Like a holy symbol, they can be worn on the body and do not take up an item slot. Like weapons, their enhancement bonus applies to the attack rolls, damage rolls, and bonus critical damage dice of your attacks as if they were [i]magic weapons[i]. Like armor, their special powers enhance defense.
When designing a wulin talisman, do the following:
1. Imagine a mystical, eastern-flavored item that can be worn on the body without blocking your ability to wear another item. Much like you can wear a holy symbol on a necklace and still have a neck slot item, you shouldn't worry too much about physical overlap. Some good ideas are a rosary of Buddhist prayer beads, a magatama necklace, a prayer strip paper charm tied to the hilt of your sword, etc.
2. Pick a magical armor. The cost, level, and at-will, encounter, and daily powers of the talisman are identical to an armor of your choice. You are not restricted to a particular type of armor. (Example: A +2 deathcut talisman grants you resistance to necrotic & poison damage and has that item's daily power but does not grant you any bonus to AC or defenses. It is a level 10 item costing 5,000 gp.)
3. Give it the powers of a magic weapon with the same enchantment bonus. Not a flaming weapon or any other type of magical weapon, but specifically the no-frills, plain old magic weapon. (Example: Your +2 deathcut talisman gives your unarmed attacks +2 to attack rolls and damage and an extra +2d6 damage on critical hits.)
(The design goal of this class of items is to keep the wulin xia balanced with respect to other classes in terms of personal wealth and attack effectiveness without making unarmed attacks overtly mystical and strange without going into a paragon path. Plus, I wanted the wulin xia to have a slightly more defensive focus than the Fighter and Paladin, and this helps.)
New Conditions
Power Blocked
- You may only make basic attacks.
- You may not spend healing surges of your own; you may still benefit from other forms of healing.
- You do not recharge any expended powers.
Wulin Xia
"Tonight you will know the shame of your master and his masters before him. Come."
Class Traits
Role: Defender. You are highly skilled at evading blows and have the ability to brush aside swarms of minions seeking to overrun your allies or to pin down single, larger threats. You can defeat the best armed warriors through discipline and inner strength alone. Enemies ignore you in favor of weaker allies at their peril.
Power Source: Ki. Years of grueling, sadistic martial arts training have untapped the amazing potential of your body and soul. You are capable of feats which mere strength alone never could accomplish.
Key Abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom.
Armor Proficiencies: Cloth. (See class features.)
Weapon Proficiencies: Any three of the following: club (rattan sticks & tonfas), dagger (including sai), sickle (kama), nunchaku (see below), quarterstaff, scimitar (Chinese broadsword), short sword (scholar's sword), glaive (2 picks), longspear (2 picks), weighted chain (2 picks; see below)
Bonus to Defense: +1 Fort, +1 Ref. (See class features.)
Hit points at 1st Level: 15 + Constitution score
Hit points per Level Gained: 6
Healing Surges per Day: 9 + Constitution modifier
Trained Skills: Acrobatics or Athletics (your choice). From the class skills list below, choose four more trained skills at 1st level. Class Skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Athletics (Str), Endurance (Con), History (Int), Heal (Wis), Insight (Wis), Nature (Wis), Perception (Wis), Religion (Int)
Build Options: Glory Hound, Spiritual Seeker
Class Features: Inner Strength, Uncanny Awareness, Path of Mastery, Defender's Challenge
Wulin xia are master warriors, trained in martial arts from childhood and hammered into disciplined fighters. Your training has awakened the spiritual potential within you to harness your inner ki to strike blows with your mere fists and feet that are strong as that of any hammer or blade. Your senses have been highly tuned and your flesh fortified by an awakened spirit. Blows that would fell armored knights are child's play for you to turn aside.
Whether your discipline merely extends to your stoic grace in combat or to your every waking act, it hones and sharpens you into a nearly divine warrior. Xia can scatter hordes of lesser warriors and send the strongest of foes flying through walls with a powerful blow. They can wrestle dragons and throw giants. The stronger or more numerous their foe is, the more focused and deadly they become. The challenge of mastery drives you to greater and greater acts of heroism each adventure.
Will you walk the road to perfect inner peace and the unshakable mastery of true enlightenment, or will you tread on the dreams of every warrior who thought themselves your master until you stand at the top of the martial arts world? Let them come and test their convictions against yours.
Creating a Wulin Xia
You can choose any wulin xia powers you find interesting for your character, but xia naturally fall into two basic groups -- those who pursue strength from within and those who want to show their strength over others. While all xia can make use of a high Dexterity, your dominant attribute will depend on that choice -- either Wisdom or Strength, respectively.
Glory Hound
You walk the path of those who seek to prove themselves through strength and fighting. Your techniques focus on beating down a single strong opponent, and you tend to prefer to use weapons and wear armor over going into battle barehanded. Strength is your most important ability score and factors strongly in your brutal strikes and grappling. Good Dexterity improves your mobility and your ability to push around opponents. You will want a fair Wisdom score if you would like to befuddle foes and sweep away masses of unworthy challengers.
Suggested Feat: Power Attack (Human Feat: Action Surge)
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Acrobatics, Endurance, Nature, Perception
Suggested At-Will Powers: Mantis Grip, Serpent's Lunge
Suggested Encounter Power: Inevitable Blow
Suggested Daily Power: Skin-Shattering Blow
Spiritual Warrior
You walk the path of those who seek perfection through meditation and rigid self-discipline. You eschew clumsy weapons and restrictive armor in favor of the power within yourself. You project your will through your strikes and moves, dealing damage more with spiritual force than with the impact of flesh and bone. Your powers are more oriented towards frustrating the attacks of enemies and inflicting debilitating conditions on them than on demolishing their bodies. Wisdom is your most important ability score, followed by Dexterity. Strength never hurts to have in case you need to eschew the more gentle arts to end a fight swiftly.
Suggested Feat: Combat Reflexes (Human Feat: Action Surge)
Suggested Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Heal, Insight, Religion
Suggested At-Will Powers: Gentle Blow, Pendulum Strike
Suggested Encounter Power: Rolling Wave
Suggested Daily Power: Somnolent Touch
WULIN XIA OVERVIEW
Characteristics: You are an excellent grappler and a master of debilitating strikes. You are a highly defensive fighter, capable of blocking attacks that most people would rely on armor to turn aside. You have a fair ability to move around the battlefield, but your job is to get in the face of enemies and to interfere with their attacks against your friends.
Religion: Xia tend to favor two kinds of deities: those that reward bold action and those that reward contemplation. Glory seekers gravitate to Kord, Avandra or even Bane. Spiritual warriors favor Ioun, Melora, Erathis, or sometimes Vecna.
Races: Wulin xia come from all races, but Humans are by far the most common. Dragonborn usually take to the road to travel for glory, while Elves and Dwarves prefer the monastic life.
Wulin Xia Class Features
Inner Strength
You gain the Unarmed Combat feat for free. Additionally, at 5th level and every 5 levels beyond, you gain a +1 enhancement bonus to attacks and damage. Your unarmed attacks are not magic weapons, and you cannot enhance or disenchant this bonus. You may use Wulin Talismans to enhance your unarmed attacks beyond this.
Uncanny Awareness
You gain a +2 bonus to AC when wearing light armor or no armor.
Path of Mastery
Triumph of the Strong: When an enemy you have grabbed attempts to break free, you may force them to make a reroll after learning whether they succeed or fail. You also gain proficiency with leather & hide armor.
Tranquility of the Wise: You gain a second, additional bonus to your AC equal to your Wisdom modifier (max +4) and a +1 bonus to Reflex when wearing either cloth or no armor and carrying no shield. You gain a +1 bonus to Will.
Defender's Challenge
The blazing stare of the xia challenges the worthy and the unworthy alike to face them and them alone. You can use the defender's challenge power to mark an enemy of your choice.
Defender's Challenge
Wulin Xia Feature
With an even glare, you challenge an enemy to fight.
At-Will ✦ Ki
Free Action
Ranged 5 or Close Burst 1
Target: One creature (ranged) or all creatures in burst that you can see.
Effect: You mark the target. The target remains marked until the end of your next turn. A creature can be subject to only one mark at a time. A new mark supersedes a mark that was already in place. While a target is marked, it takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls for any attack that doesn't include you as a target. If the enemy making an attack that doesn't include you and either it or its target is adjacent to you, this penalty increases to equal your Dexterity modifier (minimum 2). You may issue a defender's challenge only once per turn.
