Since I harped on elsewhere about there not being enough (good) counters in Bo9S, I thought I might have a go at doing something about it.
Anyone who has a readied maneuver can make use of these: you don't need a feat or any other special prereq. I could have made 36 special maneuvers, 4 for each discipline, but they'd all end up doing much the same thing. Therefore for simplicity's sake, and because my thesaurus is exhausted, I've condensed it down to the essentials.
These are designed with the following in mind:
- Balanced with martial adepts in mind (fighters begone!)
- Make defense stronger, so as to reduce likelihood of 1-2 round kills and increase tactical complexity.
- People generally don't pay much attention to defense, because dealing out gobs of damage is considered sexier. Don't ask me why, they just do. Thus instead of making defense an option which either 1) gets ignored or 2) gets used and makes everyone else complain that it's borked, I build it into the system.
I realise that one of the ideas behind maneuvers is that they promote variety. But sometimes that variety is more apparent than real; I don't really see a huge difference between, say, greater insightful strike and rabid bear strike. With both, you roll to hit, and then you roll big gobs of damage. Whereas with this, you have a choice between using greater insightful strike on the bad guy next turn, or fending off the attack he just made on you.
Still unsure how to extend this to non-maneuver-using creatures (including most monsters).
Generic AC counter
As an immediate action, spend a readied maneuver to gain a dodge bonus to AC equal to 10 + the maneuver's level. This is effective against the next attack before the start of your next turn.
EDIT: You must decide whether to use this before finding out the result of the attack roll.
Generic save counter
As above, but an insight bonus equal to the maneuver level, to one saving throw. (note: no +10)
Generic DR counter
As above, but you gain DR (10 + maneuver level)/adamantine until the start of your next turn. (The idea is that you use the AC counter against strikes, and the DR counter against full attacks.)
Generic SR counter
EDIT: As DR counter, but you gain SR (10 + twice the maneuver level) against one spell/SLA.
Anyone who has a readied maneuver can make use of these: you don't need a feat or any other special prereq. I could have made 36 special maneuvers, 4 for each discipline, but they'd all end up doing much the same thing. Therefore for simplicity's sake, and because my thesaurus is exhausted, I've condensed it down to the essentials.
These are designed with the following in mind:
- Balanced with martial adepts in mind (fighters begone!)
- Make defense stronger, so as to reduce likelihood of 1-2 round kills and increase tactical complexity.
- People generally don't pay much attention to defense, because dealing out gobs of damage is considered sexier. Don't ask me why, they just do. Thus instead of making defense an option which either 1) gets ignored or 2) gets used and makes everyone else complain that it's borked, I build it into the system.
I realise that one of the ideas behind maneuvers is that they promote variety. But sometimes that variety is more apparent than real; I don't really see a huge difference between, say, greater insightful strike and rabid bear strike. With both, you roll to hit, and then you roll big gobs of damage. Whereas with this, you have a choice between using greater insightful strike on the bad guy next turn, or fending off the attack he just made on you.
Still unsure how to extend this to non-maneuver-using creatures (including most monsters).
Generic AC counter
As an immediate action, spend a readied maneuver to gain a dodge bonus to AC equal to 10 + the maneuver's level. This is effective against the next attack before the start of your next turn.
EDIT: You must decide whether to use this before finding out the result of the attack roll.
Generic save counter
As above, but an insight bonus equal to the maneuver level, to one saving throw. (note: no +10)
Generic DR counter
As above, but you gain DR (10 + maneuver level)/adamantine until the start of your next turn. (The idea is that you use the AC counter against strikes, and the DR counter against full attacks.)
Generic SR counter
EDIT: As DR counter, but you gain SR (10 + twice the maneuver level) against one spell/SLA.
Last edited:
