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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eldritch_Lord" data-source="post: 5554815" data-attributes="member: 52073">Response to Arkhandus, spoilered for off-topic-ness.[sblock]I saw that part of your post, and am simply contesting the assertion that ToB is "anime" in general, and that one has to work to make a S&S-style warrior; my point was that ToB is plenty mundane by default unless you choose maneuvers from one of the three explicitly supernatural disciplines available only to the explicitly supernatural classes.Any fighter can stand there to take a sword to the face because he's "just that tough"--it's called "having lots of hit points."  In fact, if you solely interpret HP as physical injury (as those who think Devoted Spirit healing is supernatural do) Conan is in fact standing there taking swords to the face.  Besides, an Iron Heart/Tiger Claw warblade practically is Conan; as many on the intertubes have said, Iron Heart Surge would be a lot clearer if you replaced the entirety of the flavor and mechanics text with "BY CROM!" <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Lightning Throw = Xena's chakram.  Suspension-of-disbelief-stretching, sure, but not mystical.Stone Bones = No more mystical than the barbarian's DR.Mountain Hammer = Hit the weak spot for <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ForMassiveDamage" target="_blank">massive damage</a>.Comet Throw = I know Judo.Ballista Throw = I know lots of Judo.Tornado Throw = I'm really really good at Judo.The world record for judo throws is <a href="http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com/_Most-martial-arts-throws-in-one-minute/BLOG/2496006/7691.html" target="_blank">51 in 1 minute</a>, which puts those maneuvers to shame; I couldn't find a distance record, but I'm guessing it would also be a lot less "mundane" than one would expect.Ghostly Defense = I can trick you into missing me and hitting someone else.All of the Devoted Spirit healing maneuvers aren't necessarily magical:Ignoring fatigue, improving morale, avoiding attacks through better positioning...all of these and more are perfectly valid mundane explanations for the healing.Foehammer = I hit things really hard.The three Diamond Mind save-replacing maneuvers simply take your saves and give them higher numbers, not at all an extraordinary effect, through your concentration and will.  Mind Over Body is no more supernatural than the placebo effect is.If Time Stands Still is supernatural, so is a full attack action.  Show me a real-life warrior who can attack someone four times in the span of six seconds with a ten-foot pike, or four times in the span of three seconds with a longbow, and then we'll talk about Time Stands Still. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />The Bloodclaw Master is about as magical as a barbarian's rage; you can take a class that lets you change your shape a bit by channeling your feral nature, or you can take a feat that makes you immune to fire while in rage and take class that makes you immune to death by HP damage while in rage.  How is one more magical than the other?JPM and RKV don't count, as they're spellcasting PrCs.  Bloodstorm Blade, Shadow Sun Ninja, and Deepstone Sentinel I already said were supernatural.  Eternal Blade gives you the same benefits as you'd gain from any old and wise mortal adviser.Definition of (Ex):My entire point is that "most" of the book is no different than "normal" D&D.  The vast majority of maneuvers are no more "out there" than anything people could already do--heck, there's a feat in PHB2 that already lets monks nonmagically create and throw nonmagical fire thanks to ki, and people complain about Desert Wind?--and most of them are much more mundane than people think when skimming the book.  Hercules can easily be represented as a 7th-level martial character with exceptionally high stats.  If you look past the fancy names to see what everything actually does, and compare it to what existing things in D&D can do, you'll see that it's not mostly supernatural or mostly wuxia at all.I'm not trying to attack you with a point-by-point rebuttal or anything, and I realize you're not one of those rapid "OMG!  ToB is teh evulz!" types.  I just feel that you're letting its associations with anime characters and its video-game-ness, whatever that is, to influence your judgment on the matter.[/sblock]tl;dr: It's not nearly as supernatural or "anime" as it's made out to be, if you consider it overly mystical than the fighter and barbarian are mystical too, and Conan is an Iron Heart warblade.</blockquote>

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