New base class: Mystic Warrior

[Nifft]

IMHO, a Wuxia Mystic Warrior should be pretty darn Monk-like:

1/ All good saves
2/ Full BAB
3/ Mobility: at least the chance to get Evasion, fast movement, or similar non-armor coolness
4/ Some mystic combat powers

-- N

PS: Or just use the Psychic Warrior...

 

[Belmont20xx]

IMHO, a Wuxia Mystic Warrior should be pretty darn Monk-like:

1/ All good saves
2/ Full BAB
3/ Mobility: at least the chance to get Evasion, fast movement, or similar non-armor coolness
4/ Some mystic combat powers

-- N

PS: Or just use the Psychic Warrior...

I was just about to suggest the psychic warrior. Powers like catfall (instnatly recover from a fall) or body equilbrium (walk on water or other nonsolid surfaces), plus feats like Up the Walls and Deep Impact all portray actions from Wuxia films you're trying to imitate.

You might give up some bonus feats in exchnage for the monk ac bonuses.

 

[Elephant]

It's supposed to come from the whole "mobile wuxia warrior" schtick. And also, Ref is the least critical save, so trading Will for Ref (compared to a battle sorc) weakens it a bit, leaving more room for other stuff.

What do you think about the battle sorcerer varian from Unearthed Arcana?

This guy is like the battle sorc, but:

Good Ref instead of Good Will. (Adv: battle sorc.)

Better skills. (Adv: mystic warrior.)

Improved Unarmed Strike instead of familiar. (Even?)

Monk AC instead of light armour. (Adv: mystic warrior)

Weaker spells overall (I think?), even though they come from many different lists. (Adv: battle sorc.)

I was working on the assumption that the battle sorc was balanced, so this should be (roughly) balanced too.


Well, I did pick spells from many lists, but I skipped many of the sexiest spells on each, so I don't think it really qualifies as cherry-picking.


I think the question to ask here is: what's the worst you could do with it as it stands now, that you couldn't do with a cleric or battle sorcerer (or an eldritch knight, to keep it core)? IMO, not much.

It just FEELS wrong to see good Ref on a gish. The skills don't bother me too much, and *most* of the spells seem okay, but again, 9th level spellcasting in a combo class like this seems wrong. Besides which, it doesn't seem right to grab spells from both arcane and divine sources willy-nilly.

I've never looked at Battle Sorcerer from UA, so I can't use it as a comparison baseline.

 

[jasin]

I've never looked at Battle Sorcerer from UA, so I can't use it as a comparison baseline.

It's a sorcerer, only with d8, medium BAB, and one less spell per day at each level and one less spell known at each level (minimum 1, so a 6th-level battle sorc has 6/3/1/1 spells known).

 

[jasin]

IMHO, a Wuxia Mystic Warrior should be pretty darn Monk-like:

1/ All good saves
2/ Full BAB
3/ Mobility: at least the chance to get Evasion, fast movement, or similar non-armor coolness
4/ Some mystic combat powers

I'm not so sure... this is D&D, after all, and the point is to have a 13th-level wuxia mystic warrior be balanced with a 13th-level rogue and a 13th-level fighter.

Giving them good everything because they're good at everything in the movies isn't really the way to go, I think.

And if the mobility and mystic combat powers aren't so great, they're more of a "fighter (with also some mystic chi powers)" than "mystic chi power fighter".

And being able to leap 20 or 40 or 60 ft. isn't that special in D&D. Fly allows you to fly for minutes at 5th level, swift fly lets you pull off 120 ft. leaps at 3rd (if you're a wizard). Dimension door lets you teleport at 7th. If a class is supposed to have crazy leaps and outlandish combat stunts as its trademark, they better be pretty crazy and outlandish. Which means cutting down somewhere else, like BAB and/or saves (even the monk has medium BAB).

PS: Or just use the Psychic Warrior...

Well, the psychic warrior is the closest to a wuxia class in offical 3E, but there are a few significant drawbacks:

Reliance on heavy armour.
Access to some completely inappropriate powers (the same problem as if you just play a battle sorc).
The need to take feats to do crazy wuxia stunts, feats which simply aren't that useful.

ISTM that while you can make a wuxia swordsman using the psychic warrior, it won't really be able to compete with a psychic warrior built with no theme in mind, instead of just picking the most useful stuff. (This works exactly the same if you substitute "battle sorcerer" for "psychic warrior", BTW.)

 

[Nifft]

The Monk has medium BAB and Flurry. If your Mystic Warrior gains Flurry, medium BAB sounds fine. Otherwise, I'd suggest full BAB.

Why all good saves? I see this class replacing the Monk, or at least filling the same role. Rangers get two good saves (Fort & Ref)...

(I've been implicitly balancing this class against an amalgamation of Monk and Ranger... look at all the good stuff Rangers get, even with full BAB.)

-- N