D&D 3E/3.5 ToB: Bo9S - Nifft's Compendium

[periscope69]

On the Chouji thing lets think we may need to stretch a little. Wait a minute.

Increase size of limbs

Increase size of self

Stretch (im going off a little but Id really like to see one like this)

Blow up into a ball and ram people (extra damage and bonuses to bull rush maybe everyone in a 5 ft wide line +5 feet for every size category bigger than medium you are [a lot of powerful build stances in this one].

Bonuses to str while under the influence of this (or on str related checks or damage rolls).

Maybe the ability to eat their opponents or drink off their life force (that was jirobo but I just really want to get see this school and this seems like a fitting technique).

The ability to gain glowing butterfly wings and lose about 80 pound s in 3 seconds but you go into a coma for a week.

Possibly natural armor or DR?

 

[Nifft]

Maybe the ability to eat their opponents or drink off their life force (that was jirobo but I just really want to get see this school and this seems like a fitting technique).

Wasn't that a big stone dome thing that he evoked? It's really looking like a specialized Stone Dragon prestige class.

The other stuff could be exceptions to the no moving while in a Stone Dragon stance, or reach to help you be effective while not moving much.

The ability to gain glowing butterfly wings and lose about 80 pound s in 3 seconds but you go into a coma for a week.

That'd be a magic item.

-- N

 

[Arkhandus]

Ninja of the Crescent Moon
Falling Moon (Ex): You can declare a Crescent Moon strike to be a Stunning Attack, if the attack method is compatible with the Stunning Fist feat. (This includes an unarmed strike or a Ki Focus weapon.) Using this ability expends a Stunning Fist attempt. Furthermore, your Ninja of the Crescent Moon levels count as Monk levels to determine your daily uses of the Stunning Fist feat.

Errrm, this may or may not be a stupid question (I've just started to look through this thread; don't have the Bo9S myself so it's of little use to me), but what exactly is the point of Falling Moon besides adding some extra Stunning Fist uses?

Near as I can tell, every Crescent Moon strike is already useable with Stunning Fist except for Lotus Slumber and Empty Moon; the former has no use for stunning its victim since it already puts them asleep, and the latter isn't going to be acquired until late in the prestige class. None of the other strikes in Crescent Moon seem to prevent use of Stunning Fist in combination with them; I don't know if the Bo9S explicitly prevents SF from ever being used with any Maneuvers, but I don't see any other reason why it wouldn't already apply. Empty Moon is the only CM strike with a touch attack against a foe rather than a normal melee attack, besides Lotus Slumber which has no reason to apply SF.

Also: Doesn't monk level also determine the save DC of Stunning Fist, while Falling Moon doesn't seem to count toward that (it only says for determining daily uses of SF).

Perhaps Falling Moon could add some ability to expend a Stunning Fist use for the day to recover a Crescent Moon maneuver or something as a free action or something (I don't recall the specifics right now regarding when/how maneuvers are refreshed), or expending a Crescent Moon maneuver of some sort to improve or extend a Stunning Fist use (such as spending a free action to expend a maneuver and apply one use of Stunning Fist to all attacks the Ninja performs that round, or somesuch).

Just wondering and tossing out an idea or two. Forgive my ToB newbness.

 

[Arkhandus]

Oriental names?

I think what Hong was inferring is that, the style of the Heaven's Arc names is sort of oriental in convention, but uses the names of Greek/Roman deities and such (since they're the names of planets and all). Zephyr (the god of the north wind in Greek myth, IIRC), Venus (aka Aphrodite), Saturn (I forget the Greek deity the Romans named Saturn; I think it was Hera or Zeus?), Mars (Roman god of war), Ares (and, errrm....Ares is the Greek name of Mars; Mars is the Roman name for Ares, rather), etc.

 

[Nifft]

Errrm, this may or may not be a stupid question (I've just started to look through this thread; don't have the Bo9S myself so it's of little use to me), but what exactly is the point of Falling Moon besides adding some extra Stunning Fist uses? [...] Empty Moon is the only CM strike with a touch attack against a foe rather than a normal melee attack, besides Lotus Slumber which has no reason to apply SF.

Crescent Moon has a few (inertia tap, laughing moon reaver) non-damaging touch attacks; these can now stun. Even lotus slumber benefits -- the save DC for the strike is kinda low, so this gives you two chances to take the guy out with one touch attack.

There's a feat which specifically allows Setting Sun strikes to deliver a Stunning Fist attack, so i did something similar for Crescent Moon.

Also: Doesn't monk level also determine the save DC of Stunning Fist, while Falling Moon doesn't seem to count toward that (it only says for determining daily uses of SF).

Nope. All levels count.

Perhaps Falling Moon could add some ability to expend a Stunning Fist use for the day to recover a Crescent Moon maneuver or something as a free action or something

Bleah. The only broken stuff I've seen from ToB:Bo9S has been due to a few instantaneous recovery cheese mechanisms (plus Stormguard Warrior and Raging Mongoose and Time Stands Still) ... anyway, I'm not keen on reliable free recovery mechanisms.

If you really love the class but hate the idea of delivering a stunning attack with a touch attack strike, I guess you could do something like grant a +4 bonus to Initiator Level if you expend a daily use of Stunning Fist when you make a Crescent Moon strike that dispels stuff.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Arkhandus]

Well, like I said, I don't own a copy of ToB so I know very little specific about its mechanics and such. Regarding Stunning Fist, I just thought it wasn't very useful with the extremely limited number of touch attack Strikes in the Crescent Moon style (and I had forgotten 3.5 monks don't base their stunning attack DC on monk level and Wisdom only, unlike 3.0).

Most of its Strikes are normal melee attacks, though I did miss that Laughing Moon Reaver would actually benefit from combining with SF (I thought it just involved messing with a person's items, and didn't at first realize it could confer SF's effect to the person carrying those items). So I guess that makes 3 Strikes that receive some benefit from Falling Moon? (the other one you mentioned is a normal melee attack, so it would already be useable with SF and an unarmed strike even without Falling Moon, I think)

I haven't seen any Setting Sun maneuvers yet (only game I've been in with a ToB class in it has been a Sunday game with one guy playing a Swordsage, and he's focused on Diamond Mind and Shadow Hand, and something I think, Desert Wind or somesuch with a flaming strike he's used twice), so I don't know if it has more touch attacks involved in its maneuvers.

I didn't have any problem with delivering SF through touch attacks, I just thought it was limited to 2 Strikes far apart in level (one that I thought would be redundant with SF). So NM on that.

 

[hong]

I was thinking about that... but the similar melee ones (Diamond Mind, Iron Heart) have a bunch of non-melee maneuvers, particularly counters. I'm not sure how to split the ranged stuff into multiple schools without stealing from or stepping on the toes of the melee schools.

See if there's anything here you can plunder:

http://www.zipworld.com.au/~hong/ih/archery_feats.htm

YES! I GOT TO PIMP MY STUFF IN NIFFT'S THREAD. I WIN.

Oriental names?

Well, the other schools all borrow from Asian motifs, some more than others. Bo9S is quite up-front about it. Your own material continues in that vein, for the most part. Dancing Fox is all about kitsune tricksters, for instance, and anything that uses the word "chakra" is borrowing from Asian mysticism to some degree.

I guess there's nothing intrisinically oriental about archery, but even so, having Greek names pop up is a bit discombobulating.

 

[Nifft]

See if there's anything here you can plunder:

http://www.zipworld.com.au/~hong/ih/archery_feats.htm

YES! I GOT TO PIMP MY STUFF IN NIFFT'S THREAD. I WIN.

Yes. Yes you do. Thanks!

Well, the other schools all borrow from Asian motifs, some more than others. Bo9S is quite up-front about it. Your own material continues in that vein, for the most part. Dancing Fox is all about kitsune tricksters, for instance, and anything that uses the word "chakra" is borrowing from Asian mysticism to some degree.

I guess there's nothing intrisinically oriental about archery, but even so, having Greek names pop up is a bit discombobulating.

Ah, right, the names in general are Asian-inspired... chakra is for sure. As to the fox thing, I think that Western culture also looks on the fox as a trickster, and has for some time. Etymologically, this seems to be the case: outfox, foxy (1:a), and of course "crazy like a fox" (not the movie).

I thought you meant that I was mixing Asian and Classical names in one school. (IMHO, each school should be internally consistent.) The planet names are all Roman, but are mostly just planet names. I guess I could use various D&D angel names for the Celestial theme, but that's somehow unsatisfying -- villains shouldn't be shouting "Solar Smite Attack!" when they kill innocent villagers. Also, I'm unfamiliar with Asian archery terms and myths, so there's not much for me to draw on there.

If it bugs a lot of folks, or at least a few vocal folks, I'll see what can be changed.

Thanks, -- N

PS: How does the Ranger look? The maneuver acquisition is quite different from other base classes, and that's deliberate -- I'm trying to model the flexibility curve that accompanies the Core Ranger's wierdo spellcasting progression.

 

[Nifft]

Well, like I said, I don't own a copy of ToB so I know very little specific about its mechanics and such. Regarding Stunning Fist, I just thought it wasn't very useful with the extremely limited number of touch attack Strikes in the Crescent Moon style

Hmm, you're right. It looks like Crescent Moon needs a few more Touch strikes.

I'm thinking:
- Force target to return to its natural form (shapeshifter) or dispel shape-changing magic.
- Reduce SR by 10 for 1 round.
- Reduce saves by -4 for 1 round.

Thanks! -- N

 

[Nifft]

See if there's anything here you can plunder:
http://www.zipworld.com.au/~hong/ih/archery_feats.htm

Okay, some of those are exceptionally plunderable.

But now I'm thinking we need a new category of maneuvers: those which have a feat prerequisite. We've already seen maneuvers which replace or emulate feats; can anyone think of a reason to not allow maneuvers with feat pre-reqs? You'd need to have the feat when you learn the maneuver, and also when you initiate it, so effects which reduce your ability scores could trip you up a bit.

Thoughts?

Thanks, -- N