Master of One (3.5/ Prestige Class)

[Aesir]

Hello everyone, I created a prestige class geared towards the martial adepts in the Tome of Battle 3.5 book. My goal/concept was to make a prestige class that decides to specialize in a single discipline, and bars all other disciplines. I think this limit to a single discipline could be fun in the way it gives lesser used maneuvers in the Book of Nine Swords a little more play since you cannot simply cherry-pick the strongest maneuvers from each discipline. I also like the archetype of a martial artist who has studied a particular style to such a degree that they can flow from technique to technique with lightning speed and lethal grace.

In terms of power level I was hoping to have it be similar to the Eternal Blade/ Ruby Knight Vindicator PrCs, while also making it unique to each style.
As a side note....I'm terrible at coming up with names for abilities so if you have better suggestions, feel free to chime in.


Concept:
Through single minded devotion the master of one gains greater insight into his chosen school of martial arts. The benefit of studying one style over several makes it easier for a master of one to initiate his maneuvers and flow from one to another quickly, while overcoming the limitations of that individual style.

MASTER OF ONE

Hit Die: d10

PREREQUISITES:
BAB: +7
FEATS: Adaptive Style, Blade Meditation
SKILLS: 13 ranks in one Discipline's key Skill
MANEUVERS:
Must know Three maneuvers and one Stance from the discipline chosen for your Blade Meditation feat.

The Master of One's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (local) (Int), Martial Lore (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Full BAB
Good Fort and Will saves

Special:
1: Absolute Devotion, Exclusive Study +2, Conquered Limits
2: Counter Strike 1/encounter
3: Bonus Feat
4: Quick Adaption
5: Exclusive Study +3, Skilled Practitioner
6: Perfect Technique
7: Counter Strike 2/encounter
8: Rhythm of Battle
9: Exclusive Study +4
10: Secret Technique of the Master 3/day

CLASS FEATURES:

MANEUVERS:
Unlike other martial adepts the Master of One specializes in a single discipline of the sublime way. A Master of One may only select maneuvers from the discipline you selected for the Blade Meditation feat. If you have more than one chosen discipline from multiple Blade Meditation feats you must chose which discipline to specialize in. Once chosen you may not change which discipline you specialize in.
At each odd-numbered level, you gain one new maneuver known from your chosen discipline. You must meet a maneuver's prerequisite to learn it. You add your full Master of One levels to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest-level maneuvers known. At each even-numbered level, you gain an additional maneuver readied per day.

STANCES KNOWN: At 3rd level and again at 7th level, you learn a new martial stance from your chosen discipline. You must meet a stance's prerequisite to learn it.

ABSOLUTE DEVOTION:
To truly become a master of a single discipline a Master of One must dedicate himself exclusively to his chosen discipline's techniques.
Starting at 1st level a Master of One may not ready or initiate any maneuvers or stances from any discipline other than his chosen discipline. Like a member of any other class, a Master of One may be a multi-class character, but a multi-class Master of One faces a special restriction. A Master of One who gains a new class or raises another class by a level may never again raise his Master of One level and loses all his Master of One abilities.

EXCLUSIVE STUDY:
By devoting himself to a single discipline a Master of One has gained a deeper understanding how to use those techniques to greater effect.
Starting at 1st level a Master of One gains an insight bonus to attack and damage rolls when initiating a strike from thier chosen discipline. This bonus starts at +2 at 1st level, +3 at 5th level, and +4 at 9th level. In addition while in a stance from your chosen discipline the save DCs of any maneuvers that you perform from the chosen discipline are increased by 1, if they have a save DC.

CONQUERED LIMITS:
Each of the nine disciplines is limited by its specialty, but a Master of One has overcome these limitations through deep meditation and endless practice. At 1st level a Master of One gains the special ability associated with his chosen discipline.

Desert Wind: Whenever you initiate a Desert Wind maneuver that deals fire damage, the fire burns so intensely it ignores any fire resistance the affected creature(s) may have, and affected creatures that are immune to fire still take half damage. In addition you may exclude allies from any area of effect your Desert Wind maneuvers may have.

Devoted Spirit: Any Devoted Spirit maneuver that you initiate that requires an enemy or ally to be a particular alignment may affect that enemy or ally regardless of any alignment restrictions the maneuver may have.

Diamond Mind: Anytime you initiate a Diamond Mind maneuver that requires a concentration check you may take 10 on the concentration check.

Iron Heart: You can use one Counter per round without taking an immediate action. You cannot use the same counter maneuver two times in a round. In essence, one counter you use during the round does not require an immediate action. If you have already taken an immediate action within the past round, you can still use this ability to initiate a counter. You can use this ability twice per day.

Setting Sun: whenever you initiate a Setting Sun maneuver that requires you to make a bull rush or trip attempt you may ignore any size bonuses your target may have to resist the bull rush or trip attempt. Additionally you may attempt to trip an opponent more than one size category larger than you.

Shadow Hand: Twice per day you may treat an adjacent enemy as Flat-Footed against one Shadow Hand maneuver you initiate during your turn.

Stone Dragon: You can initiate any Stone Dragon maneuver you have readied without standing on solid ground, in addition Stone Dragon stances no longer immediately end when you move more than 5 ft in a round.

Tiger Claw: You can use two boost maneuvers simultaneously. Whenever you initiate a boost maneuver, you can also initiate any other boost maneuver you have readied as a free action. Both boosts are expended normally. You can use this ability twice per day.

White Raven: Whenever you initiate a White Raven maneuver that affects your allies, the distance is doubled. For example; When you use White Raven Tactics you may target an ally that is 20 ft away. (Normally White Raven Tactics can only target an ally within 10 ft)

COUNTER STRIKE:
Starting at level 2 if an enemy provokes an attack of opportunity from you, you may initiate a standard action Strike maneuver from your chosen discipline to make the attack of opportunity. The maneuver is expended normally. You can use this ability once per encounter. At level 7 you can use this ability Twice per encounter.

BONUS FEAT:
At level 3 you gain one of the following feats based off your chosen discipline:
Desert Wind: Scorching Sirocco
Devoted Spirit: Faith Unswerving
Diamond Mind: Perfect Clarity of Mind and Body
Iron Heart: Stormguard Warrior
Setting Sun: Distant Horizon
Shadow Hand: Gloom Razor
Stone Dragon: Shards of Granite
Tiger Claw: Reaping Talons
While Raven: Clarion Commander
The Master of One qualifies for the feat even if he does not meet the normal prerequisites for that feat.

QUICK ADAPTION:
Starting at level 4 When a Master of One uses the Adaptive Style feat to change his readied maneuvers he does so as a move action instead of a full round action.

SKILLED PRACTITIONER:
The Master of One gains a deeper insight into the mysteries of his chosen discipline. Starting at level 5 you add 1/2 your Master of One class levels as an insight bonus to your chosen discipline's key skill.

PERFECT TECHNIQUE:
Starting at 6th level whenever the Master of One initiates a boost maneuver from his chosen discipline he may also change his stance as part of the action.

RHYTHM OF BATTLE:
Starting at 8th level after a Master of One successfully deals damage to an enemy with a strike maneuver from his chosen discipline he may adopt a different stance from his chosen discipline as a free action.

SECRET TECHNIQUE OF THE MASTER:
At 10th level when you successfully deal damage to an enemy with a Strike maneuver from your chosen discipline you may initiate a standard action Strike maneuver from your chosen discipline as a free action. The maneuver is expended normally. You can use this ability Three times per day. You may not use this ability more than once per round.

[Beni-Kujaku]

This is really good! I think you nailed the power level as something that is still attractive despite the heavy restriction (basically on the level of RKV, maybe a bit stronger), and the requirement of BAB+7 is something that I'd like to see more often. The action economy is extremely good, and feels good.

The "conquering the limits" ability is great, but I wonder if it should be at a higher level (or even as a capstone) to represent the fact that you've gained such an insight into your discipline that you can bypass its restrictions through skill alone.

I have nothing much to say, this is just an extremely well-made class.

[Aesir]

Thank you for the reply! I was beginning to think this thread was going to be a dud. Or that the prc was trash lol.

I'm really glad you like the class.

As for the Conquered Limits ability, it's set for 5th level for a two major reasons; Stone Dragon and Desert Wind.

Conquered Limits won't be available until character level 15 (barring any inventive ways to qualify early).

Desert Wind manuevers are very nearly all fire based, and since you can't prepare any other school of manuevers, you're locked in at a point in the game where fire resistance or immunity is almost common and could make a Desert Wind focused character nearly irrelevant.

It's kinda the same for Stone Dragon. The built-in limitations of that discipline would make you unable to use any manuevers in battles where you are not on the ground. At higher levels where flight and wierd battlegrounds become more common, it's a painful restriction. Combine that with losing your stance for moving more than 5ft hurts.

I didn't want players to feel like they trapped themselves in a PrC that makes them worse at combat for picking a "bad" discipline.

That was my reasoning at least.

[rel]

Interesting idea. I think the limit of only one school would prove too restrictive in practice though.

some more specific thoughts:

The skill requirement seems high to me.

From memory you can't prepare the same maneuver twice, so the iron heart limit break shouldn't need the extra verbiage preventing the use of the same maneuver.

The white raven, setting sun, and diamond mind limit breaks seem weaker than the rest.

With only D8 hit dice, and no defensive powers, this PRC seems too fragile for the front line.

[Aesir]

Interesting idea. I think the limit of only one school would prove too restrictive in practice though.

some more specific thoughts:

The skill requirement seems high to me.

From memory you can't prepare the same maneuver twice, so the iron heart limit break shouldn't need the extra verbiage preventing the use of the same maneuver.

The white raven, setting sun, and diamond mind limit breaks seem weaker than the rest.

With only D8 hit dice, and no defensive powers, this PRC seems too fragile for the front line.

You may be right about the restriction to a single discipline, but that's the idea of the class. Hopefully the abilities are worth it, but I cannot Playtest it. Might be worth looking into however.

The skill requirement is 13 because the class was designed to be entered at 11th level, the lower BAB requirement is to allow some multiclassing with classes without Full BAB and to allow a single classed swordsage to enter and still get the capstone.

The Iron Heart limit break (I got FF7 flashbacks reading that btw) was basically a copy/paste from the Moment of Alacrity Stance. So any extra verbage is directly from the original source. I chose this for Iron Heart because that discipline gets a lot of counters.

What would you recommend for the White Raven, Setting Sun, and Daimond Mind limit breaks?
White Raven is good at abusing the action economy and doubling the effective range of those manuevers seemed plenty powerful. Setting Sun's biggest limitation is thier throws are limited by enemy size bonuses. with this restriction removed a Setting Sun specialist with the right feats could (potentially) toss a colossal creature around. Several Diamond Mind manuevers use a concentration check to replace saves, Deal extra damage and the like so it seemed like the most logical choice. a level 20 diamond mind specialist with just the prereqs, class abilities, and max ranks in concentration would be able to hit a concentration check of 40 without any additional investment.

All that said I'm open to ideas to improve the limit breaks of those schools, especially since I don't want players to scoff at the class.

I may update the Hit Die to a d10, but as far defensive abilities, that's mostly going to be covered by a school's manuevers/Stances/Counters. I'll give it some more thought though.

Thank you for the criticism, I really appreciate it.

[Maat Mons]

Some random thoughts as they occur to me.



If you’re going to effectively remove any cross-discipline maneuvers the character has, could you at least allow them to be immediately traded in?



I’m looking at the list starting on page 47, and I’m only seeing two Iron Heart maneuvers tagged as stances counters.



Here are some numbers of maneuvers and stances you could wind up with at 20th level.
Crusader 10 / Master of One 10: 19 maneuvers known + 6 stances known
Swordsage 10 / Master of One 10: 25 maneuvers known + 7 stances known
Warblade 10 / Master of One 10: 18 maneuvers known + 6 stances known

Here are the number of maneuvers and stances in each discipline.
Desert Wind: 23 maneuvers + 4 stances
Devoted Spirit: 17 maneuvers + 9 stances
Diamond Mind: 18 maneuvers + 4 stances
Iron Heart: 17 maneuvers + 3 stances
Setting Sun: 16 maneuvers + 4 stances
Shadow Hand: 19 maneuvers + 6 stances
Stone Dragon: 18 maneuvers + 5 stances
Tiger Claw: 17 maneuvers + 6 stances
White Raven: 15 maneuvers + 5 stances

[Aesir]

Some random thoughts as they occur to me.



If you’re going to effectively remove any cross-discipline maneuvers the character has, could you at least allow them to be immediately traded in?



I’m looking at the list starting on page 47, and I’m only seeing two Iron Heart maneuvers tagged as stances counters.



Here are some numbers of maneuvers and stances you could wind up with at 20th level.
Crusader 10 / Master of One 10: 19 maneuvers known + 6 stances known
Swordsage 10 / Master of One 10: 25 maneuvers known + 7 stances known
Warblade 10 / Master of One 10: 18 maneuvers known + 6 stances known

Here are the number of maneuvers and stances in each discipline.
Desert Wind: 23 maneuvers + 4 stances
Devoted Spirit: 17 maneuvers + 9 stances
Diamond Mind: 18 maneuvers + 4 stances
Iron Heart: 17 maneuvers + 3 stances
Setting Sun: 16 maneuvers + 4 stances
Shadow Hand: 19 maneuvers + 6 stances
Stone Dragon: 18 maneuvers + 5 stances
Tiger Claw: 17 maneuvers + 6 stances
White Raven: 15 maneuvers + 5 stances

I had thought about the "trading in manuevers" aspect but decided against it. I can't for the life of me remember why. But it might be worth reconsidering. (It might have been partly due to the issue we see in your third point.)

Iron Heart Counters:
Wall of Blades, Lightning Recovery, Iron Heart Focus, Manticore Parry. These 4 counters offer a good range of defenses: replacing your AC with an attack roll, rerolling an attack with a +2 bonus, rerolling a save, and redirecting an enemy attack.

You do have a point though, Setting Sun has 7 counters, but I'm not sure a Setting Sun focused MoO would prefer an extra counter 2/day over ignoring enemy size bonuses to trip.

Tiger Claw, White Raven, and Stone Dragon have 0 counters, Shadow Hand has 1, Devoted Spirit has 2 that require a shield, Daimond Mind has Stance of Alacrity, and Desert Wind desperately needs to do something about fire resistance/immunity. It seemed like a good fit for Iron Heart. that said, do you have a better idea to replace it with?

You bring up a good point on the final numbers. I was focused on Manuevers Readied and hadn't focused on Manuevers Known. Maybe I should adjust the number of manuevers you know at each level. Good catch, I can't believe I overlooked that. the Swordsage offers a unique issue, a Swordsage 10/ MoO 10 may just have to potentially have some levels learning nothing new. I'll make some adjustments.

EDIT: Adjustments made.

[rel]

My issue with the skill requirement is that it gates access to the class to quite high levels. It's already a weak class, forcing it into the later levels means it competes with more powerful late game abilities, is harder to fit into a build, and becomes that much less desirable.


I'm not sure the setting sun limit works as it's currently worded; Base combat rules prevent you making a tip or bullrush attempt against enemies that are too large. Ignoring size bonuses doesn't seem to address this. At the very least it is ambiguous. How about:

setting sun limit
When executing a maneuver, you are considered the same size as your opponent whenever this would be beneficial to you. Your actual space and reach do not change.


Diamond mind maneuvers are unreliable because you typically have to make 2 rolls; A skill check, followed by a roll to hit. And you often only have 3/4 BAB and the check and attack are keyed off of different stats. consider:

Diamond Mind Limit
When you execute a maneuver, roll a D20. You can substitute this rolled result for the result of one of the D20 die rolls made executing the maneuver.


The main issue with white raven is you often don't have a decent ally to benefit from your buffs. You drop a strike and your weedy, cloth wearing party members inexplicably opt not to run up to and assault the enemy with their walking sticks. Some extra range isn't going to help if there's no one to step up. What about this:

White Raven Limit
You are considered an ally for the purposes of maneuvers and stances.

[Aesir]

My issue with the skill requirement is that it gates access to the class to quite high levels. It's already a weak class, forcing it into the later levels means it competes with more powerful late game abilities, is harder to fit into a build, and becomes that much less desirable.

Weak class compared to other ToB prestige classes? or in the scope of things like Incantatrix? I ask because I was intentionally trying to keep this within the same ballpark as Eternal Blade in terms of power (And trying to be very careful about potential abuse).

If I under-shot that goal, that's fine, I can make adjustments until it gets to that relative level. I'm not interested in making something OP however.

Could you please explain what about this class is weak compared to the other prestige classes a martial adept might choose?

As for the limit breaks for the disciplines you mentioned I will work on it.

EDIT:
As for your example of white raven, I partially agree it comes down to party composition.
I doubt the wizard with the stick is going to wade into battle to take advantage of your manuevers (unless he polymorphed or shapechanged), but I bet he likes being more than 30 ft away from the Combat and wouldn't mind an extra turn from White Raven Tactics to sling more spells around. Don't forget most spellcasters have ability to summon minions (or just have them as class features) so a wider range on White Raven manuevers wouldn't be useless to them or to you.

All that said I'll read through the manuevers again and maybe cook up something new.

[rel]

I don't build a lot of martial characters, but off the top of my head
Bloodstorm blade and RKV can be entered at 6
JPM comes online at 7
bear warrior comes in at 8
horison walker is 6
deepwarden 6
frenzied berzerker 7
EWM 7

Having to wait till level 11 to start taking a PRC with the crippling entry requirement of locking you into only one martial school in the hopes of clawing back some sort of effectiveness later isn't great.

The class is also very back loaded; You get very little of use in the first few levels, and combined with the late entry, you're only getting the good features way too late to be meaningful.
For example, conquered limits only comes in at level 16, by which time you've been ineffective from trying to use one style exclusively for most of the game.

Finally, with only 3/4 BAB and d8 HD it doesn't have a good chassis for a front line character.

The end result is I look at the class and it doesn't seem worth taking. It's not a great dip class, the buffs it gives you come online way too late to be useful, The BAB, HD, and skills are nothing special, and the restrictions are awful...

I can't shake the feeling a straight swordsage or warblade with a few strategic dips and access to more than one school would be more effective.

[Aesir]

This class never had 3/4 BAB (it has always had full BAB) and the HD was adjusted to D10 after your first post about it being a little low for a front liner.

Check the first post again to see the changes that have been made. It's more evenly loaded, with more uses of it's better abilities.

I'm working on the Conquered Limits ability to make it work better for the schools you mentioned. however, it has been added to 1st level to eliminate the grind.

The class is still set for entry at level 11, that will most likely not change due to the "you lose everything from this class if you leave it." clause.

Counter Strike will be available at ECL 12 making it useful for most AoO builds early in thier career as a MoO.

Better? Too much?

[Maat Mons]

If you’re aiming to match Jade Phoenix Mage and Ruby Knight Vindicator in power, you should bear in mind that both those classes gain a substantial portion of their power from their spellcasting. Even if you go as heavy as possible on the martial side of things, between the 8 levels of casting provided by the PrCs and the 1 level needed to qualify, you’re going to wind up with 9 levels of casting, which gets you 5th level spells. If you look at the Cleric spell list, that’s things like Greater Command, Plane Shift, Raise Dead, and Slay Living. The Wizard spell list is even better, with Dominate Person, Baleful Polymorph, Feeblemind, Teleport, Hold Monster, Overland Flight, Lesser Planar Binding, and Telekinesis. RKV is also giving you Divine Impetus, which can do all the same things as Perfect Technique and Rhythm of battle, but also Swordsage’s Dual Boost.

Ultimately, the thing I find appealing about Tome of Battle is the variety of options it gives relative to a typical mundane. That’s also something I find appealing about spellcasting, so naturally I consider the two spellcasting PrCs to be far and away the most appealing in the book. Ultimately, the concept for this PrC is having less breadth than other, similar characters. I honestly can’t think of how to make that appealing, at least not to someone like me. From my perspective, the class seems better for someone who merely dabbles in maneuver use, rather than someone who focuses on it. Someone focused on maneuvers would normally be able to learn quite a variety, so they have a lot to lose by narrowing their focus. Someone who only gets a few maneuvers known anyway was never going to have much breadth anyway.

[Aesir]

Ok let's not compare it to a spellcaster then.

but from what I understand this was a bad idea.

Thank you for the honesty.