Hero's Edge (3.5e Martial Discipline)

Summary::Martial discipline for defeating opponents larger than oneself.

A Recent History
Once... Great monsters roamed the lands, gleefully slaughtering the hordes of heroes who flocked to them in search of glory. And then the man named only 'Nimbus' noticed the one reason that most warriors lost - they were trained to fight human sized enemies, not larger foes.

Seeking to remedy this problem, he sat off to create a discipline that would help potential heroes kill their larger foes, preferably without being crushed in the process. He succeeded, creating the basis of the Hero's Edge discipline, and became a renowned monster slayer.

Sadly, his tale ended in disaster - he was defeated by another martial adept, one who refined his ability to kill lone, human-sized opponents to near absurd levels. He died a warrior's death.

Fortunately, he had three apprentices, eager students who devoured all he taught them and were well on their way to developing the next step in the school. The three, known only by their unfortunate acronym 'G.A.S.', made a great many advances in the school.

Deciding to divide the work into equal portions, they set off in separate directions, honing their skills and completing their new discipline as they did so.

Years passed, and the three met up once more, sharing their notes on designing their new school.

The first of the apprentices, who valued overwhelming might more than the others, created a set of techniques designed for sheer power - the ability to make ranged attacks with a swing of a blade was his favorite addition to the school.

The second, who valued utility and quick adaptation to new threats, provided an array of unique techniques that could be used for offense or defense - slamming a sword into the ground and prying to throw pieces of it at foes, or stabbing a sword into the ground and prying to form a shield against ranged attacks and similar techniques were his addition to the style.

And the third, who valued mobility and speed the most, supplied a slew of stances that enabled warriors to use their environment in creative ways - cutting cliffs off to use them as a makeshift weapon/battle field and similar feats were made by he.

Combining the three different approaches, they finished the discipline, creating a school unlike any other, focusing on slaying larger creatures and using the environment to kill their foes. Each taking an apprentice of their own, they split again, wandering the world for the rest of their lives.

Time passed, and the Temple of Nine Swords was created, with Reshar seeking out the greatest martial schools to join it. One of the array of practitioners in that time met him upon his travels, and offered to teach him the skills needed to slay much larger foes and much greater numbers of foes, provided that his art received a place in the school. Reshar politely declined, and went on his way, preferring to work with the environment as it was instead of adapting it to his needs mid-battle.

Following the Fall of the Temple, the masters of Hero's Edge sought out other martial adepts and attempted to aid them, lending them their skills when they were in need.

And, in recent days, a small group of Warblades have been attempting to adapt the style to fight constructs. These warriors call themselves 'The Meatbags', for some reason...

Practitioners
Warblades are the primary practicioners of this discipline, though other adepts learn some maneuvers from this on occasion. A Warblade can decide to be trained in this discipline at character creation, trading access to one of his other disciplines for access to this one. In addition, other adepts (including Warblades who were not trained in this discipline) may take one of the Access Feats to gain access to this discipline.

Feats
SMW::off

SMW::on

Maneuvers of the Hero's Edge Discipline

 * To see the full, expanded description of every maneuver, click here.