Blade Dancer (3.5e Prestige Class)

Blade Dancer
"To fight… is to dance. You must learn to harness the rhythm in every step you take, every swing of your sword."

The art of dance is as varied as the disciplines of the sublime way. Any sublime character can learn to apply their love of dance to each discipline in a unique way.

Becoming a Blade Dancer
Blade Dancers can come from any class with sublime training. More common disciplines that follow this path are Dancing Goddess, Diamond Mind and Anima River, though any discipline can find its place.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Blade Dancer.

You must meet a maneuver's prerequisites to learn it. You add your full blade dancer level to your initiator level to determine your highest level maneuvers known. At 3rd and every three levels, you gain an additional maneuver readied. At 4th level and every even level afterwards, you may learn one maneuver in place of one you already know.

You must meet a stance's prerequisites to learn it.

In addition, if you did not previously have Perform(Dance) as a class skill, the cross class ranks you invested instantly double as if this skill had always been a class skill for you.

She is able to set her apparent weight to almost nothing as a free action, allowing her to walk upon water and dance on the end of a needle. This has the effect of making the Blade Dancer immune to all falling damage, and allowing her to walk upon liquid or otherwise unsuitable surfaces (though they may still require a balance check if the surface is too thin in width or is in motion). In addition, it makes her acrobatics much easier to pull off. She may take 10 on Balance, Climb, Jump, Swim, and Tumble checks even if in a stressful situation. The Blade Dancer recieves a +10 competence bonus on these skills at 1st level. This bonus increases to +20 at 5th level and then +30 at 10th level. A Blade Dancer loses these benefits if they are wearing medium or heavy armor.

Every 3 levels after 1st, the Blade Dancer's base speed increases by another 10ft. A Blade Dancer wearing medium or heavy armor loses the benefit of this class feature.

 (Ex): A 2nd level Blade Dancer chooses one discipline that he has access to. Once per encounter, a Blade Dancer may choose to activate this ability as a free action following a successful attack using a strike from his chosen discipline. After the attack, a Blade Dancer chooses a number of separate opponents(Not the target of his attack) equal to his Blade Dancer level who are closest to him. In order to be affected by this ability, a target must be able to see the Blade Dancer (Either through line of sight, or reflective surfaces, etc) and be within 100ft of him as the strike lands. Each target must make a Will Save with a DC equal to 10 + 1/2 the Blade Dancer's HD + his Charisma modifier. Each target that fails this save is unable to act on their next turn unless he or she is attacked before their next turn arrives. This ability affects any creature who is not immune to mind-affecting effects. The blade dancer gains a 2nd use of this ability at 7th level.

At 8th level, this ability also affects creatures who are immune to such effects, but only if their base creature type did not possess the immunity. For example, this ability cannot affect a Golem as it is, and always will be immune to mind-affecting effects. However, an undead creature who acquired this immunity through a template may still be affected as it was without this immunity at one point in it's existance. In addition, creatures who gain immunity to mind affecting effects through magic items, class features or spells may still be affected by rhythm breaker.

 (Ex): A 3rd level Blade Dancer is now able to choose one willing ally currently within 20 feet of himself as a free action. When the Blade Dancer initiates a Martial Stance as a swift action, so too may the designated ally, regardless of weather or not the ally even qualifies for the stance. Your designated ally recieves all the benefits of whatever martial stance you assume as a result of this class feature. If the Blade Dancer chooses to change his martial stance as a swift action, the designated ally must also spend a swift action to assume the new stance. If the ally does not choose to use his swift action in this way, he loses the benefit conferred to him by this class feature.

 (Ex): A 4th level Blade Dancers fancy footwork allows him to confound and befuddle opponents who try to knock him off balance. A Blade Dancer may substitute a Perform(Dance) check in place of a strength check in order to resist a trip or bullrush attempt. When a Blade Dancer successfully resists a trip attempt, he may (as a free action) make an immediate counter trip attempt again using his Perform(Dance) bonus in place of a strength check. When a Blade Dancer successfully resists a bullrush attempt, he may choose to have the opponent pass through his space and move up to a number of feet equal to the amount by which he lost the opposed check (Rounded down to the nearest multiple of 5). This forced movement provokes attacks of opportunities. An opponent who is moved in this manner is thrown off balance and loses a move action on his next turn in order to recover.

 (Ex): A 5th level Blade Dancer chooses one discipline he has access to. Whenever the Blade Dancer uses a Martial Stance from that discipline, he may substitute a Perform(Dance) check in place of a single attack roll made as a standard action once per round. This ability may be used for martial strikes which are activated as a standard action.

 (Su): At 6th level, a Blade Dancers unending devotion to dance allows them to ignore effects that would otherwise impede their performance. This ability counts as a 7th level martial stance which can be assumed as a swift action. While in this stance, a blade dancer treats himself as if he was under the effects of a Freedom of Movement spell.

 (Su): An 8th level Blade Dancer learns to shrug off most effects related to negative energy. This ability counts as an 8th level martial stance. When the Blade Dancer initiates this stance as a swift action, he treats himself as if he was under the effects of a Death Ward spell.

 (Su): A 9th level Blade Dancer becomes so confident in his dance, that he can literally dance anywhere while completely deprived of his natural senses. A Blade Dancer of this level gains Blindsight with a range equal to his current base speed.

 (Ex): A 10th level Blade Dancer gains a new understanding of the importance of teamwork. Where before you could only share your dance with one, you can now share it with the many. The Blade Dancer may now designate any number of allies within 30 feet of himself. When he chooses to initiate a martial stance as a swift action, they too may use a swift action to gain the benefits of the assumed stance. This benefit persists for as long as the Blade Dancer stays in this stance. The benefit is lost when the stance ends, or if a designated ally moves further away than the Blade Dancer's base speed. If the blade dancer assumes another martial stance as a swift action, so too can any allies who were currently benefitting, as well as anyone within 30 feet of the Blade Dancer when he changes his stance.

Epic Blade Dancer
The epic Blade Dancer gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic Blade Dancer feats) every 3 levels after 10th.

Epic Blade Dancer Bonus Feat List: Blinding Speed, Devastating Critical, Dire Charge, Energy Resistance, Epic Fortitude, Epic Prowess, Epic Reflexes, Epic Skill Focus, Epic Speed, Epic Will, Great Constitution, Great Dexterity, Great Strength, Great Wisdom, Improved Darkvision, Legendary Climber, Legendary Leaper, Overwhelming Critical, Penetrate Damage Reduction.

Playing a Blade Dancer
Combat: The Blade Dancers are as diverse as the disciplines of the sublime way. Though all benefit from following the path, each Blade Dancer finds a unique way to make their mark on the world. A practitioner of the diamond mind discipline might practice more precise forms of dance to complement his fighting style while an Iron Heart initiate would practice forms of dance that involve weapon drills. A Shadow Hand initiate might be witnessed dancing gracefully in the shadows after striking an unexpecting opponent.

Blade Dancers in the World
"Your stance is great. But, your footwork could use some improvement."

NPC Reactions: NPCs often react favorably to Blade Dancers who have provided them with some form of entertainment.

Blade Dancer Lore
Characters with ranks in Knowledge Local can research Blade Dancers to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Blade Dancers in the Game
Adaptation: Some martial classes may lend themselves more to the use of heavy armor or discourage enhanced mobility in other ways. In the case of the Stone Dragon discipline, all martial stances require you to move no less than 5ft per round in order to retain their benefits. This may not be much of an issue at early levels. But, as a character progresses to higher levels, standing still becomes less and less optimal from a tactical standpoint. Thus, you are either eternally cursed to move about the battlefield, wasting your swift actions to regain the benefits of your stance, or you stand still and become far less effective in most fights.

In order to make the Blade Dancer more accommodating to classes that either prefer heavy armor or Stone Dragon initiates, you may replace the Graceful Step and Fast Movement class features with the following:

 (Ex): A Blade Dancer may move 10ft as a "5ft Step". Additionally, he retains the benefits of all stone dragon stances while moving this distance. The distance the Blade Dancer moves as a "5ft Step" increases by 5ft for every five levels he has attained. (15ft at 5th level, 20ft at 10th level) He also retains these benefits when utilizing teleportation so long as the total movement in a round does not exceed his land speed.

 (Ex): Once per encounter, a Blade Dancer may forego the AC bonus from whatever armor he is wearing as an immediate action. In exchange, he receives a bonus to reflex saves equal to the AC bonus from his armor and is treated as having Evasion. These effects last until the end of his next turn. One additional use of this ability is granted at every odd level.

Sample Encounter: A Blade Dancer is found competing in a gladitorial arena, entertaining the crowd with his fancy footwork.