Champion's Might (3.5e Martial Discipline)

Summary::This ancestral school contains maneuvers developed by paladins and blackguards using Devoted Spirit, combining their native abilities with maneuvers. Being designed for paladins and clerics, they have different requirements than other maneuvers, and require the use of smites and daily uses of turn undead

The Ancestral School of Champion's Might
The ancestral school known as Champion’s Might has its roots on a small monastic order of clerics, crusaders and paladins that practiced the discipline of Devoted Spirit. The basis of the school consists of two main aspects; one, to enhance the power of supernatural attacks, and two, to draw from the power of supernatural attacks to create new maneuvers. Because of this, virtually all maneuvers and stances of Champion’s Might require the abilities to smite (such as the smite evil ability of the paladin, the smite good ability of the blackguard, or the smite ability of the crusader and the cleric with the Destruction domain) and the ability to channel positive or negative energy to turn or rebuke undead.

Because smites are usually abilities usable a few times per day, and virtually all maneuvers require the use of smite, a character using Champion’s Might maneuvers gain one extra smite for every readied Champion’s Might strike, boost or counter that requires expending a smite. A character maximum amount of smites per day is equal to its base number of smites by means of class features, feats, and maneuvers readied at the moment it regains smites; the character may not regain expended uses of smite per day (with some exceptions) by exchanging readied maneuvers, and smites gained by means of readied Champion’s Might maneuvers are always expended first. This benefit does not apply to smites regained after each encounter.

Difference between Ancestral Schools and Disciplines
The ancestral school is a variant of one of the existing disciplines, but behaves in many ways as a discipline proper. By definition, "ancestral schools" act like the different styles of a same martial art (such as Shotokan Karate, Shitō-ryū Karate, Gōjū-ryū Karate, etc.), teaching the basics of the primary discipline; however, unlike the different styles of martial arts, ancestral schools teach an entire new set of maneuvers (not merely variants of maneuvers). Maneuvers thought by ancestral schools share some traits of their parent discipline (or disciplines, as some ancestral schools are hybrids of two different disciplines), but each school has a specific trait that makes it distinctive. Some ancestral schools specialize in one aspect of the discipline, others offer an alternative approach to the key aspects of the discipline, and others require specific traits (such as racial or class features) to execute the maneuvers.

In game terms, ancestral schools offer a completely new set of maneuvers and stances. Due to their connection to a discipline (or disciplines, in certain occasions), maneuvers of the ancestral school qualify as maneuvers of the primary discipline. To gain maneuvers from ancestral schools, the character must choose the corresponding ancestral school feat. "Ancestral school" feats work as Martial Study feats, granting a free maneuver from the ancestral school, a benefit appropriate to the school, and grants the ability to choose maneuvers and stances from the ancestral school whenever the character has access to maneuvers from its primary discipline. A character may also learn maneuvers and stances from ancestral schools by means of the Martial Study and Martial Stance feats, but this doesn't allow the ability to learn additional maneuvers as the "ancestral school" feats allow; being based off primary disciplines, gaining one of these maneuvers through the Martial Study feat grants the primary discipline's key skill as a class skill, instead of offering its own.

Because ancestral schools are not fully developed disciplines, they lack a legacy weapon (though that doesn't mean a character can't found a legacy weapon based off them), and lack a signature tactical feat. Items granting maneuvers from ancestral schools are largely unknown; the DM is free to determine if magic items from their primary disciplines can be reworked to offer maneuvers from their ancestral schools, if desired.

Maneuvers of the Champion's Might Ancestral School

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