Complete Sublime (3.5e Sourcebook)/Disciplines/Variant Rules

<Introduction to this section.>

Rushes

Introduction

Tome of Battle has maneuvers for most of the major action types: Strikes for standard/full-round, boosts for swift, and counters for immediate. What about some things for move actions?

Enter rushes. Rushes are small little maneuvers that let you move around and do something cool while you're at it, inspired in part by 4E Essential's Rogue working off of move action powers that boost their other attacks and effects.

Not all disciplines are likely to possess rushes - if the discipline is highly-focused on standing still, this may be difficult to justify.

Rule Mechanics

A rush is the setting one's mind to one's movement to prepare for one's action. A swordsage who moves without cover and still remains hidden is using a rush.

Creatures may initiate a rush as part of a normal move action. Most rushes modify movement, though this is not a requirement. During a rush, a creature may move normally, unless specified otherwise by the maneuver.

Range and Subject

Most rushes have a range of "Personal", as they modify the effects of your movement. Likewise, the subject is almost always "You".

Example rushes

Action Without Motion

Diamond Mind (Rush)
Level:	5
Prerequisite:	One Diamond Mind Maneuver
Initiation Action:	1 move action
Range:	Personal
Target:	You
Duration:	Instantaneous
Saving Throw:	None

During the maneuver, you may move up to your base speed. If a foe makes an attack of opportunity against you for moving through a threatened space, they also provoke an attack of opportunity from you, even if you are not within range of the foe. For every foe that refuses the attack of opportunity for your motion through their threatened space increases your Sudden Strike damage by +1d6 damage. If you do not have any Sudden Strike damage, this maneuver grants you the ability.

Creeping Shadow

Shadow Hand (Rush)
Level:	1
Initiation Action:	1 move action
Range:	Personal
Target:	You
Duration:	One Round
Saving Throw:	None

As part of this maneuver, you may move up to your base land speed. You do not take penalties to hiding for this motion. You may keep hiding for one round even without concealment or cover.

Dancing Inferno

Desert Wind (Rush) [Fire]
Level:	8
Prerequisite:	Three Desert Wind maneuvers
Initiation Action:	1 move action
Range:	Personal
Target:	You
Duration:	Instantaneous, One round (see text)
Saving Throw:	None

As part of this maneuver, you may fly up to twice your base land speed with perfect maneuverability. During this movement, every creature you move adjacent to takes 5d6 fire damage and has its fire resistance or immunity negated for one round.

Dancing Flame

Desert Wind (Rush) [Fire]
Level:	2
Initiation Action:	1 move action
Range:	Personal
Target:	You
Duration:	Instantaneous, One round (see text)
Saving Throw:	None

As part of this maneuver, you may move up to your base land speed. During this movement, every creature you move adjacent to takes 1d6 fire damage and has their fire resistance reduced by an amount equal to your initiator level (minimum fire resistance 0) for one round.

Dancing Wildfire

Desert Wind (Rush) [Fire]
Level:	6
Prerequisite:	2 Desert Wind maneuvers
Initiation Action:	1 move action
Range:	Personal
Target:	You
Duration:	Instantaneous, One round (see text)
Saving Throw:	None

As part of this maneuver, you may fly up to your base land speed with perfect maneuverability. During this movement, every creature you move adjacent to takes 3d6 fire damage and has their fire resistance reduced by an amount equal to twice your initiator level (minimum fire resistance 0) for one round.

Pounce From the Canopy

Tiger Claw (Rush)
Level:	3
Initiation Action:	1 move action
Range:	Personal
Target:	You
Duration:	Instantaneous, One round (see text)
Saving Throw:	None

Move via the jump skill. For the next round, you deal an extra +1d6 skirmish damage and gain +1 skirmish armor class.

Stalking Shadow

Shadow Hand (Rush)
Level:	4
Prerequisite:	One Shadow Hand Maneuver
Initiation Action:	1 move action
Range:	Personal
Target:	You
Duration:	One Round
Saving Throw:	None

As part of this maneuver, you may move up to your base land speed. You do not take penalties to hiding for this movement. You may continue hiding for one without concealment or cover. Furthermore, you gain +2d6 sneak attack damage until the beginning of your next turn.

Zeno's Lemma

Infinite Lotus (Rush)
Level:	2
Initiation Action:	Move
Range:	Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./initiator level)
Target:	1 creature or object
Duration:	Instantaneous
Saving Throw:	None

One of Zeno's more commonly-known paradoxes attempted to show that you could never get anywhere because you were always closing half of the distance between yourself and where you wanted to be. Since you only ever closed half the distance, you never actually got there as there was always the other half distance to traverse. Half of the distance is still a nice step forward though...

You move to the space halfway between your starting position and your target, rounding down to the nearest 5ft. You do not provoke attacks of opportunity for this movement. If you may not move through a space, you stop at the last space you may move through.

Cross-Discipline Maneuvers

Introduction

While it would be good for our systems to make some kind of verisimilitude-based sense, this doesn't often happen. In the Tome of Battle, disciplines seem to live on an isolated island from each other, never mixing, despite the fact that the nine disciplines taught by Reshar were... well, taught by the same guy, at the same place, for a significant length of time. Thus, it seems highly weird that no combination or transplantation of techniques occured. Thus, to keep transparency with similarly described systems (powers, spells), we include the concept of cross-discipline maneuvers, which belong to multiple schools.

Rule Mechanics

A cross-discipline maneuver belongs to more than one discipline. They will usually have a connection to both disciplines, as well as prerequisites relating to both disciplines. They are marked with the [X-Discipline] descriptor.

For the purpose of save DCs, use whichever is more favourable to the martial adept initiating the maneuver.

A character must have at least one maneuver in each associated discipline before taking the cross-discipline maneuver. This prerequisite should already be in the maneuver's prerequisite field, as per the examples on this page.

Examples

Argument from Small Numbers

Coin's Edge, Eloquent Speech (Boost) [X-Discipline]
Level:	3
Prerequisite:	One Coin's Edge Maneuver, One Eloquent Speech Maneuver
Initiation Action:	1 swift action
Range:	Personal
Target:	You
Duration:	Until the end of your next turn
Saving Throw:	None

"Since I hit with this attack, surely I shall hit with every attack."

Roll a d20. Until the end of your next turn, whenever you would have to roll a d20, that is the number you will roll.

Brutal Murder

Shadow Hand, Tiger Claw (Strike) [Death, X-Discipline]
Level:	5
Prerequisite:	Two Shadow Hand Maneuvers, One Tiger Claw Maneuver
Initiation Action:	1-round action
Range:	Melee attack
Target:	One creature
Duration:	Instantaneous
Saving Throw:	Fortitude partial

You dramatically raise your scythe above your cowering foe. Rooted to the spot in their panic, they simply crouch there as you slice their head off.

Make a melee attack against the target. You automatically roll a natural 20 on the attack roll, but must roll normally to confirm the critical hit. In addition, the target must make a Fortitude save (DC 15 + Dexterity modifier) or die.

Only the Fortitude save to avoid death is a Death effect; immunity to Death effects does not protect against the automatic hit.

Note that Brutal Murder is a 1-round action, not a full-round action: the target has an entire turn to get out of reach and make your maneuver effectively wasted.

Shadowshatter

Domestic Tarrasque, Shadow Hand (Stance) [X-Discipline]
Level:	2
Prerequisite:	One Domestic Tarrasque Maneuver, One Shadow Hand Maneuver
Initiation Action:	1 swift action
Range:	Personal
Target:	You
Duration:	Stance
Saving Throw:	None

Your attacks flicker through the plane of shadow, destroying the objects' potentials before flickering back to reality to finish the job.

While in this stance, your attacks against objects ignore hardness and deal double damage.

This maneuver is supernatural.

Soulquake

Essential Cut, Domestic Tarrasque (Strike) [X-Discipline]
Level:	6
Prerequisite:	One Essential Cut Maneuver, One Domestic Tarrasque Maneuver
Initiation Action:	1 standard action
Range:	Centered on you
Area:	All objects within 10 ft./point of essentia
Duration:	1 round/3 levels (D)
Saving Throw:	Will negates (object)

You release a pulse of incarnum, infusing everything in the area with it. Objects infused in this way hop, vibrate, and shatter.

Spend some amount of essentia. All objects within the area become infused with this essentia. Each round, every object in the area takes 1 point of damage per initiator level.

In addition, each time a creature enters a square occupied by infused terrain objects, that creature must make a Balance check (DC 20 + initiator level) or fall prone. You are the only creature exempt from this effect, as the objects calm down slightly in your immediate presence.

Unlike most other Essential Cut maneuvers, essentia spent on Soulquake isn't regained until the effect ends.

This maneuver is supernatural.

Scaling Maneuvers

Introduction

This rule is a part of Complete Sublime for GMs who want to increase the power of maneuvers. It is not an integral or required part of Complete Sublime.

Many maneuvers do a set amount of damage, usually equal to a number of d6 of the minimum level to get the maneuver. This makes a maneuver a great thing the level you get it, but after a few levels, it becomes useless and something you trade out for a better maneuver. While this is an okay mechanic, it leads to repetitive mechanics where the only thing changed is the damage. This is not okay. This is boring. Just like we do not want monsters to be challenging because they are a lot of numbers, we do not want disciplines to be good because they are a lot of numbers. The maneuver tax and flavor pains are not worth it. As such, we want maneuvers like these to scale.

Because they scale, maneuvers that give extra damage should also have additional effects, so as to be relevant.

Rule Mechanics

When a maneuver grants an additional dice pool of damage in terms of d6, that d6 changes to become 1d6/initiator level.

Examples

Mountain Hammer does an additional 2d6 damage normally. Thus, a 12th level initiator using the ability would deal an additional 12d6 damage.

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