Bladesong Warrior (3.5e Prestige Class)
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Bladesong Warrior
| “ | The Bladesong, the finest of the duel arts, the ability to fight surrounded by the melody of the swords. Few things are as graceful as a Bladesong warrior fighting, and even fewer are as deadly. | ” |
The Bladesong warrior is a bard who exchanged the arcane learning for a better combat capacity. He studies the Bladesong, the art of creating magical effects through music while fighting in melee. While he gets stronger, he aquires the bladedance, his ultimate technique. With it he can deliver multiple attacks while increasing his and his party's abilities, blocking magic or fascinating his enemies.
Becoming a Bladesong Warrior
Bards tend to pursue the Bladesong arts to become powerful warriors and enter the battle rather than inspiring the allies and narrating it later.
| Alignment: | Any nonlawful. |
|---|---|
| Skills: | Perform (Bladesong sword) 8 ranks |
| Feats: | Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bladesong sword), Weapon Focus (Bladesong sword) |
| Special: | Bardic Music |
| Level | Base Attack Bonus |
Saving Throws | Special | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort | Ref | Will | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1st | +1 | +0 | +2 | +2 | Bladesong, Shouting Blade, Bladedance | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2nd | +2 | +0 | +3 | +3 | Musical Defense (1/-), Musical Strike | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3rd | +3 | +1 | +3 | +3 | Song of Despair | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4th | +4 | +1 | +4 | +4 | Bladedance (Dance of Courage) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5th | +5 | +1 | +4 | +4 | Rupture Chord | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 6th | +6 | +2 | +5 | +5 | Musical Defense (3/-), Improved Bladedance | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7th | +7 | +2 | +5 | +5 | Bladedance (Anti-magic Dance), Note of Madness | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8th | +8 | +2 | +6 | +6 | Superior Bladedance | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9th | +9 | +3 | +6 | +6 | Soundburst | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10th | +10 | +3 | +7 | +7 | Bladedance (Blossom Dance), Musical Defense (5/-) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Class Skills (<-number of skill points-> "" is not a number. + Int modifier per level.Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Int), Listen (Wis) Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha), | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Bladesong Warrior.
Bladesong: The bladesong warrior wielding a bladesong sword can create magical effects while attacking. Each use of the Bladesong costs one daily use of Bardic Music to activate. Bladesong warrior levels stack with bard levels for purposes of determining how many daily uses of Bardic Music the character has.
To activate the Bladesong, the character must take a full-attack action and deliver a single melee attack, which will have the desired effect added. Unless otherwise noted, the target will still suffer the Bladesong effect even if the attack misses.
- Shouting Blade (Su): The warrior creates powerful sonic waves emanating from his sword. All creatures in 10ft-radius circle around the warrior take 3d6 points of sonic damage. Constructs and crystalline objects takes doubled damage. Reflex (DC 10 + Bladesong warrior level + Cha modifier) halves.
- Song of Despair (Sp):The warrior strike creates a terrifying sound, frightening the subject of the attack. The target must succeed in a Will save (DC 10 + Bladesong warrior level + Cha modifier) or become frightened for 1d6 rounds.
- Rupture Chord (Su): Unlike the other Bladesongs, the rupture chord only works upon a successful attack. The attack deals constitution damage equal to 1/5th the character's Perform(Bladesong sword ranks due to blood loss. Creatures immune to critical hits are immune to this effect.
- Note of Madness (Sp): This single note made by the Bladesong warrior can drive a creature insane. The target must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + Bladesong warrior level + Cha modifier) or become [[confused for 4 rounds.
- Soundburst (Su): The most powerful Bladesong, the soundburst creates a huge sonic wave with immense power. All creatures in a 20ft-radius circle around the warrior take 12d6 + the character ranks in Perform(Bladesong sword) sonic damage and become deafened for 2d4 rounds. A reflex save (DC 10 + bladesong warrior level + Cha modifier) halves the damage and prevents the deafness. Activating the soundburst costs two daily uses of Bardic Music.
- Bladedance: The Bladesong warrior's fighting style is as beatiful and fluid as a dance. He can take a -2 penalty on all attacks in a full-attack action and make an extra attack with his best attack bonus. At 6th level, the warrior can accept a further -2 penalty to all attacks in order to receive one more extra attack with his best base attack bonus.
Starting at the 4th level, the Bladesong warrior can add special effects with his dance. Whenever he does a bladedance, he can increase the penalty by -4 and spend one daily use of his Bardic Music to add the effect of a bladedance. At the 8th level, this penalty decreases to -2.
- Dance of Courage (Su): All allies in a 20ft-radius circle centered on the Bladesong warrior who can see and hear him gets a +2 moral bonus on saving throws against fear and a +2 moral bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls for 5 rounds. This bonus increases to +4 at 8th level.
- Anti-Magic Dance (Sp): The Bladesong warrior can use his dance to end ongoing magical effects around him. He dispels magic as the spell cast by a bard with a caster level equal to his class level. The effect is centered on the Bladesong warrior.
- Blossom Dance (Su): This is the ultimate ability of the Bladesong warrior. All enemies within a 60ft-radius circle around the warrior who can see him must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + Bladesong warrior level + Cha modifier) or become blinded for 1d4+1 round. In addition, all allies withing a 60ft-radius who can hear him receive a +4 morale bonus on saving throws and a +4 dodge bonus to AC.
Musical Defense (Su): Starting at the 2nd level, whenever a Bladesong warrior uses his Bardic Music, Bladesong ability or bladedance, he creates a powerful shield of pure sound, which absorbs incoming attacks, granting him DR 1/magic and elemental resistance equal to his class level. This shield lasts until the warrior's next round for the Bladesong and the bladedance and for as long as he keeps playing his Bardic Music. This DR improves by +2/- at the sixth level and each 4 levels thereafter.
Musical strike (Su): Starting at the 2nd level, the Bladesong warrior can add his Charisma bonus to the damage of all attacks he makes with the Bladesong sword.
| Level | Special |
|---|---|
| 11th | |
| 12th | |
| 13th | Bonus Feat |
| 14th | Musical Defense (7/-) |
| 15th | |
| 16th | Bonus Feat |
| 17th | |
| 18th | Musical Defense (9/-) |
| 19th | Bonus Feat |
| 20th |
The epic Bladesong warrior gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic bard feats) every 3 levels after the 10th.
Campaign Information
Playing a Bladesong Warrior
Combat: Even though a Bladesong warrior is a better loner than the bard, he rarely adventures without a party, after all, he's still a storyteller and exploring dungeons with his party adds a lot of content to the tales he tells. Due to his skills at helping others, a party would also love to have him with them. A Bladesong warrior usualy plays both a support and a striker role within the party. Using the bladedance, he can improve the abilities of his team-mates, and with the Bladesongs he can both damage and disable the enemies.
Advancement: The main goal of the Bladesong Warrior is to improve his combat prowess, therefore, any talent or prestige class that improves his skill with the Bladesong sword would be good for him. Also, increasing his Bardic Music uses per day also increases the amount of times per day he can use the Bladesong and the Bladedance abilities.
Resources: (This entry is campaign specific. The DM can alter this to adapt to any campaign setting.) The Bladesong is taught in the "Art of the Blade" college, in Tarragima. The most specialized artists are reunited there and would gladly help any other student in whatever they can. All kinds of stories, from the best storytellers in the world spread around in the corridors and the headmaster, Leslous, the Singing Knight, offer food and shelter for adventurers willing to share their tales.
Other than that, ever since the national dueling tournament was won by a Bladesong Warrior, adventurous bards from all around the world, amused by his abilities, started to follow the path of the sword. While they're mostly friendly, some of them who want to participate in the tournament would like a little spar, just to test their ability.
Bladesong Warriors Lore
Characters with ranks in Knowledge (Local) can research a Bladesong Warrior to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.
| DC | Result |
|---|---|
| 11 | Bladesong warriors are bards specialize in fighting with a sword. |
| 16 | The Bladesong warriors can use their sword to create music. |
| 21 | Some Bladesong warriors create sonic effects so powerful that can wipe off an entire army. |
| 26 | Leslous, the headmaster of the Art of the Blade college can deafen a great wyrm with a flick of his wrist. |
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