It should be noted that these rules may be altered by a DM who thinks that they are too powerful or restrictive in requirement for his campaign. While a fighter may be able to learn only a few of these skills, due to proficiencies, the weapon master kit on darkstar's website can make great use of these abilities. They are intended to give a warrior a way to become more powerful at higher levels rather then just getting a lower Thac0 and 3 hp every level. The fact is, 3hp and lower Thac0 doesn't help a warrior very much against powerful, supernatural opponents who can take a ton of damage. These abilities give even warriors without exceptional strength a way to triumph through skill.

Requirements: Specialization in the weapon to be mastered, and 12th level as a warrior.

Acquiring Techniques: To attain mastery in a weapon, the character must spend a weapon proficiency slot on weapon mastery. The mastery is attained only on a specific weapon, not a group of wepons. The mastery does not bestow any techniques on the character, it merely enables him to learn the technique. The character must be taught the techniques, having a 1% cumulative chance per day of learning the skill when taught by a master. When taught by a grand master (see below), the character has a 5% cumulative chance per day of learning the technique. All techniques learned cost a weapon proficiency slot in addition to the mastery. Furthermore, the rare masters of specific weapons are often hard to find and very expensive.

Techniques

Smash: This technique utilizes raw power and momentum to create a brute force attack of incredible power and strength. When using this technique, the character automatically forfeits initiative, attacking last in the round. During the round, the character spins his weapon violently, building up incredible momentum. Damage taken while preparing for a smash does not disrupt the technique with several exceptions. An attack that causes the warrior to lose, entangle, or otherwise stop spinning his weapon prevents the use of the ability. Furthermore, any failed saving throw against a massive attack (like fireballs, dragon breath, lightning bolts, and anything else the DM deems as such) will knock the wepon from the warrior's hands. The first attack made at the end of the round (the warrior gets his remaining normal attacks immediately after the smash) does mad damage calculated as follows. Normal damage for the weapon + skill bonus (+ 2 for specialists, etc.), + magic bonuses + strength score. Normal damge bonuses for strength do not apply. A warrior with strength 12 smashing with a normal dagger (in which he is specialized) does 1d4 + 2 + 0 + 12 points of damage for a total of 1d4+14 points of damage. This technique can only be used, obviously, with melee weapons (the dagger couldn't be thrown). The force is so great that parry manuevers are uselessly knocked aside by the smasher. The major drawback, besides being last to go in the round is that all attacks that round, including both the smash and the remaining attacks, are -4 to hit. A natural "20" only doubles the weapon base damage.
Smash is the prerequisite skill for the Grand Mastery technique Skewer.

Technical Skill: This is the next step in general ability with the mastered weapon. The +1 to hit and +2 to damage from specialization are increased to +3 and +3. The Master does not gain any additional attacks.
Technical Skill is the prerequisite skill for the Grand Mastery technique Technical Precision.

Flawless Execution: A natural "1" results in a miss with no critical fumble.

Master Feint: The master tries to get an opponent to commit his defenses, and then quickly shift the direction of his attack, catching the victim off-guard. If the master makes a succesful dexterity check, then the feint is succesful and the master gets a +2 to hit and the defender's shield and parry maneuvers are negated.
Master Feint is the prerequisite skill for the Grand Mastery technique Disarm.

Numb: This technique attempts to injure a target's leg (or wing, etc.) temporarily hindering movement. All that is required is a successful attack roll. No damage is done, but the victim's movement rate is halved and any AC bonuses for high dexterity are lost (up to DM for monsters). A numb will force a flying creature to land but will not cause it to plummet from the sky. The effect lasts one round for every two levels of the master.
Numb is the prerequisite skill for the Grand Mastery technique Stun.

Fluid Motion: The master has gotten pretty quick with his wepon and gets a -2 bonus to initiative.
Fluid Motion is the prerequisite skill for the Grand Mastery technique Lightning Motion.

Secondary Attack: This allows the master to follow up a normal attack with an additional, multiple shot. On a natural "19" or natural "20" the master gets to make an additional attack roll. If successful, the character hit again doing the weapon's base damage + magic, no strength or skill is applied (most of the strength of the second strike is from the wrist, and its force is somewhat less then a normal blow). Only one secondary attack is allowed (the warrior can't keep rolling 20's and getting attack after attack).

Secondary attack is the prerequisite skill to the Grand Mastery technique Flurry.

Some skills are not cumulative with others. A warrior cannot use a smash and secondary attack (although the remaining normal attacks can have second attacks). Master Feint and numb cannot be used with the smash either. A secondary attack (not the first strike) cannot be a feint or a numb. These strictures apply to the Grand Mastery improvements on each ability as well.

Rules for Grand Mastery

These skills are both rare and powerful, and a warrior who possesses them is the subject of tale and legend.

Requirements: Mastery in the weapon to be grand mastered and 14th level as a warrior.

Acquiring Techniques: To attain Grand Mastery in a weapon, the character must spend another weapon proficiency slot in the weapon to be grand mastered. This slot merely enables the character to learn the techniques, it does not confer any abilities. Like weapon mastery, the character must also spend a proficiency slot on each technique and find someone to train him. Furthermore, the character must have mastered the prerequisite skill to the technique that he wants to learn (numb must be learned before stun). Under the tutelage of a grand master who knows the technique, the character has a 1% cumulative chance per day of learning the technique. If taught by a deity who favors the weapon (Belenik teaching his most favored warrior how to master the battle axe, for instance), the chance rises to 3% cumulative chance per day.

^Techniques

Skewer: This is an awesome improvement on the already incredible smash attack. Like the smash, skewer automatically causes the grand master to forfeit initiative. During this time, the weapon is spun incredibly fast, and the warrior must not stop the spin (see entry under smash for ways to force the the grand master to stop his skewer). Unlike a smash, the skewer does not have to be the first of the grand master's multiple attacks in that round (a fun player would hold it until the end for dramatic effect). All the attacks in that round, both normal and skewer, are made at a -8 penalty to hit. Right before the skewer, the grand master stops spinning his weapon. The force is internalized, causing the master to give off a flash of light as he charges to skewer his opponent. This technique works only with melee weapons. Damage is base weapon damage + skill bonus + magic bonus + 2 X Strength Score. For example, the Gorgon successfully skewers some puny hero with his sword Lifender. He does 1d10 (base damage) + 4 (skill bonus- he has technical precision) + 5 (its a two-handed sword + 5) + 40 (twice the gorgon's strength). The Gorgon rolls a "1" for damage, so he does 1 + 4 + 5 + 40= 50 points of damage in one attack. Any attack doing 50 or more points of damage at once forces the victim to save against death or die from the shock as set down in the Player's Handbook. The character must make a constitution check every time he wants to do a skewer with a -2 cumulative penalty after each skewer performed until he rests for one turn. Like smash, parries are useless against skewer. A natural "20" does double weapon base damage plus the strength bonus is added in to the damage total. In the previous example, a "20" would have done 58 points of damage.

Technical Precision: The final increase in general ability with the grand mastered weapon. Bonuses increase to +4 to hit and +4 to damage.

Disarm: This attack requires that the grand master make a successful dexterity check, otherwise the attack misses. If successful, the grand master must make a successfull attack roll against his enemy. If this is successful, both the master and the victim make strength checks, the grand master gets a +5 bonus. If the victim succeeds by more then the attack is wasted. If the grand master succeeds by more then the victim's weapon goes flying up to 20ft away. If there is a tie or both fail, roll again.

Stun: This technique only requires a successful attack roll to hit. If it hits, then the opponent suffers no damage, but is stunned for 1 rnd/level difference between the grand master and victim + 1 round. Hence, a 15th level grand master would stun a 15th level thief for one round, but could not stun a 20 hit die dragon. The stunning is only cumulative as long as the time remaining doesn't exceed the maximum amount of time that the victim would be stunned for. The 15th level grand master stuns a 10th level wizard. The wizard is stunned for 5 rounds. Three rounds later, the grand master stuns him again, he would then be stunned for another three rounds (the total rounds stunned won't ever exceed 5 in this case). Stunned characters can't attack or take any action, and suffer a -4 penalty to AC and saving throws. Stunning can also be used to disable a specific part of the body for the specified time, like an arm, leg, or wing (there is a -4 penalty for the called shot). A flying creature with wing or body stunned does plummet from the sky.

Lightning Motion: The grand master has improved his speed with his weapon considerably. In addition to the 2 point bonus to initiative given by fluid motion, the character's number of attacks move up by one slot, probably from 5/2 to 3/1.

Flurry: This skill gives the grand master to make lesser, multiple attack immediately after a normal attack. A natural "17" or better allows the initial, normal attack to be succeeded by the flurry. If the next attack (the first flurry) rolls "17" or better, it can be succeeded by another flurry attack. As long as natural "17"s are rolled on the attack dice, the flurry can continue. Each flurry attack does the weapon's base damage plus magic. Like secondary attack, the flurry attacks are weaker, and no skill bonus or strength bonus applies.

Like Mastery, some skills are incompatible with others (they can't be used at the same time). A skewer cannot disarm, stun, or flurry. A flurry (not the initial strike) cannot stun or disarm. Also, if a DM allows his players these abilities, he should realize that powerful monsters may possess them as well. The Gorgon (especially), Raven, and even Maalvar the Minatour undoubtedly possess mastery abilities. Depending on the campaign world, there may even be academies where masters teach their skills. DM's should feel free to make up their own abilities or encourage mastery skill research among his player characters. These abilities are best used with the Weapon Master kit found on darkstar's Birthright Netbook.

By RKanus@aol.com

This page hosted by Geocities. Get your own free page!