Rituals and Martial Practices

Rituals and Martial Practices


I'm going to rule that PCs can learn Rituals without the Ritual Caster feat, as long as they are trained in at least one of the key skills (Arcana, Religion, Nature, or Heal). If you have both the Ritual Caster feat and are trained in a key skill, you can take a +2 bonus on the skill roll.


Likewise a PC can learn a Martial Practice without Practiced Study, as long as they have a key skill trained.  If they have both they get +2 on the skill roll.

Knowledge skills for monster threat assessment.

I'm going to allow checks on Nature/Religion/Arcana/History/Streetwise etc to assess monster threat level within the following bands.  Threat level will be for typical representatives, it's possible that a particular unusual creature could fall outside the band on either the high or low end.

Low Heroic: 1-3 - eg goblin
Heroic: 4-7 - eg orc
High Heroic 8-10 - eg ogre
Low Paragon 11-13
Paragon 14-17
High Paragon 18-20
Low Epic 21-23
Epic 24-27
High Epic 28-30+

Whether the check DC is easy, medium or hard will normally depend on how famous or obscure the monster is; assessing dragons is easy, while assessing some obscure creature from MM3 might be hard, or even impossible if no one hasever reported meeting such a thing before.
A failed check close to the DC may get vague information, within a 2-3 band spread, while a badly failed check means you have no idea.

Altanian Warrior Lodges & Sword Knights

Altanian warriors who have proved themselves in battle are inducted into one of their clan's Warrior Lodges.  All but the smallest clans have several Lodges.  Warrior Lodges are normally for men only, with the exception of the female-only Ivory Swan Lodge.  Each warrior lodge is headed by a Sword Knight, a great warrior who wields an ancestral blade and follows the Way of the Sword founded in ancient time by Bondorr, the ascended hero.  There are also itinerant or questing Sword Knights.  There are inner mysteries which only the Sword Knights are privy to.

Each clan within a geographic area such as the Carnelian Plains typically has the same or similar set of warrior lodges (White Wolf, Ivory Swan, etc), 4-8 per clan, so the lodges are cross-clan, create some cross-clan affinity, and are thus a useful social glue when eg Altanian war leaders need to gather the clans for major warfare.  Naturally they are also rivalrous intra-clan, and compete to see eg which can carry out the most successful raids, gather the most orc heads, etc.

A typical Altanian clan has around 200 combatants (varying from around 30 to over 300), not including elites/leaders like the Sword Knights.  Around half (100) of those are bravos, half are Lodge warriors, typically 5 Lodges with around 20 warriors per lodge.  Men, even married men, tend to spend more time in their communal Lodges than in the huts of the womenfolk, who do all the vegetable farming and gathering of produce.

Sword Knights

The most common Paragon Path for the Sword Knight PCs is Sword Master, one who has devoted himself to mastery of his ancestral blade.

Sword Master

Prerequisite: Fighter

You and your blade are as one. You are a master of the sword, able to employ your steel in ways that no lesser warrior can even imagine.

SWORDMASTER PATH FEATURES

    Steel Defense Action (11th level): When you spend an action point to take an extra action, you also gain a +4 bonus to AC and Reflex until the start of your next turn.
    Steel Grace (11th level): When you charge with a light blade or a heavy blade that is not a polearm, you can use cleave, reaping strike, sure strike, or tide of iron in place of a melee basic attack.
    Steel Blitz (16th level): When you score a critical hit with a light blade or heavy blade, you regain the use of a fighter encounter attack power that you have already used during this encounter.


Precision Cut: Swordmaster Attack 11

You slip your blade past an enemy’s armor and slice your foe just so, leaving a bleeding gash.

Encounter        Martial, Weapon
Standard Action      Melee weapon

Target: One creature

Attack: Strength vs. Reflex

Hit: 3[W] + Strength modifier damage.

Special: When you make an opportunity attack, you can use this power in place of a melee basic attack.