Combat Schools

Ballistic Fist

Associated Weapons: Feet, Firearms used as a melee weapon (either via the Gun Club talent or using it as an improvised weapon – bayonets do not count)
Ballistic Fist is a martial arts style that focuses on firearms similar to the way other styles focus on swords. Students of this school learn to anticipate the movement of opponents and calculate their fields of fire from moment to moment, ensuring that the Ballistic Fist practitioner can emerge from a firefight virtually unscathed.

• 1st Degree Mastery
  • Prerequisites: Dexterity 13+, Intelligence 13+, Wisdom 13+, BAB +1, Dodge, Gun-Fu, Martial Arts I, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Quick Draw, Weapon Focus (Pistols or an Exotic Firearm or similar ranged weapon); Trained in Acrobatics, Initiative, Knowledge [Tactics]; Evasion, Acute Senses
  • Benefits: You gain Skill Focus (Initiative) as a bonus feat, but you must draw a firearm with which you have Weapon Focus and attack an opponent with it in the first round of combat. Otherwise, you move to the end of the initiative order for the rest of the encounter. You can, as always, change your place in the initiative order by delaying or readying. When you use the firearm you selected for your Weapon Focus feat, you threaten a critical hit on an attack roll of 19 or 20, this stacks with other methods of improving your critical range such as the Critical Strike feat. You gain a +2 bonus on all attack rolls and a +2 bonus on all damage rolls when using the Gun Club talent or when using a firearm as an improvised weapon.
• 2nd Degree Mastery
  • Prerequisites: 1st Degree Mastery of Ballistic Fist, Moving Target, Dexterity 15+, BAB +5, Improved Initiative
  • Benefits: If you draw a firearm with which you have Weapon Focus and attack with it in combat, treat the opponent you attack as if he or she was flat-footed, regardless of whether or not that opponent has acted already in this combat encounter. If either using the Gun Club talent or using a firearm as an improvised weapon, you gain the benefits of any feats or talents you have that apply to unarmed attacks, and you add your unarmed damage to the damage dealt.
  • Technique – Tactical Training: Make a Knowledge (tactics) check (DC 15 + number of opponents) as a free action. If you succeed, you gain a +2 dodge bonus to Reflex defense and a +2 circumstance bonus on attack rolls. This bonus lasts a number of rounds equal to your character level+2, or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes first.
• 3rd Degree Mastery
  • Prerequisites: 2nd Degree Mastery of Ballistic Fist, Dexterity 17+, Intelligence 15+, Wisdom 15+, BAB +9, Uncanny Dodge I, Melee Defense
  • Benefits: The dodge bonus provided by your Dodge feat increases to +3. You gain a +2 bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls with firearms with which you have Weapon Focus with. This bonus stacks with the previous bonus from Weapon Focus and with the bonus from Greater Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, and Greater Weapon Specialization. In addition, the critical hit threat range increase you gained from 1st Degree Mastery improves by an additional 1, to critical hits being threatened on attack rolls of 18, 19, or 20.
  • Technique – Combat Analysis: Any time you surprise your opponents, you may take a full attack action during the surprise round.

Bare-Knuckle Brawling

Associated Weapons: Feet, Hands
While bare-knuckle brawling is not a formal school of fighting, there are certainly people who practice it in unsanctioned boxing matches, prisons, bar rooms, and hockey rinks the world over. The bare-knuckle brawler may not spend a lot of time in training, but he makes up for that by fighting every chance he gets.

• 1st Degree Mastery
  • Prerequisites: Strength 13+, BAB +3, Grab, Martial Arts I, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (Simple Weapons), Melee Smash
  • Benefits: You do an additional +1d4 damage when fighting unarmed. This bonus damage does not apply if you are wielding vibroknucklers.
• 2nd Degree Mastery
  • Prerequisites: 1st Degree Mastery of Bare-Knuckle Brawling, BAB +6, Improved Damage Threshold
  • Benefits: You gain a +2 competence bonus on opposed grapple checks to damage your opponent, move, or to take control of an opponent’s weapon. You also use that bonus when attacking with a light weapon while grappling or when attacking with your opponent’s weapon while grappling. When you make a successful unarmed strike, you deal normal damage and if your attack roll beats your opponents Fortitude defense they move -1 step on the condition track. You cannot move an opponent below -2 steps on the track with this ability. You must announce the use of this ability before making your attack roll. Thus, a missed attack roll is a missed attempt. You may use this ability a number of times per day equal to your Strength modifier (minimum 1), but no more than once in any combat round. Creatures that are immune to stunning attacks are also immune to this attack, as are any creatures that are more than one size category larger than you. You may only use this on your own species.
  • Technique – Canny Grip: If you choose to deal nonlethal damage when grappling (usually by using the Crush feat), you may add your Wisdom bonus (if any) to the damage. This bonus is in addition to any other bonuses to damage, including bonuses from Strength.
• 3rd Degree Mastery
  • Prerequisites: 2nd Degree Mastery of Bare-Knuckle Brawling, BAB +16, Improved Damage Threshold (a second time)
  • Benefits: When you make a successful unarmed attack, you deal normal damage and if your attack also beats their fortitude defense they are stunned for 1d4 rounds following the round in which you strike him. You must announce the use of this ability before making your attack roll. Thus, a missed attack roll is a missed attempt. You may use this ability a number of times per day equal to your Strength modifier (minimum 1), but no more than once in any combat round. Creatures that are immune to stunning attacks are also immune to this attack, as are any creatures that are more than one size category larger than you. You may only use this on your own species.

Clothyard Shaft

Associated Weapons: Bow, Composite Bow
Historically, the bow is an ancient weapon. Its fairly simple mechanism for multiplying the muscle power of the archer belies the skill needed to use a bow effectively. In most countries, martial use of the bow fell into disfavor with the introduction of the crossbow or firearms, both of which require far less training to produce competent shooters. However, the very dedication needed to learn the skills kept them alive, passed down generation by generation, gradually developing into more than just a difficult way to hunt deer.

• 1st Degree Mastery
  • Prerequisites: Dexterity 17+, Wisdom 13+, BAB +6, Weapon Proficiency (Simple), Dodge, Trained in Acrobatics, Deadeye, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Focus (Simple Weapons)
  • Benefits: While you are using a bow or a composite bow you may use the Aim action without provoking an attack of opportunity.
  • Technique [Stance] – Daisan: This is the art of nocking and drawing an arrow, an action studied meticulously by practitioners. You gain a +1 to hit on all bow and composite bow attacks.
• 2nd Degree Mastery
  • Prerequisites: 1st Degree Mastery of Clothyard Shaft, BAB +8, Careful Shot, Mobility
  • Benefits: You may add your Dexterity bonus to damage with bows and composite bows instead of your Strength bonus.
    • Technique – Zen Archery: When making a full-attack action with your bow, if you miss your target you may immediately spend one hero point to reroll the attack. This second attack roll is made at the same base attack bonus as the first roll, and all bonuses or penalties that applied to the first roll also apply to the second. This second roll does not count as a second attack.
• 3rd Degree Mastery
  • Prerequisites: 2nd Degree Mastery of Clothyard Shaft, Dexterity 19+, BAB 11+, Running Attack, Sniper
  • Benefits: While using a bow you use range increments double that of normal for simple ranged weapons. While using a composite bow you use range increments triple that of normal for simple ranged weapons (this replaces the normal doubling innate to composite bows). When using your bow or composite bow in ranged combat, every time you miss because of concealment, you can reroll your miss chance roll one time to see if you actually hit.
  • Technique [Stance Enhancement] – Dojukiri: You gain a +2 damage bonus on all bow attacks, and a +4 attack bonus for the purpose of offsetting range penalties only.
  • Technique – Heaven’s Arrow: As a Third Degree Master of the Clothyard Shaft School, you may attempt an automatic critical hit with your bow attack. The attempt requires two full-round actions and the expenditure of 1 hero point. You take a –8 penalty on the attack roll, but if the attack is successful, it automatically scores a critical hit. The attack occurs at the end of your second action, so if the target moves out of your sight (or range) the attempt is wasted. The natural roll does not have to be within the bow’s threat range, and you do not have to roll to confirm the critical hit.