Virtuoso

Concept: The Virtuoso is intended to cover martial characters that use both ranged and melee – an archer that fights with his when enemies get close, a musketeer that is willing and able to with his , a light cavalryman that weakens the enemy with before charging – without overshadowing a character that focuses on just melee or ranged .

The first draft was excessively boring. I am trying to change that.

At present I am considering changing vitality gain to 9 per level and skills to 6 per level, but that is pretty much a fairly large buff that might be too much.

Requirements: 13+ Str, 13+ Dex, 1+ Melee Combat Feats, 1+ Ranged Combat Feats.

Level BAB Fort Ref Will Def Init Lifestyle Legend Special 1 1 1 1 1 0 2 0 1 Work It, Switch-hit I 2 2 2 2 2 1 3 0 1 Creative Style I 3 3 2 2 2 1 3 1 2 Practiced Perfection 4 4 2 2 2 2 4 1 2 Versatile, Persistence's Fortune I 5 5 3 3 3 2 4 1 3 Switch-hit II 6 6 3 3 3 2 5 2 3 Versatile 7 7 4 4 4 3 5 2 4 Practiced Perfection, Creative Style II 8 8 4 4 4 3 6 2 4 Versatile, Persistence's Fortune II 9 9 4 4 4 4 6 3 5 Switch-hit III 10 10 5 5 5 4 7 3 5 Sublime Virtuosity

Class Skills: Athletics, Acrobatics, Notice, Resolve, Ride, Search, Survival, Tactics

Skill Points: 4 + Int modifier per level

Vitality: 12 + Con modifier per level

Core Ability: Work It: At the beginning of each scene, you temporarily gain a granted by a Basics Melee or Ranged Combat feat (e.g. the Martial Spirit stance granted by Sword Basics). Once per round you may gain, leave, or drop this stance as a free action. This stance is lost at the end of each scene.

→ This is supposed to help the character play nice with the non-overlapping stances the Virtuoso is expected to accumulate. Giving the character the stance without the feat is intended let the player pick up relevant stances for using a in melee, or throwing a , without being forced to grab a bunch of Basics feats the player cannot afford.

Switch-hit I: At level 1, whenever you kill or knock an enemy unconscious with a with a melee or ranged weapon attack this round, you gain a bonus action die which may only be spent to boost melee attack or damage rolls of the other type (e.g. if you killed an enemy with a melee attack you could only spend the action die on a ranged attack).You may only have one bonus action die from Switch-hit at any given time, and all bonus dice are lost at the end of the scene.

→ The central ability of the class. It probably needs some balance tweaks, but I think it fits with what I want the class to do.

Creative Style I: At Level 2, once per round you may increase the error range of all one of your melee and ranged attacks by 2 to grant one weapon customization upgrade of your choice to each weapon you attack with for the duration of the round (you may choose a different upgrade for each weapon).

Practiced Perfection: At Levels 3, and 7 you gain an additional Melee Combat or Ranged Combat feat and a weapon proficiency.

→ The class has to give some bonus feats, because the concept is incredibly feat-demanding. The extra proficiency is a small bonus intended to make reaching for options like extra Mix Ups a little less burdensome.

Versatile: At Levels 4, 6, and 8 you may choose one of the following abilities. Each ability may be chosen only once. • Nimble Fingers: Once per round after hitting an enemy with an attack you may Handle an Item as a free action. • Sprint: In combat, your Speed increases by 10 ft. • Follow Through: If you have hit an enemy with a melee or ranged weapon attack this round, you gain +2 to hit and +2 damage to your next attack of the other type (e.g. if you hit with a melee attack your next ranged attack gains the bonus). • Expertise: Choose one skill: Athletics, Acrobatics, Notice, Resolve, Ride, Search, Survival, Tactics. You may always take 10 with this skill. Also, taking 10 with this skill doesn’t take twice as long and taking 20 takes only 10 times as long. • Most Deadly (Ranged and Melee Weapons): It costs you 1 fewer action dice to activate critical hits with ranged and melee weapon attacks (minimum 0). • Twice as Cheap: You may affect a character with one Cheap Shot from a melee attack and one Cheap Shot from a ranged attack in a single scene.

→ I tried to choose abilities that either rewarded or facilitated using both ranged and melee weapons. Expertise was thrown in because I wanted to give the class a bit more to do with skills. I am worried Twice as Cheap might be a touch too good, but I think it fits with the class very well.

Persistence's Fortune I: If you have spent an action die boosting an attack or damage roll with a melee or ranged weapon this scene, you may add the result to the net action die you spend boosting an attack or damage roll of the other type (e.g. if you spent an action die with a melee weapon, you would add the result to your next action die spent boosting a ranged weapon attack). You may use this ability a number of times per scene equal to your starting action dice.

Switch-hit II: At Level 5, Switch-hit grants d6 action dice instead of d4.

Creative Style II: At Level 7, if you have hit an enemy with a melee attack this round, you may apply two tricks to your next ranged attack. If you have hit an enemy with a ranged attack this round, you may apply two tricks to your next melee attack. Additionally, all of your melee weapons gain the hurl quality, and all of your ranged weapons gain the spike and bludgeon qualities.

Persistence's Fortune II: At Level 8, action dice spent boosting a melee or ranged weapon attack also explode on a natural result of 1.

→ I have no idea if this is too powerful or not.

Switch-hit III: At Level 9, you may have up to three action dice from Switch-hit at any given time.

Sublime Virtuosity: At Level 10, at the beginning of each scene you may gain 3 temporary Basic Combat, Melee Combat, or Ranged combat feats for the duration of the scene. At the beginning of each combat you may re-choose these feats.

→ Instead of giving a billion bonus feats, I thought it would be neat to instead let the play choose a fair number of them as-needed.