DragonCyclopedia: Martial Arts Feats

1

Martial Arts

Feats

New Options for Use with

the Pathfinder

©

Roleplaying Game

by

Glen R. Taylor

and

DragonCyclopedia

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DragonCyclopedia: Martial Arts Feats

This document is copyright Glen R. Taylor,
2011, and is published under the Open Game
License version 1.0a, copyright 2000 Wizards of
the Coast, Inc. The full text of this document
is Open Game Content under the provisions of
that license.

Uncredited illustrations are derived from works
that are in the Public Domain.

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Compatible logo
are copyright 2009 Paizo Publishing, LLC.

Design and Writing: Glen R. Taylor

Production, Editing and Publishing:

DragonCyclopedia

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Table of Contents

Introduction..........................................................4
Creating a Martial Artist.......................................5
New Feats.............................................................6
New Magic Items.................................................8
Other Products from Glen Taylor.........................9

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Introduction

This document outlines some advice and new
options for playing a popular fictional archetype:
a martial artist.

What is a Martial Artist?

Technically, any character that has advanced
training in combat is a martial artist. Certainly,
this includes monks, but it also includes fighters
and rangers, and it could be argued that
barbarians have their own (furious) martial art.

However, for the purposes of this document, a
martial artist is more specialized. The term refers
to a character who is skilled at fighting with little
or no need for armor or weapons. Such characters
could be of any character class, and can be deadly
even when deprived of all equipment.

Why Should I Play a Martial Artist?

There is a definite thrill to playing a character
whose very body is a weapon. A martial artist is
going to be highly mobile, able to move around a
battlefield quickly and adapt to changes of
situation.

If you want to make a primary melee combatant
that is a little different than the standard armored
warrior, a martial artist makes a good choice.

How Does This Document Help?

This document provides suggestions, as well as
new feats, to help a player choosing to build a
martial artist character.

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Creating a Martial Artist

Nearly any character can be a martial artist. It just
takes a little thought in character creation or
character advancement.

Ability Scores

There aren't any set requirements in ability
scores, but a decent Strength (for melee attack
and damage) and Dexterity (for armor class, and
use with the Weapon Finesse feat) are very useful.
If your character is a monk, you will need a good
Wisdom score.

Race Choice

All of the races are good choices for a martial
artist character. The smaller races (halfling and
gnome) may have difficulty due to lower damage
potential, but being able to carry less gear will
help them a lot.

Class Choice

The ultimate martial artist is the monk. All monks
are superb unarmed, unarmored combatants.
However, even they can benefit from a little extra
thought put into their martial arts style. Some of
the feats in this document are useful even for
monks.

Of the other classes, the primary combatants
(barbarian, fighter, paladin and ranger) make
good martial artists due to their superior base
attack bonus. Fighters also receive many bonus
combat feats, which can form the basis for a
strong martial artist. Rogues can make excellent
martial artists; they already have abilities that
make use of a light and quick style of fighting.

However, any of the classes can benefit from
training in the martial arts if they ever plan to be
drawn into melee combat.

A character who takes a single level of monk
gains several of the unarmed combat advantages
of the class, and can then take levels in another
class. This can be especially effective in
multiclassing with monk and cleric or druid, as all

of these classes focus on wisdom.

Skill Selection

There are no particular skills that a martial artist
needs. The Acrobatics skill, however, is useful in
helping a combatant remain mobile and to move
around the battlefield.

This document includes a new type of magic
item, the magic brand, which can be crafted using
the craft (tattoos) skill.

Feat Selection

Feats are the core of the martial artist. For all
classes except the monk, the core abilities of a
martial artist are provided by combat feats.

The basic feat needed to become a martial artist is
Improved Unarmed Strike. Monks are all
considered to already have this feat, but other
characters need the feat to be able to survive
without weapons.

There are a lot of other feats that are useful to
martial artists. Any feats that aid characters with a
high dexterity and low strength are helpful (such
as Agile Maneuvers). So are feats that assist in
combat maneuvers, such as Improved Trip. All of
the feats that have Improved Unarmed Strike as a
prerequisite are obvious choices as well.

Of special value is the Two-Weapon Fighting feat
(and the Improved and Greater versions), which
can be used to make unarmed attacks with each
hand; this ends up granting essentially the same
benefits as the Flurry of Blows monk ability.

Equipment Selection

One of the points of playing a martial artist is that
you don't need as much equipment, at least in the
way of armor and weapons. However, even for a
martial artist, carrying a back-up weapon is a
good idea. There are just some monsters you don't
want to touch.

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New Feats

Following is a list of new feats that are of special
use to a martial artist. The feats that are listed as
combat feats (in parenthesis after the feat name)
may be selected as bonus combat feats by the
fighter class.

Body Hardening (Combat)

Long and painful hours of training physical
toughness have made your body a fortress.

Prerequisites: Con 13, Improved Unarmed

Strike, Martial Artist, Toughness

Benefit: You gain a +1 natural armor bonus to

AC. If you already have a natural armor bonus, it
improves by +1.

Craft Magic Brand (Item Creation)

You can weave permanent enchantments into a
person's body.

Prerequisites: Caster level 5th

Benefit: You can create permanent brands or

tattoos on a person,

Greater Body Hardening (Combat)

Your ability to withstand blows has reached an
incredible level.

Prerequisites: Con 17, Body Hardening,

Improved Body Hardening, Improved Unarmed
Strike, Martial Artist, Toughness

Benefit: Your natural armor bonus from the

Body Hardening feat improves to +3. You also
gain DR 1/-. This only stacks with DR provided
by class features, such as a a barbarian's damage
reduction. It does not stack with damage
reduction from armor.

Improved Body Hardening (Combat)

Your body is even more well protected from
assault.

Prerequisites: Con 15, Body Hardening,

Improved Unarmed Strike, Martial Artist,
Toughness

Benefit: Your natural armor bonus from the

Body Hardening feat improves to +2.

Improved Martial Artist (Combat)

You have undertaken advanced training in
unarmed fighting.

Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike,

Martial Artist, base attack bonus +5.

Benefit: The base damage for your unarmed

strikes is improved to 1d8. If you are size Small,
your damage is 1d6. If you are size Large, your
damage is 1d10.

Improved Mobile Defense (Combat)

Your skill at evading attacks leaves you with no
need for armor.

Prerequisites: Dex 15, Dodge, Improved

Unarmed Strike, Martial Artist, Mobile Defense

Benefit: As long as you are unarmored and

unencumbered, your dodge bonus to AC and
CMD from the Mobile Defense Feat improves to
+4.

Leap

You can jump like a grasshopper.

Prerequisites: Dex 13

Benefit: You gain a +5 feat bonus to

Acrobatics skill checks made to jump, both for
vertical jumps and horizontal jumps. In addition,
you always count as having a running start when
making jump checks using Acrobatics.

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Martial Artist (Combat)

You have specialized training in fighting without
weapons.

Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike

Benefit: The base damage of your unarmed

strikes is 1d6. If you are size Small, your damage
is 1d4. If you are size Large, your damage is 1d8.
Off-hand attacks with your unarmed strikes apply
your full strength bonus to damage, rather than
half your strength bonus.

Normal: The base damage of unarmed strikes

for a size Medium character is 1d3.

Special: Monks are considered to already have

this feat for purposes of prerequisites. They gain
no benefit from selecting this feat.

Mobile Defense (Combat)

Your combat training eschews heavy armor for a
superior ability to dodge attacks.

Prerequisites: Dex 13, Dodge, Improved

Unarmed Strike, Martial Artist

Benefit: As long as you are wearing no more

than light armor and carrying no more than a light
encumbrance load, you gain a dodge bonus of +2
to your AC and CMD. This stacks with the dodge
bonus from the Dodge feat.

Power Strike (Combat)

You can deliver a devastating unarmed strike.

Prerequisites: Str 13, Martial Artist, Power

Attack

Benefit: You may declare that you are using

this feat before you make any attacks in a round.
To use this feat, you must be holding no weapons
or shield. When using this feat, you may calculate
damage for your unarmed strike as if using a two-
handed weapon (multiply strength bonus to

damage by 1.5). You may also, when using this
feat, ignore a number of points of hardness equal
to your strength bonus (if any) when damaging
objects. You may not make an off-hand attack in
the same round that you use this feat.

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New Magic Items

Martial artist characters typically love to travel
light. Toward this end, some opt to avoid carrying
around magic items, and instead have their own
bodies enchanted, using magic brands.

Creating Magic Brands

A character with the Craft Magic Brand feat may
create magical tattoos, brands or other markings
on a creature that have permanent magical effects.
These brands mimic the effect of more common
magic items, including magic weapons, magic
armor and wondrous items.

Magic brands are essentially magic items that
must be crafted for the individual user, that do not
take up spaces on the body, and that may not be
removed or dropped, or used by another
character. The owner of a magic brand must be
present for the entire time that the crafter is
creating it. A character may craft magic brands
for himself.

Crafting the brand itself is a use of the craft
(tattoos) skill. A tatoo must have a value of at
least 400 gp in order to enchant it.

A magic brand may act to enchant a character's
fists (and other striking surfaces) much like a
magic weapon. The gold piece value of such a
brand is double the value of the equivalent
enchantment in a weapon. Weapon special
abilities may be added, as long as they can apply
to melee weapons. The following special abilities
may not be applied to magic fists: brilliant
energy, dancing, ki focus, returning, throwing,
vicious and vorpal. This enchants only a single
unarmed attack; off-hand attacks must be
enchanted separately, as with a double weapon.

A magic brand may also act much like magic
armor. This adds an enhancement bonus to the
character's AC that is treated as an enhancement
bonus to armor. It does not stack with armor
bonuses or a shield bonus to AC. Armor special
abilities may be applied to a protective brand. The
following special abilities may not be applied to a
magic brand: animated, arrow catching, bashing,

and glamered. The gold piece value of enchanting
a protective brand is double the value of the
equivalent enchantement on armor or a shield.

A magic brand version may be crafted of nearly
any ring or worn wondrous item that doesn't have
limited charges. Brands may not be created that
are spell completion or spell trigger items. If the
item normally occupies a specific space on the
body, the value for a brand with the same function
is double the value of the normal item. If the item
does not normally occupy a space, the value is the
same as the normal item.

Magic brands lose their power if the wearer dies,
although if he returns from the dead (or becomes
undead) the brand regains its power. A brand
loses all its power permanently if it is removed
from its owner (probably by being cut off, or
through amputation of the body part where the
brand is located).

Magic brands are easily visible, but may be
concealed beneath clothing or hair. If a character
with magic brands changes shape, he loses the
use of magic brands until he returns to his normal
shape (unless the brand is specifically enchanted
to avoid this problem, such as with the wild
special armor ability).

Item Creation Feat Required: Craft Magic
Brand

Skill Used in Creation: Spellcraft, Craft (tattoos)

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Other Products from Glen

Taylor Games

Available from

RPGNow

DragonCyclopedia: The Mage

Disenchanted?

If the spell-slingers in your game are losing their
magic for you, this book may be what you need!
Inside, you will find the rules for playing a new
arcane class, the mage, that casts arcane spells in
a whole new way. Like many magical characters
from fiction, the mage isn't limited by a list of
prepared spells for the day, or by a limited
number of spells he can cast before resting.
Instead, he prepares the spells as he needs them,
at will. Also included are rules for specializing
the mage to your style, and suggestions for how
to play this new class.
This product is compatible with the Pathfinder
Roleplaying Game, and is 100% open gaming
content.

Conjunction

Within these pages, you will find the door to a
world undreamed of. Andral is a world of magic
and monsters, danger and daring, heroes and
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there is a new, fresh twist. And you will face these
wonders and menaces wearing a face you know
better than any character you have played in any
game

before.

You must face Andral as yourself.

The wonders of The Conjunction are for your
own

eyes.

Do You have what it takes to step into the world
of

your

dreams?

The Conjunction is a brand new fantasy game in a
classic tradition. In it, players create the story of
ordinary people drawn into a fantastic world that
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The rules of Conjunction are simple and
straightforward. This game is designed to be
learned in under an hour, with play beginning
immediately. Character creation is quick and easy,
and takes mere minutes, as most character
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DragonCyclopedia: Martial Arts Feats

character creation is worked seamlessly into the
play

of

the

game.

The setting of the Conjunction is the world of
Andral. Andral is a continent with millions of
years of history, and with a lush variety of
cultures and wildlife. It is a world where the
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of medieval kingdoms. It is a world where
laughing, ghostly water babies splash in the
crashing surf at the foot of towering opal cliffs. It
is a world of enchantment, where magic touches
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whimsical, and, at times, terrifying.

Conjunction is a complete role-playing game, and
includes everything needed to play, other than
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of the best bargains you will find!

The Call to Dragon's Rest

Gray gave up his simple life as a farmer to march
off to battle with the armies of the crown. But
when he comes face-to-face with the horrors of
war on a battlefield far from his home, he finds
himself drawn by a mysterious and irresistible
Call to find the legendary monastery known as
Dragon’s Rest. There, he meets Petros, a spoiled
but loyal-hearted baron’s son, and Emil, a
nervous young man with an unexplained and
violent supernatural gift. As they face the
challenges of the monastery, they learn about
themselves, and about each other, and discover
within themselves a power that they never knew
that they had. For Dragon’s Rest exists to train
Paladins, those men and women who have felt the

Call to defend mankind from the Demonic forces
which hunger for human bodies and souls. In
order to graduate, they must face not only the
daunting tests of the monastery, but a hidden
danger that threatens to destroy Dragon’s Rest
forever.

The Call to Dragon's Rest is a fantasy novel by
Glen R. Taylor.

Coming Soon:

DragonCyclopedia: The Priest

DragonCyclopedia: The Combatant

DragonCyclopedia: The Mystic

DragonCyclopedia: The Life-Reft

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The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder Roleplaying
Game Compatible logo are copyright 2009 Paizo Publishing, LLC.

DragonCyclopedia: Martial Arts Feats is copyright 2011 Glen R.
Taylor.

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