8-Bit Fighter (3.5e Prestige Class)

8-Bit Fighter

The Fighter has devoted his life to the sword and anything that looks like or utilizes a sword. Or anything shiny that attracts his attention. But mostly the sword. The training to become a Fighter is intense and requires enrollment for a full year at one of the many Vargus' Training Academies, where the students learn the Twelve Styles of the Zodiackenshido Technique.

(Editor's Note: As far as I'm aware, in any place where stats and the like are not referenced, they are to be treated as the normal Fighter's stats.)

Prerequisites

Alignment: Any non-evil. Vargas won't permit students who don't pass their background check.

Base Attack Bonus: +6.

Feats: Power Attack, Lightning Reflexes, Combat Reflexes.

Special: Membership in the Vargas School.

Table: The 8-Bit Fighter

Hit Die: d10

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Monkey Style
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0	Ram Style, Ox Style
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1	Tiger Style
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1	Horse Style, Rat Style
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1	Rabbit Style
6th	+6	+5	+2	+2	Dog Style
7th	+7	+5	+2	+2	Rooster Style
8th	+8	+6	+2	+2	Pig Style
9th	+9	+6	+3	+3	Snake Style
10th	+10	+7	+3	+3	Dragon Style
Class Skills (2 + Int modifier per level) Jump, Intimidate, Ride, Climb

Class Features

All the following are class features of the 8-Bit Fighter:

Weapon Proficiencies: Light Blades, Heavy Blades, Sword-Chucks

A Note, taken from the appropriate source:
The Twelve Styles of the Vargas School correspond to the twelve signs of the Zodiac.
Just as each sign has its strengths and weaknesses, so too does each style. Or, supposedly that's so.

Monkey Style (Two-Fisted Monkey Style): At first level the 8-Bit Fighter receives the Two-Weapon Fighting feat for free.

Ram Style (Ram Form or "Breaker" maneuver): This form teaches you that your entire body can be a weapon- especially your head. By training in this technique you receive a +4 to your Fortitude save.

Ox Style (The Ox of a Thousand Burdens): Those who train in this fighting style have heavy objects continually placed on their backs, so that their lower backs and legs slowly become ridiculously strong. The Fighter can now carry three times his carrying capacity.

Tiger Style (Tiger's Claw Strike): This maneuver teaches a student of Vargus that if you strike down, you are able to find more chinks in most man made armors. When employing this technique with any piercing weapon. the opponent is denied their non-natural armor bonus, while they get half of their armor bonus if you use a slashing weapon.

Horse Style (Flight of the Wise): All students who reach this level learn that the better part of valor is often discretion and that he runs away may live to fight another day and all that jazz. At this level you may, once per day, cast Expedious Retreat on yourself for the purposes of running away from a hopeless battle.

Rat Style (Knuckle of the Sacred Rat): At this point in your training, you've held your sword so long that your hand has deformed and twisted to fit perfectly in the hilt of your sword. Anyone trying to disarm you of your precious weapon has a +10 to the DC of doing so.

Rabbit Style (Rabbit's Heavenly Ascent): A continuation of the teaching presented with the Tiger Style, the Rabbit Style teaches the student that the higher they go before they strike down, the more chinks they can find in the armor. As a result, you receive a +10 on all jumping skill checks and as long as you are striking from above the target doesn't get an armor bonus, regardless of what kind of weapon you're using.

Dog Style (Hound of the Hunt): The ability to find the enemy is just as important as dispatching him if not more so. Thus the Vargus School teaches the students how to track their opponents through a variety of terrain. Students learning the technique receive the Track Feat for free.

Rooster Style (Cry of the Coming Dawn): This technique teaches that a Fighter is only as good as the troops he commands. Once per day he can sound a rallying cry that will give all friendly, nearby units a +3 moral bonus to their next attack roll and an extra five feet to their movement until the fighters next turn.

Pig Style (Tusks of the Boar King): This truly formidable maneuver allows the Fighter to break through any opposition during a charge. Weapons set against him are tossed aside as he moves toward the kill and he gets double his Strength modifier to break down barricades and door.

Snake Style (Serpent of Many Poisons): At this point the fighter has become very perceptive at how chi flows through the body and once per day can strike at certain precision point on the body, inflicting no immediate damage but instead inflicting symptoms resembling a myriad of illnesses. The target loses 1d4 points of Constitution, 1d3 points of Dexterity, and has his movement rate reduced by half, for 1d6 hours.

Dragon Style (Bahamut's Rage): Only the most stalwart of students ever reach the final lesson. The student can reach down and harness the fires that fuel his passion for battle and turn them into a cone of fiery destruction, much like a red dragon's breath weapon. They can create a cone of fire 40 feet long and 10 feet wide that does 10d8 of fire damage.

On the Class Change

The 8-Bit Classes are quite distinct from the normal classes in that they do not possess Epic levels as we know them, but rather undergo a strange change at Level 20. When an 8-Bit Anything reaches level 20 they are immediately contacted by the King of Dragons, Bahamut, and sent on a quest to retrieve a sacred icon of the Dragons- the flail known as Rat-Tail, lost in the Dragon's original home of Wyrmhold when they were forced to flee. After the group retrieves the flail, Bahamut re-enables the Class Change. From that point, any 8-Bit classer reaching level 20 immediately gets a +2 to all their stats and starts gaining levels in a new class- sort of an extension of the old. Here we look at the Fighter's high class, the Knight.

Table: The 8-Bit Knight

Level	Special
21st	Fastblock
22nd	Sonic Slash
23rd	Fastblock 2x per day
24th	None
25th	Fastblock 3x per day, Sonic Slash 2x per day
26th	None
27th	Fastblock 4x per day
28th	Sonic Slash 3x per day
29th	Fastblock 5x per day
30th	Final Strike
Skill Points Per Level 3 + Int modifier per level.

Class Features

All the following are class features of the 8-Bit Knight

Fastblock: The Knight has trained for so long under the tutelage of Vargas that his reflexes have become incredibly sharp. Once per day, the Knight can use his shield (or sword, if he lacks a shield) to instantaneously block any attack he wishes. The DC is rolled against the item's hardness. If the roll misses, the block fails and the attack passes through, doing 1d4 damage to the Knight in the progress. If the roll fails by more than 10, the attack is blocked but the weapon is destroyed. Artifacts gain a +5 to all DCs for this move.

Sonic Slash: The Knight has no fear of any barrier or foe that may stand in his way- he has mastered the use of his weapons so well that not even sound can resist their bite. Once per day, the Knight can use an attack action to unleash a Sonic Slash, slicing through the very sound barrier itself and sending a sonic attack at his foes. The attack is much like a fireball in that only solid objects like walls can stop it, and anything in its path is damaged. It does 8d10 worth of damage.

Final Strike: This technique is so hard to obtain and master that some of the lesser students- usually the ones who drop out- say that it doesn't exist. But Vargas knows the truth. This is the ultimate technique developed by that legendary swordmaster, and it is the culmination of all the lesser tactics. Once per day, the 8-Bit Knight can launch this mighty attack at a single foe. Though it only does 6d10 of damage, the Final Strike cannot be dodged or deflected, ignores all armor and hardness DC's, stuns the target for four rounds, and gives the Knight a +3 boost to his Strength that lasts the duration of the battle. Little exists that can stand in the way of this blow.

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