#battledancer

 The art of combat can be seen as an intricate dance, sometimes quite literally.

The fact of the matter is that with the fluid and intricate movements of trained martial arts, both those with or without a weapon, it would only make sense that someone would attempt to take the next step and make styles of combat that emphasize stylish and grandiose movements.

Of course, this manner of thinking has its critics, who claim that such styles are all style and no substance, and exist more for onlookers, or perhaps judges, than they do for actually claiming victory over your opponent, and perhaps they have a point. However, it cannot be denied that for all but the most disciplined fighters, such movements can be distracting and hard to read right up until the moment you’re suddenly flat on your back.

Whether they are professionally trained in a flashy style, or just really want to look cool by incorporating dance-like movements into their combat style, today’s subject gives us a swashbuckler that never stands still in combat, moving to the rhythm of the battle in an almost hypnotizing way.

 This style relies on overwhelming foes with your movements, so these swashbucklers learn not only the art of performance, but also how to fascinate foes with their movements. They also can use such performances to achieve a state of panache for use in combat.

Such styles also have a special effect when the swashbuckler performs finishers. In this case, they dance away from foes immediately after their strike, repositioning themselves slightly.

The following feats suit battledancer swashbucklers quite well: Focused Fascination, Nimble Dodge, Unbalancing Finisher, Leading Dance, You’re Next, and Mobile Finisher, though others will also serve them well.

With this style, your play style as a swashbuckler leans towards debilitation and positioning, and works extremely well with allies that you can maneuver with to flank foes, inhibiting them with both dances and finishers that you can then slip away from them towards the next foe in line.

 Depending on how silly your campaign is, you might have your swashbuckler actually dancing while utilizing this style, but I recommend looking up various acrobatic and graceful combat styles to get an idea of what this sort of style would actually look like, helping you visualize it.

  Shakku is different from other goloma. While most can scan wide areas but have trouble with details, he memorizes everything. Such was the case when he observed an outlander with the most graceful fighting style he had ever seen, one that he knew he had to copy.

 Dancing around the beast and decapitating it with a single blow, the stranger destroyed the vrykolakas and freed the village from its curse… or so it was believed. However, the undead creature was merely the spawn of a full-fledged vrykolakas, one eager to extract revenge for the loss of its “child”.

Everyone is a participant in The Great Revel, but few acknowledge or embrace that position.

[ | ] Revelrage – With music, dance, or a mind-altering substance, you can slip into a state of frantic, frenzied revelry. While you are in this state, you are immune to all mind-altering magic, your movement speed is doubled and cannot be lowered, and whenever you deal damage you deal d6 bonus passion damage if your target is an object or a symbol of law, restraint, or moderation. While in this state, you cannot resist any opportunity to taste anything that looks appealing, take any item you wish to own, and break anything else that comes within arm's reach. In this state, you cannot focus on anything more cerebral than operating a door for very long, and retain a sense of self-preservation only in that you wish to continue seeking pleasure. You can only exit this state of mind if you are restrained and calmed, doused with water, or if you fall unconscious.

[ ][ ][ ] Break Through – When you make an attack that targets an object, if that attack destroys it, you may then make an additional attack this turn, up to a maximum number of extra attacks equal to your level of Break Through.

[ ] Sensory Gorge – You find your relationship to nutrition to be a unique one. You do not need very much to live on, and require almost no nutritional balance to remain healthy, able to survive happily on a few hurried bites out of every meal, but if you wish to you can eat and drink thrice what a normal person could without feeling full or facing any negative impact. Additionally, when you take a bite or a swig of something, if it fulfills two of the following conditions, you regain 1 health:

The taste is one you have not experienced yet today

The food or drink does not belong to you

You are in the middle of a battle or a similarly dangerous situation

[ ][ | ][ | ][ | ][ | | ] Infectious Revelry – Whenever a mundane person, or a magical being that is particularly susceptible to the charms of The Great Revel, witnesses you enter your Revelrage, they must make a willpower roll against d6 per level of Infectious Revelry. If they fail, they must also enter a Revelrage for a number of rounds equal to the difference between the rolls, at which point they may attempt to resist it again.

[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] Radical Stunts – Whenever you attempt a feat that is either pointlessly destructive or unnecessarily dangerous, you gain a +3 bonus to the roll per level of Radical Stunts. If it is both pointlessly destructive and unnecessarily dangerous, you gain a d6 bonus to the roll per level of Radical Stunts instead.