Master of Arms and Spirit

"People say that anyone who can master a single weapon can become a fighter, that anyone who can lift a weapon of some kind has the potential to become a warrior. This is a load of minotoar dung. While true that anyone can begin the journey to become a fighter, whether they be the haughtiest of noble-born, the cruelest of devil-spawn, or the youngest of farmhands, any fighter knows that it is a struggle that requires the entirety of one's being.

First, the body must be built up. This means countless hours of training to ensure that every muscle group is at peak condition and able to fight for days. The fighter must then learn the basics, how to throw a punch, how to dodge a strike, and the basics of combat. This is where most stop, where most end their journey. To be a true fighter, many more steps remain. First, one must bind the mana within them and the outer world to their bodies, granting them a stronger body and enhanced reflexes. Once the body has been prepared, a fighter must choose a weapon. Simple, no? Like with fighters as a whole, this is not the case.

To become a true fighter, one must find a weapon or a type of weapon that fits them and completes them. A weapon that elevates them from another fool with their father's or mother's blade, to a force of destruction and violence. This process is known in the community as True Resonance. A fighter with a weapon that does not resonate within their being is like a mage without their spellbook or a rogue without the thief's tools, weakened and listless. Most fighters only find a single weapon that fills that void. Some lucky few may find two. But those who are unlucky may find that no weapon fully resonates within them, that every weapon rejects them (a phenomenon known as Discord). For these unlucky few, there are only two options to gain power. The first is to make a deal, be it with gods, devils, oaths, an ancient artifact, or some other thing that can grant power. The second, much harder option, is to use this rejection to empower you. To master as many weapons as possible and to use each weapon's rejection to build the strength of your attacks. To defy them like a sailor defies the storm. To defy the limits of yourself and master violence itself."

-John Aldi, Master of Arms and Grocery Store Owner. 

A Master of Arms and Spirit uses their superior techniques, their life experiences, and the internal Discord of their armaments to gain strength within battle. In the hands of a Master of Arms and Spirit, even the weakest of weapons can become the deadliest of equipment. A Master of Arms and Spirit's combat style is unique, known for using strikes from multiple weapon types. Each of these unique fighters is well-experienced with multiple weapons. As each different weapon connects with a target, discord builds within the weapons of the Master of Arms and Spirit, making their attacks land harder unless a single weapon is used too often. 

Level 3: Like a Book- Wise Strikes

Thanks to your training or experiences, you can read the flow of combat "Like a Book".  You see openings in a target that others could not, allowing you to get more attacks in than your peers. During your turn, you can choose to make a number of attacks equal to your wisdom modifier (known as Wise Strikes) with a simple weapon. When making a Wise Strike, you use the weapon's modifier to calculate damage and to hit. 

You have a number of Wise Strikes equal to your wisdom modifier per short rest. 

Level 3: Discordant Empowerment

Thanks to your mastery of multiple weapons and the spiritual rejection of them all, your attacks become stronger as you change between them. When a weapon attack hits a target, you gain a +1 to hit and to damage for the next attack. The ability stacks until the modifier reaches your character's fighter level. Attacks made via bonus action do not count towards the ability. 

This bonus resets when your character does not use their action to attack during their turn, or if they use the same weapon/kind of weapon multiple times in a single turn. 

(What this means is that if you use a dagger for your first attack and then use the same or a different dagger as your second attack in that turn, the bonus resets.)

You are no longer able to attune to weapons. 

Level 3: Trading Blows and Packing Woes

Your skill is unmatched both on and off the battlefield. During combat, you can quickly transfer weapons in your hand into your inventory and weapons in your inventory to your hands. There is no limit to this. Out of combat, your years of experience have led you to optimize your packing and traveling skills. You can carry much more than a creature of your size and strength would normally be able to carry. Your carrying capacity is multiplied by your wisdom modifier. 

Level 7: Additional Fighting Style

You gain another Fighting Style feat of your choice.

Skilled Duelist

Thanks to your ability, you gain the defensive duelist fighting style. 

(This was originally going to be an additional fighting style, but I can't get it to work properly.)

Discordant Shift

Channeling the discord between you and your weapons, you can cause a portion of a target's spirit to become out of sync. Using your action, you can force a target's spirit to become slightly disconnected from their being. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed Wisdom save, a target gains a vulnerability to a weapon damage type of your choice for one turn. On a successful save, the target loses their reaction for one round of combat due to the strain. 

 

Level 15: To Me, Martial Weapons Are Simple Weapons. That's How Martial I Have Become...

You have mastered nearly everything your weapons can offer you. Each of your weapons has become an extension of your being, and the most complex technique is as simple as the weapons you originally trained with. 

Martial weapons now count as simple weapons for the ability "Like a Book- Wise Strikes". 

Level 15: Additional Fighting Style

You gain an additional fighting style. 

Shiva's Assualt

Your skills have reached unprecedented levels of proficiency. You have begun to step into the realms of a demi-god. Channeling your supreme skill and the enhanced discord from your weapons, you can perform the ultimate strike. With your skill, to the outside observer, it seems like you grow multiple arms and strike with everything you have (literally).

Once per day, you can use your action to use the ability Shiva's Assault. You make an attack roll (this includes previous bonuses gained from Discordant Empowerment) and strike out with a glowing palm. On a hit, spectral arms appear from your body, each holding a different weapon from your inventory. The target is then struck by each weapon, with each attack dealing the maximum amount of damage that weapon can deal. The bonus from Discordant Empowerment affects each of these attacks when calculating damage. On a miss, nothing happens. 

Discordant Empowerment does not gain any stacks when using this ability, but it does not lose any stacks either.