Contender

Some warriors focus on a single style, honing it to perfection. Some believe that the true master is one who has practiced their technique ad infinitum. Others disagree, never ceasing to learn new tricks and techniques for use on the field of battle. Contenders are such warriors. Though they may have a preferred method they specialize in, a contender’s true strength is in the knowledge and experience they have acquired, combining their fragments of mastery into a glorious whole to destroy their enemies.

### **Maneuvers**

A contender begins his career with knowledge of three martial maneuvers. The disciplines available to him are Fool’s Errand and two other disciplines of his choice.

Once the contender knows a maneuver, he must ready it before he can use it (see Maneuvers Readied, below). A maneuver usable by contender is considered an extraordinary ability unless otherwise noted in it or its discipline’s description. A contender’s maneuvers are not affected by spell resistance, and he does not provoke attacks of opportunity when he initiates one.

The contender learns additional maneuvers at higher levels, as indicated on Table: Archetype Maneuver Progression. The maximum level of maneuvers gained through contender levels is limited by those listed in that table as well, although this restriction does not apply to maneuvers added to his maneuvers known through other methods, such as prestige classes or the Advanced Study feat. A contender must meet a maneuver’s prerequisite to learn it. See the Systems and Use chapter in Path of War for more details on how maneuvers are used.

Upon reaching initiator level 4th, and at every even numbered initiator level thereafter (6th, 8th, 10th, and so on), the contender can choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one he already knows. In effect, he loses the old maneuver in exchange for the new one.

He can choose a new maneuver of any level he likes, as long as he observes the restriction on the highest-level maneuvers he knows; the contender need not replace the old maneuver with a maneuver of the same level. He can swap only a single maneuver at any given level.

A contender’s initiation modifier is Wisdom, and each contender level is counted as a full initiator level.

### **Maneuvers Readied**

A contender can ready all three of his maneuvers known at 1st level, and as he advances in level and learns more maneuvers, he is able to ready more, but must still choose which maneuvers to ready.

A contender must always ready his maximum number of maneuvers readied. He readies his maneuvers by performing martial forms for ten minutes. The maneuvers he chooses remain readied until he decides to practice again and change them. The contender does not need to sleep or rest for any long period of time in order to ready his maneuvers; any time he spends ten minutes practicing, he can change his readied maneuvers.

A contender begins an encounter with all his readied maneuvers unexpended, regardless of how many times he might have already used them since he chose them. When he initiates a maneuver, he expends it for the current encounter, so each of his readied maneuvers can be used once per encounter (unless he recovers them, as described below).

In order for the contender to recover maneuvers, he must use his ambush class feature (see below). Alternately, the contender may take a brief moment of rest, recovering a single maneuver as a standard action.

### **Stances Known**

A contender begins his career with knowledge of one stance from any discipline open to contender. At 4th, 7th, 11th, and 13th levels, he can select an additional stance to learn. The maximum level of stances gained through contender levels is limited by those listed in Table: Archetype Maneuver Progression. Unlike maneuvers, stances are not expended and the contender does not have to ready them. All the stances he knows are available to him at all times, and he can change the stance he is currently maintaining as a swift action. A stance is an extraordinary ability unless otherwise stated in the stance or discipline description.

Unlike with maneuvers, a contender cannot learn a new stance at higher levels in place of one he already knows.

This ability replaces knockout, awesome blow, improved awesome blow, and bonus combat feats gained at 5th, 11th, 14th, and 20th levels.

### **Ambush (Ex)**

A contender’s style is as much about his own positioning as it is about his enemies.’ By striking at his opponents when they are most vulnerable, he can keep the pace up and his foes down. Whenever a contender successfully attacks or locks a target that is denied its Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not) or that he is flanking, he can recover a single expended maneuver. He cannot recover a maneuver he initiated since the end of his last turn with this ability. At 1st level, the contender can use this ability once per round. At 4th level and every four levels thereafter, he can use this ability an additional time per round.

### **Martial Flexibility (Ex)**

A contender has an eclectic mix of techniques and stratagems that he’s picked up during his training and battles. As such, he’s adept at mixing and matching them to fit the enemy at hand. When a contender uses his martial flexibility class feature, he can choose to temporarily learn and ready a new maneuver (but not a stance) instead of a combat feat. He can only gain maneuvers of up to his maximum maneuver level known when using this ability. The maneuver is immediately exchanged with one of his currently-readied maneuvers (if that maneuver is expended, the new maneuver is also expended). When he initiates or otherwise expends the new maneuver, he can choose to lose it, returning the original maneuver to his current readied maneuvers. Otherwise, the maneuver is lost after 1 minute and the original maneuver returns, taking its place in the contender’s readied maneuvers. The contender can use this ability to gain maneuvers
from any discipline that he knows at least one contender maneuver from. He must otherwise qualify for the maneuver as normal.

For example, if a contender has Fool’s Errand, Steel Serpent, and Thrashing Dragon as his available disciplines from this class, then he could use martial flexibility to gain a maneuver from one of those disciplines. If he later took the Advanced Study feat to add an Elemental Flux maneuver to his contender maneuvers known, he could then use martial flexibility to gain an Elemental Flux maneuver. The same goes for maneuvers added to his contender maneuvers known by prestige classes. This ability alters martial flexibility, but does not cause the contender archetype to be incompatible with other archetypes that alter the martial flexibility class feature.

### **Point of Contention (Ex)**

A contender is extremely
capable of controlling the flow of a battle, and the movements of his enemies. Starting at 2nd level, when a contender hits an adjacent creature with a melee attack, he can make a lock attempt against them as a free action (even if it isn’t his turn). He can use this ability once per round at 2nd level, twice per round at 8th level, and three times per round at 15th level.

When a contender would move, he can choose to forgo his movement to move each creature he is locking up to the distance he could have moved while dragging them. They must remain within his reach, and they must be able to be moved into their new spaces (for example, he could not move a creature through a wall or another creature). This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity. The contender cannot use this ability to forgo forced movement (such as if he were bull rushed); it only functions for his own actions.

This ability replaces brawler’s flurry.

### **Maneuver Training (Ex)**

A contender can choose to train lock with this class feature. If he does so, he adds the bonus that would normally be applied to his combat maneuver checks with the trained maneuver to his lock save DC and to his saving throws against lock attempts.

This ability alters maneuver training, but does not cause the contender archetype to be incompatible with other archetypes that alter the maneuver training class feature.