Bellator

## **The Bellator**

In a world of Gods and Titans, there are those lesser creatures who would stand among them and against them, beyond their right, beyond their station, beyond all plausibility. Their story is neither divine nor primordial in nature, but it is born of those beings, born of the conflict of a warring multiverse, of a battle that mortalkind has neither stake nor responsibility for. And it is with only their skill, their wits, and the strength of their arms that they enter it.

These men and women are Bellators. Unlike the primal, pre-temporal denizens of the ancient days, their story is just developing. The Iron Mythos has a beginning, in battle and in tragedy, and it has grown in glory, stoked by conviction, forged with strength, but even now its inheritors shape its future, deciding its true potential with each decision they make, every life taken and not taken, every secret mastered or cast aside.

And the rise of this new legend, mere millennia old, has caused the stars to stir, and the moon to smile, and the sun to look down from his eternal death in curiosity. The other gods do not understand the significance, but the Lawgivers see it - an author puts to paper his knowledge, and his experience, and his creativity; words become sentences, sentences become passages, passages, chapters, and once the story is complete, a new work is born.

But what is that thing which the Bellators will make of themselves? What the primal deities fear is not what form it will take, Titan, Lawgiver, or something else, but that the child of the warring hosts will be at once far lesser than they, but all the more undefeatable. For it is that the stories of the old ones were first creations of beauty, they were works of passion, symbols of thought and form. The Iron Mythos is simple, violent pragmatism, a warrior that does what is required and cares little for fanciful aesops and poetic drama. Could any army of heaven or earth defeat the incarnate narrative of purest battle itself?

However, the fretting of distant gods is irrelevant. A Bellator's heart is in the dungeon, on the battlefield, in the arenas and streets, and the wild monster-filled places of the globe. This is where each line of their story is told, and where they shape the world. For now, their ultimate conclusion can wait.

## Class Abilities

The Bellator has the following game Statistics.

**Alignment:** Any

**Hit Dice:** d10

**Starting Age:** As Fighter

**Starting Gold:** Some gp

**Class Skills:** Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Heal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Any), Listen, Martial Lore, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Spot, Spellcraft, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope

**Skill Points at 1st Level:** (6 + Int Modifier) x 4

**Skill Points at Each Additional Level:** 6 + Int Modifier

## Class Features

**Weapon and Armor Proficiency:** Bellators are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, as well as all armors and shields, including tower shields.

**The Iron Mythos:** A Bellator's power is expressed in terms of one or more "Mythos", the building blocks of the legend that they are, and the stories that they have told and will tell. While any given Mythos varies from the rest, they share some similar traits. They are always Extraordinary abilities, and when they reference a difficulty class for an imposed saving throw, that saving throw is always calculated as (10 + 1/2 class level + Strength modifier, unless otherwise stated). When a Mythos references a "level" that is not clearly defined in some other way, such as "character level", it refers to "class level" as in the number of levels one has in the Bellator class. When a Mythos references "allies", it specifically does not refer to the Bellator using it. When a Mythos grants a feat as a bonus feat, it is regardless of whether the character meets the prerequisites for that feat (unless otherwise stated), and if the character already possesses that feat (in some permanent fashion - via the normal allotment gained by leveling up, or through another Mythos, and so on, but not those gained temporarily, such as via a "Heroics" spell), they must replace the prior instance of that feat with another feat that they qualify for. When a Mythos refers to a "weapon" being wielded by the Bellator, unless otherwise noted, it does not apply to unarmed attacks, natural weapons, or improvised weapons.

Every Mythos has a Tier. The Tier of a Mythos ranges from 1 to 4, typically referred to as Exceptional, Fantastic, Legendary, and Exalted. Exceptional Mythos tell the story of warriors that rise above the common people to do great deeds, whether for good or ill. Where others tire, they endure. Where others are turned aside, they advance. Where others die, they kill. A Bellator with Fantastic Mythos is a being told of in poems and campfire stories. Monster-Hunter, Dragon-Slayer; When no mere men can stand before them, they seek out and slay the creatures that lurk at the edges of the map, and beyond. Legendary Mythos encapsulate the most outlandish fighting men - they engage armies as equals, stare down giants and demons, and draw lines in the sand to which the forces of nature dare not trespass. Where the Exalted Bellator walks, the indestructible is cut, the peerless are defeated, the unstoppable fall. When death comes for them, it is death who dies, as they crawl from the depths of Hades with the strength of their arms and their strength of their hearts, for no dark god has forged a shackle that can bind the valor of a true warrior.

Some Mythos, in addition to their initial stated effect, have Basic and Advanced manifestations. When a Bellator gains access to a Mythos with a list of Basic manifestations, they may choose one such manifestation, and they gain that benefit immediately as well. This choice may not be changed later. When a Bellator gains access to a Mythos with a list of Advanced manifestations, they may choose one such manifestation, and they gain that benefit upon achieving their next level of Bellator. This choice may be changed at any point before receiving the chosen manifestation itself, but not after (choosing beforehand is just an easy way to mark it down on your character sheet so you don't forget that you'll be getting something later).

**Mythos Known:** A 1st level Bellator begins play with two Exceptional Mythos that he qualifies for if this is his first level in a PC character class. At higher levels, he gains additional Mythos as noted on the Bellator class table.

For characters that multiclass into Bellator after having taken levels in another PC character class, the 1st level of Bellator grants only a single Exceptional Mythos, rather than two.

A Bellator also has the ability to learn more Mythos, above the ones automatically allotted to him by leveling up. By expending resources in his spare time, he may pursue additional training. First, he must buy some amount of training equipment from a place where such things could be made, and then declare that he's using his spare time to train. The gold piece value of training equipment destroyed in the process is recouped by the Bellator as an equal number of Mythos Points. This 'spare time' should probably occur 'off-screen' most of the time; while the Halfling cooks dinner, the Bellator is hacking away at his solid adamantine training dummy. While the Sorcerer scours Gelatinous Cube entrails out of his hair, the Bellator scales a nearby cliff, within a waterfall, in full armor, while hauling a pair of granite boulders chained to his ankles. When the Bellator has hacked the dummy to worthless bits, or the chains snap where his muscles endure, and the stones fall to their end, his training accumulates into new potential.

By spending 1,000 Mythos Points, and 250xp, he may learn an Exceptional Mythos. A Fantastic Mythos requires 5,000 Mythos Points and 500xp. A Legendary Mythos takes 10,000 Mythos Points, and 1,000xp. And an Exalted Mythos takes 20,000 Mythos Points and 2,000xp.

For half the listed price for a given Tier, a Bellator may learn a Basic or Advanced manifestation of a Mythos they already know of that Tier.

Learning Mythos above the standard amount requires astounding, nearly single-minded devotion to the story of the Bellator. One may only utilize this ability while more than half of his effective character level (ECL) is devoted to levels in the Bellator class.

**A Warrior's Excellence:** As denoted on their class table, a Bellator gains a certain number of abilities known as "Excellencies". These tend to be more general, generic, and passive than a Mythos, but are useful nonetheless, and are drawn from their own separate list, unsegregated by Tiers. Like a Mythos, a Bellator may learn more Excellencies above their allotted amount. Each one costs 1,000 Mythos Points and 100xp, plus an additional 1,000 Mythos Points and 100xp for each time a new Excellency is innovated beyond the first. (So, 2,000mp and 200xp for the second, 3,000mp and 300xp for the third, etc.)

**Equipment Mastery:** A Bellator's implements of battle are as much a part of him as battle itself is. A first level Bellator gains Quick Draw as a bonus feat, and is not fatigued by sleeping in armor.

A third level Bellator may apply the benefits of any feat that applies only to a single kind of weapon or armor, and may be purchased multiple times to apply its effects to additional weapons or armor, (such as Weapon Focus or Armor Specialization) to all applicable weapons or armor that he is proficient with.

A fifth level Bellator may undergo a special training exercise, lasting one hour, in which he practices with a weapon that has an Enhancement bonus to its Attack and Damage rolls. Noting the ways in which the weapon's magic alters his movements to be more effective, he learns from its tutelage, and can thereafter replicate the benefit through sheer skill. At the conclusion of the exercise, he permanently gains the practiced weapon's Enhancement bonus to Attack and Damage with all weapons. Training with a higher Enhancement bonus overwrites a lower one.

A seventh level Bellator may sheathe drawn weapons and shields as a free action. Two wielded weapons or a weapon and a shield may be sheathed as part of the same action.

A tenth level Bellator applies the highest current Enhancement bonus he is receiving to Attack and Damage rolls made with a weapon as an Enhancement bonus to his Armor Class, as he learns to turn his specialized offensive training towards blocks, parries, and general battlefield awareness.

## Exceptional Mythos

### ***Adroit Hand-Slapping Consternation***

**Prerequisite:** 1 rank in the Spellcraft skill

Trying to grab someone with your bare hands when they have a big stonking sword is kind of dumb when you think about it.

Any character that performs a melee touch attack against you, utilizing an unarmed limb as the delivery method, provokes an attack of opportunity if they did not already. When an attack of opportunity is provoked in this manner, you may make a DC 20 Spellcraft check to determine if the incoming touch attack is delivering a hostile magical effect. If you succeed in detecting this, you may choose to forgo the normal attack of opportunity, to instead make an attack roll that opposes the attack roll made against you.

If your attack roll exceeds the opposition, but only by 4 or less, the spell is discharged harmlessly and its duration ends as you easily slap the hand away from you. If it exceeds by 5 or more, and you have a free hand (in this case, wielding a two handed weapon, or a shield smaller than a tower shield, both qualify), you may grab the offending forelimb, and jam the delivering limb itself back into the caster, causing the attack's target to become the caster, with the attack automatically succeeding against them.

**Basic**

*Bathrobe-Shredding Bewilderment:* You gain Mage Slayer (CA) as a bonus feat.

*The Sound Of A Dozen Hands Slapping:* You gain Combat Reflexes as a bonus feat.

*Poor Decision-Making Revelation:* When you succeed in redirecting a touch attack that is carrying a magical effect back at the caster, you may maintain your hold on their forelimb, dropping any held items, and making an opposed grapple check with the caster. If you succeed, you and your target are now Grappling.

*Thankful Lent-Hand Acceptance:* When you succeed in redirecting a touch attack that is carrying a magical effect back at the caster, you may aim their limb at another target adjacent to you, rather than at them. The attack roll you used to oppose their touch attack is applied to the new target. If it succeeds, then the original caster's touch attack discharges on the new target. If it fails, the spells fizzles harmlessly.

### ***Arching Comet Style***

**Prerequisite:** -

You gain Point Blank Shot as a bonus feat.

Any longbow, shortbow, footbow, greatbow, or bonebow that you wield is considered to have a strength rating equal to your Strength modifier, as if were a composite bow. Composite bows have their strength rating temporarily adjusted to be equivalent to your Strength modifier.

You ignore a number of points of damage reduction with the above list of bows (and their composite versions) equal to your Strength modifier.

**Basic**

*Friendly-Fire Avoiding Courtesy:* You gain Precise Shot and Coordinated Shot (HoB) as bonus feats.

*Imagine An Arch Inside Your Heart:* You gain Far Shot as a bonus feat.

**Advanced**

*Wing-Clipping Arrow:* You can make Trip attempts against creatures that are flying using wings or other physical limbs to propel themselves, using ranged attacks. The attack itself replaces the touch attack usually used to initiate the trip. If you fail the trip attempt, the target cannot react to trip you back. Otherwise, the trip is conducted as normal, causing flying creatures to plummet if successful.

*Vulnerability-Exploiting Accuracy:* At the beginning of your turn, you may choose to subtract a number from all ranged attack rolls and add the same number to all ranged damage rolls. This number may not exceed your base attack bonus. These effects apply until the beginning of your next turn. Attacks made with ranged weapons that you wield in two hands double the damage bonus granted by this ability.

### ***Armament-Forging Soldier Sagacity***

**Prerequisite:** 4 ranks in one of: Craft (Weaponsmithing), Craft (Armorsmithing), Craft (Bowmaking), Craft (Leatherworking), or Craft (Blacksmithing)

Choose one Craft skill among the prerequisites for this Mythos, of which you have at least 4 ranks. This skill is the basis of your arms-crafting knowledge, but as the consummate warrior, you are capable of extrapolating your knowledge of that craft, combined with your extensive understanding of combat, sharp intellect, and simple necessity, to improvise other crafts. Specifically, you may substitute the number of ranks that you have in the chosen Craft skill for the number of ranks in each other Craft skill listed as a prerequisite. However, your improvisations will likely never reach the level of where you true talents lie; you gain a circumstance bonus on checks with the chosen Craft skill equal to your class level.

Furthermore, when you make a successful Craft check among those listed above, you make double the normal amount of progress. If you set out to forge several items at once, with all the materials on hand, you may apply excess progress made from one item into the progress of the next item.

**Advanced**

*Legion-Equipping Diligence:* Your successful applicable Craft checks make triple progress, rather than double.

*Open-Minded Smithing Practices:* You may learn how to apply Weapon and Armor templates to armaments that you craft (see DMGII, pg273). You may do so by watching a character, that can already craft the template you want to learn, craft an item with that template from start to finish. Or, you can spend a total of ([20 +1d4] - your intelligence modifier) hours reverse-engineering the art by examining an already completed item with the template on it. You need not examine it all at once, but the total number of hours that it will take you to figure out a certain template is determined when you first begin examining an item. A template applied to a weapon, and a template of the same name applied to a suit of armor, are considered two different templates for the purposes of learning. For example, watching a Valkyrie craft a Gloryborn Greatsword would allow you to craft Gloryborn weapons of all kinds, but you would not be able to craft a Gloryborn Breastplate until you witnessed or reverse-engineered a piece of Gloryborn armor.

*Casual Perfection Mastery:* When you craft a weapon or suit of armor, you may choose for it to automatically be created with Masterwork quality. You need not spend time or money creating the 'Masterwork' component of the item.

*Efficiency of Eldritch Conduction:* When you set out to craft a weapon, shield, or suit of armor of masterwork quality, you may add an additional 150gp to its market price (increasing the time and materials required accordingly) in order to create an item of such surpassing quality that it may host two Augment Crystals (MIC), rather than the normal single socket.

*Excellent Alloy Admixture:* If you have 8 ranks in a particular craft skill, when you craft a weapon, shield, or suit of armor with that skill, you may create it out of two special materials, and the item will benefit from both of them, rather than just the most prevalent one, due to your exemplary smithing methods. For every 8 ranks above 8, you may craft an item that benefits from one more special material (so, 3 at 16 ranks, 4 at 24 ranks, 5 at 32 ranks, etc). Although you must pay the normal cost for both special materials, divide the cost of each material by the number of materials used for the purposes of determining the amount of progress you need to accrue to finish the item.

### ***[Discipline] Seed Awakening***

**Prerequisite:** 4 ranks in the chosen Martial Discipline's associated skill

This is not one Mythos, but a template describing a theoretically infinite number of different Mythos, one for each Martial Discipline that exists, or could exist. 'Iron Heart Seed Awakening' and 'Scarlet Bravura Seed Awakening', despite using the same rules, are two completely different Mythos.

The first time you learn a [Discipline] Seed Awakening, choose one 1st level Stance and one 1st level Strike or Boost from the corresponding Discipline. These follow the normal rules for martial maneuvers and stances, except that you need not Ready your maneuvers, nor are they Expended when you use them; you may use them at will, so long as you have the actions to do so. Your Bellator levels are considered martial adept levels for the purposes of determining your initiator level for the chosen Discipline. [Discipline] Seed Awakening never allows you to learn or activate Supernatural maneuvers or stances.

Any subsequent time that you learn a [Discipline] Seed Awakening, you do not gain the above benefits until you witness another character use a stance and maneuver of the chosen discipline in real combat (a training environment is not enough), or until you study a natural embodiment of the principles of the chosen discipline. For instance, you could extrapolate knowledge of the Tiger Claw discipline from watching a literal tiger stalk and kill its prey, or Quicksilver Aegis by watching an Inevitable be born in the Creche-Forges of Mechanus. Then, you must spend a combined ([10 + 1d4] - Intelligence modifier) hours reverse-engineering what you witnessed, acquiring the stance and maneuver that is rightfully yours.

**Advanced**

*Blood-Soaked Seed Germination*: You learn the remaining 1st level stances and maneuvers of your chosen Discipline.

*The Seed of Knowledge Sprouts*: To acquire this manifestation, you must already have Blood-Soaked Seed Germination for your chosen Discipline, and an initiator level of at least 3 as far as your chosen Discipline is concerned. If this is your first [Discipline] Seed Awakening, choose one 2nd level stance (if one exists; it probably doesn't) and maneuver from your chosen Discipline; you learn them. When you attain this manifestation for any subsequent [Discipline] Seed Awakening, you must study and reverse-engineer the maneuvers from a martial adept or natural embodiment, as noted above.

*Violence Takes Root:* To acquire this manifestation, you must already have The Seed of Knowledge Sprouts for your chosen Discipline (and have learned your chosen maneuvers, if this is not your first [Discipline] Seed Awakening). You learn the remaining 2nd level stances (if they exist) and maneuvers of your chosen Discipline.

### ***Empty-Handed Pugilist's Knack***

**Prerequisite:** -

Though Bellators are most known for their deadliness with blade, bludgeon, or spear, some find wisdom in picking up a trick here and there from those monks, pugilists, and street brawlers that live and die by the swiftness of their bare hands.

You gain Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat, and your Unarmed Strikes are considered "weapons" for the purposes of your Bellator abilities. Like a Monk, you may make unarmed attacks with any part of your body, even if your hands are otherwise occupied.

**Basic**

*Arrow-Catching Wits:* You gain Deflect Arrows and Snatch Arrows as bonus feats. While wielding a two-handed weapon, you may release your grip on the weapon, utilize these feats, and place your hand back on your weapon with such dexterity that it requires no action or impediment to do so. Similarly, you may utilize these feats with a hand that is equipped with a shield smaller than a Tower Shield.

*Giant-Foiling Contortion:* You gain Clever Wrestling (CW) and Cunning Sidestep (Drac) as bonus feats. If your Dexterity score is higher than the Dexterity of the creature targetting you, double the bonuses granted by these feats.

*Humiliating Heel-Sweep:* You gain Dodge and Defensive Throw (CW) as bonus feats. When you attempt to trip a target with Defensive Throw, they may not react to counter-trip you if you fail.

*I Punch Them In The Face:* You gain Stunning Fist and Extra Stunning (CW) as bonus feats. You may use your Strength modifier in place of your Wisdom modifier for the purposes of calculating the saving throw DC of your Stunning Fist feat.

**Advanced**

*Impressive Feat Abundance:* You gain one Basic manifestation of this Mythos that you do not already possess.

### ***Iron Stomach Development***

**Prerequisite:** 1 rank in the Spellcraft skill, Must have quaffed at least one potion, and been poisoned at least once.

You gain a +4 competence bonus on saving throws against Poison. This becomes Immunity to Poison while you are actively benefiting from a potion.

When you drink a potion that heals damage to your hit points, you heal an additional (greater of your Strength modifier or your character level) points. When you drink a potion that does not heal damage to your hit points, but has an ongoing duration of 1 hour or less, double the duration. If you are poisoned when you drink a beneficial potion, you may make a new Fortitude save against the poison to shrug it off, and prevent further detriment.

Finally, your instincts about the nature of mystical substances allow you to kludge the creation of alchemical compounds; you may take ranks in the Craft: Alchemy skill without being a spellcaster, and you gain a +2 synergy bonus on Craft: Alchemy checks if you have at least 5 ranks in Spellcraft.

**Advanced**

*Tankard-Draining Alacrity:* Once per round, you may retrieve a potion, or similarly sized drink, and quaff it as part of the same standard action. At 7th level, you may instead utilize a move action. At 14th level, you may use a free action.

*The Stomach Knows:* When you drink something, you are automatically aware of all of its effects, including the spell(s) replicated by a potion, and the type, DC, and secondary damage of a poison. By spending a full-round action to investigate a vial of liquid, you may discern if it is a potion or poison that you have previously imbibed and, if so, what its effects are.

*Savor The Flavor:* You may drink half of a potion, recieving half of its normal effects if its duration is instantaneous, or recieving its effects for half the duration if it has a longer duration. The other half will be useless to anyone without a similar ability.

*Buzzed On Black Widows:* You gain Poison Healer as a bonus feat.

### ***Guarding Vallation Style***

**Prerequisite:** -

You gain Shield Specialization and Shield Ward (PHBII) as bonus feats.

**Basic**

*Weakling-Saving Gallantry:* You gain Constant Guardian and Dutiful Guardian as bonus feats (DotU). While you have a shield larger than a buckler equipped, the range of your Constant Guardian feat extends by (5ft + 5ft per size category you are above Medium), and you may have it apply it to an additional number of allies equal to your Intelligence modifier at one time. This does not increase the -2 attack penalty you suffer, no matter how many people you are guarding.

*Face-Sculpting Shield Aggression:* You gain Improved Shield Bash, Agile Shield Fighter, and Shield Charge (CW) as bonus feats. As a standard action, you may make one attack with both your main-hand weapon and an off-hand shield bash.

**Advanced**

*Frontline-Holding Concentration:* You gain Combat Reflexes as a bonus feat. While you have a shield equipped, you may substitute your Intelligence modifier in place of your Dexterity modifier for determining how many additional attacks of opportunity the Combat Reflexes feat grants you.

*Ever-Vigilant Bulwark Reflexes:* You gain Active Shield Defense and Block Arrow (HoB) as bonus feats.

*Iron Juggernaut Aggression:* You gain Inlindl School (DotU) as a bonus feat. The attack bonus provided by this feat applies to one-handed weapons, in addition to the weapons it usually benefits.

### ***Marching Fortress Stamina***

**Prerequisite:** -

You gain Endurance and Heavy Armor Optimization (RoS) as bonus feats. The benefits of Heavy Armor Optimization apply also to light and medium armor.

Furthermore, while you wear armor that you are proficient with, you reduce its Armor Check Penalty by your Strength modifier. If this would reduce the Armor Check Penalty of the armor to 0, it no longer penalizes your movement speed (if it did before), and its weight no longer counts against your encumbrance.

**Advanced**

*Extreme Heat Training:* You gain Heat Endurance as a bonus feat (Sandstorm).

*Extreme Cold Training:* You gain Cold Endurance as a bonus feat (Frostburn).

### ***Peerless Parkour Athleticism***

**Prerequisite:** -

You gain Roofwalker (Cityscape) and Leap of the Heavens (PHBII) as bonus feats.

Other than the granted bonus feats, the benefits of this Mythos only apply if you are not suffering from any amount of Armor Check Penalty.

You may use the greatest of your Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution modifiers when determining your ability bonus on Balance, Climb, Jump, Swim, and Tumble checks (for brevity, these will hence be referred to as 'Athletic Skills' or 'Athletic Checks'). While you move, you gather momentum and your concentration sharpens; each Athletic check you make in a round gains a +2 bonus for each previous Athletic check you've made in the same round. In addition, when you take a Run action, you need not move in a straight line, so long as each change in direction is the result of an Athletic check (for example, running to an alley wall, climbing the wall, jumping backward onto the opposite wall, climbing that wall, then jumping onto the roof).

If you begin your movement on a solid surface, you may spend part of your movement traversing vertical surfaces as if you were moving on the ground. Transferring from floor to wall or wall to floor costs no movement, but if you end your movement unsupported, you begin to fall as normal.

If you move at least 10 feet before using the *Hop Up* function of the Jump skill, it costs no movement to perform. If you use multiple *Hop Ups* in one round, you must move at least 10 feet between each one.

As an immediate action, while you are falling, you may make a melee attack against a nearby surface in the hopes of driving your weapon into it and stopping your fall. If you hit and are able to overcome its hardness and deal damage, your weapon is wedged into the surface; you continue to fall for half the distance that you had already fallen before making this attack - if you have not yet impacted a surface, the weapon has halted you entirely, and you are now dangling from it. If this was not enough to keep you from hitting something, the final falling damage you take is still halved.

**Advanced**

*Death From Above:* You gain Roof-Jumper as a bonus feat. You may use the Urban Acrobatics function of that feat in non-urban environments, substituting natural paraphernalia in place of the trappings of a city.

*Sure-Handed Athlete Practice:* All skill points that you've spent in Athletic skills are immediately refunded. Each skill point you spend on an Athletic skill provides the normal skill rank for that skill, and also one rank in two other, different, Athletic skills. With the refunded skill points, you must immediately spend as many as you can on Athletic skills; if you still have some amount of points left over, and cannot spend them due to level limitations, they become free skill points that you may spend as you please the next time you level up.

*One Jump Ahead Of The Hitmen:* When you take a Charge or Withdraw action, you need not move in a straight line, so long as each change in direction is the result of an Athletic check.

### ***Steel Avalanche Style***

**Prerequisite:** -

You gain Two-Weapon Fighting, Two-Weapon Defense, and Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting as bonus feats (CAdv).

As a standard action, you may make one attack with both your main-hand and off-hand weapon.

At 6th level, you gain Improved Two-Weapon Fighting as a bonus feat.

At 11th level, you gain Greater Two-Weapon Fighting as a bonus feat.

**Advanced**

*Ambidextrous Razor Wrath:* Add your Dexterity modifier as a bonus on melee damage rolls while wielding two or more weapons.

*Guard-Breaking Thrust:* When you attack with both your main and off-hand weapons in the same action, if your first main-hand attack misses, all of your off-hand attacks gain a +3 bonus until the end of the action.

*Twin Blade Pincer:* While wielding two or more weapons, you gain a +4 bonus on the opposed attack roll to attempt to Sunder or Disarm an opponent's weapons, or to avoid having your weapons Sundered or Disarmed.

### ***Thousand-Armed Weaponmaster Intuition***

**Prerequisite:** -

You gain Combat Intuition (CAdv) as a bonus feat.

By spending (6 - intelligence modifier) minutes practicing with a weapon, suit of armor, or shield, you gain permanent proficiency with it. You may simultaneously gain proficiency with any combination of weapon, armor, or shield, that you can wear and/or wield at the same time, during the same practice session (ex. A character with 12 intelligence, wearing Battle Plate, while wielding a Kama and a Gnomish Battlecloak would only have to spend 5 minutes to become proficient with all of them). If your intelligence modifier is 6, you need only spend a full-round action. If your intelligence modifier is 7, all that you require is to grasp or look at the item in question to know its proper usage. If your intelligence modifier is 8 or higher, you may gain proficiency with an item simply by having someone describe the item to you.

This Mythos only allows a character to gain proficiency with items specifically intended to be weapons (or shields or armor). That is, they cannot use this ability to gain proficiency with improvised weapons (or shields or armor, if such things exist).

**Advanced**

*Hundred-Trophy Huntsman Cunning:* You gain Knowledge Devotion as a bonus feat.

*Dozen-Bladed Packrat Absurdity:* When you attack a creature with a type of weapon that you have not yet attacked them with in the current encounter, you gain a +1 bonus on your attack roll for each different type of weapon that you have attacked them with since the beginning of your last turn that you had not attacked them with during the current encounter.

Example:

> The Invincible Sword Princess, a 16th level Bellator, is fighting an inexplicably durable and high-challenge-rating doom beast of some description. In the first round, she declares a full-attack. Her first attack is with a Greatsword, which she then sheathes as a free action due to her Equipment Mastery class feature, and replaces it with an Elven Courtblade, drawn as a free action due to the Quick Draw feat. Her second attack is with the Courtblade, gaining a +1 bonus. She sheathes it and draws a Maul, attacking again, with a +2 bonus. She sheathes it and draws a Greataxe, attacking with a +3 bonus. On her next turn, she declares a second full attack, sheathing her Greataxe, and drawing a Glaive, which she attacks with, carrying a +4 bonus. She sheathes it, draws a Spiked Chain, attacks with a +5, sheathes it, draws a Great Falchion, attacks with a +6, sheathes it, draws a Fullblade, and attacks with a +7.
>
>

> On her next turn, she full-attacks again, sheathing the Fullblade, drawing a Goliath Greathammer, and attacking; this time, she only has a +4, because the bonus is only counted from the beginning of the previous turn.
>
>

### ***Unconventional Style Adaptation***

**Prerequisite:** Must know two Martial Stances

You may have two non-Supernatural Martial Stances active simultaneously. When you use a swift action to initiate or change your stance, you may only enter or change a single stance at a time. If you enter a Supernatural Martial Stance, you automatically exit your additional Stance.

While utilizing two Martial Stances, at least one Stance must be lower than the highest level Stance you know. This does not apply if the highest level Stance you know is 1st level. If you enter a new Stance such that both of your Stances are of the highest level Stance you know, you automatically exit your additional stance.

### ***Undeniable Impact Style***

**Prerequisite:** -

You gain Power Attack as a bonus feat.

At the end of your turn, you may choose one creature that you successful struck and dealt damage to with a two-handed melee weapon while using your Power Attack feat to inflict a -1 or greater penalty on your attack roll. If it was a Bludgeoning weapon, the victim must make a Will save or be disoriented, taking a -2 penalty on all attack and damage rolls, as well as rolls to resist being Bull Rushed, Disarmed, Overran, Tripped, or Feinted against, until the end of your next turn. If it was a Slashing weapon, the victim must make a Reflex save or have the damage you dealt to them with the attack that triggered this ability also applied to their worn armor. If you destroy an opponent's armor in this way, you gain its gold piece value in Mythos Points. If it was a Piercing weapon, the victim must make a Fortitude save or begin to bleed for 1 hit point of damage at the beginning of each of their turns. This lasts for 1 minute, until the victim receives at least one point of magical healing, or receives a DC 10 Heal check as a standard action. A creature can suffer from multiple bleeding wounds at the same time.

If the weapon being used is capable of dealing multiple types of damage, choose only one of the above effects that it qualifies for.

**Advanced**

*Masamune-Wielding Rigor:* You gain Monkey Grip (CW) as a bonus feat. You do not suffer the -2 penalty on attack rolls normally inflicted by that feat.

*A Blade That Hungers For Lesser Steel:* You gain Improved Sunder as a bonus feat. Whenever you sunder a weapon with another weapon (that is to say, unarmed strikes and natural weapons do not count), the gold piece value of that weapon is granted to you as Mythos Points.

### ***Warding Edge Technique***

**Prerequisite:** -

You gain Combat Expertise and Superior Expertise (Deities and Demigods) as bonus feats.

While you are armed and have free use of your arms, you gain a bonus to your Touch AC equal to your Base Attack Bonus, which cannot increase your Touch AC above your standard Armor Class. If you have the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, this bonus applies even while unarmed, as long as you can move any of your limbs.

**Advanced**

*Split-Second Riposte:* You gain Dodge and Melee Evasion (PLHBII) as bonus feats. However, you may utilize the immediate action benefit of Melee Evasion against any opponent that you are aware of, regardless of whether you have designated them with your Dodge feat.

*Doom-Refracting Parry:* When the attack roll of a Ray targeting you fails to overcome your Touch AC, you may deflect the Ray, applying the same attack roll to a new target, but leaving you unscathed. At 1st level, the target must be within your threatened area. At 13th level, the new target may be within (1/2 the original Ray's maximum range)ft of you.

*Brutality-Foiling Elegance: \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*Needs to be finished\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\**

## Fantastic Mythos

### ***Battalion-Engaging Charge***

**Prerequisite:** -

As a full-round action, you may perform a special Charge attack that is incompatible with abilities that allow you to make a full-attack at the end of a Charge. During this Charge, you gain a bonus to your Armor Class against Attacks of Opportunity equal to your Intelligence modifier. While Charging, you may make a single attack against a number of target equal to the number of attacks you would receive during a full-attack action (you cannot choose the same target twice). You must save one attack for the original target of your Charge. Each attack is made at your full base attack bonus (although you still take penalties for attacking with multiple weapons if you are receiving extra attacks from wielding multiple weapons).

**Advanced**

*Carving Through Waves of Flesh:* When you use a Battalion-Engaging Charge, you may take a -1 penalty on your attack rolls and armor class until the beginning of your next turn to gain an additional attack at your highest base attack bonus. You may increase this penalty to -2 to make two extra attacks instead of one.

*Focusing The Iron Storm:* As a standard action, you may engage in a full-attack.

### ***Heroic Panoply-Forging Puissance***

**Prerequisite:** The 'Armament-Forging Soldier Sagacity' Mythos, 10 ranks in a Craft skill

You may use Craft skills to craft Magic Items appropriate to the skill (Weaponsmithing for a *+1 Flaming Greatsword*, Blacksmithing for*Horseshoes Of A Zephyr*, Glassblowing for a *Bottle of Air*, etc). The raw materials to do so are equal to 1/2 the market value for the magical portion of the item, and 1/3 the market value of the mundane base item. You may set any DC you wish before making a Craft check to create a Magic Item (a lower DC is easier to meet, but makes less progress, etc). Upon successfully completing a Magic Item, you must spend 1/25 of the market value of the magical portion of the item in XP to finalize the process. You may not craft a Magic Item that requires a caster level higher than your class level.

Skilled though you are, the prowess of a Bellator is devoid of magic, and therefore you must find it in other places to properly imbue an item during its construction. For each spell listed as a requirement for creating a Magic Item, you must include one Exotic Ingredient to take its place.

The first step in finding an appropriate Exotic Ingredient is to figure out what to look for. This requires a Knowledge check; potentially, any Knowledge check will do, but the type of Knowledge check will determine the nature of the Ingredient. Knowledge (Arcana) is likely to lead you to dragon hearts or displacer beast tentacles, while Knowledge (Nature) will tell you to use the antlers from a legendary stag or the poison from a rare jungle plant, Knowledge (Geography) focuses on finding geomantically resonant ingredients, like forging your sword in an active volcano, or quenching a molten blade at the north pole, and Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) will have you chasing after the blood of fallen princesses and the love of heartless kings. And so on. The DC of the Knowledge check is (20 + the level of the spell to be replaced). A failed check may be retried after you gain a character level, or after you consult a great repository of knowledge (including libraries and people with more ranks in the same knowledge skill). Ultimately, you are the master of the forge, and you must be the one to figure out the perfect ingredient.

In general, the acquisition of an exotic ingredient should be about as difficult as an encounter with an EL equal to the caster level of the item to be made.

You may also 'improve' existing Magic Items (MIC pg 233) in a similar fashion. You simply need to either prepare the item, expending the appropriate raw materials and XP, then expose it to the new Exotic Ingredients to finish it, or expose it to the new Exotic Ingredients first, then finish it by expending the appropriate raw materials and XP.

**Advanced**

*To Create Wonders Unparalleled*: When you spend a full week crafting a Magic Item, you make progress in gold pieces, rather than silver pieces.

### ***Manslayer Shintai***

**Prerequisite:** The 'Combat Intuition' (CAdv) and Improved Initiative feats, Must have ended the lives of one-hundred living creatures with an Intelligence of 3 or higher with a weapon or unarmed strike

You have tainted the pure path of iron in your soul with the blood of too many for your legend to ever be washed clean. Creatures with a Base Attack Bonus of +5 or higher, or that know at least one 3rd level Martial Maneuver or Stance, can see this desecration as an ephemeral trail of blood that flows from your hands and any weapon you hold, drifting slowly behind you, alluding to the death that you have left in your wake.

You automatically (you can not choose not to) use the Sense Motive skill via Combat Inuition to Assess the prowess of any creature you come across. Creatures with ranks in Bluff less than or equal to your class level automatically fail their opposed Bluff check to avoid being properly Assessed. Creatures that succeed in their opposed check may choose to appear as their normal category, or one category incorrect in either direction (CR 4+ less than your character level, 1-3 less, even, 1-3 greater, or 4+ greater).

Becoming a living paragon of bloodshed inflicts damage to your mind, granting you an agnosia towards creatures you Assess to have a CR 4 or more less than your character level. Such weaklings appear as featureless, indistinguishable shadows. You can discern their shape, and use knowledge skills to appraise what sort of thing they are (such as a human vs an orc), but you cannot tell two weak humans apart as individuals, or two weak orcs apart as individuals, without using some separate context. For example, a Manslayer might ask their wife to wear the same ribbon of blue silk bound in dragon scales in her hair every day so that he can discern who she is by the unique accessory. This does create the potential downside that, were the ribbon to be stolen and worn by some other pathetic shadow, the Manslayer would be completely incapable of perceiving that.

You gain a Gaze Attack that functions against weaklings of this caliber. Those that meet your gaze must make a Will save or be Sickened for as long as they can perceive you, and as soon as you leave, those that failed the save are also Nauseated for 1 round.

You cannot use a lethal weapon to deal nonlethal damage to a living creature with a CR of 3 less than your character level or higher. The prowess they have achieved in their life means they do not deserve the humiliation of having punches pulled against them.

If you defeat a living creature with a CR equal to your character or higher, and you have no allies present, and there is no other immediate danger, you must slay the foe. You are allowed a few rounds to interrogate a wounded, but defeated enemy, but you must kill them afterward, or if it appears that other distractions might be inbound. To have reached these lofty heights, they have earned a death by a true warrior's hand, and nothing could be more appropriate. If an ally is present, and asks you to spare the foe, and you did not deal the majority of the damage to that foe, you may make a Will save to lower your opinion of them, and allow them to escape and perhaps one day become greater and challenge you again.

You gain an insight bonus on initiative checks equal to the number of living creatures with an intelligence of 3 or higher you have slain with a weapon or unarmed strike, divided by 5.

**Advanced**

*The Warrior Returning From Battle:* This manifestation doesn't exist yet, but it might some day, its metal forged by the flames of a Bellator's remorse, ignited by an event so tragic or heroic that it can bend the Iron Mythos itself.

Once it exists, to qualify for this manifestation, a Manslayer must go an entire year without dealing lethal damage to a living creature with an Intelligence of 3 or higher; then they may learn this manifestation at any time they like.

All of the effects of Manslayer Shintai are suppressed on you. You may see people as people again, do not sicken those around you, and so on. Furthermore, when you use an ability that has a saving throw DC to resist its effects, and modifies an attack (such as most Maneuvers), if the attack deals nonlethal damage, the saving throw DC increases by 2.

However, should you ever willingly and intentionally deal lethal damage to a living creature with an Intelligence of 3 or higher ever again, you lose this manifestation forever, and can never regain it. Additionally, you may willingly discard this manifestation from yourself as part of rolling initiative, which is just as permanent, should you ever decide that your ability to act first in a battle would be worth more than your humanity.

### ***Neutral Jing Expression***

**Prerequisite:** -

You gain Improved Initiative as a bonus feat.

As an immediate action that can only be taken outside of your turn, you may make a melee attack against a creature in response to them moving from outside of your threatened area to inside of your threatened area.

As a standard action, you may gain two immediate actions that cannot be taken during your turn, and are lost if you do not spend them before the beginning of your next turn. At 11th level, you gain three immediate actions. At 16th level, you gain four immediate actions. At 21st, and every five levels thereafter, continue to increase this number by 1.

**Basic**

*Silence, Then Storm:* When you take a Delay action, your initiative count is not reduced to the count that you acted on after the Delay. Instead, on the following round, your initiative count is reduced by 4. (For example, if your initiative count is 18, and you Delay to act on count 11, the next round you would act on count 14, rather than 11. Although you are free to Delay again if you wish.)

*Ready For Anything:* Taking a readied action does not change your initiative count. When you Ready an action, you may either Ready two different responses (which must both require the same kind of action) to a single trigger, then choose between the two responses when the specified trigger happens, or you may specify two different triggers for your readied action, and take your readied action in response to either happening (though you may still only take your readied action once).

*Failure-Punishing Patience:* As an immediate action, you may make a melee attack against an enemy in response to them missing you with a melee attack.

### ***Tavern-Clearing Cleave***

**Prerequisite:** The 'Power Attack' feat

When you make a melee attack modified by your Power Attack feat, you may choose one creature adjacent to your original target that is also within your threatened area and apply your attack to them as well.

**Advanced**

*Mob-Disarming Slash:* To acquire this manifestation, you must have the 'Improved Sunder' feat. When you attempt to sunder an object with an attack modified by your Power Attack feat, you may choose a second object in a space adjacent to your original target, or worn by a creature adjacent to your original target (if your Reach is only 5ft, you may also target creatures that are in diagonally adjacent spaces to you, even though you don't technically threaten them). Your sunder attempt also applies to the second object.

*Rabble-Rebuking Bouncer Push:* To acquire this manifestation, you must have the 'Improved Bull Rush' feat. When you attempt to bull rush a creature, you may choose one creature adjacent to your original target that is also within your threatened area (if your Reach is only 5ft, you may also target creatures that are in diagonally adjacent spaces to you, even though you don't technically threaten them). If you first bull rush succeeds, you may also attempt to bull rush the second creature as part of the same action. If you bull rush them more than 5ft, and must follow to continue bull rushing them, you must bull rush both targets in the same direction.

*Showing Tons of Cleavage:* You gain Cleave as a bonus feat.

### ***Root of the [Discipline]***

**Prerequisite:** The '[Discipline] Seed Awakening' Mythos corresponding to the same Martial Discipline, and the 'Violence Takes Root' manifestation of that same Mythos

This Mythos functions like [Discipline] Seed Awakening, save that it allows you to attain knowledge of a 3rd level stance and maneuver from your chosen Discipline.

**Advanced**

*Sprouting In Crimson Soil*: You learn the remaining 3rd level stances and maneuvers of your chosen Discipline.

*The Root of Knowledge Grows*: To acquire this manifestation, you must already have Sprouting In Crimson Soil for your chosen Discipline, and an initiator level of at least 7 as far as your chosen Discipline is concerned. If this is your first Root of the [Discipline], choose one 4th level stance (if one exists) and maneuver from your chosen Discipline; you learn them. When you attain this manifestation for any subsequent Root of the [Discipline], you must study and reverse-engineer the maneuvers from a martial adept or natural embodiment, as noted in [Discipline] Seed Awakening.

*Violence Stems From Practice:* To acquire this manifestation, you must already have The Root of Knowledge Grows for your chosen Discipline (and have learned your chosen maneuvers, if this is not your first Root of the [Discipline]). You learn the remaining 4th level stances (if they exist) and maneuvers of your chosen Discipline.

### ***Underdog-Training Montage***

**Prerequisite:** -Upon gaining this Mythos, choose one feat that you possess - this becomes your Signature Feat.

You may take other characters as your Students, as long as they do not have more PC class levels than you do. You may train with your Students, between 1 and 12 hours a day (any longer, and they fail to absorb the information any more efficiently). Once a Student has accrued (28 - their intelligence modifier) hours of training, they may spend 1,000xp to learn your Signature Feat. You may provide effective tutelage to a maximum of (1/2 your class level + your Intelligence modifier) Students at a single time, allowing them all to accrue training time simultaneously.

A single character may only learn the Signature Feat of one Bellator per 6 class levels that they have (minimum 1), and the cost increases by 1,000xp per additional Signature Feat.

If you describe the training of your Students to the rest of the group in the form of a montage, each hour of training is doubled for the purposes of how many hours a Student requires to learn your lesson.

**Basic**

*Beef-Slab Punching Exercise:* You have developed secret, and often highly obtuse, training methods that allow characters under your tutelage to surpass what they believe to be their physical limitations. By undergoing a montage, like the one to learn your Signature Feat, they may instead gain a +1 inherent bonus to one of their physical ability scores, at the cost of 1,000xp. A second montage will increase a pre-existing +1 inherent bonus to 2, but the cost increases to 5,000xp. A third, increasing a +2 bonus to 3, costs 10,000xp. A fourth costs 15,000xp, and a fifth, 20,000xp.

While teaching your Students, you may provide training for different benefits to each Student, though you cannot train a single Student for multiple benefits at the same time. (For example, if you have 10 Students, and you train them for 6 hours, you could give four Students 6 hours towards learning your Signature Feat, four other Students 6 hours towards increasing their Strength, and two Students 6 hours towards increasing their Dexterity, but you could not provide 6 hours towards increasing both Strength and Dexterity for a single Student.)

*Shrugging-Off-Waterfalls Meditation:* This manifestation functions identically to Beef-Slab Punching Exercise (see above), except that it functions for mental ability scores, rather than physical.

*Gifted Lotus Instruction:* To learn this manifestation, you must already have the [Discipline] Seed Awakening Mythos. In lieu of your Signature Feat, you may teach a Student one 1st level martial maneuver or stance that you know via that Mythos, which they may use at-will, rather than once-per encounter, without needing to ready, expend, or refresh it. The Student must have a base attack bonus of at least +1. Martial Adepts that already have the chosen maneuver or stance as one of their maneuvers or stances Known lose that maneuver or stance, and replace it with a new maneuver or stance of the same level that they meet the prerequisites for.

Learning a maneuver or stance in this way costs the same amount of xp as learning your Signature Feat, and counts towards the maximum number of Signature Feats a character may learn from Bellator Mythos.

## Legendary Mythos

### ***One Kick Ten Thousand Times***

**Prerequisite:** One Martial Maneuver of 4th level or higher

Through grueling training sessions, you have practiced the simplest strikes in your repertoire over and over, until they come as easily to you as walking and breathing. This mastery of fundamentals elevates lesser movements to equal, or perhaps surpass, their more technically difficult siblings.

Each maneuver you know that meets the following prerequisites becomes a Fundamental Maneuver for you.

* Must be a Strike.
* Must activate as a standard action.
* Must have a normal melee attack as part of its activation.
* Must belong to a Discipline from which you know at least one maneuver of 4th level or higher.
* Must be of 1st or 2nd level.
* Must not be Supernatural.

When you make a Full Attack, you may replace any or all attacks with a Fundamental Maneuver. Each attack may be replaced with the same, or different, Fundamental Maneuvers. You must declare which Fundamental Maneuvers you're using in place of each attack when you declare the Full Attack. If the augmented Full Attack uses Fundamental Maneuvers from at least three different Disciplines, each attack in the Full Attack is made at your highest base attack bonus.

When you make an Attack of Opportunity, you may replace the attack with a Fundamental Maneuver.

When you would make an attack as part of a Charge, you may replace the attack with a Fundamental Maneuver.

The saving throw DC of your Fundamental Maneuvers is calculated as (10 + 1/2 your class level + your intelligence modifier), rather than the normal formula.

### ***The [Discipline]'s Stem Flourishes***

**Prerequisite:** The 'Root of the [Discipline]' Mythos corresponding to the same Martial Discipline, and the 'Violence Stems From Practice' manifestation of that same Mythos

This Mythos functions like [Discipline] Seed Awakening, save that it allows you to attain knowledge of a 5th level stance and maneuver from your chosen Discipline.

**Advanced**

*Fibers Quenched With Blood*: You learn the remaining 5th level stances and maneuvers of your chosen Discipline.

*Knowledge Sprouts And Branches*: To acquire this manifestation, you must already have Fibers Quenched With Blood for your chosen Discipline, and an initiator level of at least 11 as far as your chosen Discipline is concerned. If this is your first 'The [Discipline]'s Stem Flourishes', choose one 6th level stance (if one exists) and maneuver from your chosen Discipline; you learn them. When you attain this manifestation for any subsequent Root of the [Discipline], you must study and reverse-engineer the maneuvers from a martial adept or natural embodiment, as noted in [Discipline] Seed Awakening.

*Perfect Violence Blossoms:* To acquire this manifestation, you must already have Knowledge Sprouts And Branches for your chosen Discipline (and have learned your chosen maneuvers, if this is not your first 'The [Discipline]'s Stem Flourishes'). You learn the remaining 6th level stances (if they exist) and maneuvers of your chosen Discipline.

### ***Stand Against the Horde***

**Prerequisite:** -

You gain Combat Reflexes as a bonus feat.

As a standard action, you may firmly brace yourself, steeling your resolve to stand your ground and make every foe who dares trespass against you pay with their blood. You gain a +4 bonus on all opposed checks to resist being Bull Rushed, Grappled, Overrun, or Tripped, and on all saving throws against effects that would force you to move or attempt to knock you prone.

If you are Medium size or smaller, your Reach increases by 20ft. If you are Large, your Reach increases by 10ft. If you are Huge, it increases by 5ft. This doesn't represent any kind of elongation of your limbs or weapon, but rather your ability to take a few quick steps, strike, and return to your starting space with exceptional swiftness. This isn't considered movement, and does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

If you voluntarily move more than 5ft in a single turn, or are knocked prone, the benefits of this ability expire and you must spend another standard action to regain them.

**Advanced**

*Everywhere At Once:* You gain Vexing Flanker and Adaptable Flanker as bonus feats (PHBII). It isn't clear whether a character can normally flank with themselves by using Adaptable Flanker if they threaten the opposite side of an adjacent enemy. If a character cannot normally do so, this manifestation allows you to as a special exception.

*Advancing Against The Tide:* You gain Clever Opportunist (DrotU) and Expert Tactician (CAdv) as bonus feats. If you use your Clever Opportunist feat to change places with an enemy as you kill them (or drop them unconscious) with an attack of opportunity, this movement does not cause you to lose the benefits of Standing Against The Horde if they are currently active.

*Glass Shattering On Steel:* You gain Hold The Line (CW) and Deft Opportunist (CAdv) as bonus feats.

### ***Wind-And-Lightning Execution***

**Prerequisite:** Dexterity 18, Must be able to draw and sheathe a weapon as a free action

Once per round, as a free action, you may attempt to place a Quantum Execution Charge on one creature that you threaten. Make a melee attack roll against them; if you miss, then resolve the attack as normal. If you hit, then place a Quantum Execution Charge on them with a value equal to a damage roll with one of your held weapons if all variables had their average result, and a Count of 5 (if you are not holding anything, you may use an unarmed strike, or a sheathed weapon on your person). Placing a Charge on someone in this way doesn't look like anything; to the world around you, you do not appear to have performed any actions whatsoever. You didn't attack them, and they didn't defend themselves. Nothing happened.

At the end of each round, reduce the Count of all of your Quantum Execution Charges by 1. You may also choose to reduce the count of your Charges to 0 as a free action (this is usually accompanied by a dramatic sheathing of your weapon, or a one liner such as "You are already dead.").

When any of your Charges reach 0, you must make a decision. Either (1) Each time you had placed a Quantum Execution Charge on someone, you had actually attacked them with a lightning-quick stroke too fast for anyone to perceive. All of your Quantum Execution Charges detonate, dealing their value in damage to their hosts, which bypasses damage reduction. Wounds created in this way are always obvious, and your victims have a strong intuition that it was you that harmed them. Or (2) You had never attacked those people to begin with, and your Quantum Execution Charges detonate harmlessly.

If you reduce a creature to negative hit points with the detonation of a Quantum Execution Charge, you may destroy them in as gruesome a way as you deem fit, which may be wholly incongruous with the amount of damage your Charge actually dealt. A 5-damage Charge that knocks a level 1 Commoner down to -1 hit points could cause their head to explode, or their limbs could all clatter to the floor as blood fountains from every stump, or they might just collapse in halves, vertically bissected.

Example:

> The Invincible Sword Princess, a 13th level Bellator, is escorted into the throne room of a fascist petty kingdom that she is looking to liberate by a group of four guards. They do not allow her into the room with her arms and armor, so she is forced to go in bare-handed.
>
>

> As she is escorted in, she attempts to place a Quantum Execution Charge on one of the guards. They each have a Breastplate and a +1 Dexterity modifier, but are flat-footed, as they aren't expecting an attack. Therefore, their AC is 15. Her attack bonus is (13 bab + 7 str + 4 enh + 1 feat - 10 for power attacking) = +15. Over the next 24 seconds, she places a Charge on each guard in turn, for (1d3 base + 7 str + 4 enh + 10 power attack) = 23 damage. At this point, her first Charge is at a Count of 1. Fortunately, talking is a free action.
>
>

> While she stands before the tyrant, she submits the following proposal, "Oh, great king of Ironfistia, were I a woman blessed with a greater abundance of free time, I would gladly crush you and your legions like the tiny insects that you all are. But I am a busy lady, and would like to pursue nonviolent revolution if at all possible, for the sake of salvaging the afternoon it would take to destroy everything that you have spent decades creating. Please, oh king, might we pursue a transition into a constitutional republic?"
>
>

> The king, obviously offended, responds with "What is this drivel? Guards! Seize this maniac and have her beheaded in the courtyard!"
>
>

> "I wouldn't bother, your grace." says the Princess, "Your guards are already dead." With that, she reduces the Count of her Charges to 0, and all the guards take 23 damage, their ribcages caving in from some unseen force, as they collapse to the ground, spilling blood from their mouths all over the stone floor.
>
>

> "Now, perhaps you would like to reconsider, majesty." she continues, "You never know how much time you have left.")
>
>

**Advanced**

*The Red Gale of Death:* When you spend a free action to place a Quantum Execution Charge, you may also expend your move action for the round. In this case, you may attempt to place the Charge on a target within (your movement speed + Reach)ft that you are able to move to and attack. If you fail, then you must then move the required distance, and resolve the failed attack. If you succeed, then you remain exactly where you are, having apparently not acted at all, and your Charge is placed.

*You Have One Minute To Live:* The Count of your Quantum Execution Charges begins at 10. However, you may only have a maximum of 5 Charges deployed at once. Once you have deployed all 5, you must wait for them to detonate to deploy more.

*Did I Strike Four Times? Or Five?:* (Now, to tell you the truth, I forgot, myself, in all this excitement.) When one of your Quantum Execution Charges has their count reach 0, you may choose to have that single Charge detonate or not detonate, without choosing for the rest of your deployed Charges.

*Hands Like Zephyrs:* You learn to adapt the same swiftness that you use with a weapon to more mundane feats. You gain a (10 + class level) competence bonus on all Sleight of Hand checks.

## Exalted Mythos

### ***A Sword Too Great For This World***

**Prerequisite:** -

When you make a melee attack, you may unleash your full strength. For each attack, choose either a (40ft + 20ft per size category larger than medium that your weapon is made for) line or a (20ft + 10ft per size category larger than medium that your weapon is made for) cone. Your attack roll is applied to all valid targets within the chosen area, including unattended objects (this often leaves broken trenches in the earth if you're fighting on the ground).

You must initiate a Bull Rush against each creature that takes damage from one of your attacks, converted into an area by this ability. You initiate this Bull Rush even if you are not adjacent to the target at the time, without a touch attack to begin it with, and you do not provoke an attack of opportunity by doing so. If you fail the Bull Rush, you are not pushed back or knocked prone. If you succeed, you must push your target back as far as your check result allows. You need not, and indeed can not, follow the target of these Bull Rushes.

You may roll one Bull Rush check per attack, and apply it to all victims of that attack, rather than rolling for each individual target.

If a creature is Bull Rushed into a solid surface by this ability, they and the surface both take 1d6 damage per 10ft of travel that was prevented by their impact.

### ***My Story Doesn't End Here***

**Prerequisite:** -

When you die, your soul retains its consciousness, sense of self, and memories, as well as a slim connection to life. You come out the other side, in whichever Outer Plane that your soul belongs in, with all of your statistics intact, at full health, wearing a semi-real version of all the equipment you died in. They function exactly as their real counterparts, though any planar being can see that they are not long for reality - the moment that you leave your current plane, or come into contact with your real equipment, somehow transported to the Outer Planes, they cease to be. The sole exception to your equipment's functionality is that any ability an item had to traverse the planes is disabled.

At your choice, you may accept death, casting off your equipment and the vestiges of life, and becoming a standard petitioner. Alternatively, you may fight your fate. If you can find a way of traveling back to the plane that you died on, then your soul cobbles together a new body from planar detritus, and instinctively appears in a dramatic fashion wherever your previous (now dead) body resides (or, if your body was destroyed, you appear wherever it is that you died) - completely and entirely alive. If you died on the plane that you were fated to go to as your afterlife, then you cannot use this Mythos to revive yourself.

If you are destroyed while remaining active in death via this Mythos, you become a part of the plane that you were destroyed on. Only a *Miracle* or*True Resurrection* can return you to life at that point.

The first time you try to pull this Mythos's shenanigans, like running back through the Pearly Gates of Mount Celestia, or stealing a skiff and rowing back up the River Styx out of Hell, there's typically an EL 10-15 encounter waiting to stop you. After a particular plane has caught on to your tomfoolery, they might spare enough additional guards for your incoming soul to boost this up to EL 20. But rarely is any particular plane willing to devote more valuable assets to put down a single rebellious soul. This can change if, for instance, you sold your soul to someone important. You do not gain any XP for such encounters; your reward is a return to life.

### ***The Perfected [Discipline] Lotus***

**Prerequisite:** 'The [Discipline]'s Stem Flourishes' Mythos corresponding to the same Martial Discipline, and the 'Perfect Violence Blossoms' manifestation of that same Mythos

This Mythos functions like [Discipline] Seed Awakening, save that it allows you to attain knowledge of a 7th level stance and maneuver from your chosen Discipline.

**Advanced**

*Blood-Dappled Petals:* You learn the remaining 7th level stances and maneuvers of your chosen Discipline.

*The Fruit of Knowledge:* To acquire this manifestation, you must already have Blood-Dappled Petals for your chosen Discipline, and an initiator level of at least 15 as far as your chosen Discipline is concerned. If this is your first 'The Perfected [Discipline] Lotus', choose one 8th level stance (if one exists) and maneuver from your chosen Discipline; you learn them. When you attain this manifestation for any subsequent Root of the [Discipline], you must study and reverse-engineer the maneuvers from a martial adept or natural embodiment, as noted in [Discipline] Seed Awakening.

*The Lotus Unfurls To The Heavens:* To acquire this manifestation, you must already have The Fruit of Knowledge for your chosen Discipline (and have learned your chosen maneuvers, if this is not your first 'The Perfected [Discipline] Lotus'). You learn the remaining 8th level stances and maneuvers of your chosen Discipline.

## Excellencies

### ***[Ability] Cross-Training Regimen***

**Prerequisite:** -

This Excellency may be purchased up to two times; once for Dexterity and once for Constitution.

Dexterity Cross-Training Regimen allows you to always apply your Strength modifier as a competence bonus to your Dexterity score, which cannot increase your Dexterity above your (base + racial) Strength score. Constitution Cross-Training Regimen has the same effect, for Constitution instead of Dexterity.

### ***Agency In Steel, Undimimished***

**Prerequisite:** -

A weapon is the way through which a warrior asserts his desires on a violent world. As a scion of its cruelty and victim of its barbarism, the choice to harm and be harmed is the Bellator's by right.

While you hold a weapon, all final damage calculations against it are halved before being applied. You gain a +5 bonus on rolls to resist being disarmed while at above half of your maximum health. While between half health and 0 hit points, this bonus increases to +10. While at 0 hit points or below, you cannot be disarmed so long as you remain conscious.

At 7th level, damage against your weapon is quartered, rather than halved. Effects, other than being disarmed, that would lead to your weapon leaving your hand against your will, such as it being teleported or shifted to another plane, automatically fail. The bonus to resist being disarmed increases to +10 while above half health, and you cannot be disarmed while at half health or less.

At 13th level, while you hold a weapon, it cannot be damaged and you cannot be disarmed of it.

### ***Form-and-Footwork Adaptation***

**Prerequisite:** -

Your strength and grace in combat inspires awe not unlike that of a masterful performer, and your practiced, fluid motions and forms are not altogether dissimilar from the steps of a dance. With a little practice, you can turn movements meant to efficiently and brutally take life into stylized flourishes that even those ignorant to the ways of a warrior's livelihood can appreciate.

You are considered to have a number of ranks in Perform (Weapon Drill) and Perform (Dance) equal to your Base Attack Bonus, or the number of ranks you possess, whichever is higher. While wielding a masterwork weapon, or if you have the Improved Unarmed Strike feat and wield no weapon, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus on these checks.

### ***Grizzled Veteran Paranoia***

**Prerequisite:** -

You may apply your Intelligence modifier in place of your Dexterity or Wisdom modifier for the purposes of calculating your Initiative, Listen, and Spot. And, while wearing light or no armor, you may substitute your Intelligence modifier for your Dexterity modifier for calculating your Armor Class.

If a Coup De Grace is aimed at you while you are asleep, you may convert it into a normal attack, during which you are not considered Helpless. You take a -10 penalty to your Armor Class for the attack, but instantly awaken and may stand from prone as an immediate action after the attack resolves.

### ***Impeccable Equipment Maintenance***

**Prerequisite:** 4 ranks in at least one skill

When using a Masterwork Tool that you've owned for at least a week to grant a circumstance bonus to a roll for a skill that you have at least 4 ranks in, you may roll twice and take the better result.

### ***Singular [Skill]-Innovating Prodigy***

**Prerequisite:** 1 rank in the chosen Skill

Choose one Bellator class skill in which you have at least one rank. As you begin delving deeper into further understanding of the skill, you realize that the perspective from which you were learning it is, in fact, highly sub-optimal. In fact, you can imagine a far superior way of looking at the skill, tailored to your own mind and the way in which you personally learn things, that would allow you to learn its ins and outs and idiosyncrasies faster and more efficiently than any other method that has been communicated to you.

But, first, you must break yourself of your old learning. You lose all the ranks currently invested in your chosen skill, except your first one, and all the skill points you used to purchase those ranks are refunded to you, and may be spent on your next level-up as normal.

Next, you gain 1 rank in your chosen skill per day, as long as you spend at least 10 minutes in that day practicing. In addition, each time you fail a skill check with the chosen skill, in a stressful situation (stressful enough that it would inhibit a normal person from taking 10 or 20 on the check, even if you have an ability that allows you to take 10 or 20 in a stressful situation anyway), you have a flash of insight and gain a rank in the chosen skill. This Excellency cannot increase your ranks in a skill beyond the cap determined by your level (but once you've reached your maximum for your level, when you gain a level, you begin acquiring free ranks yet again until you reach the new maximum).

This Excellency may be learned multiple times, once for each Bellator class skill.

### ***Step, Step, Cut***

**Prerequisite:** -

You gain Evasive Reflexes (ToB) as a bonus feat.

While you are Medium size or smaller, your Reach increases by 5ft.This does not stack with increases in Reach granted by feats.

This ability does not represent any sort of elongation of your limbs or weapon, but rather an aptitude for controlling the battlefield around you, maintaining situational awareness, and being able to take short, nimble steps, strike, and then return to your battle-ready posture with practiced precision.

### ***Unmatched In [Skill]***

**Prerequisite:** 10 ranks in the chosen Skill

Choose one Bellator class skill in which you have at least ten ranks. You suffer a glorious epiphany that launches you beyond the plateau of understanding that normal men must languish upon. Suddenly, all of your training makes sense on a deeper level than you ever thought possible. Limitations, you come to find, are only a matter of perception.

You gain a competence bonus on checks with your chosen skill equal to (10 + class level).