Cutting Blur

For many, combat is as much a spectacle as it is a contest. Victories are preserved not in the death toll of your enemies but in the hearts of those who remember you. This idea has inspired a school of combat dedicated to showmanship and awe in heart of battle, and has given rise to the swift and spectacular style known as the cutting blur.

### Converting Your Character

The cutting blur is a class template suitable for use with the gunslinger and swashbuckler classes. When converting a character to a cutting blur, the character loses or changes the following class features. This archetype is not incompatible with other archetypes which alter deeds so long as the same deeds are not altered or replaced.

#### Gunslinger

* The gunslinger loses the bonus feats gained at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th levels
* The gunslinger does not gain the Dead Shot, Pistol Whip, Gunslinger’s Dodge, Startling Shot, Targeting, Menacing Shot, Death Shot, and Stunning Shot deeds
* A gunslinger cutting blur’s initiation modifier is the same ability score used to determine their grit pool
* A gunslinger cutting blur’s maneuvers are taken from the Mangled Gear, Solar Wind, Tempest Gale, and Thrashing Dragon disciplines. She treats the associated skills of these disciplines as class skills.

#### Swashbuckler

* The swashbuckler loses the bonus feats gained at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th levels
* The swashbuckler does not gain the Opportune Parry and Riposte, Dodge, Precise Strike, Superior Feint, Targeted Strike, Dizzying Defense, Perfect Thrust, Deadly Stab, and Stunning Stab deeds
* A swashbuckler cutting blur’s initiation modifier is the same ability score used to determine their panache pool
* A swashbuckler cutting blur’s maneuvers are taken from the Fool's Errand, Leaden Hyena, Mithral Current, and Scarlet Throne disciplines. She treats the associated skills of these disciplines as class skills.

### Maneuvers

A cutting blur begins her career with knowledge of three martial maneuvers. If the cutting blur does not have these discipline’s associated skills as class skills, she gains them as class skills. The disciplines available to her are based on her base class.

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

The cutting blur learns additional maneuvers at higher levels, as indicated on Table: Archetype Maneuver Progression. The maximum level of maneuvers gained through cutting blur levels is limited by those listed in that table as well, although this restriction does not apply to maneuvers added to her maneuvers known through other methods, such as prestige classes or the Advanced Study feat. A cutting blur must meet a maneuver’s prerequisite to learn it.

Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even numbered initiator level thereafter (6th, 8th, 10th, and so on), the cutting blur can choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one she already knows. In effect, she loses the old maneuver in exchange for the new one. She can choose a new maneuver of any level she likes, as long as she observes the restriction on the highest-level maneuvers she knows; the cutting blur need not replace the old maneuver with a maneuver of the same level. She can swap only a single maneuver at any given level. A cutting blur’s initiation modifier is based on her base class, and each cutting blur level is counted as a full initiator level.

### Maneuvers Readied

A cutting blur can ready all three of his maneuvers known at 1st level, and as she advances in level and learns more maneuvers, she is able to ready more, but must still choose which maneuvers to ready. A cutting blur must always ready her maximum number of maneuvers readied. She readies her maneuvers by meditating or performing martial katas for ten minutes. The maneuvers she chooses remain readied until she decides to practice again and change them. The cutting blur does not need to sleep or rest for any long period of time in order to ready her maneuvers; any time she spends ten minutes study or meditation, she can change her readied maneuvers.

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

In order for the cutting blur to recover maneuvers, she must evaluate the situation, her opponents, and her capabilities as a full-round action. When she does, she recovers a number of expended maneuvers equal to his cutting blur initiation modifier (minimum 2) and regains all of her grit or panache points. Alternately, the cutting blur may take a brief moment to collect her thoughts to recover a single maneuver as a standard action.

### Stances Known

A cutting blur begins his career with knowledge of one stance from any discipline open to cutting blurs. At 4th, 7th, 11th, and 13th levels, he can select an additional stance to learn. The maximum level of stances gained through cutting blur levels is limited by those listed in Table: Archetype Maneuver Progression. Unlike maneuvers, stances are not expended and the cutting blur 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 cutting blur cannot learn a new stance at higher levels in place of one he already knows.

### **Deeds**

In addition to their normal deeds, a cutting blur gains the following deeds at the listed levels.

* *Heroic Recovery* (Ex): Starting at 1st level, a cutting blur may spend 1 grit or panache point as a swift action to recover a single expended maneuver
* *Flowing Technique* (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, a cutting blur may spend 1 grit or panache point as part of using a boost to enter a new stance as part of the same action.
* *Showman’s Flourish* (Ex): Starting a 3rd level, a cutting blur may spend 1 grit or panache point as a swift action to gain a competence bonus to their next Acrobatics, Climb, Perform, or Ride check or their next Bluff check to feint. This bonus is equal to the cutting blur’s initiator level.
* *Fantabulous Maneuver* (Ex): Starting at 7th level, as part of performing a maneuver that requires a skill check, you may spend 1 grit or panache point to add half your level as a competence bonus to that skill check.
* *Weapondance* (Ex): Starting at 7th level, as a fullround action, you can spend 1 grit or panache point to move up to your speed and perform a single standard action strike without provoking any attacks of opportunity from the target of your attack. You may make the attack at any point during the movement.
* *Battlefield Waltz* (Ex): Starting at 15th level, you may spend 1 grit point or panache point as a free action on your turn to take a single move action.
* *Assured Lethality* (Ex): Starting at 19th level, the cutting blur may spend 1 grit or panache point as part of making an attack to cause it to ignore all damage reduction, hardness, energy resistance, or immunities the target possesses against the attack.
* *Crippling Finish* (Ex): Starting at 19th level, when the cutting blur confirms a critical hit against a creature with a strike, the cutting blur may spend 1 grit or panache point to cause the creature to automatically fail any saving throws it would have to make against the strike or any boosts applied to the strike.