Way of the Living Weapon (5e Subclass)

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Living Weapon

“	"I'm ready to fight at anytime, whereas you need armor and weapons to do the same thing. Sleep well in the bandit forest tonight Xyratalon."	”
—Axeen Illiford, Human Monk/Living Weapon, Prelude to the Immortals, Original Campaign Background

Living Weapon's are the embodiment of physical improvement. They forsake the use of manufactured weapons and armor, focusing on improving their own physical strength and defenses. They tend to be a warrior breed, ready and able to fight. Aware of their surroundings and always suspecting of a fight, many Living Weapons have had difficult lives and merely seek the strength to protect themselves, or even others being mistreated, often times through brute force. A Living Weapon looks to train themselves in this fashion due to the frequency at which they find themselves unable to defend themselves with weapons or armor, and leaving them feeling helpless in these instances.

Becoming a Living Weapon

A Living Weapon has some sort of fear, nervousness, or paranoia of being ambushed and train to be prepared to fight with only their bodies to defend them.

Entry Requirements

Base Attack Bonus:	+7.
Race:	Humanoid or Monstrous Humanoid.
Feats:	Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple or Stunning Fist, Combat Reflexes or Deflect Arrows, and Improved Disarm or Improved Trip.
Special:	Must have been ambushed(meaning battled in a surprise round where they were not able to attack) at least 5 times and been knocked unconscious at least 5 times.

Table: The Living Weapon

Hit Die: d10

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+0	+2	+2	+2	Martial Training
2nd	+1	+3	+3	+3	Craft Construct
3rd	+2	+3	+3	+3	Improved Flurry
4th	+3	+4	+4	+4
5th	+3	+4	+4	+4	Construct-Like Traits
6th	+4	+5	+5	+5	Fast Healing 3
7th	+5	+5	+5	+5
8th	+6/+1	+6	+6	+6	Fast Healing 4, Specialty Flurry
9th	+6/+1	+6	+6	+6
10th	+7/+2	+6	+6	+6	Fast Healing 5, Living Weapon
Class Skills (6 + Int modifier per level) The Living Weapons class skills(and key ability for each skill) are Balance(DEX), Climb(STR), Escape Artist(DEX), Hide(DEX), Jump(STR), Knowledge[Construct](INT), Listen(WIS), Move Silently(DEX), Search(INT), Sense Motive(WIS), Spot(WIS), Tumble(DEX).

Table: The Epic Living Weapon

Level	Special
11th
12th	Fast Healing 6
13th
14th	Fast Healing 7
15th	Bonus Feat
16th	Fast Healing 8
17th
18th	Fast Healing 9
19th
20th	Bonus Feat, Fast Healing 10

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Living Weapon.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A Living Weapon loses all weapon proficiencies, except unarmed strikes and natural weapons, and cannot wear armor or use shields.

Martial Training (Ex): A Living Weapon's levels stack with Monk levels for the purposes of Unarmed Damage, AC Bonus, Unarmored Speed, Stunning Fist, and Diamond Soul. The Living Weapon does not gain the benefits of Stunning Fist or Diamond Souls unless they already have them, but do gain the Unarmed Damage, AC Bonus, and Unarmored Speed if the Living Weapon does not already have them as a monk of the same level. Living Weapons are treated as Monks for the purposes of Stunning Fist. A Living Weapon also gains a +2 insight bonus to Initiative Checks. At level 11 a Living Weapon's insight bonus to Initiative Checks increase to +4.

Craft Construct: At level 2 a Living Weapon gains Craft Construct as a bonus feat even if she does not meet the requirements for it.

Improved Flurry (Ex): At level 3 a Living Weapon gains a Flurry of Blows attack when making a full attack action while wearing no armor. All attacks made until the start of your next turn are made at a -2 penalty. If the Living weapon has any Flurry of Blows attack from Monk levels this attack attack is an additional Flurry of Blows attack and uses the same penalty that they would normally take with Flurry of Blows from the monk levels. For example a level 8 Monk/level 4 Living Weapon would have a Base Attack Bonus of +9/+4 and make 2 Flurry of Blow attacks at her full base attack bonus of +9 with a -1 penalty. This leaves the Living Weapon making a total of 4 attacks at +8/+8/+8/+3.

Construct-Like Traits (Ex): At level 5 a Living Weapon gains most of the traits of a construct. The Living Weapon gains the following traits, but does not gain the Construct type.

~Low-Light Vision

~Darkvision out to 60 feet

~Immunity to all mind-affecting effects, poison, sleep effects, and necromancy effects

~Cannot heal damage on their own, but can be repaired through the use of the Craft Construct feat. A Living Weapon with the fast healing special quality still benefits from that quality.

~A Living Weapon does not eat, sleep, or breathe, but must rest for 8 hours before preparing spells and can still benefit from the effects of consumable spells and magic items such as heroes' feast and potions.

Fast Healing (Su): At level 6 a Living Weapon gains fast healing of one-half their Living Weapon levels(rounded down) as fast healing.

Specialty Flurry (Ex): At level 8 a Living Weapon gains an additional Flurry of Blows attack for a total of 2 extra Flurry of Blows attacks and the penalties for these attacks are reduced by 1(to a minimum of 0).

Living Weapon (Ex): At level 10 the Living Weapon becomes a living weapon gaining the Construct type with the Living Construct subtype and losing her previous type, but retaining its subtypes. A living weapon cannot gain the outsider type. The Living Weapon gains the following traits,

~The Living Weapon can be affected by spells that target living creatures as well as by those that target constructs. Damage dealt to a Living Weapon can be healed by a cure light wounds spell or a mend light damage spell, for example, and a Living Weapon is vulnerable to a harm spell. However, spells from the healing subschool provide only half effect to a Living Weapon.

~A Living Weapon responds slightly differently from other living creatures when reduced to 0 hit points. A Living Weapon with 0 hit points is disabled, just like a living creature. He can only take a single move action or standard action in each round, but strenuous activity does not risk further injury. When his hit points are less than 0 and greater than –10, a Living Weapon is inert. He is unconscious and helpless, and he cannot perform any actions. However, an inert Living Weapon does not lose additional hit points unless more damage is dealt to him, as with a living creature that is stable.

~A Living Weapon no longer gains penalties from aging(any penalties already accrued do not disappear) and no longer dies of old age.

The epic Living Weapon gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic Living Weapon feats) every 5 levels after level 10.

Epic Living Weapon Bonus Feat List: Armor Skin, Blinding Speed, Damage Reduction, Energy Resistance, Epic Prowess, Epic Speed, Epic Toughness, Exceptional Deflection, Fast Healing, Improved Combat Reflexes, Improved Ki Strike, Improved Spell Resistance, Improved Stunning Fist, Infinite Deflection, Keen Strike, Legendary Climber, Legendary Wrestler, Reflect Arrows, Righteous Strike, Self-Concealment, Shattering Strike, Vorpal Strike.

Ex-Living Weapon

If a Living Weapon ever loses the Construct type and/or the Living Construct subtype after gaining the Living Weapon class feature they lose the Living Weapon class feature and can never gain it through this class again, as well as any feats or abilities based on the type/subtype.

Campaign Information

Playing a Living Weapon

Combat: Defender or Skirmisher

Advancement: Living Weapon's often gain all levels in this prestige class and begin taking feats and abilities based on their new construct nature. Others take some of the bonuses and often continue progressing in normal monks levels. Fighters who become Living Weapons often use continue their martial training as they had before beginning this class as well.

Resources: Living Weapons belong to a variety of groups and organizations as any other character. Most remain members as they were before becoming a Living Weapon. Many may also choose to join mercenary groups as a fighter or a monastery as a monk.

Living Weapons in the World

“

"I git be'er things ta spen' money on t'an armor an' weapons. Likes ale an' woman."

”

A Living Weapon fits in much like a person of their original class or race except they often become the one who is expected to defend or fights others leading many to be bodyguards, mercenaries, or missionaries.

NPC Reactions: NPC's usually take note of Living Weapons as they become more construct like through self modification and often can't tell if they are looking at a warforged or a member of the Living Weapons original race. Sometimes they are feared, but normally are treated as a person would normally treat a construct or member of their humanoid race.

Living Weapon Lore

Characters with ranks in Knowledge(Construct) or Knowledge(Engineering) can research Living Weapons to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

DC	Result
10	Living Weapons spend their free time performing painful surgeries to slowly swap out their organic parts for synthetic parts.
15	Living Weapons usually keep their original internal organs and implant a mechanical system that keeps them sustained and from aging.
20	Living Weapons are both living creatures and constructs bringing them the best of what both have to offer, but this comes with the price of all the weakness of both as well.
25	Living Weapons maintain a soul unlike other living constructs which can be affected just as any other creature with a soul can. A powerful necromancer or sorcerer could possibly animate the body as a living construct under their control with no soul or even rip the original soul from the body to control it.

Living Weapons in the Game

Adaptation:

Sample Encounter:

EL whatever:

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