PRESTIGE CLASS: This class is not available at character creation and must be unlocked by meeting special requirements, listed below.
Wild, exotic, and as dangerous as her whirling blades, the dervish epitomizes speed, quickness, and abandon. Her motions appear to be as random as they are graceful, but the steps of her lethal dance play out according to their own rhythm.
Nearly all dervishes belong to nomadic cultures. These nomads are not simple wanderers with no roots to call their own - they have their ancient traditions, and their societies simply do not consider permanent settlements an important part of their nature. They are gypsies, keeping their own traditions and forging their own familial and societal bonds while they move throughout the world. Often, these tribes adopt the attitudes and even some of the laws of the lands they live in - for the sake of expedience, if nothing else. The dervish treats fighting styles the same way. A dervish learns the dance of war as she grows up among her family and her tribe. She watches others as she travels, however, and brings new steps to the dance as she goes.
Fighters, rangers, and monks often take up the role of the dervish. Many paladins look at the wildness of the dance and assume it has some roots in chaos, but those who look past the seeming randomness can find things to learn. Barbarians seldom choose to learn the ways of the dance - the dervish depends on subtlety more than brute force. The way of the dervish has been known to appeal to some druids, bards, and even sorcerers - those who wish to learn a type of fighting that does not rely on heavy arms or armor find the class interesting.
Requirements:
Skills: Perform 3, Tumble 3
Feats: Combat Expertise, Dodge, Mobility, Weapon Focus (any slashing melee weapon)
BAB: +5
Class Features:
Hit Die: d10
Base Attack Bonus: High.
High Saves: Reflex, Will.
Weapon Proficiencies: None.
Armor Proficiencies: None.
Skill Points: 2 + Int modifier.
Class Skills: Bluff, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, Listen, Lore, Perform, Tumble.
Class Abilities
Level 1: AC Bonus (+1), Dervish Dance 1/day, Slashing Blades, Skill Focus (Tumble)
Level 2: Fast Movement +5'
Level 3: Spring Attack, Dervish Dance 2/day
Level 4: Dance of Death
Level 5: AC Bonus (+2), Fast Movement +10', Dervish Dance 3/day
Level 6: Improved Initiative
Level 7: Elaborate Parry, Dervish Dance 4/day
Level 8: Fast Movement +15'
Level 9: AC Bonus (+3), Tireless dance, Dervish Dance 5/day
Level 10: A Thousand Cuts
AC Bonus
At 1st level, a dervish gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC. This bonus improves to +2 at 5th level and +3 at 9th level.
A dervish gains this bonus to Armor Class as long as she is wearing no armor or light armor and not carrying a shield. This bonus to AC applies even against touch attacks or when the dervish is flat-footed. She loses this bonus when she is immobilized or helpless, when she wears any armor heavier than light, when she carries a shield, or when she carries a medium or heavy load.
Dervish Dance
A dervish can become a whirling dancer of death a certain number of times per day. If a dervish wields a slashing weapon while in a dervish dance, she gains a bonus on her attack and damage rolls. This bonus is +1 at 1st level, and it increases by an extra +1 at every odd-numbered level thereafter.
A dervish may only perform a dervish dance while wielding a slashing weapon (she may use a double weapon, or multiple weapons, only if both ends of the weapon or all weapons are of the slashing type). She cannot perform a dervish dance in any armor heavier than light or if she is using a shield.
A dervish dance lasts 1 round for every 2 ranks of Perform that the character has. At the end of a dervish dance, the character becomes fatigued for 1 minute (unless she is a 9th-level dervish, at which point this limitation no longer applies).
XTC Note: List the effects of fatigue here.
Slashing Blades
A dervish treats the scimitar as a light weapon (rather than a one-handed weapon) for all purposes, including fighting with two weapons. XTC NOTE: This may be a AB bonus when using a scimitar.
Fast Movement
At 2nd level and higher, a dervish gains an enhancement bonus to her speed. A dervish in any armor heavier than light or carrying a load greater than light loses this bonus.
Dance of Death
At 4th level, a dervish gains the benefit of the Cleave feat while performing a dervish dance, even if she does not meet the prerequisites for the feat.
Elaborate Parry
When she attains 7th level, a dervish gains an extra +4 bonus to Armor Class when she choose to fight defensively (Combat Expertise or Improved Combat Expertise is activated).
Tireless Dance
When a dervish reaches 9th level, the character no longer becomes fatigued at the end of a dervish dance.
A Thousand Cuts
When a dervish reaches 10th level, once per day she may double the number of melee attacks she makes while performing a full attack action.
The dervish also gains the benefit of the Great Cleave feat with slashing weapons while performing a thousand cuts, even if she does not meet the prerequisites.
NOTE: This ability will initially be applied as a damage bonus equal to the average damage deal by an attack. The average damage will be lower but the chance of dealing the damage will be slightly higher. Once the Champion update is published this will be changed to actually roll attacks and deal damage correctly. It looks like we might actually be able to add up to 5 attacks so I'll need to test this a bit with a high level character and see if I can get closer to the pnp version. All of these extra attacks are at full bab though so I'll need to balance that quite a bit.