Harbinger

As a harbinger, you gain access to two martial traditions of your choice.

Maneuvers

You begin play with knowledge of 5 martial maneuvers chosen from the martial disciplines offered by your chosen traditions. Once you know a maneuver, you must ready it before you can use it (see Maneuvers Readied below).

You learn additional maneuvers at higher levels, as indicated on Table: The Harbinger. You must meet a maneuver’s prerequisites, if any, to learn it.

Upon reaching initiator level 4th, and at every even numbered initiator level thereafter (6th, 8th, 10th, and so on), you can choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one you already know. In effect, you lose the old maneuver in exchange for the new one. You can choose a new maneuver of any level you like, as long as you observe the restriction on the highest-level maneuvers you know; you need not replace the old maneuver with a maneuver of the same level. You can swap only a single maneuver at any given level.

Your initiator level is equal to your class level, and your initiation modifier for your harbinger maneuvers is Intelligence.

Maneuvers Readied

At 1st level, you can ready three of your five maneuvers known. The maneuvers you choose remain readied until you decide to change them by repeating this process. You need not Rest to ready maneuvers; any time you can meditate on your darker urges for ten minutes, you can change your readied maneuvers. You must always ready your maximum number of maneuvers readied.

You begin each encounter with all your readied maneuvers unexpended, regardless of how many times you might have already used them since you chose them. When you initiate a maneuver, you expend it for the current encounter, so each of your readied maneuvers can be used once per encounter, unless you recover it, as described below.

As you advance in level and learn more maneuvers, you are able to ready more but must still choose which maneuvers to ready.

Recovering Maneuvers

To recover your expended harbinger maneuvers, you must perform one of the two following actions.

When you tap into your sorcerous malice by activating your dark claim class feature (see below), you can recover maneuvers. You recover a single expended maneuver whenever you Claim a creature, and you recover a number of expended maneuvers equal to your harbinger initiation modifier (minimum 2) whenever a creature you have Claimed is reduced to 0 or fewer hit points.

Alternatively, you may concentrate on your inner negativity to recover a single readied maneuver of your choosing as a standard action.

Stances

You begin your career with knowledge of one stance from any discipline offered by your martial traditions. At 2nd, 5th, 9th, 11th, 15th, and 18th levels, you can select an additional stance to learn.

Unlike maneuvers, stances are not expended and you do not have to ready them. All the stances you know are available to you at all times, and you can change the stance you are currently maintaining as a swift action. A stance is an extraordinary ability unless otherwise stated in the stance or discipline description.

Unlike with maneuvers, you cannot learn a new stance at higher levels in place of one you already know.

Starting at 1st level, you gain the ability to reach out with your sorcerous malice, marking foes as your own. As a swift action, you may Claim an opponent that you can see (including with special senses such as blindsense or tremorsense) within close range (25 feet + 5 feet per 2 harbinger levels) for a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your class level (minimum 1 round). You can have a maximum number of creatures Claimed equal to your initiation modifier (minimum 1) and may not Claim a creature you have already Claimed until or unless the Claim expires.

Claimed creatures using the Withdraw action to leave a square you threaten provoke attacks of opportunity from you.

In addition, you automatically know the position of creatures you have Claimed. Any opponent you cannot see still has total concealment (50% miss chance) against you, and you still suffer the normal miss chance when attacking creatures that have concealment. You are still flat-footed against attacks from Claimed creatures you cannot see.

A harbinger is not an entirely physical being; the darkness within you supplements your body, impelling you to acts of stunning violence. Starting at 1st level, you gain an insight bonus on attack rolls equal to 1/2 your harbinger initiation modifier (minimum +1). At 10th level, you gain an insight bonus on damage rolls equal to your harbinger initiation modifier.

Like unwanted news, the harbinger travels swiftly. At 1st level, you gain a +10-foot competence bonus to your movement speeds. At 10th level, this bonus increases by +10 feet. Apply this bonus before modifying your movement speeds because of any load carried or armor worn.

Though all hrrbingers tap into violence and sorrow, they inevitably specialize in a method of combat that calls to them deep within themselves. At 2nd level, you select one discipline you have access to from your harbinger traditions to be your dark focus. You gain a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls when initiating strikes and counters from your dark focus discipline. The bonus to attack and damage rolls increases by +1 at 5th level and every four levels thereafter. In addition, you gain a +1 bonus to the save DCs of maneuvers from your dark focus discipline.

At 6th level, you gain either Advanced Study or Discipline Focus in your dark focus discipline as a bonus feat, even if you do not meet the prerequisites. In the case of Advanced Study, both maneuvers selected must be from your dark focus discipline.

At 10th level, you select a second discipline as your dark focus in addition to your original dark focus discipline. You do not gain an additional bonus feat, although the other bonuses from your dark focus class feature apply to the second discipline as well.

At 14th level, your dedication bears violent fruit. You may expend a readied maneuver to spontaneously initiate any maneuver you know from your dark focus disciplines that is one or more levels lower than the expended maneuver, regardless of whether or not you have the dark focus maneuver readied. The initiation action of the spontaneously initiated maneuver is unchanged.

At 20th level, you treat all maneuvers from your dark focus disciplines as being readied at the beginning of each encounter, in addition to your normal pool of readied maneuvers.

Like a ghost or a rumor, you move with supernatural acumen. Starting at 3rd level, you can move up to your speed as a swift action once per encounter. You can use this ability twice per encounter at 9th level, and three times per encounter at 15th level.

At 9th level and again at 15th level, you select one of the following abilities. Once made, your choice is permanent and cannot be changed.

• Dark Wings: You gain a fly speed equal to your base land speed with good maneuverability. This flight is supernatural in nature; though you may develop wings or another form of evident propulsion, you fly through supernatural acumen alone.
• Omenwalk: You gain the ability to teleport up to your speed as a move action. You does not need line of effect or line of sight to your destination, although you still provoke attacks of opportunity for leaving a threatened square when using this ability.
• Spider’s Boon: You gain a climb speed equal to your base land speed. In addition, you develop a sticky grip that aids you in battle, granting you a +4 racial bonus on grapple checks and to your CMD.
• Water Dweller: You gains a swim speed equal to your base land speed. In addition, you no longer need to breathe and become immune to inhaled poisons.

The scent of blood in the air and the gentle throb of fading life force impels you to further heights of violence. Starting at 4th level, you can initiate one of your readied strikes against an adjacent creature as an immediate action whenever you reduce an opponent to 0 or fewer hit points. You can only initiate strikes with an initiation action of one standard action with this ability. You can use this ability once per encounter at 4th level, twice per encounter at 10th level, and three times per encounter at 16th level.

You unnatural alacrity protects you from harm as you shy away from whirling blades and streaking spells alike. Starting at 5th level, you gain a +2 dodge bonus to her AC and Reflex saves during any round in which you have moved at least 10 feet (including by teleportation effects such as omenwalk).

Having become adept at concealing the malice within, you develop the ability to allay the suspicions of those who investigate you with magic. At 7th level, you can use magic aura as a spell-like ability at will, with a caster level equal to your harbinger level. You may only target items and objects you are attending, carrying, wearing, or wielding.

Those cornered by you and your allies feel the weight of your malice pressing down against them. Starting at 8th level, whenever you and one or more of your allies flank a creature, that creature suffers a –2 penalty on saving throws and skill checks.

Like misfortune, you do not seem to move so much as simply arrive. Starting at 11th level, you may move up to half your speed as an immediate action once per encounter.

Those claimed by a harbinger are filled with dreadful visions of their own demise. Starting at 12th level, creatures Claimed by you become shaken while the Claim persists.

Those claimed by a harbinger find her as hard to catch as rumor itself. Starting at 13th level, your movement no longer provoke attacks of opportunity from creatures you have Claimed.

You sweep through your enemies, spreading pain and woe wherever you step. Starting at 17th level, you may move up to your speed and initiate a single strike at any point in the movement as a full-round action.

Like a dark voice on the edge of hearing, you persecute your enemies. Starting at 18th level, you can initiate a strike whenever you would normally be able to make an attack of opportunity (you still expend the attack of opportunity). You can only initiate strikes with an initiation action of one standard action with this ability.

There is no resisting a harbinger’s malice. Starting at 19th level, maneuvers you initiate ignore all immunities possessed by their targets.