Add your rank in piercing blades to all attack and defense rolls made with weapons of this category.
Sneak Attack: Your attacks are capable of targeting your enemies’ weaknesses. Whenever you successfully hit a surprised target or one you are flanking increase the damage you inflict by your dexterity stat. Additionally, before you attack you can choose to target a vulnerable part of your target, taking a -2 penalty to attacks in exchange of ignoring 2 points of defense your target has. If you manage to reduce your target’s defense to 0 with this ability you can inflict a mild permanent wound on impact. At rank III you can use this ability twice per attack and at rank V you can use it three time
Quick Attack: You are able to attack even faster than before. Using with your weapon to attack now costs you a move action instead of a standard action.
Feint: Instead of attacking you can deceive your opponent with a feinted attack, leaving them vulnerable to future strikes. Feinting a target costs a move action and for it you must succeed in an attack roll against your target’s insight. If you succeed, they will not be able to defend themselves against the next attack made by you or an ally of your choice in the rest of the round. A feinted creature will recover from this effect once it is their turn.
Increase your critical threshold to 19-20.
Disarm: Whenever an enemy successfully parries your weapon you can choose to spend a move action to attempt to disarm them. For this you must succeed in an attack roll against your target’s parry, and if you do their weapon will immediately drop to the floor (picking up a dropped weapon costs a move action which provokes attacks of opportunity). You cannot disarm weapons larger than your own unless your target has a permanent injury on their main arm.
Reposition: Your quick footwork lets you gracefully enter and exit engagements. If you succeed in a check to parry an attack you can move 5 feet as a reaction without provoking attacks of opportunity, even if you move outside your enemy’s reach. At rank V you can move 10 feet with this ability.
Spring Attack: Your weapon’s reach increases by 5, allowing you to attack and make attacks of opportunity against enemies up to 10 feet away. You can also spend a move action to leap 30 feet in any direction avoiding all opportunity attacks. Nevertheless, creatures that have readied actions can use them to attack even if you jump to avoid them.
Greater feint: Whenever you succeed in feinting a foe you can make an additional attack against your target as a bonus action, for which you can add sneak attack damage and ignore up to 3 points of defense (4 at rank V). This ability can only be used once per round.
Increase your critical threshold to 18-20
Vital strike: Whenever you strike an enemy whose defense has been reduced to 0 with precise attack all damage you inflict will be multiplied by 2. If you can use sneak attack on your target you can automatically inflict a severe permanent injury on hit, and if your target is reduced to 0 HP they will die instantly.
Counterattack: Once per round when you successfully parry an attack you can do an attack with your weapon as a reaction. This ability can only be used up to five times per combat and it will not work against another counterattack or opportunity attack.
A base piercing blade weapon deals 1d6 piercing damage and has a reach of 5 feet. Attacks made with piercing blade weapons will use your dexterity instead of your strength stat for attack rolls and you can inflict permanent injuries against targets with natural armor even if they reduce the damage you inflict to 0. A base piercing blade weapon can be modified with the following traits to create all types of related weapons.