[PF] Quick Fighter Fix

[The Boz]

For those players that feel that Fighter is somewhat lacking in certain circumstances, here's a quick and simple fix that's easy to apply.
Note: I only listed changes here. The rest of the fighter functions exactly as it does right now.


The Fighter Fix


A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

- Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough For Love

Skill Ranks Per Level: 4 + Int modifier

Fighter Fix:
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Class Feature
1st|
+1|
+2|
+0|
+0|Bonus Feat, Career, Resilience
2nd|
+2|
+3|
+0|
+0|Bonus Feat, Improvise
3rd|
+3|
+3|
+1|
+1|Armor Training, Quick Study
4th|
+4|
+4|
+1|
+1|Bonus Feat, Armored Skin
5th|
+5|
+4|
+1|
+1|Weapon Training, Shake It Off
6th|
+6|
+5|
+2|
+2|Bonus Feat, Aggressive Charge
[/table]

The fighter's class skills are Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis). Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (engineering) (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).
(Heal has been added as a class skill)

Career: At level 1, a Fighter chooses one of the various possible careers that he pursued earlier in life. This choice can not be changed.
Burglar - Gains Disable Device and Stealth as class skills.
Diplomat - Gains Diplomacy and Knowledge (nobility) as class skills.
Entertainer - Gains Acrobatics and Perform as class skills.
Gambler - Gains Bluff and Sleight of Hand as class skills.
Historian - Gains Knowledge (history) and Knowledge (local) as class skills.
Mageling - Gains Knowledge (arcana) and Use Magic Device as class skills.
Mercenary - Gains Appraise and Sense Motive as class skills.
Scout - Gains Knowledge (nature) and Perception as class skills.
Spy - Gains Disguise and Escape Artist as class skills.
Preacher - Gains Knowledge (planes) and Knowledge (religion) as class skills.
Wanderer - Gains Knowledge (geography) and Linguistics as class skills.

Resilience: At level 1, a fighter chooses either Reflex or Will saving throws to gain the good save progression. This choice can not be changed.

Improvise: A fighter of 2nd level and higher can use broken equipment with minimal penalties. The penalties for a weapon that the fighter is proficient with are reduced to -1 for both attack and damage, and further critical hit limitation does not occur. The penalties for a broken shield or a suit of armor is reduced to -1 for AC, while increasing the armor penalty by 1. For repair checks of equipment he is proficient with, the fighter gains a bonus equal to half his level.

Quick Study: When checking to see if the fighter qualifies for a feat that has a BAB requirement, treat the fighter's BAB as 1 higher than it actually is. The effect of this ability, gained at level 3, increases by 1 at levels 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18.

Armored Skin: At 4th level, the fighter has learned to angle his armor in just the right way in order to absorb blows. He gains damage reduction 1 against all physical attacks when wearing light armor, 2 when wearing medium armor, and 3 when wearing heavy armor. Weapons that have an enchantment higher than the armor's enchantment will bypass this damage reduction. This damage reduction does not function in situations in which the fighter loses his armor or dexterity bonus to AC.

Shake It Off: After a fighter fails a saving throw against an ability which causes a condition, he can spend a move action on his following turn and try the saving throw again. He is only given this one additional chance. Conditions affected are Shaken, Fatigued, Dazzled, Sickened and Deafened.

Aggressive Charge: When a 6th level fighter charges a creature that is within his movement speed, he can instead perform an Aggressive Charge. The fighter gains no charge bonuses on this action, and he takes a -4 penalty to his AC until the start of his next turn, but he can perform a full attack against his target.


And there we have it. Skill points make him as smart as a barbarian, he learns a couple of new skills in a fluffy way, one of his saves gets a boost which replaces the bravery bonus, he gets a bit tiny bit tankier in combat, he can pounce without feat expenditure, and then gains a few really small but really neat perks, just so he can feel good about himself.
Any thoughts or comments? Please, I want some feedback on this.

[The Boz]

*reserved for questions, updates, etc.*

[Zelkon]

Well, it's tier 4 I guess...still on the low end. He needs about a thousand other things to be a functional character though...more skill points, all skills, all good saves, mobility (both in combat and out of combat), and more.

[Yitzi]

Well, it's tier 4 I guess...still on the low end. He needs about a thousand other things to be a functional character though...more skill points, all skills, all good saves, mobility (both in combat and out of combat), and more.

No, he doesn't need all that much; give him the saves and combat mobility, plus good touch AC, decent DR, and a limited ability to swap out feats on the fly (e.g. so he can change from a THFer to an archer in a round or two at most) on top of what's here, and he should be a T3.

[Yael]

I think you should remove Knowledge (dungeonneering), because the study of aberrations and dungeons wouldn't be teached at a fighter school.

However, adding the skill Knowledge (Tactics) (which would be History, but many DMs homebrew the knowledge as a class skill for fighters due to their LACK of useful skills) would fit better. It is supposed that a fighter had its studies before.

[The Boz]

Well, it's tier 4 I guess...still on the low end. He needs about a thousand other things to be a functional character though...more skill points, all skills, all good saves, mobility (both in combat and out of combat), and more.

Whoa, seriously!? Yeah, he is T5 by default, but I really don't think he needs to have EVERYTHING. All skills!? All good saves!? WTF!?
What I'm aiming for here is a high T4. T3 is most likely unattainable without spell like abilities or outright 1/3 spellcasting.


No, he doesn't need all that much; give him the saves and combat mobility, plus good touch AC, decent DR, and a limited ability to swap out feats on the fly (e.g. so he can change from a THFer to an archer in a round or two at most) on top of what's here, and he should be a T3.

Hmm... you might be on to something there with the floating feat thing.
Maybe some of his feats could be replaced with the Floating Feat thing that's actually two feats, but he can't use them at the same time, and it's a move action to switch them up? I don't know, I'll have to think about the ramifications.


I think you should remove Knowledge (dungeonneering), because the study of aberrations and dungeons wouldn't be teached at a fighter school.

However, adding the skill Knowledge (Tactics) (which would be History, but many DMs homebrew the knowledge as a class skill for fighters due to their LACK of useful skills) would fit better. It is supposed that a fighter had its studies before.

I disagree, of all the base classes, the rogues and fighters are easiest for me to imagine in a dungeon or cavern environment. And I don't feel comfortable homebrewing in homebrew skills. However, I do agree that a strategy and tactics type of skill should be in the game in some form.

The only thing I was considering for the skills was adding Heal as a class skill by default. Someone so completely used to dishing out and taking severe amounts of punishment really should know how to treat a wound.
If I did that, I'd axe the Surgeon and Hermit career options and replace them with
Woodsman - Gains Perception and Knowledge (nature) as class skills.

[Yakk]

Instead of a skill, why not just make it a class feature?

Something like:

Tactical Knowledge: Fighters gain a Tactical Knowledge level equal to their Fighter level plus their Intelligence bonus.

This Tactical Knowledge acts as a bonus to surprise checks and opportunity attack rolls. In addition, whenever the Fighter is surprised, roll 1d20: if it rolls under the Fighter's Tactical Knowledge level, the surprise is negated. (Fighters attempting to surprise Fighters apply a penalty equal to their own Tactical Knowedge to this roll).

[The Boz]

Instead of a skill, why not just make it a class feature?

Something like:

Tactical Knowledge: Fighters gain a Tactical Knowledge level equal to their Fighter level plus their Intelligence bonus.

This Tactical Knowledge acts as a bonus to surprise checks and opportunity attack rolls. In addition, whenever the Fighter is surprised, roll 1d20: if it rolls under the Fighter's Tactical Knowledge level, the surprise is negated. (Fighters attempting to surprise Fighters apply a penalty equal to their own Tactical Knowedge to this roll).

That would be forced, clunky, and not as optional as a class skill is. And wildly too different in a d20 system. And wouldn't cover strategy and tactics all that well either, it's basically uncanny dodge, but not really it either.
People that use tactics or strategy or warfare as a homebrew skill already probably apply it and houserule it to various classes. Designing homebrew content that depends on other homebrew content is not a good idea.

[The Boz]

Slightly tweaked the rework. Heal has been added as a class skill, one of the careers has been removed and one changed because of this. Armored Skin has been delayed by a level. Quick Study has been improved.

I'm looking for ideas for a few more career options, so that each skill appears in at least two choices, for the sake of flexibility. My current ideas are:
Sapper - Gains Disable Device and Use Magic Device as class skills.
Contortionist - Gains Acrobatics and Escape Artist as class skills.
Conniver - Gains Bluff and Disguise as class skills.
Arcanist - Gains Knowledge (arcana) and Knowledge (planes) as class skills.
Pickpocket - Gains Appraise and Sleight of Hand as class skills.

It's not easy coming up with combinations that are both fluffy and mechanically interesting, but not overpowered. I think that the Sapper might be a bit better than most other choices, for example. That's precisely why Diplomacy and Sense Motive don't appear together in a career choice named Negotiator or something like that.
New career ideas are welcome.

[GunbladeKnight]

I disagree, of all the base classes, the rogues and fighters are easiest for me to imagine in a dungeon or cavern environment. And I don't feel comfortable homebrewing in homebrew skills. However, I do agree that a strategy and tactics type of skill should be in the game in some form.

The way I see it, tactics are a part of 3 different skills: Knowledge (History) for historical battles and the general tactics used, Knowledge (Nobility) since nobles or those connected with nobles (knights, etc) tended to be the leader of armies, and Martial Lore which acts as a combination of Knowledge (Combat) and Martialcraft.

Is this meant to be an E6 class or will it go for the full 20?

[The Boz]

It should go for full 20, but I saw no need to make a 20 level table since I only changed the first six levels.
Then again, by some strange coincidence, this doubles as a really nice E6 class, what with the neat "capstone", ability to take BAB 8 feats, etc.
I do support some kind of skill overlap as a general idea, but I don't like to include that "houserule" in homebrews. I want my creations to be whole and easy to use and understand, and mounting houserule upon houserule is... inelegant.

[Kane0]

I want my creations to be whole and easy to use and understand, and mounting houserule upon houserule is... inelegant.

With a stance like that you are well on your way to being a successful homebrewer :smallsmile:

Looks solid, I like the Careers.
Have you already checked out some of the other fighter fixes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12909996&postcount=1) that are floating around for ideas?

[The Boz]

Sorry for not responding, had to finish up some stuff like college, get a job, etc.
I took all the feedback from this thread and two other places, and I crunched through it, and what came out was this:
Fighter Full Fix (https://www.dropbox.com/s/h2te591igbq35rj/Fighter%20FF.pdf)
Biggest new changes:
1. Versatility. It is by far the biggest change now. Floating feat goodness, yay!
2. Buffed Walk It Off (and renamed, as there is a feat named Shake It Off) with 10th and 15th level progression that includes more conditions.
3. Took all the DR advice, folded all that armor and weapons training into a single, flexible feature. Also retooled the capstone.
4. Fighter now starts with an exotic weapon proficiency. Yay!