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Ninjadeadbeard
2013-06-04, 10:46 PM
Been sitting on this a while. A Fighter Fix I was gonna use for my group. Haven't gotten to test it yet though due to real-life. Until then, I figured I'd put it up and see what people think of it. If a feature feels similar to one posted before, it probably was, but it's been so long I forgot where the inspiration came from. Please let me know in that case so I can give credit.

And without further ado:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v253/Lhiannan_Shee/DwarfWarrior.jpg?t=1259940176

The Fighter
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special

1st|+1|+2|+2|+2|It is not the Gear +1, Multidisciplinarian, Giant Strength 1, Bonus Feat, Double Time!

2nd|+2|+3|+3|+3|Matter over Mind, Bonus Feat

3rd|+3|+3|+3|+3|It is not the Gear +2, Mind if I Cut in?

4th|+4|+4|+4|+4|Bonus Feat

5th|+5|+4|+4|+4|It is not the Gear +3, Giant Strength 2, Cutting Blow

6th|+6/+1|+5|+5|+5|Bonus Feat

7th|+7/+2|+5|+5|+5|It is not the Gear +4, Steady

8th|+8/+3|+6|+6|+6|Mettle, Bonus Feat

9th|+9/+4|+6|+6|+6|It is not the Gear +5, Giant Strength 3

10th|+10/+5|+7|+7|+7|Bonus Feat

11th|+11/+6/+1|+7|+7|+7|It is not the Gear +6, RALLY!

12th|+12/+7/+2|+8|+8|+8|Bonus Feat

13th|+13/+8/+3|+8|+8|+8|It is not the Gear +7, Giant Strength 4

14th|+14/+9/+4|+9|+9|+9|Bonus Feat

15th|+15/+10/+5|+9|+9|+9|It is not the Gear +8

16th|+16/+11/+6/+1|+10|+10|+10|Bonus Feat

17th|+17/+12/+7/+2|+10|+10|+10|It is not the Gear +9, Giant Strength 5

18th|+18/+13/+8/+3|+11|+11|+11|Bonus Feat

19th|+19/+14/+9/+4|+11|+11|+11|It is not the Gear +10

20th|+20/+15/+10/+5|+12|+12|+12|Lord of War, Bonus Feat

[/table]

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: 1d10
Starting Gold: Same as Fighter

Class Skills:
Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Listen (Wis), Spot (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Geography, History, Nobility, Architecture)(Int), Jump (Str), Ride (Dex), and Swim (Str).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The Fighter is proficient with all Simple and Martial Weapons, as well as a number of Exotic Weapons equal to the Fighter's Intelligence Modifier. She is proficient with all light, medium and heavy armor, as well as all shields, including tower shields.

It is Not the Gear: The Fighter is more than a suit of armor and a couple of measly weapons. The Fighter is a veteran of warfare, and a master of its associated tools. As indicated on the Fighter Table, the Fighter receives an enhancement bonus to their armor, if any, and a number of weapons equal to her Intelligence Modifier, one minimum. She may replace one weapon with another by spending an hour practicing with the new weapon. The enhancement bonus is untyped, and stacks with other enhancement bonuses. It is applied to Attack and Damage with the Fighter's Weapons, and the Armor Class bonus of her armor. Any armor the Fighter wears gains an equal bonus in Damage Reduction.

Multidisciplinarian: Skill is not the sole province of slinking thieves. The Fighter chooses four non-class skills. These become Class Skills for the Fighter, and she gains a permanent +3 untyped bonus to these four skills. If the Fighter selects skills that are class skills for another class the Fighter belongs to, the selected skill(s) gain the untyped bonus.

Giant Strength: What equals power? Power equals power, and the Fighter is a master of applying a particular sort of power. At 1st level and every fourth level thereafter, the Fighter is considered one size category larger whenever she is subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed check (such as during grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts). The Fighter is also considered to be larger when determining whether a creature’s special attacks based on size (such as improved grab or swallow whole) can affect her. The benefits of this ability do not stack with the effects of powers, abilities and spells that effect size category.

Bonus Feat: At 1st level, a fighter gets a bonus combat-oriented feat in addition to the feat that any 1st-level character gets and the bonus feat granted to a human character. The fighter gains an additional bonus feat at 2nd level and every two fighter levels thereafter (4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 18th, and 20th). These bonus feats must be drawn from the feats noted as fighter bonus feats. A fighter must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums.

These bonus feats are in addition to the feat that a character of any class gets from advancing levels. A fighter is not limited to the list of fighter bonus feats when choosing these feats.

Double Time: Strength is not the only thing going for the Fighter. She should also have the fleetness of foot to carry her to the battle. The Fighter may spend a Swift Action to gain another Move action. At level 10 the Fighter may use a Free Action to gain a Move Action, though she can only gain one such Move Action per turn using this ability.

Matter over Mind: Sometimes the mere knowledge that you are incontestable in raw might can have a powerful influence on one's mental status. The Fighter may replace her Will Saves with Concentration Checks.

Mind if I Cut in?: There is no greater love than this; to lay down one's life for one's friends. The Fighter may use Double Time as an Immediate Action. If she ends Double Time's Move Action occupying the same square as an ally, she may reposition them to any empty adjacent square. If her ally was the subject of an attack, she becomes its target instead.

At level 12, the Fighter realizes that laying down one's life is all well and good, but wholly overkill. If she ends her (Immediate or Free) Move Action gained from Double Time occupying the same square as an ally, she may reposition them to any empty adjacent square, as well as launch an immediate attack against any one enemy in range. If that enemy was in the process of attacking the Fighter's ally, she has now become the target of the attack and may make an opposed attack roll. If her attack is higher, and still beats the enemy's AC, she deals damage to him, and his attack is canceled. If her attack is the lesser, the enemy succeeds in attacking her, assuming his attack equaled or exceeded the Fighter's own AC.

Cutting Blow: The Fighter uses a combination of skill, luck, and utter ruthlessness to inflict maximum harm upon her foes. At 5th level she adds 1/2 of her full Base Attack Bonus to all damage she inflicts with a weapon.

At 8th level, her tactical awareness grows. She inflicts Sneak Attack damage while flanking an opponent as a Rogue equal to her Fighter level minus two.

At 15th level, the Fighter cannot be stopped. She ignores all Damage Reduction (save for Epic) and all Immunities while dealing damage to her target.

Steady: A Fighter will always hold the line, no mater the cost. She gains a bonus equal to 1/2 her full Base Attack Bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground). At level 14 she still receives the bonus while climbing or riding.

Mettle: You can resist magical attacks with greater effectiveness than other warriors. Beginning at 8th level, by drawing on your mental and martial discipline, you can shrug off effects that would hinder even the toughest warrior. If you succeed on a Fortitude or Will save (Concentration check) against an attack that would normally produce a lesser effect on a successful save (such as a spell with a saving throw entry of Will half or Fortitude partial), you instead negate the effect. You do not gain the benefit of mettle when you are unconscious or sleeping.

RALLY!: With a cry of "Rally!" the Fighter can turn a losing battle into a victory, or a floundering defense into a sudden, terrible charge. As an Immediate Action the Fighter may give a rallying warcry. All allies within 60 feet are granted a single Standard Action that they all take immediately. These resolve according to the current initiative count (the character after the Fighter will go, and then the next, and the next, with the character just ahead of the Fighter going last). Further, all affected characters are Immune to Enchantment, Fear and Mind-Effecting abilities for a number of rounds equal to the Fighter's Intelligence Modifier, minimum of two full rounds.

Lord of War: The Fighter has become War Incarnate, a being of blood, a craftsmen of carnage.

The Fighter projects a Fear Aura out to a number of feet equal to her Strength modifier multiplied by twenty. This aura can be switched on and off with a Free Action. This particular aura is considered an Extraordinary ability.

The Fighter's Hit Die are changed to D20, and she re-rolls her Hit Points. If she rolls a 9 or lower on any dice, she instead counts it as a 10.

eftexar
2013-06-05, 02:02 PM
I think this is still too close to the original fighter. Of course if you are going for a quick and dirty fix this works in a pinch I guess.

Something I came to a bit of a conclusion of is that a scaling ability still only counts as one unless its something particularly powerful (such as fasthealing). When I first write up a class I don't include scaling, because it biases me to thinking the class is more powerful than it really is.
When I'm done I always put a progression like "It is not the Gear" into it's own column. Once you do that it looks less impressive on the table. I would say you could even do the same with the feats, maybe cutting their number in half instead, and add some actual class features.

Ninjadeadbeard
2013-06-05, 04:10 PM
I think this is still too close to the original fighter. Of course if you are going for a quick and dirty fix this works in a pinch I guess.

Something I came to a bit of a conclusion of is that a scaling ability still only counts as one unless its something particularly powerful (such as fasthealing). When I first write up a class I don't include scaling, because it biases me to thinking the class is more powerful than it really is.
When I'm done I always put a progression like "It is not the Gear" into it's own column. Once you do that it looks less impressive on the table. I would say you could even do the same with the feats, maybe cutting their number in half instead, and add some actual class features.

I'm not sure I understand?

eftexar
2013-06-05, 05:38 PM
Hmm... Let my think of a way to rephrase it.

The main problem with the fighter, at least in my opinion, is that bonus feats are much weaker than class features. Fighter feats also tend to be weaker than many non-fighter feats found in books outside of the Player's Handbook.

Both Giant Strength and It is not Gear are scaling abilities so they each don't really count as more than one ability. I always write up classes without the scaling first so I don't get deluded into thinking there is more there than there really is.

Not only that, but most of the good abilities don't come to midway through the class and then we suddenly cut off to no new features when many other classes, especially spellcasters, sky rocket in power.

To sum that up it starts off with a bunch of mechanical bonuses, which scale, and otherwise only gives non-feat features at the earlier levels. And it still doesn't solve the utility problem the fighter has.

Personally, I have found a good point of balance, for non-spellcaster's, is to make sure there are between 14 and 20 abilities (depending on how many scale) in the special column, plus a list of 6 to 12 abilities, in a side column, where only one can be used at a time.
The first set are mostly passive or keystone abilities the role requires to function, while the others are a set of options to allow an increase in utility without increasing power too much.

Deaxsa
2013-06-06, 07:26 PM
about multidisciplinarian... what if i want to be extremely good at jumping? can i not get that bonus on jump because i'm supposed to know it already</hipster>?
make it so that i CAN choose 4 skills, which may or may not be on my class list, and which will, after now, always be on my class list, no matter who i am.

edit: giant strength should include everything that powerful build includes: in other words, grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts. there may be more. he exact words are:


Whenever a half-giant is subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed check (such as during grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts), the half-giant is treated as one size larger if doing so is advantageous to him.

edit2: or maybe not... could lead to some uberpowerful trippers...

Ninjadeadbeard
2013-06-07, 03:09 AM
The main problem with the fighter, at least in my opinion, is that bonus feats are much weaker than class features. Fighter feats also tend to be weaker than many non-fighter feats found in books outside of the Player's Handbook.

Well, I don't know how to fix that except by fixing Feats themselves, and that's a little outside the scope of this project.


Both Giant Strength and It is not Gear are scaling abilities so they each don't really count as more than one ability. I always write up classes without the scaling first so I don't get deluded into thinking there is more there than there really is.

Not only that, but most of the good abilities don't come to midway through the class and then we suddenly cut off to no new features when many other classes, especially spellcasters, sky rocket in power.

To sum that up it starts off with a bunch of mechanical bonuses, which scale, and otherwise only gives non-feat features at the earlier levels. And it still doesn't solve the utility problem the fighter has.

So: The scaling abilities are not multiple abilities, the features stop halfway to lvl20, and no utility boost. That is the gist of it.

1. I understand that the scaling abilities are not a list-maker in and of themselves. Giant Strength and Not the Gear are merely supposed to fill in a few gaps I tend to notice in the standard Fighter. Namely, the Fighter is supposed to fill the Big Guy role, usually, and he shouldn't have to pay gold to upgrade his equipment, when his equipment constitutes all his class features.

2. If I had my way, class features would stop at lvl 10 for everyone. But since I haven't gone ahead and remade the other classes yet, this will have to be the basis of the design. Also, who really goes 1-20 in anything other than Wizard, Druid or Cleric?

3. I added Multidisciplinarian, and I upped the skill points slightly. It's not much, I know.


Personally, I have found a good point of balance, for non-spellcaster's, is to make sure there are between 14 and 20 abilities (depending on how many scale) in the special column, plus a list of 6 to 12 abilities, in a side column, where only one can be used at a time.
The first set are mostly passive or keystone abilities the role requires to function, while the others are a set of options to allow an increase in utility without increasing power too much.

I...see where you're coming from...but then the Monk has a lot of class features...and they suck. I'd rather have a small handful of abilities that add flavor and usability to a class, a opposed to a laundry list of powers.


about multidisciplinarian... what if i want to be extremely good at jumping? can i not get that bonus on jump because i'm supposed to know it already</hipster>?
make it so that i CAN choose 4 skills, which may or may not be on my class list, and which will, after now, always be on my class list, no matter who i am.

Hey now, I was a grammar nazi before it was cool. :smalltongue:

It's meant to broaden the Fighter's skill base, so no. You cannot select a Fighter Class Skill. Although I should come up with what happens when someone multiclasses to Fighter and gets this ability. Hmmm....


edit: giant strength should include everything that powerful build includes: in other words, grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts. there may be more. he exact words are:

That... sounds perfect. Gimme a sec to copy-paste...

Gorgondantess
2013-06-07, 03:46 AM
This is, in my opinion, the opposite of what a Fighter fix should be like.
You have given the Fighter a lot of really high numbers. The damage output against living, groundbased enemies is going to be very high, and the Fighter is going to be very tanky against the same... Cool? The Fighter never had problems with that. Hell, a well optimized Warrior (or even Commoner!) can do that. I suppose you gave her good saves, too, which is helpful, but frankly a quick Martial Study takes care of that pretty much just as well.
Meanwhile, what is this fighter going to do against flying enemies? The answer is still going to be either A: Pull out a bow (something a Warrior can do), B: use a magic item for flight (something a Warrior can do), or C: beg the party caster to cast fly on her (something the Warrior can do- though perhaps not as well, as said Warrior may not have as high of a Diplomacy check.:smalltongue:) What does this Fighter do against a Forcecage? Irresistible Dance? Enervation? Orb spells? Ray of Dizziness? Miss Chance/Invisibility? I know most characters won't have answers to all of these things, but you really should have answers to at least some of them. These are, I think, the big problems with the Fighter as is. If it was not your intention to address them, then you're doing a fine job. As is, the will saves is a good start, but I think a Warblade is going to be a better choice any day.