PDA

View Full Version : [3.5] Fighter Fix (PEACH)



Quellian-dyrae
2013-08-24, 01:46 PM
What this fix tries to do:

The main goal here is for a class that fulfills the role of the "tank", and is mechanically effective at doing so. This means two big things. One, it has to be able to absorb heavy punishment and dish out solid, reliable, though not necessarily exceptional damage in return - it should be able to win fights through attrition. Two, it has to be able to draw attacks upon it, rather than being ignored because it has high defenses.

To this end, the main focus of the fighter class is always having a defense. Tanks in general (not even just in D&D, from my experience) suffer from this odd issue where they are expected to focus on heavy defense, but then there are all these (let's face it, usually magical) abilities that ignore the standard defensive stats of the core combat rules. And the enemy is the one choosing what you get attacked with. So the aim here is not about being untouchable in melee - it's about being a tough (but not impossible) nut to crack pretty much regardless of what the enemy attacks with.

Attention is also paid to recovery I'm going for the Action Hero idea of a fighter here. The fighter isn't immune to everything. It'll get beaten to within an inch of its life, but keeps getting up and throwing itself back into the fray until it's the last one standing. The class can accomplish that to some degree on its own, but of course, a cleric or other dedicated healer helps a lot.

Reliability is the name of the game in terms of offense. Past the mid-levels, it should be very hard to outright prevent the fighter from attacking. You might hamper it, or even shut it down for a few rounds, but it's hard to prevent it from contributing without running it clean out of hit points.

Finally, the class is meant to be simple...for a certain value of the word. Look, you actually need a number of individual benefits just to get on even footing with other high-level threats in D&D, so to be fair, several of the class features have fairly detailed effects or offer multiple benefits. But there's not a lot of frills. Things like maneuvers or custom choices and such; bonus feats give enough customization. There's some tactical things to think about, but it's the age-old fighter archetype in that it's the sort of class you can give to a beginner and it'll be reasonably effective, and not have a lot of choices to make (basically, the DM may need to help keep track of things, but a beginner won't be bewildered with too many options to get a handle on).

What this fix does not try to do:

To be clear, I'm not going to pretend this is a mage-killer. It has a lot of abilities geared towards mitigating the advantages of magic, because it has to be able to tank against mages as well as against enemy fighters. It does definitely try to capture more of the spirit that a mage who gets in the sword reach of a competent fighter is in a bad place, and again, go back to that Action Hero ideal of the mundane warrior who grits its way through all the mage's spells and gets to the top of the tower bloody, battered, but still able to put a sword in the wizard's heart.

But it's not like there aren't ways for a well-built wizard to turn this class to Jello as a standard action. I'm mainly concerned with the obvious, easy ways for a caster to outright neuter a mundane combatant. Any others that it manages to catch are good, but I don't expect to get them all, and I'm explicitly not trying to make it simply ignore magic. Rather, a mage should need time, tactics, and ideally some help - because trying to take out an even-level fighter solo should be rather brutally expensive in terms of spells.

The class isn't meant to give a lot of options. It doesn't give you a lot of special actions, or really emphasize the combat maneuvers (though they get a nod from Martial Prowess, just enough to make them potentially worth using at higher levels rather than basically doomed to failure). It's not a universal combatant class; it's the big guy who hits people with a stick and doesn't know when to fall down (though I might come up with some ACFs or custom feats later). It's probably closer to Tier 4 than Tier 3, although it might manage to edge into the latter by virtue of half-decent skills and just being a very reliable contributor in battle (albeit, not a particularly versatile one). Bonus feats are about all the customization it gets, and most rounds its tactics will be "full attack", "total defend", or "strike", perhaps with a side of "am I ready to use Adrenaline Burn?" at the later levels.

Finally, the class doesn't really have anything that outright overcomes a challenge or complication. You'll pretty much always get a fair defense or check. You'll be able to take a heap of punishment and bounce back. You'll be able to use the stats you invest in. You won't go down fast or easily. But you don't get to just outright ignore half the descriptors in the book or circumvent ten different types of obstacle at once.

GAME RULE INFORMATION
Fighters have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Strength improves a fighter's physical combat ability. Constitution provides durability and defense. While none of the other stats are critical, they all have a tertiary value; Dexterity for more AC and AoOs and better Reflex saves, Intelligence to broaden its skills and master more weapons, and Wisdom for Will saves and to boost up the Spot checks that are important for Danger Sense, and Charisma to boost Intimidate for a better threatened area.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d10.
Starting Age: As fighter.
Starting Gold: As fighter.

Class Skills
The Phoenix Knight's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are...
Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering, History, Local, Nobility and Royalty) (Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Int), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), and Use Rope (Dex).

Skill Points at First Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

FIGHTER
LevelBase Attack BonusFort SaveRef SaveWill SaveSpecial

1st
+1
+2
+0
+0Bonus Feat, Weapons Master, Armor Master.

2nd
+2
+3
+0
+0Recuperation, Guardian.

3rd
+3
+3
+1
+1Bonus Feat.

4th
+4
+4
+1
+1Defiance.

5th
+5
+4
+1
+1Bonus Feat.

6th
+6
+5
+2
+2Danger Sense.

7th
+7
+5
+2
+2Bonus Feat.

8th
+8
+6
+2
+2Martial Prowess.

9th
+9
+6
+3
+3Bonus Feat.

10th
+10
+7
+3
+3Adrenaline Burn.

11th
+11
+7
+3
+3Bonus Feat.

12th
+12
+8
+4
+4Improved Martial Prowess.

13th
+13
+8
+4
+4Bonus Feat.

14th
+14
+9
+4
+4Denial.

15th
+15
+9
+5
+5Bonus Feat.

16th
+16
+10
+5
+5Greater Martial Prowess.

17th
+17
+10
+5
+5Bonus Feat.

18th
+18
+11
+6
+6Perfect Form.

19th
+19
+11
+6
+6Bonus Feat.

20th
+20
+12
+6
+6Resurgence.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Fighter.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: The Fighter is proficient with simple weapons and martial weapons, all armor, and shields.

Bonus Feats: Combat is your bread and butter. At every odd level, you gain a bonus feat, selected from the list of fighter bonus feats. For purposes of these bonus feats' prerequisites, you may substitute 10 + your fighter level for your ability scores.

Let's be honest, it wouldn't be a fighter without them.

Weapons Master (Ex): You are capable with any weapon you pick up. You may apply your Strength modifier, rather than your Dexterity modifier, on ranged attack rolls, and add your Strength modifier to ranged damage rolls, even if using a weapon where you normally couldn't (if you normally could, you do not do so multiple times). You also gain a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls per four class levels you attain.

You may spend two skill points to permanently extend the benefit of any feats that apply to a specific weapon to another weapon that qualifies for the feat's benefit, and that you are proficient with. For example, if you have Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization with longswords, you could spend six skill points to also gain their benefits with longbows, daggers, and greatswords. If you later gain Improved Critical, it would likewise apply to all four of those weapons. You may also extend the benefit to other weapons without spending skill points, but you have to practice with the weapon for one hour each day; any day that you don't practice, you lose the mastery until you do.

You cannot have more mastered weapons (not counting the one from the feat itself) than half your fighter level, rounded up.

This ability does a few things. First, it means high-level fighters can grab any old weapon and still have decent fighting stats, even if it's not their cool magic sword. Also that they don't need to rely on casters to Greater Magic Weapon their equipment so they can focus on special effects. It also means they can carry some backup weapons and be effective with them. But most importantly, it means they're actually decent at ranged weapons without specializing as an archer. It doesn't matter if enemies are flying as long as you actually have something to hit them with.

Armor Master (Ex): You are trained to maximize your protection and mobility in armor. While wearing armor, you may add half your Constitution modifier, rounded up, to your AC, up to a maximum equal to half the AC bonus you receive from your armor. This bonus does not stack with any other abilities that add an additional ability modifier to AC. Whenever you take damage (from any source), you may convert an amount of damage equal to half the AC bonus from your armor to nonlethal damage (this ignores any immunity to nonlethal damage you may possess). If the damage was already nonlethal, you ignore that much damage instead. Finally, you add your Constitution modifier to your Strength score for purposes of determining carrying capacity, and you suffer no armor check penalty, maximum Dexterity bonus, or speed reduction strictly from armor (however, your armor still adds to your encumbrance normally, which may still impose such penalties upon you).

When hit by an attack that has a multiplier applied (such as a Spirited Charge, Empowered Spell, Leap Attack, Ruby Nightmare Blade, or the like), the amount of damage converted is multiplied by the same amount. The multiplier from a critical hit is exempt.

For purposes of this ability, a shield counts as armor and your shield bonus counts as AC from armor (the AC bonus from Constitution does not).

You may also extend the benefits of weapon-specific feats to certain types of armor and shields by spending skill points, as if they were weapons. When doing so, any bonuses the feat would apply to attack rolls applies to the armor's Armor Bonus to AC instead (and thus to damage conversion). Any bonuses the feat would apply to damage rolls instead directly increases your damage conversion. The benefits stack if they apply to both a worn armor and a carried shield. Improved Critical is a special case; if you apply it to an armor or shield, any time you use that armor or shield to convert damage to nonlethal damage, half as much of the lethal damage that remains is ignored (so if you take 28 damage and convert 10 to nonlethal, you would also ignore 5, taking 13 lethal and 10 nonlethal damage).

A big part of the fighter's role is to stand in front and soak up damage. The first part of this feature mainly ensures that the fighter is at the top of the heap when it comes to AC. The second part is the key bit; a portion of all damage you take becomes nonlethal, which has two big effects. First, you're likely to actually survive standing in front soaking up damage (you're no harder to take down, but a good bit harder to actually kill). Second, you're easier to heal (since healing restores an equal amount of nonlethal damage), so damage taken by you is less draining on party resources than damage taken by other party members. Since this isn't DR, and applies against all sources of damage (and the AC bonus helps your Touch AC to boot), it also means your entire party role isn't invalidated against, oh, every type of damage other than physical.

Letting weapon feats boost armor and shields is for two reasons. First, those are generally the fighter's special feats anyway, and they're typically underpowered. +1 to hit isn't great, but for four skill points (if you're using a shield), that Weapon Focus now gives +1 to hit, +2 to AC, and two more points of damage conversion (and another point of damage resistance if you have Improved Critical), which is much more substantial. This also helps your defense scale a bit more with levels, and gives you access to some outright damage mitigation.

Recuperation (Ex): You can shrug off the pain of your various bumps and bruises and get quickly back into the fight. At second level, every round, you remove an amount of nonlethal damage equal to your Constitution modifier. In any round that you take no standard actions other than moving or total defending, you add twice your fighter level to the nonlethal damage removed.

Dovetailing with Armor Master, now nonlethal damage won't stick around as long. While it will likely only be of limited value in the heat of battle (fast healing is not, point for point, all that effective in the midst of combat), that twice your level boost makes defensive tactics like total defending, falling back, and the like actually reasonable to use, since you can get rid of a fairly solid amount of damage cheaply.

More importantly, there is intentionally no stipulation that you have to be able to perform actions to receive the boosted recuperation. This is the "action movie hero" ability to get beaten within an inch of their life, be staggering around uselessly while the villain monologues, and suddenly get back up for another pounding, and then do it all again. It means that even when you're KOed from nonlethal damage, or rendered useless by enemy spells, you're still getting something done, even if just refilling your hit points.

Guardian (Ex): A fighter's place is on the front lines, defending lesser troops and more vulnerable allies. At second level, you may make an additional number of attacks of opportunity per round equal to half your fighter level (this stacks with the bonus from Combat Reflexes if you take that feat).

Any opponent who you have attacked since the start of your last turn is considered threatened by you even if it leaves your reach. Enemies you threaten provoke an attack of opportunity from you if they attack or affect an ally other than you. If a foe you threaten is not within your reach, and does something that provokes an attack of opportunity, you may make attacks of opportunity with a ranged weapon, or you may move to place it in your reach as a non-action off turn (you may move up to twice your speed per round in this way).

For purposes of determining if enemy actions trigger attacks of opportunity, you threatened area is five feet larger per five points of your Intimidate check bonus, and you may spend a Swift action to designate a single opponent within 5' per two points of your Intimidate check bonus as threatened for one round. This doesn't increase your reach, so if you can't reach the target, you have to use some of your off-turn movement or make the AoO with a ranged weapon.

The DC for any checks made to avoid one of your attacks of opportunity (such as Tumble checks or Concentration checks) increases by your class level, though this does not stack with similar abilities. You retain your ability to make attacks of opportunity when total defending, and penalties to your attack rolls you intentionally take don't apply to your attacks of opportunity, up to a maximum of one point of penalty per point of BAB.

Finally, any time you hit with an attack of opportunity, the target must roll a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 BAB + Str modifier) or lose the provoking action (such as any remaining movement, or remaining attacks in a full attack). Even if it succeeds, if the provoking action targeted an ally, you may change its target to yourself if desired (if it is an area attack, you can choose to sustain the effect twice to spare the protected ally). Attacks of opportunity provoked by attacks targeted at you (such as due to the Robillar's Gambit feat) are exempt from this capability.

A rather lot of things here. The class is admittedly fairly front-loaded, but a lot of this stuff is important just to achieve mechanical competence in what the fighter is supposed to do. Armor Master and Recuperation mean you can tank damage, but that's useless if the enemies ignore you in favor of the wizard. This ability basically gives you enough AoOs to play defender, ensures they aren't trivial to avoid, and makes them actually hurt through action denial and, potentially, things like full-force Power Attack bonuses.

And of course, this ability lets you actually protect your allies when they aren't right next to you. Foes you engage are going to suffer for not responding to the threat you present, and as your Intimidate goes up, you can make sure that enemies near you are paying attention to you.

Note, however, that movement and ranged attacks made with this ability don't have any protection against provoking AoOs themselves.

Defiance (Ex): While you will never be able to alter the world on the same scale as a mage or priest, you can grit your way through whatever supernatural problems come up. Once per round, you may roll a Fortitude save to defy the effects of a spell, spell-like ability, or supernatural ability (for purposes of this ability, these are all referred to as spells; you're a fighter, you don't care about the distinctions of magical terminology). Whether the spell normally allows a save or not is irrelevant (calculate the DC as if it did; for Supernatural abilities, default to 10 + 1/2 user's HD + user's Charisma modifier). If you succeed, the effects vary based on the spell defied:

If you roll the save in response to being targeted or affected by the spell, a success allows you to ignore it utterly. If the spell affects an area, you may spend an attack of opportunity to exclude your reach from the affected area. However, if the save fails, you forego any normal saves called for.

If you roll the save in response to an ally within your reach being targeted or affected by the spell, you must spend an attack of opportunity. If your save succeeds, your ally is unaffected by the spell.

If you roll the save to defy a spell already active upon you, a success removes its effects from you.

If you roll the save to defy a spell that affects an area you are within and lasts for a duration, a success allows you to ignore any damage, conditions, or movement impediment it imposes for the first round of the spell's duration.

If you roll the save to defy a beneficial spell upon another character, you must do so in conjunction with an attack on that character. A successful attack and a successful save ends the spell.

If you roll the save to defy a spell that creates an effect, you must do so in conjunction with an attack on that effect. A successful attack and a successful save ends the spell. Effects not listed with an AC have an AC equal to their save DC. If you hit but fail the save, you will be subject to any results of touching or moving into the effect. Layered effects (such as a Prismatic spell) require a separate save against each layer.

If a spell is not subject to Dispel Magic, you may only make one attempt to defy it.

You are always allowed a save. Well, once per round, at least. Look, mages get to cheat all they want with spells that target your weakest save, or your touch AC, or that just work and look at them laugh. This fighter is the Action Hero. When weird stuff happens that he can't deal with, he grits his teeth and deals with it anyway. And, it's basically a save to negate, so it's also like having both Evasion and Mettle (but, again, only once a round, and in lieu of the normal save).

More than that, this gives the fighter the big edge in a battle of attrition. You're not immune to magic, but you get a save once per round to remove negative effects. You'll feel them, and you have to choose between fortifying a defense and recovering, but it makes a fighter a whole lot more expensive in terms of spells to truly disable, while still allowing mages to disrupt, distract, or delay them, possibly long enough to finish them off.

There's also an offensive option, letting you cut away enemy buffs, barriers, and such (works at range too; shoot the flying mage with an arrow, roll a save against its Fly spell, laugh). This contributes further to attrition. A mage caught in melee with a fighter is actually in really bad straights (attacks can remove its buffs, higher DC to cast defensively, and if the fighter attacks it, it threatens it outside of reach so it can use its non-action move to make the AoO even if the mage 5' steps back). Which is how it should be.

The one attempt for non-dispellable spells clause (which includes all Supernatural abilities) allows for some powerful spells to be able to actually keep a fighter down, which seems to fit with fiction, but they're fairly rare.

Danger Sense (Ex): Starting at sixth level, you start to develop a sixth sense for incoming threats. Any time an enemy attacks you or an ally you can see, you pinpoint the enemy for one round (it still receives any relevant miss chance from Concealment, but you are aware of its position and can target it with attacks), as long as you can make a Spot check against a DC of 10 + the opponent's Hide check bonus. This check is not modified by distance. This also means that you are aware of where attacks come from even if there are decoys or illusions about to confuse the issue, if the check succeeds.

This ensures that stealth tactics - whether from Greater Invisibility sporting mages or Hide in Plain Sight Shadowdancers or whatever - can't just invalidate you, at least without a level-appropriate check. Again, they still provide an advantage. You only pinpoint when they attack, so they're controlling the tempo of the battle, and they still get the miss chance, and you may fail some of the checks (especially if they've invested in Hide) but you're not sitting here useless letting hidden enemies rain invisible attacks down on your party. Still, you'd have a lot more trouble with a well-built rogue or even a beguiler than, say, a wizard who thought Greater Invisibility was all it needed to be sneaky.

Martial Prowess (Ex): A high-level fighter is effective with any weapon or tactic. Starting at eighth level, your minimum damage die for any weapon you wield (including unarmed strikes) becomes 1d6, you may always choose whether or not to deal lethal or nonlethal damage with any weapon, and you may ignore any penalties inherent to the weapon you are wielding (for example, you don't provoke an attack of opportunity for making an unarmed strike or attacking with a ranged weapon, you could use a whip to damage creatures regardless of armor bonus, reach weapons become inclusive, etc).

You also never provoke an attack of opportunity for attempting a combat maneuver, and suffer no negative results for failing such (such as an opponent reacting to affect you).

Additionally, as a standard action, you can make a Strike. A Strike is a single melee or ranged attack that deals bonus damage dice equal to your base weapon damage per four class levels (so an eighth level fighter with a long sword deals +2d8 damage with a Strike). If you possess the Spring Attack or Whirlwind Attack feats, you may use them in conjunction with a Strike. If you have the Cleave feat, and drop a foe with a Strike, your Cleave attack is also a Strike. If you are fighting with two weapons, add the base damage of both weapons together to determine your Strike's base damage and its bonus damage.

Your Strikes are also preternaturally accurate. If your Strike would have a miss chance for any reason, you may take a -1 penalty on your attack roll per 10% of the miss chance to ignore it. Any situation that would prevent you from targeting other than total cover counts as a 100% miss chance for this purpose (and even total cover can be overcome if your damage is sufficient to breach the cover).

At twelfth level, your weapon damage dice (including your minimum damage) and reach increases as if you were one size category larger and you get a +4 bonus when making or resisting combat maneuvers that are modified by size. At sixteenth level, you apply these benefits a second time.

You're eighth level, time to stop being so realistic, pretty much. This keeps you effective with any weapon, opening up more tactical options, and even makes those combat maneuvers worth using if you want to. As you level, you'll even be able to hold your own against the larger creatures that are so common in D&D.

The Strike gives you a nice reliable damage option. It doesn't have all the cool frills a ToB character gets, but this keeps you mobile when you need to be and, again, gives you a way around things that change the rules of the game under your feet. You should have a high enough attack bonus that it's better for you to eat a penalty than a flat miss chance. A Strike may beat a full attack against high-DR foes, and can make you dangerous even if, say, you're Grappled by something with a size bonus higher than your entire Grapple bonus, or whatever. This is also the archer's answer to Wind Wall. Finally, it raises the optimization ceiling a bit for higher-power games. Another size increase or two can make your base damage die - and, thus, your Strike damage bonus - rather devastating. It's not a Pouncing Leap Attacking Shock Trooping Whirling Frenzy Barbarian...but it's also not crying in the corner when compared to one.

Adrenaline Burn (Ex): In the heat of battle, you can push your body beyond all normal limits. Starting at tenth level, you may lower your maximum hit points to gain a bonus on any d20 roll you make. Each 5 points you reduce your hit points provides +1 on a single d20 roll, and also removes an amount of nonlethal damage equal to half your Constitution modifier. You must do this before the roll is made, except on a saving throw, where you can do this after seeing the result. You cannot apply a higher bonus to any given roll than your Constitution modifier. This has no effect on your current hit points unless they are above your new maximum, in which case they are reduced to it.

Maximum hit points lost from this ability recover at the rate of your Constitution modifier per minute of complete rest. As soon as you recover one maximum hit point in this way, you become Exhausted until they have all been recovered. You cannot use this ability while Fatigued or Exhausted.

Action Hero Ability 2: Revenge of the Beat Down. Where Recuperation let you get back up for a new beating, this is the one where you get back up after the third or fourth beating (that is, where the spillover damage is actually getting close to running you out of real hit points) and suddenly manhandle the enemy and win the fight. You don't want to use this too early, but when your cleric is out of Heals and your actual hit points are low, you can burn through your reserves to pull victory from defeat.

Denial (Ex): You take whatever comes, denying any inch to your foes. Starting at fourteenth level, you may use your Defiance ability twice per round, and any time an opponent loses an action to one of your attacks of opportunity, it also loses the rest of its turn. Also, you can make multiple attempts to Defy spells that can't be dispelled, so long as they can be removed by Greater Dispel Magic, Break Enchantment, Heal, or Greater Restoration. You also begin each combat encounter with temporary hit points equal to half your maximum hit points.

Keeps you upright in high-level combat. Now you're resisting, removing, or dispelling two spells a round (probably good since casters are likely to be slinging Quickens by now), and provoking one of your AoOs is an even worse idea. It's also a lot harder for even powerful magic to keep a fighter down for more than a few rounds. Basically just down to the ones that need Wish-level stuff. The hit point buff is huge, but let's face facts; damage scales faster than hit points and at this stage you probably need it.

Perfect Form (Ex): Your fighting form is perfect; there are no flukes of luck or minor flaws. Starting at eighteenth level, you no longer automatically fail checks on a roll of 1, and enemies no longer automatically succeed checks against you on a roll of 20. Further, if you threaten a critical hit, and your attack roll is high enough to beat the target's AC, the crit is automatically confirmed. Finally, the benefits you receive from weapon-specific feats are doubled.

It isn't all that much point for point, but the fact is at this level it's entirely possible to have a full RNG over your opponent, depending on builds. So why not take the random out of it? The weapon feat boost helps ensure that a fighter who invested heavily in those feats sees a greater reward at the top levels of play, and also provides a nice boost since the most recent ones you got were back at level 12.

Resurgence (Ex): You have deep reserves of strength beyond anything your foes can dream of. You no longer suffer any negative effects of being revived from the dead, and the material components required to revive you, while required, are not consumed.

Additionally, once per day as a full-round action that you may take even if you are suffering conditions or effects that deny you actions or compel your actions (other than death), you may return to full hit points (current and maximum), reduce your nonlethal damage to 0, and remove all negative conditions, spells, and effects.

The capstone. Now, even if you die, you're easy to bring back - even a cleric of less than half your level can pull it off without costing you any negative levels. Keep a thousand gold in diamonds in your pocket and you can tank pretty much anything without fear. Of course, with a once per day full-recovery, killing you in the first place isn't exactly easy. The full recovery also means no spell can keep the twentieth-level fighter out of commission for longer than a day.

Greenish
2013-08-24, 03:22 PM
Holy diptastiness, Batman! That first level, it has the level of dippability that compares to that of the cleric.

The non-lethal damage conversion seems rather small to begin with, and scales slowly.

Otherwise, the decision to actually give fighter a role is commendable, and the abilities look interesting. I'll look into it more, but I just wanted to shoot my first impressions.

Diovid
2013-08-24, 03:40 PM
At first glance it reminds me of my own Brute (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=299515) but then actually well thought-out. I'll go over it more closely later.

Quellian-dyrae
2013-08-24, 03:40 PM
Ah. Right. Dips.

My old foe...

Yeah, I'll need to figure out how do deal with that. Probably go with a basic "class features based on ability modifiers and armor bonus are capped at your class level if you have more levels in other classes than this class" rule. It's ugly, but it works.

I had initially been going to do full armor bonus to conversion, but that seemed too high. And there is a fair bit of scaling actually, at least through the mid-levels (it probably tops out around 12th-14th). Enhancement bonuses add to it, Focus feats add a little to it, Specialization feats add directly to it, and a shield adds to it (and the previous things applied to a shield, for that matter). Add in that it applies to each hit or damage multiplier, save crits, and it should add up pretty nicely. I think.