Realms of Chaos
2014-07-05, 11:56 AM
THE B.A.F.F.
Hit Die: d10
Starting Age: As rogue
Class Skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Handle Animal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (any one skill), Listen, Move Silently, Profession, Ride, Spot, Swim, Tumble
Skill Points Per Level: 4 + Int Modifier
Skill Points at 1st level: (4 + Int Modifier) x 4
Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
1
1
2
0
2
Battlefield Guardian, Fighter’s Grit (Wounds)
2
2
3
0
3
Destructive Genius
3
3
3
1
3
Tactical Stratagem (2)
4
4
4
1
4
Defensive Mastery I
5
5
4
1
4
Fighter’s Grit (Fear)
6
6
5
2
5
Trail of Destruction
7
7
5
2
5
Mind Games
8
8
6
2
6
Improved Battlefield Guardian
9
9
6
3
6
Fighter’s Grit (Affliction)
10
10
7
3
7
Improved Destructive Genius
11
11
7
3
7
Tactical Stratagem (4)
12
12
8
4
8
Defensive Mastery II
13
13
8
4
8
Fighter’s Grit (Mind)
14
14
9
4
9
Improved Trail of Destruction
15
15
9
5
9
Improved Mind Games
16
16
10
5
10
Stalwart Battlefield Guardian
17
17
10
5
10
Fighter’s Grit (Death)
18
18
11
6
11
Superior Destructive Genius
19
19
11
6
11
Tactical Stratagems (6)
20
20
12
6
12
Defensive Mastery III
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The fighter gains proficiency with all light and martial weapons, as well as with light, medium, and heavy armor and with shields (including tower shields)
Notes and Explanation:As normal, the fighter was given some more skill points per level as well as some more class skills, including some combat-tangent skills (such as bluff for feinting and escape artist for leaving grapples). Further, as being brave and battle-hardened has apparently become part of the fighter’s shtick, it now gets good will, making the party meat shield less of a liability against compulsions. Not too much to say so far. The big stuff is below.
Battlefield Guardian: You can keep an eye out on others across the battlefield, protecting allies that you look after while punishing enemies who leave themselves open while under your scrutiny. As a swift action, you can start watching over a single ally or scrutinizing a single opponent you possess a line of sight with. This effect lasts until you use it again or until you lose line of sight with the target for at least one full round or until you fall unconscious or are otherwise rendered helpless (whichever comes first). If warding an ally, that ally gains the benefits of cover while within 10 feet of yourself. If scrutinizing an enemy, that enemy treats all of your other allies as having cover while within 10 feet of yourself. You may never ward yourself.
Notes and Explanation:While I’m not the biggest fan of 4e for all of its changes, one thing that I do like about it is the “marking” system and how it gives a soft incentive for enemies to act as you anticipate. One of the complaints about marking, however, was that marking, in and of itself, is just a -2 penalty that an opponent could easily ignore. As such, this feature grants more substantive bonuses through cover, giving a +4 bonus to AC, a +2 bonus to reflex saves, are protected from attacks of opportunity, and letting your allies effectively “hide” in your more immediate presence. Between these benefits, you can shield squishy mages, let an archer fire without interruption, let rogues hide to make new sneak attacks, and help shield others against attacks like a dragon’s breath or an allied mage’s fireball. Cover is pretty amazing like that.
Further, I allowed this feature to work well whether you are protecting someone (like the squishy caster) from any opponent (which may be better in massive battles) or are protecting all of your allies from one specific opponent (which may work better in smaller battles). The 10 foot range, as opposed to “threatened area”, was used to a) let fighters protect allies with most weaponry without the enemy taking a 5-foot step and ignoring your protection and b) so that a ranged fighter (such as an archer hanging back with the party wizard) could still protect allies.
Fighter’s Grit: While barbarians shrug off wounds and casters attempt to preclude any harm, you suffer through every wound and persevere through the blinding pain. While others can try to knock you down, few forces on earth can keep you out of a fight. Whenever a hostile creature makes a successful attack against you or you fail a saving throw against the spell or ability of a hostile creature, you gain grit. You possess grit until you expend it as a swift action and further attacks or saving throws while you possess grit grant you no further benefit.
At 1st level, you may expend grit to heal hit points equal to your fighter level (up to a maximum of half of your maximum hit points). Alternately, you may ignore up to 4 points of ability damage to a single ability score until the end of the encounter (up to 5 minutes if not in an encounter). You may use this ability even if incapacitated or dead for up to 5 minutes, possibly returning you to life or functionality.
At 5th level, you may expend grit to make another Will save against any Fear effect you are suffering against the same DC. If you succeed, you instantly shrug off the fear effect. If you fail or the original effect allowed for no saving throw, the fear you feel is reduced by one degree, from cowering to panicked, from panicked to frightened, from frightened to shaken, or removing the shaken condition. This ability can even be used while panicking or cowering.
At 9th level, you may expend grit to cure yourself of the entangled, fatigued, sickened, or dazed condition. Alternately, you may reduce the immobilized condition to entangled, the exhausted condition to fatigued, the nauseated condition to sickened, or the stunned condition to dazed. Finally, you could use this ability to ignore up to 4 points of ability drain to a single ability score until the end of the encounter (up to 5 minutes if not in an encounter). You may use this ability even if you have been dazed, dead, incapacitated, or stunned for up to 5 minutes.
At 13th level, you may expend grit to make a new Will save against any single ongoing mind-affecting effect that is currently affecting you against the same DC. If you succeed, the effect is ended prematurely. If you fail or the original effect allowed for no saving throw, you have a 20% chance of ignoring that effect for 1 round. You may use this ability even if confused, under compulsion, or otherwise mentally incapacitated.
At 17th level, you may expend grit to make a new Fortitude save against a single death effect that has killed you within the past round against the same DC. If you succeed, you return to life in the precise condition you were in right before you were slain. If you fail or the original effect allowed for no saving throw, you have a 20% chance of returning to life at -1 hp, unconscious and stable with no loss of Constitution, levels, or spells. Alternately, you could use this ability to ignore up to 2 negative levels until the end of the encounter (up to 5 minutes if not in an encounter). You may use this ability even if you’ve been dead for up to 5 minutes, though not if your body has been entirely destroyed.
Notes and Explanation:Most grit or “raw toughness” mechanics that I’ve seen on fighters tend to either completely shrug things off or to effortlessly shed injury. While those are perfectly good mechanics and are certainly stronger than what I’ve put here, I wanted to go for a different feel. I wanted something a little more… visceral.
With this type of “grit” mechanic, the fighter actually does suffer all of his injuries and only gains a chance of recovery in many circumstances. This feature isn’t about getting hit by a finger of death and laughing it off. Instead, it’s about getting hit by finger of death, actually dying, and getting bac up a few seconds later like a friggin Terminator fueled by raw hatred and determination. That, to me, is what grit is all about.
On the topic of specific notes, there are three things worthy of notes. I am aware that the fear ability is both delayed and weakened compared to what a paladin has. This was done on purpose to make the paladin’s true fear immunity seem unique. Secondly, I am aware that daze removal is “OMGPOWERFUL” because so few things can do it. As it requires a swift action, however, I don’t think that it really mixes with the celerity line (because custom items of celerity are the sanest things since swords of true strike, obviously) and there isn’t much else that the ability would be broken with.
Finally, I just wanted to make it clear that a fighter CAN use grit multiple times against a single compulsion. Whatever the slippery mind class feature may lead you to believe, most stories where a parson breaks free from mind control have it happen at the last possible moment, not 6 seconds later. By letting the party give the fighter more chances to break free by damaging or debuffing it, I think that I modeled this pretty well.
Destructive Genius: While any warrior can pick up a sword or bow to fight, a fighter is a well-tuned machine of destruction, taking down obstructions and enemy fortifications with unmatched ease and efficiency. Starting at 2nd level, you may make a single attack at your full Base Attack Bonus as a full-round action against an object. If you hit with your attack and the target is either damaged by the attack or possesses hardness less than or equal to your class level, you may multiply the damage dealt by x 10. A magical item may make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 class level + Highest mental ability score modifier) to negate this extra damage (a natural 1 does not count as an automatic failure on this save) and Sunder attempts provoke attacks of opportunity as normal. Artifacts are never affected by this ability.
Notes and Explanation:I rather dislike dungeon crasher. It was an amazing advance for the fighter, mind you, and remains far better than most options, but half of the ability relies on an underused tactic (bull rushing) in specific circumstances while the other half involves breaking objects… the silly way. I personally prefer attacking objects to simply breaking them apart as most objects worth demolishing have DCs too high for you to ever reach, even with those huge bonuses. On the other hand, most objects worth breaking have HP too high to make destruction time-efficient, a not-so-subtle clue to the players not to smash pillars or dig through the floor right in the middle of combat.
This is my take on a demolition ability, letting fighters shoot arrows that take down entire siege towers, slice through doors with a single swing, or smashing open new doors in the nearest wall with the pounding of a hammer. With this ability in hand, I hand players something that video-game players have waited years for: completely destructible scenery. As always, note that any effects from having an object broken (such as breaking an archway someone is standing under) is left to DM discretion. Enjoy!
Tactical Stratagem: While raw power can break through most obstacles, there is always a place for strategy out on the battlefield. Starting at 3rd level, you and up to 6 other intelligent creatures can form a tactical stratagem with 8 hours of practice. You may possess up to 2 tactical stratagems at a time at 3rd level, up to 4 at 11th level, and up to 6 at 19th level. Making stratagems beyond this limit erases the benefit of older ones and not all stratagems need involve the same individuals
In a tactical stratagem, each other member effectively readies a single move or standard action and decides the order in which these actions would be taken. While specific destinations, distances, and targets need not be selected, the actions must otherwise be relatively specific such as “move next to the nearest enemy”, “retreat as far as possible by foot”, “attack with my greatsword”, or “cast shadow evocation to imitate magic missile”.
Beyond these actions, each stratagem holds a single specific benefit called a capstone, representing the abilities of the team to achieve great lengths and catch opponents off guard by acting in perfect synchrony. When forming your tactical stratagem, select one of the following options:
Attacks made as part of the stratagem treat foes as flat-footed.
Movement taken as part of the stratagem provokes no attacks of opportunity
Enemies threatened by an ally in the stratagem cannot cast defensively for 1 round.
All allies in the stratagem gain evasion (as a rogue) for 1 round.
All attacks made against allies in the stratagem gain a 20% miss chance for 1 round.
Magical effects (but not magic items) active on allies in the stratagem cannot be dispelled for 1 round.
Once per encounter, you may give the signal for allies to enact a specific tactical stratagem. This requires a move action at 3rd level, a swift action at 11th level, and an immediate action at 19th level. Any allies in the stratagem that can see and hear you may choose to immediately take their readied actions. Any ally that takes its action is staggered for 1 round but if all members of the stratagem are present and take their actions, all allies in the stratagem gain the benefits of the capstone starting immediately before they take their readied action. You never ready an action or benefit from a capstone within your own tactical stratagems. At least two allies must be incorporated in each tactical stratagem.
Notes and Explanation:It seems like a lot of people regard the fighter as some sort of military leader so it only seemed right to give the fighter some sort of tactical abilities. Further, I’m pretty proud of how I’ve pulled it off.
At its heart, this ability grants your entire party something like celerity 1/encounter, though they are restricted in what actions they can take and they gain benefits if everyone acts. I think that the formation of tactics, as well as the selection of which one to use at what point, adds a bit of depth. For example, consider the following:
On the one hand, you can ready an “anti-caster” strategy where the wizard casts dispel magic on the target, the cleric and rogue move up to flank it (stopping 5-foot steps), and the flanked target loses the ability to cast defensively for 1 round if everyone acts. If you think you can take out the enemy mage quickly, this might be a very nice move.
On the other hand, you may want to reserve your strategy for the encounter for your special “get-out-of-dodge” maneuver, where everyone approaches the cleric (provoking no AoOs if everyone acts) before she casts plane shift. If someone has been incapacitated by the time you need to run, however, you won’t get that capstone and using the strategy might become dangerous.
Defensive Mastery: Starting at 4th level, you gain the ability to master your available defenses, whether that means relying on raw mobility or sheer resilience to see you through.
If wearing light or no armor, you gain a +10 foot bonus to your speed for all modes of movement you possess, increasing by +10 feet at 12th and 20th levels. At any point, even during the action of another, you may immediately move a distance up to the size of your speed bonus, subtracting that distance from the size of the size bonus until the end of the encounter. If this movement is made in response to an attack or targeted effect or if it is made in response to an area effect and the movement would remove you from the area, the attack or effect has a 50% chance of failing or missing against you.
If wearing medium armor, you may ignore any speed penalty it imparts and gain a +10 foot bonus to your speed for all modes of movement you possess, increasing by +10 feet at 12th and 20th levels. Further, you gain Damage Reduction 5/-, increasing to Damage Reduction 10/- at 12th level and to Damage Reduction 15/- at 20th level.
If wearing heavy armor, you gain Damage Reduction 5/-, increasing to Damage Reduction 10/- at 12th level and to Damage Reduction 15/- at 20th level. At any point, even during the action of another, you may instantly negate all damage from a single source by reducing the value of this damage reduction by 5 until the end of the encounter.
Notes and Explanation:Aside from grit, I decided that the fighter deserved some other form of defensive ability. Making defensive abilities for a fighter is difficult, however, because most bonuses you could grant only fully make sense with certain levels of armor being assumed. To take the simple route, I decided to have this ability change depending on level of armor.
If your armor is light, you gain a bonus to speed that can help you maneuver around the battlefield as you attempt to tank or reach new foes. By “burning” some of this speed for the encounter, you can move around at any time, giving you a chance to avoid most attacks possibly making a life-saving dash if your battlefield guardian class feature is needed elsewhere (note that this movement is NOT an immediate action, though t acts as one). As this is only a 50% miss chance, you potentially gain twice as many uses of this defense as the absolute defense that heavy armor grants (see below).
If your armor is heavy, you gain a bit more of the mundane defense in the form of damage reduction. As damage reduction has gotten a bit of a bad reputation for some reason, I just wanted to say a few words. I for one think that DR 15 at level 20 is plenty (though certainly not a suitable capstone). Against the Tarrasque, the quintessential CR 20 bruiser, DR 15 effectively nullifies the horn attack and claw attacks, leaves the tail slap dealing an average of 4 damage, and leaves even the powerful bite dealing an average of 20 damage. Also note that an attack absorbed with this DR does give you grit. Despite all of this, however, I acknowledge that most damaging builds in DnD are less like the tarrasque or totemist with their many weaker attacks and are more about dealing massive damage all in one go, an approach that makes DR almost meaningless. To remedy this, you can “burn” some DR for the encounter to nullify all damage from a single source (even a magical source).
If your armor is medium, you gain the impressive damage reduction as well as enabling speed but lose the ability to burn either for the life-saving mobility or toughness.
Trail of Destruction: While there is a certain valor to be had in fighting a hundred goblins one at a time, you have learned how to plan your attacks to maximize the carnage you leave with each strike. Starting at 6th level, every attack you make gains the potential to harm more foes than just one. Whenever you make an attack against a creature or object that deals more than enough damage to slay or destroy it (or knock a creature with applicable regeneration unconscious), you may choose to continue a trail of destruction. In effect, you subtract the damage required to kill/destroy/knock out your first target from your total damage result, with extra damage from your destructive genius class feature being used first.
Afterwards, you make a new attack roll at the same attack bonus against a new target within 5 feet of the first target. The remaining damage you possess is dealt to the target in the form of bludgeoning damage, piercing damage, slashing damage, any form of energy damage the previous target was dealt, or any form of energy damage it would be reasonably capable of producing (DM discretion), as you choose. If you destroy an ice statue using a flaming greatsword, for example, the next target may take fire damage, cold damage, bludgeoning damage, piercing damage, or slashing damage. If this damage is sufficient to kill/destroy/knock out a new target (as above), the process may begin anew.
If a target is floating, flying, or is otherwise suspended in mid-air, it instantly falls 60 feet when slain/destroyed/knocked out and the next target can be one that it is immediately adjacent to or one that it passes within 5 feet of as it falls. If you are using your destructive genius class feature, each applicable subject may make a new Fortitude save as required and a single successful save or inapplicable target removes all remaining extra damage from that class feature. All other circumstantial damage bonuses (such as weapon specialization or sneak attack damage), however, remain even if future attacks in the chain lack those circumstances.
If a smaller piece of a larger target (like a hydra’s head or a section of a wall) can be attacked separately and possesses its own hp total, you may count its destruction as destroying or slaying a target for the purpose of this class feature, though you must declare your destructive intentions before making the attack roll. While a player is generally free to describe their own trail of destruction, the specific nature of one target never affects the next target beyond what is described above. While a slain torchbearer may be used to deal fire damage, for example, a destroyed ice sculpture coming from the river nyx has no chance of erasing memories and a slain swordsman with a vorpal weapon won’t behead the next target with a roll of a natural 20.
Any special qualities your weapon possesses beyond damage bonuses (such as the harmful nature of a vicious weapon or beheading ability of a vorpal weapon) no longer apply after the first attack when using this class feature. Further, attacks after the first have no chance of scoring a critical hit (though a natural 20 is still an automatic hit). You must possess a line of effect with all targets. Each round, you may make a number of attacks with this class feature up to twice your class level.
Notes and Explanation:This is definitely the most complicated ability, though it allows and encourages more absurd maneuvers in combat. Have you ever wanted to destroy a column to shatter the chain holding up a chandelier to send it crashing down on a flying creature’s head? Have you ever wanted to smash a catapult filled with burning ammo, causing it to burn down the neighboring catapult and singe a third one? Combining this feature with destructive genius, you can do this and perform all sorts of other crazy moves. If you’re not feeling particularly creative, you can even use your Warhammer to make a “fissure”, destroying adjacent 5-foot cubes of earth one by one until you reach and harm your target. Again, this ability is limited only by your creativity and the level of detail you can extract from the DM about your surroundings.
Mind Games: While you can always muster your own forces into a position of power, it is often easier to lure your opponent into making errors, getting under your enemy’s skin and forcing them to act as you desire. Starting at 7th level, you may begin Mind Games as a free action, subtly maneuvering yourself and giving enemies false insights over the course of one round. From the moment you begin mindgames, you may not use this class feature again for 1d4+1 rounds.
During this round, any number of allies that can see and hear you can aid in this misdirection, spending a swift action to make orders sound more convincing and legitimate. At the end of that one round, you may affect a number of HD in opponents up to half of your class level, +1/2 the HD of each ally to aid in the deception. Creatures with fewer HD are affected first, with closer creatures being affected first in the case of a tie.
Each affected creature, which must be able to see and hear (if not understand) you, must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 class level + highest mental ability score modifier) or be fooled in one of the six ways listed below. All creatures must be affected in the same way. Creatures of animal-level intelligence gain a +4 bonus to their Will save while mindless creatures are immune to this ability. Any creature that succeeds on this save is immune to further uses of this class feature from you for 24 hours.
Divide and Conquer: You force your opponents to scatter and fight on their own, generally reducing their tactics. Affected creatures try to move so that they are adjacent to no other ally if they are safely able to do so. Further, such creatures gain no benefit from flanking, cannot use the aid another action, and suffer a -10 penalty to listen and spot checks in regard to picking out orders for 1 round.
Ignore/Favor Target: You manage to shift the attention of creatures towards a number of allies up to your class level or away from up to half of your allies. If a creature’s attention is attracted to allies (including yourself), that creature does all that it can to safely take aggressive actions against such an ally instead of other targets for 1 round, though it acts normally if unable to do so. If attention is instead removed from allies, creatures do not take aggressive actions against an ignored ally for 1 round or until the ally takes an aggressive action of its own (whichever comes first)
Force Offensive: You press your opponents into launching back with all that they have. For one round, affected targets fight with everything at their disposal, refusing to use the withdraw, defensive fighting, or total defense actions. During this time, affected creatures freely use consumable or charged items if tactically relevant while affected casters use their strongest relevant spells.
Lure Them In/Chase Them Out: You can funnel creatures in the general direction you want them, luring them with false starts, fake weaknesses in the ranks, and deceptive “flanking attempts”. Each affected creature spends a single move action on its next action moving in the general direction of your choice as far as it can do so safely.
Mislead Forces: You give the targets a vague idea of what you and your allies are planning to do within the next minute. While this does not directly force any actions, affected creatures are free to “anticipate” your plans as they see fit. If your intentions seem incredibly unlikely (such as summoning a god), your opponents gain a +4 bonus to their save. If you and your allies to not make some progress towards the supposed goal within 5 rounds, all affected creatures realize they’ve been tricked.
Temporary Ceasefire: You give the targets the impression that you are giving yourselves up, that you have a trap prepared for them, or some other inkling that fighting is either wasteful or risky. As a result, the affected targets refrain from violent action for 1 round, though this effect is broken on all affected targets if an aggressive action is directed at any of them.
Notes and Explanation:Yup, a fighter class feature called Mind Games. Who would’ve suspected? Seriously, however, this ability is made to complement tactical stratagem, manipulating your enemies instead of your allies and getting into some Sun Tzu-level stuff right here.
To address the one complaint that comes up with these abilities, I do not consider this to be a mind-affecting ability. I really don’t see it as any more mind-affecting than the average feint attempt, seeing as this class feature basically is a feint attempt, albeit at a larger level. I think that having an actual Will save may throw off some people on this regard but that was done simply for the sake of balance. If I simply required a bluff check, the sheer number of buffs that could be added would break the ability wide open. Instead, what we have is an ability that takes a round to set up, that can’t be used all of the time, and that possesses both a Will save AND an HD limit. In return, this feature can manipulate large numbers of foes and requires only a free action to start.
As one last note, I am pretty proud that I’ve made a class feature that actually gets more powerful if you control a contingent (or army) of allies without becoming entirely broken. It eats their swift actions, sure, but most classes have no use for them anyways.
Improved Battlefield Guardian: Starting at 8th level, you know how to block harm intended for others. If an ally you ward through your Battlefield Guardian class feature would suffer damage while within 10 feet of yourself, you may elect to take up to half of that damage. If an enemy you scrutinize through your Battlefield Guardian class feature would deal damage to another ally while within 10 feet of yourself, you may elect to take up to half of that damage. In both cases, you may apply defenses like energy resistance and Damage Reduction to the damage taken in this way.
Further, you may ward and/or scrutinize up to two creatures at a time through your Battlefield Guardian class feature, changing which targets you have selected as a swift action. This ability may not be activated more than once for a single source of damage, even if a warded creature is damaged by a scrutinized creature.
Notes and Explanation:Aside from simply shielding others and not dying, one of the crucial elements of a good meat shield is the ability to take one for the team. Note that electing to take the damage requires no action on the part of the fighter. Another thing to see is that this ability was made to synchronize well with defensive mastery, which grants the mobility needed to stay near your targets and/or the Damage Reduction needed to harmlessly absorb some of what you shield. Finally, be aware that this ability doesn’t grant you grit as you were not the one hit and failed no save.
Improved Destructive Genius: Just as every barrier and object holds its own structural weaknesses, so too does every opponent. Starting at 10th level, when you use Destructive Genius, you may target a corporeal creature instead of an object. If you hit the target and it possess no more HD than your class level +5, it must make a Fortitude save (as a magic item) or suffer extra damage. Further, your Destructive Genius class feature now multiplies the result of your damage roll by x 30.
Notes and Explanation:The big reason that I didn’t really give much thought about fighter feats is because they seem to lose most relevance the moment you gain this ability. Combined with trail of destruction, every full-round attack you make ends up becoming a save or die for at least one target (a medium greatsword wielded with 10 Str would have an average of 210 damage to split up). Given the sheer scale of the damage available, the differences between two-weapon fighting or charging or archery seem pretty darn tiny (though I’ll admit that destructive genius undermines two-weapon fighting and charging, encouraging a single wild attack each round).
Now that you can kill one creature and have their skull immediately rammed through the chest cavity of a second creature by the force of the impact, the fighter can take out entire squads of mooks in only a round or two. With creatures now free to enter your trail of destruction and the damage available greatly increased, the possibilities with each attack have just grown far more broad.
Improved Trail of Destruction: With enough practice in combat, you can anticipate every small aspect of the battlefield, carrying out such complex and precise maneuvers in combat that some would think you’ve predicted the future. Starting at 14th level, you can do more than harm the creatures around you when using your Trail of Destruction class feature. Whenever you use your Trail of Destruction class feature to attack a hostile creature or medium or larger object, you may use one or more of the following options before you make your attack roll. Unless mentioned otherwise, none of these abilities stack with themselves. You may add a number of options to your attacks each round (in any combination) up to half of your class level.
Distant Devastation: If your attack succeeds and the target is destroyed/slain/knocked out, the next target can be as far away as 10 ft, the height of the target, or as far as the target falls downwards (whichever is highest), though a less distant target may be chosen as normal.
Explosive Ruination: If your attack succeeds, you harm more than just your target. All creatures and unattended objects within 5 feet of the target take 1d4 damage of the same type. If the target is slain by the attack, all squares within 5 feet are treated as difficult terrain for 1 round or for as long as the remains stay in place (whichever comes last). This ability can be chosen multiple times on a single attack, increasing either the damage by +1d4 or the radius by +5 feet each time. If this damage kills/destroys/knocks out a target, you do not gain further attacks through your Trail of Destruction. Likewise, this damage is not multiplied if using Destructive Genius.
Grant Opening: If the attack is successful and the target is slain/destroyed/knocked out, you open a short opening for a single ally. A single ally of your choice within 10 feet of the target may immediately take a 5-foot step. Further, that target can negate a single attack of opportunity it would provoke within the next round as an immediate action. This ability can be chosen multiple times on a single attack, selecting a new ally within range each time.
Haze of Battle: If the attack is successful, the nature of the attack hinders those nearby. You may select a single creature within 10 feet of the subject. If that creature fails a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 class level + Highest physical ability score modifier), it is blinded, deafened, exhausted, frightened, or nauseated for 1 round. If the target survives the attack and is a creature, it is likewise affected. This ability can be chosen multiple times on a single attack, either selecting a new target within range or adding an additional condition per target each time.
Ongoing Destruction: The attack you make doesn’t count towards your normal limit of attacks per round for your Trail of Destruction class feature. Further, if the target is hit and is slain/destroyed/knocked out, halve the amount of damage you subtract from your total.
Perfect Placement: The attack you make ignores any cover less than total cover. Further, any miss chances of 50% or lower, except from those from incorporeality, are ignored (you must still attack an invisible creature’s square to attack it).
Notes and Explanation:And because Trail of Destruction and Destructive Genius weren’t crazy enough, you can use your trails of destruction to wreak all sorts of new havoc. Between the complete crowd control your attacks grant and the tactical control you have over friends and foes alike, this fighter is free to act like a controller of sorts even as they protect their allies from harm.
Improved Mind Games: Starting at 15th level, you have grown more able to manipulate the creatures around you. This possesses two main effects: First of all, your HD capacity for Mind games is doubled (Class level + HD of each helping ally). At your option, you may choose to have half of the capacity used to deliver a second effect (or the same effect with different decisions made), with all HD of creatures affected beyond the first half being subjected to the second effect instead (no one creature is affected by both at the same time).
Secondly, Mind Game effects other than “Mislead Forces” now last for a longer duration. Each affected creature may make a new Saving Throw each round against such mind games to end their effect. Alternately, you may end mind games on any number of foes as a swift action and any foe who makes a saving throw against a new mind game is freed from the old one, even if the save is successful.
Notes and Explanation:Not much to say here. This ability simply allows you to gain broader, longer-lasting, and more “precise” control over your opponents, possibly letting you manipulate larger foes even minimal assistance.
Stalwart Battlefield Guardian: Starting at 16th level, you know how to respond to attacks upon your allies with retaliation. If an ally you ward through your Battlefield Guardian class feature would suffer damage, you may immediately make a single attack against the attacker if able. If an enemy you scrutinize through your Battlefield Guardian class feature would deal damage to another ally, you may immediately make a single attack against it if able. In either case, the attack is made at your full Base Attack Bonus and does not count as an attack of opportunity.
Further, you may ward and/or scrutinize up to four creatures at a time through your Battlefield Guardian class feature, changing which targets you have selected as a swift action. This ability may not be activated more than once for a single source of damage, even if a warded creature is damaged by a scrutinized creature.
Notes and Explanation:After defending allies and taking hits for them, the next logical progression for the fighter is what the 4e fighter gets at 1st level the ability to make counterattacks upon enemies who don’t act as you wish. Note that these are not attacks of opportunity, meaning that multiple such attacks can be made in a single round and that ranged weaponry can be used to deliver these attacks. Also, you finally possess the resources to protect a full 5-person team or your whole party on a 4-person team and an enemy.
Superior Destructive Genius: As you reach the peak of your power, you can have become a master at striking where foes are most vulnerable, effortlessly destroying lesser foes while threatening even dangerous foes. Starting at 18th level, you may use Destructive genius against creatures with any HD and gain the bonus damage against objects of any toughness. Creatures with HD and/or magical objects with hardness equal to or less than half of your class level, meanwhile, receive no saving throw against this ability. Finally, your Destructive Genius class feature now multiplies the result of your damage roll by x 50.
Notes and Explanation:This is the closest thing that the fighter currently has to a capstone, the feature that I’ve been trying in vain to outdo. While a natural 1 still isn’t an automatic failure for destructive genius, meaning that some creatures are just too strong to effect, this ability lets you try to fighter more powerful creatures while obliterating mooks without any worry that an errant natural 20 will break the chain. Finally, the damage output increases yet again, allowing you to take on more ambitious targets and create more insane trails of destruction.
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.