[Pathfinder] Fighter House Rules

[Porkslope]

BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

As you can see, Combat Focus as a mechanic is drawn heavily from D&D 3.5's Expanded Psionics Handbook psionic focus ability. There are also abilities pulled from the Miniatures Handbook, Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords, and even Mike Mearls's Iron Heroes book.

As a mechanic, Combat Focus provides unlimited uses per day -- it never runs out. It's not per day or per encounter or even from a pool of points like the Monk or the Magus; you can only expend focus on one thing at a time, and there is no way to hold more than one focus at a time. My rules explicitly state that you cannot regain focus in the same round you expend it, which is intended to prevent abuse and space out the use of the abilities. Many focus powers also require swift or immediate actions, which not only gives fighters something to actually do with their swift or immediate actions, but is another layer of abuse prevention.

The conditions under which you regain focus took some effort to decide on, and I'm still not sure about the critical hit part, since it favours crit-focused builds; for example, a fighter with a keen scimitar will be able to regain focus more often than a fighter with a battleaxe. Delivering a killing blow to regain focus was an easy choice, but I also added the option of regaining focus as a full-round action to force fighters to think more strategically -- do you really want to give up your entire turn to regain focus, or do the benefits of having focus outweigh what you could do with that turn?

You might notice there are several passive focus powers, ones that provide a bonus as long as you retain focus. These are there to cater to people who want to play fighters but don't want to hassle with juggling another mechanic. This way, a player could pick up a bunch of passive powers to get some nice bonuses and forget the combat focus mechanic even exists (great for new players). With one exception, the bonus provided by these passive powers scales, with a blanket "equal to the number of focus powers you possess" statement so you can quickly and easily figure out what the bonus is and to keep the passive bonuses useful as the fighter gains levels.

The existence of active, passive, and reactive powers adds a layer of strategy for the fighter, since he or she will have to decide what is worth expending focus and what isn't. It also adds customization, since you could build a fighter as described in the previous paragraph with nothing but passive powers, making them a little bit better at things they can already do (Battle Cunning, Deft Opportunist, Fearsome Charge). You could also build a fighter with a focus on reactive powers, giving them plenty to do when it's not their turn (Defensive Riposte, Hindering Defense, Wall of Steel), or build a fighter with a wide array of special attacks (Assured Strike, Burst of Speed, Deadly Technique).

That the fighter gets their first focus power at level 4 is to prevent further front-loading of the class. In many discussions of the fighter in 3.X, the idea of the fighter as a class that's only good for a two-level dip was pretty common. That focus powers are gained at level 4 and every four levels after is to help space things out and prevent too much benefit from dipping.

I should also point out that one of the key design philosophies I always kept in my head while writing these is clarity. I tried to be clear and specific about when these focus powers can and can't be used. Simplicity was also important.

SO! What do the PF players here think? Too strong? Not strong enough? What would you change, if anything? Don't sugar-coat!