[d20a] The soldier base class (fighter replacement)

[Ashtagon]

The Soldier Base Class

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

1st|+1|+2|+0|+0|Martial prowess

2nd|+2|+3|+0|+0|Bonus feat

3rd|+3|+3|+1|+1|Soldier talent

4th|+4|+4|+1|+1|Bonus feat

5th|+5|+4|+1|+1|Soldier talent

6th|+6/+1|+5|+2|+2|Bonus feat

7th|+7/+2|+5|+2|+2|Soldier talent

8th|+8/+3|+6|+2|+2|Bonus feat

9th|+9/+4|+6|+3|+3|Soldier talent

10th|+10/+5|+7|+3|+3|Bonus feat

11th|+11/+6/+1|+7|+3|+3|Soldier talent

12th|+12/+7/+2|+8|+4|+4|Bonus feat

13th|+13/+8/+3|+8|+4|+4|Soldier talent

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

15th|+15/+10/+5|+9|+5|+5|Soldier talent

16th|+16/+11/+6/+1|+10|+5|+5|Bonus feat

17th|+17/+12/+7/+2|+10|+5|+5|Soldier talent

18th|+18/+13/+8/+3|+11|+6|+6|Bonus feat

19th|+19/+14/+9/+4|+11|+6|+6|Soldier talent

20th|+20/+15/+10/+5|+12|+6|+6|Bonus feat

[/table]
Alignment: Any
Hit Die: 1d10

Class Skills

The soldier's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Craft (weapon-smith) (Int), Craft (armour-smith) (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (architecture & engineering) (Int), Knowledge (nobility & royalty) (Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (oratory) (Cha), Profession (siege engineer) (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spot (Wis), and Swim (Str).

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

Class Features

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: A soldier is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light, medium, and heavy armour, and shields (but not tower shields).

Bonus Feat: These bonus feats must be chosen from among those feats designated as fighter bonus feats. The character must meet their prerequisites as normal.

Soldier Talent: At every odd-numbered level starting at 3rd, the soldier can select one soldier talent, from the following list.

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Armiger I (Ex): You gain a +1 competence bonus to AC when wearing medium or heavy armour. This same competence bonus is also applied to reducing the armour skill check penalty and the maximum Dexterity bonus of the armour.

Armiger II (Ex): You gain a +2 competence bonus to AC when wearing heavy armour. This same competence bonus is also applied to reducing the armour skill check penalty and the maximum Dexterity bonus of the armour. Requires armiger I.

Armiger III (Ex): You gain a +3 competence bonus to AC when wearing heavy armour, +2 when wearing medium armour, or +1 when wearing light armour. This same competence bonus is also applied to reducing the armour skill check penalty and the maximum Dexterity bonus of the armour. Requires armiger I and armiger II.

None Shall Pass (Ex): Add half your class level (round down, minimum +1) to the Tumble DC for enemies who try to Tumble past you without provoking an attack of opportunity.

None Shall Leave (Ex): You gain a +2 bonus on attack rolls when you make an attack of opportunity.

Quo Vadis (Ex): Any time you hit an enemy with an attack of opportunity, he must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your soldier level + your Charisma modifier), or lose the remainder of his movement. Requires none shall pass or none shall leave. In order to be affected, the target must have an Intelligence of 3+ and be able to hear (but not necessarily understand) you.

Strike Hard (Ex): The damage multiplier on critical hits is increased by +1. Requires soldier level 5th.

Strike Harder (Ex): The damage multiplier on critical hits is increased by +2. This bonus replaces that from the strike hard class feature. Requires strike hard, soldier level 11th.

Squad Leader (Ex): As a swift action, you can grant a +2 competence bonus to any ally within 30 feet who can hear and understand you. This bonus can be applied to a single melee attack roll, melee damage roll, or skill check. Requires soldier level 7th.

Commander (Ex): Add +1 to your Leadership score. Requires soldier level 7th and Leadership feat. This can be taken multiple times.

Inspire Courage (Ex): As a standard action, a soldier with 3 or more ranks in Perform (oratory) skill can use a rousing speech to inspire courage in his allies (including himself), bolstering them against fear and improving their combat abilities. To be affected, an ally must be able to hear and understand the soldier speak. The effect lasts for as long as the ally hears the soldier speak and for five rounds thereafter. An affected ally receives a +1 morale bonus on saving throws against charm and fear effects, and a +1 morale bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls. At 8th level, and every six soldier levels thereafter, this bonus increases by 1 (+2 at 8th, +3 at 14th, and +4 at 20th). Inspire courage is a mind-affecting ability.

Weapon Training (Ex): Choose a single class of melee weapons (eg. Swords, maces, or axes). You gain a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls with this class of weapon. This can be taken multiple times. Each time it is taken, either choose an additional class of weapons, or add an additional +1 bonus to a previously chosen class of weapons.

Martial Prowess (Ex): A soldier has a martial prowess point pool to spend on powering his soldier abilities. He has a number of uses per day equal to 3 + 1 per 3 class levels. These martial prowess ability is replenished by a full night's rest. Only one martial prowess point can be spent in a single round. Using martial prowess is a swift action unless otherwise noted below. A single point can be spent to perform any of the following actions:

Although there are ten different martial prowess abilities, a character does not gain access to all of them immediately. At 1st level, you can choose three different martial prowess abilities that are known to you. You gain one additional known ability at each level, until you know all ten at 8th level.

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• Second Chance:Allow a single re-roll of a failed saving throw, one round after the initial roll was failed. This can’t be used to negate hit point or ability score damage, but could be used to throw off the effects of a charm spell, a hold person, or even a flesh to stone effect. It could also be used to avoid the secondary damage from poison.
• Striker: As an immediate action (ie. even when it is not his turn), allow the fighter to make a single attack at his full base attack bonus. This does not affect his ability to make an attack of opportunity. It counts as an attack of opportunity for purposes of the quo vadis soldier talent.
• Guardian:As an immediate action when an adjacent ally is attacked, allow the soldier to instantly take the place of that ally, and take that attack in place of the ally. The ally moves to a space of the soldier’s choice that is within 5 feet of his original location (including the fighter's original location, if desired). The attack is then resolved against the soldier as normal.
• Rally: As a standard action, remove any or all of the following status effects from himself and a number of allies within 30 feet equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier: cowering, dazed, fascinated, frightened, fatigued, panicked, shaken. The soldier can perform this action even if affected by one of these conditions. Allies must be able to hear the soldier speak and must understand his words in order to benefit from this ability.

• Muscle: Gain a +2 insight bonus on attack and damage rolls to sunder, as well as Strength-related skill checks. This bonus lasts for 3 + his Strength modifier rounds, and increases by +2 points for every full three soldier levels (+4 at 3rd level, +6 at 6th level, +8 at 9th level, etc).
• Reach: Allow the soldier to extend his reach by 5 feet for a number of rounds equal to 3 + his Dexterity bonus (minimum one round).
• Toughness: Give the soldier DR 1/- for a number of rounds equal to 3 + his Constitution modifier (minimum one round). This DR increases by +1 point for every full three soldier levels (DR 2/- at 3rd level, 3/- at 6th level, 4/- at 9th level, etc).
• Power: Gain a +1 insight bonus on attack and damage rolls. This bonus lasts for 3 + his Intelligence modifier rounds, and increases by +1 point for every full three soldier levels (+2 at 3rd level, +3 at 6th level, +4 at 9th level, etc).
• Shield: Allow the soldier to grant his shield bonus (along with any enhancement bonus his shield may have) to all adjacent allies, for a number of rounds equal to 3 + his Wisdom bonus (minimum one round).
• Stalwart: Grant the soldier an all allies who can hear and understand him within 30 feet a +1 morale bonus on Will saves. This bonus lasts for 3 + his Charisma modifier rounds, and increases by +1 point for every full three soldier levels (+2 at 3rd level, +3 at 6th level, +4 at 9th level, etc).

[Ashtagon]

Design Notes:

Obviously, this is my take on the current spate of fighter fixes. This class is intended to be a heavy armour melee specialist. The class includes some features to make sword+board fighting more worthwhile, but that style is not required to take advantage of all the class's features.

Skills: the skill list has been expanded to something that makes the class component in military matters, along with an increased number of skill points.

Soldier Talents: This are intended to be small static bonuses that fill in some of the gaps in the class, allow higher-level soldiers to be commanders, or just generally make the soldier stickier.

Martial Prowess: The intention with this feature is to simultaneously raise the fighter a tier or two, and to give him meaningful decisions to be made during a fight.

[Mulletmanalive]

I'd be inclined to split the Prowess abilities over various levels.

One of the most annoying things about the bard is that without spending a feat, you start with two useful abilities and one situationally very handy ability and have to make the decision which to use that day... this is just a million times worse than that.

I'd suggest at most 4 uses at first level and then two more every two or three thereafter. I'd also suggest granting level + stat on them, if that wouldn't be a dipping risk, simply because once per day features are just disappointingly pap most of the time [i know most of your abilities are pretty good, but in a 4 encounter workday...]

[Eldan]

Squad leader needs some specification on what the competence bonus can be used on. I'd suggest "attack rolls, damage rolls, skill checks and saves". Otherwise, it could just as well be "to caster level", "to spell DC" or just about anything else you can have a bonus on, no matter how ridiculous.

[Ashtagon]

I'd be inclined to split the Prowess abilities over various levels.

One of the most annoying things about the bard is that without spending a feat, you start with two useful abilities and one situationally very handy ability and have to make the decision which to use that day... this is just a million times worse than that.

I'd suggest at most 4 uses at first level and then two more every two or three thereafter. I'd also suggest granting level + stat on them, if that wouldn't be a dipping risk, simply because once per day features are just disappointingly pap most of the time [i know most of your abilities are pretty good, but in a 4 encounter workday...]

About the prowess...

It's a little clumsily worded, but in essence, you get a number of uses per day equal to your class level. 1/day at 1st level, 20/day at 20th level, and all numbers in between. I admit, this is a little harsh at 1st level, but I didn't want to make it an easy decision to use this ability at 1st level.

The problem with making it level + ability modifier uses per day is that there really isn't a single ability modifier that would be truly appropriate. Every single ability is involved in one of the items listed.

There are two distinct groupings of martial prowess abilities. The first four items in the list are essentially "instant" abilities without a duration. Two are designed to plug dangerous holes in the fighter's defences (re-roll a save, and "get out of fear free"). The other two are there to make him that little bit stickier.

The last six have a short duration (3 + ability modifier rounds) and a bonus that may be either static or scaled.

I did consider limiting the availability of the various martial prowess items over a number of levels (along similar lines to dragon shaman auras). But I wanted to limit the amount of decision-making at the chargen level, and since many of these abilities are circumstantially useful, it seemed unreasonable to delay them.

@Eldan: Good catch on squad leader. Not applying it to saves though, because that would require squad leader to be used as an immediate action.

[Ashtagon]

The obvious feat fix for martial prowess...

Extra Prowess

You can use your martial prowess more often than usual.

* Prerequisite: Martial prowess class feature.
* Benefit: You gain an additional four uses per day of your martial prowess class feature.
* Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Each time you select this feat, you gain an additional four uses per day of martial prowess.

[Mulletmanalive]

As i said, my suggestion was based on the "feat tax" that is required to actually get any real use out of the core abilities of a Bard if you want to do anything more than basically stand around continuing your inspire effect out of combat...

Don't get me wrong, bard is my favourite class but i always ask for more uses of the ability. I usually get them too.

I personally prefer decisions at level-up to feat taxes to make abilities useful or that horrible feeling that if i use my one use multi-function power now, i'll need it later...

[Ashtagon]

As i said, my suggestion was based on the "feat tax" that is required to actually get any real use out of the core abilities of a Bard if you want to do anything more than basically stand around continuing your inspire effect out of combat...

Don't get me wrong, bard is my favourite class but i always ask for more uses of the ability. I usually get them too.

I personally prefer decisions at level-up to feat taxes to make abilities useful or that horrible feeling that if i use my one use multi-function power now, i'll need it later...

Well, I'll leave that feat as an option, because it matches similar feats.

For uses per day, how about 3 + 1 per 3 class levels? That leaves the daily uses at mid-high levels closer to what I originally had in mind anyway.

[Mulletmanalive]

Sounds better, yeah. The flipside is that you're risking dipping, obviously [this was part of the reason for the suggestion of splitting the abilities up].

Have you considered creating additional abilities that can be had by spending Talents? Just putting it out there...your existing list is pretty exhaustive.

Also, might want to clarify how Insipre Courage actually works in this, simply because the class has not uses of Bardic Music, meaning it can't function exactly like the bard ability of the same name...obviously, prowess would work...

[Nodwick22]

not to nit pick but you said you wanted this class to be a heavy armor fighter but you did not include said profenicy. just a thought

[Ashtagon]

@mulletmanalive: added the following paragraph:

Although there are ten different martial prowess abilities, a character does not gain access to all of them immediately. At 1st level, you can choose three different martial prowess abilities that are known to you. You gain one additional known ability at each level, until you know all ten at 8th level.

Dipping isn't terribly useful on martial prowess though, as the duration of these abilities is essentially flat (varies with ability modifiers), and the size of the bonus scales with the class level, not the character level. Limiting the number of abilities known at low level does make the class easier to settle into for someone new to the class though.

I'm not keen on the idea of spending talents to gain additional martial prowess items. It blurs the two items in peoples minds, which can cause confusion. Also, I intended that soldier talents be static bonuses, so giving an additional talent choice moves away from that design goal.

Also, took your advice and adapted the SRD bardic inspire courage text to this class.

@nodwick: Good catch. I like to leave these things to see if everyone is paying attention

[Ashtagon]

Of course, the real question is, would you want to play this?

(and any opinions as to what tier this is?)

[nedz]

Two minor points:

Quo Vadis
Assumes that the AoO was caused by movement, this my not be the case.

Martial Prowess
Why not Cha[Mod](min 1) +1/3 levels per day ?

Overall this strikes me as a Marshal(light)//Fighter with a little bit of Bard thrown in.
Its a reasonable start but I would prefer to play Marshal(5)/Fighter(2) into some PRC (there are various options).

How would a Solder(7) compare with Marshal(5)/Fighter(2) ?

[Mulletmanalive]

Personally, not so much, but that's mostly because i've already created a "fix" that's more to my tastes.

This is certainly simpler than most others i've seen and has more variation than the Pathfinder one. In a normal D&D game, it'd get my vote and would work nicely with my semi-standard character, Tomir...

[Mongoose87]

This does what Quo Vadis does, but better.

[Ashtagon]

This does what Quo Vadis does, but better.

Not really. With quo vadis, you still get to do damage with your aoo.

quo vadis: damage + Will save or halt (DC 10 + 1/2 level + Cha mod).

stand still: Ref save or halt (DC 10 + "damage").

I should have added a requirement for quo vadis that the target must have Int 3+ and must be able to hear you. This talent is meant to reflect halting an enemy by force of personality rather than by bashing them with a stick.

I honestly don't mind if it is weaker than a real feat, because these talents are generally intended to be weaker than real feats (they aren't using the same set of resources anyway). And yes, technically some of these talents are stronger than real feats (I'm looking at you, Weapon Focus). No one takes that feat except as a prerequisite though.

[Ashtagon]

Two minor points:

Quo Vadis
Assumes that the AoO was caused by movement, this my not be the case.

"Distracting acts" can provoke an aoo. This would conceivably include drinking a potion of gaseous form. It can be handy to lockdown such an enemy, even if only for one round.

Martial Prowess
Why not Cha[Mod](min 1) +1/3 levels per day ?

Fighters are already fairly MAD, requiring decent Str, Con, and Dex. Adding a fourth ability score they need to maintain at high levels felt like overkill.

Yes, I realise each and every ability is used once in the martial prowess menu of abilities. But none of them are essential to the class. Making the entire feature (and not just individual parts of the feature) Charisma-dependent would force a character to raise his Charisma.

Overall this strikes me as a Marshal(light)//Fighter with a little bit of Bard thrown in.
Its a reasonable start but I would prefer to play Marshal(5)/Fighter(2) into some PRC (there are various options).

How would a Solder(7) compare with Marshal(5)/Fighter(2) ?

The soldier 7 would get two extra martial prowess choices and an extra martial prowess daily use (total 5/day), with the bonuses at +3. The multi-class guy would have 4 uses per day and the bonuses at +2.

The soldier 7 also gets an extra bonus feat and an extra talent.

The multi-class guys gets everything from 2 levels of marshal. That's Skill Focus (diplomacy), knowledge of a single minor aura (generally his Cha bonus to allies on a specific save or ability check), and knowledge of a single major aura (+1 to his allies on a specific combat-related number).

Overall, they are about equal in strength. The marshal has more emphasis on auras to help his allies, but with only two levels of the class, his auras just aren't that strong, and he has no flexibility in his choice of auras yet. For comparison, single-class marshal 7 gets +2 on his major aura. The soldier has stronger martial prowess, both in number of uses and in the size of the bonus granted.

[Mulletmanalive]

Worth pointing out his example included 5 levels of Marshal rather than the two that you have used in your example. Then again, the only difference there is the one/day Move action granting power... and another lost point of BAB.