Homebrew DesignRoll up your sleeves and get working: there's lots of homebrewin' to be done! Post your custom creation for critiques or review those of your peers.
When I was a fighting-man, the kettle-drums they beat,
The people scattered gold-dust before my horses feet;
But now I am a great king, the people hound my track
With poison in my wine-cup, and daggers at my back. -- Robert E. Howard,The Road of Kings
What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie?
I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky.
The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing;
Rush in and die, dogs -- I was a man before I was a king. -- Robert E. Howard
There was a time in decades past when the fighter was the king of classes, the Big Damn Hero who courageously led his party to triumph over danger again and again. In earlier editions, the fighter was the linchpin of a party, the one with the brawn, grit, and determination to slug it out against all odds, to inspire his followers, and to do battle as no other class could. Let us return to those days, and build a fighter worthy of the name!
The remixed fighter is an open, flexible class, built to fulfill the archetype of the mundane hero who overcomes challenges through grit, courage, and sheer martial prowess. A remixed fighter might be a fierce nomadic plainsman raised in a harsh, wild land, a masterless samurai seeking to earn his next meal through his skill with the blade, a knight in shining armor, a pitiless warlord amassing a horde of raiders, an elite bodyguard loyally protecting his charge, an uncultured thug making a living through robbery and murder, or a famous gladiator beloved as a hero of the people. Or he might be any of a dozen other heroes from cinema and fantasy - the remixed fighter is the class of choice for players who seek to confront evil with martial prowess and match their blade and determination against the spells and steel of their foes. The remixed fighter and its ACFs collectively replace the barbarian, fighter, marshal, and samurai classes.
Credits:
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All of you. Really. The 3.5 fighter is a very narrowly envisioned class, and to find the tools to broaden its scope and options I read through dozens of fighter fixes, homebrew feats, fighter vs. wizard/monk/whatever discussions, and anything else I could find. If you've ever posted anything to Homebrew with the word "fighter" in it (or "war-marked", Jake), chances are I've read your stuff and taken what I could to build this class. You'll probably recognize a few things of yours in my fighter remix.
Design Notes:
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Design goals: Authentic. The class remains true to the feat-centric view of the 3.5 fighter. It also includes design elements, such as fighter kits, exceptional strength and the ability to make a full attack on the move, that draw from 1st and 2nd edition D&D. This is the fighter you know, but it also draws inspiration from the old-school fighter of earlier editions. Flexible. With more skill points, more options both in and out of combat, some difficult decisions, and plenty of room to change your mind and move in a different direction, the remixed fighter brings versatility to the table. Multi-Role. Different fighting styles encourage radically different types of fighters, and an expanded Martial Aptitude allows a fighter to shift his focus from day-to-day (or even round-to-round with the right choices). Unlike dedicated "defender", "striker", or "lurker" classes, the remixed fighter can easily adapt his focus to address different challenges - although not without a little forethought and planning. Broad Support. In the posts below this one, and in linked threads, you'll find of dozens of feats intended to support the remixed fighter. Many are straight rips of existing class features and ACFs, but many are new. A particular attempt has been made to create feats suitable for higher-level play, since fighters typically have few feat options at that level of play. Ease of Conversion. Should you be inclined to do so, it should be easy to convert your existing barbarian, fighter, marshal, or samurai to a remixed fighter.
Version Log:
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1.0 Original version.
1.01 Corrected several typos throughout the text.
1.02 Improved Weather the Storm to work against all energy types.
1.1 Revised the options offered by the disciplined fighting style.
1.11 Nerfed the mounted speed multipliers granted by the cavalry fighting style.
1.12 More cleaning of typos. Rephrased a few sentences for clearer meaning.
1.13 Expanded the advice in the "Playing a Remixed Fighter" section.
1.14 Renamed "thuggish" fighting style to "cunning". Compulsively resorted everything to restore alphabetical order. Cunning fighter now gains +1d6 sneak attack with Fighting Style I.
1.2 Reduced the scaling of the key skill bonus (now maxes at +10 instead of +20) and eliminated the "free 20" option at 17th level.
1.3 Eliminated the choice of fighting styles from the core class, instead presenting the weapon master fighter as the "archetypal" fighter. Other fighting styles are now presented as alternate class features.
1.4 A fighting style now lets you select two key skills from a list of several options, rather than providing four fixed key skills.
1.5 Eliminated the Second Style and Third Style class features. This functionality will be rolled into the kit feats.
1.6 Changed key skill options for the Weapon Master Fighting Style to Balance, Concentration, Diplomacy, Jump, or Spot. These are the discipline skills for the martial disciplines available to a warblade, except for Spot, which is the discipline for the various archery-themed homebrew martial disciplines on this forum. This should enable the fighter to get better use from the Martial Study and Martial Stance feats, if he chooses to take them. Additionally, added Intimidate as an additional key skill option for the Disciplined Fighting Style, since its Staredown and Mass Staredown features are Intimidate-based.
1.61 Slightly re-organized the columns in the class table and added an entry in the writeup for the fighter bonus feats.
1.7 Condensed the Hardy Soldiers and Weather the Storm combat auras into one aura that provides both damage reduction and resistance to all energy types.
1.71 Revamped several features for the cavalry fighter ACF.
GAME RULE INFORMATION
Fighters have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Strength is especially important for fighters because it improves their melee attack and damage rolls. Constitution is important for giving fighters lots of hit points, which they need in their many battles. Dexterity is important for fighters who want to be good archers.
HIT DIE: d12
Level
Base Attack
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
Fighter Feats
Combat Auras
1st
+1
+2
+0
+2
Martial aptitude, weapon master fighting style
Bonus feat
0
2nd
+2
+3
+0
+3
Fighting style II
Bonus feat
0
3rd
+3
+3
+1
+3
Combat aura +1, exceptional strength
1
4th
+4
+4
+1
+4
Bonus feat
1
5th
+5
+4
+1
+4
Combat aura +2, fighting style III
1
6th
+6/+1
+5
+2
+5
Bonus feat
2
7th
+7/+2
+5
+2
+5
Mobile combatant
2
8th
+8/+3
+6
+2
+6
Bonus feat
2
9th
+9/+4
+6
+3
+6
Fighting style IV
2
10th
+10/+5
+7
+3
+7
Combat aura +3
Bonus feat
3
11th
+11/+6/+1
+7
+3
+7
True grit
3
12th
+12/+7/+2
+8
+4
+8
Bonus feat
3
13th
+13/+8/+3
+8
+4
+8
Fighting style V
3
14th
+14/+9/+4
+9
+4
+9
Bonus feat
4
15th
+15/+10/+5
+9
+5
+9
Combat aura +4, countering strike
4
16th
+16/+11/+6/+1
+10
+5
+10
Bonus feat
4
17th
+17/+12/+7/+2
+10
+5
+10
Fighting style VI
4
18th
+18/+13/+8/+3
+11
+6
+11
Bonus feat
5
19th
+19/+14/+9/+4
+11
+6
+11
Peerless reactions
5
20th
+20/+15/+10/+5
+12
+6
+12
Combat aura +5
Bonus feat
5
CLASS SKILLS (4 + Int mod per level, x4 at 1st level)
A fighter's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (architecture and engineering) (Int), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Martial Lore (Int), Perform (weapon drill) (Cha), Ride (Dex), and Swim (Str). A fighter gains additional class skills from the weapon master fighting style (see below).
CLASS FEATURES
All of the following are class features of the fighter.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Fighters are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with light, medium, and heavy armor, and with shields (but not tower shields). As part of his fighting style, a fighter gains proficiency with one exotic weapon, armor, or shield (such as a tower shield).
Bonus Feat: At 1st level, and every even-numbered fighter level thereafter, you gain a bonus feat, which can be any fighter feat for which you qualify.
Martial Aptitude (Ex): Once per day, you may spend one hour drilling with your weapons to retrain your fighter bonus feats (this does not include feats gained from your fighting style). You may change any or all of your fighter bonus feats, but you must comply with the retraining rules as normal. If you choose feats that apply to a specific piece of equipment (such as Weapon Focus), you must have that equipment available to practice with during your drill. All of your choices must remain legal, and you may not make choices that render you ineligible for any feat you aren’t retraining, or any prestige class you have. You may not use Martial Aptitude to retrain any of your other feats, such as racial feats, feats acquired from a class feature (such as Fighting Style), feats acquired as bonus feats from another class, or the feats gained by all characters at 1st level and every 3rd character level.
Weapon Master Fighting Style (Ex): A fighter is, first and foremost, a peerless student of the weapon master fighting style. A practitioner of the weapon master fighting style might be a stunt gladiator, a exotic weapon specialist, or a soldier who practices endlessly to perfect his technique. Your fighting style establishes a distinctive method of attack for you, and sets you apart from practitioners of other styles.
Your style grants you proficiency with a single exotic weapon, armor, or shield of your choice. You also gain Weapon Focus (with a weapon of your choice) as a bonus feat. Additionally, select any two of the following skills: Balance, Concentration, Diplomacy, Jump, or Spot. These skills are the key skills of your fighting style. They permanently become fighter class skills for you, and your fighting style grants you additional benefits when using them as you advance in level.
Beginning at 2nd level, you become more proficient in using the key skills associated with your fighting style. You gain a +2 competence bonus in the use of these skills. You also add your fighting style bonus to any roll made to resist disarm or sunder attempts, and to the DC of any attempts to demoralize you with the Intimidate skill.
At 5th level, you gain your choice of any Peerless feat or Weapon Specialization (with a weapon of your choice) as a bonus feat.
At 9th level, the competence bonus granted by your fighting style increases to +5. You gain your choice of Improved Critical, Melee Weapon Mastery or Ranged Weapon Mastery (with a weapon of your choice).
At 13th level, you gain Skill Mastery (as the rogue ability) in the key skills of your fighting style. You gain your choice of Crushing Strike, Driving Attack, or Slashing Flurry.
At 17th level, the competence bonus granted by your fighting style increases to +10. You gain Weapon Supremacy as a bonus feat (with a weapon of your choice).
Combat Aura (Ex): At 3rd level, you learn to project an aura that grants you and nearby allies a special benefit. You learn to project several auras that offer different benefits, but you may project only one combat aura at a time. At first you know only a single combat aura, but as your fighter level increases, you learn new ones, as shown on Table: The Fighter.
Projecting a combat aura is a swift action. The aura remains in effect until you use a swift action to dismiss it or until you activate a different combat aura. Activating an aura involves haranguing, ordering, directing, encouraging, cajoling, or calming allies. You size up enemies, allies, and the terrain, then gives allies the direction that they can use to do their best.
Unless otherwise noted, your combat aura affects all allies (including yourself) within 60 feet who can hear you. Affected allies must have an Intelligence score of 3 or higher and be able to understand your language. Your aura is dismissed if you are dazed, unconscious, stunned, paralyzed, or otherwise unable to be heard and understood by your allies.
A combat aura lets allies add +1 to certain rolls. This bonus improves by +1 at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level. All bonuses granted by combat auras are circumstance bonuses that do not stack with each other. Combat aura does not stack with the benefits of the Commanding Aura feat or the Aid Another action.
Follow My Lead: Bonus on skills checks with your key skills (see the Fighting Style class feature for details).
Hardy Soldiers: Your allies gain damage reduction (or an improvement to their existing damage reduction) and energy resistance equal to the amount of bonus the aura provides. For example, if you are 10th level, everyone affected gains DR 3/- and resist energy 3 vs. acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic.
Motivate Ardor: Bonus on damage rolls.
Motivate Attack: Bonus on melee attack rolls.
Motivate Care: Bonus to Armor Class.
Motivate Urgency: Allies’ base land speed is increased by 5 x your combat aura bonus. For example, if you are 10th level, everyone affected adds 15 feet to their base land speed.
Resilient Troops: Bonus to all saves.
Steady Hand: Bonus on ranged attack rolls.
Exceptional Strength (Ex): At 3rd level, your intense combat training teaches you how to apply your strength more effectively. Increase your Strength bonus by 50% when dealing damage with a melee or ranged attack, or when making a Strength check, a grapple check, or a Strength-based skill check. Thus, you deal your full Strength bonus to damage with off-hand weapons, 1 1/2 times your Strength bonus to damage with weapons held in your primary hand, and 2x your Strength bonus to damage with two-handed weapons or one-handed weapons wielded with two hands.
This bonus applies equally to melee, thrown, and ranged weapons, unarmed strikes, and natural attacks (if you have any), but cannot be used in conjunction with abilities that allow you to apply a different ability bonus to damage instead of Strength (such as the Shadow Blade feat from Tome of Battle).
Design Notes:
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Exceptional Strength was a key advantage of the 2e fighter, and now it's back. Because the bonus applies twice to two-weapon fighting, it makes TWF slightly more advantageous than previously. Sword-and-board also becomes a more viable tactic, because the fighter's damage output remains more credible. It also provides a modest but helpful edge when grappling the bigger creatures found at higher levels and when performing feats of raw athleticism, such as jumping onto the backs of the aforementioned beasts.
Exceptional Strength, along with other features like Martial Aptitude, Mobile Combatant, and Countering Strike, also serves to establish the fighter's "edge" - the superior martial prowess he brings to the group that compensates for his lack of spells or martial maneuvers.
Mobile Combatant (Ex): In combat, speed is life, and a skilled fighter embraces this truth, learning to deliver strikes swiftly and precisely even while on the move. Beginning at 7th level, you can make a full-round attack as a standard action.
Design Notes:
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In earlier editions of the game, the fighter was renowned for his ability to deliver a ton of attacks while on the move. Now he does so again.
True Grit (Ex): By 11th level, you have become hardened against the horror and din of battle and the debilitating effects of spells. When initially affected by one of the conditions listed below, you may mitigate or negate the condition for the full duration of its effect. Using True Grit takes no action, and can be done at any time, even when it isn't your turn. You may use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Constitution modifier.
Condition
Reduce to:
Ability Drained
Ability Damaged
Blinded
Dazzled
Confused
Fascinated
Cowering
Dazed
Dazzled
Unaffected
Exhausted
Fatigued
Fascinated
Unaffected
Fatigued
Unaffected
Frightened
Shaken
Nauseated
Sickened
Panicked
Frightened
Paralyzed
Stunned
Shaken
Unaffected
Sickened
Unaffected
Stunned
Dazed
You cannot use True Grit more than once against a single source (for example, if you're exhausted by a ray of exhaustion, you can use True Grit to downgrade the exhaustion to fatigue, but you can't then expend a second use to negate the fatigue). If you use True Grit to mitigate or negate a condition which you must suffer as a sacrifice or cost when gaining some benefit, you automatically forfeit the benefit you would have gained.
Design Notes:
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While many classes have abilities designed to avoid harm, it is much more the fighter's idiom to withstand it. True Grit allows a fighter to shake off a minor disabling condition, or downgrade some truly disabling conditions to mere hindrances.
Countering Strike (Ex): Beginning at 15th level, you learn to take advantage of even the smallest of openings in combat to deliver a quick attack. As an immediate action, you can either make a single attack, or attempt a combat maneuver that you could normally use in place of an attack, such as an attempt to disarm, grapple, sunder, or trip. If you damage a foe that is in the midst of an act that requires concentration (such as casting a spell or drinking a potion), your target must succeed at a Concentration check as normal or his action is disrupted.
Peerless Reactions (Ex): Upon reaching 19th level, you have a mental focus greater than any opponent, allowing you to react much faster than others. You may take a second swift or immediate action each round.
Playing a Remixed Fighter
As a fighter, you have three general categories of abilities: iconic powers provided by your fighting style, fighter bonus feats, and supplemental features that enhance your combat prowess. It's important to understand what each of these groups of abilities can offer you when you're building your fighter.
FIGHTING STYLE
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Your fighting style bonus feats establish you as a master of specific weapons or combat techniques. Think about the type of weapons and gear you want to use most often, and use the bonus feats granted by your style to become especially skillful with them. Your fighting style also grants you a set of key skills - as you level up, you'll gain hefty bonuses and extra perks when using these skills.
FIGHTER BONUS FEATS
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With Martial Aptitude, your fighter bonus feats are now a flexible, modular set of options. This means that you're free to pick special-purpose feats or feats with little application beyond the currently expected set of encounters, because you can always select different ones later when your current set is no longer useful.
If a particular feat is likely to be the cornerstone of your build, try to avoid selecting it with a fighter bonus feat; Martial Aptitude is less useful if half of your fighter bonus feats are set in stone because you need them for a prestige class, for example. Instead, use one of the feat slots that all characters receive at every three levels to take that feat.
To speed up game-play, keep lists of standard feat choices and option sets that you like. For example, if your character is equipped with both a spiked chain and a longbow, you might notate Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, and Precise Shot as your "archery tree" and Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, and Improved Trip as your "chain-tripper tree". Keeping these notes can streamline the process of choosing your feats, which ensures that other players aren't sitting around waiting for you to pick your feats every time the party rests.
Since you have so many feats to choose from, you might want to write the name, prerequisites, effects, and page reference of your commonly used feats on index cards. With these "feat cards", you won't need to slow down combat by paging through sourcebooks to find out how a feat works, and if your DM has a question about a particular feat, you can immediately provide the sourcebook and page number where the feat is found, or just pass the card over for the DM to read.
Change of Tactics (described in the second post of this thread) greatly increases the flexibility of your fighter bonus feats. If you aren't exactly sure what you'll face on a given day, take Change of Tactics as one of your bonus feats to ensure that you can adjust your tricks "on the fly" if you need to.
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES
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Your supplemental features, which include Martial Aptitude, Combat Aura, Exceptional Strength, Mobile Combatant, True Grit, Countering Strike, and Peerless Reactions, don't involve many decisions, but you should be aware of what they can do for you as you assign your feats and skills. Let's briefly look at each one.
Martial Aptitude is a huge game-changer for the remixed fighter, re-envisioning your fighter bonus feats as being a set of "tricks" or flashy moves that you can swap out with a little practice, rather than being laboriously learned techniques that required tremendous effort to perfect. Review the retraining rules (PH2 192) to ensure that you understand which choices are legal for you and which ones aren't. Keep a careful record of the choices you've made so the DM knows you're playing honestly.
Combat Aura represents your ability to motivate and lead allies. You only learn a few combat auras, so think about the tactics that you and your teammates are likely to prefer, and choose auras that support them. In combat, talk with other players and get a feel for what actions they'd like to perform next, then choose an aura that suits everyone's game plan - it does little good, for example, if you Motivate Urgency when no one is planning to move!
Exceptional Strength doesn't force many decisions. Just be aware that your Strength score does more for you than for most, and that effects that boost it, like bull's strength or gauntlets of ogre power, are more beneficial for you than for other characters. Exceptional Strength, when combined with your fighting style feats, can make two-weapon fighting or sword-and-board fighting more viable than you've come to expect, so if you want to play a character who fights with those tools, boost your Strength and go for it!
Mobile Combatant is also a pretty simple option. Just keep in mind as you choose your feats and tactics that you can expect to move around the battlefield a lot without losing your combat effectiveness.
True Grit is great when used in combination with features that offer useful benefits but have some kind of debilitating side effect, such as rage or defensive stance. You can't use it effectively if the status effect is an activation cost, however. True Grit is useful outside of combat too; you can use it to resist the fatigue that arises from sleeping in heavy armor, for example, or from heat stroke.
Countering Strike can be used offensively to deliver a little extra damage to your opponents, but it's probably most useful when used defensively; you can strike as an immediate action to ruin a spellcaster's concentration, to disarm an opponent who's about to attack you, or to trip someone who's about to move. When considering your feat options, keep an eye out for feats that improve what you can do with an attack action - you can use Countering Strike to make these feats even more effective.
Peerless Reactions makes certain choices MUCH more powerful for you than they were previously. Keep an eye out for ways to gain abilities that can be activated as a swift or immediate action, since you can now use those abilities twice as often.
Re: [3.5] Feats and Treats: Tools for the Remixed Fighter
New feats to support the remixed fighter:
[FIGHTER] FEATS
These feats were formerly fighter ACFs. As [Fighter] feats, you can now fit them into your build anywhere, rather than having to sacrifice a feat slot at a particular level to obtain them. With the flexibility offered by Martial Aptitude, you can pick them up whenever you encounter situations where they might be useful, then exchange them later when another feat is more appropriate.
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COUNTERATTACK [Fighter, Style]
Every offensive move creates an opening for a counterattack, and you know how to exploit this facet of combat to its fullest.
Spoiler
Prerequisite: Fighter level 12th or fighter level 8th and Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: You learn to hold back some of your offensive prowess to enable a potent counterattack. As a standard action, make one melee attack at your highest base attack bonus and assume a watchful position until the beginning of your next turn. While you are in a watchful position, any opponent who targets you with a melee attack against you provokes an attack of opportunity from you before doing so. As soon as you take an attack of opportunity, your watchful position ends. Advancement: If you have Dual Strike, you can use your standard action to make a melee attack with your primary weapon and an attack with your off-hand weapon. You take the normal penalties for attacking with two weapons, and gain the normal bonus from Counterattack.
DUNGEON CRASHER [Fighter]
You excel at overwhelming traps, smashing through doors, and pushing aside your enemies.
Spoiler
Prerequisite: Fighter level 2nd Benefit: You gain a +2 competence bonus on saves and a +2 competence bonus to your Armor Class when attacked by traps. You also gain a +5 bonus on Strength checks to break a door, wall, or similar obstacle.
In addition, you gain a special benefit when making a bull rush. If you force an opponent to move into a wall or other solid object, he stops as normal. However, your momentum crushes him against it, dealing an amount of bludgeoning damage equal to 4d6 points + twice your Strength bonus (if any).
DUNGEON CRASHER, GREATER [Fighter]
Your skill at overwhelming traps, smashing through doors, and pushing aside your enemies increases to super-heroic levels.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Fighter level 14th or greater, Dungeon Crasher, Improved Dungeon Crasher Benefit: Your bonuses when dealing with traps increase to +8, and the bonus on Strength checks to break objects increases to +20. The damage you deal when bull rushing an opponent into a wall increases to 16d6 points + four times your Strength bonus (if any).
DUNGEON CRASHER, IMPROVED [Fighter]
Your skill at overwhelming traps, smashing through doors, and pushing aside your enemies increases to heroic levels.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Fighter level 6th or greater, Dungeon Crasher Benefit: Your bonuses when dealing with traps increase to +4, and the bonus on Strength checks to break objects increases to +10. The damage you deal when bull rushing an opponent into a wall increases to 8d6 points + three times your Strength bonus (if any).
ELUSIVE ATTACK [Fighter]
You know that the key to winning any fight is not getting hit, so you trade offensive power for a steadier defense.
Spoiler
Prerequisite: Fighter level 6th Benefit: You master a technique of combining offense and defense. As a standard action, make one attack at your highest base attack bonus and assume an elusive posture until the beginning of your next turn. While you are in an elusive posture, you gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC. Advancement: If you have fighter level 11th, this bonus improves to +4.
If you have fighter level 16th, this bonus improves to +6.
If you have Dual Strike, you can use your standard action to make a melee attack with your primary weapon and an attack with your off-hand weapon. You take the normal penalties for attacking with two weapons, and gain the normal bonus from Elusive Attack.
OVERPOWERING ATTACK [Fighter]
You never waste time wounding your opponent, instead concentrating on delivering one solid strike.
Spoiler
Prerequisite: Fighter level 16th Benefit: You can focus your attention in combat to deliver a single deadly attack. As a standard action, make one attack at your highest base attack bonus. This attack deals double damage, as do any other attacks you make before the beginning of your next turn. Advancement: If you have Dual Strike, you can use your standard action to make a melee attack with your primary weapon and an attack with your off-hand weapon. You take the normal penalties for attacking with two weapons, and gain the normal bonus from Overpowering Attack.
[GENERAL] FEATS
These new feats are of use to almost any sort of fighter.
Spoiler
BURNING HEART [Fighter]
You can fight on long after sustaining harm that should have disabled you.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Fighter level 11th or greater, True Grit class feature Benefit: If you would be afflicted by a status effect as a result of failing a Fortitude save, you may expend one of your daily uses of True Grit to delay the effect for one minute. If you are afflicted with the same status effect again while already delaying an identical effect, you may not delay it a second time. For example, if you fail your Fortitude saving throw against a poison that would paralyze you, you may expend a use of True Grit to ignore the paralysis for one minute. If you are poisoned again on the next round and fail your saving throw again, you may not delay the second instance of the paralyzed condition, although you could still expend a use of True Grit as normal to reduce it to the stunned condition. Advancement: If you have fighter level 15th or higher, you may choose to delay status effects that result from failing Reflex or Will saves as well. In some situations, this may allow you to avoid the status effect altogether (e.g. if you leave the area of a web spell before the one-minute period elapses).
If you have fighter level 17th or higher, you may choose to delay dying from a Death effect as well.
CHANGE OF TACTICS [Fighter]
Just when your opponent thinks he has taken the measure of your style and learned to anticipate you, you surprise him with unexpected tricks.
Spoiler
Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +5 or greater, Martial Aptitude class feature Benefit: Once per encounter as a swift action, you may retrain one of the bonus feats you could normally retrain with Martial Aptitude.
Once per day as a full-round action, you may retrain all of the bonus feats you could normally retrain with Martial Aptitude.
EXTRA AURA [General]
You know an additional aura.
Spoiler
Prerequisite: Fighter 3rd, Combat Aura Benefit: You learn an additional combat aura. Special: You can take this feat more than once. Each time you do, you learn another combat aura. Advancement: If you have the Commanding Aura feat, you can instead learn an additional commanding aura.
EXTRA KEY SKILL [General]
You have practiced the key skills of your fighting style extensively.
Spoiler
Prerequisite: Fighter 1st Benefit: You may select an additional key skill for your fighting style from the list of available skills. Special: You may choose this feat more than once. Each time you do, you select an additional key skill from the list of available skills.
LINGERING AURA [Fighter]
The inspirational effects of your aura lingers on even if you are silenced, incapacitated or killed.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Fighter level 3, Combat Aura Benefit: If you are silenced, dazed, unconscious, stunned, killed, or otherwise unable to continue projecting your combat aura, allies who are currently benefiting from it continue to receive the aura's benefits for an additional 5 rounds. This benefit does not apply if you dismiss your aura voluntarily (for example, when switching to a new one or using the Now is the Time! feat). Advancement: If you have fighter 3 and Commanding Aura, your commanding aura also gains this benefit.
MARTIAL PHYSIQUE [Fighter]
Through rigorous calisthenics and exercise, you have tuned your body to perform at its peak potential.
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Prerequisite: Str 13, Dex 13, Con 13, Martial Aptitude class feature, Fighter level 6th Benefit: By incorporating physical training, endurance running, or stretching exercises into the hour of weapons drill involved in using Martial Aptitude, you gain a +2 competence bonus to either Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution. This additional training does not increase the amount of time required to use Martial Aptitude, and the bonus lasts for 24 hours.
You cannot use the ability bonuses granted by Martial Physique to qualify for a feat, prestige class, or other option. Advancement: If you have character level 12th or greater, you can instead gain a +4 competence bonus, or +2 to two physical ability scores.
If you have character level 18th or greater, you can instead gain a +6 competence bonus, or +4 to one physical ability score and +2 to another, or +2 to all three.
NOW IS THE TIME! [Fighter]
You can urge your allies to greater prowess when the time is right.
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Prerequisite: Fighter level 5th, Combat Aura +2 or greater Benefit: Triple the benefit provided by all of your auras until the beginning of your next turn. At the beginning of your next turn, all of your auras are dismissed, and you cannot activate any auras for the remainder of the encounter.
SECOND STYLE [General]
You are familiar with the basics of another fighting style.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 9th Benefit: Select a fighting style other than the one in which you are trained, and select two of the skills available as key skills to students of that style. Both of those skills are added to your fighting style and become fighter class skills for you, and you may select one of them as an additional key skill for your fighting style.
Additionally, you may now choose Style feats in the new fighting style using your fighter bonus feat slots (only), but you must reduce your fighter level by 8 when qualifying for and advancing these feats. You still use your full character level with these feats for effects that check character level.
THIRD STYLE [General]
Your diverse training encompasses many different fighting styles.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 17th, Second Style Benefit: Select a fighting style other than the one in which you are trained, and select two of the skills available as key skills to students of that style. Both of those skills become key skills for your fighting style and become fighter class skills for you.
Additionally, you may now choose Style feats in the new fighting style using your fighter bonus feat slots (only), but you must reduce your fighter level by 16 when qualifying for and advancing these feats. You still use your full character level with these feats for effects that check character level.
[STYLE] FEATS
[Style] feats are simply [Fighter] feats that require a fighting style as a prerequisite. The [Style] feats presented here require the weapon master fighting style.
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PEERLESS EINHANDER [Fighter, Style]
You possess exceptional skill at fighting mobile battles with a weapon in one hand and nothing in the other hand.
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Prerequisites: Dodge, Spring Attack, Fighter 4th, Weapon Master Fighting Style Benefit: When wielding a single one-handed weapon with no weapon or shield on your other limb, you gain all the benefits of wielding the weapon with both hands. You may not use the empty limb to attack while claiming this benefit (for example, by making a claw attack with it if you have claws). Advancement: If you have character level 8th or higher, and are fighting as described above, you also gain a +10 ft untyped bonus to all of your existing movement speeds except burrowing. This bonus increased by +5 ft for every four character levels you have above 8th.
If you have character level 12th or higher, and are fighting as described above, you can spend a standard action to ready a full-round action once per encounter. You gain an additional use per encounter of this ability at 20th level.
PEERLESS HEWING [Fighter, Style]
You possess exception skill with weapons that allow you to bring great force to bear on your victim.
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Prerequisites: Mage Slayer, Power Attack, Fighter 4th, Weapon Master Fighting Style Benefit: Once per round when wielding a weapon that has a natural, unmodified critical multiplier of x3 or x4 (such as most axes, hammers, or picks), you can designate one of your attacks with that weapon to be a Hewing Strike. This attack dazes the enemy struck for one round (Fort negates, DC = 10 + ½ character level + your Strength modifier). Advancement: If you have character level 8th or higher, once per round when fighting as described above, you can deliver an Anchoring Strike. This attack halves all of the victim’s movement speeds for one round (Fortitude negates, DC = 10 + ½ character level +your Strength modifier). If your weapon is a magical or cold iron weapon, then the victim is also prevented from using teleportation or dimensional travel for that round.
If you have character level 12th or higher, once per round when fighting as described above, you can deliver a Sundering Strike. This attack ignores the hardness of objects. If your weapon is a magical or cold iron weapon, then your strike can also shatter a Force effect. Make a Strength check (with a bonus of +1 per 5 damage the attack would have dealt) against a DC of 11 + the caster level of the force effect. Success destroys the effect.
PEERLESS HOPLITE [Fighter, Style]
You possess exceptional skill at fighting with a shield and piercing weapon.
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Prerequisites: Shield specialization, Weapon Focus with a piercing weapon, Fighter 4th, Weapon Master Fighting Style Benefit: When you wield a piercing weapon with which you have Weapon Focus in one hand and a shield with which you are specialized in the other, you gain all the benefits of holding the piercing weapon two-handed, even though you are not actually doing so. You can wield a two-handed piercing weapon that is sized appropriately for you in this manner as well, even though you normally cannot wield a two-handed weapon with one hand. Advancement: If you have character level 8th and are fighting as described above, then enemies provoke attacks of opportunity from you when they charge into a square that you threaten. You deal damage on this attack of opportunity as if your weapon was set to receive a charge.
If you have character level 12th or higher and are fighting as described above, then once per day as an immediate action, you can perform a Shield Deflection to deflect an attack aimed at yourself or an adjacent ally. Make an attack roll as if you were performing a shield bash, but adding your shield’s AC bonus to your roll. If your attack roll exceeds that of your opponent, the attack is deflected. You can use this ability an additional time per day at 20th level. Normal: You cannot wield a two-handed weapon in one hand.
PEERLESS MARKSMAN [Fighter, Style]
You possess exceptional skill with ranged weapons.
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Prerequisites: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Fighter 4th, Weapon Master Fighting Style Benefit: You do not provoke attacks of opportunity when making ranged attacks. Advancement: If you have character level 8th or higher, you can make attacks of opportunity with a ranged weapon. You threaten out to a range of 5 feet per two character levels you have.
If you have character level 12th or greater, you double your threat range with ranged weapons. You also double the range at which you can apply other special range-related features, such as Point Blank Shot, skirmish, sneak attack, etc.
PEERLESS ZWEIHANDER [Fighter, Style]
You possess exceptional skill with a two-handed weapon.
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Prerequisites: Power Attack, Weapon Focus with a two-handed weapon, Fighter 4th, Weapon Master Fighting Style Benefit: When you are wielding a two-handed weapon for which you have Weapon Focus, your attacks are severely distracting; opponents you attack suffer a 20% miss chance against everyone but you. This effect applies even if you miss, and lasts until the beginning of your next turn. Advancement: If you have character level 8th or higher and are fighting as described above, you can use Power Attack and take a penalty to your attack roll of -8 to deliver a Jolting Attack. An opponent struck twice consecutively in a single round by your jolting attack is shaken for two rounds. This condition stacks with fear from other sources, but not with itself.
If you have character level 12th or higher and are fighting as described above, your attacks deal double damage against any foes suffering from a fear effect.
WEAPON SPECIALIZATION [Fighter, Style]
Choose one type of weapon, such as greataxe, for which you have already chosen weapon focus. You can also choose unarmed strike or grapple as your weapon for the purpose of this feat. You deal more damage and can attack more often when using this weapon.
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Prerequisites: Fighter level 4th, Weapon Focus with selected weapon, Weapon Master Fighting Style Benefit: When you attack with the selected weapon, you deal damage as if it was one size category larger. This benefit does not stack with other effects that cause your weapon to deal damage as if it was larger in size. You may opt to make an additional attack with this weapon at your full base attack bonus when making a full attack, but if you do, all of your attacks take a -2 penalty until the beginning of your next turn. You may gain this benefit only once per full attack, even if you are attacking with more than one weapon with which you are specialized. Advancement: Your penalty is reduced to -1 at fighter level 8th and eliminated completely at fighter level 12th. Upon reaching fighter level 18th, you may make two additional attacks.
When you reach fighter level 12th, you deal damage as if the weapon was two size categories larger. When you reach fighter level 18th, you deal damage as if the weapon was three size categories larger.
Alternate Class Feature: Fighting Styles
The Weapon Master Fighting Style is a good style for soldiers, exotic weapon specialists, and fighters focused on advanced weapon techniques, but what if you want to give your fighter a different focus? Some fighters aren't heavily armored foot-soldiers, but are savage, bare-chested barbarians, mounted knights in shining armor, inspiring generals, brutish thugs and cutpurses, sharp-eyed bodyguards, dragon-hunters, or even more exotic sorts of heroes.
For these sorts of fighters, a different fighting style might be appropriate. In the seven posts below, you'll find seven new fighting styles available as alternate class features. These ACFs replace the fighter's weapon master style (and the benefits it provides) with differently themed abilities. Using these ACFs, your fighter can become a brutal barbarian, heavily armored cavalier, honorable samurai, a marshal of armies, or one of many other sorts of fighting-men.
This alternate class feature replaces your weapon master fighting style with the barbaric fighting style. Use this fighter ACF as a replacement for the barbarian class.
BARBARIC FIGHTING STYLE Level: 1st. Replaces: If you select this class feature, you do not gain proficiency with heavy armor, nor do you learn the weapon master fighting style. As such, you lose access to the extra class skills, proficiencies, key skill bonuses, bonus feats, and other benefits that provided by that style. Benefit: You gain the barbaric fighting style, which is described below.
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A fighter learns the barbaric fighting style in a primitive culture, one in which strength of sinew and cunning are pitted against harsh environments and dangerous foes. His training emphasizes raw ferocity over precision or skill.
A practitioner of the barbaric fighting style gains Knowledge (nature), Listen, and Survival as class skills. You also gain your choice of Ferocity, Rage, or Whirling Frenzy as a bonus feat, and you gain 2 additional skill points at each level (multiplied by 4 at 1st level, as normal). Additionally, select any two of the following skills: Jump, Knowledge (nature), Listen, and Survival. These skills are the key skills of your fighting style. Your fighting style grants you additional benefits when using them as you advance in level.
Beginning at 2nd level, you become more proficient in using the key skills associated with your fighting style. You gain a +2 competence bonus in the use of these skills. You also gain Uncanny Dodge as a bonus feat.
At 5th level, you gain Improved Uncanny Dodge as a bonus feat.
At 9th level, the competence bonus granted by your fighting style increases to +5. You gain your choice of Damage Reduction or Streetfighter as a bonus feat.
At 13th level, you gain Skill Mastery (as the daring outlaw ability) in the key skills of your fighting style. You also gain your choice of Evasive Spin, Indomitable Will, or Shifting Stance as a bonus feat.
At 17th level, the competence bonus granted by your fighting style increases to +10. In addition, you gain your Choice of Improved Shifting Stance or Tireless Rage as a bonus feat.
[STYLE] FEATS
These [Style] feats are meant for use with the barbaric fighting style.
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DAMAGE REDUCTION [Fighter, Style]
You can shrug off some amount of injury from each blow or attack.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 7th, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: You gain damage reduction of DR 1/--. This damage reduction increases by three for each three character levels you gain beyond 7th.
EVASIVE SPIN [Fighter, Style]
You can dodge even area attacks while in a whirling frenzy.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 14th, Whirling Frenzy, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: You gain Evasion while in a whirling frenzy, allowing you to sustain no damage on a successful Reflex save against attacks that normally inflict half damage on a successful save. You must be wearing light or no armor to benefit from Evasive Spin.
FAST MOVEMENT [Fighter, Style]
You move more swiftly than normal for your race.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 1st, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: As long as you are not wearing heavy armor or carrying a heavy load, your base land speed is increased by 10 feet.
FEROCIOUS RUSH [Fighter, Style]
You can deliver a ferocious shove to knock your opponents away.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 8th, Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: You do not need to leave your square to initiate a bull rush, and do not need to move with the defender in order to move him more than 5 feet. Advancement: If you have the Countering Strike feature, you can initiate a bull rush instead of making an attack when you use your countering strike.
FEROCITY [Fighter, Style]
You can enter a state of adrenaline-fueled fury a certain number of times per day.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 1st, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: Once per encounter as an immediate action, you may enter a state of ferocity (you can do this even when flat-footed at the start of combat, before making an initiative check). You gain +4 Strength and +4 Dexterity, but take a -2 penalty on ranged attacks beyond 30 feet. While in a state of ferocity, you cannot use any Charisma- or Intelligence-based skills (except for Intimidate), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that require patience or concentration, nor can you cast spells or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger, or a spell completion to function. You also cannot use any item creation or metamagic feats.
Ferocity lasts for five minutes, unless you choose to end it sooner. When you end your ferocity, you are sickened for five minutes. Your ferocity is initially usable only once per day. You gain an additional daily use at fighter level 4th, and every four levels thereafter. Advancement: If you have character level 11 or higher, your ferocity instead grants you +6 Strength and +6 Dexterity.
If you have character level 20 or higher, your ferocity instead grants you +8 Strength and +8 Dexterity. Special: If you have Ferocity, you may not choose the Rage or Whirling Frenzy feats.
INDOMITABLE WILL [Fighter, Style]
You are difficult to affect with hostile enchantments while raging.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 14th, Rage, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: You gain a +4 bonus on Will saves to resist enchantment spells while raging.
RAGE [Fighter, Style]
You can fly into a screaming blood frenzy a certain number of times per day.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 1st, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: Once per encounter on your turn, you may enter a state of rage (this does not require an action). You gain +4 Strength, +4 Constitution, and a +2 morale bonus on Will saves, but take a -2 penalty to AC. While raging, you cannot use any Charisma- Dexterity- or Intelligence-based skills (except for Balance, Escape Artist, Intimidate, and Ride), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that require patience or concentration, nor can you cast spells or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger, or a spell completion to function. You also cannot use Combat Expertise or any item creation or metamagic feats.
Your rage lasts for five minutes, unless you choose to end it sooner. When you end your rage, you are fatigued for five minutes. Your rage is initially usable only once per day. You gain an additional daily use at fighter level 4th, and every four levels thereafter. Advancement: If you have character level 11 or higher, your rage instead grants you +6 Strength, +6 Constitution, and a +3 morale bonus on Will saves.
If you have character level 20 or higher, your rage instead grants you +8 Strength, +8 Constitution, and a +4 morale bonus on Will saves. Special: If you have Rage, you may not choose the Ferocity or Whirling Frenzy feats.
SHIFTING STANCE [Fighter, Style]
You are agile and quick on your feat while in a state of ferocity.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 13th, Ferocity, Barbaric Fighting Style. Benefit: You gain a +1 dodge bonus to Armor Class and Reflex saves while in a state of ferocity. In addition, while in a state of ferocity, you can stand from prone as a swift action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. You still provoke attacks of opportunity while standing from prone against foes with a base attack bonus 4 or more points higher than your base attack bonus.
SHIFTING STANCE, IMPROVED [Fighter, Style]
You avoid harm even more effectively while in a state of ferocity, and can better resist the effects of the adrenaline crash that follows it.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 17, Ferocity, Shifting Stance, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: The dodge bonus granted by your Shifting Stance increases to +2, and you are not sickened when you end your ferocity.
SHOCKWAVE STRIKE [Fighter, Style]
You can make a furious ground strike that knocks other creatures down.
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Prerequisites: Strength 20, Fighter 16th, Power Attack, and either Rage, Ferocity or Whirling Frenzy, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: While in a state of rage, ferocity, or whirling frenzy, you can expend one additional use of the ability and strike the ground with your weapon or foot as a full-round action. The impact creates a shockwave that travels through the surface you're standing on, originating from your square. You decide which area to affect: either a 60-foot line, a 30-foot cone, or a 20-foot radius burst. Make a bull rush attack by rolling once regardless of how many creatures are in the effect. Every creature standing on the surface within your area of effect make a Strength check and compares it to your roll. Those who fail their opposed checks are knocked down. Special: Structures and unattended objects at least partially within the shock wave take damage equal to 1d6 + one and a half times your Strength bonus in damage (as if your attack was made with a two-handed weapon). If you gain any special benefits when dealing damage to objects, those benefits apply to this attack (DM's judgment as to which benefits apply and how). Advancement: If you have one or more Dungeon Crasher feats, you deal appropriate damage to each tripped creature in the effect, since you have effectively bull-rushed it into a solid object (the ground). Also, you deal your Dungeon Crasher damage to structures and unattended objects instead of the damage listed above.
STREETFIGHTER [Fighter, Style]
You've learned several tricks to win fights by hitting harder and faster than your opponent.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 7th, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: The critical threat range of any charge attack you make, or any attack you make against a flat-footed foe, increases by 1. This ability stacks with the Improved Critical feat or the keen weapon enhancement. Advancement:
At 10th level, you can make a single turn, up to 90 degrees, during a charge.
At 13th level, you can charge through squares occupied by your allies or by noncombatants.
At 16th level, you can move up to four times your speed when making a charge attack, rather than double.
At 19th level, you acquire a "cleaving charge." If you drop an opponent on a charge attack, and have at least 10 feet of movement remaining, you can immediately make a new charge attack against a second foe. If you drop that foe and still have movement remaining, you can charge a third, and so on until you either fail to drop a foe or run out of movement. All the other standard rules for a charge attack still apply, including the fact that you must have at least 10 feet of distance to make the charge.
Even if you somehow gain the ability to make multiple attacks on a charge (such as with the Totem: Lion Pounce feat), you must drop the foe on your first attack to use this ability. Similarly, you cannot use this ability and Cleave in the same round.
TIRELESS RAGE [Fighter, Style]
Your rage or whirling frenzy does not fatigue you.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 17th, Rage or Whirling Frenzy, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: You are not fatigued when you end your rage or whirling frenzy.
TOTEM, APE CLIMBING [Fighter, Style]
You can climb like an ape.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 1st, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: You gain a climb speed equal to one-half your base land speed. Advancement: If you have character level 5th or higher, your climb speed increases to equal your base land speed.
TOTEM, BEAR GRAPPLE [Fighter, Style]
You can grapple like a bear.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 2nd, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: You gain the Improved Grab ability (MM 310).
TOTEM, DRAGON PRESENCE [Fighter, Style]
You gain the unsettling presence of a dragon.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 5th, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: You gain the Frightful Presence ability (MM 309). It takes effect automatically when you perform some sort of dramatic action (such as charging, attacking, or snarling). Opponents within 30 feet who witness the action may become shaken for 5d6 rounds. Your frightful presence affects only opponents with fewer hit dice or levels than you have. An opponent in the affected area can resist the effect with a successful Will save (DC 10 + half your character level + your Cha modifier). An opponent who succeeds on the saving throw is immune to your frightful presence for 24 hours. Advancement: If you have fighter 9th or greater, affected opponents are instead frightened for 5d6 rounds.
TOTEM, EAGLE SIGHT [Fighter, Style]
You gain the clear vision of an eagle.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 7th, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: You gain low-light vision, or your existing low-light vision becomes improved low-light vision, or your existing improved low-light vision becomes superior low-light vision. Additionally, your penalty on Spot checks for distance is halved (-1 per 20 feet instead of -1 per 10 feet).
TOTEM, LION POUNCE [Fighter, Style]
You can pounce like a charging lion.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 1st, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: As long as you are not wearing heavy armor or carrying a heavy load, you can make a full attack at the end of a charge.
TRAP SENSE [Fighter, General, Style]
You have an intuitive sense that alerts you to danger from traps.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 3rd and Barbaric Fighting Style or Daring Outlaw 2nd Benefit: You add +1 per three class levels (minimum +1) as a competence bonus to Search and Disable Device checks involving traps. You also add this bonus to saves made against traps and to your AC against attacks made by traps. If you have levels in classes that qualify for this feat (such as barbaric fighter and daring outlaw), stack those levels in all such classes to determine the size of your trap sense bonus.
UNCANNY DODGE [Fighter, General, Style]
You react to danger before your senses would normally allow you to do so.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 2nd and Barbaric Fighting Style, Daring Outlaw 4th, or Swift Hunter 2nd Benefit: You retain your Dexterity bonus to AC even if caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, you still lose your Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized.
UNCANNY DODGE, IMPROVED [Fighter, General, Style]
You can react to opponents on opposite sides of you as easily as you can react to a single attacker.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 5th and Barbaric Fighting Style or Daring Outlaw 8, Uncanny Dodge Benefit: You cannot be flanked except by a daring outlaw whose character level is 4 or more levels higher than your character level.
WHIRLING FRENZY [Fighter, Style]
When angered, you can become a whirling dervish of destruction a certain number of times per day.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 1st, Barbaric Fighting Style Benefit: Once per encounter on your turn, you may enter a whirling frenzy (this does not require an action). You gain +4 Strength, a +2 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves. Additionally, you may make one extra attack in a round at your highest base attack bonus, but all your attacks take a -2 penalty for one round if you do so. While raging, you cannot use any Charisma- Dexterity- or Intelligence-based skills (except for Balance, Escape Artist, Intimidate, Ride, and Tumble), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that require patience or concentration, nor can you cast spells or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger, or a spell completion to function. You also cannot useany item creation or metamagic feats.
Your whirling frenzy lasts for five minutes, unless you choose to end it sooner. When you end your whirling frenzy, you are fatigued for five minutes. Your whirling frenzy is initially usable only once per day. You gain an additional daily use at fighter level 4th, and every four levels thereafter. Advancement: If you have character level 11 or higher, your whirling frenzy instead grants you +6 Strength, and a +3 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves.
If you have character level 20 or higher, your rage instead grants you +8 Strength, and a +4 dodge bonus on AC and Reflex saves. Special: If you have Whirling Frenzy, you may not choose the Ferocity or Rage feats.
Design Notes:
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A number of these feats were formerly described within the rules as class features or alternate class features. By converting them to feats, I achieve two goals:
You no longer have to choose between a core class feature and an ACF. You can take both, buying one through your fighting style and the other with a feat slot.
If an ACF is nice some of the time, you can opt to have it only some of the time by selecting it as one of your fighter bonus feats and retraining it to something else when it's not useful to the task at hand.
This alternate class feature replaces your weapon master fighting style with the cavalry fighting style. Use this fighter ACF as a replacement for the cavalier prestige class.
CAVALRY FIGHTING STYLE Level: 1st. Replaces: If you select this class feature, you do not learn the weapon master fighting style. As such, you lose access to the extra class skills, proficiencies, key skill bonuses, bonus feats, and other benefits that provided by that style. Benefit: You gain the cavalry fighting style, which is described below.
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A practitioner of the cavalry fighting style learns to fight from the back of a mount. A fighter who learns this style may be a chivalrous knight, a hunter for a wandering plains tribe, or an elite dragon-rider, but the cost of supporting a mounted combatant marks him as one of the most expensive warriors his culture supports.
The cavalry fighting style grants you the Wild Cohort feat as a bonus feat. Additionally, choose any two of the following: Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (nobility and royalty), Ride, and Survival. These skills are the key skills of your fighting style. They permanently become fighter class skills for you if you do not have them alreadu, and your fighting style grants you additional benefits when using them as you advance in level.
Beginning at 2nd level, you become more proficient in using the key skills associated with your fighting style. You gain a +2 competence bonus in the use of these skills. You also gain your choice of Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery, Ride-By Attack, Spirited Charge, or Trample.
At 5th level, you gain your choice of Burst of Speed or Deadly Charge as a bonus feat.
At 9th level, the competence bonus granted by your fighting style increases to +5. You learn to work with your wild cohort when using your Mobile Combatant feature, and you can use Mobile Combatant to make a full attack as a standard action even when your wild cohort moves more than 5 feet in a round. Your wild cohort’s speed improves by +10 feet for each of its movement modes, and if it can fly, its maneuverability improves by one class.
At 13th level, you gain Skill Mastery (as the daring outlaw ability) in the key skills of your fighting style. Protecting your wild cohort with the Mounted Combat feat no longer required an action for you, and your wild cohort’s speed boost improves to +20 feet.
At 17th level, the competence bonus granted by your fighting style increases to +10. Your wild cohort’s speed boost improves to +30 feet, and if it can fly, its maneuverability is now two classes better than normal.
CORE FEATS REMIXED
These are the feats you know, remixed for better balance.
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MOUNTED ARCHERY [Fighter, General]
You are skilled at using ranged weapons while mounted.
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Prerequisites: Ride 1 rank, Mounted Combat Benefit: The penalty you take when using a ranged weapon while mounted is greatly reduced: -2 instead of -4 if your mount is taking a double move, and -4 instead of -8 if your mount is running (see Mounted Combat, PHB p.157). Advancement: If you have base attack bonus +4 or greater, the penalties are further reduced: you take no penalty when your mount is taking a double move, and -2 instead of -4 if your mount is running. You can attack at any time during your mount's move. If you have base attack bonus +12 or greater, you take no penalties for using a ranged weapon while mounted, and can attack at any time during your mount's move.
MOUNTED COMBAT [Fighter, General]
You are skilled in mounted combat.
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Prerequisite: Ride 1 rank Benefit: As an immediate action when your mount is hit in combat or fails a saving throw, you may attempt a Ride check to negate the hit or a Handle Animal check to reroll the saving throw. The hit or effect is negated if your Ride check result is greater than the opponent's attack roll or your Handle Animal check meets or exceeds the DC of the saving throw. Essentially, you get to use the Ride check in place of the mount's Armor Class or the Handle Animal check in place of the mount's saving throw.
RIDE-BY ATTACK [Fighter, General]
You are skilled at making fast attacks from your mount.
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Prerequisites: Ride 1 rank, Mounted Combat Benefit: When you are mounted and use the charge action, you may move and attack as with a standard charge and then move again (continuing the straight line of the charge). Your total movement for the round can't exceed double your mounted speed. You and your mount do not provoke an attack of opportunity for the opponent you attack. Advancement: If you have base attack bonus +12 or greater, designate a second foe. The movement of you and your mount does not provoke attacks of opportunity from either of these foes. Also, you can make a second attack with a -5 penalty. You can use both of the attacks against one of the opponents targeted with this feat, or split the attacks between them.
If you have base attack bonus +18 or greater, designate a third foe and gain a third attack with a -10 penalty.
GENERAL FEATS
These are new general feats that are especially useful to a fighter who knows the cavalry fighting style.
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MASTER ANIMAL TRAINER
Your mount is exceptionally responsive to your commands.
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Prerequisites: Handle Animal 8 ranks, Wild Cohort Benefit: You can use the Handle Animal Skill on your animal cohort as a swift action, rather than a move action. There is no limit to the number of tricks you can teach to your animal cohort
MOUNTED SCOUT
You and your mount work together as a masterful stealthy spotter.
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Prerequisites: Hide 1 rank, Listen 1 rank, Move Silently 1 rank, Spot 1 rank, and either the Mounted Combat feat or a special mount, animal companion, or wild cohort. Benefit: If you have more ranks in Hide Listen, Move Silently, or Spot than your mount does, it uses your ranks instead of its own. You can use this ability with your special mount, animal companion, or wild cohort, or with any mount you ride if you have the Mounted Combat feat. Even if you and your mount do not share a language, you share an intuitive link and you both become immediately aware if either of you has detected something that the other has not.
[STYLE] FEATS
These feats are meant for use with the cavalry fighting style.
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BURST OF SPEED [Fighter, Style]
You can spur your mount to greater speed during a charge
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Prerequisites: Fighter 5th, Mounted Combat, Cavalry Fighting Style Benefit: Your mount can move up to four times its speed when charging, rather than twice its speed. You can use this ability once per day without risk. Each additional time per day that you use it, your mount sustains 2d6 nonlethal damage.
DEADLY CHARGE [Fighter, Style]
You can deal terrific damage with a charge.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 9, Mounted Combat, Spirited Charge, Cavalry Fighting Style Benefit: Once per day as a free action, you can declare your next mounted charge attack this round to be a deadly charge. If it hits, it deals double damage. This benefit stacks with other effects that double your charge damage such as the Spirited Charge feat or a lance. You gain an additional daily use of this feat for each two character levels you possess beyond 9th.
EVASIVE MANEUVERS [Fighter, Style]
You can juke your mount to avoid an attack.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 6th, Mounted Combat, Cavalry Fighting Style Benefit: When using Mounted Combat to protect your mount from an attack, you can grant your mount a 50% miss chance against the attack instead of making a Ride check to replace its Armor Class.
PIERCE THE VEIL, IMPALE THE SOUL [Fighter, Style]
Your charge attacks can paralyze an opponent.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 12th, Mounted Combat, Spirited Charge, Cavalry Fighting Style Benefit: Whenever you deal damage with a mounted charge, your opponent is nauseated by the pain for one round (Fortitude negates, DC = 10 + 1/2 character level + Str modifier). Advancement: If you have fighter 15th and the Deadly Charge feat, then opponents damaged by your deadly charge are instead paralyzed with pain for one round, or nauseated on a successful save.
SUDDEN MOVEMENT [Fighter, Style]
You can spur your mount into an unexpected burst of motion.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 5th, Burst of Speed, Wild Cohort, Cavalry Fighting Style Benefit: As a swift action, your mount moves up to its speed. Neither you nor it provokes attacks of opportunity for this movement. At the end of your turn, your mount becomes winded, and cannot run or charge. This condition lasts until the mount spends a move action to recover its wind.
TERRIFYING HOWL [Fighter, Style]
The rushing wind from your charge attacks generates a terrifying sound.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 9th, Burst of Speed, Mounted Combat, Spirited Charge, Wild Cohort, Windburst Charge, Cavalry Fighting Style Benefit: The howling winds created by your Windburst Charge feat cause creatures within the affected area to become shaken for one round (Will negates, DC = 10 + 1/2 character level + mount's Str modifier). This shaken condition does not stack with itself, but does stack with fear effects from other sources.
TRAMPLING RUSH [Fighter, Style]
You can use your mount to trample foes.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 10th, Mounted Combat, Trample, Cavalry Fighting Style Benefit: If your mount is at least Large size, it gains the Trample special ability (see MM1 316 for details). It deals trample damage as normal for a slam attack of a creature of it size (see table 5-1 on MM1 296), unless it already has a better slam attack. It adds 1 1/2 times its Strength bonus to damage, as normal for a trample.
WILD COHORT, BESTIAL [Fighter, Style]
You can select a magical beast as your wild cohort.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 7th, Natural Bond, Wild Cohort, Cavalry Fighting Style Benefit: Add the following additional creatures to your list of available wild cohorts. The list below catalogues creatures from the Monster Manual that are suitable for use as mounts by Small or Medium creatures. At the DM's discretion, additional magical beasts from other Monster Manuals may be available. The DM may require you to fulfill specific in-game requirements before taking this feat, and may bar you from selecting specific wild cohorts that are inappopriate to the game.
4th Level or Higher (Level -3)
Blink Dog
Hippogriff
Krenshar
Worg
7th Level or Higher (Level -6)
Ankheg
Displacer Beast
Eagle, Giant
Griffon
Owl, Giant
Pegasus
Sea Cat
Unicorn
10th Level or Higher (Level -9)
Manticore
Sphinx, Hieracosphinx
Spider Eater
Winter Wolf
13th Level or Higher (Level -12)
Bulette
Chimera
Dragonne
Phase Spider
Sphinx, Criosphinx
16th Level or Higher (Level -15)
Roc
Sphinx, Androsphinx or Gynosphinx
Yrthak
Advancement: If you have the Mounted Combat feat, you can use Handle Animal to assist your magical beast mount with a saving throw at no penalty, despite the fact that it is not an animal.
WILD COHORT, DRACONIC [Fighter, Style]
You can select a dragon as your wild cohort.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 10th, Natural Bond, Wild Cohort, Speak Language (Draconic), Cavalry Fighting Style Benefit: Add the following additional creatures to your list of available wild cohorts. The list below catalogues creatures that are suitable for use as mounts by Small or Medium creatures. Alternately, you may gain a half-dragon cohort of a type you could normally obtain (for example, you could gain a half-dragon tiger, reducing your effective druid level by -6 as normal for a wild tiger cohort. Your wild cohort may have a maximum of one template, and cannot gain a template for which it does not qualify. The DM may require you to fulfill specific in-game requirements before taking this feat, and may bar you from selecting specific wild cohorts that are inappropriate to the game.
4th Level or Higher (Level -3)
Felldrake, Spitting
7th Level or Higher (Level -6)
Dracotaur
Dragonnel
Felldrake, Horned
Felldrake, Spiked
True dragon of CR 3-4
10th Level or Higher (Level -9)
Ambush Drake
True dragon of CR 5
13th Level or Higher (Level -12)
Elemental Drake, Air Drake
Elemental Drake, Ice Drake
Landwyrm, Plains Landwyrm
True dragon of CR 6-7
Wyvern
16th Level or Higher (Level -15)
Dragon Turtle
Elemental Drake, Smoke Drake
Elemental Drake, Water Drake
Landwyrm, Underdark Landwyrm
Rage Drake
True dragon of CR 8-9
19th Level or Higher (Level -18)
Dragon Eel
Elemental Drake, Earth Drake
Landwyrm, Forest Landwyrm
True dragon of CR 10-11
Advancement: If you have the Mounted Combat feat, you can use Handle Animal to assist your dragon mount with a saving throw at no penalty, despite the fact that it is not an animal.
WILD COHORT, EXOTIC [Fighter, Style]
You have an exotic, unusual wild cohort.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 6th, Natural Bond, Wild Cohort, Cavalry Fighting Style Benefit: You can acquire a cohort with any one of the following templates: celestial, dark, dungeonbred, fiendish, horrid, magebred, pseudonatural, or warbeast. Your wild cohort may have a maximum of one template, and cannot gain a template for which it does not qualify. At the DM's discretion, other templates with a level adjustment of no more than +2 may be available. The DM may require you to fulfill specific in-game requirements before taking this feat, and may bar you from selecting specific templates that are inappopriate to the game. Advancement: If you have the Mounted Combat feat, you can use Handle Animal to assist your wild cohort mount with a saving throw at no penalty, even if its template has changed its type to something other than animal.
WINDBURST CHARGE [Fighter, Style]
With your guidance your mount can move so fast that your passage generates tremendous winds.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 9th, Burst of Speed, Mounted Combat, Spirited Charge, Wild Cohort, Cavalry Fighting Style Benefit: When your mount uses Burst of Speed, you and your mount gain a 10% miss chance until the beginning of your next turn. Additionally, you can choose for the path of its movement and the spaces adjacent to this path to be subjected to severe wind conditions until the beginning of your next turn (see DMG 95 for details on the effects of wind conditions). Creatures pushed by the wind do not provoke attacks of opportunity for their involuntary movement. You and your mount are not affected by this wind, although any ranged attacks you make are affected. Advancement: If you have fighter level 13 or greater, the miss chance is 20% and the wind conditions are of windstorm strength instead.
If you have fighter level 17 or greater, the miss chance is 30% and the wind conditions are of hurricane strength instead.
WING CLIP [Fighter, Style]
You can use your mount's wings to perform aerial trips against flying opponents as it strafes by.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 8th, Deadly Charge, Wild Cohort, Cavalry Fighting Style Benefit: Whenever your mount performs an aerial charge, it can make a free trip attempt against one creature it threatens at any point during its charge. If it fails its trip attempt and is tripped in return, its charge is ruined and it begins falling as normal. Falling creatures do not provoke attacks of opportunity for their involuntary movement. Special: If your mount is capable of making wing buffet attacks, it does not provoke attacks of opportunity when attempting a wing clip. Advancement: If you have base attack bonus +12 or greater, you can guide your mount to make a second free trip attempt against the same or another creature during its charge.
If you have base attack bonus +18 or greater, you can guide your mount to make a third free trip attempt during its charge, against up to three total creatures.
WING CLIP, IMPROVED [Fighter, Style]
No opponent is safe from your wing clip maneuver.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 18th, Deadly Charge, Wild Cohort, Wing Clip, Cavalry Fighting Style Benefit: Your mount can use wing clip against every creature it threatens at any point during its charge. If it attempts to trip an opponent and fails, the opponent may not attempt to trip it in return. Special: If your mount is capable of making wing buffet attacks, it does not provoke attacks of opportunity when attempting a wing clip.
WINGED PARRY [Fighter, Style]
You can use your mount's wings to parry attacks while landbound.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 9th, Wild Cohort, Cavalry Fighting Style Benefit: With your guidance, your winged mount can weave its wings about in a vigorous defensive pattern that frustrates the aim of your foes. In any round where your mount elects not to fly or make wing buffet attacks, you and the mount gain concealment until the beginning of your next turn (this concealment cannot be used to hide). You both lose this benefit whenever your mount would be denied its Dexterity bonus to AC, or when it flies or performs a wing buffet.
Alternate Class Feature: Commanding Fighting Style
This alternate class feature replaces your weapon master fighting style with the commanding fighting style. Use this fighter ACF as a replacement for the marshal class.
COMMANDING FIGHTING STYLE Level: 1st. Replaces: If you select this class feature, you do not learn the weapon master fighting style. As such, you lose access to the extra class skills, proficiencies, key skill bonuses, bonus feats, and other benefits that provided by that style. Benefit: You gain the commanding fighting style, which is described below.
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A fighter who learns the commanding style is a general, a chieftain, a warlord, or an officer, skilled at marshaling troops in battle and able to lead from the front. A practitioner of the commanding fighting style inspires his companions to fight more effectively.
The commanding fighting style grants you Commanding Aura as a bonus feat. Additionally, choose any two of the following: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive. These skills are the key skills of your fighting style. They permanently become fighter class skills for you if you do not have them already, and your fighting style grants you additional benefits when using them as you advance in level.
Beginning at 2nd level, you become more proficient in using the key skills associated with your fighting style. You gain a +2 competence bonus in the use of these skills. You also gain your choice of Expert Aid or Supporting Strike as a bonus feat.
At 5th level, you gain Grant Move Action as a bonus feat.
At 9th level, the competence bonus granted by your fighting style increases to +5. You gain your choice of Final Stand or Inspire Awe as a bonus feat.
At 13th level, you gain Skill Mastery (as the daring outlaw ability) in the key skills of your fighting style. You gain your choice of either Improved Supporting Strike or Platoon Leader as a bonus feat.
At 17th level, the competence bonus granted by your fighting style increases to +10. You gain Inspire Legion as a bonus feat.
[STYLE] FEATS
These feats are meant for use with the commanding fighting style.
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BATTLEFIELD COMMANDER [Fighter, Style, Tactical]
You can best aid your allies and distract your foes when you have a clear view of the battle.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 6th, Expert Aid, Commanding Fighting Style Benefits: Battlefield Commander grants you the use of four tactical maneuvers. Whenever you make an Aid Another attempt against a foe you do not threaten, you can choose to claim one of these benefits instead of the normal benefit of Aid Another. Be on your guard: The flat-footed ally you're aiding is no longer flat-footed. I'm with you: The ally you're aiding draws comfort and reassurance from your steady presence and gains temporary hit points equal to its own character level. These temporary hit points last for one round. Stand with me: The ally you're aiding sheds one level of fear (panicked becomes frightened, frightened becomes shaken, or shaken is removed). Run you dogs: The foe you targeted is shaken for one minute (Will negates, DC = 10 + 1/2 character level + Charisma modifier). An opponent who successfully saves against this effect cannot be affected again for the remainder of the encounter. Advancement: If you have character level 10 or greater, an ally you aid with Be On Your Guard gains Uncanny Dodge for one round.
If you have character level 14 or greater, an ally you aid with Be On Your Guard also gains Improved Uncanny Dodge for one round.
COMBAT AURA, IMPROVED [Fighter, Style]
Your combat aura is unusually effective.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 2nd, Commanding Fighting Style Benefit: The bonus granted by your combat auras improves to +1 per three character levels you have.
COMMANDING AURA [Fighter, Style]
You can effectively command allies in your vicinity.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 1st, Commanding Fighting Style Benefit: You learn to project an aura similar to your combat aura that grants you and nearby allies a special benefit. You learn to project several auras that offer different benefits, but you may project only one commanding aura at a time. At first you know only a single commanding aura. You learn an additional commanding aura when you reach 3rd level in fighter, and every two levels thereafter.
Projecting a commanding aura is a swift action. The aura remains in effect until you use a swift action to dismiss it or until you activate a different combat aura. Activating an aura involves haranguing, ordering, directing, encouraging, cajoling, or calming allies. You size up enemies, allies, and the terrain, then gives allies the direction that they can use to do their best.
Unless otherwise noted, your commanding aura affects all allies (including yourself) within 60 feet who can hear you. Affected allies must have an Intelligence score of 3 or higher and be able to understand your language. Your aura is dismissed if you are dazed, unconscious, stunned, paralyzed, or otherwise unable to be heard and understood by your allies.
A commanding aura lets allies add your Charisma bonus to certain rolls. All bonuses granted by a commanding aura are circumstance bonuses that do not stack with each other. Commanding aura does not stack with the benefits of the Combat Aura class feature or the Aid Another action.
Accurate strike: bonus on rolls made to confirm critical hits.
Art of War: Bonus on disarm, trip, bull rush, and sunder attempts.
Demand Fortitude: Bonus on Fortitude saves.
Determined Caster: Bonus on rolls to overcome spell resistance.
Force of Will: Bonus on Will saves.
Master of Opportunity: Bonus to Armor Class against attacks of opportunity.
Master of Tactics: Bonus on damage rolls when flanking.
Motivate Charisma: Bonus on Charisma checks and Charisma-based skill checks.
Motivate Constitution: Bonus on Constitution checks and Constitution-based skill checks.
Motivate Dexterity: Bonus on Dexterity checks, Dexterity-based skill checks, and initiative checks.
Motivate Intelligence: Bonus on Intelligence checks and Intelligence-based skill checks.
Motivate Strength: Bonus on Strength checks and Strength-based skill checks.
Motivate Wisdom: Bonus on Wisdom checks and Wisdom-based skill checks.
Over the Top: Bonus on damage rolls when charging.
Watchful Eye: Bonus on Reflex saves.
DOMINEERING PRESENCE [Fighter, Style, Tactical]
You can manipulate allies and foes alike with your overbearing manner.
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Prerequisites: Intimidate 16 ranks, Fighter 13th, Platoon Leader or Improved Supporting Strike, True Grit, Commanding Fighting Style Benefit: Domineering Presence grants you the use of three tactical maneuvers. Whenever you make an Aid Another Attempt, you can choose to claim one of these benefits instead of the normal benefit of Aid Another. Stand down, or I will stand you down: The foe you targeted is either dazed or staggered for one round (Will partial, DC = 10 + 1/2 character level + Charisma modifier). An opponent who successfully saves against this effect cannot be affected again for the remainder of the encounter. Walk it off, soldier: Expend one use of True Grit to allow the ally you're aiding to reduce or negate a condition that True Grit could reduce or negate. Snap out of it: The ally you targeted gains a new saving throw against any one charm, confusion, dominate, or feeblemind effect current affecting it.
DUAL AURAS [Fighter, Style]
You can activate and maintain two auras at once.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 14th, Commanding Aura, Commanding Fighting Style Benefit: You can now maintain two combat auras at once. As a swift action, you may activate one or two auras that you know, and as a free action you may dismiss any or all of your active auras. If you activate a new aura while you already have two auras of that type in effect, you choose which of the existing auras is dismissed to make way for the new effect. Advancement: If you have fighter 18th, you can also maintain two commanding auras at once.
EXPERT AID [Fighter, Style]
You can aid and support your allies with a mere shouted command or phrase.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 2nd, Commanding Fighting Style Benefit: You may take 10 on Aid Another attempts, may make them at a range of up to 60 feet as long as you have line of sight to both your ally and your ally’s opponent, and finally may make them as a move action instead of, or in addition to, a standard action. Advancement: If you have character level 9th or higher, your Aid Another attempts grant a +5 bonus, and you may make Aid Another attempts as swift actions instead of, or in addition to, move actions or standard actions.
FINAL STAND [Fighter, Style]
You can inspire your troops to heroic effort.
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Prerequisites: Diplomacy 12 ranks, Fighter 9th, Commanding Fighting Style Benefit: You gain the ability to make Diplomacy check as a full-round action to inspire your allies to stand against all odds. You and a number of allies equal to your character level + your Charisma bonus gain a number of bonus hit points as shown on the chart below, to a maximum of 100% of their full normal hit points total. These temporary hit points last five minutes. Each time after the first that you successfully use this ability in a single 24-hour period, the check DC increases by 10.
Check Result
Bonus
30
2d10
40
4d10
50
6d10
60
8d10
70
10d10
80
12d10
GRANT MOVE ACTION [Fighter, Style]
You can direct and motivate your allies to act immediately.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 4th, Commanding Fighting Style Benefit: Once per day as a standard action, you may grant an extra move action to any or all of your allies (but not yourself) within 30 feet. Each affected ally takes this extra move action immediately, resolved in their current initiative order (this doesn’t change their initiative counts). You gain an additional use per day of this feat for each 4 additional character levels you gain above 4th.
INSPIRE AWE [Fighter, Style]
You can inspire uneasiness, fear, or even terror in your foes.
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Prerequisites: Combat Aura, Fighter 9th, Commanding Fighting Style Benefit: You can spend a standard action to inspire awe among foes within your combat aura. Affected enemies cannot benefit from any morale bonuses from effects while they remain within your aura (Will negates, DC = 10 + ½ your character level + your Charisma modifier). Your Inspire Awe lasts for one minute. Enemies who fail the save against it are automatically affected again if they exit and re-enter your aura, but no enemy subjected to your Inspire Awe need save against it more than once in a 24 hour period (subsequent attempts you make to Inspire Awe in them during this period automatically fail).
INSPIRE LEGION [Fighter, Style]
You can unite allies under your leadership to make them fight better.
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Prerequisites: Combat Aura (motivate ardor), Fighter 17th, Commanding Fighting Style Benefit: As a standard action, you direct and command your allies to excellence in battle. All allies within the range of your commanding aura use your base attack bonus instead of their own, if yours is higher. If your motivate ardor combat aura is active during this time, the bonus it provides increases by +1. These effects last for one minute.
LEAD FROM THE FRONT [Fighter, Style, Tactical]
You can best aid your allies and distract your foes when you're right in the middle of the action.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 6th, Supporting Strike, Commanding Fighting Style Benefits: Lead From the Front grants you the use of four tactical maneuvers. Whenever you make an Aid Another attempt following a successful supporting strike, you can choose to claim one of these benefits instead of the normal benefit of Aid Another. Get up, soldier: The ally you're aiding immediately stands from prone without provoking an attack of opportunity. Kick them while they're down: Until the beginning of your next turn, the enemy you struck must spend a full-round action rather than a standard action to stand from prone. Move it, soldier: The ally you're aiding can immediately take a free 5-foot step that does not count against his normal one-per-turn limit. Hold it right there: Until the beginning of your next turn, the enemy you struck cannot take 5-foot steps.
PLATOON LEADER [Fighter, Style]
You can skillfully direct the actions of a larger group of allies.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 13th, Expert Aid, Commanding Fighting Style Benefit: When you use Aid Another as a standard action, you can affect a number of allies within range equal to your Charisma bonus. You must give all allies the same benefit.
SUPPORTING STRIKE [Fighter, Style]
You can time your attacks to provide the best possible benefit to your allies.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 2nd, Commanding Fighting Style Benefit: Once per round when you succeed on a melee attack against an opponent that is engaging an ally in melee combat, you can make an Aid Another check as a free action to aid your ally. Advancement: If you have character level 9th or higher, your Aid Another attempts grant a +5 bonus.
SUPPORTING STRIKE, IMPROVED [Fighter, Style]
Your every attack is timed to maximize its benefit to your allies.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 13th, Supporting Strike, Commanding Fighting Style Benefit: You may take 10 on Aid Another attempts. You may use your supporting strike on any melee attack you make during your turn, rather than only once per round.
SUPREME COMMANDER [Fighter, Style]
Under your direction, even the rawest of recruits fights like an elite soldier.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 20th, Commanding Aura, Dual Auras Benefit: You can now maintain as many combat and commanding auras as you know simultaneously. As a swift action, you may activate any or all of the auras that you know.
Timely Orders [Fighter, Style]
When the unexpected occurs, you can bark out an order quickly enough to avert disaster or take advantage of an opportunity.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 11, Commanding Aura Benefit: As an immediate action, you can either make an Aid Another check or activate a single aura that you know. Advancement: If you have Countering Strike and the Improved Supporting Strike feat, you can declare your countering strike to be a supporting strike.
This alternate class feature replaces your weapon master fighting style with the cunning fighting style. Use this fighter ACF as a replacement for the thug and sneak attack variant fighter classes described in Unearthed Arcana.
CUNNING FIGHTING STYLE Level: 1st. Replaces: If you select this class feature, you do not gain proficiency with medium or heavy armor, nor do you learn the weapon master fighting style. As such, you lose access to the extra class skills, proficiencies, key skill bonuses, bonus feats, and other benefits that provided by that style. Benefit: You gain the cunning fighting style, which is described below.
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A fighter who practices the cunning fighting style may be a gladiator specializing in dirty tricks, a bounty hunter, or the muscle behind a thieves’ guild. His training emphasizes exploiting the weaknesses of others.
The cunning fighting style grants you Bluff, Gather Information, Knowledge (local), and Sleight of Hand as class skills, and 2 additional skill points at each level (multiplied by 4 at 1st level, as normal). You gain +1d6 sneak attack. Additionally, select any two of the following skills: Bluff, Gather Information, Knowledge (local), and Sleight of Hand. These skills are the key skills of your fighting style. Your fighting style grants you additional benefits when using them as you advance in level. Finally, the Urban Tracking feat is considered a fighter bonus feat for you.
Beginning at 2nd level, you become more proficient in using the key skills associated with your fighting style. You gain a +2 competence bonus in the use of these skills. You can use Bluff to feint or Sleight of Hand to steal something as a move action, and take only a -10 penalty when using sleight of hand to steal something as a swift action.
At 5th level, you gain your choice of +2d6 sneak attack or an [Ambush] feat for which you qualify.
At 9th level, the competence bonus granted by your fighting style increases to +5. You ruthlessly exploit your skill at theft and misdirection. You can now use Bluff to feint as a swift action, and take no penalty when using Sleight of Hand to steal something as a swift action.
At 13th level, you gain Skill Mastery (as the daring outlaw ability) in the key skills of your fighting style. You gain your choice of +2d6 sneak attack or an [Ambush] feat for which you qualify.
At 17th level, the competence bonus granted by your fighting style increases to +10. You gain your choice of +2d6 sneak attack or an [Ambush] feat for which you qualify.
A word about precision damage:
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Sneak attack. It defines the 3.5 rogue (and the fighter's cunning fighting style as well), but is also his Achilles heel: half of the monsters he'll face are immune to it, and all sorts of precision damage, sidelining the sneak-attacking far too often for the class to be playable. The cunning fighting style assumes a major change in the operating rules of the game: only oozes and swarms are immune to critical hits and precision damage; all other creature types have weaknesses to exploit, even if they're different than the weaknesses of most living, flesh-and-blood creatures. Embrace this change, and precision-based strikers will prosper. Under standard rules, precision damage is subpar.
[Ambush] Feats
[Ambush] feats are excellent choices for fighters who practice the cunning fighting style.
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ARTERIAL STRIKE [Ambush]
Your sneak attacks target blood vessels, leaving wounds that cause massive blood loss.
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Prerequisite: Sneak attack +2d6, base attack bonus +4. Benefit: If you hit with a sneak attack, you deliver a wound that won't stop bleeding. Each wound caused in this manner saps an extra 2 points of damage per round from the victim at the beginning of each of your turns, until the victim receives the benefit of a DC 15 Heal check or any cure spell or other magical healing. Wounds from multiple arterial strikes result in cumulative bleeding loss (two successful arterial strikes cause an extra 4 points of damage per round until healed).
An opponent who suffers 4 or more points of bleeding damage from this feat becomes fatigued. An opponent who suffers 12 or more points of bleeding damage from this feat becomes exhausted. Special: Using this feat reduces your sneak attack damage by 1d6.
BLINDING STRIKE [Ambush]
Your stealthy attack leaves your foe’s head ringing.
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Prerequisite: Sneak attack +2d6. Benefit: Your successful sneak attack causes the target to be blinded for 3 rounds per sneak attack die that you forfeit. Special: If you forfeit three sneak attack dice when using this feat, the target is blinded permanently (although the blindness can still be healed by spells such as remove blindness).
CONCUSSION ATTACK [Ambush]
Your attacks can damage your opponent’s ability to think clearly.
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Prerequisite: Sneak attack +3d6. Benefit: Your successful sneak attack imposes a –2 penalty per two dice of sneak attack you forfeit, applied to the target’s mental ability checks, mental skill checks, and spell save DCs, for 10 rounds. If you use this feat a second time on a target before 10 rounds have elapsed, the effects overlap but do not stack. Special: Using this feat reduces your sneak attack damage by 2d6 per -2 penalty you choose to inflict.
DEAFENING STRIKE [Ambush]
Your stealthy attack leaves your foe’s head ringing.
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Prerequisite: Sneak attack +2d6. Benefit: Your successful sneak attack causes the target to be deafened for 3 rounds per sneak attack die that you forfeit. Special: If you forfeit three sneak attack dice when using this feat, the target is deafened permanently (although the deafness can still be healed by spells such as remove deafness).
DETERRING STRIKE[Ambush]
You can deliver strikes that appear to be much more deadly than they are, cowing your opponent into a timid response.
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Prerequisite: Sneak attack +2d6 Benefit: Your successful sneak attack grants you a +1 bonus on all saving throws against that foe's abilities and causes the opponent to suffer a 10% miss chance against you, per sneak attack die that you forfeit. This effect lasts until the beginning of your next turn.
DISEMBOWELING STRIKE [Ambush]
You can slash open your opponent to devastating effect.
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Prerequisite: Sneak attack +3d6, Weapon Focus (any slashing weapon). Benefit: Your successful sneak attack with a slashing weapon for which you have selected Weapon Focus deals 1d4 points of Constitution damage per two sneak attack dice that you forfeit, in addition to its normal damage. You can’t use this feat against the same target more than once per day.
ELDRITCH EROSION [Ambush]
Your attack can weaken your foe’s resistance to magic.
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Prerequisite: Sneak attack +4d6, Knowledge (arcana) 1 rank. Benefit: Your successful sneak attack gives the target a -3 penalty on saving throws against spells, spell-like abilities, and psionic powers, and a -5 penalty to its spell resistance and power resistance (minimum 0) per three sneak attack dice that you forfeit for 10 rounds.
HAMSTRING [Ambush]
You can wound your opponents' legs, hampering their movement.
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Prerequisite: Sneak attack +3d6, base attack bonus +4. Benefit: If you hit with a sneak attack, you may forfeit two dice of sneak attack to reduce one of your opponent’s speeds by half (such as flying, swimming, etc.). This speed reduction ends after 24 hours have passed or a successful DC 15 Heal check or the application of any cure spell or other magical healing is made. Creature that do not rely on limbs to move, or that have more than four locomotive limbs, can’t be slowed down with a hamstring attack. It takes two successful hamstring attacks to affect quadrupeds. Special: Using this feat reduces your sneak attack damage by 2d6 per -2 penalty you choose to inflict.
HEAD SHOT [Ambush]
By striking at your opponent’s head, you can temporarily disrupt his thought processes.
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Prerequisite: Sneak attack +2d6, Weapon Focus (any bludgeoning weapon). Benefit: Your successful sneak attack with a bludgeoning weapon for which you have selected Weapon Focus leaves your foe confused for 1 round per sneak attack die you sacrifice. A successful Will save (DC 10 + the number of extra damage dice normally dealt by your sneak attack + your Dex modifier) reduces the duration to 1 round. Special: You must be able to reach your foe’s head to use this feat with a melee attack.
MIND DRAIN [Ambush]
Your attack can weaken your opponent’s mental powers.
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Prerequisite: Power point reserve, sneak attack +3d6. Benefit: Your successful sneak attack drains power points from your target equal to its manifester level (minimum 1), and you gain the points drained. If this attack reduces your target to 0 power points, the opponent also loses any psionic focus. A target can only be affected by this feat once per round. Special: Using this feat reduces your sneak attack damage by 2d6.
PERSISTENT ATTACKER [Ambush]
Once you find a target’s weak point, you can easily strike it again.
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Prerequisite: Sneak attack +2d6. Benefit: If your sneak attack hits, your first attack against that creature on your next turn is also considered a sneak attack even if it wouldn’t normally qualify. Special: Using this feat reduces your sneak attack damage by 1d6.
THROAT PUNCH [Ambush]
By making a precise punch to the throat, you can render a target unable to speak effectively.
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Prerequisite: Improved Unarmed Strike, sneak attack +2d6. Benefit: Your successful sneak attack delivered with an unarmed strike temporarily hinders the target’s ability to speak. For the next 3 rounds per sneak attack die that you forfeited, the target takes a –5 penalty on any skill check requiring speech and has a 50% chance of failure when casting a spell with a verbal component or activating a magic item with a command word. A successful DC 15 Heal check or the application of any cure spell or other magical healing will remove the condition. Special: You must be able to reach your foe’s neck to use this feat. If you forfeit three sneak attack dice when using this feat, the target is voice is impaired permanently (although treatment as described above can still remove the condition).
Other Feats
Additional feats useful for this fighting style.
Note: This area needs more development. Suggestions are appreciated.
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MERCIFUL STRIKE [General]
You can strike a creature’s vital areas without killing it.
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Prerequisite: Sneak attack ability. Benefit: Your successful sneak attack deals nonlethal damage. When using this feat, you can ignore the usual –4 penalty on attack rolls for attempting to deal nonlethal damage with a lethal weapon.
PRACTICED CUTTHROAT [Fighter, General]
Your sneak attack is especially deadly.
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Prerequisite: Sneak attack +2d6 or greater. Benefit: Your sneak attack improves by an additional +2d6. This benefit can't increase your number of sneak attack dice to greater than half your Hit Dice. However, even if you can't benefit from the full bonus immediately, if you later gain Hit Dice from levels of classes that don’t progress your sneak attack, you might be able to apply the rest of the bonus. Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Its effects stack. To benefit from Practiced Cutthroat, you must have sneak attack of +2d6 or greater. If you lose it (for example, if you qualified through the Assassin Stance and you switch to a different stance), Practiced Cutthroat stops working and provides no benefit until you regain a sneak attack of +2d6 or greater.
VORPAL STRIKE [Ambush, Fighter, General]
If you catch your opponent off-guard, you can deliver a vicious decapitating strike.
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Prerequisites: Sneak attack +7d6 or greater, Arterial Strike, Persistent Attacker, Staggering Strike, base attack bonus +16 or greater Benefit: As a full-round action, you can deliver a vorpal strike against a foe whom you damaged with a sneak attack on the previous round. Your opponent takes 2d6 Constitution damage in addition to sneak attack damage and normal damage from the blow, and must make a Will save. On a failed save (DC = 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Dexterity modifier), the victim is stunned and nauseated for one round; on a successful save, the victim is merely nauseated. Regardless, the victim must also make a Fortitude save (DC = 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Dexterity modifier). On a failed save, the hapless fellow is also disabled and staggered; with a successful save, he is merely staggered. These latter conditions last until all the Constitution damage dealt by the vorpal strike has been healed. Naturally, the victim also receives a bleeding wound from your Arterial Strike.
Any victim slain outright by your vorpal strike is decapitated, and cannot be brought back to life with any magic that requires an intact corpse, such as raise dead. Special: Creatures that are immune to precision damage (e.g. gelatinous cube), lack a definable head (e.g. shrieker), or who are not slain by the loss of all heads (e.g. ghost, iron golem), are not subject to a vorpal strike.
Alternate Class Feature: Disciplined Fighting Style
This alternate class feature replaces your weapon master fighting style with the disciplined fighting style. Use this fighter ACF as a replacement for the samurai classes from Complete Warrior, Oriental Adventures, and the Rokugan Sourcebook.
DISCIPLINED FIGHTING STYLE Level: 1st. Replaces: If you select this class feature, you do not learn the weapon master fighting style. As such, you lose access to the extra class skills, proficiencies, key skill bonuses, bonus feats, and other benefits that provided by that style. Benefit: You gain the disciplined fighting style, which is described below.
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As a fighter of the disciplined style, you embrace a strict, rigorous lifestyle. Learning to use your ki to perfect yourself and disrupt your enemy, you’re more concerned about the weapon you are than the weapons you wield.
A practitioner of the disciplined fighting style gains Ancestral Daisho and Combat Focus as bonus feats. Additionally, select any two of the following skills: Concentration, Iaijutsu Focus, Intimidate, Sense Motive, and Spot. These skills are the key skills of your fighting style. Your fighting style grants you additional benefits when using them as you advance in level.
Beginning at 2nd level, you become more proficient in using the key skills associated with your fighting style. You gain a +2 competence bonus in the use of these skills. You also gain your choice of Kiai Smite or any Combat Form feat as a bonus feat.
At 5th level, you gain Staredown as a bonus feat.
At 9th level, the competence bonus granted by your fighting style increases to +5. You gain Mass Staredown as a bonus feat.
At 13th level, you gain Skill Mastery (as the daring outlaw ability) in the key skills of your fighting style. You gain your Frightful Presence as a bonus feat.
At 17th level, the competence bonus granted by your fighting style increases to +10. You gain your choice of Power Surge or Withstand as a bonus feat.
[STYLE] FEATS
These [Style] feats are meant for use with the disciplined fighting style.
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ANCESTRAL DAISHO [Fighter, Style]
You possess a pair of extraordinary weapons whose illustrious history is matched only by the purity of their form. As your discipline grows, your weapons awaken and become potent magical items.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 1st, Disciplined Combat Style Benefit: All fighters of the disciplined style begin play with two masterwork weapons -- typically a katana and wakizashi (bastard sword and shortsword) or a katana and dai-kyu (composite longbow), although other weapons are possible. These are weapons that belonged to the fighter's ancestors, and protecting these weapons is the most important point of honor for a fighter of the disciplined style. As he acquires experience through adventuring, he has the option of awakening the supernatural abilities latent in the weapons.
At any time, the fighter may enter a period of intense meditation and prayer in order to awaken the ancestral spirits in one of his weapons. This requires the fighter to invest a bit of his own soul in the weapon, investing his own experience points as shown on the chart below. The character must spend one day in meditation per 40 xp spent, and must spend at least 8 hours per day contemplating the weapon, pausing neither to rest nor eat (the time and xp required are the same as for creating an equivalent magic item via the Craft Arms and Armor feat, but without the gold cost).
The values listed are the total cost required; if the character is merely upgrading an existing weapon, he pays the difference in cost.
If the fighter wishes to remove a power invested in his weapon (perhaps for the purpose of replacing it with a different ability) he may do so by meditating over the weapon for eight hours. The selected power is lost, and the experience invested to provide the power is refunded.
Maximum Weapon Bonus
Maximum GP Value
Experience Sacrifice
Minimum Character Level
+1
2,000
80
4th
+2
8,000
320
7th
+3
18,000
720
9th
+4
32,000
1,280
11th
+5
50,000
2,000
13th
+6*
72,000
2,880
14th
+7*
98,000
3,920
15th
+8*
128,000
5,120
16th
+9*
162,000
6,480
17th
+10*
200,000
8,000
18th
*A weapon can't actually have a bonus higher than +5, but can be granted special abilities that have a bonus-equivalent value.
A fighter who loses an ancestral weapon is shamed, and must attempt to recover them. If his ancestral weapons are destroyed, he may enchant other ancestral weapons of his family, provided they are available (this may require a quest or adventure to locate and acquire such weapons). He cannot enchant any other weapons in this way. Likewise, the magic invested in the weapons does not function for anyone except him or his close allies. The DM and player of the fighter should work together closely to ensure that this feat is neither abused (such as by the PC attempting to sell ancestral weapons for profit), nor made to a be a hindrance to the character (such as by the DM creating no-win scenarios in which the character's weapons are repeatedly lost, destroyed, or stolen despite his best efforts to safeguard them).
FRIGHTFUL PRESENCE [Fighter, Style]
Your mere presence on the battlefield can terrify your foes and send them fleeing for their lives.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 13th, Disciplined Fighting Style Benefit: The first time you draw your blade during an encounter, opponents within 60 feet must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 character level + your Charisma modifier) or become panicked for 1 minute (if they have fewer than half or your Hit Dice total) or shaken for 1 minute (if they have half or more of your Hit Dice total). Any foe that successfully resist the effect cannot be affected again by the same disciplined fighter's frightful presence for 24 hours.
KIAI SMITE [Fighter, Style]
You can give a great shout during combat that invigorates your attacks.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 2nd, Disciplined Fighting Style Benefit: Once per day as a free action, you can make a kiai shout. When you do so, your next attack in that same round is improved: you gain a bonus on the attack roll equal to your Charisma bonus and a bonus on the damage roll equal to your character level. Your kiai smite is initially usable only once per day. You gain an additional daily use at fighter level 4th, and every four levels thereafter.
POWER SURGE [Fighter, Style]
Your strict battle discipline allows you to focus your ki to achieve superhuman feats of strength.
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Prerequisites: Concentration 20 ranks, Fighter 17th, Disciplined Fighting Style Benefit: You gain the ability to make Concentration check as a move action to focus your energy and spirit. You gain a competence bonus to Strength as shown on the chart below. The bonus lasts one minute. Each time after the first that you successfully use this ability in a single 24-hour period, the check DC increases by 5.
Check Result
Bonus
50
+6
60
+8
70
+10
STAREDOWN [Fighter, Style]
Even a glance from your hard-eyed gaze is enough to give opponents pause.
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Prerequisite: Fighter level 5th, Disciplined Fighting Style Benefit: You can use Intimidate to demoralize opponents as a move action, with a range of up to 30 feet.
STAREDOWN, MASS [Fighter, Style]
Your presence is sufficient to cow multiple foes.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 9th, Staredown, Disciplined Fighting Style Benefit: When you use Intimidate to demoralize, you can attempt to demoralize all opponents within 30 feet.
WITHSTAND [Fighter, Style]
Your strict battle discipline allows you to react with perfect focus when threatened by area damage effects.
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Prerequites: Concentration 20 ranks, Fighter 17th, Disciplined Fighting Style Benefit: When you are forced to make a Reflex save to avoid harm or inconvience from an area effect (such as freezing fog spell or a dragon's breath), you can make a Concentration check instead of a Reflex save; success allows you to ignore all harmful effects of the source (such as damage, status effects, penalties, movement restrictions, etc, but not impaired vision if the effect obscures vision).
[COMBAT FORM] FEATS
First introduced in Player's Handbook 2, [Combat Form] feats are a mainstay for most fighters of the disciplined fighting style.
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COMBAT ADJUSTMENT [Combat Form, Fighter]
You use your combat focus to ensure that you're never in the right place at the wrong time.
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Prerequisites: Dex 13, Combat Focus, Evasive Reflexes, Fighter level 2nd Benefit: While maintaining your combat focus, you may take a 5-foot step as an immediate action. You are considered to have used your 5-foot step for the current turn, or for the next turn if it is not currently your turn. As normal for a 5-foot step, you can't move during for the remainder of this turn, or during your next turn if it is not currently your turn. If you use this ability to interrupt an attack aimed at you, the attack typically fails unless it is an area attack whose area includes your new location. Expend: You may expend your combat focus as an immediate action to take a full move action. Advancement: If you have three combat focus feats and base attack +6 or greater, using Combat Adjustment to take a 5-foot step does not count against your limit of one 5-foot step per turn.
If you have eight combat focus feats and base attack +12 or greater, using Combat Adjustment to take a 5-foot step does not restrict your ability to use your move actions to move.
COMBAT AWARENESS [Combat Form, Fighter]
When you maintain your combat focus, you have an uncanny ability to sense the ebb and flow of your opponent's vitality. As you attain greater mastery of this fighting style, you learn to sense a foe's presence even with your eyes closed.
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Prerequisites: Wis 13, Blind-Fight, Combat Focus, base attack bonus +8 Benefit: While maintaining your combat focus, you learn the current hit point total of each adjacent opponent and ally, and gain a competence bonus to Sense Motive checks equal to the number of Combat Form feats you possess. Advancement: If you have three or more combat form feats, you gain blindsight out to 5 feet.
If you have eight or more combat form feats, your blindsight and awareness of hit point totals extends out to 30 feet, and you may reroll your miss chance once when attacking incorporeal creatures with melee or ranged weapons.
COMBAT DEFENSE [Combat Form, Fighter]
The state of keen focus and mental discipline you attain in combat allows you to ward away even glancing touches with careful, precise maneuvers.
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Prerequisites: Dex 13, Wis 13, Combat Focus, Dodge, base attack bonus +6 Benefit: While you maintain your combat focus, you add your armor bonus to Armor Class to your touch AC. You lose this bonus whenever you are denied your dodge bonus to AC. Expend: On your turn as a free action, you can expend your combat focus to gain a 20% miss chance until the beginning of your next turn. Advancement: If you have eight or more combat form feats, you gain 50% miss chance when expending your combat focus.
COMBAT DISCIPLINE [Combat Form, Fighter]
Your knowledge of arcana and your incredible martial discipline allows you to shrug off hostile magic.
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Prerequisites: Wis 13, Knowledge (arcana) 9, Spellcraft 9, Combat Focus, Mage Slayer, any one other Combat Form feat, base attack bonus +15 or greater. Benefit: While you maintain your combat focus, you gain spell resistance equal to 10 + your character level. Expend: You can expend your combat focus as an immediate action to negate the effects of any spell or spell-like ability aimed at you specifically. If the spell targets you and other creatures, the effect is negated only for you. This ability is not useful against area spells that happen to include you in their effect. Advancement: If you have eight or more Combat Form feats, your spell resistance improves to 15 + your character level.
COMBAT FOCUS [Combat Form, Fighter]
The way of the warrior requires more than simple, brute strength. Some warriors bring their minds to such keen focus during the heat of battle that they can attain superhuman levels of endurance, perception, and mental toughness. Through intense mental exercise and training, you learn to enter a state of perfect martial clarity.
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Prerequisite: Wis 13 Benefit: In battle, you push aside the chaos of the fight and attain a focused state that grants you a keen, clear picture of the battle. Fear and pain ebb away as you focus solely on defeating your enemy. The first time you make a successful attack during an encounter, you gain your combat focus. In this state, your mind and body become one, allowing you to overcome mundane physical limits. You can maintain your combat focus for 10 rounds after entering it, +1 additional round per combat form feat you possess aside from this one. You can only gain your combat focus once per encounter.
While you are maintaining your combat focus, you gain a +2 bonus on Will saves. Expend: You can expend your combat focus whenever you roll a natural 1 on a Will save to instead treat the result as a natural 20. This does not require an action. Advancement: If you have three or more combat form feats, this bonus increases to +4.
If you also have fighter level 3rd and the Disciplined Fighting Style Class feature, you can gain your combat focus any number of times per encounter, but only once per round. The first time you make a successful attack during a round, you gain your combat focus.
COMBAT GUARDIAN [Combat Form, Fighter]
With strict vigilance and careful defensive maneuvers, you ward away attacks meant for your allies.
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Prerequisites: Wis 13, Combat Expertise, Combat Focus, Combat Reflexes, base attack bonus +3 Benefit: While you maintain your combat focus, you can choose at the beginning of each of your turns to waive the normal benefits of Combat Expertise and instead apply one-half the AC bonus from your Combat Expertise feat as a shield bonus for all allies within your reach. Allies must remain within your reach to continue receiving the bonus, and lose it if you become dazed, helpless, paralyzed, stunned, or otherwise unable to take actions, or if you expend your combat focus. Expend: As an immediate action, you can expend your combat focus to parry an attack against an ally within your reach. Make an attack roll with a bonus equal to the number of Combat Form feats you have. Your ally may substitute your attack roll total for his AC against that attack if he desires. Advancement: If you have at least three Combat Form feats, you do not need to waive the normal benefits of Combat Expertise in order to protect your allies.
COMBAT PSYCHIC [Combat Form, Fighter, Psionic]
Your natural psychic talent enhances your ability to focus your mind and body during combat.
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Prerequisites: Wis 13, Combat Focus, Psionic Meditation, Concentration 7 ranks, base attack bonus +4 Benefit: While maintaining your combat focus, you gain a +2 bonus on Concentration checks made to regain your psionic focus. If you have not previously gained your combat focus during this combat round, you can expend your psionic focus to gain your combat focus. This does not require an action. Expend: If you have not previously gained your psionic focus this round, you can expend your combat focus as a swift action to become psionically focused. Once you do so, you cannot regain your combat focus or psionic focus again until the beginning of your next turn. Advancement: If you have at least three Combat Form feats, you instead gain a +4 bonus on Concentration checks made to regain your psionic focus.
COMBAT SPEED [Combat Form, Fighter]
With intense focus, you time your movement and attacks to maximize your momentum, bouncing from target to target with tremendous speed.
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Prerequisites: Wis 13, Combat Focus, and either Flyby Attack, Swim-by Attack, or Spring Attack. Benefit: Whenever you use Flyby Attack, Swim-by Attack, or Spring Attack while you are maintaining your combat focus, you gain a +10 bonus to your speed for each combat form feat you have, up to a maximum of your current speed. Expend: You can expend your combat focus as a swift action to move up to your speed. You do not gain the Combat Speed bonus to your speed for this movement, since you have already expended your combat focus.
COMBAT STABILITY [Combat Form, Fighter]
When you maintain your combat focus, you become difficult to dislodge. Your muscles lock into an unyielding position, granting you superior ability to resist trip attacks, bull rushes, disarms, and similar effects.
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Prerequisites: Wis 13, Combat Focus, base attack bonus +3 Benefit: While you maintain your combat focus, you gain a +4 bonus on checks or rolls to resist bull rush, disarm, grapple, overrun, and trip attempts made against you. Advancement: If you have three or more combat form feats, the bonus granted by this feat increases to +8.
If you have eight or more combat form feats, the bonus granted increases to +12.
COMBAT STRIKE [Combat Form, Fighter]
Your intense, focused state allows you to see the smallest of errors in the forms and styles of others. You automatically adjust your form to correct for your own errors, or, by pouring the energy required to maintain your combat focus into your assault, you batter through your foe's defenses.
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Prerequisites: Wis 13, Combat Focus, any two other combat form feats, base attack bonus +12 Benefit: As a swift action, you can expend your combat focus to gain a bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls equal to your total number of combat form feats for the rest of your current turn. You immediately lose all benefits of combat form feats that affect you only while you are maintaining your combat focus.
COMBAT TEMPO [Combat Form, Fighter]
When your enemy seems to have outlasted you and countered all of your tricks and techniques, you can call on reserves of strength within yourself and pull off a few more surprises.
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Prerequisites: Wis 13, Combat Focus, Martial Study, base attack bonus +6 Benefit: If you have a refresh method for your martial maneuvers, you can activate your refresh method to gain your combat focus, although you do not refresh any maneuvers when you do this. Refresh methods granted by feats (such as Adaptive Style, Combat Tempo, Psychic Renewal, or Sudden Recovery) cannot be used for this purpose. You can gain your combat focus a maximum of once per round. Expend: You can expend your combat focus as a swift action to refresh a martial maneuver, even if your maneuvers do not normally possess a refresh mechanic (this maneuver is immediately granted, if applicable). Advancement: If you have at least 3 combat form feats, you can expend your combat focus as a standard action to refresh all of your maneuvers, even if your maneuvers do not normally possess a refresh mechanic (you receive new granted maneuvers, if applicable).
If you have at least 8 combat form feats, you can expend your combat focus as a full-round action to refresh and reselect all of your maneuvers, even if your maneuvers do not normally possess a refresh mechanic (you receive new granted maneuvers, if applicable).
COMBAT VIGOR [Combat Form, Fighter]
When you maintain your combat focus, your clarity of purpose and relentless drive allow you to overcome your body's frailties. Minor wounds heal in a matter of seconds, and you quickly recover from even a grievous blow.
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Prerequisites: Wis 13, Combat Focus, base attack bonus +9 Benefit: While you maintain your combat focus, you gain fast healing equal to the number of Combat Form feats you have, including this one. You lose this benefit when your combat focus ends.
GOD OF WAR [Combat Form, Fighter]
When you enter your combat focus, you become a relentless, flawless killing machine.
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Prerequisites: Combat Focus, six other Combat Form feats, Fighter level 18th Benefit: While maintaining your combat focus, you roll twice and take the better result on all attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. Expend: You may expend your combat focus when making a critical confirmation roll or saving throw to treat the roll as a natural 20. This does not require an action. Special: Expending your focus as described above is tiring. You may not regain your focus until the beginning of your next turn, even if you normally could regain your focus sooner.
STEP BETWEEN HEARTBEATS [Combat Form, Fighter]
In a flash, you draw your blade and spring across the battlefield, leaving a line of hacked and mangled victims in your wake.
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Prerequisites: Wis 13, Jump 12 ranks, Base attack bonus +9 or greater, Combat Focus, Combat Speed, and either Flyby Attack, Spring Attack, or Swim-by Attack Benefit: As a full-round action, expend your Combat Focus to move up to double your speed in a straight line. You move without provoking attacks of opportunity, bounding and leaping across whatever surfaces are available without regard to whether they would normally support your weight, or simply soaring unsupported if no surfaces are available. You may move through spaces occupied by your opponents, although you may not end your movement in such a space. You cannot pass through obstacles that would normally bar your passage, and you take damage appropriately if you pass through a hazardous environment (e.g. a blade barrier or a burning building). If you wish, you may draw a weapon as part of this movement, just as you are entitled to do when moving normally. Special: Using Step Between Heartbeats is strenuous. Once you expend your Combat Focus to use this ability, you cannot regain it until the beginning of your next turn, even if you could normally regain it sooner. Advancement: If you have Jump 18 ranks and base attack bonus +15 or greater, you may make a single attack at your highest base attack bonus against each foe whose space you pass through. Enemies are flat-footed against these attacks if you did not threaten them before beginning the action. If you are attacking with a weapon drawn as part of this movement, you are entitled to use Iaijutsu Focus against each flat-footed opponent.
This alternate class feature replaces your weapon master fighting style with the watchful fighting style. This fighting style does not correspond to any pre-existing class.
WATCHFUL FIGHTING STYLE Level: 1st. Replaces: If you select this class feature, you do not learn the weapon master fighting style. As such, you lose access to the extra class skills, proficiencies, key skill bonuses, bonus feats, and other benefits that provided by that style. Benefit: You gain the watchful fighting style, which is described below.
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The elite bodyguard, the tireless sentry, the seasoned master of the city watch, all are fighters who practice the watchful fighting style. The watchful fighting style focuses on protecting others through alertness and defensive techniques.
A fighter of the watchful style gains Defensive Stance as a bonus feat. Additionally, select any two of the following skills: Intimidate, Listen, Sense Motive, and Spot. These skills are the key skills of your fighting style. They permanently become fighter class skills for you if you do not have them already, and your fighting style grants you additional benefits when using them as you advance in level.
Beginning at 2nd level, you become more proficient in using the key skills associated with your fighting style. You gain a +2 competence bonus in the use of these skills. You also gain Uncanny Dodge as a bonus feat.
At 5th level, you gain Improved Uncanny Dodge as a bonus feat.
At 9th level, the competence bonus granted by your fighting style increases to +5. You gain light fortification. This stacks with fortification from other sources.
At 13th level, you gain Skill Mastery (as the daring outlaw ability) in the key skills of your fighting style. You gain Stable Stance as a bonus feat.
At 17th level, the competence bonus granted by your fighting style increases to +10. You gain medium fortification. This stacks with fortification from other sources.
[STYLE] FEATS
These feats are meant for use with the watchful fighting style.
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ARMORED MENACE [Fighter]
You can use your armor and shield to make yourself an obstacle on the battlefield.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 2nd, Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: While wearing heavy armor and wielding a shield, you can choose to adopt an imposing posture as a swift action. While in your imposing posture, you occupy the space of a creature one size larger than you (although you acquire none of the other benefits or drawbacks of being larger), and opponents cannot make overrun attempts against you or attempt to tumble through squares you occupy. You can dismiss your imposing posture as a free action. Advancement: If you have base attack +11 or greater, then while in your imposing posture, you may consider yourself one size larger than normal whenever it would be advantageous to do so.
CARELESS RAGE [Fighter, Style]
You know how to exploit the openings offered by an angry opponent.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 12th, Infuriating Strike, Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: Whenever an infuriated opponent (that is, an opponent affected by your challenging gaze or infuriating strike) attacks you, that opponent provokes an attack of opportunity from you after completing the attack (regardless of whether the attack was a hit or a miss).
CHALLENGING GAZE [Fighter, Style]
When the lust for battle is in your eyes, foes find themselves eager to cross blades with you.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 8th, Infuriating Strike Benefit: You gain a gaze attack with a range of 30 feet, which you can activate or deactivate as a swift action. Gaze attacks are described in more detail on DMG p.294. Foes meeting your gaze must save or be infuriated as per the Infuriating Strike feat (Will negates, DC = 10 + 1/2 character level + Charisma modifier). If you use your gaze in a non-combat situation, such as during tense negotiations or at a state dinner, targets will still be affected, but may choose to confront you in a non-violent manner, such as shouting vigorous insults at you. It will be obvious to all observers that you provoked the confrontation; you cannot use challenging gaze in a subtle fashion. Challenging gaze is a mind-affecting extraordinary ability, even though gaze attacks are normally supernatural. Advancement: If you have the Ghost Scarred feat (LM 27), then incorporeal undead are not protected from your challenging gaze by their normal immunity to mind-affecting effects.
If you have the Vampire Hunter feat (LM 31), then vampires and vampire spawn are not protected from your challenging gaze by their normal immunity to mind-affecting effects.
DANGER SENSE [Fighter, Style]
You are always see trouble coming before it arrives.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 16th, Blind Fight, Sixth Sense, Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: You are immune to surprise. Advancement: If you have Superior Sixth Sense, you gain a surprise round when combat starts regardless of whether you have been noticed. A creature that notices you is still treated as flat-footed during this round.
DEFENSIVE STANCE [Fighter, Style]
You can assume a highly effective defensive stance a certain number of times per day.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 1st, Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: Once per encounter when you declare you are fighting defensively or taking the total defense action, you may enter a defensive stance (this does not require an action). For as long as you continue to fight defensively or take the total defense action, you gain +6 Strength, +4 Constitution, a +2 competence bonus on all saves, and a +2 competence bonus to Armor Class. While in your defensive stance, you must fight defensively or take total defense every round (which means you cannot run, charge, or take a double move), and you cannot perform any actions other than movement that might provoke an attack of opportunity (such as spellcasting, drinking a potion, attempting a bull rush or overrun, etc). You also cannot use Power Attack or any item creation or metamagic feats.
Your defensive stance lasts five minutes, unless you choose to end it sooner. If you fail to fight defensively or take full defense in a round, your defensive stance also ends. At the end of your defensive stance, you are winded: for five minutes you take a -2 penalty to Strength and cannot activate defensive stance again. Your defensive stance is initially usable only once per day. You gain an additional daily use at fighter level 4th, and every four levels thereafter. Advancement: If you have character level 11 or higher, your defensive stance instead grants you +8 Strength, +6 Constitution, and a +3 competence bonus to all saves and to your AC.
If you have character level 20 or higher, your defensive stance instead grants you +10 Strength, +8 Constitution, and a +4 competence bonus to all saves and to your AC.
HAMPERING STRIKE [Fighter, Style]
Your strikes hamper your foes and put them on the defensive.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 4th, Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: As a swift action, you can declare the next attack you make this round to be a hampering strike. When you make a hampering strike with a weapon you are wielding (or with an unarmed strike or natural weapon), your opponent is hampered and distracted by your efforts, taking a -2 penalty on attack rolls and save DCs against all of its opponents other than you. Against you, it takes a -2 penalty to its AC and saving throws. This effect lasts for three rounds. Advancement: If you have base attack +6 or greater and deliver a hampering strike to an opponent you have already hampered, the duration of the hampering is reset and the penalties stack, up to a maximum of -4.
If you have base attack +11 or greater, the maximum penalty stacking increases to -6.
If you have base attack +16 or greater, the maximum penalty stacking increases to -8.
If you have the Countering Strike class feature, you do not need to expend a swift action to declare your countering strike to be a hampering strike.
HEALTHY SKEPTICISM [Fighter, Style]
You tend not to believe what you see.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 1st, Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: You gain an automatic Will saving throw against any illusion that allows a save. As long as you see, hear, smell, or otherwise experience the illusion with any of your senses, you are entitled a saving throw. If you fail this saving throw, you may gain a second one when you fully interact with the illusion, as normal. You are not necessarily even aware that you are making a save unless you succeed; the roll should be made in secret by the DM.
HEALTHY SKEPTICISM, IMPROVED [Fighter, Style]
You are almost impossible to fool with illusions.
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Prerequisites: Con 13, Fighter 9th, Blind Fight, Healthy Skepticism, Mage Slayer, Pierce Magical Concealment, Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: You gain an automatic Will saving throw against all illusion effects of the figment and glamer subschools, regardless of whether you would normally be entitled to a saving throw. On a successful save, you determine the illusionary nature of the effect. This allows you to ignore the effects of spells such as displacement, mirror image, invisibility, etc..
INFURIATING STRIKE [Fighter, Style]
Your strikes infuriate your foes into taking aggressive action against you.
Spoiler
Prerequisite: Fighter 4th, Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: As a swift action, you can declare the next attack you make this round to be an infuriating strike. When you make an infuriating strike with a weapon you are wielding (or with an unarmed strike or natural weapon), your opponent must attempt a Will save (DC = 10 + damage dealt). On a success, nothing happens, but if the victim fails, it becomes infuriated and must make you the target of its hostilities, to the exclusion of other activities such as attacking your allies or attempting to escape.
Your opponent can take any aggressive action it deems appropriate, such as attacking you with ranged or melee weapons, targeting you with spells, or even including you in the area of effect of area spells. The victim remains cognizant of his surroundings and reacts appropriately, although he will take risks to harm you. The subject will not take suicidal actions in order to harm you, such as leaping off a cliff to certain death in order to reach you, but might attempt to leap a narrow chasm if he reasonably believed he could make the jump.
Your opponent gains +4 on attack and damage rolls against you while infuriated, and gains +4 save DC and +4 on rolls to penetrate your spell resistance when using hostile effects on you. However, if the opponent fails his save against your infuriating strike by 10 points or more, the bonuses are reduced to +2. If the opponent fails his save by 20 points or more, the bonuses are negated.
Your target remains infuriated for 3 rounds. If you use the withdraw action to move away from the target, or take some action to break line of sight with the target (such as teleporting out of sight, becoming invisible, or hiding behind total cover), then the effect ends immediately. The calm emotions spell and similar magics can be used to release an infuriated target from the effect. Infuriating strike is a mind-affecting extraordinary ability.
Advancement: If you have the Ghost Scarred feat (LM 27), then incorporeal undead are not protected from your infuriating strike by their normal immunity to mind-affecting effects.
If you have the Vampire Hunter feat (LM 31), then vampires and vampire spawn are not protected from your infuriating strike by their normal immunity to mind-affecting effects.
If you have the Countering Strike class feature, you do not need to expend a swift action to declare your countering strike to be an infuriating strike.
LOCKED IN COMBAT [Fighter, Style]
You really know how to lock down an opponent.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Str 13, Fighter 12, Hampering Strike, Stand Still, Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: While an adjacent opponent is suffering a penalty from your hampering strike, that opponent may not take a 5-foot step or use the Withdraw action, and automatically provokes an attack of opportunity from you if it uses any ability from the Conjuration (teleportation) subschool. Opponents suffering these restrictions are aware of them. Your presence is also extremely distracting; when you hamper any foe, he applies your hampering strike penalty to Spellcraft checks made to identify spells cast by all opponents other than you, and to all Listen, Sense Motive, and Spot checks made against opponents other than you.
PRESS THE ATTACK [Fighter, Style, Tactical]
You can limit your opponent's options in combat.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Fighter 8th, Hampering Strike, Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: The Press The Attack tactical feat enables the use of four tactical options. Each of these options is used when you hit your opponent with a hampering strike. Cripple the Stride: When you use a hampering strike to inflict a total penalty of -2 or more on an opponent, all penalties are removed and all of the opponent's speeds are reduced by 5 x the penalty removed. This loss of speed lasts for one minute. Grant Them No Rest: When you use a hampering strike to inflict a total penalty of -4 or more on an opponent, all penalties are removed and the opponent is fatigued. Staggering Blow: When you use a hampering strike to inflict a total penalty of -6 or more on an opponent, all penalties are removed and the opponent is staggered for three rounds. Stunning Blow: When you use a hampering strike to inflict a total penalty of -8 on an opponent, all penalties are removed and the opponent is nauseated for three rounds.
RED TIDES OF WAR [Fighter, Style, Tactical]
When your allies are hard-pressed, your words of inspiration lead them through adversity.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 8th, Combat Aura, Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: The Red Tides of War tactical feat enables the use of two tactical options. Each option enhances the effect of one of your combat auras. You don't receive the benefit of the option unless you have the appropriate combat aura active. Stand Like Stone: To use this option, you must spend a move action to rally your allies when you or one of your allies within your Hardy Soldiers aura sustained physical damage on the previous round. Until the beginning of your next turn, each time an ally within your aura sustains physical damage that is not negated by the aura, the aura's strength increases by +100%. Stand Against the Storm: To use this option, you must spend a move action to rally your allies when you or one of your allies within your Weather the Storm aura sustained energy damage on the previous round. Until the beginning of your next turn, each time an ally within your aura sustains energy damage that is not negated by the aura, the aura's strength increases by +100%.
REFLECTIONS ON THE BLADE [Fighter, Style]
You are skilled at fighting an opponent without directly looking at him.
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Prerequisite: Fighter 2nd, Blind-Fight, Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: When you avert your eyes from a creature with a gaze attack, you have no chance of accidently meeting its gaze. Creatures do not gain concealment from you when you are averting your gaze. Advancement: If you have blindsense, you suffer no miss chance against creatures with concealment, and only a 20% miss chance against creatures that have total concealment from you.
SIXTH SENSE [Fighter, Style]
Sometimes, you just know where the enemy is.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 3, Wisdom 13+, Blind Fight, Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: You gain blindsense with a range of 5 feet for every 3 character levels you possess (10 ft at 6th level, 15 feet at 9th level, etc.) This blindsense is not based on any of your existing senses and cannot be nullified by silence or similar effects.
SIXTH SENSE, SUPERIOR [Fighter, Style]
You have an uncanny awareness of what's going on around you.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Fighter 9, Blind Fight, Sixth Sense, Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: Your blindsense ability increases in power, doubling its range. You also gain blindsight within a range of 5 feet for every 5 character levels. Like your blindsense, your blindsight cannot be nullified by silence or other effects.
STABLE STANCE [Fighter, Style]
Your defensive stance enhances your stability.
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Prerequisites: Fighter level 12th, Defensive Stance, Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: You gain the Stability feature while in a defensive stance, which grants you a +4 bonus to resist bull rush and trip attempts due to your exceptional stability. If you already have the Stability feature (such as a dwarf would, for example), you gain Exceptional Stability, and your bonus increases to +8.
UNCANNY DODGE [Fighter, General, Style]
You react to danger before your senses would normally allow you to do so.
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Prerequisites: Fighter 2nd and Barbaric or Watchful Fighting Style, Daring Outlaw 4th, or Swift Hunter 2nd Benefit: You retain your Dexterity bonus to AC even if caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, you still lose your Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized.
UNCANNY DODGE, IMPROVED [Fighter, General, Style]
You can react to opponents on opposite sides of you as easily as you can react to a single attacker.
Spoiler
Prerequistes: Fighter 5th and Barbaric or Watchful Fighting Style, or Daring Outlaw 8th, Uncanny Dodge Benefit: You cannot be flanked except by a daring outlaw whose character level is 4 or more levels higher than your character level.
VIGILANT GUARDIAN [Fighter, Watchful Fighting Style]
When your allies are hard-pressed, you spring to their defense.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Fighter 16th, Blind Fight, Danger Sense, Sixth Sense, Combat Aura class feature, Countering Strike Class feature, Watchful Fighting Style Benefit: As an immediate action when an opponent has just resolved an attack against an ally within the radius of your combat aura, you may move up to your speed and execute a countering strike against that opponent.
Alternate Class Feature: Witch Hunter Fighting Style
This alternate class feature replaces your weapon master fighting style with the witch hunter fighting style. This fighting style does not correspond to any pre-existing class.
WITCH HUNTER FIGHTING STYLE Level: 1st. Replaces: If you select this class feature, you do not gain Knowledge (architecture and engineering) as a class skill or proficiency with heavy armor, nor do you learn the weapon master fighting style. As such, you lose access to the extra class skills, proficiencies, key skill bonuses, bonus feats, and other benefits that provided by that style. Benefit: You gain the witch hunter fighting style, which is described below.
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The dragon slayer, the demon hunter, the inquisitor, all are fighters who practice the witch hunter fighting style. The witch hunter fighting style focuses on defeating and circumventing the defenses commonly used by spellcasters.
A fighter of the witch hunter style gains Gather Information, Knowledge (arcana), Spellcraft as class skills. You also gain Athletic Surge as a bonus feat, and you gain 2 additional skill points at each level. Additionally, select any two of the following skills: Balance, Climb, Jump, Knowledge (arcana), Spellcraft, and Tumble. These skills are the key skills of your fighting style. They permanently become fighter class skills for you if you do not have them already, and your fighting style grants you additional benefits when using them as you advance in level. Finally, the Urban Tracking feat is considered a fighter bonus feat for you.
Beginning at 2nd level, you become more proficient in using the key skills associated with your fighting style. You gain a +2 competence bonus in the use of these skills. You also gain Mage Slayer as a bonus feat, ignoring prerequisites.
At 5th level, you gain your choice of Acrobatic Charge or Witch Hunter as a bonus feat.
At 9th level, the competence bonus granted by your fighting style increases to +5. You gain Mettle as a bonus feat.
At 13th level, you gain Skill Mastery (as the daring outlaw ability) in the key skills of your fighting style. You gain Physical Adept as a bonus feat.
At 17th level, the competence bonus granted by your fighting style increases to +10. You gain Tireless Surge as a bonus feat.
NEW FIGHTER BONUS FEATS
Spoiler
ACROBATIC CHARGE [Fighter, General]
You can charge in situations where others cannot.
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Prerequisite: Character level 5th Benefit: You can charge over difficult terrain that normally slows movement or through allies blocking your path. This ability enables you to charge across a cluttered battlefield, leap down from a ledge, or swing across a chasm to get to your target. Depending on the circumstance, she may still need to make appropriate checks (such as Balance, Jump, or Tumble checks) to successfully move over the terrain. Advancement: If you have the Mobile Combatant class feature, you can make a full attack at the end of your charge.
[STYLE] FEATS
Spoiler
ATHLETIC SURGE [Fighter, Style]
You can push your athletic capabilities to their utmost a certain number of times per day.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Fighter 1st, Witch Hunter Fighting Style Benefit: Once per encounter as an immediate action, you may enter an adrenaline-fueled state of athletic prowess (you can do this even when flat-footed at the start of combat, before making an initiative check). You gain a +5 competence bonus to Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks and ability checks (including initiative checks), and your existing competence bonus to any Strength- or Dexterity-based key skills increases by +5. Additionally, you suffer no penalty for accelerated movement when using Balance, Climb, Hide, Move Silently, and Tumble. Finally, if you are wearing light or no armor, you may stand from prone as a free action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
While your athletic surge lasts, you cannot use any Charisma- or Intelligence-based skills (except for Intimidate and Spellcraft), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that require patience or concentration, nor can you cast spells or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger, or a spell completion to function. You also cannot use any item creation or metamagic feats.
Athletic surge lasts for five minutes, unless you choose to end it sooner. When you end your surge, you are fatigued for five minutes. Your athletic surge is initially usable only once per day. You gain an additional daily use at fighter 4th, and every four levels thereafter.
Advancement: If you have character level 11 or higher, your athletic surge instead grants you a +10 competence bonus to Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks and ability checks, and your existing competence bonus to any Strength- or Dexterity-based key skills increases by +10.
If you have character level 20 or higher, your athletic surge instead grants you a +15 competence bonus to Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks and ability checks, and your existing competence bonus to any Strength- or Dexterity-based key skills increases by +15.
PHYSICAL ADEPT [Fighter, Style]
You are amazingly mobile during your athletic surge.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Fighter 13th, Witch Hunter Fighting Style Benefit: During your athletic surge, you gain a +4 bonus on saving throws and grapple checks against any effect that might render you entangled, grappled, or immobilized (e.g web, hold person, or a dragon's crush attack). Advancement: If you have character level 17th or higher, the bonus is +8 instead.
TIRELESS SURGE[Fighter, Style]
Your athletic surge does not fatigue you.
Spoiler
Prerequisite: Fighter 17th, Athletic Surge, Witch Hunter Fighting Style Benefit: You are not fatigued when you end your athletic surge.
WITCH HUNTER [Fighter, Style]
You are highly sensitive to the presence of magic.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Spellcraft 8 ranks, Witch Hunter Fighting Style Benefit: This feat grants three new uses for the Spellcraft skill. Spell sense: You can sense magic auras when you concentrate, just as with a detect magic spell. Your spell sense has a range of 120 feet, and manifests as a feeling of discomfort or "pins and needles" when you are in the presence of magic. If you concentrate on a specific creature, you can determine whether it has any spellcasting or spell-like abilities, whether these are arcane or divine (spell-like abilities register as arcane), and the strength of the most powerful spell or spell-like ability the creature currently has available for use. The DC of this check is 5 + the caster level of the target. Draw back the veil: When you successfully identify a spell or magical effect, you also discern its magical signature. This allows you to recognize who cast the spell, if you have previously observed the caster with your spell sight, or to recognize that the signature is familiar to you, if you have previously observed other effects with this magical signature. All spellcasters have distinctive, recognizable magical signatures, although certain spells can obscure a signature (see below). Teleport trace: When observing the square in which a Conjuration (teleportation) effect was cast, you can determine the intended destination of the effect. The DC of this check is 15 + spell level if you observed the casting or activation of the effect, or 20 + spell level if you did not. If the destination was no more than 1,000 feet away, you gain an accurate mental picture of the destination and know its exact direction and distance. If it is further away, or on another plane, you learn the name of the destination (place, name, business name, building name, or the like), community, county (or similar political division), country, continent, and its plane of existence. If the effect is not always accurate (as is the case with teleport and plane shift, for example), then you learn the intended destination, not the actual destination. If the effect leads to a variable destination, you learn the last destination to which it led. The trace of magical energy left behind by a Conjuration (teleportation) effect only remains readable for 1 round per level of the effect. If you perform your examination after this time period has elapsed, then you discern nothing about the intended destination.
Effects that would confuse, defeat, or mislead divination spells will have the same effect on your sensitivity to magic. If your sense is being blocked or misled by an effect that allows a saving throw, you receive one as normal. If the effect allows a caster level check, use your Spellcraft check result in place of the caster level check.
If I knew the least bit about D&D, I bet I would love this. It looks like it has a lot of work put into it, and I approve of the little snippets of design clarifications. You seem to have taken time to consider the thematics of what a fighter is and what he should be, and I think it shows.
Nitpick: The description for Third Style says you get it at level 9, just like Second Style.
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Canon is the official state of a story. Cannon is a ranged weapon. Just thought you'd like to know.
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Fighters shouldn't have d12 hit die. That is a right that should be reserved for the barbarian. Fighters represent skill and finesse where barbarians represent brute strength and the hit die reflects that.
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I'm going to make a DnD chocbo mount whether the DM say's I can or not. Some help doing this would be appreciated.
Fighters shouldn't have d12 hit die. That is a right that should be reserved for the barbarian. Fighters represent skill and finesse where barbarians represent brute strength and the hit die reflects that.
What, you mean the Fighter who gets the same approximate amount of skill points a fish would?
Or the Fighter whose typical primary stat is STR, wielding a greatsword which is simply the best weapon it is feasible for him to wield except perhaps the spiked chain?
Skill and Finesse went to the Rogue and Ranger. Fighting-men got the job of standing there and battering things into submission. To death.
You can MAKE them about skill and finesse, but it's not their base state.
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Eternal Fighter Advocate
Last edited by Sarco_Phage : 04-12-2011 at 09:58 AM.
This is just a small thing, but it's been bugging me. When you mention that certain skills are "key skills" for your Fighting style, what the heck does that mean, if anything?
This is just a small thing, but it's been bugging me. When you mention that certain skills are "key skills" for your Fighting style, what the heck does that mean, if anything?
The higher level versions of the styles give bonuses to all key skills. For example, a Barbarian has Jump, Knowledge (nature), Listen, and Survival as their key skills. By level 17, they have +20 to those 4 skills, and can take 20 on them without increasing time.
What's stumping me is how does the extra style work? It says that you can only take feats as if they are X levels lower, but how does that apply to the style itself?
For example, say at level one you have Weapon Master Style. At level 9 you pick up second style, say Commanding.
Now you would qualify for feats as a 1st level Commanding Fighter, that much is clear. But what about the second style itself? Do you get the benefits of Style 1 (ie just commanding aura and some class skills), or do you get Commanding Style IV?
Which of these it is impacts hugely how effective this class will be.
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If my text is blue, I'm being sarcastic. No, really. Don't bite my head off for saying the Fighter is way overpowered, or how Wizards need more spells per day to keep up.
The higher level versions of the styles give bonuses to all key skills. For example, a Barbarian has Jump, Knowledge (nature), Listen, and Survival as their key skills. By level 17, they have +20 to those 4 skills, and can take 20 on them without increasing time.
Ah, I see now, thank you. I don't know if it was the edit that came after I last looked at the entries, or if it was there all along and I just failed to see it, but thanks for clearing that up.
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Now you would qualify for feats as a 1st level Commanding Fighter, that much is clear. But what about the second style itself? Do you get the benefits of Style 1 (ie just commanding aura and some class skills), or do you get Commanding Style IV?
Which of these it is impacts hugely how effective this class will be.
Indeed, this also bothered me.
There's a lot to like here though Jiriku, so kudos, especially for a first draft.
Last edited by Ziegander : 04-12-2011 at 12:00 PM.
Thank you! I am hoping that the final product will be even better. To address your question, Seerow, Second Style and Third Style grant neither benefit, but merely allow a fighter to meet prerequisites. This will make more sense once I have finished the subsequent entries for each fighting style (I'll try to get at least one complete tonight so you'll have an idea of what the others will look like).
By way of example, suppose you want to play a fighter with rage and pounce. You can simply dip barbarian and play bar 1 / fighter x. Under these rules, however, you would be a weapon master fighter x, with no option to multi-class. The revised fighter accesses rage and pounce as bonus feats, and they both have "Prerequisite: barbaric fighter 1st level or greater". With Second Style, you can declare the barbaric style as your secondary style, and now you can access either of those feats as if they had "Prerequisite: weapon master fighter 9th" instead. I probably need to rewrite the abilities to make that more clear, and provide a couple of examples.
Okay so we're getting a fighter who has his one trick, and starting at level 8 he can start picking up first level tricks again... and starting at level 17 he can start picking up first level tricks again...
How exactly is this any different from the current fighter?
Sure you made the numbers bigger, and he attacks more.... but it's still got the same core underlying problems: The fighter doesn't get to do cool things. He full attacks, and he's done. The full attacking as a standard action is nice and all, but I mean the Barbarian (which you replaced) could do a pounce attack starting at level 1...
The immediate interrupt attack twice a round is the only cool thing I see here, and even that is just more attacking. True Grit is kind of nice though I suppose.
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If my text is blue, I'm being sarcastic. No, really. Don't bite my head off for saying the Fighter is way overpowered, or how Wizards need more spells per day to keep up.
I think we should wait and see what those new special feats look like before getting too concerned. If the Watchful fighter gets feats that mimic True Seeing and that sort of thing, then this fighter could definitely have more tricks than just full attack.
However, I would like to point out something about the "Weather the Storm" aura. Getting "resist sonic 3" at 10th level is, frankly, horribly weak. A lesser aasimar or tiefling gets permanent resist 5 to three energy types as a first level character. A cleric can cast resist energy for 10 points at 3rd. I would say either increase it to five times the aura bonus, like the dragon shaman has (i.e. resist sonic 15 at 10th level), or triple it and let it apply to ALL energies simultaneously (i.e. resist all 9 at 10th level). Or just drop it, because no one is ever going to use the aura as written instead of the bonus to saving throws.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Giant
Spod has it right.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grasilich
You not reading the comic isn't going to make this comic any less awesome for all the rest of us.
Posted a general discussion of class-building concepts for the fighter remix in general. It's not high-op advice, but should serve as a starting point for people who are wondering what it all means.
Also posted details for the barbaric, cavalry, and commanding fighters.
@ Seerow: The proof of the pudding will indeed be with the feats. I'm attempting to do several things to address the "few/crappy tricks" issue.
Feats that scale. More of this will come later, as I post and link to some additional threads with remixed versions of core feats. Scaling feats means you need only spend one or two feats to learn a good trick, rather than 3-5. Thus, you have ten tricks instead of two.
Expanded Martial Aptitude. Full retraining of all fighter bonus feats means that you can swap the ten tricks you know today for ten different tricks tomorrow.
More high-power feats with stiff prerequisites for higher-level play. This corrects the issue in which the 20th-level fighter merely has several tricks that are more suitable for 10th-level characters.
Feats that sometimes scale according to character level, rather than class levels. This means that a high-level fighter who takes a "low-level" feat from a different style can immediately unlock all the juicy advancement abilities associated with the feat.
Some of this is fully implemented, and I'm just a few copy/pastas away from being able to show it to you. Some of it exists just as theory and design principles for now, and will be developed over the next couple weeks.
@ SPoD: Sheer genius. This is why I'm posting to the Playground. I would never have thought of that, but now that you mention it, it seems obvious. How would you implement that? Granting blindsense would automatically defeat illusions and invisibilty, and fits the theme. Plus, it's useful for other things. Or perhaps the fighter could automatically be entitled to a save against any illusion he sees, as if he had interacted with it merely by observing it.
Weather the Storm is modeled on the DR feature. I see your point though, and have modified it to cover all elements at once. I'm beginning to see that there are some balance issues in the various auras; shame on me for assuming that the class option I ripped it from would be internally balanced.
This is really really good, but I have some concerns about the Cavalry option (which, since I love mounted combat, is what I looked at first). Basically, I'm not clear on why the cavalry fighter can't have as nice a horse as a druid gets. Wild Cohort lets you get the same pets three levels later than the druid, and when they do get them they have worse stat boosts. Would it really be so horrible to just flat out give them an animal companion?
Also, I'm not entirely clear on how the cavalry fighter is supposed to fight from the back of a dragon, as you describe it. Please show me the rules here for getting a dragon mount.
EDIT: As a side-note, True Grit is one of the best mechanics I have ever seen.
How would you implement that? Granting blindsense would automatically defeat illusions and invisibilty, and fits the theme. Plus, it's useful for other things. Or perhaps the fighter could automatically be entitled to a save against any illusion he sees, as if he had interacted with it merely by observing it.
Weather the Storm is modeled on the DR feature. I see your point though, and have modified it to cover all elements at once. I'm beginning to see that there are some balance issues in the various auras; shame on me for assuming that the class option I ripped it from would be internally balanced.
Well, keep in mind that DR 1/-- or DR 2/-- is roughly comparable in terms of useful defenses to Energy Resistance 5 to all elements. So, SPoD has a great point.
Question: Can a player use two uses of True Grit in the same turn in order to become unaffected by just about any condition, for example, going from Exhausted to Fatigued, to Unaffected? The ability doesn't specify any required action, so I assume yes. Can a player use True Grit when it isn't his turn?
@ SPoD: Sheer genius. This is why I'm posting to the Playground. I would never have thought of that, but now that you mention it, it seems obvious. How would you implement that? Granting blindsense would automatically defeat illusions and invisibilty, and fits the theme. Plus, it's useful for other things. Or perhaps the fighter could automatically be entitled to a save against any illusion he sees, as if he had interacted with it merely by observing it.
Personally, I would make it one feat that grants blindsense, with a second feat that increases it to blindsight. The illusion thing could still be a third feat, though, because blindsight usually has a limited range (30 ft.) and the illusion trick could affect things you see at a longer distance. Also, I've had DMs who ruled that illusions can fool blindsight if they affect the sense that the blindsight uses (so, auditory-enabled illusions can defeat echolocation blingsight), so anyone in that situation would still have a use for the illusion one. So you'd have something like this:
Sixth Sense
Sometimes, you just know where the enemy is. Prerequisites: watchful fighter 3, Wisdom 13+ Benefit: You gain blindsense with a range of 5 feet for every 3 character levels you possess (10 ft at 6th level, 15 feet at 9th level, etc.) This blindsense is not based on any of your existing senses and cannot be nullified by silence or similar effects.
Superior Sixth Sense
No, seriously, that's getting creepy. Prerequisites: watchful fighter 9, Sixth Sense. Benefit: Your blindsense ability increases in power, doubling its range. You also gain blindsight within a range of 5 feet for every 5 character levels. Like your blindsense, your blindsight cannot be nullified by silence or other effects.
Healthy Skepticism
You tend not to believe what you see. Prerequisites: watchful fighter 1. Benefit: You gain an automatic Will saving throw against any illusion that allows a save. As long as you see, hear, smell, or otherwise experience the illusion with any of your senses, you are entitled a saving throw. If you fail this saving throw, you may gain a second one when you fully interact with the illusion, as normal. You are not necessarily even aware that you are making a save unless you succeed; the roll should be made in secret by the DM. You also gain a competence bonus to your saving throws against all illusions equal to +1 per 3 character levels.
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Congratulations, you can link to TV Tropes. This does not mean you have special insight into the storytelling process, much less the author's mind. Stories don't need to fit into neat boxes, you know.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Giant
Spod has it right.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grasilich
You not reading the comic isn't going to make this comic any less awesome for all the rest of us.
This is really really good, but I have some concerns about the Cavalry option (which, since I love mounted combat, is what I looked at first). Basically, I'm not clear on why the cavalry fighter can't have as nice a horse as a druid gets. Wild Cohort lets you get the same pets three levels later than the druid, and when they do get them they have worse stat boosts. Would it really be so horrible to just flat out give them an animal companion?
I'm attempting to keep the fighting styles at least roughly balanced against one another. A druid animal companion is WAY better than Rage, Commanding Aura, and what have you. Even Wild Cohort makes the cavalry fighter arguably the strongest option at 1st level.
Also, remember that the remixed fighter, like all my class remixes, is intended for a T3-T4 environment. That means either no druid, or a druid who's been whacked bloody with the nerf-bat.
The druid animal companion also has a lot of abilities that don't make sense on a non-spellcaster, like Share Spells. I didn't want those lying around. You'll note that I do provide some improvements to the Wild Cohort as the fighter levels up.
I'll also add in clarification that you can take Natural Bond with your Wild Cohort. That improves your effective druid level to match your character level.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kellus
Also, I'm not entirely clear on how the cavalry fighter is supposed to fight from the back of a dragon, as you describe it. Please show me the rules here for getting a dragon mount.
Uhhh, that would be because I had a series of feats planned for the cavalry fighter that improve the mount in various ways, but forgot to write them. Ultimately you should be able to choose magical beasts, dragons, critters with templates, you name it. I'll get back on the ball and write those feats this weekend. One of my players is also a cavalry fan; he's as excited about this fighting style as I'm sure you are.
Oh, tasty. Excuse me now while I shamelessly loot your stuff for my own dark purposes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ziegander
Well, keep in mind that DR 1/-- or DR 2/-- is roughly comparable in terms of useful defenses to Energy Resistance 5 to all elements. So, SPoD has a great point.
I'm sold on improving the energy resistance, but do you think damage reduction is that much more powerful? Between weapons with energy adds, weapons that are energy (like ice axe or flame whips), and creatures with damaging energy auras, there's plenty of opportunity in some encounters to get hit with energy damage repeatedly in a round.
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Originally Posted by Ziegander
Question: Can a player use two uses of True Grit in the same turn in order to become unaffected by just about any condition, for example, going from Exhausted to Fatigued, to Unaffected? The ability doesn't specify any required action, so I assume yes. Can a player use True Grit when it isn't his turn?
Shockwave Strike has a str req of 26. o.o Your view of fighter bonus feats more like tricks (sorta how I think of martial maneuvers) is very neat.
I think I had more to say when I clicked reply but then I saw that Sketchers commercial with the girl in the white pants and uh...
So yeah, good work and stuff. This is an odd compliment but I'ma say it anyway: very nice table. For everyone's love of "no dead levels", it makes it very overwhelming to take in. The bonus feats column makes it very easy on the eyes.
Last edited by Pechvarry : 04-13-2011 at 11:04 PM.
Uhhh, that would be because I had a series of feats planned for the cavalry fighter that improve the mount in various ways, but forgot to write them. Ultimately you should be able to choose magical beasts, dragons, critters with templates, you name it. I'll get back on the ball and write those feats this weekend. One of my players is also a cavalry fan; he's as excited about this fighting style as I'm sure you are.
Awesome. I'm looking forward to it. This is really a very good fix that covers a ton of different themes well.
Women in white pants usually have several levels in beguiler - mind control is definitely within their power.
I had intended for barbaric fighters to be able to meet the prerequisite for Shockwave Strike using their Rage-enhanced Strength score, but I can't think of an elegant way to put that, so I'll just drop the requirement to 20.
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Ultimately you should be able to choose magical beasts, dragons, critters with templates, you name it. I'll get back on the ball and write those feats this weekend. One of my players is also a cavalry fan; he's as excited about this fighting style as I'm sure you are. 
