Martial Archetype: Centurion [rough draft]

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Sometimes in the middle of a big project, I'll start working on a small side-project just to clear my mind a little bit. The augmented actually started that way as well, believe it or not, until it spiraled off into a project even bigger than the one I was taking a break from!

I was doing a lot of research into Rome for reasons I won't get into just yet, and a friend of mine expressed interest in seeing a Centurion realized in 5e. The more I researched, the more I realized how possible a Centurion fighter was, and so I took a break and decided to give it a go.

Turns out, the idea had legs. And now we've got a full-fledged Centurion fighter, ready for a test drive!

FEATURES:

• Three different postures to hold your Tower Shield, depending on what you think the enemy will throw at you next!
• A wealth of options that build on core fighter mechanics, creating great synergy with the base class.
• The ability to be the tankiest tank of them all, just don't expect to move very quickly.

CONCERNS:

• Maybe too tanky? It's powerful within that one focus, but it doesn't have a whole lot of latitude outside of it.

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Sometimes, ideas happen really quickly, and it's good to be prepared when they do!

Martial Archetype: Dragoon [Fourth Draft]

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November looks like it'll be a month for mostly revisions, with a few new promising pieces of new content coming out. Xanathar's Guide to Everything will be out (very) soon, and I'm going to wait a little bit before releasing anything that might conflict with its new rules.

However! I've got a good backlog of projects like the dragoon that are just begging for revision. After releasing it last month, I felt so incredibly close to having the dragoon complete, fully formed and ready to use, so I just had to revise it again as soon as I could. With the witch out of the way (for the moment), that time is now!

I'm really happy where this one has ended up, aside from the fact that I'm barely able to fit its rules in two pages. Still, minor complaints compared to how this has shaped up.

Special thanks to Vileo Sufora and Marc Darville for giving me some very valuable balance insight on the last draft, couldn't have done this without you guys!

CHANGELOG:

• "Uses of Dragonslaying" is now "dragonslaying points," because, while I took some convincing, that's just much more clear in the end.
• Aspirant Step now requires a bonus action, and Avoidance requires a reaction, to make them eat in important ways at the action economy.
• Avoidance now works on certain CON saving throws, allowing you to use it on all forms of dragon breath.
• Syntax changes which, while not exciting, are very important all the same!

CONCERNS:

• A lot of tiny fiddly bits where changed this draft. I'm hoping I didn't accidentally break something.

WHAT I LEARNED:

• All in all, fighter options are easier to balance than I originally thought. It's easy to despair at something when you don't know its balance math, but when you know where to look and what to look for, it ends up becoming pretty simple. 

Martial Archetype: Dragoon [Third Draft]

It's back by popular demand, and refitted with new features!

I actually revisited this one specifically because several people asked me to over Twitter (@WalrockHomebrew). I've been meaning to do so for a little while, but I had a lot on my plate to sort through until I saw that the demand was there.

Fighter Martial Archetypes are something I've always had a bit of trouble with. There's little uniformity in terms of features, and it's hard to draw a meaningful, consistent power level from the provided spread.

So, I experiment. Over and over and over again. And eventually, maybe, I get it perfectly right.

This might not be one of those times; I did add a whole lot of moving parts here, after all.

You know the drill by now. Find all the broken bits, and I'll fix 'em up.

(special thanks to @DrMoradin for helping me suss out what to do with this one, and providing invaluable playtest feedback!)

CHANGELOG:

• Aspirant Step has been reworked into three different abilities, loosely modeled on the Battle-Master's superiority dice!
• Wing Clip your enemies to bring those pesky fliers down to your level.
• Dodge that dragon's breath with Avoidance, and even ignore that half-damage-on-a-miss that lingers around. 
• Replaced Ascendant Strike with Always Ready, adding some much-needed flavor and rolling its benefits into making Aspirant Step initially more enticing. 
• Needle of Heaven no longer shoots you 400 feet in the air, which got pretty wacky. Instead, you can wombo-combo an Aspirant Step and Wing Clip with it. 

CONCERNS:

• Some of the phrasing is pretty convoluted, and I'm betting there's a more elegant way to put a lot of what I wrote.
• I added the balance math of the "Improved Combat Superiority" feature to the core Dragonslaying feature, but still have features at the levels ICS functions at. However, this archetype doesn't have the additional maneuvers (for a total of 9 instead of this archetype's 3) that are normally granted to a Battle-Master, so I'm hoping that evens out. 

WHAT I LEARNED:

• I always try to have my ear to the ground and do stuff people will enjoy. Turns out, Twitter is great for that. 

Martial Archetype: Brawler [Third Draft]

These days, I really try to finish up options with a second draft. Any changes a second draft needs can be appended to it with subsequent sub-versions.

But that only works out like, half the time. Any time I change a full ability, we need a new draft, so here we are.

The Brawler has been a challenge (and probably will continue to be so, if I made mistakes here), but the standard fist-fighter is something I've always enjoyed playing in fantasy games. I find the best archetypes that I make are those I care personally for, and right now the Brawler is in a place that I'm very proud of, thanks in no small part to the input from you fine folks.

But let's not have that stop us. If there's something that needs changing, this is the place to tell me!

CHANGELOG:

• Fisticuffs is now Counterpunch, trading out the push/prone ability for the ability to literally roll with the punches. I find this one to be much more flavorful, and has the advantage of pushing home DEX dependence. 
• Dodge and Weave is now Defensive Footwork, which is just a name change, really, but one that makes more sense for what it is now. 
• Made Fist-Fighting incompatible with shields to keep it from being strictly better than Two-Weapon Fighting. 

CONCERNS:

• There's a lot of kit added at 3rd level, but two pieces of it (the unarmored defense and the progressive damage die increase) are background detail, setting up the pieces for the rest of the class to work, rather than anything active and confusing.
• This class option has a pretty tight reaction/bonus action economy, but it's not overburdened significantly.
• The STR/DEX dependence makes this class option a little M.A.D., but fighters of all classes can handle that just fine.

WHAT I LEARNED:

• There's sometimes a much more thematic ability out there, though it just might require thinking outside the box a little bit. 

Martial Archetype: Brawler [Second Draft]

Making a fighter is hard for a lot of reasons.

Heck, making anything is hard, but that doesn't stop me from doing it, and all you brave souls from helping.

Fighters, though. As one of you pointed out, they only have three options, and each approaches the class from an entirely different angle. Very little overlap, very hard to balance. And on top of it all, fighter subclasses are beholden to being played with several different Fighting Styles. You can have an Eldritch Knight with a bow, a heavy-armored Battlemaster, a Champion with light armor and a rapier, and so on.

So, I made the (I'm sure will be contentious) decision and just eliminated that choice for this particular option.

It seemed to me that the Brawler was a martial archetype that really gravitated towards a single Fighting Style. So rather than attempt to shoehorn all the other Fighting Styles into the brawler, I simply made the Fighting Style it was trying to emulate and spun the rest of the class off of that.

All I ask: If that decision sucks and you hate it, be sure to tell me why!

CHANGELOG:

• Added Fighting Style: Fistfighting, which incorporates part of what was Fisticuffs and eliminates how Fisticuffs was trying to bend over backwards for Two-Weapon Fighting.
• Added a Restriction for taking this Martial Archetype, requiring Fistfighting to be taken as a Fighting Style at some point (probably as a 2nd level fighter).
• Fisticuffs now contains part of Fracas, allowing the ability to shove in fights as a core component of this class.
• Dodge and Weave no longer involves the Dodge action or armor restrictions, so you can be a full-plate Brawler if you really, really want to.
• Impressive Physique has been adjusted and now only deals with Performance, Intimidation, or Athletics, allowing single (not double) STR to replace CHA for Performance or Intimidation.
• Fracas is now Bear Hug Vice Grip because it has been modified to only deal with grapples, granting disadvantage on attacks targeting you by those you're grappling. 
• Fistfighter's Momentum now adds proficiency bonus to STR and CON for tHP, as it didn't seem like max 10 tHP was enough for a 15th level feature. 
• Fists of Fury is now Knockout Punch, which can cause your unarmed strikes to simply drop a creature unconscious. FoF adding additional attacks was more or less unnecessary, as a high-level fighter with a bonus action attack makes five attacks a turn, anyway.

CONCERNS:

• The shove mechanic might be added a bit early with Fisticuffs, but it costs eating advantage, which I figure makes sense for something that can possibly confer advantage (through prone).
• Changed a lot = a lot of potential errors, etc etc
• Making an archetype exclusive to a fighting style may or may not be a great idea. It runs contrary to the overall theme of the fighter, but it seems like it just might be the correct way to make this option.

WHAT I LEARNED:

• There's probably a reason no one has made a fist-fighting fighter yet, but I'm crazy enough to want to see it through. 

Martial Archetype: Brawler [ROUGH DRAFT]

It occurred to me that I haven't done many fighters. I mean, I haven't done any barbarians, monks, druids, rangers, or wizards yet, but only having one fighter Martial Archetype still feels like a glaring oversight.

This one draws inspiration from the "Brawling Fighter" presented in 4e's Martial Power 2, which was easily my favorite fighter to come out of 4th edition. At face value, it was a fighter that had a dash of controller in it, a martial weapon-user that could punch or grab with a free hand, dealing damage while keeping enemies close. As an added bonus, with a simple monk multiclass feat (which were a terrible idea from a game design perspective, but I digress), you could make a perfectly serviceable fistfighter or wrestler.

The biggest challenge here was keeping this option distinct from the monk, and having it be decidedly a fighter. I feel I accomplished this pretty well, even if I did horn in on monk territory here and there, but look it over and tell me what you think.

FEATURES:

• Scaling unarmed strike and unarmored defense, to keep yourself light, agile, and aggressive. 
• Three viable fighting styles! Either two-weapon fight with fists, hold a weapon in one hand like a duelist, or wear light armor for additional defense.
• A variety of features centered around core combat maneuvers, such as grapple, shove, and dodge.
• Builds well with unarmed-centric feats, specifically Grappler and Tavern Brawler.

CONCERNS:

• Unarmed strike is always wacky, it not being a weapon attack and all. It might interact poorly with something in a way I haven't thought of. 
• There are a lot of qualifiers in play (when doing X and not wearing Y), and I might've fudged something up somewhere. 

WHAT I LEARNED:

• When homebrewing, it's important to have an excellent soundtrack. 

Martial Archetype: Dragoon [Second Draft]

Step One: Release a whole bunch of rough material.

Step Two: Receive a whole bunch of quality critique.

Step Three: Start a new job.

Step Four: Never revise anything, ever again, forever.

Fortunately, I managed to find some time, and spent that time revising our somewhat-contentious friend, the Dragoon. Let's see what got changed.

CHANGELOG:

• Aspirant Step now may be used twice/four times per rest, up from once/twice, scaling with level.
• Aspirant Step does not initially modify attacks, which is now saved for the level 7 feature.
• Ascendance is now Ascendant Strike, and modifies attacks/damage from Aspirant Step in addition to adding resistance to falling damage. 
• Needle of Heaven has been heavily modified, and is now long-rest refresh dealing 10d12 + STR damage, befitting an "ultimate attack" type ability, and has a save versus prone and grounding flying targets. It has also been modified to deal radiant damage, and fluffed to be more obviously magical. 

CONCERNS:

• Balance on the damage from level 7+ Aspirant Step is not 100% certain, but I'm still pretty satisfied with it versus the expected additional damage output of a Battlemaster fighter. 

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Even if I give the historical dragoon a direct shout-out, some people still get angry about JRPGs co-opting the term. Ah well, can't please everyone. 

Martial Archetype: Dragoon [ROUGH DRAFT]

In the real world, a dragoon is a mounted infantry fighter, a sort of shock-troop typically carrying spears or firearms. In fact, the word "dragoon" is derived from the name for the firearms carried by French dragoons, called (awesomely enough) "dragons."

But we're dealing with high fantasy, here. In (particularly Japanese RPG) fantasy tradition, a dragoon is a spear-wielding warrior capable of great leaps and jumps, who typically has some association with dragons.

Obviously, that's the angle I went with here, but mounted gun cavalry would've been pretty cool, too.

Represented here, a dragoon is a fighter who uses jumps as a way to be high-mobility and deal extra damage. Avowed hunters of dragons and other large flying beasts, dragoons are defenders of mortal-kind and thrill seekers who risk life and limb to bring down monsters that would gladly destroy or enslave entire civilizations.

Let's look at what they do.

FEATURES:

• Aspirant Step, a highly mobile attack, more powerful than a standard Battle Master maneuver but with less usage availability. Scales in different ways throughout the dragoon's progression.
• Jump-based everything, because if you're taking this archetype, it's obviously to be the best at jumps. 
• Needle of Heaven, a capstone attack somewhat diverged from what fighters typically get, but in-keeping with the JRPG feeling of having an ultimate attack.  

CONCERNS:

• Scaling on Aspirant Step may or may not work as intended. I may want to make it 2/4 instead of 1/2 uses per rest. 
• People may not see that I've bundled the typical level 10 fighter feature into Aspirant Step directly, but that's a weird thing some fighter subclasses do. 
• Not 100% sure on the damage of Needle of Heaven. I tried to be conservative with it because I'm still not completely sure of the damage balance. I'm feeling like 6-8 d12 + STR (44-57 damage median) is about where it should be, though. 

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Fighters are deceptively tricky to make well. I had to mentally unpack a lot of the balance inherent to the Battle Master, and I may want to take another look at it at some point.