Fighter Revision

[Lago_AM3P]

Okay folks, I know that people are going to start having fits about this fighter revision being overpowered and all. But I have the strong, sneaking suspicion that the reason why Savage Species and the majority of prestige classes and new core classes suck so damn much is because they are being balanced against the current fighter, which has been repeatedly nominated for 3rd worst class in the game or worse.

So. Instead of balancing this fighter against the monk, ranger, paladin, current fighter, or paladin, who all currently suck, I'm balancing this fighter against the rogue, who rules.

I'm aware of the fact all of the classes that rule (rogues and primary spellcasters) get abilities on top of their old abilities every level rather than just staying constant or stagnating. Even when the rogue is not picking up sneak attack or special abilities, they are still upgrading their skills (best in the game). But since most people who play fighters usually ditch after they get the feats they want, you need a little something-something to encourage people to stick with the class. Up until the special abilities, I tried to tide people over with an extra save of their choice and three class skills of their choice, to appease people who say that they want stealthy fighters or social fighters or alert fighters rather than dumbasses who hit things with swords.

The special abilities, if you've had wide access to a dearth of feats in the past like almost everyone does, are noticably better than 'real' feats. This is intentional.

So without further ado, the brand spanking new fightah.






FIGHTER
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d10.

Class Skills
The fighter’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Ride (Dex), and Swim (Str).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Table: The Fighter
Level BAB Fort Ref* Will* Special
1st +1 +2 +0 +0 Bonus Feat, Save Focus, Skill Focus
2nd +2 +3 +0 +0 Bonus Feat
3rd +3 +3 +1 +1 Bonus Feat
4th +4 +4 +1 +1 Bonus Feat
5th +5 +4 +1 +1 Bonus Feat
6th +6/+1 +5 +2 +2 Bonus Feat
7th +7/+2 +5 +2 +2 Bonus Feat
8th +8/+3 +6 +2 +2 Bonus Feat
9th +9/+4 +6 +3 +3 Bonus Feat
10th +10/+5 +7 +3 +3 Bonus Feat, Special Ability
11th +11/+6/+1 +7 +3 +3 Bonus Feat
12th +12/+7/+2 +8 +4 +4 Bonus Feat
13th +13/+8/+3 +8 +4 +4 Bonus Feat, Special Ability
14th +14/+9/+4 +9 +4 +4 Bonus Feat
15th +15/+10/+5 +9 +5 +5 Bonus Feat
16th +16/+11/+6/+1 +10 +5 +5 Bonus Feat, Special Ability
17th +17/+12/+7/+2 +10 +5 +5 Bonus Feat
18th +18/+13/+8/+3 +11 +6 +6 Bonus Feat
19th +19/+14/+9/+4 +11 +6 +6 Bonus Feat, Special Ability
20th +20/+15/+10/+5 +12 +6 +6 Bonus Feat

Save Focus: At first level, the fighter picks a save, reflex or will. From then on, the fighter treats that save as if he had good progression in that ability.

Skill Focus: At first level, the fighter picks three skills not on his normal class. From then on, the fighter treats that skill as if he had those skills as normal class abilities.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the fighter.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A fighter is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, medium, and light) and shields (including tower shields).
Bonus Feats: At 1st level, a fighter gets a bonus combat-oriented feat in addition to the feat that any 1st-level character gets and the bonus feat granted to a human character. The fighter gains an additional bonus feat at 2nd level and every two fighter levels thereafter (4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 18th, and 20th). These bonus feats must be drawn from the feats noted as fighter bonus feats. A fighter must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums.
These bonus feats are in addition to the feat that a character of any class gets from advancing levels. A fighter is not limited to the list of fighter bonus feats when choosing these feats.

Special Abilities: On attaining 10th level, and at levels 13, 16, 18, and 20, a fighter gains a special ability of her choice from among the following options.

Cruelly Rushes (Ex): A fighter may move up to a total of his base speed between attacks when taking the full-attack action. If the fighter accepts an additional -5 attack penalty for one round, this movement does not draw attacks of opportunity if the fighter wishes. The fighter may also choose to charge this entire movement (doubling his move speed and accepting normal charging modifiers) and need not stop the end of the charge to attack--but all movement in this round must be in a straight line.

Unfazeable (Ex): Once per day, a fighter may elect to continue fighting even if his hit points are negative or he has been struck by a death effect or any affect that would kill him. The fighter rolls 1d4, and for this many rounds after the effect may choose to act normally despite being dead. The fighter is aware of how many rounds he has left until he truly dies. Lethal effects that would destroy the integrity of the body (such as destruction) do not see their effects manifest until the end of the time. Nothing can stop the fighter from actually dying after his time is up, though can be raised normally.

Unstoppable (Ex): The fighter can concentrate his or her power, gaining a +20 bonus on his or her Strength check to break or burst a door or item once per day, plus one additional time with every fighter special ability. As a special use of this ability, the fighter can attempt to break a wall of force (Strength DC 32, and the character applies his or her unstoppable bonus to this check as well). Alternatively, the fighter can apply the +20 bonus to a single attack roll and/or damage roll.

Unmovable (Ex): The fighter can concentrate his or her power, making him or herself unmovable once per day, plus one additional time per day with every two fighter special abilities. This power grants the character a +20 bonus on any one of the following:
A grapple check made to avoid being grabbed with the improved grab ability.
A Strength check to avoid the effects of a bull rush, trip attempt, or similar effect.
A Strength check against any effect that would move the character either physically or magically.
Any one saving throw. If an effect that would move the character either physically or magically does not normally allow a saving throw, the fighter can use this ability to gain a Will saving throw. He or she still gains the +20 bonus on the saving throw in such a case.


Only by Skill (Ex): Choose two of these four manuevers: Disarming, tripping, grappling, or sundering. Whenever a fighter is engaged in one of these manuevers, he may choose to forgo his size modifier for the benefit of increasing the opponent's size penalty by 1.5x or decreasing a size bonus by half. This special ability may be chosen a second time, picking up the other two combat manuevers.

Flurry of Blows (Ex): Three times per day, a fighter can attack with a sudden burst of fighting skill. For one round, a fighter takes his iterative attacks at -3 rather than -5, but is still limited to 4 attacks from BAB. In addition, the strength bonus allowed for handedness increases by x.5, so a fighter wielding a longsword in one hand would deal 1.5x strength bonus. For fighters in a two-weapon fighting chain, this gives a +2 attack bonus to all offhand attacks and allows them to deal 1x their strength bonus with the offhand.

Save Mastery (Ex): Choose one save. A fighter can always take 10 on this save, no matter what the occassion. In addition, a fighter no longer automatically fails any given save on a natural 1.

Feat: A fighter may gain a bonus feat in place of a special ability.

[Username17]

You've got the old text in the Feats section and a revision in the chart. This leaves it an open question of whether you are wanting them to get a bonus feat every level or every other level. I assume every level, but it needs clarity.

Cruelly Rushes (Ex): A fighter may move up to a total of his base speed between attacks when taking the full-attack action. If the fighter accepts an additional -5 attack penalty for one round, this movement does not draw attacks of opportunity if the fighter wishes. The fighter may also choose to charge this entire movement (doubling his move speed and accepting normal charging modifiers) and need not stop the end of the charge to attack--but all movement in this round must be in a straight line.

I'm going to reserve judgement on this ability until it becomes better written. As written people who have Two Weapon Fighting get to move faster than people who don't.

Unfazeable (Ex): Once per day, a fighter may elect to continue fighting even if his hit points are negative or he has been struck by a death effect or any affect that would kill him. The fighter rolls 1d4, and for this many rounds after the effect may choose to act normally despite being dead. The fighter is aware of how many rounds he has left until he truly dies. Lethal effects that would destroy the integrity of the body (such as destruction) do not see their effects manifest until the end of the time. Nothing can stop the fighter from actually dying after his time is up, though can be raised normally.

Note that as written the character can easily be in a situation where this ability makes him more susceptible to death rather than less. For example, a character with 156 hit points who suffers 157 points of damage can keep fighting for a few rounds - but then nothing can stop him from dying, which is rather unfortunate considering that he wasn't going to die in the first place.

Only by Skill (Ex): Choose two of these four manuevers: Disarming, tripping, grappling, or sundering. Whenever a fighter is engaged in one of these manuevers, he may choose to forgo his size modifier for the benefit of increasing the opponent's size penalty by 1.5x or decreasing a size bonus by half. This special ability may be chosen a second time, picking up the other two combat manuevers.

This is way too complicated, and actually really small. It should just negate size modifiers for both people - and it still wouldn't be all that great.

Flurry of Blows (Ex): Three times per day, a fighter can attack with a sudden burst of fighting skill. For one round, a fighter takes his iterative attacks at -3 rather than -5, but is still limited to 4 attacks from BAB. In addition, the strength bonus allowed for handedness increases by x.5, so a fighter wielding a longsword in one hand would deal 1.5x strength bonus. For fighters in a two-weapon fighting chain, this gives a +2 attack bonus to all offhand attacks and allows them to deal 1x their strength bonus with the offhand.

This is very poor wording and leaves us with some unfortunate math. It's also nothing like the Flurry of Blows ability used by any other class.

Note that Two Weapon Fighters are already getting a x1 handedness bonus (assuming that there were such a thing) with their primary hand, so as written this adds one times the strength bonus to TWF people and only half the strength bonus to THW and Sword and Board types.

This should probably be expressed as a +2 unnamed bonus for each attack you've already taken this round. That way it stacks up nicely and is easy to figure out, and rewards TWF people, which seems to be the intent.

Save Mastery (Ex): Choose one save. A fighter can always take 10 on this save, no matter what the occassion. In addition, a fighter no longer automatically fails any given save on a natural 1.

Normal people should not fail saves on a 1.

In any case, this seems like a good first try on it. I would prefer it if the class got bonuses that were packed even closer together, as two levels where you only get a feat is a long long walk through the desert to get your next piece of coolness.

-Username17