Fighter Subclass: The Bravura! (INT-based, tactical, non-magical)

Another thought. Some maneuvers should require a free hand, or even 2. Further trading off AC/damage for support.

For instance.
When a willing creature within 5' is targeted by an area of effect (such as fireball), and you have a free hand, you can drag them away from the blast with whatever movement you have. You need to spend movement for each of you. If you have 2 free hands, you can drag 2 people away, paying movement for each.

mellored said:

This could even be a lazy-lord who just runs around the battlefield giving bonuses, never swinging his weapon.
In fact, I like the idea of him running around better than shouting. It's more dynamic and tactical.

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OMG...yes! This is one of the points I've been trying to make about the Warlord: how is it "tactical" if not actually based on the combat situation? Well, ok, I can think of ways that it can be tactical, but nowhere near as much as if you have to factor in positioning and movement.

That said, since he needs to constantly move between allies, I feel he could use some flat +movement.

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I've been pondering that same thing. I'd love it to be more...interesting...than just a flat movement bonus. (I also thought about tying the reactionary movement to the armor, so that you could still get your extra reactions in heavy armor, but it would limit your mobility. Which means the incentive to wear Medium wouldn't kick in until 7th level.)

Maybe remove the initial armor restriction, and add +5/10/15' movement while not in heavy armor.
Then the more fighter-y versions can keep the AC. While the more support focused ones get speed.

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Ah, right. That.

Hmm... Yup, it's official. I would support this as a warlord replacement*.
*(With more maneuvers, refinement, playtesting, and excessive arguing over the name. It just wouldn't be a D&D warlord without excessive name arguments).

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I'm...I'm....stunned. Humbled.

This concept needs perfected! Nice work [MENTION=6801328]Elfcrusher[/MENTION].

Collected my thoughts. Wording might need some work.


Poetry in Motion
At 3rd level you excel at adapting opportunistically to changes in the battlefield. You can trade one of the following to take an additional reaction. You can still only make one Opportunity Attack per turn.

*Your bonus action on your next turn.
*One of your attacks on your next turn. If you give up an attack, you must take the attack action on your next, even if you have no attacks remaining.

In addition, when you take a reaction, you can move as part of that reaction, giving up an equal amount of movement on your next turn.

Do we need the 1/turn limit? Seems like you should be able to defend against claw+claw+bite, or help with paladin multi-attack. Subject to change.
Kept the OA limit mainly for warcaster. You don't want 3 booming blades.
You also don't want people giving up 3 attacks and still casting firebolt as their action.
This also simplifies the out of turn movement, combined with all moves being 5' range.


Equal and Opposite
At 3rd level you may choose 3 of the following Moves. You may select new Moves, or replace existing ones, at levels 7, 10, 15, and 18.
You can use these moves as a reaction and need to move within 5' of the target.
You can react to target at a distance of 5' * your intelligence modifier (minimum 5'), and you must be able to see and hear them to perform a move.

Int lets you cover more area. 5*5 = 25' which is within the movement range of short people. My wording is extra bad.
Change all moves require you to be within 5' of whoever your helping/hindering.
Add "free hand" for more powerful moves.


Reaction at a Distance
You've learned to react to things further away. Increase the range you can use moves to react to by 10'.
In addition, if you are in medium armor or light armor, increase your speed by 10'.

(Increase the area you can cover. Possibly do 5'/10'/15').


So Crazy It Just Might Work
When you see a creature roll initiative, you can give them a bonus or penalty to their roll equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1). To do this, you must give up your bonus action or an attack on your next turn. You must take the attack action if you use this feature. You can use this feature multiple times.

(Keep the basic mechanics the same as before. Flexible for enemies and allies alike, and more Int stuff).


Overreaction
At 15th level, you can expend your Action Surge to gain 3 extra reactions and 15' extra movement. If you do not expend these reactions before the start of your turn, you can use the remainder of them to make a single weapon attack each. This increases to 4 reactions and 20' extra movement at level 20.

(action surges are worth more than 1 reaction, plus added a little movement.).


Endgame
At 18th level, your ability to calculate next moves and visualize probable outcomes gives you a kind of foresight, and a brief moment to act in the face of great danger, possibly intervening in the last moment before Death itself strikes. When you or another creature within range of your moves rolls a die, or is hit by an attack, you can immidatly move adjacent to them to them and force any d20 roll to be either a 2 or a 19, possibly changing the results.

Keeping with the 5' theme. Though free movement so it's always available.
Also made it better than just a reroll. Since it's a long rest feature.
Also got rid of inspiration, since that's an optional rule. You can gift it anyways.

So a few things to consider. What reactions could this ability be really good with? Is there in per turn damage bonus that could be really abused with a lot of reaction attacks?

1. Ancestral Barbarians damage reduction ability
2. Rogues sneak attack
3. Polearm master reaction attack
4. Rogues damage reduction level 5 ability
5. Frenzy Barbarians level 14 ability

What else?

Also how do the Moves affect ranged on melee combat?

FrogReaver said:

So a few things to consider. What reactions could this ability be really good with? Is there in per turn damage bonus that could be really abused with a lot of reaction attacks?

1. Ancestral Barbarians damage reduction ability
2. Rogues sneak attack
3. Polearm master reaction attack
4. Rogues damage reduction level 5 ability
5. Frenzy Barbarians level 14 ability

What else?

Also how do the Moves affect ranged on melee combat?

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I don't see an issue with 3, or 5. Your trading 1 attack for 1 attack. Better to get it earlier, sure, but no more so than Precision Strike, or 19-20 crit range.
Nor 1 or 4. Gaining defense, but losing attacks. (Though, i'm going off memory at the momement).

So that leaves sneak attack and warcaster.

This is great feedback. Thanks, all. I only have time for a quick response at the moment:

1. Reason for 1 reaction per turn is so that you can't, for example, get a whole bunch of opportunity attacks at once. OP synergy with War Caster.

2. One way to limit power of War Caster and Sneak Attack would be to only allow reactions to be traded for weapon attacks and bonus action. That would allow, at most, 2 extra reactions for somebody who dipped 3 levels. Or just tie maximum number of reactions to level to restrict it even further. That would mean one less use for INT, though.

3. I don't love the idea of extending the range of what are really melee range interactions based on INT. That starts to feel, to me, like a return to feeling like magic without being magic. I'd rather grant extra movement. But the problem with granting extra movement is that using it all at once doesn't feel appropriate. This is he opportunistic/reactive class, not the Monk. So how about at level 3 you are allowed to use movement as part of any reaction, up to your movement rate, deducting it from your movement on your next turn. At level 7 you get 5 'free' feet per reaction, and that increases by 5' at 10, 15, and 18. So that by 18 if you move 30' for your reaction, you only deduct 10' from your total.

4. That leaves us with uses for Int. I have some ideas but want to flesh them out.

5. "So Crazy It Just Might Work": I really wanted an ability that represented making a "plan" for the whole party, as opposed to just bestowing a bonus on one person. I have some other variants of this I'll share later.

6. Action Surge for reaction. Because you get more Moves and more movement at higher levels, the new abilities at those levels don't have to be very powerful (compare to Battlemaster, for example.) It's true that in general an Action Surge for 1 reaction is a bad trade, especially at higher level...unless you've used all your reactions and something really important comes up. Then it's worth the trade. So that was the idea: if you're in a bind you still have one (or two, really) tricks up your sleeve.

Elfcrusher said:

This is great feedback. Thanks, all. I only have time for a quick response at the moment:

1. Reason for 1 reaction per turn is so that you can't, for example, get a whole bunch of opportunity attacks at once. OP synergy with War Caster.

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A whole bunch of OA's at once still doesn't seem bad. It's still a 1 attack for 1 attack trade. So you make 3 attacks a little sooner than otherwise. Possibly make it a move, so it cost a little more.

Warcaster is still something to watch out for...

It's probably best to simply just avoid using the words "Reaction" or "Opportunity Attack", as well as "Move", and avoid all the baggage that comes with them. Instead make a seperate word.
(looks up synonyms...) counter, response, answer, reply, rejoinder, retort, riposte....
Maybe counter measure? Counter step?

You;re spending movement, so "counter step" seems good. At least for the rest of this post.


"You perform a counter step, by trading out one of the following...."

3. I don't love the idea of extending the range of what are really melee range interactions based on INT. That starts to feel, to me, like a return to feeling like magic without being magic.

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My justification. The smarter you are, the more you can keep track of, the more you can react to.

A low Int person can only focus on the enemy in front of him. A higher Int person could also follow what's happening to their friend 20' away.

4. That leaves us with uses for Int. I have some ideas but want to flesh them out.

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You can tie Int to the counter stepts themselves.
i.e.
When a creature makes an attack, you can give them +Int to their roll.

Hmm... Though I think I prefer advantage.


Maybe knowing more counter steps? So high Int people can cover more situations, if not more physical area.

You learn a number of counter steps equal to 2+ your intelligence modifer (minimum 1).

Possibly.

So how about at level 3 you are allowed to use movement as part of any reaction, up to your movement rate, deducting it from your movement on your next turn. At level 7 you get 5 'free' feet per reaction, and that increases by 5' at 10, 15, and 18. So that by 18 if you move 30' for your reaction, you only deduct 10' from your total.

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I like that.

5. "So Crazy It Just Might Work": I really wanted an ability that represented making a "plan" for the whole party, as opposed to just bestowing a bonus on one person. I have some other variants of this I'll share later.

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Fair.

Also, if you go with "counter step" (or whatever), you can just make inititive boosting one of the optoins. Since it's not a "reaction", you can use it durring inititve.

It's true that in general an Action Surge for 1 reaction is a bad trade, especially at higher level...

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Maybe space it out?

You can use your Action Surge to gain 3 bonus counter steps. You can use these bonuses counter steps at any time before the end of your next short rest, but only once per round.
At level 20, this increases to 4 counter steps.


Maybe allow for variety?

You can expend your action surge to perform any counter step, including ones you do not know.

Dunno, but it needs something.

Suggestions v2.
(now called "contingency" for this post.... still trying out words)

Poetry in Motion
At 3rd level you excel at adapting opportunistically to changes in the battlefield. Choose a number of contingencies equal to 2 + your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1) from the list below. Contingencies have a range of 5'. You can move up to your speed in order to get into range to use a contingency. If you do so, reduce your speed until the end of your next turn by the amount you moved.
In order to use a contingecny you must give up either
*your bonus action on your next turn.
*your reaction.
*one of your attacks on your next turn. If you give up an attack, you must take the attack action on your next turn with whatever attacks you have remaining (if any).
You can take as many contingencies as you have actions to trade away.
In addition,

Reaction at a Distance
At level 7, before you take a contingency, you can move 5' without provoking an opportunity attack.
This movement does not subtract from your speed next turn. You can continue to move by expending speed as normal.
This movement increases to 10' at level 15, and 15' at level 18.


Needs some rewording (contingency??), but i think those are really solid.

I like the word Contingency, which is much better than the placeholder "Moves".

A downside to making it a distinct thing from reactions, however, is that I actively wanted Bravuras to acquire other reactions for their toolbox: Protection fighting style, Sentinel, Mage Slayer feat, etc.

What are we worried about if they can use other reactions more than once per round? If we gate the number of reactions by level (either by keying it off of extra attacks, or simply tying it to level) then there's a level trade-off, right? Let's say they get two extra reactions by level 7, and somebody goes Sorcerer 13/Bravura 7 with War Caster. Sure, they could potentially cast 4 spells in a round by getting 3 AoO's...on three different turns...but they're casting them as a level 13 Sorcerer instead of level 20. That's a huge investment for an edge case scenario.

Same with Rogue using it to get extra Sneak Attacks.

Or am I missing some other optimization that hasn't occurred to me?