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

Yeah, yeah, I hijacked the name Bravura. Sue me.

The whole idea behind this subclass is that it excels at taking reactions. To do this I wanted to find a way to re-purpose or eliminate some of the abilities already built into the base Fighter class. So I made Medium armor or lighter a prerequisite for most of the abilities, and allowed the sub-class to convert both attacks and Action Surges into more (MOAR POWER!) reactions.

I haven't theorycrafted out any of the numbers on this; it's just a first draft. There may very well be some huge, game-breaking paradox in all of this.

And, yes, it's a non-magical, Int-based, tactical fighter. For what that's worth.

As usual, my ability names are a bit silly.

Without further ado I present...

EDIT: Revised. Incorporated many of the ideas/suggestions from the thread.

The Bravura!

Tactical Awareness (renamed from Legendary Moves)
At 3rd level you excel at adapting opportunistically to changes in the battlefield, allowing you to take more than one reaction between your turns by trading attacks for reactions:

• You can take a number of extra reactions equal to the number of attacks you have, but no more than your Intelligence modifier.
• You are limited to one reaction per turn.
• On your turn, if you have taken extra reactions since the beginning of your previous turn, you must take the Attack action, and you lose one attack per extra reaction you have taken.

Contingency Plans
You also learn some new reactions you can use:

• When an ally makes an attack roll or an ability check, as a reaction you may take the Help action as a reaction, provided you are in a position to do so.

Also choose two of the following reactions. Choose one more at levels 7, 10, 15, and 18. Each time you gain a level in this class you may exchange one of your current choices for a different one.

• Bait and Switch: When an enemy makes a melee weapon or spell touch attack against you, as a reaction you may lure that enemy into provoking Attacks of Opportunity. Once you use this ability you cannot use it again against the same creature until you have finished a short rest.
• Voice of Reason: When an ally within 30’ fails a Wisdom saving throw, as a reaction you may allow them to re-roll, although the second roll is made with Disadvantage.
• Margin of Error: When an ally misses an attack against a single creature within 5' of you, as a reaction you may distract the target, giving the ally an opportunity to make another attack.
• Action Hero: When you and/or allies are required to make a Dexterity saving throw, as a reaction you can shout a warning. Anybody within 30' who can hear you may choose to dive for cover, gaining 1d4 on the saving throw but landing Prone.
• Humanoid Shield: When a ranged attack is made against a target for which you are providing half-cover because of your position, but before the attack is resolved, as a reaction you may move into the path of the attack, making yourself the new target.
• Interference: When a ranged attack is made against a target for which you are providing half-cover because of your position, but before the attack is resolved, as a reaction you may move to give the attacker a clearer shot, reducing cover to None. Alternatively, if you are carrying a shield you may instead choose to increase the cover to 3/4.
• Exit Strategy: When an ally provokes an Attack of Opportunity from a creature within 5' of you, but before the attack is resolved, as a reaction you may prevent that attack.
• Pawn to King Four: When a creature moves on its turn into a space within 5' of you, as a reaction you may move into it first, blocking the creature. This does not consume any of your regular movement for the round, and the blocked creature may continue moving through a different space.
• Unhelpful: When a creature within 5' of you makes a Strength or Dexterity ability check, as a reaction you may impose Disadvantage.
• The Setup: When a creature attacks you with a melee attack, as a reaction you can set up a counterattack. On your turn, all attacks you make against this creature are with Advantage.

Poetry in Motion
Also at 3rd level, if you are not wearing Heavy armor and are not encumbered, you may move 5' prior to taking a reaction, in order to be able to take a reaction with a positional requirement. This movement does not provoke Attacks of Opportunity. The distance you may move increases to 10' at level 10. Once you use this ability you may not use it again until after your next turn.

So Crazy It Just Might Work
At 7th level you are able to improvise improbably effective plans. If you spend one minute communicating with allies about a specific goal you describe, up to six allies who you select can each make one ability check with Advantage in the next 10 minutes, provided it contributes directly to that goal. Example goals are “Break into the castle”, “Persuade the King”, or “Defend this Bridge.” Once you use this ability you cannot use it again until you have finished a short rest.

Once More Into The Breach
Starting at 10th level you may add your Intelligence modifier to your Initiative rolls.

Overreaction
At 15th level, on any turn you have taken a reaction you can expend an Action Surge in order to take up to two more reactions in that same turn. None of the reactions you take that turn count toward your maximum, or have to be paid for with attacks.

Endgame
At 18th level, your ability to calculate next moves and visualize probable outcomes gives you a moment’s warning of impending catastrophe, possibly allowing you to intervene before Death itself strikes. When you or another creature within 30’ of you is reduced to zero HP or dies, you may use a reaction to force any one roll from this turn to be re-rolled. If you currently have Inspiration you may use it to grant or impose your choice of Advantage or Disadvantage on the re-roll. You must be conscious and able to move in order to use this ability, and once you use it you cannot use it again until you have finished a long rest.

I like a lot of this. Some of the wording is a touch clunky and the INT aspect doesn’t seem to crop up often enough to feel like you’re using it as you act.

We have a LOT hanging on reactions and a kind of exchange-rate going on. I wonder whether the Extra-Attack feature ought to be altered to an Extra-reaction feature instead. And then have some damage and riders attached. So we’d have some reactive stuff and then on your turn some proactive stuff. Some actions that carry forward. And perhaps some link so that the proactive effect sets up a reactive consequence under certain circumstances.

Hm.


-Brad

Brad! Thanks for dropping by.

Bawylie said:

I like a lot of this. Some of the wording is a touch clunky and the INT aspect doesn’t seem to crop up often enough to feel like you’re using it as you act.

Click to expand...

Agreed and agreed.

We have a LOT hanging on reactions and a kind of exchange-rate going on. I wonder whether the Extra-Attack feature ought to be altered to an Extra-reaction feature instead. And then have some damage and riders attached. So we’d have some reactive stuff and then on your turn some proactive stuff. Some actions that carry forward. And perhaps some link so that the proactive effect sets up a reactive consequence under certain circumstances.

Click to expand...

I don't totally follow; can you give an example? It's true that basically the entire thing is based on reactions, which would probably need to be tempered. And there isn't a single goodie for the other two pillars. (As I said, first draft.)

What I would love about playing this, or some version of it, is that there's a calculated gamble at every turn (see what I did there?). Sure, you can react to something that just happened, but you don't for sure what will happen next, so you don't know whether you should conserve some resources (reactions, actions, movement...). Kind of like the trade-offs that spellcasters make, eh? And isn't that what so many people are clamoring for in a non-magic class?

If every class were designed this way the game would be unwieldy, but maybe it's ok if only one character is constantly interrupting the flow with reactions.

EDIT: Not to pat myself on the back TOO hard but I think I just nailed something there: if the complaint is that Fighters don't have anything to do other than say "I attack again" (which itself is hyperbole) whereas casters have a whole toolbox of things to do, then the solution should also include constrained resources so that the answer isn't always "I use my most powerful ability." You could constrain number of uses per rest, which is how most of 5e works, but that mechanic always starts an argument. "If it's not a magical resource, why can I only do it X times per short rest?"

I like it as a preliminary.

I feel like there's a better way to word "You can't wear heavy armor while you use these powers" but I can't think of a way to phrase it...

Maybe "The Bravura trades heavy armor for mobility, you cannot use any Bravura features while wearing heavy armor"?

One thought, this would make Polearm Mastery even MORE powerful.

I might even suggest adding a weapon limit, something like, you can only use these powers with a One Handed weapon, just to avoid Polearm Reach Polearm Mastery abuse. Unless that was part of your design intention.

This is a pretty good start for what you're after. It uses a design ethos that I really enjoy: an array of at-will options that are circumstantially beneficial or have a trade off in their use. This opens up different viable avenues for a player while encouraging them to dynamically change a situation to their advantage. Which is all good play.

This also keeps the player engaged throughout the combat round, rather than on their own turn. That's good too.

I'm not sure about the trade offs for the reactions, though. It's obvious what you're going for, but I can't figure out how well it would work in actual play. I suppose playtesting would determine if its workable or not.

Like, Bawylie, I too thought it was a little Intelligence-light. But then I figured as a fighter subclass it still needs the standard fighter stats: STR, DEX and CON. This adds INT to the array, making them a bit MAD. But, as written, they don't need much INT--a +2 to +3 will do it. This keeps them from dumping INT which is all you need to get the theme of an INT based fighter. On the other hand, they can dump INT and still get +1 reaction per round and having a +1 in INT gets them no benefit at all. Another feature, possibly a ribbon or exploration/interaction based, would help out here.

Also, because of the MAD, you'll probably see everyone dumping STR for DEX due to its broader impact. You won't see many INT + STR bravuras. That's not necessarily a problem, but it's something to think about.

Reaction at a Distance is missing its last level designation in the above post.

Endgame's "although you must narrate how you accomplish this" isn't really a 5e device or 5e phraseology. I play that way and my own homebrew systems stress that you need to take narrative actions first to activate abilities (i.e. you don't use your healing prowess feature, you say what your character does to activate their healing prowess ability, should it qualify). However, I don't think that qualification comes up in how any of 5e's character options are phrased.

Other than that, I'd allow a polished version of this in my games and play one myself should the mood and opportunity strike.

TiwazTyrsfist said:

I like it as a preliminary.

I feel like there's a better way to word "You can't wear heavy armor while you use these powers" but I can't think of a way to phrase it...

Maybe "The Bravura trades heavy armor for mobility, you cannot use any Bravura features while wearing heavy armor"?

One thought, this would make Polearm Mastery even MORE powerful.

I might even suggest adding a weapon limit, something like, you can only use these powers with a One Handed weapon, just to avoid Polearm Reach Polearm Mastery abuse. Unless that was part of your design intention.

Click to expand...

I'm missing something big. Can you elaborate on what you think will happen?

Rod Staffwand said:

This is a pretty good start for what you're after. It uses a design ethos that I really enjoy: an array of at-will options that are circumstantially beneficial or have a trade off in their use. This opens up different viable avenues for a player while encouraging them to dynamically change a situation to their advantage. Which is all good play.

This also keeps the player engaged throughout the combat round, rather than on their own turn. That's good too.

I'm not sure about the trade offs for the reactions, though. It's obvious what you're going for, but I can't figure out how well it would work in actual play. I suppose playtesting would determine if its workable or not.

Like, Bawylie, I too thought it was a little Intelligence-light. But then I figured as a fighter subclass it still needs the standard fighter stats: STR, DEX and CON. This adds INT to the array, making them a bit MAD. But, as written, they don't need much INT--a +2 to +3 will do it. This keeps them from dumping INT which is all you need to get the theme of an INT based fighter. On the other hand, they can dump INT and still get +1 reaction per round and having a +1 in INT gets them no benefit at all. Another feature, possibly a ribbon or exploration/interaction based, would help out here.

Click to expand...

Remember that each extra reaction still comes at a cost. So it's never completely free. Sure, an 8 INT Bravura could take two reactions per round, but would have to give up at least a bonus action or movement.

Also, because of the MAD, you'll probably see everyone dumping STR for DEX due to its broader impact. You won't see many INT + STR bravuras. That's not necessarily a problem, but it's something to think about.

Click to expand...

I think that would be fine, right?

Reaction at a Distance is missing its last level designation in the above post.

Click to expand...

Thanks. fixed.

Endgame's "although you must narrate how you accomplish this" isn't really a 5e device or 5e phraseology. I play that way and my own homebrew systems stress that you need to take narrative actions first to activate abilities (i.e. you don't use your healing prowess feature, you say what your character does to activate their healing prowess ability, should it qualify). However, I don't think that qualification comes up in how any of 5e's character options are phrased.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought about that and will remove it. I'm a big fan of The One Ring that encourages this sort of thing.

Other than that, I'd allow a polished version of this in my games and play one myself should the mood and opportunity strike.

Click to expand...

No higher praise! Thanks for the help polishing.

What if "So Crazy It Might Just Work" allowed allies to add your Int modifier to their Initiative, rather than 1d4? Generally a bit more powerful, but makes use of the INT modifier in another way.

Poetry in Motion
At 3rd level you excel at adapting opportunistically to changes in the battlefield, but it requires you to be relatively unencumbered: if you are wearing Medium or lighter armor you may take extra reactions, although still only one per turn, up to a total number of reactions equal to your Intelligence modifier, minimum 1. For each reaction after the first you must give up one of the following:

• Your bonus action on your next turn.
• One of your attacks on your next turn.
• All (remaining) movement until the end of your next turn.

Click to expand...

That's a nice way to reduce the fighter's power, and free up room for other stuff.
I played with giving up attacks for maneuvers, but didn't think about giving up your next attack for a maneuver. That solves several issues.

So Crazy It Just Might Work
By 10th level your ability to improvise under pressure is unparalleled. In your first turn of a combat you can use your action to improvise a Plan. Each ally who has not yet taken a turn in this combat can choose between adding 1d4 to their initiative roll, up to a maximum of one less than your initiative, or getting Advantage on one die roll before the end of their next turn. This ability requires that you can speak and that your allies can hear you.

Click to expand...

That doesn't work well, since it requires everyone to shift their initiatives after battle has already started. I'd just stick with your previous idea.

1 ally (or enemy) gains +Int (-Int) to their intitive at the cost of your next attack/bonus action/movement. Can be used multiple times.

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.

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

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.


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).