Unorthodox Fighters

There's a Dragon before you, with evils eyes and sharp gnashing teeth. What do you do? What do you do? (you could always try to fire a magic missile, you wuss)

For those of you who like to get in close an personal with bad things, UNORTHODOX FIGHTERS is for you! This 25 page pdf contains 5 New Fighters for you to use in any d20 fantasy world. Each Fighter comes with a detailed background, new abilities, and new progression charts. MAGIC MISSILE? You don't need no stinkin' Magic Missile.

Written by Doug Kilmer (and an eerie cover by Brad McDevitt), this book details the following five new Fighters:

-The Bastion: The ultimate living roadblock.

-The Bully: Bows and Arrows? Not for the Bully -- a good rock makes a better impact sound.

-The Dogfighter: Down on his luck, the Dogfighter depends on himself and his only trustworthy companions

-The Legend Seeker: When he walks into the room, everyone speaks his name. If they don't, then they must be mute or dead.

-The Second Son: Middle Child Syndrome can be tough. The Second Son struggles to impress his parents even though they just don't care.

Still not sure? Well come by and get the free Demo!

Unorthodox Fighters

Fighters are one of the most basic classes. They are flexible and are the cornerstone of D&D. Fighters have the advantage of gaining lot of feats and this allows fighters too really vary their abilities. This also makes alternate fighter base classes harder to justify because with the proper feats there are few things combat wise the regular fighter can not do. Unorthodox Fighters is a book that offers new core classes for the fighter.

Unorthodox Fighters is one of the book is about the different classes from The Le Games. They have been putting out these books offering alternative core classes for all of the basic classes, though they have not finished all of them yet. Each book so far has had five new core classes but nothing else like feats, spells, or prestige classes. Unorthodox Fighters comes in a zip file a little over a meg. Inside there are six files. There are three different version of the main book, a small read me text file, a list of a few spells and many feats from the SRD. And a one page advertisement for an artist and that happens to be the biggest of the files. The art work and layout of the book is pretty much like the other others in the series I have seen and that is a bit below average. The book though is well book marked and that is always a great thing to see.

The Bastion is the first alternate fighter. He is a defensive fighter gaining abilities that like damage reduction, ability to perform a shield bash, and an intimidating stare. While it does receive a slightly better will save then the fighter and have a smaller skill list, the abilities really would have been better as feats. Basically the Bastion gains an ability each time a fighter gains a feat with the addition of gaining one at third level. I feel that this class really would have been better served to be the fighter and just be a list of optional new feats for the class. The class is a bit weaker then the standard fighter and while is a great archetype for the fighter class it does not stand up alone.

Next is the Bully and it basically is a bully. He excels at throwing rocks and punching things. He suffers from the same problem as the Bastion though, the class is so close to being a fighter that a fighter can actually do it a bit better. It gains abilities the same as a fighter with an extra one at three and eleven. It does have some great sounding names for the ability like moment of clarity which allows a once a day bonus to intelligence based checks or skill roll.

The third is the Dog Fighter and it is possible the best class I have seen in the whole Unorthodox series. It takes a good concept and develops and describes the concept in a well and meaningful way. While the class is a lot like the fighter the abilities it gains do not feel like feats and really fit the class well. The only problem is that while the class does give a dog companion it does not state if this works like the animal companion like Druids get. I hope it does work like the Druids Animal Companion ability of the dogs will quickly become out classes as they do not really gain abilities themselves.

The Legend Seeker seems to be an odd name for a class as it describes almost every player character it seems. Still, the class does give some good abilities that really fit the concept. The class starts with a signature weapon that has to be named. It gains abilities as the character gains levels. Some of the abilities of the class though really will fit only certain players who might like this class. For instance they get a sponsor and while in game terms this only means some extra gold once a year, I can see some groups really wanting to define the nature and role of the sponsor much more while others would not want to mess with it at all. The class like the Dog Fighter above gains abilities at the same rate as a fighter and like the Dog Fighter the abilities are not ones that would make good feats.

The Second Son is the last class presented here. While it has a picture that seems to indicate this as an oriental flavored class it is actually general enough to work well in most settings. The idea is the player is the second son of a rich noble and has the freedom to explore his own destiny. The class starts with greater resources and abilities of horsemanship. While the class does suffer from the feat like abilities of the first two classes, the concept here is very solid and well laid out.

Unorthodox Fighters is a good collection of good concept classes. Some of the concepts might be better as prestige classes and others seem to be better as the Fighter class with just a few options. But that does not diminish the strong concepts and interesting classes that are presented here. This series of books is seemingly growing stronger as they get more of them done.

I'd argue with you if thought Unorthodox Fighters wasn't good value at US $2 for nearly 30 pages. Sure, you might have to take off a few pages for the front cover, intro and d20 legal foo. On the other hand you add in 24 pages of appendix for OGL spells and feats. That's about 50 pages for $2.

Yeah, The Le Games' Unorthodox Fighers is a PDF product not a glossy hardback. That only matters to some gamers.

The Unorthodox Fighter's worth, I think, is measured by its usefulness rather than the cost-per-page count. There's a whole series of Unorthodox Class Books and it's the "Unorthodox" title that really interests me. Unorthodox Fighters lives or dies on whether it can provide unconventional, divergent and unique classes. This challenge is especially tricky when dealing with the Fighter.

The Bastion believes he is the anchor in any shield wall or any melee mosh at all. He's the big, tough, armour clad tank with a small collection of simple but effective weapons. This core class's most remarkable class special is damage reduction. It reaches damage reduction 3/- at level 20. That's pretty intoxicating. It's also pretty dull. I think the Bastion is only an appealing class because it's a tempting (and powerful) alternative.

The Bully is a big strong fighter with less of an enthusiasm for heavy armour and heavy weapons simply due to laziness. At the 8th level the Bully's body is hard enough to have Damage Reduction 2/- and receive half damage from non-lethal damage. At 20th level this Damage Reduction is 4/-. Once again this is a tempting class if you want to play a lazy brute of a (powerful) fighter. It's also very similar to The Bastion.

The Dogfighter, on the other hand, is nice. This is an interesting class. The Dogfighter is unorthodox. The Dogfighter is someone who's grown up living with dogs - the default example is of a street urchin who's only friend was a dog. As the Dogfighter levels up his ability to communicate with his dog companion and then a small pack of them improves. The Dogfighter and his dog companions improve their coordination in combat too. Sure, I think the evil GM will make mincemeat of the unarmoured dogs but I suppose in a fantasy world it might be easy enough to find an especially tough one. The Dogfighter is original.

The Legend Seeker seeks to become a legend. At the first whiff this sounds like another boring class - with a range of specialised power ups. On closer inspection the class is a bit of a mix. It does have its specialised power ups but at least they're interesting; signature weapons and signature moves. Surprisingly the annoying aspects from this class come from the other class specials. The Legend Seeker gets Groupies. Okay, nice idea - but it's a pain in the arse for the GM to deal with. There's also a risk the extra NPCs will over shadow the group's own dynamics.

The Second Son is steeped in Oriental mythos. Here we have an honourable and strong personality who just has the miss-fortune of not being the eldest and heir to a family estate. We've two blade fighting and horse riding class specials in addition to some regal abilities like leadership and voice of command. The Second Son works for me as an alternative class because I can imagine campaign worlds where the Second Son stereotype is the default trained fighter type (with the Warrior NPC class picking up the minions).

As with the other latter Unorthodox Class PDFs there is an impressive amount of text; flavour and crunch for each class. At about 5 pages each there's no skimping on the details. Sheer word count is impressive but the fact that quality with the quantity is. Which alignment would you think suits the Second Son? There's over 100 words discussing it - what about Second Sons which carry a grudge? It would be easy given they've been deprived of so much due to an accident of birth.

Unorthodox Fighters is a palpable hit. It would have been very easy for the PDF to scrape along on the "meh" level - where the product was professional enough just terribly dull. It's pleasant and quite an achievement that Unorthodox Fighters has the interesting bits it has. On the other hand there's no thick vein of good stuff here. There's good stuff but it's patchy and sporadic.

Overall it's a simple call. If you're looking for an alternative or even an additional fighter class - and you don't mind powerful fighters - then every reason to shake US $2 from your PayPal account and walk off with Unorthodox Fighters.

* This review of Unorthodox Fighters was first published at GameWyrd.

This is a 29 page PDF with 5 alternate core classes for the Fighter. The zip contains several versions of the file: onscreen PDF, print PDF and easy copy/paste RTF. This is a nice feature, though cover art in my onscreen version looked decidedly odd - like a negative image. It's also probably the weakest piece of art in the product, though perhaps the fact that it is of a skimpily clad female had something to do with its choice as the cover art!

The product offers five new 'unorthodox fighter' classes. Each is provided with a full write up in the same style as the core rules, with plenty of information on the style of characters that would favor the class:

The Bastion: a defensive fighter who favors heavy armor, the Bastion is designed to form a strong bulwark for his group. It uses a non-standard Will save progression (essentially 1 better than the fighter's) - non-standard save progressions are a personal bugbear of mine, so I would change this if I used the class. It bends the rules in other ways as well, such as granting a bonus feat that can be taken at any level after 3rd (not only at the level it was gained), and overriding many of the standard rules for AoOs. Some of the other class abilities are not fully explained: bastion bash allows the Bastion to shield bash with a tower shield, but no mention is made of how much damage this attack does. The resolute stare ability does not mention a duration or a range, while improved steadfast stance allows the Bastion to make AoOs against creatures that pass within 10 feet of him - though there is no mention of how a Bastion with a reach of 5 feet would be able to do this. These rules issues are a disappointing detraction from a class that has good flavor and a set of abilities which (though a little powerful compared to a normal fighter) suit the theme quite well.

The Bully: a rough and tumble fighter who relies on his fists, but has a style very different to the monk. This class looks like a lot of fun to play, though the iron fists ability is too powerful for first level (where it is a no-brainer cherry pick for rogues looking to max out their sneak attack opportunities). The omission of notes on how this ability (which basically allows the character to use his full attack routine with each hand each round) interacts with flurry of blows and the two-weapon fighting feats is also a serious oversight.

The Dogfighter: a character who fights as a team with a dog or riding dog. There are some nice ideas with this class (the dog gains the ability to deflect missiles aimed at it or its master, for instance, and the two gain extra bonuses when they both attack the same target) but there is no effort made to keep the dog viable at higher levels (it's still just a normal dog), instead granting the character more companions. One fireball, of course, will clean out the whole lot. There is also no explanation of whether the character gains any bonuses to handle his dog companions, and with only 2 skill points per level the dogfighter isn't going to be able to do much else. The class would benefit a great deal from being re-written with a 3.5 druid-style animal companion, and with more skill points.

The Legend Seeker: this fighter is out for glory for himself. The class's abilities revolve around using a signature weapon, and trading off his every-growing reputation as a mighty warrior. Again, an interesting idea is let down by sub-standard mechanics. Heard of Me (the 14th level ability) has a Will save DC of 15 + legend seeker level - opponent's level), which really ought to be 10 + 1/2 legend seeker level + Charisma modifier, both to fit in with the standard application of such abilities and to give the ability a reasonable chance of success. The entourage ability (which gives the 8th level character half a dozen much lower - 3rd or less - level followers) and the sponsor ability (which offers the character the chance to trade half his treasure earned for 5000 gp a year - not a deal most 12th level adventurers will take!) are of dubious worth as well.

The Second Son: the younger child of a powerful noble, this fighter goes out to prove his worth to the world, armed only with his excessive gold (second sons get 8x normal starting money - there's no mention of what they get if the class isn't taken at 1st level) and his steadily more and more ludicrous bonuses in sword-fighting (a 2nd level Second Son effectively gets weapon focus, greater weapon focus and weapon specialization in one type of sword, and gains a +1 bonus to attack and damage with it for every three levels thereafter, as well as another ability at 18th level - or possibly 16th, as the text and table do not match - that adds a further +2 bonus to attack and damage; resulting in +10 to hit and damage at 20th level).

One other general note is that the product has an odd phrasing for AoOs, referring to characters as attacks of opportunity (eg The Bully "is not an attack of opportunity when attacking with his fists") rather than the more standard "does not provoke an attack of opportunity". I found this a little disconcerting to read, and was particularly noticeable due to how many classes got abilities that allowed them to ignore the AoO rules entirely.

Unorthodox Fighters has some interesting ideas, but the execution is disappointingly haphazard. Any GM will need to do a considerable amount of work with the material here to make these classes viable options for their PCs and NPCs.

The Unorthodox series tries to make itself unique and different from the standard D&D ruleset, and tries hard to provide something truly unique for players and GMs.

Some rules are made to be broken, and the Unorthodox tries it best to do this while still maintaining balance. I believe that alternate classes should not use the standard progression chart if it does not need to, because doing so would restrict new classes entirely. For example, should an intelligent fighter but non aggressive fighter be given the same fort and will saves as a standard core fighter? I would say no.

In anycase, I wish to thank the distinguished gentleman for his review.

You can find Unorthodox Fighters at Rpgnow.com for a paltry $2.00. Still not sure? Well come check out the free demo!

Unorthodox Fighters (Printer Friendly Version)

(I was given a copy of this for review purposes and will review the printer friendly version - So no art or such included except cover)

1. Cover art: I like the art for the cover (and did glance at the interior art - The Dogfighter main picture shows a bird?) It fit the topic in a way (Was a warrior type person) and was not bad. Grade - 4

2. Layout: I like the TheLe Games Layout, easy on the eyes and makes for useful printed material. Alignment information is listed 2x for all of the entries. The term 'becomes an attack of opportunity' is used in place of 'provokes an attack of opportunity'. Grade - 3.5

3. Classes: I will review each class and make comments.

a. Bastion: Loner fighter that seems to want all of the glory and combat. Has a good list of Bonus feats, but only one chance to gain them? Otherwise the abilities seem solid and the character is not too bad. Grade - 4

b. Bully: This class strikes me as one that no adventuring party would allow to accompany them. It might be good for a short term NPC or a one shot game however. But there is a big flaw in the class, they are very munchkin in regards to armor after level 6. Get a 20 Dex and Full Plate and you get the full Dex bonus as well as the Armor bonus, and the Armor penalty no longer applies to Run, Jump, and Swim? They suddenly learn to swim really well in really heavy awkward armor? They also gain DR and an Int based Skill bonus. Also the Improved Mauler allows them 2x attacks for free. Grade -1

c. Dogfighter: Another loner that seems out of place in a party. They even state the following: "A Dogfighter may not think twice about betraying a member of his party, but he never betrays the trust of his dogs"...What? Why would I allow someone that look out for the health and well being of his dogs over that of the party. This appears to be a good class for a solo campaign, or even a single class campaign where multiple Dogfighters work together. Grade - 2.5

d. Legend Seeker: A fourth loner, as shown here: "A Legend Seeker does not form long term attachments, unless it is with a particularly useful sponsor or lackey, and then only as long as that person proves useful to the Legend Seeker's cause." They also seek out those that are less powerful than they are. At first level they get an ability that grants +2 to Hit and Damage and Possibly a free Feat? At Second Level they can grant it alignment abilities? At 10th level they ignore DR? They are good as main fighters for a party that is looking to always be in the shadows and have a leader that seeks to outshine them. Grade - 2.5

e. Second Son: The Second Son is not a loner. They seek to adventure to set themselves up. This sounds like most normal adventurers. They are not overpowered and gain no abilities that made me go 'WHAT'...I like the premise and almost feel that they could stand some powering up. They benefit the entire party and seem like a nice addition. Grade - 4

4. Extras in the ZIP file: 3 copies of the files, one to read on screen, one to copy and paste from, and one to print. An Appendix with spells and feats referenced. A Copy of the cover and a promo for the artist. Grade - 4

Critical Hits: Nice layout, varied classes.

Critical Misses: Way too much variation in power level in the classes, the art did not always match the subject.

Over all - 2.85 (3)

Unorthodox Fighters by The Le Games

This 28 page PDF presents five variants of the fighter class to plug into your d20 fantasy game. These are not Prestige Classes, but full 20 level classes to be used to add variety to the fighters in your game. Each variant is given its own four to five page section laying out the benefits and differences of the class.

The document itself comes in three formats all included in the same ZIP file; a PDF formatted to print in portrait mode, a PDF formatted for on-screen reading in landscape mode, and a RTF for cutting and pasting stats to use on character sheets, initiative cards, or whatever else you need them on. I like this a lot, as it made printing and play testing a breeze.

Also included is a PDF appendix listing and describing all the spells and feats used for the characters. While not an absolute necessity as it is SRD material, this was a convenient way to remind yourself what a certain feat that your character has does.

A brief section on balancing the characters for your campaign is included. It is good advice, and general enough to let you tailor the characters to your game.

Artwork is confined to the on screen PDF version, which makes it easier on your printer’s ink supply. Each variant has a portrait, all of which are good solid archetypes of the character presented. The cover art is OK, but it was interesting that the art was in full (normal) color on the print PDF, and in what seemed to be a negative image on the on screen PDF. I prefer the full color one, but that is just personal opinion.

The Variants

Each variant begins with some fluff text about his background and development, why he became this way, etc. Each story is plausible and well written, letting you get into the character type. Presented much as the core classes are, there are sections for adventures, alignment, background, and so on. I liked the motivations and story elements; even the one character I would never want to play has an interesting hook for in-game use.

The Bastion: This was my favorite. A strong warrior who stands there and dishes out the pain. This class was the easiest to drop right into the game and play. In play testing he held up very well compared to the standard fighter. He loses the fighter bonus feats and gains other special abilities and feats appropriate to his role. He basically becomes an immovable object with great defense bonuses to hold the line against the enemy.

The Bully: His name describes him well. An unarmed fighter that gets bonuses to unarmed damage like a monk, better Bull Rush and Overrun attacks, and the ability to deal strike damage during Bull Rush and Overrun attacks. This is a novel character who would fit in an urban campaign quite well. I wouldn’t use him as my primary fighter in a traveling adventuring party. Blow for blow he could not stand up to the normal fighter, who does more damage with his greater weapon selection and feats, but I could see this variant in a Thieves’ World type game.

The Dogfighter: the class I wouldn’t play. A good idea and story hook, as a loner who fights with one or more canine companions, but if played true to character would not fit in well with an adventuring party. If you are involved in a solo game, this would be a great character to role-play with the right GM. All the special abilities involve fighting alongside his dog. It’s a nice idea to have a built in flanking bonus traveling with you, and the bonus abilities are interesting. Play testing had this variant (and his dog) on the ground quickly against the fighter, who took out the dog in two swift blows, then easily cut through the lack of armor on the dogfighter (at all three levels).

The Legend Seeker: I want to play this variant out in a campaign. The fighter who is concerned about her own story, always seeking to be the center of attention, and who gets bonuses for it! The Legend Seeker is always in the thick of adventure, but only to improve her own glory and fame. Everyone else is secondary, and woe to the traveling companion that comes between the seeker and her fans. Bonuses on a signature weapon and a collection of followers are the primary special abilities of this variant. Getting an ability boost four times a day (Bear’s Endurance, Bull’s Strength, etc.) is a wonderful thing. She holds up well vs. the fighter, due to her inherent buffing ability.

The Second Son: The noble scion character, this variant is presented in such a way that you can easily drop him into your game. A wealthy character when he starts, he knows that he has no inheritance coming and wants to maintain his lifestyle. Oh, and to prove his worth to parents, friends, and the populace at large. The second son gains bonuses to horsemanship and sword use at various levels, as well as various motivational and diplomatic bonuses. This may be the most well thought out of the variants, creating a very “realistic” noble character.

Overall this small PDF is very useful, and well worth the paltry cost. (I got it on sale at RPGnow for $1.50; regular price is $2.00). The characters are useful as both PCs and NPCs, and inject some nice story elements based on their classes. These additions are going straight into my homebrew!

Fighters need changing, but this just isn't it

I received Unorthodox Fighters for free in order to review it.



Art-Good, I liked how it looked, but the Dogfighter picture had a bird on it. That didn't make any sense to me. Rating: 4



Layout-It’s just like the PHB with sub-sections for why they adventure, roles, etc. Rating: 4



The Classes-Thematically, these are some of the best classes I've ever seen. Sure the first four were loners that don't really mix well with a party. But that makes for great RPing opportunities. When I looked at how they actually worked, I was mentally screaming "Who came up with that?!" All of them except the Second Son have the same skills and skill pints as the fighter.



1. The Bastion-Its main focus is heavy armor and combat. It has damage reduction going up to 5/- at 20th level. It has a defensive stance similar to that of the dwarven defender. It also gives two extra ability points which go into Strength and Constitution. Rating: 3



2. The Bully-A loner who only seeks to beat up opponents. He uses a throwing rock and his fists. The iron fist ability was written poorly and didn't make much sense. At 6h level he ignores Max Dex bonuses to AC while in armor. This is way overpowered. Rating: 2



3. Dogfighter-This class is really unorthodox in the fact that they get dog companions. These don’t get stronger as you increase in level, just more. Their abilities are focused around working with their dogs. Rating: 3



4. Legend Seeker-This is a class that has strange abilities and is pretty much just a fighter who wants to make a name for themselves. They like the spotlight and at 8th level he gains a specified version of the leadership feat. This was the first class I felt wasn’t too over or underpowered. Rating: 4.



5. Second Son-This class has an oriental feel and is for the second son of a royal family. This class is very overpowered. At 2nd level one of their swords effectively becomes +2 and all other swords they wield are treated as +1. This class has two-weapon fighting abilities. Rating: 2



Miscellaneous: This PDF often uses “is not an attack of opportunity”, when it should be saying”doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity.” The classes are just too overpowered and aren’t really meant for PCs.

Unorthodox Fighters is an interesting product from The Le Games. Like the rest of their Unorthodox line, it provides several base classes that can replace or supplement a base class.

This book provides a wide variety of such alternate fighters: although there are only 5 in total, the concepts are diverse. The classes themselves are well-thought and presented in detail; those liking expanded descriptions of their classes may find these classes preferable to those in the Player's Handbook.

The classes appear balanced to first appearances. I consider myself a good judge of mechanical balance, although as I have not playtested these I can't say with certainty. Some may have strong opinions (positive or negative) on the choice to use nonstandard save progressions; regardless of one's position, this does give The Le more opportunities to fine-tune balance.

Some may prefer to use these classes as replacements to the fighter instead of additions. Fortunately, the breadth of these classes makes that possible, but I would not in general recommend this. That has more to do with the privilaged position the fighter holds in game design than the book's failings, as the fighter class is uniquely simple and modular. Heavily flavor-driven campaigns may wish to do so regardless, as this approach would enforce role much more strongly than that using a generic fighter.

Another major use of such a book is as a toolkit. Class abilities can be removed from their natural home and used to build prestige classes or feats. Unfortunately, the abilities of the classes in this book are generally not distinctive enough to make good feats. Prestige class versions of the five classes in UF may be made without much trouble, but using the abilities for other prestige classes would not be easy for the same reason.

The book comes in two forms, one for printing and the other for on-screen viewing. The layout is good and the illustrations are fitting, if not spectacular.

Summary:
Unorthodox Fighters is a great book for DMs looking for something different without wanting to put in too much effort creating their own material. It's fine for players looking for the class that fits them "just right". It's not so good for DMs who like to create their own material. I recommend it to those who like expanded class writeups and flavor in their books, but not for those who prefer to adapt classes to their own game framework or homebrew setting.

(The Le Games provided me with a copy of this product for the purpose of reviewing it. My usual standards apply, as always. Questions or comments about this review should be addresed to me, through comments, the message board, or email.)