D&D (2024) High tier Fighter − the mythic warrior

[Yaarel]

The "mythic warrior" is the larger than life Fighter at high tiers. It includes the superhuman exploits of divine warriors like Hercules and of mystic warriors like Norse Berserkar and Valkyrjar and East Asian wuxia warrior, along with superheroes from novels, comics, tv series, and films.

At the high tiers, 5e Fighter characters must overcome superhuman exploration challenges, including the need for planar travel, teleportation, flight, and overcome superhuman social challenges, including Charm and Fear and competitive social influences. These heightened capabilities either resemble magic or plainly are magic. Note, most "magic", such as the Dragonborn breath weapon, is without "spell casting". At the same time, the Fighter needs to do things to a superhuman degree that is magic. Thus the narratives, themes and tropes, about the "mythic warriors" help make contextual sense of the high tier mechanics. While the noncombat enhancement is a necessity at high tiers, it is an appealing luxury at low tiers, where many players appreciate the Fighter having more things to do beyond combat.


The goal of this thread is to create a poll, where you choose which narrative explanations for the magic that you like. Maybe because the Weave permeates all existence the Fighter can attune it to innately engage the impossible. Maybe the soul of the Fighter is the source of mystical combat, whether the mind of the Berserkar or the ki of the wuxia warrior. Maybe the warrior is divine manifesting an archetype of the ideal warrior. And so on. Keep in mind, these narratives are for the Fighter base class itself. Not for any of the subclasses.

Explain what you want the Fighter to do at high levels. After the thread seems to cover enough thoughtful suggestions, I will later add a poll to this thread, so you can vote on which narratives are favorites. I will also modify the title, when the poll comes up, to let you know the poll is happening.


Somehow, the Fighter can do epic things. How do you see it?

 

[mellored]

Portal slash.
With extreme exertion, you can cut a portal though space itself.
As an action, you can expending 2 action surges, your second wind, and gain 1 level of exhaustion. You then make an attack roll against space itself. You then create a portal than last until the end of your next turn. The portal leads to anywhere on the same plane.
By expending 4 uses of second wind, you can swing a tuning fork tuned to another plane, and create a portal to that plane instead.
How close you get depends on your roll....

 

[Shardstone]

Beowulf is the best example of a mundane but mighty high level fighter. He is able to rip monster's arms off at the shoulder, survive the pressures along the bottom of the sea, swim across an ocean wracked with storms while slaying sea serpents, hold onto a dragon as it flies and kill it.

In the Volsunga Saga, which does not feature Beowulf, there are parts where nordic kings are cutting their way back and forth through ranks of men several times without being heavily injured or slowed. In other words, these viking warlords were one-man armies that heavily influenced the battlefield.

There is no reason an epic-level Fighter, which is T3+ or T4 if you're strict, should not be able to mimic these feats. An easy way to do so is to steal and modify rules from the new Lord of the Rings 5E RPG.

Starting at 11th level, instead of Extra Attack (II), the Fighter gains "High Heroism." The Fighter can now stack a number of Inspiration equal to their Proficiency Bonus. They also gain Inspiration when:

1. They or an ally they can see drop to 0 HP.
2. They land a critical hit.
3. They drop a creature with a CR equal to half their level (minimum: 1/2) to 0 HP

The Fighter can spend inspiration when it makes an ability check, attack, damage, or saving throw.

1. For an ability check, the Inspiration turns the roll into an automatic success if the DC was 15 or lower. Spend 2 Inspiration for a DC of 15-20 and 3 Inspiration for a DC of 21+. This is a magical success, and lets the fighter break the bounds of what should be possible, such as jumping long distances, using falling rocks to stay airborne while moving, etc.
2. When the fighter takes the Attack action, they can spend 1 Inspiration to take another attack. Store these up for going nova. You can use this as a lever to also add riders to the attack, like spending 2 Inspiration to knock a creature back 30 feet or 3 Inspiration to rip a creature's arm off, etc.
3. When the fighter deals damage, they can spend Inspiration to treat the damage roll as if it were its maximum. More inspiration can boost the damage die, to a maximum of 2d12. (1d12 -> 2d6 -> 2d8 etc etc). The Inspiration can also be used to inflict conditions on the creature.
4. When the fighter makes a saving throw, they can spend a point of inspiration to add their Fighter level to the saving throw instead of their ability modifier as a reaction.

This gives you a fighter that operates off of core 5E systems. You could also take @Chaosmancer's ideas about Strength and use that to enhance this feature too. Maybe when you spend a point of inspiration, how much you can lift/pull/drag is increased x2 over, or you can spend a Point of Inspiration as a bonus action to push yourself so that you move faster and ignore difficult terrain.

By having the Inspiration be given automatically with the criteria above, you don't have to worry about DM Fiat, and the Fighter gets nice little bonuses as they play the game.

 

[DEFCON 1]

For me, it's simple--

Fantasy world does fantastical things.

That's my explanation.

 

[Tonguez]

Mythic Fighters are Awesome, with superior strength and prowess, able to improvise anything as a weapon, control the battlefield, rally their allies, do massive damage to multiple targets.

 

[WanderingMystic]

What I would love a mid level fighter to do would be a line effect ground pound with a great maul, or a cone of arrows, give me a small self centered burst attack. Also give me the ability to sacrifice multiple attacks for more powerful attacks. If I could try to cleave someone in two by sacrifice my three attacks per round but instead I deal 5d12 +str would be fun

 

[Pedantic]

In the interests of not completely redesigning 5es combat game, you should probably start with utility powers and work backwards to what combat abilities support the theme.

So, how are you going to fly (or equivalent), what can you do to avoid environmental problems, what terrain altering abilities do you want, how do you resolve social situations...

Basically, what abilities let you overwhelm or avoid the skill system? What can you do that means someone doesn't have to roll a skill check?

 

[ChameleonX]

What I would love a mid level fighter to do would be a line effect ground pound with a great maul, or a cone of arrows, give me a small self centered burst attack. Also give me the ability to sacrifice multiple attacks for more powerful attacks. If I could try to cleave someone in two by sacrifice my three attacks per round but instead I deal 5d12 +str would be fun

So, you want the 4th edition Fighter, basically.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Copied from a closed thread:

"Since the beginning of recorded history, there have always been individuals who display unusual, even supernatural abilities above and beyond those normally afforded to their heritage. These beings usually display this power in adolescence, though occasionally it is present from childhood or even at birth. The abilities vary wildly, from flight, to immense strength or speed, enhanced senses, or even stranger abilities like energy projection or telepathy, all without any overt use of magic as it is commonly understood. Those with these abilities tend to be physically fit as a rule, as this is a function of the body more than the mind, and as a result generally enter into warrior training to merge their power with conditioning and skill.

Many possibilities for the origins of this power have been posited by scholars on the subject. Perhaps it is associated with their bloodline. They may be a randomly-ocurring magical "knot" that consolidates the magic of the planes around a single person. This power often manifests during periods of great stress, so it may be the result of a beings' true potential being accidentally unlocked. In any case, those who possess such power grow it through maturity, experience and training, eventually able to reach heights of ability matched only by the strongest of wizards and their ilk."

This is basically a superhero class, based largely on the mutants of Marvel Comics. Base class abilities would offer a menu of combat and noncombat abilities to choose from at different levels, along with general increases in physical ability (extra attack, saves, and the like). Subclasses would define classic archetypes in more detail. It would be fairly complex as WotC classes go, but about right for Level Up or slightly crunchier systems.

 

[Krachek]

Use Str or dex modifier for any task related to the mythic warrior concept.

Add some aura of the paladin to boost himself and his Allie’s. Dont need to base those aura on Str or Dex, Cha can be enough.

For mythic exploit create the Mythic exploit feature, that mimic the Divine intervention of the Cleric.

Add that to the actual fighter that would do the job for me.