So, I worked all last night (consisted of a LOT of walking a resident I take care of), and during the tedium I kept thinking of things I would like to see in a Fighter. While Fighters should be mundanes, they should be high fantasy mundane. They have unreal physical prowess and durability and access to all sorts of magical items. Also, many of their "prey" are not so mundane, so Fighters would develop to be a cross between monster and mage hunters. Some features I think would be cool:
- A Fighter can't technically be put to sleep or knocked out. Instead, they roll hit dice to continue fighting in "exhaustion mode". Each result of a roll that equals or surpasses the value of a hit die removes that hit die (or dice) from the next roll. Running out of hit dice results in the character being out of commission until the party can take a short rest. The exhaustion mode ends and all hit dice are restored after the short rest or if in combat the sleep status is removed or the Fighter is healed to full health awake status. Death of course, also ends the mode. Exhaustion mode can only be entered again if all hit dice have been restored.
- Ley Line Disruption: A fighter can make a Perception Check for ley lines. By placing a magic item (like thrusting a magic sword into the ground) in the path of a ley line, they can create a no magic zone and use mundane equipment to pick off magic users or rivals over-relying on magic items.
- Vacuum Crush- Essentially, when using a sword, the fighter can part the very air creating a vacuum that violently closes shut. If the fighter misses, but rolls a 3 on a damage die or a 7 on the d20 (or both conditions hold true), then the target takes bludgeoning damage anyway.
- Can gain resistence through exposures to poisons and illusion magic.
- After defeating a large winged creature, the Fighter can now target its wings to significantly reduce speed and armor class. Dragons beware!
- After defeating a vampire with a bladed weapon, the fighter can do significant damage at advantage to hit to a vampire by slicing out its upper jaw and thus the enlarged canines.
- Fiery Wind-Splitter: After defeating a fire-breathing creature or a mage with fire-power, the Fighter now can split fire with a magic sword.
I could go on, but I don't want to make this comment any longer. In summary, the fighter can employ situational tactics learned through encounters with the supernatural and use magic items in ways that no other characters can in order to be the best high fantasy Fighters money can buy all while not being statistically much more than your average villager in really good physical shape. It is their skill and knack and wit while being surrounded by all manner of persons of mass destruction and eldritch abominations that allows them to turn what mundane bodies they have combined with novel use of magical equipment into their own kind of one-man war machine!
Lastly, I just want to say that I am pretty new to D&D 5e (and TTRPGs in general), so all of my ideas may not be all that good, but I wanted to see if some of them could work.
- A Fighter can't technically be put to sleep or knocked out. Instead, they roll hit dice to continue fighting in "exhaustion mode". Each result of a roll that equals or surpasses the value of a hit die removes that hit die (or dice) from the next roll. Running out of hit dice results in the character being out of commission until the party can take a short rest. The exhaustion mode ends and all hit dice are restored after the short rest or if in combat the sleep status is removed or the Fighter is healed to full health awake status. Death of course, also ends the mode. Exhaustion mode can only be entered again if all hit dice have been restored.
- Ley Line Disruption: A fighter can make a Perception Check for ley lines. By placing a magic item (like thrusting a magic sword into the ground) in the path of a ley line, they can create a no magic zone and use mundane equipment to pick off magic users or rivals over-relying on magic items.
- Vacuum Crush- Essentially, when using a sword, the fighter can part the very air creating a vacuum that violently closes shut. If the fighter misses, but rolls a 3 on a damage die or a 7 on the d20 (or both conditions hold true), then the target takes bludgeoning damage anyway.
- Can gain resistence through exposures to poisons and illusion magic.
- After defeating a large winged creature, the Fighter can now target its wings to significantly reduce speed and armor class. Dragons beware!
- After defeating a vampire with a bladed weapon, the fighter can do significant damage at advantage to hit to a vampire by slicing out its upper jaw and thus the enlarged canines.
- Fiery Wind-Splitter: After defeating a fire-breathing creature or a mage with fire-power, the Fighter now can split fire with a magic sword.
I could go on, but I don't want to make this comment any longer. In summary, the fighter can employ situational tactics learned through encounters with the supernatural and use magic items in ways that no other characters can in order to be the best high fantasy Fighters money can buy all while not being statistically much more than your average villager in really good physical shape. It is their skill and knack and wit while being surrounded by all manner of persons of mass destruction and eldritch abominations that allows them to turn what mundane bodies they have combined with novel use of magical equipment into their own kind of one-man war machine!
Lastly, I just want to say that I am pretty new to D&D 5e (and TTRPGs in general), so all of my ideas may not be all that good, but I wanted to see if some of them could work.
