D&D 5E A Very Simple Fighter

[Chris_Nightwing]

Here's my suggestion for a Very Simple Fighter, so simple I've not even written any fluff.
No dice, no maneuvers, just a basic concept that still allows for some differentiation and occasional tactical decision. Assume the same attack progression as the current playtest.

Level   Combat Expertise
1       1
2       1
3       1
4       2
5       2
6       2
7       2
8       3
9       3
10      3

Master of Arms
The fighter gets a bonus to damage on weapon attacks equal to their fighter level. This bonus is doubled if wielding a two-handed weapon.

Master of Armor
When wielding a shield, the fighter reduces the damage from all attacks against him and allies within reach by their combat expertise value.

Stamina Reserves
The fighter may take an additional action as part of their turn, at any point during their turn, by drawing on their stamina reserves. They may do this a number of times per day equal to their constitution modifier plus their fighter level. The maximum number of additional actions that can be taken in a single turn is limited by the fighter's combat expertise value.

That's it. The typical offensive fighter would wield a two-handed weapon and make additional attacks with their stamina reserves. A typical defensive fighter would wield a sword and shield, and might use their additional actions for dodge. A fighter using a ranged weapon is equally deadly as a melee fighter. There might be a bias towards a dex-based rather than str-based fighter, but that's currently a system issue. The only archetype I haven't really been fair on is the fighter with a one-handed weapon and a free hand, ideas welcome. Is this too simple? I think it's more interesting than the proposed simple version of the current fighter (always using deadly strike), but tell me what you think.

 

[MortalPlague]

Master of Arms
The fighter gets a bonus to damage on weapon attacks equal to their fighter level. This bonus is doubled if wielding a two-handed weapon.

That seems like it would scale out of control very quickly. At 5th level, a 2-hander fighter is adding +10 to all damage. At 10th, that's +20. The one-hander fighter damage is more in line with what I'd expect.

Master of Armor
When wielding a shield, the fighter reduces the damage from all attacks against him and allies within reach by their combat expertise value.

This part I like. Simple, elegant, effective.

Stamina Reserves
The fighter may take an additional action as part of their turn, at any point during their turn, by drawing on their stamina reserves. They may do this a number of times per day equal to their constitution modifier plus their fighter level. The maximum number of additional actions that can be taken in a single turn is limited by the fighter's combat expertise value.

This one gets a bit fiddly, and it opens up the action economy in a way I'd prefer not to see. Part of the charm of 5th Edition so far is the one turn, one action thing. It really speeds up combat. A first level fighter with a moderate CON could take an extra action 3 or 4 times per day.

I think I would cap it to the expertise number, or stipulate that the bonus action can't be an attack action (similar to how words of power work).

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

That seems like it would scale out of control very quickly. At 5th level, a 2-hander fighter is adding +10 to all damage. At 10th, that's +20. The one-hander fighter damage is more in line with what I'd expect.

This was hard to judge. The current fighter gets +3d10 to damage (16.5 average) whatever weapon he uses at 10th level, so that's sort of where I was working from. Obviously this can be rescaled according to how monster HP and spell damage scale.

This part I like. Simple, elegant, effective.

This one gets a bit fiddly, and it opens up the action economy in a way I'd prefer not to see. Part of the charm of 5th Edition so far is the one turn, one action thing. It really speeds up combat. A first level fighter with a moderate CON could take an extra action 3 or 4 times per day.

I think I would cap it to the expertise number, or stipulate that the bonus action can't be an attack action (similar to how words of power work).

The defence thing was just so obvious, having seen parry in play it doesn't add much forcing someone to make dicerolls all the time and rewards the fighter for being right there in the middle of melee.

The extra actions were supposed to mimic the extra attacks fighters have always had in some form previously (and currently have at 6th level - 5E has definitely lost the one-action-one-thing paradigm with expertise dice options), and were intended to be attacks for the most part, whilst limiting their use to tactically sound situations. An extra action 3-4 times a day at 1st level isn't really overwhelming, and I sort of liked the original playtest's twice a day attack twice thing.

 

[Jester David]

If all you do is deadly strike, the 5e fighter is dirt simple.

 

[timASW]

I'd be happy with it for a stripped game like castles and crusades but I'm looking for more tactical choices from a D&D character. I've always like that D&D is sort of half RPG and half wargame.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Any character with an extra resource to manage that runs out on a time-limited basis is not "simple". I'm with [MENTION=37579]Jester Canuck[/MENTION] in that I think the existing 5e fighter is actually simpler to play than this would be.

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

Any character with an extra resource to manage that runs out on a time-limited basis is not "simple". I'm with [MENTION=37579]Jester Canuck[/MENTION] in that I think the existing 5e fighter is actually simpler to play than this would be.

Well, if you just do deadly strike, yes. I suppose I'm trying to allow a little bit too much interest because your weapon choice matters.

I disagree that a resource to manage is complex. You track HP by ticks or numbers on scratch paper, I think that this one more resource offers a number of choices that already exist (so no more complication there) but in an efficient manner (only one thing, not multiple dice, to track).

 

[Ahnehnois]

Well, if you just do deadly strike, yes. I suppose I'm trying to allow a little bit too much interest because your weapon choice matters.

I disagree that a resource to manage is complex. You track HP by ticks or numbers on scratch paper, I think that this one more resource offers a number of choices that already exist (so no more complication there) but in an efficient manner (only one thing, not multiple dice, to track).

On first glance, no, it isn't hard to track how much you have left on your daily stamina resource.

The complexity comes from making the choice of when to use it. Each turn in combat, the player of a fighter faces a fairly complex scenario. What is the probability of the extra action accomplishing anything? How is this fight going? What is the likelihood of facing additional enemies today? How difficult are those battles likely to be? How are the other PCs managing their resources? Bottom line: is it worth it to use this ability now?

Even though the daily stamina track is simple, the decision to use it is complex. There's a lot of calculus going on behind the scenes for anyone who bothers to try any make effective use of their stamina. Conversely, an existing 5e fighter simply approaches things one round at a time, and decides how best to maximize the benefit he provides during that round.

In a way, I think that's the attraction of playing a fighter (particularly a "simple fighter"). You don't have to be responsible for managing how much stuff you can do in one day, you just fight until you drop.

That's one of the reasons why, even in my extensive houserules, I haven't added any kind of combat stamina or any resource for a martial character to manage.

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

On first glance, no, it isn't hard to track how much you have left on your daily stamina resource.

The complexity comes from making the choice of when to use it. Each turn in combat, the player of a fighter faces a fairly complex scenario. What is the probability of the extra action accomplishing anything? How is this fight going? What is the likelihood of facing additional enemies today? How difficult are those battles likely to be? How are the other PCs managing their resources? Bottom line: is it worth it to use this ability now?

I see your point, in that sense it is a far more complicated decision to make, for far more tactically minded players. I would favour additional attacks, but that will require a bit of trickery to smooth out the damage. Oh, perhaps it could be a triggered ability? When you kill an enemy you can take an additional action immediately. For those fights with few enemies a second trigger might be needed, perhaps when you critically hit - as it is, on the increased damage side, I considered using the combat expertise value to enhance critical hits. Would an increased threat range be horrible (after the 3E shenanigans with this)?

 

[Ahnehnois]

I see your point, in that sense it is a far more complicated decision to make, for far more tactically minded players. I would favour additional attacks, but that will require a bit of trickery to smooth out the damage.

I could see that. That's sort of what 2e did. The higher weapon masteries gave you additional bonuses to attack and damage as well as extra attacks.

Oh, perhaps it could be a triggered ability? When you kill an enemy you can take an additional action immediately.

Triggered abilities can be fun, but depending on the trigger can strain disbelief and are highly DM dependent.

Would an increased threat range be horrible (after the 3E shenanigans with this)?

I don't think increased threat range is a bad idea, but I don't see it as a fighter shtick or as substantial enough to be a cornerstone ability.

***

My approach to it has been through the TB combat reaction system. By implementing a simple block/dodge system for all characters built off of the existing AoO concept, there is more design space, more things for the fighter to be good at. Thus, my fighters, besides numerical bonuses and bonus feats, get extra reactions to block/dodge/AoO with, and additional benefits when they do those things. The bottom line is that a fighter can do more useful things in a combat round.