Vikingkingq
Adventurer
In reading through the forums here and at wizards.com, there seems to be a very sharp division between those who want the "simple" fighter who swings his sword every round and does it more often as they level and those who liked the AEDU fighter from 4th edition, and both sides see the victory of the other as a dealbreaker for the 5th edition.
I had an idea that I think might satisfy both sides as a class feature of the Fighter that would exist side-by-side with the various themes:
To my mind this kills multiple birds with one stone:
* it allows those who like simple fighters to keep whacking away doing full damage each round and contributing to the fight, while allowing those who like tactical fighters to pull off combinations and still hold up their end when it comes to damage (using Sunder to lower the enemy's AC, then Trip to gain Advantage, then pulling off a big hit in Round 3, for example).
* without requiring a battle mat, it allows the fighter to use Bull Rush and Overrun to move in tactically useful ways (bull-rushing an ogre away from the caster or overrunning through mooks to get to the BBEG) while defending party members through Grapples, Trips, Disarms, and Sunders so that the fighter can tank if that's the desired gameplay.
* it creates a useful synergy between the fighter and classes that rely on Advantage, as the fighter can make enemies Prone or Restrained, setting them up for a Sneak Attack more often.
* it emulates a lot of the advantages of the 4e powers for fighters (Tide of Iron, Spinning Sweep, Passing Attack, etc.) without being Vancian or focusing attention towards only doing special moves that stack weapon damage.
* it lets the fighter do more stuff without slowing down combat too much (since it echoes Advantage in rolling multiple d20s simultaneously rather than having iterative checks).
* it answers the "Rule 0 means fighters are fine!" while still giving a clear ruleset for the various things a fighter might be able to do. If players want to try additional maneuvers that aren't listed (Pommel-Striking to try to stun someone, for example), DMs now have a model for how they resolve.
Thoughts?
I had an idea that I think might satisfy both sides as a class feature of the Fighter that would exist side-by-side with the various themes:
To my mind this kills multiple birds with one stone:
* it allows those who like simple fighters to keep whacking away doing full damage each round and contributing to the fight, while allowing those who like tactical fighters to pull off combinations and still hold up their end when it comes to damage (using Sunder to lower the enemy's AC, then Trip to gain Advantage, then pulling off a big hit in Round 3, for example).
* without requiring a battle mat, it allows the fighter to use Bull Rush and Overrun to move in tactically useful ways (bull-rushing an ogre away from the caster or overrunning through mooks to get to the BBEG) while defending party members through Grapples, Trips, Disarms, and Sunders so that the fighter can tank if that's the desired gameplay.
* it creates a useful synergy between the fighter and classes that rely on Advantage, as the fighter can make enemies Prone or Restrained, setting them up for a Sneak Attack more often.
* it emulates a lot of the advantages of the 4e powers for fighters (Tide of Iron, Spinning Sweep, Passing Attack, etc.) without being Vancian or focusing attention towards only doing special moves that stack weapon damage.
* it lets the fighter do more stuff without slowing down combat too much (since it echoes Advantage in rolling multiple d20s simultaneously rather than having iterative checks).
* it answers the "Rule 0 means fighters are fine!" while still giving a clear ruleset for the various things a fighter might be able to do. If players want to try additional maneuvers that aren't listed (Pommel-Striking to try to stun someone, for example), DMs now have a model for how they resolve.
Thoughts?
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