D&D General Fighter Design: The Battle Die

[mellored]

I can't remember exactly, but pretty sure they did this in a very early dnd next (5e) playtest.

Fightet got a bunch of d6's each turn that they could spend on damage or maneuvers. Very similar to the new rogue.

 

[Baron Opal II]

• Ability checks (including what are in 5e skills, tools, etc) are NOT 1d20 higher is better. Instead you want to roll as high as possible while still not exceeding the ability score you are checking against. [not necessarily 1d20, either.]

I've done something similar, 1d20 + Ability score, target 20+ yields success, 30+ great success. Way back in the day, we used 4d6 < Ability for checks, 3d6 for easy and 5d6 for hard. Your thoughts are interesting with a high but not over roll. Thanks for the idea!

• After rolling to hit, but before you know the result, you can add your battle die to that attack roll.
• When you miss with an attack, you can deal your battle die in damage to one target.

I like this combination! Once you suss out the AC, you can figure out if you need to take extra care with your technique (first), or just wollop them to ring their bell (second).

Level Up: When you finish a level of fighter (i.e., if the class you took most recently upon leveling up was fighter), you can choose one of the following options, with an ability score needing 10 advancement points to increase one full point:

• Your Str, Dex, or Con gains 1d6 advancement points.
• Another ability score of your choice gains 1d4 advancement points.

Interesting. About 3-4 points over 10 levels for the favored abilities, with a chance to get that Wisdom up by one to be better at noticing those ambushes. I appreciate a means to have some attribute increase without making it an easy trip to 20-town. You could make it you need to match the attribute in advancement points to gain the +1 if you find it too quick.

NB: Tangentially, I'm doing something similar with my rules, but I chose 12 levels. Aesthetics.