Fighter: Gladiator

[WaywardWaffle]

Gladiator is a fairly popular class to whip up a houserule version of, but I felt like a lot of these classes didn't capture the feel of what a gladiator truly is. First is that it IS a fighter, as much as people want different classes, this is not one that should be split I feel. Second is that it's not just a fighter, it's an entertainer and a controller of a crowd. A gladiator manipulates people's thoughts and feelings while entertaining and fighting in VERY dangerous conditions. So I based my version of the gladiator around that idea. Manipulating people and doing big crazy attacks that make everyone around the table happy.

Gladiator

Gladiator Fighting Style: When using a trident, whip, or shortsword, you can choose to reroll any 1 or 2 that you roll on a damage dice. Also, the DC to escape a Net becomes 8+Str or Dex+ Proficiency

Level 3: Ferro Necari: You have taken the oath of the gladiator, you will insure your enemies die honorably by the blade. Once per short or long rest you can use your action to unleash your finishing move on any target that is below ½ of their maximum Hit Points, as well as prone, feared, or otherwise incapacitated. On a hit double the damage of your attack against the creature.

Level 7: Morituri te Salutant: When you reduce a creature to 0 hit points, or score a critical hit, you can choose for all allies who can see you to gain temporary Hit Points equal to your Fighter Level, and they can add your Charisma modifier to their attack rolls and Spellsave DC until the end of your next turn. This feature can only be triggered once per turn.
If this feature is triggered by Ferro Necari their speed is also increased by 10ft.

Level 10: Sine Remissione: If an enemy that is triggering an opportunity attack started it’s turn adjacent to you, the opportunity attack does not consume your reaction.
Also, the Gladiator can use Ferro Necari twice per short or long rest. In addition, when you use it hostile creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls against any creature except you until the start of your next turn, as long as they can see the you.
If an enemy is under the effect of your Ferro Necari then you can trigger Sine Remissione when the enemy enters a space adjacent to you.

Level 15: Iugula/Mitte: At 15th level you can exude a 30ft aura of “Iugula” or “Mitte”. You can only have one of the auras active at one time. You can use your action to swap which aura you exude.
Iugula: All allies add ⅓ of your Fighter level rounded up to their damage rolls while in the aura. You double your Charisma modifier on Intimidate and Deception checks.
Mitte: All enemies subtract ⅓ of your Fighter level rounded up from their damage rolls while in the aura. You double your Charisma modifier on Persuasion and Performance checks.
If you have triggered Morituri te Salutant this round, your threat range for the purpose of opportunity attacks extends to any space within your aura. Any movement to attack the target is drawn from your total movement speed next turn.

Level 18: Rudis: After many long battles you have finally earned freedom. You can use your experience to assist your allies in their own. If an ally in your Iugula or Mitte aura is being targeted by an attack, you can use your reaction to move to a space adjacent to the ally and take the hit in their place.

Glossary for those interested:
Ferro Necari: To be slain by the sword. The last words in the oath a roman gladiator swore upon becoming a gladiator
Morituri te Salutant: roughly translates to "the dead salute you", this was the phrase that the "editor", a sort of leader of the arena fights would say before the events started. The guy who in pop culture raises or lowered his thumb to decide the fate of a fighter. Not always an emperor.
Sine Remissione: a fight without dismissal, ie. a fight until one person dies. Rarer than you'd think from the times.
Iugula: "Kill them", what the crowd would chant to a fighter with another at their mercy.
Mitte: roughly "Mercy" or "Let them go", same as above.
Rudis: A special wooden training sword that a gladiator would get upon earning their freedom. The "editor" would give this to a gladiator as a sign of their freedom, this also granted a gladiator the right to teach new gladiators how to fight, like a modern day ex boxer becoming a trainer in a gym.

Anyways tell me what you guys think, I put a lot of thought into making this class feel connected and useful.


Edit Log:
Secondary effect on Ferro Necari moved to level 10, also gains a second use at level 10.
Clarified the Morituri te Salutant synergy on the Iugula/Mitte aura. Now it's any square within the aura, might be some unintended synergy with Sinne Remissione.
Clarified Sinne Remissione and Ferro Necari interaction

 

[bedir than]

On Ferro Necari I would have the language be a bit more consistent with other PHB features. Instead of double damage use either gain additional damage dice or my preferred "the Gladiator can opt to score a critical hit if their opponent is " I would also be tempted to say this feature gains additional uses at higher levels. Stacking the increased damage with a single turn of disadvantage seems like something that should come on at a later level. I think it fits as the 10th level ability.

I like the way many of these features stack and combo, but the Sine Remissione as written can lead to dozens of opportunity attacks (or at least more than the 1 that is typical in the game).

My attempted rewrite at 10th level would be something like

10th level - Sine Remissione - the Gladiator gains an extra use of Ferro Necari. On a use of Ferro Necari opponents within 30 feet can only attack the Gladiator with disadvantage. The Gladiator is able to use a reaction to make an opportunity attack even against an opponent using the Disengage action.
Essentially this makes it an Improved Ferro Necari, that keeps mechanically forces a fight until the end. It would no longer stack with the 15th level ability, but I feel that the 15th level ability has a decent power fit.

I adore Rudis. It's a kind of "pick on someone your own size" which feels powerful.

I only would change a single thing on Morituri te Salutant and that's to replace "all allies" a number of allies equal to your Charisma modifier plus Fighter level. In most cases this would be an entire party, but it shouldn't always be the entire party. Plus it's another reminder that a Gladiator build should have CHA as its highest of the mental attributes.

 

[WaywardWaffle]

On Ferro Necari I would have the language be a bit more consistent with other PHB features. Instead of double damage use either gain additional damage dice or my preferred "the Gladiator can opt to score a critical hit if their opponent is " I would also be tempted to say this feature gains additional uses at higher levels. Stacking the increased damage with a single turn of disadvantage seems like something that should come on at a later level. I think it fits as the 10th level ability.

First, the double damage is used in the Rouge Assassin's level 17 ability, where you double damage on a surprised enemy (which can reach frankly ludicrous levels with sneak attack)
Second, I did play around with a critical hit but for a once per rest feature an ordinary critical did not feel strong enough, and I felt that double damage would really pack a punch.

I like the way many of these features stack and combo, but the Sine Remissione as written can lead to dozens of opportunity attacks (or at least more than the 1 that is typical in the game).

My attempted rewrite at 10th level would be something like

10th level - Sine Remissione - the Gladiator gains an extra use of Ferro Necari. On a use of Ferro Necari opponents within 30 feet can only attack the Gladiator with disadvantage. The Gladiator is able to use a reaction to make an opportunity attack even against an opponent using the Disengage action.
Essentially this makes it an Improved Ferro Necari, that keeps mechanically forces a fight until the end. It would no longer stack with the 15th level ability, but I feel that the 15th level ability has a decent power fit.

The dozens of opportunity attacks was intended, I wanted the ability to be similar to the Underdark Unleashed Arcana Tunnel Fighter fighting style. I didn't want to allow the opportunity attack on disengage because I didn't want to step on the toes of the Sentinel feat.
I notice that your update to Ferro Necari has enemies ONLY able to attack the Gladiator, I wanted to avoid this because the gladiator is not meant to have any kind of magic or mind control, martial abilities should give an incentive to do something, rather than force them to.
I agree that level 10 should give the buff to Ferro Necari but forcing the opponents to do something goes against the flavour of a martial class.

I only would change a single thing on Morituri te Salutant and that's to replace "all allies" a number of allies equal to your Charisma modifier plus Fighter level. In most cases this would be an entire party, but it shouldn't always be the entire party. Plus it's another reminder that a Gladiator build should have CHA as its highest of the mental attributes.

This is also something I considered, but I eventually decided that a gladiator does not pick people that they entertain, they draw the whole crowd's attention. Plus even 1/2 of Fighter Level at level 7 would be most if not all of a typical adventuring party, and I'd rather not leave party members out, or worse, have one player be bitter because the fighter had to choose someone else to give the buff to. I think Charisma being interspersed into the effectiveness of various abilities not only covers players knowing that they need at least some kind of charisma score, but also more accurately uses the charisma score as it's described, Force of Personality.
Finally, about this change, the class is already very complex, and I felt like I was constantly on the precipice of going too far. A kind of mechanical overload you would find in previous editions. It's much simpler to say all allies than to have the player stop the flow of the game to pick out who gets the benefits of the features.

I do feel like Sine Remissione could be reworked, it's kind of an outlier in it's flavour, or more like... it sticks out as an ability that only works with the others because I made it stack with a later feature, maybe that one could be reworked in a way reminiscent of Sentinel, but without removing the option of taking the feat from a fighter.

Thanks for your feedback, it gave me plenty to think about.

 

[bedir than]

Your justifications make a lot of sense. I tend to default to have my custom classes/races as underpowered. This does mean that my players only pick them for flavor, but I'm wary of unintended power creep. I don't want to have to throw an extra hobgoblin at the group just because I didn't think that Feature X, Y and Z became like having a 15th level ability.

 

[Dark Sun Gnome]

Gladiator is a fairly popular class to whip up a houserule version of, but I felt like a lot of these classes didn't capture the feel of what a gladiator truly is. First is that it IS a fighter, as much as people want different classes, this is not one that should be split I feel. Second is that it's not just a fighter, it's an entertainer and a controller of a crowd. A gladiator manipulates people's thoughts and feelings while entertaining and fighting in VERY dangerous conditions. So I based my version of the gladiator around that idea. Manipulating people and doing big crazy attacks that make everyone around the table happy.

Considering that there were a number of different classes of Gladiator in Ancient Rome, the Gladiator could be spun out into quite a different number of subtypes within its own class, so IMHO, just like the Ranger and the Barbarian, it should be its own class.

But this fighter subclass gets what a gladiator is all about. I like it.