Knight (Fighter Subclass)

[Yunru]

Just an attemped port from 4e to 5e, the "Essentials" classes being nice and compatible like that.


Knight:

Hold the Line: Beginning when you choose this archetype at 3rd level, enemies within reach have a -2 penalty to attack rolls of attacks that don't include you.

Combat Readiness: Starting at 7th level, you can add your proficiency bonus to your initiative rolls. Additionally you gain the following stances. Stances end on a short rest, long rest or on assuming another stance. Assuming a stance takes a bonus action.

• Precision Blade: While in the Precision Blade stance, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, that creature's speed is halved until your next turn.
• Hammer Hands: While in the Hammer Hands stance, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack you can push it up to 5 feet.
• Measured Cut: While in the Measured Cut stance, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can move up to 5 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.

Weapon Specialisation: At 10th level, you pick one of the following weapon specialisations.

• Bladed Step: When you Action Surge, your attacks that deal slashing damage have advantage until end of turn.
• Staggering Hammer: When you Action Surge, if you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack that deals bludgeoning damage this turn, that creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against a DC of 8 + your strength modifier + your proficiency bonus or be Stunned until the start of your next turn.
• Pointed Assault: When you Action Surge, if you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack that deals piercing damage, you can push that creature up to 10 feet.

Improved Hold the Line: Starting at 15th level, you have advantage on Opportunity Attacks.

Iron Will: Starting at 18th level, at the start of your turn you can make a saving throw against an effect that a saving throw could end.

 

[EditorBFG]

Pretty simple and effective port. Do we need to halve the proficiency bonus to initiative?

 

[Tony Vargas]

The very idea of further simplifying the eKnight is a little funny to me, and Protection Style + Sentinel Feat is prettymuch the Knight's Aura, already, but aside from that, why not. Nothing leaps out as being terribly inappropriate.

Staggering Hammer, you'll want to give a duration for the stun. Conversely, you might want to just have the advantage of Bladed Step apply to the attacks from the Action Surge, not because there's anything wrong, power-wise, with having it apply to attacks taken afterwards as well, but because it sorta penalizes you for not using Action Surge first, and Action Surge is the kind of thing many players like to decide on using after they see how their regular attacks go.

 

[Unwise]

It looks good, but not very overly knightly. Bonuses to initiative, and the measured cut avoiding opportunity attacks seem a bit flashy to me, more in line with a swashblucker type fighter.

It's interesting how easily stuff ported over, it looks like a good way to mine for ideas for some classes.

If I were to design a Knight class, I would look at thing like:
Heavy Armor - they don't have any speed penalties, can don and doff it very quickly, but really Heavy Armor Mastery feat seems like a good fit
Mounts - can mount up as a bonus action, Mounted Combat feat seems appropriate too, it sort of mimics what I would look for in a class feature
Disdain for ranged - Disadvantage on ranged attacks, but all ranged attacks have disadvantage against them.
Inspiration - Can spend action surge to give THP to allies? Advantage to allies? On a crit others get advantage?
Fearlessness - Immunity/advantage to fear

I would avoid social aspects of being a knight, that is a background thing, not a class. A "knight" might be from a lot of different cultures and backgrounds.

 

[Ahrimon]

[MENTION=98008]Unwise[/MENTION] - This class isn't a knightly type of knight. It's a mechanical port of the 4e knight class which was a heavy armor & shield defender that had a built in super sentinel feat due to 4e's mechanics.

I tried doing a Slayer (the 4e heavy weapon damage dealing fighter) but it wasn't as pretty as Yunru's knight. I wanted to make power strike it's main feature, but I couldn't find a good balance between scaling and number of uses.

 

[Kithas]

what is the cost for switching stances? bonus action would seem good to me, honestly it could always cost a bonus action to go in and last for 10min and that would be just fine too.

 

[Yunru]

Added a duration to the Stun. Unsure on it though, so would appreciate feedback.

Assuming a stance requires a bonus action.

 

[Blue]

Slightly gunshy on the Hammer stun, but I might be overreacting. How about:

When hit, must make the save (blah blah DC). If they are stunned they get another save at the beginning of their action each turn until they make it.

So you hit them and they fail you get the rest of your attack sequence off as does roughly half the rest of your party. Then they get another save, and if they fail that then everyone gets another shot at them stunned, then another save, etc.

Stunned is giving free advantage and the like, it's not wimpy.

 

[Yunru]

Yeah but likewise Action Surges are not an unlimited resource either. Be annoying if you didn't get at least one turn of them stunned.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

My opinion is most popular archetypes or concepts can't be a complete class, then a variant class. A variant class isn't a subclass, but it is a core class with a different pack of class features. (let's say variant classes are better for marketing than subclasses).

My concepto of knight is mixing the knight from player's handbook II from 3.5 ed and the cavalier from pathfinder rpg, with subclasses about orders of cavalry and some class features about to face 1 vs 1 challenge. A subclass would be something about legacy weapons or armours.