Racial Fighter Archetypes

[philosophers_stoned]

The level 3 needs a little more. Maybe use Reaction to take damage that an allied creature receives if they are in the area of the light cantrip.

Since it gets really powerful at higher levels, i think i will give it something mild but angelic oriented at 3rd level.

 

[Blue]

Really, if you consider that I'll run 1-2 characters for a 1-3 year campaign, I'll get to experience very few subclasses. So I'd prefer for them to explore something big and unique that changes the play, not a collection os math changes that at the end of the day just modify a die roll a bit without giving new, flavorful options.

So my advice is go big or go feat.

Go Big: Remove every little bit of math trick and make them flavorful and unique so that a Fighter (Dwarf) doesn't play like any other fighter or barbarian, including Fighter (Elf), etc.

Go Feat: Generalize core concepts of these and make them into feats for anyone of that race who wants to be "more so".

High Dwarf
You are a paragon of your race with strong bloodlines.

• +1 CON
• Increase your CON maximum by 2.
• Add your proficiency to any checks or saves to move, grapple, restrain, hinder or prone you, regardless of what else they do. If you already add your proficiency you may add it again.
• Add 2 to AC vs. creatures that are Huge or larger.
• Add your CON to any Charisma checks targeting dwarves.

(Yeah, I wandered off what you had in Dwarven Shield, just playing around. I didn't do Dwarven Weapon Training because that's of limited applicability; some characters might not use weapons and for a feat it was already pretty close to "too powerful".)

 

[philosophers_stoned]

Really, if you consider that I'll run 1-2 characters for a 1-3 year campaign, I'll get to experience very few subclasses. So I'd prefer for them to explore something big and unique that changes the play, not a collection os math changes that at the end of the day just modify a die roll a bit without giving new, flavorful options.

So my advice is go big or go feat.

Go Big: Remove every little bit of math trick and make them flavorful and unique so that a Fighter (Dwarf) doesn't play like any other fighter or barbarian, including Fighter (Elf), etc.

Go Feat: Generalize core concepts of these and make them into feats for anyone of that race who wants to be "more so".

High Dwarf
You are a paragon of your race with strong bloodlines.

• +1 CON
• Increase your CON maximum by 2.
• Add your proficiency to any checks or saves to move, grapple, restrain, hinder or prone you, regardless of what else they do. If you already add your proficiency you may add it again.
• Add 2 to AC vs. creatures that are Huge or larger.
• Add your CON to any Charisma checks targeting dwarves.

(Yeah, I wandered off what you had in Dwarven Shield, just playing around. I didn't do Dwarven Weapon Training because that's of limited applicability; some characters might not use weapons and for a feat it was already pretty close to "too powerful".)

I usually go "feat" or "big" like you said. These fighters are just a thought experiment: what would become of a <insert race> fighter if he had his racial traits emphasized and not his martial aspect?

 

[Blue]

I usually go "feat" or "big" like you said. These fighters are just a thought experiment: what would become of a <insert race> fighter if he had his racial traits emphasized and not his martial aspect?

In that case I like it - pushing design boundaries and seeing what it looks like is a good idea. And I bet having to come up with iconic powers for the various races gave you a good idea of what races are well fleshed out in ways that can be represented mechanically, and which ones are light.

Back in D&D 3.5, in the large line of splatbooks they added racial paragon classes. (Or were they prestige classes? No matter for this discussion) Basically they were short (3 level?) classes you could multiclass into that would hone your racial focus at the opportunity cost of your class focus since you weren't taking levels in it.

Earlier in 3.0 they had Savage Species, which was an attempt to work out monsters with HD and ECL (effective character levels - levels you skipped because the abilities you got mad up for it. 3.0 was very tightly tied to level=HD + advancement of attack and saves, so that's really what was being skipped.). It took more powerful creatures and broke them down, so you could have a giant on balance with a 1st level party, coming into more and more of their giant abilities as you leveled up but staying on par with normal characters. And then you could take class levels.

These ideas always resonated with me, and 5e multiclassing would work well with a current implementation of them to allow someone to focus more on their class, or to play a traditionally more powerful race that stays in step with other characters of their level.