Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Fighter: Samurai, Sharpshooter, Arcane Archer & Knight

I'm getting, like, unhealthy amounts of mad, clicking on that broken link.

 

[BookBarbarian]

I think so, based on the cinematic line. In your basic Tarzan/Wolverine/Hulk fight, the hero is fighting at a base level of ability (X) thumping minions and whatnot, then the big bad annoys them, and they fight harder (X+Y). In your basic samurai movie, the samurai is mowing down minions at a base level of ability (X), and then the big bad insults his honor or makes a big move that proves the samurai needs to go all out (or maybe the leaves on the trees start falling down--samurai movies can be a little random), and the samurai kicks into a higher gear (X+Y).

It is a good question of whether the fighter should have a (mechanically) barbarianesque subclass. D&D fighters haven't traditionally been really about the second gear (being more the automatic transmission then manual in my car-based analogy).

Fair points. I think it's a bad Idea to talk what I feel are the Two iconic parts of the 5e Barbarian, Reckless attack and rage, even in a limited form and give them to another class. It would be like giving Extra attack and Action Surge to a Barbarian subclass.

 

[jimmifett]

I think it should be clarified if the Piercing Arrow ability of the Arcane Archer does the bonus force damage to all targets in the line. If that's so, than should Bursting Arrow do 4d6 damage at level 18?

The Knight's abilities rely too much on having the grid, the idea that if someone move "even 1 foot" for their abilities means it could trigger an almost all cases since people in fights do shift around a bit all the time. They should probably use 5 feet or 1 square in the description.

The Sharpshooter doesn't really work well with weapons that can only be reloaded once per round.

Create Magic Arrow and Arcane Shot(Piercing arrow) are two different things that do not get overlapped. You create an arrow of one, or create an arrow of the other.

For the knight, think if you have a prone enemy adjacent two you. It spends movement to try and get up. You smack it back down and zero out it's movement. No grid needed.

 

[phantomK9]

This is a really good outing, much better than the druid one. Fans of no magic Fighters should really be happy.

Arcane Archer
First Impressions is that this is pretty solid, but I feel that there are some changes that need to be made....

Arcane Arrow - Good stuff, not really seeing any issues here. Haven't really absorbed all the different Arcane Shots, but nothing stands out as broken or bad.

Archer's Lore - Thematic skills gained at 3rd level. Good.

Conjure Arrows - Hmmm. So at third level I can conjure magic arrows, but at 7th level I can conjure a bunch of mundane arrows. Not sure what the point of this one is. How is this useful other than the rare situation where you are out of arrows. Ribbon ability at best. Should probably be moved down to 3rd level. When compared to PHB Fighter 7th level abilities, this is practically useless.

Ever-Ready Arrow - The wording on this one is weird. I get that they were trying to try out a new mechanic on this one, but this really should just be changed to, "You regain one use of Create Magic Arrow when you roll initiative." Also this should be moved down to 7th level, seems on par with PHB 7th level abilities.

Deadly Arrow - Very simple. Very straight forward. Should be moved down to 15th level. An additional 4d6 force damage once or twice per combat at 15th level really isn't that much.

This of course leaves the 18th level ability blank. Should probably allow the the Arcane Archer to use two Arcane Shots on one arrow or something along those lines.

 

[phantomK9]

Knight
Not really much to say about this one. The abilities all seem pretty good. But I think it suffers from some of the same issues that are in the Arcane Archer.

Born to the Saddle - Sure, usable.

Implacable Mark - I'm personally not a fan of the concept of marking, most likely because it reminds me of 4E. But this doesn't seem to be a bad ability. This is basically the Battle Master Maneuver of Taunt taken up to 11. Not sure how I feel about the free reaction though....that would need to be played.

Noble Cavalry - Another ribbon ability at 7th level, should be moved to 3rd, but that would make 3rd level quite crowded...but crowded with ribbons so not so bad.

Hold the Line - Good ability. The "moves at least one foot" language seems strange and oddly specific, like it is trying to ward off some sort of "but I only moved an inch so I can't be targeted" type of shenanigans, so maybe not that strange. Aside from that this should really should be moved down to 7th level. Compare to the Eldritch Knight ability, bonus attack if you cast a cantrip, it is very comparable. At that level the extra damage would only be 3 so really not broken.

Rapid Strike - I like this ability. Not only does it seem cool. Puts the choice in the players hand and uses gaining advantage as the resource. True Strike just got a 100 times better. Now I wish my Eldritch Knight had this. But like all the abilities above it, this should be moved down to the 10th level ability. One extra attack in a highly limited situation (unless you prepare which tends to waste an action anyway) is not over powered at 10th level.

Defender's Blade - Great ability, although not too sure about the +1 to AC, that seems tacked on, probably because this isn't really powerful enough as an 18th level ability. Remove the +1 to AC and then drop it down to 15th level and that should be perfect.

That then leaves what to add to the 18th level.

 

[Gadget]

Well, these are interesting archetypes for sure. I think many of them will need tweaking for being too fiddly and/or fine tuning, but may work out fine in the end. I especially like the Arcane Archer and Samurai concepts, then Knight a little less, and the Sharpshooter seems to be a: "Sorry about the crappy design on the feat, use this subclass instead." I would use that subclass or the feat, not both.

 

[phantomK9]

Samurai
I've always been wary of the Samurai class usually because it is either an excuse to load up a class with all the cool powers + a Katana, because you know...Katana wins. Or is it a sippery slope of racial stereotypes. But this one seems to avoid those issues.

The Samurai is a fighter who draws on an implacable fighting spirit to overcome enemies. A Samurai’s willpower is nearly unbreakable, and the enemies in a Samurai’s path have two choices: yield or die fighting.

To me this says that the Wisdom bonus should come into play with a good number of the Samurai's abilities, but there is only a little bit of this.

Fighting Spirit - Wow....really good. Maybe too good. Comparable to the Barbarian's Rage, but with much more limited duration.

Elegant Courtier - Again this doesn't seem like it should be at 7th level. While it is a bit better than the Arcane Archer and Knight 7th level abilities, the bonus to Charisma checks is not going to be that powerful or probably happen that often. At the very least this needs to be part of the class LONG before 7th level. Needs to be moved down to 3rd.

Unbreakable Will - Cool ability, but seems like it should have some more oomph. Also needs to move down to 7th level. Hell I'm not even sure it is good enough for a 7th level ability.

Rapid Strike - Good ability, but not sure if it is here simply because they couldn't think of anything better...also needs to be moved down to 10th level...if not lower.

Strength Before Death - Love it, thematically perfect, but again, needs to move down to 15th level.

A decent class but there really doesn't seem to be much to make this a "Samurai". I would expect some kind of ability for hyper-focusing in one or two weapons. I get that they want to avoid the Samurai = Katana business, but this class seems to really be lacking. Also, as described, Wisdom bonus should really come into play more.

 

[phantomK9]

Sharpshooter
First things first, change the name. "Peerless Archer" is a good name borrowed from a 3e Prestige class. That should work.

Steady Aim - As a bonus action, you get additional damage, and ignore 1/2 and 3/4 cover? Sign me up! Half of the bullet points copy the Sharp Shooter feat which you would probably have anyway or be close to getting. And from what I can tell the additional damage would stack with Sharp Shooter +10? Wow.

Careful Eyes - Move it down to 3rd level. This really is a pattern. At least they were consistent.

Close-Quarters Shooting - Cool ability, but needs to be moved down to 7th level.

Rapid Strike - As others have said, this should be called "Rapid Shot" and should apply only to bows. In trade for that restriction some other ability should be added, something minor. That would help makes this to be not just another copy/paste of an ability because they couldn't think of something better. Also this needs to be moved down to 10th level.

Snap Shot - Cool ability. Perfect for the class. Needs to be moved down to 15th level.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I don't see that as an issue and could easily see spending your full movement to trigger a subclass ability being added into the game.

I'd be fine with an ability that requires you to spend a certain amount of movement to use. I am not fine with an ability that requires you not to move, or to "trade" movement to use it. We should never be encouraging less mobility in combat, and anyway, it's bad design; there's no real conceptual overlap. I like movement being siloed into its own thing.

 

[AverageCitizen]

I don't like it when they have class features that are already in feats, although they've done it in the past so it's probably not going to change. Also, the fighters "marking" is a house rule in the DMG that we already use, so I'm not sure how to take that. Overall, though, I'm surprised by how much I like this. I'm very excited about the Arcane Archer.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Noble Cavalry - Another ribbon ability at 7th level, should be moved to 3rd, but that would make 3rd level quite crowded...but crowded with ribbons so not so bad.

Look at the other fighter archetypes. 7th level is supposed to be a ribbon ability. All four of these new fighters are consistent with this.