Upated to V2 - Fighter Archetype, Ancient Legionary

notrinium

First Post
Edit: Hey! I'm proud to announce the new and improved Legionary!
After looking at the feedback from you and my friends, I've made a few adjustments.
Spoiler: Changes
Show​


Hey there!

The Ancient Legionary​

''For the Senate, and the People of Rome''

Introduction
The Ancient Legionary is a sword-n-board fighter with a supernatural twist. They are fighters who are empowered by the very spirits of the Legions - ancient armies that once ruled the battlefields. The relics of their success are timeless, and even centuries after the last Legion, there are fighters who follow their footsteps. Over time, these fighters unlock the secret behind the success of the Legions.

Ancient Legionary is an archetype which focuses to versitality, toughness and team play. They unlock special fighting methods called stances, which provide them with passive or active benefits. As they progress through their training, they learn the ability to call aid from the lost legions themselves, meaning that a legionnary never fights alone.

Features


  • Level 3: Legionary Training
  • Level 7: The Eagle
  • Level 10: Improved Legionary Training
  • Level 15: Oath of Perseverance
  • Level 18: Wrath of Legion


Legionary Training
"That's not a bloody cleaver you are holding Legionnarie! Use your weapon properly."

At level 3, your spiritual connection to the Legions grant you access to their fighting methods.

You gain access to stances, which are specilized fighting methods. You can enter a stance with a bonus action and gain its benefits. You can use a bonus action to switch from one stance to another, or to dismiss your current stance. You can maintain a stance as long as you are not incapitated. All stances grant you an extra benefit for the turn you enter them in addition to their passive benefits.

You start your career with the knowlage of 3 stances. You learn two additional stances at levels 7 and 10. You can also switch one stance you know with a different one at these levels.

Some stances might require a DC. The DC for stances are DC: 8 + Your proficency bonus + Strenght or dexterity modifier


The Eagle

At level 7, you learn the ability to tap into the source of power behind the legions success. You tap into this power through the golden eagle of your legion, which manifests in one of three ways.

As an action, you can choose between one of the following effects. You can use this feature twice per short rest.

1-) Diana's Companion: Diana sends you a golden eagle spirit to act as a scout and a companion. The eagle spirit produces light in a 30ft/30ft area, which you can order it to dim out with a bonus action of your own. As long as you are within 100ft of your eagle, you can communicate with it telepathicly. Lasts 30 min or until you dismiss it with an action.

2-) Vulcan's Forge: God Vulcan himself touches one of your weapons, reforging it temprorarily. As an action, choose a weapon that you are carrying. The damage type of weapon changes to one of the following for one hour: Fire, cold or lightning. The weapon is also considered magical. This bonus is lost if anyone but you tries to use the weapon.

When under the effects of this feature, you can see a golden eagle (anaquila) inscribed or attached to somewhere on the weapon.

3-) Juno's Gift: Juno senses the despair of you and your allies and sends you a gift. A ball of light in the shape of an eagle appears over your head and explodes in a bright flash of light. Enemies within 15ft of you must make a constitution saving throw or be blinded for one round. You and allies within 30ft of you are recieve 1d6 temprorary hit points.

Oath of Perseverance

At level 10, the legacy of the Legions sustain you during battle. When you enter a stance during combat, you regain hit points equal to your constitution modifier.

Gift of Hercules

At level 15, you are offered a gift from Hercules the Demigod. True to his half-blood nature, he offers a gift of man or a gift of divine blood.

You gain access to a special stance according to your decision. You can enter your special stance twice per short rest.

Son of Jupiter:
Fulminata: During this stance, your weapons and armor crackles with lightning. At the end of your each turn you deal 2d6 lightning damage to all targets around you. A successful dexterity save halves this damage.

On the turn you enter this stance, when you attack with a melle weapon you shoot bolts of lightning from your weapon instead. When you make a melle attack, roll your attack roll and damage roll normaly. All targets on a 15ft line take the 1d8+your damage roll in lightning damage. A succesfull dexterity save against DC equal to your attack roll halves this damage.

Son of Rome:
Combat Rhythm: You fight with the strenght and speed of the countless legionaries before you. During this stance, you can take a free 5ft step each time you land an attack.

On the turn you enter this stance, you deliver the ultimate strike, a devastating blow that will fell all but your mightiest foes. Your first weapon attack when you enter this stance is considered an automatic hit which ignores immunities and resistances, and deals an additional 60 physical damage.

Wrath of Legion

At level 18, you mastery in battle makes you a Legion on your own. As an action, you can summon two phantasmal legionaries to your aid. These legionaries appear at adjacent squares to you. Phantom Legionaries are more of an extention of you than seperate entities - due to this, the following rules apply.

You can use this feature once per long rest.


  1. Phantom Legionaries share your hit points, abilities, equipment and class features.
  2. Phantom Legionaries can take a single move action and make a single melle attack.
  3. Phantom Legionaries start out in the same stance you were when you summoned them. However they cannot use the special stances.
  4. If an effect deals damage to the Phantom Legionaries , you take the same damage - anything that happens to the legionaries happens to you, and vice versa.
  5. In contrast with the rule above, if an ability effects multiple Phantom Legionaries, or you and the Legionaries together, treat it as only effecting you.
  6. After 3 rounds, the legionaries vanish.

Stances List


1- Testudo:
You raise your shield up to defend yourself against missiles - you can almost feel others raising their shields above you when you do so.

During this stance, you gain the benefits of half cover.
On the turn you enter this stance, you can also extend this benefit to an adjacent ally. If that ally is carrying a shield, you both benefit from three quarters cover instead. You must have a shield equipped to benefit from this stance.

2- Charge (Oppugnare in latin):
You and your man brace as you rush through the enemy ranks!

During this stance, you ignore difficult terrain and if you move at least 10ft immediately before hitting a creature with a melee attack, you deal an additional 1d6 damage.
On the turn you enter this stance, you can take a freesingle attack with a throwing weapon.

3- Dimachaerus Stance:
You remember a Dimachaerus - the group gladiators who fight with two weapons, sacrificing defense for offense

During this stance, you have a penalty of -2 AC, however attackers who hit you provoke opportunity attacks.
On the turn you enter this stance, your attacks deal an additional 1d6 damage.

4- Iron Leader:
When the Celts attack your flank, you are sure that this is a rout - until your centurion starts shouting a string orders, and goes into the fray himself!

During this stance, you have advantage on all mental saving throws (Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma saves) .
On the turn you enter this stance, all allies who can hear you have share this benefit.

5- Adapting Defence:
You watch the spearman carefully. Looks like he favors his left! You can easily see where his next attack is coming.

During this stance, you receive a +1 bonus to your AC for every foe adjacent to you, to a maximum of +3 AC.
On the turn you enter this stance, you can make a melee attack to shield bash a target. If you hit, you deal 1d4 blunt damage and stagger, granting advantage to the next attack roll against the target.

6- Line Tactics:
''First step, bash the guy in front of you. Second step, kill the guy to the right of him. Repeat it for every legionarie in the line, and win the day.''' -Your centurion

During this stance if you have at least one ally adjacent to you, you and any allies adjacent to you receive half your proficiency bonus (rounded down) to their attack rolls and damage. This effect does not stack on itself, meaning that two legionaries with line tactics activated only benefit from one of them.

On the turn you enter this stance, you harass all squares you and your adjacent allies threaten, which makes them difficult terrain to opponents, and they provoke an opportunity attack if they try to enter them.


PS: Thank you ''The Demented One" for the inspration of my capstone. (His Army of One homebrew)​


Last edited by notrinium; Today at 07:34 PM.​



 
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pdegan2814

First Post
Very intriguing! I'm not skilled enough to tell how well-balanced it is, but I definitely think it's cool from a conceptual standpoint. The only thing that seems like it might be out of place is the Level 7 eagle ability. I get what you're going for thematically, but I'm just not sure how well it fits. I'd be tempted to take it out and have the Fighter learn a 3rd stance at that level, to smooth out the progression a bit. Maybe have a spiritual eagle familiar available right at Level 3, but with limited capabilities that improve at each milestone.
 

notrinium

First Post
Very intriguing! I'm not skilled enough to tell how well-balanced it is, but I definitely think it's cool from a conceptual standpoint. The only thing that seems like it might be out of place is the Level 7 eagle ability. I get what you're going for thematically, but I'm just not sure how well it fits. I'd be tempted to take it out and have the Fighter learn a 3rd stance at that level, to smooth out the progression a bit. Maybe have a spiritual eagle familiar available right at Level 3, but with limited capabilities that improve at each milestone.

Hey, thanks for the input! I'll check what I can do with the eagle.
I was trying to follow the "fighter template" of 5th ed. . On the unearthened arcana, WotC point out that the 7th level features of both champion and battlemaster focuses on exploration - so I tried to give the legionnaires some of that sweet sweet exploration myself
 

pdegan2814

First Post
Hey, thanks for the input! I'll check what I can do with the eagle.
I was trying to follow the "fighter template" of 5th ed. . On the unearthened arcana, WotC point out that the 7th level features of both champion and battlemaster focuses on exploration - so I tried to give the legionnaires some of that sweet sweet exploration myself

The Battlemaster gets maneuvers at Level 3, 7, 10 and 15, so giving your Legionnaire a 3rd stance at Level 7 as well as something to do with the Eagle probably wouldn't be excessive. I wouldn't make the Eagle a permanent familiar, though. I would make it something that could be summoned for a limited duration. The duration could either be a fixed amount, a period of time determined by your Fighter level(similar to the duration of the Druid's Wild Shape), or based on the ability modifier of a certain stat. If you choose to base it on a stat modifier, Wisdom or Charisma would probably be the the best choice from an RP standpoint. Or have the ability modifier determine how many times per Long Rest the player can summon the Eagle(with a minimum of once per Long Rest no matter the modifier). Some combination of options like that should work out okay.

As for what the Eagle can do, a standard eagle's creature stats are close enough to those of a hawk/falcon that you could probably treat it like a standard familiar, though you'll probably want to give it more of a combat focus. I would probably say that if the Eagle is "killed", there should be a period of time before it can be summoned again, even if it's as simple as waiting until the next day.
 


pdegan2814

First Post
Like I said before, I'm definitely not one to judge how well-balanced your ideas are, but I'm definitely digging the theme you're going for. :)
 

notrinium

First Post
Edits: I've given the legionnaries a 3. stance at level 7, and reworded the eagle. Still not giving the eagle any combat bonuses, but that might change soon. Thanks for your feedback, and can we have some 5e masters to look over here ;)
 

Connorsrpg

Adventurer
[MENTION=6803418]notrinium[/MENTION]. Hey, welcome to ENWorld. Intriguing first post too. I love me some Roman flavour.

Without making direct comparisons, I like the looks of this guy. As you stated, it is important to keep the 7th level ability focussed on the interaction pillar. But an extra combat option is okay too. (Doesn't add power, just more options).

Cool features, but I was thinking that you could align the operation of stances more closely to the 5E 'time frames'. Instead of 5 minutes, why not just a short rest.

To be honest, the wording at the start is quite confusing. I would remove the whole idea of 'readied'. If you know the stance and it costs you actions (even bonus, which is significant for fighters), I don't see a need to 'ready' anyway. And get rid of the language of 'cast a strike'; they aren't spells.

Just have 'strike' aligned to short rest, rather than a bonus action. Recovery in 5E is usually aligned to short and long rests. This might also encourage the changing of stances during battle.

(I have done some Roman stuff myself, including adapting several weapons for our game. (If interested, cast you eyes over our Equipment Page: http://connorscampaigns.wikidot.com/d-d-equipment if you are playing a Roman game, you might like some of the weapon adaptations).
 

notrinium

First Post
Hey Connor. First of all, thank you for your time and critical response. I'm checking the link you've posted right now

Looks like the majority of people want something extra from the level 7 feature. I'll work on it momentarily, and figure out something.

My logic behind the whole ''5 minute'' system was to give increase the legionaries ability to adapt to the situations. Sometimes, there might not be enough time to rest for the 1 hour required for the short rest, while it is almost always possible to take 5 minutes off before or after an encounter.

I admit that the wording is terrible as of right now :D . I have some days off this week, I'll work on it ASAP.

About recovery mechanic: If the legionaries recover their strikes at a short rest, that means that one-half of the stance is expended until the party decides to take a short rest. That could work if the strikes were as powerful as , lets say battlemaster superiority dice (they recover during short rest right?) but I've designed them to be not. Strikes are effective fora single turn, meaning that their real strenght is the ability to spam them once every other turn.

Another reason: It is true that I want the players to switch between stances during combat. However, I don't want to make them feel compelled to switch stances. If the strikes recover every short rest, then the stances with expended strikes become far less aluring to switch into. After the level 10 feature, there is a greater incentive for a player to switch between stances, as they can switch+strike, then repeat for the next 4 turns to burn through their strike pool, then recover to repeat the process.

I would like some feedback on this statement: Would it be overpowered if the legionary had all of his 6 stances ? (no readied stances then) .
 
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pdegan2814

First Post
Hey Connor. First of all, thank you for your time and critical response. I'm checking the link you've posted right now

Looks like the majority of people want something extra from the level 7 feature. I'll work on it momentarily, and figure out something.

My logic behind the whole ''5 minute'' system was to give increase the legionaries ability to adapt to the situations. Sometimes, there might not be enough time to rest for the 1 hour required for the short rest, while it is almost always possible to take 5 minutes off before or after an encounter.

I admit that the wording is terrible as of right now :D . I have some days off this week, I'll work on it ASAP.

About recovery mechanic: If the legionaries recover their strikes at a short rest, that means that one-half of the stance is expended until the party decides to take a short rest. That could work if the strikes were as powerful as , lets say battlemaster superiority dice (they recover during short rest right?) but I've designed them to be not. Strikes are effective fora single turn, meaning that their real strenght is the ability to spam them once every other turn.

Another reason: It is true that I want the players to switch between stances during combat. However, I don't want to make them feel compelled to switch stances. If the strikes recover every short rest, then the stances with expended strikes become far less aluring to switch into. After the level 10 feature, there is a greater incentive for a player to switch between stances, as they can switch+strike, then repeat for the next 4 turns to burn through their strike pool, then recover to repeat the process.

I would like some feedback on this statement: Would it be overpowered if the legionary had all of his 6 stances ? (no readied stances then) .

Taking another look at this, I would agree with Connorsrpg's suggestion that the process of swapping which stances are "readied" should be during a Short/Long Rest. That lines up better with other classes/archetypes, and fits better within the 5th Edition style. Plus, for some reason I had thought that at 3rd level the Fighter could only use those two, similar to the Battlemaster's maneuvers. I didn't realize they could choose from the full list, and their level determined how many they could have "ready to use" at any given time. That's a bit more powerful, so yeah I'd set the reset period to an official "rest". It's a bit more elegant, and it would be easier for both players and DM's to keep track of during gameplay. Along those lines, I would consider limiting it so that they didn't know all 6 stances/strikes right at 3rd level. Perhaps something like this:

Level 3: has learned 4 stances, can ready 2 at a time
Level 7: has learned 5 stances, can ready 3 at a time
Level 10: has learned all 6 stances, can ready 4 at a time

or something similar? And maybe even at Level 15 or 18, add the ability for him to have all 6 stances readied all the time.

I'm also not so sure about the mechanics behind expending and recovering the uses of strikes, it feels a little awkward. Simply using one bonus action to recover all expended strikes seems a bit unbalanced, especially at higher levels. If you want to limit their use, then I would suggest requiring the fighter do something for each strike in order to "reset", or giving them a certain number of strikes per Short/Long Rest, possibly tied to either fighter level or an ability modifier(perhaps Constitution, suggesting the physical toll they take on the fighter, so that those with more endurance can perform more of them between rests).

Another possibility to consider, rather than reducing the fighter's ability when it comes to stances at the early levels, delay the introduction of strikes until Level 7 or 10, keep their number of uses limited, and possibly buff their power to compensate. That way you treat the strikes as a more advanced form of Legion training beyond just the stances.

I'm not sure how optimal any of those ideas might be, but those are what came to me as I took a closer look at things. Still not sure how to work the Eagle spirit into it all, but I definitely think it should be something that is featured at multiple levels, not just at Level 7.

On a side note, have you ever read the Codex Alera book series by Jim Butcher? It's a six-book fantasy series(it's already complete, so you'd have none of the angst all the Song Of Ice & Fire fans are dealing with), that took as one of its points of inspiration the legend of the Ninth Roman Legion that mysteriously vanished from history(you have to finish the series to find out just how deep that influence goes, but it's a neat little twist). Reading this thread has made me want to go back and read those books again. :)
 

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