D&D 5E Why Not? A Variant Captain Fighter

[GlassJaw]

Giffyglyph | Class Compendium

Create bold heroes for your D&D 5e campaign with Giffyglyph's Class Compendium.

giffyglyph.com

Check out the variant Fighter on this page. It has exactly this.

Side note: Giffyglyph has some of the best variant rules I've seen on the interwebs.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

So, I just realized a couple days ago, having never paid attention to the PDK, that a lot of my basic variant fighter ideas are subclass features for the PDK...

 

[Garthanos]

True, but it reflects experience.

it has occured to me that in 4e the expected advancement of your secondary and your primary stat are almost exactly like 5e stats + proficiency. So in this use case one might do both.

 

[Garthanos]

Giffyglyph | Class Compendium

Create bold heroes for your D&D 5e campaign with Giffyglyph's Class Compendium.

giffyglyph.com

Check out the variant Fighter on this page. It has exactly this.

Side note: Giffyglyph has some of the best variant rules I've seen on the interwebs.

New class resources—use your fighter's resolve to help control the battlefield.
Martial maneuvers—overwhelm your enemies in combat with new, martial actions.
New subclasses and subclass options—choose your specialty from the very first level.
Consistent resting—recover your strength with a long rest and take control of your adventure. Conserve your power or go all-out, it's your choice.

 

[Garthanos]

So, I just realized a couple days ago, having never paid attention to the PDK, that a lot of my basic variant fighter ideas are subclass features for the PDK...

So which are you rolling back into the core class? It looks like plenty of them are take the core feature and make it benefit allies around you too.

 

[Garthanos]

Predators Stare: Searching for vulnerabilities your unnerving focus drives your enemy to overcompensate inducing it to have disadvantage on its first attack during the following turn. Additionally you discover its vulnerability and your next attack against that enemy has a bonus damage equal to a superiority die + your wisdom modifier.
Special as a bonus (re)action you may perform a help action to help an ally attack the subject of your stare if you do they also gain a superiority die as extra damage on the helped attack.

Dramatic Form: if you forgo an additional attack enemies within 30 feet of the target enemy are also induced to have disadvantage if they fail a saving throw.

For balance one might compare to a trip which also impairs an enemy and delivers damage immediately etc .???

 

[Garthanos]

Looking at things that should be core to the Fighter - > The Hero from chainmail increased the number of hit dice of allies nearby. He also was immune to morale effects ( fear? ) and induced them in enemies with whom he drew as near as a charge distance. Basically a fear aura.

 

[Garthanos]

The fighter has more resources than we give it credit. Not just those extra attacks but also the great tankish defense. A bravura or barbarian or battlerager etc are playing off of trading in exactly that. They take extra risks to gain benefit. There was a particular noteworthy Warlord maneuver which supported the idea of taking risks to aid in inspiring an ally it makes more sense actually in the context of a well defended fighter than perhaps a less so 4e Warlord the original is called fearless rescue. The flavor of it is defender fighter but the effect was very warlord and bravura.

 

[Garthanos]

Additionally there may be explicit ways to convert that fighter robustness like making extraordinary exertions risking strain which might injure self just as provoking opportunity attacks risk it. They might be used to gain an extra attack which might be used on a scan for openings to perform a maneuver when the situation isn't ideal and similar things.
Straining or performing risky movement becomes a cash in on one fighter resource to gain another.

The general idea is the class has resources they just need unlocked from the striker domain and be allowed to combine for greater effect, and we can do that in naturalistic ways I think

Scanning for Openings, Straining, Risk taking all being real things someone might do to gain benefits and more climactic effects.

 

[Garthanos]

Meta maneuvers could be ones that could be compounded with other maneuvers for greater effect.