Fighter Reloaded

In the words of classic D&D: The fighter is a warrior, an expert in weapons and, if he is clever, tactics and strategy. There are many famous fighter from legend: Hercules, Perseus, Hiawatha, Beowulf, Siegfried, Cuchulain, Little John, Tristan, and Sinbad. History is crowded with great generals and warriors: El Cid, Hannibal, Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, Spartacus, Richard the Lionheart, and Belisarius. Your fighter could be modeled after any of these, or he could be unique. A visit to your local library can uncover many heroic fighters.

Play Style: As it says right on the tin, you fight. Shield in the left hand, sword in the right. Or a big, two-handed axe, or whirling double scimitars, or bow and arrow. Whatever your style, you are there, weapons ready, to fight for your ideals, to protect your friends. When you ride into battle, each and every one of them could be your last, but you are determined to go down standing upright. No magic tricks, no sneaking around, no higher powers to back you up, just honest grit, guile, and steel. That's why they call you The Fighter.

Ability Scores: Your core ability scores are Strength to bash in skulls and Constitution to stay alive, and you get a +2 bonus to either (as long as it's not your racial bonus). Aside from these, you'll find that some of your talents make use of other ability scores.

Races: All races have bred fighters, but humans, dwarves, half-orcs and warforged are particularly known for them.

Backgrounds: kicked out of the night watch, wrestled a dragon once, feisty Amazon, king of the tavern brawl, studied unter Felathiir the fencing master, farm boy born under a twin moon

Icons: The largest most famous organized armies in the Dragon Empire serve the Emperor and the Crusader. Of course, the Dwarf King and the Elf Queen also have troops and guards serving them. The Great Gold Wyrm's troops are led by Paladins, but not all who follow him have divine powers. The Shadow Prince has no force openly serving him, but mercenary types sure appreciate when he brokers their next job. The horde of the Orc Lord is a wild mix that includes barbarians and other more savage combatants, but he sure has fighters in his ranks too. The Three employ fighters to keep order in Drakkenhall, while the many faiths in Santa Cora have temple guards. When the Lich King recruits his soldiers, he does so on the battlefield ... after the looters have left.

Gear

Fighters who have seen real battle prefer simple but practical and robust gear. Their personal weapon and armor of choice become almost extensions of themselves, to the point that they give them names.

In your pockets, you start with 25 gp, or 1d6 x 10 gp if you are the soldier of fortune type.

Armor

Unless you choose talents that favor a lighter armored style, you'll want the best protection that you can get your hands on. No question there.

Fighter Armor and AC

Type	Base AC	Attack Penalty
None	10	-
Light	13	-
Heavy	15	-
Shield	+1	-

Weapons

You excel with any type of weapon, as is expected of a Fighter. Your Weapon Mastery class feature increases your damage die with any type of weapon by one step, compared to other classes.

Fighter Melee Weapons

Size	One-Handed	Two-Handed
Unarmed	1d4 fists, kicks	-
Small	1d4 knife	1d6 staff
Light or Simple	1d6 short sword	1d8 spear
Heavy or Martial	1d8 longsword, scimitar	1d10 greatsword

 

Fighter Ranged Weapons

Size	Thrown	Crossbow	Bow
Small	1d4 dagger	1d4 hand crossbow	-
Light or Simple	1d6 javelin, axe	1d6 light crossbow	1d6 shortbow
Heavy	-	1d8 heavy crossbow	1d8 longbow

Basic Attacks

Real fighting men don't deal miss damage. However, you're more likely to hit thanks to your Base Attack Bonus class feature. For thrown weapons, you can use your Strength instead of Dexterity to determine attack and damage.

Melee Attack

At-Will

Target: One enemy

Attack: Strength + Level +1 vs. AC

Hit: Weapon + Strength damage

Miss: --

Ranged Attack

At-Will

Target: One enemy

Attack: Strength (*) OR Dexterity + Level +1 vs. AC

Hit: Weapon + Strength (*) OR Dexterity damage

Miss: --

Fighter Level Progression

Fighter Level	Total Hit Points	Total Feats	Talents	Level-up Ability Bonuses	Damage Bonus from Ability Score
Level 1 multiclass	Half of both classes	As 1st level PC	1 or 2 adventurer	Not affected	ability modifier
Level 1	(8 + CON mod) x 3	1 adventurer	3 adventurer		ability modifier
Level 2	(8 + CON mod) x 4	2 adventurer	4 adventurer		ability modifier
Level 3	(8 + CON mod) x 5	3 adventurer	4 adventurer		2x ability modifier
Level 4	(8 + CON mod) x 6	4 adventurer	5 adventurer	+1 to 3 abilities	2x ability modifier
Level 5	(8 + CON mod) x 8	4 adventurer 1 champion	5 adventurer 1 champion		2 x ability modifier
Level 6	(8 + CON mod) x 10	4 adventurer 2 champion	5 adventurer 1 champion		3 x ability modifier
Level 7	(8 + CON mod) x 12	4 adventurer 3 champion	5 adventurer 2 champion	+1 to 3 abilities	3 x ability modifier
Level 8	(8 + CON mod) x 16	4 adventurer 3 champion 1 epic	5 adventurer 2 champion 1 epic		3 x ability modifier
Level 9	(8 + CON mod) x 20	4 adventurer 3 champion 2 epic	5 adventurer 2 champion 1 epic		4 x ability modifier
Level 10	(8 + CON mod) x 24	4 adventurer 3 champion 3 epic	5 adventurer 2 champion 2 epic	+1 to 3 abilities	4 x ability modifier

Thanks to your Percentile Strength class feature, you gain a higher damage multiplier 2 levels ahead of other classes.

Fighter Stats

Initiative, AC, PD, MD, Hit Points, Recovery Dice, Feats, and some Talents are level dependent.

Ability Bonus	+2 Strength or Constitution (different from racial bonus)
Initiative	Dex mod + Level
Armor Class (heavy armor)	15 + middle mod of Con/Dex/Wis + Level
Physical Defense	11 + middle mod of Str/Con/Dex + Level
Mental Defense	10 + middle mod of Int/Wis/Cha + Level
Hit Points	(8 + Con mod) x Level modifier (see level progression chart)
Recoveries	(probably) 8
Recovery Dice	(1d10 x Level) + Con mod
Backgrounds	8 points, max 5 in any one background
Icon Relationships	3 points (4 at 5th level, 5 at 8th)
Talents	3 at 1st level (see level progression chart)
Feats	1 per level

Class features

Base Attack Bonus

There are many classes that wield weapons, but none are so single-mindedly focused on perfecting every swing, slash and thrust. When it comes to just the basic steel against steel, you are always one step ahead.

You gain a +1 bonus to melee and ranged attacks. This bonus is already added to the basic attack and attack power writeups.

Percentile Strength

Compared to other classes, you gain a higher Strength multiplier to damage two levels earlier. A high Strength score just means more when you are a fighter.

Bend Bars and Lift Gates

When you make a Strength-based skill check, roll twice and take the better result. Fighters do the heavy lifting. Literally.

Adventurer feat: When you start a combat by kicking in a door, add your Strength modifier to your Initiative roll.

Passive Talent / Combat Style

Your talents come in one of two types, passive and combat style. Passive talent provide an ongoing bonus that you don't need to activate.

Combat styles, however, you need to activate. You can only get one such bonus at a time, and you activate or switch styles at the start of your turn as a free action.

Most styles also give you a power. See the action type and effect in each power's description. For passive styles, you always have access to the power, whereas for combat styles, you can only use the power of your active style.

Note that switching in and out of a style does not "reset" it. Once you used a "once per battle" power of a style, that power is expended. You can switching styles and use a different "once per battle" power however.

Adventurer Talents

The Classic Fighter is a talent-focused class. Unlike the talent-focused classes in the core book, individual talents aren't quite as powerful, but you gain almost twice as many.

Alertness [Passive]

You have spent years in the city watch, as a guard of a palace or temple, or on guard duty as a soldier. You gain a 5 point background to represent that training. Among other practical skills, this has taught you to stay awake even on long, uneventful watches, and always keep your eyes open for potential danger.

Passive bonus: Add your Constitution to initiative rolls when the party is attacked during a resting period.

Adventurer feat: Roll twice on Constitution-based skill checks to avoid falling asleep, or to wake up immediately and be combat ready.

Champion feat: Roll twice on Wisdom-based checks to notice sneaking enemies, stalkers and ambushes.

Epic feat: Even if your enemies use supernatural means like teleports and invisibility for an ambush, you can always roll to notice them, and the difficulty is never higher than normal.

Battlefield Archer [Combat Style]

Style bonus: Your basic ranged attacks do not provoke opportunity attacks.

Combat Superiority [Passive]

Passive bonus: Enemies take a penalty to disengage from you equal to your Wisdom.

Expert Flanking [Combat Style]

Style bonus: When you flank an enemy (you are engaged with the same opponent as an ally), both of you gain a +1 bonus to attacks against that enemy. That enemy also suffers a penalty to disengage checks equal to your intelligence.

Champion feat: Your flanking ally gains a bonus to disengage checks equal to your Intelligence.

Great Fortitude [Passive]

Passive bonus: Add your Constitution to saving throws.

Adventurer feat: Add your Constitution to death saves.

Champion feat: Save against ongoing damage at the start of your turn instead of at the end.

Epic feat: You can make all saves at the start of your turn.

Inspiring Leader [Passive]

Passive bonus: When you rally, grant all nearby allies temporary hit points equal to your Charisma. Double this at 5th level, triple it at 8th.

Mobility [Passive]

Passive bonus: Add your Dexterity to disengage checks.

Overwhelming Force [Combat Style]

Style bonus: On a hit, deal 1 point of extra damage. If you wield a two-handed weapon, deal extra damage equal to your Constitution instead. Double this bonus at 5th level, triple it at 8th.

Shield Ally [Combat Style]

Style bonus: Choose a nearby ally. You grant the chosen ally a +2 bonus to AC. The bonus increases to +3 if you carry a shield.

While this combat style is active, you are always considered engaged with the same opponents. If your ally disengages from an opponent, you can choose to either pop free and keep the style active, or stay engaged and end the style. If you disengage, the style also ends.

Champion feat: You also grant the defense bonus to PD.

Epic feat: Once per round, your ally can disengage as a free action.

Shield Specialization [Combat Style]

You must be wielding a shield to benefit from this combat style.

Style bonus: Gain a +2 bonus to defense against ranged and close quarters attacks.

Adventurer feat: Also gain a +2 bonus to AC against opportunity attacks.

Champion feat: When an enemy attack forces you to pop free from an opponent, you can choose not to.

Champion Talents

Defensive Fighting [Combat Style]

Style bonus: Add the escalation die as a bonus to your all defenses. While using this style, you don't add the escalation die to attack rolls.

Champion feat: Gain resist attacks from mooks 16+. If you carry a shield, resist 12+ instead.

Epic feat: You can split the escalation die between attack and defense as you like.

Expert Tactician [Combat Style]

Style bonus: All nearby allies gain a bonus to their disengage checks equal to your intelligence.

Champion feat: Allies who engage an enemy gain a +1 bonus to their attack rolls until the start of their next turn.

Epic feat: Allies who engage an enemy this turn gain a +1 bonus to their attack rolls until the start of their next turn.

Explosive Attack [Combat Style]

Style bonus: When you hit with an attack and roll damage, add a weapon damage die for each die that comes up as the maximum. If any additional die comes up as maximum, keep adding dice.

Piercing Precision [Combat Style]

Style bonus: You can choose to target PD instead of AC with your melee and ranged attacks.

Reaper [Combat Style]

Style bonus: Increase your critical threat range against staggered enemies by +2.

Epic feat: Increase the threat range to +4.

Epic Talents

Always Ready [Passive]

Passive bonus: You can always use the powers associated with your chosen combat style talents, even the combat style is not active.

Epic feat: Regain the use of one once per battle power when you use the rally action.

Combined Styles [Passive]

For one battle per day, you can have two combat styles active and benefit from both. If both styles provide a bonus to the same thing, such as to hit with an attack, only the higher bonus applies. You can still only switch one style per turn.

Epic feat: You can switch both active styles during your turn.

Hold the Line [Combat Style]

Style bonus: Gain resist all 16+. 

Each time an opponent overcomes the resistance, lower it by 2 points until the end of battle.

Epic feat: The resistance starts at 18+.

Calm Steel [Combat Style]

You have achieved perfect control of your surroundings on the battlefield. You are at complete calm, like a rock in the midst of a storming sea. When you move, it's only to punish the slightest mistake of your opponents.

Style bonus: When a nearby opponent misses you with an attack, that opponent draws an attack of opportunity from you.

While in this style, you can't use your standard action to attack.

 

---

 

Art Credit: Jeff Easley - Guerriers, Clyde Caldwell, Larry Elmore.