Greetings all,
I have created what I hope is a pretty thorough recreation of a Spartan warrior adapted to a fantasy setting. My goal was to approximate their legendary combat prowess both as individuals, and especially as a fighting unit. My goal was to establish them as elite, but highly specialized, arguably overly specialized soldiers.
The framework I used was the Phalanx Warrior fighter archetype. I removed several bonus feats, added the 'sword and shield' Ranger fighting style and bonus teamwork feats, to simulate a real Spartan phalanx.
By far the most 'controversial' thing I've done is added very limited spell casting, like a Paladin or Ranger with a specific Spartan spell list. They only get self-targeted buff spells or spells that would increase their legendary self-sufficiency.
I apologize in advance for any formatting snafus, and I appreciate your feedback. I copy/pasted from the D20SRD and moved a lot of things around, so I also apologize for the inevitably broken links. I'll clean it all up once I get it somewhat finalized.
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Stand Firm (Ex)
Phalanx Fighting (Ex)
Shield Ally (Ex)
Should come before armor mastery, not after.
Armor Mastery should also come before shielded fortress
Shielded Fortress
I do not see a spell progression section. Is it like a ranger's progression?
Why spell casting? Why wisdom? Why Divine spells? It needs flavor to make sense.
(Just my first scan)
*edit: half asleep didn't make sense what I wrote*
Please find the updated document here
Stand Firm, Phalanx Fighting and Shield Ally do all come before armor mastery. Those abilities get increases at those levels; I put them on the chart that way since that's how they were listed as a Phalanx fighter.
Armor mastery does come before Shielded Fortress (they get that at 20)
The casting portion apparently got cut off when I uploaded it (even though I put it in landscape mode). They have the Paladin spell progression. I added it to the document under the section on 'magic', but for some reason I can not edit my original post.
At 20th level, a phalanx Spartan ’s shield cannot be disarmed or sundered. He gains evasion (as a rogue) when using a shield. As a move action, a Spartan can provide evasion to all adjacent allies until the beginning of his next turn. As an immediate action, he can provide improved evasion to an adjacent ally against one attack.
Why Divine spells:
Besides the fact that the Spartans were a deeply religious society (Ares is Lord, Greece has no fear of gold) the goal was to simulate their battlefield performance. So having spells like Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace and Channel Vigor make sense. Spells off the Arcane list like Fireball and Magic Missile do not.
Always looking for feedback.
The rationale behind web shelter was their ability to survive out in the wild with nothing. The Wolf in the Winter Cold, as it were.
Same with Nap Sack, Black Spot, and even Rest Eternal...all ways to simulate how relentlessly deadly they are. Mechanically I see it more like an Oracle than a Magus...I almost based them off of Battle Oracles, actually.
Garnath thankfully reformatted this so now it should be much easier to read!