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With their wealth of bonus feats, weapon training, and armor training, the thing about Fighters I always liked was their versatility. When I say versatility, I don’t mean a single Fighter’s ability to be versatile; I mean the player’s versatility in building virtually any kind of melee- or ranged-based character. “They told me I could be anything. Because I was a 1st level Fighter.” I’d like to expand on this vein of thought and present a new Fighter Class. One that still stresses specialization, but taking it even further than the standard Fighter.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d10
Same as a Standard Fighter
Skill Ranks per Level: 2 + Int modifier
BAB: Same as standard Fighter
Bonus Feat (Ex): This is identical to the standard Fighter’s Class ability.
Save Specialization: Some Fighters have strong stomachs and tough skin. Other are quick on their feet. Still some are of iron-clad minds. At first level, a Fighter chooses one save (Fortitude, Reflex, or Will). This save becomes his primary saving throw, and his base score for the chosen save increases at the same rate as a standard Fighter’s Fort save. The other two saves’ base scores increase at the same rate as a standard Fighter’s Ref or Will saves. Once this choice has been made, it cannot be changed.
Skill to Match (Ex): Though most Fighters share a core set of skills, they understand it’s important to branch out of their common molds and improve their repertoire. At first level, a Fighter chooses two additional skills, one of which must be a Knowledge Skill. These two skills are considered Class skills.
Secondary Save (Ex): At second level, a Fighter learns to improve on one of his neglected defenses. Choose a saving throw that was not chosen as a primary save with the Save Specialization ability. This save receives a bonus equal to the standard Fighter’s Will save from the Bravery ability of the same level.
Armor Training (Ex): This is identical to the standard Fighter’s Armor Training ability (including Advanced Armor Training)
Skill Training (Ex): One thing all Fighters have in common is practice. Constant practice pays off in the form of a Fighter's deadliness with their favored weapon, or in unparalleled flexibility in restrictive armor. When Fighters aren't practicing with their armaments, however, you can still find them practicing the many skills they've picked up over their adventuring career. At 4th level, choose a Skill Category from the list below. You gain a +3 Competence bonus for all the skills in your chosen category you're trained in. Every 4 levels thereafter, choose an additional category. You gain a +3 competence bonus for all the skills in the chosen category you're trained in. In addition, the competence bonus from all skills from any previously chosen categories increases by an additional +3.
Derring – Acrobatics (Dex), Climb (Str), Fly (Dex), Knowledge (Local; Int), Swim (Str), Ride (Dex)
Academic – Appraise (Int), Craft (Int), Knowledge (Arcana; Int), (Engineering; Int), Linguistics (Int), Spellcraft (Int)
Subterfuge –Bluff (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Knowledge (Geography; Int), (Planes; Int), Sleight of Hand (Dex)
Coerce – Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Nobility; Int), (Religion; Int)
Patience – Heal (Wis), Knowledge (History; Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), UMD (Cha)
Scout – Disable Device (Dex), Knowledge (Dungeoneering; Int), (Nature; Int), Perception, Stealth (Dex), Survival (Dex)
Still, maybe this Class ability would encourage some Fighters to invest in skills like Use Magic Device or Disguise considering that the first category chosen comes out to "add 3/4 your level to these skills", which no other class would get. Heck, even the second category chosen comes out to "add 3/5 you level to these skills", which is still beyond anything other classes get. What's more, even though this all sounds like it's completely broken, Fighters STILL only get 2+Int skill ranks per level, which would let you be insanely good at MAYBE 4 skills if you poured all of your ranks into them. I wouldn't call this broken by any means. Instead, the intended purpose of this ability is to allow a Fighter to sprinkle his measly 2 skill ranks per level across many different skills without worrying about his skills not keeping up with other party members.
Weapon Training (Ex): This is identical to the standard Fighter’s Weapon Training ability (including Advanced Weapon Training).
Armor Mastery (Ex): This is identical to the standard Fighter’s Armor Mastery ability.
Weapon Mastery (Ex): This is identical to the standard Fighter’s Weapon Mastery ability.
Any feedback would be appreciated. The Skill Training ability may feel a bit overpowered, but keep in mind that it only affects trained skills, so a Fighter needs to put a rank into a skill for it to be affected. With this in mind, I feel the ability does as intended without being too much: giving the Fighter options; now he can be the face if he chooses, or a workable scout, even the group's magic device user. The Fighter simply doesn't receive enough skill ranks per level for this to be exploitable, unless he pumps his Int, which would likely result in his other ability scores suffering in turn.
The only exploit I can really see is the FIghter choosing Will save for his primary save, and take the points he was going to put into Wisdom instead into Int, but I feel like that would only result in a 14 Int at the MOST. If anyone wants to lay out the numbers and show if this would become broken or not, please do, but I feel a skillful FIghter really isn't a bad thing, and doesn't really step on any toes, except maybe the Rogue, but who DOESN'T step on that guy's toes nowadays?
The design decisions here don't make any sense to me.
You give them two abilities that screws with the way they receive saving throw bonuses when you could have just given them two saves. "Secondary Save" already gives them three good saves in a really roundabout way.
You give them an overpowered skill boost class feature that's better than the class features that skill monkey classes usually get. Yet, they still have 2+Int skill points.
All of it feels backwards and overcomplicated.
SKILLS
4 skills points should be the minimum, especially if you are allowing him to choose additonal class skills. Regarding Skill Training, have you done the math on what some of his skill bonuses will be like at high level? With the options you have made available, many of his skills will be very low, while some other will very high. I would prefer a character with strong bonuses in a few skills and decent bonuses in a few others. Changing the points per level to 4 and the competence bonus from +3 to +1 would help I think
SAVING THROWS
The end result of Secondary Save is that your fighter will have two good saving throws. The question "should the fighter have one good save or two" will only lead to argument. I think there are arguments for both. The real question is do you want your fighter to have one good save or two? Decide and make it so. Accomplishing the second one with a class feature is just dancing around it.
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Agreed with above posters.
If you want to improve the fighter's saves and skill points, why go the roundabout way? Just give 'em an extra save and extra skill points and class skills.
So maybe your fix could look something like:
Fighter Hotfix
Strong Fortitude and Will
Skill Points: 4 per level
New Class Feature: Skill Training
Skill Training
A 1st level fighter chooses one of the following packages below and gains the listed skills as class skills.
Derring – Acrobatics (Dex), Escape Artist (Dex), Fly (Dex), Knowledge (Local; Int),
Academic – Appraise (Int), Knowledge (Arcana; Int), Linguistics (Int), Spellcraft (Int)
Subterfuge –Bluff (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Knowledge (Geography; Int), (Planes; Int), Sleight of Hand (Dex)
Coerce – Bluff (Cha), Diplomacy (Cha), Knowledge (Nobility; Int), (Religion; Int)
Patience – Heal (Wis), Knowledge (History; Int), Sense Motive (Wis), UMD (Cha)
Scout – Disable Device (Dex), Knowledge (Nature; Int), Perception, Stealth (Dex)
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I mostly agree with everybody else's points.
As such, I'll just leave this here...
I thought the bonus from Bravery only applies for saves vs. fear. Your Secondary Save is much, much broader. I'm not suggesting a fix; just pointing out the discrepancy that others, I believe, are responding to.
As for the categories you put together, I instantly want to "fix" the category titles to make them parallel grammatically -- most likely, all nouns. (Derring-Do, Academics, Subterfuge, Coercion, Patience, & Scouting.)
Furthermore, I prefer Rainzax's skill fix, although it's not clear to me whether he meant what he wrote literally, or whether he meant "Skill Points: 4 + Int bonus per level." I prefer the second! Either way, I think it's a lot cleaner and less OP than your fix.
> Academics (4): Knowledge (Arcana; Int), (Planes; Int), Linguistics (Int), Spellcraft (Int)
> Coercion (5): Bluff (Cha), Diplomacy (Cha), Knowledge (Local; Int), (Nobility; Int), UMD (Cha)
> Derring-Do (4): Acrobatics (Dex), Disable Device (Dex), Escape Artist (Dex), Fly (Dex)
> Patience (4): Heal (Wis), Knowledge (History; Int), (Religion; Int), Sense Motive (Wis)
> Scouting (4): Knowledge (Geography; Int), (Nature; Int), Perception, Stealth (Dex)
> Subterfuge (4): Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Sleight of Hand (Dex)
I evidently have a more positive view of religion in my game world than you do. I was shocked that you'd think that the main role of gods or clerics is to coerce their worshipers. Hence, I moved Knowledge (religion) to Patience. Coercing magic items to function despite not having the proper requirements, OTOH, made perfect sense to me.
I realize that this set gives Derring-Do & Subterfuge no knowledges, but I'm not troubled that one Fighter can be more active than another. The other packages do balance the book-larnin' with two Knowledges apiece.
I admit I put Disable Device under Derring-Do more out of a desire to balance skill counts than a strict "Who would need what?" analysis. But I can argue that disabling traps counts as daring...
Good luck!
Religion could be moved to academic, and Diplomacy to Patience. Coerceion could also be changed to persuassion or social.
Oops, I just realized that Bluff is in two categories. Rainzax may have intended this, but if we're doubling up, then Perception should be in Subterfuge, too. Plus, when I leaped on board Rainzax's idea I ignored the fact that it makes a 1-level dip in Fighter a whole lot more attractive than actually playing a Fighter (with maybe a dip or two in something else).
(For comparison, the first version of the feature that I suggested generally permitted a total bonus of +12 -- 4 skills @ +3, with many of them likely unwanted. But all of it was possible by first or second level, depending on how the player invested skill ranks.)
(OTOH, the OP's original proposal permits a whopping total Competence bonus of +270 to skills by 20th level -- 6 skills in the first package @ +15, 6 skills in the second @ +12, 6 skills in the third @ +9, 6 skills in the fourth @ +6, and finally, 6 skills in the fifth @ +3. Only one package would get no bonus at all! Even if you cut the proposed bonus to +1 each, instead of +3, it's still a total Competence bonus of +90. Outrageous! {The rogue's 8 extra skill points per level only add up to 160 ranks by 20th level.})
v. 2> New Class Feature: Skill Training (Ex): One thing that all Fighters have in common is practice. When Fighters aren't practicing with their armaments, you can find them practicing the many skills they've picked up over their adventuring career. At 4th level, choose a skill that you have at least one rank in, but which is not a class skill for you. That skill becomes a class skill for you, and you gain the +3 class skill bonus. Every 4 levels thereafter, choose an additional trained skill to become a class skill. You may put your first rank into a skill at the same level that you gain Skill Training in that skill.
(Note that this permits a total of +15 to skills by 20th level -- 5 skills @ a +3 class skill bonus. Since this is a bonus with a peculiar type, it stacks with all other bonuses.)
v. 3> New Class Feature: Skill Training (Ex): One thing that all Fighters have in common is practice. When Fighters aren't practicing with their armaments, you can find them practicing the many skills they've picked up over their adventuring career. At first level, choose five skills -- one each based on Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. You will gain a Competence bonus on these skills equal to 1/4 your Fighter level (minimum 1), provided you have training (at least one rank) in a given skill. For example, a Fighter who chose Bluff as his Charisma-based skill for Skill Training would not receive any bonus from this feature until he took his first rank in Bluff; if that is at 8th level, he would immediately receive a +2 Competence bonus.
(Note that this permits a total of +25 to skills by 20th level -- 5 skills @ +5 Competence, and one can be fairly certain that each skill will be trained and used. But it is a typed bonus, potentially preventing spells or items from stacking. And while it is only half as good a bonus as other classes get from a similar feature, it is actually stronger overall since it applies to many more skills.)
{Added explanation: I came back to add making the 5 skills class skills in v. 3, and then realized it was a terrible idea. Sorry for all the edits!}
Good to have some free peekings and other unchained fightery stuff out there. ;)