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We've had the usual allotment of Fighter threads lately, so I've collated a bunch of my ideas into a single document. Here is my first draft of an unchained fighter class.
The goals of my unchained fighter is to:
* Give it a clear narrative and design space.
* Expand the types of roles it can fulfill.
To do this I've incorporated:
* Weapon mastery
* Armor mastery
* Numerous archetypes into the base class
Some of the changes I've made:
* Given the fighter two saves.
* Incorporated the weapon and armor mastery into a "Fighter Talent" pool of abilities (along with a number of abilities from the various archetypes).
* Kept the 2+Int mod skill points, however at 2nd level the fighter gains an ability that gives them an effective 3 to 6 extra skill ranks. This is intended to give them a number of additional skills without needing more skill ranks. The fighter also has a fighter talent that gives him 1 extra skill point that can be taken up to 4 times.
* Additional skills as class skills.
* The fighter's choice of either a cohort (and eventually followers and a free stronghold) or the ability to share some of his combat feats with his companions to a degree. This (along with some of the fighter talents) effectively robs the cavalier of most of his relevant abilities.
* You can effectively make an Eldritch Knight without going into a prestige class when combined with the feat below. If you went Wizard 1/Fighter X you would only lose 1 level of spellcasting (and at level 4 you could gain even that level by retraining your first bonus combat feat). However you must trade up 20 feats. In return you get 9 fighter talents, fighter HP, fighter BAB, unchained fighter saves plus the level 1 wizard school ability, scribe scroll and bonded item/familiar. If you want to be wearing armor, then you must lose 1 caster level per arcane armor feat. If you want more combat feats than you have to sacrifice 1 spellcasting level per feat.
* I have deliberately chosen not to include the Stamina rules in this class. IMO the fighter's combat abilities are just fine and do not need a boost (where the stamina rules almost exclusively boost a fighter's combat abilities). I also dislike Paizo's trend in current years to give everyone resource management. So I have chosen to avoid giving the fighter any abilities that would require that.
Here are two feats I've created to help supplement the fighter:
Extra Caster Level
Although you have not devoted yourself entirely to magic, nor have you completely neglected your skills with it.
Prerequisite: Caster level 1.
Benefit: You gain +1 level of an existing spellcasting class up to your maximum total class levels to determine the number of spells per day that you receive. If you have levels in multiple spellcasting classes, you must declare which one you increase. In addition your spells known increases by +1 level as well. You do not gain any additional bonus spell slots (except those granted by a high ability score) from this feat.
Special: This counts as a magic related feat for the purpose of the Mighty magic fighter talent. This feat can be selected multiple times.
Extra Fighter Talent
You are fully dedicated to the art of martial combat
Prerequisite: Fighter talent class feature
Benefit: You gain one additional fighter talent that you qualify for.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times.
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What do people think? I'm unhappy about the lack of non-combat fighter abilities at level 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 (especially level 16) and would definitely be open to suggestions. Otherwise I think it's come out rather well at keeping the current power level of the fighter will greatly expanding the options it has available.
Here are some extra feats that help the fighter take on the role of more of the ACG classes.
You have studied under a master and have learned the art of martial arts.
Prerequisite: Monk weapon damage class feature, unarmed strike class feature.
Benefit: When unarmoured and either wielding a monk weapon or using an unarmed strike, you may add your levels in other classes to your monk level when determining your monk damage dice.
You call out your enemies no matter where they might be on the battlefield.
Prerequisite: Smite evil, banner fighter talent.
Benefit: You can smite a single enemy regardless of that enemy's alignment, so long as fighting them would not be a conflict with any codes of conduct you are required to follow.
A warrior who practices killing, you aim for your target's vital organs.
Prerequisite: 2nd level fighter and sneak attack class feature.
Benefit: When wearing medium armor or lighter, you add half your fighter level to your rogue level for determining your sneak attack dice.
Special: Mithral heavy armor does not count as medium armor for the purposes of this feat.
I've moved the first draft for the Fighter Unleashed to an Archived folder and have uploaded a new version.
Here's what is different:
* I have removed the tower shield proficiency, but increased the skill points per level to 4 + Int mod (taken from the Cavalier class).
* Under the new draft you select a fighting style at level 1, which lists a number of bonus feats you can choose (much like the Ranger class). Your bonus feats are limited to these unless you choose a specific extra option.
* You get 11 bonus combat feats under the new version.
* Fighting Prowess still exists, however I've removed improved fighting prowess (due to being unable to think of additional options) and replaced it with a bonus feat.
* I have reduced the number of fighter talents to 9 from 10, although this is offset by the number of feats that are gained.
* At level 3 you select a fighter specialty, which replaces brother in arms at level 4. You can gain either the cohort portion of the leadership feat, you can select a new fighting style which doubles the number of bonus feats you get (although they are designed to be for mutually exclusive fighting styles, so you could be a ranged fighter and a two-handed fighter on the same character), you can gain a mount using your fighter level as your druid level, or you can choose to ignore the fighting style restriction (allowing you to select any combat feat you want for bonus combat feats) and also gain 1 bonus combat feat at this level.
* Battle tested at level 8 has been replaced with the full follower portion of the leadership feat at level 7.
Overall the power level should be on par with the current fighter (beyond giving the fighter a good will save), however the fighter gets more skill points (in lieu of tower shield proficiency), significantly more flexibility (by selecting a melee fighting style and a ranged fighting style if the player so chooses) and the follower portion of the leadership feat along with a stronghold for free.
Given this new writeup for the fighter, the ranger class would also need a fairly robust revision.