I'm starting up a Serpent's Skull campaign and one of my players has a great concept for a fighter. Basically, a no-armor, savage fighter who uses a shield and spear. Think african tribal warrior. But he couldn't find an archetype or build that worked for him, so he made his own. I'm not very experienced with building custom classes, so I thought I'd post it here and see what people have to say about it. Is it balanced? How does it compare to other archetypes from the APG?
In preparing this, I was guided by several considerations. The largest, of course, is how in the world a non-armored fighter replaces the AC gained by armor. At first level, a fighter reasonably has +5 AC from armor (scale mail being easily in the reach of most starting characters); by third level this likely increases to +6 or +7. By 10th level or so, to judge by pregens in official Paizo adventures, +4 chainmail or +2 full plate isn’t terribly uncommon, for a total of +10 or +11. At level 14 or 15 you see characters with +5 full plate, for +14 with up to +5 DEX bonus allowed with Armor Training. That’s what this archetype needs to replace for a fighter to assume his proper tanking role.
Some of this can obviously come from magic items, but the problems there are obvious. Magic armor is fairly plentiful, and a warrior-type doesn’t have competition for it, especially the heavier types. Non-armor AC items are relatively rare, and a fighter would have to fight everyone else for them. In addition to that, bracers, amulets, rings, cloaks, whatever, all take up magic item slots that armored fighters have free. Obviously this is only a partial solution, and one can’t expect the GM to take the cheesy route of throwing in a lot more of these items in place of the armor that would logically be there. For my purposes I’ve assumed that this archetype would have access to magic to provide a +1 bonus beginning at level 3 and increasing by +1 for every two levels thereafter. Obviously I have no clue whether this is necessarily a realistic expectation in this game – or even in 3.X in general. I’m flying by the seat of my pants, but that was what I keyed my calculations off of. The complication – and I’m not sure how to quantify this – is that fighters with armor would also be expected to take advantage of much of this. That is to say, a fighter could well use Ring of Protection or an Amulet of Natural Armor.
Feats are another way a fighter can make up some armor class ground, but the options there are pretty limited, in my opinion. Dodge, Shield Focus, and Greater Shield Focus each give +1 AC, but this doesn’t really make up much ground – especially because many, if not most, fighters could be expected to take these anyway in the course of a normal build.
A more fruitful way to make up some AC points is with the shield. Since the shield is this archetype’s only armor, it can be assumed that they would become highly proficient in its use and employ it in innovative ways, and therefore gain a greater bonus from it – above and beyond the bonuses give by magical shields, which I haven’t included in my calculations since I assume them to be the same for fighters with and without this archetype.
The DEX bonus allowed is another consideration; obviously it’s limited by armor type worn, but the thing is that, under normal circumstances, I don’t think it’s limited that much. By 7th level, a fighter in a breastplate can have up to a +5 DEX bonus, and one wearing full plate can have +3. I would assume (and again, I’m operating from assumptions because I have no first-hand experience with fighters at that level) that most fighters don’t have a issue operating under those caps except when under the influence of something like Cat’s Grace or a Belt of You’re Really Dexterous.
So, without further ado:
Tribal Warrior
The tribal warrior is the fighting man of the savannahs and jungles who eschews encumbering armor for the fleetness of his own feet and the defensive properties of his shield.
Class Skills: Add Acrobatics, Knowledge: Nature; remove Knowledge: Engineering.
Elusive Warrior: The Tribal Warrior gains the Dodge feat, even if he does not meet the prerequisites for this feat. This replaces the Light Armor Familiarity feat.
Cowhide and Wood: The Tribal Warrior gains the Shield Focus feat. This feature replaces the Medium Armor Proficiency feat.
Hard Sinew, Fleet Feet: The Tribal Warrior gains a +2 natural armor bonus to AC at 1st level when wearing no armor (shields are allowed). This bonus increases by +1 at 3rd level and at every fifth level thereafter, to a maximum of +6 at 18th level. This replaces the Heavy Armor Proficiency feat.
My Shield is My Life: At 1st level, the Tribal Warrior gains a +2 shield bonus to AC when using a shield and wearing no armor. This bonus increases by +1 at 3rd level and at every four levels thereafter, to a maximum of +6 at 19th level. This replaces Armor Training 1-5.
Shield of the Fearless: At 19th level, the Tribal Warrior gains DR 5/- when he is using a shield and not wearing armor.
The armor class bonuses break down as follows:
Level....HSFF....MSiML
....1...........2..........2
....2...........2..........2
....3...........3..........3
....4...........3..........3
....5...........3..........3
....6...........3..........3
....7...........3..........4
....8...........4..........4
....9...........4..........4
...10...........4..........4
...11...........4..........5
...12...........4..........5
...13...........5..........5
...14...........5..........5
...15...........5..........6
...16...........5..........6
...17...........5..........6
...18...........6..........6
