The Class Acts PDFs introduce new class options for the base classes and core classes featured in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Every PDF contains two full pages of high quality content (no fluff or filler)!
Class Acts: Fighters includes twenty-two new combat feats, several of which are unique to the fighter class or benefit the fighter class exclusively.
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This PDF was included in my Pathfinder Online Kickstarter bundle. Now that I have some time to look through stuff, I'll be posting up some reviews on the several hundred PDFs that have fallen into my position.
... this is going to take a while. •_•
Crunch
Abandoned Arts is pretty much a player crunch company, from what I've seen. Class Acts seems to follow this routine, as the moment you open the PDF the product is like, "Feats! Feats! Get your fighter feats here!" I was a little hesitant going into this product because as a pretty hardcore fan of the Fighter class, I think its fine as it is. People underestimate the advantage of having 21 feats over 20 levels. But I'm not going to say no to some Fighter Friendly Feats, so what do we got here?
Honestly, most of the feats AREN'T fighter specific, but in my opinion the absolute best ones are the combat feats who do manage to tie into the Fighter class. For example, there is a nifty feats that cranks up the Bravery class feature to 11; you can outright ignore the shaken condition from most non-magical sources AND you add your Bravery bonus to the DC to intimidate you (brilliant choice). Very cool. I like it. As a matter of fact, the feats that tie into Bravery are all very cool. I could definitely see a few of them as real contenders for a fighter's feat slots, especially when he's got a few floater feats to kill, which a Fighter will have throughout his career.
There are a couple feats that are a little overpowered, such as this one feat that basically removes the penalty to deal nonlethal damage with the club if you're Power Attacking, and if you are Power Attacking and you use the feat the Power Attack damage (plus damage from Weapon Specialization) is doubled. Ouch; might be a LITTLE too good there, boys! That said, there are a bunch of feats that add to the gameplay of relatively underused weapons, like the whip (usually taken as a bard over a fighter), the club, and even the javelin. Overall, the feats are pretty cool, even if the rules are sometimes worded funny. 4 / 5 Stars.
Flavor
Honestly, this product doesn't have much flavor. The flavor text is decent enough, and there's nothing as bad as the Amazing Races! Humans flavor text that made me flip the heck out. Its passable, but considering that even I have no idea how to add flavor to three pages of feats, I'm not going to dock this product on flavor. — / 5 Stars.
Texture
I personally think that Abandoned Arts is proof that you don't need a big art budget to be a successful 3PP. This product is very minimalist in approach, and honestly I like it that way. Besides, let's face it, which are you going to use in the game? Two full pages of crunch, or one-and-half pages of crunch and a picture of a topless fighter babe. Actually ... don't answer that. Please. 5 / 5 Stars.
Final Score & Thoughts Crunch: 4 / 5
Flavor: — / 5
Texture: 5 / 5
Final Score: 4.5 / 5 (Rounded up to 5)
This is actually a pretty good product. Some of the game mechanics are worded a bit strange and there are a couple of feats that seem ripe for abuse in my opinion (mainly that club feat I mentioned early), but overall I like this product. I would allow most of these feats in my game, and I think the ones I did allow would make for good, fun, flavorful additions to my campaign as well as my player's arsenal.
What does every fighter need? Apart from a strong sword-arm and a willingness to both give and take damage... he needs skill and technique. Herewith are some 22 combat feats to enable every fighter to hone techniques and develop his own fighting style. Be you an arena fighter, a local sellsword or a mighty adventurer, it is worth being known for your prowess and a distinctive style helps. You don't get many jobs being the second-best swordsman in town!
Whilst billed as for fighters - and indeed having levels in fighter are prerequisite for some of them - many of these feats might be of use to anyone who is called on to demonstrate his prowess in physical combat upon occasion. Cast your eye over them, and decide if any will serve you well.
Firstly there is a full-page chart summarising all twenty-two feats, showing prerequisites and an overview of the effects gained. This is followed by a couple of pages in which each is expanded upon, in conventional format mixing flavour text and game mechanics. It's clear how some can go towards building a fighter persona, such as Always Aware which confers a bonus to initiative based on your bravery class feature bonus - old soldiers never let their guard down, after all! Similarly, battle-hardened veterans may choose the Battle Hardened feat, which enables them to shrug off intimidation or other effects that would leave lesser mortals in a shaken condition. It's this eye to detail, aiding you to build your character up in a meaningful way in both the role-playing and the game mechanical sense, that make this a valuable resource for those who delight in finely-crafted believeable characters.
There are, of course, other feats more directly combat-oriented, which will enhance your performance in combat - say Hurling Disarm, with which you not only relieve an opponent of his weapon but in fine style ensure that it hits somebody else as well. If disarming is a favoured style, you may prefer Wrenching Disarm instead, tangling your opponent's legs in his own weapon as you wrest it out of his grasp. King of the Hill is good for those who know how to take advantage of the high ground in a brawl, giving a +2 bonus when you get above your opponent. Watch any good swordfight in a movie and you'll see this in action. Those who are, shall we say, more concerned with the results than honour on the battlefield may prefer Pit Fighter, empowering a range of dirty tricks instead of a straight sneak attack. There are also specialised feats for different weapons: Javelin Strike, Quick Quarterstaff, Skewering Spear or Lashing Strike (for the whip-wielders) and so on, and some for those who enjoy disarming opponents by destroying their weapons: Precise Sunder and Splintering Sunder. The truly cold can enhance attacks against hindered or helpless foes with Executioner's Axe, provided they use a greataxe in combat.
There's a fair bit crammed in here, ways to create your fighter's personality and style as well as enhance his combat abilities. Well worth a look.
First of all, I just want to say that I was offered on the EnWorld forums (and did accept, obviously) a review copy of this product, if anyone finds that relevant. Now on to the review.
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Like the fighter itself, this PDF is nice and basic, but mechanically solid and well-balanced. First of all, the feat table looks and reads just like it should, and the overall appearance and format of this PDF and the other Class Acts PDFs are excellent.
My only real issue with the feats is that almost all of them are very specific. Two of the twenty-two new feats (Pit Fighter and Furious Fighter) require the fighter to be multiclassed (though they're well-done feats; none of that "your class levels stack when determining this-or-that"). Several of the feats require the fighter to specialize with a specific weapon or combat maneuver. A few others require you to have the bravery class feature, which a lot of players trade out via an archetype.
The material itself is very, very good though. Innovative but solid, and well-balanced. There were no feats here that I didn't like.
Always Ready, Battle Hardened, and War-Torn are neat feats that all interact in some way with the bravery class feature. All three of these feats do a great job of making you feel and play like a battle-toughened war hero.
For my money, the most interesting feat in the document is Fighter's Focus. While not explicitly powerful, this feat is almost brilliant, mechanically speaking. In addition to granting you a couple of other benefits, Fighter's Focus gives you a bonus on Will saves... but only when you're in combat. It's a feat that basically says "you're more focused and in control when you're in battle."
That's pretty cool.
Also cool is Hurling Disarm and Splintering Sunder. Both of these feats give you excellent bonuses and benefits when performing various combat maneuvers. To a lesser degree, Wrenching Disarm and Clobbering Feint do, too.
Die By the Sword is the only feat that raised my eyebrow in terms of suspiciously high power levels, but it's probably fine. It's also extremely cinematic.
A few of the weapon-specific feats are excellent. Quick Quarterstaff is good for low-level fighters or multiclassed fighters with fewer attacks per round. This feat allows you to take the total defense action while still contributing to combat. Javelin Strike is also significant. When I read the feat description, I figured it was going to bore me. This feat does a lot more than allow you to use a javelin in melee, though. Quite interesting.
The best of them is the whip feat, Lashing Strike. This feat basically allows you to double your damage (kinda), but only if you're dealing nonlethal damage, and only if you're using Vital Strike. On another weapon, I'd call "overpowered," but I think I'd still rather make a bunch of trip attacks, most times.
This is a rock-solid buy, overall. I say four stars. ****
This pdf is 5 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, so let's check this out!
This being one of the initial 4 releases of Abandoned Arts, this pdf kicks off with a full page listing the 22 combat feats contained in this pdf, so let's take a look!
The first feat herein is rather specific, but interesting design-wise due to the synergy with the bravery class feature - you gain your bravery bonus to initiative. Rather weak and bland, but the design-idea is neat.
Where the pdf starts to get interesting is with feats à la "Battering Bludgeon" - when power attacking with power attacks and clubs/greatclubs, you may double your power attack bonus damage and the one gained by specializations (and its derivatives) - if you choose to do so, however, you deal nonlethal damage. YES! My players love this feat - while it does not help against undead etc., it's an awesome choice if you're like me and run a campaign that expects _good_ PCs not to kill every civilized being they meet, but rather capture them. For such campaigns, or anyone's dark fantasy campaign, this is glorious.
Battle-hardened lets you ignore the shaken condition a number of times per day equal to your bravery class feature - cool indeed for the hardened soldiers. Clobbering Feint enables you to dazzle foes you hit with unarmed strikes, while Die by the Sword enables you to convert all damage from attacks and effects other than melee attacks into non-lethal damage while under the effects of the diehard feat. Hurling Disarm is another definite winner - disarm foes and make the disarmed weapon hit other enemies - quite cool imagery and solid mechanics. It should be noted that 3 improved variants also are included for mini-feat trees in this pdf. Potentially problematic, but rather cool is the Lashing Strike-feat: Whip-armed characters that use vital strike or greater vital strike, deal an equal amount of non-lethal damage at the end of the next turn.
King of the Hill, on the other hand, though, is LAME. +2 to atk and damage while on higher ground than your foes instead of +1 to atk. That's not interesting, that's not cool, that's filler. Precise Sunder is another problem in my book - you detract your dex-modifier from an objects hardness when sundering and can now crit objects with the sunder maneuver. I get the idea, but its benefit is so terribly specific - perhaps 0.5x dex modifier and instead grant some benefit against constructs? Splintering Sunder is another one of these sunder-feats, but one with cool imagery would be splintering sunder: If you destroy a shield or weapon, your foe takes damage equal to the weapon's damage or depending on the type of shield. Cool, but again, quite specific. I don't have a particular bone to pick with that one, though.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good - while I did notice some minor hiccups in the flow of text, that's still ok. Layout adheres to a parchment-style background and a two-column standard and there are no artworks. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length. For me, this pdf was a mixed bag - similar to Rite Publishing's excellent "101 Combat Feats", this pdf includes some rather specific feats that require quite some feat investment, but also provide a neat payoff. The feats per se range from aforementioned rather bland ones to those that can be considered pure awesomeness - I know that one of my players will bugger the hell out of me for lashing strike, though I'm slightly uncomfortable with that one. In the end, personally I consider the good feats among them well worth the very low asking price - for less than a buck, you get a solid selection of feats that make sense and are nice. My final verdict, thus, will be 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for the purpose of this platform.
This is my first review of Abonded Arts' source material for Fighters. After my initial read I was impressed to say the least. This source picks right up where Ultimate Combat left off (and maybe should've gone) for the often over looked class.
Some of the feats are almost a necessity for your fighter. Always Ready and Battle Hardened just to get started. Much like KTFish7 I love Die by the Sword but I wish it had a sibling feat titled Live by the Sword to complete the mantra. And Skewering Spear makes me want to put the long hafted weapon to immediate use. Prerequisites include "Lunge, Weapon Focus (longspear or spear), Weapon Specialization (longspear or spear)" it gives an increase to the weapon's crit multiplier when using Lunge. Vicious indeed!
Quie a few of the feats are prerequisite heavy but come with an equally heavy pay off. More bang for the buck and money well spent.
I would have liked to have seen a couple of teamwork feats based off the ones listed to really flesh out how dangerous two or more cohesive fighters can be together and I'm hoping to see a couple of Prestige Classes based off of what's there in the future.
All in all for the price its more than worth it. I know I'll be seeking approval from my DM for quite a few of the gems provided.
Hey, folks. Abandoned Arts, here - a brand new player in the third-party game, producing the highest-quality PDF products.
I want to open a product discussion page for our first four products (new, $0.99 class options for the classic party-of-four: the fighter, cleric, rogue, and wizard), but I'd rather not flood the Product Discussion page with four too-similar threads, so I'm taking it one product at a time.
Class Acts: Fighters offers twenty-two new combat feats for just $0.99. My favorite feat? Splintering Sunder! Check it out, and let us know what you think of the product. E-mail Abandoned Arts at customerservice@abandonedarts.com.
Die by the Sword struck me as that feat that must be going on at the end of those epic battle scenes we see in big production movies where the Hero's are getting slaughtered in combat, but they just keep fighting on, as one after another they finally succumb to a rush of attackers, even though they have survived a freaking arsenal of ranged weapons being unloaded on them...you know, that scene that defines a character's legacy for all time, the how hard did he make it for them to put him down scene...yeah...excellent.
And as far as the reviews, my pleasure, I can't wait to see what you guys do next, as all 4 of the PDF's in this series showed a great deal of talent and creativity. It will be interesting to see your take on the other classes.
Next up are the barbarian and the witch. And I'm supremely excited about the latter. That'll hit the webstore sometime early this month, likely next week-ish at the latest.
After that, I believe we're slated to release Class Acts products for the alchemist and the gunslinger (or the ranger and the druid; we'll see).
Am wondering, are there are any plans to step outside of the "official" classes? Perhaps do a Class Acts product supporting a 3PP class (as there have been quite a few well received ones around here, lol). Just wondering out loud.
Am looking forward the barbarian especially, gonna warn ya though, alchemists and I are a tough sell, lol.
We have no plans to support third-party content. However, we absolutely do have plans to break into the "original base class" arena, ourselves. Especially if our sales keep climbing the way they have been.
By the way, the typo besmirching this product has been rectified.
I would 2nd the idea of the 3rd party class acts. The mutual support helps all parties make money..and a fresh set of eyes can work wonders. Just my two cents..
I have decided (based on suggestions offered in another product discussion thread) to include a descriptive rundown of the material contained in each Class Acts product line.
Let's do this.
This product contains twenty-two new combat feats:
Always Ready - Long hours spent on the battlefield and in the trenches have instilled in you a paranoid vigilance.
Battering Bludgeon - In your hands, a humble club becomes a formidable cudgel.
Battle-Hardened - You have seen the horrors of war, and they have hardened you.
Clobbering Feint - You can fool opponents into exposing themselves to a brutal return.
Die By the Sword - You refuse to succumb to a demise less noble than the one you deserve – death in battle, at the end of your enemy’s blade.
Executioner's Axe - You have the eye of an executioner.
Fighter's Focus - In battle, your focus is as sharp as your blade.
Furious Fighter - You fight with a barely-contained fury.
Hurling Disarm - With a martial flourish, you can turn your enemies’ weapons into deadly, airborne projectiles.
Improved Clobbering Feint - Your clobbering strikes leave your opponents’ ears ringing.
Improved Hurling Disarm - You can disarm your opponents with startling speed.
Improved Splintering Sunder - Your sundering maneuvers can shatter arms and armor to lethal effect, showering opponents with shards and splinters.
Javelin Strike - You have learned to adapt the javelin to close-quarters combat.
King of the Hill - You know how to use the high ground to its full advantage.
Lashing Strike - Your whip attacks leave your enemies aching.
Pit Fighter - A life of blood sport has made you an unsporting combatant.
Precise Sunder - Your familiarity with the structural composition of arms and armor allows you to sunder weapons with surgical precision.
Quick Quarterstaff - You can strike out with your quarterstaff from a defensive posture.
Skewering Spear - The momentum of your spear is enough to impale your opponents.
Splintering Sunder - You can sunder arms and armor with deadly force.
War-Torn - Endless conflicts have made you into an unshakable combatant.
Wrenching Disarm - Your twisting maneuvers can tangle your opponents’ feet together.
Thanks for your five-star review, Golden-Esque! I'm with you on fighters; I too think that the fighter class is fine as-is, and needs no "help." In play, that's certainly been my experience.
