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Quickdraw Swordsman (Fighter)
Honed by years of intense training, the quickdraw swordsman becomes a force of nature, his sword strikes like lightning dancing upon the sea.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A quickdraw swordsman is not proficient with medium armor, heavy armor, or shields. A quickdraw swordsman is proficient with all Heavy Blades and Light Blades belonging to the fighter weapon groups.
Quickdraw Master (Ex): At 1st level, a quickdraw swordsman gains Improved Initiative and Quickdraw as bonus feats, even if she does not meet the prerequisites.
This ability replaces the bonus feat at 1st level.
Sword of the Swift (Ex): At 2nd level, a quickdraw swordsman gains a +1 bonus to initiative checks. This bonus increases by +1 for every four levels after 2nd. At 10th level a quickdraw swordsman may sheath his weapon as a swift action.
This ability replaces bravery.
Lightning Fast (Ex): At 3rd level, Once per day you may roll an opposed initiative check against a target of your choice, if you succeed you gain a +2 insight bonus on attack rolls, saving throws, and Armor Class against the target for a number of rounds equal to your wisdom modifier. At 7th level, the bonus increases by +1, you can use this ability one additional time per day. At 11th level the ability improves yet again, the bonus increases by +1, and you gain another daily use, to a maximum of a +4 Bonus 3 times per day.
This ability replaces armor training 1, 2, and 3.
Quickdraw Slash (Ex): At 5th level the quickdraw swordsman's blade becomes a blur of metal. When a quickdraw swordsman draws his weapon he gains a +1 to hit and a +2 to damage on the first attack he makes that round. At 13th level the bonus to hit increases to +2 and the damage bonus increases to +4.
This ability replaces Weapon Training 1 & 3.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 15th level, a quickdraw swordsman can no longer be caught flat-footed, nor does she lose her Dex bonus to AC if the attacker is invisible. She still loses her Dexterity bonus to Armor Class if immobilized. A quickdraw swordsman with this ability can still lose her Dexterity bonus to Armor Class if an opponent successfully uses the feint action against her.
This ability replaces armor training 4.
Godstrike (Ex): At 19th level, once per day a quickdraw swordsman can perform a strike so fast that it bypasses the defenses of any enemy. As Standard Action you may make an attack against an adjacent enemy, you automatically hit and score a critical hit. If the defender survives the damage, he must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + your fighter level) or die. Creatures immune to critical hits are immune to this ability.
This ability replaces armor mastery and Weapon mastery.
Dotting, really like the idea behind this one. Well done!
I think you really need to look at the advantages of this class. Really cool ideas but can easily be a broken character with two weapon fighting.
Not real sure I'm seeing it
For some reason I can't edit my post, now that I've had a little more time to think about it there were a couple errors here and there. I'm not great with the wording on some of the abilities and I believe with these changes the archetype as a whole will be pretty solid.
Lightning Fast (Ex): At 3rd level, Once per day as a swift action you may roll an opposed initiative check against a target of your choice, if you succeed you gain a +2 insight bonus on attack rolls, saving throws, and Armor Class against the target for a number of rounds equal to your wisdom modifier. At 7th level, the bonus increases by +1, you can use this ability one additional time per day. At 11th level the ability improves yet again, the bonus increases by +1, and you gain another daily use, to a maximum of a +4 Bonus 3 times per day.
This ability replaces armor training 1, 2, and 3.
Quickdraw Slash (Ex): At 5th level the quickdraw swordsman's blade becomes a blur of metal. When a quickdraw swordsman draws his weapon he gains a +1 to hit and a +2 to damage on the first attack he makes that round, in addition you increase your critical threat range by +1 for that attack (for example 19-20/x2 becomes 18-20/x2), this ability does not stack with similar effects such as the keen weapon property. At 13th level the bonus to hit increases to +2, the damage bonus increases to +4 and the increased threat range increases to +2.
This ability replaces Weapon Training 1 & 3.
Godstrike (Ex): At 19th level, once per day a quickdraw swordsman can perform a strike so fast that it bypasses the defenses of any enemy. As Standard Action you may make an attack against an adjacent enemy, you automatically hit and score a critical hit. If the defender survives the damage, he must make a Fortitude save (DC 15 + fighter level + wisdom modifier) or die (This ability cannot be used to deal non-lethal damage). Creatures immune to critical hits are immune to this ability.
This ability replaces armor mastery and Weapon mastery.
I like the concept, but it seems like it could make for an abusable 1 level dip.
I like the concept, but it seems like it could make for an abusable 1 level dip.
lol because it's not like people don't dip fighter right?
yep - the two feats for the one bonus feat seems a bit unbalanced - even if one of those feats is quickdraw.
Okay, I'll bite, how is it unbalanced? Dip a level in a class that you won't use for 2 feats that neither grant you a direct combat benefit nor are they part of feat trees. I mean to me it seems perfectly fine, but please, show me how it is imbalanced.
I like the concept, but it seems like it could make for an abusable 1 level dip.lol because it's not like people don't dip fighter right?
yep - the two feats for the one bonus feat seems a bit unbalanced - even if one of those feats is quickdraw.Okay, I'll bite, how is it unbalanced? Dip a level in a class that you won't use for 2 feats that neither grant you a direct combat benefit nor are they part of feat trees. I mean to me it seems perfectly fine, but please, show me how it is imbalanced.
In 3.5 yes, but in PF the classes were designed so that dipping is hard to do and gain a benefit. You are going against the grain. That level 19 ability should be capstone also, not a level 19 ability since it is a potential death type attack just like the ranger and rogue's capstone.
I won't say it is broken but it makes it to easy to dip and run. Improved initiative is basically a universally good feat, and quickdraw is not a bad freebie to have.
I like the concept. However, at 1st level I would not give Improved Initiative and Quick Draw because of the concerns mentioned by posters above. Instead I would give Quick Draw as a bonus feat, ability to sheathe weapon as a swift action and some minor bonus to attack or damage or maybe ability make a feint as a free action when weapon is drawn (but only once per combat to avoid quick draw-gain bonus-quick sheathe-repeat loop).
As far as I can tell there is nothing that would prevent Quickdraw swordsman from using Quickdraw slash every round after reaching 10th level when he gains ability to sheathe weapon as a swift action? (except attacks of opportunity, as the ability to sheathe weapon as a swift action does not include "no longer provokes clause") In fact at 5th level the best tactics when you can avoid AoO (like, opponent already used up AoO against your ally, you are outside of his reach, or just think that can survive it without problems) seems to be sheathing the weapon as a move actions at the start of one's turn, drawing it as a free action and then performing an attack.
I would consider adding ability to draw weapon as an immediate action on higher levels.
In 3.5 yes, but in PF the classes were designed so that dipping is hard to do and gain a benefit. You are going against the grain.
I won't say it is broken but it makes it to easy to dip and run. Improved initiative is basically a universally good feat, and quickdraw is not a bad freebie to have.
Against the grain indeed, it's not like paizo has done the same thing right.....oh yea...
Unarmed Fighter Archetype (Ultimate Combat)
Unarmed Style: At 1st level, a unarmed fighter gains the Improved Unarmed Strike feat and any single style feat (see Chapter 3) as a bonus feat. The unarmed fighter need not meet all the prerequisites of the style feat he chooses, but style feats that grant additional uses of the Elemental Fist feat cannot be taken until the unarmed fighter has that feat. This ability replaces the bonus feat at 1st level.
:)
While yes, this is indeed focused more towards unarmed combat it is still 2 feats granted at first level, one of which you can choose from among a large list of feats (many of which you wouldn't be able to get at first level due to prerequisites).
I like the concept. However, at 1st level I would not give Improved Initiative and Quick Draw because of the concerns mentioned by posters above.
As far as I can tell there is nothing that would prevent Quickdraw swordsman from using Quickdraw slash every round after reaching 10th level when he gains ability to sheathe weapon as a swift action? (except attacks of opportunity, as the ability to sheathe weapon as a swift action does not include "no longer provokes clause") In fact at 5th level the best tactics when you can avoid AoO (like, opponent already used up AoO against your ally, you are outside of his reach, or just think that can survive it without problems) seems to be sheathing the weapon as a move actions at the start of one's turn, drawing it as a free action and then performing an attack.
The ability to sheathe does not remove the attack of opp, so yes, they could loop it over and over to continually gain the bonus but that requires moving back, sheathing, drawing, and coming back forward. At the point where you can do that you have at least 2 attacks, maybe 3. Yes, it can be abused, but at the point where it can be it's kinda negligible. Would you drop a 2nd or 3rd attack for a +2 to hit and a +4 to damage?
I'll take a closer look at some of the abilities to see if I can better space them, I do realize that it's heavier towards the lower levels and I'm thinking about something.
In 3.5 yes, but in PF the classes were designed so that dipping is hard to do and gain a benefit. You are going against the grain.
I won't say it is broken but it makes it to easy to dip and run. Improved initiative is basically a universally good feat, and quickdraw is not a bad freebie to have.
Against the grain indeed, it's not like paizo has done the same thing right.....oh yea...
Unarmed Fighter Archetype (Ultimate Combat)
Unarmed Style: At 1st level, a unarmed fighter gains the Improved Unarmed Strike feat and any single style feat (see Chapter 3) as a bonus feat. The unarmed fighter need not meet all the prerequisites of the style feat he chooses, but style feats that grant additional uses of the Elemental Fist feat cannot be taken until the unarmed fighter has that feat. This ability replaces the bonus feat at 1st level.
:)
While yes, this is indeed focused more towards unarmed combat it is still 2 feats granted at first level, one of which you can choose from among a large list of feats (many of which you wouldn't be able to get at first level due to prerequisites).
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Good catch. I think they should revise it. Paizo making a mistake they said they are trying to not make anymore does not make it ok.
My gut reaction says that this is a powerful dip because it grant 1 universally useful feat, and 1 other decent feat that any Martial characters would be happy to snag.
Unarmed has two feats, but IUS is more like a weapon proficiency, and both feats are only useful to unarmed fighting. I see Quickdraw an Improved Initiative as general feats.
However, this is not to say that my gut reaction is objectively correct, it is an opinion. And of course, The archetype gives up med and heavy armor and shields, so it probably works to even.
Furthermore I like the archetype, given the chance I would play it. Additionaly if it had been an option, i have an existing gish character that would have taken it if it was available. Aldori Dueling Mastery was made for this kind of character, and would be accessible at lv 3 for a human.
I think that outside of the battojutsu type a strait build would create, archers would like this archetype as well, as the bonuses do not specify melee, and can also help with using a backup weapon.
Certain builds would just cry out for a one level dip:
Eldritch Knights, Hurling builds, Switch rangers,
and the surprise: social rogues: who could use both feats for disguise based ambushes, and would be able to snag the never-used betrayer feat at little cost
