The Thunderstriker Revisited: Smash, shield, smash, shield. And smash again with a shield.

[Maxximilius]

In the pure tradition of the Revisited series trying to fix awesome concepts suffering from less-awesome executions ; and following the revisited Ragechemist, Titan Mauler, Wild Rager, Crossbowman, Gun Tank, Holy Gun and Trapper, here comes a quick patch for the Thunderstriker !

Wield a greatsword and keep your AC high thanks to your buckler.
Then smash with both.

Spoiler:

Strapped Shield (Ex)

At 3rd level, a thunderstriker takes no penalty on attack rolls when using a weapon in two hands while wearing a buckler. He may decide at the beginning of his round to take a -2 penalty to all attack rolls to keep the shield bonus to AC provided by his buckler ; this penalty lasts for one round.

This ability replaces armor training 1.

Hardbuckler (Ex)

At 7th level, a thunderstriker may make shield bash attacks with a buckler as if it were a light shield. This allows a thunderstriker to use two-weapon fighting with a two-handed weapon and his buckler.

This ability replaces armor training 2.

Knockback Smash (Ex)

At 11th level, when a thunderstriker uses his buckler to attack, he gains a bonus equal to the enhancement bonus of the buckler on both attack and damage rolls.

This ability replaces armor training 3.

Hammer and Anvil (Ex)

At 13th level, when a thunderstriker uses a buckler as his off-hand weapon, he suffers only half the normal penalties for two-weapon fighting.

This ability replaces weapon training 3.

Buckler Defense (Ex)

At 15th level, when wielding a buckler, a thunderstriker way fight defensively with a –2 penalty instead of the normal –4 penalty for fighting defensively.

This ability replaces armor training 4.

Balanced Bashing (Ex)

At 17th level, a thunderstriker no longer suffers two-weapon fighting penalties on attack rolls made using a buckler as his off-hand weapon.

This ability replaces weapon training 4.

Improved Buckler Defense (Ex)

At 19th level, a thunderstriker needs not suffer a -2 penalty to attack rolls to retains his shield bonus to AC from a buckler, even when fighting with a weapon in two hands.

This ability replaces armor mastery.

Hope you'll like it. Any suggestions ?

[Maxximilius]

Shameless bump !

[Casper Gronemann]

Bump! I like this idea, and I'm using it for my new campaign. One thing I'm iffy about though, is that this build will want high dex (for improved two-weapon fighting and such), but because it loses armor mastery, it can't use heavy armor to huge effect like other fighters, which might be a big enough trade-off that this Archetype is still on the weak side.

[Maxximilius]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you're liking it ! :)

The need for high dex counterbalances the sheer damage output you gain from TWF-ing with both a two-handed weapon and a shield (though, granted, it requires both a feat and a -2 penalty to attack rolls to stack them).
With a magical shield, you are likely walking around with a good AC, even if you need to suffer heavy penalties to attack rolls in order to benefit from it. This archetypes grants you the ability to deal more damage than usual when necessary, protect yourself from projectiles and control the battlefield with shield bashing.
Considering both pros and cons, it should not be the most powerful fighter archetype out there, but will certainly stand on its own. :)

[Casper Gronemann]

I'm actually considering whether you could remove Weapon Training and Weapon Mastery instead.

The problem is that this build will (hopefully) be power-attacking as much as possible. Taking a -2 penalty for bucklering on top of TWF penalties already penalizes this build enough as far as I see it. Removing Weapon Training is arguably a tougher blow than Armor Training in campaigns where you can always find and buy just the magic weapon you need, but in less "gamist" campaigns where you must make do with what you find, Weapon Training is seldom used to its full potential anyway.

(Not to mention this guy also needs Improved Shield Bash and stuff like that to do this)

[Maxximilius]

To be fair, we are talking about a fighter - he can very well afford the shield-based feats any time of the day, especially since shield bashing only comes into play beginning at 7th level, leaving you up to 9 feats to prepare this combat style.
Since you can already TWF with a two-handed weapon and a off-hand weapon with any character, a -2 penalty to hit is not a heavy price to pay to have -both- a shield bonus and a TH weapon.

A thunderstriker will most likely avoid Greater TWF (already not worth it, even less with the additional penalty to hit), so you only need 17 Dex for Improved TWF, which means a +3 bonus to AC... exactly the amount allowed by a mithral full plate. Thus, it is highly unlikely this high stat modifier will be lost. A level 7 character can very well afford this armor plus magic enhancement plus a magic shield plus a magic weapon, for a nifty base 10+ 10 Armor + 3 Dex + 2 Shield bonus to AC, total 25 (26 if small). Nothing to sneeze at, and even then, it can be made bigger.

[Casper Gronemann]

Hmm. Alright, you make a pretty good case. I'll let my players run it as you wrote it in my campaign. I do think that I'm going to let my players choose between replacing Weapon Mastery or Armor Mastery though. That said, however, I'm grateful you fixed this one up. The moment I saw the archetype I thought "two-handed weapon and buckler slam? Awesome!" and then I realized that wasn't what it did, and I was a sad fish. Stumbling upon your thread save the day :)

[Maxximilius]

I wrote it this way to patch the original, but you could indeed put the 7th level ability to replace the 5th level Weapon Mastery. You may also have the 3rd level ability replace the second level bonus feat instead.
I usually tend to load the archetypes with the most flavorful abilities straight in the first levels, because as a player I don't want to wait a handful of levels to actually do what's written on my description.

I'm glad this revision was of some use to you, especially since providing replacement for official broken content is why this serie has been written for in the first place !
You may check my other archetypes, I have a lot of new ones and revisions for other official rules (crossbowman, ragechemist...).
Maybe you'll find something awesome for one of your players, or as a villain to surprise even the greatest rules-lawyers ! :)

[Casper Gronemann]

Can you link me to them or do you have a list? :)

[Maxximilius]

I have both homebrew, and published rules, feel free to roam around them. :)
Most notably for homebrew, you may check my free Archetypes Document (Part 1 - Part 2 - Official thread).
There is also the Handcannoneer, the Bone-Conjurer and the Divine Champion available on their own documents (links in my profile).

If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to ask !