Reach Expert

[Warhaven]

Hey everybody. I'm starting to prep my very first entry for the upcoming RPG Superstar. Assuming the archetype is still an option, I'd like to share my initial thoughts and get some helpful critique/criticism. So, here we go:

Reach Expert

Second rank warriors utilizing reach weapons are essential to any modern army, and a reach expert is a specialist in such matters of warfare.

Tactical Reach

A reach expert gains Combat Expertise and Gang Up feats as bonus feats at first level even if she doesn't qualify for them.

This ability replaces the reach expert's 1st level bonus feat and proficiency with heavy armor and shields.

Precise Reach (Ex)

At 2nd level when a reach expert makes a melee attack through an ally's square, that ally only provides soft cover instead of the normal cover. At 6th level a reach expert ignores cover from allies when making melee attacks through an ally's square.

This ability replaces the reach expert's 2nd level bonus feat.

Allied Defense (Ex)

At 3rd level when using the Combat Expertise feat, a reach expert may forgo the bonus to armor class and instead grant an equal bonus to an adjacent allay's AC and to CMD to resist bull rush, reposition, and drag attempts. She still suffers any penalties associated with the feat.

This ability replaces Armor Training 1.

Reach Training (Ex)

At 5th level a reach expert gains a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls with spears and polearms. The bonus increases by +1 for every four levels beyond 5th.

This ability replaces Weapon Training.

Tight Formation (Ex)

At 11th level, whenever a reach expert takes a five foot step she may designate a single allay to take a five foot step with her, so long as the ally ends her movement in a square adjacent to the reach expert. This ability does not use up the designated ally's five step, but must otherwise follow the normal rules for taking a five foot step.

This ability replaced Armor Training 3.

Fortified Defense (Ex)

At 19th level when a reach expert uses her Allied Defense ability, she grants all other adjacent allies half this bonus.

This ability replaces Armor Mastery.

Weapon Mastery (Ex)

A reach expert must choose a spear or polearm for her Weapon Mastery class feature.

[Avatar-1]

Quote:

This ability replaces the reach expert's 2nd level bonus feat.

Fighter's. Watch your spelling and grammar in Tight Formation too. RPG Superstar is a stickler for that kind of thing.

With Precise Reach, I may be wrong, but I thought allies already only provide soft cover without this ability.

It seems a bit strange that Fortified Defense isn't just part of Allied Defense (replacing both Armor Training 1 and Armor Mastery), but I'm nitpicking there.

[Warhaven]

Avatar-1 wrote:

Quote:

This ability replaces the reach expert's 2nd level bonus feat.

Fighter's. Watch your spelling and grammar in Tight Formation too. RPG Superstar is a stickler for that kind of thing.

With Precise Reach, I may be wrong, but I thought allies already only provide soft cover without this ability.

It seems a bit strange that Fortified Defense isn't just part of Allied Defense (replacing both Armor Training 1 and Armor Mastery), but I'm nitpicking there.

Thanks (typo on the allay). You think I should just roll the two into one entry? Or, do you suggest I not replace Armor Mastery at all, and beef up Allied Defense by adding the 1/2 bonus to other allies?

And I meant partial cover, not soft cover. Thanks for pointing that out.

Also, I can't seem to edit my post anymore, so I'll fix it on my desktop copy.

[Kiel Howell]

I would recommend posting this in the Blazing 9 thread. We've been practicing on exactly these kinds of things :)

[Jacob W. Michaels]

Quote:

A reach expert gains Combat Expertise and Gang Up feats as bonus feats at first level even if she doesn't qualify for them.

This ability replaces the reach expert's 1st level bonus feat and proficiency with heavy armor and shields.

I'd be careful of this design space. Sean has said that it's not considered good design to replace a bonus feat with a specific feat. That just takes away options from the player.

I was going to say, it feels a little haphazard to me because you replace some armor training, some weapon training, some bonus feats but I realized that's not quite true. The problem for me is the reach training, which just doesn't seem very exciting. It's a simply numerical bonus.

I think your other abilities (which seem new to me, though I'm not up on all the feats and archetpes) are far more Superstar. I like the idea of allied defense a lot and tight formation and fortified defense also seem pretty cool. I think the secret with archetypes is find one big thing and make it sing -- in this case, it's using your abilities to help others. You're doing it differently than the cavalier and I think that works and fits with the archetype.

Also, since this is a fighter archetype, you want to use a masculine pronoun. It should match the iconic's gender (which in this case is Valeros).

[Warhaven]

Thanks very much for the input guys, very helpful. After this post, I'll continue over at the Blazing 9 thread.

And I think you (and Sean) are probably correct, Jacob. Those feats are probably obvious, but I shouldn't cram them down the player's throat just for taking the archetype, as they may have other unintuitive, but equally effective approaches. The exception, I think, would be Combat Expertise since it's required for a later ability. So, maybe simply swap Heavy Armor Proficiency and Shield Proficiency for Combat Expertise, and leave their bonus feat alone.

The Reach Training was a play on the Polearm Training, and the original draft had a couple more things in place of Weapon Training 2+, but now that I look at it, it's not needed. I think I'll just omit that one altogether and let the player decide how she wants to be effective from 2nd rank, and not limit them to spears and polearms (whip, for example, could be equally fun with this).

-Rob

[Kiel Howell]

Sigh...I typed up a long response to each ability and all. It got eaten.

Short of it is:
Your introductory sentence is pretty bland and almost makes me think this archetype is a second rate soldier not a second rank soldier. I would rewrite this to something like "The iron bulkhead that enemies dash themselves upon is composed of soldiers who have trained to master weapons longer than they are tall."

Work on your naming. The names are kind of bland and not evocative (for the most part). I love Fortified Defense and Tight Formation as names.

As Jacob mentioned, simple numerical bonuses are not Superstar.

Fortified Defense/Ally Defense - I would combine these into 1 ability and have them multi-tiered by level. For example "At level X the bonus applies to an adjacent ally. At X level, the bonus applies to all adjacent allies." You could even make it cooler at high level by adding "At level X the bonus applies to one ally within 30 feet." Keep the name as Fortified Defense :)

Overall - Work on naming and not getting too close to the existing Polearm Master archetype (from the APG). Also don't take away choices from players. Weapon Mastery is another good example of this...who would take this archetype and then NOT choose a polearm? Save some word count and also realize that some spears are not reach :) Also, making an archetype that relies on Teamwork feats (for the first ability anyway) won't wow anyone. The idea of the archetype is good though...I almost like this better as it is a hybrid of the Phalanx and Polearm archetypes that already exist.

[Warhaven]

I was thinking the same thing. Mind if I use your description? lol.

Posted the revision over in Blazing 9.

Thanks again for all your help and suggestions, everyone.

-Rob

[Steven Helt]

I just think the archetype isn't as cool as pole arm master, which is very very similar. SO if there's a first bit of feedback, try to do something that isn't attended to, particularly in a book everyone knows really well.

[Template Fu]

theheadkase wrote:

Sigh...I typed up a long response to each ability and all. It got eaten.

Come on theheadkase - do you want me to send Template Fu round to slap you upside the head for editing in the post window again? :P

I put my feedback in the Blazing 9 thread (it didn't get eaten :P) - it was reviewed sans books and being distracted by work so please excuse my rambling.

Hopefully a few useful points for you in there - it looks like I align with a lot of what's in this thread too.