I'll apologize beforehand for any strange typos or grammar mistakes. Typing from a phone with a tiny screen keyboard and an auto-correct system can do that.
So, one of my fellow pathfinder group members projected the thought of what fighters should and should not be able to do. ( It's an she old topic, really.)
I asked what he wanted to see in a fighter, to which he replied that he wished to see a "True Warrior", describing an MMORPGish warrior class. In essence, it felt like a barbarian, but with the flavor of a knightish kind of concept with stupendous will saves, a balance between defense and offense.
So I was wondering, what would a class concept like that look like in a d20 system?
My current ideas consist of:
Fast Healing triggered when receiving damage above a certain % of his health.
Certain Rage Powers (sans totems) and similar thematic effects activated from a pool of points, without actually being in rage or having 1/day restrictments.
Style feats a la Ranger.
Armor Training, like the fighter.
Some DR and energy resist, but no sizeable AC.
D12 hit.
Thoughts?
I like the idea of all non magic full BAB classes getting d12s.
Giving away style feats makes them less special, are you talking about some sort of fighter redux or are you talking a general guideline of design philosophy here?
You can't apply MMORPG logic to Pathfinder RPG or another similar RPG. Combat in these games are fundamentally different. In WoW, the party wins a fight by out-sustaining the mobs. In PF, a party wins a fight by ending the battle in a way that costs as few resources as possible. In WoW, hit points are a short term resource whereas they're a long term resource in PF. You must keep these things in mind when designing fighting classes, which I doubt is the case here.
You don't really have a class concept here. You have a ball of stats with a few feats and abilities stolen from another class. And that's precisely the problem with the design of martial classes -- they're mostly just a ball of stats with a few bonus feats.
Given that Fighters as is get extra feats in place of class features, why not design fighter specific feats that offer some of the things you want them to have. Something like:
Lifesurge
Req: Fighter lv 6, CON 13
Once per day, when damage from an attack or a spell/ability reduces the fighter to below 50% of their max HP, the fighter gains Fast Healing 3 for a number of rounds equal to their CON modifier. The Fast Healing increases to 4 at 12th level, and 5 at 18th.
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I'll apologize beforehand for any strange typos or grammar mistakes. Typing from a phone with a tiny screen keyboard and an auto-correct system can do that.
So, one of my fellow pathfinder group members projected the thought of what fighters should and should not be able to do. ( It's an she old topic, really.)
I asked what he wanted to see in a fighter, to which he replied that he wished to see a "True Warrior", describing an MMORPGish warrior class. In essence, it felt like a barbarian, but with the flavor of a knightish kind of concept with stupendous will saves, a balance between defense and offense.
So I was wondering, what would a class concept like that look like in a d20 system?
My current ideas consist of:
Fast Healing triggered when receiving damage above a certain % of his health.
Certain Rage Powers (sans totems) and similar thematic effects activated from a pool of points, without actually being in rage or having 1/day restrictments.Style feats a la Ranger.
Armor Training, like the fighter.
Some DR and energy resist, but no sizeable AC.
D12 hit.
Thoughts?
The answer is simple:
Armored Hulk Barbarian.
Ived used this before for exactly what you're talking about .
Take the Iron will feats and a above a average wisdom.
Barb gets more will save in Rage, his class abilities are similar to armor training in form and function when concerning mobility.
Renewed vigor rage power lets the barb heal in a rage and it's more powerful cousin (whose name escapes me at the moment, I can't find it) allows fast healing for a time after the renewed vigor is used.
EDIT: I found it its called regenerative vigor.
there are no style feats for this build…but that's what feat feats are for.
another angle for this is look at the Ronin, Flavored as A Knight Errant (mentioned in print under the archetype)
While it lacks spontaneous healing it picks up more force of will and combat style, and a mount.
for excess fun look at the steelblood bloodrager with the arcane bloodline (he actually gets REAL armor training the barb doesn't' dunno why) and can take the rage powers mentioned above, as well as cast infernal healing (I think)
Well there aren't as many warrior variants in most MMORPGs as there are in PF. They have been broken off and split into other marshal niches.
Also without lossing a lot your "MMO Warrior" borrows from just about all the other STR based marshal classes to make an uber collection of abilities.
Hm, the Armored Hulk or Invulnerable Rager Barbarian is a solid choice for within the system. If you want a new class you could go with something (roughly) like:
D12 HD
Full BaB
Good Fort and Will saves
4+Int skills
Medium armor and shields (not tower) and martial weapon proficiency.
Class Features:
Bonus Feats at 2 and every 3 levels thereafter.
"Elemental Aegis": Energy Resist 5 to an element of your choice at 1st level. Increases by 5 at 5th/10th/15th/20th, gain Resist 5 to another element of your choice at the same time (either spread out or stacking). Primary element goes to immunity at 20th.
"Hardy Constitution": Starting at 4th level, one per day as a Swift action the <Insert Class Name Here> can gain Fast Healing 1 for a number of minutes equal to his class level. At 7th level and every 3 levels thereafter, the Fast Healing increases by 1, and he can activate this ability an extra time per day.
"Ferocity": At 7th level the <Insert Class Name Here> gains the Ferocity Universal Monster Ability. He also counts as having Endurance and Die Hard for the purpose of prerequisites.
"Retributive Strike": At 10th level the <Insert Class Name Here> can make a Retributive Strike. He can make a single melee attack at his highest attack bonus, with a bonus to damage equal to half the amount of Elemental Damage his Elemental Aegis blocked plus the amount of damage his Hardy Constitution healed that round. (Note, since it's an attack action, it stacks with Vital Strike).
"<Insert Capstone Name Here>": At 20th level the <Insert Class Name Here>'s ability to shrug off blows becomes unbelievable. He can use a Full round action to become immune to all elemental damage and gain Regeneration 10 for 1 minute.
Just something I cooked up while half-watching The Shootist. I may use it myself actually.
In WoW, hit points are a short term resource whereas they're a long term resource in PF.
After a certain point, between 3rd and 7th level depending on group, hit points tend to become a short term resource in PF too, due to cheap and easy healing.
You must keep these things in mind when designing fighting classes, which I doubt is the case here.
You don't really have a class concept here. You have a ball of stats with a few feats and abilities stolen from another class. And that's precisely the problem with the design of martial classes -- they're mostly just a ball of stats with a few bonus feats.
This I agree with though.