RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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So, the Melee Tactics Handbook has a new archetype for the Fighter called the Drill Sergeant. This archetype drops bravery for the Cavalier's Tactician ability, and gives up multiple weapon group training options to get Greater Tactician, Master Tactician, and the ability to also grant your weapon training bonus to you allies.
The crazy-awesome thing about this is that you're also gaining three bonus Teamwork feats from these abilities, which you can grant to your allies within 30 feet several times per day. Here's how your progression ends up going:
Level Class Features
1 Bonus Combat Feat
2 Bonus Combat Feat, Tactician 1/day, Bonus Teamwork Feat
3 Armor training 1
4 Bonus Combat Feat
5 Weapon Training 1 (only one weapon group, but it still scales), Tactician 2/day
6 Bonus Combat Feat
7 Armor training 2
8 Bonus Combat Feat
9 Greater Tactician, Bonus Teamwork Feat
10 Bonus Combat Feat, Tactician 3/day
11 Armor training 3
12 Bonus Combat Feat
13 Weapon Trainer (all allies within 30 feet who can see and hear the drill sergeant gain 1/2 his weapon training bonus for his chosen weapon group)
14 Bonus Combat Feat
15 Armor training 4, Tactician 4/day
16 Bonus Combat Feat
17 Master Tactician, Bonus Teamwork Feat
18 Bonus Combat Feat
19 Armor Mastery
20 Weapon Mastery, Tactician 5/day
Now, if you are willing to spend a few of your regular feats on Practiced Tactician (to gain the use of Tactician a few extra times per day) you can make an absolutely amazing buffer-fighter with this archetype. Given that most people ignore bravery, and most Fighters end up focusing on a single weapon anyway because of enchantment costs, this archetype essentially gives up only useless things for only useful things, making it super strong, and also making it the Fighter that a lot of people have been clamoring for for a long time, in my opinion.
One last thing... you could make this guy focus on guns and take the Trench Fighter archetype (which is the only Paizo-made archetype that is legal to combine with this one) and then you could lay in a trench shouting orders to your allies and shoot all of the things.
That's all, I just wanted to point out that this is my new favorite archetype ever made and I will be making one of these guys very soon. :-D
Doesn't sound too bad.
But the only proper drill sergeant I can imagine is a bard using his inspire courage to yell at his men.
And without change in skills/level and number of good saves he's not the fighter we've (or at least I've) been waiting for.
Unfortunately not many Teamwork feats work well with guns, but screw it: Trench Fighter Drill Sergeant seems awesome.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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Unfortunately not many Teamwork feats work well with guns, but screw it: Trench Fighter Drill Sergeant seems awesome.
Agreed, but even still, you could take Teamwork feats that are useful to everyone else but you and just grant them to your allies. There are a few, though:
Coordinated Shot
Covering Fire
Enfilading Fire
Friendly Fire Maneuvers
Target of Opportunity
Volley Fire
I'm sure between all of these options, you could make an impressive group of Rogues/Slayers and archer Rangers that would all benefit from several of these at once.
Bard//Drill Sergeant sounds AWESOME.
Dervish of Dawn as well it seems.
That does sound tasty...
Hm... I like. I was looking at battle herald and just realized the part I didn't like about:
It requires challenge instead of tactician which in my opinion would have been a much tighter and better match for the prestige class.
I think I might do a rebuild or at minimum homebrew edition of that one.
Now that you link them, there's more than I thought! I haven't looked at the Ranged Tactics Toolbox indepth yet, so I missed a good handful of them.
Volley Fire + Target of Opportunity reminds me of 'Bring it Down' or something from WH 40k Imperial Guard. Or, you know, real life WWI.
Tactician: The best way to spend an entire turn giving your teammates a feat that half of them won't use anyway.
If it were a move action, it'd be my favorite class feature. But the fact that it blows your standard (read: the only important part of a turn) means it would kill me to have to build around it.
Hm... I like. I was looking at battle herald and just realized the part I didn't like about:
It requires challenge instead of tactician which in my opinion would have been a much tighter and better match for the prestige class.
I think I might do a rebuild or at minimum homebrew edition of that one.
I think that is because Cavalier was the only class besides Samurai that had Challenge and they where the first with Tactician so they just kind of presumed if you had Challenge meh you probably had Tactician too.
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Tactician: The best way to spend an entire turn giving your teammates a feat that half of them won't use anyway.
If it were a move action, it'd be my favorite class feature. But the fact that it blows your standard (read: the only important part of a turn) means it would kill me to have to build around it.
At level 9 it becomes a swift action.
I think that is because Cavalier was the only class besides Samurai that had Challenge and they where the first with Tactician so they just kind of presumed if you had Challenge meh you probably had Tactician too.Hm... I like. I was looking at battle herald and just realized the part I didn't like about:
It requires challenge instead of tactician which in my opinion would have been a much tighter and better match for the prestige class.
I think I might do a rebuild or at minimum homebrew edition of that one.
Possibly, I'm just saying now I realize the part that always bugged me, and what I intend to do to fix it. :D
Tactician: The best way to spend an entire turn giving your teammates a feat that half of them won't use anyway.
If it were a move action, it'd be my favorite class feature. But the fact that it blows your standard (read: the only important part of a turn) means it would kill me to have to build around it.
What really makes me dislike Tactician is that you are only able to grant the bonus teamwork you received with the class feature until all the way at 17th level. It's even more painful if retraining rules aren't available... yay, not being able to qualify for anything good for your first Tactician feat!
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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What really makes me dislike Tactician is that you are only able to grant the bonus teamwork you received with the class feature until all the way at 17th level. It's even more painful if retraining rules aren't available... yay, not being able to qualify for anything good for your first Tactician feat!Tactician: The best way to spend an entire turn giving your teammates a feat that half of them won't use anyway.
If it were a move action, it'd be my favorite class feature. But the fact that it blows your standard (read: the only important part of a turn) means it would kill me to have to build around it.
Hmm, I mean that's a fair point, but I still think that some of the teamwork feats are significant enough boons to you and your allies that it's worth the Standard action on your first round (or, ideally, during the Surprise round). And the Tactician ability is still better hands-down than Bravery.
Hmm, I mean that's a fair point, but I still think that some of the teamwork feats are significant enough boons to you and your allies that it's worth the Standard action on your first round (or, ideally, during the Surprise round). And the Tactician ability is still better hands-down than Bravery.
Yeah you do make a good point. Even if Tactician is of dubious value (barring retraining), you really aren't losing of note to get it as you keep a form of weapon training. Weapon Trainer has potential to be really awesome depending on party composition too. Overall the archetype is a straight upgrade over core fighter, much like Lore Warden; my initial distaste for Tactican blinded me to that fact. It's a shame you can't stack those two now... Dervish of Dawn stacks with it though. Gotta love getting a pseudo-pounce.
Spirit of the Corps could be useful too -- party dependent of course, but a barbarian's rage bonuses are morale bonus for example.
iirc correctly there are also some teamwork feats that allow sharing rage bonuses/ increasing bonuses if more than one person is raging which could be helpful too in some parties.
Tribe Mentality is team rerolls chose the better which is also nice.
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My favorite teamwork feats:
Amplified Rage (double your rage bonuses to strength and con)--sure it only works if at least two people in the party have rage, but when they do, it's devastating)
Outflank (+4 on flanking, when you get a critical hit, it provokes an AoO from your allies)--pair this with someone with a keen weapon, and targets go down very quickly
Shake it Off (up to +4 untyped bonus on all saving throws)
Escape Route has already been mentioned. Paired Opportunists is not bad, but I find Outflank more generally useful (since it does depend on the target taking an action that provokes).
If your entire group builds around it, it could be really good. It could also be completely useless if there are no weapon overlaps and no good use of the teamwork feats. An archery fighter in a group of bow users... sure, that might be awesome, at least for the opening round or two. A polearm fighter in a group with a bow/greatsword ranger, greatsword melee cleric/warpriest/oracle and a wizard/sorcerer/witch... not so much. So no, it's not the fighter everyone has been waiting for, but it is definitely a potential upgrade in the right group.
Dvati with this would be pretty sick. A Dvati Bard//Drill Sergeant would be even better as self-buffing.
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If you want unlimited uses of giving your allies Teamwork Feats, and you do not mind being a Paladin, you can grab 3 Levels of Holy Tactician to get this:
At 3rd level, a tactician can direct her allies in battle, granting each ally within 30 feet one teamwork feat she possesses as a bonus feat as a standard action. All allies must receive the same feat, but do not need to meet the prerequisites of this bonus feat. This ability does not function if the paladin is flat-footed or unconscious. Allies must be able to see and hear the holy tactician in order to gain this benefit. Changing the bonus feat granted is a swift action. This ability replaces aura of courage.