Frontal Assault [4e class, WIP]

[Mando Knight]

As anyone who's tried their hands at making a base class in 4E, this is a severely difficult process, especially when compared to 3.5. Please help with ideas and criticism! (Currently have class basics and two at-wills up...)

Dragoon
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fa/FFIVkain.jpg
Kain Highwind, a Landsknecht Dragoon

CLASS TRAITS
Role: Striker, with a bit of Defender. You charge recklessly into the battle wearing heavy armor, battering aside foes.
Power Source: Martial. Your years of training grant you mastery with many weapons and supremacy in shocktrooper tactics.
Key Abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom

Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, leather, hide, chainmail, scale; light shield, heavy shield
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, military melee, simple ranged
Bonus to Defense: +1 Reflex, +1 Fortitude

Hit Points at 1st Level: 12 + Constitution score
Hit Points per Level Gained: 5
Healing Surges per Day: 7 + Constitution modifier

Trained Skills: Athletics. From the class skills list below, choose three more trained skills at 1st level.
Class Skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Athletics (Str), Endurance (Con), History (Int), Insight (Wis), Intimidate (Cha)

Class Features: Charger, Dragoon Tactics

Dragoons are shocktroopers, classic heavily armed and armored warriors who charge into battle to tear apart the enemy lines before the main force mops them up. You move swiftly through the battlefield, whether mounted or on foot, and pick your battles against the mightiest foes. Unlike the Fighter, you do not want to have an army "stick" to you, but rather charge from target to target. In adventuring parties, your abilities often land you in the role of the Lancer (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheLancer).

Dragoon Class Features:

Charger
Once per turn when you make a successful charge attack, you deal extra damage to the target as according to the below table.
{table=head]Level|Charger damage
1st-10th|+2d6
11th-20th|+3d6
21st-30th|+5d6[/table]

Dragoon Tactics
Dragoons are either classical mounted chargers, like Oscar from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, or footsoldiers who charge on foot while running or jumping, like Kain Highwind from Final Fantasy IV.
Cavalier Dragoon: You ride on the back of a faithful beast, diving from the sky on a wyvern or charging across the field on a warhorse. You have a special mount, which improves as you increase you level. (Will be worked out later, will be similar to the Beast Companion feature from Martial Power.) Some Paragon Paths will allow you to upgrade your mount to beasts such as wyverns and pegasi. You also gain the Mounted Combat feat and the Raise Beast Companion ritual (see Martial Power). For purposes of rituals, powers, feats, magic items, etc., your special mount counts as a beast companion. Additionally, your mount gains the effects of feats and powers that provide a bonus your speed (such as the Fast Runner feat).
Landsknecht Dragoon: You charge on foot rather than on a beast's back. While unmounted, you ignore the speed penalty from wearing heavy armor. You also ignore movement penalties from moving while charging over difficult terrain.

Dragoon Powers
Your powers are exploits, brilliant feats derived from your years of training in fighting arts.

Level 1 At-Will Exploits
Agile Charge, Dragoon Attack 1
You speed towards your opponent, stabbing him and then ducking out of the way afterward
At-Will * Martial, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee weapon
Requirement: You must charge and use this power in place of a melee basic attack in order to use this power.
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs AC
Hit: 1[W] + Strength modifier damage. Increase to 2[W] + Strength modifier damage at 21st level.
Effect: You may shift one square.

Power Charge, Dragoon Attack 1
The speed of your charge astounds the foe and strengthens your blow
At-Will * Martial, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee weapon
Requirement: You must charge and use this power in place of a melee basic attack in order to use this power.
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs AC
Hit: 1[W] + Strength modifier + Dexterity modifier damage. Increase to 2[W] + Strength modifier damage at 21st level.

Dragoon Class Feats
Heroic Tier
Lethal Charge: Prerequisite: Charger class ability
Benefit: Increase your Charger bonus damage dice to d8s.

[Shadow_Elf]

More moderately Fire-Emblem-inspired wonderfulness! Yay!

I know what it feels like to try to make a 4e class (see the Ninja below, which seems to be constantly falling down the forum pages as I juggled HoZ and my WIP).
It looks fantastic and fun to play so far. I would suggest making some powers with the "Mount" keyword, to specify ones you must use while mounted.
One suggestion though - it seems slightly on the underpowered side. I would suggest the following changes:

14 + Con score HP at first level
+6 hp/level
8 + Con mod healing surges

If these guys are going to be provoking AoOs, throwing themselves valiantly at enemies and subbing in for the defender on his days off, I think he definitely needs a boost in the HP department, particularly since Constitution is not one of his primaries.

[Tengu_temp]

Will they have any bonuses to using spears? It's the iconic weapon of dragoons, after all.

[Mando Knight]

One suggestion though - it seems slightly on the underpowered side. I would suggest the following changes:

14 + Con score HP at first level
+6 hp/level
8 + Con mod healing surges

If these guys are going to be provoking AoOs, throwing themselves valiantly at enemies and subbing in for the defender on his days off, I think he definitely needs a boost in the HP department, particularly since Constitution is not one of his primaries.

Their HP is based off of the Warlord and Cleric, who are also often frontliners (well, Warlords and Str Clerics, anyway).

I'm definitely including stuff for Spears and Sword users, though currently their preference for such weapons are currently implied through their preferred stats (Dexterity for spear and sword feats, Wisdom for polearm feats)...

Another idea: Add the ability to jump in the middle of a charge for the land-dragoons? Kain's Jump will definitely be available in a Paragon Path...

[Arbitrarity]

Meh. It's complicated to make a class, but right now, this class is mediocre in execution.

Ok. Firstly: Charger is a relatively weak ability. It's not likely to trigger, since enemies will simply engage you, and then you'll provoke OA's. If Agile Charge let you shift Before or After the charge, then it might work. Of course, that might make it a required power.

Charge powers might be better if they were options to be used in place of the MBA on a charge, rather than being required to charge.
Landsknecht's immunity to difficult terrain is too effective. Perhaps only allow that ability when charging? Giving them an epic feat and a racial feature for a class feature seems too good.
Cavalier isn't very specific yet.

You obviously need more class features. I'd offer a Dex and Wis path, with str as primary attack stat. Dex focuses on Damage and control, while Wis focuses on defense and movement to set up charges and so forth (Esp. bonus to AC against OA's) Really, you could cut and paste the rogue abilities there, but I might try make the Dex focused path slightly different.

Simple At Wills: Assume str vs AC, weapon, can be applied on charge (or must be applied on charge), 1[w]+str
Push 1 square.
Do not provoke OA's for charging.
Ignore obstacles/enemies blocking path?

Encounters (assume as above, 2[w]+str, unless otherwise noted)
After hitting, shift to any square adjacent to the target, then shift 2 squares. (if wis path, shift wisdom modifier squares)

Knock prone, if dex path, push target dex modifier squares.

1[w]+str, and after the charge, shift 2 squares, and charge another target.

I can try make some more of these later. They're pretty simple, when you make a basic template, then try to balance from there.

[Mando Knight]

Ok. Firstly: Charger is a relatively weak ability. It's not likely to trigger, since enemies will simply engage you, and then you'll provoke OA's. If Agile Charge let you shift Before or After the charge, then it might work. Of course, that might make it a required power.
I know that. There'll be high-dice attacks that won't let you charge (similar to a Sorcerer having a 6-dice attack at level 1), and plenty of attacks with shifting and pushing abilities. Pushing will mostly be Wisdom based, I think.

Landsknecht's immunity to difficult terrain is too effective. Perhaps only allow that ability when charging? Giving them an epic feat and a racial feature for a class feature seems too good.Oops. Going to change that after I post this. Meant to make the effect only count during a charge.

Cavalier isn't very specific yet.
It won't be yet. Like the Beastmaster Ranger, it'll depend mostly on your choice of weapon and mount. On that note, I'm thinking of adding a "Lesser" Pegasus with Clumsy Fly 4 and a more normal land speed...

You obviously need more class features. I'd offer a Dex and Wis path, with str as primary attack stat. Dex focuses on Damage and control, while Wis focuses on defense and movement to set up charges and so forth (Esp. bonus to AC against OA's) Really, you could cut and paste the rogue abilities there, but I might try make the Dex focused path slightly different.

Simple At Wills: Assume str vs AC, weapon, can be applied on charge (or must be applied on charge), 1[w]+str
Push 1 square.
Do not provoke OA's for charging.
Ignore obstacles/enemies blocking path?

Encounters (assume as above, 2[w]+str, unless otherwise noted)
After hitting, shift to any square adjacent to the target, then shift 2 squares. (if wis path, shift wisdom modifier squares)

Knock prone, if dex path, push target dex modifier squares.

1[w]+str, and after the charge, shift 2 squares, and charge another target.

I can try make some more of these later. They're pretty simple, when you make a basic template, then try to balance from there.
Some of these were things that I wanted to put in as well. Mostly I posted what I had so that I could get the idea down on something more durable than my short-term memory, with the intent on it being there for me to work on and get help with.

At-will idea: Str vs Fort, no charge clause, Str mod damage and push enemy 1 and/or shift 1, allowing you to put distance between yourself and the enemy with a move action so you can move+charge next turn.

Mostly, this class will love motion-control allies so they can get charger damage every turn. Would the class's charge requirement be strict enough to use the Sneak Attack progression instead of the Hunter's Quarry/Warlock's Curse progression?

[Arbitrarity]

Some of these were things that I wanted to put in as well. Mostly I posted what I had so that I could get the idea down on something more durable than my short-term memory, with the intent on it being there for me to work on and get help with.

At-will idea: Str vs Fort, no charge clause, Str mod damage and push enemy 1 and/or shift 1, allowing you to put distance between yourself and the enemy with a move action so you can move+charge next turn.

Mostly, this class will love motion-control allies so they can get charger damage every turn. Would the class's charge requirement be strict enough to use the Sneak Attack progression instead of the Hunter's Quarry/Warlock's Curse progression?
Nice to see my 5 minuteish post wasn't too crazy, quite often here I'll just jump on something, provide a ton of feedback, none of which makes sense.

That at-will might even be a bit weak. It's essentially a bullrush with 4 damage tacked on. Give it the 1[w], it can afford it. It's then about on par with Tide of Iron. This is because most Soldiers and Brutes, who have the worrying OA's, have pretty high Fort compared to other defenses, so it's a +1 or 2 at most.

I might give the charge dice d8's, but that's about it. It's not guaranteed, like Quarry or Curse, but it is less weapon-limited (bigger dice) than SA, and a bit more likely to trigger. Also, d8's are cool.

Class specific feats would also be neat. Bonus to hit on charges, maybe weapon specific (spears!), obvious charger dice increase, etc.

Try to make the secondary stats very useful, so there isn't too much "ubercharger dump" effect, with heavy focus on str.
Oh, are you planning on any persistent daily effects, like Barbarian Rages, Warden Aspects, and so forth, or are you using single hits/status effects?

[AgentPaper]

Is it just me, or is the Cavalier Dragoon never going to be used for the same reason the Paladin mount class feature never really mattered? :smallwink:

That said, good luck with the class in general. If it goes well, I'd love to have this class in my campaign as an option, both the on-foot and mounted versions. One for my greek warrior society and one for my feudal knights. And both for my players, of course.

[Alteran]

I love the idea of a "shock trooper" class, and I hope this goes well for you. I know creating a full class in 4e can be very difficult with the number of powers it requires.

This class obviously needs to charge to be most effective, and this could be a problem. It's easy to charge early on in an encounter, but later on it's very easy to get boxed in. This class will probably be provoking a lot of attacks of opportunity. I would consider giving them a defensive mobility-type feature, perhaps along the lines of a bonus to AC while charging. Increased mobility through powers will be very important as well, and having powers that work when you are not charging will be necessary for times when you really are blocked in.

I would consider increasing the damage from Charger, perhaps to sneak attack progression, or just increasing the dice from d6s to d8s, or maybe even d10s. This is much harder to take advantage of than marking striker powers, perhaps even harder than sneak attack. I'd also consider a more interesting name, something like "deadly charger", "powerful charger", or "lethal charger". You get the idea.

I'm also a little concerned about how well mounts could work, although I've never actually used one in a game. They will be large or bigger, so they may run into trouble with obstructions. It's possible that I'm overestimating the problems they may bring.

I just realized that you can charge with reach. The charge rules stipulate that you must enter the square nearest to the enemy that you can attack from, so it's possible to charge without moving adjacent to an enemy. Of course they could still move adjacent to you, but reach weapons could still be invaluable to a Dragoon.

Good work so far, I'll be keeping an eye on this.

[Mando Knight]

'Nother at-will idea, basically combining Tide of Iron and Riposte Strike:
Thrusting Riposte, Dragoon Attack 1
You assume a defensive stance, repelling your foes as they approach
At-will * Martial, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Strength modifier damage, and you push the target 1 square.
Effect: Until the start of your next turn, if an enemy enters your reach, you can repeat the attack as an immediate interrupt.

This ability allows the character to set up a full charge next turn. Encounter and Daily powers on this vein will probably grant Wis modifier push, and will definitely synergize with Spear Push.

[Arbitrarity]

Seems a bit too powerful. Riposte Strike is weaker because it's got a very selective trigger, and lacks stat synergy. This is better in every way, with an easy trigger, synergized attack, and push effect, to boot. Perhaps allow an immediate interrupt shift, instead, triggered off being attacked?

As an encounter power, it seems reasonable, but it's a bit too good for an at-will.

[airmalis]

As far as dailies go, I think I have something that would work

flying strike dragoon attack 1
You tense every muscle in your body, and leap tword your opponent, shoving your spear through his chest

daily*martial,weapon ranged 10
target: one creature
attack: str. vs. reflex
hit: 3[W]+strength modifier damage and you teleport to a square adjecent to the target
miss: user takes 3d10 fall damage, and ends his turn prone in a square adjacent to the target.(damage may be negated by a succesful acrobatics check.)
note: user must be wielding a spear, longspear, or javelin.

It's my first try at powers so comment constructivly :smallsmile:
(edit: thanks Arbitrarity for helping fix this thing.)

[Arbitrarity]

As far as dailies go, I think I have something that would work

flying strike dragoon attack 1
You tense every muscle in your body, and leap tword your opponent, shoving your spear through his chest

daily*martial,weapon ranged 10
target: one creature
attack: dex. vs. reflex
hit: 3[W]+strenght modifier damage and you land in a square adjecent to the target
miss: user takes 3 squares of fall damage
note: user must be wielding a spear, longspear, or javelin.

It's my first try at powers so comment constructivly :smallsmile:

A few issues.
First: The miss is worded poorly. Make it "falls 10 feet" or falls 20 feet.
Use strength as the attack stat, as it's the primary attack stat for the class. Yes, it doesn't make perfect sense. Shh.
"Land" is poorly defined. Use shift into, or teleport. Fly is also an option, I suppose.

However, I think it's a bit immersion breaking, and not too useful. It's about similar to a charge, with distance, and doesn't count as a charge, so there goes some damage, and it doesn't really add that much. You could probably do the same with a simple charge, without the fall damage on a miss, or the necessity of ending adjacent.
Also, why is there a penalty for missing? Really, most dailies are either reliable, or have some effect on a miss.

Perhaps make it a charge attack, where your movement can pass through enemies and over difficult terrain/obstructions, without provoking OA's, targeting reflex, 3[w]+str? This synergizes with the class's mobility, is a bit more powerful, has some utility, and synergizes with charger.