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Amiel
2010-07-19, 03:32 AM
EPIC FIGHTER
Epic fighters exult in battles undiminished and glorify in conflicts innumerable. Where there is honour to be won and in pursuit of righteous ends, they lend their swordarms to valourous war. Where exists the desire to end the world, epic fighters are the annihilating blades, the purging avatars of destruction. There is no threat they cannot best, and, ever victorious, they stand invincible in conviction and strength.

Alignment: Any.

Hit Die: d10.

Class Skills
The epic fighter's class skills are Acrobatics (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (engineering) (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Epic Fighter
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+21/+16/+11/+6|
+12|
+7|
+7|Bonus epic feat, armour grandmastery, weapon supremacy, unwavering bravery

2nd|
+22/+17/+12/+7|
+13|
+7|
+7|Bonus epic feat, smite 1/day

3rd|
+23/+18/+13/+8|
+13|
+8|
+8|Supernal strike

4th|
+24/+19/+14/+9|
+14|
+8|
+8|Bonus epic feat, weapon supremacy

5th|
+25/+20/+15/+10|
+14|
+8|
+8|Armour grandmastery, smite 2/day

6th|
+26/+21/+16/+11|
+15|
+9|
+9|Bonus epic feat, ruinous blade

7th|
+27/+22/+17/+12|
+15|
+9|
+9|Supernal strike

8th|
+28/+23/+18/+13|
+16|
+9|
+9|Bonus epic feat, smite 3/day, weapon supremacy

9th|
+29/+24/+19/+14|
+16|
+10|
+10|Armour grandmastery

10th|
+30/+25/+20/+15|
+17|
+10|
+10|Bonus epic feat, ruinous blade

11th|
+31/+26/+21/+16|
+17|
+10|
+10|Smite 4/day, supernal strike

12th|
+32/+27/+22/+17|
+18|
+11|
+11|Bonus epic feat, weapon supremacy

13th|
+33/+28/+23/+18|
+18|
+11|
+11|Armour Grandmastery

14th|
+34/+29/+24/+19|
+19|
+11|
+11|Bonus epic feat, ruinous blade, smite 5/day

15th|
+35/+30/+25/+20|
+19|
+12|
+12|Supernal strike

16th|
+36/+31/+26/+21|
+20|
+12|
+12|Bonus epic feat, weapon supremacy

17th|
+37/+32/+27/+22|
+20|
+12|
+12|Armour grandmastery, smite 6/day

18th|
+38/+33/+28/+23|
+21|
+13|
+13|Bonus epic feat, ruinous blade

19th|
+39/+34/+29/+24|
+21|
+13|
+13|Supernal strike

20th|
+40/+35/+30/+25|
+22|
+13|
+13|Bonus epic feat, smite 7/day, weightless armour[/table]

CLASS FEATURES
The following are class features of the epic fighter.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: An epic fighter is proficient with all weapons and with all armor (heavy, light, and medium) and shields (including tower shields).

Bonus Feats: At 1st level, and at every even level thereafter, an epic fighter gains a bonus epic feat in addition to those gained from normal advancement (meaning that the epic fighter gains a feat at every level). These bonus feats must be selected from those listed as combat feats, sometimes also called "fighter bonus epic feats."

Upon reaching 4th level, and every four levels thereafter (8th, 12th, and so on), an epic fighter can choose to learn a new bonus feat in place of a bonus feat he has already learned. In effect, the epic fighter loses the bonus feat in exchange for the new one. The old feat cannot be one that was used as a prerequisite for another feat, prestige class, or other ability. An epic fighter can only change one feat at any given level and must choose whether or not to swap the feat at the time he gains a new bonus feat for the level.

Epic Fighter Bonus Feat List
Armor Skin, Combat Archery, Damage Reduction, Devastating Critical, Dire Charge, Distant Shot, Epic Endurance, Epic Leadership, Epic Prowess, Energy Resistance, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus, Epic Weapon Specialization, Exceptional Deflection, Improved Combat Reflexes, Improved Manyshot, Improved Stunning Fist, Improved Whirlwind Attack, Infinite Deflection, Instant Reload, Legendary Commander, Legendary Rider, Legendary Wrestler, Overwhelming Critical, Penetrate Damage Reduction, Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting, Reflect Arrows, Spellcasting Harrier, Storm of Throws, Superior Initiative, Swarm of Arrows, Two-Weapon Rend, Uncanny Accuracy.

Armour Grandmastery (Ex): The epic fighter continues to be more maneuverable while wearing armor. Whenever he is wearing armor, he reduces the armor check penalty by a further -2 (to a minimum of 0) and increases the maximum Dexterity bonus allowed by his armor by 2.
Epic fighters begin play with a –4 reduction of the armor check penalty and +4 increase of the maximum Dexterity bonus. Every five levels thereafter (5th, 9th, 13th and 17th), these bonuses increase by +2 each time.

At 1st level, an epic fighter gains DR 8/— whenever he is wearing armour or using a shield. Every eight levels thereafter (8th and 16th), these bonuses increase by 3/— each time.

In addition, an epic fighter can also move at his normal speed while wearing heavy armor.

Weapon Supremacy (Ex): An epic fighter continues to master groups of weapons at a time, as noted below. Whenever he attacks with a weapon from this group, he gains a further +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls.
He begins play with a +4 bonus in his primary weapon group, a +3 bonus in his secondary weapon group, a +2 bonus in his tertiary weapon group and a +1 bonus in his quaternary weapon group.

Every four levels thereafter (4th, 8th, 12th and 16th), an epic fighter becomes further trained in another group of weapons. He gains a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls when using a weapon from this group. In addition, the bonuses granted by previous weapon groups increase by +2 each. Bonuses granted from overlapping groups do not stack. Take the highest bonus granted for a weapon if it resides in two or more groups.

An epic fighter also adds this bonus to any combat maneuver checks made with weapons from this group. This bonus also applies to the epic fighter's Combat Maneuver Defense when defending against disarm and sunder attempts made against weapons from this group.

Weapon groups are defined as follows (GMs may add other weapons to these groups, or add entirely new groups):

Axes: battleaxe, dwarven waraxe, greataxe, handaxe, heavy pick, light pick, orc double axe, and throwing axe.

Blades, Heavy: bastard sword, elven curve blade, falchion, greatsword, longsword, scimitar, scythe, and two-bladed sword.

Blades, Light: dagger, kama, kukri, rapier, sickle, starknife, and short sword.

Bows: composite longbow, composite shortbow, longbow, and shortbow.

Close: gauntlet, heavy shield, light shield, punching dagger, sap, spiked armor, spiked gauntlet, spiked shield, and unarmed strike.

Crossbows: hand crossbow, heavy crossbow, light crossbow, heavy repeating crossbow, and light repeating crossbow.

Double: dire flail, dwarven urgrosh, gnome hooked hammer, orc double axe, quarterstaff, and two-bladed sword.

Flails: dire flail, flail, heavy flail, morningstar, nunchaku, spiked chain, and whip.

Hammers: club, greatclub, heavy mace, light hammer, light mace, and warhammer.

Monk: kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, siangham, and unarmed strike.

Natural: unarmed strike and all natural weapons, such as bite, claw, gore, tail, and wing.

Pole Arms: glaive, guisarme, halberd, and ranseur.

Spears: javelin, lance, longspear, shortspear, spear, and trident.

Thrown: blowgun, bolas, club, dagger, dart, halfling sling staff, javelin, light hammer, net, shortspear, shuriken, sling, spear, starknife, throwing axe, and trident.

Unwavering Bravery (Ex): The epic fighter gains immunity to fear (magical or otherwise).

Smite (Ex): Once per day, as a swift action, the epic fighter can choose one target within sight to smite. The epic fighter adds his Strength bonus (if any) to his attack rolls and adds double his epic fighter levels to all damage rolls made against the target of his smite. Regardless of the target, smite attacks automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess.

In addition, while smite is in effect, the epic fighter gains a deflection bonus equal to his Strength modifier (if any) to his AC against attacks made by the target of the smite.

The smite effect remains until the target of the smite is dead or the next time the epic fighter rests and regains his uses of this ability. At 5th level, and at every three levels thereafter, the epic fighter may smite one additional time per day, as indicated on Table: Epic Fighter, to a maximum of seven times per day at 20th level.

Supernal Strike (Ex): At 3rd level, the epic fighter can make devastating strikes that peel away the defenses of enemies. As a standard action, the epic fighter can declare a target within sight to make a supernal strike against. The epic fighter can choose to suppress one of the following special qualities the target possesses: damage reduction, fast healing, immunities, miss chance, regeneration, resistances, spell resistance, and turn resistance. This suppression extends for a number of rounds equal to his Con modifier.

Every four levels thereafter (7th, 11th, 15th and 19th), an epic fighter can suppress an additional special quality for the above number of rounds, to a maximum of 5 suppressions at 19th level.

Ruinous Blade (Ex): The weapons of the epic fighter are imbued with properties that can strip away a creature's damage reduction. The epic fighter can choose to make an aligned and magic strike, or can choose to emulate a material or damage type to all his attacks. Only the one enhancement can be in effect at a time, though changing the ability is a move action. Such effects are continuous.

Every four levels thereafter (10th, 14th, and 18th), an epic fighter can augment his weapon with another ability, to a maximum of 4 enhancements continuous at a time.

Damage type attacks can be as bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, adamantine, cold iron, or silver (with no damage penalty).

Weightless armour (Ex): The armour worn by the epic fighter does not impose an armor check penalty, speed reduction, or maximum Dexterity bonus to Armor Class.

Amiel
2010-07-19, 03:35 AM
Why this approach?
Certainly ease of use was the foremost aim and determinant. Instead of burying players beneath a cascade of numerical variables, the above hopefully offers an intuitive, streamlined approach that also shores up the perceived deficiencies of epic rules. Epic fighters, be they friend or foe, should still present as challenges and should also have abilities that scale exponentially as they advance in power.

Level Equivalency
The above makes use of the mechanics of level equivalency; that is, a 1st level epic fighter is equivalent to a 21st level character if written out in 'normal terms,' similarly, a 20th level epic fighter/10th level epic cleric deity is equivalent to 60th level.
This is so to offer power compression in a way that is at once attractive and usable. GMs and players alike should not feel daunted at the prospect of epic rules, epic play or the like.

GMs and players can design characters from scratch using these rules, or they can 'condense' any previous levels to allow continuation and longevity of the character.
As players hit epic levels, epic feats can be brought into play, and may be bought on a two-for-one basis. Characters still need to fulfill the appropriate prerequisites.

Creating an Epic Fighter
An epic fighter begins play with HD/2 amount of epic feats; the epic fighter will accumulate additional bonus epic feats.
It is assumed that the epic fighter meets the needed prerequisites.

Epic Feat Investiture
Epic Weapon Focus [Epic]
Prerequisite: 1st epic fighter, chosen weapon
Benefit: Add a +2 bonus to all attack rolls you make using the selected weapon.
Investiture: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects stack. Each time you take the feat you can apply its benefits to the same weapon.

Generating Ability Scores for Epic Characters
TABLE: ABILITY SCORE POINTS
Campaign Type | Points
Low Epic Fantasy | 25
Medium Epic Fantasy| 30
High Epic Fantasy | 35
Greater Epic Fantasy| 40

TABLE: ABILITY SCORE COSTS
Score| Points
7 | –4
8 | –2
9| –1
10 | 0
11 | 1
12 | 2
13 | 3
14 | 5
15 | 7
16 | 10
17 | 13
18 | 17

Amiel
2010-07-19, 03:36 AM
<Reserved for sample epic fighter>

Stompy
2010-07-19, 01:00 PM
My main concern with this fighter is that it has a WORSE reflex and will than the given homogeneous saves fighter in the epic book. At this point, most any failed reflex save or will save is going to make him useless in combat.

Temotei
2010-07-19, 05:50 PM
In epic play, characters use the epic base attack bonus and epic saving throw progressions. A 40th level fighter would have +30/+25/+20/+15 BAB, +22 base Fort, +16 base Reflex, and +16 base Will.