Quellian-dyrae
2011-06-12, 01:55 AM
Seems to be a good week for fighter fixes, so I figured I'd add one to the mix. If this class works the way I'm aiming for, it should be somewhere in the high Tier 3 area. I tried to keep straight statistical improvements to a minimum, figuring it's easy enough to optimize a fighter's damage output. Instead, the class is focused more on tactical options, battlefield control, and being very hard to neutralize. It may not be able to handle the broadest range of situations, but it should always be able to contribute a highly-effective level-appropriate amount of force in any combat situation.
HD: d10.
Skills: Balance, Climb, Craft, Intimidate, Handle Animal, Jump, Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering, History, Nobility and Royalty), Listen, Profession, Ride, Spot, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope.
Skill Points: 4.
Proficiencies: Martial Weapons, Heavy Armor, Shields.
The Fighter
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1st|
+1|
+2|
+0|
+0|Bonus Feat, Trained.
2nd|
+2|
+3|
+0|
+0|Floating Feats 1/day, Tenacious.
3rd|
+3|
+3|
+1|
+1|Bonus Feat, Resilience.
4th|
+4|
+4|
+1|
+1|Style Feats, Zone of Command.
5th|
+5|
+4|
+1|
+1|Bonus Feat, Defiance.
6th|
+6|
+5|
+2|
+2|Specialty Feats, Tactical Strike.
7th|
+7|
+5|
+2|
+2|Bonus Feat, Weapons Master.
8th|
+8|
+6|
+2|
+2|Variant Feats, Guardian.
9th|
+9|
+6|
+3|
+3|Bonus Feat, Strategic Opportunist.
10th|
+10|
+7|
+3|
+3|Floating Feats 2/day, Fluid Defense.
11th|
+11|
+7|
+3|
+3|Bonus Feat, Instinctive Response.
12th|
+12|
+8|
+4|
+4|Improved Floating Feats, Tactical Retort.
13th|
+13|
+8|
+4|
+4|Bonus Feat, Unfailing.
14th|
+14|
+9|
+4|
+4|Emulation Feats, Defiant Retort.
15th|
+15|
+9|
+5|
+5|Bonus Feat, Superhuman.
16th|
+16|
+10|
+5|
+5|Rapid Floating Feats, Hard to Kill.
17th|
+17|
+10|
+5|
+5|Bonus Feat, Triumphant Return.
18th|
+18|
+11|
+6|
+6|Floating Feats 3/day, Better Good Than Lucky.
19th|
+19|
+11|
+6|
+6|Bonus Feat, Perfect Form.
20th|
+20|
+12|
+6|
+6|Versatile Feats, Ultimate Effort.[/table]
Short Version of Abilities:
Bonus Feats: Gained every odd level.
Trained (Ex): Lets the fighter do some ability swapping to be either fully Str/Con or Dex/Con dependent, gain new class skills, use combat maneuvers with credit, or get a couple other miscellaneous capabilities.
Floating Feats: Swap 1 + 1/2 highest mental mod fighter feats around 1/day as full round. More uses with levels.
Tenacious (Ex): +BAB to DC to avoid AoO. +1 AoO/3 levels.
Resilience (Ex): Gain temp HP equal to Con Mod * Level, max equal to current damage taken, on completing encounter or on Total Defense. Can be converted to extra healing.
Style Feats: Automatically gain any prerequisite feats of fighter feats, but cannot swap with Floating Feats.
Zone of Command (Ex): Gain zone of 5'/2 BAB. Five foot step moves anywhere in zone.
Defiance (Ex): Make Fort save as immediate to ignore a spell (including buffs and obstructions) or hindrance. Get Resistance bonus of 1/3 level.
Specialty Feats (Ex): Gain new feat options for improving Zone of Command or Defiance (threaten Zone, intervene against attacks in zone, detect foes in zone, use defiance actively, exclude zone from area using defiance, and a few others).
Tactical Strike (Ex): Standard action attack causes special effect (two at 11th, three at 16th). -2 penalty per effect. Includes +50% damage, impose conditions, cause combat maneuver, reduce penalties, make flying foe fall.
Weapons Master (Ex): Gain level-appropriate enhancement and AC bonuses without magic items. Ignore some weapon limitations. Reduce effect of opponent size bonuses on maneuvers.
Variant Feats (Ex): Choose non-fighter feats as bonus feats, but can't swap.
Guardian (Ex): AoO when self OR any ally in zone is attacked.
Strategic Opportunist (Ex): AoO forces save or foe loses action, provokes from allies, or loses rest of turn.
Fluid Defense (Ex): Use AoO rather than immediate action for abilities that provide or improve defense.
Instinctive Response (Ex): AoO against foes that suddenly appear, are hidden, etc.
Improved Floating Feats (Ex): May now swap out specialty feats, variant feats, and feats gained from levels.
Tactical Retort (Ex): Tactical Strike effect on AoO, but one fewer effect than normal.
Unfailing (Ex): Ignore neutralizing conditions if above 50% hp.
Emulation Feats (Ex): Swap feats without spending daily use of Floating Feats as immediate on seeing feat used.
Defiant Retort (Ex): Defiance warps magic. Can absorb into weapon, redirect, negate, or gain buffs for fighter.
Superhuman (Ex): Get level-appropriate ability score enhancement bonuses without magic items.
Rapid Floating Feats (Ex): Swap floating feats as swift rather than full round.
Hard to Kill (Ex): Don't die until max HP below 0. Extended Diehard. Immune to massive damage.
Triumphant Return (Ex): Resurrections have no level loss, extended time, don't use up components.
Better Good Than Lucky (Ex): Treat attack or save as automatic 12 as immediate action.
Perfect Form (Ex): No longer auto fail for natural 1. Foes no longer auto-succeed. Extra bonuses with natural 20 or when foe rolls natural 1.
Versatile Feats (Ex): Swap any or all floating feats with one use.
Ultimate Effort (Ex): 1/encounter, push beyond mortal limits for major ability for one round. Off turn use. Includes extra full round of actions, save or die, invulnerability, max rolls, or full restoral.
Bonus Feats: Fighters are diverse combatants, able to master several fighting skills. At every odd level, a fighter receives a bonus feat drawn from the list of fighter bonus feats.
Trained (Ex): The fighter class covers a wide variety of archetypes. From diverse weapon masters to peerless hunters to tricky gladiators to educated mage-slayers, and dozens more beyond that. Starting at 1st level, the fighter gains a number of talents equal to 2 + its highest mental ability modifier. Each talent can be spent to gain one of the following:
Know Thy Enemy: The fighter can use Knowledge (History) in place of any other Knowledge skill to gain information about monsters.
Power Shot: The fighter can substitute its Strength modifier for its Dexterity modifier on attack rolls with ranged weapons that allow Strength to damage rolls.
Precise Strikes: The fighter can add its Dexterity to damage rolls with weapons that allow Dexterity to attack rolls (in place of Strength where applicable).
Proficiency: The fighter gains proficiency with tower shields, a single exotic weapon, or a single exotic suit of armor.
Prodigal: The fighter can ignore minimum ability score prerequisites for feats.
Resilient Defense: The fighter can use its Constitution modifier, rather than its Dexterity modifier, to determine AC. This applies when flat-footed, and is not subject to the maximum Dexterity bonus for armor, but the bonus cannot exceed the fighter's combined armor and shield bonuses to AC, and does not apply against touch attacks.
Skill Knowledge: The fighter gains an additional class skill.
Skilled Maneuvers: The fighter can substitute Dexterity for Strength when using or defending against any combat maneuver.
Tactic: The fighter gains one of the Improved {Combat Maneuver} feats, as a bonus feat without having to meet its prerequisites.
Floating Feats: Starting at second level, the fighter can swap out its fighter bonus feats. It may exchange an existing fighter bonus feat for any other fighter bonus feat that it meets the prerequisites for. It may do this once per day as a full-round action, exchanging a number of feats each time equal to or less than one + half its highest mental ability modifier (minimum one feat). If the feat it is exchanging is a prerequisite for other feats or prestige classes, the fighter loses access to the dependent feats or class features until it again possesses the prerequisite feat. The fighter gains an additional daily use of this ability every eight levels after second.
Tenacious (Ex): Fighters are dogged opponents once they engage a foe. Starting at second level, fighters increase the DC of any checks made to avoid their attacks of opportunity (such as Tumble checks, checks to cast defensively, and so on) by their BAB, and gain the ability to make one additional attack of opportunity per round per three class levels.
Resilience (Ex): Fighters are tough enough to take a pounding and press on, ignoring the impact of even serious wounds. Starting at third level, upon completing a combat encounter, the fighter receives a number of temporary hit points equal to its Constitution modifier times its character level. These temporary hit points cannot exceed the total damage that the fighter has currently sustained. If the fighter receives healing while it has these temporary hit points, each point of healing applied converts two of these temporary hit points into an additional point of healing (this effect is not recursive). These do not stack with other temporary hit points, and last for up to one hour.
Any time the fighter takes a total defense action, it refreshes these temporary hit points, although they still cannot exceed its total damage taken.
Style Feats: At 4th level, the fighter may designate any or all future fighter bonus feats as style feats. The fighter must fulfill most of the feat's normal prerequisites, but any prerequisite feats are not only waived, but the fighter automatically acquires them as additional bonus feats. Feats that list as prerequisites other feats that have prerequisites, but do not list the parent prerequisites, are assumed to do so for editing purposes, and thus this ability provides such feats as well. If the fighter already has any of the prerequisite feats, it may immediately exchange them for other bonus feats.
At any later level, if the style feat chosen is, itself, a prerequisite for another feat that the fighter did not originally qualify for, the fighter may upgrade its style feat to the more advanced feat.
Style feats, and the additional bonus feats they result in, cannot be exchanged for other feats using the Floating Feats feature. Likewise, a floating feat cannot be a style feat.
Zone of Command (Ex): As fighters advance, they can control larger areas of the battlefield, keeping track of foes within it and moving swiftly to block threats. This is represented by a growing zone of command. A fighter's zone of command is an area that extends out five feet per two points of BAB from the fighter. If the fighter is standing in terrain that reduces movement, its zone is equally reduced. Likewise, effects that directly lower the fighter's movement reduce the radius of its zone of command. Squares that the fighter does not have line of effect or line of sight to do not count as part of its zone, even if they are within its radius.
If two characters with zones of command threaten each other, the character with the smaller zone loses its zone of command, and the one with the larger zone has its radius reduced by that of the smaller zone. If both zones are equal in size, both are reduced to nothing. This effect does not stack for multiple threatening characters; only the highest reduction applies.
When the fighter takes a five-foot step, it may move into any unoccupied square in its zone.
Defiance (Ex): A fighter does not falter and does not surrender, even in the face of powerful magic and obscure supernatural abilities. At fifth level, as an immediate action, the fighter may roll a Fortitude save against the DC of any spell, spell-like ability, or supernatural ability it witnesses being used, or any Exceptional ability that affects it and allows a saving throw or imposes a condition. Effects without a DC use the default calculation methods (10 + SL or 1/2 HD + appropriate ability modifier) to determine a save DC. If the fighter succeeds, the fighter ignores any effects the ability would have on it, and also ignores any mechanical benefits it would grant against it or mechanical hindrances it would impose upon its actions. For example, the fighter could ignore the damage from a fireball, ignore the distraction of a mirror image spell, walk unharmed and at full normal speed through a cloud of acid fog, pass through a wall of force or prismatic sphere, shoot through a wind wall, ignore a summoned creature's attacks, and so on. It could also ignore the AC increase against its attacks from mage armor, and if attacked by a foe with Bull's Strength, that foe would not gain any improvement to attack rolls, damage rolls, Grapple checks, and opposed Strength checks against the fighter.
Additionally, the fighter gains a resistance bonus on all saving throws equal to one-third its class level.
Specialty Feats (Ex): A 6th level fighter gains additional options involving its Zone of Command and Defiance class features. It may immediately choose one such option, and can acquire others by spending fighter bonus feats. Specialty feats cannot be swapped in or out using the Floating Feats class feature.
Active Defiance: The fighter can use its Defiance ability against a magical effect that is already active as a move action. It may do so multiple times until it succeeds, but it may make no more than one attempt per round against a given effect.
Deft Maneuvers: When taking any action involving movement, the fighter ignores any difficult terrain within its zone. The fighter ignores only terrain within its zone as it was when the movement began, recalculating its zone's new area only after the movement has been completed.
A fighter with this capability and the Spring Attack feat may use spring attack to attack any foe within its zone and then move to any other square in its zone, regardless of its normal movement rate.
Defy Weakness: The fighter gains the ability to spend hit points to reduce the impact of debilitating effects as it suffers them. Each ten hit points spent can prevent a point of ability damage, each twenty points can prevent a negative level, and each thirty points can prevent a point of ability drain.
Extended Area: Any capabilities the fighter has that affect an area centered on itself, or that apply within a certain distance of itself, can use the fighter's zone rather than its normal radius. For example, an elf fighter can detect secret doors that pass within its zone, rather than within 10'. A fighter with blindsight could likewise extend its blindsight range to equal its zone of command, if normally less.
A fighter with this capability and the Whirlwind Attack feat may use Whirlwind Attack on every opponent within its zone of command, moving among them to strike each one once. This provokes no attacks of opportunity, and the fighter may end its attack in any square within its zone.
Extended Threat: The fighter may spend its immediate action to take a five-foot step (and thereby, to move anywhere within its zone). As a result of this capability, the fighter's threatened area is considered to be its zone of command for purposes of any capabilities that affect those within its threatened area. The fighter may spend this immediate action to move within reach of a foe who provokes an attack of opportunity within its zone but outside its reach and make the attack of opportunity immediately. This increased threatened area does not count for purposes of determining if two fighters reduce each others' zones of command.
A fighter who has this capability and the Combat Reflexes feat may use this capability to move into reach for an attack of opportunity without spending an immediate action.
Intervention: The fighter may spend its immediate action to move into the space of an ally within its zone, moving the ally to an adjacent space. If it does so in response to an attack made against the ally, the attack is made against the fighter instead.
A fighter who has this capability and the Mobility feat may instead move its ally to an unoccupied square in its zone.
Pinpoint Threat: The fighter can pinpoint any opponent who makes an attack or otherwise hostile action while within its zone of command by rolling a Spot check opposed by the opponent's Hide check (this opposed check is required even if the enemy is concealed through invisibility or some other special means). The enemy is pinpointed for as long as it remains within the fighter's zone and for one round thereafter. The fighter still has any normal miss chance against the opponent, it merely pinpoints its location.
A fighter who has this capability and the Blind Fight feat also pinpoints foes who target a character who is within its zone (including the fighter itself), even if the foe is outside of it. In this case, the opponent is pinpointed for one round.
Reaving Defiance: If the fighter successfully attacks an opponent under the effect of spells it has defied, that opponent must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 the fighter's BAB + whatever ability modifier applies to the fighter's attack rolls) or all spells upon it that the fighter has defied immediately end. The fighter may also use this ability by attacking the Effect of a spell it has defied, including a summoned creature.
Teamwork: The fighter helps direct allies within its zone. While within its zone, none of the fighter's allies are considered flanked, surprised, or flat-footed unless all of them are, and any opponent in the zone who is threatened by at least two of the fighter's allies (including the fighter itself) is considered flanked.
A fighter who has this capability and the Precise Shot feat does not count creatures within its zone as cover for its opponents.
Warding Defiance: If the fighter successfully defies an area spell, its zone of command is excluded from the area for one round.
Tactical Strike (Ex): While skilled fighters often put all their effort into wreaking a series of devastating attacks on a foe they engage, a single powerful or precise strike can often contribute just as well. Beginning at sixth level, the fighter can make a single attack as a standard action and cause one of the following additional effects if the attack hits. Fighters may use Tactical Strike when making a charge attack or a spring attack, so long as they make only one attack. At 11th and 16th level, the fighter may add an additional effect to its attack. The same effect may be chosen multiple times. If the fighter adds multiple effects that require a saving throw, the opponent should roll a single d20 and apply it to all saves required by the attack.
A tactical strike is made at the fighter's highest attack bonus, but suffers a -2 penalty on the attack roll per special effect added.
If all or part of the attack's damage is being multiplied by any effect other than a critical hit or the Deadly Blow option of the tactical strike itself, it cannot count as a tactical strike; the fighter must forego either the multiplier or the additional effects. For this purpose, a percentile increase counts as a multiplier.
The options for a tactical strike are as follows:
Brutal Maneuver: If the attack succeeds, the fighter may immediately initiate a Bull Rush, Feint, Grapple, Sunder, or Trip attempt against the target. This does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and the fighter suffers no penalties for failure (such as being tripped in return).
Clever Strike: The attack halves any penalties the fighter takes to the attack roll (including purposefully, as from Power Attack or Combat Expertise). This does likewise halve the penalty taken for the Tactical Strike itself.
Crippling Blow: The attack deals 1d6 points of Strength or Dexterity damage, 1d4 points of Int, Wis, or Cha damage, or 1d3 points of Constitution damage. A Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 BAB + whatever ability modifier applies to the attack roll) negates this damage.
Deadly Blow: Increase the total damage inflicted by 50%.
Felling Strike: If the attack succeeds against a flying opponent, that foe immediately falls to the ground.
Hampering Attack: The target must make a save (DC 10 + 1/2 BAB + whatever ability modifier applies to the attack roll) or suffer one of the following conditions (some conditions require applying this effect multiple times):
Sickened for 1 minute (Fort negates).
Fatigued for 1 minute (Fort negates).
Blinded for 1d6 rounds (Reflex negates).
Confused for 1d4 rounds (Will negates).
Slowed for 1d4 rounds (Reflex negates).
Staggered for 1d4 rounds (Fort negates).
Nauseated for 1d3 rounds (Fort Negates).
Immobilized for 1d3 rounds (Reflex negates).
Dazed for 1d2 rounds (Will negates).
Paralyzed for 1d2 rounds (2 uses, Reflex negates).
Stunned for 1 round (Will negates).
Unconscious for 1 round (2 uses, Fortitude negates).
Weapons Master (Ex): As fighters advance, they become able to overcome many of the natural limitations of their weapons, and can face even mighty foes with only mundane arms and armor. A fighter of at least 7th level may add its BAB to its AC, but this bonus does not stack with any magical bonus to AC. If the fighter does so, it may convert each two points of magical AC improvement to a point of DR/-. Additionally, the fighter gains a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls per three points of its BAB.
Additionally, the fighter may power attack with light weapons as if they were one-handed weapons. When wielding two weapons, the fighter may attack with both whenever it would otherwise make a single melee attack, including on attacks of opportunity, when charging or spring attacking, and even when making a Tactical Strike, martial strike maneuver, or similar ability (however, in these cases, any special effects of the attack only apply to the first). When wielding a reach weapon, the fighter threatens its normal area. The fighter may freely choose between lethal and nonlethal damage with any weapon without penalty. Finally, the fighter ignores any penalties it suffers to checks (such as disarm attempts) due to weapon size, and reduces any size bonuses its opponent has against it in an opposed check by its BAB (to a minimum equal to the fighter's own size bonus).
Variant Feats (Ex): An eighth level fighter is adept in a variety of skills. Its fighter bonus feats are no longer restricted to the fighter feat list, but non-fighter feats cannot be swapped in or out as floating feats.
Guardian (Ex): Fighters are constantly assessing the battlefield for threats - either to themselves, or to their allies. Starting at eighth level, the fighter may choose to guard either itself, or all allies within its zone of command. Any time an opponent the fighter threatens targets one or more of these characters with an undesired action, the fighter may make an attack of opportunity against that opponent. The fighter may change who it is guarding as a swift action.
Strategic Opportunist (Ex): Starting at ninth level, any time the fighter hits with an attack of opportunity, aside from one provoked by an attack on the fighter itself (either through the Guardian ability or a similar capability, such as the Robillar's Gambit feat), the fighter may choose to cause one of the following effects. The DCs are equal to 10 + 1/2 the fighter's BAB + whatever ability modifier was added to the attack roll.
Ruin Action: The opponent must make a Fortitude save or lose whatever action provoked the attack. In the case of movement, the opponent immediately halts and becomes unable to leave its current space until the end of its turn (even if it has other actions to spend moving). The fighter can choose if it halts before or after leaving the threatened square.
Create Opening: The opponent must make a Reflex save or also provoke an attack of opportunity from any of the fighter's allies that also threaten it. This does not allow the ally to make two attacks against the same trigger, so it is best used when the fighter's abilities allow an attack of opportunity that would not normally be allowed.
Disrupt Plans: The opponent must make a Will save or lose all further actions this round. However, it may complete the action that provoked the attack, and may still use immediate actions and make attacks of opportunity.
Fluid Defense (Ex): A tenth level fighter is adept at defending itself from numerous foes. Whenever the fighter takes an immediate action that provides or improves a defense (such as its Defiance ability), for the rest of the round it may reactivate that capability at the cost of an attack of opportunity for each additional activation. If the ability in question has limited uses, only the initial activation actually costs a use. A given ability cannot be used multiple times against the same attack.
Instinctive Response (Ex): Starting at eleventh level, the fighter can make attacks of opportunity against opponents who suddenly appear in its threatened area, as by teleportation, invisibility being dismissed, or so on. The fighter also gains the ability to make attacks of opportunity against foes with cover (but not total cover) or foes it cannot perceive. It may even make attacks of opportunity against characters who provoke attacks while operating under the influence of a Time Stop or similar effect (however, the Extended Threat ability does not apply against such opponents).
Improved Floating Feats (Ex): Starting at twelfth level, the fighter can swap specialty feats and variant feats (but not style feats or the bonus feats they provide) in or out as floating feats. It may also treat its non-fighter feats as fighter bonus feats (allowing it to spend them on variant feats, specialty feats, and style feats, as well as to swap them out as floating feats). This ability does not affect bonus feats gained from other classes.
Tactical Retort (Ex): A twelfth level or higher fighter may use its Tactical Strike ability on any attack of opportunity it makes, aside from those provoked by an attack upon the fighter itself. However, the fighter may apply one fewer effect when doing so (so one effect initially, or two at 16th level). The fighter may not use Tactical Retort and Strategic Opportunist on the same attack of opportunity. If the fighter uses the Hampering Attack option, the condition is not imposed until after the target completes its turn.
Unfailing (Ex): A thirteenth level fighter does not go down easily, even under the force of magic. The fighter suppresses any effects upon it that would render it unable to take standard actions, make physical attacks, or determine its own actions, for as long as it has at least 50% of its normal maximum hit points. This ability does not apply against effects that physically restrain the fighter, such as tying it up or pinning it.
Emulation Feats (Ex): A fourteenth level fighter has been exposed to so many unique fighting styles that it can pick up new talents with astonishing ease. Whenever the fighter witnesses a character use or statistically benefit from a feat that it could acquire as a floating feat, it may swap out an existing floating feat for that feat as an immediate action, without spending any daily uses of its Floating Feat ability. The fighter must do so immediately, or the opportunity is lost until the next time the fighter witnesses the feat being used.
Defiant Retort (Ex): Starting at fourteenth level, a fighter's drive to overcome magical forces is so great that it can warp the magic it faces. The fighter gains one of the following abilities, and can gain further ones as if they were specialty feats. The fighter may only use one such ability on any given act of defiance.
Absorb Magic: The fighter may use this ability on any magical effect that causes damage or negative effects. The power that otherwise would have harmed or hindered the fighter is instead absorbed into its weapon. The fighter's next successful attack with the weapon can unleash the effect, inflicting its effects onto the target of the attack. The attack roll itself replaces any attack rolls or Reflex saves required or allowed by the effect, but Fortitude and Will saves, and other special defenses, apply normally.
Deflect Magic: The fighter may use this ability on any ranged, targeted magical effect that targets it. The fighter redirects the targeting of the effect as if it were the caster. If the effect targets multiple characters, the fighter only redirects the single instance of targeting on itself.
Deny Magic: The fighter ends the spell in its entirety, rather than merely ignoring it. This ability can be used on any effect the fighter can defy.
Exceed Magic: The fighter can use this ability on any beneficial spell that it defies. In addition to ignoring the benefits the spell gives its opponent, the fighter gains the effects of the spell itself, though these effects last for a maximum of one round per fighter level.
Superhuman (Ex): A fifteenth level fighter is a truly superhuman individual, with far greater inherent attributes than most. For each two character levels, the fighter receives a +2 value of Enhancement bonuses that it can permanently distribute among its ability scores. No single ability score can have a higher bonus than +2 per five fighter levels.
Rapid Floating Feats (Ex): A sixteenth level fighter can swap out floating feats as a swift action, rather than a full-round action.
Hard to Kill (Ex): A sixteenth level fighter is a very difficult foe to kill. The fighter does not die until its negative hit point total exceeds its full normal hit points. Effects that would instantly kill the fighter only reduce it to -10 hit points, leaving it dying. Effects that would otherwise destroy the fighter's body upon reducing it to 0 hit points (such as Disintegrate) do not do so unless they actually lower its hit points enough to kill it. Abilities that would otherwise keep the fighter active while dying (such as the Diehard feat) are also somewhat extended, and apply as long as the fighter's negative hit points are lower than its Constitution score + its character level; past that, and the fighter becomes unconscious as normal. The fighter is no longer subject to death from massive damage.
Triumphant Return (Ex): A fighter is willing to give its life for a cause - but for a warrior acquainted with archmages, high priests, and other beings of great magic, that may not be so great a price, and the warrior's spirit is not one to stay down! A fighter of at least seventeenth level no longer suffers level or Constitution loss from being resurrected, and the time it can be dead before a given resurrection spell becomes ineffective is multiplied by ten. In addition, any material components required for the spell that resurrects the fighter are treated as focuses instead.
Better Good Than Lucky (Ex): An eighteenth level fighter is reliably able to overcome the vagaries of chance even in a chaotic battle. As an immediate action, after making an attack roll or saving throw, the fighter may choose to replace the result with a 12. The fighter may use its Fluid Defense ability in conjunction with this ability when used to improve saving throws.
Perfect Form (Ex): A nineteenth level fighter no longer automatically fails saves or misses attacks on a natural 1. Its opponents no longer automatically hit it or succeed a save against its abilities on a natural 20. If the fighter rolls a natural 20 on an attack roll, it may immediately make an additional attack against that opponent. If an opponent rolls a natural 1 on an attack against it, that opponent immediately loses all further actions that round. Finally, any critical hit the fighter scores applies one benefit of a Tactical Strike per point of the critical multiplier above 1.
Versatile Feats (Ex): A twentieth level fighter has reached the peak of martial versatility. Whenever it spends a daily use of Floating Feats, it may swap any or all of its floating feats.
Ultimate Effort (Ex): A twentieth level fighter can push itself beyond mortal limits. Once per encounter, the fighter can tap into its deepest reserves of strength to press on in the face of an overpowering threat. This ability may be used off-turn, but does not count as an immediate action. The fighter can select one of the following benefits when it uses this ability.
Celerity: The fighter may take an immediate full round's worth of actions.
Devastation: Until the start of the fighter's next turn, every opponent the fighter successfully attacks must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 BAB + attack roll ability modifier) or die. An opponent need only save once, regardless of the number of attacks the fighter makes.
Invulnerability: Until the start of the fighter's next turn, the fighter is immune to all negative effects.
Perfection: Until the start of the fighter's next turn, any dice it rolls are treated as if they rolled the maximum possible (although special effects that apply on certain high rolls - such as critical hits and automatic results - do not apply).
Renewal: The fighter immediately removes all negative spells, conditions, and effects upon it, and returns to full hit points (resultantly, it loses any remaining temporary hit points from its Resilience ability).
HD: d10.
Skills: Balance, Climb, Craft, Intimidate, Handle Animal, Jump, Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering, History, Nobility and Royalty), Listen, Profession, Ride, Spot, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope.
Skill Points: 4.
Proficiencies: Martial Weapons, Heavy Armor, Shields.
The Fighter
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1st|
+1|
+2|
+0|
+0|Bonus Feat, Trained.
2nd|
+2|
+3|
+0|
+0|Floating Feats 1/day, Tenacious.
3rd|
+3|
+3|
+1|
+1|Bonus Feat, Resilience.
4th|
+4|
+4|
+1|
+1|Style Feats, Zone of Command.
5th|
+5|
+4|
+1|
+1|Bonus Feat, Defiance.
6th|
+6|
+5|
+2|
+2|Specialty Feats, Tactical Strike.
7th|
+7|
+5|
+2|
+2|Bonus Feat, Weapons Master.
8th|
+8|
+6|
+2|
+2|Variant Feats, Guardian.
9th|
+9|
+6|
+3|
+3|Bonus Feat, Strategic Opportunist.
10th|
+10|
+7|
+3|
+3|Floating Feats 2/day, Fluid Defense.
11th|
+11|
+7|
+3|
+3|Bonus Feat, Instinctive Response.
12th|
+12|
+8|
+4|
+4|Improved Floating Feats, Tactical Retort.
13th|
+13|
+8|
+4|
+4|Bonus Feat, Unfailing.
14th|
+14|
+9|
+4|
+4|Emulation Feats, Defiant Retort.
15th|
+15|
+9|
+5|
+5|Bonus Feat, Superhuman.
16th|
+16|
+10|
+5|
+5|Rapid Floating Feats, Hard to Kill.
17th|
+17|
+10|
+5|
+5|Bonus Feat, Triumphant Return.
18th|
+18|
+11|
+6|
+6|Floating Feats 3/day, Better Good Than Lucky.
19th|
+19|
+11|
+6|
+6|Bonus Feat, Perfect Form.
20th|
+20|
+12|
+6|
+6|Versatile Feats, Ultimate Effort.[/table]
Short Version of Abilities:
Bonus Feats: Gained every odd level.
Trained (Ex): Lets the fighter do some ability swapping to be either fully Str/Con or Dex/Con dependent, gain new class skills, use combat maneuvers with credit, or get a couple other miscellaneous capabilities.
Floating Feats: Swap 1 + 1/2 highest mental mod fighter feats around 1/day as full round. More uses with levels.
Tenacious (Ex): +BAB to DC to avoid AoO. +1 AoO/3 levels.
Resilience (Ex): Gain temp HP equal to Con Mod * Level, max equal to current damage taken, on completing encounter or on Total Defense. Can be converted to extra healing.
Style Feats: Automatically gain any prerequisite feats of fighter feats, but cannot swap with Floating Feats.
Zone of Command (Ex): Gain zone of 5'/2 BAB. Five foot step moves anywhere in zone.
Defiance (Ex): Make Fort save as immediate to ignore a spell (including buffs and obstructions) or hindrance. Get Resistance bonus of 1/3 level.
Specialty Feats (Ex): Gain new feat options for improving Zone of Command or Defiance (threaten Zone, intervene against attacks in zone, detect foes in zone, use defiance actively, exclude zone from area using defiance, and a few others).
Tactical Strike (Ex): Standard action attack causes special effect (two at 11th, three at 16th). -2 penalty per effect. Includes +50% damage, impose conditions, cause combat maneuver, reduce penalties, make flying foe fall.
Weapons Master (Ex): Gain level-appropriate enhancement and AC bonuses without magic items. Ignore some weapon limitations. Reduce effect of opponent size bonuses on maneuvers.
Variant Feats (Ex): Choose non-fighter feats as bonus feats, but can't swap.
Guardian (Ex): AoO when self OR any ally in zone is attacked.
Strategic Opportunist (Ex): AoO forces save or foe loses action, provokes from allies, or loses rest of turn.
Fluid Defense (Ex): Use AoO rather than immediate action for abilities that provide or improve defense.
Instinctive Response (Ex): AoO against foes that suddenly appear, are hidden, etc.
Improved Floating Feats (Ex): May now swap out specialty feats, variant feats, and feats gained from levels.
Tactical Retort (Ex): Tactical Strike effect on AoO, but one fewer effect than normal.
Unfailing (Ex): Ignore neutralizing conditions if above 50% hp.
Emulation Feats (Ex): Swap feats without spending daily use of Floating Feats as immediate on seeing feat used.
Defiant Retort (Ex): Defiance warps magic. Can absorb into weapon, redirect, negate, or gain buffs for fighter.
Superhuman (Ex): Get level-appropriate ability score enhancement bonuses without magic items.
Rapid Floating Feats (Ex): Swap floating feats as swift rather than full round.
Hard to Kill (Ex): Don't die until max HP below 0. Extended Diehard. Immune to massive damage.
Triumphant Return (Ex): Resurrections have no level loss, extended time, don't use up components.
Better Good Than Lucky (Ex): Treat attack or save as automatic 12 as immediate action.
Perfect Form (Ex): No longer auto fail for natural 1. Foes no longer auto-succeed. Extra bonuses with natural 20 or when foe rolls natural 1.
Versatile Feats (Ex): Swap any or all floating feats with one use.
Ultimate Effort (Ex): 1/encounter, push beyond mortal limits for major ability for one round. Off turn use. Includes extra full round of actions, save or die, invulnerability, max rolls, or full restoral.
Bonus Feats: Fighters are diverse combatants, able to master several fighting skills. At every odd level, a fighter receives a bonus feat drawn from the list of fighter bonus feats.
Trained (Ex): The fighter class covers a wide variety of archetypes. From diverse weapon masters to peerless hunters to tricky gladiators to educated mage-slayers, and dozens more beyond that. Starting at 1st level, the fighter gains a number of talents equal to 2 + its highest mental ability modifier. Each talent can be spent to gain one of the following:
Know Thy Enemy: The fighter can use Knowledge (History) in place of any other Knowledge skill to gain information about monsters.
Power Shot: The fighter can substitute its Strength modifier for its Dexterity modifier on attack rolls with ranged weapons that allow Strength to damage rolls.
Precise Strikes: The fighter can add its Dexterity to damage rolls with weapons that allow Dexterity to attack rolls (in place of Strength where applicable).
Proficiency: The fighter gains proficiency with tower shields, a single exotic weapon, or a single exotic suit of armor.
Prodigal: The fighter can ignore minimum ability score prerequisites for feats.
Resilient Defense: The fighter can use its Constitution modifier, rather than its Dexterity modifier, to determine AC. This applies when flat-footed, and is not subject to the maximum Dexterity bonus for armor, but the bonus cannot exceed the fighter's combined armor and shield bonuses to AC, and does not apply against touch attacks.
Skill Knowledge: The fighter gains an additional class skill.
Skilled Maneuvers: The fighter can substitute Dexterity for Strength when using or defending against any combat maneuver.
Tactic: The fighter gains one of the Improved {Combat Maneuver} feats, as a bonus feat without having to meet its prerequisites.
Floating Feats: Starting at second level, the fighter can swap out its fighter bonus feats. It may exchange an existing fighter bonus feat for any other fighter bonus feat that it meets the prerequisites for. It may do this once per day as a full-round action, exchanging a number of feats each time equal to or less than one + half its highest mental ability modifier (minimum one feat). If the feat it is exchanging is a prerequisite for other feats or prestige classes, the fighter loses access to the dependent feats or class features until it again possesses the prerequisite feat. The fighter gains an additional daily use of this ability every eight levels after second.
Tenacious (Ex): Fighters are dogged opponents once they engage a foe. Starting at second level, fighters increase the DC of any checks made to avoid their attacks of opportunity (such as Tumble checks, checks to cast defensively, and so on) by their BAB, and gain the ability to make one additional attack of opportunity per round per three class levels.
Resilience (Ex): Fighters are tough enough to take a pounding and press on, ignoring the impact of even serious wounds. Starting at third level, upon completing a combat encounter, the fighter receives a number of temporary hit points equal to its Constitution modifier times its character level. These temporary hit points cannot exceed the total damage that the fighter has currently sustained. If the fighter receives healing while it has these temporary hit points, each point of healing applied converts two of these temporary hit points into an additional point of healing (this effect is not recursive). These do not stack with other temporary hit points, and last for up to one hour.
Any time the fighter takes a total defense action, it refreshes these temporary hit points, although they still cannot exceed its total damage taken.
Style Feats: At 4th level, the fighter may designate any or all future fighter bonus feats as style feats. The fighter must fulfill most of the feat's normal prerequisites, but any prerequisite feats are not only waived, but the fighter automatically acquires them as additional bonus feats. Feats that list as prerequisites other feats that have prerequisites, but do not list the parent prerequisites, are assumed to do so for editing purposes, and thus this ability provides such feats as well. If the fighter already has any of the prerequisite feats, it may immediately exchange them for other bonus feats.
At any later level, if the style feat chosen is, itself, a prerequisite for another feat that the fighter did not originally qualify for, the fighter may upgrade its style feat to the more advanced feat.
Style feats, and the additional bonus feats they result in, cannot be exchanged for other feats using the Floating Feats feature. Likewise, a floating feat cannot be a style feat.
Zone of Command (Ex): As fighters advance, they can control larger areas of the battlefield, keeping track of foes within it and moving swiftly to block threats. This is represented by a growing zone of command. A fighter's zone of command is an area that extends out five feet per two points of BAB from the fighter. If the fighter is standing in terrain that reduces movement, its zone is equally reduced. Likewise, effects that directly lower the fighter's movement reduce the radius of its zone of command. Squares that the fighter does not have line of effect or line of sight to do not count as part of its zone, even if they are within its radius.
If two characters with zones of command threaten each other, the character with the smaller zone loses its zone of command, and the one with the larger zone has its radius reduced by that of the smaller zone. If both zones are equal in size, both are reduced to nothing. This effect does not stack for multiple threatening characters; only the highest reduction applies.
When the fighter takes a five-foot step, it may move into any unoccupied square in its zone.
Defiance (Ex): A fighter does not falter and does not surrender, even in the face of powerful magic and obscure supernatural abilities. At fifth level, as an immediate action, the fighter may roll a Fortitude save against the DC of any spell, spell-like ability, or supernatural ability it witnesses being used, or any Exceptional ability that affects it and allows a saving throw or imposes a condition. Effects without a DC use the default calculation methods (10 + SL or 1/2 HD + appropriate ability modifier) to determine a save DC. If the fighter succeeds, the fighter ignores any effects the ability would have on it, and also ignores any mechanical benefits it would grant against it or mechanical hindrances it would impose upon its actions. For example, the fighter could ignore the damage from a fireball, ignore the distraction of a mirror image spell, walk unharmed and at full normal speed through a cloud of acid fog, pass through a wall of force or prismatic sphere, shoot through a wind wall, ignore a summoned creature's attacks, and so on. It could also ignore the AC increase against its attacks from mage armor, and if attacked by a foe with Bull's Strength, that foe would not gain any improvement to attack rolls, damage rolls, Grapple checks, and opposed Strength checks against the fighter.
Additionally, the fighter gains a resistance bonus on all saving throws equal to one-third its class level.
Specialty Feats (Ex): A 6th level fighter gains additional options involving its Zone of Command and Defiance class features. It may immediately choose one such option, and can acquire others by spending fighter bonus feats. Specialty feats cannot be swapped in or out using the Floating Feats class feature.
Active Defiance: The fighter can use its Defiance ability against a magical effect that is already active as a move action. It may do so multiple times until it succeeds, but it may make no more than one attempt per round against a given effect.
Deft Maneuvers: When taking any action involving movement, the fighter ignores any difficult terrain within its zone. The fighter ignores only terrain within its zone as it was when the movement began, recalculating its zone's new area only after the movement has been completed.
A fighter with this capability and the Spring Attack feat may use spring attack to attack any foe within its zone and then move to any other square in its zone, regardless of its normal movement rate.
Defy Weakness: The fighter gains the ability to spend hit points to reduce the impact of debilitating effects as it suffers them. Each ten hit points spent can prevent a point of ability damage, each twenty points can prevent a negative level, and each thirty points can prevent a point of ability drain.
Extended Area: Any capabilities the fighter has that affect an area centered on itself, or that apply within a certain distance of itself, can use the fighter's zone rather than its normal radius. For example, an elf fighter can detect secret doors that pass within its zone, rather than within 10'. A fighter with blindsight could likewise extend its blindsight range to equal its zone of command, if normally less.
A fighter with this capability and the Whirlwind Attack feat may use Whirlwind Attack on every opponent within its zone of command, moving among them to strike each one once. This provokes no attacks of opportunity, and the fighter may end its attack in any square within its zone.
Extended Threat: The fighter may spend its immediate action to take a five-foot step (and thereby, to move anywhere within its zone). As a result of this capability, the fighter's threatened area is considered to be its zone of command for purposes of any capabilities that affect those within its threatened area. The fighter may spend this immediate action to move within reach of a foe who provokes an attack of opportunity within its zone but outside its reach and make the attack of opportunity immediately. This increased threatened area does not count for purposes of determining if two fighters reduce each others' zones of command.
A fighter who has this capability and the Combat Reflexes feat may use this capability to move into reach for an attack of opportunity without spending an immediate action.
Intervention: The fighter may spend its immediate action to move into the space of an ally within its zone, moving the ally to an adjacent space. If it does so in response to an attack made against the ally, the attack is made against the fighter instead.
A fighter who has this capability and the Mobility feat may instead move its ally to an unoccupied square in its zone.
Pinpoint Threat: The fighter can pinpoint any opponent who makes an attack or otherwise hostile action while within its zone of command by rolling a Spot check opposed by the opponent's Hide check (this opposed check is required even if the enemy is concealed through invisibility or some other special means). The enemy is pinpointed for as long as it remains within the fighter's zone and for one round thereafter. The fighter still has any normal miss chance against the opponent, it merely pinpoints its location.
A fighter who has this capability and the Blind Fight feat also pinpoints foes who target a character who is within its zone (including the fighter itself), even if the foe is outside of it. In this case, the opponent is pinpointed for one round.
Reaving Defiance: If the fighter successfully attacks an opponent under the effect of spells it has defied, that opponent must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 the fighter's BAB + whatever ability modifier applies to the fighter's attack rolls) or all spells upon it that the fighter has defied immediately end. The fighter may also use this ability by attacking the Effect of a spell it has defied, including a summoned creature.
Teamwork: The fighter helps direct allies within its zone. While within its zone, none of the fighter's allies are considered flanked, surprised, or flat-footed unless all of them are, and any opponent in the zone who is threatened by at least two of the fighter's allies (including the fighter itself) is considered flanked.
A fighter who has this capability and the Precise Shot feat does not count creatures within its zone as cover for its opponents.
Warding Defiance: If the fighter successfully defies an area spell, its zone of command is excluded from the area for one round.
Tactical Strike (Ex): While skilled fighters often put all their effort into wreaking a series of devastating attacks on a foe they engage, a single powerful or precise strike can often contribute just as well. Beginning at sixth level, the fighter can make a single attack as a standard action and cause one of the following additional effects if the attack hits. Fighters may use Tactical Strike when making a charge attack or a spring attack, so long as they make only one attack. At 11th and 16th level, the fighter may add an additional effect to its attack. The same effect may be chosen multiple times. If the fighter adds multiple effects that require a saving throw, the opponent should roll a single d20 and apply it to all saves required by the attack.
A tactical strike is made at the fighter's highest attack bonus, but suffers a -2 penalty on the attack roll per special effect added.
If all or part of the attack's damage is being multiplied by any effect other than a critical hit or the Deadly Blow option of the tactical strike itself, it cannot count as a tactical strike; the fighter must forego either the multiplier or the additional effects. For this purpose, a percentile increase counts as a multiplier.
The options for a tactical strike are as follows:
Brutal Maneuver: If the attack succeeds, the fighter may immediately initiate a Bull Rush, Feint, Grapple, Sunder, or Trip attempt against the target. This does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and the fighter suffers no penalties for failure (such as being tripped in return).
Clever Strike: The attack halves any penalties the fighter takes to the attack roll (including purposefully, as from Power Attack or Combat Expertise). This does likewise halve the penalty taken for the Tactical Strike itself.
Crippling Blow: The attack deals 1d6 points of Strength or Dexterity damage, 1d4 points of Int, Wis, or Cha damage, or 1d3 points of Constitution damage. A Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 BAB + whatever ability modifier applies to the attack roll) negates this damage.
Deadly Blow: Increase the total damage inflicted by 50%.
Felling Strike: If the attack succeeds against a flying opponent, that foe immediately falls to the ground.
Hampering Attack: The target must make a save (DC 10 + 1/2 BAB + whatever ability modifier applies to the attack roll) or suffer one of the following conditions (some conditions require applying this effect multiple times):
Sickened for 1 minute (Fort negates).
Fatigued for 1 minute (Fort negates).
Blinded for 1d6 rounds (Reflex negates).
Confused for 1d4 rounds (Will negates).
Slowed for 1d4 rounds (Reflex negates).
Staggered for 1d4 rounds (Fort negates).
Nauseated for 1d3 rounds (Fort Negates).
Immobilized for 1d3 rounds (Reflex negates).
Dazed for 1d2 rounds (Will negates).
Paralyzed for 1d2 rounds (2 uses, Reflex negates).
Stunned for 1 round (Will negates).
Unconscious for 1 round (2 uses, Fortitude negates).
Weapons Master (Ex): As fighters advance, they become able to overcome many of the natural limitations of their weapons, and can face even mighty foes with only mundane arms and armor. A fighter of at least 7th level may add its BAB to its AC, but this bonus does not stack with any magical bonus to AC. If the fighter does so, it may convert each two points of magical AC improvement to a point of DR/-. Additionally, the fighter gains a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls per three points of its BAB.
Additionally, the fighter may power attack with light weapons as if they were one-handed weapons. When wielding two weapons, the fighter may attack with both whenever it would otherwise make a single melee attack, including on attacks of opportunity, when charging or spring attacking, and even when making a Tactical Strike, martial strike maneuver, or similar ability (however, in these cases, any special effects of the attack only apply to the first). When wielding a reach weapon, the fighter threatens its normal area. The fighter may freely choose between lethal and nonlethal damage with any weapon without penalty. Finally, the fighter ignores any penalties it suffers to checks (such as disarm attempts) due to weapon size, and reduces any size bonuses its opponent has against it in an opposed check by its BAB (to a minimum equal to the fighter's own size bonus).
Variant Feats (Ex): An eighth level fighter is adept in a variety of skills. Its fighter bonus feats are no longer restricted to the fighter feat list, but non-fighter feats cannot be swapped in or out as floating feats.
Guardian (Ex): Fighters are constantly assessing the battlefield for threats - either to themselves, or to their allies. Starting at eighth level, the fighter may choose to guard either itself, or all allies within its zone of command. Any time an opponent the fighter threatens targets one or more of these characters with an undesired action, the fighter may make an attack of opportunity against that opponent. The fighter may change who it is guarding as a swift action.
Strategic Opportunist (Ex): Starting at ninth level, any time the fighter hits with an attack of opportunity, aside from one provoked by an attack on the fighter itself (either through the Guardian ability or a similar capability, such as the Robillar's Gambit feat), the fighter may choose to cause one of the following effects. The DCs are equal to 10 + 1/2 the fighter's BAB + whatever ability modifier was added to the attack roll.
Ruin Action: The opponent must make a Fortitude save or lose whatever action provoked the attack. In the case of movement, the opponent immediately halts and becomes unable to leave its current space until the end of its turn (even if it has other actions to spend moving). The fighter can choose if it halts before or after leaving the threatened square.
Create Opening: The opponent must make a Reflex save or also provoke an attack of opportunity from any of the fighter's allies that also threaten it. This does not allow the ally to make two attacks against the same trigger, so it is best used when the fighter's abilities allow an attack of opportunity that would not normally be allowed.
Disrupt Plans: The opponent must make a Will save or lose all further actions this round. However, it may complete the action that provoked the attack, and may still use immediate actions and make attacks of opportunity.
Fluid Defense (Ex): A tenth level fighter is adept at defending itself from numerous foes. Whenever the fighter takes an immediate action that provides or improves a defense (such as its Defiance ability), for the rest of the round it may reactivate that capability at the cost of an attack of opportunity for each additional activation. If the ability in question has limited uses, only the initial activation actually costs a use. A given ability cannot be used multiple times against the same attack.
Instinctive Response (Ex): Starting at eleventh level, the fighter can make attacks of opportunity against opponents who suddenly appear in its threatened area, as by teleportation, invisibility being dismissed, or so on. The fighter also gains the ability to make attacks of opportunity against foes with cover (but not total cover) or foes it cannot perceive. It may even make attacks of opportunity against characters who provoke attacks while operating under the influence of a Time Stop or similar effect (however, the Extended Threat ability does not apply against such opponents).
Improved Floating Feats (Ex): Starting at twelfth level, the fighter can swap specialty feats and variant feats (but not style feats or the bonus feats they provide) in or out as floating feats. It may also treat its non-fighter feats as fighter bonus feats (allowing it to spend them on variant feats, specialty feats, and style feats, as well as to swap them out as floating feats). This ability does not affect bonus feats gained from other classes.
Tactical Retort (Ex): A twelfth level or higher fighter may use its Tactical Strike ability on any attack of opportunity it makes, aside from those provoked by an attack upon the fighter itself. However, the fighter may apply one fewer effect when doing so (so one effect initially, or two at 16th level). The fighter may not use Tactical Retort and Strategic Opportunist on the same attack of opportunity. If the fighter uses the Hampering Attack option, the condition is not imposed until after the target completes its turn.
Unfailing (Ex): A thirteenth level fighter does not go down easily, even under the force of magic. The fighter suppresses any effects upon it that would render it unable to take standard actions, make physical attacks, or determine its own actions, for as long as it has at least 50% of its normal maximum hit points. This ability does not apply against effects that physically restrain the fighter, such as tying it up or pinning it.
Emulation Feats (Ex): A fourteenth level fighter has been exposed to so many unique fighting styles that it can pick up new talents with astonishing ease. Whenever the fighter witnesses a character use or statistically benefit from a feat that it could acquire as a floating feat, it may swap out an existing floating feat for that feat as an immediate action, without spending any daily uses of its Floating Feat ability. The fighter must do so immediately, or the opportunity is lost until the next time the fighter witnesses the feat being used.
Defiant Retort (Ex): Starting at fourteenth level, a fighter's drive to overcome magical forces is so great that it can warp the magic it faces. The fighter gains one of the following abilities, and can gain further ones as if they were specialty feats. The fighter may only use one such ability on any given act of defiance.
Absorb Magic: The fighter may use this ability on any magical effect that causes damage or negative effects. The power that otherwise would have harmed or hindered the fighter is instead absorbed into its weapon. The fighter's next successful attack with the weapon can unleash the effect, inflicting its effects onto the target of the attack. The attack roll itself replaces any attack rolls or Reflex saves required or allowed by the effect, but Fortitude and Will saves, and other special defenses, apply normally.
Deflect Magic: The fighter may use this ability on any ranged, targeted magical effect that targets it. The fighter redirects the targeting of the effect as if it were the caster. If the effect targets multiple characters, the fighter only redirects the single instance of targeting on itself.
Deny Magic: The fighter ends the spell in its entirety, rather than merely ignoring it. This ability can be used on any effect the fighter can defy.
Exceed Magic: The fighter can use this ability on any beneficial spell that it defies. In addition to ignoring the benefits the spell gives its opponent, the fighter gains the effects of the spell itself, though these effects last for a maximum of one round per fighter level.
Superhuman (Ex): A fifteenth level fighter is a truly superhuman individual, with far greater inherent attributes than most. For each two character levels, the fighter receives a +2 value of Enhancement bonuses that it can permanently distribute among its ability scores. No single ability score can have a higher bonus than +2 per five fighter levels.
Rapid Floating Feats (Ex): A sixteenth level fighter can swap out floating feats as a swift action, rather than a full-round action.
Hard to Kill (Ex): A sixteenth level fighter is a very difficult foe to kill. The fighter does not die until its negative hit point total exceeds its full normal hit points. Effects that would instantly kill the fighter only reduce it to -10 hit points, leaving it dying. Effects that would otherwise destroy the fighter's body upon reducing it to 0 hit points (such as Disintegrate) do not do so unless they actually lower its hit points enough to kill it. Abilities that would otherwise keep the fighter active while dying (such as the Diehard feat) are also somewhat extended, and apply as long as the fighter's negative hit points are lower than its Constitution score + its character level; past that, and the fighter becomes unconscious as normal. The fighter is no longer subject to death from massive damage.
Triumphant Return (Ex): A fighter is willing to give its life for a cause - but for a warrior acquainted with archmages, high priests, and other beings of great magic, that may not be so great a price, and the warrior's spirit is not one to stay down! A fighter of at least seventeenth level no longer suffers level or Constitution loss from being resurrected, and the time it can be dead before a given resurrection spell becomes ineffective is multiplied by ten. In addition, any material components required for the spell that resurrects the fighter are treated as focuses instead.
Better Good Than Lucky (Ex): An eighteenth level fighter is reliably able to overcome the vagaries of chance even in a chaotic battle. As an immediate action, after making an attack roll or saving throw, the fighter may choose to replace the result with a 12. The fighter may use its Fluid Defense ability in conjunction with this ability when used to improve saving throws.
Perfect Form (Ex): A nineteenth level fighter no longer automatically fails saves or misses attacks on a natural 1. Its opponents no longer automatically hit it or succeed a save against its abilities on a natural 20. If the fighter rolls a natural 20 on an attack roll, it may immediately make an additional attack against that opponent. If an opponent rolls a natural 1 on an attack against it, that opponent immediately loses all further actions that round. Finally, any critical hit the fighter scores applies one benefit of a Tactical Strike per point of the critical multiplier above 1.
Versatile Feats (Ex): A twentieth level fighter has reached the peak of martial versatility. Whenever it spends a daily use of Floating Feats, it may swap any or all of its floating feats.
Ultimate Effort (Ex): A twentieth level fighter can push itself beyond mortal limits. Once per encounter, the fighter can tap into its deepest reserves of strength to press on in the face of an overpowering threat. This ability may be used off-turn, but does not count as an immediate action. The fighter can select one of the following benefits when it uses this ability.
Celerity: The fighter may take an immediate full round's worth of actions.
Devastation: Until the start of the fighter's next turn, every opponent the fighter successfully attacks must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 BAB + attack roll ability modifier) or die. An opponent need only save once, regardless of the number of attacks the fighter makes.
Invulnerability: Until the start of the fighter's next turn, the fighter is immune to all negative effects.
Perfection: Until the start of the fighter's next turn, any dice it rolls are treated as if they rolled the maximum possible (although special effects that apply on certain high rolls - such as critical hits and automatic results - do not apply).
Renewal: The fighter immediately removes all negative spells, conditions, and effects upon it, and returns to full hit points (resultantly, it loses any remaining temporary hit points from its Resilience ability).