Fighter Martial Archetype: Enlightened Warrior

[Kerleth]

Not all who seek to perfect body and mind through martial discipline are masters of unarmed combat. The Enlightened Warrior fuses monk-like ki abilities with the raw skill and power of a trained warrior. As they begin their path they learn to harness their inner strength to augment their natural speed and resilience. Masters of this path are able to do things that no other warrior can do, no matter how skilled. Walk the path, but remember. The journey to enlightenment has no ending. The path of the enlightened warrior is only the first of many roads.


So I think the design intent for this one is fairly obvious. Some wuxia and ki based abilities, but without stealing the monk's thunder. The early abilities simply augment what the fighter could already do. Faster, tougher, more wuxia. Moving and striking more rapidly. Shrugging off more damage. No teleporting or turning invisible. Running up walls, striking telling blows against preternaturally resilient creatures, channeling your will to deny your weaknesses, these are the sort of supernatural powers that the enlightened warrior gets. The most supernatural ability gained is limited truesight. That, however, is a capstone, and feels right for a warrior working toward enlightenment.

As far as balance goes, I've been comparing it to the battlemaster to see if I've broken anything. Snake Strike can potentially throw out a lot of damage. A 3rd level Enlightened Warrior with a 16 strength and wielding a greatsword could ATTACK ACTION + ACTION SURGE + SNAKE STRIKE for 30 damage (average of 6d6+9), assuming all attacks hit. A battlemaster with the same stats could ATTACK + SUPERIORITY DIE + ACTION SURGE + SUPERIORITY DIE for 29 damage (average of 4d6+2d8+6) The enlightened warrior could spend his last ki the next turn averaging 20 damage, whereas the battlemaster would require two turns to spend both his superiority dice, doing 14.5 each turn. So, sheer power goes to the Enlightened Warrior. However, the Battlemaster
1) only spends dice on an actual hit, so they won't be wasted, whereas the extra attack from ki might.
2) gets the rider effects in addition to damage.
3) has more overall options on how to spend their limited rescources.
Overall I feel that sets the tone for the class. The Enlightened Warrior can get more sheer power, but the Battlemaster is more versatile and dependable. That said, I could be wrong. It has happened before. Purportedly. Or at least I like to say so to make sure all the lesser (ick)mortals don't feel bad. :smallbiggrin:

Awakening The Spirit
At 3rd level you gain 2 ki points. You may spend these points to fuel various abilities. When you spend a ki point it is unavailable until you finish a short or long rest, at which point you draw all of your expended ki back into yourself. You must spend at least 30 minutes of your rest meditating to regain these ki points. If you have ki points from multiple sources, add them together to determine your total ki points. You may use ki points from multiple sources to fuel any ki abilities you may possess.
In addition, you gain the following two abilities:
Snake Strike: You may spend 1 ki point to make a single weapon attack as a bonus action.
Cheetah Sprint: You may spend 1 ki point to Dash as a bonus action.

Strengthening the Body
Starting at 7th level you gain 2 more ki points, and the following ability:
Refuse Harm: You may spend 2 ki points to gain all the benefits of your Second Wind as a bonus action, without expending a use of that ability.

Focusing the Mind
At 10th level you gain 2 more ki points, and the following abilities:
Stone as Water: Whenever you use Snake Strike, your weapon attacks ignore resistance until the beginning of your next turn.
Water as Stone: Whenever you use Cheetah Sprint, you gain the effects of the Spider Climb and Water Walk spells until the beginning of your next turn.

Chasing Perfection
Beginning at 15th level, you gain 2 more ki points, and the following ability:
No Weakness: You may spend 4 ki points as a bonus action to treat any one of your ability scores as an 18 for the next hour. Furthermore, when making an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw for this score that doesn't already add your proficiency bonus, you may add half your proficiency bonus (rounded down). If your constitution score is altered this way, your maximum and current hit points are increased or decreased accordingly. (One hit point per character level gained for each +1 increase to your constitution modifier, and the reverse for a decrease). When this ability ends, remove these changes to both your maximum and current hit points.

Achieving the Impossible
At 18th you take the final steps upon the path of the Enlightened Warrior, gaining 2 more ki points and the following abilities:
Eschew Limitations: Whenever you use your Second Wind or Refuse Harm abilities you may remove the following conditions from yourself: Blinded, Charmed, Deafened, Frightened, Poisoned, Paralyzed, and Stunned. You may use your Second Wind or Refuse Harm abilities even if one of these conditions would normally prevent you from doing so.
Eyes of the Spirit: You may spend 2 ki points as a bonus action to gain Truesight out to 60 feet as a bonus action. Truesight allows you to see in normal and magical darkness, see invisible creatures and objects, automatically detect and succeed on saving throws against visual illusions, perceive the original form of a shapechanger or creature changed by magic, and see onto the ethereal plane.



All comments are encouraged, but I'd really appreciate any exploits or balance issues anyone might see. Also, this will probably be the first of several fighter subclasses I post. Assuming that people show interest and real life permits, that is. Anyways, thanks for your time, and I hope someone gets some good use or ideas from this.

[Leuku]

I like it. It's done a lot of things well. If I don't say anything about a feature, it means I can't think of an issue with it.

Regarding the number of Ki Points gained: it seems too limiting. Perhaps increase the number of starting Ki Points to 4 instead of 2? By 18th level, the total number of Ki points will be 12 instead of 10.

Chasing Perfection: This is much too much number crunching and bookkeeping for my taste and is something I feel the spirit of 5e is trying to avoid. How about you add your proficiency bonus to anything you attempt to do using an ability score of your choice? Also say that you cannot gain double your proficiency in something with this feature.

So let's say you want to chuck a chair at someone, but you aren't proficient in improvised weaponry. Well you use "Chasing Perfection" to gain proficiency in all Strength-related things, and thus gain proficiency for throwing a chair.

Add the caveat that you do not add your proficiency bonus to things that are only passive, like initiative and AC. But you can use this feature to add to things like Passive and Active Perception, since perception can be active.

This feature will also work for saving throws.

Otherwise all good!

Since you have experience in making this monk-related subtype, perhaps you can help me with an actual homebrew monk subtype, the Path of the Weapon Master (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LQmf0ChghO0io9ipQ5tPrghjQCCFTh6Qpgy_frEPaKE/edit?usp=sharing)?

Also check out my Bowmaster (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?387137-The-Bowmaster-class-with-3-Subclasses)!

[Human Paragon 3]

I like it. It's done a lot of things well. If I don't say anything about a feature, it means I can't think of an issue with it.

Regarding the number of Ki Points gained: it seems too limiting. Perhaps increase the number of starting Ki Points to 4 instead of 2? By 18th level, the total number of Ki points will be 12 instead of 10.

Chasing Perfection: This is much too much number crunching and bookkeeping for my taste and is something I feel the spirit of 5e is trying to avoid. How about you add your proficiency bonus to anything you attempt to do using an ability score of your choice? Also say that you cannot gain double your proficiency in something with this feature.

So let's say you want to chuck a chair at someone, but you aren't proficient in improvised weaponry. Well you use "Chasing Perfection" to gain proficiency in all Strength-related things, and thus gain proficiency for throwing a chair.

Add the caveat that you do not add your proficiency bonus to things that are only passive, like initiative and AC. But you can use this feature to add to things like Passive and Active Perception, since perception can be active.

This feature will also work for saving throws.


These were my thoughts as well, which probably means they're onto something. I think it might be OK to start with 2 Ki and just increase it faster (so 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... etc) and end with 12. Maybe a progression on a table instead of just gaining 2 at certain points would make that easier to understand.

I like the proficiency bonus to everything in your chosen ability, but note that it would apply to initiative since that's a dex check.

[Leuku]

These were my thoughts as well, which probably means they're onto something. I think it might be OK to start with 2 Ki and just increase it faster (so 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... etc) and end with 12. Maybe a progression on a table instead of just gaining 2 at certain points would make that easier to understand.

The progression system would be fine, except for the fact to reach 12 Ki points by level 20 and starting with 2 Ki points at level 3 would require that you gain Ki points at odd intervals. The Monk requires 20 levels to gain 20 total Ki points, which means he gets a Ki point every level. The 10 Ki point cap of this Fighter subclass means that he essentially gets 1 Ki point every other level, starting at level 3. To tack on two more Ki points for a total of 12 would require that you add 2 Ki points in between the Ki points you get every other level. You would basically rapidly improve in Ki ability for no particular reason at two odd periods of your leveling.

Starting with 4 Ki points follows along the foundation established by the Battlemaster Fighter, who starts with 4 Superiority Die.


I like the proficiency bonus to everything in your chosen ability, but note that it would apply to initiative since that's a dex check.

Do you think it's OK for a Ki-enhanced Fighter to get their proficiency bonus tacked on to their initiative? I'm just wary about making things too strong.

[Human Paragon 3]

Do you think it's OK for a Ki-enhanced Fighter to get their proficiency bonus tacked on to their initiative? I'm just wary about making things too strong.

Well, bard gets to add half their bonus to initiative through jack of all trades. I don't think always winning initiative is that big a deal, especially since you need to be very high level to get the ability.

[Leuku]

Alright, sounds fine to me.

[Kerleth]

Wow, noone notices the thread for 3 days, and then BOOM!

Firstly, thanks for the criticisms and suggestions guys. I'm gonna sleep on what you have said, but these are my initial thoughts.

KI POINTS
I showed this subclass to someone IRL, and got the same comment about how it seems like to few. Here is my issue though. Ki is the monk's thing. The fighter is only dabbling in that world. Currently, he maintains about half of what the monk has at any given point. At 3rd level he has 2 to the monks 3, and I was actually worried that it might be too much right then. As comparison, an Eldritch Knight gets only about 1/3 spellcasting, and a more limited selection of spells than a full caster. Also, he gets some big bonuses for each point spent. At 20th level, he could make 10 bonus action attacks between each short rest. Or heal 5d20+100 additional hp. So mechanically, I fear that with the current abilities it would be too strong. I realize 2 additional points (10 to 12 at 20th level) isn't that much of a difference, but if it's really that small of a difference, would it really be enough to actually affect whether or not it felt like too few? Flavor wise, I kind of want them to have a limited pool of ki. They are a FIGHTER who can occasionally transcend their limitations. I don't want them to have so much ki that it would be spammable. I am certainly open to change, but these are my concerns.

CHASING PERFECTION
Yeah, I was worried about that. To me, turning an 8 wisdom to an 18 is simple. Just add 5 to whatever your normal roll would be. Oh, and half your proficiency. Like Jack of All Trades, cool. Just cause it's easy for me, the class's creator, doesn't mean much though, lol.:smallbiggrin:
The inspiration for the ability were these four things.
1) An earlier playtest monk had an ability that made every ability score 20 permanently.
2) Fallout 3 has a perk that brings all your scores up to just below perfect. (9 out of 10)
3) The ability of someone who has great control of their own body and mind, and could focus on one aspect of it to improve it.
4) The fighter seems to be sort of a warrior's jack of all trades. He is built in such a way as to be useful in many situations, but rarely to have more power than a pure specialist.
I made it 18, so that you wouldn't eclipse those who have actually worked to get a max score. I made it half proficiency so that you wouldn't eclipse those who were actually trained in a skill. Turning your score into an 18 and getting a temporary "Jack-of-All-Trades" effect means you can be useful in a pinch, but the expert still does it better.

Chasing Perfection 2.0
What if I changed it to be something like this:
A 15th level Enlightened Warrior has trained to overcome all his weaknesses. Whenever he makes an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check with a +6 or smaller bonus (or penalty), he may instead spend 2 ki to make the roll with a +7 bonus. This ability must be used before the roll is made.

Someone with a 20 ability score and full proficiency would have a +10 at 15th level (+11 at 20th), so no outshining the specialist. Since you simply replace your normal bonus with a +7 you don't have a whole lot of math to do. It also has the added benefits of eliminating any hit point shenanigans, as well as being useable on the spot, rather than needing to be prepped ahead of time. Thoughts?

P.S. Will definitely check those two out Leuku. Might not make any comments till tomorrow, but I will take a look.

[Amnoriath]

Actually what you have here at base is perfectly fine. If anything adding some passive flavorful abilities or rituals would round out this concept very nicely. Changing Chasing Perfection to that makes you more dependent on ki as you doing this every roll. An expert would actually will have at least a +11. Instead I would make it a passive ability that says this: "Any attribute you possess becomes 14 if it was lower and any d20 roll you make except Initiative(if this bothers you) that you are not proficient with you may add 1/4 your Fighter level(round down). Additionally you may spend 2 ki points to make a single d20 roll with advantage before making it."
This way they can walk out with having a +7 sticking with the class which will get you through most basic checks and you can make better rolls to compete with experts by spending ki but by no means overshadow them.