FlappyTungsten
2016-08-11, 05:23 PM
Hello all,
I'm interested in adjusting the fighter class to give it the Rage class feature. The goal is something akin to the Berserker fighter kit from AD&D 2e. I'd like to hear your thoughts on how balanced the options I've considered are.
First up, I've spent some time reading through the Modifying Classes guide on the Wizards website, which helps with approaching this kind of tweakery. As I view it, the fighter would gain Rage pretty much as the barbarian has it, with the scaling damage and uses per day and benefits copied verbatim from the barbarian entry on PHB p48. She would not gain Relentless Rage at level 11, Persistent Rage at level 15, or any of the other barbarian class features.
What does this mean? The fighter would gain short-term defensive benefits in much the same way the barbarian does, with the trade-off of being unable to wear heavy armour. But they would miss out on other class features that interact with Rage; Reckless Attack to both hit and be hit more often, Fast Movement to quickly get from one enemy to the next, totem features to boost survivability and/or utility, and so on.
But between Action Surge and three extra attacks, they gain substantially more in terms of damage output from Rage than the barbarian does. So in essence, the fighter gains a less flexible form of Rage that instead reliably pumps out more damage.
Swap Action Surge for Rage. A simple like-for-like: Action Surge doubles the fighter's effectiveness for one round once per short rest (twice from level 17) and scales in effectiveness as the number and potency of things the fighter can do increases. Option one trades this for a longer-lasting set of bonuses you can use more often, switching encounter-ending bursts for more general benefits.
The downside is that Rage is a level one ability; Action Surge is a level two ability. A berserker fighter will thus be more powerful at level one than either of the classes she combines.
Swap Fighting Style and Second Wind for Rage. Fighting Style provides a very simple boost to combat efficacy. Second Wind is scaling, bonus action healing once per short rest that makes the fighter a lot more survivable. Neither alone is (I think) a worthy enough trade, but together, their loss might just about offset what the class would gain from Rage.
Swap Action Surge for a delayed Rage. Lose Action Surge as described in option one, and gain Rage at level two. This represents the fighter taking more time than a savage barbarian to learn how to channel their rage effectively. The fighter's Rage is one level behind the barbarian's, so at level twenty they have only six uses per long rest, rather than an unlimited number.
Later, the fighter gets more defining abilities: namely, extra attacks and an enhanced number of ASIs. Swapping out these for the Rage feature has the same problem as option one above – disproportionate power at earlier levels. But it might be possible to bring forward other features to compensate: for instance, getting Second Wind and Action Surge at later levels.
If you got this far, thanks for sticking with what turned out to be a fairly long post. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the options I've explored above, or any other ideas you might have.
Cheers
I'm interested in adjusting the fighter class to give it the Rage class feature. The goal is something akin to the Berserker fighter kit from AD&D 2e. I'd like to hear your thoughts on how balanced the options I've considered are.
First up, I've spent some time reading through the Modifying Classes guide on the Wizards website, which helps with approaching this kind of tweakery. As I view it, the fighter would gain Rage pretty much as the barbarian has it, with the scaling damage and uses per day and benefits copied verbatim from the barbarian entry on PHB p48. She would not gain Relentless Rage at level 11, Persistent Rage at level 15, or any of the other barbarian class features.
What does this mean? The fighter would gain short-term defensive benefits in much the same way the barbarian does, with the trade-off of being unable to wear heavy armour. But they would miss out on other class features that interact with Rage; Reckless Attack to both hit and be hit more often, Fast Movement to quickly get from one enemy to the next, totem features to boost survivability and/or utility, and so on.
But between Action Surge and three extra attacks, they gain substantially more in terms of damage output from Rage than the barbarian does. So in essence, the fighter gains a less flexible form of Rage that instead reliably pumps out more damage.
Swap Action Surge for Rage. A simple like-for-like: Action Surge doubles the fighter's effectiveness for one round once per short rest (twice from level 17) and scales in effectiveness as the number and potency of things the fighter can do increases. Option one trades this for a longer-lasting set of bonuses you can use more often, switching encounter-ending bursts for more general benefits.
The downside is that Rage is a level one ability; Action Surge is a level two ability. A berserker fighter will thus be more powerful at level one than either of the classes she combines.
Swap Fighting Style and Second Wind for Rage. Fighting Style provides a very simple boost to combat efficacy. Second Wind is scaling, bonus action healing once per short rest that makes the fighter a lot more survivable. Neither alone is (I think) a worthy enough trade, but together, their loss might just about offset what the class would gain from Rage.
Swap Action Surge for a delayed Rage. Lose Action Surge as described in option one, and gain Rage at level two. This represents the fighter taking more time than a savage barbarian to learn how to channel their rage effectively. The fighter's Rage is one level behind the barbarian's, so at level twenty they have only six uses per long rest, rather than an unlimited number.
Later, the fighter gets more defining abilities: namely, extra attacks and an enhanced number of ASIs. Swapping out these for the Rage feature has the same problem as option one above – disproportionate power at earlier levels. But it might be possible to bring forward other features to compensate: for instance, getting Second Wind and Action Surge at later levels.
If you got this far, thanks for sticking with what turned out to be a fairly long post. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the options I've explored above, or any other ideas you might have.
Cheers