Crusader - A Fighter Subclass [PEACH]

[Artagon]

Hi folks,

This is something of a first draft. I'm not sure how balanced it is since it has a renewable resource. Please provide any feedback you can. Call out abilities if they seem imbalanced and how.. and if you have ideas for other abilities, feel free to share! I do want to note up front that this is NOT a divine class.. it is designed to emulate the advantage which historical Crusaders had in armor and weaponry and the sheer conviction they applied to their tasks. Not all crusaders were religious, but they all had something to fight for.

The Crusader (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HFS9_hxTTvlEvuZ93RVM7QRmon-LwIhXlE4wMYef2GU/edit?usp=sharing)

[Artagon]

In case you don't like links:

The Crusader
The archetypical Crusader focuses their conviction, their raw belief in something, into the passionate fight or defense of those beliefs. This may be their belief in a higher power, an organisation, or even a deeply personal set of beliefs that help structure their life. Not every fighter can channel their beliefs in this way, but the Crusader’s superior armor, weaponry, and stubborn force of will can defeat any obstacle in their path.

Wrath
At level 3, your faith is expressed through combat. You channel this faith into your wrath against unbelievers or those who would tarnish your beliefs. As a bonus action on your turn, you may enter a Righteous Fury for 1 minute. When you enter your Righteous Fury, you gain 2 Wrath points. This amount increases to 3 at 7th level, 4 at 15th level, and 5 Wrath points at 18th level. You gain 1 Wrath point at the beginning of your turn while Righteous Fury is active. You may enter your Righteous Fury a number of times per day equal to your Proficiency bonus. You may end this effect early as a bonus action.

While your Righteous Fury is active, you may use a bonus action on your turn to draw upon your conviction and gain 1 additional Wrath. Doing so allows any adjacent creature to use their Reaction to make a melee attack against you. You gain 1 additional Wrath Point for each creature that attacks you in this way.

You may have up to 6 Wrath points at any time and unused Wrath expires when your Righteous Fury ends. This Wrath can be used to fuel a number of abilities. You may choose two of these options at level 3. You can choose an additional option at 7th level and one more at 15th level.

Challenging Blow: As an action you may expend 3 Wrath points to make a melee attack with a +2 to-hit. You deal an additional 1d8 bludgeoning damage as the weight of your faith forces your weapon to drive home. This additional damage increases by 1d8 at level 5 (2d8), 11th level (3d8), and 17th level (4d8). Additionally, the enemy you attacked must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, until the start of your next turn it has disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures other than you and must make a Wisdom saving throw if it attempts to move to a space more than 30 ft from you. If they fail this save they must end their movement. The DC for this ability is 8 + proficiency bonus + Strength or Dexterity bonus.
Zealous Charge: When you use your action to Dash, you can use a bonus action and expend 3 Wrath points to make two melee weapon attacks. If you moved at least 10 feet in a straight line immediately before making these attacks you gain a +2 bonus to their attack rolls.
Aegis of Courage: As a Bonus Action, you may expend 3 Wrath points to Dodge.
Unshakable Faith: You may use a Bonus Action and expend 3 Wrath Points to gain resistance to one damage type for a duration of 1 minute. Using this ability again while it is active allows you to change the damage resistance type but does not extend the duration.
Ready for Action: When you use your reaction to make an attack you may spend 3 Wrath points to gain advantage on that attack. Additionally, you may choose to re-roll the damage on that attack, but you must take the second roll if you do so.
Call to Arms: You may use your Action and expend 1 Wrath point to shout encouragement to one creature. That creature gains a Call to Arms die (1d6). They may roll this die to add the result to a damage roll it just made. Alternatively, when an attack roll is made against them they can roll it and add the number rolled to their AC against that attack, after seeing the roll but before knowing whether it hits or misses. You may expend additional Wrath to target 1 additional creature per Wrath point spent.
Wrath-Guided Hand: When you make an attack, you may expend 3 Wrath Points to add +5 to the attack roll.
Forceful Shove When you shove a creature while you are equipped with a shield, you may expend 3 Wrath Points to deal 1d4 + Strength or Dexterity modifier Bludgeoning damage.

Heavily Armored
At 7th level, your armor has become an extension of you, clothing your convictions in steel. You gain the Defense fighting style if you do not already have it. Otherwise select one other fighting style of your choice.

Mounted
Also at 7th level, you are a commensurate judge of horses and a shrewd bargainer. By expending 75 gp during Downtime or in any town or city large enough to house horse markets, you gain a horse as described by the spell ‘Find Steed’. This steed cannot be sold or traded away. Attempting to do so causes it to immediately break free of any restraints and escape. You would need to use this ability again to get it (or another mount like it) back.

Perseverance
Beginning at 10th level your conviction and sheer force of will allows you to carry on when others would falter. You gain an additional use of the Second Wind class feature. Further, Second Wind allows you to regain an additional 1d10 hit points.

Inviolate
At 15th level, You learn to grimace and push away pain or distractions that would impede you. When you use your Indomitable class feature, you have advantage on the new check. Additionally, if you succeed on your check and Righteous Fury is active, you also gain 3 Wrath points from thwarting their best efforts against you.

We Few
Beginning at 18th level, when you use an Action Surge your Wrath pool is filled and you are affected by the Crusader’s Mantle spell. You may concentrate to maintain the effect for the full 1 minute duration. If you are not in a Righteous Fury when you use this ability, you may enter it at this time without expending a bonus action.

[PapaQuackers]

Ok, a couple problems off of the top of my head:

The Wrath System:
Wrath, for a fighter, is incredibly easy to accumulate and doesn't require you change the way you play a fighter in anyway what so ever. Fighters are always going to make attacks and deal damage, this archetype rewards them for doing the thing they were going to do anyway. Compare it the to the EKs Spells, or the BM Maneuvers. Each of those require that you give up your attack or fundamentally change how that attack is applied.

The next issue is in sustainability. Wrath points are infinite. Maneuver Dice and Spell slots, by their very nature, are finite and you need a short or long rest to replenish them respectively. Since these abilities are infinite and are generated by doing something you would have done anyway they are all WAY too powerful in comparison.

Righteous Might: So like, I can just keep adding damage by dealing damage infinitely. In one round, providing I hit with all 4 attacks, I can generate 4 wrath. Next turn I can expend 2 wrath and still generate 4, which gives me a net gain of 2. Next turn I can spend 4 wrath and still have 2 left over. You see the problem.

Zealous Charge: Free attack bonus just for moving and spending an easy to regain resource.

Aegis of Courage: This is really powerful, it's essentially turning a reaction into an action. Granted you won't be able to do this until later levels, it is very strong.

I could continue, but it follows the same patter, relatively strong abilities for their non-existent cost.

Perseverance: This is very weak for a 7th level ability, and the 7th level is generally reserved for flavor abilities. This class has no flavor abilities thus far, so I suggest it gain some.

Heavily Armored: This is bland.

Inviolate: Indomitable is hardly ever used, as a 15th level ability this is both unrewarding and generally inconsequential.

We Few:
Filling up your wrath gauge is pitifully easy anyway, so what's the point? Unless the goal is to give me insane nova damage with my already stacking D4s, I don't see this really being all that impressive. The bonus spell effect is nice though.

So those are my thoughts on a cursory glance. I hope it's not too harsh, I have a great respect for people who make Fighter archetypes. There are many around and very rarely do they hit the right notes. I always appreciate the effort!

[Artagon]

Ok, a couple problems off of the top of my head:

The Wrath System:
Wrath, for a fighter, is incredibly easy to accumulate and doesn't require you change the way you play a fighter in anyway what so ever. Fighters are always going to make attacks and deal damage, this archetype rewards them for doing the thing they were going to do anyway. Compare it the to the EKs Spells, or the BM Maneuvers. Each of those require that you give up your attack or fundamentally change how that attack is applied.

The next issue is in sustainability. Wrath points are infinite. Maneuver Dice and Spell slots, by their very nature, are finite and you need a short or long rest to replenish them respectively. Since these abilities are infinite and are generated by doing something you would have done anyway they are all WAY too powerful in comparison.

Righteous Might: So like, I can just keep adding damage by dealing damage infinitely. In one round, providing I hit with all 4 attacks, I can generate 4 wrath. Next turn I can expend 2 wrath and still generate 4, which gives me a net gain of 2. Next turn I can spend 4 wrath and still have 2 left over. You see the problem. At level 20, assuming you hit with every attack, yes. On the other hand, you only have 4 attacks per action for one level.

Zealous Charge: Free attack bonus just for moving and spending an easy to regain resource. You are using your Dash for your action, so you are getting two attacks in that round, vs using your attack action. It is mutually exclusive with the Charger Feat, which would give +5 dmg on a charge. This does a bit more damage but requires using Wrath.

Aegis of Courage: This is really powerful, it's essentially turning a reaction into an action. Granted you won't be able to do this until later levels, it is very strong.

I could continue, but it follows the same patter, relatively strong abilities for their non-existent cost.

Perseverance: This is very weak for a 7th level ability, and the 7th level is generally reserved for flavor abilities. This class has no flavor abilities thus far, so I suggest it gain some.

Heavily Armored: This is bland.

Inviolate: Indomitable is hardly ever used, as a 15th level ability this is both unrewarding and generally inconsequential.

We Few:
Filling up your wrath gauge is pitifully easy anyway, so what's the point? Unless the goal is to give me insane nova damage with my already stacking D4s, I don't see this really being all that impressive. The bonus spell effect is nice though.

So those are my thoughts on a cursory glance. I hope it's not too harsh, I have a great respect for people who make Fighter archetypes. There are many around and very rarely do they hit the right notes. I always appreciate the effort!

I don't mind harsh criticism. I do want to point out a couple of things to mull over though. First, Wrath generation.. You only generate Wrath during the attack action (bonus action attacks don't generate wrath). From levels 3-5 you gain at most 1 wrath per round if you hit, 6-10 you gain a max of 2 Wrath per round if you hit on each, and 11th-19th level you have a maximum of 3 wrath per round. It is only at 20th that you would get the full wrath you are referring to.

Regarding Righteous Might: Pre-20th level if you were using Righteous Might alone you'd be getting a maximum of +1d4/2 rounds from levels 3-5, from levels 6-10 you'd have +1d4 dmg per round, and from 11th-19th you'd get +2d4 per round.

With that perspective, is wrath generation still too powerful? Are the costs wrong perhaps?

I'll work on the theming a bit more at your suggestion.

[PapaQuackers]

I don't mind harsh criticism. I do want to point out a couple of things to mull over though. First, Wrath generation.. You only generate Wrath during the attack action (bonus action attacks don't generate wrath). From levels 3-5 you gain at most 1 wrath per round if you hit, 6-10 you gain a max of 2 Wrath per round if you hit on each, and 11th-19th level you have a maximum of 3 wrath per round. It is only at 20th that you would get the full wrath you are referring to.



Regarding Righteous Might: Pre-20th level if you were using Righteous Might alone you'd be getting a maximum of +1d4/2 rounds from levels 3-5, from levels 6-10 you'd have +1d4 dmg per round, and from 11th-19th you'd get +2d4 per round.

With that perspective, is wrath generation still too powerful? Are the costs wrong perhaps?

I'll work on the theming a bit more at your suggestion.

Even so, in comparison to the other archetypes it is considerably stronger. The resources cannot be infinite and generated without meaningful trade-offs in fighter turn patterns.

Even at level 5 I can make two attacks per round since I gain extra attack at 5th level, which means if I hit both then I generate two wrath. That means at 5th level I have pretty solid access to two wrath points consistently. I could use the bonus action/reaction wrath abilities almost every turn without doing anything different than I would have done already.

I suggest having the wrath points slowly drain away at the beginning of a turn, at a rate that is tailored to how many you have accrued before the turn begins. This way you can create a stop gap out the higher levels without hindering the lower levels too much.

That being said you there needs to be a meaningful trade off in gathering wrath points if they're going to exist in the form they're currently in. This is because the turn for a Crusader as it's built will very rarely be any different than a champion, except when I use my wrath for passive/reactive abilities.

As an example, lets say I'm a 5th level Crusader. Here's how my turn is generally going to go.

1. I Run Up To Them

2. I hit them with two attacks generating two wrath.

3. I use the help action as my bonus action.

Rinse/Repeat unless my enemy runs away or I think I'll be able to get an opportunity attack in.

[Artagon]

Ok, so how about this? You generate Wrath by expending a bonus action to gain 2 Wrath.

Additionally, what if I change Righteous Might to be something like this?

Righteous Might: As an action you may expend 2 Wrath to deal make a melee attack. You deal an additional 1d8 bludgeoning damage as the weight of your faith forces your weapon to drive home. You may expend additional Wrath to deal an extra 1d8 bludgeoning damage per Wrath point expended.

[Artagon]

Re-Worked Wrath generation, Righteous Might, and Aegis of Courage. Added Flavor text to the 7th, 10th, and 15th level abilities, also added Wrath generation to Inviolate, since it was considered not very good.

Now you use a bonus action to generate Wrath.. which is in direct competition with a number of Wrath expending abilities. Additionally, generating Wrath provokes attacks against you.. which is a mixed blessing.

Thoughts?

[Amnoriath]

1. Having that just robs two-weapon fighters. It is one thing to have it as an option among the abilities it is another if it is an integral part of resource management.
2. What really sticks out to me is that you have multiple wrath costs for everything while. Things would be so much simpler if you reduced these numbers and costs while having a more linear growth. As of now you resource spikes whenever you use the Fighter's resources.
3. Righteous Might really stinks for a Fighter as you are robbing them of an Attack action. A Fighter could deal both more damage and control than this ever could just using the Attack action alone.
4. This needs utility and feels like it was padded with abilities with different abilities that don't make sense for the archetype or for its title(Aegis of Courage, Inviolate, Unshakable Faith..etc).
As others have said it is stronger than any other one combining some of the better elements of the Battlemaster and Champion while having far better resource regeneration and then some.

[Ivogel]

I like it! just as said before lv 7 should be reserved for an out of combat ability and the 10th level ability is bland.

my suggestion is

15th level ability
If you pull it off just let it fill your wrath fully, it's not going to happen that often

10th level: You gain a second use of your second wind / short rest. Whenever you use your second wind you may also re-do a saving throw for any one ongoing effect you are currently afflicted by that required a saving throw.

7th level: maybe a use for wrath points to boost skill checks or something?

i really like the other features but the costs of the wrath abilities shouldn't be so all over the place to avoid having to look it up and slowing down the game

[Artagon]

Responses below, thanks for contributing your thoughts!


1. Having that just robs two-weapon fighters. It is one thing to have it as an option among the abilities it is another if it is an integral part of resource management.
EK doesn't already rob TWF as well? Not every sub-class needs to be amazing for every fighting style.

2. What really sticks out to me is that you have multiple wrath costs for everything while. Things would be so much simpler if you reduced these numbers and costs while having a more linear growth. As of now you resource spikes whenever you use the Fighter's resources.
I'll think about how to fix this without making some abilities clearly better than others.

3. Righteous Might really stinks for a Fighter as you are robbing them of an Attack action. A Fighter could deal both more damage and control than this ever could just using the Attack action alone.
In its original incarnation it dealt d4's and could just be tacked onto an attack during the chain. The feedback that I was getting was that it was strictly better than Battle Master and didn't force you to make decisions on how to use your action.

At level 7, this new incarnation gives you the option to make 2 attacks in a round, or take advantage of the +2 to-hit to lower the penalty for GWF power attack for comparable or better damage than you could get with attacking twice.. or if you are fighting someone hard to hit, you might use it instead of regular attacks to get one solid thwack on them. Also keep in mind that as you level you begin a fight with more wrath to work with so that this becomes a really nice opening shot if you are within striking range..

At Level 7:
Round 1, use a bonus action to generate Wrath, run in, whack an enemy for Weapon + Str + 4d8 dmg (also potentially +10 for GWF).. not really an awful way to start your fight..

I'm open to suggestions on how to make it better without making it strictly better than a Paladin or Battle Master.

[Artagon]

I like it! just as said before lv 7 should be reserved for an out of combat ability and the 10th level ability is bland.

my suggestion is

15th level ability
If you pull it off just let it fill your wrath fully, it's not going to happen that often

10th level: You gain a second use of your second wind / short rest. Whenever you use your second wind you may also re-do a saving throw for any one ongoing effect you are currently afflicted by that required a saving throw.

7th level: maybe a use for wrath points to boost skill checks or something?

i really like the other features but the costs of the wrath abilities shouldn't be so all over the place to avoid having to look it up and slowing down the game

What if we swapped the 7th and 10th level abilities? If 7th should be a flavor ability this would make sense to me.. Part of the intended flavor of the Crusader is to emulate what made them so powerful in the middle ages.. namely their vastly superior armor and weaponry.

Keep in mind that Champion gets a second fighting style at 10th level, which is why I placed it at level 10 to begin with.. I'm absolutely fine moving it to 7th, since I am restricting it to having the Defense style (thus making it strictly weaker in DPS terms), and I could add some sort of pseudo-non-combat ability as well.. It wouldn't be Wrath based though, since Wrath clears after combat.

Maybe something Mount-based.. such as giving them Find Steed 1/week.. Since the Crusader doesn't actually get spells, it is strictly weaker than the Paladin version.. aka no shared buffs or heals for the mount. Basically it just gives them free access to a superior steed.

[Amnoriath]

Responses below, thanks for contributing your thoughts!

1. Except casting a spell already precludes them from using it in the first place. A weapon form isn't amazing based on the sub-class it is based on the styles and feats associated with it. My point it doesn't need to be amazing at it but you have given it an at will refreshment ability that will always be better for the sub-class as a whole than making another okay attack. The Eldritch Knight makes casting spells more economical action wise and compensates for probably the lack of the highest intelligence but damage wise consistently they are better off using their Attack action. Yours though doesn't have that trade off.
2. Some of the ones with higher cost are worse than others. Currently the best ones are Zealous charge(no brainer the first 10 levels), Aegis of Courage, and Ready for Action(feat synergy and greater damage return then Call to Arms). The worst ones are Unshakable Faith(most enemies can readily change those damage types in which it is suppose to protect against), Righteous Might, and Call to Arms(poor damage boost or innocuous AC boost).
3. The reason why it was better was because how easily your resources are replenished and that hasn't changed. Most Battlemaster maneuvers are just riders off the normal attacks. Your example only focuses on when you can get it, based on that logic Zealous Charge doubles your attacks and increases your attack for more movement. You ought to know that I was talking about when they get their 3rd and 4th extra attacks while using feats with their Attack action.

[Artagon]

1. Except casting a spell already precludes them from using it in the first place. A weapon form isn't amazing based on the sub-class it is based on the styles and feats associated with it. My point it doesn't need to be amazing at it but you have given it an at will refreshment ability that will always be better for the sub-class as a whole than making another okay attack. The Eldritch Knight makes casting spells more economical action wise and compensates for probably the lack of the highest intelligence but damage wise consistently they are better off using their Attack action. Yours though doesn't have that trade off.
2. Some of the ones with higher cost are worse than others. Currently the best ones are Zealous charge(no brainer the first 10 levels), Aegis of Courage, and Ready for Action(feat synergy and greater damage return then Call to Arms). The worst ones are Unshakable Faith(most enemies can readily change those damage types in which it is suppose to protect against), Righteous Might, and Call to Arms(poor damage boost or innocuous AC boost).
3. The reason why it was better was because how easily your resources are replenished and that hasn't changed. Most Battlemaster maneuvers are just riders off the normal attacks. Your example only focuses on when you can get it, based on that logic Zealous Charge doubles your attacks and increases your attack for more movement. You ought to know that I was talking about when they get their 3rd and 4th extra attacks while using feats with their Attack action.

Thanks for giving me specific examples on how cost is imbalanced. You've given me stuff to think about. I'm still not convinced that Righteous Might doesn't situationally have a purpose in its current incarnation, but I'll mull it over..

A couple options might be to just standardize the damage so it levels like a cantrip in damage.. thus making it the equivalent of War Magic, in that it does weapon damage + scaling cantrip style damage..

Alternatively or as a seperate ability, what do you think of burning Wrath to do Str/Dex damage on miss?

[Artagon]

I've made a number of changes based on feedback. Wrath generation has gone through another iteration. It now generates 1 wrath at the start of your turn and the bonus action generates 1 additional wrath with the chance for more if you provoke attacks of opportunity from it. The Wrath points you have at the start of combat also got pruned a bit.

As a consequence, I have adjusted Righteous Might to be in line with Cantrip damage. It does less damage than a full round of attacks, but it is in line with War Magic damage. Since it does not have ranged options like a normal cantrip might, it has +2 to-hit. This now has a standard of 3 Wrath Points per use.

Other abilities also had their costs streamlined to be 3 Wrath points on use.

Unshakeable Faith can now grant Resistance to ANY ONE damage type, including Magical types.

Call to Arms now only costs 1 point and grants +1d6. It now uses an Action, but you can now use additional Wrath points to grant this bonus die to extra targets during that action.

I moved Heavily Armored to 7th level and added 'Mounted' as an additional 7th level ability.

Perseverance is now at 10th level and grants an additional +1d10 healing on use.

[PapaQuackers]

I didn't look at all of the abilities yet, but Wrath generation is still problematic.

"At the beginning of combat you gain one Wrath"

Should be worded "After rolling initiative, if you have no Wrath you will gain 1 Wrath Point."

The same for at the beginning of each turn.

Wrath also doesn't expire as far as I can tell so I can generate it infinitely outside of combat since the phrase "end of an encounter" is very problematic from a mechanical stand point.

Try to word Wrath as closely as you can to BM abilities since that's there closest counterpart.

[Artagon]

I didn't look at all of the abilities yet, but Wrath generation is still problematic.

Fair enough, I'll work on the semantics.

[Artagon]

I believe I may have found a solution to concerns that Crusaders essentially have unlimited resources. Now they must enter a Righteous Fury (1 minute duration) as a bonus action in order to generate wrath and all wrath expires when righteous fury ends. They get a number of uses per long rest equal to their proficiency bonus. I may change this to be sub-class specific, I just hate granting too many abilities or bonuses at each sub-class level.

Basically I used Rage as my guide for how to enter it, number of uses, and duration.

[PapaQuackers]

Much better, but you probably want to give the players the ability to dismiss it early.

[Flaggson]

Been following this for awhile due to the concept, which I really like... The rage mechanic is exactly what I think this needed to make it come into line with power.... Plus I honestly think it makes sense...kudos to you

[Artagon]

I added an ability to dismiss the Fury early, in addition to a couple extra wrath abilities to review. Let me know if I still need to do some balancing.

[Artagon]

I have now combined Challenging Roar and Righteous Might into one ability called 'Challenging Blow'. I reduced the extra damage from d10s to d8s and added the effect of Compelled Duel to the attack. It ends at the start of your next turn, so now if you want to keep the aggro of an enemy you need to keep building wrath and using challenging blow.

Let me know what you think. Should I push the duration out to 1 minute or does it seem good as something you'd have to continue using to keep the aggro going?