GalacticAxekick
2017-02-08, 11:34 PM
Working on 5e Fighter homebrew, I'm trying to make a greater variety of roles viable besides tanking and DPS. What's more, I'm trying to make the Fighter an all-inclusive warrior, so that instead of selecting a Knight/Samurai/Duelist/etc subclass, you'd select equipment and features with the flavour or mechanics you need for your goal. It borrows a lot from the Warlock's Eldritch Invocations, the 3.5e Fighter's Fighter Bonus Feats, and the Pathfinder Path of War disciplines.
This lot of overhaul, but easily the biggest road block I'm hitting is mounts
Mounts aren't accessible at 1st level, unless you're rolling gp and buying equipment. But in that exact case, you may not have the gp for more expensive equipment a rider might want. An early knight build is investing about 110 gp in weapons and armour (chainmail, shield, lance, longsword). An early samurai is investing 165 (chainmail, scimitar, longsword, longbow).
At the same time, I couldn't include a horse as a starting equipment option. Offer choices like two weapons vs one weapon and a shield or light vs medium vs heavy armour works, because different builds will take different options as appropriate. There's no item, and no set of items, I could fairly offer as an alternative to a horse, because armour and weapons need to come with the horse, and adventuring gear is so much cheaper than the horse that everyone would pick the horse every time.
My half-solution was hey, don't treat the horse as equipment. At level 1, similar to a Warlock's Pact Boon, the Fighter could choose between martial doctrines: Infantry, Navy and Cavalry
Cavalry would grant a horse, but also let that horse grow with the Fighter, much like a Ranger's animal companion. It's a bit counter-intuitive to grant a feature along with a free mount, but if I granted a mount alone, it'd be ideal to pick Infantry/Navy and save up for a mount later. The feature makes cavalry worthwhile.
Navy would almost certainly gain some situational benefits, like climbing/swimming speeds, prolonged breath-holding, etc. Care should be taken to prevent them from becoming too ranger-like, but overall this should be simple to spec, because Navy has its own niche where it's obviously better than Cavalry and Infantry.
Infantry is troublesome. I can't think of any bonuses I'd grant to infantry that wouldn't apply to fighters in general, but something must be offered to makes this option contend with the other two.
This is where you come in. Basically I'm asking what features could I give infantry Fighters to contend with Navy and especially Cavalry Fighters? I need mounts to be accessible, but if I do so, I need unmounted combat to be competitive
This lot of overhaul, but easily the biggest road block I'm hitting is mounts
Mounts aren't accessible at 1st level, unless you're rolling gp and buying equipment. But in that exact case, you may not have the gp for more expensive equipment a rider might want. An early knight build is investing about 110 gp in weapons and armour (chainmail, shield, lance, longsword). An early samurai is investing 165 (chainmail, scimitar, longsword, longbow).
At the same time, I couldn't include a horse as a starting equipment option. Offer choices like two weapons vs one weapon and a shield or light vs medium vs heavy armour works, because different builds will take different options as appropriate. There's no item, and no set of items, I could fairly offer as an alternative to a horse, because armour and weapons need to come with the horse, and adventuring gear is so much cheaper than the horse that everyone would pick the horse every time.
My half-solution was hey, don't treat the horse as equipment. At level 1, similar to a Warlock's Pact Boon, the Fighter could choose between martial doctrines: Infantry, Navy and Cavalry
Cavalry would grant a horse, but also let that horse grow with the Fighter, much like a Ranger's animal companion. It's a bit counter-intuitive to grant a feature along with a free mount, but if I granted a mount alone, it'd be ideal to pick Infantry/Navy and save up for a mount later. The feature makes cavalry worthwhile.
Navy would almost certainly gain some situational benefits, like climbing/swimming speeds, prolonged breath-holding, etc. Care should be taken to prevent them from becoming too ranger-like, but overall this should be simple to spec, because Navy has its own niche where it's obviously better than Cavalry and Infantry.
Infantry is troublesome. I can't think of any bonuses I'd grant to infantry that wouldn't apply to fighters in general, but something must be offered to makes this option contend with the other two.
This is where you come in. Basically I'm asking what features could I give infantry Fighters to contend with Navy and especially Cavalry Fighters? I need mounts to be accessible, but if I do so, I need unmounted combat to be competitive