gloryblaze
2021-10-27, 09:04 PM
Martial Archetype: The Cowpuncher
Life is rough in the frontier, and a rough life produces rough folks. Cowpunchers are some such rough folks: farmers, ranchers, and more who learn to fight to protect themselves and their livestock from bandits and monsters. Cowpunchers solve their problems with their fists, whether that's by shaking them at a disagreeable feller in a disreputable saloon or using them to punch a slightly more disagreeable feller in a slightly less reputable saloon.
Bonus Proficiencies:
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with firearms, improvised weapons, and your choice of one of the following: brewer's supplies, carpenter's tools, cobbler's tools, cook's utensils, leatherworker's tools, weaver's tools, or woodcarver's tools.
Cattle Rustler:
Starting at 3rd level, you learn to use a specialized type of net called a lasso, which is a length of rope that ends in a loop that can be tightened. You gain the following benefits when you make an attack with a net:
You can use your Strength modifier, instead of Dexterity, for the attack roll.
The net's short and long ranges are doubled.
You can make your normal number of attacks when you take the Attack action and attack with a net, but only one of your attacks may be a net attack.
Additionally, when you attack with a net, you can choose to continue to hold the net in one hand even after you throw it. If you do, you gain the following benefits until you drop the net or the target frees itself:
When a creature tries to use an ability check to free itself or another creature from a net you attacked with, the DC is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier (minimum 10).
Once per turn when you take the Attack action, you can make a special melee attack against a creature you are restraining with a net you are holding. To make this special attack, contest your Strength (Athletics) check against the target's. If you win the contest, you pull the target up to 15 feet closer to you and knock it prone. If you’re able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this attack replaces one of them.
You can also turn a 50-foot length of rope into a net over the course of a minute. A net created in this way can only be used by you or another creature with this feature.
Thick Skin:
Also at 3rd level, countless tumbles, scrapes, and brawls have made your skin as tough as old cow leather. You can use your Constitution modifier, instead of your Dexterity modifier, to determine your AC when you are unarmored or only wearing light armor. You cannot gain this benefit if you use a shield.
Tough Customer:
Starting at 7th level, your unarmed strikes use a d6 for damage. If you have the Unarmed Fighting fighting style, your unarmed strikes instead use a d8 for damage, or a d10 if both your hands are free.
Haymaker:
Also at 7th level, you can throw a punch strong enough to tip a cow. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can force that creature to succeed on a Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. The DC is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier.
Brass Knuckles:
At 10th level, your punches hit harder than most metal weapons. Your unarmed strikes ignore resistance to bludgeoing damage, and they treat immunity to bludgeoning from nonmagical attacks as resistance instead.
The Bigger They Are...:
Also at 10th level, you can use a net to restrain creatures that are Huge or smaller, and you can use Haymaker to knock such creatures prone.
Starting at 15th level, you can use a net to restrain creatures of any size, and you can use Haymaker to knock such creatures prone.
The Harder They Fall:
At 15th level, when you use Cattle Rustler or Haymaker to knock a creature prone, it takes bludgeoning damage equal to your unarmed strike damage. If the target is Large or larger, you can roll one additional damage die for each size category larger than Medium the target is.
Bull Stomp:
Starting at 18th level, you are adept at kicking creatures while they're down. When you hit a prone creature with an unarmed strike for the first time on a turn, it has vulnerability to that attack's damage.
I mentioned in my design notes for the Oath of the Marshal (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?637968-Oath-of-the-Marshal-A-Sacred-Oath-for-settings-with-firearms) that when designing a full set of Wild West gunslinger subclasses, the Barbarian and Paladin pose unique challenges because it's hard to make their class features work with firearms. The Fighter poses the exact opposite problem: If I really wanted to, I could easily design a gunslinger archetype for Dex fighters... but why would I, when a Battlemaster with the Gunner feat from Tasha's works super well for a trick-shooting gunslinger?
Instead, I decided to take a hard left turn and make my Wild West Fighter into a Strength-using melee fighter. Of course, this came with its own problems. After all, cowboys aren't really known for wearing plate armor or using greatswords! I decided to use the class features to push this fighter away from heavy armor and heavy weapons, in a pretty unorthodox direction: nets and unarmed strikes. I knew from the start that I wanted to make a lasso fighter using the net rules, but the unarmed strike portion (and the subclass name!) was informed by the Cow Puncher class from the West of Loathing video game, which was also one of my overall inspirations when deciding to make a Wild West campaign. This subclass still gets firearm proficiency for flavor purposes, but none of the subclass features really support firearms being anything more than a backup weapon for when your enemies are out of net range. This also means that this subclass would be really easy to import into a no-gun game.
After I decided to go the unarmed route, my number 1 priority was making sure that the class felt different than the monk and wasn't stepping on any toes, which is why this subclass's modus operandi is built around pulling people close to them and making it hard to leave (via Restrained and Prone) instead of the more mobile hit-and-run style facilitated by Unarmored Movement, Step of the Wind, and Stunning Strike (no opportunity attack if the enemy's stunned!). Let me know if that worked out! Comments and criticism appreciated.
Life is rough in the frontier, and a rough life produces rough folks. Cowpunchers are some such rough folks: farmers, ranchers, and more who learn to fight to protect themselves and their livestock from bandits and monsters. Cowpunchers solve their problems with their fists, whether that's by shaking them at a disagreeable feller in a disreputable saloon or using them to punch a slightly more disagreeable feller in a slightly less reputable saloon.
Bonus Proficiencies:
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with firearms, improvised weapons, and your choice of one of the following: brewer's supplies, carpenter's tools, cobbler's tools, cook's utensils, leatherworker's tools, weaver's tools, or woodcarver's tools.
Cattle Rustler:
Starting at 3rd level, you learn to use a specialized type of net called a lasso, which is a length of rope that ends in a loop that can be tightened. You gain the following benefits when you make an attack with a net:
You can use your Strength modifier, instead of Dexterity, for the attack roll.
The net's short and long ranges are doubled.
You can make your normal number of attacks when you take the Attack action and attack with a net, but only one of your attacks may be a net attack.
Additionally, when you attack with a net, you can choose to continue to hold the net in one hand even after you throw it. If you do, you gain the following benefits until you drop the net or the target frees itself:
When a creature tries to use an ability check to free itself or another creature from a net you attacked with, the DC is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier (minimum 10).
Once per turn when you take the Attack action, you can make a special melee attack against a creature you are restraining with a net you are holding. To make this special attack, contest your Strength (Athletics) check against the target's. If you win the contest, you pull the target up to 15 feet closer to you and knock it prone. If you’re able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this attack replaces one of them.
You can also turn a 50-foot length of rope into a net over the course of a minute. A net created in this way can only be used by you or another creature with this feature.
Thick Skin:
Also at 3rd level, countless tumbles, scrapes, and brawls have made your skin as tough as old cow leather. You can use your Constitution modifier, instead of your Dexterity modifier, to determine your AC when you are unarmored or only wearing light armor. You cannot gain this benefit if you use a shield.
Tough Customer:
Starting at 7th level, your unarmed strikes use a d6 for damage. If you have the Unarmed Fighting fighting style, your unarmed strikes instead use a d8 for damage, or a d10 if both your hands are free.
Haymaker:
Also at 7th level, you can throw a punch strong enough to tip a cow. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can force that creature to succeed on a Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. The DC is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier.
Brass Knuckles:
At 10th level, your punches hit harder than most metal weapons. Your unarmed strikes ignore resistance to bludgeoing damage, and they treat immunity to bludgeoning from nonmagical attacks as resistance instead.
The Bigger They Are...:
Also at 10th level, you can use a net to restrain creatures that are Huge or smaller, and you can use Haymaker to knock such creatures prone.
Starting at 15th level, you can use a net to restrain creatures of any size, and you can use Haymaker to knock such creatures prone.
The Harder They Fall:
At 15th level, when you use Cattle Rustler or Haymaker to knock a creature prone, it takes bludgeoning damage equal to your unarmed strike damage. If the target is Large or larger, you can roll one additional damage die for each size category larger than Medium the target is.
Bull Stomp:
Starting at 18th level, you are adept at kicking creatures while they're down. When you hit a prone creature with an unarmed strike for the first time on a turn, it has vulnerability to that attack's damage.
I mentioned in my design notes for the Oath of the Marshal (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?637968-Oath-of-the-Marshal-A-Sacred-Oath-for-settings-with-firearms) that when designing a full set of Wild West gunslinger subclasses, the Barbarian and Paladin pose unique challenges because it's hard to make their class features work with firearms. The Fighter poses the exact opposite problem: If I really wanted to, I could easily design a gunslinger archetype for Dex fighters... but why would I, when a Battlemaster with the Gunner feat from Tasha's works super well for a trick-shooting gunslinger?
Instead, I decided to take a hard left turn and make my Wild West Fighter into a Strength-using melee fighter. Of course, this came with its own problems. After all, cowboys aren't really known for wearing plate armor or using greatswords! I decided to use the class features to push this fighter away from heavy armor and heavy weapons, in a pretty unorthodox direction: nets and unarmed strikes. I knew from the start that I wanted to make a lasso fighter using the net rules, but the unarmed strike portion (and the subclass name!) was informed by the Cow Puncher class from the West of Loathing video game, which was also one of my overall inspirations when deciding to make a Wild West campaign. This subclass still gets firearm proficiency for flavor purposes, but none of the subclass features really support firearms being anything more than a backup weapon for when your enemies are out of net range. This also means that this subclass would be really easy to import into a no-gun game.
After I decided to go the unarmed route, my number 1 priority was making sure that the class felt different than the monk and wasn't stepping on any toes, which is why this subclass's modus operandi is built around pulling people close to them and making it hard to leave (via Restrained and Prone) instead of the more mobile hit-and-run style facilitated by Unarmored Movement, Step of the Wind, and Stunning Strike (no opportunity attack if the enemy's stunned!). Let me know if that worked out! Comments and criticism appreciated.