Soldier-A Fighter Rework/Analogue [Slightly WIP]

[JNAProductions]

HIT POINTS
Hit Dice: 1d10
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10+Constitution Modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (6)+Constitution Modifier

PROFICIENCIES
Armor: Light, Medium, Heavy, and Shields
Weapons: All Simple and Martial weapons
Tools: Any one artisan tool or instrument

Saving Throws: Strength and Constitution
Skills: Choose two from Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Athletics, History, Insight, Intimidation, Perception, and Survival

EQUIPMENT
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
-(a) Studded Leather Armor, (b) Scale Mail, or (c) Chain Mail
-(a) Two weapons[1], or (b) one weapon[1] and a shield
-Any simple weapon[1]
-Any one pack
[1]-Any weapon with the Thrown property also comes with two extra copies. Any weapon that uses ammo comes with 20 pieces of ammo.

Soldier


Level
Proficiency
Bonus
Features
Grit
Grit
Die


1st
+2
Fighting Style, Grit
0/2
1d4


2nd
+2
Action Surge, Second Wind
0/2
1d4


3rd
+2
Archetype
0/2
1d4


4th
+2
Ability Score Improvement
0/2
1d4


5th
+3
Extra Attack
1/3
1d6


6th
+3
Indomitable (One Use)
1/3
1d6


7th
+3
Archetype Feature
1/3
1d6


8th
+3
Ability Score Improvement
1/3
1d6


9th
+4
Improved Fighting Style
1/4
1d8


10th
+4
Hardened, Indomitable (Two Uses)
1/4
1d8


11th
+4
Extra Attack II
2/4
1d8


12th
+4
Ability Score Improvement
2/4
1d8


13th
+5
Indomitable (Three Uses)
2/5
1d10


14th
+5
Master Fighting Style
2/5
1d10


15th
+5
Archetype Feature
2/5
1d10


16th
+5
Ability Score Improvement
2/5
1d10


17th
+6
Extra Attack III
3/6
1d12


18th
+6
Archetype Feature, Indomitable (Four Uses)
3/6
1d12


19th
+6
Ability Score Improvement
3/6
1d12


20th
+6
Master Of War
3/6
1d12



Fighting Style
At level one, gain any one Fighting Style (excluding a style that grants Cantrips or Maneuvers).

Grit
At level one, you gain a pool of Grit. You begin encounters with the first number, and have a maximum Grit equal to the second number. At level one, you begin with zero Grit and have a maximum of two.
Once per turn, when you take damage in a fight, you gain one Grit. Once per turn, when you hit with an attack, you gain one Grit. And you may spend a bonus action to gain one Grit if you have missed with an attack.
Any Soldier may spend Grit in the following ways. Any Grit usage that calls for a save is made with a DC of 8+your Proficiency modifier+the higher of your Strength or Dexterity modifier.
Bait And Switch (1 Grit): As a bonus action or reaction, you may swap places with an adjacent and willing ally. Roll your Grit die, and add the result to either you or the ally's AC until the end of your next turn.
Brace (1 Die): When a creature moves into your reach of a melee weapon, you may use your reaction to make an attack against them. Add your Grit die to the damage dealt.
Evasive Footwork (1 Die): When you provoke an Attack of Opportunity, you may roll a Grit die without an action, and add the result to your AC against that attack and any others provoked until the end of your turn.
Goading Attack (1 Die): When you hit a creature with an attack, you may add your Grit die to the damage, and force it to make a Wisdom save. On a failure, the creature has disadvantage to attack any creature except for you on its next turn, and any saves it forces anyone besides you to make are made with advantage.
Parry (1 Die): When you take damage, you may use your reaction to reduce the damage by a number equal to a roll of your Grit die plus the higher of your Strength or Dexterity modifier. Note that, if damage is reduced to 0, you do not gain Grit.
Precision Attack (1 Die): When you make an attack, you may add your Grit die to the attack roll.
Pushing Attack (1 Die): When you hit a creature with an attack, you may add your Grit die to the damage, and force it to make a Strength saving throw. On a failure, it is pushed up to 15' back or knocked prone.
Riposte (1 Grit): When a creature misses you with a melee attack, you may use your reaction to attack it. On a hit, add your Grit die to the damage.
Skillful (1 Grit): When you make an ability check, you may add your Grit die to the result.
Disarming Strike (2 Grit): When you hit a creature with an attack, you may add your Grit die to the damage, and force it to make a Strength saving throw. On a failure, it drops an item it's holding or wielding. If you are within reach, you may take the object-otherwise, it falls to their feet.
If you wish to perform one of these actions outside of a fight, you are assumed to have your starting Grit value. Any Grit expended stays expended until you are able to catch your breath-usually requiring only a minute or two of calm[1].
[1]-Note that, for something like a tense negotiation or a similar non-combat encounter, you will not be able to catch your breath and restore your Grit to its base value. Despite not being in physical harm (usually) a Soldier needs actual peace. Do not expect to use Skillful to add your Grit die to every skill check made ever.

Action Surge
At level two, you may take an extra action on your turn. You may do so once, and regain the ability to do so upon completing a short rest.

Second Wind
At level two, you may regain 1d10+Soldier Level HP as a bonus action. You may do so once, and regain the ability to do so upon completing a short rest.

Archetype
At level three, gain your chosen Soldier archetype. This grants benefits at levels three, seven, ten, fifteen, and eighteen.

Ability Score Improvement
At levels four, eight, twelve, sixteen, and nineteen, improve any one ability score by two, or any two by one.

Extra Attack
At level five, you may attack twice when you take the Attack action, instead of once. This increases to three attacks at level eleven and four at level seventeen.

Indomitable
At level six, in response to failing a save, you may reroll it. This reroll is made without advantage or disadvantage, and you may add your Constitution modifier as a bonus to the new roll. You may do so once, and regain the ability to do so upon completing a short rest. You gain the ability to do so an extra time at levels ten, thirteen, and eighteen, though you may not use Indomitable to reroll a save that has already been rerolled with it.

Improved Fighting Style
At level nine, you may either gain another Fighting Style, or improve an existing one.
Archery
You gain +1 to damage rolls made with ranged weapons.

Blind Fighting
Your blindsight increases to 15'.

Defense
Your AC increases by 1, even when not wearing armor. This stacks with the original +1 when wearing armor.

Dueling
You gain +1 to-hit with a weapon wielded in one hand.

Great Weapon Fighting
If a final damage die made with a weapon wielded in two hands would be less than your proficiency bonus, set that value to your proficiency bonus.

Interception
Add your Strength or Dexterity modifier to the amount of reduced damage.

Protection
The first time you use this ability in a round, it does not use your reaction.

Thrown Weapon Fighting
Gain +2 to attack rolls with thrown weapons.

Two Weapon Fighting
You may make your bonus attack as part of the attack action when wielding two weapons, rather than as a bonus action.

Unarmed Fighting
Increase your damage die to 1d8, or 1d12 when using two hands.

Hardened
At level ten, you gain proficiency in another save of your choice.

Master Fighting Style
At level fourteen, you may either master your improved Fighting Style, improve a second Fighting Style, or gain an additional Fighting Style.
Archery
You may make ranged attacks without disadvantage from having enemies within melee range of you, and may use a ranged weapon to make attacks of opportunity like a melee weapon.

Blind Fighting
Your blindsight increases to 25'.

Defense
Reduce any damage you take by your Proficiency bonus.

Dueling
TBD

Great Weapon Fighting
TBD

Interception
Increase the die to 2d10.

Protection
The first time you use this ability in a turn, it does not use your reaction.

Thrown Weapon Fighting
TBD

Two Weapon Fighting
You now gain two additional attacks with your offhand weapon.

Unarmed Fighting
TBD

Master Of War
At level twenty, you may use your Action Surge and Second Wind an additional time between rests. The first time you use Indomitable in an encounter, it does not take a regular use. And you add your proficiency bonus to all damage rolls made.


Warlord

Warlord's Grit
At level three, you may use your reaction to gain one Grit when an ally takes damage. You also gain the following new uses of Grit.
Rally (1 Grit): As a bonus action, an ally within 60' gains THP equal to your Grit die plus your Charisma modifier.
Commander's Strike (2 Grit): As a bonus action, you may let an ally make a single weapon attack as a reaction, adding your Grit die to the hit or damage roll (the ally's choice).
Steady (2 Grit): As a reaction to an ally failing a save within 60', you may add a Grit die to their total save roll.
War Cry (4 Grit): As an action, you release a war cry. All allies within 60' of you, including yourself, gain advantage on all d20 rolls made until the end of your next turn.

Leader
At level seven, you may take the Help action as a bonus action.

Look Out Sir!
At level fifteen, you may use your reaction to swap places with an ally that is within your movement range in response to the ally being targeted by a hostile action.

Valor
TBD


Okay. It's close to midnight where I am, so I'm going to stop here. A few things are still TBD, notably the level 18 Warlord feature, but it's largely playable. Or at least, largely complete-lemme know what you think, and what critiques you have.

[titi]

I really like the starting equipement

I like that you give the class a (pretty meh) use of BA. It makes it feel less like a waste of ressources not to have a BA planned in your build, but you're not punished for having one.

Is blindsight really that good ? I don't see how increasing it by 5ft at lvl9 is even comparable to taking the Defense fighting style.

Also the defense improvement are a bit boring, maybe ? Maybe one could give a damage reduction ?

Also, this is extremely minor, but I think master interception should be 2d10, to lower the chances of a bad dice roll.

Look out Sir needs an activator for the reaction

Overall, I really like it !

[JNAProductions]

I really like the starting equipement

I like that you give the class a (pretty meh) use of BA. It makes it feel less like a waste of ressources not to have a BA planned in your build, but you're not punished for having one.

Is blindsight really that good ? I don't see how increasing it by 5ft at lvl9 is even comparable to taking the Defense fighting style.

Also the defense improvement are a bit boring, maybe ? Maybe one could give a damage reduction ?

Also, this is extremely minor, but I think master interception should be 2d10, to lower the chances of a bad dice roll.

Look out Sir needs an activator for the reaction

Overall, I really like it !

Added DR to the Mastered Defense.
Made the change to Interception, good call.
Added a trigger to Look Out Sir.

[MrStabby]

Two overall impressions:

1) This looks really fun and is sporting some interesting mechanics that promote certain playstyles.
2) It is totally overpowered as is


HIT POINTS
Hit Dice: 1d10
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10+Constitution Modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (6)+Constitution Modifier

PROFICIENCIES
Armor: Light, Medium, Heavy, and Shields
Weapons: All Simple and Martial weapons
Tools: Any one artisan tool or instrument

Saving Throws: Strength and Constitution
Skills: Choose two from Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Athletics, History, Insight, Intimidation, Perception, and Survival

EQUIPMENT
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
-(a) Studded Leather Armor, (b) Scale Mail, or (c) Chain Mail
-(a) Two weapons[1], or (b) one weapon[1] and a shield
-Any simple weapon[1]
-Any one pack
[1]-Any weapon with the Thrown property also comes with two extra copies. Any weapon that uses ammo comes with 20 pieces of ammo.


All fine and normal here. No surprises.



Soldier


Level
Proficiency
Bonus
Features
Grit
Grit
Die


1st
+2
Fighting Style, Grit
0/2
1d4


2nd
+2
Action Surge, Second Wind
0/2
1d4


3rd
+2
Archetype
0/2
1d4


4th
+2
Ability Score Improvement
0/2
1d4


5th
+3
Extra Attack
1/3
1d6


6th
+3
Indomitable (One Use)
1/3
1d6


7th
+3
Archetype Feature
1/3
1d6


8th
+3
Ability Score Improvement
1/3
1d6


9th
+4
Improved Fighting Style
1/4
1d8


10th
+4
Hardened, Indomitable (Two Uses)
1/4
1d8


11th
+4
Extra Attack II
2/4
1d8


12th
+4
Ability Score Improvement
2/4
1d8


13th
+5
Indomitable (Three Uses)
2/5
1d10


14th
+5
Master Fighting Style
2/5
1d10


15th
+5
Archetype Feature
2/5
1d10


16th
+5
Ability Score Improvement
2/5
1d10


17th
+6
Extra Attack III
3/6
1d12


18th
+6
Archetype Feature, Indomitable (Four Uses)
3/6
1d12


19th
+6
Ability Score Improvement
3/6
1d12


20th
+6
Master Of War
3/6
1d12



Fighting Style
At level one, gain any one Fighting Style (excluding a style that grants Cantrips or Maneuvers).

Great. Simple but needed.


Grit
At level one, you gain a pool of Grit. You begin encounters with the first number, and have a maximum Grit equal to the second number. At level one, you begin with zero Grit and have a maximum of two.
Once per turn, when you take damage in a fight, you gain one Grit. Once per turn, when you hit with an attack, you gain one Grit. And you may spend a bonus action to gain one Grit if you have missed with an attack.
Any Soldier may spend Grit in the following ways. Any Grit usage that calls for a save is made with a DC of 8+your Proficiency modifier+the higher of your Strength or Dexterity modifier.
Bait And Switch (1 Grit): As a bonus action or reaction, you may swap places with an adjacent and willing ally. Roll your Grit die, and add the result to either you or the ally's AC until the end of your next turn.
Brace (1 Die): When a creature moves into your reach of a melee weapon, you may use your reaction to make an attack against them. Add your Grit die to the damage dealt.
Evasive Footwork (1 Die): When you provoke an Attack of Opportunity, you may roll a Grit die without an action, and add the result to your AC against that attack and any others provoked until the end of your turn.
Goading Attack (1 Die): When you hit a creature with an attack, you may add your Grit die to the damage, and force it to make a Wisdom save. On a failure, the creature has disadvantage to attack any creature except for you on its next turn, and any saves it forces anyone besides you to make are made with advantage.
Parry (1 Die): When you take damage, you may use your reaction to reduce the damage by a number equal to a roll of your Grit die plus the higher of your Strength or Dexterity modifier. Note that, if damage is reduced to 0, you do not gain Grit.
Precision Attack (1 Die): When you make an attack, you may add your Grit die to the attack roll.
Pushing Attack (1 Die): When you hit a creature with an attack, you may add your Grit die to the damage, and force it to make a Strength saving throw. On a failure, it is pushed up to 15' back or knocked prone.
Riposte (1 Grit): When a creature misses you with a melee attack, you may use your reaction to attack it. On a hit, add your Grit die to the damage.
Skillful (1 Grit): When you make an ability check, you may add your Grit die to the result.
Disarming Strike (2 Grit): When you hit a creature with an attack, you may add your Grit die to the damage, and force it to make a Strength saving throw. On a failure, it drops an item it's holding or wielding. If you are within reach, you may take the object-otherwise, it falls to their feet.
If you wish to perform one of these actions outside of a fight, you are assumed to have your starting Grit value. Any Grit expended stays expended until you are able to catch your breath-usually requiring only a minute or two of calm[1].
[1]-Note that, for something like a tense negotiation or a similar non-combat encounter, you will not be able to catch your breath and restore your Grit to its base value. Despite not being in physical harm (usually) a Soldier needs actual peace. Do not expect to use Skillful to add your Grit die to every skill check made ever.


This is where it gets crazy.
So you can gain grit three times per turn, once if you hit, once if you are hit and once as a bonus action. At level 5, you are unlikely to be missing with both attacks and you can be pretty sure to either be a great target (if in melee) or have a free bonus action (if you are an archer). I just don't see grit as being sufficiently limited.

Now add on to this that you get reaction attacks by expending grit, you can goad to trigger recouping grit, parry to offset the costs of all of this, precision attack to recoup grit on your attacks, pushing attack to work with brace, riposte in case an enemy doesn't hit you to let you recover grit. Its all just too synergistic with itself. I also assume 1 grit/1 die is a legacy issue.

"Grit" to me says endurance. Suffering but determination. A will to power through adversity. Gaining the resource after hitting someone with an attack doesn't quite match the word for me.

There are cool things here but its just too much overall

My advice would be to push more of this to the subclasses. Massively cut the ways in which grit can be gained - say taking a critical hit or failing a save on an in-combat abiity check (I love the adversity type of sound of "grit") but add back some into subclasses, that might be more frequent. A spellbreaker might get a grit back from breaking concentration or taking magic damage. A commander might get grit back from a critical hit on an ally within 30ft and so on.

I would also do the same to the ways to use it. Some OK, general uses that are a bit generic but broadly useful and some subclass based niche, but really flavourful ones. I get that you have already done that for one option but it would be cool to see what migh come on more exotic subclasses.



Action Surge
At level two, you may take an extra action on your turn. You may do so once, and regain the ability to do so upon completing a short rest.

Second Wind
At level two, you may regain 1d10+Soldier Level HP as a bonus action. You may do so once, and regain the ability to do so upon completing a short rest.

Archetype
At level three, gain your chosen Soldier archetype. This grants benefits at levels three, seven, ten, fifteen, and eighteen.

Ability Score Improvement
At levels four, eight, twelve, sixteen, and nineteen, improve any one ability score by two, or any two by one.

Extra Attack
At level five, you may attack twice when you take the Attack action, instead of once. This increases to three attacks at level eleven and four at level seventeen.

Yeah, this is all fine. Some good abilities that make the fighter a pretty solid class anyway. With the grit additions, even if you massively toned it down, you might still want to weaken some of these a little. It isn't like the fighter is weak at these levels.



Indomitable
At level six, in response to failing a save, you may reroll it. This reroll is made without advantage or disadvantage, and you may add your Constitution modifier as a bonus to the new roll. You may do so once, and regain the ability to do so upon completing a short rest. You gain the ability to do so an extra time at levels ten, thirteen, and eighteen, though you may not use Indomitable to reroll a save that has already been rerolled with it.
This was a weak ability. Now it is better. Still with the problem that cumulaively with the other abilities it overpowers the class.

Moving both this an second wind into "grit" abilities might help moderate the class a little.

I
mproved Fighting Style
At level nine, you may either gain another Fighting Style, or improve an existing one.
Archery
You gain +1 to damage rolls made with ranged weapons.

Blind Fighting
Your blindsight increases to 15'.

Defense
Your AC increases by 1, even when not wearing armor. This stacks with the original +1 when wearing armor.

Dueling
You gain +1 to-hit with a weapon wielded in one hand.

Great Weapon Fighting
If a final damage die made with a weapon wielded in two hands would be less than your proficiency bonus, set that value to your proficiency bonus.

Interception
Add your Strength or Dexterity modifier to the amount of reduced damage.

Protection
The first time you use this ability in a round, it does not use your reaction.

Thrown Weapon Fighting
Gain +2 to attack rolls with thrown weapons.

Two Weapon Fighting
You may make your bonus attack as part of the attack action when wielding two weapons, rather than as a bonus action.

Unarmed Fighting
Increase your damage die to 1d8, or 1d12 when using two hands.


I think this is a bit problematic. Fighter is still not doing badly here, and these are still generally going to be better than picking up a second fighting style. Defence might still be viable as a secondary... the proble is that each of these could be a bit game-breaking, in a very soft sense. Bounded accuracy works, the +1s here and there all add up. With magic armour, improved defence fighting style you can open up quite a gap between yourself and other characters that can be chalenging. Its not a hard rejection of the idea bu just a note that this might be a bit more challenging to balance than it looks.




Hardened
At level ten, you gain proficiency in another save of your choice.
Mixed views. On the one hand, I think that the fghter is heading into a level range where it could probably use a boost. Not a huge one, but a nice tweak like this is good. I also feel flavour-wise it goes well with "grit" for that sense of endurance. On the other hand, it really steps on the best bits of other character options. Monks are weak enough already and stepping into the tier 3 atttractions of monk isn't good. Likewise things like the gloomstalker ranger.




Master Fighting Style
At level fourteen, you may either master your improved Fighting Style, improve a second Fighting Style, or gain an additional Fighting Style.
Archery
You may make ranged attacks without disadvantage from having enemies within melee range of you, and may use a ranged weapon to make attacks of opportunity like a melee weapon.

Blind Fighting
Your blindsight increases to 25'.

Defense
Reduce any damage you take by your Proficiency bonus.

Dueling
TBD

Great Weapon Fighting
TBD

Interception
Increase the die to 2d10.

Protection
The first time you use this ability in a turn, it does not use your reaction.

Thrown Weapon Fighting
TBD

Two Weapon Fighting
You now gain two additional attacks with your offhand weapon.

Unarmed Fighting
TBD

OK. Now is the time to be generous. The fighter is in its unrewarding levels. Something a bit sexy here works for me. It will be interesting to see what results. Slight caution advised due to 4 attacks coming in at 17 rather than 20.



Master Of War
At level twenty, you may use your Action Surge and Second Wind an additional time between rests. The first time you use Indomitable in an encounter, it does not take a regular use. And you add your proficiency bonus to all damage rolls made.

The wording might benefit from being a bit different - maybe recover a use of indombitable when you roll initiative. Not quite the same, but more standard. Proficiency to all damage rolls seemed a bit meh at first - nice to have, noticable but not game changing... but on 4 attacks + bonus action + reaction and al enabled by Grit you could pretty frequently be getting a serious boost.


Warlord


Warlord's Grit
At level three, you may use your reaction to gain one Grit when an ally takes damage. You also gain the following new uses of Grit.
Rally (1 Grit): As a bonus action, an ally within 60' gains THP equal to your Grit die plus your Charisma modifier.
Commander's Strike (2 Grit): As a bonus action, you may let an ally make a single weapon attack as a reaction, adding your Grit die to the hit or damage roll (the ally's choice).
Steady (2 Grit): As a reaction to an ally failing a save within 60', you may add a Grit die to their total save roll.
War Cry (4 Grit): As an action, you release a war cry. All allies within 60' of you, including yourself, gain advantage on all d20 rolls made until the end of your next turn.

Some of this really depends on what fraction of the power you want in the subclass. It honestly doesn't seem to add that much extra flavour or utility and I imagine a lot of Soldiers would feel the same, even with different options.

I like the idea of ally support as a subclass and I might suggest keying the subclass abiities of charisma (and you could have a Soldier subclass for Int and one for Wisdom as well). As it is, its easier to just forgo things like rally and keep charisma low. A real incentive to have a different stat allocation would help them to feel a bit different.

I would also be tempted to dropthe war cry - a few reasons. 1 it could be a cool theme for a whole subclass with more war cry options. 2 its just a bit clunky giving an ability at level 3 that can't be used.



Leader
At level seven, you may take the Help action as a bonus action.
Not that great. Your bonus action will be pretty busy between the rich set of bonus actions martial characters can gain through feats and recovery of grit as a bonus action.



Look Out Sir!
At level fifteen, you may use your reaction to swap places with an ally that is within your movement range in response to the ally being targeted by a hostile action.
Be careful with the wording. Remember that uness it explicitly says so, the result of a reaction happens following the trigger. An ally being attacked will trigger it but it will happen after the attack - which isn't bad for a non-signature ability, but might not be what you intended,


Valor
TBD
All in all I think the subclass needs a bit more space. What fraction of turns does it get to feel different from other Soldiers? How will it offer something to different party compositions - say a wizard, a druid and a cleric in the party? There is plenty of power in the main class to poach from if you wanted to.




I think the whole thing is close to being a work of brilliance. I love the grit theme and he way it ties in with other abilities like second wind and indombitable and even Hardened to give the feel of a soldier that keeps soldiering on - implacable. Whilst i has obviously grown out of a fighter shell, I think it could also afford to leave some of that behind. With such a strong theme and such a rich set of subclasses that could be explored, trimming out the action surges and extra attacks and other powerful effects that don't add to the theme, I think you could build it up even more.

I would love to see more temp HP, more save manipulation to shrug off effects, maybe some regeneration and more subclasses able to do cool stuff.

[JNAProductions]

Something I should add, and I think would help address your issues:

You cannot gain Grit from an action that uses it.
So, an attack that spends Grit cannot gain it back.

I am at work, so can’t really do a proper edit now.

[MrStabby]

Something I should add, and I think would help address your issues:

You cannot gain Grit from an action that uses it.
So, an attack that spends Grit cannot gain it back.

I am at work, so can’t really do a proper edit now.

Certainly this helps - though you can hit with an atack to get grit to trigger a reaction attack - can the reaction gain grit? Other issues are still things like expending grit to push an enemy back to trigger something like a Pole Arm Mastery attack of oportunity. Brace couldn't recoup on that attack but the PAM could. On the other hand you sacrifice being abe to recoup grit on a hit with your two main attacks. I am certainy not going to deny it helps, but its still very powerful.

To perhaps run some numbers, how many times would you expect this ability to be used in a day? What would be a balanced number for kind of giving then the whole battlemaster subclass for free, but without restriction on the number of abilities known?