Kensai fighter subclass, for great justice

[Gnomes2169]

Spirit Weapon has a pretty high enhancement bonus. So far, the best weapons and armor have a +1 bonus on them, and nothing higher than a +3 (based on playtests), so a +4 to damage is a bit too much. There are no hard and fast rules for when you get progressions; granting the bonus at 7th level is fair enough, but the subsequent progression is a bit too much. 17th level should be the moment where you get the +3 bonus, definitely, but not earlier. That leaves when you should get the +2 bonus, which is harder to adjudicate because of the irregularity of the progression.

You're right about the magic bonus, though I think the scaling can be pretty evenly scaled... +1 at 7 (or 3, which is the earliest level you can find a magic weapon, according to Hoard of the Dragon Queen), +2 at 12 (or 10), and +3 at 17. I think I'll try out the 3, 10, 17 loadout, since those run in line with the wonky leveling system...

Bonded Fighting Style is pretty cool, but somewhat incomplete and focused on bonuses. The Archery Spirit is missing, for example. Work with the tools provided by the system (advantages, mostly) to your benefit. I can't say how I'd work each, but at least Duelist Spirit could have a method of gaining advantage on attacks if you fight with a one-handed weapon (in the spirit of precision, mostly).

I was trying to focus more on melee, but with the class redesign, I'll be trying to figure out something for ranged... but if you will note, this is an improved fighting style, and fighting styles are all based around giving a static bonus of some kind. I gave back the damage on a miss for great weapons fighting, and tried to fix the "massive" damage gap between the fighting styles by giving twf the second strike (they actually average out to be 65.2 (Gwf), 62 (Duelist) and 67 (twf) if all of the attacks hit, though Gwf will do 24 damage on 0 hits. So not exactly 100% equal in that respect. ) Archery... I do not know what to do. Maybe gaining advantage on attacks within 30', and having no disadvantage on attacks made in melee?

The Silver Wind feature doesn't seem to work tied to Fighting Styles. I could see a Two-Weapon specialist doing a "cleave", for example. In fact, when I think of "Silver Wind", I think mostly of Dueling Strike rather than Power Attack (as mentioned, this is a hefty bonus to damage on a system that's trying to simplify things), and Ghostly Run is WAY too powerful (the effect of Disengage is one; not breaking Stealth while moving, though, is too good particularly on a class that has no innate Stealth proficiency and that probably depends on heavy armor, which provides disadvantage on Stealth). Blade Dance and Warrior Spirit suffer from a similar problem, and actually looks like an attempt to upstage the Battlemaster (honestly, I'd add those as new maneuvers for the Battlemaster, who definitely needs them). I'd reconsider the two.

Yeah, most of it is going to be cut, except as maybe a few maneuvers. Dueling Strike and Avalanche of Blades (the second one as a very nerfed version of itself) will likely reappear as maneuvers that can be purchased for Ki, and I'm debating adding Whirlwind Blade a well...

It's a shame I don't see Power Surge or Withstand as features. Power Surge could provide double proficiency bonus on Strength checks, rechargeable on short rests and usable a few times (other than one). Withstand could easily be getting advantage on Constitution checks. I like the idea of Instill, particularly if you could make it so that it grants advantage rather than a fixed bonus. Binding Instill to a fighting style (and to Duelist, which is mostly a solitary fighting style that relies on precision strikes to an extent) makes little sense. Finally: Ki Warlord could be a cool 17th level class feature.

Power Surge will likely appear as a maneuver (spend Ki to use it once, then spend ki and make a constitution check to get it more times until after a long rest kind of thing...), Withstand is going to be the level 10 ability (though just granting advantage would become worthless at later fighter levels due to indomidable, so I'll add something more to that... also remember, withstand is for dex-based saves in 3.5), Instill (aka infuse) will be moved to level 15 and grant advantage instead of a +3 bonus, and Ki warlord will be level a 17 that interacts with the ki pool in a new (and hopefully interesting) way and gives the Kensai some story powers.

Question: have you considered adding Ki to the Fighter via the Kensai? Maybe you could have all those abilities require using 1 point of Ki, and have a weaker progression than that of the Monk, with Ki Warlord offering a cool benefit. That way, you can have an alternative Blademaster, with slightly better techniques (which is what this Martial Archetype seems, besides the free magic weapon) and with a slight Monk flavor but without upstaging the Monk in its entirety (a Way of the Elements Monk would surpass you without even thinking about it), sorta like the Eldritch Knight archetype. This could be a more elegant way to deal with the Kensai than having three "trees" of arbitrary abilities that just seem like adding more numbers.

I've considered it now... and I have to agree. I'm thinking that the combo of a Monk's ki progression (with a pool of 1/2 level) and a battlemaster's (Or more, just a set of class-unique spirit and mobility-themed) maneuvers could be interesting. The monk would have more Ki to throw around, but the Kensai would have a few more options and a way to save on spending/ recovering it. And yes, variable costs of the ki abilities sort of necessitates the recovery method. Also, I'm thinking of making this class more based around dexterity and mobility, trying to capture the essence of a fighter/ monk hybrid than a walking block of wall that can do some Ki stuff. As such, I'm going to make the save DCs scale off of Dexterity instead of strength... any thoughts/ concerns about that?

Still: it's an interesting premise. The Bonded Fighting Style is a very creative mechanic: while the Champion diversifies its fighting styles, the Kensai focuses on them, making them opposites but part of the same class. Spirit Weapon also provides a much-needed benefit to the Fighter in a sensible way. Deal with the other class features with some creativity, and you have a winner.

Thank you for the complement, and hopefully I'm thinking of a way to do so. XD