Rhinohide Fighter Subclass

[LibraryOgre]

Note: This is explicitly designed for a primitive setting, where there will be little of the armor that is the fighter's usual forte. The theme is not so much "rhinoceros" as "person who ignores wounds they should have taken."

3rd: Enduring Toughness: At each level (beginning with 3rd), you add your proficiency bonus to your your hit point roll, in addition to your Constitution modifier. This is not retroactive. Additionally, you may add either your Dexterity or Constitution modifier to your armor class.

7th: Rhinohide: At the beginning of each of your turns, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to twice your proficiency bonus. This does not apply if you are at 0 hit points, nor do these temporary hit points stack with any other temporary hit points you might have.
When making a move, or taking the dash action, you may ignore up to 10 feet of difficult terrain.

10th: Third Wind: You may use your Second Wind ability one additional time per short or long rest. You add a third use at 15th level, and a fourth use at 18th level. You may also use one use of Second Wind to end any condition that can be ended by a save, as a reaction.

15th: Vitals Protection: When subject to a critical hit, you may reduce the hit to a standard hit. Once this feature is used, you may not use it again until you have completed a short or long rest.
Whenever you lose all your temporary hit points, you may use a reaction to make an attack at a target within melee range.

18th: Dragonhide: As a reaction or bonus action, you acquire resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage for one minute. This ability my only be used once, but it recharges after a long rest.

Spoiler: Original Version

Show

3rd: Enduring Toughness: At each level (beginning with 3rd), you add your proficiency bonus to your your hit point roll, in addition to your Constitution modifier. Additionally, you may add either your Dexterity or Constitution modifier to your armor class.

7th: Rhinohide: At the beginning of each of your turns, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to twice your proficiency bonus. This does not apply if you are at 0 hit points, nor do these temporary hit points stack with any other temporary hit points you might have.

10th: Third Wind: You may use your Second Wind ability one additional time per short or long rest. You add a third use at 15th level, and a fourth use at 18th level.

15th: Vitals Protection: When subject to a critical hit, you may make a Constitution save to reduce the hit to a standard hit. The DC of this saving throw is 20. Once this feature is used successfully, you may not use it again until you have completed a short or long rest.

18th: Dragonhide: As a reaction or bonus action, you acquire resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage for 6 rounds. This ability my only be used once, but it recharges after a long rest.

[JNAProductions]

Is the prof to HP retroactive?

Vitals Protection shouldn’t require a save, if it’s a once per rest feature.

Overall, feels kinda… lackluster. Nothing NEW, just more HP, basically.

[GalacticAxekick]

3rd: Enduring Toughness: At each level (beginning with 3rd), you add your proficiency bonus to your your hit point roll, in addition to your Constitution modifier. Additionally, you may add either your Dexterity or Constitution modifier to your armor class.

A solid buff! But it doesn't change what the Fighter DOES.

Fighters are notoriously boring to play, since their only option is to make ordinary weapon attacks, and so the subclass has the crucial job of giving the fighter more option on his turn.

Take inspiration from rhinos! Give the fighter a charge attack of some kind!

7th: Rhinohide: At the beginning of each of your turns, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to twice your proficiency bonus. This does not apply if you are at 0 hit points, nor do these temporary hit points stack with any other temporary hit points you might have.

Again, a solid buff, but no new gameplay. 7th level in particular is the level when fighters gain a utility feature for outside combat.

How about an increased run speed, the power to charge through difficult terrain and obstacles, or something else rhino themed?

10th: Third Wind: You may use your Second Wind ability one additional time per short or long rest. You add a third use at 15th level, and a fourth use at 18th level.

Solid buff. Nothing new. How about the power to use second wind to do something besides heal? For example, to instantly end any condition that gas reduced your speed to 0.

15th: Vitals Protection: When subject to a critical hit, you may make a Constitution save to reduce the hit to a standard hit. The DC of this saving throw is 20. Once this feature is used successfully, you may not use it again until you have completed a short or long rest.

This shouldn't involve a save. It should just work.

18th: Dragonhide: As a reaction or bonus action, you acquire resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage for 6 rounds. This ability my only be used once, but it recharges after a long rest.

Make it a solid minute. Six rounds is an arbitrary number and tedius to keep track of.

[J-H]

This really seems like a complicated port of Barbarian base abilities (HP, making hits hurt less, etc.) to the Fighter chassis. It doesn't add any substantial identity or decision-making points in battle.

[LibraryOgre]

A quick note: This wasn't so much "rhino-themed" as "SCA joke". In the SCA, all armor, regardless of its actual protection, is assumed to be as tough as chain mail. Wearing leather (with the appropriate safety materials in place)? Chain mail. Wearing plate? Chain mail. To an extent, judging hits comes down to the honor system. Someone who consistently says that good hits didn't hurt enough to count? They're accused of "rhino-hiding".

Is the prof to HP retroactive?
...

Nothing NEW, just more HP, basically.

I didn't intend it to be retroactive; I'll make the note.

As for the lack of new material, that's a fair cop.

A solid buff! But it doesn't change what the Fighter DOES.

Nothing particular to comment on here, but wanted to recognize some good and useful comments and suggestions.

This really seems like a complicated port of Barbarian base abilities (HP, making hits hurt less, etc.) to the Fighter chassis. It doesn't add any substantial identity or decision-making points in battle.

Also useful. I'll do some reworking to make this a bit cooler.

Thanks, folks. Watch this space.

[JNAProductions]

What's SCA?

[LibraryOgre]

What's SCA?

Officially, the "Society for Creative Anachronism"... they dress up in medieval clothes, and some of them fight with rattan weapons in armor. They do a fair amount of research, and I spent some time hanging out with them in college.

Alternatively, the acronym sometimes stands for "Society for Creative Alcoholics" and "Society for Consenting Adults", which gives you an idea of how they have fun, aside from discussing historical stitching techniques and hitting their friends with sticks.

[LibraryOgre]

3rd: Enduring Toughness: At each level (beginning with 3rd), you add your proficiency bonus to your your hit point roll, in addition to your Constitution modifier. This is not retroactive. Additionally, you may add either your Dexterity or Constitution modifier to your armor class.

7th: Rhinohide: At the beginning of each of your turns, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to twice your proficiency bonus. This does not apply if you are at 0 hit points, nor do these temporary hit points stack with any other temporary hit points you might have.
When making a move, or taking the dash action, you may ignore up to 10 feet of difficult terrain.

10th: Third Wind: You may use your Second Wind ability one additional time per short or long rest. You add a third use at 15th level, and a fourth use at 18th level. You may also use one use of Second Wind to end any condition that can be ended by a save, as a reaction.

15th: Vitals Protection: When subject to a critical hit, you may reduce the hit to a standard hit. Once this feature is used, you may not use it again until you have completed a short or long rest.
Whenever you lose all your temporary hit points, you may use a reaction to make an attack at a target within melee range.

18th: Dragonhide: As a reaction or bonus action, you acquire resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage for one minute. This ability my only be used once, but it recharges after a long rest.

[JNAProductions]

It's better. But still... Dull.

The one thing I like is Third Wind-since it's a reaction to end a condition, you can fail a save, and then just say "Nah, I ain't dealing with this," and end that condition.

For what it's worth, I'd want to run the numbers before I'd allow this in a game I'd run, but conceptually it's fine. And none of the mechanics are inherently unbalanced, I'd just want to do a number munch to make sure they're not crazy. It's just not something I'd play on its own-maybe as one side of a Gestalt, to amp up the numbers, but not if that was my whole PC.

[LibraryOgre]

It's better. But still... Dull.

What kinds of things would make it less dull, in your opinion? As I see it, it compares pretty well in terms of "does things new" to a Berserker barbarian, or a College of Valor Bard, or a Champion fighter... even most of a Thief Rogue.

[JNAProductions]

Level three is a number change. Just adds to HP.
Level seven is functionally similar-a refreshing pool of THP might seem more interesting, but is functionally just a bit of extra HP. And "Ignore 10' of difficult terrain" is a conditional +10' to move speed.
Level ten has the interesting feature, with the ability to end a save condition using your Second Wind.
Level fifteen, I actually missed (well, read and promptly forgot) the reaction attack-that's actually a good lil' thing.
Level eighteen is proactive, but just reduces damage.

I definitely think comparing it to the Champion is appropriate-they're BOTH boring. To put another way, I think you'd agree with this: A lot of players would find playing a Rhinohide Fighter just as dull as a Champion Fighter. Not EVERY player is gonna dislike that-some people just want to play simple characters mechanically so they can focus on more complicated parts elsewhere.

So, if you're GOING for simplicity, job's a good one. But, when I look at homebrew, I tend to like the more complex and novel things.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's not to my taste-it's not bad, just not what I look for. Make sense?

[LibraryOgre]

So, if you're GOING for simplicity, job's a good one. But, when I look at homebrew, I tend to like the more complex and novel things.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's not to my taste-it's not bad, just not what I look for. Make sense?

Gotcha.

[GalacticAxekick]

What kinds of things would make it less dull, in your opinion?

The Fighter has the narrowest combat role of any class (damage dealer) and only one useful option it its turn (attack). So 3rd level should expand the Fighter's role and grant it interesting choices every turn. Think of a feature that lets the Rhino Hide Fighter play a role like area control, ally defender, enemy disabler, etc, and tie that feature to the theme of "toughing things out".

The Fighter also has absolutely no non-combat role. So 7th level should grant it one. Think of a feature that lets the RHF perceive things others cant, move to places others cant, dominate social situations, etc. Again, tie it to the tough guy theme.

10th, 15th and 18th level should continue to enhance to roles the RHF gained at 3rd and 7th level.