The Ultimate 3.5 Fighter Fix

[Cynic]

I was bored and I decided to do this.
~

FIGHTAR
*cue theme song*
#I”m a fightar man like nobody can.
I've got the looks and I don't need no books.
I'm a fightar man and someday I'll duplicate #

Playing a Fightar – A Fightar is the penultimate super soldier experiment. You have a goal and it is to be a soldier or more precisely a FIGHTAR. You can be a FIGHTAR for yourself or for Uncle Sam Gamgee.


Alignment – any
BAB – good
saves – all god
Starting gold – as Rogue
Starting age – who cares.
Hit Die – d12
Class skills (8+int) – Appraise, Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering, geography, local, nature, religion, nobility & royalty), Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Perform, Profession, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Magic Device, Use Rope.


Level Benefits
1. Fast Movement, rage 1/day, Fighter Feat, Monk Feat, flurry of blows, unarmed strike, Scout or Champion, Sneak attack +1d6, trapfinding, Unarmed Monk abilities
2. Uncanny Dodge, Fighter Feat, Monk Feat, Improved Evasion
3. trap sense +1, Still Mind, Sneak Attack +2d6,
4. rage 2/day, Fighter Feat, Ki Strike (magic), slow fall 20', Improved Uncanny Dodge
5. Improved Uncanny Dodge, purity of body, , Sneak Attack +3d6,
6. Trap sense +2, Fighter Feat, bonus feat, slow fall 30',
7. Damage Reduction 1/-, Wholeness of Body, Sneak Attack +4d6,
8. Rage 3/day, Fighter Feat, slow fall 40',
9. Trap Sense +3, Sneak Attack +5d6, Multicellular Division, Inheritance
10. Damage Reduction 2/-, Fighter Feat, Ki Strike (Lawful), slow fall 50', Special Rogue Ability
11. Greater Rage, Diamond Body, Greater Flurry, Sneak Attack +6d6, Multicellular Division, Inheritance
12. Rage 4/day, trap sense +4, Fighter Feat, abundant step, slow fall 60',
13. Damage Reduction 3/-, Diamond Soul, Sneak Attack +7d6, Special Rogue Ability, Multicellular Division, Inheritance
14. Indomitable Will, Fighter Feat, Slow fall 70',
15. Trap Sense +5, Quivering Palm, Sneak Attack +8d6, Multicellular Division, Inheritance
16. Damage Reduction 4/-, rage 5/day, Fighter Feat, Ki strike (adamantine), slow fall 80', Special Rogue Ability,
17. Tireless Rage, Timeless Body, tongue of the sun and moon, Sneak Attack +9d6, Multicellular Division, Inheritance
18. Trap Sense +6, Fighter Feat, slow fall 90',
19. Damage Reduction 5/-, Empty Body, Sneak Attack +10d6, Special Rogue Ability, Multicellular Division, Inheritance
20. We can build you into the 5-quantillion dollar man.

Abilities:

Scout or Champion – You are either all woodsy and haven't bathed in a long time or a Crusader with Divine powers and haven't bathed in a long time. Take your pick. If you pick woodsy, from now on you have all Ranger powers for the level. If you pick Crusader, from now on you have all Paladin powers for the level. But you stink a helluva lot still though. Both tracks are without any of the spells that they receive.

Unarmed Monk Abilities – your unarmed damage, your AC bonuses, and speed bonuses go up like the monk and have the same limitations.

Multicellular divison – For some odd reason, you split up into two fightars at 9th level and every two levels after that. The second fightar can be different from you. Congratulations, you have a twin and you are it's father and mother.

Inheritance – You realize that you have a rich uncle and you also realize that all his wealth is yours. But he was healthy yesterday and today he is dead. What happened? Who cares, you are rich! Your Wealth by Level doubles at 9th and doubles again every two levels after that.

We can build you into the 5-quantillion dollar WIZZAARDDD – All the hardwork you put into being yourself is almost completely destroyed. Destroy your character sheet because you need it as material to build your cocoon out of. You have realized that you could be so much more. You build your cocoon and then you destroy it with awesome WIZARD POWERS! Take out a new character sheet and make yourself a 20th level WIZARD but you realize that you still keep your multicellular division and all your inheritance. You do need things to throw at people and what better “things” than your old comrade fightars-children-brothers! By the way, if you haven't realized that this entire exercise was fruitless because you just wasted the entire session for your gaming group by making a 20th level wizard. You can not take shortcuts in this process. Your friends maybe angry with you but at least you are a 20th level WIZARD!

[Bigode]

TOZ: you talk like I don't know what a balance reason is. I say it's better balanced fast casting every damn round.

Aldragon: a random recharge's fvcking craptastical. Even once every 2 rounds would be better in practice than 2:3 or 1d4-1 (first for being easy to misremember, second due to being unreliable).

[arangatang]

A_Cynic, although I appreciate the effort, I feel you have needlessly overpowered the class by ignoring the alignment restrictions. Extensive playtesting has revealed that a lawful FIGHTAR performs as well as a Bard, Druid, or Wizard against same level threats. Imagine the possibilities if we allowed the FIGHTAR to be chaotic? For example:

A level 13 FIGHTAR(s?) swears an oath to defeat a foppish Ice Devil threatening the kingdom from its floating iceberg fortress. The FIGHTAR must contend with a flying, greater teleporting devil spamming wall of ice, cone of cold and persistent image.

While a lawful FIGHTAR must contend with this dangerous enemy, a chaotic or neutral FIGHTARs can simply forsake his (their?) oath and fly off to another campaign setting in their (his?) Spelljammer, effectively neutralizing the encounter. And remember, according to the DMG, characters utilizing their skills to avoid an encounter gain XP!

[TOZ]

Your reasoned discourse has enlightened my mind, Bigode. Allow me to fall in line behind you.

[Bigode]

Both posts between this one and the previous one of mine seem to be wonderful and lovely pieces of sarcasm. Keep up the good work, guys.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Aldragon: a random recharge's fvcking craptastical. Even once every 2 rounds would be better in practice than 2:3 or 1d4-1 (first for being easy to misremember, second due to being unreliable).

Yeah, I'd prefer to avoid the extra dice-rolling and bookkeeping as well. I don't even like the recharge times for draconic breath weapons very much. Once every 2 rounds seems decent to me, since it cuts down the nova potential enough to stretch your spells out over a decently long period.

[Bigode]

Yeah, I'd prefer to avoid the extra dice-rolling and bookkeeping as well. I don't even like the recharge times for draconic breath weapons very much. Once every 2 rounds seems decent to me, since it cuts down the nova potential enough to stretch your spells out over a decently long period.

Now that we've ruled out the worst alternatives: do you actually think fast casting low-level spells continuously's much better than what the other 2 characters do? Namely, unparalleled flexibility and huge barrages of damage dice.

[shau]

Scout or Champion – You are either all woodsy and haven't bathed in a long time or a Crusader with Divine powers and haven't bathed in a long time.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Now that we've ruled out the worst alternatives: do you actually think fast casting low-level spells continuously's much better than what the other 2 characters do? Namely, unparalleled flexibility and huge barrages of damage dice.

I'm not sure. At level 5, you get to throw down nearly free (in terms of action cost) webs/glitterdusts while shooting arrows and wearing magic armor. Mages get to immunize themselves to arrows, leave spell slots open to solve whatever problems show up, and have more debuffs than you by virtue of having access to a higher level of spells. Stalkers (rogue/rangers) can magically boost their speed to outrun you, have equal BAB, get a minion to distract enemies with (then again, both of the other classes get familiars. This one's just more disposable), and can deal very nice damage.

In terms of magical ability, you are better than the Stalker. You can hit them with webs if they don't bring you down with the first few attacks, negating their mobility. Mages are much more adaptable than you, but you are tougher and have a better Fort save.

Having thought about things a little further, I think the classes seem balanced enough that I'd have some difficulty choosing between them if I was going for pure effectiveness.

- - -
Another thought:
I'd probably up the skill points by 2 for every class (actually, I think I'll make that 2-4 for each class. 3 for Mages, 4 for Battle Arcanists, and 2 for Stalkers), then add some more class skills to Stalkers and Battle Arcanists.