C&C Classes for the World of Terra

[Kaiser_Kris]

I'm just going to open up one thread for this- I'm taking up quite a bit of room and I've got the Dwarven Defender to go yet, with the racial classes ...

If the Barbarian represents primal will in its glory, the Paladin the holy crusader, the Monk the ideal of personal perfection and the Ranger the guardian of the wilderness, where does this leave the Fighter in the world of Terra? By far the most common type of adventurer, many tend to underestimate the Fighter's martial skills and value to a party.

They could not be more wrong. Part of the problem is that many outside of adventuring circles confuse any wielder of arms with the Fighter. The Fighter has as much to do with peasant militias and ordinary foot soldiers as a 'magician' using cheap parlour tricks has with a powerful wizard. Fighters are specialists and intensely skilled individuals, with far more to offer than simple brawn.
Fighter (Strength)

Alignment: Any

Hit Dice: d10

Weapons: Any

Armour: Any

BtH Progression: Unchanged

XP Progression: Unchanged

Class Abilities:

Combat Maneuvers: The Fighter is allowed to add their full BtH to all combat maneuvers. (trip, disarm, sunder, etc) Other martial classes (Berserker, Ranger, Paladin) add half their class level, and other classes do not gain this bonus at all.

Weapon Specialization: At 1st level, the Fighter can choose a weapon in which to specialize, gaining a +1 bonus to attack and damage. At 6th level, this bonus increases to +2/+2. At 11th, 16th and 21st levels, this increases again.

Combat Feat: At 1st level, the Fighter is capable of choosing one combat feat. At 5th, 9th, 13th, 17th, 21st, and 25th levels, they can choose another combat feat from the list.

Armour Training: Removes all movement penalties with armour, and lowers Dexterity penalty by 1.

Bravery: Grants a +2 to Charisma saves against fear.

Combat Dominance: Gain an extra melee attack when fighting enemies with one HD. Stacks with the fighter's bonus attacks.

Devastating Critical: Add 1 weapon dice when making a critical attack.

Favored Enemy: Gives the Fighter +2 to attack, damage, AC and saves against one type of enemy.

Improved Combat Maneuvers: Grants the Fighter a +2 bonus when using a specific combat maneuver.

Improved Initiative: Allows the Fighter to add Dexterity or Wisdom to Initiative rolls.

Improved Unarmed Combat: Fighter does d4 when unarmed, can do lethal damage.

Skill Focus: Allows the Fighter to use one skill-like class ability, ie, the Rogue's Hide ability. Can only be taken once. Must have a Prime in the relevant skill.

Sword and Shield Fighting: Allows Fighter to use shield to bash enemy, d2 damage for light shield, d4 for heavy shield.

Ranged Fighting: +1 to hit with all ranged weapons.

Two-Handed Fighting: Adds +1 to damage when using two-handed weapons, and adds Str bonus again to damage on critical hits.

Two-Weapon Fighting: Reduces penalties for two-weapon fighting to -2/-4.

Toughness: +1 HP per level.

Weapon Specialization: Gain +1 bonus to attack and damage for a weapon other than your main specialized one. Can only be used once per weapon.

Vital Strike: Forgo additional attacks in order to do greater damage with a single attack.

Extra Attack: At levels 9 and 18, the Fighter gains an extra attack.

Ascension Power: At level 20, the Fighter gains a permanent +2 bonus to their Strength, Dexterity or Constitution, have their critical threshold reduced to 19 and become immune to fear.

Deific Power: At level 25, the Fighter becomes a god of warfare, doing double the regular weapon dice in damage with all weapons and gaining a +4 save against all forms of magic, as well as the ability.

The Ascension and Deific powers are somewhat setting specific, but they could apply just as well to any campaigns. As for replacing Combat Dominance with what is basically feats? Well, while I feel that for most classes the feat system tends to drag the system, I think it makes sense for fighters. I'll be going through the specific list and codifying it a bit more, but I'm going for about 12-15 final options, of which the Fighter can choose 9.
Ranger: (Strength)

Hit Dice: d10

Alignment: Any

Weapons: Any

Armour: Any up to +5 AC before enchantments.

BtH: Unchanged

Abilities: Animal Empathy, Favored Enemy, Field Medicine, Move Silently, Scale, Traps, Survival, Track, Combat Marauder, Ascension Power, Deific Power

XPP: Unchanged

Animal Empathy: Rangers are capable of making Charisma checks to communicate with animals, though their level of communication is limited by the relative lack of understanding of animals.

Favored Enemy: At 1st level, the Ranger can select a type of enemy (outsider (evil), goblinoid, etc), with which they gain a +2 bonus to attack, damage, AC, saves, Knowledge checks to identify and Wisdom checks to track. At 10th and 20th levels, the Ranger can choose another group to add this bonus to.

Field Medicine (Wisdom): Rangers can use a Wisdom check to successfully delay or neutralize poisons as detailed in the PHB. They can also make a basic Wisdom check in order to heal d8 hit points, with the margin of success over 12 being the number of extra hit points healed. This ability can be used a number of times daily equal to their Wisdom modifier.

Move Silently, Scale, Traps, Survival: Unchanged.

Combat Marauder: At 6th level, the Ranger gains the ability to add their level to damage when attacking a specific enemy covered under their Favored Enemy, until that opponent is dead. This ability can be used once per day.

Ascension Power: At 20th level, the Ranger gains a bonus of +2 to their Strength, Dexterity or Wisdom, as well as the ability to attempt a death attack against any enemy with less than 20 HD that is covered in their Favoured Enemies list.

Deific Power: At 25th level, the Ranger will be granted the company of a magical beast, which will follow the Rangers every order. This creature will have 10 HD and a range of natural and supernatural abilities. It will resemble an ordinary animal, but have human-level intelligence. Most typically, creatures such as wolves, lions, or horses will appear. This animal companion can be summoned or sent back to its natural realm at will. If the animal perishes, a replacement can be summoned after a week.
Rogue: (Dexterity)

Hit Dice: d6

Alignment: Any

Weapons: Unchanged

Armour: Unchanged

BtH: Unchanged

Abilities: Sneak Attack, Cant, Climb, Decipher Script, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Open Locks, Pick Pockets, Flanking Attack, Ascension Power, Deific Power

XPP: Unchanged

Sneak Attack: Whenever a Rogue manages to catch an enemy by surprise, they can attempt to make a sneak attack, doing double damage if successful. This attack must either be melee or within thirty feet. Sneak attacks do triple damage at 5th level, quadruple damage at 10th level, five times damage at 15th level, six times damage at 20th level, and seven times damage at 25th level.

Cant, Climb, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Open Locks, Pick Pockets, Traps: As PHB

Decipher Script: As PHB, but Rogue has only a -5 penalty to deciphering the script and can cast the spell if they make an Intelligence check at base + spell level. Failure may result in negative consequences, though.

Improved Initiative: Rogues add their Dexterity modifier to Initiative rolls.

Evasion: At 2nd level, Rogues gain a +1 to AC and Dexterity saving throws. At 10th level, Rogues avoid all damage from area blasts if they pass a Dexterity saving throw, when they would normally suffer half damage. At 18th level, a Rogue can avoid all damage from a successful attack once per day.

Flanking Attack: At 4th level, the Rogue can attempt a sneak attack whenever they are flanking an enemy. This can be done once per enemy.

Ascension Power: At 20th level, Rogues gain a permanent bonus to their Dexterity or Intelligence scores, and gain the ability to read and use magical scrolls and wands without any penalty.

Deific Power: At 25th level, Rogues gain a mysterious sixth sense which tells them of the presence of treasure in a room and some clues as to what it is (magical items, gold, gems). They also gain the ability to automatically hit with one Sneak Attack per day, and the ability to hide in plain sight, as if under the effects of an invisibility spell.

Coming Soon!
Assassin: Dexterity

Hit Dice: d6

Alignment: Any non-good

Weapons: Any

Armour: Unchanged

BtH: Unchanged

Abilities: Case Target, Climb, Death Attack, Disguise, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Poisons, Sneak Attack, Traps, Ascension Power, Deific Power

XPP: Unchanged

Case Target: As PHB, but also grants a +1 to hit target if successful and enables the Assassin to track the enemy as a Ranger for up to 2d4 hours after the successful casing. At 10th level, the bonus to hit increases to +2, and at 15th level, the Assassin's ability to track their quarry becomes permanent.

Death Attack: As PHB

Climb, Disguise, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Traps: As PHB.

Poisons: The saving throw against poison for Assassins increases to +2 at 7th level, +3 at 11th level, +4 at 15th level and at 19th level, the assassin becomes immune to poison.

Ascension Power: At 20th level, the Assassin gains a +2 bonus to her Dexterity, Wisdom or Strength and gains the ability to automatically succeed in death attacks against targets with less than half their HD.

Deific Power: At 25th level, the Assassin becomes an avatar of death, and can attempt death attacks as ordinary attacks. Furthermore, the Assassin can, a number of times per day equal to their Wisdom bonus, destroy an enemy in such a manner that they cannot be raised from the dead or even resurrected (a wish, an epic-level spell, can save them, however).

Sneak Attack: As Rogue

Traps: As PHB
Barbarian: Constitution

... Unchanged. Totally unchanged.
Monk: Constitution

This monk won't get the shallow end of the ki pool.
Wizard: Intelligence

Magical rituals? Metamagic via SIEGE check? Oh my!
Illusionist: Intelligence

The Jedi Mind Trick? Shapeshifting as a class ability?
Cleric: Wisdom

Clerics can lay on hands? What weirdness is THAT? And outsiders as well as undead for turning? Hot damn!
Druid: Wisdom

Granting sentience to plants and animals? The ability to detect thoughts on animals without using spells?
Knight: Charisma

... meh. My least favorite class. Meh.
Paladin: Charisma

Smite Evil at first level? Well, okay, that's not so weird. But what's this about ... summoning a guardian angel?
Bard: Charisma

The Bard can sing a song so beautiful it raises the dead? Or kills people? Geez.