Is there a Fighter template?

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Archery is to me incredibly feast or famine, a lot of foes are weak to it (indifferent dodge, obvious weak points) and others are mostly immune (good dodge mostly but also DR and lack of weak points)

Most of the active defense reasons come out in the wash: Yes, a melee fighter can benefit from Deceptive Attack to wear down Dodge . . . but then, a melee attack admits a retreat for +3 to Dodge, while few foes will risk Dodge and drop against a ranged attack because of the whole "and now you have waste turns getting back up, and have a Dodge penalty until you do" thing. Against a lot of enemies, "you can't retreat" is a lot like giving all ranged attacks a free Deceptive Attack.

The weakness issue is a bigger deal. The real problem is that arrows are for the most part either impaling or piercing, neither of which is great against the vast numbers of monsters who are Unliving, Homogeneous, or Diffuse, mostly because of the lower wounding modifiers (Exploits, p. 55), though Homogeneous and Diffuse creatures also get No Brain and No Vitals. I'd urge archers troubled by this to see Making Your Point (Adventurers, p. 105). Cutting points – especially if they are also fine, have Puissance, and/or are Corrosive, Fire, Consecrated, Cold, or Lightning arrows – are kind of nice.

[Phantasm]

Against Diffuse enemies, the best choice is probably an arrow with an alchemical explosive warhead. Likely super-expensive in DFRPG, tho

[tbone]

Originally Posted by Kromm

The real problem is that arrows are for the most part either impaling or piercing, neither of which is great against the vast numbers of monsters who are . . .

Right. One of the things I like about the scout template is that the "wilderness fighter" theme isn't just color; the characters are really optimized for the outdoors. The targets there are mostly mundane humanoids and beasts; wide-open spaces let a scout pepper their juicy vitals with ease. Go underground, though, and it's all low ceilings and short melee distances and weirdo foes that laugh at arrows. The woodsy guys are going to have to find more specific vulnerabilities to shoot at, or load up on specialty arrows, or just break out the sword and play backup melee fighter.

So it goes with optimization. It's something the scouts and druids can lament together, over a mug of bracken ale or moss tea or whatever they go for.

(Aside to Phantasm: Yes, explosive arrows would be great for diffuse foes. But how to keep the arrow from just passing through the cloud-being and exploding against the wall far beyond? We need some sort of ghost-detecting proximity fuse!)

[Kalzazz]

I really don't consider archers at disadvantage against Diffuse foes very much, load cutting arrows and your noodly archer hits that toxifier just as hard as a ST+Striking ST 2t half ogre knight with a very fine greatsword

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Against Diffuse enemies, the best choice is probably an arrow with an alchemical explosive warhead. Likely super-expensive in DFRPG, tho

Define "super expensive", sure, a lot of very effective potions are pretty expensive, but an Acid Bomb arrow would only be like 12$... and a Scout delivering a Flash Nageteppo into the midst of the enemy all the way over there can be a nice way to start combat.

And if you're planning on using a potion on an enemy anyway, why not let the guy who is the ranged combat master Hawkeye it at them...


Grenade Warhead, doubles cost and weight of arrow or bolt type, Acc -1, -5 to both range multipliers. Doesn't affect damage type of arrow or bolt.
(extrapolated from Low-Tech Chinese Fire Arrow rules)

This allows grenade concoctions† and potions, and throwable magic items to be delivered by an arrow or bolt, does not include weight or cost of concoction/potion/magic item. Takes 5 seconds to prepare the arrow, though warheads may be prepared in advance. Firing the arrow counts as 1 Round of shaking for Shakable potions. Fountain warheads have a diverter which turns Jets into Area weapons, Reach becomes Radius, duration is divided in half round up.

† Don't forget about Nageteppos...



New concoctions:

Fire Bomb (Grenade) This grenade is packed with Alchemical fire sand. Requires a Ready action to light, once lit it explodes in 1d-3 seconds (a successful Alchemy roll while lighting allows the user to increase or decrease the time by 1 sec) for 1d-1 cr ex. and 1 burn damage. $25, 1 pound.

Mind Fog (Grenade). Respiratory agent made from burned lacquer. Fumes affect a two-yard radius. Anything that breathes must make an immediate HT-3 roll. Failure means dizziness, confusion, and loss of focus: -3 DX and IQ for 1 minute. Success means only -1 DX and IQ for the same duration. Frequently used by ninja to disrupt pursuit or soften up a dangerous target. $300, 1 lb. (stolen from DF 12 Ninjas)

Glow Bomb (Grenade) Requires 1 ready action to prepare glow vial. Once prepared the vial glows as per normal. If shaken (requires a Ready) and thrown or fired in a Grenade Warhead, this bomb will spray the glowing liquid across a 2 yard area. Once the liquid is exposed to air, the glowing properties begin to wear off quickly, divide remaining glow duration by six. $50, 0.5 lb.





Alternately, I've allowed Archers to take either a modified Spell Arrow spell/Advantage if they are "multiclassing" into a Caster Profession, or Imbuements from Power-Ups 1 Imbuements. Both can make for very effective, if expensive (exp wise) ranged combatants.

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by ULFGARD

This is what I have done for a player who wanted a "pure" fighter - make Born War-Leader optional. That was the only "offending" trait for him.

I like that--with 70 discretionary points, the Fighter is more attractive than the Swashbuckler for those who want to play heavy hitters.

Swashbuckler can get half-ogre [20], Extra Attack [25], and Striking ST+2 [10] for 55 points. On top of the built-in Weapon Master, Weapon Bond, and Luck that gives you a Light Edged Rapier 3d+4 cut attack (x3 for Rapid Strike and Extra Attack), with five points left over for expanding Weapon Master to cover knives for throwing and close combat, or purchasing extra Will, or extra Move.

By the book, a Knight's 60 points won't get him that far without using Quirk points. If you go half-ogre [20] and Weapon Master [20] to get similar damage output, that's five points shy of Extra Attack. (And you still are lacking the Swashbuckler's Enhanced Parry and Luck.) Releasing the hard dependency on Born War Leader (or just giving the Knight Born War Leader for free, which is actually what I'd prefer as GM) lets the Knight pick up e.g. a 3d+8 (cut) dwarven dueling glaive at almost the same level of base skill as the Swashbuckler (20 vs 20 + Weapon Bond).

There's still meaningful differences between them (Knight gets to wear heavier armor and use bows, Swashbuckler can throw knives 4x to 8x as quickly as the knight can fire his bow and is significantly harder to hit in melee; Knight has sacrificial parry while Swashbuckler has kiai, blindfighting and power blow; dueling glaives and rapiers have different strengths and weaknesses on a hex grid) but I like how those 10 extra points make the Knight more competitive as a melee specialist.

[mburr0003]

Since this was necro'ed...

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Biggest 'not fighter' aspect of the modified Knight is lack of option for Heroic Archer, since in D&D I loved playing weapon specialist fighter archers

I have no issues with Knights in my game taking Heroic Archer, as long as there is no Scout Player already (or if they both are fine stepping on each other's primary combat niche).

A Heroic Archer Knight is a very different party role than a Scout.

[pawsplay]

The old Dragon Warriors RPG called this character type a knight as well. And it fits, as each character needs a social role as an adventurer. "Pure" fighters tended to be either knight/henchmen or mercenaries, and practically speaking, anybody on horseback with at least some metal armor is a "knight."