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r/DungeonsAndDragons•
Dazered

D&D 5th edition Homebrew class archetype: The Dragonborn Fighter.

In my campaign one of my players is playing a dragonborn and they absolutely love this race. When analyzing the fighter archetypes (which they are currently approaching) I realized that there isn't anything that lets a dragonborn FEEL like a dragonborn fighting. In fact the dragon bloodline of the sorcerer class feels more dragon born. To this I have created a homebrew Martial archetype: The Dragonborn Fighter. I created this class using the newly released tips from WOTC on class modification.

The Dragonborn Fighter: prerequisites: Dragonborn or multi-class sorcerer with draconic bloodline

The Weapons of the Dragon: 3rd level You are proficient in unarmed strikes. As long as you are unarmed, attacks with your off-hand can add your strength modifier bonus to the damage roll. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d4 slashing damage. At level 5 this increases to a 1d6. At level 12 1d8 and at level 18 a 1d10. (Logic note: This increase mirrors the monk due to the fact the fighter will not benefit from weapons; however, it does not upstage the monk do to the increases to 1d8 and 1d10 comes later than that of the monk. Also the Dragonborn Fighter does not benefit from having their unarmed strikes being considered magical. A fix to this can be added by adding gloves that make unarmed strikes magical if that does become a really big problem, but I don't foresee it being one.)

Fighting Style Adjustment: 3rd Level (Logic note: The necessity of this arises from the fact that Fighting Styles assume that you have a weapon and/or a sheild) You may change your fighting style now, in addition to the regular fighting styles there are also new options to choose from: Protection (no Sheild): You may impose disadvantage if you are not wearing a shield using your reaction; however, if the attack roll would have hit (either
one) you are dealt 1/2 damage from the attack.

  Grappler:
      When you hit with an unarmed strike you may use a Free action to grapple the creature you hit. As perusual the target cannot be 
       more than one size larger than you. 

  Infused strikes:
       You may use a bonus action to activate this effect. If you choose to activate this effect your attacks are treated as both slashing 
        damage and the damage of your draconic heritage (the amount of damage you do does not increase). Your attacks are treated as
        magical for as long as this effect is active (one minute). You may only use this ability once between short and long rests. This 
         usage increases to two at 10th level and three times at 15th level.

Digging Claws: 7th level You are able to climb without spending extra movement. When grabbing another creature or object you can add 1/2 your proficiency bonus to the grab. (Logic Note: This adds versatility even to those that don't take the grappler trait, since this can be used to catch falling allies or objects.)

Harden Scales: 10th level (Logic Note: This is to help lighten the blow for the fighter not using a shield.) Your AC increases by 1 Your hp also increases by 5. At level 20 your HP increases by another 5 hitpoints

Amplified strikes: 15th level Your strikes are considered magical for over coming resistance to non-magical attacks. Your attacks also dean an additional 1d4+1 damage of your draconic heritage. If you possess the Infused strikes Fighting style, whenever you use that ability the amount of damage you deal with this effect increases to 2d4+2.

Draconic resilience: 18th level You gain immunity to the type of damage you are already resistant to. (If you are a sorcerer you become resistant to the damage type of your draconic heritage instead. If you are also a dragonborn of the same type you are immune and resistant... sorry). You also can add your proficiency bonus to all saving throws. (Logic Note: The proficiency bonus is to add some oomph to this feature. In addition it mirrors the legendary resistance that powerful dragons have.)

Please give me some feedback to this overall archetype so I can modify it before it comes to the table.

Posted Apr 7, 2015, 5:43 PM UTC

103
Galemp•

Glossing over this: I think the best way to make this stand out would be to emphasize the fact that it's intended to keep one hand free for grabbing and grappling. The bonus unarmed damage, grappling abilities, and especially the bonus climbing feature are all really good at that. But, don't assume the player wants to be wielding a weapon and an open hand; what about wielding the unarmed strike as the weapon, and bearing a shield? Keep it versatile and tap into the existing fighting styles as options, rather than adding new bonuses.

Let's tinker with the Infused Strikes class feature. First, we need to drop the "slashing and energy" damage as 5e D&D doesn't deal with mixed damage types; instead, we want to add the energy damage on top of the existing damage. Second, there's no need to restrict it to the claws. Have this feature let the fighter spend its use of dragon breath to add the damage die to its weapon attacks for a duration as a temporary enchantment. Treat it like an ability to cast Magic Weapon, perhaps let its duration be concentration-based. What could be cooler than a dragonborn bathing its weapon in firey breath, then smashing enemies with it?

2
Enicidemi•

I don't know why you would assume they wouldn't take a shield, as this archetype encourages main hand free, and second hand with whatever you want in it. Monk gains more attacks for being bare handed. That being said, I don't see the hardened scales being an issue.

The wording on the shielding feat is awkward enough to cause confusion about how it works. I'd probably change it so that you gain resistance to a single attack by using your reaction. The attack has to be from an attack roll (not from a save or suck spell).

Proficiency on all saves is huge. I'd probably change it to proficiency on wisdom and charisma saves, or simply getting advantage on a save a couple times per day. The reason dragons get it per the monster manual is not because of the fact they're a dragon, but game design reason (solo monster getting put to sleep or kept from attacking makes for a bad encounter). I wouldn't use it as inspiration.

1
DazeredOP•

Galemp: I was aiming the class towards fighting directly with the hands (not many dragons fight with shields). Which is the reason for the new fighting styles. If the player decides to use a shield or have no weapon in the off-hand, but a weapon in the main hand the player's handbook accounts for that well enough. The Three new features are intended for those players that wish to use no equipment besides their hands. Addressing the Infused Strikes it is intended for those players that worry about being stuck without a magic weapon attack, once again going off the assumption that the Dragonborn wishes to purely fight with it's hands. I see your point to the mixing damage types; however, I do not wish for the attack to add damage. So would you suggest something along the lines as: "half the damage rolled is considered slashing damage and half the damage rolled is the damage of your draconic heritage. If the number is odd, such as 7, what is left over is applied to the slashing damage. So if a red dragonborn deals 7 damage, when using this feature it would be 4 slashing damage and 3 fire damage."? This is to reflect that the dragonborn is merely channeling it's power rather than transforming it's hands into vestiges of elemental ferocity.

In addition I think you are confusing the Infused Strikes with Amplified Strikes (yes I know the names are similar so therefore confusing) Infused Strikes does not increase damage it merely changes the damage type you deal. Amplified Strikes are intended as a permanent buff for the attacks the dragonborn makes. Again assuming the player is choosing this path because they want to follow down a path that simulates the fighting of a dragon. The buff that a fighter that a chose the Infused Strikes experiences is to reflect that they have gained practice with channeling their elemental powers more than those that didn't so the Infused Strikes transfers from being a utility power to a (excuse my 4th edition) "encounter power".

Enicidemi:

In regards to your statements of why assume that they wouldn't take a shield, it's not that I don't assume that they won't I'm giving them options so that they don't have to. In the player's handbook for the Fighter's fighting styles there is a fighting style called protection. When I was initially typing this up from my home notes the home notes stated "In addition to the normal condition of protection, you may impose disadvantage without a shield" I realized that this would defeat the purpose of the fighting style I intended to create so I deleted that from the description of the new feat above, but forgot to re-explain what protection does. I added the Infused Strikes fighting style for those that intended not to use a weapon at all, since it'd be a major hindrance not to have magic attacks at all until level 15. If the player wishes to take a shield they certainly can, the player's handbook gives plenty of fighting style options to make that work already. I was simply adding two new fighting style options (since a player may only, normally, have one) Infused Strikes and Protection (no Shield) for those that wished to neither have weapons or a shield. I added Grappler because it made sense and I just like that idea.

The reason I have the attacks scale like a monks is because this class is styled to have a creature that is as vicious and as violent as a dragon and that makes the most sense to me. I don't see it being an issue. The proficiency bonus thing models the Diamond Soul feature that a monk gains at 14th level so it isn't game breaking. The reason that this feature is made so strong is because it is the 18th level feature that the character gains. I do understand game design reason behind it, since that other creatures like the beholder have it. Do you have a substitute sub-feature to use instead? I couldn't really think of one that would be super dragony. I'm open to suggestions.

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