Staff Fighting

Staff Fighting is a Primary Power Set for Brutes, Scrappers, and Stalkers, and a Secondary Power Set for Tankers.

You are an expert with the quintessential quarterstaff. While anyone with the requisite strength can wield a staff in combat, you've mastered stunts and maneuvers that most could not hope to match. You strike at your foes in sweeping arcs and swift, precision jabs. You can also learn various combat stances that allow you to strike more effectively, quickly, or efficiently.

A Staff is a blunt weapon capable of being wielded with one hand or two. You make a melee attack roll to hit a target with it, to which you add your Strength Modifier. You are also considered proficient with it, so you add your Proficiency Bonus to the attack roll. If you use it one-handed, it deals 1d8 bludgeoning damage. With two hands that damage is 1d10. In either case, you add your Strength Modifier to the damage. It has a melee reach of 10 feet, which may be overridden by specific features.

Staff Fighting Features

Staff Expert

You are an unparalleled expert with your weapon. You are proficient with all forms of blunt pole arms. For the purposes of this Power Set, a Staff is a quarterstaff (from the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Player's Handbook).

• Extra Attack: When you use your Action to make a melee attack with your Staff, you can make a second melee attack against any creature in range as part of the same Action. At 5th level, you can make two additional attacks, at 10th level, you can make three, and at 15th level you can make four additional attacks. Each attack uses its own attack and damage rolls.
• Bonus Attack: Whenever you use your Action to make at least one Staff melee attack, you may make one one-handed Staff melee attack using your Bonus Action. You apply your Strength Modifier to the damage for your Bonus Attack.
• Versatile Endurance: You can apply Endurance Dice to the attack rolls of your Staff attacks as well as the damage rolls. These dice are applied individually.

Perfection

As a Staff Fighting expert, you always strive to excel with your skills. When conditions are right, you find yourself in a heightened state off Staff Fighting effectiveness called Perfection. You achieve Perfection whenever you make a critical attack roll with one of your Staff Fighting features, or cause enough damage to bring a creature to 0 hit points and render it incapacitated using a Staff Fighting feature. Once acquired, you retain your state of Perfection until the end of your turn on the round following the current one. Thus, if you begin your turn with Perfection and gain it again during that turn, the new application will last until your next turn.

While you are in a state of Perfection, you gain advantage on all Staff Fighting melee attack rolls, Dexterity Checks, and Dexterity Saving Throws. Your Eye of the Storm and Sky Splitter features are also affected by Perfection, depending on which Staff Mastery stance you are in.

Precise Strike

You can use Mercurial Blow at 1st level, Eye of the Storm at 2nd level if you are a Brute or a Scrapper, at 6th level if you're a Tanker, and at 8th level if you are a Stalker. You can use Innocuous Strikes at 10th level if you are a Brute or Scrapper, and at 14th level if you're a Tanker, and Sky Splitter at 12th level if you're a Brute, Scrapper, or Stalker, and at 15th level if you're a Tanker.

• Mercurial Blow (1st): When you use your Bonus Action to make a successful Staff Fighting melee attack against the same creature that you made at least one of your successful attacks against using your Action, all subsequent attack rolls against that creature have advantage until the end of its next turn.
• Eye of the Storm (2nd/6th/8th): You can use your Action to make a rapid series of Staff melee attacks against all creatures within 10 feet of you. You swing your Staff with instinct, not focusing on specific targets, and thus do not need to be able to see a creature in order to hit it. However, you run the risk of hitting a friendly creature and must use Endurance Dice to prevent it (as if using an area effect feature). Each creature must make a successful Dexterity Saving Throw or take 1d10 bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone. If a creature's Saving Throw is successful, it takes half damage but suffers no other effects. Eye of the Storm has additional effects based on your Staff Mastery stance and Perfection status.
• Innocuous Strikes (10th/14th): Your Eye of the Storm feature now does an extra 1d10 damage upon a failed Saving Throw (halved for a success). You can opt to forego this extra damage in exchange for imposing disadvantage on your targets' Dexterity Saving Throws. This feature is not available to Stalkers.
• Sky Splitter (12th/15th): You can use your Action to strike a creature within reach as you leap into the air. If the attack roll is successful, each damage die result is doubled and your target is knocked 10 feet upward. It must make a successful Dexterity Check or slam back to the ground taking another 1d6 bludgeoning damage, and be stunned until the end of its next turn. If the creature's Saving Throw is successful, it takes no falling damage and is not stunned. You must apply at least one Endurance Die to the attack roll for this feature, and it will consume 15 feet of your movement as well as your Bonus Action. Sky Splitter has additional effects based on your Staff Mastery stance and Perfection status.

Guarded Spin

At 1st level, when you are hit by an attack roll, you may use your Reaction to swing your Staff in a cone 7 feet long and 10 feet wide, oriented at the direction the attack came from. Roll 1d10 plus at least one Endurance Die and subtract that from your attacker's damage roll. If you reduce the damage to zero and there is at least one point of damage left over, any creature within the area of this feature must make a successful Dexterity Saving Throw or take that amount of damage as bludgeoning.

Staff Mastery

At 3rd level if you're a Brute or Scrapper, or at 8th level if you are a Tanker, your mastery of your Staff has reached new heights. On your turn, you can adopt one of three possible stances: Form of the Body, Form of the Mind, or Form of the Soul. Adopting or changing a stance does not cost an action but you can only do it on your turn, and only once per turn. If you change your stance, it must be the first thing you do on your turn. Each stance grant an inherent benefit, plus benefits applied to Eye of the Storm and Sky Splitter when you are in a state of Perfection.

• Form of the Body: You can add a bonus to your Staff Fighting damage rolls equal to one half of your Proficiency Bonus (round down).
  • Eye of the Storm (in Perfection): You deal an additional 1d8 bludgeoning damage to each target (halved upon a successful Saving Throw). Each creature that fails its Saving Throw will be vulnerable to bludgeoning damage until the end of its next turn.
  • Sky Splitter (in Perfection): You deal an additional 1d8 bludgeoning damage to each target (halved upon a successful Saving Throw). You gain resistance to bludgeoning damage until the end of your next turn.
• Form of the Mind: You base movement is doubled and you no longer prompt Opportunity Attacks when moving out of a creature's reach. In addition, if a hostile creature within Staff range makes an attack roll that misses, you may use your Reaction to make a single two-handed Staff attack against it.
  • Eye of the Storm (in Perfection): You deal an additional 1d8 psychic damage to each target (halved upon a successful Saving Throw). Each creature that fails its Saving Throw has its movement speed halved and is unable to use Reactions until the end of its next turn.
  • Sky Splitter (in Perfection): You deal an additional 1d8 psychic damage to each target (halved upon a successful Saving Throw). Your Staff Fighting attack rolls gain advantage until the end of your next turn.
• Form of the Soul: When you roll an Endurance Die and the result is less than or equal to one half of your Proficiency Bonus, you may re-roll the die but you must use the new result.
  • Eye of the Storm (in Perfection): You deal an additional 1d8 force damage to each target (halved upon a successful Saving Throw). Any attack roll made against a creature that failed its Saving Throw will have advantage until the end of its next turn.
  • Sky Splitter (in Perfection): You deal an additional 1d8 force damage to each target (halved upon a successful Saving Throw). You gain a number of temporary hit points equal to the number of available Endurance Dice you have at the moment up using this feature. You can double the result of any Endurance Die you roll until the end of your next turn.

While Staff Mastery is not available to Stalkers, upon reaching 3rd level a Stalker will have the permanent benefits of Form of the Body.

Build Up

At 3rd level if you are a Stalker, you can take a moment to focus your senses. Roll at least one Endurance Die. You can add the result to every Staff Fighting attack and damage roll you make until the end of your next turn. Using this feature does not cost an Action but you can only do it on your turn. This feature is not available to Brutes, Scrappers, or Tankers.

Serpent's Reach

At 7th level if you're a Brute or Scrapper, or at 10th level if you're a Stalker, or at 11th level if you are a Tanker, you can use your Action to make a single Staff attack at range. You may extend your Staff's length, or project a pseudo-physical ray of force, or even throw your Staff (and have it return to your hand). Regardless of how you do it, make a ranged Attack roll against a creature within 40 feet. You deal your normal two-handed damage but you use your Dexterity Modifier in place of your Strength Modifier.