CLASS TRAITS

Role: Defender. Tough and resilient, you use tactical cunning and battle prowess to contain the enemy and protect your allies.

Power Source: Martial.

Key Abilities: Strength; Dexterity, Wisdom, or Constitution

Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, leather, hide, chainmail, scale; heavy shields, light shields.

Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, military melee, simple ranged, military ranged.

Bonus to Defense: +2 Fortitude.

Hit Points at 1st Level: 15+ Constitution Score.

Hit Points per Level Gained: 6

Healing Surges per Day: 9+ Constitution Modifier.

Trained Skills: From the class skills list below, choose 3 trained skills at 1st level.

Class Skills: Athletics (Str), Endurance (Con), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Streetwise (Cha).

Build Options: Arena Fighter, Battlerager Fighter, Brawling Fighter, Great Weapon Fighter, Guardian Fighter, Tempest Fighter.

Class features: Combat Agility, Combat Challenge, Combat Superiority, Fighter Talents.

Into the blackest pits beneath the mountains, bent on vengeance and glory, goes the weaponmaster. These warriors form the iron core of any legion. They crash into the teeth of enemy forces, armed with cold steel and grim purpose. They are the mercenaries loitering in taverns between expeditions, the guards who cast a watchful eye over their charges, the weapon masters who elevate fighting styles to lethal arts. The weaponmaster is a fearless warrior, ready to meet any challenge.

Weaponmasters can be found just about anywhere and among any sort of people. A few are gallant warriors fighting for noble causes, while others are calculating mercenaries who draw their weapons only when the pay is right. All weaponmasters, however, are adventurers, ready to face any challenge, to go where glory, plunder, or honor leads them.

Specialized combat maneuvers, or exploits, combined with a dedicated focus on a fighting style set weaponmasters apart from other fighters. A weaponmaster can slam his or her weapon through one enemy to crunch into another or carve a bloody path through enemies in a whirlwind of destruction. Weapons are crucial too, since weaponmasters know how to coax every advantage they can from their tools, and those who use axes fight differently from those who favor heavy blades.

Compared to a knight or a slayer, a weaponmaster focuses on a broader variety of tactics and combat styles. While a knight or a slayer has fairly predictable, though still formidable, abilities, each weaponmaster cultivates a unique blend of specific maneuvers and abilities.

Weaponmasters develop their combat prowess in many different ways. Most have some elementary training to expose them to different weapons and armor. These trainees are often squires, militia, students, and soldiers. Once they’re cut free, they grow their ability through practice and observation. Each battle proves instructive, giving the weaponmaster new insights that might develop into full-blown techniques.

CREATING A FIGHTER (WEAPONMASTER)

ARENA FIGHTER

Years spent in death matches, squaring off against humanoid and monstrous foes, have prepared you to face any enemy. You learned to fight by scrapping in the sand and struggling against the arena-masters’ pets. You are a cut above the rest, a champion born of the arenas of Athas and destined for much more.

You bring cunning and speed to the battlefield. You have a daring unknown to those whose feet have never touched the arena floor. Rather than hide behind heavy armor, you rely on agility and your mastery of weapons to deflect your enemies’ attacks. Unburdened by heavy armor, you can leap into the fray to strike several enemies at once.

The arena lures more fighters to its bloody fields than members of any other class. Fighters have the weapon training, the armor training, and the adaptability to respond to a variety of threats. Any fighter build might be appropriate in Athas’s arenas, but the arena fighter represents the epitome of combat in the coliseums.

As with other fighters, Strength should be your highest ability score, because you use it for your attack powers. You’ll wear light armor, so a high Dexterity can help offset your lower Armor Class. Make Dexterity your second-highest ability score. Choose Wisdom as your tertiary ability score if you want to improve your battlefield intuition and your Will defense, or pick Constitution if you need extra hit points and healing surges. Select powers that increase your mobility and help you control the battlefield. The ideal powers let you strike or hinder several enemies. Your secondary role is controller.

Suggested Feat

Suggested Skills

Suggested At-Will Powers:

Suggested Encounter Power:

Suggested Daily Power: master’s edge

BATTLERAGER FIGHTER

You’re an unpredictable warrior who trusts the adrenaline rush of battle to pull you through as much as heavy armor does. Few aspects of life give you the charge that being in the heat of battle does, and you build up a fury when your enemies manage to hurt you. You thrive on taking it to those foes by wielding highly damaging weapons such as axes, maces, hammers, and picks. Strength is your focus, allowing you to make powerful attacks. You rely on Constitution to give weight to your attacks and to keep you in the fight. Like any other soldier, you count on brutal instinct to help you win the day, so Wisdom is important to you as well. The Battlerager Vigor class feature is designed to complement this build.

Suggested Feat: Power Attack (Human feat: Durable)

Suggested Skills: Athletics, Endurance, Intimidate

Suggested At-Will Powers: brash strike, crushing surge

Suggested Encounter Power: bell ringer

Suggested Daily Power: knee breaker

BRAWLING FIGHTER

You have an instinct for mayhem. You fight with a one-handed weapon and leave a hand open so you can punch, grab, and throw. Your body is your best weapon. Every battlefield holds opportunities for a brawling fighter, whether it’s a wall you throw a foe against, furniture with which to trip an enemy, or stones you can employ as deadly projectiles.

Class Feature: Brawler Style, Combat Agility

Suggested Feat: Inescapable Hold

Suggested Skills: Athletics, Endurance, Intimidate

Suggested At-Will Powers: grappling strike, slash and pummel

Suggested Encounter Power: bash and pinion

Suggested Daily Power: seize and stab

GREAT WEAPON FIGHTER

You’re interested in dealing out the most damage you can. You prefer big two-handed weapons such as the greatsword or greataxe. You’re more interested in fighting hard than fighting smart. Your best ability score is definitely Strength. A good Constitution improves your ability to use high damage weapons, such as axes and hammers. Plus, extra hit points always help. Select powers that work well with two-handed weapons to make the most of this build.

Suggested Feat: Power Attack (Human feat: Action Surge)

Suggested Skills: Athletics, Endurance, Intimidate

Suggested At-Will Powers: cleave, reaping strike

Suggested Encounter Power: spinning sweep

Suggested Daily Power: brute strike

GUARDIAN FIGHTER

To fight better, you fight smarter. You’re willing to trade offense for superior defenses and better ability to control the battlefield around you. You fight with a heavy shield and a good one-handed weapon, such as a longsword, flail, or battleaxe. Like the great weapon fighter, you make Strength your best ability score. After that, prioritize your Dexterity to take advantage of weapons that can be improved by Dexterity-based feats, or your Wisdom to make the most of the combat superiority class feature. You’re hard to hurt and hard to move away from. Select powers that make use of your one-handed weapon and shield, as well as take advantage of your higher Dexterity score.

Suggested Feat: Weapon Focus (Human feat: Human Perseverance)

Suggested Skills: Heal, Intimidate, Streetwise

Suggested At-Will Powers: sure strike, tide of iron

Suggested Encounter Power: covering attack

Suggested Daily Power: comeback strike

TEMPEST FIGHTER

Rather than a shield or a big weapon, you have specialized in fighting using a weapon in each hand. You see it as the best of both worlds—given the right training, you can deliver good damage and make up for the lack of a shield with deft parrying. Strength remains any soldier’s bread and butter, and good battlefield awareness—Wisdom—is a must. You also rely on speed, maneuverability, and agility—Dexterity—to get your dirty work done. Constitution is a tertiary ability for you, granting useful staying power against foes not so easily fooled by your fancy footwork and feints. The Tempest Technique class feature is designed to complement this build.

Suggested Feat: Two-Weapon Fighting (Human feat: Two-Weapon Threat)

Suggested Skills: Athletics, Intimidate, Streetwise

Suggested At-Will Powers: dual strike, footwork lure

Suggested Encounter Power: funneling flurry

Suggested Daily Power: tempest dance

FIGHTER (WEAPONMASTER) CLASS FEATURES

COMBAT AGILITY

This class feature replaces the Combat Superiority class feature. You gain the power Combat Agility.

Fighter AttackCombat Agility

Your foe might think it has escaped you, but in its moment of triumph, you chase it down and make it pay.

At-Will

Martial, Weapon

Opportunity Action Melee weapon

Trigger: An enemy adjacent to you takes an action that provokes an opportunity attack

Effect: After the triggering enemy completes the action, you shift a number of squares equal to your Dexterity modifier. You must end the shift closer to the target than you were when you began the shift. Then make the following attack.

Target: The triggering enemy

Attack: Strength vs. AC

Hit: 1[W] + Strength modifier damage, and you knock the target prone.

Level 21: 2[W] + Strength modifier damage.

COMBAT CHALLENGE

In combat, it’s dangerous to ignore a fighter. Every time you attack an enemy, whether the attack hits or misses, you can choose to mark that target. The mark lasts until the end of your next turn. While a target is marked, it takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls if its attack doesn’t include you as a target. A creature can be subject to only one mark at a time. A new mark supersedes a mark that was already in place.

In addition, you gain the Combat Challenge power.

COMBAT SUPERIORITY

You gain a bonus to the attack rolls of opportunity attacks. The bonus equals your Wisdom modifier.

An enemy hit by your opportunity attack stops moving, if a move provoked the attack. If the enemy still has actions remaining, it can use them to resume moving.

FIGHTER TALENTS

Choose one of the following fighter talents.

Arena Training

You treat all weapons with which you are not proficient as improvised weapons.

You gain a +2 proficiency bonus to attack rolls with improvised weapons. Your attacks with one-handed improvised weapons deal 1d8 damage, and your attacks with two-handed improvised weapons deal 1d10 damage.

While you are not wearing heavy armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC. This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level.

You select two weapons as your arena weapons. If you are not already proficient with these weapons, you gain proficiency with them. In addition, any of your feats that grant feat bonuses to attack rolls or damage rolls with one of your arena weapons apply to your other arena weapon as well.

Battlerager Vigor

Whenever you hit an enemy with a melee or a close attack, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier, plus any temporary hit points normally granted by the power. You gain the hit points only after the attack is resolved.

If you use an invigorating fighter attack power and miss every target with it, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier.

When wearing light armor or chainmail, you gain a +1 bonus to damage rolls with melee and close weapon attacks whenever you have temporary hit points. This bonus increases to +2 if you’re wielding an axe, a hammer, a mace, or a pick.

Brawler Style

While you wield a weapon in your primary hand and your off hand is free or grabbing a creature, you gain a +1 bonus to AC and a +2 bonus to Fortitude.

In addition, you gain a +2 enhancement bonus to the attack rolls of unarmed attacks and a +2 bonus to the attack rolls of grab attacks and attacks to move a creature you’re grabbing. These bonuses increase to +4 at 11th level and +6 at 21st level.

One-handed Weapon Talent

When using a one-handed weapon, you gain a +1 bonus to weapon attack rolls.

Tempest Technique

When you wield two melee weapons, you gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls with weapons that have the offhand property. You gain Two-Weapon Defense as a bonus feat, even if you don’t meet the prerequisites.

When wearing light armor or chainmail, you gain a +1 bonus to damage rolls with melee and close weapon attacks when you are wielding two weapons. This bonus increases to +2 with weapons that have the off-hand property.

Two-handed Weapon Talent

When using a two-handed weapon, you gain a +1 bonus to weapon attack rolls.

Published in Player's Handbook, page(s) 75, Class Compendium.