Skip to main content

Roustabout

By February 15, 2023February 22nd, 2023Fighter

Fighter Subclass

Comments from the Finger: Out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT to write up a fighter subclass and I picked “fighter that uses simple weapons” as a prompt. As you might imagine, the results were impressive but nothing like what a human would come up with, so I decided to follow through on this off-the-cuff prompt and show the AI who’s boss! (Humans, for now)

When salt-of-the-earth farmhands or strong, reliable laborers try their hand at adventuring, they resemble the archetypal roustabout: tough, practical, and usually wielding a club. Warriors that are skilled with a wide range of implements always default to their most familiar brand of blade, bow, or ax. By that token, roustabouts wield the straightforward weapons of commoners, such as pitchforks and staves, even while in life-or-death battle with dragons. After all, resolve and strength are more important than the sharpness of a blade when one must contend with a fire-breathing dragon.

Practical Proficiencies

Starting when you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in two of the following skills of your choice: Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, and Survival. You also gain proficiency with three artisan’s tools of your choice.

Reliable Weapons

Also at 3rd level, you have mastered a range of simple fighting implements, granting you the following benefits:

  • Whenever you hit a target with a simple weapon, you deal an additional die of damage.
  • When you score a critical hit with a nonmagical simple melee weapon, you can break the weapon on the target. This destroys the weapon, and you roll three additional weapon damage dice when determining the extra damage for the critical hit. Additionally, the target must succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier) or be stunned until the end of its next turn.
  • Starting at 7th level, simple weapons you wield are considered magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

The Common Touch

By 7th level, ordinary folks recognize you as a trusted face and as one of their own. You have advantage on Charisma checks you make to influence commoners, including shopkeepers, bartenders, and entertainers, unless you have shown yourself to be a danger to them.
Additionally, you can enlist services, such as enlisting a coach cab or a hireling, and purchase simple weapons at half their usual cost. The GM can also decide that services and weapons are free to you within reason.

Fighting Style Master

By 10th level, you have mastered every conceivable fighting style with your straightforward weapons. At the start of each of your turns, you can replace the Fighting Style you know with another option from the Fighting Style class feature. You retain this Fighting Style option until you use this feature again. You can’t benefit from the same Fighting Style option twice.

Blunt Efficiency

At 15th level, you gain a d6 that you can use to enhance your rolls. Whenever you make an attack roll, damage roll, or saving throw, you can choose to roll the d6 and add it to the result. Alternatively, when you take damage, you can use your reaction to roll the d6, add your Constitution modifier, and reduce the damage by that total.
Once you roll the d6, you can’t use it again until the start of your next turn.

Folk Legend

Starting at 18th level, you gain a new way to use your Action Surge feature. You can expend a use of the feature to gain the effect of the haste spell, no concentration or action required. When the spell ends, a wave of lethargy doesn’t sweep over you.

4 Comments

  • Idan BHK says:

    C’mon. Getting a 2d6, one handed weapon? The xtra die should, at least, be 1/turn. Or maybe always a d4.

    Other than that, I love it! Really cool, and breaking your weapon is fun, thematic, unusual and creates interesting situations.

    • mike.holik says:

      You know what? I never considered the AC buff from using a one-handed weapon and a shield. That’s definitely pushing the power a few damage points ahead of where it should be.

  • Evan says:

    A quarter staff w/ polearm master is gonna be nuts. And additional 1d6 and 1d4 per turn would be nuts.

    That said, I am already looking at a fighter that speciizes in a shield, quarterstaff and shortbow and this guy makes it work even better.

Leave a Reply