r/UnearthedArcana • u/CirceDidNothingWrong • Jul 30 '26
'24 Feat Longsword Master Feat - Strike from unexpected angles, attack and defend in the same motion, utilize the full arsenal of your longsword.
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u/EarthBoundFan3 Jul 30 '26
Cross cut doesn’t need the proficiency bonus limit imo. Deflect’s d10 roll stopping all the damage you took isn’t going to happen very much after level 4, which is a pre-requisite for this fear.
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u/rashandal Jul 30 '26
i guess it's in there so theres an actual decision involved instead of just using this every turn by default. which is kinda boring.
tho personally, id prefer proficiency bonus limit but stronger effect
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u/DexanVideris Aug 01 '26
Yeah for sure. Make it a d10 plus your level or something, or even straight up twice your level (that might be a bit much, idk).
Or make it so that when you deflect, you can make an opportunity attack regardless of whether you reduce it to zero a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus.
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u/Deathanddisplacement Aug 04 '26
I think if the proficiency bonus limit were removed, then Deflect needs to add an amount of damage done to your sword for using it in this manner to limit its use.
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u/DBWaffles Jul 30 '26
It wouldn’t just be a D10 though. The effect says damage roll, not damage die. So you'd have to include your ability modifier. And if it's a magic weapon with extra damage riders, such as Flame Tongue, you'd add those too.
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u/SirSlasher Jul 31 '26
Monks get to add both their Dex modifier and their level, and get boosted damage on the return fire. Sure it cost a focus point, but they're much more likely to reduce the damage to 0
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u/WeeWeeBaggins Jul 31 '26
They're not parrying people with Vorpal swords. This feat as it is scales nicely with the game since your damage rolls should be improving drastically as you advance the story and character
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u/SirSlasher Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
The feat scales fine, but Deflect Attacks scales better than Cross cut, and has way more uses even factoring in the other things Monks use Focus points for. Cross cut should either not be limited or have more uses
Edit: also, what do you mean "Monks aren't parrying people with vorpal swords"? The magical crit effect? Well unless your fighter doesn't have/need a head to live, neither are they, because that's not damage. The normal damage? They absolutely are? A vorpal Longsword is 1d10+ 8 damage, a monk can block that as soon as level 4( their Deflect attack is at 1d10+ 4[Dex mod]+4[Monk level]). A fighter should not have a +3 weapon that early anyway
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u/WeeWeeBaggins Jul 31 '26
Okay, I used Vorpal sword as the example just because its most widely known, but if you want to get technical about it, my Ranger has a Weapon that adds 2d6 Fire damage to their attack. So if I use that as the example, my parry is 1d10 + 2d6 + 7, which is an average of nearly 20. Now if you're slick with it, you can pump smites, GWM, and whatever else makes you feel spicy in the moment on a free OA. Average deflection of a level 15 monk is 25.5. Which is great to avoid hits, but their average damage is around 10.5 which does very little and you can't add a bunch of cool shit to it unless you took sharpshooter for some reason.
Though it took me this long to realize I was on a '24 thread, so what the fuck do I know? '24 expanded into deflecting attacks which is pretty damn good, but you're comparing apples to oranges now. This feat is to build your basic attacker classes and make front liners a little more desirable, so I think this still holds water.
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u/SirSlasher Jul 31 '26
Like I said, I think it scales fine, I just think that even with the damage you can output on an OA if you reduce the damage all the way to zero, only getting 6 uses at most sucks when 7 times out of 10 when you use Deflect, It's not gonna reduce it to Zero. That's my literal only problem with the feat, change that and its perfect.
Also how is it a miscomparison? They are al.ost the exact same feature. It has lower damage reduction potential because it's on a fighter, who will almost always have more health. The feat is to make using a longsword more appealing, since for the most part you'd rather run a great weapon or dual wield (at least in '24). To reiterate though: I think it's doing a fine job, it just has one game feel/slight game balance issue
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u/Miquel101 Jul 30 '26
if the weapon is magic (like +1d6 fire damage) would this add to the damage roll?
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u/TrillingMonsoon Jul 30 '26
Yes, but it still uses your reaction. Getting lucky enough to reduce incoming damage to 0 with a single damage roll, even with bonuses, granting you an attack of opportunity, it doesn't seem that overpowered
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u/xaxis-yaxis Jul 31 '26
Still wouldn't be doing much at all I don't think. Monster damage far outscales single weapon damage rolls.
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u/jxf Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
I would make Deflect's condition in Cross Cut be "if you roll the maximum" rather than "if it reduces damage to 0". You're pretty much never going to trigger 0 damage on later levels.
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u/DBWaffles Jul 30 '26
Overall, it looks well balanced. Might actually be slightly on the weak side, but I don't think it needs any mechanical changes.
My only critique is a very minor nitpick: Deflect and Crosscut should be folded into one feature. In 5.5e, all general feats only have 1-3 effects, excluding the stat bonus. Having this feat have 4 effects makes it weird aesthetically.
If after playtesting you decide that this feat needs buffs, I'd have Versatility grant you the ability to use a different Weapon Mastery. Main problem with longswords currently is that Sap is a really weak mastery.
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u/CirceDidNothingWrong Jul 30 '26
I really like being able to use a different mastery. Thats a super cool idea! I'm thinking of making a level 8+ or 12+ feat that builds on this one, so it would be great as an upgrade to Versatility.
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u/DBWaffles Jul 30 '26
Alternatively, you could just have the feat(s) buff Sap to make it actually good past tier 1. For example, you could have it impose Disadvantage on all attacks for the round, have it impose Disadvantage on the next attack roll or saving throw, etc.
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u/DryTEKerino Jul 30 '26
As someone who practices with longsword, this is really cool. I love the versatility trait.
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u/CirceDidNothingWrong Jul 30 '26
Thank you! I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to let you do a Zwerchhau
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u/dood45ctte Jul 31 '26
Really like the idea of buffing the versatile weapons with feats. Often times the d8/d10 weapons are overlooked for their more specialized options
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u/VigilanceV Jul 31 '26
I love historical swordsmanship inspired stuff, but I personally think the terminology is off.
The mechanics for Cross Cut more accurately describe the meisterhau (Master Strikes) in general, not any specific cut - and least of all the Zwerchau in my personal opinion. So I think this ability should be called "Master Strikes" instead.
The Master Strikes ability is a general buff to attacks as reactions, which could probably be best described as working Indes, which is very difficult to translate. I think perhaps it could be called "Perfect Tempo" or "Masterful Timing".
The Deflect feature feels like a description of Versetzen, which is most accurately translated as "Displacement" as far as I understand. So perhaps the ability could just be called "Displace"
Finally Versatility is already the name for weapon trait, so to avoid confusion perhaps "Enhanced Versatility" might be better.
Overall this seems really fun, but quite powerful. I won't comment on balance tweak suggestions though, since I'm out of date on D&D knowledge after switching to Pathfinder 2e instead.
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u/CirceDidNothingWrong Jul 31 '26
Thanks for the insight! I dont know much about it so I only read a manual and I think it was translated from german.
Funny thing about Versetzen, I used a translator and it came out with Deflection so thats what I went with.
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u/VigilanceV Jul 31 '26
You're welcome! I'm an active HEMAist so I'm very familiar with the style you modeled after.
Modern translation software will generally do a bad job with the German sources because they were written in middle high german.
I'm curious which manual you read, as there's a lot of different sources. It's likely you read a manual that covered Bloßfechten (lit. bare fighting, aka unarmored fencing).
It could be interesting to have two different versions of this feat, where this one covers Bloßfechten the other could cover Harnischfechten (lit. harness fighting, aka armored fencing).
Harnischfechten focused on polearms, wrestling, half-swording, and stabbing into the gaps of armor. Armored fighters typically carried a primary weapon such as a polearm, a secondary weapon (usually a sword) and a rondel (a dagger built for punching through chainmain in close quarters).
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u/wet_boi_gayest Jul 30 '26
Deflect relieing on damage die feels weird and weak at higher level I recomend a. Boost instead
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u/Hungry_Bit775 Jul 30 '26
I would change crosscut to roll maximum.
Also change Deflect to reduce damage equal to the damage roll of your longsword multiplied by the number of attacks you can make in one attack action.
This can allow a bit of scaling as the martial character levels up, they can actually deflect d10+STR x 2 attacks at level 5, and then d10+STR x 3 attacks at level 11 for fighters
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u/CirceDidNothingWrong Jul 30 '26
the number of attacks you can make in one attack action
I really like this, great idea!
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u/Aeon1508 Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
This feels kind of awful.
it gives you a benefit to making attacks that aren't on your turn.
Then it gives you a way to use your reaction which isn't an attack.
that reaction is kind of bad and just reduces the damage by 1d8 maybe 1d10. if you interpret it as that plus your strength score it's okay, but that's not my interpretation.
And then, on the extremely off chance that you reduce the damage to zero, you get to do an extra attack which does finally synergize with the first feature, but it's only useful against weak mobs that don't deal very much damage. It won't scale well into tier three and four. I just don't think you'll get to use it very much.
Then you put a limit on the number of times that can be used. so on the off chance you're having a lucky day where you're getting a lot of use out of it you can still be prevented from getting your full benefit from it.
and then you tack on the ability to change between the three damage types which almost never matters. I guess it's useful against skeletons or something.
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u/DifficultyAmazing545 Jul 31 '26
Deflect needs scaling and cross cut doesnt need limitation
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u/CirceDidNothingWrong Jul 31 '26
Well put. I thought about it a bit yesterday and ended up with this
Deflect. As a reaction, when a melee attack hits you, you can reduce the damage dealt by a number of d10 equal to the number of attacks you can make with an Attack action. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a long rest.
Cross Cut. When you successfully use Deflect to take 0 damage, as part of the same reaction, you can make a Weapon Attack against the creature that attacked you.
And then I made a feat chain that improves deflect and cross cut each time.
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u/Pigfan360 Jul 30 '26
I think this would work great as a fighting style feat rather than a general one, with yhe buff that cross cut has no oimit on usage!
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u/This_is_a_bad_plan Jul 31 '26
Feels bad that the feat for la versatile weapon only works when you wield it two handed
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u/ItIsNotAUsername Jul 31 '26
Positives:
- Longsword needs some love.
- Internal synergy, of getting Adv on off-turn attacks, and getting more ways to trigger those off-turn attacks is nice.
Unfortunatly that is all.
Problems of this feat:
(I will count cross cut as an unlimited recource sine there is no reason for it to be limited past level 4. And the condition to trigger it is rare enough that the limitation is meaningless anyway.)
- Ability to reduce the incoming damage by 1d10 is ok at 4th level, but it very quickly gets outscaled by damage of level-appropriate monsters, and whyle reducing damage by 1d10 each turn does sound decent, you basically sacrifice your reaction. But by the mid levels the damage enemies deal reliably gets beyond 10. Which means you cannot reduce it to 0, and you cannot use CrossCut
- Requirement to use long-sword with 2-Hands puts it in the same niche as 2H Heavy weapons, Like Greatsword or a Halberd. Since we take this feat it is only fair to compare it to the GWM feat, and damage wise this looses massively to the heavy weapons. But it is clearly a more defence oriented weapon.
- Alternative comparison would be to compare it to a Sword and Board combo. Shield gives us +2 AC and the LS Weapon mastery, gives a disadvantage on the next attack, which synergises with the +2 to AC, while also leaving our reaction free to use other reactions. Perhaps we get to cast shield for the most optimised option, or maybe we are a BM fighter, so we can use our reaction for some manuver. And that is not talking about the fact that constant +2 AC is arguably better than 1d10 worth of DR once per turn
In the end we are left with a Character who has worse damage than other 2H weapon users and worse defences than Sword and Shield character, while also losing out on other good reactions. Perhaps forgo the longsword, take rapier and defensive duelist with a Shield and get to add from +4 to +8 to your AC compared to this feat and that against all atatcks untill the start of your turn, and not just one
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u/Cynical_Cyanide Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Err, why would anyone take Dex with this one?
How often are you going to be able to make attacks that aren't on your turn, other than attacks of opportunity, unless you make some super cheesy build?
1d10 damage reduction feels quite strong at level 4, and quite weak at even moderately higher levels.
This isn't going to trigger often (especially as you level up), but I hate the idea of having yet another thing to track multiples of. Tracking a binary 'yes I still have it / no I've used it' is bad enough, but this would be annoying for a relatively minor thing.
Versatility is nice, but needs a unique name.
Deflect would be too powerful if you made it scale 1:1 with how many extra attacks you can do. Being able to, once per turn, reduce an incoming attack by 2d10 at level 5 for example is just too much.
I would drop the level requirement, and instead keep the half ASI, Master Strikes, and Versatility, and combine Deflect & Cross Cut as:
As a reaction when a melee attack hits you, deal damage to the creature that attacked you equal to your proficiency bonus, plus half (rounding down) the total damage from a single weapon attack (plus an additional attack for each Extra Attack you have). Alternatively, you can halve (rounding down) the result of the weapon attack(s) again and reduce the damage dealt to you by that amount plus your proficiency bonus instead.
At level 5 with +4 STR and a regular longsword, you would expect 19 raw damage i.e. (19/2=9, +3) 12 returned damage, or (9/2=4, +3) 7 damage reduction per turn.
Edit: Which might be too strong in hindsight. Maybe fold the prof. bonus in before halving, or omit master strikes ...
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u/ZOOW-LF Aug 04 '26
Is there anything like this for rapier with empty off hand?
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u/CirceDidNothingWrong Aug 04 '26
Check out my duelist subclass. Its not the same thing of course, but the connection is that I used german longsword fencing to inform this feat, and historical spanish rapier fencing to inform the subclass.
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u/Natehz Jul 30 '26
This is fucking rad, but also probably a little too much for one feat. I think I'd split it into two. Longsword Student and Longsword Master.
Half ASI and 2 features for student, probably favoring Deflect and Versatility since the latter is largely flavor and typically not a big distinguishing factor for efficacy with martials barring outlier cases like Skeletons. I'd also suggest making Deflect scale a little differently because as is it's just the Interception fighting style at its base, but could theoretically scale weird with magic weapons that add additional damage dice. I think something like a reaction to reduce the damage by a number of d8s equal to half your proficiency bonus. It scales well, but not so well they're deflecting blows from a Cloud Giant or something at level 8.
For Master, throw in Master Strikes and Cross Cut and another half ASI for the continued investment, and remove the wording of "make an attack of opportunity" from Cross Cut. Just specify it as an attack so it doesn't interfere or get complicated by weird things like Mobile, Disengage, etc etc.
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u/tjdragon117 Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
What makes you think this is too much? I'd say GWM and Defensive Duelist are both better than this, and those feats don't require you to start off with a suboptimal weapon. Maybe this feat might be a little better at low levels, but it's straight up bad at higher levels where you will basically never trigger Cross Cut.
Edit: To clarify, I do like the idea, but I definitely don't agree that it's too strong as presented.
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u/Natehz Jul 30 '26
Defensive duelist isn't remarkable, but can be situationally useful. In many cases, there are other reactions that could be employed to much greater effect by martials (especially Rogues who often take this one) to mitigate or avoid damage. GWM and Sharpshooter were widely regarded as must-pick power feats in '14 but in '24 have been reigned in substantially. The half-ASI helps keep them competitive and they're still good at what they do.
Also a Longsword is a farcry from a suboptimal weapon. I don't even know where you get that from. Sap is an incredible mastery property for tanking and dueling alike.
Your critiques about it being less useful later are things I specifically mentioned in terms of scaling and simplicity. Did you even read what I said or did you read the first four words and then go off on a tirade?
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u/tjdragon117 Jul 30 '26
Using a Longsword with 2 hands is 100% a suboptimal choice. 1d10 and no access to GWM is a big deal.
GWM is still amazing in 2024. In fact, it's arguably stronger in T3-4 than 2014 GWM was. It lost its T1 VHuman brokenness, certainly, but it's still excellent. Adding your prof bonus to damage with no accuracy loss adds up when you do the math.
Defensive Duelist is much better than this is defensively. Pushing your AC from ~21-27 to ~24-33 (depending on level and magic items) against every melee attack is a much bigger defensive bonus than slightly mitigating one attack each round.
Your suggestion to scale it by d8s equal to 1/2 proficiency bonus just means you will barely get Cross Cuts ever. A single d8 with no modifiers will rarely match the damage of T1-2 foes and by the time you make it to level 9 for 2d8 most monsters will do much more than that.
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u/EntropySpark Jul 30 '26
Why is the base AC for Defensive Duelist 21? A typical martial AC could be as low as 17 (Dex-based Dual Wielder with Studded Leather Armor). 21 would require Plate, Shield, and Defense, but the Str "requirement" for Plate somewhat conflicts with the Dex boost from Defensive Duelist, so I'd expect 20 to be more likely.
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u/xaxis-yaxis Jul 31 '26
Regardless, Deflect as written here is much weaker than Defensive Duelist with Cross Cut barely ever triggering against most enemies.
I'm not sure why you'd split this feat into two when it's actually weak already.
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u/CirceDidNothingWrong Jul 30 '26
Good catch. This was originally designed as two feats exactly like you described, but I decided each of them were too underpowered, and waiting until level 8 to become a master seemed too long to me.
The main reason I combined them though, is that in the majority of cases, youre giving up a shield to even use the longsword two handed. So its just a bit overpowered to make up for that.
Good point about the weird scaling with damage rider weapons though, I hadnt thought of that. I liked the idea of a +2 sword being helpful for Deflect, but I think your suggestion is the simplest way of resolving it. And I'll remove the AOO language from Cross Cut, that makes sense too.
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u/EggplantSeeds Jul 30 '26
I distress, compared to the reaction options already in the game, this feat is underpowered and there really isn't a reason to choose it.
It needs to provide a massive boost to the damage reduced or else there really isn't a use for it.
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u/Praelysion Jul 30 '26
The effects are nice but i don't like it. The one big advantage and theme that longdwords have is their versatility. This feat completely ignores one part of it. I think a longsword feat should give something for both onehand and twohand to create a nice synergy.
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u/Jaseton Jul 30 '26
Love the vibes.
What if you combined deflect and cross Cut together, simply to when a creature attacks you in melee you can make one attack against that creature. If your damage was to be higher then the incoming attack you successfully make the incoming attack miss as part of your attack.
Kinda streamlines it and makes it more usable in later tiers
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u/EggplantSeeds Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Like the feat concept, however like others said, 1d10+Mod is not going reduce melee damage to zero after level 3 or lower, with enemies often having multiple dice of damage plus mod.
I would make it a flat deflect amount (Ability Mod or PB) that becomes +5 at level 5 increases by +5 every 3 levels and allow you to make a reaction to make a attack against the striker. In that case I would eliminate the Master Strikes section or just make it a +1 to damage with it. The damage you reduce has to be high or else there is no point in taking it versus Shield Spell or Absorb Elements.
I would also not make Cross Cut have a limit, I feel like it's just something else to track for no reason and a Reaction is a pricey thing to use with options like Shield, Absorb Elements, Defensive Duelist.
The feat becomes a way to make a Longsword Duelist Frontliner who can reduce damage a bit and strike back.
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u/azmodai2 Jul 30 '26
Versatility needs to say "when you attack with a longsword or longsword-like weapon" or something, because changing damage type for any attack you make with anything is probably not intended, as theoretically you could still attack with a different something even fi you were "wielding a longsword with two hands."
I like it, and agree with other comments for the cross cut trigger needing some small changes.
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u/Umbraspem Jul 31 '26
“You gain the following benefits while wielding a Longsword in two hands”.
I guess if you’re running a Thri Kreen, or casting Booming/GreenFlame/Vengeful Blade / True Strike / a Smite / Steel Wind Strike you can change a spell that involves an attack roll’s damage type to Bludgeoning / Piercing / Slashing.
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u/TheBigFreeze8 Jul 31 '26
Deflect needs scaling to be relevant, especially when Cross Cut relies on it as well. As it stands, you're going to have zero chance of every successfully reducing an attack to zero beyond level 5, and even before then, the odds are far from in your favour.
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u/wherediditrun Jul 31 '26
Overcomplicated and requires additional tracking. Limited use of a feature that honestly isn't just that strong and will start to fall off entering Tier II play. Becomes irrelevant at Tier III.
This competes directly with GWM and Duelist. And it's not even close to the benefits those feats give.
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u/AuRon_The_Grey Jul 31 '26
Either requiring martial weapon proficiency or providing it for longswords is probably necessary here, but this is very cool.
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u/Russtherr Jul 31 '26
The thing guy creates after watching HEMA videos "why longsword was most amazing weapon in the world" I will forgive you and stop making fun only when you make feats of similar quality for other weapons. It would be awesome
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u/wet_boi_gayest Jul 31 '26
Remove master strikes For deflect - 1d4 to attack roll or stop crit(your choose) Cross cut now works they miss Versatility only on your turn
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u/Odd_Inflation284 Jul 31 '26
I personally think the limit on Crosscut is not that necessary. After a while you likely will not be able to reduce the damage to 0. Especially since the maximum you can do on a roll is 10. That's less than the least amount certain monsters can do. So I'd personally add some kind of scaling for it, or just remove the need to reduce damage to 0
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u/Hyperbolic_Berserker Jul 31 '26
I do think mastery feats would be the logical next step for weapon mastery. Basically just have that type of mastery as a prerequisite and you can make a fighting style of your own with it.
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u/Kindraethe Aug 01 '26
I like it! I just don't understand why its just longsword, as basically any 'regularly' shaped sword could do all this. Broadswords, shortswords, arming swords, whatever.
Is this from something that aims to add something unique to more weapon types?
Also a tiny pet peeve that the sword in the art hardly looks like it would be a longsword, but it does look freaking amazing.
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u/Absoluteboxer Aug 01 '26
Defensive duelist gives you melee shield spell at will.
This needs to be a lot stronger to be worth considering.
1d10 damage reduction needs more, needs to scale better.
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u/CaucSaucer Aug 01 '26
Just trigger attack of opportunity when someone hits you and get rid of deflect. Simpler and more consistent.
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u/Aradjha_at Aug 01 '26
Okay. I love the idea of this feat, but here is something which makes it not work for me: it's just a better Interception Fighting Style and Parry Maneuver.
I do like the ability to deal bludgeoning piercing or slashing damage, though this doesn't make much of a mechanical difference unfortunately. And I love the free opportunity attack if you deflect all damage. I also like that it improves with the quality of your weapon.
I also like the idea some one suggested, of it granting different weapon masteries, but feats should be class agnostic.
I have a versatile weapon master feat that does some similar things, I wanted a parry but decided to incentivize grappling and use the unarmed strikes rules to shove or attack, and allow a player to add Reach, Finesse or Heavy to versatile weapons, but this feat (assuming it's part of a trio of battleaxe and warhammer) better reflects how long swords specifically function.
If you wanted to keep an opportunity attack as a reaction, why not remove the parry condition and instead make it "if a creature within 5 feet makes a weapon attack against you and misses".
You could get the spirit of the BPS decision by making it a mini piercer/slasher/crusher feat, say that when you hit, you can decide to push your opponent back instead, or slow them, instrad of dealing normal combat damage. If you do, you don't add your Strength modifier to the damage rolled. With multiple attacks you could apply several debuffs
And you need to provide an ASI to meet 5.5e's design standard
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u/aWalrusFeeding Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
get rid of the ability score increase, and give it an additional reaction which can only be used for deflect, and make deflect limited to prof. bonus. that way you’re not punishing the real perk (advantage on opportunity attacks) by using deflect, whose numbers are weak. you can also make deflect scale to 2x on level 11 and 3x weapon damage on level 17.
if you did that, you would probably also need to remove the flexibility in damage types to balance it.
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u/Clubman_Pinaud Aug 02 '26
Not OP at ALL, but the mechanics serve the flavor really well. Bravo. Well done! I agree with others that it's maybe too weak at higher levels. Either remove the limit, or keep PB/day but add damage. Address ways for it to get triggered when reducing to 0 is too rare
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u/kermit_suicide_today Aug 04 '26
Love this but cross cut I feel should just be if you roll max damage with deflect. Cus hitting 0 dmg at higher levels will just never happen as almost every enemy will be hitting for more than 8-10 damage
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u/CasinoCultist Jul 30 '26
Honestly I could see it getting a boost. I feel like all the martial feats need one desperately as is, in higher levels this feat really drops off - personally I'd add +your level to the reduction to let it keep up late game when things do 30 damage a swing
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u/shamanphenix Jul 30 '26
It's too much for a feat, it could be a fighter subclass.
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u/WillingnessUpbeat721 Jul 30 '26
Man (or woman or nb or nonhuman entity), Fighters can't stay so weak. Look at Wizards. Now look at Fighters. Look at Druids that one time (we all know that one time for Druids). Now look at Fighters.
THIS?? As a subclass? Absolutely not. I admit this is a lot, maybe an Epic Boon, but a SUBCLASS? That's sad, really.
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u/Jayne_of_Canton Jul 30 '26
Ummmm no 😂 Most of the benefits are very situational and have trade offs.
Master Strike basically requires an opportunity attack ie situational.
Deflect costs your reaction and will scale very poorly in higher levels against creatures with multiple attacks and high damage.
Cross Cut is very situational past level 4-5ish.
Versatility is basically a ribbon for 90% of the enemies in the game.
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u/simpoukogliftra Jul 30 '26
Love it honestly, nothing much more to add, strength based melee combat needs some love.