Weapon Specialization as a Class Feature

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Last week or so, Nifft has been needling me about my House Rules-- mainly because some of my rules changes expose one of his pet peeves in the RAW, that of class features being disguised as spells or feats.

Figured one of the easiest to fix would be the Fighter-- it's normally a purely feat-based class and there are frequent complaints that there are no reasons to play a high-level Fighter. Also, other d20 games often use some form of Weapon Specialization as a class feature-- from the Elite Trooper in Star Wars to the Soldier AdvC in d20 Modern.

So, here goes:

Fighters get Weapon Focus in the weapon (or weapon group, if you're using Group Proficiencies) for free at 1st level.

Fighters have a class ability called Weapon Specialization, which they first gain at 4th level-- they automatically gain the benefits of the Weapon Focus feat chain for the weapon they picked at 1st level.

You could also make this more flexible by extending the benefits to any weapon the Fighter takes Weapon Focus for. (Not very common for a Fighter to use more than a single type of weapon at a time-- it's not a stacking benefit.)

One way this could work would be:

• 5th level: Weapon Specialization
• 9th level: Improved Critical
• 13th level: Greater Weapon Focus
• 17th level: Greater Weapon Specialization

You could also bump the bonuses to odd levels, when Fighters don't normally gain other benefits. This makes Fighter a little more like more recent classes which endeavor to provide some kind of benefit at each level, and makes the progression a little more orderly.

These could be rearranged to taste, though I'd recommend a fixed progression. Improved Critical isn't normally Fighter-exclusive, but if I were turning it into a Fighter class feature, I'd probably restrict access to it.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I'm also considering lowering all of these by 2 levels (to 3rd, 7th, 11th, so on) to allow room for Massive Critical at 19th, which increases the critical multliplier of the selected weapon by 1.

I could also remove the bonus feat I give Fighters at 3rd level to make up for the loss of free Heavy Armor; figure this about balances out.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Alright, here's a simple draft version:

Fighter Modifications:

Fighters retain their standard Weapon Proficiencies for the game they're in-- all Simple and Martial for standard campaigns or Basic plus Four Groups for Weapon Group Proficiency rules.

Fighters lose their free Heavy Armor proficiency. (This is really optional, but I prefer it.)

Fighters gain bonus feats at 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level, and every odd level thereafter.

In addition to their bonus feat at 1st level, Fighters gain Weapon Focus in one weapon (or weapon group) of their choice.

Weapon Mastery: Beginning at 4th level, the Fighter gains the benefits of the Weapon Specialization feat with any weapon he has selected for Weapon Focus. At 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th levels, the Fighter gets to apply the benefits of the following feats to any weapon he has Weapon Focus in:

8th: Improved Critical
12th: Greater Weapon Focus
16th: Massive Critical (increases the critical multiplier by 1)
20th: Greater Weapon Specialization

In my opinion, Improved Critical should be removed from the feats available to other characters, since it's a refinement along the same lines as Weapon Specialization. It also makes the Fighter more unique among the fighting classes.

This leaves 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th levels with the Fighter gaining no special benefit from class; I'm thinking I'd like to rectify this situation, but I'm not entirely certain how. I'm leaning toward either free Exotic Weapon Proficiencies or some kind of armor specialization bonus.

Of course, I could also just leave those levels blank. Several other classes have blank levels, especially near the end.

 

[Afrodyte]

scaling weapon specialization

Korimyr:

This seems like a pretty sound idea. However, instead of just giving the same bonus for multiple weapons, what about granting a higher bonus for the same weapon? Sort of like the 3.5 ranger's favored enemy bonus. Sort of like:

Weapon Mastery: At 5th level and every 5 levels afterward, the fighter gains a +1 attack bonus to a weapon he has chosen for the Weapon Focus feat. For instance, a 15th-level fighter who has Weapon Focus (longsword) and Weapon Focus (halberd) has a total bonus of +3 to distribute however he wishes to either weapon. He could put a +2 bonus in the longsword and a +1 bonus in the halberd, or stack the whole bonus to a single weapon.

Weapon Grand Mastery: Need a better name. At 10th level and every 5 levels thereafter, the figher gains a +2 damage bonus to a weapon he has chosen for the Weapon Specialization feat. For instance, 18th-level fighter who has Weapon Specialization (longsword) and Weapon Specialization (shortbow) can give +2 damage to both weapons or +4 damage to one weapon.

Of course, this reduces the imperative to select Greater Weapon Focus and Greater Weapon Specialization as one of the fighter's bonus feats, but perhaps if I worded it differently, Greater Weapon Focus and Greater Weapon Specialization could be something like prerequisites for these abilities.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Of course, this reduces the imperative to select Greater Weapon Focus and Greater Weapon Specialization as one of the fighter's bonus feats ...

That's the idea. They're the only feats in the game that require levels in a specific class.