Path of the Swordsman I wrote up

So guys... i wrote up a subclass for barbarians that makes them seem more intelligent and civilized than most people thing ( think of how the British wrote up the propaganda about the Scottish bad in the days of William Wallace) Figured I would share it here for you guys to play if you like.

 

Path of the Swordsman

Barbarian tribes that are known to weild swords will pass on their knowlege of swordplay from generation to generation. Swordsmen and women use a feirce focus and sword techniques to gain the upperhand in comebat.

when you take this path at level 3 you gain a number of focus equal to you number of rages.

History written by the victor

You gain proficiency in the History skill. and have advantage on any history checks pretaining to Swords, techniques, and prommenant figure that won their bouts useing such weapons

Swordsman's care

you gain proficiency with Smith's tools

Focus

Focus is the resourse for many of the techniques of the swordsman. some of the techniques have a savings throw applied to them. On a critical hit, you gain a Focus point back

Focus DC. 8+prof+ Wis mod + Str/Dex Mod

Techniques

The Swordsman has a larg array of techqniues pass down from their tribes. 

Murder stoke- 1 focus- a technique where the swordsman grips the sword by the blade and strikes with pommel and hilt. deal 2d6 bludgeoning damage.

Half-sword- 1 focus- a technique where the swordsman holds his sword with one hand on the handle and another on the blade. allowing for Piercing strikes. Deal 2d6 pircing damage.

Warrior's Grasp- 1 focus- spend 1 focus to make a bonus action to attempt to grapple an opponent, uppon success, you can follow up with another technique.

Terrorizing strike- 1 focus- When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can expend one focus to attempt to frighten the target. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, it is frightened of you until the end of your next turn.

Parry= 1 focus on a reaction- When another creature damages you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction and expend one Focus to reduce the damage by the number you roll on your 1d6 + your Dexterity modifier.

Riposte- 1 focus on a reaction- When a creature misses you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction and expend one focus to make a melee weapon attack against the creature. If you hit, you add additional 1d6 to the attack's damage roll.

Bring them Down- 1 focus- if the foe is grapples. you can spend one focus to attempt to slam an opponent prone. on a fail, deal 1d10 crushing damage and the enemy is knocked prone. 

Send 'em flying- 1 focus- if a foe is grappled. you can spend a focus to attempt to throw an opponent either unto another enemy or away from you and your comrades.

Steel Storm-front-2 focus- expend 2 focus to make a flurry of weaker, swift strikes, dealing 2d4 slashing.

***'s long strike- 2 focus- you hold you sword as far back as possible. deal weapon damage as if you had reach.

Massacre- 3 Focus + 1 point of exhaustion- you put all your energy into a devastating stike that causes 2d12 at the cost of a point fo exhaustion

Swordsman's Guard- at level 6 you can add +1 AC so long as you are weilding a sword of any kind. Gain another +1 at level 12 and +2 at level 18

Live by the sword- at level 10  the swordsman can choose one of three fighting styles.

Dueling

When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.

Great Weapon Fighting

When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.

Two-Weapon Fighting

When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack. 

Hyper focus-1 focus- at level 14, if the swordsman attacks the same target he can expend one focus to strike to decrease an enemy's AC. each subsequent round you can spend another to decrease it further. however, when you rage ends you gain 2 points of exhaustion +1 for every focus expended to bring down your foe.

Interesting. I can see a tribe of Barbarians as in Conan the Barbarian would have some of these people in their ranks. Although, I see some issues:

1. I don't see how many focus points you get. Just that you get them and you get one back when you Crit hit.

 

2. The stock and trade of a Barbarian is it Rage ability. I'm not seeing how someone who's basically the Tazmanian Devil and ripping people apart limb form limb is going to be able to think and concentrate enough to focus on something.

3. the focus mechanic seems a lot like Superiority Dice from the fighter archetype "Battle Master". Also, some of them, like "bring them down" don't seem to fit a sword wielding motif. And the reach one seems just weird and awkward to me.

 

I think there needs some work to bring more into focus (no pun intended). Perhaps forgo the "focus" mechanic for something in favor of something else. I can see a whirlwind strike kind of thing, where when surrounded by enemies you can strike out at all enemies within 5ft reach or something, doing damage to all of them. Or something like that.

 

The level 6 ability seems a little OP. A straight +1 AC is ok. Maybe another +1 AC at at level 17 or something, but the +2 at 18 in addition to those seems much given whats normally published.

 

just some thoughts,

 

Robotz

appreciate the feedback Bot. I have explanations for at least two of your points.

 

1) I thought I had put it down but apparently not, but you get the same number of Focus as you do rages, capping at 6. the possibility of regaining Focus on a crit alleviates ( I hope) the seemingly low number of focus.. especially if someone wants to made excessive use of Massacre

 

2) Honestly i did struggle with this. because how does a barbarian, who's bread and butter is to enrage and eviscerate enemies, not be as you said the Tasmanian devil. the answer is an advanced stage of rage. beyond foaming at the mouth. Its called Deadly calm. its a point where one is so angry that they cease to outwardly rage, and have a calm about them that allows them to think and focus.

 

In terms of general fluff, a Barbarian tribe could have eeked out a way to skip directly to this deadly calm which allows them to use the focus mechanics

 

 3) honestly a couple of these are just retooled from the Battlemaster particularly the riposte and parry. I was kinda iffy about it Bring em down, and Send em flying as well. the long strike is a reference to the bastardsword,  which was essentually, oddly enough, a short sword blade with a hand and a half handle. I guess the idea was to get as much length as possible to gain reach for an attack though with this insight I might just give it the axe

 

I can probably drop the +2 to a +1 so that once a Swordsman hits 20, they would get a +3 to AC just for wielding the favored weapon type. which is a pretty good AC boost for this trait.

 

I honestly don't know what I could do besides the Focus mechanic, because really without the focus points, a low level human varient barbarian that hits 3 could obliterate Skeleton with one shot useing GWM, reckless and the Murder stroke