D&D 5e FFT: Jobs 3

Job Creation 3

We're back with Part 3 of FFT Job Builds! Up next: The Fencer and the Black Mage! Let's get started.

Fencer

Premise — The Fencer (or Knight, Depending on Translation) is a mundane expert at martial weapons combat, and all of his techniques are delivered by his primary weapon. His techniques revolve around destroying equipment, and disabling his opponent's body through strikes to their vitals. In D&D terms, he's built around Sundering equipment and Ability Damage. Neither of which actually exists for players in 5e by default - so this is a class that we won't be able to do a very accurate 'Quick n Dirty' build of, we'll have to take liberties with the concept if we're not going to build a bunch of custom abilities for it.

Ability Damage — I actually *REALLY* enjoy the ability to attack something other than HP, and have it have a meaningful impact. That's something I will probably explore in a future article. However, There's no ability damage for players in 5e, and (looking back at 3e) it was present, but not a design consideration. Very high CR monsters could be taken out as easily as regular rats by attacking their ability scores. It's a very interesting mechanic, and I miss it in 5e, but it's also something that needs to be properly designed for, and has been handled poorly in the past. I will likely write something up to bring back ability damage for 5e in the future, but that's at least one post on its own.

Sunder — Someone named Enricorix over at EN World HAS written up a sunder maneuver (even if it's just for held objects).

Core Gameplay Abilities — Sunder (any type of held or worn item, by slot), MP Damage, PA/MA/SP Damage

D&D Analogues — Sunder Weapon/Shield: sunder maneuver, Sunder Armor / Sunder Accessory / MP damage / PA/MA Damage: no real analogue; You'd need to homebrew something. SP Damage: no analogue (It pushes back your turns and makes them less frequent. Maybe a homebrew attack that *might* stun, and DOES lower initiative).

Class/Subclass Options

Battle Master Fighter — It's our best option for an FFT Style Fencer. This one's not going to include much (if any) tweaking compared to the others I've done.

Battle Master Fighter

"A brave and chivalrous warrior of unmatched skill. Uses a knight's sword to unleash the Arts of War."

Proficiencies

No change.

Battle Master

Combat Superiority: Add the following maneuver
SUNDERING ATTACK (Battle Master Maneuver): When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can expend one or more superiority dies and you can attempt to sunder the target’s weapon or shield, if you hit, you add the superiority die to the attack’s damage roll to one item that the target is holding of your choice . If the total of damage is equal to or greater than the weapon damage threshold the weapon is considered sundered. A weapon's damage threshold is the same of a weapon's maximum damage die. (8 for a longsword, 10 for a halberd, 12 for a greatsword). Shields have 8 damage threshold. Oversized (or enlarged) weapons have an extra 4 damage threshold for each size category above the original size. Magic weapons are considered to have an extra damage threshold die per rarity level above common. Magic weapons have resistance to all types of damage and all types of damage from nonmagic weapons.
Special Substances: Some special materials as mithral and adamantine have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from nonmagic weapons. In addition mithral has resitance to weapons that aren’t made of adamantine or mithral. Adamantine has resistance to weapons that aren’t made of adamantine.
Sundered Weapon: A sundered weapon (or shield) is still usable but with disadvantage on rolls to attack (or -1 on AC for shields), until get fixed. A sundered magic weapon's (or shield's) magic properties are suppressed until properly repaired. All sundered weapons are treated as if were improvised weapons.
Weapons immunities: Weapons immunities. As objects weapons are immune to poison and psychic damage. An adamantine weapon or shield is immune to critical hits.

It's not a perfect fit, by far, but it's close enough to fit a "similar" mechanical role. It could really use several more homebrewed maneuvers to round it out.

Note: The Knight Subclass for fighter thematically fits into the setting very well, but it does not cover the playstyle of the FFT Fencer at all. I would absolutely allow it as a separate option, and would consider using it for some Knight type NPCs, however.

Roleplay: You either play this up as a sworn knight, or you play it as a hired sword, or you play it as a skilled soldier; they all work quite well.

Black Mage

Premise — The Black Mage is an AoE specialized blasting caster.

Core Gameplay Abilities — Various AoE elemental spells, Poison, Toad, Death

D&D Analogues — Various evocation spells, Poison: no analogue - 5e lacks ongoing damage over time effects, for the most part. There are a few, though, mostly to do with burning. Searing Smite & Immolation come to mind - maybe another topic for more detail in a future post. For now (to keep it simple) we'll say it's the same as Immolation, but with all the Fire Damage as Poison Damage instead. Toad: Polymorph, True Polymorph, Death: Phantasmal Killer, Power Word Kill.

Class/Subclass Options

Evocation Wizard — This is a really good fit, as is. This time we're going to leave well enough alone.

Black Mage = Evocation Wizard.

This one was easier than expected. Our fencer could use other homebrewed maneuvers, but it's still not a bad fit.

Hawkwinter