Unchained Fighter

*Fighters are consummate warriors, experts in the many facets of the deadly art of combat. Regardless of what motivates each fighter to step onto the battlefield, they all share an unparalleled mastery with weapons and armor, a profound understanding of fighting techniques, and above all – the sheer determination to win. Countless hours spent training, perfecting exotic martial techniques, studying the intricacies of tactics – all of this and more to hone themselves into lethal instruments which are then tempered in the forge of war. The knight errant, the conquering warlord, the royal bodyguard – these positions and many more are where fighters excel; Roles that offer ample opportunity to test a fighter’s mettle against those who are brave enough to face him. Fighters excel in battle—confronting and overcoming opposing forces, holding the line, and turning the tide of conflict through tactical acumen and physical force. Fighters are peerless champions whose combat prowess is legendary.*

HD: d10

Starting Wealth: 5d6 x 10 GP (Average 175 GP)

Class Skills: Athletics (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (Engineering) (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), and Survival (Wis)

Skill Ranks Per Level: 4+ Int Modifier

## **Class Features**

**Weapon and Armor Profiency:** A fighter is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, light, and medium) and shields (including tower shields).

**Bonus Feats:** At 1st level, and at every even level thereafter, a fighter gains a bonus feat in addition to those gained from normal advancement. These bonus feats must be selected from those listed as Combat Feats.

**Bonus Skills:**  A fighter chooses any 4 skills from the following list to become class skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Knowledge (local) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (nobility) (Int), Perception (Wis), and Sense Motive (Wis).

**Feat Aptitude (Ex):** At 3rd level, a fighter treats his base attack bonus as being higher for the purpose of meeting the prerequisites of combat feats. The amount he adds to his base attack bonus for this purpose is equal to one third his class level (to a maximum of +5 at 15th level).

**Advanced Armor Training (Ex):**  At 3rd level, and again at 7th, 11th, and 15th level, a fighter gains an advanced armor training option (All new Advanced Armor Training options can be found in the Legendary Fighter PDF). Unless otherwise noted, an option can be selected only once.

**Armor Training (Ex):** Starting at 3rd level a fighter becomes more adept at wearing armor. When a fighter dons half-plate or full plate armor without assistance, he can spend twice as long as normal donning this armor to don it properly rather than only being able to hastily don it. Additionally, the fighter gains an advanced armor training option. At 5th level, 9th level, and 13th level the fighter gains an additional advanced armor training option. Unless otherwise noted, an option can be selected only once.

**Weapon Training (Ex):** At 3rd level, a fighter gains a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls with all weapons he is proficient with. A fighter also adds this bonus to any combat maneuver checks that are made with weapons he is proficient with. This bonus also applies to the fighter’s Combat Maneuver Defense when defending against disarm, steal, and sunder attempts made against weapons he is wielding and proficient with. This bonus increases by +1 at 7th, 11th, and 15th level.

**Feat Retraining (Ex):** At 4th level, and every 2 levels thereafter (6th, 8th, and so on), a fighter can choose to learn a new combat feat in place of either a fighter bonus feat or a combat feat gained from character advancement. The fighter can choose to either lose this feat in exchange for the new one or to convert the old feat into a latent feat (see below). If the old feat was a prerequisite for another feat, prestige class, or other ability that the fighter possesses then he must still meet these prerequisites after retraining.

A fighter can gain any feat he qualifies for at the time he retrains. He isn’t limited to the feat choices he qualified for when he first gained the feat. For example, a fighter who chooses Cleave as his 1st level bonus feat can then retrain this bonus feat into the Vital Strike feat (which has a prerequisite of +6 BAB) at 6th level, even though he did not qualify for Vital Strike at 1st level. A fighter can only change one feat at any given level and must choose whether or not to swap the feat at the time he gains the new level.

**Prowess (Ex):** At 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, and 16th level, a fighter gains a prowess option. Unless otherwise noted, an option can only be selected once. A complete list of Prowess options can be found in the Legendary Fighter PDF. Abundant Tactics, Adaptable Training, Armament Item Mastery, Fighter's Finesse, Fighter's Tactics, Inspiring Confidence, Effortless Dual Wielding, Master Armorer, and Weapon Specialist replace their respective Advanced Weapon Trainings and Advanced Armor Trainings.

**Advanced Weapon Training (Ex):** At 5th level and every four levels thereafter, a fighter gains an advanced weapon training option. Unless otherwise noted, an option can be selected only once (See the Legendary Fighter PDF for any new AWT options).

**Perseverance (Ex):** At 6th level and every four levels thereafter, a fighter chooses and gains a prowess option. Unless otherwise noted, a Perseverance can only be selected once. A complete list of Perseverance options can be found in the Legendary Fighter PDF. The Dauntless Perseverance replaces the Armed Bravery Advanced Weapon Training, which can no longer be taken as a result.

**Weapon Adaption (Ex):** At 7th level, when a fighter wields a weapon he isn’t proficient with, he reduces the non-proficiency penalty by 2 (to a minimum of 0). At 15th level, he instead reduces the penalty by 4. Even if this reduces the penalty to 0, the fighter doesn’t count as being proficient with these weapons.

**Combat Composure (Ex):** At 15th level, a fighter can take 10 on skill checks during combat even if the situation or immediate danger wouldn’t normally allow him to do so, provided the skill is a class skill, he is trained in the skill, and he could take 10 on the check outside of combat. The fighter cannot use this ability if he currently has any of the following conditions: confused, cowering, dazed, disabled, exhausted, fascinated, fatigued, flat-footed, frightened, helpless, nauseated, panicked, paralyzed, shaken, sickened, staggered, or stunned.

**Flawless Technique (Ex):** At 17th level a fighter doesn’t automatically miss an attack roll when he rolls a natural 1.

**Assured Strike (Ex):** At 19th level, once per round
before making an attack roll, a fighter can choose to treat the d20 result as a 10.

**Armor Mastery (Ex):** At 19th level, a fighter gains damage reduction 5/— whenever he is wearing armor or using a shield. A fighter who gains DR from armor or other fighter class features increases his armor mastery Damage Reduction by the DR values of these sources.

If weapon damage from an attack ignores some or all of the fighter’s armor mastery DR then the fighter can redirect to his armor or shield the amount of weapon damage from the attack that bypassed his DR. The fighter takes any remaining damage.

For example, if a fighter with armor mastery DR 10/— takes 18 points of piercing damage from a spear and this attack ignores 5 points of his armor mastery DR, then he can redirect that 5 points of damage to his armor or shield and only take the remaining 8 points of damage from the attack himself.

If an attacker uses an ability that allows her to total the
weapon damage from multiple attacks before applying damage reduction against a fighter with armor mastery, multiply the fighter’s armor mastery DR by the number of successful hits after the first. The fighter can have his armor or shield receive this amount of damage from the attack, or the total weapon damage from all hits after the first if this is a smaller amount. The fighter takes any remaining damage from the attacks.

In either case, the fighter must decide whether to direct damage to his armor or to his shield before an opponent attacks him and the armor or shield’s hardness counts as normal against any damage it takes. If this damage destroys the armor or shield then any excess damage is applied to the fighter.

**Weapon Mastery (Ex):** Attacks made by the fighter with weapons he has selected with the Weapon Focus feat, or that belong to a weapon group he possesses, automatically confirm all critical threats and have their damage multiplier increased by 1 (×2 becomes ×3, for example).

## Archetypes

See the Conversion rules in the Legendary Fighter PDF, archetypes section (Page 42, or 48 on a PDF reader).