Martial Artist

*The **Martial Artist** is specialized in the application of a craft some people consider primitive. Despite any ranged combat skills they may possess, they prefer to make things close and personal. They have practiced day and night in the perfection of their craft. There may be countless reasons why martial artists prefer close combat over firearms, but the primary reason is usually self-empowerment.*

## Class Features

As a martial artist, you gain the following class features.

### Hit Points

**Hit Dice:** 1d10 per martial artist level
**Hit Points at 1st Level:** 10 + your Constitution modifier
**Hit Points at Higher Levels:** 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per martial artist level after 1st

### Proficiencies

**Armor**: Light armor
**Weapons**: Simple weapons, Heavy Pistols, and SMGs
**Tools**: All ground vehicles and aircraft
**Saving Throw**: Strength, Dexterity
**Skills**: Select three skills from Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Athletics, History, Insight, Intimidation, Perception, and Survival.

### Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

* (a) M3 Heavy Pistol or (b) M4 SMG
* Two grenades
* (a) Stock Light Armor or (b) Stock Medium Armor
* 5,000 credits worth of additional gear

### Fighting Form

At 1st level, select either Dexterity or Strength as your ability for attack and damage rolls.

* **Dexterity.** If you use Dexterity as your attack/damage ability, you gain the following abilities:
	+ When reaching combo-chain tier 2, you gain a +1 bonus to melee attack rolls.
	+ You add half your Dexterity modifier (round down) to your normal Dexterity modifier when determining your AC with light armor (effectively x1.5 your modifier to AC—a +4 Dex bonus becomes a +6).
	+ You can use Dexterity (Acrobatics) instead of Strength (Athletics) to make or sustain grapple checks.

* **Strength.** If you use Strength as your attack/damage ability, you gain the following abilities:
	+ You gain a +1 bonus to all melee damage rolls.
	+ You gain proficiency with all medium and heavy armor.
	+ You have advantage when attempting to shove a target. A shoved creature is pushed 10 feet away instead of 5 feet

### Combat Chain

Starting at 1st level, you gain the ability to string fighting maneuvers together to unleash more powerful attacks. You always begin a battle on tier 1, inflicting 1d6 damage with unarmed attacks. If on your turn, you score at least one melee hit, then at the beginning of your next turn, you advance to the next tier. You must have hit an enemy at least once during your turn to move up on your next turn and you can only advance your tier once per turn.

On tiers 2, 3, 4, or 5, after hitting a target, you can perform a finishing move. If you don’t perform a finishing move, the combo chain can continue. When you perform a finishing move or fail to make an attack during your turn, you restart the combo chain at tier 1.

You must decide to perform a finishing move after a successful attack, and on the same turn as one. When you reach the maximum tier allowed by your level, you can sustain the chain and your damage dice for as long as you wish, but the moment you commit a finishing move, you revert back to tier 1. You can keep your chain while changing targets.

At 1st level, you can only string a combo chain to tier 3. This increases to tier 4 at 6th level, and tier 5 at 9th level.

**Note.** You can use melee weapons with combo chain but utilize the table’s damage die instead of the weapon’s. If you have an ability that increases the damage of your unarmed attack, your damage dice may change, but your tier does not.

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### Martial Exploit

At 1st level, you can select two martial exploits. You gain an additional exploit at 3rd level, 6th level, and 9th level. Each martial exploit can only be selected once.

### Extra Attack

Beginning at 6th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. The number of attacks increases to three when you reach 10th level in this class and to four when you reach 20th level in this class.