Ep. 2 The Fighter Class: Eye of the Felidar

Eric and Philip go over the fighter class, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses and giving some tips on building your own. After that they do a character build-off, both using the fighter class but coming out with two very different characters.

News

 * Unearthed Arcana: Warlocks
 * Unearthed Arcana: Mass Combat
 * Plane Shift: Zendikar

Summary

 * 0:00:27: Introduction
 * 0:02:48: News
 * 0:19:14: The Fighter Class
 * 0:26:13: Cons of playing a fighter
 * 0:35:00: Building a fighter
 * 0:42:21: Subclasses
 * 0:53:31: Feats
 * 0:58:06: Playing a fighter


 * 1:06:15: Build-offs
 * 1:07:11: Philip's Hawkeye
 * 1:15:19: Eric's Billy Crimson


 * 1:25:41: Wrap-up

Philip's Hawkeye
Level: 5 Hitpoints: 29 Race: Human Background: Entertainer Subclass: Battlemaster Fighting Style: Archery Maneuvers: Disarming Strike, Trip Attack, Maneuvering Attack Feats: Sharpshooter, Observant Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Perception Performer Languages: Common, Sign Language

For their build-off, Philip based his character off of the comic version of Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye. Dexterity is his highest ability for obvious reasons, followed by Wisdom to increase his Perception and Insight, allowing him to read a combat zone. For example, the climactic scene of The Avengers when he's on top of the building and calling shots out to the team. Below that is Charisma, because he's a smack talker. He's not very persuasive, but he's always got something witty to say, and he's likeable.

Entertainer Background. Hawkeye and his brother ran away from home as a boy and joined the circus where he was trained by the Swordsman and Trickshot, who both eventually become supervillains. Hawkeye catches the Swordsman stealing, and before he can turn him in to the authorities he gets beaten and left for dead. Hawkeye then goes and finds his place in another carnival, doing trickshots as the World's Greatest Marksman.

Battlemaster. The obvious thing would be Sharpshooter and it's perfectly plausible to do that. The thing that Hawkeye does so well is the ability to act as a spotter and call out strikes. He needed the ability to do trick shots and not just shoot well.

Feats and Maneuvers. Hawkeye does a lot of things to disarm and incapacitate instead of killing, like Disarming Strike and Trip Attack. Observant gives a boost to your Perception and the ability to read people's lips at a long distance.

Languages. During David Aja and Matt Fraction's run of the Hawkeye comics, he gets hit over the head with a baseball bat and temporarily loses his hearing. He learns American Sign Language, and through that and reading lips he's able to communicate.

Eric's Billy Crimson
Race: Halfling Subrace: Lightfoot Background: Noble Subclass: Battlemaster Maneuvers: Dual Wielder, Feinting Attack, Parry, Rally Feats: Dual Wielder, Feinting Attack, Parry, Rally Skills: Acrobatics, History, Intimidation, Persuasion

A character born of oral tradition, there are a thousand different stories for Will Scarlet. Eric went with the concept of thrown weapons, specifically daggers. Halfling goes with the oral tradition theme, because they don't like sharing their language with other people, so they don't write literature.

Background. The concept of somebody fighting against tyranny, but coming from that world. It's very Zorro or Batman-esque.

Battlemaster. Being able to do many things with these daggers and having a lot of utility in a fight.

Skills. Intimidation not from strength, but with a wink and smile. He's not going to grab your shirt collar and threaten you; he'll smile at you when he's telling you all the different things he can do with the daggers underneath his coat. History and Persuasion because he's a good talker and knows enough about the history of the land and who rules that he can walk in the higher circles of nobility to gain information from the people he might be stealing from.

Trivia

 * This episode was recorded the day before the first recording of Eberron Renewed.

Plugs

 * d20radio
 * Roll For Initiative

Mentions

 * The Adventure Zone
 * Dragon Rampant
 * Dungeons & Dragons 3.5
 * Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition
 * Hawkeye Vol. 4
 * Game of Thrones
 * Lion Rampant
 * The Lord of the Rings
 * Pathfinder
 * Unearthed Arcana: Fighter