Goto [ Index ]

In Short

The Good: There are a few solid ideas here that I would be happy to bring into my games if I had a player really interested in them.

The Bad: The general fighter discussion is uninteresting and useless, doing little more than repeating material from the PHB using more words. Some of the fighter options, such as a bow attack and a Paragon Path focused on thrown weapons, don’t mesh well with how the fighter is constructed. Musket use is introduced.

The Physical Thing

Under the Cover

The fighter’s role is to be a defender. This is all the insight the first half of chapter one has to offer. Discussion of a fighter’s arms and armor amount to little more than saying that fighter should wear good armor and carry a backup weapon. Discussion of fighter powers involves little more than a restatement of what some PHB powers do.

The only useful part of this section is that it offers origin kits that provide a small themed bonus to players striving for a certain character feel. These range in power from Skill bonuses and new class Skills to being able to reroll an attack or saving throw every day. The actual discussion surrounding them is ok at best, though I do like the idea of a small bonus encouraging a bit of character forethought. That said, I find the options of additional dailies that enable the user to reroll an attack roll or saving throw to be pretty appealing. Sometimes a single saving throw can be a huge deal in a combat, and I anticipate some players feeling a bit of pressure to go for the more tactically useful option. Still, if you or a fellow player enjoys playing the fighter class but has trouble with character backgrounds and motivations then the options included here will at least generate some ideas.

Chapter 2 A Fighter’s Power - 18 pages.

New powers are always welcome, especially alternative At-Wills considering how few options are presented in the PHB. Unfortunately, these power additions are a real mixed bag. One of the goals of Quintessential Fighter is to enable support for fighter roles outside of what’s presented in the PHB. This idea would work well in 3.X when fighters could be excellent archers and perform a wide variety of tasks with their many Feats and high attack bonus. 4E’s design philosophy is more restrictive, however, and tacking on a few powers just isn’t enough to shift the nature of the class in a different direction.

An example of this misguided attempt is the inclusion of a ranged At-Will, Surging Arrow. Dex -2 vs. AC for 1W + Str + Dex damage in Heroic Tier. The designers are clearly striving for an attack that is less accurate but hits harder, distinguishing the fighter from the ranger. However, sacrificing an At-Will pick for a ranged weapon attack is going to be tough for the fighter. Their abilities are melee focused because that’s where the character is expected to be, and while there are a few additional ranged powers here there’s just not enough to support a viable ranged attacker. If a person wants to play an archer in 4E then the ranger is the best option currently available. Tweaking a class towards a different role can be done in some cases, but making the fighter more of a ranged combatant substantially weakens the class and forces them to step away from their core powers and class role.

Other At-Wills and supporting powers attempt similar things, such as trying to provide a swashbuckler build by providing powers based on Dexterity and Intelligence to attack with. However, there’s just not enough support within this product to make this work. The character will still end up with a majority of Strength based powers, undoing what the designers were striving for. A far better option would be to release a book offering new classes that do what the designers are trying to force the fighter to do, which would mesh better with the 4E design philosophy.

For fighters content to be Strength using defenders some of the options are interesting, though as a regular 4E DM I would take a close look at any one of these abilities before allowing it for selection. A level 5 Daily that does 4W + Str and is immobilized and grants combat advantage until the end of the fighter’s next turn seems awfully strong, even though the fighter grants combat advantage to the struck target for one turn. This disadvantage is easily beaten by simply shifting back a square after the attack, calling into question whether there’s any real disadvantage to the attack at all.

Still, several power options for each power level are provided and they do expand character options quite a bit. One thing that is included, which I would love to have seen more of, are powers that take certain weapon types into account. Polearm fighting powers, for example, are a welcome addition and are closer to what this book should be striving for. Instead of reinventing the class it offers unique areas of specialization that also plays up a theme, exactly what I would hope to find for a class that otherwise is a weapon generalist.

There’s a nice mix of options here, just be aware that some of them are neat ideas but not necessarily ideal for play. As always, use your best judgment when approaching 3rd party mechanical additions.

Of final note, several Martial Rituals are introduced here. Like other Rituals, these require a Feat to access and material components to make use of. They’re strong, but appropriately so for the cost involved to invoke them. If you’d like to add katas and warrior training to your game then this is a fine way to approach it.

Chapter 3 A Fighter’s Path - 30 pages.

Paragon Paths are always fun to read, and the ones featured here do have some neat ideas. A few of the abilities strike me as a bit too strong, but that can be easily enough tweaked by a DM who objects to them.

The Arena Idol is a gladiator who gains bonuses from vanquishing foes and from the roar of the crowd. Some of the abilities have a few problems, though. The Crowd’s Hero feature allows the character to gain a +2 bonus to all defenses and crit on a 19 for an entire encounter once per day, but it requires a single ally to spend a minor action to offer words of encouragement. Not only is the ability very powerful, especially in conjunction with the Paths’ other powers, but it also just doesn’t feel right. Another PC says “Kill ‘em all” and that’s sufficient for the gladiator to go nuts? I don’t expect high roleplaying standards in Paragon Path powers, but this one borders on the annoying in its execution.

The Battle Commando is a fighter/rogue hybrid that focuses on countering movement restriction abilities and setting up a sneak attack.

The Champion of Honor is something of a super-fighter in that it immediately extends the Combat Superiority mark to inflict a -4 penalty to any attack that does not include the fighter. Combined with a variety of defensive powers this class can be very effective at shutting down the enemy, probably overly so.

The Dragonborn Myrmidon is meant to reflect what a powerful Dragonborn champion might be like, but barely engages the racial aspect at all. One ability slightly increases breath damage while the others are somewhat more generic powers that move targets around the grid.

The Eladrin Blade is similar in that it tries to create a Paragon Path that engages the Eladrin affinity for swords and spears while also requiring some arcane training. The actual abilities, however, simply don’t mesh with the theme or don’t work quite right. Intelligence attacks are unlikely to be very effective considering how few fighters, Eladrin or otherwise, are going to have a decent Intelligence.

While the Paths so far work with existing options, the Fusilier focuses exclusively on options presented in Quintessential Fighter. The Fusilier is a musket fighter who uses the musket and bayonet to down his foes. While I do find the Cloud of Powder Encounter Power to be clever in that it provides concealment for a turn after using the musket, I can’t say the same for some of the other abilities. The use of a musket does not even remotely fit in with the fighter’s core abilities, and this Path does little to rectify the situation. Even if a player took the ranged attacks provided here and this Path they would still find themselves using strength-based attacks most of the time.

Another Path focusing on ranged attacks is the Infallible Thrower. This Path also leaves something to be desired, sporting only one encounter and one daily power to make throwing weapons more viable. As with other ranged options, this fighter build is still going to default back to being a normal fighter 90% of the time. Additionally, there aren’t a lot of folk who are overly excited about throwing their heavy blades in combat when those weapons may be highly valuable and essential to the fighter’s combat performance.

The Knight Errant offers a few bonuses for those who want to fight from horseback. While horses don’t work well in dungeons and many of the dangerous locales adventurers go, some of its abilities are well considered for a mounted fighter.

Lord of Chains embraces the spiked chain, a weapon once popular for some optimized 3.X builds but which is of little interest in 4E. The powers do make sense, at least, offering Threatening Reach, knockdowns, and similar abilities one might expect a chain master to have.

For pious characters the Pilgrim Fighter combines a clerical background (Initiate of the Faith) with the fighter class. It’s a decent hybrid Path, offering a few more clerical abilities to someone committed to multiclassing a fighter and cleric.

For Dwarven fighters the Tunnel Defender offers several nice defensive bonuses making the character even more resistant to being moved while also providing AC and defense improvements.

The Ultimate Duelist fights with a light blade and uses superior mobility against a foe. The only downside is that the light blade may be a weak choice for many fighters.

Fighters with a Warlock multiclass have the option of Warrior Avatar. I quite like this path, for the most part, and the attention to different Warlock pacts is a nice choice. As with the other multiclass Paths, though, switching from Strength to a non-standard stat like Charisma may be tough for the fighter.

Finally, the Whirlwind Dervish offers a specialized focus on falchions or scimitars. Granting the chosen weapon the ability to crit on 18 – 20 is very powerful on its own, and when combined with mobility and burst powers this Path can bring a big punch to the battle.

Chapter 4 A Fighter’s Feat - 14 pages.

While other options have various problems, I’m quite pleased with the Feats selection. There are some clever ideas here that are strong enough to be desirable, but which aren’t overpowering. For example, a series of armor Feats play up what the armor is actually good at defending against. Plate gets better at turning aside slashing blades while chainmail better defends against blunt strikes.

With plenty of options for each tier of play, the Feats are probably the best and most balanced part of the product and the one part I am likely to introduce in my own game. In addition to these options a wonderful new character option is introduced: Combat Styles. Combat Styles have Feat, Skill, and Power prerequisites and grant nice abilities to any character willing to pick up all the requirements. I love the idea and the implementation since it encourages characters built towards a strong theme, and the granted powers are on the level of a good Feat making them nice but not overpowering.

Chapter 5 A Fighter’s Tools - 16 pages.

Some of the Feats specifically reference new pieces of gear, and a lot of the items presented here are quite nice. While I’m not as excited with variations on existing armor (different stats for a chain shirt), I do like the rules for Buckler and Tower Shield. A Buckler requires a Feat to learn and can be used even while a two hand weapon is being implemented. A Tower Shield also requires a Feat and can be used to gain cover as the character ducks behind it. The rules are simple but they make sense and could be fun in play. New magic items and other pieces of gear at least offer DMs additional ideas and options, which is welcome given how few are present in the PHB.

Chapter 6 Organizations - 20 pages.

The Organizations presented herein are probably best for DMs who want to add a few special groups to their game, but players can find plenty of inspiration from the groups and may well want a character to belong. Indeed, some of them would be perfectly appropriate for entire groups of adventurers and any one of these organizations could be the focus of one or more story arcs.

For the most part these groups take on the role of special forces of one sort or another, though they aren’t necessarily attached to a government. Small bonuses are given for group membership, which is a reasonable tradeoff when one considers the volume of story arcs that can be generated just from a player character belonging to a mercenary organization. While I wouldn’t say they’re the highlight of the book, they’re worth having for anyone looking for ideas of mercenary organizations to add to a campaign.

Chapter 7 A Fighter’s Arena - 14 pages.

Four example arena maps complete with a unique hazard and challenger are included here. For a game with gladiatorial combat they’re an ok jumping off point for a DM wanting to create a memorable matches, though on their own they aren’t sufficient for much of anything. Nevertheless, a gladiatorial match can be a lot of fun and these ideas may at least inspire a DM even if they go unused.

My Take

Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.