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Nerdarchy > Dungeons & Dragons  > 5E D&D Fighter Archetype — Weapon Master
Dungeons and Dragons

5E D&D Fighter Archetype — Weapon Master

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Weapon Master

Nerdarchist Ted here and today I am breaking the mold. Normally I do a board game review on Mondays and instead today I am going to give you a Customized Archetype for your fighter for Dungeons and Dragons 5th ed.

New Archetype for fighter in Dungeons and Dragons

The fighter presented in thePlayers Handbook is an all around fighter, able to pick up any weapon and excel almost equally with it.   The Weapon Master is the opposite.  They have toiled long hours in hard disciplined practice to truly master a weapon of choice.

As this is an archetype the rest of the fighters skills apply to anything the fighter chooses to wield but the remainder of the benefits only work when they are wielding the weapon of choice.

They dances around the battlefield executing maneuvers with such ease that few have heard of let alone mastered in the way he did.

The Weapon Master

The archetypal Weapon Master focuses his training time delving into the complicated fighting styles of aDungeons and Dragons given weapon.  Those who decide to travel this path are usually prone to disdain the use of any other weapon than the one chosen at the start of their training. They focus on the most challenging maneuvers.

Chosen Weapon. Beginning when you choose this path you must choose a weapon to be your chosen weapon.  (i.e. long sword, battle axe, mace . . . It may be any weapon 1 or two handed)  Once chosen it pertains to all abilities of this archetype.  Once chosen it is very difficult to change.  If a you wish to change their chosen weapon to another type they must spend 6 months in rigorous daily training when they become familiar with a new weapon type.  (i.e they change from long sword to war hammer.)

Once the change has taken place a new chosen weapon has happened all benefits of this archetype only apply to the new chosen weapon and no longer apply to the previous chosen weapon.

Weapon Katas. At 3rd level You may now practice daily in the forms and styles of your chosen weapon to the extent that you are prepared for even the most complicated of situations.

After a long rest you may perform a 30 minute kata with your chosen weapon. Roll 3 d20 and record the results. Whenever you attack with your chosen weapon or you are attacked while wielding your chosen weapon you may substitute one of your recorded rolls for one of the d20’s rolled. You may only do this once per turn. When you take a long rest you lose the recorded numbers that have not been used.

Weapon Master Expanded  At 7th level, you can chose a second weapon that you wish to master. You may use the features that pertain to your mastered weapon while wielding either of the chosen weapons. Note: This is a place holder for now until further play testing can be done in Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition.

Improved Critical.  At 10th level you have honed your weapon skills even further. Achieving devastatingly accurate strikes with your chosen 5th editionweapon(s).  Your weapon attacks with your chosen weapon(s) score a critical hit on a natural roll of 19 or 20.

Retaliation.  At 15th level your combat style leave little opening for your opponents to hit you easily.  If your opponent hits you with an attack you can use your reaction to make an attack against them.

Weapon Specialization.  At 18th level you have become an ultimate master of your chosen weapon.  When you use this weapon to make an attack roll you can apply an extra 1d6 to your damage roll per attack.

So there you have it,  a customized archetype for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition.  Let me know whether you like love it in the comments below and by now I am certain you know the drill:

Until Next time, Stay Nerdy!

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Ted Adams

The nerd is strong in this one. I received my bachelors degree in communication with a specialization in Radio/TV/Film. I have been a table op role player for about 20 years 17 of which with the current group. I have played several itterations of D&D, Mutants and Masterminds 2nd and 3rd editions, Star wars RPG, Shadowrun and World of Darkness. I am an avid fan of books and follow a few authors reading all they write. Favorite author is Jim Butcher I have been an on/off larper for around 15 years even doing a stretch of running my own for a while. I have played a number of Miniature games including Warhammer 40K, Warhammer Fantasy, Heroscape, Mage Knight, Dreamblade and D&D Miniatures. I have practiced with the art of the German long sword with an ARMA group for over 7 years studying the German long sword, sword and buckler, dagger, axe and polearm. By no strecth of the imagination am I an expert but good enough to last longer than the average person if the Zombie apocalypse ever happens. I am an avid fan of board games and dice games with my current favorite being Quarrios.

11 Comments

  • Andrés Ruiz
    April 6, 2015 at 5:39 pm

    I'd like to try it!!

  • Andrés Ruiz
    April 6, 2015 at 5:40 pm

    I'd like to try it!!

    • Nathan Riggins
      April 24, 2015 at 6:42 pm

      Thanks Andres

  • Alex Maxwell
    April 6, 2015 at 7:26 pm

    more powerful than champion, maybe its should be its own class. Combined with the base fighter stuff this is looking powerful. What playtest results did you have?

    • Nathan Riggins
      April 8, 2015 at 10:31 pm

      I adjusted some of the issues I saw with the class upon closer inspection. Let me know what you think. Hopefully it assists with correcting the bounded accuracy issue in 3rd level and toned down the fighting benefit of 7th level until Ted and I can figure out something more suited to expanding the class’ feel.

  • David Friant
    April 6, 2015 at 7:30 pm

    It hasn't been play tested yet. I kind of voiced the same things to Ted myself. We have different opinions when it comes to design theory. We put stuff up as entertainment more than anything. We may use it in our games as we get a chance. I am going to use in Ted's game to teach him a lesson once Ulthen-Gar is high enough to take it.

  • Alex Maxwell
    April 8, 2015 at 4:25 pm

    I thought Uthengar was higher than third level.

  • Alex Maxwell
    April 10, 2015 at 8:58 pm

    The weapon katas look very very interesting. I might even say up it to roll 6 d20 and keep highest 3.

    • Nathan Riggins
      April 24, 2015 at 6:41 pm

      Thanks, I liked them as well and sadly I can’t take credit for this one bc it is a re-skinned school of divination class feature.

      As Terry said you can give the low rolls to an opponent

  • Terry Tsopanos
    April 13, 2015 at 2:06 am

    It also said you can use the d20's rolled for your attacks and attacks against you. So it would be good to use high and low rolls.

    • Nathan Riggins
      April 24, 2015 at 6:41 pm

      Excellent insight into the strategy to use with this game mechanic

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