While champions are the hero of their people, and battle-masters train for years to learn their craft and Eldritch Knights spend countless hours studying tomes a Mercenary learns his or her craft by surviving. Usually thrown into war at a young age by draft, signing up as a city guard, or signing into a mercenary company, these fighters didn't receive the formal training the other arch-types counterparts have received. Instead they learned how to survive on their own through what ever battle field trick they could use to gain advantage on their enemies. This translates into this Arch-types feature dirty tricks. Starting at 3rd level a Mercenary learns two tricks and can use each trick no more then once per combat encounter as the other enemies on the field of battle have seen the trick and know how to avoid it.
All dirty tricks use a bonus action and if they require a save it is versus your caster level determines 8+Proficiency bonus+Strength Modifier.
Dirty Tricks
Low Blow: A swift kick to the groin region is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Why? Because it works. When a mercenary uses a bonus action to attempt this blow he or she uses their knee or foot to strike an enemy with a stunning blow. The enemy must make a Con save versus this trick or are stunned until the end of your next round. It only works on creatures of size large or smaller with a discernible anatomy.
Hamstring/Knee Cap: An attack to the back of a creatures leg can slow their movement. A mercenary has learned this from years of combat and knows how to swiftly strike at an enemy to cut their movement speed. When a Mercenary uses this trick they have struck with an attack blow and use the hamstring as a bonus action on the trick, the enemy must make a dex save to avoid the attack to the vulnerable part of their legs. If the save fails the speed of the enemy is dropped to 10 for until they make a successful con save. .
Head Butt: When an enemy is concentrating on a spell or ability nothing will knock them off there concentration more then a swift forehead to the bridge of the nose. When they use a bonus action to make a head butt attack (1d4+ strength) the target must make a concentration attack with disadvantage on any spell or concentration ability they have going on. To execute this attack the Merc must be able to reach the targets head.
Dirt in the Eyes: Well a blind enemy is a enemy easier to gain a win in battle versus. So the mercenary has learned to throw all manners of dirt, powders shavings and concoctions into enemies eyes. When a Merc uses this dirty trick they throw a powder into the eyes of an enemy. The target must make a Con save or be blinded until they make a successful con save.
Throat Punch: With the pommel of your weapon you make a quick blow to the targets vocal cords area. Make an attack roll if it hits the target takes 1d4+strength damage and must make a Con save or be silenced until they make a successful con save or receive some form of healing.
Throw Hidden Dagger: As a quick flick of the wrist you throw a dagger you have hidden somewhere on your person. If it hits it does typical weapon damage.
Choke Hold: If you take a full action to grapple and win the check you may place the target in a choke hold. If you maintain the choke for three rounds you have a choice of knocking the enemy unconscious(treat as sleep spell target can be awaken), or makes a strength saving throw versus having its neck broken. Can only be used against targets of same size or smaller and have a noticeable neck and needs to breath.
The Middle Finger: You use a bonus action to really piss off a enemy. You taunt, prod, goad or anger an enemy so much that if they don't attack you they attack at a disadvantage. Targets get to make a wisdom saving throw to resist this effect.
Boot-blade: Hidden in your boot is a mechanism to spring a blade, using this trick as a bonus action you may make one bonus attack to kick underneath of the defenses of the enemy. If they fail to make a perception check you have advantage on this attack. Does 1d4+Strength for damage.
Twist-Blade: (Piercing or Slash Only) After making a successful melee attack on a first hit you may dig your blade in deeper to the wound to deal additional damage. By using this trick you do an additional 2d6 points of damage(Increases to 3d6 at level 11, and 4d6 at level 15. Your opponent is at disadvantage to hit you the following round if they do not make a con save. However, due to your blade being stuck in a target you give advantage to all other enemies on the battlefield.
Brutal Finish: When you make a finishing blow in combat you may make the death so brutal to the enemy they are all affected as if by the bane spell if they fail a Wisdom save, versus your spell modifier. Slashing: Decapitate, Bludgeoning: Crush Skull, Pole arm: Impale and Lift. Dagger: Throat Slit. It effects a number of enemies equal to your strength modifier.
Drop Kick: As a bonus action at the end of your turn you may make a sudden attack attempting to knock an enemy prone. Leaping off your feet you make an attack roll dealing 1d4 damage for the sudden double kick, plus knocks the enemy prone if they fail a saving throw. You remain prone at the end of your turn unless you have the feat Athleticism, in which case you immediately kip up.
Shield Smash: You use a shield to suddenly smash into the enemy. This bonus attack causes 1d6+ Strength damage if it hits and if you have the shield master feat can push the target back 10 feat.
Clear the Way: In every pitched battle there comes a time when you attempt to knock your enemy back into their second rank to disrupt the lines. A Mercenary using this action makes one massive swing with their weapon. It uses both a full attack action and a bonus action to execute the maneuver. The Mercenary sweeps his or her weapon in front of them striking all targets in the three squares in front of them. Each target that is hit by the blow is thrown back five feet into enemies behind them. Who also must make a saving throw versus being knocked prone. (Requires a Two Handed Weapon Melee Weapon)
Steal Weapon: Sometimes you just have to disarm an enemy, there is nothing like forcing a wizard to drop their wand or a enemy with a dangerous enchanted weapon cutting a swath through your ranks. A well trained Merc knows how to subtlety turn the tables on the enemy. By using their free hand they attempt to perform a wrist lock that causes the enemy to drop their weapon. If the enemy fails a strength save the mercenary may take the enemies weapon in their free hand.
Battle Sense: At this level you have experienced so many battles that you just have an awareness of when they are coming. You receive your half your proficiency bonus plus wisdom modifier if positive to your initiative.
Negotiate Fee: Years of fighting for pay makes you a tough bargain. You receive advantage on any charisma checks when it comes to settling on a fee for your services.
Strike Two: You have gotten so good at fighting in pitched combat battles some of your Dirty tricks can affect more then one target. (Dirt in the Eyes, Throat Punch, Hidden Daggers, The Middle Finger, and Twist Blade If you duel wield pierce or slash, can be used on two enemies instead of one.
Bleeding Attacks: You have learned how to twist your blade in ways that really hurt the enemy and make them bleed. Each wound you inflict causes the enemy to take 1 point of damage per round per wound. If they have 6 wounds they have disadvantage on any concentration based abilities until they receive a healing spell or bandage themselves.
Call to Arms: Your Mercenary banner has become so famous that you have almost no trouble at all recruiting allies and even at times turning enemy to allies. You talk an enemy into turning sides mid battle by calling them to your banner. An enemy combatant views the offer as a better deal and suddenly switches sides in the battle. Treat as if a dominate spell was cast using the Mercenaries dirty tricks save dc. As long as the Mercenary honors the deal the enemy will stay as long as the dm finds appropriate.
Every Trick in the Book: The ultimate mercenary has fought so many battles, and seen so many fights they literally know every trick in the book. They can use every trick in the book per combat, if they have the proper weapon type or equipment to use the trick.
Yes its been play tested. We did an Princes of the Apocalypse and this character was a ton of fun to play thru the module. Plays a little like a battle master but with unique abilities. The party lived up the Dirty Merc role and bought into the character being their Captain got a banner and a bunch of minion at the end of the module.
I really want to see a thrown weapon specialist. Not sure how it would work out. You can make a decent one with RAW, but something a bit more concrete would be cool.
For balancing, you basically made a battlemaster that recharges his abilities each encounter rather than requiring a short rest, and on top of that gets several bonuses beyond that just for fun. For comparison, battlemasters can recharge 1 maneuver per encounter at level 15, your archetype can recharge 5 powers every encounter at 15, and recharge up to 15 at level 18.
For extra abilities beyond maneuvers, you have a dominate person ability, with no stated limitation on uses per short/long rest or even encounter. A stacking bleeding effect (which beyond the obvious damage increase could potentially add a lot of paperwork to combat as the fighter could deal it many times per round)
Honestly the archetype is "Battlemaster, but better" it conflicts with 5e power recharging, and creates excessive bookkeeping potential issues.
Battle sense is entirely too greedy, add half your prof to initiate OR wisdom, doubling up on a single ability is a good signal this is going to be imbalanced.
Dirt in the Eyes, Throat Punch, Throw Hidden Dagger, Brutal Finish, Shield Smash, and Steal Weapons literally do not even list what kind of action they are (so I am guessing all free actions).
Strike Two just made you get several additional uses of your tricks per encounter, even furthering the deficit between this an Battle Master.
I am just trying to point out obvious balance issues with the archetype. I think many DMs would balk at it.
Thain it states all dirty tricks are bonus actions. Anyway thanks for feedback. Having Play-tested this to only to 14th level and having run a campaign with a battle master to 18(He ran out of the Abyss into some home made stuff. The big difference is damage output versus utility. The Nova capability of the Battlemaster bursting all of their maneuvers in a single action surged attack means it will always be a heavier burst class.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Fighter: Mercenary Arch Type
As a fighter, you gain the following Class Features.
Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per fighter level after 1st
Light Armor, Medium Armor, Heavy Armor, shields
Weapons: simple Weapons, martial Weapons
Tools: none
Skills: Choose two skills from Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Athletics, History, Insight, Intimidation, Perception, and Survival
Equipment You start with the following items, plus anything provided by your background.
• (a) Chain Mail or (b) leather, Longbow, and 20 Arrows
• (a) a martial weapon and a Shield or (b) two martial Weapons
• (a) a Light Crossbow and 20 bolts or (b) two handaxes
• (a) a Dungeoneer's Pack or (b) an Explorer's Pack
Alternatively, you may start with 5d4 x 10 gp to buy your own Equipment.
Table: The Mercenary
Martial Archetype: Mercenary
While champions are the hero of their people, and battle-masters train for years to learn their craft and Eldritch Knights spend countless hours studying tomes a Mercenary learns his or her craft by surviving. Usually thrown into war at a young age by draft, signing up as a city guard, or signing into a mercenary company, these fighters didn't receive the formal training the other arch-types counterparts have received. Instead they learned how to survive on their own through what ever battle field trick they could use to gain advantage on their enemies. This translates into this Arch-types feature dirty tricks. Starting at 3rd level a Mercenary learns two tricks and can use each trick no more then once per combat encounter as the other enemies on the field of battle have seen the trick and know how to avoid it.
All dirty tricks use a bonus action and if they require a save it is versus your caster level determines 8+Proficiency bonus+Strength Modifier.
Dirty Tricks
Battle Sense: At this level you have experienced so many battles that you just have an awareness of when they are coming. You receive your half your proficiency bonus plus wisdom modifier if positive to your initiative.
Negotiate Fee: Years of fighting for pay makes you a tough bargain. You receive advantage on any charisma checks when it comes to settling on a fee for your services.
Strike Two: You have gotten so good at fighting in pitched combat battles some of your Dirty tricks can affect more then one target. (Dirt in the Eyes, Throat Punch, Hidden Daggers, The Middle Finger, and Twist Blade If you duel wield pierce or slash, can be used on two enemies instead of one.
Bleeding Attacks: You have learned how to twist your blade in ways that really hurt the enemy and make them bleed. Each wound you inflict causes the enemy to take 1 point of damage per round per wound. If they have 6 wounds they have disadvantage on any concentration based abilities until they receive a healing spell or bandage themselves.
Call to Arms: Your Mercenary banner has become so famous that you have almost no trouble at all recruiting allies and even at times turning enemy to allies. You talk an enemy into turning sides mid battle by calling them to your banner. An enemy combatant views the offer as a better deal and suddenly switches sides in the battle. Treat as if a dominate spell was cast using the Mercenaries dirty tricks save dc. As long as the Mercenary honors the deal the enemy will stay as long as the dm finds appropriate.
Every Trick in the Book: The ultimate mercenary has fought so many battles, and seen so many fights they literally know every trick in the book. They can use every trick in the book per combat, if they have the proper weapon type or equipment to use the trick.
Yes its been play tested. We did an Princes of the Apocalypse and this character was a ton of fun to play thru the module. Plays a little like a battle master but with unique abilities. The party lived up the Dirty Merc role and bought into the character being their Captain got a banner and a bunch of minion at the end of the module.
I really want to see a thrown weapon specialist. Not sure how it would work out. You can make a decent one with RAW, but something a bit more concrete would be cool.
For balancing, you basically made a battlemaster that recharges his abilities each encounter rather than requiring a short rest, and on top of that gets several bonuses beyond that just for fun. For comparison, battlemasters can recharge 1 maneuver per encounter at level 15, your archetype can recharge 5 powers every encounter at 15, and recharge up to 15 at level 18.
For extra abilities beyond maneuvers, you have a dominate person ability, with no stated limitation on uses per short/long rest or even encounter. A stacking bleeding effect (which beyond the obvious damage increase could potentially add a lot of paperwork to combat as the fighter could deal it many times per round)
Honestly the archetype is "Battlemaster, but better" it conflicts with 5e power recharging, and creates excessive bookkeeping potential issues.
Battle sense is entirely too greedy, add half your prof to initiate OR wisdom, doubling up on a single ability is a good signal this is going to be imbalanced.
Dirt in the Eyes, Throat Punch, Throw Hidden Dagger, Brutal Finish, Shield Smash, and Steal Weapons literally do not even list what kind of action they are (so I am guessing all free actions).
Strike Two just made you get several additional uses of your tricks per encounter, even furthering the deficit between this an Battle Master.
I am just trying to point out obvious balance issues with the archetype. I think many DMs would balk at it.
Thain it states all dirty tricks are bonus actions. Anyway thanks for feedback. Having Play-tested this to only to 14th level and having run a campaign with a battle master to 18(He ran out of the Abyss into some home made stuff. The big difference is damage output versus utility. The Nova capability of the Battlemaster bursting all of their maneuvers in a single action surged attack means it will always be a heavier burst class.