The Champion features are not stout enough later on to give the appearance of the "peerless athelete". A rogue or bard with expertise or a Barb raging will out perform the Champion 9 times out of 10.
"Just Play Barbarian"
If the answer to wanting a more simple fighter who can hold a candle to Battle-master is to play a completely different class I think there is a obvious niche not filled.
Barbarian fills a different role and plays differently than fighter so the two are not compariable.
So what is the solution? I think we can look at other class features and maybe think about an alternative class feature for Champion instead of Improved Critical
Brute Force
Once per turn you can deal an additional d6 of damage to a target. This die increases to a d8 at level 10 and to a d10 at level 16.
This allows for a simple alternative without completely replacing the Champion. While this is a decent amount of damage increase it does not step on the toes of the other classes and actually mirrors other class features (Colossus Slayer).
Remarkable Athlete
When you reach 7th level you can choose a skill: Athletics or Acrobatics. You gain proficiency in this skill. If you have proficiency in this skill already you can double your proficiency with any check made using this skill.
In addition, when you make a long jump you can use a Bonus Action to double the range of the jump. The jump cannot move you farther than your remaining movement.
Again this would be a class variant for the skill and would allow for a change in the subclass without overshadowing it.
My question is why people seem to think "I would like a Fighter that deals a bunch of extra damage on their base attacks from sheer brawn, and who gets a bunch of damage resistance from just being crazy tough" is not supposed to prompt responses of "so...you want a barbarian?" The Brute UA was pretty much Wizards saying "hey, what would you guys think if we just kinda folded the barbarian class into the fighter?"
As for this variation? Not sure why Remarkable Athlete is turned to "gain Expertise in Athletics". The idea of physical Jack of All Trades is an interesting one, if sadly underrepresented in 5e because DMs can't ever figure out what calls for Athletics, what calls for Acrobatics, or what calls for a raw attribute roll. Your variation is very limited, though I can understand why people don't like the base ability. Perhaps, rather than just turning it into yet another tired "gain Expertise" ability, allow them to gain advantage or grant a bonus on their checks X times per rest? Also kind of tired, I know, but I'm a little loathe to watch the flexibility of Peerless Athlete die in the face of "I just want to make a Shield Master grappler thing" munchkin optimization digging for Athletics Expertise on every martial class.
My question is why people seem to think "I would like a Fighter that deals a bunch of extra damage on their base attacks from sheer brawn, and who gets a bunch of damage resistance from just being crazy tough" is not supposed to prompt responses of "so...you want a barbarian?" The Brute UA was pretty much Wizards saying "hey, what would you guys think if we just kinda folded the barbarian class into the fighter?"
As for this variation? Not sure why Remarkable Athlete is turned to "gain Expertise in Athletics". The idea of physical Jack of All Trades is an interesting one, if sadly underrepresented in 5e because DMs can't ever figure out what calls for Athletics, what calls for Acrobatics, or what calls for a raw attribute roll. Your variation is very limited, though I can understand why people don't like the base ability. Perhaps, rather than just turning it into yet another tired "gain Expertise" ability, allow them to gain advantage or grant a bonus on their checks X times per rest? Also kind of tired, I know, but I'm a little loathe to watch the flexibility of Peerless Athlete die in the face of "I just want to make a Shield Master grappler thing" munchkin optimization digging for Athletics Expertise on every martial class.
Yeah unfortunately the reality of the system makes peerless athlete just... Bad. Not the ability's fault but still.
I like the idea of X amount of ADV on certain checks per short rest though. That does make it more dynamic. This would be my preference moving forward so thanks!
The damage thing with barbarian is from higher hit points and B/P/S resistance when raging. Neither of that is incorporated into the Brute. They are better at saving throws and getting up from down which barbarian doesn't really cover. Zealot gets one reroll per rage and can be revived for free but that requires a cleric friend not a built in ability. Regardless I didn't include in my class variants either as it's not what my intent was.
My intent was to have class variants that allows champion to be a more overall positive and varied play experience by giving alternative options.
Years late, but brute force seems sorta bad. Other fighters can outperform the brute at what they do best while still being able to excel at other stuff.
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So its been some time now since the Brute was released.
There was a backlash the likes UA had not seen. Cries from "Its too overpowered!" and "Its just a better Champion!" were heard.
So what is the solution? I think we can look at other class features and maybe think about an alternative class feature for Champion instead of Improved Critical
Brute Force
Once per turn you can deal an additional d6 of damage to a target. This die increases to a d8 at level 10 and to a d10 at level 16.
This allows for a simple alternative without completely replacing the Champion. While this is a decent amount of damage increase it does not step on the toes of the other classes and actually mirrors other class features (Colossus Slayer).
Remarkable Athlete
When you reach 7th level you can choose a skill: Athletics or Acrobatics. You gain proficiency in this skill. If you have proficiency in this skill already you can double your proficiency with any check made using this skill.
In addition, when you make a long jump you can use a Bonus Action to double the range of the jump. The jump cannot move you farther than your remaining movement.
Again this would be a class variant for the skill and would allow for a change in the subclass without overshadowing it.
My question is why people seem to think "I would like a Fighter that deals a bunch of extra damage on their base attacks from sheer brawn, and who gets a bunch of damage resistance from just being crazy tough" is not supposed to prompt responses of "so...you want a barbarian?" The Brute UA was pretty much Wizards saying "hey, what would you guys think if we just kinda folded the barbarian class into the fighter?"
As for this variation? Not sure why Remarkable Athlete is turned to "gain Expertise in Athletics". The idea of physical Jack of All Trades is an interesting one, if sadly underrepresented in 5e because DMs can't ever figure out what calls for Athletics, what calls for Acrobatics, or what calls for a raw attribute roll. Your variation is very limited, though I can understand why people don't like the base ability. Perhaps, rather than just turning it into yet another tired "gain Expertise" ability, allow them to gain advantage or grant a bonus on their checks X times per rest? Also kind of tired, I know, but I'm a little loathe to watch the flexibility of Peerless Athlete die in the face of "I just want to make a Shield Master grappler thing" munchkin optimization digging for Athletics Expertise on every martial class.
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Yeah unfortunately the reality of the system makes peerless athlete just... Bad. Not the ability's fault but still.
I like the idea of X amount of ADV on certain checks per short rest though. That does make it more dynamic. This would be my preference moving forward so thanks!
The damage thing with barbarian is from higher hit points and B/P/S resistance when raging. Neither of that is incorporated into the Brute. They are better at saving throws and getting up from down which barbarian doesn't really cover. Zealot gets one reroll per rage and can be revived for free but that requires a cleric friend not a built in ability. Regardless I didn't include in my class variants either as it's not what my intent was.
My intent was to have class variants that allows champion to be a more overall positive and varied play experience by giving alternative options.
Years late, but brute force seems sorta bad. Other fighters can outperform the brute at what they do best while still being able to excel at other stuff.