Fighter Archetype: Man-At-Arms

The Man-At-Arms is a Fighter who would summarize martial arts as simply "the skill of touching someone without being touched back". They rarely care about "graceful" (what a Man-At-Arms would call "stupid") ways of fighting. They do not use nimbleness to defend themselves, preferring to hold their ground and push back against their opponent.

Honorable Pragmatists

Men-At-Arms have a strong preference for agressive tactics. They believe in eliminating the opponent by striking first and not letting them regain their footing.

Defense from Offense

You know better than to rely solely on armor and shields for protection. You also do not rely on dodging everything- that is an unrealistic goal for you. Rather, you protect yourself by attacking into your opponent's strike, stopping their blows' arc cold and beating their thrusts wildly off-target.

Starting when you select this archetype at 3rd level, If you would be allowed to add your Dexterity bonus to your Armor Class, you may use your Strength bonus instead. This ability does not apply to any other occasion where you would use your Dexterity modifier.

Expert Warrior

You pride yourself on your martial talent. Also starting at 3rd level, your attacks with weapons are +1 to hit, and you gain +1 natural AC when you are wielding a weapon and no shield. You can also identify any magic on a weapon or piece of armor, even curses that disguise themselves as benign enchantments.

Controlled Mind

A great master-at-arms once said "A man can have all advantages possible in combat, but if he lacks courage, then he may as well go ahead and hang himself."

Starting at 7th level, you cannot be frightened, as you know at your very core that panic will only hasten your death. You also gain resistance to Psychic damage. At the Dungeon Master's discretion, members of groups that place value on mental discipline may be more inclined to respect you because of this.

Fighting Style Mastery

Your skill has achieved new heights. At 10th level, you gain a benefit dependent on your Fighting Style. If you have more than one Fighting Style, choose one to improve.

Improved Fighting Style

Style Benefit Archery No disadvantage when hostiles are within 5 ft. Defense You gain an additional +1 AC in heavy armor, and +2 AC in medium armor. You do not gain this benefit when using a shield. Dueling You gain +1 AC when using Dueling's feature. Great Weapon Fighting After rerolling, you treat 1s as 2s on your two-handed damage dice. Two Weapon Fighting You do not use your bonus action to make your offhand attack. Protection You do not spend your reaction to use Protection for the first time in a round.

Iron Defense

By 15th level, you have mastered armored combat. You gain resistance to slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing damage when wearing metal armor, even magical damage.

Master-at-Arms

By 18th level, you have achieved the highest degree of skill and stamina. You gain an additional use of your Second Wind ability, all your attacks are treated as magical for purposes of damage resistance, and you deal an extra +1 damage.

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