Whether through Military Training, an Academy of Arms, or Trial and Error, you possess the knowledge to prevent many attacks from hitting their mark, and even to use your enemies over committal to a blow, to punish them for their mistake. While some may use this in self defense, others seek out fame at the tip of their blade.

Whether in addition to a Carapace of Steel before the desperate grapple, or in lieu of armor to preserve your fleetness, you have learned the best ways to position your blade and body, to maximize the efficiency of your combat abilities.

Maille and Shield are far from the only forms of protection one can don on the battlefield. While some tap into the weave, or call in Divine Favor, and form auras of protection to shield them from savage blows, more still rely on their ability to sidestep attacks, while others perform Olympian feats of acrobatics to dodge strikes. You, however, have learned the art of fencing, and can use your weapon as another appendage, and gracefully push incoming blows aside, protecting yourself from harm.

En Garde -1st Level In combat, you focus on positioning yourself, and your weapon in optimal locations to best protect yourself. On your turn, you can enter the En Garde stance as a bonus action. While En Garde, you gain the following benefits if you aren't wearing Medium, or Heavy Armor: You can Parry enemy blows by add the Proficiency Bonus of your Class Level, to your AC against Melee attacks from Enemies whose Strength Scores are Equal, or lower to yours. Ranged attacks are not affected.

Your movement speed is halved.

If you are able to cast spells, you cannot while in this stance, and Concentration on spells are automatically broken. This stance lasts until the end of combat. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious, take heavy damage, miss a Riposte, or are subject to a condition such as Restrained, Grappled, Prone, etc. You can end this stance at any time. You can enter this stance a number of times equal to your total proficiency bonus per long rest.

Distracting Strike -1st Level When you make a melee attack on an enemy, you can forgo all damage die, and inflict a distracting wound on an enemy, doing a 1d4 penalty to all Saving Throws, Ability and Skill Checks, and Attack Rolls. Affected creatures can make a Constitution Saving Throw DC = 8 + (1/2) Your Class Level at the beginning of it's turn, on a pass, one previous Distracting Strike penalty is removed. If Healed though any means, such as a Troll's regeneration, all penalties are removed.

Riposte -2nd Level While in the En Garde Stance, an enemy melee attack that misses because of your Parry's bonus AC, can be responded to by a simple melee attack, as a special reaction, that does not use your normal reaction. You are limited to a number of Ripostes per Short Rest equal to your Strength modifier plus your Proficiency Bonus. You gain an additional use per round at levels 10, 15, and 19. You can only use 1 per enemy per round. If one of your Ripostes misses, you fall out of your Stance, and lose your Bonus AC, and cannot Riposte until your next turn.

Fighter's Expertise -3rd Level At 3rd Level, you gain one of the Following features of your choice. Armored Fighting. You gain proficiency with Medium Armors, and you can enter the En Garde stance while wearing Medium Armor. Off Hand Weapon. You may enter the En Garde stance with a weapon in each hand. Also, your Ability to parry is now determined by your Dex Score vs. Their Strength Score. Spell Slinger You may now cast non-concentration spells with the casting time of 1 action or less while in the En Garde stance.

Fighting Style -3rd Level You adopt a fighting style as your specialty. Choose one of the Following Options. Two-Weapon Fighting Dueling Great Weapon Fighting

Extra Attack -5th Level Beginning at level 5, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the attack action on your turn. This increases to Three at 11th level in this class.

Fighter's Finesse -7th Level At 7th Level, you gain one of the following features of your choice. Improved Distracting Strike. You deal a 1d6 penalty instead of 1d4 with your distracting Strike. Duelist's Footwork. While not wearing Heavy Armor, your movement speed is increased by 10 feet. Improved Grapple. When you use an Attack Action to Grapple an enemy and succeed, that target is now restrained, and you can use a bonus action to make an Attack on that creature with either a Dagger, or a Shortsword. Attacks you make against this creature are made with advantage.

Defensive Movement -9th Level While in the En Garde stance, you gain the ability to Riposte Enemy opportunity attacks without using a reaction. Ripostes done in this manner are still limited by the number of Ripostes per Short Rest, and a failed Riposte breaks your stance as normal, and all subsequent opportunity attacks are made at your normal AC.

Fighter's Reflexes -11th Level At 11th level, you gain one of the following features of your choice. Missile Deflection. Your parry AC Bonus now applies to Ranged Attacks as long as you are in the En Garde Stance. Human Shield. While holding a restrained enemy your size or smaller, you can use your reaction to use their body to intercept one Enemy's melee, ranged, or spell attack that hit your AC. The restrained creature takes full damage or effect. You must pass a DC15 strength check to be able to move the creature to intercept the blow. This decreases by 5 for every size the creature is smaller than you If you fail, you take the damage. Duelist's Fleetness. When a spell allows you to make a Dexterity Saving Throw to mitigate damage, you instead take no damage on a pass, and half damage on a fail.