Fencing
Fencing.png

Fencers are quick fighters who use nimble footwork and expert feints to open up their target before landing a fatal blow.

All practitioners of the fencing sphere gain the following abilities:

Fatal Thrust

When making a melee attack, including spell attacks, that has advantage, you may reroll one of the two attack roll dice once. This cannot stack with other, similar benefits from feats or abilities.

Feint

When you use the Help action to aid a friendly creature in attacking a creature within 5 feet of you, you can choose to aid yourself instead of an ally, in which case your next attack roll against that target is made with advantage before the end of your next turn.

Any use of Help to give someone advantage on an attack roll, be it an ally or yourself, is called a ‘feint.’

Some talents are marked (exploit). Once per round when making a successful attack that had advantage, or that didn’t have disadvantage and was against a target that was within 5 feet of an ally of yours that isn’t incapacitated, you may apply an (exploit) talent to that attack.

Combat Rule Reminders

Disarm

A creature can use a weapon attack to knock a weapon or another item from a target’s grasp. The attacker makes an attack roll contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) check or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. If the attacker wins the contest, the attack causes no damage or other ill effect, but the defender drops the item.

The attacker has disadvantage on its attack roll if the target is holding the item with two or more hands. The target has advantage on its ability check if it is larger than the attacking creature, or disadvantage if it is smaller.

Help

When using the Help action, you can aid a friendly creature in attacking a creature within 5 feet of you. You feint, distract the target, or in some other way team up to make your ally’s Attack more effective. If your ally attacks the target before your next turn, the first Attack roll is made with advantage.

Fencing Basic Talents

Exploit Talents

Ankle Strike (exploit)

The creature must pass a Dexterity saving throw or fall prone.

Arm Strike (exploit)

Your attack strikes one limb in a critical spot. The target suffers a -2 penalty on all attack rolls and ability checks made with that limb for a number of rounds equal to your proficiency bonus.

Chest Strike (exploit)

Your attack strikes the target’s chest. The target must pass a Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 1 round.

Distracting Blades (exploit)

The target loses the ability to make opportunity attacks for 1 round.

Face Strike (exploit)

You may expend your martial focus to target the target’s face, impeding their ability to see. The target must pass a Dexterity saving throw or be blinded for one minute. Wiping the blood away as an Action ends this effect early.

Leg Slash (exploit)

The target’s movement speeds are halved for 1 round.

Repositioning Strike (exploit)

You cause the target to stumble, letting you slip past them. You may immediately move the target 5 feet to a different space within your reach.

To The Hilt (exploit)

You may expend your martial focus to create a large wound on the target that others can exploit. For a number of rounds equal to half your proficiency bonus, the target’s resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage is suppressed.

Wide Open (exploit)

Choose an ally other than yourself. That ally’s first attack against the target of this exploit made before the beginning of your next turn has advantage.

Other Talents

Bind Weapon

When performing a disarm, instead of making the target drop the item, you can bind their weapon to yours. This can be done with a target’s hand or natural attack as if it were a held weapon.

As long as the creature’s item is bound, they cannot use it to make attacks and are considered grappled by you. They may let go of the item to break the grapple (if the item is not their hand or natural attack) but otherwise must break the grapple as normal to regain use of the item and be able to move.

Expert Feint

You may perform a feint as a bonus action.

Fatal Opening

Attacks you make with advantage gained from your use of feint score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.

Fencing Focus

Whenever you successfully disarm or feint a target, you may regain your martial focus as a bonus action.

Footwork

You may expend martial focus to move up to 10 feet. You may do this even when it is not your turn, and you do not need to spend a reaction to do so, and this does not provoke attacks of opportunity. If done in response to an attack roll being declared against you, you impose disadvantage on that roll. If done in response to an effect that allows a Dexterity saving throw, you have advantage on that saving throw.

Greater Feint

When making a feint, you may expend your martial focus to force the target to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, every creature’s first attack against that target has advantage until the end of your next turn.

Group Cover

Your quick movements allow you to temporarily use one enemy as cover against another enemy. If a hostile creature attacks you, any other hostile creature adjacent to that creature takes disadvantage on attack rolls against you until the start of your next turn.

Lunge

As long as you have martial focus, you may increase the range at which you may make melee attacks by 5 feet until the end of your turn but suffer a -2 penalty to attack rolls made against adjacent targets until the start of your next turn.

Parry And Riposte

When a creature strikes you with a melee attack, you may expend your martial focus as a reaction to attempt to parry that attack.

Make a weapon or unarmed strike damage roll, and subtract the result from the damage of their attack. If this would reduce the damage of the attack to 0 or less, you may immediately make a single attack against the attacking creature; you may add an (exploit) talent to this attack as long as you don’t have disadvantage on it.

Read Foe

You have learned to read the subtle cues of your enemy. You gain proficiency in Insight. If you already have proficiency in Insight, you may add twice your proficiency modifier to Insight. You may take this talent twice. If you already add twice your proficiency modifier to Insight, you may not take this talent.

Skewer

You may expend martial focus to apply two different (exploit) talents to an attack instead of one.

Traitorous Blade

Whenever you successfully use disarm, you may immediately catch the disarmed object as long as you have at least one free hand. If you so choose, you may immediately make a single attack with that item as a bonus action.

Fencing Legendary Talents

Bleed Air (exploit)

Prerequisites: Fencing sphere, 11th level or higher.

If you strike a creature at less than its maximum hit points, you may expend your martial focus to twist your blade to puncture a lung or similar organ, causing the target to begin suffocating 1d4 rounds later unless they succeed on a Constitution saving throw. Once the suffocation begins, the target drops to 0 hit points and begins making death saving throws.

Creatures who do not need to breathe are immune to this effect. If the target is healed to full before suffocation begins, it is avoided.

Parry Anything

Prerequisites: Fencing sphere (Parry And Riposte), 5th level or higher.

You may use your Parry And Riposte talent against ranged spell and weapon attacks as well as melee attacks. You still cannot make a retaliatory attack against the target unless it is within your reach (for a melee weapon) or within the normal range (for a ranged weapon or a weapon with the throwing property).

Shadow Strike (exploit)

Prerequisites: Fencing sphere.

Your attack cuts through essence. A creature damaged by your attack must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or have its exhaustion level increased by 1 for a number of rounds equal to your proficiency bonus. This is a magical ability and can stack with itself.

Soul Strike (exploit)

Prerequisites: Fencing sphere.

You target the enemy’s psyche. The target suffers a -2 penalty to all saving throws for a number of rounds equal to your proficiency bonus. This is a magical ability.

Vacuum Cut

Prerequisites: Fencing sphere.

Whenever you use the attack action to make a melee attack in the same round you draw a sheathed weapon, you may expend your martial focus to increase the reach of your attack to 30 feet.

Vacuum Slice

Prerequisites: Fencing sphere (Vacuum Cut),11th level or higher.

Whenever you use the Vacuum Cut talent, you may spend a bonus action to increase the effect, targeting all creatures within a 30-foot line. Make a single attack roll and compare the result to each creature within the affected area; all creatures hit by the attack take damage as though you had hit them directly with the melee attack. Only damage is dealt; no other effects granted by the attack are applied.

Variants

Imprecise Blade

You do not gain the fatal thrust ability. You gain one (exploit) talent as a bonus talent.

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