Analytical warriors who wait for the precise moment to strike, practitioners skilled in the Retribution sphere are able to defend themselves with carefully prepared attacks.
All practitioners of the Retribution sphere gain the following ability:
Counterstrike
When you ready an action to perform a melee attack, the attack deals additional damage equal to your proficiency bonus.
If you possess Extra Attack or Multiattack, then readying an attack is considered a special attack; only one attack is readied, and the rest can be made normally. Your attack resolves before the triggering action instead of after, and if this attack is successful, you regain the use of your reaction.
When readying an attack, you must choose a trigger for that attack. Commonly acceptable triggers are:
- A hostile creature making an attack roll
- A hostile creature attempting a contested ability check
- A hostile creature moving from their space
- A hostile creature casting a spell or sphere effect
- A hostile creature drawing a weapon
- A hostile creature speaking
Other triggers may be permissible with GM permission. You may select an additional trigger from this list at 5th level (2 triggers), 11th level (3 triggers), and 17th level (4 triggers). You may only make one counterstrike per round regardless of the number of triggers chosen.
You can apply a single talent with the (counter) tag to a counterstrike.
Retribution Basic Talents
Counter Talents
Clinch (counter)
You may attempt to grapple a creature damaged by this counterstrike as a reaction.
Haymaker (counter)
You aim for the target’s mouth or equivalent orifice, impeding their ability to speak. The target must pass a Dexterity saving throw or have their mouth damaged. If their mouth is damaged, they must succeed on a Constitution saving throw every time they wish to speak, bite, use a breath weapon, or cast any spell or sphere effect with a verbal component, or find themselves unable to do so. This effect ends if the target receives at least 1 point of magical healing or after a short or long rest.
Launching Uppercut (counter)
You may expend your martial focus to cause creatures up to one size larger than you who are damaged by this counterstrike to be launched 10 feet into the air. Their movement for the round stops and the creature falls, suffering falling damage and landing prone as normal.
You may use this talent on a willing ally other than yourself without expending your martial focus, automatically hitting them and dealing no damage. In this case, the target’s movement does not end and they can move through the air horizontally as if they had a fly speed, although they still fall at the end of their movement. If the ally attacks a target as they land on the ground, they do not suffer falling damage or fall prone.
Liver Shot (counter)
Creatures damaged by this counterstrike have all of their movement speeds reduced to 5 ft until the end of its next turn.
Terrifying Hook (counter)
Creatures damaged by this counterstrike must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of you until the end of its next turn.
Other Talents
Counter Focus
Whenever you successfully deal damage to a creature with your counterstrike, you may spend a reaction to regain your martial focus. The creature must have a CR of at least half your character level (rounded down, minimum 1/2).
Cross Counter
Whenever a creature within your reach makes an opportunity attack against you, you can expend your martial focus as a reaction to make a single attack against them, dealing damage as normal. Resolve this reaction prior to the creature’s opportunity attack. If your attack is successful, the creature suffers disadvantage on their attack.
Dug In Blow
Whenever you successfully make an attack with your counterstrike, you gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from one attack made by the counterstrike’s target before the start of your next turn.
Headfake
As long as you have martial focus, whenever a creature attempts to make an opportunity attack against you, their attack roll suffers disadvantage.
Intercepting Strike
As a trigger, you may set a counterstrike not against a target but against an attack that is made within your reach or that passes through your reach. You cannot intercept spell attacks or massive ranged weapons such as boulders or ballista bolts unless you are using such a massive weapon yourself somehow. Make an attack as normal. If your attack roll is higher than the attack roll of the attack you are intercepting, their attack is negated. You may expend martial focus to use this ability as a reaction.
Powerful Counter
If you possess Extra Attack or Multiattack, you may trade your extra attacks to instead make your counterstrike even more powerful, dealing +1d8 damage for each forgone additional attack. In addition, when you make a counterstrike, you may also expend your martial focus to grant yourself advantage on the attack roll.
Raging Bull
Whenever your counterstrike is triggered, you may move up to half your speed in a straight line before making the attack.
Set Up
As a part of readying an action to perform a counterstrike, you can make a melee attack roll against one creature within your reach. If this attack hits, it deals no damage, but until the start of your next turn, the target of this attack can move only in such a way that the space it occupies is adjacent to you after their movement. If the target wishes to break free of this limitation, they can attempt a contested Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check opposed by your Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) as a bonus action.
Spell Breaker
When you deal damage with a counterstrike against a creature casting a spell or sphere effect, the damaged creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw as if taking damage while concentrating on a spell. Failure means the casting fails, wasting the action as well as any spell slot or spell points. This counts as concentrating for bonuses and penalties that apply to saving throws made to maintain concentration.
Sucker Punch
When you make an opportunity attack, you may expend your martial focus to treat that opportunity attack as though it was a counterstrike. If you do, you can only take the Dodge or Disengage action on your next turn.
Tight Guard
Whenever you use the Dodge or Ready actions, you gain a +1 bonus to your AC until the start of your next turn. This bonus acts as the AC bonus from a shield, and so does not stack with the AC bonus from using a shield. This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level.
Violent Pressure
Whenever you ready a counterstrike, you may spend a bonus action to force one hostile creature within 30 feet to make a Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of you until the end of its next turn. You may only target an individual creature once per day with this talent.
Retribution Legendary Talents
Chasing Assault
Prerequisites: Retribution sphere (Launching Uppercut).
Whenever you launch a hostile creature into the air with your Launching Uppercut talent, you may jump into the air next to them (this movement does not provoke opportunity attacks). You may make a single attack against that creature, knocking them to the ground if you hit and doubling their falling damage. You descend back to the ground at the end of the target’s turn and do not suffer falling damage for the distance you jumped.
Intense Conditioning (counter)
Prerequisites: Retribution sphere (counterstrike ability), 5th level or higher.
Whenever you land a successful counterstrike, you may expend your martial focus to make the creature damaged by your counterstrike make a Charisma saving throw; if this save is unsuccessful, for 1 minute, whenever the creature attempts the action which triggered your counterstrike, they must make a successful Charisma saving throw or be unable to take that action, though they may still choose to take another action in its place. Creatures immune to the frightened condition are immune to this effect.
Variants
Pugilist
You may only counterstrike using unarmed strikes. You gain one (counter) talent as a bonus talent.
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