Fighter Archetype: Executioner

Fighters study tactics, weaponry, and maneuvers, but at the end of the day their training allows them to terminate their enemies as quickly as possible. After all, the best defense is an offense that ends all incoming attacks. Some fighters apply their talents to the grim task of becoming an executioner. While most folk think of an executioner as one trained to slay helpless prisoners, that role is too narrow and simple to capture the grim talent that a well-trained executioner brings to bear.

True executioners wield their weapons with an overwhelming combination of precision and brute force. With their keen eye for finding an enemy’s weakness and their almost supernatural feel for any from a simple dagger to a finely honed great axe, their attacks seem to find the weakest point in any enemy’s defenses again and again. Just as an executioner learns to end a condemned criminal in one, merciful cut, so too do they finish off their active enemies with a minimal number of finely delivered, almost artistic, strokes.

Executioner’s Mark

Like fine artists, every executioner has a signature approach to their grim craft. Some use clean, precise blows, leaving their victims with the merest sign of trauma. Others prefer to render their enemy’s death in full color, unleashing torrents of blood as they turn their foes inside out with a maelstrom of cuts. What is your preferred method? Are you an efficient killer, focused only on the ends of your craft, or do you prefer to make a statement with your cuts?

D6 Roll or Choose

Executioner’s Mark

1: You prefer bludgeoning weapons that pulverize an opponent’s organs but leave their bodies intact. Perhaps your guild specializes in delivering their victims to a royal court or religious sect that likes to display their defeated foes.

2: You have a signature attack, a lethal finishing move, that leaves a distinct mark on your foes. This maneuver sends a clear signal to any foe who comes across your victims, telling them that their doom is inevitable.

3: In your eyes, the art of killing is fit for a Grand Guignol-style presentation. Your attacks are designed to send blood and viscera flying, drawing horrid cries of pain from your enemies to break their will to fight. When you slay an enemy, you make an example of them to break all resistance.

4: You see killing as an act of mercy, as the enemies you face are invariably criminals, psychopaths, and miscreants. You attack with no wasted motion, and as you fight your training compels you to recite a litany of forgiveness that sanctifies your foe’s soul when you send it to the afterlife.

5: Before you attack a foe, you offer them the chance to surrender and face a proper execution, swift and painless. Those who refuse your generosity are condemned to a painful death, as your attacks are designed to rend flesh, shatter joints, and extract as much punishing agony as possible.

6: Your training focused on anatomy and biology. When you fight a foe, you take the time to study their form for unique traits or specific weaknesses. In battle, you are like a scientist studying a sample. At times you provide running commentary on the carnage around you, perhaps in a detached, clinical voice that unnerves others.

Order of Death

How did you train in the art of execution? What was your order like?

D6 Roll or Choose

Order of Death

1: You are a member of a secret police force, charged with rooting out all dissent against a religious organization or royal family. You are charged with keeping your true loyalties secret, to better ferret our your enemies.

2: In your homeland, your order is a revered protector of the innocent and weak. Your order is tasked with punishing evil doers, and you have a wide range of legal authority to serve as judge, jury, and executioner.

3: You displayed an aptitude for execution at a young age and were taken away to a distant monastery to learn your art. As part of your training, you are required to take oaths to deny yourself worldly pleasures. You might practice chastity, forgo all alcohol, or refuse to indulge in some other vice.

4: Your order is highly secretive. When you were sent into the world, you were drugged and given a geas that prevents you from clearly remembering who trained you and why. You occasionally see seemingly random signs that awaken memories of specific orders and quests you were tasked with. Sometimes these tasks are trivial and seemingly random. Other times, you are tasked with slaying a seemingly inconsequential person. The motives behind these acts, and even the force responsible for assigning them to you, is buried somewhere in your memory.

5: You tell others if the mysterious order that trained you, but it’s all a ruse, You’re simply really good with weapons. You found that as a lone warrior, bandit gangs and other troublemakers tended to harass you. When you invoke a mysterious, worldwide cult of skilled killers, people tend to give you more space.

6: You were slated to be executed for a crime, but your death was faked and you were given the choice to either join the executioner’s guild or face death. During your training, your tutors made vague references to a prophecy that somehow involves you. You now operated under an alias and have been told to make no contact with your past connections on pain of death.

Archetype Features      

Eye for Anatomy

At 3rd level, your grim line of work gives you a chilling insight into anatomy and the art of killing. You have advantage on all checks made to determine how a creature died, search the location of a murder or fight for clues, notice details and draw insight from weapons and torture implements, or gain insights into a creature’s anatomy.

Heroic Deeds

Starting at 3rd level, you unlock a wellspring of energy, determination, and cunning that allows you to achieve mighty deeds. You gain a pool of heroic effort, a resource you can tap to overcome daunting odds and achieve the stuff of legends.

Heroic Reserves. You have a pool of heroic reserves, points you can spend to activate your heroic deeds. You have points in this pool equal to double your fighter level.

Heroic Deeds. You learn three heroic deeds of your choice from the section Heroic Deeds. Each deed lists the minimum level you must be to select it along with the ability, if any, that affects its mechanics. You learn new deeds as indicated on the Heroic Deeds table.

When you finish a long rest, you can swap one heroic deed you know for a different one.

Saving Throws. Some heroic deeds cause other creatures to make saving throws. This DC equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + the ability modifier specified in the deed’s description.

Level    Deeds Known Heroic Reserves

3             3             6

4             3             8

5             3             10

6             4             12

7             4             14

8             4             16

9             4             18

10           5             20

11           5             22

12           5             24

13           5             26

14           6             28

15           6             30

16           6             32

17           6             34

18           7             36

19           7             38

20           7             40

Unstoppable Attacks

Starting at 7th level, when you make a weapon attack you can choose to replace the attack’s bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage with force damage. You deliver your attacks with such power that your skill transcends the weapon’s physical properties, allowing you to slice through even magical defenses.

Inevitable Strikes

Starting at 10th level, when you miss with a weapon attack the target takes force damage equal to your half your level. Even your glancing blows are aimed with such mastery that they ripple through an opponent’s defenses, smashing through their armor and magical wards to leave deep bruises.

Heroic Tenacity

Starting at 15th level, if at the start of your turn you gain two points in your heroic reserves if you have no points remaining.

Final Stand

Starting at 18th level, while you have no more than half your hit points left you double your proficiency bonus on all weapon attacks and add your proficiency bonus to all your weapon damage rolls.

Heroic Deeds

Below is a list of heroic deeds. Each deed lists its name, followed in parenthesis by the minimum level you must be to select it. Some deeds also list an ability after that level. Use that ability’s modifier for any saving throws the deed requires.

Call to Arms (3rd Level, Charisma)

When you roll initiative, you can spend 2 points from your heroic reserve to grant yourself and creatures of your choice that can hear you a bonus to that roll equal to your Charisma modifier. Up to three of the creatures that gain this benefit can also move up to half their speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

Bolstering Words (3rd Level, Charisma)

You urge your allies to continue fighting on, granting them the fortitude and determination to withstand your foe’s efforts. As a bonus action, target a creature that can see or hear you that is within 30 feet of you and spend up to 2 + half your level points from your heroic reserve. That target gains 1d4 temporary hit points per point spent on this deed and has advantage on all saving throws for the next minute.

Call to Glory (3rd Level)

Your words and deeds inspire others to fight through the pain of their injuries. As a bonus action, target a creature that can see or hear you that is within 30 feet of you and spend up to 2 + half your level points from your heroic reserve. That target regains 1d6 hit points per point spent on this deed.

Called Shot: Eyes (3rd Level, Strength)

With a brutal sweep of your weapon, you slash at your opponent’s eyes. As an action, spend 4 points from your heroic reserve and make a melee weapon attack. On a hit, the target must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier). On a failed saving throw the target becomes blinded for one minute. On a successful save, it suffers no effect.

At the end of its turns, and each time it takes damage, the target can make another Constitution saving throw. On a success, the effect ends.

Called Shot: Hamstring (3rd Level, Strength)

You hammer at your opponent’s legs, unleashing attacks against its joints to hobble it. As an action, spend 2 points from your heroic reserve and make a melee weapon attack. On a hit, the target must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier). On a failed saving throw, the target’s speed is reduced to 0 for the next minute. On a successful save, it suffers no effect.

At the end of its turns, and each time it takes damage, the target can make another Constitution saving throw. On a success, the effect ends.

Called Shot: Head (11th Level, Strength)

You take the measure of your foe and unleash an attack that leaves them stumbling, senseless. As an action, spend 10 points from your heroic reserve and make a melee weapon attack. On a hit, the target must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier). On a failed saving throw, the target is stunned for 1 minute. On a successful save, it suffers no effect.

At the end of its turns, and each time it takes damage, the target can make another Constitution saving throw. On a success, the effect ends.

Called Shot: Vitals (3rd Level, Strength)

You take careful aim at a foe’s most vital point, delivering a brutal attack that leaves it helpless for a critical moment. As an action, spend 4 points from your heroic reserve and make a melee weapon attack. On a hit, the target must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier). On a failed saving throw, the target falls prone, becomes incapacitated, and cannot stand up. On a successful save, it suffers no effect.

At the end of its turns, and each time it takes damage, the target can make another Constitution saving throw. On a success, the effect ends.

Charming Words (3rd Level, Charisma)

When you need to win some over to your side, you can turn on your charms and sway them to your cause. After you spend one minute interacting with creatures, spend up to 2 + half your level points from your heroic reserve. Select up to one creature you interacted with for that time per point spent. A chosen creature must share a language with you and must see or hear you. Each chosen creature makes a saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma bonus). On a successful saving throw, the creature suffers no effect. On a failed saving throw, it is charmed by you for the next hour and regards you as a friendly acquaintance. This effect ends if you or a creature friendly to you damages it, forces it to make a saving throw, or takes an action that the DM deems hostile to it.

Indomitable Defense (3rd Level)

Your tactical acumen and heroic effort boost your, or your ally’s, defense against attacks. As a reaction when you or a creature you can see within 30 feet of you is hit by an attack, spend 2 points from your heroic reserve. You or the chosen creature gains a +4 bonus to AC until the start of your next turn, including against the attack that triggered this reaction.

Killing Blow (15th Level, Strength)

Sometimes, someone just needs to die. As an action, you can spend 15 points from your heroic reserve and make a single weapon attack. If the attack hits, the target must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier). On a failed save, the target dies. On a successful save, it takes an additional 10d10 force damage.

Mighty Strike (3rd Level)

Your skill and talent for seizing the moment allows you to deliver a deadly blow. Once per turn when you hit with a weapon attack, spend up to 2 + half your level points from your heroic reserve. The target of that attack takes an additional 1d10 force damage per point spent on this deed.

Overwhelming Invective (5th Level, Charisma)

You unleash a torrent of threats and battle cries that makes your ferocious intent so clear that even mindless creatures recoil in terror. As an action, spend 5 points from your heroic reserve and pick creatures that can see or hear you in a 30-foot cone extending from you. The chosen creatures must make Wisdom saves (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier). On a failed save, a creature takes 4d6 psychic damage and is pushed up to 30 feet away from you. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and is pushed up to 10 feet away from you.

You can spend additional points from your heroic reserve to augment the damage this deed inflicts. For each additional point spent, increase the damage by 1d6. You can spend a total number of points, including the 5 needed to use this deed, equal to your level.

Rapid Strike (5th Level)

You move with incredible speed, allowing you to make an attack in the blink of an eye. Once during your turn, you can spend 4 points from your heroic reserve and make a single weapon attack.