The Tactician is, ostensibly, the "basic," "mundane" class in Draw Steel. It is, on its surface, your Fighter, your Warrior, your person who uses weapons and armor without any fancy supernatural stuff aiding them.
In truth, though, Draw Steel's approach to this archetype is actually quite different: Furies call upon the might of the primordial chaos, Censors draw on the divine power of their gods. What do Tacticians fight with? Their allies.
If you want to play a true commander, a genuine leader, this is the class for you. While you can lean into your own martial prowess if you want, the class has many abilities that allow you to enable your allies, setting them up for success. Each class has a big splashy art page with the "iconic" character for each class, and the Tactician's Sir John of Tor is quoted there taunting the enemy commander for their failed strategies as he strides across a battlefield of falling War Dogs. There's very much a "I read your book!" from the movie Patton here.
Notably, every class in Draw Steel gets pretty larger-than-life at high levels. Furies become embodiments of primordial chaos and Shadows become literal shadow-monsters. Tacticians, I believe (and we'll see how this looks when we get to the late-level features) are the sole exception here, remaining just a brilliant mind coordinating and leading the party to victory. Notably, Ajax the Invincible, Draw Steel's toughest monster, is actually just a human tactician who happens to be very, very good at what he does.
Tactician abilities are a mix of classic martial strikes as well as lots of support abilities, including a few that effectively heal your allies by letting them spend recoveries.
Tacticians naturally get maximal Might and Reason characteristics, starting at 2 and getting to 5 at level 10.
Subclasses:
Tacticians, like most classes, get three subclasses.
Insurgents use underhanded tactics to keep allies safe and enemies dead.
Masterminds lean the most heavily into strategic fighting, viewing combat as an elaborate strategy game (which is kind of funny when you consider that that's kind of what Draw Steel is)
Vanguards lead from the front, inspiring allies as you face down threats directly.
Heroic Resource: Focus
Tacticians use Focus to fuel their abilities. As with all classes, when combat begins, you gain Focus equal to your victories, and then you gain 2 more at the start of each of your turns. Tacticians have an important feature called Mark, which we'll get into in a bit. When you or an ally damages a creature you've marked the first time each combat round, you gain 1 focus. Also, the first time in a round that any ally within 10 squares of you uses a heroic ability (meaning an ability they spend their heroic resource on) you gain 1 focus.
Core Features:
At level 1, each subclass gets a non-combat feature from your subclass, and a triggered action also from your sucblass.
Tacticians get a special feature called Field Arsenal, which allows you to equip two kits at once. You basically just take the best bonus in each category from each kit, but they don't stack with one another - if you were to take, say, Cloak and Dagger and Rapid Fire, the +1s to ranged damage from Cloak and Dagger would be overwritten by the +2s to ranged damage from Rapid Fire (not adding together to get +3s), but you'd still get the +1s to melee damage. It's thus advisable to take two very different kits to maximize the bonuses you receive.
Tacticians don't have any unique signature abilities, because you'll get both of your signature abilities from your kits instead.
Mark is a maneuver that is core to the Tactician. As a maneuver, you mark a creature within 10 squares of you until the end of the encounter, or until you're dying or you use the feature again (you can also willingly drop it, no action required). Also, if another Tactician marks your target, your mark ends. If a creature is reduced to 0 stamina, you can use a free triggered action to move the mark to another eligible target. Some other abilities allow you to mark additional targets.
While a creature is marked and within your line of effect, you and your allies get an edge on power rolls made against it, and when you or an ally deal rolled damage to them, you can spend 1 focus to grant one of the following benefits: the creature takes extra damage equal to twice your Reason, the creature dealing the damage can spend a recovery, the creature dealing the damage can shift squares up to your reason score, or if you damage the marked creature with a melee ability, the creature is taunted by you until the end of their next turn. (Only one choice can be used per trigger).
Also at level 1, you get Strike Now, a main action that allows an ally within 10 squares of you to use a signature ability as a free triggered action, and you can spend 5 focus to target two allies instead of one (this is the real "my weapons are my friends" ability).
You also get a 3-Focus and 5-Focus ability.
At level 2, you get a Perk and a feature from your subclass, as well as a 5-focus ability from your subclass.
At level 3, you get Out of Position. At the start of an encounter as a free triggered action, you can use your Mark ability against a creature you have line of effect to even if you're surprised. You can then slide them up to 3 squares, ignoring stability. You can't move them in a way that would deal damage to them or put them in some hazardous location that would leave them dying or suffering a condition.
Also at 3, you get a 7-Focus ability.
At 4, your Might and Reason go up to 3. You also now gain 2 Focus when you or an ally damages a marked target, up from 1.
Improved Field Arsenal gives you an edge when you make a signature ability from one of your equipped kits or make a free strike using a weapon from your kit.
You get another perk, and a skill of your choice.
At level 5 you get two features from your subclass, and also a 9-Focus ability.
At level 6, you get Master of Arms, which lets you negate a bane or reduce a double bane to a regular bane when you use a signature ability from your kits or a free strike using a weapon from one of your kits.
You also get a Perk from the exploration, interpersonal, or intrigue lists, as well as a 9-Focus ability from your subclass.
At 7, your characteristics all go up by 1, giving you 4s in Might and Reason. You also now gain 3 focus at the start of each turn.
Seize the Initiative allows your party to go first in any combat as long as you're not surprised. If the enemy has an ability that allows them to go first, you can roll as normal.
Also at 7 you get a skill of your choice and a subclass feature.
At level 8, you get a perk of your choice, another subclass feature, and an 11-focus ability.
At 9, you get Grandmaster of Arms, which perfects your signature abilities from your kits and free strikes using weapons from those kits: you always get a tier 3 result on their power rolls. You still roll just to see if you score a critical hit.
You also gain an 11-Focus ability from your subclass.
At 10, your Might and Intelligence increase to 5. You also gain a perk from the exploration, interpersonal, or intrigue lists, and a skill of your choice. You also now get 4 focus at the start of each turn, up from 3.
You now have your Epic Resource, called Command. You gain Command equal to your earned XP, and can spend Command as if it were Focus. When an ally uses an ability that deals rolled damage to a marked creature, you can spend 1 Command as a free triggered action to increase the power roll outcome by 1 tier. And if a marked creature makes an ability roll, you can spend 1 command as a free triggered action to reduce the result by one tier.
Warmaster says that whenever you or an ally make an ability roll against a target marked by you, the character making the roll gets to roll three d10s and choose which two to use. Also, when allies use a heroic ability that targets one of your marked targets, the cost of their ability is reduced by 2 (minimum cost of 1).
So there you have it: nothing crazy and supernatural here, but you become an unparalleled warrior, and have quite a lot of features that will make your friends very happy. You can focus very much on ensuring that your hardest-hitting friends are able to hit even harder and more frequently. While strict hierarchical roles are kind of rare in a TTRPG party, I think that this is the class that lets you at least take on a leadership role when it all goes down.
No comments:
Post a Comment