Talk:Surge Fighter (3.5e Class)

Ratings

Ganteka Future opposes this article and rated it 0 of 4.

The first level gives you 12 class features. The second level gives you none. That, as a start, should tell you something about the design of what we're looking at here. The wording is also overly verbose and needlessly insulting. The very first paragraph is painful to read. I really wanted to read through this whole mess and give it a good proper rating, but oh my, it's a slog. Convoluted, long class features full of flavor text or author notes mixed in with the mechanics make it almost unreadable. It's a giant insulting mess and I pity anyone who tried to use this. Go play a combatant or brave fighter if you want something fun and manageable. Sandbox this monstrosity.

	Eiji-kun opposes this article and rated it 0 of 4.
	. . . Just read below. My god, it was even rebuilt and everything.

	Leziad opposes this article and rated it 0 of 4.
	It overly wordy and the mechanics are broken. I offered a fix and a lot of discussion but all of that was ignored.

Surge of Accuracy

+4 per surge point is a little hardcore, counting bab and strength a 1st level surge fighter will be able to get a massive +9 to hit (without counting feats). Seeing how the average level 1 AC is between 12 and 14 this is quite the overkill. It become even more useful at late level, the bonus it grant at level 10 (+40) is higher than the AC of many CR 16-17 monsters. Personally I would recommend toning it down to maybe +2 (free action truestrike at 10th is nothing to scoff at). Just something you may want to consider, carry on. --Leziad (talk) 22:49, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

By that logic, true strike at 1st level slam-dunks the concept of overkill so hard it destroys the entire basketball court. --Luigifan18 (talk) 22:52, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

Also, the total number of surge points you can spend on a single attack action is equal to your class level. So a 10th-level surge fighter using 10 surge points on Surge of Accuracy can't enhance his attack any further. --Luigifan18 (talk) 22:57, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

True Strike is also a standard action and can't be used on full-attacks. You effectively waste a turn to land a single shot, while surge of accuracy cost no actions. The best example of a similar spell is wraithstrike, which is a swift action. I could imagine a surge fight build using two-weapon fighting, surge of accuracy and metacombat feat for extreme power. I am not criticizing the class so early in it development, just pointing out something you may want to watch out for. --Leziad (talk) 22:59, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

Surge of Accuracy also affects only a single attack. If you do a full attack, you have to use Surge of Accuracy on each attack separately. I've done the math, and at any level, you can only perform eight max-capacity surges. (It'll probably be possible to get more surge points via feats, but I haven't worked that out yet.) --Luigifan18 (talk) 00:09, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

Well I am not worried on the number of time it used, rather on the fact it take no actions to do so. If surge was a swift action to activate it would be less worrisome (still pretty worrisome, but then no more than say Wraithstrike). Using s standard is pretty much ending any meaningful action during your turn, especially at low level without quickened strike and spells.--Leziad (talk) 01:12, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

Clarity

You're welcome.

Also, why is it that their bonus feats must be drawn from the Fighter list, but don't have to, and what's the damage die added for a Greatsword? --174.61.170.65 03:43, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

I'm welcome for what now? Anyways, only epic bonus feats don't have to be drawn from the fighter list; pre-epic bonus feats do. Also, the damage die for a Medium greatsword is a d6. --Luigifan18 (talk) 04:03, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

Sorry you didn't like them. You do know that since specific overrides general, every time you restate a general rule the reader has to think about it to see if it's a change, though, right? --174.61.170.65 04:39, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

I was going to give a normal critique.

I was, honestly. But I realized something... Luigi, you are the best grammar-bot the wiki has ever seen. You selflessly fix things without asking. Though I am a patient man, even I couldn't do that.

I say this because as I was reading this class, gasping at each monumental tower of insanity rising before me, I figured... I should do what you do, but with summaries instead of grammar edits. It would be useful for helping you get over your wordiness problems, yeah? Plus, I can make all the edits I want you to implement, with all the fixes of all the broken, horrible stuff I found.

I believe I have bitten off more than I could handle.

I'm dying now.

But it's ok. It's so ok, yes. Because I've finished it. And I'm taking everyone with me. Below, behold, Surge Fighter fixed. You'll all going to die now. I'll be happy to explain the changes I've made and why. The whole thing is nicely summarized, formatting fixed, and things rebalanced. The stars are right. Ia ia, shubbath-niggurath! -- Eiji-kun (talk) 15:58, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

I set up the surges the way I did because I wanted to force the surge fighter to be able to mix-and-match his abilities in regards to enhancing his attacks. That is, he could, say, enhance both his attack roll and his damage roll, but in doing so, couldn't enhance either of them as much as he could by solely focusing on one or the other. Your "you may only spend 1 surge ability per attack" clause seems to erase the mix-and-match utility I was trying to achieve by forcing the surge fighter to only use one surge at a time. I do like how you divided the surges into spell level equivalents, though; that is what I was going for with the levels each ability was earned at. --Luigifan18 (talk) 17:21, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

As for the "higher of ½ class level or spent surge points" thing, that was meant as an analogue to how psionic powers' save DCs can be increased by spending additional power points, as well as a way for a surge fighter to make his surges harder to resist, at the cost of burning himself out that much sooner. You also took out the "primary ability modifier" thing I put in precisely to make sure that even if the surge fighter somehow managed to apply multiple ability modifiers to his attack rolls (such as the Viewtiful Warrior using Charisma in addition to Strength or Dexterity while under the effects of VFX Slow and/or Zoom), the combat surge save DC would still only use the ability modifier that gets applied to attack rolls simply by virtue of it being an attack roll (Strength for corporeal creatures' melee attacks, Dexterity for ranged attacks, Charisma for incorporeal melee attacks, unless a class feature, feat, or similar ability explicitly says that some other ability modifier is used instead of, not in addition to the ability modifier that would normally be used). Basically, it's there to keep the saving throw DC from running off the RNG by riding too closely on the attack roll RNG (which uses a different scale, as TarkisFlux went to quite a bit of trouble to explain). Yes, using the number of surge points instead of ½ HD runs off the RNG, but that's more acceptable because it consumes a finite resource, and doing it too often leaves you high and dry; a surge fighter without his surge points is an inferior fighter, after all. --Luigifan18 (talk) 17:24, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

Also, I noticed that you lowered some of the numbers. Some of those are ones I happen to disagree with. I'm not going over these in any particular order, mind; just bringing things up as I notice them.

• First of all, I set up "Surge of Accuracy" the way I did so that it would be equal in utility to true strike at relatively low levels, while the way you did it makes it unable to match true strike, a 1st-level spell, until level 17. Yes, at very low levels, the way I set up "Surge of Accuracy" makes it inferior to true strike, but you have to keep in mind that a low-level wizard doesn't have that many 1st-level spells to throw around, while a surge fighter can always use 8 max-power surges, plus or minus their Charisma modifier. Since the surge fighter would get to use "Surge of Accuracy" more often than the wizard would get to use true strike at the lower levels, "Surge of Accuracy" has to be weaker until the wizard's spell capacity catches up and his 1st-level spells aren't an all-important commodity. And yes, I'm aware that at higher levels, "Surge of Accuracy" can grant ludicrous bonuses to attack rolls, but just how much of a bonus to attack rolls do you really need? Against a foe whose level is near your own, having a +20 bonus to attack rolls guarantees a hit just as effectively as a +40 bonus the vast majority of the time (especially when you already have a good base attack bonus), so spending a huge number of surge points on "Surge of Accuracy" is really just a waste of surge points. (Having a ridiculously massive bonus to attack rolls does set up the amusing situation of going "lol no" to a Viewtiful Warrior trying to use their VFX Slow narrow dodge, but that was intentional; in the Viewtiful Joe games, there are some attacks that you can't auto-dodge with VFX Slow, and I wanted the way I set it up in D&D to follow the same principle.)
• "Surge of Power" uses the weapon's damage dice as a way to encourage the use of the bigger weapons, like greatswords and greataxes, in a way that most bonus damage abilities don't; it basically sets it apart from sneak attack and similar abilities.
• Why the heck does sonic damage have the same cost as force damage under your version of "Surge of Energy"? Force is indeed pretty much the sixth type of energy damage, but I was under the impression that the five main types of energy damage were more or less equal, with force damage being more powerful by virtue of the fact that almost nothing resists it. If anything, sonic damage is slightly inferior to the others because you don't even need to resist it to stop it; you just need silence.
• Refresh magic is intended to stack. This is why it has a clause to prevent it from making the duration of a spell with a set (i.e. not scaling) duration able to exceed its usual maximum; to make people have to be more tactical about using refresh magic on spells such as creeping cold, flensing, or time stop, instead of just casting refresh magic on them several times in a row.
• Hold monster is distinct from "true" paralysis effects in that hold monster is actually a compulsion effect, and therefore is mind-affecting and grants the target a Will save every round to break free. Basically, hold monster doesn't really paralyze the subject, it just compels them to remain perfectly still and act like they were paralyzed. "Surge of Paralysis" is meant to just straight-up paralyze its target, not to compel them to remain completely still as if paralyzed like hold monster does. Yes, this is more powerful, but it's balanced out by forcing you to pay a lot of surge points if you want the target to remain paralyzed long enough for you to do anything more time-intensive than coup-de-gracing them or running away, whereas hold monster's simple 1 round/level duration formula lets you potentially paralyze someone for a very long time with just a 5th-level spell slot (when you're powerful enough to cast 7th-, 8th-, or 9th-level spells, paralyzing someone for 13+ rounds is really economical). Of course, hold monster isn't exactly "fire-and-forget" because the victim could get loose early at any moment, forcing you to restrain them more thoroughly ASAP or else keep a very close eye on them while going about your business, but I'm pretty sure it was designed that way on purpose; 9 rounds of paralysis is crazy-long and should have something going against it to make it less practical than it would seem at face value.
• ...Actually, I like how you made "Surge of Sleep" more like the actual sleep spell by effectively replacing the HD limit with the number of surge points spent (when the number of surge points spent is greater than 4, anyways).
• I believe that I explained in the surge fighter article how bestowing negative levels equal to one's HD is not much more overpowered than the wizard's basic blasting spells, like fireball. Both are more or less just as capable of insta-killing a creature of equal level. Of course, the wizard can continue smiting things in one shot with a blast spell all the way up until he hits the spell's damage cap, allowing him to get the one-hit-kill much more economically (a 9th-level wizard doesn't care about conserving 3rd-level spell slots nearly as much as a 5th-level one), while the surge fighter has to expend a large portion of his daily power to get that one-hit kill.
• "Surge of Resilience" is a counterpart to stoneskin, which grants similarly ludicrous damage reduction, but goes away after preventing a set amount of damage. "Surge of Resilience" doesn't go away, no matter how much damage it absorbs, until its duration expires; to counteract this, the duration is ridiculously short. Stoneskin, on the other hand, can be rendered moot by just whaling on the subject until it reaches its limit. So, while the surge fighter can survive absolutely insane beatdowns with surge of resilience, that basically just means "direct damage is useless, go for the gish spells". The surge fighter's a Very High-balance class, and at this level, combats being decided by raw damage output are more the exception than the rule. Damage reduction doesn't help you against phantasmal killer, no matter how much of it you have.
• "Dispelling Surge" replicates dispel magic instead of greater dispel magic when the surge fighter first gets it precisely in order to prevent a 5th-level surge fighter from dispelling something that a 5th-level wizard couldn't dispel with dispel magic (do wizards get access to remove curse?). But regardless, greater dispel magic already acts like remove curse and break enchantment by virtue of its own effect; that's its major advantage over dispel magic other than the greater dispel check cap, and part of the reason it's 6th-level; it's really like three spells in one. The way you set up "Dispelling Surge" lets it defeat certain spells earlier than intended.
• "Surge of Permanency" was put at the same level as "Surge of Disjunction" because the relationship between permanency and refresh magic is very similar to the relationship between mage's disjunction and dispel magic; mage's disjunction does dispel magic's job very, very thoroughly, and likewise, permanency does refresh magic's job very, very thoroughly.

Overall, the surge fighter is meant to have just as much power as the wizard, and if the wizard's bonuses go into the stratosphere, the surge fighter's have to as well so that he's able to keep up. And I do mean keeping up with the wizard; the surge fighter is never meant to surpass the wizard too egregiously at any given level. (I already explained how having more than a +20 bonus to attack rolls is actually kind of useless, and looking at my comments above, you'll notice that everything the surge fighter can do is meant to be more or less equal to what a wizard of the same level can do.) --Luigifan18 (talk) 18:37, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

Really, cause your original text specifically noted how you couldn't mix and match attack action buffs. Which, really, is the better idea.

I noticed the psionics comparison, but you got it wrong with the original DCs. You somehow added both the 1/2 HD formula with the "increase DC formula", and you can't do both cause it messes things up. I went with 1/2 HD for sake of simplicity and smoothness. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 17:33, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

No, no, I meant that the total number of surge points you spend on a single action can't exceed your surge fighter level. You can still use several different combat surges on the same attack action — for instance, you could use "Surge of Accuracy", "Surge of Power", and "Surge of Energy" all on the same attack action — but the total number of surge points you spend on each of those surges can't exceed your class level. That's the mix-and-matching I'm talking about. You can apply several buffs at the same time, but the very act of doing so limits the power of each buff. --Luigifan18 (talk) 18:47, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

Free action casting make surge of accuracy a lot better than quickened true strike, making the bonus 4 x Surge Point is silly. It allow you to power attack for full and still auto-hit anything. In general, even at very high, playing with absurdly high number is a bad idea. --Leziad (talk) 00:11, 14 November 2015 (UTC)

(RESET INDENT) Sorry it took so long for me to get back to this, but I called it on the things you'd object to. Let's begin explaining why I did what I did, and why you should take it.

For the raising of DCs, while you can bring it back, I actually suggest against it. The class is complex enough without an additional layer of complexity. It works a bit easier with psionics since you have a limited list with known limits and, typically, you'll only going to be popping them off once per round. As is, you could potentially do a dozen attacks each one with a different effect on it. So that's why I went with the 1/2 HD scaling, it's just simplier that way. YMMV.

For adding multiple abilities to attack, this can be easily fixed with wording. Something to the sort like "one ability score used for attack", which would remove the possibility of double ability scores to DC.

By the by, balancing power with "it's ok because you run out" only works so far, so be careful. Take for example the wizard; limited spells per day, pretty good effects. But this breaks if you limit them further to 1 spell a day, yet justify giving them some absurd uber-spell because "it's only once per day". This is just a general advice, not a particular critique in the class here.

Anyway, right to your list.

• Surge of Accuracy: So the comparison to True Strike is poor. True Strike has an impressive number, +20, but a very high cost in the form of action economy. A standard action is killer. This is closer to Swift True Strike, a pretty good deal at 5th level. But wait, it's not even swift, it's free, so you can keep your swift. There's no direct comparison to how many levels "free" gives you, but it's 6+ spell levels at least. As you can see we are well out of the range of 1st level effects here.

+4 at 1st level is reasonable. It's comparable to some maneuvers. However, the moment you hit 2nd level it breaks at +8 bonus, and it only gets more absurd from there. At 20th, you're hitting +80. You will never ever miss. And this is actually a problem because there are a lot of things that rely on lowering attack bonuses to power their benefits. Power Attack. Two Weapon Fighting. Flurry of Blows. Several random feats out there. All of them broken because suddenly you cannot miss, and you didn't even spend significent action cost for the benefit. In comparison, the loss of surge points is comparitively nothing. Remember that thing about balancing times per day with power only going so far? That applies here, it needed either lower scaling or a hard cap you hit very quickly, because it went into insanity overdrive.

On a side note, it's probably a good idea to compare your fights against fighters, wizards, and other D&D classes or monsters. Comparing them to homebrew class effect skews the results.

• Surge of Power: As you had written it, the optimal path is to obtain the biggest weapon damage die as possible. Ignoring homebrew, which has produced some impressively high dice, you can break this pretty easy. Alchemical Golden Fullblades with Powerful Build or Strongarm Bracers, and Enlarge Person, or even just a King of Smack build with absurdly high unarmed damage die, and it shatters this ability completely. Seeing as none of this is difficult, it's a bad idea to base it off weapon damage die. This is why I fixed it at a standard issue d6 die. Incidentally, there is nothing unusual about bonus damage, as bonus damage =/= precision bonus damage, which is what sneak attack is. You can see a different non-precision bonus damage in many maneuvers or even weapon enhancements. That is also a bonus damage die, something notably not multiplied on a critical hit for good reason.

• Sonic Damage and Force Damage: In the grand scheme of things, the order of how common something is tends to be Fire, Cold, Electric, Acid, Sonic, and Force. Sonic and force in particular have a distinction of being almost never resisted (sonic is resisted slightly more than force) and having special properties. Force hits incorporeal. Sonic ignores hardness often. You may have forgotten that, but sonic damage is really good. It's also why you see, in weapon enhancements, both sonic and force damage are reduced to 1d4 while something like Flaming is a d6. Go check it, you'll see. In any case, this is why I made the case that they were comparable. I thus absorbed the Surfe of Force (or whatever it was called) into the rest of the energy types, then pushed sonic and force onto their own tier.

Incidentally, force also has a "silence" counter in the form of the spell "forceward".

• Refresh Magic: So I had to go check your spell, and it's a bit of a hot mess. I'll get to that spell one day, but I tried to capture the spirit of what you were trying to do. Now, but RAW your spell doesn't actually stack since same spells typically don't by default, but even if it was intended I would recommend that it doesn't anyway. There aren't many set duration spells, and that's not really the concern here. This is more of a case of taking a useful spell with X/level duration (you know, the majority of them) and extending them an arbitarily long time. Why, yes, I too would like Persistant Bite of the Werebear. Or not. Because the DM would rightfully kill you.

• Hold Monster: Actually I thought you intended Hold Monster, and I was about to say "how thoughtful, that's a good spell to base it off". Dang, oh well. So, paralysis is a REALLY GOOD effect. It's quite literally save or die tier, as helpless in combat = dead by coup de grace. So how did it justify existing at 2nd level? Two glaring and balancing weaknesses: It's mind affecting, and they can save their way out of it after the fact. Both do well to turn this from very OP to "very good, but not gamebreaking". Without these elements, the effective level this should appear at climbs dramatically. So, if you want to keep it at the level you are at, I would recommend you keep the Hold Monster properties. After all, didn't you say somewhere else that this was supposed to be comparable to the wizard (already top tier), not completely blow it out of the water?

• Surge of Sleep: Glad you liked it.

• Negative Level Insta-Kill: And here is where you dramatically overestimate the wizard's abilities and completely blast past them at the speed of light. Wizard's have enervation. It's 1d4 negative levels, no save, and it is awesome. On average, they are dealing 2 negative levels a round, spell slots willing. It won't kill anyone but the weakest, but it sure will debuff.

But yours?

Anything equal in HD or less, instantly dead, basically no save. And also turned into a wright in 24 hours so good job breaking it hero. What's that? They're anywhere from your HD +1 to twice your HD? First round you absolutely and utterly cripple them no save, second round you kill them.

The wizard is crying. Why did you make the wizard cry Luigi? Why?

• Surge of Completely Invincible Resilience: A second time you overestimate the wizard. For the none-too-cheap 250 gp per casting of Stoneskin, they get a hefty but not unpassable DR 10/adamantine. You, meanwhile, gain DR 10/-.... per level.

Out of sick curiosity, we found the toughest (serious) monster on the wiki, the idylean monitor. Even at 20th level, you should be vastly underpowered. And yet it can tank a blow from it and take 0 damage, because it's DR is just that damn high. Hol-lee-shit.

It lasts all round too, it's basically immunity to physical damage. And you can't bypass it, not like stoneskin at all. And it costs no money. And holy crap 10 per level are you serious?

DR is largely designed to reduce, not negate, at the levels it is appropriate. You rarely see it breach 10 or 15 with good reason. We're talking triple digits of insanity.

And then, to top it all off, let's make it an immediate action.

Yeah, no. This isn't stoneskin. There isn't anything comparable. Maybe, maybe, that 9th level effect which makes you immune for 1 round, after a standard action. In comparison, you're still way passed that point. You're like 14th level spells here....

• Dispelling Surge: So turns out Dispel Magic and Greater Dispel Magic are the same (in 3.5, were you thinking of Pathfinder?), except one has a hard cap and one doesn't. So there wasn't really a point to have both, I could just give you greater and it would scale appropriately. Do remember, neither dispels can remove curses. That's actually something I added later to justify a greater version existing.

• Surge of Permanency: Without the XP cost, this became quite broken as you no longer had a reason not to perma-everything. And at the level given, it was kind of late to the party and useless. Keeping in line with you basically giving them at the levels wizards did, I brought it back to its true level and returned its cost to keep it from going nuts.

And so there you go. That's the reason for everything. Hopefully you can see, and agree, why I did this. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 09:15, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Surge Fighter

Making a Surge Fighter

The surge fighter plays much the same role in combat as the regular fighter, with the exception of combat surges. By spending his surge points, a surge fighter can drastically boost his power for a glorious moment, rivaling the efficacy of any spell or power. But just like spell slots and power points, surge points are finite. If the surge fighter does not ration them carefully and use them only as needed, then he will soon run out — and when that happens, he's just an ordinary fighter with half as many feats. Which pretty much equals "laughingstock" in the D&D world.

A surge fighter plays the same role in an adventuring party as a regular fighter; he is the frontman, the guy who gets up in the enemy's face to dish out damage and keep them busy while his companions perform their own jobs. The surge fighter is flexible and can play almost any melee or ranged combat role with ease.

Abilities: Like a regular fighter, the surge fighter's most important ability scores are Strength and Constitution. Charisma helps determine their surge point pool, so a high Charisma means he can surge more often. Dexterity is also important for AC and Reflex saves and for ranged attacks. Wisdom will shore up the surge fighter's poor Will] save. The only unimportant ability score is Intelligence, used to bolster skill points.

Races: Any race that can be a fighter can be a surge fighter. Any race whose favored class is fighter also favors surge fighter.

Alignment: Any.

Starting Gold: Same as fighter.

Starting Age: Moderate, as fighter.

Table: The Surge Fighter

Hit Die: d10

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Surge Points/Day
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Combat Surge, Fighter Equivalence, Fighter Bonus Feat, 1st Level Surges	8
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0		16
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1	2nd Level Surges	24
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1	Fighter Bonus Feat	32
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1	3rd Level Surges	40
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+2		48
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+2	4th Level Surges	56
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+2	Fighter Bonus Feat	64
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+3	5th Level Surges	72
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+3		80
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+3	6th Level Surges	88
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+4	Fighter Bonus Feat	96
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+4	7th Level Surges	104
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+4		112
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+5	8th Level Surges	120
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+5	Fighter Bonus Feat	128
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5	9th Level Surges	136
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+6		144
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+6		152
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+6	Fighter Bonus Feat	160
Class Skills (2 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level) Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Martial Lore (Int), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the surge fighter.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A surge fighter is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, medium, and light) and shields (including tower shields).

Combat Surge: The surge fighter is more than a capable combatant at any time, but his true ace in the hole is his combat surges. Combat surges are quick bursts of awesome combat ability capable of matching what a wizard can accomplish with his spells. Surges are typically instantaneous or otherwise very short in terms of duration, as the power is momentary and comes and goes in an instant.

Surges consume surge points. A surge fighter has a pool of surge points equal to his surge fighter level ×8, plus their Charisma modifier per level. Spent surge points are renewed with eight hours of rest. You gain access to all surges known for your level, as shown below.

Fighter Bonus Feats: Surge fighters get bonus feats just like fighters do at 1st level, 4th level, and every four levels beyond. These bonus feats must be drawn from the feats noted as fighter bonus feats or surge feats. A surge fighter must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat.

Fighter Equivalence: A surge fighter counts his class level −1 as levels in fighter for the purpose of pre-requisites.

There is one exception to this; only 10 levels of surge fighter, rather than 11, are needed to become an edgemaster. Edgemaster levels stack with surge fighter levels with respect to the development of bonus feats, but not for the development of surges, increasing the size of the surge fighter's surge point pool, or increasing the surge fighter's maximum number of surge points spendable on a single surge.

Surges

Surges are special abilities the surge fighter can activate by using surge points. When using a surge, you can spend a number of surge points up to your class level. The saving throw for surges (if any) is 10 + 1/2 HD + ability modifier used for attack rolls (usually Strength). For surges which augment attack actions, you may only spend 1 surge ability per attack.

1st Level Surges

Saving Surge (Ex): As an immediate action, a surge fighter may elect to pay a number of surge points to gain a bonus to any one saving throw equal to the number of surge points spent against one effect. Optionally, one can spend 3 additional surge points when using this ability to gain the effect of mettle or evasion (for Fortitude/Will and Reflex saves respectively), or 9 additional points to gain improved mettle or evasion.

Surge of Accuracy (Ex): As part of an attack, a surge fighter may elect to pay a number of surge points to gain a bonus on his attack roll by +3 plus the number of surge points spent.

Surge of Armor (Sp): As a standard action, a surge fighter may spend surge points to replicate the effects of a mage armor spell. The caster level for this effect is equal to the number of surge points spent.

Surge of Detection (Sp): As a standard action, a surge fighter may spend surge points to replicate the effects of any detect spell (such as detect magic or detect thoughts), with a caster level equal to their class level. The cost of the ability is 1 surge point, plus an additional 2 surge points per spell level it duplicates past 1st. For example, detect magic and detect evil are 1 point, while detect thoughts is 3 points.

Surge of Energy (Su): As part of an attack, a surge fighter may convert half of his weapon damage into either acid, cold, electricity, or fire damage by spending 3 surge points, or convert all weapon damage into the energy damage of choice by spending 6 surge points. He can convert half his damage into sonic or force damage by spending 6 surge points, or convert all weapon damage into sonic or force by spending 9 surge points.

Surge of Power (Ex): As part of an attack, a surge fighter may elect to pay a number of surge points to add +1d6 points of damage per surge points spent to his weapon damage. Bonus damage from this ability is not multiplied on a critical hit.

Surge of Skill (Ex): As part of a skill check, a surge fighter may elect to pay a number of surge points to gain a bonus on his skill check by +3 plus the number of surge points spent.

Surge of Sleep (Su): As part of an attack once per round, a surge fighter may force a Will save on a successful attack against falling under the effect of sleep, affecting up to 4 HD or your class level, whichever is higher. The sleep duration is 1 round per 2 surge points spent (minimum 1 round).

2nd Level Surges

Ability Surge (Ex): As a swift action, the surge fighter may pay a number of surge points to gain an enhancement bonus to an ability score equal to the number of points spent (maximum +6). The surge fighter may divvy up their bonus among multiple ability scores, provided they can spend the surge points. Alternatively, they can spend 2 surge points per +1 bonus to change the bonus to a luck bonus. The effects last for 1 round.

Disabling Surge (Ex): As part of an attack once per round, a surge fighter may deal ability damage to an ability score of their choice equal to 1 ability damage per surge point spent, maximum 6 damage on any single ability score. The surge fighter may divvy up the ability damage among multiple ability scores, provided they can spend the surge points. Creatures get a Fortitude save to negate the ability damage, but not the attack damage.

Surge of Clarity (Ex): As part of an attack, a surge fighter may elect to pay a number of surge points to ignore 5% miss chance per surge point spent. Alternatively as a swift action, the surge fighter may spend 9 surge points to gain the benefits of true seeing for 1 round.

Surge of Knocking (Sp): As a standard action, the surge fighter may duplicate the effect of knock by spending 3 surge points.

Surge of Motion (Sp): As a move action, the surge fighter may enter a burst of speed, effectively teleporting up to 5 ft in any direction per surge point spent (maximum 60 ft at 12 surge points). It is not an actual teleport effect, and you cannot use it to move if you are immobile, or if you do not have line of effect. This motion does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Surge of Obscurity (Su): As a swift action, the surge fighter may gain a 5% miss chance (as blur) per surge point spent, up to a maximum of 50% miss chance at 10 surge points. The benefit lasts for 1 round.

Surge of Range (Ex): As a swift action, the surge fighter may pay a number of surge points (minimum 2) to extend their effective reach until the end of their turn. Multiply your reach times the number of points spent. In addition, ranged attacks ignore a number of range increments up to the number of surge points spent for the purposes of penalties to attack rolls.

3rd Level Surges

Dispelling Surge (Sp): As a standard action, the surge fighter can make a single attack. On a successful hit, the target is subject to a targetted greater dispel magic with a caster level equal to the number of surge points spent. Although it is a standard action, it cannot be combined with other surge abilities which augment attack actions.

Greater Surge of Armor (Sp): As a standard action, a surge fighter may spend surge points to replicate the effects of greater mage armor^{Spell Compendium}. The caster level for this effect is equal to the number of surge points spent.

Multitarget Surge (Ex): As part of an attack, a surge fighter may target another creature in range with the same attack roll by spending 3 surge points per additional target. If the attack roll is a critical threat, each target is confirmed seperately.

Refreshing Surge (Sp): As a standard action, the surge fighter can refresh the magic on a creature, spell effect, or magic item. The surge fighter adds +1d6 plus 1 per two surge points spent (minimum 1, for +0) to a maximum of 5 points for the purposes of duration. Refreshing surge can also be used to re-activate effects that were affected by dispel magic, if they were active within the last 5 rounds. Refreshing surge does not stack, it overlaps, for the purposes of determining the effect's new duration.

Stable Surge of Motion (Sp): The surge fighter's surge of motion ability improves. If they are in caught in mid-air, they do not fall until the beginning of their turn. In addition they may fall under the effects of feather fall at will for no additional cost any round you have used surge of motion.

Surge of Paralysis (Su): As part of an attack once per round, a surge fighter may force a Will save on a successful attack against falling under the effect of hold monster. The paralysis duration is 1 round per 2 surge points spent (minimum 5 surge points spent, minimum 2 rounds duration).

Surge of Slow Motion (Sp): As a swift action, the surge fighter may pay a number of surge points (minimum 5) to bestow the effect of slow on one creature within Close range. The duration of the effect is 1 round for every 5 surge points you expend.

Surge of Speed (Sp): As a swift action the surge fighter may pay a number of surge points (minimum 5) to gain the effect of haste on either themselves or one creature within Close range. The duration of the effect is 1 round for every 5 surge points you expend.

4th Level Surges

Energy-Charging Surge (Su): As part of an attack once per round, a surge fighter may spend 7 surge points to deal 1d4 positive levels on an undead target with a Will save for half. Positive levels last for 24 hours before fading away naturally.

Enervating Surge (Su): As part of an attack once per round, a surge fighter may spend 7 surge points to deal 1d4 negative levels with a Will save for half. Negative levels last for 24 hours before fading away naturally.

Surge of Confusion (Su): As part of an attack once per round, a surge fighter may force a Will save on a successful attack against falling under the effect of confusion. The confusion duration is 1 round per surge point spent (minimum 7 surge points spent).

Surge of Dimensional Anchoring (Su): As part of an attack once per round, a surge fighter may spend 7 surge points to cause the target to fall under the effect of dimensional anchor. The caster level is equal to the number of surge points spent.

Surge of Far Sight (Sp): Over the course of 1 minute, a surge fighter can duplicate the effect of scrying by spending at least 7 surge points. The caster level is equal to the number of surge points spent.

Surge of Fortification (Su): As a standard action, a surge fighter may spend surge points to grant themselves 1d10 temporary hit points per spent surge point. These temporary hit points last for 1 hour and do not stack with themselves or any other source of temporary hit points.

Surge of Fright (Su): As part of an attack once per round, a surge fighter may force a Will save on a successful attack against falling under the effect of fear. The confusion duration is 1 round per surge points spent (minimum 7 surge points spent).

Surge of Resilience (Sp): As a swift action, the surge fighter may gain DR 1/- per surge point they spend. The effect lasts for 1 round.

Surge of Transformation (Sp): As a standard action, a surge fighter can duplicate the effect of polymorph on themselves by spending at least 7 surge points. The caster level is equal to the number of surge points spent.

5th Level Surges

Great Surge of Motion (Sp): As a standard action, a surge fighter may spend 9 surge points to replicate the effects of teleport. The caster level for this effect is equal to the number of surge points spent.

Surge of Invisibility (Sp): As a standard action, a surge fighter may spend 9 surge points to replicate the effects of greater invisibility. The caster level for this effect is equal to the number of surge points spent.

Surge of Permanency (Sp): As a standard action, a surge fighter may spend 9 surge points to replicate the effects of permanency. You must still pay the XP cost. The caster level for this effect is equal to the number of surge points spent.

6th Level Surges

Extended Ability Surge: The surge fighter's ability surge power improves. By spending additional surge points, the effect of ability surge lasts for 1 more round per level for every surge point you spend. You are still limited by your normal cap on spending surge points.

Greater Dispelling Surge: The surge fighter's dispelling surge now also acts as a casting of remove curse and break enchantment.

Greater Refreshing Surge: The surge fighter's refreshing surge now grants 1d6 plus 1 per surge point spent.

Improved Saving Surge: The surge fighter's saving surge ability now lasts for 1 round.

7th Level Surges

Reactionary Surge of Resilience: The surge fighter's surge of resilience may now be used as an immediate action.

Surge of Death (Su): As a standard action, a surge fighter may make a single attack and spend 13 surge points. On a successful hit, the target must make a Fortitude save or die. This is a [Death] effect. Because it is a standard action, it cannot be combined with other surge abilities which augment attack actions.

Surge of Healing (Su): As a standard action, a surge fighter may elect to pay a number of surge points to heal 1d8 points of damage per surge points spent.

8th Level Surges

Surge of Stasis (Su): As a standard action, a surge fighter may make a single attack and spend 15 surge points. On a successful hit, the target must make a Fortitude save or be frozen in time, as per temporal stasis. Because it is a standard action, it cannot be combined with other surge abilities which augment attack actions.

9th Level Surges

Surge of Disjunction (Sp): As a standard action, the surge fighter can make a single attack. On a successful hit, the target is subject to a targetted mage's disjunction with a caster level equal to the number of surge points spent (minimum 17 points). Because it is a standard action, it cannot be combined with other surge abilities which augment attack actions.

Surge of Reality (Su): As an immediate action, a surge fighter can spend 17 surge points and 500 XP to negate any wish, miracle, limited wish, or minor miracle within Long Range just as it's being cast. You must succeed on a Spellcraft check to detect the spell being cast. The spell is lost, though no other resources or XP are consumed.

Epic Surge Fighter

Table: The Epic Surge Fighter

Hit Die: d10

Level	Special	Surge Points/Day
21st		168
22nd	Epic Ability Surge	176
23rd	Bonus Feat	184
24th		192
25th		200
26th	Bonus Feat	208
27th		216
28th		224
29th	Bonus Feat	232
30th		240
2 + Int modifier skill points per level.

Combat Surge: The epic surge fighter continues to have eight surge points plus his Charisma modifier per class level (plus any extras from

surge feats), and may spend up to one surge point per class level on any given action.

Fighter Equivalence: The epic surge fighter's effective fighter level for the purpose of prerequisites (such as for feats and prestige classes) is equal to his surge fighter level − 1.

Epic Ability Surge: At 22nd level, the surge fighter's Extended Ability Surge becomes more efficient. He may pay additional surge points while performing an Ability Surge to extend the duration by 1 round per surge point (these surge points do not count towards determining the size of the bonus or how many ability scores it applies to). The number of surge points spent on a single Ability Surge still cannot exceed the surge fighter's class level.

Bonus Feats: The epic surge fighter gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic surge fighter bonus feats) every three levels after 20th.

Epic Surge Fighter Bonus Feat List: Armor Skin, Combat Archery, Damage Reduction, Devastating Critical, Dire Charge, Distant Shot, Energy Resistance, Epic Endurance, Epic Leadership, Epic Prowess, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus, Epic Weapon Specialization, Exceptional Deflection, Improved Combat Reflexes, Improved Manyshot, Improved Stunning Fist, Improved Whirlwind Attack, Infinite Deflection, Instant Reload, Legendary Commander, Legendary Rider, Legendary Wrestler, Overwhelming Critical, Penetrate Damage Reduction, Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting, Reflect Arrows, Spellcasting Harrier, Storm of Throws, Superior Initiative, Swarm of Arrows, Two-Weapon Rend, Uncanny Accuracy. In addition to the feats on this list, the surge fighter may treat any surge feat or any feat designated as a Fighter Bonus Feat, but not listed here, as being on his or her bonus feat list. Epic bonus feat progression replaces fighter bonus feat progression.

Human Surge Fighter Starting Package

Weapons: Longsword.

Skill Selection: Pick a number of skills equal to 2 + Int modifier.

Skill	Ranks	Ability	Armor Check Penalty
<-Skill name->	<-4 for class skills and 2 for cross-class skills->	<-Abbrieviated key ability->	<-armor check penalty based on starting armor. If innapplicable put "—"->
<-Skill name->	<-4 for class skills and 2 for cross-class skills->	<-Abbrieviated key ability->	<-armor check penalty based on starting armor. If innapplicable put "—"->

Feat: <-1st-level feat selection->.

Bonus Feats: <-1st-level feat bonus feats due to class or sample race. remove this section if this sample doesn't get any bonus feats at 1st level. ->.

Gear: <-Starting armor and other equipment outside of weapons.->.

Gold: <-Starting gold using this package.->.

Campaign Information

Playing a Surge Fighter

Religion: Surge fighters are no more or less likely to be devout than other members of their race. They also tend to worship the typical deity of their race and alignment, though plenty of exceptions exist.

Other Classes: Surge fighters' interactions with other classes are very much like those of fighters, though many other martial classes tend to be awestruck by their combat surges. Magical and psionic classes aren't quite as impressed, though they do respect the surge fighter as a potentially dangerous adversary or a powerful ally.

Combat: Like regular fighters, surge fighters do battle according to their specializations. They cannot specialize in a combat style as well as a fighter due to their smaller number of feats, but their surges can give them an edge as long as they don't have to do battle for too long or too frequently. Fighters tend to outperform surge fighters in prolonged or repeated combat, though, as surge fighters only have so many surge points to work with.

Advancement: Surge fighters generally have the same multiclassing options as fighters.

Surge Fighters in the World

“	Completely and utterly broken, but with enough duct tape and a chainsaw, it might look passable.	”
—Eiji Fucking Hyrule Son

Surge fighters play much the same role in the world as fighters.

Daily Life: Surge fighters live in much the same way as fighters. They constantly train to maintain their combat skill.

Organizations: Surge fighters don't have organizations of their own. They congregate in the same places as regular fighters.

NPC Reactions: NPCs react to surge fighters much like they do to normal fighters, in part because they can't really be told apart at a glance. However, combat surges have a knack for getting attention when used, especially the flashier ones such as Surge of Force, Surge of Motion, and Surge of Reality.

Surge Fighters Lore

Characters with ranks in <-the appropriate skills-> can research surge fighters to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

<-the appropriate skills->

DC	Result
5	<-common knowledge->.
10	<-not so common knowledge->.
15	<-rare information->.
20	<-very rare information->.

Surge Fighters in the Game

Surge fighters are just like fighters, except with a wizard-like ability to serve as a trump card.