FFXIV x D&D - Fighter Archetype: Dragoon

This is part of a series of posts I'm making in prep for a FFXIV x D&D sourcebook I'm writing. Other related articles are:

• Astrologian
• Bard
• Black Mage
• Dark Knight
• Dragoon
• Gunbreaker
• Machinist
• Monk
• Red Mage
• Scholar
• Summoner
• White Mage

Here's a copy of the unfinished product if you want to see it in a coherent form: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/SkZnah0nKV

Dragoon

The Dragoon; Besides having cool-looking armor, they specialize in having mobility- specifically semi-aerial mobility. This informs their style of combat, which involves striking at their opponents with the momentum of their jumps.

The decision to make the Dragoon based off of the Fighter class was pretty straightforward. The other options were Ranger, Monk, and Rogue, but (respectively), the Dragoon has nothing to do with nature spells, doesn't really connect with unarmed attacks or flurry of blows, and is way too flashy for stealthy sneak attacks.

Looking at the Fighter's tools, they provided most of what a Dragoon needed, except for one vital thing: the jumping. So I designed the class into being the best at it in the game. In the process, it turned out to be a very mobile class to play, for those that like to move around in combat.

Most of this can be seen under the Jump Tactics feature. It doubles down on a Dragoon's Athletics skill, allows the use of the Jump spell (which is needed to use Dragoon Dive in lower-to-mid levels), and slowly removes restrictions from jumping.

Dragoon Dive, the feature that enables you to use your jumps for combat, manifests as extra damage if you're able to successfully make an impressive jump before your attacks. This was inspired by the Arcane Archer and was originally going to have cool stuff to do with your Dragoon Dive attacks, but I felt like it over complicated the subclass. I might bring it back in the future.

Slow Fall is ripped from Monk, removing the fear of heights from Dragoons, encouraging them to pull off crazy stunts from high above. Elusive Jump is like the Dodge and Disengage actions combined into a bonus action that must involve jumping. 

Because I felt like a plain damage boost to Dragoon Dive felt too dry, I added Higher Jump as a helpful ribbon feature, which should encourage Dragoons to truly feel like they are unparalleled jumpers. 

It would have been easier to give them limited flight, but I felt like that would have taken away from the job's identity. I tried, best as I could, to present the jumping features as simply as possible, so as not to make them appear too intimidating, since not many players might feel like studying and keeping the jumping rules to memory.

In the end, I feel like the job is well balanced; It should be attractive enough for those looking for a subclass that can hit very hard in bursty situations, and even more appealing to those that want to really feel like a dragoon when they're playing. That being said, I'd like to keep an eye out, in case the Dragoon Dive mechanic is too cumbersome or boring.