Swish, swish, thunk. Swish, swish, thunk. These are the sounds of a butcher at work, swinging their tools through the air as they dismember and disembowel their raw materials. For a butcher, their tools are an extension of their own bodies, akin to the claws and fangs of a predator that allow them to rip through the flesh of their prey.
While many think lowly of butchers, few can appreciate the combination of brute strength, steady hands, and anatomical knowledge that it requires. After all, any animal can hack away at a piece of meat, but it takes a trained artisan to create the surgical cuts needed for this craft. The best butchers take pride in partaking in every aspect of preparing a carcass, including its creation by hunting and slaughtering the creature. These fighters launch themselves eagerly into battle, always enticed by the thought of fresh meat.
| Fighter Level | Feature |
|---|---|
| 3rd | Tools of the Trade, Anatomical Precision |
| 7th | Gruesome Blow |
| 10th | Butcher's Rhythm |
| 15th | Walking Slaughterhouse |
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you learn to use your weapons the way you use your butcher’s tools, creating a new range of techniques unseen by most other combatants. When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you may choose to add an additional effect from one of the following, depending on what type of damage your weapon dealt. Each effect also improves when you become an 18th-level fighter. You may use this ability a number of times equal to your Strength modifier (minimum of once). You regain all expended uses upon finishing a short or long rest.
If an effect requires your target to make a saving throw, the DC is calculated as 8 + your Strength modifier + your proficiency bonus.
If you dealt piercing damage, you may make a grapple check against your target by lodging your weapon in your target’s body as part of the same attack. While you have a creature grappled this way, you cannot make attacks with the weapon you used to grapple them. Whenever a creature grappled in this way attempts to escape the grapple and fails, they automatically suffer 1d8 piercing damage as they clumsily attempt to remove the weapon piercing them. You add your Strength modifier to this damage when you reach 18th level in this class.
If you dealt bludgeoning damage, you may force your target to make a Constitution saving throw. On a failure, your target suffers a devastating strike that breaks their strength and defences. Until the start of your next turn, your target has disadvantage on all Strength saving throws and Strength ability checks, and melee weapon attacks against them have advantage. When you use this ability after reaching 18th level in this class, a target that fails the saving throw also becomes vulnerable to bludgeoning damage until the start of your next turn.
If you dealt slashing damage, you may force your target to make a Constitution saving throw. On a failure, your target suffers a deep cut that shocks their system and hampers their combat capability. Until the start of your next turn, your target’s speed is halved, and it makes all weapon attacks at disadvantage. When you use this ability after reaching 18th level in this class, a target that fails the saving throw also cannot regain hit points until the start of your next turn.
Starting at 3rd level, due to your extensive knowledge of creature anatomy you have advantage on Harvest checks made to harvest beasts, dragons, giants, humanoids, and monstrosities. In addition, damage inflicted by your weapons do not contribute to ruining a creature’s carcass under the particularly violent deaths rule.
Starting at 7th level, you learn to combine your strength and bodily perception to make debilitating strikes that hamper your enemy’s ability to function. If you score a critical hit on a melee weapon attack against a creature, that creature can’t take reactions and can’t make more than one melee or ranged attack during its turn regardless of its abilities or magic items until the start of your next turn. In addition, if they are concentrating on a spell at the time of being hit, that concentration immediately ends.
Starting at 10th level, you become able to fight with the same methodical rhythm you use when carving a carcass on your table. If you make a successful weapon attack against a creature, your next weapon attack against that creature this turn is made with advantage so long as you do not move or take any other action or bonus action before making that attack.
At 15th level, you become so skilled with your butchering tools that you can wield them in both hands with ease. You gain the following benefits: