Brute

From D20advanced

Big, strong, brutish thugs are a common occurrence in many types of fiction. They don't need the biggest gun because they only need to get close to you to really start causing some serious pain. Further, they're just so big and tough that they can take blows which would leave a lesser creature on the ground writhing in pain. They might come into the fray with a big weapon, like a huge sword or even just a massive club, or they just might need to get their big, grubby hands (or claws, or teeth) on you to deal their damage.

Brutes are also wonderfully straight-forward in a fight: they move into melee range and start clobbering the enemy as hard as possible. They're tough enough to stick it out in melee against foes even more powerful than they are (which the heroes might very well be). Many brutes, especially monsters or animals, or just enemies who prefer to fight unarmed, will often try to initiate a grapple maneuver with an enemy, taking advantage of their high strength and lack of reliance on weapons or fancy FX to deal damage, instead using something a little simpler.

But where the brute suffers is in accuracy and in defense. It's pretty easy to hit a brute, and a nimble character can be hard for a brute to fight on even terms. Brutes hit hard and can take punishment, but a lower defense means that their foes will have more chances to overcome their toughness resistance. Further, most brutes tend to have a very poor will resistance, meaning that a character who can regularly target their will resistances can probably take brutes out fairly quickly. This “glass jaw” in their will resistance means that brutes will probably want to keep enemies who can target their will resistances busy somehow, whether by going and smacking them around first, or by having an ally to draw their fire.

In a fight, brutes tend to target “softer” enemies who may be capable of greater damage, since they can take the punishment and are capable of really affecting those with with poor toughness resistances quickly. Plus, those sorts of characters are also the most vulnerable to being grappled, which again plays to the brute's strengths. Since he's an up-close melee-type, the brute is best supported by weaker allies who can deal damage from a range (like the artillery) or an ally who can help him overcome his weaker attack bonus (like a flanker).

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