Peregrine
2007-09-15, 12:47 PM
So many people have come up with their own personal fighter fix that it’s not funny. Yes, the fighter is not a strong class. Yes, it lacks a solid concept that is carried across all aspects of the class. Yes, it is totally outclassed by spellcasters, especially CoDzillas who one-up the fighter at his own job. Tweak this, buff that, add this feat, these are all nice ideas, but ultimately they just don’t seem to cut it. What we need is more than just another fix; we need to think out an approach to these fixes. Our fighters need a meta-fix.
Concept
The first thing we need is a concept. Here are some differing approaches to the question of what The Fighter™ is.
The fighter is the trained soldier type. He doesn’t need to have been in an army per se, but his gimmick is knowing more about effective fighting than anyone else. This is supported by the fighter’s wealth of feats. But his lack of skills shoots this idea in the foot. If you want to adopt this idea, you have to give the fighter class skills that represent knowing about fighting. Leadership would be nice too.
The fighter is customisability. Everything she gets is a feat, an option. A fundamentally flawed approach, because it thinks of the fighter in terms of game mechanics rather than archetype. But we have to address this idea, because many people do hold to it. Any fighter revamp must either bow to this concept, or else decisively and openly choose to break with it. This attitude can also spill over into the game itself, in which case it tends to become...
The fighter is the generic tough guy. You can’t say what the fighter “is”, because the fighter is just anyone that focuses on taking a weapon and hitting things. Distinct from the above, in that this one is, well, kind of stupid. (“A class built on feats” is at least a nice idea, even if it doesn’t work very well in practice.) Those who hold to this idea tends to be actively against any kind of fix. “You can’t give the fighter that ability. They shouldn’t be able to do that. You’re pushing in on another class’s territory.” A class defined by not having a gimmick just doesn’t fit the game, okay? And every other class is adaptable enough to fill another’s shoes in a pinch. The fighter needs to get out of this rut if it’s to even fit in, never mind be competitive with the other classes. I only mention this here because it’s good to accept at the outset that you can’t please everyone.
The fighter is the character who hurts things with weapons. No, seriously: she knows how to put the right bit of steel in the right place to bring down any enemy. Great. Except that it doesn’t work that way; you can’t bring down “any” enemy like that. Contrary to legend, what does a lone fighter do against a dragon? It can fly, buddy. This approach is distinct from the previous one, in that this is, “The fighter does things this way; ergo, it should be possible to be effective doing things this way,” while that was, “The fighter does things this way, and if it doesn’t work, tough.”
The fighter is the action hero. He’s John McClane, or Rick O’Connell. He’s tough as nails, and never fazed by fighting forces that should be more than a match for him. He can always find a weakness to exploit, he makes use of the environment around him, and he’s adept with any weapon he comes across. He might not be the brightest spark, or always know what’s going on, but he’ll go toe-to-toe with anything. I picked those two specifically. John McClane, from the Die Hard series, seems to emulate very well the nature of combat in DnD: copious loss of hit points, and yet he just keeps moving. And Rick O’Connell, from The Mummy—well, what better movie series to illustrate a fighter type in the sort of supernatural setting that DnD usually turns up?
The fighter hurts wizards. This gets a mention because it’s the perennial favourite of the “rebalancing” school of fighter fixes: spellcasters are the best, therefore I’ll make fighters effective at hurting spellcasters.
Ideas
The following are ideas for new features and abilities to give the fighter, in order to try and make it match those of the above concepts that I feel are valuable (1, 4, and 5). Exactly how to make these available is up for discussion: they could be fixed abilities granted at certain levels, or they could be newly available feats, or whatever you like. I’m just throwing my ideas into the ring.
Favoured Weapon
Many people have tried powering up the fighter by powering up the Weapon Focus family of feats. Thing is, these aren’t actually bad feats (generally speaking, Weapon Focus will add more to your mean damage output than Improved Critical); but the fighter still has to burn feats on them, thus limiting his options for other manoeuvres and tying himself to a particular brand of equipment (especially painful if he fights with an asymmetric pair of weapons). So how’s this for an idea: Give the fighter a favoured weapon ability, like the ranger’s favoured enemy. Every few levels, the fighter can add a new weapon and advance an existing one. The levels of advancement could automatically grant the Weapon Focus line of feats in that weapon, or they might be something more diverse and flavourful.
Fighter Knowledge
Fighters should be able to size up enemies. This is something of a hole in the game; only in recent supplements have Wizards of the Coast given sufficient attention to the use of knowledge checks to assess an opponent. But, as a bard knows bits of information about people, places and items, fighters should be the experts in knowing how dangerous a creature is and how to hurt it. What follows are the possible applications of this skill; a fighter could gain access to each application at a different level.
Assess danger: The fighter can size up an enemy and decide whether attacking it seems easy, challenging, or suicidal. The level of detail revealed could go up by class level.
Assess damage: Like the above, but the fighter can estimate how much a creature is hurting.
Assess defences: The fighter knows the opponent’s AC. This is useful for letting the player decide, e.g. how much to power attack for. At low levels, this ability might be useable after the fighter has scored a hit; at higher levels, after missing; at higher levels yet, without even attacking—this would let the fighter instantly recognise when the creature does something that changes its AC, like declaring Dodge.
Creature knowledge: The fighter has pulled together bits and pieces of information about various creatures and how to fight them, substituting for ranks in knowledge skills.
Spot weakness: Could be rolled into the above, but even if a fighter fails to recognise that the creature before them is a troll, it could be reasonable to give him a chance to figure out that it looks like the sort of creature that fire might hurt.
Of these, I think assessing danger, assessing defences, and creature knowledge are the most promising applications. Checks could be 1d20 + fighter level + Wis modifier, with synergy from some Knowledge skill or other.
Better training
The fighter should have as class skills, any Knowledge category (or other skill) relevant to military tactics, organisation and leadership. The fighter could also possibly get some sort of leadership or cooperative combat abilities (a few exist as feats, but how about making them standard issue, or at least more attractive?)
Tough as nails
How many action heroes fall under mind control and start beating up their allies? A fighter should be good at making saves, through an ability like Evasion or Mettle or Slippery Mind or something else that gives them more chance of overcoming effects through sheer badassness, even when they target the fighter’s weak saves.
Never say die
Fighters should be supremely hard to actually finish off. Of course, the Diehard feat sort of puts paid to the cinematic cliché of going down, then recovering and getting back up, but there are other ways to handle this. Make them better at fighting off death, resistant to death effects—even resistance to coups de grace maybe? (Damage reduction is the barbarian’s gimmick. You slash the angry hulk before you, but he doesn’t seem to feel it. You slash a fighter, and she’ll feel it, she just won’t let it faze her.)
I hope to add to and refine this post over time, and with feedback. So please, have at it. If you want to suggest some mechanics to implement these ideas, by all means please do. :smallsmile:
Concept
The first thing we need is a concept. Here are some differing approaches to the question of what The Fighter™ is.
The fighter is the trained soldier type. He doesn’t need to have been in an army per se, but his gimmick is knowing more about effective fighting than anyone else. This is supported by the fighter’s wealth of feats. But his lack of skills shoots this idea in the foot. If you want to adopt this idea, you have to give the fighter class skills that represent knowing about fighting. Leadership would be nice too.
The fighter is customisability. Everything she gets is a feat, an option. A fundamentally flawed approach, because it thinks of the fighter in terms of game mechanics rather than archetype. But we have to address this idea, because many people do hold to it. Any fighter revamp must either bow to this concept, or else decisively and openly choose to break with it. This attitude can also spill over into the game itself, in which case it tends to become...
The fighter is the generic tough guy. You can’t say what the fighter “is”, because the fighter is just anyone that focuses on taking a weapon and hitting things. Distinct from the above, in that this one is, well, kind of stupid. (“A class built on feats” is at least a nice idea, even if it doesn’t work very well in practice.) Those who hold to this idea tends to be actively against any kind of fix. “You can’t give the fighter that ability. They shouldn’t be able to do that. You’re pushing in on another class’s territory.” A class defined by not having a gimmick just doesn’t fit the game, okay? And every other class is adaptable enough to fill another’s shoes in a pinch. The fighter needs to get out of this rut if it’s to even fit in, never mind be competitive with the other classes. I only mention this here because it’s good to accept at the outset that you can’t please everyone.
The fighter is the character who hurts things with weapons. No, seriously: she knows how to put the right bit of steel in the right place to bring down any enemy. Great. Except that it doesn’t work that way; you can’t bring down “any” enemy like that. Contrary to legend, what does a lone fighter do against a dragon? It can fly, buddy. This approach is distinct from the previous one, in that this is, “The fighter does things this way; ergo, it should be possible to be effective doing things this way,” while that was, “The fighter does things this way, and if it doesn’t work, tough.”
The fighter is the action hero. He’s John McClane, or Rick O’Connell. He’s tough as nails, and never fazed by fighting forces that should be more than a match for him. He can always find a weakness to exploit, he makes use of the environment around him, and he’s adept with any weapon he comes across. He might not be the brightest spark, or always know what’s going on, but he’ll go toe-to-toe with anything. I picked those two specifically. John McClane, from the Die Hard series, seems to emulate very well the nature of combat in DnD: copious loss of hit points, and yet he just keeps moving. And Rick O’Connell, from The Mummy—well, what better movie series to illustrate a fighter type in the sort of supernatural setting that DnD usually turns up?
The fighter hurts wizards. This gets a mention because it’s the perennial favourite of the “rebalancing” school of fighter fixes: spellcasters are the best, therefore I’ll make fighters effective at hurting spellcasters.
Ideas
The following are ideas for new features and abilities to give the fighter, in order to try and make it match those of the above concepts that I feel are valuable (1, 4, and 5). Exactly how to make these available is up for discussion: they could be fixed abilities granted at certain levels, or they could be newly available feats, or whatever you like. I’m just throwing my ideas into the ring.
Favoured Weapon
Many people have tried powering up the fighter by powering up the Weapon Focus family of feats. Thing is, these aren’t actually bad feats (generally speaking, Weapon Focus will add more to your mean damage output than Improved Critical); but the fighter still has to burn feats on them, thus limiting his options for other manoeuvres and tying himself to a particular brand of equipment (especially painful if he fights with an asymmetric pair of weapons). So how’s this for an idea: Give the fighter a favoured weapon ability, like the ranger’s favoured enemy. Every few levels, the fighter can add a new weapon and advance an existing one. The levels of advancement could automatically grant the Weapon Focus line of feats in that weapon, or they might be something more diverse and flavourful.
Fighter Knowledge
Fighters should be able to size up enemies. This is something of a hole in the game; only in recent supplements have Wizards of the Coast given sufficient attention to the use of knowledge checks to assess an opponent. But, as a bard knows bits of information about people, places and items, fighters should be the experts in knowing how dangerous a creature is and how to hurt it. What follows are the possible applications of this skill; a fighter could gain access to each application at a different level.
Assess danger: The fighter can size up an enemy and decide whether attacking it seems easy, challenging, or suicidal. The level of detail revealed could go up by class level.
Assess damage: Like the above, but the fighter can estimate how much a creature is hurting.
Assess defences: The fighter knows the opponent’s AC. This is useful for letting the player decide, e.g. how much to power attack for. At low levels, this ability might be useable after the fighter has scored a hit; at higher levels, after missing; at higher levels yet, without even attacking—this would let the fighter instantly recognise when the creature does something that changes its AC, like declaring Dodge.
Creature knowledge: The fighter has pulled together bits and pieces of information about various creatures and how to fight them, substituting for ranks in knowledge skills.
Spot weakness: Could be rolled into the above, but even if a fighter fails to recognise that the creature before them is a troll, it could be reasonable to give him a chance to figure out that it looks like the sort of creature that fire might hurt.
Of these, I think assessing danger, assessing defences, and creature knowledge are the most promising applications. Checks could be 1d20 + fighter level + Wis modifier, with synergy from some Knowledge skill or other.
Better training
The fighter should have as class skills, any Knowledge category (or other skill) relevant to military tactics, organisation and leadership. The fighter could also possibly get some sort of leadership or cooperative combat abilities (a few exist as feats, but how about making them standard issue, or at least more attractive?)
Tough as nails
How many action heroes fall under mind control and start beating up their allies? A fighter should be good at making saves, through an ability like Evasion or Mettle or Slippery Mind or something else that gives them more chance of overcoming effects through sheer badassness, even when they target the fighter’s weak saves.
Never say die
Fighters should be supremely hard to actually finish off. Of course, the Diehard feat sort of puts paid to the cinematic cliché of going down, then recovering and getting back up, but there are other ways to handle this. Make them better at fighting off death, resistant to death effects—even resistance to coups de grace maybe? (Damage reduction is the barbarian’s gimmick. You slash the angry hulk before you, but he doesn’t seem to feel it. You slash a fighter, and she’ll feel it, she just won’t let it faze her.)
I hope to add to and refine this post over time, and with feedback. So please, have at it. If you want to suggest some mechanics to implement these ideas, by all means please do. :smallsmile: