The Fighter Problem & How to Fix It

[Morty]

I've said it before and I will say it again... I've come to the conclusion that one of the problems Fighter has in the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons is, ironically, the game's focus on combat. In many other games, fighting is just one of the skill sets. In a group of PCs, you might find a person who is a professional combatant, another who can handle herself in a combat situation in a pinch and yet another one who has no idea how to handle a weapon and/or lacks whatever combat abilities or power the game's genre might have. Not so in 3e D&D, where everyone is supposed to contribute to combat in a roughly equal measure, and combat takes up the majority of the game. So what do we do with the person whose only skill is fighting? Even other full BaB classes have something non-combat to bring to the table. I don't think this is a problem that can be solved without completely rewriting 3e.

In general, my view of the issue is that while all the problems with the Fighter class that you've listed are undisputably true, they're no less important than what you mentioned in the first post but haven't elaborated upon yet - the fundamental assumptions in the design of the 3rd edition that screw over all martial classes, but the Fighter in particular.

Most Fighter fixes, especially the better ones, give them a laundry-list of abilities that let them ignore or resist the various effects the game is liable to throw at them with increasing frequency above level 5. This is, of course, a result of the fact that regular saving throws and hit points simply aren't enough not to be completely shut off. It's how the game is built, because the designers greviously underestimated such abilities. As a result, Fighter fixes tend to turn them into larger-than-life unstoppable juggernauts from relatively low levels... because being a larger-than-life unstoppable juggernaut is what it takes to resist special and magic abilities.

I find it problematic not just from the thematic viewpoint but also the gamist viewpoint, so to speak. I don't think it's a good sign if the game turns into a rocket-tag where everyone throws abilities that can either be shrugged off or shut down the enemy completely if they're not shrugged off.

So, there you have it. I think the reasons for the Fighter's suckitude are rooted as much in the basic design decisions (or mistakes) of 3e as they are in the class's awful design. It has been of course mentioned in your posts and those of others, but I felt like chiming in.