The Playtest Fighter

[variant]

What if you changed the Fighter's 2/day extra actions to simply 1 extra action per new enemy or simply an extra action per round?

 

[grimslade]

A fighter being simple is not a problem. A fighter being boring and noticeably weaker than his peers is a problem.
Some is not the fighter class' fault. Heavy armor is terrible. The 5' move reduction on top of a lower AC compared to the Templar or rogue makes it easy to keep the fighter kited by enemies or focus fired into oblivion big HP or no.
An extra action in a round is godly. Twice per day godly is cutting a little thin. This may scale with level or not.
Cleave is nice, but no great shakes.

The biggest problem in my first playtest run was the fighter getting burned down quickly. Dark Cultists Unholy Smite can hurt. Owlbears aren't nice either. Maybe Pelor doesn't like dwarves?

 

[frankthedm]

Yeah, this really struck me. We know they've read Pathfinder, we know the solution is about half a sentence of text saying "Against a new target." or some such. If 5e comes out and the first thing I can do is build a Bag o'Rats Fighter...WOTC seriously missed the bus.

Cleave triggers once a round, on your turn. Dumping out a bag of rats will let you kill a rat with the attack and cleave into the main target. No ground gained unless you hope diseased rat guts will give your foe a nasty infection.

System ditched AOOs, and cleave now only works on your turn so it won't trigger even if AoO's com back.

 

[DMKastmaria]

This!
If the DM and one player think ninjas are awesome and one thinks spartan warriors are, which player will have an easier time to persuade the DM that his stunts are cool and reasonable?

So, this is how you, as a DM, would run the game?

 

[Andor]

I'm not seeing the hatefulness.

+3 to hit and a +2 (+ lvl/3) damage?

Proficient in everything?

Extra attacks?

d12 hit dice?

I'm not seeing a whole lot of suck here.

Heavy Armour? Sucks. Longspear doing 1d6 while a lance does 1d10? Stupid.

What's on the fighter sheet? I like every line of it.

 

[Andor]

The apparent implementation of the fighter is not an implementation that I like at all, especially considering how barebones / minimalist the basic ruleset seems to be.

The fighter as written right now is basically able to make attack rolls using his weapon. And not much else. Once in a while he can make an extra attack. His only tactical options are move, and attack.

I am sure that the fighter is mechanically balanced an that on a raw damage output comparison he is balanced. The downside is that there just does not seem to be a whole lot of room for customization. While it is dangerous to assume that this is the 'be all end all' for a fighter, it is pretty clear that the only thing you can do as a fighter is make attacks.

I think you are quite badly missing something. This fighter does nothing but attack, because he was built that way. It's worth noting however that he has the only 100% reliable damage in the game. [edit] I take that back. Magic missile doesn't miss anymore. It is interruptable though, and a melee attack is not, so I was sorta right.

However themes are seperate from classes. You could give a fighter the Guardian theme that Cleric of Moradin has and suddenly you have an awesome tank/defender type. Give another the Magic-User theme and now he has two at-will cantrips. How utterly lethal would a Fighter with Ray-of-frost be?

 

[jadrax]

Magic missile doesn't miss anymore. It is interruptable though, and a melee attack is not, so I was sorta right.

Actually, Magic Missile is not currently interuptable.

 

[Starbuck_II]

I agree the game needs "Easy Mode" characters... But I also think it shouldn't just default to the fighter. Give me an easy mode Cleric, Wizard, and Thief as well.

Wait, what is uneasy about the Thief?
Lazer Cleric is pretty simple: he shoots Radiant lance every turn,
But can 2/day: can heal 18 + 1 (or is it wis), summon a hammer (deals 1d8 on a hit), or deal 4d8 lazer.

Doesn't seem unsimple. Well, okay, hammer is a little unsimple.

Moradin Cleric: has 2 buffs and Healing Word. And can block one blow on an adjacent ally.
One buff is Crusader's strike: lasts 1 hr, deal +1d6 damage.
Another buff Divine Favor: 1 minute, +1 hit, +2 damage, checks, saves.
Now since hit bonuses are better than damage, Divine Favor is stronger, but duration is issue.
Not simple, but fun class.

Wizard...has there ever been a simple one? Sorcerors are easy to simple, but Wizards?
I mean he has Ray of Frost (no damage but enemy loses all speed), MM (simple, damage), burning hands (cone of damage), sleep (not simple), Comprehend language, etc.
I guess if you only prepared Burning hands and used MM for your at will, he could be simple.
In fact, he is.

 

[JasonZZ]

Hm, it would be interesting if the Fighter had a feature that gave him a bonus to any checks for physical contests or stunts during a battle - basically compensation for not using his bonus to weapon attacks and damage. Even something simple but profound like Advantage would be a huge incentive to wrestle monsters and smash up the set a bit. It doesn't even make the fighter's core function any more complicated with a ton of new rules to learn. It just says, "apply imagination here as needed." If someone's sheepish and just wants to hit people with swords 40 times a game, that is balanced and works well. And the first time they get excited bust out with "I kick him off the stairs!" the rules are there to quickly and simply give them resolution to their idea as well as a pat on the back.

- Marty Lund

A bonus would also serve as a reminder to the DM that the fighter is built around doing all kinds of stunts. That said, I'm still not thrilled with the idea of having to play "mother may I" with the DM while the casters' coolness is automatic.

 

[JasonZZ]

But don't you see, the easy mode character HAS to suck rocks compared to casters! That way new players will be encouraged to develop system mastery so they too will be able to play the cool classes.

Careful, man. you're dangerously close to a Poe.