Fighter design goals . L&L April 30th

[Gundark]

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Fighter Design Goals)

Discuss

 

[Raith5]

Design Goal 6: "A High-Level Fighter and a High-Level Wizard Are Equal". This is all I needed to hear!

 

[patrick y.]

2. The Fighter Draws on Training and Experience, not Magic

Fighters master mundane tactics and weapon skills. They don’t need spells or some sort of external source of magical power to succeed. Fighters do stuff that is within the limits of mundane mortals. They don’t reverse gravity or shoot beams of energy.

3. The Fighter Exists in a World of Myth, Fantasy, and Legend

Keeping in mind the point above, we also have to remember that while the fighter draws on mundane talent, we’re talking about mundane within the context of a mythical, fantasy setting. Beowulf slew Grendel by tearing his arm off. He later killed a dragon almost singlehandedly. Roland slew or gravely injured four hundred Saracens in a single battle. In the world of D&D, a skilled fighter is a one-person army. You can expect fighters to do fairly mundane things with weapons, but with such overwhelming skill that none can hope to stand against them.

This bit right here is the absolute key point they've got to keep in mind. Mundane is fine, so long as it's recognized that mundane in a world of dragons, giants, demi-gods, and demons is not the same as mundane here on planet reality. From mid levels on up, a fighter needs to be a ridiculous killing machine that makes Rambo feel like an underachiever, and leaves Captain American wondering if he's been slacking at the gym.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I do hope they also keep the fighter relatively simple to play, or at least potentially so. There need to be some classes that a beginning can pick up in a matter of minutes, and fighters A) have always been, and B) are thematically best suited, to such a thing.

Not saying they can't have plenty of options, like martial maneuvers. Just that they shouldn't require them.

 

[keterys]

It's an interesting gauntlet to throw out that you want one class to be the best in combat.

Especially when history has largely shown it to be one of the worst, up until now.

Perhaps the caveats will help - perhaps the rogue does more damage, while darting around the battlefield, but is much less tough. Perhaps he is comparing the fighter to the wizard or cleric over the long haul, rather than in the first several rounds of each day.

Perhaps it'll be an interesting ride to find out as the playtest unwinds. Very, very slowly.

 

[BobTheNob]

1. The Fighter Is the Best at . . . Fighting!
Thank You!!!!

 

[am181d]

I wonder:

There's an implication that fighters at high levels will be able to take on hordes of enemies. That suggests a whirlwind attack type option. Maybe make a single attack roll against all adjacent opponents?

Also, when talking about wizards, Mearls mentioned that they can't cast their biggest spells every round. I imagine that he's PROBABLY just talking about running out of spells, but I wonder if there might be a recharge rule in effect for higher level spells. It'd be an interesting option if you could only cast your most powerful spells once every few rounds. That would certainly help to keep damage outputs more in step...

 

[MortalPlague]

There was also a bit of interesting playtest information at the top... Only pregens out the gate? I was hoping to dive into 5th Edition playtesting by running a two-day pirates game with my friends. Now it looks like I'll need to hold off until the character creation guidelines are up.

Still, I'm absolutely stoked to try out the new rules.

On the topic at hand, I'm not seeing anything I dislike about the fighter. I'll echo the sentiment that some others have raised; I hope they give him his fair share of skills. Either that, or let background and theme handle skills.

 

[RangerWickett]

I express the following concern simply because previous editions have never made it an option with the core rules.

I like heavily armored, tough fighters, but I also want lightly armored agile fighters, and even unarmored magically-enhanced fighters, to be viable options from the start of the game. If you're in a desert or at sea, you should still be able to hold your own as a fighter without needing heavy armor. If you want to make a character who uses a little magic to enhance your combat abilities, you should be able to give a heavily armored fighter a solid challenge.

They haven't said anything explicitly to imply you can't do that, but I've yet to see it work in earlier editions.

 

[LightPhoenix]

There was also a bit of interesting playtest information at the top... Only pregens out the gate? I was hoping to dive into 5th Edition playtesting by running a two-day pirates game with my friends. Now it looks like I'll need to hold off until the character creation guidelines are up.

I was hoping for the same thing, but in the end I think it's a very good sign that this isn't even a beta test, but more like an "alpha test." It signals to me that our opinion and input does matter, and that the development time isn't so short that the playtest is a formality.