D&D 5E What IS a level 1 Fighter?

[Salthorae]

There is a difference between ‘labor’ and ‘skilled labor’.

Someone who graduates from high school, can ‘labor’.

Someone who graduates from college, can do ‘skilled labor’.

Level 1 is ‘labor’.

Level 5 is ‘skilled labor’.

Level 1 is still learning, still a student. At apprentice level.

In the world of 5e game system mechanics, a 1st level character can earn wages equivalent to a skilled laborer so long as they are “in the guild” so to speak. A modest one otherwise

Practicing a Profession
You can work between adventures, allowing you to maintain a modest lifestyle without having to pay 1 gp per day (see chapter 5 for more information on lifestyle expenses). This benefit lasts as long you continue to practice your profession.

If you are a member of an organization that can provide gainful employment, such as a temple or a thieves' guild, you earn enough to support a comfortable lifestyle instead.

 

[Yaarel]

In the world of 5e game system mechanics, a 1st level character can earn wages equivalent to a skilled laborer so long as they are “in the guild” so to speak. A modest one otherwise

Yeah, but a high school student can sell drugs, and make more money than a ‘veteran’ 50 year-old scientist.

The point is, ‘skilled’ labor. Not money.

 

[Monayuris]

My 1st level fighter in my current game is a veteran of several battles before he went AWOL after deciding it wasn't worth risking his life for some nobile.

This is a subjective thing that is going to vary from group to group. An apprentice adventurer can be skilled and experienced at whatever their previous endeavors were. Hence we have the Background system.

A 15 year old farm boy and a 42 year old combat veteran can both be 1st level fighters. One is clearly a veteran in terms of their past experiences.

The Fighter class at first level grants abilities that suggest that they are more capable than a typical guard or soldier. This implies experience. The 1st level fighter is, by no means, a special forces operative, but they have the capabilities of one who was tested in battle. I see them as those who have been through it and their Second Wind reflects their resilience to continue on by drawing on their experience.

 

[Undrave]

An Apprentice Adventurer doesn't necessarily means they're unskilled, it just means they don't have the instincts and experience of the adventurer lifestyle. It doesn't say anything about their class ability like a Fighting Style, Second Wind, Action Surge or the Spellcasting of casters.

I am still not certain why you insist on separating things. The world is not black and white.

Fighter -> Good at using weapons
What I 'first' envision the basic build/mechanical component-> ANY character concept that involves using weapons
What I envision as a backstory -> ANY 'flavor' concept that got me to Level1

What is the insistence on the pigeonhole... your character concept has to equal a mechanical component?

The question here is: do you want to play a person who is good at using weapons. Then be a fighter. Create a backstory to determine how you entered the world of fighter-dom.

It is obvious that any 1st level character has 'training' of sort in their chosen field (at least mechanically). They are not experts, they are level 1 after all. It is up to the player to determine how they entered that field. The mechanical rules are: good with weapons. The class is based around this.

Any "first concept" that the player wants is acceptable. Play the bumbling 'green' fighter if they want. Play the 'learned sword play' from a father. Play the 'never picked up a sword in my life'. Play the 'retired drunken general'. The concept should never dictate the mechanics except you keep insisting it so.

I am not talking about what character you want to play. I'm talking about CLASS DESIGN. Class design doesn't occur in a vaccuum. It starts with a concept, an archetype, a characte and then is expended to include more freedom so that players can play more variation on the same theme. Like how the Thief and Assasins of old merged together and balooned into the modern Rogue.

So the question is what fluff inspired the mechanical design of the Fighter class at low level. Are they meant to represent complete newbies, veterans of war who turned to adventuring, or something in between? How much trainng is involved into becoming a level 1 fighter?

 

[Yaarel]

The fact that 5e designers dont even let Fighters get their archetype at level 1, evidences how unschooled they are.

Level 1: high school diploma
Level 5: college degree

... Level 3: associate of arts degree, or associate of applied science degree

Level 3 can do technical labor. Vocational work. ... And make a decent living.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Salthorae]

Yeah, but a high school student can sell drugs, and make more money than a ‘veteran’ 50 year-old scientist.

The point is, ‘skilled’ labor. Not money.

what? How is that even relevant to what I posted?

I just quoted from the PHB stating that PC (of any level) can earn a living practicing a profession and earn the same gold as the “skilled labor” rate in the PHB Services expense section.

What the heck do drug dealers have to do with that?

 

[Yaarel]

If one person is 16 years old, and an other person is 60 years old, and they are both Level 1 Fighters.

Then the 16 year old is precocious. And the 60 year old never graduated from high school until turning 60 and getting a GED diploma.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

The fact that 5e designers dont even let Fighters get their archetype at level 1, evidences how unschooled they are.

Level 1: high school diploma
Level 5: college degree

... Level 3: associate of arts degree, or associate of applied science degree

Level 3 can do technical labor. Vocational work. ... And make a decent living.

Please reread the PHB.

Please reread everybody else's posts and reengage from there.

Please consistently quote who you're responding to.

Please stop double posting.

Please stop yammering off against imaginary opponents, please stop changing the topic from one tangent to another.

I swear, trying to make you see reason is like trying to make a wall with no violin play Paganini's second concerto.

 

[Tony Vargas]

So the question is what fluff inspired the mechanical design of the Fighter class at low level.

I think, more than any other 5e class, the fighter is just an amalgamation of it's prior mechanical incarnations.
The sub-classes were also mainly mechanical. You had the mechanically simplistic fighter, the slightly complicated for the sake of complexity fighter, and the spellcasting fighter.