D&D (2024) Do you see Fighter players at your own table?

[MockingBird]

I don't get why you have to shut off your brain to play a non magical fighter?

 

[Emberashh]

I don't get why you have to shut off your brain to play a non magical fighter?

Because Improvise Action doesn't count because reasons, and thats where much of the thought can go with the like, 1 or two nonmagical martials that are actually possible to make in the game.

 

[ART!]

Go 2e and give back only getting 2 3 or 4 weapons you are prof in

Agreed. 5e made it so easy for anyone with the attributes to use a weapon to be able to treat all of them as proficient. That winds up stripping the gm of their ability to make some magic weapons more fitting for a particular PC because they are all using great sword or rapier with anything else trash.

The return of exotic weapons and stripped down class proficiency for weapons would go a long way to improving that.

Agreed. I get that 5E was trying to streamline things, but the way weapon proficiencies are handled just feels too broad. Characters should start with fewer, varying by background, and it should be easier (or clearer about how) to get proficient with a new weapon. This also opens some design space, for weapons that magically grant proficiency to them once you're attuned, class features or spells that grant temporary proficiency, etc.

I'm not saying you can't use your brain with the nonmagical pure fighter. I'm saying it is designed to be run without thinking. Therefore its core will not have mechanics that reflect technical or intelligent nonmagical warriors of legend, myth, and story.

this is why I think we need a new extra class for those of us that want to play that concept without having to play "brain dead"

Also agreed. This begs a question: are there fantasy rpgs out there that have more spell-less martial classes/options as well as the spell-slingers?

 

[Willie the Duck]

Also agreed. This begs a question: are there fantasy rpgs out there that have more spell-less martial classes/options as well as the spell-slingers?

Hero System, SWADE, and GURPs do good jobs of it -- Hero in particular everything is built out of the same stuff and anything you can credibly explain as not-magic can be built as not-magical just as easily as magical.

Runequest/Mythras/BRP it will depend on the magic system being used but regardless being good with weapons is far-and-away the way to win in combat and basic stats and mundane skills count for a lot.

 

[nevin]

Since some forumers mention that they generally dont see Fighter players at their own tables, I am curious.

Do you see Fighters at your table?

The players need to be experienced players, rather than newbies using an "easy class" to learn how to play.

The Fighter character needs to be a serious character that reaches level 8 or higher.

The Fighter character must be strictly nonmagical. No Eldritch Knight. No Psi Warrior. No magical feats including multiclass feats. Etc.

The Fighter character must be single-class Fighter. No multiclassing.

fighter's barbarians. followed byclerics paladins and rogues in that order, make up the majority of all tables I have played at or run. I've been in many games without casters none without melee.

 

[Minigiant]

I don't get why you have to shut off your brain to play a non magical fighter?

You don't have to anything with the fighter.

The nonmagical full class fighter is narratively designed to replicate almost every warrior in fantasy and is mechanically designed to be playable with your brain shut off.

That's why it is both popular but complained about

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

I'm saying the lead mechanic designer of 5e Jeremy Crawford said that he wants the core of the nonmagical pure fighter to be simple enough for raw new players and for experienced player who are tired and want to shut off their brain.

I'm not saying you can't use your brain with the nonmagical pure fighter. I'm saying it is designed to be run without thinking. Therefore its core will not have mechanics that reflect technical or intelligent nonmagical warriors of legend, myth, and story.

Then why didn’t you say that?

 

[James Gasik]

i might not make it so only the fighter could use martial weapons but certainly the only class who can use them all as standard, i would highly restrict the availabilty of martial weapon proficiencies amongst the other melee classes each probably getting around 3 or so focused much more thematically, say a warhammer, maul and morningstar for cleric, classes might not even get full access to all simple weapons if something's too outside their theme!

heavy armour feels much more like a side-grade to medium than an outright increase so i'd probably rejig medium and heavy armour classifications grouping the low and high teir armour of each category so there's some STR-requirement and DEX-bonus armour in each

Honestly I don't really see the current martial weapons as being so great that locking their access to certain classes provides a clear enough advantage; the proposed mastery system might be better, or some other built-in upgrade, to make using weapons better for Fighters.

But it has to be something that you can't just dip a few levels of Fighter to get. Perhaps something like the old weapon specialization? Or just give Fighters the ability to add their proficiency bonus to the damage of weapons they wield?

 

[James Gasik]

Because Improvise Action doesn't count because reasons, and thats where much of the thought can go with the like, 1 or two nonmagical martials that are actually possible to make in the game.

Improvise action doesn't count because it's unreliable. There's not even a basic framework for what it can or cannot do, as it's entirely up to each individual DM. At least with a spell or other bespoke ability, you can look at something the developers made as a starting point and say, "ah, by spending resource X, you can be allowed to have Y effect, and the people who make this game think this is reasonable" (whether you agree with this premise or not). For Improvise Action, you literally have to create ad hoc mechanics out of whole cloth, and how effective that is (or is not) is a completely unknown variable from table to table.

Thus it is truly a Schrodinger's option. Improvise action could be the answer to a given problem. Or it might not be. You wont know if it's possible, or how difficult it will be until you ask your DM.

 

[Scott Christian]

I have seen it in almost every campaign I've run or someone else has run. Sometimes they go to twenty, other times to 9 and others to 5. But they are always around, and they seem to do just as well as the other classes in taking the limelight, creating interesting stories, and pulling wow factors in combat.