D&D General Payn's Ponderings: The Fighter's identity; or, what's left after the combat pillar?

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I was in the same exact situation last year on the forums. It just seemed to be what I remembered and fit my idea of the "fighter", but I was surprised to discover almost the opposite was true. And the only thing I've been smoking is the news, so...

Worth noting the fighter costs more exp to level than a wizard after a while. When the fighter hits 10th the wizard is close to 12th.

 

[ART!]

I might have mentioned this upthread, but fughters should be good at tactics. If adding skills is off the table, make it a class feature I guess, but it should be a skill that anyone can learn - but fighters should have a leg-up with that skill, or some feature that plays off that skill.

 

[Redwizard007]

I'd really like to see both Champion and Battlemaster rolled into the core class and have some subclasses with real substance. Honestly, I think ranger, barbarian and paladin should be subclasses of fighter, but that would probably cause a riot.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Some ideas for fighters:
-fighters get two backgrounds
-when performing a check in relation to their background are considered to have proficiency in the skill if they do not already have it, ie: a fighter with the noble background is considered to have religion when performing certian coming-of-age ceremonies or insight on the motives of the other participants at a high class ball, a sailor has acrobatics to climb the rigging of a ship in the middle of a battle or insight?perception? (proficiency on something or other) when searching for information at the docks, the urchin fighter has proficiency to pick a pocket with slight of hand or blending into the crowd with stealth
-the fighter can spend the duration of a rest period to train another character to be proficient in any skill or proficiency they possess themselves, a short rest they are proficient for 8 hours, a long rest 24 hours
-the fighter has a climb (and swim?) speed of half their standard movement speed
-when taking a feat that does not already provide an ASI the fighter can add +1 to a relevant ability score to the feat they’re taking

Combat focused things
-the size/number of damage die a weapon deals is increased by 1 when used by the fighter (greater die size increase at later levels)
-when under half health (and conscious) the fighter recovered 1d4 health at the start of their turn in battle (1d6 at higher levels)
-the fighter can treat every weapon as if it has the Thrown trait

 

[CreamCloud0]

Necroing this cause i think it's an interesting conversation

something i see i didn't mention before is returning the concept of Proxy Military Rank, and/or leaning more into the real world history of knights being lesser nobles, it might go against the classic concept of fighter characters starting as the iconic 'farmboy with scavenged blade' a perhaps? but play up the renown and influence these warriors have, especially as they level up.

 

[Stormonu]

Nice thread to bring back.

I like the idea floated early to give the fighter a path sort of like the Warlock's pact. Having followers would be one path (Leadership?). I think if we could come up with 3-4 and a few feats or abilities tied to them, we'd have a good system.

1) Leader - gains followers who can perform research, craft gear or recruit help
2) Delver - hands-on, gains extra skills and/or tool proficiencies to do things themselves
3) Hunter - better alertness and knowledge about opponents habits and lifestyle (not direct combat bonuses)
4) Militant - mix of followers and hands-on skills

 

[Clint_L]

Necroing this cause i think it's an interesting conversation

something i see i didn't mention before is returning the concept of Proxy Military Rank, and/or leaning more into the real world history of knights being lesser nobles, it might go against the classic concept of fighter characters starting as the iconic 'farmboy with scavenged blade' a perhaps? but play up the renown and influence these warriors have, especially as they level up.

My concern with that idea is that it steps on the toes of allowing each table to generate the world they like. For example, that idea does not fit at all with the world my table plays in, where few cultures are quasi-medieval.

 

[CreamCloud0]

My concern with that idea is that it steps on the toes of allowing each table to generate the world they like. For example, that idea does not fit at all with the world my table plays in, where few cultures are quasi-medieval.

It’s just an idea it could be tweaked, But you don’t need a quasi-medieval setting for just ‘word of your name and deeds have travelled far and now people take your commands with more weight’

Also I think alot of the classes kind of come with world implications, we just don’t notice them as much because they’re traditional and familiar rather than being added like with the fighter here, or they just get tweaked for the setting without a second thought.

 

[payn]

It’s just an idea it could be tweaked, But you don’t need a quasi-medieval setting for just ‘word of your name and deeds have travelled far and now people take your commands with more weight’

Also I think alot of the classes kind of come with world implications, we just don’t notice them as much because they’re traditional and familiar rather than being added like with the fighter here, or they just get tweaked for the setting without a second thought.

Yeap, homebrewers have had to reflavor for ages. I think the key is that there is a list of possible fighter backgrounds instead of every fighter being a noble knight.

1) Leader - gains followers who can perform research, craft gear or recruit help
2) Delver - hands-on, gains extra skills and/or tool proficiencies to do things themselves
3) Hunter - better alertness and knowledge about opponents habits and lifestyle (not direct combat bonuses)
4) Militant - mix of followers and hands-on skills

Like this list by @Stormonu (though id skip the hunter as thats too close to ranger)

 

[Xeviat]

Great post! I've long thought about the same thing. One thing I started leaning on in my thoughts is that the Fighter is the regular person. No, I don't mean they should only get mundane stuff, I mean that Fighters represent the every day NPC. They're the one people can see themselves in the most. The other classes have social baggage (rogues are thieves, paladins are high and mighty, barbarians are wild and uncivilized, rangers are one of them there rangers...).

This draws up on old Fighter tradition of becoming knights and lords.

The other think I've been thinking about is tweaking the fighter subclasses to mean something other than mechanics. Just with the PHB subclasses:

The Champion should be the people's champion. Gladiators, war heroes, beloved nobles, infamous villains. The Champion should be loved or feared, but above all be respected. They should have some charisma abilities.

The Battle Master is the artist. The Way of the Warrior is an art (hence, the tool proficiency, like samurai who practiced calligraphy). They should be insightful, collected, wise, and should have wisdom abilities and abilities of perception and insight of people and other warriors.

The Eldritch Knight... Well they're intelligence focused but I'm not sure where they should be in the world. They could have come from a tradition of guardians of wizard academys, or stem from the elven tradition of blade magic. Leaning into their bonded weapon, they can be the warrior that does magical things with their blade, and could get unique spells like cutting so hard a wave of force goes out.

The Psychic Warrior is in a similar situation. They could be jedi. They could see their warrior training as a religion, or they can just be the warrior that hones their body and mind to supernatural levels. I propose changing their name to "Immortal", but that's just because I find Psychic Warrior to be uninspired.