Re: chances of encountering creatures
Nonsense. Fighter types typically are focussed on a single weapon. That's the only unique (well, unique excluding Templars) thing about fighters: they get weapon specialization. Fighters are also dependant upon weapons with a good enhancement bonus for hitting and doing damage (which is about all they can do). If a fighter now needs five weapons to be effective rather than three, he is going to be less effective. Instead of having one +2 weapon, he'll need 5 +1 weapons (and the math just gets worse from there--5 +2 weapons or 1 +5 weapon; 5 +3 weapons or 1 +7 weapon etc.).
Instead of always being able to use the bonus from weapon specialization, he'll be able to use it less often. (Because he's unlikely to have all 5 weapons of the same kind since there's going to be DR/Bludgeon and DR/pierce etc. too). So fighters will generally hit less often and do less damage first because they will be encouraged to have lower enhancement bonusses on their weapons and will often be fighting with weapons that have less enhancement than their primary weapon. Second, because they will often be unable to use weapon specific feats like weapon focus, weapon specialization, improved critical, etc.
Finally, the reduction in DR values is pretty equivalent in effect across the board. The only people who ignored it were wizards and druids. Fighters, are among the least affected by the current DR levels. Fighters get almost as much damage out of weapon specialization as barbarians get from rage. And almost all fighters have Power Attack. Rangers typically use ranged weapons or dual wield--the worst weapon combos for dealing with DR. Rogues typically do as much damage as fighters but are hosed if any amount of DR is on a construct or undead. Clerics can do great things with Divine Favor and Divine Power but are worse off than fighters if they don't have power attack (and many don't--it's not as if they have many feats to play with).
So, while the reduced DR values will be helpful for fighters, they won't be any more helpful than they will be for other classes. And the necessity to carry multiple weapons will actually hurt fighters more than any other class since fighters are the characters most likely to specialize in a particular weapon.
The changes actually seem to have increased the desirability of GMW rather than decreased it (after all, if you're keeping a half dozen weapons, you won't be able to afford good enhancement bonusses for all of them).
Andion Isurand said:
Obviously, this new system actually favors the fighter types... who can't always cast Greater Magic Weapon. The common folk can now band together to forge new weapons using special materials to fight off nasty monsterous threats... and relying on their own wits.
I can see where might hurt any class centered around using a single kind of weapon... except perhaps a bunch of throwing daggers, or any ammunition weapon.
Now you can no longer rely on doing the same thing over & over & over & over again ( like finding someone to cast greater magic weapon, or sticking to your quintissential +5 weapon )