A critique and review of the Fighter class

[GMforPowergamers]

I guess I don’t understand the point of this exercise. It doesn’t sound like she likes the feel of the 5e fighter, and another class would suit her better, so why try to persuade her otherwise?

Because someone asked me to give a detailed example of someone that wants to play a fighter but finds the mechanics don’t fit. @tetrasodium asked for details there they are.
Also the stat array is 17 15 15 13 11 11

I have to agree with Bill, I don't know Tetrasodium but I can't imagine they missed the whole "when all else is equal the fighter has less options then half 1/3 and full casters" and that sounds to me to be your friends problem.

 

[tetrasodium]

okay let try.

The campaign we are playing right now is going to end soonish, maybe about a month. So we are pitching and preping a new level 3 game.

My longest friend from middle school has played through 2nd 3rd 4th and now 5th with me and her favorite concept is the fighter. In 3e and 5e she fell away from it and that was a big reason D&D lost us for a bit. In 4e she exclusively played fighters and warlords.

As a group we try to run 1 out of 6 as a no full caster game so she and the rest of us can get some martial love in but when casters are in the table it is hard not to be one.

Now the game as pitched so far is based loosely on Star Wars and dune but no Star ships this is pure fantasy. We know little other then we are starting in a giant city on the edge of the worlds largest desert.

We will have better then average stats as a custom array I will find it if this goes anywhere. We will start at 3rd level and get 1 common and 1 uncommon magic item that we can pick

She will play a melee class no question. Her go to right now is bard and warlock but she has some cleric and paliden too. She would LOVE for me to come to her with an idea where she can do fighter instead of warlock (hex blade) so let’s try.

She is a bubbly talkitove woman who for her job needs to be what I call “on” at work. So depending on how hard of a day or if she worked at all she may be our best face with or without skills or just want to sit there and take “down” time from being the talker.

She is the smartest of this group when it comes to figuring out puzzles and when it comes to tactics.

Her and I both enjoy choices both at CC and at the table so the more the better.

So no matter what class her background her skills her tool sets will all come into play and I would say 2/3 or more of the time she will RP her heart out.

But this game will start at 3rd and I doubt it will run for 10 levels but it might it for sure will not go to 17th though.

So she can play a hex blade with spells and invocation and have the same skills and loose out on second wind action surge and 1hp on average. What can we pitch to her to make the fighter seem better?

I know already she will ask if she can refluff the spells and magic to be martial abilities. But let’s assume the DM will say no to that.

I could show you an image created from over 3.5 petabytes worth of data displaying an object over 6.5 billion times the mass of our sun keeping a large mass of matter bound in orbit that allows us to view stars behind it. That does not tell you what the subject of the picture is any more than your post focuses on the "problem." I described this picture of a black hole, but we know what a black hole is and would have been better off just saying that it's a picture of a black hole than it would be expecting the reader to extrapolate what kind of object meets the criteria described.

I'm guessing you quoted me on the "I want to fix this" but I'm not sure what you want to fix. The vast majority of your post is detailing various reasons why reasons why the problem can't possibly be your friend but in the process the only part you described as a problem was that "it's hard not to be one[a caster?]"... If you want to play a caster is the problem there are a few options to solve that "problem" that amount to different classes you could play.

in case it's unclear, I agree with the last couple people who pointed out that it sounds like she wants to play a caster & should do so. If she doesn't want to be a full caster but wants to feel casterish, Artificer has several good options likebattlesmith & artillerist.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Wanna buff the Fighter? Increase their stay cap by one every five fighter levels and give them five extra ASI between levels 10 - 20.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I don’t know what to say about “I want to play a fighter, and I want to play 5e, I just don’t want to play a 5e fighter.” Sounds like a sucky position to be in.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Wanna buff the Fighter? Increase their stay cap by one every five fighter levels and give them five extra ASI between levels 10 - 20.

While it's certainly a buff, it doesn't help the problem of the fighters being boring by adding more of the most boring part of the game (ASI).

Maybe if there were enough and varied feats to replace them with, but there are not.

 

[HammerMan]

I'm guessing you quoted me on the "I want to fix this" but I'm not sure what you want to fix.

Find a way to make the fighter as interesting as a bard or hex blade. Even if it means loosing power to do so.

The vast majority of your post is detailing various reasons why reasons why the problem can't possibly be your friend

As a great deal of YOUR thread was answers that do not work.

but in the process the only part you described as a problem was that "it's hard not to be one[a caster?]"... If you want to play a caster is the problem there are a few options to solve that "problem" that amount to different classes you could play.

The problem is when put side by side a melee caster and a fighter the fighter always ends up less customizable and less versatile.

in case it's unclear, I agree with the last couple people who pointed out that it sounds like she wants to play a caster & should do so.

Again what she WANTS is to play a 4 e fighter or warlord. What she would settle for is a 3e war blade or sword sage.

If she doesn't want to be a full caster but wants to feel casterish, Artificer has several good options likebattlesmith & artillerist.

I can’t remember her ever doing an artificer. I may suggest the battlesmith or armored. But still not helping with the “ants to not use spells and magic” angle.

 

[HammerMan]

I don’t know what to say about “I want to play a fighter, and I want to play 5e, I just don’t want to play a 5e fighter.” Sounds like a sucky position to be in.

Yup it is.

We have been waiting for the “tactical “ options that would make it
More like 4e for a while.

 

[Mistwell]

Really, 5e is such a lightweight system that all class abilities are pretty basic. Whatever your favorite class is, you are going to think it isn’t as cool, as epic, as it could be.

I think most of the classes are as cool and epic as I want them to be.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Again what she WANTS is to play a 4 e fighter or warlord.

That’s an option.

 

[tetrasodium]

This is starting to feel like watching someone at a nearby table complain about their drink because the steak they ordered is not fish.