I was hinting that the fighter class features are what makes him best at fighting with weapons (which I think is what the OP is "missing").
Actually what I was baffled by was all classes using the same attack bonus chart. I thought there was some class based bonus or a different chart I had overlooked that would define the difference between a trained fighter's attack bonus vs an untrained mage's attack bonus.
As it turns out at 1st level, aside from hit points, if their ability scores are identical, and they are both using daggers, and wearing no armor, they are the same in melee combat. That is what struck me as odd.