Me too! What's a thing you have in mind for OneD&D?
I'm trying to think in terms of thematics. I'm asking myself, "what is the heart of each melee class?"
Barbarians: rage
Paladins: mission
Rogues: stealth
Monks: ki
Fighters: ...hmmm. Experience? Knowledge?
This made me realize that one thing fighters possibly lack is a clear enough class concept. When you look at the class description, it is pretty broad ("well-rounded specialists"). But the core idea that is conveyed is of the student of battle, in some form or another. Like the tough sergeant, or grizzled veteran. What those archetypes have in common is knowledge of how to fight. Tactics, really.
Which led me to reflect that the D&D fighter is too heavily built around strength (or dexterity, for a few builds). Intelligence should also play a role in how fighters are designed to play. Could we come up with a new baseline fighter ability that allows them to combine strength and intelligence in some way? Would that make them too MAD?
Interestingly enough, I was having a discussion with a friend this afternoon, and pulled out my 5e DMG to look at optional rules.
Somewhere around page 268, there’s a section about using proficiency bonus with abilities and getting rid of skills. Where it got interesting to me is where it listed Str, Dex, or Wis as allowed choices for the Fighter.
Now, let’s take that, that Fighter has Str, Dex, or Wis as its main abilities, and pull it back into class design. What do we get? We get a powerful fighter (Str), a nimble fighter (Dex), and… a canny fighter (Wis).
Take it slightly further, and allow a Fighter to pick as main attack ability Str, Dex, and Wis, and suddenly you have more variety in the Fighter at baseline, and you can have someone who’s not as strong as other Fighters or Barbarians (I’ve had a problem the last 23 years about how you’re encouraged to max out your attack stat, which removes distinctions in characters), but is far more clever, and is a perfect fit for subclasses like the Battle Master.
Thinking of it that way actually made me think that, yeah, if my DM is good with letting me make a canny fighter, one of my major hang-ups with 5e would be resolved.
As an aside, I still think all Fighters should get some maneuvers, so that could be their schtick, along with the above.