D&D 5E Fighters are amazing!

[sidonunspa]

I'm saying you don't need feats in order to do other actions besides "just attack" like you claimed. It seems now you've shifted your argument into one where you can't do those things without having bonus actions or reactions, and that's equally flawed. Actions are actions, whether they are just "actions" in AD&D, or "Actions, bonus actions, reactions" in 5e. Every round you can do X amount of certain things.

I've been playing AD&D continuously since 1981 (skipped 3e and 4e), and I've never seen a game or played with anyone who felt like they couldn't attempt to shove, trip, whatever just because there wasn't a rule for it.

I myself like fighters, and I can tell you I've done a lot more than just attack. Some examples;

"I want to leap on the table and jump off, tackling the bugbear." DM: "Ok, make a Dex check, then an attack roll."
"I want to trip that orc coming by me so it can't get to the MU." DM: "Ok, make an attack roll."
"I want to dive behind that pillar to avoid the dragon's breath, hoping to gain a bonus above what my normal ST is." DM: "Ok, that will take your action, but I'll give you a +4 bonus to your ST."
"I want to use my shield to knock the orc down." DM: "Ok, that will take one of your attacks. Make an attack roll, and then we'll compare strength checks. You get a +1 bonus for every point you made your attack roll by."

and you missed my main point... other classes (almost all of them) have built in ways to use bonus actions and reactions... fighters get that ability through feats

also the way the game works.. some actions are simply not worth it unless you have a feat.. getting up and attacking is such not a big deal any more that pushing someone is "mhu" compared to using your action to attack

(we learned this last night in my 3e game when the paladin used his only attack to knock someone down in the hopes of stopping him from rigging a bell.. on the guards next action he got up moved 15 feet.. and rang the bell.. yes the paladin got an opportunity attack as the guard moved out of his threat range, and he hit.. but did not kill him.. we later found out he was at 5hp.. if the paladin simply attacked and attacked as the guard ran out of his reach... no alarm would have been rung)

BTW, my description above.. I only used 2 feats.. one that let me use 2 non-light weapons (spear and sword) and the other to get the super bonus on damage with my throw.. everything else was part of the rules)

and as an aside.. you are a VERY VERY VERY RARE GM... with you fighters w/o feats would do ok.. but someone who runs the game "by the book" would gut fighters buy not allowing feats

 

[sidonunspa]

and one more thing.. my 1e GM is an old school GM who ran 1e for years.. he is 100% by the book... its not in the rules.. its not allowed..

trust me if you were in Miami I would trip over myself to get into your game :/

 

[Sacrosanct]

and as an aside.. you are a VERY VERY VERY RARE GM... with you fighters w/o feats would do ok.. but someone who runs the game "buy the book" would gut fighters buy not allowing feats

I don't think I'm rare at all. Over 30+ years and hundreds of gamers, and my experiences seem pretty normal across the board.

 

[Imaro]

Noted, and credit to you for acknowledging it I say that because my experiences are different. The vast majority of the time the DM just came up with what sounded reasonable and we went with it. As noted, 99% of the time this was pretty much just an attack roll or ability check, so there was a pretty solid level of consistency there.

This is pretty much how I've always run games...

 

[sidonunspa]

What do you think your save was in the first place? You did something to protect yourself and avoided the brunt of the damage. Successfully saving is what determined if you got your shield up in time or not.

Then what was the point in even doing it again? or asking to spend my reaction to do so? yep.. not point "just roll your save" just like "just attack"

The point is - you use what the player wants to achieve and fit the best mechanics you can adapt to those plans. It's the player's imagination that enables the PC to attempt to do what he's doing - not the rules. The rules are a managing structure, not an enabling one.

again you missed one of my points.. every other class has a way to use bonus and reactions... (maybe with the acceptation of barbarian but I'm not sure) the way fighters get that is though feats.. the paladin smites with bonus actions, the rouge cunning action, spells like healing word.. and so on.

 

[sidonunspa]

I don't think I'm rare at all. Over 30+ years and hundreds of gamers, and my experiences seem pretty normal across the board.

Trust me.. your kind is rare.... I own part of an RPG company (paradigm concepts) and played with so many different people its nuts (including an amazing opportunity I had to do a book signing in England) and while I have played with GMs as flexible as you are... I would say your a 1 out of 10 type GM.... most GMs are "RAW"

In my games I'm not.. I use inspiration points more like fate dice and I let people do off the wall stuff.. but out of all the DMs I know in Miami I can pick one other GM like me... and that's about it

(and yes I allow feats and muti-classing... and I use cinematic combat)

 

[sidonunspa]

EDIT: Ninja'd!!


But he's not just knocking them prone. He's knocking them prone and grappling, which means its speed becomes 0. You cannot stand from prone if your speed is 0, so it cannot stand up until it escapes the grapple.

Unless you're sure you can kill it in this round instead, it will often be worthwhile to pin a foe in this way, granting advantage to all melee attacks against that enemy.

I can see this if you are just fighting 1 guy.... but you have to drop what's in your hand.. and seeing how evil some GMs are (the minion grabs your longsword +1 and yells "I'm rich" and runs off) I rather not

 

[Joe Liker]

I can see this if you are just fighting 1 guy.... but you have to drop what's in your hand.. and seeing how evil some GMs are (the minion grabs your longsword +1 and yells "I'm rich" and runs off) I rather not

This is where versatile weapons come in handy. You only need one hand free to grapple.

 

[sidonunspa]

This is where versatile weapons come in handy. You only need one hand free to grapple.

Unless you also use a shield....

 

[Sacrosanct]

Trust me.. your kind is rare.... I own part of an RPG company (paradigm concepts) and played with so many different people its nuts (including an amazing opportunity I had to do a book signing in England) and while I have played with GMs as flexible as you are... I would say your a 1 out of 10 type GM.... most GMs are "RAW"

In my games I'm not.. I use inspiration points more like fate dice and I let people do off the wall stuff.. but out of all the DMs I know in Miami I can pick one other GM like me... and that's about it

(and yes I allow feats and muti-classing... and I use cinematic combat)

If your DM prohibits these ad hoc actions because he's "RAW", then I'd suggest he read the very first page of the 1e DMG under the introduction. Because by not allowing things like our examples above, he (or she) is very much NOT following RAW.