From R&C: Fighters & Armor

[Sitara]

Wow, fighter focus on 2-H, SnB, TWf, etc.

Now, where have I seen this before...*flips through AdnD 2E Proficiency list, AdnD Player Options Proficiency lists*

 

[Jack99]

Armor Categories (in order):
Heavy Clothes
Leather
Hide
Chain
Scale
Plate
(each category has neat options, like feyweave, razorscale, etc.)

Are you sure you got this ^^ right? It's true that it is the different armors mentioned in R&C, but I don't recall them stating, that they all belong to different armor categories. Least that's not how I understood the text.

Cheers

 

[Klaus]

Appears that fighters are meant to melee. If you want to focus on a ranged weapon, I think you're supposed to choose a different class. Makes sense--'ranged' and 'defender' don't really go together.

Chose a fighting style: either sword-and-board for a defensive build or 2H weapon for offensive.
Mentions "it would be possible to include support for the dancer fencer or the two-weapon fighter."
I take this to mean that these won't be directly supported in the 1st PHB.

This I SOOOOO not like.

If I want a character who started as a bowman or crossbowman in the local City Watch, I'll have to choose between ranger or rogue? Not cool.

 

[ArmoredSaint]

Yeah, anything else you can tell us about armour in 4th edition would be welcome...

 

[Sitara]

This I SOOOOO not like.

If I want a character who started as a bowman or crossbowman in the local City Watch, I'll have to choose between ranger or rogue? Not cool.

No.

You can give a wizard a bow if you like, or an NPC class. But its the ranger who will gt the uber powers, maneuvers and stances for the bow, making him the best at it.

 

[Rechan]

This I SOOOOO not like.

If I want a character who started as a bowman or crossbowman in the local City Watch, I'll have to choose between ranger or rogue? Not cool.

Fighter + Ranger Training Feat.

Bam.

 

[Shortman McLeod]

Oh, good. I would hate for a poor, inexperienced character to have to start with chainmail and a decent sword. A 1st level PC shouldn't be leaving the house without feyrazor-woven mithradamantite astral battleplate and a talking, hellforged sword the size of a Boeing 747.

All the better to perform a Dragon's Tail Cut.

 

[Reynard]

Re: archers and woodsmen being the same class.

Part of giving every class something it can do out of combat is picking exactly what it is you want that class to do out of combat.

Why should the game pick that, except as a method to artificially inject some sort of "balance"? The problem with the 3E fighter wasn't that the fighter player didn't have different options from a combat perspective, it is that there wasn't a lot of options for designing a charactrer's out-of-combat role. Instead of forcing one on the fighter player, why not simply expand everyone's out of combat role potential (to use 3E terminology, allow every class a couple extra skill points and create a background mechanic similar to that in d20M to allow every play to define a couple extra class skills?) Instead, we get the opposite: rigid roles in and out of combat.

 

[Lackhand]

I don't believe we have much on who does what out of combat.

If we do, point me at it -- I guess I missed the scoop.

Doesn't mean it's not there, just doesn't mean it's inexorably pegged to classes. Especially with easy multiclassing, I'm not sure that's a problem; classes are archetypal, and when I think "archer" I really do think woodsman.

You want an archer who isn't, pick other talents (which is, I suppose, my assumption, but I don't feel it's a leap); you want someone else who is, cherrypick ranger talents.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

The special material armor is upgrades, not out the gate. Point is, there need to be interesting robes, leather, etc, for higher-level characters beyond leather +1

This makes a lot of sense. It always annoyed me a bit that 3e equipment went straight from "masterwork" to "magic," and the "magic" stuff was pretty much mandatory past level 3 or so for game-balance reasons. "Feyweave robes" are cooler-sounding that "Robes of deflection +2."