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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 5533253" data-attributes="member: 87792">And in most of the fiction I can think of the adventuring wizards in combat pick up a sword - see e.g. Gandalf and The Grey Mouser for details.  Asked and Answered - simply not an answer you want.And as I demonstrated if you want to do this, fighter is the wrong class.  A Barbarian has effectively twenty eight more hit points at the same level (ten from the d12 and a further 18 from raging).  He's better with his cutlass and as good with his pistol.  He's just slightly easier to hit in melee.And I've never used firearms in D&D.  Where do you get 2d6 from?  Because that seems high to me for pistols on the high seas.  I'd go for 1d6.Finally, and this is a statistical oddity, if there's time to prepare and recover the Level 9 bard is at least as good at taking a pounding as the fighter assuming equivalent armour.  He starts 20hp down - but song of greatness gives him 2d10 + 2*con mod temp hit points (=17).  And he can do that both before and in the middle of the battle.  Throw in Inspire Courage +2 (for the crew as well) and he's on the same to hit as the fighter and doing the same damage (he lost 3 points of BAB but has +2 competence and +2 morale bonusses to hit, cancelling out the weapon focus, and +2 damage cancelling out weapon specialisation - the numbers match).  Give him the Song of the Heart option from Eberron and the temp hit points go up to 3d10+3*con (25 each time - with the second use he's more hp than our barbarian) and he's hitting better than the fighter. You mean level 6.The problem with claiming this is that you are not building to a character concept.  You are building to a character and metagame concept.  The only reason Blackbeard even wants to be a fighter is because that is the metagame concept you have decided to shoe-horn him into.And you spent three of those feats on shoring up the fighter's skills in a way the other classes wouldn't need.  And two on weapon focus and weapon specialisation - which other classes have abilities that counterbalance.  If you think that rage is more than a match for focus + specialisation (I do) then the fighter has effectively no bonus feats over the barbarian.  Zip.  Nada.  Bupkiss.Only because you went in deciding to do whatever you could to make him so.The names of those two feats?  Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialisation.  In exchange the barbarian has a higher level of damage per round (but requires more healing) from raging.  Two feats which in practice still leave him behind. Oh!  You mean a barbarian?  Or even a bard?  All your fighter bonus feats have been eaten up by a mix of weapon focus, weapon specialisation, and covering for the fighter's appaling skills.  The rest of the feats you mention are covered entirely by the default feats anyone gets.Doh!Why?  Your only answer here appears to be "Because I say so and because that's what a fighter ought to be."A good reason he isn't.It's a lot more about being a skill monkey than it is about being a combat specialist.  Running down unarmed merchant ships.  Running away from armed naval ships.  Knowing the shipping patterns, the waterways, and what good targets look like.  If a pirate ship is ever involved in a fair fight it means they've <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />ed up (or gained a dose of idealism).  This is all rogue and skill monkey stuff not fighter stuff.It gives them Profession, Survival, and much less of a penalty for cross classing skills.  Oh, and actually makes them more competent with weapons and armour.  We're starting to get somewhere.So?  I've already said this.  But we are talking about 3.X.Depending on concept, 3.X rogues and barbarians are almost invariably better pirates.  So are rangers.  So, for that matter, are bards.</blockquote>

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