Here is a good question for Next: Why should we keep the Fighter class?
It sounds radical on the face of it, but really, it is the logical thing to do.
Let's look at all the Fighter-like classes we already have. Barbarians: they fight by raging and taking inhuman amounts of damage. Paladins: they fight by marshaling their innate virtue and holy power to smite bad guys. Rangers: they fight using their unique combat styles, drawing on their wilderness skills. Monk: they fight using their fists, their ki, and their supernatural self-perfection.
But they aren't the only Fighter-like classes. Rogues: they fight by sneaking around behind the enemy and stabbing them where it hurts most. Wizards: they fight with a wide variety of spells drawn from their knowledge of arcana. Clerics: they fight with a mix of martial skill and divinely-granted magics. Druids: they fight using the power of nature and summoned creatures. Bards: they fight by singing and annoying hostile audiences to death. (Well, not really.)
When it comes down to it, every single class is a Fighter of some flavor or another.
So here is my suggestion: Remove the generic version of the Fighter, and in its place adopt a few more Fighter-like martial classes to fill the niches that the generic Fighter could fill better than the other Fighter-like classes could. A class that relies on heavy armor and heavy shields, or one that fights on horseback like a Cavalier, etc.
It sounds radical on the face of it, but really, it is the logical thing to do.
Let's look at all the Fighter-like classes we already have. Barbarians: they fight by raging and taking inhuman amounts of damage. Paladins: they fight by marshaling their innate virtue and holy power to smite bad guys. Rangers: they fight using their unique combat styles, drawing on their wilderness skills. Monk: they fight using their fists, their ki, and their supernatural self-perfection.
But they aren't the only Fighter-like classes. Rogues: they fight by sneaking around behind the enemy and stabbing them where it hurts most. Wizards: they fight with a wide variety of spells drawn from their knowledge of arcana. Clerics: they fight with a mix of martial skill and divinely-granted magics. Druids: they fight using the power of nature and summoned creatures. Bards: they fight by singing and annoying hostile audiences to death. (Well, not really.)
When it comes down to it, every single class is a Fighter of some flavor or another.
So here is my suggestion: Remove the generic version of the Fighter, and in its place adopt a few more Fighter-like martial classes to fill the niches that the generic Fighter could fill better than the other Fighter-like classes could. A class that relies on heavy armor and heavy shields, or one that fights on horseback like a Cavalier, etc.