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Kill the fighter
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<blockquote data-quote="Matthias" data-source="post: 5868966" data-attributes="member: 3625"><p>I think that part of this sacred-cow mentality of the fighter having to be "the nonmagic guy who hurts people and breaks things" is due to accepting some of the assumptions that have been built into D&D from almost the beginning.</p><p></p><p>The number-one assumption is that a PC shouldn't be allowed to learn how to cast magic without being someone special, having a 'gift' for it or special insight into the art. There is some justification for this in the fantasy genre and D&D likes to reinforce this by associating spellcasting ability with high mental ability scores. Spellcasting as it has evolved in D&D mechanically and thematically (regardless of edition) is geared toward the mentality of "you're just a fighter, you can't learn magic stuff", necessitating the inclusion of multiclassing as a useful yet costly tool for character development, mainly for players who don't like this have/have not division between the doing-it-the-hard-way characters and the push-the-effects-button characters.</p><p></p><p>Another assumption built-in to D&D that was often taken for granted or barely recognized is that all powers given to a character class must necessarily be a part of any character's identity..."if you got it, use it." Sound advice if you want a character to be as strong and versatile as possible, but even a 20th-level wizard could be played as though the PC were a simple soldier. Tons of magic ability to be sure, but just because you have it, doesn't mean you <em>have</em> to use it.</p><p></p><p>Suppose PCs of the Fighter class had access to some rogue-like and even some sorcerer-like powers. How terrible that would be! Someone imitating Russell Crowe's Gladiator character could be granted spellcasting ability <em>on paper</em> as part of the standard 5E Fighter class, yet the player may see these abilities as unsuitable for his desired character concept and refuse to acknowledge them even if their use would allow his PC and party to handle a certain problem more effectively. Pathfinder has set a good example IMO with its provision for alternative class features for players whose PCs were traditionally entitled by their class to obtain a familiar or an animal companion, but didn't want them for their characters.</p><p></p><p>Many niche classes have a lot of "material" to work with, being able to swap out some of their less important features for things more unusual yet suitable for the strange character concept ideas of some players. The fighter class, when you decide that all he's ever meant to be is a tough guy who fights with weapons and wears armor, then you handicap him with his own versatility. You leave him with an effects budget so meager, what sorts of alternative class features could he trade his special and unique powers for? Unlike a druid, sorcerer, or wizard. Pathfinder was compelled to find more goodies for its version of Fighter to use, in order to move beyond the "beat stuff up with fighter feats" that the D&D 3.x version was. Otherwise, Fighter could not have had much in the way of alternative class features as the other classes received once the first archetypes were published.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Matthias, post: 5868966, member: 3625"] I think that part of this sacred-cow mentality of the fighter having to be "the nonmagic guy who hurts people and breaks things" is due to accepting some of the assumptions that have been built into D&D from almost the beginning. The number-one assumption is that a PC shouldn't be allowed to learn how to cast magic without being someone special, having a 'gift' for it or special insight into the art. There is some justification for this in the fantasy genre and D&D likes to reinforce this by associating spellcasting ability with high mental ability scores. Spellcasting as it has evolved in D&D mechanically and thematically (regardless of edition) is geared toward the mentality of "you're just a fighter, you can't learn magic stuff", necessitating the inclusion of multiclassing as a useful yet costly tool for character development, mainly for players who don't like this have/have not division between the doing-it-the-hard-way characters and the push-the-effects-button characters. Another assumption built-in to D&D that was often taken for granted or barely recognized is that all powers given to a character class must necessarily be a part of any character's identity..."if you got it, use it." Sound advice if you want a character to be as strong and versatile as possible, but even a 20th-level wizard could be played as though the PC were a simple soldier. Tons of magic ability to be sure, but just because you have it, doesn't mean you [i]have[/i] to use it. Suppose PCs of the Fighter class had access to some rogue-like and even some sorcerer-like powers. How terrible that would be! Someone imitating Russell Crowe's Gladiator character could be granted spellcasting ability [i]on paper[/i] as part of the standard 5E Fighter class, yet the player may see these abilities as unsuitable for his desired character concept and refuse to acknowledge them even if their use would allow his PC and party to handle a certain problem more effectively. Pathfinder has set a good example IMO with its provision for alternative class features for players whose PCs were traditionally entitled by their class to obtain a familiar or an animal companion, but didn't want them for their characters. Many niche classes have a lot of "material" to work with, being able to swap out some of their less important features for things more unusual yet suitable for the strange character concept ideas of some players. The fighter class, when you decide that all he's ever meant to be is a tough guy who fights with weapons and wears armor, then you handicap him with his own versatility. You leave him with an effects budget so meager, what sorts of alternative class features could he trade his special and unique powers for? Unlike a druid, sorcerer, or wizard. Pathfinder was compelled to find more goodies for its version of Fighter to use, in order to move beyond the "beat stuff up with fighter feats" that the D&D 3.x version was. Otherwise, Fighter could not have had much in the way of alternative class features as the other classes received once the first archetypes were published. [/QUOTE]
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