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Melee and Ranged Weapon Mastery
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<blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 4841479" data-attributes="member: 13966"><p>Yup, the feat stacks with Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, etc. That's the rule for untyped bonuses; they stack with everything. The reason? Fighters suck. At least compared to most everything else (though I suppose a few classes are somewhat poorer off than the poor, neglected, classic Fighter). The designers didn't bother fixing Fighters or warrior-types in general for core 3.5, but eventually realized that Fighters really did deserve some love.</p><p></p><p>So Melee and Ranged Weapon Mastery feats were made. They help the Fighter not suck compared to a Barbarian or fully-buffed-Cleric/Druid in EVERY way (and arcane casters in short-term offense/defense/utility matters). All the Fighter gets is feats. He doesn't get awesome damage output, survivability, skills, magic, or anything. Ergo he should at least get GOOD feats. Greater Weapon Focus and Greater Weapon Specialization are not good feats, they're decent feats at best, helping a core Fighter not lag behind a Barbarian <em>quite as much</em> in offense.</p><p></p><p>Fights, especially at upper levels, are rarely decided by the warrior-types. It's the mage's Flesh to Stone, Wail of the Banshee, Power Word: Kill, Forcecage, Baleful Polymorph, Implosion, Harm, or the like. This is my experience as a 3e DM and player since 2000, and as an AD&D player since 1996 or 1997. Warriors soak up damage and generally serve to just give casters the opportunity to end or solve everything, although warriors can certainly accomplish some awesome victories in combat, too. They're just much less likely to be the decisive factor in battle, let alone in non-combat challenges. Mind you, I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I've seen it happen, it's just much less common than the spellcasters thwarting the main villain or big monster or swarm or army/warband.</p><p></p><p>In the campaigns I've DMed, victory has generally been won by the spellcasters; Baleful Polymorphing the dragon, Flesh to Stone-ing the aboleth, Acid Fogging and Force Caging the vampires, Prismatic Spraying the dragons, Phantasmal Killer-ing the monsters, Fireballing the frost giants, Suggestion-ing the frost giant veterans, Blade Barrier-ing the frost giant veterans, Flame Striking and Greater Call Lightning-ing and Disintegrating the demons, etc. That said, warriors have been important in many battles too (the party's archer nearly killed one dragon by himself while the others distracted the dragon for a moment and kept it from safely disengaging to flee or kill the pesky archer-in-the-trees, to where the dragon barely escaped alive, in single-digit HP), but they've only rarely been the decisive force on the battlefield or otherwise. It's been awesome when they were, and those battles were often more dramatic, and more fun for me as DM in some of those sessions, but more often than not, the casters ruin that by ending fights quickly with a spell or spell-combo.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Arkhandus, post: 4841479, member: 13966"] Yup, the feat stacks with Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, etc. That's the rule for untyped bonuses; they stack with everything. The reason? Fighters suck. At least compared to most everything else (though I suppose a few classes are somewhat poorer off than the poor, neglected, classic Fighter). The designers didn't bother fixing Fighters or warrior-types in general for core 3.5, but eventually realized that Fighters really did deserve some love. So Melee and Ranged Weapon Mastery feats were made. They help the Fighter not suck compared to a Barbarian or fully-buffed-Cleric/Druid in EVERY way (and arcane casters in short-term offense/defense/utility matters). All the Fighter gets is feats. He doesn't get awesome damage output, survivability, skills, magic, or anything. Ergo he should at least get GOOD feats. Greater Weapon Focus and Greater Weapon Specialization are not good feats, they're decent feats at best, helping a core Fighter not lag behind a Barbarian [I]quite as much[/I] in offense. Fights, especially at upper levels, are rarely decided by the warrior-types. It's the mage's Flesh to Stone, Wail of the Banshee, Power Word: Kill, Forcecage, Baleful Polymorph, Implosion, Harm, or the like. This is my experience as a 3e DM and player since 2000, and as an AD&D player since 1996 or 1997. Warriors soak up damage and generally serve to just give casters the opportunity to end or solve everything, although warriors can certainly accomplish some awesome victories in combat, too. They're just much less likely to be the decisive factor in battle, let alone in non-combat challenges. Mind you, I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I've seen it happen, it's just much less common than the spellcasters thwarting the main villain or big monster or swarm or army/warband. In the campaigns I've DMed, victory has generally been won by the spellcasters; Baleful Polymorphing the dragon, Flesh to Stone-ing the aboleth, Acid Fogging and Force Caging the vampires, Prismatic Spraying the dragons, Phantasmal Killer-ing the monsters, Fireballing the frost giants, Suggestion-ing the frost giant veterans, Blade Barrier-ing the frost giant veterans, Flame Striking and Greater Call Lightning-ing and Disintegrating the demons, etc. That said, warriors have been important in many battles too (the party's archer nearly killed one dragon by himself while the others distracted the dragon for a moment and kept it from safely disengaging to flee or kill the pesky archer-in-the-trees, to where the dragon barely escaped alive, in single-digit HP), but they've only rarely been the decisive force on the battlefield or otherwise. It's been awesome when they were, and those battles were often more dramatic, and more fun for me as DM in some of those sessions, but more often than not, the casters ruin that by ending fights quickly with a spell or spell-combo. [/QUOTE]
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