Proposed Fighter "fix"

[Nyaricus]

I just now finally leafed through a copy of Iron Heroes (I know I am behind the curve by a significant amount, but whatever).

Iron Heros is amazing, but going onward here...

The most common "fix" I have heard it to give the Fighter a feat every level. That could still be done, but I was thinking of giving them the Excellent Base Attack Bonus progression. Does this seem ok? I would allow them as the only class in a standard 3.x game with that save, and I think that would help set them apart from all the other fighting classes.

Feat every level is overpowered in post-PHBII and even pre-PHBII play. It makes it too lucrative, and frankly doesn't do much. As for the excellent BAB prog, eek, I don't like the sound of that either. Again, it's just too good, and while it makes fighters absolutly amazing, it's simply too much.

Here's my fighter fix, and suggestion to you - taken from Iron Heroes, as a matter of fact. The Man-at-Arms class gets a floating feat at 3 different levels - basically he can choose a new feat he meets the requirements for every day. I have given this to my Fighter class at 6, 12 and 18, and require that an hour each morning be spent training, praying, meditating or the like to gain the use of this feat (when he gains his second and third feat, it's still only an hour). It's not overpowered, and helps the fighter do what he does best - control the battlefield. It also spices things up a bit and allows him to be really, really versaile.

So what do people think? Would they need more than that, or is that good on its own? Please feel free to post any criticisms.

I don't like your fixes, and have given you my own approach to this. Personally, I think that with the new PHBII and my "Floating Bonus Feat" that the fighter is where he should be in terms of power. Giving him a feat every level or + 25 BAB at 20th is too much, IMO.

Thanks,
RisnDevil

No prob man.

 

[EyeontheMountain]

Hmm, I don't own Iron Heroes, but the additional BAB sounds like a good idea. The Fighter should be far better than any other class at straight BAB. Simply, I agree fighters should not
miss, and should be at least one intinerative attack above other full BAB classes at 20th level.

Why, you ask?

Well, look at feats. Sure the Fighter gets a ton, but still they are at heart dangerous only to something within range, and an archer will never match a melee fighter for damage, just not possible in the rules. So that is generally 5 to 10 feet, unless you get a bit cheesy.

Aslo they have poor saves, and absolutely pathetic skills. 2/level is not so bad, but when you don't even have a good spell on your list to spend those measley points on it is really poor.


Now the flaoting Fighter Feat sounds great, but I would probably make it only two. 10th and 20th level. 6 seems low enough for someone to munchkin out a strong ability in a non-primary fighter role.

 

[ChrisHaines]

How about giving the Fighter a d12 Hit Die? Hit Points represent your ability to evade damage which would equate to a Fighter's higher level of skill. Barbarian's will still be the HP monsters when they Rage.

I also give Fighter's Evasion at 9th level in my games, but a lot of people will probably not like that.

 

[Nyaricus]

Now the flaoting Fighter Feat sounds great, but I would probably make it only two. 10th and 20th level. 6 seems low enough for someone to munchkin out a strong ability in a non-primary fighter role.

You must remeber that at 6th level, a fighter is already using up nearly one third of his non-epic progression. That's a big mouthful for a PC to take, and there are more than a few PrC's which are really nice which couldve been taken at that level. Speaking of PrC's, In my games, a floating fighter feat cannot be used to meet the requirements of a PrC - even if they keep the feat the same all the time. This means that fighters really have to slug it out and take quite a few levels in order to meet the prereqs for those really hard-to-get-into PrC's, which I veiw to be a balance point in this class varient.

How about giving the Fighter a d12 Hit Die? Hit Points represent your ability to evade damage which would equate to a Fighter's higher level of skill. Barbarian's will still be the HP monsters when they Rage.

Actually, this is another idea I've been toying with for the fighter, and I agree with you that Barbs would still be the HP monsters, regardless.

I also give Fighter's Evasion at 9th level in my games, but a lot of people will probably not like that.

Here's one, man. That just doesn't mesh well, IMO.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I've written and borrowed some fighter feats to help higher-level warrior types, especially fighters, in my game. Here's the list of fighter feats in my campaign, except the (few) closed-content ones. Since the list is essentially complete, you'll have to skim past the SRD feats. Sorry.
http://rpg.crg4.com/fighterfeats.html

Attack Mastery, Furious Throws, Masterful Expertise, Whirling Defense, and Wild Whirlwind are the most relevant to this thread, I think. I also have many new epic feats for fighters, but I don't know how useful that is to posters here.

 

[the Jester]

I also have many new epic feats for fighters, but I don't know how useful that is to posters here.

I'd love to see those- I run an epic game, and a major npc is an epic swordsman (28th-level fighter right now) who is the self-declared "foremost swordsman of his age". Link please?

 

[CRGreathouse]

I'd love to see those- I run an epic game, and a major npc is an epic swordsman (28th-level fighter right now) who is the self-declared "foremost swordsman of his age". Link please?

I don't have a page dedicated to just the epic fighter feats I've made, but here's the link to my list of epic feats (DMG, ELH, LoA, and custom):
http://rpg.crg4.com/epicfeats.html

Of the ones I wrote, Death Critical, Magic Fists, Mighty Grip, One Eye Open, Weapon of Alacrity, and Zen Strike are the ones that seemed most useful.

Also, see Sword Specialist and Attack Mastery in my nonepic feat list. Sword Specialist would make a nice requirement for a high-tier prestige class, if you need to go that far.

 

[the Jester]

Thanks, those are cool!

How does Death Critical interact with Devastating Critical?

Edit: I really like Reality Shaper!

 

[CRGreathouse]

Thanks, those are cool!

How does Death Critical interact with Devastating Critical?

They both function normally. A Rog10/Asn20 (Str 24, Int 18) forces a Devastating Critical save (DC 32) as well as a Death Critical save (DC 29 + feats).

Edit: I really like Reality Shaper!

Thanks! It's one of my newer ones. My group really took to it, though, and used it often. I think it's a strong feat, despite its prerequisites, but not too good. It really gives a flavor to the character, and can draw some attention.

As you can see from the prerequisites, I have split Knowledge (arcana) into two skills: Knowledge (magic) for magic and Knowledge (arcana) for secrets. I'm not sure what I'd replace that with in a standard game.

Edit: You may find my complete list of feats useful:
http://rpg.crg4.com/allfeats.html
On one hand it's a lot of feats; on the other, you can filter these by authorship and type.