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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5736032" data-attributes="member: 22779">Sorry, what edition are you talking about?  That will make something of a difference.  Because if you're playing 1e, where are you getting all these potions from?  Unless the DM is tailoring the campaign to suit that group, you certainly can't rely on being able to do that.  And, of course you can tailor a campaign (cleric vs cleric campaign) to pretty much anything.  But, that's going a bit far abroad.  If I have to completely revamp what I use as a DM to customize the game to suit the choices of the player, that would tend to mean that the game isn't really supporting that style of play.Not that you cannot do that, but, it's gets harder and harder out of the box.-------------Let's try a little thought experiment.Create an D&D character with 4d6 drop the lowest, arrange to taste.  You roll and get one 18, and the other 5 rolls are 14 or less.  Now, you try to make a character with those roles.  When you make the fighter, where does that 18 go?  I'm fairly willing to bet that the vast majority of players out there put that 18 in Str.  Its certainly the most mechanically rewarded thing to do - you gain that all important percentile strength in AD&D (+5-10% to hit and double your average damage) and +10% xp reward.Now, once you've put that 18 in Strength, what's that character going to do in combat?  Stand back and shoot a bow?  Not likely.  He's far and away more effective getting into the mix and laying the boots to something.  Put the 18 in Dex, and he loses that percentile strength, making him not a whole lot better than the cleric in melee combat, he's not strong enough to wear the heaviest armors without incurring encumbrance penalties although that's offset by a decent Dex bonus and he's still only averaging less damage per round than the strength fighter at 7 points per round with two hits.  Now, move forward to Unearthed Arcana and add in things like double weapon specialization.  Sure, you could use a bow, but, good grief, why would you bother?  +3 to hit and damage, with 3/2 attacks at 1st level.  Now our melee fighter is leaving our bow fighter a long way in the dust.2e doesn't make it any better.  Our fighter still specializes, but, now he takes two weapon fighting and he's averaging about 30 points of damage every two rounds (18/XX strength+weapon specs longsword and proficiency short sword - 1st round 1d8+5+1d6+3 damage, 2nd round 2d8+10+1d6+3=about 30-35 points of damage per 2 rounds at 1st level).Still think fighters weren't melee focused from the get go?  Really?Sure, you could pick up a bow.  But, now we're getting into mounted combat?  Really?  How many horses do you bring into the dungeon?  Again, I'd bet dollars to donuts that the overwhelming majority of attacks made by fighter characters are dismounted melee attacks.</blockquote>

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