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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ashkelon" data-source="post: 6364551" data-attributes="member: 6774887">Here is the biggest problem with your argument. In D&D, the quickest way to victory is to completely disable your opponent by bypassing their HP. The second quickest way to victory is to deal HP damage. While yes, it is true that anyone can improvise, it is also true that 9 times in 10, improvising is a wasted action. Your examples that you gave are perfect examples of wasted actions. You would have simply been better off attacking your enemy.You are also falling into the trap of thinking that codified abilities inhibits improvisation. I bet you have seen a wizard improvise with their spells. Did their codification inhibit their ability to improvise? You can improvise with your codified abilities. For example, I played a fighter in 4e who had no "powers" that knocked enemies prone, but I would occasionally improvise with my other abilities to trip or knockdown enemies.Lastly, the point of limited use codified abilities is to put the control in the players hands. Most improvised actions are filled with penalties and additional checks. This makes them extremely unreliable. A wizard can cast thunderwave and know that he can push a Gargantuan sized monster 10 ft. A fighter can improvise a shield bash to push a large sized creature only, and even then the DM might make him take disadvantage on the attack and require a contest of Strength if he hits. On top of that, the majority of the maneuvers I gave to the swordsage are abilities that cannot be replicated through improvisation. Go read through them and see what kinds of abilities they are.Also, I think this will help you see where people like me are coming from. This is what mike mearls told us the fighter would be like in April of 2012. I feel he failed miserably at achieving these design goals./Fighter Design GoalsThe fighter is one of my favorite classes, so I’m a little biased. I also think it is a class that has always suffered a bit compared to the spellcasters in the game. Fighters represent the most iconic fantasy heroes, and it is perhaps the most popular class in the game. Therefore, it’s important that we get the fighter right.You can take a look at last week’s article to get a sense of our general approach to the classes. Here are the main points we’re looking at for the fighter. 1. The Fighter Is the Best at . . . Fighting!This might sound like an obvious point, but the fighter should be the best character in a fight. Other classes might have nifty tricks, powerful spells, and other abilities, but when it’s time to put down a monster without dying in the process, the fighter should be our best class. A magic sword might make you better in a fight, but a fighter of the same level is still strictly better. Perhaps a spell such as haste lets you attack more often, but the fighter is still either making more attacks or his or her attacks are more accurate or powerful. 2. The Fighter Draws on Training and Experience, not MagicFighters master mundane tactics and weapon skills. They don’t need spells or some sort of external source of magical power to succeed. Fighters do stuff that is within the limits of mundane mortals. They don’t reverse gravity or shoot beams of energy. 3. The Fighter Exists in a World of Myth, Fantasy, and LegendKeeping in mind the point above, we also have to remember that while the fighter draws on mundane talent, we’re talking about mundane within the context of a mythical, fantasy setting. Beowulf slew Grendel by tearing his arm off. He later killed a dragon almost singlehandedly. Roland slew or gravely injured four hundred Saracens in a single battle. In the world of D&D, a skilled fighter is a one-person army. You can expect fighters to do fairly mundane things with weapons, but with such overwhelming skill that none can hope to stand against them. 4. The Fighter Is VersatileThe fighter is skilled with all weapons. The best archer, jouster, and swordmaster in the realm are all fighters. A monk can match a fighter’s skill when it comes to unarmed combat, and rangers and paladins are near a fighter’s skill level, but the fighter is typically in a class by itself regardless of weapon. 5. The Fighter Is the Toughest CharacterThe fighter gets the most hit points and is the most resilient character. A fighter’s skill extends to defense, allowing the class to wear the heaviest armor and use the best shields. The fighter’s many hit points and high AC renders many monsters’ attacks powerless. 6. A High-Level Fighter and a High-Level Wizard Are EqualToo often in D&D, the high-level fighter is the flunky to a high-level wizard. It’s all too easy for combinations of spells to make the wizard a far more potent enemy or character, especially if a wizard can unleash his or her spells in rapid succession. A wizard might annihilate a small army of orcs with a volley of fireballs and cones of cold. The fighter does the same sword blow by sword blow, taking down waves of orcs each round. Balancing the classes at high levels is perhaps the highest priority for the fighter, and attaining balance is something that we must do to make D&D fit in with fantasy, myth, and legend. Even if a wizard unleashes every spell at his or her disposal at a fighter, the fighter absorbs the punishment, throws off the effects, and keeps on fighting</blockquote>

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