D&D General The Case For High INT Fighters in Dungeons and Dragons

[The Glen]

fighter's number of fighting styles should be based off of 1+INT, in 5e fighter had access to 11 different fighting styles not counting 3 from unearthed arcana or the two druidic and divine warrior styles exclusive to ranger and paladin respectively, and a bog standard fighter would get only ONE of them, a SINGLE FIGHTING STYLE in 20 levels, not to mention most of them are mutually exclusive based on the weapon you're using barring a few like defense, blind fighting, superior technique or the shield syles, so you're not even able to stack bonuses for the most part.

the fighter as a martial master should be stacked with fighting styles.

This was actually one of my suggestions with the Wesley fighter. You have studied various fighting styles and can switch to the weapons to best handle the situation. 5e tends to give fighters everything (weapon prof) or almost nothing (fighting styles).

Every class should have some mechanic that you get multiples of based on your INT. Would require a lot of rework for some of them though.

 

[CreamCloud0]

No, because theatre of the mind IS a thing. 5e supports it, and therefore positioning rules, such as flanking, cannot be core rules. And therefore a class built around positioning does not work.

4e did not support theatre of the mind, so it could make positioning something that matters.

TotM is a thing but is it how the game is intended to be played? given everything seems to have some fashion of a very specific movespeed, range, or area that it covers my inclination is to say no it is not, if 5e was meant to be played as TotM it should've been designed and presented quite differently IMO.

 

[Shardstone]

This is D&D general so I figured Pathfinder was fair game. I was honestly asking about the commander, not saying warlord shouldnt be a thing.

Commander is cool, as is the Guardian. Commander actually has a really flavorful feat at 18th level that lets you demand one creature in a combat to just flat out surrender. The base idea of the class is you have a banner with an emanation effect, and tactics that can give allies unique reactions.

Tangent: It also made me realize that the term "emanation" started being used in a game sense with PF2E, and that WotC is now copying that. When you think about Arcane/Divine/Primal spell lists, it gives the impression that 5.24 was meant to be more like PF2E in some ways.

 

[Minigiant]

You make no sense. First it’s, they adjust on the fly. Then it’s they are very predictable. Those two things are mutually exclusive

They'd adjust on the fly the same way every time.

You can bait WIS fighter easier.
Throw out the jab, Wait for the counter, block the counter, punish.

You can feint INT fighter easier.
Throw out the jab throw out the jab throw out the ja SIKE low kick.

 

[CreamCloud0]

This was actually one of my suggestions with the Wesley fighter. You have studied various fighting styles and can switch to the weapons to best handle the situation. 5e tends to give fighters everything (weapon prof) or almost nothing (fighting styles).

Every class should have some mechanic that you get multiples of based on your INT. Would require a lot of rework for some of them though.

i'm not sure if i would go so far as to give every class their own unique INT-scaled mechanics, some classes like barbarian and sorcerer it feels quite counter to their theming to me, and others like monk or ranger already have issues with MAD.

 

[deadman1204]

I dream of a world where stats are balanced and they all matter. Int is the biggest dump stat of 5th ed, moreso in 5.5 since artificers didnt make the cut.

Take the offensive advantages of dex and give them to int. No stat should be the best offensive and defensive stat at the same time.

 

[mellored]

How is PF2 commander the warlord imitation doing?

I quite like it.

Except for the reliance on the waving a banner around. Not my favorite flavor, but it does all the warlordy stuff.

Including using Int to identifying weaknesses and vulnerabilities, which is a lot more common, and thus more valuable, than 5e.

Commander - Classes - Pathfinder 2e Nexus

 

[FrogReaver]

They'd adjust on the fly the same way every time.

Then that’s not adjusting on the fly.

You can bait WIS fighter easier.
Throw out the jab, Wait for the counter, block the counter, punish.

But they would adjust on the fly to that.

 

[Minigiant]

Then that’s not adjusting on the fly.

But they would adjust on the fly to that.

It's still adjusting but wisdom is adjusting with your gut whereas intelligence and adjusting with your mind.

The gut is faster but is easier to be fooled because it uses conventional.... wisdom.

 

[Minigiant]

If weapon Masteries had came earlier,

I think that your intelligence modifier would be your bonus cantrips or weapon masteries.

Every class would start with two can trips or two weapon Masteries and it would get extra based on their intelligence modifier. Only certain classes like the fighter sorcerer and Wizard would get bonus weapon masteries or cantrips from class level.

But a high intelligence fighter would have learned multiple masteries and be more versatile.