The fighter, pre-4e, is pretty bland in combat. 4E opened up more options, but the fighter no longer occupied a unique space (everyone in 4e cast "spells", eg).
The trouble is that the fighter
never occupied a unique space, and pre-4e only occupied a genuinely
valuable one with Weapon specialisation. The edition to unite the editions is probably going to stick to that - I've said repeatedly if they'd gone for weapon spec it would have been a lot better than what we got.
in short, the problem with 5E fighters isn't the fighter, its the combat system they are supposed to "play" in.
Which is an attempt at the traditional D&D system.
I didn't mention adamantium. I said 'DC 17'.
OK, reanswering.
The Cleric is a D&Dism rather than an archetypal fantasy character. What I visualise the cleric doing is ... not being there.
For more fantasy archetypes:
Fighter:
Low level: Break the door down or smash the hinges, taking time to do it. High level: Find a weak point in the wall and break that in about two kicks. (Barbarian, likewise).
Thief: Low level: Pick the lock with the lockpick he hid from the searchers.
High level: Pick the lock with his thumbnail or just by tapping it.
Wizard: Low level: Mage hand to filch the keys or illusion to pretend he isn't in the cell.
High level: ___??? I'm not even going to try to guess - anything from animating the entire castle to teleporting home depending on their specialty. (An illusionist would do something like painting a door on the other wall and stepping through it while a telekenetic would rip the door off its hinges).
Bard:
Low level: Talk his way out of the cell and possibly the jailer into it or his way into the jailer's daughter's bed.
High level (unless the low level would be funnier - always a consideration with Bards): tap the lock, find its resonant frequency, and then sing to break it in the way an opera singer can with a wineglass.
Druid:
Low level: Over a few hours grow a small tree in the doorframe, bursting the door. Or summon help via talking to animals and get one to filch the guards keys.
High level: Flood the place in vines in seconds, bursting the doors and walls, summon help by talking to animals and getting an elephant (in Northern Europe), or turn into either a small animal and creep out or a big one and bust the door off its hinges.
Ninja:
Low level: Appear not to be there and then sneak out when someone comes to check.
High level: Walk through the wall.
Paladin:
Low level: Wait. Justice will sort itself out.
High level: Convert the jailer and have him start confessing his sins and asking for absolution.
Yes, that's what I thought too. I'm not happy about that being a valid answer given the situation the other characters are in. How might we fix that? 4E seems to suggest that everyone should get everything back over night, just like the cleric. I don't find that answer satisfying. I'm looking for alternatives.
I like a slight tweak to 4e. Everyone gets everything back
together but only in a place of safety - a home city or base or fortified encampment. It's more than just sleeping for a night.
I'm asking what the difference should be between low level play and high level play. What should a fighter be able to do differently (bearing in mind that we're talking about the person, not his equipment)?
Hope the above helps.
If you believe the fighter should be able to plait steel bars, I want to understand why. Is it that you see all characters as 'beyond human' in a comic book super hero kind of way?
It's a mix of high level and the fighter archetype. The fighter
I do not see as mundane. It's the person strong and tough enough to stand toe to toe with ridiculour enemies. And mortal strength and toughness has a limit.
If I want a mundane character, compensating for human frailty by his wits and skill, that is not a fighter. That's a thief (or possibly a ninja or bard). Justice League Batman isn't a fighter; he
never goes toe to toe with anyone. Batman's closer to a rogue or assassin. The fighter on that team is
Superman. (Plus a few others sometimes). In the Avengers movie, Thor's a fighter, so's the Hulk. Iron Man's gear dependent and is some sort of wizard. Black Widow and Hawkeye, the "ordinary" humans don't fight toe to toe. They don't fight the way a fighter does. They aren't fighters because a human fighter could not survive in that environment. Instead they are rogue-types using cover, stealth, mobility, and trickery.
Do you see fighters as somehow transcending their humanity to become godlike in some manner?
No. I see that to fight giants toe to toe rather than through stealth and trickery you
need to transcend human frailty. I see that surviving dragon breath through toughness (rather than getting out of the way) you have to transcend human frailty.
To behave the way a fighter behaves against D&D foes
you can not be an ordinary human. And you must know you are not - otherwise to go head to head with things is suicidal.
I want to know, so that I can understand why you think an otherwise non-magical human fighter should be able to bend steel that easily.
I don't. I see a non-magical high level human fighter would have become a corpse many levels back unless calling them non-magical was like calling Tony Stark an ordinary human and discounting his armour. Now if you want a non-magical human
rogue, at high levels be my guest. A fast and lethal trickster who fights
way above his supposed weight class by guileand cunning. And by never taking a direct hit from something that powerful. You just can't behave like a fighter against high level foes while being an ordinary human without being obliterated by colateral damage or casually flung into walls, picking up more concussions than a professional boxer.