Cap'n Kobold
Hero
"Martials are not so much better at combat than the other classes to justify having little to no class-based capability outside of it."
Counter. -Buff/debuff and control spells are undoubtably effective, but victory requires your enemy to be dead. Killing one opponent at a time is better than merely damaging many, because it removes a source of damage to the party. A well-built fighter can deal massive amounts of single-target damage, and at the end of the day, that is what ultimately wins fights.
Counter-counter. - Basing an evaluation of a class on just a few of the potential builds or subclasses is a bad representation of the class as a whole. If a fighter must be a BM, RK, or EK, or they must rely on a CE/SS or GWM build, that doesn't mean that class is good, just that a few options are overly better than others.
"Martial classes like Fighters have almost no class-cased out-of-combat utility."
Counter. - Having a physically-powerful team member is vital for carrying or moving things, climbing, swimming and other feats that require great strength. A Str-based fighter gets to do that sort of thing all the time, whereas in the same situation a caster may have to use spells, or just fail.
Counter-counter. - Strength and athletics are just ability checks, and the Fighter gets no more than any other class. They are worse than casters on the basis of total bonuses, and physical challenges like climbing/Swimming/moving great weight are often the most easily bypassed by spells or imaginative work-arounds.
"Spells give casters much better capability than a martial in any situation that isn't single-target damage."
Counter. - This claim relies on a caster having the perfect loadout for every challenge. Even casters as versatile as wizards won't always have exactly the right spell for the right situation. "Quantum casters" only exist in white rooms and where the player has read the adventure - They're unrealistic in actual play.
Counter-counter. - Spells can be very versatile for solving problems, but even if the caster has no spells left or none applicable for the situation, they have just as many options through ability checks and imaginative play as a martial.
Counter. -Buff/debuff and control spells are undoubtably effective, but victory requires your enemy to be dead. Killing one opponent at a time is better than merely damaging many, because it removes a source of damage to the party. A well-built fighter can deal massive amounts of single-target damage, and at the end of the day, that is what ultimately wins fights.
Counter-counter. - Basing an evaluation of a class on just a few of the potential builds or subclasses is a bad representation of the class as a whole. If a fighter must be a BM, RK, or EK, or they must rely on a CE/SS or GWM build, that doesn't mean that class is good, just that a few options are overly better than others.
"Martial classes like Fighters have almost no class-cased out-of-combat utility."
Counter. - Having a physically-powerful team member is vital for carrying or moving things, climbing, swimming and other feats that require great strength. A Str-based fighter gets to do that sort of thing all the time, whereas in the same situation a caster may have to use spells, or just fail.
Counter-counter. - Strength and athletics are just ability checks, and the Fighter gets no more than any other class. They are worse than casters on the basis of total bonuses, and physical challenges like climbing/Swimming/moving great weight are often the most easily bypassed by spells or imaginative work-arounds.
"Spells give casters much better capability than a martial in any situation that isn't single-target damage."
Counter. - This claim relies on a caster having the perfect loadout for every challenge. Even casters as versatile as wizards won't always have exactly the right spell for the right situation. "Quantum casters" only exist in white rooms and where the player has read the adventure - They're unrealistic in actual play.
Counter-counter. - Spells can be very versatile for solving problems, but even if the caster has no spells left or none applicable for the situation, they have just as many options through ability checks and imaginative play as a martial.