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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8592819" data-attributes="member: 6877472">That's because it wasn't a thing for most of the game's history.&nbsp; Consider- in early D&amp;D, the thing Fighters had (strong hit points, good chance to hit, high AC) was a thing other classes didn't have.&nbsp; A Fighter had the best chance to survive without support of any character (barring the Dwarf and maybe the Halfling, since they were just Fighters with racial bonuses, I think?).They didn't run out of spells, they could take more hits to kill- these are clear advantages.Later, they got access to a large pool of men at arms in the base building minigame, and weapon specialization (which doesn't look like much today, but accruing extra attacks faster was a big deal).&nbsp; Oh and very good saving throws.It's literally only during the 3e and 5e eras that you can say &quot;Fighters can't get nice things&quot; (but keep reading for 3e).&nbsp; Certainly that wasn't true in 4e- sure, they were locked off from magical things like teleportation, but they still had strong abilities available to them.In the 1e DMG, Gary talks about what he felt was the equalizer for Fighters- magical equipment.&nbsp; Specifically, the intelligent magical weapon, with it's host of supernatural powers, was meant for melee combatants to get the extra utility their class lacks.This is even spelled out for Paladins, where their ability to use a Holy Avenger is considered a class feature!&nbsp; (Sadly, the ability to GET a Holy Avenger was not).I'm sure in many games, the smart thing to do is upgrade your party's melee with magical items first, since they are the first line of defense. It's actually only now, in 5e, that Fighters are limited to what magic items they can attune to that prevents them from collecting items to shore up what their class does not give them natively.3e and 4e were designed with the idea that yes, of course the Fighter will eventually gain access to things like magical flight at some point, why wouldn't they?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 8592819, member: 6877472"] That's because it wasn't a thing for most of the game's history. Consider- in early D&D, the thing Fighters had (strong hit points, good chance to hit, high AC) was a thing other classes didn't have. A Fighter had the best chance to survive without support of any character (barring the Dwarf and maybe the Halfling, since they were just Fighters with racial bonuses, I think?). They didn't run out of spells, they could take more hits to kill- these are clear advantages. Later, they got access to a large pool of men at arms in the base building minigame, and weapon specialization (which doesn't look like much today, but accruing extra attacks faster was a big deal). Oh and very good saving throws. It's literally only during the 3e and 5e eras that you can say "Fighters can't get nice things" (but keep reading for 3e). Certainly that wasn't true in 4e- sure, they were locked off from magical things like teleportation, but they still had strong abilities available to them. In the 1e DMG, Gary talks about what he felt was the equalizer for Fighters- magical equipment. Specifically, the intelligent magical weapon, with it's host of supernatural powers, was meant for melee combatants to get the extra utility their class lacks. This is even spelled out for Paladins, where their ability to use a Holy Avenger is considered a class feature! (Sadly, the ability to GET a Holy Avenger was not). I'm sure in many games, the smart thing to do is upgrade your party's melee with magical items first, since they are the first line of defense. It's actually only now, in 5e, that Fighters are limited to what magic items they can attune to that prevents them from collecting items to shore up what their class does not give them natively. 3e and 4e were designed with the idea that yes, of course the Fighter will eventually gain access to things like magical flight at some point, why wouldn't they? [/QUOTE]

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