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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6669917" data-attributes="member: 42582">These are both descriptions of the fighter in in fiction terms. But that doesn't tell us anything about mechanics. Tony Vargas picks up on this point:This is right. What is key to playing a character and having a Conan-esque experience is that you almost always win, not because you are supernatural but because no one gets the better of you. Even if you are locked in a prison by a wizard, a harem girl who fell in love with you on an earlier occasion will come and rescue you (in The Hour of the Dragon).In the context of an RPG, this requires some sort of metagame mechanics to replicate. Hit points get some of the way there, but there's a lot more that can be done. (4e exemplifies some of this.)This is the other post in the thread that really grapples with the issue from the perspective of game design rather than just an in-fiction perspective.If success in combat is gated away behind the hit point system, then that is going to put a limit on how Conan-esque a fighter can be. Likewise if fighting multiple foes is gated away behind the action economy system. AD&D tackles the latter via the multiple-attacks-vs-less-than-1HD-creature rules. 4e tackles the former via the minion rules. Systems like RQ and RM break out of the hit point attrition paradigm altogether, but stick to action economy constraints.You can't talk about building a Conan-esque fighter without directly addressing these issues of system design.By framing the situation as a combat one, of course it's easy to make the fighter seem like an easy class. Instead make the situation be this: you come across a door that is sealed shut, and engraved with strange runes. The newbie might find this easier to tackle playing a wizard rather than a fighter, especially if they've watched the first LotR movie.</blockquote>

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