D&D 3E/3.5 Why be a 3.5 fighter?

[Dandu]

Why not?

 

[Nifft]

You do have a point there, but I was trying to show the usefulness of the fighter. I would not be able to make this character how I want it to be without the fighter. Now if I wanted to I could take out the Swordsage levels and still have a formidable Human fighter who, (I know you guys have been using the spread stats, right? well this guy was with the 4d6 drop lowest) with 18 dex, at level 1 has:
AC 19, +3/+1 with a crit range of 18-20, and 12 hp
Feats: TWF, TWD, Weapon Finesse
STATS: Str 16 Dex 18, Con 14, int 16, Wis 12, Cha 10
Equipment: 2 scimitars, chain shirt
these are the same stats, taking out ToB stuff, in order that I have planned my character at level 1. I kept the Ability Scores the same because i value tumble checks to get around AoO's. Yes, before anyone says anything, the fighter doesn't get tumble, but the swordsage does, I simply took it out for this example

If you only take 8 levels of Fighter and 4 levels of Swordsage, you'll have the same BAB at level 12 as you would if you took 11 levels of Fighter and 1 level of Swordsage. (There's no point at all in taking the 11th level of Fighter.)

The goodies you get from +3 levels of Swordsage will certainly offset losing one bonus feat.

Cheers, -- N

PS: Wow, good stat rolls.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

You left off 3) become fairly conversant with the combat chapter and discover that with some versatility, you have something interesting and useful to contribute to almost any fight.

He could try tripping, but most monsters at level 7 are either flying or have four legs.

He could try grappling, but, hell, by level 3, he's facing large monsters, and they only get bigger and/or harder to grapple from there.

He could try disarming, but only humanoid enemies use weapons, and only some of them, at that.

He could try bull rushhpppphhhhahahahahahaha, bull rush is the dumbest thing in 3.5 and the only time it's ever used is when you use ToB which lets you bull rush on an attack.

So what are his wide array of options?

 

[Borthos]

If you only take 8 levels of Fighter and 4 levels of Swordsage, you'll have the same BAB at level 12 as you would if you took 11 levels of Fighter and 1 level of Swordsage. (There's no point at all in taking the 11th level of Fighter.)

The goodies you get from +3 levels of Swordsage will certainly offset losing one bonus feat.

Cheers, -- N

PS: Wow, good stat rolls.

true, didn't think of that. How i'm taking the character in actuality will be swordsage at level 1/ fighter 10/ and then finishing out swordsage. I won't be able to get to the 9th level SS stuff, but honestly idc because this character is fun.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

He could try tripping, but most monsters at level 7 are either flying or have four legs.

He could try grappling, but, hell, by level 3, he's facing large monsters, and they only get bigger and/or harder to grapple from there.

He could try disarming, but only humanoid enemies use weapons, and only some of them, at that.

He could try bull rushhpppphhhhahahahahahaha, bull rush is the dumbest thing in 3.5 and the only time it's ever used is when you use ToB which lets you bull rush on an attack.

So what are his wide array of options?

Any extra legs is a flat +4, not insurmountable (Pathfail DID make multiple legs insurmountable by making it +2 per leg beyond 2, but that's a separate gripe). There are optional rules in Sage Advice or something to use trip to stall flying creatures.

Grapple has no settings between high and off. Against things with low or reasonable modifiers and no teleportation, it's practically insta-win. Against everything else, it does nothing. So with just Improved Grapple a Fighter has something to occasionally ruin a combat with, it's not great but also not bad.

Disarm is pretty bad. Hilarious for disarming spell components with a readied action interrupt, though.

As for Bull Rush, my Goliath barbarian with the Knockback feat and Shocktrooper would like to have a word with you...

 

[radmod]

On the animal companion part:
To me 'typical' simply means the standard MM listing. I, personally, wouldn't allow a switch for the dog from Alertness to whatever because, IMO, Alertness is the natural feature of the dog. Just like Trip is for the Wolf (or rather one trained at birth). I can't remember, but I presume housecat has Stealthy, right?
Now as to the FTR vs. the animal companion, I can say from experience that a typical first level fighter usually beats the crap out of a wolf (I often throw wolves at them at first level). Of course, nothing says, IIRC, you can't armor your wolf (wolven chain shirt anyone?).

 

[Dandu]

It's called armor banding in DnD.

 

[radmod]

It's called armor banding in DnD.

Banding? What happened to good old 'barding'? Name wasn't good enough? Too much like 'bard'?

 

[Dandu]

Or barding, I forget which. Close enough.

 

[Summer-Knight925]

the real question is why is the wolf wearing armor? to make it tougher?

they have thoes...theyre called worgs

or even tougher

winter wolves

or dire wolves

or werewolves if youre feeling frisky


a fighter should fight fun things...as in slightly challenging, enough to kill if dice and luck go wrong, but its still do-able

the bonus feets mean you can take 4 human fighters and they will still all be different

1. one handed weapon and shield
2. two handed weapon
3. two weapons
4. ranged weapons

that being said, each can break into different subgroups and gets smaller and smaller