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

[Walking Dad]

Will the mods please stop the riding dog posts. They gone way off topic from my original post.

I think the riding dog posts are an answer to your original question:

"Why be a 3.5 fighter?"

- "No reason, even a riding dog is stronger and more skillful at level one."

But I would like to see a 'positive answers only' thread (but without the falsehood about the fighter's great mechanical abilities or flavor).

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About flavor: Fighter have no flavor. You can say that is a strength, because you can give them any flavor you want...

But then again, the only real flavor reason is to be a heavy armored warrior with no spellcasting ability.

And you can get the same from the Knight and the Marshal, so I will add: with no code of honor and not good at leading others.

Maybe I should add calm, too, to get rid of barbarians with the heavy armor proficiency.

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Mechanically, fighters are mostly one-trick ponies or (more sad) no-trick ponies.
Being good at the one trick requires heavy optimization (badder than the one that you call cheating on a spellcaster) and using nearly all your feats for it. And it will still be no very good versus huge and bigger enemies, incorporeal and swarms.

And anything flying, if you don't specialize in archery. Just having a composite bow with not the right feats and average dexterity doesn't count.

 

[Jhaelen]

There may be no reason to be a pure fighter, but there are many reasons to take a couple of fighter levels. They're good for almost every character concept that isn't a pure spellcaster.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Play a level 5 Druid who acts like a dog.

You're just not up to speed. This is D&D - play a lvl 5 Druid who IS a dog.

 

[Walking Dad]

i want to the top;ic focused on straight class progression not multiclassing. Any WOTC 3.5 book is fair game execpt 9 swords.

There may be no reason to be a pure fighter, but there are many reasons to take a couple of fighter levels. They're good for almost every character concept that isn't a pure spellcaster.

But that isn't important for the original poster.
And you could say the same about the ranger or barbarian.

 

[Walking Dad]

After he's Awakened, he can play a Druid who IS a dog...

It will be ruff, though.

You're just not up to speed. This is D&D - play a lvl 5 Druid who IS a dog.

Yes...

 

[Nifft]

There may be no reason to be a pure fighter, but there are many reasons to take a couple of fighter levels. They're good for almost every character concept that isn't a pure spellcaster.

Agree.

You're just not up to speed. This is D&D - play a lvl 5 Druid who IS a dog.

I wonder if you can cast spells as an Awakened dog.

It would be hilarious if you could only cast spells using Natural Spell (i.e. while you were not a dog).

Cheers, -- N

 

[WHW4]

Why would any body want to be core fighter when then are other combat focus classes who have better saves can do more damage and have more hit dice than a core fighter?
No book of nine swords characters.

Because sometimes you don't want to fiddle with spells/extra bits of math here and there. Sometimes you just want to hit something without calculating which version of Rage you have activated, how many stances you have left, or making a concentration check to take an action, or adding in buff spells. Sometimes you just want a character who shows up with a big-assed hunk of steel and the excitement that all you have to spend mental energy on is HOW you want to roleplay this warrior.

Pretty simple really. Next question?

 

[Walking Dad]

Agree.

I wonder if you can cast spells as an Awakened dog.

It would be hilarious if you could only cast spells using Natural Spell (i.e. while you were not a dog).

Cheers, -- N

Not sure about RAW, but one Dungeon epic adventure had an awakened whale druid. He could use flipper movements and whale song for non-wildshaped casting.

Because sometimes you don't want to fiddle with spells/extra bits of math here and there. Sometimes you just want to hit something without calculating which version of Rage you have activated, how many stances you have left, or making a concentration check to take an action, or adding in buff spells. Sometimes you just want a character who shows up with a big-assed hunk of steel and the excitement that all you have to spend mental energy on is HOW you want to roleplay this warrior.

Pretty simple really. Next question?

Spells: You insist not to be buffed by your allies?
Rage: You don't choose between rages. Ones you get the better ones, you use these instead of the basic.
Stances: What stances? If you talk ToB, stances were unlimited.
Not spending mental energy: Ever saw the Power Attack calculator sheets to really use the feat?

 

[WHW4]

I was speaking in generalities. I know how rage works, how stances work, and I let the buffer tell me what bonus they are giving. Yeah I have seen the PA spreadsheets. I never needed one to figure out the 1:1 2:1 ratios.

How about my last point? Because you just want to? Got an answer for that? Maybe I'm just wrong on that one too. Seriously, if you are trying to argue that playing a fighter requires as much mental energy as other classes that possess the same amount of "actions" or fiddly bits from class features/spells, I have no way to counter that. I can't reason with madness.

I simply said all that energy you'd be devoting to -additional- number crunching could potentially be spent thinking about the character itself and where it fits in the world. He asked why anyone would play a fighter so I gave him his answer. Those are the reasons I'd play one.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Originally Posted by Man in the Funny Hat
You're just not up to speed. This is D&D - play a lvl 5 Druid who IS a dog. *
I wonder if you can cast spells as an Awakened dog.

It would be hilarious if you could only cast spells using Natural Spell (i.e. while you were not a dog).

*I Ninja'd MitFH on this already...see the top of the page.

Be that as it may,

An awakened tree or animal can speak one language that you know, plus one additional language that you know per point of Intelligence bonus (if any).

So it can speak (good boy!), which means it can cast. If you're not feeling generous about the gestures, take spells without somatic components (which, somewhat paradoxically, divine casters have more of than arcane casters do) OR the Still Spell feat.

(I had to figure all of that out for my spellcasting Aspen trees mentioned in the Campaign Ideas thread in my sig.)