Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="takyris" data-source="post: 1034852" data-attributes="member: 5171">Okay, tried politeness and got ignored, so, in true ENWorld fashion, I am attempting to tick people off.If your party contains a single-classed fighter and a single-classed barbarian, and the barbarian is outshining the fighter in all or almost all combats, then I see several possibilities:1) The fighter's player is an idiot who chose his feats poorly, such that they either pigeonhole him or don't complement each other.  If you choose Weapon Focus in one weapon, Improved Critical in another, and Exotic Proficiency in a third, then don't complain when you're outclassed by the guy who spent all his feats on the same weapon.  And if you spend all your feats on one weapon, don't complain when that weapon gets sundered, disarmed and kicked into a bottomless chasm, or rendered useless by a foe's specific DR.  It is rarely worthwhile for a character to have Two-Weapon Fighting AND Spring Attack, since one feat relies on full-round attacks and the other feat forces single attacks only.2) The fighter's player is an idiot who does not utilize his feats properly through solid tactics (ie, not using Power Attack often enough on single-attack rounds, getting into full-round attack contests when he has Spring Attacks).  Mobility can be a hugely great feat, causing bad guys without Combat Reflexes to blow their AoOs on attacks that are far more likely to miss, but if all you see it as is a prelude to Spring Attack, then you've just wasted a feat slot.  Two-weapon fighting works really well in certain circumstances, but should be replaced by big-weapon use and sword & board use in many cases.3) The party's DM is an idiot who makes every encounter tactically similar, such that the party always ends up standing toe-to-toe with the bad guys unloading full-round melee attacks -- in which case the barbarian always wins.  A good DM makes encounters that are best won using battlefield mobility, ranged weapons, and special maneuvers (such as sundering, disarming, and tripping), and also includes a range of enemies in all important fights (squibs, tanks, mobile attackers, ranged attackers, magic-users).4) The barbarian's player is a genius who has mastered the art of mobility and is able to turn every fight into a toe-to-toe smackdown, regardless of the DM's intent -- or the barbarian's player has spent his feats well (getting enough ranged fu to shine at distances as well as up close, using Spring Attack and Power Attack together with glorious results, etc.).5) The barbarian's player rolled a lot better than the fighter's player -- which is why I lean towards point buy.  No idiocy there, but I hope to see rolling for attributes gradually phased out.If the issue is not so much "doesn't do as well" as it is "doesn't look as cool", then as I said, it's a flavor issue.  Getting missed because you were fighting with Expertise and then hitting with three of five attacks when you were Power Attacking IS pretty cool, but only if you and your DM describe it well.</blockquote>

Verification