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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 1704611" data-attributes="member: 1165">Fighters have two problems that I see.First off, a heavy fighter is more powerful than a light fighter, but is less interesting to play. By the time people in Europe started writing fighting manuals, the time of the heavy fighter was over. This is why you can find stuff on Capo Ferro at a modern-day fencing school (or in Princess Bride, the book) but very little about how a knight would fight.Japanese fighting manuals were available, and so there's lots of semi-realistic samurai movies to draw for inspiration. That's one reason why samurai are so popular in DnD (and even D20 Modern).Besides, dodging is cooler than "his sword slides off my armor" anyday.I'm hoping the Book of Iron Might will make the heavy fighter interesting again, and do something about the light fighter to balance them without giving them some crazy bonus or forcing multiple stat dependencies on them.Second, there are very few high-level feat trees, so past 12th-level (when you can get Greater Weapon Specialization) there's little point of continuing, and by the time you reached that level, you will probably have taken two or even three other feat trees already. Even the mighty Whirlwind Attack can be taken at just 6th-level. (Picture if your DM said that sorcerers are unchanged, except that he's getting rid of all spells of 7th-level and above, and you can't research new spells either.) I think Spycraft had two feats that exceeded BAB +12 (both were BAB +18); I don't think WotC has released anything with BAB exceeding +12 (feats, I mean). Complete Warrior gave in to prestimyopia and, instead of having lots of feats for fighting characters, just had reams and reams of prestige classes instead.Meanwhile, barbarians and, to a lesser extent, paladins still get stuff that scales with their level.I suppose third, there's the usual clash of fighters vs spellcasters. IME fighters do more damage, but then again spellcasters are really good with the save-or-suffer stuff rather than the direct-damage stuff. But when it comes to fighters vs spellcasters, although I've seen a fighter dispose of a wizard in only one or two rounds, a mage's defenses are usually all-or-nothing.Wizards have low hit points and there's virtually no way to change this vulnerability. There's also nothing better than mage armor in the core rules, so mages usually have low AC. So, if a fighter finds a mage on the battlefield, they can just ready an action to cut them open. (I'm a big fan of casting on the defensive.)However, a wizard can just turn invisible and fly, and now the fighter can't locate them with Blind-Fight. They can use a potion of see invisibility but since nondetection lasts 1 hour/level it's almost pointless. (Plus, that poiton has a cost not too far from the material component of nondetection.) Once in the air, the wizard takes advantage of the fighter's low saves, trapping them in an Otiluke's resilient sphere or paralyzing them with hold monster or something like that.A wizard caught without preparation (but not surprised) can just dimension door or teleport, so they'll nearly always be ready for the fighter.</blockquote>

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