How Tough Do You Like Your Fighters?

S'mon · February 11, 2018, 07:39:42 PM

Quote from: Bren;1024940I'm hoping that's a joke. But on this forum I'm never really sure.

British humour.

WillInNewHaven · February 11, 2018, 10:12:24 PM

Quote from: Graewulf;1024907In my game, I use the term 'Warrior' for the best-trained, strictly combat-oriented 'fighter' class. I know D&D (since the beginning) used 'Fighter' as theirs, but I always thought 'fighter' sounded very generic, so your rationalization here sounds perfectly fine to me.

Thanks. I had long decided that there ought to be something between the elite fighting specialists and the ordinary zero level mooks. I thought of calling the elite types "warriors" and the people with somewhat less training "soldiers" but that is a different distinction, at least to me. Actually, my Elite Warrior class includes some soldiers, Spartiates, Dwarf Regular As, etc. and there are warriors in my fighter class.

Gorilla_Zod · February 11, 2018, 11:50:21 PM

To me (and in my games) a straight-up fighter is a badass, a bloodied battlefield veteran, equally skilled with all weapons and comfortable in all kinds of armour, no matter how unlikely that may seem. Warriors aren't so well-trained and tend to be equipped as their culture allows, rather than optimised for the best adventuring experience. They are like bandits, brigands etc, in that they're strictly for the Random Encounter Charts in my games.

Bren · February 12, 2018, 11:11:39 PM

Quote from: S'mon;1024972British humour.

That's a relief. Next time toss in 'grey' or 'colour' or switch an "s" for a "z" so it'll be obvious to me.

RPGPundit · February 14, 2018, 04:44:10 AM

Quote from: S'mon;1024920The problem was they started with Fighting Man, which sounds cool, but apparently around 1976 decided girls could play, so went to the much less cool Fighter.

I always thought "fighting man" was a really weird choice of term. Fighter or Warrior were both much more obvious.

My only guess as to why it was 'fighting man' is that maybe that was something lifted from wargaming?

Charon's Little Helper · February 14, 2018, 10:00:05 AM

Not D&D specific - but I like a system's standard fighter/warrior class to be subtly better at combat than other martials. Sure - X or Y gets cool powers in addition to similar combat stats, but the fighter/warrior should get things like being a pool to add a bonus point or two to an attack roll after the fact to confirm a hit, or they get to shift a foe around the battlefield a bit to a more advantageous position. etc.

Plus - I like the vibe of them being more versatile in combat that power-based martials. Sure - X is as good in melee, but the warrior/fighter can pull out a longbow (or an assault rifle or whatever) and be effective with it too.

S'mon · February 14, 2018, 08:00:28 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit;1025415I always thought "fighting man" was a really weird choice of term. Fighter or Warrior were both much more obvious.

My only guess as to why it was 'fighting man' is that maybe that was something lifted from wargaming?

Almost certainly from John Carter, Fighting Man of Mars, I think.

Raleel · February 14, 2018, 11:23:46 PM

one thing that might be related here - a lot of good fighters and martial artists study a whole bunch of different forms of combat, specifically to have options. being able to blend them seamlessly is one measure of the strength of the fighter. If you can move from solid muy thai skills into solid BJJ skills and back, you become a threat from a lot of places. Add in weapons (ranged, thrown, melee, shield, etc), and you become pretty tough to take down and no one wants to engage - they are likely to die. to a large extent, they view the different techniques like a swiss army knife. right tool for the right job.

Elfdart · February 15, 2018, 01:23:53 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;1025415I always thought "fighting man" was a really weird choice of term. Fighter or Warrior were both much more obvious.

My only guess as to why it was 'fighting man' is that maybe that was something lifted from wargaming?

Possibly, but fighting man is an old-fashioned term for soldier, dating at least as far back as Homer. It was in common use in the Middle Ages and early modern era. I rather prefer it to "warrior", since it's less hackneyed or pretentious.

Willie the Duck · February 15, 2018, 07:24:16 AM

I find this subtopic interesting but also very odd. I consider 'fighting man,' 'fighter,' and 'warrior' to all be generic descriptors possible. Using the individual whose career it is to operate a 18-wheeler as an analogy, these three terms are the same as 'driving man,' 'driver,' and 'trucker.' If I wanted something that was badass, cool, uncool, hackneyed, pretentious, obscure, old-fashioned-sounding, or anything else, I'd pick something else. These, to me, are the generics.

RPGPundit · February 17, 2018, 03:49:32 AM

Having just played the second session of my new Lion & Dragon campaign, I have to say that the players who were running fighters were really happy with how badass fighters can be in the game.

AsenRG · February 17, 2018, 08:32:21 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;1021091In Lion & Dragon, I make fighters by far the most competent at combat. They get more attacks, better hit bonuses, more damage, can use armor more effectively, and are better at parrying.

It's a good start.

QuoteHow strong do you want your fighters to be at fighting compared to other classes?

How strong do you like wizards to be at arcane magic compared to thieves? That much stronger.

QuoteAnd how do you want them to be that way: special abilities (feats, etc), higher base combat stats (like I do in L&D) or some other method?

All of these, combined.

RPGPundit · February 21, 2018, 05:54:47 AM

Quote from: AsenRG;1025845How strong do you like wizards to be at arcane magic compared to thieves? That much stronger.

Good answer.