Fighter (Dungeons & Dragons)

Infobox D&D character class
name=Fighter
editions=All
role=Defender
power=Martial
alignment=Any
source=
first=
mythical=
based=
wizards_image_URL=http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ph35_gallery/PHB35_PG37_WEB.jpg
OGL_stats_URL=http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/fighter.htm

In the "Dungeons & Dragons" role-playing game, fighter is one of the base character classes. A fighter is a versatile, weapons-oriented warrior class. The fighter is an adept warrior who fights using skill, strategy and tactics.

Fighter is a generic and broad class; individual fighters have diverse backgrounds and different styles. Bodyguards, adventurers, former soldiers, invading bandit kings, or master swordsmen are all fighters, yet they come from all walks of life and backgrounds and often find themselves on very different alignments, goals, and sides in a conflict.

Fighters are Martial Defenders. Other martial oriented character classes include the warlord, ranger, and rogue. Other defenders include the paladin.

Dungeons & Dragons

Fighter was one of the three classes in the original "Dungeons & Dragons" game, then called "Fighting Man" (the other two were Magic-User and Cleric).

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

In the 1st and 2nd editions of "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons", fighters were the class best suited for physical combat, balanced by the weakness of not having any other ability. Fighters did not typically greatly benefit from high intelligence, wisdom or charisma ability scores, the character could obtain higher scores in strength, dexterity and constitution, which increased combat ability. High hit points (HP), the ability to equip strong armors, and easily the fastest THAC0 progression also helped them in combat. As an optional and very commonly used rule, fighters could also take Weapon Specialization, which offered further bonuses to hit and damage.

Although a powerful and popular class, many players also felt the fighter was too simple and could be boring. In typical combat, a fighter had very few options besides "swing at him again," using the same attack each time-- compared to the variety of spells and abilities that other characters might choose between. This simplicity also associated fighters with the dumb-warrior stereotype, of characters with great physical strength but no other way to solve a problem, making them seem stupid.

The Complete Fighter's Handbook made an attempt to compensate for this class' lack of special abilities. In addition to offering a variety of kits such as the Swashbuckler, Gladiator, and Noble Warrior the handbook introduced several skills that allowed players to customize their warriors' combative abilities. New rules included group weapon proficiencies, continuing specialization, additional rules for unarmed combat, and the introduction of four different fighting styles (Single Weapon, Two Weapon, Weapon and Shield, and Two Handed Weapon).

3rd edition

In the 3rd edition of the game, the mechanics behind fighters were significantly changed by giving them a large number of bonus combat feats, allowing fighters to choose between a variety of combat techniques more specialized than brute force. Typical fighters in 3/3.5 D&D are sophisticated warriors with a variety of tactics.

Fighters in 3rd edition receive bonus feats at 1st and at every even-numbered level, giving a human fighter an unmatched total of 19 feats at 20th level (including the 2 for a 1st-level human and the 6 for regular levels). Selecting different feats allows players to customize their character's strengths in battle, building entirely different characters out of the same fighter base class; possible specialties might be an archer, a cavalier capable of powerful lance charges, or a duelist with a knack for disarming or tripping opponents. Many of these feats have varied ability score prerequisites, rewarding fighters who choose to place high scores in stats besides the traditional Strength and Constitution. Skills are not emphasized for a fighter, but this is not much of a limitation, since in general skills add little to direct combat (with a few notable exceptions, such as the Tumble skill). In general, the fighter's three most important feat treesFact|date=September 2007 are the Weapon Focus tree, which increases to-hit and damage with a fighter's favorite weapon, the Dodge/ Whirlwind Attack tree, which assists fighters in avoiding hits and engaging multiple opponents, and the Power Attack/ Cleave tree, which allows fighters to deal more damage and hit more often.

Fighters did not undergo major overhaul in the 3.5 revision of "Dungeons & Dragons" compared to 3rd edition. The main change was the addition of the Greater Weapon Focus and Greater Weapon Specialization feats (which both increase their attack power with the selected weapons) becoming exclusively available to fighters. 3.5 has seen additional focus on increasing the depth of the fighter's feat trees, as these are the primary (indeed, only) class feature of fighters.

In 2006 the release of the "Player's Handbook II" greatly increased the number of feats available to fighters as well as provided a number of abilities, similar to the Weapon Specialization ability, that were only available to higher level fighters. While the impact on the popularity of the fighter class remains to be seen, initial reaction from the fan community has been positive.

Iconic Fighters

There are two Iconic fighters for D&D 3rd edition: A human male named Regdar and a dwarf male named Tordek. Regdar is used slightly more frequently. Fact|date=April 2008

4th Edition

The fighter is a core class in 4th edition, and like all other classes uses the new power system where they are classified as having a martial power source. The fighter's role is that of a defender, which involves high hit points, good defensive capabilities and the ability to protect other classes from enemies. Unlike the other core defender, the paladin, the fighter cannot heal allies and has more limited ranged combat capabilities, but has greater damage dealing and mobility control abilities. Two fighter builds are presented in the Player's Handbook: the Great Weapon Fighter, which focuses on offense, and the Guardian Fighter, which focuses on defense. Fighter attack powers are generally weapon-based and use Strength for attack rolls, fighters also have a number of powers which benefit from Dexterity or Constitution. Some fighter attacks have an additional attack if used with a specific type of weapon, such as an axe or spear.

Fighters have three class features. Combat Challenge allows the fighter to mark foes and attack them if they shift or make attacks which do not include the fighter as a target, Combat Superiority makes opportunity attacks more accurate wight high wisdom and allows the fighter's opportunity attacks to interrupt movement. Fighter Weapon Talent allows a fighter to specialize in one-handed or two-handed weapons, improving their accuracy.

Non-player character

Outside of the player base classes, the "Warrior" class is a simplified and weakened version of the fighter, intended to be used as a non-player character, as town guard for example. A d20 System/D&D book devoted to expanding this class was released by Skirmisher Publishing LLC in 2003.

References

External links

* [http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page D&D Wiki] has all the SRD Classes, along with the [http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Fighter_%28SRD_Class%29 Fighter] .