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Fighter

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Fighters can be many things, from soldiers to criminal enforcers. Some see adventure as a way to get rich, while others use their skills to protect the innocent. Fighters have the best all-around fighting capabilities of the PC classes, and they are trained to use all standard weapons and armor. A fighter's rigorous martial training grants him many bonus feats as he progresses, and high-level fighters have access to special melee maneuvers and exotic weapons not available to any other character.

Fighters fight. They are the regular army grunt, the ones that go in first and come out last on the battlefield. In most other things- magic use, skills, additional abilities they are very limited but they cannot be equaled in straight fighting. They have access to any weapon or any armor in the game and can use each of them all equally well. The puzzle the player must solve is what type of fighter they want to be. They are granted the most (fighting) feats in the game and thus, can tailor what sort of fighting they wish to master.

Player should not think that by creating a Fighter they are forgoing all role-playing potential because all they do is fight. The reverse actually is true. Fighters do not have the restrictions of other classes due to other classes special abilities (i.e. the Druid has taken oaths, the Cleric must obtain his spells from a god that is observed etc.). No restrictions on alignment, traits etc. exist for the fighter and so they are very flexible in what you make of them.

Making the Best Fighter

To be a good fighter it's important to concentrate on the fighting abilities. Which ones you focus on makes all the difference in what style of fighting you wish to master. Combine that with all the feats you get access to over your career and you definitely need to have some idea what sort of character you want to create.

Two basic approaches to creating a fighter:

1. Heavy Fighter- With this type you rely on armor to protect you and so you can keep your Dex modest as you will not get armor class bonus due to heavy armor penalties to any high Dex advantages. In this case keep Dex low and raise your Str as you will be relying on your powerful attacks rather than your lightning reflexes. In 3^rd Edition rules high Str adds bonuses to combat, both 'to hit' and damage done. For example: if your Str is 10 your get no bonuses to hit and damage but if your Str is 12 you get +1 to hit and +1 damage. This +1 goes up by one every even number after 10 (+1 for 12, +2 for 14, +3 for 16 and so on). It is easy to see why a Fighter would want a huge Str to help him in combat. Using a Shield adds to your armor class and adds to your protection. Finally using a large weapon that does large amounts of damage is the final piece in this version of a fighter. Take any feats that require Str as a prerequisite as they will only contribute to your mighty attacks. Picture a knight in shining (and very thick) armor.

2. Finesse Fighter- Uses light or medium armor leans more towards dodging attacks rather than trusting he can absorb the damage. This type of fighter will concentrate on Dex as his main ability upon creation. This seems like a strange thing to do, as Str seems to be the biggest bonus to a fighter, but this is possible because there is a feat known as Weapon Finesse which allows a player to take one light weapon (dagger, short sword etc.) and use the Dex bonus when calculating the to hit bonus, instead of any Str bonuses while welding it. So a character with high Dex could have the same chance to hit with a very high Dex as does the Heavy fighter example above who has a very high Str. The only drawback is the lack of extra damage that can be done with high Str.

Of course, many variations can be made of each of these depending on what you want. What about an artful fighter who takes all fancy fighting techniques like Disarm, and Knockdown? How about a lightning fast Fighter approach that takes really high Con (shades of a Barbarian). In the end, all you need to consider is what sort of character you are making and tailor the use of the rules to that.

• Hit Die: d10
• Proficiencies: All simple and martial weapons, all armor, and shields
• Skill Points (x4 at 1st level): 2 + Int Modifier

Skills

Apart from Parry the Fighter tends to rely on feats rather than skills to help his or her defeat their enemies and so is only interested in the minimum of skills that will allow a more effective combat machine. Each of the Fighter's skill are very useful to combat even Lore, which can be used to identify magic items found in the darkest dungeons when a scholar is no where to be found to seek advice from.

Concentration has dual uses in that is can be used for helping a spell caster finish the casting of a spell. For the Fighter however it is his defense against taunting opponents that would seek to anger or distract the Fighter into making mistakes in battle.

Class Skills (skill descriptions):

• Concentration
• Discipline*
• Heal
• Lore*
• Parry*

*Notes:

Discipline is a Neverwinter Nights skill. It is not a part of the Dungeons & Dragons® game experience but is a necessary part of the Aurora Engine technology.

Lore can be considered a subset of the Dungeons & Dragons® Knowledge skill.

Parry is a Neverwinter Nights skill. It is not a part of the Dungeons & Dragons® game experience but is a necessary part of the Aurora Engine technology.

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