David Foster's page

Weapon Swap? What the heck?!?!?!?!??! Either it is cheese on a stick or exceptionally poorly worded.

Example: I fight with a bastard sword in one hand and a dagger in the other and, mid-attack, I switch hands so I am essentially attacking with two bastard swords at no penalty!

I still do not like what they are doing with Fighters.
Rogues got all sorts of spell-like abilities added to their repretoire.
Wizards and Rogues got a HP increase.
Clerics and Wizards got Orisons and Cantrips as at-will powers.

What do fighters get? Unnamed bonuses to attack and AC. Talk about boring. The Fighter has no more options than he had before, just the usual 'beat it 'til it dies' attitude. It should not be a class requirement that the class be simple. Allow it to have some variety unique to its class (as anyone can take combat feats).

Well, Half-Orcs still do not get a Charisma penalty while Dwarves do. I would rather Half-Orcs add a +2 to Con and a -2 to Cha to their ability modifiers and lose the +2 to Wis. That makes them have a combined +0 (compared to everyone else getting a +2 net gain) but their strengths are both combat-related and their weaknesses are the standard combat dump-stats.

I didn't notice before, but Humans no longer consider their highest-level class as favored, now they have to select one class at 1st level and, "once made, this choice cannot be changed." I am not sure I like the 'once made, this choice cannot be changed' being a part of any class/race/ability. Freedom of choice being in a GAME RULE limits character freedom and, this limitation in particular, does nothing to help maintain game balance.

Humans also no longer restrict Druidic as being a language Humans can select as one of their bonus starting languages. Given the severity of the penalties Druids take if they teach a non-Druid their languages I think this is a bad idea.

I do like that Humans can select one skill to always be a class skill at 1st level. I am normally against the 'make a choice and it stays forever' but I can understand retaining that aspect here for game balance. If someone was to change their racial class skill every level that would get ridiculous pretty quick.

For some reason quoting large posts results in not actually quoting the person who replied. This reply is for Xaaon of Xen'Drik.

1) I recognize the conversion from Warblade to PF Fighter isn't going to be smooth, that wasn't the point. I was converting the character's ROLE, not the actual numbers. the ROLE of the character was to tank, tank well, and deal out ocassional massive damage when not under attack.

2) My observations were identified weaknesses in the Fighter class specifically that prevented it from tanking or striking properly, should an individual choose to design that type of fighter.

3) If I am supposed to provide feedback elsewhere about specific deficiencies I note in what I read, I would expect that someone would point me to the correct place to do so. If feedback is undesirable to the authors of Pathfinder, I am sure they will enjoy the game they create.

For what it is worth, the numbers were very similar. Actually, the PF Fighter's AC and attack bonuses were higher (by one or two points) than the Warblade's at 6th level. I was pointing out that the Fighter actually had FEWER options on what to do other than 'beat it with a stick until it dies' than the Warblade, specifically in dealing with situations of defense and damage reduction opponents.

I have attempted to convert my Dwarf Warblade into the PF Fighter and notice a few dramatic differences.

1) Due to the loss of maneuvers, my Dwarf is no longer as resilient to spells. He maintained two maneuvers that allowed him to make Concentration checks instead of Will and Ref saves at the cost of other maneuvers and there are no similar options for the PF Fighter. Perhaps some Feat or class ability that allows a fighter to make a 'second wind' attempt using their BAB or some skill check to try to break an undesirable magical effect against will saves or allow Fortitude to just resist something normally allowing a Reflex save. Not something that could be used every round, but something that could be used every 3rd or 4th round or something.

2) The Combat Feats selection is pitiful. In addition, there is nothing similar to Emerald Razor for the PF Fighter. Tying a similar Feat to Power Attack (as you did with Cleave) would make a bit of sense as you are literally trying to crush the person with their own armor, thereby ignoring its usefulness (unless it grants DR).

3) Allow 'retraining' of the PF Fighter benefits. If a fighter had one kind of weapon but later finds a completely different kind of weapon they like better their Fighter abilities penalize them making the choice to change weapons. Giving the Fighter the option to change their class benefits from one weapon type or armor/shield type to another will give the player more flexibility. Perhaps allowing one hour of practice with a new weapon/armor/shield per step of armor/weapon training to prevent characters from trying to change it mid-dungeon crawl.

4) I agree with several previous posters that the sudden DR granted with a particular armor at level 19 is rather silly. Instead, try making it gradual by step of armor training. You only have four levels of armor training available (5 if you change Armor Mastery to Armor Training) so making each grant 2/- per step (especially when tied to training retraining described in my point 3) it can be of greater benefit.

5) Grant the fighter some ability to bypass DR using weapons they have Weapon Training in. Something along the lines of, "For every 4 levels of this class the Fighter may select one particular type of Damage Reduction. Any attacks made by the Fighter with a weapon they possess Weapon Training with automatically bypasses this kind of damage reduction. Creatures with multiple types of DR (example: DR 5/bludgeoning and magic) require both to bypass DR. Only Fighters of level 20 may select Epic as a type of Damage Reduction to bypass."