Another companion that references a fighter archetype, but if you were expecting a book full of cool stuff for the fighter, then guess again! If you're familiar with the weapon masters handbook, then this has similarities, but I feel this is much worse. At least the weapon masters handbook gave you cool archetypes for the majority of what was published aside from the fighter, but this book doesn't even have that going for it!
I am pretty passionate for martial classes, and the fighter especially, and when I read what's published I cringed and shook my head in disappointment. This companion wastes its limited pages with things like #/day options that cost a feat (your dude can't figure out how to keep doing this thing again until 24 hours go by), feats that only work if you're wearing a specific armor/shield or even a specific material armor/shield (yes more #/day material specific things). Half a page for an optional replacement of your fighter armor training to don or take off your armor faster... Archetypes that will make you confused as to why they exist, like a magus archetype that replaces spellcombat entirely to wear medium armor at level 1!
The positives are that there's a samurai archetype for people who don't want a mount, a way to raise the limitations on size restrictions with combat maneuvers, and there are ways to put a shield on your monk/magus/two handed polearm guy. I will use the optional armor trainings in the book when the normal doesn't really benefit my character anymore which I don't find to be that impressive, but at least this book offers alternatives without having to be a specific archetype.
I feel this is the last straw for me getting excited for martial focused companion books, but the one consistent thing I feel that can be expected is that there'll be one or two alright/cool things in these books even if it means you might need to make some sacrifices with your character to use them. So again, I feel that this companion was a huge letdown, and I hope that one day myself and my fellow fighter brethren will finally have nice things.
-Human Fighter
