The swashbuckler, bodyguard, survivalist, knight, archer, horseman, and pit-fighter are all very different concepts that evolve out of the base fighter class. My thought is that to make the fighter more attractive some changes could be made without changing the class’ utility as the entry level option for new players.
Add Acrobatics, Perception, and Stealth as class skills. The limited number of skill points ensures that these will not make the class a hardy version of the rogue, but it will make it easier for players to develop their concept without multi-classing.
Let fighters trade armor proficiency for skill points. At creation, a character can drop heavy proficiency to gain +1 skill point per level, or drop Heavy and Medium proficiency to gain +3 skill points per level. These points would be lost if the player later took the armor proficiency as a feat. These points come from the fighter not have to spend time training in those types of armor, thus having time to follow other pursuits, and would be lost for the opposite reason.
Add talents that can be taken with the fighter’s bonus feat slots. Things like the Insightful Strike of the swashbuckler, the defensive stance of the knight protector, and the rousing speech of the Commander variant from Dragon 310 would make great additions and allow experienced players to flesh out the fighter beyond being just a meat shield.
I think these suggestions add to the depth of the class, make it less likely to be multi-classed for character concept reasons, and does little to make it less desirable as the ‘basic’ class.
I like where this is going.
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There was a Dragon article about variant fighter classes that worked similar to the way specialist wizards worked. You could be a generalist 'fighter' or take a variant but could not combine the two in any way. IIRC the variants were kinda weak and under developed but seemed like a good idea and a step in the right direction. It wouldn't take much to expand on the idea and develop a set of common archetype like guardsman, swashbuckler, pit-fighter, etc.
All that being said I think we should focus and getting the base fighter right and then work off that. When we have a functional baseline to work from then we can measure the variants against it to ensure that it's balanced and power-creep doesn't rear it's fugly head. The really neat thing is that the variants can also be tailored to your specific needs.
Peace, etc.
SM
I would like to see Heavy Armor proficiency moved to 2nd level to avoid some of the one level of fighter dips I've seen. For single-classed fighters, this would make no difference because they can't afford plate at first level anyway.
If you want to support lightly armored fighters, give out something in exchange for heavy armor. One idea could be an extra skill, but this could cause problems with multiclassing with other classes that provide heavy armor. A bonus that doesn't work in heavy armor would avoid that issue (for example, at 2nd level choose heavy armor or uncanny dodge in light/medium armor).
I would like to see Heavy Armor proficiency moved to 2nd level to avoid some of the one level of fighter dips I've seen. For single-classed fighters, this would make no difference because they can't afford plate at first level anyway.
If you want to support lightly armored fighters, give out something in exchange for heavy armor. One idea could be an extra skill, but this could cause problems with multiclassing with other classes that provide heavy armor. A bonus that doesn't work in heavy armor would avoid that issue (for example, at 2nd level choose heavy armor or uncanny dodge in light/medium armor).
Great post getting something for forfeiting heavy armor proficiency that only specifically only works unarmored or wearing light or medium armor.
I would suggest as the mechanic is sort of already there why not add in feat chains to cover these area's such as.
Swashbuckler Chain
Requires Finess and BaB +1
Feat 1 - Add Acrobatics as a trained skill lose Heavy Armor Prof.
Feat 2 - Add +1 To reflex saves per Swashbuckler feat taken
Feat 3 - When using a finess weapon add intellegence to damage
Feat 4 - ... well you get the idea
This could also be used for race specific tweaks to a class ect.
I like the idea of giving skill points for loss of armor proficiencies, but I think it should also include adding new class skills. This will allow a build of a medium armor type or a swashbuckler-type without having to dip into rogue.
Two choices:
1) Take away heavy armor, tower shields and heavy shields - get +1 skill points per level and add # of skills from the following list* as class skills.
2) Take away heavy and medium armor and tower, heavy and light shields - get +2 skill points and add # of skills from the following list* as class skills.
*I haven't worked out the class skill lists, but I think give a few choices for each level of armor loss that would fit well for the build.
# I think I would add one skill for the loss of heavy armor, and two for losing heavy and medium but haven't had a chance to try it out yet.
Also note in the description that these armor/shield proficiency losses cannot be regained. It would be too easy to dip into another class or use feats to regain them.
Or for the loss of 1) pick one feat from the following list or for 2) pick two (or three?) feats from the following list. The lists would be geared to medium and light armor users.