One problem I've always had is that while the caster's spells do more damage as they level up and rogues gain more sneak dice, the only way for fighters to do more damage was to get bigger weapons. The Weapon Training ability tries to address this, but by 16th level a +4 to damage really isn't going to amount to much when your opponent has over 100 hit points.
So, maybe I've missed something in the Alpha, but has anything been added to let Fighters, or anyone, simply do more damage?
This was particularly brought to mind when reading the Pathfinder 4 and the giant raid on Sandpoint. The giants all have over 100 hit points, yet poor Vakleros (our sample fighter in back) can only do 1d8+7+1d6. He'll be hacking giants for turns at that rate.
MAybe poor Vakleros is suppose to block for the spellslinger in this case while said spellslinger starts throwing area affect spells.... or maybe the cleric can buff poor Vakleros...
|
There is a way.
Eliminate the full attack action, and allow fighters to make full iterative attacks as a standard action.
The same for rogues so their sneak attack does some major damage against the things sneak attack can affect.
The problem with that is the same thing with high powered magic - it makes encounters above 12th level or so a contest of who wins initiative. At least this way the fighters would get to have some fun too.
Replace NPC blocks with actual characters, gear, and feat selections.
You will probably find that the fighter you create will be more effective than the one they have listed in the book.
Also note that the fighter isn't supposed to solo the giants. The fighter is the member of a team. No one party member does all the work. The fighter may take a solid hit that'd kill or lay low another member while someone else does the majority of the damage.
Party contribution =/= damage per swing.
|
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
|
The fighter/barbarian in my playtest group dishes out LOTS of damage using power attack. With a Str 22 and a two handed weapon, that's still +12 damage per hit, on top of the +9 from the base strength damage. I don't see any reduction in damage output, and in fact, this character is doing more damage than any other in the group. Then there's +1 from magic, and +2 from weapon specialization for a total of +24 damage when power attacking. Since he's using a falchion with keen edge cast on it often, he crits fairly often resulting in +48 damage in those cases.
In addition, I think that the new power attack rules actualy increase damage many times, since they lock you in at using your full strength bonus. In my experience in 3.5, there was lots of second guessing on how many points to power attack, and this often led to a conservative 2-3 point power attack.
If anything I'd like to see the damage that two handed power attacks can do somehow limited.
Unfortunately many feats, like Power Attack, were neutered as well. The fighter has become a second class Class :)
Replace your fighter in the party with a Paladin and you will be fine. If you have five or more players then someone can play a fighter and be the quircky off class.
QFT
Barbarian was not as badly effected though.
|
My two solutions for the low Fighter damage;
1) For the purposes of big hits needed to punch through DR, I am going to allow a Fighter to choose to make single large hits instead of iterative attacks. As a full-round action, any Fighter will be able make a single mighty strike that inflicts extra dice of damage for every 5 pts by which he exceeds the targets AC. The damage die will be determined by the weapon's base die, so if he's using a short sword, he'll only be adding an extra d6 for each 5 pts by which he exceeds AC. Obviously, if he's using a Greatsword, and hits by 10, it will be much sexier, with +4d6 damage!
2) Fighters will get +1 damage to melee, ranged and unarmed attacks for each odd level. (+1 at 1st, +2 at 3rd, etc. up to +10 at 19th.) A 9th level Fighter will therefore being doing +5 damage with each attack over an otherwise-identical Paladin of equal level.
|
My two solutions for the low Fighter damage;
1) For the purposes of big hits needed to punch through DR, I am going to allow a Fighter to choose to make single large hits instead of iterative attacks. As a full-round action, any Fighter will be able make a single mighty strike that inflicts extra dice of damage for every 5 pts by which he exceeds the targets AC. The damage die will be determined by the weapon's base die, so if he's using a short sword, he'll only be adding an extra d6 for each 5 pts by which he exceeds AC. Obviously, if he's using a Greatsword, and hits by 10, it will be much sexier, with +4d6 damage!
That is a neat idea that furthers the idea of combat options for the fighter. Do I want to go for this lightly armored bulk with everything I've got, or whiddle away at this heavily armored tank?
Plus, it makes fighters better than monks!
This was particularly brought to mind when reading the Pathfinder 4 and the giant raid on Sandpoint. The giants all have over 100 hit points, yet poor Vakleros (our sample fighter in back) can only do 1d8+7+1d6. He'll be hacking giants for turns at that rate.
I took a look at Valeros vs. a Giant - which he should be somewhat outclassed for solo. Adding his armor training and weapon training, plus Big Game Hunter feat, he does rather well.
This should be a fairly tough fight, as two CR 8 Stone Giants are an average challenge for *4* level 10 characters.
Valeros: Charge, Power attack, Longsword
+18, 70% chance to hit, 1d8+15 * 1.14 (Crit average) + 1d6 frost = 18 average (after chance to hit)
Stone Giant: Great club
+17/+12, 70%/45% chance to hit, 2d8+12 * 1.03 (Crit) = 25 average total
Valeros: Full attack, Longsword/shortsword
+18/+13, +17/+12*, 70%/45%, 65%/40% chance to hit, 1d8+11 * 1.13 + 1d6, 1d6+7 * 1.05 = 36 average total
*[Attack bonus is the same due to no charge + dual-wield vs. power attack. FYI, average damage with power attack is 28 - too many lost hits.]
54 damage between both rounds - about half of the stone giant's 119 hit points. I would expect the giant to be close to dead by this point from other party support.
Duplicating the last round (accounting for Valeros' higher, non-charging, AC) would put Valeros down 45 of his 79 hit points, the giant down about 90 of 119. Almost certainly dead from support fire by this point. Another round would be 65 to Valeris, 126 to the giant.
These calculations do ignore possible effect of 1's negating hits for the rest of the round, which is to the slight benefit of Valeros.
This does not account for his +2 to any stat racial boost by the way. That could swing the damage rather nicer, AC, or just buffer his hit points a good bit.