The last full session that I had with my group we discussed fighter issues and what still bothers my players about the fighter. The main participants in the discussion were the players playing the paladin in the group and the one playing the fighter in the group.
Opening Comments
The number two frustration from the fighter player was the lack of skill points. While I personally don't agree that they should be upped, it does bother him, because he does want to be able to do more things than just the base level fighter skills.
I did ask that he keep an eye on how he feels about this as his fighter gets more levels, as I have a feeling that low level, especially now that there are only two skills for a fighter at first level, tend to make it feel more limited up front, but the lack of half ranks will even this out over the long run. Still, it was a concern, but not one that the paladin player was particularly worried about.
Movement and Role
The fighter player is also frustrated that he can't get across the battlefield to intercept the bad guys before they close on everyone, due in part to his armor.
He liked the idea of armor training reducing movement penalties, but the paladin player wasn't thrilled with this idea. His comment was that, even in 3.5 before roles have been quite as structured as they might become later, fighters and paladins serve largely the same function, i.e. intercepting bad guys, drawing attacks, and providing consistent attacks.
The paladin player favored having a feat that might negate movement penalties for a given type of armor, and as such, all players would have an even shot at becoming more mobile.
When presented with the idea that armor training wouldn't negate movement penalties for having a larger load (meaning that having really heavy armor and shield combos might still slow you down), he said he might be able to warm up to it, but he would rather all "tanks" had a chance to intercept the bad guys.
Brainstorming and Some Theories
1. Armor Optimization Feat--already discussed, a feat that might lower ACP and movement penalties for anyone that might take the feat.
2. A "sprint" option for a move action, that allows an additional +10 feet of movement at the cost of being flat footed until your next turn.
In addition to this idea, I thought that it might actually be cool to not only introduce this movement option, but also to allow the Run feat to negate the flat footed penalty, making the feat a little more useful, and allowing it to, in essence, allow for +10 movement in combat.
3. A means of allowing a sprinting fighter to retain his combat effectiveness. One idea that came up would be this:
Initial Assault (Ex): At 6th level, the first attack that you make on your turn does twice the normal weapon damage of the weapon you are using. Thus, a longsword would deal 2d8 points of damage on your first attack.
At 11th level, you do three times your normal dice damage with your weapon when you make your first attack on your turn.
At 16th level, you do four times the normal dice damage with your weapon when you make your initial assault on your turn.
Some Thoughts on Initial Assault: The wording of vital strike would have to be precise enough to make sure that, for example a normal initial assault with vital strike does only one extra die for a sacrificed attack, instead of giving the first attack a 4d8 instead of 3d8, for example.
This ability might be something to give all full base attack bonus classes to allow them some scaling damage.
Initial Assault would make the actual weapon matter more than some of the higher level abilities and feats that keep giving bonuses based on strength, for example, which start to make it almost meaningless if the fighter is using a halberd or a dagger.
At any rate, just some thoughts that came up from our group's discussion of the new classes after using them for a while.