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I have seen a lot of Fighter threads lately (most of them not positive), so I decided to throw out some houserules I use for people to critique (because I would actually be interested in knowing whether or not these are actually good ideas). I actually do think that the fighter's ability to fight shouldn't outweigh their ability to succeed outside of combat as well as better options for what they could be doing within combat as well.
To facilitate this I made the following changes:
4+Intelligence modifier skills per level with Diplomacy, Perception, Knowledge (history), Knowledge (Nobility), and Knowledge (Local) added to their skill list.
Fast will Save progression.
Gains a bonus combat feat or teamwork feat at first level, 2nd level, and every even level after that. Also, whenever a Fighter gains a bonus feat he may also chose to retrain any previous feats he may have taken. If the Fighter retrains feats that act as prerequisites for feats he has already selected he loses access to the later feat and must retrain that feat as well (ex:Retraining Improved Trip automatically means that Greater Trip must be retrained as well). Furthermore, the fighter is still required to meet all the prerequisites of the feat gained through retraining when that feat is being selected (ex:A feat with a +4 BAB requirement can only be taken by a fighter at level 4 or later regardless of when the retraining is taking place).
Dropped Bravery all together. Instead they gain an ability called Maneuver Expertise which reads as follows:At 2nd level a fighter gains Combat Expertise as a bonus feat without having to meet its prerequisites and a +2 Bonus to CMB and CMD. This bonus increases by +2 every 4 levels after 4th (at 6th, 10th, and 14th level)
At 3rd level, he loses Armor Training and gains the Tactician fighter's Tactician ability instead. The only difference is that he gains one use of the ability at 3rd level and additional uses at 7th, 11th, and 15th level. Also, this ability functions as a swift action instead of a standard action (the swift action change applies to cavaliers as well).
At 5th level, Weapon Training applies to the entire weapon group chosen and at 9th, 13th, and 17th level the fighter has a choice. Either he can chose to apply the standard bonuses to multiple weapons (ex:gaining a +2 to attack and damage with heavy blades and a +1 attack and damage to axes) or he can move his highest bonus from one weapon group to another weapon group(ex: Moving the +2 bonus to attack and damage from heavy blades to axes, but forgoing the secondary +1 bonus to another weapon group).
Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization have been changed to read as follows:
Weapon Focus (Combat)
Prerequisites:Proficiency with selected weapon and BAB +1
You gain a +1 bonus on all attack rolls you make using the selected weapon. This bonus increases to +2 at 10th level. A Fighter that takes this feat can also apply this bonus to any weapon within the selected weapon's group. (ex:If a fighter takes this feat and applies it to a greatsword then the weapons bonuses apply to all heavy blades.)
Weapon Specialization (Combat)
Prerequisite:Proficiency with selected weapon, Weapon Focus with selected weapon, BAB +4
You gain a +2 bonus on all damage rolls you make using the selected weapon. This bonus increases to a +4 bonus at 12th level. A Fighter that takes this feat can also apply this bonus to any weapon within the selected weapon's group. (ex:If a fighter takes this feat and applies it to a greatsword then the weapons bonuses apply to all heavy blades.)
For Archetypes, the Lore Warden and Tactician are not allowed to be taken. Anything that trades out abilities (such as armor training or Bravery) instead trades out the two abilities I listed above.
Check out Kirthfinder. He basically rolled the Fighter and the Cavalier together, plus a few new toys. In my opinion, it's the Fighter as the Fighter was meant to be.
It does shoe-horn the Fighter a little more, flavor-wise. The Kirthfinder Fighter is definitely built to be a soldier, and he eventually gain leadership abilities that turn him solidly into a general. Personally, I love that. It makes me look at the Fighter and instantly go, "Yeah, I would totally play this guy."
He also made a lot of feats scale. I was afraid that would free up way too many feats for the Fighter, but honestly the end result is just that he feels more cool.
I have heard a lot about it and admittedly only gave it a cursory scan. I probably wont implement everything simply as I can't stop tinkering with stuff, but it should be useful as a reference.
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I don't see anything here that I wouldn't be comfortable playing. The additional Knowledge skills seem flavorful, but honestly I'm not sure most fighters would even care anyway.
I like Maneuver Training, but I would let the fighter choose between Combat Expertise and Power Attack, since they're both foundations for quite a few combat maneuver feat trees.
Losing Armor Training kind of hurts. When the Fighter gets Tactician, does he get a bonus teamwork feat with which to use it? A lot of combat styles, especially archery and TWF, are feat-intensive enough that a lot of fighters might not want to delay their progress into the tree to pick up a teamwork feat.
The new Weapon Training looks nice. The question is, if the fighter chooses, say, Thrown at level 5, then chooses Close at level 9 (for a +2 to Thrown weapons and a +1 to Close) could he at level 13 move his highest bonus to Close? Would it stack with his level 9 +1? Would the previous +1 bonus switch to Thrown to compensate?
The changes to Weapon Focus/Specialization look fine too. Not sure if they'll really be relevant enough to bother with-- what's an additional +1 to hit at level 10, after all? But I wouldn't say no to it if offered to me.