Fighter improvement suggestion

[ParagonDireRaccoon]

I'm part of the school of thought that believes fighters needs an upgrade for combat and upgrades out of combat. In 2E a fighter with weapon specialization gained extra attacks per round faster than other martial classes. What if fighters had a fighter-only feat that added a bonus to BAB? Max attacks per round would cap out at four, but a fighter could increase BAB every four levels (for +5 at fourth level, +6/+1 at fifth level, +11/+6/+1 at ninth level if the feat is taken again at level eight). This would give fighters a bonus in combat unavailable to other martial classes, and the bonus would be useful with all attacks. One of the downsides of fighters is that they end up doing a lot of damage with one weapon and a limited array of attack maneuvers. Fighters become more specialized/more limited while spellcasters gain a lot of combat power and a lot of out of combat utility every time a new spell level is gained without having to specialize.

[kyrt-ryder]

While that's nice, it's pretty meaningless when the enemy is more than 5 feet away (unless they're archers, which is already the most powerful Fighter option and comes with its own issues.)

Also, the Fighter already HAS one of the two 'essentially always on when needed' attack bonuses in the game (he's competing with the Barbarian here) that increase to raw BAB won't help much, and it's not coming on quickly enough to help much with prerequisites either.

[ParagonDireRaccoon]

Good points kyrt-ryder.

[ParagonDireRaccoon]

What if fighters got a +5 every four levels BAB? Attacks would max out at 4/round but I think it would be a step in the right direction.

[AdAstraGames]

The problem isn't how quickly they get iteratives.

The problem is that iteratives are useless when the target isn't standing right in front of you - at most 15 feet away for a Medium-sized fighter with a reach weapon and Lunge.

Move or attack screws over all the non-magic offense classes.

What needs to happen is a very simple change:

Each time your BAB gives you an iterative attack, you may add 5' of distance to your free 5' step when full attacking. The additional distance moved provokes attacks of opportunity normally, but the first 5' do not. You are still restricted by the 5' step rules for what terrain you can step in or through, and what squares you can end your movement in. You may make your attacks from any square you occupy when doing this step behavior.

No matter how much your "step distance" is increased, you may not use a "step" greater than half your Speed.

This allows a 6th level fighter to 10' step and full attack, an 11th level fighter to 15' step and full attack and a 16th level fighter to 20' step and full attack, provided the 16th level fighter can move 40 or more feet per round.

Monk movement speed bonuses add 10' to their Move action, and 5' to their "step" distance; this is in addition to the bonus "step" distance of the general rule. Monks may not make a "step" that's greater than half their movement speed.

The "pounce" ability gets rewritten to allow the creature to use a "step" distance equal to 3/4 of their full rated movement. "improved pounce" allows them to "step" an amount equal to one full move action, and "greater pounce" allows a double-move charge-and-full-attack.

Step Up would remain unchanged - you can follow for the first 5'.
Following Step allows you to use your full "step distance" rather than a flat 10'.
Step Up & Strike remains unchanged, since it's used with Following Step.

[Malwing]

Isn't there already fighter fix thread?

Well in the last one I posted this third party class.

It's one dollar and is pretty much the most frequent fixes I normally see for Fighter, plus some fun feats.

I also like AdAstraGame's 5ft step per base attack iterative. Seems like a fix for a number of melee problems.

[Shain Edge]

A few things that may help fighters-

Make the Weapon Training act as an Enchantment Bonus when being used to defeat DR of creatures, as well as the side effects. 15th level Fighter vs Werewolf, killing it in a single blow, with a kitchen knife.

Have the ability to renew some HP as a class ability between encounters and possibly even during an encounter x times per day, probably based on CON + level/4, or something similar.

High level special criticals in combat that nerf your opponent in effective ways, including death. While you fight the dark lord, you crit.. and cut off his hand with the ring that made him otherwise immortal.

[Cerberus Seven]

My $0.02: fighters are fine. There's nothing wrong with their class features really, nor do they need any new ones. I've seen combat manuever, sword / board, or two-weapon fighters chew through enemies like they were a hot machete going through paper mache, even when the player in question has a history of his d20s hating him. As it stands, they simply require a bit more gearing up and tactical thought than other classes.

What DOES need an update is the feat list. Specifically, we need more combat feats that scale in usefulness. Why Awareness doubles its bonus eventually but Dodge doesn't is kind of a mystery to me, considering the near-universal usefulness of those skills. Also, some of the feat chains and prereqs are just slightly ridiculous (looking at you, needing an Int 13 for Combat Expertise just to take Improved Trip). A lot of feats could be combined / expanded for better initial investment, too. For example, let exotic weapon proficiency (sword) get you ALL exotic swords, similar to how it does with guns. If at least the combat feat list got an overhaul, fighters would be more interesting to play.